It took me over a day to transcribe this 3600 word letter-cum-diary; the temptation is to think it important. The letter is interesting and specialists could retrieve useful material from it; but it is not important. The letter follows on from an earlier one published here at
https://www.otherpeoplesletters.com/2026/08/the-grand-tour-george-james-watson.html
In that letter, the
writer described very well his experience of crossing the Alps. Now, perhaps
because he has been worn down by illness, he is more introspective; he is not
fit enough to get the most out of the Naples he has now reached, unlike his
brother and companion who has headed off for a round trip to Sicily and Malta.
Nonetheless, the invalid manages some interesting descriptions of life in
Naples.
The writer began life in
1804 as George Watson, a younger son of the Watsons who owned Bilton Park at Knaresborough
in Yorkshire where his widowed mother and unmarried sister Mary still live. But
in 1826 he legally changed his surname to Farside (alternatively spelt
Farsyde), probably in connection with inheriting the fairly ancient Farsyde
estate of Thorpe Hall at Fylingthorpe near Whitby on the North Yorkshire
coast. He did practice as a barrister in London for a short period – and perhaps
before this Grand Tour embarked on when he was 24 - but spent the latter part
of his life at Thorpe Hall and became a Justice of the Peace and prominent
Liberal political activist in the north west. He died in 1876 leaving descendants.
Transcription
Addressed
to: Mrs Watson Bilton Park Knaresboro’ Yorkshire
Inghilterra / Single Sheet
Datelined:
Naples 27th March 1828 [this is clearly a slip - he is writing in 1829 having crossed the Alps in late 1828 ]
Postmarked
NAP 182- 9 APR; weak London
transit markings dated 1829
Dera
Mother (Please address your Letters until you next hear from me “Posta
Restante Napoli”)
Your
last letter dated Bilton Jany 13th 1828 arrived 9th
February You will see by the date we have got to this charmingly situated City
but woe is me bad health accompanies me wherever I go. My complaint is now an
ulcerated sore throat caught at Florence last November which has never healed
even thro’ my severe illness at Rome. All the delights & improvements of
this & other climates are therefore dead for what is pleasure without the
power of enjoying it – but why inspire you with the same gloom that covers me?
Our letters should give an exact account of our condition neither diminishing
or adding shouts or …..The situation of our Lodgings is magnificent they are on
the (Cheaga) (which signifies Quay). On our right is the gay white City of
Naples in front is the Bay of Naples with Vesuvius smoking in the background & to our left is the open sea with the Island of Capri in the Mouth of the
Bay no pen (except mine) can describe the chains of mountains & the
beautiful form of Mount Vesuvius it is
formed of two cones (this shape ^ ^) but its lines are so sweeping &
graceful, its base is studded with Vineyards, Villas &c. I dare not venture
to ascend my health is so precarious how unfortunate at my time of life to stay
moping at Home, to dread the night air, to be eat up with melancholy. I have
pursued my likings with too great eagerness how difficult it is to suffer with
fortitude & to take everything as it comes, I begin to wish myself at home
every now & then –
28th
I felt myself in so melancholy a humour yesterday that I thought it better to
give over a fresh stock of spirits with the change of weather will probably
make this Letter more agreeable. My Brother left me last week to go & visit
the islands of Sicily & Malta the reasons above prevent me accompanying him
Sicily contains many fine remains of Temples during the time it was possessed
by the Greeks some Centuries before it fell into the hands of the Romans &
on that account interesting One acquires by degrees a taste for these old times
now relics of days & people that must never return, perhaps it is that
which makes them interesting but considering them intrinsically they are still
beautiful the purity of the Architecture the brilliant whitness of the marble
& their generally imposing situations must never fail of conveying pleasure
to minds the least acquainted with antiquity. Not but what I confess they are
much more talked & taken more trouble about than the sight of them can ever
repay. For instance I persuaded my Brother to leave Naples his comfortable
Lodgings with the not to be forgotten comforts of an Italian kitchen to go in a
dirty steamboat, spend three weeks in a Country without beds & hardly Inns
for that purpose but in that steam Boat were 200 persons all in the same mind
as himself & I, had my health been
suitable should have made the 201st. Today is Sunday no doubt Mary
will groan when I tell her there is no Church here for protestants, I read her
last Letter to my Brother & I believe she may thank me she did not receive
an answer in a very different strain by way of return. There is anchored within
half a mile from my window a first rate English Man of War “The Revenge” she is
a most glorious sight & came in yesterday. I couldn’t help humming “Hearts of Oak” & “Rule Brittania” (had
the Violoncello been here tunes would have been fiddled) & felt naturally
our nations pride today it rains & blows the heretofore smiling Bay is
covered with waves but its situation is so sheltered that I apprehend vessels
are perfectly safe in much worse weather
than this. It is a great pleasure to have something so grand to remind one of
one’s country every morning on rising. I always loved Boats & water from a
child. I almost wish they’d made me a sailor. But my Grandfather set his heart
against any warlike thoughts tho’ he had no right unfortunately neither
Inos [a nickname for his brother?]…: nor I knew what would be, Inos [?] blames the old fellow when he should
blame himself as for me undoubtedly I
wished to get from school but likewise the old fellow wished to put 500
Guineas into his Sons pocket. I have been at one party since I came here a
Monsr. Degas, a French banker settled here I became acquainted with his son [later
the father of the painter Edgar Degas]
in the Diligence between Calais &
Paris when he invited me should I come to Naples to come & see his Family.
