SC6 AN ITALIAN LAKE GABDEN. Aphil, 



utmost luxuriance ; the air is redolent with the scent of fruits and 

 flowers ; in whatever direction one looks the charm of colour and 

 outline and picturesqueness fills one with the keenest sense of enjoy- 

 ment. AVell may it be asked, Surely there is here no feature wanting 

 of those which are required to make a perfect landscape ? Snowy 

 Alps, forest-clad hills, slopes of cultivated country, picturesque villages 

 on the lake shore, stately cJidteaux, and here and there a campanile 

 rising to break the lower outlines, groves of Pine and Chestnut, red-gray 

 cliffs overhung with trailers, curve of creek and bay, islands rising 

 from the dancing waves, and everywhere glimpses of the great lake 

 winding away between the mountains to the far distance where its 

 recesses are hid in a dim blue haze — all combine to render the 

 landscape round Pallanza one of the most famous in Europe. 



But of all these numerous features of beauty, none receive so large 

 a share of attention as the four tiny islands which, stretching across 

 the entrance of the bay between Pallanza and Stresa, appear to guard 

 it from incursion much as the string of forts at Cronstadt protect the 

 head of the Gulf of Finland. The Borromean Isles, however, boast 

 no weapons or munitions of war, and their aspect is as peaceful as. 

 that of Cronstadt is threatening. Isola San Giovanni, the smallest of 

 the group, is separated from the promontory at Pallanza by a strait 

 not more than a hundred yards in breadth, and has on it a villa and 

 chapel, round which is a pretty garden shaded with lofty shrubs. A 

 mile away lies Isola Madre, the entire surface of which, with the 

 exception of that portion which is covered by a singularly plain chdteau, 

 now only used for the lodging of half-a-dozen gardeners, forms a 

 grand shrubbery, interspersed with undulating lawns of well-kept 

 turf, and the resort of a larger number of birds than I saw at any 

 other place in Northern Italy. This island, which is about half a 

 mile in circumference, is, with Isola San Giovanni and Isola Bella, 

 the property of Count Borromeo. One would naturally term it a 

 garden, laid out as it is with walks and terraces and lawns, but the 

 flower-beds are few only, and the general aspect of the island is that 

 of a tract of woodland, parts of which have been turned into grass, 

 whilst among the indigenous trees and shrubs appear a hundred species 

 imported from northern and southern climes. When one has visited 

 both this island and Isola Bella, the former strikes one as the shrub- 

 bery, the latter as the garden of the Borromeo family, the main 

 feature of the one being arboriculture, of the other floriculture. 

 But as specimens are to be found on Isola Bella of nearly all the 

 superb shrubs and trees which are cultivated on Isola Madre, I may 

 pass on to the more famous island. 



Isola Bella rises abruptly from the rippling waters of the lake at a 

 distance of a mile or so from Isola Madre, and is only separated fromi 



