Part 11

They dined with us, as did Capt. Montgomery, a natural son of Ld. Pembroke’s. We all went to the Cocomero, and returned here to supper. Ld. H. quite delightful; his gaiety beyond anything I ever knew; full of good stories. He seems bent upon politics, and, with his eagerness, I think it is lucky he is out of the way of saying foolish, violent things.

_5th._--I went this morning to the Cabinet Physique with Fontana. He showed me the details of his astonishing _homme de bois_. It is composed of 3000 pieces of wood that take off from the surface; beneath there are a variety of others which mark the veins, arteries, etc. In all there are 250,000 different pieces of wood.[122] Prince Louis d’Arenberg passed the evening with me; he is very amusing.

_6th._--An order is published this day that expels all the French domiciliated here who have arrived since the 15th January, 1793. The pretext is a scarcity of corn, the price of which has been considerably augmented since the great exportation to France last year. Fontana dined with us; he tired me so much upon French politics that I quitted the room from downright _ennui_. In the evening Ld. Hervey brought Sir G. Elliot; they are just come from Leghorn. Sir G. was shipwrecked in sight of port, but assistance was so near that no danger ensued.[123] He was on his return to Toulon. He is trying to obtain from this Government a permission to allow the poor Toulonese emigrants to reside here.

_12th Feb._--The Toulonese are permitted to reside in Tuscany. The King’s speech is very warlike, though nothing declaratory about the restoration of monarchy in France. The Duke of Portland supports the war most strenuously. Mr. Windham withholds himself from office, much as his friends urge him to accept a post that he may share the responsibility of measures which he promotes and supports. This is the stale plea of those who accept places and profess disinterestedness. Windham, Tom Grenville, and Pelham, when I left England, called themselves the _Virtuous Triumvirate_, and determined not to take office, from the idea that they could more effectually serve the Government by convincing the public that they quitted Opposition merely from a conviction of the wisdom of maintaining the measures of Administration than from the inducement of holding a place.

_14th._--Surprise and embarrassment have completely overset me. Oh! what vile animals men are, with headstrong passions. Now! I have heard from the lips of one who affects morality and domestic virtues maxims that would revolt all but the most depraved. ‘Pécher en _secret_, n’est point pécher.’ I told him it savoured of his Jesuitical education. His justification was that a singular combination of events arose to create a passion, where, in truth, so little could be expected in return. His long absence from home, perfect seclusion, and the strong impression of delight at meeting a countrywoman who brought back the remembrance of past scenes--this complicated feeling made him deck the object who revived the recollection in glowing colours, and in him created a violent and, I hope, a transitory alienation from sense and propriety. Distress, awkwardness, and good-nature united made me act like a fool, but I was obliged to be peremptory latterly, as he proceeded to downright violence. One night coming from the Pergola I was compelled to get out of the carriage to avoid his pressing importunities. However, his last words were, ‘Be _kind and discreet_.’ He is in great alarm at his wife’s knowing this _écart_, as he affects great conjugal felicity.

[Sidenote: THE RETREAT FROM TOULON]

According to Sir G. Elliot’s account the retreat from Toulon must have abounded with affecting situations of distress and wretchedness. In the midst of the conflagration of the ships in the harbour, houses, magazines, etc., three small boats heavily laden with women and infants approached the _Victory_ (Admiral Ld. Hood’s ship), near which they tossed up and down in speechless agony, not daring to ask the relief which they needed so much, but expressing their entreaties with uplifted hands and deep groans. What anguish! A merciless enemy behind, a vast expanse of dreary sea before, and not a friendly shore to land upon. Although the ship was already filled by hundreds of refugees, yet Sir Gilbert persuaded Ld. Hood to admit these. He landed at Corsica, which he describes as being in a curious situation, unlike any country in civilised Europe. The whole country up in arms, without discipline or officers, yet alert and obedient. Paoli is their chief, who without possessing any superior abilities has the talent of conciliating and governing the people. His word is a decree, his power patriarchal, a compound of sovereign and parental authority. The natives have offered to put themselves under the protection of England, and Sir G. is occupied in promoting this, as he wants to be made Governor. They offer to expel the French if they can gain assistance. They are a hardy, bold, and intrepid race, every Corsican esteeming himself equal to his companions. This notion gives them a bold freedom, especially when political affairs are discussed, when they look upon themselves as entitled to be auditors at least.

