Likewise, a sitting statue, by Michel Angelo, of
one of the Medici, full of dignity and grace and reposeful might. Also
the bronze gate of a baptistery in Florence, carved all over with
relieves of Scripture subjects, executed in the most lifelike and
expressive manner. The cast itself was a miracle of art. I should have
taken it for the genuine original bronze.
We then wandered into the House of Diomed, which seemed to me a dismal
abode, affording no possibility of comfort. We sat down in one of the
rooms, on an iron bench, very cold.
It being by this time two o'clock, we went to the Refreshment-room and
lunched; and before we had finished our repast, my wife discovered that
she had lost her sable tippet, which she had been carrying on her arm.
Mr. Silsbee most kindly and obligingly immediately went in quest of
it, . . . . but to no purpose. . . . .
Upon entering the Tropical Saloon, we found a most welcome and delightful
change of temperature among those gigantic leaves of banyan-trees, and
the broad expanse of water-plants, floating on lakes, and spacious
aviaries, where birds of brilliant plumage sported and sang amid such
foliage as they knew at home. Howbeit, the atmosphere was a little faint
and sickish, perhaps owing to the odor of the half-tepid water. The most
remarkable object here was the trunk of a tree, huge beyond imagination,
--a pine-tree from California. It was only the stripped-off bark,
however, which had been conveyed hither in segments, and put together
again beyond the height of the palace roof; and the hollow interior
circle of the tree was large enough to contain fifty people, I should
think.
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