266 ST. MARK’S REST

First; that a certain measure of pastoral home-life was mingled with Venice’s training of her sailors;-evidence whereof remains to this day, in the unfailing “Campo” round every church; the church “meadow”-not church-”Yard.” It happened to me, once in my life, to go to church in a state of very great happiness and peace of mind;¹ and this in a very small and secluded country church. And Fors would have it that I should get a seat in the chancel; and the day was sunny, and the little side chancel-door was open opposite into, what I hope was a field. I saw no graves in it; but in the sunshine, sheep feeding. And I never was at so divine a church service before, nor have been since. If you will read the opening of Wordsworth’s “White Doe of Rylstone,”² and can enjoy it, you may learn from it what the look of an old Venetian church would be, with its surrounding field.³ St. Mark’s Place was only the meadow of St. Theodore’s church, in those days.

75. Next-you observe the care and watching of animals. That is still a love in the heart of Venice. One of the chief little worries to me in my work here, is that I walk faster than the pigeons are used to have people walk; and am continually like to tread on them; and see story in Fors, March of this year,⁴ of the gondolier and his dog. Nay, though the other day, I was greatly tormented at the public gardens, in the early morning, when I had counted on a quiet walk, by a cluster of boys who were chasing the first twittering birds of the spring from bush to bush, and throwing sand at them, with wild shouts and whistles, they were not doing it, as I at first thought, in mere mischief, but with hope of getting a penny or two to gamble with, if they could clog the poor little creatures’ wings enough to

¹ [Probably August 18, 1872: see Vol. XXII. p. xxix.]

² [For other references to this poem (founded on a tradition connected with Bolton Priory), see Vol. IV. p. 392, and Fors Clavigera, Letter 52, § 11.]

³ [Compare also the description of a Campo, in the Guide to the Academy, above, p. 173.]

⁴ [Letter 75.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]