otnote 166: The grant of a National Guard was made by the Grand
Duke of Tuscany on September 4, 1847, in defiance of the threat of
Austria to occupy any Italian state in which such a concession was
made to popular aspirations.]

_To Miss Mitford_
[Florence:] October I, 1847 [postmark].

Ever dearest Miss Mitford,--I am delighted to have your letter, and
lose little time in replying to it. The lost letter meanwhile does not
appear. The moon has it, to make more shine on these summer nights; if
still one may say 'summer' now that September is deep and that we are
cool as people hoped to be when at hottest.... Do tell me your full
thought of the commonwealth of women.[168] I begin by agreeing with
you as to his implied under-estimate of women; his women are
too voluptuous; however, of the most refined voluptuousness. His
gardener's daughter, for instance, is just a rose: and 'a Rose,'
one might beg all poets to observe, is as precisely _sensual_ as
fricasseed chicken, or even boiled beef and carrots. Did you read Mrs.
Butler's 'Year of Consolation,' and how did you think of it in the
main? As to Mr. Home's illustrations of national music, I don't know;
I feel a little jealous of his doing well what many inferior men have
done well--men who couldn't write 'Orion' and the 'Death of Marlowe.'
Now, dearest dear Miss Mitford, you shall call him 'tiresome' if you
like, because I never heard him talk, and he may be tiresome for aught
I know, of course; but you _sha'n't_ say that he has not done some
fine things in poetry. Now, you _know_ what the first book of 'Orion'
is, and 'Marlowe,' and 'Cosmo;' and you _sha'n't_ say that you don't
know it, and that when you forgot it for a moment, I did not remind
you.... It was our plan to leave Florence on the 21st. We stay,
however, one month longer, half through temptation, half through
reason. Which is strongest, who knows? We quite love Florence, and
have delightful rooms; and then, though I am quite well now as to my
general health, it is thought better for me to travel a month hence.
So I suppose we shall stay. In the meanwhile our Florentines kept the
anniversary of our wedding day (and the establishment of the civic
guard) most gloriously a day or two or three ago, forty thousand
persons flocking out of the neighbourhood to help the expression of
public sympathy and overflowing the city. The procession passed under
our eyes into the Piazza Pitti, where the Grand Duke and all hi