THE SANCTUARIES OF TUSCANY. 373 



mingled sadness with delight. Had her ladyship never wrote any 

 thing but these seemingly careless lines this Eolian-harp melody 

 they would have entitled her to a very high and conspicuous niche 

 in the temple of accomplished women. 



The third poem is on " Laverna;" the prose description of which is 

 really unmetered poetry. " This wild and witch-like rock is broken 

 off as it were by some convulsion of the elements, and cast forth to 

 stand apart from the neighbouring hills, above which it lifts its pillar- 

 like head, and towers majestic. Again " The convent is built on 

 the south side of the summit of the rock, whence a cataract of rocks 

 (if the expression may be allowed) descends several miles into the 

 valley," &c. There is a justness in the expression of " a cataract 

 of rocks," which the inhabitants of a humid climate like ours cannot 

 comprehend. With us the rain and moisture gradually form a soil 

 for moss and lichens in the interstices of stones, which softens the 

 aspect of the most arid precipitation of fragments ; but in the south- 

 ern regions of Europe this is not observable. I never saw this cha- 

 racter expressed so well in any picture as in Murray's recent Illus- 

 trations of the Bible. " Cliffs and mountain-peaks have, in the south, 

 a hardness of outline acting against the clear blue sky, not easily con- 

 ceived by imaginations accustomed to the verdant furry appearance 

 of similar things in the British landscapes." 



The most interesting portion of the legendary notice is the biogra- 

 phical sketch of St. Francis. It is, though exceedingly curious and 

 really poetical, too long to be extracted, and would be greatly injured 

 by any attempt to compress it. Her ladyship mentions, however, 

 one circumstance respecting him which we did not know before, and 

 which, perhaps, accounts for the trials to which he was subject- 

 the saint was a poet ; and some of his hymns, still extant, are beau- 

 tiful compositions. 



The poem entitled " Laverna," is, to my taste, the most interesting 

 of the three. I do not say it is the best, but, having a kind of nar- 

 rative which connects the reflections, seems to possess greater power, 

 though in fact this may not be the case. The following picturesque 

 stanza would attract attention even in " Childe Harold :" 



" Region of storms, like frowning citadels, 

 Whose broken rocks, in giant masses hurl'd, 

 Seem more for warrior meet than monkish cells 

 The shattered fragments of some conquer'd world : 

 Those trees, with roots fantastically cuiTd, 

 Fix their strong hold, braving the light'riing's shock, 

 Stern in unbending age and thunder, whirl'd 

 In. long deep peals against their parent rock, 



While all the elemental strife they proudly mock." 



In this poem, as in the other two, a tasteful but somewhat more 

 fanciful episode is introduced, called " The Haunted One." But your 

 limits admonish me not to quote from it, both because I should do 

 injustice to the composition, and because I have a few general remarks 



