Accessibility is always one sure means of making a sovereign
acceptable to large classes of his subjects; and nothing could be
easier than to gain access to the presence of Leopold II., grand duke
of Tuscany. A little anecdote of an occurrence that took place at the
time when Lord Holland, to the regret of everybody in Florence,
English or Italian, ceased to be the representative of England at the
grand ducal court, will show the sort of thing that used to prevail in
the matter of the admission of foreigners to the Pitti Palace.
English travelers on the continent of Europe are, and have been for
many years, as it is hardly necessary to state, a very motley and
heterogeneous crowd. The same thing may be said of American travelers
now, but it was not so much the case at the time of which I am
writing. It is not so with the people of any other nation; and
foreigners are apt to sneer on occasion at the unkempt and queer
specimens of humanity which often come to them from the two
English-speaking nations. We can well afford to let them stare and
smile, well knowing that if a similar amount of prosperity permitted
the people of other countries to travel for their pleasure in similar
numbers, the result would be at the very least an equally--shall I say
undrawing-room-like contribution to cosmopolitan society? When Sir
George Hamilton assumed the duties of British representative at
Florence, the yearly throng of English visitors was becoming more
numerous and more heterogeneous, and all wanted to be invited to the
balls at the Pitti Palace.
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