 most Italians
consider reading _a study_, and have no idea of it as a recreation, all
appliances thereto are generally left behind when they come professedly
in search of health and mental relaxation to their _villeggiature_.
From six weeks to two months is the utmost amount of time they devote
for this purpose. What with looking after their farms and a little
shooting, the men get through this period with tolerable satisfaction;
to the ladies, it is always fraught with intense _ennui_.

The resources of floriculture, with rare exceptions, are unknown to
the women of the Marche. There was one lady of rank in Ancona who had
laid out a garden at one of her country-houses with considerable taste.
It was the only innovation I witnessed upon the orthodox quadrangular
enclosure, fenced in by high walls with espaliers of lemons, and little
three-cornered flower-beds, intersected by gravel-paths, which graced
a few of the _casini_ of the wealthiest proprietors. Her example,
however, found no imitators; and with a soil and climate exquisitely
adapted for their cultivation, flowers receive less attention and seem
less prized in the Roman States than in any other part of Italy. Here,
in this secluded villa, where the interest and occupation attendant
on such a pursuit would have beguiled the weariness of the contessa's
banishment from the fleas, bad smells, and stifling atmosphere which
render Ancona, during the hottest months, a somewhat questionable
Elysium, a small wood adjoining the house, a few rose-bushes planted
round cabbages, and two or three cobwebby arbours, were all the
evidences of ornamental gardening we could trace.

About midnight, we heard the slow dragging of wheels, and presently
the peasants of the _possessione_ came up with two _birocci_ to the
gate. Mattresses were then placed at the bottom of each, on which we
were to sit; and after Madame V—— had carefully arranged the cloaks and
shawls her prudent care foresaw would ere long be necessary, we took
our places, and in good earnest commenced the as