I thought no more about it when we accidentally met in the Street the other
day, this is the first party I have been at since leaving England, “how
gay?” but blessed is he that expected
nothing verily he shall not be disappointed. A man without letters of
introduction on the Continent loses half the pleasure & advantage of his
travels, but why groan after that one cannot have? Men & manners not musty marbles &
monuments give a man mores & knowledge
Apl
2 I did not write on 1st April lest your witticisms should be
exercised to find me a fool: do you recollect me making Inos an April fool
respecting his expected Commission. I have given you little account of a topic
on which I am able to expatiate with some fluency … I am under a regimen at
present being allowed to eat only meat fish & bread tea or coffee. At home
we had woodcocks as many as one liked
for two pauls each (a paul less than a sixpence) wild boar, partridges,
Quails, Wild geese, Wild Ducks, in proportion fancy a great Wild goose brown & tender (not ….) enough for 3 people about 2/6 and a good red wine something like a
light port wine for less than 6d p[er] bottle.
Ap.
4th I’m tired of of every thing, for the last fortnight nothing but
rain & wind impossible to stir out, Vesuvius has had his head all that time
in “ a dark &misty vale” the distant Appenines are also clouded &
nature weeps, dear England when I think of thee & my sweetly wooded native
place fears arise many false but most too true. One fears death & at that
thought reason flees away. In my illness I never could master that fear, to
lie & await his approach tranquilly os much more difficult than to meet him
in heat that the loss of strength, looks & appetite all combine to render
it Mans greatest enemy & tyrant, yet the gospel teaches us to regard it as
a blessing or something sent for our
good. It is indeed a comfortable hope that they who suffer here shall rejoice
hereafter yet what is death after ... Let’s look at him if we dare! Poets call him “King of Terrors” my idea of
him was taken from Milton’s Paradise Lost as a Child, Now it is composed of
heaven, hell, Pain, parting with friends & property, Doctors their
medicines & Bills this is a strange
mixture but I dare say it is like every other persons. Now if we can get rid of
the fears arising from these objects I take it we get rid of the fear arising
from death. I do not feel inclinded to prosecute the inquiry at present any
further otherwise my Letter would get into the sermonizing style & one
Letter writer of that kind is quite enough in a family for if we were all to
take that turn we might as well set to & copy the Prayer Book by
degrees into each of our Letters, by
this means we should do good to the
state by increasing the Revenue with Postages & say, dont I fill my
Letters full? Look how close & plain this is written? Your kind regard my
dear mother for me & my Letters makes me take more pains with them, tho’
generally they are very carelessly written & with little attention to
anything but filling the sheet & finishing as soon as possible. Now a little
well written & well thought one is better than a great deal the contrary. I
have all your Letters tied & carefully parcelled together with a string,
you have no idea the comfort your first Letter gave me when I arrived at Rome
broken down as I was by illness & fatigue for some time I felt relieved but ironhanded Pain came with sweeping I must
stop or be very Poetical which is not good for a would be Lawyer. I speak
Italian most infamously it is with great difficulty that my servant can understand my orders in
the most common things yet people say my progress is wonderful never having
learnt. John gets on capitally he speaks Italian nearly as well as French only
he is apt to be pedantic in his manner
of speaking & what is worse thinks no one but himself can possibly ever
speak. You have no idea in what excellent temper I have kept him in truth he has felt what ill humor is in
another so I hope has learnt to curb himself for I have been the crabbed one,
generally from necessity his conduct & childishness grieved me so far it is
not here as where our characters as where our characters are both known but a
Man’s character is here chiefly judged of from his associates according to the
old addage “birds of a feather”.
