XIII. Grief quell'd my rage; and silent still we sat, XIV. Two other suns in silent horror past, And saw his sad companions breathe their last; And ling'ring Death with supplications tir'd. The journey from Pisa to Florence I undertook in one of the old crazy carriages which are to be hired in the city, and performed it in a day and a half. The distance is forty-eight English miles. It is scarcely possible for any scenery in nature to be more romantic and luxuriant than that which successively presents itself to the eye in travelling on the banks of the Arno. This beautiful river glides along in a deep valley below the road, and winds itself like a snake between the mountains, whose sides and tops are clothed with trees of various sorts. So perfectly suited are some of the lines in Paradise Lost to illustrate this part of Tuscany, that I cannot forbear quoting them.-- With thicket overgrown, grotesque and wild, Cedar and pine and fir and branching palm, A Sylvan scene; and as the ranks ascend, Of statelicst view." The road in many places is extremely narrow; and on the side next the river, where there is a sharp descent, it is walled in to prevent accidents. On the other side, the mountains rise in many places almost perpendicular, and assume rather a rocky appearance. At EMPOLI the inhabitants carry on several manufactures of pottery, and there is also a very celebrated one for making hats. In other villages they manufacture earthen vases in a variety of shapes, with fanciful and tasty ornaments, which are sold for the decoration of houses and pleasure-grounds. On the banks of the Arno, twelve miles from Florence, stands a royal villa, called L'Imbrogiana, which was formerly used as one of the country residences of the grand-dukes. The house is a plain white stuccoed building, with a square tower at each angle, and desirable only for its situation. The Tuscan ladies afford excellent subjects for the pencil of the portrait-painter, as they are beautiful even to a proverb. In addition to an elegant and graceful figure, their countenances are regular and expressive, and their manners savour of great taste and refinement. From Grecian sculpture have they learnt that style of dress so admirably adapted to display the beautiful forms of nature. By a moderate and judicious application of jewels, they adorn and improve their persons; while their dispositions, soft, affectionate, and familiar, may be truly assimilated to the sweet temperature of the climate they live in. The lower class of Tuscan women have also a fair claim to beauty, though of a more rustic na ture; but their dress is widely different from that which I have just described. They wear coarse woollen gowns, with the thin formal waist, and deck themselves out with ribbons, flowers, and trumpery. An immense round hat, like one of our large pewter dishes, shelters their heads from the heat of the sun; and their feet are inclosed in thick wooden shoes, resembling those they use in France, which make a clattering noise when they walk, but have the good property of never wearing out. Thus, after an agreeable journey, varied with woody hills and fertile plains, through vineyards, groves of olive trees, and productive gardens, you reach with great pleasure and satisfaction the gates of FLORENCE. The entrance into this capital is extremely narrow, and the same may be said of almost all the cities both in France and Italy. As the powers on the Continent have been in all ages more or less liable to wars and disturbances among themselves, this evil was probably first introduced by way of security against their enemies, since it is well known that a numerous army marching into a town through a narrow pass may be most seriously annoyed, if not completely repulsed, by a very small force within its walls, aided by the inhabitants from the windows and roofs of the houses. Florence had formerly many towers, temples, theatres, an amphitheatre (part of which is remaining), a capitol, a forum, with baths and aque ducts; and, like old Rome herself, indulged in public feasts, sports, and warlike games: but these, as well as the greater part of the antiquities of that famous city, have been destroyed either by time or violence. On the page of history the Florentines will ever be recorded, and have an indisputable claim upon the gratitude of all posterity, for their successful struggles in the revival of the arts, after the barbarians who invaded Italy had nearly obliterated every vestige of learning, genius, and philosophy. The city is delightfully situated, like Pisa, on the two banks of the Arno, which is navigable only for small vessels, and over which are four bridges of communication, 150 yards in length or thereabout. That of white marble, designed by Ammanati, is the most celebrated and remarkable for construction. It consists of three arches, in the form of a cycloid, with triangular buttresses against the piers, and has a very singular, and, I might almost add, even magical effect. The span of the middle arch is 100 feet in length, and its rise only twenty feet. The span of the two side-arches is eighty-four feet in length, and their rise only seventeen feet, surmounted by a plain simple battlement. Four fine statues of white marble, representing the seasons of the year, are placed as decorations on the four end-pedestals of the battlements. This bridge was built in the place of the old one, which was washed away in 1557 by a deplorable inundation that did serious mischief to the city, and which the following lines inscribed on the façade G of St. Niccolo's church more. particularly illu strate: "Fluctibus undivagis, Pelago, similisque procellis The streets are rather narrow, paved with broad flagstones in imitation of the old Roman ways; and there is no day of the year in which the inhabitants cannot walk about the city without soiling any thing more than the soles of their shoes; for as fast as the rain falls it runs off the pavement, and leaves a cleanliness behind very agreeable to pedestrians. Many excellent marble groups and statues are seen in the conspicuous parts of the city, and against the fronts of churches, palaces, and public buildings, which will commemorate for ages the genius of Michael Angelo, · Bandinelli, John di Bologna, and other celebrated sculptors of the Italian school. The architecture that prevails here is certainly of a heavy and massive description, exactly suitable with that order which is said to have been the invention of Tuscany. But some of the large edifices are of good proportions in their outline; and their rusticated elevations give them the appearance of great strength and solid grandeur. However objectionable this style may be to persons of delicate taste, we are nevertheless told it was practised by Michael Angelo himself, and that he was not permitted to aim at the lightness and elegance of the Greek architecture, because the |