TUSCAN PEASANTRY.

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much endurance; and though, like all Italians, rather indolent by temperament, and needing some spur to action, they are not only active and strong, but have great powers of resistance in their work. "Strong! I think so," said our host. "I will give you an example. Last year I bought of the Government five thousand pounds of charcoal, made by the charcoal-burners in the woods of Vallombrosa, about three miles from my house. Those I hired three men and two women to bring to me-over a rude and difficult path. Within six hours, during one of which they rested to take their mid-day meal and siesta, every stick of it was deposited in my cellar-all carried by them on their heads. The day was extremely hot-and you should have seen them as they came in, erect as masts and bearing their monstrous burdens aloft, and swinging along with a firm and even step down the rough slopes. One of these women in especial roused my admiration. She was a per

fect gipsy in appearance, with ruled brows, black eyes, a wealth of wild tangled waving hair that strayed loosely over her shoulders, and a complexion dark enough in itself, but blackened to coal with the charcoal-dust which sifted over her; her arms and legs were bare; her eyes like fire; down her cheeks rolled great broad streams of sooty perspiration; and through her parted lips her white teeth almost shone as she came up panting and smiling. She was a striking creature in every way. With twenty baths of hot water and a clean fresh dress, instead of the worn, flimsy, and shabby rags which scarcely covered her, she would have made an impression anywhere, with her stately figure and her wild handsome face; but for me, I preferred her as she was, and I only wished I were an artist to paint her, with her charcoal burden, her clinging rags, her grimed face and arms, her bare feet, her streaming hair-all, in a word, just as she was."

The villagers of Raggioli and Tosi, and others in the vicinity, live entirely on what they gather in the woods during the summer and autumn. Before day break-by three in the midsummer mornings they are up and off, with their baskets poised on their heads, their blue and purple dresses, a red or party-coloured handkerchief drawn across their brows and knotted behind, and another folded Vandykewise over their shoulders. All day long they wander, and pluck the blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, mushrooms, or whatever the woods. afford according to the season, and carry home at night their store, to be bought by dealers for the cities and large towns. These natural fruits of the soil the Government allows them to gather (except the chestnuts) free of tax; and as they are very abundant, and largely in demand, they thus gain a little money to support themselves.

A short distance above the monastery rises a steeply scarped rock, at one side of which pours down, roaring and foaming, the torrent of Vicano; and on the summit of this, 1027 metres above the sea and 70 metres above the monastery, stands the so-called Oratorio of the Paradisino. This was originally founded by Padre Biagio Milanese, General of the Order of the Benedictines, as a place of refuge, retirement, and discipline, to which those monks who had offended against the rules of the monastery, or who were under penance, self-inflicted or imposed upon them, retired from time to time, and there led a life more rigorous and disciplinary than the other monks. The prospect from here is wider and even more magnificent than that of the monastery below, overlooking the vast valleys and slopes from the chain of Etruscan mountains which rises against the horizon on the north, to the hills of Leghorn that skirt the Mediterranean. A steep and

rugged climb carries us to the summit, where the celle and church and tower stand. The church formerly contained some valuable pictures, among which may be mentioned one of Andrea del Sarto's finest works. But it is now despoiled of all its pictures and wood-carving, and is used as a magazine, barn, or hay-loft. The old mill, once driven by the Vicano, is still standing; but it is no longer used, as it was by the monks, to saw trees or to grind corn; nor are the ghiacciaie, or ice-basins, turned to any purpose.

Orig

Near the monastery is another low building called the Foresteria, which was built to receive women who came to visit the monastery. inally, by the rules of the Vallombrosa order, no woman was allowed to enter the forest, or to pass within some large crosses erected at a distance of about a quarter of a mile. This rule was enforced for some eight centuries, but afterwards was relaxed; and the Foresteria was