From Sam’s notebook:
Took Dittura & Graham’s gondolier & started for the mainland at a point (Fusina) 2 hours away. A steady, heavy rain. Had the casa on & the windows closed. Lit my best cigar, put on my slippers, propped my feet on the little starboard bench which brought them within a foot of the ½ glass door—wonderfully snug & cosy. Looked out on the ruffled & rainy seas a while after I was beyond the shipping & fairly away from Venice—then recognizing that I could never be so cosy again, got out Marryatt’s Pacha of Many Tales & read.
But the seas grew very rough.
Made the trip in 34 minutes, having a strong wind on our beam & the tide with us—went mainly sideways. Arrived at 10.45
Tide changed & I started back at 12.30 in a driving storm of rain & a strong head wind & heavy sea.
Arrived home at 2.30—went in 34 minutes—returned in 2 hours [MTNJ 2: 209-10].
Note: the reference is to Frederick Marryat’s (1792-1848) The Pacha of Many Tales (1847) [Gribben 452].
Sam then wrote a list of grievances about Burk as a courier, and a list of songs he was considering for the music box he’d purchased in Geneva [211-12].
From Livy’s pen to her mother:
We find altogether too much social life in Venice for our comfort….We have had a most delightful week going about among the pictures, and some of them have been such a great delight to us that we shall leave them with real regret. This week too I have done a good deal of shopping…several most beautiful pieces of wood carving…a carved chest that I have bought for our hall…shipped to Liverpool…Then we found a most wonderful old carved bedstead that was a great beauty—that we got for our room [Salsbury 86].