Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1851 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER LXXV. AN EXCURSION TO THE LAKE OF NEMI. During one year of my stay in Rome, the lake of Nemi busied all the learned heads in Europe. Nothing was to be heard of but the magnificent remains of a floating palace, built by Domitian, and the great object was to fish these up. It is true that persons familiar with traditional lore maintained that an unsuccessful attempt of the kind having been made under some ancient Popes, it was a mere chimera to hope for better luck in the present instance. But on the other hand, credible witnesses replied that a French engineer had ascertained, by means of a diving bell, the positive fact of the existence of such ruins, and that beams of cedar, artistically carved, and ornamented with curiously wrought bronze nails, were then lying on the banks as so many irrefragable proofs to this effect; while busy rumours of a company about to be formed, of subscriptions and shares, and a hundred other schemes, were already in active circulation. The ambassadors of the different sovereigns had contributed a sum to forward the works, and, as in duty bound, the enterprising party had raised a platform with seats for their use on the banks of the lake, that they might come and admire at their ease the first fruits of the abundant harvest that was to ensue. The Parisian journals, fired up by the accounts given in the Diario di Roma, greatly magnified them in the repetition; these again were still further exaggerated as they circulated through society, till the imagination of the learned and fashionable world of our metropolis absolutely ran riot in their anticipations of golden statues, agate tables, and emerald goblets. These reports came back to Rome, and, mirabile dictu! far from being dispelled by the rude...
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
