CC treme Neceffity. No more to you "at this time, my own Darling, but "that with a Whiftle I wish we were "together one Evening; by the Hand · "of Yours, HENRY. These Letters are always fhown to an Englishman that vifits the Vatican Library. TOWNS TOWNS Within the Neighbourhood of ROM E. Spent Three or Four Days on Tivoli, Frefcati, Paleftrina and Albano. In our way to Tivoli I faw the Rivulet of Solforata, formerly call'd Albula, and smelt the Stench that arifes from its Waters fome time before I faw them. Martial mentions this offenfive Smell in an Epigram of the Fourth Book, as he does the Rivulet it felf in the First. Quod ficca redolet lacus lacunæ, L.4. Ep. 4. The drying Marshes such a Stench con vey, Such the rank Steams of reeking Albula. Itur 2 Itur ad Herculeæ gelidas quà Tiburis ar ces, Canaque fulphureis Albula fumat aquis. As from high Rome to Tivoli you go, The little Lake that gives Rife to this River, with its floating Islands, is one of the most extraordinary natural Curiofities about Rome. It lyes in the very Flat of Campania, and as it is the Drain of thefe Parts, 'tis no Wonder that it is fo impregnated with Sulphur. It has at Bottom fo thick a Sediment of it, that upon throwing in a Stone the Water boils for a confiderable time over the Place which has been ftirr'd up. At the fame time are feen little Flakes of Scurfe rifing up, that are probably the Parts which compofe the Iflands, for they often mount of themselves, tho' the Water is not troubled. I queftion not but this Lake was formerly much larger than it is at present, and that the Banks have grown over it by degrees, in the fame manner as the Inlands have been form'd on it. Nor is it improbable but that, in Process of Time, Time, the whole Surface of it may be crufted over, as the Iflands enlarge themfelves, and the Banks clofe in upon them. All about the Lake, where the Ground is dry, we found it to be hollow by the Trampling of our Horfes Feet. I could not discover the leaft Traces of the Sibyls Temple and Grove, which stood on the Borders of this Lake. Tivoli is feen at a distance lying along the Brow of a Hill. Its Situation has given Horace occafion to call it Tibur Supinum, as Virgil perhaps for the fame Reafon entitles it Superbum. The Villa de Medicis with its Water-Works, the Cascade of the Teverone, and the Ruins of the SibylsTemple (of which Vignola has made a little Copy at Peters de Montorio) are defcribed in every Itinerary. I muft confefs I was most pleased with a beautiful Profpect that none of them have mentioned, which lyes at about a Mile diftance from the Town. It opens on one Side into the Roman Campania, where the Eye lofes it felf on a smooth spacious Plain. On the other Side is a more broken and interrupted Scene, made up of an infinite Variety of Inequalities and Shadowings, that naturally arife from an agreeable Mixture of Hills, Groves and Vallies. But the most enlivening Part of all is the River Teverone, which you fee at about a Quarter of a Mile's diftance throwing it felf down a Precipice, and falling by feveral Cafcades from one Rock to another, 'till it gains the Bottom of the Valley, where the Sight of it would be quite loft, did not it fometimes difcover it felf thro' the Breaks and Openings of the Woods that grow about it. The Roman Painters often work upon this Landskip, and I am apt to believe that Horace had his Eye upon it in thofe Two or Three beautiful Touches which he has given us of thefe Seats, The Teverone was formerly call'd the Anio. Me nec tam patiens Lacedæmon, Nec tam Lariffe percuffit campus opimæ, Quàm domus Albunea refonantis, Et præceps Anio, et Tiburni lacus, et uda Mobilibus pomaria rivis. L.1.0.7. Not fair Lariffa's fruitful Shore, That |