Page:The Diary of Dr John William Polidori.djvu/167

Rh being stone: great cut ornaments between the rows of windows: the wood, fir. Felt very miserable, especially these two last days: only met two persons to whom I could speak—the others all Germans. At Wyssenbach they all said grace before breakfast, and then ate out of the same dish; remarking (as I understood them) that I, not being a Catholic, would laugh.

[It was a mistake to suppose that Dr. Polidori was "not a Catholic." He was brought up as a Catholic, and never changed his religion, but may (I suppose) have been something of a sceptic]

September 20.—Got up at 6. Wrote to St. Aubyn, Brelaz, father, Vacca, and Zio, asking letters; to my father, to announce my parting.

[Vacca was a celebrated surgeon at Pisa, of whom we shall hear farther. Zio is "my uncle"—i.e. Luigi Polidori, also at Pisa.]

Bought fresh shoes and stockings; found no bookseller's shop. The man at the post-office made a good reflection: that he was astonished so many came to see what they who were so near never want to see, and that he supposed that the English also leave much unseen in their own country.

Thun is a neat well-situated town, not large, with arcades—as apparently all the Berne towns. Afraid all day my dog was poisoned; which grieved me so,