•3 * 
 
 Vi»r' 
 
 'f 
 
 * vM.* »^* 0^* T 
 
 «<>'><. « #' 4 « » « « v 
 
 « ir !» A 4 » « « k» i i « * 
 
 » ja. « * Mi. a 4 M. s ■■-■ ..V' * 
 
 .^- 
 
 ^> t 
 
 » <> a 1 
 
 s 
 
 « » « K 
 
 »» « » » « * « 9 
 
 PJ&« ffJSGL^^ «.jffi.« 
 
 ij ♦ a * 
 
 4 « « 
 
 « tr « « 
 
 « » 16 i . <» 
 
 (iJteiifiu^^kfti^-.; * *•■ ' * o • » • * n H 1- '\ » 
 * <i ■ K. a « 
 
 fornia * 
 lal 
 
 y 
 
 It t 
 
 <j a « 
 
 i 
 
 :• ■» « * » o * * * 
 
 « ■ *"' * •» » •*. « tt « « i.1 
 
 I i* £ i A * O « <t i> 
 
 '»?(' 
 
 i» c c * » * 
 
 > « « o » « » «> 
 
 :» 4 't u « » » w - 
 
 * * .M, ft 'y M. « «• 
 
 
 a 6 
 
 u « • 
 
 • 4/ » U « 
 
 •« : » « » 
 
 ., / 
 
 ¥ 
 
 t: 
 
 r 
 
 ^ in ti 
 
 x ti » » 4> , 
 
 l» IJ I. ^ ;* t- '> « l- J' ' . >.
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES

 
 ENGLISH 
 
 FA S H I O NA B L E S 
 
 ABROAD. 
 
 A NOVEL. 
 
 I'll be your Cicerone ; you sliall see 
 
 Our private homes, our soirees, our gay fetes. 
 
 And most exclusive throngs. 
 
 These we keep sacred from the prying eye 
 
 O' the stranger; but you are privileged. 
 
 New Plat. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 
 
 1827.
 
 PKTMED BY A. J. VALl'Y, 
 RXD LION COURT, FLEET STREKT.
 
 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 ABROAD. 
 
 CHAP. I. 
 
 JOURNEY TO ROME. 
 
 "I WONDER who was the fool that first 
 brought travelling into fashion ! " said Lord 
 Vanderviile, in no very amiable tone of voice, 
 as he vainly endeavoured to regain the comfort- 
 able posture from which a sudden, but not 
 unwonted jolt, had just disturbed him. *♦ Italian 
 posting and Italian roads would wear out the 
 patience of Job, and the best carriage Leader 
 ever made. — How can you read so eternally, 
 VOL. I. A
 
 2 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 Myrvin ? " continued his Lordship, perceiving 
 his companion's studies were still uninterrupted, 
 notwithstanding all the impediments which had 
 arisen to disturb his own slumbers. 
 
 " I don't think this road so execrable as you 
 do," replied Mr. Myrvin : " you must consider 
 we are climbing the Apennines now." 
 
 " Your quietness is enough to provoke a 
 saint," returned Lord Vanderville : " if I did 
 not know that you could sometimes be gay, I 
 never should forgive your being so often con- 
 templative, and so resigned under annoyances." 
 
 Myrvin coloured, and the half smile that 
 passed over his countenance bore something of 
 melancholy with it, that Lord Vanderville 
 scarcely knew whether to attribute to pity for 
 his own restlessness of which he was fully con- 
 scious, or to feelings more personally interesting 
 to Myrvin. His attempt, however, to translate 
 its doubtful expression, was interrupted by a 
 shock still severer than that which had already 
 destroyed the equanimity of his Lordship's 
 temper, and the alternate prayers and oaths 
 reiterated both by the servants and postilions
 
 ABROAD. 3 
 
 convinced tliem at once that a part of the car- 
 riage was broken. 
 
 The trouble and bustle that now succeeded, 
 might, to another traveller, have proved the most 
 vexatious part of the incident, but to Lord Van- 
 derville these were positively amusing. He found 
 a hundred different remedies and expedients in 
 a minute ; laughed heartily at the awkwardness 
 of his assistants, which provoked the tranquil 
 Myrvin ; and if he had reflected — which was 
 precisely what he never did — he would have 
 found, in this trifling circumstance, the riddle of 
 his own fate and character. 
 
 The delay which this occasioned, prevented 
 the travellers reaching Radicofani till late at 
 night. It was in November ; and one of the 
 autumnal showers, which in Italy fall with such 
 extraordinary violence, suddenly overtook them 
 as they were slowly winding up the steep and 
 rugged mountain, on whose summit stands the 
 miserable village, where alone the travellers 
 could hope for shelter. In a few moments, a 
 scene of such instantaneous desolation was pre- 
 sented, that it is almost impossible to describe it ;
 
 4 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 and, though by no means uncommon in Italy, 
 would appear incredible to those who have never 
 witnessed similar effects. The road, which at all 
 times is stony, now appeared transformed into 
 the rocky bed of an impetuous river : streamlets, 
 that half an hour before were scarcely visible, 
 tumbled in torrents headlong- down the moun- 
 tain, and sometimes in their descent crossed the 
 road and marked their track by its destruction ; 
 whilst huge masses of the gravelly soil, of which 
 these mountains are principally composed, borne 
 down by the sudden force of the current, were 
 only stopped in their course by the inequalities 
 of the road itself, and there seemed to gather 
 in accumulating masses, as if to form new ob- 
 stacles to their journey. 
 
 " What a magnificent storm this would be 
 for one of Ariosto's cavaliers to wander in !" ex- 
 claimed Lord Vanderville, whose natural good 
 humour and vivacity had returned, simply from 
 the effects of accidental excitement. " Suppose 
 wc were two knights-errant, climbing this 
 monntaiQ to relieve a lovely lady shut up in a 
 castle at the top of it ; the enchanter's wand,
 
 ABROAD. 
 
 in an instant, changes the whole face of the 
 country : rivers, never seen before, gush out at 
 our feet; flames burst at once over our heads. 
 You know, Myrvin, these mountains are all 
 volcanic, and " 
 
 " And the road over them," interrupted Myr- 
 vin, " is a hundred times worse than that you 
 abused so much three hours ago. For my part, I 
 must own I would rather find a good English inn 
 at the end of my day's journey, than all the en- 
 chanted castles Ariosto himself ever dreamed of." 
 
 " Now, for Heaven's sake, Myrvin, don't 
 digress to toast and muffins. You know the 
 other night at Florence, when I had just wound 
 up LaTerracina and myself to the highest pitch 
 of poetry and enthusiasm, your detestable quo- 
 tation from ' Les Precieuses Ridicules ' threw us 
 both off our stilts, and I never could get her to 
 spout Dante afterwards." 
 
 " I didn't want her to draw you into I'lnfer- 
 no," replied Myrvin. 
 
 Lord Vanderville turned short round, and 
 looked inquisitively in his companion's face; 
 but though the lamps shone brightly on his coun-
 
 b ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 fenance, it appeared as totally devoid of any 
 particular expression, as his voice had been 
 unmarked by emphasis ; and his Lordship drop- 
 ped the conversation. 
 
 At last they reached the inn, where their 
 arrival was not announced, as it would have 
 been in France, by the loud cracking of the 
 postilion's whips ; or, as it would have been in 
 England, by the quick and respectful curtsey 
 of the hostess ; or, even as it would have been 
 in Ireland, by the garrulous hospitality, not 
 only of the landlord's whole family, but by every 
 ragged boy and barking cur in the neighbour- 
 hood. At Radicofani, the bullocks which had 
 assisted in, or rather effected, drawing their car- 
 riage up the mountain, stopped, it is true, in- 
 stinctively at the well-known door; but their 
 drivers, not giving themselves the trouble of 
 calculating the enormous length of their rope- 
 traces, or the string of tired horses that lagged 
 behind, — it of course happened, that whilst the 
 horns and white faces of the bullocks found easy 
 admission at the unglazed window of the inn, 
 the carriage remained out of sight of its door.
 
 ABROAD. 7 
 
 If our Englishmen bad been suddenly trans- 
 ported from London to Tuscany, they might, 
 perchance, have anticipated a different, and 
 somewhat more co7nfortahle reception, than that 
 which awaited them on this rainy winter's night ; 
 but they had already served nearly an appren- 
 ticeship in travelling, and consequently, with- 
 out much of either surprise or disgust, they 
 proceeded through the stable, and followed the 
 bare-legged, unlaced, loose-haired damsel, who, 
 forewarned by their courier, now attended to 
 light them up the tottering stairs which crossed 
 the manger, where their bullocks were already 
 busy : from thence, through an open corridor, 
 they advanced to the only room in the inn, 
 which, by any possible misnomer, could be 
 called a parlour. 
 
 A tripod lamp, of an old Etruscan shape, 
 swung on the maid's finger ; but its three little 
 flickering fltmies scarcely sufficed to guide them 
 through the door-case of this apartment, (for 
 door it had none,) and over the inequalities of 
 the red-tiled floor, to a corner where a bundle 
 oi wet sticks, thrown loosely on a wide hearth,
 
 8 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES' 
 
 gave faint promise of a future fire. But at no 
 time can gloom be considered as characteristic 
 either of Italy, or of its inhabitants in general. 
 A respectable fat farmer in England would be 
 perfectly content to make his substantial meal of 
 beef-steak and strong beer by the darkness of an 
 unsnuffed tallow candle ; but even the lazzaroni 
 of Italy know and enjoy the luxury of light ; 
 and whether their maccaroni is served in their 
 cottages, or at the corner of the open street, the 
 repast is sure to be enlivened by a brilliancy of 
 illumination that mocks the day. 
 
 In a very short time the faggots blazed 
 brightly ; the lamps were multiplied in all di- 
 rections ; the long, dark, dirty table was covered 
 with a profusion of linen, coarse, but rivalling 
 the snow in whiteness ; and the room, which 
 but a few minutes before had appeared the very 
 emblem of desolation, became at once that of 
 cheerfulness ; although it still retained some 
 of the characteristics of Italian inns, Avhich may 
 invariably boast iniglazed windows, uncovered 
 and generally unswept floors, chimneys without 
 grates, beds without curtains, walls stained
 
 ABROAD. 9 
 
 partly in (/uaclie and partly by mildew, and 
 ceilings in which the rafters are made doubly 
 conspicuous by gaudy paintings, where may be 
 distinguished every shade of dirt and every 
 contrast of colour, white only excepted. Nor 
 are these peculiarities confined to those humbler 
 hostelries of mountain districts : even some of 
 the Italian hotels might be so described, though 
 others vie with those of London or Paris in 
 their elegancies as well as comforts ; v/hilst a few 
 mongrel alherghi of intermediate rank might 
 fairly class as barracks in extent of accom- 
 modation and paucity of furniture. These ge- 
 nerally maintain a consistent mediocrity even in 
 the ornaments of their walls, which, instead of 
 being covered entirely with stamped papers, 
 (even of those common kinds which are used in 
 English garrets,) are only partially decorated 
 with this luxury (foreign to Italy), which is par- 
 simoniously cut into stripes or oblongs, and thus 
 converted into substitutes for pictures. Thus 
 the printer who has succeeded in colourino- 
 some fathoms of " whity brown"" at two-pence 
 a yard, without breaking the second command-
 
 10 ENGLISH FASIIIONADLES 
 
 ment by " the likeness of any thing that is in 
 heaven above or in the earth beneath," might 
 receive the reward of his labours by seeing, 
 within the very pale of the Bolognese school, 
 certain portions of them, not exceeding three 
 feet by one, neatly bound with red or black tape, 
 and hung round the rooms as carefully as our 
 cottagers suspend " The Rake's Progress," or 
 that of the pious " Pilgrim, Good Intent." 
 
 But Lord Vanderville and Myrvin did not 
 stop to notice peculiarities to which they were 
 already accustomed ; nor, which was a forbear- 
 ance still more unusual, did they abuse the 
 country they travelled in for those character- 
 istic inconveniences which formed part of the 
 variety they had come abroad to see. On a 
 grand scale of reasoning. Lord Vanderville would 
 at any time have preferred difficulties, whether 
 great or small, to ease and inactivity, which the 
 very instability of his character made him con- 
 sider as the greatest possible evils; and at the 
 same time, the contrary disposition in his com- 
 panion brought him to the same conclusion, for 
 Myrvin had previously calculated that in tra-
 
 ABROAD. 11 
 
 veiling he exchanged comfort for pleasure, and 
 as yet he had found neither the premises nor 
 corollary to fail. 
 
 Nevertheless, when the first bustle of arrival 
 was over, and when they were tired of quizzing- 
 the ugly waiting girl, and of imitating her 
 Spanish pronunciation of the " Lingua Toscana," 
 probably Myrvin might have begun to yawn, 
 and Vanderville to abuse the innoxious fluid 
 he called vermicelli water, but which the cook 
 miscalled vermicelli soup, had it not been for 
 a fortunate interruption, namely, the arrival of 
 some strangers still more drenched than our 
 friends had been. At least, such they divined 
 to be the cause of the renewed activity of the 
 indefatigable girl, and the surly tones in which 
 several new voices were expostulating under 
 their windows. 
 
 The contents of the large open straw basket 
 in which all the loose packages of travellers are 
 received at the inn doors in Italy, soon pro 
 claimed that some ladies were of the lately- 
 arrived party ; the basket consisted of books, 
 muffs, chauffe-ineds, cassettes, and bonnets,
 
 12 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 towered high in pyramidal confusion ; and oil 
 the top of all, enthi'oned on a vite cliourra, 
 sat a beautiful little snarling Italian greyhound. 
 
 " This barn, after all, turns out to be your 
 magician's castle ; and here comes your en- 
 chanted lady," said Myrvin, laughing. 
 
 Without much trouble in cross-questioning 
 their loquacious and still bustling attendant, 
 they learned from her that the same carriage 
 had passed through Radicofani some hours be- 
 fore, but that the sudden flood had overtaken 
 the travellers just as they had reached the 
 banks of the river Rigo, and obliged them to 
 return. 
 
 " What ! are the bridges washed away then f 
 eagerly asked Lord Vanderville, delighted at 
 the prospect of an adventure. 
 
 " Bridges ! " reiterated the girl, with the 
 broad sneering laugh with which ignorance 
 always greets either the desire or need of in- 
 formation. " Bridges ! — there are no bridges — 
 I'm talking of the torrent." 
 
 " Just the place where I should have looked 
 for bridges !" observed Myrvin.
 
 ABROAD. 13 
 
 " Why the French have left Italy !" And 
 possibly the news of Adam's death would have 
 occasioned the girl as much actual surprise as 
 she expected her present information would 
 have produced on her auditors. 
 
 " And how are we to pass this torrent ?" 
 impatiently demanded Vanderville. 
 
 " You must ford it seven times before you 
 reach Ponte Centino ; and if the floods come 
 down whilst you are in the valley, you have no 
 escape. Last week a French courier was over- 
 taken in the fourth stream, and as he could get 
 neither backwards nor forwards, he and his 
 horses were drowned : you may hear the rush 
 of the waters for miles, for it all comes down in 
 a moment — in the clapping of your hands." 
 
 " And this is the high road from Florence, 
 and the only road from Sienna to Rome ! Oh 
 for an asdile in the nineteenth century !" 
 
 The girl had no further opportunity of show- 
 ing either her topographical or biographical pro- 
 ficiency, for just then the two newly-arrived 
 ladies entered the ro©m : the first was tall, 
 thin, old, and a little lame ; and the second was
 
 14 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 SO completely concealed by a French bonnet 
 and Cashniire shawl, that it was hardly pos- 
 sible to guess her form or fashion. 
 
 Very little notice was at first taken of each 
 other by either of these parties, beyond that 
 slight sort of transient salutation which means 
 nothing to strangers, and implies every thing to 
 intimates. Lord Vanderville certainly felt some 
 curiosity to see what sort of face was hid under 
 the large bonnet. What man of five and twenty 
 would not? But curiosity was not with him 
 the insatiable passion it had once been : of his 
 short life he had already lived eight years en- 
 tirely his own master; and what is called the 
 heau monde seldom leaves much curiosity un- 
 satisfied in a young earl so circumstanced. But 
 Myrvin sat unmoved, calmly picking his teeth, 
 and coolly surveying an engagement which had 
 taken place between the lady's maid and the 
 lap-dog, as to which should keep possession of 
 the vite chourra. 
 
 Nor were the fair intruders apparently more 
 inquisitive on the subject of their unknown as- 
 sociates. Handsome young men are now ver^-
 
 ABROAD. 15 
 
 common every where; and as they hud dispensed 
 with the attendance of their own servants, 
 partly from indolence, and partly from good 
 nature, there was nothing peculiarly descriptive 
 of their rank or characters in the fur caps, and 
 tagged great coats which they wore, like most 
 other travellers in Italy. 
 
 Without therefore seeming in the least to 
 notice her companions, the old lady proceeded 
 to give long and audible directions to her ser- 
 vants as to the care of her carriage, and the 
 arrangement of her musquito net ; whilst her 
 younger fellow-traveller turned her back to the 
 two gentlemen ; and drawing her chair almost 
 into the fire, sat wrapped up in furs and medi- 
 tation. 
 
 All this however afforded no amusement to 
 Lord Vanderville ; and that part of his conduct 
 which was usually most consistent, was founded 
 on the principle of never remaining long in any 
 place that did not afford him amusement. He 
 therefore very soon left the room to visit his 
 favourite chestnut horse; and Myrvin, drawing 
 one of the lamps closer to him, proceeded with
 
 16 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 equal deliberation in his two favourite amuse- 
 ments, eating almonds, and writing memoranda. 
 But the light had not long glared on his dark 
 brow and manly forehead, when his occcupa- 
 tion was interrupted by an exclamation from 
 the elder lady,—" What ! Charles Myrvin, is it 
 you ?" to which his response of " God bless 
 me! Lady Harman ?" marked at once assent 
 and mutual recognition. 
 
 Wonder how they should have happened to 
 meet at Radicofani, and wonder they should 
 not have happened to meet any where else, of 
 course succeeded to these unexpected recollec- 
 tions ; and all the other common-place queries 
 had scarcely been made and answered, when 
 Lady Harman inquired, in a tone of voice sa- 
 tirical, confidential, and authoritative, " What 
 could have brought you abroad, Myrvin ? You 
 are too experienced to travel for your own 
 amusement, and the Duke of Delamere's heir 
 will scarcely journey at any other man's bid- 
 ding." 
 
 " I am at present with my cousin, Lord 
 Vanderville."
 
 ABROAD. 17 
 
 " In what capacity ? guardian, I hope, for the 
 sake of consistency." 
 
 " Your Ladyship may give me whatever 
 travelling title you think most suitable." 
 
 " 1 should find it difficult in choosing one, at 
 least as long as the old duke lives. But since 
 Vauderville brought you abroad, tell me, in the 
 name of wonder, what has brought Jiim ? I 
 thought he was to have been married as soon as 
 he came of age to your other cousin, Sophy 
 Aston : is the noose broke or fastened ?" 
 
 " I know the world gave him to Miss Aston, 
 or rather gave her fortune to him, but I believe 
 there never was any foundation for the report. 
 But now, Lady Harman, it is my turn to cate- 
 chise : may I ask what tempted you to leave 
 Hurtleberry Park?" 
 
 " Anxiety for my health, and love of anti- 
 quities." 
 
 " And who have you got for a companion i" 
 
 " She must answer for herself. — Miss Stern- 
 heim— Mr. Myrvin." 
 
 Charles had not calculated on the possibility 
 of his casual question so speedily entailing the
 
 18 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 trouble of even making a bow ; and as he was at 
 the moment seated with his back to the object 
 of his inquiry, he found it especially inconve- 
 nient to move even his eyes towards her : — but 
 when they once fell in that direction, it was still 
 more diflicult to withdraw them. 
 
 She had, during the last part of Lady Har- 
 man's conversation, turned sideways on her 
 chair ; and at the same time the huge unsociable 
 bonnet had been transferred to one of the most 
 beautiful little hands that ever hung over the 
 tall back of a chair ; whilst as the other played 
 with the greyhound that stood at her knee, the 
 loose shawl was left to fall off her shoulders, and 
 to display a fairy form of perfect symmetry, 
 not yet attained to woman's height. Her 
 glossy black hair, curled short in her neck 
 behind, and, opening wide over her forehead, 
 showed a face that Myrvin at the moment 
 thought beautiful, and perhaps he was right ; 
 for the fire, or some other accidental circum- 
 stance, illumined her cheeks and eyes, and the 
 smile that played hide and seek round her 
 dimpling mouth, discovered the finest teeth
 
 ABROAD. 19 
 
 imaginable, as she at last returned his pro- 
 tracted stare by a hearty laugh. 
 
 "I am afraid you still find it impossible to do 
 me the honour of recalling me to your remem- 
 brance," said Miss Sternheim after a minute's 
 pause ; thus, with a mixture of coquetry and 
 ndivett, leaving it to Myrvin to account as he 
 pleased for his present evident surprise. 
 
 " Assuredly yes," stammered he rather awk- 
 wardly ; " in Kent — I think — I had the pleasure 
 of dancing with you two years ago at Canter- 
 bury ; but you were a little girl in frocks then." 
 
 " Why how comes it, Myrvin," interrupted 
 Lady Harman, " that you never told me you 
 were acquainted with my niece ?" 
 
 " Niece .'" reiterated Myrvin, in a tone of 
 unsubdued astonishment. 
 
 " I do not wonder indeed," returned her Lady- 
 ship, " that you should be surprised at my ac- 
 knovvledging for my niece the daughter of Mr. 
 Sternheim of Feversham : but remember, Myr- 
 vin, we sink the pedigree; and you will be so 
 good as to date your acquaintance with Miss 
 Sternheim only from to-day."
 
 20 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 " It is not necessary the accjuaintance should 
 have any beginning-," haughtily replied Miss 
 Sternheim. 
 
 Myrvin muttered something about not wish- 
 ing it to end, but for once he felt himself rather 
 embarrassed. It was evident he had not for- 
 gotten his former condescension, when, as a gay 
 oificer of the guards, he had once done Emily 
 Sternheim the honour of dancing, nay even 
 flirting with her, though then only in frocks, 
 and the daughter of " Mr. Sternheim of Fever- 
 sham:" so far indeed from forgetting this notable 
 instance of the Christian virtue, self-abasement, 
 he had often since thought of the beautiful little 
 romp, and now his manner vacillated between 
 the frank flattery his former introduction had 
 permitted, and the respectful admiration which 
 her present appearance seemed to demand. 
 
 The opportune return of Lady Harman's 
 servants interrupted the pause which had suc- 
 ceeded, and which appeared likely to have been 
 considerably protracted, at least on the part of 
 Miss Sternheim. Myrvin, glad of an excuse to 
 leave the field of action, profited by Lady Har-
 
 ABROAD. 21 
 
 mau's lameness, and offered her his arm as she was 
 preparing to retire, whilst Emily loitered behind 
 playing with her greyhound. This he no sooner 
 perceived, than he contrived to accelerate as 
 much as possible the good old lady's progress, 
 in hopes of having an opportunity of setthng at 
 once with the niece, instead of the aunt, the 
 preliminaries to his future acquaintance with 
 Miss Sternheim. But in this expected ttte-d- 
 tete he was disappointed ; for in returning down 
 the long corridor, which, according to the com- 
 mon style of building in Italy, gave entrance to 
 all the apartments, he perceived Emily and her 
 maid turn into her room, and he was conse- 
 quently necessitated to postpone his intended 
 explanation. 
 
 The following morning the river was declared 
 to be still impassable ; and as there appeared no 
 chance of leaving Radicofani that day, Myrvin's 
 slumbers were proportionably prolonged : for 
 he was not one of those preux chevaliers that 
 delighted in vigils; and being morally certain of 
 meeting Lady Harman and her niece in the 
 same parlour whenever he chose to descend
 
 22 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 thither, he did not consider the precise moment 
 of the encounter as a matter of life and death. 
 It is a trite maxim, that the certainty of finding 
 any object considerably lessens the desire of 
 seeking it ; and to this certainty, in all its relative 
 bearings, might perhaps be attributed the cir- 
 cumstance of Myrvin rather prolonging than 
 hurrying his toilette: yet it has never yet been 
 ascertained, nor of course is it now to be affirmed, 
 that during its operation, he stopped to think 
 at all either of Lady Harman or the niece 
 further than a mere passing wonder, " whether 
 the little Kentish girl would be as pleasant as 
 she used to be, or whether she meant to give 
 herself airs ?" 
 
 This doubt, transient as it was, however, was 
 not immediately satisfied; for just as he entered 
 the parlour, he met Lady Harman leaning on 
 Vanderville and Emily, and all three preparing 
 to profit by a gleam of sunshine, in walking out 
 to see — whatever the barren prospect round 
 Radicofani might present ; for it is one of the 
 penalties of travelling, that however sick, tired, 
 or lazy the tourist may be, he is, in virtue of
 
 ABROAD. 23 
 
 his character as such, in duty bound to sally 
 forth at every resting-place, to see all that is, 
 and is not to he found there. 
 
 Perhaps, as Lady Harman's party left the 
 room, Myrvin rather regretted not having been 
 in time to join them ; for he certainly found the 
 muddy coffee and Indian- corn bread unusually 
 abominable ; and grumbled as much at the want 
 of toast, butter, and cream, as if in any part of 
 his journey through Italy such luxuries had 
 ever entered into his calculation of probabilities. 
 
 When his solitary and comfortless repast was 
 finished, he stood indolently at the window, 
 undetermined whether to follow the party or 
 not, and abusing the little interstices called 
 panes, which, though without the obstruction 
 even of glass, sufficiently impeded all attempt to 
 see through them by the coarseness of the frame- 
 work and the consistency of its cobwebs. At 
 last, Lord Vanderville burst into the room in 
 high spirits, exclaiming, " A devilish nice girl, 
 I assure you, Charles !" 
 
 " Who do you mean ? Not that squab yonder,
 
 24 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 I hope ?" returned Myrvin, pointing to the 
 servant, who looked, if possible, dirtier and 
 uglier by day than by night. 
 
 " Why, Miss Steruheim, to be sure," replied 
 his Lordship, without stopping to consider whe- 
 ther Myrvin's mistake was accidental or inten- 
 tional. " How did you happen not to see her 
 as we went out ? Lady Harman told me your 
 acquaintance with her was of an old standing." 
 " O yes, old enough to be almost worn out 
 unless the niece makes it worth while to renew 
 it." 
 
 " It's worth while doing any thing for the 
 niece ; she is quite enchanting." 
 
 " I thought your enchanter was to have been 
 an old man with a wand." 
 
 " Nonsense, Myrvin ! did you ever see such 
 eyes as she has ?" 
 
 " I only looked at them once last night." 
 '< Then her figure ! it's a little Hebe." 
 " I am not fond of copies on a reduced size." 
 " You are enough to provoke a saint ! You 
 are never to be pleased, Myrvin !"
 
 ABROAD. 25 
 
 " Not at all ; but I take about as long in 
 finding out perfection, as you, Vanderville, take 
 time in tiring of it." 
 
 ** Well do for once leave out the avant 
 propos, and take my word for it that little Stern- 
 heim is a charming girl." Myrvin was not 
 precisely in the humour to assent to this pro- 
 position, but the disputes between these two 
 cousins seldom lasted long, and in this instance 
 it was concluded before they had strided toge- 
 ther above half-way down the mountain. 
 
 "Whatever interest the country round Radico- 
 fani may possess to the geologist or mineralo- 
 gist, it certainly affords none to those more 
 common and superficial observers of nature, 
 who prefer picturesque beauty on the surface of 
 the earth to the most curious strata its interior 
 could disclose. In the latter class, only could 
 Lord Vanderville and his companion be in- 
 cluded ; and excepting the one view towards 
 the south of the vale through which the Rigo 
 winds, and which now, inundated as it was, ap- 
 peared like avast lake on the horizon,— nothing 
 in the way of landscape offered itself as an in- 
 VOL. I. ' B
 
 26 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 (hicement to tbem to protract their walk. It is 
 true they stopped to notice some of the many 
 coloured stones which the rain had washed 
 clear and conspicuous from the surrounding 
 earth, and talked enthusiastically, if not learn- 
 edly, on all the beauties of the pietra dura 
 mosaic at Florence, which Vanderville best liked 
 because he had last seen, and which they both 
 amused themselves in conjecturino^ might be 
 soon copied, if not rivalled, by some of the very 
 pebbles they now walked upon. But in good 
 sooth these speculations afforded them not half 
 so much pleasure as the cold reality of the 
 fresh, bracing north wind, which exhilarated 
 their spirits, and seemed in very defiance to pro- 
 voke them to exercise. An Englishman who 
 meets such a breeze on an Italian mountain, 
 involuntarily hails it as if he again recognized 
 ■ his own free, native air ; it comes as the har- 
 binger of joy to inspire him with fresh vigour ; 
 he feels again the energy of his boyish, happi- 
 est days ; and his lightened spirits rise to the 
 buoyancy of their own element. Vanderville 
 and Myrviu felt gay and animated ; but they
 
 ABROAD. 27 
 
 were both wont to be so, and neither cared to 
 deduce so common an effect from any peculiar 
 cause, though both regretted the circumstance 
 of the days being so much shorter in Italy than 
 in England, as the rapid darkness warned them 
 to return. 
 
 What scene, however dreary, or what room, 
 however cheerless, can resist an Englishwoman's 
 arrangements ? Lady Harman was one of those 
 London ladies who would scarcely condescend 
 to accept even the necessaries of life, unless 
 they were blended with some auxiliary elegan- 
 ces ; and as all her suite had the daily advan- 
 tage of both practice and theory on the subject, 
 her minute directions were generally either 
 anticipated or obeyed, and the result was a 
 speedy transformation of most rooms in which 
 she made even a temporary stay. 
 
 Thus when Lord Yanderville and Myrviu 
 returned to the saloon, now, indeed, converted 
 into a parlour, they found the cold echoing 
 space contained within its wide walls, sub- 
 divided by temporary screens, so as to reduce
 
 28 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 the boasted magnitude of Italian dimensions to 
 (lie humble proportions that belong to English 
 comfort. A square of about twenty feet, which 
 appeared literally as nothing taken from the 
 dark vacuity, was thus enclosed round the 
 blazing fire; the skins from the floors of the 
 carriages were laid as substitutes for hearth- 
 rugs ; and the long table cVhote of the day be- 
 fore was exchanged for one exactly adapted 
 to the four covers which were laid in tacit invi- 
 tation to the reunion of both parties, which the 
 brilliant lights, and dazzling table-linen would 
 alone have rendered irresistible. 
 
 ** What a pleasure this is !" exclaimed Van- 
 derville, rubbing his hands, and standing with 
 his back to the fire, just as he would have done 
 in Westmorland. 
 
 ** Not the pleasure you would have antici- 
 pated for the latitude of forty-two." 
 
 ** You will call me perverse, Charles !" re- 
 joined Lord Vanderville, as they left the room 
 to dress, *' but I never prized my own coun- 
 trywomen half so much as since I left England.
 
 ABROAD. 29 
 
 An Italian woman is delightful in a ball-room, 
 but unquestionably none but English women 
 know what home is." 
 
 " Some English women of the last age may 
 know what a home ought to be, but all the 
 English women of the present day go abroad," 
 answered Myrvin, as he turned into his room 
 without waiting to pursue the argument ; for he 
 seldom took the trouble of noticing in what 
 sense his terse, and often enigmatical observa- 
 tions were received by his auditors, or of assist- 
 ing their explanation by any more explicit 
 vindication of his meaning than the most laconic 
 forms of words afforded. 
 
 When dinner was announced, and Myrvin 
 again met Miss Sternheim, he found it more 
 impossible than ever to dissent from Lord Van- 
 derville's praise of her beauty and fascination. 
 Nothing could exceed the general cheerfulness 
 of their repast. The earl, naturally remarkable 
 for his vivacity, was that day particularly gay ; 
 and though Myrvin was seldom extraordinarily 
 animated, yet his more quiet elegance veiled a 
 degree of shrewd humour that proved the source
 
 30 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 of wit in others as much as in himself; and 
 when he was again seated beside Emily Stern- 
 heim, perhaps he felt not unwilling that the 
 indifference to his acquaintance which she had so 
 lately professed might be rather removed than 
 confirmed. On her part, she seemed scarcely 
 to recollect or care when their acquaintance 
 began, and to be equally heedless of its con- 
 tinuance : her gay laugh and sparkling eyes 
 alike rewarded and promoted the passing re- 
 partee, whether the bon-mots were his or 
 Vanderville's ; and if she seemed to receive his 
 Lordship's attentions more favourably, it was 
 apparently only because they were more avowed. 
 Even Lady Harman was less dictatorial than 
 usual ; and when the party prepared to separate 
 for the night, it was possibly not with unmixed 
 pleasure they learned that the strong wind 
 had dried up the Rigo, and that consequently 
 there was neither necessity nor excuse for 
 longer deferring their journey. 
 
 Next morning, Lady Harman, whose activity 
 of mind produced a sympathetic restlessness of 
 body, left Radicofaui at sun-rise, but Lord
 
 ABROAD. 31 
 
 Vanderville and Myrviii did not follow for many 
 hours after ; for as a sort of mutual agree- 
 ment had been made the night before to stop at 
 Acquapendente, in order to pass the beautiful 
 lake of Bolsena by day-light, both gentlemen 
 deprecated the idea of going any part of the 
 journey at a moderate pace ; and in the school- 
 boy's phrase, preferred allowing Lady Harman's 
 carriage some hours law, in order to ensure to 
 themselves the pleasure of a race. 
 
 Their expectation of picturesque beauty in this 
 part of their journey was not great, as the most 
 part of the road from Sienna to Rome is 
 avowedly the dreariest in Italy ; but possibly 
 had they passed through the vale of tlie Arno, 
 they would not have found their minds suffi- 
 ciently disengaged to admire its beauties. As 
 it was, the torrent of the Rigo lost all its hor- 
 rors on a near approach ; and instead of finding, 
 as they had expected, a mountain cataract boil- 
 ing and fretting in its course, they pronounced 
 its treacherous and apparently tranquil, waters 
 almost despicable, as they meandered in smooth 
 and silent undulation through an uninteresting
 
 32 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 valley, owing their force and power of mis- 
 chief less to their own strength than to the 
 weakness of the barriers intended for their 
 restraint. 
 
 Lord Vanderville laughingly proposed to 
 Myrvin that he should write an essay, comparing 
 this stream to the government of that state 
 whose confines it ravages. But the discussion 
 on the demerits of each gave way to the subse- 
 quent necessity of a different decision, when on 
 arriving at Ponte Centino, the officer command- 
 ing at that barrier, seemingly unconscious of all 
 that his advice implied, earnestly recommended 
 their taking an escort of dragoons across the 
 plain, at that time infested by brigands, whose in- 
 cursions became daily more venturous and formi- 
 dable. But Englishmen are not used to confide 
 in any swords but their own ; they ridiculed the 
 magnified vet minute account of the adventures 
 said to have occurred " only the week before ;" 
 and, throwing several supernumerary Pauls* 
 out of the window to save the troublesome and 
 ridiculous ceremonies of the Custom-House, 
 
 * Roman coin about llie value of sixpence.
 
 ABROAD. 33 
 
 Lord Vanderville desired the postilions to drive 
 on, who, loudly cracking their whips, and 
 scarcely venturing to look behind them, gal- 
 loped at full speed and in perfect safety through 
 the interdicted district, till they reached the 
 long bridge over the river Paglia, whose stream 
 winds round the hill on which Acquapendente 
 is situated. 
 
 The moon had risen a short time before they 
 reached this spot, and now played on the clear 
 waters, as if to give them added brightness. 
 The dark branches of the trees dipped in the 
 stream, and by their number and thickness al- 
 most concealed their diminished foliage ; whilst 
 between their stems several cascades were seen 
 glittering in the moon-beams, as they rushed 
 down the steep sides of the hill, on whose sum- 
 mit the dark towers of the town stood clear and 
 distinct against the sky ; whilst rocks, crowned 
 with gray olives, and contrasted by the black 
 and spiral cypresses, enriched the fore-ground. 
 There was something at once soothing and in- 
 teresting in the scene : even the postilion!^ 
 seemed to feel its influence, and hushed tlieij
 
 34 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 wild songs as they walked up the steep beside 
 their horses ; and the two travellers reached the 
 inn in silence, meditating even more on those 
 whose glories once had shed a lustre on these 
 walls, than on her whose beauty now beamed 
 with self- radiance within them. 
 
 On their arrival, they found that Lady Har- 
 man and Miss Sternheim had retired for the 
 night ; and Lord Vanderville, disappointed at 
 the intelligence, proposed to Myrvin that they 
 should order their carriage for the same hour 
 as Lady Harnian's the next morning, for the 
 purpose, or rather the excuse, of escorting the 
 ladies through the dangerous woods of Bolsena. 
 
 Having thus in some degree atoned for their 
 Jate apparent want of gallantry, Lord Vander- 
 ville found no further cure for his annoyance 
 remained than a copious invective against the 
 dilatoriness of their postilions, and the discom- 
 fort of their accommodation ; for his Lord- 
 ship's opinion on these subjects, like that of 
 most other travellers, depended more on his own 
 accidental disposition of mind, than upon the 
 intrinsic merits of the questions in debate.
 
 ABROAD. 35 
 
 Mjrvin either felt, or affected more iadifference 
 both as to the real and assumed caus^s)f the 
 earl's displeasure; and calmly taking; Irjs-lamp, 
 
 left him in the midst of an elabOrati^Tiaranaue 
 
 . . . ■ ' *^ ' . ' ' ' 
 
 in praise of English posting, as contra-dis'tih- 
 
 guished from that of all other countries gn^^llie 
 face of the globe; in prosecution of which the 
 noble peer finished several sentences, and com- 
 pleted sundry turns round the room, before he 
 was at all aware of his auditor's sudden defec- 
 tion. 
 
 Either from predetermined retaliation, or 
 what was equally probable, from mere accident, 
 Myrvin anticipated Lord Vanderville's appear- 
 ance next morning, and was in the position of 
 listening, submissively at least, if not.attentively, 
 to a regular scolding from Lady Harman, when 
 at the same moment two opposite doors opened, 
 and Lord Vanderville and Emily entered the 
 room. Certainly Myrvin, who had not often 
 before practised so sevei'e a lesson of patience 
 and forbearance, did not immediately find the 
 reward of those virtues, and even went so far as 
 to feel positively provoked at having chosen
 
 36 ENGLISH FASIIIONABLKS 
 
 Rucli a moment to exercise them ; for, while 
 Lady Harman was continuing and even invigo- 
 rating her discourse on modern indolence, for 
 the express benefit of his Lordship, Vanderville 
 was much more happily, if not as usefully en- 
 gaged. He had leisure to laugh and_ talk with 
 Emily; whilst Myrvin had chosen to himself 
 the part of inactive listener ; and as the earl 
 poured out Miss Sternheim's coffee, patted her 
 greyhound, and inferred even more compliments 
 than he paid, Charles mentally replied to her 
 Ladyship's tirade against inattention to seniors 
 by an animated though tacit soliloquy on the 
 folly of officious flattery to girls, 
 
 The martyrdom of the one, and amusement 
 of the other, was at last ended by the entrance 
 of a yawning, slip-shod waiter, with a half' 
 lighted lamp in his hand, to announce that the 
 carriages were in waiting. Lady Harman took 
 Myrvin's arm as a matter of course, before he 
 was at all prepared to offer it ; whilst Vander- 
 ville, with more ready politeness, escorted — 
 not Miss Sternheim, but her greyhound to the 
 door, and then gaily kissing hands, jumped into
 
 ABROAD- 8© 
 
 his own carriage, as if fearful of being again too 
 late. 
 
 " How confoundedly that old woman talks !" 
 exclaimed Myrvin, even before he was well 
 seated beside him. 
 
 '' A.nd how divinely that young one smiles !" 
 rejoined his companion. 
 
 " I have little doubt she can frown too." 
 
 " Well, I see we shall never agree about 
 Miss Sternheim," gravely answered Lord Van- 
 derville : ** I have not seen any woman I admire 
 5nore than I do her." 
 
 " Since you left Radicofani." 
 
 Lord Vanderville perceived Myrvin was not 
 in a very complacent humour ; and unwilling to 
 have his own gay thoughts disturbed by contra- 
 diction, he allowed the conversation to drop, 
 and they proceeded in silence. 
 
 The sun was just rising, as winding down the 
 steep road which leads to the shores of Bolsena, 
 they suddenly emerged from the thick wood 
 which had hitherto obstructed their view. The 
 long and slanting rays of light caught the dis- 
 tant mountains that skirt the lake, and, descend-- 
 ing by degrees to its surface, seemed to streak
 
 36 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 its clear waters with gold. One ray fell on the 
 rocks of the second little island which stands at 
 a short distance from the opposite shore ; and 
 partially illuminating the rude buildings that 
 climb up amongst them, gave to the whole un- 
 wonted value. But the most peculiar, as well 
 as most interesting objects that presented them- 
 selves, were the tall ruins of Lorenzo Spo- 
 gliato, which rose amongst the thick olives at 
 their feet.* 
 
 As they descended the hill, the castle assumed 
 new beaiities as their points of view changed ; 
 for on turning to observe it from the vale, they 
 perceived that it stood on a rock which was 
 fretted into caves, that, in their dark and soli- 
 tary appearance, seemed to promise safe retreats 
 to the hordes of brigands which avowedly infest 
 the neighbouring woods. From this wild and 
 lilmost impregnable base, the mutilated walls of 
 the fortress rose in unequal heights ; in some 
 places tottering under the weight of the luxu- 
 riant ivy with which they were crowned, and at 
 others, sturdily bidding defiance alike to the 
 
 *Sce note A at the end of the volume.
 
 ABROAD. 39 
 
 ravages of time, and to the efforts of that policy 
 which has resolved on the removal even of the 
 last remains of Lorenzo Spogliato. 
 
 One tall, slender tower, rose paramount above 
 the rest, and caught the sun's first ray ; as if, 
 conscious of its doom, it sought to bid a last 
 adieu to the glorious planet in whose revolving 
 splendour it had shared for so many years. 
 Whilst the travellers still loitered to admire 
 this strange, picturesque scene, they perceived 
 a large party of labourers crossing the little 
 bridge immediately under the walls, in returning 
 to their daily work of destruction : their si- 
 newy arms bared to the elbow — their athletic 
 limbs and active motion, as springing from rock 
 to rock they climbed the steep crags which 
 were not long to support their almost coeval 
 walls, — and the cheering songs Avith Mhich they 
 animated each other to the task, — formed a 
 striking contrast to the venerable pile that in 
 solemn silence seemed to await its fate. Per- 
 haps ere this, no vestiges of Lorenzo Spogliato 
 remain to mark the spot which many a deed of 
 glory should have consecrated. Another gene-
 
 40 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 ration will scarcely be swept away, before all, 
 even its name, will be forgotten. But, will 
 its rival, Lorenzo Nuovo, which now rises on 
 the neighbouring' hill, proud in its predecessor's 
 decay, ever emulate its grandeur or evade its 
 fate ? Pestilence here broods over the plains 
 that revel in luxuriant vegetation, and lurks in 
 the woods that no mortal hand has yet profaned. 
 The Dryads and Wood Nymphs, to whom they 
 once were dedicated, still seem jealous of their 
 sway, and breathe around a spell unseen, but 
 irresistible. 
 
