Mr Wilson on the Stale of the Arts in Italy. 103 



ing of taste, dissatisfied with such productions, seek to replace 

 them with older specimens, and amongst other things very in- 

 convenient carved chairs and tables, in the workmanship of 

 which they find a pleasure in tracing the influence of mind. 

 But the cleverness in the workmanship of these specimens has 

 greatly misled the taste of the day ; and the abominations of 

 Elizabethan architecture, lately dignified with the name of 

 the Renaissance style, of which however it is a mere carica- 

 ture, the extravagances of the Louis XIV. and XV. eras, or the 

 debonnaire barbarisms of Watteau, have contributed to the ba- 

 nishment of a healthy taste in style. To restore a feeling for 

 better art, the purer styles of classic or Gothic art must again 

 be executed in the spirit of better times, and to grace of form 

 must be added feeling in execution. 



I shall now turn to the engineering works of Italy, a subject 

 worthy of much attention, but on which I regret to say I am 

 able to say very little indeed. The greatest works I saw go- 

 ing on were those at Tivoli, and from the Ombrone to the 

 Lake of Castiglione in the Tuscan Maremma. I shall merely 

 offer a very brief description of these works, necessarily very 

 imperfect, as I write entirely from memory. The Tiber or 

 Aniene, on reaching Tivoli, was dammed up by the architect 

 Bernini ; precipitating itself over the lofty barrier he raised, 

 it disappeared under the rocks on which the town is built, and 

 was seen again in the celebrated grotto of Neptune ; rushing 

 out of this remarkable cavern it fell into another abyss, and 

 again vanished into the grotto of the Sirens, from whence it 

 issued in the deep valley under Tivoli, several hundred feet 

 below its original level. The pencils of the painters of every 

 nation have been employed for centuries with this, I may say, 

 terrible scenei'y, this orrido hello, of the falls of Tivoli. They 

 may now depict the rocks, but the waters are gone for ever. 

 Some years ago, Bernini's dam was carried away in a flood ; it 

 was rebuilt by the Pope's engineers, but if I remember aright 

 the river got the better of them and threw down then' work ; 

 at last they dammed up old Tiber, and made the very ugliest 

 waterfall that ever unfortunate artist contemplated. It was 

 discovered that the river, in passing through Neptune's grotto, 

 had worn away the rocks in such a manner that the town and 



