Travel Journal - Europe, 1922
Transcribed and edited by Elinor Howell Thurman, 2002.
Note on inside of front cover: “The old People of Takasago”
June 14, 1922
Sailed on the French Line, “Paris” for Havre[.] This steamer is a floating palace with every luxury Lucullus himself might desire. Trip smooth, and uneventful. Met a charming Yale professor – Dr Pierpont & his daughter who are our table mates.
June 21 – [1922]
Arrived at Havre early in the morning & went by boat train down to Paris - Our companion on the way down was a nouveau riche who kindly explained every thing to us – she had been over before, & said that when you wished to attract the attention of a porter, or waiter you called aloud “Poisson”! That was the sort of poor fish we send abroad to represent us God help us!
Have only had a glimpse of Paris but it seems as beautiful and as gay as of yore. We are staying at the Regina Hotel in the Rue de Rivoli. It faces the beautiful Tuilleries gardens, & is evidently one of the old palaces in which the gay French court once danced & disported itself[.]
June 22 – [1922]
Spent day mostly at Cookes & American express [sic] getting reservations - Lunched at Marguerys on Sole Marguery which was composed by some past chef while dreaming of the seventh heaven. Wandered among the shops, and up & down the brilliant streets which show very little effect of the war – only here & there a maimed soldier, or a man with a row of decorations on his breast. The impression I get strongest is that France has set its teeth & is trying with might & main to make up for what it lost in the war – theres an air of almost impassioned energy about every one - Everybody is busy – no idling of the French[.] Those who are playing are foreigners, not the French I find a strained expression in almost every face – the expression of those who have suffered much[.] And the hatred of the Germans! They dont even try to camouflage it for business reasons. Paris is full of Germans, overbearing, obnoxious, & the French serve them in stores, & the hotels as if they were dealing with vipers –
At night we took a long drive up thro’ the Arc de Triomphe, where the unknown soldier lies buried under the arch that commiserates [sic] France[’s] glory. The slab is covered perpetually by such quantities of fresh flowers we could not see the inscription. But in the floor, opposite the brass plate that commemorates the inauguration of the French Republic is another that marks the return to France of Alcace [sic] & Lorraine. Then out thro’ the lovely Bois, with its winding green ways, & with all its lakes & lagoons dotted with tiny boats with great red paper lanterns in them.
June 23 – [1922]
Spent most of the day in the Louvre – awestricken before its treasures.
June 24 – [1922]
Left at 8.30 for Blois & the Chateau district under the auspices of the Compagnie Generale Transatlantique Tourisime – price $45 - Almost got left on the train when we reached Blois which is three hours ride & in our hurried flight left behind our guide book which is as if a crippled [sic] mislaid his crutch – so we stumble along saying a few halting words & get torrents of unintelligible language in return. Blois is the most picturesque old town imaginable. It dates back to the Middle Ages, & is a maze of winding narrow streets, with gray little moss grown houses clustered about the wonderful chateau that Francois premier built in 1516 - We had lunch then went into the country, a beautiful drive thro the rich farming country of Touraine. Here are some of France[’]s famous wine making centers & we rode thro vineyards & wheat fields threaded scarlet with poppies to the famous chateau of Chambord, a hughe [sic] beautiful pile that was also one of the innumerable homes of Francis 1st & other French kings[.] It consists of a series of round towers with vast domes of roofs & a marvelous staircase in which those ascending pass those descending without being on the same stairs. It has vast chambers[,] hughe [sic] vaulted halls, with fireplaces in which one could burn a cord of wood at a time - In one hall there are rings in the wall showing where tapestries were hung for curtains when it was used as a theatre for here some of the comedies of Moliere were presented for the first time. During the revolution this chateau was sacked – the tapestries & paneling torn from the walls, the furniture taken away - The only piece of furniture left is a long table on which the body of Marchal Saxe (who occupied the Chateau with his Uhlans during the Franco-Prussian war) was embalmed. Chambord is situated in a hughe [sic] forrest [sic] of 2750 acres & is surrounded by a high wall. It was used [as] a hunting box by the old French kings & long avenues cut thro’ the forrest [sic] enabled inmates of the castle to watch the hunt from the top of the parapets. From Chambord we motored across country thro the green woods where enormous ferns grew high as a mans waist, past picturesque little gray villages whose houses are hundreds of years old to lovely Chateau Cherverney. This goes back to the 14 century, but is still occupied by the Duke de Cherverney every fall & winter. The furnishing of it was most interesting. The walls are either covered with tapestry, or Cordova leather. In the dining room is a high panelled dado, every panel exquisitely painted, & above this is Cordova leather embossed in gold & colors. The furniture is of walnut, the dining room covered with Cordova leather. In the drawing room it is upholstered in [word crossed out: old] tapestry.
June 25 – [1922]
Went to the Chateau de Blois which Francis 1st built 700 years ago on a high hill over looking the winding Loire. This magnificent palace is one of the finest flowers of the Rennaissance [sic] & about it cluster many of the most dramatic incidents in French history - Here Francis held his court – here Diana de Poiteres [sic] the elderly vamp worked her spell upon her royal boy lover & held him against all comers as long as she lived. Here the duke [sic] de Guise was assinated [sic]. Here Marie de Meddicis [sic], held a prisoner in an upper chamber[,] was let down in a basket to freedom. And above all here Catherine de Meddici [sic] lived, & planned, & schemed & murdered & died. The interior of the building has been restored to a certain extent – that is the ornate mantlepieces [sic] have been regilded & the walls of the rooms painted to show the tapestries & Cordova leather that once covered them - The tile floors of ancient days are still intact tho’ the fleur de lys are worn smooth in many places. You are shown the great state apartments, the banquetting [sic] halls, all with gorgeous fireplaces with mantles [sic] reaching the ceiling carved with the Salamander & the ermine [of] Francis the 1st coat of arms. Then you are shown the room with the big fire place before which the Duke of Guise was warming himself when summoned to an audience with his treacherous King who feared him. He passed thro a little anteroom behind the arras of which assassins were concealed who stabbed him as he passed. He stumbled into the Kings bed room & fell dead at his feet – upon which the King kicked aside the body & cried “Faugh! he seems bigger dead than alive.” [words crossed out: Most interesting of all are the] You also are shown the dungeon in which the Duke de Guise[’s] brother was being murdered at the same time, & the cabinets in which 2 priests were praying at the time for the souls about to pass into eternity. Most thrilling of all you see the gorgeous chambers of Catherine de Meddici [sic] – her drawing room, her oratory, the library where she planned the Massacre of St Bartholemew [sic], & where she secreted her poisons. The walls are made of little painted & gilded pannels [sic], and are all hollow so they give back the same sound when tapped, but when you stepped on a particular board in one corner, a hidden door flew open revealing a little cupboard & here she kept her drugs. A door opening on a tiny passage way is supposed to have led to the room of her apothecary who prepared the deadly drugs that Catharine [sic] presented to her enemies concealed in the heart of a flower, or on a glove, or between the pages of a book. Merry days, those. Left on the 20.30 (8.30) train for Tours which is about an hour away. Had narrow escape from alighting at wrong station[.]
June 26. [1922]
“Couchered” at Tours at the Hotel d’Univers – which has beds of down & cookery seraphic - Never will I forget a heavenly dish which consists of fish laid upon a bed of mushrooms and covered with a creamy sauce in which is much cheese, & all lightly baked[.]
