Modena
June 13th 1826
My Dear Mother
I am afraid you will not find any agreeable scheme for the summer, unless I come and help you, I shall therefore come homewards faster or slower according to circumstances, but I think if you write to me at Coblentz I shall get the letter. I think of visiting Copenhagen or Stockholm in the autumn, but we shall see. I spent three weeks with William <1> at Florence, and five or six days at Bologna – I have bought two pictures at Bologna; one is a copy of Correggio’s <2> Madonna al Coniglio; <3> the other a head of Christ by Andrea del Sarto. <4> The summer in Italy is cool, very rainy, indeed beyond measure so, & accompanied by the most abundant verdure. The road from Florence to Bologna is so different now from what it was when I crossed it with you, that I scarcely recognized it; the vegetation was so abundant & fresh; the weather was so cool. We met with a violent thunderstorm at Covigliajo – I mean to go by the S. Bernardino – The weather is now getting hot.
Your Affte Son
H.T.
Lady E. Feilding
31 Sackville St
London
Inghilterra <5>
Notes:
1. William Thomas Horner Fox Strangways, 4th Earl of Ilchester (1795–1865), botanist, art collector & diplomat.
2. Antonio Allegri, better known as Correggio (1494–1534), painter of the school of Parma.
3. Madonna Reposing, commonly named La Zingarella, or the Madonna del Coniglio (Gipsy-girl, or Madonna of the Rabbit).
4. Andrea Del Sarto (1487–1531), painter of the Florentine school.
5. England