The journal of Elizabeth Lady Holland (1791-1811) Volume 1 (of 2)Holland, Elizabeth Vassall Fox, Lady
History
The journal of Elizabeth Lady Holland (1791-1811) Volume 1 (of 2)
Holland, Elizabeth Vassall Fox, Lady
Holland, Elizabeth Vassall Fox, Lady, 1770-1845 -- Diaries
The evening previous to my quitting Naples, 22nd May, I walked in
the Villa Reale after supper with Ly. Plymouth, Ld. Berwick,[37] and
Italinski. The latter was much dejected at my approaching absence,
and I really was affected by his sorrow, as he is not a man to say
lightly things he does not feel. He said when I went he should imitate
Mark Antony, who after his defeat retired to Alexandria and wrote
_Timoleon_ [_sic_] over his door, thereby declaring he was
become a misanthrope. I was sorry at leaving Ly. P., because, tho’ I
am not very prudent, I think she is less so, and I might have kept her
out of the scrape she is on the brink of falling into, for Ld. Berwick
remains the whole summer. Lord Palmerston, comically enough, calls them
‘Cymon and Iphigenia,’ for till their attachment began Ld. B. was never
heard to speak: love roused him.
On the 23rd the Websters left Naples for Capua, ‘the
antidote to all pleasure at present from its filth and
dulness,’ and continuing their journey crossed the River
Garigliano.
The gayest scenes until Mola di Gaeta, the verdure, the festoons of
vines hanging between the trees, with the glow of a crimson sun sinking
into the Mediterranean. Upon my arrival at Mola I dined, and in the
evening was tempted by the beauty of the moon to row upon the sea
within the bay for a short time. Early in the morning, by seven, I
was again in the boat, and examined the extensive remains of Cicero’s
Formian Villa. The bath is the principal object; it is beautiful. It is
in a covered recess _dans le fond d’un beau salon_, with columns
on each side: adjoining to it there are many rooms, high and narrow,
and very like those at Pompeia. The fishponds are large.
I did not go to Gaeta, distant about three miles: I regretted the
impracticability of the disposition of him who invariably checks
all I wish to do. There are still preserved unburied the bones of
the Connétable de Bourbon, his adherents not venturing to inter in
consecrated ground one who had perished in a sacrilegious act. He
was killed in 1527, in the assault of Rome. Benvenuto Cellini in his
entertaining Life of Himself assumes the honour of marking him with his
_scoppietto_ and killing him, but this _glory_ rests upon
his own assertion. There are few characters in history more deserving
of compassion and indulgence than this high-spirited and unfortunate
Constable. The caresses and revenge of Louisa de Savoie offended and
urged him to be a traitor; the one he rejected (?), the other he
resisted. Thus he became her victim beyond her wishes, for by deserting
his country and adding infamy to his name, he deprived her of her hopes
of making him yield to her desires.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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