3 i4 MORE POT-POURRI 



I only possess the translation of this treatise published 

 in 1835. Just lately a new * Life and Works ' of Leonardo, 

 by Eugene Muntz, has been published by Heinemann, 

 but it is 42s. net. 



To leave high things for low, Mrs. Jameson touches 

 on the society of the day at Florence and parties at the 

 Countess of Albany's, etc. She gives an amusing story 

 of a travelling young lord who, when presented with the 

 Countess of Albany's card, exclaimed : 



' The Countess of Albany ! Ah ! true I remember ! 

 Wasn't she the widow of Charles the Second who married 

 Ariosto?' There is in this celebrated bevue a glorious 

 confusion of times and persons. 



For those interested in the byways of history a well- 

 known modern author, Vernon Lee, has written a * Life ' of 

 this Countess of Albany. I think it the most interesting 

 of Vernon Lee's books that I have read. It was published 

 in the ' Eminent Women ' series why, I cannot imagine ; 

 for it seems to me as incongruous as Hawthorne's ' Life ' 

 being in the ' English Men of Letters ' or Lady Hamilton's 

 picture having a place in the National Portrait Gallery. 



Vernon Lee's ' Studies of the Eighteenth Century in 

 Italy ' I have not read ; but if they are half as interesting 

 as this ' Life,' I have something to look forward to. The 

 pictures of even a portion of society in Florence drawn in 

 this 'Life' of the Countess of Albany set one wondering 

 how a hundred years can have brought about such changes. 

 Vernon Lee's later works, mostly about Italy, ' Limbo 

 and Other Essays ' and ' Genius Loci,' there seems no 

 need for me to praise ; they have been so recently in the 

 reading public's mind, and so much appreciated. 



It seems to me very clearing to the mind to read 

 French or German criticisms at the same time as English, 

 especially with regard to Italy, as at all times the French, 

 of whom I know most, take such an absolutely different 



