Year: 1859

so much the more striking you don't suspect it.
Coming from the Chiese which you pass at Ponte di
San Marco, the gentle slopes OF the hills grad
uay nearer and nearer looking like the last spurs
OF the Alps which you see towering in the distance
ou so little suspect what awaits you that your first
question is how far you have to go to see the
Iake which you know is not many miles Distant
Y Oh are told to go to the castle hill on which
you see the ruins of an ancient keen such as
are al IN almost every one of the Lombard
towns You make your way through a
LUMBER t OF little ruined gateways and mount over
the successive lines of circumpavpatons until Won
come to the top, and you have before Won a nsno-
rama sueh as you rarely see. You see in the fore
GROUND before you semicircle of hills gently de-
scendlng toward the lake. You would almost i'm
aglne 1t an amphitheatTe for giants made nv re
ture for great naval combat to be fought on the
lake. The illusion is so much the greater as the
terraces, which were made for the purposes of cul
tivation, represent perfectly the steps. And be
yond this ampbitheatre stretches out the blue lake
until it loses itself between the high mountains.
which, beginning from Salo, descend in true
Alpine style to the edge of the water leaving
scarce room for the little villages which nestle at
at their feet. To your right YOU see the peninsula
OF Sermione running out into the lake, and its
churches and spires contrasting with the blue wa
ter. Further on you look over the lower range OF
nils to Pesehiera, where you can see with a good
glass, the Austrans busy throwing up new works,
While to your right you can follow the whole range
down to Castiglione And all over this space of
miles and miles are scattered houses, villages,
steeples, forts IN ruins, and camps of the allied
troops.


It would take pages to describe this panorama,
and yet the description would never come up to the
reality. If you want to form an idea off should
recommend you to go and look at Turner's Italy,
the picture with the two stone pines Only
Imagine in the middle of the picture the blue
lake. Even the two pines are there, only not
quite In the foreground, but in the neighbor-
hood of the lake. 1t is, in one word, the poe
try OF an Italian landscape which YOU must
Imagine, and instead of the allegorical figures in
Turner's pictures, you must substitute Bersaglieri
and Piedmontese soldiers in their gray coats /
never knew what Turner was until looked from
the Castle OF LOnato on Lake Garda.


But even for those in the allied armies who don't
take much interest in the picturesque, the hills
about here have great interest, for they are Just
as important as military positions as they are pic
turesque. One cannot enough wonder that the
AuStrans could resist the temptation to hold them
AT Tomato they made some preparations, cut down
the trees on both sides of the road threw up earth
works In the beginning of the village, but left the
position sooner than that of MontechiarO.


told you few days ago that some guns were
sent to Saio when Garibadi was still there to an
swer the fire of the steamers. The answer was sat
lsfaetory, for three days ago one was hit and foun
dered, on which the others moved of. 1t was all
one could do to prevent the volunteers from get
ting INTO boats and trying to take the others.


To-day the general headquarters are to be trans
terred to Montechiaro.