56 BROWN : 



shored up and repaired arch after arch without obstructing 

 traffic. This was pointed out to me as a remarkable piece of 

 building — to me, who now live within two miles of where 

 the wooden trusses and stone piers of a bridge eighty feet high 

 and a quarter of a mile or so long were taken out and replaced 

 by iron towers and trusses, and never an hour of interruption 

 to traffic — to me, who saw yonder Pennsylvania Railroad 

 station changed from what it was to what it is, and never a 

 train dela3'ed — to me, whose countrymen moved the other 

 day a tunnel, bodily, fifteen feet west by north, half north 

 northerly, because it was cheaper to do so than to take down 

 and rebuild. 



A walk now about the city on the Oltr' Arno, or southern 

 side. I could use up all the time 3'ou have to give me in tell- 

 ing you pleasant things about this somewhat active afternoon 

 walk, but there are other things which I remember just as 

 kindly, and I will only ask you to stop at the Torre del Gallo. 

 So called because of a massive iron rooster which, set up on 

 the tower, serves as a weathercock. He has a bullet hole 

 through him. It is an interesting, old, hill castle, which I 

 long to tell you about, but must not. The view is what I am 

 thinking about. It looks eastward, far up the Arno, Vallom- 

 brosa wa}^ — across the Arno, Fiesole way — westwardly, 

 down the Arno, Prato, Pisa and Leghorn way — and centre- 

 of-the-earthwardly right down upon thick crowded Florence. 

 To see this close stowed town, with the Cathedral and Giotto's 

 Tower, the Palazzo \"ecchio, the Bargello, Old Santa Croce 

 and a score of other monuments, to each of which I owe an 

 apology for not mentioning it here — to see all this melt away 

 like widening water circles into thick strewn villas, and so 

 into mere dim distance, is a picture which will last me, as 

 Hamlet says, " while memory holds her seat in this distracted 

 globe." 



But the poet has set it all out long and long ago : — 



A vcder pien di lante ville i colli, 

 Par cli' il lerren ve le geniiogli come 