 Emily Sternheim, whose unsophisticated taste 
 for the beauties of nature had not yet been cir- 
 cumscribed within the rules of art, was un- 
 bounded in her admiration of the lovely scene ; 
 and careless of the mists which the sun now 
 exhaled from the plain, she left her aunt's car- 
 riage, and, seating herself on a stone, attempted 
 to sketch the landscape : Vanderville was, in a 
 moment, atherside, and, of course, loudin praise 
 of her talent, though, in truth, he thought 
 much more of her beauty, which was heighten- 
 ed by the fresh morning breeze, and her own
 
 ABROAD. 41 
 
 joyous spirits. Myrvin tiiought not so much 
 of either as of the inal aria ; but he was not 
 much given to dissect his own thoughts for the 
 amusement of others ; and merely proclaiming it 
 too cold to stand still, he walked on, with the 
 utmost apparent unconcern, to where a coun- 
 tryman was at work, from whom he soon found 
 his surmise confirmed as to the cause of the 
 country being uninhabitable. It would have 
 cost him too many words to convince either 
 Vanderville or Miss Sternheim of the danger 
 attending their respective occupations, and he 
 therefore chose an easier and more expeditious 
 mode. Returning at a still quicker pace, he 
 just stopped at the window of Lady Harman's 
 carriage, casually to mention the information 
 he had gained ; and then passed on to Lord 
 Vanderville's, being unwilling, he observed, to 
 die of so common and vulgar a disease. His 
 observation produced the desired effect. Lady 
 Harman's sensibilities were particularly alive 
 on the subject of health ; they were even para- 
 mount to her affected admiration of antiquities ; 
 and forgetting all that she had previously de-
 
 42 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 terinined to wonder at, within five miles of the 
 old Volsinium, she thought now only of esca- 
 ping with her life from before its walls, as the 
 Romans themselves were once compelled to do. 
 In a moment her clear dictatorial voice sum- 
 moned Miss Sternheim to return. " Come, 
 come, Emily ! I am hoarse already ; I shall get 
 the mal aria fever : you can buy in any print- 
 shop much better views of Italy than any 
 amateur school-girl could draw in a century. 
 Do, for God's sake, postpone the fine arts till 
 after Christmas." Emily and her greyhound 
 came bounding on to interrupt the harangue, 
 and, In a few moments, the whole party resumed 
 the order of march. 
 
 The road continued to wind round the shores 
 of the lake through the beautiful wood which 
 has stood inviolable for ages, hallowed by its 
 own antiquity. Nothing was wanting to the 
 beauty of the scene : the sun shone bright on 
 the water, which here and there was perceptible 
 through the boles of the trees to the right, 
 sparkling in the glancing rays. Sometimes the 
 road emerged from the wood, and lay through
 
 ABROAD. 43 
 
 the vineyards that occupy the space between 
 its verge and the shore ; at other times, the 
 path turned again into the deep recesses of the 
 wood, the darkness of which made the open 
 distance look more brilliant. 
 
 At short intervals on this part of the road, 
 they perceived the rude, huts erected by the 
 guards, who were stationed for the protection 
 of passengers from the frequent incursions of 
 the brigands. These huts, formed only of reeds, 
 seemed to increase the wildness of the scene : 
 soldiers, who, from their dark dress and looks 
 might almost have been mistaken for the ban- 
 ditti themselves, were lying round the fires 
 outside of these savage edifices, or seen occa- 
 sionally passing at a distance through the trees, 
 as if in search of their prey ; whilst the ostenta- 
 tious display of their fire-arms, and equivocal 
 expression of their countenances, might have 
 encouraged a doubt, as to which party they 
 would have befriended, had any contest with 
 the brigands actually taken place. The tra- 
 vellers, however, having escaped the dangers 
 both of friends and foes, took a last view of the
 
 44 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 lake of Bolsena from the hill of Montcfiascone, 
 where they changed horses, and proceeded 
 rapidly over the plain to Viterbo, 
 
 Here Lord Vanderville proposed to Lady 
 Harman that the order of travelling- should be 
 altered, and that the two ladies-maids should 
 change places with the gentlemen in the occu- 
 pation of the front seats of her barouche : to 
 this her Ladyship willingly acceded, being by 
 no means averse to profit by any opportunity 
 for colloquial enjoyment. Myrvin was perfect- 
 ly passive on the occasion, only stipulating that 
 the greyhound should accompany the Abigails ; 
 whilst the arch smile which dimpled the corners 
 of Emily's mouth, as she turned to the window 
 during the arrangement, showed she was not 
 quite as unconscious as she affected to be of the 
 motive which had induced Lord Vanderville to 
 propose the amendment. Nor indeed would 
 it have been at all compatible with her frank 
 and artless manners, to have appeared totally 
 insensible to his Lordship's admiration, which 
 was avowed without either hesitation or disguise. 
 
 Few prett}^ women arrive at the age of
 
 ABROAD. 45 
 
 eighteen, without forming some calculation of 
 the value of their own charms; and if the es- 
 timate made by self-love is at all aided by the 
 flattery of others, it is not likely the average 
 should be underrated : for vanity is more or 
 less an ingredient in the composition of every 
 character ; and, perhaps, its effects may not so 
 much depend on its actual quantity, as on its 
 relative proportion to that of the other qualities 
 which serve either to heighten or to neutra- 
 lize them. Emily was too gay, too young, and 
 too beautiful, to feel much surprise, or any dis- 
 like at receiving the homage of those who came 
 within the sphere of her attractions ; and if 
 that homage was offered by a handsome and 
 amiable young man, it was probably not ren- 
 dered more unacceptable by the coronet which 
 glittered above it. 
 
 Upon the whole, it is not very surprising 
 that the beauties of the road from Viterbo to 
 Ronciglione should be lost to these travellers. 
 The wood that rises on the mountain above 
 Viterbo is at least as fine as that which shelters
 
 46 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 Bolsena ; and the little lake that lies embo- 
 somed in one of the dells overlooked by the 
 road, is, though not as large, at least as pic- 
 turesque : but the magnet here was changed ; 
 and though Emily eagerly looked to the wide 
 horizon that opened from the summit of the 
 hill, for the narrow line of light that stretched 
 against the western sky, and marked the Medi- 
 terranean ; — and though she remembered the 
 feelings with which she had first seen that tide- 
 less sea when, embarking at Marseilles, she had 
 crossed from thence to Leghorn ;— yet that re- 
 membrance, and all that it brought with it, 
 threw but a transient shade upon her counte- 
 nance. Lord Vanderville marked the gloom as 
 it passed, and was but the more solicitous by 
 some vivacious observation to recall the smile 
 he delighted in. The gay laugh soon followed; 
 and the painful recollections, whatever they 
 might have been, vanished to be no more re- 
 called. 
 
 Meantime, the whole had passed ' unobserved 
 by Lady Harman : she was busily engaged in
 
 ABROAD. 47 
 
 arguing wlietlier the lake of Bolsena, or the 
 lake of Perugio, was the ancient Thi'asimene ; 
 and she alternately beat both Hannibal and her- 
 self out of the field, as she unconsciously veered 
 round and round the compass, in the course of 
 her single combat ; for single it certainly was, as 
 she could not provoke Myrvin to a contradic- 
 tion, and had no resource left but to contradict 
 herself; whilst he, like another Fabius, pa- 
 tiently waited till his enemy completed her 
 own defeat, and employed himself meanwhile in 
 meditation. 
 
 The next day, having sent on their couriers 
 to Rome, from which they were now only four 
 posts distant, none of the party appeared parti- 
 cularly anxious to accelerate their journey: 
 Lady Harman was fatigued with that of the 
 day before, and remained in her own room to 
 breakfast ; and Emily, having finished her's long- 
 before either of the gentlemen made their ap- 
 pearance, was amusing herself in practising the 
 peculiar mode in which the Italian peasant girls, 
 in that part of the country, dress their heads in 
 square white cloths, which crossing their fore-
 
 48 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 heads in a straight line, and hanging down as 
 lappets at each side, have a fanciful but very 
 becoming effect. Her instructress, the inn- 
 keeper's daughter, assisted her in the operation ; 
 and both were exceedingly entertained at 
 Emily's masquerade, when Myrvin entered the 
 room, to whom she laughingly turned to ask his 
 opinion of the costume. 
 
 In doing this, she looked so pretty, that it 
 was impossible for him to resist the appeal ; 
 and advancing with more vivacity than usual, 
 he tendered his assistance in the arrange- 
 ment of her toilette, and was proceeding in 
 the task, when Lord Vanderville entered the 
 room. 
 
 " What ! — Myrvin presiding at a lady's toi- 
 lette?" exclaimed his Lordship with unfeigned 
 surprise. 
 
 " Only in your absence, my Lord : I resign 
 the cap and helles to you, now." 
 
 Emily coloured : Vanderville looked from one 
 to the other, undecided in which sense to under- 
 stand the observation, whilst Myrvin stood with- 
 out the slightest change of countenance, appa-
 
 ABROAD. 49 
 
 r-ently unconscious that it admitted of any mis- 
 construction. 
 
 The innkeeper's daughter, although she did 
 not exactly comprehend what had passed, with 
 the tact natural to her sex, if not incidental to 
 her situation, soon perceived that something un- 
 pleasant had occurred on the subject of the 
 head-dress ; and with the dexterity and good 
 nature which characterize Italian women of all 
 ranks, immediately turned the conversation on 
 her own, whilst Emily profited by the opportu- 
 nity of leaving the room ; and Vanderville, di- 
 verted from his momentary chagrin by the girl's 
 good-humoured vivacity, either forgot its origin 
 entirely, or would not take the trouble of inves- 
 tigating its cause. 
 
 Nothing can be more uninteresting than 
 that part of the Campagna di Roma, which lies 
 between Ronciglione and the immortal city. 
 But the way appeared far from tedious to any 
 of the travellers. Lady Harman, having re- 
 gained fresh spirits from her conscious vicinity 
 to Rome, was particularly loquacious, and al- 
 most entertaining in the strange and caricatured 
 VOL. I. c
 
 oO ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 comparisons in which she indulged herself be- 
 tween the ancient and modern Romans. In 
 these, she was alike encouraged by Vander- 
 ville's vivacity, and Myrvin's taciturnity, who 
 seldom interrupted her except by some whim- 
 sical misinterpretation of her argument, or by 
 some laconic but not impolite contradiction of 
 her exaggerations. Sometimes these provoked 
 a retort on her part which bore almost the ap- 
 pearance of animosity ; but there was always 
 something in Myrvin's manner that was too 
 calm to give offence, and too dignified to en- 
 courage it : and Lady Harman was not the only 
 person who felt its influence without being ex- 
 actly competent to its definition. 
 
 At first, Emily was thoughtful, and a shade 
 of reserve appeared in her deportment, which 
 was unusual. Was it accident or design that 
 occasioned her being the only person who never 
 noticed Myrvin in conversation, or answered 
 his remarks? He was uncertain which; and 
 though a casual observer might hare ima- 
 gined that he scarcely attended to the circum- 
 stance, yet few of his observations were made
 
 ABROAD^ 51 
 
 without being addressed, at least by his looks, 
 to her. 
 
 Lady Harman, however, continued intent on 
 her argument, unconscious that all were not 
 equally engrossed by it. "Nothing can con- 
 vince me," said she, " that the enslaved, effe- 
 minate, superstitious Italians of the present day 
 bear any resemblance to the glorious Romans ^ 
 and I am astonished, Mr. Myrvin, that you, 
 who I thought professed a more than common 
 share of good sense, can defend the present 
 degenerate race." 
 
 " Perhaps I only defend them because I 
 think them weak. Where I most admire, I 
 seldomest praise." 
 
 Lady Harman boasted of his " concession," 
 as she termed it, and gloried in her victory ; but 
 the quick blush that rose on Emily's cheek, as 
 her eyes fell under the glance of Myrvin's, told 
 of a more tacit reconciliation that her aunt had 
 never dreamed of. At last, on the top of the 
 hill, beyond Baccano, near to the spot on 
 which a rude stone monument marks Nero's 
 tomb, the postilions suddenly stopped, and
 
 52 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 pointing- to the right with a smile of exultatioir, 
 showed the Golden House, — not of the em- 
 peror, hut of the saint, as the majestic dome 
 of Saint Peter's rose proudly to the travellers' 
 view.
 
 ABROAD. 53 
 
 CHAP. IL 
 
 INHABITANTS OF ROME. 
 
 It is melancholy to think how much of those 
 pleasures which are most rational and intellec- 
 tual are in fact influenced by circumstances 
 apparently beneath our notice, and dependent 
 on casualties over which we have no control. In- 
 deed, it is only by analysing our own feelings that 
 we learn to ascertain of what insignificant items 
 the sum of human life is actually composed, 
 and that we are consequently taught to appreci- 
 ate correctly its happiness or misery. The first 
 sight of Rome occasions a peculiar sensation of 
 delight, softened almost to sorrow, that few, 
 even of the most illiterate, have failed to expe- 
 rience. It is a painful pleasure, that warms 
 the heart but once in all its pilgrimage ; and if
 
 54 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES' 
 
 lost then, can never be regained. How tber? 
 did it happen that Emily Sternheim, vivacious 
 and enthusiastic as she was, remained an un- 
 moved spectator of the Niobe of nations ? 
 
 Alas ! the moment when the Eternal City 
 spread all its glories to the eye, Lord Vander- 
 ville was earnestly and loudly endeavouring to 
 prevail on Lady Harman to change her plan oV 
 wintering at Rome, and to persuade her to go 
 on direct to Naples, whither he and Myrvin 
 intended proceeding. This is a sort of contest 
 which all travellers who are fortunate enough 
 to have friends in both places are sure to under- 
 go ; and which those who are not so fortunate, 
 debate within their own minds. Emily was 
 naturally interested in the result, although she 
 by no means expected her aunt to make any 
 appeal to her wishes upon it, for Lady Harman 
 seldom delegated to any person her right of de- 
 cision : yet still Emily listened with fixed atten- 
 tion ; and as a medium course was finally agreed 
 upon, and Lady Harman resolved to abridge 
 her intended stay at Rome, her thoughts im- 
 mediately wandered of course to the shores of
 
 ABROAD. 55 
 
 Naples, regardless of the horizon that actually 
 lay before her; and what so irremediably de- 
 stroys all enthusiasm or admiration of the pre- 
 sent, as vague and illusory calculations on 
 futurity ? 
 
 Myrvin remained silent during this discus- 
 sion, though apparently his thoughts were not 
 less intently though differently engaged from 
 those of the rest of the party, as he gazed on 
 the yellow Tiber, and marked the tufted pines 
 of the Villa Pamfili, whose tall groves rise 
 against the western sky, and form a distin- 
 guishing feature in the landscape of Rome at 
 every point of view. 
 
 They now approached the Emilian Bridge, 
 " Modern Rome satirizes itself!" exclaimed 
 Lady Harman : "the very name of its build- 
 ings show its general corruption. Who would 
 expect the Flaminian Way to end in the Ponte 
 Molle, or that the statues of the Virgin and 
 St. Peter should guard the bridge which Clelia 
 and Codes once defended V 
 
 Myrvin smiled at the mistake into which the 
 old lady's zeal had hurried her, by transporting
 
 56 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 the Ponte Rotta so high up the stream. He 
 was even half tempted to remind her Ladyship 
 that though she thus scorned the bridge they 
 stood on for its conversion to Christianity, as 
 it might be called, yet the valour of Constan- 
 tine and the pencil of RafTael had hallowed it in 
 days comparatively modern. But he was saved 
 the trouble of this disquisition by their arrival 
 at the Porta del Popolo. 
 
 There their couriers awaited them ; but not 
 even the ponderous whips and tarnished lace 
 which are the badges of this useful tribe, were sc 
 welcome to the travellers' eyes as the little ma- 
 gical slips of paper called Lascia Passare whicb 
 they held in their hands. These talismans en- 
 abled the fortunate possessor to pass through the 
 formidable barrier, if not unseen, at least unmo- 
 lested, accompanied by all his baggage, contra- 
 brand or otherwise ; whilst the way-worn tra- 
 veller, unprovided with these amulets, however 
 empty his trunks or innocent his intentions may 
 be, is mercilessly condemned to the " peine forte? 
 et dure" of the Dogana, which may be trans- 
 lated into English by the name of *' Custom^
 
 ABROAD. 57 
 
 House ;" though not even the lictors at Dover, 
 yclept Custom-House Officers, are sufficient 
 to exemplify this useless, because evasible ty- 
 ranny. 
 
 It is certain that the magnificence of Rome 
 is not, as that of Babylon was, proclaimed at 
 its gates ; and the traveller, who has founded 
 his expectations of its entrance on the inimit- 
 able beauty of the Barriere de Neuilly, or even 
 on the simpler model of what the gate at Hyde 
 Park Corner was, will be wofully disappointed 
 in the Porta del Popolo, as looking through its 
 low and heavy arch he sees the twin churches 
 that serve to separate the three streets that 
 in their length traverse nearly the whole of 
 modern Rome, but in their apparent breadth 
 scarcely enter into competition with an English 
 stable lane. 
 
 Lady Harman was not quite wrong in feel- 
 ing, or affecting disappointment at the first 
 sight of the Corso which lay stretched be- 
 fore them in a long line of seemingly intermin- 
 able darkness : for it so happened that they 
 entered Rome just in the interval when the
 
 58 ENGLISH FASHIOMABLES 
 
 morning of the Italians is concluded by their 
 daily sleep ; and the hour for the ring of car- 
 riages, more peculiarly called " the Corso/' had 
 not arrived. Half the shops therefore were 
 shut, the whole street was desolate, and the 
 tall houses, which for nine months in the year 
 bestow the enviable blessing of shade on the 
 jiassengers, now gave only an additional gloom 
 in excluding the last rays of a November sun. 
 
 In the Piazza del Popolo the two parties se- 
 parated. Lady Harman's carriage having pass- 
 ed up what she called the dirtiest crookedest 
 little street in the universe, and what the Ro- 
 mans call " Via Babuino," they in a few minutes 
 reached the Piazza di Spagna, which, pecu- 
 liarly selected for the rendezvous of English 
 strangers, has thence become the most fa- 
 shionahle part of Rome. Could Cicero have 
 anticipated that so degrading an epithet should 
 ever have been applied, as a mark of envied 
 distinction, to the base of the Campus Martins I 
 
 Emily recollected the map of Rome that had 
 once hung in her father's study, and eagerly 
 looked for the magnificent palace " Di Me-
 
 ABROAD. 59 
 
 dici," which with its obelisk crowned La Trinita 
 di Monte, and with its marble staircase of nine 
 hundred steps formed one side of the Piazza di 
 Spagna, constituting its principal ornament, as 
 well as that of the chart in question. But be- 
 fore these reminiscences were half concluded 
 or arranged in her mind, she found herself in a 
 little open space, too irregular to be called a 
 square, from the corner of which, where the 
 'carriage stopped, one long dirty flag was all that 
 was perceptible of the marble staircase ; and 
 turning round, she found herself at the door 
 of the London Hotel, where several foppish 
 waiters addressed her in English, and thus dis- 
 pelled the last shadows which, still floating 
 round her imagination, had obscured, but at 
 the same time enlarged to her mind's eye, every 
 object connected with Roman grandeur. 
 
 Notwithstanding all Lady Harman's prepos- 
 sessions against the modern Romans, she could 
 not help noticing the astonishing strength and 
 alacrity with which the Facchini (a class 
 amongst the Italians corresponding to our por- 
 ters,) lifted the accumulated weights which
 
 60 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 even the multifarious luggage of a lady of fa- 
 shion could offer. These men, without either 
 assistance or reluctance, carried on their heads 
 or shoulders, trunks, that the united prowess of 
 two or three London chairmen would not have 
 been found sufficient, either from inclination or 
 strength, to move, and such as would have en- 
 gaged the tongues, if not the energies, of half a 
 dozen Irish labourers for half an hour ; and yet 
 these ** enervated," " degenerate" Romans, 
 sprang forward lustily, scarcely bending under 
 their load, and only curving their fine athletic 
 forms to the stoop of an Atlas, for whose sta- 
 tue they might have served as admirable pro- 
 totypes. 
 
 And now succeeded all the bustle attendant 
 on the arrival of any family of distinction at an 
 hotel, which, particularly if kept by English 
 people, possesses little characteristic difference 
 whether the walls stand in Rome or London. 
 Thus, by the time Lady Harman had chosen her 
 apartments and closed her bargains— by the time 
 the maids had unpacked the trunks, and the 
 *» ladies had completed their toilettes — and long
 
 ABROAD. 61 
 
 before the general fermentation in the house 
 had subsided,— Emily found that her enthusiasm 
 had evaporated also ; and she was obliged fre- 
 quently to repeat to herself, sometimes with 
 surprise, and sometimes as reproof, that really 
 she had arrived at Rome, and not at Chel- 
 tenham. 
 
 Meanwhile Vandervllle and Myrvin, with the 
 promptitude which always distinguishes the ar- 
 rangements of gentlemen from those of ladies, 
 had established themselves much to their own 
 satisfaction in an hotel in the Via della Croce : 
 a comparatively short time sufficed for their 
 change of dress ; and ordering a caleche to 
 the door, they proceeded to the Corso, which 
 was by that time commenced. 
 
 In order to be able either to comprehend or 
 to share in many of the amusements of the 
 Italians, it requires in some degree to be ac- 
 customed to their quiet and even sedentary 
 habits, and to be inured to the peculiarities 
 of their climate, from which the origin of many 
 of these customs is probably derived. Thus, a 
 mere spectator would find it difficult to un-
 
 62 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 clerstand what constituted the pleasure of a 
 Corso, in which for about three hours, 
 nearly all the carriages, containing' at least 
 three -fourths of the upper ranks of Rome, 
 follow each other in a string, frequently in 
 number amounting to some hundreds ; passing 
 at a funereal pace up the left hand of the Cor- 
 so, from the Piazza del Popolo to the Piazza 
 Venezia, and returning in the same order of 
 procession down the opposite side ; going at 
 each end round a cavalry soldier, who remains 
 as immoveable as his substitute, the winnijig 
 post on an English race-ground. 
 
 This strange fashion is particularly in vogue 
 on Thursdays and Sundays ; and a Roman belle 
 would consider it nearly as great a mortification 
 to be absent on those days from the Corso, as 
 from the first sight of an opera ; though cer- 
 tainly the inducement appears scarcely equal ; 
 as though the softness of the climate admits 
 the general use of caleches, (light open car- 
 riages, not very dissimilar to the ancient cha- 
 riots,) yet it is not usual to stop in the line 
 either for business or conversation; and thus
 
 ABROAD. 63 
 
 in the midst of numbers, society is confined 
 to the few which each individual carriage 
 contains. 
 
 It was therefore a matter of general surprise 
 and equal inconvenience when a caleche drew 
 up opposite to that which held Lord Vanderville 
 and Myrvin ; and the former heard himself ac- 
 costed by Lady Mary Norton, who inquired 
 with such rapidity, " where he had come from ? 
 when he had arrived ? how long he was to 
 stay? and where he was going to?" that his 
 Lordship was relieved from the trouble of an- 
 swering any query but the last. Finding, how- 
 ever, that the avowal of his intention of going 
 to Naples was only the watch-word for a new 
 roll-call, he hastily asked her where she lived, 
 and making a memorandum of Palazzo AI- 
 tenise, he abruptly desired his coachman to 
 drive on. 
 
 " You leave your favourite very suddenly," 
 observed Myrvin. 
 
 " She is no favourite of mine now," returned 
 his Lordship pettishly ; and then added, to save 
 a retort, " her face is so rouged, and her man-
 
 64 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 ners so varnished, since she came abroad, I 
 think she is grown quite disagreeable." 
 
 " And yet, Vanderville, it is not six months 
 since you swore there was nothing half so gay 
 or entertaining as Lady Mary Norton. You 
 remember her criticism on the opera at Milan, 
 that you averred surpassed any thing Madame 
 de Sta'el had ever written ?" 
 
 " Ay, she was pleasant enough that night ; 
 but the lines of her character, as well as of her 
 face, get stronger every time I see her." 
 
 " Your second sight exceeds a High- 
 lander's." 
 
 Lord Vanderville paused, and then answered 
 more to Myrvin's thoughts than words : " I 
 acknowledge you are right. I should not, per- 
 haps, ha\c; discovered Lady Mary's faults in 
 the moment she stopped before me, had not my 
 eyes been previously opened to the merits of 
 Miss Sternheim. That Emily is a charming 
 girl!" 
 
 ** 1 think this time, Vanderville, you are 
 taken in love even quicker than usual." 
 
 *' No, Charles, you are mistaken ; I am not
 
 ABROAD. 65 
 
 in love with Miss Sternheim ; but I certainly 
 admire her exceedingly, and I mean to cultivate 
 her society on purpose to convince myself whe- 
 ther her character is, or is not, as perfect as 
 her beauty." 
 
 " And, in any case, I see it is your present 
 intention to marry her, provided your inclination 
 survives your courtship." 
 
 " I am not such a fool, at my time of life, to 
 marry a girl for a pretty face ; but her aunt 
 says she will give her a large fortune, provided 
 she marries with her approbation." 
 
 It has been said that a drunken man particu- 
 larly prides himself on his ability of stonding 
 steady ; and a man in love, who boasts of being 
 no fool, is generally found to be more intoxi- 
 cated than he is himself aware of. Lord Vander- 
 ville had earnestly wished for an opportunity of 
 talking seriously to Myrvin about his sentiments 
 and intentions regarding Miss Sternheim ; and 
 having now broken the ice, he found the subject 
 inexhaustible, and continued it all dinner time. 
 When his Lordship once commenced a dis- 
 course peculiarly interesting to himself, it must
 
 G6 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 be confessed he did not often allow his auditor 
 opportunity of replying-, and therefore Myrvin's 
 present taciturnity created no surprise ; whilst 
 from the peer's loquacity, his friend soon disco- 
 vered that his designs were really more formed 
 than he had avowed even to himself; and as this 
 conviction strengthened, his own seriousness 
 increased. 
 
 It had so happened that Myrvin had never 
 mentioned to his cousin having formerly been 
 acquainted with Miss Sternheim ; and this want 
 of confidence, which had originated accidentally, 
 he now found a strange but unconquerable 
 aversion to remove : nor did he even mention 
 his knowledge of the straitened circumstances 
 in which her father and herself had lived at 
 Feversham. Either he did not consider that 
 of any consequence to a man of Lord Van- 
 derville's independence, or he calculated that 
 the fortune she would probably receive from 
 Lady Harman on her marriage with him, would 
 outdazzle any previous shade which might have 
 clouded her earlier station. Thus on the whole, 
 he deemed th^ connexion sufficiently adviseable
 
 ABROAD. 67 
 
 for his cousin, to preclude the necessity of his 
 urging- any arguments against the match ; and 
 it seemed that nothing short of such a necessity 
 would have induced him to express any opinion 
 for or against it. 
 
 Nothing confirms a growing passion so much 
 as conversing about it; and Lord Vanderville 
 had not harangued unintermittingly above four 
 hours, till he had talked himself into the deter- 
 mination of giving up every other pursuit, and 
 of regulating all his future plans by those of 
 Miss Sternheim. " Then," said Myrvin, " J 
 will take any commands you may have for my 
 uncle or Miss Aston. I shall go on to Naples 
 to-morrow." 
 
 "To-morrow! Why so soon, Charles? A 
 few days, or even a month, will make no great 
 difference ; and we shall certainly go southward 
 before Christmas." 
 
 " That I think very likely ; or possibly jx)u 
 may be at the Terra del Fuego before then. 
 But you know the Astons havoalready expected 
 us more than three weeks, and / don't choose to 
 make any further delay."
 
 68 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 " Well, you will do as you like of course, 
 Charles ; but I suspect you reckon as the prophet 
 Daniel does, and consider weeks as years when 
 Miss Aston is in question. Remember me, 
 however, to the old general : tell Sophy I long 
 to be introduced to her, particularly since 1 
 have heard ycu talk of her." 
 
 Myrvin coloured, and was for a moment si- 
 lent ; and then as he turned to leave the room, 
 " Miss Aston," said he gravely, " is not one of 
 those characters that once known can be easily 
 forgotten ; and therefore, considering your insta- 
 bility, perhaps the introduction may be as well 
 delayed. Remember, Vanderville, I have always 
 told you the greatest misery you are ever likely 
 to encounter is a satiety of happiness, but that 
 does not authorize your sporting with the peace 
 of others." 
 
 Vanderville did not exactly comprehend who 
 this aphorism most applied to ; but his spirits 
 were just then too buoyant to bear the weight 
 of grave reflection, and his thoughts only dwelt 
 on Emily Sternheim. 
 
 Next morning at breakfast a note was brought
 
 ABROAD. G9 
 
 to Lord Vanderville from Lady Mary Norton, 
 saying she meant to wait at home for his Lord- 
 ship's visit, and therefore desired he might call 
 at an early hour. Vanderville ridiculed her 
 impatience, and abused her adoption of foreign 
 manners, while he drank his coffee; but, no 
 sooner had he finished it, than pvttiug up his 
 shirt collar at the glass, and settling his hat 
 on the crown of his head, he prepared to obey 
 the summons he had thus affected to disdain. 
 As he left the room, humming the very air of 
 Rossini's they had admired together at Milan, 
 Myrvin called after him to say he was going to 
 take leave of Lady Harman, and to ask if he 
 had any message to Miss Steruheim. " Tell 
 her, I am following you on the wings of love," 
 said his Lordship; and he jumped down half the 
 flight of stairs on his way to Lady Mary Norton. 
 Myrvin, on the contrary, loitered even more 
 than usual: he looked at his watch a dozen 
 times, and walked as often to and from the 
 window, seemingly inclined to await his Lord- 
 ship's return : at length, as if by a sudden effort
 
 70 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 of resolution, he snatched up his hat, and in a 
 few minutes reached the London Hotel. 
 
 As he entered Lady Plarman's apartment, 
 he found her lecturing Miss Sternheim in a 
 more authoritative voice than usual. " It is 
 impossible, Emily, that I can be a ' traveller's 
 guide' to any body ; and you know, if you don't 
 exert yourself, you will leave Rome without 
 seeing any thing ; and then what shall I have 
 to write about you to England ?" 
 
 " But, my dear aunt, how can I go about a 
 strange town by myself?" 
 
 " Good God ! who would think of calling- 
 Rome a toioi but you ? oh dear ! oh dear ! — 
 Take Vasi's book and the valet de place ; and, 
 for God's sake, go and see something — any 
 thing— no matter what." 
 
 " But who can direct me where to go?" 
 
 " Both the job coachman and the lacquey. 
 Once for all, Emily ! I tell you there are in 
 modern Rome, five pillars — ten obelisks — thir- 
 teen fountains — twenty-two mausoleums — one 
 hundred and fifty palaces — and three hundred
 
 ABROAD. 71 
 
 and forty-six churclies : it is a dowuright matter 
 of necessity that you should see at least seven- 
 eighths of these in the course of three weeks. 
 / mean to visit nothing but antiquities, except 
 Saint Peter's." 
 
 " Then pray, dear aunt, allow me to wait and 
 go with you to these antiquities. I cannot, in- 
 deed, I cannot go to all these places alone : I 
 had a great deal rather not see them at all." 
 
 " What perversity ! did you ever know any 
 thing like it, Myrvin ? this comes of bringing an 
 ignorant country girl abroad with one : a London 
 girl now would have no troublesome scruples 
 of any kind. Do, Myrvin, oblige me for this 
 once, and go with her." 
 
 For a moment Myrvin thought of Vander- 
 ville, and hesitated, but it was only for a moment : 
 the tear of wounded pride that fell on Emily's 
 cheek, and the timid blush that dried it in its 
 progress, put all hesitation to flight ; and the 
 smile with which she interrupted his thanks by 
 expressing her own, more than repaid him for 
 any trouble which his new appointment to the
 
 72 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 office of cicerone might have been supposed to 
 entail. 
 
 Although Emily's instinctive modesty had 
 made her shrink from the idea of visiting strange 
 places alone, even in that land of virtit, where 
 all scruples are forgotten ; yet she was by no 
 means sufficiently versed in the factitious rules 
 of etiquette to be aware, that a remarkably 
 handsome youngman, of Myrvin's known fashion, 
 and even celebrity, was not exactly the most 
 suitable chaperon that she could have selected. 
 On the contrary, she only felt that in him she 
 had secured a temporary protector ; and being, 
 by the animated politeness of his manner, soon 
 perfectly convinced that he had complied with 
 her aunt's request without any unwillingness, 
 she soon gave way to her natural vivacity ; and 
 the caleche had not proceeded more than half 
 the short distance which lies between the 
 Piazza di Spagna and Santa Maria Maggiore, 
 before all her usual gaiety returned, and with 
 it, in Myrvin's eyes, more than her usual charms. 
 
 But though Emily was thus inexperienced in
 
 Abroad. 73 
 
 the rules of etiquette, Lady Harman was their 
 old and well-versed practitioner, and, therefore, 
 at first view, it might seem strange that she had 
 not given herself the trouble of thinking of the 
 impropriety, if such it could be called, to which 
 she had herself instigated her niece. But in 
 trifling, as well as in more serious occasions, 
 it often happens that slight accidental causes 
 contribute to induce a line of conduct essen- 
 tially different from that which is usually cha- 
 racteristic. 
 
 Nobody was said " to know the world" better 
 than Lady Harman ; but the consequent forma- 
 tion of character, which almost entirely depends 
 on the school in which that highly-prized know- 
 ledge is attained, was not in her instance that 
 which best proved its value. She had never 
 been taught that lesson in adversity ; and by a 
 consequence too frequently attendant on unin- 
 terrupted prosperity, — and shame it is to human 
 nature that such a consequence should follow 
 it, — her heart was become cold, selfish, and cal- 
 culating. A doting father and superannuated 
 husband had spoiled her by indulgence, in that 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 74 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 season of youth when the blossoms of benevo- 
 lence and sympathy naturally expand them- 
 selves; their bloom was then nipped, and now 
 the frost of age chilled them even to their roots. 
 
 Lady Harman would not have permitted 
 " her niece" to appear as such, in London, 
 unescorted by a chaperon of decided fashion ; 
 but the place was to be taken into consideration 
 more than the act : and at Rome there was 
 an especial difference. Nobody had yet seen 
 Emily, and it was necessary Emily should see 
 every thing, if it was only for the sake of her 
 note-book. And finally, i^f course could not 
 be expected that Lady Harman should put 
 herself at all out of her way to save the feelings 
 of any " country girl from Feversham," even 
 though that country girl were her own sister's 
 child. 
 
 But strong as all these reasons were for send- 
 ing Emily out with Myrvin, and deep the cal- 
 culations on which the justifying theory was 
 raised, others, still more unanswerable, swayed 
 with Lady Harman. A cause, serious, secret, 
 portentous, from which great effects, — astonish-
 
 ABROAD. 75 
 
 ing- effects, — perhaps unutterable effects, were 
 to arise, required Emily's absence from home for 
 an hour or more ; — and what was it I 
 
 It seems the irreversible fate of all old wo- 
 men who arrive at Naples that they siiould be 
 taught to play the guitar, and equally that all 
 who visit Rome should learn Italian. Few tra- 
 velled dowagers have ventured to depart from 
 this established custom, and Lady Harman 
 never liked being in a minority. But though 
 in this age of reason, grown gentlemen are 
 taught to dance in every country ; and though 
 many a gouty foot, that can scarcely hobble 
 down Piccadilly will hallote in the Rue de 
 La Pais, to the astonishment even of its 
 owner ; yet, notwithstanding these high autho- 
 rities and examples, Lady Harman remembered 
 her niece was " an ignorant country girl," and 
 preferred taking her first lesson on the pro- 
 nunciation of ci and co during Emily's ab- 
 sence. 
 
 While, therefore. Lady Harman was as good 
 at her lesson as a child of six years old, Emily 
 the orphan, who seemed born to feel all the
 
 76 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 caprice of fortune, was then unsuspiciously en- 
 joying her transient smile, and delightedly ad- 
 miring all the magnificence which Santa Maria 
 Maggiore displays. 
 
 Instead of entering at the nearest front, she 
 and her companion passed round to that which 
 is ornamented by one of the most beautiful of 
 the Egyptian obelisks that now form the boast 
 of Kome, and recall, more even than do its 
 statues, the glories of its former conquests. 
 
 But what words can express Emily's delight 
 when Myrvin held up the heavy matted curtain, 
 which, as in all other Roman churches, hangs 
 ponderous and dark against the open door; and, 
 as he did so, presented to her view the long 
 line of double columns receding into distance, 
 the panelled and embluzoned roof, the mosaic 
 pavement, and the sculptured altar which sheds 
 additional lustre on this superb basilica ! 
 
 A holy and reverential silence seemed to 
 reign around the dim light, that shot slanting 
 from the roof, and fell in a concentrated ray on 
 the carved stone, which, near the base of the altar, 
 marks the last earthly dwelling of the dead«
 
 ABROAD. 77 
 
 The beam, as it passed, lighted up the sunken 
 eye and pallid cheek of an old friar, who, 
 kneeling beside a column, offered up his pious 
 orisons to Heaven, and seemed to form a link 
 between life and immortality ; whilst Emily, 
 ieauing on Myrvin's arm, stopped in breathless 
 admiration, like the genius of youth, pausing 
 on the threshold of eternity. 
 
 Charles gazed on her expressive countenance 
 till his thoughts wandered far from the spot on 
 which they stood , nor did he rouse from his re- 
 verie, till Emily, pointing to the beautiful statue 
 of Charity that ornaments the tomb to the right 
 of this entrance, had twice demanded whose 
 memory it graced? ''That tomb," said he, "is 
 Clement the Ninth's ; but I am a bad cicerone ; 
 that laughing little priest yonder will prove a 
 much better one ; he will tell you whether those 
 doois you see built up th^re with brick, are 
 opened every fifty or every hundred years, or 
 whether they are lik^ the temple of Janus, only 
 opened at discretion. I own I never can re- 
 member these wonders." 
 
 So saying, he beckoned to a little boy whose
 
 78 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 iiit'cmtiue features had scarcely yet stiffened in the 
 
 harsh nioukl of monastic austerity. His bUick 
 
 surplice was surmounted by a white cape of 
 
 cotton texture woven into an imitation of hice ; 
 
 and in his hand he held the sharp cocked hat in 
 
 which these secular urchins are used to parade 
 
 the streets in mockery of dignity. He was, 
 
 however, of some use to them as a temporal, if 
 
 not a spiritual guide, as he opened the heavy 
 
 iron doors which give entrance from the aisles 
 
 of the church, on one side, to the magnificent 
 chapel of the Holy Sacrament, and on the 
 
 other, to the still more sumptuous chapel of the 
 Virgin, built by the Borghese family. 
 
 Here all that golden roofs, marble walls, 
 sculptured tombs, and painted altars can pro- 
 duce, is combined in one blaze of splendour. 
 '* That image of the Virgin which is surrounded 
 !)y precious stones," said the young priest, 
 " was done by St. Luke above two thousand 
 years ago," — a mistake in chronology which 
 amused Emily. " He reminds me," said Myr- 
 vin in English, " of one of the choir at Santa 
 Croce in Florence, of whom I inquired how
 
 ABROAD. 79 
 
 long it was since the first Anno Domini ; and 
 after puzzling some time, he referred me to his 
 superior ; " for noviciates," said he, " are never 
 initiated into secrets."* 
 
 When Emily had completely satisfied her 
 curiosity, though by no means exhausted her 
 admiration of the Borghese Chapel, Myrvia 
 proposed that they should go from thence to 
 the Villa Paulina, in order to contrast the mag- 
 nificent piety of former generations with the 
 luxurious retirement of the present. — " But," 
 said Emily, " I believe the Villa Paulina is 
 still private, and only to be seen with tickets ?" 
 
 Myrvin admitted this, but obviated the ob- 
 jection it implied by saying he had a general 
 privilege of admission to the Villa, and was well 
 known by the porter. Emily — she knew not 
 why — did not feel quite so much delighted at 
 this information as she ought to have done ; 
 . and yet she was fully conscious of the interest 
 which is attached to the private retreat of a 
 princess, the record of whose family is become 
 
 * This anecdote is a fact.
 
 80 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 a portion of the history of Europe, and whose 
 personal charms will long be the theme of many 
 a tongue. 
 
 In returning from Santa Maria Maggiore, 
 Emily and Myrvin passed the fountain of L'Ac- 
 qua Felice, where Fontana's gigantic figure 
 of Moses striking the Rock, stands like '* a 
 present deity," and fully warrants all the cele- 
 brity it has obtained. Few, however, notice in 
 the same neighbourhood, but in another street, 
 Le Quattro Fontane ; for the love of censure 
 seems to exist only where personal envy or 
 enmity is found. We forget even the name 
 of the insignificant artist in whose works there 
 is nothing to praise ; but memory invidiously 
 treasures the minutest particulars of those er- 
 rors which bring superior genius, though but 
 in one instance, down to the level of mediocrity. 
 If Dominicus Fontana had not possessed suffi- 
 cient audacity to accept the conditions which 
 Pope Sixtus V. offered to him, namely, to lose 
 his head or erect the column in front of St. 
 Peter's ; and if the nine hundred men and 
 seventy-five horses employed under his di-
 
 ABROAD. $1 
 
 rections had not succeeded, in a manner suffi- 
 ciently *' miraculous" to call forth, not only the 
 papal benediction, but, what made much more 
 noise, the discharge of all the artillery in the 
 castle of San Angelo, — he, perhaps, would never 
 have had the boldness to execute the Moses of 
 the Fontana Felice, nor would every tyro in 
 criticism have remembered that he also exe- 
 cuted the disproportioned Doric at Santa Maria 
 Maggiore. But who has chronicled the name 
 of him who has ornamented, quasi disgraced, 
 the Quattro Fontane, by duplicate horrors ; 
 two of which represent female figures reclining 
 under willows, that might only be paralleled in 
 the tasteful decorations of a twelfth-cake ?* 
 
 But these latter curiosities, fortunately for 
 Emily, lay not in her road, which, on the con- 
 trary, led her towards the Porte Pia ; and then 
 turning to the right, passed the ancient and 
 memorable Porta Salaria. At last the caleche 
 i-topped at the unambitious gate of the Villa 
 Paulina ; and there Myrvin recollected the cu- 
 
 * See note B at the end of the volume.
 
 82 ENGLISH FA^SHIONABLES 
 
 rious coincidence, that near the same spot once 
 bloomed those gardens of Sallust, which jgave 
 their name to a Venus whose temple was wjthin 
 their precincts. He was, however, seldom in- 
 clined to assume the character of an antiquarian 
 towards a young' and lovely girl, and was al- 
 ways too polite to talk of any Venus to a pretty 
 woman, save that image which her own looking- 
 glass offered to adoration. The circumstance, 
 therefore, passed unnoticed ; and they entered 
 a small wooden gate which, with less pretension 
 than is assumed by the portal of many a ci- 
 tizen's country box at Wandsworth, gave in- 
 gress to the private villa of the Princess 
 Borghese.* 
 
 The gardens of this lovely retreat are little 
 worthy of remark, except as they denote a faint 
 imitation of English scenery. But the Casino, 
 which stands nearly in the centre of the grounds, 
 seems, both in its exterior and interior arrange- 
 ments, formed to be the very fane of elegance 
 and taste. Its retiring vestibule; its saloon, 
 
 * See note C at. the end of the volume.
 
