A Letter from Lear (January 1858)

An Edward Lear letter, 10 January 1858.

Suitable for May Day. A warning to all?

See the final paragraph:

"Bye the bye I heard rather a good thing yesterday, Lady H. (with an aide de camp,) has been “doing” the sights of Corfu, & among others the churches. At the Greek Cathedral a beggar came and importuned the glittering Marchioness, who at the moment was indulging in the natural & pleasant act of sucking an orange. Lady H. after a time paused & said or implied “silver & gold have I none,” but such as she had, (being the half sucked orange,) she politely gave the beggar-woman, who (oranges being any number for a half-penny,) threw the fruit in her Ladyship’s face, and rushed frantically out of the desecrated edifice."