lonely village called Yetholm, in the hills, some miles from
Kelso, belonging to the gipsies. The "king" and the other men were
absent, but the women were civil, and some of them very pretty. Our
principal object in going there was to see a stone in the wall of a
small and very ancient church at Linton, nearly in ruins, on which is
carved in relief the wyvern and wheel, the crest of the Somervilles.

From Kelso I went to Edinburgh to spend a few days with Lord Jeffrey and
his family. No one who had seen his gentle kindness in domestic life and
the warmth of his attachment to his friends, could have supposed he
possessed that power of ridicule and severity which made him the terror
of authors. His total ignorance of science may perhaps excuse him for
having admitted into the "Review" Brougham's intemperate article on the
undulatory theory of light, a discovery which has immortalized the name
of Dr. Young. I found Edinburgh, the city of my early recollections,
picturesque and beautiful as ever, but enormously increased both to the
north and to the south. Queen Street, which in my youth was open to the
north and commanded a view of the Forth and the mountains beyond, was
now in the middle of the new town. All those I had formerly known were
gone--a new generation had sprung up, living in all the luxury of modern
times. On returning to London I spent a pleasant time with my son and
his wife, who invited all those to meet me whom they thought I should
like to see.

[My mother returned to Rome in autumn in company with an old friend
and her daughter.]

* * * * *

The winter passed without any marked event, but always agreeably; new
people came, making a pleasant variety in the society, which, though
still refined, was beginning to be very mixed, as was amusingly seen at
Torlonia's balls and tableaux, where many of the guests formed a
singular contrast with the beautiful Princess, who was of the historical
family of the Colonnas. I was often ashamed of my countrymen, who, all
the while speaking of the Italians with contempt, tried to force
themselves into their houses. Prince Borghese refused the same person an
invitation to a ball five times. I was particularly scrupulous about
invitations, and never asked for one in my life; nor did I ever seek to
make acquaintances with the view of being invited to their houses.

* * * * *

[The following letters give a sketch