It is well known that the wild mountains of Savoy, the rich plains of Lombardy, the verdant pastures of Piedmont, and the pointed Alps of Switzerland, form the limits of Lago Maggiore : where, upon a naked rock, torn I trust from some surrounding hill, or happily thrown up in the middle of the water by a subterranean volcano, the Count Borromæo, in the year 1613, began to carry earth ; and lay out a pretty garden, which from that day has been perpetually improving, till an appearance of eastern grandeur which it now wears, is rendered still more charming by all the studied elegance of art, and the conveniencies of common life. The palace is constructed as if to realise Johnson’s ideas in his Prince of Abyssinia : the garden consists of ten terraces ; the walls of which are completely covered with orange, lemon, and cedrati trees, whose glowing colours and whose fragrant scent are easily discerned at a considerable distance, and the perfume particularly often reaches as far as to the opposite shore
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every thing one sees, and every thing one hears, and every thing one tastes, brings to one’s mind the fortunate islands and the golden age. Walks, woods, and terraces within the island, and a prospect of unequalled variety without make this a kind of fairy habitation, so like something one has seen represented on theatres, that my female companion cried out as we approached the place, “ If we go any nearer now, I am sure it will all vanish into air.”
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We returned to our enchanted palace with music playing by our side : I never saw a party of pleasure carried on so happily. The weather was singularly bright and clear, the moon at full, the French-horns breaking the silence of the night, invited echo to answer them. The nine days (and we enjoyed seventeen or eighteen hours out of every twentyfour) seemed nine minutes. When we came home to our country-house in the Varesotto, verses and sonnets saluted our arrival, and congratulated our wedding-day.
Charles Gore, 1729–1807,
Isola Bella, Lago Maggiore,
ca. 1776,
Watercolor with pen and gray ink over graphite on moderately thick, moderately textured, cream laid paper,
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, B1975.3.165.
Source: https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:7248
Source for Hester Lynch Thrale Piozzi's Travelogue
Observations and reflections made in the course of a journey through France, Italy, and Germany
by Piozzi, Hester Lynch, 1741-1821
Strahan, London 1789
https://archive.org/details/observationsrefl02pioz/page/219/mode/1up?q=Alps
Romantic Landscapes (30)
#IsoleBorromee #IsolaBella #HesterThrale #RomanticLandscapes
Hester Thrale visits Isola Bella on her honeymoon, having married the Italian music teacher, Gabriel Mario Piozzi, recounted in 'Observations & reflections .. of a journey through France, Italy, & Germany', 1789.