A FAMOUS VISITORS' BOOK.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3134, 11 September 1922, Page 8

A FAMOUS VISITORS' BOOK.

(By A. A. Davidson.)

There is a “Visitors’ Book” at an hotel at Varenna, Lake Como, which makes very human reading. The entries which were made between the years 1837 and 1847 are neither witty nor clever, despite the best efforts ol the writers l , but they are Very human. Varenna., in those days of horse traffic, was the halting place for travellers from Switzerland by the. Stelvio Pass to Milan, whence one can radiate all over Italy. Herb one spent the night and changed horses, and in the Visitors’ Book the mixed international! throng ol aristocrats and soldiers and diplomats and plain John and Jane have left their mark. The first entry is that of “The Marl and Countess of Shrewsbury and the Lady Mary Talbot,” whose arrival no doubt canstd some stir in Varenna. in those far-off days, when the reputation of the English Milords was at its height. Another aristocratic party is annotated by two descendants who arrived in 1920 and duly noted they were following in their forefathers’ footsteps. fn 1841, the then Duke of Devonshire, accompanied by Mr B. Cavendish and Mr Edwin Lea, arrived and damned the town of Parma, for ever. The ducal head had lain uneasy there, for he wrote: “Avoid Parma if possible; all hotels had.” Then there are the Signatures of many a. lady and gentleman from the Courts of various Kings. Wo road of the. arrival of his Excellency the Russian Minister to the Court of Bavaria., and of a Gentleman from the Court ol the King of Sardinia. One of these diplomats wrote two verses' in Italian in praise of Italy, to which a disgruntled Englishman wrote a reply on the same page, the second verse running:— “Weep, Italy, once blessed. Now, by God’s just curse, oppressed. Nature’s, gifts that on thee smile But shew thv race of men more vile.” This called forth many adverse comments from succeeding English travellers, and was finally blngeoned hy the man who wrote: “Done hy some purseproud glutton, who fancied he had paid too dear for his dinner.” There must have been stormy nights at Varenna if people expressed themselves as freely in conversation as in writing. A recommendation of a certain hotel to “Intelligent and Enlightened Travellers’’ is commented upon bv a later traveller with the simple word ‘ ‘Fudge. ’ ’ Victorian propriety was so upset at the entry “Avoid the Hotel at Chur, where the proprietor is an infernal thief with a voice as so It as silk that it wrote beneath it, “This is not the language of an English gentleman.” the last word heavily underlined. Victorian propriety, however, was duly snubbed by someone, who added, “and you arc a. humbug.” lint, just when the Visitors’ Book is becoming unpleasant and quarrelsome, |>caee is restored by the arrival of Captain and the lovely Mrs Mainwaring. after whose name someone wrote: “A very pretty woman.” This public compliment is not signed. Then two bulls break into all tins pretty china and porcelain. In neat handwriting in 1847 are the names “Von Boon and Bismarck. Prussia, from Ohiavcnna. to Milan.” They wore then still fools to fame, and presumably none of the gentlemen from the Courts of Bavaria or Sardinia, noticed them. But they did afterwards.