170 A Century of Family Letters [CHAP, 



very well with the nice lady on the sofa; and tell Jessie we 

 dressed our hair as we thought in good style. I do not 

 know how the curtsies were performed." My mother told 

 me they were plentifully stared at, four very English-looking 

 girls, all with fresh complexions and pink cheeks and all 

 with spectacles. At Sorrento she said the courier locked 

 them up in their room to ensure their safety from insult 

 when they were left alone for a little. 



Bessy meanwhile joined in the social life of Geneva and 

 Chene and enjoyed it all. A young Englishman (I think 

 the beautiful Mr Spencer) became much devoted to her and 

 was called her " Cavalier e Servente" She wrote to her 

 husband to express uneasiness at having felt obliged to play 

 cards on Sunday out of civility, to which he answered (30 

 March, 1825): 'One word about your playing cards on 

 Sunday, as you do not think it wrong to do so, why should 

 you object to [your sisters] Caroline or Jane knowing that 

 you did ? I am rather afraid of Evangelicism spreading 

 amongst us, though I have some confidence in the genuine 

 good sense of the Maerites for keeping it out, or if it must 

 come for having the disease in a very mild form." 



Elizabeth Wedgivood to her mother (at Chene). 



PIAZZA BERBERINI, ROME, April 14, 1825. 



. . . We look upon ourselves as the very luckiest people 

 that ever were, to have a second illumination of St Peter's 

 and fireworks on purpose for us as it were. We were rather 

 in a puzzle as to our dress, as the invitation to Torlonia's 

 theatre was to spend the evening, and we should have to 

 sit in an open gallery over the river. We consulted Mrs 

 Bunsen, who told us to go full dressed; so to prevent 

 catching cold Charlotte and I put pink handkerchiefs on 

 our heads, and our black satins, which are the most com- 

 fortable gowns in the world. At half-past 6 we set out to 

 take our station in the Place of St Peter, which, the way we 

 went, is two miles off. By the time we got there the paper 

 lanthorns were lighted, and we saw the men sticking to the 

 outside of the dome, and climbing up the cross. As it grew 

 dark the illumination became more and more beautiful, and 

 when the clock struck eight, the whole church looked alive 



