U<1 



A VILLINO ON SURREY HILLS 



cupboards, panelled overmantel, and bookshelves. It is no 

 longer anaemic, but polished by our industry to a 

 pleasing depth of amber gloss. 

 So Italy walked into the little white Surrey 

 house almost as soon as the 

 doors were open to us. But 

 it is in the drawing-room that 

 she has mostly established her 

 self. It is so filled with dear 

 Roman things that we can think 

 ourselves back again in that 

 haunt of all joy, when we cross 

 its threshold. It is full of asso- 

 ciations of delightful days, of 

 quaint beings. There is the 

 rococo paravent, gilt and carved 

 in most delicate extravagance, 

 which we bought of the doratore 

 in the Piazza Nicosia. That 

 fire-screen a real Bernini, once 

 the frame of an altar-piece now 

 holds in its strong bold oval a 

 pane of glass where perhaps some 

 wan Madonna shewed her seven-pierced heart. 

 The doratore picked up these things in old 

 villas and disused churches. His booth 

 was indeed a sight to see. Having recently 

 been on a visit to Rome, Loki's "great-aunt" was 

 naturally charged with many commissions in that quarter. 

 Armed with a letter of directions from the Italian scholar 

 of the family, she and a Lancashire maid wandered down 



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