adonna's feet; but
who knows if she be not fled away with her Servi to Monte Senario?
Certainly those bells were passing glad and very sweet, and they were
ringing, too, the Angelus.

However that may be, a committee, we are told, of which Queen Margherita
is patron here, "renders a programme of sacred music, chiefly Masses
from the ancient masters, admirably executed." It is comforting to our
English notions to know that "The subscribers have the right to a
private seat in the choir, and the best society of Florence is to be met
there."

And then, here are frescoes by Cosimo Rosselli, Andrea del Sarto, under
glass too, a Nativity of Christ by Alessio Baldovinetti, not under
glass, which seems unfair; and what if they be the finest work of
Andrea, since you cannot see them. Within, the church is spoiled and
very ugly. On the left is the shrine of Madonna, carved by Michelozzo,
to the order of Piero de' Medici, decorated with all the spoils of the
Grand Dukes. Ah no, be sure Madonna is fled away!

Passing out of the north transept, you come into the cloisters. Here is,
I think, Andrea's best work, the Madonna del Sacco, and the tomb of a
French knight slain at Campaldino.

Passing out of the SS. Annunziata into S. Maria degli Innocenti, we come
to a beautiful picture by Domenico Ghirlandajo in the great altarpiece,
the Adoration of the Magi, painted in 1488. Though scarcely so lovely as
the Adoration of the Shepherds in the Accademia, perhaps spoiled a
little by over cleaning and restoration, it is one of the most simple
and serene pictures in Florence. The predella to this picture is in the
Ospedale; it represents the Marriage of the Virgin, the Presentation in
the Temple, the Baptism and Entombment of Our Lord. There, too, is a
replica of the Madonna of Lippo Lippi in the Uffizi.

The Ospedale degli Innocenti was founded in 1421 by the Republic, urged
thereto by that Leonardo Bruni who is buried in S. Croce in the tomb by
Rossellino. It appears to have been already open in 1450, and was
apparently under the government of the Guild of Silk, for their arms are
just by the door. It is said to have been the first of its kind in
Europe; originally meant for the reception of illegitimate
children--Leonardo da Vinci, for instance--it is to-day ready to receive
any poor little soul who has come unwanted into the world; it cares for
more than a thousand of such every year.

Passing out of Piazza degli SS. Annunziata thro