FLORENCE.

Drawn by Lieutenant-Colonel Batty.

"But Arno wins us to the fair white walls,
Where the Etrurian Athens claims and keeps
A softer feeling for her fairy halls.
Girt by her theatre of hills, she reaps

Her corn, and wine, and oil, and Plenty leaps
To laughing life, with her redundant horn.
Along the banks where smiling Arno sweeps
Was modern Luxury of Commerce born,

And buried Learning rose, redeemed to a new morn."
Childe Harold, canto 4, st. 48.

THIS view, from the Belvedere, is perhaps one of the finest of Florence, where the Arno is seen winding through the city, and stretching away below it, in the Val d'Arno, till it is lost in the haze and distance. From no point of view does Florence more deservedly receive its appellation of" The Fair." It is the favourite scene which every artist and every amateur, if he sketch, adds to his collection, as it embraces most of the striking objects in the city, as well as conveys a just idea of the beautiful locality of Florence. The

bridges distinguished are the Rubaconte and the Ponte Vecchio; the woods on the borders of the river on the right, below the city, are those of the Cassine Reale a feature peculiar to Florence, where, in the severe summer heats, refreshment is to be found in its beautiful shades; and where, in an evening, the visitor enjoys the songs of hundreds of nightingales and the illumination of thousands of fire-flies: it is then the favourite place of public resort. In the view, near the Ponte Vecchio, on the right, is the extremity of the grand ducal gallery, the castellated tower of the Palazzo Vecchio, and the cupola of the mausoleum of the Medici family, which is attached to the church of San Lorenzo. The next tower on the right is the campanile of the Duomo, and near it the stupendous dome of the cathedral. Altogether, the view presents such objects of interest and beauty as can scarcely be found together in any other scene in Europe.