DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62267#0144
234
CLASSICAL TOUR
Dis.
Non liquid? gregibus fontes, non gramina desunf,
Et quantum longis carpent annenta diebus
Exigua tanturn gelid us ros node reponit.
Georg. iic
It owes this fertility to the many streams that
descend from the bordering- mountains, and fur-
nish a constant supply to the majestic river that
intersects it; Fluviorum Rex Eridanus. But
while the mountains thus water it with fertilizing-
rills, they also send down occasional gales to cool
it in summer, and blasts that sometimes chill its
climate, and give its winter some features of
transalpine severity ; slight indeed, as if merely
to call the attention of the inhabitants to that re-
pository of eternal snow that rises perpetually
before them; but sufficient to check the growth of
such plants as, like the orange, and the almond,
shrink from frost, or pine away under its most miti-
gated aspect. The vine, though common and in-
deed luxuriant, is supposed by many not to prosper
in this climate, because the wines are in general
thin and sour; but this defect must be ascribed,
not solely to the climate, which in warmth and
uniformity far excels that of Champagne or Bur-
gundy, but to the mode of cultivation. To allow
the vine to raise itself into the air, to spread from
branch to branch, and to equal its consort elms
$nd poplars in elevation and luxuriancy, is beau-
CLASSICAL TOUR
Dis.
Non liquid? gregibus fontes, non gramina desunf,
Et quantum longis carpent annenta diebus
Exigua tanturn gelid us ros node reponit.
Georg. iic
It owes this fertility to the many streams that
descend from the bordering- mountains, and fur-
nish a constant supply to the majestic river that
intersects it; Fluviorum Rex Eridanus. But
while the mountains thus water it with fertilizing-
rills, they also send down occasional gales to cool
it in summer, and blasts that sometimes chill its
climate, and give its winter some features of
transalpine severity ; slight indeed, as if merely
to call the attention of the inhabitants to that re-
pository of eternal snow that rises perpetually
before them; but sufficient to check the growth of
such plants as, like the orange, and the almond,
shrink from frost, or pine away under its most miti-
gated aspect. The vine, though common and in-
deed luxuriant, is supposed by many not to prosper
in this climate, because the wines are in general
thin and sour; but this defect must be ascribed,
not solely to the climate, which in warmth and
uniformity far excels that of Champagne or Bur-
gundy, but to the mode of cultivation. To allow
the vine to raise itself into the air, to spread from
branch to branch, and to equal its consort elms
$nd poplars in elevation and luxuriancy, is beau-