uch as I am, and thinking about me half as much as I am
about you.

Your very sincere friend,
GILBERT K. CHESTERTON.

No one would have enjoyed more than Gilbert rereading this letter in
after years and noting the suggestion that the fifteenth century
belonged to the early church and preceded the Dark Ages. And I think,
too, that even in Giotto's Tower, he might later have discovered some
roots of doctrine.

Grand Hotel De Milan
(undated)

DEAR BENTLEY,

I write you a third letter before coming back, while Venice and
Verona are fresh in my mind. Of the former I can really only
discourse viva voce. Imagine a city, whose very slums are full of
palaces, whose every other house wall has a battered fresco, or a
gothic bas-relief; imagine a sky fretted with every kind of pinnacle
from the great dome of the Salute to the gothic spires of the Ducal
Palace and the downright arabesque orientalism of the minarets of St.
Mark's; and then imagine the whole flooded with a sea that seems only
intended to reflect sunsets, and you still have no idea of the place
I stopped in for more than 48 hours. Thence we went to Verona, where
Romeo and Juliet languished and Dante wrote most of "Hell." The
principal products (1) tombs: particularly those of the Scala, a very
good old family with an excellent taste in fratricide. Their three
tombs (one to each man I mean: one man, one grave) are really
glorious examples of three stages of Gothic: of which more when we
meet. (2) Balconies: with young ladies hanging over them; really
quite a preponderating feature. Whether this was done in obedience to
local associations and in expectation of a Romeo, I can't say. I can
only remark that if such was the object, the supply of Juliets seemed
very much in excess of the demand. (3) Roman remains: on which,
however, I did not pronounce a soliloquy beginning, "Wonderful
people . . ." which is the correct thing to do. Just as I get to this
I receive your letter and resolve to begin another sheet of paper. I
did read Rosebery's speech and was more than interested; I was
stirred. The old order (of parliamentary forms, peerages, Whiggism
and right honourable friends) has changed, yielding place to the new
(of industrialism, county council sanitation, education and the
Kingdom of Heaven at hand) and, whatever the Archbishop of
Canterbury may say, God ful