Italy that must undergo a change for the better before its political condition can be ameliorated. The scheme of constitutionalizing a popish country, is like untying a man's hands and bidding him freely use them, whilst a bandage remains tightly kept over his eyes. In England, the reform of the national church (comprising not only its emancipation from alien controul, but its purification from gross errors in belief and from flagrant abuses in discipline) preceded that revolution in the state, which so happily resulted in securing to the monarch his prerogatives, and to the people their rights. When spiritual darkness is once dispelled, and true Religion has established her mild and wholesome sway over hearts which Superstition had enslaved; then are the penetrating rays of intellectual light gradually cast on every object of importance to the instruction and welfare of mankind; and the privileges of free citizens become the choicest of worldly blessings to men, who have already acquired the capacity to exercise and enjoy them. At seven o'clock in the evening, after settling accounts with Signor Baccala, of the Albergo Reale, whose Hotel and entertainment extremely well satisfied us, we bade adieu to Milan; whence we proceeded on our destined route, "in thunder, lightning, and in rain." It was nearly eleven o'clock before we reached the walls of Como, whose high antique towers of entrance frowned upon us gloomily, in the shades of a tempestuous night. But why do you so quickly turn your backs on "the sweet south?" Have you crossed the Alps forgetful of their opening to you the high road to Florence and to ROME? O no. It is foremost among our regrets, that we should already be preparing to repass the mountain barriers of Italy, without visiting scenes replete with historical interest and dear to classical feeling. But, as Mr. Gilly well observes of travelling, "if those who have a few months only [still more, those who have but a few weeks] at their disposal, are resolved to make the most of their time, they must regulate their movements less by choice than necessity." Besides, I am not ashamed to confess my doubts, whether that brief allotted space, spent among the majestic ruins of human art and magnificence, would afford me more pleasure and advantage, than the same period devoted to the contemplation of the grandest works of Nature, which, compared with the fleeting nothingness of man's achievements, may be said to be "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever!" 145 CHAPTER VII. LAKE OF COMO-Aquatic Excursion—Villa Pliniana—Villa d'Este -City of Como-Picturesque Environs-Varese-Domestic and Ecclesiasical Architecture-Laveno-LAGO MAGGIORE-Borromean Isles-Isola Madre Isola Bella-Lake Seenery-Baveno -Domo d'Ossola. JULY 25. OUR inn stands on the quay, and its windows overlook the port of Como. We had perspective on a large scale, and commerce on a small one. A busy scene presented itself in the rendez-vous of the Barcajuoli plying for employment on their element the lake, whose clear blue waters, at this its southernmost extremity, fill the delicious sweep of a bay, not so much as half a mile in breadth. The little vessel which we engaged to make the trip in, was, like the rest, very wide in the middle, and of a shallow construction; equally sharp pointed at stem and stern: nearly in the centre was a tilt of four or five hoops over which an awning of canvass was occasionally stretched, and beneath it a table was placed. Four men form the crew-a smaller number never undertakes the voyage: they row standing; carrying with them a small mast and sail, but are timidly cautious and sparing in the use of it, alleging the danger to which their navigation is exposed by sudden puffs of wind from the mountains. U At ten o'clock in the morning we embarked: the day was fine, but the wind strong and contrary. We soon found ourselves on sea-like waves; and from the pitching motion of our boat something akin to qualminess was produced. But the scenery engaged our eager attention, and we took medicine for lake sickness "through the eyes." Pavilions and casinos of light and pretty construction displayed themselves on the borders: their fronts and terraces of white stone and stucco glittering in the rays of a brilliant sun, were contrasted with the deeply tinted foliage in which they were embosomed. Driven by the force of the breeze, upon the eastern border of the lake, we passed under plantations that overhang a deeply indented line of rocks, whose craggy masses occasionally develop themselves in the most picturesque variety of forms and hues, through the rich covering of vegetation with which prodigal Nature has clothed them. Here we caught a first but distant view of the Villa d'Este, situated on the opposite shore near the village of Cernobio, where a small river (the Brezzia) falls into the lake, at the mouth of which very large trout and perch are caught. At this point the lake itself expands to the width of about two English miles, forming a kind of basin surrounded and shut in by mountainous ridges, at the northern extremity of which, apparently blocking up our further passage, stands Moltrasio. Our course was still unavoidably close to the eastern bank, and we could almost dip our hands in the lowest fall of a small but beautiful cascade, the course of which from a great height above us had hitherto been hidden by the thickly growing shrubs. At eleven, we passed immediately under the village of Blevio. The appearance of the pleasure-houses and grounds on this side is delightful. On the very rocks, which, at the water's edge, serve as natural terraces to those sweet places of retirement, we saw the fig growing vigorously and in great numbers. There, in the villagardens the orange plant thrives, its roots not confined in tubs, but fearlessly entrusted to the genial soil, and its produce to a ripening sun. The lemon too rises from the native earth and spreads itself into the most graceful of the lesser trees. Vines in trellisses, myrtles in bowers, laurels in groves, luxuriate in the vicinity of the elegant and productive olive, the spreading chesnut, the tall and mournful cypress; and these again are associated with "The gloomy pine, the poplar blue, "The sturdy oak, with broad spread boughs." Numerous hamlets (paese) with their lofty steeples, break the monotony of verdure, and adorn the rising grounds to a considerable elevation. Looking to the north-east we see the first grades of the Swiss Alps in the canton of Tessino. At a short distance further on, is the villa Belvidera, occupied (as we were informed) by one of the Goldschmidts of London. It is charmingly situated near the margin of the lake, having a back ground of pretty offices and cottages seated one above another up to the mountain's top. Two or three other families from England inhabit residences in this neighbourhood; where the lower range of grounds becomes a continued parterre. And the architecture of these villas, as well as that of their accessories, appears designed to enhance our |