CHAPTER XXII.

GAVINANA.

July 30.-One of our early excursions with the native pony is to Gavinana, the famous field of battle in the war against the Pope Clement VII. and Charles V. of Germany, 1530, and the place where the Florentine hero, Ferruccio, was killed.

We are four companions, and the drive being long and hilly, we form a humane plan to walk in turns where the road is bad, a design which results in more walking than driving. Sometimes we all jump out simultaneously, each one refusing to ride while another walks, and the amiable pony plods serenely on, nodding his head and declining to be interested in our amicable disputes. We mount slowly the sunny hill which Mamiamo crowns so prettily, and the Antiquary discusses the probability of its having derived its name from the Roman family "Memmius," as well as Popiglio from "Popillia." Then we wake up the pony to gambol a little faster through

the level streets of San Marcello; but it is the hour of the fashionable siesta, and no awake to see his laudable efforts.

one is

Pietro, the pony's owner, has told us that Gavinana is only two miles beyond San Marcello ; but we have traversed nearly that distance before we commence the long and precipitous ascent, on a narrow road well supplied with rolling

stones.

We go up, up, up, expecting to see Gavinana at every turn, but it keeps persistently out of view till we feel disheartened at the possibility of never seeing it at all.

turn brings us into a deep

However, a sudden

ravine, full of rocks

cliffs, with wooded

jutting out of red sandstone slopes rising up above them. Our road winds. round between the precipice and the forests, and Gavinana rises just opposite us, perched high on its verdant hill, like all Tuscan towns. We pass a shrine and a washing fountain, and as usual the latter has more votaries than the former. Crossing a fine high bridge over the rocky bed of the torrent, a few moments bring us to the quaint old houses of Gavinana. Espying a kind of stable, we find a shelter for the pony and promise of a feed for him; a man volunteers to unharness him, and in all faith we trust his self

asserted ability, leaving carriage and pony to his mercy, and proceed to see the piazza.

A local proverb says, "When you have beheld a church, a fountain, and a battlefield, you have seen Gavinana." Consequently our expectations were not high, but having seen a most picturesque woodcut of the piazza of Gavinana, we had brought our sketchbooks to take that especial view; but though the fountain and the church are there, it is impossible to get them both into one focus. The artist of the woodcut must have sketched his church from one point, and then turned himself round and put the fountain into his foreground.

The church is a very picturesque old building, with the true Italian loggia on its façade and a beautiful old tower crowned by a cupola. It is built of the huge square stones which mark the early Tuscan architecture; the stones are now all hollowed out and worn with the rains of many ages. The interior possesses two splendid basreliefs in glazed earthenware by "Luca della Robbia," of which there exists a very pretty legend of kindness and gratitude. It happened that the great master, "Della Robbia," was ill, and was taken to Gavinana for change of air. The villagers received him with such kindness

and nursed him with so much care that he completely recovered. When he left, he offered some remuneration to the people with whom he had lodged; but they refused it, saying it was enough to have helped to restore a life so valuable, but adding that if he felt under any obligation, a gift of even the smallest of his works would more than repay it. Luca della Robbia, touched at this tribute to his fame, promised that he would dedicate to Gavinana not merely his least work, but the best he could execute; and in due time the proud village received the two masterpieces which now adorn the chancel. They are a Nativity and a Crucifixion; the figures are very expressive and graceful, the grouping harmonious. There is a beautiful pila for holy water, of cinque-cento work, and a fine organ, large enough for a cathedral, the gift of a patriotic Domenico Acchilli, who has also founded good schools here.

Just opposite the west front of the church is a house superior to the surrounding habitations. It is the Casa Palmerini, on the doorstep of which the already wounded Ferruccio was killed by Maramaldo. A charming family party occupies the historical doorstep as we gaze, a stylish party of pretty girls and their esquires, sitting al fresco before their house. A man coming

forth from the crowd of idlers round the fountain volunteers to show us all the historical places, and takes us through quaint streets, where the houses have curious flights of steps, platforms before their doors, and old-fashioned wooden balconies in odd corners, to the "Port' arsa," or rather the place where the gate once stood. A little beyond is the field of battle, now a calm, smiling cornfield, and a chapel is built on the spot where Ferruccio was wounded. Then he took us to see another old gate, "Porta Fiorentina," which is now an archway under a house, the old walls having quite disappeared. All these things interested the Antiquary, who recalled the whole scene and told us how the heroes fell there in ancient days.

It was when the Emperor Charles V. and Pope Clement VII. would bring back the Medici into Florence, in 1529, and had got together an army of mercenaries to besiege the city. The Florentines, in their distress, sent to call their favourite Francesco Ferrucci, called the "Gideon of the Republic," to their aid.

He was at Volterra, where he commanded the republican troops, and had just raised the siege of that town by the Marchese del Guasto and Fabrizio Maramaldo.