MAY 331 



and Walter Pater with ana lightly culled from Symonds, 

 and perchance the questionable support of ponderous 

 references out of Burckhardt.' My journey was short- 

 ened for me by the pleasure I got from reading this 

 book, and it made me feel glad, as I sat in the train, 

 that I was on my way to this Italy of undying interest. 



I had, of course, the usual luggage scare at the 

 Custom House at Modane in the middle of the night. I 

 was idiotic from sleep, and the officials declared my 

 boxes were not in the train. I felt like the French cab- 

 man with a heavy load when a passing friend asked him 

 how he was. ' Pour moi, je suis plough dans la misfere 

 jusqu'au eou.' Just as the train was starting, to my 

 intense relief I spied my boxes, and could once more 

 complacently smile and remember a nice little story I 

 had just been told. An American lady, having lost all 

 her luggage, said : 'Any great trial sent by the 

 Almighty I can bear, but these collateral smacks are too 

 much for anyone to endure.' How true it is ! 



One of the drawbacks of the facility of modern travel 

 is that it enables people who have a short holiday — 

 say, of three weeks — to rush through Italy from place 

 to place. Disappointed with the climate, they imagine 

 sunshine is to be found further on. I heard a young 

 man, who spent his three weeks at Rome, Florence and 

 Venice, say that he had ' done that tour, and that Flor- 

 ence was the vilest climate on the face of God's earth.' 

 Whereas a great deal more pleasure is to be had, and 

 one gains a much more lasting impression, by going 

 straight from home and spending the whole time in 

 one place. 



Everyone warned me so much against the heat I 

 should find in Italy in June. But I began my disap- 

 pointment by finding the Alps all cloud and rain, and, 

 in spite of its being the last days of May, the weather 



