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+Project Gutenberg's Travels Through France and Italy, by Tobias Smollett
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Travels Through France and Italy
+
+Author: Tobias Smollett
+
+Posting Date: November 28, 2009 [EBook #2311]
+Release Date: September, 2000
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRAVELS THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Martin Adamson.  HTML version by Al Haines.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Travels Through France And Italy
+
+
+By
+
+Tobias Smollett
+
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+By
+
+Thomas Seccombe
+
+I
+
+Many pens have been burnished this year of grace for the purpose of
+celebrating with befitting honour the second centenary of the birth of
+Henry Fielding; but it is more than doubtful if, when the right date
+occurs in March 1921, anything like the same alacrity will be shown to
+commemorate one who was for many years, and by such judges as Scott,
+Hazlitt, and Charles Dickens, considered Fielding's complement and
+absolute co-equal (to say the least) in literary achievement.
+Smollett's fame, indeed, seems to have fallen upon an unprosperous
+curve. The coarseness of his fortunate rival is condoned, while his is
+condemned without appeal. Smollett's value is assessed without
+discrimination at that of his least worthy productions, and the
+historical value of his work as a prime modeller of all kinds of new
+literary material is overlooked. Consider for a moment as not wholly
+unworthy of attention his mere versatility as a man of letters. Apart
+from Roderick Random and its successors, which gave him a European
+fame, he wrote a standard history, and a standard version of Don
+Quixote (both of which held their ground against all comers for over a
+century). He created both satirical and romantic types, he wrote two
+fine-spirited lyrics, and launched the best Review and most popular
+magazine of his day. He was the centre of a literary group, the founder
+to some extent of a school of professional writers, of which strange
+and novel class, after the "Great Cham of Literature," as he called Dr.
+Johnson, he affords one of the first satisfactory specimens upon a
+fairly large scale. He is, indeed, a more satisfactory, because a more
+independent, example of the new species than the Great Cham himself.
+The late Professor Beljame has shown us how the milieu was created in
+which, with no subvention, whether from a patron, a theatre, a
+political paymaster, a prosperous newspaper or a fashionable
+subscription-list, an independent writer of the mid-eighteenth century,
+provided that he was competent, could begin to extort something more
+than a bare subsistence from the reluctant coffers of the London
+booksellers. For the purpose of such a demonstration no better
+illustration could possibly be found, I think, than the career of Dr.
+Tobias Smollett. And yet, curiously enough, in the collection of
+critical monographs so well known under the generic title of "English
+Men of Letters"--a series, by the way, which includes Nathaniel
+Hawthorne and Maria Edgeworth--no room or place has hitherto been found
+for Smollett any more than for Ben Jonson, both of them, surely,
+considerable Men of Letters in the very strictest and most
+representative sense of the term. Both Jonson and Smollett were to an
+unusual extent centres of the literary life of their time; and if the
+great Ben had his tribe of imitators and adulators, Dr. Toby also had
+his clan of sub-authors, delineated for us by a master hand in the
+pages of Humphry Clinker. To make Fielding the centre-piece of a group
+reflecting the literature of his day would be an artistic
+impossibility. It would be perfectly easy in the case of Smollett, who
+was descried by critics from afar as a Colossus bestriding the summit
+of the contemporary Parnassus.
+
+Whatever there may be of truth in these observations upon the eclipse
+of a once magical name applies with double force to that one of all
+Smollett's books which has sunk farthest in popular disesteem. Modern
+editors have gone to the length of excommunicating Smollett's Travels
+altogether from the fellowship of his Collective Works.  Critic has
+followed critic in denouncing the book as that of a "splenetic"
+invalid. And yet it is a book for which all English readers have cause
+to be grateful, not only as a document on Smollett and his times, not
+only as being in a sense the raison d'etre of the Sentimental Journey,
+and the precursor in a very special sense of Humphry Clinker, but also
+as being intrinsically an uncommonly readable book, and even, I venture
+to assert, in many respects one of Smollett's best. Portions of the
+work exhibit literary quality of a high order: as a whole it represents
+a valuable because a rather uncommon view, and as a literary record of
+travel it is distinguished by a very exceptional veracity.
+
+I am not prepared to define the differentia of a really first-rate book
+of travel. Sympathy is important; but not indispensable, or Smollett
+would be ruled out of court at once. Scientific knowledge, keen
+observation, or intuitive power of discrimination go far. To enlist our
+curiosity or enthusiasm or to excite our wonder are even stronger
+recommendations. Charm of personal manner, power of will,
+anthropological interest, self-effacement in view of some great
+objects--all these qualities have made travel-books live. One knows
+pretty nearly the books that one is prepared to re-read in this
+department of literature. Marco Polo, Herodotus, a few sections in
+Hakluyt, Dampier and Defoe, the early travellers in Palestine,
+Commodore Byron's Travels, Curzon and Lane, Doughty's Arabia Deserta,
+Mungo Park, Dubois, Livingstone's Missionary Travels, something of
+Borrow (fact or fable), Hudson and Cunninghame Graham, Bent, Bates and
+Wallace, The Crossing of Greenland, Eothen, the meanderings of
+Modestine, The Path to Rome, and all, or almost all, of E. F. Knight. I
+have run through most of them at one breath, and the sum total would
+not bend a moderately stout bookshelf. How many high-sounding works on
+the other hand, are already worse than dead, or, should we say, better
+dead? The case of Smollett's Travels, there is good reason to hope, is
+only one of suspended animation.
+
+To come to surer ground, it is a fact worth noting that each of the
+four great prose masters of the third quarter of the eighteenth century
+tried his hand at a personal record of travel. Fielding came first in
+1754 with his Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon. Twelve years later was
+published Smollett's Travels through France and Italy. Then, in 1768,
+Sterne's Sentimental Journey; followed in 1775 by Johnson's Journey to
+the Hebrides. Each of the four--in which beneath the apparel of the man
+of letters we can discern respectively the characteristics of police
+magistrate, surgeon, confessor, and moralist--enjoyed a fair amount of
+popularity in its day. Fielding's Journal had perhaps the least
+immediate success of the four. Sterne's Journey unquestionably had the
+most. The tenant of "Shandy Hall," as was customary in the first heyday
+of "Anglomania," went to Paris to ratify his successes, and the
+resounding triumph of his naughtiness there, by a reflex action,
+secured the vote of London. Posterity has fully sanctioned this
+particular "judicium Paridis." The Sentimental Journey is a book sui
+generis, and in the reliable kind of popularity, which takes concrete
+form in successive reprints, it has far eclipsed its eighteenth-century
+rivals. The fine literary aroma which pervades every line of this small
+masterpiece is not the predominant characteristic of the Great Cham's
+Journey. Nevertheless, and in spite of the malignity of the "Ossianite"
+press, it fully justified the assumption of the booksellers that it
+would prove a "sound" book. It is full of sensible observations, and is
+written in Johnson's most scholarly, balanced, and dignified style. Few
+can read it without a sense of being repaid, if only by the portentous
+sentence in which the author celebrates his arrival at the shores of
+Loch Ness, where he reposes upon "a bank such as a writer of romance
+might have delighted to feign," and reflects that a "uniformity of
+barrenness can afford very little amusement to the traveller; that it
+is easy to sit at home and conceive rocks and heath and waterfalls; and
+that these journeys are useless labours, which neither impregnate the
+imagination nor enlarge the understanding." Fielding's contribution to
+geography has far less solidity and importance, but it discovers to not
+a few readers an unfeigned charm that is not to be found in the pages
+of either Sterne or Johnson. A thoughtless fragment suffices to show
+the writer in his true colours as one of the most delightful fellows in
+our literature, and to convey just unmistakably to all good men and
+true the rare and priceless sense of human fellowship.
+
+There remain the Travels through France and Italy, by T. Smollett,
+M.D., and though these may not exhibit the marmoreal glamour of
+Johnson, or the intimate fascination of Fielding, or the essential
+literary quality which permeates the subtle dialogue and artful
+vignette of Sterne, yet I shall endeavour to show, not without some
+hope of success among the fair-minded, that the Travels before us are
+fully deserving of a place, and that not the least significant, in the
+quartette.
+
+The temporary eclipse of their fame I attribute, first to the studious
+depreciation of Sterne and Walpole, and secondly to a refinement of
+snobbishness on the part of the travelling crowd, who have an uneasy
+consciousness that to listen to common sense, such as Smollett's, in
+matters of connoisseurship, is tantamount to confessing oneself a
+Galilean of the outermost court. In this connection, too, the itinerant
+divine gave the travelling doctor a very nasty fall. Meeting the latter
+at Turin, just as Smollett was about to turn his face homewards, in
+March 1765, Sterne wrote of him, in the famous Journey of 1768, thus:
+
+"The learned Smelfungus travelled from Boulogne to Paris, from Paris to
+Rome, and so on, but he set out with the spleen and jaundice, and every
+object he passed by was discoloured or distorted. He wrote an account
+of them, but 'twas nothing but the account of his miserable feelings."
+"I met Smelfungus," he wrote later on, "in the grand portico of the
+Pantheon--he was just coming out of it. ''Tis nothing but a huge
+cockpit,' said he--'I wish you had said nothing worse of the Venus de
+Medici,' replied I--for in passing through Florence, I had heard he had
+fallen foul upon the goddess, and used her worse than a common
+strumpet, without the least provocation in nature. I popp'd upon
+Smelfungus again at Turin, in his return home, and a sad tale of
+sorrowful adventures had he to tell, 'wherein he spoke of moving
+accidents by flood and field, and of the cannibals which each other
+eat, the Anthropophagi'; he had been flayed alive, and bedevil'd, and
+used worse than St. Bartholomew, at every stage he had come at. 'I'll
+tell it,' cried Smelfungus, 'to the world.' 'You had better tell it,'
+said I, 'to your physician.'"
+
+To counteract the ill effects of "spleen and jaundice" and exhibit the
+spirit of genteel humour and universal benevolence in which a man of
+sensibility encountered the discomforts of the road, the incorrigible
+parson Laurence brought out his own Sentimental Journey. Another effect
+of Smollett's book was to whet his own appetite for recording the
+adventures of the open road. So that but for Travels through France and
+Italy we might have had neither a Sentimental Journey nor a Humphry
+Clinker. If all the admirers of these two books would but bestir
+themselves and look into the matter, I am sure that Sterne's only too
+clever assault would be relegated to its proper place and assessed at
+its right value as a mere boutade. The borrowed contempt of Horace
+Walpole and the coterie of superficial dilettanti, from which
+Smollett's book has somehow never wholly recovered, could then easily
+be outflanked and the Travels might well be in reasonable expectation
+of coming by their own again.
+
+
+II
+
+In the meantime let us look a little more closely into the special and
+somewhat exceptional conditions under which the Travel Letters of
+Smollett were produced. Smollett, as we have seen, was one of the first
+professional men of all work in letters upon a considerable scale who
+subsisted entirely upon the earnings of his own pen. He had no
+extraneous means of support. He had neither patron, pension, property,
+nor endowment, inherited or acquired. Yet he took upon himself the
+burden of a large establishment, he spent money freely, and he prided
+himself upon the fact that he, Tobias Smollett, who came up to London
+without a stiver in his pocket, was in ten years' time in a position to
+enact the part of patron upon a considerable scale to the crowd of
+inferior denizens of Grub Street. Like most people whose social
+ambitions are in advance of their time, Smollett suffered considerably
+on account of these novel aspirations of his. In the present day he
+would have had his motor car and his house on Hindhead, a seat in
+Parliament and a brief from the Nation to boot as a Member for
+Humanity. Voltaire was the only figure in the eighteenth century even
+to approach such a flattering position, and he was for many years a
+refugee from his own land. Smollett was energetic and ambitious enough
+to start in rather a grand way, with a large house, a carriage,
+menservants, and the rest. His wife was a fine lady, a "Creole" beauty
+who had a small dot of her own; but, on the other hand, her income was
+very precarious, and she herself somewhat of a silly and an incapable
+in the eyes of Smollett's old Scotch friends. But to maintain such a
+position--to keep the bailiffs from the door from year's end to year's
+end--was a truly Herculean task in days when a newspaper "rate" of
+remuneration or a well-wearing copyright did not so much as exist, and
+when Reviews sweated their writers at the rate of a guinea per sheet of
+thirty-two pages. Smollett was continually having recourse to loans. He
+produced the eight (or six or seven) hundred a year he required by
+sheer hard writing, turning out his History of England, his Voltaire,
+and his Universal History by means of long spells of almost incessant
+labour at ruinous cost to his health. On the top of all this cruel
+compiling he undertook to run a Review (The Critical), a magazine (The
+British), and a weekly political organ (The Briton). A charge of
+defamation for a paragraph in the nature of what would now be
+considered a very mild and pertinent piece of public criticism against
+a faineant admiral led to imprisonment in the King's Bench Prison, plus
+a fine of £100. Then came a quarrel with an old friend, Wilkes--not the
+least vexatious result of that forlorn championship of Bute's
+government in The Briton. And finally, in part, obviously, as a
+consequence of all this nervous breakdown, a succession of severe
+catarrhs, premonitory in his case of consumption, the serious illness
+of the wife he adored, and the death of his darling, the "little Boss"
+of former years, now on the verge of womanhood. To a man of his
+extraordinarily strong affections such a series of ills was too
+overwhelming. He resolved to break up his establishment at Chelsea, and
+to seek a remedy in flight from present evils to a foreign residence.
+Dickens went to hibernate on the Riviera upon a somewhat similar
+pretext, though fortunately without the same cause, as far as his
+health was concerned.
+
+Now note another very characteristic feature of these Travel Letters.
+Smollett went abroad not for pleasure, but virtually of necessity. Not
+only were circumstances at home proving rather too much for him, but
+also, like Stevenson, he was specifically "ordered South" by his
+physicians, and he went with the deliberate intention of making as much
+money as possible out of his Travel papers. In his case he wrote long
+letters on the spot to his medical and other friends at home. When he
+got back in the summer of 1765 one of his first cares was to put the
+Letters together. It had always been his intention carefully to revise
+them for the press. But when he got back to London he found so many
+other tasks awaiting him that were so far more pressing, that this part
+of his purpose was but very imperfectly carried out. The Letters
+appeared pretty much as he wrote them. Their social and documentary
+value is thereby considerably enhanced, for they were nearly all
+written close down to the facts. The original intention had been to go
+to Montpellier, which was still, I suppose, the most popular health
+resort in Southern Europe. The peace of 1763 opened the way. And this
+brings us to another feature of distinction in regard to Smollett's
+Travels. Typical Briton, perfervid Protestant of Britain's most
+Protestant period, and insular enrage though he doubtless was, Smollett
+had knocked about the world a good deal and had also seen something of
+the continent of Europe. He was not prepared to see everything couleur
+de rose now. His was quite unlike the frame of mind of the ordinary
+holiday-seeker, who, partly from a voluntary optimism, and partly from
+the change of food and habit, the exhilaration caused by novel
+surroundings, and timidity at the unaccustomed sounds he hears in his
+ears, is determined to be pleased with everything. Very temperamental
+was Smollett, and his frame of mind at the time was that of one
+determined to be pleased with nothing. We know little enough about
+Smollett intime. Only the other day I learned that the majority of
+so-called Smollett portraits are not presentments of the novelist at
+all, but ingeniously altered plates of George Washington. An
+interesting confirmation of this is to be found in the recently
+published Letters of Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe to Robert Chambers.
+"Smollett wore black cloaths--a tall man--and extreamly handsome. No
+picture of him is known to be extant--all that have been foisted on the
+public as such his relations disclaim--this I know from my aunt Mrs.
+Smollett, who was the wife of his nephew, and resided with him at
+Bath." But one thing we do know, and in these same letters, if
+confirmation had been needed, we observe the statement repeated,
+namely, that Smollett was very peevish. A sardonic, satirical, and
+indeed decidedly gloomy mood or temper had become so habitual in him as
+to transform the man. Originally gay and debonnair, his native
+character had been so overlaid that when he first returned to Scotland
+in 1755 his own mother could not recognise him until he "gave over
+glooming" and put on his old bright smile. [A pleasant story of the
+Doctor's mother is given in the same Letters to R. Chambers (1904). She
+is described as an ill-natured-looking woman with a high nose, but not
+a bad temper, and very fond of the cards. One evening an Edinburgh
+bailie (who was a tallow chandler) paid her a visit. "Come awa',
+bailie," said she, "and tak' a trick at the cards." "Troth madam, I hae
+nae siller!" "Then let us play for a pound of candles."] His was
+certainly a nervous, irritable, and rather censorious temper. Like Mr.
+Brattle, in The Vicar of Bulhampton, he was thinking always of the evil
+things that had been done to him. With the pawky and philosophic Scots
+of his own day (Robertson, Hume, Adam Smith, and "Jupiter" Carlyle) he
+had little in common, but with the sour and mistrustful James Mill or
+the cross and querulous Carlyle of a later date he had, it seems to me,
+a good deal. What, however, we attribute in their case to bile or
+liver, a consecrated usage prescribes that we must, in the case of
+Smollett, accredit more particularly to the spleen. Whether dyspeptic
+or "splenetic," this was not the sort of man to see things through a
+veil of pleasant self-generated illusion. He felt under no obligation
+whatever to regard the Grand Tour as a privilege of social distinction,
+or its discomforts as things to be discreetly ignored in relating his
+experience to the stay-at-home public. He was not the sort of man that
+the Tourist Agencies of to-day would select to frame their
+advertisements. As an advocatus diaboli on the subject of Travel he
+would have done well enough. And yet we must not infer that the magic
+of travel is altogether eliminated from his pages. This is by no means
+the case: witness his intense enthusiasm at Nimes, on sight of the
+Maison Carree or the Pont du Gard; the passage describing his entry
+into the Eternal City; [Ours "was the road by which so many heroes
+returned with conquest to their country, by which so many kings were
+led captive to Rome, and by which the ambassadors of so many kingdoms
+and States approached the seat of Empire, to deprecate the wrath, to
+sollicit the friendship, or sue for the protection of the Roman
+people."] or the enviable account of the alfresco meals which the party
+discussed in their coach as described in Letter VIII.
+
+As to whether Smollett and his party of five were exceptionally
+unfortunate in their road-faring experiences must be left an open
+question at the tribunal of public opinion. In cold blood, in one of
+his later letters, he summarised his Continental experience after this
+wise: inns, cold, damp, dark, dismal, dirty; landlords equally
+disobliging and rapacious; servants awkward, sluttish, and slothful;
+postillions lazy, lounging, greedy, and impertinent. With this last
+class of delinquents after much experience he was bound to admit the
+following dilemma:--If you chide them for lingering, they will contrive
+to delay you the longer. If you chastise them with sword, cane, cudgel,
+or horsewhip (he defines the correctives, you may perceive, but leaves
+the expletives to our imagination) they will either disappear entirely,
+and leave you without resource, or they will find means to take
+vengeance by overturning your carriage. The only course remaining would
+be to allow oneself to become the dupe of imposition by tipping the
+postillions an amount slightly in excess of the authorized
+gratification. He admits that in England once, between the Devizes and
+Bristol, he found this plan productive of the happiest results. It was
+unfortunate that, upon this occasion, the lack of means or slenderness
+of margin for incidental expenses should have debarred him from having
+recourse to a similar expedient. For threepence a post more, as
+Smollett himself avows, he would probably have performed the journey
+with much greater pleasure and satisfaction. But the situation is
+instructive. It reveals to us the disadvantage under which the novelist
+was continually labouring, that of appearing to travel as an English
+Milord, en grand seigneur, and yet having at every point to do it "on
+the cheap." He avoided the common conveyance or diligence, and insisted
+on travelling post and in a berline; but he could not bring himself to
+exceed the five-sou pourboire for the postillions. He would have meat
+upon maigre days, yet objected to paying double for it. He held aloof
+from the thirty-sou table d'hote, and would have been content to pay
+three francs a head for a dinner a part, but his worst passions were
+roused when he was asked to pay not three, but four. Now Smollett
+himself was acutely conscious of the false position. He was by nature
+anything but a curmudgeon. On the contrary, he was, if I interpret him
+at all aright, a high-minded, open-hearted, generous type of man. Like
+a majority, perhaps, of the really open-handed he shared one trait with
+the closefisted and even with the very mean rich. He would rather give
+away a crown than be cheated of a farthing. Smollett himself had little
+of the traditional Scottish thriftiness about him, but the people among
+whom he was going--the Languedocians and Ligurians--were notorious for
+their nearness in money matters. The result of all this could hardly
+fail to exacerbate Smollett's mood and to aggravate the testiness which
+was due primarily to the bitterness of his struggle with the world,
+and, secondarily, to the complaints which that struggle engendered. One
+capital consequence, however, and one which specially concerns us, was
+that we get this unrivalled picture of the seamy side of foreign
+travel--a side rarely presented with anything like Smollett's skill to
+the student of the grand siecle of the Grand Tour. The rubs, the rods,
+the crosses of the road could, in fact, hardly be presented to us more
+graphically or magisterially than they are in some of these chapters.
+Like Prior, Fielding, Shenstone, and Dickens, Smollett was a
+connoisseur in inns and innkeepers. He knew good food and he knew good
+value, and he had a mighty keen eye for a rogue. There may, it is true,
+have been something in his manner which provoked them to exhibit their
+worst side to him. It is a common fate with angry men. The trials to
+which he was subjected were momentarily very severe, but, as we shall
+see in the event, they proved a highly salutary discipline to him.
+
+To sum up, then, Smollett's Travels were written hastily and vigorously
+by an expert man of letters. They were written ad vivum, as it were,
+not from worked-up notes or embellished recollections. They were
+written expressly for money down. They were written rather en noir than
+couleur de rose by an experienced, and, we might almost perhaps say, a
+disillusioned traveller, and not by a naif or a niais. The statement
+that they were to a certain extent the work of an invalid is, of
+course, true, and explains much. The majority of his correspondents
+were of the medical profession, all of them were members of a group
+with whom he was very intimate, and the letters were by his special
+direction to be passed round among them. [We do not know precisely who
+all these correspondents of Smollett were, but most of them were
+evidently doctors and among them, without a doubt, John Armstrong,
+William Hunter, George Macaulay, and above all John Moore, himself an
+authority on European travel, Governor on the Grand Tour of the Duke of
+Hamilton (Son of "the beautiful Duchess"), author of Zeluco, and father
+of the famous soldier. Smollett's old chum, Dr. W. Smellie, died 5th
+March 1763.] In the circumstances (bearing in mind that it was his
+original intention to prune the letters considerably before
+publication) it was only natural that he should say a good deal about
+the state of his health. His letters would have been unsatisfying to
+these good people had he not referred frequently and at some length to
+his spirits and to his symptoms, an improvement in which was the
+primary object of his journey and his two years' sojourn in the South.
+Readers who linger over the diary of Fielding's dropsy and Mrs.
+Fielding's toothache are inconsistent in denouncing the luxury of
+detail with which Smollett discusses the matter of his imposthume.
+
+What I claim for the present work is that, in the first place, to any
+one interested in Smollett's personality it supplies an unrivalled key.
+It is, moreover, the work of a scholar, an observer of human nature,
+and, by election, a satirist of no mean order. It gives us some
+characteristic social vignettes, some portraits of the road of an
+unsurpassed freshness and clearness. It contains some historical and
+geographical observations worthy of one of the shrewdest and most
+sagacious publicists of the day. It is interesting to the etymologist
+for the important share it has taken in naturalising useful foreign
+words into our speech. It includes (as we shall have occasion to
+observe) a respectable quantum of wisdom fit to become proverbial, and
+several passages of admirable literary quality. In point of date
+(1763-65) it is fortunate, for the writer just escaped being one of a
+crowd. On the whole, I maintain that it is more than equal in interest
+to the Journey to the Hebrides, and that it deserves a very
+considerable proportion of the praise that has hitherto been lavished
+too indiscriminately upon the Voyage to Lisbon. On the force of this
+claim the reader is invited to constitute himself judge after a fair
+perusal of the following pages. I shall attempt only to point the way
+to a satisfactory verdict, no longer in the spirit of an advocate, but
+by means of a few illustrations and, more occasionally, amplifications
+of what Smollett has to tell us.
+
+
+III
+
+As was the case with Fielding many years earlier, Smollett was almost
+broken down with sedentary toil, when early in June 1763 with his wife,
+two young ladies ("the two girls") to whom she acted as chaperon, and a
+faithful servant of twelve years' standing, who in the spirit of a
+Scots retainer of the olden time refused to leave his master (a good
+testimonial this, by the way, to a temper usually accredited with such
+a splenetic sourness), he crossed the straits of Dover to see what a
+change of climate and surroundings could do for him.
+
+On other grounds than those of health he was glad to shake the dust of
+Britain from his feet. He speaks himself of being traduced by malice,
+persecuted by faction, abandoned by false patrons, complaints which
+will remind the reader, perhaps, of George Borrow's "Jeremiad," to the
+effect that he had been beslavered by the venomous foam of every
+sycophantic lacquey and unscrupulous renegade in the three kingdoms.
+But Smollett's griefs were more serious than what an unkind reviewer
+could inflict. He had been fined and imprisoned for defamation. He had
+been grossly caricatured as a creature of Bute, the North British
+favourite of George III., whose tenure of the premiership occasioned
+riots and almost excited a revolution in the metropolis. Yet after
+incurring all this unpopularity at a time when the populace of London
+was more inflamed against Scotsmen than it has ever been before or
+since, and having laboured severely at a paper in the ministerial
+interest and thereby aroused the enmity of his old friend John Wilkes,
+Smollett had been unceremoniously thrown over by his own chief, Lord
+Bute, on the ground that his paper did more to invite attack than to
+repel it. Lastly, he and his wife had suffered a cruel bereavement in
+the loss of their only child, and it was partly to supply a change from
+the scene of this abiding sorrow, that the present journey was
+undertaken.
+
+The first stages and incidents of the expedition were not exactly
+propitious. The Dover Road was a byword for its charges; the Via Alba
+might have been paved with the silver wrung from reluctant and
+indignant passengers. Smollett characterized the chambers as cold and
+comfortless, the beds as "paultry" (with "frowsy," a favourite word),
+the cookery as execrable, wine poison, attendance bad, publicans
+insolent, and bills extortion, concluding with the grand climax that
+there was not a drop of tolerable malt liquor to be had from London to
+Dover. Smollett finds a good deal to be said for the designation of "a
+den of thieves" as applied to that famous port (where, as a German lady
+of much later date once complained, they "boot ze Bible in ze bedroom,
+but ze devil in ze bill"), and he grizzles lamentably over the seven
+guineas, apart from extras, which he had to pay for transport in a
+Folkestone cutter to Boulogne Mouth.
+
+Having once arrived at Boulogne, Smollett settled down regularly to his
+work as descriptive reporter, and the letters that he wrote to his
+friendly circle at home fall naturally into four groups. The first
+Letters from II. to V. describe with Hogarthian point, prejudice and
+pungency, the town and people of Boulogne. The second group, Letters
+VI.-XII., deal with the journey from Boulogne to Nice by way of Paris,
+Lyon, Nimes, and Montpellier. The third group, Letters XIII.-XXIV., is
+devoted to a more detailed and particular delineation of Nice and the
+Nicois. The fourth, Letters XXV.-XLI., describes the Italian expedition
+and the return journey to Boulogne en route for England, where the
+party arrive safe home in July 1765.
+
+Smollett's account of Boulogne is excellent reading, it forms an apt
+introduction to the narrative of his journey, it familiarises us with
+the milieu, and reveals to us in Smollett a man of experience who is
+both resolute and capable of getting below the surface of things. An
+English possession for a short period in the reign of the Great Harry,
+Boulogne has rarely been less in touch with England than it was at the
+time of Smollett's visit. Even then, however, there were three small
+colonies, respectively, of English nuns, English Jesuits, and English
+Jacobites. Apart from these and the English girls in French seminaries
+it was estimated ten years after Smollett's sojourn there that there
+were twenty-four English families in residence. The locality has of
+course always been a haunting place for the wandering tribes of
+English. Many well-known men have lived or died here both native and
+English. Adam Smith must have been there very soon after Smollett. So
+must Dr. John Moore and Charles Churchill, one of the enemies provoked
+by the Briton, who went to Boulogne to meet his friend Wilkes and died
+there in 1764. Philip Thicknesse the traveller and friend of
+Gainsborough died there in 1770. After long search for a place to end
+his days in Thomas Campbell bought a house in Boulogne and died there,
+a few months later, in 1844. The house is still to be seen, Rue St.
+Jean, within the old walls; it has undergone no change, and in 1900 a
+marble tablet was put up to record the fact that Campbell lived and
+died there. The other founder of the University of London, Brougham, by
+a singular coincidence was also closely associated with Boulogne.
+[Among the occupants of the English cemetery will be found the names of
+Sir Harris Nicolas, Basil Montagu, Smithson Pennant, Sir William
+Ouseley, Sir William Hamilton, and Sir C. M. Carmichael. And among
+other literary celebrities connected with the place, apart from Dickens
+(who gave his impressions of the place in Household Words, November
+1854) we should include in a brief list, Charles Lever, Horace Smith,
+Wilkie Collins, Mrs. Henry Wood, Professor York Powell, the Marquis of
+Steyne (Lord Seymour), Mrs. Jordan, Clark Russell, and Sir Conan Doyle.
+There are also memorable associations with Lola Montes, Heinrich Heine,
+Becky Sharpe, and above all Colonel Newcome. My first care in the place
+was to discover the rampart where the Colonel used to parade with
+little Clive. Among the native luminaries are Daunou, Duchenne de
+Boulogne, one of the foremost physiologists of the last century, an
+immediate predecessor of Charcot in knowledge of the nervous system,
+Aug. Mariette, the Egyptologist, Aug. Angellier, the biographer of
+Burns, Sainte-Beuve, Prof. Morel, and "credibly," Godfrey de Bouillon,
+of whom Charles Lamb wrote "poor old Godfrey, he must be getting very
+old now." The great Lesage died here in 1747.] The antiquaries still
+dispute about Gessoriacum, Godfrey de Bouillon, and Charlemagne's Tour.
+Smollett is only fair in justifying for the town, the older portions of
+which have a strong medieval suggestion, a standard of comparison
+slightly more distinguished than Wapping. He never lets us forget that
+he is a scholar of antiquity, a man of education and a speculative
+philosopher. Hence his references to Celsus and Hippocrates and his
+ingenious etymologies of wheatear and samphire, more ingenious in the
+second case than sound. Smollett's field of observation had been wide
+and his fund of exact information was unusually large. At Edinburgh he
+had studied medicine under Monro and John Gordon, in company with such
+able and distinguished men as William Hunter, Cullen, Pitcairn,
+Gregory, and Armstrong--and the two last mentioned were among his
+present correspondents. As naval surgeon at Carthagena he had undergone
+experience such as few literary men can claim, and subsequently as
+compiler, reviewer, party journalist, historian, translator,
+statistician, and lexicographer, he had gained an amount of
+miscellaneous information such as falls to the lot of very few minds of
+his order of intelligence. He had recently directed the compilation of
+a large Universal Geography or Gazetteer, the Carton or Vivien de St.
+Martin if those days--hence his glib references to the manners and
+customs of Laplanders, Caffres, Kamskatchans, and other recondite types
+of breeding. His imaginative faculty was under the control of an
+exceptionally strong and retentive memory. One may venture to say,
+indeed, without danger of exaggeration that his testimonials as regards
+habitual accuracy of statement have seldom been exceeded. Despite the
+doctor's unflattering portraits of Frenchmen, M. Babeau admits that his
+book is one written by an observer of facts, and a man whose
+statements, whenever they can be tested, are for the most part
+"singularly exact." Mr. W. J. Prouse, whose knowledge of the Riviera
+district is perhaps almost unequalled out of France, makes this very
+remarkable statement. "After reading all that has been written by very
+clever people about Nice in modern times, one would probably find that
+for exact precision of statement, Smollett was still the most
+trustworthy guide," a view which is strikingly borne out by Mr. E.
+Schuyler, who further points out Smollett's shrewd foresight in regard
+to the possibilities of the Cornice road, and of Cannes and San Remo as
+sanatoria." Frankly there is nothing to be seen which he does not
+recognise." And even higher testimonies have been paid to Smollett's
+topographical accuracy by recent historians of Nice and its
+neighbourhood.
+
+The value which Smollett put upon accuracy in the smallest matters of
+detail is evinced by the corrections which he made in the margin of a
+copy of the 1766 edition of the Travels. These corrections, which are
+all in Smollett's own and unmistakably neat handwriting, may be divided
+into four categories. In the first place come a number of verbal
+emendations. Phrases are turned, inverted and improved by the skilful
+"twist of the pen" which becomes a second nature to the trained
+corrector of proofs; there are moreover a few topographical corrigenda,
+suggested by an improved knowledge of the localities, mostly in the
+neighbourhood of Pisa and Leghorn, where there is no doubt that these
+corrections were made upon the occasion of Smollett's second visit to
+Italy in 1770. [Some not unimportant errata were overlooked. Thus
+Smollett's representation of the droit d'aubaine as a monstrous and
+intolerable grievance is of course an exaggeration. (See Sentimental
+Journey; J. Hill Burton, The Scot Abroad, 1881, p. 135; and Luchaire,
+Instit. de France.) On his homeward journey he indicates that he
+travelled from Beaune to Chalons and so by way of Auxerre to Dijon. The
+right order is Chalons, Beaune, Dijon, Auxerre. As further examples of
+the zeal with which Smollett regarded exactitude in the record of facts
+we have his diurnal register of weather during his stay at Nice and the
+picture of him scrupulously measuring the ruins at Cimiez with
+packthread.] In the second place come a number of English renderings of
+the citations from Latin, French, and Italian authors. Most of these
+from the Latin are examples of Smollett's own skill in English verse
+making. Thirdly come one or two significant admissions of overboldness
+in matters of criticism, as where he retracts his censure of Raphael's
+Parnassus in Letter XXXIII. Fourthly, and these are of the greatest
+importance, come some very interesting additional notes upon the
+buildings of Pisa, upon Sir John Hawkwood's tomb at Florence, and upon
+the congenial though recondite subject of antique Roman hygiene. [Cf.
+the Dinner in the manner of the Ancients in Peregrine Pickle, (xliv.)
+and Letters IX. to XL in Humphry Clinker.]
+
+After Smollett's death his books were for the most part sold for the
+benefit of his widow. No use was made of his corrigenda. For twenty
+years or so the Travels were esteemed and referred to, but as time went
+on, owing to the sneers of the fine gentlemen of letters, such as
+Walpole and Sterne, they were by degrees disparaged and fell more or
+less into neglect. They were reprinted, it is true, either in
+collective editions of Smollett or in various collections of travels;
+[For instance in Baldwin's edition of 1778; in the 17th vol. of Mayor's
+Collection of Voyages and Travels, published by Richard Phillips in
+twenty-eight vols., 1809; and in an abbreviated form in John Hamilton
+Moore's New and Complete Collection of Voyages and Travels (folio, Vol.
+11. 938-970).] but they were not edited with any care, and as is
+inevitable in such cases errors crept in, blunders were repeated, and
+the text slightly but gradually deteriorated. In the last century
+Smollett's own copy of the Travels bearing the manuscript corrections
+that he had made in 1770, was discovered in the possession of the
+Telfer family and eventually came into the British Museum. The second
+volume, which affords admirable specimens of Smollett's neatly written
+marginalia, has been exhibited in a show-case in the King's Library.
+
+The corrections that Smollett purposed to make in the Travels are now
+for the second time embodied in a printed edition of the text. At the
+same time the text has been collated with the original edition of 1766,
+and the whole has been carefully revised. The old spelling has been, as
+far as possible, restored. Smollett was punctilious in such matters,
+and what with his histories, his translations, his periodicals, and his
+other compilations, he probably revised more proof-matter for press
+than any other writer of his time. His practice as regards orthography
+is, therefore, of some interest as representing what was in all
+probability deemed to be the most enlightened convention of the day.
+
+To return now to the Doctor's immediate contemplation of Boulogne, a
+city described in the Itineraries as containing rien de remarquable.
+The story of the Capuchin [On page 21. A Capuchin of the same stripe is
+in Pickle, ch. Ill. sq.] is very racy of Smollett, while the vignette
+of the shepherd at the beginning of Letter V. affords a first-rate
+illustration of his terseness. Appreciate the keen and minute
+observation concentrated into the pages that follow, [Especially on p.
+34 to p. 40.] commencing with the shrewd and economic remarks upon
+smuggling, and ending with the lively description of a Boulonnais
+banquet, very amusing, very French, very life-like, and very
+Smollettian. In Letter V. the Doctor again is very much himself. A
+little provocation and he bristles and stabs all round. He mounts the
+hygienic horse and proceeds from the lack of implements of cleanliness
+to the lack of common decency, and "high flavoured instances, at which
+even a native of Edinburgh would stop his nose." [This recalls
+Johnson's first walk up the High Street, Edinburgh, on Bozzy's arm. "It
+was a dusky night: I could not prevent his being assailed by the
+evening effluvia of Edinburgh. . . . As we marched along he grumbled in
+my ear, 'I smell you in the dark!'"] And then lest the southrons should
+escape we have a reference to the "beastly habit of drinking from a
+tankard in which perhaps a dozen filthy mouths have slabbered as is the
+custom in England." With all his coarsenesses this blunt Scot was a
+pioneer and fugleman of the niceties. Between times most nations are
+gibbetted in this slashing epistle. The ingenious boasting of the
+French is well hit off in the observation of the chevalier that the
+English doubtless drank every day to the health of the Marquise de
+Pompadour. The implication reminded Smollett of a narrow escape from a
+duello (an institution he reprobates with the utmost trenchancy in this
+book) at Ghent in 1749 with a Frenchman who affirmed that Marlborough's
+battles were purposely lost by the French generals in order to mortify
+Mme. de Maintenon. Two incidents of some importance to Smollett
+occurred during the three months' sojourn at Boulogne. Through the
+intervention of the English Ambassador at Paris (the Earl of Hertford)
+he got back his books, which had been impounded by the Customs as
+likely to contain matter prejudicial to the state or religion of
+France, and had them sent south by shipboard to Bordeaux. Secondly, he
+encountered General Paterson, a friendly Scot in the Sardinian service,
+who confirmed what an English physician had told Smollett to the effect
+that the climate of Nice was infinitely preferable to that of
+Montpellier "with respect to disorders of the breast." Smollett now
+hires a berline and four horses for fourteen louis, and sets out with
+rather a heavy heart for Paris. It is problematic, he assures his good
+friend Dr. Moore, whether he will ever return. "My health is very
+precarious."
+
+
+IV
+
+The rapid journey to Paris by way of Montreuil, Amiens, and Clermont,
+about one hundred and fifty-six miles from Boulogne, the last
+thirty-six over a paved road, was favourable to superficial observation
+and the normal corollary of epigram. Smollett was much impressed by the
+mortifying indifference of the French innkeepers to their clients. "It
+is a very odd contrast between France and England. In the former all
+the people are complaisant but the publicans; in the latter there is
+hardly any complaisance but among the publicans." [In regard to two
+exceptional instances of politeness on the part of innkeepers, Smollett
+attributes one case to dementia, the other, at Lerici, to mental shock,
+caused by a recent earthquake.] Idleness and dissipation confront the
+traveller, not such a good judge, perhaps, as was Arthur Young
+four-and-twenty years later. "Every object seems to have shrunk in its
+dimensions since I was last in Paris." Smollett was an older man by
+fifteen years since he visited the French capital in the first flush of
+his success as an author. The dirt and gloom of French apartments, even
+at Versailles, offend his English standard of comfort. "After all, it
+is in England only where we must look for cheerful apartments, gay
+furniture, neatness, and convenience. There is a strange incongruity in
+the French genius. With all their volatility, prattle, and fondness for
+bons mots they delight in a species of drawling, melancholy, church
+music. Their most favourite dramatic pieces are almost without
+incident, and the dialogue of their comedies consists of moral insipid
+apophthegms, entirely destitute of wit or repartee." While amusing
+himself with the sights of Paris, Smollett drew up that caustic
+delineation of the French character which as a study in calculated
+depreciation has rarely been surpassed. He conceives the Frenchman
+entirely as a petit-maitre, and his view, though far removed from
+Chesterfield's, is not incompatible with that of many of his cleverest
+contemporaries, including Sterne. He conceives of the typical Frenchman
+as regulating his life in accordance with the claims of impertinent
+curiosity and foppery, gallantry and gluttony. Thus:
+
+"If a Frenchman is capable of real friendship, it must certainly be the
+most disagreeable present he can possibly make to a man of a true
+English character. You know, madam, we are naturally taciturn, soon
+tired of impertinence, and much subject to fits of disgust. Your French
+friend intrudes upon you at all hours; he stuns you with his loquacity;
+he teases you with impertinent questions about your domestic and
+private affairs; he attempts to meddle in all your concerns, and forces
+his advice upon you with the most unwearied importunity; he asks the
+price of everything you wear, and, so sure as you tell him, undervalues
+it without hesitation; he affirms it is in a bad taste, ill contrived,
+ill made; that you have been imposed upon both with respect to the
+fashion and the price; that the marquis of this, or the countess of
+that, has one that is perfectly elegant, quite in the bon ton, and yet
+it cost her little more than you gave for a thing that nobody would
+wear.
+
+"If a Frenchman is admitted into your family, and distinguished by
+repeated marks of your friendship and regard, the first return he makes
+for your civilities is to make love to your wife, if she is handsome;
+if not, to your sister, or daughter, or niece. If he suffers a repulse
+from your wife, or attempts in vain to debauch your sister, or your
+daughter, or your niece, he will, rather than not play the traitor with
+his gallantry, make his addresses to your grandmother; and ten to one
+but in one shape or another he will find means to ruin the peace of a
+family in which he has been so kindly entertained. What he cannot
+accomplish by dint of compliment and personal attendance, he will
+endeavour to effect by reinforcing these with billets-doux, songs, and
+verses, of which he always makes a provision for such purposes. If he
+is detected in these efforts of treachery, and reproached with his
+ingratitude, he impudently declares that what he had done was no more
+than simple gallantry, considered in France as an indispensable duty on
+every man who pretended to good breeding. Nay, he will even affirm that
+his endeavours to corrupt your wife, or deflower your daughter, were
+the most genuine proofs he could give of his particular regard for your
+family.
+
+"If there were five hundred dishes at table, a Frenchman will eat of
+all of them, and then complain he has no appetite--this I have several
+times remarked. A friend of mine gained a considerable wager upon an
+experiment of this kind; the petit-maitre ate of fourteen different
+plates, besides the dessert, then disparaged the cook, declaring he was
+no better than a marmiton, or turnspit."
+
+The gross unfairness, no less than the consummate cleverness, of this
+caricature compels us to remember that this was written in the most
+insular period of our manners, and during a brief lull in a century of
+almost incessant mutual hostility between the two nations. Aristocrats
+like Walpole, Gibbon, and Chesterfield could regard France from a
+cosmopolitan point of view, as leading the comite of nations. But to
+sturdy and true-born patriots, such as Hogarth and Smollett, reciprocal
+politeness appeared as grotesque as an exchange of amenities would be
+between a cormorant and an ape. Consequently, it was no doubt with a
+sense of positive relief to his feelings that Smollett could bring
+himself to sum up the whole matter thus. "A Frenchman lays out his
+whole revenue upon taudry suits of cloaths, or in furnishing a
+magnificent repas of fifty or a hundred dishes, one-half of which are
+not eatable or intended to be eaten. His wardrobe goes to the fripier,
+his dishes to the dogs, and himself to the devil."
+
+These trenchant passages were written partly, it may be imagined, to
+suit the English taste of the day. In that object they must have
+succeeded, for they were frequently transcribed into contemporary
+periodicals. In extenuation of Smollett's honesty of purpose, however,
+it may be urged that he was always a thoroughgoing patriot, [Witness
+his violently anti-French play, the Reprisal of 1757.] and that, coming
+from a Calvinistic country where a measure of Tartufism was a necessary
+condition of respectability, he reproduces the common English error of
+ignoring how apt a Frenchman is to conceal a number of his best
+qualities. Two other considerations deserve attention. The
+race-portrait was in Smollett's day at the very height of its
+disreputable reign. Secondly, we must remember how very profoundly
+French character has been modified since 1763, and more especially in
+consequence of the cataclysms of 1789 and 1870.
+
+Smollett's vis comica is conspicuous in the account of the coiffure of
+the period and of the superstitious reverence which a Frenchman of that
+day paid to his hair. In tracing the origin of this superstition he
+exhibits casually his historical learning. The crine profuso and barba
+demissa of the reges crinitos, as the Merovingians were called, are
+often referred to by ancient chroniclers. Long hair was identified with
+right of succession, as a mark of royal race, and the maintenance of
+ancient tradition. A tondu signified a slave, and even under the
+Carolingians to shave a prince meant to affirm his exclusion from the
+succession.
+
+
+V
+
+A general improvement in English roads, roadside inns, and methods of
+conveyance commenced about 1715. The continental roads lagged behind,
+until when Arthur Young wrote in 1788-89 they had got badly into
+arrears. The pace of locomotion between Rome and England changed very
+little in effect from the days of Julius Caesar to those of George III.
+It has been said with point that Trajan and Sir Robert Peel, travelling
+both at their utmost speed achieved the distance between Rome and
+London in an almost precisely similar space of time. Smollett decided
+to travel post between Paris and Lyons, and he found that the journey
+lasted full five days and cost upwards of thirty guineas. [One of the
+earliest printed road books in existence gives the posts between Paris
+and Lyons. This tiny duodecimo, dated 1500, and more than worth its
+weight in gold has just been acquired by the British Museum. On the old
+Roman routes, see Arnold's Lectures on Modern History, 1842.] Of roads
+there was a choice between two. The shorter route by Nevers and Moulins
+amounted to just about three hundred English miles. The longer route by
+Auxerre and Dijon, which Smollett preferred extended to three hundred
+and thirty miles. The two roads diverged after passing Fontainebleau,
+the shorter by Nemours and the longer by Moret. The first road was the
+smoother, but apart from the chance of seeing the Vendange the route de
+Burgoyne was far the more picturesque. Smollett's portraiture of the
+peasantry in the less cultivated regions prepares the mind for Young's
+famous description of those "gaunt emblems of famine." In Burgundy the
+Doctor says, "I saw a peasant ploughing the ground with a jackass, a
+lean cow, and a he-goat yoked together." His vignette of the fantastic
+petit-maitre at Sens, and his own abominable rudeness, is worthy of the
+master hand that drew the poor debtor Jackson in the Marshalsea in
+Roderick Random.
+
+His frank avowal of ill temper at the time deprives our entertainment
+of the unamiable tinge of which it would otherwise have partaken. "The
+truth is, I was that day more than usually peevish, from the bad
+weather as well as from the dread of a fit of asthma, with which I was
+threatened. And I daresay my appearance seemed as uncouth to him as his
+travelling dress appeared to me. I had a grey, mourning frock under a
+wide greatcoat, a bob-wig without powder, a very large laced hat, and a
+meagre, wrinkled, discontented countenance."
+
+From Lyons the traveller secured a return berline going back to Avignon
+with three mules and a voiturier named Joseph. Joseph, though he turned
+out to be an ex-criminal, proved himself the one Frenchman upon whose
+fidelity and good service Smollett could look back with unfeigned
+satisfaction. The sight of a skeleton dangling from a gibbet near
+Valence surprised from this droll knave an ejaculation and a story,
+from which it appeared only too evident that he had been first the
+comrade and then the executioner of one of the most notorious brigands
+of the century. The story as told by Smollett does not wholly agree
+with the best authenticated particulars. The Dick Turpin of eighteenth
+century France, Mandrin has engendered almost as many fables as his
+English congener. [See Maignien's Bibliographie des Ecrits relatifs a
+Mandrin.] As far as I have been able to discover, the great freebooter
+was born at St. Etienne in May 1724. His father having been killed in a
+coining affair, Mandrin swore to revenge him. He deserted from the army
+accordingly, and got together a gang of contrebandiers, at the head of
+which his career in Savoy and Dauphine almost resembles that of one of
+the famous guerilla chieftains described in Hardman's Peninsular Scenes
+and Sketches. Captured eventually, owing to the treachery of a comrade,
+he was put to death on the wheel at Valence on 26th May 1755. Five
+comrades were thrown into jail with him; and one of these obtained his
+pardon on condition of acting as Mandrin's executioner. Alas, poor
+Joseph!
+
+Three experiences Smollett had at this season which may well fall to
+the lot of road-farers in France right down to the present day. He was
+poisoned with garlic, surfeited with demi-roasted small birds, and
+astonished at the solid fare of the poorest looking travellers. The
+summer weather, romantic scenery, and occasional picnics, which
+Smollett would have liked to repeat every summer under the arches of
+the Pont du Gard--the monument of antiquity which of all, excepting
+only the Maison Carree at Nimes, most excited his enthusiastic
+admiration, all contributed to put him into an abnormally cheerful and
+convalescent humour. . . .
+
+Smollett now bent his steps southwards to Montpellier. His baggage had
+gone in advance. He was uncertain as yet whether to make Montpellier or
+Nice his headquarters in the South. Like Toulouse and Tours, and Turin,
+Montpellier was for a period a Mecca to English health and pleasure
+seekers abroad. A city of no great antiquity, but celebrated from the
+twelfth century for its schools of Law and Physic, it had been
+incorporated definitely with France since 1382, and its name recurs in
+French history both as the home of famous men in great number and as,
+before and after the brief pre-eminence of La Rochelle, the rival of
+Nimes as capital of Protestantism in the South. Evelyn, Burnet, the two
+Youngs, Edward and Arthur, and Sterne have all left us an impression of
+the city. Prevented by snow from crossing the Mont Cenis, John Locke
+spent two winters there in the days of Charles II. (1675-77), and may
+have pondered a good many of the problems of Toleration on a soil under
+which the heated lava of religious strife was still unmistakeable. And
+Smollett must almost have jostled en route against the celebrated
+author of The Wealth of Nations, who set out with his pupil for
+Toulouse in February 1764. A letter to Hume speaks of the number of
+English in the neighbourhood just a month later. Lomenie de Brienne was
+then in residence as archbishop. In the following November, Adam Smith
+and his charge paid a visit to Montpellier to witness a pageant and
+memorial, as it was supposed, of a freedom that was gone for ever, the
+opening of the States of Languedoc. Antiquaries and philosophers went
+to moralise on the spectacle in the spirit in which Freeman went to
+Andorra, Byron to the site of Troy, or De Tocqueville to America. It
+was there that the great economist met Horne Tooke.
+
+Smollett's more practical and immediate object in making this
+pilgrimage was to interview the great lung specialist, known locally to
+his admiring compatriots as the Boerhaave of Montpellier, Dr. Fizes.
+The medical school of Montpellier was much in evidence during the third
+quarter of the eighteenth century, and for the history of its various
+branches there are extant numerous Memoires pour Servir, by Prunelle,
+Astruc, and others. Smollett was only just in time to consult the
+reigning oracle, for the "illustrious" Dr. Fizes died in the following
+year. He gives us a very unfavourable picture of this "great lanthorn
+of medicine," who, notwithstanding his prodigious age, his stoop, and
+his wealth, could still scramble up two pairs for a fee of six livres.
+More than is the case with most medical patients, however, should we
+suspect Smollett of being unduly captious. The point as to how far his
+sketch of the French doctor and his diagnosis was a true one, and how
+far a mere caricature, due to ill health and prejudice, has always
+piqued my curiosity. But how to resolve a question involving so many
+problems not of ordinary therapeutic but of historical medicine! In
+this difficulty I bethought me most fortunately of consulting an
+authority probably without a rival in this special branch of medical
+history, Dr. Norman Moore, who with his accustomed generosity has given
+me the following most instructive diagnosis of the whole situation.
+
+"I have read Smollett's account of his illness as it appears in several
+passages in his travels and in the statement which he drew up for
+Professor 'F.' at Montpellier.
+
+"Smollett speaks of his pulmonic disorder, his 'asthmatical disorder,'
+and uses other expressions which show that his lungs were affected. In
+his statement he mentions that he has cough, shortness of breath,
+wasting, a purulent expectoration, loss of appetite at times, loss of
+strength, fever, a rapid pulse, intervals of slight improvement and
+subsequent exacerbations.
+
+"This shortness of breath, he says, has steadily increased. This group
+of symptoms makes it certain that he had tuberculosis of the lungs, in
+other words, was slowly progressing in consumption.
+
+"His darting pains in his side were due to the pleurisy which always
+occurs in such an illness.
+
+"His account shows also the absence of hopelessness which is a
+characteristic state of mind in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis.
+
+"I do not think that the opinion of the Montpellier professor deserves
+Smollett's condemnation. It seems to me both careful and sensible and
+contains all the knowledge of its time. Smollett, with an inconsistency
+not uncommon in patients who feel that they have a serious disease,
+would not go in person to the Professor, for he felt that from his
+appearance the Professor would be sure to tell him he had consumption.
+He half hoped for some other view of the written case in spite of its
+explicit statements, and when Professor F-- wrote that the patient had
+tubercles in his lungs, this was displeasing to poor Smollett, who had
+hoped against hope to receive--some other opinion than the only
+possible one, viz., that he undoubtedly had a consumption certain to
+prove fatal."
+
+The cruel truth was not to be evaded. Smollett had tuberculosis, though
+not probably of the most virulent kind, as he managed to survive
+another seven years, and those for the most part years of unremitting
+labour. He probably gained much by substituting Nice for Montpellier as
+a place to winter in, for although the climate of Montpellier is clear
+and bright in the highest degree, the cold is both piercing and
+treacherous. Days are frequent during the winter in which one may stand
+warmly wrapped in the brilliant sun and feel the protection of a
+greatcoat no more than that of a piece of gauze against the icy and
+penetrating blast that comes from "the roof of France."
+
+Unable to take the direct route by Arles as at present, the
+eastward-bound traveller from Montpellier in 1764 had to make a
+northerly detour. The first stone bridge up the Rhone was at Avignon,
+but there was a bridge of boats connecting Beaucaire with Tarascon.
+Thence, in no very placable mood, Smollett set out in mid-November by
+way of Orgon [Aix], Brignolles and le Muy, striking the Mediterranean
+at Frejus. En route he was inveigled into a controversy of unwonted
+bitterness with an innkeeper at le Muy. The scene is conjured up for us
+with an almost disconcerting actuality; no single detail of the
+author's discomfiture is omitted. The episode is post-Flaubertian in
+its impersonal detachment, or, as Coleridge first said, "aloofness." On
+crossing the Var, the sunny climate, the romantic outline of the
+Esterelles, the charms of the "neat village" of Cannes, and the first
+prospect of Nice began gradually and happily to effect a slight
+mitigation in our patient's humour. Smollett was indubitably one of the
+pioneers of the Promenade des Anglais. Long before the days of "Dr.
+Antonio" or Lord Brougham, he described for his countrymen the almost
+incredible dolcezza of the sunlit coast from Antibes to Lerici. But how
+much better than the barren triumph of being the unconscious fugleman
+of so glittering a popularity must have been the sense of being one of
+the first that ever burst from our rude island upon that secluded
+little Piedmontese town, as it then was, of not above twelve thousand
+souls, with its wonderful situation, noble perspective and unparalleled
+climate. Well might our travel-tost doctor exclaim, "When I stand on
+the rampart and look around I can scarce help thinking myself
+enchanted." It was truly a garden of Armida for a native of one of the
+dampest corners of North Britain.
+
+"Forty or fifty years ago, before the great transformation took place
+on the French Riviera, when Nizza, Villafranca, and Mentone were
+antique Italian towns, and when it was one of the eccentricities of
+Lord Brougham, to like Cannes, all that sea-board was a delightful
+land. Only a hundred years ago Arthur Young had trouble to get an old
+woman and a donkey to carry his portmanteau from Cannes to Antibes. I
+can myself remember Cannes in 1853, a small fishing village with a
+quiet beach, and Mentone, a walled town with mediaeval gates and a
+castle, a few humble villas and the old Posta to give supper to any
+passing traveller. It was one of the loveliest bits of Italy, and the
+road from Nizza to Genoa was one long procession for four days of
+glorious scenery, historic remnants, Italian colour, and picturesque
+ports. From the Esterelles to San Remo this has all been ruined by the
+horde of northern barbarians who have made a sort of Trouville,
+Brighton, or Biarritz, with American hotels and Parisian boulevards on
+every headland and bay. First came the half underground railway, a long
+tunnel with lucid intervals, which destroyed the road by blocking up
+its finest views and making it practically useless. Then miles of
+unsightly caravanserais high walls, pompous villas, and Parisian
+grandes rues crushed out every trace of Italy, of history, and
+pictorial charm." So writes Mr. Frederic Harrison of this delectable
+coast, [In the Daily Chronicle, 15th March 1898.] as it was, at a
+period within his own recollection--a period at which it is hardly
+fanciful to suppose men living who might just have remembered Smollett,
+as he was in his last days, when he returned to die on the Riviera di
+Levante in the autumn of 1771. Travel had then still some of the
+elements of romance. Rapidity has changed all that. The trouble is that
+although we can transport our bodies so much more rapidly than Smollett
+could, our understanding travels at the same old pace as before. And in
+the meantime railway and tourist agencies have made of modern travel a
+kind of mental postcard album, with grand hotels on one side, hotel
+menus on the other, and a faint aroma of continental trains haunting,
+between the leaves as it were. Our real knowledge is still limited to
+the country we have walked over, and we must not approach the country
+we would appreciate faster than a man may drive a horse or propel a
+bicycle; or we shall lose the all-important sense of artistic approach.
+Even to cross the channel by time-table is fatal to that romantic
+spirit (indispensable to the true magic of travel) which a slow
+adjustment of the mind to a new social atmosphere and a new historical
+environment alone can induce. Ruskin, the last exponent of the Grand
+Tour, said truly that the benefit of travel varies inversely in
+proportion to its speed. The cheap rapidity which has made our villes
+de plaisir and cotes d'azur what they are, has made unwieldy boroughs
+of suburban villages, and what the rail has done for a radius of a
+dozen miles, the motor is rapidly doing for one of a score. So are we
+sped! But we are to discuss not the psychology of travel, but the
+immediate causes and circumstances of Smollett's arrival upon the
+territory of Nice.
+
+
+VI
+
+Smollett did not interpret the ground-plan of the history of Nice
+particularly well. Its colonisation from Massilia, its long connection
+with Provence, its occupation by Saracens, its stormy connection with
+the house of Anjou, and its close fidelity to the house of Savoy made
+no appeal to his admiration. The most important event in its recent
+history, no doubt, was the capture of the city by the French under
+Catinat in 1706 (Louis XIV. being especially exasperated against what
+he regarded as the treachery of Victor Amadeus), and the razing to the
+ground of its famous citadel. The city henceforth lost a good deal of
+its civic dignity, and its morale was conspicuously impaired. In the
+war of the Austrian succession an English fleet under Admiral Matthews
+was told off to defend the territory of the Nicois against the
+attentions of Toulon. This was the first close contact experienced
+between England and Nice, but the impressions formed were mutually
+favourable. The inhabitants were enthusiastic about the unaccustomed
+English plan of paying in full for all supplies demanded. The British
+officers were no less delighted with the climate of Nice, the fame of
+which they carried to their northern homes. It was both directly and
+indirectly through one of these officers that the claims of Nice as a
+sanatorium came to be put so plainly before Smollett. [Losing its
+prestige as a ville forte, Nice was henceforth rapidly to gain the new
+character of a ville de plaisir. In 1763, says one of the city's
+historians, Smollett, the famous historian and novelist, visited Nice.
+"Arriving here shattered in health and depressed in spirits, under the
+genial influence of the climate he soon found himself a new man. His
+notes on the country, its gardens, its orange groves, its climate
+without a winter, are pleasant and just and would seem to have been
+written yesterday instead of more than a hundred years ago. . . . His
+memory is preserved in the street nomenclature of the place; one of the
+thoroughfares still bears the appellation of Rue Smollett." (James
+Nash, The Guide to Nice, 1884, p. 110.)]
+
+Among other celebrated residents at Nice during the period of
+Smollett's visit were Edward Augustus, Duke of York, the brother of
+George III., who died at Monaco a few years later, and Andre Massena, a
+native of the city, then a lad of six.
+
+Before he left Montpellier Smollett indulged in two more seemingly
+irresistible tirades against French folly: one against their persistent
+hero-worship of such a stuffed doll as Louis le Grand, and the second
+in ridicule of the immemorial French panacea, a bouillon. Now he gets
+to Nice he feels a return of the craving to take a hand's turn at
+depreciatory satire upon the nation of which a contemporary hand was
+just tracing the deservedly better-known delineation, commencing
+
+  Gay sprightly land of mirth and social ease,
+  Pleas'd with thyself, whom all the world can please. . . .
+
+Such inveteracy (like Dr. Johnson's against Swift) was not unnaturally
+suspected by friends in England of having some personal motive. In his
+fifteenth letter home, therefore, Smollett is assiduous in disclaiming
+anything of the kind. He begins by attempting an amende honorable, but
+before he has got well away from his exordium he insensibly and most
+characteristically diverges into the more congenial path of censure,
+and expands indeed into one of his most eloquent passages--a
+disquisition upon the French punctilio (conceived upon lines somewhat
+similar to Mercutio's address to Benvolio), to which is appended a
+satire on the duello as practised in France, which glows and burns with
+a radiation of good sense, racy of Smollett at his best.
+
+To eighteenth century lovers the discussion on duelling will recall
+similar talks between Boswell and Johnson, or that between the
+lieutenant and Tom in the Seventh Book of Tom Jones, but, more
+particularly, the sermon delivered by Johnson on this subject a propos
+of General Oglethorpe's story of how he avoided a duel with Prince
+Eugene in 1716. "We were sitting in company at table, whence the Prince
+took up a glass of wine and by a fillip made some of it fly in
+Oglethorpe's face. Here was a nice dilemma. To have challenged him
+instantly might have fixed a quarrelsome character upon the young
+soldier: to have taken no notice of it might have been counted as
+cowardice. Oglethorpe, therefore, keeping his eye on the Prince, and
+smiling all the time, as if he took what His Highness had done in jest,
+said, "Mon Prince" (I forget the French words he used), "that's a good
+joke; but we do it much better in England," and threw a whole glass of
+wine in the Prince's face. An old general who sat by said, "Il a bien
+fait, mon Prince, vous l'avez commence," and thus all ended in good
+humour."
+
+In Letter XIII. Smollett settles down to give his correspondents a
+detailed description of the territory and people of Nice. At one time
+it was his intention to essay yet another branch of authorship and to
+produce a monograph on the natural history, antiquities, and topography
+of the town as the capital of this still unfamiliar littoral; with the
+late-born modesty of experience, however, he recoils from a task to
+which he does not feel his opportunities altogether adequate. [See p.
+152.] A quarter of Smollett's original material would embarrass a
+"Guide"-builder of more recent pattern.
+
+Whenever he got near a coast line Smollett could not refrain from
+expressing decided views. If he had lived at the present day he would
+infallibly have been a naval expert, better informed than most and more
+trenchant than all; but recognizably one of the species, artist in
+words and amateur of ocean-strategy. [Smollett had, of course, been
+surgeon's mate on H.M.S. Cumberland, 1740-41.] His first curiosity at
+Nice was raised concerning the port, the harbour, the galleys moored
+within the mole, and the naval policy of his Sardinian Majesty. His
+advice to Victor Amadeus was no doubt as excellent and as unregarded as
+the advice of naval experts generally is. Of more interest to us is his
+account of the slave-galleys. Among the miserable slaves whom "a
+British subject cannot behold without horror and compassion," he
+observes a Piedmontese count in Turkish attire, reminding the reader of
+one of Dumas' stories of a count among the forcats. To learn that there
+were always volunteer oarsmen among these poor outcasts is to reflect
+bitterly upon the average happiness of mankind. As to whether they wore
+much worse off than common seamen in the British navy of the period
+(who were only in name volunteers and had often no hope of discharge
+until they were worn out) under such commanders as Oakum or Whiffle [In
+Roderick Random.] is another question. For confirmation of Smollett's
+account in matters of detail the reader may turn to Aleman's Guzman
+d'Afarache, which contains a first-hand description of the life on
+board a Mediterranean slave galley, to Archenholtz's Tableau d'Italie
+of 1788, to Stirling Maxwell's Don John of Austria (1883, i. 95), and
+more pertinently to passages in the Life of a Galley Slave by Jean
+Marteilhe (edited by Miss Betham-Edwards in 1895). After serving in the
+docks at Dunkirk, Marteilhe, as a confirmed protestant, makes the
+journey in the chain-gang to Marseilles, and is only released after
+many delays in consequence of the personal interest and intervention of
+Queen Anne. If at the peace of Utrecht in 1713 we had only been as
+tender about the case of our poor Catalan allies! Nice at that juncture
+had just been returned by France to the safe-keeping of Savoy, so that
+in order to escape from French territory, Marteilhe sailed for Nice in
+a tartane, and not feeling too safe even there, hurried thence by
+Smollett's subsequent route across the Col di Tende. Many Europeans
+were serving at this time in the Turkish or Algerine galleys. But the
+most pitiable of all the galley slaves were those of the knights of St.
+John of Malta. "Figure to yourself," wrote Jacob Houblon [The Houblon
+Family, 1907 ii. 78. The accounts in Evelyn and Goldsmith are probably
+familiar to the reader.] about this year, "six or seven hundred dirty
+half-naked Turks in a small vessel chained to the oars, from which they
+are not allowed to stir, fed upon nothing but bad biscuit and water,
+and beat about on the most trifling occasion by their most inhuman
+masters, who are certainly more Turks than their slaves."
+
+After several digressions, one touching the ancient Cemenelion, a
+subject upon which the Jonathan Oldbucks of Provence without exception
+are unconscionably tedious, Smollett settles down to a capable
+historical summary preparatory to setting his palette for a picture of
+the Nissards "as they are." He was, as we are aware, no court painter,
+and the cheerful colours certainly do not predominate. The noblesse for
+all their exclusiveness cannot escape his censure. He can see that they
+are poor (they are unable to boast more than two coaches among their
+whole number), and he feels sure that they are depraved. He attributes
+both vices unhesitatingly to their idleness and to their religion. In
+their singularly unemotional and coolly comparative outlook upon
+religion, how infinitely nearer were Fielding and Smollett than their
+greatest successors, Dickens and Thackeray, to the modern critic who
+observes that there is "at present not a single credible established
+religion in existence." To Smollett Catholicism conjures up nothing so
+vividly as the mask of comedy, while his native Calvinism stands for
+the corresponding mask of tragedy. [Walpole's dictum that Life was a
+comedy to those who think, a tragedy for those who feel, was of later
+date than this excellent mot of Smollett's.] Religion in the sunny
+spaces of the South is a "never-failing fund of pastime." The mass (of
+which he tells a story that reminds us of Lever's Micky Free) is just a
+mechanism invented by clever rogues for an elaborate system of petty
+larceny. And what a ferocious vein of cynicism underlies his strictures
+upon the perverted gallantry of the Mariolaters at Florence, or those
+on the two old Catholics rubbing their ancient gums against St. Peter's
+toe for toothache at Rome. The recurring emblems of crosses and gibbets
+simply shock him as mementoes of the Bagne.
+
+At Rome he compares a presentment of St. Laurence to "a barbecued pig."
+"What a pity it is," he complains, "that the labours of painting should
+have been employed on such shocking objects of the martyrology,"
+floggings, nailings, and unnailings... "Peter writhing on the cross,
+Stephen battered with stones, Sebastian stuck full of arrows,
+Bartholomew flayed alive," and so on. His remarks upon the famous Pieta
+of Michael Angelo are frank to the point of brutality. The right of
+sanctuary and its "infamous prerogative," unheard of in England since
+the days of Henry VII., were still capable of affording a lesson to the
+Scot abroad. "I saw a fellow who had three days before murdered his
+wife in the last month of pregnancy, taking the air with great
+composure and serenity, on the steps of a church in Florence."
+Smollett, it is clear, for all his philosophy, was no degenerate
+representative of the blind, unreasoning seventeenth-century
+detestation of "Popery and wooden shoes."
+
+Smollett is one of the first to describe a "conversazione," and in
+illustration of the decadence of Italian manners, it is natural that he
+should have a good deal to tell us about the Cicisbeatura. His account
+of the cicisbeo and his duties, whether in Nice, Florence, or Rome, is
+certainly one of the most interesting that we have. Before Smollett and
+his almost contemporary travel correspondent, Samuel Sharp, it would
+probably be hard to find any mention of the cicisbeo in England, though
+the word was consecrated by Sheridan a few years later. Most of the
+"classic" accounts of the usage such as those by Mme. de Stael,
+Stendhal, Parini, Byron and his biographers date from very much later,
+when the institution was long past its prime if not actually moribund.
+Now Smollett saw it at the very height of its perfection and at a time
+when our decorous protestant curiosity on such themes was as lively as
+Lady Mary Montagu had found it in the case of fair Circassians and
+Turkish harems just thirty years previously. [A cicisbeo was a dangler.
+Hence the word came to be applied punningly to the bow depending from a
+clouded cane or ornamental crook. In sixteenth-century Spain, home of
+the sedan and the caballero galante, the original term was bracciere.
+In Venice the form was cavaliere servente. For a good note on the
+subject, see Sismondi's Italian Republics, ed. William Boulting, 1907,
+p. 793.] Like so much in the shapes and customs of Italy the
+cicisbeatura was in its origin partly Gothic and partly Oriental. It
+combined the chivalry of northern friendship with the refined passion
+of the South for the seclusion of women. As an experiment in protest
+against the insipidity which is too often an accompaniment of conjugal
+intercourse the institution might well seem to deserve a more tolerant
+and impartial investigation than it has yet received at the hands of
+our sociologists. A survival so picturesque could hardly be expected to
+outlive the bracing air of the nineteenth century. The north wind blew
+and by 1840 the cicisbeatura was a thing of the past.
+
+Freed from the necessity of a systematic delineation Smollett rambles
+about Nice, its length and breadth, with a stone in his pouch, and
+wherever a cockshy is available he takes full advantage of it. He
+describes the ghetto (p. 171), the police arrangements of the place
+which he finds in the main highly efficient, and the cruel punishment
+of the strappado. The garrucha or strappado and the garrotes, combined
+with the water-torture and the rack, represented the survival of the
+fittest in the natural selection of torments concerning which the Holy
+Office in Italy and Spain had such a vast experience. The strappado as
+described by Smollett, however, is a more severe form of torture even
+than that practised by the Inquisition, and we can only hope that his
+description of its brutality is highly coloured. [See the extremely
+learned disquisition on the whole subject in Dr. H. C. Lea's History of
+the Inquisition in Spain, 1907, vol. iii. book vi chap. vii.] Smollett
+must have enjoyed himself vastly in the market at Nice. He gives an
+elaborate and epicurean account of his commissariat during the
+successive seasons of his sojourn in the neighbourhood. He was not one
+of these who live solely "below the diaphragm"; but he understood food
+well and writes about it with a catholic gusto and relish (156-165). He
+laments the rarity of small birds on the Riviera, and gives a highly
+comic account of the chasse of this species of gibier. He has a good
+deal to say about the sardine and tunny fishery, about the fruit and
+scent traffic, and about the wine industry; and he gives us a graphic
+sketch of the silkworm culture, which it is interesting to compare with
+that given by Locke in 1677. He has something to say upon the general
+agriculture, and more especially upon the olive and oil industry. Some
+remarks upon the numerous "mummeries" and festas of the inhabitants
+lead him into a long digression upon the feriae of the Romans. It is
+evident from this that the box of books which he shipped by way of
+Bordeaux must have been plentifully supplied with classical literature,
+for, as he remarks with unaffected horror, such a thing as a bookseller
+had not been so much as heard of in Nice. Well may he have expatiated
+upon the total lack of taste among the inhabitants! In dealing with the
+trade, revenue, and other administrative details Smollett shows himself
+the expert compiler and statistician a London journalist in large
+practice credits himself with becoming by the mere exercise of his
+vocation. In dealing with the patois of the country he reveals the
+curiosity of the trained scholar and linguist. Climate had always been
+one of his hobbies, and on learning that none of the local
+practitioners was in a position to exact a larger fee than sixpence
+from his patients (quantum mutatus the Nice physician of 1907!) he felt
+that he owed it to himself to make this the subject of an independent
+investigation. He kept a register of the weather during the whole of
+his stay, and his remarks upon the subject are still of historical
+interest, although with Teysseire's minutely exact Monograph on the
+Climatology of Nice (1881) at his disposal and innumerable commentaries
+thereon by specialists, the inquirer of to-day would hardly go to
+Smollett for his data. Then, as now, it is curious to find the rumour
+current that the climate of Nice was sadly deteriorating. "Nothing to
+what it was before the war!" as the grumbler from the South was once
+betrayed into saying of the August moon. Smollett's esprit chagrin was
+nonplussed at first to find material for complaint against a climate in
+which he admits that there was less rain and less wind than in any
+other part of the world that he knew. In these unwonted circumstances
+he is constrained to fall back on the hard water and the plague of
+cousins or gnats as affording him the legitimate grievance, in whose
+absence the warrior soul of the author of the Ode to Independence could
+never be content.
+
+
+VII
+
+For his autumn holiday in 1764 Smollett decided on a jaunt to Florence
+and Rome, returning to Nice for the winter; and he decided to travel as
+far as Leghorn by sea. There was choice between several kinds of small
+craft which plied along the coast, and their names recur with cheerful
+frequency in the pages of Marryat and other depictors of the
+Mediterranean. There was the felucca, an open boat with a tilt over the
+stern large enough to freight a post-chaise, and propelled by ten to
+twelve stout mariners. To commission such a boat to Genoa, a distance
+of a hundred miles, cost four louis. As alternative, there was the
+tartane, a sailing vessel with a lateen sail. Addison sailed from
+Marseilles to Genoa in a tartane in December 1699: a storm arose, and
+the patron alarmed the passengers by confessing his sins (and such
+sins!) loudly to a Capuchin friar who happened to be aboard. Smollett
+finally decided on a gondola, with four rowers and a steersman, for
+which he had to pay nine sequins (4 1/2 louis). After adventures off
+Monaco, San Remo, Noli, and elsewhere, the party are glad to make the
+famous phones on the Torre della Lanterna, of which banker Rogers sings
+in his mediocre verse:
+
+  Thy pharos Genoa first displayed itself
+  Burning in stillness on its rocky seat;
+  That guiding star so oft the only one,
+  When those now glowing in the azure vault
+  Are dark and silent
+
+Smollett's description of Genoa is decidedly more interesting. He
+arrived at a moment specially propitious to so sardonic an observer,
+for the Republic had fallen on evil times, having escaped from the
+clutches of Austria in 1746 by means of a popular riot, during which
+the aristocracy considerately looked the other way, only to fall into
+an even more embarrassed and unheroic position vis-a-vis of so
+diminutive an opponent as Corsica. The whole story is a curious
+prototype of the nineteenth century imbroglio between Spain and Cuba.
+Of commonplaces about the palaces fruitful of verbiage in Addison and
+Gray, who says with perfect truth, "I should make you sick of marble
+were I to tell you how it is lavished here," Smollett is sparing
+enough, though he evidently regards the inherited inclination of
+Genoese noblemen to build beyond their means as an amiable weakness.
+His description of the proud old Genoese nobleman, who lives in marble
+and feeds on scraps, is not unsympathetic, and suggests that the
+"deceipt of the Ligurians," which Virgil censures in the line
+
+  Haud Ligurum extremus, dum fallere fata sinebant
+
+may possibly have been of this Balderstonian variety. But Smollett had
+little room in his economy for such vapouring speculations. He was as
+unsentimental a critic as Sydney Smith or Sir Leslie Stephen. He wants
+to know the assets of a place more than its associations. Facts,
+figures, trade and revenue returns are the data his shrewd mind
+requires to feed on. He has a keen eye for harbours suitable for an
+English frigate to lie up in, and can hardly rest until his sagacity
+has collected material for a political horoscope.
+
+Smollett's remarks upon the mysterious dispensations of Providence in
+regard to Genoa and the retreat of the Austrians are charged to the
+full with his saturnine spirit. His suspicions were probably well
+founded. Ever since 1685 Genoa had been the more or less humiliated
+satellite of France, and her once famous Bank had been bled pretty
+extensively by both belligerents. The Senate was helpless before the
+Austrian engineers in 1745, and the emancipation of the city was due
+wholly to a popular emeute. She had relapsed again into a completely
+enervated condition. Smollett thought she would have been happier under
+British protection. But it is a vicious alternative for a nation to
+choose a big protector. It was characteristic of the Republic that from
+1790 to 1798 its "policy" was to remain neutral. The crisis in regard
+to Corsica came immediately after Smollett's visit, when in 1765, under
+their 154th doge Francesco Maria Rovere, the Genoese offered to abandon
+the island to the patriots under Paoli, reserving only the possession
+of the two loyal coast-towns of Bonifazio and Calvi. [See Boswell's
+Corsica, 1766-8.] At Paoli's instance these conciliatory terms were
+refused. Genoa, in desperation and next door to bankruptcy, resolved to
+sell her rights as suzerain to France, and the compact was concluded by
+a treaty signed at Versailles in 1768. Paoli was finally defeated at
+Ponte Novo on 9th May 1769, and fled to England. On 15th August the
+edict of "Reunion" between France and Corsica was promulgated. On the
+same day Napoleon Buonaparte was born at Ajaccio.
+
+After a week at Genoa Smollett proceeded along the coast to Lerici.
+There, being tired of the sea, the party disembarked, and proceeded by
+chaise from Sarzano to Cercio in Modenese territory, and so into
+Tuscany, then under the suzerainty of Austria. His description of Pisa
+is of an almost sunny gaiety and good humour. Italy, through this
+portal, was capable of casting a spell even upon a traveller so
+case-hardened as Smollett. The very churches at Pisa are "tolerably
+ornamented." The Campo Santo and Tower fall in no way short of their
+reputation, while the brass gates so far excel theirs that Smollett
+could have stood a whole day to examine and admire them. These agremens
+may be attributable in some measure to "a very good inn."  In stating
+that galleys were built in the town, Smollett seems to have fallen a
+victim, for once, to guide-book information. Evelyn mentions that
+galleys were built there in his time, but that was more than a hundred
+years before. The slips and dock had long been abandoned, as Smollett
+is careful to point out in his manuscript notes, now in the British
+Museum. He also explains with superfluous caution that the Duomo of
+Pisa is not entirely Gothic. Once arrived in the capital of Tuscany,
+after admitting that Florence is a noble city, our traveller is anxious
+to avoid the hackneyed ecstasies and threadbare commonplaces, derived
+in those days from Vasari through Keysler and other German
+commentators, whose genius Smollett is inclined to discover rather "in
+the back than in the brain."
+
+The two pass-words for a would-be connoisseur, according to Goldsmith,
+were to praise Perugino, and to say that such and such a work would
+have been much better had the painter devoted more time and study to
+it. With these alternatives at hand one might pass with credit through
+any famous continental collection. Smollett aspired to more
+independence of thought and opinion, though we perceive at every turn
+how completely the Protestant prejudice of his "moment" and "milieu"
+had obtained dominion over him. To his perception monks do not chant or
+intone, they bawl and bellow their litanies. Flagellants are hired
+peasants who pad themselves to repletion with women's bodices. The
+image of the Virgin Mary is bejewelled, hooped, painted, patched,
+curled, and frizzled in the very extremity of the fashion. No
+particular attention is paid by the mob to the Crucified One, but as
+soon as his lady-mother appeared on the shoulders of four lusty friars
+the whole populace fall upon their knees in the dirt. We have some
+characteristic criticism and observation of the Florentine nobles, the
+opera, the improvisatori, [For details as to the eighteenth-century
+improvisatore and commedia delle arte the reader is referred to
+Symonds's Carlo Gozzi. See also the Travel Papers of Mrs. Piozzi;
+Walpole's Letters to Sir Horace Mann, and Doran's Mann and Manners at
+the Court of Florence. (Vide Appendix A, p. 345)] the buildings, and
+the cicisbei. Smollett nearly always gives substantial value to his
+notes, however casual, for he has an historian's eye, and knows the
+symptoms for which the inquirer who comes after is likely to make
+inquisition.
+
+Smollett's observations upon the state of Florence in Letters XXVII and
+XXVIII are by no means devoid of value. The direct rule of the Medici
+had come to an end in 1737, and Tuscany (which with the exception of
+the interlude of 1798-1814 remained in Austrian hands down to 1860) was
+in 1764 governed by the Prince de Craon, viceroy of the Empress Maria
+Theresa. Florence was, indeed, on the threshold of the sweeping
+administrative reforms instituted by Peter Leopold, the archduke for
+whom Smollett relates that they were preparing the Pitti Palace at the
+time of his stay. This Prince governed the country as Grand Duke from
+1765 to 1790, when he succeeded his brother as Emperor, and left a name
+in history as the ill-fated Leopold. Few more active exponents of
+paternal reform are known to history. But the Grand Duke had to deal
+with a people such as Smollett describes. Conservative to the core,
+subservient to their religious directors, the "stupid party" in
+Florence proved themselves clever enough to retard the process of
+enlightenment by methods at which even Smollett himself might have
+stood amazed. The traveller touches an interesting source of biography
+when he refers to the Englishman called Acton, formerly an East India
+Company captain, now commander of the Emperor's Tuscan Navy, consisting
+of "a few frigates." This worthy was the old commodore whom Gibbon
+visited in retirement at Leghorn. The commodore was brother of Gibbon's
+friend, Dr. Acton, who was settled at Besancon, where his noted son,
+afterwards Sir John Acton, was born in 1736. Following in the footsteps
+of his uncle the commodore, who became a Catholic, Smollett tells us,
+and was promoted Admiral of Tuscany, John Acton entered the Tuscan
+Marine in 1775.
+
+[Sir John Acton's subsequent career belongs to history. His origin made
+him an expert on naval affairs, and in 1776 he obtained some credit for
+an expedition which he commanded against the Barbary pirates. In 1778
+Maria Carolina of Naples visited her brother Leopold at Florence, and
+was impressed by Acton's ugliness and reputation for exceptional
+efficiency. Her favourite minister, Prince Caramanico, persuaded the
+Grand Duke, Leopold, to permit Acton to exchange into the Neapolitan
+service, and reorganize the navy of the southern kingdom. This actually
+came to pass, and, moreover, Acton played his cards so well that he
+soon engrossed the ministries of War and Finance, and after the death
+of Caracciolo, the elder, also that of Foreign Affairs. Sir William
+Hamilton had a high opinion of the" General," soon to become
+Field-Marshal. He took a strong part in resistance to revolutionary
+propaganda, caused to be built the ships which assisted Nelson in 1795,
+and proved himself one of the most capable bureaucrats of the time. But
+the French proved too strong, and Napoleon was the cause of his
+disgrace in 1804. In that year, by special dispensation from the Pope,
+he married his niece, and retired to Palermo, where he died on 12th
+August 1811.]
+
+Let loose in the Uffizi Gallery Smollett shocked his sensitive
+contemporaries by his freedom from those sham ecstasies which have too
+often dogged the footsteps of the virtuosi. Like Scott or Mark Twain at
+a later date Smollett was perfectly ready to admire anything he could
+understand; but he expressly disclaims pretensions to the nice
+discernment and delicate sensibility of the connoisseur. He would never
+have asked to be left alone with the Venus de Medicis as a modern
+art-critic is related to have asked to be left alone with the Venus of
+Rokeby. He would have been at a loss to understand the state of mind of
+the eminent actor who thought the situation demanded that he should be
+positively bereft of breath at first sight of the Apollo Belvedere, and
+panting to regain it, convulsively clutched at the arm of his
+companion, with difficulty articulating, "I breathe." Smollett refused
+to be hypnotized by the famous Venus discovered at Hadrian's villa,
+brought from Tivoli in 1680, and then in the height of its renown; the
+form he admired, but condemned the face and the posture. Personally I
+disagree with Smollett, though the balance of cultivated opinion has
+since come round to his side. The guilt of Smollett lay in criticizing
+what was above criticism, as the contents of the Tribuna were then held
+to be. And in defence of this point of view it may at least be said
+that the Uffizi was then, with the exception of the Vatican, the only
+gallery of first-rate importance open to the travelling public on the
+Grand Tour. Founded by Cosimo I, built originally by George Vasari, and
+greatly enlarged by Francis I, who succeeded to the Grand Duchy in
+1574, the gallery owed most perhaps to the Cardinal, afterwards
+Ferdinand I, who constructed the Tribuna, and to Cardinal Leopold, an
+omnivorous collector, who died in 1675. But all the Medici princes
+added to the rarities in the various cabinets, drawing largely upon the
+Villa Medici at Rome for this purpose, and the last of them, John
+Gaston (1723-1737), was one of the most liberal as regards the freedom
+of access which he allowed to his accumulated treasures. Among the
+distinguished antiquaries who acted as curators and cicerones were
+Sebastiano Bianchi, Antonio Cocchi, Raymond Cocchi, Joseph Bianchi, J.
+B. Pelli, the Abbe Lanzi, and Zacchiroli. The last three all wrote
+elaborate descriptions of the Gallery during the last decades of the
+eighteenth century. There was unhappily an epidemic of dishonesty among
+the custodians of gems at this period, and, like the notorious Raspe,
+who fled from Cassel in 1775, and turned some of his old employers to
+ridicule in his Baron Munchausen, Joseph Bianchi was convicted first of
+robbing his cabinet and then attempting to set it on fire, for which
+exploit the "learned and judicious Bianchi," as Smollett called him in
+his first edition, was sent to prison for life. The Arrotino which
+Smollett so greatly admired, and which the delusive Bianchi declared to
+be a representation of the Augur Attus Naevius, is now described as "A
+Scythian whetting his knife to flay Marsyas."
+
+Kinglake has an amusingly cynical passage on the impossibility of
+approaching the sacred shrines of the Holy Land in a fittingly
+reverential mood. Exactly the same difficulty is experienced in
+approaching the sacred shrines of art. Enthusiasm about great artistic
+productions, though we may readily understand it to be justifiable, is
+by no means so easily communicable. How many people possessing a real
+claim to culture have felt themselves puzzled by their insensibility
+before some great masterpiece! Conditions may be easily imagined in
+which the inducement to affect an ecstasy becomes so strong as to prove
+overpowering. Many years ago at Florence the loiterers in the Tribuna
+were startled by the sudden rush into the place of a little man whose
+literary fame gave him high claims to intuitive taste. He placed
+himself with high clasped hand before the chief attraction in that room
+of treasures. "There," he murmured, "is the Venus de Medicis, and here
+I must stay--for ever and for ever." He had scarcely uttered these
+words, each more deeply and solemnly than the preceding, when an
+acquaintance entered, and the enthusiast, making a hasty inquiry if
+Lady So-and-So had arrived, left the room not to return again that
+morning. Before the same statue another distinguished countryman used
+to pass an hour daily. His acquaintance respected his raptures and kept
+aloof; but a young lady, whose attention was attracted by sounds that
+did not seem expressive of admiration, ventured to approach, and found
+the poet sunk in profound, but not silent, slumber. From such
+absurdities as these, or of the enthusiast who went into raptures about
+the head of the Elgin Ilissos (which is unfortunately a headless
+trunk), we are happily spared in the pages of Smollett. In him complete
+absence of gush is accompanied by an independent judgement, for which
+it may quite safely be claimed that good taste is in the ascendant in
+the majority of cases.
+
+From Florence Smollett set out in October 1764 for Siena, a distance of
+forty-two miles, in a good travelling coach; he slept there, and next
+day, seven and a half miles farther on, at Boon Convento, hard by
+Montepulciano, now justly celebrated for its wine, he had the amusing
+adventure with the hostler which gave occasion for his vivid portrait
+of an Italian uffiziale, and also to that irresistible impulse to cane
+the insolent hostler, from the ill consequences of which he was only
+saved by the underling's precipitate flight. The night was spent at
+Radicofani, five and twenty miles farther on. A clever postilion
+diversified the route to Viterbo, another forty-three miles. The party
+was now within sixteen leagues, or ten hours, of Rome. The road from
+Radicofani was notoriously bad all the way, but Smollett was too
+excited or too impatient to pay much attention to it. "You may guess
+what I felt at first sight of the city of Rome."
+
+"When you arrive at Rome," he says later, in somewhat more accustomed
+vein, "you receive cards from all your country folk in that city. They
+expect to have the visit returned next day, when they give orders not
+to be at home, and you never speak to one another in the sequel. This
+is a refinement in hospitality and politeness which the English have
+invented by the strength of their own genius without any assistance
+either from France, Italy, or Lapland." It is needless to recapitulate
+Smollett's views of Rome. Every one has his own, and a passing
+traveller's annotations are just about as nourishing to the imagination
+as a bibliographer's note on the Bible. Smollett speaks in the main
+judiciously of the Castle of St. Angelo, the Piazza and the interior of
+St. Peter's, the Pincian, the Forum, the Coliseum, the Baths of
+Caracalla, and the other famous sights of successive ages. On Roman
+habits and pastimes and the gullibility of the English cognoscente he
+speaks with more spice of authority. Upon the whole he is decidedly
+modest about his virtuoso vein, and when we reflect upon the way in
+which standards change and idols are shifted from one pedestal to
+another, it seems a pity that such modesty has not more votaries. In
+Smollett's time we must remember that Hellenic and primitive art,
+whether antique or medieval, were unknown or unappreciated. The
+reigning models of taste in ancient sculpture were copies of
+fourth-century originals, Hellenistic or later productions. Hence
+Smollett's ecstasies over the Laocoon, the Niobe, and the Dying
+Gladiator. Greek art of the best period was hardly known in authentic
+examples; antiques so fine as the Torso of Hercules were rare. But
+while his failures show the danger of dogmatism in art criticism,
+Smollett is careful to disclaim all pretensions to the nice discernment
+of the real connoisseur. In cases where good sense and sincere
+utterance are all that is necessary he is seldom far wrong. Take the
+following description for example:--
+
+"You need not doubt but that I went to the church of St. Peter in
+Montorio, to view the celebrated Transfiguration by Raphael, which, if
+it was mine, I would cut in two parts. The three figures in the air
+attract the eye so strongly that little or no attention is paid to
+those below on the mountain. I apprehend that the nature of the subject
+does not admit of that keeping and dependence which ought to be
+maintained in the disposition of the lights and shadows in a picture.
+The groups seem to be entirely independent of each other. The
+extraordinary merit of this piece, I imagine, consists not only in the
+expression of divinity on the face of Christ, but also in the
+surprising lightness of the figure that hovers like a beautiful
+exhalation in the air."
+
+Smollett's remarks about the "Last Judgement" of Michael Angelo, (that
+it confuses the eye as a number of people speaking at once confounds
+the ear; and that while single figures are splendid, the whole together
+resembles a mere mob, without subordination, keeping, or repose) will
+probably be re-echoed by a large proportion of the sightseers who gaze
+upon it yearly. But his description of the "Transfiguration" displays
+an amount of taste and judgement which is far from being so widely
+distributed. For purposes of reproduction at the present day, I may
+remind the reader that the picture is ordinarily "cut in two." and the
+nether portion is commonly attributed to Raphael's pupils, while the
+"beautiful exhalation," as Smollett so felicitously terms it, is
+attributed exclusively to the master when at the zenith of his powers.
+His general verdict upon Michael Angelo and Raphael has much in it that
+appeals to a modern taste. Of Raphael, as a whole, he concludes that
+the master possesses the serenity of Virgil, but lacks the fire of
+Homer; and before leaving this same Letter XXXIII, in which Smollett
+ventures so many independent critical judgements, I am tempted to cite
+yet another example of his capacity for acute yet sympathetic
+appreciation.
+ "In the Palazzo Altieri I admired a picture, by Carlo Maratti,
+representing a saint calling down lightning from heaven to destroy
+blasphemers. It was the figure of the saint I admired, merely as a
+portrait. The execution of the other parts was tame enough; perhaps
+they were purposely kept down in order to preserve the importance of
+the principal figure. I imagine Salvator Rosa would have made a
+different disposition on the same subject--that amidst the darkness of
+a tempest he would have illuminated the blasphemer with the flash of
+lightning by which he was destroyed. This would have thrown a dismal
+gleam upon his countenance, distorted by the horror of his situation as
+well as by the effects of the fire, and rendered the whole scene
+dreadfully picturesque."
+
+Smollett confuses historical and aesthetic grandeur. What appeals to
+him most is a monument of a whole past civilization, such as the Pont
+du Gard. His views of art, too, as well as his views of life, are
+profoundly influenced by his early training as a surgeon. He is not
+inclined by temperament to be sanguine. His gaze is often fixed, like
+that of a doctor, upon the end of life; and of art, as of nature, he
+takes a decidedly pathological view. Yet, upon the whole, far from
+deriding his artistic impressions, I think we shall be inclined rather
+to applaud them, as well for their sanity as for their undoubted
+sincerity.
+
+For the return journey to Florence Smollett selected the alternative
+route by Narni, Terni, Spoleto, Foligno, Perugia, and Arezzo, and, by
+his own account, no traveller ever suffered quite so much as he did
+from "dirt," "vermin," "poison," and imposture. At Foligno, where
+Goethe also, in his travels a score of years or so later, had an
+amusing adventure, Smollett was put into a room recently occupied by a
+wild beast (bestia), but the bestia turned out on investigation to be
+no more or no less than an "English heretic." The food was so filthy
+that it might have turned the stomach of a muleteer; their coach was
+nearly shattered to pieces; frozen with cold and nearly devoured by
+rats. Mrs. Smollett wept in silence with horror and fatigue; and the
+bugs gave the Doctor a whooping-cough. If Smollett anticipated a
+violent death from exhaustion and chagrin in consequence of these
+tortures he was completely disappointed. His health was never
+better,--so much so that he felt constrained in fairness to drink to
+the health of the Roman banker who had recommended this nefarious
+route. [See the Doctor's remarks at the end of Letter XXXV.] By
+Florence and Lerici he retraced his steps to Nice early in 1765, and
+then after a brief jaunt to Turin (where he met Sterne) and back by the
+Col di Tende, he turned his face definitely homewards. The journey home
+confirmed his liking for Pisa, and gives an opening for an amusing
+description of the Britisher abroad (Letter XXXV). We can almost
+overhear Thackeray, or the author of Eothen, touching this same topic
+in Letter XLI. "When two natives of any other country chance to meet
+abroad, they run into each other's embrace like old friends, even
+though they have never heard of one another till that moment; whereas
+two Englishmen in the same situation maintain a mutual reserve and
+diffidence, and keep without the sphere of each other's attraction,
+like two bodies endowed with a repulsive power." Letter XXXVI gives
+opportunity for some discerning remarks on French taxation. Having
+given the French king a bit of excellent advice (that he should abolish
+the fermiers generaux), Smollett proceeds, in 1765, to a forecast of
+probabilities which is deeply significant and amazingly shrewd. The
+fragment known as Smollett's Dying Prophecy of 1771 has often been
+discredited. Yet the substance of it is fairly adumbrated here in the
+passage beginning, "There are undoubtedly many marks of relaxation in
+the reins of French government," written fully six years previously.
+After a pleasing description of Grasse, "famous for its pomatum,
+gloves, wash-balls, perfumes, and toilette boxes lined with bergamot,"
+the homeward traveller crossed the French frontier at Antibes, and in
+Letter XXXIX at Marseille, he compares the galley slaves of France with
+those of Savoy. At Bath where he had gone to set up a practice,
+Smollett once astonished the faculty by "proving" in a pamphlet that
+the therapeutic properties of the waters had been prodigiously
+exaggerated. So, now, in the south of France he did not hesitate to
+pronounce solemnly that "all fermented liquors are pernicious to the
+human constitution." Elsewhere he comments upon the immeasurable
+appetite of the French for bread. The Frenchman will recall the story
+of the peasant-persecuting baron whom Louis XII. provided with a
+luxurious feast, which the lack of bread made uneatable; he may not
+have heard a story told me in Liege at the Hotel Charlemagne of the
+Belgian who sought to conciliate his French neighbour by remarking, "Je
+vois que vous etes Français, monsieur, parceque vous mangez beaucoup de
+pain," and the Frenchman's retort, "Je vois que vous etes lye monsieur,
+parceque vous mangez beaucoup de tout!" From Frejus Smollett proceeds
+to Toulon, repeating the old epigram that "the king of France is
+greater at Toulon than at Versailles." The weather is so pleasant that
+the travellers enjoy a continual concert of "nightingales" from Vienne
+to Fontainebleau. The "douche" of Aix-les-Bains having been explained,
+Smollett and his party proceeded agreeably to Avignon, where by one of
+the strange coincidences of travel he met his old voiturier Joseph "so
+embrowned by the sun that he might have passed for an Iroquois." In
+spite of Joseph's testimonial the "plagues of posting" are still in the
+ascendant, and Smollett is once more generous of good advice. Above
+all, he adjures us when travelling never to omit to carry a hammer and
+nails, a crowbar, an iron pin or two, a large knife, and a bladder of
+grease. Why not a lynch pin, which we were so carefully instructed how
+to inquire about in Murray's Conversation for Travellers?
+
+But-the history of his troublous travels is drawing to an end. From
+Lyons the route is plain through Macon, Chalons, Dijon, Auxerre, Sells,
+and Fontainebleau--the whole itinerary almost exactly anticipates that
+of Talfourd's Vacation Tour one hundred and ten years later, except
+that on the outward journey Talfourd sailed down the Rhone.
+
+Smollett's old mental grievances and sores have been shifted and to
+some extent, let us hope, dissipated by his strenuous journeyings, and
+in June 1765, after an absence of two years, he is once more enabled to
+write,
+
+"You cannot imagine what pleasure I feel while I survey the white
+cliffs of Dover at this distance [from Boulogne]. Not that I am at all
+affected by the nescio qua dulcedine natalis soli of Horace.
+
+"That seems to be a kind of fanaticism, founded on the prejudices of
+education, which induces a Laplander to place the terrestrial paradise
+among the snows of Norway, and a Swiss to prefer the barren mountains
+of Soleure to the fruitful plains of Lombardy. I am attached to my
+country, because it is the land of liberty, cleanliness, and
+convenience; but I love it still more tenderly, as the scene of all my
+interesting connections, as the habitation of my friends, for whose
+conversation, correspondence, and esteem I wish alone to live."
+
+For the time being it cannot be doubted that the hardships Smollett had
+to undergo on his Italian journey, by sea and land, and the violent
+passions by which he was agitated owing to the conduct of refractory
+postilions and extortionate innkeepers, contributed positively to brace
+up and invigorate his constitution. He spoke of himself indeed as
+"mended by ill-treatment" not unlike Tavernier, the famous
+traveller,--said to have been radically cured of the gout by a Turkish
+aga in Egypt, who gave him the bastinado because he would not look at
+the head of the bashaw of Cairo. But Fizes was right after all in his
+swan-prescription, for poor Smollett's cure was anything but a radical
+one. His health soon collapsed under the dreary round of incessant
+labour at Chelsea. His literary faculty was still maturing and
+developing. His genius was mellowing, and a later work might have
+eclipsed Clinker. But it was not to be. He had a severe relapse in the
+winter. In 1770 he had once more to take refuge from overwork on the
+sunny coast he had done so much to popularize among his countrymen, and
+it was near Leghorn that he died on 17th September 1771.
+
+  ANNO AETATIS 51.
+  EHEV!  QVAM PROCVL A PATRIA!
+  PROPE LIBVRNI PORTVM, IN ITALIA
+  JACET SEPVLTVS.
+
+  THOMAS SECCOMBE. ACTON, May 1907.
+
+
+
+LETTER I
+
+BOULOGNE SUR MER, June 23, 1763.
+
+DEAR SIR,--You laid your commands upon me at parting, to communicate
+from time to time the observations I should make in the course of my
+travels and it was an injunction I received with pleasure. In
+gratifying your curiosity, I shall find some amusement to beguile the
+tedious hours, which, without some such employment, would be rendered
+insupportable by distemper and disquiet.
+
+You knew, and pitied my situation, traduced by malice, persecuted by
+faction, abandoned by false patrons, and overwhelmed by the sense of a
+domestic calamity, which it was not in the power of fortune to repair.
+
+You know with what eagerness I fled from my country as a scene of
+illiberal dispute, and incredible infatuation, where a few worthless
+incendiaries had, by dint of perfidious calumnies and atrocious abuse,
+kindled up a flame which threatened all the horrors of civil dissension.
+
+I packed up my little family in a hired coach, and attended by my
+trusty servant, who had lived with me a dozen of years, and now refused
+to leave me, took the road to Dover, in my way to the South of France,
+where I hoped the mildness of the climate would prove favourable to the
+weak state of my lungs.
+
+You advised me to have recourse again to the Bath waters, from the use
+of which I had received great benefit the preceding winter: but I had
+many inducements to leave England. My wife earnestly begged I would
+convey her from a country where every object served to nourish her
+grief: I was in hopes that a succession of new scenes would engage her
+attention, and gradually call off her mind from a series of painful
+reflections; and I imagined the change of air, and a journey of near a
+thousand miles, would have a happy effect upon my own constitution.
+But, as the summer was already advanced, and the heat too excessive for
+travelling in warm climates, I proposed staying at Boulogne till the
+beginning of autumn, and in the mean time to bathe in the sea, with a
+view to strengthen and prepare my body for the fatigues of such a long
+journey.
+
+A man who travels with a family of five persons, must lay his account
+with a number of mortifications; and some of these I have already
+happily overcome. Though I was well acquainted with the road to Dover,
+and made allowances accordingly, I could not help being chagrined at
+the bad accommodation and impudent imposition to which I was exposed.
+These I found the more disagreeable, as we were detained a day
+extraordinary on the road, in consequence of my wife's being indisposed.
+
+I need not tell you this is the worst road in England with respect to
+the conveniences of travelling, and must certainly impress foreigners
+with an unfavourable opinion of the nation in general. The chambers are
+in general cold and comfortless, the beds paultry, the cookery
+execrable, the wine poison, the attendance bad, the publicans insolent,
+and the bills extortion; there is not a drop of tolerable malt liquor
+to be had from London to Dover.
+
+Every landlord and every waiter harangued upon the knavery of a
+publican in Canterbury, who had charged the French ambassador forty
+pounds for a supper that was not worth forty shillings. They talked
+much of honesty and conscience; but when they produced their own bills,
+they appeared to be all of the same family and complexion. If it was a
+reproach upon the English nation, that an innkeeper should pillage
+strangers at that rate; it is a greater scandal, that the same fellow
+should be able to keep his house still open. I own, I think it would be
+for the honour of the kingdom to reform the abuses of this road; and in
+particular to improve the avenue to London by the way of Kent-Street,
+which is a most disgraceful entrance to such an opulent city. A
+foreigner, in passing through this beggarly and ruinous suburb,
+conceives such an idea of misery and meanness, as all the wealth and
+magnificence of London and Westminster are afterwards unable to
+destroy. A friend of mine, who brought a Parisian from Dover in his own
+post-chaise, contrived to enter Southwark after it was dark, that his
+friend might not perceive the nakedness of this quarter. The stranger
+was much pleased with the great number of shops full of merchandize,
+lighted up to the best advantage. He was astonished at the display of
+riches in Lombard-Street and Cheapside. The badness of the pavement
+made him find the streets twice as long as they were. They alighted in
+Upper Brook-Street by Grosvenor-Square; and when his conductor told him
+they were then about the middle of London, the Frenchman declared, with
+marks of infinite surprize, that London was very near as long as Paris.
+
+On my arrival at Dover I payed off my coachman, who went away with a
+heavy heart. He wanted much to cross the sea, and endeavoured to
+persuade me to carry the coach and horses to the other side. If I had
+been resolved to set out immediately for the South, perhaps I should
+have taken his advice. If I had retained him at the rate of twenty
+guineas per month, which was the price he demanded, and begun my
+journey without hesitation, I should travel more agreeably than I can
+expect to do in the carriages of this  country; and the difference of
+the expence would be a mere trifle. I would advise every man who
+travels through France to bring his own vehicle along with him, or at
+least to purchase one at Calais or Boulogne, where second-hand berlins
+and chaises may be generally had at reasonable rates. I have been
+offered a very good berlin for thirty guineas: but before I make the
+purchase, I must be better informed touching the different methods of
+travelling in this country.
+
+Dover is commonly termed a den of thieves; and I am afraid it is not
+altogether without reason, it has acquired this appellation. The people
+are said to live by piracy in time of war; and by smuggling and
+fleecing strangers in time of peace: but I will do them the justice to
+say, they make no distinction between foreigners and natives. Without
+all doubt a man cannot be much worse lodged and worse treated in any
+part of Europe; nor will he in any other place meet with more flagrant
+instances of fraud, imposition, and brutality. One would imagine they
+had formed a general conspiracy against all those who either go to, or
+return from the continent. About five years ago, in my passage from
+Flushing to Dover, the master of the packet-boat brought-to all of a
+sudden off the South Foreland, although the wind was as favourable as
+it could blow. He was immediately boarded by a customhouse boat, the
+officer of which appeared to be his friend. He then gave the passengers
+to understand, that as it was low water, the ship could not go into the
+harbour; but that the boat would carry them ashore with their baggage.
+
+The custom-house officer demanded a guinea for this service, and the
+bargain was made. Before we quitted the ship, we were obliged to
+gratify the cabin-boy for his attendance, and to give drink-money to
+the sailors. The boat was run aground on the open beach; but we could
+not get ashore without the assistance of three or four fellows, who
+insisted upon being paid for their trouble. Every parcel and bundle, as
+it was landed, was snatched up by a separate porter: one ran away with
+a hat-box, another with a wig-box, a third with a couple of shirts tied
+up in a handkerchief, and two were employed in carrying a small
+portmanteau that did not weigh forty pounds. All our things were
+hurried to the custom-house to be searched, and the searcher was paid
+for disordering our cloaths: from thence they were removed to the inn,
+where the porters demanded half-a-crown each for their labour. It was
+in vain to expostulate; they surrounded the house like a pack of hungry
+bounds, and raised such a clamour, that we were fain to comply. After
+we had undergone all this imposition, we were visited by the master of
+the packet, who, having taken our fares, and wished us joy of our happy
+arrival in England, expressed his hope that we would remember the poor
+master, whose wages were very small, and who chiefly depended upon the
+generosity of the passengers. I own I was shocked at his meanness, and
+could not help telling him so. I told him, I could not conceive what
+title he had to any such gratification: he had sixteen passengers, who
+paid a guinea each, on the supposition that every person should have a
+bed; but there were no more than eight beds in the cabin, and each of
+these was occupied before I came on board; so that if we had been
+detained at sea a whole week by contrary winds and bad weather, one
+half of the passengers must have slept upon the boards, howsoever their
+health might have suffered from this want of accommodation.
+Notwithstanding this check, he was so very abject and importunate, that
+we gave him a crown a-piece, and he retired.
+
+The first thing I did when I arrived at Dover this last time, was to
+send for the master of a packet-boat, and agree with him to carry us to
+Boulogne at once, by which means I saved the expence of travelling by
+land from Calais to this last place, a journey of four-and-twenty
+miles. The hire of a vessel from Dover to Boulogne is precisely the
+same as from Dover to Calais, five guineas; but this skipper demanded
+eight, and, as I did not know the fare, I agreed to give him six. We
+embarked between six and seven in the evening, and found ourselves in a
+most wretched hovel, on board what is called a Folkstone cutter. The
+cabin was so small that a dog could hardly turn in it, and the beds put
+me in mind of the holes described in some catacombs, in which the
+bodies of the dead were deposited, being thrust in with the feet
+foremost; there was no getting into them but end-ways, and indeed they
+seemed so dirty, that nothing but extreme necessity could have obliged
+me to use them. We sat up all night in a most uncomfortable situation,
+tossed about by the sea, cold, arid cramped and weary, and languishing
+for want of sleep. At three in the morning the master came down, and
+told us we were just off the harbour of Boulogne; but the wind blowing
+off shore, he could not possibly enter, and therefore advised us to go
+ashore in the boat. I went upon deck to view the coast, when he pointed
+to the place where he said Boulogne stood, declaring at the same time
+we were within a short mile of the harbour's mouth. The morning was
+cold and raw, and I knew myself extremely subject to catch cold;
+nevertheless we were all so impatient to be ashore, that I resolved to
+take his advice. The boat was already hoisted out, and we went on board
+of it, after I had paid the captain and gratified his crew. We had
+scarce parted from the ship, when we perceived a boat coming towards us
+from the shore; and the master gave us to understand, it was coming to
+carry us into the harbour. When I objected to the trouble of shifting
+from one boat to another in the open sea, which (by the bye) was a
+little rough; he said it was a privilege which the watermen of Boulogne
+had, to carry all passengers ashore, and that this privilege he durst
+not venture to infringe. This was no time nor place to remonstrate. The
+French boat came alongside half filled with water, and we were handed
+from the one to the other. We were then obliged to lie upon our oars,
+till the captain's boat went on board and returned from the ship with a
+packet of letters. We were afterwards rowed a long league, in a rough
+sea, against wind and tide, before we reached the harbour, where we
+landed, benumbed with cold, and the women excessively sick: from our
+landing-place we were obliged to walk very near a mile to the inn where
+we purposed to lodge, attended by six or seven men and women,
+bare-legged, carrying our baggage. This boat cost me a guinea, besides
+paying exorbitantly the people who carried our things; so that the
+inhabitants of Dover and of Boulogne seem to be of the same kidney, and
+indeed they understand one another perfectly well. It was our honest
+captain who made the signal for the shore-boat before I went upon deck;
+by which means he not only gratified his friends, the watermen of
+Boulogne, but also saved about fifteen shillings portage, which he must
+have paid had he gone into the harbour; and thus he found himself at
+liberty to return to Dover, which he reached in four hours. I mention
+these circumstances as a warning to other passengers. When a man hires
+a packet-boat from Dover to Calais or Boulogne, let him remember that
+the stated price is five guineas; and let him insist upon being carried
+into the harbour in the ship, without paying the least regard to the
+representations of the master, who is generally a little dirty knave.
+When he tells you it is low water, or the wind is in your teeth, you
+may say you will stay on board till it is high water, or till the wind
+comes favourable. If he sees you are resolute, he will find means to
+bring his ship into the harbour, or at least to convince you, without a
+possibility of your being deceived, that it is not in his power. After
+all, the fellow himself was a loser by his finesse; if he had gone into
+the harbour, he would have had another fare immediately back to Dover,
+for there was a Scotch gentleman at the inn waiting for such an
+opportunity.
+
+Knowing my own weak constitution, I took it for granted this morning's
+adventure would cost me a fit of illness; and what added to my chagrin,
+when we arrived at the inn, all the beds were occupied; so that we were
+obliged to sit in a cold kitchen above two hours, until some of the
+lodgers should get up. This was such a bad specimen of French
+accommodation, that my wife could not help regretting even the inns of
+Rochester, Sittingbourn, and Canterbury: bad as they are, they
+certainly have the advantage, when compared with the execrable auberges
+of this country, where one finds nothing but dirt and imposition. One
+would imagine the French were still at war with the English, for they
+pillage them without mercy.
+
+Among the strangers at this inn where we lodged, there was a gentleman
+of the faculty, just returned from Italy. Understanding that I intended
+to winter in the South of France, on account of a pulmonic disorder, he
+strongly recommended the climate of Nice in Provence, which, indeed, I
+had often heard extolled; and I am almost resolved to go thither, not
+only for the sake of the air, but also for its situation on the
+Mediterranean, where I can have the benefit of bathing; and from whence
+there is a short cut by sea to Italy, should I find it necessary to try
+the air of Naples.
+
+After having been ill accommodated three days at our inn, we have at
+last found commodious lodgings, by means of Mrs. B-, a very agreeable
+French lady, to whom we were recommended by her husband, who is my
+countryman, and at present resident in London. For three guineas a
+month we have the greatest part of a house tolerably furnished; four
+bed-chambers on the first floor, a large parlour below, a kitchen, and
+the use of a cellar.
+
+These, I own, are frivolous incidents, scarce worth committing to
+paper; but they may serve to introduce observations of more
+consequence; and in the mean time I know nothing will be indifferent to
+you, that concerns--Your humble servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER II
+
+BOULOGNE SUR MER, July 15, 1763.
+
+DEAR SIR,--The custom-house officers at Boulogne, though as alert, are
+rather more civil than those on your side of the water. I brought no
+plate along with me, but a dozen and a half of spoons, and a dozen
+teaspoons: the first being found in one of our portmanteaus, when they
+were examined at the bureau, cost me seventeen livres entree; the
+others being luckily in my servant's pocket, escaped duty free. All
+wrought silver imported into France, pays at the rate of so much per
+mark: therefore those who have any quantity of plate, will do well to
+leave it behind them, unless they can confide in the dexterity of the
+shipmasters; some of whom will undertake to land it without the
+ceremony of examination. The ordonnances of France are so unfavourable
+to strangers, that they oblige them to pay at the rate of five per
+cent. for all the bed and table linen which they bring into the
+kingdom, even though it has been used. When my trunks arrived in a ship
+from the river Thames, I underwent this ordeal: but what gives me more
+vexation, my books have been stopped at the bureau; and will be sent to
+Amiens at my expence, to be examined by the chambre syndicale; lest
+they should contain something prejudicial to the state, or to the
+religion of the country. This is a species of oppression which one
+would not expect to meet with in France, which piques itself on its
+politeness and hospitality: but the truth is, I know no country in
+which strangers are worse treated with respect to their essential
+concerns. If a foreigner dies in France, the king seizes all his
+effects, even though his heir should be upon the spot; and this tyranny
+is called the droit d'aubaine founded at first upon the supposition,
+that all the estate of foreigners residing in France was acquired in
+that kingdom, and that, therefore, it would be unjust to convey it to
+another country. If an English protestant goes to France for the
+benefit of his health, attended by his wife or his son, or both, and
+dies with effects in the house to the amount of a thousand guineas, the
+king seizes the whole, the family is left destitute, and the body of
+the deceased is denied christian burial. The Swiss, by capitulation,
+are exempted from this despotism, and so are the Scots, in consequence
+of an ancient alliance between the two nations. The same droit
+d'aubaine is exacted by some of the princes in Germany: but it is a
+great discouragement to commerce, and prejudices every country where it
+is exercised, to ten times the value of what it brings into the coffers
+of the sovereign.
+
+I am exceedingly mortified at the detention of my books, which not only
+deprives me of an amusement which I can very ill dispense with; but, in
+all probability, will expose me to sundry other inconveniencies. I must
+be at the expence of sending them sixty miles to be examined, and run
+the risque of their being condemned; and, in the mean time, I may lose
+the opportunity of sending them with my heavy baggage by sea to
+Bourdeaux, to be sent up the Garonne to Tholouse, and from thence
+transmitted through the canal of Languedoc to Cette, which is a
+sea-port on the Mediterranean, about three or four leagues from
+Montpelier.
+
+For the recovery of my books, I had recourse to the advice of my
+landlord, Mons. B--. He is a handsome young fellow, about twenty-five
+years of age, and keeps house with two maiden sisters, who are
+professed devotees. The brother is a little libertine, good natured and
+obliging; but a true Frenchman in vanity, which is undoubtedly the
+ruling passion of this volatile people. He has an inconsiderable place
+under the government, in consequence of which he is permitted to wear a
+sword, a privilege which he does not fail to use. He is likewise
+receiver of the tythes of the clergy in this district, an office that
+gives him a command of money, and he, moreover, deals in the wine
+trade. When I came to his house, he made a parade of all these
+advantages: he displayed his bags of money, and some old gold which his
+father had left him. He described his chateau in the country; dropped
+hints of the fortunes that were settled upon mademoiselles his sisters;
+boasted of his connexions at court; and assured me it was not for my
+money that he let his lodgings, but altogether with a view to enjoy the
+pleasure of my company. The truth, when stript of all embellishments,
+is this: the sieur B-- is the son of an honest bourgeois lately dead,
+who left him the house, with some stock in trade, a little money, and a
+paltry farm: his sisters have about three thousand livres (not quite
+140 L) apiece; the brother's places are worth about fifty pounds a
+year, and his connexions at court are confined to a commis or clerk in
+the secretary's office, with whom he corresponds by virtue of his
+employment. My landlord piques himself upon his gallantry and success
+with the fair-sex: he keeps a fille de joye, and makes no secret of his
+amours. He told miss C-- the other day, in broken English, that, in the
+course of the last year, he had made six bastards. He owned, at the
+same time, he had sent them all to the hospital; but, now his father is
+dead, he would himself take care of his future productions. This,
+however, was no better than a gasconade. Yesterday the house was in a
+hot alarm, on account of a new windfall of this kind: the sisters were
+in tears; the brother was visited by the cure of the parish; the lady
+in the straw (a sempstress) sent him the bantling in a basket, and he
+transmitted it by the carriers to the Enfans trouves at Paris.
+
+But to return from this digression: Mr. B-- advised me to send a
+requete or petition to the chancellor of France, that I might obtain an
+order to have my books examined on the spot, by the president of
+Boulogne, or the procureur du roy, or the sub-delegate of the
+intendance. He recommended an advocat of his acquaintance to draw up
+the memoire, and introduced him accordingly; telling me at the same
+time, in private, that if he was not a drunkard, he would be at the
+head of his profession. He had indeed all the outward signs of a sot; a
+sleepy eye, a rubicund face, and carbuncled nose. He seemed to be a
+little out at elbows, had marvellous foul linen, and his breeches were
+not very sound: but he assumed an air of importance, was very
+courteous, and very solemn. I asked him if he did not sometimes divert
+himself with the muse: he smiled, and promised, in a whisper, to shew
+me some chansonettes de sa facon. Meanwhile he composed the requete in
+my name, which was very pompous, very tedious, and very abject. Such a
+stile might perhaps be necessary in a native of France; but I did not
+think it was at all suitable to a subject of Great-Britain. I thanked
+him for the trouble he had taken, as he would receive no other
+gratification; but when my landlord proposed to send the memoire to his
+correspondent at Paris, to be delivered to the chancellor, I told him I
+had changed my mind, and would apply to the English ambassador. I have
+accordingly taken the liberty to address myself to the earl of H--; and
+at the same time I have presumed to write to the duchess of D--, who is
+now at Paris, to entreat her grace's advice and interposition. What
+effect these applications may have, I know not: but the sieur B--
+shakes his head, and has told my servant, in confidence, that I am
+mistaken if I think the English ambassador is as great a man at Paris
+as the chancellor of France.
+
+I ought to make an apology for troubling you with such an
+unentertaining detail, and consider that the detention of my books must
+be a matter of very little consequence to any body, but to--Your
+affectionate humble servant.
+
+LETTER III
+
+BOULOGNE, August 15, 1763.
+
+SIR--I am much obliged to you for your kind enquiries after my health,
+which has been lately in a very declining condition. In consequence of
+a cold, caught a few days after my arrival in France, I was seized with
+a violent cough, attended with a fever, and stitches in my breast,
+which tormented me all night long without ceasing. At the same time I
+had a great discharge by expectoration, and such a dejection of spirits
+as I never felt before. In this situation I took a step which may
+appear to have been desperate. I knew there was no imposthume in my
+lungs, and I supposed the stitches were spasmodical. I was sensible
+that all my complaints were originally derived from relaxation. I
+therefore hired a chaise, and going to the beach, about a league from
+the town, plunged into the sea without hesitation. By this desperate
+remedy, I got a fresh cold in my head: but my stitches and fever
+vanished the very first day; and by a daily repetition of the bath, I
+have diminished my cough, strengthened my body, and recovered my
+spirits. I believe I should have tried the same experiment, even if
+there had been an abscess in my lungs, though such practice would have
+been contrary to all the rules of medicine: but I am not one of those
+who implicitly believe in all the dogmata of physic. I saw one of the
+guides at Bath, the stoutest fellow among them, who recovered from the
+last stage of a consumption, by going into the king's bath, contrary to
+the express injunction of his doctor. He said, if he must die, the
+sooner the better, as he had nothing left for his subsistence. Instead
+of immediate death, he found instant case, and continued mending every
+day, till his health was entirely re-established. I myself drank the
+waters of Bath, and bathed, in diametrical opposition to the opinion of
+some physicians there settled, and found myself better every day,
+notwithstanding their unfavourable prognostic. If I had been of the
+rigid fibre, full of blood, subject to inflammation, I should have
+followed a different course. Our acquaintance, doctor C--, while he
+actually spit up matter, and rode out every day for his life, led his
+horse to water, at the pond in Hyde-Park, one cold frosty morning, and
+the beast, which happened to be of a hot constitution, plunged himself
+and his master over head and ears in the water. The poor doctor
+hastened home, half dead with fear, and was put to bed in the
+apprehension of a new imposthume; instead of which, he found himself
+exceedingly recruited in his spirits, and his appetite much mended. I
+advised him to take the hint, and go into the cold bath every morning;
+but he did not chuse to run any risque. How cold water comes to be such
+a bugbear, I know not: if I am not mistaken, Hippocrates recommends
+immersion in cold water for the gout; and Celsus expressly says, in
+omni tussi utilis est natatio: in every cough swimming is of service.
+
+I have conversed with a physician of this place, a sensible man, who
+assured me he was reduced to meer skin and bone by a cough and hectic
+fever, when he ordered a bath to be made in his own house, and dipped
+himself in cold water every morning. He at the same time left off
+drinking and swallowing any liquid that was warm. He is now strong and
+lusty, and even in winter has no other cover than a single sheet. His
+notions about the warm drink were a little whimsical: he imagined it
+relaxed the tone of the stomach; and this would undoubtedly be the case
+if it was drank in large quantities, warmer than the natural
+temperature of the blood. He alledged the example of the inhabitants of
+the Ladrone islands, who never taste any thing that is not cold, and
+are remarkably healthy. But to balance this argument I mentioned the
+Chinese, who scarce drink any thing but warm tea; and the Laplanders,
+who drink nothing but warm water; yet the people of both these nations
+are remarkably strong, healthy, and long-lived.
+
+You desire to know the fate of my books. My lord H--d is not yet come
+to France; but my letter was transmitted to him from Paris; and his
+lordship, with that generous humanity which is peculiar to his
+character, has done me the honour to assure me, under his own hand,
+that he has directed Mr. N--lle, our resident at Paris, to apply for an
+order that my books may be restored.
+
+I have met with another piece of good fortune, in being introduced to
+general Paterson and his lady, in their way to England from Nice, where
+the general has been many years commandant for the king of Sardinia.
+You must have heard of this gentleman, who has not only eminently
+distinguished himself, by his courage and conduct as an officer; but
+also by his probity and humanity in the exercise, of his office, and by
+his remarkable hospitality to all strangers, especially the subjects of
+Great-Britain, whose occasions called them to the place where he
+commanded. Being pretty far advanced in years, he begged leave to
+resign, that he might spend the evening of his days in his own country;
+and his Sardinian majesty granted his request with regret, after having
+honoured him with very particular marks of approbation and esteem. The
+general talks so favourably of the climate of Nice, with respect to
+disorders of the breast, that I am now determined to go thither. It
+would have been happy for me had he continued in his government. I
+think myself still very fortunate, in having obtained of him a letter
+of recommendation to the English consul at Nice, together with
+directions how to travel through the South of France. I propose to
+begin my journey some time next month, when the weather will be
+temperate to the southward; and in the wine countries I shall have the
+pleasure of seeing the vintage, which is always a season of festivity
+among all ranks of people.
+
+You have been very much mis-informed, by the person who compared
+Boulogne to Wapping: he did a manifest injustice to this place which is
+a large agreeable town, with broad open streets, excellently paved; and
+the houses are of stone, well built and commodious. The number of
+inhabitants may amount to sixteen thousand. You know this was generally
+supposed to be the portus Itius, and Gessoriacum of the antients:
+though it is now believed that the portus Itius, from whence Caesar
+sailed to Britain, is a place called Whitsand, about half way between
+this place and Calais. Boulogne is the capital of the Boulonnois, a
+district extending about twelve leagues, ruled by a governor
+independent of the governor of Picardy; of which province, however,
+this country forms a part. The present governor is the duc d'Aumout.
+The town of Boulogne is the see of a bishop suffragan of Rheims, whose
+revenue amounts to about four-and-twenty thousand livres, or one
+thousand pounds sterling. It is also the seat of a seneschal's court,
+from whence an appeal lies to the parliament of Paris; and thither all
+condemned criminals are sent, to have their sentence confirmed or
+reversed. Here is likewise a bailiwick, and a court of admiralty. The
+military jurisdiction of the city belongs to a commandant appointed by
+the king, a sort of sinecure bestowed upon some old officer. His
+appointments are very inconsiderable: he resides in the Upper Town, and
+his garrison at present consists of a few hundreds of invalids.
+
+Boulogne is divided into the Upper and Lower Towns. The former is a
+kind of citadel, about a short mile in circumference, situated on a
+rising ground, surrounded by a high wall and rampart, planted with rows
+of trees, which form a delightful walk. It commands a fine view of the
+country and Lower Town; and in clear weather the coast of England, from
+Dover to Folkstone, appears so plain, that one would imagine it was
+within four or five leagues of the French shore. The Upper Town was
+formerly fortified with outworks, which are now in ruins. Here is a
+square, a town-house, the cathedral, and two or three convents of nuns;
+in one of which there are several English girls, sent hither for their
+education. The smallness of the expence encourages parents to send
+their children abroad to these seminaries, where they learn scarce any
+thing that is useful but the French language; but they never fail to
+imbibe prejudices against the protestant religion, and generally return
+enthusiastic converts to the religion of Rome. This conversion always
+generates a contempt for, and often an aversion to, their own country.
+Indeed it cannot reasonably be expected that people of weak minds,
+addicted to superstition, should either love or esteem those whom they
+are taught to consider as reprobated heretics. Ten pounds a year is the
+usual pension in these convents; but I have been informed by a French
+lady who had her education in one of them, that nothing can be more
+wretched than their entertainment.
+
+The civil magistracy of Boulogne consists of a mayor and echevins; and
+this is the case in almost all the towns of France.
+
+The Lower Town is continued from the gate of the Upper Town, down the
+slope of a hill, as far as the harbour, stretching on both sides to a
+large extent, and is much more considerable than the Upper, with
+respect to the beauty of the streets, the convenience of the houses,
+and the number and wealth of the inhabitants. These, however, are all
+merchants, or bourgeoise, for the noblesse or gentry live all together
+in the Upper Town, and never mix with the others. The harbour of
+Boulogne is at the mouth of the small river, or rather rivulet Liane,
+which is so shallow, that the children wade through it at low water. As
+the tide makes, the sea flows in, and forms a pretty extensive harbour,
+which, however, admits nothing but small vessels. It is contracted at
+the mouth by two stone jetties or piers, which seem to have been
+constructed by some engineer, very little acquainted with this branch
+of his profession; for they are carried out in such a manner, as to
+collect a bank of sand just at the entrance of the harbour. The road is
+very open and unsafe, and the surf very high when the wind blows from
+the sea. There is no fortification near the harbour, except a paltry
+fort mounting about twenty guns, built in the last war by the prince de
+Cruy, upon a rock about a league to the eastward of Boulogne. It
+appears to be situated in such a manner, that it can neither offend,
+nor be offended. If the depth of water would admit a forty or fifty gun
+ship to lie within cannon-shot of it, I apprehend it might be silenced
+in half an hour; but, in all probability, there will be no vestiges of
+it at the next rupture between the two crowns. It is surrounded every
+day by the sea, at high water; and when it blows a fresh gale towards
+the shore, the waves break over the top of it, to the terror and
+astonishment of the garrison, who have been often heard crying
+piteously for assistance. I am persuaded, that it will one day
+disappear in the twinkling of an eye. The neighbourhood of this fort,
+which is a smooth sandy beach, I have chosen for my bathing place. The
+road to it is agreeable and romantic, lying through pleasant
+cornfields, skirted by open downs, where there is a rabbit warren, and
+great plenty of the birds so much admired at Tunbridge under the name
+of wheat-ears. By the bye, this is a pleasant corruption of white-a-se,
+the translation of their French name cul-blanc, taken from their colour
+for they are actually white towards the tail.
+
+Upon the top of a high rock, which overlooks the harbour, are the
+remains of an old fortification, which is indiscriminately called, Tour
+d'ordre, and Julius Caesar's fort. The original tower was a light-house
+built by Claudius Caesar, denominated Turris ardens, from the fire
+burned in it; and this the French have corrupted into Tour d'ordre; but
+no vestiges of this Roman work remain; what we now see, are the ruins
+of a castle built by Charlemagne. I know of no other antiquity at
+Boulogne, except an old vault in the Upper Town, now used as a
+magazine, which is said to be part of an antient temple dedicated to
+Isis.
+
+On the other side of the harbour, opposite to the Lower Town, there is
+a house built, at a considerable expence, by a general officer, who
+lost his life in the late war. Never was situation more inconvenient,
+unpleasant, and unhealthy. It stands on the edge of an ugly morass
+formed by the stagnant water left by the tide in its retreat: the very
+walks of the garden are so moist, that, in the driest weather, no
+person can make a tour of it, without danger of the rheumatism.
+Besides, the house is altogether inaccessible, except at low water, and
+even then the carriage must cross the harbour, the wheels up to the
+axle-tree in mud: nay, the tide rushes in so fast, that unless you
+seize the time to a minute, you will be in danger of perishing. The
+apartments of this house are elegantly fitted up, but very small; and
+the garden, notwithstanding its unfavourable situation, affords a great
+quantity of good fruit. The ooze, impregnated with sea salt, produces,
+on this side of the harbour, an incredible quantity of the finest
+samphire I ever saw. The French call it passe-pierre; and I suspect its
+English name is a corruption of sang-pierre. It is generally found on
+the faces of bare rocks that overhang the sea, by the spray of which it
+is nourished. As it grew upon a naked rock, without any appearance of
+soil, it might be naturally enough called sang du pierre, or
+sangpierre, blood of the rock; and hence the name samphire. On the same
+side of the harbour there is another new house, neatly built, belonging
+to a gentleman who has obtained a grant from the king of some ground
+which was always overflowed at high water. He has raised dykes at a
+considerable expence, to exclude the tide, and if he can bring his
+project to bear, he will not only gain a good estate for himself, but
+also improve the harbour, by increasing the depth at high-water.
+
+In the Lower Town of Boulogne there are several religious houses,
+particularly a seminary, a convent of Cordeliers, and another of
+Capuchins. This last, having fallen to decay, was some years ago
+repaired, chiefly by the charity of British travellers, collected by
+father Graeme, a native of North-Britain, who had been an officer in
+the army of king James II. and is said to have turned monk of this
+mendicant order, by way of voluntary penance, for having killed his
+friend in a duel. Be that as it may, he was a well-bred, sensible man,
+of a very exemplary life and conversation; and his memory is much
+revered in this place. Being superior of the convent, he caused the
+British arms to be put up in the church, as a mark of gratitude for the
+benefactions received from our nation. I often walk in the garden of
+the convent, the walls of which are washed by the sea at high-water. At
+the bottom of the garden is a little private grove, separated from it
+by a high wall, with a door of communication; and hither the Capuchins
+retire, when they are disposed for contemplation. About two years ago,
+this place was said to be converted to a very different use. There was
+among the monks one pere Charles, a lusty friar, of whom the people
+tell strange stories. Some young women of the town were seen mounting
+over the wall, by a ladder of ropes, in the dusk of the evening; and
+there was an unusual crop of bastards that season. In short, pere
+Charles and his companions gave such scandal, that the whole fraternity
+was changed; and now the nest is occupied by another flight of these
+birds of passage. If one of our privateers had kidnapped a Capuchin
+during the war, and exhibited him, in his habit, as a shew in London,
+he would have proved a good prize to the captors; for I know not a more
+uncouth and grotesque animal, than an old Capuchin in the habit of his
+order. A friend of mine (a Swiss officer) told me, that a peasant in
+his country used to weep bitterly, whenever a certain Capuchin mounted
+the pulpit to hold forth to the people. The good father took notice of
+this man, and believed he was touched by the finger of the Lord. He
+exhorted him to encourage these accessions of grace, and at the same
+time to be of good comfort, as having received such marks of the divine
+favour. The man still continued to weep, as before, every time the monk
+preached; and at last the Capuchin insisted upon knowing what it was,
+in his discourse or appearance, that made such an impression upon his
+heart "Ah, father! (cried the peasant) I never see you but I think of a
+venerable goat, which I lost at Easter. We were bred up together in the
+same family. He was the very picture of your reverence--one would swear
+you were brothers. Poor Baudouin! he died of a fall--rest his soul! I
+would willingly pay for a couple of masses to pray him out of
+purgatory."
+
+Among other public edifices at Boulogne, there is an hospital, or
+workhouse, which seems to be established upon a very good foundation.
+It maintains several hundreds of poor people, who are kept constantly
+at work, according to their age and abilities, in making thread, all
+sorts of lace, a kind of catgut, and in knitting stockings. It is under
+the direction of the bishop; and the see is at present filled by a
+prelate of great piety and benevolence, though a little inclining to
+bigotry and fanaticism. The churches in this town are but indifferently
+built, and poorly ornamented. There is not one picture in the place
+worth looking at, nor indeed does there seem to be the least taste for
+the liberal arts.
+
+In my next, I shall endeavour to satisfy you in the other articles you
+desire to know. Mean-while, I am ever--Yours.
+
+
+
+LETTER IV
+
+BOULOGNE, September 1, 1763.
+
+SIR,--I am infinitely obliged to D. H-- for the favourable manner in
+which he has mentioned me to the earl of H-- I have at last recovered
+my books, by virtue of a particular order to the director of the
+douane, procured by the application of the English resident to the
+French ministry. I am now preparing for my long journey; but, before I
+leave this place, I shall send you the packet I mentioned, by Meriton.
+Mean-while I must fulfil my promise in communicating the observations I
+have had occasion to make upon this town and country.
+
+The air of Boulogne is cold and moist, and, I believe, of consequence
+unhealthy. Last winter the frost, which continued six weeks in London,
+lasted here eight weeks without intermission; and the cold was so
+intense, that, in the garden of the Capuchins, it split the bark of
+several elms from top to bottom. On our arrival here we found all kinds
+of fruit more backward than in England. The frost, in its progress to
+Britain, is much weakened in crossing the sea. The atmosphere,
+impregnated with saline particles, resists the operation of freezing.
+Hence, in severe winters, all places near the sea-side are less cold
+than more inland districts. This is the reason why the winter is often
+more mild at Edinburgh than at London. A very great degree of cold is
+required to freeze salt water. Indeed it will not freeze at all, until
+it has deposited all its salt. It is now generally allowed among
+philosophers, that water is no more than ice thawed by heat, either
+solar, or subterranean, or both; and that this heat being expelled, it
+would return to its natural consistence. This being the case, nothing
+else is required for the freezing of water, than a certain degree of
+cold, which may be generated by the help of salt, or spirit of nitre,
+even under the line. I would propose, therefore, that an apparatus of
+this sort should be provided in every ship that goes to sea; and in
+case there should be a deficiency of fresh water on board, the seawater
+may be rendered potable, by being first converted into ice.
+
+The air of Boulogne is not only loaded with a great evaporation from
+the sea, increased by strong gales of wind from the West and
+South-West, which blow almost continually during the greatest part of
+the year; but it is also subject to putrid vapours, arising from the
+low marshy ground in the neighbourhood of the harbour, which is every
+tide overflowed with seawater. This may be one cause of the scrofula
+and rickets, which are two prevailing disorders among the children in
+Boulogne. But I believe the former is more owing to the water used in
+the Lower Town, which is very hard and unwholsome. It curdles with
+soap, gives a red colour to the meat that is boiled in it, and, when
+drank by strangers, never fails to occasion pains in the stomach and
+bowels; nay, sometimes produces dysenteries. In all appearance it is
+impregnated with nitre, if not with something more mischievous: we know
+that mundic, or pyrites, very often contains a proportion of arsenic,
+mixed with sulphur, vitriol, and mercury. Perhaps it partakes of the
+acid of some coal mine; for there are coal works in this district.
+There is a well of purging water within a quarter of a mile of the
+Upper Town, to which the inhabitants resort in the morning, as the
+people of London go to the Dog-and-duck, in St. George's fields. There
+is likewise a fountain of excellent water, hard by the cathedral, in
+the Upper Town, from whence I am daily supplied at a small expence.
+Some modern chemists affirm, that no saline chalybeate waters can
+exist, except in the neighbourhood of coal damps; and that nothing can
+be more mild, and gentle, and friendly to the constitution, than the
+said damps: but I know that the place where I was bred stands upon a
+zonic of coal; that the water which the inhabitants generally use is
+hard and brackish; and that the people are remarkably subject to the
+king's evil and consumption. These I would impute to the bad water,
+impregnated with the vitriol and brine of coal, as there is nothing in
+the constitution of the air that should render such distempers
+endemial. That the air of Boulogne encourages putrefaction, appears
+from the effect it has upon butcher's meat, which, though the season is
+remarkably cold, we can hardly keep four-and-twenty hours in the
+coolest part of the house.
+
+Living here is pretty reasonable; and the markets are tolerably
+supplied. The beef is neither fat nor firm; but very good for soup,
+which is the only use the French make of it. The veal is not so white,
+nor so well fed, as the English veal; but it is more juicy, and better
+tasted. The mutton and pork are very good. We buy our poultry alive,
+and fatten them at home. Here are excellent turkies, and no want of
+game: the hares, in particular, are very large, juicy, and
+high-flavoured. The best part of the fish caught on this coast is sent
+post to Paris, in chasse-marines, by a company of contractors, like
+those of Hastings in Sussex. Nevertheless, we have excellent soles,
+skaite, flounders and whitings, and sometimes mackarel. The oysters are
+very large, coarse, and rank. There is very little fish caught on the
+French coast, because the shallows run a great way from the shore; and
+the fish live chiefly in deep water: for this reason the fishermen go a
+great way out to sea, sometimes even as far as the coast of England.
+Notwithstanding all the haste the contractors can make, their fish in
+the summer is very often spoiled before it arrives at Paris; and this
+is not to be wondered at, considering the length of the way, which is
+near one hundred and fifty miles. At best it must be in such a
+mortified condition, that no other people, except the negroes on the
+coast of Guinea, would feed upon it.
+
+The wine commonly drank at Boulogne comes from Auxerre, is very small
+and meagre, and may be had from five to eight sols a bottle; that is,
+from two-pence halfpenny to fourpence. The French inhabitants drink no
+good wine; nor is there any to be had, unless you have recourse to the
+British wine-merchants here established, who deal in Bourdeaux wines,
+brought hither by sea for the London market. I have very good claret
+from a friend, at the rate of fifteen-pence sterling a bottle; and
+excellent small beer as reasonable as in England. I don't believe there
+is a drop of generous Burgundy in the place; and the aubergistes impose
+upon us shamefully, when they charge it at two livres a bottle. There
+is a small white wine, called preniac, which is very agreeable and very
+cheap. All the brandy which I have seen in Boulogne is new, fiery, and
+still-burnt. This is the trash which the smugglers import into England:
+they have it for about ten-pence a gallon. Butcher's meat is sold for
+five sols, or two-pence halfpenny a pound, and the pound here consists
+of eighteen ounces. I have a young turkey for thirty sols; a hare for
+four-and-twenty; a couple of chickens for twenty sols, and a couple of
+good soles for the same price. Before we left England, we were told
+that there was no fruit in Boulogne; but we have found ourselves
+agreeably disappointed in this particular. The place is well supplied
+with strawberries, cherries, gooseberries, corinths, peaches, apricots,
+and excellent pears. I have eaten more fruit this season, than I have
+done for several years. There are many well-cultivated gardens in the
+skirts of the town; particularly one belonging to our friend Mrs. B--,
+where we often drink tea in a charming summer-house built on a rising
+ground, which commands a delightful prospect of the sea. We have many
+obligations to this good lady, who is a kind neighbour, an obliging
+friend, and a most agreeable companion: she speaks English prettily,
+and is greatly attached to the people and the customs of our nation.
+They use wood for their common fewel, though, if I were to live at
+Boulogne, I would mix it with coal, which this country affords. Both
+the wood and the coal are reasonable enough. I am certain that a man
+may keep house in Boulogne for about one half of what it will cost him
+in London; and this is said to be one of the dearest places in France.
+
+The adjacent country is very agreeable, diversified with hill and dale,
+corn-fields, woods, and meadows. There is a forest of a considerable
+extent, that begins about a short league from the Upper Town: it
+belongs to the king, and the wood is farmed to different individuals.
+
+In point of agriculture, the people in this neighbourhood seem to have
+profited by the example of the English. Since I was last in France,
+fifteen years ago, a good number of inclosures and plantations have
+been made in the English fashion. There is a good many tolerable
+country-houses, within a few miles of Boulogne; but mostly empty. I was
+offered a compleat house, with a garden of four acres well laid out,
+and two fields for grass or hay, about a mile from the town, for four
+hundred livres, about seventeen pounds a year: it is partly furnished,
+stands in an agreeable situation, with a fine prospect of the sea, and
+was lately occupied by a Scotch nobleman, who is in the service of
+France.
+
+To judge from appearance, the people of Boulogne are descended from the
+Flemings, who formerly possessed this country; for, a great many of the
+present inhabitants have fine skins, fair hair, and florid complexions;
+very different from the natives of France in general, who are
+distinguished by black hair, brown skins, and swarthy faces. The people
+of the Boulonnois enjoy some extraordinary privileges, and, in
+particular, are exempted from the gabelle or duties upon salt: how they
+deserved this mark of favour, I do not know; but they seem to have a
+spirit of independence among them, are very ferocious, and much
+addicted to revenge. Many barbarous murders are committed, both in the
+town and country; and the peasants, from motives of envy and
+resentment, frequently set their neighbours' houses on fire. Several
+instances of this kind have happened in the course of the last year.
+The interruption which is given, in arbitrary governments, to the
+administration of justice, by the interposition of the great, has
+always a bad effect upon the morals of the common people. The peasants
+too are often rendered desperate and savage, by the misery they suffer
+from the oppression and tyranny of their landlords. In this
+neighbourhood the labouring people are ill lodged and wretchedly fed;
+and they have no idea of cleanliness. There is a substantial burgher in
+the High Town, who was some years ago convicted of a most barbarous
+murder. He received sentence to be broke alive upon the wheel; but was
+pardoned by the interposition of the governor of the county, and
+carries on his business as usual in the face of the whole community. A
+furious abbe, being refused orders by the bishop, on account of his
+irregular life, took an opportunity to stab the prelate with a knife,
+one Sunday, as he walked out of the cathedral. The good bishop desired
+he might be permitted to escape; but it was thought proper to punish,
+with the utmost severity, such an atrocious attempt. He was accordingly
+apprehended, and, though the wound was not mortal, condemned to be
+broke. When this dreadful sentence was executed, he cried out, that it
+was hard he should undergo such torments, for having wounded a
+worthless priest, by whom he had been injured, while such-a-one (naming
+the burgher mentioned above) lived in ease and security, after having
+brutally murdered a poor man, and a helpless woman big with child, who
+had not given him the least provocation.
+
+The inhabitants of Boulogne may be divided into three classes; the
+noblesse or gentry, the burghers, and the canaille. I don't mention the
+clergy, and the people belonging to the law, because I shall
+occasionally trouble you with my thoughts upon the religion and
+ecclesiastics of this country; and as for the lawyers, exclusive of
+their profession, they may be considered as belonging to one or other
+of these divisions. The noblesse are vain, proud, poor, and slothful.
+Very few of them have above six thousand livres a year, which may
+amount to about two hundred and fifty pounds sterling; and many of them
+have not half this revenue. I think there is one heiress, said to be
+worth one hundred thousand livres, about four thousand two hundred
+pounds; but then her jewels, her cloaths, and even her linen, are
+reckoned part of this fortune. The noblesse have not the common sense
+to reside at their houses in the country, where, by farming their own
+grounds, they might live at a small expence, and improve their estates
+at the same time. They allow their country houses to go to decay, and
+their gardens and fields to waste; and reside in dark holes in the
+Upper Town of Boulogne without light, air, or convenience. There they
+starve within doors, that they may have wherewithal to purchase fine
+cloaths, and appear dressed once a day in the church, or on the
+rampart. They have no education, no taste for reading, no housewifery,
+nor indeed any earthly occupation, but that of dressing their hair, and
+adorning their bodies. They hate walking, and would never go abroad, if
+they were not stimulated by the vanity of being seen. I ought to except
+indeed those who turn devotees, and spend the greatest part of their
+time with the priest, either at church or in their own houses. Other
+amusements they have none in this place, except private parties of
+card-playing, which are far from being expensive. Nothing can be more
+parsimonious than the oeconomy of these people: they live upon soupe
+and bouille, fish and sallad: they never think of giving dinners, or
+entertaining their friends; they even save the expence of coffee and
+tea, though both are very cheap at Boulogne. They presume that every
+person drinks coffee at home, immediately after dinner, which is always
+over by one o'clock; and, in lieu of tea in the afternoon, they treat
+with a glass of sherbet, or capillaire. In a word, I know not a more
+insignificant set of mortals than the noblesse of Boulogne; helpless in
+themselves, and useless to the community; without dignity, sense, or
+sentiment; contemptible from pride. and ridiculous from vanity. They
+pretend to be jealous of their rank, and will entertain no
+correspondence with the merchants, whom they term plebeians. They
+likewise keep at a great distance from strangers, on pretence of a
+delicacy in the article of punctilio: but, as I am informed, this
+stateliness is in a great measure affected, in order to conceal their
+poverty, which would appear to greater disadvantage, if they admitted
+of a more familiar communication. Considering the vivacity of the
+French people, one would imagine they could not possibly lead such an
+insipid life, altogether unanimated by society, or diversion. True it
+is, the only profane diversions of this place are a puppet-show and a
+mountebank; but then their religion affords a perpetual comedy. Their
+high masses, their feasts, their processions, their pilgrimages,
+confessions, images, tapers, robes, incense, benedictions, spectacles,
+representations, and innumerable ceremonies, which revolve almost
+incessantly, furnish a variety of entertainment from one end of the
+year to the other. If superstition implies fear, never was a word more
+misapplied than it is to the mummery of the religion of Rome. The
+people are so far from being impressed with awe and religious terror by
+this sort of machinery, that it amuses their imaginations in the most
+agreeable manner, and keeps them always in good humour. A Roman
+catholic longs as impatiently for the festival of St. Suaire, or St.
