interests of the state; or the force of a power-ental, despotism; between the government of

ITALY.*

an air of antiquity and solemnity to the scene, | dren take care of the mulberries and the silk which nothing else is capable of producing; worms, which are here produced in grea for the works of nature, long as they have stood, are still covered with the verdure of perpetual youth. It is in the works of man alone that the symptoms of age or of decay appear.

abundance; the husband dresses the vineyard, or works in the garden, as the season may require. On an incredibly small piece of ground, a numerous family live, in, what appears to them, ease and affluence; and if they can maintain themselves during the year, and pay their rent at its termination, their desires never go beyond the space of their own em

In this simple and unambitious style of life, it may easily be conceived what the general character of the peasantry must be. Generally speaking, they are a simple, kind-hearted, honest people, grateful to the last degree for the smallest share of kindness, and always willing to share with a stranger the produce of their little domains. The crimes of murder and robbery are almost unknown, at least among the peasantry themselves, although, on the great roads in their vicinity, banditti are sometimes to be found. But if a stranger lives in the country, and reposes confidence in the people, he will find himself as secure, and more respected, than in most other parts of the world.

The Italian lakes partake, in some measure, in the general features which have been mentioned as belonging to the valleys on the southern side of the Alps; but they are charac-ployment. terized a.so by some circumstances which are peculiar to themselves. Their banks are almost everywhere formed of steep mountains, which sink at once into the lake without any meadows or level ground on the water side. These mountains are generally of great height, and of the most rugged forms; but they are clothed to the summit with luxuriant woods, except in those places where the steepness of the precipices precludes the growth of vegetation. The continued appearance of front and precipice which they exhibit, would lead to the belief that the banks of the lake are uninhabited, were it not for the multitude of villages with which they are everywhere interspersed. These villages are so numerous and extensive, that it may be doubted whether the population anywhere in Europe is denser than on the shores of the Italian lakes. No spectacle in nature can be more beautiful than the aspect of these clusters of human habitations, all built of stone, and white-washed in the neatest manner, with a simple spire rising in the centre of each, to mark the number and devotion of the inhabitants, surrounded by luxuriant forests, and rising one above another to the highest parts of the mountains. Frequently the village is concealed by the intervention of some rising ground, or the height of the adjoining woods; but the church is always visible, and conveys the liveliest idea of the peace and happiness of the inhabitants. These rural temples are uniformly white, and their spires are of the simplest form; but it is difficult to convey, to those who have not seen them, an idea of the exquisite addition which they form to the beauty of the scenery.

There is one delightful circumstance which occurs in spring in the vicinity of these lakes, to which a northern traveller is but little ac customed. During the months of April and May, the woods are filled with nightingales, and thousands of these little choristers pour forth their strains every night, with a richness and melody of which it is impossible to form a conception. In England we are accustomed frequently to hear the nightingale, and his song has been celebrated in poetry from the earliest periods of our history. But it is generally a single song to which we listen, or at most a few only, which unite to enliven the stillness of the night. But on the banks of the lake of Como, thousands of nightingales are to be found in every wood; they rest in every tree,they pour forth their melody on the roof of every cottage. Wherever you walk during the delightful nights of April or May, you hear the unceasing strains of these unseen warblers, swelling on the evening gales, or dying away, as you recede from the woods or thickets where they dwell. The soft cadence and melodious swelling of this heavenly choir, resembles more the enchanting sounds of the Eolian harp than any thing produced by mortal organs. To those who have seen the lake of Como, with such accompaniments, during the serenity of a summer evening, and with the surroun ing headlands and mountains reflected on i's placid waters, there are few scenes in nature, and few moments in life, which can be the source of such delightful recollection.

On a nearer approach, the situation of these villages, so profusely scattered over the mountains which surround the Italian lakes, is often interesting in the extreme. Placed on the summit of projecting rocks, or sheltered in the defile of secluded valleys, they exhibit every variety of aspect that can be imagined; but wherever situated, they add to the interest, or enhance the picturesque effect of the scene. The woods by which they are surrounded, and which, from a distance, have the appearance of a continued forest, are in reality formed, for the most part, of the walnuts and sweet chestnuts, which grow on the gardens that The forms of the mountains which surround belong to the peasantry, and conceal beneath the Italian lakes are somewhat similar to those their shade, vineyards, corn-fields, and orchards. that are to be met with in the Highlands of Each cottager has his little domain, which is Scotland, or at the Lake of Killarney; but the cultivated by his own family; a single chest-great superiority which they possess over any nut, and a few mulberry trees, with a small thing in this country, consists in the gay and vineyard, constitutes often the whole of their humble property. On this little spot, however, they find wherewithal both to satisfy their wants and to occupy their industry; the chil

smiling aspect which nature there exhibits. The base only of the Highland hills is clothed with wood; huge and shapeless swells of heath form the upper parts of the mountains; and

ticularly out of place in the Italian lakes, where the vast and broken ridge of the Alps forms the magnificent distance, and gives the prevailing character to the scene.

