Life on the Lagoons

Life on the Lagoons, which deals with the history and topography of the watery area around the city of Venice, is the first book by the Scottish historian Horatio Brown.

He goes on to describe the human and animal life to be seen in and around the lagoons in his own day,[2] based on his excursions, sometimes with his friend John Addington Symonds, in a sandolo called Fisole, which had orange sails decorated with a fleur-de-lis.

[4] The chapter-headings of the second edition are: The Lagoons : their Nature and their History; The Gondola; The Traghetti; A Gondolier's Bank; Floods in the City; The Casa degli Spiriti; Sant' Elena; Osele; Sails and Sailmaking; A Vision of La Sensa; Processions; San Nicolo del Lido; The Doves of Saint Mark; The Ducal Palace; All Souls; The Madonna della Salute; Home Life; Popular Beliefs; Popular Poetry; A Regatta and its Sequel; and Mi Chiama il Mare.

[6] The British Quarterly Review said of the first edition in 1884: Mr. Brown is another illustration of the fascinating spell wherewith Venice enthrals all who fairly come within her influence.

The fishing boats, the gondolas, the ferries, the churches, the fisheries, the floods, the islands across the lagoon, the pictures, the palaces, the processions and regattas, and saints' days, all have their chapters in this "spirited and happy book", as Stevenson called it.