A DECAYING CAMPANILE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2482, 24 May 1909, Page 2

A DECAYING CAMPANILE.

Is the campanile of Grotta Ferrata tumbling down or is it firm on its foundations? This is a problem that is now exercising the minds of all lovers of Roman antiques. This tower, which stands in one of the small villages in the Alban hills, called Roman Castles, is in its way almost as precious as the campanile of Venice. It dates back to the thirteenth century, and is the complement of the old Greek Grotta Ferrata abbey, which was constructed in the tenth century, and contains some magnificent Domenichinos (1610), considered among the best examples of the master’s work. Every time there is the slightest earthquake shock in Italy, even in the south, an outcry is raised about this tower, it being said that it will surely fall and that it needs immediate attention. There matters end. The fact is that as far back as 1905 the brown old campanile was leaning perceptibly out of the perpendicular, and most curiously was twisted, seeming to have moved more in a circular way, instead of to one side. It shows large fissures and cracks. Engineers and archaeologists were called, and could think of no remedy but never to ring the bells, while the Senate voted the generous sum of £l6 for repairs. Some time after this its condition was officially declared frightful. An examination of the foundations was ordered and it was discovered that one side only rests on rock, the other three sides being on a soft volcanic deposit. There the matter rested until now, when the alarm was again been raised, it is to bo hoped with better results, but so far no decision has been reached.

There are people who hold that in Bengal, as in other countries (says the Times correspondent), anarchism is partly the product of defective diet. Nearly all the prisoners I saw were certainly deficient in vitality. The diet of Bengalis of the student type is atrociously inadequate. Recent experiments have shown that the average Bengali of this class has 20 to 25 per cent, fewer red corpuscles in his blood than the average country-bred European. Sir James 1 Orichton-Browne has, I understand', advanced similar theories of under-feeding to explain the excesses during the Commune which followed the siege of Paris. Certainly on one side the anarchist movement in Bengal is essentially emotional and hysterical. In no sense does it produce the cold, calm courage which can face pain.