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on a small plain or ledge. There is a mineral spring here, having a temperature of about 40° Fahr. It is probably the highest warm source among the Alps, and annually draws a few invalids to the spot, where tolerable accommodation is afforded in two inns. The passage of the mountain from Hinter-Rhein to St. Bernardin is effected in about 3 hours.

The descent from this into the lower valley of Misocco (in Germ. Maisox Thal; Ital. Val Mesolsina) is a scene of beauty scarcely surpassed among the Alps.

Near St. Giacomo there are quarries of gypsum; here there is also a fall of the Moesa. It is a continued descent as far as Misocco and the Ponte di Soazza, which is only a few hundred feet higher than Coire, in the valley of the Rhine. This will give some idea of the abruptness of the southern descent from the Alps contrasted with the northern.

1 Misocco (Inn: Post, very dirty) -a village of about 900 inhabitants, called also Cremao.

In the neighbourhood of Misocco the luxuriant growth of the chestnut and walnut, the abundant crops of maize, the presence of the vine and the mulberry, which succeed each other within the space of a few miles, remind the traveller that he is indeed in Italy, and he soon becomes otherwise aware of this change by the altered language, the laziness, and filth of the inhabitants and their miserable habitations. The situation of Misocco is charming; a little way below it, in the middle of the valley, rises up the ruined Castle of Misocco, a feudal seat of the powerful Lords of Masox, sold by them, 1482, to the celebrated Milanese general Trivulzio, taken and destroyed by the Gräubündtners, 1526. The valley is here bounded by precipices, over and among whose rocky sides a number of waterfalls dash, assuming the shape of that which in Scotland is called the Mare's Tail. The knoll on which the castle stands seems

formed to command the passage up and down.

A very steep and difficult path ascends the E. side of the valley, nearly opposite the castle, and crossing the ridge of the Alps, by the dangerous pass of the Forcola, descends at once upon Chiavenna.

Below Soazza the road crosses the Moesa twice, and reaches the bottom of the valley, the descent below this being inconsiderable. On the rt., close to the road, the graceful cascade of Buffalora precipitates itself from the top of a rock. "At Lostalla the general legislative assemblies of the men of the valley are held annually.

1 Leggia. The post is either here or at Roveredo. At Grono the Val Calanca opens out from the W.

Roveredo-(Inn: Post, Il Canone d'Oro) a village containing nearly 1000 inhabitants, with the ruined castle of Trivulzio in its vicinity. The Prior of Roveredo and 11 old women were burnt for practising witchcraft by Carlo Borromeo, in 1583, at his first visitation of the diocese. The rivers hereabouts are used to float down the timber cut in the forests of the higher transverse valleys.

St. Vittore is the last village in the Canton of the Grisons; below it we enter the Canton Tessin and the Val Levantina, and our road joins that descending from the St. Gothard (Route 34). Between the junction of the two rivers Moesa and Ticino stands Arbedo, memorable in history for the severe defeat which the Swiss sustained here from the Milanese, commanded by the celebrated generals Della Pergola and Carmagnola, in 1422. Near the Church of St. Paul, called Chiesa Rossa, from its red colour, 2000 Swiss lie buried under 3 large mounds, still distinguishable. Defeat was at that period so unusual to the Swiss, even from a greatly superior force, that they retired across the Alps abashed and discouraged.

The distant aspect of Bellinzona

surrounded by battlemented walls, which once stretched quite across the valley, and overhung by no less thau 3 feudal castles, is exceedingly imposing and picturesque. It looks as though it still commanded (as it once did) the passage of the valley. The luxuriance of vegetation, and the magnificent forms of the mountains around, complete the grandeur of the picture.

