| Description | Letter from Amelia Nyasa Laws, 7 Via Venti Settembre, Rome, to her relatives, regarding Communion Sunday; busy week; making a leg splint of newspaper strips, sacking, and linseed oil; invitation to the Quirinal Hospital concert through the Marchesa's Laboratorio; description of the concert, attended by Queen Margherita, Queen Elena, the Prince, and Princesses Yolanda and Mafalda; description of their costumes; Allied bands played; description of the whole pageant, which impresses her; the effect of the music was unreal; presents for the participants from the Royal Family; the British take them with accustomed ceremony and precision, but the Americans are unable to cope; they were very young and had come straight from the trenches, and the Americans wanted Sousa to represent them; Amelia received some leftover flowers, which she took to Eudora Campanella; Eudora has been operated on for two abdominal tumours but is now out of Bastianelli's clinic; the crowds delayed the departure of the bands, though half a dozen London policemen could have organised it; the Italians are jealous of the precision of the Grenadier Guards and will not admit that they could never do so well; visit of Mr. Huston, a Presbyterian minister from Co. Down; she postpones her organ lesson to take him for a view of the Appian Way; they see the Colosseum, Porta Capena, Baths of Caracalla, Columbaria, Calixtus Catacomb, Appian Way, St. Paul and the Aventine; joined by a forlorn padre who had lost impetus in his sightseeing; beautiful afternoon; arrangements to go to the Via Sistina next day; shopping expedition for silk scarves; washing curtains; making an arm sling with Miss Kent; the padre is Mr. Powell, Church of England clergyman, who also requires an itinerary; washing the curtains in the Scottish way, unknown to Maria, steeping them and not rubbing; they still need repair; Uncle has written a special appeal for church funds, which she has edited; she is not allowed to criticise his version, though he criticises hers; he is to lecture on the fora to the Archaeological Society this week and has hinted that she could make an enlargement of a map for him for the talk, but she does not have time; Lanciani probably has something of the kind for his students which he can lend to Uncle; visit of Mr. Rideout and the Bentons to supper; Mr. Huston arrives to say that his Gladstone is missing, either stolen or taken by accident by some of the bandsmen's officers to Florence; news of Mr. Geddes' long illness in Largo through heart weakness and arthritis; it seems to be a bid for his return to Rome as Uncle's successor; Mr. Green has agreed to write references in any form for Amelia; thanks for letters; mention of Ernest Young's wounds. |