+Croix, or St. Veronique, as a schoolboy in England for the
+representation of punch and the devil; and there is generally as much
+laughing at one farce as at the other. Even when the descent from the
+cross is acted, in the holy week, with all the circumstances that ought
+naturally to inspire the gravest sentiments, if you cast your eyes
+among the multitude that croud the place, you will not discover one
+melancholy face: all is prattling, tittering, or laughing; and ten to
+one but you perceive a number of them employed in hissing the female
+who personates the Virgin Mary. And here it may not be amiss to
+observe, that the Roman catholics, not content with the infinite number
+of saints who really existed, have not only personified the cross, but
+made two female saints out of a piece of linen. Veronique, or Veronica,
+is no other than a corruption of vera icon, or vera effigies, said to
+be the exact representation of our Saviour's face, impressed upon a
+piece of linen, with which he wiped the sweat from his forehead in his
+way to the place of crucifixion. The same is worshipped under the name
+of St. Suaire, from the Latin word sudarium. This same handkerchief is
+said to have had three folds, on every one of which was the impression:
+one of these remains at Jerusalem, a second was brought to Rome, and a
+third was conveyed to Spain. Baronius says, there is a very antient
+history of the sancta facies in the Vatican. Tillemont, however, looks
+upon the whole as a fable. Some suppose Veronica to be the same with
+St. Haemorrhoissa, the patroness of those who are afflicted with the
+piles, who make their joint invocations to her and St. Fiacre, the son
+of a Scotch king, who lived and died a hermit in France. The troops of
+Henry V. of England are said to have pillaged the chapel of this
+Highland saint; who, in revenge, assisted his countrymen, in the French
+service, to defeat the English at Bauge, and afterwards afflicted Henry
+with the piles, of which he died. This prince complained, that he was
+not only plagued by the living Scots, but even persecuted by those who
+were dead.
+
+I know not whether I may be allowed to compare the Romish religion to
+comedy, and Calvinism to tragedy. The first amuses the senses, and
+excites ideas of mirth and good-humour; the other, like tragedy, deals
+in the passions of terror and pity. Step into a conventicle of
+dissenters, you will, ten to one, hear the minister holding forth upon
+the sufferings of Christ, or the torments of hell, and see many marks
+of religious horror in the faces of the hearers. This is perhaps one
+reason why the reformation did not succeed in France, among a volatile,
+giddy, unthinking people, shocked at the mortified appearances of the
+Calvinists; and accounts for its rapid progress among nations of a more
+melancholy turn of character and complexion: for, in the conversion of
+the multitude, reason is generally out of the question. Even the
+penance imposed upon the catholics is little more than mock
+mortification: a murderer is often quit with his confessor for saying
+three prayers extraordinary; and these easy terms, on which absolution
+is obtained, certainly encourage the repetition of the most enormous
+crimes. The pomp and ceremonies of this religion, together with the
+great number of holidays they observe, howsoever they may keep up the
+spirits of the commonalty, and help to diminish the sense of their own
+misery, must certainly, at the same time, produce a frivolous taste for
+frippery and shew, and encourage a habit of idleness, to which I, in a
+great measure, ascribe the extreme poverty of the lower people. Very
+near half of their time, which might he profitably employed in the
+exercise of industry, is lost to themselves and the community, in
+attendance upon the different exhibitions of religious mummery.
+
+But as this letter has already run to an unconscionable length, I shall
+defer, till another occasion, what I have further to say on the people
+of this place, and in the mean time assure you, that I am always--Yours
+affectionately.
+
+
+
+LETTER V
+
+BOULOGNE, September 12, 1763.
+
+DEAR SIR,--My stay in this place now draws towards a period. 'Till
+within these few days I have continued bathing, with some advantage to
+my health, though the season has been cold and wet, and disagreeable.
+There was a fine prospect of a plentiful harvest in this neighbourhood.
+I used to have great pleasure in driving between the fields of wheat,
+oats, and barley; but the crop has been entirely ruined by the rain,
+and nothing is now to be seen on the ground but the tarnished straw,
+and the rotten spoils of the husbandman's labour. The ground scarce
+affords subsistence to a few flocks of meagre sheep, that crop the
+stubble, and the intervening grass; each flock under the protection of
+its shepherd, with his crook and dogs, who lies every night in the
+midst of the fold, in a little thatched travelling lodge, mounted on a
+wheel-carriage. Here he passes the night, in order to defend his flock
+from the wolves, which are sometimes, especially in winter, very bold
+and desperate.
+
+Two days ago we made an excursion with Mrs. B-- and Capt. L-- to the
+village of Samers, on the Paris road, about three leagues from
+Boulogne. Here is a venerable abbey of Benedictines, well endowed, with
+large agreeable gardens prettily laid out. The monks are well lodged,
+and well entertained. Tho' restricted from flesh meals by the rules of
+their order, they are allowed to eat wild duck and teal, as a species
+of fish; and when they long for a good bouillon, or a partridge, or
+pullet, they have nothing to do but to say they are out of order. In
+that case the appetite of the patient is indulged in his own apartment.
+Their church is elegantly contrived, but kept in a very dirty
+condition. The greatest curiosity I saw in this place was an English
+boy, about eight or nine years old, whom his father had sent hither to
+learn the French language. In less than eight weeks, he was become
+captain of the boys of the place, spoke French perfectly well, and had
+almost forgot his mother tongue. But to return to the people of
+Boulogne.
+
+The burghers here, as in other places, consist of merchants,
+shop-keepers, and artisans. Some of the merchants have got fortunes, by
+fitting out privateers during the war. A great many single ships were
+taken from the English, notwithstanding the good look-out of our
+cruisers, who were so alert, that the privateers from this coast were
+often taken in four hours after they sailed from the French harbour;
+and there is hardly a captain of an armateur in Boulogne, who has not
+been prisoner in England five or six times in the course of the war.
+They were fitted out at a very small expence, and used to run over in
+the night to the coast of England, where they hovered as English
+fishing smacks, until they kidnapped some coaster, with which they made
+the best of their way across the Channel. If they fell in with a
+British cruiser, they surrendered without resistance: the captain was
+soon exchanged, and the loss of the proprietor was not great: if they
+brought their prize safe into harbour, the advantage was considerable.
+In time of peace the merchants of Boulogne deal in wine brandies, and
+oil, imported from the South, and export fish, with the manufactures of
+France, to Portugal, and other countries; but the trade is not great.
+Here are two or three considerable houses of wine merchants from
+Britain, who deal in Bourdeaux wine, with which they supply London and
+other parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The fishery of mackarel
+and herring is so considerable on this coast, that it is said to yield
+annually eight or nine hundred thousand livres, about thirty-five
+thousand pounds sterling.
+
+The shop-keepers here drive a considerable traffic with the English
+smugglers, whose cutters are almost the only vessels one sees in the
+harbour of Boulogne, if we except about a dozen of those flat-bottomed
+boats, which raised such alarms in England, in the course of the war.
+Indeed they seem to be good for nothing else, and perhaps they were
+built for this purpose only. The smugglers from the coast of Kent and
+Sussex pay English gold for great quantities of French brandy, tea,
+coffee, and small wine, which they run from this country. They likewise
+buy glass trinkets, toys, and coloured prints, which sell in England,
+for no other reason, but that they come from France, as they may be had
+as cheap, and much better finished, of our own manufacture. They
+likewise take off ribbons, laces, linen, and cambrics; though this
+branch of trade is chiefly in the hands of traders that come from
+London and make their purchases at Dunkirk, where they pay no duties.
+It is certainly worth while for any traveller to lay in a stock of
+linen either at Dunkirk or Boulogne; the difference of the price at
+these two places is not great. Even here I have made a provision of
+shirts for one half of the money they would have cost in London.
+Undoubtedly the practice of smuggling is very detrimental to the fair
+trader, and carries considerable sums of money out of the kingdom, to
+enrich our rivals and enemies. The custom-house officers are very
+watchful, and make a great number of seizures: nevertheless, the
+smugglers find their account in continuing this contraband commerce;
+and are said to indemnify themselves, if they save one cargo out of
+three. After all, the best way to prevent smuggling, is to lower the
+duties upon the commodities which are thus introduced. I have been
+told, that the revenue upon tea has encreased ever since the duty upon
+it was diminished. By the bye, the tea smuggled on the coast of Sussex
+is most execrable stuff. While I stayed at Hastings, for the
+conveniency of bathing, I must have changed my breakfast, if I had not
+luckily brought tea with me from London: yet we have as good tea at
+Boulogne for nine livres a pound, as that which sells at fourteen
+shillings at London.
+
+The bourgeois of this place seem to live at their ease, probably in
+consequence of their trade with the English. Their houses consist of
+the ground-floor, one story above, and garrets. In those which are well
+furnished, you see pier-glasses and marble slabs; but the chairs are
+either paultry things, made with straw bottoms, which cost about a
+shilling a-piece, or old-fashioned, high-backed seats of needle-work,
+stuffed, very clumsy and incommodious. The tables are square fir
+boards, that stand on edge in a corner, except when they are used, and
+then they are set upon cross legs that open and shut occasionally. The
+king of France dines off a board of this kind. Here is plenty of
+table-linen however. The poorest tradesman in Boulogne has a napkin on
+every cover, and silver forks with four prongs, which are used with the
+right hand, there being very little occasion for knives; for the meat
+is boiled or roasted to rags. The French beds are so high, that
+sometimes one is obliged to mount them by the help of steps; and this
+is also the case in Flanders. They very seldom use feather-beds; but
+they lie upon a paillasse, or bag of straw, over which are laid two,
+and sometimes three mattrasses. Their testers are high and
+old-fashioned, and their curtains generally of thin bays, red, or
+green, laced with taudry yellow, in imitation of gold. In some houses,
+however, one meets with furniture of stamped linen; but there is no
+such thing as a carpet to be seen, and the floors are in a very dirty
+condition. They have not even the implements of cleanliness in this
+country. Every chamber is furnished with an armoire, or clothes-press,
+and a chest of drawers, of very clumsy workmanship. Every thing shews a
+deficiency in the mechanic arts. There is not a door, nor a window,
+that shuts close. The hinges, locks, and latches, are of iron, coarsely
+made, and ill contrived. The very chimnies are built so open, that they
+admit both rain and sun, and all of them smoke intolerably. If there is
+no cleanliness among these people, much less shall we find delicacy,
+which is the cleanliness of the mind. Indeed they are utter strangers
+to what we call common decency; and I could give you some
+high-flavoured instances, at which even a native of Edinburgh would
+stop his nose. There are certain mortifying views of human nature,
+which undoubtedly ought to be concealed as much as possible, in order
+to prevent giving offence: and nothing can be more absurd, than to
+plead the difference of custom in different countries, in defence of
+these usages which cannot fail giving disgust to the organs and senses
+of all mankind. Will custom exempt from the imputation of gross
+indecency a French lady, who shifts her frowsy smock in presence of a
+male visitant, and talks to him of her lavement, her medecine, and her
+bidet! An Italian signora makes no scruple of telling you, she is such
+a day to begin a course of physic for the pox. The celebrated reformer
+of the Italian comedy introduces a child befouling itself, on the
+stage, OE, NO TI SENTI? BISOGNA DESFASSARLO, (fa cenno che sentesi mal
+odore). I have known a lady handed to the house of office by her
+admirer, who stood at the door, and entertained her with bons mots all
+the time she was within. But I should be glad to know, whether it is
+possible for a fine lady to speak and act in this manner, without
+exciting ideas to her own disadvantage in the mind of every man who has
+any imagination left, and enjoys the entire use of his senses,
+howsoever she may be authorised by the customs of her country? There is
+nothing so vile or repugnant to nature, but you may plead prescription
+for it, in the customs of some nation or other. A Parisian likes
+mortified flesh: a native of Legiboli will not taste his fish till it
+is quite putrefied: the civilized inhabitants of Kamschatka get drunk
+with the urine of their guests, whom they have already intoxicated: the
+Nova Zemblans make merry on train-oil: the Groenlanders eat in the same
+dish with their dogs: the Caffres, at the Cape of Good Hope, piss upon
+those whom they delight to honour, and feast upon a sheep's intestines
+with their contents, as the greatest dainty that can be presented. A
+true-bred Frenchman dips his fingers, imbrowned with snuff, into his
+plate filled with ragout: between every three mouthfuls, he produces
+his snuff-box, and takes a fresh pinch, with the most graceful
+gesticulations; then he displays his handkerchief, which may be termed
+the flag of abomination, and, in the use of both, scatters his favours
+among those who have the happiness to sit near him. It must be owned,
+however, that a Frenchman will not drink out of a tankard, in which,
+perhaps, a dozen of filthy mouths have flabbered, as is the custom in
+England. Here every individual has his own gobelet, which stands before
+him, and he helps himself occasionally with wine or water, or both,
+which likewise stand upon the table. But I know no custom more beastly
+than that of using water-glasses, in which polite company spirt, and
+squirt, and spue the filthy scourings of their gums, under the eyes of
+each other. I knew a lover cured of his passion, by seeing this nasty
+cascade discharged from the mouth of his mistress. I don't doubt but I
+shall live to see the day, when the hospitable custom of the antient
+Aegyptians will be revived; then a conveniency will be placed behind
+every chair in company, with a proper provision of waste paper, that
+individuals may make themselves easy without parting company. I insist
+upon it, that this practice would not be more indelicate than that
+which is now in use. What then, you will say, must a man sit with his
+chops and fingers up to the ears and knuckles in grease? No; let those
+who cannot eat without defiling themselves, step into another room,
+provided with basons and towels: but I think it would be better to
+institute schools, where youth may learn to eat their victuals, without
+daubing themselves, or giving offence to the eyes of one another.
+
+The bourgeois of Boulogne have commonly soup and bouilli at noon, and a
+roast, with a sallad, for supper; and at all their meals there is a
+dessert of fruit. This indeed is the practice all over France. On
+meagre days they eat fish, omelettes, fried beans, fricassees of eggs
+and onions, and burnt cream. The tea which they drink in the afternoon
+is rather boiled than infused; it is sweetened all together with coarse
+sugar, and drank with an equal quantity of boiled milk.
+
+We had the honour to be entertained the other day by our landlord, Mr.
+B--, who spared no cost on this banquet, exhibited for the glory of
+France. He had invited a newmarried couple, together with the husband's
+mother and the lady's father, who was one of the noblesse of Montreuil,
+his name Mons. L--y. There were likewise some merchants of the town,
+and Mons. B--'s uncle, a facetious little man, who had served in the
+English navy, and was as big and as round as a hogshead; we were
+likewise favoured with the company of father K--, a native of Ireland,
+who is vicaire or curate of the parish; and among the guests was Mons.
+L--y's son, a pretty boy, about thirteen or fourteen years of age. The
+repas served up in three services, or courses, with entrees and hors
+d'oeuvres, exclusive of the fruit, consisted of about twenty dishes,
+extremely well dressed by the rotisseur, who is the best cook I ever
+knew, in France, or elsewhere; but the plates were not presented with
+much order. Our young ladies did not seem to be much used to do the
+honours of the table. The most extraordinary circumstance that I
+observed on this occasion--as, that all the French who were present ate
+of every dish that appeared; and I am told, that if there had been an
+hundred articles more, they would have had a trial of each. This is
+what they call doing justice to the founder. Mons. L--y was placed at
+the head of the table and indeed he was the oracle and orator of the
+company; tall, thin, and weather-beaten, not unlike the picture of Don
+Quixote after he had lost his teeth. He had been garde du corps, or
+life-guardman at Versailles; and by virtue of this office he was
+perfectly well acquainted with the persons of the king and the dauphin,
+with the characters of the ministers and grandees, and, in a word, with
+all the secrets of state, on which he held forth with equal solemnity
+and elocution. He exclaimed against the jesuits, and the farmers of the
+revenue, who, he said, had ruined France. Then, addressing himself to
+me, asked, if the English did not every day drink to the health of
+madame la marquise? I did not at first comprehend his meaning; but
+answered in general, that the English were not deficient in
+complaisance for the ladies. "Ah! (cried he) she is the best friend
+they have in the world. If it had not been for her, they would not have
+such reason to boast of the advantages of the war." I told him the only
+conquest which the French had made in the war, was atchieved by one of
+her generals: I meant the taking of Mahon. But I did not choose to
+prosecute the discourse, remembering that in the year 1749, I had like
+to have had an affair with a Frenchman at Ghent, who affirmed, that all
+the battles gained by the great duke of Marlborough were purposely lost
+by the French generals, in order to bring the schemes of madame de
+Maintenon into disgrace. This is no bad resource for the national
+vanity of these people: though, in general, they are really persuaded,
+that theirs is the richest, the bravest, the happiest, and the most
+powerful nation under the sun; and therefore, without some such cause,
+they must be invincible. By the bye, the common people here still
+frighten their wayward children with the name of Marlborough. Mr. B--'s
+son, who was nursed at a peasant's house, happening one day, after he
+was brought home, to be in disgrace with his father, who threatened to
+correct him, the child ran for protection to his mother, crying,
+"Faites sortir ce vilaine Malbroug," "Turn out that rogue Marlborough."
+It is amazing to hear a sensible Frenchman assert, that the revenues of
+France amount to four hundred millions of livres, about twenty millions
+sterling, clear of all incumbrances, when in fact their clear revenue
+is not much above ten. Without all doubt they have reason to inveigh
+against the fermiers generaux, who oppress the people in raising the
+taxes, not above two-thirds of which are brought into the king's
+coffers: the rest enriches themselves, and enables them to bribe high
+for the protection of the great, which is the only support they have
+against the remonstrances of the states and parliaments, and the
+suggestions of common sense; which will ever demonstrate this to be, of
+all others, the most pernicious method of supplying the necessities of
+government.
+
+Mons. L--y seasoned the severity of his political apothegms with
+intermediate sallies of mirth and gallantry. He ogled the venerable
+gentlewoman his commere, who sat by him. He looked, sighed, and
+languished, sung tender songs, and kissed the old lady's hand with all
+the ardour of a youthful admirer. I unfortunately congratulated him on
+having such a pretty young gentleman to his son. He answered, sighing,
+that the boy had talents, but did not put them to a proper use--"Long
+before I attained his age (said he) I had finished my rhetoric."
+Captain B--, who had eaten himself black in the face, and, with the
+napkin under his chin, was no bad representation of Sancho Panza in the
+suds, with the dishclout about his neck, when the duke's scullions
+insisted upon shaving him; this sea-wit, turning to the boy, with a
+waggish leer, "I suppose (said he) you don't understand the figure of
+amplification so well as Monsieur your father." At that instant, one of
+the nieces, who knew her uncle to be very ticklish, touched him under
+the short ribs, on which the little man attempted to spring up, but
+lost the centre of gravity. He overturned his own plate in the lap of
+the person that sat next to him, and falling obliquely upon his own
+chair, both tumbled down upon the floor together, to the great
+discomposure of the whole company; for the poor man would have been
+actually strangled, had not his nephew loosed his stock with great
+expedition. Matters being once more adjusted, and the captain condoled
+on his disaster, Mons. L--y took it in his head to read his son a
+lecture upon filial obedience. This was mingled with some sharp
+reproof, which the boy took so ill that he retired. The old lady
+observed that he had been too severe: her daughter-in-law, who was very
+pretty, said her brother had given him too much reason; hinting, at the
+same time, that he was addicted to some terrible vices; upon which
+several individuals repeated the interjection, ah! ah! "Yes (said Mons.
+L--y, with a rueful aspect) the boy has a pernicious turn for gaming:
+in one afternoon he lost, at billiards, such a sum as gives me horror
+to think of it." "Fifty sols in one afternoon," (cried the sister).
+"Fifty sols! (exclaimed the mother-in-law, with marks of astonishment)
+that's too much--that's too much!--he's to blame-- he's to blame! but
+youth, you know, Mons. L--y--ah! vive la jeunesse!"--"et l'amour!"
+cried the father, wiping his eyes, squeezing her hand, and looking
+tenderly upon her. Mr. B-- took this opportunity to bring in the young
+gentleman, who was admitted into favour, and received a second
+exhortation. Thus harmony was restored, and the entertainment concluded
+with fruit, coffee, and liqueurs.
+
+When a bourgeois of Boulogne takes the air, he goes in a one-horse
+chaise, which is here called cabriolet, and hires it for half-a-crown a
+day. There are also travelling chaises, which hold four persons, two
+seated with their faces to the horses, and two behind their backs; but
+those vehicles are all very ill made, and extremely inconvenient. The
+way of riding most used in this place is on assback. You will see every
+day, in the skirts of the town, a great number of females thus mounted,
+with the feet on either side occasionally, according as the wind blows,
+so that sometimes the right and sometimes the left hand guides the
+beast: but in other parts of France, as well as in Italy, the ladies
+sit on horseback with their legs astride, and are provided with drawers
+for that purpose.
+
+When I said the French people were kept in good humour by the fopperies
+of their religion, I did not mean that there were no gloomy spirits
+among them. There will be fanatics in religion, while there are people
+of a saturnine disposition, and melancholy turn of mind. The character
+of a devotee, which is hardly known in England, is very common here.
+You see them walking to and from church at all hours, in their hoods
+and long camblet cloaks, with a slow pace, demure aspect, and downcast
+eye. Those who are poor become very troublesome to the monks, with
+their scruples and cases of conscience: you may see them on their
+knees, at the confessional, every hour in the day. The rich devotee has
+her favourite confessor, whom she consults and regales in private, at
+her own house; and this spiritual director generally governs the whole
+family. For my part I never knew a fanatic that was not an hypocrite at
+bottom. Their pretensions to superior sanctity, and an absolute
+conquest over all the passions, which human reason was never yet able
+to subdue, introduce a habit of dissimulation, which, like all other
+habits, is confirmed by use, till at length they become adepts in the
+art and science of hypocrisy. Enthusiasm and hypocrisy are by no means
+incompatible. The wildest fanatics I ever knew, were real sensualists
+in their way of living, and cunning cheats in their dealings with
+mankind.
+
+Among the lower class of people at Boulogne, those who take the lead,
+are the sea-faring men, who live in one quarter, divided into classes,
+and registered for the service of the king. They are hardy and
+raw-boned, exercise the trade of fishermen and boatmen, and propagate
+like rabbits. They have put themselves under the protection of a
+miraculous image of the Virgin Mary, which is kept in one of their
+churches, and every year carried in procession. According to the
+legend, this image was carried off, with other pillage, by the English,
+when they took Boulogne, in the reign of Henry VIII. The lady, rather
+than reside in England, where she found a great many heretics, trusted
+herself alone in an open boat, and crossed the sea to the road of
+Boulogne, where she was seen waiting for a pilot. Accordingly a boat
+put off to her assistance, and brought her safe into the harbour: since
+which time she has continued to patronize the watermen of Boulogne. At
+present she is very black and very ugly, besides being cruelly
+mutilated in different parts of her body, which I suppose have been
+amputated, and converted into tobacco-stoppers; but once a year she is
+dressed in very rich attire, and carried in procession, with a silver
+boat, provided at the expence of the sailors. That vanity which
+characterises the French extends even to the canaille. The lowest
+creature among them is sure to have her ear-rings and golden cross
+hanging about her neck. Indeed this last is an implement of
+superstition as well as of dress, without which no female appears. The
+common people here, as in all countries where they live poorly and
+dirtily, are hard-featured, and of very brown, or rather tawny
+complexions. As they seldom eat meat, their juices are destitute of
+that animal oil which gives a plumpness and smoothness to the skin, and
+defends those fine capillaries from the injuries of the weather, which
+would otherwise coalesce, or be shrunk up, so as to impede the
+circulation on the external surface of the body. As for the dirt, it
+undoubtedly blocks up the pores of the skin, and disorders the
+perspiration; consequently must contribute to the scurvy, itch, and
+other cutaneous distempers.
+
+In the quarter of the matelots at Boulogne, there is a number of poor
+Canadians, who were removed from the island of St. John, in the gulph
+of St. Laurence, when it was reduced by the English. These people are
+maintained at the expence of the king, who allows them soldier's pay,
+that is five sols, or two-pence halfpenny a day; or rather three sols
+and ammunition bread. How the soldiers contrive to subsist upon this
+wretched allowance, I cannot comprehend: but, it must be owned, that
+those invalids who do duty at Boulogne betray no marks of want. They
+are hale and stout, neatly and decently cloathed, and on the whole look
+better than the pensioners of Chelsea.
+
+About three weeks ago I was favoured with a visit by one Mr. M--, an
+English gentleman, who seems far gone in a consumption. He passed the
+last winter at Nismes in Languedoc, and found himself much better in
+the beginning of summer, when he embarked at Cette, and returned by sea
+to England. He soon relapsed, however, and (as he imagines) in
+consequence of a cold caught at sea. He told me, his intention was to
+try the South again, and even to go as far as Italy. I advised him to
+make trial of the air of Nice, where I myself proposed to reside. He
+seemed to relish my advice, and proceeded towards Paris in his own
+carriage.
+
+I shall to-morrow ship my great chests on board of a ship bound to
+Bourdeaux; they are directed, and recommended to the care of a merchant
+of that place, who will forward them by Thoulouse, and the canal of
+Languedoc, to his correspondent at Cette, which is the sea-port of
+Montpellier. The charge of their conveyance to Bourdeaux does not
+exceed one guinea. They consist of two very large chests and a trunk,
+about a thousand pounds weight; and the expence of transporting them
+from Bourdeaux to Cette, will not exceed thirty livres. They are
+already sealed with lead at the customhouse, that they may be exempted
+from further visitation. This is a precaution which every traveller
+takes, both by sea and land: he must likewise provide himself with a
+passe-avant at the bureau, otherwise he may be stopped, and rummaged at
+every town through which he passes. I have hired a berline and four
+horses to Paris, for fourteen loui'dores; two of which the voiturier is
+obliged to pay for a permission from the farmers of the poste; for
+every thing is farmed in this country; and if you hire a carriage, as I
+have done, you must pay twelve livres, or half-a-guinea, for every
+person that travels in it. The common coach between Calais and Paris,
+is such a vehicle as no man would use, who has any regard to his own
+case and convenience and it travels at the pace of an English waggon.
+
+In ten days I shall set out on my journey; and I shall leave Boulogne
+with regret. I have been happy in the acquaintance of Mrs. B--, and a
+few British families in the place; and it was my good fortune to meet
+here with two honest gentlemen, whom I had formerly known in Paris, as
+well as with some of my countrymen, officers in the service of France.
+My next will be from Paris. Remember me to our friends at A--'s. I am a
+little heavy-hearted at the prospect of removing to such a distance
+from you. It is a moot point whether I shall ever return. My health is
+very precarious. Adieu.
+
+
+
+LETTER VI
+
+PARIS, October 12, 1763.
+
+DEAR SIR,--Of our journey from Boulogne I have little to say. The
+weather was favourable, and the roads were in tolerable order. We found
+good accommodation at Montreuil and Amiens; but in every other place
+where we stopped, we met with abundance of dirt, and the most flagrant
+imposition. I shall not pretend to describe the cities of Abbeville and
+Amiens, which we saw only en passant; nor take up your time with an
+account of the stables and palace of Chantilly, belonging to the prince
+of Conde, which we visited the last day of our journey; nor shall I
+detain you with a detail of the Trefors de St. Denis, which, together
+with the tombs in the abbey church, afforded us some amusement while
+our dinner was getting ready. All these particulars are mentioned in
+twenty different books of tours, travels, and directions, which you
+have often perused. I shall only observe, that the abbey church is the
+lightest piece of Gothic architecture I have seen, and the air within
+seems perfectly free from that damp and moisture, so perceivable in all
+our old cathedrals. This must be owing to the nature of its situation.
+There are some fine marble statues that adorn the tombs of certain
+individuals here interred; but they are mostly in the French taste,
+which is quite contrary to the simplicity of the antients. Their
+attitudes are affected, unnatural, and desultory; and their draperies
+fantastic; or, as one of our English artists expressed himself, they
+are all of a flutter. As for the treasures, which are shewn on certain
+days to the populace gratis, they are contained in a number of presses,
+or armoires, and, if the stones are genuine, they must be inestimable:
+but this I cannot believe. Indeed I have been told, that what they shew
+as diamonds are no more than composition: nevertheless, exclusive of
+these, there are some rough stones of great value, and many curiosities
+worth seeing. The monk that shewed them was the very image of our
+friend Hamilton, both in his looks and manner.
+
+I have one thing very extraordinary to observe of the French auberges,
+which seems to be a remarkable deviation from the general character of
+the nation. The landlords, hostesses, and servants of the inns upon the
+road, have not the least dash of complaisance in their behaviour to
+strangers. Instead of coming to the door, to receive you as in England,
+they take no manner of notice of you; but leave you to find or enquire
+your way into the kitchen, and there you must ask several times for a
+chamber, before they seem willing to conduct you up stairs. In general,
+you are served with the appearance of the most mortifying indifference,
+at the very time they are laying schemes for fleecing you of your
+money. It is a very odd contrast between France and England; in the
+former all the people are complaisant but the publicans; in the latter
+there is hardly any complaisance but among the publicans. When I said
+all the people in France, I ought also to except those vermin who
+examine the baggage of travellers in different parts of the kingdom.
+Although our portmanteaus were sealed with lead, and we were provided
+with a passe-avant from the douane, our coach was searched at the gate
+of Paris by which we entered; and the women were obliged to get out,
+and stand in the open street, till this operation was performed.
+
+I had desired a friend to provide lodgings for me at Paris, in the
+Fauxbourg St. Germain; and accordingly we found ourselves accommodated
+at the Hotel de Montmorency, with a first floor, which costs me ten
+livres a day. I should have put up with it had it been less polite; but
+as I have only a few days to stay in this place, and some visits to
+receive, I am not sorry that my friend has exceeded his commission. I
+have been guilty of another piece of extravagance in hiring a carosse
+de remise, for which I pay twelve livres a day. Besides the article of
+visiting, I could not leave Paris, without carrying my wife and the
+girls to see the most remarkable places in and about this capital, such
+as the Luxemburg, the Palais-Royal, the Thuilleries, the Louvre, the
+Invalids, the Gobelins, &c. together with Versailles, Trianon, Marli,
+Meudon, and Choissi; and therefore, I thought the difference in point
+of expence would not be great, between a carosse de remise and a
+hackney coach. The first are extremely elegant, if not too much
+ornamented, the last are very shabby and disagreeable. Nothing gives me
+such chagrin, as the necessity I am under to hire a valet de place, as
+my own servant does not speak the language. You cannot conceive with
+what eagerness and dexterity those rascally valets exert themselves in
+pillaging strangers. There is always one ready in waiting on your
+arrival, who begins by assisting your own servant to unload your
+baggage, and interests himself in your affairs with such artful
+officiousness, that you will find it difficult to shake him off, even
+though you are determined beforehand against hiring any such domestic.
+He produces recommendations from his former masters, and the people of
+the house vouch for his honesty.
+
+The truth is, those fellows are very handy, useful, and obliging; and
+so far honest, that they will not steal in the usual way. You may
+safely trust one of them to bring you a hundred loui'dores from your
+banker; but they fleece you without mercy in every other article of
+expence. They lay all your tradesmen under contribution; your taylor,
+barber, mantua-maker, milliner, perfumer, shoe-maker, mercer, jeweller,
+hatter, traiteur, and wine-merchant: even the bourgeois who owns your
+coach pays him twenty sols per day. His wages amount to twice as much,
+so that I imagine the fellow that serves me, makes above ten shillings
+a day, besides his victuals, which, by the bye, he has no right to
+demand. Living at Paris, to the best of my recollection, is very near
+twice as dear as it was fifteen years ago; and, indeed, this is the
+case in London; a circumstance that must be undoubtedly owing to an
+increase of taxes; for I don't find that in the articles of eating and
+drinking, the French people are more luxurious than they were
+heretofore. I am told the entrees, or duties, payed upon provision
+imported into Paris, are very heavy. All manner of butcher's meat and
+poultry are extremely good in this place. The beef is excellent. The
+wine, which is generally drank, is a very thin kind of Burgundy. I can
+by no means relish their cookery; but one breakfasts deliciously upon
+their petit pains and their pales of butter, which last is exquisite.
+
+The common people, and even the bourgeois of Paris live, at this
+season, chiefly on bread and grapes, which is undoubtedly very wholsome
+fare. If the same simplicity of diet prevailed in England, we should
+certainly undersell the French at all foreign markets for they are very
+slothful with all their vivacity and the great number of their holidays
+not only encourages this lazy disposition, but actually robs them of
+one half of what their labour would otherwise produce; so that, if our
+common people were not so expensive in their living, that is, in their
+eating and drinking, labour might be afforded cheaper in England than
+in France. There are three young lusty hussies, nieces or daughters of
+a blacksmith, that lives just opposite to my windows, who do nothing
+from morning till night. They eat grapes and bread from seven till
+nine, from nine till twelve they dress their hair, and are all the
+afternoon gaping at the window to view passengers. I don't perceive
+that they give themselves the trouble either to make their beds, or
+clean their apartment. The same spirit of idleness and dissipation I
+have observed in every part of France, and among every class of people.
+
+Every object seems to have shrunk in its dimensions since I was last in
+Paris. The Louvre, the Palais-Royal, the bridges, and the river Seine,
+by no means answer the ideas I had formed of them from my former
+observation. When the memory is not very correct, the imagination
+always betrays her into such extravagances. When I first revisited my
+own country, after an absence of fifteen years, I found every thing
+diminished in the same manner, and I could scarce believe my own eyes.
+
+Notwithstanding the gay disposition of the French, their houses are all
+gloomy. In spite of all the ornaments that have been lavished on
+Versailles, it is a dismal habitation. The apartments are dark,
+ill-furnished, dirty, and unprincely. Take the castle, chapel, and
+garden all together, they make a most fantastic composition of
+magnificence and littleness, taste, and foppery. After all, it is in
+England only, where we must look for cheerful apartments, gay
+furniture, neatness, and convenience. There is a strange incongruity in
+the French genius. With all their volatility, prattle, and fondness for
+bons mots, they delight in a species of drawling, melancholy, church
+music. Their most favourite dramatic pieces are almost without
+incident; and the dialogue of their comedies consists of moral, insipid
+apophthegms, intirely destitute of wit or repartee. I know what I
+hazard by this opinion among the implicit admirers of Lully, Racine,
+and Moliere.
+
+I don't talk of the busts, the statues, and pictures which abound at
+Versailles, and other places in and about Paris, particularly the great
+collection of capital pieces in the Palais-royal, belonging to the duke
+of Orleans. I have neither capacity, nor inclination, to give a
+critique on these chef d'oeuvres, which indeed would take up a whole
+volume. I have seen this great magazine of painting three times, with
+astonishment; but I should have been better pleased, if there had not
+been half the number: one is bewildered in such a profusion, as not to
+know where to begin, and hurried away before there is time to consider
+one piece with any sort of deliberation. Besides, the rooms are all
+dark, and a great many of the pictures hang in a bad light. As for
+Trianon, Marli, and Choissi, they are no more than pigeon-houses, in
+respect to palaces; and, notwithstanding the extravagant eulogiums
+which you have heard of the French king's houses, I will venture to
+affirm that the king of England is better, I mean more comfortably,
+lodged. I ought, however, to except Fontainebleau, which I have not
+seen.
+
+The city of Paris is said to be five leagues, or fifteen miles, in
+circumference; and if it is really so, it must be much more populous
+than London; for the streets are very narrow, and the houses very high,
+with a different family on every floor. But I have measured the best
+plans of these two royal cities, and am certain that Paris does not
+take up near so much ground as London and Westminster occupy; and I
+suspect the number of its inhabitants is also exaggerated by those who
+say it amounts to eight hundred thousand, that is two hundred thousand
+more than are contained in the bills of mortality. The hotels of the
+French noblesse, at Paris, take up a great deal of room, with their
+courtyards and gardens; and so do their convents and churches. It must
+be owned, indeed, that their streets are wonderfully crouded with
+people and carriages.
+
+The French begin to imitate the English, but only in such particulars
+as render them worthy of imitation. When I was last at Paris, no person
+of any condition, male or female, appeared, but in full dress, even
+when obliged to come out early in the morning, and there was not such a
+thing to be seen as a perruque ronde; but at present I see a number of
+frocks and scratches in a morning, in the streets of this metropolis.
+They have set up a petite poste, on the plan of our penny-post, with
+some improvements; and I am told there is a scheme on foot for
+supplying every house with water, by leaden pipes, from the river
+Seine. They have even adopted our practice of the cold bath, which is
+taken very conveniently, in wooden houses, erected on the side of the
+river, the water of which is let in and out occasionally, by cocks
+fixed in the sides of the bath. There are different rooms for the
+different sexes: the accommodations are good, and the expence is a
+trifle. The tapestry of the Gobelins is brought to an amazing degree of
+perfection; and I am surprised that this furniture is not more in
+fashion among the great, who alone are able to purchase it. It would be
+a most elegant and magnificent ornament, which would always nobly
+distinguish their apartments from those, of an inferior rank; and in
+this they would run no risk of being rivalled by the bourgeois. At the
+village of Chaillot, in the neighbourhood of Paris, they make beautiful
+carpets and screen-work; and this is the more extraordinary, as there
+are hardly any carpets used in this kingdom. In almost all the
+lodging-houses, the floors are of brick, and have no other kind of
+cleaning, than that of being sprinkled with water, and swept once a
+day. These brick floors, the stone stairs, the want of wainscotting in
+the rooms, and the thick party-walls of stone, are, however, good
+preservatives against fire, which seldom does any damage in this city.
+Instead of wainscotting, the walls are covered with tapestry or damask.
+The beds in general are very good, and well ornamented, with testers
+and curtains.
+
+Twenty years ago the river Seine, within a mile of Paris, was as
+solitary as if it had run through a desert. At present the banks of it
+are adorned with a number of elegant houses and plantations, as far as
+Marli. I need not mention the machine at this place for raising water,
+because I know you are well acquainted with its construction; nor shall
+I say any thing more of the city of Paris, but that there is a new
+square, built upon an elegant plan, at the end of the garden of the
+Thuilleries: it is called Place de Louis XV. and, in the middle of it,
+there is a good equestrian statue of the reigning king.
+
+You have often heard that Louis XIV. frequently regretted, that his
+country did not afford gravel for the walks of his gardens, which are
+covered with a white, loose sand, very disagreeable both to the eyes
+and feet of those who walk upon it; but this is a vulgar mistake. There
+is plenty of gravel on the road between Paris and Versailles, as well
+as in many other parts of this kingdom; but the French, who are all for
+glare and glitter, think the other is more gay and agreeable: one would
+imagine they did not feel the burning reflexion from the white sand,
+which in summer is almost intolerable.
+
+In the character of the French, considered as a people, there are
+undoubtedly many circumstances truly ridiculous. You know the
+fashionable people, who go a hunting, are equipped with their jack
+boots, bag wigs, swords and pistols: but I saw the other day a scene
+still more grotesque. On the road to Choissi, a fiacre, or
+hackney-coach, stopped, and out came five or six men, armed with
+musquets, who took post, each behind a separate tree. I asked our
+servant who they were imagining they might be archers, or footpads of
+justice, in pursuit of some malefactor. But guess my surprise, when the
+fellow told me, they were gentlemen a la chasse. They were in fact come
+out from Paris, in this equipage, to take the diversion of
+hare-hunting; that is, of shooting from behind a tree at the hares that
+chanced to pass. Indeed, if they had nothing more in view, but to
+destroy the game, this was a very effectual method; for the hares are
+in such plenty in this neighbourhood, that I have seen a dozen
+together, in the same field. I think this way of hunting, in a coach or
+chariot, might be properly adopted at London, in favour of those
+aldermen of the city, who are too unwieldy to follow the hounds a
+horseback.
+
+The French, however, with all their absurdities, preserve a certain
+ascendancy over us, which is very disgraceful to our nation; and this
+appears in nothing more than in the article of dress. We are contented
+to be thought their apes in fashion; but, in fact, we are slaves to
+their taylors, mantua-makers, barbers, and other tradesmen. One would
+be apt to imagine that our own tradesmen had joined them in a
+combination against us. When the natives of France come to London, they
+appear in all public places, with cloaths made according to the fashion
+of their own country, and this fashion is generally admired by the
+English. Why, therefore, don't we follow it implicitly? No, we pique
+ourselves upon a most ridiculous deviation from the very modes we
+admire, and please ourselves with thinking this deviation is a mark of
+our spirit and liberty. But, we have not spirit enough to persist in
+this deviation, when we visit their country: otherwise, perhaps, they
+would come to admire and follow our example: for, certainly, in point
+of true taste, the fashions of both countries are equally absurd. At
+present, the skirts of the English descend from the fifth rib to the
+calf of the leg, and give the coat the form of a Jewish gaberdine; and
+our hats seem to be modelled after that which Pistol wears upon the
+stage. In France, the haunch buttons and pocketholes are within half a
+foot of the coat's extremity: their hats look as if they had been pared
+round the brims, and the crown is covered with a kind of cordage,
+which, in my opinion, produces a very beggarly effect. In every other
+circumstance of dress, male and female, the contrast between the two
+nations, appears equally glaring. What is the consequence? when an
+Englishman comes to Paris, he cannot appear until he has undergone a
+total metamorphosis. At his first arrival he finds it necessary to send
+for the taylor, perruquier, hatter, shoemaker, and every other
+tradesman concerned in the equipment of the human body. He must even
+change his buckles, and the form of his ruffles; and, though at the
+risque of his life, suit his cloaths to the mode of the season. For
+example, though the weather should be never so cold, he must wear his
+habit d'ete, or demi-saison. Without presuming to put on a warm dress
+before the day which fashion has fixed for that purpose; and neither
+old age nor infirmity will excuse a man for wearing his hat upon his
+head, either at home or abroad. Females are (if possible) still more
+subject to the caprices of fashion; and as the articles of their dress
+are more manifold, it is enough to make a man's heart ake to see his
+wife surrounded by a multitude of cotturieres, milliners, and
+tire-women. All her sacks and negligees must be altered and new
+trimmed. She must have new caps, new laces, new shoes, and her hair new
+cut. She must have her taffaties for the summer, her flowered silks for
+the spring and autumn, her sattins and damasks for winter. The good
+man, who used to wear the beau drop d'Angleterre, quite plain all the
+year round, with a long bob, or tye perriwig, must here provide himself
+with a camblet suit trimmed with silver for spring and autumn, with
+silk cloaths for summer, and cloth laced with gold, or velvet for
+winter; and he must wear his bag-wig a la pigeon. This variety of dress
+is absolutely indispensible for all those who pretend to any rank above
+the meer bourgeois. On his return to his own country, all this frippery
+is useless. He cannot appear in London until he has undergone another
+thorough metamorphosis; so that he will have some reason to think, that
+the tradesmen of Paris and London have combined to lay him under
+contribution: and they, no doubt, are the directors who regulate the
+fashions in both capitals; the English, however, in a subordinate
+capacity: for the puppets of their making will not pass at Paris, nor
+indeed in any other part of Europe; whereas a French petit maitre is
+reckoned a complete figure every where, London not excepted. Since it
+is so much the humour of the English at present to run abroad, I wish
+they had anti-gallican spirit enough to produce themselves in their own
+genuine English dress, and treat the French modes with the same
+philosophical contempt, which was shewn by an honest gentleman,
+distinguished by the name of Wig-Middleton. That unshaken patriot still
+appears in the same kind of scratch perriwig, skimming-dish hat, and
+slit sleeve, which were worn five-and-twenty years ago, and has
+invariably persisted in this garb, in defiance of all the revolutions
+of the mode. I remember a student in the temple, who, after a long and
+learned investigation of the to kalon, or beautiful, had resolution
+enough to let his beard grow, and wore it in all public places, until
+his heir at law applied for a commission of lunacy against him; then he
+submitted to the razor, rather than run any risque of being found non
+compos.
+
+Before I conclude, I must tell you, that the most reputable
+shop-keepers and tradesmen of Paris think it no disgrace to practise
+the most shameful imposition. I myself know an instance of one of the
+most creditable marchands in this capital, who demanded six francs an
+ell for some lutestring, laying his hand upon his breast at the same
+time, and declaring en conscience, that it had cost him within three
+sols of the money. Yet in less than three minutes, he sold it for four
+and a half, and when the buyer upbraided him with his former
+declaration, he shrugged up his shoulders, saying, il faut marchander.
+I don't mention this as a particular instance. The same mean
+disingenuity is universal all over France, as I have been informed by
+several persons of veracity.
+
+The next letter you have from me will probably be dated at Nismes, or
+Montpellier. Mean-while, I am ever--Yours.
+
+
+
+LETTER VII
+
+To MRS. M--. PARIS, October, 12, 1763.
+
+MADAM,--I shall be much pleased if the remarks I have made on the
+characters of the French people, can afford you the satisfaction you
+require. With respect to the ladies I can only judge from their
+exteriors: but, indeed, these are so characteristic, that one can
+hardly judge amiss; unless we suppose that a woman of taste and
+sentiment may be so overruled by the absurdity of what is called
+fashion, as to reject reason, and disguise nature, in order to become
+ridiculous or frightful. That this may be the case with some
+individuals, is very possible. I have known it happen in our own
+country, where the follies of the French are adopted and exhibited in
+the most aukward imitation: but the general prevalence of those
+preposterous modes, is a plain proof that there is a general want of
+taste, and a general depravity of nature. I shall not pretend to
+describe the particulars of a French lady's dress. These you are much
+better acquainted with than I can pretend to be: but this I will be
+bold to affirm, that France is the general reservoir from which all the
+absurdities of false taste, luxury, and extravagance have overflowed
+the different kingdoms and states of Europe. The springs that fill this
+reservoir, are no other than vanity and ignorance. It would be
+superfluous to attempt proving from the nature of things, from the
+first principles and use of dress, as well as from the consideration of
+natural beauty, and the practice of the ancients, who certainly
+understood it as well as the connoisseurs of these days, that nothing
+can be more monstrous, inconvenient, and contemptible, than the fashion
+of modern drapery. You yourself are well aware of all its defects, and
+have often ridiculed them in my hearing. I shall only mention one
+particular of dress essential to the fashion in this country, which
+seems to me to carry human affectation to the very farthest verge of
+folly and extravagance; that is, the manner in which the faces of the
+ladies are primed and painted. When the Indian chiefs were in England
+every body ridiculed their preposterous method of painting their cheeks
+and eye-lids; but this ridicule was wrong placed. Those critics ought
+to have considered, that the Indians do not use paint to make
+themselves agreeable; but in order to be the more terrible to their
+enemies. It is generally supposed, I think, that your sex make use of
+fard and vermillion for very different purposes; namely, to help a bad
+or faded complexion, to heighten the graces, or conceal the defects of
+nature, as well as the ravages of time. I shall not enquire at present,
+whether it is just and honest to impose in this manner on mankind: if
+it is not honest, it may be allowed to be artful and politic, and
+shews, at least, a desire of being agreeable. But to lay it on as the
+fashion in France prescribes to all the ladies of condition, who indeed
+cannot appear without this badge of distinction, is to disguise
+themselves in such a manner, as to render them odious and detestable to
+every spectator, who has the least relish left for nature and
+propriety. As for the fard or white, with which their necks and
+shoulders are plaistered, it may be in some measure excusable, as their
+skins are naturally brown, or sallow; but the rouge, which is daubed on
+their faces, from the chin up to the eyes, without the least art or
+dexterity, not only destroys all distinction of features, but renders
+the aspect really frightful, or at best conveys nothing but ideas of
+disgust and aversion. You know, that without this horrible masque no
+married lady is admitted at court, or in any polite assembly; and that
+it is a mark of distinction which no bourgeoise dare assume. Ladies of
+fashion only have the privilege of exposing themselves in these
+ungracious colours. As their faces are concealed under a false
+complexion, so their heads are covered with a vast load of false hair,
+which is frizzled on the forehead, so as exactly to resemble the wooly
+heads of the Guinea negroes. As to the natural hue of it, this is a
+matter of no consequence, for powder makes every head of hair of the
+same colour; and no woman appears in this country, from the moment she
+rises till night, without being compleatly whitened. Powder or meal was
+first used in Europe by the Poles, to conceal their scald heads; but
+the present fashion of using it, as well as the modish method of
+dressing the hair, must have been borrowed from the Hottentots, who
+grease their wooly heads with mutton suet and then paste it over with
+the powder called buchu. In like manner, the hair of our fine ladies is
+frizzled into the appearance of negroes wool, and stiffened with an
+abominable paste of hog's grease, tallow, and white powder. The present
+fashion, therefore, of painting the face, and adorning the head,
+adopted by the beau monde in France, is taken from those two polite
+nations the Chickesaws of America and the Hottentots of Africa. On the
+whole, when I see one of those fine creatures sailing along, in her
+taudry robes of silk and gauze, frilled, and flounced, and furbelowed,
+with her false locks, her false jewels, her paint, her patches, and
+perfumes; I cannot help looking upon her as the vilest piece of
+sophistication that art ever produced.
+
+This hideous masque of painting, though destructive of all beauty, is,
+however, favourable to natural homeliness and deformity. It accustoms
+the eyes of the other sex, and in time reconciles them to frightfull
+objects; it disables them from perceiving any distinction of features
+between woman and woman; and, by reducing all faces to a level, gives
+every female an equal chance for an admirer; being in this particular
+analogous to the practice of the antient Lacedemonians, who were
+obliged to chuse their helpmates in the dark. In what manner the
+insides of their heads are furnished, I would not presume to judge from
+the conversation of a very few to whom I have had access: but from the
+nature of their education, which I have heard described, and the
+natural vivacity of their tempers, I should expect neither sense,
+sentiment, nor discretion. From the nursery they are allowed, and even
+encouraged, to say every thing that comes uppermost; by which means
+they acquire a volubility of tongue, and a set of phrases, which
+constitutes what is called polite conversation. At the same time they
+obtain an absolute conquest over all sense of shame, or rather, they
+avoid acquiring this troublesome sensation; for it is certainly no
+innate idea. Those who have not governesses at home, are sent, for a
+few years, to a convent, where they lay in a fund of superstition that
+serves them for life: but I never heard they had the least opportunity
+of cultivating the mind, of exercising the powers of reason, or of
+imbibing a taste for letters, or any rational or useful accomplishment.
+After being taught to prattle, to dance and play at cards, they are
+deemed sufficiently qualified to appear in the grand monde, and to
+perform all the duties of that high rank and station in life. In
+mentioning cards, I ought to observe, that they learn to play not
+barely for amusement, but also with a view to advantage; and, indeed,
+you seldom meet with a native of France, whether male or female, who is
+not a compleat gamester, well versed in all the subtleties and finesses
+of the art. This is likewise the case all over Italy. A lady of a great
+house in Piedmont, having four sons, makes no scruple to declare, that
+the first shall represent the family, the second enter into the army,
+the third into the church, and that she will breed the fourth a
+gamester. These noble adventurers devote themselves in a particular
+manner to the entertainment of travellers from our country, because the
+English are supposed to be full of money, rash, incautious, and utterly
+ignorant of play. But such a sharper is most dangerous, when he hunts
+in couple with a female. I have known a French count and his wife, who
+found means to lay the most wary under contribution. He was smooth,
+supple, officious, and attentive: she was young, handsome,
+unprincipled, and artful. If the Englishman marked for prey was found
+upon his guard against the designs of the husband, then madam plied him
+on the side of gallantry. She displayed all the attractions of her
+person. She sung, danced, ogled, sighed, complimented, and complained.
+If he was insensible to all her charms, she flattered his vanity, and
+piqued his pride, by extolling the wealth and generosity of the
+English; and if he proved deaf to all these insinuations she, as her
+last stake, endeavoured to interest his humanity and compassion. She
+expatiated, with tears in her eyes, on the cruelty and indifference of
+her great relations; represented that her husband was no more than the
+cadet of a noble family--, that his provision was by no means suitable.
+either to the dignity of his rank, or the generosity of his
+disposition: that he had a law-suit of great consequence depending,
+which had drained all his finances; and, finally, that they should be
+both ruined, if they could not find some generous friend, who would
+accommodate them with a sum of money to bring the cause to a
+determination. Those who are not actuated by such scandalous motives,
+become gamesters from meer habit, and, having nothing more solid to
+engage their thoughts, or employ their time, consume the best part of
+their lives, in this worst of all dissipation. I am not ignorant that
+there are exceptions from this general rule: I know that France has
+produced a Maintenon, a Sevigine, a Scuderi, a Dacier, and a Chatelet;
+but I would no more deduce the general character of the French ladies
+from these examples, than I would call a field of hemp a flower-garden.
+because there might be in it a few lillies or renunculas planted by the
+hand of accident.
+
+Woman has been defined a weaker man; but in this country the men are,
+in my opinion, more ridiculous and insignificant than the women. They
+certainly are more disagreeable to a rational enquirer, because they
+are more troublesome. Of all the coxcombs on the face of the earth, a
+French petit maitre is the most impertinent: and they are all petit
+maitres from the marquis who glitters in lace and embroidery, to the
+garcon barbier covered with meal, who struts with his hair in a long
+queue, and his hat under his arm. I have already observed, that vanity
+is the great and universal mover among all ranks and degrees of people
+in this nation; and as they take no pains to conceal or controul it,
+they are hurried by it into the most ridiculous and indeed intolerable
+extravagance.
+
+When I talk of the French nation, I must again except a great number of
+individuals, from the general censure. Though I have a hearty contempt
+for the ignorance, folly, and presumption which characterise the
+generality, I cannot but respect the talents of many great men, who
+have eminently distinguished themselves in every art and science: these
+I shall always revere and esteem as creatures of a superior species,
+produced, for the wise purposes of providence, among the refuse of
+mankind. It would be absurd to conclude that the Welch or Highlanders
+are a gigantic people, because those mountains may have produced a few
+individuals near seven feet high. It would be equally absurd to suppose
+the French are a nation of philosophers, because France has given birth
+to a Des Cartes, a Maupertuis, a Reaumur, and a Buffon.
+
+I shall not even deny, that the French are by no means deficient in
+natural capacity; but they are at the same time remarkable for a
+natural levity, which hinders their youth from cultivating that
+capacity. This is reinforced by the most preposterous education, and
+the example of a giddy people, engaged in the most frivolous pursuits.
+A Frenchman is by some Jesuit, or other monk, taught to read his mother
+tongue, and to say his prayers in a language he does not understand. He
+learns to dance and to fence, by the masters of those noble sciences.
+He becomes a compleat connoisseur in dressing hair, and in adorning his
+own person, under the hands and instructions of his barber and valet de
+chambre. If he learns to play upon the flute or the fiddle, he is
+altogether irresistible. But he piques himself upon being polished
+above the natives of any other country by his conversation with the
+fair sex. In the course of this communication, with which he is
+indulged from his tender years, he learns like a parrot, by rote, the
+whole circle of French compliments, which you know are a set of phrases
+ridiculous even to a proverb; and these he throws out indiscriminately
+to all women, without distinction in the exercise of that kind of
+address, which is here distinguished by the name of gallantry: it is no
+more than his making love to every woman who will give him the hearing.
+It is an exercise, by the repetition of which he becomes very pert,
+very familiar, and very impertinent. Modesty, or diffidence, I have
+already said, is utterly unknown among them, and therefore I wonder
+there should be a term to express it in their language.
+
+If I was obliged to define politeness, I should call it, the art of
+making one's self agreeable. I think it an art that necessarily implies
+a sense of decorum, and a delicacy of sentiment. These are qualities,
+of which (as far as I have been able to observe) a Frenchman has no
+idea; therefore he never can be deemed polite, except by those persons
+among whom they are as little understood. His first aim is to adorn his
+own person with what he calls fine cloaths, that is the frippery of the
+fashion. It is no wonder that the heart of a female, unimproved by
+reason, and untinctured with natural good sense, should flutter at the
+sight of such a gaudy thing, among the number of her admirers: this
+impression is enforced by fustian compliments, which her own vanity
+interprets in a literal sense, and still more confirmed by the
+assiduous attention of the gallant, who, indeed, has nothing else to
+mind. A Frenchman in consequence of his mingling with the females from
+his infancy, not only becomes acquainted with all their customs and
+humours; but grows wonderfully alert in performing a thousand little
+offices, which are overlooked by other men, whose time hath been spent
+in making more valuable acquisitions. He enters, without ceremony, a
+lady's bed-chamber, while she is in bed, reaches her whatever she
+wants, airs her shift, and helps to put it on. He attends at her
+toilette, regulates the distribution of her patches, and advises where
+to lay on the paint. If he visits her when she is dressed, and
+perceives the least impropriety in her coeffure, he insists upon
+adjusting it with his own hands: if he sees a curl, or even a single
+hair amiss, he produces his comb, his scissars, and pomatum, and sets
+it to rights with the dexterity of a professed friseur. He 'squires her
+to every place she visits, either on business, or pleasure; and, by
+dedicating his whole time to her, renders himself necessary to her
+occasions. This I take to be the most agreeable side of his character:
+let us view him on the quarter of impertinence. A Frenchman pries into
+all your secrets with the most impudent and importunate curiosity, and
+then discloses them without remorse. If you are indisposed, he
+questions you about the symptoms of your disorder, with more freedom
+than your physician would presume to use; very often in the grossest
+terms. He then proposes his remedy (for they are all quacks), he
+prepares it without your knowledge, and worries you with solicitation
+to take it, without paying the least regard to the opinion of those
+whom you have chosen to take care of your health. Let you be ever so
+ill, or averse to company, he forces himself at all times into your
+bed-chamber, and if it is necessary to give him a peremptory refusal,
+he is affronted. I have known one of those petit maitres insist upon
+paying regular visits twice a day to a poor gentleman who was
+delirious; and he conversed with him on different subjects, till he was
+in his last agonies. This attendance is not the effect of attachment,
+or regard, but of sheer vanity, that he may afterwards boast of his
+charity and humane disposition: though, of all the people I have ever
+known, I think the French are the least capable of feeling for the
+distresses of their fellow creatures. Their hearts are not susceptible
+of deep impressions; and, such is their levity, that the imagination
+has not time to brood long over any disagreeable idea, or sensation. As
+a Frenchman piques himself on his gallantry, he no sooner makes a
+conquest of a female's heart, than he exposes her character, for the
+gratification of his vanity. Nay, if he should miscarry in his schemes,
+he will forge letters and stories, to the ruin of the lady's
+reputation. This is a species of perfidy which one would think should
+render them odious and detestable to the whole sex; but the case is
+otherwise. I beg your pardon, Madam; but women are never better
+pleased, than when they see one another exposed; and every individual
+has such confidence in her own superior charms and discretion, that she
+thinks she can fix the most volatile, and reform the most treacherous
+lover.
+
+If a Frenchman is admitted into your family, and distinguished by
+repeated marks of your friendship and regard, the first return he makes
+for your civilities is to make love to your wife, if she is handsome;
+if not, to your sister, or daughter, or niece. If he suffers a repulse
+from your wife, or attempts in vain to debauch your sister, or your
+daughter, or your niece, he will, rather than not play the traitor with
+his gallantry, make his addresses to your grandmother; and ten to one,
+but in one shape or another, he will find means to ruin the peace of a
+family, in which he has been so kindly entertained. What he cannot
+accomplish by dint of compliment, and personal attendance, he will
+endeavour to effect, by reinforcing these with billets-doux, songs, and
+verses, of which he always makes a provision for such purposes. If he
+is detected in these efforts of treachery, and reproached with his
+ingratitude, he impudently declares, that what he had done was no more
+than simple gallantry, considered in France as an indispensible duty on
+every man who pretended to good breeding. Nay, he will even affirm,
+that his endeavours to corrupt your wife, or your daughter, were the
+most genuine proofs he could give of his particular regard for your
+family.
+
+If a Frenchman is capable of real friendship, it must certainly be the
+most disagreeable present he can possibly make to a man of a true
+English character, You know, Madam, we are naturally taciturn, soon
+tired of impertinence, and much subject to fits of disgust. Your French
+friend intrudes upon you at all hours: he stuns you with his loquacity:
+he teases you with impertinent questions about your domestic and
+private affairs: he attempts to meddle in all your concerns; and forces
+his advice upon you with the most unwearied importunity: he asks the
+price of every thing you wear, and, so sure as you tell him undervalues
+it, without hesitation: he affirms it is in a bad taste, ill-contrived,
+ill-made; that you have been imposed upon both with respect to the
+fashion and the price; that the marquise of this, or the countess of
+that, has one that is perfectly elegant, quite in the bon ton, and yet
+it cost her little more than you gave for a thing that nobody would
+wear.
+
+If there were five hundred dishes at table, a Frenchman will eat of all
+of them, and then complain he has no appetite. This I have several
+times remarked. A friend of mine gained a considerable wager upon an
+experiment of this kind: the petit maitre ate of fourteen different
+plats, besides the dessert; then disparaged the cook, declaring he was
+no better than a marmiton, or turnspit.
+
+The French have the most ridiculous fondness for their hair, and this I
+believe they inherit from their remote ancestors. The first race of
+French kings were distinguished by their long hair, and certainly the
+people of this country consider it as an indispensible ornament. A
+Frenchman will sooner part with his religion than with his hair, which,
+indeed, no consideration will induce him to forego. I know a gentleman
+afflicted with a continual head-ach, and a defluxion on his eyes, who
+was told by his physician that the best chance he had for being cured,
+would be to have his head close shaved, and bathed every day in cold
+water. "How (cried he) cut my hair? Mr. Doctor, your most humble
+servant!" He dismissed his physician, lost his eye-sight, and almost
+his senses, and is now led about with his hair in a bag, and a piece of
+green silk hanging like a screen before his face. Count Saxe, and other
+military writers have demonstrated the absurdity of a soldier's wearing
+a long head of hair; nevertheless, every soldier in this country wears
+a long queue, which makes a delicate mark on his white cloathing; and
+this ridiculous foppery has descended even to the lowest class of
+people. The decrotteur, who cleans your shoes at the corner of the Pont
+Neuf, has a tail of this kind hanging down to his rump, and even the
+peasant who drives an ass loaded with dung, wears his hair en queue,
+though, perhaps, he has neither shirt nor breeches. This is the
+ornament upon which he bestows much time and pains, and in the
+exhibition of which he finds full gratification for his vanity.
+Considering the harsh features of the common people in this country,
+their diminutive stature, their grimaces, and that long appendage, they
+have no small resemblance to large baboons walking upright; and perhaps
+this similitude has helped to entail upon them the ridicule of their
+neighbours.
+
+A French friend tires out your patience with long visits; and, far from
+taking the most palpable hints to withdraw, when he perceives you
+uneasy he observes you are low-spirited, and therefore he will keep you
+company. This perseverance shews that he must either be void of
+penetration, or that his disposition must be truly diabolical. Rather
+than be tormented with such a fiend, a man had better turn him out of
+doors, even though at the hazard of being run thro' the body.
+
+The French are generally counted insincere, and taxed with want of
+generosity. But I think these reproaches are not well founded.
+High-flown professions of friendship and attachment constitute the
+language of common compliment in this country, and are never supposed
+to be understood in the literal acceptation of the words; and, if their
+acts of generosity are but very rare, we ought to ascribe that rarity,
+not so much to a deficiency of generous sentiments, as to their vanity
+and ostentation, which engrossing all their funds, utterly disable them
+from exerting the virtues of beneficence. Vanity, indeed, predominates
+among all ranks, to such a degree, that they are the greatest egotists
+in the world; and the most insignificant individual talks in company
+with the same conceit and arrogance, as a person of the greatest
+importance. Neither conscious poverty nor disgrace will restrain him in
+the least either from assuming his full share of the conversation, or
+making big addresses to the finest lady, whom he has the smallest
+opportunity to approach: nor is he restrained by any other
+consideration whatsoever. It is all one to him whether he himself has a
+wife of his own, or the lady a husband; whether she is designed for the
+cloister, or pre-ingaged to his best friend and benefactor. He takes it
+for granted that his addresses cannot but be acceptable; and, if he
+meets with a repulse, he condemns her taste; but never doubts his own
+qualifications.
+
+I have a great many things to say of their military character, and
+their punctilios of honour, which last are equally absurd and
+pernicious; but as this letter has run to an unconscionable length, I
+shall defer them till another opportunity. Mean-while, I have the
+honour to be, with very particular esteem--Madam, Your most obedient
+servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER VIII
+
+To MR. M--
+
+LYONS, October 19, 1763.
+
+DEAR SIR,--I was favoured with yours at Paris, and look upon your
+reproaches as the proof of your friendship. The truth is, I considered
+all the letters I have hitherto written on the subject of my travels,
+as written to your society in general, though they have been addressed
+to one individual of it; and if they contain any thing that can either
+amuse or inform, I desire that henceforth all I send may be freely
+perused by all the members.
+
+With respect to my health, about which you so kindly enquire, I have
+nothing new to communicate. I had reason to think that my bathing in
+the sea at Boulogne  produced a good effect, in strengthening my
+relaxed fibres. You know how subject I was to colds in England; that I
+could not stir abroad after sun-set, nor expose myself to the smallest
+damp, nor walk till the least moisture appeared on my skin, without
+being laid up for ten days or a fortnight. At Paris, however, I went
+out every day, with my hat under my arm, though the weather was wet and
+cold: I walked in the garden at Versailles even after it was dark, with
+my head uncovered, on a cold evening, when the ground was far from
+being dry: nay, at Marli, I sauntered above a mile through damp alleys,
+and wet grass: and from none of these risques did I feel the least
+inconvenience.
+
+In one of our excursions we visited the manufacture for porcelain,
+which the king of France has established at the village of St. Cloud,
+on the road to Versailles, and which is, indeed, a noble monument of
+his munificence. It is a very large building, both commodious and
+magnificent, where a great number of artists are employed, and where
+this elegant superfluity is carried to as great perfection as it ever
+was at Dresden. Yet, after all, I know not whether the porcelain made
+at Chelsea may not vie with the productions either of Dresden, or St.
+Cloud. If it falls short of either, it is not in the design, painting,
+enamel, or other ornaments, but only in the composition of the metal,
+and the method of managing it in the furnace. Our porcelain seems to be
+a partial vitrification of levigated flint and fine pipe clay, mixed
+together in a certain proportion; and if the pieces are not removed
+from the fire in the very critical moment, they will be either too
+little, or too much vitrified. In the first case, I apprehend they will
+not acquire a proper degree of cohesion; they will be apt to be
+corroded, discoloured, and to crumble, like the first essays that were
+made at Chelsea; in the second case, they will be little better than
+imperfect glass.
+
+There are three methods of travelling from Paris to Lyons, which, by
+the shortest road is a journey of about three hundred and sixty miles.
+One is by the diligence, or stagecoach, which performs it in five days;
+and every passenger pays one hundred livres, in consideration of which,
+he not only has a seat in the carriage, but is maintained on the road.
+The inconveniences attending this way of travelling are these. You are
+crouded into the carriage, to the number of eight persons, so as to sit
+very uneasy, and sometimes run the risque of being stifled among very
+indifferent company. You are hurried out of bed, at four, three, nay
+often at two o'clock in the morning. You are obliged to eat in the
+French way, which is very disagreeable to an English palate; and, at
+Chalons, you must embark upon the Saone in a boat, which conveys you to
+Lyons, so that the two last days of your journey are by water. All
+these were insurmountable objections to me, who am in such a bad state
+of health, troubled with an asthmatic cough, spitting, slow fever, and
+restlessness, which demands a continual change of place, as well as
+free air, and room for motion. I was this day visited by two young
+gentlemen, sons of Mr. Guastaldi, late minister from Genoa at London. I
+had seen them at Paris, at the house of the dutchess of Douglas. They
+came hither, with their conductor, in the diligence, and assured me,
+that nothing could be more disagreeable than their situation in that
+carriage.
+
+Another way of travelling in this country is to hire a coach and four
+horses; and this method I was inclined to take: but when I went to the
+bureau, where alone these voitures are to be had, I was given to
+understand, that it would cost me six-and-twenty guineas, and travel so
+slow that I should be ten days upon the road. These carriages are let
+by the same persons who farm the diligence; and for this they have an
+exclusive privilege, which makes them very saucy and insolent. When I
+mentioned my servant, they gave me to understand, that I must pay two
+loui'dores more for his seat upon the coach box. As I could not relish
+these terms, nor brook the thoughts of being so long upon the road, I
+had recourse to the third method, which is going post.
+
+In England you know I should have had nothing to do, but to hire a
+couple of post-chaises from stage to stage, with two horses in each;
+but here the case is quite otherwise. The post is farmed from the king,
+who lays travellers under contribution for his own benefit, and has
+published a set of oppressive ordonnances, which no stranger nor native
+dares transgress. The postmaster finds nothing but horses and guides:
+the carriage you yourself must provide. If there are four persons
+within the carriage, you are obliged to have six horses, and two
+postillions; and if your servant sits on the outside, either before or
+behind, you must pay for a seventh. You pay double for the first stage
+from Paris, and twice double for passing through Fontainbleau when the
+court is there, as well as at coming to Lyons, and at leaving this
+city. These are called royal posts, and are undoubtedly a scandalous
+imposition.
+
+There are two post roads from Paris to Lyons, one of sixty-five posts,
+by the way of Moulins; the other of fifty-nine, by the way of Dijon in
+Burgundy. This last I chose, partly to save sixty livres, and partly to
+see the wine harvest of Burgundy, which, I was told, was a season of
+mirth and jollity among all ranks of people. I hired a very good coach
+for ten loui'dores to Lyons, and set out from Paris on the thirteenth
+instant, with six horses, two postillions, and my own servant on
+horseback. We made no stop at Fontainbleau, though the court was there;
+but lay at Moret, which is one stage further, a very paltry little town
+where, however, we found good accommodation.
+
+I shall not pretend to describe the castle or palace of Fontainbleau,
+of which I had only a glimpse in passing; but the forest, in the middle
+of which it stands, is a noble chace of great extent, beautifully wild
+and romantic, well stored with game of all sorts, and abounding with
+excellent timber. It put me in mind of the New Forest in Hampshire; but
+the hills, rocks, and mountains, with which it is diversified, render
+it more agreeable.
+
+The people of this country dine at noon, and travellers always find an
+ordinary prepared at every auberge, or public-house, on the road. Here
+they sit down promiscuously, and dine at so much a head. The usual
+price is thirty sols for dinner, and forty for supper, including
+lodging; for this moderate expence they have two courses and a dessert.
+If you eat in your own apartment, you pay, instead of forty sols,
+three, and in some places, four livres ahead. I and my family could not
+well dispense with our tea and toast in the morning, and had no stomach
+to eat at noon. For my own part, I hate French cookery, and abominate
+garlick, with which all their ragouts, in this part of the country, are
+highly seasoned: we therefore formed a different plan of living upon
+the road. Before we left Paris, we laid in a stock of tea, chocolate,
+cured neats' tongues, and saucissons, or Bologna sausages, both of
+which we found in great perfection in that capital, where, indeed,
+there are excellent provisions of all sorts. About ten in the morning
+we stopped to breakfast at some auberge, where we always found bread,
+butter, and milk. In the mean time, we ordered a poulard or two to be
+roasted, and these, wrapped in a napkin, were put into the boot of the
+coach, together with bread, wine, and water. About two or three in the
+afternoon, while the horses were changing, we laid a cloth upon our
+knees, and producing our store, with a few earthen plates, discussed
+our short meal without further ceremony. This was followed by a dessert
+of grapes and other fruit, which we had also provided. I must own I
+found these transient refreshments much more agreeable than any regular
+meal I ate upon the road. The wine commonly used in Burgundy is so weak
+and thin, that you would not drink it in England. The very best which
+they sell at Dijon, the capital of the province, for three livres a
+bottle, is in strength, and even in flavour, greatly inferior to what I
+have drank in London. I believe all the first growth is either consumed
+in the houses of the noblesse, or sent abroad to foreign markets. I
+have drank excellent Burgundy at Brussels for a florin a bottle; that
+is, little more than twenty pence sterling.
+
+The country from the forest of Fontainbleau to the Lyonnois, through
+which we passed, is rather agreeable than fertile, being part of
+Champagne and the dutchy of Burgundy, watered by three pleasant
+pastoral rivers, the Seine, the Yonne, and the Saone. The flat country
+is laid out chiefly for corn; but produces more rye than wheat. Almost
+all the ground seems to be ploughed up, so that there is little or
+nothing lying fallow. There are very few inclosures, scarce any meadow
+ground, and, so far as I could observe, a great scarcity of cattle. We
+sometimes found it very difficult  to procure half a pint of milk for
+our tea. In Burgundy I saw a peasant ploughing the ground with a
+jack-ass, a lean cow, and a he-goat, yoked together. It is generally
+observed, that a great number of black cattle are bred and fed on the
+mountains of Burgundy, which are the highest lands in France; but I saw
+very few. The peasants in France are so wretchedly poor, and so much
+oppressed by their landlords, that they cannot afford to inclose their
+grounds, or give a proper respite to their lands; or to stock their
+farms with a sufficient number of black cattle to produce the necessary
+manure, without which agriculture can never be carried to any degree of
+perfection. Indeed, whatever efforts a few individuals may make for the
+benefit of their own estates, husbandry in France will never be
+generally improved, until the farmer is free and independent.
+
+From the frequency of towns and villages, I should imagine this country
+is very populous; yet it must be owned, that the towns are in general
+thinly inhabited. I saw a good number of country seats and plantations
+near the banks of the rivers, on each side; and a great many convents,
+sweetly situated, on rising grounds, where the air is most pure, and
+the prospect most agreeable. It is surprising to see how happy the
+founders of those religious houses have been in their choice of
+situations, all the world over.
+
+In passing through this country, I was very much struck with the sight
+of large ripe clusters of grapes, entwined with the briars and thorns
+of common hedges on the wayside. The mountains of Burgundy are covered
+with vines from the bottom to the top, and seem to be raised by nature
+on purpose to extend the surface, and to expose it the more
+advantageously to the rays of the sun. The vandange was but just begun,
+and the people were employed in gathering the grapes; but I saw no
+signs of festivity among them. Perhaps their joy was a little damped by
+the bad prospect of their harvest; for they complained that the weather
+had been so unfavourable as to hinder the grapes from ripening. I
+thought, indeed, there was something uncomfortable in seeing the
+vintage thus retarded till the beginning of winter: for, in some parts,
+I found the weather extremely cold; particularly at a place called
+Maison-neuve, where we lay, there was a hard frost, and in the morning
+the pools were covered with a thick crust of ice. My personal
+adventures on the road were such as will not bear a recital. They
+consisted of petty disputes with landladies, post-masters, and
+postillions. The highways seem to be perfectly safe. We did not find
+that any robberies were ever committed, although we did not see one of
+the marechaussee from Paris to Lyons. You know the marechaussee are a
+body of troopers well mounted, maintained in France as safe-guards to
+the public roads. It is a reproach upon England that some such patrol
+is not appointed for the protection of travellers.
+
+At Sens in Champagne, my servant, who had rode on before to bespeak
+fresh horses, told me, that the domestic of another company had been
+provided before him, altho' it was not his turn, as he had arrived
+later at the post. Provoked at this partiality, I resolved to chide the
+post-master, and accordingly addressed myself to a person who stood at
+the door of the auberge. He was a jolly figure, fat and fair, dressed
+in an odd kind of garb, with a gold laced cap on his head, and a
+cambric handkerchief pinned to his middle. The sight of such a
+fantastic petit maitre, in the character of a post-master, increased my
+spleen. I called to him with an air of authority, mixed with
+indignation, and when he came up to the coach, asked in a peremptory
+tone, if he did not understand the king's ordonnance concerning the
+regulation of the posts? He laid his hand upon his breast; but before
+he could make any answer, I pulled out the post-book, and began to
+read, with great vociferation, the article which orders, that the
+traveller who comes first shall be first served. By this time the fresh
+horses being put to the carriage, and the postillions mounted, the
+coach set off all of a sudden, with uncommon speed. I imagined the
+post-master had given the fellows a signal to be gone, and, in this
+persuasion, thrusting my head out at the window, I bestowed some
+epithets upon him, which must have sounded very harsh in the ears of a
+Frenchman. We stopped for a refreshment at a little town called
+Joigne-ville, where (by the bye) I was scandalously imposed upon, and
+even abused by a virago of a landlady; then proceeding to the next
+stage, I was given to understand we could not be supplied with fresh
+horses. Here I perceived at the door of the inn, the same person whom I
+had reproached at Sens. He came up to the coach, and told me, that
+notwithstanding what the guides had said, I should have fresh horses in
+a few minutes. I imagined he was master both of this house and the
+auberge at Sens, between which he passed and repassed occasionally; and
+that he was now desirous of making me amends for the affront he had put
+upon me at the other place. Observing that one of the trunks behind was
+a little displaced, he assisted my servant in adjusting it: then he
+entered into conversation with me, and gave me to understand, that in a
+post-chaise, which we had passed, was an English gentleman on his
+return from Italy. I wanted to know who he was, and when he said he
+could not tell, I asked him, in a very abrupt manner, why he had not
+enquired of his servant. He shrugged up his shoulders, and retired to
+the inn door. Having waited about half an hour, I beckoned to him, and
+when he approached, upbraided him with having told me that I should be
+supplied with fresh horses in a few minutes: he seemed shocked, and
+answered, that he thought he had reason for what he said, observing,
+that it was as disagreeable to him as to me to wait for a relay. As it
+began to rain, I pulled up the glass in his face, and he withdrew again
+to the door, seemingly ruffled at my deportment. In a little time the
+horses arrived, and three of them were immediately put to a very
+handsome post-chaise, into which he stepped, and set out, accompanied
+by a man in a rich livery on horseback. Astonished at this
+circumstance, I asked the hostler who he was, and he replied, that he
+was a man of fashion (un seigneur) who lived in the neighbourhood of
+Auxerre. I was much mortified to find that I had treated a nobleman so
+scurvily, and scolded my own people for not having more penetration
+than myself. I dare say he did not fail to descant upon the brutal
+behaviour of the Englishman; and that my mistake served with him to
+confirm the national reproach of bluntness, and ill breeding, under
+which we lie in this country. The truth is, I was that day more than
+usually peevish, from the bad weather, as well as from the dread of a
+fit of the asthma, with which I was threatened: and I dare say my
+appearance seemed as uncouth to him, as his travelling dress appeared
+to me. I had a grey mourning frock under a wide great coat, a bob wig
+without powder, a very large laced hat, and a meagre, wrinkled,
+discontented countenance.
+
+The fourth night of our journey we lay at Macon, and the next day
+passed through the Lyonnois, which is a fine country, full of towns,
+villages, and gentlemen's houses. In passing through the Maconnois, we
+saw a great many fields of Indian corn, which grows to the height of
+six or seven feet: it is made into flour for the use of the common
+people, and goes by the name of Turkey wheat. Here likewise, as well as
+in Dauphine, they raise a vast quantity of very large pompions, with
+the contents of which they thicken their soup and ragouts.
+
+As we travelled only while the sun was up, on account of my ill health,
+and the post horses in France are in bad order, we seldom exceeded
+twenty leagues a day.
+
+I was directed to a lodging-house at Lyons, which being full they
+shewed us to a tavern, where I was led up three pair of stairs, to an
+apartment consisting of three paltry chambers, for which the people
+demanded twelve livres a day: for dinner and supper they asked
+thirty-two, besides three livres for my servant; so that my daily
+expence would have amounted to about forty-seven livres, exclusive of
+breakfast and coffee in the afternoon. I was so provoked at this
+extortion, that, without answering one word, I drove to another
+auberge, where I now am, and pay at the rate of two-and-thirty livres a
+day, for which I am very badly lodged, and but very indifferently
+entertained. I mention these circumstances to give you an idea of the
+imposition to which strangers are subject in this country. It must be
+owned, however, that in the article of eating, I might save half the
+money by going to the public ordinary; but this is a scheme of
+oeconomy, which (exclusive of other disagreeable circumstances) neither
+my own health, nor that of my wife permits me to embrace. My journey
+from Paris to Lyons, including the hire of the coach, and all expences
+on the road, has cost me, within a few shillings, forty loui'dores.
+From Paris our baggage (though not plombe) was not once examined till
+we arrived in this city, at the gate of which we were questioned by one
+of the searchers, who, being tipt with half a crown, allowed us to
+proceed without further enquiry.
+
+I purposed to stay in Lyons until I should receive some letters I
+expected from London, to be forwarded by my banker at Paris: but the
+enormous expence of living in this manner has determined me to set out
+in a day or two for Montpellier, although that place is a good way out
+of the road to Nice. My reasons for taking that route I shall
+communicate in my next. Mean-while, I am ever,-- Dear Sir, Your
+affectionate and obliged humble servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER IX
+
+MONTPELLIER, November 5, 1763.
+
+DEAR SIR,--The city of Lyons has been so often and so circumstantially
+described, that I cannot pretend to say any thing new on the subject.
+Indeed, I know very little of it, but what I have read in books; as I
+had but one day to make a tour of the streets, squares, and other
+remarkable places. The bridge over the Rhone seems to be so slightly
+built, that I should imagine it would be one day carried away by that
+rapid river; especially as the arches are so small, that, after great
+rains they are sometimes bouchees, or stopped up; that is, they do not
+admit a sufficient passage for the encreased body of the water. In
+order to remedy this dangerous defect, in some measure, they found an
+artist some years ago, who has removed a middle pier, and thrown two
+arches into one. This alteration they looked upon as a masterpiece in
+architecture, though there is many a common mason in England, who would
+have undertaken and performed the work, without valuing himself much
+upon the enterprize. This bridge, as well as that of St. Esprit, is
+built, not in a strait line across the river, but with a curve, which
+forms a convexity to oppose the current. Such a bend is certainly
+calculated for the better resisting the general impetuosity of the
+stream, and has no bad effect to the eye.
+
+Lyons is a great, populous, and flourishing city but I am surprised to
+find it is counted a healthy place, and that the air of it is esteemed
+favourable to pulmonic disorders. It is situated on the confluence of
+two large rivers, from which there must be a great evaporation, as well
+as from the low marshy grounds, which these rivers often overflow. This
+must render the air moist, frouzy, and even putrid, if it was not well
+ventilated by winds from the mountains of Swisserland; and in the
+latter end of autumn, it must be subject to fogs. The morning we set
+out from thence, the whole city and adjacent plains were covered with
+so thick a fog, that we could not distinguish from the coach the head
+of the foremost mule that drew it. Lyons is said to be very hot in
+summer, and very cold in winter; therefore I imagine must abound with
+inflammatory and intermittent disorders in the spring and fall of the
+year.
+
+My reasons for going to Montpellier, which is out of the strait road to
+Nice, were these. Having no acquaintance nor correspondents in the
+South of France, I had desired my credit might be sent to the same
+house to which my heavy baggage was consigned. I expected to find my
+baggage at Cette, which is the sea-port of Montpellier; and there I
+also hoped to find a vessel, in which I might be transported by sea to
+Nice, without further trouble. I longed to try what effect the boasted
+air of Montpellier would have upon my constitution; and I had a great
+desire to see the famous monuments of antiquity in and about the
+ancient city of Nismes, which is about eight leagues short of
+Montpellier.
+
+At the inn where we lodged, I found a return berline, belonging to
+Avignon, with three mules, which are the animals commonly used for
+carriages in this country. This I hired for five loui'dores. The coach
+was large, commodious, and well-fitted; the mules were strong and in
+good order; and the driver, whose name was Joseph, appeared to be a
+sober, sagacious, intelligent fellow, perfectly well acquainted with
+every place in the South of France. He told me he was owner of the
+coach, but I afterwards learned, he was no other than a hired servant.
+I likewise detected him in some knavery, in the course of our journey;
+and plainly perceived he had a fellow-feeling with the inn-keepers on
+the road; but, in other respects, he was very obliging, serviceable,
+and even entertaining. There are some knavish practices of this kind,
+at which a traveller will do well to shut his eyes, for his own ease
+and convenience. He will be lucky if he has to do with a sensible
+knave, like Joseph, who understood his interest too well to be guilty
+of very flagrant pieces of imposition.
+
+A man, impatient to be at his journey's end, will find this a most
+disagreeable way of travelling. In summer it must be quite intolerable.
+The mules are very sure, but very slow. The journey seldom exceeds
+eight leagues, about four and twenty miles a day: and as those people
+have certain fixed stages, you are sometimes obliged to rise in a
+morning before day; a circumstance very grievous to persons in ill
+health. These inconveniences, however, were over-balanced by other
+agreemens. We no, sooner quitted Lyons, than we got into summer
+weather, and travelling through a most romantic country, along the
+banks of the Rhone, had opportunities (from the slowness of our pace)
+to contemplate its beauties at leisure.
+
+The rapidity of the Rhone is, in a great measure, owing to its being
+confined within steep banks on each side. These are formed almost
+through its whole course, by a double chain of mountains, which rise
+with all abrupt ascent from both banks of the river. The mountains are
+covered with vineyards, interspersed with small summer-houses, and in
+many places they are crowned with churches, chapels, and convents,
+which add greatly to the romantic beauty of the prospect. The highroad,
+as far as Avignon, lies along the side of the river, which runs almost
+in a straight line, and affords great convenience for inland commerce.
+Travellers, bound to the southern parts of France, generally embark in
+the diligence at Lyons, and glide down this river with great velocity,
+passing a great number of towns and villages on each side, where they
+find ordinaries every day at dinner and supper. In good weather, there
+is no danger in this method of travelling, 'till you come to the Pont
+St. Esprit, where the stream runs through the arches with such
+rapidity, that the boat is sometimes overset. But those passengers who
+are under any apprehension are landed above-bridge, and taken in again,
+after the boat has passed, just in the same manner as at London Bridge.
+The boats that go up the river are drawn against the stream by oxen,
+which swim through one of the arches of this bridge, the driver sitting
+between the horns of the foremost beast. We set out from Lyons early on
+Monday morning, and as a robbery had been a few days before committed
+in that neighbourhood, I ordered my servant to load my musquetoon with
+a charge of eight balls. By the bye, this piece did not fail to attract
+the curiosity and admiration of the people in every place through which
+we passed. The carriage no sooner halted, than a crowd immediately
+surrounded the man to view the blunderbuss, which they dignified with
+the title of petit canon. At Nuys in Burgundy, he fired it in the air,
+and the whole mob dispersed, and scampered off like a flock of sheep.
+In our journey hither, we generally set out in a morning at eight
+o'clock, and travelled 'till noon, when the mules were put up and
+rested a couple of hours. During this halt, Joseph went to dinner, and
+we went to breakfast, after which we ordered provision for our
+refreshment in the coach, which we took about three or four in the
+afternoon, halting for that purpose, by the side of some transparent
+brook, which afforded excellent water to mix with our wine. In this
+country I was almost poisoned with garlic, which they mix in their
+ragouts, and all their sauces; nay, the smell of it perfumes the very
+chambers, as well as every person you approach. I was also very sick of
+been ficas, grives, or thrushes, and other little birds, which are
+served up twice a day at all ordinaries on the road. They make their
+appearance in vine-leaves, and are always half raw, in which condition
+the French choose to eat them, rather than run the risque of losing the
+juice by over-roasting.
+
+The peasants on the South of France are poorly clad, and look as if
+they were half-starved, diminutive, swarthy, and meagre; and yet the
+common people who travel, live luxuriously on the road. Every carrier
+and mule-driver has two meals a day, consisting each of a couple of
+courses and a dessert, with tolerable small wine. That which is called
+hermitage, and grows in this province of Dauphine, is sold on the spot
+for three livres a bottle. The common draught, which you have at meals
+in this country, is remarkably strong, though in flavour much inferior
+to that of Burgundy. The accommodation is tolerable, though they demand
+(even in this cheap country) the exorbitant price of four livres a head
+for every meal, of those who choose to eat in their own apartments. I
+insisted, however, upon paying them with three, which they received,
+though not without murmuring and seeming discontented. In this journey,
+we found plenty of good mutton, pork, poultry, and game, including the
+red partridge, which is near twice as big as the partridge of England.
+Their hares are likewise surprisingly large and juicy. We saw great
+flocks of black turkeys feeding in the fields, but no black cattle; and
+milk was so scarce, that sometimes we were obliged to drink our tea
+without it.
+
+One day perceiving a meadow on the side of the road, full of a flower
+which I took to be the crocus, I desired my servant to alight and pull
+some of them. He delivered the musquetoon to Joseph, who began to
+tamper with it, and off it went with a prodigious report, augmented by
+an eccho from the mountains that skirted the road. The mules were so
+frightened, that they went off at the gallop; and Joseph, for some
+minutes, could neither manage the reins, nor open his mouth. At length
+he recollected himself, and the cattle were stopt, by the assistance of
+the servant, to whom he delivered the musquetoon, with a significant
+shake of the head. Then alighting from the box, he examined the heads
+of his three mules, and kissed each of them in his turn. Finding they
+had received no damage, he came up to the coach, with a pale visage and
+staring eyes, and said it was God's mercy he had not killed his beasts.
+I answered, that it was a greater mercy he had not killed his
+passengers; for the muzzle of the piece might have been directed our
+way as well as any other, and in that case Joseph might have been
+hanged for murder. "I had as good be hanged (said he) for murder, as be
+ruined by the loss of my cattle." This adventure made such an
+impression upon him, that he recounted it to every person we met; nor
+would he ever touch the blunderbuss from that day. I was often diverted
+with the conversation of this fellow, who was very arch and very
+communicative. Every afternoon, he used to stand upon the foot-board,
+at the side of the coach, and discourse with us an hour together.
+Passing by the gibbet of Valencia, which stands very near the
+high-road, we saw one body hanging quite naked, and another lying
+broken on the wheel. I recollected, that Mandrin had suffered in this
+place, and calling to Joseph to mount the foot-board, asked if he had
+ever seen that famous adventurer. At mention of the name of Mandrin,
+the tear started in Joseph's eye, he discharged a deep sigh, or rather
+groan, and told me he was his dear friend. I was a little startled at
+this declaration; however, I concealed my thoughts, and began to ask
+questions about the character and exploits of a man who had made such
+noise in the world.
+
+He told me, Mandrin was a native of Valencia, of mean extraction: that
+he had served as a soldier in the army, and afterwards acted as
+maltotier, or tax-gatherer: that at length he turned contrebandier, or
+smuggler, and by his superior qualities, raised himself to the command
+of a formidable gang, consisting of five hundred persons well armed
+with carbines and pistols. He had fifty horses for his troopers, and
+three hundred mules for the carriage of his merchandize. His
+head-quarters were in Savoy: but he made incursions into Dauphine, and
+set the marechaussee at defiance. He maintained several bloody
+skirmishes with these troopers, as well as with other regular
+detachments, and in all those actions signalized himself by his courage
+and conduct. Coming up at one time with fifty of the marechaussee who
+were in quest of him, he told them very calmly, he had occasion for
+their horses and acoutrements, and desired them to dismount. At that
+instant his gang appeared, and the troopers complied with his request,
+without making the least opposition. Joseph said he was as generous as
+he was brave, and never molested travellers, nor did the least injury
+to the poor; but, on the contrary, relieved them very often. He used to
+oblige the gentlemen in the country to take his merchandize, his
+tobacco, brandy, and muslins, at his own price; and, in the same
+manner, he laid the open towns under contribution. When he had no
+merchandize, he borrowed money off them upon the credit of what he
+should bring when he was better provided. He was at last betrayed, by
+his wench, to the colonel of a French regiment, who went with a
+detachment in the night to the place where he lay in Savoy, and
+surprized him in a wood-house, while his people were absent in
+different parts of the country. For this intrusion, the court of France
+made an apology to the king of Sardinia, in whose territories he was
+taken. Mandrin being conveyed to Valencia, his native place, was for
+some time permitted to go abroad, under a strong guard, with chains
+upon his legs; and here he conversed freely with all sorts of people,
+flattering himself with the hopes of a pardon, in which, however, he
+was disappointed. An order came from court to bring him to his trial,
+when he was found guilty, and condemned to be broke on the wheel.
+Joseph said he drank a bottle of wine with him the night before his
+execution. He bore his fate with great resolution, observing that if
+the letter which he had written to the King had been delivered, he
+certainly should have obtained his Majesty's pardon. His executioner
+was one of his own gang, who was pardoned on condition of performing
+this office. You know, that criminals broke upon the wheel are first
+strangled, unless the sentence imports, that they shall be broke alive.
+As Mandrin had not been guilty of cruelty in the course of his
+delinquency, he was indulged with this favour. Speaking to the
+executioner, whom he had formerly commanded, "Joseph (dit il), je ne
+veux pas que tu me touche, jusqu'a ce que je sois roid mort," "Joseph,"
+said he, "thou shalt not touch me till I am quite dead."--Our driver
+had no sooner pronounced these words, than I was struck with a
+suspicion, that he himself was the executioner of his friend Mandrin.
+On that suspicion, I exclaimed, "Ah! ah! Joseph!" The fellow blushed up
+to the eyes, and said, Oui, son nom etoit Joseph aussi bien que le
+mien, "Yes, he was called Joseph, as I am." I did not think proper to
+prosecute the inquiry; but did not much relish the nature of Joseph's
+connexions. The truth is, he had very much the looks of a ruffian;
+though, I must own, his behaviour was very obliging and submissive.
+
+On the fifth day of our journey, in the morning, we passed the famous
+bridge at St. Esprit, which to be sure is a great curiosity, from its
+length, and the number of its arches: but these arches are too small:
+the passage above is too narrow; and the whole appears to be too
+slight, considering the force and impetuosity of the river. It is not
+comparable to the bridge at Westminster, either for beauty or solidity.
+Here we entered Languedoc, and were stopped to have our baggage
+examined; but the searcher, being tipped with a three-livre piece,
+allowed it to pass. Before we leave Dauphine, I must observe, that I
+was not a little surprized to see figs and chestnuts growing in the
+open fields, at the discretion of every passenger. It was this day I
+saw the famous Pont du Garde; but as I cannot possibly include, in this
+letter, a description of that beautiful bridge, and of the other
+antiquities belonging to Nismes, I will defer it till the next
+opportunity, being, in the mean time, with equal truth and
+affection,--Dear Sir, Your obliged humble Servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER X
+
+MONTPELLIER, November 10, 1763.
+
+DEAR SIR,--By the Pont St. Esprit we entered the province of Languedoc,
+and breakfasted at Bagniole, which is a little paltry town; from
+whence, however, there is an excellent road through a mountain, made at
+a great expence, and extending about four leagues. About five in the
+afternoon, I had the first glimpse of the famous Pont du Garde, which
+stands on the right hand, about the distance of a league from the
+post-road to Nismes, and about three leagues from that city. I would
+not willingly pass for a false enthusiast in taste; but I cannot help
+observing, that from the first distant view of this noble monument,
+till we came near enough to see it perfectly, I felt the strongest
+emotions of impatience that I had ever known; and obliged our driver to
+put his mules to the full gallop, in the apprehension that it would be
+dark before we reached the place. I expected to find the building, in
+some measure, ruinous; but was agreeably disappointed, to see it look
+as fresh as the bridge at Westminster. The climate is either so pure
+and dry, or the free-stone, with which it is built, so hard, that the
+very angles of them remain as acute as if they had been cut last year.
+Indeed, some large stones have dropped out of the arches; but the whole
+is admirably preserved, and presents the eye with a piece of
+architecture, so unaffectedly elegant, so simple, and majestic, that I
+will defy the most phlegmatic and stupid spectator to behold it without
+admiration. It was raised in the Augustan age, by the Roman colony of
+Nismes, to convey a stream of water between two mountains, for the use
+of that city. It stands over the river Gardon, which is a beautiful
+pastoral stream, brawling among rocks, which form a number of pretty
+natural cascades, and overshadowed on each side with trees and shrubs,
+which greatly add to the rural beauties of the scene. It rises in the
+Cevennes, and the sand of it produces gold, as we learn from Mr.
+Reaumur, in his essay on this subject, inserted in the French Memoirs,
+for the year 1718. If I lived at Nismes, or Avignon (which last city is
+within four short leagues of it) I should take pleasure in forming
+parties to come hither, in summer, to dine under one of the arches of
+the Pont du Garde, on a cold collation.
+
+This work consists of three bridges, or tire of arches, one above
+another; the first of six, the second of eleven, and the third of
+thirty-six. The height, comprehending the aqueduct on the top, amounts
+to 174 feet three inches: the length between the two mountains, which
+it unites, extends to 723. The order of architecture is the Tuscan, but
+the symmetry of it is inconceivable. By scooping the bases of the
+pilasters, of the second tire of arches, they had made a passage for
+foot-travellers: but though the antients far excelled us in beauty,
+they certainly fell short of the moderns in point of conveniency. The
+citizens of Avignon have, in this particular, improved the Roman work
+with a new bridge, by apposition, constructed on the same plan with
+that of the lower tire of arches, of which indeed it seems to be a
+part, affording a broad and commodious passage over the river, to
+horses and carriages of all kinds. The aqueduct, for the continuance of
+which this superb work was raised, conveyed a stream of sweet water
+from the fountain of Eure, near the city of Uzes, and extended near six
+leagues in length.
+
+In approaching Nismes, you see the ruins of a Roman tower, built on the
+summit of a hill, which over-looks the city. It seems to have been
+intended, at first, as a watch, or signal-tower, though, in the sequel,
+it was used as a fortress: what remains of it, is about ninety feet
+high; the architecture of the Doric order. I no sooner alighted at the
+inn, than I was presented with a pamphlet, containing an account of
+Nismes and its antiquities, which every stranger buys. There are
+persons too who attend in order to shew the town, and you will always
+be accosted by some shabby antiquarian, who presents you with medals
+for sale, assuring you they are genuine antiques, and were dug out of
+the ruins of the Roman temple and baths. All those fellows are cheats;
+and they have often laid under contribution raw English travellers, who
+had more money than discretion. To such they sell the vilest and most
+common trash: but when they meet with a connoisseur, they produce some
+medals which are really valuable and curious.
+
+Nismes, antiently called Nemausis, was originally a colony of Romans,
+settled by Augustus Caesar, after the battle of Actium. It is still of
+considerable extent, and said to contain twelve thousand families; but
+the number seems, by this account, to be greatly exaggerated. Certain
+it is, the city must have been formerly very extensive, as appears from
+the circuit of the antient walls, the remains of which are still to be
+seen. Its present size is not one third of its former extent. Its
+temples, baths, statues, towers, basilica, and amphitheatre, prove it
+to have been a city of great opulence and magnificence. At present, the
+remains of these antiquities are all that make it respectable or
+remarkable; though here are manufactures of silk and wool, carried on
+with good success. The water necessary for these works is supplied by a
+source at the foot of the rock, upon which the tower is placed; and
+here were discovered the ruins of Roman baths, which had been formed
+and adorned with equal taste and magnificence. Among the rubbish they
+found a vast profusion of columns, vases, capitals, cornices,
+inscriptions, medals, statues, and among other things, the finger of a
+colossal statue in bronze, which, according to the rules of proportion,
+must have been fifteen feet high. From these particulars, it appears
+that the edifices must have been spacious and magnificent. Part of a
+tesselated pavement still remains. The antient pavement of the bath is
+still intire; all the rubbish has been cleared away; and the baths, in
+a great measure, restored on the old plan, though they are not at
+present used for any thing but ornament. The water is collected into
+two vast reservoirs, and a canal built and lined with hewn stone. There
+are three handsome bridges thrown over this vast canal. It contains a
+great body of excellent water, which by pipes and other small branching
+canals, traverses the town, and is converted to many different purposes
+of oeconomy and manufacture. Between the Roman bath and these great
+canals, the ground is agreeably laid out in pleasure-walks. for the
+recreation of the inhabitants. Here are likewise ornaments of
+architecture, which savour much more of French foppery, than of the
+simplicity and greatness of the antients. It is very surprizing, that
+this fountain should produce such a great body of water, as fills the
+basin of the source, the Roman basin, two large deep canals three
+hundred feet in length, two vast basins that make part of the great
+canal, which is eighteen hundred feet long, eighteen feet deep, and
+forty-eight feet broad. When I saw it, there was in it about eight or
+nine feet of water, transparent as crystal. It must be observed,
+however, for the honour of French cleanliness, that in the Roman basin,
+through which this noble stream of water passes, I perceived two
+washerwomen at work upon children's clouts and dirty linnen. Surprized,
+and much disgusted at this filthy phaenomenon, I asked by what means,
+and by whose permission, those dirty hags had got down into the basin,
+in order to contaminate the water at its fountain-head; and understood
+they belonged to the commandant of the place, who had keys of the
+subterranean passage.
+
+Fronting the Roman baths are the ruins of an antient temple, which,
+according to tradition, was dedicated to Diana: but it has been
+observed by connoisseurs, that all the antient temples of this goddess
+were of the Ionic order; whereas, this is partly Corinthian, and partly
+composite. It is about seventy foot long, and six and thirty in
+breadth, arched above, and built of large blocks of stone, exactly
+joined together without any cement. The walls are still standing, with
+three great tabernacles at the further end, fronting the entrance. On
+each side, there are niches in the intercolumniation of the walls,
+together with pedestals and shafts of pillars, cornices, and an
+entablature, which indicate the former magnificence of the building. It
+was destroyed during the civil war that raged in the reign of Henry
+III. of France.
+
+It is amazing, that the successive irruptions of barbarous nations, of
+Goths, Vandals, and Moors; of fanatic croisards, still more sanguinary
+and illiberal than those Barbarians, should have spared this temple, as
+well as two other still more noble monuments of architecture, that to
+this day adorn the city of Nismes: I mean the amphitheatre and the
+edifice, called Maison Carree--The former of these is counted the
+finest monument of the kind, now extant; and was built in the reign of
+Antoninus Pius, who contributed a large sum of money towards its
+erection. It is of an oval figure, one thousand and eighty feet in
+circumference, capacious enough to hold twenty thousand spectators. The
+architecture is of the Tuscan order, sixty feet high, composed of two
+open galleries, built one over another, consisting each of threescore
+arcades. The entrance into the arena was by four great gates, with
+porticos; and the seats, of which there were thirty, rising one above
+another, consisted of great blocks of stone, many of which still
+remain. Over the north gate, appear two bulls, in alto-relievo,
+extremely well executed, emblems which, according to the custom of the
+Romans, signified that the amphitheatre was erected at the expence of
+the people. There are in other parts of it some work in bas-relief, and
+heads or busts but indifferently carved. It stands in the lower part of
+the town, and strikes the spectator with awe and veneration. The
+external architecture is almost intire in its whole circuit; but the
+arena is filled up with houses--This amphitheatre was fortified as a
+citadel by the Visigoths, in the beginning of the sixth century. They
+raised within it a castle, two towers of which are still extant; and
+they surrounded it with a broad and deep fossee, which was filled up in
+the thirteenth century. In all the subsequent wars to which this city
+was exposed, it served as the last resort of the citizens, and
+sustained a great number of successive attacks; so that its
+preservation is almost miraculous. It is likely, however, to suffer
+much more from the Gothic avarice of its own citizens, some of whom are
+mutilating it every day, for the sake of the stones, which they employ
+in their own private buildings. It is surprizing, that the King's
+authority has not been exerted to put an end to such sacrilegious
+violation.
+
+If the amphitheatre strikes you with an idea of greatness, the Maison
+Carree enchants you with the most exquisite beauties of architecture
+and sculpture. This is an edifice, supposed formerly to have been
+erected by Adrian, who actually built a basilica in this city, though
+no vestiges of it remain: but the following inscription, which was
+discovered on the front of it, plainly proves, that it was built by the
+inhabitants of Nismes, in honour of Caius and Lucius Caesar, the
+grandchildren of Augustus by his daughter Julia, the wife of Agrippa.
+
+  C. CAESARI. AVGVSTI. F. COS.
+  L CAESARI. AVGMI. F. COS.
+  DESIGNATO.
+  PRINCIPIBVS IVVENTUTIS.
+
+To Caius and Lucius Caesar, sons of Augustus, consuls elect, Princes of
+the Roman youth.
+
+This beautiful edifice, which stands upon a pediment six feet high, is
+eighty-two feet long, thirty-five broad, and thirty-seven high, without
+reckoning the pediment. The body of it is adorned with twenty columns
+engaged in the wall, and the peristyle, which is open, with ten
+detached pillars that support the entablature. They are all of the
+Corinthian order, fluted and embellished with capitals of the most
+exquisite sculpture, the frize and cornice are much admired, and the
+foliage is esteemed inimitable. The proportions of the building are so
+happily united, as to give it an air of majesty and grandeur, which the
+most indifferent spectator cannot behold without emotion. A man needs
+not be a connoisseur in architecture, to enjoy these beauties. They are
+indeed so exquisite that you may return to them every day with a fresh
+appetite for seven years together. What renders them the more curious,
+they are still entire, and very little affected, either by the ravages
+of time, or the havoc of war. Cardinal Alberoni declared, that it was a
+jewel that deserved a cover of gold to preserve it from external
+injuries. An Italian painter, perceiving a small part of the roof
+repaired by modern French masonry, tore his hair, and exclaimed in a
+rage, "Zounds! what do I see? harlequin's hat on the head of Augustus!"
+
+Without all doubt it is ravishingly beautiful. The whole world cannot
+parallel it; and I am astonished to see it standing entire, like the
+effects of inchantment, after such a succession of ages, every one more
+barbarous than another. The history of the antiquities of Nismes takes
+notice of a grotesque statue, representing two female bodies and legs,
+united under the head of an old man; but, as it does not inform us
+where it is kept, I did not see it.
+
+The whole country of Languedoc is shaded with olive trees, the fruit of
+which begins to ripen, and appears as black as sloes; those they pickle
+are pulled green, and steeped for some time in a lye made of quick lime
+or wood ashes, which extracts the bitter taste, and makes the fruit
+tender. Without this preparation it is not eatable. Under the olive and
+fig trees, they plant corn and vines, so that there is not an inch of
+ground unlaboured: but here are no open fields, meadows, or cattle to
+be seen. The ground is overloaded; and the produce of it crowded to
+such a degree, as to have a bad effect upon the eye, impressing the
+traveller with the ideas of indigence and rapacity. The heat in summer
+is so excessive, that cattle would find no green forage, every blade of
+grass being parched up and destroyed. The weather was extremely hot
+when we entered Montpellier, and put up at the Cheval Blanc, counted
+the best auberge in the place, tho' in fact it is a most wretched
+hovel, the habitation of darkness, dirt, and imposition. Here I was
+obliged to pay four livres a meal for every person in my family, and
+two livres at night for every bed, though all in the same room: one
+would imagine that the further we advance to the southward the living
+is the dearer, though in fact every article of housekeeping is cheaper
+in Languedoc than many other provinces of France. This imposition is
+owing to the concourse of English who come hither, and, like simple
+birds of passage, allow themselves to be plucked by the people of the
+country, who know their weak side, and make their attacks accordingly.
+They affect to believe, that all the travellers of our country are
+grand seigneurs, immensely rich and incredibly generous; and we are
+silly enough to encourage this opinion, by submitting quietly to the
+most ridiculous extortion, as well as by committing acts of the most
+absurd extravagance. This folly of the English, together with a
+concourse of people from different quarters, who come hither for the
+re-establishment of their health, has rendered Montpellier one of the
+dearest places in the South of France. The city, which is but small,
+stands upon a rising ground fronting the Mediterranean, which is about
+three leagues to the southward: on the other side is an agreeable
+plain, extending about the same distance towards the mountains of the
+Cevennes. The town is reckoned well built, and what the French call
+bien percee; yet the streets are in general narrow, and the houses
+dark. The air is counted salutary in catarrhous consumptions, from its
+dryness and elasticity: but too sharp in cases of pulmonary imposthumes.
+
+It was at Montpellier that we saw for the first time any signs of that
+gaiety and mirth for which the people of this country are celebrated.
+In all other places through which we passed since our departure from
+Lyons, we saw nothing but marks of poverty and chagrin. We entered
+Montpellier on a Sunday, when the people were all dressed in their best
+apparel. The streets were crowded; and a great number of the better
+sort of both sexes sat upon stone seats at their doors, conversing with
+great mirth and familiarity. These conversations lasted the greatest
+part of the night; and many of them were improved with musick both
+vocal and instrumental: next day we were visited by the English
+residing in the place, who always pay this mark of respect to new
+comers. They consist of four or five families, among whom I could pass
+the winter very agreeably, if the state of my health and other reasons
+did not call me away.
+
+Mr. L-- had arrived two days before me, troubled with the same
+asthmatic disorder, under which I have laboured so long. He told me he
+had been in quest of me ever since he left England. Upon comparing
+notes, I found he had stopped at the door of a country inn in Picardy,
+and drank a glass of wine and water, while I was at dinner up stairs;
+nay, he had even spoke to my servant, and asked who was his master, and
+the man, not knowing him, replied, he was a gentleman from Chelsea. He
+had walked by the door of the house where I lodged at Paris, twenty
+times, while I was in that city; and the very day before he arrived at
+Montpellier, he had passed our coach on the road.
+
+The garrison of this city consists of two battalions, one of which is
+the Irish regiment of Berwick, commanded by lieutenant colonel Tents, a
+gentleman with whom we contracted an acquaintance at Boulogne. He
+treats us with great politeness, and indeed does every thing in his
+power to make the place agreeable to us. The duke of Fitz-James, the
+governor, is expected here in a little time. We have already a
+tolerable concert twice a week; there will be a comedy in the winter;
+and the states of Provence assemble in January, so that Montpellier
+will be extremely gay and brilliant. These very circumstances would
+determine me to leave it. I have not health to enjoy these pleasures: I
+cannot bear a croud of company such as pours in upon us unexpectedly at
+all hours; and I foresee, that in staying at Montpellier, I should be
+led into an expence, which I can ill afford. I have therefore forwarded
+the letter I received from general P--n, to Mr. B--d, our consul at
+Nice, signifying my intention of going thither, and explaining the kind
+of accommodation I would choose to have at that place.
+
+The day after our arrival, I procured tolerable lodgings in the High
+Street, for which I pay fifty sols, something more than two shillings
+per day; and I am furnished with two meals a day by a traiteur for ten
+livres: but he finds neither the wine nor the dessert; and indeed we
+are but indifferently served. Those families who reside here find their
+account in keeping house. Every traveller who comes to this, or any
+other, town in France with a design to stay longer than a day or two,
+ought to write beforehand to his correspondent to procure furnished
+lodgings, to which he may be driven immediately, without being under
+the necessity of lying in an execrable inn; for all the inns of this
+country are execrable.
+
+My baggage is not yet arrived by the canal of Languedoc; but that gives
+me no disturbance, as it is consigned to the care of Mr. Ray, an
+English merchant and banker of this place; a gentleman of great probity
+and worth, from whom I have received repeated marks of uncommon
+friendship and hospitality.
+
+The next time you hear of me will be from Nice: mean-while, I remain
+always,--Dear Sir, Your affectionate humble servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER XI
+
+MONTPELLIER, November 12.
+
+DEAR DOCTOR--I flattered myself with the hope of much amusement during
+my short stay at Montpellier.--The University, the Botanical Garden,
+the State of Physic in this part of the world, and the information I
+received of a curious collection of manuscripts, among which I hoped to
+find something for our friend Dr. H--r; all these particulars promised
+a rich fund of entertainment, which, however, I cannot enjoy.
+
+A few days after my arrival, it began to rain with a southerly wind,
+and continued without ceasing the best part of a week, leaving the air
+so loaded with vapours, that there was no walking after sun-set;
+without being wetted by the dew almost to the skin. I have always found
+a cold and damp atmosphere the most unfavourable of any to my
+constitution. My asthmatical disorder. which had not given me much
+disturbance since I left Boulogne, became now very troublesome,
+attended with fever, cough spitting, and lowness of spirits; and I
+wasted visibly every day. I was favoured with the advice of Dr.
+Fitzmaurice, a very worthy sensible physician settled in this place:
+but I had the curiosity to know the opinion of the celebrated professor
+F--, who is the Boerhaave of Montpellier. The account I had of his
+private character and personal deportment, from some English people to
+whom he was well known, left me no desire to converse with him: but I
+resolved to consult with him on paper. This great lanthorn of medicine
+is become very rich and very insolent; and in proportion as his wealth
+increases, he is said to grow the more rapacious. He piques himself
+upon being very slovenly, very blunt, and very unmannerly; and perhaps
+to these qualifications be owes his reputation rather than to any
+superior skill in medicine. I have known them succeed in our own
+country; and seen a doctor's parts estimated by his brutality and
+presumption.
+
+F-- is in his person and address not unlike our old acquaintance Dr.
+Sm--ie; he stoops much, dodges along, and affects to speak the Patois,
+which is a corruption of the old Provencial tongue, spoken by the
+vulgar in Languedoc and Provence. Notwithstanding his great age and
+great wealth, he will still scramble up two pair of stairs for a fee of
+six livres; and without a fee he will give his advice to no person
+whatsoever.
+
+He is said to have great practice in the venereal branch and to be
+frequented by persons of both sexes infected with this distemper, not
+only from every part of France, but also from Spain, Italy, Germany,
+and England. I need say nothing of the Montpellier method of cure,
+which is well known at London; but I have some reason to think the
+great professor F--, has, like the famous Mrs. Mapp, the bone-setter,
+cured many patients that were never diseased.
+
+Be that as it may, I sent my valet de place, who was his townsman and
+acquaintance, to his house, with the following case, and a loui'dore.
+
+Annum aetatis, post quadragesimum, tertium, Temperamentum humidum,
+crassum, pituitarepletum, catarrhis saepissime profligatum. Catarrhus,
+febre, anxietate et dyspnoea, nunquam non comitatus. Irritatio
+membranae piuitariae trachaealis, tussim initio aridam, siliquosam,
+deinde vero excreationem copiosam excitat: sputum albumini ovi
+simillimum.
+
+Accedente febre, urina pallida, limpida: ad akmen flagrante, colorem
+rubrum, subflavum induit: coctione peracta, sedimentum lateritium
+deponit.
+
+Appetitus raro deest: digestio segnior sed secura, non autem sine ructu
+perfecta. Alvus plerumque stipata: excretio intestinalis minima,
+ratione ingestorum habita. Pulsus frequens, vacillans, exilis,
+quandoquidem etiam intermittens.
+
+Febre una extincta, non deficit altera. Aliaque et eadem statim
+nascitur. Aer paulo frigidior, vel humidior, vestimentum inusitatum
+indutum; exercitatio paulullum nimia; ambulatio, equitatio, in quovis
+vehiculo jactatio; haec omnia novos motus suscitant. Systema nervosum
+maxime irritabile, organos patitur. Ostiola in cute hiantia, materiei
+perspirabili, exitum praebentia, clauduntur. Materies obstructa
+cumulatur; sanguine aliisque humoribus circumagitur: fit plethora.
+Natura opprimi nolens, excessus huius expulsionem conatur. Febris nova
+accenditur. Pars oneris, in membranam trachaealem laxatam ac
+debilitatam transfertur. Glandulae pituitariae turgentes bronchia
+comprimunt. Liber aeri transitus negatur: hinc respiratio difficilis.
+Hac vero translatione febris minuitur: interdiu remittitur. Dyspnoea
+autem aliaque symptomata vere hypochondriaca, recedere nolunt. Vespere
+febris exacerbatur. Calor, inquietudo, anxietas et asthma, per noctem
+grassantur. Ita quotidie res agitur, donec. Vis vitae paulatim crisim
+efficit. Seminis joctura, sive in somniis effusi, seu in gremio veneris
+ejaculati, inter causas horum malorum nec non numeretur.
+
+Quibusdam abhinc annis, exercitationibus juvenilibus subito remissis,
+in vitam sedentariam lapsum. Animo in studia severiora converso, fibre
+gradatim laxabantur. Inter legendum, et scribendum inclinato corpore in
+pectus malum, ruebat. Morbo ingruenti affectio scorbutica auxilium
+tulit. Invasio prima nimium aspernata. Venientibus hostibus non
+occursum. Cunctando res non restituta. Remedia convenientia stomachus
+perhorrescebat. Gravescente dyspnoea phlebotomia frustra tentata.
+Sanguinis missione vis vitae diminuta: fiebat pulsitis debilior,
+respiratio difficilior. In pejus ruunt omnia. Febris anomala in
+febriculam continuam mutata. Dyspnoea confirmata. Fibrarum compages
+soluta. Valetudo penitus eversa.
+
+His agitatus furiis, aeger ad mare provolat: in fluctus se precipitem,
+dat: periculum factum spem non fefellit: decies iteratum, felix
+faustumque evasit. Elater novus fibris conciliatur. Febricula fugatur.
+Acris dyspnoea solvitur. Beneficium dextra ripa partum, sinistra
+perditum. Superficie corporis, aquae marine frigore et pondere,
+compressa et contracta, interstitia fibrarum occluduntur: particulis
+incrementi novis partes abrasas reficientibus, locus non datur.
+Nutritio corporis, via pristina clausa, qua data porta ruit: in
+membranam pulmonum, minus firmatam facile fertur, et glandulis per
+sputum rejicitur.
+
+Hieme pluviosa, regnante dolores renovantur; tametsi tempore sereno
+equitatio profuit. Aestate morbus vix ullum progrediebatur. Autumno,
+valetudine plus declinata, thermis Bathoniensibus solatium haud frustra
+quaesitum. Aqua ista mire medicata, externe aeque ac interne adhibita,
+malis levamen attulit. Hiems altera, frigida, horrida, diuturna,
+innocua tamen successit. Vere novo casus atrox diras procellas animo
+immisit: toto corpore, tota mente tumultuatur. Patria relicta,
+tristitia, sollecitudo, indignatio, et saevissima recordatio sequuntur.
+Inimici priores furore inveterato revertuntur. Rediit febris hectica:
+rediit asthma cum anxietate, tusse et dolore lateris lancinanti.
+
+Desperatis denique rebus, iterum ad mare, veluti ad anceps remedium
+recurritur. Balneum hoc semper benignum. Dolor statim avolat. Tertio
+die febris, retrocessit. Immersio quotidiana antemeridiana, ad vices
+quinquaginta repetita, symptomata graviora subjugavit.-- Manet vero
+tabes pituitaria: manet temperamentum in catarrhos proclive. Corpus
+macrescit. Vires delabuntur.
+
+The professor's eyes sparkled at sight of the fee; and he desired the
+servant to call next morning for his opinion of the case, which
+accordingly I received in these words:
+
+"On voit par cette relation que monsieur le consultant dont on n'a pas
+juge a propos de dire l'age, mais qui nous paroit etre adulte et d'un
+age passablement avance, a ete sujet cy devant a des rhumes frequens
+accompagnes de fievre; on ne detaille point (aucune epoque), on parle
+dans la relation d'asthme auquel il a ete sujet, de scorbut ou
+affection scorbutique dont on ne dit pas les symptomes. On nous fait
+scavoir qu'il s'est bien trouve de l'immersion dans l'eau de la mer, et
+des eaux de Bath.
+
+"On dit a present qu'il a une fievre pituitaire sans dire depuis
+combien de temps. Qu'il lui reste toujours son temperament enclin aux
+catharres. Que le corps maigrit, et que les forces se perdent. On ne
+dit point s'il y a des exacerbations dans cette fievre ou non, si le
+malade a appetit ou non, s'il tousse ou non, s'il crache ou non, en un
+mot on n'entre dans aucun detail sur ces objets, sur quoi le conseil
+soussigne estime que monsieur le consultant est en fievre lente, et que
+vraisemblable le poumon souffre de quelque tubercules qui peut-etre
+sont en fonte, ce que nous aurions determine si dans la relation on
+avoit marque les qualites de crachats.
+
+"La cause fonchere de cette maladie doit etre imputee a une lymphe
+epaisse et acrimonieuse, qui donne occasion a des tubercules au pomon,
+qui etant mis on fonte fournissent au sang des particules acres et le
+rendent tout acrimonieux.
+
+"Les vues que l'on doit avoir dans ce cas sent de procurer des bonnes
+digestions (quoique dans la relation ou ne dit pas un mot sur les
+digestions) de jetter un douce detrempe dans la masse du sang, d'en
+ebasser l'acrimonie et de l'adoucir, de diviser fort doucement a
+lymphe, et de deterger le poumon, lui procurant meme du calme suppose
+que la toux l'inquiete, quoique cependant on ne dit pas un mot sur la
+toux dans la relation. C'est pourquoi on le purgera avec 3 onces de
+manne, dissoutes dans un verre de decoction de 3 dragmes de polypode de
+chesne, on passera ensuite a des bouillons qui seront faits avec un
+petit poulet, la chair, le sang, le coeur et le foye d'une tortue de
+grandeur mediocre c'est a dire du poid de 8 a 12 onces avec sa
+coquille, une poignee de chicoree amere de jardin, et une pincee de
+feuilles de lierre terrestre vertes on seches. Ayant pris ces bouillons
+15 matins on se purgera comme auparavant, pour en venir a des bouillons
+qui seront faits avec la moitie d'un mou de veau, une poignee de
+pimprenelle de jardin, et une dragme de racine d'angelique concassee.
+
+Ayant pris ces bouillons 15 matins, on se purgera somme auparavant pour
+en venir an lait d'anesse que l'on prendra le matin a jeun, a la dose
+de 12 a 16 onces y ajoutant un cuilleree de sucre rape, on prendra ce
+lait le matin a jeun observant de prendre pendant son usage de deux
+jours l'un un moment avant le lait un bolus fait avec 15 grains de
+craye de Braincon en poudre fine, 20 grains de corail prepare, 8 grains
+d'antihectique de poterius, et ce qu'il faut de syrop de lierre
+terrestre, mais les jour on ou ne prendra pas le bolus on prendra un
+moment avant le lait 3 on 4 gouttes de bon baume de Canada detrempees
+dans un demi cuilleree de syrop de lierre terrestre. Si le corps
+maigrit de plus en plus, je suis d'avis que pendant l'usage du lait
+d'anesse on soupe tous les soirs avec une soupe au lait de vache.
+
+"On continuera l'usage du lait d'anesse tant, que le malade pourra le
+supporter, ne le purgeant que par necessite et toujours avec la
+medecine ordonnee.
+
+"Au reste, si monsieur le consultant ne passe les nuits bien calmes, il
+prendra chaque soir a l'heure de sommeil six grains des pilules de
+cynoglosse, dent il augmentera la dose d'un grain de plus toutes les
+fois que la dose du jour precedent, n'aura pas ete suffisante pour lui
+faire passer la nuit bien calme.
+
+"Si les malade tousse il usera soit de jour soit de nuit par petites
+cuillerees a casse d'un looch, qui sera fait avec un once de syrop de
+violat et un dragme de blanc de baleine.
+
+"Si les crachats sent epais et qu'il crache difficilement, en ce cas il
+prendra une ou deux fois le jour, demi dragme de blanc de baleine
+reduit on poudre avec un pen de sucre candit qu'il avalera avec une
+cuilleree d'eau.
+
+"Enfin il doit observer un bon regime de vivre, c'est pourquoi il fera
+toujours gras et seulement en soupes, bouilli et roti, il ne mangera
+pas les herbes des soupes, et on salera peu son pot, il se privera du
+beuf, cochon, chair noir, oiseaux d'eau, ragouts, fritures,
+patisseries, alimens sales, epices, vinaigres, salades, fruits, cruds,
+et autres crudites, alimens grossiers, ou de difficille digestion, la
+boisson sera de l'eau tant soit peu rougee de bon vin au diner
+seulement, et il ne prendra a souper qu'une soupe.
+
+  Delibere a MONTPELLIER
+  le 11 Novembre.
+  F--.
+  Professeur en l'universite honoraire.
+
+Receu vingt et quatre livres.
+
+I thought it was a little extraordinary that a learned professor should
+reply in his mother tongue, to a case put in Latin: but I was much more
+surprised, as you will also be, at reading his answer, from which I was
+obliged to conclude, either that he did not understand Latin; or that
+he had not taken the trouble to read my memoire. I shall not make any
+remarks upon the stile of his prescription, replete as it is with a
+disgusting repetition of low expressions: but I could not but, in
+justice to myself, point out to him the passages in my case which he
+had overlooked. Accordingly, having marked them with letters, I sent it
+back, with the following billet.
+
+"Apparement Mons. F-- n'a pas donne beaucoup d'attention au memoire de
+ma sante que j'ai on l'honneur de lui presenter-- 'Monsieur le
+consultant (dit il) dont on n'a pas juge it propos de dire
+l'age.'--Mais on voit dans le memoire a No. 1. 'Annum aetatis post
+quadragesimum tertium.'
+
+"Mr. F-- dit que 'je n'ai pas marque aucune epoque. Mais a No. 2 du
+memoire il trouvera ces mots. 'Quibusdam abbinc annis.' J'ai meme
+detaille le progres de la maladie pour trois ans consecutifs.
+
+"Mons. F-- observe, 'On no dit point s'il y a des exacerbations dans
+cette fievre ou non.' Qu'il. Regarde la lettre B, il verra, Vespere
+febris exacerbatur. Calor, inquietudo, anxietas et asthma per noctem
+grassantur.'
+
+"Mons. F-- remarque, 'On ne dit point si le malade a appetit ou non,
+s'il tousse ou non, s'il crache ou non, en un mot on n'entre dans aucun
+detail sur ces objets.' Mais on voit toutes ces circonstances
+detaillees dans la memoire a lettre A, 'Irritatio membranae trachaealis
+tussim, initio aridam, siliquosam, deinde vero excreationem copiosam
+excitat. Sputum albumini ovi simillimum. Appetitus raro deest. Digestio
+segnior sed secura.'
+
+"Mons. F-- observe encore, 'qu'on ne dit pas un mot sur la toux dans la
+relation.' Mais j'ai dit encore a No. 3 de memoire, 'rediit febris
+hectica; rediit asthma cum anxietate, tusse et dolore lateris
+lancinante.'
+
+"Au reste, je ne puis pas me persuader qu'il y ait des tubercules au
+poumon, parce que j'ai ne jamais crache de pus, ni autre chose que de
+la pituite qui a beaucoup de ressemblance au blanc des oeufs. Sputum
+albumini ovi simillimum. Il me paroit done que ma maladie doit son
+origine a la suspension de l'exercice du corps, au grand attachement
+d'esprit, et a une vie sedentaire qui a relache le sisteme fibreux; et
+qu'a present on pent l'appeller tubes pituitaria, non tubes purulenta.
+J'espere que Mons. Faura la bonte de faire revision du memoire, et de
+m'en dire encore son sentiment."
+
+Considering the nature of the case, you see I could not treat him more
+civilly. I desired the servant to ask when he should return for an
+answer, and whether he expected another fee. He desired him to come
+next morning, and, as the fellow assured me, gave him to understand,
+that whatever monsieur might solicit, should be for his (the servant's)
+advantage. In all probability he did not expect another gratification,
+to which, indeed, he had no title. Mons. F-- was undoubtedly much
+mortified to find himself detected in such flagrant instances of
+unjustifiable negligence, arid like all other persons in the same
+ungracious dilemma, instead of justifying himself by reason or
+argument, had recourse to recrimination. In the paper which he sent me
+next day, he insisted in general that he had carefully perused the case
+(which you will perceive was a self-evident untruth); he said the
+theory it contained was idle; that he was sure it could not be written
+by a physician; that, with respect to the disorder, he was still of the
+same opinion; and adhered to his former prescription; but if I had any
+doubts I might come to his house, and he would resolve them.
+
+I wrapt up twelve livres in the following note, and sent it to his
+house.
+
+"C'est ne pas sans raison que monsieur F-- jouit d'une si grande
+reputation. Je n'ai plus de doutes, graces a Dieu et a monsieur F--e. "
+"It is not without reason that monsieur Fizes enjoys such a large share
+of reputation. I have no doubts remaining; thank Heaven and monsieur
+Fizes."
+
+To this I received for answer. "Monsieur n'a plus de doutes: j'en suis
+charme. Receu douze livres. F--, &c." "Sir, you have no doubts
+remaining; I am very glad of it. Received twelve livres. Fizes, &c."
+
+Instead of keeping his promise to the valet, he put the money in his
+pocket; and the fellow returned in a rage, exclaiming that he was un
+gros cheval de carosse, a great coach-horse.
+
+I shall make no other comment upon the medicines, and the regimen which
+this great Doctor prescribed; but that he certainly mistook the case:
+that upon the supposition I actually laboured under a purulent
+discharge from the lungs, his remedies savour strongly of the old
+woman; and that there is a total blank with respect to the article of
+exercise, which you know is so essential in all pulmonary disorders.
+But after having perused my remarks upon his first prescription, he
+could not possibly suppose that I had tubercules, and was spitting up
+pus; therefore his persisting in recommending the same medicines he had
+prescribed on that supposition, was a flagrant absurdity.--If, for
+example, there was no vomica in the lungs; and the business was to
+attenuate the lymph, what could be more preposterous than to advise the
+chalk of Briancon, coral, antihecticum poterii, and the balm of Canada?
+As for the turtle-soupe, it is a good restorative and balsamic; but, I
+apprehend, will tend to thicken rather than attenuate the phlegm. He
+mentions not a syllable of the air, though it is universally allowed,
+that the climate of Montpellier is pernicious to ulcerated lungs; and
+here I cannot help recounting a small adventure which our doctor had
+with a son of Mr. O--d, merchant in the city of London. I had it from
+Mrs. St--e who was on the spot. The young gentleman, being consumptive,
+consulted Mr. F--, who continued visiting and prescribing for him a
+whole month. At length, perceiving that he grew daily worse, "Doctor
+(said he) I take your prescriptions punctually; but, instead of being
+the better for them, I have now not an hour's remission from the fever
+in the four-and-twenty.--I cannot conceive the meaning of it." F--, who
+perceived he had not long to live, told him the reason was very plain:
+the air of Montpellier was too sharp for his lungs, which required a
+softer climate. "Then you're a sordid villain (cried the young man) for
+allowing me to stay here till my constitution is irretrievable." He set
+out immediately for Tholouse, and in a few weeks died in the
+neighbourhood of that city.
+
+I observe that the physicians in this country pay no regard to the
+state of the solids in chronical disorders, that exercise and the cold
+bath are never prescribed, that they seem to think the scurvy is
+entirely an English disease; and that, in all appearance, they often
+confound the symptoms of it, with those of the venereal distemper.
+Perhaps I may be more particular on this subject in a subsequent
+letter. In the mean time, I am ever,-- Dear Sir, Yours sincerely.
+
+
+
+LETTER XII
+
+NICE, December 6, 1763.
+
+DEAR SIR,--The inhabitants of Montpellier are sociable, gay, and
+good-tempered. They have a spirit of commerce, and have erected several
+considerable manufactures, in the neighbourhood of the city. People
+assemble every day to take the air on the esplanade, where there is a
+very good walk, just without the gate of the citadel: but, on the other
+side of the town, there is another still more agreeable, called the
+peirou, from whence there is a prospect of the Mediterranean on one
+side, and of the Cevennes on the other. Here is a good equestrian
+statue of Louis XIV, fronting one gate of the city, which is built in
+form of a triumphal arch, in honour of the same monarch. Immediately
+under the pierou is the physic garden, and near it an arcade just
+finished for an aqueduct, to convey a stream of water to the upper
+parts of the city. Perhaps I should have thought this a neat piece of
+work, if I had not seen the Pont du Garde: but, after having viewed the
+Roman arches, I could not look upon this but with pity and contempt. It
+is a wonder how the architect could be so fantastically modern, having
+such a noble model, as it were, before his eyes.
+
+There are many protestants at this place, as well as at Nismes, and
+they are no longer molested on the score of religion. They have their
+conventicles in the country, where they assemble privately for worship.
+These are well known; and detachments are sent out every Sunday to
+intercept them; but the officer has always private directions to take
+another route. Whether this indulgence comes from the wisdom and lenity
+of the government, or is purchased with money of the commanding
+officer, I cannot determine: but certain it is, the laws of France
+punish capitally every protestant minister convicted of having
+performed the functions of his ministry in this kingdom; and one was
+hanged about two years ago, in the neighbourhood of Montauban.
+
+The markets in Montpellier are well supplied with fish, poultry,
+butcher's meat, and game, at reasonable rates. The wine of the country
+is strong and harsh, and never drank, but when mixed with water.
+Burgundy is dear, and so is the sweet wine of Frontignan, though made
+in the neighbourhood of Cette. You know it is famous all over Europe,
+and so are the liqueurs, or drams of various sorts, compounded and
+distilled at Montpellier. Cette is the sea-port, about four leagues
+from that city: but the canal of Languedoc comes up within a mile of
+it; and is indeed a great curiosity: a work in all respects worthy of a
+Colbert, under whose auspices it was finished. When I find such a
+general tribute of respect and veneration paid to the memory of that
+great man, I am astonished to see so few monuments of public utility
+left by other ministers. One would imagine, that even the desire of
+praise would prompt a much greater number to exert themselves for the
+glory and advantage of their country; yet in my opinion, the French
+have been ungrateful to Colbert, in the same proportion as they have
+over-rated the character of his master. Through all France one meets
+with statues and triumphal arches erected to Louis XIV, in consequence
+of his victories; by which, likewise, he acquired the title of Louis le
+Grand. But how were those victories obtained? Not by any personal merit
+of Louis. It was Colbert who improved his finances, and enabled him to
+pay his army. It was Louvois that provided all the necessaries of war.
+It was a Conde, a Turenne, a Luxemburg, a Vendome, who fought his
+battles; and his first conquests, for which he was deified by the pen
+of adulation, were obtained almost without bloodshed, over weak,
+dispirited, divided, and defenceless nations. It was Colbert that
+improved the marine, instituted manufactures, encouraged commerce,
+undertook works of public utility, and patronized the arts and
+sciences. But Louis (you will say) had the merit of choosing and
+supporting those ministers, and those generals. I answer, no. He found
+Colbert and Louvois already chosen: he found Conde and Turenne in the
+very zenith of military reputation. Luxemburg was Conde's pupil; and
+Vendome, a prince of the blood, who at first obtained the command of
+armies in consequence of his high birth, and happened to turn out a man
+of genius. The same Louis had the sagacity to revoke the edict of
+Nantz; to entrust his armies to a Tallard, a Villeroy, and a Marsin. He
+had the humanity to ravage the country, burn the towns, and massacre
+the people of the Palatinate. He had the patriotism to impoverish and
+depopulate his own kingdom, in order to prosecute schemes of the most
+lawless ambition. He had the Consolation to beg a peace from those he
+had provoked to war by the most outrageous insolence; and he had the
+glory to espouse Mrs. Maintenon in her old age, the widow of the
+buffoon Scarron. Without all doubt, it was from irony he acquired the
+title le Grand.
+
+Having received a favourable answer from Mr. B--, the English consul at
+Nice, and recommended the care of my heavy baggage to Mr. Ray, who
+undertook to send it by sea from Cette to Villefranche, I hired a coach
+and mules for seven loui'dores, and set out from Montpellier on the
+13th of November, the weather being agreeable, though the air was cold
+and frosty. In other respects there were no signs of winter: the olives
+were now ripe, and appeared on each side of the road as black as sloes;
+and the corn was already half a foot high. On the second day of our
+journey, we passed the Rhone on a bridge of boats at Buccaire, and lay
+on the other side at Tarrascone. Next day we put up at a wretched place
+called Orgon, where, however, we were regaled with an excellent supper;
+and among other delicacies, with a dish of green pease. Provence is a
+pleasant country, well cultivated; but the inns are not so good here as
+in Languedoc, and few of them are provided with a certain convenience
+which an English traveller can very ill dispense with. Those you find
+are generally on the tops of houses, exceedingly nasty; and so much
+exposed to the weather, that a valetudinarian cannot use them without
+hazard of his life. At Nismes in Languedoc, where we found the Temple
+of Cloacina in a most shocking condition, the servant-maid told me her
+mistress had caused it to be made on purpose for the English
+travellers; but now she was very sorry for what she had done, as all
+the French who frequented her house, instead of using the seat, left
+their offerings on the floor, which she was obliged to have cleaned
+three or four times a day. This is a degree of beastliness, which would
+appear detestable even in the capital of North-Britain. On the fourth
+day of our pilgrimage, we lay in the suburbs of Aix, but did not enter
+the city, which I had a great curiosity to see. The villainous asthma
+baulked me of that satisfaction. I was pinched with the cold, and
+impatient to reach a warmer climate. Our next stage was at a paltry
+village, where we were poorly entertained. I looked so ill in the
+morning, that the good woman of the house, who was big with child, took
+me by the hand at parting, and even shed tears, praying fervently that
+God would restore me to my health. This was the only instance of
+sympathy, compassion, or goodness of heart, that I had met with among
+the publicans of France. Indeed at Valencia, our landlady,
+understanding I was travelling to Montpellier for my health would have
+dissuaded me from going thither; and exhorted me, in particular, to
+beware of the physicians, who were all a pack of assassins. She advised
+me to eat fricassees of chickens, and white meat, and to take a good
+bouillon every morning.
+
+A bouillon is an universal remedy among the good people of France;
+insomuch, that they have no idea of any person's dying, after having
+swallowed un bon bouillon. One of the English gentlemen, who were
+robbed and murdered about thirty years ago between Calais and Boulogne,
+being brought to the post-house of Boulogne with some signs of life,
+this remedy was immediately administered. "What surprises me greatly,
+(said the post-master, speaking of this melancholy story to a friend of
+mine, two years after it happened) I made an excellent bouillon, and
+poured it down his throat with my own hands, and yet he did not
+recover." Now, in all probability, this bouillon it was that stopped
+his breath. When I was a very young man, I remember to have seen a
+person suffocated by such impertinent officiousness. A young man of
+uncommon parts and erudition, very well esteemed at the university of
+G--ow was found early one morning in a subterranean vault among the
+ruins of an old archiepiscopal palace, with his throat cut from ear to
+ear. Being conveyed to a public-house in the neighbourhood, he made
+signs for pen, ink, and paper, and in all probability would have
+explained the cause of this terrible catastrophe, when an old woman,
+seeing the windpipe, which was cut, sticking out of the wound, and
+mistaking it for the gullet, by way of giving him a cordial to support
+his spirits, poured into it, through a small funnel, a glass of burnt
+brandy, which strangled him in the tenth part of a minute. The gash was
+so hideous, and formed by so many repeated strokes of a razor, that the
+surgeons believed he could not possibly be the perpetrator himself;
+nevertheless this was certainly the case.
+
+At Brignolles, where we dined, I was obliged to quarrel with the
+landlady, and threaten to leave her house, before she would indulge us
+with any sort of flesh-meat. It was meagre day, and she had made her
+provision accordingly. She even hinted some dissatisfaction at having
+heretics in her house: but, as I was not disposed to eat stinking fish,
+with ragouts of eggs and onions, I insisted upon a leg of mutton, and a
+brace of fine partridges, which I found in the larder. Next day, when
+we set out in the morning from Luc, it blew a north-westerly wind so
+extremely cold and biting, that even a flannel wrapper could not keep
+me tolerably warm in the coach. Whether the cold had put our coachman
+in a bad humour, or he had some other cause of resentment against
+himself, I know not; but we had not gone above a quarter of a mile,
+when he drove the carriage full against the corner of a garden wall,
+and broke the axle-tree, so that we were obliged to return to the inn
+on foot, and wait a whole day, until a new piece could be made and
+adjusted. The wind that blew, is called Maestral, in the Provencial
+dialect, and indeed is the severest that ever I felt. At this inn, we
+met with a young French officer who had been a prisoner in England, and
+spoke our language pretty well. He told me, that such a wind did not
+blow above twice or three times in a winter, and was never of long
+continuance, that in general, the weather was very mild and agreeable
+during the winter months; that living was very cheap in this part of
+Provence, which afforded great plenty of game. Here, too, I found a
+young Irish recollet, in his way from Rome to his own country. He
+complained, that he was almost starved by the inhospitable disposition
+of the French people; and that the regular clergy, in particular, had
+treated him with the most cruel disdain. I relieved his necessities,
+and gave him a letter to a gentleman of his own country at Montpellier.
+
+When I rose in the morning, and opened a window that looked into the
+garden, I thought myself either in a dream, or bewitched. All the trees
+were cloathed with snow, and all the country covered at least a foot
+thick. "This cannot be the south of France, (said I to myself) it must
+be the Highlands of Scotland!" At a wretched town called Muy, where we
+dined, I had a warm dispute with our landlord, which, however, did not
+terminate to my satisfaction. I sent on the mules before, to the next
+stage, resolving to take post-horses, and bespoke them accordingly of
+the aubergiste, who was, at the same time, inn-keeper and post-master.
+We were ushered into the common eating-room, and had a very indifferent
+dinner; after which, I sent a loui'dore to be changed, in order to pay
+the reckoning. The landlord, instead of giving the full change,
+deducted three livres a head for dinner, and sent in the rest of the
+money by my servant. Provoked more at his ill manners, than at his
+extortion, I ferreted him out of a bed-chamber, where he had concealed
+himself, and obliged him to restore the full change, from which I paid
+him at the rate of two livres a head. He refused to take the money,
+which I threw down on the table; and the horses being ready, stepped
+into the coach, ordering the postillions to drive on. Here I had
+certainly reckoned without my host. The fellows declared they would not
+budge, until I should pay their master; and as I threatened them with
+manual chastisement, they alighted, and disappeared in a twinkling. I
+was now so incensed, that though I could hardly breathe; though the
+afternoon was far advanced, and the street covered with wet snow, I
+walked to the consul of the town, and made my complaint in form. This
+magistrate, who seemed to be a taylor, accompanied me to the inn, where
+by this time the whole town was assembled, and endeavoured to persuade
+me to compromise the affair. I said, as he was the magistrate, I would
+stand to his award. He answered, "that he would not presume to
+determine what I was to pay." I have already paid him a reasonable
+price for his dinner, (said I) and now I demand post-horses according
+to the king's ordonnance. The aubergiste said the horses were ready,
+but the guides were run away; and he could not find others to go in
+their place. I argued with great vehemence, offering to leave a
+loui'dore for the poor of the parish, provided the consul would oblige
+the rascal to do his duty. The consul shrugged up his shoulders, and
+declared it was not in his power. This was a lie, but I perceived he
+had no mind to disoblige the publican. If the mules had not been sent
+away, I should certainly have not only payed what I thought proper, but
+corrected the landlord into the bargain, for his insolence and
+extortion; but now I was entirely at his mercy, and as the consul
+continued to exhort me in very humble terms, to comply with his
+demands, I thought proper to acquiesce. Then the postillions
+immediately appeared: the crowd seemed to exult in the triumph of the
+aubergiste; and I was obliged to travel in the night, in very severe
+weather, after all the fatigue and mortification I had undergone.
+
+We lay at Frejus, which was the Forum Julianum of the antients, and
+still boasts of some remains of antiquity; particularly the ruins of an
+amphitheatre, and an aqueduct. The first we passed in the dark, and
+next morning the weather was so cold that I could not walk abroad to
+see it. The town is at present very inconsiderable, and indeed in a
+ruinous condition. Nevertheless, we were very well lodged at the
+post-house, and treated with more politeness than we had met with in
+any other part of France.
+
+As we had a very high mountain to ascend in the morning, I ordered the
+mules on before to the next post, and hired six horses for the coach.
+At the east end of Frejus, we saw close to the road on our left-hand,
+the arcades of the antient aqueduct, and the ruins of some Roman
+edifices, which seemed to have been temples. There was nothing striking
+in the architecture of the aqueduct. The arches are small and low,
+without either grace or ornament, and seem to have been calculated for
+mere utility.
+
+The mountain of Esterelles, which is eight miles over, was formerly
+frequented by a gang of desperate banditti, who are now happily
+exterminated: the road is very good, but in some places very steep and
+bordered by precipices. The mountain is covered with pines, and the
+laurus cerasus, the fruit of which being now ripe, made a most romantic
+appearance through the snow that lay upon the branches. The cherries
+were so large that I at first mistook them for dwarf oranges. I think
+they are counted poisonous in England, but here the people eat them
+without hesitation. In the middle of the mountain is the post-house,
+where we dined in a room so cold, that the bare remembrance of it makes
+my teeth chatter. After dinner I chanced to look into another chamber
+that fronted the south, where the sun shone; and opening a window
+perceived, within a yard of my hand, a large tree loaded with oranges,
+many of which were ripe. You may judge what my astonishment was to find
+Winter in all his rigour reigning on one side of the house, and Summer
+in all her glory on the other. Certain it is, the middle of this
+mountain seemed to be the boundary of the cold weather. As we proceeded
+slowly in the afternoon we were quite enchanted. This side of the hill
+is a natural plantation of the most agreeable ever-greens, pines, firs,
+laurel, cypress, sweet myrtle, tamarisc, box, and juniper, interspersed
+with sweet marjoram, lavender, thyme, wild thyme, and sage. On the
+right-hand the ground shoots up into agreeable cones, between which you
+have delightful vistas of the Mediterranean, which washes the foot of
+the rock; and between two divisions of the mountains, there is a bottom
+watered by a charming stream, which greatly adds to the rural beauties
+of the scene.
+
+This night we passed at Cannes, a little fishing town, agreeably
+situated on the beach of the sea, and in the same place lodged Monsieur
+Nadeau d'Etrueil, the unfortunate French governor of Guadeloupe,
+condemned to be imprisoned for life in one of the isles Marguerite,
+which lie within a mile of this coast.
+
+Next day we journeyed by the way of Antibes, a small maritime town,
+tolerably well fortified; and passing the little river Loup, over a
+stone-bridge, arrived about noon at the village of St. Laurent, the
+extremity of France, where we passed the Var, after our baggage had
+undergone examination. From Cannes to this village the road lies along
+the sea-side; and sure nothing can be more delightful. Though in the
+morning there was a frost upon the ground, the sun was as warm as it is
+in May in England. The sea was quite smooth, and the beach formed of
+white polished pebbles; on the left-hand the country was covered with
+green olives, and the side of the road planted with large trees of
+sweet myrtle growing wild like the hawthorns in England. From Antibes
+we had the first view of Nice, lying on the opposite side of the bay,
+and making a very agreeable appearance. The author of the Grand Tour
+says, that from Antibes to Nice the roads are very bad, through rugged
+mountains bordered with precipices On the left, and by the sea to the
+right; whereas, in fact, there is neither precipice nor mountain near
+it.
+
+The Var, which divides the county of Nice from Provence, is no other
+than a torrent fed chiefly by the snow that melts on the maritime Alps,
+from which it takes its origin. In the summer it is swelled to a
+dangerous height, and this is also the case after heavy rains: but at
+present the middle of it is quite dry, and the water divided into two
+or three narrow streams, which, however, are both deep and rapid. This
+river has been absurdly enough by some supposed the Rubicon, in all
+probability from the description of that river in the Pharsalia of
+Lucan, who makes it the boundary betwixt Gaul and Italy--
+
+                         --et Gallica certus
+  Limes ab Ausoniis disterminat arva colonis.
+
+  A sure Frontier that parts the Gallic plains
+  From the rich meadows of th' Ansonian swains.
+
+whereas, in fact, the Rubicon, now called Pisatello, runs between
+Ravenna and Rimini.--But to return to the Var. At the village of St.
+Laurent, famous for its Muscadine wines, there is a set of guides
+always in attendance to conduct you in your passage over the river. Six
+of those fellows, tucked up above the middle, with long poles in their
+hands, took charge of our coach, and by many windings guided it safe to
+the opposite shore. Indeed there was no occasion for any; but it is a
+sort of a perquisite, and I did not choose to run any risque, how small
+soever it might be, for the sake of saving half a crown, with which
+they were satisfied. If you do not gratify the searchers at St. Laurent
+with the same sum, they will rummage your trunks, and turn all your
+cloaths topsy turvy. And here, once for all, I would advise every
+traveller who consults his own case and convenience, to be liberal of
+his money to all that sort of people; and even to wink at the
+imposition of aubergistes on the road, unless it be very flagrant. So
+sure as you enter into disputes with them, you will be put to a great
+deal of trouble, and fret yourself to no manner of purpose. I have
+travelled with oeconomists in England, who declared they would rather
+give away a crown than allow themselves to be cheated of a farthing.
