“In Italy, it is considered the height of impropriety for a woman to be seated on the outside of a carriage. Doing so shocks their notions of the deference and courtesy due to women—notwithstanding any consideration of rank. It is only the English who suffer their domestics to endure the pleasures of fresh air and the companionship of her fellow-servants on the box, as opposed to being seated within, sweltering and choaking in crowded proximity to everyone else inside, with whom she could not converse with propriety.” The other guests were content to make the usual charges against the English, those of pride and hauteur. Elizabeth could not gainsay even such a universality as that supposed, given the friendliness and courtesy with which they generally had been received; in her reflections on the reserve and self-restraint that denoted good-breeding and civility in England, such formality could easily, she thought, be translated into arrogance and pretention by a people who regarded an easy familiarity, warmth of expression, and openness of manners to be indicative of courtesy.

Leaving Domo on the morrow, the Darcys passed through Villa d’Ossola, and thence through Ponte Mazzone and Manangione, where the road reached the wide, level valley, and thence through Orvanasco, Gravelona, and Feriolo, crossed the great bridge of Baveno, with its view of the lovely Madre Islands, and into Stresa, on the shore of Lake Maggiore. After one night’s stay at Stresa, Elizabeth and Darcy left Georgiana, who wished to remain there to rest, and embarked upon a boat trip across Lake Maggiore to stay the night on Isola Bella, before they rejoined Georgiana and their carriages at Sesto-Calende. Isola Bella was the site of a palace and chapel built by the Counts of Borromeo, now partially in ruins; on the southern part lay a grove of citron and orange-trees, figs and peaches surrounded by myrtle, jessamin, and roses of all colours. The Darcys learnt that, as the island was not protected from the strong winter winds, as were the other Madre Islands, the Borromeos went to the extraordinary expense each year to cover the vegetation on the island with thick, interfitting planks to protect the delicate plantings. The Darcys settled in at the only such habitation on the island, the curiously named Dolphin Inn. Before supper—which was served quite late, even later than the European practise—they circumnavigated the island, viewing the walls of the castle, atop which sat many marble statues, obelisks, and urns of exotic plants. An immense unicorn, the emblem of the Borromeo family, topped the castle. Rain-water, carefully collected from the terraces and stored in a reservoir beneath the gardens, was then distributed to fountains and jets d’eau. The view from the upper-most terrace was magnificent, giving a panorama of the lake and all of the surrounding mountains as far as the glaciers of the Simplon.