DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.53553#0361
325
buildings formed a pleasing contrast with some picturesque
clusters of palm and other trees interspersed between them,
groups of cattle were grazing in the quadrangular court-yard
of the barracks, and in the foreground some stones with in-
scriptions, Corinthian capitals, and broken friezes were neg-
ligently scattered about; the whole forming a very pictu-
resque tout-ensemble. Don Michele, on being told the subject
of the drawing, asked when the view was taken ?—(c Last
week.”—i( Cosa miraculosa assai* !” replied he very drily ;
“ for Signor Don Luigi and I were there six or seven weeks
ago, and not a palm-tree could we see far or near.—And as
to these goats and sheep,” continued the severe critic, “ if
they have had to live upon what grass we saw on this very
spot, I make no doubt but by this time the poor beasts re-
semble the skeletons which my classic friend here (pointing
to me) would fain have made me believe were discovered
among the ruins.”—These very unseasonable remarks ofD.
Michele, however true they might be, gave me a world of
pain, especially when I saw the doctor’s countenance labour
under unequivocal symptoms of embarrassment. But while I
was studying on some turn or other to qualify my friend’s ob-
servation, the North Briton, with much candour, confessed,
that he too had seen neither palm-trees nor cattle on the spot
here represented by him; but that the cheerless aspect of the
bare ruins, and the arid nature of the ground, had induced
him to resort to his imagination, to enliven the scene, and to
give to the whole the romantic eoup d’eeil, which I had been
pleased to admire in his insignificant performance ; and (to
make the confession complete) that the same motives had in-
duced him to disperse over his opaque fore-ground these few
broken capitals, inscribed stones, &c.—that in doing so he
had only availed himself of the licence usual with artists as
well as with poets.
-My
♦ Wonderful indeed I
buildings formed a pleasing contrast with some picturesque
clusters of palm and other trees interspersed between them,
groups of cattle were grazing in the quadrangular court-yard
of the barracks, and in the foreground some stones with in-
scriptions, Corinthian capitals, and broken friezes were neg-
ligently scattered about; the whole forming a very pictu-
resque tout-ensemble. Don Michele, on being told the subject
of the drawing, asked when the view was taken ?—(c Last
week.”—i( Cosa miraculosa assai* !” replied he very drily ;
“ for Signor Don Luigi and I were there six or seven weeks
ago, and not a palm-tree could we see far or near.—And as
to these goats and sheep,” continued the severe critic, “ if
they have had to live upon what grass we saw on this very
spot, I make no doubt but by this time the poor beasts re-
semble the skeletons which my classic friend here (pointing
to me) would fain have made me believe were discovered
among the ruins.”—These very unseasonable remarks ofD.
Michele, however true they might be, gave me a world of
pain, especially when I saw the doctor’s countenance labour
under unequivocal symptoms of embarrassment. But while I
was studying on some turn or other to qualify my friend’s ob-
servation, the North Briton, with much candour, confessed,
that he too had seen neither palm-trees nor cattle on the spot
here represented by him; but that the cheerless aspect of the
bare ruins, and the arid nature of the ground, had induced
him to resort to his imagination, to enliven the scene, and to
give to the whole the romantic eoup d’eeil, which I had been
pleased to admire in his insignificant performance ; and (to
make the confession complete) that the same motives had in-
duced him to disperse over his opaque fore-ground these few
broken capitals, inscribed stones, &c.—that in doing so he
had only availed himself of the licence usual with artists as
well as with poets.
-My
♦ Wonderful indeed I