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. Elis 
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 
