which Mr. Morley has painted from the Via Castellani,
is also always accessible, and from it one has one of those pleasant
views of warm roofs in which Florence abounds.

One of the most attractive of the smaller rooms usually on view is
that one which leads from the lily-room and contains nothing but
maps of the world: the most decorative things conceivable, next to
Chinese paintings. Looking naturally for Sussex on the English map,
I found Winchelsey, Battel, Rye, Lewes, Sorham, Aronde, and Cicestra.

From the map-room a little room is gained where the debates in
the Great Council Hall might be secretly overheard by interested
eavesdroppers, but in particular by Cosimo I. A part of the cornice
has holes in it for this purppse, but on regaining the hall itself
I found that the disparity in the pattern was perfectly evident even
to my eye, so that every one in those suspicious days must have been
aware of the listener.

The tower should certainly be ascended--not only for the view
and to be so near the bells and the pillars, but also for historic
associations. After a little way we come to the cell where Cosimo de'
Medici, later to be the Father of his Country, was imprisoned, before
that exile which ended in recall and triumph in 1433. This cell,
although not exactly "a home from home," is possible. What is to be
said of that other, some thousands of steps (as it seems) higher,
where Savonarola was kept for forty days, varied only by intervals
of torture? For Savonarola's cell, which is very near the top, is
nothing but a recess in the wall with a door to it. It cannot be
more than five feet wide and eight feet long, with an open loophole
to the wind. If a man were here for forty days and then pardoned his
life would be worth very little. A bitter eyrie from which to watch
the city one had risked all to reform. What thoughts must have been
his in that trap! What reviews of policy! What illuminations as to
Florentine character!

CHAPTER VIII

The Uffizi I: The Building and the Collectors

The growth of a gallery--Vasari's Passaggio--Cosimo I--Francis
I--Ferdinand I--Ferdinand II--Cosimo III--Anna Maria Ludovica de'
Medici--Pietro-Leopoldo--The statues of the facade--Art, literature,
arms, science, and learning--The omissions--Florentine rapacity--An
antique custom--Window views--The Uffizi drawings--The best picture.

The foreigner should understand at once that any inquiries into the
history of the Uffi