I Did Not Care So Much For A Mounted Corporal Who Was
Jumping His Horse Over A Two-Foot Barrier
In the circular path rounding
between the Villa Borghese and the Pincian Hill, though his admirers
hung in rows on
The rail beside it so thickly that I could hardly have
got a place to see him if I had tried. But there was room enough to the
fathers and mothers who had brought their children, and young lovers who
had brought each other for the afternoon's outing, just as the people in
Central Park do, and, no doubt, just as any Sunday crowd must do in the
planet Mars, if the inhabitants are human. There was a _vacherie_ nearby
where not many persons were drinking milk or even coffee; it is never
the notion of the Italians that amusement can be had only through the
purchase of refreshments.
I did not get as far as the Casino till the last Sunday of our Roman
stay, though we came again and again to the park (as we should call it,
rather than villa), sometimes to walk, sometimes to drive, and always to
rejoice in its loveliness. It was not now a very guarded, if once a very
studied, loveliness; not quite neglect, but a forgottenness to which it
took kindly, had fallen upon it; the drives seemed largely left to take
care of themselves, the walks were such as the frequenters chose to make
over the grass or through the woods; the buildings - the aviary, the
conservatory, the dairy, the stables - which formed part of the old
pleasance, stood about, as if in an absent-minded indifference to their
various roles.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 167 of 353
Words from 45765 to 46045
of 97259