Arose early, petit dejeunered, & at nine o’clock set forth for a day amidst the chateaux - The weather was cold & rainy, but nothing could make dreary the long rides along the banks of the Loire, & thro the winding valley of the Indre. It was just one beautiful Corot after another – the green fields, & green waters, the quaint little villages, the fields of yellow wheat & the vineyards, with now & then lovely forrests [sic] – Our first chateau was Loches, a mediaeval pile that Henry the eleventh built & where he indulged in his favorite indoor pastime of torturing his enemies. There are deep dark dungeons where state prisoners were kept. In one where two abbes were imprisoned for 7 years they carved an altar in the solid rock & about the cells the stations of the cross. In another cell the Duke of Milan was imprisoned for years & years & you are told he dropped dead of joy when rescued. You also see a chamber built like a well in which there was suspended an iron cage, no bigger than a dog kennel in which the prisoner was obliged to squat on his haunches, & this cage was suspended midway between earth & ceiling. This ingenious method of torture was invented by Cardinal La Ballue & it is comforting to learn he was the first to occupy it & that he endured this agony for five years. In the torture chambers is [sic] still to be seen the racks on which men & women were broken, the spiked collars they wore & the fire place in which they were toasted as a preliminary warming up process to the real thing in the torture line. At Lorches is the exquisite tomb of Agnes Sorrel the Kings mistress – the “dame of beauty” as she was called. It is supposed to be her likeness & represents a lovely white figure reposing on a slab of black marble while two angels guard her head & two lambs repose at her feet –
Then to Chenonceaux[,] to my mind the gem of all the Chateaux – a dream of white marble in a green park one wing of which is flung across the river Cher. It was a gift from Henry 2 to his mistress Diane de Poiters [sic] & it looks just what the home of a lady love should be – but the minute Henry died his wife Catherine de Meddicis [sic] snatched it away from her. On the walls are still the rich hangings [sic] of Cordova leather, with the royal H – for Henry, & D and a Crescent for Diana stamped over & over again in gold. This chateaux [sic] is superbly furnished & belongs to the chocolate millionaire Meunier - We finished up the day by going to Amboise, the imposing castle built by Chs [Charles] 8 - It has a gigantic staircase, the original ramp, up which Henry 8 of England rode at the head of 200 horsemen when he paid a state visit to his brother monarch. Another interesting feature of the castle is an iron balustrade on which were hung the heads of 1500 Hugenots [sic] in one of the battles between Catholics & Hugenots [sic]. Much of the old castle is still ruins but there remains intact a tiny chapel built for Anne of Brittany, that is a[s] perfect a gem architecturally as the Gem Mosque at Agra – the carving is wonderful – over the door St Hubert & his miraculous stag grouped about with figures of the chase & inside the chapel a frieze of stone carved like the lace the Brittany peasants make –
June 27 [1922]
A perfect day flying over long straight roads set on either side with rows of poplars every one the exact size & heigth [sic] of its neighbor, along the banks of green rivers, by cliffs in which not only wine cellars have been dug but which are inhabited[.] Chimneys with smoke [word crossed out: stacks] rising from them & white lace curtains showing where people had burrowed into the rock which seems as soft as the coral formation of Bermuda[.] The first chateaux [sic] we stopped at was Villandry, now owned by M. Carvalho - It has the most marvellous [sic] gardens – acres & acres of them done in the formal style - & a wonderful collection of pictures - Then on to Azy [Azay] le Rideau – a beautiful little chateau with a green moat around it, filled with wonderful furniture, then to Chinon, now a ruin, to which Joan of Arc came to meet Henry [she means Charles VII] & deliver her message & where she staid until she went with him to Orleans to see him crowned. Then to Usse & lastly to Langeais filled with old twelfth century furniture, & with the most marvellous [sic] tapestries I have ever seen, then to Luynes and so again to Tours. Our trip was made pleasant by falling in with 2 pleasant Americans[,] Mr & Mrs Walter Mansfield, of San Francisco –
June 28-29 [1922]
In Paris - Found Mrs Jarvis & Mr & Mrs Clant of N.O [New Orleans] at hotel. Last day a young Belgian was on auto. Has cousins in N.O named de Lassus.
June 30 [1922]
Left Paris for battlefields, going out by the gate by which the French troops (35000 in number) were rushed to the front when the Germans got within 13 miles of the city. They went in taxicabs 3 abreast - The first place we stopped was Senlis, a quaint little town with narrow streets & creamy white old stone houses. It was an unarmed town & no resistance was made yet nevertheless the Germans blew up almost half of the houses, with dynamite & took the Mayor & 21 of the most prominent citizens & lined them up against a wall & shot them. It happened that the Mayors father was mayor of Senlis during the German occupancy of the town in the Franco Prussian wall [sic: war] & he also was shot in the same way[.] So one woman had the tragic fate of having both husband & son murdered by the Germans. We then went on to Soissons where some of the fiercest fighting of the whole war took place. It changed hands three times. Its beautiful cathedral & public buildings are ruins, & more than half its houses heaps of stones.
All afternoon we drove thro’ the devasted [sic] region that stretches from Soissons to Rheims, stopping at Chemin des Dames where from the rise of a little hill we could see the whole battle field, & at Berry-au-Bac on the Aisne canal where 500 Scotch troops who were standing with fixed bayonets waiting the order to charge were blown up by a mine the Germans had laid. It was 8 miles away & the explosion left a crater 400 feet across - We were on the scene of the greatest struggle in history[,] for here for 4 years the war swayed back & forth – every inch of ground was fought over a hundred times, every clod was dyed in blood. The terrain is still filled with shell holes & trenches until it looks like a rabbit warren. You can not walk across it for the barbed wire. We picked up hands full of shells & cartridge belts, so rotten they fell apart in your hands at a touch. Miss R. to the horror of the guide came calmly marching in with an unexploded hand grenade. There is no sign of the life that once went on here in times of peace for every village every human habitation was swept away by the bloody tide that rolled over it, yet it is not as desolate as you may suppose for over it all is the rank luxurious growth you see in cemeteries, & the whole plain was a mass of bloom – red of poppies, blue of wild larkspur, white of daisies as if nature spread the tricolor of France over her sons who were sleeping beneath the sod they gave their lives to save.
We staid the night at Rheims & saw the sunset gild the ruins of the splendid cathedral that it took the genius & piety of two centuries to create & that devils destroyed in two minutes. You grow impotent with rage when you behold the infamy that swept away from the world a thing of beauty that can never be replaced. Half of the houses in Rheims were destroyed, & in the whole city only 200 buildings escaped some injury. As we walked slowly back to the hotel we passed what had once been a fashionable restaurant but is now a crumbling heap of stones. In the court there was the gleam of [word crossed out: what] a broken & ruined marble fountain, & back of it fluttered a few rags of family wash belonging to some people who had taken refuge in the empty wine cellar, & were making their poor home there.
July 1 – [1922]
Drove all day thro’ the battle fields. Stopped to see Quentin Roosevelts grave – a tiny, lonely grave on a green hill side for he is buried where he fell. A simple granite cross marks the spot & a white wooden fence shuts in his scant six feet of earth. Then on to Chateau Thierry, forever a shrine to all America for here our troops turned the tide of war, then on to Belleau Woods where our troops wrote Victory with their blood. We went to two American cemeteries with rows & rows of graves, all green & well tended[,] shows how we remembered, and made one sorry that other parents were not as wise as the Roosevelts & did not let their sons lie in the land where they fell & where their valor will never be forgotten.
Everywhere along the long trip we saw the people struggling with might & main & a courage no less than heroic to rebuild their houses & villages, & start over again their farms. We saw piles, mountain high[,] of barbed wire along the roadway where it had been gathered from the fields, we saw the shell holes being filled in, the trenches leveled, crops planted, but the work was being done nearly always by the old men & women & children[.] A million of France[’]s young men perished & this lack of youth is the one thing that is saddest in all France[.]
July 2 – [1922]
Spent wonderful day at Versailles - In the party were 4 people from [word crossed out: Waco] Dallas Texas, who had never heard of anything pertaining to the Louises [sic] or Marie Antoinette. The guide said of them “They are good spenders but they don’t know a thing but their names.[”]
July 3 [1922]
Came to Geneva – long & beautiful day trip across the Vosges Mountains & along the Rhone - Staying at the hotel Les Bergues (burg)[,] a beautiful place facing the Lake, & with a superb view of Mt Blanc from our windows.
July 4 – [1922]
Pleasant day loitering around town, not much of interest to see. Went to the plain little church where Calvin & John Knox propounded their dyspeptic theories of religion, & to a bluff from which you could see the green Rhone meet the slate colored waters of the river that is made of the melted snow of Mt Blanc & watched the two flow side by side in one channel without mingling[.]
July 5 [1922]
On a glorious morning at 9.20 we took the little boat & made the lovely journey to Montreux, passing Vevey & Lausanne & a dozen other picturesque little villages, huddled down by the waters edge. The lake was green as jade, & there was an ever varying panorama of woods & terraced mountain sides, & vine & roses covered chalets, backed by the mountains that bloomed into eternal snow in the distance. There could be no lovelier ride tho’ Lake Lehman itself is not so beautiful as Lake George. We arrived at 1.30 p.m. & went to hotel Excelsior where we have a heavenly room overlooking the Lake & a terraced flower garden, & commanding a superb view of the glacier Dent du Midi, & of the prison of Challon [Chillon]. The latter is the most interesting mediaeval fortress we have seen. It is built so the lake laps against its stone walls on one side, while a deep moat surrounds it on the other sides. It has deep dungeons in which the Dukes of Savoy used to keep their prisoners, one of whom Byron immortalized in his poems. You still may see the stone pillar in the dank dungeon to which he was fettered, & the gibbet on which other unfortunates were hanged - The upper part of the fortress contains magnificent banqueting rooms & living apartments & is being restored & refurnished as it was in the 13-14 centuries. In particular there is a collection of chests that filled me with envy & covetousness - Montreux is a winter resort where the fashionable come for sports on the snow & ice[.]
