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The Life and Letters of John Gibson Lockhart
Chapter 23: 1853-54
John Gibson Lockhart to Charlotte Lockhart Hope, 2 November 1853
INTRODUCTION & INDEXES
DOCUMENT INFORMATION
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Vol. I. Preface
Vol. I Contents.
Chapter 1: 1794-1808
Chapter 2: 1808-13
Chapter 3: 1813-15
Chapter 4: 1815-17
Chapter 5: 1817-18
Chapter 6: 1817-19
Chapter 7: 1818-20
Chapter 8: 1819-20
Chapter 9: 1820-21
Chapter 10: 1821-24
Chapter 11: 1817-24
Chapter 12: 1821-25
Chapter 13: 1826
Vol. II Contents
Chapter 14: 1826-32
Chapter 15: 1828-32
Chapter 16: 1832-36
Chapter 17: 1837-39
Chapter 18: 1837-43
Chapter 19: 1828-48
Chapter 20: 1826-52
Chapter 21: 1842-50
Chapter 22: 1850-53
Chapter 23: 1853-54
Chapter 24: Conclusion
Vol. II Index
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“Rome, November 2, 1853.

“Dear Charlotte,—I had yesterday yours of October 21, which told me about a ball, &c. I have nothing so brilliant, I think, to communicate. Yes, on Sunday was the beatification of one Bobola, I think, a Polish Jesuit, however, murdered by the Russians one hundred years ago, and I then saw,
372 LIFE OF J. G. LOCKHART.  
for the first time, Pius IX., who looked very comfortable, blessing away right and left, between lines of French soldiers, who seemed to pay very little attention to the concern. Considerable crowd and lots of trumpets. The Pope gave a dinner a few days ago, which made some sensation. It was in a summer-house of the Vatican garden, and the guests the Grand Dukes of Tuscany, Borghesa, and another prince, Wiseman, and another cardinal. My ‘Professor’—that is, little dominie, who spends an hour in the morning to brush up my Italian, says the English Cardinal has come to get some dispensations connected with a late legal dispute about votes on monastic property. I have not made acquaintance with any Italians, except my doctor, who is a very agreeable one, and the Duke of Sermoneta, an accomplished one. They dine apparently wherever an English spread occurs, and the rest of the company has hitherto been about as unvaried. I dine out continually, mostly with Hay and Peter; but occasionally with Mrs. Sartoris, or her sister Fanny, who are good cicerones as to the picturesque points of view in the Campagna. Great excavations have been made since I was here on the line of the Appian Way, and many fine monuments revealed. For instance, one to Seneca, with a frieze, showing the chief circumstances of his life, and, very neatly, those of his death. Another, very large, but not near so old, is that of the baker, a favourite slave, that is, of some great man under
THE POPE373
Aurelian, and in this all the operations of the craft are cut in very bold relief. On either side, for two or three miles, you have these works still in progress; and the Pope drives out ever and anon to inspect, in company with his architect, Canina, who publishes, at enormous length, on every new discovery, a thick tome, for example, about the baker! The photographs of the antiquities are abundant, and mostly very excellent, but absurdly dear.

“I am certainly, since I wrote last, somewhat bettered as respects appetite; with eggs and fish I breakfast well, and with soup and fish dine tolerably. Meat not yet within my reach exactly, though once I did contrive to deal with part of a cold partridge. The weather is said to have been unfavourable; it is still as hot as English August, but with occasional rains, or rather floods.

“I will, for sake of Mary Monica, go to St. Monica’s tomb some day soon.

“J. G. Lockhart.”