Mr Wilson on the State of the Arts in Italy. 107 



triumphal arch (fig. 3). This is a specimen of an art in which 

 the Italians display both taste and great ingenuity, and which 

 seems to me deserving of notice, for although it maybe deemed 

 useless by some, yet it contributes largely to their happiness. 

 I allude to their preparations for festivals and pageants. With- 

 out entering into any description of these, I shall content my- 

 self with exhibiting a print of a triumphal arch erected at Ti- 

 voli on the occasion of a visit from his Holiness the Pope. 

 Erections of this description are put up in a day or two, being 

 formed of a frame-work of wood, covered with coarse canvass 

 painted in imitation of stone. The bas-reliefs are of stucco, 

 and the statues are formed of straw, arranged round wooden 

 supports ; casts of heads, hands, and feet are easily procured 

 and attached. This anima (soul), as it is termed, is skilfully 

 enveloped in drapery of cotton cloth, which is tastefully ar- 

 ranged by an artist, and is then lightly brushed over with 

 white-wash, which stiffens it. That a knowledge of the art 

 displayed in erecting this arch may be useful, may I think be 

 proved, by an allusion to the gallows-like erection under which 

 his Majesty George IV. passed when he entered Edinburgh. 



I now beg your attention for a few minutes, whilst I de- 

 scribe the next drawing (fig. 4). In the summer of 1833 

 I made a journey from Leghorn to Rome along the coast, a 

 terra incognita to most travellers, my object being to trace 

 the Via Aurelia. At Orbetello, the last town in the Tuscan 

 States, besides making some interesting antiquarian disco- 

 veries, I observed the boats which I am about to describe. 

 Orbetello stands upon a peninsula, projecting into a shallow 

 lagoon of some extent ; the boats which are used upon it, are 

 flat-bottomed, rise considerably at the bow and stern, being 

 lowest at midships, across which part of the vessel a beam is 

 fastened, about four inches thick each way, and which pro- 

 jects about two feet six inches over each side. On each of the 

 ends of this beam an oblong piece of plank is nailed, the 

 longest sides being horizontal, and a stout pin rises from each 

 of these. The oars are of considerable length in proportion 

 to the boat, and of great breadth in the blade, which is of the 

 form shewn in the drawing. These oars rest upon the pieces 

 of board at the ends of the cross-beam, being attached to the 