July 6 [1922]
Had pleasant rail journey to Interlaken where we staid at the Hotel Schweitzerhof, and had a room that looked out upon the mountain range of which the Yungfrau [Jungfrau] is the highest peak. It is a glacier covered with eternal snow & we intended ascending it by means of the fernicular but Miss R. was afraid of the altitude & I was taken sick so we abandoned the idea which was just as well as it rained anyway[.]
July 7 [1922]
Came over the wonderful Brunig Pass to Lucerne. The scenery magnificent. Staying at the Hotel des Balances, a picturesque old buildings [sic] with pictures painted on the outer walls. Our room is right over the river, which races madly by under two quaint old bridges, which have scenes painted on the walls & ceilings - One of scenes in Swiss history & tradition, the other the Dance of Death - The streets of the old city are quaint beyond description – very narrow with painted walls & courts with flowers[.] On a hill is the famous Lion of Lucerne, cut out of the solid rock of a cliff in honor of the Swiss Guards who died in the French revolution - It represents a lion, the death agony on its noble face, protecting the lilies of France with its paw.
July 8. [1922]
Spent day browsing around the town, going to the market held along the quay where we bought black cherries & raspberries & wished we could buy a ton or two of cheese, & cart loads of flowers. In the afternoon went for a ride on the lake & then up a fernicular to Rigi - It was a wonderful experience as it gave an intimate view of the glaciers near at hand, and a splendid one of the Yungfrau [Jungfrau.] Saw the sunset turn the snow to fire – then pale & leave it amethist [sic] – and coming home in the twilight had a Whistler vision of a great mountain of Amethist [sic] rising out of an Amethistine [sic] sea.
July 9 [1922]
Left Lucerne & went down to Como. Beautiful trip over the mountain. Como is a picturesque little [word crossed out: town] city with narrow streets & a quaint old cathedral. Staid at a miserable hotel which was so noisy we did not close our eyes the whole night thro’.
July 10. [1922]
Rose early, worn out with the heat & lack of sleep. Breakfast so miserable we could not swallow it. At 9.20 took small boat for Bellagio at upper end of lake. The ride up is enchanting. The water is green as an emerald & from either side rise steep mountains terraced half way up & planted with vines & small crops. Handsome villas & picturesque villages nestle at the waters edge - We reached Bellagio at 11 – had a delicious breakfast & then tumbled into bed & slept like the dead for 4 hrs. Arose & were rowed across the water to Villa Carlotta, the earthy paradise in which the ill fated Carlotta spent the latter years of her life after she went insane. The house is a square yellow brick building, with a wide foyer in which there is a lovely marble façade around the wall, & it contains among other notable pieces of Sculpture the famous Cupid & Psyche by Canova[,] a thing of ineffable beauty & grace[.] The grounds are marvelous, containing the trees & flora of almost every country beautifully planted. The garden ascends the mountain by a series of terraces, so many it takes an hours solid climbing to reach the top & each terrace has its little outlook & seat from which you may view the green waters of the lake. The palace at the time of the war was owned by the Duke of Saxe Weimar, but was confiscated by the Italian Government[.] It is now for sale –
July 11 – [1922]
Went down to Milan & spent two days, mostly in rapt contemplation of the Cathedral. It is the stone prayer of all the ages. You are speechless before the wonder & the beauty of it, three hundred years patient work of the men who were trying to make something worthy of an offering to their God. Went out to the old monastery of Sancta Maria del Grazie where Titan [Titian – she means Leonardo da Vinci] painted in the refectory the Last Supper and was amazed to find it in as good condition as it is, for the colors are still lovely, ravishing pinks & blues & browns - Napoleon stabled his horses here & in cutting a door thro’ the wall cut off the bottom part of the picture - Another horrid hotel at Milan[.]
July 12 [1922]
Left at two p.m. for Venice. Very hot, & a crowded train. Two insufferable girls, second generation Italian & German immigrants who talked loudly & long about being Americans in the dialect of Hester street. Reached Venice, city of my dreams at 7, just at sunset & rowed for a long time in a gondola thro narrow streets to the Hotel Danieli on the Grand Canal. After dinner went out and walked up to the Doges palace, & St Marks & saw them flooded with moonlight - The square was crowded, & a brass band gave a good concert while we sat on the steps of the palace where members of the Council of Ten used to live in the days of the Doges.
July 13 – [1922]
Pleasant day wandering about the city. We are only two doors from the Doges palace & St Marks, so went to see them half a dozen times. Fed the pigeons, bought bead necklaces, & a little bronze gondola ink stand & a lovely water color of St Marks – at night had a wonderful experience. It was a perfect summer night, and we got a gondola & rowed out to where some street singers were giving a “serenada” – they had a big gondola strung with lanterns, & they played & sang, & passed around the hat between every two numbers. There was one young lad of about 12 with an excellent voice. The scene was enchanting as hundreds of other gondolas crept up, like ghosts, and joined the audience. The gondoliers lashed us all together & so we rose & fell with every wash of the tide while a red harvest moon came up & turned the lagoon to a path of silver, & glorified the fading splendor of the doges palace, & made the winged lion of St Mark stand out with an almost uncanny clearness against the sky, while the music came over the water with a siren sweetness that held us on & on despite the fact that our liras per hour were creeping up & up & the singers collected with an artistic thoroughness of touch worthy of Caruso himself.
July 14 [1922]
Did a days honest & exhausting sight seeing. First St Marks with its marvelous mosaics, still bright after centuries, & its glorious pictures & treasures [word crossed out: then] & above all its bronze horses that are the greatest emblems of victory in the world. First they adorned a Greecian [sic] arch of victory, then they were taken by the Roman emperor Hadrian to Rome, & by him given to Venice[,] then an independent state – then they were taken to Constantinople & adorned the Hippodrome, again Venice brought them back, then Napoleon conquered Venice & took them to Paris – again Venice won them back & they have remained over the doors of St Marks ever since. During the war they were taken down & with the pictures & treasures were taken to Rome for safety[.] At the entrance to the square, next the water are two tall columns, one bearing a bronze winged lion[,] the emblem of St Mark because of John[’]s reference to Mark in Revelations, the other a figure of St Theodore, the patron saint of Venice before St Mark ousted him, so to speak - St Mark by the way is reputed to be buried in the cathedral, his body having been brought here from Alexandria, Egypt. On one side is the cathedral & the Doges palace[,] on the other two long palaces that used to be occupied by the government officials in the old days. The middle one of these buildings is to be turned into a great museum, the King having recently given them to the state. The doges palace is a long building built in the Moorish style, with tapestried brick walls & long arched corridors. Midway of the upper gallery are two colored marble pillars between which the Doge used to appear to announce his verdict to the populace in the square below. He would come out with a drawn sword in his hand. After pronouncing sentence he would sheath the sword & say “Justicia fiat” - Justice has been done - You enter the palace, go thro’ a beautiful court, & ascend the Golden stairway, so called because only the nobles whose names were inscribed in the Book of Gold could ascend it. Within are a series [of] magnificent rooms, with walls & ceilings completely covered with gorgeous paintings by Titian, & Tintoretto & Paul Veronese, all set in massive gold frames. There was a big room in which the nobles sat, a smaller one in which the Committee of 10 sat & a little room in which the fatal 3 held their deliberations. The doges were elected for life & seem to have been a nice black hand gang. In one wall was the famous Lions mouth were people dropped letters denouncing their enemies as traitors – this gave on the open staircase & was handy for anybody with a grievance. In the lower story was the famous bridge of sighs that led to the dungeons but they appeared quite cheery compared with the ones at Lorch [Loches]. One convenience was notable[.] A door sill to one of the cells was raised so as to make a nice place for the executions, & a door of this cell opened on the canal so the [word crossed out: bottom] body could be pitched into the water & washed out by the next tide.
