tated in a justly
famous English guide-book, though it does not explain how any "female"
could enter the saint, nor whether the female in question belonged to the
human species, or was fish, flesh, or red-herring. I should, however,
incline to believe the latter is meant, as "herring" is a popular synonym
for a loose fish.

The Certosa was designed and built in the old Italian Gothic style by
Andrea Orcagna, it having been founded in the middle of the fourteenth
century by Niccolo Acciajuoli, who was of a great Florentine family, from
whom a portion of the Lung Arno is named. The building is on a
picturesque hill, 400 feet above the union of the brooks called the Ema
and the Greve, the whole forming a charming view of a castled monastery
of the Middle Ages.

There is always, among the few monks who have been allowed to remain, an
English or Irish brother, to act as cicerone to British or American
visitors, and show them the interesting tombs in the crypt or
subterranean church, and the beautiful chapels and celebrated frescoes in
the church. These were painted by Poccetti, and I am told that among
them there is one which commemorates or was suggested by the following
legend, which I leave the reader to verify, not having done so myself,
though I have visited the convent, which institution is, however,
popularly more distinguished--like many other monasteries--as a
distillery of holy cordial than for aught else:

AL CONVENTO DELLA CERTOSA.

"There was in this convent a friar called Il Beato Dyonisio, who was so
holy and such a marvellous doctor of medicine, that he was known as the
Frate Miraculoso or Miraculous Brother.

"And when any of the fraternity fell ill, this good medico would go to
them and say, 'Truly thou hast great need of a powerful remedy, O my
brother, and may it heal and purify thy soul as well as thy body!' {67}
And it always befell that when he had uttered this conjuration that the
patient recovered; and this was specially the case if after it they
confessed their sins with great devoutness.

"Brother Dyonisio tasted no food save bread and water; he slept on the
bare floor of his cell, in which there was no object to be seen save a
scourge with great knots; he never took off his garments, and was always
ready to attend any one taken ill.

"The other brothers of the convent were, however, all jolly monks, being
of the kind who wear the tunic as a tonic to give them a b