Val d'Arno. [Vale of the Arno.] In Tuscany, Italy. It is renowned for its beauty and its poetic associations.

A dream alone to me is Arno's vale,
And the Alhambra's halls are but a trav-
eller's tale.
Whittier.

Val de Grace. 1. An extensive military hospital in Paris. Here was formerly a convent of Benedictine nuns.

2. A church in Paris, built in the Italian style. It was begun in 1645 for Anne of Austria. The dome forms a conspicuous object in views over Paris.

Blood.] A valley reputed to have, in ancient times, separated France from Bretagne.

When the Vale of Blood she neared,
All that ghastly band with speed
Following in pursuit appeared

Close behind her coal-black steed.
Anon, Tr. L. S. Costello.

Valley-farm, The. A picture by John Constable (1776-1837). In the National Gallery, London. Valley of Jehoshaphat. This valley of Jerusalem which is beneath the hill Mount Moriah, on which the ancient Jewish temple stood (now occupied by the Mosque of Omar), is about half a mile long, extending from the village of Siloam to the Garden of Gethsemane. Its sides are full of tombs, and the brook Kedron runs through it. The Jews believe that the Last Judgment will take place in this valley, according to the prediction found in Joel iii. 12, "Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit, to judge all the heathen round about.'

Vallombrosa. [The Shady Valley.] A famous convent and sanctuary near Florence, Italy. Its original

name was Acqua Bella. The conventual buildings were erected in 1637, and with the surrounding forest are now chiefly interesting from the allusions to them in literature.

Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks

In Vallombrosa, where the Etrurian shades, High over-arch'd embower. Milton.

Swelling the outcry dull, that long resounds

Portentous through her old woods' trackless bounds,

Vallombre, mid her falling fanes, deplores, Forever broke, the Sabbath of her bowers. Wordsworth.

He [Milton] nevermore was thirsty when God's will

Had shattered to his sense the last chainlink

By which he had drawn from Nature's visible

The fresh well-water. Satisfied by this, He sang of Adam's paradise, and smiled, Remembering Vallombrosa. Therefore is The place divine to English man and child, And pilgrims leave their soul here in a E. B. Browning.

kiss.

Not a grand nature. Not my chestnutWoods

Of Vallombrosa, cleaving by the spurs To the precipices. Mrs. Browning. Valle Crucis Abbey. A beautiful and picturesque ruined monastery, founded in 1200, near Llangollen, in Wales.

Vanity and Modesty. See MODESTY AND VANITY.

Varuna, The. An iron-clad vessel of the United States navy, sunk April 24, 1862, after destroying five of the enemy's fleet in the battle on the Mississippi, below New Orleans.

Who has not heard of the dauntless Varuna?

Who has not heard of the deeds she has done?

Who shall not hear, while the brown

Mississippi

Rushes along from the snow to the sun? Crippled and leaking she entered the bat

tle,

Sinking and burning she fought through the fray:

Crushed were her sides, and the waves ran across her.

Ere, like a death-wounded lion at bay, Sternly she closed in the last fatal grapple, Then in her triumph moved grandly away. G. H. Boker.

Vase, Hall of the. See HALL OF THE VASE.

Vassar College. A noted women's college situated in Poughkeepsie, N. Y. It was founded and endowed by Matthew Vassar, from whom it takes its name. It was organized in 1865.

Vatican, The. The ancient palace of the popes, and the most magnificent in the world, built upon one of the hills of Rome, on the right bank of the Tiber. It is rather a collection of separate buildings, constructed at various times, than one regular structure. Its extent is enormous. It has 8 grand staircases, 200 smaller staircases, 20 courts, and, it is said, 11,000 apartments of different sizes. Its riches in marbles, bronzes, and frescos, in ancient statues and gems, and in paintings, are unequalled in the world. It also possesses a library with a large and choice collection of manuscripts.

"The palace of the Vatican bears the same relation to other palaces that St. Peter's does to other churches. It is, indeed, not a palace, but a congress of palaces. One of the stories with which every traveller at Rome is amused is, that the Vatican with its gardens and St. Peter's occupy as much space as the city of Turin; and, as it has never been contradicted, it is probably true. The Vatican com prises a papal palace, a library, and a museum. As a museum of art, it is the first in the world. In sculpture it not only surpasses any other collection, but all other collections put together. The whole of Europe could furnish nothing to rival the Vatican. It also comprises the highest triumphs of painting, in the frescos of Raphael and Michael Angelo. He who has seen the Vatican has seen the utmost point reached by the human mind and hand in these two arts. The world is no more likely to witness any thing beyond what is here visible than to have a nobler epic than the Iliad, or a greater dramatist than Shakespeare."

Hillard.

The Vatican is great; yet poor to Chimborazo or the Peake of Teneriffe: its dome is but a foolish Big-endian or Little-endian chip of an egg-shell, compared with that star-fretted Dome where Arcturus and Orion glance for ever. Carlyle.

That Leicester shoe-shop, had men known it, was a holier place than any Vatican or Loretto-shrine." Carlyle

On that sad mountain slope whose ghostly dead,

Unmindful of the gray exorcist's ban, Walk, unappeased, the chambered Vati

can.

And draw the curtains of Napoleon's bed! Whittier.

