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their Italian * travels In 1824 . During an excursion to Pompeii , he gives the annexed full and particular , probably true , account of his local habitation , and committee of ways , means , and supply : — "We are at a delightful inn ( Locandal call it , when I speak Italian ) , and live in the public room , which is quite private . The bed-rooms are fitted up with peculiar taste ; mine contains an iron bedstead with one leg shorter than the

other ( which , on the first night of my arrival , deposited me safely on the floor .- — N . B . stone ) , a wash-hand basin one inch and a quarter deep , and six inches in diameter ; a small piece of broken looking-glass , and half a table . It is an airy room , with four doors , which we should in England call glass-doors , only these have no glass in the openings . However , they are easily closed , for they have shutters which won't shut above half way ; still , a couple of towels and a'bit of board keep them together very snugly . The walls are stuccoed and painted in

the same manner as the houses in Pompeii—only that they are quite white , and entirely without ornament of any kind . We take two meals a day , besides a luncheon . In the morning a little boy , with dark ( I won't say dirty ) looking hands and face , brings us some coilee in a little tin pot . The coffee is poured over into the saucer , which saves the boy the trouble of washing it out . We can always tell how much we have had , for the coffee leaves a black mark on the cup wherever it has touched it . TJpon the whole , it would be a very nice breakfast ,

if the eggs were new , the butter fresh , and the bread not quite so sour . But the dinner makes up for all . We begin always with maccaroni ; I have learnt to eat it in the Neapolitan fashion ; it is the prettiest sight imaginable , and I am making great progress . We then have lots of little fish ( from which they tell me they make seppia ) fried ; they taste pleasantly , and black all your teeth and lips . They dress their fish with their scales on too , which makes them look very pretty . We next generally choose a 'pollastro deliziozo / because it is the tenderest

thing we can get . We each take a leg and tug till it comes asunder , which it usually does in a few minutes . They are very fine birds , and when you happen to hit upon a piece which you can eat , it makes a particularly agreeable variety . When the chicken has disappeared , we call for fruit , and they sometimes bring it . The hot baked chestnuts would be delicious if they were ever warm—they never are so ; but then the grapes are so hot , that it comes to the same thing . When

we tell the man to bring some water to wash off the dirt that is always about them , he wipes them in his own apron , which is certainly better and surer . We finish our repast with a ditto of the coffee that we have bad in the morning , only thicker and of a darker colour . This is not the dinner we always have . There are varieties in the bill of fare which your ladyship little dreams of . I will mention two or three , with their prices , as specimens . Grains .

Frogiolino al brodo—small embroidered frogs 5 Fetti de cazzio carvallo—feet of a cart-horse 7 Bolito de vacina—a boiled cow , only 5 Fetti de Genevese—Genoese feet 24 Calamaro arrostito—a roasted inkstand 6 Frita de negro—a fried negro , 5 Other delicacies are to be had by paying higher prices for them ; but as we are only artists , and not gran' signori , we are contented with little . "

Charles Lamb would have enjoyed the above . Here is a short note in its entirety , written when Mathews was recovering from an illness : — " Palazzo Belvedere .

" Dear Lady Blessinqton , " I ' m so much better , that I should like to come and have a snack , Only Dr . Reilly says that I mustn't eat , or do anything but lie on my back ; So I'll stop here in the dark as quiet and patiently aa ever I am able , Though I shall certainly think most affectionately of you all , about the time the roast potatoes are put upon the table . "