The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1876-02-29 00:00:00

lIVERSHOT.
LORD ILCHESTER'S STEWARD.

A Naples correspondent writes,under date February
18 :--" One who was really the most prominent cha-
racter in the Island of Ischia, Saverio Zavota, has
just passed away. Everyone who visited the island
must have known or heard of him, and very few were
our countrymen who remained there for any time who
did not make his personal acquaintance. For many
years he has conducted the charming hotel known
as the Belle Vim; but it is on other mounds than
this that he is entitled to brief notice. Saverio Zavota
during the Peninsular War was courier to the Duke of
Wellington, and in this position Was often brought
into close relations with many of our countrymen of
high distinction. By those he was never forgotten,
and during my short residence there, when Garibaldi
was the guest of Zavota, the old DWI was greatly
pleased by the visit of an English nobleman who had
known him in former times. His gossip was of the
most Interesting character. He hail twisted, he said,
in carrying Sir. John M,ewe off the field when wounded
at the Battle of Commis. At Venice he had met
Lord Byron, and was full of pleasant reminiscences of
the great poet to whom tardy justice is now beingrend.
ered. But to return to Spain. ‘Vhenever the Duke,
he related, had any very important despatch to send
off he was elu aye employed, wet one little incident he
added which seemed to confirm the truth of the state-
ment :—' On one occasion, when the Duke wished nue
to carry a message to a regiment at some distance, I
asked him to write it on very fine paper, and make it as
small an possible. On being asked the reason of icy
request I said that in the event ,d my being taken
prisoner by the French I then could swallow it.' At
the conclusion of the war be was for 20 years bead
servant or steward of 10,rd Behester, in whose service
his conduct must have been exeeptionally good to have
concilated the reganl atel respect f the descendants of
his lordship. To 'Old England and everything Eng.
lish he was icreatly attached, and AA he Was a kind of
connecting link between the country of his affectione
and an island so mneh frequented by the English,
some brief notice of him is due to his memory. After
his death he was laid in a great state, and being a kind
of public character, all the honours that the country
could offer were rendered to him. He held the aristocracy
of England in high esteem, and it would have been a great
consolation to the ~Id man could lie have realised it
that he Was follOWol to the grave, among many other
mourners, by 'a real milonl Anglais 'iii the person of
Lord Garvagh. Zavota Was a fine-looking old man of
86 yeaN of age, awl though his hair Was grey, it W2B
so abundant as it was in his youth. Gay and active,
and full of pleasant anecdote, he was in sound health
till within tw, days of his death, which was caused by
indigestion. When speaking of his health and
strength, he was accustomed to attribute them to his
neverfailing ',entice of taking 25 mineral baths every
season, but it is natural to sni•pose that his convictions,
however honed, were somewhat affected by his being
the proprietor of the lintel de Belle Vue. Many in
England who knew and respeted Zavota will read this
brief notice with interest."