There Was One Gentleman, However, Who Was No
Smuggler, But Who Had Lived Many Years In London And Had Now
Settled Down At Rovenna, Just Below On The Lake Of Como.
He had
taken a room here and furnished it for the sake of the shooting.
He spoke perfect English, and would have none but English things
about him.
He had Cockle's antibilious pills, and the last numbers
of the "Illustrated London News" and "Morning Chronicle;" his bath
and bath-towels were English, and there was a box of Huntley &
Palmer's biscuits on his dressing-table. He was delighted to see
some Englishmen, and showed us everything that was to be seen -
among the rest the birds he kept in cages to lure those that he
intended to shoot. He also took us behind the church, and there we
found a very beautiful marble statue of the Madonna and child, an
admirable work, with painted eyes and the dress gilded and figured.
What an extraordinary number of fine or, at the least, interesting
things one finds in Italy which no one knows anything about. In
one day, poking about at random, we had seen some early frescoes at
S. Cristoforo, an excellent work at Morbio, and here was another
fine thing sprung upon us. It is not safe ever to pass a church in
Italy without exploring it carefully. The church may be new and
for the most part full of nothing but what is odious, but there is
no knowing what fragment of earlier work one may not find
preserved.
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