a charge which has been brought against him, in respect to the passage
in 'Paradise Lost' where this place is mentioned. It is said, that he
has erred in speaking of the trees there being deciduous, whereas they
are, in fact, pines. The fault-finders are themselves mistaken: the
natural woods of the region of Vallombrosa are deciduous and spread to a
great extent; those near the convent are, indeed, mostly pines; but they
are avenues of trees planted within a few steps of each other, and thus
composing large tracts of wood, plots of which are periodically cut
down. The appearance of those narrow avenues, upon steep slopes open to
the sky, on account of the height which the trees attain by being forced
to grow upwards, is often very impressive. My guide, a boy of about
fourteen years old, pointed this out to me in several places.]

310. *_Sonnet at Florence_. [XIX.]

'Under the shadow of a stately pile.'

Upon what evidence the belief rests that this stone was a favourite seat
of Dante, I do not know; but a man would little consult his own interest
as a traveller, if he should busy himself with doubts as to the fact.
The readiness with which traditions of this character are received, and
the fidelity with which they are preserved from generation to
generation, are an evidence of feelings honourable to our nature. I
remember now, during one of my rambles in the course of a college
vacation, I was pleased at being shown at ---- a seat near a kind of
rocky cell at the source of the river ----, on which it was said that
Congreve wrote his _Old Bachelor_. One can scarcely hit on any
performance less in harmony with the scene; but it was a local tribute
paid to intellect by those who had not troubled themselves to estimate
the moral worth of that author's comedies. And why should they? he was a
man distinguished in his day, and the sequestered neighbourhood in which
he often resided was perhaps as proud of him as Florence of her Dante.
It is the same feeling, though proceeding from persons one cannot bring
together in this way without offering some apology to the shade of the
great visionary.

311. *_The Baptist_. [XX.]

It was very hot weather during the week we stayed at Florence; and,
having never been there before, I went through much hard service, and am
not, therefore, _ashamed_ to confess, I fell asleep before this picture,
and sitting with my back towards the Venus de Medicis. Buonaparte, in
answer to on