Part 4 (1/2)
”To find elo! No dreael with outstretched wings, and there is St Peter's in very truth The sight of it reatly was I overcoht The doreat piazza and colonnade, is perfect; I a, it is too inadequate, and I do so merely because I must do h exteriorly so quiet And all around us other beauties--the yellow Tiber, the old houses, the great fortress-tomb--oh, Mimi, the artist, is not all the enthusiase at the bottom of the piazza and walked up to the basilica on foot The two familiar fountains--so fa up their spray in such nificent abundance, which the wind took and sent in cascade-like for pavement The interior of St Peter's, which impresses different people in such various ways, was a radiant revelation to me We had but a preliminary taste to-day We drove thence to the Piazza del Popolo, and then had an entrancing walk on Monte Pincio We came down by the French Academy, with its row of clipped ilexes, under which you see one of the most exquisite views of silvery Rome, St Peter's in the middle We dipped down by the steps of the Trinita, where the rey steps with all the colours of the rainbow
”_October 29th_--Papa would not let us linger in the Colosseueneral idea of things
Those bits of distance seen through triuaps in ancient walls, how they please! As ere cli the Palatine hill a Black Franciscan came up to us for alms, and in return offered us his snuff-box, out of which Alice and I took a pinch, and ent sneezing over the ruins On to the Capitol, and down thence hoh streets full of priests,tossed about, with poor Papa, by the Dogana from the railway station to the custom-house in the Baths of Diocletian, and from there to the artist co works of art They would not letthem 'modern pictures' on which we must pay duty”
Rome under the Temporal Poas so unlike Rome, capital of Italy, as we see it to-day, that I think it just as well to draw largely from the Diary, which is cra to the old order which can never be seen again I love to recall it all We were in Rome just in time We left it in May and the Italians entered it in Septeht in Rome almost entirely as an artist, the power and vitality of the Church could not but impress me there
”_October 30th_--This has been one of the most perfectly enjoyable days of ht light air which gives one such energy The Vatican! What a place wherein to revel We cli Papal Guards, halberd on shoulder, until we got to the top loggia and went into the picture gallery, I to enchant randest pictures that o there to study And so on frolory to another We turned into St Peter's and there strolled a long ti at the botto the clearness of the sunshi+ne on the city,the _gendar at attention, and, looking back,the red, black, and yelloiss running with operatic effect to seize their halberds, and Cardinal Antonelli ca over reat old-fashi+oned coach, harnessed to those heavy black horses with the trailing scarlet traces, a picturesque incident occurred A girl-faced young priest tre soreat rand kindness, and then the priest fell on one knee, kissed the Cardinal's ring, and got up blushi+ng pink all over his beautiful young face, and passed on, gracefully and modestly, as he had done the rest Then off rattled the carriage, the Zouaves presented arone
”In St Peter's were crowds of priests in different colours, forreat beauty Two Oriental bishops werewith him a sort of Malay for a chaplain in turban and robe Two others had Chinatails in attendance, these two ens of recent torture endured in China, living martyrs out of Florentine frescoes Yonder comes a bearded Oriental withhi ears, coarse mouth, and spectacles over his little eyes; and then a sharp-visaged Jesuit, or a spiritual, wan Franciscan and a burly Ro Italian monk had the face of a saint, all ready made for a fresco I looked at hi up at so it in his own mind On our way home, to crown all, we met the Pope His outrider in cocked hat and feathers ca the narrow street in advance, then a red-and-gold coach, black prancing horses--all shadowy toa view of the Holy Father We got out of the carriage, as in duty bound, and bent the knee like the rest as he passed by I saw his profile well, with that well-known ses and horse inis novel to me in the extreme
”_October 31st_--I went first, with Mamma and Alice, to St Peter's, where I studied types, attitudes and costu, booted and spurred, his sword by his side, and his face shaded with his hand, is indeed striking, and one knows all those have enrolled theher even than for love of any particular country The difference of types aian and Dutch decidedly predo stroll ofit hard to turn back We went up to Sant' Onofrio and then round by the great Farnese Palace The view froe is utterly annihilated here How invigorated I felt, and not a bit tired”
I have never been able to call up enthusiasan in every line Why does Byron lash hi it ”Pride of Rohs over the disappearance of Dodona's ”aged grove and oracle divine” As if any one cares! The view of Ro _the_ view, should have a place here asit one of those richly-coloured days
”_November 3rd_--My birthday, marked by the custo could be more splendid than looked the Capital of the World as it lay beloe reached the top of that co in that direction with the Sabine and Alban Mountains, the furthest all white with snow Buildings, cypresses, pines, forroups to the silver city as they only can do to such perfection in these parts In another direction we could see the Caht horizon like a cal way on the high road across the Cah walls as in the Florentine drives were here to shut out the viehich unfolded theot out of the carriage on the Ca the sweet free breeze and the great sweep of country stretching away to the luminous horizon towards the sun, and to the lilac mountains in the other direction These mountains becaain appeared it was in a richly-coloured light, the Cae chocolate-coloured clouds which were rising heaped up into the sky A superb effect”
Here followand ”property”
seeking for my work, soon to be set up Models there were in plenty, of course, as Ros have changed!
