ITALIAN GARDENS OF THE RENAISSANCE 



struggle with failing health and poverty. Here Costa, 

 after his wont, discovered unexpected beauties in the 

 Black Country, a district which he often compared 

 with the Roman Campagna, and found new subjects 

 for his brush in the wooded hollows and sequestered 

 pools of remote country places. Either at this time 

 or during the later visits which he paid to England, 

 he painted pictures of Kensington Palace, Barn- 

 borough Castle, Naworth, and other historic houses, 

 and took new delight in rendering the moist verdure 

 and luxuriant foliage of English gardens, and the 

 rolling clouds and misty effects of our English skies. 



In 1864 Costa was recalled to Rome by new 

 political developments, and did his utmost to awaken 

 a patriotic spirit among his fellow-citizens. His 

 studio of the Via Margutta became the meeting- 

 place of the revolutionary party, and when the forlorn 

 hope of Villa Glori proved a failure, he himself joined 

 Garibaldi and served on the general staff at Mentana. 

 After that disastrous day, Costa, feeling that the 

 gates of Rome were for ever closed to him, returned 

 again to Florence, overwhelmed with sadness at the 

 failure of his hopes and the loss of many of his dearest 

 friends. In the bitterness of his heart he sought 

 consolation in lonely wanderings on the shores of the 

 Tuscan Maremma, and here in these dark hours he 

 painted his noble picture of " Earth's Last Kiss to 

 286 



