of life during the summer
months at Rome:--]

MRS. SOMERVILLE TO W. GREIG, ESQ.

ROME, _3rd August, 1845_.

MY DEAR WORONZOW,

... I am glad you are so much pleased with my bust, and that it is
so little injured after having been at the bottom of the sea. You
will find Macdonald a very agreeable and original person. As to
spending the summer in Rome, you may make yourself quite easy, for
the heat is very bearable, the thermometer varying between 75 deg. and
80 deg. in our rooms during the day, which are kept in darkness, and at
night it always becomes cooler. Thank God, we are all quite well,
and Somerville particularly so; he goes out during the day to amuse
himself, and the girls paint in the Borghese gallery. As for
myself I have always plenty to do till half past three, when we
dine, and after dinner I sleep for an hour or more, and when the sun
is set we go out to wander a little, for a long walk is too
fatiguing at this season. We have very little society, the only
variety we have had was a very pretty supper party given by Signore
Rossi, the French minister, to the Prince and Princess de Broglie,
son and daughter-in-law of the duke. The young lady is extremely
beautiful, and as I knew the late Duchesse de Broglie (Madame de
Stael's daughter) we soon got acquainted. They are newly married,
and have come to spend part of the summer in Rome, so you see people
are not so much alarmed as the English.... We went yesterday evening
to see the Piazza Navona full of water; it is flooded every Saturday
and Sunday at this season; there is music, and the whole population
of Rome is collected round it, carts and carriages splashing through
it in all directions. I think it must be about three feet deep. It
was there the ancient Romans had their naval games; and the custom
of filling it with water in summer has lasted ever since. The
fountain is one of the most beautiful in Rome, which is saying a
great deal; indeed the immense gush of the purest water from
innumerable fountains in every street and every villa is one of the
peculiarities of Rome. I fear from what I have heard of those in
Trafalgar Square that the quantity of water will be very miserable.

The papers (I mean the Times), are full of abuse of Mr. Sedgwick
and Dr. Buckland, but their adversaries write such nonsen