Isola. On the east and west sides are large vaults, upon which the earth has been raised to the height above-mentioned; and the whole may be compared to the hanging gardens of antiquity. These vaults are not only a foundation for the soil, but an ornament to the gardens, all of them resembling so many grottos. Near the palace are kept in a shed, built for that purpose, three fine gondolas for parties of pleasure upon the water.

From Isola Bella to ISOLA MADRE is about half an hour's sail. ing, though their great height makes them appear much nearer. The latter has seven terraces, which are high, but sloping, and at a considerable distance from each other, by which means it appears to be lower than Isola Bella, though according to the original pnla they are of an equal height. The greatest part of the external foundation of Isola Madre is a high perpendicular rock, pro. jecting considerably over the water, so that it did not require so much masonry as Isola Bella. That part of the front of the palace only is completed which looks toward Sesti and the above island, and is adorned with fine paintings of flowers, portraits, and land

scapes.

The garden of this island also abounds with vegetable beauties, particularly a fine espalier of citron-trees, with a low contre-espalier of orange-trees, an arched walk of cedars, a sinaller espalier of jessamine, an espalier of acacia, and another of rosemary not less than eight feet in height. Here are also several small groves of laurel, with walks cut through them. Some of these trees are of uncommon thickness; and one of these espaliers of laurels is above eighteen feet high: such a hedge, by means of the mildness of the air, and its being fenced. from the north wind by the neighbouring mountains, shoots up to this height in six or seven years.

The Isola Madre is a secure place for keeping pheasants, which are easily confined here on account of the great breadth of the lake for when any of them attempt to fly over it, they soon flag, and drop into the water, from which they are immediately taken up by a waterman who puts off for that purpose, and brings them back. This, however, seldom happens; for as the island is larger than Isola Bella, and abounds with every thing proper for them, as well as places for shelter, the birds seldom attempt to make their escape. There is a little house built for the young pheasants, and near it a beautiful grove of lofty cypress-trees. This appears to be the finest part of the island, and recals to one's mind the fabu

lous descriptions that have been given of enchanted groves and islands. The walks through this cedar plantation lead, by a descent, to a summer-house near the lake. The shores of both islands are set round with painted flower-pots; and when any foreign prince comes in the night, or makes any stay here, both islands are illuminated with lights of all colours, which exhibit a very glorious spectacle.

The territory of PERUGIA contains a pretty large lake, anciently called Thrasimene, but at present the lake of Perugia, in which are three islands. Between this lake and a high mountain near Cortona, in the dominions of Florence, is a long valley with only one narrow entrance, where Hannibal defeated Flaminius the Roinan general.

THE CAPE OF BOLSENA, a small town most delightfully situ ated in the patrimony of St. Peter, is thirty-five Italian miles in cir. cuit. The mountains which environ it are covered with oaks, and form expansive and august amphitheatres. Here is said to have been wrought by the host (the elements of the eucharist) when carried in procession, the miracle which gave occasion to the institution of the festival of Corpus Christi. Near this place are seen, on an eminence, the walls of the Etrurian city Volsinium, in ruins.

Four Italian miles from Tivoli, a town of great antiquity in the Campagna, and seventeen miles north-east of Rome, lies the lake of SOLFATARA, formerly called Lacus Albutus, in which are sixteen floating islands. Dr. Moore asserts that these islands are nothing else than bundles of bulrushes springing from a thin soil, formed by dust and sand blown from the adjacent ground, and glewed together by the bitumen which swims on the surface of this lake, and the sulphur with which its waters are impregnated. Some of these islands are twelve or fifteen yards in length; the soil is sufficiently strong to bear five or six people, who, by means of a pole, may move to different parts of the lake, as if they were in a boat. This lake empties itself by a whitish muddy stream into the Tive. rone, the ancient Anio; a vapour of a sulphureous smell arising from it as it flows. The ground near this rivulet, as also around the waters of the lake, resounds as if it were hollow when a horse gallops over it. The water of the lake has the singular quality of covering every substance which it touches with a hard, calcareous

or petrifying matter. On throwing a bundle of shrubs or smail sticks into it, they will in a few days be covered with a white crust; but what seems still more extraordinary, this incrustating quality is not so strong in the lake itself as in the canal, or little rivulet that runs from it, and the farther the water has flowed from the Jake, till it is quite lost in the Anio, the stronger this quality becomes. These small round incrustations which cover the sand and pebbles, resembling sugar-plumbs, are called Confecti di Tivoli, or confections of Tivoli. Fishes are found in the Anio, both above and below Tivoli, till it receives the Solfatara, after which, during the rest of its course to the Tiber there are none. The waters of this lake had a high medicinal reputation anciently, but they are in no esteem at present.

