At Sir Henry and Lady Floyd’s I met with Colonel Burdett, the brother of our best lady, the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, whose estimable acquaintance I made more than half a century later.
The Marquis Spinelli was very fond of the English and a great favourite with them, acting as a medium between our countrymen and his own.
What an experience and toning a young man gets from a residence of this sort, in a favourite foreign city, at an age when his sap is rising, and has yet to burst out and congeal into full leafage!
I am not going to describe Florence; my love of it will come out better when I visit it again.
All was new to me then! Imagine only what it is for such sweet little cities as Piacenza, Parma, and Modena to be new; imagine Milan to be seen for the first time, after architectureless Brighton!
I remained at Florence, a voluntary seeker after knowledge, a great part of 1831 and 1832. I then went into Switzerland by way of Milan, Como, Lugano, Bellinzona, Zug, Zurich, Schaffhausen; made acquaintance with Strasburg, Stutgard, and several other German cities, not omitting the Rhenish and other German towns, ultimately reaching Brussels and home.
Before long I was at Brighton again on a visit to the widow Wallinger, my faithful and generous aunt.