kind. For now it may be said, I build with good reason, since I follow 

 your example. Nor are our situations unlike ; you build near the sea, 

 I am at the same distance from the Larian lake. Upon the borders of 

 it I have several seats ; two of which, as they give me the greatest 

 delight, so they employ my greatest attention. One of them is placed 

 upon a rock, and commands the lake ; the other is close to the water ; 

 both in the manner of those at Baije. . . . Each of them has particular 

 beauties, a diversity which renders them to t^eir master still more 

 agreeable. One has a nearer, the other a more distant view of the 

 lake. One, by a gentle curve in the building, forms a single bay ; the 

 other, being built upon a greater height, forms two. Here, you may 

 ride in a long avenue by the side of the lake ; there, you may walk down 

 an extensive and easy terrace. 



" One of these houses is not within reach of the waves ; and they are 

 broken and repulsed by the other. From the former you can discern 

 the people fishing; from the latter you may angle yourself, and, as if you 

 lay in a fishing-boat, may throw your line out of your bedchamber, and 

 almost from your bed. My reason for making the additions that are 

 wanting in these places is because they are already so beautiful. But 

 why should I give you a reason when, by following your example, my 

 inducement must appear to you ? Adieu." 



It was probably at one of these villas that the ebbing and flowing " 

 spring was to be found of which he gives an interesting account in 

 another place. " A spring rises in a mountain, it runs down through 

 rocks, and is afterwards received into a banqueting-house artificially 

 formed for that purpose. The force of its current is there a little 

 retarded, and falls from thence into the Larian lake. The nature of 

 this spring is surprising. Three times in a day it regularly rises and 

 subsides, in equal degrees of proportion. This is plainly perceivable, 

 and you are at once convinced and delighted. You may lie down by 

 it, and regale yourself with a collation, while the fountain, which is 

 exquisitely cold, supplies you with drink ; in the meantime the spring, 

 in equal and reciprocal periods of time, either ebbs or flows." 



A more detailed description of one of these villas would have been 

 interesting, as they were in all likelihood laid out in quite a diff^erent 



153 ^ 



