On one occasion
we were accompanied by two English ladies and, one being a
teetotaller, Butler maliciously instructed La Martina to make the
sabbaglione so that it should be forte and abbondante, and to say
that the Marsala, with which it was more than flavoured, was nothing
but vinegar. La Martina never forgot that when she looked in to see
how things were going, he was pretending to lick the dish clean.
These journeys provided the material for a book which he thought of
calling "Verdi Prati," after one of Handel's most beautiful songs;
but he changed his mind, and it appeared at the end of 1881 as Alps
and Sanctuaries of Piedmont and the Canton Ticino with more than
eighty illustrations, nearly all by Butler. Charles Gogin made an
etching for the frontispiece, drew some of the pictures, and put
figures into others; half a dozen are mine. They were all redrawn
in ink from sketches made on the spot, in oil, water-colour, and
pencil. There were also many illustrations of another kind--
extracts from Handel's music, each chosen because Butler thought it
suitable to the spirit of the scene he wished to bring before the
reader.
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