sunshine; nevertheless, a footpath ran alongside of it most of the way
through the grass and among the young trees. It seems to me that the
trees do not put forth their leaves with nearly the same magical rapidity
in this southern land at the approach of summer, as they do in more
northerly countries. In these latter, having a much shorter time to
develop themselves, they feel the necessity of making the most of it.
But the grass, in the lawns and enclosures along which we passed, looked
already fit to be mowed, and it was interspersed with many flowers.

Saturday being, I believe, the only day of the week on which visitors are
admitted to the casino, there were many parties in carriages, artists on
foot, gentlemen on horseback, and miscellaneous people, to whom the door
was opened by a custode on ringing a bell. The whole of the basement
floor of the casino, comprising a suite of beautiful rooms, is filled
with statuary. The entrance hall is a very splendid apartment, brightly
frescoed, and paved with ancient mosaics, representing the combats with
beasts and gladiators in the Coliseum, curious, though very rudely and
awkwardly designed, apparently after the arts had begun to decline. Many
of the specimens of sculpture displayed in these rooms are fine, but none
of them, I think, possess the highest merit. An Apollo is beautiful; a
group of a fighting Amazon, and her enemies trampled under her horse's
feet, is very impressive; a Faun, copied from that of Praxiteles, and
another, who seems to be dancing, were exceedingly pleasant to look at.
I like these strange, sweet, playful, rustic creatures, . . . . linked so
prettily, without monstrosity, to the lower tribes. . . . . Their
character has never, that I know of, been wrought out in literature; and
something quite good, funny, and philosophical, as well as poetic, might
very likely be educed from them. . . . . The faun is a natural and
delightful link betwixt human and brute life, with something of a divine
character intermingled.