The True Life of Capt. Sir Richard E. Burton

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia(Redirected from THE TRUE LIFE OF. Capt. Sir Richard F. Burton)Jump to: navigation, search"At Rome, sight-seeing was pursued with peculiar ardour. The young Burtons were wild with delight at visiting all the celebrated sites of which they had so often heard; for, be it remembered, they were well-read youngsters, and would have turned up their noses at the mawky story-books, so popular nowadays amongst our boys and girls. They roamed with "Mrs. Starke" under the arm, for "Murray and "Baedeker were not then invented; from the Vatican to the Capitol, from church to palazzo, from ruin to ruin. Little did they care that the Ghetto was a disgrace to civilization, that the Trastevere was filthy as an African village, that the Tiber flooded the lower town. Sufficient that it was the Tiber. When they tired of the city, they made long excursions into the country; Richard even ascended Mount Soracte. And when the Holy Week came round, its ceremonies pr...