SD2213. Alexander Munro to Pauline Trevelyan
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 364 (in part).
Florence
Saturday [6 November 1858]
My dear Lady Trevelyan,
… Rome is much too grand showlike & not half so enjoyable as Florence, which is also cleaner & with fifty times more beauty in its women & its architecture—than anything in the south—indeed the Duomo here has really quite as much grandeur externally & a thousand times more grace & elegance than St. Peters– And all Rome ancient and modern has no thing half as lovely as the Campanile—the harmony & beauty of it I find more attractive than any building I ever saw & finer than all the fine paintings Giotto ever painted– I am drawn to it two or three times every day with increasing regard, no drawing or photograph gives an adequate impression of it– Then the many beautiful Giottos, Fra Angelicos Ghirlandaios, Benozzo Gozzolis & Lippo Lippis—no where else seen so well & Donatello & Michael Angelo—and I have had the advantage of Browning’s guidance through some of the grandly notable places– He & his wife are here in their Casa Guidi & I see them every day– They’re going to Rome so soon as the weather gets milder for there have been snow storms since I came—indeed ever since the 28th Octr it has been more cold than I ever knew it in England at the same time. All the hills round covered white for the past ten days & icy winds blowing across from them– …
Yours very truly
Alex Munro
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Newcastle University.
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