Milton is said to have visited, and from which he is supposed to have painted some of the scenic imaof Paradise Lost. Ariosto alludes to it thus:

gery

Vallombrosa

Cosi fu nominato una badia
Ricca e bella, non men religiosa;

E cortesa a chiunque vi venia.*

Though the day was remarkably fine, yet as there prevailed at the time we were there an haziness around the distant scenery, we did not ascend the summit of the mountain, nor mount the lesser cliff where is a smaller monastery, distinguished as the Paradisino, from the enchanting landscape it commands. My praise of the scenery must therefore be confined to the ride which leads to the convent, and to the romantic views immediately around it.

It is environed by an amphitheatre of hills, and groves of lofty firs: seclusion, and romantic solitude, form its chief characteristics: with which impression on the mind, I transcribe an effusion, dictated on the spot, by a train of pensive thoughts.

Written at Vallombrosa, 1821.

In these lone shades, where solitude e'er reigns;
Far from the world, and all its sick'ning pains,
Here let me muse, and hush'd be every strife,
Remote from man, and vain, delusive life:

• Vallombrosa, an abbey thus named, equally wealthy, pic and courteous also to every visitor.

turesque,

and pious;

266

Pensive Thoughts.

Mid scenes which, erst, the classic muse did sing
And Milton soaring with sublimer wing.

Here may the heart, when sadd'ning thoughts inspire,
Flee from mock mirth, and into self retire;
Friendship betray'd may here some solace find
To heal the wound still rankling in the mind.
Here too may some fond youth of generous mould,
Whose heart responded to the tale he told,
Whose idol mistress to adore was pleasure,
His heart's chief life, and soul's best treasure,
Find a fit place to mourn his hapless lot,
And sigh o'er love profaned and vows forgot.
Some one unfit to feel, just fit to feign,

A mimic love, to give another pain.

Whose fashion-phrase, or mode, or dress more spruce,
Or dashing vice, may offer some excuse

To show the bitter slight, or cold disdain,

Or words of scorn to love that pleads in vain;

To sink the soul, oppress it more and more,
And bleed the fainting heart at every pore.

Or here, perchance, may flee some maiden true,
Firm of resolve to bid the world adieu ;
Of him she fondly loved, by fate bereft,
No hope, no joy, or peace, to her is left;
To memory's woes she gives the live-long day,
Weeps o'er the past, and sighs her soul away.
Or here may pine some yet more hapless maid
Honour abused, and virgin faith betray'd:
Retirement best suits with wounded pride,

And woe that springs from shame who would not hide?
Like some fair vase of alabaster hue,

Of purest form, and exquisite to view,

If once defaced, deform'd, by hands profane,

Or lustre lost by some foul, tainted, flame,
The beauteous object, late the general pride,
To pity, scorn, neglect, is thrown aside.

But to proceed regularly. This Abbey was founded about the eleventh century by a noble of

Milton at Vallombrosa.

267

Florence, Giovanni Gualberti, of whom and of his flight from the devil, there remains on record, this curious legend. Being at prayers in the forest, he was attacked by Satan, who pursued him hotly to the brink of a precipice, down which he meant to hurl him. The Saint, on the verge of destruction, touched, or leant against, a rock close by the adamant yielded to the pressure, and admitted his whole body; the devil, in his haste, shot past the rock, and down the gulph, while the Saint got out, and walked home!

But few remains now of this once peopled monastery. From the Padre Forestiero, or Rev. Monk, commissioned to receive strangers, we experienced every kind hospitality, though our visit extended but to two or three hours, and did not afford time to inspect their museum of natural history, nor any other memorable object except the church, which contains a portrait of an English Benedictine Monk of this convent, and who in the last century became famous for his recovery of the art of Scagliola: Father Hugford.

The verses of Milton allusive to Vallombrosa are these:

So on he fares, and to the border comes
Of Eden, where delicious Paradise,

Now nearer, crowns with her enclosure green
As with a rural mound, the champaign head
Of a steep wilderness, whose hairy sides
With thicket overgrown, grotesque and wild
Access denied; and over head up grew

.

268

Vallombrosa.

Insuperable height of loftiest shade,

A sylvan scene: and as the ranks ascend
Shade above shade, a woody theatre

Of stateliest view.

And again the poet in his first book of Paradise

Lost, says―

Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks

In Vallombrosa where the Etrurian shades

High o'er arch'd embower.

Mozzi Palace.

269

CHAPTER XVI.

MOZZI PALACE BENVENUTI'S PICTURE-POGGI

PALACE

MICHAEL ANGELO'S ADONIS-BOBOLI GARDENS-THE GRAND DUKE AT THE PLAY-COUNTESS OF ALBANY AND ALFIERI -FLORENCE SCULPTURE—BARTOLINI, AND CHARGES UPON SENDING TWO VASES TO ENGLAND-DEPARTURE FOR ROME -SIENNA THE CATHEDRAL-ANTIQUE MOSAIC-POPESGRECIAN GRACES-BATHS OF ST. PETER AT LA SCALA

SULPHUR CAVES-NATURAL CAMEOS, &c.—RADICOFANI— ANCIENT VOLSCIUM-BOLSENA AND BASALT COLUMNS—— BACCANO-ROME-SKETCH OF THE JOURNEY, AND EX

PENSES.

AT the Mozzi Palazzo at Florence is a very fine painting by Benvenuti, who is President of the Royal Academy of Arts. The subject is that of the Saxons swearing allegiance to Bonaparte after the fatal battle of Jena. The scene is torch-light, with an imperfect view of the city. Napoleon, whose portrait here is asserted to be one of the most accurate known, and I can easily credit it, standing in a firm attitude, and with a most impressive aspect, receives the last promises of the Duke of Brunswick, upheld by his attendants, and o'er whose war-worn, and venerable face, already death begins to shadow his ghostly pall. The troops around their commander extend, generally, their arms while taking the oath of fealty, and near to Napoleon are introduced his brother Jerome, with Murat, St. Cyr, Berthier and others.