OUR HOME 
 
 ADRIATIC 
 
 BY 
 
 THE HON. MARGARET COLLIER 
 
 (MDME. GALLETTI DI CADILHAC). 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 LONDON : 
 RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON, 
 
 in rtunarg to fljet fBUjestg tfje uecn. 
 1886. 
 
 (All rights reteruedC)
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 I. INSTALLATION IN MY NEW HOME ' ... 1 
 
 II. MORE TRIALS ... ... ... 33 
 
 III. ALLEVIATIONS OF MY LOT ... ... 40 
 
 IV. THE SINDACO ... ... ... 68 
 
 V. CJTTAWNI ... ... ... .... 88 
 
 VI. CONTAWNI ... ... ... Ill 
 
 VII. OCCUPATIONS AND AMUSEMENTS ... ... 128 
 
 VIII. COURTSHIP ... ... ... 157 
 
 IX. RELIGION AND SUPERSTITION ... ... 190 
 
 X. POLITICS ... ... ... 206 
 
 XI. OUR EXCURSIONS ... ... ... 218 
 
 XII. CONCLUSION 247 
 
 2017322
 
 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INSTALLATION IN MY NEW HOME. 
 
 BETWEEN the Adriatic and the Sibylline range 
 of the Apennines lies a fertile undulating 
 country, rich in corn, wine, and oil. Patches 
 of wheat, of maize, of red clover, of flax, of 
 beans, cover the valleys and the hill-sides. 
 Maples and poplars, garlanded with vines, 
 rise from amidst the corn. Olives and mul- 
 berries abound. Acacias border the roads, 
 and occasional groups of fine oaks and elms 
 make the traveller regret that more have not 
 been spared in what was once a beautifully 
 wooded country. Peasants, men and women 
 (these last most picturesquely attired), are 
 
 1
 
 2 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 to be seen busily engaged in cultivation. 
 Enormous white oxen draw the plough and 
 convey waggons along the road. Quaint 
 villages are perched on the summit of each 
 hill. The snow-capped Apennines close the 
 horizon to the west, and distance lends 
 enchantment to the view of the sea, dotted 
 with the gaily-painted sails of the fishing- 
 boats, which is caught by glimpses between 
 the hills. All would speak of peace and 
 contentment, were it not for the attitude of 
 defence exhibited by each tiny town, ' with 
 its massive surrounding wall. This wall, the 
 church whose spire shows above, and .the 
 arch through which you enter the principal 
 street, unevenly paved and sloping upwards, 
 speak of the Middle Ages ; but many of these 
 villages owe their origin to a far more remote 
 time. The name, the characteristics, the very 
 site of the village, have been changed ; yet 
 it is the legitimate descendant of a village, 
 or perhaps a town, situated once in the valley 
 beneath, and rebuilt on the hill, where the
 
 INSTALLATION IN MY NEW HOME. 3 
 
 frightened inhabitants took refuge from the 
 invasion of northern barbarians. 
 
 I read in certain ancient chronicles that 
 these tiny towns were once in a state of 
 constant assault and warfare, being bandied 
 about between one faction and another during 
 the distracted Middle Ages. If, attracted by 
 the medisevalism of its outward aspect, the 
 traveller should have the curiosity to pass 
 through the archway, and see how life goes 
 on inside the little town, the illusion that 
 he has been suddenly carried back to a past 
 age will not be dispelled. It is very likely 
 to be festa, and the folks are flocking in and 
 out of the open church door. The congrega- 
 tion consists mostly of contadini in their 
 white chemises and outside stays, their heads 
 and necks adorned with gay kerchiefs. Some 
 of them are very smart in velvet and silk, 
 with coral necklaces, and their fingers and 
 ears laden with rings ; smarter than the 
 poor signora in her brown stuff gown, with 
 her black lace veil and her fan.
 
 4 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 Further up the straggling street, a russet 
 bough denotes the tavern, or osteria ; and 
 outside sits the host, enjoying himself cd 
 fresco with a few friends the curato, 
 perhaps, whose broad straw hat contrasts 
 amusingly with his clerical habiliments, and 
 various loungers, the hilts of whose knives 
 peep from among the folds of the broad red 
 sashes which encircle their waists. A mendi- 
 cant friar, with bare feet, and a rosary hanging 
 from his one brown garment, passes from 
 door to door, asking alms ; women, with skirts 
 turned up and looped behind over their short 
 white petticoats, ply their distaffs as they 
 walk ; others, with pitchers on their heads, 
 are on their way to and from the well. 
 
 In yonder palazzo, with the grated windows 
 and the stone steps leading up to the door, 
 dwells the great man of the village. He is 
 rich, and lives in a certain rude state ; he 
 keeps open house, and his hospitality extends 
 to all travellers of whatever sort or degree, 
 whom business or pleasure may take to the
 
 INSTALLATION IN MY NEW HOME. 5 
 
 village. Should our tourist ascend those 
 stone steps, and enter that door, he will find 
 himself a welcome guest in the stone-paved 
 dining-room, where at one long table will 
 possibly be assembled a most heterogeneous 
 collection of people: on his right may be a 
 priuce, a general, or an archbishop ; on his 
 left, a pedlar. The fare will be plentiful, but, 
 if he be an Englishman, not much to his taste. 
 One plate, one knife, and one fork must do 
 duty for many dishes. Dogs, cats, and pigeons 
 wander about the floor, and scramble for what 
 they can get. Should the traveller elect to 
 stay the night, his host, with many elaborate 
 speeches and courtesy as much out of date 
 as everything else around him, will show the 
 way up the wide stone staircase through many 
 lofty saloons, carpetless and bare of furniture, 
 to the guest-chamber, where he will deposit 
 the oil-lamp of antique form, with its snuffers 
 and extinguisher hanging from a chain, and, 
 bidding the guest " Buon riposo," will leave 
 him to the contemplation of an enormous bed,
 
 6 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 adorned with faded silk hangings, its sheets 
 and pillow-cases trimmed with rare lace and 
 embroidered with the family arms. The rest 
 of the furniture will consist chiefly of a wax 
 Bambino in a gilt cradle, surrounded by 
 worsted-work flowers, and presided over by 
 a shepherdess with a crook, all under a glass 
 case. 
 
 There is something about this primitive 
 state of society refreshing to one weary of 
 our artificial existence. Here the oxen tread 
 out the corn ; women spin and weave their 
 clothes from flax they have grown themselves, 
 and dye it with herbs. Money is little used as 
 a medium of exchange ; so much wool bartered 
 against so much oil ; so much wine against 
 so much flax ; and so on. It is all wrong, 
 of course, and the waste of time and energy 
 makes the utilitarian shudder ; but for those 
 not addicted to the study of political economy, 
 and who prefer receiving impressions to 
 making calculations, the picture, whilst it is 
 but a picture, possesses a certain charm. The
 
 INSTALLATION IN MY NEW HOME. 7 
 
 picturesque and romantic view of this arca- 
 dian life, however, is only for the outsider, 
 and not apparent to one whose lot is cast in 
 the midst of it, as mine was. I had to 
 grapple with its difficulties, and the poetry 
 melted away very completely as I came into 
 close contact with its prosaic and ugly details. 
 Now, as I look back upon it through the 
 softening haze which distance lends, the whole 
 comes into proportion and harmony ; only the 
 salient points stand out from the misty back- 
 ground, and details, which assumed at the 
 moment such undue proportions, sink into 
 their proper insignificance ; while the fresh- 
 ness and pleasantness of the first impressions 
 revive, and cast a glamour over my remi- 
 niscences. 
 
 My first experience of that "other side of 
 Italy," where we had made up our mind to 
 settle that land of mysterious interest to me, 
 since I had been told that . Cook and his 
 tourists had not found their way thither, and 
 that there I should see Italian ways in all their
 
 8 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 unsullied primitiveness was at a little bathing- 
 place, some thirty miles south of Ancona. In 
 this part of the country, hotels are not, and I 
 was deposited at the most primitive inn with 
 which I had yet made acquaintance, although 
 I have since learnt to look upon it as compara- 
 tively luxurious and civilized. The floor of the 
 dining-room was paved with brick, and furni- 
 ture beyond the wooden table and the straw 
 chairs there was none ; but to make up, the 
 walls were palatial with endless vistas of 
 painted colonnades and marble steps innumer- 
 able. A large white goat had taken up her 
 quarters in the room, and, when I asked for 
 milk, immediately and with the greatest good 
 humour provided it. That and the dish of 
 fried triglie, or red mullet, just taken out of 
 the sea, made a palatable meal enough. But 
 the aspect of the little town was depressing 
 so squalid, so dreary, so unpleasantly 
 odoriferous, without any picturesqueness to 
 enliven it, and no view of the mountains 
 amidst which my future home lay.
 
 INSTALLATION IN MY NEW HOME. 9 
 
 Still, there was the Adriatic, blue and calm, 
 and the first outline of the Dalmatian shore to 
 be seen opposite ;. and there were fishers coming 
 in with their nets full of shining spoil, in boats 
 with curiously painted sails, yellow and red r 
 with black stripes across, variegated with por- 
 traits of star-fish and mermaids and sea-serpents, 
 ad libitum. There were bathing-machines, too^ 
 chiefly used by a few Roman families, who 
 made their villeggiatura there, from mingled 
 motives of health and economy. These 
 strangers, however grand and distinguished, 
 adopt the primitive ways of the place without 
 a murmur. Life in the country, according to 
 Italian views, always means roughing it in 
 the strictest sense of the word. Italian 
 families are seldom overburdened with money, 
 and what they have goes in keeping up ap- 
 pearances in Borne, At these unknown little 
 watering-places the bathing is very good 
 and the prices very low : fish and very 
 good fish can be had for fifty centimes the 
 pound ; eggs are a sou each at the highest ; a
 
 10 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 pair of cjiickens can be had for a franc, and a 
 turkey for three francs. But the Englishman 
 who requires roast beef or mutton, butter 
 and cream, and is not satisfied with the ewe's- 
 milk cheese of the country who, in a word, 
 would not bring himself to conform to the 
 tastes and habits of those amongst whom 
 he sojourns, would find life both difficult 
 and expensive. The Komans know better 
 than to bring any luxurious habits out of 
 town with them. Villeggiatura is the time 
 for the study of economy and the practice 
 of fortitude ; for as Italians, and especially 
 Italian ladies, have no country tastes, their 
 outing is an unmitigated penance. Mine was 
 not much otherwise in this dreary little 
 place, where my only acquaintance was an 
 Irishwoman of literary tastes, who lent me 
 books, but who was so addicted to smoking, 
 and so eccentric in many ways, that I did not 
 take unmixed delight in her .society. I have 
 since encountered ' other solitary and eccentric 
 countrywomen of my own, who establish
 
 INSTALLATION IN MY NEW HOME. I I 
 
 themselves in these out-of-the-way places, 
 either from motives of economy or in search 
 of new subjects on which to write ; for they 
 are always literary, always superior to some of 
 the vulgar prejudices, and much straitened in 
 circumstances. The company of these clever 
 and cultivated women would have been a great 
 delight to me, were it not for the said vulgar 
 prejudices, from which my more commonplace 
 mind has not freed itself not that I wish to 
 speak ill of neighbours who showed every 
 disposition to be friendly, and of whom I 
 know nothing worse than their opinions. 
 
 Altogether I was glad enough when the 
 time came for migration to our future home. 
 This was originally a capeDania, or priest's 
 house, with the church and a peasant's house 
 attached. All this together formed one build- 
 ing, situated on a table-land a thousand feet 
 above the level of the sea, and nearly two 
 miles from the nearest village. It was a 
 lonely but lovely spot, with a panoramic 
 view, bounded eastward by the sea and west-
 
 12 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 ward by the highest Apennines, amongst which 
 the Gran Sasso d'ltalia was plainly visible. A 
 score of quaint little towns, all fortified, were 
 perched an the neighbouring hill-tops ; the 
 valleys were fertile with vines, and olives, and 
 flax, and corn, and some of this we could 
 look on with the pride and pleasure of posses- 
 sion. The site was evidently that of a battle, 
 and various significant objects, such as frag- 
 ments of warlike implements, were unearthed 
 from time to time. There were also rudi- 
 mentary remains of some building. We have 
 found bits of columns, once the head of a 
 small statue ; and I must confess to having 
 entertained hopes of making our fortune at 
 one stroke by the discovery of some valuable 
 relic of the past, instead of by the hard work 
 actually in store for us. The house itself 
 was not a possession to feel, at this time, 
 very proud of. It was in a hopelessly dilapi- 
 dated condition, and, although the masons 
 had been weeks at work, it was still well- 
 nigh uninhabitable.
 
 INSTALLATION IN MY NEW HOME, 13 
 
 It would have been better to have mended 
 it with a new one, but we were in haste to 
 get in ; so it was repaired allo meglio 
 to use the native expression and we estab- 
 lished ourselves in the old low rooms on the 
 upper floor, whilst a new outer wall and 
 many new rooms were being added. Our 
 coloni, or peasants, were in possession of 
 the lower part of the house, and, with them, 
 their children, their pigs, and their poultry, 
 we were condemned for a time to live and 
 have all things in common ; for our land was 
 held on the system called *' colonica," or 
 " mezzadria," by which the peasants take half 
 the profits. My welcome by these peasants 
 was of a warmth which rather overwhelmed 
 me. The women flew at me, and embraced 
 me in their stalwart arms, kissing me on both 
 cheeks ; one old man also kissed me that 
 being, as I was informed, his mode of saluting 
 the mother superior of a convent, whose 
 tenant he had been. Then offerings, in the 
 shape of eggs, were poured into my lap, and
 
 14 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 live fowls tied together by the legs were 
 deposited at my feet. Various compliments, 
 of which I did not fully understand the 
 import, were shouted into my ears it being 
 evidently supposed that the dialect, if spoken 
 loud enough, must be intelligible even to a 
 foreigner. I was then regaled with a plenti- 
 ful supply of boiled eggs, and with qua- 
 gliata, which is precisely our Devonshire 
 junket, made with ewe's instead of cow's milk, 
 and ciambelli, as cakes in the form of a 
 circle are called, made of flour, sugar, oil, 
 and wine before it has fermented. 
 
 I did my best to respond to all this amia- 
 bility; but, in spite of the cordial beginning 
 of our intercourse, my relations with these 
 fellow-lodgers did not continue altogether 
 amicable. The family consisted of two brothers, 
 with their wives and children, and the old 
 grandfather, who, in consideration of his savings, 
 was housed and fed. He was, in our eyes, the 
 flower of the flock. He worked as hard as 
 his failing strength would allow, and one day
 
 INSTALLATION IN MY NEW HOME. 15 
 
 my husband, struck with compassion at his 
 famished appearance, desired the servants to 
 ask him to breakfast. Nonno, quite over- 
 whelmed by the honour, got himself into a clean 
 smock and a pair of boots, and, seated at our 
 kitchen-table, relieved his overburdened heart. 
 His grandchildren, he said, treated him in an 
 unfeeling manner ; not only was he made to 
 work hard, and not given enough to eat, but 
 when he alluded to his savings, he was re- 
 minded that they would come in handy for 
 his funeral expenses. It was a sad revelation ; 
 but no sadder, I believe, than that which many 
 an English peasant might make, if questioned 
 concerning his domestic trials ; nor so terrible 
 as that story of the old French peasant in 
 "Le Berger," who had become a burden to his 
 family, and so was hung out of the window 
 by his son-in-law. 
 
 Our relations with this interesting family 
 ended by mutual consent, and never do I 
 remember experiencing a greater feeling of 
 relief than on their departure, for we were
 
 1 6 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 necessarily brought into ike closest contact 
 with them, and their manners and customs 
 did not agree with mine. The ragged and 
 dirty children amused themselves with tor- 
 menting the animals, plucking the fowls 
 alive, throwing stones at the sheep, etc. The 
 women would sit on the door-steps, combing 
 their hair and that of their offspring. This 
 performance only took place on Sunday, and 
 it was more elaborate in operation than agree- 
 able as a spectacle. I inquired whether they 
 could not make it convenient to keep their 
 heads a little cleaner. To this the vergara 
 replied with dignity that she did not know 
 what would be thought of her were she to 
 be so fastidious ; she was a respectable woman, 
 not given to frequent dressing of the hair, and 
 suchlike coquettishness. 
 
 The killing of the pig was considered such 
 a pleasing and enlivening spectacle, that it 
 took place I suppose out of compliment to 
 me opposite the front door. 
 
 Two famished dogs continually found the
 
 INSTALLATION IN MY NEW HOME. 17 
 
 means of emptying my larder, which there 
 was always a difficulty in replenishing, as no 
 eatable food could be found within ten miles. 
 None of the inhabitants of the villages round 
 indulged in meat, unless some ox or sheep 
 had come to an untimely end ; d propos of 
 which custom we passed one very exciting 
 night. A bull of ours having died suddenly, 
 my husband resolved, in the public interest, 
 to prevent its body from falling a prey to 
 the purveyors of diseased food ; therefore, 
 on the night following its demise, and before 
 it could be skinned and properly buried, great 
 preparations were made for a night-watch 
 a guard was placed round the carcase, scouts 
 were sent forth, and an alarm bell was to be 
 rung on the approach of danger. The alarm 
 was given several times, and on each occasion, 
 
 A rushed out, armed with the loaded 
 
 revolver he always kept under his pillow, 
 and nobly resolved to defend the carcase 
 of his bull with his own life, if necessary; 
 but at the first sound of the bell, the maraud- 
 
 2
 
 1 8 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 ing parties prudently retreated, and the 
 victory was won without a skirmish. These 
 troubles and annoyances, however, were but 
 a trifling part of those which fell to our 
 share. 
 
 That there should be any difficulty about 
 servants had never occurred to us. There 
 would be servants, of course, in the towns 
 and villages around, who, for a trifling addition 
 to their wages, would be delighted to come 
 to us customary wages varied from three to 
 five francs the month ; indeed, I heard of 
 one maid- of- all- work who was given one 
 franc a month, and out of that was expected 
 to pay her breakages. Then, there were 
 plenty of peasants to do the rough work, who 
 in time would learn to be good servants. 
 What could be simpler? So we reasoned in 
 the innocence of our hearts. We began with 
 a cameriera, who announced herself a first- 
 rate hairdresser, dressmaker, cook, housemaid, 
 etc., and a bright, good-looking peasant of 
 seventeen, whom we set to work to educate.
 
 INSTALLATION IN MY NEW HOME. 19 
 
 Shortly a wet-nurse for the baby also became 
 necessary, whose husband assured us that he 
 parted with this treasure solely from an un- 
 selfish desire for our infant's welfare. The 
 cameriera not only displayed absolute 
 ignorance on all the subjects in which she 
 had declared herself a proficient, but turned 
 out to be one of the most disreputable 
 characters in the town. The lady who had 
 recommended her, on being remonstrated 
 with, merely said, "What would you have? 
 They are all bad characters." Having dis- 
 missed Maria, we concentrated our attention 
 on the young peasant. She was intelligent, 
 and could learn everything except civiliza- 
 tion ; but her barbarous instincts were too 
 strong. In vain we gave her shoes and 
 stockings ; she never would keep them on 
 for five minutes together. In vain did we 
 endeavour to teach her to modify her lan- 
 guage, or to treat us with any sort of respect. 
 One day she flatly refused to do any more 
 work, so had to be dismissed, and departed
 
 20 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 barefoot, but rejoicing, to the wretched home 
 which she shared with sixteen brothers and 
 sisters, and where she never, by any chance, 
 had enough to eat. And here I may mention 
 that I have never found a peasant in whom 
 the savage element could be conquered. 
 Many have had the ambition to rise above 
 their own station in life, have learned to be 
 clean, dexterous, even refined and courteous 
 in their speech and manners ; and I have 
 always found them much less innately coarse 
 and dirty than the cittadini, from amongst 
 whom the upper servants are generally chosen. 
 Many have stayed with me for years ; they 
 have learnt to emulate their superiors with 
 great success, and also have learnt to despise 
 their own relations, who look upon the 
 cameriera daughter or sister with pride, as 
 one who has risen in life ; but instinct is 
 too strong for them in the end, fight against 
 it as they will. A melancholy seizes on them, 
 they grow thin and sad, are found frequently 
 in tears, and end in returning, without
 
 INSTALLATION IN MY NEW HOME. 21 
 
 warning, as in a sudden frenzy, to their old 
 life among the formerly despised relations. 
 
 The wet-nurse performed her one duty in 
 the most exemplary manner, except on the 
 occasions when her fond husband came to see 
 her. His caresses seemed to take a rough 
 form, for he always left her in tears, and 
 occasionally with a black eye. As these inter- 
 views considerably interfered with her well- 
 being, and that of the baby, we forbade the 
 husband the house. After this he peremptorily 
 demanded his wife back, and, as she was neces- 
 sary for our child, we were obliged to carry 
 her off in the dead of night, and keep her in 
 concealment until her lord and master returned 
 to a reasonable frame of mind. 
 
 It had been agreed that she was to accom- 
 pany us to England in the following spring, 
 but this the husband now swore, with many 
 terrific threats directed against us all, should 
 not be done. Again we escaped at dead of 
 night, carrying our prize with us. But as 
 we passed the very house where this terrible
 
 22 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 man lived, I quaked with fear, more than half 
 expecting him to rush out upon us with a 
 pistol or a dagger. However, he gave no sign, 
 being probably fast asleep, and we arrived 
 at our destination in safety. There our alarms 
 were at an end for the time, though the 
 balia's were not. She was afraid to venture 
 out in that barbarous country, for having seen 
 certain tiger and bear skin rugs about the 
 floors, she naturally imagined these animals to 
 be indigenous. Neither could she reconcile 
 herself to our disgusting habit of using butter 
 instead of oil in the cookery ; and as for the 
 wine, it was not to her taste. However, she 
 flourished more than could be expected in a 
 country where there were neither vines nor 
 olives, and where one could not venture out 
 for fear of being eaten up by wild beasts ; 
 and she returned safe and sound, rather to the 
 amazement of her friends, amongst whom a 
 report had spread that she had succumbed 
 to the hardships of foreign travel, and whom 
 she astonished still further with startling reve-
 
 INSTALLATION IN MY NEW HOME. 2$ 
 
 lations of the pains and perils encountered in 
 Inghilterra. 
 
 Her husband gave her another black eye 
 by way of a welcome, which she appeared 
 to think a trifle in comparison with English 
 hardships, and which did not much disturb 
 her joy at finding herself at home again. We 
 can bear the ills we know, and the long 
 sojourn in England became to her as a vaguely 
 remembered nightmare ; for when I asked her 
 years afterwards if she recollected Inghilterra, 
 she replied, " Poco." 
 
 But I am anticipating. Many more trials 
 awaited me before that flight to England ; 
 our servant troubles, indeed, were only begin- 
 ning. We tried a protegee of the nuns ; the 
 best pupil in a convent instituted for the 
 benefit of foundlings was confided to our care. 
 Concetta had never been outside convent walls ; 
 all she had learnt of a practical nature was 
 the art of embroidery, in which certainly she 
 excelled. But we did not want embroidery, 
 and we did want the beds made and the
 
 24 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 rooms swept ; it was again a case of raw 
 material to be worked upon. We hoped to be 
 more successful this time. The girl was re- 
 markably clever and not intractable. She 
 soon learnt to be useful, and, after sundry 
 gentle hints, discovered, besides, that it was 
 not the correct thing to come into the sitting- 
 room of an evening and join in the conver- 
 sation, squatting on the floor ; also, that 
 however amiable might be the impulse to take 
 me round the waist and embrace me, it should 
 be restrained. 
 
 My husband thought it only right to let 
 her know that the Pope does not sleep on 
 straw, and is not in a state of actual starvation. 
 " Dunque come Vittorio ! " was her astonished 
 exclamation, when the beauty and luxuries 
 of the Vatican were described to her ; " and 
 they persuaded me to send him all the money 
 I earned by my embroidery ! It was too bad ! " 
 
 Concetta's sentiments towards the well- 
 meaning nuns who had brought her up under- 
 went a change, and the good ladies were destined
 
 INSTALLATION IN MY NEW HOME. 25 
 
 to be cruelly disappointed in their best pupil. 
 She left us just as we were beginning to rely 
 on her services, to place herself in the town. 
 Soon after we heard of her being dismissed in 
 disgrace for having concealed a young man 
 in a cupboard ! Such was the result of the 
 convent training. 
 
 It would be impossible for me to enumerate 
 all our disastrous experiences in the matter of 
 servants ; the worst we were obliged to dismiss, 
 and the better ones would not stay, even for 
 triple the usual wages, in a place where they 
 could get no amusement. They left us always 
 at the most inconvenient time, and at amoment's 
 notice ; why they could not simply give warn- 
 ing, and depart in the due course of a month 
 or a fortnight, we never could discover; but 
 for some inscrutabk reason their departure 
 was either the result of a laborious intrigue, 
 or of what appeared to be a violent panic. 
 Marietta or Teresina would suddenly appear 
 upon the scene with red eyes, dishevelled hair, 
 and every symptom of distraction, in her hand
 
 26 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 an open letter. " Signore ! signora ! " she ex- 
 claims, sinking on her knees before us ; " be- 
 hold this letter ! What is to become of me ? " 
 The letter, all blotched and scrawled, as if 
 written in haste and grief, implores Marietta 
 in pathetic terms to hasten at once to her 
 stricken mother or dying father. She must 
 depart instantly. Of course, she will come back 
 again oh, yes to-morrow. She is so sorry 
 to leave us even for a moment ; she loves us 
 so ! and, kissing us on both cheeks (my hus- 
 band is not excluded from this form of salute 
 on solemn occasions), she goes off in the cart 
 which has been waiting for her in the turn 
 of the road, and by which her carefully packed 
 trunk has been conveyed to the station the 
 day before. 
 
 An impatient lover is another favourite de- 
 vice. A letter is produced from the ardent 
 young man, declaring that he can wait no 
 longer ; his beloved Lucia or Chiara must fix 
 the wedding day. Smiles and blushes are the 
 stage business this time. She hopes she has
 
 INSTALLATION IN MY NEW HOME. 2J 
 
 given satisfaction ; would not leave us for the 
 world, but Giuseppe is so pressing, and they 
 have been waiting seven years. She is quite 
 prepared to state his age, profession, the name 
 of his maternal grandfather, or supply any 
 other piece of information that may be re- 
 quired concerning Giuseppe ; but when we 
 investigate the truth of these glib statements, 
 we find that the person of whom we have 
 heard so much, and whose letters we have read, 
 does not exist. Nothing daunted, Lucia then 
 declares that if he never existed, why, then, he 
 must have cruelly deceived her, and she must 
 immediately go in search of him ; whereupon 
 she departs. 
 
 This style of leave-taking may be irritating, 
 but at least there is a certain amount of warn- 
 ing. It is more embarrassing to wake up one 
 morning and find you have not been called, 
 because your housemaid has been taken with 
 a capriccio, and has disappeared in the 
 night ; or to be in the midst of the fortnightly 
 wash, and see your laundress running down
 
 28 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 the road with her bundle under her arm, 
 leaving the linen in soak ; or to be very hungry, 
 and, on inquiring why dinner is not ready, to 
 be informed that the cook has been missing 
 some time, and it is supposed that she has 
 run away. When the wet-nurse is taken with 
 a capriccio, and leaves the baby crying for 
 its food, the situation becomes something more 
 than awkward ; and all these experiences have 
 been mine. Having made the discovery that 
 capriccios usually occurred immediately after 
 the monthly wages had been paid, it struck 
 us that it might be better to pay the servants 
 quarterly. The result of this experiment was 
 that for three months all went on smoothly, 
 and without the usual casualties ; but at the 
 end of that time there was such a general 
 flight that we were obliged to take to the pony 
 carriage and drive twenty miles to the nearest 
 habitable hotel, where we remained some time 
 before we could again muster an establishment. 
 When we did, we met with no more success 
 than formerly. Once all the farm labourers
 
 INSTALLATION IN MY NEW HOME. 29 
 
 deserted in a body, and my husband, with the 
 steward, who alone remained, rubbed down the 
 horses, fed the cattle, etc., until workmen could 
 be got from a distance. Our neighbours were 
 not a bit surprised to hear of our troubles. 
 They had similar experiences to recount. One 
 of our acquaintances told how, as he was 
 driving his own carriage from one town to 
 another, with a servant behind, he was dis- 
 mayed when he arrived at his destination to 
 find himself alone ; the rogue had slipped 
 down unperceived, and returned to his native 
 village, which they passed on the way. 
 
 Yet all these birds of passage would pretend 
 the most intense and unalterable affection for 
 us, want of heart being, according to their 
 ideas, the only unforgivable offence. Lying, 
 stealing, treachery all that is human nature ; 
 but to want a heart! that is, not to have 
 a ready flow of tears at your command, and 
 not to express an immense amount of sym- 
 pathy with your neighbour's most trivial 
 misfortunes (it is not so necessary to do any-
 
 30 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 thing for their relief) that is to be a monster 
 indeed I 
 
 " I have so much heart, signora," said one 
 of my maids, " that when you were in bed 
 with a cold, I cried all day." But enough of 
 the servants ; they are more or less a thorn in 
 the path of all those in a position to keep 
 them, of whatever country, and in whatever 
 rank. If I had had sufficient physical strength, 
 I would have dispensed with them altogether ; 
 and I found eventually that the only way to 
 live with decency was to be my own house- 
 keeper, and to look into every household detail 
 myself with scrupulous attention, greatly to 
 the astonishment of the neighbouring ladies, 
 whose one idea of refinement is to ignore all 
 household matters, and more especially to 
 feign, if not to feel, an utter unconsciousness 
 of the dirt with which they live surrounded. 
 
