Yet the Lago Maggiore is far better adapted
for producing and sustaining a pleasurable impression, than that of
Como.
216. The first thing, then, which the architect has to do in hill
country is to bring his employer down from heroics to common sense; to
teach him that, although it might be very well for a man like Pliny,[44]
whose whole spirit and life was wrapt up in that of Nature, to set
himself down under the splash of a cascade 400 feet high, such escapades
are not becoming in English gentlemen; and that it is necessary, for his
own satisfaction, as well as that of others, that he should keep in the
most quiet and least pretending corners of the landscape which he has
chosen.
[Footnote 44: [This passage seems to suggest that the Villa Pliniana on
Como was built by Pliny. It was, however, the work of an antiquarian
nobleman of the Renaissance, and merely named after the great
naturalist, who was born, perhaps, at Como, and mentions an ebbing
spring on this site.]]
217. Having got his employer well under control, he has two points to
consider. First, where he will spoil least; and, secondly, where he will
gain most.
Now he may spoil a landscape in two ways: either by destroying an
association connected with it, or a beauty inherent in it. With the
first barbarism we have nothing to do; for it is one which would not be
permitted on a large scale; and even if it were, could not be
perpetrated by any man of the slightest education.
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