104 Mr Wilson on the State of the Arts in Italy. 



its temple depended on a rugged pillar, the duration of which 

 could not be calculated upon. To prevent the town paying a 

 visit to the Sirens beneath, it was resolved to turn the x'iver, 

 and it will be acknowledged that this was a bold undertaking ; 

 walled in by mountains, it sought a passage under them ; and 

 to a certain extent imitating the operations of nature, the en- 

 gineers have carried the river through two parallel tunnels, 

 and tumbled it into the valley beyond the Sirens' grotto over 

 a bank twice or perhaps three times as high as the Calton hill. 

 I have made a plan from memory (fig. 1.) of this operation, as 

 the best mode of explaining it. The engineers have saved 

 Tivoli, but its romantic beauty, as far as the river is concerned, 

 is gone for ever. 



The other engineering work which I mentioned, namely the 

 canal from the Ombrone to the Lake of Castiglione, has ex- 

 cited much interest. The Lake of Castiglione, anciently the 

 Lacus Prilis, falling vex'y low in summer, left much marshy 

 ground uncovered, in which were numerous stagnant pools, 

 and quantities of putrid herbage, making the air poisonous in 

 hot weather, and breeding myriads of noxious insects. To 

 remedy these evils, Leopold the First ordered his architect 

 Ximenes to make a canal from the river Ombrone to the 

 lake ; by this means it was intended to keep the latter con- 

 stantly at the same level. This work was finally executed by 

 the present Grand Duke in the year 1830, and by means of a 

 canal seven miles long and twenty -five feet broad, a sufficiency 

 of water is supplied to keep the lake at a proper level ; so 

 sufficient indeed was the supply that the whole surrounding 

 country was overflowed the first year, but this has been re- 

 medied. The air it is said has been improved ; but, when I 

 visited Castiglione in 1832, I found that all who could left it 

 in the summer months, and all who remained had the fever. 

 Some notice may be expected from one of the engineering 

 works in the Pontine marshes ; but like other British travellers, 

 I have only galloped through them, and have merely to state 

 that the attempts to drain them cost a million of money. 



The roads in the north of Italy are excellent, and indeed 

 generally throughout the Peninsula. Although a small portion 

 comparatively of the country is intersected by roads. T have 



