Macon
November 2d 1823
I have been detained here a day by an accident; - last night when I arrived here I found that Ly J's <1> beads, Lady Monson's <2> watch & another parcel were missing, so I sent Giovanni <3> back to Lyons to look for them & he returned with them this evening - It appears the waiter had put them in a drawer out of over-carefulness - I shall put them in a trunk, where they would have always been, if I had not apprehended a rigorous search at Pont de Beauvoisin,<4> & therefore kept them loose - I think it is a great tax upon travellers to be asked by people they do not know, to carry things for them (especially prohibited or doubtful ones) for if one loses one's own things it don't so much signify - An odd thing happened to me at Lyons; an English physician named Dr Henry Percy sent me his card requesting "momentary information" I desired him to be shewn upstairs, when he told me he was in the greatest distress just arrived from Geneva on his way to Pisa, could not articulate a syllable of French, nor find a soul that understood English - At Bellegarde (the frontier) they had plagued him amazingly about his passeport [sic], which sure enough was irregular, not having been visé <5> at Geneva to enter France - They wanted to take it away, but No, said he, I held it fast, so at last they made me pay 4 francs & gave me another covered with unintelligible writing - so saying he shewed me a "De Par le Roi - Passe Provisoire["]; <6> and I expounded to him the hieroglyphics with which the Commissaire de Police had covered it - to this effect "Vû que le Sieur Percy &c &c &c le dit Sieur est chargé de montrer les deux passeports simultanément a quiconque les demandera, et de quitter le Royaume dans dix jours par Antibes (Var)" <7> I thought at first he was a humbug, but the passport convinced me; he was a person of good education who had embraced the singular resolution of traversing France with 3 Napoleons (as I found afterwards) utterly ignorant of the language, unaquainted with the customs of the country, unprovided with a map, and undetermined where he was going -
I told him the different roads to Pisa; that he was come quite out of the way - Good Heavens, says he, you don't mean it! - they told me at Geneva to get into the Lyons diligence - Well says I, now you are here, you have two roads, either over Mt Cenis, or to Marseilles, & embark for Leghorn - Oh says he I can't endure the Sea - how far may it be by the other road? Really says I I can't say exactly, it may be 400 miles - good Heavens says he, you don't mean it! And shall I be asked for my passport? Indeed you will, says I, & often enough too - I shall never accomplish it, says he - I don't think you will, says I - what had I better do, Sir? Why Sir unless you have pressing business at Pisa, I shd recommend you to return to Paris, where they speak English - Pray Sir how far may it be to Paris? The Diligence will take you in 3 days - I will return to Paris instantly, says he - I called the waiter & told him to take a place for the gentleman in the Paris diligence, & to explain to the police that tho' his passports were one "bon pour Genêve" <8> and the other "bon pour Antibes", yet that "circumstances" had prevented him from journeying in those directions - I gave him a dinner, & found he knew Lady Byron <9> very well, and was loud in her praises - He says she is in constant unhappiness about her daughter, <10> because Lord Byron <11> means to take her away as soon as the law entitles him, at 7 years old - I found him a laquais de place <12> who spoke English, & set him agoing, advising him however to learn French before his next journey. When Giovanni was in Lyons this morning, he found him gone to Paris, without however paying his laquais de place which he said was impossible, having only 20 francs left after paying the arrhes <13> of the diligence - I was not aware till then that he had as little of the "needful" as of all other quali[fications] <14> for touring in France - The weather is col[d and ra]iny, with a north wind - Macon is a [text missing] town in a most muddy country on the banks of the Saône - In the library at Lyons is a large Globe that has suffered severely in the siege of 1793 - It has several severe contusions from spent cannon balls, & one vast hole pierced through it by an éclat de bombe, <15> which is preserved -
Your Affte Son à Miladi 1. Sarah Sophia Villiers, née Fane, Lady Jersey (1785-1867). [See Doc. No: 01125]. 2. Probably Lady Eliza Monson, wife of Lord William John Monson. 3. Giovanni Percij. 4. West of Chambery in what was then Savoy (now Southeastern France). 5. Visaed. 6. By Order of the King - Provisional Pass. 7. Considering that Mr Percy &c &c &c the said gentleman is ordered to show the two passports together to whomsoever may demand them, and to leave the Kingdom within ten days via Antibes. 8. Good for Genêve. 9. Anne Isabella (Annabella) Milbanke, Lady Byron (1792-1860). 10. Augusta Ada Byron, Lady Lovelace (1815-1852). 11. George Gordon Byron (1788-1824), poet. 12. Footman, servant. 13. Deposit. 14. Text torn away under seal. 15. Bomb fragment. 16. English Lady.
Miladi Feilding
Dame Angloise <16>
Gênes
Italie
Notes: