256 Mary Somerville. 



at Venice. The summer passed most delightfully 

 at Venice, and we had ample time to see everything 

 without hurry. I wrote very little this summer, 

 for the scenery was so beautiful that I painted all 

 day; my daughters drew in the Belle Arti, and 

 Somerville had plenty of books to amuse him, 

 besides sight-seeing, which occupied much of our 

 time. In the Armenian convent we met with 

 Joseph Warten, an excellent mathematician and 

 astronomer ; he was pastor at Neusatz, near Peter- 

 wardein in Hungary, and he was making a tour 

 through Europe. He asked me to give him a 

 copy of the "Mechanism of the Heavens," and 

 afterwards wrote in Latin to Somerville and sent 

 me some errors of the press he had met with in my 

 book, but they were of no use, as I never published 

 a second edition. We returned to Rome by Ravenna, 

 where we stayed a couple of days, then travelled 

 slowly along the Adriatic Coast. From thence 

 we went by Gubbio and Perugia to Orvieto, one 

 of the most interesting towns in Italy, and one 

 seldom visited at that time ; now the railway will 

 bring it into the regular track of travellers. 



***** 



A few extracts from letters, written and received 

 during this summer by my mother, may not be without 

 interest. Also parts of two from my mother's old and 



