"Venice, April 4. 1817.
"It is a considerable time since I wrote to you last, and I hardly
know why I should trouble you now, except that I think you will
not be sorry to hear from me now and then. You and I were never
correspondents, but always something better, which is, very good
friends.
"I saw your friend Sharp in Switzerland, or rather in the German
_territory_ (which is and is not Switzerland), and he gave Hobhouse
and me a very good route for the Bernese Alps; however we took
another from a German, and went by Clarens, the Dent de Jamen to
Montbovon, and through Simmenthal to Thoun, and so on to
Lauterbrounn; except that from thence to the Grindelwald, instead
of round about, we went right over the Wengen Alps' very summit,
and being close under the Jungfrau, saw it, its glaciers, and heard
the avalanches in all their glory, having famous weather
there_for_. We of course went from the Grindelwald over the
Sheidech to Brientz and its lake; past the Reichenbach and all that
mountain road, which reminded me of Albania and Ætolia and Greece,
except that the people here were more civilised and rascally. I do
not think so very much of Chamouni (except the source of the
Arveron, to which we went up to the teeth of the ice, so as to look
into and touch the cavity, against the warning of the guides, only
one of whom would go with us so close,) as of the Jungfrau, and the
Pissevache, and Simplon, which are quite out of all mortal
competition.
"I was at Milan about a moon, and saw Monti and some other living
curiosities, and thence on to Verona, where I did not forget your
story of the assassination during your sojourn there, and brought
away with me some fragments of Juliet's tomb, and a lively
recollection of the amphitheatre. The Countess Goetz (the
governor's wife here) told me that there is still a ruined castle
of the Montecchi between Verona and Vicenza. I have been at Venice
since November, but shall proceed to Rome shortly. For my deeds
here, are they not written in my letters to the unreplying Thomas
Moore? to him I refer you: he has received them all, and not
answered one.
"Will you remember me to Lord and Lady Holland? I have to thank
the former for a book which. I have not yet received, but expect to
reperuse with great pleasure on my return, viz. the 2d edition of
Lope de Vega. I have heard of Moore's forthcoming poem: he cannot
wish himself more success than I wish and augur for him. I have
also heard great things of 'Tales of my Landlord,' but I have not
yet received them; by all accounts they beat even Waverley, &c.,
and are by the same author. Maturin's second tragedy has, it seems,
failed, for which I should think any body would be sorry. My health
was very victorious till within the last month, when I had a fever.
There is a typhus in these parts, but I don't think it was that.
However, I got well without a physician or drugs.
"I forgot to tell you that, last autumn, I furnished Lewis with
'bread and salt' for some days at Diodati, in reward for which
(besides his conversation) he translated 'Goethe's Faust' to me by
word of mouth, and I set him by the ears with Madame de Staël about
the slave trade. I am indebted for many and kind courtesies to our
Lady of Copet, and I now love her as much as I always did her
works, of which I was and am a great admirer. When are you to begin
with Sheridan? what are you doing, and how do you do? Ever very
truly," &c.