THE ROYAL FOREST SCHOOL AT VALLOMBROSA. 183 



Berenger, had been expecting me for two days, and that a posted 

 mule had just been recalled. After hospitably entertaining me at 

 luncheon, which consisted of wine, cheese, and bread, he pro- 

 cured for me a two-wheeled country cart, drawn by two large 

 white bullocks, and passing through the village of Tosi, I soon 

 reached a paved roadway ( Via cruris), which, by a steep ascent of 

 three miles, leads to the ancient monastery, founded in the eleventh 

 century, and rich in poetic associations. 



The road for about a mile passed through straggling groups of 

 old chestnut trees, gnarled, and often hollow, and it afterwards 

 entered a dense and shady pine forest {Abies pectinata, D. C.).* 

 Here a number of men were preparing spars for shipbuilding, to 

 be floated down the Arno. The trees belong to Government, and 

 are sold standing for about forty lires each (or 33s.); the purchaser 

 takes all risk, and bears all the expense. The fine silver fir 

 forests surrounding the old convent, and which ai*e seen below the 

 crest of the Apennines in travelling from Florence to Rome, are 

 an example of successful reproduction of this tree on a large scale, 

 continued for centuries entirely by planting. These forests are 

 now State property, and are attached to the Royal Italian Forest 

 School. The stems are cylindrical, carrying their girth well up, 

 and, being planted centuries ago, these superb and stately firs have 

 a regular and symmetrical magnificence. The flowering plants 

 observed in the wood consisted chiefly of species of viola, campan- 

 xda, anemone, crocus, and hyacinthus. The water of the Vicano, 

 a mountain torrent, is utilised in various ways. A meal mill is 

 situated under the convent, and an agricultural establishment, of 

 considerable extent, formerly belonged to the monastery. The 

 land was well crdtivated, and the monks introduced the potato 

 into Tuscany — it grows well here. 



Classical Allusions. — For centuries the fame of Vallombrosa, as 

 a place of learning, piety, and natural beauty, has been wide- 

 spread, and its charms have been celebrated by three great poets 

 who have visited it — Ariosto, Milton, and Dante. 



" Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks 



In Vallombrosa, where the Etrurian shades 



High over-arched, embower." 



— Paradise Lost, i. 303. 



And again, in describing the approach to "delicious Paradise," 

 Milton sings — 



* The silver fir of Europe, Abete, Abezzo, Italy. 