+This is a good maxim, but requires a great share of resolution and
+self-denial to put it in practice. In one excursion of about two
+hundred miles my fellow-traveller was in a passion, and of consequence
+very bad company from one end of the journey to the other. He was
+incessantly scolding either at landlords, landladies, waiters,
+hostlers, or postilions. We had bad horses, and bad chaises; set out
+from every stage with the curses of the people; and at this expence I
+saved about ten shillings in the whole journey. For such a paltry
+consideration, he was contented to be miserable himself, and to make
+every other person unhappy with whom he had any concern. When I came
+last from Bath it rained so hard, that the postilion who drove the
+chaise was wet to the skin before we had gone a couple of miles. When
+we arrived at the Devises, I gave him two shillings instead of one, out
+of pure compassion. The consequence of this liberality was, that in the
+next stage we seemed rather to fly than to travel upon solid ground. I
+continued my bounty to the second driver, and indeed through the whole
+journey, and found myself accommodated in a very different manner from
+what I had experienced before. I had elegant chaises, with excellent
+horses; and the postilions of their own accord used such diligence,
+that although the roads were broken by the rain, I travelled at the
+rate of twelve miles an hour; and my extraordinary expence from Bath to
+London, amounted precisely to six shillings.
+
+The river Var falls into the Mediterranean a little below St. Laurent,
+about four miles to the westward of Nice. Within the memory of persons
+now living, there have been three wooden bridges thrown over it, and as
+often destroyed in consequence of the jealousy subsisting between the
+kings of France and Sardinia; this river being the boundary of their
+dominions on the side of Provence. However, this is a consideration
+that ought not to interfere with the other advantages that would accrue
+to both kingdoms from such a convenience. If there was a bridge over
+the Var, and a post-road made from Nice to Genoa, I am very confident
+that all those strangers who now pass the Alps in their way to and from
+Italy, would choose this road as infinitely more safe, commodious, and
+agreeable. This would also be the case with all those who hire felucas
+from Marseilles or Antibes, and expose themselves to the dangers and
+inconveniences of travelling by sea in an open boat.
+
+In the afternoon we arrived at Nice, where we found Mr. M--e, the
+English gentleman whom I had seen at Boulogne, and advised to come
+hither. He had followed my advice, and reached Nice about a month
+before my arrival, with his lady, child, and an old gouvernante. He had
+travelled with his own post-chaise and horses, and is now lodged just
+without one of the gates of the city, in the house of the count de
+V--n, for which he pays five loui'dores a month. I could hire one much
+better in the neighbourhood of London, for the same money. Unless you
+will submit to this extortion, and hire a whole house for a length of
+time, you will find no ready-furnished lodgings at Nice. After having
+stewed a week in a paltry inn, I have taken a ground floor for ten
+months at the rate of four hundred livres a year, that is twenty pounds
+sterling, for the Piedmontese livre is about an English shilling. The
+apartments are large, lofty, and commodious enough, with two small
+gardens, in which there is plenty of sallad, and a great number of
+oranges and lemons: but as it required some time to provide furniture,
+our consul Mr. B--d, one of the best natured and most friendly men in
+the world, has lent me his lodgings, which are charmingly situated by
+the sea-side, and open upon a terrace, that runs parallel to the beach,
+forming part of the town wall. Mr. B--d himself lives at Villa Franca,
+which is divided from Nice by a single mountain, on the top of which
+there is a small fort, called the castle of Montalban. Immediately
+after our arrival we were visited by one Mr. de Martines, a most
+agreeable young fellow, a lieutenant in the Swiss regiment, which is
+here in garrison. He is a Protestant, extremely fond of our nation, and
+understands our language tolerably well. He was particularly
+recommended to our acquaintance by general P-- and his lady; we are
+happy in his conversation; find him wonderfully obliging, and extremely
+serviceable on many occasions. We have likewise made acquaintance with
+some other individuals, particularly with Mr. St. Pierre, junior, who
+is a considerable merchant, and consul for Naples. He is a well-bred,
+sensible young man, speaks English, is an excellent performer on the
+lute and mandolin, and has a pretty collection of books. In a word, I
+hope we shall pass the winter agreeably enough, especially if Mr. M--e
+should hold out; but I am afraid he is too far gone in a consumption to
+recover. He spent the last winter at Nismes, and consulted F-- at
+Montpellier. I was impatient to see the prescription, and found it
+almost verbatim the same he had sent to me; although I am persuaded
+there is a very essential difference between our disorders. Mr. M--e
+has been long afflicted with violent spasms, colliquative sweats,
+prostration of appetite, and a disorder in his bowels. He is likewise
+jaundiced all over, and I am confident his liver is unsound. He tried
+the tortoise soup, which he said in a fortnight stuffed him up with
+phlegm. This gentleman has got a smattering of physic, and I am afraid
+tampers with his own constitution, by means of Brookes's Practice of
+Physic, and some dispensatories, which he is continually poring over. I
+beg pardon for this tedious epistle, and am--Very sincerely, dear Sir,
+Your affectionate, humble servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER XIII
+
+NICE, January 15, 1764.
+
+DEAR SIR,--I am at last settled at Nice, and have leisure to give you
+some account of this very remarkable place. The county of Nice extends
+about fourscore miles in length, and in some places it is thirty miles
+broad. It contains several small towns, and a great number of villages;
+all of which, this capital excepted, are situated among mountains, the
+most extensive plain of the whole country being this where I now am, in
+the neighbourhood of Nice. The length of it does not exceed two miles,
+nor is the breadth of it, in any part, above one. It is bounded by the
+Mediterranean on the south. From the sea-shore, the maritime Alps begin
+with hills of a gentle ascent, rising into mountains that form a sweep
+or amphitheatre ending at Montalban, which overhangs the town of Villa
+Franca. On the west side of this mountain, and in the eastern extremity
+of the amphitheatre, stands the city of Nice, wedged in between a steep
+rock and the little river Paglion, which descends from the mountains,
+and washing the town-walls on the west side, falls into the sea, after
+having filled some canals for the use of the inhabitants. There is a
+stone-bridge of three arches over it, by which those who come from
+Provence enter the city. The channel of it is very broad, but generally
+dry in many places; the water (as in the Var) dividing itself into
+several small streams. The Paglion being fed by melted snow and rain in
+the mountains, is quite dry in summer; but it is sometimes swelled by
+sudden rains to a very formidable torrent. This was the case in the
+year 1744, when the French and Spanish armies attacked eighteen
+Piedmontese battalions, which were posted on the side of Montalban. The
+assailants were repulsed with the loss of four thousand men, some
+hundreds of whom perished in repassing the Paglion, which had swelled
+to a surprising degree during the battle, in consequence of a heavy
+continued rain. This rain was of great service to the Piedmontese, as
+it prevented one half of the enemy from passing the river to sustain
+the other. Five hundred were taken prisoners: but the Piedmontese,
+foreseeing they should be surrounded next day by the French, who had
+penetrated behind them, by a pass in the mountains, retired in the
+night. Being received on board the English Fleet, which lay at Villa
+Franca, they were conveyed to Oneglia. In examining the bodies of those
+that were killed in the battle, the inhabitants of Nice perceived, that
+a great number of the Spanish soldiers were circumcised; a
+circumstance, from which they concluded, that a great many Jews engage
+in the service of his Catholic majesty. I am of a different opinion.
+The Jews are the least of any people that I know, addicted to a
+military life. I rather imagine they were of the Moorish race, who have
+subsisted in Spain, since the expulsion of their brethren; and though
+they conform externally to the rites of the Catholic religion, still
+retain in private their attachment to the law of Mahomet.
+
+The city of Nice is built in form of an irregular isosceles triangle,
+the base of which fronts the sea.  On the west side it is surrounded by
+a wall and rampart; on the east, it is over-hung by a rock, on which we
+see the ruins of an old castle, which, before the invention of
+artillery, was counted impregnable. It was taken and dismantled by
+marechal Catinat, in the time of Victor Amadaeus, the father of his
+Sardinian majesty. It was afterwards finally demolished by the duke of
+Berwick towards the latter end of queen Anne's war. To repair it would
+be a very unnecessary expence, as it is commanded by Montalban, and
+several other eminences.
+
+The town of Nice is altogether indefensible, and therefore without
+fortifications. There are only two iron guns upon a bastion that fronts
+the beach; and here the French had formed a considerable battery
+against the English cruisers, in the war of 1744, when the Mareschal
+Duke de Belleisle had his headquarters at Nice. This little town,
+situated in the bay of Antibes, is almost equidistant from Marseilles,
+Turin, and Genoa, the first and last being about thirty leagues from
+hence by sea; and the capital of Piedmont at the same distance to the
+northward, over the mountains. It lies exactly opposite to Capo di
+Ferro, on the coast of Barbary; and, the islands of Sardinia and
+Corsica are laid down about two degrees to the eastward, almost exactly
+in a line with Genoa. This little town, hardly a mile in circumference,
+is said to contain twelve thousand inhabitants. The streets are narrow;
+the houses are built of stone, and the windows in general are fitted
+with paper instead of glass. This expedient would not answer in a
+country subject to rain and storms; but here, where there is very
+little of either, the paper lozenges answer tolerably well. The
+bourgeois, however, begin to have their houses sashed with glass.
+Between the town-wall and the sea, the fishermen haul up their boats
+upon the open beach; but on the other side of the rock, where the
+castle stood, is the port or harbour of Nice, upon which some money has
+been expended. It is a small basin, defended to seaward by a mole of
+free-stone, which is much better contrived than executed: for the sea
+has already made three breaches in it; and in all probability, in
+another winter, the extremity of it will be carried quite away. It
+would require the talents of a very skilful architect to lay the
+foundation of a good mole, on an open beach like this; exposed to the
+swell of the whole Mediterranean, without any island or rock in the
+offing, to break the force of the waves. Besides, the shore is bold,
+and the bottom foul. There are seventeen feet of water in the basin,
+sufficient to float vessels of one hundred and fifty ton; and this is
+chiefly supplied by a small stream of very fine water; another great
+convenience for shipping. On the side of the mole, there is a constant
+guard of soldiers, and a battery of seven cannon, pointing to the sea.
+On the other side, there is a curious manufacture for twisting or
+reeling silk; a tavern, a coffee-house, and several other buildings,
+for the convenience of the sea-faring people. Without the harbour, is a
+lazarette, where persons coming from infected places, are obliged to
+perform quarantine. The harbour has been declared a free-port, and it
+is generally full of tartans, polacres, and other small vessels, that
+come from Sardinia, Ivica, Italy, and Spain, loaded with salt, wine,
+and other commodities; but here is no trade of any great consequence.
+
+The city of Nice is provided with a senate, which administers justice
+under the auspices of an avocat-general, sent hither by the king. The
+internal oeconomy of the town is managed by four consuls; one for the
+noblesse, another for the merchants, a third for the bourgeois, and a
+fourth for the peasants. These are chosen annually from the
+town-council. They keep the streets and markets in order, and
+superintend the public works. There is also an intendant, who takes
+care of his majesty's revenue: but there is a discretionary power
+lodged in the person of the commandant, who is always an officer of
+rank in the service, and has under his immediate command the regiment
+which is here in garrison. That which is here now is a Swiss battalion,
+of which the king has five or six in his service. There is likewise a
+regiment of militia, which is exercised once a year. But of all these
+particulars, I shall speak more fully on another occasion.
+
+When I stand upon the rampart, and look round me, I can scarce help
+thinking myself inchanted. The small extent of country which I see, is
+all cultivated like a garden. Indeed, the plain presents nothing but
+gardens, full of green trees, loaded with oranges, lemons, citrons, and
+bergamots, which make a delightful appearance. If you examine them more
+nearly, you will find plantations of green pease ready to gather; all
+sorts of sallading, and pot-herbs, in perfection; and plats of roses,
+carnations, ranunculas, anemonies, and daffodils, blowing in full
+glory, with such beauty, vigour, and perfume, as no flower in England
+ever exhibited.
+
+I must tell you, that presents of carnations are sent from hence, in
+the winter, to Turin and Paris; nay, sometimes as far as London, by the
+post. They are packed up in a wooden box, without any sort of
+preparation, one pressed upon another: the person who receives them,
+cuts off a little bit of the stalk, and steeps them for two hours in
+vinegar and water, when they recover their full bloom and beauty. Then
+he places them in water-bottles, in an apartment where they are
+screened from the severities of the weather; and they will continue
+fresh and unfaded the best part of a month.
+
+Amidst the plantations in the neighbourhood of Nice, appear a vast
+number of white bastides, or country-houses, which make a dazzling
+shew. Some few of these are good villas, belonging to the noblesse of
+this county; and even some of the bourgeois are provided with pretty
+lodgeable cassines; but in general, they are the habitations of the
+peasants, and contain nothing but misery and vermin. They are all built
+square; and, being whitened with lime or plaister, contribute greatly
+to the richness of the view. The hills are shaded to the tops with
+olive-trees, which are always green; and those hills are over-topped by
+more distant mountains, covered with snow. When I turn myself towards
+the sea, the view is bounded by the horizon; yet in a clear morning,
+one can perceive the high lands of Corsica. On the right hand, it is
+terminated by Antibes, and the mountain of Esterelles, which I
+described in my last. As for the weather, you will conclude, from what
+I have said of the oranges, flowers, etc. that it must be wonderfully
+mild and serene: but of the climate, I shall speak hereafter. Let me
+only observe, en passant, that the houses in general have no chimnies,
+but in their kitchens; and that many people, even of condition, at
+Nice, have no fire in their chambers, during the whole winter. When the
+weather happens to be a little more sharp than usual, they warm their
+apartments with a brasiere or pan of charcoal.
+
+Though Nice itself retains few marks of antient splendor, there are
+considerable monuments of antiquity in its neighbourhood. About two
+short miles from the town, upon the summit of a pretty high hill, we
+find the ruins of the antient city Cemenelion, now called Cimia, which
+was once the metropolis of the Maritime Alps, and the scat of a Roman
+president. With respect to situation, nothing could be more agreeable
+or salubrious. It stood upon the gentle ascent and summit of a hill,
+fronting the Mediterranean; from the shore of which, it is distant
+about half a league; and, on the other side, it overlooked a bottom, or
+narrow vale, through which the Paglion (antiently called Paulo) runs
+towards the walls of Nice. It was inhabited by a people, whom Ptolomy
+and Pliny call the Vedantij: but these were undoubtedly mixed with a
+Roman colony, as appears by the monuments which still remain; I mean
+the ruins of an amphitheatre, a temple of Apollo, baths, aqueducts,
+sepulchral, and other stones, with inscriptions, and a great number of
+medals which the peasants have found by accident, in digging and
+labouring the vineyards and cornfields, which now cover the ground
+where the city stood.
+
+Touching this city, very little is to be learned from the antient
+historians: but that it was the seat of a Roman praeses, is proved by
+the two following inscriptions, which are still extant.
+
+  P. AELIO. SEVERINO.
+  V. E. P.
+  PRAESIDI. OPTIMO.
+  ORDO. CEMEN.
+  PATRONO.
+
+By the Senate of Cemenelion, Dedicated to His Excellency P. Aelius
+Severinus, the best of Governors and Patrons.
+
+This is now in the possession of the count de Gubernatis, who has a
+country-house upon the spot. The other, found near the same place, is
+in praise of the praeses Marcus Aurelius Masculus.
+
+  M. AVRELIO. MASCVLO.
+  V. E.
+  OB. EXIMIAM. PRAESIDATVS
+  EIVS. INTEGRITATEM. ET
+  EGREGIAM. AD OMNES HOMINES
+  MANSVETVDINEM. ET. VRGENTIS
+  ANNONAE. SINCERAM. PRAEBITIONEM.
+  AC. MVNIFICENTIAM. ET. QVOD. AQVAE
+  VSVM. VETVSTATE. LAPSVM. REQVI-
+  SITVM. AC. REPERTVM. SAECVLI
+  FELICITATE. CVRSVI. PRISTINO
+  REDDIDERIT.
+  COLLEG. III.
+  QVIB. EX. SCC. P. EST
+  PATRONO. DIGNISS.
+
+Inscribed by the three corporations under the authority of the Senate,
+to their most worthy Patron, His Excellency M. Aurelius Masculus, in
+testimony of their gratitude for the blessings of his incorruptible
+administration, his wonderful affability to all without Distinction,
+his generous Distribution of Corn in time of Dearth, his munificence in
+repairing the ruinous aqueduct, in searching for, discovering and
+restoring the water to its former course for the Benefit of the
+Community.
+
+This president well deserved such a mark of respect from a people whom
+he had assisted in two such essential articles, as their corn and their
+water. You know the praeses of a Roman province had the jus sigendi
+clavi, the right to drive a nail in the Kalendar, the privilege of
+wearing the latus clavus, or broad studs on his garment, the gladius,
+infula, praetexta, purpura & annulus aureus, the Sword, Diadem, purple
+Robe, and gold Ring, he had his vasa, vehicula, apparitores, Scipio
+eburneus, & sella curulis, Kettledrums, [I know the kettledrum is a
+modern invention; but the vasa militari modo conclamata was something
+analogous.] Chariots, Pursuivants, ivory staff, and chair of state.
+
+I shall give you one more sepulchral inscription on a marble, which is
+now placed over the gate of the church belonging to the convent of St.
+Pont, a venerable building, which stands at the bottom of the hill,
+fronting the north side of the town of Nice. This St. Pont, or Pontius,
+was a Roman convert to Christianity, who suffered martyrdom at
+Cemenelion in the year 261, during the reigns of the emperors Valerian
+and Gallienus. The legends recount some ridiculous miracles wrought in
+favour of this saint, both before and after his death. Charles V.
+emperor of Germany and king of Spain, caused this monastery to be built
+on the spot where Pontius suffered decapitation. But to return to the
+inscription: it appears in these words.
+
+  M. M. A.
+  FLAVIAE. BASILLAE. CONIVG. CARISSIM.
+  DOM. ROMA. MIRAE. ERGA. MARITUM. AMORIS.
+  ADQ. CASTITAT. FAEMINAE. QVAE. VIXIT
+  ANN. XXXV. M. III. DIEB. XII. AVRELIVS
+  RHODISMANVS. AVG. LIB. COMMEM. ALP.
+  MART. ET. AVRELIA, ROMVLA. FILII.
+  IMPATIENTISSIM. DOLOR. EIVS. ADFLICTI
+  ADQ. DESOLATI. CARISSIM. AC MERENT. FERET.
+  FEC. ET. DED,
+
+Freely consecrated by Aurelius Rhodismanus, the Emperor's Freedman, to
+the much honoured memory of his dear Consort Flavia Aurelia of Rome, a
+woman equally distinguished by her unblemished Virtue and conjugal
+affection. His children Martial and Aurelia Romula deeply affected and
+distressed by the Violence of his Grief, erected and dedicated a
+monument to their dear deserving Parent.  [I don't pretend to translate
+these inscriptions literally, because I am doubtful about the meaning
+of some abbreviations.]
+
+The amphitheatre of Cemenelion is but very small, compared to that of
+Nismes. The arena is ploughed up, and bears corn: some of the seats
+remain, and part of two opposite porticos; but all the columns, and the
+external facade of the building, are taken away so that it is
+impossible to judge of the architecture, all we can perceive is, that
+it was built in an oval form. About one hundred paces from the
+amphitheatre stood an antient temple, supposed to have been dedicated
+to Apollo. The original roof is demolished, as well as the portico; the
+vestiges of which may still be traced. The part called the Basilica,
+and about one half of the Cella Sanctior, remain, and are converted
+into the dwelling-house and stable of the peasant who takes care of the
+count de Gubernatis's garden, in which this monument stands. In the
+Cella Sanctior, I found a lean cow, a he-goat, and a jack-ass; the very
+same conjunction of animals which I had seen drawing a plough in
+Burgundy. Several mutilated statues have been dug up from the ruins of
+this temple; and a great number of medals have been found in the
+different vineyards which now occupy the space upon which stood the
+antient city of Cemenelion. These were of gold, silver, and brass. Many
+of them were presented to Charles Emanuel I. duke of Savoy. The prince
+of Monaco has a good number of them in his collection; and the rest are
+in private hands. The peasants, in digging, have likewise found many
+urns, lachrymatories, and sepulchral stones, with epitaphs, which are
+now dispersed among different convents and private houses. All this
+ground is a rich mine of antiquities, which, if properly worked, would
+produce a great number of valuable curiosities. Just by the temple of
+Apollo were the ruins of a bath, composed of great blocks of marble,
+which have been taken away for the purposes of modern building. In all
+probability, many other noble monuments of this city have been
+dilapidated by the same barbarous oeconomy. There are some subterranean
+vaults, through which the water was conducted to this bath, still
+extant in the garden of the count de Gubernatis. Of the aqueduct that
+conveyed water to the town, I can say very little, but that it was
+scooped through a mountain: that this subterranean passage was
+discovered some years ago, by removing the rubbish which choaked it up:
+that the people penetrating a considerable way, by the help of lighted
+torches, found a very plentiful stream of water flowing in an aqueduct,
+as high as an ordinary man, arched over head, and lined with a sort of
+cement. They could not, however, trace this stream to its source; and
+it is again stopped up with earth and rubbish. There is not a soul in
+this country, who has either spirit or understanding to conduct an
+inquiry of this kind. Hard by the amphitheatre is a convent of
+Recollets, built in a very romantic situation, on the brink of a
+precipice. On one side of their garden, they ascend to a kind of
+esplanade, which they say was part of the citadel of Cemenelion. They
+have planted it with cypress-trees, and flowering-shrubs. One of the
+monks told me, that it is vaulted below, as they can plainly perceive
+by the sound of their instruments used in houghing the ground. A very
+small expence would bring the secrets of this cavern to light. They
+have nothing to do, but to make a breach in the wall, which appears
+uncovered towards the garden.
+
+The city of Cemenelion was first sacked by the Longobards, who made an
+irruption into Provence, under their king Alboinus, about the middle of
+the sixth century. It was afterwards totally destroyed by the Saracens,
+who, at different times, ravaged this whole coast. The remains of the
+people are supposed to have changed their habitation, and formed a
+coalition with the inhabitants of Nice.
+
+What further I have to say of Nice, you shall know in good time; at
+present, I have nothing to add, but what you very well know, that I am
+always your affectionate humble servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER, XIV
+
+NICE, January 20, 1764.
+
+DEAR SIR,--Last Sunday I crossed Montalban on horseback, with some
+Swiss officers, on a visit to our consul, Mr. B--d, who lives at Ville
+Franche, about half a league from Nice. It is a small town, built upon
+the side of a rock, at the bottom of the harbour, which is a fine
+basin, surrounded with hills on every side, except to the south, where
+it lies open to the sea. If there was a small island in the mouth of
+it, to break off the force of the waves, when the wind is southerly, it
+would be one of the finest harbours in the world; for the ground is
+exceeding good for anchorage: there is a sufficient depth of water, and
+room enough for the whole navy of England. On the right hand, as you
+enter the port, there is an elegant fanal, or lighthouse, kept in good
+repair: but in all the charts of this coast which I have seen, this
+lanthorn is laid down to the westward of the harbour; an error equally
+absurd and dangerous, as it may mislead the navigator, and induce him
+to run his ship among the rocks, to the eastward of the lighthouse,
+where it would undoubtedly perish. Opposite to the mouth of the harbour
+is the fort, which can be of no service, but in defending the shipping
+and the town by sea; for, by land, it is commanded by Montalban, and
+all the hills in the neighbourhood. In the war of 1744, it was taken
+and retaken. At present, it is in tolerable good repair. On the left of
+the fort, is the basin for the gallies, with a kind of dock, in which
+they are built, and occasionally laid up to be refitted. This basin is
+formed by a pretty stone mole; and here his Sardinian majesty's two
+gallies lie perfectly secure, moored with their sterns close to the
+jette. I went on board one of these vessels, and saw about two hundred
+miserable wretches, chained to the banks on which they sit and row,
+when the galley is at sea. This is a sight which a British subject,
+sensible of the blessing he enjoys, cannot behold without horror and
+compassion. Not but that if we consider the nature of the case, with
+coolness and deliberation, we must acknowledge the justice, and even
+sagacity, of employing for the service of the public, those malefactors
+who have forfeited their title to the privileges of the community.
+Among the slaves at Ville Franche is a Piedmontese count, condemned to
+the gallies for life, in consequence of having been convicted of
+forgery. He is permitted to live on shore; and gets money by employing
+the other slaves to knit stockings for sale. He appears always in the
+Turkish habit, and is in a fair way of raising a better fortune than
+that which he has forfeited.
+
+It is a great pity, however, and a manifest outrage against the law of
+nations, as well as of humanity, to mix with those banditti, the
+Moorish and Turkish prisoners who are taken in the prosecution of open
+war. It is certainly no justification of this barbarous practice, that
+the Christian prisoners are treated as cruelly at Tunis and Algiers. It
+would be for the honour of Christendom, to set an example of generosity
+to the Turks; and, if they would not follow it, to join their naval
+forces, and extirpate at once those nests of pirates, who have so long
+infested the Mediterranean. Certainly, nothing can be more shameful,
+than the treaties which France and the Maritime Powers have concluded
+with those barbarians. They supply them with artillery, arms, and
+ammunition, to disturb their neighbours. They even pay them a sort of
+tribute, under the denomination of presents; and often put up with
+insults tamely, for the sordid consideration of a little gain in the
+way of commerce. They know that Spain, Sardinia, and almost all the
+Catholic powers in the Mediterranean, Adriatic, and Levant, are at
+perpetual war with those Mahometans; that while Algiers, Tunis, and
+Sallee, maintain armed cruisers at sea, those Christian powers will not
+run the risque of trading in their own bottoms, but rather employ as
+carriers the maritime nations, who are at peace with the infidels. It
+is for our share of this advantage, that we cultivate the piratical
+States of Barbary, and meanly purchase passports of them, thus
+acknowledging them masters of the Mediterranean.
+
+The Sardinian gallies are mounted each with five-and-twenty oars, and
+six guns, six-pounders, of a side, and a large piece of artillery
+amidships, pointing ahead, which (so far as I am able to judge) can
+never be used point-blank, without demolishing the head or prow of the
+galley. The accommodation on board for the officers is wretched. There
+is a paltry cabin in the poop for the commander; but all the other
+officers lie below the slaves, in a dungeon, where they have neither
+light, air, nor any degree of quiet; half suffocated by the heat of the
+place; tormented by fleas, bugs, and lice; and disturbed by the
+incessant noise over head. The slaves lie upon the naked banks, without
+any other covering than a tilt. This, however, is no great hardship, in
+a climate where there is scarce any winter. They are fed with a very
+scanty allowance of bread, and about fourteen beans a day and twice a
+week they have a little rice, or cheese, but most of them, while they
+are in harbour knit stockings, or do some other kind of work, which
+enables them to make some addition to this wretched allowance. When
+they happen to be at sea in bad weather, their situation is truly
+deplorable. Every wave breaks over the vessel, and not only keeps them
+continually wet, but comes with such force, that they are dashed
+against the banks with surprising violence: sometimes their limbs are
+broke, and sometimes their brains dashed out. It is impossible (they
+say) to keep such a number of desperate people under any regular
+command, without exercising such severities as must shock humanity. It
+is almost equally impossible to maintain any tolerable degree of
+cleanliness, where such a number of wretches are crouded together
+without conveniences, or even the necessaries of life. They are ordered
+twice a week to strip, clean, and bathe themselves in the sea: but,
+notwithstanding all the precautions of discipline, they swarm with
+vermin, and the vessel smells like an hospital, or crouded jail. They
+seem, nevertheless, quite insensible of their misery, like so many
+convicts in Newgate: they laugh and sing, and swear, and get drunk when
+they can. When you enter by the stern, you are welcomed by a band of
+music selected from the slaves; and these expect a gratification. If
+you walk forwards, you must take care of your pockets. You will be
+accosted by one or other of the slaves, with a brush and blacking-ball
+for cleaning your shoes; and if you undergo this operation, it is ten
+to one but your pocket is picked. If you decline his service, and keep
+aloof, you will find it almost impossible to avoid a colony of vermin,
+which these fellows have a very dexterous method of conveying to
+strangers. Some of the Turkish prisoners, whose ransom or exchange is
+expected, are allowed to go ashore, under proper inspection; and those
+forcats, who have served the best part of the time for which they were
+condemned, are employed in public works, under a guard of soldiers. At
+the harbour of Nice, they are hired by ship-masters to bring ballast,
+and have a small proportion of what they earn, for their own use: the
+rest belongs to the king. They are distinguished by an iron shackle
+about one of their legs. The road from Nice to Ville Franche is scarce
+passable on horseback: a circumstance the more extraordinary, as those
+slaves, in the space of two or three months, might even make it fit for
+a carriage, and the king would not be one farthing out of pocket, for
+they are quite idle the greatest part of the year.
+
+The gallies go to sea only in the summer. In tempestuous weather, they
+could not live out of port. Indeed, they are good for nothing but in
+smooth water during a calm; when, by dint of rowing, they make good
+way. The king of Sardinia is so sensible of their inutility, that he
+intends to let his gallies rot; and, in lieu of them, has purchased two
+large frigates in England, one of fifty, and another of thirty guns,
+which are now in the harbour of Ville Franche. He has also procured an
+English officer, one Mr. A--, who is second in command on board of one
+of them, and has the title of captain consulteur, that is, instructor
+to the first captain, the marquis de M--i, who knows as little of
+seamanship as I do of Arabic.
+
+The king, it is said, intends to have two or three more frigates, and
+then he will be more than a match for the Barbary corsairs, provided
+care be taken to man his fleet in a proper manner: but this will never
+be done, unless he invites foreigners into his service, officers as
+well as seamen; for his own dominions produce neither at present. If he
+is really determined to make the most of the maritime situation of his
+dominions, as well as of his alliance with Great-Britain, he ought to
+supply his ships with English mariners, and put a British commander at
+the head of his fleet. He ought to erect magazines and docks at Villa
+Franca; or if there is not conveniency for building, he may at least
+have pits and wharfs for heaving down and careening; and these ought to
+be under the direction of Englishmen, who best understand all the
+particulars of marine oeconomy. Without all doubt, he will not be able
+to engage foreigners, without giving them liberal appointments; and
+their being engaged in his service will give umbrage to his own
+subjects: but, when the business is to establish a maritime power,
+these considerations ought to be sacrificed to reasons of public
+utility. Nothing can be more absurd and unreasonable, than the murmurs
+of the Piedmontese officers at the preferment of foreigners, who
+execute those things for the advantage of their country, of which they
+know themselves incapable. When Mr. P--n was first promoted in the
+service of his Sardinian majesty, he met with great opposition, and
+numberless mortifications, from the jealousy of the Piedmontese
+officers, and was obliged to hazard his life in many rencounters with
+them, before they would be quiet. Being a man of uncommon spirit, he
+never suffered the least insult or affront to pass unchastised. He had
+repeated opportunities of signalizing his valour against the Turks; and
+by dint of extraordinary merit, and long services not only attained the
+chief command of the gallies, with the rank of lieutenant-general, but
+also acquired a very considerable share of the king's favour, and was
+appointed commandant of Nice. His Sardinian majesty found his account
+more ways than one, in thus promoting Mr. P--n. He made the acquisition
+of an excellent officer, of tried courage and fidelity, by whose advice
+he conducted his marine affairs. This gentleman was perfectly well
+esteemed at the court of London. In the war of 1744, he lived in the
+utmost harmony with the British admirals who commanded our fleet in the
+Mediterranean. In consequence of this good understanding, a thousand
+occasional services were performed by the English ships, for the
+benefit of his master, which otherwise could not have been done,
+without a formal application to our ministry; in which case, the
+opportunities would have been lost. I know our admirals had general
+orders and instructions, to cooperate in all things with his Sardinian
+majesty; but I know, also, by experience, how little these general
+instructions avail, when the admiral is not cordially interested in the
+service. Were the king of Sardinia at present engaged with England in a
+new war against France, and a British squadron stationed upon this
+coast, as formerly, he would find a great difference in this
+particular. He should therefore carefully avoid having at Nice a
+Savoyard commandant, utterly ignorant of sea affairs; unacquainted with
+the true interest of his master; proud, and arbitrary; reserved to
+strangers, from a prejudice of national jealousy; and particularly
+averse to the English.
+
+With respect to the antient name of Villa Franca, there is a dispute
+among antiquarians. It is not at all mentioned in the Itinerarium of
+Antoninus, unless it is meant as the port of Nice. But it is more
+surprising, that the accurate Strabo, in describing this coast,
+mentions no such harbour. Some people imagine it is the Portus Herculis
+Monaeci. But this is undoubtedly what is now called Monaco; the harbour
+of which exactly tallies with what Strabo says of the Portus Monaeci--
+neque magnas, neque multas capit naves, It holds but a few vessels and
+those of small burthen. Ptolomy, indeed, seems to mention it under the
+name of Herculis Portus, different from the Portus Monaeci. His words
+are these: post vari ostium ad Ligustrium mare, massiliensium, sunt
+Nicaea, Herculis Portus, Trophaea Augusti, Monaeci Portus, Beyond the
+mouth of the Var upon the Ligurian Coast, the Marsilian Colonies are
+Nice, Port Hercules, Trophaea and Monaco. In that case, Hercules was
+worshipped both here and at Monaco, and gave his name to both places.
+But on this subject, I shall perhaps speak more fully in another
+letter, after I have seen the Trophaea Augusti, now called Tourbia, and
+the town of Monaco, which last is about three leagues from Nice. Here I
+cannot help taking notice of the following elegant description from the
+Pharsalia, which seems to have been intended for this very harbour.
+
+  Finis et Hesperiae promoto milite varus,
+  Quaque sub Herculeo sacratus numine Portus
+  Urget rupe cava Pelagus, non Corus in illum
+  Jus habet, aut Zephirus, solus sua littora turbat
+  Circius, et tuta prohibet statione Monaeci.
+
+  The Troops advanc'd as far
+  As flows th' Hesperian Boundary, the Var;
+  And where the mountain scoop'd by nature's hands,
+  The spacious Port of Hercules, expands;
+
+  Here the tall ships at anchor safe remain
+  Tho' Zephyr blows, or Caurus sweeps the Plain;
+  The Southern Blast alone disturbs the Bay;
+  And to Monaco's safer Port obstructs the way.
+
+The present town of Villa Franca was built and settled in the
+thirteenth century, by order of Charles II. king of the Sicilies, and
+count of Provence, in order to defend the harbour from the descents of
+the Saracens, who at that time infested the coast. The inhabitants were
+removed hither from another town, situated on the top of a mountain in
+the neighbourhood, which those pirates had destroyed. Some ruins of the
+old town are still extant. In order to secure the harbour still more
+effectually, Emanuel Philibert, duke of Savoy, built the fort in the
+beginning of the last century, together with the mole where the gallies
+are moored. As I said before, Ville Franche is built on the face of a
+barren rock, washed by the sea; and there is not an acre of plain
+ground within a mile of it. In summer, the reflexion of the sun from
+the rocks must make it intolerably hot; for even at this time of the
+year, I walked myself into a profuse sweat, by going about a quarter of
+a mile to see the gallies.
+
+Pray remember me to our friends at A--'s, and believe me to be ever
+yours.
+
+
+
+LETTER XV
+
+NICE, January 3, 1764.
+
+MADAM,--In your favour which I received by Mr. M--l, you remind me of
+my promise, to communicate the remarks I have still to make on the
+French nation; and at the same time you signify your opinion, that I am
+too severe in my former observations. You even hint a suspicion, that
+this severity is owing to some personal cause of resentment; but, I
+protest, I have no particular cause of animosity against any individual
+of that country. I have neither obligation to, nor quarrel with, any
+subject of France; and when I meet with a Frenchman worthy of my
+esteem, I can receive him into my friendship with as much cordiality,
+as I could feel for any fellow-citizen of the same merit. I even
+respect the nation, for the number of great men it has produced in all
+arts and sciences. I respect the French officers, in particular, for
+their gallantry and valour; and especially for that generous humanity
+which they exercise towards their enemies, even amidst the horrors of
+war. This liberal spirit is the only circumstance of antient chivalry,
+which I think was worth preserving. It had formerly flourished in
+England, but was almost extinguished in a succession of civil wars,
+which are always productive of cruelty and rancour. It was Henry IV. of
+France, (a real knight errant) who revived it in Europe. He possessed
+that greatness of mind, which can forgive injuries of the deepest dye:
+and as he had also the faculty of distinguishing characters, he found
+his account, in favouring with his friendship and confidence, some of
+those who had opposed him in the field with the most inveterate
+perseverance. I know not whether he did more service to mankind in
+general, by reviving the practice of treating his prisoners with
+generosity, than he prejudiced his own country by patronizing the
+absurd and pernicious custom of duelling, and establishing a punto,
+founded in diametrical opposition to common sense and humanity.
+
+I have often heard it observed, that a French officer is generally an
+agreeable companion when he is turned of fifty. Without all doubt, by
+that time, the fire of his vivacity, which makes him so troublesome in
+his youth, will be considerably abated, and in other respects, he must
+be improved by his experience. But there is a fundamental error in the
+first principles of his education, which time rather confirms than
+removes. Early prejudices are for the most part converted into habits
+of thinking; and accordingly you will find the old officers in the
+French service more bigotted than their juniors, to the punctilios of
+false honour.
+
+A lad of a good family no sooner enters into the service, than he
+thinks it incumbent upon him to shew his courage in a rencontre. His
+natural vivacity prompts him to hazard in company every thing that
+comes uppermost, without any respect to his seniors or betters; and ten
+to one but he says something, which he finds it necessary to maintain
+with his sword. The old officer, instead of checking his petulance,
+either by rebuke or silent disapprobation, seems to be pleased with his
+impertinence, and encourages every sally of his presumption. Should a
+quarrel ensue, and the parties go out, he makes no efforts to
+compromise the dispute; but sits with a pleasing expectation to learn
+the issue of the rencontre. If the young man is wounded, he kisses him
+with transport, extols his bravery, puts him into the hands of the
+surgeon, and visits him with great tenderness every day, until he is
+cured. If he is killed on the spot, he shrugs up his shoulders--says,
+quelle dommage! c'etoit un amiable enfant! ah, patience! What pity! he
+was a fine Boy! It can't be helpt! and in three hours the defunct is
+forgotten. You know, in France, duels are forbid, on pain of death: but
+this law is easily evaded. The person insulted walks out; the
+antagonist understands the hint, and follows him into the street, where
+they justle as if by accident, draw their swords, and one of them is
+either killed or disabled, before any effectual means can be used to
+part them. Whatever may be the issue of the combat, the magistrate
+takes no cognizance of it; at least, it is interpreted into an
+accidental rencounter, and no penalty is incurred on either side. Thus
+the purpose of the law is entirely defeated, by a most ridiculous and
+cruel connivance. The meerest trifles in conversation, a rash word, a
+distant hint, even a look or smile of contempt, is sufficient to
+produce one of these combats; but injuries of a deeper dye, such as
+terms of reproach, the lie direct, a blow, or even the menace of a
+blow, must be discussed with more formality. In any of these cases, the
+parties agree to meet in the dominions of another prince, where they
+can murder each other, without fear of punishment. An officer who is
+struck, or even threatened with a blow must not be quiet, until he
+either kills his antagonist, or loses his own life. A friend of mine,
+(a Nissard) who was in the service of France, told me, that some years
+ago, one of their captains, in the heat of passion, struck his
+lieutenant. They fought immediately: the lieutenant was wounded and
+disarmed. As it was an affront that could not be made up, he no sooner
+recovered of his wounds, than he called out the captain a second time.
+In a word, they fought five times before the combat proved decisive at
+last, the lieutenant was left dead on the spot. This was an event which
+sufficiently proved the absurdity of the punctilio that gave rise to
+it. The poor gentleman who was insulted, and outraged by the brutality
+of the aggressor, found himself under the necessity of giving him a
+further occasion to take away his life. Another adventure of the same
+kind happened a few years ago in this place. A French officer having
+threatened to strike another, a formal challenge ensued; and it being
+agreed that they should fight until one of them dropped, each provided
+himself with a couple of pioneers to dig his grave on the spot. They
+engaged just without one of the gates of Nice, in presence of a great
+number of spectators, and fought with surprising fury, until the ground
+was drenched with their blood. At length one of them stumbled, and
+fell; upon which the other, who found himself mortally wounded,
+advancing, and dropping his point, said, "Je te donne ce que tu m'as
+ote." "I'll give thee that which thou hast taken from me." So saying,
+he dropped dead upon the field. The other, who had been the person
+insulted, was so dangerously wounded that he could not rise. Some of
+the spectators carried him forthwith to the beach, and putting him into
+a boat, conveyed him by sea to Antibes. The body of his antagonist was
+denied Christian burial, as he died without absolution, and every body
+allowed that his soul went to hell: but the gentlemen of the army
+declared, that he died like a man of honour. Should a man be never so
+well inclined to make atonement in a peaceable manner, for an insult
+given in the heat of passion, or in the fury of intoxication, it cannot
+be received. Even an involuntary trespass from ignorance, or absence of
+mind, must be cleansed with blood. A certain noble lord, of our
+country, when he was yet a commoner, on his travels, involved himself
+in a dilemma of this sort, at the court of Lorrain. He had been riding
+out, and strolling along a public walk, in a brown study, with his
+horse-whip in his hand, perceived a caterpillar crawling on the back of
+a marquis, who chanced to be before him. He never thought of the petit
+maitre; but lifting up his whip, in order to kill the insect, laid it
+across his shoulders with a crack, that alarmed all the company in the
+walk. The marquis's sword was produced in a moment, and the aggressor
+in great hazard of his life, as he had no weapon of defence. He was no
+sooner waked from his reverie, than he begged pardon, and offered to
+make all proper concessions for what he had done through mere
+inadvertency. The marquis would have admitted his excuses, had there
+been any precedent of such an affront being washed away without blood.
+A conclave of honour was immediately assembled; and after long
+disputes, they agreed, that an involuntary offence, especially from
+such a kind of man, d'un tel homme, might be attoned by concessions.
+That you may have some idea of the small beginning, from which many
+gigantic quarrels arise, I shall recount one that lately happened at
+Lyons, as I had it from the mouth of a person who was an ear and eye
+witness of the transaction. Two Frenchmen, at a public ordinary,
+stunned the rest of the company with their loquacity. At length, one of
+them, with a supercilious air, asked the other's name. "I never tell my
+name, (said he) but in a whisper." "You may have very good reasons for
+keeping it secret," replied the first. "I will tell you," (resumed the
+other): with these words he rose; and going round to him, pronounced,
+loud enough to be heard by the whole company, "Je m'appelle Pierre
+Paysan; et vous etes un impertinent." "My name is Peter Peasant, and
+you are an impertinent fellow." So saying, he walked out: the
+interrogator followed him into the street, where they justled, drew
+their swords, and engaged. He who asked the question was run through
+the body; but his relations were so powerful, that the victor was
+obliged to fly his country, was tried and condemned in his absence; his
+goods were confiscated; his wife broke her heart; his children were
+reduced to beggary; and he himself is now starving in exile. In England
+we have not yet adopted all the implacability of the punctilio. A
+gentleman may be insulted even with a blow, and survive, after having
+once hazarded his life against the aggressor. The laws of honour in our
+country do not oblige him either to slay the person from whom he
+received the injury, or even to fight to the last drop of his own
+blood. One finds no examples of duels among the Romans, who were
+certainly as brave and as delicate in their notions of honour as the
+French. Cornelius Nepos tells us, that a famous Athenian general,
+having a dispute with his colleague, who was of Sparta, a man of a
+fiery disposition, this last lifted up his cane to strike him. Had this
+happened to a French petit maitre, death must have ensued: but mark
+what followed--The Athenian, far from resenting the outrage, in what is
+now called a gentlemanlike manner, said, "Do, strike if you please; but
+hear me." He never dreamed of cutting the Lacedemonian's throat; but
+bore with his passionate temper, as the infirmity of a friend who had a
+thousand good qualities to overbalance that defect.
+
+I need not expatiate upon the folly and the mischief which are
+countenanced and promoted by the modern practice of duelling. I need
+not give examples of friends who have murdered each other, in obedience
+to this savage custom, even while their hearts were melting with mutual
+tenderness; nor will I particularize the instances which I myself know,
+of whole families ruined, of women and children made widows and
+orphans, of parents deprived of only sons, and of valuable lives lost
+to the community, by duels, which had been produced by one unguarded
+expression, uttered without intention of offence, in the heat of
+dispute and altercation. I shall not insist upon the hardship of a
+worthy man's being obliged to devote himself to death, because it is
+his misfortune to be insulted by a brute, a bully, a drunkard, or a
+madman: neither will I enlarge upon this side of the absurdity, which
+indeed amounts to a contradiction in terms; I mean the dilemma to which
+a gentleman in the army is reduced, when he receives an affront: if he
+does not challenge and fight his antagonist, he is broke with infamy by
+a court-martial; if he fights and kills him, he is tried by the civil
+power, convicted of murder, and, if the royal mercy does not interpose,
+he is infallibly hanged: all this, exclusive of the risque of his own
+life in the duel, and his conscience being burthened with the blood of
+a man, whom perhaps he has sacrificed to a false punctilio, even
+contrary to his own judgment. These are reflections which I know your
+own good sense will suggest, but I will make bold to propose a remedy
+for this gigantic evil, which seems to gain ground everyday: let a
+court be instituted for taking cognizance of all breaches of honour,
+with power to punish by fine, pillory, sentence of infamy, outlawry,
+and exile, by virtue of an act of parliament made for this purpose; and
+all persons insulted, shall have recourse to this tribunal: let every
+man who seeks personal reparation with sword, pistol, or other
+instrument of death, be declared infamous, and banished the kingdom:
+let every man, convicted of having used a sword or pistol, or other
+mortal weapon, against another, either in duel or rencountre,
+occasioned by any previous quarrel, be subject to the same penalties:
+if any man is killed in a duel, let his body be hanged upon a public
+gibbet, for a certain time, and then given to the surgeons: let his
+antagonist be hanged as a murderer, and dissected also; and some mark
+of infamy be set on the memory of both. I apprehend such regulations
+would put an effectual stop to the practice of duelling, which nothing
+but the fear of infamy can support; for I am persuaded, that no being,
+capable of reflection, would prosecute the trade of assassination at
+the risque of his own life, if this hazard was at the same time
+reinforced by the certain prospect of infamy and ruin. Every person of
+sentiment would in that case allow, that an officer, who in a duel robs
+a deserving woman of her husband, a number of children of their father,
+a family of its support, and the community of a fellow-citizen, has as
+little merit to plead from exposing his own person, as a highwayman, or
+housebreaker, who every day risques his life to rob or plunder that
+which is not of half the importance to society. I think it was from the
+Buccaneers of America, that the English have learned to abolish one
+solecism in the practice of duelling: those adventurers decided their
+personal quarrels with pistols; and this improvement has been adopted
+in Great Britain with good success; though in France, and other parts
+of the continent, it is looked upon as a proof of their barbarity. It
+is, however, the only circumstance of duelling, which savours of common
+sense, as it puts all mankind upon a level, the old with the young, the
+weak with the strong, the unwieldy with the nimble, and the man who
+knows not how to hold a sword with the spadassin, who has practised
+fencing from the cradle. What glory is there in a man's vanquishing an
+adversary over whom he has a manifest advantage? To abide the issue of
+a combat in this case, does not even require that moderate share of
+resolution which nature has indulged to her common children.
+Accordingly, we have seen many instances of a coward's provoking a man
+of honour to battle. In the reign of our second Charles, when duels
+flourished in all their absurdity, and the seconds fought while their
+principals were engaged, Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, not content with
+having debauched the countess of Shrewsbury and publishing her shame,
+took all opportunities of provoking the earl to single combat, hoping
+he should have an easy conquest, his lordship being a puny little
+creature, quiet, inoffensive, and every way unfit for such personal
+contests. He ridiculed him on all occasions; and at last declared in
+public company, that there was no glory in cuckolding Shrewsbury, who
+had not spirit to resent the injury. This was an insult which could not
+be overlooked. The earl sent him a challenge; and they agreed to fight,
+at Barns-Elms, in presence of two gentlemen, whom they chose for their
+seconds. All the four engaged at the same time; the first thrust was
+fatal to the earl of Shrewsbury; and his friend killed the duke's
+second at the same instant. Buckingham, elated with his exploit, set
+out immediately for the earl's seat at Cliefden, where he lay with his
+wife, after having boasted of the murder of her husband, whose blood he
+shewed her upon his sword, as a trophy of his prowess. But this very
+duke of Buckingham was little better than a poltroon at bottom. When
+the gallant earl of Ossory challenged him to fight in Chelsea fields,
+he crossed the water to Battersea, where he pretended to wait for his
+lordship; and then complained to the house of lords, that Ossory had
+given him the rendezvous, and did not keep his appointment. He knew the
+house would interpose in the quarrel, and he was not disappointed.
+Their lordships obliged them both to give their word of honour, that
+their quarrel should have no other consequences.
+
+I ought to make an apology for having troubled a lady with so many
+observations on a subject so unsuitable to the softness of the fair
+sex; but I know you cannot be indifferent to any thing that so nearly
+affects the interests of humanity, which I can safely aver have alone
+suggested every thing which has been said by, Madam, Your very humble
+servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER XVI
+
+NICE, May 2, 1764.
+
+DEAR DOCTOR,--A few days ago, I rode out with two gentlemen of this
+country, to see a stream of water which was formerly conveyed in an
+aqueduct to the antient city of Cemenelion, from whence this place is
+distant about a mile, though separated by abrupt rocks and deep
+hollows, which last are here honoured with the name of vallies. The
+water, which is exquisitely cool, and light and pure, gushes from the
+middle of a rock by a hole which leads to a subterranean aqueduct
+carried through the middle of the mountain. This is a Roman work, and
+the more I considered it, appeared the more stupendous. A peasant who
+lives upon the spot told us, he had entered by this hole at eight in
+the morning, and advanced so far, that it was four in the afternoon
+before he came out. He said he walked in the water, through a regular
+canal formed of a hard stone, lined with a kind of cement, and vaulted
+overhead; but so high in most parts he could stand upright, yet in
+others, the bed of the canal was so filled with earth and stones, that
+he was obliged to stoop in passing. He said that there were air-holes
+at certain distances (and indeed I saw one of these not far from the
+present issue) that there were some openings and stone seats on the
+sides, and here and there figures of men formed of stone, with hammers
+and working tools in their hands. I am apt to believe the fellow
+romanced a little, in order to render his adventure the more
+marvellous: but I am certainly informed, that several persons have
+entered this passage, and proceeded a considerable way by the light of
+torches, without arriving at the source, which (if we may believe the
+tradition of the country) is at the distance of eight leagues from this
+opening; but this is altogether incredible. The stream is now called la
+fontaine de muraille, and is carefully conducted by different branches
+into the adjacent vineyards and gardens, for watering the ground. On
+the side of the same mountain, more southerly, at the distance of half
+a mile, there is another still more copious discharge of the same kind
+of water, called la source du temple. It was conveyed through the same
+kind of passage, and put to the same use as the other; and I should
+imagine they are both from the same source, which, though hitherto
+undiscovered, must be at a considerable distance, as the mountain is
+continued for several leagues to the westward, without exhibiting the
+least signs of water in any other part. But, exclusive of the
+subterranean conduits, both these streams must have been conveyed
+through aqueducts extending from hence to Cemenelion over steep rocks
+and deep ravines, at a prodigious expence. The water from this source
+du temple, issues from a stone building which covers the passage in the
+rock. It serves to turn several olive, corn, and paper mills, being
+conveyed through a modern aqueduct raised upon paultry arcades at the
+expence of the public, and afterwards is branched off in very small
+streams, for the benefit of this parched and barren country. The Romans
+were so used to bathing, that they could not exist without a great
+quantity of water; and this, I imagine, is one reason that induced them
+to spare no labour and expence in bringing it from a distance, when
+they had not plenty of it at home. But, besides this motive, they had
+another: they were so nice and delicate in their taste of water, that
+they took great pains to supply themselves with the purest and lightest
+from afar, for drinking and culinary uses, even while they had plenty
+of an inferior sort for their bath, and other domestic purposes. There
+are springs of good water on the spot where Cemenelion stood: but there
+is a hardness in all well-water, which quality is deposited in running
+a long course, especially, if exposed to the influence of the sun and
+air. The Romans, therefore, had good reason to soften and meliorate
+this element, by conveying it a good length of way in open aqueducts.
+What was used in the baths of Cemenelion, they probably brought in
+leaden pipes, some of which have been dug up very lately by accident.
+You must know, I made a second excursion to these antient ruins, and
+measured the arena of the amphitheatre with packthread. It is an oval
+figure; the longest diameter extending to about one hundred and
+thirteen feet, and the shortest to eighty-eight; but I will not answer
+for the exactness of the measurement. In the center of it, there was a
+square stone, with an iron ring, to which I suppose the wild beasts
+were tied, to prevent their springing upon the spectators. Some of the
+seats remain, the two opposite entrances, consisting each of one large
+gate, and two lateral smaller doors, arched: there is also a
+considerable portion of the external wall; but no columns, or other
+ornaments of architecture. Hard by, in the garden of the count de
+Gubernatis, I saw the remains of a bath, fronting the portal of the
+temple, which I have described in a former letter; and here were some
+shafts of marble pillars, particularly a capital of the Corinthian
+order beautifully cut, of white alabaster. Here the count found a large
+quantity of fine marble, which he has converted to various uses; and
+some mutilated statues, bronze as well as marble. The peasant shewed me
+some brass and silver medals, which he has picked up at different times
+in labouring the ground; together with several oblong beads of coloured
+glass, which were used as ear-rings by the Roman ladies; and a small
+seal of agate, very much defaced. Two of the medals were of Maximian
+and Gallienus; the rest were so consumed, that I could not read the
+legend. You know, that on public occasions, such as games, and certain
+sacrifices, handfuls of medals were thrown among the people; a
+practice, which accounts for the great number which have been already
+found in this district. I saw some subterranean passages, which seemed
+to have been common sewers; and a great number of old walls still
+standing along the brink of a precipice, which overhangs the Paglion.
+The peasants tell me, that they never dig above a yard in depth,
+without finding vaults or cavities. All the vineyards and
+garden-grounds, for a considerable extent, are vaulted underneath; and
+all the ground that produces their grapes, fruit, and garden-stuff, is
+no more than the crumpled lime and rubbish of old Roman buildings,
+mixed with manure brought from Nice. This antient town commanded a most
+noble prospect of the sea; but is altogether inaccessible by any kind
+of wheel carriage. If you make shift to climb to it on horseback, you
+cannot descend to the plain again, without running the risk of breaking
+your neck.
+
+About seven or eight miles on the other side of Nice, are the remains
+of another Roman monument which has greatly suffered from the barbarity
+of successive ages. It was a trophy erected by the senate of Rome, in
+honour of Augustus Caesar, when he had totally subdued all the
+ferocious nations of these Maritime Alps; such as the Trumpilini
+Camuni, Vennontes, Isnarci, Breuni, etc. It stands upon the top of a
+mountain which overlooks the town of Monaco, and now exhibits the
+appearance of an old ruined tower. There is a description of what it
+was, in an Italian manuscript, by which it appears to have been a
+beautiful edifice of two stories, adorned with columns and trophies in
+alto-relievo, with a statue of Augustus Caesar on the top. On one of
+the sides was an inscription, some words of which are still legible,
+upon the fragment of a marble found close to the old building: but the
+whole is preserved in Pliny, who gives it, in these words, lib. iii.
+cap. 20.
+
+  IMPERATORI CAESARI DIVI. F. AVG. PONT.
+  MAX. IMP. XIV. TRIBVNIC. POTEST. XVIII.
+  S. P. Q. R.
+  QVODEIVSDVCTV, AVSPICIISQ. GENIES ALPINAE OMNES,
+  QVAE A MARI SVPERO AD INFERVM PERTINEBANT, SVB
+  IMPERIVM PO. RO. SUNT REDAC. GENTES ALPINAE DEVICTAE.
+  TRVMPILINI CAMVNI, VENNONETES, ISNARCI, BREVNI,
+  NAVNES, FOCVNATES, VINDELICORVM GENTES QVATVOR,
+  CONSVANETES, VIRVCINATES, LICATES, CATENATES, ABI-
+  SONTES, RVGVSCI, SVANETES, CALVCONES, BRIXENTES,
+  LEPONTII, VIBERI, NANTVATES, SEDVNI, VERAGRI,
+  SALASSI, ACITAVONES MEDVLLI, VCINI, CATVRIGES,
+  BRIGIANI, SOGIVNTII, NEMALONES, EDENETES,
+  ESVBIANI, VEAMINI, GALLITAE, TRIVLLATI,
+  ECTINI, VERGVNNI, EGVITVRI. NEMENTVRI,
+  ORATELLI, NERVSCI, VELAVNI, SVETRI.
+
+This Trophy is erected by the Senate and People of Rome to the Emperor
+Caesar Augustus, son of the divine Julius, in the fourteenth year of
+his imperial Dignity, and in the eighteenth of his Tribunician Power,
+because under his command and auspices all the nations of the Alps from
+the Adriatic to the Tuscanian Sea, were reduced under the Dominion of
+Rome. The Alpine nations subdued were the Trumpelini, etc.
+
+Pliny, however, is mistaken in placing this inscription on a trophy
+near the Augusta praetoria, now called Aosta, in Piedmont: where,
+indeed, there is a triumphal arch, but no inscription. This noble
+monument of antiquity was first of all destroyed by fire; and
+afterwards, in Gothic times, converted into a kind of fortification.
+The marbles belonging to it were either employed in adorning the church
+of the adjoining village, which is still called Turbia, a corruption of
+Trophaea; [This was formerly a considerable town called Villa Martis,
+and pretends to the honour of having given birth to Aulus Helvius, who
+succeeded Commodus as emperor of Rome, by the name of Pertinax which he
+acquired from his obstinate refusal of that dignity, when it was forced
+upon him by the senate. You know this man, though of very low birth,
+possessed many excellent qualities, and was basely murdered by the
+praetorian guards, at the instigation of Didius Tulianus. For my part,
+I could never read without emotion, that celebrated eulogium of the
+senate who exclaimed after his death, Pertinace, imperante, securi
+viximus neminem timuimus, patre pio, patre senatus, patre omnium,
+honorum, We lived secure and were afraid of nothing under the
+Government of Pertinax, our affectionate Father, Father of the Senate,
+Father to all the children of Virtue.] or converted into tomb-stones,
+or carried off to be preserved in one or two churches of Nice. At
+present, the work has the appearance of a ruinous watch-tower, with
+Gothic battlements; and as such stands undistinguished by those who
+travel by sea from hence to Genoa, and other ports of Italy. I think I
+have now described all the antiquities in the neighbourhood of Nice,
+except some catacombs or caverns, dug in a rock at St. Hospice, which
+Busching, in his geography, has described as a strong town and seaport,
+though in fact, there is not the least vestige either of town or
+village. It is a point of land almost opposite to the tower of Turbia,
+with the mountains of which it forms a bay, where there is a great and
+curious fishery of the tunny fish, farmed of the king of Sardinia. Upon
+this point there is a watch-tower still kept in repair, to give notice
+to the people in the neighbourhood, in case any Barbary corsairs should
+appear on the coast. The catacombs were in all probability dug, in
+former times, as places of retreat for the inhabitants upon sudden
+descents of the Saracens, who greatly infested these seas for several
+successive centuries. Many curious persons have entered them and
+proceeded a considerable way by torch-light, without arriving at the
+further extremity; and the tradition of the country is, that they reach
+as far as the ancient city of Cemenelion; but this is an idle
+supposition, almost as ridiculous as that which ascribes them to the
+labour and ingenuity of the fairies: they consist of narrow
+subterranean passages, vaulted with stone and lined with cement. Here
+and there one finds detached apartments like small chambers, where I
+suppose the people remained concealed till the danger was over.
+Diodorus Siculus tells us, that the antient inhabitants of this country
+usually lived under ground. "Ligures in terra cubant ut plurimum;
+plures ad cava, saxa speluncasque ab natura factas ubi tegantur corpora
+divertunt," "The Ligurians mostly lie on the bare ground; many of them
+lodge in bare Caves and Caverns where they are sheltered from the
+inclemency of the weather." This was likewise the custom of the
+Troglodytae, a people bordering upon Aethiopia who, according to
+Aelian, lived in subterranean caverns; from whence, indeed they took
+their name trogli, signifying a cavern; and Virgil, in his Georgics,
+thus describes the Sarmatae,
+
+  Ipsi in defossis specubus, secura sub alta
+  Ocia agunt terra.--
+
+  In Subterranean Caves secure they lie
+  Nor heed the transient seasons as they fly.
+
+These are dry subjects; but such as the country affords. If we have not
+white paper, we must snow with brown. Even that which I am now
+scrawling may be useful, if, not entertaining: it is therefore the more
+confidently offered by--Dear Sir, Yours affectionately.
+
+
+
+LETTER XVII
+
+NICE, July 2, 1764.
+
+DEAR SIR,--Nice was originally a colony from Marseilles. You know the
+Phocians (if we may believe Justin and Polybius) settled in Gaul, and
+built Marseilles, during the reign of Tarquinius Priscus at Rome. This
+city flourished to such a degree, that long before the Romans were in a
+condition to extend their dominion, it sent forth colonies, and
+established them along the coast of Liguria. Of these, Nice, or Nicaea,
+was one of the most remarkable; so called, in all probability, from the
+Greek word Nike, signifying Victoria, in consequence of some important
+victory obtained over the Salii and Ligures, who were the antient
+inhabitants of this country. Nice, with its mother city, being in the
+sequel subdued by the Romans, fell afterwards successively under the
+dominion of the Goths, Burgundians, and Franks, the kings of Arles, and
+the kings of Naples, as counts of Provence. In the year one thousand
+three hundred and eighty-eight, the city and county of Nice being but
+ill protected by the family of Durazzo, voluntarily surrendered
+themselves to Amadaeus, surnamed the Red, duke of Savoy; and since that
+period, they have continued as part of that potentate's dominions,
+except at such times as they have been over-run and possessed by the
+power of France, which hath always been a troublesome neighbour to this
+country. The castle was begun by the Arragonian counts of Provence, and
+afterwards enlarged by several successive dukes of Savoy, so as to be
+deemed impregnable, until the modern method of besieging began to take
+place. A fruitless attempt was made upon it in the year one thousand
+five hundred and forty-three, by the French and Turks in conjunction:
+but it was reduced several times after that period, and is now in
+ruins. The celebrated engineer Vauban, being commanded by Louis XIV to
+give in a plan for fortifying Nice, proposed, that the river Paglion
+should be turned into a new channel, so as to surround the town to the
+north, and fall into the harbour; that where the Paglion now runs to
+the westward of the city walls, there should be a deep ditch to be
+filled with sea-water; and that a fortress should be built to the
+westward of this fosse. These particulars might be executed at no very
+great expence; but, I apprehend, they would be ineffectual, as the town
+is commanded by every hill in the neighbourhood; and the exhalations
+from stagnating sea-water would infallibly render the air unwholesome.
+Notwithstanding the undoubted antiquity of Nice, very few monuments of
+that antiquity now remain. The inhabitants say, they were either
+destroyed by the Saracens in their successive descents upon the coast,
+by the barbarous nations in their repeated incursions, or used in
+fortifying the castle, as well as in building other edifices. The city
+of Cemenelion, however, was subject to the same disasters, and even
+entirely ruined, nevertheless, we still find remains of its antient
+splendor. There have been likewise a few stones found at Nice, with
+antient inscriptions; but there is nothing of this kind standing,
+unless we give the name of antiquity to a marble cross on the road to
+Provence, about half a mile from the city. It stands upon a pretty high
+pedestal with steps, under a pretty stone cupola or dome, supported by
+four Ionic pillars, on the spot where Charles V. emperor of Germany,
+Francis I. of France, and pope Paul II. agreed to have a conference, in
+order to determine all their disputes. The emperor came hither by sea,
+with a powerful fleet, and the French king by land, at the head of a
+numerous army. All the endeavours of his holiness, however, could not
+effect a peace; but they agreed to a truce of ten years. Mezerai
+affirms, that these two great princes never saw one another on this
+occasion; and that this shyness was owing to the management of the
+pope, whose private designs might have been frustrated, had they come
+to a personal interview. In the front of the colonade, there is a small
+stone, with an inscription in Latin, which is so high, and so much
+defaced, that I cannot read it.
+
+In the sixteenth century there was a college erected at Nice, by
+Emanuel Philibert, duke of Savoy, for granting degrees to students of
+law; and in the year one thousand six hundred and fourteen, Charles
+Emanuel I. instituted the senate of Nice; consisting of a president,
+and a certain number of senators, who are distinguished by their purple
+robes, and other ensigns of authority. They administer justice, having
+the power of life and death, not only through the whole county of Nice,
+but causes are evoked from Oneglia, and some other places, to their
+tribunal, which is the dernier ressort, from whence there is no appeal.
+The commandant, however, by virtue of his military power and
+unrestricted authority, takes upon him to punish individuals by
+imprisonment, corporal pains, and banishment, without consulting the
+senate, or indeed, observing any form of trial. The only redress
+against any unjust exercise of this absolute power, is by complaint to
+the king; and you know, what chance a poor man has for being redressed
+in this manner.
+
+With respect to religion, I may safely say, that here superstition
+reigns under the darkest shades of ignorance and prejudice. I think
+there are ten convents and three nunneries within and without the walls
+of Nice; and among them all, I never could hear of one man who had made
+any tolerable advances in any kind of human learning. All ecclesiastics
+are exempted from any exertion of civil power, being under the
+immediate protection and authority of the bishop, or his vicar. The
+bishop of Nice is suffragan of the archbishop of Ambrun in France; and
+the revenues of the see amount to between five and six hundred pounds
+sterling. We have likewise an office of the inquisition, though I do
+not hear that it presumes to execute any acts of jurisdiction, without
+the king's special permission. All the churches are sanctuaries for all
+kinds of criminals, except those guilty of high treason; and the
+priests are extremely jealous of their privileges in this particular.
+They receive, with open arms, murderers, robbers, smugglers, fraudulent
+bankrupts, and felons of every denomination; and never give them up,
+until after having stipulated for their lives and liberty. I need not
+enlarge upon the pernicious consequences of this infamous prerogative,
+calculated to raise and extend the power and influence of the Roman
+church, on the ruins of morality and good order. I saw a fellow, who
+had three days before murdered his wife in the last month of pregnancy,
+taking the air with great composure and serenity, on the steps of a
+church in Florence; and nothing is more common, than to see the most
+execrable villains diverting themselves in the cloysters of some
+convents at Rome.
+
+Nice abounds with noblesse, marquisses, counts, and barons. Of these,
+three or four families are really respectable: the rest are novi
+homines, sprung from Bourgeois, who have saved a little money by their
+different occupations, and raised themselves to the rank of noblesse by
+purchase. One is descended from an avocat; another from an apothecary;
+a third from a retailer of wine, a fourth from a dealer in anchovies;
+and I am told, there is actually a count at Villefranche, whose father
+sold macaroni in the streets. A man in this country may buy a
+marquisate, or a county, for the value of three or four hundred pounds
+sterling, and the title follows the fief; but he may purchase lettres
+de noblesse for about thirty or forty guineas. In Savoy, there are six
+hundred families of noblesse; the greater part of which have not above
+one hundred crowns a year to maintain their dignity. In the mountains
+of Piedmont, and even in this country of Nice, there are some
+representatives of very antient and noble families, reduced to the
+condition of common peasants; but they still retain the antient pride
+of their houses, and boast of the noble blood that runs in their veins.
+A gentleman told me, that in travelling through the mountains, he was
+obliged to pass a night in the cottage of one of these rusticated
+nobles, who called to his son in the evening, "Chevalier, as-tu donne a
+manger aux cochons?" "Have you fed the Hogs, Sir Knight?" This,
+however, is not the case with the noblesse of Nice. Two or three of
+them have about four or five hundred a year: the rest, in general, may
+have about one hundred pistoles, arising from the silk, oil, wine, and
+oranges, produced in their small plantations, where they have also
+country houses. Some few of these are well built, commodious, and
+situated; but, for the most part, they are miserable enough. Our
+noblesse, notwithstanding their origin, and the cheap rate at which
+their titles have been obtained, are nevertheless extremely tenacious
+of their privileges, very delicate in maintaining the etiquette, and
+keep at a very stately distance from the Bourgeoisie. How they live in
+their families, I do not choose to enquire; but, in public, Madame
+appears in her robe of gold, or silver stuff, with her powder and
+frisure, her perfumes, her paint and her patches; while Monsieur Le
+Comte struts about in his lace and embroidery. Rouge and fard are more
+peculiarly necessary in this country, where the complexion and skin are
+naturally swarthy and yellow. I have likewise observed, that most of
+the females are pot-bellied; a circumstance owing, I believe, to the
+great quantity of vegetable trash which they eat. All the horses,
+mules, asses, and cattle, which feed upon grass, have the same
+distension. This kind of food produces such acid juices in the stomach,
+as excite a perpetual sense of hunger. I have been often amazed at the
+voracious appetites of these people. You must not expect that I should
+describe the tables and the hospitality of our Nissard gentry. Our
+consul, who is a very honest man, told me, he had lived four and thirty
+years in the country, without having once eat or drank in any of their
+houses.
+
+The noblesse of Nice cannot leave the country without express leave
+from the king; and this leave, when obtained, is for a limited time,
+which they dare not exceed, on pain of incurring his majesty's
+displeasure. They must, therefore, endeavour to find amusements at
+home; and this, I apprehend, would be no easy task for people of an
+active spirit or restless disposition. True it is, the religion of the
+country supplies a never-failing fund of pastime to those who have any
+relish for devotion; and this is here a prevailing taste. We have had
+transient visits of a puppet-shew, strolling musicians, and
+rope-dancers; but they did not like their quarters, and decamped
+without beat of drum. In the summer, about eight or nine at night, part
+of the noblesse may be seen assembled in a place called the Pare; which
+is, indeed, a sort of a street formed by a row of very paltry houses on
+one side, and on the other, by part of the town-wall, which screens it
+from a prospect of the sea, the only object that could render it
+agreeable. Here you may perceive the noblesse stretched in pairs upon
+logs of wood, like so many seals upon the rocks by moon-light, each
+dame with her cicisbeo: for, you must understand, this Italian fashion
+prevails at Nice among all ranks of people; and there is not such a
+passion as jealousy known. The husband and the cicisbeo live together
+as sworn brothers; and the wife and the mistress embrace each other
+with marks of the warmest affection. I do not choose to enter into
+particulars. I cannot open the scandalous chronicle of Nice, without
+hazard of contamination. With respect to delicacy and decorum, you may
+peruse dean Swift's description of the Yahoos, and then you will have
+some idea of the porcheria, that distinguishes the gallantry of Nice.
+But the Pare is not the only place of public resort for our noblesse in
+a summer's evening. Just without one of our gates, you will find them
+seated in ditches on the highway side, serenaded with the croaking of
+frogs, and the bells and braying of mules and asses continually passing
+in a perpetual cloud of dust. Besides these amusements, there is a
+public conversazione every evening at the commandant's house called the
+Government, where those noble personages play at cards for farthings.
+In carnival time, there is also, at this same government, a ball twice
+or thrice a week, carried on by subscription. At this assembly every
+person, without distinction, is permitted to dance in masquerade: but,
+after dancing, they are obliged to unmask, and if Bourgeois, to retire.
+No individual can give a ball, without obtaining a permission and guard
+of the commandant; and then his house is open to all masques, without
+distinction, who are provided with tickets, which tickets are sold by
+the commandant's secretary, at five sols a-piece, and delivered to the
+guard at the door. If I have a mind to entertain my particular friends,
+I cannot have more than a couple of violins; and, in that case, it is
+called a conversazione.
+
+Though the king of Sardinia takes all opportunities to distinguish the
+subjects of Great-Britain with particular marks of respect, I have seen
+enough to be convinced, that our nation is looked upon with an evil eye
+by the people of Nice; and this arises partly from religious
+prejudices, and partly from envy, occasioned by a ridiculous notion of
+our superior wealth. For my own part, I owe them nothing on the score
+of civilities; and therefore, I shall say nothing more on the subject,
+lest I should be tempted to deviate from that temperance and
+impartiality which I would fain hope have hitherto characterised the
+remarks of,-- Dear Sir, your faithful, humble servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER XVIII
+
+NICE, September 2, 1764.
+
+DEAR DOCTOR,--I wrote in May to Mr. B-- at Geneva, and gave him what
+information he desired to have, touching the conveniences of Nice. I
+shall now enter into the same detail, for the benefit of such of your
+friends or patients, as may have occasion to try this climate.
+
+The journey from Calais to Nice, of four persons in a coach, or two
+post-chaises, with a servant on horseback, travelling post, may be
+performed with ease, for about one hundred and twenty pounds, including
+every expence. Either at Calais or at Paris, you will always find a
+travelling coach or berline, which you may buy for thirty or forty
+guineas, and this will serve very well to reconvey you to your own
+country.
+
+In the town of Nice, you will find no ready-furnished lodgings for a
+whole family. Just without one of the gates, there are two houses to be
+let, ready-furnished, for about five loui'dores per month. As for the
+country houses in this neighbourhood, they are damp in winter, and
+generally without chimnies; and in summer they are rendered
+uninhabitable by the heat and the vermin. If you hire a tenement in
+Nice, you must take it for a year certain; and this will cost you about
+twenty pounds sterling. For this price, I have a ground floor paved
+with brick, consisting of a kitchen, two large halls, a couple of good
+rooms with chimnies, three large closets that serve for bed-chambers,
+and dressing-rooms, a butler's room, and three apartments for servants,
+lumber or stores, to which we ascend by narrow wooden stairs. I have
+likewise two small gardens, well stocked with oranges, lemons, peaches,
+figs, grapes, corinths, sallad, and pot-herbs. It is supplied with a
+draw-well of good water, and there is another in the vestibule of the
+house, which is cool, large, and magnificent. You may hire furniture
+for such a tenement for about two guineas a month: but I chose rather
+to buy what was necessary; and this cost me about sixty pounds. I
+suppose it will fetch me about half the money when I leave the place.
+It is very difficult to find a tolerable cook at Nice. A common maid,
+who serves the people of the country, for three or four livres a month,
+will not live with an English family under eight or ten. They are all
+slovenly, slothful, and unconscionable cheats. The markets at Nice are
+tolerably well supplied. Their beef, which comes from Piedmont, is
+pretty good, and we have it all the year. In the winter we have
+likewise excellent pork, and delicate lamb; but the mutton is
+indifferent. Piedmont, also, affords us delicious capons, fed with
+maize; and this country produces excellent turkeys, but very few geese.
+Chickens and pullets are extremely meagre. I have tried to fatten them,
+without success. In summer they are subject to the pip, and die in
+great numbers. Autumn and winter are the seasons for game; hares,
+partridges, quails, wild-pigeons, woodcocks, snipes, thrushes,
+beccaficas, and ortolans. Wild-boar is sometimes found in the
+mountains: it has a delicious taste, not unlike that of the wild hog in
+Jamaica; and would make an excellent barbecue, about the beginning of
+winter, when it is in good case: but, when meagre, the head only is
+presented at tables. Pheasants are very scarce. As for the heath-game,
+I never saw but one cock, which my servant bought in the market, and
+brought home; but the commandant's cook came into my kitchen, and
+carried it of, after it was half plucked, saying, his master had
+company to dinner. The hares are large, plump, and juicy. The
+partridges are generally of the red sort; large as pullets, and of a
+good flavour: there are also some grey partridges in the mountains; and
+another sort of a white colour, that weigh four or five pounds each.
+Beccaficas are smaller than sparrows, but very fat, and they are
+generally eaten half raw. The best way of dressing them is to stuff
+them into a roll, scooped of it's crum; to baste them well with butter,
+and roast them, until they are brown and crisp. The ortolans are kept
+in cages, and crammed, until they die of fat, then eaten as dainties.
+The thrush is presented with the trail, because the bird feeds on
+olives. They may as well eat the trail of a sheep, because it feeds on
+the aromatic herbs of the mountain. In the summer, we have beef, veal,
+and mutton, chicken, and ducks; which last are very fat, and very
+flabby. All the meat is tough in this season, because the excessive
+heat, and great number of flies, will not admit of its being kept any
+time after it is killed. Butter and milk, though not very delicate, we
+have all the year. Our tea and fine sugar come from Marseilles, at a
+very reasonable price.
+
+Nice is not without variety of fish; though they are not counted so
+good in their kinds as those of the ocean. Soals, and flat-fish in
+general, are scarce. Here are some mullets, both grey and red. We
+sometimes see the dory, which is called St Pierre; with rock-fish,
+bonita, and mackarel. The gurnard appears pretty often; and there is
+plenty of a kind of large whiting, which eats pretty well; but has not
+the delicacy of that which is caught on our coast. One of the best fish
+of this country, is called Le Loup, about two or three pounds in
+weight; white, firm, and well-flavoured. Another, no-way inferior to
+it, is the Moustel, about the same size; of a dark-grey colour, and
+short, blunt snout; growing thinner and flatter from the shoulders
+downwards, so as to resemble a soal at the tail. This cannot be the
+mustela of the antients, which is supposed to be the sea lamprey. Here
+too are found the vyvre, or, as we call it, weaver; remarkable for its
+long, sharp spines, so dangerous to the fingers of the fishermen. We
+have abundance of the saepia, or cuttle-fish, of which the people in
+this country make a delicate ragout; as also of the polype de mer,
+which is an ugly animal, with long feelers, like tails, which they
+often wind about the legs of the fishermen. They are stewed with
+onions, and eat something like cow-heel. The market sometimes affords
+the ecrivisse de mer, which is a lobster without claws, of a sweetish
+taste; and there are a few rock oysters, very small and very rank.
+Sometimes the fishermen find under water, pieces of a very hard cement,
+like plaister of Paris, which contain a kind of muscle, called la
+datte, from its resemblance to a date. These petrifactions are commonly
+of a triangular form and may weigh about twelve or fifteen pounds each
+and one of them may contain a dozen of these muscles which have nothing
+extraordinary in the taste or flavour, though extremely curious, as
+found alive and juicy, in the heart of a rock, almost as hard as
+marble, without any visible communication with the air or water. I take
+it for granted, however, that the inclosing cement is porous, and
+admits the finer parts of the surrounding fluid. In order to reach the
+muscles, this cement must be broke with large hammers; and it may be
+truly said, the kernal is not worth the trouble of cracking the shell.
+[These are found in great plenty at Ancona and other parts of the
+Adriatic, where they go by the name of Bollani, as we are informed by
+Keysler.] Among the fish of this country, there is a very ugly animal
+of the eel species, which might pass for a serpent: it is of a dusky,
+black colour, marked with spots of yellow, about eighteen inches, or
+two feet long. The Italians call it murena; but whether it is the fish
+which had the same name among the antient Romans, I cannot pretend to
+determine. The antient murena was counted a great delicacy, and was
+kept in ponds for extraordinary occasions. Julius Caesar borrowed six
+thousand for one entertainment: but I imagined this was the river
+lamprey. The murena of this country is in no esteem, and only eaten by
+the poor people.
+
+Craw-fish and trout are rarely found in the rivers among the mountains.
+The sword-fish is much esteemed in Nice, and called l'empereur, about
+six or seven feet long: but I have never seen it. [Since I wrote the
+above letter, I have eaten several times of this fish, which is as
+white as the finest veal, and extremely delicate. The emperor
+associates with the tunny fish, and is always taken in their company.]
+They are very scarce; and when taken, are generally concealed, because
+the head belongs to the commandant, who has likewise the privilege of
+buying the best fish at a very low price. For which reason, the choice
+pieces are concealed by the fishermen, and sent privately to Piedmont
+or Genoa. But, the chief fisheries on this coast are of the sardines,
+anchovies, and tunny. These are taken in small quantities all the year;
+but spring and summer is the season when they mostly abound. In June
+and July, a fleet of about fifty fishing-boats puts to sea every
+evening about eight o'clock, and catches anchovies in immense
+quantities. One small boat sometimes takes in one night twenty-five
+rup, amounting to six hundred weight; but it must be observed, that the
+pound here, as well as in other parts of Italy, consists but of twelve
+ounces. Anchovies, besides their making a considerable article in the
+commerce of Nice, are a great resource in all families. The noblesse
+and burgeois sup on sallad and anchovies, which are eaten on all their
+meagre days. The fishermen and mariners all along this coast have
+scarce any other food but dry bread, with a few pickled anchovies; and
+when the fish is eaten, they rub their crusts with the brine. Nothing
+can be more delicious than fresh anchovies fried in oil: I prefer them
+to the smelts of the Thames. I need not mention, that the sardines and
+anchovies are caught in nets; salted, barrelled, and exported into all
+the different kingdoms and states of Europe. The sardines, however, are
+largest and fattest in the month of September. A company of adventurers
+have farmed the tunny-fishery of the king, for six years; a monopoly,
+for which they pay about three thousand pounds sterling. They are at a
+very considerable expence for nets, boats, and attendance. Their nets
+are disposed in a very curious manner across the small bay of St.
+Hospice, in this neighbourhood, where the fish chiefly resort. They are
+never removed, except in the winter, and when they want repair: but
+there are avenues for the fish to enter, and pass, from one inclosure
+to another. There is a man in a boat, who constantly keeps watch. When
+he perceives they are fairly entered, he has a method for shutting all
+the passes, and confining the fish to one apartment of the net, which
+is lifted up into the boat, until the prisoners are taken and secured.
+The tunny-fish generally runs from fifty to one hundred weight; but
+some of them are much larger. They are immediately gutted, boiled, and
+cut in slices. The guts and head afford oil: the slices are partly
+dried, to be eaten occasionally with oil and vinegar, or barrelled up
+in oil, to be exported. It is counted a delicacy in Italy and Piedmont,
+and tastes not unlike sturgeon. The famous pickle of the ancients,
+called garum, was made of the gills and blood of the tunny, or thynnus.
+There is a much more considerable fishery of it in Sardinia, where it
+is said to employ four hundred persons; but this belongs to the duc de
+St. Pierre. In the neighbourhood of Villa Franca, there are people
+always employed in fishing for coral and sponge, which grow adhering to
+the rocks under water. Their methods do not favour much of ingenuity.
+For the coral, they lower down a swab, composed of what is called
+spunyarn on board our ships of war, hanging in distinct threads, and
+sunk by means of a great weight, which, striking against the coral in
+its descent, disengages it from the rocks; and some of the pieces being
+intangled among the threads of the swab, are brought up with it above
+water. The sponge is got by means of a cross-stick, fitted with hooks,
+which being lowered down, fastens upon it, and tears it from the rocks.
+In some parts of the Adriatic and Archipelago, these substances are
+gathered by divers, who can remain five minutes below water. But I will
+not detain you one minute longer; though I must observe, that there is
+plenty of fine samphire growing along all these rocks, neglected and
+unknown.--Adieu.
+
+
+
+LETTER XIX
+
+NICE, October 10, 1764.
+
+DEAR SIR,--Before I tell you the price of provisions at Nice, it will
+be necessary to say something of the money. The gold coin of Sardinia
+consists of the doppia di savoia, value twenty-four livres Piedmontese,
+about the size of a loui'dore; and the mezzo doppia, or piece of twelve
+livres. In silver, there is the scudo of six livres, the mezzo scudo of
+three; and the quarto, or pezza di trenta soldi: but all these are very
+scarce. We seldom see any gold and silver coin, but the loui'dore, and
+the six, and three-livre Pieces of France; a sure sign that the French
+suffer by their contraband commerce with the Nissards. The coin chiefly
+used at market is a piece of copper silvered, that passes for seven
+sols and a half; another of the same sort, valued two sols and a half.
+They have on one side the impression of the king's head; and on the
+other, the arms of Savoy, with a ducal crown, inscribed with his name
+and titles. There are of genuine copper, pieces of one sol, stamped on
+one side with a cross fleuree; and on the reverse, with the king's
+cypher and crown, inscribed as the others: finally, there is another
+small copper piece, called piccalon, the sixth part of a sol, with a
+plain cross, and on the reverse, a slip-knot surmounted with a crown;
+the legend as above. The impression and legend on the gold and silver
+coins, are the same as those on the pieces of seven sols and a half.
+The livre of Piedmont consists of twenty sols, and is very near of the
+same value as an English shilling: ten sols, therefore, are equal to
+six-pence sterling. Butcher's meat in general sells at Nice for three
+sols a pound; and veal is something dearer: but then there are but
+twelve ounces in the pound, which being allowed for, sixteen ounces,
+come for something less than twopence halfpenny English. Fish commonly
+sells for four sols the twelve ounces, or five for the English pound;
+and these five are equivalent to three-pence of our money: but
+sometimes we are obliged to pay five, and even six sols for the
+Piedmontese pound of fish. A turkey that would sell for five or six
+shillings at the London market, costs me but three at Nice. I can buy a
+good capon for thirty sols, or eighteen-pence; and the same price I pay
+for a brace of partridges, or a good hare. I can have a woodcock for
+twenty-four sols; but the pigeons are dearer than in London. Rabbits
+are very rare; and there is scarce a goose to be seen in the whole
+county of Nice. Wild-ducks and teal are sometimes to be had in the
+winter; and now I am speaking of sea-fowl, it may not be amiss to tell
+you what I know of the halcyon, or king's-fisher. It is a bird, though
+very rare in this country about the size of a pigeon; the body brown,
+and the belly white: by a wonderful instinct it makes its nest upon the
+surface of the sea, and lays its eggs in the month of November, when
+the Mediterranean is always calm and smooth as a mill-pond. The people
+about here call them martinets, because they begin to hatch about
+Martinmass. Their nests are sometimes seen floating near the shore, and
+generally become the prize of the boys, who are very alert in catching
+them.
+
+You know all sea-birds are allowed by the church of Rome to be eaten on
+meagre days, as a kind of fish; and the monks especially do not fail to
+make use of this permission. Sea turtle, or tortoises, are often found
+at sea by the mariners, in these latitudes: but they are not the green
+sort, so much in request among the aldermen of London. All the
+Mediterranean turtle are of the kind called loggerhead, which in the
+West-Indies are eaten by none but hungry seamen, negroes, and the
+lowest class of people. One of these, weighing about two hundred
+pounds, was lately brought on shore by the fishermen of Nice, who found
+it floating asleep on the surface of the sea. The whole town was
+alarmed at sight of such a monster, the nature of which they could not
+comprehend. However, the monks, called minims, of St. Francesco di
+Paolo, guided by a sure instinct, marked it as their prey, and
+surrounded it accordingly. The friars of other convents, not quite so
+hungry, crowding down to the beach, declared it should not be eaten;
+dropped some hints about the possibility of its being something
+praeternatural and diabolical, and even proposed exorcisms and
+aspersions with holy water. The populace were divided according to
+their attachment to this, or that convent: a mighty clamour arose; and
+the police, in order to remove the cause of their contention, ordered
+the tortoise to be recommitted to the waves; a sentence which the
+Franciscans saw executed, not without sighs and lamentation. The
+land-turtle, or terrapin, is much better known at Nice, as being a
+native of this country; yet the best are brought from the island of
+Sardinia. The soup or bouillon of this animal is always prescribed here
+as a great restorative to consumptive patients. The bread of Nice is
+very indifferent, and I am persuaded very unwholesome. The flour is
+generally musty, and not quite free of sand. This is either owing to
+the particles of the mill-stone rubbed off in grinding, or to what
+adheres to the corn itself, in being threshed upon the common ground;
+for there are no threshing-floors in this country. I shall now take
+notice of the vegetables of Nice. In the winter, we have green pease,
+asparagus, artichoaks, cauliflower, beans, French beans, celery, and
+endive; cabbage, coleworts, radishes, turnips, carrots, betteraves,
+sorrel lettuce, onions, garlic, and chalot. We have potatoes from the
+mountains, mushrooms, champignons, and truffles. Piedmont affords white
+truffles, counted the most delicious in the world: they sell for about
+three livres the pound. The fruits of this season are pickled olives,
+oranges, lemons, citrons, citronelles, dried figs, grapes, apples,
+pears, almonds, chestnuts, walnuts, filberts, medlars, pomegranates,
+and a fruit called azerolles, [The Italians call them Lazerruoli.]
+about the size of a nutmeg, of an oblong shape, red colour, and
+agreeable acid taste. I might likewise add the cherry of the Laurus
+cerasus, which is sold in the market; very beautiful to the eye, but
+insipid to the palate. In summer we have all those vegetables in
+perfection. There is also a kind of small courge, or gourd, of which
+the people of the country make a very savoury ragout, with the help of
+eggs, cheese, and fresh anchovies. Another is made of the badenjean,
+which the Spaniards call berengena: [This fruit is called Melanzana in
+Italy and is much esteemed by the Jews in Leghorn. Perhaps Melanzana is
+a corruption of Malamsana.] it is much eaten in Spain and the Levant,
+as well as by the Moors in Barbary. It is about the size and shape of a
+hen's egg, inclosed in a cup like an acorn; when ripe, of a faint
+purple colour. It grows on a stalk about a foot high, with long spines
+or prickles. The people here have different ways of slicing and
+dressing it, by broiling, boiling, and stewing, with other ingredients:
+but it is at best an insipid dish. There are some caperbushes in this
+neighbourhood, which grow wild in holes of garden walls, and require no
+sort of cultivation: in one or two gardens, there are palm-trees; but
+the dates never ripen. In my register of the weather, I have marked the
+seasons of the principal fruits in this country. In May we have
+strawberries, which continue in season two or three months. These are
+of the wood kind; very grateful, and of a good flavour; but the
+scarlets and hautboys are not known at Nice. In the beginning of June,
+and even sooner, the cherries begin to be ripe. They are a kind of
+bleeding hearts; large, fleshy, and high flavoured, though rather too
+luscious. I have likewise seen a few of those we call Kentish cherries
+which are much more cool, acid, and agreeable, especially in this hot
+climate. The cherries are succeeded by the apricots and peaches, which
+are all standards, and of consequence better flavoured than what we
+call wall-fruit. The trees, as well as almonds, grow and bear without
+care and cultivation, and may be seen in the open fields about Nice,
+but without proper culture, the fruit degenerates. The best peaches I
+have seen at Nice are the amberges, of a yellow hue, and oblong shape,
+about the size of a small lemon. Their consistence is much more solid
+than that of our English peaches, and their taste more delicious.
+Several trees of this kind I have in my own garden. Here is likewise
+plenty of other sorts; but no nectarines. We have little choice of
+plumbs. Neither do I admire the pears or apples of this country: but
+the most agreeable apples I ever tasted, come from Final, and are
+called pomi carli. The greatest fault I find with most fruits in this
+climate, is, that they are too sweet and luscious, and want that
+agreeable acid which is so cooling and so grateful in a hot country.
+This, too, is the case with our grapes, of which there is great plenty
+and variety, plump and juicy, and large as plumbs. Nature, however, has
+not neglected to provide other agreeable vegetable juices to cool the
+human body. During the whole summer, we have plenty of musk melons. I
+can buy one as large as my head for the value of an English penny: but
+one of the best and largest, weighing ten or twelve pounds, I can have
+for twelve sols, or about eight-pence sterling. From Antibes and
+Sardinia, we have another fruit called a watermelon, which is well
+known in Jamaica, and some of our other colonies. Those from Antibes
+are about the size of an ordinary bomb-shell: but the Sardinian and
+Jamaica watermelons are four times as large. The skin is green, smooth,
+and thin. The inside is a purple pulp, studded with broad, flat, black
+seeds, and impregnated with a juice the most cool, delicate, and
+refreshing, that can well be conceived. One would imagine the pulp
+itself dissolved in the stomach; for you may eat of it until you are
+filled up to the tongue, without feeling the least inconvenience. It is
+so friendly to the constitution, that in ardent inflammatory fevers, it
+is drank as the best emulsion. At Genoa, Florence, and Rome, it is sold
+in the streets, ready cut in slices; and the porters, sweating under
+their burthens, buy, and eat them as they pass. A porter of London
+quenches his thirst with a draught of strong beer: a porter of Rome, or
+Naples, refreshes himself with a slice of water-melon, or a glass of
+iced-water. The one costs three half-pence; the last, half a
+farthing--which of them is most effectual? I am sure the men are
+equally pleased. It is commonly remarked, that beer strengthens as well
+as refreshes. But the porters of Constantinople, who never drink any
+thing stronger than water, and eat very little animal food, will lift
+and carry heavier burthens than any other porters in the known world.
+If we may believe the most respectable travellers, a Turk will carry a
+load of seven hundred weight, which is more (I believe) than any
+English porter ever attempted to carry any length of way.
+
+Among the refreshments of these warm countries, I ought not to forget
+mentioning the sorbettes, which are sold in coffee-houses, and places
+of public resort. They are iced froth, made with juice of oranges,
+apricots, or peaches; very agreeable to the palate, and so extremely
+cold, that I was afraid to swallow them in this hot country, until I
+found from information and experience, that they may be taken in
+moderation, without any bad consequence.
+
+Another considerable article in house-keeping is wine, which we have
+here good and reasonable. The wine of Tavelle in Languedoc is very near
+as good as Burgundy, and may be had at Nice, at the rate of six-pence a
+bottle. The sweet wine of St. Laurent, counted equal to that of
+Frontignan, costs about eight or nine-pence a quart: pretty good Malaga
+may be had for half the money. Those who make their own wine choose the
+grapes from different vineyards, and have them picked, pressed, and
+fermented at home.
+
+That which is made by the peasants, both red and white, is generally
+genuine: but the wine-merchants of Nice brew and balderdash, and even
+mix it with pigeons dung and quick-lime. It cannot be supposed, that a
+stranger and sojourner should buy his own grapes, and make his own
+provision of wine: but he may buy it by recommendation from the
+peasants, for about eighteen or twenty livres the charge, consisting of
+eleven rup five pounds; in other words, of two hundred and eighty
+pounds of this country, so as to bring it for something less than
+three-pence a quart. The Nice wine, when mixed with water, makes an
+agreeable beverage. There is an inferior sort for servants drank by the
+common people, which in the cabaret does not cost above a penny a
+bottle. The people here are not so nice as the English, in the
+management of their wine. It is kept in flacons, or large flasks,
+without corks, having a little oil at top. It is not deemed the worse
+for having been opened a day or two before; and they expose it to the
+hot sun, and all kinds of weather, without hesitation. Certain it is,
+this treatment has little or no effect upon its taste, flavour, and
+transparency.
+
+The brandy of Nice is very indifferent: and the liqueurs are so
+sweetened with coarse sugar, that they scarce retain the taste or
+flavour of any other ingredient.
+
+The last article of domestic oeconomy which I shall mention is fuel, or
+wood for firing, which I buy for eleven sols (a little more than
+six-pence halfpenny) a quintal, consisting of one hundred and fifty
+pound Nice weight. The best, which is of oak, comes from Sardinia. The
+common sort is olive, which being cut with the sap in it, ought to be
+laid in during the summer; otherwise, it will make a very uncomfortable
+fire. In my kitchen and two chambers, I burned fifteen thousand weight
+of wood in four weeks, exclusive of charcoal for the kitchen stoves,
+and of pine-tops for lighting the fires. These last are as large as
+pineapples, which they greatly resemble in shape, and to which, indeed,
+they give their name; and being full of turpentine, make a wonderful
+blaze. For the same purpose, the people of these countries use the
+sarments, or cuttings of the vines, which they sell made up in small
+fascines. This great consumption of wood is owing to the large fires
+used in roasting pieces of beef, and joints, in the English manner. The
+roasts of this country seldom exceed two or three pounds of meat; and
+their other plats are made over stove holes. But it is now high time to
+conduct you from the kitchen, where you have been too long detained
+by--Your humble servant.
+
+P.S.--I have mentioned the prices of almost all the articles in
+house-keeping, as they are paid by the English: but exclusive of
+butcher's meat, I am certain the natives do not pay so much by thirty
+per cent. Their imposition on us, is not only a proof of their own
+villany and hatred, but a scandal on their government; which ought to
+interfere in favour of the subjects of a nation, to which they are so
+much bound in point of policy, as well as gratitude.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XX
+
+NICE, October 22, 1764.
+
+SIR,--As I have nothing else to do, but to satisfy my own curiosity,
+and that of my friends, I obey your injunctions with pleasure; though
+not without some apprehension that my inquiries will afford you very
+little entertainment. The place where I am is of very little importance
+or consequence as a state or community; neither is there any thing
+curious or interesting in the character or oeconomy of its inhabitants.
+
+There are some few merchants in Nice, said to be in good circumstances.
+I know one of them, who deals to a considerable extent, and goes twice
+a year to London to attend the sales of the East-India company. He buys
+up a very large quantity of muslins, and other Indian goods, and
+freights a ship in the river to transport them to Villa Franca. Some of
+these are sent to Swisserland; but, I believe, the greater part is
+smuggled into France, by virtue of counterfeit stamps, which are here
+used without any ceremony. Indeed, the chief commerce of this place is
+a contraband traffick carried on to the disadvantage of France; and I
+am told, that the farmers of the Levant company in that kingdom find
+their account in conniving at it. Certain it is, a great quantity of
+merchandize is brought hither every week by mules from Turin and other
+parts in Piedmont, and afterwards conveyed to the other side of the
+Var, either by land or water. The mules of Piedmont are exceeding
+strong and hardy. One of them will carry a burthen of near six hundred
+weight. They are easily nourished, and require no other respite from
+their labour, but the night's repose. They are the only carriage that
+can be used in crossing the mountains, being very sure-footed: and it
+is observed that in choosing their steps, they always march upon the
+brink of the precipice. You must let them take their own way, otherwise
+you will be in danger of losing your life; for they are obstinate, even
+to desperation. It is very dangerous for a person on horseback to meet
+those animals: they have such an aversion to horses, that they will
+attack them with incredible fury, so as even to tear them and their
+riders in pieces; and the best method for avoiding this fate, is to
+clap spurs to your beast, and seek your safety in flight. I have been
+more than once obliged to fly before them. They always give you
+warning, by raising a hideous braying as soon as they perceive the
+horse at a distance. The mules of Provence are not so mischievous,
+because they are more used to the sight and society of horses: but
+those of Piedmont are by far the largest and the strongest I have seen.
+
+Some very feasible schemes for improving the commerce of Nice have been
+presented to the ministry of Turin; but hitherto without success. The
+English import annually between two and three thousand bales of raw
+silk, the growth of Piedmont; and this declaration would be held legal
+evidence. In some parts of France, the cure of the parish, on All
+Souls' day, which is called le jour des morts, says a libera domine for
+two sols, at every grave in the burying-ground, for the release of the
+soul whose body is there interred.
+
+The artisans of Nice are very lazy, very needy, very aukward, and void
+of all ingenuity. The price of their labour is very near as high as at
+London or Paris. Rather than work for moderate profit, arising from
+constant employment, which would comfortably maintain them and their
+families, they choose to starve at home, to lounge about the ramparts,
+bask themselves in the sun, or play at bowls in the streets from
+morning 'till night.
+
+The lowest class of people consists of fishermen, day labourers,
+porters, and peasants: these last are distributed chiefly in the small
+cassines in the neighbourhood of the city, and are said to amount to
+twelve thousand. They are employed in labouring the ground, and have
+all the outward signs of extreme misery. They are all diminutive,
+meagre, withered, dirty, and half naked; in their complexions, not
+barely swarthy, but as black as Moors; and I believe many of them are
+descendants of that people. They are very hard favoured; and their
+women in general have the coarsest features I have ever seen: it must
+be owned, however, they have the finest teeth in the world. The
+nourishment of those poor creatures consists of the refuse of the
+garden, very coarse bread, a kind of meal called polenta, made of
+Indian corn, which is very nourishing and agreeable, and a little oil;
+but even in these particulars, they seem to be stinted to very scanty
+meals. I have known a peasant feed his family with the skins of boiled
+beans. Their hogs are much better fed than their children. 'Tis pity
+they have no cows, which would yield milk, butter, and cheese, for the
+sustenance of their families. With all this wretchedness, one of these
+peasants will not work in your garden for less than eighteen sols,
+about eleven pence sterling, per diem; and then he does not half the
+work of an English labourer. If there is fruit in it, or any thing he
+can convey, he will infallibly steal it, if you do not keep a very
+watchful eye over him. All the common people are thieves and beggars;
+and I believe this is always the case with people who are extremely
+indigent and miserable. In other respects, they are seldom guilty of
+excesses. They are remarkably respectful and submissive to their
+superiors. The populace of Nice are very quiet and orderly. They are
+little addicted to drunkenness. I have never heard of one riot since I
+lived among them; and murder and robbery are altogether unknown. A man
+may walk alone over the county of Nice, at midnight, without danger of
+insult. The police is very well regulated. No man is permitted to wear
+a pistol or dagger' on pain of being sent to the gallies. I am
+informed, that both murder and robbery are very frequent in some parts
+of Piedmont. Even here, when the peasants quarrel in their cups, (which
+very seldom happens) they draw their knives, and the one infallibly
+stabs the other. To such extremities, however, they never proceed,
+except when there is a woman in the case; and mutual jealousy
+co-operates with the liquor they have drank, to inflame their passions.
+In Nice, the common people retire to their lodgings at eight o'clock in
+winter, and nine in summer. Every person found in the streets after
+these hours, is apprehended by the patrole; and, if he cannot give a
+good account of himself, sent to prison. At nine in winter, and ten in
+summer, there is a curfew-bell rung, warning the people to put out
+their lights, and go to bed. This is a very necessary precaution in
+towns subject to conflagrations; but of small use in Nice, where there
+is very little combustible in the houses.
+
+The punishments inflicted upon malefactors and delinquents at Nice are
+hanging for capital crimes; slavery on board the gallies for a limited
+term, or for life, according to the nature of the transgression;
+flagellation, and the strappado. This last is performed, by hoisting up
+the criminal by his hands tied behind his back, on a pulley about two
+stories high; from whence, the rope being suddenly slackened, he falls
+to within a yard or two of the ground, where he is stopped with a
+violent shock arising from the weight of his body, and the velocity of
+his descent, which generally dislocates his shoulders, with incredible
+pain. This dreadful execution is sometimes repeated in a few minutes on
+the same delinquent; so that the very ligaments are tore from his
+joints, and his arms are rendered useless for life.
+
+The poverty of the people in this country, as well as in the South of
+France, may be conjectured from the appearance of their domestic
+animals. The draughthorses, mules, and asses, of the peasants, are so
+meagre, as to excite compassion. There is not a dog to be seen in
+tolerable case; and the cats are so many emblems of famine, frightfully
+thin, and dangerously rapacious. I wonder the dogs and they do not
+devour young children. Another proof of that indigence which reigns
+among the common people, is this: you may pass through the whole South
+of France, as well as the county of Nice, where there is no want of
+groves, woods, and plantations, without hearing the song of blackbird,
+thrush, linnet, gold-finch, or any other bird whatsoever. All is silent
+and solitary. The poor birds are destroyed, or driven for refuge, into
+other countries, by the savage persecution of the people, who spare no
+pains to kill, and catch them for their own subsistence. Scarce a
+sparrow, red-breast, tomtit, or wren, can 'scape the guns and snares of
+those indefatigable fowlers. Even the noblesse make parties to go a la
+chasse, a-hunting; that is, to kill those little birds, which they eat
+as gibier, or game.
+
+The great poverty of the people here, is owing to their religion. Half
+of their time is lost in observing the great number of festivals; and
+half of their substance is given to mendicant friars and parish
+priests. But if the church occasions their indigence, it likewise, in
+some measure, alleviates the horrors of it, by amusing them with shows,
+processions, and even those very feasts, which afford a recess from
+labour, in a country where the climate disposes them to idleness. If
+the peasants in the neighbourhood of any chapel dedicated to a saint,
+whose day is to be celebrated, have a mind to make a festin, in other
+words, a fair, they apply to the commandant of Nice for a license,
+which costs them about a French crown. This being obtained, they
+assemble after service, men and women, in their best apparel, and dance
+to the musick of fiddles, and pipe and tabor, or rather pipe and drum.
+There are hucksters' stands, with pedlary ware and knick-knacks for
+presents; cakes and bread, liqueurs and wine; and thither generally
+resort all the company of Nice. I have seen our whole noblesse at one
+of these festins, kept on the highway in summer, mingled with an
+immense crowd of peasants, mules, and asses, covered with dust, and
+sweating at every pore with the excessive heat of the weather. I should
+be much puzzled to tell whence their enjoyment arises on such
+occasions; or to explain their motives for going thither, unless they
+are prescribed it for pennance, as a fore-taste of purgatory.
+
+Now I am speaking of religious institutions, I cannot help observing,
+that the antient Romans were still more superstitious than the modern
+Italians; and that the number of their religious feasts, sacrifices,
+fasts, and holidays, was even greater than those of the Christian
+church of Rome. They had their festi and profesti, their feriae
+stativae, and conceptivae, their fixed and moveable feasts; their
+esuriales, or fasting days, and their precidaneae, or vigils. The
+agonales were celebrated in January; the carmentales, in January and
+February; the lupercales and matronales, in March; the megalesia in
+April; the floralia, in May; and the matralia in June. They had their
+saturnalia, robigalia, venalia, vertumnalia, fornacalia, palilia, and
+laralia, their latinae, their paganales, their sementinae, their
+compitales, and their imperativae; such as the novemdalia, instituted
+by the senate, on account of a supposed shower of stones. Besides,
+every private family had a number of feriae, kept either by way of
+rejoicing for some benefit, or mourning for some calamity. Every time
+it thundered, the day was kept holy. Every ninth day was a holiday,
+thence called nundinae quasi novendinae. There was the dies
+denominalis, which was the fourth of the kalends; nones and ides of
+every month, over and above the anniversary of every great defeat which
+the republic had sustained, particularly the dies alliensis, or
+fifteenth of the kalends of December, on which the Romans were totally
+defeated by the Gauls and Veientes; as Lucan says--et damnata diu
+Romanis allia fastis, and Allia in Rome's Calendar condemn'd. The vast
+variety of their deities, said to amount to thirty thousand, with their
+respective rites of adoration, could not fail to introduce such a
+number of ceremonies, shews, sacrifices, lustrations, and public
+processions, as must have employed the people almost constantly from
+one end of the year to the other. This continual dissipation must have
+been a great enemy to industry; and the people must have been idle and
+effeminate. I think it would be no difficult matter to prove, that
+there is very little difference, in point of character, between the
+antient and modern inhabitants of Rome; and that the great figure which
+this empire made of old, was not so much owing to the intrinsic virtue
+of its citizens, as to the barbarism, ignorance, and imbecility of the
+nations they subdued. Instances of public and private virtue I find as
+frequent and as striking in the history of other nations, as in the
+annals of antient Rome; and now that the kingdoms and states of Europe
+are pretty equally enlightened, and ballanced in the scale of political
+power, I am of opinion, that if the most fortunate generals of the
+Roman commonwealth were again placed at the head of the very armies
+they once commanded, instead of extending their conquests over all
+Europe and Asia, they would hardly be able to subdue, and retain under
+their dominion, all the petty republics that subsist in Italy.
+
+But I am tired with writing; and I believe you will be tired with
+reading this long letter notwithstanding all your prepossession in
+favour of--Your very humble servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXI
+
+NICE, November 10, 1764.
+
+DEAR DOCTOR,--In my enquiries about the revenues of Nice, I am obliged
+to trust to the information of the inhabitants, who are much given to
+exaggerate. They tell me, the revenues of this town amount to one
+hundred thousand livres, or five thousand pounds sterling; of which I
+would strike off at least one fourth, as an addition of their own
+vanity: perhaps, if we deduct a third, it will be nearer the truth.
+For, I cannot find out any other funds they have, but the butchery and
+the bakery, which they farm at so much a year to the best bidder; and
+the droits d'entree, or duties upon provision brought into the city;
+but these are very small. The king is said to draw from Nice one
+hundred thousand livres annually, arising from a free-gift, amounting
+to seven hundred pounds sterling, in lieu of the taille, from which
+this town and county are exempted; an inconsiderable duty upon wine
+sold in public-houses; and the droits du port. These last consist of
+anchorage, paid by all vessels in proportion to their tonnage, when
+they enter the harbours of Nice and Villa Franca. Besides, all foreign
+vessels, under a certain stipulated burthen, that pass between the
+island of Sardinia and this coast, are obliged, in going to the
+eastward, to enter; and pay a certain regulated imposition, on pain of
+being taken and made prize. The prince of Monaco exacts a talliage of
+the same kind; and both he and the king of Sardinia maintain armed
+cruisers to assert this prerogative; from which, however, the English
+and French are exempted by treaty, in consequence of having paid a sum
+of money at once. In all probability, it was originally given as a
+consideration for maintaining lights on the shore, for the benefit of
+navigators, like the toll paid for passing the Sound in the Baltic.
+[Upon further inquiry I find it was given in consideration of being
+protected from the Corsairs by the naval force of the Duke of Savoy and
+Prince of Monaco.] The fanal, or lanthorn, to the eastward of Villa
+Franca, is kept in good repair, and still lighted in the winter. The
+toll, however, is a very troublesome tax upon feluccas, and other small
+craft, which are greatly retarded in their voyages, and often lose the
+benefit of a fair wind, by being obliged to run inshore, and enter
+those harbours. The tobacco the king manufactures at his own expence,
+and sells for his own profit, at a very high price; and every person
+convicted of selling this commodity in secret, is sent to the gallies
+for life. The salt comes chiefly from Sardinia, and is stored up in the
+king's magazine from whence it is exported to Piedmont, and other parts
+of his inland dominions. And here it may not be amiss to observe, that
+Sardinia produces very good horses, well-shaped, though small; strong,
+hardy, full of mettle, and easily fed. The whole county of Nice is said
+to yield the king half a million of livres, about twenty-five thousand
+pounds sterling, arising from a small donative made by every town and
+village: for the lands pay no tax, or imposition, but the tithes to the
+church. His revenue then flows from the gabelle on salt and wine, and
+these free-gifts; so that we may strike off one fifth of the sum at
+which the whole is estimated; and conclude, that the king draws from
+the county at Nice, about four hundred thousand livres, or twenty
+thousand pounds sterling. That his revenues from Nice are not great,
+appears from the smallness of the appointments allowed to his officers.
+The president has about three hundred pounds per annum; and the
+intendant about two. The pay of the commandant does not exceed three
+hundred and fifty pounds: but he has certain privileges called the tour
+du baton, some of which a man of spirit would not insist upon. He who
+commands at present, having no estate of his own, enjoys a small
+commandery, which being added to his appointments at Nice, make the
+whole amount to about five hundred pounds sterling.
+
+If we may believe the politicians of Nice, the king of Sardinia's whole
+revenue does not fall short of twenty millions of Piedmontese livres,
+being above one million of our money. It must be owned, that there is
+no country in Christendom less taxed than that of Nice; and as the soil
+produces the necessaries of life, the inhabitants, with a little
+industry, might renew the golden age in this happy climate, among their
+groves, woods, and mountains, beautified with fountains, brooks,
+rivers, torrents, and cascades. In the midst of these pastoral
+advantages, the peasants are poor and miserable. They have no stock to
+begin the world with. They have no leases of the lands they cultivate;
+but entirely depend, from year to year, on the pleasure of the
+arbitrary landholder, who may turn them out at a minute's warning; and
+they are oppressed by the mendicant friars and parish priests, who rob
+them of the best fruits of their labour: after all, the ground is too
+scanty for the number of families which are crouded on it.
+
+You desire to know the state of the arts and sciences at Nice; which,
+indeed, is almost a total blank. I know not what men of talents this
+place may have formerly produced; but at present, it seems to be
+consecrated to the reign of dulness and superstition. It is very
+surprising, to see a people established between two enlightened
+nations, so devoid of taste and literature. Here are no tolerable
+pictures, busts, statues, nor edifices: the very ornaments of the
+churches are wretchedly conceived, and worse executed. They have no
+public, nor private libraries that afford any thing worth perusing.
+There is not even a bookseller in Nice. Though they value themselves
+upon their being natives of Italy, they are unacquainted with music.
+The few that play upon instruments, attend only to the execution. They
+have no genius nor taste, nor any knowledge of harmony and composition.
+Among the French, a Nissard piques himself on being Provencal; but in
+Florence, Milan, or Rome, he claims the honour of being born a native
+of Italy. The people of condition here speak both languages equally
+well; or, rather, equally ill; for they use a low, uncouth phraseology;
+and their pronunciation is extremely vitious. Their vernacular tongue
+is what they call Patois; though in so calling it, they do it
+injustice.--Patois, from the Latin word patavinitas, means no more than
+a provincial accent, or dialect. It takes its name from Patavium, or
+Padua, which was the birthplace of Livy, who, with all his merit as a
+writer, has admitted into his history, some provincial expressions of
+his own country. The Patois, or native tongue of Nice, is no other than
+the ancient Provencal, from which the Italian, Spanish and French
+languages, have been formed. This is the language that rose upon the
+ruins of the Latin tongue, after the irruptions of the Goths, Vandals,
+Huns, and Burgundians, by whom the Roman empire was destroyed. It was
+spoke all over Italy, Spain, and the southern parts of France, until
+the thirteenth century, when the Italians began to polish it into the
+language which they now call their own: The Spaniards and French,
+likewise, improved it into their respective tongues. From its great
+affinity to the Latin, it was called Romance, a name which the
+Spaniards still give to their own language. As the first legends of
+knight-errantry were written in Provencal, all subsequent performances
+of the same kind, have derived from it the name of romance; and as
+those annals of chivalry contained extravagant adventures of knights,
+giants, and necromancers, every improbable story or fiction is to this
+day called a romance. Mr. Walpole, in his Catalogue of royal and noble
+Authors, has produced two sonnets in the antient Provencal, written by
+our king Richard I. surnamed Coeur de Lion; and Voltaire, in his
+Historical Tracts, has favoured the world with some specimens of the
+same language. The Patois of Nice, must, without doubt, have undergone
+changes and corruptions in the course of so many ages, especially as no
+pains have been taken to preserve its original purity, either in
+orthography or pronunciation. It is neglected, as the language of the
+vulgar: and scarce any-body here knows either its origin or
+constitution. I have in vain endeavoured to procure some pieces in the
+antient Provencal, that I might compare them with the modern Patois:
+but I can find no person to give me the least information on the
+subject. The shades of ignorance, sloth, and stupidity, are
+impenetrable. Almost every word of the Patois may still be found in the
+Italian, Spanish, and French languages, with a small change in the
+pronunciation. Cavallo, signifying a horse in Italian and Spanish is
+called cavao; maison, the French word for a house, is changed into
+maion; aqua, which means water in Spanish, the Nissards call daigua. To
+express, what a slop is here! they say acco fa lac aqui, which is a
+sentence composed of two Italian words, one French, and one Spanish.
+This is nearly the proportion in which these three languages will be
+found mingled in the Patois of Nice; which, with some variation,
+extends over all Provence, Languedoc, and Gascony. I will now treat you
+with two or three stanzas of a canzon, or hymn, in this language, to
+the Virgin Mary, which was lately printed at Nice.
+
+  1
+
+  Vierge, maire de Dieu,
+  Nuostro buono avocado,
+  Embel car uvostre sieu,
+  En Fenestro adourado,
+  Jeu vous saludi,
+  E demandi en socours;
+  E sense autre preludi,
+  Canti lous uvostre honours.
+
+  Virgin, mother of God,
+  our good advocate,
+  With your dear son,
+  In Fenestro adored,
+  I salute you,
+  And ask his assistance;
+  And without further prelude,
+  I sing your honours.
+
+[Fenestro is the name of a place in this neighbourhood, where there is
+a supposed miraculous sanctuary, or chapel, of the Virgin Mary.]
+
+  2.
+
+  Qu'ario de Paradis!
+  Que maesta divine!
+  Salamon es d'advis,
+  Giugiar de uvostro mino;
+  Vous dis plus bello:
+  E lou dis ben soven
+  De toutoi lei femello,
+  E non s'engano ren.
+
+  What air of Paradise!
+  What majesty divine!
+  Solomon is of opinion,
+  To judge of your appearance;
+  Says you are the fairest
+  And it is often said
+  Of all females,
+  And we are not all deceived.
+
+  3.
+
+  Qu'ario de Paradis!
+  Que maesta divine!
+  La bellezzo eblovis;
+  La bonta l'ueigl raffino.
+  Sias couronado;
+  Tenes lou monde en man
+  Sus del trono assettado,
+  Riges lou avostre enfan.
+
+  What air of Paradise!
+  What majesty divine!
+  The beauty dazzles;
+  The goodness purifies the eye:
+  You are crowned:
+  You hold the world in your hand:
+  Seated on the throne,
+  You support your child.
+
+You see I have not chosen this canzon for the beauty and elegance of
+thought and expression; but give it you as the only printed specimen I
+could find of the modern Provencal. If you have any curiosity to be
+further acquainted with the Patois, I will endeavour to procure you
+satisfaction. Meanwhile, I am, in plain English,--Dear Sir, Ever yours.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXII
+
+NICE, November 10, 1764.
+
+DEAR SIR,--I had once thoughts of writing a complete natural history of
+this town and county: but I found myself altogether unequal to the
+task. I have neither health, strength, nor opportunity to make proper
+collections of the mineral, vegetable, and animal productions. I am not
+much conversant with these branches of natural philosophy. I have no
+books to direct my inquiries. I can find no person capable of giving me
+the least information or assistance; and I am strangely puzzled by the
+barbarous names they give to many different species, the descriptions
+of which I have read under other appelations; and which, as I have
+never seen them before, I cannot pretend to distinguish by the eye. You
+must therefore be contented with such imperfect intelligence as my
+opportunities can afford.
+
+The useful arts practised at Nice, are these, gardening and
+agriculture, with their consequences, the making of wine, oil, and
+cordage; the rearing of silk-worms, with the subsequent management and
+manufacture of that production; and the fishing, which I have already
+described.
+
+Nothing can be more unpromising than the natural soil of this
+territory, except in a very few narrow bottoms, where there is a stiff
+clay, which when carefully watered, yields tolerable pasturage. In
+every other part, the soil consists of a light sand mingled with
+pebbles, which serves well enough for the culture of vines and olives:
+but the ground laid out for kitchen herbs, as well as for other fruit
+must be manured with great care and attention. They have no black
+cattle to afford such compost as our farmers use in England. The dung
+of mules and asses, which are their only beasts of burthen, is of very
+little value for this purpose; and the natural sterility of their
+ground requires something highly impregnated with nitre and volatile
+salts. They have recourse therefore to pigeons' dung and ordure, which
+fully answer their expectations. Every peasant opens, at one corner of
+his wall, a public house of office for the reception of passengers; and
+in the town of Nice, every  tenement is provided with one of these
+receptacles, the contents of which are carefully preserved for sale.
+The peasant comes with his asses and casks to carry it off before day,
+and pays for it according to its quality, which he examines and
+investigates, by the taste and flavour. The jakes of a protestant
+family, who eat gras every day, bears a much higher price than the
+privy of a good catholic who lives maigre one half of the year. The
+vaults belonging to the convent of Minims are not worth emptying.
+
+The ground here is not delved with spades as in England, but laboured
+with a broad, sharp hough, having a short horizontal handle; and the
+climate is so hot and dry in the summer, that the plants must be
+watered every morning and evening, especially where it is not shaded by
+trees. It is surprising to see how the productions of the earth are
+crouded together. One would imagine they would rob one another of
+nourishment; and moreover be stifled for want of air; and doubtless
+this is in some measure the case. Olive and other fruit trees are
+planted in rows very close to each other. These are connected by vines,
+and the interstices, between the rows, are filled with corn. The
+gardens that supply the town with sallad and pot-herbs, lye all on the
+side of Provence, by the highway. They are surrounded with high
+stone-walls, or ditches, planted with a kind of cane or large reed,
+which answers many purposes in this country. The leaves of it afford
+sustenance to the asses, and the canes not only serve as fences to the
+inclosures; but are used to prop the vines and pease, and to build
+habitations for the silkworms: they are formed into arbours, and wore
+as walking-staves. All these gardens are watered by little rills that
+come from the mountains, particularly, by the small branches of the two
+sources which I have described in a former letter, as issuing from the
+two sides of a mountain, under the names of Fontaine de Muraille, and
+Fontaine du Temple.
+
+In the neighbourhood of Nice, they raise a considerable quantity of
+hemp, the largest and strongest I ever saw. Part of this, when dressed,
+is exported to other countries; and part is manufactured into cordage.
+However profitable it may be to the grower, it is certainly a great
+nuisance in the summer. When taken out of the pits, where it has been
+put to rot, the stench it raises is quite insupportable; and must
+undoubtedly be unwholesome.
+
+There is such a want of land in this neighbourhood, that terraces are
+built over one another with loose stones, on the faces of bare rocks,
+and these being covered with earth and manured, are planted with
+olives, vines, and corn. The same shift was practised all over
+Palestine, which was rocky and barren, and much more populous than the
+county of Nice.
+
+Notwithstanding the small extent of this territory, there are some
+pleasant meadows in the skirts of Nice, that produce excellent clover;
+and the corn which is sown in open fields, where it has the full
+benefit of the soil, sun, and air, grows to a surprizing height. I have
+seen rye seven or eight feet high. All vegetables have a wonderful
+growth in this climate. Besides wheat, rye, barley, and oats, this
+country produces a good deal of Meliga, or Turkish wheat, which is what
+we call Indian corn. I have, in a former letter, observed that the meal
+of this grain goes by the name polenta, and makes excellent
+hasty-pudding, being very nourishing, and counted an admirable
+pectoral. The pods and stalks are used for fuel: and the leaves are
+much preferable to common straw, for making paillasses.
+
+The pease and beans in the garden appear in the winter like beautiful
+plantations of young trees in blossom; and perfume the air. Myrtle,
+sweet-briar, sweet-marjoram, sage, thyme, lavender, rosemary, with many
+other aromatic herbs and flowers, which with us require the most
+careful cultivation, are here found wild in the mountains.
+
+It is not many years since the Nissards learned the culture of
+silk-worms, of their neighbours the Piedmontese; and hitherto the
+progress they have made is not very considerable: the whole county of
+Nice produces about one hundred and thirty-three bales of three hundred
+pounds each, amounting in value to four hundred thousand livres.
+
+In the beginning of April, when the mulberry-leaves, begin to put
+forth, the eggs or grains that produce the silk-worm, are hatched. The
+grains are washed in wine, and those that swim on the top, are thrown
+away as good for nothing. The rest being deposited in small bags of
+linen, are worn by women in their bosoms, until the worms begin to
+appear: then they are placed in shallow wooden boxes, covered with a
+piece of white paper, cut into little holes, through which the worms
+ascend as they are hatched, to feed on the young mulberry-leaves, of
+which there is a layer above the paper. These boxes are kept for warmth
+between two mattrasses, and visited every day. Fresh leaves are laid
+in, and the worms that feed are removed successively to the other place
+prepared for their reception. This is an habitation, consisting of two
+or three stories, about twenty inches from each other, raised upon four
+wooden posts. The floors are made of canes, and strewed with fresh
+mulberry-leaves: the corner posts, and other occasional props, for
+sustaining the different floors, are covered with a coat of loose
+heath, which is twisted round the wood. The worms when hatched are laid
+upon the floors; and here you may see them in all the different stages
+(if moulting or casting the slough, a change which they undergo three
+times successively before they begin to work. The silk-worm is an
+animal of such acute and delicate sensations, that too much care cannot
+be taken to keep its habitation clean, and to refresh it from time to
+time with pure air. I have seen them languish and die in scores, in
+consequence of an accidental bad smell. The soiled leaves, and the
+filth which they necessarily produce, should be carefully shifted every
+day; and it would not be amiss to purify the air sometimes with fumes
+of vinegar, rose, or orange-flower water. These niceties, however, are
+but little observed. They commonly lie in heaps as thick as shrimps in
+a plate, some feeding on the leaves, some new hatched, some intranced
+in the agonies of casting their skin, sonic languishing, and some
+actually dead, with a litter of half-eaten faded leaves about them, in
+a close room, crouded with women and children, not at all remarkable
+for their cleanliness. I am assured by some persons of credit, that if
+they are touched, or even approached, by a woman in her catamenia, they
+infallibly expire. This, however, must be understood of those females
+whose skins have naturally a very rank flavour, which is generally
+heightened at such periods. The mulberry-leaves used in this country
+are of the tree which bears a small white fruit not larger than a
+damascene. They are planted on purpose, and the leaves are sold at so
+much a pound. By the middle of June all the mulberry-trees are
+stripped; but new leaves succeed, and in a few weeks, they are cloathed
+again with fresh verdure. In about ten days after the last moulting,
+the silk-worm climbs upon the props of his house, and choosing a
+situation among the heath, begins to spin in a most curious manner,
+until he is quite inclosed,   and the cocon or pod of silk, about the
+size of a pigeon's egg, which he has produced remains suspended by
+several filaments. It is no unusual to see double cocons, spun by two
+worms included under a common cover. There must be an infinite number
+of worms to yield any considerable quantity of silk. One ounce of eggs
+or grains produces, four rup, or one hundred Nice pounds of cocons; and
+one rup, or twenty-five pounds of cocons, if they are rich, gives three
+pounds of raw silk; that is, twelve pounds of silk are got from one
+ounce of grains, which ounce of grains its produced by as many worms as
+are inclosed in one pound, or twelve ounces of cocons. In preserving
+the cocons for breed, you must choose an equal number of males and
+females; and these are very easily distinguished by the shape of the
+cocons; that which contains the male is sharp, and the other obtuse, at
+the two ends. In ten or twelve days after the cocon is finished, the
+worm makes its way through it, in the form of a very ugly, unwieldy,
+aukward butterfly, and as the different sexes are placed by one another
+on paper or linen, they immediately engender. The female lays her eggs,
+which are carefully preserved; but neither she nor her mate takes any
+nourishment, and in eight or ten days after they quit the cocons, they
+generally die. The silk of these cocons cannot be wound, because the
+animals in piercing through them, have destroyed the continuity of the
+filaments. It is therefore, first boiled, and then picked and carded
+like wool, and being afterwards spun, is used in the coarser stuffs of
+the silk manufacture. The other cocons, which yield the best silk, are
+managed in a different manner. Before the inclosed worm has time to
+penetrate, the silk is reeled off with equal care and ingenuity. A
+handful of the cocons are thrown away into a kettle of boiling water,
+which not only kills the animal, but dissolves the glutinous substance
+by which the fine filaments of the silk cohere or stick together, so
+that they are easily wound off, without breaking. Six or seven of these
+small filaments being joined together are passed over a kind of
+twisting iron, and fixed to the wheel, which one girl turns, while
+another, with her hands in the boiling water, disentangles the threads,
+joins them when they chance to break, and supplies fresh cocons with
+admirable dexterity and dispatch. There is a manufacture of this kind
+just without one of the gates of Nice, where forty or fifty of these
+wheels are worked together, and give employment for some weeks to
+double the number of young women. Those who manage the pods that float
+in the boiling water must be very alert, otherwise they will scald
+their fingers. The smell that comes from the boiling cocons is
+extremely offensive. Hard by the harbour, there is a very curious mill
+for twisting the silk, which goes by water. There is in the town of
+Nice, a well regulated hospital for poor orphans of both sexes, where
+above one hundred of them are employed in dressing, dyeing, spinning,
+and weaving the silk. In the villages of Provence, you see the poor
+women in the streets spinning raw silk upon distaves: but here the same
+instrument is only used for spinning hemp and flax; which last,
+however, is not of the growth of Nice--But lest I should spin this
+letter to a tedious length, I will now wind up my bottom, and bid you
+heartily farewell.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXIII
+
+NICE, December 19, 1764.
+
+SIR,--In my last, I gave you a succinct account of the silkworm, and
+the management of that curious insect in this country. I shall now
+proceed to describe the methods of making wine and oil.
+
+The vintage begins in September. The grapes being chosen and carefully
+picked, are put into a large vat, where they are pressed by a man's
+naked feet, and the juices drawn off by a cock below. When no more is
+procured by this operation, the bruised grapes are put into the press,
+and yield still more liquor. The juice obtained by this double
+pressure, being put in casks, with their bungs open, begins to ferment
+and discharge its impurities at the openings. The waste occasioned by
+this discharge, is constantly supplied with fresh wine, so that the
+casks are always full. The fermentation continues for twelve, fifteen,
+or twenty days, according to the strength and vigour of the grape. In
+about a month, the wine is fit for drinking. When the grapes are of a
+bad, meagre kind, the wine dealers mix the juice with pigeons'-dung or
+quick-lime, in order to give it a spirit which nature has denied: but
+this is a very mischievous adulteration.
+
+The process for oil-making is equally simple. The best olives are those
+that grow wild; but the quantity of them is very inconsiderable. Olives
+begin to ripen and drop in the beginning of November: but some remain
+on the trees till February, and even till April, and these are counted
+the most valuable. When the olives are gathered, they must be
+manufactured immediately, before they fade and grow wrinkled, otherwise
+they will produce bad oil. They are first of all ground into a paste by
+a mill-stone set edge-ways in a circular stone-trough, the wheel being
+turned by water.
+
+This paste is put into trails or circular cases made of grass woven,
+having a round hole at top and bottom; when filled they resemble in
+shape our Cheshire cheeses. A number of these placed one upon another,
+are put in a press, and being squeezed, the oil with all its
+impurities, runs into a receptacle below fixed in the ground. From
+hence it is laded into a wooden vat, half filled with water. The sordes
+or dirt falls to the bottom; the oil swims a-top; and being skimmed
+off, is barrelled up in small oblong casks. What remains in the vat, is
+thrown into a large stone cistern with water, and after being often
+stirred, and standing twelve or fourteen days, yields a coarser oil
+used for lamps and manufactures. After these processes, they extract an
+oil still more coarse and fetid from the refuse of the whole.
+Sometimes, in order to make the olives grind the more easily into a
+paste, and part with more oil, they are mixed with a little hot water:
+but the oil thus procured is apt to grow rancid. The very finest,
+called virgin oil, is made chiefly of green olives, and sold at a very
+high price, because a great quantity is required to produce a very
+little oil. Even the stuff that is left after all these operations,
+consisting of the dried pulp, is sold for fuel, and used in brasieres
+for warming apartments which have no chimney.
+
+I have now specified all the manufactures of Nice which are worth
+mentioning. True it is, there is some coarse paper made in this
+neighbourhood; there are also people here who dress skins and make
+leather for the use of the inhabitants: but this business is very ill
+performed: the gloves and shoes are generally rotten as they come from
+the hands of the maker. Carpenter's, joiner's, and blacksmith's work is
+very coarsely and clumsily done. There are no chairs to be had at Nice,
+but crazy things made of a few sticks, with rush bottoms, which are
+sold for twelve livres a dozen. Nothing can be more contemptible than
+the hard-ware made in this place, such as knives, scissors, and
+candle-snuffers. All utensils in brass and copper are very ill made and
+finished. The silver-smiths make nothing but spoons, forks, paultry
+rings, and crosses for the necks of the women.
+
+The houses are built of a ragged stone dug from the mountains, and the
+interstices are filled with rubble; so that the walls would appear very
+ugly, if they were not covered with plaister, which has a good effect.
+They generally consist of three stories, and are covered with tiles.
+The apartments of the better sort are large and lofty, the floors paved
+with brick, the roofs covered with a thick coat of stucco, and the
+walls whitewashed. People of distinction hang their chambers with
+damask, striped silk, painted cloths, tapestry, or printed linnen. All
+the doors, as well as the windows, consist of folding leaves. As there
+is no wainscot in the rooms, which are divided by stone partitions and
+the floors and cieling are covered with brick and stucco, fires are of
+much less dreadful consequence here than in our country. Wainscot would
+afford harbour for bugs: besides, white walls have a better effect in
+this hot climate. The beds commonly used in this place, and all over
+Italy, consist of a paillasse, with one or two mattrasses, laid upon
+planks, supported by two wooden benches. Instead of curtains there is a
+couziniere or mosquito net, made of a kind of gauze, that opens and
+contracts occasionally, and incloses the place where you lie: persons
+of condition, however, have also bedsteads and curtains; but these last
+are never used in the summer.
+
+In these countries, people of all ranks dine exactly at noon; and this
+is the time I seize in winter, for making my daily tour of the streets
+and ramparts, which at all other hours of the day are crowded with men,
+women, children and beasts of burthen. The rampart is the common road
+for carriages of all kinds. I think there are two private coaches in
+Nice, besides that of the commandant: but there are sedan chairs, which
+may be had at a reasonable rate. When I bathed in the summer, I paid
+thirty sols, equal to eighteen-pence, for being carried to and from the
+bathing place, which was a mile from my own house.
+
+Now I am speaking of bathing, it may not be amiss to inform you that
+though there is a fine open beach, extending several miles to the
+westward of Nice, those who cannot swim ought to bathe with great
+precaution, as the sea is very deep, and the descent very abrupt from
+within a yard or two of the water's edge. The people here were much
+surprised when I began to bathe in the beginning of May. They thought
+it very strange, that a man seemingly consumptive should plunge into
+the sea, especially when the weather was so cold; and some of the
+doctors prognosticated immediate death. But, when it was perceived that
+I grew better in consequence of the bath, some of the Swiss officers
+tried the same experiment, and in a few days, our example was followed
+by several inhabitants of Nice. There is, however, no convenience for
+this operation, from the benefit of which the fair sex must be intirely
+excluded, unless they lay aside all regard to decorum; for the shore is
+always lined with fishing-boats, and crouded with people. If a lady
+should be at the expence of having a tent pitched on the beach where
+she might put on and of her bathing-dress, she could not pretend to go
+into the sea without proper attendants; nor could she possibly plunge
+headlong into the water, which is the most effectual, and least
+dangerous way of bathing. All that she can do is to have the sea-water
+brought into her house, and make use of a bathing-tub, which may be
+made according to her own, or physician's direction.
+
+What further I have to say of this climate and country, you shall have
+in my next; and then you will be released from a subject, which I am
+afraid has been but too circumstantially handled by-- Sir, Your very
+humble servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXIV
+
+NICE, January 4, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR.,--The constitution of this climate may be pretty well
+ascertained, from the inclosed register of the weather, which I kept
+with all possible care and attention. From a perusal of it, you will
+see that there is less rain and wind at Nice, than in any other part of
+the world that I know; and such is the serenity of the air, that you
+see nothing above your head for several months together, but a charming
+blue expanse, without cloud or speck. Whatever clouds may be formed by
+evaporation of the sea, they seldom or never hover over this small
+territory; but, in all probability, are attracted by the mountains that
+surround it, and there fall in rain or snow: as for those that gather
+from other quarters, I suppose their progress hitherward is obstructed
+by those very Alps, which rise one over another, to an extent of many
+leagues. This air being dry, pure, heavy, and elastic, must be
+agreeable to the constitution of those who labour under disorders
+arising from weak nerves, obstructed perspiration, relaxed fibres, a
+viscidity of lymph, and a languid circulation. In other respects, it
+encourages the scurvy, the atmosphere being undoubtedly impregnated
+with sea-salt. Ever since my arrival at Nice, I have had a scorbutical
+eruption on my right hand, which diminishes and increases according to
+the state of my health. One day last summer, when there was a strong
+breeze from the sea, the surface of our bodies was covered with a salt
+brine, very perceptible to the taste; my gums, as well as those of
+another person in my family, began to swell, and grow painful, though
+this had never happened before; and I was seized with violent pains in
+the joints of my knees. I was then at a country-house fronting the sea,
+and particularly exposed to the marine air. The swelling of our gums
+subsided as the wind fell: but what was very remarkable, the
+scurvy-spot on my hand disappeared, and did not return for a whole
+month. It is affirmed that sea-salt will dissolve, and render the blood
+so fluid, that it will exude through the coats of the vessels. Perhaps
+the sea-scurvy is a partial dissolution of it, by that mineral absorbed
+from the air by the lymphatics on the surface of the body, and by those
+of the lungs in respiration. Certain it is, in the last stages of the
+sea-scurvy, the blood often bursts from the pores; and this phaenomenon
+is imputed to a high degree of putrefaction: sure enough it is attended
+with putrefaction. We know that a certain quantity of salt is required
+to preserve the animal juices from going putrid: but, how a greater
+quantity should produce putrefaction, I leave to wiser heads to
+explain. Many people here have scorbutical complaints, though their
+teeth are not affected. They are subject to eruptions on the skin,
+putrid gums, pains in the bones, lassitude, indigestion, and low
+spirits; but the reigning distemper is a marasmus, or consumption,
+which proceeds gradually, without any pulmonary complaint, the
+complexion growing more and more florid, 'till the very last scene of
+the tragedy. This I would impute to the effects of a very dry, saline
+atmosphere, upon a thin habit, in which there is an extraordinary waste
+by perspiration. The air is remarkably salt in this district, because
+the mountains that hem it in, prevent its communication with the
+circumambient atmosphere, in which the saline particles would otherwise
+be diffused; and there is no rain, nor dew, to precipitate or dissolve
+them. Such an air as I have described, should have no bad effect upon a
+moist, phlegmatic constitution, such as mine; and yet it must be owned,
+I have been visibly wasting since I came hither, though this decay I
+considered as the progress of the tabes which began in England. But the
+air of Nice has had a still more sensible effect upon Mr. Sch--z, who
+laboured under nervous complaints to such a degree, that life was a
+burthen to him. He had also a fixed pain in his breast, for which
+complaint he had formerly tried the air of Naples, where he resided
+some considerable time, and in a great measure recovered: but, this
+returning with weakness, faintness, low spirits, and entire loss of
+appetite, he was advised to come hither; and the success of his journey
+has greatly exceeded his expectation. Though the weather has been
+remarkably bad for this climate, he has enjoyed perfect health. Since
+he arrived at Nice, the pain in his breast has vanished; he eats
+heartily, sleeps well, is in high spirits, and so strong, that he is
+never off his legs in the day-time. He can walk to the Var and back
+again, before dinner; and he has climbed to the tops of all the
+mountains in this neighbourhood. I never saw before such sudden and
+happy effects from the change of air. I must also acknowledge, that
+ever since my arrival at Nice, I have breathed more freely than I had
+done for some years, and my spirits have been more alert. The father of
+my housekeeper, who was a dancing-master, had been so afflicted with an
+asthmatic disorder, that he could not live in France, Spain, or Italy;
+but found the air of Nice so agreeable to his lungs, that he was
+enabled to exercise his profession for above twenty years, and died
+last spring turned of seventy. Another advantage I have reaped from
+this climate is my being, in a great measure, delivered from a slow
+fever which used to hang about me, and render life a burthen. Neither
+am I so apt to catch cold as I used to be in England and France; and
+the colds I do catch are not of the same continuance and consequence,
+as those to which I was formerly subject. The air of Nice is so dry,
+that in summer, and even in winter, (except ill wet weather) you may
+pass the evening, and indeed the whole night, sub Dio, without feeling
+the least dew or moisture; and as for fogs, they are never seen in this
+district. In summer, the air is cooled by a regular sea-breeze blowing
+from the cast, like that of the West-Indies. It begins in the forenoon,
+and increases with the heat of the day. It dies away about six or
+seven; and immediately after sun-set is succeeded by an agreeable
+land-breeze from the mountains. The sea-breeze from the eastward,
+however, is not so constant here, as in the West-Indies between the
+tropicks, because the sun, which produces it, is not so powerful. This
+country lies nearer the region of variable winds, and is surrounded by
+mountains, capes, and straights, which often influence the constitution
+and current of the air. About the winter solstice, the people of Nice
+expect wind and rain, which generally lasts, with intervals, 'till the
+beginning of February: but even during this, their worst weather, the
+sun breaks out occasionally, and you may take the air either a-foot or
+on horseback every day; for the moisture is immediately absorbed by the
+earth, which is naturally dry. They likewise lay their account with
+being visited by showers of rain and gusts of wind in April. A week's
+rain in the middle of August makes them happy. It not only refreshes
+the parched ground, and plumps up the grapes and other fruit, but it
+cools the air and assuages the beets, which then begin to grow very
+troublesome; but the rainy season is about the autumnal equinox, or
+rather something later. It continues about twelve days or a fortnight,
+and is extremely welcome to the natives of this country. This rainy
+season is often delayed 'till the latter end of November, and sometimes
+'till the month of December; in which case, the rest of the winter is
+generally dry. The heavy rains in this country generally come with a
+south-west wind, which was the creberque procellis Africus, the stormy
+southwest, of the antients. It is here called Lebeche, a corruption of
+Lybicus: it generally blows high for a day or two, and rolls the
+Mediterranean before it in huge waves, that often enter the town of
+Nice. It likewise drives before it all the clouds which had been formed
+above the surface of the Mediterranean. These being expended in rain,
+fair weather naturally ensues. For this reason, the Nissards observe le
+lebeche racommode le tems, the Lebeche settles the weather. During the
+rains of this season, however, the winds have been variable. From the
+sixteenth of November, 'till the fourth of January, we have had two and
+twenty days of heavy rain: a very extraordinary visitation in this
+country: but the seasons seem to be more irregular than formerly, all
+over Europe. In the month of July, the mercury in Fahrenheit's
+thermometer, rose to eighty-four at Rome, the highest degree at which
+it was ever known in that country; and the very next day, the Sabine
+mountains were covered with snow. The same phaemomenon happened on the
+eleventh of August, and the thirtieth of September. The consequence of
+these sudden variations of weather, was this: putrid fevers were less
+frequent than usual; but the sudden cheek of perspiration from the
+cold, produced colds, inflammatory sore throats, and the rheumatism. I
+know instances of some English valetudinarians, who have passed the
+winter at Aix, on the supposition that there was little or no
+difference between that air and the climate of Nice: but this is a very
+great mistake, which may be attended with fatal consequences. Aix is
+altogether exposed to the north and north-west winds, which blow as
+cold in Provence, as ever I felt them on the mountains of Scotland:
+whereas Nice is entirely screened from these winds by the Maritime
+Alps, which form an amphitheatre, to the land-side, around this little
+territory: but another incontestible proof of the mildness of this
+climate, is deduced from the oranges, lemons, citrons, roses,
+narcissus's, july-flowers, and jonquils, which ripen and blow in the
+middle of winter. I have described the agreeable side of this climate;
+and now I will point out its inconveniences. In the winter, but
+especially in the spring, the sun is so hot, that one can hardly take
+exercise of any sort abroad, without being thrown into a breathing
+sweat; and the wind at this season is so cold and piercing, that it
+often produces a mischievous effect on the pores thus opened. If the
+heat rarifies the blood and juices, while the cold air constringes the
+fibres, and obstructs the perspiration, inflammatory disorders must
+ensue. Accordingly, the people are then subject to colds, pleurisies,
+peripneumonies, and ardent fevers. An old count advised me to stay
+within doors in March, car alors les humeurs commencent a se remuer,
+for then the humours begin to be in motion. During the heats of summer,
+some few persons of gross habits have, in consequence of violent
+exercise and excess, been seized with putrid fevers, attended with
+exanthemata, erisipelatous, and miliary eruptions, which commonly prove
+fatal: but the people in general are healthy, even those that take very
+little exercise: a strong presumption in favour of the climate! As to
+medicine, I know nothing of the practice of the Nice physicians. Here
+are eleven in all; but four or five make shift to live by the
+profession. They receive, by way of fee, ten sols (an English
+six-pence) a visit, and this is but ill paid: so you may guess whether
+they are in a condition to support the dignity of physic; and whether
+any man, of a liberal education, would bury himself at Nice on such
+terms. I am acquainted with an Italian physician settled at Villa
+Franca, a very good sort of a man, who practises for a certain salary,
+raised by annual contribution among the better sort of people; and an
+allowance from the king, for visiting the sick belonging to the
+garrison and the gallies. The whole may amount to near thirty pounds.
+
+Among the inconveniences of this climate, the vermin form no
+inconsiderable article. Vipers and snakes are found in the mountains.
+Our gardens swarm with lizzards; and there are some few scorpions; but
+as yet I have seen but one of this species. In summer, notwithstanding
+all the care and precautions we can take, we are pestered with
+incredible swarms of flies, fleas, and bugs; but the gnats, or couzins,
+are more intolerable than all the rest. In the day-time, it is
+impossible to keep the flies out of your mouth, nostrils, eyes, and
+ears. They croud into your milk, tea, chocolate, soup, wine, and water:
+they soil your sugar, contaminate your victuals, and devour your fruit;
+they cover and defile your furniture, floors, cielings, and indeed your
+whole body. As soon as candles are lighted, the couzins begin to buz
+about your ears in myriads, and torment you with their stings, so that
+you have no rest nor respite 'till you get into bed, where you are
+secured by your mosquito-net. This inclosure is very disagreeable in
+hot weather; and very inconvenient to those, who, like me, are subject
+to a cough and spitting. It is moreover ineffectual; for some of those
+cursed insects insinuate themselves within it, almost every night; and
+half a dozen of them are sufficient to disturb you 'till morning. This
+is a plague that continues all the year; but in summer it is
+intolerable. During this season, likewise, the moths are so
+mischievous, that it requires the utmost care to preserve woollen
+cloths from being destroyed. From the month of May, 'till the beginning
+of October, the heat is so violent, that you cannot stir abroad after
+six in the morning 'till eight at night, so that you are entirely
+deprived of the benefit of exercise: There is no shaded walk in, or
+near the town; and there is neither coach nor chaise to hire, unless
+you travel post. Indeed, there is no road fit for any wheel carriage,
+but the common highway to the Var, in which you are scorched by the
+reflexion of the sun from the sand and stones, and at the same time
+half stifled with dust. If you ride out in the cool of the evening, you
+will have the disadvantage of returning in the dark.
+
+Among the demerits of Nice, I must also mention the water which is used
+in the city. It is drawn from wells; and for the most part so hard,
+that it curdles with soap. There are many fountains and streams in the
+neighbourhood, that afford excellent water, which, at no great charge,
+might be conveyed into the town, so as to form conduits in all the
+public streets: but the inhabitants are either destitute of public
+spirit, or cannot afford the expense. [General Paterson delivered a
+Plan to the King of Sardinia for supplying Nice with excellent water
+for so small an expence as one livre a house per annum; but the
+inhabitants remonstrated against it as an intolerable Imposition.] I
+have a draw-well in my porch, and another in my garden, which supply
+tolerable water for culinary uses; but what we drink, is fetched from a
+well belonging to a convent of Dominicans in this neighbourhood. Our
+linnen is washed in the river Paglion; and when that is dry, in the
+brook called Limpia, which runs into the harbour.
+
+In mentioning the water of this neighbourhood, I ought not to omit the
+baths of Rocabiliare, a small town among the mountains, about five and
+twenty miles from Nice. There are three sources, each warmer than the
+other; the warmest being nearly equal to the heat of the king's bath at
+Bath in Somersetshire, as far as I can judge from information. I have
+perused a Latin manuscript, which treats of these baths at Rocabiliare,
+written by the duke of Savoy's first physician about sixty years ago.
