er the
hood Mrs. A. Sterling and the she portion of the tail. They seemed very
well; and, having turned the Albanian back to the rear of the whole
machine, I sat by Anthony, and entered Rome in triumph."--Here is indeed
a conquest! Captain A. Sterling, now on his return from service in
Corfu, meets his Brother in this manner; and the remaining Roman days
are of a brighter complexion. As these suddenly ended, I believe he
turned southward, and found at Naples the Dr. Carlyle above mentioned
(an extremely intimate acquaintance of mine), who was still there. For
we are a most travelling people, we of this Island in this time; and,
as the Prophet threatened, see ourselves, in so many senses, made "like
unto a wheel!"--

Sterling returned from Italy filled with much cheerful imagery and
reminiscence, and great store of artistic, serious, dilettante and other
speculation for the time; improved in health, too; but probably
little enriched in real culture or spiritual strength; and indeed not
permanently altered by his tour in any respect to a sensible extent,
that one could notice. He returned rather in haste, and before the
expected time; summoned, about the middle of April, by his Wife's
domestic situation at Hastings; who, poor lady, had been brought to bed
before her calculation, and had in few days lost her infant; and now saw
a household round her much needing the master's presence. He hurried off
to Malta, dreading the Alps at that season; and came home, by steamer,
with all speed, early in May, 1839.

PART III.

CHAPTER I. CLIFTON.

Matters once readjusted at Hastings, it was thought Sterling's health
had so improved, and his activities towards Literature so developed
themselves into congruity, that a permanent English place of abode
might now again be selected,--on the Southwest coast somewhere,--and the
family once more have the blessing of a home, and see its _lares_
and _penates_ and household furniture unlocked from the Pantechnicon
repositories, where they had so long been lying.

Clifton, by Bristol, with its soft Southern winds and high cheerful
situation, recommended too by the presence of one or more valuable
acquaintances there, was found to be the eligible place; and thither in
this summer of 1839, having found a tolerable lodging, with the prospect
by and by of an agreeable house, he and his removed. This was the end of
what I call his "third peregrinity;"--or reckoning the West Indies on