in ancient times, was the grotto of Egeria; still existing, though in a state of ruin'. When this grotto was first made by Numa, it was formed with such skill, as to appear totally untouched by art: in the reign of one of the emperors, however, it entirely lost its simplicity; and, being adorned with marble and other splendid ornaments, it acquired a magnificence totally foreign to its original character. This provoked the satire of the indignant Juvenal. It is now said to have returned to its primitive simplicity; being adorned with moss, violets, sweet-briars, honeysuckles, and hawthorns.

The grotto, which Pope formed at Twickenham, was one of the most celebrated ever erected in this kingdom. In the first instance, it was remarkable for its elegant simplicity as the owner, however, advanced in years, it became more and more indebted to the refinements of art: but the recollection of its having amused the last years of that illustrious poet atones to the heart of the philanthropist, for what it loses to the eye of imagination and taste. The inscription, he wrote for this fountain, seems to have been conceived from the following laconic fragment :

Nymphae. loci. bibe. lava. tace.

Gaffarel, librarian to Cardinal Richlieu, wrote a history

1 In Villa Justiniana, extat ingens lapis quadratus solidus in quo sculpta hæc duo Ovidii carmina sunt:

Ægeria est quæ præbet aquas dea grata Camænis

Illa Numæ conjunx conciliumque fuit.

Qui lapis videtur ex eodem Egeriæ fonte, aut ejus vicinia isthuc comportatus.-MONTFAUCON. The Latian peasantry believed that Egeria was so afflicted at Numa's death, that she melted into a fountain of tears.

VOL. I.

E

of all the vaults, mines, caves, catacombs, and grottos, which he had visited during his travels of thirty years: the principal grottos of which were that of Pausilippo; that of the serpents near Civita Vecchia; the Witches Grotto near the Ganges; those in the Highlands of Scotland; on the banks of the Onon and Yenisei in Siberia; the bone caves in Egypt; the yellow cave in the valley of Alcantara; that of Pilate among the Alps; as well as those of Bruder Bahn, and of Glaris: those of the Carpathian mountains, and the dragon's cave in the Landgravate of Hesse Darmstadt; and the immense caverns at Alcantara, near the city of Lisbon.

In natural grottos it is, that we may occasionally find the most beautiful specimens of spars; while artificial ones are not unfrequently decorated with shells, worthy the residence of Doris and the Nereids. In that of may be seen the feather, white with brilliant stains of carnation; the hebraica, white, with spots as black as jet; the cloth of silver, and the cloth of gold.

The first race of men are said to have been born, and to have resided in caves and grottos. These were the dwellings of the Cimmerians; to whom Homer and Herodotus so frequently allude.

Mary, the Virgin, too, is traditionally said to have suckled the Christian Messiah in a grotto; and leaving

1 For a description of the cave of the Nemean Lion; of Pan in the Acropolis of Athens; on the plain of Marathon, and on mount Rapsana; vide Dodwell's Travels in Greece, vol. i. 304, 5, 550; vol. ii. 213. For those of the Western Highlands of Scotland; vid. Maccullough's Descript. vol. i. 517; vol. ii. 225, 494, 321.

3

2 Strabo, v. p. 374.

Odyss. ix. v. 86.

* Lib. vii. c. 5; ii. c. 10.

some drops of milk upon the ground, the grotto has ever since been supposed to have the valuable faculty of restoring milk to mothers. And here we may observe en passant, that in Russia' there is a cave so large as to contain several subterranean lakes and meadows; and that the Mammoth cave of Indiana is from six to nine miles in length, and abounds in sulphate of magnesia, of a very superior kind. The grotto of Antiparos, one of the Cyclades, however, is the most celebrated, on account of its remarkable petrifactions: the island, in which it is situate, being a rock of marble, sixteen miles in circumference.

CHAPTER IV.

FROM rivers, fountains, and grottos, let us turn to lakes. Those of England and Switzerland present so many features of beauty and grandeur, that an idea of something, peculiarly worthy of admiration, presents itself, when we hear them mentioned, even in the most casual manner. What enthusiastic emotions did the lakes of Switzerland generate in Rousseau! And while some of the most agreeable hours of united labour and pleasure were indulged by Gibbon on the banks of the Leman, the lake of Zurich charmed many an hour of sorrow from the bosoms of Haller, Zimmermann, and Lavater.

For my own part, I am ready to confess, that some of the happiest moments of my life have been those, which

1 Gmelin.

I have, at intervals, passed upon the banks of rivers, and on the bosom of lakes ;-when their waters

Have glowed beneath the purple tinge

Of western cloud.

MICHAEL BRUCE.

And never will Colonna wish to forget those hours of rapture, when, reclining in a boat, he has permitted it to glide, at the will of the current, on the picturesque expanse of Bala Lake, in the county of Merioneth: or when wandering along the banks of those waters, that glide at the feet or stud the sides of the mountains, which rear themselves around the magnificent peaks of Snowdon: lakes more than equal in sublimity to those of Larus, Lucerne, and Pergusa.

II.

How often have I heard you, my Lelius, descant with rapture on the lakes of Cumberland and Westmoreland; on those of Loch-Lomond, Loch-Leven, and Killarney; and the still more noble and magnificent ones of Switzerland. With what delighted attention have I listened to your descriptions of the lakes of Thun, Zurich, and Neufchatel, Brientz, Bienne and Constance: and how has my imagination kept pace with you, in your journey, as you have wandered in memory among those enchanting regions:-regions abounding in scenes, which Warton might have pictured, as the native residence of poetic fancy.

Sulzer, born at Winterthun, in the canton of Zurich, animated by the example of Gessner, the naturalist, lived to produce two works, of which his country is

justly proud: "An History of the Fine Arts; and Moral Contemplations on the Works of Nature." Charmed with the splendour of the material world, he lived innocently and contentedly; and at length died in so placid a manner, that his friends, for some time, doubted whether death or sleep had suspended his con

versation.

Gessner, whose countenance bespoke a paradise within, had his genius first called into action by reading the works of the now almost forgotten Brockes, who had selected for himself a species of poetry, which exhibited the various beauties of nature in the minutest details. Warm from the works of that poet, the scenery of Berg acquired new charms, and animated Gessner with new impulses; that town being situated in the most beautiful part of the canton of Zurich. To the memory of this poet, his fellow-citizens have erected a monument, in which Nature and Poesy are represented weeping over his urn, in a romantic valley, watered by the Limmat and the Sihl. This monument is the work of Trippel of Schaffhausen; and the artist dying when still young, the monument may be said to constitute "a monument of himself as well as of Gessner." Gessner's works, however, will perpetuate his memory longer than a monument of Parian marble! And here it may be permitted to pay a willing testimony to the beauty of those lakes, immortalized by the pens of Gessner, Haller, Zimmermann, and Rousseau: and I will not hesitate to call that man senseless, who could behold with indifference the solitary, yet beautiful waters of Greiffen; those of Como, bordered by vineyards, and backed by hills, clothed like a stately amphitheatre, with lime, chestnut,