 ABROAD. 63 
 
 painted in the coldest, faintest colours ; on one 
 side the " Salle des Bains," ornamented with 
 designs that a KaufFman might have drawn, 
 and a Lucretia sanctioned; on another side, a 
 library, small, retired, and unassuming; — above 
 stairs, a room painted with the heads of all the 
 different winds, whose temporary influences are 
 shown by a small golden rod, that, suspended 
 through a brilliant chandelier, quivers at the 
 slightest breeze declining health could shrink 
 from, as if even the breath of heaven should 
 not blow too rough on that face whose smiles 
 are the sunshine of the scene : — yet, more than 
 all, the little bed-room ; its walls draperied with 
 muslin, and its couch, whose long and gossamer 
 curtains fall to the ground in folds as they 
 escape from the plumed coronet from which 
 they are suspended ; — these, and a thousand 
 other tasteful luxuries that description would 
 almost profane, designate a Roman villa ; — not 
 the retreat of an Adrian or a Horace, — not the 
 useless untenanted appendage of the Medici 
 of Florence, but a veritable inhabited villa as 
 it actually exists. In it Emily beheld a per-
 
 84 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 fection of taste that the extravagance of a Lu* 
 cuUus might have envied, exemplied on a scale 
 of such comparative diminutiveness, that medio- 
 crity itself might be deceived into a belief of 
 its being attainable by all. 
 
 But it was not taste, nor elegance, nor even 
 magnificence that most captivated Emily's ima- 
 gination ; it was the sentiment of fraternal 
 affection which had hallowed the spot, that 
 deepest touched her unsophisticated heart. Na- 
 poleon's portrait, 'coronetted with a simple N, 
 was the only extraneous ornament of his sister's 
 private apartment ; and the last feeling, the 
 warmest recollection that followed Paulina in 
 her retirement, seemed to be that which clung 
 with tenaciousness round the resemblance of 
 him whom all the world besides forsook. 
 
 Emily gazed on the picture ; and as she did 
 so, she sighed to think that others besides her- 
 self could pause upon the past, and find a tor- 
 turing pleasure even in the pains of memory. 
 A less acute observer than Myrvin might have 
 noticed the change in her countenance. " You 
 seem very much interested in Bonaparte's pic-
 
 ABROAD. 85 
 
 ture, jNFiss Sternheim !" said he, in a tone of 
 surprise. 
 
 " I was thinking less of him than of others 
 equally distant," replied she, as she turned away 
 with evident emotion. 
 
 His curiosity was excited by her manner, 
 and he was almost tempted to question her 
 more minutely as to its cause. Had he done so 
 
 then But anticipation is often as useless as 
 
 retrospection : either Myrvin did not feel himself 
 sufficiently authorized, or sufficiently interested 
 to pursue the subject, and Emily giving the con- 
 versation another turn, they soon after left the 
 Villa. 
 
 Myrvin proposed that they should contrast 
 the Villa Paulina with the Palazzo Borghese, 
 and immediately proceed to the splendid man- 
 sion in which the princess holds her daily state ; 
 but Emily thought she had been already too 
 long absent from her aunt, and desired, there- 
 fore, to return home. 
 
 "Suppose, then, we only drive to the Bor- 
 ghese Gardens : they are just beyond the Porta 
 
 del Popolo, and need not delay us above half 
 an hour."
 
 86 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 " You seem determined to fulfil your otiice 
 of cicerone to the utmost ; but I do not mean 
 to exhaust your patience in one day." 
 
 *' I am sorry to say I shall not be able to avail 
 myself of your implied permission to accompany 
 you another day. I shall leave Rome in an 
 hour. Have you any commands for Na- 
 ples?" 
 
 Emily coloured, as she thanked him coldly 
 for his offers of service : it might be from sur- 
 prise at his information, or from vexation at his 
 having declined her " implied permission." He, 
 however, translated her blush still differently, 
 as looking earnestly in her face, he added, 
 '* Lord Vanderville, however, remains : he does 
 not find it so easy to escape." 
 
 " I am very sorry you are going," said Emily, 
 " I am so totally a stranger here :" and her 
 confiding tone of voice seemed to imply that she 
 remembered Myrvin as an older acquaintance 
 than perhaps even her aunt. He felt its influ- 
 ence, and taking her passive hand, replied with 
 unusual energy, " You will soon. Miss Stern- 
 heim, have many acquaintances ; and possibly 
 the admiration you will of course receive, may
 
 ABROAD. 87 
 
 soon obliterate from your mind the recollec- 
 tion of your earlier friends : but even thouah 
 as such I may be forgotten, allow me always 
 to class myself amongst the sincerest of the 
 number." 
 
 Emily had only time to thank him by looks, 
 for they were then arrived at the door of the 
 hotel, where they perceived Lord Vanderville 
 waiting to receive them. 
 
 " Where have you been, Miss Sternheim ?" 
 inquired his Lordship in a tone of surprise : 
 " I had no idea you meant to go out so early, or 
 I should have postponed all other engagements 
 to have attended you." 
 
 Emily briefly answered his question as she 
 passed up stairs. " Why, Myrvin," continued 
 he, " you have made devilish good use of your 
 time ; I had not a guess it was so late. That 
 Lady Mary talks so incessantly, there is no 
 getting away from her. She has lost me half 
 my morning." 
 
 " If you only lose time with her, it is of no 
 consequence." 
 
 Again Vanderville wished for the explanatory
 
 88 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 emphasis which Myrvin's observations always 
 needed. But he was interrupted in his at- 
 tempted definition by Myrvin adding his fare- 
 well. " What ! you are not off so soon, are 
 you t Well, God bless you ! I wish you success 
 with Miss Aston." 
 
 *' And I wish you steadiness with Miss Stern- 
 heim." And so saying, with a hearty shake by 
 the band, the two cousins parted. 
 
 When Vanderville entered Lady Harman's 
 drawing-room alone, both she and Emily look- 
 ed disappointed. " Is Myrvin really gone, 
 then ?" said her Ladyship, who had just heard 
 from Emily of his intended departure, 
 
 " Yes," returned Lord Vanderville : " he 
 could not stay any longer away from Naples 
 and Miss Aston." 
 
 " What? my Lord, have you resigned the 
 heiress to him ? That is an act of friendship 
 I really did not expect to hear of in modern 
 times." 
 
 " Your Ladyship gives me more credit than 
 I deserve. So far from my having any interest 
 with Miss Aston to make over to him or any
 
 ABROAD. 89 
 
 body, I can hardly boast the honour of her ac<- 
 quaintance." 
 
 " Not acquainted with Miss Aston I Why 
 your father and General Aston were the Ores- 
 tes and Py lades of the day ; and I remember, 
 when you were a little boy at Eton, I heard of 
 the family compact for you to marry the heiress." 
 
 " I assure you, upon my honour, Lady Har- 
 man," replied his Lordship vehemently, " such 
 a compact never existed, at least to my know- 
 ledge ; nor have I ever seen Miss Aston since 
 we were children. I have, indeed, often been 
 told that the world allotted her for my wife, 
 but I beg leave to choose for myself." So 
 saying, his eyes involuntarily turned towards 
 Miss Sternheim, who during this conversation 
 had been standing at the window apparently 
 immersed in deep thought. Lady Harman for 
 a moment remained thoughtful ; but after a 
 short pause, she resumed the conversation, by 
 inquiring of Lord Vanderville, whether there 
 were many English families then at Rome? 
 
 " Rome is overrun with English, like all 
 other towns on the continent," answered he :
 
 90 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 " we are commoner here than Danish dogs in 
 Bond-street. But your Ladyship may, if you 
 please, judge for yourself, for I know you are 
 to receive an invitation from the Duchess di 
 Buonamano immediately." 
 
 "I have got her card already; but I have 
 never seen her Grace, and I scarcely like to go 
 on so short an invitation. Indeed I cannot think 
 how or why it came." 
 
 " Oh ! Lady Mary Norton wrote for it this 
 morning; and your Ladyship must excuse my 
 saying that you are wrong in expecting English 
 ceremonials abroad. In some places it is the 
 custom for all newly-arrived strangers to send 
 their names to the resident families, who if they 
 return theirs, sometimes written on old playing 
 cards, and sometimes written on dirty slips 
 of paper, acknowledge thereby the acquaint- 
 ance, and without further introduction expect 
 to see you thenceforward at their soirees." 
 
 " Why that even exceeds our English hos- 
 pitality 1" 
 
 " It is not quite as substantial, as they only 
 give you the use of their half lights and cards :
 
 ABROAD. 91 
 
 you are never offered any refreshment what- 
 ever; and unless you lose money to them in 
 some way or other, your welcome is soon ex- 
 hausted." 
 
 " Upon my word, on those terms I must de- 
 cline the honour of visiting the Duchess di 
 Buonamano, for I never play cards." 
 
 " Her husband is your banker, and will take 
 care of all that. But it is worth while to go to 
 her house, for it is the English coffee-house of 
 Rome : you will meet all our colony there of 
 every rank." 
 
 Lady Harman entered into a philippic upon 
 the confusion of ranks in Italy, where dukes 
 think it no degradation to be bankers and 
 printsellers, and princes let lodgings. Such 
 is modern Rome ! 
 
 Emily at first took little share in the discourse, 
 but by degrees her natural good spirits returned. 
 She undoubtedly never was insensible to praise; 
 and Lord Vanderville having, as he considered, 
 in some degree avowed his sentiments both to 
 Lady Harman and Myrvin, was more than ever 
 decided in his attentions to Miss Sternheim.
 
 92 ENGLISH FASIIIOMABLES 
 
 Yet though Emily was naturally and art- 
 lessly gratified by a preference it was impos- 
 sible she should not perceive, it by no means 
 entered into her calculation that Lord Vander- 
 ville should already entertain serious thoughts 
 of paying his addresses to her, or dream of 
 proposing to marry a girl, who that day week 
 he did not know was even in existence. Had 
 she been aware that he had such an idea in 
 serious contemplation, it is probable her manner 
 towards him would have been totally changed : 
 as it was, the idea of such extravagant pre- 
 cipitation never entered her mind, and she 
 attributed whatever superfluity of compliment 
 she perceived in either his manners or expres- 
 sions to his general vivacity and good nature, 
 and still more to the premature intimacy which 
 is always produced by travelling together, or 
 such accidental intercourse. 
 
 What that proportion of his flattery was which 
 she did deem a " superfluity of compliment," 
 could only be determined by her estimation of 
 her own charms, and that might not have been 
 perfectly accurate : yet upon the whole, the ad-
 
 ABROAD. 93 
 
 mirable lessons which she had received from her 
 exemplary mother had rather been confirmed 
 than forgotten in the course of the few years 
 that had elapsed since her decease ; and now 
 they produced the effect of ameliorating her 
 character in the same degree that certain more 
 painful retrospections served to temper the ex- 
 uberant vivacity by which she had been origi- 
 nally distinguished. 
 
 Lord Vanderville's visit at Lady Harman's 
 was ])rotracted to nearly the same length as 
 that he had paid to Lady Mary Norton. To 
 own the truth, he had been equally, though dif- 
 ferently amused at both ; for in one he had 
 found the adulation accepted, which in the 
 other had been bestowed ; and it would appear 
 that the self love of the male part of the cre- 
 ation can e:!^tract the subtle essence it feeds 
 upon equally from the incense of flattery, whe- 
 ther it is off'ered or received by them. 
 
 The closing day, and preparations for dinner, 
 alone warned his Lordship to retire, which he at 
 last did reluctantly, only consoling himself with 
 the hope of meeting Emily earlier the following
 
 94 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 morning- ; and engrossed by the idea of her, and 
 her alone, he returned musing and thoughtful 
 to take his solitary dinner at his hotel. But 
 who ever took a solitary meal, that did not 
 
 Wish for a friend in his retreat, 
 
 T' whom he might whisper, Sulitiide is sweet? 
 
 Nothing could be more natural than that Lord 
 Vanderville, at such a moment, should regret the 
 want of a companion ; from that, the transition 
 to disgust of solitude was not less natural ; and 
 the most natural result of all was, that he shotild 
 in another hour find himself stretched at full 
 length in a fauteuil in Lady Mary Norton's 
 box at II Teatro delle Valle. A half nod 
 from her Ladyship noticed his entrance : it was 
 of that kind that bespoke a conviction that he 
 was expected rather than welcomed ; and as 
 she was then engrossed by a whispering con- 
 versation with 11 Conte Genolio, Lord Vander- 
 ville had uninterrupted leisure to compose him- 
 self, even to sleep, if that suited the temper of 
 the moment. But he had come to the opera to 
 be amused — not by the stage, for operatic music
 
 ABROAD. 95 
 
 at Rome is only delectable at the Pope's Chapel; 
 and as surprise forms a considerable proportion 
 in the component of pleasure, especially in such 
 a character as Lord Vanderville's, he lost even 
 that chance of entertainment, as he had lived 
 too much abroad to be surprised at the Prhna 
 Donna acting in men's clothes, or at the Bal- 
 lerine imitating in their Pas de Trois the aw- 
 ful contortions of a band of savages, or at an 
 Opera in Italy being like any thing rather than 
 an Italian Opera in London. He therefore 
 had as much leisure for reflection now, as in 
 the room he had fled from ; and, for a few mi- 
 nutes, he convinced himself that he was so 
 engrossed with the idea of Emily Sternheim 
 that he could think of nothing else : by degrees, 
 however, he began to think of what Lady Mary 
 Norton would think of her. Then he deter- 
 mined to continue his apparent abstraction, in 
 hopes of inducing her Ladyship to ask him the 
 simple question of " What was he thinking of?" 
 But his child's play of " What 's my thought 
 like ?" terminated differently from what he ex- 
 pected ; as before Lady Mary had found time
 
 96 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 to bestow one word of recognition on him, Lord 
 Vauderville, to his own indescribable wonder, 
 found himself totally absorbed in astonishment 
 at her apparent indifference. 
 
 It was by no means the first time in his Lord- 
 ship's life that he had sought her society as a 
 specific against all care, an antidote even to 
 ennui ; but it was, perhaps, the first time that 
 her sparkling eyes were not turned in greeting 
 towards him, or that her peculiarly toned voice 
 did not in its very sound dispel, as if by magic, 
 all thoughts but of the passing moment. Her 
 whispers to the count were in Italian : and 
 Lord Vanderville had long gazed on both, be- 
 fore one intelligible sentence met his ear : at 
 last one of her numerous bracelets dropped on 
 the floor, and instantly the con pennesso of 11 
 Conte prefaced the expected ceremony of his 
 replacing it on an arm, whose polished whiteness 
 might vie even with that of Emily's ; and Lady 
 Mary Norton was too much accustomed to un- 
 meaning gallantry, in all the forms in which it 
 is admitted in good company, to bestow even a 
 cursory notice on the studied anxiety displayed
 
 ABROAD. ^j^^^ 
 
 by the count in this simple actio 
 trary, that was precisely the fir 
 which she found leisure even tc xuvn. at the 
 earl, whose eyes were rivetted on her beautiful 
 arm. A smile of no doubtful import crossed 
 her intelligent countenance : Lord Vanderville 
 just then happened to raise his eyes ; and before 
 the count succeeded in replacing the truant 
 jewel, his Lordship had almost unconsciously re 
 newed the conviction which he had often before 
 expressed : " There is nobody half so good- 
 natured as Lady Mary Norton." " At last," said 
 he, as Count Genolio shut the door of the 
 opera-box, " that tiresome man is gone. How 
 could you let him torment you so long?" 
 
 " I assure you, so far from tormenting me, 
 I was very much interested in his conversa- 
 tion." 
 
 " It appeared to be on a momentous subject !" 
 said Lord Vanderville, with a slight degree of 
 pique, that he would have found rather a dif- 
 ficulty in explaining. 
 
 " Yes," replied Lady Mary, carelessly, " he 
 was complaining to me of the treaty for his 
 VOL. I. E
 
 j^ ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 • 
 
 sister's marriage with her uncle having been 
 broken off, merely because she insisted on ha^ 
 Ting the name of her cavaliere servanie in- 
 serted in the marriage-articles." 
 
 " I wonder how any one can think of marry- 
 ing in a country where such horrid customs are 
 so sanctioned," replied Lord Vanderville ve- 
 hemently. 
 
 *' Well, really, my Lord, this is the first time 
 I ever heard a system of morality urged as a 
 reason against marriage." - 
 
 " I see your conversion, Lady Mary, was re- 
 served for Rome." 
 
 " Why," rejoined her Ladyship, laughing, 
 " perhaps I may be tempted to add example to 
 precept, when I see any one instance of happy 
 marriages made in Italy : as yet my experience 
 teaches me that they are at least uncommon." 
 
 " Marriages between natives of different 
 countries are generally unhappy," replied Lord 
 Vanderville; ** but that observation does not 
 apply to other matches, merely because they are 
 made in Italy ; between two English for instance." 
 
 " Pardon me; the generality of Englishmen
 
 ABROAD. 99 
 
 travel only to see whatever is most foreign to 
 their own tastes, habits, and characters ; and 
 even should they meet with a woman calculated 
 to suit their every-day life, the circumstance of 
 the acquaintance being made in Italy, destroys^ 
 the very idea of domestic bliss ! Imagine a 
 travelled lady being condemned to the dear de- 
 light ' to chronicle small-beer!'" 
 
 " But if you have the happiness to travel 
 actually in the same carriage with a lovely in- 
 nocent young girl'; — to guide her taste — to 
 watch her rising emotions — to aid her opening 
 talents — to " 
 
 *' To laugh at her ndivett as long as she is 
 ignorant, and to fly from her learning when her 
 education is finished." 
 
 *' You are a strange creature," said Lord 
 Vanderville, who was diverted from his in- 
 tended panegyric on Miss Sternheim by the 
 diatribe which Lady Mary had so fearlessly 
 pronounced on herself. " But you are not 
 going so soon?" continued he, in a tone of dis- 
 appointment, seeing her preparing her many 
 shawls for departure.
 
 100 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 " Oh yes, I am tired to death! I spent all the 
 morning packing up little broken toes and fingers 
 with a party of newly-arrived English, who in- 
 sisted on recording their visit to the house of 
 the Caesars by pocketing trumpery pieces of 
 marble, which they might have bought from 
 their valet de place for half the money they 
 paid for liberty to steal them a rivederlo. " 
 And so saying, she left Lord Vanderville once 
 more to his own reflections. 
 
 The next day, Emily Sternheim, with all the 
 aptitude for pleasure which the young and in- 
 experienced feel, passed most of her time in 
 conjecturing what kind of a party the Duchess 
 di Buonamano's would be. When the hour 
 of nine arrived, — for the English at Rome affect 
 to steer a middle course between the London 
 and Italian hours — and when Lady Harman had 
 critically examined Miss Sternheim's dress, on 
 the belief that it was impossible a girl from 
 Feversham should know how to dress herself; 
 and when she had turned her round and round, 
 and discovered one single fault, — namely, that 
 she had forgotten the bouquet Lord Vanderville
 
 ABROAD. 101 
 
 had sent her; when these, and a hundred 
 other such trifles combined to prove that the 
 fulness of time was come, Lady Harman and 
 her niece proceeded to the Corso Pah^ce ; at 
 whose open gate-way stood two soldiers, armed 
 cap-a-pi^, to give martial intimation to such of 
 the valets cle place as obsequiously waited out- 
 side, of the respectful homage now due to their 
 late compeer the present duke, and of the 
 elevation to which the wheel of fortune mig-ht 
 hereafter raise themselves. The dim light 
 which twinkled over the door- way of the palace 
 fortunately concealed, rather than displayed, 
 the accumulation of dirt which the court-yards 
 of Roman jialaces are privileged to contain : 
 but, unfortunately, one invidious ray fell on a 
 heap of orange-skins, which lay near the door, 
 and gave at once a striking example of the 
 economized liberality with which the noble host 
 had prepared for the reception of his guests. 
 
 The "darkness visible " was, however, sudden- 
 ly dispelled by the luminous appearance of two 
 pages, belonging to one of the many ambassadors 
 who frequent the weekly levee of this courteous
 
 102 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 duchess : and Emily, who never before had seen 
 any similar figures, except on the stage, stopped 
 to admire the brilliant lightness of their cos- 
 tume. Their small caps, crowned with plumes ; 
 their jackets rich with embroidery, bound 
 tight round their waists with silken sashes ; 
 their yellow Turkish slippers, which scarcely 
 shod their feet, and gave no sound to their 
 steps ; and above all, the tall waxen flambeaux 
 which each held in his hands, appearing like 
 wands of flame, all surprised and delighted 
 Emily. 
 
 Meantime^ Lady Harman was stumbling and 
 groping out of the tottering steps of her job- 
 carriage, whose lamps shed no splendour, and 
 whose exterior marked no state. Few of the 
 English of any rank use their own equipages 
 abroad, except for travelling, and almost all 
 leave the other paraphernalia of their dignity at 
 home; forgetting, that in the unflagged, un- 
 lighted streets of continental towns, no pro- 
 vision is made for public convenience. In Lon- 
 don, its cleanliness and brilliancy belong to the 
 people ; in other capitals, those, like all other
 
 ABROAD. 103 
 
 luxuries, are monopolized by the great; and so 
 few foreign cities even make an attempt to light 
 their streets, that it is considered the peculiar 
 boast of Paris to have a few lamps swung from 
 posts on the opposite sides of the pavement, as 
 well on account of their illumination, as for 
 their convenient adaptation to the purposes of 
 summary vengeance. Italian towns, with few 
 exceptions, lay no claim to the advantages de la 
 lanterne in either capacity ; and thus in those 
 very places where no attention is paid to public 
 accommodation, and where individual respect 
 can only be procured by exterior ostentation, 
 our English nobility, proud as they are in their 
 intrinsic grandeur, voluntarily despoil them- 
 selves even of that splendour which they unne- 
 cessarily, yet daily parade in their own country; 
 and class themselves in appearance with that 
 rank amongst the natives of the lands they 
 travel in, which they would hardly condescend 
 elsewhere to notice. 
 
 At last, Emily assisted her aunt to crawl up 
 one flight of the cold, dark, wide, dirty stair- 
 case, which led to the state apartments, when
 
 104 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 their further progress was impeded, and they 
 were obliged to stop to make way for a cardinal, 
 whose rank was proclaimed at once by the little 
 red skull-cap which covered the crown of his 
 head, by the scarlet stockings which decorated 
 his legs, and by the train of liveried servants, 
 part of which precede and part follow their 
 eminences down stairs in private houses, and 
 always make way before them whenever, in, 
 ostentatious humility, their sanctified feet deign 
 to tread the streets. 
 
 At last they reached the top of the staircase, 
 where the same sort of matted curtain which 
 Emily had observed at the church of Santa 
 Maria Maggiore, hung before a door to ex- 
 clude the air, and to mark the entrance to the 
 Duchess di Buonamano's assembly-rooms. 
 
 Having passed under it, a scene presented 
 itself, as new to English ladies as surprising to 
 all. It consisted of a conversazione amongst 
 the servants, belonging, as well to the visitors, 
 as to the house. A narrow lane was left in the 
 crowd for the passage of the company ; and on 
 the benches which fenced it in, some dozen
 
 ABROAD. 105 
 
 others lounged for the purpose, not of awaiting 
 the orders of their superiors, but of criticising 
 them in audible observations, as they passed 
 in review before them. But by far the greatest 
 number were collected in groups of gamblers, 
 each of which was amply supplied with the cards 
 and dice necessary for their different avocations. 
 The room was extremely well lighted, and alto- 
 gether displayed a saturnalia which is only to 
 be found amongst the slaves of foreign dissipa- 
 tion.* 
 
 No sooner did Lady Harman and Emily cross 
 the unhallowed threshold, preceded by their 
 valet de place, than a universal murmur arose, 
 which, in a moment, increased to loud hisses. 
 Lady Harman looked round indignantly, as if 
 to awe the lawless multitude ; but the blush 
 that brightened Emily's cheek, and the tear 
 that trembled in her eye-lashes, were a more 
 eloquent appeal. In an instant, the expression 
 of the murmur changed, and " Bella Inglese," 
 " Bellina Forestiera," was heard from every 
 mouth. Emily's confusion increased ; till at 
 
 * See note D at the end of the volume.
 
 106 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 last, a gentleman, dressed in black, advanced to 
 inquire into the cause of this tumult ? It arose 
 from the circumstance that Lady Harman's valet 
 de place had, the night before, left a similar 
 assembly without discharging a gambling debt, 
 which had exceeded the gain of many months. 
 This summary justice, which few of the Ro- 
 man servants have the courage to resist, soon 
 procured payment of the debt of honour, which 
 a fortunate prize in the lottery of the morning 
 enabled the defaulter to redeem ; and Lady 
 Harman and her niece proceeded through the 
 other anti-rooms without further molestation^ 
 escorted by the stranger. 
 
 He had, however, no sooner conducted them 
 up to the duchess, and announced their names, 
 than he returned to his solitary station in the 
 apartments which intervene between those of the 
 servants and the company : I^dy Harman for 
 a moment thought this station was emblematical 
 of his rank, and classed him in order with the 
 1vell-powdered butlers in England. But in 
 this she was mistaken. He was only one of the 
 many poor nobles of Rome^ who, for a stipend
 
 ABROAD. 107 
 
 of a few hundred crowns, attend in the anti- 
 rooms of their richer brethren, for the sole 
 purpose of transmitting- from the liveried ser- 
 vants to their masters the names and titles of 
 their guests ; and who, after the season of re- 
 ception is past, return to their own rank in life, 
 and spend in a summer's day of splendour the 
 earnings of their winter's degradation. 
 
 The baron's introduction was, however, 
 useless : Lord Vanderville had, early in the 
 evening, taken his station at the door through 
 which they were to pass, in anxious and even 
 fretful expectation of their arrival, and he now 
 eagerly stepped forward to welcome them, and 
 present them to the duchess. 
 
 Nothing can be more affable than the usual 
 manners of her Grace ; but when she receives 
 any stranger of rank or celebrity, affability rises 
 to kindness : and though to English women 
 she waves the ceremony of a kiss on each cheek, 
 with which foreign ladies salute each other, yet 
 few of any nation leave the assemblies of the 
 Duchess di Buonamano without feeling suffi- 
 ciently pleased with their reception, to be in-
 
 r 
 
 108 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 cllned to forget vulgarity in good nature, and to 
 pardon upstart dignity in consideration of the 
 hospitality which it authorises. 
 
 Whilst the duchess, on the plea of Lady 
 Harman's lameness, but in truth in compliment 
 to her rank, conducted her to the sopha pecu- 
 liarly appropriated to ladies of distinction, 
 Emily accepted Vanderville's offered guardian- 
 ship, as she stood outside the formidable circle, 
 which more or less occupies the centre of every 
 Italian drawing-room. But she soon repented 
 having chosen so conspicuous a situation, for 
 she found herself in a short time the object of 
 universal observation. 
 
 The crowd which always fills the Duchess di 
 Buonamano's rooms, seemed that night to have 
 but one object, one attraction. " Have you 
 seen the beautiful stranger?" " What do you 
 think of Miss Sternheim ?" was reiterated from 
 mouth to mouth ; and Emily, sometimes blush- 
 ing with unfeigned modesty, at other times 
 half laughing at the novel pleasure, heard her 
 own praises repeated in a dozen different lan- 
 guages, and felt herself the temporary deity
 
 ABROAD. 109 
 
 of tbe night to adorers of every European 
 nation. 
 
 The effect of beauty, or of genius on indivi- 
 duals, often depends as much on their power of 
 eliciting admiration from others, as on the sym- 
 pathy which excites it in our own bosoms ; in 
 short, it is the success which the object of our 
 incipient preference meets with in general 
 society, which either warms it into love, or 
 chills it into indifference. Does the man of 
 talent, long used to the kindling spark of public 
 praise, feel his faculties benumbed, and his 
 feelings frozen in the coldness of domestic 
 frigidity ? — and does he wish to fan the embers 
 of affection that are almost expiring on his 
 own hearth I Let him once more blaze forth 
 in the dazzling splendour of popularity ; let the 
 lambent flame of notoriety play round his head, 
 and ignite his talents ; the tenderness that ap- 
 peared extinct will then revive, and the idol of 
 public praise will again become the worshipped 
 Lares of his home. 
 
 It was not without deep interest that Van-
 
 110 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 derville noticed the admiration wliich Emily 
 excited ; nor did she ever appear to him so 
 lovely as when other eyes than his own were 
 fascinated by her beauty. Yet perhaps one 
 more fastidious, or more concerned than she 
 was, would have been less satisfied with the 
 style of his attentions that night, than that of 
 his general manner towards her. When she 
 spoke to him, his looks were engaged in disco- 
 vering amongst the crowd who most envied 
 him that preference ; and when he addressed 
 her, it seemed as if his attention was less en- 
 grossed by their actual conversation, than in 
 asserting his privileged acquaintance with the 
 beauty of the evening. 
 
 Whilst he was thus engaged, a white glove 
 tapped him on the shoulder, and a tongue of 
 sweet air whispered him loud enough for Emily 
 to hear, " Van, you must introduce me to her : 
 she is quite delightful." 
 
 " Oh ! Lady Mary, I have been looking for 
 you this half-hour :" (Emily might have sup- 
 posed he had thought only of her.) " I thought
 
 ABROAD. Ill 
 
 I saw j'ou, some time ago, talking yonder to 
 the Turk, and was half afraid you had since 
 left the room." 
 
 " I commune with a Turk i — no, no ; I only 
 ' marked the figures on the Indian chest ;' and 
 whilst he praised my eyes, I admired his em- 
 broidered tunic." 
 
 " Both are paragons, certainly," replied 
 Lord Vanderville. 
 
 " My dear Lord, you might have made a 
 much better speech, considering the tempera- 
 ture of this room. But as you have not yet 
 introduced me to Miss Sternheim, I must do it 
 mvself." 
 
 The smile with which Lady Mary Norton 
 fulfilled her intention, was too attractive to be 
 easily resisted ; and in five minutes, Emily had 
 in her heart ratified the treaty of friendship 
 which her Ladyship had demanded in words. 
 
 "Have you been to the faro-room yet?" was 
 of course the second question, as it generally is 
 at most assemblies in Rome : and Emily having 
 answered in the negative, " Come then, take 
 my arm," said Lady Mary, " and I will help
 
 112 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 you to put names to all the faces you will see 
 there. You will find me as good as the blind 
 parish clerk, who could call over the whole re- 
 gister, even though the characters were lost : 
 but here is this vile little narrow door : how 
 shall we squeeze through it?" 
 
 " I wonder," said Lord Vanderville, " that 
 the duke will persist in living in this detestable 
 old palace, when his other magnificent one has 
 been ready to receive him these many years !" 
 
 " Oh! the prophecy you know! About twenty 
 years ago an old woman foretold that he would 
 die in the course of the first twelvemonth after 
 he went to live in the Palazzo Corlonia, and 
 the consequence is, that nothing can ever in- 
 duce him to remove to it.* About twice a year 
 the duchess gives a fete there to astonish the 
 world, and to show the brilliant inheritance 
 of her son the duchino. The remaining three 
 hundred and sixty- three days the family are 
 content to vegetate in this moth-eaten mansion." 
 
 " What a curious example of superstition in 
 the nineteenth century !" thought Emily, as they 
 
 * Fact.
 
 ABROAD. 113 
 
 reached the room peculiarly appropriated to the 
 faro-table ; but the only remark she articulated, 
 was on the uncommon brilliancy of the duchess's 
 jewels. 
 
 " I wonder whose diamonds she wears to- 
 night !" said Lady Mary. 
 
 "Jfliose diamonds! could she wear any but 
 her own?" asked Emily, with unaffected sur- 
 prise. 
 
 *' Oh ! yes — those belonging to the late Prin- 
 cess of Georgio, and those of the Lady of 
 Loretto ; they are both pledged to the duke's 
 bank ; and the duchess wears them in turn 
 with her own two sets." 
 
 Emily's unsophisticated notions were doomed 
 to be somewhat offended this night, for she was 
 now equally surprised and shocked at seeing 
 the gambling table crowded with some of the 
 youngest and most beautiful women of Rome. 
 Her natural feelings were rather incongruous 
 to the scene; and she almost repented having 
 expressed them, as Lady Mary, laughing heartily, 
 replied, " Dear child, you must surely forget 
 yourself: don't speak so loud, for mercy's sake ;
 
 114 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 you know the very proverb tells you what to 
 do at Rome." 
 
 " But who is that beautiful woman who looks 
 so animated?" inquired Emily. 
 
 " She is theContessaMaritoscorda: the gentle- 
 man who holds the bank is her cavalier eservante : 
 you need only look in her face to judge of his 
 success, though you would never guess it from 
 his own. Her daughter is almost as handsome 
 as herself; but she has only just left the convent, 
 and therefore cannot be produced till she is 
 married." 
 
 " We ought then all to hope for her speedy 
 espousal," observed Lord Vanderville. 
 
 "Good heavens!" exclaimed Emily, "and 
 are these foreign customs ?" 
 
 " Yes," returned Lady Mary, " and foreign 
 customs are precisely what half of us are come 
 abroad to learn." 
 
 " I hope they may never be imported to 
 England," said Lord Vanderville, emphatically : 
 " how far superior are our own countrywomen 
 in all their native loveliness to any others !" 
 
 His eyes addressed this compliment to Emily,
 
 ABROAD. 115 
 
 but Lady Mary replied to it — *' Superior, cer- 
 tainly ; though, like the superiors of convents, 
 three-fourths of our countrywomen are left to 
 enjoy the reverence of you men of fashion, in 
 single blessedness all their lives. You know 
 there are more old maids in England than in 
 any other country." 
 
 " Your Ladyship forgets the convents," said 
 Emily; and the naivete of her remark produced 
 a hearty and sympathetic laugh from both her 
 auditors. 
 
 " You really are quite enchanting !" at last 
 said Lady Mary, as soon as she could articulate : 
 " do, my dear Miss Sternheim, allow me often 
 the happiness of enjoying your commentaries." 
 
 Emily hardly knew how to receive this com- 
 pliment; and Lady Mary, without apparently 
 noticing her reserve, directed her attention to 
 two very pretty women who were standing 
 together. " Those two ladies," said she, " un- 
 consciously satirize each other : the one is an 
 Italian, married to an English gentleman of 
 fortune ; the other is an Englishwoman, married 
 to that man with such large mustachios, who is
 
 116 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 now playing at faro. They both forgot that 
 rank was different in Italy from what it is in 
 England, and now serve as scare-crows to warn 
 others, that it does not require the greater mise- 
 ries of differences in religion, or even in cha- 
 racter, to make the sum of daily misery which 
 foreign marriages are almost certain of pro- 
 ducing." 
 
 Lady Mary seldom indulged in such long 
 speeches, and the morality of her lecture seemed 
 as new to Lord Vanderville as its seriousness : 
 he rallied her on both, and her usual gaiety and 
 even lightness of manner returned. The time, 
 however, of separating approached, and she 
 hastily made an offer to take Miss Sternheim 
 the next day to St. Peter's. 
 
 " I am not certain of my aunt's engage- 
 ments," was Miss Sternheim's reply ; for though 
 she really felt gratified, and believed she ought 
 to be still more so, by Lady Mary's kindness, 
 yet there was in it an implied protection to 
 which she felt almost an unwillingness to be 
 indebted. She would voluntarily have acknow- 
 ledged Lady Mary's superiority, although she
 
 ABROAD. 117 
 
 half resented its assumption ; but a casual inter- 
 course in a ball-room was not sufficient to dis- 
 close all the folds of Emily's character, even to 
 the penetrating glance of a Lady Mary Norton. 
 
 "Your aunt? oh! true, I quite forgot poor 
 Lady Harman ! let us go to her now ; I have 
 not seen her these five years." 
 
 So saying, without consulting either Emily 
 or Lord Vanderville, she led them both back 
 to the inner drawing-room, where her acquaint- 
 ance with the aunt was as speedily renewed as 
 that with the niece had been commenced ; and 
 in the elegantly-turned compliment which she 
 ]>aid to Emily's beauty, she contrived to gratify 
 at once the feelings of the whole party. 
 
 " Allow me to call your carriage," said Lord 
 Vanderville, as if, almost unconsciously to him- 
 self he wished to repay her attention to Emily. 
 
 " No, I will not detain you as long as that 
 might keep you ; but only give me your arm 
 through the crowd." 
 
 The cordial, good-natured, unaffected man- 
 ner in which Lady Mary spoke these few 
 words, delighted Vanderville; and as they
 
 118 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 walked on, he replied, with his usual warmth 
 of heart, — ** I am quite happy at your appro- 
 bation of Miss Sternheim : you cannot think 
 how impatient I was to know your opinion of 
 her. Is she not beautiful?" 
 
 " Very beautiful indeed — and equally artless : 
 she seems to know nothing of the world." 
 
 Vanderville, as he assisted Lady Mary to put 
 on her shawls and her slippers, kissed the fair 
 hand with which she bade him adieu, and gaily 
 returned to Emily, dwelling in recollection on 
 that interpretation of her Ladyship's words which 
 gave unmixed praise to the object of his present 
 admiration. The time was not yet come when 
 he could or would construe them otherwise ; 
 and he had resumed his station at Miss Stern- 
 heim's side, and gazed on her with renewed 
 delight for several minutes, ere the satirical 
 and unnoticed smile had passed from Lady 
 Mary's features, as closely muffled up in a 
 corner of her carriage, it bore her thoughtful, 
 but not melancholy, to her home.
 
 ABROAD. 11!) 
 
 CHAP. III. 
 
 PROMENADES OF ROME. 
 
 The next morning, Lord Vanderville rose in 
 unwonted exuberance of spirits. He thought 
 of Emily Sternheim less it is true as the object 
 of his own choice, than as that of universal 
 admiration ; yet still he thought only of her 
 and of her beauty, and allowed not a shade of 
 doubt to cross his mind either as to the possi- 
 bility of her rejecting his addresses, or of any 
 dissimilarity existing in their characters, that 
 might render her acceptance of them unadvi- 
 sable for either. Now he pictured her to himself 
 decked in courtly splendour, and presented as 
 his brilliant bride ; and now he saw her, in idea, 
 the distinguished mistress of Vanderville Castle.
 
 120 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 He mused on the anticipated envy of all his 
 acquaintances ; he guessed even the changes of 
 style in which his different friends would express 
 their congratulations ; he even went so far as to 
 indulge his imagination in composing a variety 
 of paragraphs for the Morning Post, alike com- 
 plimentary to " the youthful peer and his lovely 
 countess :" in short, his mind was so entirely 
 engrossed by contemplations of the future, that 
 with his usual instability the present was entirely 
 forgotten, and the hour of twenty had tolled 
 from all the neighbouring churches, before he 
 had taken even the preliminary step to all this 
 happiness, by crossing his own threshold to pay 
 his morning compliments to the fair ruler of his 
 destiny. 
 
 Having at last arrived nearly to the middle 
 of the Piazza di Spagna, it might have been 
 supposed that these would not much longer have 
 been delayed : but it was otherwise ordained. 
 No sooner was he perceived in the arena, than 
 crowds of acquaintances beset him on every 
 side ; some rushed out upon him from the 
 English coffee-house, with an unread Gali-
 
 ABROAD. 121 
 
 cjnrtni * in their hands ; others left their lui'- 
 finished bargains at Pinelli's print-shop, or Bar- 
 beri's Mosaigista, and all thronged round him 
 to talk of Emily Sternheim. 
 
 " Who is she ?" " Where did you bring her 
 from ?" " Why didn't you introduce me to her i" 
 were their rapid questions; to which a few 
 added, " How much has she ?" For even at 
 Rome, in these degenerate days, all female 
 charms must be probed by the golden rod of 
 fortune. So is the luggage of the itinerant 
 passenger gauged by the police, and the pro- 
 bable value at which each ou2:ht to be estimated 
 is calculated by the solidity of the substantial 
 good of which the exterior of both is only the 
 conveyance. 
 
 These interrogatories were too flattering to 
 annoy Vanderville ; and he was still lingering 
 in the Piazza, when he perceived Lady Mary 
 Norton's carriage turn towards the door of the 
 London Hotel, and he hastened to offer her his 
 
 *■ The only pjipei printed in Englisli, in general 
 circulation in Italy. 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 122 ENGLISFI FASHIONABLES 
 
 arm in descending from it. Her Ladyship 
 smiled, as she gathered from his unsuspicious 
 replies, that at so late an hour as three he had 
 yet to pay his devoirs to Miss Sternheim ; but 
 she carefully abstained from noticing a negli- 
 gence it was not her province to correct. 
 
 When Lady Mary and the earl entered the 
 room, they were not a little surprised to find 
 that Lady Harman and her niece had antici- 
 pated their visit to St. Peter's, from whence 
 they were already returned. " But I hope," 
 exclaimed Lady Mary, " you will go back there 
 with us at four o'clock ; that is the hour for the 
 promenade at St. Peter's, and all the world will 
 be there." 
 
 " It was to avoid meeting all the world at 
 St. Peter's that I went there so early. I am 
 too old," continued Lady Harman, " to run any 
 risk of having my sensibilities destroyed. A 
 French woman of any age could sextasie at a 
 moment's warning ; but it is more difficult for 
 me to screw my enthusiasm up to the prescribed 
 tone, than to let it run down entirely ; and I 
 was afraid, if my first visit to the finest tempi*
 
 ABROAD. 123 
 
 in the universe was made in the same crowded 
 society which I should find at a casino, my 
 worn-out faculties would scarcely have per- 
 ceived the difference between the church and 
 the assembly-room." 
 
 " However," rejoined Lord Vanderville anxi- 
 ously, " your Ladyship will surely go to hear 
 the Pope's choir ? To-day is the anniversary of 
 the dedication of the church." 
 
 " It is sufficient for me that it was once built, 
 and is still standing. I hate all anniversaries : 
 they are like cuckoo-clocks, that only crow over 
 the hours that are past. But I icill go to-day 
 to hear the choir : it amuses me to see how the 
 genius of human nature balances itself. Madame 
 de Maintenon settled the account for Louis tho 
 Fourteenth, and cut him down to the common 
 standard ; but nothing less insignificant than a 
 Pope's choir would be able to neutralize the 
 sublimity of Michael Angelo." 
 
 Lady Mary never relished the cynical tone 6f 
 Lady Harman's conversation ; and she turned 
 to Emily, who in the mean time had been talk- 
 ing to Lord Vanderville. *' What did you
 
 124 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 think, Miss Sternheim," said she, " of the brass 
 rod inserted in the floor of St. Peter's, to mark, 
 not the length, but the littleness of St. Paul's i 
 Were not you, as an Englishwoman, provoked 
 at the comparison?" 
 
 " /," said Lady Harman, " was more pro- 
 voked at the littleness of mind that could stoop 
 to make a permanent record of any such com- 
 parison." 
 
 *' But I was much more surprised," rejoined 
 Emily, " at comparing my own height with the 
 keys at the feet of St. Peter and St. Paul ; 
 which appeared, when I was nearly close to 
 them, to be such a little way from the ground, 
 and are in fact above my utmost reach." 
 
 " Lord Vanderville will tell you, Miss Stern- 
 heim, that you should only have been compared 
 to the angels at the fount." 
 
 " Yes," replied Lady Harman, " we were 
 told they were standards of proportion, too. 
 * Men are but children of a larger growth,' and 
 these baby angels are six feet high. Man is the 
 only thing that appears low and contemptible in 
 this stupendous work of men's hands."
 
