Patrick Brydone on the villa Palagonia  

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Patrick Brydone on the Villa Palagonia, from A Tour Through Sicily and Malta: In a Series of Letters to William Beckford, Esq. of Somerly in Suffolk

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Palermo, June 28th

THERE are two fmall countries, one to the eaft, the other to the weft of this city, where the principal nobility have their country palaces. Both thefe we have vifited; there are many noble houfes in each of them. That to the eaft is called La Bagaria, that to the weft II Colle. We are this inftant returned from La Bagaria, and I haften to give you an account of the ridi- culous things we have feen, though perhaps you will not thank me for it.

The palace of the Prince of Valguanera is, I think, by much the fineft and moft beau- tiful of all the houfes of the Bagaria ; but it is far from being the moft extraordinary : were I to defcribe it, I fhould only tell you of things you have often feen and heard of in other countries, fo I fliall only fpeak of one, which, for its fingularity, certainly is not to be paralleled on the face of the

earth ; it belongs to the prince of P- ,

a man of immenfe fortune, who has de- voted his whole life to the ftudy of mon- fters and chimeras, greater and more ridi- culous than ever entered into the imagi- nation of the wildeft writers of romance or knight-errantry.

The amazing crowd of ftatues that fur- round his houfe, appear at a diftance like a little army drawn up for its defence ; but when you get amongft them, and every one affumes his true likenefs, you imagine you have got into the regions of delufion and enchantment ; for of all that immenfe group, there is not one made to reprefent any objecl: in nature ; nor is the abfur- dity of the wretched imagination that cre- ated them lefs aftonifliing than its wonder- ful fertility. It would require a volume to defcribe the whole, and a fad volume indeed it would make. He has put the heads of men to the bodies of every fort of animal, and the heads of every other ani- mal to the bodies of men. Sometimes he makes a compound of five or fix animals that have no fort of refemblance in nature. He puts the head of a lion to the neck of a goofe, the body of a lizard, the legs of a goat, the tail of a fox. On the back of this monfter, he puts another, if poffible ftill more hideous, with five or fix heads, and a bum, of horns, that beats the bead in the Revelations all to nothing. There is no kind of horn in the world that he has not collected ; and his pleafure is to fee them all flourishing upon the fame head. This is a ftrange fpecies of madnefs ; and it is truly unaccountable that he ha^s not been fhut up many years ago; but he is perfectly innocent, and troubles nobody by the indulgence of his phrenzy ; on the contrary, he gives bread to a number of fta- tuaries and other workmen, whom he re- Wards in proportion as they can bring their imaginations to coincide with his own ; or* in other words, according to the hideouf- nefs of the monfters they produce. It would be idle and tirefome to be particular in an account of thefe abfurdities. The ftatues that adorn, or rather deform the great avenue, and furround the court of the palace, amount already to 600, notwith- ftanding which, it may be truly faid, that he has not broke the fecond commandment ; for of all that number, there is not the likenefs of any thing in heaven above, in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth. The old ornaments which were put up by his father, who was a fenfible man, appear to have been in a good tafte. They have all been knocked to pieces, and laid together in a heap, to make room for this new creation.

The infide of this inchanted caftle corre- iponds exadly with the out ; it is in every irefpecT: as whimfical and fantaftical, and you cannot turn yourfelf to any fide, where you are not flared in the face by fome hide* ous figure or other. Some of the apart- ments are fpacious and magnificent, with high arched roofs 5 which inftead of plaifter or ftucco, are compofed entirely of large mirrors, nicely joined together. The ef- fect that thefe produce (as each of them make a fmall angle with the other) is ex- actly that of a multiplying glafs ; fo that when three or four people are walking be- low, there is always the appearance of three or four hundred walking above.. The whole of the doors are likewife covered over with fmall pieces of mirror, cut into the moft ridiculous fhapes, and intermixed with a great variety of cryftal and glafs of different colours. All the chimney- pieces, windows, and fide-boards are crowd- ed with pyramids and pillars of tea-pots, caudle- cups, bowls, cups, faucers, &c. ftrongly cemented together ; fome of thefe columns are not without their beauty : one of them has a large china chamber-pot for its bafe, and a circle of pretty little flower-pots for its capital ; the fhaft of the column, upwards of four feet long, is compofed entirely of tea-pots of different fizes, diminifhed gradually from the bafe to the capital. The profufion of china that has been employed in forming thefe columns is incredible ; I dare fay there is not lefs than forty pillars and pyramids formed in this ftrange fantafttc manner.

