VISIT TO LORD BYRON
Having rejoined our carriage and the great road at Martigny, after ten days of exquisite enjoyment, we crossed the Simplon, and, after visiting the Italian lakes, repaired to Milan. Thence we went to Placentia to visit the double field of battle — of Hannibal against the Romans, and Suwarrow against Macdonald — which lies on the banks of the Trebbia, about three miles from that city. We went to the spot with Livy in our hands, and identified the features described by his graphic pen, particularly the hollow banks overhung with brushwood, unchanged after the lapse of two thousand years.
With some difficulty I made myself master of the movements of the French and Russians on the same ground in recent times ; and it was there that I first recollect figuring to myself the description of a battle on the ground where it actually occurred.
Next morning at Placentia I saw the two bronze statues of the Duke of Parma and another hero ; and I then felt for the first time that much of the effect of sculpture when in the open air consists in its being placed in a small square ; so small as to render the statue a considerable object with reference to the adjoining buildings, and to prevent it from being seen but at the proper distance, so as to have this effect preserved.
Having rejoined our carriage and the great road at Martigny, after ten days of exquisite enjoyment, we crossed the Simplon, and, after visiting the Italian lakes, repaired to Milan. Thence we went to Placentia to visit the double field of battle — of Hannibal against the Romans, and Suwarrow against Macdonald — which lies on the banks of the Trebbia, about three miles from that city. We went to the spot with Livy in our hands, and identified the features described by his graphic pen, particularly the hollow banks overhung with brushwood, unchanged after the lapse of two thousand years.
With some difficulty I made myself master of the movements of the French and Russians on the same ground in recent times ; and it was there that I first recollect figuring to myself the description of a battle on the ground where it actually occurred.
Next morning at Placentia I saw the two bronze statues of the Duke of Parma and another hero ; and I then felt for the first time that much of the effect of sculpture when in the open air consists in its being placed in a small square ; so small as to render the statue a considerable object with reference to the adjoining buildings, and to prevent it from being seen but at the proper distance, so as to have this effect preserved.
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