I have again heard ----’s last words, ‘I love you, for my passions are stronger than my reason: your being good, gentle, and handsome justify me: for the sake of others be discreet.’ I will indeed! Rochefoucauld lay upon my table: he opened it at the 514th maxim, which he observed was fallacious, and gave himself as a contradictory proof, ‘On passe souvent de l’amour à l’ambition; mais on ne revient guère de l’ambition à l’amour.’

On February 15, 1794, the Websters left Florence on their way to Rome, taking the road which passes Siena and Lake Bolsena. After a stay of two days at Rome, they left on the 22nd for Naples.

[Sidenote: LORD HOLLAND]

_Florence, June 10th._--Reached Naples on the 26th February. Lodged at Severino’s. For the whole six or seven weeks I passed in that lovely spot I had not activity enough to occupy myself in any way but in lounging and talking. Ly. Bessborough and Ly. Spencer were there. A numerous band of young Englishmen from college; gambling and gallantry filled up the evenings and mornings. My favourite, Ld. G. Leveson-Gower, used often to come to me in the evening, as I sat at home a good deal on account of my _grossesse_ and disliking the card parties. His companion, Ld. Holland, is quite delightful. He is eager without rashness, well bred without ceremony. His disposition and turn of mind are reckoned very like his uncle, Mr. Fox: his manner resembles his maternal uncle, Colonel Fitzpatrick. His politics are warm in favour of the Revolution, and his principles are strongly tinctured with democracy. It is the brilliant side, and apparently the honest one; all young men are hit by it at first, but when they see more of the world they cure of their honesty and love of liberty. But he would lament with all the reasonable men should revolutionary doctrines obtain in England, as he thinks the actual form of government the best suited to the country. Though so zealous, he is totally without any party rancour; in short, he is exactly what all must like, esteem, and admire. His spirits are sometimes too boisterous, and may occasionally overpower one, but he is good-humoured enough to endure a reproof.

His bosom friend, Mr. Beauclerk,[124] is far from resembling him in any one amiable point of view: he is silent and sulky, and when he opens it is to tease his friend. I am told, however, that he is remarkably sensible, good-humoured, and pleasing to those who know him, but this must be taken upon trust, as he is the counterpart of Lord Burleigh in _The Critic_. He is deeply in love with Ly. B., and abhors Ld. Granville, who is his rival. I understand that I am odious to him; _je me venge_ in feeling as much against him as he possibly can towards me. Mr. Marsh[125] is very sensible; he is one of the very few _rational_ beings I met with. I carried him to Italinski one day, who was mightily pleased with his scholarship and conversation: he also lived much with me. Ld. Morpeth improves the more he is known; I always liked him.

I never saw Lady Ann Hatton before, and to my surprise found her in company with Ly. Plymouth, who is the great retailer of anecdotes against this slippery Hibernian, and whom she declared against receiving. Her face is not regularly handsome, her figure enchanting, an airy nymphlike form as youthful as a Hebe. She is, however, past thirty considerably. Her sister, Ly. E. Monck, is divinely beautiful; her head is angelic.

Ld. Digby[126] fell in love with Ly. Bruce, who only coquets with him. He is good-humoured, and full of good useful sense. There was a bad lot of drinking Irish, with Ld. Tyrone and Mr. Jefferies at their head, but I knew little of them. Mr. Brand continues his _belle amitié_ for me, rather sentimentally tiresome when he gets upon that topic. Italinski as usual. Drew delighted to see me. He is discontented with the Bessboroughs. Ld. Berwick behaved shockingly to poor Ly. Plymouth: she is very unhappy. He speaks to her and of her with the most disrespectful familiarity. The Hamiltons were as tiresome as ever; he as amorous, she as vulgar.