 My housekeeping was of a primitive nature. 
 The accounts were not complicated. I had 
 simply to take note of the number of eggs, 
 fowls, turkeys, lambs, etc., brought by the
 
 INSTALLATION IN MY NEW HOME. 31 
 
 peasants, whose duty it was to supply us with 
 a certain number in the course of the year. 
 We spent no money, except in dry groceries, 
 which we usually obtained from. Eome, or 
 Naples, or Milan in yearly supplies ; even the 
 brooms wherewith we swept the floors were 
 made by the peasants, who supplied the wool 
 with which the mattresses were stuffed, and the 
 linen of which the servants' sheets were made. 
 Our own pigs provided us with ham, sau- 
 sages, and lard. In the spring, there is a great 
 consumption of very young lambs, and the 
 ewes' milk is made into junket and cheese. 
 From the month of March until the end of 
 July, we were supplied daily with a fresh 
 junket, or ricotta, made by the peasants and 
 brought in a jar. The bread had all to be 
 made at home, and the meat killed on the 
 premises and this was the only domestic 
 arrangement to which I have never been able 
 to conquer my repugnance. In the days of 
 my childhood I would shut my eyes when I 
 passed a butcher's shop ; now I believe that
 
 32 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 I should be competent to keep one, so often 
 have I descended, cookery-book in hand, to 
 direct the cutting up of the carcase of a calf 
 or sheep. But I have not acquired a taste for 
 the business, and can never divest myself of 
 the feeling, and also in iny inmost soul of the 
 belief, that totake away the divine gift of life 
 is more or less an act of sacrilege. I remem- 
 ber feeling real sorrow at the execution of a 
 familiar turkey-cock, who always pecked at 
 me, and was a constant terror to me when 
 alive ; but I felt a blank when he was gone. 
 
 The Italian peasants indulge more in wanton 
 cruelty to animals than, I think, any other 
 people. I have thought it my duty to super- 
 intend the killing of the chickens, in order to 
 be sure that they are not plucked alive ; and 
 this has been, I think, my most unmitigated 
 and almost unbearable trial.
 
 ( 33 ) 
 
 CHAPTEK II. 
 
 MORE TRIALS. 
 
 WE soon began to despair of getting the 
 house into a habitable condition. My husband 
 designed and directed everything himself, but 
 the arrangement of our house was so different, 
 and so much more complicated than that of 
 those around us, that the workmen made every 
 possible blunder in executing his orders. They 
 seemed incapable of making two windows or 
 two doors alike. As for the electric-bell 
 arrangement, I believe they considered it a 
 slightly diabolical piece of business. We had 
 to dispense with the head mason, because he 
 and the coachman we had brought from Eome 
 spent their whole time in throwing bricks at 
 one another's heads, and my husband saw 
 
 3
 
 34 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 no way of settling their disputes but by dis- 
 missing them both. 
 
 When at last the needful was accomplished, 
 and the doors and windows actually opened 
 and shut, and the chimneys smoked as 
 little as might be, we bethought ourselves 
 of decoration, and hearing of a ruined 
 count in the neighbourhood who had turned 
 house-painter, it seemed only charitable to 
 employ him for the embellishment of our 
 ceiling. I was prepared to feel quite a 
 romantic interest in this unfortunate noble- 
 man, and to be enchanted with his artistic 
 genius ; but he was so uncommonly dirty, 
 and his manners were so little removed from 
 those of a peasant, that my illusions were 
 dispelled at once. Neither did his style of 
 decoration exactly come up to my ideal, 
 although it was ambitious enough. A basket 
 of flowers soon adorned each corner of our 
 ceiling, and in the centre, from amidst clouds 
 and wreaths of roses, a rather shapeless Cupid 
 began to be delineated. But in the middle
 
 MORE TRIALS. 35 
 
 of the work, the * artist, whose temper was 
 short, and whose feelings were sensitive, took 
 offence, as we suppose, at some unintentional 
 slight on our part ; for, without any explana- 
 tion or warning, he departed one day, leaving 
 the Cupid minus one leg and one arm, and 
 returned no more. Poor Cupid ! Being in 
 such a sadly mutilated condition, it was but 
 kind to do away with him altogether, and 
 my husband, mounting a ladder, swept a 
 coat of whitewash over Cupid, clouds, baskets 
 of flowers, and all. This operation was re- 
 peated several times, but the Cupid would 
 keep reappearing in a most ghastly manner. 
 
 One day I received a visit from a lady, who 
 presented herself in the following manner. 
 She arrived on horseback, or, I should say, 
 on donkey-back, and she rode astride. She 
 announced a desire to speak with the signora, 
 but first begged that she and her donkey- 
 boy might be refreshed with food, as they 
 had come a long way. The pair seated them- 
 selves at the kitchen-table, and were served.
 
 36 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 I was informed meantime that a lady a very 
 great lady was waiting in the kitchen to 
 speak to me. Understanding that the great 
 lady preferred the kitchen to any other room, 
 I descended, and found a good-looking woman, 
 well dressed in the old-fashioned style, with 
 a black lace veil and a fan. Her manner was 
 courteous and dignified, and I felt, when she 
 remounted her donkey and rode away, that 
 I had been the object of much condescension. 
 
 It would seem that a generation ago ladies, 
 in the less civilized parts of Italy, never sat 
 anywhere but in their kitchens ; for my father- 
 in-law told me how, when sent in command 
 of a regiment against the brigands of Calabria, 
 he partook of the hospitality of provincial 
 gentlemen, and inquired politely why he had 
 not the pleasure of seeing the ladies at table, 
 his host would reply, "Do not trouble your- 
 self about them ; they are in the kitchen." 
 
 My visitors did not all arrive on donkeys ; 
 some came in a cart drawn by oxen, and 
 driven by the fattore, and this mode of
 
 MORE TRIALS. 37 
 
 conveyance is well adapted to the country, 
 as all but the high roads are impracticable 
 for horses and carriages. The oxen-cart is 
 often the only family vehicle. 
 
 The returning of calls was at first a some- 
 what terrific ordeal, as I was the object of 
 unrestrained curiosity. On the occasion of my 
 visit to the first family in the village, I was 
 turned about by the daughters of the house, 
 and inspected thoroughly from head to foot. 
 I was asked the price of each article I wore, 
 and cross-questioned as to every detail of my 
 life. When did I get up ? When did I go to 
 bed ? What could I do with myself in cam- 
 pagna all day ? There could be no looking 
 out of windows, when there was nothing to 
 look at, except mountains and sea. The 
 mother of the young ladies apologized a little 
 for their manners, remarking that they were 
 young, and saw few people. She then took 
 a pinch of snuff, and, seating herself in. her 
 chair in the window recess, resumed the study 
 of her neighbour's proceedings, which formed
 
 38 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC^ 
 
 the occupation of her life. The sitting-room 
 was also a bedroom, and into the bed pater- 
 familias had retired for the night. It was but 
 four o'clock in the afternoon, but at that hour 
 he had exhausted all his resources for killing 
 time. He was the head of a fallen family, 
 with just enough remaining out of the wreck of 
 his property to live upon only just enough, as 
 his starved appearance testified. There were 
 other visitors besides myself the curato, who 
 had come in for a gossip, and occupied the 
 remaining chair, and a young man, the suitor 
 of one of the daughters, who sat upon the 
 bed. Another old gentleman who received in 
 his bedroom slept surrounded with loaded 
 guns. In every corner of the room one stood 
 upright ; others were pointed out of window, 
 and on the bed, very much to the discomfort 
 of the owner one would think, six were laid 
 ready to hand. Against what mysterious foe 
 these preparations were made, was known only 
 to that eccentric old gentleman, as the village 
 had enjoyed the utmost tranquillity for genera-
 
 MORE TRIALS. 39 
 
 tions. His whimnvas supposed to be simple 
 fidelity to tlie traditions of his ancestors ; they 
 preserved an attitude of defence, and he was 
 resolved to keep up the good old custom. 
 
 It was a rather severer trial to spend some 
 days amongst a village household. The mode 
 of life is as follows. In the morning, the 
 cameriera -goes the round of the bedrooms 
 with a tiny cup of black coffee for each oc- 
 cupant, and this is the only breakfast. The 
 apparatus for washing consists of a very small 
 basin and jug on an iron stand, and a towel 
 which is nearly all fringe. To ask for a bath 
 is to create the greatest alarm as to the state 
 of your health, and I roused such a commo- 
 tion by the request that I soon found out the 
 enormity of it. The various members of the 
 family dawdled about till dinner-time, con- 
 cealing the pangs of hunger, which I judged 
 by my own must be severe, with considerable 
 fortitude. Then came a dinner which seemed 
 never to end, and which was served according 
 to no rule with which I had ever been made
 
 40 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 acquainted. The puddings came before the 
 meat, figs were served with ham, and the 
 savoury and sweet generally blended in an 
 inextricable manner. Then, I had never ac- 
 quired the art of wiping my knife upon my 
 bread, and although very hungry, I did not 
 know how to take in a twenty-four hours' 
 supply at one sitting, having always supposed 
 that to be the peculiarity of the boa con- 
 strictor, and I got wearied of remaining so many 
 hours at table whilst my companions gorged. 
 There is no other word for their style of feeding, 
 and I have heard of a lady who daily devoured 
 a whole turkey, and of a count who, living 
 alone, consumed invariably at dinner two 
 fowls one roast and another boiled. There 
 seems a sort of sameness about these menus, 
 but their severe simplicity is only for strict 
 privacy. When guests are expected, the 
 establishment will display wonderful resources, 
 and every opportunity will be seized to show 
 off. I was much puzzled on one occasion by 
 being offered wine in twelve different glasses,
 
 HOME TRIALS. 41 
 
 all presented together on a tray ; the wine- 
 glasses were succeeded by twelve coffee cups, 
 all full. I at first supposed that other visitors 
 were expected ; but it soon became evident 
 that such was not the case the object was 
 to display the whole store of glasses and 
 cups. 
 
 To return to my village hosts. The men 
 were occupied more or less with agriculture ; 
 but the women appeared to have nothing 
 whatever to do. One favourite amusement 
 was to light box after box of lucifer matches, 
 which was acknowledged to be wasteful, but 
 it made the time pass. Some hours were also 
 satisfactorily got rid of in making an elaborate 
 toilet for the promenade, the smart costumes 
 being, however, immediately discarded on re- 
 turning to the house for dressing-gowns very 
 much the worse for wear. At ten o'clock, 
 supper is served, a simpler meal than the 
 dinner ; it consists chiefly of soup and salad. 
 To this, neighbours dropped in. There was 
 much talking, and even singing, in which the
 
 42 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 maid-servant joined, and the family did not 
 retire to rest until the small hours. 
 
 My weak mind was constantly being aston- 
 ished at habits and manners unlike my own. 
 Fires are thought very unwholesome things. 
 Warmth is obtained, or rather is not obtained, 
 by exclusion of air and an extra amount of 
 clothing. Men sit in the house enveloped in 
 caps, great coats, and comforters ; women put 
 two or three gowns on, one atop of another, 
 and keep their hands in muffs. Much washing 
 of the person in cold weather is considered 
 to be dangerous to health, and my barbarity 
 in subjecting a young baby to a daily bath 
 during the winter excited almost as much 
 virtuous indignation as my culpable neglect of 
 the fascia, or swathing-band, in which the 
 infant's legs are tightly tied up this being 
 necessary for the keeping of the legs straight. 
 On receiving a neighbour into the house for 
 a week, I thought it incumbent on me, though 
 it was in the dead of winter, to provide him 
 with all the conveniences for washing ; but
 
 MORE TRIALS. 43 
 
 these attentions w-ere lost upon him, and my 
 astonishment when the housemaid thought fit 
 to inform me, in her dramatic way, that neither 
 soap, water, nor towels had been touched, was 
 perhaps no greater than his own at finding 
 these useless things provided. "The signora 
 says to me," begins Marietta, " ' Have you put 
 soap into the room of that gentleman ? ' " "'Si, 
 signora." " A bath ? " " Sissignora,sissignora ! 
 Ma signora, non toccati ! ne Tuna, ne 1'altra ! ' " 
 
 A household wash-up is a yearly ceremony 
 amongst the rich, who pride themselves on 
 their immense hoards of linen. 
 
 I remember being struck on one occasion by 
 the tablecloth being marked in four numbers. 
 It was at the wedding of the eldest daughter, 
 and a cupboard full of linen that the mother 
 had with her corredo had been opened for 
 the first time. The dirty linen is stowed away 
 in cupboards until the time comes round for 
 the annual wash. 
 
 This takes place in the spring, when a pro- 
 cession of carts may be seen wending its way
 
 44 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 to the river, or the nearest mill-stream. This 
 system of washing but once a year no doubt 
 saves time and trouble; but it has its dis- 
 advantages, especially when extended to the 
 members of the family themselves. A bath 
 once a year, however, is better than none at 
 all; the poor dispense with ablutions altogether. 
 An old man who worked about the premises, 
 being asked if he had ever been washed, re- 
 flected some time, and then said he thought 
 some one had washed him when he was a small 
 child. The only clean inhabitant of our vil- 
 lage is a returned convict, who, on coming 
 back to the bosom of his family after twenty 
 years at the Bagni, immediately set his wife 
 to scrub and scour the premises, remarking 
 that he was accustomed to clean dwellings, 
 and could on no account put up with dirt and 
 untidiness, so fastidious had he become during 
 his residence at the expense of the Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 But notwithstanding dirt, discomfort, and 
 annoyances of all kinds, I contrived to live
 
 MORE TRIALS. 45 
 
 and thrive as I ha\l not done in the midst 
 of ease and luxury ; and, having descanted at 
 length upon my trials and hardships, I feel 
 it only fair to present the reverse side of the 
 picture, and speak of the compensation which 
 moralists tell us are to be found in the hardest 
 lot. Mine was not that ; and although my 
 philosophy deserted me sometimes, yet I had 
 enough in the general way to derive a good 
 deal of amusement from the novelty of my 
 surroundings, and the comic element which 
 pervaded even my misfortunes so largely.
 
 46 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ALLEVIATIONS OF MY LOT. 
 
 THE manners and customs of my neighbours 
 being so different from my own, I could not 
 nave much in common with them, and often 
 pined for a little social intercourse, more 
 especially for an opportunity of speaking and 
 hearing my own language ; my excitement, 
 then, may be imagined, when one day I 
 received a little note written in English, in- 
 viting me to spend a few hours at a house 
 where I might find, perhaps, something to 
 my taste, in a hermit's music and some odds 
 and ends of English literature. I had heard 
 vague rumours of an English neighbour some 
 miles distant, married to a gentleman of those 
 parts; but partly from want of opportunity,
 
 ALLEVIATIONS OF MY LOT. 47 
 
 and I think from a little shyness on both 
 sides, we had never met. I responded with 
 great alacrity to the invitation, and so began 
 my introduction to an Anglo -Italian colony, 
 whose society has been more pleasant and 
 useful to me than I can say. 
 
 They are the descendants in the female line 
 of an English family, settled some fifty years 
 ago in the neighbourhood. The daughters had 
 married Italian gentlemen belonging to the 
 country, and the 'children of these marriages 
 had intermarried ; the result is a race of 
 people who, although they have never been 
 in England, yet speak English, and keep up 
 energetically many English traditions. They 
 form a little society apart, for two generations 
 have not sufficed to bring them into complete 
 harmony with their surroundings. The second 
 generation are, for the most part, a happy 
 mixture of their Italian fathers and their 
 English mothers ; but in the third generation, 
 now partly grown up, the Italian blood predo- 
 minates, and the teaching of the English grand-
 
 48 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC, 
 
 mothers are well-nigh forgotten, although 
 flaxen hair and blue eyes still mark the 
 race a very beautiful one. 
 
 Days passed at two or three of these Angle - 
 Italian country-houses are amongst my plea- 
 santest recollections. How puzzled I was 
 during my first visit by the strange mixture 
 of races and languages in people all doubly 
 and trebly related ! They lived in patriarchal 
 style father, mother, and married sons with 
 their children. The three English grandmothers 
 (one of whom was the widow of a Frenchman, 
 and whose daughter had married an Italian 
 cousin, and so had introduced a third race 
 and language into this complicated family) 
 were all present, and they were all aunts to 
 each other's children, and double great-aunts 
 to each other's grandchildren. The sisters-in- 
 law were all first cousins to each other's hus- 
 bands, and their own husbands, and to one 
 another ; yet this family party owned three 
 different nationalities, and spoke three different 
 languages.
 
 ALLEVIATIONS OF MY LOT. 49 
 
 It is curious to note how language gets 
 transformed, after being spoken for two or 
 three generations by people born and bred in 
 another country. The grandmothers, from 
 whom all the English known to their de- 
 scendants has been learnt, no doubt once 
 spoke it idiomatically ; but t ltalian expressions 
 and modes of phrasing will insinuate them- 
 selves even into their speech. Then fashions 
 change, and the slang of to-day is very 
 different from the bad grammar in vogue at 
 the beginning of the century. Our elders are 
 quite justified in calling " awfully jolly " a 
 silly and unmeaning expression, and in re- 
 marking that "thanks, very much" is not 
 grammatical ; but why did they call china 
 " chaney," cucumber " cowcumber," obliged 
 "obleejed," London "Lunnon," etc.? There 
 can be no reasonable objection to the expres- 
 sions " vastly," " genteel," and " elegant," but 
 they sound strange to our ears, and even old 
 people in England who once used them have 
 learnt enough of modern usages to leave them 
 
 4
 
 50 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 off; but the mothers of Italian children and 
 grandchildren naturally continue to speak the 
 language of their youth, and even the grand- 
 children imbibe with their small stock of Eng- 
 lish some of these quaint expressions. If any 
 such should reach a fourth generation, what 
 a strange effect they will have upon the ears of 
 any of our descendants who may hear them ! 
 
 Anglo-Italian marriages are very common, 
 but not all are very happy. It requires a 
 certain amount of good will on both sides to 
 bridge over the gulf that must yawn between 
 two people bred in different countries. Their 
 tastes may amalgamate, they may learn each 
 other's language, their views and principles 
 may be the same ; but, at least, the reminis- 
 cences dear to each, the store of anecdotes, 
 of bywords, of proverbs, all familiar allusions, 
 are unknown or incomprehensible to the 
 other. Few people know or think how great 
 a hindrance to unrestrained intercourse this 
 may be. In many cases even this difficulty 
 is surmounted, and the couple are recipro-
 
 ALLEVIATIONS OF MY LOT. 5 1 
 
 cally benefited by the exchange and enlarge- 
 ment of their ideas ; but in other cases, the 
 gulf grows ever wider, until the pair live 
 together as utter strangers, having lost even 
 the means of communication ; for there has 
 been a quarrel, then a coolness, they will not 
 speak ; so the efforts made during the court- 
 ship, by one of the pair at least, to learn a 
 new language cease to be made, and the end 
 of it is that they do not speak, because they 
 cannot. Of such cases I have heard, but my 
 Anglo-Italian friends were a very united 
 family, and the strange blending of races, and 
 consequently of ideas, lent to their conversa- 
 tion and their habits an originality which I 
 thought very charming. The arrangements 
 of the house were, except for the cleanliness, 
 Italian. There were few servants and little 
 furniture. The ladies occupied themselves very 
 much in household matters, and one of the 
 sons made the garden his special care. 
 
 I saw it first in the spring, when the gor- 
 geous Judas trees were in full bloom, and the
 
 52 OUR HOME RY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 long rows of lemons under the wooden shed 
 were just ripening. Were it not for these and 
 the surrounding vines, I might have fancied 
 myself in my native land, so familiar seemed 
 the guelder roses and the beds of double 
 primroses, the weeping willow with the seat 
 round it, and the lawn where the children 
 were playing at croquet. 
 
 An old friend of my husband's family, the 
 
 Marehese G , soon became a new and a 
 
 very dear one to me. A good-looking old 
 gentleman, whose fair complexion and blue 
 eyes, inherited from his Venetian mother, did 
 not give him any resemblance to an English- 
 man, which I do not say regretfully, for I 
 never wished him other than he was, the 
 perfection of an Italian gentleman so cour- 
 teous, and so simple; sweet-tempered, yet 
 not incapable of giving vent to a fine fury 
 when his indignation was aroused ; full of a 
 ready sympathy for all human ills, and as 
 ready a wit wherewith to parry and return 
 thrusts. In him we had not only a sincere
 
 ALLEVIATIONS OF MY LOT. 53 
 
 I 
 
 well-wisher, but one who has proved himself 
 a friend in need. His friendship to me does 
 him the more credit, as there is a legend that 
 he, in his youth, was very much ill-treated by 
 one of my countrywomen, who travelled from 
 Eome with intent to bestow her hand and 
 fortune upon him, but on her way fell in love 
 with the too-fascinating vetturino who con- 
 ducted her, and immediately on her arrival 
 married him instead, a union which turned 
 out as badly as might be expected. The 
 vetturino spent her money in drink, and like- 
 wise beat her. 
 
 Such is the story ; but there is a vagueness 
 about the details which leads me to hope, for 
 the honour of my countrywoman, that it is 
 not true. 
 
 The climate is particularly pleasant ; little 
 rain falls ; and, though there is a great variety 
 in the temperature, the extremes of heat and 
 cold are only felt for a short time. The 
 spring is delicious. Then, the corn is a lovely 
 green, contrasting with patches of deep red
 
 54 
 
 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 trifolium, against which the soft blue of the 
 flax flower produces a charming effect ; and 
 there are none of those harsh lines of partition 
 into so many squares by hedges which offend 
 so in an English landscape. Crimson gla- 
 diolas, growing a yard high, are plentiful as 
 daisies in the month of May, and many other 
 flowers quite as beautiful, and to me as rare, 
 but of which I have not been able to discover 
 any but the local names, make a garden of all 
 the country at this enchanting time of the 
 year, when the air still comes fresh and cool 
 from across the unmelted snow of the moun- 
 tains, the foliage is green and tender, and the 
 landscape possesses every beauty and variety. 
 By July, however, all is dried up by the hot 
 rays of the sun. There is not a flower nor 
 a blade of grass to be seen, and the grand 
 snow-mountains have become uninteresting 
 hills. Only the maidenhair, which lines a 
 cavern in my neighbourhood, remains ever 
 green and beautiful, by the water drip-drop- 
 ping upon it from some hidden source, and
 
 ALLEVIATIONS OF MY LOT. 55 
 
 forming a well below. This well is called the 
 Fonte delle Goscie, or the Well of the Drops. 
 It stands a little back from the old road to 
 Kome, under a cliff sheltered by fine oaks, and 
 to me it has always seemed a place worthy of 
 consecration to mystery and romance. What 
 added to this view of it was the sudden grow- 
 ing up of a garden in its midst, by what 
 looked like magic. 
 
 I had not been to this favourite spot for 
 some time, and was astonished to find there, 
 established amongst rows of tomatoes and 
 water melons, a little straw hut, inhabited 
 by a tiny old woman, who might well have 
 come straight from fairyland, and who hobbled 
 towards me with a shrill demand that I should 
 buy her wares. On my next visit, after a 
 not very long interval, garden, witch, hut, and 
 all had disappeared. Of course, the mystery 
 was easily explained. The old woman's son 
 had ingeniously contrived to irrigate the 
 ground by means of this watercourse, and to. 
 get a summer profit out of it.
 
 56 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 The heat is often intense, but the harvesting 
 goes on in the midst of it, for the corn is cut 
 at the end of June. During mietitura scarcely 
 any one stays at home, and all other work is 
 neglected. I have often met some vergaro, or 
 chief of a peasant family, mounted on horse or 
 mule, at the head of a merry troop he has 
 collected to help to cut his corn, marching or 
 rather dancing gleefully along, making music 
 as they go, with song and tambour, scythe in 
 hand, the girls' skirts well kilted up, and the 
 bright new ribbon on their broad straw hats 
 streaming. 
 
 In the autumn, the country is again pictur- 
 esque with its vine-festooned trees bearing 
 magnificent clusters of purple grapes, and 
 beneath, the groups of gaily dressed contadine 
 guarding their property. On the approach of 
 October, waggon loads of grapes, some as fine 
 as any grown in hothouses, are to be seen 
 drawn by huge white oxen along the roads, on 
 their way to be deposited in a vat with a hole 
 in the bottom. This is placed on the top of a
 
 ALLEVIATIONS OF MY LOT. 57 
 
 cask, a man or a boy then gets into the vat, 
 and begins treading the juice into the re- 
 ceptacle beneath. I am sorry to say that 
 when the grapes belong to the padrone not all 
 reach their destination, but are distributed 
 impartially amongst any of the driver's friends 
 that he may meet on the road. It has hap- 
 pened to us to witness the distribution of our 
 own grapes in this manner. 
 
 The peasants are a civil-spoken people, and 
 I never met one in my walks abroad who did 
 not greet me with "Buon passeggio, Signora 
 Marchesa," or " Principessa," as the fit may 
 take them ; for they are liberal with their 
 titles. In the morning, the proper greeting is, 
 " Fate buon pranzo ; " and on meeting a little 
 child, "Non gli noccia/' which is elliptical for 
 " Non gli noccia Finvidia " ( " May the envy 
 not hurt it"). I found the dialect difficult 
 to master, but obtained some clue by the 
 discovery that b's and v's, rs and I's, o's 
 and u's are convertible letters, and that long 
 tails are tacked on to the shortest words.
 
 58 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 " Poco " is lengthened into " poconcino," and 
 for common use again shortened into "conci." 
 "Cosi" is spun out into " cosintra," "si" 
 into "shine," "no " into " nonni." 
 
 There is an odd mixture of servile obsequi- 
 ousness and rude familiarity in their manner 
 towards the gentry : the former is, I think, a 
 relic of a decayed civilization ; the latter, the 
 result of the gentry themselves having for- 
 gotten their manners, and so lost the respect 
 due to them. Servants who kneel to kiss the 
 hands of their mistresses are yet allowed an 
 intimacy which would be impossible in an 
 English household. I once paid a visit to a 
 neighbouring village, walking (in procession) 
 with the coachman, who was sent with me for 
 protection. It came on to rain, and I had to 
 take a hired cab home. Into this the owner 
 of the vehicle tried to force my attendant, in 
 spite of his remonstrances. " Ma che gli fa 
 alia signora ? " he wondered, shoving in the 
 reluctant and blushing servant. "Is there 
 not room outside ? " I inquired, thinking the
 
 ALLEVIATIONS OF MY LOT. 59 
 
 t 
 
 tete-a-tdte would be as awkward for the coach- 
 man as myself. 
 
 " Didn't I tell you the signora would not 
 like it ? " exclaimed our man, hastening to 
 obey orders, and leaving the native much 
 astonished at the haughtiness of the Inglesina. 
 
 The peasants were ready enough to enter 
 into conversation, and often when overtaken 
 by a shower of rain I have accepted the shelter 
 of a vast blue cotton umbrella, the owner, 
 whilst sharing it with me, has favoured me 
 with some of his views on things in general. 
 Curiosity was often displayed about that 
 strange country Inghilterra, where they had 
 heard everybody is rich. " What a fertile 
 country it must be ! " they reflect. " Surely, 
 signora, there can be no tree without a vine 
 in your native land ? " When I confessed that 
 there were neither vines nor olives, their per- 
 plexity was extreme. "Where, then, do all 
 the riches come from ? " But I believe their 
 naivete and ignorance did not astonish me as 
 much as mine did them, and my want of
 
 60 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 knowledge on subjects familiar as household 
 words to them led to an amusing over-esti- 
 mate of my ignorance. 
 
 " And what have you bought at the fair 
 a sheep ? " I inquired of a peasant of my ac- 
 quaintance, who passed me as I was reading 
 by the roadside, too much absorbed to look up 
 from my book, but recognizing my friend by 
 his voice, and thinking it only polite to show 
 some interest in his affairs. "No, signora, 
 this is not a sheep," he explained, gravely pre- 
 senting to me a fine pig. " If you notice, you 
 will see that there is a great deal of difference 
 between a pig and a sheep." How should I 
 know what a sheep was like, when by my own 
 confession I had never tasted ewe ; s-milk cheese ? 
 a proof that there are no such animals in 
 England. " This bird is a hen," was a piece of 
 information volunteered for my benefit, on my 
 visit to the house of a peasant. "And these 
 vegetables they are potatoes." How could I, 
 who did not know the difference between 
 " ceci " and " cicerchie," and to whom Indian
 
 ALLEVIATIONS OF MY LOT. 6 1 
 
 corn was a novelty, be expected to know what 
 a potato was ? 
 
 Their houses struck me both by their size 
 and their ugliness. Long, low, brick dwell- 
 ings, with tiled roofs, and very small unglazed 
 windows. The staircase and oven outside, and 
 the ground-floor devoted to the accommoda- 
 tion of the live stock. There is no attempt at 
 a flower-garden or adornment of any kind. 
 On passing a peasant's house, it is the custom 
 to possess one's self of a good-sized stone, ready 
 to throw at the animal who is sure to spring 
 out at you with yells. The next proceeding is 
 to call loudly to the peasant within to look 
 to his dog. He thereupon beats and curses 
 the poor thing, who is doing his duty accord- 
 ing to his light, and informs " Vostra signoria " 
 that there is nothing to be feared. " Non 
 dice niente " (" He does not say anything ") 
 a statement which strikes one by its audacity 
 when made to an accompaniment of "bow- 
 wow-wow." But I should not say too much 
 against the institution of the watch-dogs, as
 
 62 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 they are very necessary in a country where 
 it is the custom for the house door to remain 
 permanently open, and bolts and bars of any 
 efficiency are unknown. We shortly set up 
 watch-dogs ourselves, investing in a pair of an 
 Apennine breed, who became the parents of 
 a numerous progeny. These dogs are white, 
 not unlike the St. Bernard in form, with long 
 hair and curly tails. Not only do they 
 effectually terrify the passers-by, but they 
 are most affectionate and docile to ourselves, 
 and we have become much attached to them. 
 