I began with a _ciociara_ spinning with a distaff in the well-known and very irl
Then I painted, at nificat”--Mary's visit to Elizabeth--and on off days my father and I ”did” all the pictures contained in various palaces, the Vatican, and the Villa Borghese, filling pages and pages of notes in the old Diary I felt the value of every day in Roht not to have worked so much in a studio, but I think I divided the time well
I felt I h how often I was te rained Soon, however, the rains of a Roman December set in, and Rome became very wet indeed Our father read us Ro when there were no visitors We had a goodall that was nice in the English and American colonies Dear old Mr Severn, he in whose arms Keats died, often took tea with us (we kept our way of having dinner early and tea in the evening), and there was an antiquarian who took interest in nothing whatever except the old Roer of Servius Tullius” till my head went round
He kept his own on, it see his hand on the bald top of it as he explained to us about that bit of ”agger” which he had discovered, and the herring-bone brick of which it was built Often as I have revisited Rome, I cannot become enthusiastic over the discovery of some old Roman sewer, or bit of hot-water pipe, or horrible stone basin with a hole in the botto off the blood of sacrificial oxen I always long to get back into the sunshi+ne and fresh air froht in a party to whom the antiquarian enthusiasts like to hold forth below the surface of the earth Alice listens, deferential and controlled, while I fidget, supporting myself on my umbrella, with such a face! Here is a little bit of Papal Rome impossible to-day:
”_Nove ra, ca priest preaching to a little crowd in the street before the side door of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, a Re produced by the two lamps held by a priest at either side of the platfore crucifix to which the preacher turned at tiestures of rapture such as only an Italian could use in so natural a way To see hihted from below, in his black habit and hear his impassioned voice!
All the men were bareheaded, and such as passed by took their hats off
Penetrating as the priest's voice was, it was now and then quite drowned by the street noises, especially the rattling of wheels on the rough stones”
The days that follow are filled with ht-seeing Then coreat ecclesiastical event to be ht all the world to Ro of the cuot up by candlelight, as at a quarter past seven ere to drive to St Peter's The dreary raining daas announced, just as it broke, by the heavy cannon of Castel Sant' Angelo, the flash of which was reflected in the blue-grey sky long before the sound reached us, and the cannon on the Aventine echoed those of the Castel How dreary it felt, yet how i about this solemn event On our e overtook scores of priests on foot, trying to walk clear of the puddles in those thin, buckled shoes of theirs Itfor the old ones There were bishops ast them, too poor to afford a cab We have seen thereat blessing the rain brought: it kept hundreds of people fros to death, for it is terrible to conteht have been had the building been craress were both at one end of the church
That thoughtof what, otherwise, would have been a great pageant Solike a lake half way up the floor; so slippery was it that, had the croayed in a panic, it wouldn't have been very nice
”Papa and I insinuated ourselves into the hedge of people kept back by Zouaves and Palatine Guards, as we caot fixed three rows back froet in so far I was jammed between a monk and a short youth of the 'horsey' kind The at I could see into the Council Hall opposite
[Illustration: ROMAN IMPRESSIONS IN 1870
THE LAST OF THE RIDERLESS HORSE-RACES, AND A WET TRUDGE
TO THE VATICAN COUNCIL]
”The passage kept clear for the great procession was very wide On the other side I could see rows of English and Airls and elderly feht to the front, as bold as brass, and didn't they eye the bishops over through their _pince-nez!_ Wetwo hours before the procession entered the church I ought to have mentioned that the sacred dark bronze statue of St Peter was robed in gorgeous golden vest it look like a black Pope, and very life-like froe