I made an excursion to Sorrento with Ld. Holland and Italinski: we slept there. I was terrified at crossing the bay. On my return I was foolish enough to get out of the boat on the Portici shore, and return home in a _calecino_.

A book just published by Sir William Hamilton. He got Italinski to correct the English, upon which Mr. North said, ‘He has made the Knight as clear as day.’

Ld. Henry took his seat in Parliament, and made a maiden speech which I hear from other quarters was esteemed very good. He said he was terrified at the silence of the assembly. His friend Canning has decidedly abandoned his patron and friend Sheridan, and is coming into Parliament under the auspices of Mr. Pitt. Ld. H. regrets this precipitation; though he of course likes him to act on his side, yet he thinks the law would have been a more certain friend to him than the favour of a Prime Minister. Wallace[127] has totally failed in speaking, and his principles out-Herod Herod, for the Ministers could not support him in some assertion he made as to the King’s power of landing foreign troops without the consent of Parliament. This heresy to the British Constitution was in consequence of some Hessians landing from the Isle of Wight.

[Sidenote: SOCIETY AT NAPLES]

During my stay at Naples I went, as I was told, at the peril of my life, to see Baron d’Armfeldt, who it seems is pursued by the Regent of Sweden, the Duke of Sudermania. He is accused of having formed a conspiracy to murder him, and obtain the keeping of the minor King’s person. Be this as it may, he has been demanded of the Court of Naples by that of Sweden formally to be delivered up as a fugitive rebel, but the Queen is interested about him, and has him concealed. The Swedish emissaries are active in their search, and have several times fired at him, and once at a person getting out of his carriage, whom they mistook for this supposed delinquent. The accusation is black, but the truth of it uncertain. Ld. Henry laughs at me for calling him ‘The Victim’: he is at Stockholm, and can judge of the story. I passed a pleasant day at Cumæ with the Palmerstons. I took Italinski, Mr. Marsh, and Ld. Holland in my carriage. We were joined by Count Rumford, etc.

At Rome, which I reached early in May, or, I believe, towards the middle of April, I lived in the Villa di Matta, a charming situation upon the Pincian Hill overlooking the city, and commanding a grand view of the distant hills and Campagna. Almost the whole of our Neapolitan set was there, with the exception of Lords Digby, Boringdon, G. Leveson, who for reasons best known to themselves fled the enjoyments of Italy to fulfil some dull, unimportant duties in England, where nothing short of compulsion shall ever drag me.

[Sidenote: ‘SAL VOLATILE’]

We all made an excursion to Tivoli, Bessboroughs, Ld. Grandison, and the young men. I conveyed Ld. Holland, Mr. Marsh, and Beauclerk. We lodged at a nobleman’s villa, took our own provisions and cook, and passed our time with jollity. Lord Bessborough grew very cross, and from a fit of jealousy about Mr. Beauclerk, compelled us all to return to Rome, and disquieted our mirth. We got back late at night. I had seen Tivoli the year before: a charming group of cedars in the garden of the family d’Este. In the course of our evenings Ld. H. resolved to make me admire a poet, of whom I had heard but little, Cowper: he is excellent, and amply repaid the labour of reading many hundred lines in blank verse, many of which are inharmonious. Mr. Marsh used to read to me Murphy’s translation of Tacitus. A sharp fit of gout, brought on by drinking Orvieto wine, did not increase the good temper of my companion; decorum, not inclination, made me keep at home. My evenings were agreeable; _he_, however, did not mar my comfort by partaking of my tranquil society. Went out every morning with Ly. B. Ld. Holland’s delightful spirits cheered us so much that we called him _sal volatile_, and used to spare him to one another for half an hour to enliven when either were melancholy.