1 Bellinzona (Germ: Bellenz)— (Inns: Aquila d'Oro, tolerable; Cerva, stag; Biscia, serpent: none very good or clean.)

Bellinzona, situated on the 1. bank of the Ticino, and containing 1520 inhabitants, is one of the 3 chief towns of the Canton Tessin, and becomes the seat of government alternately with Lugano and Locarno, for 6 years together. It has all the character of an Italian town in its narrow and dirty streets, and in the arcades which run under its houses. It stretches all across the valley to the river, so that the only passage up or down lies through its gates. It is still a place of some commercial importance as an entrepôt for the merchandise of Germany and Italy, and from its situation at the point of union of 4 roads—from the St. Gothard, the Bernardin, from Lugano, and from Locarno on the Lago Maggiore. In ancient times, however, it was of still greater military consequence, as the key of the passage from Lombardy into Germany, and defended as it was by 3 forts and high walls, it must have been a place of great strength. It became the fruitful cause of intrigue, contest, and bloodshed between the crafty Italians and the encroaching Swiss. The latter first obtained possession of it, and of the Val Levantine, by a nominal bargain of 2400 florins paid to the Lord of Masox, and they obtained from the Emperor Sigismond a confirmation of their title. The Duke of Milan, Phillip Maria Visconti, whose ancestors had lost this territory, by no means acquiesced

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in this transfer, and, seizing a favourable opportunity, surprised the Swiss garrison of Bellinzona by a Milanese force under Della Pergola, and took possession of the town and valley. It was this event which led to the battle of Arbedo, in which the Swiss received so severe a check. They afterwards twice gained possession of Bellinzona and its subject valleys by hard-fighting, "by the help of God and their halberts," as they boastingly proclaimed, first from the Duke of Milan, and next from the French, who, in the reign of Louis XII., obtained temporary possession of these valleys.

From the beginning of the 16th to the end of the 18th century the Swiss maintained uninterrupted possession of Bellinzona, governing its territory, as a state subject to the cantons, with a rule as tyrannic as that of the absolute Dukes of Milan, their prede

cessors.

The three picturesque Castles which still seem to domineer over the town, though partly in ruins, were the residence of the 3 Swiss bailiffs deputed to govern the district, and were occupied by a garrison and armed with some pieces of cannon. The largest, called Castello Grande, on an isolated hill to the W. of the town, belonged to canton Uri, and now serves as an arsenal and prison. Of the two castles on the E. the lower one, Castello di Mezzo, belonged to canton Schwytz, and the highest of all, Castello Corbario, to Unterwalden; they are both unoccupied. The view from Castello Grande is very striking. A long bridge is here thrown over the river Ticino, which, however, in summer is shrunk to 3 or 4 of the arches. The banks are guarded against sudden inundations by a strong dyke called Tondo Ripario, constructed by the French under Francis I.

There remains little else to particularise here. The principal Church, in the square, is a handsome modern building faced with white marble, and has a pulpit ornamented with

L

historical bas-reliefs. There are several convents here. The Church of S. Biaggio (St. Blaize), in the suburb Ravecchia, outside the Lugano gate, is said to be very ancient.

From Bellinzona the traveller has the choice of two roads to Milan: by the Lago Maggiore (Route 91) or by the Lago Lugano (Route 92).

The steamer on the Lago Maggiore departs from Magadino, the port of embarkation, miles S. of Bellinzona, about 5 o'clock in the morning in summer, returning from Sesto in the evening.

ROUTE 91.

BELLINZONA TO MAGADINO AND LOCARNO, ON THE LAGO MAGGIORE.

Ital. miles. Swiss stund. Eng. m.

23 33

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91

121

To Magadino, 8 To Locarno, 11 The lower part of the valley of the Ticino, between Bellinzona and the lake, is a broad plain, from which the mountains recede to a considerable distance, but still give grandeur to the landscape. The country is highly cultivated, the slopes covered with vineyards, but the bottom becomes marshy lower down, and is therefore unhealthy.

There is a road practicable for carriages on both sides of the Ticino ; that on the 1. is the most direct to Magadino.

On quitting Bellinzona, by the Lugano gate the dry bed of a torrent called Dragonata is passed. As its name would imply, it is at times a great scourge; it carried off in 1768 the Franciscan convent outside the town, and threatens similar injury.

