Hotel Grande Bretagne
Florence
May 5.
My Dear Charles
I arrived here on Friday evening April 30th Nothing particular happened on the journey. I took the usual route by Calais Brussels Cologne Heidelberg Augsburg Munich Innspruck the Brenner Verona Padua Ferrara and Bologna.
Of these places Ferrara alone was new to me, and I stopped to see it as being the famous birthplace of Ariosto <1> – It is difficult to understand how so great and imaginative a poet should have lived and sung in a country so utterly flat and dull. What interested me most at Ferrara was the prison where the poet Tasso <2> was confined seven years and 2 months by order of the tyrant duke <3> of Ferrara. It is a miserable hole, where nowadays a condemned murderer would not be placed – on the walls are scratched many names of visitors, among which that of Byron <4> is conspicuous. The weather is now quite delightful. The flowering trees and shrubs are beautiful here, among the most surprising is the Banksia Rose climbing to the tops of high trees and more loaded with flowers almost than any shrub I ever saw. Sometimes yellow flowers, sometimes white, always double wch makes them last very much longer. The Pawlonia is frequently seen and the Wisterias are standards here not spread out on a wall as at Lacock. Scarlet tulips occur wild. There is a talk of my going to Rome with Monie <5> for a week
Adieu
Your affte
Father
[envelope:]
Charles H. Talbot Esq
New University Club
St James's Street
Londra
Notes:
1. Ludovico Ariosto (1474–1533).
2. Torquato Tasso (1544–1595); in 1579 he was confined in the asylum of Santa Anna, 1579–1586, due to mental instability.
3. Duke Alfonso II d’Este (1533–1597).
4. George Gordon Byron (1788–1824), poet; author of The Lament of Tasso, 1817.
5. Rosamond Constance ‘Monie’ Talbot (1837–1906), artist & WHFT’s 2nd daughter.
6. Goldenes Dachl (Golden Roof), built ( ca.1500) under Emperor Maximilian I (1459–1519).