Pilgrimage to Valombrosa.--Rocky Steeps.--Groves of Pine.--Vast
Amphitheatre of Lawns and Meadows.--Reception at the Convent.--Wild
Glens where the Hermit Gualbertus had his Cell.--Conversation with
the holy Fathers.--Legendary Tales.--The consecrated Cleft.--The
Romitorio.--Extensive View of the Val d’Arno.--Return to Florence.
October 23rd, 1780.
Do you recollect our evening rambles last year, in the valley at F----,
under the hill of pines? I remember we often fancied the scene like
Valombrosa; and vowed, if ever an occasion offered, to visit its deep
retirements. I had put off the execution of this pilgrimage from day to
day till the warm weather was gone; and the Florentines declared I
should be frozen if I attempted it. Everybody stared last night at the
Opera when I told them I was going to bury myself in fallen leaves, and
hear no music but their rustlings.
Mr. ---- was just as eager as myself to escape the chit-chat and
nothingness of Florence; so we finally determined upon our expedition,
and mounting our horses, set out this morning, happily without any
company but the spirit which led us along. We had need of inspiration,
since nothing else, I think, would have tempted us over such dreary,
uninteresting hillocks as rise from the banks of the Arno. The hoary
olive is their principal vegetation; so that Nature, in this part of the
country, seems in a withering decrepit state, and may not unaptly be
compared to “an old woman clothed in grey.” However, we did not suffer
the prospect to damp our enthusiasm, which was the better preserved for
Valombrosa.
About half way, our palfreys thought proper to look out for some oats,
and I to creep into a sort of granary in the midst of a barren waste,
scattered over with white rocks, that reflected more heat than I cared
for, although I had been told snow and ice were to be my portion.
Seating myself on the floor between heaps of corn, I reached down a few
purple clusters of Muscadine grapes, which hung to dry in the ceiling,
and amused myself very pleasantly with them till the horses had
finished their meal and it was lawful to set forwards. We met with
nothing but rocky steeps shattered into fragments, and such roads as
half inclined us to repent our undertaking; but cold was not yet amongst
the number of our evils.
At last, after ascending a tedious while, we began to feel the wind blow
sharply from the peaks of the mountains, and to hear the murmur of
groves of pine. A paved path leads across them, quite darkened by
boughs, which meeting over our heads cast a gloom and a chilness below
that would have stopped the proceedings of reasonable mortals, and sent
them to bask in the plain; but, being not so easily discomfited, we
threw ourselves boldly into the forest. It presented that boundless
confusion of tall straight stems I am so fond of, and exhaled a fresh
aromatic odour that revived my spirits.
The cold to be sure was piercing; but setting that at defiance, we
galloped on, and entered a vast amphitheatre of lawns and meadows
surrounded by thick woods beautifully green. The steep cliffs and
mountains which guard this retired valley are clothed with beech to
their very summits; and on their slopes, whose smoothness and verdure
equal our English pastures, were dispersed large flocks of sheep. The
herbage, moistened by streams which fall from the eminences, has never
been known to fade; thus, whilst the chief part of Tuscany is parched by
the heats of summer, these upland meadows retain the freshness of
spring. I regretted not having visited them sooner, as autumn had
already made great havock amongst the foliage. Showers of leaves blew
full in our faces as we rode towards the convent, placed at an extremity
of the vale and sheltered by firs and chesnuts towering one above
another.
Whilst we were alighting before the entrance, two fathers came out and
received us into the peace of their retirement. We found a blazing fire,
and tables spread very comfortably before it, round which five or six
overgrown friars were lounging, who seemed by the sleekness and rosy hue
of their countenances not totally to have despised this mortal
existence.
My letters of recommendation soon brought the heads of the order about
me, fair round figures, such as a Chinese would have placed in his
pagoda. I could willingly have dispensed with their attention; yet to
avoid this was scarcely within the circle of possibility. All dinner,
therefore, we endured an infinity of nonsensical questions; but as soon
as that was over, I lost no time in repairing to the lawns and forests.
The fathers made a shift to waddle after, as fast and as complaisantly
as they were able, but were soon distanced.
Now I found myself at liberty, and pursued a narrow path overhung by
rock, with bushy chesnuts starting from the crevices. This led me into
wild glens of beech trees, mostly decayed and covered with moss: several
were fallen. It was amongst these the holy hermit Gualbertus had his
cell. I rested a moment upon one of their huge branches, listening to
the roar of a waterfall which the wood concealed. The dry leaves chased
each other down the steeps on the edge of the torrents with hollow
rustlings, whilst the solemn wave of the forests above most perfectly
answered the idea I had formed of Valombrosa,
----where the Etrurian shades
High overarch’d embower.
The scene was beginning to take effect, and the genius of Milton to move
across his favourite valley, when the fathers arrived puffing and
blowing, by an easier ascent than I knew of.
