_Flood at Tivoli_, 1826.--I shall conclude with one more example derived from a land of classic recollections, the ancient Tibur, and which, like all the other inundations above alluded to, occurred within the present century. The younger Pliny, it will be remembered, describes a flood on the Anio, which destroyed woods, rocks, and houses, with the most sumptuous villas and works of arts.[278] For four or five centuries consecutively, this "headlong stream," as Horace truly called it, has often remained within its bounds, and then, after so long an interval of rest, has at different periods inundated its banks again, and widened its channel. The last of these catastrophes happened 15th Nov. 1826, after heavy rains, such as produced the floods before alluded to in Scotland. The waters appear also to have been impeded by an artificial dike, by which they were separated into two parts, a short distance above Tivoli. They broke through this dike; and leaving the left trench dry, precipitated themselves, with their whole weight, on the right side. Here they undermined, in the course of a few hours, a high cliff, and widened the river's channel about fifteen paces. On this height stood the church of St. Lucia, and about thirty-six houses of the town of Tivoli, which were all carried away, presenting as they sank into the roaring flood, a terrific scene of destruction to the spectators on the opposite bank. As the foundations were gradually removed, each building, some of them edifices of considerable height, was first traversed with numerous rents, which soon widened into large fissures, until at length the roofs fell in with a crash, and then the walls sunk into the river, and were hurled down the cataract below.[279]