ry
worthless, as well as a very unhappy being. While he pleases, he
repels me. There is a want of heart about him, a want of fixed
principles--a degree of profligacy, of selfishness, of fickleness,
caprice and ill-temper, and an excess of vanity, which all his courtly
address and _savoir faire_ cannot hide. What would be insufferable in
another, is in him bearable, and even interesting and amusing: such is
the charm of manner. But all this cannot last: and I should not be
surprised to see Frattino, a few years hence, emerge from his foreign
frippery, throw aside his libertine folly, assume his seat in the
senate, and his rank in British society; and be the very character he
now affects to despise and ridicule--"a true-bred Englishman, who
rides a thorough-bred horse."

* * * * *

Our excursion to Pompeii yesterday was "a pic-nic party of pleasure,"
_a l'Anglaise_. Now a party of pleasure is proverbially a _bore_: and
our expedition was in the beginning so unpromising, so mismanaged--our
party so numerous, and composed of such a heterogeneous mixture of
opposite tempers, tastes, and characters, that I was in pain for the
result. The day, however, turned out more pleasant than I expected:
exterior polish supplied the want of something better, and our
excursion had its pleasures, though they were not such as I should
have sought at Pompeii. I felt myself a simple _unit_ among many, and
found it easier to sympathise with others, than to make a dozen others
sympathise with me.

We were twelve in number, distributed in three light barouches, and
reached Pompeii in about two hours and a half--passing by the foot of
Vesuvius, through Portici, Torre del Greco, and l'Annonziata. The
streams of lava, which overwhelmed Torre del Greco in 1794, are still
black and barren; but the town itself is rising from its ruins; and
the very lava which destroyed it serves as the material to rebuild it.

We entered Pompeii by the street of the tombs: near them are the
semicircular seats, so admirably adapted for conversation, that I
wonder we have not sofas on a similar plan, and similar scale. I need
not dwell on particulars, which are to be found in every book of
travels: on the whole, my expectations were surpassed, though my
curiosity was not half gratified.

The most interesting thing I saw--in fact the only thing, for which
paintings and descriptions had not previously prepared me, was a
building which