JUNE 343 



bloom, to strew before the quaint images of the gods 

 Ceres and Bacchus, and the yet more mysterious Dea Dia 

 as they passed through the fields, carried in their little 

 houses on the shoulders of white-clad youths, who were 

 understood to proceed to this office in perfect temperance, 

 as pure in soul and body as the air they breathed in the 

 firm weather of that early summer-time. The clean lustral 

 water and the full incense-box were carried after them.' 



So far the description is exact. The butchery which 

 disgusted Marius, Christianity has swept away ; but every- 

 thing else remains, almost entirely the same. 



All trace of costume amongst the peasants has 

 disappeared even in this Arcetri neighbourhood, the most 

 simple and countrified side of Florence. The people, 

 from the outside, look well-to-do and comfortable, and on 

 festal days the young of both sexes walk about the roads 

 in cheerful happy bands. They never go in couples, as 

 we everlastingly see them on the same occasions in 

 England; but the boys were together, and the girls 

 together. The figures of the women in the long plain 

 skirts and coloured shirts struck me as very graceful and 

 dignified. George Eliot says of Eomola : * Let her muffle 

 herself as she will, everyone wants to see what there is 

 under her veil, for she has that way of walking like a 

 procession.' That is just what one may say of many of 

 these young Tuscan women. She also says : ' There has 

 been no great people without processions, and the man 

 who thinks himself too wise to be moved by them to any- 

 thing but contempt is like the paddle that was proud of 

 standing alone while the river rushed by.' 



All my early time at Florence was spent in driving 

 about, seeing villas, wandering through the poderes, 

 resting and drawing. For the amateur sketcher, what a 

 mental struggle it is ! whether to give the time to drawing, 

 or to see all one can. One day we started at eight, and 



