"reflections, which are only good forbirsi i scarpi,"—that is, "to clean shoes withal,"-a Venetian proverb of appreciation, which is applicable to reasoning of all kinds.

638. To the Hon. Augusta Leigh.

Venice, March 25th 1817.

MY DEAREST AUGUSTA,-I have had a fever which prevented me from writing. It was first slow, and then quick, and then it went away. I got well without a Physician: you will think it odd for me who am so fond of quacking; but on this occasion, though bad enough, I would see none, and refused to see one who was sent for by Madame Segati on purpose; and so I got well. I had the slow one upon me some time ago, but I thought it better to say nothing to you till I recovered altogether.

So you have seen Holmes. By the way, owing to some foolery of Scrope's, he had cut my hair in his picture (not quite so well as Blake). I desired him to restore it: pray make him do so, or see that he has done so. He may send his print in a letter if he likes, unless you see it and don't like it.

I have been sitting for two miniatures for you; one the view of the face which you like, and the other different, but both in my usual dress; and as they are the only ones so done, I hope you will like them. The Painter is an Italian named Prepiani, reckoned very good: he made some fine ones of the Viceroy Eugene. I will send or bring them.

You amuse me with Le Mann's Marquis's message— a pretty compliment! to set a sick man asleep; however I am glad to have done the old gentleman any good.

1817.]

R. B. HOPPNER.

83

Believe me (in total ignorance of "P.P." of which

I really know nothing),

Yours ever very truly and affect,

B.

639.-To John Murray.

Venice, March 25, 1817.

DEAR SIR,-Your letter and enclosure are safe; but "English gentlemen" are very rare-at least in Venice. I doubt whether there are at present any, save the Consul1 and vice-Consul, with neither of whom I have

1. Richard Belgrave Hoppner (1786-1872), second son of John Hoppner, R.A. (1758-1810), originally intended to be an artist, and studied painting. In 1801, as a guest of the admiral, he was present at the Battle of Copenhagen. From a sketch made off the coast of Holland as he was going out, he painted a picture called Sea View and Shipping, formerly in the possession of Sir J. Leicester. He was also present at the British blockade of Cadiz in January, 1805. In 1813 he published a translation from the German of A. J. von Krusenstern's Voyage round the World in the Years 1803-1806. Hoppner was appointed English Consul at Venice in October, 1814. Samuel Rogers, writing, January 29, 1809, to Moore (Memoirs, etc., vol. viii. pp. 70, 71), mentions that Hoppner had been sent to him by Gifford to consult him on the foundation of the Quarterly Review, and to endeavour to secure for the new periodical the services of Moore. Shelley speaks of Mrs. Hoppner as "a "most agreeable and amiable lady" (Letter to Mrs. Shelley, August 23, 1818, Prose Works, ed. H. Buxton Forman, vol. iv. p. 33). Again, he says that the Hoppners are the "most amiable people I ever knew. Do you know that they have put off a "journey of pleasure solely that they might devote themselves to "this affair, and all with so much ease, delicacy, tenderness! They "are much attached to each other, and have a nice little boy, seven "months old. Mr. Hoppner paints beautifully: and this excur"sion, which he has just put off, was an expedition to the Julian "Alps, in the neighbourhood, for the sake of sketching, to procure "winter employment. He has only a fortnight's leisure, and he has "sacrificed two days to strangers whom he never saw before. Mrs. "Hoppner has hazel eyes and sweet looks-rather Maryish" (Dow. den's Life of Shelley, vol. ii. p. 227). In another letter, to Peacock, October 8, 1818 (Prose Works, vol. iv. p. 39), Shelley writes, "We "made a very delightful acquaintance there with a Mr. and Mrs. "Hoppner, the gentleman an Englishman, and the lady a Swissesse, "mild and beautiful, and unprejudiced in the best sense of the

the slightest acquaintance. The moment I can pounce upon a witness, I will send the deed properly signed: but must he necessarily be genteel? Would not a Servant or a merchant do? Venice is not a place where the English are gregarious; their pigeon-houses are Florence, Naples, Rome, etc.; and to tell you the truth, this was one reason why I staid here-till the season of the purgation of Rome from these people-which is infected with them at this time-should arrive. Besides, I abhor

the nation, and the nation me; it is impossible for me to describe my own sensation on that point, but it may suffice to say, that, if I met with any of the race in the beautiful parts of Switzerland, the most distant glimpse or aspect of them poisoned the whole scene, and I do not choose to have the Pantheon, and St. Peter's, and the Capitol, spoiled for me too. This feeling may be probably owing to recent events, and the destruction with which my moral Clytemnestra hewed me down; but it does not exist the less, and while it exists, I shall conceal it as little as any other.

I have been seriously ill with a fever, but it is gone. I had no physician. I believe or suppose it was the indigenous fever of the place, which comes every year at this time, and of which the Physicians change the name annually, to dispatch the people sooner. It is a kind of Typhus,1 and kills occasionally. It was pretty smart, but nothing particular, and has left me some debility and a

"word. The kind attentions of these people made our short stay at "Venice very pleasant." Byron had a great respect for Hoppner. "He was," said Byron to Lady Blessington (Conversations, p. 135), "a good listener, and his remarks were acute and original; he is "besides a thoroughly good man, and I know he was in earnest "when he gave me his opinions." Hoppner died August 6, 1872, at Turin (Times, August 13, 1872).

1. For Hoppner's report to Lord Castlereagh on the plague in Venice, see Annual Register, 1818, p. 153.