A GARDEN IN VENICE 



protects them from the sea. So in the same 

 straight channel, if such there be, you will meet 

 the tide against you making for the exit that is 

 at your back, and after you have crossed the 

 watershed, marked in one place by a tiny chapel, 

 you will take the current with you seeking the 

 exit that lies before you. Nor does the seeming 

 cussedness of the current end here. Owing to the 

 numerous islands and many canals, as one runs 

 across the tide making forthe same mouth, youmay 

 have the tide for and against you many times. In 

 my small run of about three miles to S. Erasmo, I 

 sometimes make this change no less than six times. 

 S. Erasmo is lovely. An old Venetian orchard 

 of vines and peach, cherries, figs, pears, and 

 apples. In spring a dream of white thorn and 

 pink peach blossom, fenced in on two sides by 

 the lagoon over which one looks at ancient 

 Venice, called Torcello ; the fishers' isle, Burano ; 

 and the monastery of San Francesco nel Deserto, 

 lovely with its cypresses and isolation. In the 

 background is the mainland, bounded by the 

 whole range of the snowy Alps. 



127 



