WILLIAMS'S RECOLLECTIONS OF MALTA, SICILY, AND THE CONTINENT.
MRS. WILLIAMS having been recommended to winter in a milder climate on account of delicate health, Mr. Williams determined to carry his fa- mily to Malta. The Oriental Steam Navigation Company quickly and pleasantly took them there, though in mid-winter ; and at Valetta the health-seekers remained till Jane, satisfied with the place and delighted with the climate. To escape the summer heats of Malta, the party pro- ceeded to Messina, calling at Syracuse in their route ; and Sicily, no doubt, gave them the advantages of a better town, openness, air, land- scape, and the opportunity of excursions either to natural scenes or ruins; but the "sun and sweat" which Byron denounced at La Valette must have been found in nearly equal intensity at Messina. With the early autumn, Mr. Williams, his wife and children, were again upon the wing; looking in at Palermo en route for Naples, at which place and Rome they passed a second winter. In the remainder of their tour they differed nothing from common excursionists. Florence, Venice, Milan, Geneva, Switzerland, and the Rhine, were seen much in the usual way ; and the party returned to England, after nearly two years' absence, with amended health, " a fair stock of information," but " - - - a good wholesome conviction, that in all matters relating to liberty of the subject., security of property, and protection of poverty and old age, England, with all her faults, (of which her sons are kind enough continually to remind her,) still stands forth an example as yet unrivalled; and, notwithstanding her fogs and snows, and other hyperborean inclemencies, possesses qualities essential to the hap- piness of a people, unknown in other lands."
Mr. Williams is a quick observer and an agreeable writer. He has the tolerant good sense of a man of the world, and can make allowances for weaknesses and peculiarities which are new, as well as for those which are national. He has also an easy style, a power of reflection and of drawing distinctions, with a natural vivacity and a little art; which not only gives him an eye for landscape and urban groups, but introduces him to artists and their works. These qualities would have made a pleasant enough book exercised on any ground, but could not impart much interest to an exhausted field. The tour of Mr. Williams, confined to the usual places gone over in the usual way, would differ but little from many other books which repeat an often-told story, and whose only variety arises from the personal character of the writers. The " Re- collections " of Malta and Sicily are rather fresher in subject; but they owe their main quality to the circumstance of the author's residence. When a man is about to take up his abode in a place, he ipso facto be- comes a sort of citizen : a domicile must be engaged, servants must be hired, and arrangements made for furniture. All this, not to reckon daily market- ing, brings him into business contact with the people ; and, slight as the business may be, he gains more insight into their character by it than be could possibly attain by any communication with waiters or valets de place. Residence to some extent supposes connexion and visiting, which furnish the means of further knowledge ; and they all imply a greater likelihood of incident than is to be met in the mere routine of travel. It is this feature, conjoined with the comparative novelty of the ground, which gives its interest to the "Recollections of Malta and Sicily," and to some extent to the residence at Naples and Rome. At these latter places, the remarks on well-known sights might have been curtailed ; and when Rome is left the narrative becomes little more than an account of a commonplace tour, which might be written by thousands yearly.
One peculiarity of Mr. Williams's style, which perhaps has its source in leisurely observation, is an accumulation of minute facts, singly perhaps unimportant, yet in the aggregate making up the picture. Here are a whole bundle of domesticities at Messina, when the floor, flat, or suite of rooms, had been engaged.
" The idea of furnishing a house is, in the abstract, rather an alarming affair; and for three months only, may perhaps appear almost absurd. Our real wants, however, were few, and the articles to be purchased ridiculously cheap. A very respectable chair might be procured for about the value of thirteen pence; and a chest of drawers, French polished, for thirty shillings. Our beds we hired at so much per night (a few grains). These were supported on a bedstead of rather a primitive description—somewhat of a workhouse or infirmary character; deal boards on iron trestles supplying the place of mahogany posts and sacking—ele- gancies seldom met with in this part of the world. The beds are stuffed with the leaves of the Indian corn, which are not at all a bad substitute for horse-hair. Feathers in the hot season would be insupportable. The floors of our sitting-rooms were rather ornamental, being composed of Neapolitan tiles, in some measure re. sembling the old Dutch; and being arranged in a pattern, have much the effect of a carpet. They are very well adapted for the climate, being cool, and easily cleaned—an operation requisite at least every other day. You thus get rid of fleas in a wholesale manner, which would otherwise swarm without end. A per- son unaccustomed to this description of floor will almost fancy he is treading on glass or ice; and several tumbles were the result of the children's first essays upon this new material. Our establishment was soon got together; and in a very few days we had shaken our feathers and become settled. The only difficulty we experienced was in procuring a servant to assist our nurse. One of the children, being very young, required occasionally to be carried: now, to carry a child, from some unaccount- able reason, is deemed an abomination by the Messinese ; and we were obliged to part with a servant, in other respects a good one, for refusing to perform this requisite service. Our rooms bad the usual drawbacks belonging to houses in this country. The best apartments are always on the upper story, and thus innumerable steps are to be climbed—the said steps generally none of the cleanest; and as they are often common to three or four families, of various grades in life, it is almost impossible to keep them even in decent order. We tried the effect of a deluge of water; but our neighbours seemed quite at a loss to understand the motive of our proceedings, and of course very soon obliterated any unusual traces of cleanliness we might have established."
Illness occurs ; and the same rapid enumeration of facts makes us ac- quainted with the case, Sicilian practice, and Sicilian fees. " Shortly after our arrival at Messina, we were much alarmed at the serious ill- ness of our English nurse: the symptoms were so urgent as to require immediate advice. When no English practitioner is to be obtained, the selection of a doctor is always a puzzling affair; we accordingly adopted the recommendation of the Consul, and had every reason to be satisfied with our medical adviser. The case was one of those inflammatory attacks which in warm climates gain ground so rapidly; so depletion was the order of the day. Surgeons do not exist in these parts: their duties are performed by the barber; who is consequently an in- dividual of much more importance here than in England; and although acting un- der the medico, has often the assurance to assume half the credit of the cure. Our invalid was bled in the foot; which, after incision was made, they immersed in a basin of hot water; it was then suffered to bleed without any attempt at measur- ing the copious stream which continued to flow. The doctor, however, watched the pulse, which served as an index. On inquiring after the operation as to the quantity of blood abstracted, he very coolly replied, he did not exactly know; Forse due o trelibbre—Perhaps two or three pounds !' I must in common fairness add, that although these proceedings might have appeared unusual to us, we had no reason to complain—the mischief was arrested, and the patient slowly yet pro- gressively recovered. " The fees to medical men in Sicily are rather on a different scale to those we had hitherto been accustomed to pay. Half a dollar (about 2s. 6d.) is the charge of a visit; and even this is not unfrequently declined. A gentleman with a family told me that the sum he paid for medical advice was 41. per annum, which was the rate of salary usually demanded. This mode of payment is generally adopted in preference to fees; and by no means a bad arrangement, as it is then the doctor's interest to cure his patient as soon as possible, and all jobbing is ef- fectually prevented."
We will close with a useful hint as to climate.
" One word as to climate. Some aspects, even as far Southward as Naples, are most treacherous. You have summer in one street, and winter in another. I walked out one morning with the idea of June, and returned with the impression of December, with tears in my eyes from the cold cutting wind. Situation is everything here. A Southern aspect and complete shelter from the Tramontana winds are indispensable. Exposed to these, an invalid may do better in England."
A few sketches by Mr. Williams illustrate the work; striking from their probable truth, preserving the Southern character of the scenery and the apparent likeness of the place.
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