 ABROAD. 125 
 
 " But what do you think, Lady Harman, of 
 the gray pavements," interrupted Lord Van- 
 -derville, " and of the square-paned win- 
 dows, the exact pattern (except that the panes 
 are smaller,) of those in my house in Hamilton- 
 place ?" 
 
 " I think," said Lady Harman, as vehement 
 in defence as in condemnation, provided only it 
 implied dissent, — " I think, as to the pavement, 
 the part is judiciously sacrificed to the whole. 
 It is the chaste ground which is best adapted to 
 relieve the eye from the high-coloured mosaics 
 of the walls; and as to the windows, they are 
 2nore in character with tlie Corinthian pillars, 
 you will allow, than Gothic arches would have 
 been?" 
 
 " True," observed Lady Mary, already heart- 
 ily tired of the discussion ; " there are arches 
 already in abundance, with their gigantic figures 
 appended to each. My Irish footman swore 
 they were the archangels, and paid them su- 
 preme adoration accordingly. But if we are to 
 go to this ceremony to-day, I ought not to detain 
 you longer : if you like, my Lord, I will give
 
 li^ ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 you a seat in my caleche, and we will wait for 
 Lady Harman on the steps." 
 
 Vanderville would have preferred going with 
 Emily ; but he assented to Lady Mary's ar- 
 rangement, merely because he would not take 
 the trouble of contesting it ; and she, smiling at 
 her own conquest, bore off her prize in triumph. 
 However, the two carriages arrived at St. Pe- 
 ter's nearly at the same moment ; and, Van- 
 derville offering his arm to Emily, they all en- 
 tered the church together. 
 
 Emily stopped almost involuntarily at the en- 
 trance, which, narrow and sidelong as it is, 
 cannot destroy the awe and admiration which 
 every new view of St. Peter's excites : but 
 Lady Mary would not permit her long to enjoy 
 these emotions uninterrupted. " Come, come, 
 my dear Miss Sternheim, we shall be too late ; 
 we shan't get a place ; the service is begun 
 already." 
 
 " Begun?" repeated Lady Harman, looking 
 down the long and silent aisles, — " I see no per- 
 son here, except that beggar man who is kneel- 
 ing at the tomb."
 
 ABROAD. 127 
 
 " Oh, my dear madam!" said Lady Mary, 
 hurrying them on, " service in Italy is never 
 performed in the body of the churches, except 
 on great occasions ; here never but at Easter. 
 We are all to be smuggled into the little Vesper 
 Chapel, there— that little door to the left — up 
 stairs ! quick, Lady Harman ! if we don't get 
 seats in the side boxes, it will be dreadful. The 
 overture is over, and I wouldn't lose Vecchio's 
 anthem for worlds." 
 
 " ' Charge ! Chester, charge ! on ! Stanley, 
 on !'" cried Vanderville laughing; for squeezing, 
 sideling, pushing, scolding, now affecting to be 
 hurt, and now purposely hurting others, her 
 invincible Ladyship at last forced herself and her 
 companions up the narrow stairs, and into the 
 best seats, in what she not inappropriately called 
 the side boxes, where Vanderville accompanied 
 them ; for, though our Protestant cathedrals still, 
 with monkish precision, divide the two sexes, at 
 St. Peter's no such formality is required. 
 
 " I thought I was coming to hear mass, and 
 not an opera," cried Lady Harman, as soon 
 as she recovered her breath ; at the same time
 
 128 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 grasping her petticoats as she sat down, and 
 shaking them witli both liands, as if to ascertain 
 how many were left on her. 
 
 Emily was ])y this time perfectly convinced 
 that they had indeed come to the performance 
 of an opera, and her mistake was ])rolonged ; 
 for, when the first singer began a beautiful re- 
 citative, followed by a rondo spiriioso, in which 
 he quavered, for nearly thirty bars, on the word 
 amore, she started forward to recognise, in the 
 owner of the softened voice, the figure also 
 of her favourite Emilia Buonina. But, alas ! 
 great was her disappointment in beholding the 
 broad shoulders and athletic form of Signer 
 Vecchio, who was in fact the venerable warbler : 
 his quaverings now lost all their attraction ; 
 and she was obliged to shut her eyes, and court 
 again her first delusion, ere their charm was 
 renewed. 
 
 Meanwhile, during the whole of the an- 
 them, Lady Mary had stood up, conspicuously 
 beating time with her handkerchief, in emu- 
 lation of the seer, who, prominent in the oppo- 
 site gallery, brandished a loose white roll, to
 
 ABROAD. 129 
 
 restrain within proper measure the movements 
 of his legion of choristers ; but no sooner was 
 the anthem finished, and the service renewed, 
 than she resumed at once her seat and conver- 
 sation. The fashion of the day demands atten- 
 tion — not to the devotional, but to the musical 
 part of the ceremony. 
 
 " Do you see that row of old men. Miss 
 Sternheim, almost fainting under the weight 
 of their fur tippets ? They are canons ; and 
 are dressed to represent St. John in the wil- 
 derness, — not wolves in sheep's clothing, as you 
 might imagine." 
 
 Lady Harman feared Lady Mary's ridicule 
 might extend from the accessories of the cere- 
 m<!^y to more sacred subjects, and therefore 
 hastily demanded who was that tall thin woman 
 kneeling in such abstracted devotion whilst all 
 around were sitting '. 
 
 " She is the Princess Rhigi; and more hete- 
 rogeneous materials are concocted together in 
 the composition of her character than would 
 have helped out a dozen of Pope's satires. She 
 is so devoted to gambling, that she goes to no
 
 130 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 party where a faro-table is not provided for her; 
 and of the seven days in the week, Friday is the 
 only one in which she abstains from this dashing 
 occupation." 
 
 " Friday !• — Your Ladyship must surely mean 
 Sunday !" 
 
 ft/ 
 
 " No : Sunday is here our day of gaiety : the 
 best opera is always reserved for it ; the French 
 ambassador's balls are generally on that day ; 
 but Friday is peculiarly solemn ; and few Ro- 
 mans will even eat any supper after twelve 
 o'clock on Thursday night, for fear of encroach- 
 ing on its prescribed fast. But now the anthem 
 is over we ought to go : if we don't get down 
 before the service is finished, we shall be late 
 for the promenade." 
 
 To prepare for this, the race against time 
 sgain commenced, and Lady Harman found 
 herself at the bottom of the stairs before she 
 expected. The impatient crowd, that a moment 
 before had completely filled the little chapel 
 below, now rushed out through the three iron- 
 grated doors which give ingress to it. All 
 the Catholics, as they passed, paid more or
 
 ABROAD. 131 
 
 less homage to the altar that stands opposite to 
 them ; some, but more particularly the young 
 priests and choristers, merely popping down on 
 one knee, which had scarcely time to touch the 
 groimd, ere, " Heigh ! — presto !" the puppet was 
 on his legs again ; and others, especially the 
 old women, taking a very comfortable lounge 
 in their protracted genuflexion, and occasion- 
 ally interrupting their prayers, without altering 
 their countenances, to make observations to 
 their immediate neighbours on the passengers, 
 or to ask charity from wandering strangers. 
 
 " Alas!" thought Emily, " what profanation 
 is this whole scene in a temple, which, if not so 
 debased, would be alone sufficient to excite true 
 devotion from the very sublimity of its own 
 magnitude!" And as she thus thought, she re- 
 collected the sentiments of unmixed reverence 
 with which the silent, darkened church of Santa 
 Maria Maggiore had inspired her : with this, 
 came a remembrance of Myrvin ; and as she 
 recalled to mind her first introduction to him at 
 Feversham, a train of visionary spectres of 
 departed happiness passed before her memory.
 
 132 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 At that moment, suddenly springing from 
 Lord Vanderville, on whose arm she leaned, 
 she grasped Lady Harman's hand, as pale, 
 trembling, and breathless she pointed to a dis- 
 tant part of the aisle, exclaiming, " Look there ! 
 that 's he !" 
 
 Lady Harman turned instantly towards the 
 spot she indicated : two figures were seen pass- 
 ing slowly, and in deep conversation, but both, 
 at that distance, and in the twilight, appeared 
 to be in the habit of friars. Lady Harman's 
 look was keen and penetrating, but it changed 
 as rapidly to a smile almost of derision, as she 
 replied, " Nonsense, child, he is by this time 
 many leagues on his journey." 
 
 All this passed unnoticed by Lord Vander- 
 ville : his attention had been engaged by one of 
 his morning friends, who had detained him un- 
 der some frivolous pretence, in hopes of being 
 introduced to Miss Sternheim ; and he had at- 
 tributed her abrupt advance only to a wish (by 
 which he had been gratified) of escaping this 
 new acquaintance. 
 
 Not so Lady Mary Norton : she had heard
 
 ABROAD. 133 
 
 Emily's hurried tones, had followed her eager 
 eve, aud marked well Ladv Harman's answer ; 
 nor did poor Emily's ill-suppressed sigh and 
 changeful colour pass unheeded, although no 
 emotion, even of surprise, was allowed to betray 
 her notice of either. The lightning glance, 
 which penetrated the inmost thoughts of others, 
 showed not the secrets of the dark cloud from 
 whence it issued. Lady Mary's countenance 
 continued as unchanged as her position, and 
 even Lady Harman hoped the whole scene had 
 been disregarded. 
 
 " Do, my dear Miss Sternheim," exclaimed 
 Lady Mary, in her usual gay unconcerned tone; 
 " do observe the devotion of that cardinal : you 
 know the statue of Jupiter in the niche yonder 
 is transformed into that of the Christian Jew 
 Peter ; and his eminence is going to kiss the 
 remnant of the toe, which has already in a 
 great measure been worn away by the press- 
 ure of so many fervent lips. But pray, mark 
 his preparations. You see one liveried servant 
 goes before with a cambric handkerchief to
 
 134 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 wipe the statue lest his eminent lips should be 
 contaminated, and another follows with a scar- 
 let cushion on which he kneels ; 
 
 ' For nolhing the devil he loves so well, 
 As pride in the garb of humility.' " 
 
 Just then Vanderville, having shaken off his 
 companion, came to offer Miss Sternheim his 
 arm. " You will be excommunicated if you ac- 
 cept it," said Lady Mary. " We are not forbid- 
 den to lounge up and down this aisle, or Mall, as 
 long as we like, or to talk and laugh at discre- 
 tion ; but it is reckoned highly indecorous for 
 even ladies to walk arm in arm together at St. 
 Peter's. But yonder * proud eminence,' that o'er- 
 looks, — not the plain, but the see, (if bishops 
 may be punned upon,) has done his devotions : 
 I must go and flirt with him a little, for T want 
 to get a ticket to show you the Quirinal." 
 
 "Flirt with a cardinal!" exclaimed Emily, 
 who by this time was in some degree diverted 
 •from her own melancholy fancies. 
 
 " Why not I The red cage is sometimes a sign
 
 ABROAD. 135 
 
 of liberty here as well as elsewhere : you know 
 all the cardinals who have not taken the vows, 
 may even marry if they please : it is only bi- 
 shops or ecclesiastical cardinals who are denied 
 the privilege of making themselves miserable : 
 the red-legged partridges are fair game." And 
 so saying, she gaily turned from the astonished 
 Lady Harman, who stood for a moment with 
 hands and eyes uplifted, doubtful if her ear 
 had not deceived her. 
 
 " "What a pleasant, lively woman Lady Mary 
 Norton is !" said Emily, as soon as she had left 
 them. 
 
 " Yes, and very good-natured," added Lord 
 Vanderville, who seldom gave himself the trou- 
 ble of diving deep into character, but only 
 noticed such spots on the surface as seemed 
 brightest to his fancy. 
 
 " Now good-nature is the very praise, I 
 think, she does not deserve," replied Lady 
 Harman : " she is good-humoured, which is 
 merely a constitutional merit; but she is too 
 penetrating to be good-natured." 
 
 Lady Harman had unconsciously touched
 
 136 ENGLISH FASHION A15LES 
 
 the main-spring of her character, but she 
 was not yet aware of its full force. Mean- 
 time Lord Vanderville had fallen into his usual 
 strain of compliment with Emily, but unfortu- 
 nately she was not exactly in the temper of 
 mind to be amused by it : her spirits had not 
 recovered that elasticity which can rebound the 
 ball of flattery, or divert the praise which is too 
 direct : she felt the very effort painful ; and was 
 by no means displeased, when Lady Harman, 
 complaining of fatigue, proposed concluding 
 their promenade. 
 
 Lord Vanderville had not yet become so used 
 to Miss Sternheim's society since he had first 
 met her, but that he still felt, or fancied, its 
 enjoyment was necessary to his happiness. Ad- 
 vent had commenced, and the operas were over : 
 it was Friday, and there were no parties, except 
 amongst the English colony, none of which he 
 had yet visited : Lady Mary Norton had acciden- 
 tally mentioned her being engaged from home ; 
 and it was not even the night of those ama- 
 teur concerts, which are at Rome such a singu- 
 lar and admirable resource for the idle. These
 
 ABROAD. 137 
 
 concerts are given at the houses of respectable 
 persons, who yet are not of sufficient rank to 
 be considered of the heau monde, though their 
 assemblies are nevertheless frequented by per- 
 sons of the highest fashion. They are not given 
 for profit, for the tickets of admission are not 
 sold in any way; they are not given for the 
 sake of procuring acquaintance, for of the 
 crowds that frequent them, none are expected 
 to return their invitation ; and all would think 
 themselves degraded by admitting their even- 
 ing host to their list of morning visitors. What 
 then can induce the fat, good-humoured landlo^ t 
 to put himself to the expense and trouble of en- 
 tertaining some hundreds of the proudest people 
 in the universe I The pleasure of seeing one of 
 the handsomest halls in Rome filled three times 
 a year with " good company," and perhaps a 
 faint hope of selling a few harp-strings to the 
 Dilettanti part of them in the course of the en- 
 suing winter. 
 
 As there were therefore neither concerts, 
 parties, nor operas at Lord Vanderville's choice
 
 138 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 for that evening, his only resource was to go to 
 Lady Harman's ; and he persuaded himself he 
 did that from preference, which in fact he only 
 chose from want of other alternative. But he 
 was well repaid for his decision in Lady Har- 
 man's favour^ When he entered the room, he 
 found Miss Sternheim playing on a harp, which 
 her voice accompanied in a style of excellence 
 that really surprised him as much as he said it 
 did ; and he could not help, in the exuberance 
 of his praise, revealing his astonishment at find- 
 ing such perfection of accomplishment added to 
 so much beauty. As he spoke thus, Emily look- 
 ed up with an expression of unfeigned wonder : 
 " I forgot you had not known my mother," said 
 she at last, in a tone implying forgiveness. 
 
 " I own I hardly expected myself to hear 
 Emily sing so well," said Lady Harman, be- 
 trayed, in the pride of the moment, into an ac- 
 knowledgment of how little she knew of the 
 niece who was the object of her temporary 
 exultation ; but she soon recovered herself, and 
 added, " My dear Lord, when you know Emily
 
 ABROAD. 139 
 
 a little longer, you will find she really is accom- 
 plished ; at present, you must only take hier 
 merits upon trust." 
 
 Lord Vanderville by no means approved of 
 this remark, for he had forgot himself to date 
 his acquaintance with Miss Sternheim, and was 
 in no degree desirous of finding it registered in 
 the memory of others. However, the momen- 
 tary embarrassment soon passed away. Emily 
 was gratified by his visit, which he took care to 
 assign distinctly to her, and exerted herself 
 more than usual to repay him for his attentions. 
 Even Lady Harman was good- humoured ; and 
 Lord Vanderville, always gay, was that evening 
 particularly so. Thus the hours passed lightly 
 on ; and though the conversation was neither ex- 
 traordinarily witty, nor singularly profound, yet 
 when the hour of parting came, each felt regret 
 that so pleasant a scene had been so short in its 
 duration. 
 
 Tt is nothing new to remark that the Eng- 
 lish always herd together on the continent; 
 but, without attending to the mere circum- 
 stance of the difference in the arrangement of
 
 140 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 their hours from those of any other nation, which 
 alone is a suilicient impediment to intercourse 
 with foreigners, — can it be a matter of surprise 
 that accidentally meeting in a distant land should 
 produce intimacy amongst those, who though 
 personally strangers, claim the kindred birth- 
 right of Britons ? Our language is peculiarly 
 our own, infinitely more so than that of any other 
 European people ; for in every other country but 
 England, French is the common medium : and 
 who is the traveller, from any clime or nation, 
 who will not acknowledge the force of that tie 
 which is best expressed in the appellation of 
 our mother tongue ? In a foreign land, the lan- 
 guage of our infancy strikes on the ear as the 
 tone itself of friendship, and the heart leaps for- 
 ward to claim communion with one, whose sen- 
 timents, however dissimilar they may be to our 
 own, are yet used to the same vehicle of ex- 
 pression. 
 
 Even should uitervening seas or countless 
 miles divide us from our home, still its image 
 will rise bright and spotless, like northern lights, 
 on the distant horizon of our memory. Does
 
 ABROAD, 141 
 
 the remembrance of friends, or the endearments 
 of childi-en, sanctify the spot towards which our 
 wishes turn ? Their fairy forms will flit through 
 the mists of thought, and give trebled force to 
 the brilliant image. These are the visions 
 which Ossian personified, as beckoning' the 
 distant chieftain from his deserted rock, or as 
 hovering wistfully round his father's halls : 
 these are the spells which the proudest spi- 
 rits feel to be resistless, and need not blush 
 to own. 
 
 Of the tribes of travellers who leave Eng- 
 land from choice, and not necessity, few, very 
 few, revisit their native shores without having 
 in some one part of their journey, either in the 
 actual pain of departure or in the anticipated 
 pleasure of return, felt somewhat of that intense 
 love of home which recalls the poor Swiss to his 
 mountain, and attaches even the Cossack to his 
 Russian deserts. The pleasures of taste, and 
 the improvement of intellect, would lose more 
 than half their zest, were the mind condemned 
 to enjoy them unshared with any ; and 
 wretched indeed is that traveller, who, in the
 
 142 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 midst of foreign joys or foreign dangers, cannot 
 remember some one companion of a former 
 day, who will listen with interest and sympathy 
 to the egotist's tale, and identify hunself with 
 all its chances. 
 
 Why then do we affect to ridicule or despise 
 that natural and invincible impulse which leads 
 the English in general to court the society of 
 their own countrymen, in preference to that of 
 all others? To be French, German, Russian, 
 is an undeniable title to respect amongst the 
 individuals of other nations ; but strange to 
 say of the " lyrouil English," it is not so 
 with them abroad. — " That must be an Eng- 
 lishman, I know it by his lounge." — " Look at 
 that Englishwoman's poke bonnet, and tight 
 little spencer ! where would you see a Parisian 
 so vulgarly tidy?" — "There was a roto last 
 night at the Opera : of course it must have been 
 kicked up by the English." These, and a hun- 
 dred such remarks, which an Italian would not 
 have the arrogance to make, nor the courage to 
 repeat, are the common observations of the Eng- 
 lish upon each other abroad ; they seem anxious
 
 ABROAD. 143 
 
 to evade personal criticism, by sacrificing- a holo- 
 caust to the fury of censure, and wish to purchase 
 the suffrage of the Italians in their own favour 
 at the expense of the reputation of the best of 
 their nation ; but the base bribe is seldom ac- 
 cepted ; and the fable of old is daily verified, in 
 the fate of those who are finally rejected by all 
 classes, with still greater scorn than that with 
 which they originally affected to treat their 
 own. 
 
 With Lady Harman, however, it was far dif- 
 ferent. Her rank and fashion naturally made 
 her an object of attention to all those of her own 
 country who were best qualified to judge of 
 both; and no sooner had she made her appear- 
 ance at the Duchess di Buonamano's assembly, 
 than all who could by any extension of privilege 
 claim her acquaintance, hastened to call upon 
 her and Miss Sternheim ; insomuch, that when 
 Lord Vanderville paid his next visit to the 
 London Hotel, he was both vexed and surprised 
 to find their rooms filled, and their attention 
 divided by many strangers, both English, ajid
 
 144 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 those, who from habit are by them, even at 
 Rome, classed as foreigners. 
 
 His Lordship was certainly not habituated to 
 deep reflection ; and he seldom took the trouble 
 of investigating the grounds on which he raised 
 his theories. He knew that Lady Harman and 
 Emily were strangers at Rome; and he had 
 fanciedt hat it was in his power to circumscribe 
 their acquaintance within as narrow a circle ar, 
 he chose ; quite forgetting that Lady Harman 
 as an English peeress, and Miss Sternheim as 
 her heiress, could not in all probability remain 
 long in any place unknown or uninvited. But 
 this broad scale of reasoning had formed no 
 part of his minute calculations on futurity, in 
 which he had indulged himself for the greater 
 number of the hours which had intervened since 
 he had last seen Emily ; and he was therefore 
 proportionably more amazed at now so unex- 
 pectedly finding her in animated conversation 
 with the very gentleman whose introduction he 
 flattered himself he had so dexterously evaded at 
 Saint Peter's.
 
 ABROAD. 145 
 
 This feeling was considerably increased by an 
 unwilling conviction by which it was succeeded ; 
 namely, that she was so amused and engrossed 
 by Mr. Hines's conversation, that she had not 
 noticed Lord Vanderville's entrance. His dig- 
 nity immediately took the alarm ; and, leaning on 
 the back of the couch where Lady Harman 
 was seated, he entered into the disquisition in 
 which her Ladyship was then warmly engaged 
 with a neighbouring old lady, on the compara- 
 tive beauty of the three antique Graces still pre- 
 served in the cathedral at Sienna, which she 
 had seen, and the three modern Graces of Thor- 
 woldson, which she had not seen. That little 
 circumstance, however, by no means prevented 
 her dictatorial and peremptory decision in favour 
 of the former ; and the argument was happily 
 drawing to a close, when unfortunately, Vander- 
 ville, in a fit of absence, confounded these 
 standards of beauty with the horrible specimens 
 of Guido Reni's taste in female loveliness, as 
 exemplified in the gallery of the Villa Lanti, 
 giving unluckily the preference to the thick 
 lips and cushioned nose of his black Cleopatra. 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 146 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 " Black Cleopatra !"— " Hottentot Venus !'■ 
 screamed each lady in the contralto tones of 
 supreme dismay. But his unconscious Lord- 
 ship, guiltless of the warfare he had renewed, 
 was by this time out of hearing of the watch- 
 word ; for finding, as it often happens, that 
 the exaltation which offended dignity assumes 
 is entirely unnoticed by the offender, he de- 
 termined to avenge his supposed affront by 
 retaliation ; and walking up to Emily with a 
 careless air, — "Oh, Miss Sternheim," said he, 
 ** good morning! I really did not perceive you 
 were in the room till this moment." But that 
 day he was doomed to be unsuccessful. His at- 
 tempt to provoke Emily, as he had been 
 provoked, entirely failed, and her good-humour 
 blunted the weapon of his wrath. And though 
 her politeness immediately induced her to divide 
 her attentions between his Lordship and the 
 stranger, he was mortified even at the partition 
 of what he had assumed to himself the right of 
 monopolizing. 
 
 The earl had been always so accustomed to 
 uninterrupted success in all his plans, such
 
 ABROAD. 147 
 
 uulimited enjoyment of all his wishes, that his 
 temper was by no means sufficiently well regu- 
 lated to bear even temporary disappointment 
 or restraint. He believed himself aggrieved, 
 because he felt himself mortified ; and without 
 taking the trouble of making any excuse for his 
 abrupt departure, he snatched up his hat, and 
 had reached the last step of the Trinita di Monte, 
 before Emily was conscious either of his dis- 
 pleasure or its consequence. 
 
 To walk on the Monte Peneio, is now perhaps 
 as much the daily mechanical exercise of all the 
 visitors of Rome, as it once was the delight of 
 Sallust and of Pompey, when its walks and 
 villas gave it the appellation of the " Hill of 
 Gardens."* But as Lord Vanderville turned 
 towards its smooth broad terrace, his thoughts 
 were not much employed in reflecting on the 
 different characters of those who formerly trod 
 the ground which now echoed to the sound of 
 his own footsteps. He entered not into the dis- 
 puted question of whether the walls of Rome, 
 wliich form the limits of the Peneian Gardens, 
 
 * Collis Iloitiiloruiu.
 
 148 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 were or were not originally built with their 
 present declination, or whether chance or geo- 
 metry had most effect in producing their 
 wonderful departure from the perpendicular, like 
 that of the similarly leaning tower of Pisa. He 
 neither ventured to decide whether Honorius or 
 Belisarius built the Pineian Gate, or whether 
 Aurelius or Napoleon most improved its walks. 
 "Such knowledge was too excellent for him;" 
 but he passed along the front of the palace of 
 the Medici, and along the shaded Mall, which, 
 except on Thursdays and Sundays, rivals the 
 Corso in its throng of carriages : he passed 
 either over or under the chains (he remem- 
 bered not which) that divide the gardens from 
 the drive ; nor during the whole of this, his abs- 
 tracted peregrination, was his meditation other 
 than on the folly — and the vanity — and the 
 caprice — and the inconsistency — and in short on 
 every item in the catalogue of failings which 
 have been, in turn, attributed to every pretty 
 g"irl, from Eve in Paradise down to Emily 
 Sternheim. 
 
 However, neither his philippic nor his ramble
 
 ABROAD. 149 
 
 «nded there. He passed on to the other side 
 of Monte Pineio, where the gardens overlook 
 the beautiful grounds of the Villa Borghese. 
 He stood apparently contemplating the green 
 glades of that magnificent retreat, till moment 
 after moment passed away unobserved : at last, 
 his attention was roused by perceiving Lady 
 Harman's carriage in front of the Conservatory. 
 He soon ascertained that she and Emily were 
 alone in the caleche; and the next instant, 
 like another Alaric, under the influence of an 
 angel, he fled from the walls of Rome, and 
 soon reached the terrace where Emily and her 
 aunt had left their carriage, to enjoy, in walk- 
 ing, all the beauties of the scene. 
 
 Most of the English who for the first time 
 visit Italy, attach to the name of Roman villas 
 ideas of perfection combined from those various 
 sources of classic recollections and local ad- 
 vantages in which imagination delights to lose 
 itself, and to which all of individual taste and 
 early association adds variety of charms. To 
 the almost cloudless skies of Claude we join in 
 perspective the harmonious green of English
 
 150 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 verdure ! We give the songs of the Peri, and 
 the plumage of the East, to tlie birds with 
 which we fill the groves ; and the spices of 
 Arabia are not more perfumed than the flowers 
 and the fruits with which we decorate the 
 arbours. These gardens of Paradise we people 
 with forms, combined, like the Venus of Praxi- 
 teles, from every different model of beauty ; 
 and, if we condescend so to hood the falcon 
 Fancy for a moment, as to curb her flight to 
 halls and palaces, she stoops on the pillars 
 which we raise to decorate these fairy scenes ; 
 her wings wave lightly on the Corinthian 
 column, and " storied" frieze, till nothing but 
 the perfect proportion of Palladian architecture 
 rises to our enchanted view ; and then we call 
 this bright creation of our own — a Roman villa. 
 But, proportionate to the delights of these 
 anticipated charms, will be the disappointment 
 and regret which the cold reality cannot fail to 
 excite. In truth, the skies of Italy are not 
 more cloudless than those of northern regions. 
 The beauty of English herbage is there un- 
 known : Italians eat their little singing-birds
 
 ABROAD. 151 
 
 instead of cherisliing- them ; and though flowers 
 and fruits are abundant, their sweetness is 
 exhausted by the very ardour of that sun in 
 whose brightness they expand, but in whose 
 beams they die. The first conviction of this 
 contrast depresses the inexperienced traveller ; 
 and regretting the lovely vision of his own 
 imagination, he turns to interrogate his heart, 
 and asks himself how he has been robbed of 
 his own enthusiasm: but, at last, awakened 
 thoroughly from his dream, he again turns his 
 eyes around, and learns by degrees to appreciate 
 justly, and to see distinctly. He judges of 
 things as they are, without comparing them 
 with what he had believed they were ; and he 
 concludes by forming an opinion of Italy essen- 
 tially different indeed, though perhaps not less 
 favourable, than that formed in his previous 
 expectations. 
 
 Of all the Roman villas, none stands the 
 test of anticipation so well as the Villa Bor- 
 ghese. The Villa Pamfili, with its straight 
 avenues and terraced waterfalls, at once emu-
 
 152 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 lates and caricatures St. Cloud. The length- 
 ened corridors and countless statues of the Villa 
 Albano scarcely compensate for the flat and 
 sterile waste of the Compagna di Roma, which, 
 mercilessly stretched before the eye, wearies 
 the gaze with its sameness, and infects the mind 
 with its own dreariness : and although the gar- 
 dens attached to the Palazzo Corsiui are suffi- 
 ciently beautiful to gain for it also the title of 
 " Villa," yet they are too circumscribed in their 
 actual extent, and too disproportionate to the 
 palace they adorn, to class with the grandeur 
 and variety of the Villa Borghese. 
 
 It is true, a fastidious critic might object 
 with justice to the puerile conceits which dis- 
 grace this otherwise fine monument of the taste 
 and magnificence of Cardinal Scipio Borghese. 
 As for instance, the trifling imitation of the 
 ruins of the Temple of Antoninus and Faus- 
 tina, placed as it were in mockery of the origi- 
 nal, whose actual site is not above a mile dis- 
 tant; or the grotesque battlements of the 
 miniature citadel, which is in reality the stables ;
 
 ABROAD. 153 
 
 Or the Grand Circus appropriated to chariot 
 races, whose dimensions scarcely equal those 
 of a regimental riding-school. Where, but in 
 Rome itself, could we expect to see, in a 
 circuit of a few hundred yards, its splendid 
 antiquities so burlesqued ? 
 
 But Emily stopped not to criticise the Villa 
 Borghese, as she walked, or rather ran round its 
 small but glassy lake, exhilarated by the fresh- 
 ening breeze, and animated by the cheering 
 sun ; and Vanderville, infected by her gaiety, 
 and inspired by her presence, forgot, in a mo- 
 ment, all his jealousy, and resigned himself to 
 the unrestrained enjoyment of her society. 
 Having visited the little temple, whose slight 
 and airy pillars are reflected in the clear water, 
 and paid less homage to the statue of Escula- 
 pius, whose shrine is there, than to the tomb of 
 the favourite dog, which is in one corner of the 
 adjoining shrubbery, — they returned to where 
 the carriage was waiting for them, and were 
 proceeding in it towards the Casino, when 
 they were overtaken by Lady Mary Norton,
 
 154 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 It was soon settled that she should join their 
 party ; and, leaving- her own carriage, she took 
 the vacant seat in that of Lady Ilarman's. 
 *' Where are you going to-night V asked her 
 Ladyship : " am I to meet you at Mrs. Hines's V 
 
 " Yes," replied Lady Harman, " I am afraid 
 I must go on Emily's account." 
 
 " You will find it horribly stupid," rejoined 
 Lord Vanderville, who remembered that lady 
 was the aunt of his morning tormentor. 
 
 " Stupid, undoubtedly," answered Lady 
 Mary, " as all weekly parties are ; whether 
 they be the veritable foreign soiree, or the 
 counterfeit English imitation of it : but every 
 body, as Lady Harman wittily observed, is 
 afraid they must go to them, either on 
 their own account, or somebody else's; that 
 is to say, whenever there is nothing else to 
 be done. For last week, when Lady Taun- 
 tone gave a ball, which she fixed purposely on 
 that night, poor Mrs. Hines's weekly prepara- 
 tion went for nothing ; and she and her five fat 
 daughters staid at home on Saturday evening.
 
 ABROAD. 155 
 
 to enjoy alone the luxury of supernumerary 
 wax candles, without a single soul going even 
 to look at them." 
 
 "I am sure I hope somebody besides our- 
 selves will go to see her to-night," answered 
 Lady Harman, with considerable pomposity. 
 
 ** Oh ! we need not be afraid of our fate at 
 her next party : it is to be a great concretion, 
 as she called our church last Sunday. You 
 know, by-the-by, Lady Harman, we have 
 Protestant service always at the foot of the 
 Quirinal. * But at Mrs. Hines's, to-night, we 
 are to have a variety of amusements besides 
 quizzing the hostess." 
 
 " And what are they likely to be?" eagerly 
 demanded Emily. 
 
 " I can better describe what they are likely 
 not to be. The party will probably not be a mere 
 conversazione, because the ladies of the house 
 have nothing to support one with. They say 
 they are very sorry that in their confusion they 
 left their books in England ; but that it quite 
 went out of their heads,— /7m^ I deny," 
 
 • Fact,
 
 156 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 *' I hope then we shall have music," said 
 Lord Vanderville, looking- at Emily. 
 
 " The same reasons exist against music; for 
 the five Misses Hines, who say they sing very 
 well, left all their music at home too." 
 
 " But we are in the land of music, thank 
 Heaven !" 
 
 ** Hush, my dear Miss Sternheim ! every 
 body will know you are new. You forget there 
 is not a sheet of printed music to be had for 
 love or money at Rome, and no piano-fortes but 
 what come from Vienna." 
 
 *' Then perhaps we shall have a ball ?" said 
 Emily and Vanderville at once. 
 
 ** I should think that more probable, if it was 
 not that I know they expect the cardinals, and 
 they have no two rooms adjoining." 
 
 "Why not?" returned Lady Harman; ** I 
 saw several cardinals the other night at the 
 Duchess di Buonamano's." 
 
 " No doubt : there is no law against their 
 being supervisors of a faro-table, but it is not 
 the etiquette for them to remain in the same 
 room where there is dancing : so they generally
 
 ABROAD. 157 
 
 stand in the door-way, and the consequence is 
 we poor ladies are ahnost squeezed to death to 
 save the cardinals' souls." 
 
 By this time they were arrived within view 
 of the Casino, and her Ladyship's volubility was 
 interrupted by Lady Harman, who, with her 
 usual solemnity, observed, how much the pecu- 
 liarities incident to the ancient Roman cha- 
 racter, even in their absurdities, differed from 
 the corresponding failings of their degenerate 
 successors. " The comparison," said she, 
 " might be pursued from the most important 
 to the most trifling subjects. In the days of 
 Rome, their very houses were typical of their 
 national character : strength and simplicity 
 distinguished both, and the whole was on a 
 plan, grand, uniform, and single. Sallust ob- 
 serves, (Lady Harman was always fond of 
 bringing in classical names whenever she 
 could,) — Sallust observes, with great truth, 
 that sumptuousness in villas, and partiality to 
 dogs, were the first symptoms of degeneracy 
 amongst the Romans : now, every thing, down 
 to their very architecture, is divided into a
 
 158 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 mean superfluity of parts, from which no grand 
 whole can ever be expected. Beauty is sacri- 
 ficed to ornament, and decorum to caprice." 
 
 " But surely. Lady Harman, many of the 
 modern palaces are sumptuous in the highest 
 degree !" observed Lord Vanderville. 
 
 " Yet you will allow that there is not one 
 that is consistent throughout ; many are unfi- 
 nished — almost all unfurnished ; and we see 
 several of the most gorgeous— such as the Far- 
 nese, — the Medici — the Altieri, mouldering 
 awav, desolate and forsaken, at the feet of those 
 giants of older times, whose bare and rugged 
 fronts tower proudly over them in defiance of 
 decay." 
 
 " But, my dear madam," interrupted Lady 
 Mary, who professedly hated all long speeches 
 but her own, "that is no wonder: you forget 
 that half the revenue of the Roman state is now 
 applied to the patching up those same old walls 
 you speak of: you cannot drive in any direction 
 without seeing the arms of the diflerent Popes 
 stuck up against an old building, to tell us an 
 Innocent Pope did this, and a Pius Pope did
 
 ABROAD. 159 
 
 the other ; as if their only achievement was to 
 be appended to the dead walls of a Coliseum or a 
 Circus. And, Lord knows ! these memento inori 
 are very fortunate ; for without them, how could 
 we ever remember that these, our dead benefac- 
 tors, had ever lived ?" 
 
 Having at last reached the portico, Lady 
 Mary directed their attention to the figure of a 
 cock, which is carved in every possible direction 
 round the walls, and over the windows, and in 
 every recess, or on every pilaster, that could 
 by any possibility admit it. " What vanity 
 and puerility !" exclaimed Lady Harman : " the 
 Italians multiply their arms on the panels of 
 their walls, and exclude them from the panels 
 of their carriages." 
 
 " I acknowledge," said Lord Vanderville, 
 " the design of Guido's Aurora would be quite 
 as appropriate here as it was on the venerable 
 Prince Pine's carriage, where I last saw it 
 painted." 
 
 *' I saw the design of a bee carved on every 
 house in one street," said Emily: " I believe 
 it was in the street that runs out of the Piazza
 
 160 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 Barberini ; for I know one of the fountains in 
 that Piazza has three bees to spout out the 
 water : and I believe too, that the bee is in- 
 troduced into almost all the borders and corners 
 of Saint Peter's." 
 
 " You remind me," rejoined Lady Mary, 
 ** of Bonaparte having restored the bees as 
 the arms of France ; and of a friend of mine, 
 who, when she saw them on his carriage, and 
 on all his plate, observed they were no doubt 
 meant as a French pun on his initial letter." 
 
 " Bees — Abeilles — A — B," muttered Lady 
 Harman, trying in vain to hit the joke that 
 amused Lord Vanderville so heartily : and in 
 these researches, she so lost herself, that the 
 rest of the party had proceeded without her 
 through half the rooms of the Casino. But 
 this she scarcely regretted, as all modern ex- 
 cellences she despised : nay, she would hardly 
 condescend to notice either the inimitable 
 group of Daphne and Apollo, or the Shepherd 
 King. But Lady Mary, thoroughly initiated 
 in all the mysteries of virtil, expressed herself 
 enraptured with both, and showed at once her
 
 ABROAD. 161 
 
 experience and skill, in comparing their dif- 
 ferent beauties with those of every Venus and 
 Apollo she had ever heard of. 
 
 Lord Vanderville listened to all her learned 
 observations, and gathered much from her 
 anatomical acumen: but he would have pro- 
 fited more, had not his eyes involuntarily 
 wandered towards Emily, who loitered to ad- 
 mire the beautiful basso relievo of Curtius, and 
 the unparalleled ceiling which represents the 
 deliverance of Rome by Camillas, which at once 
 immortalizes the hero and the artist. Lady 
 Mary's looks followed the direction of his 
 Lordship's. " I perceive Miss Sternheim 
 does not admire sculpture," said she, as she 
 anticipated his wish of approaching her: "of 
 course, she cannot be very experienced in it ; 
 but she will soon improve." 
 
 Lord Vanderville once more translated her 
 observations on Emily's want of knowledge 
 more favourably than they were meant, and 
 agreed with the poet, that, in some cases, igno- 
 rance was preferable to wisdom. 
 
 At last. Lady Harman felt herself cheated
 
 1G2 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 out of all ber dignity : Lady Mary laid aside 
 all her satire, and Emily and Vanderville in- 
 dulged in hearty laughter at the sight of the 
 large yet minute painting which gives so admi- 
 rable and ludicrous a representation of the gay 
 follies of a Roman carnival, which is there 
 described as passing immediately under the 
 windows of the Palazzo Borghese. But Lady 
 Harman, ere long, half angry at having been 
 amused at second-hand buffoonery, revenged 
 herself by a tirade on the pride which directed 
 that the ornament of one mansion should con- 
 sist in the delineation of the magnificence of 
 another family residence ; and even went so far 
 as to assert that instead of that mutual rela- 
 tionship, which more or less exists between 
 all ranks in England, the only points of union 
 which are to be found between the Roman 
 people and their lords, are in scenes of exagge- 
 rated dissipation, in which all classes appear to 
 be degraded to one low level. 
 
 Lady Harman's observations were generally 
 founded on truth ; but the prejudice against 
 what she called modern Italy, led her to view
 
 ABROAD. 163 
 
 its follies or its vices in the strongest light, and 
 to pass over unregarded its many claims to ad- 
 miration. But it is merely the different side on 
 which we choose to look, that makes travellers' 
 accounts of the same objects so essentially differ- 
 ent from each other, while all are equally true. Nor 
 is there any country in the known world that 
 can admit of such a contrariety of true descrip- 
 tion as Italy. The character of its inhabitants 
 is composed of contradictions ; and in that of the 
 country, its absurdities and sublimities are so 
 closely interwoven, that even Ithuriel's spear 
 could scarcely separate them. 
 
 A new subject for Lady Harman's eloquence 
 presented itself on their return from the Bor- 
 ghese Gardens, in the slaves who are employed 
 in all the public works at Rome, and who, 
 chained together in pairs, beset all English 
 carriages with obtrusive demands for charity, 
 having even in their countenances a hardihood 
 of guilt and audacity which causes the stranger 
 to recoil even from their gaze ; whilst the sen- 
 tinel appointed to guard them looks quietly on, 
 ready to share their booty if they succeed in
 
 164 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 extorting alms, or to laugh at their disappoint- 
 ment if they fail. 
 
 " These are some of Cesare's band, I believe," 
 said Ladv Mary, with the utmost unconcern : 
 for English women but too soon become ac- 
 customed to all the novelties that the continent 
 presents. " I went the other day to see one of 
 their chiefs, who is confined in the castle of San 
 Angelo. Almost every body goes in order to 
 make friends with them before they are let out 
 upon us again." 
 
 " But if they are really brigand chiefs, surely 
 they will be condemned ?" inquired Lady Har- 
 man. 
 
 " They will be condemned, but not executed. 
 The first ceremony at Rome with which the gay 
 week of the carnival opens is tolling the great 
 bell, which never rings except for that and the 
 death of the pope ; and the next ought to be 
 the execution of one or two state criminals in 
 the Piazza del Popolo. The people would 
 not think the amusement was really begun 
 unless they were led to the scaffold. But of 
 latter years the crowd have always been dis-
 
 ABROAD. 165 
 
 appointed, as the pope says he is too old to sign 
 death warrants, consequently he only sends 
 reprieves; and one of the brigands told me 
 yesterday he hoped certainly to be ' out ' in a 
 few weeks, and would certainly remember my 
 ' Excellence.' " 
 
 From these reflections, and from all the beau- 
 ties of the Villa Borghese, they at last turned 
 to behold a scene with which perhaps few things 
 in nature can be compared, — a view from 
 Monte Peneio of the sun setting behind Saint 
 Peter's. Through the transverse windows of the 
 cupola the orb itself is seen, as it were, en- 
 shrined in the brilliant fane : the hills, crowned 
 with the memorials of other days, circle the 
 consecrated site, the rivals of its splendour ; 
 whilst in the nearer fore-ground all the riches of 
 the Campus Martius, its columns, its ruins, and 
 its palaces, are displayed in one rich mass 
 of antique grandeur, that would be in itself 
 sufficient to unite the memory of Rome with 
 that of almost every age, and assuredly of every 
 goodliest attribute that belongs to the history of 
 man. 
 
 /
 
 IGG ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 Emily leaned in silent admiration over the 
 parapet of Monte Peneio, till long after the sun 
 had sunk, and the blue vapour begun to rise 
 from the banks of the Tiber, the insidious har- 
 binger of ill. Vanderville warned her not to 
 remain longer in the beautiful but treacherous 
 scene. "You must remember," said he, " the 
 damps of evening in Italy are a sure precursor 
 of the mal aria." Lady Harman caught the 
 terrific sound ; and with her usual anxious pre- 
 caution hurried into her carriage, calling to 
 Emily to follow as she might, without giving 
 her time to take leave either of Lady Mary 
 or Lord Vanderville, who certainly had not 
 calculated on his observation producing so sud^ 
 den a separation.
 
