JUNE 341 



other terraces of deep grass and old, old Olive-trees, in 

 whose shade the orchids love to grow and the blue Iris 

 springs up in great sheaves of sword-like leaves. 



. ' There are trees of every sort in the cloistered garden, 

 the turf is rich and long, the flowers are tended with the 

 greatest care, the little sacristy glows red in the sun, an 

 Acanthus climbs against it ; the sacristan's wife comes out 

 bo you plaiting her straw, and brings you a cluster of her 

 Eoses ; you sit on the stone seat, and lean over the parapet 

 and look downward ; birds flit about you ; contadini go 

 along the grass paths underneath and nod to you, smiling ; 

 a delicious mingled loveliness of Olive wood and Ilex 

 foliage and blossoming vineyards shelve beneath you ; you 

 see all Florence gleaming far below there in the sun, and 

 your eyes sweep from the snow that still lies on Vallom- 

 brosa to the blue shadows of the Carrara range. 



* It is calm and golden and happy here at Santa Mar- 

 gharita's, high in the fragrant hill air, with the Guelder 

 Eoses nodding above head, and the voices of the vine- 

 dressers echoing from the leaf -veiled depths below.' 



That is an exact description of the spot ; we went there 

 often, and we, too, hung over the parapet and thought of 

 the tempo passato. I could see the little church tower 

 always from my bedroom window. 



On this beautiful June afternoon we saw the most 

 picturesque and characteristic procession the Host 

 carried from the church to the chapel of a villa about 

 half a mile off. The houses round, year by year, take it 

 in turns to be so honoured. The priests in general were 

 very ugly and common -looking, but the young man who 

 on this occasion carried the Host was superb, like the 

 Giorgione in the Pitti. The lighted candles in the outdoor 

 evening light, the white-robed priests, the long procession 

 of peasants, were most striking. Arriving at the villa, 

 they passed to the chapel under a loggia, the tessellated 



