CHAP. IX.] VISIT TO IT.AIJY. J V '" y. ;, ; 101 



think many good Conservatives were victims to despair. I found they 

 worshipped success, and the moment they saw we were not likely to be at 

 the head of the poll, they stayed at home and did not vote (shame). 



In speaking before public meetings Mr. Smee varied not a 

 little. Generally his speeches were fluently delivered, and were 

 at times most brilliant ; at other times his speeches would fall 

 flat, and then he would search for the words to use. When he got 

 up, no one could predict whether he was in the humour and would 

 give one of his brilliant speeches, or whether it would be painful 

 to listen to him. Two sentences were, however sufficient for 

 those who knew him well to tell whether the speech would be a 

 success or not. His facts he would generally, not always, get 

 up beforehand, but the manner in which they were to be arranged 

 was always left till the time of speaking. But perhaps the 

 most brilliant and most effective of his speeches were those 

 which he took no trouble about, when he rose on the spur of the 

 moment and delivered them off-hand. 



In the spring of 1870 my mother and I accompanied my 

 father to Italy, and there enjoyed all the beauties which that 

 classic land can yield. How much the charming scenery of the 

 Eiviera delighted him, and Florence that lovely city where 



" Sculpture with her rainbow sister vies ! " 



" Girt by her theatre of hills, she reaps 

 Her corn, and wine, and oil, and Plenty leaps 

 To laughing Life with her redundant horn." 



From Florence we went to Naples, which city and its 

 neighbourhood afforded Mr. Smee, as may be supposed, fresh 

 novelties of intense interest. He was greatly surprised to find 

 the Ceterach fern thriving almost at the summit of Mount 

 Vesuvius, and the Maidenhair fern luxuriating in all its glory 

 in the ruined amphitheatre at Pozzuoli near Naples. 



Some of the fronds (he writes) were eighteen or more inches in length, 

 and the earthen walls were covered with sheets of this lovely fern, stand- 

 ing out at right angles from the wall, or hanging down from the roof. I 

 must confess that, when I beheld this great and glorious sight, I was 

 more impressed with it than with the thought that I was present on a 

 spot where dramas of blood were enacted centuries before. I speedily 

 collected a number of plants, to the no small disgust of the cicerone, who 

 could not do the amphitheatre at his usual gallop, and who shrugged his 

 shoulders at my utter want of taste in gathering useless weeds. Some of 

 these plants now grow at my garden in the fern cave. 