+He talks much of the sulphur and the nitre which they contain; but I
+apprehend their efficacy is owing to the same volatile vitriolic
+principle, which characterises the waters at Bath. They are attenuating
+and deobstruent, consequently of service in disorders arising from a
+languid circulation, a viscidity of the juices, a lax fibre, and
+obstructed viscera. The road from hence to Rocabiliare is in some parts
+very dangerous, lying along the brink of precipices, impassable to any
+other carriage but a mule. The town itself affords bad lodging and
+accommodation, and little or no society. The waters are at the distance
+of a mile and a half from the town: there are no baths nor shelter, nor
+any sort of convenience for those that drink them; and the best part of
+their efficacy is lost, unless they are drank at the fountain-head. If
+these objections were in some measure removed, I would advise
+valetudinarians, who come hither for the benefit of this climate, to
+pass the heats of summer at Rocabiliare, which being situated among
+mountains, enjoys a cool temperate air all the summer. This would be a
+salutary respite from the salt air of Nice, to those who labour under
+scorbutical complaints; and they would return with fresh vigour and
+spirits, to pass the winter in this place, where no severity of weather
+is known. Last June, when I found myself so ill at my cassine, I had
+determined to go to Rocabiliare, and even to erect a hut at the spring,
+for my own convenience. A gentleman of Nice undertook to procure me a
+tolerable lodging in the house of the cure, who was his relation. He
+assured me, there was no want of fresh butter, good poultry, excellent
+veal, and delicate trout; and that the articles of living might be had
+at Rocabiliare for half the price we paid at Nice: but finding myself
+grow better immediately on my return from the cassine to my own house,
+I would not put myself to the trouble and expence of a further removal.
+
+I think I have now communicated all the particulars relating to Nice,
+that are worth knowing; and perhaps many more than you desired to know:
+but, in such cases, I would rather be thought prolix and
+unentertaining, than deficient in that regard and attention with which
+I am very sincerely,--Your friend and servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXV
+
+NICE, January 1, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--It was in deference to your opinion, reinforced by my own
+inclination, and the repeated advice of other friends, that I resolved
+upon my late excursion to Italy. I could plainly perceive from the
+anxious solicitude, and pressing exhortations contained in all the
+letters I had lately received from my correspondents in Britain, that
+you had all despaired of my recovery. You advised me to make a
+pilgrimage among the Alps, and the advice was good. In scrambling among
+those mountains, I should have benefited by the exercise, and at the
+same time have breathed a cool, pure, salubrious air, which, in all
+probability, would have expelled the slow fever arising in a great
+measure from the heat of this climate. But, I wanted a companion and
+fellow traveller, whose conversation and society could alleviate the
+horrors of solitude. Besides, I was not strong enough to encounter the
+want of conveniences, and even of necessaries to which I must have been
+exposed in the course of such an expedition. My worthy friend Dr. A--
+earnestly intreated me to try the effect of a sea-voyage, which you
+know has been found of wonderful efficacy in consumptive cases. After
+some deliberation, I resolved upon the scheme, which I have now happily
+executed. I had a most eager curiosity to see the antiquities of
+Florence and Rome: I longed impatiently to view those wonderful
+edifices, statues, and pictures, which I had so often admired in prints
+and descriptions. I felt an enthusiastic ardor to tread that very
+classical ground which had been the scene of so many great
+atchievements; and I could not bear the thought of returning to England
+from the very skirts of Italy, without having penetrated to the capital
+of that renowned country. With regard to my health, I knew I could
+manage matters so as to enjoy all the benefits that could be expected
+from the united energy of a voyage by sea, a journey by land, and a
+change of climate.
+
+Rome is betwixt four and five hundred miles distant from Nice, and one
+half of the way I was resolved to travel by water. Indeed there is no
+other way of going from hence to Genoa, unless you take a mule, and
+clamber along the mountains at the rate of two miles an hour, and at
+the risque of breaking your neck every minute. The Apennine mountains,
+which are no other than a continuation of the maritime Alps, form an
+almost continued precipice from Villefranche to Lerici, which is almost
+forty-five miles on the other side of Genoa; and as they are generally
+washed by the sea, there is no beach or shore, consequently the road is
+carried along the face of the rocks, except at certain small intervals,
+which are occupied by towns and villages. But, as there is a road for
+mules and foot passengers, it might certainly be enlarged and improved
+so as to render it practicable by chaises and other wheel-carriages,
+and a toll might be exacted, which in a little time would defray the
+expence: for certainly no person who travels to Italy, from England,
+Holland, France, or Spain, would make a troublesome circuit to pass the
+Alps by the way of Savoy and Piedmont, if he could have the convenience
+of going post by the way of Aix, Antibes, and Nice, along the side of
+the Mediterranean, and through the Riviera of Genoa, which from the sea
+affords the most agreeable and amazing prospect I ever beheld. What
+pity it is, they cannot restore the celebrated Via Aurelia, mentioned
+in the Itinerarium of Antoninus, which extended from Rome by the way of
+Genoa, and through this country as far as Arles upon the Rhone. It was
+said to have been made by the emperor Marcus Aurelius; and some of the
+vestiges of it are still to be seen in Provence. The truth is, the
+nobility of Genoa, who are all merchants, from a low, selfish, and
+absurd policy, take all methods to keep their subjects of the Riviera
+in poverty and dependence. With this view, they carefully avoid all
+steps towards rendering that country accessible by land; and at the
+same time discourage their trade by sea, lest it should interfere with
+the commerce of their capital, in which they themselves are personally
+concerned.
+
+Those who either will not or cannot bear the sea, and are equally
+averse to riding, may be carried in a common chair, provided with a
+foot-board, on men's shoulders: this is the way of travelling practised
+by the ladies of Nice, in crossing the mountains to Turin; but it is
+very tedious and expensive, as the men must be often relieved.
+
+The most agreeable carriage from here to Genoa, is a feluca, or open
+boat, rowed by ten or twelve stout mariners. Though none of these boats
+belong to Nice, they are to be found every day in our harbour, waiting
+for a fare to Genoa; and they are seen passing and repassing
+continually, with merchandize or passengers, between Marseilles,
+Antibes, and the Genoese territories. A feluca is large enough to take
+in a post-chaise; and there is a tilt over the stern sheets, where the
+passengers sit, to protect them from the rain: between the seats one
+person may lie commodiously upon a mattress, which is commonly supplied
+by the patron. A man in good health may put up with any thing; but I
+would advise every valetudinarian who travels this way, to provide his
+own chaise, mattrass, and bedlinnen, otherwise he will pass his time
+very uncomfortably. If you go as a simple passenger in a feluca, you
+pay about a loui'dore for your place, and you must be intirely under
+the direction of the patron, who, while he can bear the sea, will
+prosecute his voyage by night as well as by day, and expose you to many
+other inconveniencies: but for eight zequines, or four loui'dores, you
+can have a whole feluca to yourself, from Nice to Genoa, and the master
+shall be obliged to put a-shore every evening. If you would have it
+still more at your command, you may hire it at so much per day, and in
+that case, go on shore as often, and stay as long as you please. This
+is the method I should take, were I to make the voyage again; for I am
+persuaded I should find it very near as cheap, and much more agreeable
+than any other.
+
+The distance between this place and Genoa, when measured on the carte,
+does not exceed ninety miles: but the people of the felucas insist upon
+its being one hundred and twenty. If they creep along shore round the
+bottoms of all the bays, this computation may be true: but, except when
+the sea is rough, they stretch directly from one head-land to another,
+and even when the wind is contrary, provided the gale is not fresh,
+they perform the voyage in two days and a half, by dint of rowing: when
+the wind is favourable, they will sail it easily in fourteen hours.
+
+A man who has nothing but expedition in view, may go with the courier,
+who has always a light boat well manned, and will be glad to
+accommodate a traveller for a reasonable gratification. I know an
+English gentleman who always travels with the courier in Italy, both by
+sea and land. In posting by land, he is always sure of having part of a
+good calash, and the best horses that can be found; and as the expence
+of both is defrayed by the public, it costs him nothing but a present
+to his companion, which does not amount to one fourth part of the
+expence he would incur by travelling alone. These opportunities may be
+had every week in all the towns of Italy.
+
+For my own part, I hired a gondola from hence to Genoa. This is a boat
+smaller than a feluca, rowed by four men, and steered by the patron;
+but the price was nine zequines, rather more than I should have payed
+for a feluca of ten oars. I was assured that being very light, it would
+make great way; and the master was particularly recommended to me, as
+an honest man and an able mariner. I was accompanied in this voyage by
+my wife and Miss C--, together with one Mr. R--, a native of Nice, whom
+I treated with the jaunt, in hopes that as he was acquainted with the
+customs of the country, and the different ways of travelling in it, he
+would save us much trouble, and some expence: but I was much
+disappointed. Some persons at Nice offered to lay wagers that he would
+return by himself from Italy; but they were also disappointed.
+
+We embarked in the beginning of September, attended by one servant. The
+heats, which render travelling dangerous in Italy, begin to abate at
+this season. The weather was extremely agreeable; and if I had
+postponed my voyage a little longer, I foresaw that I should not be
+able to return before winter: in which case I might have found the sea
+too rough, and the weather too cold for a voyage of one hundred and
+thirty-five miles in an open boat.
+
+Having therefore provided myself with a proper pass, signed and sealed
+by our consul, as well as with letters of recommendation from him to
+the English consuls at Genoa and Leghorn, a precaution which I would
+advise all travellers to take, in case of meeting with accidents on the
+road, we went on board about ten in the morning, stopped about half an
+hour at a friend's country-house in the bay of St. Hospice, and about
+noon entered the harbour of Monaco, where the patron was obliged to pay
+toll, according to the regulation which I have explained in a former
+letter. This small town, containing about eight or nine hundred souls,
+besides the garrison, is built on a rock which projects into the sea,
+and makes a very romantic appearance. The prince's palace stands in the
+most conspicuous part, with a walk of trees before it. The apartments
+are elegantly furnished, and adorned with some good pictures. The
+fortifications are in good repair, and the place is garrisoned by two
+French battalions. The present prince of Monaco is a Frenchman, son of
+the duke Matignon who married the heiress of Monaco, whose name was
+Grimaldi. The harbour is well sheltered from the wind; but has not
+water sufficient to admit vessels of any great burthen. Towards the
+north, the king of Sardinia's territories extend to within a mile of
+the gate; but the prince of Monaco can go upon his own ground along
+shore about five or six miles to the eastward, as far as Menton,
+another small town, which also belongs to him, and is situated on the
+seaside. His revenues are computed at a million of French livres,
+amounting to something more than forty thousand pounds sterling: but,
+the principality of Monaco, consisting of three small towns, and an
+inconsiderable tract of barren rock, is not worth above seven thousand
+a year; the rest arises from his French estate. This consists partly of
+the dutchy of Matignon, and partly of the dutchy of Valentinois, which
+last was given to the ancestors of this prince of Monaco, in the year
+1640, by the French king, to make up the loss of some lands in the
+kingdom of Naples, which were confiscated when he expelled the Spanish
+garrison from Monaco, and threw himself into the arms of France: so
+that he is duke of Valentinois as well as of Matignon, in that kingdom.
+He lives almost constantly in France; and has taken the name and arms
+of Grimaldi.
+
+The Genoese territories begin at Ventimiglia, another town lying on the
+coast, at the distance of twenty miles from Nice, a circumstance from
+which it borrows the name. Having passed the towns of Monaco, Menton,
+Ventimiglia, and several other places of less consequence that lie
+along this coast, we turned the point of St. Martin with a favourable
+breeze, and might have proceeded twenty miles further before night: but
+the women began to be sick, as well as afraid at the roughness of the
+water; Mr. R-- was so discomposed, that he privately desired the patron
+to put ashore at St. Remo, on pretence that we should not find a
+tolerable auberge in any other place between this and Noli, which was
+at the distance of forty miles. We accordingly landed, and were
+conducted to the poste, which our gondeliere assured us was the best
+auberge in the whole Riviera of Genoa. We ascended by a dark, narrow,
+steep stair, into a kind of public room, with a long table and benches,
+so dirty and miserable, that it would disgrace the worst hedge
+ale-house in England. Not a soul appeared to receive us. This is a
+ceremony one must not expect to meet with in France; far less in Italy.
+Our patron going into the kitchen, asked a servant if the company could
+have lodging in the house; and was answered, "he could not tell: the
+patron was not at home." When he desired to know where the patron was,
+the other answered, "he was gone to take the air." E andato a
+passeggiare. In the mean time, we were obliged to sit in the common
+room among watermen and muleteers. At length the landlord arrived, and
+gave us to understand, that he could accommodate us with chambers. In
+that where I lay, there was just room for two beds, without curtains or
+bedstead, an old rotten table covered with dried figs, and a couple of
+crazy chairs. The walls had been once white-washed: but were now hung
+with cobwebs, and speckled with dirt of all sorts; and I believe the
+brick-floor had not been swept for half a century. We supped in an
+outward room suitable in all respects to the chamber, and fared
+villainously. The provision was very ill-dressed, and served up in the
+most slovenly manner. You must not expect cleanliness or conveniency of
+any kind in this country. For this accommodation I payed as much as if
+I had been elegantly entertained in the best auberge of France or Italy.
+
+Next day, the wind was so high that we could not prosecute our voyage,
+so that we were obliged to pass other four and twenty hours in this
+comfortable situation. Luckily Mr. R-- found two acquaintances in the
+place; one a Franciscan monk, a jolly fellow; and the other a maestro
+di capella, who sent a spinnet to the inn, and entertained us agreeably
+with his voice and performance, in both of which accomplishments he
+excelled. The padre was very good humoured, and favoured us with a
+letter of recommendation to a friend of his, a professor in the
+university of Pisa. You would laugh to see the hyperbolical terms in
+which he mentioned your humble servant; but Italy is the native country
+of hyperbole.
+
+St. Remo is a pretty considerable town, well-built upon the declivity
+of a gently rising hill, and has a harbour capable of receiving small
+vessels, a good number of which are built upon the beach: but ships of
+any burden are obliged to anchor in the bay, which is far from being
+secure. The people of St. Remo form a small republic, which is subject
+to Genoa.
+
+They enjoyed particular privileges, till the year 1753, when in
+consequence of a new gabelle upon salt, they revolted: but this effort
+in behalf of liberty did not succeed. They were soon reduced by the
+Genoese, who deprived them of all their privileges, and built a fort by
+the sea-side, which serves the double purpose of defending the harbour
+and over-awing the town. The garrison at present does not exceed two
+hundred men. The inhabitants are said to have lately sent a deputation
+to Ratisbon, to crave the protection of the diet of the empire. There
+is very little plain ground in this neighbourhood; but the hills are
+covered with oranges, lemons, pomegranates, and olives, which produce a
+considerable traffic in fine fruit and excellent oil. The women of St.
+Remo are much more handsome and better tempered than those of Provence.
+They have in general good eyes, with open ingenuous countenances. Their
+dress, though remarkable, I cannot describe: but upon the whole, they
+put me in mind of some portraits I have seen, representing the females
+of Georgia and Mingrelia.
+
+On the third day, the wind being abated, though still unfavourable, we
+reimbarked and rowed along shore, passing by Porto-mauricio, and
+Oneglia; then turning the promontory called Capo di Melle, we proceeded
+by Albenga, Finale, and many other places of inferior note.
+Portomauricio is seated on a rock washed by the sea, but indifferently
+fortified, with an inconsiderable harbour, which none but very small
+vessels can enter. About two miles to the eastward is Oneglia, a small
+town with fortifications, lying along the open beach, and belonging to
+the king of Sardinia. This small territory abounds with olive-trees,
+which produce a considerable quantity of oil, counted the best of the
+whole Riviera. Albenga is a small town, the see of a bishop, suffragan
+to the archbishop of Genoa. It lies upon the sea, and the country
+produces a great quantity of hemp. Finale is the capital of a
+marquisate belonging to the Genoese, which has been the source of much
+trouble to the republic; and indeed was the sole cause of their rupture
+with the king of Sardinia and the house of Austria in the year 1745.
+The town is pretty well built; but the harbour is shallow, open, and
+unsafe; nevertheless, they built a good number of tartans and other
+vessels on the beach and the neighbouring country abounds with oil and
+fruit, particularly with those excellent apples called pomi carli,
+which I have mentioned in a former letter.
+
+In the evening we reached the Capo di Noli, counted very dangerous in
+blowing weather. It is a very high perpendicular rock or mountain
+washed by the sea, which has eaten into it in divers places, so as to
+form a great number of caverns. It extends about a couple of miles, and
+in some parts is indented into little creeks or bays, where there is a
+narrow margin of sandy beach between it and the water. When the wind is
+high, no feluca will attempt to pass it; even in a moderate breeze, the
+waves dashing against the rocks and caverns, which echo with the sound,
+make such an awful noise, and at the same time occasion such a rough
+sea, as one cannot hear, and see, and feel, without a secret horror.
+
+On this side of the Cape, there is a beautiful strand cultivated like a
+garden; the plantations extend to the very tops of the hills,
+interspersed with villages, castles, churches, and villas. Indeed the
+whole Riviera is ornamented in the same manner, except in such places
+as admit of no building nor  cultivation.
+
+Having passed the Cape, we followed the winding of the coast, into a
+small bay, and arrived at the town of Noli, where we proposed to pass
+the night. You will be surprised that we did not go ashore sooner, in
+order to take some refreshment; but the truth is, we had a provision of
+ham, tongues, roasted pullets, cheese, bread, wine, and fruit, in the
+feluca, where we every day enjoyed a slight repast about one or two
+o'clock in the afternoon. This I mention as a necessary piece of
+information to those who may be inclined to follow the same route. We
+likewise found it convenient to lay in store of l'eau de vie, or
+brandy, for the use of the rowers, who always expect to share your
+comforts.  On a meagre day, however, those ragamuffins will rather die
+of hunger than suffer the least morsel of flesh-meat to enter their
+mouths. I have frequently tried the experiment, by pressing them to eat
+something gras, on a Friday or Saturday: but they always declined it
+with marks of abhorrence, crying, Dio me ne libere! God deliver me from
+it! or some other words to that effect. I moreover observed, that not
+one of those fellows ever swore an oath, or spoke an indecent word.
+They would by no means put to sea, of a morning, before they had heard
+mass; and when the wind was unfavourable, they always set out with a
+hymn to the Blessed Virgin, or St. Elmo, keeping time with their oars
+as they sung. I have indeed remarked all over this country, that a man
+who transgresses the institutions of the church in these small matters,
+is much more infamous than one who has committed the most flagrant
+crimes against nature and morality. A murderer, adulterer, or s--m--te,
+will obtain easy absolution from the church, and even find favour with
+society; but a man who eats a pidgeon on a Saturday, without express
+licence, is avoided and abhorred, as a monster of reprobation. I have
+conversed with several intelligent persons on the subject; and have
+reason to believe, that a delinquent of this sort is considered as a
+luke-warm catholic, little better than a heretic; and of all crimes
+they look upon heresy as the most damnable.
+
+Noli is a small republic of fishermen subject to Genoa; but very
+tenacious of their privileges. The town stands on the beach, tolerably
+well built, defended by a castle situated on a rock above it; and the
+harbour is of little consequence. The auberge was such as made us
+regret even the inn we had left at St. Remo. After a very odd kind of
+supper, which I cannot pretend to describe, we retired to our repose:
+but I had not been in bed five minutes, when I felt something crawling
+on different parts of my body, and taking a light to examine, perceived
+above a dozen large bugs. You must know I have the same kind of
+antipathy to these vermin, that some persons have to a cat or breast of
+veal. I started up immediately, and wrapping myself in a great coat,
+sick as I was, laid down in the outer room upon a chest, where I
+continued till morning.
+
+One would imagine that in a mountainous country like this, there should
+be plenty of goats; and indeed, we saw many flocks of them feeding
+among the rocks, yet we could not procure half a pint of milk for our
+tea, if we had given the weight of it in gold. The people here have no
+idea of using milk, and when you ask them for it, they stand gaping
+with a foolish face of surprise, which is exceedingly provoking. It is
+amazing that instinct does not teach the peasants to feed their
+children with goat's milk, so much more nourishing and agreeable than
+the wretched sustenance on which they live. Next day we rowed by Vado
+and Savona, which last is a large town, with a strong citadel, and a
+harbour, which was formerly capable of receiving large ships: but it
+fell a sacrifice to the jealousy of the Genoese, who have partly
+choaked it up, on pretence that it should not afford shelter to the
+ships of war belonging to those states which might be at enmity with
+the republic.
+
+Then we passed Albifola, Sestri di Ponente, Novi, Voltri, and a great
+number of villages, villas, and magnificent palaces belonging to the
+Genoese nobility, which form almost a continued chain of buildings
+along the strand for thirty miles.
+
+About five in the afternoon, we skirted the fine suburbs of St. Pietro
+d' Arena, and arrived at Genoa, which makes a dazzling appearance when
+viewed from the sea, rising like an amphitheatre in a circular form
+from the water's edge, a considerable way up the mountains, and
+surrounded on the land side by a double wall, the most exterior of
+which is said to extend fifteen miles in circuit. The first object that
+strikes your eye at a distance, is a very elegant pharos, or
+lighthouse, built on the projection of a rock on the west side of the
+harbour, so very high, that, in a clear day, you may see it at the
+distance of thirty miles. Turning the light-house point, you find
+yourself close to the mole, which forms the harbour of Genoa. It is
+built at a great expence from each side of the bay, so as to form in
+the sea two long magnificent jettes. At the extremity of each is
+another smaller lanthorn. These moles are both provided with
+brass-cannon, and between them is the entrance into the harbour. But
+this is still so wide as to admit a great sea, which, when the wind
+blows hard from south and south-west, is very troublesome to the
+shipping. Within the mole there is a smaller harbour or wet dock,
+called Darsena, for the gallies of the republic. We passed through a
+considerable number of ships and vessels lying at anchor, and landing
+at the water-gate, repaired to an inn called La Croix de Malthe in the
+neighbourhood of the harbour. Here we met with such good entertainment
+as prepossessed us in favour of the interior parts of Italy, and
+contributed with other motives to detain us some days in this city. But
+I have detained you so long, that I believe you wish I may proceed no
+farther; and therefore I take my leave for the present, being very
+sincerely-- Yours.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVI
+
+NICE, January 15, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--It is not without reason that Genoa is called La superba.
+The city itself is very stately; and the nobles are very proud. Some
+few of them may be proud of their wealth: but, in general, their
+fortunes are very small. My friend Mr. R-- assured me that many Genoese
+noblemen had fortunes of half a million of livres per annum: but the
+truth is, the whole revenue of the state does not exceed this sum; and
+the livre of Genoa is but about nine pence sterling. There are about
+half a dozen of their nobles who have ten thousand a year: but the
+majority have not above a twentieth part of that sum. They live with
+great parsimony in their families; and wear nothing but black in
+public; so that their expences are but small. If a Genoese nobleman
+gives an entertainment once a quarter, he is said to live upon the
+fragments all the rest of the year. I was told that one of them lately
+treated his friends, and left the entertainment to the care of his son,
+who ordered a dish of fish that cost a zechine, which is equal to about
+ten shillings sterling. The old gentleman no sooner saw it appear on
+the table, than unable to suppress his concern, he burst into tears,
+and exclaimed, Ah Figliuolo indegno! Siamo in Rovina! Siamo in
+precipizio! Ah, Prodigal! ruined! undone!
+
+I think the pride or ostentation of the Italians in general takes a
+more laudable turn than that of other nations. A Frenchman lays out his
+whole revenue upon tawdry suits of cloaths, or in furnishing a
+magnificent repas of fifty or a hundred dishes, one half of which are
+not eatable nor intended to be eaten. His wardrobe goes to the fripier;
+his dishes to the dogs, and himself to the devil, and after his decease
+no vestige of him remains. A Genoese, on the other hand, keeps himself
+and his family at short allowance, that he may save money to build
+palaces and churches, which remain to after-ages so many monuments of
+his taste, piety, and munificence; and in the mean time give employment
+and bread to the poor and industrious. There are some Genoese nobles
+who have each five or six elegant palaces magnificently furnished,
+either in the city, or in different parts of the Riviera. The two
+streets called Strada Balbi and Strada Nuova, are continued double
+ranges of palaces adorned with gardens and fountains: but their being
+painted on the outside has, in my opinion, a poor effect.
+
+The commerce of this city is, at present, not very considerable; yet it
+has the face of business. The streets are crowded with people; the
+shops are well furnished; and the markets abound with all sorts of
+excellent provision. The wine made in this neighbourhood is, however,
+very indifferent; and all that is consumed must be bought at the public
+cantine, where it is sold for the benefit of the state. Their bread is
+the whitest and the best I have tasted any where; and the beef, which
+they have from Piedmont, is juicy and delicious. The expence of eating
+in Italy is nearly the same as in France, about three shillings a head
+for every meal. The state of Genoa is very poor, and their bank of St.
+George has received such rude shocks, first from the revolt of the
+Corsicans, and afterwards from the misfortunes of the city, when it was
+taken by the Austrians in the war of 1745, that it still continues to
+languish without any near prospect of its credit being restored.
+Nothing shews the weakness of their state, more than their having
+recourse to the assistance of France to put a stop to the progress of
+Paoli in Corsica; for after all that has been said of the gallantry and
+courage of Paoli and his islanders, I am very credibly informed that
+they might be very easily suppressed, if the Genoese had either vigour
+in the council or resolution in the field.
+
+True it is, they made a noble effort in expelling the Austrians who had
+taken possession of their city; but this effort was the effect of
+oppression and despair, and if I may believe the insinuations of some
+politicians in this part of the world, the Genoese would not have
+succeeded in that attempt, if they had not previously purchased with a
+large sum of money the connivance of the only person who could defeat
+the enterprize. For my own part, I can scarce entertain thoughts so
+prejudicial to the character of human nature, as to suppose a man
+capable of sacrificing to such a consideration, the duty he owed his
+prince, as well as all regard to the lives of his soldiers, even those
+who lay sick in hospitals, and who, being dragged forth, were miserably
+butchered by the furious populace. There is one more presumption of his
+innocence, he still retains the favour of his sovereign, who could not
+well be supposed to share in the booty. "There are mysteries in
+politics which were never dreamed of in our philosophy, Horatio!" The
+possession of Genoa might have proved a troublesome bone of contention,
+which it might be convenient to lose by accident. Certain it is, when
+the Austrians returned after their expulsion, in order to retake the
+city, the engineer, being questioned by the general, declared he would
+take the place in fifteen days, on pain of losing his head; and in four
+days after this declaration the Austrians retired. This anecdote I
+learned from a worthy gentleman of this country, who had it from the
+engineer's own mouth. Perhaps it was the will of heaven. You see how
+favourably, providence has interposed in behalf of the reigning empress
+of Russia, first in removing her husband: secondly in ordaining the
+assassination of prince Ivan, for which the perpetrators have been so
+liberally rewarded; it even seems determined to shorten the life of her
+own son, the only surviving rival from whom she had any thing to fear.
+
+The Genoese have now thrown themselves into the arms of France for
+protection: I know not whether it would not have been a greater mark of
+sagacity to cultivate the friendship of England, with which they carry
+on an advantageous commerce. While the English are masters of the
+Mediterranean, they will always have it in their power to do incredible
+damage all along the Riviera, to ruin the Genoese trade by sea, and
+even to annoy the capital; for notwithstanding all the pains they have
+taken to fortify the mole and the city, I am greatly deceived if it is
+not still exposed to the danger, not only of a bombardment, but even of
+a cannonade. I am even sanguine enough to think a resolute commander
+might, with a strong squadron, sail directly into the harbour, without
+sustaining much damage, notwithstanding all the cannon of the place,
+which are said to amount to near five hundred. I have seen a cannonade
+of above four hundred pieces of artillery, besides bombs and cohorns,
+maintained for many hours, without doing much mischief.
+
+During the last siege of Genoa, the French auxiliaries were obliged to
+wait at Monaco, until a gale of wind had driven the English squadron
+off the coast, and then they went along shore in small vessels at the
+imminent risque of being taken by the British cruisers. By land I
+apprehend their march would be altogether impracticable, if the king of
+Sardinia had any interest to oppose it. He might either guard the
+passes, or break up the road in twenty different places, so as to
+render it altogether impassable. Here it may not be amiss to observe,
+that when Don Philip advanced from Nice with his army to Genoa, he was
+obliged to march so close to the shore, that in above fifty different
+places, the English ships might have rendered the road altogether
+impassable. The path, which runs generally along the face of a
+precipice washed by the sea, is so narrow that two men on horseback can
+hardly pass each other; and the road itself so rugged, slippery, and
+dangerous, that the troopers were obliged to dismount, and lead their
+horses one by one. On the other hand, baron de Leutrum, who was at the
+head of a large body of Piedmontese troops, had it in his power to
+block up the passes of the mountains, and even to destroy this road in
+such a manner, that the enemy could not possibly advance. Why these
+precautions were not taken, I do not pretend to explain: neither can I
+tell you wherefore the prince of Monaco, who is a subject and partizan
+of France, was indulged with a neutrality for his town, which served as
+a refreshing-place, a safe port, and an intermediate post for the
+French succours sent from Marseilles to Genoa. This I will only venture
+to affirm, that the success and advantage of great alliances are often
+sacrificed to low, partial, selfish, and sordid considerations. The
+town of Monaco is commanded by every heighth in its neighbourhood; and
+might be laid in ashes by a bomb-ketch in four hours by sea.
+
+I was fortunate enough to be recommended to a lady in Genoa, who
+treated us with great politeness and hospitality. She introduced me to
+an abbate, a man of letters, whose conversation was extremely
+agreeable. He already knew me by reputation, and offered to make me
+known to some of the first persons in the republic, with whom he lived
+in intimacy. The lady is one of the most intelligent and best-bred
+persons I have known in any country. We assisted at her conversazione,
+which was numerous. She pressed us to pass the winter at Genoa; and
+indeed I was almost persuaded: but I had attachments at Nice, from
+which I could not easily disengage myself.
+
+The few days we staved at Genoa were employed in visiting the most
+remarkable churches and palaces. In some of the churches, particularly
+that of the Annunciata, I found a profusion of ornaments, which had
+more magnificence than taste. There is a great number of pictures; but
+very few of them are capital pieces. I had heard much of the ponte
+Carignano, which did not at all answer my expectation. It is a bridge
+that unites two eminences which form the higher part of the city, and
+the houses in the bottom below do not rise so high as the springing of
+its arches. There is nothing at all curious in its construction, nor
+any way remarkable, except the heighth of the piers from which the
+arches are sprung. Hard by the bridge there is an elegant church, from
+the top of which you have a very rich and extensive prospect of the
+city, the sea and the adjacent country, which looks like a continent of
+groves and villas. The only remarkable circumstance about the
+cathedral, which is Gothic and gloomy, is the chapel where the
+pretended bones of John the Baptist are deposited, and in which thirty
+silver lamps are continually burning. I had a curiosity to see the
+palaces of Durazzo and Doria, but it required more trouble to procure
+admission than I was willing to give myself: as for the arsenal, and
+the rostrum of an ancient galley which was found by accident in
+dragging the harbour, I postponed seeing them till my return.
+
+Having here provided myself with letters of credit for Florence and
+Rome, I hired the same boat which had brought us hither, to carry us
+forward to Lerici, which is a small town about half way between Genoa
+and Leghorn, where travellers, who are tired of the sea, take
+post-chaises to continue their route by land to Pisa and Florence. I
+payed three loui'dores for this voyage of about fifty miles; though I
+might have had a feluca for less money. When you land on the wharf at
+Genoa, you are plied by the feluca men just as you are plied by the
+watermen at Hungerford-stairs in London. They are always ready to set
+off at a minute's warning for Lerici, Leghorn, Nice, Antibes,
+Marseilles, and every part of the Riviera.
+
+The wind being still unfavourable, though the weather was delightful,
+we rowed along shore, passing by several pretty towns, villages, and a
+vast number of cassines, or little white houses, scattered among woods
+of olive-trees, that cover the hills; and these are the habitations of
+the velvet and damask weavers. Turning Capo Fino we entered a bay,
+where stand the towns of Porto Fino, Lavagna, and Sestri di Levante, at
+which last we took up our night's lodging. The house was tolerable, and
+we had no great reason to complain of the beds: but, the weather being
+hot, there was a very offensive smell, which proceeded from some skins
+of beasts new killed, that were spread to dry on an outhouse in the
+yard. Our landlord was a butcher, and had very much the looks of an
+assassin. His wife was a great masculine virago, who had all the air of
+having frequented the slaughter-house. Instead of being welcomed with
+looks of complaisance, we were admitted with a sort of gloomy
+condescension, which seemed to say, "We don't much like your company;
+but, however, you shall have a night's lodging in favour of the patron
+of the gondola, who is our acquaintance." In short, we had a very bad
+supper, miserably dressed, passed a very disagreeable night, and payed
+a very extravagant bill in the morning, without being thanked for our
+custom. I was very glad to get out of the house with my throat uncut.
+
+Sestri di Levante is a little town pleasantly situated on the seaside;
+but has not the conveniency of a harbour. The fish taken here is mostly
+carried to Genoa. This is likewise the market for their oil, and the
+paste called macaroni, of which they make a good quantity.
+
+Next day, we skirted a very barren coast, consisting of almost
+perpendicular rocks, on the faces of which, however, we saw many
+peasants' houses and hanging terraces for vines, made by dint of
+incredible labour. In the afternoon, we entered by the Porti di Venere
+into the bay, or gulf of Spetia or Spezza, which was the Portus Lunae
+of the ancients. This bay, at the mouth of which lies the island
+Palmaria, forms a most noble and secure harbour, capacious enough to
+contain all the navies in Christendom. The entrance on one side is
+defended by a small fort built above the town of Porto Venere, which is
+a very poor place. Farther in there is a battery of about twenty guns;
+and on the right hand, opposite to Porto Venere, is a block-house,
+founded on a rock in the sea. At the bottom of the bay is the town of
+Spetia on the left, and on the right that of Lerici, defended by a
+castle of very little strength or consequence. The whole bay is
+surrounded with plantations of olives and oranges, and makes a very
+delightful appearance. In case of a war, this would be an admirable
+station for a British squadron, as it lies so near Genoa and Leghorn;
+and has a double entrance, by means of which the cruisers could sail in
+and out continually, which way soever the wind might chance to sit. I
+am sure the fortifications would give very little disturbance.
+
+At the post-house in Lerici, the accommodation is intolerable. We were
+almost poisoned at supper. I found the place where I was to lie so
+close and confined, that I could not breathe in it, and therefore lay
+all night in an outward room upon four chairs, with a leather
+portmanteau for my pillow. For this entertainment I payed very near a
+loui'dore. Such bad accommodation is the less excusable, as the fellow
+has a great deal of business, this being a great thoroughfare for
+travellers going into Italy, or returning from thence.
+
+I might have saved some money by prosecuting my voyage directly by sea
+to Leghorn: but, by this time, we were all heartily tired of the water,
+the business then was to travel by land to Florence, by the way of
+Pisa, which is seven posts distant from Lerici. Those who have not
+their own carriage must either hire chaises to perform the whole
+journey, or travel by way of cambiatura, which is that of changing the
+chaises every post, as the custom is in England. In this case the great
+inconvenience arises from your being obliged to shift your baggage
+every post. The chaise or calesse of this country, is a wretched
+machine with two wheels, as uneasy as a common cart, being indeed no
+other than what we should call in England a very ill-contrived
+one-horse chair, narrow, naked, shattered and shabby. For this vehicle
+and two horses you pay at the rate of eight paoli a stage, or four
+shillings sterling; and the postilion expects two paoli for his
+gratification: so that every eight miles cost about five shillings, and
+four only, if you travel in your own carriage, as in that case you pay
+no more than at the rate of three paoli a horse.
+
+About three miles from Lerici, we crossed the Magra, which appeared as
+a rivulet almost dry, and in half a mile farther arrived at Sarzana, a
+small town at the extremity of the Genoese territories, where we
+changed horses. Then entering the principalities of Massa and Carrara,
+belonging to the duke of Modena, we passed Lavenza, which seems to be a
+decayed fort with a small garrison, and dined at Massa, which is an
+agreeable little town, where the old dutchess of Modena resides.
+Notwithstanding all the expedition we could make, it was dark before we
+passed the Cerchio, which is an inconsiderable stream in the
+neighbourhood of Pisa, where we arrived about eight in the evening.
+
+The country from Sarzana to the frontiers of Tuscany is a narrow plain,
+bounded on the right by the sea, and on the left by the Apennine
+mountains. It is well cultivated and inclosed, consisting of
+meadow-ground, corn fields, plantations of olives; and the trees that
+form the hedge-rows serve as so many props to the vines, which are
+twisted round them, and continued from one to another. After entering
+the dominions of Tuscany, we travelled through a noble forest of
+oak-trees of a considerable extent, which would have appeared much more
+agreeable, had we not been benighted and apprehensive of robbers. The
+last post but one in this days journey, is at the little town of
+Viareggio, a kind of sea-port on the Mediterranean, belonging to Lucia.
+The roads are indifferent, and the accommodation is execrable. I was
+glad to find myself housed in a very good inn at Pisa, where I promised
+myself a good night's rest, and was not disappointed. I heartily wish
+you the same pleasure, and am very sincerely--Yours.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVII
+
+NICE, January 28, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--Pisa is a fine old city that strikes you with the same
+veneration you would feel at sight of an antient temple which bears the
+marks of decay, without being absolutely dilapidated. The houses are
+well built, the streets open, straight, and well paved; the shops well
+furnished; and the markets well supplied: there are some elegant
+palaces, designed by great masters. The churches are built with taste,
+and tolerably ornamented. There is a beautiful wharf of freestone on
+each side of the river Arno, which runs through the city, and three
+bridges thrown over it, of which that in the middle is of marble, a
+pretty piece of architecture: but the number of inhabitants is very
+inconsiderable; and this very circumstance gives it an air of majestic
+solitude, which is far from being unpleasant to a man of a
+contemplative turn of mind. For my part, I cannot bear the tumult of a
+populous commercial city; and the solitude that reigns in Pisa would
+with me be a strong motive to choose it as a place of residence. Not
+that this would be the only inducement for living at Pisa. Here is some
+good company, and even a few men of taste and learning. The people in
+general are counted sociable and polite; and there is great plenty of
+provisions, at a very reasonable rate. At some distance from the more
+frequented parts of the city, a man may hire a large house for thirty
+crowns a year: but near the center, you cannot have good lodgings,
+ready furnished, for less than a scudo (about five shillings) a day.
+The air in summer is reckoned unwholesome by the exhalations arising
+from stagnant water in the neighbourhood of the city, which stands in
+the midst of a fertile plain, low and marshy: yet these marshes have
+been considerably drained, and the air is much meliorated. As for the
+Arno, it is no longer navigated by vessels of any burthen. The
+university of Pisa is very much decayed; and except the little business
+occasioned by the emperor's gallies, which are built in this town,
+[This is a mistake. No gallies have been built here for a great many
+years, and the dock is now converted into stables for the Grand Duke's
+Horse Guards.] I know of no commerce it carried on: perhaps the
+inhabitants live on the produce of the country, which consists of corn,
+wine, and cattle. They are supplied with excellent water for drinking,
+by an aqueduct consisting of above five thousand arches, begun by
+Cosmo, and finished by Ferdinand I. Grand-dukes of Tuscany; it conveys
+the water from the mountains at the distance of five miles. This noble
+city, formerly the capital of a flourishing and powerful republic,
+which contained above one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants,
+within its walls, is now so desolate that grass grows in the open
+streets; and the number of its people do not exceed sixteen thousand.
+
+You need not doubt but I visited the Campanile, or hanging-tower, which
+is a beautiful cylinder of eight stories, each adorned with a round of
+columns, rising one above another. It stands by the cathedral, and
+inclines so far on one side from the perpendicular, that in dropping a
+plummet from the top, which is one hundred and eighty-eight feet high,
+it falls sixteen feet from the base. For my part, I should never have
+dreamed that this inclination proceeded from any other cause, than an
+accidental subsidence of the foundation on this side, if some
+connoisseurs had not taken great pains to prove it was done on purpose
+by the architect. Any person who has eyes may see that the pillars on
+that side are considerably sunk; and this is the case with the very
+threshold of the door by which you enter. I think it would have been a
+very preposterous ambition in the architects, to show how far they
+could deviate from the perpendicular in this construction; because in
+that particular any common mason could have rivalled them; [All the
+world knows that a Building with such Inclination may be carried up
+till a line drawn from the Centre of Gravity falls without the
+Circumference of the Base.] and if they really intended it as a
+specimen of their art, they should have shortened the pilasters on that
+side, so as to exhibit them intire, without the appearance of sinking.
+These leaning towers are not unfrequent in Italy; there is one at
+Bologna, another at Venice, a third betwixt Venice and Ferrara, and a
+fourth at Ravenna; and the inclination in all of them has been supposed
+owing to the foundations giving way on one side only.
+
+In the cathedral, which is a large Gothic pile, [This Edifice is not
+absolutely Gothic. It was built in the Twelfth Century after the Design
+of a Greek Architect from Constantinople, where by that time the art
+was much degenerated. The Pillars of Granite are mostly from the
+Islands of Ebba and Giglia on the coast of Tuscany, where those
+quarries were worked by the antient Romans. The Giullo, and the verde
+antico are very beautiful species of marble, yellow and green; the
+first, antiently called marmor numidicum, came from Africa; the other
+was found (according to Strabo) on the mons Taygetus in Lacedemonia:
+but, at present, neither the one nor the other is to be had except
+among the ruins of antiquity.] there is a great number of massy pillars
+of porphyry, granite, jasper, giullo, and verde antico, together with
+some good pictures and statues: but the greatest curiosity is that of
+the brass-gates, designed and executed by John of Bologna,
+representing, embossed in different compartments, the history of the
+Old and New Testament. I was so charmed with this work, that I could
+have stood a whole day to examine and admire it. In the Baptisterium,
+which stands opposite to this front, there are some beautiful marbles,
+particularly the font, and a pulpit, supported by the statues of
+different animals.
+
+Between the cathedral and this building, about one hundred paces on one
+side, is the famous burying-ground, called Campo Santo, from its being
+covered with earth brought from Jerusalem. It is an oblong square,
+surrounded by a very high wall, and always kept shut. Within-side there
+is a spacious corridore round the whole space, which is a noble walk
+for a contemplative philosopher. It is paved chiefly with flat
+grave-stones: the walls are painted in fresco by Ghiotto, Giottino,
+Stefano, Bennoti, Bufalmaco, and some others of his cotemporaries and
+disciples, who flourished immediately after the restoration of
+painting. The subjects are taken from the Bible. Though the manner is
+dry, the drawing incorrect, the design generally lame, and the
+colouring unnatural; yet there is merit in the expression: and the
+whole remains as a curious monument of the efforts made by this noble
+art immediately after her revival. [The History of Job by Giotto is
+much admired.] Here are some deceptions in perspective equally
+ingenious and pleasing; particularly the figures of certain animals,
+which exhibit exactly the same appearance, from whatever different
+points of view they are seen. One division of the burying-ground
+consists of a particular compost, which in nine days consumes the dead
+bodies to the bones: in all probability, it is no other than common
+earth mixed with quick-lime. At one corner of the corridore, there are
+the pictures of three bodies represented in the three different stages
+of putrefaction which they undergo when laid in this composition. At
+the end of the three first days, the body is bloated and swelled, and
+the features are enlarged and distorted to such a degree, as fills the
+spectator with horror. At the sixth day, the swelling is subsided, and
+all the muscular flesh hangs loosened from the bones: at the ninth,
+nothing but the skeleton remains. There is a small neat chapel at one
+end of the Campo Santo, with some tombs, on one of which is a beautiful
+bust by Buona Roti. [Here is a sumptuous cenotaph erected by Pope
+Gregory XIII. to the memory of his brother Giovanni Buoncampagni. It is
+called the Monumentum Gregorianum, of a violet-coloured marble from
+Scravezza in this neighbourhood, adorned with a couple of columns of
+Touchstone, and two beautiful spherical plates of Alabaster.] At the
+other end of the corridore, there is a range of antient sepulchral
+stones ornamented with basso-relievo brought hither from different
+parts by the Pisan Fleets in the course of their expeditions. I was
+struck with the figure of a woman lying dead on a tomb-stone, covered
+with a piece of thin drapery, so delicately cut as to shew all the
+flexures of the attitude, and even all the swellings and sinuosities of
+the muscles. Instead of stone, it looks like a sheet of wet linen. [One
+of these antiquities representing the Hunting of Meleager was converted
+into a coffin for the Countess Beatrice, mother of the famous Countess
+Mathilda; it is now fixed to the outside of the church wall just by one
+of the doors, and is a very elegant piece of sculpture. Near the same
+place is a fine pillar of Porphyry supporting the figure of a Lion, and
+a kind of urn which seems to be a Sarcophagus, though an inscription
+round the Base declares it is a Talentum in which the antient Pisans
+measured the Census or Tax which they payed to Augustus: but in what
+metal or specie this Census was payed we are left to divine. There are
+likewise in the Campo Santo two antique Latin edicts of the Pisan
+Senate injoining the citizens to go into mourning for the Death of
+Caius and Lucius Caesar the Sons of Agrippa, and heirs declared of the
+Emperor. Fronting this Cemetery, on the other side of the Piazza of the
+Dome, is a large, elegant Hospital in which the sick are conveniently
+and comfortably lodged, entertained, and attended.]
+
+For four zechines I hired a return-coach and four from Pisa to
+Florence. This road, which lies along the Arno, is very good; and the
+country is delightful, variegated with hill and vale, wood and water,
+meadows and corn-fields, planted and inclosed like the counties of
+Middlesex and Hampshire; with this difference, however, that all the
+trees in this tract were covered with vines, and the ripe clusters
+black and white, hung down from every bough in a most luxuriant and
+romantic abundance. The vines in this country are not planted in rows,
+and propped with sticks, as in France and the county of Nice, but twine
+around the hedge-row trees, which they almost quite cover with their
+foliage and fruit. The branches of the vine are extended from tree to
+tree, exhibiting beautiful festoons of real leaves, tendrils, and
+swelling clusters a foot long. By this oeconomy the ground of the
+inclosure is spared for corn, grass, or any other production. The trees
+commonly planted for the purpose of sustaining the vines, are maple,
+elm, and aller, with which last the banks of the Arno abound. [It would
+have been still more for the advantage of the Country and the Prospect,
+if instead of these they had planted fruit trees for the purpose.] This
+river, which is very inconsiderable with respect to the quantity of
+water, would be a charming pastoral stream, if it was transparent; but
+it is always muddy and discoloured. About ten or a dozen miles below
+Florence, there are some marble quarries on the side of it, from whence
+the blocks are conveyed in boats, when there is water enough in the
+river to float them, that is after heavy rains, or the melting of the
+snow upon the mountains of Umbria, being part of the Apennines, from
+whence it takes its rise.
+
+Florence is a noble city, that still retains all the marks of a
+majestic capital, such as piazzas, palaces, fountains, bridges,
+statues, and arcades. I need not tell you that the churches here are
+magnificent, and adorned not only with pillars of oriental granite,
+porphyry, Jasper, verde antico, and other precious stones; but also
+with capital pieces of painting by the most eminent masters. Several of
+these churches, however, stand without fronts, for want of money to
+complete the plans. It may also appear superfluous to mention my having
+viewed the famous gallery of antiquities, the chapel of St. Lorenzo,
+the palace of Pitti, the cathedral, the baptisterium, Ponte de Trinita,
+with its statues, the triumphal arch, and every thing which is commonly
+visited in this metropolis. But all these objects having been
+circumstantially described by twenty different authors of travels, I
+shall not trouble you with a repetition of trite observations.
+
+That part of the city which stands on each side of the river, makes a
+very elegant appearance, to which the four bridges and the stone-quay
+between them, contribute in a great measure. I lodged at the widow
+Vanini's, an English house delightfully situated in this quarter. The
+landlady, who is herself a native of England, we found very obliging.
+The lodging-rooms are comfortable; and the entertainment is good and
+reasonable. There is a considerable number of fashionable people at
+Florence, and many of them in good circumstances. They affect a gaiety
+in their dress, equipage, and conversation; but stand very much on
+their punctilio with strangers; and will not, without great reluctance,
+admit into their assemblies any lady of another country, whose noblesse
+is not ascertained by a title. This reserve is in some measure
+excusable among a people who are extremely ignorant of foreign customs,
+and who know that in their own country, every person, even the most
+insignificant, who has any pretensions to family, either inherits, or
+assumes the title of principe, conte, or marchese.
+
+With all their pride, however, the nobles of Florence are humble enough
+to enter into partnership with shop-keepers, and even to sell wine by
+retail. It is an undoubted fact, that in every palace or great house in
+this city, there is a little window fronting the street, provided with
+an iron-knocker, and over it hangs an empty flask, by way of sign-post.
+Thither you send your servant to buy a bottle of wine. He knocks at the
+little wicket, which is opened immediately by a domestic, who supplies
+him with what he wants, and receives the money like the waiter of any
+other cabaret. It is pretty extraordinary, that it should not be deemed
+a disparagement in a nobleman to sell half a pound of figs, or a palm
+of ribbon or tape, or to take money for a flask of sour wine; and yet
+be counted infamous to match his daughter in the family of a person who
+has distinguished himself in any one of the learned professions.
+
+Though Florence be tolerably populous, there seems to be very little
+trade of any kind in it: but the inhabitants flatter themselves with
+the prospect of reaping great advantage from the residence of one of
+the arch-dukes, for whose reception they are now repairing the palace
+of Pitti. I know not what the revenues of Tuscany may amount to, since
+the succession of the princes of Lorraine; but, under the last dukes of
+the Medici family, they were said to produce two millions of crowns,
+equal to five hundred thousand pounds sterling. These arose from a very
+heavy tax upon land and houses, the portions of maidens, and suits at
+law, besides the duties upon traffick, a severe gabelle upon the
+necessaries of life, and a toll upon every eatable entered into this
+capital. If we may believe Leti, the grand duke was then able to raise
+and maintain an army of forty thousand infantry, and three thousand
+horse; with twelve gallies, two galeasses, and twenty ships of war. I
+question if Tuscany can maintain at present above one half of such an
+armament. He that now commands the emperor's navy, consisting of a few
+frigates, is an Englishman, called Acton, who was heretofore captain of
+a ship in our East India company's service. He has lately embraced the
+catholic religion, and been created admiral of Tuscany.
+
+There is a tolerable opera in Florence for the entertainment of the
+best company, though they do not seem very attentive to the musick.
+Italy is certainly the native country of this art; and yet, I do not
+find the people in general either more musically inclined, or better
+provided with ears than their neighbours. Here is also a wretched troop
+of comedians for the burgeois, and lower class of people: but what
+seems most to suit the taste of all ranks, is the exhibition of church
+pageantry. I had occasion to see a procession, where all the noblesse
+of the city attended in their coaches, which filled the whole length of
+the great street called the Corso. It was the anniversary of a
+charitable institution in favour of poor maidens, a certain number of
+whom are portioned every year. About two hundred of these virgins
+walked in procession, two and two together, cloathed in violet-coloured
+wide gowns, with white veils on their heads, and made a very classical
+appearance. They were preceded and followed by an irregular mob of
+penitents in sack-cloth, with lighted tapers, and monks carrying
+crucifixes, bawling and bellowing the litanies: but the great object
+was a figure of the Virgin Mary, as big as the life, standing within a
+gilt frame, dressed in a gold stuff, with a large hoop, a great
+quantity of false jewels, her face painted and patched, and her hair
+frizzled and curled in the very extremity of the fashion. Very little
+regard had been paid to the image of our Saviour on the cross; but when
+his lady-mother appeared on the shoulders of three or four lusty
+friars, the whole populace fell upon their knees in the dirt. This
+extraordinary veneration paid to the Virgin, must have been derived
+originally from the French, who pique themselves on their gallantry to
+the fair sex.
+
+Amidst all the scenery of the Roman catholic religion, I have never yet
+seen any of the spectators affected at heart, or discover the least
+signs of fanaticism. The very disciplinants, who scourge themselves in
+the Holy-week, are generally peasants or parties hired for the purpose.
+Those of the confrairies, who have an ambition to distinguish
+themselves on such occasions, take care to secure their backs from the
+smart, by means of secret armour, either women's boddice, or quilted
+jackets. The confrairies are fraternities of devotees, who inlist
+themselves under the banners of particular saints. On days of
+procession they appear in a body dressed as penitents and masked, and
+distinguished by crosses on their habits. There is scarce an
+individual, whether noble or plebeian, who does not belong to one of
+these associations, which may be compared to the FreeMasons,
+Gregoreans, and Antigallicans of England.
+
+Just without one of the gates of Florence, there is a triumphal arch
+erected on occasion of the late emperor's making his public entry, when
+he succeeded to the dukedom of Tuscany: and herein the summer evenings,
+the quality resort to take the air in their coaches. Every carriage
+stops, and forms a little separate conversazione. The ladies sit
+within, and the cicisbei stand on the foot-boards, on each side of the
+coach, entertaining them with their discourse. It would be no
+unpleasant inquiry to trace this sort of gallantry to its original, and
+investigate all its progress. The Italians, having been accused of
+jealousy, were resolved to wipe off the reproach, and, seeking to avoid
+it for the future, have run into the other extreme. I know it is
+generally supposed that the custom of choosing cicisbei, was calculated
+to prevent the extinction of families, which would otherwise often
+happen in consequence of marriages founded upon interest, without any
+mutual affection in the contracting parties. How far this political
+consideration may have weighed against the jealous and vindictive
+temper of the Italians, I will not pretend to judge: but, certain it
+is, every married lady in this country has her cicisbeo, or servente,
+who attends her every where, and on all occasions; and upon whose
+privileges the husband dares not encroach, without incurring the
+censure and ridicule of the whole community. For my part, I would
+rather be condemned for life to the gallies, than exercise the office
+of a cicisbeo, exposed to the intolerable caprices and dangerous
+resentment of an Italian virago. I pretend not to judge of the national
+character, from my own observation: but, if the portraits drawn by
+Goldoni in his Comedies are taken from nature, I would not hesitate to
+pronounce the Italian women the most haughty, insolent, capricious, and
+revengeful females on the face of the earth. Indeed their resentments
+are so cruelly implacable, and contain such a mixture of perfidy, that,
+in my opinion, they are very unfit subjects for comedy, whose province
+it is, rather to ridicule folly than to stigmatize such atrocious vice.
+
+You have often heard it said, that the purity of the Italian is to be
+found in the lingua Toscana, and bocca Romana. Certain it is, the
+pronunciation of the Tuscans is disagreeably guttural: the letters C
+and G they pronounce with an aspiration, which hurts the ear of an
+Englishman; and is I think rather rougher than that of the X, in
+Spanish. It sounds as if the speaker had lost his palate. I really
+imagined the first man I heard speak in Pisa, had met with that
+misfortune in the course of his amours.
+
+One of the greatest curiosities you meet with in Italy, is the
+Improvisatore; such is the name given to certain individuals, who have
+the surprising talent of reciting verses extempore, on any subject you
+propose. Mr. Corvesi, my landlord, has a son, a Franciscan friar, who
+is a great genius in this way.
+
+When the subject is given, his brother tunes his violin to accompany
+him, and he begins to rehearse in recitative, with wonderful fluency
+and precision. Thus he will, at a minute's warning, recite two or three
+hundred verses, well turned, and well adapted, and generally mingled
+with an elegant compliment to the company. The Italians are so fond of
+poetry, that many of them, have the best part of Ariosto, Tasso, and
+Petrarch, by heart; and these are the great sources from which the
+Improvisatori draw their rhimes, cadence, and turns of expression. But,
+lest you should think there is neither rhime nor reason in protracting
+this tedious epistle, I shall conclude it with the old burden of my
+song, that I am always--Your affectionate humble servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVIII
+
+NICE, February 5, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--Your entertaining letter of the fifth of last month, was a
+very charitable and a very agreeable donation: but your suspicion is
+groundless. I assure you, upon my honour, I have no share whatever in
+any of the disputes which agitate the public: nor do I know any thing
+of your political transactions, except what I casually see in one of
+your newspapers, with the perusal of which I am sometimes favoured by
+our consul at Villefranche. You insist upon my being more particular in
+my remarks on what I saw at Florence, and I shall obey the injunction.
+The famous gallery which contains the antiquities, is the third story
+of a noble stone-edifice, built in the form of the Greek Pi, the upper
+part fronting the river Arno, and one of the legs adjoining to the
+ducal-palace, where the courts of justice are held. As the house of
+Medici had for some centuries resided in the palace of Pitti, situated
+on the other side of the river, a full mile from these tribunals, the
+architect Vasari, who planned the new edifice, at the same time
+contrived a corridore, or covered passage, extending from the palace of
+Pitti along one of the bridges, to the gallery of curiosities, through
+which the grand-duke passed unseen, when he was disposed either to
+amuse himself with his antiquities, or to assist at his courts of
+judicature: but there is nothing very extraordinary either in the
+contrivance or execution of this corridore.
+
+If I resided in Florence I would give something extraordinary for
+permission to walk every day in the gallery, which I should much prefer
+to the Lycaeum, the groves of Academus, or any porch or philosophical
+alley in Athens or in Rome. Here by viewing the statues and busts
+ranged on each side, I should become acquainted with the faces of all
+the remarkable personages, male and female, of antiquity, and even be
+able to trace their different characters from the expression of their
+features. This collection is a most excellent commentary upon the Roman
+historians, particularly Suetonius and Dion Cassius. There was one
+circumstance that struck me in viewing the busts of Caracalla, both
+here and in the Capitol at Rome; there was a certain ferocity in the
+eyes, which seemed to contradict the sweetness of the other features,
+and remarkably justified the epithet Caracuyl, by which he was
+distinguished by the antient inhabitants of North-Britain. In the
+language of the Highlanders caracuyl signifies cruel eye, as we are
+given to understand by the ingenious editor of Fingal, who seems to
+think that Caracalla is no other than the Celtic word, adapted to the
+pronunciation of the Romans: but the truth is, Caracalla was the name
+of a Gaulish vestment, which this prince affected to wear; and hence he
+derived that surname. The Caracuyl of the Britons, is the same as the
+upodra idon of the Greeks, which Homer has so often applied to his
+Scolding Heroes. I like the Bacchanalian, chiefly for the fine drapery.
+The wind, occasioned by her motion, seems to have swelled and raised it
+from the parts of the body which it covers. There is another gay
+Bacchanalian, in the attitude of dancing, crowned with ivy, holding in
+her right hand a bunch of grapes, and in her left the thyrsus. The head
+of the celebrated Flora is very beautiful: the groupe of Cupid and
+Psyche, however, did not give me all the pleasure I expected from it.
+
+Of all the marbles that appear in the open gallery, the following are
+those I most admire. Leda with the Swan; as for Jupiter, in this
+transformation, he has much the appearance of a goose. I have not seen
+any thing tamer; but the sculptor has admirably shewn his art in
+representing Leda's hand partly hid among the feathers, which are so
+lightly touched off, that the very shape of the fingers are seen
+underneath. The statue of a youth, supposed to be Ganymede, is compared
+by the connoisseurs to the celebrated Venus, and as far as I can judge,
+not without reason: it is however, rather agreeable than striking, and
+will please a connoisseur much more than a common spectator. I know not
+whether it is my regard to the faculty that inhances the value of the
+noted Esculapius, who appears with a venerable beard of delicate
+workmanship. He is larger than the life, cloathed in a magnificent
+pallium, his left arm resting on a knotted staff, round which the snake
+is twined according to Ovid.
+
+Hunc modo serpentem baculum qui nexibus ambit Perspice--
+
+Behold the snake his mystic Rod intwine.
+
+He has in his hand the fascia herbarum, and the crepidae on his feet.
+There is a wild-boar represented lying on one side, which I admire as a
+master-piece. The savageness of his appearance is finely contrasted
+with the case and indolence of the attitude. Were I to meet with a
+living boar lying with the same expression, I should be tempted to
+stroke his bristles. Here is an elegant bust of Antinous, the favourite
+of Adrian; and a beautiful head of Alexander the Great, turned on one
+side, with an expression of languishment and anxiety in his
+countenance. The virtuosi are not agreed about the circumstance in
+which he is represented; whether fainting with the loss of blood which
+he suffered in his adventure at Oxydrace; or languishing with the fever
+contracted by bathing in the Cydnus; or finally complaining to his
+father Jove, that there were no other worlds for him to conquer. The
+kneeling Narcissus is a striking figure, and the expression admirable.
+The two Bacchi are perfectly well executed; but (to my shame be it
+spoken) I prefer to the antique that which is the work of Michael
+Angelo Buonaroti, concerning which the story is told which you well
+know. The artist having been blamed by some pretended connoisseurs, for
+not imitating the manner of the ancients, is said to have privately
+finished this Bacchus, and buried it, after having broke off an arm,
+which he kept as a voucher. The statue, being dug up by accident, was
+allowed by the best judges, to be a perfect antique; upon which
+Buonaroti produced the arm, and claimed his own work. Bianchi looks
+upon this as a fable; but owns that Vasari tells such another of a
+child cut in marble by the same artist, which being carried to Rome,
+and kept for some time under ground, was dug up as an antique, and sold
+for a great deal of money. I was likewise attracted by the Morpheus in
+touchstone, which is described by Addison, who, by the bye,
+notwithstanding all his taste, has been convicted by Bianchi of several
+gross blunders in his account of this gallery.
+
+With respect to the famous Venus Pontia, commonly called de Medicis,
+which was found at Tivoli, and is kept in a separate apartment called
+the Tribuna, I believe I ought to be intirely silent, or at least
+conceal my real sentiments, which will otherwise appear equally absurd
+and presumptuous. It must be want of taste that prevents my feeling
+that enthusiastic admiration with which others are inspired at sight of
+this statue: a statue which in reputation equals that of Cupid by
+Praxiteles, which brought such a concourse of strangers of old to the
+little town of Thespiae. I cannot help thinking that there is no beauty
+in the features of Venus; and that the attitude is aukward and out of
+character. It is a bad plea to urge that the antients and we differ in
+the ideas of beauty. We know the contrary, from their medals, busts,
+and historians. Without all doubt, the limbs and proportions of this
+statue are elegantly formed, and accurately designed, according to the
+nicest rules of symmetry and proportion; and the back parts especially
+are executed so happily, as to excite the admiration of the most
+indifferent spectator. One cannot help thinking it is the very Venus of
+Cnidos by Praxiteles, which Lucian describes. "Hercle quanta dorsi
+concinnitas! ut exuberantes lumbi amplexantes manus implent! quam scite
+circumductae clunium pulpae in se rotundantur, neque tenues nimis ipsis
+ossibus adstrictae, neque in immensam effusae Pinguedinem!" That the
+statue thus described was not the Venus de Medicis, would appear from
+the Greek inscription on the base, KLEOMENIS APPOLLODOROI ATHINAIOS
+EPOESEI. Cleomenes filius Apollodori fecit; did we not know that this
+inscription is counted spurious, and that instead of EPOESEI, it should
+be EPOIESE. This, however, is but a frivolous objection, as we have
+seen many inscriptions undoubtedly antique, in which the orthography is
+false, either from the ignorance or carelessness of the sculptor.
+Others suppose, not without reason, that this statue is a
+representation of the famous Phryne, the courtesan of Athens, who at
+the celebration of the Eleusinian games, exhibited herself coming out
+of the bath, naked, to the eyes of the whole Athenian people. I was
+much pleased with the dancing faun; and still better with the Lotti, or
+wrestlers, the attitudes of which are beautifully contrived to shew the
+different turns of the limbs, and the swelling of the muscles: but,
+what pleased me best of all the statues in the Tribuna was the
+Arrotino, commonly called the Whetter, and generally supposed to
+represent a slave, who in the act of whetting a knife, overhears the
+conspiracy of Catiline. You know he is represented on one knee; and
+certain it is, I never saw such an expression of anxious attention, as
+appears in his countenance.  But it is not mingled with any marks of
+surprise, such as could not fail to lay hold on a man who overhears by
+accident a conspiracy against the state. The marquis de Maffei has
+justly observed that Sallust, in his very circumstantial detail of that
+conspiracy, makes no mention of any such discovery. Neither does it
+appear that the figure is in the act of whetting, the stone which he
+holds in one hand being rough and unequal no ways resembling a
+whetstone. Others alledge it represents Milico, the freedman of
+Scaevinus, who conspired against the life of Nero, and gave his
+poignard to be whetted to Milico, who presented it to the emperor, with
+an account of the conspiracy: but the attitude and expression will by
+no means admit of this interpretation. Bianchi, [This antiquarian is
+now imprisoned for Life, for having robbed the Gallery and then set it
+on fire.] who shows the gallery, thinks the statue represents the augur
+Attius Navius, who cut a stone with a knife, at the command of
+Tarquinius Priscus. This conjecture seems to be confirmed by a
+medallion of Antoninus Pius, inserted by Vaillant among his Numismata
+Prestantiora, on which is delineated nearly such a figure as this in
+question, with the following legend. "Attius Navius genuflexus ante
+Tarquinium Priscum cotem cultro discidit." He owns indeed that in the
+statue, the augur is not distinguished either by his habit or emblems;
+and he might have added, neither is the stone a cotes. For my own part,
+I think neither of these three opinions is satisfactory, though the
+last is very ingenious. Perhaps the figure allude to a private
+incident, which never was recorded in any history. Among the great
+number of pictures in this Tribuna, I was most charmed with the Venus
+by Titian, which has a sweetness of expression and tenderness of
+colouring, not to be described. In this apartment, they reckon three
+hundred pieces, the greatest part by the best masters, particularly by
+Raphael, in the three manners by which he distinguished himself at
+different periods of his life. As for the celebrated statue of the
+hermaphrodite, which we find in another room, I give the sculptor
+credit for his ingenuity in mingling the sexes in the composition; but
+it is, at best, no other than a monster in nature, which I never had
+any pleasure in viewing: nor, indeed, do I think there was much talent
+required in representing a figure with the head and breasts of a woman,
+and all the other parts of the body masculine. There is such a
+profusion of curiosities in this celebrated musaeum; statues, busts,
+pictures, medals, tables inlaid in the way of marquetry, cabinets
+adorned with precious stones, jewels of all sorts, mathematical
+instruments, antient arms and military machines, that the imagination
+is bewildered, and a stranger of a visionary turn, would be apt to
+fancy himself in a palace of the fairies, raised and adorned by the
+power of inchantment.
+
+In one of the detached apartments, I saw the antependium of the altar,
+designed for the famous chapel of St. Lorenzo. It is a curious piece of
+architecture, inlaid with coloured marble and precious stones, so as to
+represent an infinite variety of natural objects. It is adorned with
+some crystal pillars, with capitals of beaten gold. The second story of
+the building is occupied by a great number of artists employed in this
+very curious work of marquetry, representing figures with gems and
+different kinds of coloured marble, for the use of the emperor. The
+Italians call it pietre commesse, a sort of inlaying with stones,
+analogous to the fineering of cabinets in wood. It is peculiar to
+Florence, and seems to be still more curious than the Mosaic work,
+which the Romans have brought to great perfection.
+
+The cathedral of Florence is a great Gothic building, encrusted on the
+outside with marble; it is remarkable for nothing but its cupola, which
+is said to have been copied by the architect of St. Peter's at Rome,
+and for its size, which is much greater than that of any other church
+in Christendom.  [In this cathedral is the Tomb of Johannes Acutus
+Anglus, which a man would naturally interpret as John Sharp; but his
+name was really Hawkwood, which the Italians have corrupted into Acut.
+He was a celebrated General or Condottiere who arrived in Italy at the
+head of four thousand soldiers of fortune, mostly Englishmen who had
+served with him in the army of King Edward III., and were dismissed at
+the Peace of Bontigny. Hawkwood greatly distinguished himself in Italy
+by his valour and conduct, and died a very old man in the Florentine
+service. He was the son of a Tanner in Essex, and had been put
+apprentice to a Taylor.] The baptistery, which stands by it, was an
+antient temple, said to be dedicated to Mars. There are some good
+statues of marble within; and one or two of bronze on the outside of
+the doors; but it is chiefly celebrated for the embossed work of its
+brass gates, by Lorenzo Ghiberti, which Buonaroti used to say, deserved
+to be made the gates of Paradise. I viewed them with pleasure: but
+still I retained a greater veneration for those of Pisa, which I had
+first admired: a preference which either arises from want of taste, or
+from the charm of novelty, by which the former were recommended to my
+attention. Those who would have a particular detail of every thing
+worth seeing at Florence, comprehending churches, libraries, palaces,
+tombs, statues, pictures, fountains, bridge, etc. may consult Keysler,
+who is so laboriously circumstantial in his descriptions, that I never
+could peruse them, without suffering the headache, and recollecting the
+old observation, that the German genius lies more in the back than in
+the brain.
+
+I was much disappointed in the chapel of St. Lorenzo. Notwithstanding
+the great profusion of granite, porphyry, jasper, verde antico,
+lapis-lazuli, and other precious stones, representing figures in the
+way of marquetry, I think the whole has a gloomy effect. These pietre
+commesse are better calculated for cabinets, than for ornaments to
+great buildings, which ought to be large masses proportioned to the
+greatness of the edifice. The compartments are so small, that they
+produce no effect in giving the first impression when one enters the
+place; except to give an air of littleness to the whole, just as if a
+grand saloon was covered with pictures painted in miniature. If they
+have as little regard to proportion and perspective, when they paint
+the dome, which is not yet finished, this chapel will, in my opinion,
+remain a monument of ill taste and extravagance.
+
+The court of the palace of Pitti is formed by three sides of an elegant
+square, with arcades all round, like the palace of Holyrood house at
+Edinburgh; and the rustic work, which constitutes the lower part of the
+building, gives it an air of strength and magnificence. In this court,
+there is a fine fountain, in which the water trickles down from above;
+and here is also an admirable antique statue of Hercules, inscribed
+LUSIPPOI ERGON, the work of Lysippus.
+
+The apartments of this palace are generally small, and many of them
+dark. Among the paintings the most remarkable is the Madonna de la
+Seggiola, by Raphael, counted one of the best coloured pieces of that
+great master. If I was allowed to find fault with the performance, I
+should pronounce it defective in dignity and sentiment. It is the
+expression of a peasant rather than of the mother of God. She exhibits
+the fondness and joy of a young woman towards her firstborn son,
+without that rapture of admiration which we expect to find in the
+Virgin Mary, while she contemplates, in the fruit of her own womb, the
+Saviour of mankind. In other respects, it is a fine figure, gay,
+agreeable, and very expressive of maternal tenderness; and the bambino
+is extremely beautiful. There was an English painter employed in
+copying this picture, and what he had done was executed with great
+success. I am one of those who think it very possible to imitate the
+best pieces in such a manner, that even the connoisseurs shall not be
+able to distinguish the original from the copy. After all, I do not set
+up for a judge in these matters, and very likely I may incur the
+ridicule of the virtuosi for the remarks I have made: but I am used to
+speak my mind freely on all subjects that fall under the cognizance of
+my senses; though I must as freely own, there is something more than
+common sense required to discover and distinguish the more delicate
+beauties of painting. I can safely say, however, that without any
+daubing at all, I am, very sincerely--Your affectionate humble servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXIX
+
+NICE, February 20, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--Having seen all the curiosities of Florence, and hired a
+good travelling coach for seven weeks, at the price of seven zequines,
+something less than three guineas and a half, we set out post for Rome,
+by the way of Sienna, where we lay the first night. The country through
+which we passed is mountainous but agreeable. Of Sienna I can say
+nothing from my own observation, but that we were indifferently lodged
+in a house that stunk like a privy, and fared wretchedly at supper. The
+city is large and well built: the inhabitants pique themselves upon
+their politeness, and the purity of their dialect. Certain it is, some
+strangers reside in this place on purpose to learn the best
+pronunciation of the Italian tongue. The Mosaic pavement of their
+duomo, or cathedral, has been much admired; as well as the history of
+Aeneas Sylvius, afterwards pope Pius II., painted on the walls of the
+library, partly by Pietro Perugino, and partly by his pupil Raphael
+D'Urbino.
+
+Next day, at Buon Convento, where the emperor Henry VII. was poisoned
+by a friar with the sacramental wafer, I refused to give money to the
+hostler, who in revenge put two young unbroke stone-horses in the
+traces next to the coach, which became so unruly, that before we had
+gone a quarter of a mile, they and the postilion were rolling in the
+dust. In this situation they made such efforts to disengage themselves,
+and kicked with such violence, that I imagined the carriage and all our
+trunks would have been beaten in pieces. We leaped out of the coach,
+however, without sustaining any personal damage, except the fright; nor
+was any hurt done to the vehicle. But the horses were terribly bruised,
+and almost strangled, before they could be disengaged. Exasperated at
+the villany of the hostler, I resolved to make a complaint to the
+uffiziale or magistrate of the place. I found him wrapped in an old,
+greasy, ragged, great-coat, sitting in a wretched apartment, without
+either glass, paper, or boards in the windows; and there was no sort of
+furniture but a couple of broken chairs and a miserable truckle-bed. He
+looked pale, and meagre, and had more the air of a half-starved
+prisoner than of a magistrate. Having heard my complaint, he came forth
+into a kind of outward room or bellfrey, and rung a great bell with his
+own hand. In consequence of this signal, the postmaster came up stairs,
+and I suppose he was the first man in the place, for the uffiziale
+stood before him cap-in-hand, and with great marks of humble respect
+repeated the complaint I had made. This man assured me, with an air of
+conscious importance, that he himself had ordered the hostler to supply
+me with those very horses, which were the best in his stable; and that
+the misfortune which happened was owing to the misconduct of the
+fore-postilion, who did not keep the fore-horses to a proper speed
+proportioned to the mettle of the other two. As he took the affair upon
+himself, and I perceived had an ascendancy over the magistrate, I
+contented myself with saying, I was certain the two horses had been put
+to the coach on purpose, either to hurt or frighten us; and that since
+I could not have justice here I would make a formal complaint to the
+British minister at Florence. In passing through the street to the
+coach, which was by this time furnished with fresh horses, I met the
+hostler, and would have caned him heartily; but perceiving my
+intention, he took to his heels and vanished. Of all the people I have
+ever seen, the hostlers, postilions, and other fellows hanging about
+the post-houses in Italy, are the most greedy, impertinent, and
+provoking. Happy are those travellers who have phlegm enough to
+disregard their insolence and importunity: for this is not so
+disagreeable as their revenge is dangerous. An English gentleman at
+Florence told me, that one of those fellows, whom he had struck for his
+impertinence, flew at him with a long knife, and he could hardly keep
+him at sword's point. All of them wear such knives, and are very apt to
+use them on the slightest provocation. But their open attacks are not
+so formidable as their premeditated schemes of revenge; in the
+prosecution of which the Italians are equally treacherous and cruel.
+
+This night we passed at a place called Radicofani, a village and fort,
+situated on the top of a very high mountain. The inn stands still lower
+than the town. It was built at the expence of the last grand-duke of
+Tuscany; is very large, very cold, and uncomfortable. One would imagine
+it was contrived for coolness, though situated so high, that even in
+the midst of summer, a traveller would be glad to have a fire in his
+chamber. But few, or none of them have fireplaces, and there is not a
+bed with curtains or tester in the house. All the adjacent country is
+naked and barren. On the third day we entered the pope's territories,
+some parts of which are delightful. Having passed Aqua-Pendente, a
+beggarly town, situated on the top of a rock, from whence there is a
+romantic cascade of water, which gives it the name, we travelled along
+the side of the lake Bolsena, a beautiful piece of water about thirty
+miles in circuit, with two islands in the middle, the banks covered
+with noble plantations of oak and cypress. The town of Bolsena standing
+near the ruins of the antient Volsinium, which was the birth-place of
+Sejanus, is a paultry village; and Montefiascone, famous for its wine,
+is a poor, decayed town in this neighbourhood, situated on the side of
+a hill, which, according to the author of the Grand Tour, the only
+directory I had along with me, is supposed to be the Soracte of the
+ancients. If we may believe Horace, Soracte was visible from Rome: for,
+in his ninth ode, addressed to Thaliarchus, he says,
+
+  Vides, ut alta stet nive candidum
+  Soracte--
+
+  You see how deeply wreathed with snow
+  Soracte lifts his hoary head,
+
+but, in order to see Montefiascone, his eyesight must have penetrated
+through the Mons Cyminus, at the foot of which now stands the city of
+Viterbo. Pliny tells us, that Soracte was not far from Rome, haud
+procul ab urbe Roma; but Montefiascone is fifty miles from this city.
+And Desprez, in his notes upon Horace, says it is now called Monte S.
+Oreste. Addison tells us he passed by it in the Campania. I could not
+without indignation reflect upon the bigotry of Mathilda, who gave this
+fine country to the see of Rome, under the dominion of which no country
+was ever known to prosper.
+
+About half way between Montefiascone and Viterbo, one of our
+fore-wheels flew off, together with a large splinter of the axle-tree;
+and if one of the postilions had not by great accident been a
+remarkably ingenious fellow, we should have been put to the greatest
+inconvenience, as there was no town, or even house, within several
+miles. I mention this circumstance, by way of warning to other
+travellers, that they may provide themselves with a hammer and nails, a
+spare iron-pin or two, a large knife, and bladder of grease, to be used
+occasionally in case of such misfortune.
+
+The mountain of Viterbo is covered with beautiful plantations and
+villas belonging to the Roman nobility, who come hither to make the
+villegiatura in summer. Of the city of Viterbo I shall say nothing, but
+that it is the capital of that country which Mathilda gave to the Roman
+see. The place is well built, adorned with public fountains, and a
+great number of churches and convents; yet far from being populous, the
+whole number of inhabitants, not exceeding fifteen thousand. The
+post-house is one of the worst inns I ever entered.
+
+After having passed this mountain, the Cyminus of the antients, we
+skirted part of the lake, which is now called de Vico, and whose banks
+afford the most agreeable rural prospects of hill and vale, wood, glade
+and water, shade and sun-shine. A few other very inconsiderable places
+we passed, and descended into the Campania of Rome, which is almost a
+desert. The view of this country in its present situation, cannot but
+produce emotions of pity and indignation in the mind of every person
+who retains any idea of its antient cultivation and fertility. It is
+nothing but a naked withered down, desolate and dreary, almost without
+inclosure, corn-field, hedge, tree, shrub, house, hut, or habitation;
+exhibiting here and there the ruins of an antient castellum, tomb, or
+temple, and in some places the remains of a Roman via. I had heard much
+of these antient pavements, and was greatly disappointed when I saw
+them. The Via Cassia or Cymina is paved with broad, solid,
+flint-stones, which must have greatly incommoded the feet of horses
+that travelled upon it as well as endangered the lives of the riders
+from the slipperiness of the pavement: besides, it is so narrow that
+two modern carriages could not pass one another upon it, without the
+most imminent hazard of being overturned. I am still of opinion that we
+excel the ancient Romans in understanding the conveniences of life.
+
+The Grand Tour says, that within four miles of Rome you see a tomb on
+the roadside, said to be that of Nero, with sculpture in basso-relievo
+at both ends. I did see such a thing more like a common grave-stone,
+than the tomb of an emperor. But we are informed by Suetonius, that the
+dead body of Nero, who slew himself at the villa of his freedman, was
+by the care of his two nurses and his concubine Atta, removed to the
+sepulchre of the Gens Domitia, immediately within the Porta del Popolo,
+on your left hand as you enter Rome, precisely on the spot where now
+stands the church of S. Maria del Popolo. His tomb was even
+distinguished by an epitaph, which has been preserved by Gruterus.
+Giacomo Alberici tells us very gravely in his History of the Church,
+that a great number of devils, who guarded the bones of this wicked
+emperor, took possession, in the shape of black ravens, of a
+walnut-tree, which grew upon the spot; from whence they insulted every
+passenger, until pope Paschal II., in consequence of a solemn fast and
+a revelation, went thither in procession with his court and cardinals,
+cut down the tree, and burned it to ashes, which, with the bones of
+Nero, were thrown into the Tyber: then he consecrated an altar on the
+place, where afterwards the church was built. You may guess what I felt
+at first sight of the city of Rome, which, notwithstanding all the
+calamities it has undergone, still maintains an august and imperial
+appearance. It stands on the farther side of the Tyber, which we
+crossed at the Ponte Molle, formerly called Pons Milvius, about two
+miles from the gate by which we entered. This bridge was built by
+Aemilius Censor, whose name it originally bore. It was the road by
+which so many heroes returned with conquest to their country; by which
+so many kings were led captive to Rome; and by which the ambassadors of
+so many kingdoms and states approached the seat of empire, to deprecate
+the wrath, to sollicit the friendship, or sue for the protection of the
+Roman people. It is likewise famous for the defeat and death of
+Maxentius, who was here overcome by Constantine the Great. The space
+between the bridge and Porta del Popolo, on the right-hand, which is
+now taken up with gardens and villas, was part of the antient Campus
+Martius, where the comitiae were held; and where the Roman people
+inured themselves to all manner of exercises: it was adorned with
+porticos, temples, theatres, baths, circi, basilicae, obelisks,
+columns, statues, and groves. Authors differ in their opinions about
+the extent of it; but as they all agree that it contained the Pantheon,
+the Circus Agonis, now the Piazza Navona, the Bustum and Mausoleum
+Augusti, great part of the modern city must be built upon the ancient
+Campus Martius. The highway that leads from the bridge to the city, is
+part of the Via Flaminia, which extended as far as Rimini; and is well
+paved, like a modern street. Nothing of the antient bridge remains but
+the piles; nor is there any thing in the structure of this, or of the
+other five Roman bridges over the Tyber, that deserves attention. I
+have not seen any bridge in France or Italy, comparable to that of
+Westminster either in beauty, magnificence, or solidity; and when the
+bridge at Black-Friars is finished, it will be such a monument of
+architecture as all the world cannot parallel. As for the Tyber, it is,
+in comparison with the Thames, no more than an inconsiderable stream,
+foul, deep, and rapid. It is navigable by small boats, barks, and
+lighters; and, for the conveniency of loading and unloading them, there
+is a handsome quay by the new custom-house, at the Porto di Ripetta,
+provided with stairs of each side, and adorned with an elegant
+fountain, that yields abundance of excellent water.
+
+We are told that the bed of this river has been considerably raised by
+the rubbish of old Rome, and this is the reason usually given for its
+being so apt to overflow its banks. A citizen of Rome told me, that a
+friend of his lately digging to lay the foundation of a new house in
+the lower part of the city, near the bank of the river, discovered the
+pavement of an antient street, at the depth of thirty-nine feet from
+the present surface of the earth. He therefore concluded that modern
+Rome is near forty feet higher in this place, than the site of the
+antient city, and that the bed of the river is raised in proportion;
+but this is altogether incredible. Had the bed of the Tyber been
+antiently forty feet lower at Rome, than it is at present, there must
+have been a fall or cataract in it immediately above this tract, as it
+is not pretended that the bed of it is raised in any part above the
+city; otherwise such an elevation would have obstructed its course, and
+then it would have overflowed the whole Campania. There is nothing
+extraordinary in its present overflowings: they frequently happened of
+old, and did great mischief to the antient city. Appian, Dio, and other
+historians, describe an inundation of the Tiber immediately after the
+death of Julius Caesar, which inundation was occasioned by the sudden
+melting of a great quantity of snow upon the Apennines. This calamity
+is recorded by Horace in his ode to Augustus.
+
+  Vidimus flavum Tiberim retortis
+  Littore Etrusco violenter undis,
+  Ire dejectum monumenta regis,
+  Templaque Vestae:
+  Iliae dum se nimium querenti,
+  Jactat ultorem; vagus et sinistra
+  Labitur ripa, Jove non probante
+  Uxorius Amnis.
+
+Livy expressly says, "Ita abundavit Tiberis, ut Ludi Apollinares, circo
+inundato, extra portam Collinam ad aedem Erycinae Veneris parati sint,"
+"There was such an inundation of the Tiber that, the Circus being
+overflowed, the Ludi Appollinares were exhibited without the gate
+Collina, hard by the temple of Venus Erycina." To this custom of
+transferring the Ludi Appollinares to another place where the Tyber had
+overflowed the Circus Maximus, Ovid alludes in his Fasti.
+
+  Altera gramineo spectabis equiriacampo
+  Quem Tiberis curvis in latus urget aquis,
+  Qui tamen ejecta si forte tenebitur unda,
+  Coelius accipiet pulverulentus equos.
+
+  Another race thy view shall entertain
+  Where bending Tiber skirts the grassy plain;
+  Or should his vagrant stream that plain o'erflow,
+  The Caelian hill the dusty course will show.
+
+The Porta del Popolo (formerly, Flaminia,) by which we entered Rome, is
+an elegant piece of architecture, adorned with marble columns and
+statues, executed after the design of Buonaroti. Within-side you find
+yourself in a noble piazza, from whence three of the principal streets
+of Rome are detached. It is adorned with the famous Aegyptian obelisk,
+brought hither from the Circus Maximus, and set up by the architect
+Dominico Fontana in the pontificate of Sixtus V. Here is likewise a
+beautiful fountain designed by the same artist; and at the beginning of
+the two principal streets, are two very elegant churches fronting each
+other. Such an august entrance cannot fail to impress a stranger with a
+sublime idea of this venerable city.
+
+Having given our names at the gate, we repaired to the dogana, or
+custom-house, where our trunks and carriage were searched; and here we
+were surrounded by a number of servitori de piazza, offering their
+services with the most disagreeable importunity. Though I told them
+several times I had no occasion for any, three of them took possession
+of the coach, one mounting before and two of them behind; and thus we
+proceeded to the Piazza d'Espagna, where the person lived to whose
+house I was directed. Strangers that come to Rome seldom put up at
+public inns, but go directly to lodging houses, of which there is great
+plenty in this quarter. The Piazza d'Espagna is open, airy, and
+pleasantly situated in a high part of the city immediately under the
+Colla Pinciana, and adorned with two fine fountains. Here most of the
+English reside: the apartments are generally commodious and well
+furnished; and the lodgers are well supplied with provisions and all
+necessaries of life. But, if I studied oeconomy, I would choose another
+part of the town than the Piazza d'Espagna, which is, besides, at a
+great distance from the antiquities. For a decent first floor and two
+bed-chambers on the second, I payed no more than a scudo (five
+shillings) per day. Our table was plentifully furnished by the landlord
+for two and thirty pauls, being equal to sixteen shillings. I hired a
+town-coach at the rate of fourteen pauls, or seven shillings a day; and
+a servitore di piazza for three pauls, or eighteen-pence. The coachman
+has also an allowance of two pauls a day. The provisions at Rome are
+reasonable and good, the vitella mongana, however, which is the most
+delicate veal I ever tasted, is very dear, being sold for two pauls, or
+a shilling, the pound. Here are the rich wines of Montepulciano,
+Montefiascone, and Monte di Dragone; but what we commonly drink at
+meals is that of Orvieto, a small white wine, of an agreeable flavour.
+Strangers are generally advised to employ an antiquarian to instruct
+them in all the curiosities of Rome; and this is a necessary expence,
+when a person wants to become a connoisseur in painting, statuary, and
+architecture. For my own part I had no such ambition. I longed to view
+the remains of antiquity by which this metropolis is distinguished; and
+to contemplate the originals of many pictures and statues, which I had
+admired in prints and descriptions. I therefore chose a servant, who
+was recommended to me as a sober, intelligent fellow, acquainted with
+these matters: at the same time I furnished myself with maps and plans
+of antient and modern Rome, together with the little manual, called,
+Itinerario istruttivo per ritrovare con facilita tutte le magnificenze
+di Roma e di alcune citta', e castelli suburbani. But I found still
+more satisfaction in perusing the book in three volumes, intitled, Roma
+antica, e moderna, which contains a description of everything
+remarkable in and about the city, illustrated with a great number of
+copper-plates, and many curious historical annotations. This directory
+cost me a zequine; but a hundred zequines will not purchase all the
+books and prints which have been published at Rome on these subjects.
+Of these the most celebrated are the plates of Piranesi, who is not
+only an ingenious architect and engraver, but also a learned
+antiquarian; though he is apt to run riot in his conjectures; and with
+regard to the arts of antient Rome, has broached some doctrines, which
+he will find it very difficult to maintain. Our young gentlemen who go
+to Rome will do well to be upon their guard against a set of sharpers,
+(some of them of our own country,) who deal in pictures and antiques,
+and very often impose upon the uninformed stranger, by selling him
+trash, as the productions of the most celebrated artists. The English
+are more than any other foreigners exposed to this imposition. They are
+supposed to have more money to throw away; and therefore a greater
+number of snares are laid for them. This opinion of their superior
+wealth they take a pride in confirming, by launching out into all
+manner of unnecessary expence: but, what is still more dangerous, the
+moment they set foot in Italy, they are seized with the ambition of
+becoming connoisseurs in painting, musick, statuary, and architecture;
+and the adventurers of this country do not fail to flatter this
+weakness for their own advantage. I have seen in different parts of
+Italy, a number of raw boys, whom Britain seemed to have poured forth
+on purpose to bring her national character into contempt, ignorant,
+petulant, rash, and profligate, without any knowledge or experience of
+their own, without any director to improve their understanding, or
+superintend their conduct. One engages in play with an infamous
+gamester, and is stripped perhaps in the very first partie: another is
+pillaged by an antiquated cantatrice; a third is bubbled by a knavish
+antiquarian; and a fourth is laid under contribution by a dealer in
+pictures. Some turn fiddlers, and pretend to compose: but all of them
+talk familiarly of the arts, and return finished connoisseurs and
+coxcombs, to their own country. The most remarkable phaenomenon of this
+kind, which I have seen, is a boy of seventy-two, now actually
+travelling through Italy, for improvement, under the auspices of
+another boy of twenty-two. When you arrive at Rome, you receive cards
+from all your country-folks in that city: they expect to have the visit
+returned next day, when they give orders not to be at home; and you
+never speak to one another in the sequel. This is a refinement in
+hospitality and politeness, which the English have invented by the
+strength of their own genius, without any assistance either from
+France, Italy, or Lapland. No Englishman above the degree of a painter
+or cicerone frequents any coffee-house at Rome; and as there are no
+public diversions, except in carnival-time, the only chance you have of
+seeing your compatriots is either in visiting the curiosities, or at a
+conversazione. The Italians are very scrupulous in admitting
+foreigners, except those who are introduced as people of quality: but
+if there happens to be any English lady of fashion at Rome, she
+generally keeps an assembly, to which the British subjects resort. In
+my next, I shall communicate, without ceremony or affectation, what
+further remarks I have made at Rome, without any pretence, however, to
+the character of a connoisseur, which, without all doubt, would fit
+very aukwardly upon,--Dear Sir, Your Friend and Servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXX
+
+NICE, February 28, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--Nothing can be more agreeable to the eyes of a stranger,
+especially in the heats of summer, than the great number of public
+fountains that appear in every part of Rome, embellished with all the
+ornaments of sculpture, and pouring forth prodigious quantities of
+cool, delicious water, brought in aqueducts from different lakes,
+rivers, and sources, at a considerable distance from the city. These
+works are the remains of the munificence and industry of the antient
+Romans, who were extremely delicate in the article of water: but,
+however, great applause is also due to those beneficent popes who have
+been at the expence of restoring and repairing those noble channels of
+health, pleasure, and convenience. This great plenty of water,
+nevertheless, has not induced the Romans to be cleanly. Their streets,
+and even their palaces, are disgraced with filth. The noble Piazza
+Navona, is adorned with three or four fountains, one of which is
+perhaps the most magnificent in Europe, and all of them discharge vast
+streams of water: but, notwithstanding this provision, the piazza is
+almost as dirty, as West Smithfield, where the cattle are sold in
+London. The corridores, arcades, and even staircases of their most
+elegant palaces, are depositories of nastiness, and indeed in summer
+smell as strong as spirit of hartshorn. I have a great notion that
+their ancestors were not much more cleanly. If we consider that the
+city and suburbs of Rome, in the reign of Claudius, contained about
+seven millions of inhabitants, a number equal at least to the sum total
+of all the souls in England; that great part of antient Rome was
+allotted to temples, porticos, basilicae, theatres, thermae, circi,
+public and private walks and gardens, where very few, if any, of this
+great number lodged; that by far the greater part of those inhabitants
+were slaves and poor people, who did not enjoy the conveniencies of
+life; and that the use of linen was scarce known; we must naturally
+conclude they were strangely crouded together, and that in general they
+were a very frowzy generation. That they were crouded together appears
+from the height of their houses, which the poet Rutilius compared to
+towers made for scaling heaven. In order to remedy this inconvenience,
+Augustus Caesar published a decree, that for the future no houses
+should be built above seventy feet high, which, at a moderate
+computation, might make six stories. But what seems to prove, beyond
+all dispute, that the antient Romans were dirty creatures, are these
+two particulars. Vespasian laid a tax upon urine and ordure, on
+pretence of being at a great expence in clearing the streets from such
+nuisances; an imposition which amounted to about fourteen pence a year
+for every individual; and when Heliogabalus ordered all the cobwebs of
+the city and suburbs to be collected, they were found to weigh ten
+thousand pounds. This was intended as a demonstration of the great
+number of inhabitants; but it was a proof of their dirt, rather than of
+their populosity. I might likewise add, the delicate custom of taking
+vomits at each other's houses, when they were invited to dinner, or
+supper, that they might prepare their stomachs for gormandizing; a
+beastly proof of their nastiness as well as gluttony. Horace, in his
+description of the banquet of Nasiedenus, says, when the canopy, under
+which they sat, fell down, it brought along with it as much dirt as is
+raised by a hard gale of wind in dry weather.
+
+                --trahentia pulveris atri,
+  Quantum non aquilo Campanis excitat agris.
+
+  Such clouds of dust revolving in its train
+  As Boreas whirls along the level plain.
+
+I might observe, that the streets were often encumbered with the
+putrefying carcasses of criminals, who had been dragged through them by
+the heels, and precipitated from the Scalae Gemoniae, or Tarpeian rock,
+before they were thrown into the Tyber, which was the general
+receptacle of the cloaca maxima and all the filth of Rome: besides, the
+bodies of all those who made away with themselves, without sufficient
+cause; of such as were condemned for sacrilege, or killed by thunder,
+were left unburned and unburied, to rot above ground.
+
+I believe the moderns retain more of the customs of antient Romans,
+than is generally imagined. When I first saw the infants at the enfans
+trouves in Paris, so swathed with bandages, that the very sight of them
+made my eyes water, I little dreamed, that the prescription of the
+antients could be pleaded for this custom, equally shocking and absurd:
+but in the Capitol at Rome, I met with the antique statue of a child
+swaddled exactly in the same manner; rolled up like an Aegyptian mummy
+from the feet. The circulation of the blood, in such a case, must be
+obstructed on the whole surface of the body; and nothing be at liberty
+but the head, which is the only part of the child that ought to be
+confined. Is it not surprising that common sense should not point out,
+even to the most ignorant, that those accursed bandages must heat the
+tender infant into a fever; must hinder the action of the muscles, and
+the play of the joints, so necessary to health and nutrition; and that
+while the refluent blood is obstructed in the veins, which run on the
+surface of the body, the arteries, which lie deep, without the reach of
+compression, are continually pouring their contents into the head,
+where the blood meets with no resistance? The vessels of the brain are
+naturally lax, and the very sutures of the skull are yet unclosed. What
+are the consequences of this cruel swaddling? the limbs are wasted; the
+joints grow rickety; the brain is compressed, and a hydrocephalus, with
+a great head and sore eyes, ensues. I take this abominable practice to
+be one great cause of the bandy legs, diminutive bodies, and large
+heads, so frequent in the south of France, and in Italy.
+
+I was no less surprised to find the modern fashion of curling the hair,
+borrowed in a great measure from the coxcombs and coquettes of
+antiquity. I saw a bust of Nero in the gallery at Florence, the hair
+represented in rows of buckles, like that of a French petit-maitre,
+conformable to the picture drawn of him by Suetonius. Circa cultum adeo
+pudendum, ut coman semper in gradus formatam peregrinatione achaica,
+etiam pene verticem sumpserit, So very finical in his dress, that he
+wore his hair in the Greek fashion, curled in rows almost to the crown
+of his head. I was very sorry however to find that this foppery came
+from Greece. As for Otho, he wore a galericulum, or tour, on account of
+thin hair, propter raritatem capillorum. He had no right to imitate the
+example of Julius Caesar, who concealed his bald head with a wreath of
+laurel. But there is a bust in the Capitol of Julia Pia, the second
+wife of Septimius Severus, with a moveable peruke, dressed exactly in
+the fashionable mode, with this difference, that there is no part of it
+frizzled; nor is there any appearance of pomatum and powder. These
+improvements the beau-monde have borrowed from the natives of the Cape
+of Good Hope.
+
+Modern Rome does not cover more than one-third of the space within the
+walls; and those parts that were most frequented of old are now
+intirely abandoned. From the Capitol to the Coliseo, including the
+Forum Romanum and Boarium, there is nothing intire but one or two
+churches, built with the fragments of ancient edifices. You descend
+from the Capitol between the remaining pillars of two temples, the
+pedestals and part of the shafts sunk in the rubbish: then passing
+through the triumphal arch of Septimius Severus, you proceed along the
+foot of Mons Palatinus, which stands on your right hand, quite covered
+with the ruins of the antient palace belonging to the Roman emperors,
+and at the foot of it, there are some beautiful detached pillars still
+standing. On the left you see the remains of the Templum Pacis, which
+seems to have been the largest and most magnificent of all the temples
+in Rome. It was built and dedicated by the emperor Vespasian, who
+brought into it all the treasure and precious vessels which he found in
+the temple of Jerusalem. The columns of the portico he removed from
+Nero's golden house, which he levelled with the ground. This temple was
+likewise famous for its library, mentioned by Aulus Gellius, Further
+on, is the arch of Constantine on the right, a most noble piece of
+architecture, almost entire; with the remains of the Meta Sudans before
+it; and fronting you, the noble ruins of that vast amphitheatre, called
+the Colossaeum, now Coliseo, which has been dismantled and dilapidated
+by the Gothic popes and princes of modern Rome, to build and adorn
+their paultry palaces. Behind the amphitheatre were the thermae of the
+same emperor Titus Vespasian. In the same quarter was the Circus
+Maximus; and the whole space from hence on both sides, to the walls of
+Rome, comprehending above twice as much ground as the modern city, is
+almost covered with the monuments of antiquity. I suppose there is more
+concealed below ground than appears above. The miserable houses, and
+even garden-walls of the peasants in this district, are built with
+these precious materials. I mean shafts and capitals of marble columns,
+heads, arms, legs, and mutilated trunks of statues. What pity it is
+that among all the remains of antiquity, at Rome, there is not one
+lodging-house remaining. I should be glad to know how the senators of
+Rome were lodged. I want to be better informed touching the cava
+aedium, the focus, the ara deorum penatum, the conclavia, triclinia,
+and caenationes; the atria where the women resided, and employed
+themselves in the woolen manufacture; the praetoria, which were so
+spacious as to become a nuisance in the reign of Augustus; and the
+Xysta, which were shady walks between two porticos, where the men
+exercised themselves in the winter. I am disgusted by the modern taste
+of architecture, though I am no judge of the art. The churches and
+palaces of these days are crowded with pretty ornaments, which distract
+the eye, and by breaking the design into a variety of little parts,
+destroy the effect of the whole. Every door and window has its separate
+ornaments, its moulding, frize, cornice, and tympanum; then there is
+such an assemblage of useless festoons, pillars, pilasters, with their
+architraves, entablatures, and I know not what, that nothing great or
+uniform remains to fill the view; and we in vain look for that
+simplicity of grandeur, those large masses of light and shadow, and the
+inexpressible EUSUINOPTON, which characterise the edifices of the
+antients. A great edifice, to have its full effect, ought to be isole,
+or detached from all others, with a large space around it: but the
+palaces of Rome, and indeed of all the other cities of Italy, which I
+have seen, are so engaged among other mean houses, that their beauty
+and magnificence are in a great measure concealed. Even those which
+face open streets and piazzas are only clear in front. The other
+apartments are darkened by the vicinity of ordinary houses; and their
+views are confined by dirty and disagreeable objects. Within the court
+there is generally a noble colonnade all round, and an open corridore
+above, but the stairs are usually narrow, steep, and high, the want of
+sash-windows, the dullness of their small glass lozenges, the dusty
+brick floors, and the crimson hangings laced with gold, contribute to
+give a gloomy air to their apartments; I might add to these causes, a
+number of Pictures executed on melancholy subjects, antique mutilated
+statues, busts, basso relieves, urns, and sepulchral stones, with which
+their rooms are adorned. It must be owned, however, there are some
+exceptions to this general rule. The villa of cardinal Alexander Albani
+is light, gay, and airy; yet the rooms are too small, and too much
+decorated with carving and gilding, which is a kind of gingerbread
+work. The apartments of one of the princes Borghese are furnished in
+the English taste; and in the palazzo di colonna connestabile, there is
+a saloon, or gallery, which, for the proportions, lights, furniture,
+and ornaments, is the most noble, elegant, and agreeable apartment I
+ever saw.
+
+It is diverting to hear all Italian expatiate upon the greatness of
+modern Rome. He will tell you there are above three hundred palaces in
+the city; that there is scarce a Roman prince, whose revenue does not
+exceed two hundred thousand crowns; and that Rome produces not only the
+most learned men, but also the most refined politicians in the
+universe. To one of them talking in this strain, I replied, that
+instead of three hundred palaces, the number did not exceed fourscore;
+that I had been informed, on good authority, there were not six
+individuals in Rome who had so much as forty thousand crowns a year,
+about ten thousand pounds sterling; and that to say their princes were
+so rich, and their politicians so refined, was, in effect, a severe
+satire upon them, for not employing their wealth and their talents for
+the advantage of their country. I asked why their cardinals and princes
+did not invite and encourage industrious people to settle and cultivate
+the Campania of Rome, which is a desert? why they did not raise a
+subscription to drain the marshes in the neighbourhood of the city, and
+thus meliorate the air, which is rendered extremely unwholsome in the
+summer, by putrid exhalations from those morasses? I demanded of him,
+why they did not contribute their wealth, and exert their political
+refinements, in augmenting their forces by sea and land, for the
+defence of their country, introducing commerce and manufactures, and in
+giving some consequence to their state, which was no more than a mite
+in the political scale of Europe? I expressed a desire to know what
+became of all those sums of money, inasmuch as there was hardly any
+circulation of gold and silver in Rome, and the very bankers, on whom
+strangers have their credit, make interest to pay their tradesmen's
+bills with paper notes of the bank of Spirito Santo? And now I am upon
+this subject, it may not be amiss to observe that I was strangely
+misled by all the books consulted about the current coin of Italy. In
+Tuscany, and the Ecclesiastical State, one sees nothing but zequines in
+gold, and pieces of two paoli, one paolo, and half a paolo, in silver.
+Besides these, there is a copper coin at Rome, called bajocco and mezzo
+bajocco. Ten bajocchi make a paolo: ten paoli make a scudo, which is an
+imaginary piece: two scudi make a zequine; and a French loui'dore is
+worth two zequines and two paoli.
+
+Rome has nothing to fear from the catholic powers, who respect it with
+a superstitious veneration as the metropolitan seat of their religion:
+but the popes will do well to avoid misunderstandings with the maritime
+protestant states, especially the English, who being masters of the
+Mediterranean, and in possession of Minorca, have it in their power at
+all times, to land a body of troops within four leagues of Rome, and to
+take the city, without opposition. Rome is surrounded with an old wall,
+but altogether incapable of defence. Or if it was, the circuit of the
+walls is so extensive, that it would require a garrison of twenty
+thousand men. The only appearance of a fortification in this city, is
+the castle of St. Angelo, situated on the further bank of the Tyber, to
+which there is access by a handsome bridge: but this castle, which was
+formerly the moles Adriani, could not hold out half a day against a
+battery of ten pieces of cannon properly directed. It was an expedient
+left to the invention of the modern Romans, to convert an ancient tomb
+into a citadel. It could only serve as a temporary retreat for the pope
+in times of popular commotion, and on other sudden emergencies; as it
+happened in the case of pope Clement VII. when the troops of the
+emperor took the city by assault; and this only, while he resided at
+the Vatican, from whence there is a covered gallery continued to the
+castle: it can never serve this purpose again, while the pontiff lives
+on Monte Cavallo, which is at the other end of the city. The castle of
+St. Angelo, howsoever ridiculous as a fortress, appears respectable as
+a noble monument of antiquity, and though standing in a low situation,
+is one of the first objects that strike the eye of a stranger
+approaching Rome. On the opposite side of the river, are the wretched
+remains of the Mausoleum Augusti, which was still more magnificent.
+Part of the walls is standing, and the terraces are converted into
+garden-ground. In viewing these ruins, I remembered Virgil's pathetic
+description of Marcellus, who was here intombed.
+
+  Quantos ille virum, magnum mavortis ad urbem.
+  Campus aget gemitus, vel que Tyberine, videbis
+  Funera, cum tumulum, preter labere recentem.
+
+  Along his Banks what Groans shall Tyber hear,
+  When the fresh tomb and funeral pomp appear!
+
+The beautiful poem of Ovid de Consolatione ad Liviam, written after the
+ashes of Augustus and his nephew Marcellus, of Germanicus, Agrippa, and
+Drusus, were deposited in this mausoleum, concludes with these lines,
+which are extremely tender:
+
+  Claudite jam Parcae nimium reserata sepulchra;
+  Claudite, plus justo, jam domus ista patet!
+
+  Ah! shut these yawning Tombs, ye sister Fates!
+  Too long unclos'd have stood those dreary Gates!
+
+What the author said of the monument, you will be tempted to say of
+this letter, which I shall therefore close in the old stile, assuring
+you that I ever am,--Yours most affectionately.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXI
+
+NICE, March 5, 1765
+
+DEAR SIR,--In my last I gave you my opinion freely of the modern
+palaces of Italy. I shall now hazard my thoughts upon the gardens of
+this country, which the inhabitants extol with all the hyperboles of
+admiration and applause. I must acknowledge however, I have not seen
+the famous villas at Frascati and Tivoli, which are celebrated for
+their gardens and waterworks. I intended to visit these places; but was
+prevented by an unexpected change of weather, which deterred me from
+going to the country. On the last day of September the mountains of
+Palestrina were covered with snow; and the air became so cold at Rome,
+that I was forced to put on my winter cloaths. This objection
+continued, till I found it necessary to set out on my return to
+Florence. But I have seen the gardens of the Poggio Imperiale, and the
+Palazzo de Pitti at Florence, and those of the Vatican, of the pope's
+palace on Monte Cavallo, of the Villa Ludovisia, Medicea, and Pinciana,
+at Rome; so that I think I have some right to judge of the Italian
+taste in gardening. Among those I have mentioned, that of the Villa
+Pinciana, is the most remarkable, and the most extensive, including a
+space of three miles in circuit, hard by the walls of Rome, containing
+a variety of situations high and low, which favour all the natural
+embellishments one would expect to meet with in a garden, and exhibit a
+diversity of noble views of the city and adjacent country.
+
+In a fine extensive garden or park, an Englishman expects to see a
+number of groves and glades, intermixed with an agreeable negligence,
+which seems to be the effect of nature and accident. He looks for shady
+walks encrusted with gravel; for open lawns covered with verdure as
+smooth as velvet, but much more lively and agreeable; for ponds,
+canals, basins, cascades, and running streams of water; for clumps of
+trees, woods, and wildernesses, cut into delightful alleys, perfumed
+with honeysuckle and sweet-briar, and resounding with the mingled
+melody of all the singing birds of heaven: he looks for plats of
+flowers in different parts to refresh the sense, and please the fancy;
+for arbours, grottos, hermitages, temples, and alcoves, to shelter him
+from the sun, and afford him means of contemplation and repose; and he
+expects to find the hedges, groves, and walks, and lawns kept with the
+utmost order and propriety. He who loves the beauties of simple nature,
+and the charms of neatness will seek for them in vain amidst the groves
+of Italy. In the garden of the Villa Pinciana, there is a plantation of
+four hundred pines, which the Italians view with rapture and
+admiration: there is likewise a long walk, of trees extending from the
+garden-gate to the palace; and plenty of shade, with alleys and hedges
+in different parts of the ground: but the groves are neglected; the
+walks are laid with nothing but common mould or sand, black and dusty;
+the hedges are tall, thin and shabby; the trees stunted; the open
+ground, brown and parched, has scarce any appearance of verdure. The
+flat, regular alleys of evergreens are cut into fantastic figures; the
+flower gardens embellished with thin cyphers and flourished figures in
+box, while the flowers grow in rows of earthen-pots, and the ground
+appears as dusky as if it was covered with the cinders of a
+blacksmith's forge. The water, of which there is great plenty, instead
+of being collected in large pieces, or conveyed in little rivulets and
+streams to refresh the thirsty soil, or managed so as to form agreeable
+cascades, is squirted from fountains in different parts of the garden,
+through tubes little bigger than common glyster-pipes. It must be owned
+indeed that the fountains have their merit in the way of sculpture and
+architecture; and that here is a great number of statues which merit
+attention: but they serve only to encumber the ground, and destroy that
+effect of rural simplicity, which our gardens are designed to produce.
+In a word, here we see a variety of walks and groves and fountains, a
+wood of four hundred pines, a paddock with a few meagre deer, a
+flower-garden, an aviary, a grotto, and a fish-pond; and in spite of
+all these particulars, it is, in my opinion, a very contemptible
+garden, when compared to that of Stowe in Buckinghamshire, or even to
+those of Kensington and Richmond. The Italians understand, because they
+study, the excellencies of art; but they have no idea of the beauties
+of nature. This Villa Pinciana, which belongs to the Borghese family,
+would make a complete academy for painting and sculpture, especially
+for the study of antient marbles; for, exclusive of the statues and
+busts in the garden, and the vast collection in the different
+apartments, almost the whole outside of the house is covered with
+curious pieces in basso and alto relievo. The most masterly is that of
+Curtius on horseback, leaping into the gulph or opening of the earth,
+which is said to have closed on receiving this sacrifice. Among the
+exhibitions of art within the house, I was much struck with a Bacchus,
+and the death of Meleager, represented on an antient sepulchre. There
+is also an admirable statue of Silenus, with the infant Bacchus in his
+arms; a most beautiful gladiator; a curious Moor of black marble, with
+a shirt of white alabaster; a finely proportioned bull of black marble
+also, standing upon a table of alabaster; a black gipsey with a head,
+hands, and feet of brass; and the famous hermaphrodite, which vies with
+that of Florence: though the most curious circumstance of this article,
+is the mattrass executed and placed by Bernini, with such art and
+dexterity, that to the view, it rivals the softness of wool, and seems
+to retain the marks of pressure, according to the figure of the
+superincumbent statue. Let us likewise own, for the honour of the
+moderns, that the same artist has produced two fine statues, which we
+find among the ornaments of this villa, namely, a David with his sling
+in the attitude of throwing the stone at the giant Goliah; and a Daphne
+changing into laurel at the approach of Apollo. On the base of this
+figure, are the two following elegant lines, written by pope Urban
+VIII. in his younger years.
+
+  Quisquis amans sequitur fugitivae gaudia formae,
+  Fronde manus implet, baccas vel carpit amaras.
+
+  Who pants for fleeting Beauty, vain pursuit!
+  Shall barren Leaves obtain, or bitter fruit.
+
+I ought not to forget two exquisite antique statues of Venus, the
+weeping slave, and the youth pulling a thorn out of his foot.
+
+I do not pretend to give a methodical detail of the curiosities of
+Rome: they have been already described by different authors, who were
+much better qualified than I am for the talk: but you shall have what
+observations I made on the most remarkable objects, without method,
+just as they occur to my remembrance; and I protest the remarks are all
+my own: so that if they deserve any commendation, I claim all the
+merit; and if they are impertinent, I must be contented to bear all the
+blame.
+
+The piazza of St. Peter's church is altogether sublime. The double
+colonnade on each side extending in a semi-circular sweep, the
+stupendous Aegyptian obelisk, the two fountains, the portico, and the
+admirable facade of the church, form such an assemblage of magnificent
+objects, as cannot fail to impress the mind with awe and admiration:
+but the church would have produced a still greater effect, had it been
+detached entirely from the buildings of the Vatican, It would then have
+been a master-piece of architecture, complete in all its parts, intire
+and perfect: whereas, at present, it is no more than a beautiful member
+attached to a vast undigested and irregular pile of building. As to the
+architecture of this famous temple, I shall say nothing; neither do I
+pretend to describe the internal ornaments. The great picture of Mosaic
+work, and that of St. Peter's bark tossed by the tempest, which appear
+over the gate of the church, though rude in comparison with modern
+pieces, are nevertheless great curiosities, when considered as the work
+of Giotto, who flourished in the beginning of the fourteenth century.
+His master was Cimabue, who learned painting and architecture of the
+Grecian artists, who came from Constantinople, and first revived these
+arts in Italy. But, to return to St. Peter's, I was not at all pleased
+with the famous statue of the dead Christ in his mother's lap, by
+Michael Angelo. The figure of Christ is as much emaciated, as if he had
+died of a consumption: besides, there is something indelicate, not to
+say indecent, in the attitude and design of a man's body, stark naked,
+lying upon the knees of a woman. Here are some good pictures, I should
+rather say copies of good pictures, done in Mosaic to great perfection;
+particularly a St. Sebastian by Domenichino, and Michael the Archangel,
+from a painting of Guido Rheni. I am extremely fond of all this
+artist's pieces. There is a tenderness and delicacy in his manner; and
+his figures are all exquisitely beautiful, though his expression is
+often erroneous, and his attitudes are always affected and unnatural.
+In this very piece the archangel has all the air of a French
+dancing-master; and I have seen a Madonna by the same hand, I think it
+is in the Palazzo di Barberini, in which, though the figures are
+enchanting, the Virgin is represented holding up the drapery of the
+infant, with the ridiculous affectation of a singer on the stage of our
+Italian opera. The Mosaic work, though brought to a wonderful degree of
+improvement, and admirably calculated for churches, the dampness of
+which is pernicious to the colours of the pallet, I will not yet
+compare to the productions of the pencil. The glassyness (if I may be
+allowed the expression) of the surface, throws, in my opinion, a false
+light on some parts of the picture; and when you approach it, the
+joinings of the pieces look like so many cracks on painted canvas.
+Besides, this method is extremely tedious and expensive. I went to see
+the artists at work, in a house that stands near the church, where I
+was much pleased with the ingenuity of the process; and not a little
+surprized at the great number of different colours and tints, which are
+kept in separate drawers, marked with numbers as far as seventeen
+thousand. For a single head done in Mosaic, they asked me fifty
+zequines. But to return to the church. The altar of St. Peter's choir,
+notwithstanding all the ornaments which have been lavished upon it, is
+no more than a heap of puerile finery, better adapted to an Indian
+pagod, than to a temple built upon the principles of the Greek
+architecture. The four colossal figures that support the chair, are
+both clumsy and disproportioned. The drapery of statues, whether in
+brass or stone, when thrown into large masses, appears hard and
+unpleasant to the eye and for that reason the antients always imitated
+wet linen, which exhibiting the shape of the limbs underneath, and
+hanging in a multiplicity of wet folds, gives an air of lightness,
+softness, and ductility to the whole.
+
+These two statues weigh 116,257 pounds, and as they sustain nothing but
+a chair, are out of all proportion, inasmuch as the supporters ought to
+be suitable to the things supported. Here are four giants holding up
+the old wooden chair of the apostle Peter, if we may believe the book
+De Identitate Cathedrae Romanae, Of the Identity of the Roman Chair.
+The implements of popish superstition; such as relicks of pretended
+saints, ill-proportioned spires and bellfreys, and the nauseous
+repetition of the figure of the cross, which is in itself a very mean
+and disagreeable object, only fit for the prisons of condemned
+criminals, have contributed to introduce a vitious taste into the
+external architecture, as well as in the internal ornaments of our
+temples. All churches are built in the figure of a cross, which
+effectually prevents the eye from taking in the scope of the building,
+either without side or within; consequently robs the edifice of its
+proper effect. The palace of the Escurial in Spain is laid out in the
+shape of a gridiron, because the convent was built in consequence of a
+vow to St. Laurence, who was broiled like a barbecued pig. What pity it
+is, that the labours of painting should have been so much employed on
+the shocking subjects of the martyrology. Besides numberless pictures
+of the flagellation, crucifixion, and descent from the cross, we have
+Judith with the head of Holofernes, Herodias with the head of John the
+Baptist, Jael assassinating Sisera in his sleep, Peter writhing on the
+cross, Stephen battered with stones, Sebastian stuck full of arrows,
+Laurence frying upon the coals, Bartholomew flaed alive, and a hundred
+other pictures equally frightful, which can only serve to fill the mind
+with gloomy ideas, and encourage a spirit of religious fanaticism,
+which has always been attended with mischievous consequences to the
+community where it reigned.
+
+The tribune of the great altar, consisting of four wreathed brass
+pillars, gilt, supporting a canopy, is doubtless very magnificent, if
+not over-charged with sculpture, fluting, foliage, festoons, and
+figures of boys and angels, which, with the hundred and twenty-two
+lamps of silver, continually burning below, serve rather to dazzle the
+eyes, and kindle the devotion of the ignorant vulgar, than to excite
+the admiration of a judicious observer.
+
+There is nothing, I believe, in this famous structure, so worthy of
+applause, as the admirable symmetry and proportion of its parts.
+Notwithstanding all the carving, gilding, basso relievos, medallions,
+urns, statues, columns, and pictures with which it abounds, it does
+not, on the whole, appear over-crouded with ornaments. When you first
+enter, your eye is filled so equally and regularly, that nothing
+appears stupendous; and the church seems considerably smaller than it
+really is. The statues of children, that support the founts of holy
+water when observed from the door, seem to be of the natural size; but
+as you draw near, you perceive they are gigantic. In the same manner,
+the figures of the doves, with olive branches in their beaks, which are
+represented on the wall, appear to be within your reach; but as you
+approach them, they recede to a considerable height, as if they had
+flown upwards to avoid being taken.
+
+I was much disappointed at sight of the Pantheon, which, after all that
+has been said of it, looks like a huge cockpit, open at top. The
+portico which Agrippa added to the building, is undoubtedly very noble,
+though, in my opinion, it corresponds but ill with the simplicity of
+the edifice. With all my veneration for the antients, I cannot see in
+what the beauty of the rotunda consists. It is no more than a plain
+unpierced cylinder, or circular wall, with two fillets and a cornice,
+having a vaulted roof or cupola, open in the centre. I mean the
+original building, without considering the vestibule of Agrippa. Within
+side it has much the air of a mausoleum. It was this appearance which,
+in all probability, suggested the thought to Boniface IV. to transport
+hither eight and twenty cart-loads of old rotten bones, dug from
+different burying-places, and then dedicate it as a church to the
+blessed Virgin and all the holy martyrs. I am not one of those who
+think it is well lighted by the hole at the top, which is about nine
+and twenty feet in diameter, although the author of the Grand Tour
+calls it but nine. The same author says, there is a descent of eleven
+steps to go into it; that it is a hundred and forty-four feet in
+heighth, and as many in breadth; that it was covered with copper,
+which, with the brass nails of the portico, pope Urban VIII. took away,
+and converted into the four wreathed pillars that support the canopy of
+the high altar in the church of St. Peter, &c. The truth is, before the
+time of pope Alexander VII. the earth was so raised as to cover part of
+the temple, and there was a descent of some steps into the porch: but
+that pontiff ordered the ground to be pared away to the very pedestal
+or base of the portico, which is now even with the street, so that
+there is no descent whatsoever. The height is two hundred palmi, and
+the breadth two hundred and eighteen; which, reckoning fife palmi at
+nine inches, will bring the height to one hundred and fifty, and the
+breadth to one hundred and sixty-three feet six inches. It was not any
+covering of copper which pope Urban VIII. removed, but large brass
+beams, which supported the roof of the portico. They weighed 186,392
+pounds; and afforded metal enough not only for the pillars in St.
+Peter's church, but also for several pieces of artillery that are now
+in the castle of St. Angelo. What is more extraordinary, the gilding of
+those columns is said to have cost forty thousand golden crowns: sure
+money was never worse laid out. Urban VIII. likewise added two bellfrey
+towers to the rotunda; and I wonder he did not cover the central hole
+with glass, as it must be very inconvenient and disagreeable to those
+who go to church below, to be exposed to the rain in wet weather, which
+must also render it very damp and unwholesome. I visited it several
+times, and each time it looked more and more gloomy and sepulchral.
+
+The magnificence of the Romans was not so conspicuous in their temples,
+as in their theatres, amphitheatres, circusses, naumachia, aqueducts,
+triumphal arches, porticoes, basilicae, but especially their thermae,
+or bathing-places. A great number of their temples were small and
+inconsiderable; not one of them was comparable either for size or
+magnificence, to the modern church of St. Peter of the Vatican. The
+famous temple of Jupiter Capitolinus was neither half so long, nor half
+so broad: it was but two hundred feet in length, and one hundred and
+eighty-five in breadth; whereas the length of St. Peter's extends to
+six hundred and thirty-eight feet, and the breadth to above five
+hundred. It is very near twice as large as the temple of Jupiter
+Olympius in Greece, which was counted one of the seven wonders of the
+world. But I shall take another opportunity to explain myself further
+on the antiquities of this city; a subject, upon which I am disposed to
+be (perhaps impertinently) circumstantial. When I begin to run riot,
+you should cheek me with the freedom of a friend. The most distant hint
+will be sufficient to,--Dear Sir, Yours assuredly.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXII
+
+NICE, March 10, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--The Colossaeum or amphitheatre built by Flavius Vespasian,
+is the most stupendous work of the kind which antiquity can produce.
+Near one half of the external circuit still remains, consisting of four
+tire of arcades, adorned with columns of four orders, Doric, Ionic,
+Corinthian, and Composite. The height and extent of it may be guessed
+from the number of spectators it contained, amounting to one hundred
+thousand; and yet, according to Fontana's mensuration, it could not
+contain above thirty-four thousand persons sitting, allowing a foot and
+an half for each person: for the circuit of the whole building did not
+exceed one thousand five hundred and sixty feet. The amphitheatre at
+Verona is one thousand two hundred and ninety feet in circumference;
+and that of Nismes, one thousand and eighty. The Colossaeum was built
+by Vespasian, who employed thirty thousand Jewish slaves in the work;
+but finished and dedicated by his son Titus, who, on the first day of
+its being opened, produced fifty thousand wild beasts, which were all
+killed in the arena. The Romans were undoubtedly a barbarous people,
+who delighted in horrible spectacles. They viewed with pleasure the
+dead bodies of criminals dragged through the streets, or thrown down
+the Scalae Gemoniae and Tarpeian rock, for their contemplation. Their
+rostra were generally adorned with the heads of some remarkable
+citizens, like Temple-Bar, at London. They even bore the sight of
+Tully's head fixed upon that very rostrum where he had so often
+ravished their ears with all the charms of eloquence, in pleading the
+cause of innocence and public virtue. They took delight in seeing their
+fellow-creatures torn in pieces by wild beasts, in the amphitheatre.
+They shouted with applause when they saw a poor dwarf or slave killed
+by his adversary; but their transports were altogether extravagant,
+when the devoted captives were obliged to fight in troops, till one
+side was entirely butchered by the other. Nero produced four hundred
+senators, and six hundred of the equestrian order, as gladiators in the
+public arena: even the women fought with wild beasts, as well as with
+each other, and drenched the amphitheatres with their blood. Tacitus
+says, "Sed faeminarum illustrium, senatorumque filiorum plures per
+arenam faedati sunt," "But many sons of Senators, and even Matrons of
+the first Rank, exposed themselves in this vile exercise." The
+execrable custom of sacrificing captives or slaves at the tombs of
+their masters and great men, which is still preserved among the negroes
+of Africa, obtained also among the antients, Greeks as well as Romans.
+I could never, without horror and indignation, read that passage in the
+twenty-third book of the Iliad, which describes twelve valiant Trojan
+captives sacrificed by the inhuman Achilles at the tomb of his friend
+Patroclus.
+
+  Dodeka men Troon megathumon uias eathlous
+  Tous ama pantas pur eathiei.
+
+  Twelve generous Trojans slaughtered in their Bloom,
+  With thy lov'd Corse the Fire shall now consume.
+
+Even Virgil makes his pious Hero sacrifice eight Italian youths to the
+manes of Pallas. It is not at all clear to me, that a people is the
+more brave, the more they are accustomed to bloodshed in their public
+entertainments. True bravery is not savage but humane. Some of this
+sanguinary spirit is inherited by the inhabitants of a certain island
+that shall be nameless--but, mum for that. You will naturally suppose
+that the Coliseo was ruined by the barbarians who sacked the city of
+Rome: in effect, they robbed it of its ornaments and valuable
+materials; but it was reserved for the Goths and Vandals of modern
+Rome, to dismantle the edifice, and reduce it to its present ruinous
+condition. One part of it was demolished by pope Paul II. that he might
+employ the stones of it in building the palace of St. Mark. It was
+afterwards dilapidated for the same purposes, by the cardinals Riarius
+and Farnese, which last assumed the tiara under the name of Paul III.
+Notwithstanding these injuries, there is enough standing to convey a
+very sublime idea of ancient magnificence.
+
+The Circi and Naumachia, if considered as buildings and artificial
+basins, are admirable; but if examined as areae intended for horse and
+chariot races, and artificial seas for exhibiting naval engagements,
+they seem to prove that the antient Romans were but indifferently
+skilled and exercised either in horsemanship or naval armaments. The
+inclosure of the emperor Caracalla's circus is still standing, and
+scarce affords breathing room for an English hunter. The Circus
+Maximus, by far the largest in Rome, was not so long as the Mall; and I
+will venture to affirm, that St. James's Park would make a much more
+ample and convenient scene for those diversions. I imagine an old Roman
+would be very much surprised to see an English race on the course at
+New-Market. The Circus Maximus was but three hundred yards in breadth.
+A good part of this was taken up by the spina, or middle space, adorned
+with temples, statues, and two great obelisks; as well as by the
+euripus, or canal, made by order of Julius Caesar, to contain
+crocodiles, and other aquatic animals, which were killed occasionally.
+This was so large, that Heliogabalus, having filled it with excellent
+wine, exhibited naval engagements in it, for the amusement of the
+people. It surrounded three sides of the square, so that the whole
+extent of the race did not much exceed an English mile; and when Probus
+was at the expence of filling the plain of it with fir-trees to form a
+wood for the chace of wild beasts, I question much if this forest was
+more extensive than the plantation in St. James's Park, on the south
+side of the canal: now I leave you to judge what ridicule a king of
+England would incur by converting this part of the park into a chace
+for any species of animals which are counted game in our country.
+
+The Roman emperors seemed more disposed to elevate and surprize, than
+to conduct the public diversions according to the rules of reason and
+propriety. One would imagine, it was with this view they instituted
+their naumachia, or naval engagements, performed by half a dozen small
+gallies of a side in an artificial basin of fresh water. These gallies
+I suppose were not so large as common fishing-smacks, for they were
+moved by two, three, and four oars of a side according to their
+different rates, biremes, triremes, and quadriremes. I know this is a
+knotty point not yet determined; and that some antiquarians believe the
+Roman gallies had different tires or decks of oars; but this is a
+notion very ill supported, and quite contrary to all the figures of
+them that are preserved on antient coins and medals. Suetonius in the
+reign of Domitian, speaking of these naumachia, says, "Edidit navales
+pugnas, pene justarum classium, effosso, et circumducto juxta Tyberim
+lacu, atque inter maximas imbres prospectavit," "He exhibited naval
+engagements of almost intire fleets, in an artificial Lake formed for
+the purpose hard by the Tyber, and viewed them in the midst of
+excessive Rains." This artificial lake was not larger than the piece of
+water in Hyde-Park; and yet the historian says, it was almost large
+enough for real or intire fleets. How would a British sailor relish an
+advertisement that a mock engagement between two squadrons of men of
+war would be exhibited on such a day in the Serpentine river? or that
+the ships of the line taken from the enemy would be carried in
+procession from Hyde-Park-Corner to Tower-wharf? Certain it is,
+Lucullus, in one of his triumphs, had one hundred and ten ships of war
+(naves longas) carried through the streets of Rome. Nothing can give a
+more contemptible idea of their naval power, than this testimony of
+their historians, who declare that their seamen or mariners were formed
+by exercising small row-boats in an inclosed pool of fresh water. Had
+they not the sea within a few miles of them, and the river Tyber
+running through their capital! even this would have been much more
+proper for exercising their watermen, than a pond of still-water, not
+much larger than a cold-bath. I do believe in my conscience that half a
+dozen English frigates would have been able to defeat both the
+contending fleets at the famous battle of Actium, which has been so
+much celebrated in the annals of antiquity, as an event that decided
+the fate of empire.
+
+It would employ me a whole month to describe the thermae or baths, the
+vast ruins of which are still to be seen within the walls of Rome, like
+the remains of so many separate citadels. The thermae Dioclesianae
+might be termed an august academy for the use and instruction of the
+Roman people. The pinacotheca of this building was a complete musaeum
+of all the curiosities of art and nature; and there were public schools
+for all the sciences. If I may judge by my eye, however, the thermae
+Antonianae built by Caracalla, were still more extensive and
+magnificent; they contained cells sufficient for two thousand three
+hundred persons to bathe at one time, without being seen by one
+another. They were adorned with all the charms of painting,
+architecture, and sculpture. The pipes for convoying the water were of
+silver. Many of the lavacra were of precious marble, illuminated by
+lamps of chrystal. Among the statues, were found the famous Toro, and
+Hercole Farnese.
+
+Bathing was certainly necessary to health and cleanliness in a hot
+country like Italy, especially before the use of linen was known: but
+these purposes would have been much better answered by plunging into
+the Tyber, than by using the warm bath in the thermae, which became
+altogether a point of luxury borrowed from the effeminate Asiatics, and
+tended to debilitate the fibres already too much relaxed by the heat of
+the climate. True it is, they had baths of cool water for the summer:
+but in general they used it milk-warm, and often perfumed: they
+likewise indulged in vapour-baths, in order to enjoy a pleasing
+relaxation, which they likewise improved with odoriferous ointments.
+
+The thermae consisted of a great variety of parts and conveniences; the
+natationes, or swimming places; the portici, where people amused
+themselves in walking, conversing, and disputing together, as Cicero
+says, In porticibus deambulantes disputabant; the basilicae, where the
+bathers assembled, before they entered, and after they came out of the
+bath; the atria, or ample courts, adorned with noble colonnades of
+Numidian marble and oriental granite; the ephibia, where the young men
+inured themselves to wrestling and other exercises; the frigidaria, or
+places kept cool by a constant draught of air, promoted by the
+disposition and number of the windows; the calidaria, where the water
+was warmed for the baths; the platanones, or delightful groves of
+sycamore; the stadia, for the performances of the athletae; the
+exedrae, or resting-places, provided with seats for those that were
+weary; the palestrae, where every one chose that exercise which pleased
+him best; the gymnasia, where poets, orators, and philosophers recited
+their works, and harangued for diversion; the eleotesia, where the
+fragrant oils and ointments were kept for the use of the bathers; and
+the conisteria, where the wrestlers were smeared with sand before they
+engaged. Of the thermae in Rome, some were mercenary, and some opened
+gratis. Marcus Agrippa, when he was edile, opened one hundred and
+seventy private baths, for the use of the people. In the public baths,
+where money was taken, each person paid a quadrans, about the value of
+our halfpenny, as Juvenal observes,
+
+  Caedere Sylvano porcum, quadrante lavari.
+
+  The victim Pig to God Sylvanus slay,
+  And for the public Bath a farthing pay.
+
+But after the hour of bathing was past, it sometimes cost a great deal
+more, according to Martial,
+
+  Balnea post decimam, lasso centumque petuntur
+  Quadrantes--
+
+  The bathing hour is past, the waiter tir'd;
+  An hundred Farthings now will be requir'd.
+
+Though there was no distinction in the places between the first
+patrician and the lowest plebeian, yet the nobility used their own
+silver and gold plate, for washing, eating, and drinking in the bath,
+together with towels of the finest linen. They likewise made use of the
+instrument called strigil, which was a kind of flesh-brush; a custom to
+which Persius alludes in this line,
+
+  I puer, et strigiles Crispini ad balnea defer.
+
+  Here, Boy, this Brush to Crispin's Bagnio bear.
+
+The common people contented themselves with sponges. The bathing time
+was from noon till the evening, when the Romans ate their principal
+meal. Notice was given by a bell, or some such instrument, when the
+baths were opened, as we learn from Juvenal,
+
+  Redde Pilam, sonat Aes thermarum, ludere pergis?
+  Virgine vis sola lotus abdire domum.
+
+  Leave off; the Bath Bell rings--what, still play on?
+  Perhaps the maid in private rubs you down.
+
+There were separate places for the two sexes; and indeed there were
+baths opened for the use of women only, at the expence of Agrippina,
+the mother of Nero, and some other matrons of the first quality. The
+use of bathing was become so habitual to the constitutions of the
+Romans, that Galen, in his book De Sanitate tuenda, mentions a certain
+philosopher, who, if he intermitted but one day in his bathing, was
+certainly attacked with a fever. In order to preserve decorum in the
+baths, a set of laws and regulations were published, and the thermae
+were put under the inspection of a censor, who was generally one of the
+first senators in Rome. Agrippa left his gardens and baths, which stood
+near the pantheon, to the Roman people: among the statues that adorned
+them was that of a youth naked, as going into the bath, so elegantly
+formed by the hand of Lysippus, that Tiberius, being struck with the
+beauty of it, ordered it to be transferred into his own palace: but the
+populace raised such a clamour against him, that he was fain to have it
+reconveyed to its former place. These noble baths were restored by
+Adrian, as we read in Spartian; but at present no part of them remains.
+
+With respect to the present state of the old aqueducts, I can give you
+very little satisfaction. I only saw the ruins of that which conveyed
+the aqua Claudia, near the Porta Maggiore, and the Piazza of the
+Lateran. You know there were fourteen of those antient aqueducts, some
+of which brought water to Rome from the distance of forty miles. The
+channels of them were large enough to admit a man armed on horseback;
+and therefore when Rome was besieged by the Goths, who had cut off the
+water, Belisarius fortified them with works to prevent the enemy from
+entering the city by those conveyances. After that period, I suppose
+the antient aqueducts continued dry, and were suffered to run to ruins.
+Without all doubt, the Romans were greatly obliged to those
+benefactors, who raised such stupendous works for the benefit, as well
+as the embellishment of their city: but it might have been supplied
+with the same water through pipes at one hundredth part of the expence;
+and in that case the enemy would not have found it such an easy matter
+to cut it off. Those popes who have provided the modern city so
+plentifully with excellent water, are much to be commended for the care
+and expence, they have bestowed in restoring the streams called acqua
+Virgine, acqua Felice, and acqua Paolina, which afford such abundance
+of water as would plentifully supply a much larger city than modern
+Rome.
+
+It is no wonder that M. Agrippa, the son-in-law, friend, and favourite
+of Augustus, should at the same time have been the idol of the people,
+considering how surprisingly he exerted himself for the emolument,
+convenience, and pleasure of his fellow-citizens. It was he who first
+conducted this acqua Virgine to Rome: he formed seven hundred
+reservoirs in the city; erected one hundred and five fountains; one
+hundred and thirty castella, or conduits, which works he adorned with
+three hundred statues, and four hundred pillars of marble, in the space
+of one year. He also brought into Rome, the aqua Julia, and restored
+the aqueduct of the aqua Marzia, which had fallen to decay. I have
+already observed the great number of baths which he opened for the
+people, and the magnificent thermae, with spacious gardens, which he
+bequeathed to them as a legacy. But these benefactions, great and
+munificent as they seem to be, were not the most important services he
+performed for the city of Rome. The common-sewers were first made by
+order of Tarquinius Priscus, not so much with a view to cleanliness, as
+by way of subterranean drains to the Velabrum, and in order to carry
+off the stagnant water, which remained in the lower parts, after heavy
+rains. The different branches of these channels united at the Forum,
+from whence by the cloaca Maxima, their contents were conveyed into the
+Tyber. This great cloaca was the work of Tarquinius Superbus. Other
+sewers were added by Marcus Cato, and Valerius Flaccus, the censors.
+All these drains having been choaked up and ruinous, were cleared and
+restored by Marcus Agrippa, who likewise undermined the whole city with
+canals of the same kind, for carrying of the filth; he strengthened and
+enlarged the cloaca maxima, so as to make it capable of receiving a
+large cart loaded with hay; and directed seven streams of water into
+these subterranean passages, in order to keep them always clean and
+open. If, notwithstanding all these conveniences, Vespasian was put to
+great expence in removing the ordure from the public streets, we have
+certainly a right to conclude that the antient Romans were not more
+cleanly than the modern Italians.
+
+After the mausolea of Augustus, and Adrian, which I have already
+mentioned, the most remarkable antient sepulchres at Rome, are those of
+Caius Cestius, and Cecilia Metella. The first, which stands by the
+Porta di S. Paolo, is a beautiful pyramid, one hundred and twenty feet
+high, still preserved intire, having a vaulted chamber within-side,
+adorned with some ancient painting, which is now almost effaced. The
+building is of brick, but eased with marble. This Caius Cestius had
+been consul, was very rich, and acted as one of the seven Epulones, who
+superintended the feasts of the gods, called Lectisternia, and
+Pervigilia. He bequeathed his whole fortune to his friend M. Agrippa,
+who was so generous as to give it up to the relations of the testator.
+The monument of Cecilia Metella, commonly called Capo di Bove, is
+without the walls on the Via Appia. This lady was daughter of Metellus
+Creticus, and wife to Crassus, who erected this noble monument to her
+memory. It consisted of two orders, or stories, the first of which was
+a square of hewn stone: the second was a circular tower, having a
+cornice, adorned with ox heads in basso relievo, a circumstance from
+which it takes the name of Capo di Bove. The ox was supposed to be a
+most grateful sacrifice to the gods. Pliny, speaking of bulls and oxen,
+says,
+
+  Hinc victimae optimae et laudatissima deorum placatio.
+
+They were accounted the best Victims and most agreeable to appease the
+anger of the Gods.
+
+This tower was surmounted by a noble cupola or dome, enriched with all
+the ornaments of architecture. The door of the building was of brass;
+and within-side the ashes of Cecilia were deposited in a fluted marble
+urn, of curious workmanship, which is still kept in the Palazzo
+Farnese. At present the surface of the ground is raised so much as to
+cover the first order of the edifice: what we see is no more than the
+round tower, without the dome and its ornaments; and the following
+inscription still remains near the top, facing the Via Appia.
+
+  CAECILLAE
+  Q. CRETICI F.
+  METELLAE
+  CRASSI.
+
+To Caecilia Metella, Daughter of Q. Criticus: wife of Crassus.
+
+Now we are talking of sepulchral inscriptions, I shall conclude this
+letter with the copy of a very singular will, made by Favonius
+Jocundus, who died in Portugal, by which will the precise situation of
+the famous temple of Sylvanus is ascertained.
+
+"Jocundi. Ego gallus Favonius Jocundus P. Favoni F. qui bello contra
+Viriatum Succubui, Jocundum et Prudentem filios, e me et Quintia Fabia
+conjuge mea ortos, et Bonorum Jocundi Patris mei, et eorum, quae mihi
+ipsi acquisivi haeredes relinquo; hac tamen conditione, ut ab urbe
+Romana huc veniant, et ossa hic mea, intra quinquennium exportent, et
+via latina condant in sepulchro, jussu meo condito, et mea voluntate;
+in quo velim neminem mecum, neque servum, neque libertum inseri; et
+velim ossa quorumcunque sepulchro statim meo eruantur, et jura
+Romanorum serventur, in sepulchris ritu majorum retinendis, juxta
+volantatem testatoris; et si secus fecerint, nisi legittimae oriantur
+causae, velim ea omnia, quae filijs meis relinquo, pro reparando templo
+dei Sylvani, quod sub viminali monte est, attribui; manesque mei a
+Pont. max; a flaminibus dialibus, qui in capitolio sunt, opem
+implorent, ad liberorum meorum impietatem ulciscendam; teneanturque
+sacerdotes dei Silvani, me in urbem referre, et sepulchro me meo
+condere. Volo quoque vernas qui domi meae sunt, omnes a praetore urbano
+liberos, cum matribus dimitti, singulisque libram argenti puri, et
+vestem unam dori. In Lusitania. In agro VIII. Cal Quintilis, bello
+viriatino."
+
+I, Gallus Favonius Jocundus, son of P. Favonius, dying in the war
+against Viriatus, declare my sons Jocundus and Prudens, by my wife
+Quintia Fabia, joint Heirs of my Estate, real and personal; on
+condition, however, that they come hither within a time of five years
+from this my last will, and transport my remains to Rome to be
+deposited in my Sepulchre built in the via latina by my own order and
+Direction: and it is my will that neither slave nor freedman shall be
+interred with me in the said tomb; that if any such there be, they
+shall be removed, and the Roman law obeyed, in preserving in the
+antient Form the sepulchre according to the will of the Testator. If
+they act otherwise without just cause, it is my will that the whole
+estate, which I now bequeathe to my children, shall be applied to the
+Reparation of the Temple of the God Sylvanus, at the foot of Mount
+Viminalis; and that my Manes [The Manes were an order of Gods supposed
+to take cognisance of such injuries.] I shall implore the assistance of
+the Pontifex maximus, and the Flaminisdiales in the Capitol, to avenge
+the Impiety of my children; and the priests of Sylvanus shall engage to
+bring my remains to Rome and see them decently deposited in my own
+Sepulchre. It is also my will that all my domestic slaves shall be
+declared free by the city Praetor, and dismissed with their mothers,
+after having received each, a suit of cloaths, and a pound weight of
+pure silver from my heirs and Executors.--At my farm in Lusitania, July
+25. During the Viriatin war.
+
+My paper scarce affords room to assure you that I am ever,--Dear Sir,
+Your faithful, etc.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXIII
+
+NICE, March 30, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--YOU must not imagine I saw one half of the valuable pictures
+and statues of Rome; there is such a vast number of both in this
+capital, that I might have spent a whole year in taking even a
+transient view of them; and, after all, some of them would have been
+overlooked. The most celebrated pieces, however, I have seen; and
+therefore my curiosity is satisfied. Perhaps, if I had the nice
+discernment and delicate sensibility of a true connoisseur, this
+superficial glimpse would have served only to whet my appetite, and to
+detain me the whole winter at Rome. In my progress through the Vatican,
+I was much pleased with the School of Athens, by Raphael, a piece which
+hath suffered from the dampness of the air. The four boys attending to
+the demonstration of the mathematician are admirably varied in the
+expression. Mr. Webb's criticism on this artist is certainly just. He
+was perhaps the best ethic painter that ever the world produced. No man
+ever expressed the sentiments so happily, in visage, attitude, and
+gesture: but he seems to have had too much phlegm to strike off the
+grand passions, or reach the sublime parts of painting. He has the
+serenity of Virgil, but wants the fire of Homer. There is nothing in
+his Parnassus which struck me, but the ludicrous impropriety of
+Apollo's playing upon a fiddle, for the entertainment of the nine
+muses. [Upon better information I must retract this censure; in as
+much, as I find there was really a Musical Instrument among the
+antients of this Figure, as appears by a small statue in Bronze, to be
+still seen in the Florentine Collection.]
+
+The Last Judgment, by Buonaroti, in the chapel of Sixtus IV. produced
+to my eye the same sort of confusion, that perplexes my ear at a grand
+concert, consisting of a great variety of instruments: or rather, when
+a number of people are talking all at once. I was pleased with the
+strength of expression, exhibited in single figures, and separate
+groupes: but, the whole together is a mere mob, without subordination,
+keeping, or repose. A painter ought to avoid all subjects that require
+a multiplicity of groupes and figures; because it is not in the power
+of that art to unite a great number in one point of view, so as to
+maintain that dependence which they ought to have upon one another.
+Michael Angelo, with all his skill in anatomy, his correctness of
+design, his grand composition, his fire, and force of expression, seems
+to have had very little idea of grace. One would imagine he had chosen
+his kings, heroes, cardinals, and prelates, from among the facchini of
+Rome: that he really drew his Jesus on the Cross, from the agonies of
+some vulgar assassin expiring on the wheel; and that the originals of
+his Bambini, with their mothers, were literally found in a stable. In
+the Sala Regia, from whence the Sistian chapel is detached, we see,
+among other exploits of catholic heroes, a representation of the
+massacre of the protestants in Paris, Tholouse, and other parts of
+France, on the eve of St. Bartholomew, thus described in the
+Descrizione di Roma, "Nella prima pittura, esprime Georgio Vasari
+l'istoria del Coligni, grand' amiraglio, di Francia, che come capo de
+ribelli, e degl'ugonotti, fu ucciso; e nell'altra vicina, la strage
+fatta in Parigi, e nel regno, de rebelli, e degl'Ugonotti." "In the
+first picture, George Vasari represents the history of Coligni, high
+admiral of France, who was slain as head of the rebels and huegonots;
+and in another near it, the slaughter that was made of the rebels and
+huegonots in Paris and other parts of the kingdom." Thus the court of
+Rome hath employed their artists to celebrate and perpetuate, as a
+meritorious action, the most perfidious, cruel, and infamous massacre,
+that ever disgraced the annals of any nation.
