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Here, as Hospitality would have it, there was room for a Stranger, and we finally separated, with mutual good wishes -perhaps with mutual good will-notwithstanding the aversion of his Order [that of the Holy Inquisition] to incorrigible Schismatics.

LETTER VII.

Description of Florence-The Ducal Gallery, &c.

THE

'HE morning after our arrival we rambled over this beautiful Town, which is not unjustly denominated Florence the Fair. The Streets are paved with flat stone, from side to side (like those Courts of the city of Bath, which are designed to exclude the rattle of coaches) the Houses are built in a good taste, and most of the Palaces front each other, on both sides of the Arno, over which are thrown several fine Bridges. One of them looks gay with the Statues of the

Seasons,

Seasons, and another exhibits Cycloidal Arches, constructed by Ammanati.

The banks of the river are one continued Quai, unobstructed by the stir of Commerce (for Leghorn is the Port of Tuscany) yet enlivened with the pursuits of pomp and pleasure, which create a continual drive upon the three Bridges, as the Ducal, now Royal, Palace, is on the least populous side of the river.

The Squares are ornamented with Fountains and Obelisks, and the Public Walks are extensive, and well designed. One of them is beautifully traced upon the banks of the Arno.

The old Ducal Palace, or Palazzo Vecchio, is interesting to curiosity from

the

the long residence of the Medicis, those celebrated Patrons of the Fine Arts; which were first revived at Florence, by Artists invited over from Greece, soon after the excursions of the Crusades had given the rising Nations of Europe a taste for the elegant luxuries of the East. The gloomy Edifice was erected by Arnolfo, the Disciple of Cimabue, in the Thirteenth Century, that equivocal period when superstition and ferocity were so strangely blended. It is a heavy structure, immensely high, crowned with a square Tower, the projecting quoins at the top of which make it look dangerously top-heavy from below. In it is preserved the original Copy of the Pandects of Justinian, discovered at Amalphi, in the year 1137.

At

At the great door are two gigantic Groupes-David slaying Goliah, and some other bloody Story, the subject of which I have forgotten: But I shall not easily forget the chilling impression made by the dark and massy Hall, over which are now held the Courts of Justice; so often in the Old Countries teeming with deeds of horror.

Another side of the Court is formed by the celebrated Loggia, an Arcade of three arches, in one of which is placed the famous masterpiece of Benevenuto Cellini. Perseus, standing over the bleeding carcass of Medusa, holds aloft by the hair, in his left hand, the head, which he has just severed from the body, with the sword which he still grasps in his right. In another, stands the Judith

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