But the new railway to Bologna having been laid out directly
over this ground, the artists have been again driven away, and this
year the _festa_ was held, for the first time, in the grove of Egeria,
one of the most beautiful spots on the whole Campagna,--and here it is
to be hoped it will have an abiding rest.
This festival was instituted by the German artists, and, though the
artists of all nations now join in it, the Germans still remain its
special patrons and directors. Early in the morning, the artists
rendezvous at an appointed _osteria_ outside the walls, dressed in
every sort of grotesque and ludicrous costume which can be imagined.
All the old dresses which can be rummaged out of the studios or
theatres, or pieced together from masking wardrobes, are now in
requisition. Indians and Chinese, ancient warriors and mediaeval
heroes, militia-men and Punches, generals in top-boots and pigtails,
doctors in gigantic wigs and small-clothes, Falstaffs and justices
"with fair round belly with good capon lined," magnificent foolscaps,
wooden swords with terrible inscriptions, gigantic chapeaus with plumes
made of vegetables, in a word, every imaginable absurdity is to be
seen. Arrived at the place of rendezvous, they all breakfast, and then
the line of march is arranged.
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