 ABROAD. 167 
 
 CHAP. IV. 
 
 ARTISTS OF ROME. 
 
 A VARIETY of circumstances had conspired 
 to bring Lord Vanderville into an attachment to 
 Emily Sternheim, which, however worthy the 
 object happened to be, was yet undoubtedly 
 premature, inasmuch as it was neither sanc- 
 tioned by long acquaintance, nor founded on 
 any peculiar similarity of taste or disposition. It 
 was owing to accident that he met with a very 
 beautiful girl in a scene so desolate, that per- 
 haps the society of any woman, moderately 
 agreeable, would have there been prized ; and 
 circumstances equally accidental had thrown 
 him more into her company in the course of the 
 first few days of their acquaintance, than might 
 have happened in ordinary cases in a much 
 longer period ; but perhaps the strangest acci-
 
 168 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 dent of all was, that during the whole of their 
 acquaintance, he had not yet felt inclined to 
 wish its discontinuance. 
 
 A character so volatile as his, required not 
 only sudden and strong excitement to impel it 
 to decision, but also a confirmation by others of 
 the opinion which led to that decision, in order 
 to render it at all imperative. That too was 
 effected by the admiration with which Emily 
 was every where received. He saw her the 
 object of universal attention, which, by suggest- 
 ing the possibility of competitors, made him but 
 the more eager to secure the prize. But that 
 was comparatively only a distant speculation ; 
 for as he saw no present rival preferred to him, 
 he flattered himself he was the object of her 
 choice, and stopped not to question his grounds 
 for that belief: all his feelings were roused, but 
 none were irritated ; and had any more prudent 
 counsellors than his own heart reminded hinl 
 that he knew nothing of her former history, or 
 suggested to him the possibility that the past 
 had not always been as unfettered as the present 
 appeared, he would probably have resented the
 
 ABROAD. 169 
 
 suspicion as equally derogatory to his own me- 
 rits and those of Miss Sternheim ; and with the 
 contradictory waywardness of human frailty, he 
 would have been as mortified at the idea of any 
 counterpoise really existing to Miss Sternheim's 
 personal attractions, which he believed supreme, 
 as he would have been indignant at the thought 
 of any other man but himself having previously 
 discovered and adored that perfection, which 
 he concluded, without, perhaps, acknowledging 
 it, was predestined for himself. 
 
 Amongst the various lessons of morality, and 
 subjects for reflection, which the sight of Rome 
 is said to impress on the minds of all travellers, 
 one seems in its effects to be more universal 
 than any other: it is a sudden conviction of 
 the shortness of life ; for no sooner does a stranger 
 arrive at Rome, than almost before his ears 
 have recovered from the din of his carriage- 
 wheels, or his eyes from the dizziness of ac- 
 celerated motion, his new race begins, not only 
 against time, but against all his fellow- tourists ; 
 and the pious aspiration of the Psalmist, " so 
 to number his days," is practised in the minute 
 VOL. I. H
 
 170 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 computation of how many sights can by any 
 exertion be crammed into every hour. 
 
 Lady Harman and her niece had already 
 followed the usual routine, and taken what 
 Lady Mary Norton justly called a superficial 
 view of Rome ; Emily had got by heart the 
 names of three-fourths of the palaces she had 
 passed in her morning drives ; and her aunt, 
 like other antiquaries, believed she understood 
 which pillars belonged to the Comitium, and 
 which to Jupiter Stator ; though, like others, 
 her alternate appropriation of these high-sound- 
 ing titles entirely depended on the point of 
 the compass from which she entered the Roman 
 Forum. 
 
 Nor were the picture galleries which most of 
 the modern palaces contain, to be passed over un- 
 noticed. What traveller would acknowledge that 
 he had not seen the three Claudes at the Palazzo 
 Doria, or the Divine Love, and the Profane 
 Love, both of which Titian's pencil has portrayed, 
 alias caricatured, at the Palazzo Borghese. 
 Even Guide's duplicate Magdalenes, that are 
 for ever weeping opposite to each other's blue
 
 ABROAD. 171 
 
 noses on the parallel walls of the Palazzo 
 Sciarra, are now as well known as the Camera 
 di Raffaello, or as the late-found truth that 
 Guide's bleaching tints are as stone-blue as 
 those of any washer- woman. In all these ram- 
 bles, Lord Vanderville accompanied them ; but 
 though he became daily more learned in lovers' 
 lore, he found still some difficulty in ke'"oing 
 pace with Lady Harman in connoisseurship, as 
 her Ladyship's technical memory admirably 
 served her in meting out the due measure o 
 praise, as each object was successively presented 
 to her ; for, like most critics, her judgment was 
 inferior to her knowledge, and her admiration 
 or censure was consequently entirely dependent 
 on the label attached to every work, in the 
 name of its reputed author. The studios of 
 modern sculptors in turn engrossed their atten- 
 tion, and amongst them, that of Canova claimed 
 unwonted interest, as a brilliant link between 
 the past and present : it was painful to think 
 that he, who was so lately our contemporary, 
 had, like the many other stars of Europe, set for 
 ever to our horizon, and had gone to join that
 
 172 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 galaxy of lights that even yet sheds a twilight 
 on our lives, and will for ever throw a halo 
 round the nineteenth century. How many are 
 yet alive, to whom the names of Pitt, Fox, 
 Burke, Dundas, Thurlow, Necker, Murat, 
 Bonaparte, Alexander, seem as the familiar 
 acquaintance of daily recognition ! how many 
 yet unborn will look back to their dazzling 
 constellation as to the zenith of human in- 
 tellect ! 
 
 From Canova's studio, Lady Harman's party 
 proceeded to the house in the Via Babuino, 
 which is entirely filled by the single model 
 of his equestrian statue of Ferdinand IV. of 
 Naples. Like the Behemoth of old, this giant 
 animal stands in the valley, and raises his neck 
 of strength ; for the second story of the house 
 is removed to make way for his aspiring head, 
 which measures in height with the gallery that 
 surrounds it. 
 
 " How much those real bridles and saddle- 
 girths improve the effect of the statue !" ob- 
 served Emily : " I wish the horses of Castor 
 and Pollux at the Quirinal had some such ap-
 
 ABROAD. 173 
 
 pendages to unite them with the figures of their 
 masters, and explain their relative attitudes." 
 
 Lady Harman was horrified at what she 
 termed the sacrilege of supposing any saddle- 
 girths Avould improve the works of Phidias and 
 Praxiteles ; and Vanderville, to divert her wrath, 
 took occasion to observe how strictly classical 
 all Canova's designs were in their minutest 
 parts. *' For instance, in this horse," continued 
 he, " his mane is cropped, and his tail is flow- 
 ing ; a peculiarity you will remark in almost all 
 the equestrian statues found at Pompeii and 
 Herculaneum, particularly those of the Balbi : 
 but I remember once bringing a knowing New- 
 market jockey to see this statue, who was so 
 shocked at the incongruity, that he insisted on 
 calling on Canova the next day to teach him 
 how to dock a horse." 
 
 " And who was your intelligent friend?" in- 
 quired Lady Harman, with a look of the most 
 sovereign contempt. 
 
 " Sir Willoughby Martin." 
 
 At this name Emily sprang forward, and 
 cla,sping her hands together as she looked
 
 174 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 earnestly in Lord Vanderville's face, " Good 
 God!" exclaimed she, " do you too know Sir 
 Willoughby ? — Was it, can it be him I saw at 
 Saint Peter's ?" 
 
 Emily's agitation was too evident to be un- 
 noticed even by Lord Vanderville ; but Lady 
 Harman precluded his reply by turning hastily 
 round. She exclaimed, in a tone of haughty re- 
 proof," Really, Miss Sternheim, you so frequently 
 allow your feelings to overcome both your discre- 
 tion and politeness, that it is quite tormenting to 
 be in your society." Then addressing the earl, 
 as if to account for her niece's impetuosity, she 
 added, " Emily and Sir Willoughby formerly 
 lived much together : he was a great favourite 
 with my poor sister, though never so with me : 
 and Emily is so fond of her mother's memory^ 
 she never can hear the name of any person she 
 liked without emotion. But as all acquaintance 
 with Sir Willoughby is now at an end for ever, 
 I do not wish him to be made the subject of 
 our conversation." 
 
 Lady Harman no doubt intended that this 
 kalf explanation should have the eflect of re-
 
 ABROAD. 175 
 
 pressing Lord Vanderville's curiosity, but in 
 this she by no means succeeded ; and, silent and 
 abstracted, he continued to ruminate on what 
 had passed, without being able satisfactorily to 
 account either for Emily's emotion or Lady 
 Harman's prudence. Miss Sternheim, on the 
 contrary, after the first burst of surprise had 
 subsided, seemed to recover more than her 
 usual vivacity. Was it artifice that induced 
 her thus to bring all her powers of fascination 
 into action, in order to resume her sway over 
 Lord Vanderville's affection, which for the mo- 
 ment seemed to be endangered ? or, was it that 
 her ingenuous heart sprang forward with renewed 
 confidence towards one who had professed him- 
 self the friend of him whom she dared not 
 name ? Both these possibilities occurred to 
 Lord Vanderville, and neither construction 
 pleased him, and his jealousy seemed to in- 
 crease with her gaiety. 
 
 It was not, therefore, surprising that all the 
 varied beauties of Thorwaltzen's studio lost 
 their charm for him ; nor that the playful vi- 
 vacity or careless cheerfulness with which she
 
 176 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 now pointed out the merits of the different statues 
 to his observation, and now turned from his cyni- 
 cal replies, to seek amusement from them alone, 
 should irritate rather than divert his spleen. 
 Thus when Emily objected to the want of ani- 
 mation in the countenance of his triumphant 
 Venus, and contrasted it with the kiss she gives 
 her son in Albano's Triumph of Love, he only 
 replied to her remark by a spiteful ebullition 
 on the little value to be set on woman's smiles 
 in general : when she praised his Graces, he 
 averred that those of Pinelli's alabaster manu- 
 factory that are seen on every jjlateau, were 
 infinitely more beautiful ; and simply because 
 Miss Sternheim declared Thorwaltzen's Mer- 
 cury to be one of the most perfect statues of 
 modern sculpture, he insisted that the Pysche 
 done by one of Thorwaltzen's scholars, was infi- 
 nitely more lovely. 
 
 But this only lasted while Emily was present. 
 When the moment of separation came, he re- 
 membered that her manners had never been so 
 confiding, nor her beauty so attractive, as when 
 his heart was steeled against both. In the
 
 ABROAD. 177 
 
 solitude of his own apartment, the cause of his 
 indignation dwindled in his recollection into 
 nothing, and he only remembered with regret 
 and self- accusation his cold rejection of her 
 playful smile, his repulsive answers to her 
 innocent gaiety. To apologize for a conduct 
 which a few hours before he had deemed alike 
 dignified and unavoidable, was now his first 
 care ; and he returned to Lady Harman's door 
 the next day at an hour even earlier than usual, 
 in hopes of having an opportunity of making 
 some reparation to Miss Sternheim before the 
 time appointed by Lady Mary Norton for their 
 all proceeding together to see some other sights : 
 but in this he was disappointed ; for he only 
 reached it just in time to secure his own seat in 
 Lady Harman's caleche, and to reiterate her 
 orders to drive to the Quirinal. 
 
 Either Emily had not noticed, or was too 
 proud to allude to his conduct of the day before ; 
 and as he perceived she no longer resented it, 
 he soon forgot it ; for the only point in which 
 his character was at all consistent was in its 
 instability : long, therefore, before they reached
 
 178 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 the Quiriniil, he was as much at peace with 
 himself, and with all the world beside, as if no- 
 thing had ever occurred to disturb the enviable 
 tranquillity. 
 
 As they entered the second court of the 
 Pope's palace, which leads to the apartments 
 appropriated to those of rank sudiciently exalted 
 to permit of their inhabiting those hallowed 
 walls, Lady Mary pointed out the windows of a 
 small room, in which all the world of Rome 
 used to assemble to see Sir Thomas Lawrence 
 painting-, and casually mentioned his magni- 
 ficent coach-and-four, and brilliant Hveries. 
 
 " 1 had no idea that he kept such state !" 
 replied Lady Harman. 
 
 " The Pope kept it for him. Our P. R. 
 sent his compliments to his Holiness last year, 
 and courteously asked him to sit for his picture, 
 in return for a promise that the English would 
 do something civil to the little white flag, which 
 is the emblem of St. Peter on the sea, though, 
 like him, I believe it seldom goes far over 
 the water. Here is the room," continued she, 
 opening- the door of an anti-room : "I have
 
 ABROAD. 179 
 
 seen it thronged with cardinals, ambassadors, and 
 princes, mixed with the porters and liveried 
 lacqueys waiting on their lord." 
 
 It is the pride of England, that wherever she 
 chooses to direct the force of her genius, there 
 she is always paramount. Italian painters freely 
 acknowledge that no other school can compare 
 with ours in the three branches of the art, — 
 water-colour, miniature, and portrait painting ; 
 and the name of Harlow is alone sufficient to 
 establish our claims to excellence even beyond 
 these. Sir Thomas Lawrence has done still 
 more; for he has proved, not only the supe- 
 riority of our school, but of his own pre-eminent 
 talents, -in the manner in which he took the late 
 Pope's likeness, as well as in its execution. 
 
 The Pope having sent for him, put on his 
 robes as the painter requested, and then entered 
 into a gracious conversation with him, in the 
 pleasures of which both seemed to forget the 
 purpose of the visit ; till Sir Thomas suddenly 
 starting up, with little more than three touches 
 of his pencil, put in an eye and nose ; and then
 
 180 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 making a bow of thanks, released the pontiff 
 from any further attention. On that occasion, 
 as on every other, the Pope left his visitors 
 instead of their quitting his presence ; and no 
 sooner was he gone, than Sir Thomas, seating 
 one of the bishops who had been in attendance 
 (oh, the ascendancy of genius !) on the papal 
 chair so lately vacated, and clothing him with 
 the robes of state, copied their folded intricacies 
 as rapidly as he had caught inspiration from 
 the pontiff's eye. That evening, the Romans 
 flocked to see the portrait of their beloved 
 sovereign, which, to their delighted eyes, 
 seemed as great a miracle as that of the Virgin 
 painted by herself at Florence: six more such 
 sittings were all the painter asked, and his 
 finished work has not disappointed its early 
 promise. 
 
 "That other picture," said Lady Mary, "is a 
 striking likeness of his Imperial Majesty Francis 
 of Austria : his crimson regimental inexpress- 
 ibles are done to the life. He sat in them at 
 the Congress^ where the picture was begu».
 
 ABROAD. 181 
 
 and Sir Thomas fortunately found bim in the 
 identical pair when he brought it to the Quirinal 
 for revision." 
 
 "But what is that little corner of the canvass 
 in the Emperor's picture left uncovered for ?" 
 inquired Emily. 
 
 " To write epigrams on, perchance," replied 
 her Ladyship ; but her volatile attention was 
 withdrawn to the more finished courtier, Met- 
 ternich, whose commanding figure and intelligent 
 countenance was opposed to that of his master's. 
 There too were some of the brightest roses 
 picked from the garden of beauty, and there 
 even the inanimate delineation of British love- 
 liness bore away the prize. 
 
 " Sir Thomas has perfected the triumph of 
 his art in those female pictures," observed 
 Lord Vanderville ; and as he said this, he 
 thought how beautiful Emily's portrait would 
 be, when added to the gallery of those that were 
 Countesses of Vanderville. 
 
 " All this is very fine," said Lady Harman, 
 as she again settled herself in her carriage ; 
 '* but now, as I have attended you to all these
 
 182 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 modern shows, I hope you will accompany me 
 to that pride of ancient days, the Capitol of 
 Rome." 
 
 " With pleasure," said Lady Mary, and an 
 arch smile played on her features ; " but you 
 must let me be your guide. Apropos, it would 
 waste our time to go to see the house of the 
 senator of Rome, for he always lives at Flo- 
 rence." 
 
 Lady Harman felt herself individually af- 
 fronted at this piece of intelligence ; but she 
 seldom ventured a competition with Lady Mary 
 Norton, and consoled herself in silence, by 
 anticipating all that the Capitol of Rome was 
 to present to her view. When she arrived at 
 the foot of the grand staircase, she stooped to 
 offer as low obeisance to the steps of the Capitol 
 as other doting devotees pay to the holy stairs 
 which are not far distant. " I don't wonder 
 you admire them so much," said Lady Mary ; 
 " they were built by Michael Angelo." Lady 
 Harman immediately converted her obeisance 
 to the manes of Camillus — into a stumble. 
 The magnificent equestrian statue of Marcus
 
 ABROAD. 183 
 
 Aurelius Antoninus, v.liich occupies the centre 
 of the square, first attracted their attention ; 
 for who can see it with indifference I But Lady 
 Harman, pertinaciously regulating her admira- 
 tion hy chronology, affected to be infinitely more 
 delighted with the diminutive statue of Rome 
 Triumphant, which, crouched into a recess be- 
 hind a fountain, marks the centre of the senator's 
 house. " That is invaluable, indeed," exclaimed 
 she in raptures ; " that is really old." 
 
 " But very little of its age," rejoined Lady 
 Mary, with the most provoking gravit}^ Emily 
 immediately proposed visiting the Museum. 
 
 " Will you venture another staircase. Lady 
 Harman, or will you see the ground- floor first i" 
 Lady Harman, half- repenting her choice of a 
 guide, determined to leave the upper gallery 
 for another day, and only to visit the lower 
 rooms v/ith Lady Mary ; but in tliis choice she 
 was again unfortunate ; for whilst the apartments 
 she rejected defy all sentiments incongruous to 
 that of an admiration amounting to reverence, 
 those below contain only the refuse of the rest. 
 There it was that Lady Mary, in spite of Emily's
 
 184 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 suppliant looks, or Lord Vanderville's less 
 guarded hints, " fooled her to the top of l>er 
 bent." 
 
 She mercilessly led her through all the hor- 
 rors of the Egyptian mythology, and conse- 
 quently through the whole climax of aspirations, 
 interjections, and groans. " Ah !" said Lady 
 Mary, as she pointed to the marble crocodile ; 
 and " Oh !" as she turned to the twin Apis. 
 Lady Harman limped after her, and echoed her 
 increasing praises. 
 
 " Now Lady Harman, if you don't like to 
 go up stairs to-day, will you come and see the 
 pictures that are in the suite of rooms to the 
 left hand of this entrance ?" She had heard 
 there was a collection of paintings at the Capi- 
 tol, and gladly accepted the proposal of visiting 
 the nearest rooms ; for believing all within those 
 walls sanctified, to praise all were alike to her, 
 and she was not sorry to be saved the trouble 
 of crossing the court, provided she could at less 
 expense, and with equal truth, say she had seen 
 the pictures at the Capitol. 
 
 But here Lady Mary's command of counte-
 
 ABROAD, 185 
 
 nance for once failed her ; and having led Lady 
 Harman up to the portrait of the beautiful lady 
 in the spotted shawl, which smiles eternally on 
 a rose she holds in her hand ; and having 
 pointed out the rich beauty of the golden buckle 
 which fastens her broad black velvet girdle, and, 
 in an existing scene in Italy, rivals the fancy of 
 the Vicar of Wakefield's daughters ; and having 
 complimented the credulous painter on the taste 
 of the costume, and praised the correctness of 
 its delineation to Lady Harman ; — Lady Mary 
 could withstand it no longer, and abruptly pro- 
 posed their adjourning to the Tarpeian Rock.* 
 " That, at least, must be worth seeing !" mut- 
 tered Lady Harman, almost in despair : and 
 so eager was she to reach that summit of her 
 wishes, that she stopped not to notice the Palace 
 Dei Conservatori which closes the square on the 
 opposite side of the Museum : she even heeded 
 not the squalling children and clamorous beg- 
 gars that assailed them as they passed through 
 the dirty little lane which leads thither from the 
 Capitol. At last, they stopped at the door of a 
 * Sec note E at the end of the volume.
 
 18G ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 miserable habitation, which would be called a 
 cottage any where but in the streets of the 
 eternal city. An old woman, without a cap, 
 with her gray hairs drawn tight back from her 
 forehead, and tied into a knot behind with a 
 piece of packthread, smiling and curtsying, 
 welcomed them to her home ; and Lady Har- 
 man, finding with all her diligence she could not 
 yet make herself understood in Italian, was con- 
 tent to follow the old dame up her dirty ladder 
 stairs : from thence she passed through a bed- 
 room, and out upon a little terrace, similar in 
 dirt and dimensions to those usually met with 
 on the third story of Roman palaces. 
 
 There are few trees in Rome, except those 
 which grow upon the house-tops, and Lady Har- 
 man was not much surprised to see them so 
 situated here ; but the Tarpeian Rock was the 
 object of her present quest, and she eagerly de- 
 manded where it was. 
 
 " There, my dear madam," answered Lady 
 Mary, "just before you! that gray stone 
 amongst the cabbages." 
 
 It was true : a little stone, partly buried by
 
 ABROAD. 187 
 
 the accumulation of earth, aud almost quite 
 concealed by the neighbouring vegetation, is all 
 that now remains of the Tarpeian Rock. An 
 awful doom seems to have blasted the honours 
 of the Roman Capitol. What once was " Rome 
 Triumphant," now sunken and debased, is no 
 longer to be as such recognised ; and even the 
 tribunal of her justice is defaced. On the site 
 of the Tabularium now rise the Museums, 
 whose only glories are the memorials of her 
 decay ; and the " Senatus Populusque Roma- 
 nus" exist no longer, except as ornamental 
 initials in the escutcheons of Papacy. Nor is 
 this dread mockery of all that was great con- 
 fined to the Capitol of Rome ; it is true the 
 ciceroni, with a merciless precision only applied 
 to it, dissect its very name; and as they write 
 of it, divide it into the old, the ancient, and the 
 modern Capitol. But other names and other 
 sites, hallowed to the dearest recollections of 
 us, who are but Transal pines, are not less pro- 
 faned by modern Romans. Should the Temple 
 of Nerva be only assigned as a dwelling for the 
 meanest order of those who inherit the name of
 
 188 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 Roman people I or should Roman ladies, like 
 other Tulliiie, drive to the Forum but to chronicle 
 their disgrace in buying scaglia tables where 
 Virginia's life-blood bought the liberty of Rome, 
 or to cheapen marble gardes-de-feuilles formed 
 from the wreck of Vitnivian glory ; or to bar- 
 gain for miniature mockeries of the tomb of the 
 Scipios ? * 
 
 When Lord Vanderville returned, as much 
 from habit as premeditation, to Lady Harman's 
 door in the evening, it was with a mixture of 
 disappointment and surprise that he found she 
 and Emily were preparing for an assembly, of 
 which he had before heard them speak ; and it 
 was then, for the first time, he recollected he had 
 received no invitation for it. But that convic- 
 tion by no means created a moment's doubt as to 
 his determination of going there. It only gave 
 him the trouble of sending his visiting card to 
 Lady Mary Norton, with these words written in 
 pencil : " Shall I be on your list to-night ?" 
 a sort of demand, implying a consciousness of 
 the proposal conferring an obligation so ba- 
 lanced, as to be of no weight to either. And 
 * See note F at the end of the volume.
 
 ABROAD. 189 
 
 in this idea he was perfectly correct ; for be- 
 sides any individual preference which Lady 
 Mary Norton might feel or profess for his 
 society, it is now become the privilege of certain 
 ranks both to receive and give such proxy in- 
 vitations : and so prevalent are London fashions 
 now at Rome, that of the aggregate number of 
 balls, routs, and concerts given there by Eng- 
 lish ladies, there is probably not above one in a 
 hundred at which the hostess knows the names 
 of all her company. 
 
 Nothing is more common than to find stray 
 gentlemen, and even ladies, wandering round 
 the rooms, in search — not of the host or hostess, 
 but of some self-elected groom of the chambers, 
 who can so far introduce them, as to tell their 
 names : nor is it unusual to hear the lady of the 
 house inquire of one half of her guests, who, and 
 what are the remainder. Nor has this facility 
 of access any further consequence. " A good 
 party" is equally desired by those who give, 
 and those who make it ; but in these days of 
 indolence and ease, rooms, lights, and ices are 
 all the contributions towards this desideratum 
 expected from the lady of the house. The
 
 190 ENGLISH FASHIONAULES 
 
 " goodness" of the whole depends on the 
 quality of the component parts by which the 
 rank, not the merits of the visitants, is implied. 
 
 The fashion which has expelled the well 
 nutmeg'd custards, the frothy trifles, and the 
 toasts and sentiments of our great grandmo- 
 thers, from the upper circles of the present 
 day, has likewise driven most of the talents, 
 good-humour, and real festivity, which formerly 
 accompanied them to the second class of society; 
 and many a lively girl, and youthful fop, prefer 
 to doze away their tedious hours in company 
 with titled slumberers, rather than dare to be 
 joyous at the risk of being styled " vulgar," or 
 venture to indulge the vivacity natural to their 
 years in a circle of associates of inferior pre- 
 tensions. 
 
 Alas ! how pitilessly is human happiness 
 sacrificed to the Hydra vanity ! the sports of 
 infancy, and joys of youth, are daily immolated 
 at her shrine : age, when it advances, breaks 
 her spell, but only to bring repentance in 
 its room ; and when the opportunity is past, 
 and we can no longer be gay, we regret in
 
 ABROAD. 191 
 
 vain those innocent amusements, wliich, when 
 they were within our reach, we voluntarily re- 
 linquished for gratifications still more ephe- 
 meral, or for distinctions equally unsubstantial. 
 Gloom and misanthropy are nearly allied ; and 
 if in early life the habit of happiness is de- 
 stroyed, we naturally seek to supply the craving 
 want it leaves, either by unbounded dissipation, 
 or unrepressed malevolence ; but the life-glow 
 of content is not the less extinct, and what has 
 the cold selfishness of fashion to offer as its 
 substitute ? 
 
 When Lady Mary Norton entered Mrs. 
 Hines's drawing-rooms, she found amongst the 
 torpedos of fashion, Lord Vanderville yawning 
 on a couch, in the attitude of listening to the 
 youngest daughter of the house, who had anti- 
 cipated his introduction, and was endeavouring 
 to entertain him with an account of the machine 
 lately invented for cleansing the Tiber. " The 
 bubble scheme of Rome ! why don't you sub- 
 scribe, my Lord ? all the English do : Monsieur 
 says, if it was not for us, the work would never 
 go on ; besides, we are all to make our fortunes.
 
 192 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 The Tiber, they say, is full of treasures ; I have 
 taken three shares." 
 
 *' I see, Miss Hines, you lay your nets both 
 for gods and men, but I'm afraid Lord Van- 
 derville is already engaged. You are taken in, 
 an't you. Van ?" Lord Vanderville looked con- 
 scious, and Lady Mary continued : " But, Miss 
 Hines, what do you think of the books of the 
 Sibyls ? they are undoubtedly under water." 
 
 '' If your Ladyship is sure of that, I will put 
 my claim in for them to-morrow: — I hope I shall 
 be in time." 
 
 ** No doubt of it. The other day Sir John 
 Bones gave a hundred pounds for a pitch-fork 
 that he saw dug up at Pompeii, which his guide 
 persuaded him was Neptune's trident ; but 
 there can be no doubt of what this new-in- 
 vented machine will bring up : it is the same in 
 means and end as that which has been used with 
 great success for the last twenty years in re- 
 moving the rubbish out of Leghorn harbour." 
 
 Just then Lady Harman and Miss Sternheim 
 appeared at the door, and Lord Vanderville, 
 springing on his feet, was in a moment at their
 
 ABROAD. 193 
 
 side. Lady Mary observed the action and the 
 smile with which Emily received him. 
 
 " How beautiful Miss Sternheim looks to- 
 night !" exclaimed Miss Hines, who, like many 
 other girls, feared to stem the torrent of public 
 opinion, and anticipated the encomiums she least 
 wished to hear. 
 
 Lady Mary made no reply. "I too was once 
 as young," thought she; " and had I, too, been so 
 loved, perhaps even I might have been happy." 
 An indifferent spectator might not have noticed 
 any change of countenance as this thought rushed 
 on Lady Mary's mind ; yet one more than usu- 
 ally acute might, perhaps, have marked a tremu- 
 lous emotion in her mouth, — a slight contraction 
 of her pencilled brow : but the smooth dark brow 
 resumed its wonted serenity, and the rosy mouth 
 dimpled in a smile as she hailed the unconscious 
 object of her envy. 
 
 Lady Harman professing herself tired w'ith 
 her morning's ramble, took her usual station on 
 a couch, whilst Emily, still escorted by Vander- 
 ville, accepted I^ady Mary's r.flV;red arm, and 
 walked with her into the music-room. This 
 VOL. I. I
 
 194 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 little party was soon joined by all who, as they 
 passed, could claim acquaintance either with 
 the earl or with Lady Mary Norton ; for though 
 Emily was in truth the attraction to many, she 
 had been introduced to but comparatively few 
 strangers. At the moment they entered the 
 adjoining apartment, an immensely fat woman, 
 dressed in a low gown, long sleeves, and poke 
 bonnet, advanced to the piano-forte, with a roll 
 of music in one hand, and a pocket-handkerchief 
 in the other. 
 
 " That is Madame Buonaspeme," said Mr. 
 Westler, anxious to commence a conversation 
 with Emily : *' you see she has the figure of a 
 bacchante, and you will find she excels in the 
 BufFa, but that does not prevent her singing 
 the Miserere to perfection." 
 
 *' Have you heard the Miserere we have all 
 read so much of?" inquired Emily. 
 
 ** Yes, often ; and it does well enough in a 
 concert room ; but the last time it was per- 
 formed in the Sistine Chapel, it was unfor- 
 tunately a very fine evening, and so we lost 
 all the pathetic of popping out the rush-lights ;
 
 ABROAD. 195 
 
 and if it had not been for my little red book, I 
 should never have guessed what they were all 
 about." 
 
 " Madame Buonaspeme is one of the best 
 singers here," said Westler: "there is only 
 one female singer at Rome who rivals her in 
 any degree : but they are in different styles ; 
 for La Celestina always acts the heroes at the 
 Argentino theatre." 
 
 " Heroes?" reiterated Miss Sternheim : " you 
 don't mean, Mr. Westler, that she always acts 
 in men's clothes V' 
 
 " I never saw her in any other dress ; but 
 the Italian stage at present is in that, as in 
 every other respect, the reverse of the ancient. 
 In most theatres the heroes are performed by 
 women." 
 
 " I remember," said Lady Mary, " once meet- 
 ing, near Ancona, a girl riding much as our 
 guardsmen do ; she had on a hat and feathers, 
 and spurs over her shoes : her petticoats were 
 so displaced by her position, that they scarcely 
 reached to the knees of her more masculine attire ; 
 but, as a balance of power, her head was shaded
 
 19() ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 from the sun by a huge umbrella, which was 
 carried by her servant who ran by her side." 
 
 Whilst this conversation passed, Mr. West- 
 ler was endeavouring to profit by the opportu- 
 nity it presented of paying his court to Emily : 
 but this was by no means equally agreeable to 
 the earl, who, in hopes of interrupting his whis- 
 per, eagerly echoed the universal hiss, which 
 is in Italy the general prelude to all favourite 
 music, and is the only sound which succeeds in 
 enforcing silence or attention. It now an- 
 nounced one of the sweetest and most liquid 
 voices that ever broke on the ear of silence. 
 
 " Is Madame Buonaspeme a professor?" de- 
 manded Emily, as soon as her delightful strains 
 had ceased. 
 
 " No," replied Vanderville ; " she is the wife 
 of an apothecary, and her husband and son are 
 always included in the invitations given to her." 
 
 " But that is not the only payment they ex- 
 pect," added Lady Mary :* " to-morrow, Mrs. 
 Hines will probably get a note, written by some 
 
 * Fact.
 
 ABROAD. 197 
 
 kind and mutual friend, saying, that though 
 Madame Buonaspeme would be quite affronted 
 at the idea of being offered money, yet, perhaps 
 she might be tempted to accept a present ; and 
 to save her hostess the trouble of divining what 
 intaglio of Daes' or gem of Barberi's would be 
 equivalent to her services, the present is spe- 
 cified to be half a dozen bottles of wine, at 
 eighteen pence a bottle, for which she will 
 prove her predilection by drinking of it copi- 
 ously to-night." 
 
 Emily and Vanderville both exclaimed vio- 
 lently at the contrasted pride and meanness 
 which characterize so many of the existing 
 scenes in Italy. " I know but one thing 
 stranger than this bargain," observed Mr. 
 Westler, " and that is the effrontery with 
 which the servants of every Italian family call 
 on you the day after you have been at their 
 master's house for their vails." 
 
 " Yes," replied Vanderville : " I could 
 scarcely keep my countenance, when my valet 
 asked me to-day for a fine for the holy family, 
 us he called the Pope's household."
 
 198 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 " But I hardly think even that contrihution 
 worse than the card-money which ladies them- 
 selves extort in London." 
 
 " Listen, Miss Stcrnheim, to this duet," in- 
 terrupted Mr. Westler : " how beautitully the 
 bass and tenor voice are contrasted !" 
 
 Emily listened accordingly ; but her pleasure 
 was more than equalled by her surprise, when she 
 discovered that the duet was sung by one man. 
 *' That is the famous Trentanuove," said Lady 
 Mary : " he is also a sculptor, and used to rival 
 his fellow-artist Cicarine, not only in the art of 
 marble-cutting-, but also in his musical talents : 
 with this only difference, that Trentanuove, 
 with a voice flexible enough for all the follies of 
 Rossini's music, sings only the plaintive ac/a- 
 (jios of Meyer or Mozart ; and poor Cicarine, 
 with Stentorian lungs and immoveable counte- 
 nance, used to roar ye as it were a lion, in 
 buffas that would convulse a deaf man with 
 laughter." 
 
 *' But nothing surprises us in Italy," said 
 Lord Vanderville. 
 
 " I acknowledge," resumed her Ladyship,
 
 ABROAD. 199 
 
 " it seems here to be the whole study of man- 
 kind to contradict themselves. If you want to 
 see the grotesque, go to their theatres; if you 
 want to see good comic acting, attend their 
 pulpits ; or if you want to correct your taste, 
 listen to Punch. But here comes Lady Har- 
 man : she must not hear me say any thing in 
 dispraise of Italy — modern Italy ; for, with all 
 its incongruities, it is a paradise, though, per- 
 haps, a paradise of fools." 
 
 " It is a pity. Miss Sternheini, you have not 
 yet been to San Carlos at Naples," observed 
 Lord Vanderville : "you would there see our 
 lamentable tragedy of Macbeth transformed 
 into an interesting ballet, where the witches 
 dance a pas de trois to the tune of Maggie 
 Lawder, played with all the points iV orgue of 
 a Neapolitan orchestra." 
 
 " But is it possible that one of the theatres 
 in Rome is confined entirely to puppets, and 
 that people go to them as one would to an 
 opera?" demanded Lady Harman, with infinite 
 pomposity. 
 
 " Yes," answered Lady Mary : " and you
 
 200 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 will see Goldoni's comedies no where better per- 
 formed, or real life more ably caricatured : but 
 see, the cardinals are gone, and the fiddlers are 
 come. Now, Miss Sternheira, you may waltz 
 like a German, or dance quadrilles like a Pari- 
 sienne ; but take care you do not pay the same 
 compliment to our own national dance." 
 
 " Will you show the Romans how it ought 
 to be danced ?" asked Mr. Westler ; and before 
 Lord Vanderville had recovered his surprise at 
 what he termed his assurance, he and Emily 
 had joined the dancers, who were arranged for 
 a country dance, a V Inglese. 
 
 Lady Mary's caution to Miss Sternheim 
 proved quite unnecessary, as a very few minutes 
 convinced her that it would be impossible fw 
 any person to dance an English country-dance 
 amongst Italian ladies with elegance, or I had 
 almost said, propriety. Partly in compliment to 
 their English associates, but much more for the 
 excuse of indulging that vivacity which the for- 
 malities of their every-day manners repress, 
 the Italians not only profess to admire what 
 some fine English ladies abroad designate as
 
 ABROAD. 201. 
 
 ** kitchen-dances," but amongst them select such 
 as seem to authorise the most romping figures ; 
 and as the musicians invariably play the tunes 
 as fast as they can execute them, the caricatured 
 performance is not what an English lady would 
 willingly acknowledge as a just representation 
 of an English ball. 
 
 " Who are those young ladies in pink ?" de- 
 manded Lady Harman : "one of them has just 
 pulled her partner almost down, and the other 
 seems to emulate more our races than any other 
 of our customs." 
 
 " They are the Princesses Rowitz : their 
 father is one of the foreign ambassadors here, 
 and about twelve months 'ago he went mad. The 
 cause publicly assigned for his malady was, his 
 having fallen desperately in love with the beau- 
 tiful Buonasforza, whom your Ladyship may 
 perceive dancing next his daughter. During 
 the time he lost his senses, he was of course de- 
 prived of his political situation, but he has since 
 recovered both." 
 
 " And why would not Buonasforza marry
 
 202 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 him ? he is not very old, and certainly rather 
 handsome." 
 
 " My dear madam," answered Lady Mary, 
 impatiently, " that is the Prince's wife who is 
 flirting yonder with that ultra-royalist and ex- 
 tra-formalist, Monsieur de Blase." 
 
 Lady Harman would probably have vented 
 her indignation at this new evidence of foreign 
 manners, had not the very excess of her surprise 
 for once deprived her of utterance ; and Lady 
 Mary, delighted to escape from the gathering of 
 her eloquence, turned to Lord Vanderville, who 
 was standing with knit brow and gloomy coun- 
 tenance, watching Emily's dancing, again angry 
 at himself for the unwilling admiration it ex- 
 torted from him. " I see they have left the 
 country-dance, and are waltzing now," said 
 Lady Mary, addressing herself directly to his 
 thoughts. 
 
 " Yes," answered he petulantly ; " you wo- 
 men are changeable in every thing." 
 
 " If we do change, Vanderville, it is nine- 
 teen out of twenty times more your fault than
 
 ABROAD. 203 
 
 I ours : you dally with our affections till your 
 own are almost exhausted ; and when at last 
 our pride leads us to practise the lessons you 
 ,' have taught us, you accuse us of caprice, and 
 ' vent the last of your expiring feelings in abu- 
 i sing us for the effects of your own procrastina- 
 ^ tion." 
 
 For a moment Vanderville stared uncon- 
 sciously in her face, as if her words had con- 
 veyed no meaning to his ear ; then suddenly 
 seizing her hand, — - Procrastination !— yes 
 you are right. I have been a fool— God bless 
 you for your counsel !" and in a moment he 
 was at Emily's side. 
 
 For once Lady Mary lost her usual command 
 of countenance, and disappointment and sur- 
 prise convulsed her features. " Fool!— yes 
 fool indeed!" These thoughts she almost 
 articulated ; but the next moment saw her at 
 the other end of the room, laughing gaily with 
 the unconcerned throng, and animating their 
 conversation by the vivacity of her own. 
 
 Meanwhile, Vanderville profiting by an in-
 
 204 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 termission of dancing, which the waltz so fre- 
 quently affords, had at least relieved his own 
 mind, if he had not equally gratified Emily's 
 vanity, by paying her some of the compliments 
 which are invariably addressed to all pretty 
 girls on their general excellence. Possibly, it 
 was to these compliments he owed the blush 
 and smile with which she answered his de- 
 mand : *' Shall we take a turn V — the present 
 laconic style, which gives the privilege to any 
 by-stander to propose a temporary monopoly of 
 any other man's chosen partner, who meanwhile, 
 like many of his luckless prototypes, remains, 
 for the time being, looking foolish, or patient, 
 or angry, as the case may be. 
 
 Perhaps Emily might have felt disappointed 
 at Lord Vanderville not having sooner asked 
 her to dance, and, perhaps, she felt propor- 
 tionate pleasure in observing the solicitude of 
 his present manners ; but whatever might have 
 been the cause, the effect was indubitable ; for 
 joy brightened her countenance and animated 
 her step as she lightly trod the giddy round ;
 
 ABROAD. 205 
 
 and when they afterwards danced together in a 
 quadrille, the general observations of the spec- 
 tator seemed to point them out as suitable 
 companions for more than a dance. 
 
 Emily's beauty was exactly of that kind which 
 is most attractive ; and if her agile figure was 
 too slight, and even diminutive to be called 
 dignified, her gay and varying countenance 
 expressed, in turn, those inimitable, because 
 evanescent charms, which are generally more 
 attractive than the most perfect regularity of 
 feature. With these advantages, it would 
 have been almost a miracle, had her dancing, 
 whether good or bad, failed to excite applause ; 
 for however uncharitable the world is called, 
 yet to youth and beauty it generally ofl'ers 
 spontaneous kindness ; and that natural feeling 
 of benevolence is only suspended when our 
 self-love militates against it, either by exciting 
 our individual envy against those charms we 
 admire, or by fatiguing our good nature by 
 contributing nothing to our own particular 
 amusement. 
 
 But though Emily really danced well, and
 
 206 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 was much more admired than those who danced 
 infinitely better, the day is past for those won- 
 derful effects of young ladies dancing, which so 
 many worthy chroniclers record from the days of 
 Herodias down to about ten years ago. But a 
 few seasons have passed since it was deemed 
 indispensable that all our daughters of fashion 
 should rival in excellence the professors of every 
 art : now it is considered a mark of vulgarity 
 to do many things too well. In Paris, for in- 
 stance, the last decree of haut-ion pronounced 
 it quite inadmissible for young ladies to exert 
 their fragile limbs in jumping and cutting, and 
 similar exercises, which are there entirely re- 
 signed to the corps du ballet ; and dancing- 
 masters' instructions are now confined to regu- 
 lating the calmer motions, more dignified as 
 well as more elegant, which are supposed to be 
 appropriate to rank. Oberon's horn no longer 
 sounds to put every heel of every age into agi- 
 tated pirouettes. On the contrary, some pe- 
 trefying power has suspended all exertion, even 
 where most suitable ; and the uninitiated spec- 
 tator, who goes to the opera at Paris, to see all
 
 AliROAD. 207 
 
 of joy, and mirth, and fancy that Terpsichore 
 can promise, finds, to his disappointment, some 
 fair copyist of Bigottini ivalking about the 
 stag-e, stark mad, in white satin, acting in dumb 
 show a tragedy that would harrow up a heart 
 of stone, and lier two well-dressed lovers acting 
 just as any other two gentlemen in regimentals 
 would act on similar occasions. 
 
 But though the sorrows of Nina may make 
 us forget every thing, even joy itself, and all its 
 follies, yet, where these are wanting, the incon- 
 sistency of the taste that approves such trans- 
 formation appears to our unclouded judgment in 
 all its ridicule; and the well-fed lady in the nan- 
 keen habit that wishes to in terest us, on the Roman 
 stage, in the adventures of the " Caravan," or 
 the old woman clothed in gray, that walks the 
 character of Titia at the boasted Scala of Milan, 
 may teach us perhaps to regret the Parisots, 
 and the Didelots, and the Vestrises, who once 
 seemed the living and animated originals from 
 which sculptors might have snatched their 
 brightest thoughts and inspiration. When will 
 the hand of wisdom have strength to otop the
 
 208 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 revolving wheel of caprice at that middle point 
 which alone designates perfection? 
 
