FROM MRS. SOMERVILLE TO W. GREIG, ESQ.

FLORENCE, _29th May, 1859_.

... Everything is perfectly quiet here; the Tuscans are giving money
liberally for carrying on the war. We have bought quantities of old
linen, and your sisters and I spend the day in making lint and
bandages for the wounded soldiers; great quantities have already
been sent to Piedmont. Hitherto the war has been favourable to the
allied army. God grant that England may not enter into the contest
till the Austrians are driven out of Italy! After that point has
been gained, our honour would be safe. To take part with the
oppressors and maintain despotism in Italy would be infamous.
Tuscany is to be occupied by a large body of troops under the
command of Prince Napoleon. A great many are already encamped on the
meadows at the Cascine--fine, spirited, merry young men; many of
them have the Victoria medal. They are a thorough protection against
any attack by the Austrians, of which, however, there is little
chance, as they have enough to do in Lombardy. There is to be a
great affair this morning at nine o'clock; an altar is raised in the
middle of the camp, and the tricolour (Italian) flag is to be
blessed amidst salvoes of cannon. Your friend, Bettino Ricasoli, is
thought by far the most able and statesmanlike person in Tuscany; he
is highly respected. Martha and I dined with Mr. Scarlett, and met
... who said if the Grand Duke had not been the most foolish and
obstinately weak man in the world, he might still have been on the
throne of Tuscany; but that now he has made that impossible by going
to Vienna and allowing his two sons to enter the Austrian army....
We have had a visit from Dr. Falconer, his two nieces and brother.
They had been spending the winter in Sicily, where he discovered
rude implements formed by man mixed with the bones of prehistoric
animals in a cave, so hermetically shut up that not a doubt is left
of a race of men having lived at a period far anterior to that
assigned as the origin of mankind. Similar discoveries have recently
been made elsewhere. Dr. Falkner had travelled much in the
Himalayas, and lived two years on the great plain of Tibet; the
account he gave me of it was most interesting. His brother had spent
fifteen years in Australia, so the conversation delighted me; I
learn