he again presumed to send ladies ornithological
remarks." Since then the old gentleman has
been somewhat quieter, but he frowns or makes
some rude grimace when I meet him out in the
square gardens; but I have the advantage, for
I have kept my temper and he hasn't.

A lady's school; a family church-mad—- always
at church twice a day during Lent, and once
every day besides, while fast days and holidays
seem wholly spent in church; for my part , I
wonder they don't take blankets and pillows and
sleep there—- and a pretty fair sprinkling of ordinary,
well-conducted people, make up the rest
of our square.

Now let as have tea. Rang the bell, Miss
Emma—- not too loud, else you will rouse the
birds. Jane, bring up tea; and don't make it
so absurdly strong as you did the last time these
young ladies were here.

THE CARNESECCHI CORNER.

IN the old central part of Florence there is a
spot still familiarly known as the " Canto de'
Carnesecchi "—- the Corner of the Carnesecchi
family. There are many instances of localities
similarly called in Florence from the well-known
names of the old families who once had their
palaces there; and though these races may have
been long since extinct, it cannot be said that
"their place knows them no longer," for the
spots so designated are generally to the present
day better known to the genuine Florentine
by those names, than by the more legitimately
recognised title of the streets in which they are
situated. In the present instance the Canto
de' Carnesecchi serves to commemorate the
very ancient and long since extinct family of
the Carnesecchi.

A work on Tuscan antiquities, published in
1798, tells us of this ancient race, that it had
furnished to the magistracy of the city forty-
nine " Priori," or presidents, of whom the first
held office in 1297; and eleven " Gonfalonieri,"
or chief magistrates of the republic, of whom
the first served in 1358. The author proceeds
to give a long list of other magistracies, honours,
and distinctions which had rendered the family
illustrious, and then concludes his article as
follows: " Especially worthy of memory among
the illustrious members of this family is the
priest Piero, son of the senator Andrea, the son
of Paolo. He, from his youth up, applied
himself to learning, and became one ot the most
celebrated men of letters of his day. Having
embraced the ecclesiastical career, he obtained
various benefices. He was, besides, apostolic
protonotary, as well as governor of Tivoli, and
commander of the fortress there. He served
Pope Clement the Seventh as first secretary,
ana had the honour of being treated by him as
a familiar friend, and of very frequently sitting
at his table. He obtained, in 1533, a canonry
in the metropolitan church of Florence; and,
when Paul the Third ascended the Papal throne,
he was named one of his secretaries. This
illustrious ecclesiastic died in 1567."

We have nothing to add to our author's
statement of the learning of Carnesecchi, and
of tlic distinction it obtained for him, save that
it is corroborated by many writers. His
preferment under Clement the Seventh and his
intimacy with that pontiff, together with a full
and accurate acquaintance with the court of
Rome resulting from the office he held in it,
may be noticed as remarkable preparations for
the sequel of his career. There was nothing
surprising at that time in his holding high office
under Clement. He was of a noble Florentine
family, which had always adhered to the
fortunes of the Medici in their various vicissitudes.
He was an ecclesiastic, of high reputation for
business, talent, and learning. And these
qualifications were sufficient to ensure profitable
employment at Rome during the pontificate of the
Medicean Pope Clement the Seventh. If men
did say that Pietro Carnesecchi had some queer
and fantastic notions respecting certain matters
of religious doctrine, Clement was not the man
to let any such trifle stand in the way of his
patronising and employing a political adherent,
who was also a very clever fellow. The
probability is, however, that men said very little
about any snch matter in those days. Would
Lord Palmerston object to make a man attorney-
general because he held some special notions
on the subject of entomological classification?
Was not Clement's very particular crony,
counsellor, and banker, Filippo Strozzi, not only
a notorious free-thinker, if not an utter
unbeliever, but such an open and habitual scoffer,
that he could not restrain his wicked wit even
at the table of the Pope himself, so that
Clement had to look another way, and cry " Fie!
fie!" while he laughed in his beard? It is
true, this tolerant and easy-going pope starved
to death in a horrible dungeon in Castle
St. Angelo, the wretched friar Benedetto da
Foiano for certain unorthodox preachings: he
himself, the pope, finding time amid the cares
of state to give daily orders for the gradual
diminution of the miserable man's pittance of
bread-and-water, till he died at the end of
prolonged agonies, such as no less scientifically
imagined mode of taking away life could have
produced. But then the friar of Foiano had
preached republicanism to the Florentines, and
this was a heresy that Clement the Seventh
could not stand. As for the rest, those were
the days when elegantly erudite cardinals and
bishops shrugged their shoulders over the
barbarism of the Vulgate, and were serious over
the Tusculan disputations. A dash of infidelity,
in those days, was rather the mode at Rome.

Clement died, and that fine old Roman nobleman,
"all of the olden time," Farnese, as Paul
the Third, succeeded him in 1534: gradually
a change, from mere tithe-and-tax-eating
paganism to somewhat more ecclesiastical
tendencies, began to come over the spirit of Mother
Church. Not that the fine old octogenarian
Roman nobleman had any prejudices of his own
in favour of bothering a crotchety scholar of
good family about any little peculiarities in his