Mrs.
Browning's handwriting shows ever and anon an odd tendency to form each letter of a word separately--a circumstance which I mention for the sake of remarking that old Huntingford, the Bishop of Hereford, in my young days, between whom and Mrs.Browning there was one thing in common, namely, a love for and familiarity with Greek studies, used to write in the same manner.
The Dall' Ongaro here spoken of was an old friend of ours--of my wife's, if I remember right--before our marriage.

He was a Venetian, or rather to speak accurately, I believe, a Dalmatian by birth, but all his culture and sympathies were Venetian.

He had in his early youth been destined for the priesthood, but like many another had been driven by the feelings and sympathies engendered by Italy's political struggles to abandon the tonsure for the sake of joining the "patriot" cause.

His muse was of the drawing-room school and calibre.

But he wrote very many charming little poems breathing the warmest aspirations of the somewhat extreme _gauche_ of that day, especially some _stornelli_ after the Tuscan fashion, which met with a very wide and warm acceptance.