. Plain-towns of Italy : the cities of old Venetia. bitationssave one or two buildings on the bank. Fusina washidden behind the woods on the right. The steamercame alongside a quay; we debarked through a verymodern shed, and found the electric train of two hand-some new coaches waiting on the other side. I blessedmy fortune that the old, rickety, smoky steam-tram,of whose discomforts I had heard, had gone the way ofthe past. In another minute we were rolling rapidlyup the valley of the Brenta, with the stream on ourleft, and a flat, wooded countryside to right. What a difference this from the

. Plain-towns of Italy : the cities of old Venetia. bitationssave one or two buildings on the bank. Fusina washidden behind the woods on the right. The steamercame alongside a quay; we debarked through a verymodern shed, and found the electric train of two hand-some new coaches waiting on the other side. I blessedmy fortune that the old, rickety, smoky steam-tram,of whose discomforts I had heard, had gone the way ofthe past. In another minute we were rolling rapidlyup the valley of the Brenta, with the stream on ourleft, and a flat, wooded countryside to right. What a difference this from the

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. Plain-towns of Italy : the cities of old Venetia. bitationssave one or two buildings on the bank. Fusina washidden behind the woods on the right. The steamercame alongside a quay; we debarked through a verymodern shed, and found the electric train of two hand-some new coaches waiting on the other side. I blessedmy fortune that the old, rickety, smoky steam-tram,of whose discomforts I had heard, had gone the way ofthe past. In another minute we were rolling rapidlyup the valley of the Brenta, with the stream on ourleft, and a flat, wooded countryside to right. What a difference this from the old-fashionedmethod of ascending the river, which the Venetiansfollowed for twelve hundred years, before electricityor rails were thought of! Evelyn spoke of it inhistrip of 1645: We changed our barge and were thendrawne by horses thro the river Brenta, a straitchanell as even as a line for 20 miles, the country onboth sides deliciously adorned with country villas andgentlemens retirements. ^ And Lady Morgan wrote ^ John Evelyn, Diary and Letters.. THE BRENTA 9 of her trip of 1819: It is a delightful thing to rollalong the banks of the Brenta — on a fine, bright,sunny, holiday morning! — The canal lying througha laughing, lovely, fertile champagne; — the elegantmarble villas to the left, with their Palladian fagades,their green verandas, and parterres of orange trees,inducing the belief that they are still lorded by theFoscarini and the Bembi of the great and free days ofRepublican Venice! ^ While Byron rhapsodized ofthe journey by eventide: — Gently flowsThe deep-dyed Brenta, where their hues instilThe odoriferous purple of a new-born rose.Which streams upon her stream, and glassed within it glows. Two companions were going with me as far as Padua,destined to accompany me also while there; but whenI should go on to Vicenza and Bassano, it must bealone. It was a pleasure to all three of us to drink inwith our eyes the soft greenery of the grass and trees,after being so