In the afternoon went to the cathedral of Santa Maria delle Salute which was built as a votive offering when the plague was raging. It just happened that we hit on the very day of the night when the annual festival of Santa Maria is observed. At night the people went out in boats on the water, and sang & danced & had their suppers in the boat, in memory of the time when every man suspected his neighbor of contagion & kept as far from him as possible. Then they went & slept on the sands of an island, and at six o’clock of [sic] Sunday morning had great fire works –
Also went to the [word crossed out: Priory] Frari, another church that is the Westminister [sic] Abbey of Italy. In it are buried Titian & the heart of Canova – the balance of him being scattered all over Italy[,] & one of the Doges. The sepulchers of many are placed high up on the wall – jutting out like shelves. One bleak black box, with a hole in its bottom[,] contains the heads of three brothers who conspired against the government.
July 15 – [1922]
Left Venice at 2.50 for Florence – which we reached at 12.30 p.m. after a terrible trip. The trains are so crowded that we had to go to the train an hour before time & we sweltered on a side track in the filthiest car I ever saw. The compartment was jammed. At Bologna we had to change & Miss R. hopped in first one compartment after another without finding a seat[.] Finally she got in one just as the train was about leaving & we were in a panic. We went to a hotel near the station – a miserable place where the combination of fighting cats & slamming doors, & ravenous musquitoes [sic] kept us awake all night. Next day moved to the Hotel Florence on the Arno where we have a lovely room & bath & splendid meals for 70 lira ($3.50[)] each a day.
July 16 [1922]
Went to the beautiful cathedral & heard high mass. Also to the baptistery where all the children in Florence are christened[.] This building has superb bronze doors, and is beautifully proportioned in every way. Went to the foundling hospital which has the famous Della Robia bambinos on every pillar –
July 17 [1922]
Spent morning in the Pitti Palace wandering awe struck through the splendid rooms where are gathered together the worlds most famous pictures. Here is the Madonna of the Chair & a hundred other Madonnas, & besides these masterpieces hundreds of lesser pictures not too high & great for low brow understanding. Back of the palace is the most enchanting garden - Everything about the place bespeaks the almost incredible magnificence of the time when rich nobles vied with each other in building palaces - In the afternoon went shopping & bought silver purse top at a queer little shop & then had a long & beautiful ride thro’ the twisted narrow streets out along the heigths [sic] to the places where the large foreign colony of rich Americans & English live, and so at last to the Piazza Michael Angelo, a great terrace that overlooks the city, & is ornamented by a superb bronze statue of David by the great artist.
July 18. [1922]
Spent morning in the marvelous Uffizi Galery [sic] – miles upon miles of Old Masters – Titian, Botticellis [sic], etc – millions of madonnas, & Marys & Marthas & Simon Peters, & so on with God handing wreaths to various members of the Meddici [sic] family. Ancient art is the apotheosis of religious superstition & I’ll say my funny bone is too prominent for me to be able to thrill over pot bellied infants. But the coloring is perfectly beautiful despite the centuries, & I took great comfort in Reubens [sic] because his large fat ladies made me realize I had a perfect figure. The Uffizi gallery covers acres of ground, & one wing goes all across the river & connects with the Pitti palace. It is rich in treasures of the Meddici [sic], & one room filled with bijouterie that had belonged to the Meddici [sic] was most interesting. It had pictures comprised of gold & silver & precious stones, figurines made of semiprecious stones, wonderful cameos, carvings on crystal & so on - The supports for the shelves were small columns of porphyry, with bracelets of diamonds & rubies. Well was the founder of the family called Lorenzo the Magnificent. In the afternoon went to the chapel of the Medicis where many of the family are buried.
July 19 – [1922]
Left Florence at 1.20 P.M. arrived Rome 7 – staying at the Hotel Windsor. The journey was an interesting one thro’ a beautiful country. As we neared Rome there were quaint little villages perched on hills, the houses so huddled together they looked like fortified castles, mute evidences of a day when people had to live on heigths [sic] where they could watch their ennemies [sic] approach, & close together so they could defend each other[.]
July 20 – [1922]
Am half dead after a strenuous days sight seeing but will nevertheless record my first impression of Rome. I can do it in one word – overwhelming - There is so much to see one is overcome by the impossibility of doing it, or of taking in what Rome has to give, for here is comprised the old history of the world almost. Of itself Rome is the most striking of cities with 150 lively fountains, its squares each with some towering historic shaft, it sumptuous public buildings, its 500 churches. We drove first to the Pincian Hill to get a birds eye view of the city – then by the Quirinal, an ugly, sprawling yellow building where the floating flag showed the King to be in residence, by the splendid Victor Emanuel [sic] monument, which is oddly new & white against the grayness of the other historic monuments. Here lies buried Italys unknown soldier & before his bier rested the golden laurel wreath sent from America. Then we went to the Pantheon, once a heathen temple, built B. C & with marvelous concrete dome. In it are a few tombs[,] one to Victor Emmanuel, the father of United Italy, before which a soldier, an officer stands perpetual guard. The statues to the heathen deities were all taken down when this was turned into a Christian church. Then to St Peters, across the 6 acre paved square, in many ways the most interesting square in the world for on either side is a wonderful curved colonade [sic], & above this on the right side rises the irregular pile that is the Vatican. St Peters is the largest church in the world but you only get an idea of its vastness when you see the brass marks in the floor that show where other big cathedrals could be set within it, & lost. Of the splendor of its marbles, of the richness of its mosaics and paintings, of its great dais under which the Pope sometimes sits & officiates at high mass, I will not attempt to write. St Peter is believed to buried [words crossed out: in the] under the altar, & a silver box set upon the spot over his tomb contains vestments that are thus sanctified & sent all over the world to Catholic prelates. Near the altar is a great bronze statue of St Peter whose toe is worn away by being kissed by the faithful so it has to be renewed –
Went also to St Paul, another magnificent cathedral where St Paul & Timothy are supposed to be buried.
In the afternoon went to the Pallatine [sic] Hill where the emperors & nobles lived. There is still enough left of their sumptuous palaces for you to be able to get a dim idea of what they were. The underground rooms in which they sought shelter from the heat are fairly well preserved[.] You may see also the reservoirs in which they kept their fish, & the foundations of the great banquet halls. Below a few lovely columns mark where the temple of Venus, & of Castor & Pollux stood & a pool where the house of the Vestal Virgins were [sic] - Heaps of ruins are all that is left of the Forum & a pile of stones they tell you is where Cassius delivered his oration over the dead body of Caesar - Also went outside the old Roman wall to the English Cemmetery [sic] where are buried Shelly [sic] & Keats, whose dying wish was complied with to put on his stone “Here lies one whose name was writ in water.” Also sent to the Capuchin monastery where 10,000 monks have been buried in a few cart loads of earth brought from the Valley of Jehosiphat, & when their flesh decayed their bones taken up to make room for others who also wished to lie in the sacred soil, & the bones disjointed & made into a weird decoration. In this monastery is Guido Reni[’]s wonderful picture of St Michael & in the gallery of the Barberini Gallery is Guido Reni[’]s Beatrice Cenci[.]
July 21 – [1922]
Another day of breathless sightseeing with the weather as hot as Hades. Spent the morning in the Vatican, gazing upon miles & miles of statuary & painting of Madonnas & the Crucifixion & martyrs in their last agonies - The old masters appear to have been steeped in gloom & to have wallowed in blood. The windows were open & there was a fine view of the gardens & the wooded hill in which the Pope gets his only fresh air.
In the afternoon had a hot dusty ride out the Appain [Appian] Way which apparently hasn’t been repaired since the time of the Caesars, but there were fine views of the old Roman aequeduct [sic], & the old walls & watch tower, but its in nothing like such repair as the Chinese wall. Had wonderful trip to the Colliseum [sic] & the old baths of Caracalla where decadent Rome took its ease, & saw the place where Nero’s golden house was but nothing now remains but a few stones of the “splendor that was Rome & the glory that was Greece.” Went to the catacombs that are a grisly bore – 25 miles of more or less empty graves, way underground, & a priest who insisted on reading every inscription –
July 22 – [1922]
Wonderful morning in the Vatican library, gallery after gallery filled with the priceless things that have been given the various Popes, books with covers gem encrusted, every conceivable thing pertaining to religious ceremonial made of the most precious material, Replicas of churches in gold & silver, the finest of china & bronze, ornaments, millions upon millions of dollars worth of useless trinketry, presented by sovereigns, by rich people, by Catholic organizations everywhere –
July 23 Sunday [1922]
Went to high mass at St Peters & saw Cardinal Muy del Val. Also saw a number of babies baptized. In the afternoon went to see the sacred stairs which were brought [from] Pilates palace in Jerusalem & are said to be the ones Christ ascended to his interview with Pilate, and adown [sic] which he came scourged & crowned with thorns by the mocking multitude. Many devout people were ascending the stairs on their knees, for which they get 9 years off in Purgatory[.]
