at one time were suspended on the staircase, and later adorned the dining-room. They represent a Mr. Petty of the Lansdowne family and his wife, one of the Sabines. The portraits were painted in Naples, and in the background are represented the Temples of Paestum. When my father was about to fill the dining-room windows with plate-glass, he had the two paintings placed against the frames to keep out the rain and wind, till the glass arrived. A stormy night ensued, and the picture of Mr. Petty was blown in, across the back of a couple of chairs, tearing it in great holes. When I came to Lew I had the tattered portrait of Mr. Petty copied full size, as the original was so hopelessly spoiled. We have another portrait of Miss Sabine as a young girl seated on a garden-roller in the grounds of Tewin, along with her father and mother and brother; and Tewin house is in the background.
The Temples of Paestum are of a special interest to me, as it was on a visit to them that two cousins, Hunts of Boreateon, were murdered by brigands, in 1845, the very year of which I am now writing.
Young Mr. Hunt was on his wedding tour, and from Salerno drove to visit the famous temples, the most perfect in Italy and Greece. He stayed the night at the miserable little inn at Eboli, and the landlord, observing that he had silver-mounted cruets and silver-backed brushes in his dressing-case, a wedding present he had received, communicated with a band of brigands that infested the neighbourhood. Accordingly the carriage was stopped on the way to Paestum by these ruffians, who presented pistols at his breast. Mr. Hunt at once drew out his pistol, but his young bride threw herself between him and the robber, who fired at and shot both.
Mr. James Whiteside, in his Italy in the Nineteenth Century, 1849, III, p. 66, says, relative to the tragedy: "The landlord of the inn at Eboli caused the murder of a newly married English couple on their wray to Paestum from his house, where they had rested the previous night. The landlady related the particulars of this horrid catastrophe to the writer and his friend a few months afterwards, and took them to the refectory to see her murderous lord and master. This man had obtained the King's pardon by making all speed to the Royal presence to convict his accomplices;
