May 18 Wednesday – At the Villa Reale di Quarto, Sam replied to Father Nicholas Miale.
Your kind letter of yesterday has reached me, & its friendly spirit & the compliments you pay me in it have greatly gratified me. The newspaper which you have mentioned has not arrived yet, but it will come along presently.
Although I am not a Catholic, I know I can get a fine character from Father Stiattesi, who is my valued friend & nearest neighbor—& I stand ready to give him one whenever he wants it. There is no collusion about this. Each of us uses the other as a model and both of us are improving.
Yes, our stay in Italy is not likely to be short. We are here in the hope that the mildness of the climate will restore my wife’s health which broke down completely 20 months ago. & which must remain frail for many months to come.
With many thanks for your kind wishes dear Father Miale. I am / Sincerely yours …..
The newspaper has come—Delicious [MTP].
Giovanni Bonini of Ascina, Florence, wrote what appears to be an advertisement or a bill, all in Italian, to Sam [MTP].
At Sam’s urging Dr. William Wilberforce Baldwin came from Rome to the Villa di Quarto and made an examination of Livy, which Sam cut short [May 19 to Baldwin]. F. Kaplan writes , “Baldwin brought with him a new invention, ‘one of those machines for measuring the might of the blood.’ The visit cheered them all. Clara, alarmed that her mother ‘should have these fearful attacks so frequently,’ soon urged him to make a second visit” [607].