before the rebellion, the nobles were principally subject to the rapacity of the Grison judges, the people have become more exposed to exactions since the pacification.

As a natural consequence of such a state of things, complaints arose, and availing himself of them, General Bonaparte seized, in the year 1797, on the bailiwicks of the Valteline, Chiavenna, and Bormio, which had been for centuries dependent on the Grisons, and incorporated them with the Cisalpine republic. At the same time, all the property, houses, and lands belonging to citizens of the Grisons, which were situated in those districts, were confiscated to the amount of some millions of florins, and many families were thus ruined. In 1814, the Valteline passed under the dominion of Austria, together with the rest of Lombardy. The Austrian government, after some negotiations, recognised the claims of the Grison citizens who had been robbed of their property by the Cisalpine republic, and in 1823, granted them, or their heirs, an indemnity of 2,109,694 francs.

Sondrio is the capital of the valley, the residence of the governor of the Valteline and of the vicar. The town, partly built in a plain, and partly upon the sides of a rock, is placed in a very romantic situation at the extremity of a narrow valley, and occupies both sides of the Malenco, a furious torrent which frequently overflows its banks. Many of the houses are very ancient; for the arms of the Visconti, formerly the sovereigns of this country, are painted upon their walls; these arms representing an enormous serpent crushing a man between his teeth. The province of the LombardoVenetian kingdom, under the crown of Austria, constituted of the three provinces, the Valteline, Chiavenna, and Bormio, bears the name of Delegazione di Sondrio.

The first chesnut trees are scen immediately below La Serra. The wine of the Valteline has an extensive celebrity. The mulberry-tree is cultivated here for silkworms; and so fertile is the soil, that two harvests of maize and other corn are gathered within the year. The road passes through a number of pleasant little towns and picturesque villages, crossing the Adda repeatedly, and afterwards running along its left bank to Colico, the port of the Valteline. Valteline Proper is the largest and finest part of the whole province; it has a genial climate and a fertile soil. great in summer. All the fruit-trees of Italy thrive there. It has and meadow-land, and its cheese rivals the best made in Lombardy. lower hills along the northern side of the valley are covered with

terraces.

The heat is very excellent pastures The slopes of the vines, planted in

The Valteline, from its neighbourhood to Italy, has imbibed a taste for the fine arts, and there are many collections of pictures which are not unworthy of notice. This country, however, has produced few artists of any eminence. Pietro Ligario is almost the only painter who deserves to be mentioned, and his name is scarcely known beyond the limits of the Valteline.

Ligario was born at Sondrio, in 1686, of the ancient family of Ligario, which took its name from a neighbouring village of that appellation. Having discovered much talent, and a taste for the elegant arts, he was sent when very young to Rome, under the care of Lazaro Baldi, from whom he learnt that exactness of design which characterises the Roman school. From thence he repaired to Venice, where he passed some time in studying that exquisite colouring for which the Venetian masters are so admirable and distinguished. He made himself first known at Milan, where he met with some encouragement; and in 1727 he returned to the Valteline. He found, however, but little employment, until he was honoured with the patronage of Count Desalis, envoy from Great Britain to the republic of the Grisons. As he rose in reputation his business increased; but being always very poor, he was frequently compelled to finish his productions with such haste, as rendered it impossible to give all of them that perfection which he was capable of bestowing. Hence arises that inequality which is so remarkable

in his paintings. There is scarcely a church in the Valteline which does not possess one of his pictures: his most celebrated pieces are the martyrdom of St. Gregory, in one of the churches at Sondrio, and St. Benedict, in a chapel of a nunnery near the town. These were his latest performances; and as, contrary to his usual custom, they were finished with great labour and exactness, may be considered as the test from which we ought to estimate his abilities as a painter. The figures are well grouped, the principal

A few days

after he had painted St. Benedict, he was seized with a violent fever, and expired in 1752, in the 67th year of his age. Ligario is described by the connoisseurs as a painter who united correctness of design to beauty of colouring. He is remarkable for grouping his figures to the best advantage, and his heads are drawn with a noble simplicity. It

VALLEY OF BOLZEN.

has, however, been objected that his figures often resemble statues; and the folds of his drapery fall with too much precision, like the wet drapery in the sculpture of the ancients. The character of his faces is chiefly Grecian; but it is remarked that they are too similar to each other, and look like the portraits of persons who are of the same family.

Beside painting, Ligario was skilled in music, mechanics, and agriculture, and has left behind him specimens of no ordinary acquaintance with each of these arts. He made, for his own amusement, an organ of very large dimensions, and constructed a clock with a cylindrical pendulum, remarkable for the accuracy of its movements. He was so much addicted to the study of agriculture, that he wrote instructions to his family on the cheapest and best method of cultivation. He endeavoured to infuse into his son and

VALSUGANA, NEAR TRENT.

daughter, Cæsar and Victoria, a fondness for the polite arts. They both followed their father's profession; but although not without some degree of merit, they failed of equalling his reputation. Victoria was chiefly distinguished for her skill in vocal and instrumental

music.