 The interior of the peasant's house is neither 
 clean nor comfortable, but it has a certain 
 picturesqueness. From the low-raftered ceiling 
 hang a goodly array of hams and, after the 
 vintage, bunches of grapes, and the wooden 
 ledge along the wall is adorned with rows of 
 cheeses made of ewe's milk and loaves of 
 Indian-corn bread. A happy family of dogs, 
 cats, hens, chickens, and perhaps a pig of 
 domestic habits, make themselves at home on 
 the stone floor. At the loom by the window,
 
 ALLEVIATIONS OF MY LOT. 63 
 
 one of the women may be seen weaving, and 
 the grandmother will be spinning or knitting 
 by the open hearth, on which an oak branch, 
 leaves and all, crackles and blazes under a 
 large iron stewpan, suspended by a chain, in 
 which the erba or polenta is cooking. A 
 watch-dog lies stretched his lazy length at 
 Nonna's feet, and with him an imp, rising 
 two, will be sharing a yellow loaf. The child 
 looks sickly, and when I come again I may be 
 told in a cheerful manner that he is " gone 
 to Paradise ; " or I may find the whole family 
 tearing their hair, and beating their breasts, 
 and howling, as if possessed, for the loss of one 
 of the big white oxen. I once came upon a 
 peasant I knew weeping by the wayside. 
 
 " I have had a terrible loss, signora," sobbed 
 he. I, remembering that his daughter had 
 just died of a fever, began to express my 
 sympathy. 
 
 " Ma che, la friga ! " he exclaimed im- 
 patiently ("friga" in that dialect means a 
 girl), " it was a cow ! " as if I must surely
 
 64 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 understand what a much greater loss that 
 must be. 
 
 " What beast is ill ? " is the inquiry of the 
 chemist, when called up in the night, knowing 
 that no peasant ever disturbs himself for one 
 of the human species. 
 
 They beguile their labours with song, but 
 their singing, however cheering to themselves, 
 has the reverse effect upon the listener. The 
 songs are always in the minor key, ending in a 
 prolonged note, bawled out as loudly and kept 
 up as long as possible ; and the effect of this 
 " Mi," shouted out for a quarter of an hour, or 
 thereabouts, at the very top of a harsh, cracked 
 voice, is more like the howl of a wild beast 
 than any human sound. It must be a great 
 addition to the hard work, and what solace it 
 can be to the producer of it is a mystery as 
 yet unsolved. 
 
 The celebrated pifferari, from the Abruzzi, 
 would take us amongst their wanderings, and 
 make music beneath the windows the centre 
 of an admiring crowd. Hearing that I was
 
 ALLEVIATIONS OF MY LOT. 65 
 
 English, they informed me that they had been 
 to London, which was a " grande eitta," a 
 " bella citta ; " but the language so barbarous, 
 no civilized human being could understand it. 
 I must not end the description of my rambles 
 without a mention of Giuditta, the post-woman. 
 I used to think what a picturesque figure she 
 made in the landscape, as I went to meet her 
 and ask if she had a letter from England for 
 me, in her peasant costume, with her basket 
 on her head, her distaff in her hand, her scarlet 
 kerchief, and blue gown turned up over a 
 white petticoat which scarcely reached beyond 
 her knees, and contrasted with her shapely 
 brown legs. She was a grand-looking woman, 
 of majestic height and erect bearing, and 
 seemed just the proper foreground for the 
 landscape of oaks and olives, blue sea and sky, 
 arid snow-capped Apennines which lay behind 
 her. She had married a man much younger 
 than herself, who stayed at home in idleness, 
 and, not content with sending the poor old 
 woman every day on his business, would fre- 
 
 5 *
 
 66 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 quently beat her when she came home ; that 
 is, if she ventured to remonstrate on finding 
 a younger woman installed in her house. She 
 would promptly eject her rival, being a woman 
 of spirit, but took the subsequent beating 
 meekly. Poor Giuditta ! Her face often bore 
 the marks of ill-usage ; but she had always 
 a pleasant word and a smile for the English 
 signora, who was so anxious for her letters 
 an anxiety not shared by any of the villagers, 
 who do not indulge in correspondence. The 
 chief use of the post, in their eyes, is to convey 
 verbal messages and execute commissions ; the 
 basket, therefore, usually contains lemons, and 
 boots, and fowls, and other miscellaneous 
 articles, amongst which the post-bag makes 
 but a very poor figure. One bitter winter's 
 day, Giuditta' s foot slipped in the snow ; she 
 fell, and was crippled for life. It was now her 
 turn to sit at home, whilst the husband is 
 obliged perforce to toil daily up and down the 
 steep hill. I think, on the whole, she is not 
 sorry for the accident which has re-established
 
 ALLEVIATIONS OF MY LOT. 67 
 
 the proper order of things ; and it was a 
 cheerful voice which called to me from an 
 upper window, " Signora, do you remember 
 the postina ? " I looked up, saw my old friend 
 seated comfortably in an armchair in company 
 with a sleek, purring cat. It was with great 
 satisfaction that I beheld, afterwards, my 
 friend's husband returning, hot, dusty, and 
 tired, with his heavy basket, and not looking 
 as if he had the energy to beat anybody very 
 hard. 
 
 The only person beyond the rank of a 
 peasant that I was in the habit of encounter- 
 ing in my daily walks was the sindaco, or 
 mayor of the village, who drove by continually 
 in a smart little pony-carriage, municipal busi- 
 ness apparently requiring his daily presence 
 in the town. This personage, whose air of 
 pomposity and self-importance I have never 
 seen equalled by any functionary whatever, 
 certainly deserves a chapter to himself.
 
 68 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE SINDACO. 
 
 AN Italian village, though it may not contain 
 a thousand inhabitants, has its local govern- 
 ment by sindaco and municipal council. The 
 power of the sindaco in his little realm is 
 almost absolute ; in theory, no doubt, there 
 are restrictions. Every deliberation must be 
 passed by the giunta, which assembles 
 once a week, approved by the council, which 
 generally meets twice a year, and must be 
 signed by the sub-prefect, or by the prefect 
 of the provincia, occasionally even by the 
 Ministry. But the giunta is often com- 
 posed of the mayor's particular friends, and, 
 in the little villages, of the servants and 
 dependents of the same. The council is
 
 THE SINDACO. 69 
 
 exceedingly careless and indifferent. As for 
 the prefect, lie has the deliberations of so 
 many communes to attend to, that he signs 
 papers, having but a vague idea of their 
 contents, so that the elaborate system of 
 superintendence instituted by the Govern- 
 ment results simply in making all business 
 matters very tedious. It is no check upon 
 dishonesty ; on the contrary, the extreme com- 
 plication of all arrangements makes confusion 
 excusable and fraud hard to discover. 
 
 The sindaco can claim a good many perqui- 
 sites, and the temptation to take advantage of 
 his opportunities in order to benefit himself at 
 the public expense is very strong. Thus, it 
 sometimes happens that a village decays, 
 whilst the mayor flourishes. The peculiarly 
 wretched state of our nearest village was one 
 of the first things which struck us painfully 
 on our installation in the new home, and 
 I remember trying vainly to solve the problem 
 of how the inhabitants contrived to exist 
 without any of what are usually called the
 
 70 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 necessaries of life. Butcher there was none, 
 nor baker, nor grocer, nor chemist ; the state 
 of the cemetery, the streets, the inhabitants, 
 scandalous to the last degree; yet" it was 
 evident that any attempt we might make to 
 improve the condition of things would be 
 resented by the sindaco, who evidently 
 regarded us with no favour. For the muni- 
 cipal business, which required his continual 
 presence in the town, he compensated himself 
 with ten francs a day from the public coffers ; 
 with fowls and eggs for himself and his 
 servant, and forage for his horse, the villagers 
 were expected to supply him gratis. But these 
 and other perquisites, stretched as they were 
 to the utmost limit, could not entirely 
 account for the flourishing condition of a 
 man who had failed in business, and had no 
 known means of existence. He was connected 
 by ties of the closest relationship with a 
 member of the Camorra one who had 
 betrayed his associates, and had been 
 murdered by them and it was rumoured
 
 THE SINDACO. 71 
 
 that he himself was no stranger to that 
 secret and formidable society. His assistants 
 in municipal work appeared ill-chosen; the 
 village magistrate (giudice conciliatore) could 
 not read or write, and most of the members 
 of the giunta had had the misfortune to 
 have spent some portion of their lives in jail. 
 
 All these facts put together seemed to point 
 to something wrong, and it was impossible to 
 shut one's ears to the loud complaints made 
 by the villagers of the black-mail levied on 
 them by the sindaco ; of the local taxes, which 
 weighed so heavily on them, being imposed 
 but lightly on that portion of the community 
 rich enough to be electors ; of the corn pro- 
 vided by a charitable institution for the needy 
 being divided amongst members of the muni- 
 cipal council ; of materials bought ostensibly 
 for public purposes, such as the mending of 
 the road and the repairing of the cemetery, 
 being used for private purposes by the sindaco 
 and friends. " If one of us venture to rebel," 
 they pursued, "some accusation is got up
 
 72 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 against him, and the unlettered (analfabeto) 
 judge sentences him to a term of imprison- 
 ment." Many of the neighbours had long 
 thought that it was time matters were in- 
 vestigated all promised their assistance ; 
 but they left it to the new-comer to bell the 
 cat, and this he did to his own cost. A 
 petition was got up and sent to the Govern- 
 ment, begging for an inquiry into the parochial 
 accounts. The sindaco was suspended, and 
 the Government sent an official to inspect the 
 accounts. It was found that there were some 
 thousands of francs to be accounted for and 
 made good ; but the regio delegate, who was 
 always to be seen arm-in-arm with the ex- 
 sindaco, was so strangely lenient in his judg- 
 ments that he thought a little carelessness 
 and bad book-keeping was all that could fairly 
 be laid to the charge of the municipality. The 
 only result, therefore, of this bold stroke was 
 the reinstalment of the sindaco in the cha- 
 racter of a victim, with all his former power, 
 and a very decided increase of animosity
 
 THE SINDACO. 73 
 
 against ourselves. Life then became very 
 difficult and very unpleasant to us. The 
 most odious calumnies were circulated against 
 my husband. Amongst the mildest were that 
 he had bought his medals, and had forged 
 bank-notes ; squibs and lampoons were printed 
 against him ; he was insulted publicly in the 
 street, in order to provoke him to some act 
 of violence of which the law could take hold ; 
 and at last the occasion presented itself, for 
 his self-command finally deserted him, and 
 he dealt the utterer of some singularly foul 
 and abusive language, addressed to himself, 
 a blow with his stick. He then gave himself 
 up to justice. The stick was discovered to 
 contain a kind of gun, and this was triumph- 
 antly brought forward as a violation of the 
 law against carrying armi insidiose, or con- 
 cealed arms. The weapon was confiscated, 
 and a prosecution begun, although the experts 
 who were consulted declined to look upon 
 the stick as anything but an ingenious toy, 
 for it merely contained a mechanism for
 
 74 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC- 
 
 letting off fireworks (A - had bought it 
 in London, and shown it to all his friends 
 as a curiosity). The case proceeded, and the 
 public prosecutor demanded three months' 
 imprisonment, which would probably have 
 been enforced, had not the opinion of the 
 experts been so decidedly pronounced. The 
 proceedings ended with a verdict of acquittal 
 on that charge ; but en revanche he was fined 
 for the assault fifty francs, which is the maxi- 
 mum, neither provocation nor extenuating 
 circumstances being admitted. On appeal, 
 the judges, basing their verdict only on the 
 evidence brought forward during the first trial, 
 recognized a deliberate intention to provoke 
 on the part of the assailed, and reversed the 
 sentence. 
 
 The proceedings of Italian law-courts are 
 apt to astonish the English mind, especially 
 the English legal mind, very considerably. 
 But in excuse of Italian judges, it may be 
 remembered that not only are they ignorant 
 of law (for only those who cannot succeed in
 
 THE SJNDACO. 75 
 
 getting practice as advocates become judges), 
 but that they are so miserably paid that, to 
 borrow the language of one of their country- 
 men, " they would be heroes if they were not 
 corruptible." It must be admitted that they 
 are not, as a rule, heroes. The only complaint 
 made by the natives is that you no longer 
 know how to buy justice, the system being 
 so much more complicated than it was under 
 the Pope. 
 
 It was at this time that our farm -labourers 
 deserted in a body, and the reason of their 
 unanimity was afterwards explained by one 
 who wished to be taken back again. 
 
 " They said they would stab me if I refused 
 to go with them," he said. And I can believe 
 it ; for afterwards, when things were re- 
 organized, many shots were heard about the 
 premises, and a gun was fired into the supper- 
 room of our farm- servants, piercing the cap 
 of one of them, who thus narrowly escaped 
 being a martyr in our cause. 
 
 The priests, of course, were not friendly to
 
 76 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC, 
 
 those who had bought Church lands, and as 
 they had enormous influence with the pea- 
 santry, who were already prejudiced against 
 all farming innovations, we soon found our 
 coloni quite unmanageable. It was in vain 
 that my husband endeavoured to introduce 
 new methods of farming ; they were strenu- 
 ously resisted. The oxen had always trodden 
 out the corn, so why use the threshing- 
 machine ? Vines had always been trained up 
 trees grown in the midst of cornfields, and, 
 although the corn round the trees did not 
 ripen, and the tree itself sucked up the mois- 
 ture necessary to the free growth of the vine, 
 it was still maintained that such vineyards 
 were the most economical. The grapes had 
 always .been gathered before they were ripe, 
 and the wine had always been sour ; but they 
 liked it so. The cattle could work, even when 
 half starved ; therefore, why waste your sub- 
 stance in giving them enough to eat ? 
 
 The principal farmer on the property was 
 the most obstinate, and his resistance was at
 
 THE SINDACO. 77 
 
 last carried to a pitch which made a termina- 
 tion of his tenancy indispensable. One day, 
 when my husband went down to the farm of 
 this troublesome tenant to assure himself that 
 some orders he had given respecting the feed- 
 ing of cattle had been executed, all the male 
 portion of the family (eleven) confronted him 
 in a menacing attitude, each armed with a 
 
 pitchfork. A was alone, and unarmed, 
 
 but going up to the foremost he snatched the 
 pitchfork from his hand; the rest dropped 
 their weapons and fled. After this, the family 
 were, of course, given notice to quit. They 
 were rich, and had land of their own, there- 
 fore their ejectment caused them no pecuniary 
 embarrassment ; but many generations had 
 lived and died in that house, and it was not 
 without a certain feeling of commiseration that 
 I saw the long procession of men, women, and 
 children, with all their flocks and herds, their 
 waggons and their asses laden with goods and 
 chattels, wend their way slowly to another 
 home, reminding me vaguely of a scriptural
 
 7 8 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 exodus. I may remark, by the way, that 
 we had ultimately no reason to regret our 
 rupture with these peasants. We did not re- 
 place them, but cultivated the land ourselves ; 
 and it is a significant fact that at the end of 
 the year we had not merely the double profit 
 which their portion added to our own should 
 have made, but four times that of the pre- 
 ceding year. The two halves had grown into 
 four. However, we all agreed to let bygones 
 be bygones, and after some little time the 
 vergaro came to pay a friendly visit, and bade 
 us a tearful farewell, declaring that he should 
 never again have such a good master as my 
 husband, of whom he has since been a most 
 staunch supporter at elections. 
 
 We were now opposed by the united forces 
 of a secret society, a hostile priesthood, the soi- 
 disant republicans, and an ignorant, intractable 
 peasantry. Our position was so unpleasant 
 that we were sorely tempted to abandon an 
 enterprise thus beset with difficulties and dan- 
 gers. The darkest night, however, is just
 
 THE SINDACO. 79 
 
 before the dawn, and a further appeal to the 
 Government resulted in the arrival of various 
 functionaries to investigate the state of the 
 village. Engineers to report on the way in 
 which the building of the new cemetery was 
 being conducted, and a captain of carabinieri, 
 with orders to inquire into the irregularities 
 of his subordinates, some of whom were con- 
 stantly to be seen at the village osteria, and 
 were on the best of terms with our sindaco. 
 These gentlemen imprudently bestowed a good 
 deal of their society upon us, which was but 
 natural, as lodging in the village, though cheap 
 (one franc and a half a day, wine and washing 
 included), was not very luxurious ; and the 
 authorities took care to make things unpleasant 
 to the emissaries of the Government. But, 
 of course, this lent colour to the accusation of 
 undue influence being used by us. They should 
 have kept aloof. Still, I shall always feel 
 grateful to our soldier-guest for the wonderful 
 brigand stories with which he entertained us. 
 One account of a scene which took place some
 
 80 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 fifty years ago at Forlimpopoli should be a 
 boon to novelists ; and, as it is historical, I am 
 surprised that no romance should, as far as 
 I know, have been founded on it. 
 
 A band of brigands surprised a theatre, and, 
 gagging the actors and actresses behind the 
 scenes, presented themselves on the stage before 
 the audience, who, as yet unconscious of any- 
 thing being amiss, began to applaud vocifer- 
 ously, until the brigand chief, stepping forward 
 with his loaded gun pointed at the spectators, 
 exclaimed, " The first who moves or speaks 
 shall be shot." Dead, silence immediately en- 
 sued, only broken by the commands of the 
 bold brigand, who sent one notability after 
 the other to go and fetch his money, leaving 
 his wife and daughters as hostages for his 
 return. Having made his collection, the impu - 
 dent ruffian bowed low, and retired, remarking 
 that he left his guards at the doors, and must 
 request the signori to remain quietly in their 
 places for two hours, until he was safe off. 
 
 The other stories were culled from the per-
 
 THE SINDACO. 8 1 
 
 sonal experiences of our guest, who had lived 
 amongst a band of brigands, disguised as one 
 of themselves, in order to entrap them into a 
 ship supposed to be setting off for Spain with 
 partisans of Don Carlos, whom the brigands 
 were invited to join ; but in reality crammed 
 with carabinieri, who were to secure the 
 brigands immediately they embarked. In 
 order to induce the real brigands to believe 
 in these false ones, a sham fight was got up 
 between the carabinieri and their disguised 
 comrades, which ended in the complete victory 
 of the seeming brigands ; then, and not till 
 then, did Leone and his band lose all diffi- 
 dence, and take these new-found friends into 
 their confidence. For some time the real and 
 sham brigands dwelt together in a disused 
 sulphur mine, feeding in the houses of the 
 manutengoli, or peasants secretly in league 
 with them, and whom they paid handsomely 
 for their services. 
 
 Our friend described the brigands as most 
 affectionate and honourable amongst them- 
 
 6
 
 82 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 selves, and, having once succeeded in gaining 
 their confidence, he found himself treated like 
 a brother. His story was that he had quar- 
 relled with his family, and therefore taken 
 to brigandage, but had no need of money, 
 which he gave as a reason for not joining 
 in marauding expeditions. He found the chief 
 not unwilling to listen to his scheme of join- 
 ing Don Carlos, and all promised well for 
 the success of the plan, when, unluckily, a 
 party of cardbinieri who were not in the plot 
 set upon the brigand band, and captured some 
 of them, amongst others the false ones, who 
 then were obliged to declare themselves. 
 Leone himself escaped, and so the ingenious 
 scheme for his capture was frustrated. 
 
 I asked our captain if he felt no pangs of 
 remorse at the thought of betraying people 
 with whom he had lived in intimacy, and 
 who had received him so hospitably ; to which 
 he replied coolly, "Not the slightest. What 
 have we carabinieri to do with such feelings ? 
 But I admit that I felt considerable fear when
 
 THE SINDACO. 83 
 
 I next visited Sicily, knowing that Leone was 
 still at large, and that he had vowed solemnly 
 to cut me up into little pieces if ever he 
 should succeed in catching me. And I escaped 
 but narrowly, for the diligence by which I 
 was to have travelled, and by which, by some 
 lucky chance, I did not, was waylaid, and the 
 passengers robbed. Leone would not have 
 been content with merely robbing me" 
 
 Another Government inspector, who, as he 
 himself said, had mistaken his vocation, which 
 should have been military, and not civil, dared 
 not trust himself too much in the village, 
 where he was liable to insult and annoyance. 
 " I am sure that I should end by beating the 
 sindaco black and blue," he said ; and then 
 frankly admitted that he had been twice sus- 
 pended from his functions for violent assaults 
 on his enemies. This being the case, I used 
 to watch for his return from his official duties 
 at the village in considerable anxiety, feeling 
 that this manner of arguing with his fists 
 would not much advance the cause, and felt
 
 84 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 relieved when I saw him safely engaged in 
 such peaceful occupations as playing the piano, 
 reading French novels, or instructing our cook 
 in the art of making risotto alia Milanese. 
 
 The reports of these various functionaries were 
 so unfavourable that the council was again 
 dissolved, and a competent person was sent to 
 investigate the state of the village, and to 
 examine the accounts. This gentleman, taken 
 from amongst the high functionaries of the 
 Ministry of the Interior in Kome, whose 
 honesty was above suspicion, and whose 
 abilities were of a high order, avoided any 
 possibility of being biased in his judgments by 
 remaining an entire stranger to ourselves, not 
 so much as setting foot within our doors until 
 his business was at an end. He applied him- 
 self with exclusive devotion to the task before 
 him, and the result of his investigation proved 
 that the various little mistakes and imbrogli, 
 which his predecessor attributed to careless- 
 ness, invariably profited the sindaco ; but so 
 cautiously had he observed the necessary forms
 
 THE SINDACO. 85 
 
 and adhered to the letter of the law, that pro- 
 ceedings against him in ma penale were 
 not thought advisable; but in via civile he 
 was condemned to restore a very large amount 
 of corn " borrowed " on different pretexts from 
 the charitable store, and likewise to pay 
 various creditors of the municipality. These 
 debts amounted to several thousand francs, 
 and when he had paid them the ex-sindaco left 
 the village. 
 
 I must confess to a feeling of disappoint- 
 ment at the offenders having escaped so easily, 
 as their embezzlement of large sums of the 
 public money seemed to me to have been 
 clearly proved to the meanest capacity ; but 
 my astonishment at the leniency shown was 
 nothing in comparison with that of one of 
 our partisans, an old lady in the village. 
 
 " Why all this to-do ? " she inquired indig- 
 nantly of me. " Is not your papa, as I've 
 heard tell, a private counsellor of Queen 
 Victoria ? Now, kings and queens are very 
 friendly with one another, we all know, and
 
 86 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 willing to do each other a pleasure. Let your 
 papa just whisper in Queen Victoria's ear ; let 
 her just send off a line to our Umberto, who 
 will immediately have the whole lot of them 
 popped into prison without all this writing, and 
 talking, and sending one person after another 
 to find out what we all knew before." 
 
 Now arose the question of who was to 
 undertake the duties and responsibilities of 
 sindaco. No one in the village was com- 
 petent or desirous for the work of making 
 order out of chaos. My husband wished to 
 pursue his own business in peace ; but again 
 he yielded to earnest entreaties, and it is now 
 several years since he began his labours ; they 
 have not been light, but neither have they 
 been in vain. The municipality has been 
 freed from debt ; the taxation revised ; the new 
 cemetery (the foundations of which had to be 
 reconstructed) is finished ; the schools, which 
 before can scarcely be said to have existed, 
 having been rearranged and provided with 
 competent masters and mistresses, are well
 
 THE SINDACO. 7 
 
 attended ; even the evening school, constituted 
 for the grown-up villagers who cannot read or 
 write, counts many members; and the infant 
 school, or asilo infantile, for children from 
 three to six, who are provided with their din- 
 ners, washed, combed, and amused all day, is 
 always full. All these things have not been 
 obtained without difficulty and much personal 
 sacrifice. There has been opposition from 
 those for whose benefit they were devised ; 
 there have been murmurings and discontent ; 
 there have been even disturbances, for the evil 
 had left its roots behind it ; but the spectacle 
 of order, cleanliness, and comfort, in a place 
 where so lately reigned confusion, squalor, and 
 misery, in a supreme degree, is more than 
 sufficient reward for much labour and much 
 suffering.
 
 88 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 CITTADINI. 
 
 AMONGST the various specimens of the curato 
 whom I have seen enjoying a pipe and a glass 
 of wine al fresco, or whom I have passed 
 taking an evening stroll, or a ride on a 
 donkey, more than one truly good and pious 
 man might be cited. One whom I constantly 
 met in my walks interested me exceedingly. 
 He was young, certainly not over thirty, and 
 remarkably handsome, in the severe style of 
 the ancient Romans. He walked with down- 
 cast eyes, a breviary in his hand, his lips 
 muttering, I suppose, a prayer. Never did he 
 by word or sign show himself aware of my 
 vicinity. As I was accustomed to salutation 
 from all, and not least from the priests, this
 
 CITTADINI. 89 
 
 astonished me, until I learnt that one of Don 
 Cesare's strict rules was to shun all woman- 
 kind. He kept men-servants only. His re- 
 ligious scruples were many, and his regulations 
 were kept with an unyielding severity, of 
 which the following incident is an example. 
 
 A young man, a stranger to the village, but 
 whom some business had brought there for a 
 time, announced his approaching nuptials with 
 the pretty daughter of the family in whose 
 house he lodged. Her father was one of the 
 large class of decayed nobles who had lived on 
 his small capital whilst it lasted, had mort- 
 gaged his land up to its full value, and now 
 all that remained was a dilapidated house in 
 the village, where he lived with his wife and 
 daughters, who eked out the slender means of 
 the family by embroidery and dressmaking, 
 whilst his only occupation consisted in lament- 
 ing his fallen fortunes. There was no obstacle 
 to the marriage, and the sindaco got his smart 
 sash and his discourse all ready when called 
 upon to unite the couple. It was also notified
 
 90 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 to the curato that lie would be expected to 
 perform the religious ceremony. But, alas! 
 for the unhappy pair, Don Cesare's conscience 
 came in the way of their union. The bride- 
 groom was an ungodly man who never went 
 to Mass, but before the sacrament of marriage 
 he must confess his sins ; further, it was not 
 proper for the affianced couple to live under 
 the same roof before their marriage, and, 
 therefore, either the bridegroom must find 
 another lodging, or the bride must leave her 
 father's house until after the ceremony. These 
 peremptory orders were not complied with. 
 The young man did not choose to confess his 
 sins. The father declared that he was the sole 
 and proper guardian of his own daughter until 
 her marriage, and refused to alter the arrange- 
 ments of his house. The important day ar- 
 rived, and all the village turned out to see the 
 wedding. The ceremony was first performed 
 at the town hall ; the wedding party then 
 repaired to the church, but they found no 
 curato there, and it was presently made known
 
 CITTADINL 91 
 
 that Don Cesare had no intention of perform- 
 ing his part of the ceremony. The sensation 
 was great. 
 
 " It does not matter," said the bridegroom, 
 " for, according to law, we are married already. 
 Come, Bianca, you are my wife ; come with 
 me." 
 
 But Bianca would not ; if their union were 
 not to be blessed by the Church, she would 
 return to her father's house. 
 
 The sindaco then rose, and said, " I call all 
 in the church to witness that this couple came 
 here with the intention of being married." 
 
 The sympathies of the congregation were all 
 with the half-married pair, and the sindaco's 
 speech was received with applause. Persuasions, 
 entreaties, threats all were tried in vain. Don 
 Cesare stood firm, and the bride returned to 
 her father's house. Of course, it was not in 
 the nature of things that the curato's scruples 
 could long keep apart a pair already married 
 according to law. But I will leave the de- 
 nouement of the difficulty to be imagined
 
 92 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 rather than bring so thrilling a situation to 
 the prosaic ending which romances are apt to 
 have in real life. 
 
 Poor Don Cesare I His own subsequent 
 fate deserved and obtained far more pity than 
 that rather unnecessarily bestowed upon the 
 bridal pair. Some wicked person made a 
 scandalous and utterly false accusation against 
 him to the archbishop, who, perhaps irritated 
 by many well-founded complaints of the sort 
 against his subordinates, lent a too-credulous 
 ear. Don Cesare received a severe reprimand, 
 and, in spite of his conscious innocence, this 
 was more than he could bear. In vain the 
 villagers offered to testify to his excellent con- 
 duct ; it was of no avail. The poor priest's 
 feelings had been so deeply wounded that his 
 mind gave way under the shock. He is now 
 mad not a raving lunatic. He still walks in 
 the processions of the Church, and it was so 
 engaged that I last saw him ; but the hopeless 
 melancholy of his face haunts me still. His 
 case is thought incurable.
 
