98 At the Palazzo Cistema t I 9°4 



horses in the royal stables, which have been made over to him by 

 the King, and which are kept up as no stables are that I have ever 

 seen. He must have quite forty animals, most of them English weight- 

 carrying hunters in the prime of life, and obtained at high prices, with 

 as many men in livery to look after them. He cannot spend less than 

 £ 10,000 a year on his hobby. In the morning we had been to see 

 the two children ride in the riding school, which they did wonderfully, 

 considering their age. They are courageous boys, thoroughly well 

 brought up, and with the prettiest manners in the world. The Duke 

 has been most amiable, going the round of the stables with us himself, 

 wheeled in his chair. 



" At dinner to-night I was interested to meet the Marchese di 

 Guiccioli, grandson of the husband of the famous Contessa of Byron's 

 days. I should have liked to ask him what view the family took of 

 this episode, but refrained. He told me his family had left Ravenna 

 early in the last century, and had since lived in Venice. He is Prefect 

 here in Turin at the present moment, an intelligent man with much 

 manner of the world, reminding me a little of Sir Henry Layard, and 

 like him, a good talker. After it we discussed French poetry, espe- 

 cially Victor Hugo's, and the Princess quoted several of the best pieces 

 of the ' Legende des Siecles.' In the morning she had taken me to 

 the studio of the sculptor Canonico, to see a bust he has made of her. 

 It is good, better than anything we could get done in England. 

 Canonico is an intelligent young fellow, much absorbed in his work, and 

 talking fluently about it. He has done several excellent busts of 

 children, and two of our gracious King and Queen, rather painful 

 performances, and a terrible Pieta on a gigantic scale for a cemetery, 

 as is the taste just now in Italy. 



" igth April. — We left for England, and crossing Mont Cenis in 

 floods of rain, reached home on the 20th. 



"21st April. — The news is that Winston Churchill has just seceded 

 from the Tory party, and has been invited by half-a-dozen constitu- 

 encies to stand as an independent Free Trader at the elections. 



" 2yd April. — At Park Lane I found both Sibell and George 

 Wyndham, and took George to lunch with me at the St. James's Club. 

 In Ireland he has got into slack water with his Land Purchase, and 

 his Catholic University scheme is tied up. He wants to see Redmond, 

 and I am to arrange a meeting between them in Chapel Street. He 

 has acted on my suggestion about Somaliland, and has got the Prime 

 Minister on his side and also Arnold-Forster, and the war for the 

 time is stopped. They have not, however, yet withdrawn all the troops 

 to the coast, nor made a final settlement on my plan with the tribes, 

 but he is working for both and hopes to manage it. The chief 

 obstacle lies in the Foreign Office, which began the war, and does not 