July 24. [1922]
Went to see the famous statue of Michael Angelo of Moses[,] supposed to be one of his greatest works. In the same church are the chains with which Peter was bound while in prison & which were struck from him by the angel. It must be true, for there stands a gilt statue of the very angel - Went to another church in which is the sacred Bambino[.] A wooden doll about 2 ft high, crudely carved, but with its dress literally covered & recovered with hundreds of rings, lockets, watches[,] necklaces & chains. The little chapel walls were lined with votive offerings of people who had had miracles performed for them by the Bambino –
July 25 [1922]
Left Rome at 1.45 P.M. Hot & dusty & tiresome trip to Naples which we reached at 7 P.M. Went to the Hotel Excelsior which is lovely, beautiful rooms, fine food, & wonderful view of the water & Mt Vesuvius, but very expensive.
July 26 – [1922]
Bought corals, & bummed around city, and moved up to Hotel Bretagne on the cliff[.] Have most wonderful view from room – the whole sweep of the Bay, with Mt Vesuvius sending up its column of smoke, like a warning penant [sic] night & day.
July 26-27-28 – [1922]
Wrote for syndicate & rested – [July] 30 – Went to Pompeii[.] Wild ride – bumpety, bump across the city to the station – 1 ½ hrs by R.R, up the mountain, thro vineyards & olive orchards. My companions a big, fat Italian woman who had lived in Newark, but who only spoke three words of English, her Italian brother who spoke no English at all, & looked like a brigand, but was most polite, & the most offensive type of the 2nd generation Jew Lawyer, who thanked God at every breath he was an American & had found nothing just right in [word crossed out: Germany] Europe but Germany[.] Had a miserable lunch, & then fared forth in the baking sun to see Pompeii - It is most interesting. The ghost of a city, with shells of houses that were shops, with remnants of splendid mansions with painted walls & fluted columns, and gardens with fountains & perystiles [sic] & statuary, with market places, & judgment hall, & luxurious baths & a great amphitheatre showing just how life went on in those ancient days. Most interesting was the exhibit in the museum of the lava covered skeletons showing how the people perished when death suddenly overtook them – one man lay rigid his teeth clenched, another crouched with his face to the ground, a mother held her babe to her breast & vainly tried to keep it from the all enfolding ashes by sheltering it with her own face & hands. [line crossed out: There is also a cabinet of food -] One dog, writhed almost double in agony made me wonder if it was the dog whose picture is in the mosaic in the house of the “Tragic Poet” - & under which are the words “Cave Canum” - A little dog died with his head on his masters breast - You may also see just what the Pompeiians were going to have for dinner – there are bowls with petrified beans, a basket of eggs, the bones of a chicken, & loaves of bread - The scenery is superb –
Aug 1 – [1922]
Left Naples at 10 for Rome - Had a perfectly awful trip, arriving at 7.30. To our horror found we had struck a political strike, & there were no taxis, no street cars, nothing doing generally. Finally got porter & went across street to Continental Hotel which was very comfortable[.]
Aug 2 – [1922]
Went to station at 9 & got train for Pisa - Crowds of soldiers everywhere, & other crowds of boys with black shirts & red belts who we found out were the Facisti [sic] – the faction opposed to calling the strike which was a demonstration of the socialists. After waiting an hour learned that the train was not an express as we tho’t but a local & the only one the socialist[s] permitted to run that day. The Fascisti lads came & wrote messages all over our train & drew caricatures of the Socialists. Finally we got off, the train manned by a volunteer crew which soon wrecked the engine. We waited for hours on a side track for another engine which finally arrived, but the Fasciti [sic] evidently were poor locomotive drivers for they would let the steam run down & have to wait until they could get up enough juice to go on. It took us more than 14 hrs to get to Pisa, but at last after midnight we pulled in, nearly starved, for we had had nothing to eat all day but an adamantine sandwich & a bottle of vinegary wine[.] No food was to be had at the Hotel Neptune, however so we went to bed hungry.
Aug 3. [1922]
Found Pisa unexpectedly interesting. It looks much like Florence. Our room fronted the Arno just as it did in Florence. The old cathedral is a little gem, with wonderful bronze doors, a lot of fine pictures by Andrea del Sarto, & a chandelier from which Galileo got his idea of the pendulum by the way it swung. The leaning tower is beautiful, much more lovely I thot [sic] than the Campanile at Venice. The streets are very picturesque – narrow, & crooked & splashes of color. Left Pisa for Genoa amidst a great hubbub – train hours late, nobody knowing when it started or what was going to happen - Many Fascisti & soldiers everywhere. Run in on a young bridal couple named Jas Daly - He is a poet & would be playright [sic] – Showed me a poem he had printed in a cubist magazine[,] it ran:
September the eleventh
. A bulbous light
butter milk
And the St Gothard tunnel
Last night when I went to bed
I was naked
Except for my necktie
And I wore my overcoat
And hung my blanket out of the window
They laughed at me. Oh God will they
Weep, weep, weep
When I die? Come here Fido & let me scratch your ear[.]
Aug 4. [1922]
Left Genoa amidst great confusion[.] Finally got on train which staid hours in station. Just as we left there was a great tumult - Seems that the socialists had planted a great crowd of their members in & around the station & planned to rush the train at the last minute & stop its going. The socialist leader gave the signal but the Fasciti [sic] had suspected the ruse & swarmed in from everywhere, grabbed the socialists, & hustled them away. We crept along, stopping everywhere & hours at one way station where we were sidetracked in the burning heat & finally reached Vantinele [Ventimiglia] on the French frontier. We were nearly starved, had had nothing to eat all day but found a delicious supper awaiting us at the little hotel to which we went, & to which we did full justice[.]
Aug 5 – [1922]
Came up to Nice, and are at the lovely, cool, comfortable Hotel Atlantic - It seems like getting out of hell into heaven – for Italy has this quality in common with hell, its hot, & fascinating & has an interesting past - The Riviera is beautiful beyond measure in its whole length – a vision of blue waters & rugged mountains & pink & yellow houses, & palms & oleanders. In the afternoon went along the Grand Corniche[,] the road Napoleon built, to Monte Carlo, & back by the Little Corniche. The Casino is lovely & the grounds with their terraces beautiful, but gambling in all its forms revolts me. I always want to trust my brains instead of Lady Luck.
Aug 6 – 7 – 8 – 9 – 10 – 11 – 12 [1922]
Spent in Nice resting[.]
Aug 13. [1922]
Left on morning train for Marsailles [sic] - Interesting trip, skirting the sea – past Cannes with its lovely villas - Arrived at M. at night – went to Hotel Splendide which is splendid in name only[.] After dinner went out to the Colonial exposition, & to an interesting Algerian village.
Aug 14 – [1922]
Took early morning train for Toullouse [sic] – arrived 4. P.M. Had interesting drive around city[.] Many 12-14 century houses where Francis 1st & his court lived. Lovely old church. It being the feast of the Assumption the altar of Our Lady was smothered in flowers. Also a silver statue of the Virgin was displayed – beneath it in a little white silk bag was a piece of the Virgins robe!
Aug 14 [15?] – [1922]
Went to Lourdes – Hotel de la Grotto - Lourdes is the loveliest little village imaginable in the heart of the Pyranees [sic]. It lives & has its being around the sacred fountain where waters are believed to work miracles. According to the story a small peasant girl, aged 8, was gathering fagots in the wood. Suddenly [word crossed out: the] a beautiful woman dressed in white & wearing a blue sash about her waist appeared before the child & told her a church must be built on that spot - The child told the priest who advised her to do penance – but the vision kept reappearing, & at last a fountain of water gushed forth from the grotto where Bernadotte [Bernadette] had first seen the apparition. People bathed in the water & were miraculously healed. Now millions come yearly to the shrine & the scene is one of the most pitiable & touching one can imagine. A great church has been built on the rock above the grotto where the Virgin first appeared, & it is approached by curved ramps that reach from the valley below - Before the altar in the grotto, when we saw it, was a vast throng – hundreds of sick people, the lame, the halt & the blind, attended by their families, all agonizing for help from on high. Those who were able knelt, their arms outstretched in the form of a cross – while they prayed & they had knelt there until they were so exhausted they could not keep erect. The priest intoned the mass, the people answered the prayers - After a long service the priest moved in front of the “malade” presenting the host to their anxious eyes. It was the crucial moment – a woman screamed - & we were told it was because her sister, bedridden for 15 yrs had gotten up & walked. At night there was a wonderful procession – thousand[s] upon thousands of pilgrims from all over the world walking up & down the ramp, with lighted candles in their hands all singing, a river of light - & melody that flowed around the church - We were told of many marvelous miracles wrought by the Lourdes water – but I dunno.
