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156 MISS COBNEUA KNIGHT.
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
* " Her The Tee Journals One Autobiograp...
and kept a splendid house , the centre perhaps of intellectual Home . The travellers were invited to a conversazionewhich began at the
rational hour of half-past seven . " Great propriet , y of manners , " say & Miss Knight" characterized the Roman society . The ladies sat still
, till they engaged in cards , and the men stood round them and chatted -with them , or sat down beside them if there was a vacant chair .
I cannot deny that the custom of having cavalieri serventi was pretty general . Some ladies went alone , some with their husbands ,
and some with their brothers-in-law . But these were comparatively _fevr . Yet I firmly believe that many of these intimacies , which are
so much criticised in other countries , were perfectly innocent _; and it was very usual to go into company attended by two , sometimes by
three gentlemen . Very respectable young women did this , and it was certainly the safest way . These made her party at cards ; and
when she left the assembly she wished them ' good night' and went home with her husband . "
Many other anecdotes Miss Knight tells of Rome in the last century > which appear to have been selected by her editor and
inserted in the autobiography , —such as of the Marchesa Lepri , who received company four days after her husband ' s deathand was seen
by the said company in bed , suffering from a cold , " , with her hair full dressed and nothing over itand reposing on the pillow . The
bed was in the middle of the room , , and without curtains . The ambassadress of Bologna was one of the guests . " One is tempted to
ask was ever anything so supremely uncomfortable devised by human imagination ?
There is much about Joseph II ., the husband of Maria-Theresa , and , in those days , ultra-liberal Emperor of Austria , who visited
Rome and Florence in 1783 ; also of the King of Sweden , who " being at supper once with the King and Queen of Naplesthe
latter asked Gustavus a number of questions about his revolution , , ( in 1772 , ) which he answered in monosyllables with evident
reluctance . At last she inquired what the Queen of Sweden was doing all that time ? 'Why' said he ' she remained shut up in her own
,, room , awaiting the event . "What have women to do with political affairs ? ' However , he kissed the queen one evening as he was
taking leave of her , in the presence of the king her husband , who exclaimed c Mcdora 1 in faccia mia / ' ' " Mention is also made of
, the Countess of Albany , of whom Miss Knight entertained a better opinion than history warrants , judging by the late articles in the
_JRevzie des Deux Mondes _, which created such a sensation in the early part of the current year . The Countess entered freely into details
concerning the Count to Lady and Miss Knight , said that he was constantly and madly drunkand seldom had a moment of reason ;
was for ever talking about his , restoration , and abusing the French and the Pope . He was equally covetous and extravagant ; and though
his own table was always sumptuously provided , he would
grudgethe Countess a little mutton broth in the morning . Alas ! for Charles
156 Miss Cobneua Knight.
156 MISS _COBNEUA KNIGHT .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Nov. 1, 1861, page 156, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01111861/page/12/
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