Pictures From Italy | Page 2

who abjure the world before they have ever
proved or known it; or doubt the ex officio sanctity of all Priests and
Friars; I do no more than many conscientious Catholics both abroad
and at home.
I have likened these Pictures to shadows in the water, and would fain
hope that I have, nowhere, stirred the water so roughly, as to mar the
shadows. I could never desire to be on better terms with all my friends
than now, when distant mountains rise, once more, in my path. For I
need not hesitate to avow, that, bent on correcting a brief mistake I
made, not long ago, in disturbing the old relations between myself and
my readers, and departing for a moment from my old pursuits, I am
about to resume them, joyfully, in Switzerland; where during another
year of absence, I can at once work out the themes I have now in my
mind, without interruption: and while I keep my English audience
within speaking distance, extend my knowledge of a noble country,
inexpressibly attractive to me. {1}
This book is made as accessible as possible, because it would be a great
pleasure to me if I could hope, through its means, to compare
impressions with some among the multitudes who will hereafter visit
the scenes described with interest and delight.
And I have only now, in passport wise, to sketch my reader's portrait,
which I hope may be thus supposititiously traced for either sex:
Complexion Fair. Eyes Very cheerful. Nose Not supercilious. Mouth
Smiling. Visage Beaming. General Expression Extremely agreeable.
CHAPTER I
--GOING THROUGH FRANCE

On a fine Sunday morning in the Midsummer time and weather of
eighteen hundred and forty-four, it was, my good friend, when-- don't

be alarmed; not when two travellers might have been observed slowly
making their way over that picturesque and broken ground by which
the first chapter of a Middle Aged novel is usually attained- -but when
an English travelling-carriage of considerable proportions, fresh from
the shady halls of the Pantechnicon near Belgrave Square, London, was
observed (by a very small French soldier; for I saw him look at it) to
issue from the gate of the Hotel Meurice in the Rue Rivoli at Paris.
I am no more bound to explain why the English family travelling by
this carriage, inside and out, should be starting for Italy on a Sunday
morning, of all good days in the week, than I am to assign a reason for
all the little men in France being soldiers, and all the big men postilions;
which is the invariable rule. But, they had some sort of reason for what
they did, I have no doubt; and their reason for being there at all, was, as
you know, that they were going to live in fair Genoa for a year; and that
the head of the family purposed, in that space of time, to stroll about,
wherever his restless humour carried him.
And it would have been small comfort to me to have explained to the
population of Paris generally, that I was that Head and Chief; and not
the radiant embodiment of good humour who sat beside me in the
person of a French Courier--best of servants and most beaming of men!
Truth to say, he looked a great deal more patriarchal than I, who, in the
shadow of his portly presence, dwindled down to no account at all.
There was, of course, very little in the aspect of Paris--as we rattled
near the dismal Morgue and over the Pont Neuf--to reproach us for our
Sunday travelling. The wine-shops (every second house) were driving a
roaring trade; awnings were spreading, and chairs and tables arranging,
outside the cafes, preparatory to the eating of ices, and drinking of cool
liquids, later in the day; shoe- blacks were busy on the bridges; shops
were open; carts and waggons clattered to and fro; the narrow, up-hill,
funnel-like streets across the River, were so many dense perspectives of
crowd and bustle, parti-coloured nightcaps, tobacco-pipes, blouses,
large boots, and shaggy heads of hair; nothing at that hour denoted a
day of rest, unless it were the appearance, here and there, of a family
pleasure-party, crammed into a bulky old lumbering cab; or of some

contemplative holiday-maker in the freest and easiest dishabille,
leaning out of a low garret window, watching the drying of his newly
polished shoes on the little parapet outside (if a gentleman), or the
airing of her stockings in the sun (if a lady), with calm anticipation.
Once clear of the never-to-be-forgotten-or-forgiven pavement which
surrounds Paris, the first three days of travelling towards Marseilles are
quiet and monotonous enough. To Sens. To Avallon. To Chalons. A
sketch of one day's proceedings is a sketch of all three; and here