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THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[February, 



enabling him to use iiis moulds, stamps, and the various mechanical 

 contrivances which confine all our decorative arts within such common- 

 place limits. 



In all our architectural draivings and engravings, we find a vigorous 

 artist-like style, which is reflecte<l in the works done from them. In 

 the architectural engravings of the present day, every thing is sacri- 

 ficed to a display of dexterity in the use of the burin; the spirit of the 

 original ornaments is never represented. How strongly tliis is illus- 

 trated, for example, in our engravings from Etruscan vases! Works 

 executed from such engravings, or from drawings like them, are natu- 

 rally stiff and lifeless like the models. People who possess a feeling 

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

 older specimens, and amongst other things very inconvenient 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 caricature, the 

 extravagances of the Louis XIV. and XV. eras, or the debonnaire bar- 

 barisms of Watteau, have contributed to the banishment 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 going on were those at Tivoli, 

 and from the Ombrone to the Lake of Castiglione in the Tuscan Ma- 

 remma. 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 disap- 

 peared 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, 



Fig- 1. 



l^^^^^:^^ 



A/Great 



:" F, 



Fall. B, Neptune's Grotto. C, Fall. D.Fall. E, Grotto of Sirens. 

 F, New Tunnels. H, New Fall. I, Road to Villa of Mecena. 



I may say, terrible scenery, this orrido bello, 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 their work ; at last they dammed 

 up old Tiber, and made the very ugliest waterfall that ever unfortunate 

 artist contemplated. It was now discovered that the river, in passing 

 through Neptune's grotto, had worn away the rocks in such a manner 

 that the town and 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 w:is resolved to turn the river, 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 engineers have carried the 

 river through two parallel tunnels, and tumbled it into the valley be- 

 yond the Sirens' grotto over a bank twice or perhaps three times as 

 high as the Caston hill. 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 excited much inte- 

 rest. The Lake of Castiglione, anciently the Lacus Prilis, falling very 

 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 constantly at the same level. 

 This work was fijially executed by the present Grand Duke in the 

 year 1S30, 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 w'as the supply that the whole sur- 

 rounding country v.as overflowed the first year, but this has been re- 

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

 Castiglione in 183'2, 1 found that all who could left it in the summer 

 months, and all who remained had the fever. Some notice may be 

 expected from me of the engineering works in the Pontine marshes ; 

 but like other British travellers, I have only gallopeil 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; and I liave travelled many miles 

 over turf, or by small mule tracks, both on the coast and in the moun- 

 tains. Towns are almostuuiversally built on emiuences ; consequently 

 the roads are hilly, but I think less so than would be supposed from 

 the nature of the country, and both in direction and in smoothness, 

 they greatly excel those of France. 



"The system of road-making followed is nearly the same as that 

 adopted by the late Mr. Telford, that is to say, a pavement of stones 

 is first formed upon which the metal is laid ; but I do not think that 

 the principles advocated by our great engineer are followed out in the 

 formation of the pavement. Excellent roads, .however, are the result 

 of the system, even although gravel is used instead of broken metal.* 



Various principles of paving are now exciting much attention in 

 London ; it is to be regretted that something like a sensible principle 

 is not followed in Edinburgh. In Italy various mode are adopted, in 

 Genoa und at Naples large flat parallelograms of lava are used, at 

 Florence large irregular polygons carefully jointed, and at Rome a 

 pavement resembling our own, except that the stones are of irregular 

 forms, of one size, and grouted in with lime and pozzolana. 



I shall now touch very briefly on a few arts of Italy which remain to 

 be described, and shall then take the liberty of bringing before you one 

 or two contrivances which struck me as ingenious and of which I have 

 prepared drawings. 



The goldsmiths of Italy produce ornaments which are both remark- 

 able for taste and workmanship, especially those of Genoa ond Venice. 

 I am enabled to show you some trifling specimens which our workmen 

 cannot equal. 



After the goldsmiths I may mention the makers of bronze ornaments 

 and figures ; this is an art in which the Italians show much taste and 

 dexterity, so much dexterity indeed that they sell numbers of antique 



* I have not seen the railroad which has been lately made from Naples to 

 Castellamare, but am welt acquainted with the line; a novel question in 

 engineer ng must arise in considering how it is to bi' protected from the lava 

 of Vesuvius. This 1 believe will not I.e very dirticuh. but it has a more in- 

 sidious enemy in the earthquake, and a more overw helming one in tlie showers 

 of scone and ashes which accomiiany an eruption. 



Railways may be useful in Italy to promote her commercial prosperity, but 

 i puy the man who could think of travelling in such a manner through any 

 part of that country. 



