1817] IO3 



CHAPTER VIII 



~~ 1817 



The Allen sisters at Pisa Caroline Drewe and her family Sis- 

 mondi's courtship Algernon Langton and Marianne Drewe 

 Sarah Wedgwood and Jessie Allen Anne Caldwell's marriage. 



THE following letter gives an account of a family gathering 

 at Pisa. Mrs Drewe's two children, Frank and Louisa, 

 were dying of consumption, and were brought there as a last 

 hope. Her two daughters, Marianne and Georgina (afterwards 

 Mrs. Algernon Langton and Lady Alderson) were in the first 

 bloom of their youth, Marianne a beauty and Georgina very 

 pi quant e and attractive. Jessie, Emma, and Fanny Allen 

 were also staying there to be a support and help to their 

 sister, Mrs Drewe. 



Emma Allen to her niece Elizabeth Wedgwood. 



PISA, Jan. IQtk [1817]. 



. . . Dear William Clifford has been with us during the last 

 six weeks, and has shewn himself so inexpressibly amiable 

 that every individual of our party is to-day in mourning 

 for his loss. At first he wished to prevail on us to change 

 our quarters for Rome, but he had too much feeling to wish 

 to entice us from Caroline [Drewe] at present. Here there- 

 fore he stayed, for the sake of the company that I believe 

 he likes best in the world; and would have stayed among 

 it longer, if he did not consider it as a duty to return soon 

 to England. You know how highly I always thought of 

 his understanding and character. Now they are consider- 

 ably raised in my opinion. His judgment is excellent on 

 every point, and I know no one whom it is so satisfactory 

 to discuss a subject with as him, he is always so right and 



