12 PROSERPINA. 



be obtained ; and it is little more than a history of 

 efforts and plans, — but of both, I believe, made in 

 right methods. 



One part of the book, however, will, I think, be 

 found of permanent value. Mr. Burgess has en- 

 graved on wood, in reduced size, with consummate 

 skill, some of the excellent old drawings in the 

 Flora Danica, and has interpreted, and facsimile'd, 

 some of his own and my drawings from nature, with 

 a vigour and precision unsurpassed in woodcut illus- 

 tration, which render these outlines the best exercises 

 in black and white I have yet been able to prepare 

 for my drawing pupils. The larger engravings by 

 Mr. Allen may also be used with advantage as copies 

 for drawings with pen or sepia. 



ROME, 10th May [my father's birthday). 



I found the loveliest blue asphodel I ever saw in 

 my life, yesterday, in the fields beyond Monte Mario, 

 — a spire two feet high, of more than two hundred 

 stars, the stalks of them all deep blue, as well as 

 the flowers. Heaven send all honest people the 

 gathering of the like, in Elysian fields, some day ! 