+
+I need not mention the two equestrian statues of Constantine the Great,
+and Charlemagne, which stand at opposite ends of the great portico of
+St. Peter's church; because there is nothing in them which particularly
+engaged my attention. The sleeping Cleopatra, as you enter the court of
+the Belvedere, in the Vatican, is much admired; but I was better
+pleased with the Apollo, which I take to be the most beautiful statue
+that ever was formed. The Nile, which lies in the open court,
+surmounted with the little children, has infinite merit; but is much
+damaged, and altogether neglected. Whether it is the same described in
+Pliny, as having been placed by Vespasian in the Temple of Peace, I do
+not know. The sixteen children playing about it, denoted the swelling
+of the Nile, which never rose above sixteen cubits. As for the famous
+groupe of Laocoon, it surpassed my expectation. It was not without
+reason that Buonaroti called it a portentous work; and Pliny has done
+it no more than justice in saying it is the most excellent piece that
+ever was cut in marble; and yet the famous Fulvius Ursini is of opinion
+that this is not the same statue which Pliny described. His reasons,
+mentioned by Montfaucon, are these. The statues described by Pliny were
+of one stone; but these are not. Antonioli, the antiquary, has in his
+Possession, pieces of Laocoon's snakes, which were found in the ground,
+where the baths of Titus actually stood, agreeable to Pliny, who says
+these statues were placed in the buildings of Titus. Be that as it may,
+the work which we now see does honour to antiquity. As you have seen
+innumerable copies and casts of it, in marble, plaister, copper, lead,
+drawings, and prints, and read the description of it in Keysler, and
+twenty other books of travels, I shall say nothing more on the subject;
+but that neither they nor I, nor any other person, could say too much
+in its praise. It is not of one piece indeed. In that particular Pliny
+himself might be mistaken. "Opus omnibus et picturae, et statuariae
+artis praeponendum. Ex uno lapide eum et Liberos draconumque mirabiles
+nexus de consilii sententia fecere succubi artifices." "A work
+preferable to all the other Efforts of Painting and Statuary. The most
+excellent artists joined their Talents in making the Father and his
+Sons, together with the admirable Twinings of the Serpents, of one
+Block." Buonaroti discovered the joinings, though they were so artfully
+concealed as to be before invisible. This amazing groupe is the work of
+three Rhodian sculptors, called Agesander, Polydore, and Athenodorus,
+and was found in the thermae of Titus Vespasian, still supposing it to
+be the true antique. As for the torso, or mutilated trunk of a statue,
+which is called the school of Michael Angelo, I had not time to
+consider it attentively; nor taste enough to perceive its beauties at
+first sight. The famous horses on Monte Cavallo, before the pope's
+palace, which are said to have been made in emulation, by Phidias and
+Praxiteles, I have seen, and likewise those in the front of the
+Capitol, with the statues of Castor and Pollux; but what pleased me
+infinitely more than all of them together, is the equestrian statue of
+Corinthian brass, standing in the middle of this Piazza (I mean at the
+Capitol) said to represent the emperor Marcus Aurelius. Others suppose
+it was intended for Lucius Verus; a third set of antiquaries contend
+for Lucius Septimius Severus; and a fourth, for Constantine, because it
+stood in the Piazza of the Lateran palace, built by that emperor, from
+whence pope Paul III. caused it to be removed to the Capitol. I
+considered the trophy of Marius as a very curious piece of sculpture,
+and admired the two sphinxes at the bottom of the stairs leading to
+this Piazza, as the only good specimens of design I have ever seen from
+Aegypt: for the two idols of that country, which stand in the ground
+floor of the Musaeum of the Capitol, and indeed all the Aegyptian
+statues in the Camera Aegyptiaca of this very building, are such
+monstrous misrepresentations of nature, that they never could have
+obtained a place among the statues of Rome, except as curiosities of
+foreign superstition, or on account of the materials, as they are
+generally of basaltes, porphyry, or oriental granite.
+
+At the farther end of the court of this Musaeum, fronting the entrance,
+is a handsome fountain, with the statue of a river-god reclining on his
+urn; this is no other than the famous Marforio, so called from its
+having been found in Martis Fore. It is remarkable only as being the
+conveyance of the answers to the satires which are found pasted upon
+Pasquin, another mutilated statue, standing at the corner of a street.
+
+The marble coffin, supposed to have contained the ashes of Alexander
+Severus, which we find in one of these apartments, is a curious
+antique, valuable for its sculpture in basso relievo, especially for
+the figures on the cover, representilig that emperor and his mother
+Julia Mammea.
+
+I was sorry I had not time to consider the antient plan of Rome,
+disposed in six classes, on the stair-case of this Musaeum, which was
+brought hither from a temple that stood in the Forum Boarium, now
+called Campo vaccine.
+
+It would be ridiculous in me to enter into a detail of the vast
+collection of marbles, basso relievos, inscriptions, urns, busts, and
+statues, which are placed in the upper apartments of this edifice. I
+saw them but once, and then I was struck with the following
+particulars. A bacchanalian drunk; a Jupiter and Leda, at least equal
+to that in the gallery at Florence; an old praesica, or hired mourner,
+very much resembling those wrinkled hags still employed in Ireland, and
+in the Highlands of Scotland, to sing the coronach at funerals, in
+praise of the deceased; the famous Antinous, an elegant figure, which
+Pousin studied as canon or rule of symmetry; the two fauns; and above
+all the mirmillone, or dying gladiator; the attitude of the body, the
+expression of the countenance, the elegance of the limbs, and the
+swelling of the muscles, in this statue, are universally admired; but
+the execution of the back is incredibly delicate. The course of the
+muscles called longissimi dorsi, are so naturally marked and tenderly
+executed, that the marble actually emulates the softness of the flesh;
+and you may count all the spines of the vertebrae, raising up the skin
+as in the living body; yet this statue, with all its merit, seems
+inferior to the celebrated dying gladiator of Ctesilas, as described by
+Pliny, who says the expression of it was such, as appears altogether
+incredible. In the court, on the opposite side of the Capitol, there is
+an admirable statue of a lion devouring an horse, which was found by
+the gate of Ostia, near the pyramid of Caius Cestius; and here on the
+left hand, under a colonade, is what they call the Columna Rostrata,
+erected in honour of Caius Duilius, who first triumphed over the
+Carthaginians by sea. But this is a modern pillar, with the old
+inscription, which is so defaced as not to be legible. Among the
+pictures in the gallery and saloon above, what pleased me most was the
+Bacchus and Ariadne of Guido Rheni; and the wolf suckling Romulus and
+Remus, by Rubens. The court of the Palazzo Farnese is surrounded with
+antique statues, among which the most celebrated are, the Flora, with a
+most delicate drapery; the gladiator, with a dead boy over his
+shoulder; the Hercules, with the spoils of the Nemean lion, but that
+which the connoisseurs justly esteem above all the rest is Hercules, by
+Glycon, which you know as well as I do, by the great reputation it has
+acquired. This admirable statue having been found without the legs,
+these were supplied by Gulielmo de la Porta so happily, that when
+afterwards the original limbs were discovered, Michael Angelo preferred
+those of the modern artist, both in grace and proportion; and they have
+been retained accordingly. In a little house, or shed, behind the
+court, is preserved the wonderful group of Dirce, commonly called the
+Toro Farnese, which was brought hither from the thermae Caracallae.
+There is such spirit, ferocity, and indignant resistance expressed in
+the bull, to whose horns Dirce is tied by the hair, that I have never
+seen anything like it, either upon canvass, or in stone. The statues of
+the two brothers endeavouring to throw him into the sea are beautiful
+figures, finely contrasted; and the rope, which one of them holds in a
+sort of loose coil, is so surprisingly chizzelled, that one can hardly
+believe it is of stone. As for Dirce herself, she seems to be but a
+subaltern character; there is a dog upon his hind legs barking at the
+bull, which is much admired. This amazing groupe was cut out of one
+stone, by Appollonius and Tauriscus, two sculptors of Rhodes; and is
+mentioned by Pliny in the thirty-sixth book of his Natural History. All
+the precious monuments of art, which have come down to us from
+antiquity, are the productions of Greek artists. The Romans had taste
+enough to admire the arts of Greece, as plainly appears by the great
+collections they made of their statues and pictures, as well as by
+adopting their architecture and musick: but I do not remember to have
+read of any Roman who made a great figure either as a painter or a
+statuary. It is not enough to say those professions were not honourable
+in Rome, because painting, sculpture, and musick, even rhetoric,
+physic, and philosophy were practised and taught by slaves. The arts
+were always honoured and revered at Rome, even when the professors of
+them happened to be slaves by the accidents and iniquity of fortune.
+The business of painting and statuary was so profitable, that in a free
+republic, like that of Rome, they must have been greedily embraced by a
+great number of individuals: but, in all probability, the Roman soil
+produced no extraordinary genius for those arts. Like the English of
+this day, they made a figure in poetry, history, and ethics; but the
+excellence of painting, sculpture, architecture, and music, they never
+could attain. In the Palazzo Picchini I saw three beautiful figures,
+the celebrated statues of Meleager, the boar, and dog; together with a
+wolf, of excellent workmanship. The celebrated statue of Moses, by
+Michael Angelo, in the church of St. Peter in Vincula, I beheld with
+pleasure; as well as that of Christ, by the same hand, in the Church of
+S. Maria sopra Minerva. The right foot, covered with bronze, gilt, is
+much kissed by the devotees. I suppose it is looked upon as a specific
+for the toothache; for, I saw a cavalier, in years, and an old woman
+successively rub their gums upon it, with the appearance of the most
+painful perseverance.
+
+You need not doubt but that I went to the church of St. Peter in
+Montorio, to view the celebrated Transfiguration, by Raphael, which, if
+it was mine, I would cut in two parts. The three figures in the air
+attract the eye so strongly, that little or no attention is payed to
+those below on the mountain. I apprehend that the nature of the subject
+does not admit of that keeping and dependence, which ought to be
+maintained in the disposition of the lights and shadows in a picture.
+The groupes seem to be intirely independent of each other. The
+extraordinary merit of this piece, I imagine, consists, not only in the
+expression of divinity on the face of Christ; but also in the
+surprising lightness of the figure, that hovers like a beautiful
+exhalation in the air. In the church of St. Luke, I was not at all
+struck by the picture of that saint, drawing the portrait of the Virgin
+Mary, although it is admired as one of the best pieces of Raphael.
+Indeed it made so little impression upon me, that I do not even
+remember the disposition of the figures. The altar-piece, by Andrea
+Sacchi, in the church of St. Romauldus, would have more merit, if the
+figure of the saint himself had more consequence, and was represented
+in a stronger light. In the Palazzo Borghese, I chiefly admired the
+following pieces: a Venus with two nymphs; and another with Cupid, both
+by Titian: an excellent Roman Piety, by Leonardo da Vinci; and the
+celebrated Muse, by Dominechino, which is a fine, jolly, buxom figure.
+At the palace of Colorina Connestabile, I was charmed with the
+Herodias, by Guido Rheni; a young Christ; and a Madonna, by Raphael;
+and four landscapes, two by Claude Lorraine, and the other two, by
+Salvator Rosa. In the palazetto, or summerhouse belonging to the
+Palazzo Rospigliosi, I had the satisfaction of contemplating the Aurora
+of Guido, the colours of which still remain in high perfection,
+notwithstanding the common report that the piece is spoiled by the
+dampness of the apartment. The print of this picture, by Freij, with
+all its merit, conveys but an imperfect idea of the beauty of the
+original. In the Palazzo Barberini, there is a great collection of
+marbles and pictures: among the first, I was attracted by a beautiful
+statue of Venus; a sleeping faun, of curious workmanship; a charming
+Bacchus, lying on an antient sculpture, and the famous Narcissus. Of
+the pictures, what gave me most pleasure was the Magdalen of Guido,
+infinitely superior to that by Le Brun in the church of the Carmelites
+at Paris; the Virgin, by Titian; a Madonna, by Raphael, but not
+comparable to that which is in the Palazzo de Pitti, at Florence; and
+the death of Germanicus, by Poussin, which I take to be one of the best
+pieces in this great collection. In the Palazzo Falconeri there is a
+beautiful St. Cecilia, by Guercino; a holy family, by Raphael; and a
+fine expressive figure of St. Peter weeping, by Dominechino. In the
+Palazzo Altieri, I admired a picture, by Carlo Maratti, representing a
+saint calling down lightning from heaven to destroy blasphemers. It was
+the figure of the saint I admired, merely as a portrait. The execution
+of the other parts was tame enough: perhaps they were purposely kept
+down, in order to preserve the importance of the principal figure. I
+imagine Salvator Rosa would have made a different disposition on the
+same subject: that amidst the darkness of a tempest, he would have
+illuminated the blasphemer with the flash of lightning by which he was
+destroyed: this would have thrown a dismal gleam upon his countenance,
+distorted by the horror of his situation as well as by the effects of
+the fire; and rendered the whole scene dreadfully picturesque. In the
+same palace, I saw the famous holy family, by Corregio, which he left
+unfinished, and no other artist would undertake to supply; for what
+reason I know not. Here too is a judgment of Paris, by Titian, which is
+reckoned a very valuable piece. In the Palazzo Odescalchi, there is a
+holy family, by Buonaroti, and another by Raphael, both counted
+excellent, though in very different stiles, extremely characteristic of
+those two great rival artists.
+
+If I was silly enough to make a parade, I might mention some hundreds
+more of marbles and pictures, which I really saw at Rome; and even eke
+out that number with a huge list of those I did not see: but whatever
+vanity I may have, it has not taken this turn; and I assure you, upon
+my word and honour, I have described nothing but what actually fell
+under my own observation. As for my critical remarks, I am afraid you
+will think them too superficial and capricious to belong to any other
+person but--Your humble servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXIV
+
+NICE, April 2, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--I have nothing to communicate touching the library of the
+Vatican, which, with respect to the apartments and their ornaments, is
+undoubtedly magnificent. The number of books it contains does not
+exceed forty thousand volumes, which are all concealed from the view,
+and locked up in presses: as for the manuscripts, I saw none but such
+as are commonly presented to strangers of our nation; some very old
+copies of Virgil and Terence; two or three Missals, curiously
+illuminated; the book De Septem Sacramentis, written in Latin by Henry
+VIII. against Luther; and some of that prince's love letters to Anne
+Boleyn. I likewise visited the Libreria Casanatense, belonging to the
+convent of the church called S. Maria Sopra Minerva. I had a
+recommendation to the principal librarian, a Dominican friar, who
+received me very politely, and regaled me with a sight of several
+curious MSS. of the classics.
+
+Having satisfied my curiosity at Rome, I prepared for my departure, and
+as the road between Radicofani and Montefiascone is very stony and
+disagreeable, I asked the banker Barazzi, if there was not a better way
+of returning to Florence, expressing a desire at the same time to see
+the cascade of Terni. He assured me that the road by Terni was forty
+miles shorter than the other, much more safe and easy, and accommodated
+with exceeding good auberges. Had I taken the trouble to cast my eyes
+upon the map, I must have seen, that the road by Terni, instead of
+being forty miles shorter, was much longer than the other: but this was
+not the only mistake of Signiore Barazzi. Great part of this way lies
+over steep mountains, or along the side of precipices, which render
+travelling in a carriage exceeding tedious, dreadful, and dangerous;
+and as for the public houses, they are in all respects the most
+execrable that ever I entered. I will venture to say that a common
+prisoner in the Marshalsea or King's-Bench is more cleanly and
+commodiously lodged than we were in many places on this road. The
+houses are abominably nasty, and generally destitute of provision: when
+eatables were found, we were almost poisoned by their cookery: their
+beds were without curtains or bedstead, and their windows without
+glass; and for this sort of entertainment we payed as much as if we had
+been genteelly lodged, and sumptuously treated. I repeat it again; of
+all the people I ever knew, the Italians are the most villainously
+rapacious. The first day, having passed Civita Castellana, a small town
+standing on the top of a hill, we put up at what was called an
+excellent inn, where cardinals, prelates, and princes, often lodged.
+Being meagre day, there was nothing but bread, eggs, and anchovies, in
+the house. I went to bed without supper, and lay in a pallet, where I
+was half devoured by vermin. Next day, our road, in some places, lay
+along precipices, which over-hang the Nera or Nar, celebrated in
+antiquity for its white foam, and the sulphureous quality of its waters.
+
+  Sulfurea nar albus aqua, fontesque velini.
+
+  Sulphureous nar, and the Velinian streams.
+
+It is a small, but rapid stream, which runs not far from hence, into
+the Tyber. Passing Utricoli, near the ruins of the ancient Ocriculum,
+and the romantic town of Narni, situated on the top of a mountain, in
+the neighbourhood of which is still seen standing one arch of the
+stupendous bridge built by Augustus Caesar, we arrived at Terni, and
+hiring a couple of chaises before dinner, went to see the famous
+Cascata delle Marmore, which is at the distance of three miles. We
+ascended a steep mountain by a narrow road formed for a considerable
+way along the brink of a precipice, at the bottom of which brawls the
+furious river Nera, after having received the Velino. This last is the
+stream which, running from the Lago delle Marmore, forms the cascade by
+falling over a precipice about one hundred and sixty feet high. Such a
+body of water rushing down the mountain; the smoak, vapour, and thick
+white mist which it raises; the double rainbow which these particles
+continually exhibit while the sun shines; the deafening sound of the
+cataract; the vicinity of a great number of other stupendous rocks and
+precipices, with the dashing, boiling, and foaming of the two rivers
+below, produce altogether an object of tremendous sublimity: yet great
+part of its effect is lost, for want of a proper point of view, from
+which it might be contemplated. The cascade would appear much more
+astonishing, were it not in some measure eclipsed by the superior
+height of the neighbouring mountains. You have not a front perspective;
+but are obliged to view it obliquely on one side, standing upon the
+brink of a precipice, which cannot be approached without horror. This
+station might be rendered much more accessible, and altogether secure,
+for the expence of four or five zequines; and a small tax might be
+levied for the purpose from travellers by the aubergiste at Terni, who
+lets his calasses for half a zequine a piece to those that are curious
+to see this phaenomenon. Besides the two postilions whom I payed for
+this excursion, at the rate of one stage in posting, there was a fellow
+who posted himself behind one of the chaises, by way of going to point
+out the different views of the cascade; and his demand amounted to four
+or five pauls. To give you an idea of the extortion of those villainous
+publicans, I must tell you that for a dinner and supper, which even
+hunger could not tempt us to eat, and a night's lodging in three
+truckle beds, I paid eighty pauls, amounting to forty shillings
+sterling. You ask me why I submitted to such imposition? I will tell
+you--I have more than once in my travels made a formal complaint of the
+exorbitancy of a publican, to the magistrate of the place; but I never
+received any satisfaction, and have lost abundance of time. Had I
+proceeded to manual correction, I should have alarmed and terrified the
+women: had I peremptorily refused to pay the sum total, the landlord,
+who was the post-master, would not have supplied me with horses to
+proceed on my journey. I tried the experiment at Muy in France, where I
+put myself into a violent passion, had abundance of trouble, was
+detained till it was almost night, and after all found myself obliged
+to submit, furnishing at the same time matter of infinite triumph to
+the mob, which had surrounded the coach, and interested themselves
+warmly in favour of their townsman. If some young patriot, in good
+health and spirits, would take the trouble as often as he is imposed
+upon by the road in travelling, to have recourse to the fountain-head,
+and prefer a regular complaint to the comptroller of the posts, either
+in France or Italy, he would have ample satisfaction, and do great
+service to the community. Terni is an agreeable town, pretty well
+built, and situated in a pleasant valley, between two branches of the
+river Nera, whence it was called by the antients, Interamna. Here is an
+agreeable piazza, where stands a church that was of old a heathen
+temple. There are some valuable paintings in the church. The people are
+said to be very civil, and provisions to be extremely cheap. It was the
+birthplace of the emperor Tacitus, as well as of the historian of the
+same name. In our journey from hence to Spoleto, we passed over a high
+mountain, (called, from its height, Somma) where it was necessary to
+have two additional horses to the carriage, and the road winds along a
+precipice. which is equally dangerous and dreadful. We passed through
+part of Spoleto, the capital of Umbria, which is a pretty large city.
+Of this, however, I give no other account from my own observation, but
+that I saw at a distance the famous Gothic aqueduct of brick: this is
+mentioned by Addison as a structure, which, for the height of its
+arches, is not equalled by any thing in Europe. The road from hence to
+Foligno, where we lay, is kept in good order, and lies through a
+delightful plain, laid out into beautiful inclosures, abounding with
+wine, oil, corn, and cattle, and watered by the pastoral streams of the
+famous river Clitumnus, which takes its rise in three or four separate
+rivulets issuing from a rock near the highway. On the right-hand, we
+saw several towns situated on rising grounds, and among the rest, that
+of Assissio, famous for the birth of St. Francis, whose body, being
+here deposited, occasions a concourse of pilgrims. We met a Roman
+princess going thither with a grand retinue, in consequence of a vow
+she had made for the re-establishment of her health. Foligno, the
+Fulginium of the antients, is a small town, not unpleasant, lying in
+the midst of mulberry plantations, vineyards, and corn-fields, and
+built on both sides of the little river Topino. In choosing our beds at
+the inn, I perceived one chamber locked, and desired it might be
+opened; upon which the cameriere declared with some reluctance,
+"Besogna dire a su' eccellenza; poco fa, che una bestia e morta in
+questa camera, e non e ancora lustrata," "Your Excellency must know
+that a filthy Beast died lately in that Chamber, and it is not yet
+purified and put in order." When I enquired what beast it was, he
+replied, "Un'eretico Inglese," "An English heretic." I suppose he would
+not have made so free with our country and religion, if he had not
+taken us for German catholics, as we afterwards learned from Mr. R--i.
+Next day, we crossed the Tyber, over a handsome bridge, and in mounting
+the steep hill upon which the city of Perugia stands, our horses being
+exhausted, were dragged backwards by the weight of the carriage to the
+very edge of a precipice, where, happily for us, a man passing that
+way, placed a large stone behind one of the wheels, which stopped their
+motion, otherwise we should have been all dashed in pieces. We had
+another ugly hill to ascend within the city, which was more difficult
+and dangerous than the other: but the postilions, and the other beasts
+made such efforts, that we mounted without the least stop, to the
+summit, where we found ourselves in a large piazza, where the horses
+are always changed. There being no relays at the post, we were obliged
+to stay the whole day and night at Perugia, which is a considerable
+city, built upon the acclivity of a hill, adorned with some elegant
+fountains, and several handsome churches, containing some valuable
+pictures by Guido, Raphael, and his master Pietro Perugino, who was a
+native of this place. The next stage is on the banks of the lake, which
+was the Thrasimene of the antients, a beautiful piece of water, above
+thirty miles in circumference, having three islands, abounding with
+excellent fish: upon a peninsula of it, there is a town and castle. It
+was in this neighbourhood where the consul Flaminius was totally
+defeated with great slaughter by Hannibal. From Perugia to Florence,
+the posts are all double, and the road is so bad that we never could
+travel above eight and twenty miles a day. We were often obliged to
+quit the carriage, and walk up steep mountains; and the way in general
+was so unequal and stony, that we were jolted even to the danger of our
+lives. I never felt any sort of exercise or fatigue so intolerable; and
+I did not fail to bestow an hundred benedictions per diem upon the
+banker Barazzi, by whose advice we had taken this road; yet there was
+no remedy but patience. If the coach had not been incredibly strong, it
+must have been shattered to pieces. The fifth night we passed at a
+place called Camoccia, a miserable cabaret, where we were fain to cook
+our own supper, and lay in a musty chamber, which had never known a
+fire, and indeed had no fire-place, and where we ran the risque of
+being devoured by rats. Next day one of the irons of the coach gave way
+at Arezzo, where we were detained two hours before it could be
+accommodated. I might have taken this opportunity to view the remains
+of the antient Etruscan amphitheatre, and the temple of Hercules,
+described by the cavalier Lorenzo Guazzesi, as standing in the
+neighbourhood of this place: but the blacksmith assured me his work
+would be finished in a few minutes; and as I had nothing so much at
+heart as the speedy accomplishment of this disagreeable journey, I
+chose to suppress my curiosity, rather than be the occasion of a
+moment's delay. But all the nights we had hitherto passed were
+comfortable in comparison to this, which we suffered at a small
+village, the name of which I do not remember. The house was dismal and
+dirty beyond all description; the bed-cloaths filthy enough to turn the
+stomach of a muleteer; and the victuals cooked in such a manner, that
+even a Hottentot could not have beheld them without loathing. We had
+sheets of our own, which were spread upon a mattrass, and here I took
+my repose wrapped in a greatcoat, if that could be called repose which
+was interrupted by the innumerable stings of vermin. In the morning, I
+was seized with a dangerous fit of hooping-cough, which terrified my
+wife, alarmed my people, and brought the whole community into the
+house. I had undergone just such another at Paris, about a year before.
+This forenoon, one of our coach wheels flew off in the neighbourhood of
+Ancisa, a small town, where we were detained above two hours by this
+accident; a delay which was productive of much disappointment, danger,
+vexation, and fatigue. There being no horses at the last post, we were
+obliged to wait until those which brought us thither were sufficiently
+refreshed to proceed. Understanding that all the gates of Florence are
+shut at six, except two that are kept open for the accommodation of
+travellers; and that to reach the nearest of these gates, it was
+necessary to pass the river Arno in a ferry-boat, which could not
+transport the carriage; I determined to send my servant before with a
+light chaise to enter the nearest gate before it was shut, and provide
+a coach to come and take us up at the side of the river, where we
+should be obliged to pass in the boat: for I could not bear the
+thoughts of lying another night in a common cabaret. Here, however,
+another difficulty occurred. There was but one chaise, and a dragoon
+officer, in the imperial troops, insisted upon his having bespoke it
+for himself and his servant. A long dispute ensued, which had like to
+have produced a quarrel: but at length I accommodated matters, by
+telling the officer that he should have a place in it gratis, and his
+servant might ride a-horse-back. He accepted the offer without
+hesitation; but, in the mean time, we set out in the coach before them,
+and having proceeded about a couple of miles, the road was so deep from
+a heavy rain, and the beasts were so fatigued, that they could not
+proceed. The postilions scourging the poor animals with great
+barbarity, they made an effort, and pulled the coach to the brink of a
+precipice, or rather a kind of hollow-way, which might be about seven
+or eight feet lower than the road. Here my wife and I leaped out, and
+stood under the rain up to the ancles in mud; while the postilions
+still exercising their whips, one of the fore-horses fairly tumbled
+down the descent, arid hung by the neck, so that he was almost
+strangled before he could be disengaged from the traces, by the
+assistance of some foot travellers that happened to pass. While we
+remained in this dilemma, the chaise, with the officer and my servant,
+coming up, we exchanged places; my wife and I proceeded in the chaise,
+and left them with Miss C-- and Mr. R--, to follow in the coach. The
+road from hence to Florence is nothing but a succession of steep
+mountains, paved and conducted in such a manner, that one would imagine
+the design had been to render it impracticable by any sort of
+wheel-carriage. Notwithstanding all our endeavours, I found it would be
+impossible to enter Florence before the gates were shut. I flattered
+and threatened the driver by turns: but the fellow, who had been
+remarkably civil at first, grew sullen and impertinent. He told me I
+must not think of reaching Florence: that the boat would not take the
+carriage on board; and that from the other side, I must walk five miles
+before I should reach the gate that was open: but he would carry me to
+an excellent osteria, where I should be entertained and lodged like a
+prince. I was now convinced that he had lingered on purpose to serve
+this inn-keeper; and I took it for granted that what he told me of the
+distance between the ferry and the gate was a lie. It was eight o'clock
+when we arrived at his inn. I alighted with my wife to view the
+chambers, desiring he would not put up his horses. Finding it was a
+villainous house, we came forth, and, by this time, the horses were put
+up. I asked the fellow how he durst presume to contradict my orders,
+and commanded him to put them to the chaise. He asked in his turn if I
+was mad? If I thought I and the lady had strength and courage enough to
+walk five miles in the dark, through a road which we did not know, and
+which was broke up by a continued rain of two days? I told him he was
+an impertinent rascal, and as he still hesitated, I collared him with
+one hand, and shook my cane over his head with the other. It was the
+only weapon I had, either offensive or defensive; for I had left my
+sword, and musquetoon in the coach. At length the fellow obeyed, though
+with great reluctance, cracking many severe jokes upon us in the mean
+time, and being joined in his raillery by the inn-keeper, who had all
+the external marks of a ruffian. The house stood in a solitary
+situation, and not a soul appeared but these two miscreants, so that
+they might have murdered us without fear of detection. "You do not like
+the apartments? (said one) to be sure they were not fitted up for
+persons of your rank and quality!" "You will be glad of a worse
+chamber, (continued the other) before you get to bed." "If you walk to
+Florence tonight, you will sleep so sound, that the fleas will not
+disturb you." "Take care you do not take up your night's lodging in the
+middle of the road, or in the ditch of the city-wall." I fired inwardly
+at these sarcasms, to which, however, I made no reply; and my wife was
+almost dead with fear. In the road from hence to the boat, we met with
+an ill-looking fellow, who offered his service to conduct us into the
+city, and such was our situation, that I was fain to accept his
+proposal, especially as we had two small boxes in the chaise by
+accident, containing some caps and laces belonging to my wife, I still
+hoped the postilion had exaggerated in the distance between the boat
+and the city gate, and was confirmed in this opinion by the ferryman,
+who said we had not above half a league to walk. Behold us then in this
+expedition; myself wrapped up in a very heavy greatcoat, and my cane in
+my hand. I did not imagine I could have walked a couple of miles in
+this equipage, had my life been depending; my wife a delicate creature,
+who had scarce ever walked a mile in her life; and the ragamuffin
+before us with our boxes under his arm. The night was dark and wet; the
+road slippery and dirty; not a soul was seen, nor a sound was heard:
+all was silent, dreary, and horrible. I laid my account with a violent
+fit of illness from the cold I should infallibly catch, if I escaped
+assassination, the fears of which were the more troublesome as I had no
+weapon to defend our lives. While I laboured under the weight of my
+greatcoat which made the streams of sweat flow down my face and
+shoulders, I was plunging in the mud, up to the mid-leg at every step;
+and at the same time obliged to support my wife, who wept in silence,
+half dead with terror and fatigue. To crown our vexation, our conductor
+walked so fast, that he was often out of sight, and I imagined he had
+run away with the boxes. All I could do on these occasions, was to
+hollow as loud as I could, and swear horribly that I would blow his
+brains out. I did not know but these oaths and menaces might keep other
+rogues in awe. In this manner did we travel three long miles, making
+almost an intire circuit of the city-wall, without seeing the face of a
+human creature, and at length reached the gate, where we were examined
+by the guard, and allowed to pass, after they had told us it was a long
+mile from thence to the house of Vanini, where we proposed to lodge. No
+matter, being now fairly within the city, I plucked up my spirits, and
+performed the rest of the journey with such ease, that I am persuaded,
+I could have walked at the same pace all night long, without being very
+much fatigued. It was near ten at night, when we entered the auberge in
+such a draggled and miserable condition, that Mrs. Vanini almost
+fainted at sight of us, on the supposition that we had met with some
+terrible disaster, and that the rest of the company were killed. My
+wife and I were immediately accommodated with dry stockings and shoes,
+a warm apartment, and a good supper, which I ate with great
+satisfaction, arising not only from our having happily survived the
+adventure, but also from a conviction that my strength and constitution
+were wonderfully repaired: not but that I still expected a severe cold,
+attended with a terrible fit of the asthma: but in this I was luckily
+disappointed. I now for the first time drank to the health of my
+physician Barazzi, fully persuaded that the hardships and violent
+exercise I underwent by following his advice, had greatly contributed
+to the re-establishment of my health. In this particular, I imitate the
+gratitude of Tavernier, who was radically cured of the gout by a
+Turkish aga in Aegypt, who gave him the bastinado, because he would not
+look at the head of the bashaw of Cairo, which the aga had in a bag, to
+be presented to the grand signior at Constantinople.
+
+I did not expect to see the rest of our company that night, as I never
+doubted but they would stay with the coach at the inn on the other side
+of the Arno: but at mid-night we were joined by Miss C-- and Mr. R--,
+who had left the carriage at the inn, under the auspices of the captain
+and my servant, and followed our foot-steps by walking from the
+ferry-boat to Florence, conducted by one of the boatmen. Mr. R-- seemed
+to be much ruffled and chagrined; but, as he did not think proper to
+explain the cause, he had no right to expect that I should give him
+satisfaction for some insult he had received from my servant. They had
+been exposed to a variety of disagreeable adventures from the
+impracticability of the road. The coach had been several times in the
+most imminent hazard of being lost with all our baggage; and at one
+place, it was necessary to hire a dozen of oxen, and as many men, to
+disengage it from the holes into which it had run. It was in the
+confusion of these adventures, that the captain and his valet, Mr. R--
+and my servant, had like to have gone all by the ears together. The
+peace was with difficulty preserved by the interposition of Miss C--,
+who suffered incredibly from cold and wet, terror, vexation, and
+fatigue: yet happily no bad consequence ensued. The coach and baggage
+were brought safely into Florence next morning, when all of us found
+ourselves well refreshed, and in good spirits. I am afraid this is not
+the case with you, who must by this time be quite jaded with this long
+epistle, which shall therefore be closed without further ceremony
+by,--Yours always.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXV
+
+NICE, March 20, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--The season being far advanced, and the weather growing
+boisterous, I made but a short stay at Florence, and set out for Pisa,
+with full resolution to take the nearest road to Lerici, where we
+proposed to hire a felucca for Genoa. I had a great desire to see
+Leghorn and Lucca; but the dread of a winter's voyage by sea in an open
+boat effectually restrained my curiosity. To avoid the trouble of
+having our baggage shifted every post, I hired two chaises to Pisa for
+a couple of zequines, and there we arrived in safety about seven in the
+evening, though not without fear of the consequence, as the calesses
+were quite open, and it rained all the way. I must own I was so sick of
+the wretched accommodation one meets with in every part of Italy,
+except the great cities, so averse to the sea at this season, and so
+fond of the city of Pisa, that I should certainly have stayed here the
+winter, had not I been separated from my books and papers, as well as
+from other conveniencies and connexions which I had at Nice; and
+foreseen that the thoughts of performing the same disagreeable voyage
+in the spring would imbitter my whole winter's enjoyment. I again hired
+two calesses for Lerici, proposing to lie at Sarzana, three miles short
+of that place, where we were told we should find comfortable lodging,
+and to embark next day without halting. When we departed in the
+morning, it rained very hard, and the Cerchio, which the chaises had
+formerly passed, almost without wetting the wheels, was now swelled to
+a mighty river, broad and deep and rapid. It was with great difficulty
+I could persuade my wife to enter the boat; for it blew a storm, and
+she had seen it in coming over from the other side hurried down a
+considerable way by the rapidity of the current, notwithstanding all
+the efforts of the watermen. Near two hours were spent in transporting
+us with our chaises. The road between this and Pietra Santa was
+rendered almost impassable. When we arrived at Massa, it began to grow
+dark, and the post-master assured us that the road to Sarzana was
+overflowed in such a manner as not to be passed even in the day-time,
+without imminent danger. We therefore took up our lodging for the night
+at this house, which was in all respects one of the worst we had yet
+entered. Next day, we found the Magra as large and violent as the
+Cerchio: however, we passed it without any accident, and in the
+afternoon arrived at Lerici. There we were immediately besieged by a
+number of patrons of feluccas, from among whom I chose a Spaniard,
+partly because he looked like an honest man, and produced an ample
+certificate, signed by an English gentleman; and partly, because he was
+not an Italian; for, by this time, I had imbibed a strong prejudice
+against the common people of that country. We embarked in the morning
+before day, with a gale that made us run the lee-gunwale in the water;
+but, when we pretended to turn the point of Porto Venere, we found the
+wind full in our teeth, and were obliged to return to our quarters,
+where we had been shamefully fleeced by the landlord, who,
+nevertheless, was not such an exorbitant knave as the post-master,
+whose house I would advise all travellers to avoid. Here, indeed, I had
+occasion to see an instance of prudence and oeconomy, which I should
+certainly imitate, if ever I had occasion to travel this way by myself.
+An Englishman, who had hired a felucca from Antibes to Leghorn, was put
+in here by stress of weather; but being aware of the extortion of
+innkeepers, and the bad accommodation in their houses, he slept on
+board on his own mattrasses; and there likewise he had all his
+conveniencies for eating. He sent his servant on shore occasionally to
+buy provision, and see it cooked according to his direction in some
+public house; and had his meals regularly in the felucca. This evening
+he came ashore to stretch his legs, and took a solitary walk on the
+beach, avoiding us with great care, although he knew we were English;
+his valet who was abundantly communicative, told my servant, that in
+coming through France, his master had travelled three days in company
+with two other English gentlemen, whom he met upon the road, and in all
+that time he never spoke a word to either, yet in other respects, he
+was a good man, mild, charitable, and humane. This is a character truly
+British. At five o'clock in the morning we put to sea again, and though
+the wind was contrary, made shift to reach the town of Sestri di
+Levante, where we were most graciously received by the publican butcher
+and his family. The house was in much better order than before; the
+people were much more obliging; we passed a very tolerable night, and
+had a very reasonable bill to pay in the morning. I cannot account for
+this favourable change any other way, than by ascribing it to the
+effects of a terrible storm, which had two days before torn up a great
+number of their olive-trees by the roots, and done such damage as
+terrified them into humility and submission. Next day, the water being
+delightful, we arrived by one o'clock in the afternoon at Genoa. Here I
+made another bargain with our patron Antonio, to carry us to Nice. He
+had been hitherto remarkably obliging, and seemingly modest. He spoke
+Latin fluently, and was tinctured with the sciences. I began to imagine
+he was a person of a good family, who had met with misfortunes in life,
+and respected him accordingly: but I afterwards found him mercenary,
+mean, and rapacious. The wind being still contrary, when we departed
+from Genoa, we could get no further than Finale, where we lodged in a
+very dismal habitation, which was recommended to us as the best auberge
+in the place. What rendered it the more uncomfortable, the night was
+cold, and there was not a fire-place in the house, except in the
+kitchen. The beds (if they deserved that name) were so shockingly
+nasty, that we could not have used them, had not a friend of Mr. R--
+supplied us with mattrasses, sheets, and coverlets; for our own sheets
+were on board the felucca, which was anchored at a distance from the
+shore. Our fare was equally wretched: the master of the house was a
+surly assassin, and his cameriere or waiter, stark-staring mad. Our
+situation was at the same time shocking and ridiculous. Mr. R--
+quarrelled over night with the master, who swore in broken French to my
+man, that he had a good mind to poniard that impertinent Piedmontese.
+In the morning, before day, Mr. R--, coming into my chamber, gave me to
+understand that he had been insulted by the landlord, who demanded six
+and thirty livres for our supper and lodging. Incensed at the rascal's
+presumption, I assured him I would make him take half the money, and a
+good beating into the bargain. He replied, that he would have saved me
+the trouble of beating him, had not the cameriere, who was a very
+sensible fellow, assured him the padrone was out of his senses, and if
+roughly handled, might commit some extravagance. Though I was
+exceedingly ruffled, I could not help laughing at the mad cameriere's
+palming himself upon R--y, as a sensible fellow, and transferring the
+charge of madness upon his master, who seemed to be much more knave
+than fool. While Mr. R-- went to mass, I desired the cameriere to bid
+his master bring the bill, and to tell him that if it was not
+reasonable, I would carry him before the commandant. In the mean time I
+armed myself with my sword in one hand and my cane in the other. The
+inn-keeper immediately entered, pale and staring, and when I demanded
+his bill, he told me, with a profound reverence that he should be
+satisfied with whatever I myself thought proper to give. Surprised at
+this moderation, I asked if he should be content with twelve livres,
+and he answered, "Contentissimo," with another prostration. Then he
+made an apology for the bad accommodation of his house, and complained,
+that the reproaches of the other gentleman, whom he was pleased to call
+my majorduomo, had almost turned his brain. When he quitted the room,
+his cameriere, laying hold of his master's last words, pointed to his
+own forehead, and said, he had informed the gentleman over night that
+his patron was mad. This day we were by a high wind in the afternoon,
+driven for shelter into Porto Mauritio, where we found the post-house
+even worse than that of Finale; and what rendered it more shocking was
+a girl quite covered with the confluent smallpox, who lay in a room
+through which it was necessary to pass to the other chambers, and who
+smelled so strong as to perfume the whole house. We were but fifteen
+miles from St. Remo, where I knew the auberge was tolerable, and
+thither I resolved to travel by land. I accordingly ordered five mules
+to travel post, and a very ridiculous cavalcade we formed, the women
+being obliged to use common saddles; for in this country even the
+ladies sit astride. The road lay along one continued precipice, and was
+so difficult, that the beasts never could exceed a walking pace. In
+some places we were obliged to alight. Seven hours were spent in
+travelling fifteen short miles: at length we arrived at our old
+lodgings in St. Remo, which we found white-washed, and in great order.
+We supped pretty comfortably; slept well; and had no reason to complain
+of imposition in paying the bill. This was not the case in the article
+of the mules, for which I was obliged to pay fifty livres, according to
+the regulation of the posts. The postmaster, who came along with us,
+had the effrontery to tell me, that if I had hired the mules to carry
+me and my company to St. Remo, in the way of common travelling, they
+would have cost me but fifteen livres; but as I demanded post-horses, I
+must submit to the regulations. This is a distinction the more absurd,
+as the road is of such a nature as renders it impossible to travel
+faster in one way than in another; nor indeed is there the least
+difference either in the carriage or convenience, between travelling
+post and journey riding. A publican might with the same reason charge
+me three livres a pound for whiting, and if questioned about the
+imposition, reply, that if I had asked for fish I should have had the
+same whiting for the fifth part of the money: but that he made a wide
+difference between selling it as fish, and selling it as whiting. Our
+felucca came round from Porto Mauritio in the night, and embarking next
+morning, we arrived at Nice about four in the afternoon.
+
+Thus have I given you a circumstantial detail of my Italian expedition,
+during which I was exposed to a great number of hardships, which I
+thought my weakened constitution could not have bore; as well as to
+violent fits of passion, chequered, however, with transports of a more
+agreeable nature; insomuch that I may say I was for two months
+continually agitated either in mind or body, and very often in both at
+the same time. As my disorder at first arose from a sedentary life,
+producing a relaxation of the fibres, which naturally brought on a
+listlessness, indolence, and dejection of the spirits, I am convinced
+that this hard exercise of mind and body, co-operated with the change
+of air and objects, to brace up the relaxed constitution, and promote a
+more vigorous circulation of the juices, which had long languished even
+almost to stagnation. For some years, I had been as subject to colds as
+a delicate woman new delivered. If I ventured to go abroad when there
+was the least moisture either in the air, or upon the ground, I was
+sure to be laid up a fortnight with a cough and asthma. But, in this
+journey, I suffered cold and rain, and stood, and walked in the wet,
+heated myself with exercise, and sweated violently, without feeling the
+least disorder; but, on the contrary, felt myself growing stronger
+every day in the midst of these excesses. Since my return to Nice, it
+has rained the best part of two months, to the astonishment of all the
+people in the country; yet during all that time I have enjoyed good
+health and spirits. On Christmas-Eve, I went to the cathedral at
+midnight, to hear high mass celebrated by the new bishop of Nice, in
+pontificalibus, and stood near two hours uncovered in a cold gallery,
+without having any cause in the sequel to repent of my curiosity. In a
+word, I am now so well that I no longer despair of seeing you and the
+rest of my friends in England; a pleasure which is eagerly desired
+by,--Dear Sir, Your affectionate humble Servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVI
+
+NICE, March 23, 1766.
+
+DEAR SIR,--You ask whether I think the French people are more taxed
+than the English; but I apprehend, the question would be more apropos
+if you asked whether the French taxes are more insupportable than the
+English; for, in comparing burthens, we ought always to consider the
+strength of the shoulders that bear them. I know no better way of
+estimating the strength, than by examining the face of the country, and
+observing the appearance of the common people, who constitute the bulk
+of every nation. When I, therefore, see the country of England smiling
+with cultivation; the grounds exhibiting all the perfection of
+agriculture, parcelled out into beautiful inclosures, cornfields, hay
+and pasture, woodland and common, when I see her meadows well stocked
+with black cattle, her downs covered with sheep; when I view her teams
+of horses and oxen, large and strong, fat and sleek; when I see her
+farm-houses the habitations of plenty, cleanliness, and convenience;
+and her peasants well fed, well lodged, well cloathed, tall and stout,
+and hale and jolly; I cannot help concluding that the people are well
+able to bear those impositions which the public necessities have
+rendered necessary. On the other hand, when I perceive such signs of
+poverty, misery and dirt, among the commonalty of France, their
+unfenced fields dug up in despair, without the intervention of meadow
+or fallow ground, without cattle to furnish manure, without horses to
+execute the plans of agriculture; their farm-houses mean, their
+furniture wretched, their apparel beggarly; themselves and their beasts
+the images of famine; I cannot help thinking they groan under
+oppression, either from their landlords, or their government; probably
+from both.
+
+The principal impositions of the French government are these: first,
+the taille, payed by all the commons, except those that are privileged:
+secondly, the capitation, from which no persons (not even the nobles)
+are excepted: thirdly, the tenths and twentieths, called Dixiemes and
+Vingtiemes, which every body pays. This tax was originally levied as an
+occasional aid in times of war, and other emergencies; but by degrees
+is become a standing revenue even in time of peace. All the money
+arising from these impositions goes directly to the king's treasury;
+and must undoubtedly amount to a very great sum. Besides these, he has
+the revenue of the farms, consisting of the droits d'aydes, or excise
+on wine, brandy, &c. of the custom-house duties; of the gabelle,
+comprehending that most oppressive obligation on individuals to take a
+certain quantity of salt at the price which the farmers shall please to
+fix; of the exclusive privilege to sell tobacco; of the droits de
+controlle, insinuation, centieme denier, franchiefs, aubeine, echange
+et contre-echange arising from the acts of voluntary jurisdiction, as
+well as certain law-suits. These farms are said to bring into the
+king's coffers above one hundred and twenty millions of livres yearly,
+amounting to near five millions sterling: but the poor people are said
+to pay about a third more than this sum, which the farmers retain to
+enrich themselves, and bribe the great for their protection; which
+protection of the great is the true reason why this most iniquitous,
+oppressive, and absurd method of levying money is not laid aside. Over
+and above those articles I have mentioned, the French king draws
+considerable sums from his clergy, under the denomination of dons
+gratuits, or free-gifts; as well as from the subsidies given by the
+pays d'etats such as Provence, Languedoc, and Bretagne, which are
+exempted from the taille. The whole revenue of the French king amounts
+to between twelve and thirteen millions sterling. These are great
+resources for the king: but they will always keep the people miserable,
+and effectually prevent them from making such improvements as might
+turn their lands to the best advantage. But besides being eased in the
+article of taxes, there is something else required to make them exert
+themselves for the benefit of their country. They must be free in their
+persons, secure in their property, indulged with reasonable leases, and
+effectually protected by law from the insolence and oppression of their
+superiors.
+
+Great as the French king's resources may appear, they are hardly
+sufficient to defray the enormous expence of his government. About two
+millions sterling per annum of his revenue are said to be anticipated
+for paying the interest of the public debts; and the rest is found
+inadequate to the charge of a prodigious standing army, a double
+frontier of fortified towns and the extravagant appointments of
+ambassadors, generals, governors, intendants, commandants, and other
+officers of the crown, all of whom affect a pomp, which is equally
+ridiculous and prodigal. A French general in the field is always
+attended by thirty or forty cooks; and thinks it is incumbent upon him,
+for the glory of France, to give a hundred dishes every day at his
+table. When don Philip, and the marechal duke de Belleisle, had their
+quarters at Nice, there were fifty scullions constantly employed in the
+great square in plucking poultry. This absurd luxury infects their
+whole army. Even the commissaries keep open table; and nothing is seen
+but prodigality and profusion. The king of Sardinia proceeds upon
+another plan. His troops are better cloathed, better payed, and better
+fed than those of France. The commandant of Nice has about four hundred
+a year of appointments, which enable him to live decently, and even to
+entertain strangers. On the other hand, the commandant of Antibes,
+which is in all respects more inconsiderable than Nice, has from the
+French king above five times the sum to support the glory of his
+monarch, which all the sensible part of mankind treat with ridicule and
+contempt. But the finances of France are so ill managed, that many of
+their commandants, and other officers, have not been able to draw their
+appointments these two years. In vain they complain and remonstrate.
+When they grow troublesome they are removed. How then must they support
+the glory of France? How, but by oppressing the poor people. The
+treasurer makes use of their money for his own benefit. The king knows
+it; he knows his officers, thus defrauded, fleece and oppress his
+people: but he thinks proper to wink at these abuses. That government
+may be said to be weak and tottering which finds itself obliged to
+connive at such proceedings. The king of France, in order to give
+strength and stability to his administration, ought to have sense to
+adopt a sage plan of oeconomy, and vigour of mind sufficient to execute
+it in all its parts, with the most rigorous exactness. He ought to have
+courage enough to find fault, and even to punish the delinquents, of
+what quality soever they may be: and the first act of reformation ought
+to be a total abolition of all the farms. There are, undoubtedly, many
+marks of relaxation in the reins of the French government, and, in all
+probability, the subjects of France will be the first to take advantage
+of it. There is at present a violent fermentation of different
+principles among them, which under the reign of a very weak prince, or
+during a long minority, may produce a great change in the constitution.
+In proportion to the progress of reason and philosophy, which have made
+great advances in this kingdom, superstition loses ground; antient
+prejudices give way; a spirit of freedom takes the ascendant. All the
+learned laity of France detest the hierarchy as a plan of despotism,
+founded on imposture and usurpation. The protestants, who are very
+numerous in southern parts, abhor it with all the rancour of religious
+fanaticism. Many of the commons, enriched by commerce and manufacture,
+grow impatient of those odious distinctions, which exclude them from
+the honours and privileges due to their importance in the commonwealth;
+and all the parliaments, or tribunals of justice in the kingdom, seem
+bent upon asserting their rights and independence in the face of the
+king's prerogative, and even at the expence of his power and authority.
+Should any prince therefore be seduced by evil counsellors, or misled
+by his own bigotry, to take some arbitrary step, that may be extremely
+disagreeable to all those communities, without having spirit to exert
+the violence of his power for the support of his measures, he will
+become equally detested and despised; and the influence of the commons
+will insensibly encroach upon the pretensions of the crown. But if in
+the time of a minority, the power of the government should be divided
+among different competitors for the regency, the parliaments and people
+will find it still more easy to acquire and ascertain the liberty at
+which they aspire, because they will have the balance of power in their
+hands, and be able to make either scale preponderate. I could say a
+great deal more upon this subject; and I have some remarks to make
+relating to the methods which might be taken in the case of a fresh
+rupture with France, for making a vigorous impression on that kingdom.
+But these I in list defer till another occasion, having neither room
+nor leisure at present to add any thing, but that I am, with great
+truth,--Dear Sir, Your very humble Servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVII
+
+NICE, April 2, 1765.
+
+DEAR DOCTOR,--As I have now passed a second winter at Nice I think
+myself qualified to make some further remarks on this climate. During
+the heats of last summer, I flattered myself with the prospect of the
+fine weather I should enjoy in the winter; but neither I, nor any
+person in this country, could foresee the rainy weather that prevailed
+from the middle of November, till the twentieth of March. In this short
+period of four months, we have had fifty-six days of rain, which I take
+to be a greater quantity than generally falls during the six worst
+months of the year in the county of Middlesex, especially as it was,
+for the most part, a heavy, continued rain. The south winds generally
+predominate in the wet season at Nice: but this winter the rain was
+accompanied with every wind that blows, except the south; though the
+most frequent were those that came from the east and north quarters.
+Notwithstanding these great rains, such as were never known before at
+Nice in the memory of man, the intermediate days of fair weather were
+delightful, and the ground seemed perfectly dry. The air itself was
+perfectly free from moisture. Though I live upon a ground floor,
+surrounded on three sides by a garden, I could not perceive the least
+damp, either on the floors, or the furniture; neither was I much
+incommoded by the asthma, which used always to harass me most in wet
+weather. In a word, I passed the winter here much more comfortably than
+I expected. About the vernal equinox, however, I caught a violent cold,
+which was attended with a difficulty of breathing, and as the sun
+advances towards the tropic, I find myself still more subject to
+rheums. As the heat increases, the humours of the body are rarefied,
+and, of consequence, the pores of the skin are opened; while the east
+wind sweeping over the Alps and Apennines, covered with snow, continues
+surprisingly sharp and penetrating. Even the people of the country, who
+enjoy good health, are afraid of exposing themselves to the air at this
+season, the intemperature of which may last till the middle of May,
+when all the snow on the mountains will probably be melted: then the
+air will become mild and balmy, till, in the progress of summer, it
+grows disagreeably hot, and the strong evaporation from the sea makes
+it so saline, as to be unhealthy for those who have a scorbutical
+habit. When the sea-breeze is high, this evaporation is so great as to
+cover the surface of the body with a kind of volatile brine, as I
+plainly perceived last summer. I am more and more convinced that this
+climate is unfavourable for the scurvy. Were I obliged to pass my life
+in it, I would endeavour to find a country retreat among the mountains,
+at some distance from the sea, where I might enjoy a cool air, free
+from this impregnation, unmolested by those flies, gnats, and other
+vermin which render the lower parts almost uninhabitable. To this place
+I would retire in the month of June, and there continue till the
+beginning of October, when I would return to my habitation in Nice,
+where the winter is remarkably mild and agreeable. In March and April
+however, I would not advise a valetudinarian to go forth, without
+taking precaution against the cold. An agreeable summer retreat may be
+found on the other side of the Var, at, or near the town of Grasse,
+which is pleasantly situated on the ascent of a hill in Provence, about
+seven English miles from Nice. This place is famous for its pomatum,
+gloves, wash-balls, perfumes, and toilette-boxes, lined with bergamot.
+I am told it affords good lodging, and is well supplied with provisions.
+
+We are now preparing for our journey to England, from the exercise of
+which I promise myself much benefit: a journey extremely agreeable, not
+only on that account, but also because it will restore me to the
+company of my friends, and remove me from a place where I leave nothing
+but the air which I can possibly regret.
+
+The only friendships I have contracted at Nice are with strangers, who,
+like myself, only sojourn here for a season. I now find by experience,
+it is great folly to buy furniture, unless one is resolved to settle
+here for some years. The Nissards assured me, with great confidence,
+that I should always be able to sell it for a very little loss; whereas
+I find myself obliged to part with it for about one-third of what it
+cost. I have sent for a coach to Aix, and as soon as it arrives, shall
+take my departure; so that the next letter you receive from me will be
+dated at some place on the road. I purpose to take Antibes, Toulon,
+Marseilles, Aix, Avignon, and Orange, in my way: places which I have
+not yet seen; and where, perhaps, I shall find something for your
+amusement, which will always be a consideration of some weight
+with,--Dear Sir, Yours.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVIII
+
+To DR. S-- AT NICE
+
+TURIN, March 18, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--Turin is about thirty leagues from Nice, the greater part of
+the way lying over frightful mountains covered with snow. The
+difficulty of the road, however, reaches no farther than Coni, from
+whence there is an open highway through a fine plain country, as far as
+the capital of Piedmont, and the traveller is accommodated with chaise
+and horses to proceed either post, or by cambiatura, as in other parts
+of Italy. There are only two ways of performing the journey over the
+mountains from Nice; one is to ride a mule-back, and the other to be
+carried in a chair. The former I chose, and set out with my servant on
+the seventh day of February at two in the afternoon. I was hardly clear
+of Nice, when it began to rain so hard that in less than an hour the
+mud was half a foot deep in many parts of the road. This was the only
+inconvenience we suffered, the way being in other respects practicable
+enough; for there is but one small hill to cross on this side of the
+village of L'Escarene, where we arrived about six in the evening. The
+ground in this neighbourhood is tolerably cultivated, and the mountains
+are planted to the tops with olive trees. The accommodation here is so
+very bad, that I had no inclination to be a-bed longer than was
+absolutely necessary for refreshment; and therefore I proceeded on my
+journey at two in the morning, conducted by a guide, whom I hired for
+this purpose at the rate of three livres a day. Having ascended one
+side, and descended the other, of the mountain called Braus, which took
+up four hours, though the road is not bad, we at six reached the
+village of Sospello, which is agreeably situated in a small valley,
+surrounded by prodigious high and barren mountains. This little plain
+is pretty fertile, and being watered by a pleasant stream, forms a
+delightful contrast with the hideous rocks that surround it. Having
+reposed myself and my mules two hours at this place, we continued our
+journey over the second mountain, called Brovis, which is rather more
+considerable than the first, and in four hours arrived at La Giandola,
+a tolerable inn situated betwixt the high road and a small river, about
+a gunshot from the town of Brieglie, which we leave on the right. As we
+jogged along in the grey of the morning, I was a little startled at two
+figures which I saw before me, and began to put my pistols in order. It
+must be observed that these mountains are infested with contrabandiers,
+a set of smuggling peasants, very bold and desperate, who make a
+traffic of selling tobacco, salt, and other merchandize, which have not
+payed duty, and sometimes lay travellers under contribution. I did not
+doubt but there was a gang of these free-booters at hand; but as no
+more than two persons appeared, I resolved to let them know we were
+prepared for defence, and fired one of my pistols, in hope that the
+report of it, echoed from the surrounding rocks, would produce a proper
+effect: but, the mountains and roads being entirely covered with snow
+to a considerable depth, there was little or no reverberation, and the
+sound was not louder than that of a pop-gun, although the piece
+contained a good charge of powder. Nevertheless, it did not fail to
+engage the attention of the strangers, one of whom immediately wheeled
+to the left about, and being by this time very near me, gave me an
+opportunity of contemplating his whole person. He was very tall,
+meagre, and yellow, with a long hooked nose, and small twinkling eyes.
+His head was eased in a woollen night-cap, over which he wore a flapped
+hat; he had a silk handkerchief about his neck, and his mouth was
+furnished with a short wooden pipe, from which he discharged wreathing
+clouds of tobacco-smoke. He was wrapped in a kind of capot of green
+bays, lined with wolf-skin, had a pair of monstrous boots, quilted on
+the inside with cotton, was almost covered with dirt, and rode a mule
+so low that his long legs hung dangling within six inches of the
+ground. This grotesque figure was so much more ludicrous than terrible,
+that I could not help laughing; when, taking his pipe out of his mouth,
+he very politely accosted me by name. You may easily guess I was
+exceedingly surprised at such an address on the top of the mountain
+Brovis: but he forthwith put an end to it too, by discovering himself
+to be the marquis M--, whom I had the honour to be acquainted with at
+Nice. After having rallied him upon his equipage, he gave me to
+understand he had set out from Nice the morning of the same day that I
+departed; that he was going to Turin, and that he had sent one of his
+servants before him to Coni with his baggage. Knowing him to be an
+agreeable companion, I was glad of this encounter, and we resolved to
+travel the rest of the way together. We dined at La Giandola, and in
+the afternoon rode along the little river Roida, which runs in a bottom
+between frightful precipices, and in several places forms natural
+cascades, the noise of which had well-nigh deprived us of the sense of
+hearing; after a winding course among these mountains, it discharges
+itself into the Mediterranean at Vintimiglia, in the territory of
+Genoa. As the snow did not lie on these mountains, when we cracked our
+whips, there was such a repercussion of the sound as is altogether
+inconceivable. We passed by the village of Saorgio, situated on an
+eminence, where there is a small fortress which commands the whole
+pass, and in five hours arrived at our inn, on this side the Col de
+Tende, where we took up our quarters, but had very little reason to
+boast of our entertainment. Our greatest difficulty, however, consisted
+in pulling off the marquis's boots, which were of the kind called
+Seafarot, by this time so loaded with dirt on the outside, and so
+swelled with the rain within, that he could neither drag them after him
+as he walked, nor disencumber his legs of them, without such violence
+as seemed almost sufficient to tear him limb from limb. In a word, we
+were obliged to tie a rope about his heel, and all the people in the
+house assisting to pull, the poor marquis was drawn from one end of the
+apartment to the other before the boot would give way: at last his legs
+were happily disengaged, and the machines carefully dried and stuffed
+for next day's journey.
+
+We took our departure from hence at three in the morning, and at four,
+began to mount the Col de Tende, which is by far the highest mountain
+in the whole journey: it was now quite covered with snow, which at the
+top of it was near twenty feet thick. Half way up, there are quarters
+for a detachment of soldiers, posted here to prevent smuggling, and an
+inn called La Ca, which in the language of the country signifies the
+house. At this place, we hired six men to assist us in ascending the
+mountain, each of them provided with a kind of hough to break the ice,
+and make a sort of steps for the mules. When we were near the top,
+however, we were obliged to alight, and climb the mountain supported
+each by two of those men, called Coulants who walk upon the snow with
+great firmness and security. We were followed by the mules, and though
+they are very sure-footed animals, and were frost-shod for the
+occasion, they stumbled and fell very often; the ice being so hard that
+the sharp-headed nails in their shoes could not penetrate. Having
+reached the top of this mountain, from whence there is no prospect but
+of other rocks and mountains, we prepared for descending on the other
+side by the Leze, which is an occasional sledge made of two pieces of
+wood, carried up by the Coulants for this purpose. I did not much
+relish this kind of carriage, especially as the mountain was very
+steep, and covered with such a thick fog that we could hardly see two
+or three yards before us. Nevertheless, our guides were so confident,
+and my companion, who had passed the same way on other occasions, was
+so secure, that I ventured to place myself on this machine, one of the
+coulants standing behind me, and the other sitting before, as the
+conductor, with his feet paddling among the snow, in order to moderate
+the velocity of its descent. Thus accommodated, we descended the
+mountain with such rapidity, that in an hour we reached Limon, which is
+the native place of almost all the muleteers who transport merchandize
+from Nice to Coni and Turin. Here we waited full two hours for the
+mules, which travelled with the servants by the common road. To each of
+the coulants we paid forty sols, which are nearly equal to two
+shillings sterling. Leaving Limon, we were in two hours quite
+disengaged from the gorges of the mountains, which are partly covered
+with wood and pasturage, though altogether inaccessible, except in
+summer; but from the foot of the Col de Tende, the road lies through a
+plain all the way to Turin. We took six hours to travel from the inn
+where we had lodged over the mountain to Limon, and five hours from
+thence to Coni. Here we found our baggage, which we had sent off by the
+carriers one day before we departed from Nice; and here we dismissed
+our guides, together with the mules. In winter, you have a mule for
+this whole journey at the rate of twenty livres; and the guides are
+payed at the rate of two livres a day, reckoning six days, three for
+the journey to Coni, and three for their return to Nice. We set out so
+early in the morning in order to avoid the inconveniencies and dangers
+that attend the passage of this mountain. The first of these arises
+from your meeting with long strings of loaded mules in a slippery road,
+the breadth of which does not exceed a foot and an half. As it is
+altogether impossible for two mules to pass each other in such a narrow
+path, the muleteers have made doublings or elbows in different parts,
+and when the troops of mules meet, the least numerous is obliged to
+turn off into one of these doublings, and there halt until the others
+are past. Travellers, in order to avoid this disagreeable delay, which
+is the more vexatious, considering the excessive cold, begin the ascent
+of the mountain early in the morning before the mules quit their inns.
+But the great danger of travelling here when the sun is up, proceeds
+from what they call the Valanches. These are balls of snow detached
+from the mountains which over-top the road, either by the heat of the
+sun, or the humidity of the weather. A piece of snow thus loosened from
+the rock, though perhaps not above three or four feet in diameter,
+increases sometimes in its descent to such a degree, as to become two
+hundred paces in length, and rolls down with such rapidity, that the
+traveller is crushed to death before he can make three steps on the
+road. These dreadful heaps drag every thing along with them in their
+descent. They tear up huge trees by the roots, and if they chance to
+fall upon a house, demolish it to the foundation. Accidents of this
+nature seldom happen in the winter while the weather is dry; and yet
+scarce a year passes in which some mules and their drivers do not
+perish by the valanches. At Coni we found the countess C-- from Nice,
+who had made the same journey in a chair, carried by porters. This is
+no other than a common elbow-chair of wood, with a straw bottom,
+covered above with waxed cloth, to protect the traveller from the rain
+or snow, and provided with a foot-board upon which the feet rest.
+
+It is carried like a sedan-chair; and for this purpose six or eight
+porters are employed at the rate of three or four livres a head per
+day, according to the season, allowing three days for their return. Of
+these six men, two are between the poles carrying like common chairmen,
+and each of these is supported by the other two, one at each hand: but
+as those in the middle sustain the greatest burthen, they are relieved
+by the others in a regular rotation. In descending the mountain, they
+carry the poles on their shoulders, and in that case, four men are
+employed, one at each end.
+
+At Coni, you may have a chaise to go with the same horses to Turin, for
+which you pay fifteen livres, and are a day and a half on the way. You
+may post it, however, in one day, and then the price is seven livres
+ten sols per post, and ten sols to the postilion. The method we took
+was that of cambiatura. This is a chaise with horses shifted at the
+same stages that are used in posting: but as it is supposed to move
+slower, we pay but five livres per post, and ten sols to the postilion.
+In order to quicken its pace, we gave ten sols extraordinary to each
+postilion, and for this gratification, he drove us even faster than the
+post. The chaises are like those of Italy, and will take on near two
+hundred weight of baggage.
+
+Coni is situated between two small streams, and though neither very
+large nor populous, is considerable for the strength of its
+fortifications. It is honoured with the title of the Maiden-Fortress,
+because though several times besieged, it was never taken. The prince
+of Conti invested it in the war of 1744; but he was obliged to raise
+the siege, after having given battle to the king of Sardinia. The place
+was gallantly defended by the baron Leutrum, a German protestant, the
+best general in the Sardinian service: but what contributed most to the
+miscarriage of the enemy, was a long tract of heavy rains, which
+destroyed all their works, and rendered their advances impracticable.
+
+I need not tell you that Piedmont is one of the most fertile and
+agreeable countries in Europe, and this the most agreeable part of all
+Piedmont, though it now appeared to disadvantage from the rigorous
+season of the year: I shall only observe that we passed through
+Sabellian, which is a considerable town, and arrived in the evening at
+Turin. We entered this fine city by the gate of Nice, and passing
+through the elegant Piazza di San Carlo, took up our quarters at the
+Bona Fama, which stands at one corner of the great square, called La
+Piazza Castel.
+
+Were I even disposed to give a description of Turin, I should be
+obliged to postpone it till another opportunity, having no room at
+present to say any thing more, but that I am always--Yours.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXIX
+
+AIX EN PROVENCE, May 10, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--I am thus far on my way to England. I had resolved to leave
+Nice, without having the least dispute with any one native of the
+place; but I found it impossible to keep this resolution. My landlord,
+Mr. C--, a man of fashion, with whose family we had always lived in
+friendship, was so reasonable as to expect I should give him up the
+house and garden, though they were to be paid for till Michaelmas, and
+peremptorily declared I should not be permitted to sub-let them to any
+other person. He had of his own accord assured me more than once that
+he would take my furniture off my hands, and trusting to this
+assurance, I had lost the opportunity, of disposing it to advantage:
+but, when the time of my departure drew near, he refused to take it, at
+the same time insisting upon having the key of the house and garden, as
+well as on being paid the whole rent directly, though it would not be
+due till the middle of September. I was so exasperated at this
+treatment from a man whom I had cultivated with particular respect,
+that I determined to contest it at law: but the affair was accommodated
+by the mediation of a father of the Minims, a friend to both, and a
+merchant of Nice, who charged himself with the care of the house and
+furniture. A stranger must conduct himself with the utmost
+circumspection to be able to live among these people without being the
+dupe of imposition.
+
+I had sent to Aix for a coach and four horses, which I hired at the
+rate of eighteen French livres a day, being equal to fifteen shillings
+and nine-pence sterling. The river Var was so swelled by the melting of
+the snow on the mountains, as to be impassable by any wheel-carriage;
+and, therefore, the coach remained at Antibes, to which we went by
+water, the distance being about nine or ten miles. This is the
+Antipolis of the antients, said to have been built like Nice, by a
+colony from Marseilles. In all probability, however, it was later than
+the foundation of Nice, and took its name from its being situated
+directly opposite to that city. Pliny says it was famous for its
+tunny-fishery; and to this circumstance Martial alludes in the
+following lines
+
+  Antipolitani, fateor, sum filia thynni.
+  Essem si Scombri non tibi missa forem.
+
+  I'm spawned from Tunny of Antibes, 'tis true.
+  Right Scomber had I been, I ne'er had come to you.
+
+The famous pickle Garum was made from the Thynnus or Tunny as well as
+from the Scomber, but that from the Scomber was counted the most
+delicate. Commentators, however, are not agreed about the Scomber or
+Scombrus. Some suppose it was the Herring or Sprat; others believe it
+was the mackarel; after all, perhaps it was the Anchovy, which I do not
+find distinguished by any other Latin name: for the Encrasicolus is a
+Greek appellation altogether generical. Those who would be further
+informed about the Garum and the Scomber may consult Caelius Apicius de
+recogninaria, cum notis, variorum.
+
+At present, Antibes is the frontier of France towards Italy, pretty
+strongly fortified, and garrisoned by a battalion of soldiers. The town
+is small and inconsiderable: but the basin of the harbour is surrounded
+to seaward by a curious bulwark founded upon piles driven in the water,
+consisting of a wall, ramparts, casemates, and quay. Vessels lie very
+safe in this harbour; but there is not water at the entrance of it to
+admit of ships of any burthen. The shallows run so far off from the
+coast, that a ship of force cannot lie near enough to batter the town;
+but it was bombarded in the late war. Its chief strength by land
+consists in a small quadrangular fort detached from the body of the
+place, which, in a particular manner, commands the entrance of the
+harbour. The wall of the town built in the sea has embrasures and
+salient angles, on which a great number of cannon may be mounted.
+
+I think the adjacent country is much more pleasant than that on the
+side of Nice; and there is certainly no essential difference in the
+climate. The ground here is not so encumbered; it is laid out in
+agreeable inclosures, with intervals of open fields, and the mountains
+rise with an easy ascent at a much greater distance from the sea, than
+on the other side of the bay. Besides, here are charming rides along
+the beach, which is smooth and firm. When we passed in the last week of
+April, the corn was in the ear; the cherries were almost ripe; and the
+figs had begun to blacken. I had embarked my heavy baggage on board a
+London ship, which happened to be at Nice, ready to sail: as for our
+small trunks or portmanteaus, which we carried along with us, they were
+examined at Antibes; but the ceremony was performed very superficially,
+in consequence of tipping the searcher with half-a-crown, which is a
+wonderful conciliator at all the bureaus in this country.
+
+We lay at Cannes, a neat village, charmingly situated on the beach of
+the Mediterranean, exactly opposite to the isles Marguerites, where
+state-prisoners are confined. As there are some good houses in this
+place, I would rather live here for the sake of the mild climate, than
+either at Antibes or Nice. Here you are not cooped up within walls, nor
+crowded with soldiers and people: but are already in the country, enjoy
+a fine air, and are well supplied with all sorts of fish.
+
+The mountains of Esterelles, which in one of my former letters I
+described as a most romantic and noble plantation of ever-greens,
+trees, shrubs, and aromatic plants, is at present quite desolate. Last
+summer, some execrable villains set fire to the pines, when the wind
+was high. It continued burning for several months, and the
+conflagration extended above ten leagues, consuming an incredible
+quantity of timber. The ground is now naked on each side of the road,
+or occupied by the black trunks of the trees, which have been scorched
+without falling. They stand as so many monuments of the judgment of
+heaven, filling the mind with horror and compassion. I could hardly
+refrain from shedding tears at this dismal spectacle, when I recalled
+the idea of what it was about eighteen months ago.
+
+As we stayed all night at Frejus, I had an opportunity of viewing the
+amphitheatre at leisure. As near as I can judge by the eye, it is of
+the same dimensions with that of Nismes; but shockingly dilapidated.
+The stone seats rising from the arena are still extant, and the cells
+under them, where the wild beasts were kept. There are likewise the
+remains of two galleries one over another; and two vomitoria or great
+gateways at opposite sides of the arena, which is now a fine green,
+with a road through the middle of it: but all the external architecture
+and the ornaments are demolished. The most intire part of the wall now
+constitutes part of a monastery, the monks of which, I am told, have
+helped to destroy the amphitheatre, by removing the stones for their
+own purposes of building. In the neighbourhood of this amphitheatre,
+which stands without the walls, are the vestiges of an old edifice,
+said to have been the palace where the imperator or president resided:
+for it was a Roman colony, much favoured by Julius Caesar, who gave it
+the name of Forum Julii, and Civitas Forojuliensis. In all probability,
+it was he who built the amphitheatre, and brought hither the water ten
+leagues from the river of Ciagne, by means of an aqueduct, some arcades
+of which are still standing on the other side of the town. A great
+number of statues were found in this place, together with antient
+inscriptions, which have been published by different authors. I need
+not tell you that Julius Agricola, the father-in-law of Tacitus, the
+historian, was a native of Frejus, which is now a very poor
+inconsiderable place. From hence the country opens to the left, forming
+an extensive plain between the sea and the mountains, which are a
+continuation of the Alps, that stretches through Provence and Dauphine.
+This plain watered with pleasant streams, and varied with vineyards,
+corn-fields, and meadow-ground, afforded a most agreeable prospect to
+our eyes, which were accustomed to the sight of scorching sands, rugged
+rocks, and abrupt mountains in the neighbourhood of Nice. Although this
+has much the appearance of a corn-country, I am told it does not
+produce enough for the consumption of its inhabitants, who are obliged
+to have annual supplies from abroad, imported at Marseilles. A
+Frenchman, at an average, eats three times the quantity of bread that
+satisfies a native of England, and indeed it is undoubtedly the staff
+of his life. I am therefore surprised that the Provencaux do not
+convert part of their vineyards into corn-fields: for they may boast of
+their wine as they please; but that which is drank by the common
+people, not only here, but also in all the wine countries of France, is
+neither so strong, nourishing, nor (in my opinion) so pleasant to the
+taste as the small-beer of England. It must be owned that all the
+peasants who have wine for their ordinary drink are of a diminutive
+size, in comparison of those who use milk, beer, or even water; and it
+is a constant observation, that when there is a scarcity of wine, the
+common people are always more healthy, than in those seasons when it
+abounds. The longer I live, the more I am convinced that wine, and all
+fermented liquors, are pernicious to the human constitution; and that
+for the preservation of health, and exhilaration of the spirits, there
+is no beverage comparable to simple water. Between Luc and Toulon, the
+country is delightfully parcelled out into inclosures. Here is plenty
+of rich pasturage for black cattle, and a greater number of pure
+streams and rivulets than I have observed in any other parts of France.
+
+Toulon is a considerable place, even exclusive of the basin, docks, and
+arsenal, which indeed are such as justify the remark made by a stranger
+when he viewed them. "The king of France (said he) is greater at Toulon
+than at Versailles." The quay, the jetties, the docks, and magazines,
+are contrived and executed with precision, order, solidity, and
+magnificence. I counted fourteen ships of the line lying unrigged in
+the basin, besides the Tonant of eighty guns, which was in dock
+repairing, and a new frigate on the stocks. I was credibly informed
+that in the last war, the king of France was so ill-served with cannon
+for his navy, that in every action there was scarce a ship which had
+not several pieces burst. These accidents did great damage, and
+discouraged the French mariners to such a degree, that they became more
+afraid of their own guns than of those of the English. There are now at
+Toulon above two thousand pieces of iron cannon unfit for service. This
+is an undeniable proof of the weakness and neglect of the French
+administration: but a more suprizing proof of their imbecility, is the
+state of the fortifications that defend the entrance of this very
+harbour. I have some reason to think that they trusted for its security
+entirely to our opinion that it must be inaccessible. Capt. E--, of one
+of our frigates, lately entered the harbour with a contrary wind, which
+by obliging him to tack, afforded an opportunity of sounding the whole
+breadth and length of the passage. He came in without a pilot, and made
+a pretence of buying cordage, or some other stores; but the French
+officers were much chagrined at the boldness of his enterprize. They
+alleged that he came for no other reason but to sound the channel; and
+that he had an engineer aboard, who made drawings of the land and the
+forts, their bearings and distances. In all probability, these
+suspicions were communicated to the ministry; for an order immediately
+arrived, that no stranger should be admitted into the docks and arsenal.
+
+Part of the road from hence to Marseilles lies through a vast mountain,
+which resembles that of Estrelles; but is not so well covered with
+wood, though it has the advantage of an agreeable stream running
+through the bottom.
+
+I was much pleased with Marseilles, which is indeed a noble city,
+large, populous, and flourishing. The streets of what is called the new
+Town are open, airy and spacious; the houses well built, and even
+magnificent. The harbour is an oval basin, surrounded on every side
+either by the buildings or the land, so that the shipping lies
+perfectly secure; and here is generally an incredible number of
+vessels. On the city side, there is a semi-circular quay of free-stone,
+which extends thirteen hundred paces; and the space between this and
+the houses that front it, is continually filled with a surprising crowd
+of people. The gallies, to the number of eight or nine, are moored with
+their sterns to one part of the wharf, and the slaves are permitted to
+work for their own benefit at their respective occupations, in little
+shops or booths, which they rent for a trifle. There you see tradesmen
+of all kinds sitting at work, chained by one foot, shoe-makers,
+taylors, silversmiths, watch and clock-makers, barbers,
+stocking-weavers, jewellers, pattern-drawers, scriveners, booksellers,
+cutlers, and all manner of shop-keepers. They pay about two sols a day
+to the king for this indulgence; live well and look jolly; and can
+afford to sell their goods and labour much cheaper than other dealers
+and tradesmen. At night, however, they are obliged to lie aboard.
+Notwithstanding the great face of business at Marseilles, their trade
+is greatly on the decline; and their merchants are failing every day.
+This decay of commerce is in a great measure owing to the English, who,
+at the peace, poured in such a quantity of European merchandize into
+Martinique and Guadalupe, that when the merchants of Marseilles sent
+over their cargoes, they found the markets overstocked, and were
+obliged to sell for a considerable loss. Besides, the French colonists
+had such a stock of sugars, coffee, and other commodities lying by them
+during the war, that upon the first notice of peace, they shipped them
+off in great quantities for Marseilles. I am told that the produce of
+the islands is at present cheaper here than where it grows; and on the
+other hand the merchandize of this country sells for less money at
+Martinique than in Provence.
+
+A single person, who travels in this country, may live at a reasonable
+rate in these towns, by eating at the public ordinaries: but I would
+advise all families that come hither to make any stay, to take
+furnished lodgings as soon as they can: for the expence of living at an
+hotel is enormous. I was obliged to pay at Marseilles four livres a
+head for every meal, and half that price for my servant, and was
+charged six livres a day besides for the apartment, so that our daily
+expence, including breakfast and a valet de place, amounted to two
+loui'dores. The same imposition prevails all over the south of France,
+though it is generally supposed to be the cheapest and most plentiful
+part of the kingdom. Without all doubt, it must be owing to the folly
+and extravagance of English travellers, who have allowed themselves to
+be fleeced without wincing, until this extortion is become authorized
+by custom. It is very disagreeable riding in the avenues of Marseilles,
+because you are confined in a dusty high road, crouded with carriages
+and beasts of burden, between two white walls, the reflection from
+which, while the sun shines, is intolerable. But in this neighbourhood
+there is a vast number of pleasant country-houses, called Bastides,
+said to amount to twelve thousand, some of which may be rented ready
+furnished at a very reasonable price. Marseilles is a gay city, and the
+inhabitants indulge themselves in a variety of amusements. They have
+assemblies, a concert spirituel, and a comedy. Here is also a spacious
+cours, or walk shaded with trees, to which in the evening there is a
+great resort of well-dressed people.
+
+Marseilles being a free port, there is a bureau about half a league
+from the city on the road to Aix, where all carriages undergo
+examination; and if any thing contraband is found, the vehicle,
+baggage, and even the horses are confiscated. We escaped this
+disagreeable ceremony by the sagacity of our driver. Of his own accord,
+he declared at the bureau, that we had bought a pound of coffee and
+some sugar at Marseilles, and were ready to pay the duty, which
+amounted to about ten sols. They took the money, gave him a receipt,
+and let the carriage pass, without further question.
+
+I proposed to stay one night only at Aix: but Mr. A--r, who is here,
+had found such benefit from drinking the waters, that I was persuaded
+to make trial of them for eight or ten days. I have accordingly taken
+private lodgings, and drank them at the fountain-head, not without
+finding considerable benefit. In my next I shall say something further
+of these waters, though I am afraid they will not prove a source of
+much entertainment. It will be sufficient for me to find them
+contribute in any degree to the health of--Dear Sir, Yours assuredly.
+
+
+
+LETTER XL
+
+BOULOGNE, May 23, 1765.
+
+DEAR DOCTOR,--I found three English families at Aix, with whom I could
+have passed my time very agreeably but the society is now dissolved.
+Mr. S--re and his lady left the place in a few days after we arrived.
+Mr. A--r and lady Betty are gone to Geneva; and Mr. G--r with his
+family remains at Aix. This gentleman, who laboured under a most
+dreadful nervous asthma, has obtained such relief from this climate,
+that he intends to stay another year in the place: and Mr. A--r found
+surprizing benefit from drinking the waters, for a scorbutical
+complaint. As I was incommoded by both these disorders, I could not but
+in justice to myself, try the united efforts of the air and the waters;
+especially as this consideration was re-inforced by the kind and
+pressing exhortations of Mr. A--r and lady Betty, which I could not in
+gratitude resist.
+
+Aix, the capital of Provence, is a large city, watered by the small
+river Are. It was a Roman colony, said to be founded by Caius Sextus
+Calvinus, above a century before the birth of Christ. From the source
+of mineral water here found, added to the consul's name, it was called
+Aquae Sextiae. It was here that Marius, the conqueror of the Teutones,
+fixed his headquarters, and embellished the place with temples,
+aqueducts, and thermae, of which, however, nothing now remains. The
+city, as it now stands, is well built, though the streets in general
+are narrow, and kept in a very dirty condition. But it has a noble
+cours planted with double rows of tall trees, and adorned with three or
+four fine fountains, the middlemost of which discharges hot water
+supplied from the source of the baths. On each side there is a row of
+elegant houses, inhabited chiefly by the noblesse, of which there is
+here a considerable number. The parliament, which is held at Aix,
+brings hither a great resort of people; and as many of the inhabitants
+are persons of fashion, they are well bred, gay, and sociable. The duc
+de Villars, who is governor of the province, resides on the spot, and
+keeps an open assembly, where strangers are admitted without reserve,
+and made very welcome, if they will engage in play, which is the sole
+occupation of the whole company. Some of our English people complain,
+that when they were presented to him, they met with a very cold
+reception. The French, as well as other foreigners, have no idea of a
+man of family and fashion, without the title of duke, count, marquis,
+or lord, and where an English gentleman is introduced by the simple
+expression of monsieur tel, Mr. Suchathing, they think he is some
+plebeian, unworthy of any particular attention.
+
+Aix is situated in a bottom, almost surrounded by hills, which,
+however, do not screen it from the Bize, or north wind, that blows
+extremely sharp in the winter and spring, rendering the air almost
+insupportably cold, and very dangerous to those who have some kinds of
+pulmonary complaints, such as tubercules, abscesses, or spitting of
+blood. Lord H--, who passed part of last winter in this place,
+afflicted with some of these symptoms, grew worse every day while he
+continued at Aix: but, he no sooner removed to Marseilles, than all his
+complaints abated; such a difference there is in the air of these two
+places, though the distance between them does not exceed ten or twelve
+miles. But the air of Marseilles, though much more mild than that of
+Aix in the winter is not near so warm as the climate of Nice, where we
+find in plenty such flowers, fruit, and vegetables, even in the
+severest season, as will not grow and ripen, either at Marseilles or
+Toulon.
+
+If the air of Aix is disagreeably cold in the winter, it is rendered
+quite insufferable in the summer, from excessive heat, occasioned by
+the reflexion from the rocks and mountains, which at the same time
+obstruct the circulation of air: for it must be observed, that the same
+mountains which serve as funnels and canals, to collect and discharge
+the keen blasts of winter, will provide screens to intercept intirely
+the faint breezes of summer. Aix, though pretty well provided with
+butcher's meat, is very ill supplied with potherbs; and they have no
+poultry but what comes at a vast distance from the Lionnois. They say
+their want of roots, cabbage, cauliflower, etc. is owing to a scarcity
+of water: but the truth is, they are very bad gardeners. Their oil is
+good and cheap: their wine is indifferent: but their chief care seems
+employed on the culture of silk, the staple of Provence, which is every
+where shaded with plantations of mulberry trees, for the nourishment of
+the worms. Notwithstanding the boasted cheapness of every article of
+housekeeping, in the south of France, I am persuaded a family may live
+for less money at York, Durham, Hereford, and in many other cities of
+England than at Aix in Provence; keep a more plentiful table; and be
+much more comfortably situated in all respects. I found lodging and
+provision at Aix fifty per cent dearer than at Montpellier, which is
+counted the dearest place in Languedoc.
+
+The baths of Aix, so famous in antiquity, were quite demolished by the
+irruptions of the barbarians. The very source of the water was lost,
+till the beginning of the present century (I think the year 1704), when
+it was discovered by accident, in digging for the foundation of a
+house, at the foot of a hill, just without the city wall. Near the same
+place was found a small stone altar, with the figure of a Priapus, and
+some letters in capitals, which the antiquarians have differently
+interpreted. From this figure, it was supposed that the waters were
+efficacious in cases of barrenness. It was a long time, however, before
+any person would venture to use them internally, as it did not appear
+that they had ever been drank by the antients. On their re-appearance,
+they were chiefly used for baths to horses, and other beasts which had
+the mange, and other cutaneous eruptions. At length poor people began
+to bathe in them for the same disorders, and received such benefit from
+them, as attracted the attention of more curious inquirers. A very
+superficial and imperfect analysis was made and published, with a few
+remarkable histories of the cures they had performed, by three
+different physicians of those days; and those little treatises, I
+suppose, encouraged valetudinarians to drink them without ceremony.
+They were found serviceable in the gout, the gravel, scurvy, dropsy,
+palsy, indigestion, asthma, and consumption; and their fame soon
+extended itself all over Languedoc, Gascony, Dauphine, and Provence.
+The magistrates, with a view to render them more useful and commodious,
+have raised a plain building, in which there are a couple of private
+baths, with a bedchamber adjoining to each, where individuals may use
+them both internally and externally, for a moderate expence. These
+baths are paved with marble, and supplied with water each by a large
+brass cock, which you can turn at pleasure. At one end of this edifice,
+there is an octagon, open at top, having a bason, with a stone pillar
+in the middle, which discharges water from the same source, all round,
+by eight small brass cocks; and hither people of all ranks come of a
+morning, with their glasses, to drink the water, or wash their sores,
+or subject their contracted limbs to the stream. This last operation,
+called the douche, however, is more effectually undergone in the
+private bath, where the stream is much more powerful. The natural
+warmth of this water, as nearly as I can judge from recollection, is
+about the same degree of temperature with that in the Queen's Bath, at
+Bath in Somersetshire. It is perfectly transparent, sparkling in the
+glass, light and agreeable to the taste, and may be drank without any
+preparation, to the quantity of three or four pints at a time. There
+are many people at Aix who swallow fourteen half pint glasses every
+morning, during the season, which is in the month of May, though it may
+be taken with equal benefit all the year round. It has no sensible
+operation but by urine, an effect which pure water would produce, if
+drank in the same quantity.
+
+If we may believe those who have published their experiments, this
+water produces neither agitation, cloud, or change of colour, when
+mixed with acids, alkalies, tincture of galls, syrup of violets, or
+solution of silver. The residue, after boiling, evaporation, and
+filtration, affords a very small proportion of purging salt, and
+calcarious earth, which last ferments with strong acids. As I had
+neither hydrometer nor thermometer to ascertain the weight and warmth
+of this water; nor time to procure the proper utensils, to make the
+preparations, and repeat the experiments necessary to exhibit a
+complete analysis, I did not pretend to enter upon this process; but
+contented myself with drinking, bathing, and using the douche, which
+perfectly answered my expectation, having, in eight days, almost cured
+an ugly scorbutic tetter, which had for some time deprived me of the
+use of my right hand. I observed that the water, when used externally,
+left always a kind of oily appearance on the skin: that when, we boiled
+it at home, in an earthen pot, the steams smelled like those of
+sulphur, and even affected my lungs in the same manner: but the bath
+itself smelled strong of a lime-kiln. The water, after standing all
+night in a bottle, yielded a remarkably vinous taste and odour,
+something analogous to that of dulcified spirit of nitre. Whether the
+active particles consist of a volatile vitriol, or a very fine
+petroleum, or a mixture of both, I shall not pretend to determine: but
+the best way I know of discovering whether it is really impregnated
+with a vitriolic principle, too subtil and fugitive for the usual
+operations of chymistry, is to place bottles, filled with wine, in the
+bath, or adjacent room, which wine, if there is really a volatile acid,
+in any considerable quantity, will be pricked in eight and forty hours.
+
+Having ordered our coach to be refitted, and provided with fresh
+horses, as well as with another postilion, in consequence of which
+improvements, I payed at the rate of a loui'dore per diem to Lyons and
+back again, we departed from Aix, and the second day of our journey
+passing the Durance in a boat, lay at Avignon. This river, the Druentia
+of the antients, is a considerable stream, extremely rapid, which
+descends from the mountains, and discharges itself in the Rhone. After
+violent rains it extends its channel, so as to be impassable, and often
+overflows the country to a great extent. In the middle of a plain,
+betwixt Orgon and this river, we met the coach in which we had
+travelled eighteen months before, from Lyons to Montpellier, conducted
+by our old driver Joseph, who no sooner recognized my servant at a
+distance, by his musquetoon, than he came running towards our carriage,
+and seizing my hand, even shed tears of joy. Joseph had been travelling
+through Spain, and was so imbrowned by the sun, that he might have
+passed for an Iroquois. I was much pleased with the marks of gratitude
+which the poor fellow expressed towards his benefactors. He had some
+private conversation with our voiturier, whose name was Claude, to whom
+he gave such a favourable character of us, as in all probability
+induced him to be wonderfully obliging during the whole journey.
+
+You know Avignon is a large city belonging to the pope. It was the
+Avenio Cavarum of the antients, and changed masters several times,
+belonging successively to the Romans, Burgundians, Franks, the kingdom
+of Arles, the counts of Provence, and the sovereigns of Naples. It was
+sold in the fourteenth century, by queen Jane I. of Naples, to Pope
+Clement VI. for the sum of eighty thousand florins, and since that
+period has continued under the dominion of the see of Rome. Not but
+that when the duc de Crequi, the French ambassador, was insulted at
+Rome in the year 1662, the parliament of Provence passed an arret,
+declaring the city of Avignon, and the county Venaiss in part of the
+ancient domain of Provence; and therefore reunited it to the crown of
+France, which accordingly took possession; though it was afterwards
+restored to the Roman see at the peace of Pisa. The pope, however,
+holds it by a precarious title, at the mercy of the French king, who
+may one day be induced to resume it, upon payment of the original
+purchase-money. As a succession of popes resided here for the space of
+seventy years, the city could not fail to be adorned with a great
+number of magnificent churches and convents, which are richly
+embellished with painting, sculpture, shrines, reliques, and tombs.
+Among the last, is that of the celebrated Laura, whom Petrarch has
+immortalized by his poetry, and for whom Francis I. of France took the
+trouble to write an epitaph. Avignon is governed by a vice-legate from
+the pope, and the police of the city is regulated by the consuls.
+
+It is a large place, situated in a fruitful plain, surrounded by high
+walls built of hewn stone, which on the west side are washed by the
+Rhone. Here was a noble bridge over the river, but it is now in ruins.
+On the other side, a branch of the Sorgue runs through part of the
+city. This is the river anciently called Sulga, formed by the famous
+fountain of Vaucluse in this neighbourhood, where the poet Petrarch
+resided. It is a charming transparent stream, abounding with excellent
+trout and craw-fish. We passed over it on a stone bridge, in our way to
+Orange, the Arausio Cavarum of the Romans, still distinguished by some
+noble monuments of antiquity. These consist of a circus, an aqueduct, a
+temple, and a triumphal arch, which last was erected in honour of Caius
+Marius, and Luctatius Catulus, after the great victory they obtained in
+this country over the Cimbri and Teutones. It is a very magnificent
+edifice, adorned on all sides with trophies and battles in basso
+relievo. The ornaments of the architecture, and the sculpture, are
+wonderfully elegant for the time in which it was erected; and the whole
+is surprisingly well preserved, considering its great antiquity. It
+seems to me to be as entire and perfect as the arch of Septimius
+Severus at Rome. Next day we passed two very impetuous streams, the
+Drome and the Isere. The first, which very much resembles the Var, we
+forded: but the Isere we crossed in a boat, which as well as that upon
+the Durance, is managed by the traille, a moveable or running pulley,
+on a rope stretched between two wooden machines erected on the opposite
+sides of the river. The contrivance is simple and effectual, and the
+passage equally safe and expeditious. The boatman has nothing to do,
+but by means of a long massy rudder, to keep the head obliquely to the
+stream, the force of which pushes the boat along, the block to which it
+is fixed sliding upon the rope from one side to the other. All these
+rivers take their rise from the mountains, which are continued through
+Provence and Dauphine, and fall into the Rhone: and all of them, when
+swelled by sudden rains, overflow the flat country. Although Dauphine
+affords little or no oil, it produces excellent wines, particularly
+those of Hermitage and Cote-roti. The first of these is sold on the
+spot for three livres the bottle, and the other for two. The country
+likewise yields a considerable quantity of corn, and a good deal of
+grass. It is well watered with streams, and agreeably shaded with wood.
+The weather was pleasant, and we had a continued song of nightingales
+from Aix to Fontainebleau.
+
+I cannot pretend to specify the antiquities of Vienne, antiently called
+Vienna Allobrogum. It was a Roman colony, and a considerable city,
+which the antients spared no pains and expence to embellish. It is
+still a large town, standing among several hills on the banks of the
+Rhone, though all its former splendor is eclipsed, its commerce
+decayed, and most of its antiquities are buried in ruins. The church of
+Notre Dame de la Vie was undoubtedly a temple. On the left of the road,
+as you enter it, by the gate of Avignon, there is a handsome obelisk,
+or rather pyramid, about thirty feet high, raised upon a vault
+supported by four pillars of the Tuscan order. It is certainly a Roman
+work, and Montfaucon supposes it to be a tomb, as he perceived an
+oblong stone jetting out from the middle of the vault, in which the
+ashes of the defunct were probably contained. The story of Pontius
+Pilate, who is said to have ended his days in this place, is a fable.
+On the seventh day of our journey from Aix, we arrived at Lyons, where
+I shall take my leave of you for the present, being with great
+truth--Yours, etc.
+
+
+
+LETTER XLI
+
+BOULOGNE, June 13, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--I am at last in a situation to indulge my view with a sight
+of Britain, after an absence of two years; and indeed you cannot
+imagine what pleasure I feel while I survey the white cliffs of Dover,
+at this distance. Not that I am at all affected by the nescia qua
+dulcedine natalis soli, of Horace. That seems to be a kind of
+fanaticism founded on the prejudices of education, which induces a
+Laplander to place the terrestrial paradise among the snows of Norway,
+and a Swiss to prefer the barren mountains of Solleure to the fruitful
+plains of Lombardy. I am attached to my country, because it is the land
+of liberty, cleanliness, and convenience: but I love it still more
+tenderly, as the scene of all my interesting connexions; as the
+habitation of my friends, for whose conversation, correspondence, and
+esteem, I wish alone to live.
+
+Our journey hither from Lyons produced neither accident nor adventure
+worth notice; but abundance of little vexations, which may be termed
+the Plagues of Posting. At Lyons, where we stayed only a few days, I
+found a return-coach, which I hired to Paris for six loui'dores. It was
+a fine roomy carriage, elegantly furnished, and made for travelling; so
+strong and solid in all its parts, that there was no danger of its
+being shaken to pieces by the roughness of the road: but its weight and
+solidity occasioned so much friction between the wheels and the
+axle-tree, that we ran the risque of being set on fire three or four
+times a day. Upon a just comparison of all circumstances posting is
+much more easy, convenient, and reasonable in England than in France.
+The English carriages, horses, harness, and roads are much better; and
+the postilions more obliging and alert. The reason is plain and
+obvious. If I am ill-used at the post-house in England, I can be
+accommodated elsewhere. The publicans on the road are sensible of this,
+and therefore they vie with each other in giving satisfaction to
+travellers. But in France, where the post is monopolized, the
+post-masters and postilions, knowing that the traveller depends
+intirely upon them, are the more negligent and remiss in their duty, as
+well as the more encouraged to insolence and imposition. Indeed the
+stranger seems to be left intirely at the mercy of those fellows,
+except in large towns, where he may have recourse to the magistrate or
+commanding officer. The post stands very often by itself in a lone
+country situation, or in a paultry village, where the post-master is
+the principal inhabitant; and in such a case, if you should be
+ill-treated, by being supplied with bad horses; if you should be
+delayed on frivolous pretences, in order to extort money; if the
+postilions should drive at a waggon pace, with a view to provoke your
+impatience; or should you in any shape be insulted by them or their
+masters; and I know not any redress you can have, except by a formal
+complaint to the comptroller of the posts, who is generally one of the
+ministers of state, and pays little or no regard to any such
+representations. I know an English gentleman, the brother of an earl,
+who wrote a letter of complaint to the Duc de Villars, governor of
+Provence, against the post-master of Antibes, who had insulted and
+imposed upon him. The duke answered his letter, promising to take order
+that the grievance should be redressed; and never thought of it after.
+Another great inconvenience which attends posting in France, is that if
+you are retarded by any accident, you cannot in many parts of the
+kingdom find a lodging, without perhaps travelling two or three posts
+farther than you would choose to go, to the prejudice of your health,
+and even the hazard of your life; whereas on any part of the post-road
+in England, you will meet with tolerable accommodation at every stage.
+Through the whole south of France, except in large cities, the inns are
+cold, damp, dark, dismal, and dirty; the landlords equally disobliging
+and rapacious; the servants aukward, sluttish, and slothful; and the
+postilions lazy, lounging, greedy, and impertinent. If you chide them
+for lingering, they will continue to delay you the longer: if you
+chastise them with sword, cane, cudgel, or horse-whip, they will either
+disappear entirely, and leave you without resource; or they will find
+means to take vengeance by overturning your carriage. The best method I
+know of travelling with any degree of comfort, is to allow yourself to
+become the dupe of imposition, and stimulate their endeavours by
+extraordinary gratifications. I laid down a resolution (and kept it) to
+give no more than four and twenty sols per post between the two
+postilions; but I am now persuaded that for three-pence a post more, I
+should have been much better served, and should have performed the
+journey with much greater pleasure. We met with no adventures upon the
+road worth reciting. The first day we were retarded about two hours by
+the dutchess D--lle, and her son the duc de R--f--t, who by virtue of
+an order from the minister, had anticipated all the horses at the post.
+They accosted my servant, and asked if his master was a lord? He
+thought proper to answer in the affirmative, upon which the duke
+declared that he must certainly be of French extraction, inasmuch as he
+observed the lilies of France in his arms on the coach. This young
+nobleman spoke a little English. He asked whence we had come; and
+understanding we had been in Italy, desired to know whether the man
+liked France or Italy best? Upon his giving France the preference, he
+clapped him on the shoulder, and said he was a lad of good taste. The
+dutchess asked if her son spoke English well, and seemed mightily
+pleased when my man assured her he did. They were much more free and
+condescending with my servant than with myself; for, though we saluted
+them in passing, and were even supposed to be persons of quality, they
+did not open their lips, while we stood close by them at the inn-door,
+till their horses were changed. They were going to Geneva; and their
+equipage consisted of three coaches and six, with five domestics
+a-horseback. The dutchess was a tall, thin, raw-boned woman, with her
+head close shaved. This delay obliged us to lie two posts short of
+Macon, at a solitary auberge called Maison Blanche, which had nothing
+white about it, but the name. The Lionnois is one of the most agreeable
+and best-cultivated countries I ever beheld, diversified with hill,
+dale, wood, and water, laid out in extensive corn-fields and rich
+meadows, well stocked with black cattle, and adorned with a surprising
+number of towns, villages, villas, and convents, generally situated on
+the brows of gently swelling hills, so that they appear to the greatest
+advantage. What contributes in a great measure to the beauty of this,
+and the Maconnois, is the charming pastoral Soame, which from the city
+of Chalons winds its silent course so smooth and gentle, that one can
+scarce discern which way its current flows. It is this placid
+appearance that tempts so many people to bathe in it at Lions, where a
+good number of individuals are drowned every summer: whereas there is
+no instance of any persons thus perishing in the Rhone, the rapidity of
+it deterring every body from bathing in its stream. Next night we
+passed at Beaune where we found nothing good but the wine, for which we
+paid forty sols the bottle. At Chalons our axle-tree took fire; an
+accident which detained us so long, that it was ten before we arrived
+at Auxerre, where we lay. In all probability we must have lodged in the
+coach, had not we been content to take four horses, and pay for six,
+two posts successively. The alternative was, either to proceed with
+four on those terms, or stay till the other horses should come in and
+be refreshed. In such an emergency, I would advise the traveller to put
+up with the four, and he will find the postilions so much upon their
+mettle, that those stages will be performed sooner than the others in
+which you have the full complement.
+
+There was an English gentleman laid up at Auxerre with a broken arm, to
+whom I sent my compliments, with offers of service; but his servant
+told my man that he did not choose to see any company, and had no
+occasion for my service. This sort of reserve seems peculiar to the
+English disposition. When two natives of any other country chance to
+meet abroad, they run into each other's embrace like old friends, even
+though they have never heard of one another till that moment; whereas
+two Englishmen in the same situation maintain a mutual reserve and
+diffidence, and keep without the sphere of each other's attraction,
+like two bodies endowed with a repulsive power. We only stopped to
+change horses at Dijon, the capital of Burgundy, which is a venerable
+old city; but we passed part of a day at Sens, and visited a
+manufacture of that stuff we call Manchester velvet, which is here made
+and dyed to great perfection, under the direction of English workmen,
+who have been seduced from their own country. At Fontainebleau, we went
+to see the palace, or as it is called, the castle, which though an
+irregular pile of building, affords a great deal of lodging, and
+contains some very noble apartments, particularly the hall of audience,
+with the king's and queen's chambers, upon which the ornaments of
+carving and gilding are lavished with profusion rather than propriety.
+Here are some rich parterres of flower-garden, and a noble orangerie,
+which, however, we did not greatly admire, after having lived among the
+natural orange groves of Italy. Hitherto we had enjoyed fine summer
+weather, and I found myself so well, that I imagined my health was
+intirely restored: but betwixt Fontainebleau and Paris, we were
+overtaken by a black storm of rain, sleet, and hail, which seemed to
+reinstate winter in all its rigour; for the cold weather continues to
+this day. There was no resisting this attack. I caught cold
+immediately; and this was reinforced at Paris, where I stayed but three
+days. The same man, (Pascal Sellier, rue Guenegaud, fauxbourg St.
+Germain) who owned the coach that brought us from Lyons, supplied me
+with a returned berline to Boulogne, for six loui'dores, and we came
+hither by easy journeys. The first night we lodged at Breteuil, where
+we found an elegant inn, and very good accommodation. But the next we
+were forced to take up our quarters, at the house where we had formerly
+passed a very disagreeable night at Abbeville. I am now in tolerable
+lodging, where I shall remain a few weeks, merely for the sake of a
+little repose; then I shall gladly tempt that invidious straight which
+still divides you from--Yours, &c.
+
+
+
+APPENDIX A
+
+A Short List of Works, mainly on Travel in France and Italy during the
+Eighteenth Century, referred to in connection with the Introduction.
+
+ADDISON, JOSEPH. Remarks on Several Parts of Italy. London, 1705.
+
+ANCONE, ALESSANDRO D'. Saggio di una bibliografia ragionata dei Viaggi
+in Italia. 1895.
+
+ANDREWS, Dr. JOHN. Letters to a Young Gentleman in setting out for
+France. London, 1784.
+
+ARCHENHOLTZ, J. W. VON. Tableau de l'Angleterre et de l'Italie. 3 vols.
+Gotha, 1788.
+
+ARDOUIN-DUMAZET Voyage en France. Treizieme serie. La Provence
+Maritime. Paris, 1898.
+
+ASTRUC, JEAN. Memoires pour servir a l'histoire de la Faculte de
+Medicine de Montpellier, 1767.
+
+BABEAU, ANTOINE. Voyageurs en France. Paris, 1885.
+
+BALLY, L. E. Souvenirs de Nice. 1860.
+
+BARETTI, G. M. Account of the Manners and Customs of Italy. 2 vols.
+London, 1770.
+
+BASTIDE, CHARLES. John Locke. Ses theories politiques en Angleterre.
+Paris, 1907.
+
+BECKFORD, WILLIAM. Italy, Spain, and Portugal. By the author of
+"Vathek." London, 1834; new ed. 1840.
+
+BERCHTOLD, LEOPOLD. An Essay to direct the Inquiries of Patriotic
+Travellers. 2 vols. London, 1789.
+
+BOULOGNE-SUR-MER et la region Boulonnaise. Ouvrage offert par la ville
+aux membres de l'Association Francaise. 2 vols.  1899.
+
+BRETON DE LA MARTINIERE, J. Voyage en Piemont. Paris, 1803.
+
+BROSSES, CHARLES DE. Lettres familieres ecrites d'Italie. 1740.
+
+BURTON, JOHN HILL. The Scot Abroad. 2 vols. Edinburgh. 1864.
+
+CASANOVA DE SEINGALT, JACQUES. Memoires ecrits par lui-meme. 6 vols.
+Bruxelles, 1879.
+
+CLEMENT, PIERRE. L'Italie en 1671. Paris, 1867. 12mo.
+
+COOTE'S NEW GEOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 2 vols., folio, 1739.
+
+CRAIG, G. DUNCAN. Mie jour; or Provencal Legend, Life, Language, and
+Literature. London, 1877.
+
+DAVIS, Dr. I. B. Ancient and Modern History of Nice. London, 1807.
+
+DEJOB, C. Madame de Stael et l'Italie. Paris, 1890.
+
+DEMPSTER, C. L. H. The Maritime Alps and their Sea-Board. London, 1885.
+
+DORAN, DR. JOHN. Mann and Manners at the Court of Florence. London,
+1876.
+
+DRAMARD, E. Bibliographie du Boulonnais, Calaisis, etc. Paris, 1869.
+
+DUTENS, L. Itineraire des Routes. First edition, 1775.
+
+EVELYN, JOHN. Diary, edited by H. B. Wheatley. 4 vols. London, 1879.
+
+FERBER, G. G. Travels through Italy, translated by R. E. Raspe. London,
+1776.
+
+FODERE, FRANCOIS EMILE. Voyage aux Alpes Maritimes. 2 vols. Paris, 1821.
+
+FORSYTH, JOSEPH. Remarks on Antiquities, Arts, and Letters, during an
+Excursion in Italy in the year 1802 and 1803. London, 1812; 4th
+Edition, 1835.
+
+GARDNER, EDMUND G. The Story of Florence. London, 1900.
+
+GERMAIN, M. A. Histoire de la Commune de Montpellier. 3 vols.
+Montpellier, 1853.
+
+GIOFFREDO, PIETRO. Storia delle Alpi Marittime . . . libri xxvi. Ed.
+Gazzera. 1836.
+
+GOETHE. Autobiography, Tour in Italy, Miscellaneous Travels, and
+Wilhelm Meister's Travels (Bohn).
+
+GROSLEY, PIERRE JEAN. Nouveaux Memoires sur l'Italie. London, 1764. New
+Observations on Italy. Translated by Thomas Nugent. 1769.
+
+HARE, AUGUSTUS J. C. The Rivieras. 1897.
+
+HILLARD, G. S. Six Months in Italy. Boston, 1853; 7th edition, 1863.
+
+JEFFERYS, THOMAS. Description of the Maritime Parts of France. With
+Maps. 1761.
+
+JOANNE, ADOLPHE. Provence, Alpes Maritimes. Paris, 1881 (Bibliog., p.
+xxvii).
+
+JONES (of Nayland), WILLIAM. Observations in a Journey to Paris.
+London, 1777.
+
+KOTZEBUE, A. F. F. VON. Travels through Italy in 1804 and 1805. 4 vols.
+London, 1807.
+
+LALANDE, J. J. DE. Voyage en Italie. 6 vols. 12mo. 1768.
+
+LEE, EDWIN. Nice et son climat. Paris, 1863.
+
+LENOTRE, G. Paris revolutionnaire. Paris, 1895.
+
+LENTHERIC, CHARLES. La Provence Maritime, ancienne et moderne. Paris,
+1880. Les voies antiques de la Region du Rhone. Avignon, 1882.
+
+LUCHAIRE, A. Hist. des Instit. Monarchiques de la France. 2 vols. 1891.
+
+MAUGHAM, H. N. The Book of Italian Travel. London, 1903.
+
+MERCIER, M. New Pictures of Paris. London, 1800.
+
+METRIVIER, H. Monaco et ses Princes. 2 vols. 1862.
+
+MILLINGEN, J. G. Sketches of Ancient and Modern Boulogne. London, 1826.
+
+MONTAIGNE, MICHEL DE. Journal du Voyage en Italie (Querlon). Rome, 1774.
+
+MONTESQUIEU, CHARLES DE SECONDAT, BARON DE. Voyages. Bordeaux, 1894.
+
+MONTFAUCON. Travels of the Learned Dr. Montfaucon from Paris through
+Italy. London, 1712.
+
+MOORE, DR. JOHN. A View of Society and Manners in France (2 vols.,
+1779), and in Italy (2 vols., 1781)
+
+NASH, JAMES. Guide to Nice, 1884.
+
+NORTHALL, JOHN. Travels through Italy. London, 1766.
+
+NUGENT, THOMAS. The Grand Tour. 3rd edition. 4 vols. 1778.
+
+PALLIARI, LEA. Notices historiques sur le comte et la ville de Nice.
+Nice, 1875.
+
+PETHERICK, E, A. Catalogue of the York Gate Library. An Index to the
+Literature of Geography. London, 1881.
+
+PIOZZI, HESTER LYNCH. Observations and Reflections made in the course
+of a Journey through France, Italy, and Germany. In 2 vols. London,
+1789.
+
+RAE, JOHN. Life of Adam Smith. London, 1885.
+
+RICHARD, L'ABBE. Description historique et critique de l'Italie. 6
+vols. Paris, 1768.
+
+RICHARDERIE, BOUCHER DE LA. Bibliotheque des voyages. Paris, 1808.
+
+RIGBY, DR. Letters from France in 1789, edited by Lady Eastlake.
+London, 1880.
+
+ROSE, WILLIAM STEWART. Letters from the North of Italy to Henry Hallam.
+2 vols. 1819.
+
+ROUX, JOSEPH. Statistique des Alpes Maritimes. 2 vols. 1863.
+
+RUFFINI, GIOVANNI, D. Doctor Antonio; a Tale. Paris, 1855.
+
+SAYOUS, A. Le Dix-huitieme siecle a l'etranger. 2 vols. Paris, 1861.
+
+SECCOMBE, THOMAS. Smollett's Travels, edited with bibliographical note,
+etc. By Thomas Seccombe (Works, Constable's Edition, vol. xi.). 1900.
+
+SHARP, SAMUEL. Letters from Italy. London, 1769.
+
+SHERLOCK, MARTIN. Letters from an English Traveller. (New English
+version.) 2 vols. 1802.
+
+SMOLLETT, T. Travels through France and Italy. 2 vols. London, 1766.
+
+SPALDING, WILLIAM. Italy and the Italian Islands. 3 vols. London, 1841.
+
+STAEL, MME. DE. Corinne, ou l'Italie. 1807.
+
+STARKE, MARIANA. Letters from Italy, 1792-1798. 9 vols. 1800. Travels
+on the Continent for the use of Travellers. 1800, 1820, 1824, etc.
+
+STENDHAL. Rome, Naples, and Florence, in 1817. London, 1818.
+
+STERNE, LAURENCE. A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy. By
+Mr. Yorick. 2 vols. London, 1768.
+
+STOLBERZ, COUNT F. L. ZU. Travels through Germany, Switzerland, Italy,
+etc. Translated by Thomas Holcroft. 1796.
+
+TAINE, HENRI. Voyage en Italie. 1866.
+
+TALBOT, SIR R. Letters on the French Nation. London, 2 vols.1771, 12mo.
+
+TEYSSEIRE, T. Monographie sur le climat de Nice. 1881.
+
+THICKNESSE, PHILIP. Useful Hints to those who make the Tour of France
+in a Series of Letters. London, 1768. A year's Journey through France,
+etc. 2, vols. 1777.
+
+TISSERAND, E. Chronique de Provence . . . de la cite de Nice, etc. 2
+vols. Nice, 1862.
+
+TWINING FAMILY PAPERS. London, 1887.
+
+VIOLLET, PAUL. Hist. des Instit. polit. et administratifs de la France.
+2 vols. Paris, 1890-98.
+
+WHATLEY, STEPHEN. The Travels and Adventures of J. Massey. Translated
+from the French. 1743.
+
+WILLIAMS, C. THEODORE. The Climate of the South of France. 1869.
+
+WINCKELMANN, J. J. Lettres familieres. Amsterdam, 1781. Reflections on
+the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks. Translated by H. Fuseli.
+London, 1765. Voyage en Italie de J. J. Barthelemy . . . avec des
+morceaux inedits de Winckelmann. 1801.
+
+YOUNG, ARTHUR. Travels in France during 1787, 1788, 1789, edited by M.
+Betham-Edwards. 1889.
+
+YOUNG, EDWARD. Sa vie et ses oeuvres, par W. Thomas. Paris, 1901.
+
+APPENDIX B
+
+Short Notes on one or two unfamiliar Words which Smollett helped to
+domesticate in England.
+
+Berline. Swift and Chesterfield both use this for a heavy coach. The
+most famous berline was that used in the flight to Varennes. The name
+came from Brandenburg in the time of Frederick William.
+
+Bize. Smollett's spelling of bise--the cutting N.N.E. wind which makes
+Geneva so beautiful, but intolerable in the winter.
+
+Brasiere=brasero. A tray for hot charcoal used for warming rooms at
+Nice. Smollett practically introduced this word. Dried olives were
+often used as fuel.
+
+Calesse, calash, caleche. A low two-wheeled carriage of light
+construction, with a movable folding hood; hence applied to a hood
+bonnet as in Mrs. Gaskell's Cranford.
+
+Cassine. Latin casa, cassa, cassina; the Italian cassina, A small
+detached house in the fields, often whitewashed and of mean appearance.
+Smollett uses the word as an equivalent for summer cottage. Cf. bastide
+as used by Dumas. Cabane has practically replaced cassine in modern
+French. See Letter XXIV.
+
+Cambiatura. The system of changing chaises every post, common in
+England, but unusual abroad except in Tuscany.
+
+Cicisbeo. The word is used by Lady Mary Montagu in her Letters (1718)
+as cecisbeo. Smollett's best account is in Letter XVII. See
+Introduction, p. xliii.
+
+Conversazione. Gray uses the word for assembly in 1710, but Smollett, I
+believe, is about the first Englishman to define it properly.
+
+Corinth. This was still used as a variant of currant, though adherence
+to it was probably rather pedantic on Smollett's part (cf. his use of
+"hough" for hoe). Boswell uses the modern form.
+
+Corridore. This word was used by Evelyn, and the correct modern
+spelling given by Johnson in 1753; but Smollett as often adheres to the
+old form.
+
+Douche. Italian doccia. Smollett is perhaps the first writer to explain
+the word and assign to it the now familiar French form (Letter XL).
+
+Feluca. An Arab word to denote a coasting boat, oar or sail propelled.
+Nelson and Marryat write felucca. It was large enough to accommodate a
+post-chaise (Letter XXV).
+
+Gabelle. Supposed to be derived from the Arabic kabala, the irksome tax
+on salt, from which few provinces in France were altogether free, swept
+away in 1790. Smollett describes the exaction in San Remo.
+
+Garum. Used by Smollett for the rich fish sauce of the ancients,
+equivalent to a saumure, perhaps, in modern French cookery. In the
+Middle Ages the word is used both for a condiment and a beverage.
+
+Improvisatore. A performer in the Commedia delle Arte, of which
+Smollett gives a brief admiring account in his description of Florence
+(Letter XXVII). For details of the various elements, the doti,
+generici, lazzi, etc., see Carlo Gozzi.
+
+Liqueur. First used by Pope. "An affected, contemptible expression"
+(Johnson).
+
+Macaroni. "The paste called macaroni" (Letter XXVI) was seen by
+Smollett in the neighbourhood of its origin near Genoa, which city
+formed the chief market.
+
+Maestral. An old form of mistral, the very dry wind from the N.N.W.,
+described by Smollett as the coldest he ever experienced.
+
+Patois. See Letter XXII. ad fin.
+
+Pietre commesse. A sort of inlaying with stones, analogous to the
+fineering of cabinets in wood (Letter XXVIII). Used by Evelyn in 1644.
+
+Polenta. A meal ground from maize, which makes a good "pectoral"
+(Letter XXII).
+
+Pomi carli. The most agreeable apples Smollett tasted, stated to come
+from the marquisate of Final, sold by the Emperor Charles VI. to the
+Genoese.
+
+Preniac. A small white wine, mentioned in Letter IV., from Boulogne, as
+agreeable and very cheap.
+
+Seafarot boots. Jack-boots or wading boots, worn by a Marquis of Savoy,
+and removed by means of a tug-of-war team and a rope coiled round the
+heel (see Letter XXVIII).
+
+Sporcherie. With respect to delicacy and decorum you may peruse Dean
+Swift's description of the Yahoos, and then you will have some idea of
+the sporcherie that distinguishes the gallantry of Nice (Letter XVII).
+Ital. sporcheria, sporcizia.
+
+Strappado or corda. Performed by hoisting the criminal by his hands
+tied behind his back and dropping him suddenly "with incredible pain"
+(Letter XX). See Introduction, p. xliv, and Christie, Etienne Dolet,
+1899, P. 231.
+
+Tartane. From Italian tartana, Arabic taridha; a similar word being
+used in Valencia and Grand Canary for a two-wheeled open cart. One of
+the commonest craft on the Mediterranean (cf. the topo of the
+Adriatic). For different types see Larousse's Nouveau Dictionnaire.
+
+Tip. To "tip the wink" is found in Addison's Tatler (No. 86), but "to
+tip" in the sense of to gratify is not common before Smollett, who uses
+it more than once or twice in this sense (cf. Roderick Random, chap.
+xiv. ad fin.)
+
+Valanches. For avalanches (dangers from to travellers, see Letter
+XXXVIII).
+
+Villeggiatura. An early adaptation by Smollett of the Italian word for
+country retirement (Letter XXIX).
+
+
+APPENDIX C
+
+Currency of Savoy in the time of Smollett.
+
+  Ten bajocci=one paolo (6d.).
+  Ten paoli=one scudo (six livres or about 5s.).
+  Two scudi=one zequin.
+  Two zequin=one louid'or.
+
+Afterword.--I should be ungrateful were I not to create an epilogue for
+the express purpose of thanking M. Morel, H. S Spencer  Scott, Dr.
+Norman Moore, W. P. Courtney, G. Whale, D. S. MacColl, Walter Sichel
+(there may be others), who have supplied hints for my annotations, and
+I should like further, if one might inscribe such a trifle, to inscribe
+this to that difficult critic, Mr. Arthur Vincent, who, when I told him
+I was about it, gave expression to the cordial regret that so well
+hidden a treasure of our literature (as he regarded the Travels) was to
+be "vulgarised."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Travels Through France and Italy, by 
+Tobias Smollett
+
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+Project Gutenberg's Travels Through France and Italy, by Tobias Smollett
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Travels Through France and Italy
+
+Author: Tobias Smollett
+
+Posting Date: November 28, 2009 [EBook #2311]
+Release Date: September, 2000
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRAVELS THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Martin Adamson.  HTML version by Al Haines.
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<BR><BR>
+
+<H1 ALIGN="center">
+Travels Through France And Italy
+</H1>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+By
+</H3>
+
+<H2 ALIGN="center">
+Tobias Smollett
+</H2>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+INTRODUCTION
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+By
+</H4>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+Thomas Seccombe
+</H3>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+I
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+Many pens have been burnished this year of grace for the purpose of
+celebrating with befitting honour the second centenary of the birth of
+Henry Fielding; but it is more than doubtful if, when the right date
+occurs in March 1921, anything like the same alacrity will be shown to
+commemorate one who was for many years, and by such judges as Scott,
+Hazlitt, and Charles Dickens, considered Fielding's complement and
+absolute co-equal (to say the least) in literary achievement.
+Smollett's fame, indeed, seems to have fallen upon an unprosperous
+curve. The coarseness of his fortunate rival is condoned, while his is
+condemned without appeal. Smollett's value is assessed without
+discrimination at that of his least worthy productions, and the
+historical value of his work as a prime modeller of all kinds of new
+literary material is overlooked. Consider for a moment as not wholly
+unworthy of attention his mere versatility as a man of letters. Apart
+from Roderick Random and its successors, which gave him a European
+fame, he wrote a standard history, and a standard version of Don
+Quixote (both of which held their ground against all comers for over a
+century). He created both satirical and romantic types, he wrote two
+fine-spirited lyrics, and launched the best Review and most popular
+magazine of his day. He was the centre of a literary group, the founder
+to some extent of a school of professional writers, of which strange
+and novel class, after the "Great Cham of Literature," as he called Dr.
+Johnson, he affords one of the first satisfactory specimens upon a
+fairly large scale. He is, indeed, a more satisfactory, because a more
+independent, example of the new species than the Great Cham himself.
+The late Professor Beljame has shown us how the milieu was created in
+which, with no subvention, whether from a patron, a theatre, a
+political paymaster, a prosperous newspaper or a fashionable
+subscription-list, an independent writer of the mid-eighteenth century,
+provided that he was competent, could begin to extort something more
+than a bare subsistence from the reluctant coffers of the London
+booksellers. For the purpose of such a demonstration no better
+illustration could possibly be found, I think, than the career of Dr.
+Tobias Smollett. And yet, curiously enough, in the collection of
+critical monographs so well known under the generic title of "English
+Men of Letters"&mdash;a series, by the way, which includes Nathaniel
+Hawthorne and Maria Edgeworth&mdash;no room or place has hitherto been found
+for Smollett any more than for Ben Jonson, both of them, surely,
+considerable Men of Letters in the very strictest and most
+representative sense of the term. Both Jonson and Smollett were to an
+unusual extent centres of the literary life of their time; and if the
+great Ben had his tribe of imitators and adulators, Dr. Toby also had
+his clan of sub-authors, delineated for us by a master hand in the
+pages of Humphry Clinker. To make Fielding the centre-piece of a group
+reflecting the literature of his day would be an artistic
+impossibility. It would be perfectly easy in the case of Smollett, who
+was descried by critics from afar as a Colossus bestriding the summit
+of the contemporary Parnassus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Whatever there may be of truth in these observations upon the eclipse
+of a once magical name applies with double force to that one of all
+Smollett's books which has sunk farthest in popular disesteem. Modern
+editors have gone to the length of excommunicating Smollett's Travels
+altogether from the fellowship of his Collective Works.  Critic has
+followed critic in denouncing the book as that of a "splenetic"
+invalid. And yet it is a book for which all English readers have cause
+to be grateful, not only as a document on Smollett and his times, not
+only as being in a sense the raison d'etre of the Sentimental Journey,
+and the precursor in a very special sense of Humphry Clinker, but also
+as being intrinsically an uncommonly readable book, and even, I venture
+to assert, in many respects one of Smollett's best. Portions of the
+work exhibit literary quality of a high order: as a whole it represents
+a valuable because a rather uncommon view, and as a literary record of
+travel it is distinguished by a very exceptional veracity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I am not prepared to define the differentia of a really first-rate book
+of travel. Sympathy is important; but not indispensable, or Smollett
+would be ruled out of court at once. Scientific knowledge, keen
+observation, or intuitive power of discrimination go far. To enlist our
+curiosity or enthusiasm or to excite our wonder are even stronger
+recommendations. Charm of personal manner, power of will,
+anthropological interest, self-effacement in view of some great
+objects&mdash;all these qualities have made travel-books live. One knows
+pretty nearly the books that one is prepared to re-read in this
+department of literature. Marco Polo, Herodotus, a few sections in
+Hakluyt, Dampier and Defoe, the early travellers in Palestine,
+Commodore Byron's Travels, Curzon and Lane, Doughty's Arabia Deserta,
+Mungo Park, Dubois, Livingstone's Missionary Travels, something of
+Borrow (fact or fable), Hudson and Cunninghame Graham, Bent, Bates and
+Wallace, The Crossing of Greenland, Eothen, the meanderings of
+Modestine, The Path to Rome, and all, or almost all, of E. F. Knight. I
+have run through most of them at one breath, and the sum total would
+not bend a moderately stout bookshelf. How many high-sounding works on
+the other hand, are already worse than dead, or, should we say, better
+dead? The case of Smollett's Travels, there is good reason to hope, is
+only one of suspended animation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To come to surer ground, it is a fact worth noting that each of the
+four great prose masters of the third quarter of the eighteenth century
+tried his hand at a personal record of travel. Fielding came first in
+1754 with his Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon. Twelve years later was
+published Smollett's Travels through France and Italy. Then, in 1768,
+Sterne's Sentimental Journey; followed in 1775 by Johnson's Journey to
+the Hebrides. Each of the four&mdash;in which beneath the apparel of the man
+of letters we can discern respectively the characteristics of police
+magistrate, surgeon, confessor, and moralist&mdash;enjoyed a fair amount of
+popularity in its day. Fielding's Journal had perhaps the least
+immediate success of the four. Sterne's Journey unquestionably had the
+most. The tenant of "Shandy Hall," as was customary in the first heyday
+of "Anglomania," went to Paris to ratify his successes, and the
+resounding triumph of his naughtiness there, by a reflex action,
+secured the vote of London. Posterity has fully sanctioned this
+particular "judicium Paridis." The Sentimental Journey is a book sui
+generis, and in the reliable kind of popularity, which takes concrete
+form in successive reprints, it has far eclipsed its eighteenth-century
+rivals. The fine literary aroma which pervades every line of this small
+masterpiece is not the predominant characteristic of the Great Cham's
+Journey. Nevertheless, and in spite of the malignity of the "Ossianite"
+press, it fully justified the assumption of the booksellers that it
+would prove a "sound" book. It is full of sensible observations, and is
+written in Johnson's most scholarly, balanced, and dignified style. Few
+can read it without a sense of being repaid, if only by the portentous
+sentence in which the author celebrates his arrival at the shores of
+Loch Ness, where he reposes upon "a bank such as a writer of romance
+might have delighted to feign," and reflects that a "uniformity of
+barrenness can afford very little amusement to the traveller; that it
+is easy to sit at home and conceive rocks and heath and waterfalls; and
+that these journeys are useless labours, which neither impregnate the
+imagination nor enlarge the understanding." Fielding's contribution to
+geography has far less solidity and importance, but it discovers to not
+a few readers an unfeigned charm that is not to be found in the pages
+of either Sterne or Johnson. A thoughtless fragment suffices to show
+the writer in his true colours as one of the most delightful fellows in
+our literature, and to convey just unmistakably to all good men and
+true the rare and priceless sense of human fellowship.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There remain the Travels through France and Italy, by T. Smollett,
+M.D., and though these may not exhibit the marmoreal glamour of
+Johnson, or the intimate fascination of Fielding, or the essential
+literary quality which permeates the subtle dialogue and artful
+vignette of Sterne, yet I shall endeavour to show, not without some
+hope of success among the fair-minded, that the Travels before us are
+fully deserving of a place, and that not the least significant, in the
+quartette.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The temporary eclipse of their fame I attribute, first to the studious
+depreciation of Sterne and Walpole, and secondly to a refinement of
+snobbishness on the part of the travelling crowd, who have an uneasy
+consciousness that to listen to common sense, such as Smollett's, in
+matters of connoisseurship, is tantamount to confessing oneself a
+Galilean of the outermost court. In this connection, too, the itinerant
+divine gave the travelling doctor a very nasty fall. Meeting the latter
+at Turin, just as Smollett was about to turn his face homewards, in
+March 1765, Sterne wrote of him, in the famous Journey of 1768, thus:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"The learned Smelfungus travelled from Boulogne to Paris, from Paris to
+Rome, and so on, but he set out with the spleen and jaundice, and every
+object he passed by was discoloured or distorted. He wrote an account
+of them, but 'twas nothing but the account of his miserable feelings."
+"I met Smelfungus," he wrote later on, "in the grand portico of the
+Pantheon&mdash;he was just coming out of it. ''Tis nothing but a huge
+cockpit,' said he&mdash;'I wish you had said nothing worse of the Venus de
+Medici,' replied I&mdash;for in passing through Florence, I had heard he had
+fallen foul upon the goddess, and used her worse than a common
+strumpet, without the least provocation in nature. I popp'd upon
+Smelfungus again at Turin, in his return home, and a sad tale of
+sorrowful adventures had he to tell, 'wherein he spoke of moving
+accidents by flood and field, and of the cannibals which each other
+eat, the Anthropophagi'; he had been flayed alive, and bedevil'd, and
+used worse than St. Bartholomew, at every stage he had come at. 'I'll
+tell it,' cried Smelfungus, 'to the world.' 'You had better tell it,'
+said I, 'to your physician.'"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To counteract the ill effects of "spleen and jaundice" and exhibit the
+spirit of genteel humour and universal benevolence in which a man of
+sensibility encountered the discomforts of the road, the incorrigible
+parson Laurence brought out his own Sentimental Journey. Another effect
+of Smollett's book was to whet his own appetite for recording the
+adventures of the open road. So that but for Travels through France and
+Italy we might have had neither a Sentimental Journey nor a Humphry
+Clinker. If all the admirers of these two books would but bestir
+themselves and look into the matter, I am sure that Sterne's only too
+clever assault would be relegated to its proper place and assessed at
+its right value as a mere boutade. The borrowed contempt of Horace
+Walpole and the coterie of superficial dilettanti, from which
+Smollett's book has somehow never wholly recovered, could then easily
+be outflanked and the Travels might well be in reasonable expectation
+of coming by their own again.
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+II
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+In the meantime let us look a little more closely into the special and
+somewhat exceptional conditions under which the Travel Letters of
+Smollett were produced. Smollett, as we have seen, was one of the first
+professional men of all work in letters upon a considerable scale who
+subsisted entirely upon the earnings of his own pen. He had no
+extraneous means of support. He had neither patron, pension, property,
+nor endowment, inherited or acquired. Yet he took upon himself the
+burden of a large establishment, he spent money freely, and he prided
+himself upon the fact that he, Tobias Smollett, who came up to London
+without a stiver in his pocket, was in ten years' time in a position to
+enact the part of patron upon a considerable scale to the crowd of
+inferior denizens of Grub Street. Like most people whose social
+ambitions are in advance of their time, Smollett suffered considerably
+on account of these novel aspirations of his. In the present day he
+would have had his motor car and his house on Hindhead, a seat in
+Parliament and a brief from the Nation to boot as a Member for
+Humanity. Voltaire was the only figure in the eighteenth century even
+to approach such a flattering position, and he was for many years a
+refugee from his own land. Smollett was energetic and ambitious enough
+to start in rather a grand way, with a large house, a carriage,
+menservants, and the rest. His wife was a fine lady, a "Creole" beauty
+who had a small dot of her own; but, on the other hand, her income was
+very precarious, and she herself somewhat of a silly and an incapable
+in the eyes of Smollett's old Scotch friends. But to maintain such a
+position&mdash;to keep the bailiffs from the door from year's end to year's
+end&mdash;was a truly Herculean task in days when a newspaper "rate" of
+remuneration or a well-wearing copyright did not so much as exist, and
+when Reviews sweated their writers at the rate of a guinea per sheet of
+thirty-two pages. Smollett was continually having recourse to loans. He
+produced the eight (or six or seven) hundred a year he required by
+sheer hard writing, turning out his History of England, his Voltaire,
+and his Universal History by means of long spells of almost incessant
+labour at ruinous cost to his health. On the top of all this cruel
+compiling he undertook to run a Review (The Critical), a magazine (The
+British), and a weekly political organ (The Briton). A charge of
+defamation for a paragraph in the nature of what would now be
+considered a very mild and pertinent piece of public criticism against
+a faineant admiral led to imprisonment in the King's Bench Prison, plus
+a fine of £100. Then came a quarrel with an old friend, Wilkes&mdash;not the
+least vexatious result of that forlorn championship of Bute's
+government in The Briton. And finally, in part, obviously, as a
+consequence of all this nervous breakdown, a succession of severe
+catarrhs, premonitory in his case of consumption, the serious illness
+of the wife he adored, and the death of his darling, the "little Boss"
+of former years, now on the verge of womanhood. To a man of his
+extraordinarily strong affections such a series of ills was too
+overwhelming. He resolved to break up his establishment at Chelsea, and
+to seek a remedy in flight from present evils to a foreign residence.
+Dickens went to hibernate on the Riviera upon a somewhat similar
+pretext, though fortunately without the same cause, as far as his
+health was concerned.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Now note another very characteristic feature of these Travel Letters.
+Smollett went abroad not for pleasure, but virtually of necessity. Not
+only were circumstances at home proving rather too much for him, but
+also, like Stevenson, he was specifically "ordered South" by his
+physicians, and he went with the deliberate intention of making as much
+money as possible out of his Travel papers. In his case he wrote long
+letters on the spot to his medical and other friends at home. When he
+got back in the summer of 1765 one of his first cares was to put the
+Letters together. It had always been his intention carefully to revise
+them for the press. But when he got back to London he found so many
+other tasks awaiting him that were so far more pressing, that this part
+of his purpose was but very imperfectly carried out. The Letters
+appeared pretty much as he wrote them. Their social and documentary
+value is thereby considerably enhanced, for they were nearly all
+written close down to the facts. The original intention had been to go
+to Montpellier, which was still, I suppose, the most popular health
+resort in Southern Europe. The peace of 1763 opened the way. And this
+brings us to another feature of distinction in regard to Smollett's
+Travels. Typical Briton, perfervid Protestant of Britain's most
+Protestant period, and insular enrage though he doubtless was, Smollett
+had knocked about the world a good deal and had also seen something of
+the continent of Europe. He was not prepared to see everything couleur
+de rose now. His was quite unlike the frame of mind of the ordinary
+holiday-seeker, who, partly from a voluntary optimism, and partly from
+the change of food and habit, the exhilaration caused by novel
+surroundings, and timidity at the unaccustomed sounds he hears in his
+ears, is determined to be pleased with everything. Very temperamental
+was Smollett, and his frame of mind at the time was that of one
+determined to be pleased with nothing. We know little enough about
+Smollett intime. Only the other day I learned that the majority of
+so-called Smollett portraits are not presentments of the novelist at
+all, but ingeniously altered plates of George Washington. An
+interesting confirmation of this is to be found in the recently
+published Letters of Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe to Robert Chambers.
+"Smollett wore black cloaths&mdash;a tall man&mdash;and extreamly handsome. No
+picture of him is known to be extant&mdash;all that have been foisted on the
+public as such his relations disclaim&mdash;this I know from my aunt Mrs.
+Smollett, who was the wife of his nephew, and resided with him at
+Bath." But one thing we do know, and in these same letters, if
+confirmation had been needed, we observe the statement repeated,
+namely, that Smollett was very peevish. A sardonic, satirical, and
+indeed decidedly gloomy mood or temper had become so habitual in him as
+to transform the man. Originally gay and debonnair, his native
+character had been so overlaid that when he first returned to Scotland
+in 1755 his own mother could not recognise him until he "gave over
+glooming" and put on his old bright smile. [A pleasant story of the
+Doctor's mother is given in the same Letters to R. Chambers (1904). She
+is described as an ill-natured-looking woman with a high nose, but not
+a bad temper, and very fond of the cards. One evening an Edinburgh
+bailie (who was a tallow chandler) paid her a visit. "Come awa',
+bailie," said she, "and tak' a trick at the cards." "Troth madam, I hae
+nae siller!" "Then let us play for a pound of candles."] His was
+certainly a nervous, irritable, and rather censorious temper. Like Mr.
+Brattle, in The Vicar of Bulhampton, he was thinking always of the evil
+things that had been done to him. With the pawky and philosophic Scots
+of his own day (Robertson, Hume, Adam Smith, and "Jupiter" Carlyle) he
+had little in common, but with the sour and mistrustful James Mill or
+the cross and querulous Carlyle of a later date he had, it seems to me,
+a good deal. What, however, we attribute in their case to bile or
+liver, a consecrated usage prescribes that we must, in the case of
+Smollett, accredit more particularly to the spleen. Whether dyspeptic
+or "splenetic," this was not the sort of man to see things through a
+veil of pleasant self-generated illusion. He felt under no obligation
+whatever to regard the Grand Tour as a privilege of social distinction,
+or its discomforts as things to be discreetly ignored in relating his
+experience to the stay-at-home public. He was not the sort of man that
+the Tourist Agencies of to-day would select to frame their
+advertisements. As an advocatus diaboli on the subject of Travel he
+would have done well enough. And yet we must not infer that the magic
+of travel is altogether eliminated from his pages. This is by no means
+the case: witness his intense enthusiasm at Nimes, on sight of the
+Maison Carree or the Pont du Gard; the passage describing his entry
+into the Eternal City; [Ours "was the road by which so many heroes
+returned with conquest to their country, by which so many kings were
+led captive to Rome, and by which the ambassadors of so many kingdoms
+and States approached the seat of Empire, to deprecate the wrath, to
+sollicit the friendship, or sue for the protection of the Roman
+people."] or the enviable account of the alfresco meals which the party
+discussed in their coach as described in Letter VIII.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As to whether Smollett and his party of five were exceptionally
+unfortunate in their road-faring experiences must be left an open
+question at the tribunal of public opinion. In cold blood, in one of
+his later letters, he summarised his Continental experience after this
+wise: inns, cold, damp, dark, dismal, dirty; landlords equally
+disobliging and rapacious; servants awkward, sluttish, and slothful;
+postillions lazy, lounging, greedy, and impertinent. With this last
+class of delinquents after much experience he was bound to admit the
+following dilemma:&mdash;If you chide them for lingering, they will contrive
+to delay you the longer. If you chastise them with sword, cane, cudgel,
+or horsewhip (he defines the correctives, you may perceive, but leaves
+the expletives to our imagination) they will either disappear entirely,
+and leave you without resource, or they will find means to take
+vengeance by overturning your carriage. The only course remaining would
+be to allow oneself to become the dupe of imposition by tipping the
+postillions an amount slightly in excess of the authorized
+gratification. He admits that in England once, between the Devizes and
+Bristol, he found this plan productive of the happiest results. It was
+unfortunate that, upon this occasion, the lack of means or slenderness
+of margin for incidental expenses should have debarred him from having
+recourse to a similar expedient. For threepence a post more, as
+Smollett himself avows, he would probably have performed the journey
+with much greater pleasure and satisfaction. But the situation is
+instructive. It reveals to us the disadvantage under which the novelist
+was continually labouring, that of appearing to travel as an English
+Milord, en grand seigneur, and yet having at every point to do it "on
+the cheap." He avoided the common conveyance or diligence, and insisted
+on travelling post and in a berline; but he could not bring himself to
+exceed the five-sou pourboire for the postillions. He would have meat
+upon maigre days, yet objected to paying double for it. He held aloof
+from the thirty-sou table d'hote, and would have been content to pay
+three francs a head for a dinner a part, but his worst passions were
+roused when he was asked to pay not three, but four. Now Smollett
+himself was acutely conscious of the false position. He was by nature
+anything but a curmudgeon. On the contrary, he was, if I interpret him
+at all aright, a high-minded, open-hearted, generous type of man. Like
+a majority, perhaps, of the really open-handed he shared one trait with
+the closefisted and even with the very mean rich. He would rather give
+away a crown than be cheated of a farthing. Smollett himself had little
+of the traditional Scottish thriftiness about him, but the people among
+whom he was going&mdash;the Languedocians and Ligurians&mdash;were notorious for
+their nearness in money matters. The result of all this could hardly
+fail to exacerbate Smollett's mood and to aggravate the testiness which
+was due primarily to the bitterness of his struggle with the world,
+and, secondarily, to the complaints which that struggle engendered. One
+capital consequence, however, and one which specially concerns us, was
+that we get this unrivalled picture of the seamy side of foreign
+travel&mdash;a side rarely presented with anything like Smollett's skill to
+the student of the grand siecle of the Grand Tour. The rubs, the rods,
+the crosses of the road could, in fact, hardly be presented to us more
+graphically or magisterially than they are in some of these chapters.
+Like Prior, Fielding, Shenstone, and Dickens, Smollett was a
+connoisseur in inns and innkeepers. He knew good food and he knew good
+value, and he had a mighty keen eye for a rogue. There may, it is true,
+have been something in his manner which provoked them to exhibit their
+worst side to him. It is a common fate with angry men. The trials to
+which he was subjected were momentarily very severe, but, as we shall
+see in the event, they proved a highly salutary discipline to him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To sum up, then, Smollett's Travels were written hastily and vigorously
+by an expert man of letters. They were written ad vivum, as it were,
+not from worked-up notes or embellished recollections. They were
+written expressly for money down. They were written rather en noir than
+couleur de rose by an experienced, and, we might almost perhaps say, a
+disillusioned traveller, and not by a naif or a niais. The statement
+that they were to a certain extent the work of an invalid is, of
+course, true, and explains much. The majority of his correspondents
+were of the medical profession, all of them were members of a group
+with whom he was very intimate, and the letters were by his special
+direction to be passed round among them. [We do not know precisely who
+all these correspondents of Smollett were, but most of them were
+evidently doctors and among them, without a doubt, John Armstrong,
+William Hunter, George Macaulay, and above all John Moore, himself an
+authority on European travel, Governor on the Grand Tour of the Duke of
+Hamilton (Son of "the beautiful Duchess"), author of Zeluco, and father
+of the famous soldier. Smollett's old chum, Dr. W. Smellie, died 5th
+March 1763.] In the circumstances (bearing in mind that it was his
+original intention to prune the letters considerably before
+publication) it was only natural that he should say a good deal about
+the state of his health. His letters would have been unsatisfying to
+these good people had he not referred frequently and at some length to
+his spirits and to his symptoms, an improvement in which was the
+primary object of his journey and his two years' sojourn in the South.
+Readers who linger over the diary of Fielding's dropsy and Mrs.
+Fielding's toothache are inconsistent in denouncing the luxury of
+detail with which Smollett discusses the matter of his imposthume.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+What I claim for the present work is that, in the first place, to any
+one interested in Smollett's personality it supplies an unrivalled key.
+It is, moreover, the work of a scholar, an observer of human nature,
+and, by election, a satirist of no mean order. It gives us some
+characteristic social vignettes, some portraits of the road of an
+unsurpassed freshness and clearness. It contains some historical and
+geographical observations worthy of one of the shrewdest and most
+sagacious publicists of the day. It is interesting to the etymologist
+for the important share it has taken in naturalising useful foreign
+words into our speech. It includes (as we shall have occasion to
+observe) a respectable quantum of wisdom fit to become proverbial, and
+several passages of admirable literary quality. In point of date
+(1763-65) it is fortunate, for the writer just escaped being one of a
+crowd. On the whole, I maintain that it is more than equal in interest
+to the Journey to the Hebrides, and that it deserves a very
+considerable proportion of the praise that has hitherto been lavished
+too indiscriminately upon the Voyage to Lisbon. On the force of this
+claim the reader is invited to constitute himself judge after a fair
+perusal of the following pages. I shall attempt only to point the way
+to a satisfactory verdict, no longer in the spirit of an advocate, but
+by means of a few illustrations and, more occasionally, amplifications
+of what Smollett has to tell us.
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+III
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+As was the case with Fielding many years earlier, Smollett was almost
+broken down with sedentary toil, when early in June 1763 with his wife,
+two young ladies ("the two girls") to whom she acted as chaperon, and a
+faithful servant of twelve years' standing, who in the spirit of a
+Scots retainer of the olden time refused to leave his master (a good
+testimonial this, by the way, to a temper usually accredited with such
+a splenetic sourness), he crossed the straits of Dover to see what a
+change of climate and surroundings could do for him.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On other grounds than those of health he was glad to shake the dust of
+Britain from his feet. He speaks himself of being traduced by malice,
+persecuted by faction, abandoned by false patrons, complaints which
+will remind the reader, perhaps, of George Borrow's "Jeremiad," to the
+effect that he had been beslavered by the venomous foam of every
+sycophantic lacquey and unscrupulous renegade in the three kingdoms.
+But Smollett's griefs were more serious than what an unkind reviewer
+could inflict. He had been fined and imprisoned for defamation. He had
+been grossly caricatured as a creature of Bute, the North British
+favourite of George III., whose tenure of the premiership occasioned
+riots and almost excited a revolution in the metropolis. Yet after
+incurring all this unpopularity at a time when the populace of London
+was more inflamed against Scotsmen than it has ever been before or
+since, and having laboured severely at a paper in the ministerial
+interest and thereby aroused the enmity of his old friend John Wilkes,
+Smollett had been unceremoniously thrown over by his own chief, Lord
+Bute, on the ground that his paper did more to invite attack than to
+repel it. Lastly, he and his wife had suffered a cruel bereavement in
+the loss of their only child, and it was partly to supply a change from
+the scene of this abiding sorrow, that the present journey was
+undertaken.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The first stages and incidents of the expedition were not exactly
+propitious. The Dover Road was a byword for its charges; the Via Alba
+might have been paved with the silver wrung from reluctant and
+indignant passengers. Smollett characterized the chambers as cold and
+comfortless, the beds as "paultry" (with "frowsy," a favourite word),
+the cookery as execrable, wine poison, attendance bad, publicans
+insolent, and bills extortion, concluding with the grand climax that
+there was not a drop of tolerable malt liquor to be had from London to
+Dover. Smollett finds a good deal to be said for the designation of "a
+den of thieves" as applied to that famous port (where, as a German lady
+of much later date once complained, they "boot ze Bible in ze bedroom,
+but ze devil in ze bill"), and he grizzles lamentably over the seven
+guineas, apart from extras, which he had to pay for transport in a
+Folkestone cutter to Boulogne Mouth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Having once arrived at Boulogne, Smollett settled down regularly to his
+work as descriptive reporter, and the letters that he wrote to his
+friendly circle at home fall naturally into four groups. The first
+Letters from II. to V. describe with Hogarthian point, prejudice and
+pungency, the town and people of Boulogne. The second group, Letters
+VI.-XII., deal with the journey from Boulogne to Nice by way of Paris,
+Lyon, Nimes, and Montpellier. The third group, Letters XIII.-XXIV., is
+devoted to a more detailed and particular delineation of Nice and the
+Nicois. The fourth, Letters XXV.-XLI., describes the Italian expedition
+and the return journey to Boulogne en route for England, where the
+party arrive safe home in July 1765.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Smollett's account of Boulogne is excellent reading, it forms an apt
+introduction to the narrative of his journey, it familiarises us with
+the milieu, and reveals to us in Smollett a man of experience who is
+both resolute and capable of getting below the surface of things. An
+English possession for a short period in the reign of the Great Harry,
+Boulogne has rarely been less in touch with England than it was at the
+time of Smollett's visit. Even then, however, there were three small
+colonies, respectively, of English nuns, English Jesuits, and English
+Jacobites. Apart from these and the English girls in French seminaries
+it was estimated ten years after Smollett's sojourn there that there
+were twenty-four English families in residence. The locality has of
+course always been a haunting place for the wandering tribes of
+English. Many well-known men have lived or died here both native and
+English. Adam Smith must have been there very soon after Smollett. So
+must Dr. John Moore and Charles Churchill, one of the enemies provoked
+by the Briton, who went to Boulogne to meet his friend Wilkes and died
+there in 1764. Philip Thicknesse the traveller and friend of
+Gainsborough died there in 1770. After long search for a place to end
+his days in Thomas Campbell bought a house in Boulogne and died there,
+a few months later, in 1844. The house is still to be seen, Rue St.
+Jean, within the old walls; it has undergone no change, and in 1900 a
+marble tablet was put up to record the fact that Campbell lived and
+died there. The other founder of the University of London, Brougham, by
+a singular coincidence was also closely associated with Boulogne.