Vatican Library. This library, in the Vatican Palace, Rome, has been called the largest in the world, not because it has the most books, but because it occupies the largest space. It is really a small collection, though exceedingly rich in ancient and rare manuscripts, the number of which is said to be over 30,000. Among the precious treasures here preserved are a famous copy of Virgil of the age of Constantine, and early manuscripts of the Scriptures. The books in

this library are invisible, being shut up in wooden presses.

Vatican, Obelisk of the. See OBELISK OF ST. PETER'S.

Vaucluse, Fountain of. See FOUNTAIN OF VAUCLUSE.

Vauxhall. The region on the bank of the Thames above Lambeth, London. See VAUXHALL GAR

Vauxhall Bridge. An iron bridge across the Thames at London. Vauxhall Gardens. A place of public amusement in London for nearly two centuries. It was so named from its site in the manor of "La Sale Faukes." The gardens were first laid out about 1661. They were finally closed July 25, 1859, and the property sold. Buildings have since been erected, and roads laid out upon their site. We are told in Rogers's "Table Talk" that the proprietors of Vauxhall and Ranelagh used to send fashionably dressed persons to walk among the ladies and gentlemen in the Mall, and to exclaim every

now and then, "What charming weather for Ranelagh!" or "for Vauxhall!" See RANELAGH GAR

DENS.

The lights everywhere glimmering through scarcely moving trees; the full-bodied concert bursting on the stillness of night; the natural concert of the birds in the more retired part of the grove, vying with that which was formed by art; the company gayly dressed, looking satisfied; and the tables spread with various delicacies, — all conspired to fill my imagination with the visionary happiness of the Arabian lawgiver, and lifted me into an ecstasy of admiration."

Goldsmith, Citizen of the World. Vauxhall and Ranelagh! I then had heard Of your green groves, and wilderness of lamps Dimming the stars, and fireworks magical, And gorgeous ladies, under splendid domes, Floating in dance, or warbling high in air The songs of spirits! Wordsworth.

The narrow lanes [in Genoa] have great villas opening into them, whose walls (outside walls, I mean) are profusely painted with all sorts of subjects, grim and holy. But time and the sea-air have nearly obliterated them; and they look like the entrance to Vauxhall Gardens on a sunny day. Dickens.

It was a curious phenomenon, in the withered, unbelieving, second-hand Eighteenth Century, that of a Hero starting up, among the artificial pasteboard figures and productions, in the guise of a Robert Burns. Like a little well in the rocky desert places, -like a sudden splendor of Heaven in the artificial Vauxhall!

We are not prepared to say what sums were expended upon the painting of Véry's, Véfour's, or of other places of public resort in the capital. Thackeray.

Veiled Image [at Sais]. A concealed or draped image said to have stood in the temple of Minerva at Sais, the ancient metropolis of Lower Egypt, and held in great veneration. It has been made the subject of many poetical allusions. Schiller has a poem entitled Das verschleierte Bild zu Sais.

cal fresco in the Vatican, Rome, designed by Raphael (1483-1520), but executed by his pupils.

Venus and Cupid. A picture by

George Pencz (1500-1550), a German painter. In the Gallery at Munich, Bavaria.

Venus and Mercury teaching Cupid his Letters. A picture by Antonio Allegri, surnamed Correggio (1494-1534). In the National Gallery, London.

Venus at Cytherea. See LANDING
OF VENUS AT CYTHEREA.
Venus, Birth of. See BIRTH OF
VENUS.

Venus Callipyge. An admired statue found at Rome among the ruins of Nero's Golden House, and which has been attributed to Praxiteles. It is now in the Museum at Naples.

"The Venus Callipygis, apparently a boudoir ornament, reminding one of the pretty license of our eighteenth century.' Taine, Trans.

Venus, The Cnidian. See CNIDIAN VENUS.

Venus coming from the Bath. A well-known statue by Antonio Canova (1757-1822), of which there are several repetitions. One is in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence, another in the possession of Lord Lansdowne.

Venus coming from the Bath. An admired statue by Giovanni da Bologna (1524-1608)," remarkable for delicacy and grace [Flaxman].

Venus de' Medici. A famous statue, and one of the most perfect remains of ancient art. Now in the Tribune of the Uffizi Palace in Florence, and is supposed to be the work of the Greek sculptor Cleomenes (fl. 363? B.C.). It is a figure of the goddess, of small but beautiful proportions, regarded as an example of perfect art in its class. It was discovered in the villa of Hadrian, near Tivoli, about the year 1680.

"Her modest attitude is partly

On

what unmakes her as the heathen goddess, and softens her into woman. account of the skill with which the statue has been restored, she is just as whole as when she left the hands of the sculptor. One cannot think of her as a senseless image, but as a being that lives to gladden the world, incapable of decay or death; as young and fair as she was three thousand years ago, and still to be young and fair as long as a beautiful thought shall require physical embodiment." Hawthorne.

"The Venus stands somewhat aside from the centre of the room, and is surrounded by an iron railing, a pace or two from her pedestal in front and less behind. I think she might safely be left to the reverence her womanhood would win, without any other protection. She is very beautiful, very satisfactory, and has a fresh and new charm about her unreached by any cast or copy." Hawthorne.

There, too, the Goddess loves in stone, and fills

The air around with beauty; we inhale The ambrosial aspect, which, beheld, in

stils