The following lines on a separate letterpress page by William Wordsworth accompanies the plate On the Grand Canal, Venice:

Once did she hold the gorgeous East in fee
And was the safeguard of the West; the worth
Of Venice did not fall below her birth,
Venice, the eldest child of liberty.

She was a maiden city, bright and free;
No guile seduced, no force could violate;
And when she took unto herself a mate,
She must espouse the everlasting sea.

And what if she had seen those glories fade,
Those titles vanish, and that strength decay, ⎯
Yet shall some tribute of regret be paid
When her long life hath reach’d its final day:
Men are we, and must grieve when even the shade
Of that which once was great has pass’d away.

W. Wordsworth.

This photograph, one of a series of views of Venice, was originally taken in either 1885 or 1886 by Roome.