I saw the Pope[128] give his benediction to a kneeling and believing multitude. The sight was imposing. He is an excellent actor; Garrick could not have represented the part with more theatrical effect than his present Holiness. I was grievously disappointed at the _Miserere_, the composition of Pergolesi, sung by differently modulated voices in the Sixtine Chapel. The illumination of the great cross inside St. Peter’s was very striking: the effect of the light upon the monumental effigies raised the painful recollection of death, the _sombre_ of the objects and the locality inspired melancholy. We went about to various chapels, where we found many a debauched fair one in the comely attire of matronly humility, expiating in penance and prayer many a dear sin, for the sole purpose of beginning a fresh catalogue of the cherished crimes. I saw occasionally the old Santa Croce, Cardinal Bernis, etc., etc., but Ly. Bessborough, Ld. Holland, Messrs. Marsh, Brand, etc., were those I lived habitually with.

I became very eager to get to Florence, as I received an account from Mrs. Wyndham of her arrival, and her being installed in her diplomatic functions. I parted with regret from Ly. Bessborough, who is to return by Loreto to England. I went the Perugia road to Florence, and arrived late in the night at Florence.

My first impulse was to seek with eagerness my little friend, but to my surprise I found her in a state of despondency that checked my joy. She abhors the prospect of residing here, and looks back with regret to England, and even to Bignor, which, whilst there, she detested. With some difficulty I contrived to make my house tolerably comfortable. It is a palace belonging to the family of Ginori, but not calculated for English habits, as it contains only three fireplaces, and _I_ have not one of the three; my tormentor has one, the nursery and a sitting-room the others. Lord Holland and Mr. Beauclerk passed a few days here on their way to Venice. Ld. H. assured me he came merely to make me a visit. The Palmerstons and Ly. Spencer came for a few days. Sir G. Elliot came over from Corsica to pass a few days.

[Sidenote: LORD WYCOMBE]

On the twelfth of June I was brought to bed of a little girl, christened by Mr. Penrose at Wyndham’s: her name is Harriet Frances.[129] Lady Bessborough, Mrs. Wyndham, and Wyndham were the sponsors. A few days before her christening Ld. Holland returned from Venice; he came to await the arrival of Lord Wycombe,[130] who joined him a few days after. Lord Wycombe is a very eccentric person. For the welfare of himself and family it is to be hoped that his actions are directly opposite to his sentiments; if not, he must be a scourge. Ld. H. tells me that the ladies who live with Ld. Lansdown, Miss Vernon[131] and Miss Fox, call him, ‘A Lovelace without his polish.’ His style of conversation is grand and declamatory, his humour excellent. He is very gallant: he began by making love equally to me and Mrs. Wyndham. We half thought of a project of playing him a trick, and treating him as Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page did the humorous knight, but Ld. H. said it was playing with an edged tool.

The months of July, August, and September were passed very pleasantly. Early in September I set off on a solitary expedition to see Lucca Baths. I went through the town of Lucca, and arrived at the Baths in time for dinner. I dined with Ly. Rivers: I got up early in the morning, and went in a _portantine_ to see the hills, etc. The Prato Fiorito was too distant for a morning excursion; I went from thence to ----, where I lodged in the house of a Marchese; they gave me a very good supper, good bed, and received me with cordiality. I spoke no Italian, and knew none of the party, which was very numerous; however, I got through the evening tolerably. They must have thought me a strange person, young, pretty, and alone, travelling merely to see the quarries of Carrara! It was perhaps an odd freak.

I dined the next day at Massa. I had a letter to a descendant of the Greek Emperor Paleologus, his name is Paleologo. He is a single man; to avoid a _tête-à-tête_ with a perfect stranger, the visit to whom was whimsical in itself, I admitted my maid _en tiers_. I was in high spirits and very jolly. I went in a _chaise-à-porteurs_ into the quarries at Carrara. They produce the finest marble after that found at Paros. My royal Greek was very careful of me. He escorted me through all difficulties, torrents, chasms, precipices, etc. Upon the whole I expect he took me for an _aventurière_; indeed, he well might, though my suite rather imposed upon him, for I went in my own chaise, my maid with me, and on the seat my cook and a footman, and André was on horseback. I am sure he thought there was something _mysterious_, at least, about me.

