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118 PRÆTERITA-I
before, in an exhibition, of which the vanishing has been in later life a greatly felt loss to me,-Burford’s panorama in Leicester Square,1 which was an educational institution of the highest and purest value, and ought to have been supported by the Government as one of the most beneficial school instruments in London. There I had seen, exquisitely painted, the view from the roof of Milan Cathedral, when I had no hope of ever seeing the reality, but with a joy and wonder of the deepest;-and now to be there indeed, made deep wonder become fathomless.
Again, most fortunately, the weather was clear and cloudless all day long, and as the sun drew westward, we were able to drive to the Corso, where, at that time, the higher Milanese were happy and proud as ours in their park, and whence, no railway station intervening, the whole chain of the Alps was visible on one side, and the beautiful city with its dominant frost-crystalline Duomo on the other. Then the drive home in the open carriage through the quiet twilight, up the long streets, and round the base of the Duomo, the smooth pavement under the wheels adding with its silentness to the sense of dream wonder in it all, -the perfect air in absolute calm, the just seen majesty of encompassing Alps, the perfectness-so it seemed to me -and purity, of the sweet, stately, stainless marble against the sky. What more, what else, could be asked of seemingly immutable good in this mutable world?
138. I wish in general to avoid interference with the reader’s judgment on the matters which I endeavour serenely to narrate; but may, I think, here be pardoned for observing to him the advantage, in a certain way, of the contemplative abstraction from the world which, during this early continental travelling, was partly enforced by our ignorance, and partly secured by our love of comfort. There is something peculiarly delightful-nay, delightful inconceivably by the modern German-plated and French-polished tourist, in passing through the streets of a foreign city without
1 [See Vol. XXVI. p. 567.]
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[Version 0.04: March 2008]
