328 MORE POT-POURRI 



JUNE 



What I saw from my window at Arcetri Fireflies Cypresses 

 Youthful memories in the ' Cascine ' Deodar in cloister of San 

 Marco F^te at Santa Margharita Villas Gardens Want of 

 colour in Tuscany at midsummer Slight allusion to picture 

 galleries The cabinet of Cardinal Leopoldo de' Medici June 

 24th in Florence Botanical Garden Silence of birds and 

 summer sounds. 



June 1st. I alluded in May to a book called 'Earth- 

 work out of Tuscany.' The introductory chapter contains 

 the following passage, which comes home to me most 

 strongly as I begin to write a few notes about my visit 

 to Florence : ' Has any city, save perhaps Cairo, been 

 so written out as Florence ? . . . . Florence has often 

 been sketched before putting Browning aside, with his 

 astounding fresco music by Ruskin and George Eliot 

 and Mr. Henry James, to name only masters. But that 

 is no reason why I should not try my prentice hand. 

 Florence alters not at all ; men do. My picture, poor 

 as you like, shall be my own.' I, too, can only in great 

 humility beg you to accept this little account of my June 

 near Florence, ' not as what I would fain offer, but what 

 I am able to present.' 



June %id. The weather is getting finer and warmer, 

 and I am more and more delighted with my large, empty 

 house and with the views all round. A more perfect 

 spot could not be found even here. The actual town I 

 cannot see ; it is hidden by the undulating ground that 

 rises behind San Miniato, ending in the Torre del Gallo, 