+[Among the occupants of the English cemetery will be found the names of
+Sir Harris Nicolas, Basil Montagu, Smithson Pennant, Sir William
+Ouseley, Sir William Hamilton, and Sir C. M. Carmichael. And among
+other literary celebrities connected with the place, apart from Dickens
+(who gave his impressions of the place in Household Words, November
+1854) we should include in a brief list, Charles Lever, Horace Smith,
+Wilkie Collins, Mrs. Henry Wood, Professor York Powell, the Marquis of
+Steyne (Lord Seymour), Mrs. Jordan, Clark Russell, and Sir Conan Doyle.
+There are also memorable associations with Lola Montes, Heinrich Heine,
+Becky Sharpe, and above all Colonel Newcome. My first care in the place
+was to discover the rampart where the Colonel used to parade with
+little Clive. Among the native luminaries are Daunou, Duchenne de
+Boulogne, one of the foremost physiologists of the last century, an
+immediate predecessor of Charcot in knowledge of the nervous system,
+Aug. Mariette, the Egyptologist, Aug. Angellier, the biographer of
+Burns, Sainte-Beuve, Prof. Morel, and "credibly," Godfrey de Bouillon,
+of whom Charles Lamb wrote "poor old Godfrey, he must be getting very
+old now." The great Lesage died here in 1747.] The antiquaries still
+dispute about Gessoriacum, Godfrey de Bouillon, and Charlemagne's Tour.
+Smollett is only fair in justifying for the town, the older portions of
+which have a strong medieval suggestion, a standard of comparison
+slightly more distinguished than Wapping. He never lets us forget that
+he is a scholar of antiquity, a man of education and a speculative
+philosopher. Hence his references to Celsus and Hippocrates and his
+ingenious etymologies of wheatear and samphire, more ingenious in the
+second case than sound. Smollett's field of observation had been wide
+and his fund of exact information was unusually large. At Edinburgh he
+had studied medicine under Monro and John Gordon, in company with such
+able and distinguished men as William Hunter, Cullen, Pitcairn,
+Gregory, and Armstrong&mdash;and the two last mentioned were among his
+present correspondents. As naval surgeon at Carthagena he had undergone
+experience such as few literary men can claim, and subsequently as
+compiler, reviewer, party journalist, historian, translator,
+statistician, and lexicographer, he had gained an amount of
+miscellaneous information such as falls to the lot of very few minds of
+his order of intelligence. He had recently directed the compilation of
+a large Universal Geography or Gazetteer, the Carton or Vivien de St.
+Martin if those days&mdash;hence his glib references to the manners and
+customs of Laplanders, Caffres, Kamskatchans, and other recondite types
+of breeding. His imaginative faculty was under the control of an
+exceptionally strong and retentive memory. One may venture to say,
+indeed, without danger of exaggeration that his testimonials as regards
+habitual accuracy of statement have seldom been exceeded. Despite the
+doctor's unflattering portraits of Frenchmen, M. Babeau admits that his
+book is one written by an observer of facts, and a man whose
+statements, whenever they can be tested, are for the most part
+"singularly exact." Mr. W. J. Prouse, whose knowledge of the Riviera
+district is perhaps almost unequalled out of France, makes this very
+remarkable statement. "After reading all that has been written by very
+clever people about Nice in modern times, one would probably find that
+for exact precision of statement, Smollett was still the most
+trustworthy guide," a view which is strikingly borne out by Mr. E.
+Schuyler, who further points out Smollett's shrewd foresight in regard
+to the possibilities of the Cornice road, and of Cannes and San Remo as
+sanatoria." Frankly there is nothing to be seen which he does not
+recognise." And even higher testimonies have been paid to Smollett's
+topographical accuracy by recent historians of Nice and its
+neighbourhood.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The value which Smollett put upon accuracy in the smallest matters of
+detail is evinced by the corrections which he made in the margin of a
+copy of the 1766 edition of the Travels. These corrections, which are
+all in Smollett's own and unmistakably neat handwriting, may be divided
+into four categories. In the first place come a number of verbal
+emendations. Phrases are turned, inverted and improved by the skilful
+"twist of the pen" which becomes a second nature to the trained
+corrector of proofs; there are moreover a few topographical corrigenda,
+suggested by an improved knowledge of the localities, mostly in the
+neighbourhood of Pisa and Leghorn, where there is no doubt that these
+corrections were made upon the occasion of Smollett's second visit to
+Italy in 1770. [Some not unimportant errata were overlooked. Thus
+Smollett's representation of the droit d'aubaine as a monstrous and
+intolerable grievance is of course an exaggeration. (See Sentimental
+Journey; J. Hill Burton, The Scot Abroad, 1881, p. 135; and Luchaire,
+Instit. de France.) On his homeward journey he indicates that he
+travelled from Beaune to Chalons and so by way of Auxerre to Dijon. The
+right order is Chalons, Beaune, Dijon, Auxerre. As further examples of
+the zeal with which Smollett regarded exactitude in the record of facts
+we have his diurnal register of weather during his stay at Nice and the
+picture of him scrupulously measuring the ruins at Cimiez with
+packthread.] In the second place come a number of English renderings of
+the citations from Latin, French, and Italian authors. Most of these
+from the Latin are examples of Smollett's own skill in English verse
+making. Thirdly come one or two significant admissions of overboldness
+in matters of criticism, as where he retracts his censure of Raphael's
+Parnassus in Letter XXXIII. Fourthly, and these are of the greatest
+importance, come some very interesting additional notes upon the
+buildings of Pisa, upon Sir John Hawkwood's tomb at Florence, and upon
+the congenial though recondite subject of antique Roman hygiene. [Cf.
+the Dinner in the manner of the Ancients in Peregrine Pickle, (xliv.)
+and Letters IX. to XL in Humphry Clinker.]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After Smollett's death his books were for the most part sold for the
+benefit of his widow. No use was made of his corrigenda. For twenty
+years or so the Travels were esteemed and referred to, but as time went
+on, owing to the sneers of the fine gentlemen of letters, such as
+Walpole and Sterne, they were by degrees disparaged and fell more or
+less into neglect. They were reprinted, it is true, either in
+collective editions of Smollett or in various collections of travels;
+[For instance in Baldwin's edition of 1778; in the 17th vol. of Mayor's
+Collection of Voyages and Travels, published by Richard Phillips in
+twenty-eight vols., 1809; and in an abbreviated form in John Hamilton
+Moore's New and Complete Collection of Voyages and Travels (folio, Vol.
+11. 938-970).] but they were not edited with any care, and as is
+inevitable in such cases errors crept in, blunders were repeated, and
+the text slightly but gradually deteriorated. In the last century
+Smollett's own copy of the Travels bearing the manuscript corrections
+that he had made in 1770, was discovered in the possession of the
+Telfer family and eventually came into the British Museum. The second
+volume, which affords admirable specimens of Smollett's neatly written
+marginalia, has been exhibited in a show-case in the King's Library.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The corrections that Smollett purposed to make in the Travels are now
+for the second time embodied in a printed edition of the text. At the
+same time the text has been collated with the original edition of 1766,
+and the whole has been carefully revised. The old spelling has been, as
+far as possible, restored. Smollett was punctilious in such matters,
+and what with his histories, his translations, his periodicals, and his
+other compilations, he probably revised more proof-matter for press
+than any other writer of his time. His practice as regards orthography
+is, therefore, of some interest as representing what was in all
+probability deemed to be the most enlightened convention of the day.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To return now to the Doctor's immediate contemplation of Boulogne, a
+city described in the Itineraries as containing rien de remarquable.
+The story of the Capuchin [On page 21. A Capuchin of the same stripe is
+in Pickle, ch. Ill. sq.] is very racy of Smollett, while the vignette
+of the shepherd at the beginning of Letter V. affords a first-rate
+illustration of his terseness. Appreciate the keen and minute
+observation concentrated into the pages that follow, [Especially on p.
+34 to p. 40.] commencing with the shrewd and economic remarks upon
+smuggling, and ending with the lively description of a Boulonnais
+banquet, very amusing, very French, very life-like, and very
+Smollettian. In Letter V. the Doctor again is very much himself. A
+little provocation and he bristles and stabs all round. He mounts the
+hygienic horse and proceeds from the lack of implements of cleanliness
+to the lack of common decency, and "high flavoured instances, at which
+even a native of Edinburgh would stop his nose." [This recalls
+Johnson's first walk up the High Street, Edinburgh, on Bozzy's arm. "It
+was a dusky night: I could not prevent his being assailed by the
+evening effluvia of Edinburgh. . . . As we marched along he grumbled in
+my ear, 'I smell you in the dark!'"] And then lest the southrons should
+escape we have a reference to the "beastly habit of drinking from a
+tankard in which perhaps a dozen filthy mouths have slabbered as is the
+custom in England." With all his coarsenesses this blunt Scot was a
+pioneer and fugleman of the niceties. Between times most nations are
+gibbetted in this slashing epistle. The ingenious boasting of the
+French is well hit off in the observation of the chevalier that the
+English doubtless drank every day to the health of the Marquise de
+Pompadour. The implication reminded Smollett of a narrow escape from a
+duello (an institution he reprobates with the utmost trenchancy in this
+book) at Ghent in 1749 with a Frenchman who affirmed that Marlborough's
+battles were purposely lost by the French generals in order to mortify
+Mme. de Maintenon. Two incidents of some importance to Smollett
+occurred during the three months' sojourn at Boulogne. Through the
+intervention of the English Ambassador at Paris (the Earl of Hertford)
+he got back his books, which had been impounded by the Customs as
+likely to contain matter prejudicial to the state or religion of
+France, and had them sent south by shipboard to Bordeaux. Secondly, he
+encountered General Paterson, a friendly Scot in the Sardinian service,
+who confirmed what an English physician had told Smollett to the effect
+that the climate of Nice was infinitely preferable to that of
+Montpellier "with respect to disorders of the breast." Smollett now
+hires a berline and four horses for fourteen louis, and sets out with
+rather a heavy heart for Paris. It is problematic, he assures his good
+friend Dr. Moore, whether he will ever return. "My health is very
+precarious."
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+IV
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+The rapid journey to Paris by way of Montreuil, Amiens, and Clermont,
+about one hundred and fifty-six miles from Boulogne, the last
+thirty-six over a paved road, was favourable to superficial observation
+and the normal corollary of epigram. Smollett was much impressed by the
+mortifying indifference of the French innkeepers to their clients. "It
+is a very odd contrast between France and England. In the former all
+the people are complaisant but the publicans; in the latter there is
+hardly any complaisance but among the publicans." [In regard to two
+exceptional instances of politeness on the part of innkeepers, Smollett
+attributes one case to dementia, the other, at Lerici, to mental shock,
+caused by a recent earthquake.] Idleness and dissipation confront the
+traveller, not such a good judge, perhaps, as was Arthur Young
+four-and-twenty years later. "Every object seems to have shrunk in its
+dimensions since I was last in Paris." Smollett was an older man by
+fifteen years since he visited the French capital in the first flush of
+his success as an author. The dirt and gloom of French apartments, even
+at Versailles, offend his English standard of comfort. "After all, it
+is in England only where we must look for cheerful apartments, gay
+furniture, neatness, and convenience. There is a strange incongruity in
+the French genius. With all their volatility, prattle, and fondness for
+bons mots they delight in a species of drawling, melancholy, church
+music. Their most favourite dramatic pieces are almost without
+incident, and the dialogue of their comedies consists of moral insipid
+apophthegms, entirely destitute of wit or repartee." While amusing
+himself with the sights of Paris, Smollett drew up that caustic
+delineation of the French character which as a study in calculated
+depreciation has rarely been surpassed. He conceives the Frenchman
+entirely as a petit-maitre, and his view, though far removed from
+Chesterfield's, is not incompatible with that of many of his cleverest
+contemporaries, including Sterne. He conceives of the typical Frenchman
+as regulating his life in accordance with the claims of impertinent
+curiosity and foppery, gallantry and gluttony. Thus:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If a Frenchman is capable of real friendship, it must certainly be the
+most disagreeable present he can possibly make to a man of a true
+English character. You know, madam, we are naturally taciturn, soon
+tired of impertinence, and much subject to fits of disgust. Your French
+friend intrudes upon you at all hours; he stuns you with his loquacity;
+he teases you with impertinent questions about your domestic and
+private affairs; he attempts to meddle in all your concerns, and forces
+his advice upon you with the most unwearied importunity; he asks the
+price of everything you wear, and, so sure as you tell him, undervalues
+it without hesitation; he affirms it is in a bad taste, ill contrived,
+ill made; that you have been imposed upon both with respect to the
+fashion and the price; that the marquis of this, or the countess of
+that, has one that is perfectly elegant, quite in the bon ton, and yet
+it cost her little more than you gave for a thing that nobody would
+wear.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If a Frenchman is admitted into your family, and distinguished by
+repeated marks of your friendship and regard, the first return he makes
+for your civilities is to make love to your wife, if she is handsome;
+if not, to your sister, or daughter, or niece. If he suffers a repulse
+from your wife, or attempts in vain to debauch your sister, or your
+daughter, or your niece, he will, rather than not play the traitor with
+his gallantry, make his addresses to your grandmother; and ten to one
+but in one shape or another he will find means to ruin the peace of a
+family in which he has been so kindly entertained. What he cannot
+accomplish by dint of compliment and personal attendance, he will
+endeavour to effect by reinforcing these with billets-doux, songs, and
+verses, of which he always makes a provision for such purposes. If he
+is detected in these efforts of treachery, and reproached with his
+ingratitude, he impudently declares that what he had done was no more
+than simple gallantry, considered in France as an indispensable duty on
+every man who pretended to good breeding. Nay, he will even affirm that
+his endeavours to corrupt your wife, or deflower your daughter, were
+the most genuine proofs he could give of his particular regard for your
+family.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"If there were five hundred dishes at table, a Frenchman will eat of
+all of them, and then complain he has no appetite&mdash;this I have several
+times remarked. A friend of mine gained a considerable wager upon an
+experiment of this kind; the petit-maitre ate of fourteen different
+plates, besides the dessert, then disparaged the cook, declaring he was
+no better than a marmiton, or turnspit."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The gross unfairness, no less than the consummate cleverness, of this
+caricature compels us to remember that this was written in the most
+insular period of our manners, and during a brief lull in a century of
+almost incessant mutual hostility between the two nations. Aristocrats
+like Walpole, Gibbon, and Chesterfield could regard France from a
+cosmopolitan point of view, as leading the comite of nations. But to
+sturdy and true-born patriots, such as Hogarth and Smollett, reciprocal
+politeness appeared as grotesque as an exchange of amenities would be
+between a cormorant and an ape. Consequently, it was no doubt with a
+sense of positive relief to his feelings that Smollett could bring
+himself to sum up the whole matter thus. "A Frenchman lays out his
+whole revenue upon taudry suits of cloaths, or in furnishing a
+magnificent repas of fifty or a hundred dishes, one-half of which are
+not eatable or intended to be eaten. His wardrobe goes to the fripier,
+his dishes to the dogs, and himself to the devil."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+These trenchant passages were written partly, it may be imagined, to
+suit the English taste of the day. In that object they must have
+succeeded, for they were frequently transcribed into contemporary
+periodicals. In extenuation of Smollett's honesty of purpose, however,
+it may be urged that he was always a thoroughgoing patriot, [Witness
+his violently anti-French play, the Reprisal of 1757.] and that, coming
+from a Calvinistic country where a measure of Tartufism was a necessary
+condition of respectability, he reproduces the common English error of
+ignoring how apt a Frenchman is to conceal a number of his best
+qualities. Two other considerations deserve attention. The
+race-portrait was in Smollett's day at the very height of its
+disreputable reign. Secondly, we must remember how very profoundly
+French character has been modified since 1763, and more especially in
+consequence of the cataclysms of 1789 and 1870.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Smollett's vis comica is conspicuous in the account of the coiffure of
+the period and of the superstitious reverence which a Frenchman of that
+day paid to his hair. In tracing the origin of this superstition he
+exhibits casually his historical learning. The crine profuso and barba
+demissa of the reges crinitos, as the Merovingians were called, are
+often referred to by ancient chroniclers. Long hair was identified with
+right of succession, as a mark of royal race, and the maintenance of
+ancient tradition. A tondu signified a slave, and even under the
+Carolingians to shave a prince meant to affirm his exclusion from the
+succession.
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+V
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+A general improvement in English roads, roadside inns, and methods of
+conveyance commenced about 1715. The continental roads lagged behind,
+until when Arthur Young wrote in 1788-89 they had got badly into
+arrears. The pace of locomotion between Rome and England changed very
+little in effect from the days of Julius Caesar to those of George III.
+It has been said with point that Trajan and Sir Robert Peel, travelling
+both at their utmost speed achieved the distance between Rome and
+London in an almost precisely similar space of time. Smollett decided
+to travel post between Paris and Lyons, and he found that the journey
+lasted full five days and cost upwards of thirty guineas. [One of the
+earliest printed road books in existence gives the posts between Paris
+and Lyons. This tiny duodecimo, dated 1500, and more than worth its
+weight in gold has just been acquired by the British Museum. On the old
+Roman routes, see Arnold's Lectures on Modern History, 1842.] Of roads
+there was a choice between two. The shorter route by Nevers and Moulins
+amounted to just about three hundred English miles. The longer route by
+Auxerre and Dijon, which Smollett preferred extended to three hundred
+and thirty miles. The two roads diverged after passing Fontainebleau,
+the shorter by Nemours and the longer by Moret. The first road was the
+smoother, but apart from the chance of seeing the Vendange the route de
+Burgoyne was far the more picturesque. Smollett's portraiture of the
+peasantry in the less cultivated regions prepares the mind for Young's
+famous description of those "gaunt emblems of famine." In Burgundy the
+Doctor says, "I saw a peasant ploughing the ground with a jackass, a
+lean cow, and a he-goat yoked together." His vignette of the fantastic
+petit-maitre at Sens, and his own abominable rudeness, is worthy of the
+master hand that drew the poor debtor Jackson in the Marshalsea in
+Roderick Random.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+His frank avowal of ill temper at the time deprives our entertainment
+of the unamiable tinge of which it would otherwise have partaken. "The
+truth is, I was that day more than usually peevish, from the bad
+weather as well as from the dread of a fit of asthma, with which I was
+threatened. And I daresay my appearance seemed as uncouth to him as his
+travelling dress appeared to me. I had a grey, mourning frock under a
+wide greatcoat, a bob-wig without powder, a very large laced hat, and a
+meagre, wrinkled, discontented countenance."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+From Lyons the traveller secured a return berline going back to Avignon
+with three mules and a voiturier named Joseph. Joseph, though he turned
+out to be an ex-criminal, proved himself the one Frenchman upon whose
+fidelity and good service Smollett could look back with unfeigned
+satisfaction. The sight of a skeleton dangling from a gibbet near
+Valence surprised from this droll knave an ejaculation and a story,
+from which it appeared only too evident that he had been first the
+comrade and then the executioner of one of the most notorious brigands
+of the century. The story as told by Smollett does not wholly agree
+with the best authenticated particulars. The Dick Turpin of eighteenth
+century France, Mandrin has engendered almost as many fables as his
+English congener. [See Maignien's Bibliographie des Ecrits relatifs a
+Mandrin.] As far as I have been able to discover, the great freebooter
+was born at St. Etienne in May 1724. His father having been killed in a
+coining affair, Mandrin swore to revenge him. He deserted from the army
+accordingly, and got together a gang of contrebandiers, at the head of
+which his career in Savoy and Dauphine almost resembles that of one of
+the famous guerilla chieftains described in Hardman's Peninsular Scenes
+and Sketches. Captured eventually, owing to the treachery of a comrade,
+he was put to death on the wheel at Valence on 26th May 1755. Five
+comrades were thrown into jail with him; and one of these obtained his
+pardon on condition of acting as Mandrin's executioner. Alas, poor
+Joseph!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Three experiences Smollett had at this season which may well fall to
+the lot of road-farers in France right down to the present day. He was
+poisoned with garlic, surfeited with demi-roasted small birds, and
+astonished at the solid fare of the poorest looking travellers. The
+summer weather, romantic scenery, and occasional picnics, which
+Smollett would have liked to repeat every summer under the arches of
+the Pont du Gard&mdash;the monument of antiquity which of all, excepting
+only the Maison Carree at Nimes, most excited his enthusiastic
+admiration, all contributed to put him into an abnormally cheerful and
+convalescent humour. . . .
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Smollett now bent his steps southwards to Montpellier. His baggage had
+gone in advance. He was uncertain as yet whether to make Montpellier or
+Nice his headquarters in the South. Like Toulouse and Tours, and Turin,
+Montpellier was for a period a Mecca to English health and pleasure
+seekers abroad. A city of no great antiquity, but celebrated from the
+twelfth century for its schools of Law and Physic, it had been
+incorporated definitely with France since 1382, and its name recurs in
+French history both as the home of famous men in great number and as,
+before and after the brief pre-eminence of La Rochelle, the rival of
+Nimes as capital of Protestantism in the South. Evelyn, Burnet, the two
+Youngs, Edward and Arthur, and Sterne have all left us an impression of
+the city. Prevented by snow from crossing the Mont Cenis, John Locke
+spent two winters there in the days of Charles II. (1675-77), and may
+have pondered a good many of the problems of Toleration on a soil under
+which the heated lava of religious strife was still unmistakeable. And
+Smollett must almost have jostled en route against the celebrated
+author of The Wealth of Nations, who set out with his pupil for
+Toulouse in February 1764. A letter to Hume speaks of the number of
+English in the neighbourhood just a month later. Lomenie de Brienne was
+then in residence as archbishop. In the following November, Adam Smith
+and his charge paid a visit to Montpellier to witness a pageant and
+memorial, as it was supposed, of a freedom that was gone for ever, the
+opening of the States of Languedoc. Antiquaries and philosophers went
+to moralise on the spectacle in the spirit in which Freeman went to
+Andorra, Byron to the site of Troy, or De Tocqueville to America. It
+was there that the great economist met Horne Tooke.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Smollett's more practical and immediate object in making this
+pilgrimage was to interview the great lung specialist, known locally to
+his admiring compatriots as the Boerhaave of Montpellier, Dr. Fizes.
+The medical school of Montpellier was much in evidence during the third
+quarter of the eighteenth century, and for the history of its various
+branches there are extant numerous Memoires pour Servir, by Prunelle,
+Astruc, and others. Smollett was only just in time to consult the
+reigning oracle, for the "illustrious" Dr. Fizes died in the following
+year. He gives us a very unfavourable picture of this "great lanthorn
+of medicine," who, notwithstanding his prodigious age, his stoop, and
+his wealth, could still scramble up two pairs for a fee of six livres.
+More than is the case with most medical patients, however, should we
+suspect Smollett of being unduly captious. The point as to how far his
+sketch of the French doctor and his diagnosis was a true one, and how
+far a mere caricature, due to ill health and prejudice, has always
+piqued my curiosity. But how to resolve a question involving so many
+problems not of ordinary therapeutic but of historical medicine! In
+this difficulty I bethought me most fortunately of consulting an
+authority probably without a rival in this special branch of medical
+history, Dr. Norman Moore, who with his accustomed generosity has given
+me the following most instructive diagnosis of the whole situation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I have read Smollett's account of his illness as it appears in several
+passages in his travels and in the statement which he drew up for
+Professor 'F.' at Montpellier.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Smollett speaks of his pulmonic disorder, his 'asthmatical disorder,'
+and uses other expressions which show that his lungs were affected. In
+his statement he mentions that he has cough, shortness of breath,
+wasting, a purulent expectoration, loss of appetite at times, loss of
+strength, fever, a rapid pulse, intervals of slight improvement and
+subsequent exacerbations.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"This shortness of breath, he says, has steadily increased. This group
+of symptoms makes it certain that he had tuberculosis of the lungs, in
+other words, was slowly progressing in consumption.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"His darting pains in his side were due to the pleurisy which always
+occurs in such an illness.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"His account shows also the absence of hopelessness which is a
+characteristic state of mind in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"I do not think that the opinion of the Montpellier professor deserves
+Smollett's condemnation. It seems to me both careful and sensible and
+contains all the knowledge of its time. Smollett, with an inconsistency
+not uncommon in patients who feel that they have a serious disease,
+would not go in person to the Professor, for he felt that from his
+appearance the Professor would be sure to tell him he had consumption.
+He half hoped for some other view of the written case in spite of its
+explicit statements, and when Professor F&mdash; wrote that the patient had
+tubercles in his lungs, this was displeasing to poor Smollett, who had
+hoped against hope to receive&mdash;some other opinion than the only
+possible one, viz., that he undoubtedly had a consumption certain to
+prove fatal."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The cruel truth was not to be evaded. Smollett had tuberculosis, though
+not probably of the most virulent kind, as he managed to survive
+another seven years, and those for the most part years of unremitting
+labour. He probably gained much by substituting Nice for Montpellier as
+a place to winter in, for although the climate of Montpellier is clear
+and bright in the highest degree, the cold is both piercing and
+treacherous. Days are frequent during the winter in which one may stand
+warmly wrapped in the brilliant sun and feel the protection of a
+greatcoat no more than that of a piece of gauze against the icy and
+penetrating blast that comes from "the roof of France."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Unable to take the direct route by Arles as at present, the
+eastward-bound traveller from Montpellier in 1764 had to make a
+northerly detour. The first stone bridge up the Rhone was at Avignon,
+but there was a bridge of boats connecting Beaucaire with Tarascon.
+Thence, in no very placable mood, Smollett set out in mid-November by
+way of Orgon [Aix], Brignolles and le Muy, striking the Mediterranean
+at Frejus. En route he was inveigled into a controversy of unwonted
+bitterness with an innkeeper at le Muy. The scene is conjured up for us
+with an almost disconcerting actuality; no single detail of the
+author's discomfiture is omitted. The episode is post-Flaubertian in
+its impersonal detachment, or, as Coleridge first said, "aloofness." On
+crossing the Var, the sunny climate, the romantic outline of the
+Esterelles, the charms of the "neat village" of Cannes, and the first
+prospect of Nice began gradually and happily to effect a slight
+mitigation in our patient's humour. Smollett was indubitably one of the
+pioneers of the Promenade des Anglais. Long before the days of "Dr.
+Antonio" or Lord Brougham, he described for his countrymen the almost
+incredible dolcezza of the sunlit coast from Antibes to Lerici. But how
+much better than the barren triumph of being the unconscious fugleman
+of so glittering a popularity must have been the sense of being one of
+the first that ever burst from our rude island upon that secluded
+little Piedmontese town, as it then was, of not above twelve thousand
+souls, with its wonderful situation, noble perspective and unparalleled
+climate. Well might our travel-tost doctor exclaim, "When I stand on
+the rampart and look around I can scarce help thinking myself
+enchanted." It was truly a garden of Armida for a native of one of the
+dampest corners of North Britain.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Forty or fifty years ago, before the great transformation took place
+on the French Riviera, when Nizza, Villafranca, and Mentone were
+antique Italian towns, and when it was one of the eccentricities of
+Lord Brougham, to like Cannes, all that sea-board was a delightful
+land. Only a hundred years ago Arthur Young had trouble to get an old
+woman and a donkey to carry his portmanteau from Cannes to Antibes. I
+can myself remember Cannes in 1853, a small fishing village with a
+quiet beach, and Mentone, a walled town with mediaeval gates and a
+castle, a few humble villas and the old Posta to give supper to any
+passing traveller. It was one of the loveliest bits of Italy, and the
+road from Nizza to Genoa was one long procession for four days of
+glorious scenery, historic remnants, Italian colour, and picturesque
+ports. From the Esterelles to San Remo this has all been ruined by the
+horde of northern barbarians who have made a sort of Trouville,
+Brighton, or Biarritz, with American hotels and Parisian boulevards on
+every headland and bay. First came the half underground railway, a long
+tunnel with lucid intervals, which destroyed the road by blocking up
+its finest views and making it practically useless. Then miles of
+unsightly caravanserais high walls, pompous villas, and Parisian
+grandes rues crushed out every trace of Italy, of history, and
+pictorial charm." So writes Mr. Frederic Harrison of this delectable
+coast, [In the Daily Chronicle, 15th March 1898.] as it was, at a
+period within his own recollection&mdash;a period at which it is hardly
+fanciful to suppose men living who might just have remembered Smollett,
+as he was in his last days, when he returned to die on the Riviera di
+Levante in the autumn of 1771. Travel had then still some of the
+elements of romance. Rapidity has changed all that. The trouble is that
+although we can transport our bodies so much more rapidly than Smollett
+could, our understanding travels at the same old pace as before. And in
+the meantime railway and tourist agencies have made of modern travel a
+kind of mental postcard album, with grand hotels on one side, hotel
+menus on the other, and a faint aroma of continental trains haunting,
+between the leaves as it were. Our real knowledge is still limited to
+the country we have walked over, and we must not approach the country
+we would appreciate faster than a man may drive a horse or propel a
+bicycle; or we shall lose the all-important sense of artistic approach.
+Even to cross the channel by time-table is fatal to that romantic
+spirit (indispensable to the true magic of travel) which a slow
+adjustment of the mind to a new social atmosphere and a new historical
+environment alone can induce. Ruskin, the last exponent of the Grand
+Tour, said truly that the benefit of travel varies inversely in
+proportion to its speed. The cheap rapidity which has made our villes
+de plaisir and cotes d'azur what they are, has made unwieldy boroughs
+of suburban villages, and what the rail has done for a radius of a
+dozen miles, the motor is rapidly doing for one of a score. So are we
+sped! But we are to discuss not the psychology of travel, but the
+immediate causes and circumstances of Smollett's arrival upon the
+territory of Nice.
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+VI
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+Smollett did not interpret the ground-plan of the history of Nice
+particularly well. Its colonisation from Massilia, its long connection
+with Provence, its occupation by Saracens, its stormy connection with
+the house of Anjou, and its close fidelity to the house of Savoy made
+no appeal to his admiration. The most important event in its recent
+history, no doubt, was the capture of the city by the French under
+Catinat in 1706 (Louis XIV. being especially exasperated against what
+he regarded as the treachery of Victor Amadeus), and the razing to the
+ground of its famous citadel. The city henceforth lost a good deal of
+its civic dignity, and its morale was conspicuously impaired. In the
+war of the Austrian succession an English fleet under Admiral Matthews
+was told off to defend the territory of the Nicois against the
+attentions of Toulon. This was the first close contact experienced
+between England and Nice, but the impressions formed were mutually
+favourable. The inhabitants were enthusiastic about the unaccustomed
+English plan of paying in full for all supplies demanded. The British
+officers were no less delighted with the climate of Nice, the fame of
+which they carried to their northern homes. It was both directly and
+indirectly through one of these officers that the claims of Nice as a
+sanatorium came to be put so plainly before Smollett. [Losing its
+prestige as a ville forte, Nice was henceforth rapidly to gain the new
+character of a ville de plaisir. In 1763, says one of the city's
+historians, Smollett, the famous historian and novelist, visited Nice.
+"Arriving here shattered in health and depressed in spirits, under the
+genial influence of the climate he soon found himself a new man. His
+notes on the country, its gardens, its orange groves, its climate
+without a winter, are pleasant and just and would seem to have been
+written yesterday instead of more than a hundred years ago. . . . His
+memory is preserved in the street nomenclature of the place; one of the
+thoroughfares still bears the appellation of Rue Smollett." (James
+Nash, The Guide to Nice, 1884, p. 110.)]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Among other celebrated residents at Nice during the period of
+Smollett's visit were Edward Augustus, Duke of York, the brother of
+George III., who died at Monaco a few years later, and Andre Massena, a
+native of the city, then a lad of six.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Before he left Montpellier Smollett indulged in two more seemingly
+irresistible tirades against French folly: one against their persistent
+hero-worship of such a stuffed doll as Louis le Grand, and the second
+in ridicule of the immemorial French panacea, a bouillon. Now he gets
+to Nice he feels a return of the craving to take a hand's turn at
+depreciatory satire upon the nation of which a contemporary hand was
+just tracing the deservedly better-known delineation, commencing
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Gay sprightly land of mirth and social ease,<BR>
+  Pleas'd with thyself, whom all the world can please. . . .<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Such inveteracy (like Dr. Johnson's against Swift) was not unnaturally
+suspected by friends in England of having some personal motive. In his
+fifteenth letter home, therefore, Smollett is assiduous in disclaiming
+anything of the kind. He begins by attempting an amende honorable, but
+before he has got well away from his exordium he insensibly and most
+characteristically diverges into the more congenial path of censure,
+and expands indeed into one of his most eloquent passages&mdash;a
+disquisition upon the French punctilio (conceived upon lines somewhat
+similar to Mercutio's address to Benvolio), to which is appended a
+satire on the duello as practised in France, which glows and burns with
+a radiation of good sense, racy of Smollett at his best.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To eighteenth century lovers the discussion on duelling will recall
+similar talks between Boswell and Johnson, or that between the
+lieutenant and Tom in the Seventh Book of Tom Jones, but, more
+particularly, the sermon delivered by Johnson on this subject a propos
+of General Oglethorpe's story of how he avoided a duel with Prince
+Eugene in 1716. "We were sitting in company at table, whence the Prince
+took up a glass of wine and by a fillip made some of it fly in
+Oglethorpe's face. Here was a nice dilemma. To have challenged him
+instantly might have fixed a quarrelsome character upon the young
+soldier: to have taken no notice of it might have been counted as
+cowardice. Oglethorpe, therefore, keeping his eye on the Prince, and
+smiling all the time, as if he took what His Highness had done in jest,
+said, "Mon Prince" (I forget the French words he used), "that's a good
+joke; but we do it much better in England," and threw a whole glass of
+wine in the Prince's face. An old general who sat by said, "Il a bien
+fait, mon Prince, vous l'avez commence," and thus all ended in good
+humour."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In Letter XIII. Smollett settles down to give his correspondents a
+detailed description of the territory and people of Nice. At one time
+it was his intention to essay yet another branch of authorship and to
+produce a monograph on the natural history, antiquities, and topography
+of the town as the capital of this still unfamiliar littoral; with the
+late-born modesty of experience, however, he recoils from a task to
+which he does not feel his opportunities altogether adequate. [See p.
+152.] A quarter of Smollett's original material would embarrass a
+"Guide"-builder of more recent pattern.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Whenever he got near a coast line Smollett could not refrain from
+expressing decided views. If he had lived at the present day he would
+infallibly have been a naval expert, better informed than most and more
+trenchant than all; but recognizably one of the species, artist in
+words and amateur of ocean-strategy. [Smollett had, of course, been
+surgeon's mate on H.M.S. Cumberland, 1740-41.] His first curiosity at
+Nice was raised concerning the port, the harbour, the galleys moored
+within the mole, and the naval policy of his Sardinian Majesty. His
+advice to Victor Amadeus was no doubt as excellent and as unregarded as
+the advice of naval experts generally is. Of more interest to us is his
+account of the slave-galleys. Among the miserable slaves whom "a
+British subject cannot behold without horror and compassion," he
+observes a Piedmontese count in Turkish attire, reminding the reader of
+one of Dumas' stories of a count among the forcats. To learn that there
+were always volunteer oarsmen among these poor outcasts is to reflect
+bitterly upon the average happiness of mankind. As to whether they wore
+much worse off than common seamen in the British navy of the period
+(who were only in name volunteers and had often no hope of discharge
+until they were worn out) under such commanders as Oakum or Whiffle [In
+Roderick Random.] is another question. For confirmation of Smollett's
+account in matters of detail the reader may turn to Aleman's Guzman
+d'Afarache, which contains a first-hand description of the life on
+board a Mediterranean slave galley, to Archenholtz's Tableau d'Italie
+of 1788, to Stirling Maxwell's Don John of Austria (1883, i. 95), and
+more pertinently to passages in the Life of a Galley Slave by Jean
+Marteilhe (edited by Miss Betham-Edwards in 1895). After serving in the
+docks at Dunkirk, Marteilhe, as a confirmed protestant, makes the
+journey in the chain-gang to Marseilles, and is only released after
+many delays in consequence of the personal interest and intervention of
+Queen Anne. If at the peace of Utrecht in 1713 we had only been as
+tender about the case of our poor Catalan allies! Nice at that juncture
+had just been returned by France to the safe-keeping of Savoy, so that
+in order to escape from French territory, Marteilhe sailed for Nice in
+a tartane, and not feeling too safe even there, hurried thence by
+Smollett's subsequent route across the Col di Tende. Many Europeans
+were serving at this time in the Turkish or Algerine galleys. But the
+most pitiable of all the galley slaves were those of the knights of St.
+John of Malta. "Figure to yourself," wrote Jacob Houblon [The Houblon
+Family, 1907 ii. 78. The accounts in Evelyn and Goldsmith are probably
+familiar to the reader.] about this year, "six or seven hundred dirty
+half-naked Turks in a small vessel chained to the oars, from which they
+are not allowed to stir, fed upon nothing but bad biscuit and water,
+and beat about on the most trifling occasion by their most inhuman
+masters, who are certainly more Turks than their slaves."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After several digressions, one touching the ancient Cemenelion, a
+subject upon which the Jonathan Oldbucks of Provence without exception
+are unconscionably tedious, Smollett settles down to a capable
+historical summary preparatory to setting his palette for a picture of
+the Nissards "as they are." He was, as we are aware, no court painter,
+and the cheerful colours certainly do not predominate. The noblesse for
+all their exclusiveness cannot escape his censure. He can see that they
+are poor (they are unable to boast more than two coaches among their
+whole number), and he feels sure that they are depraved. He attributes
+both vices unhesitatingly to their idleness and to their religion. In
+their singularly unemotional and coolly comparative outlook upon
+religion, how infinitely nearer were Fielding and Smollett than their
+greatest successors, Dickens and Thackeray, to the modern critic who
+observes that there is "at present not a single credible established
+religion in existence." To Smollett Catholicism conjures up nothing so
+vividly as the mask of comedy, while his native Calvinism stands for
+the corresponding mask of tragedy. [Walpole's dictum that Life was a
+comedy to those who think, a tragedy for those who feel, was of later
+date than this excellent mot of Smollett's.] Religion in the sunny
+spaces of the South is a "never-failing fund of pastime." The mass (of
+which he tells a story that reminds us of Lever's Micky Free) is just a
+mechanism invented by clever rogues for an elaborate system of petty
+larceny. And what a ferocious vein of cynicism underlies his strictures
+upon the perverted gallantry of the Mariolaters at Florence, or those
+on the two old Catholics rubbing their ancient gums against St. Peter's
+toe for toothache at Rome. The recurring emblems of crosses and gibbets
+simply shock him as mementoes of the Bagne.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At Rome he compares a presentment of St. Laurence to "a barbecued pig."
+"What a pity it is," he complains, "that the labours of painting should
+have been employed on such shocking objects of the martyrology,"
+floggings, nailings, and unnailings... "Peter writhing on the cross,
+Stephen battered with stones, Sebastian stuck full of arrows,
+Bartholomew flayed alive," and so on. His remarks upon the famous Pieta
+of Michael Angelo are frank to the point of brutality. The right of
+sanctuary and its "infamous prerogative," unheard of in England since
+the days of Henry VII., were still capable of affording a lesson to the
+Scot abroad. "I saw a fellow who had three days before murdered his
+wife in the last month of pregnancy, taking the air with great
+composure and serenity, on the steps of a church in Florence."
+Smollett, it is clear, for all his philosophy, was no degenerate
+representative of the blind, unreasoning seventeenth-century
+detestation of "Popery and wooden shoes."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Smollett is one of the first to describe a "conversazione," and in
+illustration of the decadence of Italian manners, it is natural that he
+should have a good deal to tell us about the Cicisbeatura. His account
+of the cicisbeo and his duties, whether in Nice, Florence, or Rome, is
+certainly one of the most interesting that we have. Before Smollett and
+his almost contemporary travel correspondent, Samuel Sharp, it would
+probably be hard to find any mention of the cicisbeo in England, though
+the word was consecrated by Sheridan a few years later. Most of the
+"classic" accounts of the usage such as those by Mme. de Stael,
+Stendhal, Parini, Byron and his biographers date from very much later,
+when the institution was long past its prime if not actually moribund.
+Now Smollett saw it at the very height of its perfection and at a time
+when our decorous protestant curiosity on such themes was as lively as
+Lady Mary Montagu had found it in the case of fair Circassians and
+Turkish harems just thirty years previously. [A cicisbeo was a dangler.
+Hence the word came to be applied punningly to the bow depending from a
+clouded cane or ornamental crook. In sixteenth-century Spain, home of
+the sedan and the caballero galante, the original term was bracciere.
+In Venice the form was cavaliere servente. For a good note on the
+subject, see Sismondi's Italian Republics, ed. William Boulting, 1907,
+p. 793.] Like so much in the shapes and customs of Italy the
+cicisbeatura was in its origin partly Gothic and partly Oriental. It
+combined the chivalry of northern friendship with the refined passion
+of the South for the seclusion of women. As an experiment in protest
+against the insipidity which is too often an accompaniment of conjugal
+intercourse the institution might well seem to deserve a more tolerant
+and impartial investigation than it has yet received at the hands of
+our sociologists. A survival so picturesque could hardly be expected to
+outlive the bracing air of the nineteenth century. The north wind blew
+and by 1840 the cicisbeatura was a thing of the past.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Freed from the necessity of a systematic delineation Smollett rambles
+about Nice, its length and breadth, with a stone in his pouch, and
+wherever a cockshy is available he takes full advantage of it. He
+describes the ghetto (p. 171), the police arrangements of the place
+which he finds in the main highly efficient, and the cruel punishment
+of the strappado. The garrucha or strappado and the garrotes, combined
+with the water-torture and the rack, represented the survival of the
+fittest in the natural selection of torments concerning which the Holy
+Office in Italy and Spain had such a vast experience. The strappado as
+described by Smollett, however, is a more severe form of torture even
+than that practised by the Inquisition, and we can only hope that his
+description of its brutality is highly coloured. [See the extremely
+learned disquisition on the whole subject in Dr. H. C. Lea's History of
+the Inquisition in Spain, 1907, vol. iii. book vi chap. vii.] Smollett
+must have enjoyed himself vastly in the market at Nice. He gives an
+elaborate and epicurean account of his commissariat during the
+successive seasons of his sojourn in the neighbourhood. He was not one
+of these who live solely "below the diaphragm"; but he understood food
+well and writes about it with a catholic gusto and relish (156-165). He
+laments the rarity of small birds on the Riviera, and gives a highly
+comic account of the chasse of this species of gibier. He has a good
+deal to say about the sardine and tunny fishery, about the fruit and
+scent traffic, and about the wine industry; and he gives us a graphic
+sketch of the silkworm culture, which it is interesting to compare with
+that given by Locke in 1677. He has something to say upon the general
+agriculture, and more especially upon the olive and oil industry. Some
+remarks upon the numerous "mummeries" and festas of the inhabitants
+lead him into a long digression upon the feriae of the Romans. It is
+evident from this that the box of books which he shipped by way of
+Bordeaux must have been plentifully supplied with classical literature,
+for, as he remarks with unaffected horror, such a thing as a bookseller
+had not been so much as heard of in Nice. Well may he have expatiated
+upon the total lack of taste among the inhabitants! In dealing with the
+trade, revenue, and other administrative details Smollett shows himself
+the expert compiler and statistician a London journalist in large
+practice credits himself with becoming by the mere exercise of his
+vocation. In dealing with the patois of the country he reveals the
+curiosity of the trained scholar and linguist. Climate had always been
+one of his hobbies, and on learning that none of the local
+practitioners was in a position to exact a larger fee than sixpence
+from his patients (quantum mutatus the Nice physician of 1907!) he felt
+that he owed it to himself to make this the subject of an independent
+investigation. He kept a register of the weather during the whole of
+his stay, and his remarks upon the subject are still of historical
+interest, although with Teysseire's minutely exact Monograph on the
+Climatology of Nice (1881) at his disposal and innumerable commentaries
+thereon by specialists, the inquirer of to-day would hardly go to
+Smollett for his data. Then, as now, it is curious to find the rumour
+current that the climate of Nice was sadly deteriorating. "Nothing to
+what it was before the war!" as the grumbler from the South was once
+betrayed into saying of the August moon. Smollett's esprit chagrin was
+nonplussed at first to find material for complaint against a climate in
+which he admits that there was less rain and less wind than in any
+other part of the world that he knew. In these unwonted circumstances
+he is constrained to fall back on the hard water and the plague of
+cousins or gnats as affording him the legitimate grievance, in whose
+absence the warrior soul of the author of the Ode to Independence could
+never be content.
+</P>
+
+<BR>
+
+<H4 ALIGN="center">
+VII
+</H4>
+
+<P>
+For his autumn holiday in 1764 Smollett decided on a jaunt to Florence
+and Rome, returning to Nice for the winter; and he decided to travel as
+far as Leghorn by sea. There was choice between several kinds of small
+craft which plied along the coast, and their names recur with cheerful
+frequency in the pages of Marryat and other depictors of the
+Mediterranean. There was the felucca, an open boat with a tilt over the
+stern large enough to freight a post-chaise, and propelled by ten to
+twelve stout mariners. To commission such a boat to Genoa, a distance
+of a hundred miles, cost four louis. As alternative, there was the
+tartane, a sailing vessel with a lateen sail. Addison sailed from
+Marseilles to Genoa in a tartane in December 1699: a storm arose, and
+the patron alarmed the passengers by confessing his sins (and such
+sins!) loudly to a Capuchin friar who happened to be aboard. Smollett
+finally decided on a gondola, with four rowers and a steersman, for
+which he had to pay nine sequins (4 1/2 louis). After adventures off
+Monaco, San Remo, Noli, and elsewhere, the party are glad to make the
+famous phones on the Torre della Lanterna, of which banker Rogers sings
+in his mediocre verse:
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Thy pharos Genoa first displayed itself<BR>
+  Burning in stillness on its rocky seat;<BR>
+  That guiding star so oft the only one,<BR>
+  When those now glowing in the azure vault<BR>
+  Are dark and silent<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Smollett's description of Genoa is decidedly more interesting. He
+arrived at a moment specially propitious to so sardonic an observer,
+for the Republic had fallen on evil times, having escaped from the
+clutches of Austria in 1746 by means of a popular riot, during which
+the aristocracy considerately looked the other way, only to fall into
+an even more embarrassed and unheroic position vis-a-vis of so
+diminutive an opponent as Corsica. The whole story is a curious
+prototype of the nineteenth century imbroglio between Spain and Cuba.
+Of commonplaces about the palaces fruitful of verbiage in Addison and
+Gray, who says with perfect truth, "I should make you sick of marble
+were I to tell you how it is lavished here," Smollett is sparing
+enough, though he evidently regards the inherited inclination of
+Genoese noblemen to build beyond their means as an amiable weakness.
+His description of the proud old Genoese nobleman, who lives in marble
+and feeds on scraps, is not unsympathetic, and suggests that the
+"deceipt of the Ligurians," which Virgil censures in the line
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Haud Ligurum extremus, dum fallere fata sinebant<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+may possibly have been of this Balderstonian variety. But Smollett had
+little room in his economy for such vapouring speculations. He was as
+unsentimental a critic as Sydney Smith or Sir Leslie Stephen. He wants
+to know the assets of a place more than its associations. Facts,
+figures, trade and revenue returns are the data his shrewd mind
+requires to feed on. He has a keen eye for harbours suitable for an
+English frigate to lie up in, and can hardly rest until his sagacity
+has collected material for a political horoscope.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Smollett's remarks upon the mysterious dispensations of Providence in
+regard to Genoa and the retreat of the Austrians are charged to the
+full with his saturnine spirit. His suspicions were probably well
+founded. Ever since 1685 Genoa had been the more or less humiliated
+satellite of France, and her once famous Bank had been bled pretty
+extensively by both belligerents. The Senate was helpless before the
+Austrian engineers in 1745, and the emancipation of the city was due
+wholly to a popular emeute. She had relapsed again into a completely
+enervated condition. Smollett thought she would have been happier under
+British protection. But it is a vicious alternative for a nation to
+choose a big protector. It was characteristic of the Republic that from
+1790 to 1798 its "policy" was to remain neutral. The crisis in regard
+to Corsica came immediately after Smollett's visit, when in 1765, under
+their 154th doge Francesco Maria Rovere, the Genoese offered to abandon
+the island to the patriots under Paoli, reserving only the possession
+of the two loyal coast-towns of Bonifazio and Calvi. [See Boswell's
+Corsica, 1766-8.] At Paoli's instance these conciliatory terms were
+refused. Genoa, in desperation and next door to bankruptcy, resolved to
+sell her rights as suzerain to France, and the compact was concluded by
+a treaty signed at Versailles in 1768. Paoli was finally defeated at
+Ponte Novo on 9th May 1769, and fled to England. On 15th August the
+edict of "Reunion" between France and Corsica was promulgated. On the
+same day Napoleon Buonaparte was born at Ajaccio.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After a week at Genoa Smollett proceeded along the coast to Lerici.
+There, being tired of the sea, the party disembarked, and proceeded by
+chaise from Sarzano to Cercio in Modenese territory, and so into
+Tuscany, then under the suzerainty of Austria. His description of Pisa
+is of an almost sunny gaiety and good humour. Italy, through this
+portal, was capable of casting a spell even upon a traveller so
+case-hardened as Smollett. The very churches at Pisa are "tolerably
+ornamented." The Campo Santo and Tower fall in no way short of their
+reputation, while the brass gates so far excel theirs that Smollett
+could have stood a whole day to examine and admire them. These agremens
+may be attributable in some measure to "a very good inn."  In stating
+that galleys were built in the town, Smollett seems to have fallen a
+victim, for once, to guide-book information. Evelyn mentions that
+galleys were built there in his time, but that was more than a hundred
+years before. The slips and dock had long been abandoned, as Smollett
+is careful to point out in his manuscript notes, now in the British
+Museum. He also explains with superfluous caution that the Duomo of
+Pisa is not entirely Gothic. Once arrived in the capital of Tuscany,
+after admitting that Florence is a noble city, our traveller is anxious
+to avoid the hackneyed ecstasies and threadbare commonplaces, derived
+in those days from Vasari through Keysler and other German
+commentators, whose genius Smollett is inclined to discover rather "in
+the back than in the brain."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The two pass-words for a would-be connoisseur, according to Goldsmith,
+were to praise Perugino, and to say that such and such a work would
+have been much better had the painter devoted more time and study to
+it. With these alternatives at hand one might pass with credit through
+any famous continental collection. Smollett aspired to more
+independence of thought and opinion, though we perceive at every turn
+how completely the Protestant prejudice of his "moment" and "milieu"
+had obtained dominion over him. To his perception monks do not chant or
+intone, they bawl and bellow their litanies. Flagellants are hired
+peasants who pad themselves to repletion with women's bodices. The
+image of the Virgin Mary is bejewelled, hooped, painted, patched,
+curled, and frizzled in the very extremity of the fashion. No
+particular attention is paid by the mob to the Crucified One, but as
+soon as his lady-mother appeared on the shoulders of four lusty friars
+the whole populace fall upon their knees in the dirt. We have some
+characteristic criticism and observation of the Florentine nobles, the
+opera, the improvisatori, [For details as to the eighteenth-century
+improvisatore and commedia delle arte the reader is referred to
+Symonds's Carlo Gozzi. See also the Travel Papers of Mrs. Piozzi;
+Walpole's Letters to Sir Horace Mann, and Doran's Mann and Manners at
+the Court of Florence. (Vide Appendix A, p. 345)] the buildings, and
+the cicisbei. Smollett nearly always gives substantial value to his
+notes, however casual, for he has an historian's eye, and knows the
+symptoms for which the inquirer who comes after is likely to make
+inquisition.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Smollett's observations upon the state of Florence in Letters XXVII and
+XXVIII are by no means devoid of value. The direct rule of the Medici
+had come to an end in 1737, and Tuscany (which with the exception of
+the interlude of 1798-1814 remained in Austrian hands down to 1860) was
+in 1764 governed by the Prince de Craon, viceroy of the Empress Maria
+Theresa. Florence was, indeed, on the threshold of the sweeping
+administrative reforms instituted by Peter Leopold, the archduke for
+whom Smollett relates that they were preparing the Pitti Palace at the
+time of his stay. This Prince governed the country as Grand Duke from
+1765 to 1790, when he succeeded his brother as Emperor, and left a name
+in history as the ill-fated Leopold. Few more active exponents of
+paternal reform are known to history. But the Grand Duke had to deal
+with a people such as Smollett describes. Conservative to the core,
+subservient to their religious directors, the "stupid party" in
+Florence proved themselves clever enough to retard the process of
+enlightenment by methods at which even Smollett himself might have
+stood amazed. The traveller touches an interesting source of biography
+when he refers to the Englishman called Acton, formerly an East India
+Company captain, now commander of the Emperor's Tuscan Navy, consisting
+of "a few frigates." This worthy was the old commodore whom Gibbon
+visited in retirement at Leghorn. The commodore was brother of Gibbon's
+friend, Dr. Acton, who was settled at Besancon, where his noted son,
+afterwards Sir John Acton, was born in 1736. Following in the footsteps
+of his uncle the commodore, who became a Catholic, Smollett tells us,
+and was promoted Admiral of Tuscany, John Acton entered the Tuscan
+Marine in 1775.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+[Sir John Acton's subsequent career belongs to history. His origin made
+him an expert on naval affairs, and in 1776 he obtained some credit for
+an expedition which he commanded against the Barbary pirates. In 1778
+Maria Carolina of Naples visited her brother Leopold at Florence, and
+was impressed by Acton's ugliness and reputation for exceptional
+efficiency. Her favourite minister, Prince Caramanico, persuaded the
+Grand Duke, Leopold, to permit Acton to exchange into the Neapolitan
+service, and reorganize the navy of the southern kingdom. This actually
+came to pass, and, moreover, Acton played his cards so well that he
+soon engrossed the ministries of War and Finance, and after the death
+of Caracciolo, the elder, also that of Foreign Affairs. Sir William
+Hamilton had a high opinion of the" General," soon to become
+Field-Marshal. He took a strong part in resistance to revolutionary
+propaganda, caused to be built the ships which assisted Nelson in 1795,
+and proved himself one of the most capable bureaucrats of the time. But
+the French proved too strong, and Napoleon was the cause of his
+disgrace in 1804. In that year, by special dispensation from the Pope,
+he married his niece, and retired to Palermo, where he died on 12th
+August 1811.]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Let loose in the Uffizi Gallery Smollett shocked his sensitive
+contemporaries by his freedom from those sham ecstasies which have too
+often dogged the footsteps of the virtuosi. Like Scott or Mark Twain at
+a later date Smollett was perfectly ready to admire anything he could
+understand; but he expressly disclaims pretensions to the nice
+discernment and delicate sensibility of the connoisseur. He would never
+have asked to be left alone with the Venus de Medicis as a modern
+art-critic is related to have asked to be left alone with the Venus of
+Rokeby. He would have been at a loss to understand the state of mind of
+the eminent actor who thought the situation demanded that he should be
+positively bereft of breath at first sight of the Apollo Belvedere, and
+panting to regain it, convulsively clutched at the arm of his
+companion, with difficulty articulating, "I breathe." Smollett refused
+to be hypnotized by the famous Venus discovered at Hadrian's villa,
+brought from Tivoli in 1680, and then in the height of its renown; the
+form he admired, but condemned the face and the posture. Personally I
+disagree with Smollett, though the balance of cultivated opinion has
+since come round to his side. The guilt of Smollett lay in criticizing
+what was above criticism, as the contents of the Tribuna were then held
+to be. And in defence of this point of view it may at least be said
+that the Uffizi was then, with the exception of the Vatican, the only
+gallery of first-rate importance open to the travelling public on the
+Grand Tour. Founded by Cosimo I, built originally by George Vasari, and
+greatly enlarged by Francis I, who succeeded to the Grand Duchy in
+1574, the gallery owed most perhaps to the Cardinal, afterwards
+Ferdinand I, who constructed the Tribuna, and to Cardinal Leopold, an
+omnivorous collector, who died in 1675. But all the Medici princes
+added to the rarities in the various cabinets, drawing largely upon the
+Villa Medici at Rome for this purpose, and the last of them, John
+Gaston (1723-1737), was one of the most liberal as regards the freedom
+of access which he allowed to his accumulated treasures. Among the
+distinguished antiquaries who acted as curators and cicerones were
+Sebastiano Bianchi, Antonio Cocchi, Raymond Cocchi, Joseph Bianchi, J.
+B. Pelli, the Abbe Lanzi, and Zacchiroli. The last three all wrote
+elaborate descriptions of the Gallery during the last decades of the
+eighteenth century. There was unhappily an epidemic of dishonesty among
+the custodians of gems at this period, and, like the notorious Raspe,
+who fled from Cassel in 1775, and turned some of his old employers to
+ridicule in his Baron Munchausen, Joseph Bianchi was convicted first of
+robbing his cabinet and then attempting to set it on fire, for which
+exploit the "learned and judicious Bianchi," as Smollett called him in
+his first edition, was sent to prison for life. The Arrotino which
+Smollett so greatly admired, and which the delusive Bianchi declared to
+be a representation of the Augur Attus Naevius, is now described as "A
+Scythian whetting his knife to flay Marsyas."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Kinglake has an amusingly cynical passage on the impossibility of
+approaching the sacred shrines of the Holy Land in a fittingly
+reverential mood. Exactly the same difficulty is experienced in
+approaching the sacred shrines of art. Enthusiasm about great artistic
+productions, though we may readily understand it to be justifiable, is
+by no means so easily communicable. How many people possessing a real
+claim to culture have felt themselves puzzled by their insensibility
+before some great masterpiece! Conditions may be easily imagined in
+which the inducement to affect an ecstasy becomes so strong as to prove
+overpowering. Many years ago at Florence the loiterers in the Tribuna
+were startled by the sudden rush into the place of a little man whose
+literary fame gave him high claims to intuitive taste. He placed
+himself with high clasped hand before the chief attraction in that room
+of treasures. "There," he murmured, "is the Venus de Medicis, and here
+I must stay&mdash;for ever and for ever." He had scarcely uttered these
+words, each more deeply and solemnly than the preceding, when an
+acquaintance entered, and the enthusiast, making a hasty inquiry if
+Lady So-and-So had arrived, left the room not to return again that
+morning. Before the same statue another distinguished countryman used
+to pass an hour daily. His acquaintance respected his raptures and kept
+aloof; but a young lady, whose attention was attracted by sounds that
+did not seem expressive of admiration, ventured to approach, and found
+the poet sunk in profound, but not silent, slumber. From such
+absurdities as these, or of the enthusiast who went into raptures about
+the head of the Elgin Ilissos (which is unfortunately a headless
+trunk), we are happily spared in the pages of Smollett. In him complete
+absence of gush is accompanied by an independent judgement, for which
+it may quite safely be claimed that good taste is in the ascendant in
+the majority of cases.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+From Florence Smollett set out in October 1764 for Siena, a distance of
+forty-two miles, in a good travelling coach; he slept there, and next
+day, seven and a half miles farther on, at Boon Convento, hard by
+Montepulciano, now justly celebrated for its wine, he had the amusing
+adventure with the hostler which gave occasion for his vivid portrait
+of an Italian uffiziale, and also to that irresistible impulse to cane
+the insolent hostler, from the ill consequences of which he was only
+saved by the underling's precipitate flight. The night was spent at
+Radicofani, five and twenty miles farther on. A clever postilion
+diversified the route to Viterbo, another forty-three miles. The party
+was now within sixteen leagues, or ten hours, of Rome. The road from
+Radicofani was notoriously bad all the way, but Smollett was too
+excited or too impatient to pay much attention to it. "You may guess
+what I felt at first sight of the city of Rome."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"When you arrive at Rome," he says later, in somewhat more accustomed
+vein, "you receive cards from all your country folk in that city. They
+expect to have the visit returned next day, when they give orders not
+to be at home, and you never speak to one another in the sequel. This
+is a refinement in hospitality and politeness which the English have
+invented by the strength of their own genius without any assistance
+either from France, Italy, or Lapland." It is needless to recapitulate
+Smollett's views of Rome. Every one has his own, and a passing
+traveller's annotations are just about as nourishing to the imagination
+as a bibliographer's note on the Bible. Smollett speaks in the main
+judiciously of the Castle of St. Angelo, the Piazza and the interior of
+St. Peter's, the Pincian, the Forum, the Coliseum, the Baths of
+Caracalla, and the other famous sights of successive ages. On Roman
+habits and pastimes and the gullibility of the English cognoscente he
+speaks with more spice of authority. Upon the whole he is decidedly
+modest about his virtuoso vein, and when we reflect upon the way in
+which standards change and idols are shifted from one pedestal to
+another, it seems a pity that such modesty has not more votaries. In
+Smollett's time we must remember that Hellenic and primitive art,
+whether antique or medieval, were unknown or unappreciated. The
+reigning models of taste in ancient sculpture were copies of
+fourth-century originals, Hellenistic or later productions. Hence
+Smollett's ecstasies over the Laocoon, the Niobe, and the Dying
+Gladiator. Greek art of the best period was hardly known in authentic
+examples; antiques so fine as the Torso of Hercules were rare. But
+while his failures show the danger of dogmatism in art criticism,
+Smollett is careful to disclaim all pretensions to the nice discernment
+of the real connoisseur. In cases where good sense and sincere
+utterance are all that is necessary he is seldom far wrong. Take the
+following description for example:&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You need not doubt but that I went to the church of St. Peter in
+Montorio, to view the celebrated Transfiguration by Raphael, which, if
+it was mine, I would cut in two parts. The three figures in the air
+attract the eye so strongly that little or no attention is paid to
+those below on the mountain. I apprehend that the nature of the subject
+does not admit of that keeping and dependence which ought to be
+maintained in the disposition of the lights and shadows in a picture.
+The groups seem to be entirely independent of each other. The
+extraordinary merit of this piece, I imagine, consists not only in the
+expression of divinity on the face of Christ, but also in the
+surprising lightness of the figure that hovers like a beautiful
+exhalation in the air."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Smollett's remarks about the "Last Judgement" of Michael Angelo, (that
+it confuses the eye as a number of people speaking at once confounds
+the ear; and that while single figures are splendid, the whole together
+resembles a mere mob, without subordination, keeping, or repose) will
+probably be re-echoed by a large proportion of the sightseers who gaze
+upon it yearly. But his description of the "Transfiguration" displays
+an amount of taste and judgement which is far from being so widely
+distributed. For purposes of reproduction at the present day, I may
+remind the reader that the picture is ordinarily "cut in two." and the
+nether portion is commonly attributed to Raphael's pupils, while the
+"beautiful exhalation," as Smollett so felicitously terms it, is
+attributed exclusively to the master when at the zenith of his powers.
+His general verdict upon Michael Angelo and Raphael has much in it that
+appeals to a modern taste. Of Raphael, as a whole, he concludes that
+the master possesses the serenity of Virgil, but lacks the fire of
+Homer; and before leaving this same Letter XXXIII, in which Smollett
+ventures so many independent critical judgements, I am tempted to cite
+yet another example of his capacity for acute yet sympathetic
+appreciation.
+ "In the Palazzo Altieri I admired a picture, by Carlo Maratti,<BR>
+representing a saint calling down lightning from heaven to destroy
+blasphemers. It was the figure of the saint I admired, merely as a
+portrait. The execution of the other parts was tame enough; perhaps
+they were purposely kept down in order to preserve the importance of
+the principal figure. I imagine Salvator Rosa would have made a
+different disposition on the same subject&mdash;that amidst the darkness of
+a tempest he would have illuminated the blasphemer with the flash of
+lightning by which he was destroyed. This would have thrown a dismal
+gleam upon his countenance, distorted by the horror of his situation as
+well as by the effects of the fire, and rendered the whole scene
+dreadfully picturesque."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Smollett confuses historical and aesthetic grandeur. What appeals to
+him most is a monument of a whole past civilization, such as the Pont
+du Gard. His views of art, too, as well as his views of life, are
+profoundly influenced by his early training as a surgeon. He is not
+inclined by temperament to be sanguine. His gaze is often fixed, like
+that of a doctor, upon the end of life; and of art, as of nature, he
+takes a decidedly pathological view. Yet, upon the whole, far from
+deriding his artistic impressions, I think we shall be inclined rather
+to applaud them, as well for their sanity as for their undoubted
+sincerity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For the return journey to Florence Smollett selected the alternative
+route by Narni, Terni, Spoleto, Foligno, Perugia, and Arezzo, and, by
+his own account, no traveller ever suffered quite so much as he did
+from "dirt," "vermin," "poison," and imposture. At Foligno, where
+Goethe also, in his travels a score of years or so later, had an
+amusing adventure, Smollett was put into a room recently occupied by a
+wild beast (bestia), but the bestia turned out on investigation to be
+no more or no less than an "English heretic." The food was so filthy
+that it might have turned the stomach of a muleteer; their coach was
+nearly shattered to pieces; frozen with cold and nearly devoured by
+rats. Mrs. Smollett wept in silence with horror and fatigue; and the
+bugs gave the Doctor a whooping-cough. If Smollett anticipated a
+violent death from exhaustion and chagrin in consequence of these
+tortures he was completely disappointed. His health was never
+better,&mdash;so much so that he felt constrained in fairness to drink to
+the health of the Roman banker who had recommended this nefarious
+route. [See the Doctor's remarks at the end of Letter XXXV.] By
+Florence and Lerici he retraced his steps to Nice early in 1765, and
+then after a brief jaunt to Turin (where he met Sterne) and back by the
+Col di Tende, he turned his face definitely homewards. The journey home
+confirmed his liking for Pisa, and gives an opening for an amusing
+description of the Britisher abroad (Letter XXXV). We can almost
+overhear Thackeray, or the author of Eothen, touching this same topic
+in Letter XLI. "When two natives of any other country chance to meet
+abroad, they run into each other's embrace like old friends, even
+though they have never heard of one another till that moment; whereas
+two Englishmen in the same situation maintain a mutual reserve and
+diffidence, and keep without the sphere of each other's attraction,
+like two bodies endowed with a repulsive power." Letter XXXVI gives
+opportunity for some discerning remarks on French taxation. Having
+given the French king a bit of excellent advice (that he should abolish
+the fermiers generaux), Smollett proceeds, in 1765, to a forecast of
+probabilities which is deeply significant and amazingly shrewd. The
+fragment known as Smollett's Dying Prophecy of 1771 has often been
+discredited. Yet the substance of it is fairly adumbrated here in the
+passage beginning, "There are undoubtedly many marks of relaxation in
+the reins of French government," written fully six years previously.
+After a pleasing description of Grasse, "famous for its pomatum,
+gloves, wash-balls, perfumes, and toilette boxes lined with bergamot,"
+the homeward traveller crossed the French frontier at Antibes, and in
+Letter XXXIX at Marseille, he compares the galley slaves of France with
+those of Savoy. At Bath where he had gone to set up a practice,
+Smollett once astonished the faculty by "proving" in a pamphlet that
+the therapeutic properties of the waters had been prodigiously
+exaggerated. So, now, in the south of France he did not hesitate to
+pronounce solemnly that "all fermented liquors are pernicious to the
+human constitution." Elsewhere he comments upon the immeasurable
+appetite of the French for bread. The Frenchman will recall the story
+of the peasant-persecuting baron whom Louis XII. provided with a
+luxurious feast, which the lack of bread made uneatable; he may not
+have heard a story told me in Liege at the Hotel Charlemagne of the
+Belgian who sought to conciliate his French neighbour by remarking, "Je
+vois que vous etes Français, monsieur, parceque vous mangez beaucoup de
+pain," and the Frenchman's retort, "Je vois que vous etes lye monsieur,
+parceque vous mangez beaucoup de tout!" From Frejus Smollett proceeds
+to Toulon, repeating the old epigram that "the king of France is
+greater at Toulon than at Versailles." The weather is so pleasant that
+the travellers enjoy a continual concert of "nightingales" from Vienne
+to Fontainebleau. The "douche" of Aix-les-Bains having been explained,
+Smollett and his party proceeded agreeably to Avignon, where by one of
+the strange coincidences of travel he met his old voiturier Joseph "so
+embrowned by the sun that he might have passed for an Iroquois." In
+spite of Joseph's testimonial the "plagues of posting" are still in the
+ascendant, and Smollett is once more generous of good advice. Above
+all, he adjures us when travelling never to omit to carry a hammer and
+nails, a crowbar, an iron pin or two, a large knife, and a bladder of
+grease. Why not a lynch pin, which we were so carefully instructed how
+to inquire about in Murray's Conversation for Travellers?
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But-the history of his troublous travels is drawing to an end. From
+Lyons the route is plain through Macon, Chalons, Dijon, Auxerre, Sells,
+and Fontainebleau&mdash;the whole itinerary almost exactly anticipates that
+of Talfourd's Vacation Tour one hundred and ten years later, except
+that on the outward journey Talfourd sailed down the Rhone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Smollett's old mental grievances and sores have been shifted and to
+some extent, let us hope, dissipated by his strenuous journeyings, and
+in June 1765, after an absence of two years, he is once more enabled to
+write,
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"You cannot imagine what pleasure I feel while I survey the white
+cliffs of Dover at this distance [from Boulogne]. Not that I am at all
+affected by the nescio qua dulcedine natalis soli of Horace.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"That seems to be a kind of fanaticism, founded on the prejudices of
+education, which induces a Laplander to place the terrestrial paradise
+among the snows of Norway, and a Swiss to prefer the barren mountains
+of Soleure to the fruitful plains of Lombardy. I am attached to my
+country, because it is the land of liberty, cleanliness, and
+convenience; but I love it still more tenderly, as the scene of all my
+interesting connections, as the habitation of my friends, for whose
+conversation, correspondence, and esteem I wish alone to live."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For the time being it cannot be doubted that the hardships Smollett had
+to undergo on his Italian journey, by sea and land, and the violent
+passions by which he was agitated owing to the conduct of refractory
+postilions and extortionate innkeepers, contributed positively to brace
+up and invigorate his constitution. He spoke of himself indeed as
+"mended by ill-treatment" not unlike Tavernier, the famous
+traveller,&mdash;said to have been radically cured of the gout by a Turkish
+aga in Egypt, who gave him the bastinado because he would not look at
+the head of the bashaw of Cairo. But Fizes was right after all in his
+swan-prescription, for poor Smollett's cure was anything but a radical
+one. His health soon collapsed under the dreary round of incessant
+labour at Chelsea. His literary faculty was still maturing and
+developing. His genius was mellowing, and a later work might have
+eclipsed Clinker. But it was not to be. He had a severe relapse in the
+winter. In 1770 he had once more to take refuge from overwork on the
+sunny coast he had done so much to popularize among his countrymen, and
+it was near Leghorn that he died on 17th September 1771.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  ANNO AETATIS 51.<BR>
+  EHEV!  QVAM PROCVL A PATRIA!<BR>
+  PROPE LIBVRNI PORTVM, IN ITALIA<BR>
+  JACET SEPVLTVS.<BR>
+<BR>
+  THOMAS SECCOMBE. ACTON, May 1907.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap01"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER I
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+BOULOGNE SUR MER, June 23, 1763.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR SIR,&mdash;You laid your commands upon me at parting, to communicate
+from time to time the observations I should make in the course of my
+travels and it was an injunction I received with pleasure. In
+gratifying your curiosity, I shall find some amusement to beguile the
+tedious hours, which, without some such employment, would be rendered
+insupportable by distemper and disquiet.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+You knew, and pitied my situation, traduced by malice, persecuted by
+faction, abandoned by false patrons, and overwhelmed by the sense of a
+domestic calamity, which it was not in the power of fortune to repair.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+You know with what eagerness I fled from my country as a scene of
+illiberal dispute, and incredible infatuation, where a few worthless
+incendiaries had, by dint of perfidious calumnies and atrocious abuse,
+kindled up a flame which threatened all the horrors of civil dissension.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I packed up my little family in a hired coach, and attended by my
+trusty servant, who had lived with me a dozen of years, and now refused
+to leave me, took the road to Dover, in my way to the South of France,
+where I hoped the mildness of the climate would prove favourable to the
+weak state of my lungs.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+You advised me to have recourse again to the Bath waters, from the use
+of which I had received great benefit the preceding winter: but I had
+many inducements to leave England. My wife earnestly begged I would
+convey her from a country where every object served to nourish her
+grief: I was in hopes that a succession of new scenes would engage her
+attention, and gradually call off her mind from a series of painful
+reflections; and I imagined the change of air, and a journey of near a
+thousand miles, would have a happy effect upon my own constitution.
+But, as the summer was already advanced, and the heat too excessive for
+travelling in warm climates, I proposed staying at Boulogne till the
+beginning of autumn, and in the mean time to bathe in the sea, with a
+view to strengthen and prepare my body for the fatigues of such a long
+journey.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A man who travels with a family of five persons, must lay his account
+with a number of mortifications; and some of these I have already
+happily overcome. Though I was well acquainted with the road to Dover,
+and made allowances accordingly, I could not help being chagrined at
+the bad accommodation and impudent imposition to which I was exposed.
+These I found the more disagreeable, as we were detained a day
+extraordinary on the road, in consequence of my wife's being indisposed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I need not tell you this is the worst road in England with respect to
+the conveniences of travelling, and must certainly impress foreigners
+with an unfavourable opinion of the nation in general. The chambers are
+in general cold and comfortless, the beds paultry, the cookery
+execrable, the wine poison, the attendance bad, the publicans insolent,
+and the bills extortion; there is not a drop of tolerable malt liquor
+to be had from London to Dover.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Every landlord and every waiter harangued upon the knavery of a
+publican in Canterbury, who had charged the French ambassador forty
+pounds for a supper that was not worth forty shillings. They talked
+much of honesty and conscience; but when they produced their own bills,
+they appeared to be all of the same family and complexion. If it was a
+reproach upon the English nation, that an innkeeper should pillage
+strangers at that rate; it is a greater scandal, that the same fellow
+should be able to keep his house still open. I own, I think it would be
+for the honour of the kingdom to reform the abuses of this road; and in
+particular to improve the avenue to London by the way of Kent-Street,
+which is a most disgraceful entrance to such an opulent city. A
+foreigner, in passing through this beggarly and ruinous suburb,
+conceives such an idea of misery and meanness, as all the wealth and
+magnificence of London and Westminster are afterwards unable to
+destroy. A friend of mine, who brought a Parisian from Dover in his own
+post-chaise, contrived to enter Southwark after it was dark, that his
+friend might not perceive the nakedness of this quarter. The stranger
+was much pleased with the great number of shops full of merchandize,
+lighted up to the best advantage. He was astonished at the display of
+riches in Lombard-Street and Cheapside. The badness of the pavement
+made him find the streets twice as long as they were. They alighted in
+Upper Brook-Street by Grosvenor-Square; and when his conductor told him
+they were then about the middle of London, the Frenchman declared, with
+marks of infinite surprize, that London was very near as long as Paris.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On my arrival at Dover I payed off my coachman, who went away with a
+heavy heart. He wanted much to cross the sea, and endeavoured to
+persuade me to carry the coach and horses to the other side. If I had
+been resolved to set out immediately for the South, perhaps I should
+have taken his advice. If I had retained him at the rate of twenty
+guineas per month, which was the price he demanded, and begun my
+journey without hesitation, I should travel more agreeably than I can
+expect to do in the carriages of this  country; and the difference of
+the expence would be a mere trifle. I would advise every man who
+travels through France to bring his own vehicle along with him, or at
+least to purchase one at Calais or Boulogne, where second-hand berlins
+and chaises may be generally had at reasonable rates. I have been
+offered a very good berlin for thirty guineas: but before I make the
+purchase, I must be better informed touching the different methods of
+travelling in this country.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Dover is commonly termed a den of thieves; and I am afraid it is not
+altogether without reason, it has acquired this appellation. The people
+are said to live by piracy in time of war; and by smuggling and
+fleecing strangers in time of peace: but I will do them the justice to
+say, they make no distinction between foreigners and natives. Without
+all doubt a man cannot be much worse lodged and worse treated in any
+part of Europe; nor will he in any other place meet with more flagrant
+instances of fraud, imposition, and brutality. One would imagine they
+had formed a general conspiracy against all those who either go to, or
+return from the continent. About five years ago, in my passage from
+Flushing to Dover, the master of the packet-boat brought-to all of a
+sudden off the South Foreland, although the wind was as favourable as
+it could blow. He was immediately boarded by a customhouse boat, the
+officer of which appeared to be his friend. He then gave the passengers
+to understand, that as it was low water, the ship could not go into the
+harbour; but that the boat would carry them ashore with their baggage.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The custom-house officer demanded a guinea for this service, and the
+bargain was made. Before we quitted the ship, we were obliged to
+gratify the cabin-boy for his attendance, and to give drink-money to
+the sailors. The boat was run aground on the open beach; but we could
+not get ashore without the assistance of three or four fellows, who
+insisted upon being paid for their trouble. Every parcel and bundle, as
+it was landed, was snatched up by a separate porter: one ran away with
+a hat-box, another with a wig-box, a third with a couple of shirts tied
+up in a handkerchief, and two were employed in carrying a small
+portmanteau that did not weigh forty pounds. All our things were
+hurried to the custom-house to be searched, and the searcher was paid
+for disordering our cloaths: from thence they were removed to the inn,
+where the porters demanded half-a-crown each for their labour. It was
+in vain to expostulate; they surrounded the house like a pack of hungry
+bounds, and raised such a clamour, that we were fain to comply. After
+we had undergone all this imposition, we were visited by the master of
+the packet, who, having taken our fares, and wished us joy of our happy
+arrival in England, expressed his hope that we would remember the poor
+master, whose wages were very small, and who chiefly depended upon the
+generosity of the passengers. I own I was shocked at his meanness, and
+could not help telling him so. I told him, I could not conceive what
+title he had to any such gratification: he had sixteen passengers, who
+paid a guinea each, on the supposition that every person should have a
+bed; but there were no more than eight beds in the cabin, and each of
+these was occupied before I came on board; so that if we had been
+detained at sea a whole week by contrary winds and bad weather, one
+half of the passengers must have slept upon the boards, howsoever their
+health might have suffered from this want of accommodation.
+Notwithstanding this check, he was so very abject and importunate, that
+we gave him a crown a-piece, and he retired.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The first thing I did when I arrived at Dover this last time, was to
+send for the master of a packet-boat, and agree with him to carry us to
+Boulogne at once, by which means I saved the expence of travelling by
+land from Calais to this last place, a journey of four-and-twenty
+miles. The hire of a vessel from Dover to Boulogne is precisely the
+same as from Dover to Calais, five guineas; but this skipper demanded
+eight, and, as I did not know the fare, I agreed to give him six. We
+embarked between six and seven in the evening, and found ourselves in a
+most wretched hovel, on board what is called a Folkstone cutter. The
+cabin was so small that a dog could hardly turn in it, and the beds put
+me in mind of the holes described in some catacombs, in which the
+bodies of the dead were deposited, being thrust in with the feet
+foremost; there was no getting into them but end-ways, and indeed they
+seemed so dirty, that nothing but extreme necessity could have obliged
+me to use them. We sat up all night in a most uncomfortable situation,
+tossed about by the sea, cold, arid cramped and weary, and languishing
+for want of sleep. At three in the morning the master came down, and
+told us we were just off the harbour of Boulogne; but the wind blowing
+off shore, he could not possibly enter, and therefore advised us to go
+ashore in the boat. I went upon deck to view the coast, when he pointed
+to the place where he said Boulogne stood, declaring at the same time
+we were within a short mile of the harbour's mouth. The morning was
+cold and raw, and I knew myself extremely subject to catch cold;
+nevertheless we were all so impatient to be ashore, that I resolved to
+take his advice. The boat was already hoisted out, and we went on board
+of it, after I had paid the captain and gratified his crew. We had
+scarce parted from the ship, when we perceived a boat coming towards us
+from the shore; and the master gave us to understand, it was coming to
+carry us into the harbour. When I objected to the trouble of shifting
+from one boat to another in the open sea, which (by the bye) was a
+little rough; he said it was a privilege which the watermen of Boulogne
+had, to carry all passengers ashore, and that this privilege he durst
+not venture to infringe. This was no time nor place to remonstrate. The
+French boat came alongside half filled with water, and we were handed
+from the one to the other. We were then obliged to lie upon our oars,
+till the captain's boat went on board and returned from the ship with a
+packet of letters. We were afterwards rowed a long league, in a rough
+sea, against wind and tide, before we reached the harbour, where we
+landed, benumbed with cold, and the women excessively sick: from our
+landing-place we were obliged to walk very near a mile to the inn where
+we purposed to lodge, attended by six or seven men and women,
+bare-legged, carrying our baggage. This boat cost me a guinea, besides
+paying exorbitantly the people who carried our things; so that the
+inhabitants of Dover and of Boulogne seem to be of the same kidney, and
+indeed they understand one another perfectly well. It was our honest
+captain who made the signal for the shore-boat before I went upon deck;
+by which means he not only gratified his friends, the watermen of
+Boulogne, but also saved about fifteen shillings portage, which he must
+have paid had he gone into the harbour; and thus he found himself at
+liberty to return to Dover, which he reached in four hours. I mention
+these circumstances as a warning to other passengers. When a man hires
+a packet-boat from Dover to Calais or Boulogne, let him remember that
+the stated price is five guineas; and let him insist upon being carried
+into the harbour in the ship, without paying the least regard to the
+representations of the master, who is generally a little dirty knave.
+When he tells you it is low water, or the wind is in your teeth, you
+may say you will stay on board till it is high water, or till the wind
+comes favourable. If he sees you are resolute, he will find means to
+bring his ship into the harbour, or at least to convince you, without a
+possibility of your being deceived, that it is not in his power. After
+all, the fellow himself was a loser by his finesse; if he had gone into
+the harbour, he would have had another fare immediately back to Dover,
+for there was a Scotch gentleman at the inn waiting for such an
+opportunity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Knowing my own weak constitution, I took it for granted this morning's
+adventure would cost me a fit of illness; and what added to my chagrin,
+when we arrived at the inn, all the beds were occupied; so that we were
+obliged to sit in a cold kitchen above two hours, until some of the
+lodgers should get up. This was such a bad specimen of French
+accommodation, that my wife could not help regretting even the inns of
+Rochester, Sittingbourn, and Canterbury: bad as they are, they
+certainly have the advantage, when compared with the execrable auberges
+of this country, where one finds nothing but dirt and imposition. One
+would imagine the French were still at war with the English, for they
+pillage them without mercy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Among the strangers at this inn where we lodged, there was a gentleman
+of the faculty, just returned from Italy. Understanding that I intended
+to winter in the South of France, on account of a pulmonic disorder, he
+strongly recommended the climate of Nice in Provence, which, indeed, I
+had often heard extolled; and I am almost resolved to go thither, not
+only for the sake of the air, but also for its situation on the
+Mediterranean, where I can have the benefit of bathing; and from whence
+there is a short cut by sea to Italy, should I find it necessary to try
+the air of Naples.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After having been ill accommodated three days at our inn, we have at
+last found commodious lodgings, by means of Mrs. B-, a very agreeable
+French lady, to whom we were recommended by her husband, who is my
+countryman, and at present resident in London. For three guineas a
+month we have the greatest part of a house tolerably furnished; four
+bed-chambers on the first floor, a large parlour below, a kitchen, and
+the use of a cellar.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+These, I own, are frivolous incidents, scarce worth committing to
+paper; but they may serve to introduce observations of more
+consequence; and in the mean time I know nothing will be indifferent to
+you, that concerns&mdash;Your humble servant.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap02"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER II
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+BOULOGNE SUR MER, July 15, 1763.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR SIR,&mdash;The custom-house officers at Boulogne, though as alert, are
+rather more civil than those on your side of the water. I brought no
+plate along with me, but a dozen and a half of spoons, and a dozen
+teaspoons: the first being found in one of our portmanteaus, when they
+were examined at the bureau, cost me seventeen livres entree; the
+others being luckily in my servant's pocket, escaped duty free. All
+wrought silver imported into France, pays at the rate of so much per
+mark: therefore those who have any quantity of plate, will do well to
+leave it behind them, unless they can confide in the dexterity of the
+shipmasters; some of whom will undertake to land it without the
+ceremony of examination. The ordonnances of France are so unfavourable
+to strangers, that they oblige them to pay at the rate of five per
+cent. for all the bed and table linen which they bring into the
+kingdom, even though it has been used. When my trunks arrived in a ship
+from the river Thames, I underwent this ordeal: but what gives me more
+vexation, my books have been stopped at the bureau; and will be sent to
+Amiens at my expence, to be examined by the chambre syndicale; lest
+they should contain something prejudicial to the state, or to the
+religion of the country. This is a species of oppression which one
+would not expect to meet with in France, which piques itself on its
+politeness and hospitality: but the truth is, I know no country in
+which strangers are worse treated with respect to their essential
+concerns. If a foreigner dies in France, the king seizes all his
+effects, even though his heir should be upon the spot; and this tyranny
+is called the droit d'aubaine founded at first upon the supposition,
+that all the estate of foreigners residing in France was acquired in
+that kingdom, and that, therefore, it would be unjust to convey it to
+another country. If an English protestant goes to France for the
+benefit of his health, attended by his wife or his son, or both, and
+dies with effects in the house to the amount of a thousand guineas, the
+king seizes the whole, the family is left destitute, and the body of
+the deceased is denied christian burial. The Swiss, by capitulation,
+are exempted from this despotism, and so are the Scots, in consequence
+of an ancient alliance between the two nations. The same droit
+d'aubaine is exacted by some of the princes in Germany: but it is a
+great discouragement to commerce, and prejudices every country where it
+is exercised, to ten times the value of what it brings into the coffers
+of the sovereign.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I am exceedingly mortified at the detention of my books, which not only
+deprives me of an amusement which I can very ill dispense with; but, in
+all probability, will expose me to sundry other inconveniencies. I must
+be at the expence of sending them sixty miles to be examined, and run
+the risque of their being condemned; and, in the mean time, I may lose
+the opportunity of sending them with my heavy baggage by sea to
+Bourdeaux, to be sent up the Garonne to Tholouse, and from thence
+transmitted through the canal of Languedoc to Cette, which is a
+sea-port on the Mediterranean, about three or four leagues from
+Montpelier.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For the recovery of my books, I had recourse to the advice of my
+landlord, Mons. B&mdash;. He is a handsome young fellow, about twenty-five
+years of age, and keeps house with two maiden sisters, who are
+professed devotees. The brother is a little libertine, good natured and
+obliging; but a true Frenchman in vanity, which is undoubtedly the
+ruling passion of this volatile people. He has an inconsiderable place
+under the government, in consequence of which he is permitted to wear a
+sword, a privilege which he does not fail to use. He is likewise
+receiver of the tythes of the clergy in this district, an office that
+gives him a command of money, and he, moreover, deals in the wine
+trade. When I came to his house, he made a parade of all these
+advantages: he displayed his bags of money, and some old gold which his
+father had left him. He described his chateau in the country; dropped
+hints of the fortunes that were settled upon mademoiselles his sisters;
+boasted of his connexions at court; and assured me it was not for my
+money that he let his lodgings, but altogether with a view to enjoy the
+pleasure of my company. The truth, when stript of all embellishments,
+is this: the sieur B&mdash; is the son of an honest bourgeois lately dead,
+who left him the house, with some stock in trade, a little money, and a
+paltry farm: his sisters have about three thousand livres (not quite
+140 L) apiece; the brother's places are worth about fifty pounds a
+year, and his connexions at court are confined to a commis or clerk in
+the secretary's office, with whom he corresponds by virtue of his
+employment. My landlord piques himself upon his gallantry and success
+with the fair-sex: he keeps a fille de joye, and makes no secret of his
+amours. He told miss C&mdash; the other day, in broken English, that, in the
+course of the last year, he had made six bastards. He owned, at the
+same time, he had sent them all to the hospital; but, now his father is
+dead, he would himself take care of his future productions. This,
+however, was no better than a gasconade. Yesterday the house was in a
+hot alarm, on account of a new windfall of this kind: the sisters were
+in tears; the brother was visited by the cure of the parish; the lady
+in the straw (a sempstress) sent him the bantling in a basket, and he
+transmitted it by the carriers to the Enfans trouves at Paris.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But to return from this digression: Mr. B&mdash; advised me to send a
+requete or petition to the chancellor of France, that I might obtain an
+order to have my books examined on the spot, by the president of
+Boulogne, or the procureur du roy, or the sub-delegate of the
+intendance. He recommended an advocat of his acquaintance to draw up
+the memoire, and introduced him accordingly; telling me at the same
+time, in private, that if he was not a drunkard, he would be at the
+head of his profession. He had indeed all the outward signs of a sot; a
+sleepy eye, a rubicund face, and carbuncled nose. He seemed to be a
+little out at elbows, had marvellous foul linen, and his breeches were
+not very sound: but he assumed an air of importance, was very
+courteous, and very solemn. I asked him if he did not sometimes divert
+himself with the muse: he smiled, and promised, in a whisper, to shew
+me some chansonettes de sa facon. Meanwhile he composed the requete in
+my name, which was very pompous, very tedious, and very abject. Such a
+stile might perhaps be necessary in a native of France; but I did not
+think it was at all suitable to a subject of Great-Britain. I thanked
+him for the trouble he had taken, as he would receive no other
+gratification; but when my landlord proposed to send the memoire to his
+correspondent at Paris, to be delivered to the chancellor, I told him I
+had changed my mind, and would apply to the English ambassador. I have
+accordingly taken the liberty to address myself to the earl of H&mdash;; and
+at the same time I have presumed to write to the duchess of D&mdash;, who is
+now at Paris, to entreat her grace's advice and interposition. What
+effect these applications may have, I know not: but the sieur B&mdash;
+shakes his head, and has told my servant, in confidence, that I am
+mistaken if I think the English ambassador is as great a man at Paris
+as the chancellor of France.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I ought to make an apology for troubling you with such an
+unentertaining detail, and consider that the detention of my books must
+be a matter of very little consequence to any body, but to&mdash;Your
+affectionate humble servant.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap03"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER III
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+BOULOGNE, August 15, 1763.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+SIR&mdash;I am much obliged to you for your kind enquiries after my health,
+which has been lately in a very declining condition. In consequence of
+a cold, caught a few days after my arrival in France, I was seized with
+a violent cough, attended with a fever, and stitches in my breast,
+which tormented me all night long without ceasing. At the same time I
+had a great discharge by expectoration, and such a dejection of spirits
+as I never felt before. In this situation I took a step which may
+appear to have been desperate. I knew there was no imposthume in my
+lungs, and I supposed the stitches were spasmodical. I was sensible
+that all my complaints were originally derived from relaxation. I
+therefore hired a chaise, and going to the beach, about a league from
+the town, plunged into the sea without hesitation. By this desperate
+remedy, I got a fresh cold in my head: but my stitches and fever
+vanished the very first day; and by a daily repetition of the bath, I
+have diminished my cough, strengthened my body, and recovered my
+spirits. I believe I should have tried the same experiment, even if
+there had been an abscess in my lungs, though such practice would have
+been contrary to all the rules of medicine: but I am not one of those
+who implicitly believe in all the dogmata of physic. I saw one of the
+guides at Bath, the stoutest fellow among them, who recovered from the
+last stage of a consumption, by going into the king's bath, contrary to
+the express injunction of his doctor. He said, if he must die, the
+sooner the better, as he had nothing left for his subsistence. Instead
+of immediate death, he found instant case, and continued mending every
+day, till his health was entirely re-established. I myself drank the
+waters of Bath, and bathed, in diametrical opposition to the opinion of
+some physicians there settled, and found myself better every day,
+notwithstanding their unfavourable prognostic. If I had been of the
+rigid fibre, full of blood, subject to inflammation, I should have
+followed a different course. Our acquaintance, doctor C&mdash;, while he
+actually spit up matter, and rode out every day for his life, led his
+horse to water, at the pond in Hyde-Park, one cold frosty morning, and
+the beast, which happened to be of a hot constitution, plunged himself
+and his master over head and ears in the water. The poor doctor
+hastened home, half dead with fear, and was put to bed in the
+apprehension of a new imposthume; instead of which, he found himself
+exceedingly recruited in his spirits, and his appetite much mended. I
+advised him to take the hint, and go into the cold bath every morning;
+but he did not chuse to run any risque. How cold water comes to be such
+a bugbear, I know not: if I am not mistaken, Hippocrates recommends
+immersion in cold water for the gout; and Celsus expressly says, in
+omni tussi utilis est natatio: in every cough swimming is of service.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I have conversed with a physician of this place, a sensible man, who
+assured me he was reduced to meer skin and bone by a cough and hectic
+fever, when he ordered a bath to be made in his own house, and dipped
+himself in cold water every morning. He at the same time left off
+drinking and swallowing any liquid that was warm. He is now strong and
+lusty, and even in winter has no other cover than a single sheet. His
+notions about the warm drink were a little whimsical: he imagined it
+relaxed the tone of the stomach; and this would undoubtedly be the case
+if it was drank in large quantities, warmer than the natural
+temperature of the blood. He alledged the example of the inhabitants of
+the Ladrone islands, who never taste any thing that is not cold, and
+are remarkably healthy. But to balance this argument I mentioned the
+Chinese, who scarce drink any thing but warm tea; and the Laplanders,
+who drink nothing but warm water; yet the people of both these nations
+are remarkably strong, healthy, and long-lived.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+You desire to know the fate of my books. My lord H&mdash;d is not yet come
+to France; but my letter was transmitted to him from Paris; and his
+lordship, with that generous humanity which is peculiar to his
+character, has done me the honour to assure me, under his own hand,
+that he has directed Mr. N&mdash;lle, our resident at Paris, to apply for an
+order that my books may be restored.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I have met with another piece of good fortune, in being introduced to
+general Paterson and his lady, in their way to England from Nice, where
+the general has been many years commandant for the king of Sardinia.
+You must have heard of this gentleman, who has not only eminently
+distinguished himself, by his courage and conduct as an officer; but
+also by his probity and humanity in the exercise, of his office, and by
+his remarkable hospitality to all strangers, especially the subjects of
+Great-Britain, whose occasions called them to the place where he
+commanded. Being pretty far advanced in years, he begged leave to
+resign, that he might spend the evening of his days in his own country;
+and his Sardinian majesty granted his request with regret, after having
+honoured him with very particular marks of approbation and esteem. The
+general talks so favourably of the climate of Nice, with respect to
+disorders of the breast, that I am now determined to go thither. It
+would have been happy for me had he continued in his government. I
+think myself still very fortunate, in having obtained of him a letter
+of recommendation to the English consul at Nice, together with
+directions how to travel through the South of France. I propose to
+begin my journey some time next month, when the weather will be
+temperate to the southward; and in the wine countries I shall have the
+pleasure of seeing the vintage, which is always a season of festivity
+among all ranks of people.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+You have been very much mis-informed, by the person who compared
+Boulogne to Wapping: he did a manifest injustice to this place which is
+a large agreeable town, with broad open streets, excellently paved; and
+the houses are of stone, well built and commodious. The number of
+inhabitants may amount to sixteen thousand. You know this was generally
+supposed to be the portus Itius, and Gessoriacum of the antients:
+though it is now believed that the portus Itius, from whence Caesar
+sailed to Britain, is a place called Whitsand, about half way between
+this place and Calais. Boulogne is the capital of the Boulonnois, a
+district extending about twelve leagues, ruled by a governor
+independent of the governor of Picardy; of which province, however,
+this country forms a part. The present governor is the duc d'Aumout.
+The town of Boulogne is the see of a bishop suffragan of Rheims, whose
+revenue amounts to about four-and-twenty thousand livres, or one
+thousand pounds sterling. It is also the seat of a seneschal's court,
+from whence an appeal lies to the parliament of Paris; and thither all
+condemned criminals are sent, to have their sentence confirmed or
+reversed. Here is likewise a bailiwick, and a court of admiralty. The
+military jurisdiction of the city belongs to a commandant appointed by
+the king, a sort of sinecure bestowed upon some old officer. His
+appointments are very inconsiderable: he resides in the Upper Town, and
+his garrison at present consists of a few hundreds of invalids.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Boulogne is divided into the Upper and Lower Towns. The former is a
+kind of citadel, about a short mile in circumference, situated on a
+rising ground, surrounded by a high wall and rampart, planted with rows
+of trees, which form a delightful walk. It commands a fine view of the
+country and Lower Town; and in clear weather the coast of England, from
+Dover to Folkstone, appears so plain, that one would imagine it was
+within four or five leagues of the French shore. The Upper Town was
+formerly fortified with outworks, which are now in ruins. Here is a
+square, a town-house, the cathedral, and two or three convents of nuns;
+in one of which there are several English girls, sent hither for their
+education. The smallness of the expence encourages parents to send
+their children abroad to these seminaries, where they learn scarce any
+thing that is useful but the French language; but they never fail to
+imbibe prejudices against the protestant religion, and generally return
+enthusiastic converts to the religion of Rome. This conversion always
+generates a contempt for, and often an aversion to, their own country.
+Indeed it cannot reasonably be expected that people of weak minds,
+addicted to superstition, should either love or esteem those whom they
+are taught to consider as reprobated heretics. Ten pounds a year is the
+usual pension in these convents; but I have been informed by a French
+lady who had her education in one of them, that nothing can be more
+wretched than their entertainment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The civil magistracy of Boulogne consists of a mayor and echevins; and
+this is the case in almost all the towns of France.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Lower Town is continued from the gate of the Upper Town, down the
+slope of a hill, as far as the harbour, stretching on both sides to a
+large extent, and is much more considerable than the Upper, with
+respect to the beauty of the streets, the convenience of the houses,
+and the number and wealth of the inhabitants. These, however, are all
+merchants, or bourgeoise, for the noblesse or gentry live all together
+in the Upper Town, and never mix with the others. The harbour of
+Boulogne is at the mouth of the small river, or rather rivulet Liane,
+which is so shallow, that the children wade through it at low water. As
+the tide makes, the sea flows in, and forms a pretty extensive harbour,
+which, however, admits nothing but small vessels. It is contracted at
+the mouth by two stone jetties or piers, which seem to have been
+constructed by some engineer, very little acquainted with this branch
+of his profession; for they are carried out in such a manner, as to
+collect a bank of sand just at the entrance of the harbour. The road is
+very open and unsafe, and the surf very high when the wind blows from
+the sea. There is no fortification near the harbour, except a paltry
+fort mounting about twenty guns, built in the last war by the prince de
+Cruy, upon a rock about a league to the eastward of Boulogne. It
+appears to be situated in such a manner, that it can neither offend,
+nor be offended. If the depth of water would admit a forty or fifty gun
+ship to lie within cannon-shot of it, I apprehend it might be silenced
+in half an hour; but, in all probability, there will be no vestiges of
+it at the next rupture between the two crowns. It is surrounded every
+day by the sea, at high water; and when it blows a fresh gale towards
+the shore, the waves break over the top of it, to the terror and
+astonishment of the garrison, who have been often heard crying
+piteously for assistance. I am persuaded, that it will one day
+disappear in the twinkling of an eye. The neighbourhood of this fort,
+which is a smooth sandy beach, I have chosen for my bathing place. The
+road to it is agreeable and romantic, lying through pleasant
+cornfields, skirted by open downs, where there is a rabbit warren, and
+great plenty of the birds so much admired at Tunbridge under the name
+of wheat-ears. By the bye, this is a pleasant corruption of white-a-se,
+the translation of their French name cul-blanc, taken from their colour
+for they are actually white towards the tail.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Upon the top of a high rock, which overlooks the harbour, are the
+remains of an old fortification, which is indiscriminately called, Tour
+d'ordre, and Julius Caesar's fort. The original tower was a light-house
+built by Claudius Caesar, denominated Turris ardens, from the fire
+burned in it; and this the French have corrupted into Tour d'ordre; but
+no vestiges of this Roman work remain; what we now see, are the ruins
+of a castle built by Charlemagne. I know of no other antiquity at
+Boulogne, except an old vault in the Upper Town, now used as a
+magazine, which is said to be part of an antient temple dedicated to
+Isis.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On the other side of the harbour, opposite to the Lower Town, there is
+a house built, at a considerable expence, by a general officer, who
+lost his life in the late war. Never was situation more inconvenient,
+unpleasant, and unhealthy. It stands on the edge of an ugly morass
+formed by the stagnant water left by the tide in its retreat: the very
+walks of the garden are so moist, that, in the driest weather, no
+person can make a tour of it, without danger of the rheumatism.
+Besides, the house is altogether inaccessible, except at low water, and
+even then the carriage must cross the harbour, the wheels up to the
+axle-tree in mud: nay, the tide rushes in so fast, that unless you
+seize the time to a minute, you will be in danger of perishing. The
+apartments of this house are elegantly fitted up, but very small; and
+the garden, notwithstanding its unfavourable situation, affords a great
+quantity of good fruit. The ooze, impregnated with sea salt, produces,
+on this side of the harbour, an incredible quantity of the finest
+samphire I ever saw. The French call it passe-pierre; and I suspect its
+English name is a corruption of sang-pierre. It is generally found on
+the faces of bare rocks that overhang the sea, by the spray of which it
+is nourished. As it grew upon a naked rock, without any appearance of
+soil, it might be naturally enough called sang du pierre, or
+sangpierre, blood of the rock; and hence the name samphire. On the same
+side of the harbour there is another new house, neatly built, belonging
+to a gentleman who has obtained a grant from the king of some ground
+which was always overflowed at high water. He has raised dykes at a
+considerable expence, to exclude the tide, and if he can bring his
+project to bear, he will not only gain a good estate for himself, but
+also improve the harbour, by increasing the depth at high-water.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the Lower Town of Boulogne there are several religious houses,
+particularly a seminary, a convent of Cordeliers, and another of
+Capuchins. This last, having fallen to decay, was some years ago
+repaired, chiefly by the charity of British travellers, collected by
+father Graeme, a native of North-Britain, who had been an officer in
+the army of king James II. and is said to have turned monk of this
+mendicant order, by way of voluntary penance, for having killed his
+friend in a duel. Be that as it may, he was a well-bred, sensible man,
+of a very exemplary life and conversation; and his memory is much
+revered in this place. Being superior of the convent, he caused the
+British arms to be put up in the church, as a mark of gratitude for the
+benefactions received from our nation. I often walk in the garden of
+the convent, the walls of which are washed by the sea at high-water. At
+the bottom of the garden is a little private grove, separated from it
+by a high wall, with a door of communication; and hither the Capuchins
+retire, when they are disposed for contemplation. About two years ago,
+this place was said to be converted to a very different use. There was
+among the monks one pere Charles, a lusty friar, of whom the people
+tell strange stories. Some young women of the town were seen mounting
+over the wall, by a ladder of ropes, in the dusk of the evening; and
+there was an unusual crop of bastards that season. In short, pere
+Charles and his companions gave such scandal, that the whole fraternity
+was changed; and now the nest is occupied by another flight of these
+birds of passage. If one of our privateers had kidnapped a Capuchin
+during the war, and exhibited him, in his habit, as a shew in London,
+he would have proved a good prize to the captors; for I know not a more
+uncouth and grotesque animal, than an old Capuchin in the habit of his
+order. A friend of mine (a Swiss officer) told me, that a peasant in
+his country used to weep bitterly, whenever a certain Capuchin mounted
+the pulpit to hold forth to the people. The good father took notice of
+this man, and believed he was touched by the finger of the Lord. He
+exhorted him to encourage these accessions of grace, and at the same
+time to be of good comfort, as having received such marks of the divine
+favour. The man still continued to weep, as before, every time the monk
+preached; and at last the Capuchin insisted upon knowing what it was,
+in his discourse or appearance, that made such an impression upon his
+heart "Ah, father! (cried the peasant) I never see you but I think of a
+venerable goat, which I lost at Easter. We were bred up together in the
+same family. He was the very picture of your reverence&mdash;one would swear
+you were brothers. Poor Baudouin! he died of a fall&mdash;rest his soul! I
+would willingly pay for a couple of masses to pray him out of
+purgatory."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Among other public edifices at Boulogne, there is an hospital, or
+workhouse, which seems to be established upon a very good foundation.
+It maintains several hundreds of poor people, who are kept constantly
+at work, according to their age and abilities, in making thread, all
+sorts of lace, a kind of catgut, and in knitting stockings. It is under
+the direction of the bishop; and the see is at present filled by a
+prelate of great piety and benevolence, though a little inclining to
+bigotry and fanaticism. The churches in this town are but indifferently
+built, and poorly ornamented. There is not one picture in the place
+worth looking at, nor indeed does there seem to be the least taste for
+the liberal arts.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In my next, I shall endeavour to satisfy you in the other articles you
+desire to know. Mean-while, I am ever&mdash;Yours.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap04"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER IV
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+BOULOGNE, September 1, 1763.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+SIR,&mdash;I am infinitely obliged to D. H&mdash; for the favourable manner in
+which he has mentioned me to the earl of H&mdash; I have at last recovered
+my books, by virtue of a particular order to the director of the
+douane, procured by the application of the English resident to the
+French ministry. I am now preparing for my long journey; but, before I
+leave this place, I shall send you the packet I mentioned, by Meriton.
+Mean-while I must fulfil my promise in communicating the observations I
+have had occasion to make upon this town and country.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The air of Boulogne is cold and moist, and, I believe, of consequence
+unhealthy. Last winter the frost, which continued six weeks in London,
+lasted here eight weeks without intermission; and the cold was so
+intense, that, in the garden of the Capuchins, it split the bark of
+several elms from top to bottom. On our arrival here we found all kinds
+of fruit more backward than in England. The frost, in its progress to
+Britain, is much weakened in crossing the sea. The atmosphere,
+impregnated with saline particles, resists the operation of freezing.
+Hence, in severe winters, all places near the sea-side are less cold
+than more inland districts. This is the reason why the winter is often
+more mild at Edinburgh than at London. A very great degree of cold is
+required to freeze salt water. Indeed it will not freeze at all, until
+it has deposited all its salt. It is now generally allowed among
+philosophers, that water is no more than ice thawed by heat, either
+solar, or subterranean, or both; and that this heat being expelled, it
+would return to its natural consistence. This being the case, nothing
+else is required for the freezing of water, than a certain degree of
+cold, which may be generated by the help of salt, or spirit of nitre,
+even under the line. I would propose, therefore, that an apparatus of
+this sort should be provided in every ship that goes to sea; and in
+case there should be a deficiency of fresh water on board, the seawater
+may be rendered potable, by being first converted into ice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The air of Boulogne is not only loaded with a great evaporation from
+the sea, increased by strong gales of wind from the West and
+South-West, which blow almost continually during the greatest part of
+the year; but it is also subject to putrid vapours, arising from the
+low marshy ground in the neighbourhood of the harbour, which is every
+tide overflowed with seawater. This may be one cause of the scrofula
+and rickets, which are two prevailing disorders among the children in
+Boulogne. But I believe the former is more owing to the water used in
+the Lower Town, which is very hard and unwholsome. It curdles with
+soap, gives a red colour to the meat that is boiled in it, and, when
+drank by strangers, never fails to occasion pains in the stomach and
+bowels; nay, sometimes produces dysenteries. In all appearance it is
+impregnated with nitre, if not with something more mischievous: we know
+that mundic, or pyrites, very often contains a proportion of arsenic,
+mixed with sulphur, vitriol, and mercury. Perhaps it partakes of the
+acid of some coal mine; for there are coal works in this district.
+There is a well of purging water within a quarter of a mile of the
+Upper Town, to which the inhabitants resort in the morning, as the
+people of London go to the Dog-and-duck, in St. George's fields. There
+is likewise a fountain of excellent water, hard by the cathedral, in
+the Upper Town, from whence I am daily supplied at a small expence.
+Some modern chemists affirm, that no saline chalybeate waters can
+exist, except in the neighbourhood of coal damps; and that nothing can
+be more mild, and gentle, and friendly to the constitution, than the
+said damps: but I know that the place where I was bred stands upon a
+zonic of coal; that the water which the inhabitants generally use is
+hard and brackish; and that the people are remarkably subject to the
+king's evil and consumption. These I would impute to the bad water,
+impregnated with the vitriol and brine of coal, as there is nothing in
+the constitution of the air that should render such distempers
+endemial. That the air of Boulogne encourages putrefaction, appears
+from the effect it has upon butcher's meat, which, though the season is
+remarkably cold, we can hardly keep four-and-twenty hours in the
+coolest part of the house.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Living here is pretty reasonable; and the markets are tolerably
+supplied. The beef is neither fat nor firm; but very good for soup,
+which is the only use the French make of it. The veal is not so white,
+nor so well fed, as the English veal; but it is more juicy, and better
+tasted. The mutton and pork are very good. We buy our poultry alive,
+and fatten them at home. Here are excellent turkies, and no want of
+game: the hares, in particular, are very large, juicy, and
+high-flavoured. The best part of the fish caught on this coast is sent
+post to Paris, in chasse-marines, by a company of contractors, like
+those of Hastings in Sussex. Nevertheless, we have excellent soles,
+skaite, flounders and whitings, and sometimes mackarel. The oysters are
+very large, coarse, and rank. There is very little fish caught on the
+French coast, because the shallows run a great way from the shore; and
+the fish live chiefly in deep water: for this reason the fishermen go a
+great way out to sea, sometimes even as far as the coast of England.
+Notwithstanding all the haste the contractors can make, their fish in
+the summer is very often spoiled before it arrives at Paris; and this
+is not to be wondered at, considering the length of the way, which is
+near one hundred and fifty miles. At best it must be in such a
+mortified condition, that no other people, except the negroes on the
+coast of Guinea, would feed upon it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The wine commonly drank at Boulogne comes from Auxerre, is very small
+and meagre, and may be had from five to eight sols a bottle; that is,
+from two-pence halfpenny to fourpence. The French inhabitants drink no
+good wine; nor is there any to be had, unless you have recourse to the
+British wine-merchants here established, who deal in Bourdeaux wines,
+brought hither by sea for the London market. I have very good claret
+from a friend, at the rate of fifteen-pence sterling a bottle; and
+excellent small beer as reasonable as in England. I don't believe there
+is a drop of generous Burgundy in the place; and the aubergistes impose
+upon us shamefully, when they charge it at two livres a bottle. There
+is a small white wine, called preniac, which is very agreeable and very
+cheap. All the brandy which I have seen in Boulogne is new, fiery, and
+still-burnt. This is the trash which the smugglers import into England:
+they have it for about ten-pence a gallon. Butcher's meat is sold for
+five sols, or two-pence halfpenny a pound, and the pound here consists
+of eighteen ounces. I have a young turkey for thirty sols; a hare for
+four-and-twenty; a couple of chickens for twenty sols, and a couple of
+good soles for the same price. Before we left England, we were told
+that there was no fruit in Boulogne; but we have found ourselves
+agreeably disappointed in this particular. The place is well supplied
+with strawberries, cherries, gooseberries, corinths, peaches, apricots,
+and excellent pears. I have eaten more fruit this season, than I have
+done for several years. There are many well-cultivated gardens in the
+skirts of the town; particularly one belonging to our friend Mrs. B&mdash;,
+where we often drink tea in a charming summer-house built on a rising
+ground, which commands a delightful prospect of the sea. We have many
+obligations to this good lady, who is a kind neighbour, an obliging
+friend, and a most agreeable companion: she speaks English prettily,
+and is greatly attached to the people and the customs of our nation.
+They use wood for their common fewel, though, if I were to live at
+Boulogne, I would mix it with coal, which this country affords. Both
+the wood and the coal are reasonable enough. I am certain that a man
+may keep house in Boulogne for about one half of what it will cost him
+in London; and this is said to be one of the dearest places in France.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The adjacent country is very agreeable, diversified with hill and dale,
+corn-fields, woods, and meadows. There is a forest of a considerable
+extent, that begins about a short league from the Upper Town: it
+belongs to the king, and the wood is farmed to different individuals.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In point of agriculture, the people in this neighbourhood seem to have
+profited by the example of the English. Since I was last in France,
+fifteen years ago, a good number of inclosures and plantations have
+been made in the English fashion. There is a good many tolerable
+country-houses, within a few miles of Boulogne; but mostly empty. I was
+offered a compleat house, with a garden of four acres well laid out,
+and two fields for grass or hay, about a mile from the town, for four
+hundred livres, about seventeen pounds a year: it is partly furnished,
+stands in an agreeable situation, with a fine prospect of the sea, and
+was lately occupied by a Scotch nobleman, who is in the service of
+France.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To judge from appearance, the people of Boulogne are descended from the
+Flemings, who formerly possessed this country; for, a great many of the
+present inhabitants have fine skins, fair hair, and florid complexions;
+very different from the natives of France in general, who are
+distinguished by black hair, brown skins, and swarthy faces. The people
+of the Boulonnois enjoy some extraordinary privileges, and, in
+particular, are exempted from the gabelle or duties upon salt: how they
+deserved this mark of favour, I do not know; but they seem to have a
+spirit of independence among them, are very ferocious, and much
+addicted to revenge. Many barbarous murders are committed, both in the
+town and country; and the peasants, from motives of envy and
+resentment, frequently set their neighbours' houses on fire. Several
+instances of this kind have happened in the course of the last year.
+The interruption which is given, in arbitrary governments, to the
+administration of justice, by the interposition of the great, has
+always a bad effect upon the morals of the common people. The peasants
+too are often rendered desperate and savage, by the misery they suffer
+from the oppression and tyranny of their landlords. In this
+neighbourhood the labouring people are ill lodged and wretchedly fed;
+and they have no idea of cleanliness. There is a substantial burgher in
+the High Town, who was some years ago convicted of a most barbarous
+murder. He received sentence to be broke alive upon the wheel; but was
+pardoned by the interposition of the governor of the county, and
+carries on his business as usual in the face of the whole community. A
+furious abbe, being refused orders by the bishop, on account of his
+irregular life, took an opportunity to stab the prelate with a knife,
+one Sunday, as he walked out of the cathedral. The good bishop desired
+he might be permitted to escape; but it was thought proper to punish,
+with the utmost severity, such an atrocious attempt. He was accordingly
+apprehended, and, though the wound was not mortal, condemned to be
+broke. When this dreadful sentence was executed, he cried out, that it
+was hard he should undergo such torments, for having wounded a
+worthless priest, by whom he had been injured, while such-a-one (naming
+the burgher mentioned above) lived in ease and security, after having
+brutally murdered a poor man, and a helpless woman big with child, who
+had not given him the least provocation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The inhabitants of Boulogne may be divided into three classes; the
+noblesse or gentry, the burghers, and the canaille. I don't mention the
+clergy, and the people belonging to the law, because I shall
+occasionally trouble you with my thoughts upon the religion and
+ecclesiastics of this country; and as for the lawyers, exclusive of
+their profession, they may be considered as belonging to one or other
+of these divisions. The noblesse are vain, proud, poor, and slothful.
+Very few of them have above six thousand livres a year, which may
+amount to about two hundred and fifty pounds sterling; and many of them
+have not half this revenue. I think there is one heiress, said to be
+worth one hundred thousand livres, about four thousand two hundred
+pounds; but then her jewels, her cloaths, and even her linen, are
+reckoned part of this fortune. The noblesse have not the common sense
+to reside at their houses in the country, where, by farming their own
+grounds, they might live at a small expence, and improve their estates
+at the same time. They allow their country houses to go to decay, and
+their gardens and fields to waste; and reside in dark holes in the
+Upper Town of Boulogne without light, air, or convenience. There they
+starve within doors, that they may have wherewithal to purchase fine
+cloaths, and appear dressed once a day in the church, or on the
+rampart. They have no education, no taste for reading, no housewifery,
+nor indeed any earthly occupation, but that of dressing their hair, and
+adorning their bodies. They hate walking, and would never go abroad, if
+they were not stimulated by the vanity of being seen. I ought to except
+indeed those who turn devotees, and spend the greatest part of their
+time with the priest, either at church or in their own houses. Other
+amusements they have none in this place, except private parties of
+card-playing, which are far from being expensive. Nothing can be more
+parsimonious than the oeconomy of these people: they live upon soupe
+and bouille, fish and sallad: they never think of giving dinners, or
+entertaining their friends; they even save the expence of coffee and
+tea, though both are very cheap at Boulogne. They presume that every
+person drinks coffee at home, immediately after dinner, which is always
+over by one o'clock; and, in lieu of tea in the afternoon, they treat
+with a glass of sherbet, or capillaire. In a word, I know not a more
+insignificant set of mortals than the noblesse of Boulogne; helpless in
+themselves, and useless to the community; without dignity, sense, or
+sentiment; contemptible from pride. and ridiculous from vanity. They
+pretend to be jealous of their rank, and will entertain no
+correspondence with the merchants, whom they term plebeians. They
+likewise keep at a great distance from strangers, on pretence of a
+delicacy in the article of punctilio: but, as I am informed, this
+stateliness is in a great measure affected, in order to conceal their
+poverty, which would appear to greater disadvantage, if they admitted
+of a more familiar communication. Considering the vivacity of the
+French people, one would imagine they could not possibly lead such an
+insipid life, altogether unanimated by society, or diversion. True it
+is, the only profane diversions of this place are a puppet-show and a
+mountebank; but then their religion affords a perpetual comedy. Their
+high masses, their feasts, their processions, their pilgrimages,
+confessions, images, tapers, robes, incense, benedictions, spectacles,
+representations, and innumerable ceremonies, which revolve almost
+incessantly, furnish a variety of entertainment from one end of the
+year to the other. If superstition implies fear, never was a word more
+misapplied than it is to the mummery of the religion of Rome. The
+people are so far from being impressed with awe and religious terror by
+this sort of machinery, that it amuses their imaginations in the most
+agreeable manner, and keeps them always in good humour. A Roman
+catholic longs as impatiently for the festival of St. Suaire, or St.
+Croix, or St. Veronique, as a schoolboy in England for the
+representation of punch and the devil; and there is generally as much
+laughing at one farce as at the other. Even when the descent from the
+cross is acted, in the holy week, with all the circumstances that ought
+naturally to inspire the gravest sentiments, if you cast your eyes
+among the multitude that croud the place, you will not discover one
+melancholy face: all is prattling, tittering, or laughing; and ten to
+one but you perceive a number of them employed in hissing the female
+who personates the Virgin Mary. And here it may not be amiss to
+observe, that the Roman catholics, not content with the infinite number
+of saints who really existed, have not only personified the cross, but
+made two female saints out of a piece of linen. Veronique, or Veronica,
+is no other than a corruption of vera icon, or vera effigies, said to
+be the exact representation of our Saviour's face, impressed upon a
+piece of linen, with which he wiped the sweat from his forehead in his
+way to the place of crucifixion. The same is worshipped under the name
+of St. Suaire, from the Latin word sudarium. This same handkerchief is
+said to have had three folds, on every one of which was the impression:
+one of these remains at Jerusalem, a second was brought to Rome, and a
+third was conveyed to Spain. Baronius says, there is a very antient
+history of the sancta facies in the Vatican. Tillemont, however, looks
+upon the whole as a fable. Some suppose Veronica to be the same with
+St. Haemorrhoissa, the patroness of those who are afflicted with the
+piles, who make their joint invocations to her and St. Fiacre, the son
+of a Scotch king, who lived and died a hermit in France. The troops of
+Henry V. of England are said to have pillaged the chapel of this
+Highland saint; who, in revenge, assisted his countrymen, in the French
+service, to defeat the English at Bauge, and afterwards afflicted Henry
+with the piles, of which he died. This prince complained, that he was
+not only plagued by the living Scots, but even persecuted by those who
+were dead.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I know not whether I may be allowed to compare the Romish religion to
+comedy, and Calvinism to tragedy. The first amuses the senses, and
+excites ideas of mirth and good-humour; the other, like tragedy, deals
+in the passions of terror and pity. Step into a conventicle of
+dissenters, you will, ten to one, hear the minister holding forth upon
+the sufferings of Christ, or the torments of hell, and see many marks
+of religious horror in the faces of the hearers. This is perhaps one
+reason why the reformation did not succeed in France, among a volatile,
+giddy, unthinking people, shocked at the mortified appearances of the
+Calvinists; and accounts for its rapid progress among nations of a more
+melancholy turn of character and complexion: for, in the conversion of
+the multitude, reason is generally out of the question. Even the
+penance imposed upon the catholics is little more than mock
+mortification: a murderer is often quit with his confessor for saying
+three prayers extraordinary; and these easy terms, on which absolution
+is obtained, certainly encourage the repetition of the most enormous
+crimes. The pomp and ceremonies of this religion, together with the
+great number of holidays they observe, howsoever they may keep up the
+spirits of the commonalty, and help to diminish the sense of their own
+misery, must certainly, at the same time, produce a frivolous taste for
+frippery and shew, and encourage a habit of idleness, to which I, in a
+great measure, ascribe the extreme poverty of the lower people. Very
+near half of their time, which might he profitably employed in the
+exercise of industry, is lost to themselves and the community, in
+attendance upon the different exhibitions of religious mummery.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But as this letter has already run to an unconscionable length, I shall
+defer, till another occasion, what I have further to say on the people
+of this place, and in the mean time assure you, that I am always&mdash;Yours
+affectionately.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap05"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER V
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+BOULOGNE, September 12, 1763.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR SIR,&mdash;My stay in this place now draws towards a period. 'Till
+within these few days I have continued bathing, with some advantage to
+my health, though the season has been cold and wet, and disagreeable.
+There was a fine prospect of a plentiful harvest in this neighbourhood.
+I used to have great pleasure in driving between the fields of wheat,
+oats, and barley; but the crop has been entirely ruined by the rain,
+and nothing is now to be seen on the ground but the tarnished straw,
+and the rotten spoils of the husbandman's labour. The ground scarce
+affords subsistence to a few flocks of meagre sheep, that crop the
+stubble, and the intervening grass; each flock under the protection of
+its shepherd, with his crook and dogs, who lies every night in the
+midst of the fold, in a little thatched travelling lodge, mounted on a
+wheel-carriage. Here he passes the night, in order to defend his flock
+from the wolves, which are sometimes, especially in winter, very bold
+and desperate.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Two days ago we made an excursion with Mrs. B&mdash; and Capt. L&mdash; to the
+village of Samers, on the Paris road, about three leagues from
+Boulogne. Here is a venerable abbey of Benedictines, well endowed, with
+large agreeable gardens prettily laid out. The monks are well lodged,
+and well entertained. Tho' restricted from flesh meals by the rules of
+their order, they are allowed to eat wild duck and teal, as a species
+of fish; and when they long for a good bouillon, or a partridge, or
+pullet, they have nothing to do but to say they are out of order. In
+that case the appetite of the patient is indulged in his own apartment.
+Their church is elegantly contrived, but kept in a very dirty
+condition. The greatest curiosity I saw in this place was an English
+boy, about eight or nine years old, whom his father had sent hither to
+learn the French language. In less than eight weeks, he was become
+captain of the boys of the place, spoke French perfectly well, and had
+almost forgot his mother tongue. But to return to the people of
+Boulogne.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The burghers here, as in other places, consist of merchants,
+shop-keepers, and artisans. Some of the merchants have got fortunes, by
+fitting out privateers during the war. A great many single ships were
+taken from the English, notwithstanding the good look-out of our
+cruisers, who were so alert, that the privateers from this coast were
+often taken in four hours after they sailed from the French harbour;
+and there is hardly a captain of an armateur in Boulogne, who has not
+been prisoner in England five or six times in the course of the war.
+They were fitted out at a very small expence, and used to run over in
+the night to the coast of England, where they hovered as English
+fishing smacks, until they kidnapped some coaster, with which they made
+the best of their way across the Channel. If they fell in with a
+British cruiser, they surrendered without resistance: the captain was
+soon exchanged, and the loss of the proprietor was not great: if they
+brought their prize safe into harbour, the advantage was considerable.
+In time of peace the merchants of Boulogne deal in wine brandies, and
+oil, imported from the South, and export fish, with the manufactures of
+France, to Portugal, and other countries; but the trade is not great.
+Here are two or three considerable houses of wine merchants from
+Britain, who deal in Bourdeaux wine, with which they supply London and
+other parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The fishery of mackarel
+and herring is so considerable on this coast, that it is said to yield
+annually eight or nine hundred thousand livres, about thirty-five
+thousand pounds sterling.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The shop-keepers here drive a considerable traffic with the English
+smugglers, whose cutters are almost the only vessels one sees in the
+harbour of Boulogne, if we except about a dozen of those flat-bottomed
+boats, which raised such alarms in England, in the course of the war.
+Indeed they seem to be good for nothing else, and perhaps they were
+built for this purpose only. The smugglers from the coast of Kent and
+Sussex pay English gold for great quantities of French brandy, tea,
+coffee, and small wine, which they run from this country. They likewise
+buy glass trinkets, toys, and coloured prints, which sell in England,
+for no other reason, but that they come from France, as they may be had
+as cheap, and much better finished, of our own manufacture. They
+likewise take off ribbons, laces, linen, and cambrics; though this
+branch of trade is chiefly in the hands of traders that come from
+London and make their purchases at Dunkirk, where they pay no duties.
+It is certainly worth while for any traveller to lay in a stock of
+linen either at Dunkirk or Boulogne; the difference of the price at
+these two places is not great. Even here I have made a provision of
+shirts for one half of the money they would have cost in London.
+Undoubtedly the practice of smuggling is very detrimental to the fair
+trader, and carries considerable sums of money out of the kingdom, to
+enrich our rivals and enemies. The custom-house officers are very
+watchful, and make a great number of seizures: nevertheless, the
+smugglers find their account in continuing this contraband commerce;
+and are said to indemnify themselves, if they save one cargo out of
+three. After all, the best way to prevent smuggling, is to lower the
+duties upon the commodities which are thus introduced. I have been
+told, that the revenue upon tea has encreased ever since the duty upon
+it was diminished. By the bye, the tea smuggled on the coast of Sussex
+is most execrable stuff. While I stayed at Hastings, for the
+conveniency of bathing, I must have changed my breakfast, if I had not
+luckily brought tea with me from London: yet we have as good tea at
+Boulogne for nine livres a pound, as that which sells at fourteen
+shillings at London.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The bourgeois of this place seem to live at their ease, probably in
+consequence of their trade with the English. Their houses consist of
+the ground-floor, one story above, and garrets. In those which are well
+furnished, you see pier-glasses and marble slabs; but the chairs are
+either paultry things, made with straw bottoms, which cost about a
+shilling a-piece, or old-fashioned, high-backed seats of needle-work,
+stuffed, very clumsy and incommodious. The tables are square fir
+boards, that stand on edge in a corner, except when they are used, and
+then they are set upon cross legs that open and shut occasionally. The
+king of France dines off a board of this kind. Here is plenty of
+table-linen however. The poorest tradesman in Boulogne has a napkin on
+every cover, and silver forks with four prongs, which are used with the
+right hand, there being very little occasion for knives; for the meat
+is boiled or roasted to rags. The French beds are so high, that
+sometimes one is obliged to mount them by the help of steps; and this
+is also the case in Flanders. They very seldom use feather-beds; but
+they lie upon a paillasse, or bag of straw, over which are laid two,
+and sometimes three mattrasses. Their testers are high and
+old-fashioned, and their curtains generally of thin bays, red, or
+green, laced with taudry yellow, in imitation of gold. In some houses,
+however, one meets with furniture of stamped linen; but there is no
+such thing as a carpet to be seen, and the floors are in a very dirty
+condition. They have not even the implements of cleanliness in this
+country. Every chamber is furnished with an armoire, or clothes-press,
+and a chest of drawers, of very clumsy workmanship. Every thing shews a
+deficiency in the mechanic arts. There is not a door, nor a window,
+that shuts close. The hinges, locks, and latches, are of iron, coarsely
+made, and ill contrived. The very chimnies are built so open, that they
+admit both rain and sun, and all of them smoke intolerably. If there is
+no cleanliness among these people, much less shall we find delicacy,
+which is the cleanliness of the mind. Indeed they are utter strangers
+to what we call common decency; and I could give you some
+high-flavoured instances, at which even a native of Edinburgh would
+stop his nose. There are certain mortifying views of human nature,
+which undoubtedly ought to be concealed as much as possible, in order
+to prevent giving offence: and nothing can be more absurd, than to
+plead the difference of custom in different countries, in defence of
+these usages which cannot fail giving disgust to the organs and senses
+of all mankind. Will custom exempt from the imputation of gross
+indecency a French lady, who shifts her frowsy smock in presence of a
+male visitant, and talks to him of her lavement, her medecine, and her
+bidet! An Italian signora makes no scruple of telling you, she is such
+a day to begin a course of physic for the pox. The celebrated reformer
+of the Italian comedy introduces a child befouling itself, on the
+stage, OE, NO TI SENTI? BISOGNA DESFASSARLO, (fa cenno che sentesi mal
+odore). I have known a lady handed to the house of office by her
+admirer, who stood at the door, and entertained her with bons mots all
+the time she was within. But I should be glad to know, whether it is
+possible for a fine lady to speak and act in this manner, without
+exciting ideas to her own disadvantage in the mind of every man who has
+any imagination left, and enjoys the entire use of his senses,
+howsoever she may be authorised by the customs of her country? There is
+nothing so vile or repugnant to nature, but you may plead prescription
+for it, in the customs of some nation or other. A Parisian likes
+mortified flesh: a native of Legiboli will not taste his fish till it
+is quite putrefied: the civilized inhabitants of Kamschatka get drunk
+with the urine of their guests, whom they have already intoxicated: the
+Nova Zemblans make merry on train-oil: the Groenlanders eat in the same
+dish with their dogs: the Caffres, at the Cape of Good Hope, piss upon
+those whom they delight to honour, and feast upon a sheep's intestines
+with their contents, as the greatest dainty that can be presented. A
+true-bred Frenchman dips his fingers, imbrowned with snuff, into his
+plate filled with ragout: between every three mouthfuls, he produces
+his snuff-box, and takes a fresh pinch, with the most graceful
+gesticulations; then he displays his handkerchief, which may be termed
+the flag of abomination, and, in the use of both, scatters his favours
+among those who have the happiness to sit near him. It must be owned,
+however, that a Frenchman will not drink out of a tankard, in which,
+perhaps, a dozen of filthy mouths have flabbered, as is the custom in
+England. Here every individual has his own gobelet, which stands before
+him, and he helps himself occasionally with wine or water, or both,
+which likewise stand upon the table. But I know no custom more beastly
+than that of using water-glasses, in which polite company spirt, and
+squirt, and spue the filthy scourings of their gums, under the eyes of
+each other. I knew a lover cured of his passion, by seeing this nasty
+cascade discharged from the mouth of his mistress. I don't doubt but I
+shall live to see the day, when the hospitable custom of the antient
+Aegyptians will be revived; then a conveniency will be placed behind
+every chair in company, with a proper provision of waste paper, that
+individuals may make themselves easy without parting company. I insist
+upon it, that this practice would not be more indelicate than that
+which is now in use. What then, you will say, must a man sit with his
+chops and fingers up to the ears and knuckles in grease? No; let those
+who cannot eat without defiling themselves, step into another room,
+provided with basons and towels: but I think it would be better to
+institute schools, where youth may learn to eat their victuals, without
+daubing themselves, or giving offence to the eyes of one another.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The bourgeois of Boulogne have commonly soup and bouilli at noon, and a
+roast, with a sallad, for supper; and at all their meals there is a
+dessert of fruit. This indeed is the practice all over France. On
+meagre days they eat fish, omelettes, fried beans, fricassees of eggs
+and onions, and burnt cream. The tea which they drink in the afternoon
+is rather boiled than infused; it is sweetened all together with coarse
+sugar, and drank with an equal quantity of boiled milk.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We had the honour to be entertained the other day by our landlord, Mr.
+B&mdash;, who spared no cost on this banquet, exhibited for the glory of
+France. He had invited a newmarried couple, together with the husband's
+mother and the lady's father, who was one of the noblesse of Montreuil,
+his name Mons. L&mdash;y. There were likewise some merchants of the town,
+and Mons. B&mdash;'s uncle, a facetious little man, who had served in the
+English navy, and was as big and as round as a hogshead; we were
+likewise favoured with the company of father K&mdash;, a native of Ireland,
+who is vicaire or curate of the parish; and among the guests was Mons.
+L&mdash;y's son, a pretty boy, about thirteen or fourteen years of age. The
+repas served up in three services, or courses, with entrees and hors
+d'oeuvres, exclusive of the fruit, consisted of about twenty dishes,
+extremely well dressed by the rotisseur, who is the best cook I ever
+knew, in France, or elsewhere; but the plates were not presented with
+much order. Our young ladies did not seem to be much used to do the
+honours of the table. The most extraordinary circumstance that I
+observed on this occasion&mdash;as, that all the French who were present ate
+of every dish that appeared; and I am told, that if there had been an
+hundred articles more, they would have had a trial of each. This is
+what they call doing justice to the founder. Mons. L&mdash;y was placed at
+the head of the table and indeed he was the oracle and orator of the
+company; tall, thin, and weather-beaten, not unlike the picture of Don
+Quixote after he had lost his teeth. He had been garde du corps, or
+life-guardman at Versailles; and by virtue of this office he was
+perfectly well acquainted with the persons of the king and the dauphin,
+with the characters of the ministers and grandees, and, in a word, with
+all the secrets of state, on which he held forth with equal solemnity
+and elocution. He exclaimed against the jesuits, and the farmers of the
+revenue, who, he said, had ruined France. Then, addressing himself to
+me, asked, if the English did not every day drink to the health of
+madame la marquise? I did not at first comprehend his meaning; but
+answered in general, that the English were not deficient in
+complaisance for the ladies. "Ah! (cried he) she is the best friend
+they have in the world. If it had not been for her, they would not have
+such reason to boast of the advantages of the war." I told him the only
+conquest which the French had made in the war, was atchieved by one of
+her generals: I meant the taking of Mahon. But I did not choose to
+prosecute the discourse, remembering that in the year 1749, I had like
+to have had an affair with a Frenchman at Ghent, who affirmed, that all
+the battles gained by the great duke of Marlborough were purposely lost
+by the French generals, in order to bring the schemes of madame de
+Maintenon into disgrace. This is no bad resource for the national
+vanity of these people: though, in general, they are really persuaded,
+that theirs is the richest, the bravest, the happiest, and the most
+powerful nation under the sun; and therefore, without some such cause,
+they must be invincible. By the bye, the common people here still
+frighten their wayward children with the name of Marlborough. Mr. B&mdash;'s
+son, who was nursed at a peasant's house, happening one day, after he
+was brought home, to be in disgrace with his father, who threatened to
+correct him, the child ran for protection to his mother, crying,
+"Faites sortir ce vilaine Malbroug," "Turn out that rogue Marlborough."
+It is amazing to hear a sensible Frenchman assert, that the revenues of
+France amount to four hundred millions of livres, about twenty millions
+sterling, clear of all incumbrances, when in fact their clear revenue
+is not much above ten. Without all doubt they have reason to inveigh
+against the fermiers generaux, who oppress the people in raising the
+taxes, not above two-thirds of which are brought into the king's
+coffers: the rest enriches themselves, and enables them to bribe high
+for the protection of the great, which is the only support they have
+against the remonstrances of the states and parliaments, and the
+suggestions of common sense; which will ever demonstrate this to be, of
+all others, the most pernicious method of supplying the necessities of
+government.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mons. L&mdash;y seasoned the severity of his political apothegms with
+intermediate sallies of mirth and gallantry. He ogled the venerable
+gentlewoman his commere, who sat by him. He looked, sighed, and
+languished, sung tender songs, and kissed the old lady's hand with all
+the ardour of a youthful admirer. I unfortunately congratulated him on
+having such a pretty young gentleman to his son. He answered, sighing,
+that the boy had talents, but did not put them to a proper use&mdash;"Long
+before I attained his age (said he) I had finished my rhetoric."
+Captain B&mdash;, who had eaten himself black in the face, and, with the
+napkin under his chin, was no bad representation of Sancho Panza in the
+suds, with the dishclout about his neck, when the duke's scullions
+insisted upon shaving him; this sea-wit, turning to the boy, with a
+waggish leer, "I suppose (said he) you don't understand the figure of
+amplification so well as Monsieur your father." At that instant, one of
+the nieces, who knew her uncle to be very ticklish, touched him under
+the short ribs, on which the little man attempted to spring up, but
+lost the centre of gravity. He overturned his own plate in the lap of
+the person that sat next to him, and falling obliquely upon his own
+chair, both tumbled down upon the floor together, to the great
+discomposure of the whole company; for the poor man would have been
+actually strangled, had not his nephew loosed his stock with great
+expedition. Matters being once more adjusted, and the captain condoled
+on his disaster, Mons. L&mdash;y took it in his head to read his son a
+lecture upon filial obedience. This was mingled with some sharp
+reproof, which the boy took so ill that he retired. The old lady
+observed that he had been too severe: her daughter-in-law, who was very
+pretty, said her brother had given him too much reason; hinting, at the
+same time, that he was addicted to some terrible vices; upon which
+several individuals repeated the interjection, ah! ah! "Yes (said Mons.
+L&mdash;y, with a rueful aspect) the boy has a pernicious turn for gaming:
+in one afternoon he lost, at billiards, such a sum as gives me horror
+to think of it." "Fifty sols in one afternoon," (cried the sister).
+"Fifty sols! (exclaimed the mother-in-law, with marks of astonishment)
+that's too much&mdash;that's too much!&mdash;he's to blame&mdash; he's to blame! but
+youth, you know, Mons. L&mdash;y&mdash;ah! vive la jeunesse!"&mdash;"et l'amour!"
+cried the father, wiping his eyes, squeezing her hand, and looking
+tenderly upon her. Mr. B&mdash; took this opportunity to bring in the young
+gentleman, who was admitted into favour, and received a second
+exhortation. Thus harmony was restored, and the entertainment concluded
+with fruit, coffee, and liqueurs.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When a bourgeois of Boulogne takes the air, he goes in a one-horse
+chaise, which is here called cabriolet, and hires it for half-a-crown a
+day. There are also travelling chaises, which hold four persons, two
+seated with their faces to the horses, and two behind their backs; but
+those vehicles are all very ill made, and extremely inconvenient. The
+way of riding most used in this place is on assback. You will see every
+day, in the skirts of the town, a great number of females thus mounted,
+with the feet on either side occasionally, according as the wind blows,
+so that sometimes the right and sometimes the left hand guides the
+beast: but in other parts of France, as well as in Italy, the ladies
+sit on horseback with their legs astride, and are provided with drawers
+for that purpose.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When I said the French people were kept in good humour by the fopperies
+of their religion, I did not mean that there were no gloomy spirits
+among them. There will be fanatics in religion, while there are people
+of a saturnine disposition, and melancholy turn of mind. The character
+of a devotee, which is hardly known in England, is very common here.
+You see them walking to and from church at all hours, in their hoods
+and long camblet cloaks, with a slow pace, demure aspect, and downcast
+eye. Those who are poor become very troublesome to the monks, with
+their scruples and cases of conscience: you may see them on their
+knees, at the confessional, every hour in the day. The rich devotee has
+her favourite confessor, whom she consults and regales in private, at
+her own house; and this spiritual director generally governs the whole
+family. For my part I never knew a fanatic that was not an hypocrite at
+bottom. Their pretensions to superior sanctity, and an absolute
+conquest over all the passions, which human reason was never yet able
+to subdue, introduce a habit of dissimulation, which, like all other
+habits, is confirmed by use, till at length they become adepts in the
+art and science of hypocrisy. Enthusiasm and hypocrisy are by no means
+incompatible. The wildest fanatics I ever knew, were real sensualists
+in their way of living, and cunning cheats in their dealings with
+mankind.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Among the lower class of people at Boulogne, those who take the lead,
+are the sea-faring men, who live in one quarter, divided into classes,
+and registered for the service of the king. They are hardy and
+raw-boned, exercise the trade of fishermen and boatmen, and propagate
+like rabbits. They have put themselves under the protection of a
+miraculous image of the Virgin Mary, which is kept in one of their
+churches, and every year carried in procession. According to the
+legend, this image was carried off, with other pillage, by the English,
+when they took Boulogne, in the reign of Henry VIII. The lady, rather
+than reside in England, where she found a great many heretics, trusted
+herself alone in an open boat, and crossed the sea to the road of
+Boulogne, where she was seen waiting for a pilot. Accordingly a boat
+put off to her assistance, and brought her safe into the harbour: since
+which time she has continued to patronize the watermen of Boulogne. At
+present she is very black and very ugly, besides being cruelly
+mutilated in different parts of her body, which I suppose have been
+amputated, and converted into tobacco-stoppers; but once a year she is
+dressed in very rich attire, and carried in procession, with a silver
+boat, provided at the expence of the sailors. That vanity which
+characterises the French extends even to the canaille. The lowest
+creature among them is sure to have her ear-rings and golden cross
+hanging about her neck. Indeed this last is an implement of
+superstition as well as of dress, without which no female appears. The
+common people here, as in all countries where they live poorly and
+dirtily, are hard-featured, and of very brown, or rather tawny
+complexions. As they seldom eat meat, their juices are destitute of
+that animal oil which gives a plumpness and smoothness to the skin, and
+defends those fine capillaries from the injuries of the weather, which
+would otherwise coalesce, or be shrunk up, so as to impede the
+circulation on the external surface of the body. As for the dirt, it
+undoubtedly blocks up the pores of the skin, and disorders the
+perspiration; consequently must contribute to the scurvy, itch, and
+other cutaneous distempers.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the quarter of the matelots at Boulogne, there is a number of poor
+Canadians, who were removed from the island of St. John, in the gulph
+of St. Laurence, when it was reduced by the English. These people are
+maintained at the expence of the king, who allows them soldier's pay,
+that is five sols, or two-pence halfpenny a day; or rather three sols
+and ammunition bread. How the soldiers contrive to subsist upon this
+wretched allowance, I cannot comprehend: but, it must be owned, that
+those invalids who do duty at Boulogne betray no marks of want. They
+are hale and stout, neatly and decently cloathed, and on the whole look
+better than the pensioners of Chelsea.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+About three weeks ago I was favoured with a visit by one Mr. M&mdash;, an
+English gentleman, who seems far gone in a consumption. He passed the
+last winter at Nismes in Languedoc, and found himself much better in
+the beginning of summer, when he embarked at Cette, and returned by sea
+to England. He soon relapsed, however, and (as he imagines) in
+consequence of a cold caught at sea. He told me, his intention was to
+try the South again, and even to go as far as Italy. I advised him to
+make trial of the air of Nice, where I myself proposed to reside. He
+seemed to relish my advice, and proceeded towards Paris in his own
+carriage.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I shall to-morrow ship my great chests on board of a ship bound to
+Bourdeaux; they are directed, and recommended to the care of a merchant
+of that place, who will forward them by Thoulouse, and the canal of
+Languedoc, to his correspondent at Cette, which is the sea-port of
+Montpellier. The charge of their conveyance to Bourdeaux does not
+exceed one guinea. They consist of two very large chests and a trunk,
+about a thousand pounds weight; and the expence of transporting them
+from Bourdeaux to Cette, will not exceed thirty livres. They are
+already sealed with lead at the customhouse, that they may be exempted
+from further visitation. This is a precaution which every traveller
+takes, both by sea and land: he must likewise provide himself with a
+passe-avant at the bureau, otherwise he may be stopped, and rummaged at
+every town through which he passes. I have hired a berline and four
+horses to Paris, for fourteen loui'dores; two of which the voiturier is
+obliged to pay for a permission from the farmers of the poste; for
+every thing is farmed in this country; and if you hire a carriage, as I
+have done, you must pay twelve livres, or half-a-guinea, for every
+person that travels in it. The common coach between Calais and Paris,
+is such a vehicle as no man would use, who has any regard to his own
+case and convenience and it travels at the pace of an English waggon.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In ten days I shall set out on my journey; and I shall leave Boulogne
+with regret. I have been happy in the acquaintance of Mrs. B&mdash;, and a
+few British families in the place; and it was my good fortune to meet
+here with two honest gentlemen, whom I had formerly known in Paris, as
+well as with some of my countrymen, officers in the service of France.
+My next will be from Paris. Remember me to our friends at A&mdash;'s. I am a
+little heavy-hearted at the prospect of removing to such a distance
+from you. It is a moot point whether I shall ever return. My health is
+very precarious. Adieu.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap06"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER VI
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+PARIS, October 12, 1763.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR SIR,&mdash;Of our journey from Boulogne I have little to say. The
+weather was favourable, and the roads were in tolerable order. We found
+good accommodation at Montreuil and Amiens; but in every other place
+where we stopped, we met with abundance of dirt, and the most flagrant
+imposition. I shall not pretend to describe the cities of Abbeville and
+Amiens, which we saw only en passant; nor take up your time with an
+account of the stables and palace of Chantilly, belonging to the prince
+of Conde, which we visited the last day of our journey; nor shall I
+detain you with a detail of the Trefors de St. Denis, which, together
+with the tombs in the abbey church, afforded us some amusement while
+our dinner was getting ready. All these particulars are mentioned in
+twenty different books of tours, travels, and directions, which you
+have often perused. I shall only observe, that the abbey church is the
+lightest piece of Gothic architecture I have seen, and the air within
+seems perfectly free from that damp and moisture, so perceivable in all
+our old cathedrals. This must be owing to the nature of its situation.
+There are some fine marble statues that adorn the tombs of certain
+individuals here interred; but they are mostly in the French taste,
+which is quite contrary to the simplicity of the antients. Their
+attitudes are affected, unnatural, and desultory; and their draperies
+fantastic; or, as one of our English artists expressed himself, they
+are all of a flutter. As for the treasures, which are shewn on certain
+days to the populace gratis, they are contained in a number of presses,
+or armoires, and, if the stones are genuine, they must be inestimable:
+but this I cannot believe. Indeed I have been told, that what they shew
+as diamonds are no more than composition: nevertheless, exclusive of
+these, there are some rough stones of great value, and many curiosities
+worth seeing. The monk that shewed them was the very image of our
+friend Hamilton, both in his looks and manner.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I have one thing very extraordinary to observe of the French auberges,
+which seems to be a remarkable deviation from the general character of
+the nation. The landlords, hostesses, and servants of the inns upon the
+road, have not the least dash of complaisance in their behaviour to
+strangers. Instead of coming to the door, to receive you as in England,
+they take no manner of notice of you; but leave you to find or enquire
+your way into the kitchen, and there you must ask several times for a
+chamber, before they seem willing to conduct you up stairs. In general,
+you are served with the appearance of the most mortifying indifference,
+at the very time they are laying schemes for fleecing you of your
+money. It is a very odd contrast between France and England; in the
+former all the people are complaisant but the publicans; in the latter
+there is hardly any complaisance but among the publicans. When I said
+all the people in France, I ought also to except those vermin who
+examine the baggage of travellers in different parts of the kingdom.
