ITALY AGAIN
In January, 1896, we left Aldershot on a raw foggy day, with the usual
winter brown-paper sky, the essence of dreariness, on leave for the land
I love best. At Turin our train for Genoa was filled with poor young
soldiers off to Abyssinia, the Italian Government having followed our
example in the policy of “expansion”; with what success was soon seen.
An Italian told us that “good coffee” was to be had from there, amongst
other desirable commodities. So the poor young conscripts were being
sent to fetch the good coffee, etc. They were singing in a chorus of
tenor voices as they went, after affectionately kissing the comrades who
had come to see them off.
At sunrise we arrived at Naples, Vesuvius looking like a great amethyst,
transparent in the golden haze from the sun which rose just behind it. I
must say the Neapolitan population struck me as very wretched; the men
were no better than the poor creatures one might see in Whitechapel any
day, and dressed, like them, in shoddy clothing. The poor skeleton mules
and horses were covered with picturesque brass-mounted harness instead
of flesh, and I saw no red-sashed, brown-limbed _lazzaroni_ such as were
supposed to dance _tarantelle_ on the shore. Certainly there is not much
dancing and singing in their hungry-looking descendants.
January 17th was a memorable day, spent at Pompeii. One must see the
place for oneself. Familiar with it though you may be through books and
paintings, Pompeii takes you by surprise. The suddenness of that
entrance into the City of the Dead _is_ a surprise to a newcomer, such
as I was. To come into the city at once by the “Street of Tombs,” which
carries you steeply upwards into the interior--no turnstiles at the
gate, no ticket collectors, no leave-your-umbrella-at-the-door; this
natural way of entering gave me a strange sensation as if I were walking
into the past. The present day was non-existent. Though we were three
and a half hours circulating about those theatres, baths, villas, shops,
through the narrow streets, with their deep ruts and stepping stones, I
was so absorbed in the fascination of realising the life of those days
that I never needed to rest for a moment, and the day had grown very
hot. One rather drags oneself through a museum, but we were here under
the sky, and Vesuvius, the author of this destruction, was there in very
truth, looking down on us as we wandered through the remnants of his
victim.
As to beauty of colour there is here a great feast for the painter. What
could surpass, on a day like that, the simple beauty of those positive
reds and yellows and blues of walls and pillars in that light,
back-grounded by the tender blue of mountains delicately crested with
the white of their snows? The positive strong foreground colours
emphasised by the delicacy of the background! The absolute silence of
the place was impressive and very welcome.
The Diary had better “carry on” here: “_Sunday, January 19th._--To Capri
and Sorrento on our way to Amalfi. There is a string of names! I feel I
can’t pronounce them to myself with adequate relish. To Mass at 8, and
then at 9 by steamer to Capri, touching at Sorrento on our way. Three
hours’ passage over a very dark blue sea, which was flecked with foam
off Castellamare. Capri is all I expected, a mass of orange and lemon
groves in its lower part, with wonderful crags soaring abruptly, in
places, out of the clear green water. Tiberius’s villa is perched on the
edge of a fearful precipice that has memories connected with his
cruelties which one tries to smother. Indeed, all around one, in those
scenes of Nature’s loveliness, the detestable doings of man against man
are but too persistently obtruding themselves on the mind which is
seeking only restful pleasure.
“We were driven to the Hotel Quisisana (‘Here one gets well’), very high
up on a steep ridge, where the village is, and were sorry to find our
pleasure marred by being set down to _déjeuner_ with as repulsive a
company of Teutons as one could see. The perspective of those feeding
faces, along the edge of the table, tried me horribly. They say the
Germans are outnumbering the British as tourists in Italy now. Nowhere
do their loud voices and rude manners jar upon our sensibility so
painfully as in Italy. The _Frau_ next to me actually sniffed at four
bottles out of the cruet in succession, poking them into her nose before
she satisfied herself that she had found the right sauce for her chop!
What’s to be done with such people?
“We had not much time to give to the lovely island, for the little
steamer had to take us to Sorrento at two o’clock. We put up there at
the Hotel Tramontano, and had a stroll at sunset, with views of the
coast and Vesuvius that spread out beyond the reach of my well-meaning,
but inadequate, pen. I can’t help the impulse of recording the things of
beauty I have seen. It is owing to a wish to preserve such precious
things in my memory, to waste nothing of them, and to record my
gratitude as well.”
At Amalfi came the culmination to our long series of experiences of the
Neapolitan Riviera. The names of Amalfi, Ravello, Salerno and Pæstum
will be with me to the end, in a halo of enchantment.
On returning to Naples, of course, we paid our respects to Vesuvius. Our
climb to the highest point allowable of the erupting cone was not at all
enchanting, and left my mind in a most perturbed condition. There was
much food for meditation when our visit was over, but at the time one
had only leisure to receive impressions, and very disconcerting
impressions at that. A keen north wind blew the fumes from the crater
straight down my throat as I panted upwards through the sulphur, ankle
deep, and I could only think of my discomfort and probable collapse. I
disdained a litter. I perceived several fat Germans in litters.
An even deeper impression was made on my mind than that produced by the
eruption proper on our coming, after much staggering over cold lava,
near a great, crawling river of liquid fire oozing out of the mountain’s
side. Above our heads the great maw of the crater was throwing up bursts
of rock fragments with rumblings and growls from the cruel monster. I
wonder when that wild beast will make its next pounce? And down there,
far, far below, in the plain lay little Pompeii, its poor, tiny,
insignificant victim! Yes, for a thoughtful climber there was more than
the sulphurous north wind to make him pause.
