Mr. Kelly, who was then Consul, always made our stay pleasant as long as he was there, and we had delightful purely Milanese dinners together at the Rebecchino. I never pass Milan, and for those who do not know Milan well, I may say that I advise them never to go through without seeing Leonardo da Vinci's "Last Supper" in the refectory of Nostra Signora delle Grazie; then in the Brera, Raphael's "Marriage of the Virgin," with the rejected suitor breaking his rod; the tower of Azoni Visconti, where Jain Maria Visconti was murdered; Saint Gothardo, beautiful Lombard architecture, the façade of the Hospital in terra cotta, so beautifully carved, and the cloistered court; then San Bernardino dei Morti, a curious little church whose whole interior is made of bones and skulls. Every one should go up to the top of Milan Cathedral, which is a garden of spires and pinnacles and statues like lace-work, and of faces of which no two are alike. The view is glorious, and the mountains of Lecco are capped with snow and rosy in the sun. We arrived in Venice on a dark, sad, silent night, when the plash of the gondola has a sad music of its own. At this time the Montalbas--the whole family are clever, and Clara, whose Venetian paintings are so celebrated, is the best known--were in Venice. These two girls hired a kitchen in their early days, turned it into a studio, and thus gave birth to their now famous works. We got to our home at Trieste on Christmas Eve, and having accepted a Christmas dinner, gave all the servants leave to go out and see their friends; but Richard got seedy on Christmas Day and he went to bed. I had nothing in the house but bread and olives, and ate my Christmas dinner by his bed. How happy we were! What would I give for bread and olives now, and to sit by him again! [1] To go by sea from England to Trieste occupies from twenty-one to twenty-six days. To go by rail, if you never stop, was in those days a matter of sixty-three hours. [2] N.B.--This was changed in 1883. They lived for the last eight years in a _palazzonè_ in a large garden, on a wooded eminence standing out to sea, and had four such splendid views on each side, that they said that "if they were in England there would be express trains to see them."--I. B. [3] _Blackwood's Magazine_, September, 1859, p. 352. [4] "See _Journal of the Royal Geographical Society_, vol. xv. pp. 361-374." [5] "Pigafetta, edition 1591, p. 80." [6] "Lacerda's Journey to Cazembe in 1798," Richard translated and annotated, and "The Journey of the Pombeiros," by P. J. Baptista and Amaro Jaso, "Across Africa from Angola to Tette on the Zambesi," translated by B. A. Beadle, and a _résumé_ of the "Journey of MM. Monteiro and Gamitto," by Dr. C. T. Beke, published by the R.G.S. (London, John Murray, 1873).