Apl
5th Sunday evening I have spent the best part of this day in riding
& walking for the day has turned out fine for a wonder tell Straubenzee. I
met his friend & quondam schoolfellow young Stuart this morning he inquired
after him he is not the brightest looking youth one can see what absurd
notion to fancy a lad of 17 to be my
guardian angel & Aclates [?] do think? Tell Mary I have an invitation to go to a ball
this night but being unwell cannot when people are at Home do as they do there”
but not in what is wrong we should not follow the multitude to do evil. I for
my part do not see any harm in a cheerful dance on a Sunday evening & no
matter in a country where it is the custom & no harm can be done by
example.
*
Written
sideways at edge of pages: I have seen a good deal of a young
man named Beckwith he says he is cousin to the Collier’s he has just
left this place by sea for England he is in delicate health I was at school
with one of his Brothers (since dead) at Thorp Arch [?] his father lived in York he
talks of coming to Knaresboro’ this summer when you see Mr Collins mention it
Pray make my remembrances to all friends & give me accounts of everything.
Your letters always please me. If you hear anything of old Blomberg [?] mention
it.
Remember
me to Straubenzee should you see him. Should you by chance meet a Mr Burgess
(the English protestant minister at Rome a Yorkshireman from some where near
Thirsk) be civil to him if you have it in your power. He came several times to
see me when I lay dangerously ill at Rome. I had a dreadful bout indeed. I
thought noting could have saved me at one time & verily believed myself on
the confines of another world. I laid in my bed for 28 days in agonies of mind
& body without once closing my eyes during the greatest part of that time I
was friendless & hopeless but God of his infinite mercies spared me &
from a shadow I became a substance. You’ll say but a Rheumatic fever to do all
this but I was in that state of debility from previous improper treatment at
Florence that it had thereby the greater hold
*
My
future plans for travelling depend so much upon the state of my health that I
can at present say nothing certain, health is the object of my movements. I
have it in contemplation to spend my Summer by the sea aside 18 or 20 miles
from Naples at the foot of the Apenines at a small town called Castel-Mara
where go many English families. The Earl of Moray young Stuarts Father was
there last year with his family it is said to be healthy & pleasant. You
have heard the Pope is dead a fresh one is made & I understand to be
enthoroned today [Leo XII died in February 1829 thus confirming the mis-dating of this letter to 1828]; at present I do not think of returning to Rome for the Holy
Week altho’ I shall be condemned to doubt for not seeing it but I have no mind
to run after such raree there & no strength either to stand hot rooms &
crowds which are detestable I should wish nevertheless to see the Pope wash the
Pilgrims feet & hear the music called the “Miserere” only performed 3 times
in the year & which is not allowed to be printed for any other Kings [?]
& ceremonies. The Roman women are many of them extremely beautiful fine tall
commanding figures with such eyes! Oh my eyes! Black & sparkling, with
clear brown white complexions & color they have however many defects, their
voices are harsh & screaming their feet & ancles very often deformed by
pinching being naturally large & they spit continually not in your face it
is true but still it is a nasty trick as for the men I have the … to tell you
of their beauties but they are generally fine muscular athletic fellows indeed
the common people of Naples have such Limbs as would astonish you indeed I
quite envy them their shanks . The common people I mean a particular class of
them called Lazzaroni [the poorest of the lower class] are a singular
class, they are half naked beggars & conceive their numbers when they form
an eighth of the Napolitan population they are literally vagabonds & would all be sent to the
house of correction in England for they have very few of them homes many sleep
under porticoes of palaces, on steps or any sheltered place the better class of
them are fisherman & my great Pleasure is to stand on the wall of the
public gardens & see 30 or 40 of
these fellows hauling a net of some two to three hundred yards long they are all half naked up to the
Thigh when working at their nets in this state howl & tear about like
inhabitants of the element to which they have been half born in.