The little funicular railway had brought us up to the foot of the cone,
crunching laboriously over the shoulder of the mountain, and I could not
but think--“If the chain broke?” At one point the open truck seemed to
dangle over space. We were sitting with our faces turned towards the sea
and away from the cone, and (were we never to be rid of them?) two
corpulent Teutons faced us, hideously conspicuous, as having apparently
nothing but blue air behind them. There was no horizon at all to the
sea, the pale haze merging sea and sky into one. Then, when we alighted,
we found ourselves in a restaurant with Messrs. Cook & Co.’s waiters
running about. Certainly it was no time for meditating or moralising in
that medley of the prehistoric and the _fin de siècle_.
I found Rome very much changed after the lapse of all those years since
I was there with our family during the last months of the Temporal
Power. I shall never forget the shock I felt when, to lead off, on our
arrival, I conducted my husband to the great balustrade on the Pincian
overlooking the city, promising him my favourite view. It was a truly
striking one in the far-off days, and quite beautiful. Instead of the
reposeful vineyards of the area facing us beyond the Tiber, fitting
middle distance between us and St. Peter’s, gaunt buildings bordering
wide, straight, staring streets glistening with tramlines seemed to jeer
at me in vulgar triumph, and I am not sure that I did not shed tears in
private when we got back to our hotel. One fact, however, brought a
sense of mental expansion as I surveyed that view, which should have
made amends for the sensitive contraction of my artist’s mind. That
great basilica yonder was mine now! A return to Rome had another touch
of sadness for me. Our father had been so happy there in introducing his
girls to the city he loved. He seemed now to be ever by my side as the
well-remembered haunts that were left unchanged were seen again. Leo
XIII. was now Pope. On one particular occasion in the Sistine Chapel, at
Mass, I was struck by the extraordinary effect of his white, utterly
ethereal face and fragile figure as he stood at the altar, relieved
against the background of Michael Angelo’s exceedingly muscular “Last
Judgment.” And, now, what of this “Last Judgment”? The action of our
Lord, splendidly rendered as giving the powerful realisation of the push
which that heavy arm is giving in menace to the condemned souls towards
the Abyss on His left (I had almost said the _shove!_), is realistic and
strong. But what a gross conception! Our modern minds cannot be
impressed by this fleshly rendering of such a subject, a rendering
suitable to the coarser fibre of the Middle Ages. I could positively
hate this fresco, were I not lured, as a painter, to admire its
technical power.
Our visit to the Empress at Cap Martin followed, on our way home to
Aldershot. She received us with her usual genial grace. The place, of
course, ideal, and the typical blue weather. We were made very much at
home. Madame le Breton told me I was to wear a _table d’hôte_ frock at
dinner, and Pietri told Sir William a black tie to the evening suit was
the order of the day.
“_February 13th._--The Villa Cyrnos is in a wood of stone pines,
overhanging the sea on a promontory between Mentone and Monte Carlo. It
is in the French Riviera style, all very white--no Italian fresco
colouring. Plentiful striped awnings to keep off the intense sunlight.
Cool marble rooms, polished parquets, flowers in masses--a sense of
grateful freshness with reminders of the heat outside in the dancing
reflections from the sea. Indeed, this is a charming retreat. Madame
d’Arcos and her sister, Mrs. Vaughan, were there, who having just
arrived from England, were full of accounts of the arrival of the
remains of Prince Henry of Battenberg from Ashanti, and the funeral, at
which Madame d’Arcos had represented the Empress. The different episodes
were minutely described by her of this, the last act of the latest
tragedy in our Royal Family. She had a sympathetic listener in the poor
Empress.
“_February 14th._--A sunny day marred, to me, by a visit to Monte Carlo,
where the gambling is in fullest activity. The Empress wanted us all to
go for a little cruise in a yacht, but though the sea was calm enough I
preferred _terra firma_, and her ladies drove me to Monte Carlo. Hateful
place! The lovely mountains were radiant in the low sunshine of that
afternoon and the sea sparkling with light, but a crowd of overdressed
riff-raff was circulating about the casino and pigeon-shooting place,
from which came the ceaseless crack of the cowardly, unsportsmanlike
guns. I record, with loathing, one fellow I saw who came on the green,
protected from the gentle air by a fur-lined coat which his valet took
charge of while his master maimed his allotted number of clipped
victims, and carefully replaced as soon as all the birds were down. A
black dog ran out to fetch each fluttering thing as it fell. I was glad
to see this hero was not an Englishman. Inside the casino the people
were massed round the gaming tables, the hard light from the circular
openings above each table bringing into relief the ugly lines of their
perspiring faces. The atmosphere was dusty and stifling, and the hands
of these horribly absorbed people were black with clawing in their gains
across the grimy green baize. I drank in the pure, cool air of the
sunset loveliness outside when I got free, with a very certain
persuasion that I would never pay a second visit, except under polite
compulsion, to the gambling palace of Monte Carlo.
“_February 15th._--The Empress took us quite a long walk to see the
corps of the ‘_Alpins_’ at the Mentone barracks and back by the rocky
paths along the shore. She is very active, and is looking beautiful.
“_Sunday, February 16th._--All of us to Mass at the little Mentone
church. The dear Empress gave me a little holy picture during the
service and said, ‘I want you to keep this.’ There is at times something
very touching about her.”
I sent a small picture this year to the “New Gallery,” instead of the
Academy, feeling still the effects of their unkindness in placing “The
Dawn of Waterloo” where they did the preceding year.