the summits partake of the gloomy character | dener, is universally allowed to be ill adapted which the tint of brown or purple throws over to the scenery of real nature, and is more par the scene. But the mountains which surround the Italian lakes are varied to the summit with life and animation. The woods ascend to the highest peaks, and clothe the most savage cliffs in a robe of verdure; white and sunny villages rise one above another, in endless succession, to the upper parts of the mountains; and innumerable churches, on every projecting point, mark the sway of religion, even in the most remote and inaccessible situations. The English lakes are often cold and cheerless, from the reflection of a dark or lowering sky; but the Italian lakes are perfectly blue, and partake of the brilliant colours with which the firmament is filled. In the morning, in particular, when the level sun glitters on the innumerable white villages which surround the Lago Maggiore, the reflection of the cottages, and steeples, and woods, in the blue and glassy surface of the lake, seems to realize the descriptions of the poets in their happiest and most inspired veins.

The Isola Madre is the most pleasing of these celebrated islands, being covered with wood in the interior, and adorned round the shores with a profusion of the most beautiful flowering shrubs. It is difficult to imagine a more splendid prospect than the view from this island, looking towards the ridge of the Simplon. Numerous white villages, placed at intervals along the shore, enliven the green luxuriant woods which descend to the lake; and in the farther distance, the broken and serrated ridge of the mountains, clustering round the snowy peaks of Monte Rosa, combines the grandeur of Alpine with the softness of Italian scenery. The buildings, which are so beautifully disposed along the shore, partake of the elegance of the scene; they are distinguished, for the most part, by the taste which seems to be the native growth of the soil of Italy; and the lake itself resembles a vast mirror, in which the splendid scenery which surrounds it is reflected, with more even than its original beauty.

The lake of Como, as is well known, was the favourite residence of Pliny; and a villa on its shore bears the name of the Villa Pliniana; but whether it is built on the scite of the Roman philosopher's dwelling, has not been ascertained. The immediate vicinity, however, of the intermitting spring, which he has so well described, makes it probable that the ancient villa was at no great distance from the modern one which bears its name. Eustace has dwelt, with his usual eloquence, on the interest which this circumstance gives to this beautiful lake.

The Lago Maggiore is the most celebrated of these lakes, because it lies most in the way of ordinary travellers; but, in variety of forms, and in the grandeur of the surrounding objects, it is decidedly inferior to the Lago Lugano, which is, perhaps, upon the whole, the most beautiful lake in Europe. The mountains which surround this lake are not only very lofty, from 4000 to 5000 feet high, but broken into a thousand fantastic forms, and split with chasms of the most terrific description. On one of the loftiest of these pinnacles, immediately above the centre of the lake, is placed the castle of St. Salvador; and the precipice, from its turrets to the surface of the water, is certainly not less than 2000 feet. Nevertheless, this stupendous cliff is clothed, in every crevice where the birch can fix its root, with Towards its upper end, the lake of Como luxuriant woods; and so completely does this assumes a different aspect from that by which soft covering change the character of the scene, it is distinguished at its lower extremity. The that even this dreadful precipice is rather a hills in the vicinity of Como, and as far to the beautiful than a terrific object. The great north as Menagio, are soft in their forms, and characteristic and principal beauty of the Lago being clothed to their summits with vineyards Lugano, arises from its infinite variety, occa- and woods, they present rather a beautifu sioned by the numbers of mountains which than a sublime spectacle. But towards the project into its centre, and by presenting an upper end the scene assumes a more savage infinite variety of headlands, promontories, and character. The chestnut woods and orange bays, give it rather the appearance of a great groves no longer appear; the oak and the fir number of small lakes connected together, than cover the bold and precipitous banks which of one extensive sheet of water. Nor can hang over the lake; and the snowy peaks of imagination itself conceive any thing equal to the Bernhardin and Mount Splugen rise in the endless variety of scenery, which is pre- gloomy magnificence at the extremity of the sented by following the deeply indented shores scene. On approaching Chiavenna, the broad of this lake, or the varied effect of the number-expanse of water dwindles into a narrow less villages and churches, which present themselves at every turn, to relieve and animate the scene.

stream; the banks on either side approach so near, as to give the scenery the appearance of a mountain valley; and the Alps, which close it in, are clothed with forests of fir, or present vast and savage precipices of rock. From this point there is an easy passage over the Bernhardin to the Rheinthal, and the interesting country of the Grisons; and the Val de Misox, through which the road leads, is one of the most beautiful on the southern side of the Alps, and particularly remarkable for the magnificent castles with which its projecting

Foreigners, from every part of Europe, are accustomed to speak of the Boromcan Islands with a degree of enthusiasm which raises the expectation to too high a pitch, and of course is apt to produce disappointment. They are laid out in the Italian style of gardening, with stiff alleys, marble fountains, statues, terraces, and other works of art. But this style, however curious or meritorious in itself, and as a specimen of the skill or dexterity of the gar-points are adorned.