There are many country-houses on the outskirts; and high upon the slopes of the hills are numerous buildings, now deserted, to which in ancient times the natives of Bellinzona used to resort for safety, when the plague was raging in the town. At Cadenazzo the road to Lugano,

over the Monte Cenere (Route 92.) turns to the E. out of our route.

Magadino. (Inn: Hotel Il Vapore, said to be good; but the situation has the reputation of being unhealthy, owing to the neighbourhood of the marshes of the Ticino and the prevalence of malaria-a sufficient reason to make a traveller cautious in taking up his quarters here for the night. § 12.)

This little village was not long ago a small group of houses; but it has gained some importance of late, to the prejudice of its neighbour Locarno, as the port of the Lago Maggiore, at whose N. extremity it lies, and as the station of the steam-boats.

The steamer Verbano sets out in summer from Magadino every morning between 5 and 6, touches at the principal places on the W. shore of the lake, and reaches Sesto Calende about 12. It sets off to return at 1. The fare for the entire voyage is 6 fr., 40 fr. for a landau, and 30 fr. for a calèche.

The road from Bellinzona to Locarno crosses the Ticino by the long bridge completed in 1815, in the place of one carried away by the fearful inundation of 1515, which did so much injury to the whole valley (p. 102). The road runs along the rt. bank. It passes under the Monte Carasso, and commands a good view of the opposite mountains, including the Monte Cenere, and up the valley over the romantic town of Bellinzona to the snowy Alps towering behind it. The low ground through which the now almost stagnant Ticino winds, being very marshy, is not so pleasing a feature, and the exhalations from it are unwholesome. At the bridge of Sementina a torrent, issuing out of a ravine on the rt., forms a pretty waterfall. In 1829 this stream, swelled with sudden rains, desolated the land around its mouth, and carried away the bridge. Accord ing to the superstitious notions of the peasantry, the upper part of this wild

gorge is haunted by the ghosts of misers, who there do penance after death for their exactions from the poor while living. The latter part of the route, after crossing the torrent Verzasca as it winds along the W. shore of the lake, is splendid beyond description.

33 Locarno (Germ. Luggarus). (Inns: Albergo Suizzero; II Gallo.) This is one of the three capitals of canton Tessin; it has 1700 inhabitants, and is said to have once contained twice as many, but has decayed since the 15th century in population and prosperity. It is beautifully situated on the margin of the lake, on which it has a little port, at the foot of the hill surmounted by the church of Madonna del Sasso, and at the entrance of the converging valleys of Val Verasca, Maggia, Onsernone, and Centovalle, the last a primitive district scarcely ever visited by travellers. The climate, the vegetation, and the sky are all Italian; even the people are Italian in laziness and superstition. The groves of orange and lemon, the tall white steeples on the hill-sides, and the little white chapels peering out from among the trellissed vines, and mirrored in the glassy lake, are all the characteristic features of an Italian landscape, even though, as far as frontier-lines are concerned, we are still in Switzerlaud. The deposits of the numerous torrents here flowing into the lake have encroached considerably upon it, forming a flat marshy delta, which renders Locarno not altogether healthy.

The principal buildings in the town are the churches, and the convents, of the former it has three, besides that of Madonna del Sasso, on the height above it, a building well worth visiting, both for the exquisite view it commands over the blue lake, and the entrance of the valley of the Ticino, whose winding course may be traced flashing in the sun, and also because it contains, among the accumulated decorations of painting,

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gilding, and stucco-work, severa valuable and interesting pictures in fresco, by Bernardino Luini, enclosed in medallions.

The market at Locarno, held once a fortnight, is frequented by the natives of the neighbouring valleys from far and near, and exhibits a singular mixture of costumes.

The traveller will be surprised to hear that in this little paltry town the distinctions of rank are more punctiliously observed than in many of the great European capitals. No less than seven grades or castes are numbered among its inhabitants. At the head stand the signors (nobili); next to them the borghesi, or burghers; below them the cultivators, terrieri, or old landholders: these 3 classes have the right of pasture on the common lands, an almost worthless privilege, owing to the neglect into which they have fallen. Below these, as to privileges, rank the oriondi (settlers from the villages), and the sessini; and the quatrini and mensualisti, foreign settlers.

