1837-1838] A Riding Tour in Italy 281 



'15. I beg too you will give my love to dear Caroline 

 Darwin. May she be rewarded for her acceptance of our 

 Joe by being the fondest loved and happiest wife on earth. 



Monday 17. I am a little quieter to-day though just as 

 glad, but I can proceed to other matters, and to begin I 

 will tell you that last week the thermometer here was 90 

 and above. We (not one of us as you know very youthy) 

 had the courage to undertake a riding excursion in the 

 mountains, which answered entirely. . . . Our first sanc- 

 tuary, Vallombrosa, was beyond my expectations beautiful. 

 I give you no description for that's a bore, but the water 

 there was clear and delicious, better than champagne; the 

 dinner most excellent, and the fragrant hay scenting the 

 whole air. ... 



At Camaldoli we were received much in the same way 

 as at Vallombrosa. Our guide said the monks were there 

 more " amorosi," and so indeed we found them. Sismondi 

 found a friend under his white cowl, a Pesciatino, a clever 

 and "enlightened' man. The white monks seemed the 

 aristocracy of the monkish orders, we were struck with 

 the personal beauty of many. They were all fat and 

 blooming; I guess not much given to rigid fasting. At 

 Vallombrosa they were in black, at La Verna in ragged 

 brown, and dirty and poor looking, as if the servants of the 

 two other orders. These last are supported entirely by 

 begging ; yet about 200 persons are daily fed at the convent. 

 It is rather costly to go from convent to convent, but it is 

 a delightful tour to make, for they are always placed in 

 Italy high and beautifully. 



Charles Darwin to his cousin Elizabeth Wedgwood. 



MONDAY [GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET, 



28 Aug. 1837]. 



MY DEAR ELIZABETH, 



I am very much obliged to you for thinking of so 

 pleasant a party as the Music Meeting would have been to 

 me. It would have been like the never-to-be-forgotten 

 [one] many years ago. But I find I cannot leave London: 



