"Ricorderati anche del Mosca,* Che dissi, lasso, capo ha cosa fatta, Numberless works, perused long years ago, are brought back most vividly to memory, as I saunter through the places where the scenes they described were enacted and it seems as if youth and its memories were renewed by the vividness with which the histories that then excited such a thrilling interest are recalled to the mind. 11th. The flowers of Florence are considered among the most beautiful of Italy; and grow so abundantly in the environs, that the rarest, or at least those considered the rarest in our colder clime, may here be purchased for a trifle. This is a luxury to one so fond of these summer visitants as I am; and as I look at the tables and consoles piled with them, I feel that I am indeed in a more Mosca degli Uberti was the person who persuaded the kinsmen of the Amidei family to the assassination of Buondelmonte. "Disse che chi pensava assai cose, non ne conchindeva mai alcuna, dicendo quella trista e nota sentenza, Cosa fatta Capo ha."-Machiavelli. "Questa morte fu la cazione e cominciamento della maladette parti Guelfa e Ghibellina in Firenze.-G. Villani. genial, though always less beloved land than mine own. Dear, dear England, why, with so many blessings, are sunshine and equality of climate denied thee? Why are thy children exposed to such frequent and sudden changes of the atmosphere as to impair, if not destroy health ?-one hour offering us the semblance of summer, and the next chilling with the blast of winter. Well might my friend, John William Warde, write from London, that "the summer had set in with its usual severity." Yet there are people who maintain that ours is by no means a bad climate: but these are doctors and apothecaries who live by it; or wine merchants, whose cellars are emptied in the vain and pernicious effort to counteract its effects. To me it is delightful to sit on an open terrace or balcony enjoying the balmy night air, unshawled and unpelissed, and feel it gently waving my hair, and steeping my brow with its freshness. In England a catarrh or rheumatism would be the inevitable result of such an imprudence; for the dews of night refreshing the earth, though a pretty image for a sonnet, is rather a dangerous ordeal for a delicate constitution.. The nights are delicious at Florence. The moon, reflected as in a mirror, on the placid Arno; the spires and towers that rise at every side silvered with its rays, and the sounds of the guitars continually passing and repassing on the Lung-Arno, give an indescribable charm to them; which appears to be felt alike by all classes, if I may judge by the numbers of persons in the streets. The upper class refresh themselves after the Opera with a drive along the Lung-Arno; and the working class, who have been pent in during the day, stroll forth, with a guitar and a companion or two, to serenade some humble beauty; or for the mere pleasure of hearing their own music in the fresh air of these balmy nights. 12th. The view of Florence from any of the hills that surround it is beautiful. The mixture of the brightest foliage with the most picturesque buildings, and the blue Arno winding through land, rich in the most luxuriant vegetation, now hiding itself behind a vineyard or olive grove, and then becoming revealed as it glides between fields of waving corn or verdant grass, constitutes one of the most lovely features of the scene. The Apennines have a fine effect in the distance; and look as if placed by nature to guard this favoured spot from the assaults of rude blasts, or to imprison the genial heat that renders its soil so luxuriant. There are a number of pretty villas in the immediate vicinity of Florence, embowered by trees and flowering shrubs; and such is the clearness and purity of the atmosphere, that they can be seen at a considerable distance. The Cascine is one of the prettiest drives imaginable, and is well attended in the evenings by neatly appointed equipages, very different to the obsolete leathern conveyances I remarked at Lucca. The Florentines have adopted many of the English improvements in carriages introduced into the city by our popular minister to their court, Lord Burghersh; and the not less popular Lord Normanby, whose elegant hospitalities have made a most favourable impression on them. The Cascine is to Florence what Hyde Park is to London, or the Bois de Boulogne to Paris, the fashionable lounge; where smart equipages and beauties are displayed, acquaintances met, and fine horses, and their riders seen. This difference, however, exists between them: bouquets are sold and giventhe news of the day repeated-and the soirée of the previous one discussed, or the coming one arranged: for at the Cascine the carriages are all drawn up en masse, so that the inmates may talk to, or convey messages to their acquaintance. The gentlemen ride from carriage to carriage dressed à-l'anglaise; and are only to be distinguished from my countrymen by a greater display of politeness than the latter generally exhibit. The hat is held a second longer off the head, and the head is lowered an inch or two more when bowing to a lady than is that of an Englishman; and the countenance wears a profounder air of respectful homage. The less frequented part of the Cascine presents a very agreeable drive. The verdure of the grass, the luxuriance of the foliage, and the abundance of pheasants and hares that run across the green glades to hide themselves in the leafy coverts, make one fancy oneself many miles from a populous city. The Arno winds along one side of this beautiful park, and a delightful walk is formed on its bank. 14th. There are few pleasures more fatiguing |