The decay of the prosperity of the town is traced to the intolerance of its Romish inhabitants, who, instigated by their priests, compelled those among their fellow-citizens who had adopted the reformed faith to emigrate. In March, 1553, 116 persons, including women and children, who had refused to purchase the privilege of remaining by the sacrifice of their religion, were banished by a decree of the Swiss diet, and quitted their homes for ever. With them went industry and prosperity; they settled at Zurich, transferring thither the manufacture of silk, which is now of such vast commercial importance to that city. The day after the sentence of exile had been pronounced the papal nuncio arrived with two inquisitors he indignantly objected to the mildness of the sentence, and urged the deputies of the diet, under pain of the pope's displeasure, to couple with it confiscation of the goods of the heretics and separation

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of them from their children, in order that they might be educated as papists. To this demand, however, the deputies did not yield obedience. The doctrines of the Reformation were preached here first by Beccaria, a pious Milanese monk, about 1534: he was soon expelled, and took refuge in the Val Misocco.

The criminal statistics of the district around Locarno show a large amount of crime in proportion to the number of inhabitants. The neighbouring valley of Verzasca is in evil repute for the number of assassinations committed in it. Bonstetten, who travelled through it in 1795, says that the men all wear at their girdle, behind, a knife a foot long, cal ed falciuolo, to kill one another. He states that the average number of law-suits among a population of 17,000 souls was 1000 yearly. Whether this statement were true or not at the time, a great improvement has certainly taken place since; at present the number of offences in the same district, whose inhabitants have increased to the amount of 3000 souls, shows an average of 100 crimes against person and property yearly. Acts of violence, murder, &c. are, however, still very common, and the people have the reputation of being very litigious.

There is a path up the Centovalli, a secluded and little-visited valley, very winding and narrow, to Domo d'Ossola on the Simplon (Route 59). The path is a bad one.

The Val Maggia (Germ. Mayenthal) opens out about 2 miles to the N.W. of Locarno, beyond the narrow pass of the Ponte Brolla. A tolerable Cross carriage-road has been carried up it to Cevio, the chief village, and thence to Peccia. It cost the canton nearly 300,000 Swiss fr. The distance from Locarno to Covio is 9 Italian miles; and thence to Fusio, the highest village, 10 miles.

LAGO MAGGIORE.

The steam-boat from Magadino calls every morning off Locarno, Canobio, Canaro, Intra,the Borromean Islands, Belgirate, Arona, and Sesto, for passengers both going and returning. It quits Magadino between 5 and 6, in summer, and returns about 7, keeping near the W. shore.

Sailing-boats may always be hired at any of the ports on the lake to make short excursions.

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The Lago Maggiore, the Lacus Verbanus of the Romans (Germ. Langen See, or Lager See), is about 52 miles (47 Italian 12 German miles) long, and about 9 miles wide at its greatest breadth. Only a small portion, at its N. extremity, which is often called Lago di Locarno, belongs to Switzerland. About 7 miles S. of Locarno, the Austrian frontier occupies the E. shore, and the Sardinian the W. The navigation of the lake is free to the three states which form its margin; but the Austrians have established a sort of lake police upon its whole extent. The 3 chief rivers by which it is fed, are, the Ticino, flowing from the St. Gothard; the Tresa, which drains the Lago Lugano; and the Toccia, or Tosa, descending from the Val Formazza, by Domo d' Ossola. The scenery of its upper end is bold and mountainous; so is the bay of Baveno (to call by that name the W. arm, containing the Borromean Islands, and overhung by the snowy peaks of the Alps); but, towards the S. and E., its shores are less lofty, subsiding gradually into the Plain of Lombardy.

The principal places on the W. shore are Ascona, surmounted by a castle; Brissago, a charming spot, conspicuous with its white houses, and avenue of cypress, leading to the church. Its inhabitants are wealthy and industrious. Terrace rises above terrace against the hill-side; and the vine, fig, olive, pomegranate, and myrtle, flourish in the open air.