orthern side were fine
plantations of oak, ash, etc., so tall and regular that nothing could
be more beautiful. The vale, which had only that one entrance, was
full of firs, cypress trees, laurels, and pines, all placed in such
order as if it had been done by the direction of some exquisite
artist, and through which little or no sun could penetrate to the
ground, which was covered with a thousand different flowers.... But
what gave no less delight than any of the rest was a rivulet that
came through a valley which divided two of the mountains, and running
through the vein of a rock, made a most agreeable murmur with its
fall, appealing, as it was dashed and sprinkled into drops, like so
much quicksilver.'

Description of scenery for its own sake is scarcely more than
attempted here, nor do Petrarch's lyrics, with their free thought of
passion and overpowering consciousness of the joys and sorrows of
love, reach the level of Hellenism in this respect. Yet it advanced
with the Renaissance. Pope Pius II. (AEneas Sylvius) was the first to
describe actual landscape (Italian), not merely in a few subjective
lines, but with genuine modern enjoyment. He was one of those figures
in the world's history in whom all the intellectual life and feeling
of a time come to a focus.

He had a heart for everything, and an all-round enthusiasm for Nature
unique in his day. Antiquity and Nature were his two passions, and
the most beautiful descriptions of Nature before Rousseau and Goethe
are contained in his _Commentaries_.

Writing of the country round his home, he says:

'The sweet spring time had begun, and round about Siena the smiling
hills were clothed with leaves and flowers, and the crops were rising
in plenty in the fields. Even the pasture land quite close to the
town affords an unspeakably lovely view; gently sloping hills, either
planted with homely trees or vines, or ploughed for corn, look down
on pleasant valleys in which grow crops, or green fields are to be
seen, and brooks are even flowing. There are, too, many plantations,
either natural or artificial, in which the birds sing with wondrous
sweetness. Nor is there a mound on which the citizens have not built
a magnificent estate; they are thus a little way out of the town.
Through this district the Pope walked with joyous head.'

Again and again love of Nature drew him away even in old age from
town life and the circle of courtiers and flatterers; he was for ever
fi