George Ticknor, Life, letters and journals of George Ticknor
George Hillard, Ed.

[336] reproached in Yankeedom—is by no means an exclusively American habit. I find it common in Italy thus far. Well-dressed people all around me this forenoon, who paid for the chairs they occupied, spat on the marble floor of the church without ceremony. So did a man of science, Secretary of the Institute at Venice, who lived in a fine, beautiful, neat palazzo, that was once Cardinal Bembo's. . . . . In Germany they seemed a little more careful, but there was plenty of it there too . . . .

But let us talk of more agreeable things. Anna has not, I think, kept you in ignorance of Count Frederic Thun, the present civil governor of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, or of his charming wife, or of the most agreeable dinner we had in his palazzo at Verona. When we left him, he told us he should soon be in Milan on business, and that very likely he should see us again. Last evening he came in at eight o'clock—just like an old friend in Park Street—and sat with us till bedtime. His English is excellent, and he talked with great frankness and power; about European politics generally, the troubles in Germany in 1848-49, and the present state of Italy. I have seldom been more interested . . . .

Radetzky, at ninety, is full of fire, rising at four in the morning, and working, with faculties unbroken by age, until evening, when he goes early to bed. This year, for the first time, his physicians told him that he could not any longer mount on horseback. For a moment it distressed him very much, and he wept. Even afterwards it continued to worry him, and he sent in his resignation, saying that he was no longer fit to command troops, at whose head he could no longer march. But the Emperor refused to accept his resignation with words so kindly and gracious, that he consented to keep his place, and has had a little carriage constructed in which he can review the troops quite to his mind; so that the Count says he is in better spirits, and oftener in the field, than for some years. That he is a most wonderful man for his age, there can be no doubt. . . . .

Count Thun is as energetic as he. And the power and resources of both are wanted here, for no position in the Empire is more important or more beset with difficulties than theirs.

While your mother was at the Lake of Como I spent my days in the libraries here, and with three or four men of science and letters. But one evening I went to the theatre, attracted by the annunciation of a comedy of Goldoni, ‘La Sposa Sagace,’—The Discreet Bride. . . . . The price of the best seat in the house was about twenty-seven cents, but the stage and all the accessories were very good, the acting