Aug 16 – [1922]
Arrived Biarritz – the most beautiful little watering place I have ever seen, & very gay with its big casino & lovely shops.
Aug 17 – [1922]
Met our party – Mrs & Miss Camp of Fla, & Miss Thatcher of Winona, Minn – very nice & the conductor seems fine –
Aug 18 – [1922]
Pleasant auto drive to Baronne [Bayonne] which has a mediaeval church & a nice gallery, filled with the works of Bonart [Bonnat], a great Basque painter - Also it has famous chocolate[.]
Aug 19 – [1922]
Arrived in San Sebastian[,] beautiful seaside resort, where the King has a summer palace. Went to the Casino at night & had some good music & saw a famous Spanish dancer. Staying at the Continental & Palace hotel – very good indeed[,] all other guests but ourselves Spanish – or I should think Basques as the Spanish type does not seem marked[.]
Aug 20 – Sunday – [1922]
Had a beautiful auto ride along a lovely shaded road to Fuenterrabia, a quaint old town which dates back to the middle ages, & still has remnants of a wall with Charles the V’s arms over the doorway. There is an old church in which Louis the IV of France married Maria Theresa, & the vestments used on that occasion. Likewise there is a ruined old stone building in which Jane, the daughter of Ferdinand & Isabella, & who went crazy when her husband Phillip the Handsome, was confined. [sic] In the afternoon we went to a bull fight. It was a big corridor [corrida], 8 bulls & 4 matadors of the 1st class, this being the heart of the season in the most fashionable event in Spain. The bull fight is held in a great ampitheatre, [sic] built like the colliseum [sic] in Rome, & it was packed. We are too near France for the audience to be distinctively [word crossed out: French] Spanish, but there were some ladies in mantillas, & some spread their gorgeous shawls over the edges of their boxes. The band played, the people cheered, the grace & skill of the matadors was beautiful & wonderful, but nothing could do away with the horror & brutality of the scene & after seeing a dozen poor horses killed & four bulls baited & tortured & slain we came away.
Aug 21 [1922]
Had most marvelous drive along the Spanish Grande Corniche[,] miles & miles of perfect road along the sea shore, thro mountain passes, up dizzy heigths [sic], thro picturesque old mediaeval villages, by prosperous farms where peasants drove patient oxen in wagons with solid wooden wheels - A lovely green, well cultivated, country with industrious, well dressed inhabitants[,] sleek cattle, everything neat & well cared for. Stopped at the Convent of St Ignacio de Loyola – which is located at what was the birthplace of the saint - The convent is built on to what was the original dwelling & is the most perfect jewel box of a church I have ever seen. It is a bewildering mass of lovely pictures, gorgeous stained glass, walls lined with onyx, inlay of gold & silver & carved wood - There are several curious statues of the St [Saint] - One behind the altar representing him reading the book that converted him – another shows him kneeling in the grotto while the Virgin told him to write while she dictated to him about the forming of the order of Jesuits. It appears the St was a fighting man & while wounded was given good books to read which converted him – whereupon he decided to enter the religious life & became a saint - The walls of a beautiful little chapel are lined with what looks like safety deposit vaults. In each is a gorgeous gold or silver box containing the ashes or a few bones of a saint. Some of the boxes have crystal sides so you have a pleasing view of a saints backbone –
Aug 22 [1922]
Left San Sebastian at 9 on a train de Luxe & arrived at Burgos at 2.15 – Hotel Del Norte y Londres - Beautiful trip thro lovely mountain scenery across the Pyranees [sic]. Put in a strenuous aft going first to a wonderful mediaeval old house with wonderful gargoyles where Columbus staid when he first came back from discovering America[.] Then to a street full of fine old 12 Century houses – the most wonderful of them all with a marvelous court of carved stone was the house of a grandee by the name of Miranda, & is now used by a manufacturer of skin bottles for wine. Then on to a quaint old convent where many kings & queens are buried, & where there are some gorgeous Gobelin tapestries - Then a long ride to the monastery of Mille fleurs, where there is a lovely tomb carved out of alabaster under which repose the bodies of the father & mother of [word crossed out: alabaster] Isabella, & where there is a great [word crossed out: convent] carved altar that was gilded with some of the gold Columbus brought from Am. In this monastery, whose patron saint is St Bruno is a statue of the saint so lifelike that it has been said it would speak if the order were not vowed to silence. In this monastery each monk has a little house, & garden of his own. He lives alone, except that he meets his bretheren in the chapel in the services that go on continually almost, but they never speak except on Monday when they talk for 3 hrs in the garden. The wood carving of the stalls of the chapel are [sic] particularly fine - Then on to the city hall where are two golden effigies standing on either side of a battered chair - In this room, & in that chair & thro’ these men justice was first administered in Castile. The body of the Cid was kept in the little chapel here for many years, but is now interred in the cathedral[.]
Aug 23 – [1922]
Spent morning seeing beautiful cathedral said by many to be the most beautiful in Spain - Lovely 12- century carvings - In this is the chest of the Cid – a worm eaten old box that he pledged with the Jews for money with which to equip himself when he went to Valencia to fight. When he returned victorious the chest was opened & nothing was found in it but sand & rocks. The Jews exclaimed that this was worthless, but the Cid said “Not so – something beyond the value of diamonds is there – my honor” - & paid his debt. The Cid is buried in the church, likewise his cook, who when his master was too poor to buy food, sold his own coat to get money for a dinner. At the cooks feet is a marble effigy of a dog – emblem of faithfulness. Left Burgos at 2.15 arrived Segovia at 7 P.M[.]
Aug 24 – [1922]
Segovia is the quaintest possible old town – Spain as it was in the middle ages[,] plus 3 Henry Fords in one of which we rode at the imminent risk of being killed ourselves & committing murder. The streets are so narrow you can almost touch the houses on either side & they are filled with donkeys with heavily laden panniers, & wagons with three horses driven abreast, & with clanking bells, & with women with water jars on their heads. Our chauffer [sic] was on his second trip – he could neither stop nor start his car except by luck & the way we turned corners on one wheel & plowed our way thro’ the multitude was a thing to turn you gray. Segovia has the most wonderful Roman acqueduct [sic] extant – a series of majestic columns supporting the water conduit, stretch half a mile long & 200 ft high & still after 2000 years bring the water of the Frio – the river cold to the town. It was built in the time of Augustus[.] There is here also a picturesque old cathedral set in the midst of a chattering market place, which was once the scene of the activities of the Inquisition. We drove some miles out into the country to the Alcazar, the palace in which Isabella of Castile reigned & which is the finest [words crossed out: castle in] example in all Spain of the mediaeval castle - It was partly destroyed by fire 60 yrs ago, but has been restored on the same lines, & you go across the ancient moat into the fortress - The most interesting room is a large vaulted throne room with a lovely ceiling & carved chairs[.] I sat in Isabella’s & wondered if Columbus knelt at her feet with his globe & explained his theory of a round world. We drove in another direction out to La Granja, a summer palace of the King of Spain, that was built by Philip V. During his absence his wife had marvelous gardens like those of Versailles built & 86 fountains installed as a pleasant surprise[.] Phillip [sic] took them as husbands always take such surprises – he remarked that they had cost 3 million pesetas & gave him 3 minutes pleasure. The gardens are still lovely & the fountains still play 9 times a year. The [word crossed out: Queens] Kings sister the Infanta Isabel was in residence at the palace & we were shown in the dining room where the table was set for her lunch – a rather mussed cloth was on the table – 2 wine glasses at each of the 4 places, a blue salt cellar, knife, fork, plate, & crossed tooth picks – the touch of nature that makes the whole world kin[.]
Left Segovia at 7 – arrived at Madrid 9.30[,] Hotel Ritz – Lovely trip thro’ picturesque country with the most gorgeous sunset - Fine dinner on car[.]