+Although our portmanteaus were sealed with lead, and we were provided
+with a passe-avant from the douane, our coach was searched at the gate
+of Paris by which we entered; and the women were obliged to get out,
+and stand in the open street, till this operation was performed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I had desired a friend to provide lodgings for me at Paris, in the
+Fauxbourg St. Germain; and accordingly we found ourselves accommodated
+at the Hotel de Montmorency, with a first floor, which costs me ten
+livres a day. I should have put up with it had it been less polite; but
+as I have only a few days to stay in this place, and some visits to
+receive, I am not sorry that my friend has exceeded his commission. I
+have been guilty of another piece of extravagance in hiring a carosse
+de remise, for which I pay twelve livres a day. Besides the article of
+visiting, I could not leave Paris, without carrying my wife and the
+girls to see the most remarkable places in and about this capital, such
+as the Luxemburg, the Palais-Royal, the Thuilleries, the Louvre, the
+Invalids, the Gobelins, &amp;c. together with Versailles, Trianon, Marli,
+Meudon, and Choissi; and therefore, I thought the difference in point
+of expence would not be great, between a carosse de remise and a
+hackney coach. The first are extremely elegant, if not too much
+ornamented, the last are very shabby and disagreeable. Nothing gives me
+such chagrin, as the necessity I am under to hire a valet de place, as
+my own servant does not speak the language. You cannot conceive with
+what eagerness and dexterity those rascally valets exert themselves in
+pillaging strangers. There is always one ready in waiting on your
+arrival, who begins by assisting your own servant to unload your
+baggage, and interests himself in your affairs with such artful
+officiousness, that you will find it difficult to shake him off, even
+though you are determined beforehand against hiring any such domestic.
+He produces recommendations from his former masters, and the people of
+the house vouch for his honesty.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The truth is, those fellows are very handy, useful, and obliging; and
+so far honest, that they will not steal in the usual way. You may
+safely trust one of them to bring you a hundred loui'dores from your
+banker; but they fleece you without mercy in every other article of
+expence. They lay all your tradesmen under contribution; your taylor,
+barber, mantua-maker, milliner, perfumer, shoe-maker, mercer, jeweller,
+hatter, traiteur, and wine-merchant: even the bourgeois who owns your
+coach pays him twenty sols per day. His wages amount to twice as much,
+so that I imagine the fellow that serves me, makes above ten shillings
+a day, besides his victuals, which, by the bye, he has no right to
+demand. Living at Paris, to the best of my recollection, is very near
+twice as dear as it was fifteen years ago; and, indeed, this is the
+case in London; a circumstance that must be undoubtedly owing to an
+increase of taxes; for I don't find that in the articles of eating and
+drinking, the French people are more luxurious than they were
+heretofore. I am told the entrees, or duties, payed upon provision
+imported into Paris, are very heavy. All manner of butcher's meat and
+poultry are extremely good in this place. The beef is excellent. The
+wine, which is generally drank, is a very thin kind of Burgundy. I can
+by no means relish their cookery; but one breakfasts deliciously upon
+their petit pains and their pales of butter, which last is exquisite.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The common people, and even the bourgeois of Paris live, at this
+season, chiefly on bread and grapes, which is undoubtedly very wholsome
+fare. If the same simplicity of diet prevailed in England, we should
+certainly undersell the French at all foreign markets for they are very
+slothful with all their vivacity and the great number of their holidays
+not only encourages this lazy disposition, but actually robs them of
+one half of what their labour would otherwise produce; so that, if our
+common people were not so expensive in their living, that is, in their
+eating and drinking, labour might be afforded cheaper in England than
+in France. There are three young lusty hussies, nieces or daughters of
+a blacksmith, that lives just opposite to my windows, who do nothing
+from morning till night. They eat grapes and bread from seven till
+nine, from nine till twelve they dress their hair, and are all the
+afternoon gaping at the window to view passengers. I don't perceive
+that they give themselves the trouble either to make their beds, or
+clean their apartment. The same spirit of idleness and dissipation I
+have observed in every part of France, and among every class of people.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Every object seems to have shrunk in its dimensions since I was last in
+Paris. The Louvre, the Palais-Royal, the bridges, and the river Seine,
+by no means answer the ideas I had formed of them from my former
+observation. When the memory is not very correct, the imagination
+always betrays her into such extravagances. When I first revisited my
+own country, after an absence of fifteen years, I found every thing
+diminished in the same manner, and I could scarce believe my own eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Notwithstanding the gay disposition of the French, their houses are all
+gloomy. In spite of all the ornaments that have been lavished on
+Versailles, it is a dismal habitation. The apartments are dark,
+ill-furnished, dirty, and unprincely. Take the castle, chapel, and
+garden all together, they make a most fantastic composition of
+magnificence and littleness, taste, and foppery. After all, it is in
+England only, where we must look for cheerful apartments, gay
+furniture, neatness, and convenience. There is a strange incongruity in
+the French genius. With all their volatility, prattle, and fondness for
+bons mots, they delight in a species of drawling, melancholy, church
+music. Their most favourite dramatic pieces are almost without
+incident; and the dialogue of their comedies consists of moral, insipid
+apophthegms, intirely destitute of wit or repartee. I know what I
+hazard by this opinion among the implicit admirers of Lully, Racine,
+and Moliere.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I don't talk of the busts, the statues, and pictures which abound at
+Versailles, and other places in and about Paris, particularly the great
+collection of capital pieces in the Palais-royal, belonging to the duke
+of Orleans. I have neither capacity, nor inclination, to give a
+critique on these chef d'oeuvres, which indeed would take up a whole
+volume. I have seen this great magazine of painting three times, with
+astonishment; but I should have been better pleased, if there had not
+been half the number: one is bewildered in such a profusion, as not to
+know where to begin, and hurried away before there is time to consider
+one piece with any sort of deliberation. Besides, the rooms are all
+dark, and a great many of the pictures hang in a bad light. As for
+Trianon, Marli, and Choissi, they are no more than pigeon-houses, in
+respect to palaces; and, notwithstanding the extravagant eulogiums
+which you have heard of the French king's houses, I will venture to
+affirm that the king of England is better, I mean more comfortably,
+lodged. I ought, however, to except Fontainebleau, which I have not
+seen.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The city of Paris is said to be five leagues, or fifteen miles, in
+circumference; and if it is really so, it must be much more populous
+than London; for the streets are very narrow, and the houses very high,
+with a different family on every floor. But I have measured the best
+plans of these two royal cities, and am certain that Paris does not
+take up near so much ground as London and Westminster occupy; and I
+suspect the number of its inhabitants is also exaggerated by those who
+say it amounts to eight hundred thousand, that is two hundred thousand
+more than are contained in the bills of mortality. The hotels of the
+French noblesse, at Paris, take up a great deal of room, with their
+courtyards and gardens; and so do their convents and churches. It must
+be owned, indeed, that their streets are wonderfully crouded with
+people and carriages.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The French begin to imitate the English, but only in such particulars
+as render them worthy of imitation. When I was last at Paris, no person
+of any condition, male or female, appeared, but in full dress, even
+when obliged to come out early in the morning, and there was not such a
+thing to be seen as a perruque ronde; but at present I see a number of
+frocks and scratches in a morning, in the streets of this metropolis.
+They have set up a petite poste, on the plan of our penny-post, with
+some improvements; and I am told there is a scheme on foot for
+supplying every house with water, by leaden pipes, from the river
+Seine. They have even adopted our practice of the cold bath, which is
+taken very conveniently, in wooden houses, erected on the side of the
+river, the water of which is let in and out occasionally, by cocks
+fixed in the sides of the bath. There are different rooms for the
+different sexes: the accommodations are good, and the expence is a
+trifle. The tapestry of the Gobelins is brought to an amazing degree of
+perfection; and I am surprised that this furniture is not more in
+fashion among the great, who alone are able to purchase it. It would be
+a most elegant and magnificent ornament, which would always nobly
+distinguish their apartments from those, of an inferior rank; and in
+this they would run no risk of being rivalled by the bourgeois. At the
+village of Chaillot, in the neighbourhood of Paris, they make beautiful
+carpets and screen-work; and this is the more extraordinary, as there
+are hardly any carpets used in this kingdom. In almost all the
+lodging-houses, the floors are of brick, and have no other kind of
+cleaning, than that of being sprinkled with water, and swept once a
+day. These brick floors, the stone stairs, the want of wainscotting in
+the rooms, and the thick party-walls of stone, are, however, good
+preservatives against fire, which seldom does any damage in this city.
+Instead of wainscotting, the walls are covered with tapestry or damask.
+The beds in general are very good, and well ornamented, with testers
+and curtains.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Twenty years ago the river Seine, within a mile of Paris, was as
+solitary as if it had run through a desert. At present the banks of it
+are adorned with a number of elegant houses and plantations, as far as
+Marli. I need not mention the machine at this place for raising water,
+because I know you are well acquainted with its construction; nor shall
+I say any thing more of the city of Paris, but that there is a new
+square, built upon an elegant plan, at the end of the garden of the
+Thuilleries: it is called Place de Louis XV. and, in the middle of it,
+there is a good equestrian statue of the reigning king.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+You have often heard that Louis XIV. frequently regretted, that his
+country did not afford gravel for the walks of his gardens, which are
+covered with a white, loose sand, very disagreeable both to the eyes
+and feet of those who walk upon it; but this is a vulgar mistake. There
+is plenty of gravel on the road between Paris and Versailles, as well
+as in many other parts of this kingdom; but the French, who are all for
+glare and glitter, think the other is more gay and agreeable: one would
+imagine they did not feel the burning reflexion from the white sand,
+which in summer is almost intolerable.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the character of the French, considered as a people, there are
+undoubtedly many circumstances truly ridiculous. You know the
+fashionable people, who go a hunting, are equipped with their jack
+boots, bag wigs, swords and pistols: but I saw the other day a scene
+still more grotesque. On the road to Choissi, a fiacre, or
+hackney-coach, stopped, and out came five or six men, armed with
+musquets, who took post, each behind a separate tree. I asked our
+servant who they were imagining they might be archers, or footpads of
+justice, in pursuit of some malefactor. But guess my surprise, when the
+fellow told me, they were gentlemen a la chasse. They were in fact come
+out from Paris, in this equipage, to take the diversion of
+hare-hunting; that is, of shooting from behind a tree at the hares that
+chanced to pass. Indeed, if they had nothing more in view, but to
+destroy the game, this was a very effectual method; for the hares are
+in such plenty in this neighbourhood, that I have seen a dozen
+together, in the same field. I think this way of hunting, in a coach or
+chariot, might be properly adopted at London, in favour of those
+aldermen of the city, who are too unwieldy to follow the hounds a
+horseback.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The French, however, with all their absurdities, preserve a certain
+ascendancy over us, which is very disgraceful to our nation; and this
+appears in nothing more than in the article of dress. We are contented
+to be thought their apes in fashion; but, in fact, we are slaves to
+their taylors, mantua-makers, barbers, and other tradesmen. One would
+be apt to imagine that our own tradesmen had joined them in a
+combination against us. When the natives of France come to London, they
+appear in all public places, with cloaths made according to the fashion
+of their own country, and this fashion is generally admired by the
+English. Why, therefore, don't we follow it implicitly? No, we pique
+ourselves upon a most ridiculous deviation from the very modes we
+admire, and please ourselves with thinking this deviation is a mark of
+our spirit and liberty. But, we have not spirit enough to persist in
+this deviation, when we visit their country: otherwise, perhaps, they
+would come to admire and follow our example: for, certainly, in point
+of true taste, the fashions of both countries are equally absurd. At
+present, the skirts of the English descend from the fifth rib to the
+calf of the leg, and give the coat the form of a Jewish gaberdine; and
+our hats seem to be modelled after that which Pistol wears upon the
+stage. In France, the haunch buttons and pocketholes are within half a
+foot of the coat's extremity: their hats look as if they had been pared
+round the brims, and the crown is covered with a kind of cordage,
+which, in my opinion, produces a very beggarly effect. In every other
+circumstance of dress, male and female, the contrast between the two
+nations, appears equally glaring. What is the consequence? when an
+Englishman comes to Paris, he cannot appear until he has undergone a
+total metamorphosis. At his first arrival he finds it necessary to send
+for the taylor, perruquier, hatter, shoemaker, and every other
+tradesman concerned in the equipment of the human body. He must even
+change his buckles, and the form of his ruffles; and, though at the
+risque of his life, suit his cloaths to the mode of the season. For
+example, though the weather should be never so cold, he must wear his
+habit d'ete, or demi-saison. Without presuming to put on a warm dress
+before the day which fashion has fixed for that purpose; and neither
+old age nor infirmity will excuse a man for wearing his hat upon his
+head, either at home or abroad. Females are (if possible) still more
+subject to the caprices of fashion; and as the articles of their dress
+are more manifold, it is enough to make a man's heart ake to see his
+wife surrounded by a multitude of cotturieres, milliners, and
+tire-women. All her sacks and negligees must be altered and new
+trimmed. She must have new caps, new laces, new shoes, and her hair new
+cut. She must have her taffaties for the summer, her flowered silks for
+the spring and autumn, her sattins and damasks for winter. The good
+man, who used to wear the beau drop d'Angleterre, quite plain all the
+year round, with a long bob, or tye perriwig, must here provide himself
+with a camblet suit trimmed with silver for spring and autumn, with
+silk cloaths for summer, and cloth laced with gold, or velvet for
+winter; and he must wear his bag-wig a la pigeon. This variety of dress
+is absolutely indispensible for all those who pretend to any rank above
+the meer bourgeois. On his return to his own country, all this frippery
+is useless. He cannot appear in London until he has undergone another
+thorough metamorphosis; so that he will have some reason to think, that
+the tradesmen of Paris and London have combined to lay him under
+contribution: and they, no doubt, are the directors who regulate the
+fashions in both capitals; the English, however, in a subordinate
+capacity: for the puppets of their making will not pass at Paris, nor
+indeed in any other part of Europe; whereas a French petit maitre is
+reckoned a complete figure every where, London not excepted. Since it
+is so much the humour of the English at present to run abroad, I wish
+they had anti-gallican spirit enough to produce themselves in their own
+genuine English dress, and treat the French modes with the same
+philosophical contempt, which was shewn by an honest gentleman,
+distinguished by the name of Wig-Middleton. That unshaken patriot still
+appears in the same kind of scratch perriwig, skimming-dish hat, and
+slit sleeve, which were worn five-and-twenty years ago, and has
+invariably persisted in this garb, in defiance of all the revolutions
+of the mode. I remember a student in the temple, who, after a long and
+learned investigation of the to kalon, or beautiful, had resolution
+enough to let his beard grow, and wore it in all public places, until
+his heir at law applied for a commission of lunacy against him; then he
+submitted to the razor, rather than run any risque of being found non
+compos.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Before I conclude, I must tell you, that the most reputable
+shop-keepers and tradesmen of Paris think it no disgrace to practise
+the most shameful imposition. I myself know an instance of one of the
+most creditable marchands in this capital, who demanded six francs an
+ell for some lutestring, laying his hand upon his breast at the same
+time, and declaring en conscience, that it had cost him within three
+sols of the money. Yet in less than three minutes, he sold it for four
+and a half, and when the buyer upbraided him with his former
+declaration, he shrugged up his shoulders, saying, il faut marchander.
+I don't mention this as a particular instance. The same mean
+disingenuity is universal all over France, as I have been informed by
+several persons of veracity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The next letter you have from me will probably be dated at Nismes, or
+Montpellier. Mean-while, I am ever&mdash;Yours.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap07"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER VII
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+To MRS. M&mdash;. PARIS, October, 12, 1763.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+MADAM,&mdash;I shall be much pleased if the remarks I have made on the
+characters of the French people, can afford you the satisfaction you
+require. With respect to the ladies I can only judge from their
+exteriors: but, indeed, these are so characteristic, that one can
+hardly judge amiss; unless we suppose that a woman of taste and
+sentiment may be so overruled by the absurdity of what is called
+fashion, as to reject reason, and disguise nature, in order to become
+ridiculous or frightful. That this may be the case with some
+individuals, is very possible. I have known it happen in our own
+country, where the follies of the French are adopted and exhibited in
+the most aukward imitation: but the general prevalence of those
+preposterous modes, is a plain proof that there is a general want of
+taste, and a general depravity of nature. I shall not pretend to
+describe the particulars of a French lady's dress. These you are much
+better acquainted with than I can pretend to be: but this I will be
+bold to affirm, that France is the general reservoir from which all the
+absurdities of false taste, luxury, and extravagance have overflowed
+the different kingdoms and states of Europe. The springs that fill this
+reservoir, are no other than vanity and ignorance. It would be
+superfluous to attempt proving from the nature of things, from the
+first principles and use of dress, as well as from the consideration of
+natural beauty, and the practice of the ancients, who certainly
+understood it as well as the connoisseurs of these days, that nothing
+can be more monstrous, inconvenient, and contemptible, than the fashion
+of modern drapery. You yourself are well aware of all its defects, and
+have often ridiculed them in my hearing. I shall only mention one
+particular of dress essential to the fashion in this country, which
+seems to me to carry human affectation to the very farthest verge of
+folly and extravagance; that is, the manner in which the faces of the
+ladies are primed and painted. When the Indian chiefs were in England
+every body ridiculed their preposterous method of painting their cheeks
+and eye-lids; but this ridicule was wrong placed. Those critics ought
+to have considered, that the Indians do not use paint to make
+themselves agreeable; but in order to be the more terrible to their
+enemies. It is generally supposed, I think, that your sex make use of
+fard and vermillion for very different purposes; namely, to help a bad
+or faded complexion, to heighten the graces, or conceal the defects of
+nature, as well as the ravages of time. I shall not enquire at present,
+whether it is just and honest to impose in this manner on mankind: if
+it is not honest, it may be allowed to be artful and politic, and
+shews, at least, a desire of being agreeable. But to lay it on as the
+fashion in France prescribes to all the ladies of condition, who indeed
+cannot appear without this badge of distinction, is to disguise
+themselves in such a manner, as to render them odious and detestable to
+every spectator, who has the least relish left for nature and
+propriety. As for the fard or white, with which their necks and
+shoulders are plaistered, it may be in some measure excusable, as their
+skins are naturally brown, or sallow; but the rouge, which is daubed on
+their faces, from the chin up to the eyes, without the least art or
+dexterity, not only destroys all distinction of features, but renders
+the aspect really frightful, or at best conveys nothing but ideas of
+disgust and aversion. You know, that without this horrible masque no
+married lady is admitted at court, or in any polite assembly; and that
+it is a mark of distinction which no bourgeoise dare assume. Ladies of
+fashion only have the privilege of exposing themselves in these
+ungracious colours. As their faces are concealed under a false
+complexion, so their heads are covered with a vast load of false hair,
+which is frizzled on the forehead, so as exactly to resemble the wooly
+heads of the Guinea negroes. As to the natural hue of it, this is a
+matter of no consequence, for powder makes every head of hair of the
+same colour; and no woman appears in this country, from the moment she
+rises till night, without being compleatly whitened. Powder or meal was
+first used in Europe by the Poles, to conceal their scald heads; but
+the present fashion of using it, as well as the modish method of
+dressing the hair, must have been borrowed from the Hottentots, who
+grease their wooly heads with mutton suet and then paste it over with
+the powder called buchu. In like manner, the hair of our fine ladies is
+frizzled into the appearance of negroes wool, and stiffened with an
+abominable paste of hog's grease, tallow, and white powder. The present
+fashion, therefore, of painting the face, and adorning the head,
+adopted by the beau monde in France, is taken from those two polite
+nations the Chickesaws of America and the Hottentots of Africa. On the
+whole, when I see one of those fine creatures sailing along, in her
+taudry robes of silk and gauze, frilled, and flounced, and furbelowed,
+with her false locks, her false jewels, her paint, her patches, and
+perfumes; I cannot help looking upon her as the vilest piece of
+sophistication that art ever produced.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This hideous masque of painting, though destructive of all beauty, is,
+however, favourable to natural homeliness and deformity. It accustoms
+the eyes of the other sex, and in time reconciles them to frightfull
+objects; it disables them from perceiving any distinction of features
+between woman and woman; and, by reducing all faces to a level, gives
+every female an equal chance for an admirer; being in this particular
+analogous to the practice of the antient Lacedemonians, who were
+obliged to chuse their helpmates in the dark. In what manner the
+insides of their heads are furnished, I would not presume to judge from
+the conversation of a very few to whom I have had access: but from the
+nature of their education, which I have heard described, and the
+natural vivacity of their tempers, I should expect neither sense,
+sentiment, nor discretion. From the nursery they are allowed, and even
+encouraged, to say every thing that comes uppermost; by which means
+they acquire a volubility of tongue, and a set of phrases, which
+constitutes what is called polite conversation. At the same time they
+obtain an absolute conquest over all sense of shame, or rather, they
+avoid acquiring this troublesome sensation; for it is certainly no
+innate idea. Those who have not governesses at home, are sent, for a
+few years, to a convent, where they lay in a fund of superstition that
+serves them for life: but I never heard they had the least opportunity
+of cultivating the mind, of exercising the powers of reason, or of
+imbibing a taste for letters, or any rational or useful accomplishment.
+After being taught to prattle, to dance and play at cards, they are
+deemed sufficiently qualified to appear in the grand monde, and to
+perform all the duties of that high rank and station in life. In
+mentioning cards, I ought to observe, that they learn to play not
+barely for amusement, but also with a view to advantage; and, indeed,
+you seldom meet with a native of France, whether male or female, who is
+not a compleat gamester, well versed in all the subtleties and finesses
+of the art. This is likewise the case all over Italy. A lady of a great
+house in Piedmont, having four sons, makes no scruple to declare, that
+the first shall represent the family, the second enter into the army,
+the third into the church, and that she will breed the fourth a
+gamester. These noble adventurers devote themselves in a particular
+manner to the entertainment of travellers from our country, because the
+English are supposed to be full of money, rash, incautious, and utterly
+ignorant of play. But such a sharper is most dangerous, when he hunts
+in couple with a female. I have known a French count and his wife, who
+found means to lay the most wary under contribution. He was smooth,
+supple, officious, and attentive: she was young, handsome,
+unprincipled, and artful. If the Englishman marked for prey was found
+upon his guard against the designs of the husband, then madam plied him
+on the side of gallantry. She displayed all the attractions of her
+person. She sung, danced, ogled, sighed, complimented, and complained.
+If he was insensible to all her charms, she flattered his vanity, and
+piqued his pride, by extolling the wealth and generosity of the
+English; and if he proved deaf to all these insinuations she, as her
+last stake, endeavoured to interest his humanity and compassion. She
+expatiated, with tears in her eyes, on the cruelty and indifference of
+her great relations; represented that her husband was no more than the
+cadet of a noble family&mdash;, that his provision was by no means suitable.
+either to the dignity of his rank, or the generosity of his
+disposition: that he had a law-suit of great consequence depending,
+which had drained all his finances; and, finally, that they should be
+both ruined, if they could not find some generous friend, who would
+accommodate them with a sum of money to bring the cause to a
+determination. Those who are not actuated by such scandalous motives,
+become gamesters from meer habit, and, having nothing more solid to
+engage their thoughts, or employ their time, consume the best part of
+their lives, in this worst of all dissipation. I am not ignorant that
+there are exceptions from this general rule: I know that France has
+produced a Maintenon, a Sevigine, a Scuderi, a Dacier, and a Chatelet;
+but I would no more deduce the general character of the French ladies
+from these examples, than I would call a field of hemp a flower-garden.
+because there might be in it a few lillies or renunculas planted by the
+hand of accident.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Woman has been defined a weaker man; but in this country the men are,
+in my opinion, more ridiculous and insignificant than the women. They
+certainly are more disagreeable to a rational enquirer, because they
+are more troublesome. Of all the coxcombs on the face of the earth, a
+French petit maitre is the most impertinent: and they are all petit
+maitres from the marquis who glitters in lace and embroidery, to the
+garcon barbier covered with meal, who struts with his hair in a long
+queue, and his hat under his arm. I have already observed, that vanity
+is the great and universal mover among all ranks and degrees of people
+in this nation; and as they take no pains to conceal or controul it,
+they are hurried by it into the most ridiculous and indeed intolerable
+extravagance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When I talk of the French nation, I must again except a great number of
+individuals, from the general censure. Though I have a hearty contempt
+for the ignorance, folly, and presumption which characterise the
+generality, I cannot but respect the talents of many great men, who
+have eminently distinguished themselves in every art and science: these
+I shall always revere and esteem as creatures of a superior species,
+produced, for the wise purposes of providence, among the refuse of
+mankind. It would be absurd to conclude that the Welch or Highlanders
+are a gigantic people, because those mountains may have produced a few
+individuals near seven feet high. It would be equally absurd to suppose
+the French are a nation of philosophers, because France has given birth
+to a Des Cartes, a Maupertuis, a Reaumur, and a Buffon.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I shall not even deny, that the French are by no means deficient in
+natural capacity; but they are at the same time remarkable for a
+natural levity, which hinders their youth from cultivating that
+capacity. This is reinforced by the most preposterous education, and
+the example of a giddy people, engaged in the most frivolous pursuits.
+A Frenchman is by some Jesuit, or other monk, taught to read his mother
+tongue, and to say his prayers in a language he does not understand. He
+learns to dance and to fence, by the masters of those noble sciences.
+He becomes a compleat connoisseur in dressing hair, and in adorning his
+own person, under the hands and instructions of his barber and valet de
+chambre. If he learns to play upon the flute or the fiddle, he is
+altogether irresistible. But he piques himself upon being polished
+above the natives of any other country by his conversation with the
+fair sex. In the course of this communication, with which he is
+indulged from his tender years, he learns like a parrot, by rote, the
+whole circle of French compliments, which you know are a set of phrases
+ridiculous even to a proverb; and these he throws out indiscriminately
+to all women, without distinction in the exercise of that kind of
+address, which is here distinguished by the name of gallantry: it is no
+more than his making love to every woman who will give him the hearing.
+It is an exercise, by the repetition of which he becomes very pert,
+very familiar, and very impertinent. Modesty, or diffidence, I have
+already said, is utterly unknown among them, and therefore I wonder
+there should be a term to express it in their language.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+If I was obliged to define politeness, I should call it, the art of
+making one's self agreeable. I think it an art that necessarily implies
+a sense of decorum, and a delicacy of sentiment. These are qualities,
+of which (as far as I have been able to observe) a Frenchman has no
+idea; therefore he never can be deemed polite, except by those persons
+among whom they are as little understood. His first aim is to adorn his
+own person with what he calls fine cloaths, that is the frippery of the
+fashion. It is no wonder that the heart of a female, unimproved by
+reason, and untinctured with natural good sense, should flutter at the
+sight of such a gaudy thing, among the number of her admirers: this
+impression is enforced by fustian compliments, which her own vanity
+interprets in a literal sense, and still more confirmed by the
+assiduous attention of the gallant, who, indeed, has nothing else to
+mind. A Frenchman in consequence of his mingling with the females from
+his infancy, not only becomes acquainted with all their customs and
+humours; but grows wonderfully alert in performing a thousand little
+offices, which are overlooked by other men, whose time hath been spent
+in making more valuable acquisitions. He enters, without ceremony, a
+lady's bed-chamber, while she is in bed, reaches her whatever she
+wants, airs her shift, and helps to put it on. He attends at her
+toilette, regulates the distribution of her patches, and advises where
+to lay on the paint. If he visits her when she is dressed, and
+perceives the least impropriety in her coeffure, he insists upon
+adjusting it with his own hands: if he sees a curl, or even a single
+hair amiss, he produces his comb, his scissars, and pomatum, and sets
+it to rights with the dexterity of a professed friseur. He 'squires her
+to every place she visits, either on business, or pleasure; and, by
+dedicating his whole time to her, renders himself necessary to her
+occasions. This I take to be the most agreeable side of his character:
+let us view him on the quarter of impertinence. A Frenchman pries into
+all your secrets with the most impudent and importunate curiosity, and
+then discloses them without remorse. If you are indisposed, he
+questions you about the symptoms of your disorder, with more freedom
+than your physician would presume to use; very often in the grossest
+terms. He then proposes his remedy (for they are all quacks), he
+prepares it without your knowledge, and worries you with solicitation
+to take it, without paying the least regard to the opinion of those
+whom you have chosen to take care of your health. Let you be ever so
+ill, or averse to company, he forces himself at all times into your
+bed-chamber, and if it is necessary to give him a peremptory refusal,
+he is affronted. I have known one of those petit maitres insist upon
+paying regular visits twice a day to a poor gentleman who was
+delirious; and he conversed with him on different subjects, till he was
+in his last agonies. This attendance is not the effect of attachment,
+or regard, but of sheer vanity, that he may afterwards boast of his
+charity and humane disposition: though, of all the people I have ever
+known, I think the French are the least capable of feeling for the
+distresses of their fellow creatures. Their hearts are not susceptible
+of deep impressions; and, such is their levity, that the imagination
+has not time to brood long over any disagreeable idea, or sensation. As
+a Frenchman piques himself on his gallantry, he no sooner makes a
+conquest of a female's heart, than he exposes her character, for the
+gratification of his vanity. Nay, if he should miscarry in his schemes,
+he will forge letters and stories, to the ruin of the lady's
+reputation. This is a species of perfidy which one would think should
+render them odious and detestable to the whole sex; but the case is
+otherwise. I beg your pardon, Madam; but women are never better
+pleased, than when they see one another exposed; and every individual
+has such confidence in her own superior charms and discretion, that she
+thinks she can fix the most volatile, and reform the most treacherous
+lover.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+If a Frenchman is admitted into your family, and distinguished by
+repeated marks of your friendship and regard, the first return he makes
+for your civilities is to make love to your wife, if she is handsome;
+if not, to your sister, or daughter, or niece. If he suffers a repulse
+from your wife, or attempts in vain to debauch your sister, or your
+daughter, or your niece, he will, rather than not play the traitor with
+his gallantry, make his addresses to your grandmother; and ten to one,
+but in one shape or another, he will find means to ruin the peace of a
+family, in which he has been so kindly entertained. What he cannot
+accomplish by dint of compliment, and personal attendance, he will
+endeavour to effect, by reinforcing these with billets-doux, songs, and
+verses, of which he always makes a provision for such purposes. If he
+is detected in these efforts of treachery, and reproached with his
+ingratitude, he impudently declares, that what he had done was no more
+than simple gallantry, considered in France as an indispensible duty on
+every man who pretended to good breeding. Nay, he will even affirm,
+that his endeavours to corrupt your wife, or your daughter, were the
+most genuine proofs he could give of his particular regard for your
+family.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+If a Frenchman is capable of real friendship, it must certainly be the
+most disagreeable present he can possibly make to a man of a true
+English character, You know, Madam, we are naturally taciturn, soon
+tired of impertinence, and much subject to fits of disgust. Your French
+friend intrudes upon you at all hours: he stuns you with his loquacity:
+he teases you with impertinent questions about your domestic and
+private affairs: he attempts to meddle in all your concerns; and forces
+his advice upon you with the most unwearied importunity: he asks the
+price of every thing you wear, and, so sure as you tell him undervalues
+it, without hesitation: he affirms it is in a bad taste, ill-contrived,
+ill-made; that you have been imposed upon both with respect to the
+fashion and the price; that the marquise of this, or the countess of
+that, has one that is perfectly elegant, quite in the bon ton, and yet
+it cost her little more than you gave for a thing that nobody would
+wear.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+If there were five hundred dishes at table, a Frenchman will eat of all
+of them, and then complain he has no appetite. This I have several
+times remarked. A friend of mine gained a considerable wager upon an
+experiment of this kind: the petit maitre ate of fourteen different
+plats, besides the dessert; then disparaged the cook, declaring he was
+no better than a marmiton, or turnspit.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The French have the most ridiculous fondness for their hair, and this I
+believe they inherit from their remote ancestors. The first race of
+French kings were distinguished by their long hair, and certainly the
+people of this country consider it as an indispensible ornament. A
+Frenchman will sooner part with his religion than with his hair, which,
+indeed, no consideration will induce him to forego. I know a gentleman
+afflicted with a continual head-ach, and a defluxion on his eyes, who
+was told by his physician that the best chance he had for being cured,
+would be to have his head close shaved, and bathed every day in cold
+water. "How (cried he) cut my hair? Mr. Doctor, your most humble
+servant!" He dismissed his physician, lost his eye-sight, and almost
+his senses, and is now led about with his hair in a bag, and a piece of
+green silk hanging like a screen before his face. Count Saxe, and other
+military writers have demonstrated the absurdity of a soldier's wearing
+a long head of hair; nevertheless, every soldier in this country wears
+a long queue, which makes a delicate mark on his white cloathing; and
+this ridiculous foppery has descended even to the lowest class of
+people. The decrotteur, who cleans your shoes at the corner of the Pont
+Neuf, has a tail of this kind hanging down to his rump, and even the
+peasant who drives an ass loaded with dung, wears his hair en queue,
+though, perhaps, he has neither shirt nor breeches. This is the
+ornament upon which he bestows much time and pains, and in the
+exhibition of which he finds full gratification for his vanity.
+Considering the harsh features of the common people in this country,
+their diminutive stature, their grimaces, and that long appendage, they
+have no small resemblance to large baboons walking upright; and perhaps
+this similitude has helped to entail upon them the ridicule of their
+neighbours.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A French friend tires out your patience with long visits; and, far from
+taking the most palpable hints to withdraw, when he perceives you
+uneasy he observes you are low-spirited, and therefore he will keep you
+company. This perseverance shews that he must either be void of
+penetration, or that his disposition must be truly diabolical. Rather
+than be tormented with such a fiend, a man had better turn him out of
+doors, even though at the hazard of being run thro' the body.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The French are generally counted insincere, and taxed with want of
+generosity. But I think these reproaches are not well founded.
+High-flown professions of friendship and attachment constitute the
+language of common compliment in this country, and are never supposed
+to be understood in the literal acceptation of the words; and, if their
+acts of generosity are but very rare, we ought to ascribe that rarity,
+not so much to a deficiency of generous sentiments, as to their vanity
+and ostentation, which engrossing all their funds, utterly disable them
+from exerting the virtues of beneficence. Vanity, indeed, predominates
+among all ranks, to such a degree, that they are the greatest egotists
+in the world; and the most insignificant individual talks in company
+with the same conceit and arrogance, as a person of the greatest
+importance. Neither conscious poverty nor disgrace will restrain him in
+the least either from assuming his full share of the conversation, or
+making big addresses to the finest lady, whom he has the smallest
+opportunity to approach: nor is he restrained by any other
+consideration whatsoever. It is all one to him whether he himself has a
+wife of his own, or the lady a husband; whether she is designed for the
+cloister, or pre-ingaged to his best friend and benefactor. He takes it
+for granted that his addresses cannot but be acceptable; and, if he
+meets with a repulse, he condemns her taste; but never doubts his own
+qualifications.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I have a great many things to say of their military character, and
+their punctilios of honour, which last are equally absurd and
+pernicious; but as this letter has run to an unconscionable length, I
+shall defer them till another opportunity. Mean-while, I have the
+honour to be, with very particular esteem&mdash;Madam, Your most obedient
+servant.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap08"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER VIII
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+To MR. M&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+LYONS, October 19, 1763.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR SIR,&mdash;I was favoured with yours at Paris, and look upon your
+reproaches as the proof of your friendship. The truth is, I considered
+all the letters I have hitherto written on the subject of my travels,
+as written to your society in general, though they have been addressed
+to one individual of it; and if they contain any thing that can either
+amuse or inform, I desire that henceforth all I send may be freely
+perused by all the members.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With respect to my health, about which you so kindly enquire, I have
+nothing new to communicate. I had reason to think that my bathing in
+the sea at Boulogne  produced a good effect, in strengthening my
+relaxed fibres. You know how subject I was to colds in England; that I
+could not stir abroad after sun-set, nor expose myself to the smallest
+damp, nor walk till the least moisture appeared on my skin, without
+being laid up for ten days or a fortnight. At Paris, however, I went
+out every day, with my hat under my arm, though the weather was wet and
+cold: I walked in the garden at Versailles even after it was dark, with
+my head uncovered, on a cold evening, when the ground was far from
+being dry: nay, at Marli, I sauntered above a mile through damp alleys,
+and wet grass: and from none of these risques did I feel the least
+inconvenience.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In one of our excursions we visited the manufacture for porcelain,
+which the king of France has established at the village of St. Cloud,
+on the road to Versailles, and which is, indeed, a noble monument of
+his munificence. It is a very large building, both commodious and
+magnificent, where a great number of artists are employed, and where
+this elegant superfluity is carried to as great perfection as it ever
+was at Dresden. Yet, after all, I know not whether the porcelain made
+at Chelsea may not vie with the productions either of Dresden, or St.
+Cloud. If it falls short of either, it is not in the design, painting,
+enamel, or other ornaments, but only in the composition of the metal,
+and the method of managing it in the furnace. Our porcelain seems to be
+a partial vitrification of levigated flint and fine pipe clay, mixed
+together in a certain proportion; and if the pieces are not removed
+from the fire in the very critical moment, they will be either too
+little, or too much vitrified. In the first case, I apprehend they will
+not acquire a proper degree of cohesion; they will be apt to be
+corroded, discoloured, and to crumble, like the first essays that were
+made at Chelsea; in the second case, they will be little better than
+imperfect glass.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There are three methods of travelling from Paris to Lyons, which, by
+the shortest road is a journey of about three hundred and sixty miles.
+One is by the diligence, or stagecoach, which performs it in five days;
+and every passenger pays one hundred livres, in consideration of which,
+he not only has a seat in the carriage, but is maintained on the road.
+The inconveniences attending this way of travelling are these. You are
+crouded into the carriage, to the number of eight persons, so as to sit
+very uneasy, and sometimes run the risque of being stifled among very
+indifferent company. You are hurried out of bed, at four, three, nay
+often at two o'clock in the morning. You are obliged to eat in the
+French way, which is very disagreeable to an English palate; and, at
+Chalons, you must embark upon the Saone in a boat, which conveys you to
+Lyons, so that the two last days of your journey are by water. All
+these were insurmountable objections to me, who am in such a bad state
+of health, troubled with an asthmatic cough, spitting, slow fever, and
+restlessness, which demands a continual change of place, as well as
+free air, and room for motion. I was this day visited by two young
+gentlemen, sons of Mr. Guastaldi, late minister from Genoa at London. I
+had seen them at Paris, at the house of the dutchess of Douglas. They
+came hither, with their conductor, in the diligence, and assured me,
+that nothing could be more disagreeable than their situation in that
+carriage.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Another way of travelling in this country is to hire a coach and four
+horses; and this method I was inclined to take: but when I went to the
+bureau, where alone these voitures are to be had, I was given to
+understand, that it would cost me six-and-twenty guineas, and travel so
+slow that I should be ten days upon the road. These carriages are let
+by the same persons who farm the diligence; and for this they have an
+exclusive privilege, which makes them very saucy and insolent. When I
+mentioned my servant, they gave me to understand, that I must pay two
+loui'dores more for his seat upon the coach box. As I could not relish
+these terms, nor brook the thoughts of being so long upon the road, I
+had recourse to the third method, which is going post.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In England you know I should have had nothing to do, but to hire a
+couple of post-chaises from stage to stage, with two horses in each;
+but here the case is quite otherwise. The post is farmed from the king,
+who lays travellers under contribution for his own benefit, and has
+published a set of oppressive ordonnances, which no stranger nor native
+dares transgress. The postmaster finds nothing but horses and guides:
+the carriage you yourself must provide. If there are four persons
+within the carriage, you are obliged to have six horses, and two
+postillions; and if your servant sits on the outside, either before or
+behind, you must pay for a seventh. You pay double for the first stage
+from Paris, and twice double for passing through Fontainbleau when the
+court is there, as well as at coming to Lyons, and at leaving this
+city. These are called royal posts, and are undoubtedly a scandalous
+imposition.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There are two post roads from Paris to Lyons, one of sixty-five posts,
+by the way of Moulins; the other of fifty-nine, by the way of Dijon in
+Burgundy. This last I chose, partly to save sixty livres, and partly to
+see the wine harvest of Burgundy, which, I was told, was a season of
+mirth and jollity among all ranks of people. I hired a very good coach
+for ten loui'dores to Lyons, and set out from Paris on the thirteenth
+instant, with six horses, two postillions, and my own servant on
+horseback. We made no stop at Fontainbleau, though the court was there;
+but lay at Moret, which is one stage further, a very paltry little town
+where, however, we found good accommodation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I shall not pretend to describe the castle or palace of Fontainbleau,
+of which I had only a glimpse in passing; but the forest, in the middle
+of which it stands, is a noble chace of great extent, beautifully wild
+and romantic, well stored with game of all sorts, and abounding with
+excellent timber. It put me in mind of the New Forest in Hampshire; but
+the hills, rocks, and mountains, with which it is diversified, render
+it more agreeable.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The people of this country dine at noon, and travellers always find an
+ordinary prepared at every auberge, or public-house, on the road. Here
+they sit down promiscuously, and dine at so much a head. The usual
+price is thirty sols for dinner, and forty for supper, including
+lodging; for this moderate expence they have two courses and a dessert.
+If you eat in your own apartment, you pay, instead of forty sols,
+three, and in some places, four livres ahead. I and my family could not
+well dispense with our tea and toast in the morning, and had no stomach
+to eat at noon. For my own part, I hate French cookery, and abominate
+garlick, with which all their ragouts, in this part of the country, are
+highly seasoned: we therefore formed a different plan of living upon
+the road. Before we left Paris, we laid in a stock of tea, chocolate,
+cured neats' tongues, and saucissons, or Bologna sausages, both of
+which we found in great perfection in that capital, where, indeed,
+there are excellent provisions of all sorts. About ten in the morning
+we stopped to breakfast at some auberge, where we always found bread,
+butter, and milk. In the mean time, we ordered a poulard or two to be
+roasted, and these, wrapped in a napkin, were put into the boot of the
+coach, together with bread, wine, and water. About two or three in the
+afternoon, while the horses were changing, we laid a cloth upon our
+knees, and producing our store, with a few earthen plates, discussed
+our short meal without further ceremony. This was followed by a dessert
+of grapes and other fruit, which we had also provided. I must own I
+found these transient refreshments much more agreeable than any regular
+meal I ate upon the road. The wine commonly used in Burgundy is so weak
+and thin, that you would not drink it in England. The very best which
+they sell at Dijon, the capital of the province, for three livres a
+bottle, is in strength, and even in flavour, greatly inferior to what I
+have drank in London. I believe all the first growth is either consumed
+in the houses of the noblesse, or sent abroad to foreign markets. I
+have drank excellent Burgundy at Brussels for a florin a bottle; that
+is, little more than twenty pence sterling.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The country from the forest of Fontainbleau to the Lyonnois, through
+which we passed, is rather agreeable than fertile, being part of
+Champagne and the dutchy of Burgundy, watered by three pleasant
+pastoral rivers, the Seine, the Yonne, and the Saone. The flat country
+is laid out chiefly for corn; but produces more rye than wheat. Almost
+all the ground seems to be ploughed up, so that there is little or
+nothing lying fallow. There are very few inclosures, scarce any meadow
+ground, and, so far as I could observe, a great scarcity of cattle. We
+sometimes found it very difficult  to procure half a pint of milk for
+our tea. In Burgundy I saw a peasant ploughing the ground with a
+jack-ass, a lean cow, and a he-goat, yoked together. It is generally
+observed, that a great number of black cattle are bred and fed on the
+mountains of Burgundy, which are the highest lands in France; but I saw
+very few. The peasants in France are so wretchedly poor, and so much
+oppressed by their landlords, that they cannot afford to inclose their
+grounds, or give a proper respite to their lands; or to stock their
+farms with a sufficient number of black cattle to produce the necessary
+manure, without which agriculture can never be carried to any degree of
+perfection. Indeed, whatever efforts a few individuals may make for the
+benefit of their own estates, husbandry in France will never be
+generally improved, until the farmer is free and independent.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+From the frequency of towns and villages, I should imagine this country
+is very populous; yet it must be owned, that the towns are in general
+thinly inhabited. I saw a good number of country seats and plantations
+near the banks of the rivers, on each side; and a great many convents,
+sweetly situated, on rising grounds, where the air is most pure, and
+the prospect most agreeable. It is surprising to see how happy the
+founders of those religious houses have been in their choice of
+situations, all the world over.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In passing through this country, I was very much struck with the sight
+of large ripe clusters of grapes, entwined with the briars and thorns
+of common hedges on the wayside. The mountains of Burgundy are covered
+with vines from the bottom to the top, and seem to be raised by nature
+on purpose to extend the surface, and to expose it the more
+advantageously to the rays of the sun. The vandange was but just begun,
+and the people were employed in gathering the grapes; but I saw no
+signs of festivity among them. Perhaps their joy was a little damped by
+the bad prospect of their harvest; for they complained that the weather
+had been so unfavourable as to hinder the grapes from ripening. I
+thought, indeed, there was something uncomfortable in seeing the
+vintage thus retarded till the beginning of winter: for, in some parts,
+I found the weather extremely cold; particularly at a place called
+Maison-neuve, where we lay, there was a hard frost, and in the morning
+the pools were covered with a thick crust of ice. My personal
+adventures on the road were such as will not bear a recital. They
+consisted of petty disputes with landladies, post-masters, and
+postillions. The highways seem to be perfectly safe. We did not find
+that any robberies were ever committed, although we did not see one of
+the marechaussee from Paris to Lyons. You know the marechaussee are a
+body of troopers well mounted, maintained in France as safe-guards to
+the public roads. It is a reproach upon England that some such patrol
+is not appointed for the protection of travellers.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At Sens in Champagne, my servant, who had rode on before to bespeak
+fresh horses, told me, that the domestic of another company had been
+provided before him, altho' it was not his turn, as he had arrived
+later at the post. Provoked at this partiality, I resolved to chide the
+post-master, and accordingly addressed myself to a person who stood at
+the door of the auberge. He was a jolly figure, fat and fair, dressed
+in an odd kind of garb, with a gold laced cap on his head, and a
+cambric handkerchief pinned to his middle. The sight of such a
+fantastic petit maitre, in the character of a post-master, increased my
+spleen. I called to him with an air of authority, mixed with
+indignation, and when he came up to the coach, asked in a peremptory
+tone, if he did not understand the king's ordonnance concerning the
+regulation of the posts? He laid his hand upon his breast; but before
+he could make any answer, I pulled out the post-book, and began to
+read, with great vociferation, the article which orders, that the
+traveller who comes first shall be first served. By this time the fresh
+horses being put to the carriage, and the postillions mounted, the
+coach set off all of a sudden, with uncommon speed. I imagined the
+post-master had given the fellows a signal to be gone, and, in this
+persuasion, thrusting my head out at the window, I bestowed some
+epithets upon him, which must have sounded very harsh in the ears of a
+Frenchman. We stopped for a refreshment at a little town called
+Joigne-ville, where (by the bye) I was scandalously imposed upon, and
+even abused by a virago of a landlady; then proceeding to the next
+stage, I was given to understand we could not be supplied with fresh
+horses. Here I perceived at the door of the inn, the same person whom I
+had reproached at Sens. He came up to the coach, and told me, that
+notwithstanding what the guides had said, I should have fresh horses in
+a few minutes. I imagined he was master both of this house and the
+auberge at Sens, between which he passed and repassed occasionally; and
+that he was now desirous of making me amends for the affront he had put
+upon me at the other place. Observing that one of the trunks behind was
+a little displaced, he assisted my servant in adjusting it: then he
+entered into conversation with me, and gave me to understand, that in a
+post-chaise, which we had passed, was an English gentleman on his
+return from Italy. I wanted to know who he was, and when he said he
+could not tell, I asked him, in a very abrupt manner, why he had not
+enquired of his servant. He shrugged up his shoulders, and retired to
+the inn door. Having waited about half an hour, I beckoned to him, and
+when he approached, upbraided him with having told me that I should be
+supplied with fresh horses in a few minutes: he seemed shocked, and
+answered, that he thought he had reason for what he said, observing,
+that it was as disagreeable to him as to me to wait for a relay. As it
+began to rain, I pulled up the glass in his face, and he withdrew again
+to the door, seemingly ruffled at my deportment. In a little time the
+horses arrived, and three of them were immediately put to a very
+handsome post-chaise, into which he stepped, and set out, accompanied
+by a man in a rich livery on horseback. Astonished at this
+circumstance, I asked the hostler who he was, and he replied, that he
+was a man of fashion (un seigneur) who lived in the neighbourhood of
+Auxerre. I was much mortified to find that I had treated a nobleman so
+scurvily, and scolded my own people for not having more penetration
+than myself. I dare say he did not fail to descant upon the brutal
+behaviour of the Englishman; and that my mistake served with him to
+confirm the national reproach of bluntness, and ill breeding, under
+which we lie in this country. The truth is, I was that day more than
+usually peevish, from the bad weather, as well as from the dread of a
+fit of the asthma, with which I was threatened: and I dare say my
+appearance seemed as uncouth to him, as his travelling dress appeared
+to me. I had a grey mourning frock under a wide great coat, a bob wig
+without powder, a very large laced hat, and a meagre, wrinkled,
+discontented countenance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The fourth night of our journey we lay at Macon, and the next day
+passed through the Lyonnois, which is a fine country, full of towns,
+villages, and gentlemen's houses. In passing through the Maconnois, we
+saw a great many fields of Indian corn, which grows to the height of
+six or seven feet: it is made into flour for the use of the common
+people, and goes by the name of Turkey wheat. Here likewise, as well as
+in Dauphine, they raise a vast quantity of very large pompions, with
+the contents of which they thicken their soup and ragouts.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As we travelled only while the sun was up, on account of my ill health,
+and the post horses in France are in bad order, we seldom exceeded
+twenty leagues a day.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I was directed to a lodging-house at Lyons, which being full they
+shewed us to a tavern, where I was led up three pair of stairs, to an
+apartment consisting of three paltry chambers, for which the people
+demanded twelve livres a day: for dinner and supper they asked
+thirty-two, besides three livres for my servant; so that my daily
+expence would have amounted to about forty-seven livres, exclusive of
+breakfast and coffee in the afternoon. I was so provoked at this
+extortion, that, without answering one word, I drove to another
+auberge, where I now am, and pay at the rate of two-and-thirty livres a
+day, for which I am very badly lodged, and but very indifferently
+entertained. I mention these circumstances to give you an idea of the
+imposition to which strangers are subject in this country. It must be
+owned, however, that in the article of eating, I might save half the
+money by going to the public ordinary; but this is a scheme of
+oeconomy, which (exclusive of other disagreeable circumstances) neither
+my own health, nor that of my wife permits me to embrace. My journey
+from Paris to Lyons, including the hire of the coach, and all expences
+on the road, has cost me, within a few shillings, forty loui'dores.
+From Paris our baggage (though not plombe) was not once examined till
+we arrived in this city, at the gate of which we were questioned by one
+of the searchers, who, being tipt with half a crown, allowed us to
+proceed without further enquiry.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I purposed to stay in Lyons until I should receive some letters I
+expected from London, to be forwarded by my banker at Paris: but the
+enormous expence of living in this manner has determined me to set out
+in a day or two for Montpellier, although that place is a good way out
+of the road to Nice. My reasons for taking that route I shall
+communicate in my next. Mean-while, I am ever,&mdash; Dear Sir, Your
+affectionate and obliged humble servant.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap09"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER IX
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+MONTPELLIER, November 5, 1763.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR SIR,&mdash;The city of Lyons has been so often and so circumstantially
+described, that I cannot pretend to say any thing new on the subject.
+Indeed, I know very little of it, but what I have read in books; as I
+had but one day to make a tour of the streets, squares, and other
+remarkable places. The bridge over the Rhone seems to be so slightly
+built, that I should imagine it would be one day carried away by that
+rapid river; especially as the arches are so small, that, after great
+rains they are sometimes bouchees, or stopped up; that is, they do not
+admit a sufficient passage for the encreased body of the water. In
+order to remedy this dangerous defect, in some measure, they found an
+artist some years ago, who has removed a middle pier, and thrown two
+arches into one. This alteration they looked upon as a masterpiece in
+architecture, though there is many a common mason in England, who would
+have undertaken and performed the work, without valuing himself much
+upon the enterprize. This bridge, as well as that of St. Esprit, is
+built, not in a strait line across the river, but with a curve, which
+forms a convexity to oppose the current. Such a bend is certainly
+calculated for the better resisting the general impetuosity of the
+stream, and has no bad effect to the eye.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Lyons is a great, populous, and flourishing city but I am surprised to
+find it is counted a healthy place, and that the air of it is esteemed
+favourable to pulmonic disorders. It is situated on the confluence of
+two large rivers, from which there must be a great evaporation, as well
+as from the low marshy grounds, which these rivers often overflow. This
+must render the air moist, frouzy, and even putrid, if it was not well
+ventilated by winds from the mountains of Swisserland; and in the
+latter end of autumn, it must be subject to fogs. The morning we set
+out from thence, the whole city and adjacent plains were covered with
+so thick a fog, that we could not distinguish from the coach the head
+of the foremost mule that drew it. Lyons is said to be very hot in
+summer, and very cold in winter; therefore I imagine must abound with
+inflammatory and intermittent disorders in the spring and fall of the
+year.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My reasons for going to Montpellier, which is out of the strait road to
+Nice, were these. Having no acquaintance nor correspondents in the
+South of France, I had desired my credit might be sent to the same
+house to which my heavy baggage was consigned. I expected to find my
+baggage at Cette, which is the sea-port of Montpellier; and there I
+also hoped to find a vessel, in which I might be transported by sea to
+Nice, without further trouble. I longed to try what effect the boasted
+air of Montpellier would have upon my constitution; and I had a great
+desire to see the famous monuments of antiquity in and about the
+ancient city of Nismes, which is about eight leagues short of
+Montpellier.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the inn where we lodged, I found a return berline, belonging to
+Avignon, with three mules, which are the animals commonly used for
+carriages in this country. This I hired for five loui'dores. The coach
+was large, commodious, and well-fitted; the mules were strong and in
+good order; and the driver, whose name was Joseph, appeared to be a
+sober, sagacious, intelligent fellow, perfectly well acquainted with
+every place in the South of France. He told me he was owner of the
+coach, but I afterwards learned, he was no other than a hired servant.
+I likewise detected him in some knavery, in the course of our journey;
+and plainly perceived he had a fellow-feeling with the inn-keepers on
+the road; but, in other respects, he was very obliging, serviceable,
+and even entertaining. There are some knavish practices of this kind,
+at which a traveller will do well to shut his eyes, for his own ease
+and convenience. He will be lucky if he has to do with a sensible
+knave, like Joseph, who understood his interest too well to be guilty
+of very flagrant pieces of imposition.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A man, impatient to be at his journey's end, will find this a most
+disagreeable way of travelling. In summer it must be quite intolerable.
+The mules are very sure, but very slow. The journey seldom exceeds
+eight leagues, about four and twenty miles a day: and as those people
+have certain fixed stages, you are sometimes obliged to rise in a
+morning before day; a circumstance very grievous to persons in ill
+health. These inconveniences, however, were over-balanced by other
+agreemens. We no, sooner quitted Lyons, than we got into summer
+weather, and travelling through a most romantic country, along the
+banks of the Rhone, had opportunities (from the slowness of our pace)
+to contemplate its beauties at leisure.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The rapidity of the Rhone is, in a great measure, owing to its being
+confined within steep banks on each side. These are formed almost
+through its whole course, by a double chain of mountains, which rise
+with all abrupt ascent from both banks of the river. The mountains are
+covered with vineyards, interspersed with small summer-houses, and in
+many places they are crowned with churches, chapels, and convents,
+which add greatly to the romantic beauty of the prospect. The highroad,
+as far as Avignon, lies along the side of the river, which runs almost
+in a straight line, and affords great convenience for inland commerce.
+Travellers, bound to the southern parts of France, generally embark in
+the diligence at Lyons, and glide down this river with great velocity,
+passing a great number of towns and villages on each side, where they
+find ordinaries every day at dinner and supper. In good weather, there
+is no danger in this method of travelling, 'till you come to the Pont
+St. Esprit, where the stream runs through the arches with such
+rapidity, that the boat is sometimes overset. But those passengers who
+are under any apprehension are landed above-bridge, and taken in again,
+after the boat has passed, just in the same manner as at London Bridge.
+The boats that go up the river are drawn against the stream by oxen,
+which swim through one of the arches of this bridge, the driver sitting
+between the horns of the foremost beast. We set out from Lyons early on
+Monday morning, and as a robbery had been a few days before committed
+in that neighbourhood, I ordered my servant to load my musquetoon with
+a charge of eight balls. By the bye, this piece did not fail to attract
+the curiosity and admiration of the people in every place through which
+we passed. The carriage no sooner halted, than a crowd immediately
+surrounded the man to view the blunderbuss, which they dignified with
+the title of petit canon. At Nuys in Burgundy, he fired it in the air,
+and the whole mob dispersed, and scampered off like a flock of sheep.
+In our journey hither, we generally set out in a morning at eight
+o'clock, and travelled 'till noon, when the mules were put up and
+rested a couple of hours. During this halt, Joseph went to dinner, and
+we went to breakfast, after which we ordered provision for our
+refreshment in the coach, which we took about three or four in the
+afternoon, halting for that purpose, by the side of some transparent
+brook, which afforded excellent water to mix with our wine. In this
+country I was almost poisoned with garlic, which they mix in their
+ragouts, and all their sauces; nay, the smell of it perfumes the very
+chambers, as well as every person you approach. I was also very sick of
+been ficas, grives, or thrushes, and other little birds, which are
+served up twice a day at all ordinaries on the road. They make their
+appearance in vine-leaves, and are always half raw, in which condition
+the French choose to eat them, rather than run the risque of losing the
+juice by over-roasting.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The peasants on the South of France are poorly clad, and look as if
+they were half-starved, diminutive, swarthy, and meagre; and yet the
+common people who travel, live luxuriously on the road. Every carrier
+and mule-driver has two meals a day, consisting each of a couple of
+courses and a dessert, with tolerable small wine. That which is called
+hermitage, and grows in this province of Dauphine, is sold on the spot
+for three livres a bottle. The common draught, which you have at meals
+in this country, is remarkably strong, though in flavour much inferior
+to that of Burgundy. The accommodation is tolerable, though they demand
+(even in this cheap country) the exorbitant price of four livres a head
+for every meal, of those who choose to eat in their own apartments. I
+insisted, however, upon paying them with three, which they received,
+though not without murmuring and seeming discontented. In this journey,
+we found plenty of good mutton, pork, poultry, and game, including the
+red partridge, which is near twice as big as the partridge of England.
+Their hares are likewise surprisingly large and juicy. We saw great
+flocks of black turkeys feeding in the fields, but no black cattle; and
+milk was so scarce, that sometimes we were obliged to drink our tea
+without it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+One day perceiving a meadow on the side of the road, full of a flower
+which I took to be the crocus, I desired my servant to alight and pull
+some of them. He delivered the musquetoon to Joseph, who began to
+tamper with it, and off it went with a prodigious report, augmented by
+an eccho from the mountains that skirted the road. The mules were so
+frightened, that they went off at the gallop; and Joseph, for some
+minutes, could neither manage the reins, nor open his mouth. At length
+he recollected himself, and the cattle were stopt, by the assistance of
+the servant, to whom he delivered the musquetoon, with a significant
+shake of the head. Then alighting from the box, he examined the heads
+of his three mules, and kissed each of them in his turn. Finding they
+had received no damage, he came up to the coach, with a pale visage and
+staring eyes, and said it was God's mercy he had not killed his beasts.
+I answered, that it was a greater mercy he had not killed his
+passengers; for the muzzle of the piece might have been directed our
+way as well as any other, and in that case Joseph might have been
+hanged for murder. "I had as good be hanged (said he) for murder, as be
+ruined by the loss of my cattle." This adventure made such an
+impression upon him, that he recounted it to every person we met; nor
+would he ever touch the blunderbuss from that day. I was often diverted
+with the conversation of this fellow, who was very arch and very
+communicative. Every afternoon, he used to stand upon the foot-board,
+at the side of the coach, and discourse with us an hour together.
+Passing by the gibbet of Valencia, which stands very near the
+high-road, we saw one body hanging quite naked, and another lying
+broken on the wheel. I recollected, that Mandrin had suffered in this
+place, and calling to Joseph to mount the foot-board, asked if he had
+ever seen that famous adventurer. At mention of the name of Mandrin,
+the tear started in Joseph's eye, he discharged a deep sigh, or rather
+groan, and told me he was his dear friend. I was a little startled at
+this declaration; however, I concealed my thoughts, and began to ask
+questions about the character and exploits of a man who had made such
+noise in the world.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He told me, Mandrin was a native of Valencia, of mean extraction: that
+he had served as a soldier in the army, and afterwards acted as
+maltotier, or tax-gatherer: that at length he turned contrebandier, or
+smuggler, and by his superior qualities, raised himself to the command
+of a formidable gang, consisting of five hundred persons well armed
+with carbines and pistols. He had fifty horses for his troopers, and
+three hundred mules for the carriage of his merchandize. His
+head-quarters were in Savoy: but he made incursions into Dauphine, and
+set the marechaussee at defiance. He maintained several bloody
+skirmishes with these troopers, as well as with other regular
+detachments, and in all those actions signalized himself by his courage
+and conduct. Coming up at one time with fifty of the marechaussee who
+were in quest of him, he told them very calmly, he had occasion for
+their horses and acoutrements, and desired them to dismount. At that
+instant his gang appeared, and the troopers complied with his request,
+without making the least opposition. Joseph said he was as generous as
+he was brave, and never molested travellers, nor did the least injury
+to the poor; but, on the contrary, relieved them very often. He used to
+oblige the gentlemen in the country to take his merchandize, his
+tobacco, brandy, and muslins, at his own price; and, in the same
+manner, he laid the open towns under contribution. When he had no
+merchandize, he borrowed money off them upon the credit of what he
+should bring when he was better provided. He was at last betrayed, by
+his wench, to the colonel of a French regiment, who went with a
+detachment in the night to the place where he lay in Savoy, and
+surprized him in a wood-house, while his people were absent in
+different parts of the country. For this intrusion, the court of France
+made an apology to the king of Sardinia, in whose territories he was
+taken. Mandrin being conveyed to Valencia, his native place, was for
+some time permitted to go abroad, under a strong guard, with chains
+upon his legs; and here he conversed freely with all sorts of people,
+flattering himself with the hopes of a pardon, in which, however, he
+was disappointed. An order came from court to bring him to his trial,
+when he was found guilty, and condemned to be broke on the wheel.
+Joseph said he drank a bottle of wine with him the night before his
+execution. He bore his fate with great resolution, observing that if
+the letter which he had written to the King had been delivered, he
+certainly should have obtained his Majesty's pardon. His executioner
+was one of his own gang, who was pardoned on condition of performing
+this office. You know, that criminals broke upon the wheel are first
+strangled, unless the sentence imports, that they shall be broke alive.
+As Mandrin had not been guilty of cruelty in the course of his
+delinquency, he was indulged with this favour. Speaking to the
+executioner, whom he had formerly commanded, "Joseph (dit il), je ne
+veux pas que tu me touche, jusqu'a ce que je sois roid mort," "Joseph,"
+said he, "thou shalt not touch me till I am quite dead."&mdash;Our driver
+had no sooner pronounced these words, than I was struck with a
+suspicion, that he himself was the executioner of his friend Mandrin.
+On that suspicion, I exclaimed, "Ah! ah! Joseph!" The fellow blushed up
+to the eyes, and said, Oui, son nom etoit Joseph aussi bien que le
+mien, "Yes, he was called Joseph, as I am." I did not think proper to
+prosecute the inquiry; but did not much relish the nature of Joseph's
+connexions. The truth is, he had very much the looks of a ruffian;
+though, I must own, his behaviour was very obliging and submissive.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On the fifth day of our journey, in the morning, we passed the famous
+bridge at St. Esprit, which to be sure is a great curiosity, from its
+length, and the number of its arches: but these arches are too small:
+the passage above is too narrow; and the whole appears to be too
+slight, considering the force and impetuosity of the river. It is not
+comparable to the bridge at Westminster, either for beauty or solidity.
+Here we entered Languedoc, and were stopped to have our baggage
+examined; but the searcher, being tipped with a three-livre piece,
+allowed it to pass. Before we leave Dauphine, I must observe, that I
+was not a little surprized to see figs and chestnuts growing in the
+open fields, at the discretion of every passenger. It was this day I
+saw the famous Pont du Garde; but as I cannot possibly include, in this
+letter, a description of that beautiful bridge, and of the other
+antiquities belonging to Nismes, I will defer it till the next
+opportunity, being, in the mean time, with equal truth and
+affection,&mdash;Dear Sir, Your obliged humble Servant.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap10"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER X
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+MONTPELLIER, November 10, 1763.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR SIR,&mdash;By the Pont St. Esprit we entered the province of Languedoc,
+and breakfasted at Bagniole, which is a little paltry town; from
+whence, however, there is an excellent road through a mountain, made at
+a great expence, and extending about four leagues. About five in the
+afternoon, I had the first glimpse of the famous Pont du Garde, which
+stands on the right hand, about the distance of a league from the
+post-road to Nismes, and about three leagues from that city. I would
+not willingly pass for a false enthusiast in taste; but I cannot help
+observing, that from the first distant view of this noble monument,
+till we came near enough to see it perfectly, I felt the strongest
+emotions of impatience that I had ever known; and obliged our driver to
+put his mules to the full gallop, in the apprehension that it would be
+dark before we reached the place. I expected to find the building, in
+some measure, ruinous; but was agreeably disappointed, to see it look
+as fresh as the bridge at Westminster. The climate is either so pure
+and dry, or the free-stone, with which it is built, so hard, that the
+very angles of them remain as acute as if they had been cut last year.
+Indeed, some large stones have dropped out of the arches; but the whole
+is admirably preserved, and presents the eye with a piece of
+architecture, so unaffectedly elegant, so simple, and majestic, that I
+will defy the most phlegmatic and stupid spectator to behold it without
+admiration. It was raised in the Augustan age, by the Roman colony of
+Nismes, to convey a stream of water between two mountains, for the use
+of that city. It stands over the river Gardon, which is a beautiful
+pastoral stream, brawling among rocks, which form a number of pretty
+natural cascades, and overshadowed on each side with trees and shrubs,
+which greatly add to the rural beauties of the scene. It rises in the
+Cevennes, and the sand of it produces gold, as we learn from Mr.
+Reaumur, in his essay on this subject, inserted in the French Memoirs,
+for the year 1718. If I lived at Nismes, or Avignon (which last city is
+within four short leagues of it) I should take pleasure in forming
+parties to come hither, in summer, to dine under one of the arches of
+the Pont du Garde, on a cold collation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This work consists of three bridges, or tire of arches, one above
+another; the first of six, the second of eleven, and the third of
+thirty-six. The height, comprehending the aqueduct on the top, amounts
+to 174 feet three inches: the length between the two mountains, which
+it unites, extends to 723. The order of architecture is the Tuscan, but
+the symmetry of it is inconceivable. By scooping the bases of the
+pilasters, of the second tire of arches, they had made a passage for
+foot-travellers: but though the antients far excelled us in beauty,
+they certainly fell short of the moderns in point of conveniency. The
+citizens of Avignon have, in this particular, improved the Roman work
+with a new bridge, by apposition, constructed on the same plan with
+that of the lower tire of arches, of which indeed it seems to be a
+part, affording a broad and commodious passage over the river, to
+horses and carriages of all kinds. The aqueduct, for the continuance of
+which this superb work was raised, conveyed a stream of sweet water
+from the fountain of Eure, near the city of Uzes, and extended near six
+leagues in length.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In approaching Nismes, you see the ruins of a Roman tower, built on the
+summit of a hill, which over-looks the city. It seems to have been
+intended, at first, as a watch, or signal-tower, though, in the sequel,
+it was used as a fortress: what remains of it, is about ninety feet
+high; the architecture of the Doric order. I no sooner alighted at the
+inn, than I was presented with a pamphlet, containing an account of
+Nismes and its antiquities, which every stranger buys. There are
+persons too who attend in order to shew the town, and you will always
+be accosted by some shabby antiquarian, who presents you with medals
+for sale, assuring you they are genuine antiques, and were dug out of
+the ruins of the Roman temple and baths. All those fellows are cheats;
+and they have often laid under contribution raw English travellers, who
+had more money than discretion. To such they sell the vilest and most
+common trash: but when they meet with a connoisseur, they produce some
+medals which are really valuable and curious.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nismes, antiently called Nemausis, was originally a colony of Romans,
+settled by Augustus Caesar, after the battle of Actium. It is still of
+considerable extent, and said to contain twelve thousand families; but
+the number seems, by this account, to be greatly exaggerated. Certain
+it is, the city must have been formerly very extensive, as appears from
+the circuit of the antient walls, the remains of which are still to be
+seen. Its present size is not one third of its former extent. Its
+temples, baths, statues, towers, basilica, and amphitheatre, prove it
+to have been a city of great opulence and magnificence. At present, the
+remains of these antiquities are all that make it respectable or
+remarkable; though here are manufactures of silk and wool, carried on
+with good success. The water necessary for these works is supplied by a
+source at the foot of the rock, upon which the tower is placed; and
+here were discovered the ruins of Roman baths, which had been formed
+and adorned with equal taste and magnificence. Among the rubbish they
+found a vast profusion of columns, vases, capitals, cornices,
+inscriptions, medals, statues, and among other things, the finger of a
+colossal statue in bronze, which, according to the rules of proportion,
+must have been fifteen feet high. From these particulars, it appears
+that the edifices must have been spacious and magnificent. Part of a
+tesselated pavement still remains. The antient pavement of the bath is
+still intire; all the rubbish has been cleared away; and the baths, in
+a great measure, restored on the old plan, though they are not at
+present used for any thing but ornament. The water is collected into
+two vast reservoirs, and a canal built and lined with hewn stone. There
+are three handsome bridges thrown over this vast canal. It contains a
+great body of excellent water, which by pipes and other small branching
+canals, traverses the town, and is converted to many different purposes
+of oeconomy and manufacture. Between the Roman bath and these great
+canals, the ground is agreeably laid out in pleasure-walks. for the
+recreation of the inhabitants. Here are likewise ornaments of
+architecture, which savour much more of French foppery, than of the
+simplicity and greatness of the antients. It is very surprizing, that
+this fountain should produce such a great body of water, as fills the
+basin of the source, the Roman basin, two large deep canals three
+hundred feet in length, two vast basins that make part of the great
+canal, which is eighteen hundred feet long, eighteen feet deep, and
+forty-eight feet broad. When I saw it, there was in it about eight or
+nine feet of water, transparent as crystal. It must be observed,
+however, for the honour of French cleanliness, that in the Roman basin,
+through which this noble stream of water passes, I perceived two
+washerwomen at work upon children's clouts and dirty linnen. Surprized,
+and much disgusted at this filthy phaenomenon, I asked by what means,
+and by whose permission, those dirty hags had got down into the basin,
+in order to contaminate the water at its fountain-head; and understood
+they belonged to the commandant of the place, who had keys of the
+subterranean passage.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Fronting the Roman baths are the ruins of an antient temple, which,
+according to tradition, was dedicated to Diana: but it has been
+observed by connoisseurs, that all the antient temples of this goddess
+were of the Ionic order; whereas, this is partly Corinthian, and partly
+composite. It is about seventy foot long, and six and thirty in
+breadth, arched above, and built of large blocks of stone, exactly
+joined together without any cement. The walls are still standing, with
+three great tabernacles at the further end, fronting the entrance. On
+each side, there are niches in the intercolumniation of the walls,
+together with pedestals and shafts of pillars, cornices, and an
+entablature, which indicate the former magnificence of the building. It
+was destroyed during the civil war that raged in the reign of Henry
+III. of France.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It is amazing, that the successive irruptions of barbarous nations, of
+Goths, Vandals, and Moors; of fanatic croisards, still more sanguinary
+and illiberal than those Barbarians, should have spared this temple, as
+well as two other still more noble monuments of architecture, that to
+this day adorn the city of Nismes: I mean the amphitheatre and the
+edifice, called Maison Carree&mdash;The former of these is counted the
+finest monument of the kind, now extant; and was built in the reign of
+Antoninus Pius, who contributed a large sum of money towards its
+erection. It is of an oval figure, one thousand and eighty feet in
+circumference, capacious enough to hold twenty thousand spectators. The
+architecture is of the Tuscan order, sixty feet high, composed of two
+open galleries, built one over another, consisting each of threescore
+arcades. The entrance into the arena was by four great gates, with
+porticos; and the seats, of which there were thirty, rising one above
+another, consisted of great blocks of stone, many of which still
+remain. Over the north gate, appear two bulls, in alto-relievo,
+extremely well executed, emblems which, according to the custom of the
+Romans, signified that the amphitheatre was erected at the expence of
+the people. There are in other parts of it some work in bas-relief, and
+heads or busts but indifferently carved. It stands in the lower part of
+the town, and strikes the spectator with awe and veneration. The
+external architecture is almost intire in its whole circuit; but the
+arena is filled up with houses&mdash;This amphitheatre was fortified as a
+citadel by the Visigoths, in the beginning of the sixth century. They
+raised within it a castle, two towers of which are still extant; and
+they surrounded it with a broad and deep fossee, which was filled up in
+the thirteenth century. In all the subsequent wars to which this city
+was exposed, it served as the last resort of the citizens, and
+sustained a great number of successive attacks; so that its
+preservation is almost miraculous. It is likely, however, to suffer
+much more from the Gothic avarice of its own citizens, some of whom are
+mutilating it every day, for the sake of the stones, which they employ
+in their own private buildings. It is surprizing, that the King's
+authority has not been exerted to put an end to such sacrilegious
+violation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+If the amphitheatre strikes you with an idea of greatness, the Maison
+Carree enchants you with the most exquisite beauties of architecture
+and sculpture. This is an edifice, supposed formerly to have been
+erected by Adrian, who actually built a basilica in this city, though
+no vestiges of it remain: but the following inscription, which was
+discovered on the front of it, plainly proves, that it was built by the
+inhabitants of Nismes, in honour of Caius and Lucius Caesar, the
+grandchildren of Augustus by his daughter Julia, the wife of Agrippa.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  C. CAESARI. AVGVSTI. F. COS.<BR>
+  L CAESARI. AVGMI. F. COS.<BR>
+  DESIGNATO.<BR>
+  PRINCIPIBVS IVVENTUTIS.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To Caius and Lucius Caesar, sons of Augustus, consuls elect, Princes of
+the Roman youth.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This beautiful edifice, which stands upon a pediment six feet high, is
+eighty-two feet long, thirty-five broad, and thirty-seven high, without
+reckoning the pediment. The body of it is adorned with twenty columns
+engaged in the wall, and the peristyle, which is open, with ten
+detached pillars that support the entablature. They are all of the
+Corinthian order, fluted and embellished with capitals of the most
+exquisite sculpture, the frize and cornice are much admired, and the
+foliage is esteemed inimitable. The proportions of the building are so
+happily united, as to give it an air of majesty and grandeur, which the
+most indifferent spectator cannot behold without emotion. A man needs
+not be a connoisseur in architecture, to enjoy these beauties. They are
+indeed so exquisite that you may return to them every day with a fresh
+appetite for seven years together. What renders them the more curious,
+they are still entire, and very little affected, either by the ravages
+of time, or the havoc of war. Cardinal Alberoni declared, that it was a
+jewel that deserved a cover of gold to preserve it from external
+injuries. An Italian painter, perceiving a small part of the roof
+repaired by modern French masonry, tore his hair, and exclaimed in a
+rage, "Zounds! what do I see? harlequin's hat on the head of Augustus!"
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Without all doubt it is ravishingly beautiful. The whole world cannot
+parallel it; and I am astonished to see it standing entire, like the
+effects of inchantment, after such a succession of ages, every one more
+barbarous than another. The history of the antiquities of Nismes takes
+notice of a grotesque statue, representing two female bodies and legs,
+united under the head of an old man; but, as it does not inform us
+where it is kept, I did not see it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The whole country of Languedoc is shaded with olive trees, the fruit of
+which begins to ripen, and appears as black as sloes; those they pickle
+are pulled green, and steeped for some time in a lye made of quick lime
+or wood ashes, which extracts the bitter taste, and makes the fruit
+tender. Without this preparation it is not eatable. Under the olive and
+fig trees, they plant corn and vines, so that there is not an inch of
+ground unlaboured: but here are no open fields, meadows, or cattle to
+be seen. The ground is overloaded; and the produce of it crowded to
+such a degree, as to have a bad effect upon the eye, impressing the
+traveller with the ideas of indigence and rapacity. The heat in summer
+is so excessive, that cattle would find no green forage, every blade of
+grass being parched up and destroyed. The weather was extremely hot
+when we entered Montpellier, and put up at the Cheval Blanc, counted
+the best auberge in the place, tho' in fact it is a most wretched
+hovel, the habitation of darkness, dirt, and imposition. Here I was
+obliged to pay four livres a meal for every person in my family, and
+two livres at night for every bed, though all in the same room: one
+would imagine that the further we advance to the southward the living
+is the dearer, though in fact every article of housekeeping is cheaper
+in Languedoc than many other provinces of France. This imposition is
+owing to the concourse of English who come hither, and, like simple
+birds of passage, allow themselves to be plucked by the people of the
+country, who know their weak side, and make their attacks accordingly.
+They affect to believe, that all the travellers of our country are
+grand seigneurs, immensely rich and incredibly generous; and we are
+silly enough to encourage this opinion, by submitting quietly to the
+most ridiculous extortion, as well as by committing acts of the most
+absurd extravagance. This folly of the English, together with a
+concourse of people from different quarters, who come hither for the
+re-establishment of their health, has rendered Montpellier one of the
+dearest places in the South of France. The city, which is but small,
+stands upon a rising ground fronting the Mediterranean, which is about
+three leagues to the southward: on the other side is an agreeable
+plain, extending about the same distance towards the mountains of the
+Cevennes. The town is reckoned well built, and what the French call
+bien percee; yet the streets are in general narrow, and the houses
+dark. The air is counted salutary in catarrhous consumptions, from its
+dryness and elasticity: but too sharp in cases of pulmonary imposthumes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It was at Montpellier that we saw for the first time any signs of that
+gaiety and mirth for which the people of this country are celebrated.
+In all other places through which we passed since our departure from
+Lyons, we saw nothing but marks of poverty and chagrin. We entered
+Montpellier on a Sunday, when the people were all dressed in their best
+apparel. The streets were crowded; and a great number of the better
+sort of both sexes sat upon stone seats at their doors, conversing with
+great mirth and familiarity. These conversations lasted the greatest
+part of the night; and many of them were improved with musick both
+vocal and instrumental: next day we were visited by the English
+residing in the place, who always pay this mark of respect to new
+comers. They consist of four or five families, among whom I could pass
+the winter very agreeably, if the state of my health and other reasons
+did not call me away.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Mr. L&mdash; had arrived two days before me, troubled with the same
+asthmatic disorder, under which I have laboured so long. He told me he
+had been in quest of me ever since he left England. Upon comparing
+notes, I found he had stopped at the door of a country inn in Picardy,
+and drank a glass of wine and water, while I was at dinner up stairs;
+nay, he had even spoke to my servant, and asked who was his master, and
+the man, not knowing him, replied, he was a gentleman from Chelsea. He
+had walked by the door of the house where I lodged at Paris, twenty
+times, while I was in that city; and the very day before he arrived at
+Montpellier, he had passed our coach on the road.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The garrison of this city consists of two battalions, one of which is
+the Irish regiment of Berwick, commanded by lieutenant colonel Tents, a
+gentleman with whom we contracted an acquaintance at Boulogne. He
+treats us with great politeness, and indeed does every thing in his
+power to make the place agreeable to us. The duke of Fitz-James, the
+governor, is expected here in a little time. We have already a
+tolerable concert twice a week; there will be a comedy in the winter;
+and the states of Provence assemble in January, so that Montpellier
+will be extremely gay and brilliant. These very circumstances would
+determine me to leave it. I have not health to enjoy these pleasures: I
+cannot bear a croud of company such as pours in upon us unexpectedly at
+all hours; and I foresee, that in staying at Montpellier, I should be
+led into an expence, which I can ill afford. I have therefore forwarded
+the letter I received from general P&mdash;n, to Mr. B&mdash;d, our consul at
+Nice, signifying my intention of going thither, and explaining the kind
+of accommodation I would choose to have at that place.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The day after our arrival, I procured tolerable lodgings in the High
+Street, for which I pay fifty sols, something more than two shillings
+per day; and I am furnished with two meals a day by a traiteur for ten
+livres: but he finds neither the wine nor the dessert; and indeed we
+are but indifferently served. Those families who reside here find their
+account in keeping house. Every traveller who comes to this, or any
+other, town in France with a design to stay longer than a day or two,
+ought to write beforehand to his correspondent to procure furnished
+lodgings, to which he may be driven immediately, without being under
+the necessity of lying in an execrable inn; for all the inns of this
+country are execrable.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My baggage is not yet arrived by the canal of Languedoc; but that gives
+me no disturbance, as it is consigned to the care of Mr. Ray, an
+English merchant and banker of this place; a gentleman of great probity
+and worth, from whom I have received repeated marks of uncommon
+friendship and hospitality.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The next time you hear of me will be from Nice: mean-while, I remain
+always,&mdash;Dear Sir, Your affectionate humble servant.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap11"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER XI
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+MONTPELLIER, November 12.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR DOCTOR&mdash;I flattered myself with the hope of much amusement during
+my short stay at Montpellier.&mdash;The University, the Botanical Garden,
+the State of Physic in this part of the world, and the information I
+received of a curious collection of manuscripts, among which I hoped to
+find something for our friend Dr. H&mdash;r; all these particulars promised
+a rich fund of entertainment, which, however, I cannot enjoy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A few days after my arrival, it began to rain with a southerly wind,
+and continued without ceasing the best part of a week, leaving the air
+so loaded with vapours, that there was no walking after sun-set;
+without being wetted by the dew almost to the skin. I have always found
+a cold and damp atmosphere the most unfavourable of any to my
+constitution. My asthmatical disorder. which had not given me much
+disturbance since I left Boulogne, became now very troublesome,
+attended with fever, cough spitting, and lowness of spirits; and I
+wasted visibly every day. I was favoured with the advice of Dr.
+Fitzmaurice, a very worthy sensible physician settled in this place:
+but I had the curiosity to know the opinion of the celebrated professor
+F&mdash;, who is the Boerhaave of Montpellier. The account I had of his
+private character and personal deportment, from some English people to
+whom he was well known, left me no desire to converse with him: but I
+resolved to consult with him on paper. This great lanthorn of medicine
+is become very rich and very insolent; and in proportion as his wealth
+increases, he is said to grow the more rapacious. He piques himself
+upon being very slovenly, very blunt, and very unmannerly; and perhaps
+to these qualifications be owes his reputation rather than to any
+superior skill in medicine. I have known them succeed in our own
+country; and seen a doctor's parts estimated by his brutality and
+presumption.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+F&mdash; is in his person and address not unlike our old acquaintance Dr.
+Sm&mdash;ie; he stoops much, dodges along, and affects to speak the Patois,
+which is a corruption of the old Provencial tongue, spoken by the
+vulgar in Languedoc and Provence. Notwithstanding his great age and
+great wealth, he will still scramble up two pair of stairs for a fee of
+six livres; and without a fee he will give his advice to no person
+whatsoever.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He is said to have great practice in the venereal branch and to be
+frequented by persons of both sexes infected with this distemper, not
+only from every part of France, but also from Spain, Italy, Germany,
+and England. I need say nothing of the Montpellier method of cure,
+which is well known at London; but I have some reason to think the
+great professor F&mdash;, has, like the famous Mrs. Mapp, the bone-setter,
+cured many patients that were never diseased.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Be that as it may, I sent my valet de place, who was his townsman and
+acquaintance, to his house, with the following case, and a loui'dore.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Annum aetatis, post quadragesimum, tertium, Temperamentum humidum,
+crassum, pituitarepletum, catarrhis saepissime profligatum. Catarrhus,
+febre, anxietate et dyspnoea, nunquam non comitatus. Irritatio
+membranae piuitariae trachaealis, tussim initio aridam, siliquosam,
+deinde vero excreationem copiosam excitat: sputum albumini ovi
+simillimum.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Accedente febre, urina pallida, limpida: ad akmen flagrante, colorem
+rubrum, subflavum induit: coctione peracta, sedimentum lateritium
+deponit.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Appetitus raro deest: digestio segnior sed secura, non autem sine ructu
+perfecta. Alvus plerumque stipata: excretio intestinalis minima,
+ratione ingestorum habita. Pulsus frequens, vacillans, exilis,
+quandoquidem etiam intermittens.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Febre una extincta, non deficit altera. Aliaque et eadem statim
+nascitur. Aer paulo frigidior, vel humidior, vestimentum inusitatum
+indutum; exercitatio paulullum nimia; ambulatio, equitatio, in quovis
+vehiculo jactatio; haec omnia novos motus suscitant. Systema nervosum
+maxime irritabile, organos patitur. Ostiola in cute hiantia, materiei
+perspirabili, exitum praebentia, clauduntur. Materies obstructa
+cumulatur; sanguine aliisque humoribus circumagitur: fit plethora.
+Natura opprimi nolens, excessus huius expulsionem conatur. Febris nova
+accenditur. Pars oneris, in membranam trachaealem laxatam ac
+debilitatam transfertur. Glandulae pituitariae turgentes bronchia
+comprimunt. Liber aeri transitus negatur: hinc respiratio difficilis.
+Hac vero translatione febris minuitur: interdiu remittitur. Dyspnoea
+autem aliaque symptomata vere hypochondriaca, recedere nolunt. Vespere
+febris exacerbatur. Calor, inquietudo, anxietas et asthma, per noctem
+grassantur. Ita quotidie res agitur, donec. Vis vitae paulatim crisim
+efficit. Seminis joctura, sive in somniis effusi, seu in gremio veneris
+ejaculati, inter causas horum malorum nec non numeretur.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Quibusdam abhinc annis, exercitationibus juvenilibus subito remissis,
+in vitam sedentariam lapsum. Animo in studia severiora converso, fibre
+gradatim laxabantur. Inter legendum, et scribendum inclinato corpore in
+pectus malum, ruebat. Morbo ingruenti affectio scorbutica auxilium
+tulit. Invasio prima nimium aspernata. Venientibus hostibus non
+occursum. Cunctando res non restituta. Remedia convenientia stomachus
+perhorrescebat. Gravescente dyspnoea phlebotomia frustra tentata.
+Sanguinis missione vis vitae diminuta: fiebat pulsitis debilior,
+respiratio difficilior. In pejus ruunt omnia. Febris anomala in
+febriculam continuam mutata. Dyspnoea confirmata. Fibrarum compages
+soluta. Valetudo penitus eversa.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+His agitatus furiis, aeger ad mare provolat: in fluctus se precipitem,
+dat: periculum factum spem non fefellit: decies iteratum, felix
+faustumque evasit. Elater novus fibris conciliatur. Febricula fugatur.
+Acris dyspnoea solvitur. Beneficium dextra ripa partum, sinistra
+perditum. Superficie corporis, aquae marine frigore et pondere,
+compressa et contracta, interstitia fibrarum occluduntur: particulis
+incrementi novis partes abrasas reficientibus, locus non datur.
+Nutritio corporis, via pristina clausa, qua data porta ruit: in
+membranam pulmonum, minus firmatam facile fertur, et glandulis per
+sputum rejicitur.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hieme pluviosa, regnante dolores renovantur; tametsi tempore sereno
+equitatio profuit. Aestate morbus vix ullum progrediebatur. Autumno,
+valetudine plus declinata, thermis Bathoniensibus solatium haud frustra
+quaesitum. Aqua ista mire medicata, externe aeque ac interne adhibita,
+malis levamen attulit. Hiems altera, frigida, horrida, diuturna,
+innocua tamen successit. Vere novo casus atrox diras procellas animo
+immisit: toto corpore, tota mente tumultuatur. Patria relicta,
+tristitia, sollecitudo, indignatio, et saevissima recordatio sequuntur.
+Inimici priores furore inveterato revertuntur. Rediit febris hectica:
+rediit asthma cum anxietate, tusse et dolore lateris lancinanti.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Desperatis denique rebus, iterum ad mare, veluti ad anceps remedium
+recurritur. Balneum hoc semper benignum. Dolor statim avolat. Tertio
+die febris, retrocessit. Immersio quotidiana antemeridiana, ad vices
+quinquaginta repetita, symptomata graviora subjugavit.&mdash; Manet vero
+tabes pituitaria: manet temperamentum in catarrhos proclive. Corpus
+macrescit. Vires delabuntur.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The professor's eyes sparkled at sight of the fee; and he desired the
+servant to call next morning for his opinion of the case, which
+accordingly I received in these words:
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"On voit par cette relation que monsieur le consultant dont on n'a pas
+juge a propos de dire l'age, mais qui nous paroit etre adulte et d'un
+age passablement avance, a ete sujet cy devant a des rhumes frequens
+accompagnes de fievre; on ne detaille point (aucune epoque), on parle
+dans la relation d'asthme auquel il a ete sujet, de scorbut ou
+affection scorbutique dont on ne dit pas les symptomes. On nous fait
+scavoir qu'il s'est bien trouve de l'immersion dans l'eau de la mer, et
+des eaux de Bath.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"On dit a present qu'il a une fievre pituitaire sans dire depuis
+combien de temps. Qu'il lui reste toujours son temperament enclin aux
+catharres. Que le corps maigrit, et que les forces se perdent. On ne
+dit point s'il y a des exacerbations dans cette fievre ou non, si le
+malade a appetit ou non, s'il tousse ou non, s'il crache ou non, en un
+mot on n'entre dans aucun detail sur ces objets, sur quoi le conseil
+soussigne estime que monsieur le consultant est en fievre lente, et que
+vraisemblable le poumon souffre de quelque tubercules qui peut-etre
+sont en fonte, ce que nous aurions determine si dans la relation on
+avoit marque les qualites de crachats.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"La cause fonchere de cette maladie doit etre imputee a une lymphe
+epaisse et acrimonieuse, qui donne occasion a des tubercules au pomon,
+qui etant mis on fonte fournissent au sang des particules acres et le
+rendent tout acrimonieux.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Les vues que l'on doit avoir dans ce cas sent de procurer des bonnes
+digestions (quoique dans la relation ou ne dit pas un mot sur les
+digestions) de jetter un douce detrempe dans la masse du sang, d'en
+ebasser l'acrimonie et de l'adoucir, de diviser fort doucement a
+lymphe, et de deterger le poumon, lui procurant meme du calme suppose
+que la toux l'inquiete, quoique cependant on ne dit pas un mot sur la
+toux dans la relation. C'est pourquoi on le purgera avec 3 onces de
+manne, dissoutes dans un verre de decoction de 3 dragmes de polypode de
+chesne, on passera ensuite a des bouillons qui seront faits avec un
+petit poulet, la chair, le sang, le coeur et le foye d'une tortue de
+grandeur mediocre c'est a dire du poid de 8 a 12 onces avec sa
+coquille, une poignee de chicoree amere de jardin, et une pincee de
+feuilles de lierre terrestre vertes on seches. Ayant pris ces bouillons
+15 matins on se purgera comme auparavant, pour en venir a des bouillons
+qui seront faits avec la moitie d'un mou de veau, une poignee de
+pimprenelle de jardin, et une dragme de racine d'angelique concassee.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Ayant pris ces bouillons 15 matins, on se purgera somme auparavant pour
+en venir an lait d'anesse que l'on prendra le matin a jeun, a la dose
+de 12 a 16 onces y ajoutant un cuilleree de sucre rape, on prendra ce
+lait le matin a jeun observant de prendre pendant son usage de deux
+jours l'un un moment avant le lait un bolus fait avec 15 grains de
+craye de Braincon en poudre fine, 20 grains de corail prepare, 8 grains
+d'antihectique de poterius, et ce qu'il faut de syrop de lierre
+terrestre, mais les jour on ou ne prendra pas le bolus on prendra un
+moment avant le lait 3 on 4 gouttes de bon baume de Canada detrempees
+dans un demi cuilleree de syrop de lierre terrestre. Si le corps
+maigrit de plus en plus, je suis d'avis que pendant l'usage du lait
+d'anesse on soupe tous les soirs avec une soupe au lait de vache.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"On continuera l'usage du lait d'anesse tant, que le malade pourra le
+supporter, ne le purgeant que par necessite et toujours avec la
+medecine ordonnee.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Au reste, si monsieur le consultant ne passe les nuits bien calmes, il
+prendra chaque soir a l'heure de sommeil six grains des pilules de
+cynoglosse, dent il augmentera la dose d'un grain de plus toutes les
+fois que la dose du jour precedent, n'aura pas ete suffisante pour lui
+faire passer la nuit bien calme.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Si les malade tousse il usera soit de jour soit de nuit par petites
+cuillerees a casse d'un looch, qui sera fait avec un once de syrop de
+violat et un dragme de blanc de baleine.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Si les crachats sent epais et qu'il crache difficilement, en ce cas il
+prendra une ou deux fois le jour, demi dragme de blanc de baleine
+reduit on poudre avec un pen de sucre candit qu'il avalera avec une
+cuilleree d'eau.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Enfin il doit observer un bon regime de vivre, c'est pourquoi il fera
+toujours gras et seulement en soupes, bouilli et roti, il ne mangera
+pas les herbes des soupes, et on salera peu son pot, il se privera du
+beuf, cochon, chair noir, oiseaux d'eau, ragouts, fritures,
+patisseries, alimens sales, epices, vinaigres, salades, fruits, cruds,
+et autres crudites, alimens grossiers, ou de difficille digestion, la
+boisson sera de l'eau tant soit peu rougee de bon vin au diner
+seulement, et il ne prendra a souper qu'une soupe.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Delibere a MONTPELLIER<BR>
+  le 11 Novembre.<BR>
+  F&mdash;.<BR>
+  Professeur en l'universite honoraire.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Receu vingt et quatre livres.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I thought it was a little extraordinary that a learned professor should
+reply in his mother tongue, to a case put in Latin: but I was much more
+surprised, as you will also be, at reading his answer, from which I was
+obliged to conclude, either that he did not understand Latin; or that
+he had not taken the trouble to read my memoire. I shall not make any
+remarks upon the stile of his prescription, replete as it is with a
+disgusting repetition of low expressions: but I could not but, in
+justice to myself, point out to him the passages in my case which he
+had overlooked. Accordingly, having marked them with letters, I sent it
+back, with the following billet.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Apparement Mons. F&mdash; n'a pas donne beaucoup d'attention au memoire de
+ma sante que j'ai on l'honneur de lui presenter&mdash; 'Monsieur le
+consultant (dit il) dont on n'a pas juge it propos de dire
+l'age.'&mdash;Mais on voit dans le memoire a No. 1. 'Annum aetatis post
+quadragesimum tertium.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mr. F&mdash; dit que 'je n'ai pas marque aucune epoque. Mais a No. 2 du
+memoire il trouvera ces mots. 'Quibusdam abbinc annis.' J'ai meme
+detaille le progres de la maladie pour trois ans consecutifs.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mons. F&mdash; observe, 'On no dit point s'il y a des exacerbations dans
+cette fievre ou non.' Qu'il. Regarde la lettre B, il verra, Vespere
+febris exacerbatur. Calor, inquietudo, anxietas et asthma per noctem
+grassantur.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mons. F&mdash; remarque, 'On ne dit point si le malade a appetit ou non,
+s'il tousse ou non, s'il crache ou non, en un mot on n'entre dans aucun
+detail sur ces objets.' Mais on voit toutes ces circonstances
+detaillees dans la memoire a lettre A, 'Irritatio membranae trachaealis
+tussim, initio aridam, siliquosam, deinde vero excreationem copiosam
+excitat. Sputum albumini ovi simillimum. Appetitus raro deest. Digestio
+segnior sed secura.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Mons. F&mdash; observe encore, 'qu'on ne dit pas un mot sur la toux dans la
+relation.' Mais j'ai dit encore a No. 3 de memoire, 'rediit febris
+hectica; rediit asthma cum anxietate, tusse et dolore lateris
+lancinante.'
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Au reste, je ne puis pas me persuader qu'il y ait des tubercules au
+poumon, parce que j'ai ne jamais crache de pus, ni autre chose que de
+la pituite qui a beaucoup de ressemblance au blanc des oeufs. Sputum
+albumini ovi simillimum. Il me paroit done que ma maladie doit son
+origine a la suspension de l'exercice du corps, au grand attachement
+d'esprit, et a une vie sedentaire qui a relache le sisteme fibreux; et
+qu'a present on pent l'appeller tubes pituitaria, non tubes purulenta.
+J'espere que Mons. Faura la bonte de faire revision du memoire, et de
+m'en dire encore son sentiment."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Considering the nature of the case, you see I could not treat him more
+civilly. I desired the servant to ask when he should return for an
+answer, and whether he expected another fee. He desired him to come
+next morning, and, as the fellow assured me, gave him to understand,
+that whatever monsieur might solicit, should be for his (the servant's)
+advantage. In all probability he did not expect another gratification,
+to which, indeed, he had no title. Mons. F&mdash; was undoubtedly much
+mortified to find himself detected in such flagrant instances of
+unjustifiable negligence, arid like all other persons in the same
+ungracious dilemma, instead of justifying himself by reason or
+argument, had recourse to recrimination. In the paper which he sent me
+next day, he insisted in general that he had carefully perused the case
+(which you will perceive was a self-evident untruth); he said the
+theory it contained was idle; that he was sure it could not be written
+by a physician; that, with respect to the disorder, he was still of the
+same opinion; and adhered to his former prescription; but if I had any
+doubts I might come to his house, and he would resolve them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I wrapt up twelve livres in the following note, and sent it to his
+house.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"C'est ne pas sans raison que monsieur F&mdash; jouit d'une si grande
+reputation. Je n'ai plus de doutes, graces a Dieu et a monsieur F&mdash;e. "
+"It is not without reason that monsieur Fizes enjoys such a large share
+of reputation. I have no doubts remaining; thank Heaven and monsieur
+Fizes."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To this I received for answer. "Monsieur n'a plus de doutes: j'en suis
+charme. Receu douze livres. F&mdash;, &amp;c." "Sir, you have no doubts
+remaining; I am very glad of it. Received twelve livres. Fizes, &amp;c."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Instead of keeping his promise to the valet, he put the money in his
+pocket; and the fellow returned in a rage, exclaiming that he was un
+gros cheval de carosse, a great coach-horse.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I shall make no other comment upon the medicines, and the regimen which
+this great Doctor prescribed; but that he certainly mistook the case:
+that upon the supposition I actually laboured under a purulent
+discharge from the lungs, his remedies savour strongly of the old
+woman; and that there is a total blank with respect to the article of
+exercise, which you know is so essential in all pulmonary disorders.
+But after having perused my remarks upon his first prescription, he
+could not possibly suppose that I had tubercules, and was spitting up
+pus; therefore his persisting in recommending the same medicines he had
+prescribed on that supposition, was a flagrant absurdity.&mdash;If, for
+example, there was no vomica in the lungs; and the business was to
+attenuate the lymph, what could be more preposterous than to advise the
+chalk of Briancon, coral, antihecticum poterii, and the balm of Canada?
+As for the turtle-soupe, it is a good restorative and balsamic; but, I
+apprehend, will tend to thicken rather than attenuate the phlegm. He
+mentions not a syllable of the air, though it is universally allowed,
+that the climate of Montpellier is pernicious to ulcerated lungs; and
+here I cannot help recounting a small adventure which our doctor had
+with a son of Mr. O&mdash;d, merchant in the city of London. I had it from
+Mrs. St&mdash;e who was on the spot. The young gentleman, being consumptive,
+consulted Mr. F&mdash;, who continued visiting and prescribing for him a
+whole month. At length, perceiving that he grew daily worse, "Doctor
+(said he) I take your prescriptions punctually; but, instead of being
+the better for them, I have now not an hour's remission from the fever
+in the four-and-twenty.&mdash;I cannot conceive the meaning of it." F&mdash;, who
+perceived he had not long to live, told him the reason was very plain:
+the air of Montpellier was too sharp for his lungs, which required a
+softer climate. "Then you're a sordid villain (cried the young man) for
+allowing me to stay here till my constitution is irretrievable." He set
+out immediately for Tholouse, and in a few weeks died in the
+neighbourhood of that city.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I observe that the physicians in this country pay no regard to the
+state of the solids in chronical disorders, that exercise and the cold
+bath are never prescribed, that they seem to think the scurvy is
+entirely an English disease; and that, in all appearance, they often
+confound the symptoms of it, with those of the venereal distemper.
+Perhaps I may be more particular on this subject in a subsequent
+letter. In the mean time, I am ever,&mdash; Dear Sir, Yours sincerely.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap12"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER XII
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+NICE, December 6, 1763.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR SIR,&mdash;The inhabitants of Montpellier are sociable, gay, and
+good-tempered. They have a spirit of commerce, and have erected several
+considerable manufactures, in the neighbourhood of the city. People
+assemble every day to take the air on the esplanade, where there is a
+very good walk, just without the gate of the citadel: but, on the other
+side of the town, there is another still more agreeable, called the
+peirou, from whence there is a prospect of the Mediterranean on one
+side, and of the Cevennes on the other. Here is a good equestrian
+statue of Louis XIV, fronting one gate of the city, which is built in
+form of a triumphal arch, in honour of the same monarch. Immediately
+under the pierou is the physic garden, and near it an arcade just
+finished for an aqueduct, to convey a stream of water to the upper
+parts of the city. Perhaps I should have thought this a neat piece of
+work, if I had not seen the Pont du Garde: but, after having viewed the
+Roman arches, I could not look upon this but with pity and contempt. It
+is a wonder how the architect could be so fantastically modern, having
+such a noble model, as it were, before his eyes.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There are many protestants at this place, as well as at Nismes, and
+they are no longer molested on the score of religion. They have their
+conventicles in the country, where they assemble privately for worship.
+These are well known; and detachments are sent out every Sunday to
+intercept them; but the officer has always private directions to take
+another route. Whether this indulgence comes from the wisdom and lenity
+of the government, or is purchased with money of the commanding
+officer, I cannot determine: but certain it is, the laws of France
+punish capitally every protestant minister convicted of having
+performed the functions of his ministry in this kingdom; and one was
+hanged about two years ago, in the neighbourhood of Montauban.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The markets in Montpellier are well supplied with fish, poultry,
+butcher's meat, and game, at reasonable rates. The wine of the country
+is strong and harsh, and never drank, but when mixed with water.
+Burgundy is dear, and so is the sweet wine of Frontignan, though made
+in the neighbourhood of Cette. You know it is famous all over Europe,
+and so are the liqueurs, or drams of various sorts, compounded and
+distilled at Montpellier. Cette is the sea-port, about four leagues
+from that city: but the canal of Languedoc comes up within a mile of
+it; and is indeed a great curiosity: a work in all respects worthy of a
+Colbert, under whose auspices it was finished. When I find such a
+general tribute of respect and veneration paid to the memory of that
+great man, I am astonished to see so few monuments of public utility
+left by other ministers. One would imagine, that even the desire of
+praise would prompt a much greater number to exert themselves for the
+glory and advantage of their country; yet in my opinion, the French
+have been ungrateful to Colbert, in the same proportion as they have
+over-rated the character of his master. Through all France one meets
+with statues and triumphal arches erected to Louis XIV, in consequence
+of his victories; by which, likewise, he acquired the title of Louis le
+Grand. But how were those victories obtained? Not by any personal merit
+of Louis. It was Colbert who improved his finances, and enabled him to
+pay his army. It was Louvois that provided all the necessaries of war.
+It was a Conde, a Turenne, a Luxemburg, a Vendome, who fought his
+battles; and his first conquests, for which he was deified by the pen
+of adulation, were obtained almost without bloodshed, over weak,
+dispirited, divided, and defenceless nations. It was Colbert that
+improved the marine, instituted manufactures, encouraged commerce,
+undertook works of public utility, and patronized the arts and
+sciences. But Louis (you will say) had the merit of choosing and
+supporting those ministers, and those generals. I answer, no. He found
+Colbert and Louvois already chosen: he found Conde and Turenne in the
+very zenith of military reputation. Luxemburg was Conde's pupil; and
+Vendome, a prince of the blood, who at first obtained the command of
+armies in consequence of his high birth, and happened to turn out a man
+of genius. The same Louis had the sagacity to revoke the edict of
+Nantz; to entrust his armies to a Tallard, a Villeroy, and a Marsin. He
+had the humanity to ravage the country, burn the towns, and massacre
+the people of the Palatinate. He had the patriotism to impoverish and
+depopulate his own kingdom, in order to prosecute schemes of the most
+lawless ambition. He had the Consolation to beg a peace from those he
+had provoked to war by the most outrageous insolence; and he had the
+glory to espouse Mrs. Maintenon in her old age, the widow of the
+buffoon Scarron. Without all doubt, it was from irony he acquired the
+title le Grand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Having received a favourable answer from Mr. B&mdash;, the English consul at
+Nice, and recommended the care of my heavy baggage to Mr. Ray, who
+undertook to send it by sea from Cette to Villefranche, I hired a coach
+and mules for seven loui'dores, and set out from Montpellier on the
+13th of November, the weather being agreeable, though the air was cold
+and frosty. In other respects there were no signs of winter: the olives
+were now ripe, and appeared on each side of the road as black as sloes;
+and the corn was already half a foot high. On the second day of our
+journey, we passed the Rhone on a bridge of boats at Buccaire, and lay
+on the other side at Tarrascone. Next day we put up at a wretched place
+called Orgon, where, however, we were regaled with an excellent supper;
+and among other delicacies, with a dish of green pease. Provence is a
+pleasant country, well cultivated; but the inns are not so good here as
+in Languedoc, and few of them are provided with a certain convenience
+which an English traveller can very ill dispense with. Those you find
+are generally on the tops of houses, exceedingly nasty; and so much
+exposed to the weather, that a valetudinarian cannot use them without
+hazard of his life. At Nismes in Languedoc, where we found the Temple
+of Cloacina in a most shocking condition, the servant-maid told me her
+mistress had caused it to be made on purpose for the English
+travellers; but now she was very sorry for what she had done, as all
+the French who frequented her house, instead of using the seat, left
+their offerings on the floor, which she was obliged to have cleaned
+three or four times a day. This is a degree of beastliness, which would
+appear detestable even in the capital of North-Britain. On the fourth
+day of our pilgrimage, we lay in the suburbs of Aix, but did not enter
+the city, which I had a great curiosity to see. The villainous asthma
+baulked me of that satisfaction. I was pinched with the cold, and
+impatient to reach a warmer climate. Our next stage was at a paltry
+village, where we were poorly entertained. I looked so ill in the
+morning, that the good woman of the house, who was big with child, took
+me by the hand at parting, and even shed tears, praying fervently that
+God would restore me to my health. This was the only instance of
+sympathy, compassion, or goodness of heart, that I had met with among
+the publicans of France. Indeed at Valencia, our landlady,
+understanding I was travelling to Montpellier for my health would have
+dissuaded me from going thither; and exhorted me, in particular, to
+beware of the physicians, who were all a pack of assassins. She advised
+me to eat fricassees of chickens, and white meat, and to take a good
+bouillon every morning.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A bouillon is an universal remedy among the good people of France;
+insomuch, that they have no idea of any person's dying, after having
+swallowed un bon bouillon. One of the English gentlemen, who were
+robbed and murdered about thirty years ago between Calais and Boulogne,
+being brought to the post-house of Boulogne with some signs of life,
+this remedy was immediately administered. "What surprises me greatly,
+(said the post-master, speaking of this melancholy story to a friend of
+mine, two years after it happened) I made an excellent bouillon, and
+poured it down his throat with my own hands, and yet he did not
+recover." Now, in all probability, this bouillon it was that stopped
+his breath. When I was a very young man, I remember to have seen a
+person suffocated by such impertinent officiousness. A young man of
+uncommon parts and erudition, very well esteemed at the university of
+G&mdash;ow was found early one morning in a subterranean vault among the
+ruins of an old archiepiscopal palace, with his throat cut from ear to
+ear. Being conveyed to a public-house in the neighbourhood, he made
+signs for pen, ink, and paper, and in all probability would have
+explained the cause of this terrible catastrophe, when an old woman,
+seeing the windpipe, which was cut, sticking out of the wound, and
+mistaking it for the gullet, by way of giving him a cordial to support
+his spirits, poured into it, through a small funnel, a glass of burnt
+brandy, which strangled him in the tenth part of a minute. The gash was
+so hideous, and formed by so many repeated strokes of a razor, that the
+surgeons believed he could not possibly be the perpetrator himself;
+nevertheless this was certainly the case.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At Brignolles, where we dined, I was obliged to quarrel with the
+landlady, and threaten to leave her house, before she would indulge us
+with any sort of flesh-meat. It was meagre day, and she had made her
+provision accordingly. She even hinted some dissatisfaction at having
+heretics in her house: but, as I was not disposed to eat stinking fish,
+with ragouts of eggs and onions, I insisted upon a leg of mutton, and a
+brace of fine partridges, which I found in the larder. Next day, when
+we set out in the morning from Luc, it blew a north-westerly wind so
+extremely cold and biting, that even a flannel wrapper could not keep
+me tolerably warm in the coach. Whether the cold had put our coachman
+in a bad humour, or he had some other cause of resentment against
+himself, I know not; but we had not gone above a quarter of a mile,
+when he drove the carriage full against the corner of a garden wall,
+and broke the axle-tree, so that we were obliged to return to the inn
+on foot, and wait a whole day, until a new piece could be made and
+adjusted. The wind that blew, is called Maestral, in the Provencial
+dialect, and indeed is the severest that ever I felt. At this inn, we
+met with a young French officer who had been a prisoner in England, and
+spoke our language pretty well. He told me, that such a wind did not
+blow above twice or three times in a winter, and was never of long
+continuance, that in general, the weather was very mild and agreeable
+during the winter months; that living was very cheap in this part of
+Provence, which afforded great plenty of game. Here, too, I found a
+young Irish recollet, in his way from Rome to his own country. He
+complained, that he was almost starved by the inhospitable disposition
+of the French people; and that the regular clergy, in particular, had
+treated him with the most cruel disdain. I relieved his necessities,
+and gave him a letter to a gentleman of his own country at Montpellier.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When I rose in the morning, and opened a window that looked into the
+garden, I thought myself either in a dream, or bewitched. All the trees
+were cloathed with snow, and all the country covered at least a foot
+thick. "This cannot be the south of France, (said I to myself) it must
+be the Highlands of Scotland!" At a wretched town called Muy, where we
+dined, I had a warm dispute with our landlord, which, however, did not
+terminate to my satisfaction. I sent on the mules before, to the next
+stage, resolving to take post-horses, and bespoke them accordingly of
+the aubergiste, who was, at the same time, inn-keeper and post-master.
+We were ushered into the common eating-room, and had a very indifferent
+dinner; after which, I sent a loui'dore to be changed, in order to pay
+the reckoning. The landlord, instead of giving the full change,
+deducted three livres a head for dinner, and sent in the rest of the
+money by my servant. Provoked more at his ill manners, than at his
+extortion, I ferreted him out of a bed-chamber, where he had concealed
+himself, and obliged him to restore the full change, from which I paid
+him at the rate of two livres a head. He refused to take the money,
+which I threw down on the table; and the horses being ready, stepped
+into the coach, ordering the postillions to drive on. Here I had
+certainly reckoned without my host. The fellows declared they would not
+budge, until I should pay their master; and as I threatened them with
+manual chastisement, they alighted, and disappeared in a twinkling. I
+was now so incensed, that though I could hardly breathe; though the
+afternoon was far advanced, and the street covered with wet snow, I
+walked to the consul of the town, and made my complaint in form. This
+magistrate, who seemed to be a taylor, accompanied me to the inn, where
+by this time the whole town was assembled, and endeavoured to persuade
+me to compromise the affair. I said, as he was the magistrate, I would
+stand to his award. He answered, "that he would not presume to
+determine what I was to pay." I have already paid him a reasonable
+price for his dinner, (said I) and now I demand post-horses according
+to the king's ordonnance. The aubergiste said the horses were ready,
+but the guides were run away; and he could not find others to go in
+their place. I argued with great vehemence, offering to leave a
+loui'dore for the poor of the parish, provided the consul would oblige
+the rascal to do his duty. The consul shrugged up his shoulders, and
+declared it was not in his power. This was a lie, but I perceived he
+had no mind to disoblige the publican. If the mules had not been sent
+away, I should certainly have not only payed what I thought proper, but
+corrected the landlord into the bargain, for his insolence and
+extortion; but now I was entirely at his mercy, and as the consul
+continued to exhort me in very humble terms, to comply with his
+demands, I thought proper to acquiesce. Then the postillions
+immediately appeared: the crowd seemed to exult in the triumph of the
+aubergiste; and I was obliged to travel in the night, in very severe
+weather, after all the fatigue and mortification I had undergone.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We lay at Frejus, which was the Forum Julianum of the antients, and
+still boasts of some remains of antiquity; particularly the ruins of an
+amphitheatre, and an aqueduct. The first we passed in the dark, and
+next morning the weather was so cold that I could not walk abroad to
+see it. The town is at present very inconsiderable, and indeed in a
+ruinous condition. Nevertheless, we were very well lodged at the
+post-house, and treated with more politeness than we had met with in
+any other part of France.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As we had a very high mountain to ascend in the morning, I ordered the
+mules on before to the next post, and hired six horses for the coach.
+At the east end of Frejus, we saw close to the road on our left-hand,
+the arcades of the antient aqueduct, and the ruins of some Roman
+edifices, which seemed to have been temples. There was nothing striking
+in the architecture of the aqueduct. The arches are small and low,
+without either grace or ornament, and seem to have been calculated for
+mere utility.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The mountain of Esterelles, which is eight miles over, was formerly
+frequented by a gang of desperate banditti, who are now happily
+exterminated: the road is very good, but in some places very steep and
+bordered by precipices. The mountain is covered with pines, and the
+laurus cerasus, the fruit of which being now ripe, made a most romantic
+appearance through the snow that lay upon the branches. The cherries
+were so large that I at first mistook them for dwarf oranges. I think
+they are counted poisonous in England, but here the people eat them
+without hesitation. In the middle of the mountain is the post-house,
+where we dined in a room so cold, that the bare remembrance of it makes
+my teeth chatter. After dinner I chanced to look into another chamber
+that fronted the south, where the sun shone; and opening a window
+perceived, within a yard of my hand, a large tree loaded with oranges,
+many of which were ripe. You may judge what my astonishment was to find
+Winter in all his rigour reigning on one side of the house, and Summer
+in all her glory on the other. Certain it is, the middle of this
+mountain seemed to be the boundary of the cold weather. As we proceeded
+slowly in the afternoon we were quite enchanted. This side of the hill
+is a natural plantation of the most agreeable ever-greens, pines, firs,
+laurel, cypress, sweet myrtle, tamarisc, box, and juniper, interspersed
+with sweet marjoram, lavender, thyme, wild thyme, and sage. On the
+right-hand the ground shoots up into agreeable cones, between which you
+have delightful vistas of the Mediterranean, which washes the foot of
+the rock; and between two divisions of the mountains, there is a bottom
+watered by a charming stream, which greatly adds to the rural beauties
+of the scene.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This night we passed at Cannes, a little fishing town, agreeably
+situated on the beach of the sea, and in the same place lodged Monsieur
+Nadeau d'Etrueil, the unfortunate French governor of Guadeloupe,
+condemned to be imprisoned for life in one of the isles Marguerite,
+which lie within a mile of this coast.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Next day we journeyed by the way of Antibes, a small maritime town,
+tolerably well fortified; and passing the little river Loup, over a
+stone-bridge, arrived about noon at the village of St. Laurent, the
+extremity of France, where we passed the Var, after our baggage had
+undergone examination. From Cannes to this village the road lies along
+the sea-side; and sure nothing can be more delightful. Though in the
+morning there was a frost upon the ground, the sun was as warm as it is
+in May in England. The sea was quite smooth, and the beach formed of
+white polished pebbles; on the left-hand the country was covered with
+green olives, and the side of the road planted with large trees of
+sweet myrtle growing wild like the hawthorns in England. From Antibes
+we had the first view of Nice, lying on the opposite side of the bay,
+and making a very agreeable appearance. The author of the Grand Tour
+says, that from Antibes to Nice the roads are very bad, through rugged
+mountains bordered with precipices On the left, and by the sea to the
+right; whereas, in fact, there is neither precipice nor mountain near
+it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Var, which divides the county of Nice from Provence, is no other
+than a torrent fed chiefly by the snow that melts on the maritime Alps,
+from which it takes its origin. In the summer it is swelled to a
+dangerous height, and this is also the case after heavy rains: but at
+present the middle of it is quite dry, and the water divided into two
+or three narrow streams, which, however, are both deep and rapid. This
+river has been absurdly enough by some supposed the Rubicon, in all
+probability from the description of that river in the Pharsalia of
+Lucan, who makes it the boundary betwixt Gaul and Italy&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;                       &mdash;et Gallica certus<BR>
+  Limes ab Ausoniis disterminat arva colonis.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  A sure Frontier that parts the Gallic plains<BR>
+  From the rich meadows of th' Ansonian swains.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+whereas, in fact, the Rubicon, now called Pisatello, runs between
+Ravenna and Rimini.&mdash;But to return to the Var. At the village of St.
+Laurent, famous for its Muscadine wines, there is a set of guides
+always in attendance to conduct you in your passage over the river. Six
+of those fellows, tucked up above the middle, with long poles in their
+hands, took charge of our coach, and by many windings guided it safe to
+the opposite shore. Indeed there was no occasion for any; but it is a
+sort of a perquisite, and I did not choose to run any risque, how small
+soever it might be, for the sake of saving half a crown, with which
+they were satisfied. If you do not gratify the searchers at St. Laurent
+with the same sum, they will rummage your trunks, and turn all your
+cloaths topsy turvy. And here, once for all, I would advise every
+traveller who consults his own case and convenience, to be liberal of
+his money to all that sort of people; and even to wink at the
+imposition of aubergistes on the road, unless it be very flagrant. So
+sure as you enter into disputes with them, you will be put to a great
+deal of trouble, and fret yourself to no manner of purpose. I have
+travelled with oeconomists in England, who declared they would rather
+give away a crown than allow themselves to be cheated of a farthing.
+This is a good maxim, but requires a great share of resolution and
+self-denial to put it in practice. In one excursion of about two
+hundred miles my fellow-traveller was in a passion, and of consequence
+very bad company from one end of the journey to the other. He was
+incessantly scolding either at landlords, landladies, waiters,
+hostlers, or postilions. We had bad horses, and bad chaises; set out
+from every stage with the curses of the people; and at this expence I
+saved about ten shillings in the whole journey. For such a paltry
+consideration, he was contented to be miserable himself, and to make
+every other person unhappy with whom he had any concern. When I came
+last from Bath it rained so hard, that the postilion who drove the
+chaise was wet to the skin before we had gone a couple of miles. When
+we arrived at the Devises, I gave him two shillings instead of one, out
+of pure compassion. The consequence of this liberality was, that in the
+next stage we seemed rather to fly than to travel upon solid ground. I
+continued my bounty to the second driver, and indeed through the whole
+journey, and found myself accommodated in a very different manner from
+what I had experienced before. I had elegant chaises, with excellent
+horses; and the postilions of their own accord used such diligence,
+that although the roads were broken by the rain, I travelled at the
+rate of twelve miles an hour; and my extraordinary expence from Bath to
+London, amounted precisely to six shillings.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The river Var falls into the Mediterranean a little below St. Laurent,
+about four miles to the westward of Nice. Within the memory of persons
+now living, there have been three wooden bridges thrown over it, and as
+often destroyed in consequence of the jealousy subsisting between the
+kings of France and Sardinia; this river being the boundary of their
+dominions on the side of Provence. However, this is a consideration
+that ought not to interfere with the other advantages that would accrue
+to both kingdoms from such a convenience. If there was a bridge over
+the Var, and a post-road made from Nice to Genoa, I am very confident
+that all those strangers who now pass the Alps in their way to and from
+Italy, would choose this road as infinitely more safe, commodious, and
+agreeable. This would also be the case with all those who hire felucas
+from Marseilles or Antibes, and expose themselves to the dangers and
+inconveniences of travelling by sea in an open boat.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the afternoon we arrived at Nice, where we found Mr. M&mdash;e, the
+English gentleman whom I had seen at Boulogne, and advised to come
+hither. He had followed my advice, and reached Nice about a month
+before my arrival, with his lady, child, and an old gouvernante. He had
+travelled with his own post-chaise and horses, and is now lodged just
+without one of the gates of the city, in the house of the count de
+V&mdash;n, for which he pays five loui'dores a month. I could hire one much
+better in the neighbourhood of London, for the same money. Unless you
+will submit to this extortion, and hire a whole house for a length of
+time, you will find no ready-furnished lodgings at Nice. After having
+stewed a week in a paltry inn, I have taken a ground floor for ten
+months at the rate of four hundred livres a year, that is twenty pounds
+sterling, for the Piedmontese livre is about an English shilling. The
+apartments are large, lofty, and commodious enough, with two small
+gardens, in which there is plenty of sallad, and a great number of
+oranges and lemons: but as it required some time to provide furniture,
+our consul Mr. B&mdash;d, one of the best natured and most friendly men in
+the world, has lent me his lodgings, which are charmingly situated by
+the sea-side, and open upon a terrace, that runs parallel to the beach,
+forming part of the town wall. Mr. B&mdash;d himself lives at Villa Franca,
+which is divided from Nice by a single mountain, on the top of which
+there is a small fort, called the castle of Montalban. Immediately
+after our arrival we were visited by one Mr. de Martines, a most
+agreeable young fellow, a lieutenant in the Swiss regiment, which is
+here in garrison. He is a Protestant, extremely fond of our nation, and
+understands our language tolerably well. He was particularly
+recommended to our acquaintance by general P&mdash; and his lady; we are
+happy in his conversation; find him wonderfully obliging, and extremely
+serviceable on many occasions. We have likewise made acquaintance with
+some other individuals, particularly with Mr. St. Pierre, junior, who
+is a considerable merchant, and consul for Naples. He is a well-bred,
+sensible young man, speaks English, is an excellent performer on the
+lute and mandolin, and has a pretty collection of books. In a word, I
+hope we shall pass the winter agreeably enough, especially if Mr. M&mdash;e
+should hold out; but I am afraid he is too far gone in a consumption to
+recover. He spent the last winter at Nismes, and consulted F&mdash; at
+Montpellier. I was impatient to see the prescription, and found it
+almost verbatim the same he had sent to me; although I am persuaded
+there is a very essential difference between our disorders. Mr. M&mdash;e
+has been long afflicted with violent spasms, colliquative sweats,
+prostration of appetite, and a disorder in his bowels. He is likewise
+jaundiced all over, and I am confident his liver is unsound. He tried
+the tortoise soup, which he said in a fortnight stuffed him up with
+phlegm. This gentleman has got a smattering of physic, and I am afraid
+tampers with his own constitution, by means of Brookes's Practice of
+Physic, and some dispensatories, which he is continually poring over. I
+beg pardon for this tedious epistle, and am&mdash;Very sincerely, dear Sir,
+Your affectionate, humble servant.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap13"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER XIII
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+NICE, January 15, 1764.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR SIR,&mdash;I am at last settled at Nice, and have leisure to give you
+some account of this very remarkable place. The county of Nice extends
+about fourscore miles in length, and in some places it is thirty miles
+broad. It contains several small towns, and a great number of villages;
+all of which, this capital excepted, are situated among mountains, the
+most extensive plain of the whole country being this where I now am, in
+the neighbourhood of Nice. The length of it does not exceed two miles,
+nor is the breadth of it, in any part, above one. It is bounded by the
+Mediterranean on the south. From the sea-shore, the maritime Alps begin
+with hills of a gentle ascent, rising into mountains that form a sweep
+or amphitheatre ending at Montalban, which overhangs the town of Villa
+Franca. On the west side of this mountain, and in the eastern extremity
+of the amphitheatre, stands the city of Nice, wedged in between a steep
+rock and the little river Paglion, which descends from the mountains,
+and washing the town-walls on the west side, falls into the sea, after
+having filled some canals for the use of the inhabitants. There is a
+stone-bridge of three arches over it, by which those who come from
+Provence enter the city. The channel of it is very broad, but generally
+dry in many places; the water (as in the Var) dividing itself into
+several small streams. The Paglion being fed by melted snow and rain in
+the mountains, is quite dry in summer; but it is sometimes swelled by
+sudden rains to a very formidable torrent. This was the case in the
+year 1744, when the French and Spanish armies attacked eighteen
+Piedmontese battalions, which were posted on the side of Montalban. The
+assailants were repulsed with the loss of four thousand men, some
+hundreds of whom perished in repassing the Paglion, which had swelled
+to a surprising degree during the battle, in consequence of a heavy
+continued rain. This rain was of great service to the Piedmontese, as
+it prevented one half of the enemy from passing the river to sustain
+the other. Five hundred were taken prisoners: but the Piedmontese,
+foreseeing they should be surrounded next day by the French, who had
+penetrated behind them, by a pass in the mountains, retired in the
+night. Being received on board the English Fleet, which lay at Villa
+Franca, they were conveyed to Oneglia. In examining the bodies of those
+that were killed in the battle, the inhabitants of Nice perceived, that
+a great number of the Spanish soldiers were circumcised; a
+circumstance, from which they concluded, that a great many Jews engage
+in the service of his Catholic majesty. I am of a different opinion.
+The Jews are the least of any people that I know, addicted to a
+military life. I rather imagine they were of the Moorish race, who have
+subsisted in Spain, since the expulsion of their brethren; and though
+they conform externally to the rites of the Catholic religion, still
+retain in private their attachment to the law of Mahomet.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The city of Nice is built in form of an irregular isosceles triangle,
+the base of which fronts the sea.  On the west side it is surrounded by
+a wall and rampart; on the east, it is over-hung by a rock, on which we
+see the ruins of an old castle, which, before the invention of
+artillery, was counted impregnable. It was taken and dismantled by
+marechal Catinat, in the time of Victor Amadaeus, the father of his
+Sardinian majesty. It was afterwards finally demolished by the duke of
+Berwick towards the latter end of queen Anne's war. To repair it would
+be a very unnecessary expence, as it is commanded by Montalban, and
+several other eminences.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The town of Nice is altogether indefensible, and therefore without
+fortifications. There are only two iron guns upon a bastion that fronts
+the beach; and here the French had formed a considerable battery
+against the English cruisers, in the war of 1744, when the Mareschal
+Duke de Belleisle had his headquarters at Nice. This little town,
+situated in the bay of Antibes, is almost equidistant from Marseilles,
+Turin, and Genoa, the first and last being about thirty leagues from
+hence by sea; and the capital of Piedmont at the same distance to the
+northward, over the mountains. It lies exactly opposite to Capo di
+Ferro, on the coast of Barbary; and, the islands of Sardinia and
+Corsica are laid down about two degrees to the eastward, almost exactly
+in a line with Genoa. This little town, hardly a mile in circumference,
+is said to contain twelve thousand inhabitants. The streets are narrow;
+the houses are built of stone, and the windows in general are fitted
+with paper instead of glass. This expedient would not answer in a
+country subject to rain and storms; but here, where there is very
+little of either, the paper lozenges answer tolerably well. The
+bourgeois, however, begin to have their houses sashed with glass.
+Between the town-wall and the sea, the fishermen haul up their boats
+upon the open beach; but on the other side of the rock, where the
+castle stood, is the port or harbour of Nice, upon which some money has
+been expended. It is a small basin, defended to seaward by a mole of
+free-stone, which is much better contrived than executed: for the sea
+has already made three breaches in it; and in all probability, in
+another winter, the extremity of it will be carried quite away. It
+would require the talents of a very skilful architect to lay the
+foundation of a good mole, on an open beach like this; exposed to the
+swell of the whole Mediterranean, without any island or rock in the
+offing, to break the force of the waves. Besides, the shore is bold,
+and the bottom foul. There are seventeen feet of water in the basin,
+sufficient to float vessels of one hundred and fifty ton; and this is
+chiefly supplied by a small stream of very fine water; another great
+convenience for shipping. On the side of the mole, there is a constant
+guard of soldiers, and a battery of seven cannon, pointing to the sea.
+On the other side, there is a curious manufacture for twisting or
+reeling silk; a tavern, a coffee-house, and several other buildings,
+for the convenience of the sea-faring people. Without the harbour, is a
+lazarette, where persons coming from infected places, are obliged to
+perform quarantine. The harbour has been declared a free-port, and it
+is generally full of tartans, polacres, and other small vessels, that
+come from Sardinia, Ivica, Italy, and Spain, loaded with salt, wine,
+and other commodities; but here is no trade of any great consequence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The city of Nice is provided with a senate, which administers justice
+under the auspices of an avocat-general, sent hither by the king. The
+internal oeconomy of the town is managed by four consuls; one for the
+noblesse, another for the merchants, a third for the bourgeois, and a
+fourth for the peasants. These are chosen annually from the
+town-council. They keep the streets and markets in order, and
+superintend the public works. There is also an intendant, who takes
+care of his majesty's revenue: but there is a discretionary power
+lodged in the person of the commandant, who is always an officer of
+rank in the service, and has under his immediate command the regiment
+which is here in garrison. That which is here now is a Swiss battalion,
+of which the king has five or six in his service. There is likewise a
+regiment of militia, which is exercised once a year. But of all these
+particulars, I shall speak more fully on another occasion.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When I stand upon the rampart, and look round me, I can scarce help
+thinking myself inchanted. The small extent of country which I see, is
+all cultivated like a garden. Indeed, the plain presents nothing but
+gardens, full of green trees, loaded with oranges, lemons, citrons, and
+bergamots, which make a delightful appearance. If you examine them more
+nearly, you will find plantations of green pease ready to gather; all
+sorts of sallading, and pot-herbs, in perfection; and plats of roses,
+carnations, ranunculas, anemonies, and daffodils, blowing in full
+glory, with such beauty, vigour, and perfume, as no flower in England
+ever exhibited.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I must tell you, that presents of carnations are sent from hence, in
+the winter, to Turin and Paris; nay, sometimes as far as London, by the
+post. They are packed up in a wooden box, without any sort of
+preparation, one pressed upon another: the person who receives them,
+cuts off a little bit of the stalk, and steeps them for two hours in
+vinegar and water, when they recover their full bloom and beauty. Then
+he places them in water-bottles, in an apartment where they are
+screened from the severities of the weather; and they will continue
+fresh and unfaded the best part of a month.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Amidst the plantations in the neighbourhood of Nice, appear a vast
+number of white bastides, or country-houses, which make a dazzling
+shew. Some few of these are good villas, belonging to the noblesse of
+this county; and even some of the bourgeois are provided with pretty
+lodgeable cassines; but in general, they are the habitations of the
+peasants, and contain nothing but misery and vermin. They are all built
+square; and, being whitened with lime or plaister, contribute greatly
+to the richness of the view. The hills are shaded to the tops with
+olive-trees, which are always green; and those hills are over-topped by
+more distant mountains, covered with snow. When I turn myself towards
+the sea, the view is bounded by the horizon; yet in a clear morning,
+one can perceive the high lands of Corsica. On the right hand, it is
+terminated by Antibes, and the mountain of Esterelles, which I
+described in my last. As for the weather, you will conclude, from what
+I have said of the oranges, flowers, etc. that it must be wonderfully
+mild and serene: but of the climate, I shall speak hereafter. Let me
+only observe, en passant, that the houses in general have no chimnies,
+but in their kitchens; and that many people, even of condition, at
+Nice, have no fire in their chambers, during the whole winter. When the
+weather happens to be a little more sharp than usual, they warm their
+apartments with a brasiere or pan of charcoal.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Though Nice itself retains few marks of antient splendor, there are
+considerable monuments of antiquity in its neighbourhood. About two
+short miles from the town, upon the summit of a pretty high hill, we
+find the ruins of the antient city Cemenelion, now called Cimia, which
+was once the metropolis of the Maritime Alps, and the scat of a Roman
+president. With respect to situation, nothing could be more agreeable
+or salubrious. It stood upon the gentle ascent and summit of a hill,
+fronting the Mediterranean; from the shore of which, it is distant
+about half a league; and, on the other side, it overlooked a bottom, or
+narrow vale, through which the Paglion (antiently called Paulo) runs
+towards the walls of Nice. It was inhabited by a people, whom Ptolomy
+and Pliny call the Vedantij: but these were undoubtedly mixed with a
+Roman colony, as appears by the monuments which still remain; I mean
+the ruins of an amphitheatre, a temple of Apollo, baths, aqueducts,
+sepulchral, and other stones, with inscriptions, and a great number of
+medals which the peasants have found by accident, in digging and
+labouring the vineyards and cornfields, which now cover the ground
+where the city stood.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Touching this city, very little is to be learned from the antient
+historians: but that it was the seat of a Roman praeses, is proved by
+the two following inscriptions, which are still extant.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  P. AELIO. SEVERINO.<BR>
+  V. E. P.<BR>
+  PRAESIDI. OPTIMO.<BR>
+  ORDO. CEMEN.<BR>
+  PATRONO.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+By the Senate of Cemenelion, Dedicated to His Excellency P. Aelius
+Severinus, the best of Governors and Patrons.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This is now in the possession of the count de Gubernatis, who has a
+country-house upon the spot. The other, found near the same place, is
+in praise of the praeses Marcus Aurelius Masculus.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  M. AVRELIO. MASCVLO.<BR>
+  V. E.<BR>
+  OB. EXIMIAM. PRAESIDATVS<BR>
+  EIVS. INTEGRITATEM. ET<BR>
+  EGREGIAM. AD OMNES HOMINES<BR>
+  MANSVETVDINEM. ET. VRGENTIS<BR>
+  ANNONAE. SINCERAM. PRAEBITIONEM.<BR>
+  AC. MVNIFICENTIAM. ET. QVOD. AQVAE<BR>
+  VSVM. VETVSTATE. LAPSVM. REQVI-<BR>
+  SITVM. AC. REPERTVM. SAECVLI<BR>
+  FELICITATE. CVRSVI. PRISTINO<BR>
+  REDDIDERIT.<BR>
+  COLLEG. III.<BR>
+  QVIB. EX. SCC. P. EST<BR>
+  PATRONO. DIGNISS.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Inscribed by the three corporations under the authority of the Senate,
+to their most worthy Patron, His Excellency M. Aurelius Masculus, in
+testimony of their gratitude for the blessings of his incorruptible
+administration, his wonderful affability to all without Distinction,
+his generous Distribution of Corn in time of Dearth, his munificence in
+repairing the ruinous aqueduct, in searching for, discovering and
+restoring the water to its former course for the Benefit of the
+Community.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This president well deserved such a mark of respect from a people whom
+he had assisted in two such essential articles, as their corn and their
+water. You know the praeses of a Roman province had the jus sigendi
+clavi, the right to drive a nail in the Kalendar, the privilege of
+wearing the latus clavus, or broad studs on his garment, the gladius,
+infula, praetexta, purpura & annulus aureus, the Sword, Diadem, purple
+Robe, and gold Ring, he had his vasa, vehicula, apparitores, Scipio
+eburneus, & sella curulis, Kettledrums, [I know the kettledrum is a
+modern invention; but the vasa militari modo conclamata was something
+analogous.] Chariots, Pursuivants, ivory staff, and chair of state.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I shall give you one more sepulchral inscription on a marble, which is
+now placed over the gate of the church belonging to the convent of St.
+Pont, a venerable building, which stands at the bottom of the hill,
+fronting the north side of the town of Nice. This St. Pont, or Pontius,
+was a Roman convert to Christianity, who suffered martyrdom at
+Cemenelion in the year 261, during the reigns of the emperors Valerian
+and Gallienus. The legends recount some ridiculous miracles wrought in
+favour of this saint, both before and after his death. Charles V.
+emperor of Germany and king of Spain, caused this monastery to be built
+on the spot where Pontius suffered decapitation. But to return to the
+inscription: it appears in these words.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  M. M. A.<BR>
+  FLAVIAE. BASILLAE. CONIVG. CARISSIM.<BR>
+  DOM. ROMA. MIRAE. ERGA. MARITUM. AMORIS.<BR>
+  ADQ. CASTITAT. FAEMINAE. QVAE. VIXIT<BR>
+  ANN. XXXV. M. III. DIEB. XII. AVRELIVS<BR>
+  RHODISMANVS. AVG. LIB. COMMEM. ALP.<BR>
+  MART. ET. AVRELIA, ROMVLA. FILII.<BR>
+  IMPATIENTISSIM. DOLOR. EIVS. ADFLICTI<BR>
+  ADQ. DESOLATI. CARISSIM. AC MERENT. FERET.<BR>
+  FEC. ET. DED,<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Freely consecrated by Aurelius Rhodismanus, the Emperor's Freedman, to
+the much honoured memory of his dear Consort Flavia Aurelia of Rome, a
+woman equally distinguished by her unblemished Virtue and conjugal
+affection. His children Martial and Aurelia Romula deeply affected and
+distressed by the Violence of his Grief, erected and dedicated a
+monument to their dear deserving Parent.  [I don't pretend to translate
+these inscriptions literally, because I am doubtful about the meaning
+of some abbreviations.]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The amphitheatre of Cemenelion is but very small, compared to that of
+Nismes. The arena is ploughed up, and bears corn: some of the seats
+remain, and part of two opposite porticos; but all the columns, and the
+external facade of the building, are taken away so that it is
+impossible to judge of the architecture, all we can perceive is, that
+it was built in an oval form. About one hundred paces from the
+amphitheatre stood an antient temple, supposed to have been dedicated
+to Apollo. The original roof is demolished, as well as the portico; the
+vestiges of which may still be traced. The part called the Basilica,
+and about one half of the Cella Sanctior, remain, and are converted
+into the dwelling-house and stable of the peasant who takes care of the
+count de Gubernatis's garden, in which this monument stands. In the
+Cella Sanctior, I found a lean cow, a he-goat, and a jack-ass; the very
+same conjunction of animals which I had seen drawing a plough in
+Burgundy. Several mutilated statues have been dug up from the ruins of
+this temple; and a great number of medals have been found in the
+different vineyards which now occupy the space upon which stood the
+antient city of Cemenelion. These were of gold, silver, and brass. Many
+of them were presented to Charles Emanuel I. duke of Savoy. The prince
+of Monaco has a good number of them in his collection; and the rest are
+in private hands. The peasants, in digging, have likewise found many
+urns, lachrymatories, and sepulchral stones, with epitaphs, which are
+now dispersed among different convents and private houses. All this
+ground is a rich mine of antiquities, which, if properly worked, would
+produce a great number of valuable curiosities. Just by the temple of
+Apollo were the ruins of a bath, composed of great blocks of marble,
+which have been taken away for the purposes of modern building. In all
+probability, many other noble monuments of this city have been
+dilapidated by the same barbarous oeconomy. There are some subterranean
+vaults, through which the water was conducted to this bath, still
+extant in the garden of the count de Gubernatis. Of the aqueduct that
+conveyed water to the town, I can say very little, but that it was
+scooped through a mountain: that this subterranean passage was
+discovered some years ago, by removing the rubbish which choaked it up:
+that the people penetrating a considerable way, by the help of lighted
+torches, found a very plentiful stream of water flowing in an aqueduct,
+as high as an ordinary man, arched over head, and lined with a sort of
+cement. They could not, however, trace this stream to its source; and
+it is again stopped up with earth and rubbish. There is not a soul in
+this country, who has either spirit or understanding to conduct an
+inquiry of this kind. Hard by the amphitheatre is a convent of
+Recollets, built in a very romantic situation, on the brink of a
+precipice. On one side of their garden, they ascend to a kind of
+esplanade, which they say was part of the citadel of Cemenelion. They
+have planted it with cypress-trees, and flowering-shrubs. One of the
+monks told me, that it is vaulted below, as they can plainly perceive
+by the sound of their instruments used in houghing the ground. A very
+small expence would bring the secrets of this cavern to light. They
+have nothing to do, but to make a breach in the wall, which appears
+uncovered towards the garden.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The city of Cemenelion was first sacked by the Longobards, who made an
+irruption into Provence, under their king Alboinus, about the middle of
+the sixth century. It was afterwards totally destroyed by the Saracens,
+who, at different times, ravaged this whole coast. The remains of the
+people are supposed to have changed their habitation, and formed a
+coalition with the inhabitants of Nice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+What further I have to say of Nice, you shall know in good time; at
+present, I have nothing to add, but what you very well know, that I am
+always your affectionate humble servant.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap14"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER, XIV
+</H3>
+
+<P>
+NICE, January 20, 1764.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR SIR,&mdash;Last Sunday I crossed Montalban on horseback, with some
+Swiss officers, on a visit to our consul, Mr. B&mdash;d, who lives at Ville
+Franche, about half a league from Nice. It is a small town, built upon
+the side of a rock, at the bottom of the harbour, which is a fine
+basin, surrounded with hills on every side, except to the south, where
+it lies open to the sea. If there was a small island in the mouth of
+it, to break off the force of the waves, when the wind is southerly, it
+would be one of the finest harbours in the world; for the ground is
+exceeding good for anchorage: there is a sufficient depth of water, and
+room enough for the whole navy of England. On the right hand, as you
+enter the port, there is an elegant fanal, or lighthouse, kept in good
+repair: but in all the charts of this coast which I have seen, this
+lanthorn is laid down to the westward of the harbour; an error equally
+absurd and dangerous, as it may mislead the navigator, and induce him
+to run his ship among the rocks, to the eastward of the lighthouse,
+where it would undoubtedly perish. Opposite to the mouth of the harbour
+is the fort, which can be of no service, but in defending the shipping
+and the town by sea; for, by land, it is commanded by Montalban, and
+all the hills in the neighbourhood. In the war of 1744, it was taken
+and retaken. At present, it is in tolerable good repair. On the left of
+the fort, is the basin for the gallies, with a kind of dock, in which
+they are built, and occasionally laid up to be refitted. This basin is
+formed by a pretty stone mole; and here his Sardinian majesty's two
+gallies lie perfectly secure, moored with their sterns close to the
+jette. I went on board one of these vessels, and saw about two hundred
+miserable wretches, chained to the banks on which they sit and row,
+when the galley is at sea. This is a sight which a British subject,
+sensible of the blessing he enjoys, cannot behold without horror and
+compassion. Not but that if we consider the nature of the case, with
+coolness and deliberation, we must acknowledge the justice, and even
+sagacity, of employing for the service of the public, those malefactors
+who have forfeited their title to the privileges of the community.
+Among the slaves at Ville Franche is a Piedmontese count, condemned to
+the gallies for life, in consequence of having been convicted of
+forgery. He is permitted to live on shore; and gets money by employing
+the other slaves to knit stockings for sale. He appears always in the
+Turkish habit, and is in a fair way of raising a better fortune than
+that which he has forfeited.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It is a great pity, however, and a manifest outrage against the law of
+nations, as well as of humanity, to mix with those banditti, the
+Moorish and Turkish prisoners who are taken in the prosecution of open
+war. It is certainly no justification of this barbarous practice, that
+the Christian prisoners are treated as cruelly at Tunis and Algiers. It
+would be for the honour of Christendom, to set an example of generosity
+to the Turks; and, if they would not follow it, to join their naval
+forces, and extirpate at once those nests of pirates, who have so long
+infested the Mediterranean. Certainly, nothing can be more shameful,
+than the treaties which France and the Maritime Powers have concluded
+with those barbarians. They supply them with artillery, arms, and
+ammunition, to disturb their neighbours. They even pay them a sort of
+tribute, under the denomination of presents; and often put up with
+insults tamely, for the sordid consideration of a little gain in the
+way of commerce. They know that Spain, Sardinia, and almost all the
+Catholic powers in the Mediterranean, Adriatic, and Levant, are at
+perpetual war with those Mahometans; that while Algiers, Tunis, and
+Sallee, maintain armed cruisers at sea, those Christian powers will not
+run the risque of trading in their own bottoms, but rather employ as
+carriers the maritime nations, who are at peace with the infidels. It
+is for our share of this advantage, that we cultivate the piratical
+States of Barbary, and meanly purchase passports of them, thus
+acknowledging them masters of the Mediterranean.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Sardinian gallies are mounted each with five-and-twenty oars, and
+six guns, six-pounders, of a side, and a large piece of artillery
+amidships, pointing ahead, which (so far as I am able to judge) can
+never be used point-blank, without demolishing the head or prow of the
+galley. The accommodation on board for the officers is wretched. There
+is a paltry cabin in the poop for the commander; but all the other
+officers lie below the slaves, in a dungeon, where they have neither
+light, air, nor any degree of quiet; half suffocated by the heat of the
+place; tormented by fleas, bugs, and lice; and disturbed by the
+incessant noise over head. The slaves lie upon the naked banks, without
+any other covering than a tilt. This, however, is no great hardship, in
+a climate where there is scarce any winter. They are fed with a very
+scanty allowance of bread, and about fourteen beans a day and twice a
+week they have a little rice, or cheese, but most of them, while they
+are in harbour knit stockings, or do some other kind of work, which
+enables them to make some addition to this wretched allowance. When
+they happen to be at sea in bad weather, their situation is truly
+deplorable. Every wave breaks over the vessel, and not only keeps them
+continually wet, but comes with such force, that they are dashed
+against the banks with surprising violence: sometimes their limbs are
+broke, and sometimes their brains dashed out. It is impossible (they
+say) to keep such a number of desperate people under any regular
+command, without exercising such severities as must shock humanity. It
+is almost equally impossible to maintain any tolerable degree of
+cleanliness, where such a number of wretches are crouded together
+without conveniences, or even the necessaries of life. They are ordered
+twice a week to strip, clean, and bathe themselves in the sea: but,
+notwithstanding all the precautions of discipline, they swarm with
+vermin, and the vessel smells like an hospital, or crouded jail. They
+seem, nevertheless, quite insensible of their misery, like so many
+convicts in Newgate: they laugh and sing, and swear, and get drunk when
+they can. When you enter by the stern, you are welcomed by a band of
+music selected from the slaves; and these expect a gratification. If
+you walk forwards, you must take care of your pockets. You will be
+accosted by one or other of the slaves, with a brush and blacking-ball
+for cleaning your shoes; and if you undergo this operation, it is ten
+to one but your pocket is picked. If you decline his service, and keep
+aloof, you will find it almost impossible to avoid a colony of vermin,
+which these fellows have a very dexterous method of conveying to
+strangers. Some of the Turkish prisoners, whose ransom or exchange is
+expected, are allowed to go ashore, under proper inspection; and those
+forcats, who have served the best part of the time for which they were
+condemned, are employed in public works, under a guard of soldiers. At
+the harbour of Nice, they are hired by ship-masters to bring ballast,
+and have a small proportion of what they earn, for their own use: the
+rest belongs to the king. They are distinguished by an iron shackle
+about one of their legs. The road from Nice to Ville Franche is scarce
+passable on horseback: a circumstance the more extraordinary, as those
+slaves, in the space of two or three months, might even make it fit for
+a carriage, and the king would not be one farthing out of pocket, for
+they are quite idle the greatest part of the year.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The gallies go to sea only in the summer. In tempestuous weather, they
+could not live out of port. Indeed, they are good for nothing but in
+smooth water during a calm; when, by dint of rowing, they make good
+way. The king of Sardinia is so sensible of their inutility, that he
+intends to let his gallies rot; and, in lieu of them, has purchased two
+large frigates in England, one of fifty, and another of thirty guns,
+which are now in the harbour of Ville Franche. He has also procured an
+English officer, one Mr. A&mdash;, who is second in command on board of one
+of them, and has the title of captain consulteur, that is, instructor
+to the first captain, the marquis de M&mdash;i, who knows as little of
+seamanship as I do of Arabic.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The king, it is said, intends to have two or three more frigates, and
+then he will be more than a match for the Barbary corsairs, provided
+care be taken to man his fleet in a proper manner: but this will never
+be done, unless he invites foreigners into his service, officers as
+well as seamen; for his own dominions produce neither at present. If he
+is really determined to make the most of the maritime situation of his
+dominions, as well as of his alliance with Great-Britain, he ought to
+supply his ships with English mariners, and put a British commander at
+the head of his fleet. He ought to erect magazines and docks at Villa
+Franca; or if there is not conveniency for building, he may at least
+have pits and wharfs for heaving down and careening; and these ought to
+be under the direction of Englishmen, who best understand all the
+particulars of marine oeconomy. Without all doubt, he will not be able
+to engage foreigners, without giving them liberal appointments; and
+their being engaged in his service will give umbrage to his own
+subjects: but, when the business is to establish a maritime power,
+these considerations ought to be sacrificed to reasons of public
+utility. Nothing can be more absurd and unreasonable, than the murmurs
+of the Piedmontese officers at the preferment of foreigners, who
+execute those things for the advantage of their country, of which they
+know themselves incapable. When Mr. P&mdash;n was first promoted in the
+service of his Sardinian majesty, he met with great opposition, and
+numberless mortifications, from the jealousy of the Piedmontese
+officers, and was obliged to hazard his life in many rencounters with
+them, before they would be quiet. Being a man of uncommon spirit, he
+never suffered the least insult or affront to pass unchastised. He had
+repeated opportunities of signalizing his valour against the Turks; and
+by dint of extraordinary merit, and long services not only attained the
+chief command of the gallies, with the rank of lieutenant-general, but
+also acquired a very considerable share of the king's favour, and was
+appointed commandant of Nice. His Sardinian majesty found his account
+more ways than one, in thus promoting Mr. P&mdash;n. He made the acquisition
+of an excellent officer, of tried courage and fidelity, by whose advice
+he conducted his marine affairs. This gentleman was perfectly well
+esteemed at the court of London. In the war of 1744, he lived in the
+utmost harmony with the British admirals who commanded our fleet in the
+Mediterranean. In consequence of this good understanding, a thousand
+occasional services were performed by the English ships, for the
+benefit of his master, which otherwise could not have been done,
+without a formal application to our ministry; in which case, the
+opportunities would have been lost. I know our admirals had general
+orders and instructions, to cooperate in all things with his Sardinian
+majesty; but I know, also, by experience, how little these general
+instructions avail, when the admiral is not cordially interested in the
+service. Were the king of Sardinia at present engaged with England in a
+new war against France, and a British squadron stationed upon this
+coast, as formerly, he would find a great difference in this
+particular. He should therefore carefully avoid having at Nice a
+Savoyard commandant, utterly ignorant of sea affairs; unacquainted with
+the true interest of his master; proud, and arbitrary; reserved to
+strangers, from a prejudice of national jealousy; and particularly
+averse to the English.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With respect to the antient name of Villa Franca, there is a dispute
+among antiquarians. It is not at all mentioned in the Itinerarium of
+Antoninus, unless it is meant as the port of Nice. But it is more
+surprising, that the accurate Strabo, in describing this coast,
+mentions no such harbour. Some people imagine it is the Portus Herculis
+Monaeci. But this is undoubtedly what is now called Monaco; the harbour
+of which exactly tallies with what Strabo says of the Portus Monaeci&mdash;
+neque magnas, neque multas capit naves, It holds but a few vessels and
+those of small burthen. Ptolomy, indeed, seems to mention it under the
+name of Herculis Portus, different from the Portus Monaeci. His words
+are these: post vari ostium ad Ligustrium mare, massiliensium, sunt
+Nicaea, Herculis Portus, Trophaea Augusti, Monaeci Portus, Beyond the
+mouth of the Var upon the Ligurian Coast, the Marsilian Colonies are
+Nice, Port Hercules, Trophaea and Monaco. In that case, Hercules was
+worshipped both here and at Monaco, and gave his name to both places.
