The decade from 1869 onwards is called by Mrs Orr the fullest period in Browning's life.

His social occupations and entertainments both in London and for a time as a visitor at country-houses became more numerous and absorbing, yet he had energy for work as well as for play.

During these ten years no fewer than nine new volumes of his poetry appeared.

None of them are London poems, and Italy is for the present almost forgotten; it is the scene of only two or three short pieces, which are included in the volume of 1876--_Pacchiarotto and how he worked in distemper; with other Poems_.
The other pieces of the decade as regards their origin fall with a single exception into two groups; first those of ancient Greece, suggested by Browning's studies in classical drama; secondly those, which in a greater or less degree, are connected with his summer wanderings in France and Switzerland.

The dream-scene of Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau is Leicester Square; but this also is one of the poems of France.