Autograph letter signed : [Rome], to George Goodin Moulton-Barrett, [1861 April 30].

Concluding their discussions of the trusteeship and their finances: "It is a great convenience in many ways to have our chief resources in Tuscany, and although we look disturbed at a distance, we feel very safe--also I would rather pay for a war for Venetia than for fortresses on the Thames"; teasing George about not coming to see them in France or Italy; writing about the state of her health: "Just now it is enough for me to gather together my courage for the journey to France--which seems to me very, very far. I feel more fit for going to Heaven sometimes--and yet there's great lacking of justification for that even, let me say, hastening to agree with my friends--"; mentioning that she has gone out driving and seen William Wetmore Story's new statue of the "African sybil"; telling George about her work and the poems she is writing on Italian subjects for the American market; mentioning that these poems are going to be translated into Italian by Francesco Dall'Ongaro, though because of his limited grasp of English, she will do a line-by-line literal translation for him first; asking George if he is subscribing to Mudie's Library and whether he has seen the recent news about Garibaldi: "[O]ur Garibaldi has been Garibaldizing a little in the Chambers,--but that is over now, & he & Cavour are reconciled now--I thank God"; asking if he has anyone to talk with in his new country home and telling him that "in Rome, the river passes, & very interesting people from all countries are met by turns", among them Joseph Severn, who she plumbed for details about the death of Keats, and Sir John Bowring; discussing Keats's reluctance to die "with his gift being undevelopped [sic] in him--of having a work to do in his right hand, which he must let fall... There would be no answer to such 'divine despairs', if it were not in the facts in which I deeply believe, that life and work, yes, the sort of work suitable to the artist-nature, are continued on the outside of this crust of mortal manhood, & that the man will be permitted to complete himself, if not here, there"; commenting on Louis Napoleon's fault, as she sees it, of considering himself immortal and drawing out diplomatic discussions and delaying military actions in consequence; [on the half sheet] telling an anecdote about Pen's infatuation with "the pretty sad queen of Naples" (Maria Sofia); writing about Pen's development: "He sleeps in my room still, & says 'Good night, Darling', before he goes to sleep--but all this must end as other sweet things do, for he is twelve years old, & fencing & sleeping in 'Mama's room,' dont go well together. He looks younger than he is, with the same infantine face--and yet he grows both tall & fat together.. which is satisfactory--."