I went from Massa to Pisa, where to my surprise I found Lords Wycombe and Holland, and my _farouche_ companion; they had not found a favourable wind to cross to the Isle of Elba, and were on their return to Florence. I walked about Pisa in the morning. It is a beautiful town, and the quay has perhaps the advantage of Florence in beauty. The Campo Santo, the Campanile, and the church are very beautiful. The leaning tower is still a problem among the curious, whether its deviation from the perpendicular was accidental or intentional. Monsieur de la Condamine measured it with a plumb line, and found that when let down from the top it touched the ground at the distance of thirteen feet from the bottom of the tower.

[Sidenote: VALLOMBROSA]

Lord Wycombe read us a sonnet he had just composed; it was very ingeniously written. I went to the famous Vallombrosa, a Benedictine convent, about sixteen miles from Florence. The road for the last six miles is through a thick forest of chestnut; the ascent is steep. The monastery is placed on a verdant lawn round which the mountains form an amphitheatre; the darkest pines surround the whole building, and hanging woods of that tree only decorate the steep sides of the hills. No woman is admitted within the convent walls; I dined at the Mill House close to it. After dinner the _Padre Abate_ and many of the monks came out and joined us. He is a lively, middle-aged man, with apparently little love of devotion and a strong love of pleasure.

In the month of October Lds. Wycombe and Holland went to Rome and Naples; the latter was unwell, and wanted to consult with Dr. Thompson. My tormentor went to Milan and Turin for some months. Mr. Amherst[132] and Mr. Cornewall[133] stayed some time at Florence. The first is a quiet, sedate young man, full of proprieties and all sorts of good things. The latter is good-humoured and weak. Mr. A. fell in love with me and Mrs. W.; he was most in love with the one he saw last. We went to balls, and were very gay. I quitted my house in the Via Maggio, as it was too cold for winter, and took a delicious residence within the walls of the town, but in the midst of gardens called the Mattonaia or Shuileries.[134] The fitting up of the house was magnificent; one room cost four thousand sequins. It was made of rich japan, fine black and gold, and the ornaments were appropriate and superb.

I read as usual a good deal. About that time, _October_, I began to relish the Italian poets, particularly Ariosto. Read the _Pucelle_ in a castrated edition. Voltaire evidently imitates the _Orlando_, especially in the beginning of his cantos; there are some poetical descriptive passages quite good. Targioni gave me a course of experimental chemical lectures.

I rode about the environs of Florence; nothing can be more lovely than the villas. My children lived on Fiesole till about October.

... like the moon, whose orb Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views At evening, from the top of Fesolè.[135]

Milton describes Tuscany often, and seems to feel a proper love for it. They told me at Vallombrosa of his having resided several months within their monastery, and of his having written Italian sonnets--bad enough they were, the critics say.

Thick as autumnal leaves that strew the brooks In Vallombrosa, where the Etrurian shades High over-arched embow’r ...

Early in November Lords Wycombe and Holland returned from Rome. The latter gave us a great ball on the 21st November (1794), the day he came of age. Ld. Carmarthen and a few other English added novelty to our parties. The Gallery afforded me a constant source of delight, the Tribune, &c. About Christmas Sir G. W. returned from Milan. The masquerading at the Carnival diverted me. In March, Ld. H., on my birthday, wrote the following lines. ‘To a lady at Florence, on her birthday, 1795.’[136]

I went to Vallombrosa alone to pass a day or two. I meant to live in solitude. I lodged at the _hospice_ of the Convent, a building made for the accommodation of travellers, and used as a residence for the sick monks during the rigour of the winter, but the overstrained politeness of the _Padre Abate_ defeated my projects of quiet. He no sooner heard of my arrival than he came from the sequestered cloister, and brought with him six or seven of the Fraternity to keep me company; thus I never had a moment to myself, and was fairly compelled to go to bed at seven o’clock to escape from their civilities.

The French have taken possession of Holland this winter, and compelled the Stadtholder to fly to England with his family.[137] The terror of the Republican arms spreads everywhere.

[Sidenote: MR. VASSALL’S DEATH]