342 MORE POT-POURRI 



think it is a noble piece of restoration, the new facade 

 at first gave me a shock. It seemed to cheapen Giotto's 

 lovely tower, and made one feel that what had seemed 

 inimitable could be copied. 



My first fortnight at Florence was spent in driving 

 about seeing old gardens, and dropping into dim 

 churches on summer evenings before returning home. 

 My critical feelings were all absolutely dead. I could do 

 nothing but gasp and admire, and with it always the 

 dim memory of somehow having seen it all before, as in 

 a dream. The churches in the fading evening light 

 looked very solemn and very beautiful portals to death, 

 perhaps, rather than windows into heaven. But I do 

 not know that I liked them less for that. I found 

 Florence very little changed in its general aspect, in 

 spite of the many alterations which have been such pain 

 and grief to the English inhabitants. It is almost, if 

 not quite, unspoilable. There are trams and omnibuses 

 and incongruous things, no doubt ; but, oh ! it is won- 

 derfully unchanged from the time-worn stones of its 

 pavements to the black eaves of its roofs against the 

 brilliant sky. 



One need not be in Florence to give one's entire 

 sympathy to the good people there who are trying their 

 utmost to save the beautiful old city from destruction. 

 To destroy old streets to build hotels may defeat its own 

 object, for if Florence becomes less beautiful the demand 

 for hotel rooms may diminish ; though, honestly, I 

 think that, to keep up the influx of strangers, sanitary 

 precautions and a certain content among the people 

 are more necessary still. Five thousand English and 

 other tourists left Florence the week before I arrived, in 

 consequence of a very slight riot which followed on the 

 two days' Socialist outbreak at Milan. The departure of 

 strangers means ruin to the hotel -keepers and poverty 



