DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62267#0079
Ch. III.
THROUGH ITALY.
69
In process of time when the public taste
changed, and strait walks and parterres and ter-
races with their formal accompaniments were
exploded, the Isola Bella forfeited its fame; the
spell was dissolved} the fairy scenes vanished;
and nothing remained but a dull heavy mass, a
heap of deformity. But if it was then too much
panegyrized, it is now perhaps too much despised.
Praise is due to the man who had taste and dis-
cernment enough to select such a spot for his resi-
dence, especially as it was originally a bare and
craggy or rather shapeless rock, and had no re-
commendation, but its site till then unnoticed.
In the next place it would be unjust not to ap-
plaud the nobleman who, instead of wasting his
income in the fashionable amusements of a neigh-
boring capital, devoted it to works which gave
employment to thousands of hands, diffused riches
over a laro’e extent of country, and converted
three barren crags into as many productive and
populous islands. Edifices that give a perma-
nent beauty to a country, that exercise the taste
and the talents of the age in which they are erect-
ed, and become monuments of that taste and of
those talents to posterity, are at least a proof of
public spirit, and deserve our praise and our ac-
knowledgment. To this we may add, that if
pleasant walks at all seasons, and the most deli-
cious fruit in abundance, be objects of importance
THROUGH ITALY.
69
In process of time when the public taste
changed, and strait walks and parterres and ter-
races with their formal accompaniments were
exploded, the Isola Bella forfeited its fame; the
spell was dissolved} the fairy scenes vanished;
and nothing remained but a dull heavy mass, a
heap of deformity. But if it was then too much
panegyrized, it is now perhaps too much despised.
Praise is due to the man who had taste and dis-
cernment enough to select such a spot for his resi-
dence, especially as it was originally a bare and
craggy or rather shapeless rock, and had no re-
commendation, but its site till then unnoticed.
In the next place it would be unjust not to ap-
plaud the nobleman who, instead of wasting his
income in the fashionable amusements of a neigh-
boring capital, devoted it to works which gave
employment to thousands of hands, diffused riches
over a laro’e extent of country, and converted
three barren crags into as many productive and
populous islands. Edifices that give a perma-
nent beauty to a country, that exercise the taste
and the talents of the age in which they are erect-
ed, and become monuments of that taste and of
those talents to posterity, are at least a proof of
public spirit, and deserve our praise and our ac-
knowledgment. To this we may add, that if
pleasant walks at all seasons, and the most deli-
cious fruit in abundance, be objects of importance