which supplies the lake. The nymph was overcome by the death of Numa,
as Ovid tells us: "Other woes, however, did not avail to diminish
Egeria's grief; and, lying down at the very foot of the mountain, she
melted into tears, until the sister of Apollo (Diana), moved to
compassion, made a cool fountain of her body, changed into perennial
waters."
"His wife the town forsook,
And in the woods that clothe Ariccia's vale lies hid."
_Met._ xv. 487.
"There, at the mountain's base, all drowned in tears,
She lay, till chaste Diana on her woe
Compassion took: her altered form became
A limpid fount; her beauteous limbs dissolved,
And in perennial waters melt away."
_Met._ xv. 548.
"O'er their rough bed hoarse-murmuring waters move;
A pure but scanty draught is there supplied;
Egeria's fount, whom all the muses love,
Sage Numa's counsellor, his friend, and bride."
_Fasti_, iii. 273.
After two miles of a picturesque and shady road, crossing four
viaducts, and commanding beautiful views, we arrive at