and had not taken them beyond the limits of Tuscany. Now they had
planned a far wider series of travels, which, beginning with Rome,
Naples, Venice, and Milan, should then be extended across the Alps, and
comprehend Brussels, Paris, and ultimately London. This ambitious
programme had to be curtailed by the omission of the southern tour to
Rome and Naples, as well as the digression to Brussels, but the rest of
the scheme was carried out, and about the beginning of June they left
Casa Guidi for an absence which extended over seventeen months.

The holiday had been well earned, especially by Mrs. Browning, who,
since the preparation of the new edition of her poems in the previous
year, had been writing the second part of 'Casa Guidi Windows.' It is
probably to this poem that she refers in the letter to Miss Browning
printed at the end of the last chapter, Miss Browning having on more
than one occasion helped both her brother and her sister-in-law in the
task of passing their poems through the press. The book appeared in
June, just as they were starting on their travels, and probably for this
reason we hear less in the letters of its reception. It was hardly to be
expected that the English public would take a very keen interest in a
poem dealing almost entirely with Italian politics, and half of it with
the politics of three years ago. Either in 1849 or in 1859 the interest
would have been livelier; but Italy was passing now through the valley
of the shadow, and, save for the horrors of the Neapolitan prisons, was
not much before the public for the moment. The intrigues of Louis
Napoleon and the ostentatious aggression of the Pope in England were the
matters of most interest in foreign politics, and both were overshadowed
by the absorbing topic of the Great Exhibition.

Another reason why 'Casa Guidi Windows' has received less appreciation
than it deserves, both at the time of its publication and since, is that