Eustace, John Cretwode: A classical tour through Italy An. MDCCCII (Vol. 3): 3. ed., rev. and enl (London: J. Mawman, 1815)

60

CLASSICAL TOUR

Ch. II.

three. The stream is about four feet wide, and
three and a half deep. From a reservoir on the
top of Gazzano, it is precipitated down the de-
clivity to the plain; where collected in a long
strait canal, it loses its rapidity, and assumes the
appearance of an old-fashioned stagnant pool.*
From the hill we descended along· the side of
the aqueduct to the gardens of Caserta, exten-
sive and regular, and if we except a part in the
English style, uninteresting. We then entered
the palace, one of the noblest edifices of the
kind in Europe for magnitude and elevation. It
is a vast quadrangle, near eight hundred feet in

* The arches of the upper row in this aqueduct are the
highest, and those of the under the lowest, an arrangement
contrary to ancient practice, and certainly not pleasing to
the eye; but whether it may be considered as a defect or
not, I will not presume to determine. It is to be regretted
that an edifice of such magnitude and solidity is of brick
with a sort of pumice stone intermingled; it ought to have
been coated with marble in the Roman manner. The dif-
ference which it might have made in the expense could not
have been a matter of importance in a country where marble
is so common. The architect was Vanvitelli, a man of
great, and, as may well be supposed, of merited reputation.
The inscriptions on the middle arch under which the road
goes are long, and as usual, pompous, and therefore mis-
placed. Such a work re-quires no eulogium.