Aug 24 – [1922]
Madrid is a beautiful city, a little Paris, with wide streets, fine houses, lovely little squares, every thing to enhance the charm of the place. Staying at the Ritz, Puerto del Sol – fine room – fine bath – superlative table. In the morning went to the armory in the palace where there is the finest collection of ancient armor in the world - It is gorgeous – old banners that proclaim Spains days of power, priceless tapestries, the red & gold silken tents [words crossed out: of mediaeval monarchs] in which Francis 1st of France was captured at Pavia – the gold encrusted armor of feudal days - Went to new gallery & saw some splendid specimens of the work of living Spanish artists[.] In the afternoon took long & lovely drive thro’ city & parks - Saw the matadors & banderillos [banderilleros] & piccadors [picadors] coming home from the bull fight, dressed in their gorgeous gold & silver costumes – each with his “wise monkey” riding behind him on a big fine horse.
Aug 26 – [1922]
Got up at 6. a.m. to catch the 8 o’clock train to Toledo. Toledo is a huddle of yellow houses, perched on a yellow sunbaked hill[.] It looks very oriental with its narrow streets & Moorish gateways - We stopped first at a little mosque in front of which in the rough street was a white stone about as big as a plate. When the Cid entered Toledo with Alphonso IV [VI] when they wrested Toledo from the Moors, his horse knelt here & refused to move. By this sign they knew they were in the presence of a miracle & began investigations which disclosed a lamp lighted before a statue of the Virgin which some believers had sealed in the walls[.] Then to the church which Isabella built for Ferdinand & whose walls are hung with martyr chains taken from Moorish dungeons in Grenada - Then to San [Santo] Tome to see the El Greco picture that is considered his masterpiece – the burial of a count who restored San Tome, a deed so pious the angels came down from heaven to bury him – the picture shows St Stephen lifting him up & passing him on to St Peter. Then to the Cathedral – a beautiful mass of carved door ways & walls without & a gorgeous within - It seems the Bishop of Idlefonso wrote a treatise upon the perpetual virginity of the virgin that so pleased her she came down from Heaven & presented him with a chasuable [sic] - If you doubt it, see Murillo[’]s painting of it in the Prado. In the treasure room are marvels of chasuables [sic] & a robe for the Virgin embroidered with 30000 big pearls & other precious stones. Went to the El Greco house, now a museum, quaintly furnished, & thro’ the narrow streets, with houses 1400 yrs old to the Posada de Sangre where Cervantes wrote Don Quixote, then to the old Moorish palace – the Alcazar, now a military school.
Aug 27 [1922]
Spent morning [in the] Prado – wonderful collection of Velazquez & Murillos, both Spaniards –
Aug 28 [1922]
Down by auto to El Escorial, a great pile consisting of mausoleum, cathedral[,] palace, monastery, library which Philip the Bigot built at the behest of his father Charles V. The ride was wonderful, a smooth road winding up to the bleak Quaddamus Mt at whose feet is the gloomy building that in size ranks next to the Pyramid of Gizeh. It happened to be a feast day & a service was being held in the splendid cathedral & all the saints bones in their gold & silver & glass cases were on exhibition. The library is one of the finest in the world & contains a hymn book written on sheets of gold & many other books going back to the 12 century - We saw the splendidly illuminated books 3 & 4 written on parchment by the monks long, long before printing was discovered[.] Under the great altar is a marble lined room in which arrayed on shelves are the marble sarcofaji [sic] of the Kings of Spain[.] Two empty ones await Alphonso 13 & his son - There are other rooms for collateral branches of the royal family & a lovely white marble one for little royal babies[.] Upstairs is a sumptuous palace, room after room hung with splendid tapestry, & full of gorgeous furniture - Near by is the Palace of the Prince which Philip built for his son & filled full of embroidered walls & furniture & bricabrac & bijouterie[.] Left Madrid on sleeper & came to Saville [Seville], arriving at 9. A.M.[,] Gran Hotel de Madrid which used to be a noblemans house – a picturesque building with many tiled courts with fountains, tiled walls, lovely old carved chests & tables & so on & the most marvelous cooking. Savilla [sic] is enchanting – narrow crooked streets, Moorish houses, courtyards & lovely ladies in high combs & mantillas[.]
Aug 29 – [1922]
Went for drive – to the House of Pilate, which a Duke built in imitation of Pilates palace in Jerusalem - Everything reproduced[,] even the post to which Christ is said to have been lashed when beaten - Also the prison room where he was confined. Then to nunnery where there are some fine pictures. The nuns in this order are immured for life – they did [dig] their graves & bury their dead[.] We were not allowed to speak in church. The figure of Christ over the altar had on a ruffled ballet skirt - Went to a hospital for old men to see some very fine Murillos & Valdes - Place founded by a reformed rake who turned pious.
Aug 30 [1922]
Thrilling morning in the old Moorish Alcazar, a dream of tiles & carved stucco work, & lovely vistas of little green courts – the patio, of the Maidens, the dolls court etc - Beautiful gardens – went thro’ the private apts of the King who comes here for 3 weeks at Easter - Saw the altar at which Columbus worshipped when he came to bid Queen Isabella farewell when he started to America. Saw the splendid Gothic church, with pillars 50 ft around built on the site of an old Moorish mosque - Saw the millions of dollars worth of gems & jewels & vestments centuries old & the famous Giralda Tower which is a Moorish minaret, with a Catholic bell tower built a top [sic]. Went to the gallery where there is a splendid collection of Murillos, & late in the aft took a ride in the pretty park[.]
[Note at top of page:] Gran Hotel de Madrid
Aug 31 – [1922]
Took 9 o’clock train for Cadiz which we reached about lunch time. In aft went for a ride thro’ the quaint little narrow streets to a monastery famous for a picture of the ascension which Murillo was painting when he fell from the scaffold & received the injuries from which he died. We were also greatly diverted by a wax group on one of the altars - It represented a pastoral scene with a regular Watteau shepherdess[,] floppy hat wreathed with flowers, white dress, pink silk cloak, blue ribbons, & a group of lambs - It is called The Divine Peasant, & much worshipped –
Sept 1 – [1922]
Left Cadiz at 1 & motored 90 miles to Algeciras[,] a dream of a trip along Trafalgar bay, thro quaint old villages, thro a grazing country where the fighting bulls are raised & where there are herds of cattle everywhere, meeting trains of donkeys with panniers of luscious grapes on their way to the vine press, over mountains, by the Atlantic, over more mountains with the wrecks of old feudal castles – the one depicted in the great carving in the Escorial which represents the Saracens parleying with the King & telling him they will kill his son if he doesnt surrender the fortress, & the King pitching his dagger over the wall & telling them to slay the child quickly, along the banks of the Meditterean [sic] out of which rises Gibraltar, & so at last to a perfect hotel in Algeciras - the Reina Christiana, English run & set in the midst of a lovely tropical garden[.]
Sep 2. [1922]
Got up at 6.30 to go to Tangiers. First ferried to Gibraltar & had walk thro’ market. Then waited an hour for the capt of our boat to go to a party – at last got started. The trip was rough & we were five hours of tossing. Everybody loathsomely sick but us - But Tangiers is worth the price. Its like the Arabian nights come true & as we rode on donkeys thro the narrow tortuous streets it seemed as if Haroun al Raschid might come out of any door, & that Schezerade [sic] might be sitting in any patio thinking up the next installment of the serial on which her life hung . The men all wore loose garments patterned after a nightshirt, with flopping sleeves into which they did not put their arms, & with peaked hoods which they drew over their heads - Many had lovely knives in ornamented cases slung at their waists - The women were all closely veiled. We went by the market where there were hundreds of donkeys & camels tethered with the loads of charcoal they had brought down from the market, & innumerable stalls filled with fruit, vegetables, nuts & gay shirts for the men - One donkey was a peregrinatory meat market. On his back was a flat pad over which a fresh sheep skin was spread, meat side out. On this all sorts & parts of meats was [sic] spread with rows of sausages hanging down. Scores of musicians were pounding on drums, medicine men squatted amidst their bundles of herbs & chanted the virtue of their wares, hundreds of men & women bargained & chaffered & milled around the sweat [sweet] meat bazaars & the outdoor kitchens in which men were frying fish & meat chopped fine & highly scented with garlic which they stuck on skewers & cooked over charcoal fires. It was a scene as oriental as heart could wish[.] At night went to a Moorish coffee house to hear the music, which was weird, & later for a stroll thro’ streets dim & mysterious & haunted by ghostly white figures –
[Word crossed out: Aug] Sept 3 – [1922]
Returned to Algeciras - Sat 3 hrs on a trunk waiting for boat, but saw very interesting glimpse of native life[.]
Sept 4 – [1922]
Spent day at Gibraltar[.]
