A CASTELLO IN LOMBARDy 



ruined towersespecially at sunset, when there gathered a 

 rosy mist over that curious, wild-tossing expanse ! 

 Could we go back now to that unique spot, what a vast 

 amount of aesthetic pleasure should we not draw from it ? 

 But it must be admitted that we were gross-minded enough 

 at the time to allow material discomfort to overcome all 

 other impressions. 



To lodge in a genuine old Lombard Castle, with stone 

 floors and stairs hewn in the immense thickness 

 of the stone / to look out upon one side 

 into the moat, and to see the peasant 

 houses clinging to the massive foundations 

 far below like barnacles to a rock/ to 

 look out on the other side upon the odd 

 rise of sunburnt garden up to the vine- 

 yard and the towers / to imagine one- 

 self back into the very heart of the 

 Middle Ages may be very inspiring, 

 in theory. But mediaeval sensibilities 

 were undoubtedly more blunted than ours. 

 The smell of that moat running with the 

 refuse of the crowded Italian village ! . . . 

 For additional pungency, all the water in 

 the place came from sulphur springs ! The 

 reek of it was in one's nostrils all day from 

 merely washing in it. 



The household was composed of peasant 

 women out of the village. The wife of the 

 barber, the mother of the shoemaker, and others, 

 clattered about the stone passages in their mules 

 a style of foot-gear which leaves the foot free from the 



229 



