The daily gazette., 1877-01-31
HOME OF "o1r1pAn y

The villa stands some three miles out
of Florence ON grassy plot Of its own,
amid scenery of hill and stream, corn
fields and vineyards. Leaving the YES
tibule, you reach what was once an
immense banqueting hall, but is now q
billiard room. 1t Is carried UP the
whole height of the villa, and round 1t
runs a gallery communicating with
the upper rooms. This lofty Sale Is
large enough to hold a dozen London
houses. 1t opens into the ball room +,
a lovely room, with pale green walls,
enriched by white bas-reliefs, and
looking on the upper garden.
On the left of the vestibule opens
the miniature room. so called from the
numbers of old miniatures on its walls,
in keeping with the old cabinets,
china metal-work, and brdc-d-6rdc OF
all kinds collected by "Ouida" in her
FIVE years residence in italy. One OF
the chief treasures is a credenza that
she got from monastery in Rome,
painted in ehidr0ScurO, with the life
and miracles of Christ, and very rare.
Above the windows are two great gol-
den eagles that belonged to Napoleon
l., the furniture is all Louis Nv.
THE room iu which "Ouida" writes
in winter mornings is full of plants,
several oil paintings by her own hand,
plenty of brdc-d-brdc, aEd many books.
chiefly on art and history. her writ
ing-table is uf cinQue-cent0 work, very
exquisite and valuable. But the Pc
culiarity of all the rooms is the abun-
dance offlowers everywhere she loves
flowers, and is her own head-gardener.
"Ouida," in her pleasant chamber,
writes rapidly and without mental or
bodily fatigue, never looking at what
she has written till it comes to her in
proof, and she corrects very little.
Her manuscripts look like Greek
manuscripts /; her handwriting singu-
lar and not feminine. In spring and
summer she writes either out of doors
or in the ball room. This she calls the
garden room, because it opens on q
snug place like monastery garden,
sweet with every imaginable scent.
and rich with magnolia trees and every
flower that blows, ponds full of gold
fish, fruit crowding the walls. Here
was written "Signa"-written almost
entirely in early morning, in the open
air, to the singing of many birds.
And this is the hone of Louis dc Ia
Rance known to the world only by her
self-inflicted pet name of "Ouida"-
with any other she says the world has
no business The habits of her life
are simple. For the open air she has
passion, loving the Italian climate
for the number of hours it enables you
to pass out of doors so from April to
October she is seldom within except
for dinner and sleep. In the autumn
and winter she drives from two to six.
She has two favorite horses, Mas
churino and Birickino, and logs in
numbers. Isla, St. Bernard, died
this year, and she has made him
marble tomb. AT her feet is always a
deer hound, and little white Maltese
called Lii, whilst snowy Maremma
sheep dogs guard the gardens, Five
in the morning sees her up. but she
only writes when in the humor: every
Friday from December to June"
never smoke and never drinks wine,
but for her gueststhere are tea or coffee
wine or cigarette.
On dress she is an authority; she
holds that women should look like pic
lures, not fashion plates. English
criticism on art or literature she des-
piscs, and is not at all displeased when
told that her writings are opposed in
tenor and tone to the English tempera-
ture. Authorship was always anaturai
impulse to her-at four years old she
wrote in printed characters a child's
story. Her father trained her to mas
culine modes of culture and thought.
He had fine but wasted intellect.