It is of particular interest to me to find myself living within a stone's-throw of the building which sheltered for so many years my unfortunate kinsmen (if I may be allowed so to call them) the exiled Stuarts.[2] Their cenotaph by Canova in St. Peter's (paid for by their Hanoverian supplanter on the throne!) strikes me always as one of the most pathetic and beautiful monuments of modern Rome. [Sidenote: 1869, Papal infallibility] Bute was of course drawn to Rome, like so many others at this time, by the event on which the eyes of all Christendom were turned with curious if widely varying interest--namely, the opening of the Vatican Council by Pius IX. Bute was present at the solemn inauguration on December 8, when more than 700 mitred prelates walked in procession to St. Peter's, preceded by the splendid silver {87} processional cross, set with precious stones, which he had presented to the Pontiff a few days previously. A day or two after the imposing ceremony he records a curious little incident in a letter to a friend: I heard that the titular Abbot of Westminster, the head of the Benedictine Order in England, called to report his arrival on some high dignitary, dressed not in his habit but in the get-up of an elderly English clergyman. He was told that if he wanted to process with the abbots he must attire himself accordingly, and was asked if he possessed the insignia of his office. "Certainly," he replied. "I have the ring of the Abbots of Westminster," pulling out of his waistcoat pocket the identical ring worn by Feckenham, the last abbot in the reign of Queen Mary! The lamentable sequel to the story is that as he was mounting the steps into St. Peter's on the opening day of the Council, the precious ring, which he had not taken the trouble to get fitted to his finger, fell off, rolled down the steps, and was never heard of again. If this is true it seems very deplorable.