evidently
the work of earthquakes, separating it from the route of travel, that from
a distance it seems impossible that any conveyance save an airship could
ever reach the town.

By either route, through the Umbrian region, by way of Assisi and Perugia,
or by way of Orvieto and Siena, the journey between Rome and Florence is
as beautiful as a dream. The Brownings paused for one night's rest at Lake
Thrasymene, the scenes of the battlefield of Hannibal and Flaminius, with
the town on a height overlooking the lake. "Beautiful scenery, interesting
pictures and tombs," said Mrs. Browning of this journey, "but a fatiguing
experience." She confessed to not feeling as strong as she had the
previous summer, but still they were planning their _villeggiatura_ in
Siena, taking the same villa they had occupied the previous season, where
Penini should keep tryst with the old Abbe, who was to come with the
Storys and with his Latin.

They found Landor well and fairly amenable to the new conditions of his
life. Domiciled with Isa Blagden was Miss Frances Power Cobbe, who was
drawn to Florence that spring largely to meet Theodore Parker, with whom
she had long corresponded. Mr. and Mrs. Lewes (George Eliot) were in
Florence that spring of 1860, the great novelist making her studies for
"Romola." They were the guests of the Thomas Adolphus Trollopes.

Landor, too, came frequently to take tea with Miss Blagden and Miss Cobbe
on their terrace, and discuss art with Browning. Dall' Ongaro and Thomas
Adolphus Trollope were frequently among the little coterie. His visits to
Casa Guidi and his talks with Mrs. Browning were among the most treasured
experiences of Mr. Trollope. "I was conscious, even then," he afterward
wrote in his reminiscences of this lovely Florentine life, "of coming
away from Casa Guidi a better man, with higher views and aims. The effect
was not produced by any talk of the nature of preaching, but simply by the
perception and appreciation of what Elizabeth Browning was: of the purity
of the spiritual atmosphere in which she habitually dwelt."

Miss Hosmer came, too, that spring, as the guest of Miss Blagden, and she
often walked down the hill to breakfast with her friends in Casa Guidi.
Browning, who was fond of an early walk, sometimes went out to meet her,
and on one occasion they had an escapade which "Hatty" related afterward
with great glee. It was on one of these morning encounters that Miss
Hosmer confessed to