"Genoa, March 28. 1823.
"Mr. Hill is here: I dined with him on Saturday before last; and on
leaving his house at S. P. d'Arena, my carriage broke down. I walked
home, about three miles,--no very great feat of pedestrianism; but
either the coming out of hot rooms into a bleak wind chilled me, or
the walking up-hill to Albaro heated me, or something or other set me
wrong, and next day I had an inflammatory attack in the face, to
which I have been subject this winter for the first time, and I
suffered a good deal of pain, but no peril. My health is now much as
usual. Mr. Hill is, I believe, occupied with his diplomacy. I shall
give him your message when I see him again.
"My name, I see in the papers, has been dragged into the unhappy
Portsmouth business, of which all that I know is very succinct. Mr.
H---- is my solicitor. I found him so when I was ten years old--at my
uncle's death--and he was continued in the management of my legal
business. He asked me, by a civil epistle, as an old acquaintance of
his family, to be present at the marriage of Miss H----. I went very
reluctantly, one misty morning (for I had been up at two balls all
night), to witness the ceremony, which I could not very well refuse
without affronting a man who had never offended me. I saw nothing
particular in the marriage. Of course I could not know the
preliminaries, except from what he said, not having been present at
the wooing, nor after it, for I walked home, and they went into the
country as soon as they had promised and vowed. Out of this simple
fact I hear the Debats de Paris has quoted Miss H. as 'autrefois trés
liée avec le célebre,' &c. &c. I am obliged to him for the celebrity,
but beg leave to decline the liaison, which is quite untrue; my
liaison was with the father, in the unsentimental shape of long
lawyers' bills, through the medium of which I have had to pay him ten
or twelve thousand pounds within these few years. She was not pretty,
and I suspect that the indefatigable Mr. A---- was (like all her
people) more attracted by her title than her charms. I regret very
much that I was present at the prologue to the happy state of
horse-whipping and black jobs, &c. &c.; but I could not foresee that
a man was to turn out mad, who had gone about the world for fifty
years, as competent to vote, and walk at large; nor did he seem to me
more insane than any other person going to be married.
"I have no objection to be acquainted with the Marquis Palavicini, if
he wishes it. Lately I have gone little into society, English or
foreign, for I had seen all that was worth seeing in the former
before I left England, and at the time of life when I was more
disposed to like it; and of the latter I had a sufficiency in the
first few years of my residence in Switzerland, chiefly at Madame de
Staël's, where I went sometimes, till I grew tired of _conversazioni_
and carnivals, with their appendages; and the bore is, that if you go
once, you are expected to be there daily, or rather nightly. I went
the round of the most noted soirées at Venice or elsewhere (where I
remained not any time) to the Benzona, and the Albrizzi, and the
Michelli, &c. &c. and to the Cardinals and the various potentates of
the Legation in Romagna, (that is, Ravenna,) and only receded for the
sake of quiet when I came into Tuscany. Besides, if I go into
society, I generally get, in the long run, into some scrape of some
kind or other, which don't occur in my solitude. However, I am pretty
well settled now, by time and temper, which is so far lucky, as it
prevents restlessness; but, as I said before, as an acquaintance of
yours, I will be ready and willing to know your friends. He may be a
sort of connection for aught I know; for a Palavicini, of _Bologna_,
I believe, married a distant relative of mine half a century ago. I
happen to know the fact, as he and his spouse had an annuity of five
hundred pounds on my uncle's property, which ceased at his demise;
though I recollect hearing they attempted, naturally enough, to make
it survive him. If I can do any thing for you here or elsewhere, pray
order, and be obeyed."