 Lady Mary Norton did not join either Lady 
 Harman or Emily during the remainder of the 
 evening till the moment they passed her in 
 leaving the room ; when stepping forward from 
 the circle of which she was as usual the point 
 of attraction, she seized Emily's hand, and, in a 
 most affectionate tone of voice, proposed that 
 she should accompany her to see Cardinal 
 Fesch's gallery of paintings, for which she had 
 got tickets of admission : " and you Vander- 
 ville," added she, " must be our escort. Lady 
 Harman, will yoxi delegate to me the office of 
 chaperone for one day?" 
 
 The proposal was gladly accepted by all ; 
 and as Miss Sternheim returned to her hotel, 
 her thoughts were equally divided between 
 Lady Mary Norton and the Earl of Vander- 
 ville. She certainly condemned herself for not 
 liking her Ladyship as much as her kindness 
 seemed to deserve; but, whether she did or did 
 not feel similar compunctions in regard to him, 
 deeper diviners must decide.
 
 ABROAD. 209 
 
 CHAP. V. 
 
 SAINT JAMES'S AT ROME. 
 
 The iutense cold of the weather, although 
 not unusual in December at Rome, was yet 
 unfavourable to Lady Harman's visitmg any of 
 the curiosities in its neighbourhood : for who 
 would choose to visit the cascades of Tivoli, 
 when the water which the Roman fountains 
 threw up into the air hung suspended in icicles, 
 or covered the adjoining pavement with one 
 sheet of ice ? or who would select the moment for 
 exploring the cold, tenantless halls of Adrian's 
 Villa, when the shivering Romans sit at their 
 stalls cowering over little pots of fire ; and such 
 as are luckless enough to be necessitated to 
 traverse the streets, consider small porringers
 
 210 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 full of lighted charcoal as necessary appendages 
 to their walking costume? 
 
 But other amusements, more suitable, offered 
 their attraction, and at least boasted one cha- 
 racteristic in common with those far-famed 
 sights ; namelj^ being peculiar to the patri- 
 mony of Saint Peter : one was a presentation of 
 English Protestant ladies to the Pope at l4ie 
 Quirinal, and the other a presentation to the 
 Arcadia. It was Lady Harman's boast, that 
 before her return to England, she would visit 
 all continental courts which lay at all in her 
 road ; and having squeezed herself through the 
 half-opened door of the drawing-room at the 
 Tuilleries, and made her three curtseys in a 
 half-lighted apartment, which contained no 
 other female but herself, and no gentlemen but 
 the half score that stood round the throne, she 
 rightly considered that the next travesiie of 
 regal state and gallantry of courts, was to kiss 
 the Pope's hand in his little summer-house at 
 the Quirinal. 
 
 There is at Rome a certain noted character, 
 by name the Abbe Tinker, who owes his own
 
 ABROAD. 211 
 
 place in society solely to his officious inter- 
 ference in procuring, or promising to procure, 
 tickets of admission for the English to every 
 fete; it being always provided and enacted that 
 these aforesaid favourites of fortune were 
 morally certain of procuring them without his 
 intervention. Furthermore, this Abbe, in all 
 Christian charity, appropriated to himself the 
 title and office of English ambassador, in virtue 
 whereof he pays to all who condescend to ac- 
 cept his servile attentions, such compliments as 
 cost him nothing; he takes the trouble of getting 
 the red-book off by heart, and proportioning 
 his bows to its alphabet ; lavishes civilities to 
 all who are wise enough to forget ever having 
 seen him before; meanwhile, he forgives all his 
 enemies, though he never pardons those friends 
 who bring with them any remembrance of or 
 from his worthy father, the blacksmith at Kil- 
 larney. This courteous Abbe had in vain sought 
 some opportunity of obliging either the Earl of 
 Vanderville, or the " rich old widow," Lady 
 Harman ; and, having overheard at an assembly 
 that the Pope was to receive Lady Harman and
 
 212 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 Miss Sternhelm early the following' week, he 
 bustled to the London Hotel to assure them " he 
 was very happy in having been able to arrange 
 every thing- for their presentation," and went 
 away delighted at the lucky chance which had pro- 
 cured for him even this slight surmise of the fact. 
 Ladies are on no occasion permitted to enter 
 the Pope's apartments at the Quirinal; and even 
 in public church ceremonies, where his Holiness 
 officiates, it is generally the etiquette for them 
 to appear veiled. But there are means of 
 evading most prohibitions ; and the Casino, in 
 the gardens of the Quirinal, is the place usually 
 appointed for their introduction to the Pontiff. 
 At four o'clock, therefore. Lady Harman and 
 her niece, accompanied by a Roman lady of 
 high rank and seven or eight other English 
 ladies, (for the number is always confined,) pro- 
 ceeded to the gardens, all dressed in black, with 
 gowns reaching from their throats to the ground, 
 and their faces concealed by long black veils; but 
 this masquerade attire was merely the court 
 dress, as no secrecy was either implied or re- 
 quired ; and when they descended from their
 
 ABROAD. 213 
 
 carriages at the garden door, the guards who 
 there waited to receive them, and the crowd 
 which had expected their approach, sufficiently 
 indicated the publicity of their visit to the 
 pontiff's ground. 
 
 At the door of the Casino they were met by 
 a person, who in any other court would have 
 been styled a gentleman usher, who showed the 
 ladies into a small room, to wait his Holiness's 
 arrival, as he was not yet returned from his 
 morning drive. During that interval they 
 had leisure to examine the apartment minutely: 
 it was oval, of very small dimensions, with win- 
 dows at both ends, from which yellow silk 
 curtains hung doubly festooned, as their rents 
 and tatters dropped in defiance of all housewives' 
 care : the ceiling was, however, beautifully 
 painted, and the subject chosen from sacred 
 history. 
 
 This room, connected by a corridor to another 
 of the same size and form, constitutes the 
 whole of the Casino at the Quirinal ; and Emily 
 having finished her survey, had not only re- 
 covered all her first feelings of embarrassment,
 
 214 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 but even gradually subsided iuto ennui, when 
 two stray officers and about as many prelates 
 were seen advancing from the gardens ; and by 
 the Court thus assembling, she rightly judged 
 his Holiness was near. A man in a cocked- 
 hat, on a horse with a long tail, was the ovant 
 courier ; another similarly attired, and in jack 
 boots, followed ; and Emily at first imagined the 
 second horse, whose reins he held, was merely led 
 for state, till she perceived lying on the ground 
 some yards behind them, the traces that con- 
 nected these leaders with the other pair, which 
 are all that usually draw the heavy, unadorned 
 equipage of the Pope. 
 
 As the venerable old man leisurely descended 
 from his coach, Emily was too much engrossed 
 in examining his benign countenance, to observe 
 that the only insignia of his dignity that he 
 wore, were his scarlet stockings, scarlet shoes, 
 scarlet mantle, and a cocked-hat made of scarlet 
 cloth : in a few moments one of the bishops in 
 attendance informed the ladies that the Pope 
 awaited them in the opposite saloon, whither of 
 course they immediately proceeded.
 
 ABROAD. 215 
 
 On their entrance tliey perceived the Pope 
 standing before a couch, with one hand un- 
 covered : the Roman lady, being of sufficient 
 rank to claim the privilege of kissing the Pope's 
 foot, fell on her face, and performed that cere- 
 mony, equally unfacilitated and unresisted by 
 the passive member which stood humbly on the 
 ground; and then naming the English ladies ac- 
 cording to their rank, his Holiness received 
 them with the utmost graciousness ; allowing 
 those who asked that favour to kiss his unco- 
 vered hand, and showing no mark of displeasure 
 to those who dispensed with this voluntary 
 civility. "When the presentation was thus over, 
 the Pope seated himself on the couch, inviting 
 the Roman lady and Lady Harman to sit 
 beside him on it also, and requesting the other 
 ladies to accommodate themselves with chairs ; 
 for no attendants or gentlemen had entered the 
 apartment. 
 
 In a very few moments all ceremony and 
 embarrassment were at an end ; and his Holiness 
 entered into a conversation which was carried 
 on with the utmost freedom for about half an
 
 216 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 hour, when, as if suddenly recollecting that 
 self-mortification was the business of his- life, 
 he started up, and almost before the foreign 
 ladies could rise to return his passing saluta- 
 tion, or the Italian prostrate herself in renewed 
 obeisance, he left the room, and returned in his 
 carriage to his solitary palace. 
 
 Such was the ceremony of introducing Eng- 
 lish ladies to the Pope at Rome ; and there are 
 few who have had opportunity of witnessing the 
 benignity of the amiable old man, who will not 
 recollect with pleasure the moments they have 
 thus passed in his society. 
 
 It happened that Lady Harman's introduc- 
 tion to the " Arcadia" was fixed for the evening 
 of the same day in which she and her niece had 
 visited the Quirinal ; and as she was almost as 
 much flattered at the off*ered honour of being 
 admitted a member of that learned society, as 
 the literati were at finding their often rejected 
 complimeiiit once more accepted, — she overcame 
 all feeling of fatigue, and hastened, big with 
 hope, to the Hall of Assembly. A dirty half- 
 lighted staircase was now nothing new or ex-
 
 ABROAD. 217 
 
 traordiuary to her ; and as on it one or two 
 soldiers, the invariable accompaniments to all 
 Roman assemblies, whether of church or state, 
 gave promise of that fashionable desideratum, 
 
 an " insufferable crowd," — she advanced with 
 renovated glee. 
 
 This innocent fraternity enroll themselves 
 under the gentle appellations of shepherds and 
 shepherdesses ; and as every person must, on 
 joining the society, make choice of some name 
 by which they are to be thenceforward desig- 
 nated, Lady Harman selected that of Cheru- 
 bina as most appropriate to herself; besides 
 there were already Sylvias, and Delias, and 
 Pastorellas without number. Although she was 
 in general indifferent about meeting contempo- 
 raries, she was not sorry to discover in a gray- 
 haired Florella an old lady of her own ac- 
 quaintance. Her dress had occasioned her 
 almost as much deliberation as her name, as in 
 truth she would not have regretted an opportu- 
 nity of figuring in a fancy costume : but Emily, 
 for once obstinate in argument, had at length 
 persuaded her to resign her first idea of a 
 VOL. I. K
 
 218 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 chanipetre straw hat, a la paysanne, for a poke 
 bonnet, seven inches deeper than common, with 
 a young apple-tree in full blossom growing at 
 one side. 
 
 Thus attired, with a countenance veering 
 between the irascible dignity which defied ri- 
 dicule, and the simpering modesty which be- 
 came the sisterhood. Lady Harman entered a 
 room already filled with benches and auditors. 
 The sitting had commenced, and Lady Harman 
 had the mortification of perceiving that the in- 
 auguration of the shepherdess Cherubina would 
 have to be postponed. At the front of the 
 benches, a little square was boarded off where 
 the whole conclave, which had been invited to 
 act as judges, were represented by three or four 
 cardinals, who took snuff to keep themselves 
 awake ; and in front of these, on raised benches, 
 were ranged the authors who were to entertain 
 the company that night with a recitation of 
 their works. A gaunt, long-armed priest was 
 then on his legs ; in his right hand he held 
 a paper written in a clean round hand, on which, 
 however, he never cast his eyes, as they were
 
 ABROAD. 219 
 
 immoveably fixed on the centre point of the 
 ceiling, showing only their whites ; and the per- 
 spective of his nose and chin to the company. 
 His left hand waved in slow and solemn mea- 
 sure to thetimeof his monotonous voice, making 
 a slight semicircle in the air, of which his 
 motionless wrist was the centre, and his feet 
 were manifestly drawn up tight in the third po- 
 sition. His subject was the flight into Egypt ; 
 but the harsh dry hum of his intonation was as 
 unintelligible as the breaking-up voices of a 
 village school ; and when it pleased Providence 
 that the trial of his weakness should come to an 
 end, he sat down as calmly as he had rehearsed, 
 and was succeeded by a corpulent, asthmatic 
 shepherd of the Carmelite order, who took up 
 the glorious tale at a short distance from the 
 last speaker, and in precisely the same prolonged 
 account and measured punctuation. Emily 
 whispered to Lady Harman the possibility of 
 her being called upon to make some improviso 
 exhibition of the same kind ; and as the inex- 
 perienced Cherubina felt conscious that though 
 truth were on every shepherd's tongue, poetry
 
 220 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 was not, she conveniently remembered another 
 engagement, and left the scene of Arcadian de- 
 lights with even more celerity than she had en- 
 tered it. 
 
 When the morning arrived which had been 
 appointed for their visit to Cardinal Fesch's 
 gallery. Lady Harman received a note from 
 Lord Vanderville, apologizing for being obliged 
 to forego the pleasure he had anticipated in ac- 
 companying them : his note continued : — "I have 
 just received a long letter from Myrvin, con- 
 taining about a hundred commissions for me to 
 execute for Miss Aston. I am to get them as 
 many books, maps, drawing-materials, and mo- 
 saics as it would take me a twelvemonth to 
 choose, and all these I am to send by his cou- 
 rier this evening; but I must do Charles the 
 justice to say his own happiness does not make 
 him unmindful of mine. He desires me to give 
 his best compliments to your Ladyship : I am 
 afx-aid to quote all he says about Miss Stern- 
 htnm." 
 
 " Here, Emily," said Lady Harman, as she 
 gave the note across the table, and proceeded
 
 ABROAD. 221 
 
 to auswer it in regular form. She mended lier 
 pen, settled her spectacles, finished her billet, 
 and had three different times desired Emily to 
 ring the bell, before she could rouse her niece 
 from the reverie into which she had at that 
 moment most inopportunely fallen. 
 
 At last, suddenly recalled to recollection, 
 Emily threw Lord Vanderville's note into the 
 fire, and hastily bidding her astonished aunt 
 farewell, was in a moment in the caleche, on her 
 way to Lady Mary Norton's. As she drove along 
 alone, she was surprised at the sound of her 
 own voice, pronouncing aloud the word " hap- 
 piness;" but it broke the spell of her abstraction, 
 for long before she reached the Via ApoUonario, 
 her usual vivacity had returned. 
 
 For this recovery, more time than was com- 
 monly necessary for her drive had been allowed ; 
 for the ice was melted, and the Tiber over- 
 flowed. The Risselta, the third great street in 
 Rome, was entirely inundated ; the Corso was 
 passed in boats ; and though the Pantheon was 
 completely insulated, still it proudly rose from 
 the surrounding scene of desolation, whilst,
 
 222 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 within, the wild waters gave back the reflection 
 of its roof, as if to taunt it with the aspect of its 
 own spoliation. 
 
 At hist, however, she arrived at the Palazzo 
 Altenise. There are no hall doors to the 
 palaces of Rome, and she was obliged to wait 
 till her servant went to the top of the house 
 and back again, to ascertain whether Lady 
 Mary was " at home." Meantime, she amused 
 herself with noticing some of the peculiarities 
 that distinguish the Basse-Cours, of which 
 foreigners are so proud, as being particularly 
 appropriated to the residence of their nobility. 
 In the centre of the yard was a mutilated foun- 
 tain, which was evidently intended for use, not 
 ornament, as from it, as a common centre, 
 were suspended ropes that were fastened to as 
 many different windows as there were different 
 families lodging in this magnificent palace, whe- 
 ther in the second story or the sixth. Each of 
 these ropes was provided with a traveller, on 
 which was slung various cans and other vessels, 
 that, moved by hand-ropes and pulleys, speedily 
 supplied their various owners with water. Nor
 
 ABROAD. 223 
 
 were these the only aerial traverses which this 
 populous yard exhibited. The Palazzo Alte- 
 nise is one of the many, which at Rome affords 
 no conveniences for domestic cookery ; and in 
 such cases there is but one remedy, namely, 
 that trial of patience — a trattoria. One of 
 these necessary evils was established at the 
 Palazzo Altenise ; and Emily recognised a basket 
 of wild boar and ortolans, passing rapidly in its 
 ascent to a window in the Mezzopiano, (or in- 
 termediate floor) where her mantua-maker lived 
 in a room about forty feet long, and scarcely 
 high enough for a man to stand upright in.* 
 
 In every part of Italy human invention is 
 tortured to save the slightest exertion of those 
 corporeal energies, which, if once brought into 
 play, seem to defy exhaustion. An old woman 
 lives in the upper story of a house near the 
 Colonna Gardens, of which she keeps the en- 
 trance ; and all who wish to see the immense 
 cornice of the Temple of the Sun, which lies 
 
 * This description is applicable to the generality of 
 Roman palaces, but not particular!)' to the A.ltenise»
 
 224 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 within their precincts, must ask admission from 
 her ; but the chance of gaining a few paulp 
 for her comphiisance is not sufficiently tempting 
 to induce her to incur the certain trouble of de- 
 scending the stairs. She generally answers the 
 demand for admittance out of her garret-win- 
 dow ; and if the countenances of the visitors 
 please her fancy, she raises the latch of the 
 entrance gate by a cord, slung for the purpose 
 inside the window, and allows them to enter 
 and depart, without putting herself to any fur- 
 ther inconvenience. 
 
 At last the servant re-appeared who was to 
 attend Emily to Lady Mary Norton's apart- 
 ments, and she gaily prepared to follow him. 
 It was a cold, bleak day ; and as she stood 
 shivering on the third flight of the wide un- 
 sheltered stairs, she could not help feeling a 
 momentary sensation of wonder at the infatua- 
 tion that led so many of her country people 
 from the comforts of their own houses, to the 
 wild and cheerless habitations with which they 
 oblige themselves to be content abroad. A 
 large open gallery runs along the four sides of
 
 ABROAD. 225 
 
 the court, round which this palace, like most 
 others, is built. No windows close in this 
 lengthened funnel, through which the wind 
 whistles in protracted bowlings, echoed by the 
 unfurnished walls, and uninterrupted in its pro- 
 gress by any intervening doors. 
 
 The staircase, magnificent in its architectural 
 design, but disgusting in its usual condition, 
 serves but as another conductor to this cavern 
 of the winds ; for here, as is commonly the case, 
 instead of ballusters, whose lightness adds to 
 the beauty of our intet-nal staircases, a heavy 
 unbroken wall runs from the top to the bottom, 
 which, by dividing the staircase into two narrow 
 spans, gives a stronger force to the eddy of air, 
 and serves to exclude — nothing but light. Nor 
 do any carpets or mats lend their aid to deaden 
 this universal inconvenience ; and as these stair- 
 cases are used in common by every different 
 family which inhabits these palaces, of which, 
 in general, the number is only limited by that 
 of the apartments ; and as of these many pas- 
 sengers, not one considers it his peculiar
 
 22G ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 business to remedy the want of cleanliness, to 
 which the continual tread of all alike contri- 
 butes; it follows, as a necessary consequence, 
 that the accumulated mass almost defies dis- 
 placement; and we feel ourselves contaminated 
 in passing over steps of marble, whose intrinsic 
 worth, and orig-inal polish, might grace the 
 threshold of kings. 
 
 Such were the observations that Miss Stern- 
 heim made, as in idea she compared Lady Mary 
 Norton's residence at Rome with what her 
 aunt had described her Ladyship's house in 
 Montagu-square to be. At last the door at 
 which she stood opened ; and Emily would 
 scarcely have believed it to be the right one, had 
 it not been labelled with a dirty bit of paper, on 
 which was written Lady Mary's name. The 
 ante-room to which this portal gave ingress, was 
 floored with hrick : its only visible furniture 
 were a few coarse chairs and a deal table, at 
 •which some servants were at dinner ; but the 
 accidental opening of a folding screen disco- 
 vered the disarranged bed, or rather pallet, that
 
 ABROAD. 227 
 
 stood in one corner, where tumbled chips oi 
 dried Indian corn, and coverlid of embroidered 
 satin, proved its recent use. 
 
 In the middle of the floor, in a large iron 
 saucer, stood a sort of chafing-dish, from which 
 some charcoal embers emitted an exhalation 
 more of sulphur than of heat. In these ante- 
 chambers, all passengers are condemned to 
 witness, not only the daily occupations of the 
 domestics, but what are more frequent than 
 their employments, all such disputes as their 
 favourite occupation of gambling may at the 
 moment occasion, which the appearance of 
 visitors seldom suspends. Nor did the apart- 
 ments immediately succeeding offer much more 
 either of elegance or comfort, than this first 
 ante-chamber. It is true the walls of most were 
 covered with indifferent paintings, and the ceil- 
 ings of all were blazoned in the gaudiest co- 
 lourings ; but the floors were as invariably of 
 brick, and the walls unbroken by the cheerful 
 chimney-piece or glittering grate. However, 
 as a substitute for these, in one of the principal 
 rooms, a small stove, similar to those used in our
 
 2*28 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 laundries, thrust a long tin tube out of one oi 
 the panes of the window, and, by its ascending- 
 smoke, blackened all the remainder. Even the 
 very doors of these apartments were dissimilar 
 to any Emily had ever seen in England, and 
 would proportionably have excited her astonish- 
 ment, had she not now become so familiarised 
 with the existing scenes of Italy, that she often 
 wondered at herself for not being more surprised 
 with what they offered. 
 
 The door-cases of this palace were all of the 
 finest marble, and one side of the doors them- 
 selves was literally encumbered with gilding 
 and ornament : but on the other, the rough 
 unpolished wood was scarcely painted, and only 
 resembled, in its unpanelled surface, draw- 
 bolts, iron latch, and swing hinges, the out- 
 side gate of an English stable. It would 
 appear that the doors of these palaces were 
 never intended to be either shut or opened : 
 and yet our surprise at their cumbrous furniture 
 of locks and hinges might be in some degree 
 diminished by the recollection, that at Paris, 
 the nicest filigree locks of ladies' work-boxes
 
 ABROAD. 229 
 
 are opened by keys which, in the paucity of 
 their wards, and coarseness of their workman- 
 ship, can only be compared with those that 
 g-uard the whole treasure of a country girl's 
 wardrobe, neiitly packed in a square deal candle- 
 box, on her first journey to get " a situation" in 
 London. 
 
 At last, having traversed a whole suite of 
 rooms, vacant, cheerless, and unfurnished, 
 Miss Sternheim reached the last, where she 
 was told Lady Mary would immediately attend 
 her. Here the tokens of habitation at length 
 appeared; inasmuch as she found couches, 
 tables, books, and musical instruments in 
 abundance. In a large wide chimney too, a 
 few faggots blazed brightly, but fearfully, on the 
 hearth ; for neither fender, fire-irons, grate, 
 or rug were there. Her feet once again met 
 the welcome carpet ; but the thick layer of 
 straw, which at Rome always intervenes be- 
 tween that foreign luxury and their domiciliary 
 brick-floors, so rustled to her tread, that she re- 
 cognized neither its warmth nor softness : she 
 sat for a moment on the couch, but the tio-ht
 
 230 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 •wadding- of tag-wool, with wliich its pillows 
 were stuffed, soon contradicted all ideas of 
 comfort. A manufacture resembling table- 
 cloths, or body-clothes for racers, was spread 
 on the different tables, but not for luxury : 
 they were absolutely necessary to conceal the 
 unpolished planks, which, poised on detached 
 legs, form the common sofa-tables in the 
 boudoirs of Roman belles. How little analogy 
 did all these bear to her former recollections ! 
 In truth, the first resemblance these English 
 peculiarities of carpets, fires, and couches, 
 bore to her own home, served but to remind 
 her the more that she was a sojourner in a land 
 of strangers. 
 
 In a few minutes Lady Mary joined her. 
 " I am sorry, my dear Miss Sternheim, that 
 Lord Vanderville is not with us to-day, for I 
 fear you will find me terribly stupid : I am not 
 always as gay as you have sometimes seen me, 
 and I have no right to encroach on either your 
 sympathy or forbearance." 
 
 Emily expressed with sincerity her regret 
 that Lady Mary should be at all indisposed,
 
 ABROAD. 231 
 
 which her changed and harassed looks seemed 
 to imply ; and proposed postponing their party. 
 " No, no, not on my account : and if you are 
 not afraid of encountering a dull half-hour with 
 me before it is time to go, I can safely promise 
 the Cardinal's gallery will restore us both. 
 Society is my panacea : I dislike nothing but to 
 be alone." 
 
 " My dear Lady Mary, you surprise me," 
 replied Emily, looking round on the various 
 apparent occupations which the room displayed : 
 " you, who have so much talent, such ex- 
 cellent spirits, and so many pursuits, — how can 
 you dislike to be alone ?" 
 
 " You would make a very delightful bonne 
 for any nursery, and we should all feel our- 
 selves sworn to believe your aphorisms. But 
 trust me, my young friend, talents, spirits, 
 and pursuits, however well they sound from so 
 pretty a mouth, are something like the different 
 parts of an electrifying machine ; they are 
 nothing alone ; they must be let off upon others 
 before their value is ascertained." 
 
 Emily could not help smiling at the vivacity,
 
 232 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 which was in itself a contradiction to Lady 
 Mary's appearance ; but, after a moment's grave 
 reflection, she added, " I see it is impossible 
 to calculate on the happiness of others : I 
 should have thought your Ladyship more cer- 
 tain of happiness than any individual ; for you 
 are young, and so perfectly independent, that you 
 seem to have no control but your own choice." 
 
 Lady Mary glanced at Miss Sternheim's 
 countenance, to ascertain her sincerity. " You 
 have struck the right chord, but you have tuned 
 it wrong," replied she : " independence was 
 once my idol, and to it I have sacrificed my 
 happiness ; for, trust me, a woman whom no 
 one has a right to control, is an isolated, 
 wretched being." 
 
 *' Your doctrine is diametrically opposite to 
 that of the generality of the world. Lady Mary." 
 
 *' Perhaps, therefore, it is more consonant to 
 reason. A woman, to be independent, must be 
 outlawed from all the dearest ties of life. If 
 none can claim the right of control, to whom 
 can you offer those dues of complaisance, which 
 are more than assent, and less than submission,
 
 ABROAD. 233 
 
 and which are in themselves sufficient to ensure 
 reciprocal support I Ay, you may stare ; but 
 however strange this theory may appear, depend 
 upon it, the fewer the duties in life it is a woman's 
 lot to fulfil, the fewer are her chances of hap- 
 piness." 
 
 " If I awj surprised, forgive me, my dear 
 Lady Mary, if I confess it is more at the gravity 
 of your conversation than at its tendency." 
 
 " For gravity read morality; for you are as 
 much astonished to hear me talk sense as you 
 w.C)uld be to hear Lady Harman talking non- 
 sense. You forget that to be consistent is to 
 be the greatest wonder in the world ; and, to 
 tell you the truth, it is perhaps the only thing I 
 would not do for the express purpose of setting 
 the world wondering." 
 
 " Then I suppose I am to consider all your 
 Ladyship has now said, as only ' let oft'' for 
 the purpose of electrifying me." 
 
 Her arch expression of countenance made 
 Lady Mary laugh heartily : " I deserved that 
 turn, and I like you the better for making it : 
 but as I don't often preach, don't let my sermon
 
 234 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 go for nothing ; for once, I have thought all I 
 said, nay, more, I have proved it ; for, though 
 I am not yet three-and-twenty, I feel I have 
 survived the world." 
 
 A broken sigh here almost burst from her 
 lips ; but she seemed anxious to conceal it, by 
 talking still more rapidly : " I was married," 
 said she, " at eighteen, to a fox-hunter, who 
 never cared for me, and he left me a widow at 
 twenty : my father, who spoiled me as a child, 
 and neglected me as a girl, died also ; and I 
 never knew my mother. My duties in life 
 thus ended almost before my character was 
 begun." 
 
 " But had you no brother ?" anxiously in- 
 quired Emily. 
 
 " Yes, and I have one still, but he is lost to 
 me. I see you are more than commonly inter- 
 ested, and I thank you for your sympathy. We 
 quarrelled several years ago : I now begin to 
 think I was in the wrong ; but it is too late to 
 tell him so, and I only hope he may never know 
 I thought myself to blame." 
 
 ** Oh, don't say so, Lady Mary. What sa-
 
 ABROAD. 235 
 
 crifice of pride is too great for a brother's 
 sake ?" 
 
 " But he is married now : I am no lono-er 
 essential to his happiness ; and I dare say he 
 has forgot to think or care for mine. Besides, 
 Lady Tinterndale is just that sort of person who 
 never makes any allowance for other people, or 
 demands any for herself: she is as mechanical 
 as her watch ; both are wound up to a certain 
 round of duty, which they neither neglect nor 
 exceed, and I verily believe the greatest merit 
 of both is never to lose time." 
 
 " But, dear Lady Mary, your brother— your 
 only brother ! why should the character of his 
 wife influence your affection for him ?" 
 
 " Because it might influence his conduct to 
 me. Heaven defend me from the martyrdom 
 of being forgiven by Lady Tinterndale !" 
 
 Emily gazed in astonishment at the expres- 
 sion of deep and acute feelings which marked 
 Lady Mary's countenance ; and after a few mi- 
 nutes silence, she added, " I wonder, with 
 these opinions, why your Ladyship should have 
 remained so long single : forgive me, if I accuse
 
 236 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 you again of inconsistency : but above all things 
 don't think me impertinently inquisitive, though 
 I almost think myself so." 
 
 Lady Mary took her hand with unrepressed 
 cordiality, and then suddenly dropj)ing it, turned 
 away. " Two things would prevent any woman 
 of sense marrying," said she ; " and they are 
 precisely what might induce many women with- 
 out sense to marry : — I mean loving a man too 
 well, or not at all. But, talking of matrimony, 
 how soon am I to wish Vanderville joy ?" 
 
 Emily blushed, and stammered, and said so 
 much about not understanding what Lady Mary 
 meant, that her Ladyship at one moment be- 
 lieved her denials, and the next was convinced 
 every thing relating to her marriage with him 
 was settled. By degrees her manner towards 
 Emily became colder and more restrained, till 
 at last she exclaimed, " Well, Miss Sternheim, 
 1 see that, according to the present phraseology, 
 I ought to wish you joy ; but, in the language 
 of sincerity, I say I wish you may make him 
 happy. You have done what I once thought 
 was impossible ; you have fixed the affections
 
 ABROAD. 237 
 
 of a man whose instability of character is pro- 
 verbial ; but the most difficult trial is yet to 
 come. Your beauty and your artlessness have 
 captivated him ; but it is not from them you 
 must expect to ensure either his happiness or 
 your own : you must exert your utmost talents, 
 or you will both be wretched. Stop — I know 
 what you would say — but you need not vindi- 
 cate Vanderville to me : I know he does not 
 want sense, but he does want control ; and 
 because he has never been used to the slightest 
 contradiction, it will require the nicest judgment 
 to know when to yield, or when to thwart him. 
 To make him happy, or to be happy with him, 
 his wife must not only be sure of his affection 
 and of her own, but she must understand his 
 character thoroughly, and assimilate her own to 
 it, — not only by pardoning his weaknesses, but 
 by correcting them. Her charms, her accom- 
 plishments, her very knowledge of the world, 
 must be as various as his caprice, and yet have 
 but one object, one end : her love must change 
 its dolphin hues with that it feeds on. Oh ! 
 I know how he must be soothed when he is
 
 238 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 angry, laughed at when he is fretful, cheered 
 when he is sad : all his better feelings strength- 
 ened in himself, all his foibles shielded from the 
 stranger's eye ; and then his heart ! — his heart 
 would buy a world." 
 
 " Your Ladyship seems to know Lord Van- 
 derville much better than I do ; but I assure 
 you your kind advice is unnecessary : I have 
 no reason to imagine I shall ever prove the 
 truth of your delineation of his character beyond 
 what may be unfolded in the casual civilities of 
 the moment." 
 
 Emily's protestations were quite thrown away ; 
 for Lady Mary was standing with her back to- 
 wards her, looking intently out of the win- 
 dow. At last she exclaimed, " Bless me ! I 
 quite forgot my letter ! Will you. Miss Stern- 
 heim, excuse my writing a few lines for the post ? 
 we have still a little time to spare, and perhaps 
 you may find some amusement in looking over 
 the strange collection of things that are on these 
 tables." 
 
 Emily proceeded to turn over the miscella- 
 neous curiosities to which Lady Mary had di-
 
 ABROAD. 239 
 
 reeled her attention, till the number and variety 
 almost baffled her inspection of them. In one 
 comer were the engravings of Canova's statues, 
 mixed with Parisian costumes : a scagliola box, 
 containing a beautiful cameo of Guido's Auro- 
 ra, lay almost entirely concealed in patterns of 
 Cashmires and Madrasses, which the shop- 
 man of L'Unica had just left for her Lady- 
 ship's approval; and about eighteen inches 
 of coagulated mortar, which had once held 
 the tessellated pavement of Caracalla's Baths, 
 now crumbled its consecrated dust on the 
 top of a Florentine mosaic of pietra dura. 
 There one of Kayserman's softest landscapes 
 glowed in the mimic beauty of a setting sun : it 
 was a view of Frescati ; and the mossy fore- 
 ground and shadowy distance seemed the very 
 counterparts of nature. Emily gazed on it in 
 delight for many minutes. 
 
 " When you are tired. Miss Sternheim, of 
 admiring that little treasure, pray look at an- 
 other specimen of modern perfection : you will 
 find it in that long box that resembles a tele- 
 scope." Emily opened the case, and beheld what
 
 240 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 might have claimed the meed of praise in any 
 age of taste or magnificence : it was a pillar of 
 the finest Malaguite, beautiful in its propor- 
 tions, and unblemished in its quality, on which, 
 twined in basso relievo the long wreath of all 
 Napoleon's victories, forming altogether a gem 
 invaluable both in its material and workman- 
 ship. 
 
 " Now which do you think the strangest 
 medley, my character or my treasures? you 
 have seen a good deal of both to-day, and if 
 you have a mind to compare them still more, 
 you may read that note-book which I am going 
 to take with me to the Cardinal's : it is bound 
 the same as that waltz-book. But pray sit op- 
 posite to me, for it is a decided amusement to 
 me to see people stare. You will find in it 
 nothing but facts, though some are incredible." 
 
 So saying. Lady Mary handed to Emily a 
 sort of tablet of memory, which is an indis- 
 pensable appendage to all lady tourists. But 
 notwithstanding all her Ladyship's good naturd 
 to Miss Sternheim, there was every now and 
 then a sort of haughty kindness perceptible in
 
 ABROAD. 241 
 
 her manner towards her which Emily could scarce- 
 ly tolerate ; and the frankness with which Lady 
 Mary acknowledged her design of astonishing 
 her inexperience led her to determine not to 
 express surprise at any thing. This resolution 
 she, however, found it difficult to keep as she 
 read the following memoranda : — 
 
 " AVhenever the ancients embodied their ideas 
 (dark as they were) of the Divinity, they gave 
 a dignity to their representation, which is too 
 often wanting in our delineations of the sublime 
 mysteries of Christianity. For instance ; con- 
 trast the painting of the single figure of Mer- 
 cury, which was brought from the walls of 
 Pompeii to those of Portici, with the much- 
 esteemed picture at the Palazzo Erculaneo at 
 Bologna, where Adam and Eve are represented 
 in the garden of Eden, and in which the mix- 
 ture of unconscious profanation and absurdity 
 tempts us to exclaim with Dr. Johnson, ' let 
 burlesque try to go beyond it !' 
 
 " Hints for occasional excitation of sentiment 
 at the Certosa of Bologna, where attention is 
 VOL. r. L
 
 242 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 recalled from the beauties of the ancient sar- 
 copaghi which decorate the tombs, to the me- 
 rits of the individuals to whose memory they 
 are now consecrated, by striking likenesses of 
 gentlemen in bob-wigs being substituted for the 
 original heads in the bassi relievi. 
 
 " At the church of the Dominicans at Milan 
 the statue of the Virgin is dressed in gold muslin, 
 and that of the infant Divinity in pink satin : 
 the guide told me they were both done by Leo- 
 nardo da Vinci. 
 
 "At St. Mark's at Venice, the Crucifixion at 
 the fount is the image most venerated in the 
 whole church. When I saw it, the piety of 
 some devotee had dressed the figure in a silk 
 petticoat trimmed with beads. 
 
 " Mem. Generally observe in the cells of 
 monks, the Virgin is most adored, and in those 
 of nuns, the infant, which is always sure to 
 have a worked cap on. 
 
 " In the Academia of Milan, once the famed 
 Palazzo Brera, there is a painting which gives 
 a more correct representation of Paradise than
 
 ABROAD. 243 
 
 auy I have seen elsewhere. Time, morning ; 
 scene, a wood ; performers, all birds, beasts, 
 and fishes, collected round a tree, at the foot 
 of which stands a music-book, the animals ap- 
 parently chanting" their matin orisons, accom- 
 panied by a few angels in the clouds playing" 
 the fiddle. ' In Reason's ear they all rejoice.' 
 In another picture, two angels are pulling 
 each other by the hair. 
 
 " Note. In the north of Italy they shave their 
 mules and shampoo their horses : in Rome, 
 whether from the slipperiness of the pavement, 
 or indolence of the animals, the horses are seen 
 in the streets to sit upon end like dogs perpe- 
 tually. Women sit at work inside the churches 
 in Italy, when it is too cold for them to sit out- 
 side, and starch Protestants forget to stare at 
 them. 
 
 " Singers at the Pantheon, accompanied by 
 fiddles : too much like the Rotunda at Vauxhall. 
 
 " At the service on Easter-day, where the 
 Emperor of Austria and all bis court were pre- 
 sent, I saw Mr. B. in the uniform of his York- 
 shire hunt. He was admitted into the body of
 
 244 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 St. Peter's without a ticket, on the privilege of 
 his uniform. 
 
 "I was invited to attend the distribution of 
 prizes by the Academy of Venice :* it was to 
 take place in one of the halls of the senate- house. 
 As we entered the magnificent apartment, a 
 band of martial music struck up its loud exhi- 
 larating strains : a gentleman, in full court-dress, 
 advanced to hand me through the little lane 
 left by the divided crowd, to the farther end of 
 the saloon, where, on a raised platform, about a 
 dozen green satin seats were placed for ladies 
 of rank. Laurel wreaths were hung on the 
 protruded arms of the gilded statues, that look 
 very well from the door ; but we, who sat be- 
 hind them, saw only the back fronts of the mer- 
 maids, which was not at all pleasant. The 
 ceremony began by the viceroy, who was at- 
 tended by all the chief officers of state in full 
 dress, reading aloud a sort of manifesto, in 
 which the Emperor's name often recurred, and 
 at every repetition of the hallowed sound, all 
 
 * On the 4th of October, 1819.
 
 ABROAD. 245 
 
 these courtly auditors bowed the head in adora- 
 tiou. The first prize, a gold medal, was adjudged 
 with infinite pomposity to an old woman for 
 making artificial flowers ; and the second, to 
 a bootmaker for an invention to save himself 
 the trouble of stitching his soles. Alas, poor 
 Venice ! what art thou now ? 
 
 "At the Carnival of Venice, horses are led 
 about for shows, and sedan chairs are carried 
 about at the Carnival of Rome for the same 
 purpose. 
 
 " When my friend, Sir Thomas Rentroll, came 
 to Rome, he was determined to outdo all his 
 countrymen in comfort : he took the Palace 
 Cronta and furnished it in the English style, at 
 least as far as he could. Grates were not to be 
 had, but he found in some rarity shop a second- 
 hand fender: the consequence was, no living 
 soul could ever see the fire on his hearth. He 
 brought out English carpets with him, and 
 swore he would not be littered down with straw 
 like his horses ; the consequence was, the un- 
 even brick floors cut through his carpets in 
 a week. He was very proud of his English
 
 246 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 landau ; but it had no crane neck, and would not 
 turn in the narrow streets : his four bays 
 would not draw without collars, and his Roman 
 coachman could not drive them in such an inno- 
 vated manner. He cursed the Italian fashion 
 of drinking- wine on a table cloth ; had his 
 removed at his first party, and bounced out 
 of the room in a passion at seeing his trunk 
 hinges nailed to boards for his dining-table. 
 He eat Gloucester cheese at Rome, and boasted 
 he would never allow any other in bis house : 
 all his Italian friends and English fine ladies 
 sent excuses to his next fete. He piqued him- 
 self on having the door-cases washed in the 
 room he slept in at Baccano : the inn-keepers 
 let him go next day without paying his bill, think- 
 ing he was mad : the Prince Montorini left 
 his card for him, the letters being in a little 
 flourished escutcheon, and as usual nothing but 
 the name ' Montorini' being on it. Sir Thomas 
 sent for the prince up stairs, (where he was 
 making his own boot-top stuff) to ask where his 
 shop was, and whether he sold Cornamara stock- 
 ings ? He went to return the visit next day : he
 
 ABROAD. 2^ 
 
 found neither knocker, bell, hall-door, nor porter ; 
 went straight up stairs, and found himself in a 
 room where an actress was practising ; thought 
 she was insane, and sprained his ankle, making 
 his escape down the slippery marble stairs. 
 In his fall he rolled into an ante-room, where 
 servants were playing cards ; thought it was 
 the family, and took a seat with them. The 
 prince sent him home in his own carriage ; the 
 footmen went without their hats : Sir Thomas, 
 with lordly condescension, desired them to wear 
 them : they grumbled, and thought it hard 
 they might not enjoy the sun. The carriage 
 was a coach ; in his hurry, he sat down on the 
 front seat ; the roof of that part was so low, he 
 could not sit upright, and the seat so shallow 
 he could not turn ; the cramped position gave 
 him a lumbago in his back : wanted a physician ; 
 his valet prided himself on not understanding a 
 word of any language but English, and would 
 not learn even the names of foreigners : brought 
 Sir Thomas a fencing-master instead of a doctor. 
 Some of his intimates came to call upon him ; 
 wondered who Monsieur de Farell was, till
 
 248 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 the name of Maison Ballysliaucknassagh re- 
 minded him it might be his old friend Delaney 
 O'Farell of County Kerry. — ' Miladl Miinch- 
 kins' wrote him a note in French, to invite him 
 to a soiree: she put terzo piano on her address, 
 and he thought it was a concert ; hated music, 
 and wrote her an answer in bad Italian, and 
 hoped her old husband was well at Jorc (York). 
 Sir Thomas got the gout from drinking sour 
 Ovietta ; swore it was dislocation of his bones on 
 the Flaminian Way ; regretted there were no 
 lanes unpaved in Italy, recommended all tra- 
 vellers to take the beds of the rivers in winter, 
 at which season they are always dry, in prefer- 
 ence to the highways, as being smoother and 
 more gravelly. Sir Thomas said the finest 
 flower he had seen in Italy was the English 
 furze-bush, which is carefully trained outside 
 the Conservatory in the Botanical Garden at 
 Padua. Awoke one night in a fright : thought 
 there was a roiv : only musicians serenading the 
 Madona after a thunder-storm : the picture was in 
 a little niche beside his bed -room window, and 
 he threatened to throw the little tallow candle
 
 ABROAD. 249 
 
 amongst them which is always lighted before 
 her at sun-set. Stopped up the small chimney 
 which was in the wall of his dressing-room for a 
 similar purpose, and had to pay his landlord a 
 heavy fine in honour of the Vierge Marice as 
 Sir Thomas called her. When he went to 
 Tivoli, and his guide showed him the Villa 
 d'Oragio, he asked where was that of the Cura- 
 gii ? and said, in excuse, the Italians did not 
 know how to pronounce Latin." 
 
