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enabling him to use his moulds, stamps, and the various mechanical contrivances which confine all our decorative arts within such common place limits. In all our architectural drawings and engravings, we find a vigorous artist-like style, which is reflected 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 this is illus trated, for example, in our engravings from Etruscan vases 1 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. A,'Great Fall. B, Neptune’s Grotto. C, Fall. D.Fall. E, Grotto of Sirens, ; F, 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 was 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 finally executed by the present Grand Duke in the year 1830, 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 was the supply that the whole sur rounding country was overflowed the first year, but this has been re medied. The air it is said has been improved; but when I visited Castiglione in 1832,1 found that all wffio 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 galloped 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 have travelled many miles over turf, or by small mule tracks, both on the coast and in the moun tains. Towns are almost universally built on eminences; 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 w hich has been lately made from Naples to Castellamare, but am well acquainted with the line; a novel question in engineering must arise in considering how it is to be protected from the lava of Vesuvius. This 1 believe will not be very difficult, but it has a more in sidious enemy in the earthquake, and a more overwhelming one in the showers of scori.e and ashes which accompany an eruption. Railways may be useful in Italy to promote her commercial prosperity, but I pity the man who could think of travelling in such a manner through any part of that country.