FLORENCE. 5 I 



them. The thrust is so inconsiderable that they are safe to 

 dance upon on what we should call the third story, and they 

 call the second. If there be any doubt, the matter is men- 

 tioned in the lease, or else the giver of a large ball has set up 

 at his own (inconsiderable) expense under the arch of his 

 dancing room floor a balk of timber which is kept for the 

 purpose. This is an ordinary domestic event and the men 

 who do the work are as skillful as telegraph linemen in this 

 country. 



Let me mention here incidentally that, in the earthquake 

 of 1894 or 95' I forget which, and it does not matter, not a 

 few new buildings in the city were shaken and damaged, but 

 very few old ones. What would you have ? The walls of 

 some of these are six feet thick — solid, stone masonry. One 

 such, on the Sta. Trinita Square — it is now an hotel — has 

 written over the door, 



Per non aver dorniito, 



" For not having slept," or rather, let us say, for having been 

 awake. And the story is that a cargo of wool arriving at 

 Ravenna, a company of merchants set off from Florence on 

 horseback to buy it. They, of course, stopped over night 

 more than once on the way, and at a suitable point one of 

 them, while the others slept, took horse, pushed on to Ravenna 

 and bought the whole cargo himself. He made such a sum 

 of money out of the transaction that he built with it the 

 palace in question, and naively put the record of his sharp 

 practice over the door. 



This is, of course, mere physical force building, but there 

 are feats of skill to be seen, unique and most impressive. The 

 tower of the Palazzo della Signoria — House of Lords, if you 

 choose — usually known as the Palazzo Vecchio. is built to 

 overhang the wall of the main building about a yard — rising 

 to the height of 150 feet or so above this overhang, and pro- 

 ducing an effect which the great Ruskin most aptly designated 

 as "scowling," rather than the usual and commonplace 



