daintily and seems to be working against time, for an hour-glass is
before him. His bull is also present. Among the many good ceilings of
Venice, this is at once the most sumptuous and most charming.

CHAPTER XIX

THE CANALE DI S. MARCO AND S. GIORGIO MAGGIORE

Busy water--The lantern concerts--Venice and modern
inventions--Fireworks in perfection--S. Giorgio Maggiore--Palladian
architecture--Two Tintorettos--The Life of S. Benedict--Realistic
wood-carving--A Giudecca garden--The Redentore--A bridge of boats--A
regatta--The view from the Giudecca--House-hunting in Venice.

Strictly speaking, the Grand Canal and the Canal of the Guidecca unite
in the lagoon; but the stretch of water between the Molo and S. Giorgio
is called the Canale di San Marco. It is the busiest water of all. Every
little steamer crosses it; motor-boats here are always at full speed;
most of the gondolas which are hired start from here; the great
mercantile boats cross it on their way in and out of harbours; and the
daily invaders from Trieste disembark and embark again in the very
middle. Hence it is always a scene of gay and sparkling movement and
always more like a Guardi than any other spot in Venice.

It is just off the Custom House point, at night, that in the summer the
concert barges are moored, each with its little party of musicians, its
cluster of Venetian lanterns, arranged rather like paper travesties of
the golden balls over S. Mark's domes, and its crowded circle of
gondolas, each like a dark private box for two. Now what more can
honeymooners ask? For it is chiefly for honeymooners that this is done,
since Venetians do not spend money to sit in stationary boats. These
concerts are popular, but they are too self-conscious. Moreover, the
songs are from all countries, even America; whereas purely Venetian, or
at any rate Italian, operatic music should, I think, be given. The stray
snatches of song which one hears at night from the hotel window;
gondoliers trolling out folk choruses; the notes of a distant mandolin,
brought down on the water--these make the true music of Venice.

But just as the motor-launch has invaded the lagoon, so has other
machinery forced its way into this city--peculiarly the one place in the
world which ought to have been meticulously safeguarded against every
mechanical invention. When I was living near S. Sebastiano, on my way
home at night the gondolier used to take me up the Grand Canal as far as