This and the following drawing (FT326) show not Lake Como, as Towne’s inscription indicates, but the small Lago di Mezzola to its north. Presumably this sketch, like FT326, was drawn on the morning of 28 August after Towne had set out north from Domaso to Chiavenna, a few miles away. Both Burnet and Coxe named the lake after Chiavenna, and according to Coxe, “Most of the maps of the lake of Como are erroneous, in representing that lake and the Larghetto di Chiavenna as one great piece of water, and the Adda as flowing into the former; whereas the two lakes are distinct bodies.”¹ As Coxe inserted this clarification into the 1789 edition, it would not have been available to Towne in 1781; perhaps therefore he relied for this inscription on one of the inaccurate maps to which Coxe alluded. At any rate among Towne’s possessions at his death was a map of “Swisserland” and one of Italy. 

The high peak in the distance is Sasso Manduino flanked to the right by Monte Frasnedo. To the left, Towne has used part of Monte Avedée to enclose the view, although in fact it stands somewhat left of the view.

The mount line, which is thin and shaky, and the hatchings on mountains are signs of much later work.