From Lady Seres Journal, 9 August 1784

Our business in Brussels was concluded quite successfully, though at times I felt as if I was being given an examination by my old tutors. Once the late Principe was declared legally dead, the matter of the extensive loans he took out to complete the renovation of the Villa Vesuviana, the gardens, and the magnificent waterfalls and cascades took quite some time to be resolvedsatisfactorily. He had pledged the ownership of the island as collateral on the loans, and the banking firm of Edwardstone and Timeless was a principal holder of those notes of debt. Our trip to Brussels was for the purpose of buying out the interests the other debt holders. The transactions were based on the set of reports and inventories I had prepared, and it seemed to offend several of the gentlemen involved that they could find no flaws in documents prepared by a woman, especially when I was able to give thorough answers to their detailed, picayune and, at times, pointless questions.

We were detained in Naples on our return by news of the Yellow Fever quarantine on Rocca Sorrentina. King Ferdinand and Queen Maria Carolina were most hospitable during our stay, perhaps because Uncle Geoffrey also had important financial business to conduct with the Neapolitan Finance Minister, Sir John Acton. We had stopped in Naples only to obtain an ownership deed for Rocca Sorrentina, but the King and Queen made an additional request, one that has made Uncle Geoffrey quite cross since he can hardly refuse a royal request. Of course in the case of Rocca Sorrentina he couldnt follow his usual habit of selling property acquired as settlement for unpaid loans at a profit anyhow the firm owns the property and hed need my approval too to make a sale, which I wont give. But the King and Queen have definitely complicated any arrangements we might otherwise make. So Uncle Geoffrey has come to appraise the property as he so artlessly puts it, and we will have to figure out what we are going to do about the royal request.