340 MORE POT-POURRI 



women. The garden was peaceful to a degree, shimmer- 

 ing in the golden-veiled summer sunshine. Never did I 

 see such lovely Lavender; it was as different from our 

 Northern plant as could be. The flowering part was just 

 double as long, and one mass of gray-blue flowers, which 

 gave a general effect in the garden as of blue haze. One 

 side of the cloister had been thrown down by the earth- 

 quake of three years ago. They were beginning to repair 

 it with the usual Italian patient fidelity in restoration. 



No one who goes to the Certosa should fail to take 

 special notice of the remarkable pietra tombale so 

 different from our dull interpretation of the ' tombstone ' 

 of Cardinal Lionardo Buonafede. I am told it is often 

 missed. This recumbent statue is as fresh and well 

 preserved as the day it was made, which is very rare with 

 any of these peculiar effigies. The figure of the old 

 Cardinal lies on the tessellated marble floor. His head is 

 propped by costly pillows, and he wears his jewelled 

 mitre. His stockinged feet and simply crossed hands, 

 with the long straight draperies of his robe, are a most 

 perfect example of the realistic sculpture of the Middle 

 Ages as true as waxwork, with none of its vulgarity so 

 different from the degeneracy of modern Italian art. I 

 wish I knew why it has been a Christian custom to clothe 

 the feet of the dead ; they are especially beautiful. If all 

 else is changed, they remain the same. 



June 9th. This being the Festival of Corpus Christi, 

 we went in the afternoon to the little church close by of 

 Santa Margharita. Ouida describes, much better than I 

 can do, 'the little, brown, square church with its bell 

 clanging in the open tower high above in the sweet air 

 on the hills ; there is level grass all about it ; and it has a 

 cool, green garden, shut within walls on every side except 

 where a long parapet of red dusky tiles leaves open the 

 view of the Valdarno ; underneath the parapet there are 



