1839] 



FARMERS' REGISTER, 



301 



into other places ; forming a variety of lakes, 

 which, having: no outlets, corrupt all the air in the 

 adjacent countr}'.* Sometimes we pass over hujje 

 heaps of mountains, which submit to no culture or 

 improvement ; and yield no other profit, but what 

 arises from quarries of stone, whence Venice has 

 received materials lor building from very early 

 times. The road also leads us through a few nar- 

 row vallies, which are naturally fertile ; but even 

 these have been left to run wild, lor want of a 

 sufficient number of hands to cultivate them ; the 

 contrary of which may be seen in those parts ol 

 Istria that are tolerably well watered ; where the 

 farmers are not inferior to the rest of the Italians, 

 either in skill, or industry. 



A similar instance of the effects of bad water 

 may be observed in the Maremma of Sienna ; a 

 province formerly so fruitflil and populous, that, 

 according to Livy, it furnished Rome with a large 

 quantity of corn in the second Punic war ;* but it 

 now lies waste and unpeopled. It is intersected 

 by many rivers, which, instead of conforming 

 themselves to the windings of the valley, burst 

 out on all sides ; and occasion such frequent inun- 

 dations, that the vast uneven plain is almost be- 

 come a continued morass ; and, what is still more 

 calamitous, it is from this that the bulk of the 

 peasants are supplied with water. It is true, that 

 there are a few who have wells ; but little advan- 

 tage is to be derived from them ; for, as the water 

 lie? lower than the sea, and as no care has been 

 taken to prevent a communication, it is of course 

 brackish and unwholesome. We see every where 

 dispersed immense fragments of cisterns and aque- 

 ducts, which, at the same time that they attest the 

 splendor and public spirit of the Etruscans and 

 Romans, remind us of the negligence and degen- 

 eracy of their successors. 



It would be difficult to point out any part of Ita- 

 ly, more thinly inhabited, or less productive, than 

 the Dutchy of Ferrara, in proportion to the depth 

 and richness of its soil ; whence many writers 

 have inferred, that the rigor of the Papal govern- 

 ment has depopulated the country ; but this is a 

 speculation wholly imaginary ; tor it might easily 

 be proved, that there is not a conquered province 

 in the Pope's dominions, nor even in Italy, more 

 gently taxed, than this Dutchy. But though there 

 be no ground to complain of severe impositions, it 

 is certain, that it labors under a multiplicity of 

 difliculties ; among which, the want of good water 

 is not the least considerable. Those who live near 

 Ihe Po, or at a moderate distance from it, filter 

 carefully that water, and render it not unpalata- 

 ble ; but most of the peasants have no other for 

 common use, but what is drawn from wells, which 

 they find as pernicious to themselves, and to their 

 cattle, as what is taken out of the very ditches ; 

 and, if they attempt to dig the well a little deeper 

 than usual, they never fail to come to salt-water. 

 There is no doubt, but that this inconvenience 

 would be removed, if wells or cisterns, for the re- 

 ception of rain, were made afier the manner of 

 those of Venice; which are so admirably con- 

 trived, as to afford very sweet and wholesome 

 water, although they lie deep in the sea; but ihe 

 — . 



* Sir William Hamilton's observations upon the late 

 dreadful Cdlamity in Calabria, seem to put this bevond 

 a doubt. ^ •' 



* Lib. iv. c. 52. 



truth is, many Italian gentlemen are so scanda- 

 lously parsimonious, that they grudge the least ex- 

 pense of this nature ; which obliges the peasants 

 to drink whatever is nearest at hand, whether from 

 rivers, or lakes, or marshes. 



1 shall finish my remarks with observing, that 

 the want of good water prevads more or less 

 through the whole district of Rome ; which, in its 

 proper and legal sense, comprehends Ibrty miles 

 on every side about the capital.* Every one 

 knows what a desolation the plague made in the 

 thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The Popes 

 removed the seat of government to Avignon, 

 where they resided above seventy years ; and 

 when Gregory the Xlih came to Rome, he found 

 it so miserably depopulated, that the number of in- 

 habitants did not exceed 33,000. During the ab- 

 sence of the Popes, the Colonnas' and Orsinis', in 

 their turns, carried by assault both the city and its 

 environs; which suffered more at that time Irom 

 the Italians, than from the northern nations in the 

 fifth and sixth centuries. The wretched husband- 

 men were forced to abandon their houses, and the 

 tillage of their farms ; so that the country about 

 Rome was overrun with woods and thickets, and 

 poisened by noxious marshes, resembling, lor the 

 most part, what is now to be seen between Ostia 

 and Nettuno. In this season of public distraction, 

 almost all the useful arts were extinguished. The 

 wells and cisterns, and those noble remains of 

 magnificence, the aqueducts, were involved in the 

 general ruin ; and the popes, who have had the 

 vanity to inscribe their names upon so many use- 

 less edifices, have never thought fit to repair the 

 water-works in the country, in which every indi- 

 vidual had an interest. We learn from Fronti- 

 nus, who has written the most accurately upon 

 this subject, that there were three aqueducts in 

 Rome, during the times of the republic ; and that 

 tour were added in the reign of Auijustus ; so that 

 Rome was then plentifully supplied with water; 

 and we may gather from the accounts of antiquity, 

 that numberless little streams were conducted from 

 these aqueducts to supply the villages. Indeed 

 Augustus was so attentive to this important con- 

 cern, that he is reported to have brought into 

 Rome the Aqua Alseatina, which was of a bad 

 quality, lor the use of the Naumachite; that the 

 people should not be deprived of the least quan- 

 tity of water that was reputed more wholesome.! 

 In succeeding ages, the number of aqueducts was 

 considerably increased. The splendid appearance 

 of fountains in modern Rome has led many to 

 imagine, that few cities in the world are better 

 llirnished with good water; but the reverse of this 

 observation seems to be true. The city is sup- 

 plied but by three aqueducts, two of which are 

 modern. The water which comes from the Lago 

 Bracciano to S. Pietro Montorio has a very ofl^en- 

 sive taste ; and the Acqua Felice of Sixtus V. 

 thoun;h generally preferred to it, can scarcely be 

 said to be of a better quality. The Acqua Ver- 

 gine, brought from the Sabina by Agrippa, is the 

 only water conveyed by an ancient aqueduct ; 

 and that this is entire, is owing to the circumstance 



* Almost all the voyage-writers, speakiug of the 

 neighborhood of Rome, call it the Campa^^na ; either 

 not knowing, or not reflecting;, that the Campagna di 

 Roma takes in only the boundaries of ancient Latium. 



t See Frontinus, 1. ii. §. II. de aquaeductibus urbis 

 Romae "ne quid salubrioribus aquis detraherent." 



