[
2320]
The following notes respecting Margaret's residence in
Florence were furnished to the editors by
Mr. W. H. Hurlbut.
I passed about six weeks in the city of
Florence, during the months of March and April, 1850.
During the whole of that time
Madame Ossoli was residing in a house at the corner of the Via della Misericordia and the
Piazza Santa Maria Novella.
This house is one of those large, well built modern houses that show strangely in the streets of the stately Tuscan city.
But if her rooms were less characteristically
Italian, they were the more comfortable, and, though small, had a quiet, homelike air. Her windows opened upon a fine view of the beautiful Piazza; for such was their position, that while the card-board facade of the church of
Sta. Maria Novella could only be seen at an angle, the exquisite Campanile rose fair and full against the sky. She enjoyed this most graceful tower very much, and, I think, preferred it even to Giotto's noble work.
Its quiet religious grace was grateful to her spirit, which seemed to be yearning for peace from the cares that had so vexed and heated the world about her for a year past.
I saw her frequently at these rooms, where, surrounded by her books and papers, she used to devote her mornings to her literary labors.
Once or twice I called in the morning, and found her quite immersed in manuscripts and journals.
Her evenings were passed usually in the society of her friends, at her own rooms, or at theirs.
With the pleasant circle of
Americans, then living in
Florence, she was on the best terms, and though she seemed always to bring with her her own