publics, and has been since continued from the dread of malaria in the bottom of the val leys. It adds greatly to the picturesque effect of the mountain scenery, and gives it a character altogether peculiar. In the Tuscan states, the lower ranges of the Apennines have been the object of the utmost care, and of an almost inconceivable expenditure of capital. They are regularly cut in terraces, and when

and cultivated in the most careful manner, is now almost a desert. It is the region of insaubrious air; and no means have yet been devised by which it is possible to enable the human race to flourish under its pestilential influence. After leaving the highest state of civilization in Florence or Rome, the traveller is astonished to find himself in the midst of vast plains, over which numerous flocks of cattle wander at large under the care of shep-ever an opportunity occurs, water is brought herds mounted on horseback, and armed after the fashion of the steppes of Tartary. This division includes under it all the plains which lie between the Apennines and the Mediterranean, in the Neapolitan territory, among which the Maremma of Pestuni is most conspicuous; and nothing but the vast population of Naples prevents its celebrated Campagna from relapsing into the same desolate state.

from the adjoining canals to every field, so that the whole valley is as it were covered with a network of small streams, which convey their freshness all around. The olives and figs which flourish in this delightful region are foreign to the Tuscan soil; there is not a tree there which is the spontaneous production of nature; they are all planted and pruned by the hand of man.

Apennines. Their sides present a series of broken rocks, barren slopes, or arid cliffs. The roots of the bushes, laid bare by the autumnal rains, are, by degrees, dried up by the heat of the sun. They perish, and leave nothing behind them but a few odoriferous shrubs dis

The fourth great division comprehends the Nothing can be imagined more sterile in plains which lie to the eastward of the Apen- itself, or more adverse to any agricultural imnines, in the kingdom of Naples, and is bound-provement, than the aspect of nature in the ed by the Adriatic sea on the one side, and the irregular line of the mountains on the other. It is in some places from fifty to one hundred miles broad, and in others the mountains approach the sea-shore. The country is flat, or rises into extensive downs, and is cultivated in large farms, where it is under agricultural manage-persed on the rocks to cover the wreck. The ment; but a great proportion is devoted entirely to pasturage. Immense forests of olive are to be met with in this remote district, and the hills are covered with vines, and oranges, and other fruits, with corn growing under them.

The only range of mountains which properly and exclusively belongs to Italy is the Apennines; and they extend over more than half of the country. Their height is very various; in the vicinity of Genoa they rise to about 4500 feet; above Pontrimoli, on the borders of Tuscany and Lombardy, they reach 5500 to 6000 feet, and the great ridge which stretches from Bologna by Valombrosa, to the south-east, rises in some places to between 3000 and 7000. They are not, in general, very rocky; at least it is only in their higher eminences that this character appears. Their lower parts, everywhere almost, are covered with fruit trees, under the shade of which, in the southern exposures, crops of grain are brought to maturity. Higher up, the sweet chestnut covers the ascent, and supports an immense population at an elevation above the sea where no food for man could be procured in our climate. The pine, the beech, and the fir, occupy those higher regions in which are Valombrosa, Lavernia, and Camaldoli; and at the summits of all, the open dry pastures furnish subsistence to numerous flocks. This great capability of the Apennines to yield food for the use of man, is the cause of the extraordinary populousness of its slopes. In the remotest recesses the traveler discovers villages and towns; and on the face of mountains where the eye at a distance can discern nothing but wood, he finds, on a nearer approach, every spot of ground carefully cultivated. The vilages and towns are commonly situated on the summits of eminences, and frequently surrounded by walls and towers; a practice which began in the turbulent periods of the Italian re

narrow ravines between them present, in summer, only the dry beds of torrents, in which fallen trees, rocks, and gravel, are accumulated by the violence of the winter rains. This debris is brought down by the torrents into the wider valleys, and whole tracts of country are desolated by a sterile mass of stone and gravel. Thus the mountains and the valleys at their feet seem equally incapable of culture; but the industry of the Italians has overcome these obstacles, and converted mountains, to appearance the most sterile that imagination could conceive, into a succession of gardens, in which every thing that is most delightful, as well as useful, is assembled.

This astonishing metamorphosis has been effected by the introduction of the terrace system of culture, an improvement which seems to have been unknown to the ancient Romans, and to have spread in Europe with the return of the Crusaders in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. (Chateauvieux, 300.) Nothing could oppose the destructive force of the torrents, but altering the surface of the hills, and thereby breaking the course of the waters. This was an immense work, for it required the whole soil to be displaced, and built up by means of artificial walls into successive terraces; and this in many places could be effected only by breaking solid rocks, and bringing a new soil from distant places.

The artificial land, so dearly purchased, is designed for the cultivation of fruits and vege tables. The terraces are always covered with fruit-trees placed in a reflected sun. Amidst the reverberations of so many walls, the fruit is most abundant and superior in its kind. No room is lost in these limited situations,the vine extends its branches along the walls; a hedge formed of the same vine branches surrounds each terrace, and covers 't with verdure. In the corners formed by the meeting