which the Velino runs, and in which there
is very good trout fishing), where the Queen of England once
lived for a month. At the different points of view are little
cabins (which would be very picturesque if they were less rudely
constructed) for the accommodation of artists and other
travellers. This gentleman has got a house which he reserves for
the use of artists, of which there are always several on the spot
during the summer. They pay nothing for the accommodation, but
each is obliged to leave a drawing when he goes away; and by this
means he has got an interesting collection, of the scenery of
Terni. Nothing can be more accurate, as well as beautiful, than
Byron's description of the cascade, and it is wonderful in his
magnificent poetry, how he has kept his imagination within the
bounds of truth, and neither added a circumstance nor lavished an
epithet to which it is not entitled.

Horribly beautiful! but on the verge
From side to side, beneath the glittering morn,
An Iris sits amidst the infernal surge,
Like Hope upon a death-bed, and, unworn
Its steady dyes, while all around is torn
By the distracted waters, bears serene
Its brilliant hues with all their beams unshorn:
Resembling, 'mid the torture of the scene,
Love watching Madness with unalterable mien.

The rainbows are very various, seen from different points: from
the middle, where the river rushes from the vortex of the great
fall to plunge into another, the stream appears to be painted
with a broad layer of divers colours, never broken or mixed till
they are tossed up in the cloud of spray, and mingled with it in
a thousand variegated sparkles. Above, an iris bestrides the
moist green hill which rises by the side of the fall; and, as the
spray is whirled up in greater or less abundance, it perpetually
and rapidly changes its colours, now disappearing altogether, and
now beaming with the utmost vividness. The man told me that at
night the moon forms a white rainbow on the hill. There is a
delicious but dangerous coolness all about the cascade. All the
scenery about is as beautiful as possible. Just above the great
fall is the Velinus tearing along in the same channel, which was
first made for him by the Roman Consul 2,200 years ago--

Velino cleaves the wave-worn precipice--

and there, the guide told me, some years ago a man threw in a
young and beautifu