 C ITT AD INI. 93 
 
 Next to the sindaco and the curato, the 
 medico condotto must be considered the 
 most important functionary in the village. 
 His system is usually antiquated, his drugs are 
 few and simple, and appear to be administered 
 indiscriminately for every kind of malady ; 
 but this suits his patients very well, as they 
 are indifferent to the sort of medicine they 
 take, provided they have enough for their 
 money, and the more the doctor bleeds and 
 the more he drugs, the more confidence he 
 inspires. The villagers very much prefer the 
 ministrations of their own doctor to being 
 taken care of in the hospital, of which they 
 have a peculiar and unaccountable dread. 
 During an epidemic of diphtheria, for which 
 our village doctor prescribed leeches, so many 
 sufferers died, that when one of our servants 
 (a peasant) was attacked we hoped to save 
 her by sending her to the hospital in the town. 
 She was there delivered over to the care of 
 the good nuns, who presided as nurses; but 
 such was her horror of the dreaded hospital
 
 94 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC, 
 
 that she effected her escape, and to our dis- 
 may we beheld her returning on foot from 
 the place eight miles off to which she had 
 been conveyed in an apparently dying con- 
 dition that very morning. The resistance of 
 the poor, not only to- all the remedies, but to 
 all the comforts of a hospital, is a curious 
 instance of the force of habit and association 
 of ideas. It is difficult to cure or strengthen 
 them when they strenuously resist meat, coffee, 
 milk, eggs, and wheaten bread, but entreat 
 piteously for their erba, their polenta, and 
 bread of gran turco, or Indian corn. The 
 medico condotto knows better than to combat 
 any of their prejudices, and I am not sure that 
 he does not share a few himself, for peasants 
 and villagers often come with a request for a 
 nosegay composed of every species of flower in 
 my garden, from which to make a decoction 
 prescribed by the doctor. I do not know 
 whether it was by the doctor's recommenda- 
 tion that a peasant I know washed his pigs 
 with the erba d'invidia, as a precaution
 
 CITTADINI, 95 
 
 against the envy of neighbours whose pigs 
 were not so fat. According to himself, this 
 treatment had a magical effect ; the pigs, 
 which had begun to decline (evidently through 
 the jealous incantations of one of these neigh- 
 bours), immediately resumed their former 
 health. 
 
 The doctor has nothing to do with the 
 babies. The levatrice brings them into the 
 world, and she can at least boast of much 
 experience. I know one who has exercised 
 the trade ever since she was twelve years old. 
 The mother has a bad time under her auspices ; 
 but the baby is more to be pitied still, and 
 that it should survive the various tortures to 
 which it is subjected on its first entrance into 
 the world has always been a marvel to me. 
 It is branded in the neck ; its ears are bored ; 
 it is tied up like a mummy in the horrible 
 fascia, in which not only its legs, but often its 
 arms, are rendered immovable ; and before it 
 is an hour old it is carried off, first to the 
 municipality to have its birth registered, and
 
 96 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 then to church to be baptized. Still, it has 
 one blessing too often denied to English in- 
 fants ; it is never deprived of its natural food, 
 " the bottle " being an institution unknown in 
 a country where cow's milk is almost unattain- 
 able, and considered, besides, both unwhole- 
 some and disgusting as an article of food. 
 Goat's milk, however, is sometimes substituted 
 for that of the mother or wet-nurse ; but the 
 child is put under the goat to drink it au 
 naturel feeding-bottles require care, trouble, 
 and cleanliness to a degree impossible of 
 attainment by people of such dirty and dis- 
 orderly habits. 
 
 In an account of village notabilities, the 
 schoolmaster and schoolmistress must not be 
 left out. Their acquirements do not reach a 
 very high standard, the three E's being all 
 that is necessary for children from six to nine 
 years of age, which is the period of life fixed 
 upon by the Government for compulsory edu- 
 cation, and their pay is so very scanty that 
 one wonders how it can obtain them the neces-
 
 C ITT AD INI. 97 
 
 saries of life, much less the superfluities. To 
 be sure, living is cheap ; for board and lodging, 
 the best to be had in the village, with wine 
 and washing included, more than a franc and 
 a half a day would not be asked. But that 
 is far beyond the means of a schoolmistress 
 with four hundred francs a year, who would 
 rather die than fail to appear on high days 
 and holidays in a very smart hat overloaded 
 with flowers and feathers, and a gown made 
 in the newest fashion known to her. It is 
 amazing how smart the very poorest lady, 
 who has any pretensions to being such, will 
 turn out on occasions, however dilapidated her 
 home attire. 
 
 Two young ladies belonging to an old but 
 utterly ruined family, whose parents were too 
 poor to keep a servant, used to excite a 
 sensation, during their evening promenade, 
 by the most fashionable of hats and cos- 
 tumes, with their fans, smelling-bottles, lace 
 handkerchiefs, and gloves, all complete. In 
 order to obtain these dresses, the young ladies 
 
 7
 
 9& OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 had to condescend so far as to work for the 
 peasants, who paid them for the manufacture 
 of the smart stays and embroidered chemises 
 which they wear on feast-days. The lace veil 
 is now almost entirely confined to the class 
 called " artisti;" that is, shopkeepers and skilled 
 workpeople the lower bourgeoisie, in short. 
 
 It is in these remote villages that the speci- 
 mens of decayed nobility, of whom I have 
 written elsewhere, are mostly to be found- 
 people bearing grand names and retaining 
 considerable pride in their ancient lineage, 
 whom generations of idleness and unthriftiness 
 have reduced to extreme poverty. They are 
 not educated for any profession, indeed they 
 have often no education at all ; and when 
 starvation stares them in the face, they have 
 no resource but to earn their bread by manual 
 labour. One noble count of my acquaintance 
 is a carpenter, another a bricklayer. I have 
 seen the granddaughters of a countess working 
 in the fields ; and I know another who is a 
 servant in a family less noble than her own,
 
 CITTADINI. 99 
 
 and whose pay is five francs a month. I re- 
 member nothing more melancholy than the 
 assemblage of poverty-stricken nobles I once 
 met at the house of a village magistrate. We 
 were at supper, and as one ragged and dirty 
 old man after another came shambling in, each 
 in turn, to my great surprise, was introduced to 
 me as the descendant of an ancient and noble 
 family, but fallen " caduto," added my host, 
 with a gesture of compassion. The old man 
 would then bow his head in melancholy ac- 
 quiescence, and, casting a rueful glance at his 
 tattered cloak with the faded green lining, 
 slink into a chair at the far end of the table. 
 
 Of the hospitable entertainer something has 
 been said before. Almost every village can 
 boast a palazzo, inhabited by a well-to-do 
 patrician family, the head of which, having 
 been more prudent or more lucky than his 
 neighbours, has kept his property intact. 
 Although extremely " close " with his money, 
 in most other things he is liberal to excess ; no 
 doubt because the abundant produce of his land
 
 100 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 is not easily turned into money. He keeps 
 open house not only to passing travellers, but for 
 decayed gentry, whose families once vied with 
 his own. Neighbours lower in the social scale 
 are also admitted ; these form a sort of court, 
 and are expected to make themselves useful 
 at a pinch help to cook the dinner, look after 
 the children, wait at table, etc. When not 
 otherwise occupied, they keep their benefactor 
 company, listen to his stories, laugh at his 
 jokes, retail or invent gossip, and so earn their 
 dinner or their supper. To the poor he is 
 very charitable. One day in the week bread 
 is distributed to all who apply for it, and 
 their number is legion. On that day the 
 house is in a state of siege, incessant is the 
 knocking at the door, and loud the clamours 
 for " pane," pane !" At Easter, ciambelli are 
 distributed in the same lavish manner. The 
 owner of the palazzo adds to his other virtues 
 that of being a kind husband and an anxious 
 father. 
 
 The signora has seldom much authority in
 
 CITTADINL 10 1 
 
 the household. She was married straight from 
 the convent at fifteen or sixteen, and since then 
 her mind has not grown much. She is indolent, 
 and occupies herself as little as possible with 
 the management of her household and children. 
 Her one passion is dress, and in this her 
 husband indulges her. He has found out that 
 the gift of a new gown or a pair of earrings is 
 the surest and easiest way to her heart, and it 
 is by such presents that domestic peace is 
 restored after a breeze such as not unfrequently 
 disturbs the harmony of home. During the 
 summer months, the signora passes the greater 
 part of each day in sleep. In the cool of the 
 evening she attires herself in gorgeous array, 
 and saunters down the promenade, accompanied 
 by her maid. In spite of sleep, of dress, of 
 evening promenades, much gossip, and even of 
 a little harmless flirtation with an adorer who 
 comes daily to the house, and has employed 
 his leisure moments in composing odes in her 
 honour for some twenty years or so, ever since 
 they both were married, and will continue to
 
 102 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 do so until their grandchildren begin to remind 
 them of the lapse of time, the signora occa- 
 sionally finds time hang heavily on her hands. 
 The children are neglected in a way which 
 strikingly contrasts with the good manage- 
 ment of our nurseries. The balia, or wet-nurse, 
 continues her services for eighteen months, 
 sometimes she is taken into the house ; but 
 more often the infant is put out to nurse, 
 and forms part of a peasant's family for the 
 first four or five years of its life. This saves a 
 great deal of trouble, and the saving of trouble 
 appears to be the chief thing considered in the 
 rearing of infants. 
 
 The fascia is found a convenient style of 
 dress for mothers and nurses. The cruelty 
 to the child of binding up its legs so tightly 
 that it cannot move them seems never to 
 be considered. When thus done up, and tied 
 .at intervals with twine, like a parcel, the 
 baby is carried upright under one arm. It is 
 no one's particular business to look after the 
 children when they are taken from their foster-
 
 CITTADINI. 103 
 
 mother. They are too young for the father's 
 care ; the mother often considers them very 
 much in her way ; they eat what they can get ; 
 and the lady's maid washes them up when she 
 has got time, which is not every day. 
 
 At the age of ten or twelve, the boys are sent 
 to a seminario, the girls to a convent, to be 
 educated ; but in what their education consists 
 is a mystery. An Italian lady, whose educa- 
 tion has been completed at a most fashionable 
 convent, asked me if it was really necessary to 
 cross the sea in order to get to England. My 
 explanation that England was an island did 
 not enlighten her at all, for she did not know 
 that " island " meant land surrounded by water. 
 The boys are very thankful when allowed to 
 exchange the priest's dress they are obliged to 
 wear at their school for secular garments ; but 
 they are sometimes kept in the seminario, to be 
 out of mischief, till they are past twenty. The 
 father finds them on their return singularly 
 devoid of all useful information and all prac- 
 tical ideas. The only occupation to which
 
 104 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 they take kindly is la caccia, and they seldom 
 through life pursue any other avocation 
 with much zest. One, maybe, has abilities 
 ambition wishes to do something in the world ; 
 but it is now too late to take to a profession. 
 He has wasted the best years of his youth, or 
 rather they have been wasted for him, and he 
 complains bitterly that he is fit for nothing but 
 a priest. A priest he will not be, neither is 
 he content to remain at home, with nothing 
 but his miserable younger son's portion to live 
 on. Half the entire fortune goes to the eldest 
 son, and the other half is divided in equal 
 portions amongst the remaining children. He 
 is taken by the conscription, and has to serve 
 three years as a common soldier. This son, 
 naturally the best endowed, too often turns out 
 the black sheep of the family. 
 
 The daughters, on their return from the 
 convent, are subjected to a discipline almost 
 as strict as that of the nuns. They may 
 never leave the house except with their 
 father, neither mother nor brothers beino- con-
 
 CITTADINI. 105 
 
 sidered escort enough. They are not allowed 
 to read any books but fashion-books, not even 
 the " Promessi Sposi," and they are locked into 
 their rooms at night. I knew one imaginative 
 girl who employed the time during which she 
 was locked into her own room in writing 
 thrilling romances, which before morning 
 she burned. It was in vain that I would -beg 
 her stern parent to let her stay with me for 
 a few days. In spite of his protestations, 
 couched in the usual flowery language, that 
 no treasure was too priceless to be entrusted to 
 my care, the girl was on no account to be 
 withdrawn for a day from the paternal surveil- 
 lance, nor was she allowed to come with me in 
 the carriage, accompanied by a brother, because 
 she would then have to return alone with the 
 brother. When emancipated by marriage, she 
 broke out, but only in the way of literature. 
 She cared neither for balls nor theatres, but 
 literally devoured books, and to her credit be 
 it said, she did not confine herself to novels. 
 History, science, metaphysics nothing came
 
 106 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 amiss to her. What must not an intelligent 
 girl, with a taste for reading, have suffered dur- 
 ing twenty years of such unnatural repression ! 
 
 The serious occupation of the Italian young 
 lady is embroidery for her trousseau or cor- 
 redo, as she will call it, and many a bride 
 can produce hundreds of chemises, petticoats, 
 etc., all elaborately embroidered and arranged 
 in drawers, each dozen tied with a different 
 ribbon. She will tell you she began this work 
 at seven years old. 
 
 In spite of the size of the house, the 
 numerous family (for when the sons marry 
 they remain with their wives and children 
 under the paternal roof), and the extensive 
 scale on which hospitality is exercised, the 
 servants are few two or three at the utmost 
 and those few find plenty of time in which 
 to gossip and amuse themselves ; but then 
 Italian ideas of what constitutes comfort and 
 cleanliness are not ours. The large, bare 
 saloons are uninhabited, except on grand occa- 
 sions. The family sit in a dingy room on the
 
 CITTADINL 107 
 
 ground floor, stone-paved and carpetless, fur- 
 nished with a couple of benches against the 
 wall, a table in the middle, and one armchair. 
 The stone floor is never scrubbed ; the win- 
 dows are cleaned once in a generation ; the 
 furniture is dusted but rarely. There are no 
 fireplaces, and a bath is required but once or 
 twice in the course of the year. The only 
 breakfast is a tiny cup of black coffee, taken 
 in bed. There is no separate cookery for 
 children or servants ; the former feed with 
 their parents, and the latter eat what remains 
 after the family have dined. 
 
 In short, although there is a great deal of 
 very real affection in families, and one cannot 
 but admire the free-handed hospitality, there 
 is not much refinement. Bedrooms are as 
 much open to the public as sitting-rooms. 
 There is literally no reserve in conversation, 
 and the head of the family will frequently 
 belabour his female relations pretty severely. 
 
 One extremely pious old bachelor, who lived 
 with his two old maiden sisters, shocked the
 
 I08 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 general susceptibilities by tlie beatings lie 
 bestowed upon these poor old ladies when his 
 dinner was not cooked to his liking. And 
 still more scandalous was the case of a village 
 lady (one who wore a hat and this is the 
 great distinction), who was occasionally be- 
 laboured by her own man-servant. In strik- 
 ing contrast with these domestic amenities is 
 the elaborate courtesy which the Italian puts 
 on with his best clothes when he goes a 
 visiting. The bowings and scrapings, the 
 compliments couched in the most flowery 
 language, the tact, the delicacy, the self- 
 restraint that he will then exhibit, so far from 
 palliating his home conduct, seem to me very 
 much to aggravate it ; for it proves that he is 
 not a mere savage, with no sense of refinement, 
 but more or less a cultivated person. 
 
 These villagers seldom wander many miles 
 from home, and, if they do, suffer dreadfully 
 from home-sickness. One, quite the smartest 
 young man in the place, was adventurous 
 enough to visit Naples ; but the strangeness
 
 CITTADINL 109 
 
 of the fashionable life to which he was intro- 
 duced so depressed him, that he wept inces- 
 santly until restored to his beloved home. 
 And a lady who was persuaded to visit Rome 
 felt nothing but bitter mortification at the 
 discovery of her own insignificance. In her 
 native village she was the envied and admired 
 of all beholders, and she was only consoled for 
 the neglect suffered in the Eternal City by the 
 display on her return of a number of smart 
 gowns, which nothing could induce her to put 
 on in the unappreciative capital. 
 
 " What does it matter how I dress in Rome, 
 where nobody looks at me?" she remarked, 
 with some logic. Still, one would think that 
 they must be the better for a little expansion 
 of their ideas and an insight into the ways of 
 civilized life. 
 
 I cannot give a better illustration of the 
 extreme primitiveness of these mountain 
 villages than by mentioning that one mu- 
 nicipality sent a donkey-cart filled entirely 
 with copper coins, in liquidation of its debt
 
 110 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 to an engineer, who received payment in this 
 form without surprise and with but faint 
 expostulation,*"only remarking mildly that if 
 they had happened to have had a few notes 
 or a little gold, it would have been more 
 convenient. 
 
 Village life appears to me to partake of the 
 drawbacks both of town and country, and not 
 to possess the advantages of either. The 
 purely unsophisticated outdoor life of the 
 peasant is, I think, very much to be preferred 
 to that of the richest and most important 
 dweller in one of these puny cities.
 
 ( III 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CONTADINI. 
 
 IT has always seemed to me that the well-to- 
 do Italian peasant must think that the world, 
 or at all events the world he sees, was made 
 on purpose for him. The soil, with its rich 
 harvests, is peculiarly his own. The fairs 
 supply all his wants in the way of clothes, 
 ornaments, and utensils ; the padrone is there, 
 all ready to be cheated ; the priest to look 
 after his soul. Processions and festas to amuse 
 him. When prosperous, he knows no ungrati- 
 fied desire. Therefore, though lowest of all 
 in the social scale, and despised by the most 
 humble cittadino, yet " noi altri contadini," as 
 they call themselves cheerfully, see no reason
 
 112 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 to be dissatisfied with their lot, and seldom 
 seek to rise a degree above their own. 
 
 Our contadino may own many acres of land ; 
 but, however rich he may become by successful 
 agriculture, his habits, manners, and ideas 
 undergo no change. Reading and writing are 
 arts which he despises, and never wishes his 
 children to learn. The women are sometimes 
 gorgeous in velvet and silk, and are laden with 
 massive gold ornaments ; but their costume 
 is still strictly the peasant costume. 
 
 The houses are often large, for many branches 
 of a family dwell together in a sort of clan, 
 and I have known seven brothers, all with 
 wives and children, live under the same roof. 
 One of the brothers, not always the eldest, is 
 called the vergaro; the wife of another, the 
 vergara; and these two take the command. 
 The couple are not often man and wife, as 
 that would place all the power in the hands 
 of one family. The next important office is 
 that of caporale, as the guardian of the oxen 
 is called.
 
 CONTAD1NI. 1 1 3 
 
 No one is ever called by his or her surname. 
 One family will be nicknamed Gobbo; another, 
 Zoppo ; a third, Matto ; for no ostensible 
 reason, as the peculiarities indicated by their 
 nicknames may not be observable in any one 
 of them. Coming once upon a large party of 
 labourers at work on a hill-side, I inquired, 
 " Who may you be ? " " Siamo Cico," was 
 the reply, as with one voice. But the real 
 name of the Cicos I have never been able to 
 discover, nor is there any clue to the origin 
 of the nickname, unless it was invented to 
 rhyme with Trico, the appellation of a flourish- 
 ing family who live in the same neighbourhood, 
 and whose real name is Biancucci. 
 
 The men have discarded their once pictur- 
 esque costume. On working days they wear 
 a white smock, and on Sundays home manu- 
 factured coats and trousers of an exceedingly 
 awkward shape. The high-crowned felt hat, 
 adorned with a feather or a flower, the ear- 
 rings, and the red sashes round their waists, 
 with sometimes a knife peeping out of the 
 
 8
 
 1 14 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 folds, are all that remain greatly to distinguish 
 them from the English rustic. But the 
 women's attire is picturesque enough, especi- 
 ally in summer, when they have uncovered 
 their stays and white chemises. The stays, 
 sometimes of black velvet, but oftener of some 
 more ordinary material, are laced, up at the 
 back with white or coloured braids ; the skirt, 
 generally either blue or striped blue and red, 
 is turned up and looped behind over one or 
 more very short white petticoats. A narrow 
 apron of some different colour from that of the 
 dress is always worn out of doors, although 
 indoors it is not considered necessary. Gay 
 kerchiefs are worn across the shoulders and 
 folded square on the head. Enormous gold 
 earrings and a coral necklace are thought 
 proper adjuncts. During the height of summer, 
 a broad straw hat surmounts the kerchief, and 
 the feet and legs are bare. On festa days 
 they swell out their hips with an immense 
 quantity of stiff petticoats. I have heard of 
 as many as eighteen being worn on a grand
 
 CO NT ADI NL 115 
 
 occasion. When the skirt is let down, and 
 the chemise and stays are covered with an ill- 
 fitting loose jacket, the contadina looks as 
 ungainly as before she was graceful. The 
 babies, as soon as they are released from the 
 fascia are dressed exactly like their mothers 
 and grandmothers, and one sees children of 
 a year old, not yet able to walk, with the 
 matronly apron and kerchief folded crosswise 
 across the chest, looking like miniature old 
 women. 
 
 The practice of carrying all weights on the 
 head gives a very peculiar swinging walk. 
 A cloth rolled in a circle is placed on the 
 head, and on the top of it the basket or 
 pitcher, frequently quite askew ; but it never 
 falls, and a hand is never raised to support it. 
 I have seen women stoop to pick up something 
 from the ground without disturbing the balance 
 of their basket. 
 
 Labour is cheap. For seventy-five centimes 
 a man, and for forty-five a woman, will work 
 from sunrise to sunset through a long summer's
 
 Il6 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 day, and many will come from villages several 
 miles off, to return when their work is done, 
 taking only one hour for repose and food. How 
 they contrive to exist with so little sleep and so 
 little food, I cannot imagine. They are seldom 
 in bed before midnight, and all through the 
 summer are up again at three. The dinner of 
 our labourers consisted of a hunch of Indian- 
 corn bread and any fruit which might be in 
 season an apple, a pear, or a bunch of grapes ; 
 that was all. Wine is a rare luxury with the 
 poorer class of peasants, and meat or eggs rarer 
 still. 
 
 Between these wretched day-labourers, who 
 can and do exist on an income equivalent 
 to four English pounds a year, and those 
 prosperous peasants who have land of their 
 own, there is a great distinction ; and a con- 
 tadino grosso who marries one of the indigent 
 of his own class is held to have made a mis- 
 alliance. I was walking once with a contadina, 
 whose husband was part proprietor with our- 
 selves, and who enjoyed the proud title of
 
 CONTADINI. 117 
 
 vergara. We passed a woman who claimed ac- 
 quaintance with her. This contadina, who 
 wore a magnificent coral necklace and gold 
 earrings, though her chemise was patched, and 
 her petticoat in rags, was the daughter of a 
 contadino grosso, and had married beneath 
 her a poor fellow who kept but one pig, and 
 inhabited a cottage built of mud, as Annun- 
 ziata informed me, weeping over the unhappy 
 fate of an old friend so come down in the world. 
 I have said that with some of our coloni 
 we could not manage to get on ; but others 
 have grown attached to us, and have given 
 proofs of real friendship one in particular, the 
 only male representative of a small farm, 
 served us with a loyalty, I may say devotion, 
 as touching as it is rare. But poor Vallucci, 
 with the best will in the world, could not be a 
 very valuable ally ; not only was he miserably 
 poor, but half-witted. He would follow my 
 husband about like a dog, and served him 
 with that heroism of devotion so often seen 
 in dumb animals, so rarely in those endowed
 
 Il8 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 with reason. Many a beating did the poor 
 fellow get from his comrades for revealing 
 their dishonesty. He would come to me in 
 woful plight for some sticking-plaster, explain- 
 ing, "Signora, they have beat me because I 
 told about the eggs ; but I will always tell 
 always." And he did. He was continually 
 ailing, being as infirm in body as in mind. 
 Yet he did many a hard day's work uncom- 
 plainingly. Seeing me once seek violets in the 
 hedges, he never failed from that time to 
 present me every morning with a fresh bunch. 
 His great ambition was to adopt the opinions 
 and views of the Padrone ; but, unfortunately, 
 these opinions were a little beyond his com- 
 prehension. One thing he did know the 
 Padrone was not fond of priests ; therefore, no 
 more religion for Vallucci. His end was 
 tragic ; he did not, however, fall a martyr in 
 our cause, but in that of love. Although very 
 poor, he was a proprietor, a vergaro, and, in 
 spite of his small wit and repulsive appear- 
 ance, a woman was found who consented to
 
 CO NT ADI NL 119 
 
 marry him. Eager to do himself honour in 
 the eyes of his betrothed, he lifted, in her 
 presence, a too-heavy load, thus overstraining 
 himself, and producing an injury of which he 
 died before his nuptials could be celebrated. 
 My husband accompanied his remains to the 
 cemetery, animated by a very real sorrow for 
 the poor, faithful creature in whom the sublime 
 and the ridiculous were blended even to the 
 last A fond mother and sister had crowned 
 that head, scarcely human in its ugliness, with 
 a wreath of flowers, and the sister persistently 
 chanted at the funeral service, " Santa demo- 
 nio, ora pro nobis ; " she meant, " Regina sanc- 
 torum omnium ora pro nobis." 
 
 I have not described the looks of our 
 peasants. They are seldom well made, the 
 bodies being long, and the legs short, and 
 often bandy, in consequence, I believe, of the 
 fascia. But some very pretty, pleasant faces 
 may be seen amongst them. Their northern 
 conquerors have left their traces not only in 
 such names as Ermenegilda, Geltrude, Aldi-
 
 120 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 berta, etc., which bespeak a Teutonic origin, 
 but also in the flaxen hair and blue eyes the 
 " occhi bianchi," as all light-coloured eyes are 
 called, and which are not prized as in most 
 southern climes, but lamented as a defect. 
 
 Though the population is comparatively 
 peaceable, and crimes of violence are rarer 
 than in most parts of Italy, yet at the time of 
 the harvest, in the midst of the dancing and 
 feasting and asking in marriage, which goes 
 on simultaneously, the doctor's services are 
 much in request for the binding up of broken, 
 or rather cut, heads. Where an Englishman 
 would use his fists, an Italian brings out his 
 knife. I have been awakened at midnight, on 
 the occasion of a peasants' ball on our own 
 premises, by a request for lint and bandages, 
 as, owing to a little misunderstanding, one of 
 the dancers had received five knife-cuts in his 
 head. It was not thought necessary to inquire 
 closely into so trifling a matter, especially as 
 the recipient of the five knife-cuts survived. 
 
 I am not sure, however, that they would go
 
 CONTADINI. 121 
 
 the length of the Calabrian soldier, who, when 
 he had shot seven of his companions dead and 
 wounded several others, wrote to his mother, 
 complaining of having been imprisoned for a 
 slight misunderstanding with his comrades. 
 Although the coloni are outwardly submissive, 
 even cringing, they will rebel against an abuse 
 of the Padrone s power, which is indeed tre- 
 mendous if he chooses to exercise it ; but, as a 
 rule, he is too indolent, and leaves all to the 
 fattore, who finds it convenient to be popular 
 with the peasants, and therefore is not dis- 
 posed to treat their shortcomings with severity. 
 
 The proprietor, on making or renewing the 
 contract, imposes what conditions he pleases, 
 and although the peasant is not bound to 
 accept them, his only alternative is to leave 
 his home the home, probably, of his fore- 
 fathers for generations back. 
 
 One of the family is often obliged to act 
 as servant to the Padrone, without the option 
 that all servants have of "giving warning." 
 No ; if he or she gives warning, the whole
 
 122 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 family must be prepared to decamp. What- 
 ever labour may be going on on the land 
 they cultivate, they must leave it, and bring 
 oxen and carts to serve any caprice of their 
 employer. They can neither buy nor sell 
 any beast without his permission. On the 
 other hand, if things go ill with them, their 
 Padrone can scarcely refuse to come to the 
 rescue and supply them with money or corn. 
 But the debt thus contracted places them 
 still more in his power for, before they seek 
 another home, this debt must be paid there- 
 fore, although the facilities for cheating are 
 such as to elude the vigilance of the most 
 wideawake master, the peasants do not always 
 get the best of the bargain. Not long ago, 
 a neighbour of our own, a just man, but hard, 
 was shot dead by one of his peasants whilst 
 settling his accounts. And there have been 
 instances of proprietors surprised in their own 
 houses, and robbed with violence by their 
 coloni. 
 
 The ruling passion of the peasant is avarice.
 
 CONTADINI. 123 
 
 No occasion short of a marriage or a christen- 
 ing will induce him to keep back a fowl or a 
 few eggs for his own consumption. It must 
 be an affectionate parent who will invest in 
 medicine for a sick child, although for an ox 
 or a pig the outlay might be thought justifi- 
 able, and not all their piety could induce our 
 peasants to subscribe a few sous each for the 
 celebration of Mass in the little church which 
 forms part of our property. They will, how- 
 ever, bestow all but money freely for the good 
 of Mother Church, and the mendicant friars 
 are never turned from their doors. 
 
 " Your pigs are too thin," said an anti- 
 clerical proprietor to his coloni, in my hearing. 
 " You starve them." 
 
 " Ah, Padrone ! we poor peasants haven't 
 enough for ourselves, much less for the 
 beasts." 
 
 " But there is a very fat frate whom I 
 see always about your house. Now, I should 
 like to see that friar thinner and your pigs 
 fatter ! "
 
 124 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 The Italian peasant has often been made 
 
 the subject of romance, but I have seen so 
 
 much of the prosaic side of him that I must 
 
 say I should prefer to grow sentimental over 
 
 the English cottager, who seems to me not 
 
 so entirely devoid of the finer feelings, and 
 
 whose dwelling, at least, is gay with bright 
 
 shrubs and flowers ; whereas, I never see here 
 
 a flower cultivated for its beauty, if I except 
 
 an occasional row of glaring sunflowers, 
 
 which I am not aesthetic enough to admire. 
 
 I have seen peasants with bouquets of 
 
 gloriously beautiful wild flowers in their 
 
 hands, and when I have paused to admire 
 
 them, " They are the nasty weeds that we 
 
 have been taking out of the corn" is the 
 
 explanation. " That erba is not good to 
 
 eat, neither is it a medicine/' has been the 
 
 information vouchsafed by wondering peasants 
 
 who have seen me get wet in struggles after 
 
 the maidenhair fern which lined the sides 
 
 of a well 
 
 The utter want of curiosity about anything
 
 CONTADINI. 125 
 
 which does not represent money has often 
 struck me. When I found a monster cater- 
 pillar, and asked a peasant what butterfly 
 it made, the rustic gazed upon me with more 
 than the usual pity and contempt which my 
 ignorance is wont to excite. " How can that 
 make a butterfly, when it has not got wings ? " 
 he asked. He was an adept at rearing silk- 
 worms, but evidently not given to unprofit- 
 able speculations on natural history ; and he 
 was not alone in his ignorance. Not one of 
 the peasants by whom we live surrounded, 
 and who rear thousands of silkworms every 
 year, had ever noticed that other insects 
 undergo the same transformation, or would 
 believe in my caterpillar until he actually 
 became a butterfly I should say a moth, 
 for that he was, as are also the silkworms. 
 
