. Brick and marble in the middle ages: notes of tours in the north of Italy . emselves with a game at l)illiards, upon a table provided,I suppose, by the very considerate directors of the railwaycompany. The railway from Yerona to Mantua crosses a countrywhich is thoroughly uninteresting in point of scenery; itcarried us on well into the great plain of Lombardy, rich,teemingly rich, in its produce, but flat, arid, and sultry to adegree. This was altogether one of our hottest days, andtook us fairly into a kind of district in which the heat ismost oppressively felt. On the road we passed Yilla
. Brick and marble in the middle ages: notes of tours in the north of Italy . emselves with a game at l)illiards, upon a table provided,I suppose, by the very considerate directors of the railwaycompany. The railway from Yerona to Mantua crosses a countrywhich is thoroughly uninteresting in point of scenery; itcarried us on well into the great plain of Lombardy, rich,teemingly rich, in its produce, but flat, arid, and sultry to adegree. This was altogether one of our hottest days, andtook us fairly into a kind of district in which the heat ismost oppressively felt. On the road we passed Yilla Franca, a small town whichhas a rather striking castle, with battlemented walls and agood many square towers, still very fairly perfect; the wholebuilt in brick, and with battlements finished square at thetop, and not forked lik(; those at Yerona. We reached the station at Mantua by twelve oclock, but,as this was very far from the city, it was nearly an hourlater before we were fairly landed at one—I forget which—of the abominably dirty and bad inns to which sojourners. Chai. X.] MANTUA. 255 within its walls have to submit with the host grace thatthey call. ]\[antna is nearly surrounded by water ; two large shallowand unwholesome-looking lakes giving it this far frompleasant kind of isolation. Over a long mediaeval bridgebetween these waters the way into the city from the terminuslies. One of the lakes is higher than the other, and accord-ingly twelve mills, each adorned wath a statue of an apostle,are formed upon the bridge, and give it its name of PonteMulina. The general aspect of Mantua is very dreary and un-pleasing, not less forlorn in its appearance than Padua, andpossessing but little attraction for an architect. The chiefarchitectural feature of the city is the Ducal Palace, whichcontains, in the midst of a mass of Kenaissance. work of thepoorest and most unsatisfactory kind, some very good remainsof pointed architecture. The finest portion is a long building of va
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