Chamberss Edinburgh Journal, No. 425

Chambers's Edinburgh Journal,
No. 425

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Title: Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 425 Volume 17, New Series,
February 21, 1852
Author: Various
Editor: Robert Chambers & William Chambers
Release Date: October 23, 2005 [EBook #16924]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH ***

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CHAMBERS' EDINBURGH JOURNAL

CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS,
EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,'
'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c.
No. 425. NEW SERIES. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1852. PRICE
1½d.

VENICE.
At six, on a bright morning, the 1st of September 1851, we left the
quay of Trieste in the steamer for Venice. We were in no particular
mood upon the subject. If anything, we rather feared that the famous
City of the Sea might turn out to have been overpraised. However, we
resolved to be candid.
The morning passed pleasantly enough. We admired the snowy tops of
the Styrian Alps on the right, and the deep green of the Adriatic was
beautiful. We had calculated upon an eight hours' voyage; but it was
scarcely eleven o'clock when the pinnacles and towers of the city began
to appear above the water's edge to the west, taking us a little by
surprise. It was thenceforward an interesting occupation for an hour or
so to watch these objects gradually rising out of the waves. By and by,
a large dome took its place amongst them; then some little domes and
more pinnacles: at length a connected range of city objects lay along
the horizon, and this we knew was VENICE. The steamer by and by
began to wind through some straits or channels of the sea, with
fortifications covering the low banks on both sides. It went on; and
about one o'clock, under a bright sun, we found ourselves in an open
space of sea, opposite the famous series of buildings composed of the
Doge's Palace, the Cathedral of San Marco, the Piazza, &c.--objects
perhaps of their kind the most generally known in Europe.
The first few minutes was a confused mixture of romantic association
and solicitude about a right hotel. Our thoughts slid with prosaic
facility from the lion on the top of the obelisk, so well remembered
from Canaletti's pictures, to the sign of the Leone Bianca--a place of

entertainment not far off, much recommended by Murray. I recalled the
Byronian heroines sailing about in those gondolas, which we saw
skimming away here and there, and wondered whether it would be best
to go to Dameli's or the Emperor of Austria. The first business was to
get a gondola for ourselves and luggage; thus, at the very first reducing
to the character of a mere cab that picturesque species of conveyance--I,
the conductor of the party, wondering all the time how much those two
cowled villains would charge me. Seated there with my two ladies, we
speedily proceeded along the Grand Canal towards the hotel last
mentioned, to try if we could obtain accommodation in it. It was
curious to land from a boat at the steps of a house, and walk from the
sea into the hall. It was dazzling to see the splendour of the building,
with its fine marble vestibule within, and its superb staircases. We did
not find in it, however, exactly the range of rooms we required, and we
after all returned along the canal, and tried the Hôtel de l'Europe, a
similar, but somewhat plainer house, where we got apartments to our
mind.
I was curious at first to study the arrangements of houses and streets in
Venice. Here I found that what had once been the palace of a noble,
presented, first, a ground-floor about three feet above the medium level
of the Adriatic, composed of a broad vestibule crossing through from
front to rear, with the inferior apartments on each side; second, a floor
of good apartments, with an open hall in the centre right over the
vestibule--this hall adorned with pictures; third, a similar good floor,
with another hall in the centre, which had been the banqueting or
dining-room, and was now used as the _salle-a-manger_ of the
hotel--and this salle had balconied windows at one end looking out
upon the canal. There was, I suppose, a fourth floor of inferior rooms,
but there I never had occasion to be. Most of the rooms, looking out at
the sides of the building into