"I am determined to build a house here next spring, and I should like to give your son an opportunity of making his débût as an architect. "If you like the idea, send him off forthwith to Liverpool or Holyhead, from which places steamers go, and by the Derry mail he will be here (with resting a day in Dublin) in five days; but he must lose no time in setting off. I will bring him back in my carriage. "Remember me most kindly to Mrs. Mathews, "BLESSINGTON." "I suppose it would be utterly useless my asking you to come with Charles; but if you wish to spend a week in one of the most beautiful spots in Ireland, eat the best venison, Highland mutton and rabbits, and drink the best claret in Ireland, this is the place; and you would be received with undivided applause, and I would give some comical dresses for your kit. Letters from Charles James Mathews, Esq. to Lady Bless ington. “Torre del Annunciata, Napoli, "Wednesday Evening (1824). 1 "DEAR LADY BLESSINGTon, "On Wednesday last, at half-past twelve o'clock precisely, we started to Pompeii, and arrived in excellent health, covered with dust, hoping your Ladyship is the same. After a scientific walk through a few of the houses, we returned to our quarters and sat down to dinner, which we performed with ease in less than five-and-thirty minutes. We then went to bed, thinking that the best way of passing the evening; and though we had no curtained sleep,' we managed uncommonly well, and it perfectly answered our purpose. Angell says that I snored; but persons are very fond of throwing their own sins upon the backs, or rather the noses, of others. 6 "On the following morning, at break of day, we were again at Pompeii, and spent the whole of the day in combining, analyzing, and arranging our plan of study. The result was this, that we found nothing in the whole city worthy of being measured and drawn 'architecturally' (by which I mean outlined with the scrupulous accuracy of measurement usually adopted by architects), except the two theatres and the amphitheatre, picturesque sketches and notes of the other subjects of interest being quite sufficient for our object. "On Friday morning we commenced, and by our united efforts have completed the measurement of the small theatre, which, by-the-bye, was unquestionably an odeum. We are now engaged upon the other, which I hope to see concluded in three days. From all which, it appears probably that I shall have the happiness of seeing you all again about Wednesday nextwhich was to be demonstrated. "Our weather has been charming and very,' and seems likely to continue so. We are at a delightful inn (Locanda I call it, when I speak Italian), and live in the public room, which is quite private. The bed-rooms are fitted up with peculiar taste; mine contains an iron bedstead with one leg shorter than the other (which on the first night of my arrival deposited me safely on the floor-N.B. stone), a wash-hand basin one inch and a quarter deep and six inches in diameter, a small piece of broken looking-glass, and half a table. It is an airy room, with four doors, which we should in England call glass doors, only these have no glass in the openings. However, they are easily closed, for they have shutters which won't shut above half way; still, a couple of towels and a bit of board keep them together very snugly. The walls are stuccoed and painted in the same manner as the houses at Pompeii-only that they are quite white, and entirely without ornament of any kind. "We take two meals a day, besides a luncheon. In the morning a little boy, with dark (I won't say dirty) looking hands and face, brings us some coffee in a little tin pot. The coffee is poured over into the saucer, which saves the boy the trouble of washing it out. We can always tell how much we have had, for the coffee leaves a black mark on the cup wherever it has touched it. Upon the whole, it would be a very nice breakfast, if the eggs were new, the butter fresh, and the bread not quite So sour. But the dinner makes up for all. We begin always with macaroni-I have learnt to eat it in the Neapolitan fashion-it is the prettiest sight imaginable, and I am making great progress. We then have lots of little fish (from which they tell me they make seppia) fried; they taste pleasantly, and black all your teeth and lips. They dress their fish with their scales on, too, which makes them look very pretty. We next generally choose a 'pollastro deliziozo,' because it is the tenderest thing we can get. We each take a leg, and tug till it comes asunder, which it usually does in a few minutes. They are very fine birds, and when you happen to hit upon a piece which you can eat, it makes a particularly agreeable variety. When the chicken has disappeared, we call for fruit, and they sometimes bring it. The hot baked chesnuts would be delicious if they ever were warm-they never are so ; but then the grapes are so hot, that it comes to the same thing. When we tell the man to bring some water to wash off the dirt that is always about them, he wipes them in his own apron, which is certainly better and surer. “We finish our repast with a ditto of the coffee that we have had in the morning, only thicker and of a darker colour. This is not the dinner we always have. There are varieties in the bill of fare which your Ladyship little dreams of. I will mention two or three, with their prices, as specimens. Frogiolino al brodo-small embroidered frogs Grains. 5 7 Other delicacies are to be had by paying higher prices for them; but as we are only artists, and not gran' signori, we are contented with little. "I am delighted with my new acquaintance and his wellinformed friend. Angell is a very intelligent, amiable man; I like him so much, that I even let him smoke in the diningroom-a thing unheard of, as you may suppose, in these refined regions. Poor fellow! I am sorry to say that the cause of his breathing so hard, is but too well accounted for-he has a decided asthma, which at times troubles him sadly. We get on famously together, and work very hard. "I hope you are all quite well, and enjoying the gloomy month of November.' I long to be back and comfortably seated at my firm whole table, surrounded by kind friends. Pray thank Lord Blessington for his knapsack, which is invaluable here. "With best remembrance to Count D'Orsay and Miss Power, believe me, dear Lady Blessington, your most affectionate and respectful servant, From Charles J. Mathews (recovering from illness) to Lady Blessington. "DEAR LADY BLESSINGTON, "Palazzo Belvedere. "I'm so much better, that I should like to come and have a snack, Only Dr. Reilly says that I mustn't eat, or do any thing So I'll stop here in the dark as quiet and patiently as ever Though I shall certainly think most affectionately of you all, about the time that the roast potatoes are put upon the table." Lady Blessington in reply. "MY DEAR CHARLES, "I will run all risks, and send you something to eat, as I cannot bear to think that we are all eating while you are starving God bless you, and enable you soon to join us.' From Charles J. Mathews, Esq., to Lady Blessington. "Kentish Town, Nov. 26, 1824. "The only clog to the happiness I have experienced on my return, has been the impossibility, up to the present moment, of imparting any portion to your Ladyship, from whom I trace the greater part of it. But I am sure you will have made allowance for the bustle and confusion of the first week's visiting and calling. At Paris, I fully intended writing; but as I found that Mrs. Purves had left before my arrival, I thought it would be better to wait till I had seen her, as the interest of my letter almost entirely rested upon the power of assuring you all of her health. "Last Wednesday I arrived in London, after a most fatiguing journey, full of hardship, and consequently of amusement. Various incidents might be worked up into good stories, if I thought my paper would last me: such as passing the Garigliani, in the character of a German officer, without paying; quelling a dispute at Beauvoisin, as prefect of the village, and very narrowly escaping a broken head upon the discovery of the cheat. I shall, however, only touch upon one, which is interesting, inasmuch as it is linked with the never-to-be-forgotten Borghetto. At Florence, not having time to get my passport visèd, the courier persuaded me to take a one-horse carriage, and drive out of the town, as if to some villa, and wait for him without the walls. Of course, it was all the same to me how I effected my journey, so that I did but keep moving,' and I therefore accepted his offer, to the great astonishment of Mr. Bailey, with whom I was to have dined, and who, after staring at me for a quarter of an hour, very gravely assured me, that I should most probably be secured, and thrown into prison, or, at least, be |