“You have missed the way,” cried the youngest; “the hermitage, with the
fine picture by Andrèa del Sarto, which all the English admire, is on
the opposite side of the wood: there! don’t you see it on the point of
the cliff?”
“Yes, yes,” said I a little peevishly; “I wonder the devil has not
pushed it down long ago; it seems to invite his kick.”
“Satan,” answered the old Pagod very dryly, “is full of malice; but
whoever drinks of a spring which the Lord causeth to flow near the
hermitage is freed from his illusions.”
“Are they so?” replied I with a sanctified accent, “then I pray thee
conduct me thither, for I have great need of such salutary waters.”
The youngest father shook his head, as much as to say, “This is nothing
more than a heretic’s whim.”
The senior set forwards with greater piety, and began some legendary
tales of the kind which my soul loveth. He pointed to a chasm in the
cliff, round which we were winding by a spiral path, where Gualbertus
used to sleep, and, turning himself towards the west, see a long
succession of saints and martyrs sweeping athwart the sky, and gilding
the clouds with far brighter splendours than the setting sun. Here he
rested till his last hour, when the bells of the convent beneath (which
till that moment would have made dogs howl had there been any within its
precincts) struck out such harmonious jingling that all the country
around was ravished, and began lifting up their eyes with singular
devotion, when, behold! light dawned, cherubim appeared, and birds
chirped although it was midnight. “Alas! alas! what would I not give to
witness such a spectacle, and read my prayer-book by the effulgence of
opening heaven!”
However, willing to see something at least, I crept into the consecrated
cleft and extended myself on its rugged surface. A very penitential
couch! but commanding glorious prospects of the world below, which lay
this evening in deep blue shade; the sun looking red and angry through
misty vapours, which prevented our discovering the Tuscan sea.
Finding the rock as damp as might be expected, I soon shifted my
quarters, and followed the youngest father up to the Romitorio, a snug
little hermitage, with a neat chapel, and altar-piece by Andrèa del
Sarto, which I should have examined more minutely had not the wild and
mountainous forest scenery possessed my whole attention. I just stayed
to taste the holy fountain; and then, escaping from my conductors, ran
eagerly down the path, leaping over the springs that crossed it, and
entered a lawn of the smoothest turf grazed by sheep. Beyond this
opening rises a second, hemmed in with thickets; and still higher, a
third, whence a forest of young pines spires up into a lofty theatre
terminated by peaks, half concealed by a thick mantle of beech tinged
with ruddy brown. Pausing in the midst of the lawns, and looking upward
to the sweeps of wood which surrounded me, I addressed my orisons to the
genius of the place, and prayed that I might once more return into its
bosom, and be permitted to bring you along with me, for surely such
meads, such groves, were formed for our enjoyment!
This little rite performed, I walked on quite to the extremity of the
pastures, traversed a thicket, and found myself on the edge of
precipices, beneath whose base the whole Val d’Arno lies expanded. I
listened to distant murmurings in the plain, saw wreaths of smoke rising
from the cottages, and viewed a vast tract of grey barren country, which
evening rendered still more desolate, bounded by the black mountain of
Radicofani. Then, turning round, I beheld the whole extent of rock and
forest, the groves of beech, and wilds above the convent, glowing with
fiery red, for the sun, making a last effort to pierce the vapours,
produced this effect; which was the more striking, as the sky was
gloomy, and the rest of the prospect of a melancholy blue.
Returning slowly homeward, I marked the warm glow deserting the
eminences, and heard the sullen toll of a bell. The young boys of the
seminary were moving in a body to their dark enclosure, all dressed in
black. Many of them looked pale and wan. I wished to ask them whether
the solitude of Valombrosa suited their age and vivacity; but a tall
spectre of a priest drove them along like a herd, and presently, the
gates opening, I saw them no more.
The night was growing chill, the winds boisterous, and in the intervals
of the gusts I had the addition of a lamentable screech owl to depress
my spirits. Upon the whole, I was not at all concerned to meet the
fathers, who came out to show me to my room, and entertain me with
various gossipings, both sacred and profane, till supper appeared.
Next morning, the Padre Decano gave us chocolate in his apartment; and
afterwards led us round the convent, insisting most unmercifully upon
our viewing every cell and every dormitory. However, I was determined to
make a full stop at the organ, one of the most harmonious I ever played
upon; but placed in a deep recess, feebly lighted by lamps, not
calculated to inspire triumphant voluntaries. The monks, who had all
crowded into the loft in expectation of brisk jigs and lively overtures,
soon retired upon hearing a strain ten times more sorrowful than that to
which they were accustomed. I did not lament their departure, but played
on till our horses came to the gate. We mounted, wound back through the
grove of pines which protect Valombrosa from intrusion, descended the
steeps, and, gaining the plains, galloped in a few hours to Florence.