The mountains on our right hand were in shade: those on the left, with the intervening expanse of curling waves, were glowing and gleaming in the rays of the setting.sun. Every tree was distinguishable, every building brought out: and when at the different bendings of the shores on each side these two bold contrasts met in one coup d'œil, it might almost be said that "the force of nature could no further go" in presenting the constituents of a truly magnificent landscape. Yet how the people can build as they do is unaccountable. There are no roads-mere sheep walksall regular communication must be had by means of boats: yet notwithstanding these peculiarities so unfavourable to social comfort and convenience, many of the structures are of good size, and the churches in particular on a large scale. On one narrow-sided hill we counted three distinct villages; each of which has a curé, to whom belongs a lot of ground, which the inhabitants are obliged to cultivate for him gratuitously. The stipends of the priests in these districts, we were told, have been much increased since Napoleon's time, by the Emperor of Austria. -There are said to be two hundred villages on this lake, besides innumerable houses and cottages scattered about in all directions and at all altitudes, on each side of the Lecco and Como branches, and of its more northern arm. The distant view of thickly sprinkled habitations induces one to calculate upon their being the "It is a singular fact (says Lady Morgan) that a vast number of the villages which rise above the lake, are only inhabited by females; and the appearance of a few women and children carrying baskets of earth on their shoulders, to form a terrace and plant a vine or an olive tree, are the sole mark of its shores being the haunt of humanity. The want of land to cultivate, or of a market for commodities has from time to time immemorial occasioned an emigration of the male inhabitants."-Italy, vol. 1, p. 183. X abodes of a dense population. But on approaching some of these rock-environed and water-bound spots, we find them exhibiting an almost desolate solitude, where "Black melancholy sits, and round her throws "A death-like silence, and a dread repose." There is a sequestered nook a little below Vosio, where a pretty cascade shoots from the brow of a luxuriantly wooded eminence, and forms a stream of sufficient volume to turn some tolerably large mill wheels. From that point we crossed over to the celebrated Villa Pliniana. The Marchioness of Canarisi, an elderly lady, is its owner. Objects at once impressive on the sight, and interesting to associative thought, render this place the most popular resort on the lake. Our approach to it was made at a time of day that gave an appearance of increased massiveness to its architecture, and heightened the gloom of its strikingly romantic situation. The Villa, whose foundations of masonry are washed by the Larian wave, looks indeed more like a fortress than a palace. The form is a parallelogram: it presents towards the water four tiers of windows including those of the basement gallery. Attached to one extremity, nearly on a level with the principal suite of apartments, runs a long and lofty terrace, faced on each side of the lake with solid stone work, and having watch-towers at each end. Between the other side of the house and a high perpendicular crag a pellucid torrent flings itself from a height of one hundred feet, and forms a lower fall of thirty feet: another hill-stream at a short distance from the first and from an equal elevation mingles its pure waters with it in a pool formed for their reception; and they issue together into the lake through the arch of a bridge. Immediately behind the villa, the ground, steep and naturally difficult of access, is ascended by staircases and traversed by terrace upon terrace of laborious construction. Here the eye is attracted by the sylvan embellishments of this extraordinary domain. Orchards of mulberries and other fruit trees, groves of laurels, with chesnuts, pines, and poplars interspersed, cover the lower portion of the mountain upon whose very side the villa seems to rest: from thence to the top it is clothed with pasturages and forest trees, except where the projecting crags of the chalky rock are too steep for vegetation to adhere to them. Beyond this lofty ridge, we see another of greatly superior elevation, and more cheerful appearance: it is thickly populated, well cultured at the bottom, and richly wooded to its summits, one of which is crowned by the village of Brunate whose church forms a most pleasing finish to the verdant pyramid. Still further to our right, the south-western coast displayed its bright succession of pleasure-houses, whilst its majestic eminences were enriched with the mellowest tints of evening. Such was the appearance of Pliniana, as we drew near to it on the yet agitated waters, whose colour the lengthening shadows of its mountain environs had deepened to the darkest tinge of blue. At five o'clock we landed at the Villa: Locus celeberrimi fontis, which neither of the Plinys possessed, but of which the elder has taken notice as a naturalist, and the younger has given an epistolary description.— This fountain, so famous for its periodical increase and * "The spring ebbs and flows three times a day: this increase and decrease is regular, excepting in bad weather. In a remarkably fair season diminution, rises within the northern portico of the edifice. Near it, on a large tablet of black marble is inscribed the letter of Pliny the Consul to Licinius Sura, beginning "Attuli tibi ex patriâ, &c."* On another marble tablet is an Italian translation of the epistle, which has described this phenomenon as it appeared eighteen centuries ago, and as it now continues to be, an intermittent spring and an unsolved problem : "Causa latet, vis est notissima."—OVID. The only remains of Roman workmanship are perhaps the stone-work in which the fountain rises, and the subterranean passages, over which the present fabric has been erected, and through the deepest and darkest of which its changes were more visible than usual. From being almost dry, it gradually rises, until it forms a considerable stream; and then as gradually subsides, till the period of its swell returns.-Coxe, v. 3, p. 5. 91 a du "I have brought you (says Pliny), as a present out of the country, a query which well deserves the consideration of your extensive knowledge. There is a spring which rises in a neighbouring mountain, and, running among the rocks, is received into a little banquetting room, from whence after the force of its current is a little restrained, it falls into the Lake (Larius). The nature of this spring is extremely surprising; it ebbs and flows regularly three times a day. The increase and decrease are plainly visible, and very amusing to observe. You sit down by the side of the fountain, and, whilst you are taking a repast and drinking its water, which is extremely cool, you see it gradually rise and fall. If you place a ring, or anything else, at the bottom, when it is dry, the stream reaches it by degress, till it is entirely covered, and then gently retires; and if you wait, you may see it thus alternately advance and recede three successive times." He then submits, in the form of queries, several ideas that had suggested themselves to him in contemplating this object of curiosity, and calls on his friend to examine the reasons of it.-Pliny's letters, (Melmoth's translation) Book 4, Epist. 30. + Mr. Addison's ingenious observations on the probable reason of periodical fountains may be applicable to those of Switzerland, but appear this remarkable spring was, at the time we viewed it, pouring its superabundant flood, with frightful precipitancy, stunning our ears with the violence of its noise and chilling our frames with the coldness of its spray. It was thus, with unrestrained and prodigious force of current, that we beheld it falling into the lake, through an aperture in the foundation of the Villa. Above stairs, the view from the arcades in the centre is very fine. The Bisbino, a high mountain of conical form, presents itself immediately opposite, with the village of Moltrasio at the foot of it, close to the water's edge: objects for a picture. “Parvis componere Magna," we stood seemingly on the shelving side of an immense amphitheatre, the arena of which had been filled with water for some grand Naumachia; and the openings in the mountains to the north and south looked like the flood-gates destined to fill and empty this immense basin, which wanted nothing to complete the impression but the presence of a gay flotilla. The Noble Lady of Milan, to whom the Villa Pliniana belongs, comes to it often (as we were informed) during the summer months. It is not surprising that neither she nor any of her family should domiciliate there; for there is something about its site too exposed, and about the surrounding locality too appalling, to render it comfortable or prepossessing as a residence even at the finest season. One is more at a loss to conjecture what could have induced the ancestors of the Marchioness of Canarisi, at an unavoidably enormous cost, to build a great to furnish no clue whatever to the mystery of Pliny's celebrated spring, which is not in the neighbourhood, and consequently cannot be influenced by either the melting or the freezing state of any permanent "reservoirs of snow."-See his Remarks on the Alps. |