[Word crossed out: Aug] Sept 5 – [ 1922]
Left at 8 o’clock for Grenada. Wonderful trip thro lovely country, first thro cork orchards, then almonds & olives[.] Passed thro Santa Fe [word crossed out: to] which Columbus had reached after his unsuccessful appeal to Ferdinand & Isabella, when he was overtaken by the messenger who came to tell him he [sic] she had changed her mind & would pawn her jewels to back him. Arrived at Grenada at 8.30[,] went to a hotel named the Washington Irving in the Alhambra grounds.
[Word crossed out: Aug] Sep 6 – [1922]
Spent the morning in the Alhambra, wandering among its airy, fairy courts, & marveling at the beauty that has survived 12 centuries - Nothing could be lovelier than the stucco work carved to lace like fineness, or the slender graceful pillars that support the galleries or those enchanting bits of color that you find in the iridescent tiles, & the stucco work. And everywhere there are fountains playing & tiny green gardens, & the very air is full of the romance of a vanished day - The Lions Court, the Hall of the Abercerrejes, Lindarajas garden[,] the Hall of the Two Sisters all have their stories. Went up the hill to the Captive Tower & the old mosque & to the Generaliffe, the summer palace –
[Word crossed out: Aug] Sept 7 [1922]
Visited the old Cathedral where Ferdinand & Isabella who freed Grenada from the Moors after more than 750 years reign are buried before the high altar, also their daughter Crazy Jane & her husband Phillip [sic] the handsome - There are some wonderful curved bas reliefs in wood of the Catholic Kings, on the altar – also a bust of Adam & Eve - & the rejas [reja] in front of the altar is a thing of splendor, but most interesting of all are the jewels that the Cardinal had stolen from the palace to keep Isabella from financing Columbus.
Sep 8 – [1922]
Wonderful trip down to Malaga thro’ magnificent mountain scenery. Malaga a pretty tropical seaport, with wonderful wine[.]
Sep 9. [1922]
Pleasant trip to Cordova. Went to see the old mosque which covers 3 acres of ground & is a marvelous forrest [sic] of marble & porphry [sic] columns & presents endless vistas of key hole arches of red & white. It appears that various sultans vied with each other in building mirabs – the places in which they keep the Koran - & there are numbers of these little recesses – glittering with irridescent [sic] tiles & with inscriptions in gold from the Koran. Chs [Charles] the V, the meglomaniac [sic] built a rennaisance [sic] cathedral inside of this mosque – the cathedral having the second most beautiful carved choir in Spain - The streets of Cordova are very narrow & Moorish looking & the people are said to be the handsomest in Spain on account of the mixed blood[.] There is an interesting old bridge that goes back to the Romans. All the houses built around Patios. Left at 11 P.M. on sleeper for [word crossed out: Grenada] Madrid[.]
Sep 10 – [1922]
Arrived Madrid at 9. Hotel Ritz seemed loveliest object in nature - Camps left us[.]
Sep 11 – [1922]
Madrid resting. Mr Carmody came to see us & took us shopping - Said that his office hrs were 11 a.m. to 2[,] 2 to 7-8 - Servants would not serve breakfast before 10 or dinner before 9.30[.] Theatres began at 11 –
Sep 12 [1922]
Left Madrid at 9 – arrived Barcelona at 11.30. Wonderful scenery thro Pyranees.
Sep 13 – [1922]
Ascended Mt Tibidabo - Down to foot thro queer winding streets of the old part of town & the wide ones of new Barcelona to point half way up mt. Rest of the way by fernicular[.] Marvelous view of city & far flung mt ranges with the city lying below & the blue Mediterrean [sic.] Afterwards drove all about city – never saw such architecture – one house had a mosaic bandeau around its forehead of people at all sorts of sports – rowing, bicycling, automobiling etc – bought me lovely bracelet. Barcelona is a fine, prosperous city with a fine old mediaeval cathedral. The people of B. have just presented King Alphonso with a very handsome palace[.]
Sep 14 [1922]
Arose at dawn & caught early train to Monserrat – went an hour thro the vineyards now black with grapes, crawling nearer & nearer to the bleak pile of stone that is the legendary Shrine of the Holy Grail. Then we changed into a cogwheel car that climbed up to the tiny plateau where there is a great convent & a rest house for pilgrims, & some hotels for this is a spot much favored for honeymooners. It is believed a peculiar blessing rests on marriages when the bride & groom come here & all Catalainans [Catalans] would never go elsewhere. I went up alone on the fernicular to the top beyond which is another peak on which is a hut where a few monks live. Monserrat is not only famous as being the spot to which the Holy Grail was taken but here St Ignatius was wounded & converted & here the Virgin appeared to him in the grotto & dictated to him all the details of founding the order of the Jesuits.
Sep 15. [1922]
Long day on train to Carcasonne [sic] which we reached at nightfall - Staying in Hotel de la Cite, a mediaeval building which was once the home of the Lords & Ladies who lived here[.]
Sep 16 – [1922]
Carcassonne is an incredible bit of the middle ages. It was founded before Christ by the Romans, taken by the Visigoths who built the outer wall, conquered by the Moors, besieged by crusaders – a pawn of war thro’ centuries – and the wonder of it all is that the towers & bastions are still almost as perfect as when archers shot thro’ its loopholes & men in armor clanked over its drawbridges - A city of tiny winding streets is shut within the walls[.]
Sept 18 [1922]
Long day with three changes on train going to Avillon [Avallon.]
Sep 19. [1922]
Beautiful motor ride to Arles & Nimes thro’ the grape fields where the crop is being picked. Caravans drawn up along the road show how the pickers follow the harvest. Nimes is enchanting. It was once a great Roman city where they built temples, & forums, & colliseums [sic]& basillicas [sic], and its ruins are the most perfect Roman ruins extant. There is a great temple with perfect Corinthian columns – a colliseum [sic] so well preserved they still hold bull fights in it – a great one is to be held there next Sunday – a temple of Diana opening out of the baths, and a long section of the acqueduct [sic] which brought the water 25 miles to the city. Arles also was a Roman city & has a larger, but not so perfect colliseum [sic] in which a bull fight was held yesterday & the ground of whose ampitheatre [sic] was still red with the blood of bull & horse as it must once have been red with the blood of men & lions & tigers. Outside was an improvised butcher stall where the meat of the bulls was being sold at a very cheap price to poor people – who are willing to risk the toxic poison that may have been found in the poor tortured creature. Arles has also a museum of sarcophigi [sic], and other stones & carvings, and the road runs along the Alyscamps, the Roman cemetery among rows & rows of stone coffins. There is a theatre with 2 lovely Corinthian columns marking the stage[.] Likewise there is a cathedral dating back to the 11 century, but although it has some good tapestries it looks bleak & bare after the splendor of the Spanish cathedrals[.]
Sep 19 [1922]
Avignon is another old Roman city, & was the home of the popes until 1700 something. The palace of the popes is the most enormous building which the middle ages have left to France. It was begun by Benedict XIII, continued by Clement VI, and used as the home of the popes until the seventeenth century. There are many noble rooms - & innumerable secret staircases, & peep holes, & one dressing room of the pope that amused us no little as the walls are covered with pictures representing some very nude females. The hotel at Avignon is very old & was very famous[.] Napoleon staid [word crossed out: there] here & grew lyrical over its cooking which is vile now –
Sep 20 [1922]
Long & lovely trip up the valley of the Rhone to Paris which we reached at 10 p.m. –
Sep 21-28 – [1922]
An orgy of shopping[.]
Sep 29 – [1922]
London – and all that ever went with evening dress. Staid at Picadilly Hotel – Lord how I love a good hotel – sight seeing – theatres – grill rooms – London streets – bully time, every way –
Oct 4 [1922]
Sailed on New Amsterdam from Plymouth for N.Y – Old tub – but pleasant voyage – nobody interesting on board –
Oct 16 – Arrived N Y - & so came to the end of a pleasant day[.]
[Notes in back of journal:]
Americana in Europe
“Poisons” –
Woman who asked what mountain that was – was told Jungfrau – exclaimed “There. I told my husband it was called [sentence unfinished]
[Printed verse pasted (upside down) inside back cover:]
“Quinquireme of Nineveh, from distant Orphir,
Rowing home to haven in sunny Palestine –
With a cargo of ivories and apes and peacocks,
Sandalwood, cedarwood, and sweet white wine.
“Stately Spanish galleon, sailing from the Isthmus,
Dipping through the waters by the palm-green shores,
With a cargo of diamonds, emeralds, amethysts,
Topaz and cinnamon and gold midores.”