Letter from George FitzClarence, Rome, to Mary Georgiana Dawson-Damer, 1829 November 7 : autograph manuscript signed.

Relating news from Rome; saying "Marie Louise had just returned from Geneva where she has been with a suite of fifty two Persons, to place en pension some sweet little orphans of old General Neiper [Neipperg] - you are not unacquainted with the Scandalous Chronicle of Parma or you would be surprized at this wonderful Kindness & Charity, but it is well known Her Imperial Highness has as strong a parental claim to these little Folks as the old defiant cyclopean Commander;" saying he missed seeing his brother Frederick who had been in Florence for two months with his wife and is now rejoining his Regiment in Malta; expressing his disappointment with Rome and the quality of its ruins compared with those of Delhi, Agra and Thebes and saying "But to shew I am not prejudiced in favor of the East, or my intimate Friends the Mehomedans I must state my opinion of St. Peters - Its splendor 'surpasses all understanding'...Nothing among the ancients ever excited like it & though Carnac at Thebes may be more wonderful, still the perfection of architecture & the Dome, raise it to my Ideas, above all past, present and to come;" relating details of his visit with Lady Westmoreland saying "At the same time she worried us with constant petty, meddling attention, she was on more considerable unimportant points, very rude & at last it came to a Crisis to fly Rome or break with her Ladyship - Having come so far, we choose the latter alternative. Don't tell your Friend Lady Georgina, but her Mama is as mad as Bedlam! She has just set out for Naples without knowing (as we are here informed) that Lord Westmoreland has embarked from Genoa in order to proceed to Naples thus avoiding her & Rome!;" asking about the rumor he has heard of the marriage of Horace and Amelia.