On Board a Flag-Ship. 833 



alley. I also went to luncheon on board the flag- 

 ship "Victoria," a three-decker, which put me in 

 mind of olden times. 



[The following extracts are from letters of my mother's, 

 written in 1863 and 1865 : 



FROM MRS. SOMERVILLE TO W. GREIG, ESQ. 



SPEZIA, 12<7t May, 1863. 



How happy your last letter has made me, my 

 dearest Woronzow, to hear that yon are making real pro- 

 gress, and that you begin to feel better from the Bath 



waters Of your general health I had the very 



best account this morning from your friend Colonel 

 Gordon. I was most agreeably surprised and gratified 

 by a very kind and interesting letter from him, enclosing 

 his photograph, and giving me an account of his great 

 works at Portsmouth with reference to the defence by 

 iron as well as stone 



I wish I could show you the baskets full of flowers 

 which Martha and Mary bring to me from the mountains. 

 They are wonderfully beautiful ; it is one of my greatest 

 amusements putting them in water. I quite regret 

 when they cannot go for them. The orchises and the 

 gladioles are the chief flowers now, but such a variety 

 and such colours ! You see we have our quiet plea- 

 sures. I often think of more than " 60 years ago," when 

 I used to scramble over the Bin at Burntisland after 

 our tods-tails and leddies-fingers, but I fear there is 

 hardly a wild spot existing now in the lowlands of 

 Scotland 



God bless you, my dearest Woronzow. 



