Part 23 (2/2)

On the 9th of May I set out from Florence on my journey hither. Two days'

journey brought me to Bologna where I stopped one day; and the following day I reached this place (Ferrara), six miles distant from Bologna. The country between these two cities is a perfect plain and very fertile. At Malalbergo (half-way) We crossed the Reno in a boat. I put up at the _Tre Mori_ in Ferrara. Having remained two and half days here I have had time to inspect and examine almost everything of consequence that the city affords.

The city itself has an imposing, venerable appearance and can boast of some fine buildings; yet with all this there is an air of melancholy about it.

It is not peopled in proportion to its size and gra.s.s is seen growing in several of the streets. I believe the unhealthiness of the environing country is the cause of the decrease of population, for Ferrara lies on a marshy plain, very liable to inundation In the centre of the city stands the ancient Palace of the Dukes of Ferrara, a vast Gothic edifice, square, and flanked with round towers, and a large court-yard in the centre. It was in this court-yard that Hugo and Parisina were decapitated. From the top of this palace a n.o.ble view of the plain of the Po represents itself, and you see the meanderings of that King of Rivers, as the Italian poets term it.

As the Po runs thro' a perfectly flat country, and is encreased and swollen by the torrents from the Alps and Appennines that fall into the smaller rivers, which unite their tributary streams with the Po and accompany him as his _seguaci_ to the Adriatic, this country is liable to the most dreadful inundations: flocks and herds, farm-houses and sometimes whole villages are swept away. d.y.k.es, dams and ca.n.a.ls innumerable are in consequence constructed throughout this part of the country, to preserve it as much as possible from such calamities. Ariosto's description of an over-flowing of this river is very striking, and I here transcribe it:

Con quel furor che il Re de' fiumi altero, Quando rompe tal volta argine e sponda, E che ne' campi Ocnei si apre il sentiero, E i gra.s.si solchi e le biade feconde, E con le sue capanne il gregge intero, E co' cani i pastor porta neil' onde, etc.[118]

Even with that rage wherewith the stream that reigns, The king of rivers--when he breaks his mound.

And makes himself a way through Mantuan plains-- The greasy furrows and glad harvests, round, And, with the sheepcotes, nock, and dogs and swains Bears off, in his o'erwhelming waters drowned.

--Trans. W.S. ROSE.

The next place I went to see was the Lyceum or University, where there is a very fair cabinet of natural history in all its branches. The Library is very remarkable, and possesses a great number of valuable ma.n.u.scripts. But my princ.i.p.al object in visiting this Museum was to see the monument erected in honour of Ariosto, which has been transferred here from the Benedictine church. The inkstand and chair of this ill.u.s.trious bard are carefully preserved and exhibited. They exactly resemble the print of them that accompanies the first edition of Hoole's translation of the _Orlando Furioso_. Among the ma.n.u.scripts what gratified me most was the ma.n.u.script of the _Gerusalemme liberata_ of Ta.s.so. But few corrections appear in this ma.n.u.script; tho from the extreme polish and harmony of the versification one would expect a great many. It is written in an extremely legible hand.

I also inspected the original ma.n.u.scripts of the _Pastor Fido_ of Guarini and of the _Suppositi_ of Ariosto.

I then went to visit the Hospital of St Anna, for the sake of seeing the dungeon where poor Ta.s.so was confined and treated as mad for several years.

When one beholds this wretched place, where a man can scarce stand upright, one only wonders how he could survive such treatment; or how he could escape becoming insane altogether. The old wooden door of this cell will soon be entirely cut away by amateurs, as almost everyone who visits the dungeon chops off a piece of wood from the door to keep as a relic. The door is in consequence pieced and repaired with new wood, and in a short time will be in the state of Sir John Cutter's worsted stockings which were darned so often with silk that they became finally all silk.

Ferrara has a strong citadel which is still garrisoned by Austrian troops; and they will probably not easily be induced to evacuate it. The Austrian Eagle seldom looses his hold.

VENICE, 18th May.

On the 16th May at six o'clock in the morning I left Ferrara in a _cabriolet_ to go to the _Ponte di Lago oscuro_, which is a large village on the south bank of the Po, three miles distant from Ferrara. A flying bridge wafted me across the river, which is exceedingly broad and rapid to the north bank, where a barge was in waiting to receive pa.s.sengers for Venice. This barge is well fitted up and supplied with _comestibles_ of all sorts and couches to recline on. The price is twelve francs for the pa.s.sage, and you pay extra for refreshments. The bark got under weigh at seven o'clock and descended rapidly this majestic river, which however, from its great breadth, and from the country on each side of it being perfectly flat, did not offer any interesting points of view. Plains and cattle grazing thereon were the only objects, for they take care to build the farms and houses at a considerable distance from the banks, on account of the inundations. After having descended the Po for a considerable distance, we entered a ca.n.a.l which unites the Po with the Adige. We then descended the Adige for a short distance, and entered another ca.n.a.l which unites the Adige with the Brenta. Here we stopped to change barges, and it required an hour and half to unload and reload the baggage. We then entered the Brenta and from thence into the Lagoons, and pa.s.sing by the islands of Malamocco and Chiozzo entered Venice by the _Ca.n.a.le grande_ at three o'clock in the morning. The whole night was so dark as totally to deprive us of the view of the approach of Venice. The barge anch.o.r.ed near the Post office and I hired a gondola to convey me to the inn called _Le Regina d'Ungheria_.

