tants drove us off by their
unreasonable prices. It is curious--but just in proportion to the
want of civilization the prices rise in Italy. If you haven't cups and
saucers, you are made to pay for plate. Well--so finding no rest for the
soles of our feet, I persuaded Robert to go to the Baths of Lucca, only
to see them. We were to proceed afterwards to San Marcello, or some
safer wilderness. We had both of us, but he chiefly, the strongest
prejudice against the Baths of Lucca; taking them for a sort of wasp's
nest of scandal and gaming, and expecting to find everything trodden
flat by the continental English--yet, I wanted to see the place, because
it is a place to see, after all. So we came, and were so charmed by the
exquisite beauty of the scenery, by the coolness of the climate, and
the absence of our countrymen--political troubles serving admirably our
private requirements, that we made an offer for rooms on the spot, and
returned to Florence for Baby and the rest of our establishment
without further delay. Here we are then. We have been here more than
a fortnight. We have taken an apartment for the season--four months,
paying twelve pounds for the whole term, and hoping to be able to stay
till the end of October. The living is cheaper than even in Florence, so
that there has been no extravagance in coming here. In fact Florence is
scarcely tenable during the summer from the excessive heat by day and
night, even if there were no particular motive for leaving it. We have
taken a sort of eagle's nest in this place--the highest house of the
highest of the three villages which are called the Bagni di Lucca, and
which lie at the heart of a hundred mountains sung to continually by a
rushing mountain stream. The sound of the river and of the cicale is all
the noise we hear. Austrian drums and carriage-wheels cannot vex us, God
be thanked for it! The silence is full of joy and consolation. I think
my husband's spirits are better already, and his appetite improved.
Certainly little Babe's great cheeks are growing rosier and rosier. He
is out all day when the sun is not too strong, and Wilson will have it
that he is prettier than the whole population of babies here. . . . Then
my whole strength has wonderfully improved--just as my medical friends
prophesied,--and it seems like a dream when I find myself able to climb
the hills with Robert, and help him to lose himself in the forests.
Ever since my confinement I have been grow