LAKE OF COMO.

Edificare te scribis, bene est: inveni patrocinium. Edificio enim jam ratione quia tecum. Nam hoc quoque non dissimile, quod ad mare tu, ego ad Larium Lacum. Hujus in littore plures villæ meæ, sed duæ ut maxime delectant, ita exercent.

PLIN. EPIST.

I love to sail along the Larian Lake,
Under the shore-though not to visit Pliny,
To catch him musing in his plane-tree walk,
Or fishing, as he might be, from his window.

ROGERS.

THE Lake of Como, the Lacus Larius of the ancients, is upwards of thirty miles long, and between two and three miles broad. It is divided into two branches, one of which leads directly to the town of Como, while the other, called the Lake of Lecco, discharges the Adda, and communicates, by means of that river and its canals, with Milan. The borders of the lake are lofty hills, covered with vines, chestnut, walnut, and almond trees, and enlivened with numerous villages. The temperature is mild, and not only the inhabitants of Milan, but numerous strangers, amongst whom are many English, retreat to the delightful villas with which the lake is surrounded. Like its neighbour the Benacus, the Lacus Larius is subject to tempests, which sometimes render its navigation dangerous. It is, indeed, included by Virgil in the same line with the stormy Benacus.

Tu Lari, maxime, tuque

Fluctibus et fremitu assurgans, Benace, marino.

In consequence of the lake being fed by the melting of the snow on the neighbouring mountains, the water is higher in summer than in winter.

On the eastern side of the lake is situated the Pliniana, a villa belonging to a Milanese nobleman, and supposed to be the site of one of Pliny's beautiful residences on the borders of the Lacus Larius. He has himself described the situation of two. "We are pretty much agreed, likewise, I find, in our situations; and as your buildings are carrying on upon the sea-coast, mine are rising upon the site of the Larian lake. I have several villas upon the borders of this lake, but there are two particularly in which I take most delight, so they give me most employment. They are both situated like those at Baiæ; one of them stands upon a rock, and has a prospect of the lake, the other actually touches it. The first, supported as it were by the lofty buskin, I call my tragic; the other, as resting upon the humble sock, my comic villa. They have each their particular beauties, which recommend themselves to me so much the more, as they are of different kinds. The former commands a wider prospect of the lake; the latter enjoys a nearer view of it. This, by an easy bend, embraces a little bay; the promontory upon which the other stands forms two. Here you have

a straight walk extending itself along the banks of the lake; there a spacious terrace that falls by a gentle descent towards it. The former does not feel the force of the waves, the latter breaks them: from that you see the fishing vessels below; from this you may fish yourself,

and throw your line from your chamber, and almost from your bed, as from a boat. It is the beauties, therefore, these agreeable villas possess that tempt me to add to them those which are wanting."

The resemblance of the Pliniana to either of these descriptions has been questioned by Mr. Eustace. Some writers have supposed that one of the villas which Pliny possessed, in the neighbourhood of Como, occupied this site; but though he had many in the vicinity of the lake, he yet describes only his two favourite retreats, and the situation of the Pliniana corresponds with neither. The one was, it seems, on the very verge of the lake, almost rising out of the waters, and in this respect it resembled the Pliniana; but it would be difficult to find, in the latter, sufficient space among the rocks for the " gestatio quæ spatiosissimo xysto leviter inflectitur.”

The attachment which Pliny felt for his Larian villas, and the longing desire which, amidst the bustle of Rome, he experienced to visit those delightful retreats, are beautifully expressed in one of his letters to Caninius. "How is my friend employed? Is it in the pleasures of study or in those of the field? Or does he unite both, as he well may, on the banks of our favourite Larius? The fish in that noble lake will supply you with sport of that kind, as the surrounding woods will afford you game; while the solemnity of that sequestered scene will, at the same time, dispose your mind to contemplation. Whether you are engaged with some only, or with each of these agreeable amusements, far be it that I should say I envy you, but I must confess I greatly regret that I also cannot partake of them ;-a happiness I long for as earnestly as

a man in a fever for drink to allay his thirst, or for baths and fountains to assuage his heat. But if it be not given me to see a conclusion of these unpleasant occupations, shall I never at least break loose from them? Never, indeed, I much fear; for new affairs are daily rising, while the former still remain unfinished: such an endless train of business is continually pressing upon me and riveting my chains still faster."

In a small court at the back of the villa Pliniana rises the celebrated ebbing and flowing spring, which has been described by both the elder and the younger Pliny. It rises from the rock about twenty feet above the level of the lake, into which, after passing through the under story of the villa, it pours itself. The following description of it, from the Letters of the younger Pliny, is inscribed in Latin and Italian upon the walls of the villa :

There is a spring which rises in a neighbouring mountain, and, running among the rocks, is received into a little banqueting room, from whence, after the force of its current is a little restrained, it falls into the Larian Lake. The nature of this spring is extremely surprising; it ebbs and flows regularly three times a day. The increase and decrease is plainly visible, and very amusing to observe. You sit down by the side of the fountain, and while you are taking a repast, and drinking its water, which is extremely cool, you see it gradually rise and fall. If you place a ring or any thing else at the bottom when it is dry, the stream reaches it by degrees, till it is entirely covered, and then gently retires; and if you wait you may see it thus alternately advance and recede three successive times." The rising and falling of the water is

said to be affected by the direction and force of the wind, and at the present day the fountain presents the same phenomena described by Pliny. Similar springs exist in different parts of England.

On the borders of the Lake of Como is situated the villa occupied by the late Queen, of which the following short description is given by Mr. Cadell, in his Journey through Carniola, Italy, and France: "To see the Lake, we proceed in a boat. Two miles and a half up, and near the water's edge, on the west bank of the Lake, is a villa belonging to the Princess of Wales, bought from General Pino, and now (1818) for sale. The house presents a front of considerable size. The ground attached to the villa is of small extent. A road has been made, at the expense of the Princess, along the side of the Lake, from the village to Como."

Mr. Rogers has celebrated, in his beautiful poem of "Italy," an incident which befel him while sailing over the Lake of Como :

In a strange land,

Such things, however trifling, reach the heart,
And through the heart the head, clearing away
The narrow notions that grow up at home,
And in their place planting good-will to all.
At least I found it so; nor less at eve,

When, bidden as an English traveller
('Twas by a little boat that gave me chase,
With oar and sail, as homeward-bound I crossed
The bay of Trammezine), right readily

I turned my prow and followed, landing soon
Where steps of purest marble met the wave;
Where, through the trellises and corridors,
Soft music came, as from Armida's palace,
Breathing enchantment o'er the woods, the waters;