leasant and very merry day" at Lord Holland's; and I ought to have
mentioned how much he was gratified, at Naples, by the attentions of the
English Minister there, Mr. Temple, Lord Palmerston's brother, whom he
described as a man supremely agreeable, with everything about him in
perfect taste, and with that truest gentleman-manner which has its root
in kindness and generosity of nature. He was back at home in the
Peschiere on Wednesday the ninth of April. Here he continued to write to
me every week, for as long as he remained, of whatever he had seen: with
no definite purpose as yet, but the pleasure of interchanging with
myself the impressions and emotions undergone by him. "Seriously," he
wrote to me on the 13th of April, "it is a great pleasure to me to find
that you are really pleased with these shadows in the water, and think
them worth the looking at. Writing at such odd places, and in such odd
seasons, I have been half savage with myself, very often, for not doing
better. But d'Orsay, from whom I had a charming letter three days since,
seems to think as you do of what he has read in those shown to him, and
says they remind him vividly of the real aspect of these scenes. . . .
Well, if we should determine, after we have sat in council, that the
experiences they relate are to be used, we will call B. and E. to their
share and voice in the matter." Shortly before he left, the subject was
again referred to (7th of June). "I am in as great doubt as you about
the letters I have written you with these Italian experiences. I cannot
for the life of me devise any plan of using them to my own satisfaction,
and yet think entirely with you that in some form I ought to use them."
Circumstances not in his contemplation at this time settled the form
they ultimately took.

Two more months were to finish his Italian holiday, and I do not think
he enjoyed any part of it so much as its close. He had formed a real
friendship for Genoa, was greatly attached to the social circle he had
drawn round him there, and liked rest after his travel all the more for
the little excitement of living its activities over again, week by week,
in these letters to me. And so, from his "shady arm-chair up among the
Peschiere oranges," I had at regular intervals what he called his
rambling talk; went over with him again all the roads he had taken; and
of the more important scenes and cities, such as Venice, Rome, and
Naples, received such rich filling-in