122 Mary Somerville. 



sentcd to Gregory the Sixteenth, a very common- 

 looking man, forming a great contrast to Pius the 

 Seventh. 



I heard more good music during this first visit to 

 Rome than I ever did after ; for besides that usual 

 in St. Peter's, there was an Academia every week, 

 where Marcello's Psalms were sung in concert by a 

 number of male voices, besides other concerts, private 

 and public. We did not make the acquaintance of 

 any of the Roman families at this time ; but we saw 

 Pauline Borghese, sister of the Emperor Napoleon, 

 so celebrated for her beauty, walking on the Pincio 

 every afternoon. Our great geologist, Sir Roderick 

 Murchison, with his wife, were among the English 

 residents at Rome. At that time he hardly knew 

 one stone from another. He had been an officer in 

 the Dragoons, an excellent horseman, and a keen 

 fox-hunter. Lady Murchison, an amiable and ac- 

 complished woman, with solid acquirements which 

 few ladies at that time possessed had taken to 

 the study of geology ; and soon after her husband 

 began that career which has rendered him the first 

 geologist of our country. It was then that a 

 friendship began between them and us, which will 

 only end with life. Mrs. Fairfax, of Gilling Castle, 

 and her two handsome daughters were also at 

 Rome. She was my namesake Mary Fairfax and 



