ecessarily destroy the last vestige of Venetian calm. A
second reason is that a small motor-boat makes a bigger wash than a
crowded Grand Canal steamer, and this wash, continually increasing as
the number of boats increases, must weaken and undermine the foundations
of the houses on each side of the canals through which they pass. The
action of water is irresistible. No natural law is sterner than that
which decrees that restless water shall prevail.

Enjoyment of voyages up and down the Grand Canal is immensely increased
by some knowledge of architecture; but that subject is so vast that in
such a _hors d'oeuvre_ to the Venetian banquet as the present book
nothing of value can be said. Let it not be forgotten that Ruskin gave
years of his life to the study. The most I can do is to name the
architects of the most famous of the palaces and draw the reader's
attention to the frequency with which the lovely Ducal gallery pattern
recurs, like a theme in a fugue, until one comes to think the symbol of
the city not the winged lion but a row of Gothic curved and pointed
arches surmounted by circles containing equilateral crosses. The
greatest names in Venetian architecture are Polifilo, who wrote the
_Hypnerotomachia_, the two Bons, Rizzo, Sansovino, the Lombardis,
Scarpagnino, Leopardi, Palladio, Sammicheli, and Longhena.

In the following notes I have tried to mention the place of practically
every rio and every calle so that the identification of the buildings
may be the more simple. The names of the palaces usually given are those
by which the Venetians know them; but many, if not more, have changed
ownership more than once since those names were fixed.

Although for the most part the palaces of the Grand Canal have declined
from their original status as the homes of the nobility and aristocracy
and are now hotels, antiquity stores, offices, and tenements, it not
seldom happens that the modern representative of the great family
retains the top floor for an annual Venetian sojourn, living for the
rest of the year in the country.

I wish it could be made compulsory for the posts before the palaces to
be repainted every year.

And so begins the voyage. The white stone building which forms the thin
end of the wedge dividing the Grand Canal from the Canale della Giudecca
is the Dogana or Customs House, and the cape is called the Punta della
Salute. The figure on the Dogana ball, which from certain points has
almost as much