VENICE, 26th May.

I was much struck, as everyone must be who sees it for the first time, at the singular appearance of Venice. An immense city in the midst of the Ocean, five miles distant from any land; ca.n.a.ls instead of streets; gondolas in lieu of carriages and horses! Yet it must not be inferred from this that you are necessarily obliged to use a gondola in order to visit the various parts of the city; for its structure is as follows. It is built in compartments on piles on various mud banks, always covered indeed by water, but very shallow and separated from each other (the mud banks I mean) by deep water. On each of these compartments are built rows of houses, each row giving front to a ca.n.a.l. The s.p.a.ce between the backs of the rows of houses forms a narrow street or alley paved with flag stones, very like Cranborn Alley for instance; and these compartments are united to each other (at the crossings as we should say) by means of stone bridges; so that there is a series of alleys connected by a series of bridges which form the _tout ensemble_ of this city; and you may thus go on foot thro'

every part of it. To go on horseback would be dangerous and almost impracticable, for each bridge has a flight of steps for ascent and descent. All this forms such a perfect labyrinth from the multiplicity and similarity of the alleys and bridges, that it is impossible for any stranger to find his way without a guide. I lost my way regularly every time that I went from my inn to the _Piazza di San Marco_, which forms the general rendezvous of the promenaders and is the fas.h.i.+onable lounge of Venice; and every time I was obliged to hire a boy to reconduct me to my inn. On this account, in order to avoid this perplexity and the expence of hiring a gondola every time I wished to go to the _Piazza di San Marco_ I removed to another inn, close to it, called _L'Osteria della Luna_, which stands on the banks of the _Ca.n.a.le grande_ and is not twenty yards from the _Piazza_.

I then hired a gondola for four days successively and visited every ca.n.a.l and every part of the city. Almost every family of respectability keeps a gondola, which is anch.o.r.ed at the steps of the front door of the house.

After the _Piazza di San Marco_, of which I shall speak presently, the finest buildings and Palaces of the n.o.bility are on the banks of the _Ca.n.a.le grande_, which, from its winding in the shape of an S, has all the appearance of a river. The _Rialto_ is the only bridge which connects the opposite banks of the _Ca.n.a.le grande_; but there are four hundred smaller bridges in Venice to connect the other ca.n.a.ls.

The _Rialto_, the resort of the money changers and Jews, is a very singular and picturesque construction, being of one arch, a very bold one. On each side of this bridge is a range of jewellers' shops. A narrow Quai runs along the banks of the _Ca.n.a.le grande_.

I have visited several of the _Palazzi_, particularly those of the families Morosini, Cornaro, Pisani, Grimani, which are very rich in marbles of _vert_ and _jaune antique_; but they are now nearly stripped of all their furniture, uninhabited by their owners, or let to individuals, mostly shopkeepers; for since the extinction of the Venetian Republic almost all the n.o.bility have retired to their estates on the _terra firma_, or to their villas on the banks of the Brenta; so that Venice is now inhabited chiefly by merchants, shopkeepers, chiefly jewellers and silk mercers, seafaring people, the const.i.tuted authorities, and the garrison of the place.

Tho' Venice has fallen very much into decay, since the subversion of the Republic, as might naturally be expected, and still more so since it has been under the Austrian domination, yet it is still a place of great wealth, particularly in jewellery, silks and all articles of dress and luxury. In the _Merceria_ you may see as much wealth displayed as in Cheapside or in the Rue St Honore.

I have had the pleasure of witnessing a superb regatta or water _fete_, given in honour of the visit of the Archduke Rainier to this city, in his quality of Viceroy of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom. There were about one hundred and fifty barges, each fitted up by some department of trade and commerce, with allegorical devices and statues richly ornamented, emblematical of the trade or professions to which the barge belonged. Each barge bore an appropriate ensign, and the dresses of the crew were all tasteful, and thoroughly a.n.a.logous to the profession they represented.

These barges are richly gilded, and from the variety of the costumes and streamers, I thought it one of the most beautiful sights I ever beheld.

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