 How I have wished for a little more know- 
 ledge of natural history when contemplating 
 the insect wonders of my Italian home ! 
 Amongst them are armies of black bees, who 
 build their cells upon, or rather in, the walls
 
 126 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 of houses, and even perforate stones ; but 
 their cells contain no honey, and an engineer 
 informed me that these bees, which disfigure 
 buildings with their empty honeycombs, sting 
 horribly, and are of no manner of use. To 
 my mind they are very beautiful creatures, 
 especially the larger kind, which are as big 
 as hornets. Their body is a velvety black, 
 and their wings of a deep blue. There are 
 most brilliantly coloured creatures, too, which 
 haunt the flowers I scarcely know whether 
 to call them fly or butterfly with long 
 bodies, black, red, or blue, and spotted wings, 
 smaller, longer and narrower than those of 
 the butterfly, but not gauzy like those of the 
 dragon-fly. Then one sees leaves and twigs 
 moving, discovering only by their locomotion 
 that they are insects, bearing the very closest 
 resemblance to those inanimate objects. The 
 garden at night is illumined by myriads of 
 fire-flies, whizzing through the air, and dis- 
 appearing into space like tiny shooting-stars. 
 To return to the peasants. If I have given
 
 CONTADINL 
 
 I2 7 
 
 a shock to the traditional romance attached to 
 them, I sincerely regret it, and can truly say 
 that no one was more disposed than I to take 
 an interest in these, the only human beings 
 with whom I came much in contact. But with 
 them, as with so much besides, only the outside 
 view is attractive. They are picturesque in 
 dress, pleasing in manner, accommodating up 
 to a certain point, willing to express sympathy 
 or to fall in with your moods by their ready 
 smiles and tears. But one must be content 
 with the surface; there are ugly sights be- 
 neath hypocrisy, greed, avarice, cruelty, or 
 at least stony-heartedness, superstition, and 
 irreligion. Their absolute contentedness with 
 themselves and their own condition causes 
 despair in those who would seek to better 
 them. There is an absence of all remorse, all 
 shame, all desire to improve, about .these 
 peasants, which paralyzes one's energies. As 
 for exceptions, it is well for poor human 
 nature that there are exceptions ; but they 
 prove the rule.
 
 128 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 OCCUPATIONS AND AMUSEMENTS. 
 
 IT has been said that Italian ladies who have 
 finished their trousseaux are sometimes at a 
 loss for occupation ; but the cultivation of silk- 
 worms, which is one of their recognized em- 
 ployments, gives them occupation enough 
 while it lasts. The money obtained by the 
 sale of the bozzoli is their perquisite, to be 
 spent in an excursion, a new gown, or a 
 bracelet ; in short, an acknowledged extra, not 
 to be counted into the ordinary income. The 
 mulberry is cultivated solely for the sake of 
 its leaves, of which the silkworms devour an 
 almost incredible quantity. There are many 
 establishments for the preservation of the eggs ; 
 but some years ago the seme was discovered
 
 OCCUPATIONS AND AMUSEMENTS. 129 
 
 to be in a bad condition, which resulted in 
 disease amongst the silkworms. More seme 
 was, therefore, imported from China, and since 
 then the silkworms have flourished. It is an 
 amusing industry, and goes on in the months 
 of May and June. The first proceeding is to 
 prepare a suite of rooms. These rooms must be 
 divested of all furniture, except movable shelves 
 of wooden framework, crossed with wire, ar- 
 ranged on stands. Eolls of perforated paper 
 are also indispensable, a jar of sulphuric acid 
 mixed with chloride of lime, a thermometer, 
 and last, but not least, a stove, complete the 
 list of necessaries. The eggs are then placed 
 in paper boxes, with net stretched over them, 
 and atop of the net a mulberry leaf. The 
 eggs are bought by the ounce, and an ounce 
 of seme, costing eighteen francs, will produce, 
 if all goes well, five hundred. This is a large 
 profit in proportion to the outlay, as the mul- 
 berries probably grow on the estate. But the 
 work is very hard, and continues through the 
 day and night. During the hatching process 
 
 9
 
 130 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 the temperature of the room must be very 
 high, at least 24 C. that is, 73 Fahr. 
 
 After ten days or so, one sees the tiny eggs 
 unroll into worms, which, climbing up the sides 
 of their box and through the meshes of the 
 net on to the mulberry leaf, begin to gnaw. 
 Once hatched, the creatures grow visibly, until 
 they attain the size of your little finger, and 
 change in colour from nearly black to nearly 
 white. Soon the contents of one little paper 
 box, a few inches square, will fill a large room 
 with voracious caterpillars, devouring whole 
 branches of mulberries in an incredibly short 
 space of time. 
 
 The trees on the estate are all stripped, 
 leaves and branches are brought in cartloads, 
 the workers' arms ache with incessant strip- 
 ping, but the insatiable creatures are never 
 content. The eagerness with which they 
 raise their heads as you provide them with a 
 fresh supply of leaves is agreeable, for one 
 likes to find one's good offices appreciated. 
 Then a gentle crackling is heard, and you
 
 OCCUPATIONS AND AMUSEMENTS. 131 
 
 see the little mouths sawing round the leaf 
 in semi-circles, until, in a wonderfully short 
 time, only the skeleton of all the foliage 
 remains. The work of feeding and changing 
 the beds goes on day and night, and there is 
 no rest, except when the caterpillars are 
 asleep. They sleep three times in their lives, 
 twice for twenty-four and once for forty-eight 
 hours at a stretch. Their attitude whilst 
 sleeping looks most uncomfortable ; indeed, 
 there is something ghastly about it. They 
 raise their upper half upright in the air, and 
 so remain stiff and motionless, at right angles 
 with themselves the upper half of their 
 bodies perpendicular, and the lower horizontal. 
 By-and-by, a little shrubbery, formed of dried 
 turnip-tops, heath, or what not, is arranged 
 between the shelves, and on to it the cater- 
 pillars climb, when they have become trans- 
 parent and ready for their transformation. 
 Now the work changes its character; instead 
 of incessantly supplying fresh food, the care 
 is to place the caterpillars who are ready for
 
 132 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 spinning in a suitable place on the shrubbery 
 provided for them. This requires the eye of 
 a connoisseur, for, if by mistake they are 
 placed prematurely out of reach of food, they 
 will probably die ; on the other hand, if not 
 assisted, many will go far astray in their 
 search for a convenient spinning-place, and 
 their ideas of convenience may not be those 
 of their proprietors. They are partial to the 
 hinges of doors, to the ledges of the window- 
 shutters, the folds of curtains, the petticoats 
 of their assistants, and these wanderers are 
 to be found all over the house and in every 
 possible and impossible place that can be 
 imagined. Then there are the invalids, who 
 will never come to any good, and must be 
 got rid of these turn yellow. 
 
 It is interesting to watch the strange 
 creatures through every process of their 
 metamorphosis. Their first proceeding, as 
 soon as they have selected a place to swing 
 their hammock on, is to spin two or three 
 woollen threads to hang themselves by ; they
 
 OCCUPATIONS AND AMUSEMENTS. 133 
 
 then roll themselves into a circle, spinning 
 all the time. For long the woof is quite 
 transparent, and the industrious head of the 
 worker may be seen moving round and round ; 
 at last he is hidden in his own meshes, and, 
 after about twenty-four hours, nothing can 
 be seen but an oblong case of yellow silk, 
 fastened and protected by fluffy white wool, 
 or what looks like wool. But his transforma- 
 tion into a chrysalis will not be effected for 
 another week, and if you are impatient and 
 wind off the silk immediately, you will find 
 him still a lively caterpillar, who will straight- 
 way set to work spinning again. The bush, 
 all studded with cocoons of every shade of 
 yellow, from nearly white to a deep orange, 
 each in its woolly veil, at last looks like a 
 miniature forest of oranges and lemons seen 
 through a mist. It is shrouded with brown 
 paper to keep it clean, and left untouched for 
 a week. Then comes the work of plucking 
 the cocoons, like flowers, off their bushes, 
 divesting them of their outside fluff, and
 
 134 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 throwing them into baskets to be sold. Some 
 
 O 
 
 have to be discarded because they have got 
 soiled, and others because they are not firm, 
 but go squash when you touch them. A few 
 will be found with a hole, through which the 
 moth has made its escape. These moths are 
 of a soft light-grey colour, with black feathery 
 horns and thick feathered legs, and look like 
 little owls. If accommodated with a piece 
 of rag hung on to the side of their box, they 
 will cling to it, feebly fluttering their wings 
 during the rest of their short life. 
 
 The whole career of a silkworm embraces 
 from a month to six weeks, and the ladies who 
 have employed themselves during the spring 
 in the rearing of these troublesome and 
 valuable creatures, surely have done some- 
 thing to deserve repose, and can devote the 
 long summer afternoons to sleep with a clear 
 conscience. 
 
 The gentlemen occupy themselves more or 
 less with agriculture; but, as a rule, they 
 leave their fattore to settle accounts with
 
 OCCUPATIONS AND AMUSEMENTS. 135 
 
 the peasants, and devote themselves to the 
 more engrossing interest of sport. Not only 
 hares, woodcock, quails, snipe, but also a 
 variety of little birds, larks, thrushes, chaf- 
 finches, are considered legitimate sport, and, 
 although some sportsmen walk over the 
 country with their gun and their dog, the 
 indolent method called the "roccolo" is 
 more congenial to their tastes and habits. 
 This is a manner of catching little birds by 
 means of a net enclosing a considerable space 
 round a hut, through the window of which the 
 sportsman spends his whole day in peeping. 
 This net is full of pockets to catch the game 
 in, and is hung round with cages, in which are 
 placed blinded singing birds ; these by their 
 song attract other birds. Branches of trees 
 are waved in the enclosed space towards the 
 nets, in order to drive the victims in. This 
 form of sport requires no skill and no activity, 
 and what the amusement of peeping through 
 a hole to watch the ensnaring of the prey by 
 this elaborate contrivance can be I am at a
 
 136 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 loss to understand ; but a young man of my 
 acquaintance seemed to think that an entire 
 day spent at the " roccolo " was quite a feat 
 to boast of. 
 
 The peasants find time in the winter for 
 many industries. The women spin, weave, 
 dye, and make their own clothes from flax 
 or wool grown on the premises. The men 
 make willow baskets and straw hats. 
 
 Although there is no attempt at anything 
 we should call society, no dinners or drums, 
 no archery, no picnics, none, in fact, of the 
 recognized ways in winch we " bring people to- 
 gether," yet our Italian country-folks manage 
 to meet and amuse themselves after their own 
 fashion. It is a more hearty fashion than 
 ours, and far more economical ; for eating and 
 drinking are not that necessary element in 
 amusement with Italians that it is with us. 
 A glass of lemonade, cold in summer and hot 
 in winter, is always prepared for a visitor. 
 " Merenda," the word for a very light lunch, 
 is sometimes offered if visitors come from a
 
 OCCUPATIONS AND AMUSEMENTS. 137 
 
 distance; but the amount of refreshment 
 thought necessary in England for the proper 
 enjoyment of a ball or garden-party would 
 astonish our villagers. 
 
 There is always a band, often very good, 
 and there is generally a theatre, where, 
 during the carnival, some sort of dramatic 
 representation takes place. Italian amateur 
 actors are infinitely better than English. To 
 simulate emotion, to speak distinctly, to suit 
 the action to the word all this comes natu- 
 rally to them. A great many of them are 
 born actors and actresses, and display their 
 talents freely off the stage ; for the exhibition 
 of feeling is thought so proper and becoming 
 that they feign it where they have it not. 
 To weep at every parting, even with the most 
 casual acquaintance, is thought a point of 
 etiquette, and the art of pumping up tears 
 at will is one of the first to be acquired. 
 Knowing the amount of labour and rehearsal 
 necessary to getting up private theatricals in 
 England with any success, I was surprised at
 
 138 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 the facility with which the dullest and most 
 uneducated Italian would learn and recite his 
 part, and with what grace and effect each 
 point would be given. He never mumbles, 
 nor gabbles, nor looks as if he did not know 
 what to do with his arms and legs, nor ap- 
 pears to be wondering why he is making such 
 a ridiculous fool of himself, as is the way of 
 the English amateur. 
 
 The theatre is also used as a ballroom. But 
 these balls are not select ; even the peasants 
 are included, and the price of admission is but 
 one sou. There is every variety of class and 
 costume. Some of the ladies will appear 
 masked, others in what they fondly imagine 
 to be the height of fashion ; some in evening 
 and some in morning dress, and some in a 
 happy mixture of both. One will wear a low 
 gown and her best bonnet ; another will carry, 
 in addition to her fan and smelling-bottle, her 
 muff. The band plays on a raised scaffolding, 
 and the proceedings are sometimes interrupted 
 by an altercation between musicians and dancers.
 
 OCCUPATIONS AND AMUSEMENTS. 139 
 
 " Do you know what it is you are playing ? " 
 is shouted from below. 
 
 " Are you quite sure of the figure you are 
 dancing ? " is the tu quoque from above. 
 
 More lively banter follows, ending, perhaps, 
 in a quarrel. The musicians strike work ; the 
 dancers, feigning indifference, sing or whistle 
 their own accompaniment. But these are in- 
 terludes. There is shortly a reconciliation, 
 and all goes on as before. 
 
 The peasants, however, prefer dancing in the 
 open air. The harvest-home rejoicings are the 
 merriest of the year for them. Then do they 
 make up for their ordinary abstinence by eating 
 and drinking to their hearts' content. They 
 have seven meals a day during the reaping, and 
 consume ham, eggs, wine, and ricotta in large 
 quantities between their labours. Then the 
 young men give sugar-plums to their sweet- 
 hearts, who, in return, give them flowers to put 
 in their hats. Then marriages are arranged ; and 
 then, also, are heads broken, which makes a dole- 
 ful winding-up to the rejoicings. Their dance
 
 140 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 is the salterello, in which the man and woman 
 dance opposite to one another she looking as 
 if she must fall forwards, he backwards. Hands 
 are sometimes joined, but that is thought bad 
 form by the peasant aristocracy. Two or three 
 fiddles play a monotonous bagpipe-like tune, 
 which is occasionally enlivened by a shout and 
 a gust of song. Then an improvisatore will 
 be inspired by his muse, and, like some clergy- 
 men who preach extempore, will have a diffi- 
 culty in leaving off. The energy which the 
 peasants will display after a hard day's reap- 
 ing under a burning sun is amazing; but, 
 though sometimes averse to work, they never 
 tire of their amusements. 
 
 In most peasant families, there is at the 
 bottom of the oaken chest a masquerade dress, 
 which has been handed down from generation 
 to generation, an,d during the last days of the 
 carnival, a company of masqueraders, of which 
 one does the buffone, with a hump on his 
 back, or some other disfigurement, and is the 
 butt of his companions, goes about the village.
 
 OCCUPATIONS AND AMUSEMENTS. 141 
 
 All the masqueraders are armed with sticks, as 
 a defence against any attempt to unmask them. 
 In the kitchen of the house they are to sur- 
 prise is prepared a supper, consisting of a dish 
 made of eggs, and eaten with honey, called 
 " scarafusi." The director of the ceremonies (for 
 there is always a director) arrives first, with the 
 music, and the rest come dancing in in couples. 
 At a sign from the director they all unmask, 
 the scarafusi are eaten, and the ball begins in 
 earnest. At carnival time there are variations 
 on the eternal salterello. A peasant will fall 
 on his knees, and sigh heavily, until the lady 
 of his heart presents herself; then it is the 
 lady's turn to sigh after the gentleman. But 
 the dance of the " Sospiri " is not confined to 
 the peasants. It is the wind-up of the most 
 select balls as the cotillon is elsewhere. There 
 is the " Fallo in sei " and other carnival dances 
 which I have not seen, and therefore cannot 
 describe. Before midnight all must be at home 
 to partake of a meat supper, by way of saying 
 good-bye to meatCame vale.
 
 142 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 We have ourselves furnished the subject of 
 a masquerade which paraded through the village 
 with great eclat. Hearing rumours of it, and 
 wishing " to see ourselves as others see us," we 
 offered a reward if it came to the house ; but, 
 conscious, I suppose, of the inadequacy of the 
 yellow paper which represented the stripes on 
 my husband's uniform, or thinking that I 
 might feel it infra dig. to see myself mounted 
 on no nobler steed than a donkey, the proces- 
 sion did not present itself. 
 
 The band plays an important part in all 
 festivities. During a wedding it will play 
 operatic airs inside the church, it brings up 
 the rear in all processions, it celebrates the 
 " Befana " (Epiphany) by going about as our 
 waits do, from house to house, and, like the 
 waits, it is apt to become a nuisance. On 
 occasions such as a birth, a christening, a 
 return from a journey, or an electoral triumph, 
 we have suffered much from the midnight 
 serenades of a particularly zealous band belong- 
 ing to a neighbouring village.
 
 OCCUPATIONS AND AMUSEMENTS. 143 
 
 It is the custom, also, to inaugurate the 
 entrance of the month of May by wandering 
 from house to house and singing appropriate 
 ditties under the windows of friends and sweet- 
 hearts, to the accompaniment of the sebecone 
 and the violin. This proceeding is called in 
 local dialect " Prender Maggio," and the music 
 is preluded by the following salutation : 
 
 " Prima saluto a voi, rosa incarnata, 
 Poi patre e matre in tutta la casa." 
 (First greetings to you, incarnate rose, then father 
 and mother and_all the house). 
 
 The following are specimens of the songs by 
 which " the month of flowers " is celebrated by 
 the Marcheggiani : 
 
 I. 
 
 Magghiu che porvene de quajoe 
 
 Che va contrastenne co' lu mese d'Aprile 
 
 Credo che ce 1'ha fatto a bastonate ; 
 
 Ha vinto magghiu ch'e capo d' estate 
 
 Stai allegramente voi vecchiotte 
 
 Che ci ha' le figlie giovenotte 
 
 Hanno tempo de falla 1'amore 
 
 Ecco magghiu pienu de fiore.
 
 144 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 II. 
 
 L'aldra matina me levai a bon'ora 
 Lo trovo un Prate 'dornato de fiori 
 Coglio du 'rose su la verde spina 
 E due zitelle cantava di am ore : 
 Cantava tanto be' co' la sua lengua 
 Alle 'nfine d'Apri' Maggio rrendra 
 Cantava tanto be' co' la sua bocca 
 A le 'nfine d'Apri' Maggio 'bbocca 
 Cantava tanto be' con suo lenguaggio 
 Alle 'nfine d'Apri' rrendra Maggio ; 
 Cantava tanto be' e dicia le cose 
 E rrendra Maggio coperto de rose. 
 
 III. 
 
 'D'ecco che Maggio viene, 
 Sotta 1* umbra 1'e un be 'stare 
 Ce sse gode la frescura; 
 Ecco Maggio che fa verdura. 
 Se rallegra 'ste vergare 
 Che' 1'ha' rempito il suo cagiare : 
 De ricotta e de formaggio, 
 Fora Aprile e dentro Maggio. 
 Se rallegra 'ste ragazze 
 V'a piglia' 1'acqua a la fontana, 
 Ce sse porta 1'amante attorna : 
 Ecco Maggio che fa ritorno. 
 La palombella a la montagna
 
 OCCUPATIONS AND AMUSEMENTS. 145 
 
 Passa'l mare e non s'abbagna, 
 Eppoi te poggia sopra di un faggio 
 Fora Aprile de dentro Maggio. 
 Se rallegra 'ste vergare 
 Che' se slonja le giornate ; 
 Ci ha le figlie innamorate, 
 Ci hanno tempo di fa' ll'amore 
 Ecco Maggio pienu li fiore. 
 
 The sense, such as it has, may be loosely 
 rendered thus : 
 
 I. 
 
 May, behold, is now descending 
 To show that summer has begun, 
 With April it has been contending, 
 They have fought, and May has won. 
 Rejoice, you mothers, past your prime, 
 That your young daughters have their day ; 
 Let them make love, for now's the time 
 It is the flowery month of May. 
 
 II. 
 
 I rose betimes the other day, 
 
 Through flowery meads I took my way. 
 
 I plucked two roses from the tree, 
 
 Of love two maidens sang to me. 
 
 And with their tongues they sang so clear, 
 
 " April is over, May is here ; " 
 
 10
 
 146 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 And with their mouths they sing and say, 
 " April is past, and now comes May ; " 
 And in fine language they are singing, 
 " April is over, May's beginning." 
 They sang, and still their song's refrain 
 Was, rose-decked May is here again. 
 
 III. 
 
 So, returning, comes sweet May ; 
 In the shade 'tis well to stay 
 And enjoy the freshness, when 
 May brings verdure back again. 
 
 Who with ricotta and with cheese 
 Have filled their dairies, it will please ; 
 Those vergaras will be gay, 
 Out of April, into May. 
 
 And those damsels are content, 
 When to the well their steps are bent, 
 To see the lovers pass their way, 
 Behold it comes, returning May. 
 
 And back the mountain dove it brings 
 Across the sea with undipped wings ; 
 She perches on the beechen spray, 
 Out of April, into May. 
 
 Now vergaras, with one voice, 
 
 At the lengthening days rejoice ; 
 
 For love-sick girls these are the hours, 
 
 When May returns all decked with flowers.
 
 OCCUPATIONS AND AMUSEMENTS. 147 
 
 Fairs are in force all the year round, and to 
 them flock an immense crowd of all classes and 
 all ages. The peasants are, for the most part, 
 bent on business. They may be seen early in 
 the morning, leading their cow, or their pig, or 
 their donkey, to sell to the highest bidder ; 
 and late in the evening they return with some 
 newly acquired treasure, which, objecting to 
 the change of masters, there is some difficulty 
 in getting along. The fine folks will go later, 
 neither to buy nor to sell, but to meet one 
 another and amuse the children, who are given 
 soldi to exchange for sugar-plums or toys. 
 
 The fair is not always held in the market- 
 place of the village, but in any open space 
 that may be found available, sometimes far 
 from any village. At a distance, what strikes 
 the eye is a heaving, surging sea of white 
 ox-backs ; on nearer approach, many other 
 objects become visible mules, donkeys, pigs, 
 sheep, goats, fowls, pots and pans and earthen 
 utensils, fruit and vegetables. Booths are 
 decked out with gay-coloured stufis, with ker-
 
 148 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 chiefs, necklaces, and earrings, with cheap 
 toys and sugar-plums ; in short, all articles 
 of use or luxury that the peasantry can 
 require. 
 
 The noise is indescribable. What with the 
 lowing, braying, grunting, and cackling of 
 the various animals, and the greeting, bargain- 
 ing, joking, and quarrelling of their owners, 
 the prevalent disorder and confusion make 
 the threading of one's way through the crowd 
 a difficult and dangerous exploit. Having 
 passed with trepidation by the heels of a mule 
 of vicious aspect, you find yourself in danger 
 of impalement on the horns of a bull, who is 
 trying to break away from his keepers. In 
 terror you step back upon a set of cups and 
 saucers, the owner of which does not let you 
 escape until you have paid your damage three 
 times over. Of course, no seller dreams of 
 offering his wares at less than double the price 
 he intends to take, and the buyer would be 
 thought a simpleton indeed were he to offer 
 more than half what he ends by giving.
 
 OCCUPATIONS AND AMUSEMENTS. 149 
 
 Bargaining, therefore, is a long business, 
 relieved occasionally by a little recreation. 
 
 I was once at a fair where an enterprising 
 attempt to get up horse-racing had been made. 
 There had arisen un po d'imbroglio, was ex- 
 plained to us on our arrival at the scene 
 of action. What we saw was this. Two 
 jockeys endeavouring in vain to get started ; 
 one steed was kicking most vigorously, the 
 other presently bolted off in an opposite 
 direction from the goal, and far ahead the 
 winning horse was indeed, galloping at full 
 speed, but with an empty saddle, leaving 
 behind him a cloud of dust, from which his 
 rider was seen to emerge and straightway 
 follow in pursuit. 
 
 Stories of stolen children are common 
 enough; but authentic instances, I believe, 
 are rare. Yet, at a fair in our neighbour- 
 hood, a child was enticed away in so strange 
 a manner, and for so strange a purpose, that 
 the incident, if produced in fiction, would be 
 thought an abuse of the novelist's licence. I
 
 150 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 will tell it as I heard it from the lips of the 
 child's near relation. 
 
 " Our Charlie was a pretty little boy, with 
 blue eyes and golden hair, and, as he wandered 
 about amongst the various booths with his 
 mother, his bright colouring excited great ad- 
 miration. A well-dressed woman of the middle 
 class was seen to gaze at him long and 
 earnestly, and at last, as if fascinated by his 
 beauty, she approached. 'I have a carriage 
 here/ she said to the mother; 'may I take 
 your child for a little drive ? I will bring him 
 back immediately.' The mother was young 
 and inexperienced ; the child eager to go. 
 Finally she yielded to his entreaties, and the 
 boy was carried off. In vain the mother 
 waited and watched ; the stranger never brought 
 back her child. The kidnapper was not a 
 native of those parts. No one there knew 
 who she was, or whence she came, or whither 
 she had gone. There seemed no clue to the 
 mystery. The father, however, succeeded in 
 tracing his child to a village far south. Ac-
 
 OCCUPATIONS AND AMUSEMENTS. 151 
 
 companied by cardbinieri, he discovered his 
 son in a loft, and rescued him only just in 
 time. He was about to be murdered, and an 
 altar had been erected, on which the blood of 
 the sacrifice was to spurt. The motive of the 
 intended crime was to ensure his murderess a 
 prize in the lottery ; for a soothsayer had 
 recommended for this purpose the sacrifice of 
 a fair and rosy child. The ghastly plot was 
 invented by a priest, for what end I do not 
 know. The priest escaped. The woman was 
 put in prison, where she shortly died. She 
 had not borne a bad character, and the dread- 
 ful guilt she meditated appears to have been 
 the result of a sort of madness, which the fas- 
 cination of the lottery is said to -bring upon 
 its victims." 
 
 Of that most immoral amusement if an 
 amusement it can be called it is not my 
 province to speak. I believe it to be a great 
 source of revenue to the Government, and know 
 it to be a source of great misery to the people. 
 
 The game of bowls, or loccie, is popular, but
 
 152 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 often prohibited by the authorities on account 
 of the danger to passers-by, who have to 
 dodge these wooden balls as they fly from 
 side to side of the road. My husband's pro- 
 hibition of this game in our village almost led 
 to revolt ; yet certainly the danger is not small 
 in a public thoroughfare, as the players are too 
 excited to suspend their game for the benefit 
 of casual passers-by. 
 
 Fireworks are a favourite diversion, and on 
 festive occasions all the towns and villages 
 comprised in our extensive panorama are 
 ablaze with them. The chief promoter of 
 these fireworks is a descendant of the great 
 poet Leopardi, who is not, I believe, better 
 known in England than Tennyson in Italy. 
 Although the Marcheggiani are very proud of 
 having produced him, and Fermo has lately 
 raised a statue to his memory, he did not 
 return the compliment, and hated no place so 
 much as his native Recanati. He died young, 
 the victim of an intense melancholy, which is 
 reflected in his poems.
 
 OCCUPATIONS AND AMUSEMENTS. 153 
 A curious relic of the Middle Ages, a 
 
 O ' 
 
 procession on horseback, still prevails in the 
 quaint little town of Fermo (the ancient 
 Firmum), situated on such a perpendicular 
 hill-slope that it is next to impossible for 
 a carriage to get about its streets, and re- 
 markable for the extraordinary number of 
 noble families it contains. The majority of 
 its inhabitants appear to be counts, whose 
 titles are said to date from the time when a 
 Pope, wishing to show his gratitude for a 
 hospitable reception by the townsfolk, could 
 think of no better or more economical way 
 than ennobling them all, which by a wave of 
 his hand he accordingly did. Originally the 
 forty-eight castellani, or possessors of castles 
 in this town, led off, and the tradesmen fol- 
 lowed, each carrying a banner descriptive of his 
 calling. When I found myself unexpectedly 
 in the midst of this equestrian procession, 
 the notabilities of the town informed me that 
 it was wretchedly gone off. No gentlemen, 
 and no good horses ; in fact, they were quite
 
 154 .OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 ashamed of it, and thought it time it was put 
 a stop to. Yet, even in these degenerate 
 days, there were two hundred horsemen, 
 all carrying banners ; some in attempts at 
 mediaeval costume; and the spectacle was 
 curious enough. 
 
