on; the imagination can only
take in and keep together a very few parts of a picture. The pen must
not intrude on the province of the pencil, any more than the pencil must
attempt to perform what cannot in any shape be submitted to the eye,
though fully to the mind.

The great art, perhaps, of local description, is rather a general than a
particular view; the details must be left to the imagination; it is
suggestion rather than description. There is an old Italian sonnet of
this kind which I have often read with delight; and though I may not
communicate the same pleasure to the reader, yet the story of the writer
is most interesting, and the lady (for such she was) has the highest
claim to be ranked, like the lady of Evelyn, among _literary wives_.

_Francesca Turina Bufalini di Citta di Castello_, of noble extraction,
and devoted to literature, had a collection of her poems published in
1628. She frequently interspersed little domestic incidents of her
female friend, her husband, her son, her grandchildren; and in one of
these sonnets she has delineated _her palace of San Giustino_, whose
localities she appears to have enjoyed with intense delight in the
company of "her lord," whom she tenderly associates with the scene.
There is a freshness and simplicity in the description, which will
perhaps convey a clearer notion of the spot than even Pliny could do in
the voluminous description of his _villa_. She tells us what she found
when brought to the house of her husband:--

Ampie salle, ampie loggie, ampio cortile
E stanze ornate con gentil pitture,
Trovai giungendo, e nobili sculture
Di marmo fatte, da scalpel non vile.
Nobil giardin con un perpetuo Aprile
Di varij fior, di frutti, e di verdure,
Ombre soavi, acque a temprar l'arsure
E strade di belta non dissimile;
E non men forte estel, che per fortezza
Ha il ponte, e i fianchi, e lo circonda intorno
Fosso profundo e di real larghezza.
Qui fei col mio Signore dolce soggiorno
Con santo amor, con somma contentezza
Onde ne benedico il mese e il giorno!

Wide halls, wide galleries, and an ample court,
Chambers adorn'd by pictures' soothing charm,
I found together blended; noble sculpture
In marble, polish'd by no chisel vile;
A noble garden, where a lasting April
All-various flowers and fruits and verdure showers;
Soft shades, and waters tempering the hot air;
And undulating paths in equal beauty!