FOREIGN NOTICES. 



45 



v.oplory, wiih a posUion verj' much like that of 

 West I'oint, supposinjf that the Hudson, forked 

 there, and one arm ran on each side. This is 

 Bellagio, belonging to the Dutchess of Bologna. 

 You stand on the top of this uromontory and look 

 down one lake, running 20 miles, to Como : and 

 this view is similar (thoigh finer, from the moun- 

 tain, being higher and more delicate) tp the view 

 down the North river from Kosciusko's monument. 

 When you look, as it might be, upon a point of the 

 Hudson running between Crow-nest and the West- 



?oint dock, some 20 miles down the lake, to Lecco. 

 'ou then look up, as if to Newburgh, and see 

 about as far as Newburgh from West-point, [9 

 miles] the J[lps, in snow-clad majesty. Opposite 

 Bellagio, [as if at Cold Spring] is a m.agniticent 

 villa belonging to Fanny Ellssler. As if at the foot 

 of Crow-nest is the palace of the Princess of Prus- 

 sia. As if at the West Point landing is Pasta's. 

 As if at Buttermilk Falls, 2 villas and a large 

 orangery of Taglioni's : further down, opposite 

 £say atSt. Anthony's Nose] is the viWa d'Este, for- 

 merly owned by Caroline, Princess of Waks. All 

 these we visited. Above and below are the villas 

 of the Milanese and some English nobility. Many 

 of these palaces and villas cost millions (even 

 where labor is so cheap as here), filled as they are 

 with costly works of art. At one, we saw this 

 morning Thorwalsden's great basso-relievo of Al- 

 exander's triumphant entr}', made for Napoleon's 

 arch of victory, at the monument of the Simplon 

 road. 



And now comes my hardest task — to describe 

 this promontory, Bellagio : I don't think it covers 

 5 acres, rising, conically, perhaps 600 feet from 

 the water ; but the walks, which are gravelled or 

 paved with very small stones, are 3 or 4 miles in 

 length, most admirably managed with dense plan- 

 tations, tunnels and bridges. The promontor}^ 

 from the lakes, seems heavily wooded, and it is in 

 parts, as dense as the wood at Montgomery Place, 

 and yet everj' thing has been done by art. The 

 deep shade is caused by the most charming under- 

 growth of cypresses, laurel, casuarina myrtle, and 

 English yews. You enter through a cavern into a 

 glen quite spectral in its midnight darkness, sur- 

 rounded by immense Italian pines, and under- 

 growth of yew : You are then let down into day- 

 light, and into a charming peep of one of the lakes 

 by the most delicate gradations of dark to light, 

 first going through not only the co ors, but also the 

 changes oi form of the following evergreens — ce- 

 dars of Lebanon, pinus excelsis, deodars, and 

 weeping larches, which actually wave and dance 

 you out into the sun-light. 



This is the only large specimen of the true weep- 

 ing larch I ever saw. The full grown deodar (Ce- 

 drus deodara) is quite as pendulous as the weeping 

 larch, and they harmonize admirably together. 

 After these trees, you shortly commence, in the 

 midst of a blazing sun, with the most feathery and 

 delicate of the acacias, and grow cooler and darker 

 with the coarser varieties, and the rose acacia, all 

 enchantingly entangled with the Chinese wistaria, 

 which here flowers all summer. After struggling 

 through purple beeches, and some other dark fo- 

 liage which I could not find out, you get out again 



through a lovely grove of araucarias, pinus excel- 

 sis. p. longifoiia, and abies Douglassii tha.t I knew, 

 and some 20 more that I never heard of that actu- 

 ally threw mo into an arboricultural phrenzy — at 

 finding how far we are behind the time. From 

 here we emerged into a little lawn quite surround- 

 ed by high cliffs, covered by superb plantations of 

 aloes and bananas, pepper trees, scarlet and white 

 horse-chestnuts, all in flower ; and a collection of 

 rhododendrons, dazzling from their gorgeousness. 

 This lawn is devoted to magnolias of every possible 

 variety, of which some eight or ten sorts were ia 

 flower. The air v/as heavy with perfume. These 

 were in single specimens, and in masses. You 

 left this oasis by the only way it seemed possible 

 to get out — a cavern in the rocks — through 

 which you passed until you got into profound 

 darkness ; gradually the light returned ; at last 

 you reached a point from which two vistas open- 

 ed. One down the lake to Como, the other down 

 the lake to Lecco. You looked at these as at a 

 picture through a darkened tube ; for the cavern was 

 formed, apparently for this purpose. These tunnels 

 lead you out to a walk bordered by natural rock, per- 

 haps 20 feet high, covered by lamarque and the 

 banksian roses, in such a profusion of bloom, that 

 the rock had the appearance of being painted white 

 and yellow. On the other side the walk was bordered 

 by masses of choice azaleas, in every variety of 

 color and flower, some 8 and lO feet high. Passing 

 a charming cascade overhung with weeping beech- 

 es, waving birches, and willows, the walk led 

 through a maze of Judas trees, all the varieties of 

 double thorns, the laburnum, purple and yellow ; 

 and getting umbrageous and mazy again, with 

 purple beeches, purple berberries, and purple fil- 

 berts, come out again, clear and bright, through 

 different varieties of heath and acacia, upon a little 

 platform looking up the 3d lake and to the snowy 

 Alps, and down a perpendicular precipice of some 

 600 feet, into an exquisite flower garden below, into 

 which I was prevented from falling by a parapet 

 interwoven with every variety of honeysuckle ! 

 The other walk from the cavern led along a similar 

 wall of rock pierced into holes, and filled with all 

 the varieties of the cactus and aloe, with an occa- 

 sional frame of rustic work covered with air-plants 

 and parasites. This led by a grand terrace, bal- 

 lustraded and statued, and commanding the three 

 lakes, to the palace ; and here let me breathe, for 

 I could scarcely do so last night and this morning, 

 from wonder and delight ! 



Putting the wonderful views quite out of the 

 question, Bellagio is the most extraordinary place 

 1 ever saw for perfect planting and rare collections. 

 I have not mentioned a third of the rare trees, for 

 though every tbing is nicely labelled in zinc, the 

 names were mostly in Italian, and the head gard- 

 ner, who was English, was away. It is surpris- 

 ing, tha^ a place like the lake of Como. surround- 

 ed by mountains mostly snow-capped, within 15 

 hours of the Simplon, should possess, of all places 

 in the north o! Italy, a climate allowing exotics to 

 remain out in winter. » * * i4j;[j May. The 

 preceding pages left us at Como, which we left 

 yesterday, coming to Lago Maggiore — sleeping at 

 Arona. After dinner we walked up the hill to see 



