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19 June 1870 — Madrid | |
Sunday. 19th [June 1870]. We went to church in the morning & I spent the rest of the day reading & writing till 5 when we had some tea & then Cerruti came & we drove him down to Mme Montijo’s to dinner. We found her sitting in the garden with the Ct & Css Nava de Tajo (her niece) & one or two others & she sent us with the Tajo’s to see a Roman pavement which had been found in the garden & to preserve wh she had built a small house over. It is a very fine mosaic in a very good state of preservation with heads of Bacchantes &c showing it to have been the pavement of a dining apartment. When we returned to her she took Henry’s arm & took a walk round the grounds with us to point out the beauties of the trees, wh however she could not see tho’ she pretended she could. According to our English notions the trees sadly wanted thinning & tho’ drawn up to a great height were not fine or large– It was very melancholy to see Mme M. stop & to hear her say “are not those fine vases?” when they were nowhere in sight. She fancied she had reached them & pretended she could see them. After going round the grounds & looking at the theatre wh has a large ball room attached to it, we went in to dinner. Cerruti gave me his arm & I dont know who my other neighbour was. We were 16 or 18 to dinner– After dinner Mme M. retired to take her ¼ hour sleep & we talked & sat about & when she reappeared assembled in the drawing room. Abt 11 other people began to arrive & we took up our departure. We delayed some time by Cerruti’s having lost his hat & it was found squashed under the great centre bouquet of her dinner table wh had been moved. We had a dusty but rather cooler drive home—tho’ the nights are nearly as hot as the days now– | |
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