 There are no amusements expressly for 
 children, whose tastes and pleasures are as 
 little consulted as their health. They are 
 brought to the theatre or the ballroom often 
 enough, and stay up till the small hours, or, 
 dressed smartly, are taken to the promenade, 
 or the music in the Piazza. If they cannot 
 eat, drink, and amuse themselves in exactly 
 the same fashion as their elders, so much the 
 worse for them ; therefore, an enterprising at- 
 tempt at a Christmas-tree, got up by me for 
 the benefit of the school children, created no 
 small sensation. There were more difficulties 
 in the way than I expected, and the sole 
 responsibility of the great undertaking became 
 serious indeed, when it was manifest that no 
 one in the village, except the schoolmaster,
 
 OCCUPATIONS AND AMUSEMENTS. 155 
 
 had ever heard of a Christmas-tree. This 
 learned person, concerning whom 
 
 " still the wonder grew 
 One little head could compass all he knew," 
 
 had read that in some far-distant countries a 
 strange custom prevailed of hanging toys on 
 the top of a tree ; but either his erudition was 
 more extensive than mine on the subject, or 
 his imagination played him tricks, for such 
 was his description of awful rites and cere- 
 monies to be gone through and bogies to be 
 conjured up, that the blood of the villagers 
 froze in their veins ; and I was assailed with 
 timid inquiries of, "Is it really to be quite in 
 the dark ? Must the children all be blind- 
 folded for fear of what they should see ? Could 
 not one or two mothers be allowed in the 
 room to protect them ? " I endeavoured to 
 calm their fears, but without much success. 
 That there was to be some magic in the pro- 
 gramme they felt convinced, and, as I was a 
 heretic, it was probably nothing good.
 
 156 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 Firs were scarce, and I found it impossible 
 to persuade our steward, whom I desired to go 
 in search of such a tree, that a laurel would 
 not do quite as well. But with labour and 
 perseverance all difficulties were at last sur- 
 mounted. A goodly store of woollen clothing 
 for the children did much to conciliate the 
 mothers; the intended distribution of purses 
 well filled with soldi was looked upon also 
 as a sensible part of the proceedings. All the 
 village notabilities came to assist in the pre- 
 parations, and finally there stood the tree, 
 blazing with wax lights, and laden with a 
 creditable quantity of dolls, trumpets, Noah's 
 arks, etc., to the admiration not only of the 
 children and our villagers, but deputations 
 from all the villages for many miles round, 
 who came attracted by its fame. The children 
 were at first too much overawed to speak ; but 
 as toys were taken down and distributed, there 
 ensued such a stamping, shouting, scrambling, 
 and other signs of juvenile contentment as 
 showed that our efforts had not been in vain.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 COURTSHIP. 
 
 PEOPLE make love, and get married, of course, 
 in remote Italian villages as elsewhere ; and it 
 has been incumbent upon me to assist at many 
 weddings and to listen to many confidences 
 as to how it all came about ; the efforts made 
 to get settled and the difficulties encountered 
 being told on both sides with engaging frank- 
 ness. The pros and the cons are discussed 
 openly, friends and acquaintances are asked if 
 they will kindly look out for a young lady 
 with a handsome dot for Pepd, or if they will 
 just mention all the excellent qualities of 
 Marietta to the parents of an eligible young 
 man. The relations on both sides haggle and 
 bargain until each side thinks it has " done "
 
 158 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 the other pretty completely. When all the 
 preliminaries are settled but on no account 
 before the young people are introduced to 
 each other, and told to fall in love. On this, 
 a conversation something like the following 
 takes place : 
 
 Young man : " Signorina, may I venture to 
 inquire if your affections are disengaged ? " 
 
 Young lady : " Since you make the inquiry, 
 though for what reason I cannot imagine, I 
 will answer you frankly that they are." 
 
 Young man : " Pardon my boldness, and 
 permit me still further to inquire whether, if 
 a young man not absolutely odious to you 
 should be recommended you as a husband 
 whether whether, in short, that young man 
 would have any chance of success ? " 
 
 Young lady: "It would be my duty, of 
 course, to endeavour to please my parents, and, 
 if I could meet their wishes without doing 
 violence to my own feelings, I should be 
 advised by them, having naturally every con- 
 fidence in their judgment."
 
 COURTSHIP. I59 
 
 Young man : " You cannot guess to whom I 
 allude ? " 
 
 Young lady : " Not in the least." 
 
 That the conversation progresses in this 
 style after the elders are out of hearing, I will 
 not venture to affirm; but they seldom are 
 out of hearing until the marriage has actually 
 taken place, unless the two sposi contrive to 
 outwit them, and meet in secret. They are quite 
 sure to carry on a secret correspondence, written 
 in a very different style from the conversation 
 recorded above pages upon pages of loves, 
 and angels, and adoration, and all the rest of it. 
 
 For the greater facilitation of these matri- 
 monial affairs, agents are employed, who send 
 lists of the aspirants with all their qualifi- 
 cations. Our municipal secretary begged for a 
 holiday, in order to pass in review a perfect 
 regiment of young ladies offered him in this 
 manner ; but he was so particular, that, after 
 due inspection, he returned unsuited, and still 
 remains a bachelor. How mortifying for the 
 young ladies 1
 
 160 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 A young lady of my acquaintance came to 
 me for my congratulations on her approach- 
 ing nuptials. I gave them heartily, as she 
 had previously confided to me that having 
 spared no pains with her trousseau, and having 
 it all ready and tied up with blue ribbons, 
 it was annoying that the sposo alone should 
 be wanting, especially as her younger sister 
 was always having offers, which she could 
 not accept ; for the father was a methodical 
 man, and would on no account have a daughter 
 married out of her turn. Having offered the 
 proper felicitation, " Well, and what is his 
 name?" I inquired. " Oh, I don't know," 
 answered the bride-elect; "papa has not yet 
 told me that." 
 
 The following is the literal account given 
 me by a mother of the way in which a rather 
 elderly suitor went about the wooing of her 
 daughters. I say daughters, because, although, 
 no doubt, he only intended to marry one, his 
 suit was addressed, without prejudice, to each 
 and all. I give the narrative in her own words.
 
 COURTSHIP. i6l 
 
 "Signer D called the other day to 
 
 ask for one of my daughters in marriage ; 
 but, would you believe it ? he was so round- 
 about in his way of proposing that I could 
 not think for a long time what he was 
 driving at. ' I am constrained by circum- 
 stances,' he began, 'to take a wife.' I re- 
 plied that I was sorry to hear that he was 
 constrained by any circumstances to take such 
 a step against his will, but had no doubt he 
 could find a suitable person. ' I had a long 
 abboecamento with your son, Signor Giuseppe, 
 the other day/ he continued. ' Oh ! indeed.' 
 ' He is a very agreeable person.' ' I am glad 
 you think so.' 'Your family are all so well 
 brought up, signora.' 'You are very flatter- 
 ing.' 'And the young ladies are so very 
 charming.' I now began to have an idea of 
 what he meant. ' And being, as I said before, 
 constrained by circumstances to take a wife 
 "Constrained!" I do not mean, of course, 
 that it would be any hardship ; on the con- 
 trary, if one of your charming young ladies 
 
 11
 
 1 62 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 would look favourably upon me.' ' But 
 which, my dear sir to which do you allude ? ' 
 'Whichever you like, signora. I am abso- 
 lutely indifferent on that point, and will leave 
 the choice to you, feeling convinced that I 
 should be perfectly happy with any one of 
 your daughters.' " 
 
 The following is also a true account of a 
 search for a wife, the confidence coming this 
 time from the gentleman's side. 
 
 Antonio, having arrived at years of discre- 
 tion, was taken into his father's confidence for 
 the first time, and told that his marriage had 
 long been the subject of thought, and indeed 
 of negotiation, but that no satisfactory alliance 
 had yet been found. Now, a little ready money, 
 to be expended on the estate, was highly de- 
 sirable just now, and the bride's dowry would 
 come in nicely. She would not cost much; 
 an apartment in the vast palazzo could be 
 fitted up for her, and if subsequently more 
 room should be required, the daughters of the 
 house could be married off in turn. Indeed,
 
 COURTSHIP. 163 
 
 a very eligible offer had been made for Maria 
 the other day, and mamma much regretted 
 having to decline ; but, of course, no money 
 could possibly go out of the family until some 
 had been brought into it. His better feelings 
 thus appealed to, Antonio entered con amore 
 into the projects of his father. A circular was 
 composed, stating that a gentleman of good 
 family, strictly orthodox views, and consider- 
 able possessions in land, was willing to receive 
 into his family a daughter-in-law, who, in 
 addition to great amiability and strict piety, 
 must be possessed of not less than a hundred 
 thousand francs dowry. The circular produced 
 many answers. Several young ladies were 
 heard of who possessed not only the requisite 
 qualifications, but many more, such as majestic 
 beauty, wonderful accomplishments, extraordi- 
 nary talents, and so on. But Antonio's father, 
 before fixing his choice on any of the aspirants, 
 unluckily consulted a friend, and this per- 
 fidious person revealed the confidence reposed 
 in him, under seal of secrecy, to the enemy
 
 1 64 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 to him who inhabited the palazzo opposite, 
 and with whom for twenty years our pater- 
 familias had not exchanged a syllable. This 
 gentleman, with great presence of mind, took 
 advantage of the information to carry off the 
 first prize for his son, and to establish her 
 triumphantly in that hated opposite house. 
 
 This base treachery flung our poor friend into 
 an unwonted energy of action. He resolved 
 that the second prize should not slip through 
 his fingers. She lived in the wilds of Calabria, 
 and there he betook himself with Antonio. 
 Arrived at the railway-station, they were 
 shown the castello which was their destina- 
 tion, situated on the summit of a hill. But 
 how were they to get there ? Italians never 
 use their legs if they can help it ; a carriage 
 was unknown there, and not a cart nor a horse 
 was to be found. At last a donkey was pro- 
 cured ; it had neither saddle nor bridle, but 
 a sack of flour served for the former, and on 
 it the elder gentleman mounted, whilst Antonio 
 got up behind. The bridle was advantageously
 
 COURTSHIP. 165 
 
 replaced by a halter, as the animal did not 
 possess a mouth, and answered only to vocal 
 remonstrance with a stick accompaniment. 
 The donkey's master served as a guide and 
 companion. He beguiled the way by numerous 
 interesting anecdotes concerning the owner of 
 the castle, interrupted occasionally by strong 
 language addressed to the donkey, who, object- 
 ing to his tremendous load, frequently stopped 
 short, in spite of threats and blows, for several 
 minutes at a time. At last they arrived at 
 the castle, whose owner received them courte- 
 ously. With as little circumlocution as possible, 
 the father stated the object of his visit, and 
 bested to know whether the amount of the 
 
 oo 
 
 dot was what he had been led to suppose. 
 " Would you not like to see my daughter ? " 
 inquired the host, evading the question. " She 
 is a charming girl, my consolazione" 
 
 Now, our friend, although he prided himself 
 on the courtesy of his manners, knew how to 
 be stern and to the point when occasion 
 demanded ; so he replied, " Not at all." When
 
 166 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 assured that the dowry would be really forth- 
 coming on her marriage with his son, he would 
 see the destined bride, but not before. Then 
 the host was forced to admit that he thought 
 there must have been some mistake ; that, in 
 fact, he regretted to say that it would be 
 quite out of his power to "come down" with 
 more than half the sum demanded. 
 
 " In that case," returned Antonio's papa, 
 " there can be no negotiations between us ; 
 but, as we have come a long way, we must 
 encroach so far on your hospitality as to ask 
 for breakfast." 
 
 It was now the turn of the other papa to 
 say, " Not at all." He was very sorry ; but 
 it was not the custom of the country to offer 
 breakfast to people who had come on such 
 a delicate errand. If a marriage had been 
 arranged, then indeed a sumptuous repast 
 would have been quite en rlgle ; but as it was, 
 a cup of black coffee was all that he could 
 offer without compromising his daughter. 
 
 Thus avenged, the owner of the castle
 
 COURTSHIP. 167 
 
 bowed out his guests. Hungry and disap- 
 pointed, they had nothing for it but to 
 retrace their steps. To add to their dis- 
 comfort, the donkey did not offer so comfort- 
 able a seat as before, because the flour-sack 
 was now empty, its contents having been 
 destined for the castle. 
 
 There was no doubt about the dowry of 
 the next aspirant that was all right; but 
 the difficulty was about the lady. It was 
 all very well to say she was only five and 
 twenty, but she looked quite old enough 
 to be Antonio's mother, and this time it was 
 the destined bridegroom himself who respect- 
 fully but firmly declined the honour proposed. 
 The father's eyes were opened to the fact that 
 parental authority has limits, and, with a sigh 
 of regret, he turned his thoughts elsewhere. 
 
 Maria's suitor, tired of waiting, transferred 
 his affections to a daughter of the oppo- 
 site house, and the double triumph caused 
 the rival family to give themselves the most 
 detestable airs. Antonio began to show
 
 1 68 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 symptoms of being so unprincipled as to 
 fall in love with young persons possessing no 
 dowry at all. And a rebellion broke forth 
 in the female portion of the family, headed 
 by the mother, who wanted to know whether 
 her poor girls were all to go into convents, 
 because Antonio and his father were so mighty 
 particular they could not find anybody to 
 their minds. But perseverance was at last 
 rewarded with success, the long-sought bride 
 was found, and nothing remained but to 
 conduct the courtship in a proper and be- 
 coming manner. Here again were difficulties. 
 Antonio was shy, and required much prompt- 
 ing before he could be warmed up to suitable 
 ardour. When introduced to his betrothed, 
 he looked persistently at his boots, or vaguely 
 out of window anywhere but at her. Now 
 the sposa was fairly good-looking, and had 
 evidently taken some pains with her ap- 
 pearance. A most coquettish gilt butterfly 
 fluttered on the top of her elaborate chignon, 
 whilst a scarlet bow adorned the bosom of
 
 COURTSHIP. 169 
 
 her sky-blue gown. The father did his best 
 to supply deficiencies, but he could not do 
 all Toto's love-making for him. It was in 
 vain that he went through much expressive 
 pantomime ; Antonio would only shift his 
 legs, turn scarlet, and finally stammer out, 
 "It is a bad year for the grapes, signorina, 
 but will be good for the olives." 
 
 As it was found that Toto did not get 
 on much in a personal interview, he was set 
 to work on epistolary composition. " From 
 the moment I saw you/' began the letter, 
 " your image has haunted me day and night." 
 
 " That's very well," says papa approvingly ; 
 and Toto, thus encouraged, fills many pages 
 very eloquently in the same strain. Mamma 
 being called in to consult, remembered what 
 she herself was as a girl, and suggested that 
 a pair of earrings would be a very acceptable 
 accompaniment to the letter. This most sound 
 advice was taken, and from that moment all 
 went well. 
 
 When Antonio brought home his bride, the
 
 1 70 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 family were unanimous in declaring her much 
 handsomer and more distinguished in appear- 
 ance than the lady so unfairly won by the 
 opposite house ; whilst the rival family, who, 
 of course, were all at the window, expressed a 
 different opinion, somewhat too audibly, as 
 Toto helped his bride to alight from the mar- 
 vellously uncomfortable and antique travelling 
 carriage in which they had performed the 
 journey from her native village to his. 
 
 If a young man is but little consulted about 
 the choice of his partner in life, a girl is 
 seldom allowed any voice at all in the matter. 
 A father who said that he would not have 
 his daughter married without her own consent 
 created quite a sensation by the declaration. 
 The daughter in question exclaimed, " Now, 
 isn't that good of papa ? Perhaps it is because 
 mamma, poveretta! had never seen him till 
 her wedding day, and at first she didn't like 
 him at all." 
 
 Still, it must be confessed that very many 
 happy manages have been arranged in this
 
 COURTSHIP. 171 
 
 manner, whereas some of those rare love 
 matches made in haste, without the consent 
 of the parents, of which there are examples, 
 have ended disastrously. The necessity 
 of giving wedding presents is imposed 
 only upon the near relations of the bride. 
 Odes are cheaper, and many a poet 
 unknown to fame will rhyme industriously 
 when any young lady of his acquaintance 
 gets married. He will then have his effu- 
 sions printed on ornamental paper, and on 
 the wedding day the tables are strewn with 
 original poems some sentimental, others 
 facetious, and many what we English are 
 supposed to think "staking" (always with- 
 out the " c "), and which are indeed calculated 
 to startle one brought up according to our 
 ideas of decorum. These improprieties are 
 especially observable in odes written by 
 priests. It is thought correct to endow the 
 bride in these compositions with every virtue 
 and grace, but more emphatically with that 
 particular virtue or grace in which she is
 
 1 72 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 most deficient. Thus, an ugly girl will be 
 extolled for her beauty, a stupid one for her 
 extraordinary talents, an ill-tempered one for 
 her angelic meekness of disposition. The 
 bridegroom is expected to provide one silk 
 gown, with hat and shoes to correspond. A 
 watch and chain, besides several trinkets, are 
 generally amongst his gifts. But if he is 
 rather heavily taxed in the matter of presents, 
 it must be remembered that no Italian bride 
 is without a dower. Even a peasant girl will 
 bring some money with her store of house- 
 linen to her new home. Her betrothed gives 
 her a pair of earrings, and often a sum of 
 money to keep as a pledge of his good faith. 
 In that class of life the young people take 
 the conduct of their affairs more into their 
 own hands ; a pretty peasant girl will change 
 her betrothed many times before she finds 
 one to her mind. 
 
 " Well, and when are you going to marry 
 Pasquale ? " one inquires of Assunta, who 
 replies
 
 COURTSHIP. 173 
 
 "Oh, I have got tired of Pasquale. He 
 beat me the other day, so I am going to see 
 how Benedetto will suit me." 
 
 By the time she does marry neither Pas- 
 quale nor Benedetto, but Giacomo she will 
 be very proud of the numbers of earrings of 
 which she has despoiled her discarded suitors. 
 She, too, has been working at her corredo 
 from an early age, and will have an oaken 
 chest full of linen for the house and for 
 herself, and a dozen or so of new gowns, 
 besides the silk one in which she is to be 
 married. She returns home after the marriage 
 ceremony, and remains with her parents for 
 two or three days. 
 
 When one comes across a jovial-looking 
 peasant driving a gaily painted cart, drawn 
 by oxen decorated with scarlet tassels, and 
 containing a number of household utensils, 
 amongst them conspicuous two pillows adorned 
 with lace and embroidery, over which a young 
 man and a young woman in holiday attire are 
 mounting guard, then one may know that it
 
 J74 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 is the bridegroom and his brother, accompanied 
 by the sister of the bride, going to prepare the 
 house for her reception. It is at his house 
 that the festa takes place, and rice is a neces- 
 sary article of food on that occasion, as it is 
 on the last day of the carnival, and on the 
 day of the harvest, if it has been a good one. 
 Why rice should be symbolical of peculiar 
 enjoyment is not known, unless the custom 
 should have originated in a play on the word 
 " riso," which means laughter as well as rice. 
 
 The following is an account, written to my 
 mother, of the first Italian wedding at which 
 I assisted. I wrote it at a time when every- 
 thing was strange to me, and whilst the im- 
 pression was still fresh ; therefore, I quote it, 
 not as giving any new or striking information, 
 but as affording by its details perhaps a more 
 vivid picture of the style of life around me 
 than general description can give. 
 
 " I must tell you about Virginia's wedding. 
 We rose betimes, and I put on my green silk 
 gown. A was in full uniform, with his
 
 COURTSHIP. 175 
 
 epaulettes, and Garibaldi's medal, which 
 seemed as if worn to tease the bishop. Miss 
 Eva, his old charger, the pony-carriage, and 
 our man Patrizio, were also in full fig, and I 
 flatter myself that our general appearance was 
 quite unexceptionable as we started on our 
 
 long drive to the village of M . 
 
 " The morning was very cold, but fine, and 
 our splendid panorama is, I think, more im- 
 posing in the winter than in the summer. 
 The mountains, when thickly covered with 
 fresh snow, look as grand as the Alps. The 
 river, which in summer is but a dry bed, is 
 now swollen by torrents of rain ; and there 
 are but few leafless trees to be seen, ever- 
 green oaks and olives being the most plenti- 
 ful. The sun shines cheerfully, and the blue 
 Adriatic peeps out here and there between 
 the hills, each one of which is surmounted by 
 a picturesque village. These villages are like 
 tiny cities, for they are fortified by high 
 
 walls. M is one of the largest and most 
 
 picturesque of these villages.
 
 1 76 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 " Unfortunately, a thick mist came on before 
 we had proceeded far on our way, and, in spite 
 of all our efforts, we only arrived just as the 
 wedding procession was filing into church, and, 
 turning sharp round the corner, we nearly 
 knocked down the priest bearing the great 
 silver cross. We immediately jumped down 
 and joined the wedding party. 
 
 " The bride looked very nice, leaning on her 
 father's arm, dressed in a white silk gown, 
 respectably made, a tulle veil, and a wreath, 
 not of orange blossoms, but of some other 
 white flowers of a nondescript kind. Her 
 mother was gorgeous, and quite fashionable, 
 in a crimson gown and green velvet tunic, 
 with a bonnet perched high on her tower of 
 hair, and nodding with _ red and white plumes. 
 Poor Nina was not of the party. Her feelings 
 were supposed to be too much for her ; but I 
 suspect the reason of her non-appearance to 
 be that it had not been thought necessary to 
 get her a new gown. The relations from 
 Rome were a very handsome and distinguished-
 
 COURTSHIP. 177 
 
 looking party, and indulged in a good deal of 
 merriment at the ways of their country cousins. 
 
 " The ceremony was quite different from 
 ours ; the bride and bridegroom knelt side 
 by side for most of the time, each holding a 
 long wax candle, whilst the band played 
 operatic airs inside the church, chiefly taken 
 from the ' Ballo in Maschera.' At intervals, 
 the bride and bridegroom were led up to 
 the bishop ; but what he said it was im- 
 possible to hear, as the congregation indulged 
 freely in conversation. Finally the wedded 
 pair sat each on a high stool, and listened 
 to a discourse addressed to them by the 
 bishop. When the ceremony in church was 
 at an end, the wedding party, all but the 
 bishop and friends, repaired to the munici- 
 pality, where the bride and bridegroom were 
 married by civil process. 
 
 " After this we all went to the palazzo be- 
 longing to the Cavaliere di - (the bride's 
 father), which is the grandest the village 
 boasts. It is situated in the middle of the 
 
 12
 
 178 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 principal street, and the entrance is insignifi- 
 cant ; but on arriving at the top of the stone 
 staircase, the suite 'of lofty saloons, opening 
 out of one another, and seen through a vista 
 of arches, has an imposing effect. There 
 is the least possible amount of furniture, 
 and no carpet, or even matting, covers the 
 bare stones. The family, when alone, occupy 
 a dingy little room on the ground floor. On 
 this occasion, however, the state-rooms were 
 opened, for the first time, I believe, since the 
 marriage of the bride's mother. On the table 
 we found cakes, sugar-plums, and tiny cups 
 of chocolate. This was all the breakfast that 
 was given us ; and as we had got up very 
 early, and had had a three-hours' drive, our 
 sufferings from hunger were severe. 
 
 " The melancholy Nina and Miss L , pre- 
 sided at the repast. Miss L , who is 
 
 descended from a very ancient and noble 
 family, is one of the few specimens I have 
 ever come across of an Italian old maid. 
 She has not quite twenty pounds a year to
 
 COURTSHIP. 
 
 179 
 
 live upon, so mostly feeds with the Di , 
 
 and is expected to do little odd things, such 
 as washing the children when they are par- 
 ticularly dirty, and so forth. Nina was most 
 uncommonly shabby. She was arrayed in an 
 old faded blue merino skirt, surmounted by 
 an equally antique black silk jacket, with a 
 dirty scarlet bow pinned on in front, but no 
 pretence at a collar or cuffs. As for her 
 hair, it was so wildly dishevelled as to give 
 one the idea that she had been tearing it 
 in an abandonment of grief. Perhaps this 
 utter disregard of appearances is considered 
 the proper thing in that part of the world 
 on the occasion of a sister's marriage. The 
 bride and bridegroom, with some of the 
 bridegroom's relations who were going by the 
 same train, had a sort of lunch ; but the rest 
 of us did not dine till after the departure, at 
 about four o'clock. 
 
 " Before changing her dress, the bride went 
 to show herself to her father's peasants, who 
 were carousing in an upper chamber. There
 
 I SO OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 were forty pairs, the heads of each, coloni 
 or family of peasants who are part proprietors 
 with the padrone. I did not witness the 
 scene, but Virginia came back, saying she 
 had been most enthusiastically received, and 
 nearly torn in pieces. 
 
 " She and her mamma wept plentifully at 
 parting ; the fattore was also taken tearful. 
 The bride and bridegroom finally went off in 
 a much quieter way than an English pair 
 would have done. There was no throwing of 
 old shoes, or hurrahing. We simply looked 
 on from the balcony, whilst the lumbering 
 old carriage, of an antediluvian shape, which 
 bore away the wedding couple, jolted in a 
 rickety manner over the stones. 
 
 " I have never described the bridegroom ; but 
 bridegrooms are proverbially insignificant items 
 at weddings, and this one was no exception 
 to the general rule. He behaved as a bride- 
 groom should ; that is, effaced himself as much 
 as possible. 
 
 " We whiled away the time until dinner in
 
 COURTSHIP. igl 
 
 reading the numerous sonnets addressed to the 
 bride by friends of the family ; of these there 
 were a hundred specimens, and a packet of 
 each for distribution, printed on ornamental 
 paper, and tied up with blue ribbon. The 
 wedding presents were few ; only relations 
 thought it incumbent on them to give any. 
 Ours, I am afraid, was but little appreciated. 
 It was a dressing-case, and its mysterious 
 fittiugs-up, such as tooth-brush and nail-brush, 
 were the subject of much discussion. Teresa, 
 the Roman cousin, had to explain the mean- 
 ing of these articles, and suggested the occa- 
 sional use of them. We hope our delicate 
 hints will be taken ; for Virginia, a pretty girl, 
 would be prettier still if her teeth were whiter. 
 " The weather was extremely cold, and the 
 snow lay on the ground ; but although we 
 sat in a room with a fireplace, no one thought 
 
 of lighting the fire until A hinted that 
 
 I was accustomed to it. Then, in deference 
 to my English prejudices, a good-sized branch 
 was set alight on the open hearth, where it
 
 1 82 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 blazed cheerfully for about a quarter of an 
 hour, then died away, and was not replaced 
 by another. All the ladies were sitting in 
 fur tippets, with their hands in muffs. I did 
 likewise, but could not think it made up for 
 the want of a fire. 
 
 " The Count and Countess R , and other 
 
 representatives of the elite of the society, made 
 their appearance at dinner. Such a gathering 
 had not taken place for years, as, for some 
 inscrutable reason, all the first families in the 
 village are at feud. They live year after year 
 in the same street, and instead of trying to 
 brighten their dreary lives by a little social 
 intercourse, they sulk with one another, and 
 do not speak. On this occasion, however, 
 they seem to have agreed to patch up their 
 quarrels, at all events for a time, in order 
 to gratify their curiosity and amuse themselves 
 a little. In the evening, the village music- 
 master appeared, together with his piano. He 
 sang and played well. Nina listened and 
 sighed.
 
 COURTSHIP. 183 
 
 '"I wish I could play/ said she. 
 
 " Why didn't you learn ? ' I asked. 
 
 " 'Because/ explained Nina, with her head 
 very much on one side, ' the music-master is 
 so young, papa said it would not be proper ; 
 so we none of us learnt music/ 
 
 " The Roman Teresa sang well ; she was the 
 life and soul of the party, and no wonder. She 
 is not only beautiful, but a very charming and 
 clever girl, full of fun and spirits. The differ- 
 ence between the Roman Di and their 
 
 country cousins is most striking, the strangest 
 part of it being that whilst the town-bred girls 
 are full of health and vigour, these, living as 
 they do in a much purer and healthier atmo- 
 sphere, are pale and languid, and seem to find 
 life a burden. The fact is, that this part of 
 Italy is about two centuries behindhand in 
 civilization. 
 
 " We finished off the evening by dancing; 
 one of the priests performed orchestra, and 
 enlivened the intervals between the dances 
 by comic songs, the bishop all the while
 
 184 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 looking on with the utmost complacency. He 
 evidently considers discretion the better part 
 of valour, and wishes to ingratiate himself 
 with the powers that be. He made himself 
 
 most agreeable to A , complimenting him 
 
 on his handsome uniform, and seemed in no 
 wise to resent the medal. I think he was 
 quite grateful to A and me for not flop- 
 ping down on our knees and asking his 
 blessing, as the others were incessantly doing, 
 at all sorts of inconvenient times and seasons, 
 to his evident annoyance. 
 
 " We had intended to return home in the 
 evening ; but found ourselves benighted, and 
 accepted the offer of sleeping accommodation. 
 
 It was not very comfortable. A had to 
 
 be banished to some very wretched upper 
 region, and I took Virginia's vacant place by 
 the side of Teresa, whose two sisters occupied 
 another bed in the same room. 
 
 " Although very sleepy, the conscientious 
 Teresa did not think it right to let slip such 
 an opportunity of making a convert, and ex-
 
 COURTSHIP, 185 
 
 pounded her views on heretics at considerable 
 length, and without interruption, as I did not 
 think it of any use to argue the subject, 
 knowing it would only excite opposition and 
 prolong the discussion. I went to sleep just 
 as I was being asked what I had to say for 
 a religion invented by a king who wished 
 to divorce his wife and a monk who wished to 
 marry a nun. 
 
 "The following morning we made prepara- 
 tions for an early departure, but were per- 
 suaded to stay and join in the culminating 
 festivity of the carnival a ball, which was 
 to take place in the theatre. The day was 
 rather difficult to get through, but we found 
 the music-master's piano a great resource. 
 The long morning hours were the most trying, 
 as we had had nothing but a minute cup of 
 chocolate in our rooms, which was to last 
 until the one-o'clock dinner. Italian powers of 
 long fasting fill me with wonder and admira- 
 tion. At dinner, there were plenty of dishes, 
 but nothing satisfying. The soup was so weak,
 
 1 86 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 the chickens so thin, and what there was of 
 them having gone to make the said soup was 
 so boiled away. Then sweet and savoury were 
 so mixed up together the puddings coming 
 before the meat, and the meat being plentifully 
 sugared that it was anything but a tempting 
 meal, at least to me. However, I ate because 
 I had been credibly informed that there was 
 no chance of anything more until after the 
 ball i.e., for about twelve hours. 
 
