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genius. These were all virtuosi, or pro-
fessors; the rest of the band was made
up of dilettanti.
Saturday 21. It did not seem foreign
to my business in Italy to visit the Pilazzo [sic]
Simonetta, a mile or two from Milan, to
hear the famous echo, about which tra-
vellers have said so much, that I rather
suspected exaggeration. This is not the place
to enter deeply into the doctrine of
reverberation; I shall reserve the attempt
for another work; as to the matter of
fact, this echo is very wonderful. The
Simonetta palace is near no other build-
ing; the country all around is a dead flat,
and no mountains are in sight but those
of Swisserland, which are upwards of
thirty miles off. This palace is now
uninhabited and in ruin, but has been
pretty; the front is open, and supported
by very light double Ionic pillars, but the
echo is only to be heard behind the house,
which, next to the garden has two wings.
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