Within the house the walls are
hung with fine old-fashioned engravings from the pictures of
Gainsborough, West, and other English painters. The Englishman, though
he had chosen to live and die in Italy, had evidently brought his native
tastes and peculiarities along with him. Mr. Story thinks of buying this
villa: I do not know but I might be tempted to buy it myself if Siena
were a practicable residence for the entire year; but the winter here,
with the bleak mountain-winds of a hundred miles round about blustering
against it, must be terribly disagreeable.
We spent a very pleasant day, turning over books or talking on the lawn,
whence we could behold scenes picturesque afar, and rich vineyard
glimpses near at hand. Mr. Story is the most variously accomplished and
brilliant person, the fullest of social life and fire, whom I ever met;
and without seeming to make an effort, he kept us amused and entertained
the whole day long; not wearisomely entertained neither, as we should
have been if he had not let his fountain play naturally.
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