Apl
7th Yesterday my dear Mother I didn’t touch your Letter but I
thought of you which was the same, in affection. I have no idea how long things
may keep me away from England sometimes a melancholy fit takes me &
determine on getting off the first opportunity then getting better all the
resolutions vanish but at present no serious calls demand my presence in
England my profession [ he is a lawyer] must wait to my health & spirits & none except
those of being so long without seeing you & Mary [his sister] at all
press my departure. My affairs in England were all arranged to bide ….in … years
absence so that what with my own wishes & interest I believe it is not
unlikely I may [letter torn] longer than I thought for I hope to make
some friends at Castelmara for there the English are [torn] to be social
being thrown entirely on themselves for society & a young man who can
fiddle da[nce?] & make himself otherwise useful & agreeable, may stand a chance of
passing his time usefully & …. Besides it is really time John & self
should think of looking out for a Companion in the shape of an amiable polished
& agreeable woman with a proportionate share of good looks, connexions,
& wealth, not that I have any right to presume from any qualification of my own to expect all those good things but
I mean if such things are to be met with to try for them I should like to see
one of us married for it never pleases me to think of the property [Bilton
Park] slipping out of the family for want of heirs. I shall not at present
attempt to give you any description of the wonders & …. Near this place
until I have seen them once or twice. Pompeii & Herculaneum you know are in
the immediate neighbourhood at the foot of Mount Vesuvius & are really
objects of curiousity worthjy some attention, Pastuni where are some very
ancient Roman or Phenician temples is the next place of interest but it is 6[?]
miles distant they are said to be the finest ruins of Temples existing. Virgils
Tomb is in the neighbourhood of Naples as are also the scenery & places
from which he described his Tartarius Elysium & in his Aneid. So the
Catholic question is to be in favor of Ireland what do the two female Divines [presumably
his mother and sister] say on the subject? For I dare not offer an opinion fearful of
being sent (I know where) with some appalling text for my ignorant presumption?
Pray may I humbly ask a question, Do the two learned Theologians intend
publishing their opinions on the subject in the shape of a Pamphlet & also
with all due deference state my doubts whether his late holiness the Pope would
lose himself eternally because he was very fond of hunting, & also whether
all the Irish people being Catholics are of the Elect. I have just come in from
riding & had my dinner of 3 dishes of meat & soup & a bottle of
wine all for about 2/6 [two shillings and sixpence] My horse which I hire for about 3/- a day is
a perfect beauty a fine long tail & mane & partly Arabian you recollect
we are not far from the coast of Africa
& Arabians are plentiful there I wish I had him at Bilton or in
London to caper about on
Fancy
the difference of the two Climates at present all the peas & Beans are in
blossom & I have already had fresh peas for dinner The Vines are partly
out & many of the larger trees the Corn is a foot & a half high &
the country generally looks as green as ours does in the beginning of June they
have two or three crops of every thing in the way of Vegetables all winter
beautiful Lettuces Cabbages Cauliflowers The oranges & lemons are still on
the trees & in winter they are perfectly beautiful the leaf being evergreen
indeed the olive tree is evergreen of which trees the country is covered The
Italians make good use of their ground every part of being planted with vines
or olives at about 10 yards apart &
the intervals sown with corn, beans, onions &c The Neapolitan Farmer seems
very industrious all seems to be done with the hand I have not yet noticed a
plow going they use oxen for drawing & beautiful creatures they are an
enormous size dun color & immense long crooked horns I do not understand
their beauties as to shape but they have not so many awkward projections as the
English beast I am ordered every morning to drink milk & it is most
delicious it it stands but 2 or 3 hours it is covered with cream. The Roman
country is much less cultivated than the Neapolitan in fact most part of it is
in a state of perfect desolation See the evils of priestcraft. [The Papal Sates were notorious for mismanagement and poverty]. After all this
account of myself & the pleasures of this & other countries believe me
my dear Mother there is one thing I regret which is that you cannot share them
with me the way the English live here would make it as expensive & more so
than living where you are you would not like to be here without mixing in
society & to keep it up must be
expensive & ruinous to persons with small incomes & it is no very easy
matter to get introductions to the best families English people carry English
stiffness wherever they go & I have found as much here as in London. If
John instead of squandering his money on his fancied intellectual attainments
& masters he might make you & Mary comfortable & himself happy but
he would not have prudence enough therefore things stay for the best Hoping I
hear from you & Mary soon believe me with love to you both your very aff
Son
Aprl
6th George James Farside [ in large letters]
Inos [his brother] not yet returned from
Sicily expected in two or 3 days
Apl
7th 1828 I hope you’ll write to me soon it’s two months since I
heard from you, there may be letter for me at Rome as I left 13th
March I have this day written for my letters & hope to find one from you
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