ey. I
also went to luncheon on board the flagship "Victoria," a three-decker,
which put me in mind of olden times.

[The following extracts are from letters of my mother's, written in
1863 and 1865:--]

FROM MRS. SOMERVILLE TO W. GREIG, ESQ.

SPEZIA, _12th May, 1863_.

How happy your last letter has made me, my dearest Woronzow, to hear
that you are making real progress, and that you begin to feel better
from the Bath waters.... Of your general health I had the very best
account this morning from your friend Colonel Gordon. I was most
agreeably surprised and gratified by a very kind and interesting
letter from him, enclosing his photograph, and giving me an account
of his great works at Portsmouth with reference to the defence by
iron as well as stone....

I wish I could show you the baskets full of flowers which Martha and
Mary bring to me from the mountains. They are wonderfully beautiful;
it is one of my greatest amusements putting them in water. I quite
regret when they cannot go for them. The orchises and the gladioles
are the chief flowers now, but such a variety and such colours! You
see we have our quiet pleasures. I often think of more than "60
years ago," when I used to scramble over the Bin at Burntisland
after our tods-tails and leddies-fingers, but I fear there is hardly
a wild spot existing now in the lowlands of Scotland....

God bless you, my dearest Woronzow.

FROM MRS. SOMERVILLE TO W. GREIG, ESQ.

SPEZIA, _27th Sept., 1865_.

MY DEAREST WORONZOW,

I fear Agnes and you must have thought your old mother had gone mad
when you read M.'s letter. In my sober senses, however, though
sufficiently excited to give me strength for the time, I went over
every part of the _Resistance_,[15] and examined everything in
detail except the _stokehole_! I was not even hoisted on board, but
mounted the companion-ladder bravely. It was a glorious sight, the
perfection of structure in every part astonished me. A ship like
that is the triumph of human talent and of British talent, for all
confess our superiority in this respect to every other nation, and I
am happy to see that no jealousy has arisen from the meeting of the
French and English fleets. I was proud that our "young admiral"[16]
had the command of so fine a vessel.... I also