The lake of AGNANO, in the kingdom of Naples, is not far dis tant from the Grotto of Pausilipo, which as an artificial excavation will be described in Part III. of this Work. The communication between these two remarkable places is by a very pleasant road, between fine vineyards. This lake is a perfect circle, about an Italian mile in circumference. At high water, in some parts of it, is seen à strong ebullition. On approaching it, one is sensible of the motion of the water, which possibly proceeds from the ascent of the effluvia. The tenches and eels in this lake have in winter a very good flavour, but in summer are not eatable, which is in some measure imputed to the great quantities of flax and hemp brought thither from all the neighbouring parts, which are soaked in this water for the purpose of mellowing them.

Near this lake stand the sudatories of St. Germano, which consist of several apartments built with stone, where the heat and sulphurepus vapours issuing from the earth soon cause a profuse sweat; in some places the wall is too hot for the hand to bear it, and yet the heat is supportable in the hottest room, especially if you stoop toward the ground. The same observation is made on the baths of Tritoli. The patients are put into rooms of different degrees of heat, according to the nature of their complaint; and in the sudatories of St. Germano, which are said to be very efficacious in the gout, debilities, inward heats, &c. they never stay above a quarter of an hour at a time.

* See a similar property in the water of Loch-neagh in the subdivision 3, of this section.

Within an hundred paces of these salubrious sudatories is a small natural cavern, known by the name of " Grotto del Cané,or Dog's Grotto," which we have already described *. As we have also the general face of the valley of Solfatara itself †.

This lake is in some places an hundred and eighty feet deep; and some old walls standing near it, are supposed to be the remains of a temple to Apollo.

Of the lakes in FRANCE, nohe need be mentioned here but that of THAU, on which is seated the small town of Frontignac, or Frontignan, seventeen miles to the south-west of Montpelier, celebrated for its excellent muscadine wine, its jar-raisins, and its handsome town-house. This wine is called by the English Frontiniac. The above lake, which is also named Maguleone, is twelve leagues in length, and separated from the sea only by a narrow tract of land; but in one place has a communication with the gulf of Lyons, which, according to Busching, takes not its name from the city of Lyons, which is seated at a great distance from the sea, but rather from the violent storms so frequent in this shallow part of the Mediterraneap, and which destroy the ships as a furious lion does its prey.

BRITISH ISLES.

In ENGLAND, the adjoining counties of Cumberland, and Westmorland, are so highly celebrated for their lakes, and the beautiful romantic scenery that surrounds them that we shall more minutely advert to them in the ensuing subdivision of this section. The principal lakes in Cumberland are, Derwent-water, Uls-water, and Broad-water; beside which, Bassenthwaite, Low-water, Wasdale, and Dalgarth, are all worthy of notice.

The lake of DERWENT-WATER is in the vale of Keswick: it is three miles in length, and a mile and half wide. Five islands rise out of this lake, which being covered either with turf or trees, add greatly to the beauty of the appearance. On one of these islands is an elegant modern-built house. More to the north-west, the river Derwent, after running a short space in a narrow channel,

* See ch. xxv. sect. vii. vol. II.

+ See yol. I. ch. xvii, p, 509,

enlarges into the long and narrow lake, called Bassenthwaite, at the termination of which is a remarkable water-fall, named Lowdore. The Derwentwater estate was not long since restored to its noble family, subject to a large fee farm rent, for the use of Greenwich hospital.

ULS-WATER is a long and narrow lake, with its southern part in Westmorland, while all the rest is equally divided between the two counties. If a swivel-gun, or even a fowling-piece, be discharged from a boat on this lake, in certain parts of it, the report will reverberate from rock to rock, promontory, cavern, and hill, with an astonishing variation of sound, now dying away upon the ear, and again returning like peals of thunder. This re-echo may be distinctly heard seven times in succession.

Among mountains where eagles build their nests, in the western part of Westmorland, and on the borders of Lancashire, is WIN. ANDER MERE, the longest and most beautiful lake in England, said to be so called by the Saxons, from its winding banks. It is about ten miles in length from north to south, but in no part is broader than a mile. It is paved as it were at bottom with one continued rock. In some parts it is of a vast depth, and is well stored with a fine fish called char*, which is rarely found elsewhere, except among the Alps, and in some of the lakes of America. The Uls-water, already mentioned, has likewise some char; but not in such plenty as here. In the forest of Martindale, to the south of Uls-water, the breed of red deer still exists, in a wild state.

In WALES, the BELA lake, of Merionethshire, deserves to be spoken of. This country is watered by several rivers, the most of which are connected with lakes, and the principal of which are the Dee, the Avon, and the Drurydh. The Dee has two spring-heads in the eastern part of the county, after the union of which it is supposed to run through the lake Bala, or Pimble-meer, without mixing its waters with those of the lake; at least the different tribes of fishes seem not to mingle; for it is said, that though the Dee abounds with salmon, none are ever taken in the lake out of the stream of the river; nor does the Dee carry off any guiniads, a fish

* Salmo Carpio and S. Alpinus of Linneus.-Editor.