which, as related by our guide and indeed as consigned to posterity in an inscription, is as follows-St. John Gualbert, the founder of the abbey, while engaged in his devotions in the depth of the forest, was attacked by the devil, and to avoid his fury was obliged to fly, but being closely pursued by his harpyfooted adversary who, it seems, meant to throw him down the precipice, and was then close to him, he took shelter under a rock, which instantly softened as he pressed it, and admitting his back like a waxen mold, kept him in close embrace till the fiend in his precipitate haste shot down the steep below. The representation of the saint in rude sculpture still remains on the

stone.

The inscription and the tale might perhaps suit the approach to a Capuchin convent, but are totally unworthy of a Benedictin abbey. The glory of the founder is established upon a much more solid foundation than legendary stories; it rests upon the heroic exercise of the first of christian virtues, charity, in the forgiveness of an enemy on a most trying and difficult occasion*.

At supper we had much conversation with the good father about the beautiful scenery we had beheld, and the delightful situation of the abbey. He observed that we saw it to advantage, that in summer, that is, from May to October, it was what we conceived it to be, a most delicious and magnificent retirement; but that during winter, which commences here in October and lasts till May, they were buried in snow, or enve

* See his Life in Butler, June 12, Vol. 6.

2

loped in clouds, and besieged by bears and wolves prowling round the walls, and growling in the forests-Orsi, lupi, e tutti, 2 li peste was his emphatic expression. I know not how such objects may appear to persons doomed to reside here for life; but a visitant is disposed to regard them as so many supernumerary charms, considerably augmenting the characteristic feature, that is, the wild and gloomy magnificence of the place, and deepening that religious awe and veneration which naturally brood over monastic establishments.

The reader will learn with pleasure that the monks of Vallombrosa are not idle solitaries; but, like most of the ancient and many of the modern Benedictin establishments, unite the labours of public instruction with monastic discipline. In fact, Vallombrosa is both an abbey and a college, and in its latter capacity furnishes an excellent seminary for the education of the Florentine youth of rank, many of whom were there at the time of our visit. Their dress is a black gown, with a black collar lined and edged with white; we were present at one of their amusements, which was the Calcio or balloon, a game in great repute both in Italy and France. Their looks and manners seemed to display the advantages both physical and moral of the situation.

Before we take leave of these enchanting wilds, we may observe, that, as they are supposed to have furnished Milton with the original of his Paradise, so, his description of Paradise is considered as the model of modern parks. Others, it is true, choose to go farther for the idea, and pretend that it is borrowed from China. It might scem extraordinary, that a taste so simple and so natural should

have laid dormant for so many ages, if experience did not teach us that simplicity, which is the perfection of art, is always the last quality which it attains. The ancients had no notion of the species of garden I am speaking of, as appears from Pliny's account of his villas, round which we find xystus concisus in plurimas species, distinctusque buxo pulvinus cui bestiarum effigies invicem adversas buxus inscripsit . .. ambulatio pressis varieque tonsis viridibus inclusa*. The moderns, if we may believe Addison, were not ignorant of it even before his time, as the gardens both in France and Italy were at that period laid out, if his description be accurate, in that artificial rudeness which is now the characteristic feature of English park scenery†. In fact, this author himself may justly be considered as the father of good taste in this respect, as the paper to which I have alluded, contains the fundamental principles of ornamental gardening as it is now practised at home, and even on the continent under the appellation of the English style. However, if we must give the credit of the invention to a poet, Tasso is best entitled to it, not only because he furnished Milton with some of the leading features of his description, but because he laid down the very first principle of the art, and comprised it in a very neat line with which he closes one of the most beautiful landscapes in Armida's garden.

CHAP. IX.

EXCURSION TO CAMALDOLI, LAVERNIA, AND

PIETRA MALA.

ON the following day a temporary separation took place. Three of the party proceeded forwards towards Camaldoli, another celebrated solitude, and two were under the necessity of returning to Florence. For the following description therefore, both of Camaldoli, Lavernia, and Pietra Mala, the reader is indebted to one of the author's fellow-travellers.

The road to Camaldoli winds round the mountain that shelters Vallombrosa on the north side, and then descends into a little valley. In the middle of this valley on the very edge of a deep dell stands a sequestered villa, built by one of the Medici, when that family delighted occasionally in the classical pleasures of literary retirement. Though long forsaken and neglected it continued the property of the sovereign till lately, when it was sold to the Abbey of Vallombrosa by the Grand Duke Leopold. From thence we passed into a very beautiful part of the Val

scenery

d'Arno Inferiore, rich in that species of cultivated and lively Superior,
which graces the banks of the Arno. Some of its most
striking features are, the ruined castle of Romene seated on a
knowl that rises encircled with trees in the middle of the plain; fe
behind it, the villages of Poppi and Bibiena; and immediately
below us, the little town of Prato Vecchio, watered by the Arno
and imbosomed in gardens and vineyards. From Prato we
began to ascend a steep hill, and continued to wind amidst
barren rocks for at least six miles. At length we arrived at
Camaldoli about three o'clock.

CAMALDOLI.

The abbey stands on the bank of a torrent that murmurs Hea
through a valley surrounded by mountains towering to a prodi
gious elevation, and covered to the very summit with forests.
On the south side, the valley expands, and the gloom of
forest scenery is softened by an agreeable intermixture of lawn
and down, not altogether unlike the varieties of an English park.
On the north, rises a very steep hill, shaded to the summit with
lofty firs: up this eminence we laboured for a mile and a half,
and then entered the Sagro Eremo, or holy desert. This her-
mitage consists of twenty-seven mansions, each the abode of one
>>> monk, all on the same plan, taken from the original residence

of St. Romuald the founder of the order, which is still pre-
served by the monks, as the thatched cottage of Romulus was
by the Romans, with the greatest veneration. Each of these
mansions consists of a bed-room, a sitting-room, a working-
room, a little oratory, and a garden, all on a very small scale,
and furnished with the utmost plainness and simplicity. They
are surrounded by a wall, forming a general enclosure. The
inhabitants are taken from the abbey, and return thither