ound it pathetic to
leave the villa, and especially harrowing to their sensibilities to part
with the pig. There is consolation, however, for most mortal sorrows, and
the Brownings found it in their intense interest in Sienese art. The
wonderful pulpit of the Duomo, the work of Niccola Pisano; the font of San
Giovanni; the Sodomas, and the Libreria (the work of Pius III, which he
built when he was Cardinal, and in which, at the end of the aisle, is a
picture of his own elevation to the Papal throne, painted after his death)
fascinated their attention. The Brownings found it dazzling to enter this
interior, all gold and color, with the most resplendent decorative
effects. They followed in the footsteps of Saint Catherine, as do all
pilgrims to Siena, and climbed the hill to the Oratorio di Santa Caterina
in Fontebranda, and read that inscription: "Here she stood and touched
that precious vessel and gift of God, blessed Catherine, who in her
life did so many miracles." They lingered, too, in the Cappella Santa
Caterina in San Domenico, where Catherine habitually prayed, where she
beheld visions and received her mystic revelations. They loitered in the
piazza, watching the stars hang over that aerial tower, "Il Mangia," and
drove to San Gimignano, with its picturesque medieval atmosphere.

[Illustration: CATHEDRAL OF SANTA MARIA DEL FIORE, FLORENCE,
KNOWN AS THE DUOMO.

"_The most to praise and the best to see_
_Was the startling bell-tower Giotto raised._"

Old Pictures in Florence.]

It was in the autumn of 1850 that Tennyson's "In Memoriam," first
privately and then anonymously printed, was acknowledged by the poet. The
Brownings read extracts from it in the _Examiner_, and they were deeply
moved by it. "Oh, there's a poet!" wrote Mrs. Browning. At last, "by a
sort of miracle," they obtained a copy, and Mrs. Browning was carried away
with its exquisite touch, its truth and earnestness. "The book has gone to
my heart and soul," she says, "I think it full of deep pathos and beauty."

An interesting visitor dropped in at Casa Guidi in the person of a
grandson of Goethe; and his mission to Florence, to meet the author of
"Paracelsus" and discuss with him the character of the poem, was a tribute
to its power. Mrs. Browning, whose poetic ideals were so high, writing to
a friend of their guest, rambled on into some allusions to poetic art, and
expressed her opinion that all poets should take care to