ion or improvement, I may mention that many years
after, when we were spending a summer in Siena, where the language
is spoken with great purity and elegance, she engaged a lady to
converse in Italian with her for a couple of hours daily. By this
means she very soon became perfectly familiar with the language,
and could keep up conversation in Italian without difficulty. She
never cared to write in any language but English. Her style has been
reckoned particularly clear and good, and she was complimented on it
by various competent judges, although she herself was always
diffident about her writings, saying she was only a self-taught,
uneducated Scotchwoman, and feared to use Scotch idioms
inadvertently. In speaking she had a very decided but pleasant
Scotch accent, and when aroused and excited, would often
unconsciously use not only native idioms, but quaint old Scotch
words. Her voice was soft and low, and her manner earnest.]

* * * * *

On our way to Rome, where we spent the winter of 1817, it was startling
to see the fine church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, below Assisi, cut in
two; half of the church and half of the dome above it were still entire;
the rest had been thrown down by the earthquake which had destroyed the
neighbouring town of Foligno, and committed such ravages in this part of
Umbria.

At that time I might have been pardoned if I had described St Peter's,
the Vatican, and the innumerable treasures of art and antiquity at Rome;
but now that they are so well known it would be ridiculous and
superfluous. Here I gained a little more knowledge about pictures; but I
preferred sculpture, partly from the noble specimens of Greek art I saw
in Paris and Rome, and partly because I was such an enthusiast about the
language and everything belonging to ancient Greece. During this journey
I was highly gratified, for we made the acquaintance of Thorwaldsen and
Canova. Canova was gentle and amiable, with a beautiful countenance, and
was an artist of great reputation. Thorwaldsen had a noble and striking
appearance, and had more power and originality than Canova. His
bas-reliefs were greatly admired. I saw the one he made of Night in the
house of an English lady, who had a talent for modelling, and was said
to be attached to him. We were presented to Pope Pius the Seventh; a
handsome, gentlemanly, and amiable old man. He received us in a