Moil of the rooms are paved with fine marble tables of different colours, that look like fo many tomb-ftones. Some of thefe are richly wrought with lapis lazuli, por- phyry, and other valuable ftones ; their fine polifh is now gone, and they only appear like common marble ; the place of thefe beautiful tables he has fupplied by a new fet of his own invention, fome of which are not without their merit. Thefe are made of the fineft tortoife-fhell mixed with mother of pearl, ivory, and a variety of metals ; and are mounted on fine ftands of folid brafs,

The windows of this inchanted caflle are compofed of a variety of glafs of every different colour, mixed without any fort of order or regularity. Blue, red, green, yellow, purple, violet. So that at each window, you may have the heavens and earth of whatever colour you chufe, only by looking through the pane that pleafes you.

The houfe-clock is cafed in the body of a ftatue ; the eyes of the figure move with the pendulum, turning up their white and black alternately, and make a hideous ap- pearance.

His bed-chamber and drefling-room art like two apartments in Noah's ark ; there is fcarce a bead, however vile, that he has not placed there ; toads, frogs, ferpents, lizards, fcorpions, all cut out in marble, of their refpecUve colours. There are a good many bufts too, that are not lefs fin- gularly imagined. Some of thefe make a very handfome profile on one fide ; turn to the other, and you hare a fkeleton ; here you fee a nurfe with a child in her arms ; its back is exadly that of an infant ; its face is that of a wrinkled old woman of ninety.

For fome minutes one can laugh at thefe follies, but indignation and con- tempt foon get the better of your mirth, and the laugh is turned into a fneer. I own I was foon tired of them ; though fome things are fo ftrangely fancied, that it may well excufe a little mirth, even from the moft rigid cynic.

The family ftatues are charming ; they have been done from fome old pictures, and make a mod venerable appearance ; he has drefled them out from head to foot, in new and elegant fuits of marble ; and in- deed ihe effect it produces is more ridiculous than any thing you can conceive. Their flioes are all of black marble, their ftock- ings generally of red ; their clothes are of different colours, blue, green, and varie- gated, with a rich lace of gialf antique. The periwigs of the men and head-drefles of the ladies are of fine white ; fo are their fliirts, with long flowing ruffles of alabafter. The walls of the houfe are covered with fome fine baffo relievos of white marble, in a good tafte ; thefe he could not well take out-, or alter, fo he has only added immenfe frames to them. Each frame is compofed of four large marble tables.

The author and owner of this fmgular collection is a poor miferable lean figure,

fhivering at a breeze, and feems to be afraid of every body he fpeaks to ; but (what furprifed me) I have heard him talk fpecioufly enough on feveral occafions. He is one of the richeft fubjedts in the ifland, and it is thought he has not laid out lefs than 20,000 pounds in the creation of this world of monilers and chimeras. He certainly might have fallen upon fome way to prove himfelf a fool at a cheaper rate. However it gives bread to a number of poor people, to. whom he is an excellent mailer. His houfe at Palermo is a good deal in the fame flyle ; his carriages are covered with plates of brafs, fo that I really believe fome of them are mirfket proof.

The government have had ferious thoughts of demolifhing the regiment of monfters he has placed round his houfe, but as he is humane and inoffenfive, and as this would certainly break his heart, they have as yet forborne. However, the feeing of them

by women with child is faid to have been already attended with very unfortunate cir- cumftances ; feveral living monfters having been brought forth in the neighbourhood. The ladies complain that they dare no longer take an airing in the Bagaria ; that fome hideous form always haunts their imagination for fome time after : their hufbands too, it is faid, are as little fatisfied with the great variety of horns. Adieu. I fhall write you again by next poft, as matter multiplies fail upon me in this metropolis.

Ever yours.





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