46 



FOREIGN NOTICES. 



the famous statue of Carlo Borromeo, 12 feet high, 

 on a pedestal 46 feet. The statue is of bronze, and 

 is really immense. One arm is stretched out over 

 the lake, blessing his native city. A bible, which 

 he holds in the other hand, is 9 feet long. The 

 countenance expresses the benevolent character 

 given to the man ; and the whole thing is in such 

 admirable proportion that it does not seem so co- 

 lossal, although the whole, (statue and pedestal,) 

 is over 100 feet high. It is possible to ascend it 

 inside, but dark and fatiguing. The head will 

 hold 15 persons. 



Lago Maggiore, at Arena, where we slept last 

 night, is very lovely ; much wider than Como, but 

 not so picturesque. An idea may be formed by 

 imagining a sort of mixture of Jamaica lake (near 

 Boston) and the Hudson near West Point. The 

 mountains, except on the Swiss (Alps) side, do not 

 rise so abruptly as at Como. In many parts there 

 are towns, or meadows, prettily dotted with trees 

 and villas, and villages lodged between the water 

 and mountains. Our saloon was a large one, with 

 three French windows, opening to the floor, upon 

 balconies overhanging the lake. From it we count- 

 ed 7 villages, part in Lombardy, part in Pied- 

 mont, and one in Switzerland ; for the lake is bor- 

 dered by 4 countries The sun had just set, and 

 the moon — a full moon, rose over snow - capped 

 mountains — Monte-Rosa, one of the highest of the 

 Alps, wliile, from the different village churches, 

 stole on the water, the vesper bells ; the different 

 modulations produced by the different distances 

 across the water, gave the effect of chimes. It was 

 charming ; for the evening was soft and lovely. 



Starting at 7 this morning, after a delightful ride 

 of two hours, upon a road bordering the water by 

 beautiful villas adorned with flowers and vases, 

 we came to the Borromean islands — Isola Bella 

 and Isola Madre : These are owned by the Count 

 Borromeo, who resides in a grand palace on Isola 

 Bella, for some 2 months in the year. 



These islands, which, each, contains perhaps 

 from H to 2 acres, were originally mere slate 

 rocks, lifting themselves a few feet from the sur- 

 face of the lake, and were thus converted into 

 beautiful gardens, teeming with tropical vegeta- 

 tion, by an ancestor of the present family in 1671. 

 Isola Bella consists of 10 terraces, (the lowest 

 founded on piers thrown into the lake,) and rising 

 in a pyramidal form, one above the other, and lined 

 with statues, vases, obelisks, and immense cypres- 

 ses. Upon these terraces flourish, as upon the 

 "_ hanging gardens of Babylon," not merely the 

 citron, and orange, and pomegranate, but aloes, 

 cacti, the camphor tree, (one specimen 20 feet 

 high,) the sugar cane, 2 varieties of tea ; and all 

 this within sight of perpetual snow, and of the 

 Lapland climate of the Alps. 



The marvel in these islands is the fact, that 

 every handful of soil was originally brought from a 

 distance, and requires every year to be more or less 

 renewed. And yet I saw as dense a wood, as hi^^h 

 trees, and as luxuriant vegetation as I ever sawin 



my life. Among the most interesting things a4 

 Isola Bella, is a gigantic sweet bay tree, 8 feet in 

 diameter, and the largest, the gardener told me, in 

 Europe, upon which you can indistinctly trace the 

 remains of the word " Battaglia," cut by Napoleon 

 with his knife, a few days before the battle of Ma- 

 rengo. 



Isola Bella is wonderful, but not interesting. 

 The trees, magnolias, araucarias~many fine spe- 

 cimens ; of our white pine, one superb specimen. 

 The situation is lovely about a mile from the shore. 

 The different views entertained of it as a matter of 

 taste, are amusing. Brockden, in his work on Swit- 

 zerland, says " it is worthy only of a rich man's 

 extravagance, and of the taste of a confectioner" : 

 while Saussure says it is " un magnifique caprice : 

 un pensee grandiose, une espece de creation." The 

 .money that must have been spent in its terraces, 

 statues, fountains, etc. must be frightful ! All these 

 10 terrace walls are covered in with espaliers of 

 oranges and lemons, running round the whole isl- 

 and, and they are really beautiful, laden as they 

 are with fruit. 



Isola Madre, which is larger, and distant half a 

 mUe, is a gem. This is used rather as a garden or 

 pleasure grounds for Isola Bella ; it is laid out in 

 the natural English style, with little bits of lawn of 

 exquisite grass ; almost everything that we have in 

 green. houses supports the winter here : immense 

 palms, aloes, larger than mine in the conservatory. 

 (8 were in flower,) araucariaexcelsa, 30 feet high, 

 A. imbricata 16 feet ; pinus longifolia, and some 

 10 other rare species, 15 to 20 feet high ; splendid 

 cedars of Lebanon ; every species of green-house 

 magnolia, with a dense undergrowth of English 

 azaleas, 8 to 12 feet high, in a mass of bloom. One 

 entire bank, half as large as your lawn, was com- 

 posed of rhododendrons russellianum, catawbiense, 

 alta-clareuse, arboreum and hybrid varieties, 15 to 

 18 feet high, with thousands of flowers ; heaths, 

 higher than ray head, as undergrowth. One bed 

 of Chinese azalea, 100 feet long by 5 feet wide, 

 was the most gorgeously magnificent thing, in its 

 way, I ever saw. It was one thick blaze of bloom. 

 The Wistaria sinensis, trained as a shrub, 30 years 

 old, with a trunk as large as a man's body, and a 

 head as large as your Virgilia. Three or four fine 

 double camellias, in flower, which are as high as 

 the second story windows, branching from the 

 ground ; and a new variety of cypress, (cupressus 

 glauca pendula.) weeping like a willow. One 

 walk of pittisporums, in immense masses, termi- 

 nates against a hedge of oleanders, &.c. 8cc. The 

 whole planting was deep and umbrageous, pro- 

 ducing dense shade ; the plants, many yews, &c. 

 evidently being selected for this purpose, and the 

 contrast to the tropical hot looking ])\'dnts was very 

 striking. Beautiful golden and silver pheasants, 

 mingled with the foliage ; and the whole seemed 

 to me like some immense conservatory, with the 

 glass taken away. II. W. S. Geneva, 21sf 3Iay, 

 1848. 



