the eye loses itself on a smooth spacious plain. On the other side is a more broken and interrupted scene, made up of an infinite variety of inequalities and shadowings, that naturally arise from an agreeable mixture of hills, groves, and valleys. But the most enlivening part of all is the river Teverone, which you see at about a quarter of a mile's distance throwing itself down a precipice, and falling by several cascades from one rock to another, till it gains the bottom of the valley, where the sight of it would be quite lost, did it not sometimes discover itself through the breaks and openings of the woods that grow about it. The Roman painters often work upon this landscape; and I am apt to believe that Horace had his eye upon it in those two or three beautiful touches which he has given us of these seats. The Teverone was formerly called the Anio: Me nec tam patiens Lacedæmon, Nec tam Larissa percussit campus opimæ, Quam domus Albunea resonantis, Et præceps Anio, et Tiburni lacus, et uda Not fair Larissa's fruitful shore, That through the flow'ry meadows glides, Lib. i. Od. 7. I remember monsieur Dacier explains mobilibus by ductilibus, and believes that the word relates to the conduits, pipes, and canals that were made to distribute the waters up and down, according to the pleasure of the owner. But any one who sees the Teverone must be of another opinion, and conclude it to be one of the most moveable rivers in the world, that has its stream broken by such a multitude of cascades, and is so often shifted out of one channel into another. After a very turbulent and noisy course of several miles among the rocks and mountains, the Teverone falls into the valley before mentioned, where it recovers its temper, as it were, by little and little, and after many turns and windings glides peaceably into the Tiber. In which sense we are to understand Silius Italicus's description to give it its proper beauty: Sulphureis gelidus quà serpit leniter undis Ad genitorem Anio, labens sine murmure, Tibrim. Lib. 12. To his old sire the Tiber. At Frescati I had the satisfaction of seeing the first sketch of Versailles in the walks and waterworks. The prospect from it was doubtless much more delightful formerly, when the Campania was set thick with towns, villas, and plantations. Cicero's Tusculum was at a place called Grotto Ferrate, about two miles off this town, though most of the modern writers have fixed it to Frescati. Nardini says, there was found among the ruins at Grotto Ferrate a piece of sculpture which Cicero himself mentions in one of his familiar epistles. In going to Frescati we had a fair view of mount Algido. On our way to Palæstrina we saw the lake Regillus, famous for the apparition of Castor and Poliux, who were here seen to give their horses drink after the battle between the Romans and the son-in-law of Tarquin. At some distance from it we had a view of the Lacus Gabinus, that is much larger than the former. We left the road for about half a mile to see the sources of a modern aqueduct. It is entertaining to observe how the several little springs and rilis, that break out of the sides of the mountain, are gleaned up, and conveyed through little covered channels into the main hollow of the aqueduct. It was certainly very lucky for Rome, seeing it had occasion for so many aqueducts, that there chanced to be such a range of mountains within its neighbourhood. For by this means they could take up their water from what height they pleased, without the expense of such an engine as that of Marli. Thus the Claudian aqueduct ran thirty-eight miles, and sunk after the proportion of five foot and a half every mile, by the advantage only of a high source, and the low situation of Rome. Palæstrina stands very high, like most other towns in Italy, for the advantage of the cool breezes, for which reason Virgil calls it Altum, and Horace Frigidum Præneste. Statius calls it Præneste Sacrum, because of the famous temple of Fortune that stood in it. are still great pillars of granate, and other fragments of this ancient temple. But the most considerable remnant of it is a very beautiful Mosaic pavement, the finest I have ever seen in marble. The parts are so well joined together, that the whole piece looks like a continued picture. There are in it the figures of a rhinoceros, of elephants, and of several other animals, with little landscapes which look very lively and well painted, though they are made out of the natural colours and shadows of the marble. I do not remember ever to have met with an old Roman Mosaic, composed of little pieces of clay half vitrified, and prepared at the glasshouses, which There the Italians call smalte. These are much in use at present, and may be made of what colour and figure the workman pleases, which is a modern improvement of the art, and enables those who are employed in it to make much finer pieces of Mosaic than they did formerly. In our excursion to Albano we went as far as Nemi, that takes its name from the Nemus Dianæ. The whole country thereabouts is still overrun with woods and thickets. The lake of Nemi lies in a very deep bottom, so surrounded on all sides with mountains and groves, that the surface of it is never ruffled with the least breath of wind; which perhaps, together with the clearness of its waters, gave it formerly the name of Diana's looking-glass : Prince Cæsarini has a palace at Jensano, very near Nemi, in a pleasant situation, and set off with many beautiful walks. In our return from Jensano to Albano we passed through La Ricca, the Aricia of the ancients, Horace's first stage from Rome to Brundisi. There is nothing at Albano so remarkable as the prospect from the capuchin's garden, which, for the extent and variety of pleasing incidents, is, I think, the most delightful one that I ever saw. It takes in the whole Campania, and terminates in a full view of the Mediterranean. You have a sight at the same time of the Alban lake, which lies just by in an oval figure of about seven miles round, and, by reason of the continued circuit of high mountains that encompass it, looks like the area of some vast amphitheatre. This, together with the several green hills and naked rocks within the neighbourhood, makes the most agreeable confusion imaginable. Albano keeps up its credit still for wine, which perhaps would be as good as it was anciently, did they preserve it to as great an age; but as for olives there are now very few here, though they are in great plenty at Tivoli : · Albani pretiosa senectus. Juv. Sat. 13. Cras bibet Albanis aliquid de montibus aut de Idem, Sat. 5. Perhaps to-morrow he may change his wine, Whose title, and whose age, with mould o'ergrown, Palladia seu collibus uteris Albæ. Albana MAR. lib. v. ep. 1. Oliva. Idem, lib. ix. ep. 16. The places mentioned in this chapter were all of them formerly the cool retirements of the Romans, where they used to hide themselves among the woods and mountains, during the excessive heats of their summer; as Baja was the general winter rendezvous: Jam terras volucremque polum fuga veris aquosi Ardua jam densæ rarescunt mænia Roma: Hos Præneste sacrum, nemus hos glaciale Dianæ, Algidus aut horrens, aut Tuscula protegit umbra, Tiburis hi lucos, Anienaque frigora captant. SIL. iv. 1. Albanos quoque Tusculosque colles Et quodcunque jacet sub urbe frigus. Et quod Virgineo cruore gaudet Annæ pomiferum nemus Perennæ. MAR. lib. i. ep. 123. |