 Before Emily had half satisfied her curiosity 
 with Lady Mary's memoranda, she found the 
 appointed time was come for their visit to Car- 
 dinal Fesch's Gallery. It was not without 
 much interest that she accompanied her Lady- 
 ship to the residence of Napoleon's uncle. " It 
 is strange," said Lady Mary, as they drove thi- 
 ther, " how the Corsican has contrived to set 
 his seal on all the finest towns of continental 
 Europe! There is scarcely one city in which 
 you will not find some existing memento of him 
 or of his family, either by the trophies of former 
 conquest, or by the present powerful alliances of 
 h\s relations. In Italy, more especially, there is
 
 2o0 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 not a palace of his rival kings that does not 
 carry on its walls some stamp of Bonaparte's 
 greatness. From the Favorita and the Portici, 
 at the base of Mount Vesuvius, to the Lom- 
 bard palaces, at the foot of the Alps, all bear 
 his insignia, and his coins still pay the troops 
 that were hired for his destruction." 
 
 *' Is the Quirinal still furnished as it was for 
 the king of Rome ?" inquired Miss Sternheim. 
 
 " Yes, and by a strange fate, the first court 
 held in it was that of Francis the First : but the 
 changes those palaces have witnessed are not 
 greater than the vicissitudes which the master 
 of this one has experienced. You know Car- 
 dinal Fesch was (o have been Pope." 
 
 Here Lady Mary's moral and political re- 
 flections were interrupted by their arrival at the 
 palace, and Emily's attention was soon entirely 
 engrossed by the various objects which were 
 presented to her view. 
 
 Amongst the different chefs iVcenrres, which 
 this gallery contains, it was a difficult task to 
 select the best; and Emily, who was little versed 
 in the techaival rules of art, made a wrong
 
 ABROAD. 251 
 
 choice ; for what most pleased her in the whole, 
 was a painting of Jouvenet's, very badly exe- 
 cuted, but beautifully designed. In it Aurora, 
 rapidly pursued by Phoebus, flies before him, 
 and as she does so, turns her head to observe 
 his approach, shading her eyes, which are dazzled 
 by his splendour : whilst he leans eagerly for- 
 ward towards her, his golden hair falls loosely 
 round him ; Night and Darkness seem hastening- 
 to hide themselves in their drapery of clouds on 
 which his four eager horses are ready to trample. 
 Above is a little winged instant : had it been a 
 nymph, it would have passed for one of the Hours : 
 this is but a little ardent child — a minute: 
 it is in chase of the last star which lingers, and 
 seems to delight in the hope that its stretched 
 finger can just catch it, — but it is gone, and 
 flies close before him ; M'hilst in our nearer view 
 just such another, rosy, happy, laughing mo-, 
 ment sits on the car of Day. 
 
 " There is more poetry than painting in that 
 picture," said Lady Mary; " and I believe you 
 are therefore right in selecting it. It is a pity 
 tiie charms of allegory and thcaght are not
 
 252 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 always added to those of execution. Without 
 them, painting is a mere optical deception, and 
 sometimes only the more painful from its ac- 
 curacy." 
 
 " And then surely your Ladyship will give 
 me your sanction in deprecating the horrible 
 subjects some of the best masters seemed most 
 to delight in. To see the variety of martyr- 
 doms, which disgrace not only churches here, 
 but saloons and ball-rooms, would make a 
 Pagan imagine that our religion was the worship 
 of devils." 
 
 " There, however, is one exception," replied 
 Lady Mary. " Look at that Saint Sebastian : 
 he seems to await his doom with a holy 
 triumph, that might almost excite our envy : 
 the heaven towards which he looks is already 
 within his reach ; and its own beams are re- 
 flected in his countenance. How different that 
 picture is from the next red-eyed Magdalen 
 by Vandyck ! no painter, or poet, or novelist, 
 will ever persuade me that crying is beautiful ; 
 no matter whether our cheeks grow pale, and 
 our noses blue, from frost or sentiment : the
 
 ABROAD. 253 
 
 effect is the same, and exceedingly unbe- 
 
 coming." 
 
 " There is a little treasure," said Emily, 
 pointing to a small picture by Carlo Dolci. It 
 was a mother suckling her little baby: the in- 
 fant is playing with its own foot ; and the 
 mother's face expresses all of joy, and love, and 
 pride. " That must be from nature, and a happy 
 nature." 
 
 " Such scenes are delightful to those who 
 can look upon them without envy," said Lady 
 Mary. " One of the most beautiful pictures I 
 ever saw is by Georgioni, containing the por- 
 traits of himself, his wife, and his son : it is 
 in the Manfreni Gallery at Venice ; but its 
 style is very different from this : it is the ex- 
 pression of matured friendship — this, of the 
 tenderest affection." 
 
 " Both, I should think, are more interesting 
 than the portrait of Solon without a head, which 
 delighted my aunt so much in the Hall of the 
 Muses at the Vatican." 
 
 " By-the-by, talking of the Vatican, how odd 
 it is that that palace should have twenty ha.ise-
 
 254 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 cours, and not one tolerably good staircase ! 
 and then the modern pictures representing the 
 life and adventures of the late Pope ! We 
 drew lots for a bet which likeness was meant 
 for the Pope, and which for Consalvi ; and when 
 I referred to our guide, he answered me, 
 ' Which you please, Ma'am.'" 
 
 " But bad as they are," replied Emily, " that 
 true story must always be interesting : if I was 
 the possessor of a picture-gallery, I think I 
 should be even more particular in the choice of 
 the subjects than of the masters." 
 
 " I see you are a little of my creed," returned 
 Lady Mary: *•' with the generality of mankind, 
 to be happy is to be good ; and according to 
 this principle, the constant view of misery and 
 cruelty must harden the heart, and promote 
 wickedness. I was never more obliged to any 
 painter, than to the one who made his picture 
 of Saint Veronica an octagon shape, in order to 
 leave out the handkerchief at the corner." 
 
 In passing through the various apartments 
 of Cardinal Fesch's palace, Emily could not 
 help stopping frequently to admire the beautiful
 
 ABROAD 255 
 
 view of the Tiber, which their windows present 
 to, perhaps, more advantage than any other 
 situation in Rome. " For how many ages," 
 thought she, " have its opake waters rolled on 
 to the ocean ! how many heroes have fought 
 on its banks, and there perpetuated their 
 glory ! how many generations of men have 
 lived on its shores, and died, and are forgotten ! 
 and still, dark, silent, and sluggish, it rolls 
 on ; — the Lethe of this world, alone eternal, 
 whilst all around is perishable ; mocking alike 
 the crimes and the misery of man. How many 
 tears may have swollen its stream — how many 
 cries may have echoed from its banks ! and yet 
 the Tiber, that once held the infant Romulus 
 struggling in its bed, still washes the ruined 
 walls of his Rome. Alas ! what is life in com- 
 parison of nature? The little imperceptible 
 source which feeds the torrent is inexhaustible; 
 the stream it fills is as perpetual as it is re- 
 sistless. Where is the little bubble that first 
 rises to the light ? It floats on from ocean to 
 ocean, perhaps beyond the boundaries of human 
 discovery. Where are its confines? When
 
 256 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 Avill It rest? Is it merely an undefinable em- 
 blem of infinity, or does the Spirit of Omnipo- 
 tence still rest on the face of the waters, and 
 throw the shadow of its own dark inexplicable 
 mystery on the deep V
 
 ABROAD. 257 
 
 CHAP. \ I. 
 
 A SOIREE AT ROME. 
 
 The apparently accidental observations which 
 Lady Mary Norton had made to Miss Stern- 
 heim on the subject of Lord Vanderville, caused 
 Emily much and serious reflection ; and, per- 
 haps, they in some degree influenced her earnest 
 entreaty to Lady Harman to fulfil her engage- 
 ment of taking her that evening to Madama 
 Ingauni''s conversazione. " You know, my 
 dear aunt," said she, " you wish to see Italian 
 ladies in their own homes ; pray, pray, let us 
 go. 
 
 *' I never before saw you so solicitous to go 
 fo any party, Emily ! 1 should think you must 
 expect to meet some particular favourite. But
 
 258 ENGLISH FASIUONAllLES 
 
 as Lord Vanderville has not been here to-day, 
 you have more chance of seeing him by staying 
 at home." 
 
 " I assure you it is not liim I most wish to 
 meet;" and a deep sigh followed this remark. 
 Lady Harman was never ready to trace senti- 
 ments to their source ; and as Emily a moment 
 afterwards gaily renewed her solicitations, her 
 aunt at last acceded to them ; and at an early 
 hour they proceeded to the house of Madama 
 Inganni. 
 
 Emily's spirits seemed to rise as they ad- 
 vanced, and Lady Harman herself was almost 
 beguiled into good humour by her cheerful- 
 ness. " I wonder," said Emily, " which of the 
 Italian heroines Madama Inganni will most 
 resemble !" 
 
 Lady Harman repeated about a dozen names, 
 beginning with Lucretia: " Dear aunt, I don't 
 mean of the old Roman history ; I mean modern 
 tales. I have not read a single novel lately in 
 which the hero has not been deluded, some time 
 or other, by the arts and the charms of some
 
 ABROAD. 259 
 
 Italian lady, who has been as invariably gay, 
 witty, brilliant, and accomplished." 
 
 " Italian women are always dangerous, and 
 that is the reason there are so few English 
 matches made up on the continent. After all, 
 I think it is a very bad plan to bring girls 
 abroad," added Lady Harman, with some de- 
 gree of asperity. 
 
 " Bless me ! surely girls don't come abroad 
 to be married !" exclaimed Emily, with naivete. 
 
 " i\.nd what else, child, do they come abroad 
 for? Gentlemen may travel to study laws and 
 politics ; artists may travel to improve them- 
 selves ; but, take my word, few girls leave their 
 homes, except on speculation." 
 
 " And don't you think, aunt, that a girl 
 might wish to come abroad solely for the sake 
 of seeing all the wonders of art, which she can 
 see no where else ?" 
 
 " Nonsense! what has a young girl to do 
 with any thing like wonders 1 And if she must 
 inevitably be surprised in that way, let her go 
 to London ; there are more fine specimens of
 
 2G0 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 art, ancient and modern, collected there, than 
 all Italy can boast." 
 
 " I wish to goodness, though, we had got the 
 Egean marbles." 
 
 "Ay, indeed, they are worth wishing for: 
 think of tliat head without a nose ! What a 
 sin for England, to have lost such a treasure, 
 for two or three thousand pounds, and the 
 inertness of a contractor ! — then the broken cor- 
 nice!" 
 
 Lady Harman had got into a strain of anti- 
 quarianism, from which Emily cared not to re- 
 call her; and during her aunt's harangue, she 
 amused herself by picturing what sort of society 
 they were likely to meet with at La Contessa In- 
 ganni's ; and then grew intimidated, in recollect- 
 ing how dangerous the long street at the back 
 of the Quirinal was considered just then, from 
 the hardihood of the brigands ; and that several 
 carriages had arranged the night before, to 
 brave the dangers of the Via Serpentina in com- 
 pany. Her fears were, however, unsupported. 
 She knew this house was considered one of the
 
 ABROAD. 261 
 
 most agreeable in Rome ; and she felt anxious 
 to have an opportunity of ascertaining, by nearer 
 inspection, what were the peculiar powers of 
 fascination by v.hich Italian ladies are so avow- 
 edly distinguished. She combined all the dif- 
 ferent charms which the pen of Madame de 
 Stael, Miss Edgeworth, and Maturin, coidd 
 give to the character of " woman," and did 
 not awake from her dream till she found herself 
 in Madaraa Inganni's saloon. 
 
 It was a large square room, hung with un- 
 varnished pictures, and ilkmiinated, to emulate 
 a theatre. Now do not let the brilliant phan- 
 tom of a Drury-lane rise to the dazzled imagi- 
 nation, decked in the splendour of beauty, and 
 sparkling in a galaxy of gas-lights : rather 
 picture a large untenanted vault, with one 
 funereal lamp, emitting no ray, and shedding no 
 lustre. This would give a faithful representation 
 equally of an Italian theatre and an Italian 
 drawing-room, except on particular nights of 
 express notification, when each show a splendid 
 contrast to their usual gloom. 
 
 At the Contessa Inganni's a single lamp now
 
 262 ENGLISH FASHIOMABLES 
 
 stood on a table, in the centre of the room ; but 
 its rays were confined by a green silk shade as 
 sedulously as the lights in a theatre are con- 
 cealed by screens. The eflect in both is such 
 visible darkness, that the unaccustomed eye 
 feels the transition almost painful. 
 
 Round this table the majority of the guests 
 were already assembled, when Lady Harman 
 and Miss Sternheim entered. Against the wall, 
 at one end of the room, was placed a couch, on 
 which, as usual, sat the ladies of highest rank ; 
 and on each side, in regular gradation of age 
 and dignity, were placed the remainder of the 
 female visitors, in the form of a half-moon. At 
 the end of these lunar horns was left a small 
 space, — a line of fearful demarcation, — beyond 
 which, in a corresponding semicircle, were 
 placed all the gentlemen who composed the 
 party. 
 
 The forms of politeness are pretty much the 
 same in all European countries, and the amuse- 
 ments of refined society are generally alike every 
 where ; and, no doubt, had Madama Inganni 
 given Lady Harman a regular invitation, she
 
 ABROAD. 263 
 
 would have considered herself obliged to give 
 her ii party, where her Ladyship would probably 
 have found (he same kind of lights, refreshments, 
 and company, which a similar ticket of admis- 
 sion would have produced at Paris or St. Peters- 
 burgh. But it is the private and more domestic 
 union of society that marks the characteristic 
 peculiarities of different countries ; and in Italy, 
 even each separate state has its distinctive man- 
 ners. When a Roman lady expresses a wish 
 to see you at her house, she is thereby under- 
 stood to give you an eternal permission to visit 
 her on such evenings as she is at home, which 
 is generally restricted to one in seven. On 
 that night, the lady of the house is expected to 
 appear in her own drawing-room at about half 
 past six, in a dress infinitely more neglected 
 and dishabilU than her usual morning costume. 
 From that hour till about nine, she is in duty 
 bound to " entertain" all who choose to call 
 upon her; that is, to say a {ew words in a 
 whisper to each person who comes in or goes 
 out of the room. About nine o'clock the con- 
 versazione concludes, and the lady may begin
 
 2G4 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 to ''entertain" herself, which is generally done, 
 lirst at her toilette, and then at the faro- 
 table : for though the latter may be held at her 
 own house, it forms quite a distinct occupation 
 and establishment from that of her drawinff-room 
 circle. The early part of those evenings in which 
 the conversazione are not at her home, she 
 spends in returning these nocturnal visits ; and 
 as frequently many of these are paid in one 
 evening, the circles at these different houses are 
 continually revolving, thus producing change 
 without variety ; and in the space of two or 
 three hours, a fortunate person may hunt the 
 identical half dozen poke bonnets he encountered 
 at his first visit, round all the houses of their 
 mutual acquaintances. Yet this method of 
 substituting evening for morning visits would 
 be agreeable enough, if the leisure it allowed 
 was applied to any rational pursuit. But as 
 Italian ladies, with very few exceptions, learn 
 nothing but embroidery, it little matters how 
 their superfluity of leisure is divided. 
 
 When Lady Harman found that neither 
 cards, nor lights, nor tea, nor ices, (the usual
 
 ABROAD. 265 
 
 concomitants to every description of party) were 
 here offered, she expected, rationally enough, 
 that conversation would be provided for those 
 to whom no other entertainment seemed attain- 
 able; and as she loved "talk" as well as Doc- 
 tor Johnson himself, she was not sorry to per- 
 ceive the room empty of all furniture but seats, 
 and the table vacant of every thing-, " The 
 arena is clear," thought she ; and she already 
 began to arrange not only her ideas but her 
 words. How much were these expectations 
 disappointed ! The circle was divided into ex- 
 parte tete-a-ittes, each speaking under their 
 breath to their next neighbour, and thus con- 
 tributing their quota to the little subdued but 
 incessant murmur which crept round the room 
 like the echo of a whispering gallery. 
 
 At last, one of the ladies rose from her seat. 
 Madama Ingailni took the hint, and advancing 
 towards her, seized hold of both her hands, 
 kissed each of her cheeks alternately, and then 
 handed her over to her cavaliere servants, who 
 in the meantime had prepared her shawl. The 
 master of the house then stepped forward in 
 
 VOL. 1. j^
 
 26G ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 solemn silence, and made a low bow to the de- 
 parting- guest, whose cavalier grasping fast hold 
 of her under the arm, or rather under the 
 slioulder, handed her off, much in the way a 
 Yorkshire clown would assist a gouty old man. 
 The example of departure was soon followed 
 by Lady Harman and Miss Sternheim, neither 
 of whom felt much inclination to repeat the 
 visit. 
 
 " How different Italian manners really are 
 from what I expected them to have been 1" ob- 
 served Emily. " I wonder how it bappens, that 
 Italian ladies are accused of being too gay ; I 
 think their manners in society are much more 
 formal than oui's." 
 
 " Where sound principles are wanting", ex- 
 ternal restraints are more rigidly enforced," 
 replied her Ladyship, with a sweeping* clause of 
 censure ; for she was tired, and cross, and not 
 inclined to acknowledge the exceptions to g"e- 
 neral rules, which are to be found every where. 
 
 Meanwhile,Emily had fallen into a long- train 
 of reflections, but they did not lead her to the 
 conclusion she wished — namelv, in what consists
 
 ABROAD. 267 
 
 the attraction of Italian manners. Beauty is a 
 tlov.er indigenous to every soil, and assuredly it 
 is not the charm that English women want : 
 virtue has been their birth-right, and accom- 
 plishments are now their pre-eminent distinction. 
 Let him, who has been duped by foreign wiles, 
 expose the witchery that deluded him; but let 
 not the guileless, innocent daughter of Britain, 
 seek to know the lure : she must not profane 
 her native purity by even touching the utter- 
 most garment of dissimulation, though it be 
 but to lift its veil. 
 
 On Lady Harman's return home, she found 
 a note from Lord Vanderville, which however 
 she did not show Emily. Next morning, her first 
 care was to give orders for his exclusive ad- 
 mittance ; but before the usual time of his visit 
 arrived, Emily made an excuse both to herself 
 and to her aunt for her absence, and went out 
 to walk. It was not coquetry which prompted 
 her so sedulously to avoid meeting the earl : 
 her determination was only the result of Lady 
 Mary Norton's remarks, for they had accidentally 
 turned the balance of her thoughts, which for
 
 2(58 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 some days had hung quivering- on a thread of 
 various hue. 
 
 Candid as Emily Slernheim was by nature, 
 circumstances had concurred to condemn her 
 to secrecy on subjects of the utmost import- 
 ance to her happiness ; and, though Lady Har- 
 man was acquainted with most of the principal 
 occurrences of her past life, she was ignorant 
 of many, and, in her niece's estimation, was a 
 prejudiced judge of all : nor was she in any 
 i*espect the sort of character that could ever 
 gain Emily's confidence. Lady Mary was a 
 person much more calculated to be the reposi- 
 tory of all her thoughts ; but, if no other reason 
 had existed to deter Emily from communicating 
 them to her, she felt or fancied that, in the 
 moments of the least reserved intimacy, some 
 latent feeling of dislike towards her lurked in 
 Lady Mary's manner ; and the very tone of 
 superiority which she occasionally assumed, in 
 destroying the certainty of equality, at once put 
 an end to friendship. 
 
 It thus happened that on one of the most 
 momentous occasions of her life, the orphan
 
 ABROAD. 2G9 
 
 Emily was left without a counsellor or guide, 
 except the dictates of her own heart ; for, al- 
 though Lord Vanderville had not yet given 
 distinct expression to his feelings, so far as to 
 confirm Lady Mary's suggestions in their fullest 
 extent, yet some words he had dropped when 
 they last met, left it no longer possible for her 
 to doubt his intentions. 
 
 Much, therefore, did she reflect, and many a 
 bitter sigh told how much she regretted those 
 early friends from whom she was separated, as 
 she prolonged her walk till the increasing 
 crowd in the streets, and the increasing sound 
 of carriages, reminded her it could be no longer 
 a solitary one. She therefore, at last, de- 
 termined on returning to the hotel, where, 
 however, she found her design of avoiding 
 Lord Vanderville was frustrated ; for, on open- 
 ing the drawing-room door, she perceived him 
 in earnest conversation with her aunt, and her 
 embarrassment was considerably increased by the 
 strange mixture of doubt and triumph which 
 was perceptible in his manner as he addressed 
 her. Lady Harman was at once pompous,
 
 :270 ENGLISH fashionables 
 
 mysterious, and elated, and Emily alone was 
 depressed. A silence of a few moments, appa- 
 rently distressing to all, succeeded her entrance; 
 and Emily prepared to retire, even without 
 
 4 
 
 an excuse, as at that instant she could not 
 think of any, when her aunt called her back in 
 the same authoritative tone in which a governess 
 would summon a wayward child. 
 
 " Stop, Emily ! where are you going? Lord 
 Vanderville has just done you the honour — I 
 mean, he has asked my permission to marry my 
 niece ; and as I always told you I should con- 
 sider you as my child if you married according 
 to my wishes, I have promised to make you my 
 sole heiress. Come, my dear, I am glad to see 
 those tears ; they are a sign, my Lord, of the 
 gratitude that I knew she would feel towards 
 us both." 
 
 Lord Vanderville, whose heart was originally 
 fitted by nature to vibrate to the nicest sensi- 
 bilities of our nature, indignantly resented the 
 coarse indelicacy of Lady Harman's manner ; 
 and suddenly seizing Emily's hand, as he placed 
 himself between her and her unfeeling aunt, he
 
 ABROAD. 271 
 
 exclaimed, " Gratitude, Lady Harman? — Miss 
 Steruheim feel gratitude to me ?— Oh, Emily! — 
 Miss Sternheim, — if I could ever hope that you 
 would accept my addresses, it would be the 
 study of my life* to prove imj gratitude to you." 
 
 His look, his attitude, as he spoke these few 
 words, seemed as if for her he would have de- 
 fied the world; and she, perhaps, had never 
 before felt so much the need of a protector: 
 her tears fell faster, but they were not so bitter 
 as when the agony of wounded pride alone had 
 caused tliem. Vanderville, however, alarmed 
 at the excess of her emotion, became every in- 
 stant more agitated, more doubtful ; and he who, 
 a few hours before, in the gay buoyancy of 
 youthful spirits, had believed himself in every 
 thing master of his fate, now subdued by un- 
 wonted fear, urged his suit with all the timi- 
 dity and all the ardour of the most unpresuming 
 lover. 
 
 Emily, at last, interrupted him : — " But, my 
 Lord, — such a short acquaintance — are you 
 aware — do you know " 
 
 ** Yes, every thing, my Emily ! do not torture
 
 272 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 me by suspense ; allow me to hope that I am 
 
 not disagreeable to you — that " 
 
 ** But how, my Lord, can I yet have learned 
 to trust this sudden partiality ? have I no caprice 
 to dread? Will no future moment of incon- 
 stancy or spleen taunt me with the past? — with 
 
 the name of " 
 
 " Nonsense, Emily," interrupted Lady Har- 
 man, profiting by the sobs which impeded her 
 niece's articulation, — " all this is girl's coquetry : 
 I have known Lord Vanderville as long as I have 
 known you : you are well suited to each other, 
 and so may you be happy 1" Thus saying, she 
 took Emily's hand, and with cold formality 
 placed it in his Lordship's, as if to claim for 
 herself a share in his thanks ; and it was only 
 by their vehemence that Emily comprehended 
 she was thus constituted Lord Vanderville's 
 affianced bride. 
 
 His joy and gratitude were now as great and 
 unrestrained as his recent sadness ; and even 
 had Emily been more experienced in the way- 
 ward vacillations of the human heart, the ardent 
 vivacity with which he broke forth in professions
 
 ABROAD. 273 
 
 of attachment to her would have excused the 
 levity and extravagance of its manifestations. 
 A holyday to a school-boy, or a horse-race to a 
 youth, never gave greater delight : nor would 
 the gay unreflecting hilarity with which the 
 news of either would be hailed, have differed 
 much either in kind or degree from that with 
 which Yanderville received what he trans- 
 lated as Emily's acceptance of his proposals. 
 He thanked her again and again for the happi- 
 ness of that moment, but he never stopped to 
 calculate on his chance of happiness for life ; 
 and when Lady Harman, for once considerate 
 towards others, proposed, in compassion to 
 Emily's struggling feelings, that he should accom- 
 pany her Ladyship in her morning's drive, and 
 took hold of his arm to draw him away, he 
 could hardly assume sufficient composure to 
 treat his dear new aunt, as he called her, with 
 proper respect ; and almost broke her neck by 
 jumping down half a flight of stairs, without 
 once recollecting that her Ladyship was already 
 appended to him. 
 
 " And is it thus that all my resolutions have
 
 274 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 ended ? — Am I indeed betrothed to Lord Van- 
 derville, — a man whom two months ago I had 
 never seen, and whom but yesterday I had 
 learned to dread ? Oh, Willoughby ! what will 
 you think of me ? — what will become of you ? — 
 but it's no matter now : long as you have made 
 the misery of my life, never can I forget you." 
 Thiis much of Emily's thoughts she articu- 
 lated ; then lost in deep and melancholy re- 
 flection, she remained in silent abstraction, al- 
 most unconscious of the course of her musings. 
 How long she so remained, or how long she 
 might have so continued, she knew not.' Her 
 thoughts were first recalled by hearing a distant 
 chant of music: it was solemn, and sufficiently 
 in unison with her present mood, to recall in 
 some degree her attention ; and looking from 
 the window, near which she happened to stand, 
 she saw a long pi'ocession winding through the 
 piazza. Nuns and hooded friars moved slowly 
 on ; each voice joined in the melody ; and the 
 lighted tapers and the silver crosses proved it 
 to be a religious procession, which at the time 
 of Advent are sights so frequent at Rome.
 
 ABROAD. 275 
 
 Emily leaned eagerly forward to note the show 
 which had stopped the thoughtless crowd, and 
 received as it passed the obeisances of all. It 
 was a funeral, and on the velvet pall lay the 
 corpse of a young girl. She was clothed in a 
 richly-embroidered robe, and a chaplet of the 
 sweetest, freshest flowers crowned her head ; 
 but her hands, and her feet, and her face were 
 bare, and the cold grasp of death had withered 
 and petrefied her beauty. 
 
 Emily turned with a fearful, almost super- 
 stitious shudder, from the melancholy sight, and 
 started on perceiving Lady Mary Norton, who 
 had entered unobserved by her. — " I know 
 Lady Harman is out," said she, gaily ; " for 
 about half an hour ago I met her near the Ca- 
 pitol, and I am afraid I aff'ronted her ; for she 
 stopped me to talk of the present abasement of 
 Rome, and I vowed it stood forty feet higher 
 than ever." 
 
 " Ah, Lady Mary, you can always be gay 
 whenever you choose it : you don't know how 
 often I have thought of you since yesterday." 
 
 " And I of you," replied her Ladyship, takir.g
 
 276 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 her cordially by the hand : '* I don't know, 
 Miss Steruheim, when I have met with any 
 person who has stolen my friendship as you 
 have done ; genuine innocence and simplicity 
 are so much rarer in this world, than either great 
 talents or great virtues." 
 
 This compliment, qualified as it was, was not 
 addressed to Emily ; it was only thought aloud. 
 Yet she accepted the kindness which had evi- 
 dently dictated it, without noticing the dimi- 
 nished praise it seemed to imply. 
 
 " Dear Lady Mary, if I might flatter myself 
 you were indeed my friend ! — if I could have 
 benefited by the advice, the kindness of such a 
 person as you " 
 
 ** You have only to tell me how I am to 
 serve you : I now disclaim the incredulity 
 with which I heard you yesterday, and have 
 persuaded myself to believe all I then doubted. 
 In return, I have given you more than half my 
 confidence already : a little, a very little more, 
 and you would know me better than does all 
 the world beside. I once thought I had met 
 an individual who could discriminate between
 
 ABROAD. 277 
 
 vivacity and levity, who could believe a kind 
 heart and clear head were not incompatible ; 
 but instability was his fault, and it was the in- 
 terest of others to prejudice his judgment. I 
 was too proud to vindicate myself : I even per- 
 haps caricatured my own foibles in very defi- 
 ance of their criticism. If ever caprice and 
 inconstancy were pardonable, surely his were ; 
 and yet, he ought not so soon to have for- 
 gotten me." 
 
 '* Caprice ! inconstancy ! Who can guard 
 against those vices ?" 
 
 " Nay, don't call them vices; they are only 
 errors ; and in Vanderville " 
 
 At that moment Lady Harman entered the 
 room, and hearing the last word, she exclaimed, 
 " So, Lady Mary, I see Emily has not lost 
 much time in telling you of her conquest ! Every 
 thing between her and Lord Vanderville was 
 settled this morning, and I hope to see my niece 
 his countess immediately." 
 
 A silence, of more import than words could 
 have been, followed this speech. Emily at 
 length raised her head, and looked at Lady
 
 278 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 Mary ; but proud contempt flashed in her eyes, 
 and Emily's cheek glowed beneath their fire. 
 " I thought I had understood you yesterday, 
 Miss Sternheim, and that you told me you had 
 no intention of marrying- Lord Vanderville. I 
 find I was mistaken, and that I have been twice 
 deceived." 
 
 " Oh ! Lady Mary," eagerly interrupted 
 Emily, " do not think me capable of deception ; 
 
 do not think " but her Ladyship gave her 
 
 no time for explanation ; for, hau^'htily taking- 
 leave both of her and of Lady Harman, she left 
 the room, scarcely apologizing for her abrupt 
 departure. Many months elapsed before Lady 
 Mary and Emily met again ; and many a day 
 and hour passed ere the poignancy of regret 
 was softened, with which Lady Mary remem- 
 bered that she had been " twice deceived." 
 
 Far different was it with Emily : the fleeting 
 images of sorrow soon glanced off the smooth 
 surface of her mind. Her joyous innocent spi- 
 rits were not yet congealed to the hard mould 
 in which the chilling experience of the world's 
 ways so often freezes the finest qualities of the
 
 ABROAD. 279 
 
 youthful heart. The gay vivacious laugh with 
 which she had recognised Myrvin when they 
 first met in Italy, had not been repressed by 
 the saddening thoughts which the memory of 
 her earlier davs alwavs brought with it ; nor did 
 the more painful sensations, which had marked 
 the last few hours, long darken the brilliant 
 prospects with which her imagination might 
 have been dazzled even in reflecting on them. 
 Yet this arose not so much from inconsistency 
 natural to her character, as from the levity na- 
 tural to her age : she never stopped to inves- 
 tigate the causes of either her joy or sorrow ; 
 both passed lightly by her on the wings of the 
 moment, and it was fortunate for her that they 
 did so : for so subtle is the essence of pleasure, 
 that it evaporates in the attempt to analyze it ; 
 whilst, on the contrary, the poison of grief be- 
 comes b'.it the more deadly when each of its 
 bitterest ingredients, by being decomposed, ac- 
 quii'es separate strength. 
 
 Emily was mortified at having appeared to 
 Lady Mary so unnecessarily disingenuous, and, 
 for several minutes after her Ladyship's de-
 
 280 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 parture, her whole thoughts were engrossed in 
 devising means for lier exculpation ; during 
 which interval, she convinced herself that she 
 was sincerely angry with Lord Vanderville 
 for having occasioned her to be placed in so 
 disadvantageous a situation. But before long, 
 she forgot these vain regrets : a packet was 
 brought into the room, accompanied by a note 
 to her from the object of her momentary dis- 
 pleasure ; and before she had time to compre- 
 hend all the note contained, Lady Harman had 
 impatiently opened the packet, and discovered, 
 as she said, the most beautiful set of onyxes 
 she had ever beheld. " Now this is right; 
 this is as it ought to be. Emily, my dear, you 
 will look beautiful in these cameos. Throw back 
 that curl off your left eye-brow : this tiara comb 
 will give you height, which is all your appear- 
 ance wants." 
 
 " But Lady Harman, aunt, you would not 
 surely have me accept these presents from Lord 
 Vanderville ?" 
 
 " And why not, pray? When you have ac- 
 cepted him for your husband, it is nonsense to
 
 ABROAD. 281 
 
 hesitate about accepting his presents. I hate 
 such prudery: I know the world, and " 
 
 " But, my dear aunt, you are so precipitate ! 
 I have not accepted Lord Vanderville. I never 
 said, nor do 1 intend " 
 
 " Emily, you are enough to put any body out 
 of patience. To say you have not accepted his 
 proposals, when he and I arranged all about 
 your fortune and settlements this morning !" 
 
 " Indeed, Lady Harman, I cannot consent to 
 all this. I never will promise to marry any 
 body without at least informing Willoughby, 
 and giving him an opportunity of " 
 
 " If ever I hear you mention that detestable 
 name again," exclaimed Lady Harman, almost 
 breathless with passion, " I will disown you for 
 ever. What is Sir Willoughby Martin to you 
 now. Miss Sternheim ? Have I not in my pos- 
 session his own letter promising never to see or 
 write to you again I and do you pretend to 
 say that he has now any right to control your 
 actions, or even to influence your opinions I" 
 
 " Lady Harman, this conversation is per- 
 fectly unnecessary. I am sorry I mentioned
 
 282 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 his name — it was quite involuntary ; but since it 
 (lid escape me, I must say that my afl'ectiou for 
 Willoughby is the same it ever was. He is, and 
 always must be dear to me ; and grateful as I 
 am for your kindness to me, I often doubt v/he- 
 ther I have not purchased it too dearly by re- 
 nouncing- him." So saying, Emily left the room, 
 nor did she return till summoned to dinner. 
 
 That interval she passed in deep reflection, 
 the result of which was, a firm determination 
 to return the onyxes to Vanderville, and at 
 the same time, if possible, to retract the tacit 
 engagement into which she had been hurried in 
 the morning. It was not, therefore, without 
 some degree of embarrassment that she per- 
 ceived, on entering the room, the earl an- 
 xiously awaiting her arrival, with a countenance 
 radiant in joy, and even more than usually ani- 
 mated with that benevolence and spontaneous 
 kindness, which in good hearts is always the 
 first fruits of happiness. Lady Harman too, 
 gratified in her utmost ambition by her Emily's 
 aggrandizement, had forgotten the asperity of 
 their last conversation, and hailed the niece she
 
 ABROAD. 283 
 
 prided in with unwonted kindness. It is a hard 
 trial to a young girl to see herself the cause of 
 iiappiness, and to feel that the one predeter- 
 mined sentence, v.hich her own waywardness 
 prompts her to pronounce, will at once destroy 
 the general delight in which she too, for the 
 time, involuntarily shares. Emily felt this trial ; 
 and as firmness of resolve was not her charac- 
 teristic, it is not surprising that she should he- 
 sitate. "It is a pity to repress so much kind- 
 ness !" thought she : " I need not tell them my 
 determination at all events till after dinner; 
 but nevertheless I am determined." Yet when 
 after dinner came, and when the social evening 
 closed round them, she found no opportunity of 
 doing that which, however, she still assured 
 herself she was deterinined on. 
 
 Instead of the unmeaning play of words, 
 rather than of sentiments, which usually com- 
 poses the whole of conversation between ladies 
 and their lovers, that between Emily and Van- 
 derville this evening partook more of the inti- 
 macy and cordiality of domestic intercourse. 
 His sparkling eyes and anxious looks alone told
 
 284 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 his love : no unvarnished praise or high-wrought 
 sentiment called for the parrying retort of wit 
 or anger. He sat beside her, no longer stringing 
 together a rhapsody of compliment, but appa- 
 rently only solicitous to express his gratitude, 
 and share with her his happiness. For the first 
 time since they were acquainted, he seemed so- 
 licitous to discover Emily's tastes, her pursuits, 
 her general turn of thought and character. Nor 
 was this done with the least degree of forecast, 
 or even of reflection : he felt secure of his own 
 happiness, and the same feeling led him to wish 
 to increase her's ; for as the superficial forms of 
 politeness counterfeit benevolence, so real ge- 
 nuine warmth of heart influences the simplest 
 manners, and adds a brighter polish even to the 
 most superficial elegance. " Surely," thought 
 Emily, " Vanderville to-night is more agreeable 
 than ever !" and though the harp was more than 
 once brought forward, and though Lady Bar- 
 man more than once alluded to the lateness of 
 the hour, still the conversation lengthened on 
 from link to link, and still faster faded from 
 Emily's mind her determination to retract in
 
 ABROAD. 285 
 
 words her implied consent to Vanderville's pro- 
 posal. 
 
 Perhaps, in the whole of Vanderville's ex- 
 istence he never had spent hours more happy 
 than those which now fled hy with such rapi- 
 dity in the society of Emily Sternheim. He 
 had just touched that meridian of his fate, when 
 the last shade of doubt had vanished, and the 
 brilliancy of hope shone in its brightest splen- 
 dour, whilst nothing of regret or of remorse 
 mixed with the gay visions on his horizon. It 
 was still cloudless ; and the little speck, that for 
 off in the distance foretold to the prophet's eye 
 
 the tears of heaven, was still to him unseen 
 
 undreamed of. Alas ! how short is the cloudless 
 day of happiness to man ! and who, when that 
 day is past, can forbear to recall the memory of 
 moments that are added to the night of time ? 
 But whatever were Vanderville's fortunes or 
 his faults, to Emily Sternheim he was then 
 sincere : he may have been better loved, but he 
 had never loved so well. 
 
 And where, meanwhile, were Pandora's gems ? 
 When Emily had first seen Vanderville in the
 
 286 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 drawing-room, her first recollection was of (he 
 onyx cameos ; but it was in vain she tried to 
 mention them, her lips refused the office, and 
 she could not before dinner find either courage or 
 opportunity to touch upon the subject. In the 
 evening, her thoughts were so much engrossed 
 by Vanderville himself, that she totally forgot 
 his present ; nor did he mention it to her, partly 
 from delicacy, and partly from Lady Harman's 
 request. It therefore so happened that the gems 
 totally escaped Emily's memory until the in- 
 stant after the earl had quitted the room, when, 
 jumping up, she ran after him to the door, ex- 
 claiming, — "Oh! the onyxes. Lord Vander- 
 ville ! Lord Vanderville !" her voice reached 
 him at the bottom of the stairs, and one spring 
 brought him back to her side. 
 
 " Emilv onlv wants to thank you for the 
 beautiful trinkets," interrupted Lady Harman, 
 quickly. 
 
 " Oh ! my Lord, you are very good ; but 1 
 
 feel quite — I don't know what to say — but " 
 
 Meanwhile Lord Vanderville had taken both 
 her hands, and before she could withdraw
 
 ABROAD. 287 
 
 them, had kissed them each a dozen times ; 
 and then, without waiting to hear what it was 
 she did mean to say, he construed the little she 
 had said as he best liked, and went away hap- 
 pier, if possible, than he was before. 
 
 " What a fool I am !" exclaimed Emily, 
 turning- half angrily to her aunt: " Lord Vau- 
 derville now has quite misunderstood me." 
 
 " Not at all, my dear," returned her aunt, 
 quietly lighting her bed-candle : " Lord Van- 
 derville is experienced enough to understand all 
 the pride and all the waywardness which a 
 young lady must indubitably affect when she is 
 going to be married ; it would be as unheard-of to 
 l)e married without them as without the Corbrilli. 
 -By the by, I must write to Madam D'Aign- 
 mont at Paris for your wedding clothes. I for- 
 get whether her sign is the Pope's Head, or the 
 Corbrilli di Mariage ; but I know both are 
 good shops. Well, I must look in my souvenir. 
 Good night, my love!" 
 
 " How provoking !" muttered Emily ; and the 
 pouting lip and tossed head, with which she 
 unconsciously uttered this exclamation, would
 
 288 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 have made a beautiful design for " La Ca- 
 pricieuse," which is at once the emblem of 
 Spring and Youth, in the Ahnanac de Pierre 
 Gabaud. 
 
 It seemed as if for several successive days 
 some wicked sprite had resolved to work the 
 annoyance of poor Emily ; for notwithstanding 
 all her " determination," she could neither find 
 nor make any opportunity for coming to an 
 explanation with Lord Vanderville. When- 
 ever Lady Harman was present, she studi- 
 ously prevented it ; and whenever she happened 
 to find herself alone with him, she felt too 
 embarrassed to effect her purpose. The real 
 reason probably was, that, however little she 
 was conscious of it, she had not thoroughly 
 made up her mind ; for when the thoughts are 
 clearly arranged, they are always easily ex- 
 pressed. Emily had by no means resolved not 
 to marry Vanderville : she only objected to the 
 rapid manner in which her aunt had consented 
 to her union with him, without giving Emily 
 time to form her own resolutions on the subject, 
 and without taking the trouble of ascertaining
 
 ABROAD. i>89 
 
 what those resolutions were. Meantime, every 
 day added to her embarrassment ; for the longer 
 she retained Lord Vanderville's presents in her 
 possession, so much the more difficult did she 
 find it to return them. At last she determined 
 to explain herself to Lady Harman ; and taking 
 the first opportunity of their being alone, she 
 " lamented the mistake into which Vanderville 
 had fallen, of imagining she had accepted his 
 addresses, as she could by no means pledge 
 herself to become the wife of any man upon so 
 short an acquaintance." 
 
 " Upon my word. Miss Sternheim," returned 
 her aunt, with every demonstration of passion, 
 •' your waywardness and inconsistency are in- 
 tolerable : here you have allowed a gentleman 
 avowedly to pay his addresses to you : you re- 
 ceive not only his visits, but his presents : the 
 only relation or guardian you have in the world 
 (for I consider myself as such) has formally ap- 
 proved his offers of settlement on you ; and now, 
 for no earthly reason but caprice, you choose to 
 say you do not consider yourself pledged to be 
 his wife, though every step in the affair was 
 
 VOL. I. j^
 
 290 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 taken with your knowledge, and, of course, 
 consent." 
 
 It was in vain poor Emily attempted to vindi- 
 cate herself from her aunt's accusations ; in vain 
 she reminded her of her repeatedly-expressed 
 anxiety to return the trinkets, and that though 
 at the moment of Lord Vanderville's proposal, 
 her embarrassment had prevented her express- 
 ing her refusal as distinctly as she now wished 
 she had done, yet at the same time she had in 
 no words implied her acceptance of them. 
 Still Lady Harman was deaf both to her reasons 
 and entreaties ; and it was not till Emily threat- 
 ened to speak herself to Lord Vanderville that 
 her aunt condescended to attend to her request. 
 '' And after all, Emily," continuedLady Harman, 
 " what reasonable, or even justifiable objection 
 can you make to marrying Lord Vanderville ? — 
 You will never get a better match : his rank, 
 his fortune, his character, are all unexception- 
 able; and what are your pretensions beyond 
 being my niece I A girl of no family, by the 
 father's side : no fortune, except what I choose 
 to give you ; and what is worse than all "
 
 ABROAD. 291 
 
 *' Stop, Lady Harman," interrupted Emily ; 
 " I do not choose to be insulted by hearing 
 either my father's name mentioned with disre- 
 spect, or Willoughby in any way abused. If 
 you choose to convey my message to Lord 
 Vanderville, I shall think it more decorous to 
 be expressed by my aunt than by myself; if 
 not, I must only vindicate my own rights, as 
 orphans are obliged to do." 
 