In leaving the Valteline, it should be stated that Coxe has given us an account of his ascent of the Muret; and we introduce it, lest the reader should overlook the neighbouring eminences. He says:

"I quitted Sondrio, and went up the valley of Malenco, yielding vines, chesnut trees, rye, oats, and pasturage. As I ascended, the sides of the mountains were clothed with birch and firs, and their summits produced nothing but a scanty herbage. The inhabitants of the valley appear healthier, better clothed, and more industrious, than the other peasants of the Valteline. In consequence of their distance from the seat of government, or of being in general too poor to excite the rapaciousness of the Grison governors, they are, perhaps, less oppressed, and for the most part possess a small portion of land. The valley is narrow, and watered by a torrent which forms a continual cataract. The road is a footpath, by the side of a precipice, and carried over huge fragments of rocks. I passed the night in a solitary hut at the bottom of the Muret; the next morning mounted a rugged ascent in the channel of a small stream; observed nothing but bare rocks, without the least appearance of vegetation; came to the top of the Muret, and passed over a large mass of snow and ice.

"In these Alpine situations the traveller sees, within the space of a few hours, nature in all her shapes. In the Valteline she is rich and fertile; here she is barren and stupendous. These regions are so dreary and desolate, that if it were not for an occasional traveller, the flights of a few strange birds, the goats browsing on the rugged Alps, and the shepherds who tend them, nature would appear quite inanimate. In these elevated spots, while I was

Placed above the storm's career,'

I noticed the pleasing effects produced by the vapours and mists floating in mid air beneath me-circumstances finely felt and described by the author of "The Minstrel :”—

And oft the craggy cliff he loved to climb,
When all in mist the world below was lost :
What dreadful pleasure there to stand sublime,
Like shipwrecked mariner on desert coast,

And view the enormous sea of vapour, tost

In billows lengthening to the horizon round,

Now scooped in gulfs, with mountains now embossed!'

"From the top of the Muret I descended about three hours a craggy, desolate, and uninhabited country; and noticed the gradual increase of vegetation as I approached the road leading to Chiavenna, a little above Casazza. This passage over the Muret, which serves for the transportation of wine and other merchandise from the Valteline to the Grisons, is only open about five months in the year."

CHAPTER XXXVII.

THE CITY OF TRENT-ROVEREDO-THE COUNCIL OF TRENT.

THE city of Trent is situated in the Austrian province of Tyrol, and was once an independent bishopric of the German empire. It was secularised in 1803, though the bishop is still denominated a prince, and enjoys a revenue of about £4,000 a year. It lies in a deep and romantic valley, through which flows the Adige, in its course from the Alps to the Gulf of Venice, and not far from where it debouches on the beautiful plains of Lombardy. The river is navigable up to the city, where it is spanned by a plain wooden bridge, about three hundred and fifty feet long. The streets are narrow, gloomy, and dirty, and have nothing to recommend them to the traveller. The bishop's palace is antique, but has an unsightly appearance: it is adorned, however, with very fine gardens. The cathedral is a remarkable building, and though deficient of any regular style of architecture, is highly carved and ornamented. The chief attraction of the city is the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, which is built entirely of red marble. Here it was the Roman Catholic council assembled; and here is still found a very fine picture, in a high state of preservation, containing the portraits of the most distinguished members of that ecclesiastical conclave.

A considerable commerce is carried on in Trent. From its navigable connexion with the Adriatic, from its central position, and from its command of several of the Alpine passes, its merchants might soon rise to eminence, and its people to wealth; but their efforts to extend their trade, and to supply the regions around with the comforts of other nations, are checked by the policy of the Austrian government. There are, however, some considerable silk manufactories in good operation in the city; and the ladies of Europe, in using the best silk thread, little think that the greatest part of it is the production of Trent. But this article, being small in bulk, finds its way through the Austrian douaniers; and from thence, by many channels, into every corner of Europe.

Roveredo, taken by storm by the Archduke Sigismund, in sight of the whole Venetian army-on which occasion bombs were used for the first time-is situated in the middle of the pleasant Lazarina valley, which is planted with vines and mulberry-trees, on the river Leno, which flows through the town, and at a short distance from the left bank of the Adige, over which there is a stone bridge. The town, though not large, has many handsome houses, chiefly built of marble. The Corso Nuovo, especially, is adorned with fine edifices. The castle, surrounded with high walls, is also worthy of notice. The town is the seat of several courts of justice, and has a gymnasium, three monasteries, an English convent with a school for girls, a public library, and some charitable institutions. The inhabitants manufacture silk, leather, and tobacco, and have a considerable trade in silk and twist.

Ascending from Roveredo, the valley and city of Trent present an enchanting appearThe country around is rich and beautiful. Lofty hills, covered with vineyards

ance.