| Description | Letter from Amelia Nyasa Laws, 7 Via Venti Settembre, Rome, to her parents, regarding visit to the Waldensian Church to hear Professor Rostagno from Florence; Maria and Vincenzo are to go away for a fortnight to make wine and vinegar and to gather chestnuts and figs from his smallholding; Aunt appreciates the figs in the market; the market is more accessible now so they can buy food more cheaply; cleaning the house for the winter; Maria works hard; the carpets in Uncle's room were particularly bad as Oscar had overbeaten them; Amelia thinks that men should help with housework; Oscar did no work that he could avoid; he made the bed noisily so that they know he is busy; he is now in the army, though he would like to replace Fulvio as porter at the church; Fulvio is feeble and has a hernia; he does no work but is jealous of others being appointed to do it; difficult to get rid of him as Signor Vita recommended him; he enjoys going to the market with Amelia most of all; the Cotterills are to winter in Rome; they have been living in Germany since leaving Vevey; they happened to be at the service in the Kreuzkirche at which she played and noticed her name, though they had not known her to be in Dresden; they have had four hours' notice to leave Germany; their valuables are in the bank but may not be safe there; his wife and daughter are now in Switzerland; an Albanian minister and his family are stuck in Rome, unable to go home; the Albanian ministers of state in Rome for a conference are also trapped; the British missionaries in Syria have been ordered to leave at once; Uncle thinks Rome will be full of refugees, but Amelia thinks they will go straight home if they can; death of the King of Rumania; his nephew, King Ferdinand, is against Austria and in favour of an alliance with Italy; Italy fears a bombardment on Venice and its treasures; Emperor William sent a telegram to Victor Emmanuel saying that he would never forget his treachery, to which Victor Emmanuel replied that he could not betray his people; Antwerp has fallen into German hands; their siege guns and shells are very powerful; Brussels is starving as the Germans have plundered it; if the Allies retake it, the Germans will set fire to it; the Belgian King and Queen have escaped to Holland, which fears for its neutrality; the Queen is now in England, the King reported wounded in the arm; Belgium will take years to recover; courtship of Mr. Benton and Miss Babcock, with an aside on how she was expected, as a man would not have been, to stay at home and look after her delicate stepmother and 'a brood of little half brothers and sisters'; they are to travel from America to Rome; preparations for their arrival at short notice; delayed by the cargo of cotton on their ship taking fire; Mrs. Benton is imperious, but Mr. Benton has not told her how many he flirted with before settling on her; her illusions about life in Italy will soon end; Rev. W.P. Young has volunteered for the army; Mr. Daly has not sent the minutes for some time; no British newspapers allowed to leave the country; Uncle's heel is still bad but he will not go to a doctor. |