e bestowed considerable attention on this style of Garden
Architecture, because it has been much abused by persons of high
authority, and general good taste, who forgot, in their love of grace
and ideal beauty, the connection with surrounding circumstances so
manifest even in its formality. Eustace, we think, is one of these; and,
although it is an error of a kind he is perpetually committing, he is so
far right, that this mannerism is frequently carried into excess even in
its own peculiar domain, then becoming disagreeable, and is always a
dangerous style in inexperienced hands. We think, however, paradoxical
as the opinion may appear, that every one who is a true lover of nature,
and has been bred in her wild school, will be an admirer of this
symmetrical designing, in its place; and will feel, as often as he
contemplates it, that the united effect of the wide and noble steps,
with the pure water dashing over them like heated crystal, the long
shadows of the cypress groves, the golden leaves and glorious light of
blossom of the glancing aloes, the pale statues gleaming along the
heights in their everlasting death in life, their motionless brows
looking down forever on the loveliness in which their beings once dwelt,
marble forms of more than mortal grace lightening along the green
arcades, amidst dark cool grottoes, full of the voice of dashing waters,
and of the breath of myrtle blossoms, with the blue of the deep lake and
the distant precipice mingling at every opening with the eternal snows
glowing in their noontide silence, is one not unworthy of Italy's most
noble remembrances.

II.

THE MOUNTAIN VILLA--LAGO DI COMO (Continued).

113. Having considered the propriety of the approach, it remains for us
to investigate the nature of the feelings excited by the villas of the
Lago di Como in particular, and of Italy in general.

We mentioned that the bases of the mountains bordering the Lake of Como
were chiefly composed of black marble; black, at least, when polished,
and very dark gray in its general effect. This is very finely stratified
in beds varying in thickness from an inch to two or three feet; and
these beds, taken of a medium thickness, form flat slabs, easily broken
into rectangular fragments, which, being excessively compact in their
grain, are admirably adapted for a building material. There is a little
pale limestone[17] among the hills to the south; but this marble, or
primitive limestone (