 " After dinner, I induced some of the Roman 
 party to accompany me in a walk. It was a 
 great relief to get away from the dreary, cold, 
 uncomfortable house into the pleasant sunshine, 
 and exchange the view of the narrow street 
 and opposite house for that lovely panorama, 
 extending for miles and miles, and embracing 
 sea, mountains, hills, valleys, countless villages 
 and towns, which our friends here appreciate 
 so little. They would not live in the country 
 for the world ! 
 
 "Dressing for the ball was not a very 
 elaborate process with most of us, but the
 
 COURTSHIP. 187 
 
 Signora Di (the bride's mother), having 
 
 been a beauty in her youth, and still retaining 
 considerable traces of good looks at forty 
 years old, had a weakness for adorning her 
 person in very gay and juvenile attire. She 
 had shown us her low-necked ball-dress of pink 
 tarlatan, festooned with garlands of flowers, 
 her wreath, and even the bunch of false curls 
 intended to add to the luxuriance of her 
 own locks, with immense pride and satisfac- 
 tion. But, alas ! that gorgeous attire was 
 destined to waste its sweetness on the desert 
 air ; for the poor lady had an inexorable 
 husband, who considered it indecorous in the 
 mother of a married daughter so to forget 
 her matronly dignity, and insisted on a more 
 quiet and sober style of dress. We in the 
 adjoining room overheard the weeping and 
 entreaties, loud upbraidings and lamentations, 
 mingled with the tones of masculine indig- 
 nation and wrath, which made us only too 
 well aware that a conjugal storm was going 
 on. When, at length, the signora emerged
 
 1 88 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 in the more dignified and modest raiment, 
 which showed that her husband had won the 
 day, the tears were still running in rivulets 
 down her smooth, round cheeks. 
 
 " The ball was not very select, the price of 
 admission being one sou. The chief dancers 
 were the peasants, and the favourite dance 
 the salterello, in which the man goes back- 
 wards and the woman forwards, their right 
 hands joined, to a most monotonous tune. 
 The fine people of M - and of the neigh- 
 bouring villages for the most part looked on 
 
 from the boxes. Teresa di very much 
 
 wished to do the same ; but Zia, again weeping, 
 declared that the ball had been got up in her 
 honour, and she and her sisters were obliged 
 
 to go down and dance ; but A , Nina, 
 
 I, and the children stayed in the box all the 
 evening. Signor D - came to visit us in 
 a very tight-fitting pair of lavender kid 
 gloves. He is the smart young man of the 
 place, and, on the strength of having been to 
 Rome, he gives himself great airs, and looks
 
 COURTSHIP. 189 
 
 down immensely on his country neighbours. 
 He quizzed all the representatives of the 
 
 rank and fashion of M , bidding us 
 
 remark how the Signora A had remem- 
 bered her low gown and her muff, but had 
 forgotten her gloves ; and how the Contessa 
 
 B had invited her fattore to share her 
 
 box with her. Another lady of noble birth, 
 who, finding herself destitute at the age of 
 forty, had married a peasant possessing some 
 little property, looked on complacently from* 
 her box, whilst her husband figured in the 
 salterello with the other peasants. An ex- 
 monk, who had taken advantage of the new 
 laws to free himself from monastic rule, was 
 the liveliest of the dancers. It is an odd 
 state of society, is it not ? "
 
 1QO OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 RELIGION ATS T D SUPERSTITION. 
 
 DESPITE the enlightenment of the age, the 
 gross credulity of certain classes of the people 
 would seem to be as absurd and exaggerated 
 as ever. There is but little true religion in 
 any class, but superstition is still rife in the 
 lower, especially amongst the peasantry. One 
 cannot walk a mile upon a high-road without 
 coming upon a shrine erected to the Virgin, 
 and no peasant passes the half-effaced daub 
 without stopping to kneel and pray, or at 
 least cross himself. A print of the Madonna, 
 often decorated with a wreath of flowers, is to 
 be seen over the bedstead in any peasant's 
 house you may enter ; none are without some 
 charm concealed about their persons. In all
 
 RELIGION AND SUPERSTITION, 191 
 
 cornfields various little wooden crosses are 
 stuck about, in order that the divine blessing 
 may rest upon the harvest. A black cross 
 marks the spot either of a disaster or a memor- 
 able sermon. There is a very large one just 
 in front of our house ; it is evidently of a great 
 age, but to what tragedy it owes its existence 
 is unknown. I prefer to think it was a 
 tragedy, and not a commonplace open-air 
 preaching. Sermons are in vogue during the 
 month of October, when preachers from the 
 great cities perambulate the provinces, and 
 edify the peasantry with their discourses. 
 These flock to listen, and are profoundly im- 
 pressed, especially if the end of the world is 
 pronounced imminent, as I gather from the 
 subsequent conversations it usually is. But 
 this manner of frightening their flock is not 
 confined to the Roman Catholic clergy. It is 
 remarkable that the awe of the priestly power 
 should be entirely apart from any respect for 
 the man himself, who is often the object of 
 abuse and scorn. To one whose birth is in-
 
 IQ2 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 volved in mystery, the insinuation that he is 
 "figlio di prete" is a familiar taunt, and resented 
 as the cruellest of insults. I have heard of a 
 priest being waylaid by two brothers, who felt 
 themselves in need of spiritual succour. 
 " Absolve us from our sins," they demanded ; 
 and the holy man, at first refusing, was beaten 
 until he complied. 
 
 Babies and animals are great sufferers from 
 the prevalent superstition. Babies are branded 
 in the back of the neck, and dogs on the fore- 
 head, to keep them from harm. When T 
 remonstrated with a contadina for keeping 
 her dog without water, using the only argu- 
 ment I thought likely to have any weight with 
 her, that it would probably go mad, " Oh ! 
 there is no fear," she replied. " He has been 
 branded with the < ferro di S. Antonio;' so 
 no harm can come near him." 
 
 Scarcely a peasant can be found who has not 
 been to Loreto to behold the house of the 
 Virgin, miraculously brought there by angels, 
 and all return thence with their arms plentifully
 
 RELIGION AND SUPERSTITION. 193 
 
 tattooed, in memory of the consecrated spot. 
 A curious procession of pilgrims to Loreto 
 passes once a year, when an immense quantity 
 of covered carts convey the devout peasants 
 from the Abruzzi to worship at the miracu- 
 lous chimney-piece. The .dresses of these 
 mountaineers are most picturesque. The men 
 wear short green velvet jackets, with brass 
 buttons, over scarlet waistcoats ; scarlet knee- 
 breeches ; and shoes turned up at the points, 
 and strapped with cross ribbons up to the 
 knee ; a high-crowned felt hat, adorned with a 
 feather or a bunch of flowers, completes the 
 costume. The women wear scarlet stays cut 
 very low under their white embroidered 
 chemises, white lace veils on their heads, and 
 white muslin aprons. As the procession re- 
 turns homewards, they may be heard chanting 
 solemnly for miles along the way. They have 
 said their prayers, made their offerings, and no 
 doubt feel proportionately virtuous. 
 
 On the 10th of December, all the country 
 for 150 miles round is alight with bonfires, for 
 
 13
 
 194 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 every householder is expected to put a bundle 
 of faggots outside his door, and at nine o'clock 
 in the evening to set it on fire in honour of 
 the Madonna of Loreto on this her day. These 
 myriad fires have a very pretty effect. 
 
 Processions such as mark certain feasts of 
 the Church have been described so often that 
 I will confine myself to an account of one now 
 nearly obsolete, which takes place still in a few 
 remote places once every three years on Good 
 Friday. At the morning function in Church, 
 the whole scene of Christ's crucifixion is gone 
 through. A life-sized pasteboard figure is 
 nailed to the cross, and is taken down amidst 
 the sobs and groans of the congregation. The 
 preacher explains and dilates upon the scene 
 of the crucifixion in a sensational manner, 
 gesticulating and raving in a way more suit- 
 able for a theatre than a church. After sunset 
 the streets are all illuminated with Chinese 
 lanterns, hung in festoons across the street, 
 and the procession forms. The first figures 
 are dressed in long grey cloaks, with hoods
 
 V 
 
 RELIGION AND SUPERSTITION. 195 
 
 over their faces. Some of these drag long and 
 heavy chains attached to their feet, others 
 flagellate themselves over the left shoulder 
 with chains ; these are incognito, having some 
 terrible sin to expiate. Stories are told of 
 great but not good signori arriving in the 
 dead of night from their distant palaces in 
 the greatest secrecy, in order to perform this 
 penance. Having flogged themselves three 
 times round the town, they return to their 
 homes before the villagers have discovered 
 how great a personage thus humiliated him- 
 self. After these come a less weird procession 
 in white gowns, surmounted by short mantles 
 of blue and red ; all carry long tapers. Then 
 come little children in spangled dresses, with 
 wings fastened to their shoulders, burning in- 
 cense before a hearse draped with .black velvet, 
 and surmounted by a crown, on which is laid 
 the pasteboard figure of Christ. The hearse is 
 followed by a succession of pasteboard figures, 
 all life-size, borne upright on wooden stands. 
 First, the Madonna in black, with her handker-
 
 196 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 chief to her eyes ; then, St. John, stretching 
 out his hands towards her ; the Magdalen ; and 
 finally, St. Veronica, displaying the miraculous 
 handkerchief, on which is impressed the face 
 of Christ. These life-size figures, borne aloft 
 and tottering on their stands, have a ghastly 
 effect. After having paraded three times round 
 the town, the procession enters the church, and 
 ranges itself round the crucifix, now brilliantly 
 illuminated, and another dramatic sermon is 
 delivered. On leaving the church, the popu- 
 lation proceeds to view various little shows 
 representing phases of Christ's passion and 
 crucifixion : Christ in the garden a pasteboard 
 figure kneeling, and surrounded by plants well 
 lighted up ; Christ scourged, etc. 
 
 The next morning early, men go about 
 hammering bits of wood, and crying, " Come 
 to Mass in memory of Christ's death." This is 
 called the " trie a trac." 
 
 Monks and nuns exist still in considerable 
 force, in spite of the dispossession of their con- 
 vents and monasteries. When turned out of
 
 > 
 
 RELIGION AND SUPERSTITION. 197 
 
 their original abodes, they evade the law by 
 hiring houses, and straightway forming there- 
 in another sister or brotherhood. Stories of 
 the ghastly discoveries made on close inspec- 
 tion 'of the convents and monasteries are rife. 
 Some searchers in a vault underneath a 
 monastery in this neighbourhood were aston- 
 ished to behold the form of a young and 
 beautiful woman, with dishevelled hair, leaning 
 upright against the wall ; but at a touch the 
 corpse (for such it was) crumbled into dust. 
 One or two visits I have paid to convents 
 have given me the impression that the nuns 
 had anything but a sad or solemn existence 
 the Mother Superior in particular was full of 
 her jokes, and kept up a fire of repartee with 
 the gentlemen of the party. I have come upon 
 them romping in the garden with their young 
 pupils, and thought they imparted to the 
 merry games a spirit and a zest such as the 
 anxious and careworn matrons of their own 
 age, who have not renounced the world and 
 its vanities, would be glad to emulate. What
 
 198 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 does renouncing the world come to, after all, 
 but shirking a number of cares, and pains, and 
 disappointments? and what enjoyment does 
 one ever get so complete and wholesome as 
 that afforded by a fragrant garden in the 
 morning of a spring day, or the cool of a 
 summer evening ? And who that lives in the 
 busy world does not look upon days so spent 
 as days of exceptional happiness ? Yet such 
 is the perversity of human nature that girls, 
 on returning home from convents in which 
 they have been educated, sing the most dole- 
 ful ditties about young ladies immured in 
 them by the cruel count, their papa, and cut 
 off from all the pleasures of life in the flower 
 of their age. When asked how they learnt 
 these sad songs, they laugh and say, "Sister 
 this or that used to sing them when she 
 thought nobody was listening." 
 
 An archbishop, destined ere long to wear 
 the purple, came to our village to bestow his 
 
 benediction on the new cemetery. A , in 
 
 his capacity of sindaco, was bound to receive
 
 RELIGION AND SUPERSTITION. 199 
 
 him and do the honours. How to reconcile 
 their necessary official relations with that 
 attitude of armed neutrality which the hos- 
 tility of their political opinions rendered proper 
 between a pillar of the Papacy and an officer 
 of Victor Emmanuel's, was a difficulty which 
 
 A solved by donning full uniform on the 
 
 occasion, with all his medals, not omitting 
 that won at Mentana. Thus fortified against 
 all possibility of misconstruction, he felt able 
 to receive the archbishop with every mark of 
 good will. Folks flocked from all the neigh- 
 bouring villages far and wide, sufficiently 
 happy if they got near enough to touch the 
 great man's sacred garment ; and the genu- 
 flexions and hand-kissings amounted to such a 
 persecution, that I think he must have felt 
 gratitude for the strict injunctions laid upon 
 our servants and dependents not to molest 
 him in that way. He was a fine-looking man, 
 of not more than forty, with singularly bril- 
 liant black eyes and of energetic temperament. 
 He spent his time chiefly in wanderings
 
 200 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 amongst his flock, ministering to their physical 
 and spiritual wants. His large private for- 
 tune he disposed of in charity, and he be- 
 stowed not only money, but trouble and kind 
 words; in short, he had a way with him, 
 and made himself beloved by the peasantry, 
 some pretend with motives other than those of 
 pure philanthropy ; I believe him sincere, but 
 the question is one not necessary to enter upon. 
 The feeling that I had suddenly been trans- 
 ported into the Middle Ages (the mediaeval 
 feeling, if I may call it so) came upon me 
 more strongly than ever as the archbishop, en 
 grande tenue, entered my house at the head of 
 a long procession of priests, some of whom 
 followed him into the drawing-room, where I 
 was, whilst the rest ranged themselves along 
 the walls of the ante-room, making me feel as 
 if my unpretending casino had suddenly be- 
 come elevated to the dignity of a palace. I felt 
 much impressed, but could not go the length 
 of kissing monsignores hand, so made him my 
 best curtsy, and hoped that would do as well.
 
 RELIGION AND SUPERSTITION. 2OI 
 
 The great man's behaviour was most 
 affable. He kissed the children, and re- 
 marked that the youngest was much grown, 
 forgetting, probably, that he had never seen 
 him before ; and when this baby, to the 
 horror of his nurse, climbed on monsignores 
 knee to get possession of the splendid 
 cross suspended from the neck by a massive 
 gold chain, he was caressed, and called 
 " Bicciolino," -'in allusion to his curly locks. 
 Our invitation to dine was graciously ac- 
 cepted, and as my husband could suffice to 
 do the honours to the archbishop and the 
 higher dignitaries of his court, assisted as he 
 was by a friend, who presided at a second 
 table, prepared in haste for the numerous 
 suite, I was desirous of retiring gracefully 
 from the scene. The opportunity was afforded 
 me by a good-natured neighbour, my guest, 
 who, with that quick perception and power of 
 ready resource which are so essentially Italian, 
 at once perceived my embarrassment and 
 relieved me from it. He stepped up to
 
 202 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 monsignore, and expressed his deep regret at 
 being unable to remain, but it was his 
 wife's saint's day, and for thirty years he 
 had never supped away from home on that 
 occasion. 
 
 The polite archbishop could not think of 
 depriving the signora of her spouse's society 
 on such a day. After a moment's pause, my 
 friend in need remarked casually that it 
 always happened so just the day of all others 
 when my presence, always so welcome, was 
 indispensable to his wife's complete enjoyment 
 of her festa, I could not be with them. But 
 let no one misunderstand him. He would 
 not for the world deprive monsignore of my 
 society. Monsignore sacrificed himself again, 
 and I breathed more freely, feeling that I, a 
 Protestant and an Englishwoman (the only 
 woman when my friend and his daughters 
 should have departed), should be decidedly de 
 trop in that party of Italian priests. Kestraining 
 an impulse to fall on my kind old neighbour's 
 neck and embrace him for his most opportune
 
 RELIGION AND SUPERSTITION, 203 
 
 fibbing, I bade the archbishop farewell, and 
 hastened from a house to which I seemed 
 scarcely to belong. As I caught a last glimpse 
 of the party at table, I thought that the 
 soldier in his warlike accoutrements, enter- 
 taining his long-robed guests, made a striking 
 and suggestive picture. 
 
 Although the great majority of the popula- 
 tion here belong more or less openly to the 
 clerical party, the small minority which does 
 not, opposes it with exceptional ferocity. It 
 is here that outrages in churches take place, 
 that priests are publicly insulted, and open 
 war declared against all religions. The civili- 
 ties exchanged between my husband and the 
 archbishop caused, therefore, no little aston- 
 ishment, and produced, I hope, some enlighten- 
 ment in the minds of those who had not been 
 taught to appreciate the exercise of mutual 
 courtesy and forbearance between gentlemen 
 whose opinions may happen to differ. I do 
 not know whether these unexpected ameni- 
 ties between ourselves and the archbishop
 
 204 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 could have inspired a neighbouring priest 
 with the bright idea of writing a letter to 
 the Queen of England, enclosing his photo- 
 graph. The substance of the letter was to call 
 her attention to the fact that he was in 
 straitened circumstances, and would be glad 
 of a little pecuniary assistance. It was in 
 vain we suggested that a letter to the Queen 
 of Italy would be more appropriate. Nothing 
 could persuade our clerical friend that a word 
 from the English signora, then about to start 
 for London, would not ensure a favourable 
 answer to his petition. Accordingly the letter, 
 addressed, "A sua Maesta Reale e Imperiale 
 Vittoria Alessandrina, Regina della Gran 
 Bretagna, Imperatrice dell' Indie, Londra," was 
 entrusted to my care. It duly travelled to 
 London with me, and there I meanly left it, 
 in the drawer of a writing-table, by way of a 
 dead-letter office. 
 
 If I have found little to say on a subject on 
 which I might have been expected to descant 
 at length, the reason is that we purposely
 
 RELIGION AND SUPERSTITION. 205 
 
 avoided contact with the priests, and, there- 
 fore, I know as little of them, their observances, 
 and the superstitions which they foster, as it is 
 possible to know in a part of the country where 
 their influence is exceptionally stroog.
 
 206 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 POLITICS. 
 
 IN the matter of politics, the population around 
 us hovers between the two extremes of ultra- 
 clericalism and red republicanism or socialism. 
 Extremes meet, and secret ties between mem- 
 bers of very different factions are more com- 
 mon and more close than would be believed. 
 These things are difficult of comprehension to 
 the English mind accustomed to a clearer 
 definition of parties and principles. There are 
 as a matter of fact in Italy only clericals and 
 liberals, and, in spite of all the dividing and 
 subdividing, there intelligible classification 
 ends. The ministers are always dancing a 
 chasser croisd between destra and sinistra, 
 and a common detestation of the present
 
 POLITICS. 207 
 
 Government leads to the unnatural alliances 
 above mentioned. The only ties that appear 
 to be binding are secret ties. 
 
 The strange anomalies in the career of one 
 who has occupied a prominent position in the 
 provincia are only inexplicable to those not 
 versed in the intricacies of Italian politics. 
 The man of whom I speak began life as a 
 Jesuit, but did not take the final vows, and 
 such a change took place in his opinions that 
 he was not long afterwards imprisoned by the 
 Pope as a conspirator. He remained five years 
 in prison, during which time he was consoled 
 by the visits of various Jesuits, with whom he 
 continued on most friendly terms. In after- 
 life he figured at elections as a liberal can- 
 didate, but was sustained by the votes of the 
 clerical party. Query, was he from beginning 
 to end a Jesuit, and nothing but a Jesuit ? 
 
 The amount of double-dealing and corrup- 
 tion in politics seems incomprehensible in 
 a nation which owes its unity to its intense 
 patriotism. Yet votes are not unfrequently
 
 208 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 bought and sold. " Votes fetch a good price 
 this time," a neighbour remarked, during a 
 contested election, " and still going up." 
 
 I have known a village magnate, most 
 respectable and honourable in his own and 
 the general estimation, try to curry favour 
 with both candidates at an election. He 
 promised his vote to one, his influence to the 
 other, and these promises he kept. Unfortu- 
 nately the double game he had been playing 
 came to the ears of both candidates, and both 
 cut him. It was hard that his efforts to keep 
 two friends had resulted in his making two 
 enemies ; but he consoled himself with the 
 reflection that his conscience, at least, was 
 clear. He had given his vote to bim to 
 whom it had been promised; as an honour- 
 able man, he could do no less. He had also 
 kept his promise to the other candidate 
 given him his influence and support. What 
 could be fairer ? The curate had approved 
 with an affirmative sign of the head ; he 
 was a man of few words, the curato, and it
 
 POLITICS. 209 
 
 was therefore supposed that he thought the 
 more. 
 
 Another village gentleman in poorer cir- 
 cumstances, and less distinguished for probity, 
 having long hesitated as to whose money he 
 should take, ended by accepting bribes from 
 both sides and voting for neither. A priest was 
 convicted of writing in two antagonistic news- 
 papers an article a week in each, abusive of the 
 other, receiving thirty francs for each article. 
 Another would place his talents at the service 
 of any of the neighbouring proprietors for half 
 a pig. 
 
 My husband having always taken a pro- 
 minent part in political matters, and having 
 been brought forward as candidate for the 
 parliament, I have heard a great many elec- 
 tioneering discussions, and, without attempting 
 to follow all the ins and outs of the matter, 
 have pondered over one or two things said 
 in my hearing, which were to me remarkable 
 revelations of the state of affairs. I am 
 speaking of discussions amongst true politicians 
 
 14
 
 210 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 devoted to the cause of liberty. Yet, when 
 the question of which candidate a certain 
 town would support was mooted, it was agreed 
 amongst the speakers, " Di principi politici 
 non se ne parla ; " in short, that as the political 
 views of the various parties in the said town 
 would have nothing to do with their choice 
 of a candidate, it was of no use mentioning 
 them. The fact was deplored, but it was so. 
 The townspeople of A - would certainly 
 vote for a native, regardless of political 
 principles or personal merit, either in him or 
 in other candidates who might not have had 
 the good fortune to have been bora in the 
 town. 
 
 Then, the native of A was the official 
 
 candidate of the Government, whom few 
 sindaci dare oppose, even when the reason of 
 the ministerial favour remains a dark mystery. 
 It is not obtained by supporting their pro- 
 nounced policy. Far from it. But I am 
 quite out of my depth in the turbid waters 
 of ministerial intrigue.
 
 POLITICS. 2 i i 
 
 These days of " trasformismo " seem indeed 
 far from those of the loyal Cairoli. I re- 
 member seeing him in the year 1878, when 
 he accompanied King Humbert, a few months 
 after his accession to the throne, on a royal 
 progress through the kingdom of Italy, 
 chiefly, as is supposed, with a view to testing 
 the loyalty of the people. For this purpose 
 the train was stopped perpetually at the 
 stations along the line, and his Majesty 
 would descend and mingle fearlessly in the 
 crowd, desirous to fall heir to the personal 
 popularity which his father had won. As the 
 train skirted the Adriatic coast en route for 
 Naples, some anxiety was felt lest the recep- 
 tion in this stronghold of the clerical party 
 should be lukewarm ; therefore, when it was 
 announced that the royal train would stop 
 at our little station, the sotto prefetto, poor 
 man, was overwhelmed by the difficulties and 
 responsibilities of his position. His distress 
 was mingled, it is true, with a certain gratifi- 
 cation at his own immense importance, and
 
 212 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 a pardonable feeling of triumph over the 
 authorities belonging to a station ten miles 
 further on, who had been presumptuous 
 enough to expect that royalty would stop 
 there instead. Great was the excitement in 
 all the villages round. Equipages of every 
 sort and description, drawn by horses, mules, 
 oxen, donkeys two or three of these different 
 animals being frequently yoked together con- 
 veying ladies in the most gorgeous attire, 
 which had not seen the light since the 
 wedding of their grandmothers, converged 
 towards the station. Processions of working- 
 men's societies, each carrying its banner, 
 wound their way down from the hill-tops. 
 
 Our villagers were behind none in smart- 
 ness and loyalty, although the colour of their 
 banner gave rise to an unjust suspicion. 
 It contained the most orthodox sentiments 
 within its bosom, or rather within its folds: 
 but it was red, and when furled it certainly 
 had a republican air about it. It was 
 actually confiscated, but when, on examina-
 
 POLITICS. 
 
 2I 3 
 
 tion, " Avanti Savoia " was found embroidered 
 in black and gold across the offending red 
 surface, it had to be restored with profuse 
 apologies. 
 
 The dingy little waiting-room of the station 
 was quite transformed. What with a carpet, 
 and gilded chairs, and garlands, and the gay 
 crowd assembled within its usually grimy pre- 
 cincts, it seemed scarcely to know itself. A 
 strip of carpet was stretched across the plat- 
 form for his Majesty to descend upon, and 
 either side was skirted with notabilities and 
 smart ladies, some of whom had bouquets 
 to present. All the officers quartered in the 
 neighbourhood in their uniforms, and of course 
 all Government officials were there. One little 
 girl was to present a petition for the pardon 
 of a criminal, a murderer, whose wretched 
 mother waited trembling, with a last faint 
 hope for her son. But next to that mother, 
 the person who most excited my compassion 
 was the distracted prefect, who, with the per- 
 spiration literally streaming down his face, was
 
 214 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 haunted with dread, lest, in spite of what had 
 been asserted of the frantic loyalty of the 
 people in order to obtain the stoppage of the 
 royal train, the reception should, after all, be 
 cold. Many families, whose opinions were 
 dericale, were conspicuous by their absence. 
 The peasants were much influenced by the 
 priests, who, of course, tried to throw cold 
 water on the demonstration. Still, a goodly 
 crowd mustered, both of rich and poor; and 
 now the zealous official was straining every 
 nerve to introduce some order in the ranks 
 of the former, and to exhort the latter to 
 enthusiasm. There was a little practising of 
 " Evvivas ! " " Louder, louder," was the con- 
 tinued exhortation of the anxious functionary. 
 " Not ' Mort ai preti,' per carita ! that would 
 spoil all ; nor ' Viva Garibaldi ! ' What next 
 will they shout, in the name of all that is pre- 
 posterous, I wonder ? and the train in sight ! " 
 The awful moment arrived. But, oh ! 
 horror ! how fast the train is coming ! 
 What if some trick should have been played
 
 POLITICS. 215 
 
 at the last moment, and it should speed on 
 to the rival station ! But no ; it is slackening 
 pace ; not enough, though. The carefully 
 arranged passage is glided past. Helter-skelter 
 run the smart ladies and the bewildered func- 
 tionaries, in dire confusion, after the train. 
 Order, law, manners, precedence, everything 
 forgotten. To add to the confusion, the 
 royal party descend in a hurry and mingle 
 with the crowd, the King looking in his 
 uniform every inch a soldier-king, as his 
 father was before him ; but, though bent upon 
 acquiring popularity, he cannot make his 
 countenance pleasant to look upon. There is 
 an uncanny ferocity in his strangely brilliant 
 and prominent black eyes. They glare there 
 is no other word for it and one shivers when 
 subjected to their gaze. The Queen is far 
 more "simpatica," to use an untranslatable 
 Italian word, and she looks fair and delicate 
 as a lily in her white furs. A little boy in 
 a sailor's dress seems in danger of being 
 knocked down. Our deputy takes his hand,
 
 2l6 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 discovering that it is the Prince of Naples, 
 and presently consigns him to the care of the 
 Prime Minister, who advances, all one glitter 
 of decorations. The child is presented with 
 an address ; he frowns. " Say ' Thank you,' " 
 commands his royal father, adding, " For the 
 last two days he has been perfectly unbear- 
 able." Poor little man ! the tedium of state 
 and the obligations of royalty had become 
 too much for him. The Queen, though en- 
 treated to seat herself on a sort of throne 
 erected in the waiting-room, preferred to pass 
 through and lean against the railing on the 
 top of the steps outside, where she received 
 the homage of the vulgar crowd beneath. She 
 seemed pleased to see me, and spoke to me 
 in English, as she had done formerly in Rome. 
 My husband, who had put on his long-discarded ' 
 uniform, found himself amidst old friends ; for 
 a long suite of generals and officers accompanied 
 the King on this journey, which so nearly 
 ended in a terrible tragedy. It was but a few 
 hours before the attempted assassination by
 
 POLITICS. 2 I 7 
 
 Passanante. " Cairoli, save the King ! " was 
 the cry of Margherita; to which the brave 
 Prime Minister responded by exposing his 
 own person to save that of his sovereign, and 
 receiving a wound, which proved him not less 
 heroic than his brothers, all martyrs to their 
 country.
 
 2l8 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 OUR EXCURSIONS. 
 
 THE fine view of the sea which we enjoy from 
 our hill-top is very alluring in the months of 
 July and August, and the desire to take a few 
 dips therein would come upon us with irre- 
 sistible force on sultry days, with the thermo- 
 meter at ninety-three in the shade. So we 
 bethought ourselves of a little place we had 
 by the seaside a tiny casinetto pleasantly 
 situated amidst shady trees, and near a con- 
 venient stretch of sand. 
 
 Down we went to encamp thereon in the 
 usual primitive fashion, taking a horse and 
 mule, a cow, and a provision of ham, wine, 
 and oil. There were but two bedrooms, and 
 no other accommodation for man or beast ; so
 
 OUR EXCURSIONS. 21Q 
 
 the men slept under the trees to which the 
 animals were tethered. On rainy days, which 
 happily were few, the cow, on which the 
 children relied for their milk, and whose health 
 had therefore to be considered, was accom- 
 modated in the kitchen, where, except for 
 upsetting the wash-tub aiad showing a great 
 desire to investigate the sitting-room opposite, 
 she behaved beautifully. 
 