 She turned away her head to conceal her 
 tears, for she was too proud to seek that from 
 compassion which she believed due to her from 
 justice : but this precaution was unnecessary ; 
 for all her tears would have had less effect in 
 subduing Lady Harman's resolves, than her 
 threat of coming personally to an explanation 
 with the earl. 
 
 " Am I then to understand, Miss Steruheim, 
 that you do not mean to marry Lord Van- 
 derville ?— Is it that you dislike him, whom all 
 others admire ; or do you only wish to vex and 
 annoy me, your aunt, your only friend ?" 
 
 " No, dearest aunt !" answered Emily, throw- 
 ing her polished arms round her neck, and
 
 292 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 venting the emotions of the moment in those 
 impulses of affection that were most congenial 
 to her nature ; — *' No, dearest aunt, let me 
 only continue to live with you, and prove my 
 gratitude for all your kindness. Why need I 
 marry any hody ? I am happier, much happier 
 as I am." 
 
 ** Well, Emily, I do believe you are a good 
 girl, but you are a very capricious one ; and as 
 to being an old maid, Emily, nobody ever yet 
 was one by choice ; and it is better to marry at 
 eighteen than at eight-and- forty : so, as you 
 say, you have no objection to Lord Van- 
 
 derville " 
 
 " But when did I say that, aunt?" 
 '* Why, what is your objection then ?" 
 " Dear aunt, is it not possible that my judg- 
 ment may do full justice to Lord Vanderville's 
 merits, and yet that I should be very far from 
 experiencing that partiality for him that I ought 
 to feel for the man that is to be my husband ? 
 Perhaps if I had been longer acquainted with 
 him, my regard for him might have increased : 
 as it is, though I am fully grateful for ins pre-
 
 ABROAD. 2f)3 
 
 ference of me, yet I am conscious I do not love 
 him as well as, perhaps, he deserves, but, as I 
 am sure, I could love." 
 
 Poor Emily's forte was not argument ; and 
 certainly Lady Harman's side of the question 
 appeared much the strongest in words : but 
 Emily so far gained her point, that she obtained 
 what she considered a reprieve ; for Lady Har- 
 man promised that her engagement with Lord 
 Vanderville should be held in abeyance for 
 three months, and that in the mean time they 
 should go together to Naples, to give Emily 
 an opportunity of becoming better acquainted 
 with his character, and finally making up her 
 own mind. 
 
 This arrangement, which Lady Harman ap- 
 peared to concede entirely to Emily's entreaties, 
 was in fact assented to by her on considera- 
 tions not so entirely disinterested as they 
 appeared : for some circumstances attending 
 Emily's family history led her Ladyship to 
 think a short postponement unavoidable ; and 
 possibly to these considerations, Emily was in
 
 294 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 some degree indebted for the good faith with 
 which Lady Harman kept her promise of ma- 
 king this stipulation with Lord Vanderville : for 
 though artifice was by no means a distinguish- 
 ing feature of her Ladyship's character, yet she 
 certainly claimed for herself occasionally the 
 privileges of those esprit s-f oris, who imagine 
 themselves exempted from the restraints to 
 which others submit, by the possession of those 
 very talents, which, by deepening their respon- 
 sibility, ought for every reason, moral and di- 
 vine, to increase proportionably the strictness of 
 their principles. 
 
 The effect of Lady Harman's communication 
 was visible in Vanderville, the first time he met 
 Emily: doubt and anxiety clouded his features, 
 and his disappointment betrayed itself in all his 
 manner. It happened, too, that she accidentally 
 found him alone ; and perceiving, almost intui- 
 tively, that her aunt had already spoken to him, 
 she involuntarily turned back to conceal her 
 embarrassment. — " Nay, Emily, — Miss Stern- 
 heim, do not shun me already : a few hours ago
 
 ABROAD. 295 
 
 I thought myself beyond the reach even of 
 anxiety : tell me, what have I done to canse you 
 so soon to change?" 
 
 " Nothing, indeed, my Lord ! you do both 
 yourself and me injustice : I have not changed, 
 because I never professed a preference which I 
 did not feel." 
 
 " I understand you, Miss Sternheim, yon are 
 at least candid : I am indebted solely to your 
 aunt for the flattering hopes which have hitherto 
 deceived me. / am not your choice ; another 
 possesses your affections : I once suspected it, 
 but I may live to ascertain my rival." 
 
 " Excuse rae, my Lord," interrupted Emily 
 with dignity; "you again misunderstand me: 
 I neither deserve nor assent to your accusation. 
 In saying that I do not feel for you that prefer- 
 ence which probably you merit, I mean simply 
 to say that my affections are at present perfectly 
 disengaged." 
 
 " Oh, Emily ! dearest Emily ! may I, can I, 
 believe you ?" exclaimed the Earl, at once pass- 
 ing from one extreme of feeling to the other.
 
 296 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 " Do I indeed hear from your own lips that your 
 affections are disengaged, aod that at least you 
 prefer no other man to me? tell me so once more — 
 tell me — teach me only how to deserve you." 
 
 At that moment Lady Harman returned. — 
 " You see, Emily," said she, " I have fulfilled 
 your commission : Lord Vanderville consents 
 for once to forgive your caprice. Ay ! that 
 is the word, my Lord, though you won't acknow- 
 ledge it." 
 
 " But, aunt, the cameos !" whispered Emily. 
 He caught the word, and exclaimed, — " Nay, 
 Miss Sternheim, don't reject those trifles : I 
 know they are unworthy of your acceptance ; 
 but keep them, in mercy keep them ! that I 
 may still continue to hope." 
 
 " Trust me, my Lord, you have no reason to 
 despond," rejoined Lady Harman, laughing : 
 *' but to prevent all further discussion and dis- 
 pute, I constitute myself umpire, and will take 
 charge of these cameos : I think, too, I may 
 promise to keep them till either you marry 
 Emily, or refuse her for your wife,"
 
 ABROAD. 297 
 
 Neither Miss Sternheim nor Lord Vander- 
 ville were pleased with this proposal ; but nei- 
 ther chose avowedly to object to it : and as 
 Vanderville was of too sanguine, or too change- 
 ful a disposition to be long depressed by any 
 thing, and as Emily felt positive pleasure in 
 reflecting that the dreaded explanation was 
 over, the satisfaction of all was gradually re- 
 newed, and each again felt happy. 
 
 Lady Harman, however, warned her niece 
 and Vanderville, that under their present cir- 
 cumstances they would be the object of the 
 curiosity, and the observation, and the criticism, 
 and the gossip of four-fifths of those who were 
 in Rome ostensibly for the purpose of inquiring 
 into far other wonders ; and while she thus only 
 foretold what was true, her satire fell not more 
 on the descendants of the Sabines, than on the 
 whole generation of man. Emily shrunk from 
 this ordeal of tongues ; and no sooner had Lady 
 Harman made the suggestion, than she and 
 Vanderville eagerly urged her to leave Rome 
 without delay. It was accordingly fixed that 
 their journey to Naples should be commenced
 
 298 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 immediately after Christmas ; for Myrvin's con- 
 jecture was already proved to be correct, and 
 more than the month had elapsed, in which Van- 
 derville had promised to follow him southward. 
 The intervening^ days, Emily passed in visitins^ 
 some of the buildings of Rome which she had 
 not seen : for although she had spent few days 
 since her arrival, without examining some of 
 the various curiosities which every where de- 
 manded her attention, yet when the moment of 
 departure approached, she felt both disappoint- 
 ment and surprise in recapitulating all she had 
 still omitted : for very few have ever yet left 
 Rome with the consciousness of having seen all 
 its wonders ; and be the actual duration of their 
 visit to the " Eternal City" what it may, it is 
 the regret of all, as in leaving life, that their 
 time has been too short. An inexplicable spell 
 over the mind of man seems inherent in its very 
 name ; and the hollow ground that reverberates 
 to the feet of the casual passenger, gives a mis- 
 terious warning that he treads on hallowed soil. 
 Rome, as she now is, appears not built for her 
 inhabitants : her existence is linked with the
 
 ABROAD. 299 
 
 ages that are past and witb the generations that 
 are yet to come, but has no connexion with the 
 beings of to-day : the present is a lapse to her. 
 The princes, the priests, the mechanics that fill 
 her streets, or own her palaces, all are alike 
 strangers in the land of their forefathers ; and 
 their individual existence is as distinct from 
 that of Rome as her grandeur is exclusive of 
 theirs. In other cities, the chains that bind 
 the native to the soil that nourishes him are 
 conspicuous to every observer : the industry, the 
 commerce, the bravery, or the talents of their 
 inhabitants are identified with them, and reci- 
 procally make and share their glory ; but it is 
 not so with Rome : she stands alone, separated 
 even from her children ; and whether we wander 
 through her ruins, and in imagination re- 
 people them with the ghosts of other days, or 
 whether we stray through her still more desolate 
 domes, and ask where are the patricians whose 
 names they bear, still we feel the saddening 
 truth, that here man is an exile from his own 
 creation. 
 
 Scarcely any family of modern rank can boast
 
 300 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 even the same surnames which any of the ancient 
 patricians bore ; and whilst " Caesar" and " An- 
 tony" are retraced in the familiar appellations 
 of the lowest rank of the Facchini, we look in 
 vain amongst the banners of the great for any 
 memorials of the Scipios, or the Metella?, or the 
 Plautii, whose only possessions in Rome are 
 now their tombs. It is as if Fame had seized 
 the golden city for her own ; and jealous of any 
 participation in her glory, had placed the bright 
 vision on a pinnacle of grandeur ; and drawing a 
 fathomless trench around it, had divided its bril- 
 liancy from the darkness of all other times past 
 or future. How else can we account for the 
 singular degree of abandonment to which many 
 of the finest palaces of modern date are re- 
 duced, or the general change of masters which 
 most have undergone ? Thus, in visiting the mag- 
 nificent Palazzo Farnese, what first meets the 
 eye in the cold untenanted gallery that once 
 held the finest boasts of sculpture ? Nothing but 
 the rough and almost shapeless casts, which 
 scarcely can be called their copies. And what 
 is the reason of this mockery ? The Roman
 
 ABROAD. 301 
 
 noble is become the King of Naples, and the 
 Roman hall is desolate. Florence claims all 
 the treasures of the Palazzi Medici ; and the 
 Princes of Borghese, Ercolani, and Spada, find 
 their homes, not in their palaces at Rome, 
 but at Florence, Bologna, and Genoa. It is 
 only those walls which belong to comparative 
 strangers, such as the Palazzo Bonaparte, 
 and the Palazzo di Madama, inhabited by 
 Napoleon's brother and mother, that still shelter 
 their veritable owners : for, alas ! the princes of 
 Rome are no longer Romans. 
 
 On one of the last mornings of Emily's stay 
 in Rome, she chanced to visit the church of St. 
 Cecilia. She gazed with delight on the beau- 
 tiful recumbent figure of the saint which lies 
 canopied beneath the altar, and seems but to 
 sleep in death ; whilst the glimmering lamp that 
 shed its little pallid light on the folds of the 
 drapery, alone convinced her, by its reflection on 
 the polished marble, that the transparent robes 
 were not merely appended gauze, such as else- 
 where she had observed to clothe the most vene- 
 rated statues. 
 
 In walking round the aisles, she passed a dark
 
 302 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 and solitary chapel. On a little board, bung 
 up against the rails, she read the adjuration, 
 " Pray for the dead ;" and on the steps beneath 
 them, knelt a young woman, whose face was 
 concealed by a long black veil, which covered 
 nearly all her figure. Emily stopped with in- 
 voluntary respect : for where is the heart so 
 obdurate, as not to feel the claims of silent, re- 
 tiring sorrow ? But the adjoining chapel soon 
 attracted her attention. It seemed, by the va- 
 rious trophies that surrounded its little dazzling 
 altar, to be a favourite object of superstition. 
 Immediately in its front, on one cushion, knelt 
 a young man and woman : they were either just 
 married, or very lately betrothed ; for the crown 
 of flowers that in Rome marks both the bridal 
 and funereal pomp, was suspended near them. 
 The girl's looks told of innocent love and in- 
 tense devotion ; and whilst her lover's eyes di- 
 rected all his vows to her alone, it seemed as if 
 her whole soul was in that moment poured forth 
 to Heaven and her saint, in gratitude for her 
 happiness. 
 
 Around the walls of this diminutive sanctuary, 
 hung, in motley guise, the various tributes which
 
 ABROAD. 303 
 
 piety had offered at the shrine ; — beads, neck- 
 laces, trinkets, in strange confusion. But 
 one of these Emily noticed above all the rest : 
 it was a little bit of mother-of-pearl, rudely 
 cut into the shape of two hearts united together, 
 on each of which was scratched a single letter ; 
 and tied to this was a lock of hair, which seemed 
 to have long been treasured.* " Perhaps," 
 thought Emily, " that simple token marks some 
 unrecorded sorrow : perhaps a dear remem- 
 brance, a cherished affection was here resigned 
 as a last sacrifice to duty. What if the bride, 
 whose cheeks now glow with youth and joy, 
 should herself have caused the misery she over- 
 looks ? What, if the poor orphan who is sobbing 
 yonder, had made the useless vow to save a 
 parent's life V Poor Emily ! she was an or- 
 phan too. 
 
 There are two or three seasons at Rome, 
 when all Protestant strangers make it the en- 
 tertainment of their lives to run from church to 
 cjiurch, to witness the different ceremonies with 
 
 * Fact,
 
 304 ENGLISH FASHIONABLKfS 
 
 which the Catholic religion marks their annual 
 return ; and to those who can separate the alle- 
 gories which they envelope from the trifling de- 
 tails with which they are represented, these 
 ceremonies afford subjects of deep and affecting 
 interest. But Lady Harman was in the habit 
 of probing every thing by the sharpest satire : 
 she admitted those only to be realities which 
 were palpable facts, stigmatizing every thing as 
 false which was not substantial. Emily's spirits 
 latterly, and more particularly since her visits to 
 St. Cecilia, had been of that degree of placidity, 
 verging towards melancholy, which is of all 
 others least consonant with ridicule ; and as she 
 was anxious to witness some of these rites, and 
 at the same time dreaded the poignancy of her 
 aunt's remarks, she not unwillingly consented 
 ta go along with her maid to see several. 
 But she prevailed on Lady Harman to accom- 
 pany her to see the celebration of the dawn 
 of Christmas morning, at the chapel of the 
 Quirinal. 
 
 When at midnight her carriage joined the 
 throng that had already crowded the immense
 
 ABROAD. 305 
 
 square court at the Papal palace, it seemed as 
 if her approach was to a gayer amusement, so 
 numerous were the flambeaux, and so noisy the 
 servants, that there awaited the conclusion of 
 their masters' prayers. Guards and pages at- 
 tended on the grand staircase ; and till they had 
 passed the first hall, the same delusion might 
 have continued; but when they reached the 
 huge dark folding-doors, which appeared to di- 
 vide all thoughts of this worM from the next, 
 it was impossible not to feel that they then 
 entered the inmost sanctuary of devotion. 
 
 This pontifical chapel is built upon the same 
 scale and same plan as that of the Sextina at 
 the Vatican : a high barricade of iron fretwork 
 fences off about one- third of the length in each ; 
 and beyond this screen is the space allotted for 
 all concerned in the celebration of the different 
 religious functions, as well as for the seats of all 
 the clergy, and most of the gentlemen of higher 
 rank. Within this screen, on the right hand of 
 the entrance, seats are exclusively appropriated 
 to ladies, who are generally expected to appear 
 dressed in veils, as their admittance within these
 
 306 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 Papal walls is considered to be an intrusion, 
 rather overlooked than tolerated. Opposite 
 to this platform, the seats for the princes and 
 ambassadors, with the ladies of equal dis- 
 tinction, are enclosed by cloth partitions ; 
 and in the narrow space between these two 
 divisions, all those gentlemen remain who have 
 obtained tickets, but have no peculiar station 
 assigned them. Of course, the pressure of 
 the crowd is sometimes there excessive ; and 
 the Pope's soldiers, dressed in loose harlequin 
 robes, in imitation of Joseph's coat of many 
 colours, with cocked hats and antique spears, 
 sometimes, by the peremptory though necessary 
 exertions of their authority, present a strange 
 contrast to the affected humility and quietness 
 of the prelates on whom they attend. 
 
 Mass had already commenced, when Lady 
 Harman, Emily, and Lord Vanderville entered 
 the hall-like chapel, and of course they there 
 separated from him, who, however unwilling, 
 was obliged to resign his care of Emily, at the 
 foot of the steps which led to the ladies' gallery. 
 Nothing but a confused chant of repressed
 
 ABROAD. 307 
 
 voices rose from behind the rails which enclosed 
 the congregated priesthood ; and although num- 
 berless waxen tapers hung round the walls, and 
 were even suspended to the railings, their 
 smoke only blended with that of the incense, 
 and shed a strange, mysterious, cloudy, opake 
 brightness, whilst the nearer part, where the 
 crowd was collected, remained in almost total 
 darkness. Through this faint gleam, the pure 
 brightness of the pontiff's canopy, the scarlet 
 robes of the cardinals that were kneeling round 
 his chair, and the varied vestments of the infe- 
 rior ministers who officiated at the distant altar, 
 showed a dubious splendour : all, like the very 
 miracle they were celebrating, was solemn 
 and inexplicable. 
 
 Emily felt the influence of the scene;' and as 
 she leaned in deep reflection against the parti- 
 tion which fenced her seat, her mind gradually 
 assumed a pensive cast, and she gazed almost 
 unconsciously on the crowd below : as she did 
 so, she observed a tall figure, envejoped in a 
 Roman cloak, leaning with folded arms against 
 the steps which led to the prince's seat. No
 
 308 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES 
 
 part of his physiognomy, except his black eyes, 
 was visible, but those were fixed on Emily ; 
 and no sooner had hers met their penetrating 
 glance, than she quailed beneath its power. She 
 turned shuddering away ; but the next moment, 
 with invincible curiosity, her looks were again 
 attracted to the stranger. He was still there, 
 and still immoveable. His countenance betrayed 
 no cognizance of hers ; and the steadier she 
 looked at him, the more she endeavoured to 
 persuade herself that an accidental resemblance 
 in one single feature — for still she had only seen 
 his eyes — was not sufficient to ground even a 
 suspicion of identity. Still, however, his keen 
 unaverted gaze amazed her ; and profiting by an 
 accidental movement amongst the ladies near 
 her, she left her seat, and took one on a vacant 
 bench behind Lady Harman, much higher up, 
 and more retired. 
 
 But she had not long remained in her new 
 station, when a voice, deep, hollow, yet dis- 
 tinct, sounded in her ear : — " Emily, we must 
 meet again before you marry Vanderville !" 
 Horror almost paralysed her senses ; but the
 
 ABROAD. 309 
 
 whisper, though faint, had been too clear to 
 be misunderstood. She looked eagerly round 
 for some one to whom she could attribute its 
 utterance ; but no person was on the same seat 
 with her. Lady Harman was immediately in 
 front, and at the back was only the green-baize 
 partition, which divides off the little narrow 
 passage that gives entrance from the chapel to 
 the private apartments. Emily held in her 
 breath, and waited in anxious silence for a re- 
 petition of the sentence ; but the voice returned 
 no more. 
 
 She now regretted having changed from the 
 front seat, and immediately uniting the idea of 
 the voice with that of the stranger, she looked 
 eagerly towards the place where she had first 
 seen him : but the intervening crowd prevented 
 her discerning whether he still remained there. 
 She then flattered herself with the hope that 
 when she descended and mixed with the throng-, 
 she should either see him again, or that the 
 speaker, whoever he was, would again address . 
 her. It was, therefore, with delight that she 
 observed Vanderville waiting for them on the
 
 310 ENGLISH FASHIONABLES ABROAD. 
 
 steps, and beckoning to them to depart : little 
 did he imagine the real cause of the alacrity 
 with which she obeyed his signal, and accepted 
 his offered arm. He guided her through the 
 crowd with the tenderest care, but in that 
 crowd she sought to meet far other eyes than 
 his. It was in vain, however, that she hurried 
 on through the first apartments, or loitered 
 wistfully oi\ the last stairs. The stranger was 
 no where to be seen ; and she at length endea- 
 voured to persuade herself that the whole had 
 been only the effect of fancy : but even in her 
 sleep the image pursued her, and it seemed 
 to her disordered imagination, that in the holy 
 chapel of the Quiriual an awful interdict had 
 been pronounced against her marriage with 
 Vanderville.
 
 NOTES 
 
 TO THE 
 
 FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 Note A. p. 38. 
 
 " Between Aquapendente andBolsena, the traveller 
 sees the ruins of the ancient town called St. Laurent 
 Ruine, which was demolished on account of its very 
 unwholesome situation at the foot of that hill, on the 
 summit of which was built the new town called St. 
 Laurent Neuf, the finest village in Italy with respect 
 to construction and position. It consists of a large 
 square, of hexagonal form, into which every street 
 runs: it is the commencement of a pleasant town. 
 There are few countries in Italy which present more 
 delightful views than the environs of Bolsena. Oppo- 
 posite the lake and near the road, is the remarkable 
 hill, called Kirker; it is covered with columns, or re-
 
 312 NOTES. 
 
 gulur prisms of basalt, most of which arc bent, and 
 are a very great length out of the grouud. They aie 
 almost all of hexagonal form, and flat at both ends. 
 Not far beyond, on the edge of the road near Canino, 
 the traveller sees on his left a beantiful group of ba- 
 saltic prisms that are bent, which particularly deserve 
 the naturalist's attention, as they are the only basalts 
 or prisms in Italy." — Richards' s Itinerary of Italy. 
 
 Note B. p. 81. 
 
 " Prese pensicro a Sisto 5 di trasportare e d'ergere 
 tutto d'un pezzo alia piazza di San Pietro I'obelisco, 
 I'unico riniasto in piedi a canto al muro de la Sacristia 
 fra i 600 ch erano all'Antico Cireo di Nerone. Altri 
 pontefici avevan avuta la stessa voglia; ma la difficolta 
 doir impresa ne aveva impedita I'esecuzione. K quest' 
 obelisco, o sia Guglia di granito Rosso, dagli antichi 
 Roniani chiamato Marmo Tebaico perhe tagliato pres- 
 so Tebe in Egitto, da dove fu trasportato a Roma 
 in tempo di Cesare. E I'unico rimasto sano di tanii 
 altri che sono in Roma; e scnza geroglifici alto palmi 
 107^ largo da pie 12 palmi, ed in cima 8. Un pie 
 cubico di questo marmo pesa libbre 86. dunque 
 I'intero peso del tutto deve esser poco meno d'un 
 milione di libbre. Come gli Egizi ed i Romani raa- 
 neggiassero si enormi sassi uon rcstava alcuna me-
 
 NOTES. 313 
 
 tRorla; e non avendosi per tanti secoli piu falta con- 
 simile operazione, fu considerata per impresa nuova 
 questa proposta da Sisto 5. Furon percio cliiamati da 
 txitte le parti Matematici, Ingegneri, uomini dotti : In- 
 tervennero in uii Congresso temito avant il Papa piu di 
 500 personne portando ciascuno le sue invenzioni, obi 
 iu disegno, chi in modello, chi in iscritto, e chi in voce. 
 
 Dope molte dispute fu approvata I'invenzione 
 
 del Fontana . , Con sonima celcrita quest' architetto 
 ne intraprese il lavoro. Fece scavar nella piazza un 
 quadrato di 60 palmi profondo 33 ; e trovato un suolo 
 aquoso e cretaceo I'assodo con palizzate e con buoni 
 massicci. II solo ferro deH'imbracatura della guglia 
 pesava 40,000 libbre e si lavoro nelle officine di Eoma, 
 di Ronciglione, di Subbiaco. Intanto dalle selve di 
 Nettuno venivano travi si smisurati che ciascuno era 
 tirato da sette paja di buffali. Da Terracina traspor- 
 tavansi tavoloni d'olmo, per I'armatura, e da Sta. 
 Severa funi d'elce per argani, e stanghe d'olrao, ed 
 altre tavolc. Per muover la guglia, Fontana ordino un 
 castello di legnami, slargo la piazza, taglio un muro 
 della Sacristia per piantarvi gli argani : ed accioche 
 il terreno al grave peso non isfondasse essendo in quel 
 luogo mal sodo e scosso, vi fece un letto vi due ordini 
 di travi doppj I'uno contrario all'altro in croce. . . 
 Tutta la guglia cosi imbracala veniva a pesar circa un 
 milione e mezzo di libbre. 
 
 VOL. I. O
 
 314 NOTES. 
 
 Un aparccchio cosi nuovo e straordinario cccito la 
 pronta curiositi dd Romani e de forestieri insiemc che 
 si mosscro da lontani paesi per vedcre qual effetto pro- 
 durrebbc qiiella sclva di tanti travi, intrccciata di ca- 
 napi, d'argani, di leve e di girilli. SisloS, per cvitare 
 ogni confusione emano un di que'suoi edilti; che 
 nel giorno dell'opcrazione iiiuno fuorch6 gli operaj, 
 potessero sotto pena della vita entrar nel recinto e che 
 lAuno parlasse, o facesse il mir.imo strcpito o nemmeno 
 sputasse forte. A tal effetto in quel gioruo 30 d'Aprile 
 del 1586, il prirao ad entrar nello steccato fii il Bar- 
 gello CO suoi Birri, e il Boja vi pianto, non g'lk per ce- 
 rimonia, la foroa. 
 
 II Fontanaando a prender la benedizione del Papa, 
 il quale nel benedirlo gli disse che badasse a quel che 
 faccva, peroch^ I'errore gli costerebbe la Vita. II Fon- 
 tanapalpitantefece segretamente tener a tutteleporte 
 •Ji Borgo cavalli pronti per salvarsi dall'ira Sistina in 
 case di sinistro accidente. All'alba si celebraron due 
 Messe dello Spirito Santo : tutti gli operaj si comu- 
 nicarono, e ricevutala benedizione Papale prima dello 
 spuntar del Sole furon tutli entro il recinto. 
 
 II concorso degli spettatori fu tale che 6n tutti i 
 tetti delle case furon coperti digente; tutte le strade 
 aflollate; tutta la nobiltA, prelatura, cardinali furon 
 collocati tra le guardie Svizzere ed i Cavalleggieri. 
 Fissi tutti ed atteuti a vedere il lavoro, e sbigotliti da 
 quclla inesorabil forca, nuino fiatava.
 
 NOTES. 315 
 
 Vi era un ordine dato dall'Architetto clie al suono 
 della tromba ciascimo lavorasse, ed al suono della 
 Campaua, posta sul castello di legno ciascuno desis- 
 tesse dal lavoro. Pui di 900 eran gli Operaj e 75 
 i cavalli. Suono la Tromba ed in un istante uomini, 
 cavalli, argani, traglie e leve, tutto fu in moto. Tremo 
 la terra, scroscio il Castello, tutti i legnami per I'enorme 
 peso si strinsero insieme, e laguglia che pendeva due. 
 palmi verso il coro di San Pietro si drizzo a piombo. 
 Ruiscito si bene il principio, la campauella suono la 
 fermata. Indi in 12 Mosse si a!z6 la guglia quasi tre 
 palmi da terra, tanto che basto a raettervi sotto lo 
 strascino, A si felice evento scarico Castello St. An- 
 gelo tutta la sua artiglieria, e I'allegrezzafu universale. 
 II di 10 Settembre colle solite solennitisi fece I'ultima 
 operazione,(imetterl'obeIisco sul piedestallo perpetuo) 
 legarono questa volta 140 cavalli ed 800 uomini. In 
 52 mosse fu elevata la guglia ed al traniontar del sole 
 resto inzeppata sul suo piedestallo. — Sparo Castello e 
 gli Operaj ebbri di gioja si presero su le spalle il Fon- 
 tana e con grida d'allegrezza Tamburi, e trombe lo 
 condussero trionfante a casa in mezzo ad una calca 
 cbe applaudiva e ripeteva il suo nome. — Dalle Memo 
 rie degli architelti antichi e moderrd di Francesco Mi- 
 lizia.
 
 316 NOTES. 
 
 Note C. p. 82. 
 
 As I have been more than once at Rome, and have 
 witnessed many changes in its inhabitants, I tlioiighta 
 description of what the Villa Paulina was would not 
 be uninteresting to those who remembered it, graced 
 by all the charms of Bonaparte's sister ; nor would it 
 be even uninteresting to those who must now regret 
 that death has deprived the world of one, who by na- 
 ture was formed to be its loveliest ornament. I flatter 
 myself, circumstantial evidence is not wanting to 
 prove that I have actually been an eye-witness of most 
 of the scenes I have attempted to portray, however 
 the actors may, for obvious reasons, be purposely dis- 
 guised ; but if this is wanting, I fearlessly appeal to 
 all who have visited Italy, for proof of the truth of my 
 delineations. 
 
 Note D. p. 105. 
 
 This strange evidence of the universal habit of gam- 
 bling is given from personal testimony : the precise 
 circumstance of the universal hiss which greeted the 
 appearance of the liveried valet, and the consequent 
 elucidation of its occasion, happened to myself; and 
 the next morning his spontaneous call stopped my 
 carriage in the middle of the street, and he disappeared
 
 NOTES. 317 
 
 into a neighbouring house. It was not for long : before 
 any proofs of condemnation or severity could be be- 
 trayed, elated as a school- boy who finds a bird's nest, 
 the breathless valet re-appeared, and running up to the 
 carriage-door with all the manifestation of good fortune 
 that looks could convey, declared " his ticket was a 
 prize," and, as if nothing but our congratulations could 
 ensue, stationed himself unceremoniously at the door 
 to receive them. " Ah !" said he, with a sort of repent- 
 ant shake of his head, and the triumph of success in 
 his eye, " I thought what would have happened to me 
 last evening, and I have prayed to my saint all night: 
 look, your Excellency, now ! " He will probably go into 
 the church and into the lottery with equal confidence 
 for evermore, and attribute whatever disappointment 
 may ensue, to some involuntary error in the zeal of 
 his devotions. 
 
 Note E. p. 185. 
 
 Although it is a fact, that some of the modern paint- 
 ings in the Capitol of Rome would scarcely be allowed 
 to grace— or disgrace— the back parlour of any " fur- 
 nished apartment " in London, it is not less true, that 
 several living artists at Rome have fair claims to cele- 
 brity, although the master-mind of a Michael Angelo 
 is yet no where to be found but in his own works. The
 
 318 NOTES. 
 
 first time I was at Rome, I saw a curious painting then 
 in progress by Wincclao Pietro, which he told me had 
 then (in 1819) occupied him seventeen years, and I 
 much doubt its being yet finished. This old man, more 
 original than his works, lived at that time in a dirty 
 garret, or rather garrets; for a long suite of darkened 
 rooms constituted his studies. In them he had brought 
 together portraits of every creature supposed to have 
 been found in the Garden of Eden. He boasted of 
 having spent forty years in collecting these specimens, 
 and with few exceptions, of having drawn them all 
 himself from living nature. The minuticC of his ex- 
 traordinary painting are admirable ; for the skins of all 
 the little animals, and the plumage of the birds, are as 
 beautiful as nature herself, even in her youngest, fresh- 
 est days ; and though by a strange anachronism he has 
 represented the teeth of the camel as aged, yet we 
 almost pardon the fault from the manner of its execu- 
 tion. 
 
 Something in the same style of detailed perfection, 
 are the paintings of a female artist, whose works are 
 little known. La Malischini has two chefs d'ceuvre of 
 elaborate exactitude : one is the benediction from the 
 balcony of St. Peter's on Easter-day ; and the other, a 
 religious rite in the Sistine Chapel. Nothing can be 
 more correct than the representation she has given of 
 both ; and if Morglieu ever engraves these designs,
 
 NOTES. 319 
 
 tliey will rank high in his admirable collection. But 
 as these pictures now are, the eye, distracted by the 
 variety of their colours, is incapacitated from judging 
 of their general effect ; though, if harmonized in tint, 
 they would both be perfect. 
 
 Note F. p. 188. 
 
 The slightest mention of the Roman forum instantly 
 recalls a crowd of reflections which almost set expla- 
 nation at defiance. But on that spot, hallowed as it is 
 by all the reminiscences it brings, Englishmen view 
 with proud delight the Pillar of Phocian, which so 
 long had lain buried under the accumulated mass of 
 ruined ages, now cleared from the contaminating 
 spoils, and restored to its former grandeur, by British 
 taste, and British liberality ; as if fate had purposely 
 preserved it, to give new glory to our country, and to 
 incorporate the memory of England with that even 
 of the Roman Senate. An English woman had the 
 honour of restoring to the world this beautiful relic of 
 ancient magnificence : to her, the modern Romans 
 dedicated their works as " Protectress of the Arts;" 
 and to her, the antiquities of Rome owe thus their re- 
 novated splendour. When will the ephemeral delight 
 of selfish indulgence compare with the proud con- 
 sciousness which such distinctions bring.? Alas! that 
 she too should now be numbered with the dead !
 
 320 NOTES. 
 
 Nor is the name of the late Duchess of Devonshire, 
 though thus pre-eminent, the only one amongst the 
 subjects of Britain, which rivals in the fame of muni- 
 ficence that of princes in other nations, and the Mecae- 
 nases of other days. There is scarcely a studio in 
 Italy that does not send its best productions to our 
 shores, and scarcely an artist who does not acknowledge 
 that the ultimate object of his ambition, is to shine in 
 the sphere of London. On the Continent of Europe, 
 England bears a sway as justly paramount in arts as 
 in politics : her nobles are the patrons of other 
 climes; her painters are the models of other schools; 
 her judicature is the test of other governments; and 
 her marine has given its very language to that of other 
 nations. To be " English" is to have a title to every 
 compliment, a ticket to every fete. Go into a shop on 
 the Continent, and speak your own tongue, that ac- 
 knowledged language of honesty, and its claims are 
 instantly admitted. None but the recreant English 
 dare to impugn, by affected taunt, or thoughtless cen- 
 sure, that name whose power all others acknowledge ; 
 and shame be to that individual who by personal de- 
 linquency deteriorates from such a glorious birthright ! 
 His crimes affect not himself alone; they tarnish the 
 glory of his country; and like another ffidipus, the par- 
 ricidal sin spreads from generation to generation, in- 
 volving even the innocent in its penalties.
 
 NOTES. 321 
 
 Great as the number of our countrymen is that are 
 now in Italy, it is still repugnant to our national 
 pride to be obliged to own that the distinguished cha- 
 racteristic of our island, honesty, is implicated by the 
 disgraceful conduct of some eight or ten swindlers, 
 who are amongst the crowd of English; and the inti- 
 mations which are generally circulated as well by the 
 praiseworthy attention of our government as by the 
 reciprocal communications made to the consuls and 
 chief bankers throughout the different parts of Italy, is 
 not yet sufficient degradation for this despicable class. 
 The head of a distinguished bank acceded to the re- 
 presentations of two Englishmen, who professed to 
 give a bill for the repayment of what money they wish- 
 ed to obtain; their dress and deportment seemed to 
 entitle them to confidence; but the wary banker re- 
 membered that both these could be assumed in defiance 
 of general habitudes; and any other indication of their 
 real rank seemed, to unpractised skill, too occult for de- 
 tection ; he also remembered, however, that the hands 
 of the necessitous and of the rich cannot be suddenly 
 assimilated in appearance ; and while he induced the 
 applicant to take off his glove to sign the bill, he 
 paid less attention to the rich ring, which was on his 
 finger, than to the brown, and worn, and neglected 
 hand which betrayed that neither the refinements of 
 luxury, nor the indolence of wealth, had lately been
 
 322 NOTES. 
 
 its concomitants: he tore the bill he was to have ac- 
 cepted, and escaped the well-arranged deceit from 
 which he had so nearly suffered. 
 
 EMD OF VOLUME I. 
 
 A. J. VALPY, 
 
 RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.
 
 POPULAR WORKS 
 
 Just Published by Henry Colburn, 
 
 8, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. 
 
 GAIETIES and GRAVITIES, a Series of Sketche s. 
 Tales, and Fugitive Vagaries. By One of the Writers 
 of" Rejected Addresses," and Author of Brambletye 
 House, The Second Edition, revised, in 3 vols, post 8vo. 
 27s. 
 
 Also hy the same Author. 
 
 THE TOR HILL. By the Author of BRAMBLETYE 
 HOUSE, or Cavaliers and Roundheads. Third Edition, 
 3 vols, post Svo. 31s. ad. 
 
 BRAMBLETYE HOUSE; or, CAVALIERS and 
 ROUNDHEADS. A Novel. In 3 vols, post Svo. 31s. 6d. 
 boards. 
 
 " We would by no means rank the author of ' Brani" 
 bletye House' araon? imitators. He has too much genius, 
 too nuich boldness, too much originality, to be put among 
 such a class. He is rather to be regarded as an intrepid, 
 and not an unsuccessful competitor, who has had the cour- 
 age to face the mighty Champion of the North, and chal- 
 lenge him to tiie contest in his own field, and witij iiis own 
 favourite weapons. He has sought out the giant in his own 
 stronghold, where he reigned with undisputed sway, and 
 where hitherto none had dared to approach him, and there 
 he has fairly thrown down the gauntlet : none we know of 
 has come so near his great rival in generous competition. 
 There is the same brilliancy and force and picturesque 
 completeness in the descriptive parts, the same rapidity in 
 the movements, the same distinctness and individuality and 
 truth in the characters, the same vivacity in the dialogue, 
 and the same power of exciting and keeping up of interest. 
 Like our great Scottish Novelist, too, he has shown won- 
 derful versatility of talent, and the grave, the comic — the 
 humble and the sublime — what excites pleasure, and what 
 overwhelms with terror and awe, — seem equally natural to 
 him." — Edinburgh Magzaine. 
 
 THE GERMAN NOVELISTS: Tales selected from 
 ancient and modern Authors in that Language, from the 
 earliest period to the close of the Eighteenth (Century ; with 
 Critical and Biographical Notices. By Thomas Roscoe, 
 Esq. In 4 vols, post Svo. Price 38s. 
 
 " Mr. Roscoe has accomplished his interesting, but labo- 
 rious task, with great credit to his own skill and research ; 
 and has prorinced one of the most valuable books to be 
 found in the whole circle of fiction." — Morning Chronicle.
 
 Works 2^u^lishecl hy Henry Colbuni. 
 
 SANDOVAL; or, The Freemason : a Tale of the Spa- 
 nish Kevolntion. By the Author of " Don Ebtcban." In 
 3 vols, post Svo. 28s. CJ. 
 
 "Tills is a novel quite of the hi|»Iier order of those whicli 
 aspire to make iiiuiijinative composition ministrativc to the 
 genuine purposes of liistory: that is to say, to make us ac- 
 quainted vviiii tlif genuine manners, characters, and state 
 of society in the age and country to wliicli they refer. It 
 is the production, if we arc rightly informed, of a Spanish 
 refugee of sonic rank and high estimation, whose narration 
 is very far from heing altogether fiction ; and who, indeed, 
 with respect to the essenti:ds of his very interesting story, 
 might say with /tineas, ' All which I saw, and part of which 
 I was.' " — Panoramic Miscellany. 
 
 RICHMOND; or, SCENES in the LIFE of a BOW- 
 STREET OFFICER ; drawn up from his private Memo- 
 rauda. 3 vols, post Svo. 28s. Gd. 
 
 " Some be'th of war and some of woe, 
 
 And some of fun and fudge also; 
 
 Some of escapes, and guile, and death; 
 
 Also of love forsooth there be'th." 
 
 GASTON DE BLONDEVILLE; or, the Court of 
 Henry III. keeping Festival in Ardennc, a Romance; and 
 St. Alban's Abbey ; a Metrical TaTb: with some Poetical 
 Pieces. By Anne Radcliffe, Author of " The Romance 
 of the Forest," " Mysteries of Udolpho," " Italian," ^c. 
 To which is prefixed, a Memoir of the Author, with Ex- 
 tracts from lier Journals. Published from the Originals, in 
 the possession of Wm. Radcliffe, Esq. 
 
 " Mrs. Radclifie's new Romance is worthy to he hers — 
 her image and superscription are on it." — News of Literature 
 and Fashion. 
 
 " Mrs.Radcliffe's last Romance is likely to attract, in no 
 common degree, the attention of the literary worid. The 
 delicacy of her sentiments, the force and beauty of her re- 
 flections, and the splendour of her imagination, are conspi- 
 cuous in every page." — British Press. 
 
 DE VAVASOUR: a Tale of the Fourteenth Century. 
 3 vols, post Svo. 31s. Gd. > 
 
 " We feel confident in stating that this tale is the pro- 
 duction of Lord BlessingtoD." — Literary Gazette, May 182G. 
 
 THE LAST MAN, a ROMANCE. By the Author of 
 " Frankenstein," " Valperga," &c. 3 vols, post Svo. 27s. 
 
 THE PRAIRIE. A TALE. By the Author of the Spy, 
 the Pilot, &c. 3 vols. 12mo.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
 Los Angeles 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 OCT 11979 
 OiSCHARGE-UR 
 JAN 1 8 198(|) 
 
 50m-7,'69(N296s4) — 0-120
 
 yt; SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 AA 000 366 672 
 
 3 1158 00509 5145
 
 * ii ■■ 4 
 
 f 
 
 f 
 
 H 1 
 
 « 
 
 il 
 
 ■*■ 
 
 
 • a. 
 
 ♦ 9 
 
 
 
 
 » « 
 
 .s 
 
 * 
 
 4> 
 
 
 .<^/, 
 
 « 4 
 
 * » 
 
 a 
 
 ^ 
 
 * « 
 
 ij.ii 
 
 ■■:.i< 
 
 •f 
 
 F 
 
 ■^ 
 
 » u » 
 
 
 
 » .6 
 
 - « * ft ,v 
 
 * * <)^ * * 
 
 <> f V * * K B ^ 
 
 « * « « « «l 
 
 * Mk * s> M. «( <* 
 
 >« « « & « 4> V 
 
 Ai « * « tf' « e 
 
 »> « * 
 
 ft W 
 
 4' * » . 
 
 *• a * (/ d 4 t, 
 
 » » <i< (t » a 
 
 W O « l» w 
 
 « • Mi. « « 
 
 O IT il « A tj. « 
 
 4 » » M. «<<«>« 
 
 C» M- <l a 4 « 
 
 Jr {. J, 
 
 t .<!• * . a « ft 
 
 * *■ « ,1 ft « « 
 
 « t> ■'■■ * « 41 
 
 It -i) 6 iV 
 
 « >' * « <J ^ « Ai 
 
 » W •»! U « 0, 
 
 » ^ ^, *< " JSjt ■• 
 
 » » » » » «» » 
 
 < « «' « e a « V 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 « ♦ 
 
 
 'A] 
 
 « 4t 
 
 ■* a 
 
 • 
 
 i« 
 
 4 
 < 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 + 
 
 « 
 
 
 ■» 
 
 4 
 > 
 
 « ft 
 
 • 
 « • 
 
 4 
 
 • 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 Univ 
 
 
 
 S( 
 
 'f- 
 
 ff ^ jM. If » 
 
 * « I* t> » Ci 
 
 i) J. !• i. Ji' 
 
 ^ ] 
 
 « 
 <» 
 
 * 
 
 ■< If 
 
 ft » ..l 
 
 It »■ 
 
 1 
 
 n ; 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 u 
 
 I 
 
 *1 *l