However, while we are so near, it may be
of some advantage to take a peep at Venice, 'the dream-like city of
a hundred isles:' that expression is a poetical exaggeration, for
Venice is built upon seventy-two small islands. Over the several
canals, are laid nearly five hundred bridges, most of them built of
stone. The Rialto was once considered the largest single-arched
bridge in the world, and is well known to English readers from the
work of our greatest dramatist, Shakspeare,--the 'Merchant of
Venice,' and from 'Venice Preserved,' written by the unhappy poet
Otway, who died of starvation. Although no longer the brilliant and
prosperous city, from whose stories Shakspeare selected such
abundant subjects for his pen, there is yet much to admire and
wonder at. On the great canal, which has a winding course between
the two principal parts of the city, are situated the most
magnificent of the great houses, or palaces as they are termed; some
of them of a beautiful style of architecture, with fronts of Istrian
marble, and containing valuable collections of pictures. The canals
penetrate to every part of the town, so that almost every house has
a communication by a landing-stair, leading directly into the house
by one way, and on to the water by another. The place of coaches is
supplied by gondolas, which are light skiffs with cabins, in which
four or five persons can sit, covered and furnished with a door and
glass windows like a carriage.
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