 There was a refreshing Bohemianism about 
 our existence, which, on the whole, counter- 
 balanced the drawbacks, and we got on very 
 well, in spite of a few casualties. I remember 
 an exciting .chase after the old charger, who 
 broke her cord and indulged in a solitary 
 scamper on the high-road to the terror of the 
 passers-by ; but at her mature age a frolicsome 
 fit could not last long. She stopped to drink, 
 and suffered herself to be led home like a 
 lamb. There were difficulties, too, about the 
 cooking and other domestic matters. But 
 what were these drawbacks by comparison 
 with the delight of bathing every morning
 
 220 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 in that calm sea ? of sitting- under the vines 
 and olives and acacias, or the shade of a boat 
 on the sandy beach, whilst the children sought 
 for shells and seaweed, and dug holes, and 
 made castles, and grubbed to their hearts' con- 
 tent ? then mounting for an evening walk 
 to watch the sunset from the picturesque little 
 village on the top of the hill a village 
 which, for a wonder, is not a miniature town, 
 but a collection of cottages, straggling amidst 
 vines and blackberry bushes. The curatos 
 house, with its garden, containing an antique 
 moss-grown stone font, always inspired me with 
 a desire to take up my abode there at once 
 and for ever, though a description of it would 
 not justify the enthusiasm. I do not at this 
 distance of time remember any details about 
 the village ; I only remember my own im- 
 pressions, that to dwell there must be the 
 height of earthly bliss, though I admit it to 
 be possible that a week's residence in it might 
 have materially altered my views as to its 
 delights.
 
 OUR EXCURSIONS. 221 
 
 There were drawbacks even to the bathing ; 
 for there is a fish with a poisonous horn on 
 his back, which bathers are apt to step upon. 
 This happened to my husband. He suffered 
 dreadful agony, and, despite the incantations 
 of an old fisherman, who muttered various 
 charms over the injured foot, it swelled pro- 
 digiously, and could not be put to the ground 
 for several days. 
 
 Our next summer at the seaside, several 
 years after, was spent in a less rustic fashion. 
 We were located in the neighbouring little 
 seaport town, which, having progressed with 
 the times, had built itself a stabilimento, pro- 
 viding every facility for bathing, boating, 
 eating, drinking, and amusement. There was 
 a piano ; there were billiards ; there were 
 regattas in the daytime, and in the evening 
 there were balls, concerts, and conjuring ; but 
 gambling was strictly forbidden. So stern 
 and imperative was this prohibition that a 
 guard of carabinieri were stationed at the 
 building to enforce it, the natural consequence
 
 222 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 being that the young men of the neighbour- 
 hood played for stakes out of all proportion 
 to their means every night. Having to con- 
 duct their proceedings in secrecy, and to give 
 a watchword at the door of a little room sup- 
 posed to be dedicated to writing letters, or 
 some such innocent occupation, of course, lent 
 an additional zest to the affair. 
 
 We enjoyed a blessed immunity from tour- 
 ists. I literally never beheld one, English, 
 American, or other, though scores must have 
 passed in the express to Brindisi every week. 
 But many Eoman families passed the villeg- 
 giatura in our little town, whose costumes 
 were caricatured by the natives, some of whom 
 appeared in the most fearful and wonderful 
 garments. 
 
 We inhabited the upper story of a large 
 villa, the three lower floors of which were 
 devoted each to a family comprising children, 
 who played together in the common garden. 
 All these children had more or less of English 
 blood in their veins, some had a mixture
 
 OUR EXCURSIONS. 223 
 
 of French., so that such a confusion of tongues 
 has not been heard, I should think, since the 
 days of the Tower of Babel sentences fre- 
 quently being begun in one language, proceed- 
 ing in a second, and ending in a third. 
 
 We were very gay that summer ; for, besides 
 the amusement afforded by the stctbilimento, 
 a theatrical company from Naples initiated 
 us into the mysteries of the true and original 
 Pulcinella, in his white robe and nightcap, 
 whom the children voted a very superior 
 personage to that degenerate little fellow in 
 the showman's box whom they had seen 
 during a visit to London. Amongst the 
 elders, a great deal of flirting went on, and 
 not a little scandal ; but as these things are 
 not peculiar to the locality, there is no need 
 to descant upon them. 
 
 More tempting to me even than the sea 
 were the snowy mountains that bounded the 
 opposite horizon. The range called Sibelline, 
 once the stronghold of banditti, stretches away 
 westwards from the bold outline of Monte
 
 224 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 Vettore beyond that of the cone-shaped S. 
 Vicino. Looking south, past Ascensione to the 
 mountain which shelters Ascoli, called the 
 Monte dei Fiori, from the lovely flowers which 
 grow there, you see behind it an imposing 
 mass of snow, from which rises Monte Corno, 
 the highest peak of the Gran Sasso d'ltalia. 
 Between this group and that long chain to 
 the west there seems a wide gap in the range, 
 filled only by undulating hills ; but now and 
 then, on very clear days, I have been half 
 startled to see the dim outline of another great 
 mountain, shadowed forth in a vacant space. 
 There is a vague suggestiveness and a fascina- 
 tion about distant mountains for which I do 
 not know how to account. They seem to 
 open up a vista to some new and bright 
 world a Paradise for which one longs. 
 The longing grew upon me until it became 
 almost a mania ; and therefore it was that 
 one May morning we started, in the waggonette 
 drawn by two gallant little Herzegovinian 
 steeds, for the foot of these mountains. The
 
 OUR EXCURSIONS. 
 
 225 
 
 weather was just right not too hot, a pleasant 
 breeze, and a soft haze. We went in pro- 
 cession. First, the said family vehicle, with 
 luggage, and maids, and children ; then another 
 drawn by a gigantic chestnut, reared on the 
 premises, in which were two young men, 
 looking very much like business, with their 
 alpenstocks, and the badge of the club in 
 their hats, for they and my husband were 
 alike members of the Italian Alpine Club, and 
 it was in obedience to a summons from that 
 body that we were about to make the ascent 
 of Monte Vettore, nearly eight thousand feet 
 high. 
 
 On we went, over hill and dale, by oaks 
 and olives and vineyards, through many a 
 quaint village the ancient Servigliano, now 
 called Castel Clementine in honour of the last 
 Pope Clemente, who rebuilt it in a square, 
 giving it the appearance of one large house 
 enclosing a courtyard ; Santa Vittoria, founded 
 by the Benedictines; Force, by the gipsies. 
 From Servigliano we were pulled by oxen up 
 
 15
 
 226 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 to Santa Vittoria, where the great man of the 
 place, who knew my husband well, pressed us 
 closely to stay ; but we were to be in Ascoli 
 before dark, so pushed on to Force, in the 
 vicinity of which we picnicked. 
 
 One of our young mountaineers had come 
 with a double purpose. He was an aspirant to 
 literary fame, and was to describe the excursion 
 in one of the local newspapers. So lazy and 
 indifferent are the inhabitants of the neighbour- 
 hood, that expeditions among the mountains 
 are extremely rare, and only on the actual spot 
 can any accurate information respecting them 
 be obtained. Our young friend was of low 
 extraction the son of a labourer in a neigh- 
 bouring village, who, by dint of great sacrifices, 
 had contrived to give him an education. He 
 has a true gift for writing, and already, at the 
 age of twenty -two, was on the staff of several 
 provincial newspapers. We had much conver- 
 sation. I was anxious for information concern- 
 ing the mountains, and he eager to be told all 
 about the English authors, Dickens and Tenny-
 
 OUR EXCURSIONS. 227 
 
 son, and his own countryman, Dante Gabriel 
 Rossetti. He has such a bright face, all spark- 
 ling with intelligence, that I am tempted to 
 prophesy for him a successful career. 
 
 We stayed two hours at Force, resting the 
 horses and trying to discover gipsy peculiarities 
 in the inhabitants, whose dialect is said to 
 preserve many Komany words, and therefore 
 to be scarcely intelligible to the surrounding 
 neighbours. 
 
 After that, the journey was chiefly down- 
 hill to the fertile valley of the Tronto, on 
 which Ascoli. is built. Ascensione, its summit 
 crowned by a church, to which the devout 
 repair on Ascension Day, lay to our left ; and 
 though we were drawing nearer to higher and 
 more imposing mountains, the scenery had as 
 yet not changed its character. There were 
 the cornfields and the vine -garlanded trees ; 
 and trees with a stock of firewood stored amid 
 their branches, looking like the nests of 
 gigantic birds ; wells, where the maidenhair 
 grew unbidden; tumble-down villages, where
 
 228 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 an occasional new house, painted bright pink 
 or sky-blue, enlivens the general dinginess 
 with startling effect ; till we came to a dense 
 fir wood, at sight of which one of our maids, 
 a Swiss girl, exclaimed with joy that she could 
 now imagine herself in her native land. The 
 mountains were all right in her opinion, and 
 she did not know or perceive that they were 
 less lofty than the Alps ; but vines and olives 
 at their base were not in accordance with 
 her ideas of what should be. Here at last 
 was a river with water in it, the Tronto. It 
 may be observed that rivers usually have 
 water in them, but I can only reply that 
 those of the Marche have not; the Tenna 
 and the Aso, both of which we crossed on 
 the way, are but river-beds. 
 
 Ascoli, with its seventy-two churches, now 
 came in sight ; and its many spires caused 
 one of my boys to exclaim, "What good 
 people the Ascolani ought to be ! " Here we 
 rested the night, in the new hotel which has 
 been six years in building, and which, at the
 
 OUR EXCURSIONS. 229 
 
 present rate of proceeding, will require six 
 years more to complete. Business here seems 
 to be conducted on the assumption that life is 
 endless, and time, therefore, a matter of no 
 consequence. Ascoli is a singularly attractive 
 town, though in what its attractiveness con- 
 sists I do not exactly know perhaps in its 
 seventy-two churches, amongst which we 
 wandered the next day. A tower rises 
 before one at every turn, and one can 
 scarcely choose but enter some of those 
 sculptured portals. The cathedral is built on 
 the site of a temple dedicated to Hercules, 
 and this substructure has been made into a 
 second church, to which you descend from the 
 principal one. 
 
 Our chief business, however, was a visit 
 to the Alpine Club, in order to find out how 
 many of these daring mountaineers from Home 
 were coming to join the party for the ascent. 
 We were finally informed by telegram that one 
 only would appear, as there were rumours of 
 clouds upon Monte Vettore. There were
 
 230 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 clouds, it is true, and a little wind ; but, in 
 spite of these drawbacks, we started off to 
 meet the adventurous Roman, who was to 
 come from Norcia, on the other side of the 
 mountain. 
 
 We had a pleasant drive, still in our own 
 carriage, to Arquata, amidst scenery which 
 began to present a mountainous character. 
 The swift river leaped over boulders, some of 
 which, as the children remarked, seemed to 
 have tumbled out on to the cultivated land 
 on either side. The snow-clad mountains, 
 towering close above us, looked imposing and 
 perpendicular. Torrents sprang down from 
 their heights, and caverns yawned at their 
 base. The scenery was wild, but with a 
 tempered wildness ; grand, with a mild 
 grandeur. To my mind it was the glory of 
 the Alps without their gloom ; for, to me, the 
 dark firs and the cold colouring of Switzer- 
 land do convey an impression of gloom. Here, 
 corn and vines flourish around the scattered 
 rocks in the meadows, and the bright Italian
 
 OUR EXCURSIONS. 231 
 
 sun makes all gay and warm. The substitu- 
 tion of mediaeval villages for monster hotels 
 is also an improvement on Alpine scenery, 
 though there are considerations which may 
 reconcile one to those blots upon every Swiss 
 landscape ; and if at Arquata there had been 
 a big hotel, with the latest improvements, 
 instead of the dirty village inn to which we 
 repaired, I think I could have borne it with 
 philosophy. 
 
 We reached this village at midday, and, 
 having lunched, it was suggested that we 
 should go on a little way to meet Signor 
 
 B , who, no doubt, was at this moment 
 
 on his way from Norcia. We should thus 
 while away the tedium of a day impossible to 
 spend in that wretched inn, and see how best 
 to manage the morrow's excursion. So we 
 walked leisurely upwards towards Pietrara, 
 where mules were to be found. On the road 
 we were joined by two excursionists of the 
 neighbourhood a village schoolmaster and a 
 friend. The children lingered behind to pick
 
 232 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 flowers, and presently appeared leading a 
 heavily laden donkey by the halter. 
 
 The owner had been belabouring it un- 
 mercifully, and their sympathies always 
 strong for animals were roused on behalf 
 of the unfortunate donkey. My youngest 
 son, aged five, had seized the stick and thrown 
 it away. The elder children then took the 
 donkey's halter and led it forward, to prove 
 that they could make it go without beating. 
 The owner followed, vociferating ; but public 
 opinion favoured the children, who were 
 accompanied by an approving crowd from 
 the village. 
 
 At Pietrara we found donkeys and mules 
 ready saddled, and waiting our pleasure. 
 This sight was irresistible. The children and 
 I mounted, and the maids being given their 
 choice, the Swiss girl preferred using her own 
 legs, whilst the Italian a Sorrentina after 
 some hesitation, mounted a mule. She had 
 never ridden, and was in much fear; but 
 her repugnance to walking overcame even her
 
 OUR EXCURSIONS. 233 
 
 fears. The men all walked, and the procession 
 moved upwards. There was some truth in 
 the rumour that had spread so much conster- 
 nation amongst the Roman members of the 
 Alpine Club. Clouds obscured the summit of 
 Monte Vettore, but not that of the Macerie 
 delle Morte opposite, nor the Pizzo di Sivo, 
 from which the snow never melts, owing, not 
 to its height, but to its exposition. There 
 was no resisting an occasional halt in order to 
 descend from our steeds and pick the flowers 
 that grew in every cleft of the rock and in 
 every tuft of grass, and so we walked a bit, 
 then rode a bit, and walked a bit again, for- 
 getting time, distance, and fatigue in our 
 enjoyment. I asked my guide if tourists often 
 came? 
 
 "Yes," he said ; "they come from the Alps 
 the Swiss come." 
 
 " And English ?" 
 
 " Sometimes even English ; and they make 
 a fuss with certain stones which they pick up. 
 What funny people the English are I "
 
 234 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 " I am English." 
 "Tu!" 
 
 The guide forgot his manners in his astonish- 
 ment. 
 
 " But you don't speak between your teeth, 
 stretto, stretto, as the English do ; you speak, 
 aperta, like us." 
 
 " I have been amongst you twelve years." 
 
 " But didn't you know she was English," said 
 another guide, " by the way she sits her mule?" 
 
 It must be explained that the mule had 
 a man's saddle, on which I sat sideways, which 
 is not the fashion of Italian ladies here. It 
 was just as we turned a sharp corner of the 
 mountain that a blast, such as is common 
 amongst these wind-swept Apennines, blew 
 us nearly off our legs and our donkeys. Such 
 as were mounted jumped down from their 
 steeds, and there was a general rush for all 
 the shawls, coats, and comforters we could lay 
 hands on. 
 
 " It will be worse as you go on," said the 
 guides.
 
 OUR EXCURSIONS. 235 
 
 However, we went on, still in search of 
 
 Signor B , and, I believe, if we had found 
 
 him, we would have struggled upwards for 
 another two hours, and reached the highest 
 peak of Vettore, from whence, as the guides 
 said, " Si vede tutto il mondo." 
 
 But it was now four o'clock, the cold was 
 bitter, and the expected excursionist nowhere 
 to be seen ; so as the children were chilled and 
 hungry, the youngest being, as I have said, but 
 five years old, we repaired to a casotto, where 
 we were told we could be warmed and fed ; 
 whilst the young men set off for Castelluccio, 
 a village on the slope of the Sibilla, in case 
 
 Signor B should be awaiting us there. 
 
 The casotto was a very miserable-looking little 
 house, whose mistress received us in a room 
 which was apparently kitchen, parlour, and 
 bedroom all in one. The furniture consisted 
 of a bed and a table, a few chairs, and various 
 cooking utensils hanging on nails above the 
 fireplace. But the hostess was a cheery old 
 body, and presently made up a blazing fire
 
 236 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 on the open hearth, round which we sat, to 
 the great discomfiture of a cat, a rabbit, and 
 two hens, which we found in possession. There 
 was nothing, however, that we could eat, and 
 nothing that we could drink, except water. 
 But the guides seated themselves at the table, 
 refreshing themselves with lonza (a sort of 
 raw sausage) and wine, and discoursed very 
 unrestrainedly, but in a dialect of which, 
 luckily, not much was intelligible to me. 
 Then the old lady showed me the rest of the 
 house, which was more extensive than I had 
 at first imagined. There was a good-sized 
 bedroom, where travellers had sometimes slept 
 on their way up the mountains ; and " II nostro 
 Padrone di Roma," was wont to say that every- 
 thing here was clean and orderly. This was 
 true, or, at least, comparatively true. A 
 hideous mask hung, with the olive branch and 
 the crucifix, beside the bed. 
 
 " It is what my husband wears when he goes 
 masquerading in carnival time," said the old 
 woman. " It is he that plays the buffone. You
 
 OUR EXCURSIONS. 2tf 
 
 should see his dress ; it is beautiful. But I 
 have not got it here; it is down in the village." 
 
 The said husband was one of the guardie 
 di montagna, kept by the proprietors of these 
 mountain pastures, a fine-looking old man in 
 a picturesque dress high-crowned hat, knee 
 breeches, and silver buttons. 
 
 We waited as long as was possible for the 
 rest of the party, but the approach of night 
 warned us that we must be wending our way 
 downwards. 
 
 The moon rose as we reached Pietrara (where 
 we left the mules), and by its light we caught 
 glimpses of the villagers dancing in the little 
 piazza, for it was festa. We had a delicious 
 drink of Boat's milk, and refused, as usual, 
 
 O 
 
 pressing offers of hospitality from the village 
 grandee, who accompanied us for a great part 
 of the way back 'to Arquata. The scene was 
 pretty in black and white. The moon 
 shone on the waters of the rushing river, and 
 the fortress of Arquata rose dark and bold 
 against the sky. We were greeted on our
 
 238 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 return to the town with "Ben tornati," and 
 found supper awaiting us, in the midst of 
 which frugal and rather nasty meal the young 
 
 men appeared, but without Signor B , of 
 
 whom nothing had been seen or heard. They 
 had made good haste, having stopped to warm 
 themselves at the fire we had left for them at 
 the casotto, and also to join in the dance at 
 Pietrara. On the whole, the expedition was 
 successful ; and if we had not reached the top 
 of the mountain, and seen the whole world 
 beneath us, it was clearly the fault of that 
 tiresome person who never came from Rome. 
 
 Another of our excursions was to Macerata, 
 a favourite halting-place in the days of coach- 
 ing, but it lies out of the track of modern 
 tourists. Baedeker, however, mentions it as a 
 prettily situated town, possessing a university 
 and a school of agriculture. There one can 
 get books and other articles of luxury ; and 
 one feels one's-self more within the pale of 
 civilization than at Fermo, where, in spite of 
 the forty-eight old castelli, and in spite, or pos-
 
 OUR EXCURSIONS. 239 
 
 sibly because, of every inhabitant with few 
 exceptions being a count, not any book, except 
 that containing the town chronicles, is to be 
 seen. Still, even Macerata is not quite up to 
 the age. After a pleasant drive of twenty miles 
 over hills, and through dales, and beneath the 
 walls of many a quaint village, we put up at 
 the old inn, where in former days travellers 
 changed horses and frequently stayed the night. 
 I do not suppose that anything about it has 
 much changed during the last eighty years, 
 and at that time it would appear to have been 
 as satisfactory a lodging as its contemporaries 
 in other parts of Italy, to judge by various 
 written testimonials to its excellence, which, 
 framed and glazed, constituted the only orna- 
 ment of its walls. It gave one a sort of insight 
 into the hardships of foreign travel in those 
 days to see how this German prince and that 
 English duchess had not been so comfortable 
 since they left home. Everything perfectly 
 satisfactory. I could not say the same, and 
 I am neither a prince nor a duchess ; yet we
 
 240 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 were treated of the best, and charged accord- 
 ingly. The fritto would have been excellent, 
 if the oil in which it was fried had not been 
 rancid ; and though we were given tea, and 
 charged seven francs for it, not a drop of milk 
 could be had for love or money ; and as for 
 the discomforts of the accommodation, I have 
 never seen them equalled. 
 
 In strange contrast to our lodgings was the 
 luxury of everything we saw at the villa of a 
 rich old bachelor, a little outside the town. 
 He kept English thoroughbreds, and milch 
 cows from the north of Italy. He had im- 
 ported trees, shrubs, and flowers from every 
 quarter of the globe, carefully disposed, so as 
 to allow for delightful peeps of the sea and 
 the Apennines from amidst all the luxuriant 
 foliage. There was a sheltered avenue for a 
 windy day ; a shady arbour for a sunny one ; 
 a tower from which to admire the view, the 
 windows of which were so stained as to repre- 
 sent the effect of every season of the year and 
 every time of day. The summer picture, the
 
 OUR EXCURSIONS. 241 
 
 moonlight, and the landscape in snow were 
 particularly successful. 
 
 A summer reading-room erected in the 
 garden bore an inscription outside, which 
 I was requested to read. It ran thus : 
 " Uncle Tom's Cabin." 
 
 The count had been to England to buy 
 horses, and my native language was not quite 
 unknown to him. 
 
 " That is the title of a celebrated romance, 
 is it not ? " he inquired. 
 
 "It is ; but perhaps you were not aware 
 that Uncle Tom was a negro, when you 
 adopted his name." 
 
 " Was he ? Well, as my name is Tommaso, 
 it struck me as an appropriate title for my 
 little den." 
 
 We were given delicious tea, one of the 
 importations from England, and more deli- 
 cious milk fresh from the cow, with bread-and- 
 butter, and an endless variety of biscuits, 
 served in a rockery full of the choicest flowers 
 and ferns by a stately butler. It was almost 
 
 16
 
 242 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 too English, and 1 had to look hard at the 
 Gran Sasso and the intervening vines and 
 olives to remember that I was not in some 
 well - cared - for English domain. But the 
 house, though perfect in its way, was very 
 un-English. All its arrangements were made, 
 naturally, with a view to protect from heat 
 rather than from cold ; indeed, it was in- 
 tended only for a summer dwelling. There 
 were billiard-room, card-room, smoking-room, 
 reading-room, bath-room, all that a party of 
 men could want. The furniture was new, 
 pretty, and tasteful, and all was in perfect 
 order. Yet there lacked that air of liveable- 
 ness that an English house, even without a 
 woman's presence, is pretty sure to have. 
 Italians do appreciate order, precision, cleanli- 
 ness, even when they are too lazy to enforce it 
 themselves; but I never saw one who cared 
 a bit about what the word "cosiness" best 
 expresses. This was not a palace it was more 
 of the cottage orne'e style, and it is impossible 
 to say that material comfort had been neglected;
 
 OUR EXCURSIONS. 243 
 
 but it wanted something to my English eyes. 
 If the count had taken pains to make things 
 pleasant to us, he had at least the gratification 
 of perceiving that his efforts had not been 
 thrown away ; for the children danced about, 
 exclaiming, " Oh, how pretty ! " and laughed 
 with pleasure at every fresh sight that was 
 presented to them. Under these circum- 
 stances, it was no great wonder that they 
 were pronounced charming; and we parted, 
 all in good humour with ourselves and one 
 another. 
 
 It must be pleasant to see accomplished the 
 desire of one's life. The count is now an old 
 man, and has just only just completed his 
 villa, with its garden, the work of forty years. 
 But the pleasure is not unalloyed. He cannot 
 expect to enjoy it long. Another will reap 
 the harvest he has brought to perfection, and 
 he knows not who ; for he has no near relations, 
 and has not yet decided to whom he shall leave 
 his little paradise. 
 
 At Pesaro, which is chiefly celebrated for
 
 244 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 being Rossini's birthplace, we have stayed 
 more than once, on our way to or from Eng- 
 land, as guests of the bishop, who entertained 
 us most hospitably in his palace, and even 
 went the length of providing meat for us at 
 his own table on fast-days. All was in the 
 same style as that of other great houses in the 
 neighbourhood homely enough, with more of 
 mediaeval stateliness and rather more refine- 
 ment in its arrangements than those in the 
 villages. Long suites of barely furnished 
 rooms opened out of one another, and only 
 one room (that in which the bishop received 
 visitors) was carpeted and well furnished. 
 The establishment consisted of three men-ser- 
 vants ; no women, apparently, were allowed on 
 the premises. En revanche, there were at least 
 half a dozen priests always in attendance, and, 
 as I could not make out in what their duties 
 consisted, it occurred to me that perhaps they 
 lent a hand at housework now and then. One 
 of the rooms given up to us was that in which 
 Pius IX. had slept when a boy, an event
 
 OUR EXCURSIONS. ' 245 
 
 commemorated by an inscription on the wall. 
 This much rejoiced the heart of the wet-nurse,, 
 who felt convinced that, since her occupation 
 of that room with the baby, her sins, past, 
 present, and to come, were all condoned. 
 Another peculiarity about the chamber was 
 that its walls were riddled with bullets. 
 This was the result of a skirmish between 
 the Papal troops and those of Victor Em- 
 manuel, in the year 1860, when the Pied- 
 montese possessed themselves of Umbria and 
 the Marches. 
 
 " Where was monsignore during that trying 
 time ? " I inquired. 
 
 " In the cellar," was the reply. 
 
 Monsignore was a most agreeable and 
 amiable old gentleman, who had been nunzio 
 in some of the chief cities of Europe. He 
 endured patiently the ill-fortunes of the clerical 
 party, and only once did I hear a bitter allu- 
 sion to the conduct of the present Government 
 pass his lips. Something being said about 
 kleptomania, the bishop observed drily, " It
 
 246 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 is a malady from which the present Ministry 
 suffers much." 
 
 Having been shown the outside of Eossini's 
 house, notified by a gilt inscription over the 
 door, we were taken to a villa, the garden of 
 which abounded in waterworks. There were 
 tritons blowing horns, birds which sang, and 
 every sort of curious mechanical device which 
 water can set going. Then suddenly we were 
 startled by tiny jets of water rising from the 
 ground on all sides of us, and making by their 
 interlaced arches a palace fit for Undine, in 
 the midst of which we stood dry, although 
 a step would have brought us within reach 
 of a ducking. 
 
 We finished off the evening at the opera, 
 not however with Monsignore, but with his 
 charming niece, a cousin of her husband's. 
 There was nothing very memorable about it, 
 except a lady amongst the audience pointed 
 out to me as a daughter of our Queen Caroline, 
 who made, it seems, a long sojourn in Pesaro.
 
 247 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 NEARLY a dozen years have passed since we 
 first settled in our home, and many changes 
 have been effected in it. There is room, in- 
 deed, for improvement ; but when I contrast its 
 present aspect and the comparative comfort and 
 orderliness in which we live now with what 
 it was when I first saw it, and call to mind 
 the miseries, and the all but insuperable diffi- 
 culties of our installation, I feel thankful that 
 we have been able to effect so much, and hope- 
 ful of achieving much more in the future. 
 
 The house is now covered with climbing 
 roses, passion-flowers, vines, and other creepers. 
 Avenues of firs, of olives, poplars, acacias, and 
 elms are growing up to shelter us from the
 
 248 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 bleak winds in winter, and to give us shade 
 in the summer. Our garden is hedged with 
 roses and terraced with vines. Besides apples 
 and cherries, pears, peaches, plums, almonds, 
 medlars, and apricots grow on standards to 
 the south, flanking the kitchen garden, where, 
 unprotected by any wall, flourish strawberries 
 and melons, beside the asparagus and peas and 
 tomatoes ; for fruits, vegetables, and flowers 
 of all kinds grow and prosper beyond our 
 hopes. 
 
 The casa colonica, enlarged and renovated, is 
 dedicated to the use of the steward and farm 
 labourers. Capriccios have ceased to be the 
 fashion amongst our servants, all of whom 
 have been with us for years, and have learnt 
 to adapt themselves to the eccentric ways of 
 their English mistress. The peasants, too, are 
 friendly, having at last discovered that their 
 padrone is sincerely anxious for their social 
 advancement, and that he is always ready to 
 come to their aid in times of need. The 
 farm prospers ; the live stock increase and
 
 CONCLUSION. 249 
 
 multiply, the dogs and horses born on the 
 premises become useful and pleasant dumb 
 companions. The village schools are a source 
 of interest and occupation to me, whilst my 
 husband has other and wider interests. Be- 
 sides managing the farm and the municipal 
 business of our village, he is an influential 
 member of the provincial council, and pre- 
 sident of our branch of the National Eifle- 
 shooting Association. He is also the favourite 
 local candidate for the national parliament of 
 a large political party, whose favour he has 
 won by his firm and energetic character, and 
 his traditional liberalism, his father, General 
 Galletti, being one of the heroes of the revolu- 
 tion of 1848-1849. 
 
 In short, we have taken root in the province, 
 as only a family whose head is Italian could 
 have done ; for, in spite of political animosi- 
 ties . and of camorristic machinations, a native 
 must, at the bottom, have sympathies in 
 common with his own countrymen. The 
 strong patriotism with which the hearts of
 
 250 OUR HOME BY THE ADRIATIC. 
 
 all Italians beat has made them one nation, 
 and unites them, despite all superficial dif- 
 ferences and all party quarrels, in one great 
 brotherhood. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 LONDON AND BECCLES.