CHAPTER XV. 



U.BAXO POPULAR SINGING LETTERS FROM MRS. SOMERVILLE GIBSON 

 PERUGIA COMET OF 1843 SUMMER AT VENICE LETTERS FROM 

 MRS. SOMERVILLE AND MISS JOANNA BAILLIE ELECTED ASSOCIATE 

 OF THE COLLEGE OF RESURGENTI AND E. I. ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 

 AT AUEZZO. 



IN spring we went to Albano, and lived in a villa, 

 high up on the hill in a beautiful situation not 

 far from the lake. The view was most extensive, 

 commanding the whole of the Campagna as far as 

 Terracina, &c. In this wide expanse we could see the 

 thunderclouds forming and rising gradually over the 

 sky before the storm, and I used to watch the 

 vapour condensing into a cloud as it rose into the 

 cool air. I never witnessed anything so violent as 

 the storms we had about the equinox, when the 

 weather broke up. Our house being high above the 

 plain became enveloped in vapour till, at 3 p.m., 

 we could scarcely see the olives which grew below 

 our windows, and crash followed crash with no 

 interval between the lightning and the thunder, so 

 that we felt sure many places must have been struck ; 

 and we were not mistaken trees, houses, and even 



B 2 



