Sun. 19. [19 April 1896] Delicious day. Breakfasted in my room, wrote
to Mary and off at 9.30 to Assisi. Lady Alice Portal, Mrs Hope,
Needhams and we. Drove with Mrs Talbot, Caroline and Lord
Brownlow. Exquisite drive, crossed the Tiber [Teveres], stopped at
S. Maria degli Angeli and saw the Porziancola, the roses without
thorns in which St Francis rolled and the figure of him by Luca della
Robbia. Dear old monk who told us stories of him; how he was
tempted of discouragement, how he called to his sister the
grasshopper to help him sing God's praise, how Santa Chiara made
him shoes to support his naked feet, how he bade a dead brother
monk cease to work miracles and he worked no more. Saw also his
little cell and the hut in which he died. Then on to Assisi which we
reached about 12.30 and lunched at the Hotel Subiaso. Star of
Bethlehem was growing all up the hillside and a tiny golden marigold.
The way the convent stands, pillared up on its arches is quite
magnificent. After lunch went to San Francesco and saw the Giottos.
In the under church the 4 great pictures of the roof, specially the
marriage with Poverty (the thorns beneath her feet flower above her
head) portraits of 5 monks (all these Giotto) 2 miracle pictures also his
and a Madonna and Child. Also a magnificent Cimabue Virgin and
Child with angels and a row of Simone heads, rather stiffer than he
ought to be. Upstairs the whole history to St Francis - I loved the mad
man spreading his cloak, St Francis's splendid figure supporting the
church in the Pope's dream, the grand figures of the bystanders in the
institution of the model of the Nativity, the breaking forth of the water
and the preaching to birds; the kiss of Santa Chiara and the flying
figure of the ascending saint with the dying brother monk stretching out
his hands to him in the next picture; also the healing of the sick man
with the doctor and the anxious wife standing by the door. Above
Cimabue, the roof splendid, the wall frescoes dropping to pieces;
great fragments of noble figures - I suspect he was a tremendous man
Cimabue. I remember two splendid angels, like the mosaic angels,
starting out from the fragments and standing there divine and lovely
over it all. Walked up to the Temple of Minerva whence Lord
Brownlow and I went up to the Duomo which has beautiful wheel
windows and nice doors (this little place is the one place for real
Gothic) and to Santa Chiara, buttressed up in the most extraordinary
way. Delicious little inn with a balcony overlooking the great view.
Drove home with Lady A. Portal and Col. Talbot. Very delicious. All
spent the evening together.