+But on this subject, I shall perhaps speak more fully in another
+letter, after I have seen the Trophaea Augusti, now called Tourbia, and
+the town of Monaco, which last is about three leagues from Nice. Here I
+cannot help taking notice of the following elegant description from the
+Pharsalia, which seems to have been intended for this very harbour.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Finis et Hesperiae promoto milite varus,<BR>
+  Quaque sub Herculeo sacratus numine Portus<BR>
+  Urget rupe cava Pelagus, non Corus in illum<BR>
+  Jus habet, aut Zephirus, solus sua littora turbat<BR>
+  Circius, et tuta prohibet statione Monaeci.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  The Troops advanc'd as far<BR>
+  As flows th' Hesperian Boundary, the Var;<BR>
+  And where the mountain scoop'd by nature's hands,<BR>
+  The spacious Port of Hercules, expands;<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Here the tall ships at anchor safe remain<BR>
+  Tho' Zephyr blows, or Caurus sweeps the Plain;<BR>
+  The Southern Blast alone disturbs the Bay;<BR>
+  And to Monaco's safer Port obstructs the way.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The present town of Villa Franca was built and settled in the
+thirteenth century, by order of Charles II. king of the Sicilies, and
+count of Provence, in order to defend the harbour from the descents of
+the Saracens, who at that time infested the coast. The inhabitants were
+removed hither from another town, situated on the top of a mountain in
+the neighbourhood, which those pirates had destroyed. Some ruins of the
+old town are still extant. In order to secure the harbour still more
+effectually, Emanuel Philibert, duke of Savoy, built the fort in the
+beginning of the last century, together with the mole where the gallies
+are moored. As I said before, Ville Franche is built on the face of a
+barren rock, washed by the sea; and there is not an acre of plain
+ground within a mile of it. In summer, the reflexion of the sun from
+the rocks must make it intolerably hot; for even at this time of the
+year, I walked myself into a profuse sweat, by going about a quarter of
+a mile to see the gallies.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Pray remember me to our friends at A&mdash;'s, and believe me to be ever
+yours.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap15"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER XV
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+NICE, January 3, 1764.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+MADAM,&mdash;In your favour which I received by Mr. M&mdash;l, you remind me of
+my promise, to communicate the remarks I have still to make on the
+French nation; and at the same time you signify your opinion, that I am
+too severe in my former observations. You even hint a suspicion, that
+this severity is owing to some personal cause of resentment; but, I
+protest, I have no particular cause of animosity against any individual
+of that country. I have neither obligation to, nor quarrel with, any
+subject of France; and when I meet with a Frenchman worthy of my
+esteem, I can receive him into my friendship with as much cordiality,
+as I could feel for any fellow-citizen of the same merit. I even
+respect the nation, for the number of great men it has produced in all
+arts and sciences. I respect the French officers, in particular, for
+their gallantry and valour; and especially for that generous humanity
+which they exercise towards their enemies, even amidst the horrors of
+war. This liberal spirit is the only circumstance of antient chivalry,
+which I think was worth preserving. It had formerly flourished in
+England, but was almost extinguished in a succession of civil wars,
+which are always productive of cruelty and rancour. It was Henry IV. of
+France, (a real knight errant) who revived it in Europe. He possessed
+that greatness of mind, which can forgive injuries of the deepest dye:
+and as he had also the faculty of distinguishing characters, he found
+his account, in favouring with his friendship and confidence, some of
+those who had opposed him in the field with the most inveterate
+perseverance. I know not whether he did more service to mankind in
+general, by reviving the practice of treating his prisoners with
+generosity, than he prejudiced his own country by patronizing the
+absurd and pernicious custom of duelling, and establishing a punto,
+founded in diametrical opposition to common sense and humanity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I have often heard it observed, that a French officer is generally an
+agreeable companion when he is turned of fifty. Without all doubt, by
+that time, the fire of his vivacity, which makes him so troublesome in
+his youth, will be considerably abated, and in other respects, he must
+be improved by his experience. But there is a fundamental error in the
+first principles of his education, which time rather confirms than
+removes. Early prejudices are for the most part converted into habits
+of thinking; and accordingly you will find the old officers in the
+French service more bigotted than their juniors, to the punctilios of
+false honour.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A lad of a good family no sooner enters into the service, than he
+thinks it incumbent upon him to shew his courage in a rencontre. His
+natural vivacity prompts him to hazard in company every thing that
+comes uppermost, without any respect to his seniors or betters; and ten
+to one but he says something, which he finds it necessary to maintain
+with his sword. The old officer, instead of checking his petulance,
+either by rebuke or silent disapprobation, seems to be pleased with his
+impertinence, and encourages every sally of his presumption. Should a
+quarrel ensue, and the parties go out, he makes no efforts to
+compromise the dispute; but sits with a pleasing expectation to learn
+the issue of the rencontre. If the young man is wounded, he kisses him
+with transport, extols his bravery, puts him into the hands of the
+surgeon, and visits him with great tenderness every day, until he is
+cured. If he is killed on the spot, he shrugs up his shoulders&mdash;says,
+quelle dommage! c'etoit un amiable enfant! ah, patience! What pity! he
+was a fine Boy! It can't be helpt! and in three hours the defunct is
+forgotten. You know, in France, duels are forbid, on pain of death: but
+this law is easily evaded. The person insulted walks out; the
+antagonist understands the hint, and follows him into the street, where
+they justle as if by accident, draw their swords, and one of them is
+either killed or disabled, before any effectual means can be used to
+part them. Whatever may be the issue of the combat, the magistrate
+takes no cognizance of it; at least, it is interpreted into an
+accidental rencounter, and no penalty is incurred on either side. Thus
+the purpose of the law is entirely defeated, by a most ridiculous and
+cruel connivance. The meerest trifles in conversation, a rash word, a
+distant hint, even a look or smile of contempt, is sufficient to
+produce one of these combats; but injuries of a deeper dye, such as
+terms of reproach, the lie direct, a blow, or even the menace of a
+blow, must be discussed with more formality. In any of these cases, the
+parties agree to meet in the dominions of another prince, where they
+can murder each other, without fear of punishment. An officer who is
+struck, or even threatened with a blow must not be quiet, until he
+either kills his antagonist, or loses his own life. A friend of mine,
+(a Nissard) who was in the service of France, told me, that some years
+ago, one of their captains, in the heat of passion, struck his
+lieutenant. They fought immediately: the lieutenant was wounded and
+disarmed. As it was an affront that could not be made up, he no sooner
+recovered of his wounds, than he called out the captain a second time.
+In a word, they fought five times before the combat proved decisive at
+last, the lieutenant was left dead on the spot. This was an event which
+sufficiently proved the absurdity of the punctilio that gave rise to
+it. The poor gentleman who was insulted, and outraged by the brutality
+of the aggressor, found himself under the necessity of giving him a
+further occasion to take away his life. Another adventure of the same
+kind happened a few years ago in this place. A French officer having
+threatened to strike another, a formal challenge ensued; and it being
+agreed that they should fight until one of them dropped, each provided
+himself with a couple of pioneers to dig his grave on the spot. They
+engaged just without one of the gates of Nice, in presence of a great
+number of spectators, and fought with surprising fury, until the ground
+was drenched with their blood. At length one of them stumbled, and
+fell; upon which the other, who found himself mortally wounded,
+advancing, and dropping his point, said, "Je te donne ce que tu m'as
+ote." "I'll give thee that which thou hast taken from me." So saying,
+he dropped dead upon the field. The other, who had been the person
+insulted, was so dangerously wounded that he could not rise. Some of
+the spectators carried him forthwith to the beach, and putting him into
+a boat, conveyed him by sea to Antibes. The body of his antagonist was
+denied Christian burial, as he died without absolution, and every body
+allowed that his soul went to hell: but the gentlemen of the army
+declared, that he died like a man of honour. Should a man be never so
+well inclined to make atonement in a peaceable manner, for an insult
+given in the heat of passion, or in the fury of intoxication, it cannot
+be received. Even an involuntary trespass from ignorance, or absence of
+mind, must be cleansed with blood. A certain noble lord, of our
+country, when he was yet a commoner, on his travels, involved himself
+in a dilemma of this sort, at the court of Lorrain. He had been riding
+out, and strolling along a public walk, in a brown study, with his
+horse-whip in his hand, perceived a caterpillar crawling on the back of
+a marquis, who chanced to be before him. He never thought of the petit
+maitre; but lifting up his whip, in order to kill the insect, laid it
+across his shoulders with a crack, that alarmed all the company in the
+walk. The marquis's sword was produced in a moment, and the aggressor
+in great hazard of his life, as he had no weapon of defence. He was no
+sooner waked from his reverie, than he begged pardon, and offered to
+make all proper concessions for what he had done through mere
+inadvertency. The marquis would have admitted his excuses, had there
+been any precedent of such an affront being washed away without blood.
+A conclave of honour was immediately assembled; and after long
+disputes, they agreed, that an involuntary offence, especially from
+such a kind of man, d'un tel homme, might be attoned by concessions.
+That you may have some idea of the small beginning, from which many
+gigantic quarrels arise, I shall recount one that lately happened at
+Lyons, as I had it from the mouth of a person who was an ear and eye
+witness of the transaction. Two Frenchmen, at a public ordinary,
+stunned the rest of the company with their loquacity. At length, one of
+them, with a supercilious air, asked the other's name. "I never tell my
+name, (said he) but in a whisper." "You may have very good reasons for
+keeping it secret," replied the first. "I will tell you," (resumed the
+other): with these words he rose; and going round to him, pronounced,
+loud enough to be heard by the whole company, "Je m'appelle Pierre
+Paysan; et vous etes un impertinent." "My name is Peter Peasant, and
+you are an impertinent fellow." So saying, he walked out: the
+interrogator followed him into the street, where they justled, drew
+their swords, and engaged. He who asked the question was run through
+the body; but his relations were so powerful, that the victor was
+obliged to fly his country, was tried and condemned in his absence; his
+goods were confiscated; his wife broke her heart; his children were
+reduced to beggary; and he himself is now starving in exile. In England
+we have not yet adopted all the implacability of the punctilio. A
+gentleman may be insulted even with a blow, and survive, after having
+once hazarded his life against the aggressor. The laws of honour in our
+country do not oblige him either to slay the person from whom he
+received the injury, or even to fight to the last drop of his own
+blood. One finds no examples of duels among the Romans, who were
+certainly as brave and as delicate in their notions of honour as the
+French. Cornelius Nepos tells us, that a famous Athenian general,
+having a dispute with his colleague, who was of Sparta, a man of a
+fiery disposition, this last lifted up his cane to strike him. Had this
+happened to a French petit maitre, death must have ensued: but mark
+what followed&mdash;The Athenian, far from resenting the outrage, in what is
+now called a gentlemanlike manner, said, "Do, strike if you please; but
+hear me." He never dreamed of cutting the Lacedemonian's throat; but
+bore with his passionate temper, as the infirmity of a friend who had a
+thousand good qualities to overbalance that defect.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I need not expatiate upon the folly and the mischief which are
+countenanced and promoted by the modern practice of duelling. I need
+not give examples of friends who have murdered each other, in obedience
+to this savage custom, even while their hearts were melting with mutual
+tenderness; nor will I particularize the instances which I myself know,
+of whole families ruined, of women and children made widows and
+orphans, of parents deprived of only sons, and of valuable lives lost
+to the community, by duels, which had been produced by one unguarded
+expression, uttered without intention of offence, in the heat of
+dispute and altercation. I shall not insist upon the hardship of a
+worthy man's being obliged to devote himself to death, because it is
+his misfortune to be insulted by a brute, a bully, a drunkard, or a
+madman: neither will I enlarge upon this side of the absurdity, which
+indeed amounts to a contradiction in terms; I mean the dilemma to which
+a gentleman in the army is reduced, when he receives an affront: if he
+does not challenge and fight his antagonist, he is broke with infamy by
+a court-martial; if he fights and kills him, he is tried by the civil
+power, convicted of murder, and, if the royal mercy does not interpose,
+he is infallibly hanged: all this, exclusive of the risque of his own
+life in the duel, and his conscience being burthened with the blood of
+a man, whom perhaps he has sacrificed to a false punctilio, even
+contrary to his own judgment. These are reflections which I know your
+own good sense will suggest, but I will make bold to propose a remedy
+for this gigantic evil, which seems to gain ground everyday: let a
+court be instituted for taking cognizance of all breaches of honour,
+with power to punish by fine, pillory, sentence of infamy, outlawry,
+and exile, by virtue of an act of parliament made for this purpose; and
+all persons insulted, shall have recourse to this tribunal: let every
+man who seeks personal reparation with sword, pistol, or other
+instrument of death, be declared infamous, and banished the kingdom:
+let every man, convicted of having used a sword or pistol, or other
+mortal weapon, against another, either in duel or rencountre,
+occasioned by any previous quarrel, be subject to the same penalties:
+if any man is killed in a duel, let his body be hanged upon a public
+gibbet, for a certain time, and then given to the surgeons: let his
+antagonist be hanged as a murderer, and dissected also; and some mark
+of infamy be set on the memory of both. I apprehend such regulations
+would put an effectual stop to the practice of duelling, which nothing
+but the fear of infamy can support; for I am persuaded, that no being,
+capable of reflection, would prosecute the trade of assassination at
+the risque of his own life, if this hazard was at the same time
+reinforced by the certain prospect of infamy and ruin. Every person of
+sentiment would in that case allow, that an officer, who in a duel robs
+a deserving woman of her husband, a number of children of their father,
+a family of its support, and the community of a fellow-citizen, has as
+little merit to plead from exposing his own person, as a highwayman, or
+housebreaker, who every day risques his life to rob or plunder that
+which is not of half the importance to society. I think it was from the
+Buccaneers of America, that the English have learned to abolish one
+solecism in the practice of duelling: those adventurers decided their
+personal quarrels with pistols; and this improvement has been adopted
+in Great Britain with good success; though in France, and other parts
+of the continent, it is looked upon as a proof of their barbarity. It
+is, however, the only circumstance of duelling, which savours of common
+sense, as it puts all mankind upon a level, the old with the young, the
+weak with the strong, the unwieldy with the nimble, and the man who
+knows not how to hold a sword with the spadassin, who has practised
+fencing from the cradle. What glory is there in a man's vanquishing an
+adversary over whom he has a manifest advantage? To abide the issue of
+a combat in this case, does not even require that moderate share of
+resolution which nature has indulged to her common children.
+Accordingly, we have seen many instances of a coward's provoking a man
+of honour to battle. In the reign of our second Charles, when duels
+flourished in all their absurdity, and the seconds fought while their
+principals were engaged, Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, not content with
+having debauched the countess of Shrewsbury and publishing her shame,
+took all opportunities of provoking the earl to single combat, hoping
+he should have an easy conquest, his lordship being a puny little
+creature, quiet, inoffensive, and every way unfit for such personal
+contests. He ridiculed him on all occasions; and at last declared in
+public company, that there was no glory in cuckolding Shrewsbury, who
+had not spirit to resent the injury. This was an insult which could not
+be overlooked. The earl sent him a challenge; and they agreed to fight,
+at Barns-Elms, in presence of two gentlemen, whom they chose for their
+seconds. All the four engaged at the same time; the first thrust was
+fatal to the earl of Shrewsbury; and his friend killed the duke's
+second at the same instant. Buckingham, elated with his exploit, set
+out immediately for the earl's seat at Cliefden, where he lay with his
+wife, after having boasted of the murder of her husband, whose blood he
+shewed her upon his sword, as a trophy of his prowess. But this very
+duke of Buckingham was little better than a poltroon at bottom. When
+the gallant earl of Ossory challenged him to fight in Chelsea fields,
+he crossed the water to Battersea, where he pretended to wait for his
+lordship; and then complained to the house of lords, that Ossory had
+given him the rendezvous, and did not keep his appointment. He knew the
+house would interpose in the quarrel, and he was not disappointed.
+Their lordships obliged them both to give their word of honour, that
+their quarrel should have no other consequences.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I ought to make an apology for having troubled a lady with so many
+observations on a subject so unsuitable to the softness of the fair
+sex; but I know you cannot be indifferent to any thing that so nearly
+affects the interests of humanity, which I can safely aver have alone
+suggested every thing which has been said by, Madam, Your very humble
+servant.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap16"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER XVI
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+NICE, May 2, 1764.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR DOCTOR,&mdash;A few days ago, I rode out with two gentlemen of this
+country, to see a stream of water which was formerly conveyed in an
+aqueduct to the antient city of Cemenelion, from whence this place is
+distant about a mile, though separated by abrupt rocks and deep
+hollows, which last are here honoured with the name of vallies. The
+water, which is exquisitely cool, and light and pure, gushes from the
+middle of a rock by a hole which leads to a subterranean aqueduct
+carried through the middle of the mountain. This is a Roman work, and
+the more I considered it, appeared the more stupendous. A peasant who
+lives upon the spot told us, he had entered by this hole at eight in
+the morning, and advanced so far, that it was four in the afternoon
+before he came out. He said he walked in the water, through a regular
+canal formed of a hard stone, lined with a kind of cement, and vaulted
+overhead; but so high in most parts he could stand upright, yet in
+others, the bed of the canal was so filled with earth and stones, that
+he was obliged to stoop in passing. He said that there were air-holes
+at certain distances (and indeed I saw one of these not far from the
+present issue) that there were some openings and stone seats on the
+sides, and here and there figures of men formed of stone, with hammers
+and working tools in their hands. I am apt to believe the fellow
+romanced a little, in order to render his adventure the more
+marvellous: but I am certainly informed, that several persons have
+entered this passage, and proceeded a considerable way by the light of
+torches, without arriving at the source, which (if we may believe the
+tradition of the country) is at the distance of eight leagues from this
+opening; but this is altogether incredible. The stream is now called la
+fontaine de muraille, and is carefully conducted by different branches
+into the adjacent vineyards and gardens, for watering the ground. On
+the side of the same mountain, more southerly, at the distance of half
+a mile, there is another still more copious discharge of the same kind
+of water, called la source du temple. It was conveyed through the same
+kind of passage, and put to the same use as the other; and I should
+imagine they are both from the same source, which, though hitherto
+undiscovered, must be at a considerable distance, as the mountain is
+continued for several leagues to the westward, without exhibiting the
+least signs of water in any other part. But, exclusive of the
+subterranean conduits, both these streams must have been conveyed
+through aqueducts extending from hence to Cemenelion over steep rocks
+and deep ravines, at a prodigious expence. The water from this source
+du temple, issues from a stone building which covers the passage in the
+rock. It serves to turn several olive, corn, and paper mills, being
+conveyed through a modern aqueduct raised upon paultry arcades at the
+expence of the public, and afterwards is branched off in very small
+streams, for the benefit of this parched and barren country. The Romans
+were so used to bathing, that they could not exist without a great
+quantity of water; and this, I imagine, is one reason that induced them
+to spare no labour and expence in bringing it from a distance, when
+they had not plenty of it at home. But, besides this motive, they had
+another: they were so nice and delicate in their taste of water, that
+they took great pains to supply themselves with the purest and lightest
+from afar, for drinking and culinary uses, even while they had plenty
+of an inferior sort for their bath, and other domestic purposes. There
+are springs of good water on the spot where Cemenelion stood: but there
+is a hardness in all well-water, which quality is deposited in running
+a long course, especially, if exposed to the influence of the sun and
+air. The Romans, therefore, had good reason to soften and meliorate
+this element, by conveying it a good length of way in open aqueducts.
+What was used in the baths of Cemenelion, they probably brought in
+leaden pipes, some of which have been dug up very lately by accident.
+You must know, I made a second excursion to these antient ruins, and
+measured the arena of the amphitheatre with packthread. It is an oval
+figure; the longest diameter extending to about one hundred and
+thirteen feet, and the shortest to eighty-eight; but I will not answer
+for the exactness of the measurement. In the center of it, there was a
+square stone, with an iron ring, to which I suppose the wild beasts
+were tied, to prevent their springing upon the spectators. Some of the
+seats remain, the two opposite entrances, consisting each of one large
+gate, and two lateral smaller doors, arched: there is also a
+considerable portion of the external wall; but no columns, or other
+ornaments of architecture. Hard by, in the garden of the count de
+Gubernatis, I saw the remains of a bath, fronting the portal of the
+temple, which I have described in a former letter; and here were some
+shafts of marble pillars, particularly a capital of the Corinthian
+order beautifully cut, of white alabaster. Here the count found a large
+quantity of fine marble, which he has converted to various uses; and
+some mutilated statues, bronze as well as marble. The peasant shewed me
+some brass and silver medals, which he has picked up at different times
+in labouring the ground; together with several oblong beads of coloured
+glass, which were used as ear-rings by the Roman ladies; and a small
+seal of agate, very much defaced. Two of the medals were of Maximian
+and Gallienus; the rest were so consumed, that I could not read the
+legend. You know, that on public occasions, such as games, and certain
+sacrifices, handfuls of medals were thrown among the people; a
+practice, which accounts for the great number which have been already
+found in this district. I saw some subterranean passages, which seemed
+to have been common sewers; and a great number of old walls still
+standing along the brink of a precipice, which overhangs the Paglion.
+The peasants tell me, that they never dig above a yard in depth,
+without finding vaults or cavities. All the vineyards and
+garden-grounds, for a considerable extent, are vaulted underneath; and
+all the ground that produces their grapes, fruit, and garden-stuff, is
+no more than the crumpled lime and rubbish of old Roman buildings,
+mixed with manure brought from Nice. This antient town commanded a most
+noble prospect of the sea; but is altogether inaccessible by any kind
+of wheel carriage. If you make shift to climb to it on horseback, you
+cannot descend to the plain again, without running the risk of breaking
+your neck.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+About seven or eight miles on the other side of Nice, are the remains
+of another Roman monument which has greatly suffered from the barbarity
+of successive ages. It was a trophy erected by the senate of Rome, in
+honour of Augustus Caesar, when he had totally subdued all the
+ferocious nations of these Maritime Alps; such as the Trumpilini
+Camuni, Vennontes, Isnarci, Breuni, etc. It stands upon the top of a
+mountain which overlooks the town of Monaco, and now exhibits the
+appearance of an old ruined tower. There is a description of what it
+was, in an Italian manuscript, by which it appears to have been a
+beautiful edifice of two stories, adorned with columns and trophies in
+alto-relievo, with a statue of Augustus Caesar on the top. On one of
+the sides was an inscription, some words of which are still legible,
+upon the fragment of a marble found close to the old building: but the
+whole is preserved in Pliny, who gives it, in these words, lib. iii.
+cap. 20.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  IMPERATORI CAESARI DIVI. F. AVG. PONT.<BR>
+  MAX. IMP. XIV. TRIBVNIC. POTEST. XVIII.<BR>
+  S. P. Q. R.<BR>
+  QVODEIVSDVCTV, AVSPICIISQ. GENIES ALPINAE OMNES,<BR>
+  QVAE A MARI SVPERO AD INFERVM PERTINEBANT, SVB<BR>
+  IMPERIVM PO. RO. SUNT REDAC. GENTES ALPINAE DEVICTAE.<BR>
+  TRVMPILINI CAMVNI, VENNONETES, ISNARCI, BREVNI,<BR>
+  NAVNES, FOCVNATES, VINDELICORVM GENTES QVATVOR,<BR>
+  CONSVANETES, VIRVCINATES, LICATES, CATENATES, ABI-<BR>
+  SONTES, RVGVSCI, SVANETES, CALVCONES, BRIXENTES,<BR>
+  LEPONTII, VIBERI, NANTVATES, SEDVNI, VERAGRI,<BR>
+  SALASSI, ACITAVONES MEDVLLI, VCINI, CATVRIGES,<BR>
+  BRIGIANI, SOGIVNTII, NEMALONES, EDENETES,<BR>
+  ESVBIANI, VEAMINI, GALLITAE, TRIVLLATI,<BR>
+  ECTINI, VERGVNNI, EGVITVRI. NEMENTVRI,<BR>
+  ORATELLI, NERVSCI, VELAVNI, SVETRI.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This Trophy is erected by the Senate and People of Rome to the Emperor
+Caesar Augustus, son of the divine Julius, in the fourteenth year of
+his imperial Dignity, and in the eighteenth of his Tribunician Power,
+because under his command and auspices all the nations of the Alps from
+the Adriatic to the Tuscanian Sea, were reduced under the Dominion of
+Rome. The Alpine nations subdued were the Trumpelini, etc.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Pliny, however, is mistaken in placing this inscription on a trophy
+near the Augusta praetoria, now called Aosta, in Piedmont: where,
+indeed, there is a triumphal arch, but no inscription. This noble
+monument of antiquity was first of all destroyed by fire; and
+afterwards, in Gothic times, converted into a kind of fortification.
+The marbles belonging to it were either employed in adorning the church
+of the adjoining village, which is still called Turbia, a corruption of
+Trophaea; [This was formerly a considerable town called Villa Martis,
+and pretends to the honour of having given birth to Aulus Helvius, who
+succeeded Commodus as emperor of Rome, by the name of Pertinax which he
+acquired from his obstinate refusal of that dignity, when it was forced
+upon him by the senate. You know this man, though of very low birth,
+possessed many excellent qualities, and was basely murdered by the
+praetorian guards, at the instigation of Didius Tulianus. For my part,
+I could never read without emotion, that celebrated eulogium of the
+senate who exclaimed after his death, Pertinace, imperante, securi
+viximus neminem timuimus, patre pio, patre senatus, patre omnium,
+honorum, We lived secure and were afraid of nothing under the
+Government of Pertinax, our affectionate Father, Father of the Senate,
+Father to all the children of Virtue.] or converted into tomb-stones,
+or carried off to be preserved in one or two churches of Nice. At
+present, the work has the appearance of a ruinous watch-tower, with
+Gothic battlements; and as such stands undistinguished by those who
+travel by sea from hence to Genoa, and other ports of Italy. I think I
+have now described all the antiquities in the neighbourhood of Nice,
+except some catacombs or caverns, dug in a rock at St. Hospice, which
+Busching, in his geography, has described as a strong town and seaport,
+though in fact, there is not the least vestige either of town or
+village. It is a point of land almost opposite to the tower of Turbia,
+with the mountains of which it forms a bay, where there is a great and
+curious fishery of the tunny fish, farmed of the king of Sardinia. Upon
+this point there is a watch-tower still kept in repair, to give notice
+to the people in the neighbourhood, in case any Barbary corsairs should
+appear on the coast. The catacombs were in all probability dug, in
+former times, as places of retreat for the inhabitants upon sudden
+descents of the Saracens, who greatly infested these seas for several
+successive centuries. Many curious persons have entered them and
+proceeded a considerable way by torch-light, without arriving at the
+further extremity; and the tradition of the country is, that they reach
+as far as the ancient city of Cemenelion; but this is an idle
+supposition, almost as ridiculous as that which ascribes them to the
+labour and ingenuity of the fairies: they consist of narrow
+subterranean passages, vaulted with stone and lined with cement. Here
+and there one finds detached apartments like small chambers, where I
+suppose the people remained concealed till the danger was over.
+Diodorus Siculus tells us, that the antient inhabitants of this country
+usually lived under ground. "Ligures in terra cubant ut plurimum;
+plures ad cava, saxa speluncasque ab natura factas ubi tegantur corpora
+divertunt," "The Ligurians mostly lie on the bare ground; many of them
+lodge in bare Caves and Caverns where they are sheltered from the
+inclemency of the weather." This was likewise the custom of the
+Troglodytae, a people bordering upon Aethiopia who, according to
+Aelian, lived in subterranean caverns; from whence, indeed they took
+their name trogli, signifying a cavern; and Virgil, in his Georgics,
+thus describes the Sarmatae,
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Ipsi in defossis specubus, secura sub alta<BR>
+  Ocia agunt terra.&mdash;<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  In Subterranean Caves secure they lie<BR>
+  Nor heed the transient seasons as they fly.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+These are dry subjects; but such as the country affords. If we have not
+white paper, we must snow with brown. Even that which I am now
+scrawling may be useful, if, not entertaining: it is therefore the more
+confidently offered by&mdash;Dear Sir, Yours affectionately.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap17"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER XVII
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+NICE, July 2, 1764.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR SIR,&mdash;Nice was originally a colony from Marseilles. You know the
+Phocians (if we may believe Justin and Polybius) settled in Gaul, and
+built Marseilles, during the reign of Tarquinius Priscus at Rome. This
+city flourished to such a degree, that long before the Romans were in a
+condition to extend their dominion, it sent forth colonies, and
+established them along the coast of Liguria. Of these, Nice, or Nicaea,
+was one of the most remarkable; so called, in all probability, from the
+Greek word Nike, signifying Victoria, in consequence of some important
+victory obtained over the Salii and Ligures, who were the antient
+inhabitants of this country. Nice, with its mother city, being in the
+sequel subdued by the Romans, fell afterwards successively under the
+dominion of the Goths, Burgundians, and Franks, the kings of Arles, and
+the kings of Naples, as counts of Provence. In the year one thousand
+three hundred and eighty-eight, the city and county of Nice being but
+ill protected by the family of Durazzo, voluntarily surrendered
+themselves to Amadaeus, surnamed the Red, duke of Savoy; and since that
+period, they have continued as part of that potentate's dominions,
+except at such times as they have been over-run and possessed by the
+power of France, which hath always been a troublesome neighbour to this
+country. The castle was begun by the Arragonian counts of Provence, and
+afterwards enlarged by several successive dukes of Savoy, so as to be
+deemed impregnable, until the modern method of besieging began to take
+place. A fruitless attempt was made upon it in the year one thousand
+five hundred and forty-three, by the French and Turks in conjunction:
+but it was reduced several times after that period, and is now in
+ruins. The celebrated engineer Vauban, being commanded by Louis XIV to
+give in a plan for fortifying Nice, proposed, that the river Paglion
+should be turned into a new channel, so as to surround the town to the
+north, and fall into the harbour; that where the Paglion now runs to
+the westward of the city walls, there should be a deep ditch to be
+filled with sea-water; and that a fortress should be built to the
+westward of this fosse. These particulars might be executed at no very
+great expence; but, I apprehend, they would be ineffectual, as the town
+is commanded by every hill in the neighbourhood; and the exhalations
+from stagnating sea-water would infallibly render the air unwholesome.
+Notwithstanding the undoubted antiquity of Nice, very few monuments of
+that antiquity now remain. The inhabitants say, they were either
+destroyed by the Saracens in their successive descents upon the coast,
+by the barbarous nations in their repeated incursions, or used in
+fortifying the castle, as well as in building other edifices. The city
+of Cemenelion, however, was subject to the same disasters, and even
+entirely ruined, nevertheless, we still find remains of its antient
+splendor. There have been likewise a few stones found at Nice, with
+antient inscriptions; but there is nothing of this kind standing,
+unless we give the name of antiquity to a marble cross on the road to
+Provence, about half a mile from the city. It stands upon a pretty high
+pedestal with steps, under a pretty stone cupola or dome, supported by
+four Ionic pillars, on the spot where Charles V. emperor of Germany,
+Francis I. of France, and pope Paul II. agreed to have a conference, in
+order to determine all their disputes. The emperor came hither by sea,
+with a powerful fleet, and the French king by land, at the head of a
+numerous army. All the endeavours of his holiness, however, could not
+effect a peace; but they agreed to a truce of ten years. Mezerai
+affirms, that these two great princes never saw one another on this
+occasion; and that this shyness was owing to the management of the
+pope, whose private designs might have been frustrated, had they come
+to a personal interview. In the front of the colonade, there is a small
+stone, with an inscription in Latin, which is so high, and so much
+defaced, that I cannot read it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the sixteenth century there was a college erected at Nice, by
+Emanuel Philibert, duke of Savoy, for granting degrees to students of
+law; and in the year one thousand six hundred and fourteen, Charles
+Emanuel I. instituted the senate of Nice; consisting of a president,
+and a certain number of senators, who are distinguished by their purple
+robes, and other ensigns of authority. They administer justice, having
+the power of life and death, not only through the whole county of Nice,
+but causes are evoked from Oneglia, and some other places, to their
+tribunal, which is the dernier ressort, from whence there is no appeal.
+The commandant, however, by virtue of his military power and
+unrestricted authority, takes upon him to punish individuals by
+imprisonment, corporal pains, and banishment, without consulting the
+senate, or indeed, observing any form of trial. The only redress
+against any unjust exercise of this absolute power, is by complaint to
+the king; and you know, what chance a poor man has for being redressed
+in this manner.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With respect to religion, I may safely say, that here superstition
+reigns under the darkest shades of ignorance and prejudice. I think
+there are ten convents and three nunneries within and without the walls
+of Nice; and among them all, I never could hear of one man who had made
+any tolerable advances in any kind of human learning. All ecclesiastics
+are exempted from any exertion of civil power, being under the
+immediate protection and authority of the bishop, or his vicar. The
+bishop of Nice is suffragan of the archbishop of Ambrun in France; and
+the revenues of the see amount to between five and six hundred pounds
+sterling. We have likewise an office of the inquisition, though I do
+not hear that it presumes to execute any acts of jurisdiction, without
+the king's special permission. All the churches are sanctuaries for all
+kinds of criminals, except those guilty of high treason; and the
+priests are extremely jealous of their privileges in this particular.
+They receive, with open arms, murderers, robbers, smugglers, fraudulent
+bankrupts, and felons of every denomination; and never give them up,
+until after having stipulated for their lives and liberty. I need not
+enlarge upon the pernicious consequences of this infamous prerogative,
+calculated to raise and extend the power and influence of the Roman
+church, on the ruins of morality and good order. I saw a fellow, who
+had three days before murdered his wife in the last month of pregnancy,
+taking the air with great composure and serenity, on the steps of a
+church in Florence; and nothing is more common, than to see the most
+execrable villains diverting themselves in the cloysters of some
+convents at Rome.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nice abounds with noblesse, marquisses, counts, and barons. Of these,
+three or four families are really respectable: the rest are novi
+homines, sprung from Bourgeois, who have saved a little money by their
+different occupations, and raised themselves to the rank of noblesse by
+purchase. One is descended from an avocat; another from an apothecary;
+a third from a retailer of wine, a fourth from a dealer in anchovies;
+and I am told, there is actually a count at Villefranche, whose father
+sold macaroni in the streets. A man in this country may buy a
+marquisate, or a county, for the value of three or four hundred pounds
+sterling, and the title follows the fief; but he may purchase lettres
+de noblesse for about thirty or forty guineas. In Savoy, there are six
+hundred families of noblesse; the greater part of which have not above
+one hundred crowns a year to maintain their dignity. In the mountains
+of Piedmont, and even in this country of Nice, there are some
+representatives of very antient and noble families, reduced to the
+condition of common peasants; but they still retain the antient pride
+of their houses, and boast of the noble blood that runs in their veins.
+A gentleman told me, that in travelling through the mountains, he was
+obliged to pass a night in the cottage of one of these rusticated
+nobles, who called to his son in the evening, "Chevalier, as-tu donne a
+manger aux cochons?" "Have you fed the Hogs, Sir Knight?" This,
+however, is not the case with the noblesse of Nice. Two or three of
+them have about four or five hundred a year: the rest, in general, may
+have about one hundred pistoles, arising from the silk, oil, wine, and
+oranges, produced in their small plantations, where they have also
+country houses. Some few of these are well built, commodious, and
+situated; but, for the most part, they are miserable enough. Our
+noblesse, notwithstanding their origin, and the cheap rate at which
+their titles have been obtained, are nevertheless extremely tenacious
+of their privileges, very delicate in maintaining the etiquette, and
+keep at a very stately distance from the Bourgeoisie. How they live in
+their families, I do not choose to enquire; but, in public, Madame
+appears in her robe of gold, or silver stuff, with her powder and
+frisure, her perfumes, her paint and her patches; while Monsieur Le
+Comte struts about in his lace and embroidery. Rouge and fard are more
+peculiarly necessary in this country, where the complexion and skin are
+naturally swarthy and yellow. I have likewise observed, that most of
+the females are pot-bellied; a circumstance owing, I believe, to the
+great quantity of vegetable trash which they eat. All the horses,
+mules, asses, and cattle, which feed upon grass, have the same
+distension. This kind of food produces such acid juices in the stomach,
+as excite a perpetual sense of hunger. I have been often amazed at the
+voracious appetites of these people. You must not expect that I should
+describe the tables and the hospitality of our Nissard gentry. Our
+consul, who is a very honest man, told me, he had lived four and thirty
+years in the country, without having once eat or drank in any of their
+houses.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The noblesse of Nice cannot leave the country without express leave
+from the king; and this leave, when obtained, is for a limited time,
+which they dare not exceed, on pain of incurring his majesty's
+displeasure. They must, therefore, endeavour to find amusements at
+home; and this, I apprehend, would be no easy task for people of an
+active spirit or restless disposition. True it is, the religion of the
+country supplies a never-failing fund of pastime to those who have any
+relish for devotion; and this is here a prevailing taste. We have had
+transient visits of a puppet-shew, strolling musicians, and
+rope-dancers; but they did not like their quarters, and decamped
+without beat of drum. In the summer, about eight or nine at night, part
+of the noblesse may be seen assembled in a place called the Pare; which
+is, indeed, a sort of a street formed by a row of very paltry houses on
+one side, and on the other, by part of the town-wall, which screens it
+from a prospect of the sea, the only object that could render it
+agreeable. Here you may perceive the noblesse stretched in pairs upon
+logs of wood, like so many seals upon the rocks by moon-light, each
+dame with her cicisbeo: for, you must understand, this Italian fashion
+prevails at Nice among all ranks of people; and there is not such a
+passion as jealousy known. The husband and the cicisbeo live together
+as sworn brothers; and the wife and the mistress embrace each other
+with marks of the warmest affection. I do not choose to enter into
+particulars. I cannot open the scandalous chronicle of Nice, without
+hazard of contamination. With respect to delicacy and decorum, you may
+peruse dean Swift's description of the Yahoos, and then you will have
+some idea of the porcheria, that distinguishes the gallantry of Nice.
+But the Pare is not the only place of public resort for our noblesse in
+a summer's evening. Just without one of our gates, you will find them
+seated in ditches on the highway side, serenaded with the croaking of
+frogs, and the bells and braying of mules and asses continually passing
+in a perpetual cloud of dust. Besides these amusements, there is a
+public conversazione every evening at the commandant's house called the
+Government, where those noble personages play at cards for farthings.
+In carnival time, there is also, at this same government, a ball twice
+or thrice a week, carried on by subscription. At this assembly every
+person, without distinction, is permitted to dance in masquerade: but,
+after dancing, they are obliged to unmask, and if Bourgeois, to retire.
+No individual can give a ball, without obtaining a permission and guard
+of the commandant; and then his house is open to all masques, without
+distinction, who are provided with tickets, which tickets are sold by
+the commandant's secretary, at five sols a-piece, and delivered to the
+guard at the door. If I have a mind to entertain my particular friends,
+I cannot have more than a couple of violins; and, in that case, it is
+called a conversazione.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Though the king of Sardinia takes all opportunities to distinguish the
+subjects of Great-Britain with particular marks of respect, I have seen
+enough to be convinced, that our nation is looked upon with an evil eye
+by the people of Nice; and this arises partly from religious
+prejudices, and partly from envy, occasioned by a ridiculous notion of
+our superior wealth. For my own part, I owe them nothing on the score
+of civilities; and therefore, I shall say nothing more on the subject,
+lest I should be tempted to deviate from that temperance and
+impartiality which I would fain hope have hitherto characterised the
+remarks of,&mdash; Dear Sir, your faithful, humble servant.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap18"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER XVIII
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+NICE, September 2, 1764.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR DOCTOR,&mdash;I wrote in May to Mr. B&mdash; at Geneva, and gave him what
+information he desired to have, touching the conveniences of Nice. I
+shall now enter into the same detail, for the benefit of such of your
+friends or patients, as may have occasion to try this climate.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The journey from Calais to Nice, of four persons in a coach, or two
+post-chaises, with a servant on horseback, travelling post, may be
+performed with ease, for about one hundred and twenty pounds, including
+every expence. Either at Calais or at Paris, you will always find a
+travelling coach or berline, which you may buy for thirty or forty
+guineas, and this will serve very well to reconvey you to your own
+country.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the town of Nice, you will find no ready-furnished lodgings for a
+whole family. Just without one of the gates, there are two houses to be
+let, ready-furnished, for about five loui'dores per month. As for the
+country houses in this neighbourhood, they are damp in winter, and
+generally without chimnies; and in summer they are rendered
+uninhabitable by the heat and the vermin. If you hire a tenement in
+Nice, you must take it for a year certain; and this will cost you about
+twenty pounds sterling. For this price, I have a ground floor paved
+with brick, consisting of a kitchen, two large halls, a couple of good
+rooms with chimnies, three large closets that serve for bed-chambers,
+and dressing-rooms, a butler's room, and three apartments for servants,
+lumber or stores, to which we ascend by narrow wooden stairs. I have
+likewise two small gardens, well stocked with oranges, lemons, peaches,
+figs, grapes, corinths, sallad, and pot-herbs. It is supplied with a
+draw-well of good water, and there is another in the vestibule of the
+house, which is cool, large, and magnificent. You may hire furniture
+for such a tenement for about two guineas a month: but I chose rather
+to buy what was necessary; and this cost me about sixty pounds. I
+suppose it will fetch me about half the money when I leave the place.
+It is very difficult to find a tolerable cook at Nice. A common maid,
+who serves the people of the country, for three or four livres a month,
+will not live with an English family under eight or ten. They are all
+slovenly, slothful, and unconscionable cheats. The markets at Nice are
+tolerably well supplied. Their beef, which comes from Piedmont, is
+pretty good, and we have it all the year. In the winter we have
+likewise excellent pork, and delicate lamb; but the mutton is
+indifferent. Piedmont, also, affords us delicious capons, fed with
+maize; and this country produces excellent turkeys, but very few geese.
+Chickens and pullets are extremely meagre. I have tried to fatten them,
+without success. In summer they are subject to the pip, and die in
+great numbers. Autumn and winter are the seasons for game; hares,
+partridges, quails, wild-pigeons, woodcocks, snipes, thrushes,
+beccaficas, and ortolans. Wild-boar is sometimes found in the
+mountains: it has a delicious taste, not unlike that of the wild hog in
+Jamaica; and would make an excellent barbecue, about the beginning of
+winter, when it is in good case: but, when meagre, the head only is
+presented at tables. Pheasants are very scarce. As for the heath-game,
+I never saw but one cock, which my servant bought in the market, and
+brought home; but the commandant's cook came into my kitchen, and
+carried it of, after it was half plucked, saying, his master had
+company to dinner. The hares are large, plump, and juicy. The
+partridges are generally of the red sort; large as pullets, and of a
+good flavour: there are also some grey partridges in the mountains; and
+another sort of a white colour, that weigh four or five pounds each.
+Beccaficas are smaller than sparrows, but very fat, and they are
+generally eaten half raw. The best way of dressing them is to stuff
+them into a roll, scooped of it's crum; to baste them well with butter,
+and roast them, until they are brown and crisp. The ortolans are kept
+in cages, and crammed, until they die of fat, then eaten as dainties.
+The thrush is presented with the trail, because the bird feeds on
+olives. They may as well eat the trail of a sheep, because it feeds on
+the aromatic herbs of the mountain. In the summer, we have beef, veal,
+and mutton, chicken, and ducks; which last are very fat, and very
+flabby. All the meat is tough in this season, because the excessive
+heat, and great number of flies, will not admit of its being kept any
+time after it is killed. Butter and milk, though not very delicate, we
+have all the year. Our tea and fine sugar come from Marseilles, at a
+very reasonable price.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nice is not without variety of fish; though they are not counted so
+good in their kinds as those of the ocean. Soals, and flat-fish in
+general, are scarce. Here are some mullets, both grey and red. We
+sometimes see the dory, which is called St Pierre; with rock-fish,
+bonita, and mackarel. The gurnard appears pretty often; and there is
+plenty of a kind of large whiting, which eats pretty well; but has not
+the delicacy of that which is caught on our coast. One of the best fish
+of this country, is called Le Loup, about two or three pounds in
+weight; white, firm, and well-flavoured. Another, no-way inferior to
+it, is the Moustel, about the same size; of a dark-grey colour, and
+short, blunt snout; growing thinner and flatter from the shoulders
+downwards, so as to resemble a soal at the tail. This cannot be the
+mustela of the antients, which is supposed to be the sea lamprey. Here
+too are found the vyvre, or, as we call it, weaver; remarkable for its
+long, sharp spines, so dangerous to the fingers of the fishermen. We
+have abundance of the saepia, or cuttle-fish, of which the people in
+this country make a delicate ragout; as also of the polype de mer,
+which is an ugly animal, with long feelers, like tails, which they
+often wind about the legs of the fishermen. They are stewed with
+onions, and eat something like cow-heel. The market sometimes affords
+the ecrivisse de mer, which is a lobster without claws, of a sweetish
+taste; and there are a few rock oysters, very small and very rank.
+Sometimes the fishermen find under water, pieces of a very hard cement,
+like plaister of Paris, which contain a kind of muscle, called la
+datte, from its resemblance to a date. These petrifactions are commonly
+of a triangular form and may weigh about twelve or fifteen pounds each
+and one of them may contain a dozen of these muscles which have nothing
+extraordinary in the taste or flavour, though extremely curious, as
+found alive and juicy, in the heart of a rock, almost as hard as
+marble, without any visible communication with the air or water. I take
+it for granted, however, that the inclosing cement is porous, and
+admits the finer parts of the surrounding fluid. In order to reach the
+muscles, this cement must be broke with large hammers; and it may be
+truly said, the kernal is not worth the trouble of cracking the shell.
+[These are found in great plenty at Ancona and other parts of the
+Adriatic, where they go by the name of Bollani, as we are informed by
+Keysler.] Among the fish of this country, there is a very ugly animal
+of the eel species, which might pass for a serpent: it is of a dusky,
+black colour, marked with spots of yellow, about eighteen inches, or
+two feet long. The Italians call it murena; but whether it is the fish
+which had the same name among the antient Romans, I cannot pretend to
+determine. The antient murena was counted a great delicacy, and was
+kept in ponds for extraordinary occasions. Julius Caesar borrowed six
+thousand for one entertainment: but I imagined this was the river
+lamprey. The murena of this country is in no esteem, and only eaten by
+the poor people.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Craw-fish and trout are rarely found in the rivers among the mountains.
+The sword-fish is much esteemed in Nice, and called l'empereur, about
+six or seven feet long: but I have never seen it. [Since I wrote the
+above letter, I have eaten several times of this fish, which is as
+white as the finest veal, and extremely delicate. The emperor
+associates with the tunny fish, and is always taken in their company.]
+They are very scarce; and when taken, are generally concealed, because
+the head belongs to the commandant, who has likewise the privilege of
+buying the best fish at a very low price. For which reason, the choice
+pieces are concealed by the fishermen, and sent privately to Piedmont
+or Genoa. But, the chief fisheries on this coast are of the sardines,
+anchovies, and tunny. These are taken in small quantities all the year;
+but spring and summer is the season when they mostly abound. In June
+and July, a fleet of about fifty fishing-boats puts to sea every
+evening about eight o'clock, and catches anchovies in immense
+quantities. One small boat sometimes takes in one night twenty-five
+rup, amounting to six hundred weight; but it must be observed, that the
+pound here, as well as in other parts of Italy, consists but of twelve
+ounces. Anchovies, besides their making a considerable article in the
+commerce of Nice, are a great resource in all families. The noblesse
+and burgeois sup on sallad and anchovies, which are eaten on all their
+meagre days. The fishermen and mariners all along this coast have
+scarce any other food but dry bread, with a few pickled anchovies; and
+when the fish is eaten, they rub their crusts with the brine. Nothing
+can be more delicious than fresh anchovies fried in oil: I prefer them
+to the smelts of the Thames. I need not mention, that the sardines and
+anchovies are caught in nets; salted, barrelled, and exported into all
+the different kingdoms and states of Europe. The sardines, however, are
+largest and fattest in the month of September. A company of adventurers
+have farmed the tunny-fishery of the king, for six years; a monopoly,
+for which they pay about three thousand pounds sterling. They are at a
+very considerable expence for nets, boats, and attendance. Their nets
+are disposed in a very curious manner across the small bay of St.
+Hospice, in this neighbourhood, where the fish chiefly resort. They are
+never removed, except in the winter, and when they want repair: but
+there are avenues for the fish to enter, and pass, from one inclosure
+to another. There is a man in a boat, who constantly keeps watch. When
+he perceives they are fairly entered, he has a method for shutting all
+the passes, and confining the fish to one apartment of the net, which
+is lifted up into the boat, until the prisoners are taken and secured.
+The tunny-fish generally runs from fifty to one hundred weight; but
+some of them are much larger. They are immediately gutted, boiled, and
+cut in slices. The guts and head afford oil: the slices are partly
+dried, to be eaten occasionally with oil and vinegar, or barrelled up
+in oil, to be exported. It is counted a delicacy in Italy and Piedmont,
+and tastes not unlike sturgeon. The famous pickle of the ancients,
+called garum, was made of the gills and blood of the tunny, or thynnus.
+There is a much more considerable fishery of it in Sardinia, where it
+is said to employ four hundred persons; but this belongs to the duc de
+St. Pierre. In the neighbourhood of Villa Franca, there are people
+always employed in fishing for coral and sponge, which grow adhering to
+the rocks under water. Their methods do not favour much of ingenuity.
+For the coral, they lower down a swab, composed of what is called
+spunyarn on board our ships of war, hanging in distinct threads, and
+sunk by means of a great weight, which, striking against the coral in
+its descent, disengages it from the rocks; and some of the pieces being
+intangled among the threads of the swab, are brought up with it above
+water. The sponge is got by means of a cross-stick, fitted with hooks,
+which being lowered down, fastens upon it, and tears it from the rocks.
+In some parts of the Adriatic and Archipelago, these substances are
+gathered by divers, who can remain five minutes below water. But I will
+not detain you one minute longer; though I must observe, that there is
+plenty of fine samphire growing along all these rocks, neglected and
+unknown.&mdash;Adieu.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap19"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER XIX
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+NICE, October 10, 1764.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR SIR,&mdash;Before I tell you the price of provisions at Nice, it will
+be necessary to say something of the money. The gold coin of Sardinia
+consists of the doppia di savoia, value twenty-four livres Piedmontese,
+about the size of a loui'dore; and the mezzo doppia, or piece of twelve
+livres. In silver, there is the scudo of six livres, the mezzo scudo of
+three; and the quarto, or pezza di trenta soldi: but all these are very
+scarce. We seldom see any gold and silver coin, but the loui'dore, and
+the six, and three-livre Pieces of France; a sure sign that the French
+suffer by their contraband commerce with the Nissards. The coin chiefly
+used at market is a piece of copper silvered, that passes for seven
+sols and a half; another of the same sort, valued two sols and a half.
+They have on one side the impression of the king's head; and on the
+other, the arms of Savoy, with a ducal crown, inscribed with his name
+and titles. There are of genuine copper, pieces of one sol, stamped on
+one side with a cross fleuree; and on the reverse, with the king's
+cypher and crown, inscribed as the others: finally, there is another
+small copper piece, called piccalon, the sixth part of a sol, with a
+plain cross, and on the reverse, a slip-knot surmounted with a crown;
+the legend as above. The impression and legend on the gold and silver
+coins, are the same as those on the pieces of seven sols and a half.
+The livre of Piedmont consists of twenty sols, and is very near of the
+same value as an English shilling: ten sols, therefore, are equal to
+six-pence sterling. Butcher's meat in general sells at Nice for three
+sols a pound; and veal is something dearer: but then there are but
+twelve ounces in the pound, which being allowed for, sixteen ounces,
+come for something less than twopence halfpenny English. Fish commonly
+sells for four sols the twelve ounces, or five for the English pound;
+and these five are equivalent to three-pence of our money: but
+sometimes we are obliged to pay five, and even six sols for the
+Piedmontese pound of fish. A turkey that would sell for five or six
+shillings at the London market, costs me but three at Nice. I can buy a
+good capon for thirty sols, or eighteen-pence; and the same price I pay
+for a brace of partridges, or a good hare. I can have a woodcock for
+twenty-four sols; but the pigeons are dearer than in London. Rabbits
+are very rare; and there is scarce a goose to be seen in the whole
+county of Nice. Wild-ducks and teal are sometimes to be had in the
+winter; and now I am speaking of sea-fowl, it may not be amiss to tell
+you what I know of the halcyon, or king's-fisher. It is a bird, though
+very rare in this country about the size of a pigeon; the body brown,
+and the belly white: by a wonderful instinct it makes its nest upon the
+surface of the sea, and lays its eggs in the month of November, when
+the Mediterranean is always calm and smooth as a mill-pond. The people
+about here call them martinets, because they begin to hatch about
+Martinmass. Their nests are sometimes seen floating near the shore, and
+generally become the prize of the boys, who are very alert in catching
+them.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+You know all sea-birds are allowed by the church of Rome to be eaten on
+meagre days, as a kind of fish; and the monks especially do not fail to
+make use of this permission. Sea turtle, or tortoises, are often found
+at sea by the mariners, in these latitudes: but they are not the green
+sort, so much in request among the aldermen of London. All the
+Mediterranean turtle are of the kind called loggerhead, which in the
+West-Indies are eaten by none but hungry seamen, negroes, and the
+lowest class of people. One of these, weighing about two hundred
+pounds, was lately brought on shore by the fishermen of Nice, who found
+it floating asleep on the surface of the sea. The whole town was
+alarmed at sight of such a monster, the nature of which they could not
+comprehend. However, the monks, called minims, of St. Francesco di
+Paolo, guided by a sure instinct, marked it as their prey, and
+surrounded it accordingly. The friars of other convents, not quite so
+hungry, crowding down to the beach, declared it should not be eaten;
+dropped some hints about the possibility of its being something
+praeternatural and diabolical, and even proposed exorcisms and
+aspersions with holy water. The populace were divided according to
+their attachment to this, or that convent: a mighty clamour arose; and
+the police, in order to remove the cause of their contention, ordered
+the tortoise to be recommitted to the waves; a sentence which the
+Franciscans saw executed, not without sighs and lamentation. The
+land-turtle, or terrapin, is much better known at Nice, as being a
+native of this country; yet the best are brought from the island of
+Sardinia. The soup or bouillon of this animal is always prescribed here
+as a great restorative to consumptive patients. The bread of Nice is
+very indifferent, and I am persuaded very unwholesome. The flour is
+generally musty, and not quite free of sand. This is either owing to
+the particles of the mill-stone rubbed off in grinding, or to what
+adheres to the corn itself, in being threshed upon the common ground;
+for there are no threshing-floors in this country. I shall now take
+notice of the vegetables of Nice. In the winter, we have green pease,
+asparagus, artichoaks, cauliflower, beans, French beans, celery, and
+endive; cabbage, coleworts, radishes, turnips, carrots, betteraves,
+sorrel lettuce, onions, garlic, and chalot. We have potatoes from the
+mountains, mushrooms, champignons, and truffles. Piedmont affords white
+truffles, counted the most delicious in the world: they sell for about
+three livres the pound. The fruits of this season are pickled olives,
+oranges, lemons, citrons, citronelles, dried figs, grapes, apples,
+pears, almonds, chestnuts, walnuts, filberts, medlars, pomegranates,
+and a fruit called azerolles, [The Italians call them Lazerruoli.]
+about the size of a nutmeg, of an oblong shape, red colour, and
+agreeable acid taste. I might likewise add the cherry of the Laurus
+cerasus, which is sold in the market; very beautiful to the eye, but
+insipid to the palate. In summer we have all those vegetables in
+perfection. There is also a kind of small courge, or gourd, of which
+the people of the country make a very savoury ragout, with the help of
+eggs, cheese, and fresh anchovies. Another is made of the badenjean,
+which the Spaniards call berengena: [This fruit is called Melanzana in
+Italy and is much esteemed by the Jews in Leghorn. Perhaps Melanzana is
+a corruption of Malamsana.] it is much eaten in Spain and the Levant,
+as well as by the Moors in Barbary. It is about the size and shape of a
+hen's egg, inclosed in a cup like an acorn; when ripe, of a faint
+purple colour. It grows on a stalk about a foot high, with long spines
+or prickles. The people here have different ways of slicing and
+dressing it, by broiling, boiling, and stewing, with other ingredients:
+but it is at best an insipid dish. There are some caperbushes in this
+neighbourhood, which grow wild in holes of garden walls, and require no
+sort of cultivation: in one or two gardens, there are palm-trees; but
+the dates never ripen. In my register of the weather, I have marked the
+seasons of the principal fruits in this country. In May we have
+strawberries, which continue in season two or three months. These are
+of the wood kind; very grateful, and of a good flavour; but the
+scarlets and hautboys are not known at Nice. In the beginning of June,
+and even sooner, the cherries begin to be ripe. They are a kind of
+bleeding hearts; large, fleshy, and high flavoured, though rather too
+luscious. I have likewise seen a few of those we call Kentish cherries
+which are much more cool, acid, and agreeable, especially in this hot
+climate. The cherries are succeeded by the apricots and peaches, which
+are all standards, and of consequence better flavoured than what we
+call wall-fruit. The trees, as well as almonds, grow and bear without
+care and cultivation, and may be seen in the open fields about Nice,
+but without proper culture, the fruit degenerates. The best peaches I
+have seen at Nice are the amberges, of a yellow hue, and oblong shape,
+about the size of a small lemon. Their consistence is much more solid
+than that of our English peaches, and their taste more delicious.
+Several trees of this kind I have in my own garden. Here is likewise
+plenty of other sorts; but no nectarines. We have little choice of
+plumbs. Neither do I admire the pears or apples of this country: but
+the most agreeable apples I ever tasted, come from Final, and are
+called pomi carli. The greatest fault I find with most fruits in this
+climate, is, that they are too sweet and luscious, and want that
+agreeable acid which is so cooling and so grateful in a hot country.
+This, too, is the case with our grapes, of which there is great plenty
+and variety, plump and juicy, and large as plumbs. Nature, however, has
+not neglected to provide other agreeable vegetable juices to cool the
+human body. During the whole summer, we have plenty of musk melons. I
+can buy one as large as my head for the value of an English penny: but
+one of the best and largest, weighing ten or twelve pounds, I can have
+for twelve sols, or about eight-pence sterling. From Antibes and
+Sardinia, we have another fruit called a watermelon, which is well
+known in Jamaica, and some of our other colonies. Those from Antibes
+are about the size of an ordinary bomb-shell: but the Sardinian and
+Jamaica watermelons are four times as large. The skin is green, smooth,
+and thin. The inside is a purple pulp, studded with broad, flat, black
+seeds, and impregnated with a juice the most cool, delicate, and
+refreshing, that can well be conceived. One would imagine the pulp
+itself dissolved in the stomach; for you may eat of it until you are
+filled up to the tongue, without feeling the least inconvenience. It is
+so friendly to the constitution, that in ardent inflammatory fevers, it
+is drank as the best emulsion. At Genoa, Florence, and Rome, it is sold
+in the streets, ready cut in slices; and the porters, sweating under
+their burthens, buy, and eat them as they pass. A porter of London
+quenches his thirst with a draught of strong beer: a porter of Rome, or
+Naples, refreshes himself with a slice of water-melon, or a glass of
+iced-water. The one costs three half-pence; the last, half a
+farthing&mdash;which of them is most effectual? I am sure the men are
+equally pleased. It is commonly remarked, that beer strengthens as well
+as refreshes. But the porters of Constantinople, who never drink any
+thing stronger than water, and eat very little animal food, will lift
+and carry heavier burthens than any other porters in the known world.
+If we may believe the most respectable travellers, a Turk will carry a
+load of seven hundred weight, which is more (I believe) than any
+English porter ever attempted to carry any length of way.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Among the refreshments of these warm countries, I ought not to forget
+mentioning the sorbettes, which are sold in coffee-houses, and places
+of public resort. They are iced froth, made with juice of oranges,
+apricots, or peaches; very agreeable to the palate, and so extremely
+cold, that I was afraid to swallow them in this hot country, until I
+found from information and experience, that they may be taken in
+moderation, without any bad consequence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Another considerable article in house-keeping is wine, which we have
+here good and reasonable. The wine of Tavelle in Languedoc is very near
+as good as Burgundy, and may be had at Nice, at the rate of six-pence a
+bottle. The sweet wine of St. Laurent, counted equal to that of
+Frontignan, costs about eight or nine-pence a quart: pretty good Malaga
+may be had for half the money. Those who make their own wine choose the
+grapes from different vineyards, and have them picked, pressed, and
+fermented at home.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That which is made by the peasants, both red and white, is generally
+genuine: but the wine-merchants of Nice brew and balderdash, and even
+mix it with pigeons dung and quick-lime. It cannot be supposed, that a
+stranger and sojourner should buy his own grapes, and make his own
+provision of wine: but he may buy it by recommendation from the
+peasants, for about eighteen or twenty livres the charge, consisting of
+eleven rup five pounds; in other words, of two hundred and eighty
+pounds of this country, so as to bring it for something less than
+three-pence a quart. The Nice wine, when mixed with water, makes an
+agreeable beverage. There is an inferior sort for servants drank by the
+common people, which in the cabaret does not cost above a penny a
+bottle. The people here are not so nice as the English, in the
+management of their wine. It is kept in flacons, or large flasks,
+without corks, having a little oil at top. It is not deemed the worse
+for having been opened a day or two before; and they expose it to the
+hot sun, and all kinds of weather, without hesitation. Certain it is,
+this treatment has little or no effect upon its taste, flavour, and
+transparency.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The brandy of Nice is very indifferent: and the liqueurs are so
+sweetened with coarse sugar, that they scarce retain the taste or
+flavour of any other ingredient.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The last article of domestic oeconomy which I shall mention is fuel, or
+wood for firing, which I buy for eleven sols (a little more than
+six-pence halfpenny) a quintal, consisting of one hundred and fifty
+pound Nice weight. The best, which is of oak, comes from Sardinia. The
+common sort is olive, which being cut with the sap in it, ought to be
+laid in during the summer; otherwise, it will make a very uncomfortable
+fire. In my kitchen and two chambers, I burned fifteen thousand weight
+of wood in four weeks, exclusive of charcoal for the kitchen stoves,
+and of pine-tops for lighting the fires. These last are as large as
+pineapples, which they greatly resemble in shape, and to which, indeed,
+they give their name; and being full of turpentine, make a wonderful
+blaze. For the same purpose, the people of these countries use the
+sarments, or cuttings of the vines, which they sell made up in small
+fascines. This great consumption of wood is owing to the large fires
+used in roasting pieces of beef, and joints, in the English manner. The
+roasts of this country seldom exceed two or three pounds of meat; and
+their other plats are made over stove holes. But it is now high time to
+conduct you from the kitchen, where you have been too long detained
+by&mdash;Your humble servant.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+P.S.&mdash;I have mentioned the prices of almost all the articles in
+house-keeping, as they are paid by the English: but exclusive of
+butcher's meat, I am certain the natives do not pay so much by thirty
+per cent. Their imposition on us, is not only a proof of their own
+villany and hatred, but a scandal on their government; which ought to
+interfere in favour of the subjects of a nation, to which they are so
+much bound in point of policy, as well as gratitude.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap20"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER XX
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+NICE, October 22, 1764.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+SIR,&mdash;As I have nothing else to do, but to satisfy my own curiosity,
+and that of my friends, I obey your injunctions with pleasure; though
+not without some apprehension that my inquiries will afford you very
+little entertainment. The place where I am is of very little importance
+or consequence as a state or community; neither is there any thing
+curious or interesting in the character or oeconomy of its inhabitants.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There are some few merchants in Nice, said to be in good circumstances.
+I know one of them, who deals to a considerable extent, and goes twice
+a year to London to attend the sales of the East-India company. He buys
+up a very large quantity of muslins, and other Indian goods, and
+freights a ship in the river to transport them to Villa Franca. Some of
+these are sent to Swisserland; but, I believe, the greater part is
+smuggled into France, by virtue of counterfeit stamps, which are here
+used without any ceremony. Indeed, the chief commerce of this place is
+a contraband traffick carried on to the disadvantage of France; and I
+am told, that the farmers of the Levant company in that kingdom find
+their account in conniving at it. Certain it is, a great quantity of
+merchandize is brought hither every week by mules from Turin and other
+parts in Piedmont, and afterwards conveyed to the other side of the
+Var, either by land or water. The mules of Piedmont are exceeding
+strong and hardy. One of them will carry a burthen of near six hundred
+weight. They are easily nourished, and require no other respite from
+their labour, but the night's repose. They are the only carriage that
+can be used in crossing the mountains, being very sure-footed: and it
+is observed that in choosing their steps, they always march upon the
+brink of the precipice. You must let them take their own way, otherwise
+you will be in danger of losing your life; for they are obstinate, even
+to desperation. It is very dangerous for a person on horseback to meet
+those animals: they have such an aversion to horses, that they will
+attack them with incredible fury, so as even to tear them and their
+riders in pieces; and the best method for avoiding this fate, is to
+clap spurs to your beast, and seek your safety in flight. I have been
+more than once obliged to fly before them. They always give you
+warning, by raising a hideous braying as soon as they perceive the
+horse at a distance. The mules of Provence are not so mischievous,
+because they are more used to the sight and society of horses: but
+those of Piedmont are by far the largest and the strongest I have seen.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Some very feasible schemes for improving the commerce of Nice have been
+presented to the ministry of Turin; but hitherto without success. The
+English import annually between two and three thousand bales of raw
+silk, the growth of Piedmont; and this declaration would be held legal
+evidence. In some parts of France, the cure of the parish, on All
+Souls' day, which is called le jour des morts, says a libera domine for
+two sols, at every grave in the burying-ground, for the release of the
+soul whose body is there interred.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The artisans of Nice are very lazy, very needy, very aukward, and void
+of all ingenuity. The price of their labour is very near as high as at
+London or Paris. Rather than work for moderate profit, arising from
+constant employment, which would comfortably maintain them and their
+families, they choose to starve at home, to lounge about the ramparts,
+bask themselves in the sun, or play at bowls in the streets from
+morning 'till night.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The lowest class of people consists of fishermen, day labourers,
+porters, and peasants: these last are distributed chiefly in the small
+cassines in the neighbourhood of the city, and are said to amount to
+twelve thousand. They are employed in labouring the ground, and have
+all the outward signs of extreme misery. They are all diminutive,
+meagre, withered, dirty, and half naked; in their complexions, not
+barely swarthy, but as black as Moors; and I believe many of them are
+descendants of that people. They are very hard favoured; and their
+women in general have the coarsest features I have ever seen: it must
+be owned, however, they have the finest teeth in the world. The
+nourishment of those poor creatures consists of the refuse of the
+garden, very coarse bread, a kind of meal called polenta, made of
+Indian corn, which is very nourishing and agreeable, and a little oil;
+but even in these particulars, they seem to be stinted to very scanty
+meals. I have known a peasant feed his family with the skins of boiled
+beans. Their hogs are much better fed than their children. 'Tis pity
+they have no cows, which would yield milk, butter, and cheese, for the
+sustenance of their families. With all this wretchedness, one of these
+peasants will not work in your garden for less than eighteen sols,
+about eleven pence sterling, per diem; and then he does not half the
+work of an English labourer. If there is fruit in it, or any thing he
+can convey, he will infallibly steal it, if you do not keep a very
+watchful eye over him. All the common people are thieves and beggars;
+and I believe this is always the case with people who are extremely
+indigent and miserable. In other respects, they are seldom guilty of
+excesses. They are remarkably respectful and submissive to their
+superiors. The populace of Nice are very quiet and orderly. They are
+little addicted to drunkenness. I have never heard of one riot since I
+lived among them; and murder and robbery are altogether unknown. A man
+may walk alone over the county of Nice, at midnight, without danger of
+insult. The police is very well regulated. No man is permitted to wear
+a pistol or dagger' on pain of being sent to the gallies. I am
+informed, that both murder and robbery are very frequent in some parts
+of Piedmont. Even here, when the peasants quarrel in their cups, (which
+very seldom happens) they draw their knives, and the one infallibly
+stabs the other. To such extremities, however, they never proceed,
+except when there is a woman in the case; and mutual jealousy
+co-operates with the liquor they have drank, to inflame their passions.
+In Nice, the common people retire to their lodgings at eight o'clock in
+winter, and nine in summer. Every person found in the streets after
+these hours, is apprehended by the patrole; and, if he cannot give a
+good account of himself, sent to prison. At nine in winter, and ten in
+summer, there is a curfew-bell rung, warning the people to put out
+their lights, and go to bed. This is a very necessary precaution in
+towns subject to conflagrations; but of small use in Nice, where there
+is very little combustible in the houses.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The punishments inflicted upon malefactors and delinquents at Nice are
+hanging for capital crimes; slavery on board the gallies for a limited
+term, or for life, according to the nature of the transgression;
+flagellation, and the strappado. This last is performed, by hoisting up
+the criminal by his hands tied behind his back, on a pulley about two
+stories high; from whence, the rope being suddenly slackened, he falls
+to within a yard or two of the ground, where he is stopped with a
+violent shock arising from the weight of his body, and the velocity of
+his descent, which generally dislocates his shoulders, with incredible
+pain. This dreadful execution is sometimes repeated in a few minutes on
+the same delinquent; so that the very ligaments are tore from his
+joints, and his arms are rendered useless for life.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The poverty of the people in this country, as well as in the South of
+France, may be conjectured from the appearance of their domestic
+animals. The draughthorses, mules, and asses, of the peasants, are so
+meagre, as to excite compassion. There is not a dog to be seen in
+tolerable case; and the cats are so many emblems of famine, frightfully
+thin, and dangerously rapacious. I wonder the dogs and they do not
+devour young children. Another proof of that indigence which reigns
+among the common people, is this: you may pass through the whole South
+of France, as well as the county of Nice, where there is no want of
+groves, woods, and plantations, without hearing the song of blackbird,
+thrush, linnet, gold-finch, or any other bird whatsoever. All is silent
+and solitary. The poor birds are destroyed, or driven for refuge, into
+other countries, by the savage persecution of the people, who spare no
+pains to kill, and catch them for their own subsistence. Scarce a
+sparrow, red-breast, tomtit, or wren, can 'scape the guns and snares of
+those indefatigable fowlers. Even the noblesse make parties to go a la
+chasse, a-hunting; that is, to kill those little birds, which they eat
+as gibier, or game.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The great poverty of the people here, is owing to their religion. Half
+of their time is lost in observing the great number of festivals; and
+half of their substance is given to mendicant friars and parish
+priests. But if the church occasions their indigence, it likewise, in
+some measure, alleviates the horrors of it, by amusing them with shows,
+processions, and even those very feasts, which afford a recess from
+labour, in a country where the climate disposes them to idleness. If
+the peasants in the neighbourhood of any chapel dedicated to a saint,
+whose day is to be celebrated, have a mind to make a festin, in other
+words, a fair, they apply to the commandant of Nice for a license,
+which costs them about a French crown. This being obtained, they
+assemble after service, men and women, in their best apparel, and dance
+to the musick of fiddles, and pipe and tabor, or rather pipe and drum.
+There are hucksters' stands, with pedlary ware and knick-knacks for
+presents; cakes and bread, liqueurs and wine; and thither generally
+resort all the company of Nice. I have seen our whole noblesse at one
+of these festins, kept on the highway in summer, mingled with an
+immense crowd of peasants, mules, and asses, covered with dust, and
+sweating at every pore with the excessive heat of the weather. I should
+be much puzzled to tell whence their enjoyment arises on such
+occasions; or to explain their motives for going thither, unless they
+are prescribed it for pennance, as a fore-taste of purgatory.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Now I am speaking of religious institutions, I cannot help observing,
+that the antient Romans were still more superstitious than the modern
+Italians; and that the number of their religious feasts, sacrifices,
+fasts, and holidays, was even greater than those of the Christian
+church of Rome. They had their festi and profesti, their feriae
+stativae, and conceptivae, their fixed and moveable feasts; their
+esuriales, or fasting days, and their precidaneae, or vigils. The
+agonales were celebrated in January; the carmentales, in January and
+February; the lupercales and matronales, in March; the megalesia in
+April; the floralia, in May; and the matralia in June. They had their
+saturnalia, robigalia, venalia, vertumnalia, fornacalia, palilia, and
+laralia, their latinae, their paganales, their sementinae, their
+compitales, and their imperativae; such as the novemdalia, instituted
+by the senate, on account of a supposed shower of stones. Besides,
+every private family had a number of feriae, kept either by way of
+rejoicing for some benefit, or mourning for some calamity. Every time
+it thundered, the day was kept holy. Every ninth day was a holiday,
+thence called nundinae quasi novendinae. There was the dies
+denominalis, which was the fourth of the kalends; nones and ides of
+every month, over and above the anniversary of every great defeat which
+the republic had sustained, particularly the dies alliensis, or
+fifteenth of the kalends of December, on which the Romans were totally
+defeated by the Gauls and Veientes; as Lucan says&mdash;et damnata diu
+Romanis allia fastis, and Allia in Rome's Calendar condemn'd. The vast
+variety of their deities, said to amount to thirty thousand, with their
+respective rites of adoration, could not fail to introduce such a
+number of ceremonies, shews, sacrifices, lustrations, and public
+processions, as must have employed the people almost constantly from
+one end of the year to the other. This continual dissipation must have
+been a great enemy to industry; and the people must have been idle and
+effeminate. I think it would be no difficult matter to prove, that
+there is very little difference, in point of character, between the
+antient and modern inhabitants of Rome; and that the great figure which
+this empire made of old, was not so much owing to the intrinsic virtue
+of its citizens, as to the barbarism, ignorance, and imbecility of the
+nations they subdued. Instances of public and private virtue I find as
+frequent and as striking in the history of other nations, as in the
+annals of antient Rome; and now that the kingdoms and states of Europe
+are pretty equally enlightened, and ballanced in the scale of political
+power, I am of opinion, that if the most fortunate generals of the
+Roman commonwealth were again placed at the head of the very armies
+they once commanded, instead of extending their conquests over all
+Europe and Asia, they would hardly be able to subdue, and retain under
+their dominion, all the petty republics that subsist in Italy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But I am tired with writing; and I believe you will be tired with
+reading this long letter notwithstanding all your prepossession in
+favour of&mdash;Your very humble servant.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap21"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER XXI
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+NICE, November 10, 1764.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR DOCTOR,&mdash;In my enquiries about the revenues of Nice, I am obliged
+to trust to the information of the inhabitants, who are much given to
+exaggerate. They tell me, the revenues of this town amount to one
+hundred thousand livres, or five thousand pounds sterling; of which I
+would strike off at least one fourth, as an addition of their own
+vanity: perhaps, if we deduct a third, it will be nearer the truth.
+For, I cannot find out any other funds they have, but the butchery and
+the bakery, which they farm at so much a year to the best bidder; and
+the droits d'entree, or duties upon provision brought into the city;
+but these are very small. The king is said to draw from Nice one
+hundred thousand livres annually, arising from a free-gift, amounting
+to seven hundred pounds sterling, in lieu of the taille, from which
+this town and county are exempted; an inconsiderable duty upon wine
+sold in public-houses; and the droits du port. These last consist of
+anchorage, paid by all vessels in proportion to their tonnage, when
+they enter the harbours of Nice and Villa Franca. Besides, all foreign
+vessels, under a certain stipulated burthen, that pass between the
+island of Sardinia and this coast, are obliged, in going to the
+eastward, to enter; and pay a certain regulated imposition, on pain of
+being taken and made prize. The prince of Monaco exacts a talliage of
+the same kind; and both he and the king of Sardinia maintain armed
+cruisers to assert this prerogative; from which, however, the English
+and French are exempted by treaty, in consequence of having paid a sum
+of money at once. In all probability, it was originally given as a
+consideration for maintaining lights on the shore, for the benefit of
+navigators, like the toll paid for passing the Sound in the Baltic.
+[Upon further inquiry I find it was given in consideration of being
+protected from the Corsairs by the naval force of the Duke of Savoy and
+Prince of Monaco.] The fanal, or lanthorn, to the eastward of Villa
+Franca, is kept in good repair, and still lighted in the winter. The
+toll, however, is a very troublesome tax upon feluccas, and other small
+craft, which are greatly retarded in their voyages, and often lose the
+benefit of a fair wind, by being obliged to run inshore, and enter
+those harbours. The tobacco the king manufactures at his own expence,
+and sells for his own profit, at a very high price; and every person
+convicted of selling this commodity in secret, is sent to the gallies
+for life. The salt comes chiefly from Sardinia, and is stored up in the
+king's magazine from whence it is exported to Piedmont, and other parts
+of his inland dominions. And here it may not be amiss to observe, that
+Sardinia produces very good horses, well-shaped, though small; strong,
+hardy, full of mettle, and easily fed. The whole county of Nice is said
+to yield the king half a million of livres, about twenty-five thousand
+pounds sterling, arising from a small donative made by every town and
+village: for the lands pay no tax, or imposition, but the tithes to the
+church. His revenue then flows from the gabelle on salt and wine, and
+these free-gifts; so that we may strike off one fifth of the sum at
+which the whole is estimated; and conclude, that the king draws from
+the county at Nice, about four hundred thousand livres, or twenty
+thousand pounds sterling. That his revenues from Nice are not great,
+appears from the smallness of the appointments allowed to his officers.
+The president has about three hundred pounds per annum; and the
+intendant about two. The pay of the commandant does not exceed three
+hundred and fifty pounds: but he has certain privileges called the tour
+du baton, some of which a man of spirit would not insist upon. He who
+commands at present, having no estate of his own, enjoys a small
+commandery, which being added to his appointments at Nice, make the
+whole amount to about five hundred pounds sterling.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+If we may believe the politicians of Nice, the king of Sardinia's whole
+revenue does not fall short of twenty millions of Piedmontese livres,
+being above one million of our money. It must be owned, that there is
+no country in Christendom less taxed than that of Nice; and as the soil
+produces the necessaries of life, the inhabitants, with a little
+industry, might renew the golden age in this happy climate, among their
+groves, woods, and mountains, beautified with fountains, brooks,
+rivers, torrents, and cascades. In the midst of these pastoral
+advantages, the peasants are poor and miserable. They have no stock to
+begin the world with. They have no leases of the lands they cultivate;
+but entirely depend, from year to year, on the pleasure of the
+arbitrary landholder, who may turn them out at a minute's warning; and
+they are oppressed by the mendicant friars and parish priests, who rob
+them of the best fruits of their labour: after all, the ground is too
+scanty for the number of families which are crouded on it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+You desire to know the state of the arts and sciences at Nice; which,
+indeed, is almost a total blank. I know not what men of talents this
+place may have formerly produced; but at present, it seems to be
+consecrated to the reign of dulness and superstition. It is very
+surprising, to see a people established between two enlightened
+nations, so devoid of taste and literature. Here are no tolerable
+pictures, busts, statues, nor edifices: the very ornaments of the
+churches are wretchedly conceived, and worse executed. They have no
+public, nor private libraries that afford any thing worth perusing.
+There is not even a bookseller in Nice. Though they value themselves
+upon their being natives of Italy, they are unacquainted with music.
+The few that play upon instruments, attend only to the execution. They
+have no genius nor taste, nor any knowledge of harmony and composition.
+Among the French, a Nissard piques himself on being Provencal; but in
+Florence, Milan, or Rome, he claims the honour of being born a native
+of Italy. The people of condition here speak both languages equally
+well; or, rather, equally ill; for they use a low, uncouth phraseology;
+and their pronunciation is extremely vitious. Their vernacular tongue
+is what they call Patois; though in so calling it, they do it
+injustice.&mdash;Patois, from the Latin word patavinitas, means no more than
+a provincial accent, or dialect. It takes its name from Patavium, or
+Padua, which was the birthplace of Livy, who, with all his merit as a
+writer, has admitted into his history, some provincial expressions of
+his own country. The Patois, or native tongue of Nice, is no other than
+the ancient Provencal, from which the Italian, Spanish and French
+languages, have been formed. This is the language that rose upon the
+ruins of the Latin tongue, after the irruptions of the Goths, Vandals,
+Huns, and Burgundians, by whom the Roman empire was destroyed. It was
+spoke all over Italy, Spain, and the southern parts of France, until
+the thirteenth century, when the Italians began to polish it into the
+language which they now call their own: The Spaniards and French,
+likewise, improved it into their respective tongues. From its great
+affinity to the Latin, it was called Romance, a name which the
+Spaniards still give to their own language. As the first legends of
+knight-errantry were written in Provencal, all subsequent performances
+of the same kind, have derived from it the name of romance; and as
+those annals of chivalry contained extravagant adventures of knights,
+giants, and necromancers, every improbable story or fiction is to this
+day called a romance. Mr. Walpole, in his Catalogue of royal and noble
+Authors, has produced two sonnets in the antient Provencal, written by
+our king Richard I. surnamed Coeur de Lion; and Voltaire, in his
+Historical Tracts, has favoured the world with some specimens of the
+same language. The Patois of Nice, must, without doubt, have undergone
+changes and corruptions in the course of so many ages, especially as no
+pains have been taken to preserve its original purity, either in
+orthography or pronunciation. It is neglected, as the language of the
+vulgar: and scarce any-body here knows either its origin or
+constitution. I have in vain endeavoured to procure some pieces in the
+antient Provencal, that I might compare them with the modern Patois:
+but I can find no person to give me the least information on the
+subject. The shades of ignorance, sloth, and stupidity, are
+impenetrable. Almost every word of the Patois may still be found in the
+Italian, Spanish, and French languages, with a small change in the
+pronunciation. Cavallo, signifying a horse in Italian and Spanish is
+called cavao; maison, the French word for a house, is changed into
+maion; aqua, which means water in Spanish, the Nissards call daigua. To
+express, what a slop is here! they say acco fa lac aqui, which is a
+sentence composed of two Italian words, one French, and one Spanish.
+This is nearly the proportion in which these three languages will be
+found mingled in the Patois of Nice; which, with some variation,
+extends over all Provence, Languedoc, and Gascony. I will now treat you
+with two or three stanzas of a canzon, or hymn, in this language, to
+the Virgin Mary, which was lately printed at Nice.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  1<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Vierge, maire de Dieu,<BR>
+  Nuostro buono avocado,<BR>
+  Embel car uvostre sieu,<BR>
+  En Fenestro adourado,<BR>
+  Jeu vous saludi,<BR>
+  E demandi en socours;<BR>
+  E sense autre preludi,<BR>
+  Canti lous uvostre honours.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Virgin, mother of God,<BR>
+  our good advocate,<BR>
+  With your dear son,<BR>
+  In Fenestro adored,<BR>
+  I salute you,<BR>
+  And ask his assistance;<BR>
+  And without further prelude,<BR>
+  I sing your honours.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+[Fenestro is the name of a place in this neighbourhood, where there is
+a supposed miraculous sanctuary, or chapel, of the Virgin Mary.]
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  2.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Qu'ario de Paradis!<BR>
+  Que maesta divine!<BR>
+  Salamon es d'advis,<BR>
+  Giugiar de uvostro mino;<BR>
+  Vous dis plus bello:<BR>
+  E lou dis ben soven<BR>
+  De toutoi lei femello,<BR>
+  E non s'engano ren.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  What air of Paradise!<BR>
+  What majesty divine!<BR>
+  Solomon is of opinion,<BR>
+  To judge of your appearance;<BR>
+  Says you are the fairest<BR>
+  And it is often said<BR>
+  Of all females,<BR>
+  And we are not all deceived.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  3.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Qu'ario de Paradis!<BR>
+  Que maesta divine!<BR>
+  La bellezzo eblovis;<BR>
+  La bonta l'ueigl raffino.<BR>
+  Sias couronado;<BR>
+  Tenes lou monde en man<BR>
+  Sus del trono assettado,<BR>
+  Riges lou avostre enfan.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  What air of Paradise!<BR>
+  What majesty divine!<BR>
+  The beauty dazzles;<BR>
+  The goodness purifies the eye:<BR>
+  You are crowned:<BR>
+  You hold the world in your hand:<BR>
+  Seated on the throne,<BR>
+  You support your child.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+You see I have not chosen this canzon for the beauty and elegance of
+thought and expression; but give it you as the only printed specimen I
+could find of the modern Provencal. If you have any curiosity to be
+further acquainted with the Patois, I will endeavour to procure you
+satisfaction. Meanwhile, I am, in plain English,&mdash;Dear Sir, Ever yours.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap22"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER XXII
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+NICE, November 10, 1764.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR SIR,&mdash;I had once thoughts of writing a complete natural history of
+this town and county: but I found myself altogether unequal to the
+task. I have neither health, strength, nor opportunity to make proper
+collections of the mineral, vegetable, and animal productions. I am not
+much conversant with these branches of natural philosophy. I have no
+books to direct my inquiries. I can find no person capable of giving me
+the least information or assistance; and I am strangely puzzled by the
+barbarous names they give to many different species, the descriptions
+of which I have read under other appelations; and which, as I have
+never seen them before, I cannot pretend to distinguish by the eye. You
+must therefore be contented with such imperfect intelligence as my
+opportunities can afford.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The useful arts practised at Nice, are these, gardening and
+agriculture, with their consequences, the making of wine, oil, and
+cordage; the rearing of silk-worms, with the subsequent management and
+manufacture of that production; and the fishing, which I have already
+described.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Nothing can be more unpromising than the natural soil of this
+territory, except in a very few narrow bottoms, where there is a stiff
+clay, which when carefully watered, yields tolerable pasturage. In
+every other part, the soil consists of a light sand mingled with
+pebbles, which serves well enough for the culture of vines and olives:
+but the ground laid out for kitchen herbs, as well as for other fruit
+must be manured with great care and attention. They have no black
+cattle to afford such compost as our farmers use in England. The dung
+of mules and asses, which are their only beasts of burthen, is of very
+little value for this purpose; and the natural sterility of their
+ground requires something highly impregnated with nitre and volatile
+salts. They have recourse therefore to pigeons' dung and ordure, which
+fully answer their expectations. Every peasant opens, at one corner of
+his wall, a public house of office for the reception of passengers; and
+in the town of Nice, every  tenement is provided with one of these
+receptacles, the contents of which are carefully preserved for sale.
+The peasant comes with his asses and casks to carry it off before day,
+and pays for it according to its quality, which he examines and
+investigates, by the taste and flavour. The jakes of a protestant
+family, who eat gras every day, bears a much higher price than the
+privy of a good catholic who lives maigre one half of the year. The
+vaults belonging to the convent of Minims are not worth emptying.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The ground here is not delved with spades as in England, but laboured
+with a broad, sharp hough, having a short horizontal handle; and the
+climate is so hot and dry in the summer, that the plants must be
+watered every morning and evening, especially where it is not shaded by
+trees. It is surprising to see how the productions of the earth are
+crouded together. One would imagine they would rob one another of
+nourishment; and moreover be stifled for want of air; and doubtless
+this is in some measure the case. Olive and other fruit trees are
+planted in rows very close to each other. These are connected by vines,
+and the interstices, between the rows, are filled with corn. The
+gardens that supply the town with sallad and pot-herbs, lye all on the
+side of Provence, by the highway. They are surrounded with high
+stone-walls, or ditches, planted with a kind of cane or large reed,
+which answers many purposes in this country. The leaves of it afford
+sustenance to the asses, and the canes not only serve as fences to the
+inclosures; but are used to prop the vines and pease, and to build
+habitations for the silkworms: they are formed into arbours, and wore
+as walking-staves. All these gardens are watered by little rills that
+come from the mountains, particularly, by the small branches of the two
+sources which I have described in a former letter, as issuing from the
+two sides of a mountain, under the names of Fontaine de Muraille, and
+Fontaine du Temple.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the neighbourhood of Nice, they raise a considerable quantity of
+hemp, the largest and strongest I ever saw. Part of this, when dressed,
+is exported to other countries; and part is manufactured into cordage.
+However profitable it may be to the grower, it is certainly a great
+nuisance in the summer. When taken out of the pits, where it has been
+put to rot, the stench it raises is quite insupportable; and must
+undoubtedly be unwholesome.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There is such a want of land in this neighbourhood, that terraces are
+built over one another with loose stones, on the faces of bare rocks,
+and these being covered with earth and manured, are planted with
+olives, vines, and corn. The same shift was practised all over
+Palestine, which was rocky and barren, and much more populous than the
+county of Nice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Notwithstanding the small extent of this territory, there are some
+pleasant meadows in the skirts of Nice, that produce excellent clover;
+and the corn which is sown in open fields, where it has the full
+benefit of the soil, sun, and air, grows to a surprizing height. I have
+seen rye seven or eight feet high. All vegetables have a wonderful
+growth in this climate. Besides wheat, rye, barley, and oats, this
+country produces a good deal of Meliga, or Turkish wheat, which is what
+we call Indian corn. I have, in a former letter, observed that the meal
+of this grain goes by the name polenta, and makes excellent
+hasty-pudding, being very nourishing, and counted an admirable
+pectoral. The pods and stalks are used for fuel: and the leaves are
+much preferable to common straw, for making paillasses.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The pease and beans in the garden appear in the winter like beautiful
+plantations of young trees in blossom; and perfume the air. Myrtle,
+sweet-briar, sweet-marjoram, sage, thyme, lavender, rosemary, with many
+other aromatic herbs and flowers, which with us require the most
+careful cultivation, are here found wild in the mountains.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It is not many years since the Nissards learned the culture of
+silk-worms, of their neighbours the Piedmontese; and hitherto the
+progress they have made is not very considerable: the whole county of
+Nice produces about one hundred and thirty-three bales of three hundred
+pounds each, amounting in value to four hundred thousand livres.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the beginning of April, when the mulberry-leaves, begin to put
+forth, the eggs or grains that produce the silk-worm, are hatched. The
+grains are washed in wine, and those that swim on the top, are thrown
+away as good for nothing. The rest being deposited in small bags of
+linen, are worn by women in their bosoms, until the worms begin to
+appear: then they are placed in shallow wooden boxes, covered with a
+piece of white paper, cut into little holes, through which the worms
+ascend as they are hatched, to feed on the young mulberry-leaves, of
+which there is a layer above the paper. These boxes are kept for warmth
+between two mattrasses, and visited every day. Fresh leaves are laid
+in, and the worms that feed are removed successively to the other place
+prepared for their reception. This is an habitation, consisting of two
+or three stories, about twenty inches from each other, raised upon four
+wooden posts. The floors are made of canes, and strewed with fresh
+mulberry-leaves: the corner posts, and other occasional props, for
+sustaining the different floors, are covered with a coat of loose
+heath, which is twisted round the wood. The worms when hatched are laid
+upon the floors; and here you may see them in all the different stages
+(if moulting or casting the slough, a change which they undergo three
+times successively before they begin to work. The silk-worm is an
+animal of such acute and delicate sensations, that too much care cannot
+be taken to keep its habitation clean, and to refresh it from time to
+time with pure air. I have seen them languish and die in scores, in
+consequence of an accidental bad smell. The soiled leaves, and the
+filth which they necessarily produce, should be carefully shifted every
+day; and it would not be amiss to purify the air sometimes with fumes
+of vinegar, rose, or orange-flower water. These niceties, however, are
+but little observed. They commonly lie in heaps as thick as shrimps in
+a plate, some feeding on the leaves, some new hatched, some intranced
+in the agonies of casting their skin, sonic languishing, and some
+actually dead, with a litter of half-eaten faded leaves about them, in
+a close room, crouded with women and children, not at all remarkable
+for their cleanliness. I am assured by some persons of credit, that if
+they are touched, or even approached, by a woman in her catamenia, they
+infallibly expire. This, however, must be understood of those females
+whose skins have naturally a very rank flavour, which is generally
+heightened at such periods. The mulberry-leaves used in this country
+are of the tree which bears a small white fruit not larger than a
+damascene. They are planted on purpose, and the leaves are sold at so
+much a pound. By the middle of June all the mulberry-trees are
+stripped; but new leaves succeed, and in a few weeks, they are cloathed
+again with fresh verdure. In about ten days after the last moulting,
+the silk-worm climbs upon the props of his house, and choosing a
+situation among the heath, begins to spin in a most curious manner,
+until he is quite inclosed,   and the cocon or pod of silk, about the
+size of a pigeon's egg, which he has produced remains suspended by
+several filaments. It is no unusual to see double cocons, spun by two
+worms included under a common cover. There must be an infinite number
+of worms to yield any considerable quantity of silk. One ounce of eggs
+or grains produces, four rup, or one hundred Nice pounds of cocons; and
+one rup, or twenty-five pounds of cocons, if they are rich, gives three
+pounds of raw silk; that is, twelve pounds of silk are got from one
+ounce of grains, which ounce of grains its produced by as many worms as
+are inclosed in one pound, or twelve ounces of cocons. In preserving
+the cocons for breed, you must choose an equal number of males and
+females; and these are very easily distinguished by the shape of the
+cocons; that which contains the male is sharp, and the other obtuse, at
+the two ends. In ten or twelve days after the cocon is finished, the
+worm makes its way through it, in the form of a very ugly, unwieldy,
+aukward butterfly, and as the different sexes are placed by one another
+on paper or linen, they immediately engender. The female lays her eggs,
+which are carefully preserved; but neither she nor her mate takes any
+nourishment, and in eight or ten days after they quit the cocons, they
+generally die. The silk of these cocons cannot be wound, because the
+animals in piercing through them, have destroyed the continuity of the
+filaments. It is therefore, first boiled, and then picked and carded
+like wool, and being afterwards spun, is used in the coarser stuffs of
+the silk manufacture. The other cocons, which yield the best silk, are
+managed in a different manner. Before the inclosed worm has time to
+penetrate, the silk is reeled off with equal care and ingenuity. A
+handful of the cocons are thrown away into a kettle of boiling water,
+which not only kills the animal, but dissolves the glutinous substance
+by which the fine filaments of the silk cohere or stick together, so
+that they are easily wound off, without breaking. Six or seven of these
+small filaments being joined together are passed over a kind of
+twisting iron, and fixed to the wheel, which one girl turns, while
+another, with her hands in the boiling water, disentangles the threads,
+joins them when they chance to break, and supplies fresh cocons with
+admirable dexterity and dispatch. There is a manufacture of this kind
+just without one of the gates of Nice, where forty or fifty of these
+wheels are worked together, and give employment for some weeks to
+double the number of young women. Those who manage the pods that float
+in the boiling water must be very alert, otherwise they will scald
+their fingers. The smell that comes from the boiling cocons is
+extremely offensive. Hard by the harbour, there is a very curious mill
+for twisting the silk, which goes by water. There is in the town of
+Nice, a well regulated hospital for poor orphans of both sexes, where
+above one hundred of them are employed in dressing, dyeing, spinning,
+and weaving the silk. In the villages of Provence, you see the poor
+women in the streets spinning raw silk upon distaves: but here the same
+instrument is only used for spinning hemp and flax; which last,
+however, is not of the growth of Nice&mdash;But lest I should spin this
+letter to a tedious length, I will now wind up my bottom, and bid you
+heartily farewell.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap23"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER XXIII
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+NICE, December 19, 1764.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+SIR,&mdash;In my last, I gave you a succinct account of the silkworm, and
+the management of that curious insect in this country. I shall now
+proceed to describe the methods of making wine and oil.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The vintage begins in September. The grapes being chosen and carefully
+picked, are put into a large vat, where they are pressed by a man's
+naked feet, and the juices drawn off by a cock below. When no more is
+procured by this operation, the bruised grapes are put into the press,
+and yield still more liquor. The juice obtained by this double
+pressure, being put in casks, with their bungs open, begins to ferment
+and discharge its impurities at the openings. The waste occasioned by
+this discharge, is constantly supplied with fresh wine, so that the
+casks are always full. The fermentation continues for twelve, fifteen,
+or twenty days, according to the strength and vigour of the grape. In
+about a month, the wine is fit for drinking. When the grapes are of a
+bad, meagre kind, the wine dealers mix the juice with pigeons'-dung or
+quick-lime, in order to give it a spirit which nature has denied: but
+this is a very mischievous adulteration.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The process for oil-making is equally simple. The best olives are those
+that grow wild; but the quantity of them is very inconsiderable. Olives
+begin to ripen and drop in the beginning of November: but some remain
+on the trees till February, and even till April, and these are counted
+the most valuable. When the olives are gathered, they must be
+manufactured immediately, before they fade and grow wrinkled, otherwise
+they will produce bad oil. They are first of all ground into a paste by
+a mill-stone set edge-ways in a circular stone-trough, the wheel being
+turned by water.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This paste is put into trails or circular cases made of grass woven,
+having a round hole at top and bottom; when filled they resemble in
+shape our Cheshire cheeses. A number of these placed one upon another,
+are put in a press, and being squeezed, the oil with all its
+impurities, runs into a receptacle below fixed in the ground. From
+hence it is laded into a wooden vat, half filled with water. The sordes
+or dirt falls to the bottom; the oil swims a-top; and being skimmed
+off, is barrelled up in small oblong casks. What remains in the vat, is
+thrown into a large stone cistern with water, and after being often
+stirred, and standing twelve or fourteen days, yields a coarser oil
+used for lamps and manufactures. After these processes, they extract an
+oil still more coarse and fetid from the refuse of the whole.
+Sometimes, in order to make the olives grind the more easily into a
+paste, and part with more oil, they are mixed with a little hot water:
+but the oil thus procured is apt to grow rancid. The very finest,
+called virgin oil, is made chiefly of green olives, and sold at a very
+high price, because a great quantity is required to produce a very
+little oil. Even the stuff that is left after all these operations,
+consisting of the dried pulp, is sold for fuel, and used in brasieres
+for warming apartments which have no chimney.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I have now specified all the manufactures of Nice which are worth
+mentioning. True it is, there is some coarse paper made in this
+neighbourhood; there are also people here who dress skins and make
+leather for the use of the inhabitants: but this business is very ill
+performed: the gloves and shoes are generally rotten as they come from
+the hands of the maker. Carpenter's, joiner's, and blacksmith's work is
+very coarsely and clumsily done. There are no chairs to be had at Nice,
+but crazy things made of a few sticks, with rush bottoms, which are
+sold for twelve livres a dozen. Nothing can be more contemptible than
+the hard-ware made in this place, such as knives, scissors, and
+candle-snuffers. All utensils in brass and copper are very ill made and
+finished. The silver-smiths make nothing but spoons, forks, paultry
+rings, and crosses for the necks of the women.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The houses are built of a ragged stone dug from the mountains, and the
+interstices are filled with rubble; so that the walls would appear very
+ugly, if they were not covered with plaister, which has a good effect.
+They generally consist of three stories, and are covered with tiles.
+The apartments of the better sort are large and lofty, the floors paved
+with brick, the roofs covered with a thick coat of stucco, and the
+walls whitewashed. People of distinction hang their chambers with
+damask, striped silk, painted cloths, tapestry, or printed linnen. All
+the doors, as well as the windows, consist of folding leaves. As there
+is no wainscot in the rooms, which are divided by stone partitions and
+the floors and cieling are covered with brick and stucco, fires are of
+much less dreadful consequence here than in our country. Wainscot would
+afford harbour for bugs: besides, white walls have a better effect in
+this hot climate. The beds commonly used in this place, and all over
+Italy, consist of a paillasse, with one or two mattrasses, laid upon
+planks, supported by two wooden benches. Instead of curtains there is a
+couziniere or mosquito net, made of a kind of gauze, that opens and
+contracts occasionally, and incloses the place where you lie: persons
+of condition, however, have also bedsteads and curtains; but these last
+are never used in the summer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In these countries, people of all ranks dine exactly at noon; and this
+is the time I seize in winter, for making my daily tour of the streets
+and ramparts, which at all other hours of the day are crowded with men,
+women, children and beasts of burthen. The rampart is the common road
+for carriages of all kinds. I think there are two private coaches in
+Nice, besides that of the commandant: but there are sedan chairs, which
+may be had at a reasonable rate. When I bathed in the summer, I paid
+thirty sols, equal to eighteen-pence, for being carried to and from the
+bathing place, which was a mile from my own house.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Now I am speaking of bathing, it may not be amiss to inform you that
+though there is a fine open beach, extending several miles to the
+westward of Nice, those who cannot swim ought to bathe with great
+precaution, as the sea is very deep, and the descent very abrupt from
+within a yard or two of the water's edge. The people here were much
+surprised when I began to bathe in the beginning of May. They thought
+it very strange, that a man seemingly consumptive should plunge into
+the sea, especially when the weather was so cold; and some of the
+doctors prognosticated immediate death. But, when it was perceived that
+I grew better in consequence of the bath, some of the Swiss officers
+tried the same experiment, and in a few days, our example was followed
+by several inhabitants of Nice. There is, however, no convenience for
+this operation, from the benefit of which the fair sex must be intirely
+excluded, unless they lay aside all regard to decorum; for the shore is
+always lined with fishing-boats, and crouded with people. If a lady
+should be at the expence of having a tent pitched on the beach where
+she might put on and of her bathing-dress, she could not pretend to go
+into the sea without proper attendants; nor could she possibly plunge
+headlong into the water, which is the most effectual, and least
+dangerous way of bathing. All that she can do is to have the sea-water
+brought into her house, and make use of a bathing-tub, which may be
+made according to her own, or physician's direction.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+What further I have to say of this climate and country, you shall have
+in my next; and then you will be released from a subject, which I am
+afraid has been but too circumstantially handled by&mdash; Sir, Your very
+humble servant.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap24"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER XXIV
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+NICE, January 4, 1765.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR SIR.,&mdash;The constitution of this climate may be pretty well
+ascertained, from the inclosed register of the weather, which I kept
+with all possible care and attention. From a perusal of it, you will
+see that there is less rain and wind at Nice, than in any other part of
+the world that I know; and such is the serenity of the air, that you
+see nothing above your head for several months together, but a charming
+blue expanse, without cloud or speck. Whatever clouds may be formed by
+evaporation of the sea, they seldom or never hover over this small
+territory; but, in all probability, are attracted by the mountains that
+surround it, and there fall in rain or snow: as for those that gather
+from other quarters, I suppose their progress hitherward is obstructed
+by those very Alps, which rise one over another, to an extent of many
+leagues. This air being dry, pure, heavy, and elastic, must be
+agreeable to the constitution of those who labour under disorders
+arising from weak nerves, obstructed perspiration, relaxed fibres, a
+viscidity of lymph, and a languid circulation. In other respects, it
+encourages the scurvy, the atmosphere being undoubtedly impregnated
+with sea-salt. Ever since my arrival at Nice, I have had a scorbutical
+eruption on my right hand, which diminishes and increases according to
+the state of my health. One day last summer, when there was a strong
+breeze from the sea, the surface of our bodies was covered with a salt
+brine, very perceptible to the taste; my gums, as well as those of
+another person in my family, began to swell, and grow painful, though
+this had never happened before; and I was seized with violent pains in
+the joints of my knees. I was then at a country-house fronting the sea,
+and particularly exposed to the marine air. The swelling of our gums
+subsided as the wind fell: but what was very remarkable, the
+scurvy-spot on my hand disappeared, and did not return for a whole
+month. It is affirmed that sea-salt will dissolve, and render the blood
+so fluid, that it will exude through the coats of the vessels. Perhaps
+the sea-scurvy is a partial dissolution of it, by that mineral absorbed
+from the air by the lymphatics on the surface of the body, and by those
+of the lungs in respiration. Certain it is, in the last stages of the
+sea-scurvy, the blood often bursts from the pores; and this phaenomenon
+is imputed to a high degree of putrefaction: sure enough it is attended
+with putrefaction. We know that a certain quantity of salt is required
+to preserve the animal juices from going putrid: but, how a greater
+quantity should produce putrefaction, I leave to wiser heads to
+explain. Many people here have scorbutical complaints, though their
+teeth are not affected. They are subject to eruptions on the skin,
+putrid gums, pains in the bones, lassitude, indigestion, and low
+spirits; but the reigning distemper is a marasmus, or consumption,
+which proceeds gradually, without any pulmonary complaint, the
+complexion growing more and more florid, 'till the very last scene of
+the tragedy. This I would impute to the effects of a very dry, saline
+atmosphere, upon a thin habit, in which there is an extraordinary waste
+by perspiration. The air is remarkably salt in this district, because
+the mountains that hem it in, prevent its communication with the
+circumambient atmosphere, in which the saline particles would otherwise
+be diffused; and there is no rain, nor dew, to precipitate or dissolve
+them. Such an air as I have described, should have no bad effect upon a
+moist, phlegmatic constitution, such as mine; and yet it must be owned,
+I have been visibly wasting since I came hither, though this decay I
+considered as the progress of the tabes which began in England. But the
+air of Nice has had a still more sensible effect upon Mr. Sch&mdash;z, who
+laboured under nervous complaints to such a degree, that life was a
+burthen to him. He had also a fixed pain in his breast, for which
+complaint he had formerly tried the air of Naples, where he resided
+some considerable time, and in a great measure recovered: but, this
+returning with weakness, faintness, low spirits, and entire loss of
+appetite, he was advised to come hither; and the success of his journey
+has greatly exceeded his expectation. Though the weather has been
+remarkably bad for this climate, he has enjoyed perfect health. Since
+he arrived at Nice, the pain in his breast has vanished; he eats
+heartily, sleeps well, is in high spirits, and so strong, that he is
+never off his legs in the day-time. He can walk to the Var and back
+again, before dinner; and he has climbed to the tops of all the
+mountains in this neighbourhood. I never saw before such sudden and
+happy effects from the change of air. I must also acknowledge, that
+ever since my arrival at Nice, I have breathed more freely than I had
+done for some years, and my spirits have been more alert. The father of
+my housekeeper, who was a dancing-master, had been so afflicted with an
+asthmatic disorder, that he could not live in France, Spain, or Italy;
+but found the air of Nice so agreeable to his lungs, that he was
+enabled to exercise his profession for above twenty years, and died
+last spring turned of seventy. Another advantage I have reaped from
+this climate is my being, in a great measure, delivered from a slow
+fever which used to hang about me, and render life a burthen. Neither
+am I so apt to catch cold as I used to be in England and France; and
+the colds I do catch are not of the same continuance and consequence,
+as those to which I was formerly subject. The air of Nice is so dry,
+that in summer, and even in winter, (except ill wet weather) you may
+pass the evening, and indeed the whole night, sub Dio, without feeling
+the least dew or moisture; and as for fogs, they are never seen in this
+district. In summer, the air is cooled by a regular sea-breeze blowing
+from the cast, like that of the West-Indies. It begins in the forenoon,
+and increases with the heat of the day. It dies away about six or
+seven; and immediately after sun-set is succeeded by an agreeable
+land-breeze from the mountains. The sea-breeze from the eastward,
+however, is not so constant here, as in the West-Indies between the
+tropicks, because the sun, which produces it, is not so powerful. This
+country lies nearer the region of variable winds, and is surrounded by
+mountains, capes, and straights, which often influence the constitution
+and current of the air. About the winter solstice, the people of Nice
+expect wind and rain, which generally lasts, with intervals, 'till the
+beginning of February: but even during this, their worst weather, the
+sun breaks out occasionally, and you may take the air either a-foot or
+on horseback every day; for the moisture is immediately absorbed by the
+earth, which is naturally dry. They likewise lay their account with
+being visited by showers of rain and gusts of wind in April. A week's
+rain in the middle of August makes them happy. It not only refreshes
+the parched ground, and plumps up the grapes and other fruit, but it
+cools the air and assuages the beets, which then begin to grow very
+troublesome; but the rainy season is about the autumnal equinox, or
+rather something later. It continues about twelve days or a fortnight,
+and is extremely welcome to the natives of this country. This rainy
+season is often delayed 'till the latter end of November, and sometimes
+'till the month of December; in which case, the rest of the winter is
+generally dry. The heavy rains in this country generally come with a
+south-west wind, which was the creberque procellis Africus, the stormy
+southwest, of the antients. It is here called Lebeche, a corruption of
+Lybicus: it generally blows high for a day or two, and rolls the
+Mediterranean before it in huge waves, that often enter the town of
+Nice. It likewise drives before it all the clouds which had been formed
+above the surface of the Mediterranean. These being expended in rain,
+fair weather naturally ensues. For this reason, the Nissards observe le
+lebeche racommode le tems, the Lebeche settles the weather. During the
+rains of this season, however, the winds have been variable. From the
+sixteenth of November, 'till the fourth of January, we have had two and
+twenty days of heavy rain: a very extraordinary visitation in this
+country: but the seasons seem to be more irregular than formerly, all
+over Europe. In the month of July, the mercury in Fahrenheit's
+thermometer, rose to eighty-four at Rome, the highest degree at which
+it was ever known in that country; and the very next day, the Sabine
+mountains were covered with snow. The same phaemomenon happened on the
+eleventh of August, and the thirtieth of September. The consequence of
+these sudden variations of weather, was this: putrid fevers were less
+frequent than usual; but the sudden cheek of perspiration from the
+cold, produced colds, inflammatory sore throats, and the rheumatism. I
+know instances of some English valetudinarians, who have passed the
+winter at Aix, on the supposition that there was little or no
+difference between that air and the climate of Nice: but this is a very
+great mistake, which may be attended with fatal consequences. Aix is
+altogether exposed to the north and north-west winds, which blow as
+cold in Provence, as ever I felt them on the mountains of Scotland:
+whereas Nice is entirely screened from these winds by the Maritime
+Alps, which form an amphitheatre, to the land-side, around this little
+territory: but another incontestible proof of the mildness of this
+climate, is deduced from the oranges, lemons, citrons, roses,
+narcissus's, july-flowers, and jonquils, which ripen and blow in the
+middle of winter. I have described the agreeable side of this climate;
+and now I will point out its inconveniences. In the winter, but
+especially in the spring, the sun is so hot, that one can hardly take
+exercise of any sort abroad, without being thrown into a breathing
+sweat; and the wind at this season is so cold and piercing, that it
+often produces a mischievous effect on the pores thus opened. If the
+heat rarifies the blood and juices, while the cold air constringes the
+fibres, and obstructs the perspiration, inflammatory disorders must
+ensue. Accordingly, the people are then subject to colds, pleurisies,
+peripneumonies, and ardent fevers. An old count advised me to stay
+within doors in March, car alors les humeurs commencent a se remuer,
+for then the humours begin to be in motion. During the heats of summer,
+some few persons of gross habits have, in consequence of violent
+exercise and excess, been seized with putrid fevers, attended with
+exanthemata, erisipelatous, and miliary eruptions, which commonly prove
+fatal: but the people in general are healthy, even those that take very
+little exercise: a strong presumption in favour of the climate! As to
+medicine, I know nothing of the practice of the Nice physicians. Here
+are eleven in all; but four or five make shift to live by the
+profession. They receive, by way of fee, ten sols (an English
+six-pence) a visit, and this is but ill paid: so you may guess whether
+they are in a condition to support the dignity of physic; and whether
+any man, of a liberal education, would bury himself at Nice on such
+terms. I am acquainted with an Italian physician settled at Villa
+Franca, a very good sort of a man, who practises for a certain salary,
+raised by annual contribution among the better sort of people; and an
+allowance from the king, for visiting the sick belonging to the
+garrison and the gallies. The whole may amount to near thirty pounds.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Among the inconveniences of this climate, the vermin form no
+inconsiderable article. Vipers and snakes are found in the mountains.
+Our gardens swarm with lizzards; and there are some few scorpions; but
+as yet I have seen but one of this species. In summer, notwithstanding
+all the care and precautions we can take, we are pestered with
+incredible swarms of flies, fleas, and bugs; but the gnats, or couzins,
+are more intolerable than all the rest. In the day-time, it is
+impossible to keep the flies out of your mouth, nostrils, eyes, and
+ears. They croud into your milk, tea, chocolate, soup, wine, and water:
+they soil your sugar, contaminate your victuals, and devour your fruit;
+they cover and defile your furniture, floors, cielings, and indeed your
+whole body. As soon as candles are lighted, the couzins begin to buz
+about your ears in myriads, and torment you with their stings, so that
+you have no rest nor respite 'till you get into bed, where you are
+secured by your mosquito-net. This inclosure is very disagreeable in
+hot weather; and very inconvenient to those, who, like me, are subject
+to a cough and spitting. It is moreover ineffectual; for some of those
+cursed insects insinuate themselves within it, almost every night; and
+half a dozen of them are sufficient to disturb you 'till morning. This
+is a plague that continues all the year; but in summer it is
+intolerable. During this season, likewise, the moths are so
+mischievous, that it requires the utmost care to preserve woollen
+cloths from being destroyed. From the month of May, 'till the beginning
+of October, the heat is so violent, that you cannot stir abroad after
+six in the morning 'till eight at night, so that you are entirely
+deprived of the benefit of exercise: There is no shaded walk in, or
+near the town; and there is neither coach nor chaise to hire, unless
+you travel post. Indeed, there is no road fit for any wheel carriage,
+but the common highway to the Var, in which you are scorched by the
+reflexion of the sun from the sand and stones, and at the same time
+half stifled with dust. If you ride out in the cool of the evening, you
+will have the disadvantage of returning in the dark.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Among the demerits of Nice, I must also mention the water which is used
+in the city. It is drawn from wells; and for the most part so hard,
+that it curdles with soap. There are many fountains and streams in the
+neighbourhood, that afford excellent water, which, at no great charge,
+might be conveyed into the town, so as to form conduits in all the
+public streets: but the inhabitants are either destitute of public
+spirit, or cannot afford the expense. [General Paterson delivered a
+Plan to the King of Sardinia for supplying Nice with excellent water
+for so small an expence as one livre a house per annum; but the
+inhabitants remonstrated against it as an intolerable Imposition.] I
+have a draw-well in my porch, and another in my garden, which supply
+tolerable water for culinary uses; but what we drink, is fetched from a
+well belonging to a convent of Dominicans in this neighbourhood. Our
+linnen is washed in the river Paglion; and when that is dry, in the
+brook called Limpia, which runs into the harbour.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In mentioning the water of this neighbourhood, I ought not to omit the
+baths of Rocabiliare, a small town among the mountains, about five and
+twenty miles from Nice. There are three sources, each warmer than the
+other; the warmest being nearly equal to the heat of the king's bath at
+Bath in Somersetshire, as far as I can judge from information. I have
+perused a Latin manuscript, which treats of these baths at Rocabiliare,
+written by the duke of Savoy's first physician about sixty years ago.
+He talks much of the sulphur and the nitre which they contain; but I
+apprehend their efficacy is owing to the same volatile vitriolic
+principle, which characterises the waters at Bath. They are attenuating
+and deobstruent, consequently of service in disorders arising from a
+languid circulation, a viscidity of the juices, a lax fibre, and
+obstructed viscera. The road from hence to Rocabiliare is in some parts
+very dangerous, lying along the brink of precipices, impassable to any
+other carriage but a mule. The town itself affords bad lodging and
+accommodation, and little or no society. The waters are at the distance
+of a mile and a half from the town: there are no baths nor shelter, nor
+any sort of convenience for those that drink them; and the best part of
+their efficacy is lost, unless they are drank at the fountain-head. If
+these objections were in some measure removed, I would advise
+valetudinarians, who come hither for the benefit of this climate, to
+pass the heats of summer at Rocabiliare, which being situated among
+mountains, enjoys a cool temperate air all the summer. This would be a
+salutary respite from the salt air of Nice, to those who labour under
+scorbutical complaints; and they would return with fresh vigour and
+spirits, to pass the winter in this place, where no severity of weather
+is known. Last June, when I found myself so ill at my cassine, I had
+determined to go to Rocabiliare, and even to erect a hut at the spring,
+for my own convenience. A gentleman of Nice undertook to procure me a
+tolerable lodging in the house of the cure, who was his relation. He
+assured me, there was no want of fresh butter, good poultry, excellent
+veal, and delicate trout; and that the articles of living might be had
+at Rocabiliare for half the price we paid at Nice: but finding myself
+grow better immediately on my return from the cassine to my own house,
+I would not put myself to the trouble and expence of a further removal.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I think I have now communicated all the particulars relating to Nice,
+that are worth knowing; and perhaps many more than you desired to know:
+but, in such cases, I would rather be thought prolix and
+unentertaining, than deficient in that regard and attention with which
+I am very sincerely,&mdash;Your friend and servant.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap25"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER XXV
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+NICE, January 1, 1765.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR SIR,&mdash;It was in deference to your opinion, reinforced by my own
+inclination, and the repeated advice of other friends, that I resolved
+upon my late excursion to Italy. I could plainly perceive from the
+anxious solicitude, and pressing exhortations contained in all the
+letters I had lately received from my correspondents in Britain, that
+you had all despaired of my recovery. You advised me to make a
+pilgrimage among the Alps, and the advice was good. In scrambling among
+those mountains, I should have benefited by the exercise, and at the
+same time have breathed a cool, pure, salubrious air, which, in all
+probability, would have expelled the slow fever arising in a great
+measure from the heat of this climate. But, I wanted a companion and
+fellow traveller, whose conversation and society could alleviate the
+horrors of solitude. Besides, I was not strong enough to encounter the
+want of conveniences, and even of necessaries to which I must have been
+exposed in the course of such an expedition. My worthy friend Dr. A&mdash;
+earnestly intreated me to try the effect of a sea-voyage, which you
+know has been found of wonderful efficacy in consumptive cases. After
+some deliberation, I resolved upon the scheme, which I have now happily
+executed. I had a most eager curiosity to see the antiquities of
+Florence and Rome: I longed impatiently to view those wonderful
+edifices, statues, and pictures, which I had so often admired in prints
+and descriptions. I felt an enthusiastic ardor to tread that very
+classical ground which had been the scene of so many great
+atchievements; and I could not bear the thought of returning to England
+from the very skirts of Italy, without having penetrated to the capital
+of that renowned country. With regard to my health, I knew I could
+manage matters so as to enjoy all the benefits that could be expected
+from the united energy of a voyage by sea, a journey by land, and a
+change of climate.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Rome is betwixt four and five hundred miles distant from Nice, and one
+half of the way I was resolved to travel by water. Indeed there is no
+other way of going from hence to Genoa, unless you take a mule, and
+clamber along the mountains at the rate of two miles an hour, and at
+the risque of breaking your neck every minute. The Apennine mountains,
+which are no other than a continuation of the maritime Alps, form an
+almost continued precipice from Villefranche to Lerici, which is almost
+forty-five miles on the other side of Genoa; and as they are generally
+washed by the sea, there is no beach or shore, consequently the road is
+carried along the face of the rocks, except at certain small intervals,
+which are occupied by towns and villages. But, as there is a road for
+mules and foot passengers, it might certainly be enlarged and improved
+so as to render it practicable by chaises and other wheel-carriages,
+and a toll might be exacted, which in a little time would defray the
+expence: for certainly no person who travels to Italy, from England,
+Holland, France, or Spain, would make a troublesome circuit to pass the
+Alps by the way of Savoy and Piedmont, if he could have the convenience
+of going post by the way of Aix, Antibes, and Nice, along the side of
+the Mediterranean, and through the Riviera of Genoa, which from the sea
+affords the most agreeable and amazing prospect I ever beheld. What
+pity it is, they cannot restore the celebrated Via Aurelia, mentioned
+in the Itinerarium of Antoninus, which extended from Rome by the way of
+Genoa, and through this country as far as Arles upon the Rhone. It was
+said to have been made by the emperor Marcus Aurelius; and some of the
+vestiges of it are still to be seen in Provence. The truth is, the
+nobility of Genoa, who are all merchants, from a low, selfish, and
+absurd policy, take all methods to keep their subjects of the Riviera
+in poverty and dependence. With this view, they carefully avoid all
+steps towards rendering that country accessible by land; and at the
+same time discourage their trade by sea, lest it should interfere with
+the commerce of their capital, in which they themselves are personally
+concerned.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Those who either will not or cannot bear the sea, and are equally
+averse to riding, may be carried in a common chair, provided with a
+foot-board, on men's shoulders: this is the way of travelling practised
+by the ladies of Nice, in crossing the mountains to Turin; but it is
+very tedious and expensive, as the men must be often relieved.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The most agreeable carriage from here to Genoa, is a feluca, or open
+boat, rowed by ten or twelve stout mariners. Though none of these boats
+belong to Nice, they are to be found every day in our harbour, waiting
+for a fare to Genoa; and they are seen passing and repassing
+continually, with merchandize or passengers, between Marseilles,
+Antibes, and the Genoese territories. A feluca is large enough to take
+in a post-chaise; and there is a tilt over the stern sheets, where the
+passengers sit, to protect them from the rain: between the seats one
+person may lie commodiously upon a mattress, which is commonly supplied
+by the patron. A man in good health may put up with any thing; but I
+would advise every valetudinarian who travels this way, to provide his
+own chaise, mattrass, and bedlinnen, otherwise he will pass his time
+very uncomfortably. If you go as a simple passenger in a feluca, you
+pay about a loui'dore for your place, and you must be intirely under
+the direction of the patron, who, while he can bear the sea, will
+prosecute his voyage by night as well as by day, and expose you to many
+other inconveniencies: but for eight zequines, or four loui'dores, you
+can have a whole feluca to yourself, from Nice to Genoa, and the master
+shall be obliged to put a-shore every evening. If you would have it
+still more at your command, you may hire it at so much per day, and in
+that case, go on shore as often, and stay as long as you please. This
+is the method I should take, were I to make the voyage again; for I am
+persuaded I should find it very near as cheap, and much more agreeable
+than any other.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The distance between this place and Genoa, when measured on the carte,
+does not exceed ninety miles: but the people of the felucas insist upon
+its being one hundred and twenty. If they creep along shore round the
+bottoms of all the bays, this computation may be true: but, except when
+the sea is rough, they stretch directly from one head-land to another,
+and even when the wind is contrary, provided the gale is not fresh,
+they perform the voyage in two days and a half, by dint of rowing: when
+the wind is favourable, they will sail it easily in fourteen hours.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A man who has nothing but expedition in view, may go with the courier,
+who has always a light boat well manned, and will be glad to
+accommodate a traveller for a reasonable gratification. I know an
+English gentleman who always travels with the courier in Italy, both by
+sea and land. In posting by land, he is always sure of having part of a
+good calash, and the best horses that can be found; and as the expence
+of both is defrayed by the public, it costs him nothing but a present
+to his companion, which does not amount to one fourth part of the
+expence he would incur by travelling alone. These opportunities may be
+had every week in all the towns of Italy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For my own part, I hired a gondola from hence to Genoa. This is a boat
+smaller than a feluca, rowed by four men, and steered by the patron;
+but the price was nine zequines, rather more than I should have payed
+for a feluca of ten oars. I was assured that being very light, it would
+make great way; and the master was particularly recommended to me, as
+an honest man and an able mariner. I was accompanied in this voyage by
+my wife and Miss C&mdash;, together with one Mr. R&mdash;, a native of Nice, whom
+I treated with the jaunt, in hopes that as he was acquainted with the
+customs of the country, and the different ways of travelling in it, he
+would save us much trouble, and some expence: but I was much
+disappointed. Some persons at Nice offered to lay wagers that he would
+return by himself from Italy; but they were also disappointed.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We embarked in the beginning of September, attended by one servant. The
+heats, which render travelling dangerous in Italy, begin to abate at
+this season. The weather was extremely agreeable; and if I had
+postponed my voyage a little longer, I foresaw that I should not be
+able to return before winter: in which case I might have found the sea
+too rough, and the weather too cold for a voyage of one hundred and
+thirty-five miles in an open boat.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Having therefore provided myself with a proper pass, signed and sealed
+by our consul, as well as with letters of recommendation from him to
+the English consuls at Genoa and Leghorn, a precaution which I would
+advise all travellers to take, in case of meeting with accidents on the
+road, we went on board about ten in the morning, stopped about half an
+hour at a friend's country-house in the bay of St. Hospice, and about
+noon entered the harbour of Monaco, where the patron was obliged to pay
+toll, according to the regulation which I have explained in a former
+letter. This small town, containing about eight or nine hundred souls,
+besides the garrison, is built on a rock which projects into the sea,
+and makes a very romantic appearance. The prince's palace stands in the
+most conspicuous part, with a walk of trees before it. The apartments
+are elegantly furnished, and adorned with some good pictures. The
+fortifications are in good repair, and the place is garrisoned by two
+French battalions. The present prince of Monaco is a Frenchman, son of
+the duke Matignon who married the heiress of Monaco, whose name was
+Grimaldi. The harbour is well sheltered from the wind; but has not
+water sufficient to admit vessels of any great burthen. Towards the
+north, the king of Sardinia's territories extend to within a mile of
+the gate; but the prince of Monaco can go upon his own ground along
+shore about five or six miles to the eastward, as far as Menton,
+another small town, which also belongs to him, and is situated on the
+seaside. His revenues are computed at a million of French livres,
+amounting to something more than forty thousand pounds sterling: but,
+the principality of Monaco, consisting of three small towns, and an
+inconsiderable tract of barren rock, is not worth above seven thousand
+a year; the rest arises from his French estate. This consists partly of
+the dutchy of Matignon, and partly of the dutchy of Valentinois, which
+last was given to the ancestors of this prince of Monaco, in the year
+1640, by the French king, to make up the loss of some lands in the
+kingdom of Naples, which were confiscated when he expelled the Spanish
+garrison from Monaco, and threw himself into the arms of France: so
+that he is duke of Valentinois as well as of Matignon, in that kingdom.
+He lives almost constantly in France; and has taken the name and arms
+of Grimaldi.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Genoese territories begin at Ventimiglia, another town lying on the
+coast, at the distance of twenty miles from Nice, a circumstance from
+which it borrows the name. Having passed the towns of Monaco, Menton,
+Ventimiglia, and several other places of less consequence that lie
+along this coast, we turned the point of St. Martin with a favourable
+breeze, and might have proceeded twenty miles further before night: but
+the women began to be sick, as well as afraid at the roughness of the
+water; Mr. R&mdash; was so discomposed, that he privately desired the patron
+to put ashore at St. Remo, on pretence that we should not find a
+tolerable auberge in any other place between this and Noli, which was
+at the distance of forty miles. We accordingly landed, and were
+conducted to the poste, which our gondeliere assured us was the best
+auberge in the whole Riviera of Genoa. We ascended by a dark, narrow,
+steep stair, into a kind of public room, with a long table and benches,
+so dirty and miserable, that it would disgrace the worst hedge
+ale-house in England. Not a soul appeared to receive us. This is a
+ceremony one must not expect to meet with in France; far less in Italy.
+Our patron going into the kitchen, asked a servant if the company could
+have lodging in the house; and was answered, "he could not tell: the
+patron was not at home." When he desired to know where the patron was,
+the other answered, "he was gone to take the air." E andato a
+passeggiare. In the mean time, we were obliged to sit in the common
+room among watermen and muleteers. At length the landlord arrived, and
+gave us to understand, that he could accommodate us with chambers. In
+that where I lay, there was just room for two beds, without curtains or
+bedstead, an old rotten table covered with dried figs, and a couple of
+crazy chairs. The walls had been once white-washed: but were now hung
+with cobwebs, and speckled with dirt of all sorts; and I believe the
+brick-floor had not been swept for half a century. We supped in an
+outward room suitable in all respects to the chamber, and fared
+villainously. The provision was very ill-dressed, and served up in the
+most slovenly manner. You must not expect cleanliness or conveniency of
+any kind in this country. For this accommodation I payed as much as if
+I had been elegantly entertained in the best auberge of France or Italy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Next day, the wind was so high that we could not prosecute our voyage,
+so that we were obliged to pass other four and twenty hours in this
+comfortable situation. Luckily Mr. R&mdash; found two acquaintances in the
+place; one a Franciscan monk, a jolly fellow; and the other a maestro
+di capella, who sent a spinnet to the inn, and entertained us agreeably
+with his voice and performance, in both of which accomplishments he
+excelled. The padre was very good humoured, and favoured us with a
+letter of recommendation to a friend of his, a professor in the
+university of Pisa. You would laugh to see the hyperbolical terms in
+which he mentioned your humble servant; but Italy is the native country
+of hyperbole.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+St. Remo is a pretty considerable town, well-built upon the declivity
+of a gently rising hill, and has a harbour capable of receiving small
+vessels, a good number of which are built upon the beach: but ships of
+any burden are obliged to anchor in the bay, which is far from being
+secure. The people of St. Remo form a small republic, which is subject
+to Genoa.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They enjoyed particular privileges, till the year 1753, when in
+consequence of a new gabelle upon salt, they revolted: but this effort
+in behalf of liberty did not succeed. They were soon reduced by the
+Genoese, who deprived them of all their privileges, and built a fort by
+the sea-side, which serves the double purpose of defending the harbour
+and over-awing the town. The garrison at present does not exceed two
+hundred men. The inhabitants are said to have lately sent a deputation
+to Ratisbon, to crave the protection of the diet of the empire. There
+is very little plain ground in this neighbourhood; but the hills are
+covered with oranges, lemons, pomegranates, and olives, which produce a
+considerable traffic in fine fruit and excellent oil. The women of St.
+Remo are much more handsome and better tempered than those of Provence.
+They have in general good eyes, with open ingenuous countenances. Their
+dress, though remarkable, I cannot describe: but upon the whole, they
+put me in mind of some portraits I have seen, representing the females
+of Georgia and Mingrelia.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On the third day, the wind being abated, though still unfavourable, we
+reimbarked and rowed along shore, passing by Porto-mauricio, and
+Oneglia; then turning the promontory called Capo di Melle, we proceeded
+by Albenga, Finale, and many other places of inferior note.
+Portomauricio is seated on a rock washed by the sea, but indifferently
+fortified, with an inconsiderable harbour, which none but very small
+vessels can enter. About two miles to the eastward is Oneglia, a small
+town with fortifications, lying along the open beach, and belonging to
+the king of Sardinia. This small territory abounds with olive-trees,
+which produce a considerable quantity of oil, counted the best of the
+whole Riviera. Albenga is a small town, the see of a bishop, suffragan
+to the archbishop of Genoa. It lies upon the sea, and the country
+produces a great quantity of hemp. Finale is the capital of a
+marquisate belonging to the Genoese, which has been the source of much
+trouble to the republic; and indeed was the sole cause of their rupture
+with the king of Sardinia and the house of Austria in the year 1745.
+The town is pretty well built; but the harbour is shallow, open, and
+unsafe; nevertheless, they built a good number of tartans and other
+vessels on the beach and the neighbouring country abounds with oil and
+fruit, particularly with those excellent apples called pomi carli,
+which I have mentioned in a former letter.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the evening we reached the Capo di Noli, counted very dangerous in
+blowing weather. It is a very high perpendicular rock or mountain
+washed by the sea, which has eaten into it in divers places, so as to
+form a great number of caverns. It extends about a couple of miles, and
+in some parts is indented into little creeks or bays, where there is a
+narrow margin of sandy beach between it and the water. When the wind is
+high, no feluca will attempt to pass it; even in a moderate breeze, the
+waves dashing against the rocks and caverns, which echo with the sound,
+make such an awful noise, and at the same time occasion such a rough
+sea, as one cannot hear, and see, and feel, without a secret horror.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+On this side of the Cape, there is a beautiful strand cultivated like a
+garden; the plantations extend to the very tops of the hills,
+interspersed with villages, castles, churches, and villas. Indeed the
+whole Riviera is ornamented in the same manner, except in such places
+as admit of no building nor  cultivation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Having passed the Cape, we followed the winding of the coast, into a
+small bay, and arrived at the town of Noli, where we proposed to pass
+the night. You will be surprised that we did not go ashore sooner, in
+order to take some refreshment; but the truth is, we had a provision of
+ham, tongues, roasted pullets, cheese, bread, wine, and fruit, in the
+feluca, where we every day enjoyed a slight repast about one or two
+o'clock in the afternoon. This I mention as a necessary piece of
+information to those who may be inclined to follow the same route. We
+likewise found it convenient to lay in store of l'eau de vie, or
+brandy, for the use of the rowers, who always expect to share your
+comforts.  On a meagre day, however, those ragamuffins will rather die
+of hunger than suffer the least morsel of flesh-meat to enter their
+mouths. I have frequently tried the experiment, by pressing them to eat
+something gras, on a Friday or Saturday: but they always declined it
+with marks of abhorrence, crying, Dio me ne libere! God deliver me from
+it! or some other words to that effect. I moreover observed, that not
+one of those fellows ever swore an oath, or spoke an indecent word.
+They would by no means put to sea, of a morning, before they had heard
+mass; and when the wind was unfavourable, they always set out with a
+hymn to the Blessed Virgin, or St. Elmo, keeping time with their oars
+as they sung. I have indeed remarked all over this country, that a man
+who transgresses the institutions of the church in these small matters,
+is much more infamous than one who has committed the most flagrant
+crimes against nature and morality. A murderer, adulterer, or s&mdash;m&mdash;te,
+will obtain easy absolution from the church, and even find favour with
+society; but a man who eats a pidgeon on a Saturday, without express
+licence, is avoided and abhorred, as a monster of reprobation. I have
+conversed with several intelligent persons on the subject; and have
+reason to believe, that a delinquent of this sort is considered as a
+luke-warm catholic, little better than a heretic; and of all crimes
+they look upon heresy as the most damnable.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Noli is a small republic of fishermen subject to Genoa; but very
+tenacious of their privileges. The town stands on the beach, tolerably
+well built, defended by a castle situated on a rock above it; and the
+harbour is of little consequence. The auberge was such as made us
+regret even the inn we had left at St. Remo. After a very odd kind of
+supper, which I cannot pretend to describe, we retired to our repose:
+but I had not been in bed five minutes, when I felt something crawling
+on different parts of my body, and taking a light to examine, perceived
+above a dozen large bugs. You must know I have the same kind of
+antipathy to these vermin, that some persons have to a cat or breast of
+veal. I started up immediately, and wrapping myself in a great coat,
+sick as I was, laid down in the outer room upon a chest, where I
+continued till morning.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+One would imagine that in a mountainous country like this, there should
+be plenty of goats; and indeed, we saw many flocks of them feeding
+among the rocks, yet we could not procure half a pint of milk for our
+tea, if we had given the weight of it in gold. The people here have no
+idea of using milk, and when you ask them for it, they stand gaping
+with a foolish face of surprise, which is exceedingly provoking. It is
+amazing that instinct does not teach the peasants to feed their
+children with goat's milk, so much more nourishing and agreeable than
+the wretched sustenance on which they live. Next day we rowed by Vado
+and Savona, which last is a large town, with a strong citadel, and a
+harbour, which was formerly capable of receiving large ships: but it
+fell a sacrifice to the jealousy of the Genoese, who have partly
+choaked it up, on pretence that it should not afford shelter to the
+ships of war belonging to those states which might be at enmity with
+the republic.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Then we passed Albifola, Sestri di Ponente, Novi, Voltri, and a great
+number of villages, villas, and magnificent palaces belonging to the
+Genoese nobility, which form almost a continued chain of buildings
+along the strand for thirty miles.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+About five in the afternoon, we skirted the fine suburbs of St. Pietro
+d' Arena, and arrived at Genoa, which makes a dazzling appearance when
+viewed from the sea, rising like an amphitheatre in a circular form
+from the water's edge, a considerable way up the mountains, and
+surrounded on the land side by a double wall, the most exterior of
+which is said to extend fifteen miles in circuit. The first object that
+strikes your eye at a distance, is a very elegant pharos, or
+lighthouse, built on the projection of a rock on the west side of the
+harbour, so very high, that, in a clear day, you may see it at the
+distance of thirty miles. Turning the light-house point, you find
+yourself close to the mole, which forms the harbour of Genoa. It is
+built at a great expence from each side of the bay, so as to form in
+the sea two long magnificent jettes. At the extremity of each is
+another smaller lanthorn. These moles are both provided with
+brass-cannon, and between them is the entrance into the harbour. But
+this is still so wide as to admit a great sea, which, when the wind
+blows hard from south and south-west, is very troublesome to the
+shipping. Within the mole there is a smaller harbour or wet dock,
+called Darsena, for the gallies of the republic. We passed through a
+considerable number of ships and vessels lying at anchor, and landing
+at the water-gate, repaired to an inn called La Croix de Malthe in the
+neighbourhood of the harbour. Here we met with such good entertainment
+as prepossessed us in favour of the interior parts of Italy, and
+contributed with other motives to detain us some days in this city. But
+I have detained you so long, that I believe you wish I may proceed no
+farther; and therefore I take my leave for the present, being very
+sincerely&mdash; Yours.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap26"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER XXVI
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+NICE, January 15, 1765.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR SIR,&mdash;It is not without reason that Genoa is called La superba.
+The city itself is very stately; and the nobles are very proud. Some
+few of them may be proud of their wealth: but, in general, their
+fortunes are very small. My friend Mr. R&mdash; assured me that many Genoese
+noblemen had fortunes of half a million of livres per annum: but the
+truth is, the whole revenue of the state does not exceed this sum; and
+the livre of Genoa is but about nine pence sterling. There are about
+half a dozen of their nobles who have ten thousand a year: but the
+majority have not above a twentieth part of that sum. They live with
+great parsimony in their families; and wear nothing but black in
+public; so that their expences are but small. If a Genoese nobleman
+gives an entertainment once a quarter, he is said to live upon the
+fragments all the rest of the year. I was told that one of them lately
+treated his friends, and left the entertainment to the care of his son,
+who ordered a dish of fish that cost a zechine, which is equal to about
+ten shillings sterling. The old gentleman no sooner saw it appear on
+the table, than unable to suppress his concern, he burst into tears,
+and exclaimed, Ah Figliuolo indegno! Siamo in Rovina! Siamo in
+precipizio! Ah, Prodigal! ruined! undone!
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I think the pride or ostentation of the Italians in general takes a
+more laudable turn than that of other nations. A Frenchman lays out his
+whole revenue upon tawdry suits of cloaths, or in furnishing a
+magnificent repas of fifty or a hundred dishes, one half of which are
+not eatable nor intended to be eaten. His wardrobe goes to the fripier;
+his dishes to the dogs, and himself to the devil, and after his decease
+no vestige of him remains. A Genoese, on the other hand, keeps himself
+and his family at short allowance, that he may save money to build
+palaces and churches, which remain to after-ages so many monuments of
+his taste, piety, and munificence; and in the mean time give employment
+and bread to the poor and industrious. There are some Genoese nobles
+who have each five or six elegant palaces magnificently furnished,
+either in the city, or in different parts of the Riviera. The two
+streets called Strada Balbi and Strada Nuova, are continued double
+ranges of palaces adorned with gardens and fountains: but their being
+painted on the outside has, in my opinion, a poor effect.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The commerce of this city is, at present, not very considerable; yet it
+has the face of business. The streets are crowded with people; the
+shops are well furnished; and the markets abound with all sorts of
+excellent provision. The wine made in this neighbourhood is, however,
+very indifferent; and all that is consumed must be bought at the public
+cantine, where it is sold for the benefit of the state. Their bread is
+the whitest and the best I have tasted any where; and the beef, which
+they have from Piedmont, is juicy and delicious. The expence of eating
+in Italy is nearly the same as in France, about three shillings a head
+for every meal. The state of Genoa is very poor, and their bank of St.
+George has received such rude shocks, first from the revolt of the
+Corsicans, and afterwards from the misfortunes of the city, when it was
+taken by the Austrians in the war of 1745, that it still continues to
+languish without any near prospect of its credit being restored.
+Nothing shews the weakness of their state, more than their having
+recourse to the assistance of France to put a stop to the progress of
+Paoli in Corsica; for after all that has been said of the gallantry and
+courage of Paoli and his islanders, I am very credibly informed that
+they might be very easily suppressed, if the Genoese had either vigour
+in the council or resolution in the field.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+True it is, they made a noble effort in expelling the Austrians who had
+taken possession of their city; but this effort was the effect of
+oppression and despair, and if I may believe the insinuations of some
+politicians in this part of the world, the Genoese would not have
+succeeded in that attempt, if they had not previously purchased with a
+large sum of money the connivance of the only person who could defeat
+the enterprize. For my own part, I can scarce entertain thoughts so
+prejudicial to the character of human nature, as to suppose a man
+capable of sacrificing to such a consideration, the duty he owed his
+prince, as well as all regard to the lives of his soldiers, even those
+who lay sick in hospitals, and who, being dragged forth, were miserably
+butchered by the furious populace. There is one more presumption of his
+innocence, he still retains the favour of his sovereign, who could not
+well be supposed to share in the booty. "There are mysteries in
+politics which were never dreamed of in our philosophy, Horatio!" The
+possession of Genoa might have proved a troublesome bone of contention,
+which it might be convenient to lose by accident. Certain it is, when
+the Austrians returned after their expulsion, in order to retake the
+city, the engineer, being questioned by the general, declared he would
+take the place in fifteen days, on pain of losing his head; and in four
+days after this declaration the Austrians retired. This anecdote I
+learned from a worthy gentleman of this country, who had it from the
+engineer's own mouth. Perhaps it was the will of heaven. You see how
+favourably, providence has interposed in behalf of the reigning empress
+of Russia, first in removing her husband: secondly in ordaining the
+assassination of prince Ivan, for which the perpetrators have been so
+liberally rewarded; it even seems determined to shorten the life of her
+own son, the only surviving rival from whom she had any thing to fear.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Genoese have now thrown themselves into the arms of France for
+protection: I know not whether it would not have been a greater mark of
+sagacity to cultivate the friendship of England, with which they carry
+on an advantageous commerce. While the English are masters of the
+Mediterranean, they will always have it in their power to do incredible
+damage all along the Riviera, to ruin the Genoese trade by sea, and
+even to annoy the capital; for notwithstanding all the pains they have
+taken to fortify the mole and the city, I am greatly deceived if it is
+not still exposed to the danger, not only of a bombardment, but even of
+a cannonade. I am even sanguine enough to think a resolute commander
+might, with a strong squadron, sail directly into the harbour, without
+sustaining much damage, notwithstanding all the cannon of the place,
+which are said to amount to near five hundred. I have seen a cannonade
+of above four hundred pieces of artillery, besides bombs and cohorns,
+maintained for many hours, without doing much mischief.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+During the last siege of Genoa, the French auxiliaries were obliged to
+wait at Monaco, until a gale of wind had driven the English squadron
+off the coast, and then they went along shore in small vessels at the
+imminent risque of being taken by the British cruisers. By land I
+apprehend their march would be altogether impracticable, if the king of
+Sardinia had any interest to oppose it. He might either guard the
+passes, or break up the road in twenty different places, so as to
+render it altogether impassable. Here it may not be amiss to observe,
+that when Don Philip advanced from Nice with his army to Genoa, he was
+obliged to march so close to the shore, that in above fifty different
+places, the English ships might have rendered the road altogether
+impassable. The path, which runs generally along the face of a
+precipice washed by the sea, is so narrow that two men on horseback can
+hardly pass each other; and the road itself so rugged, slippery, and
+dangerous, that the troopers were obliged to dismount, and lead their
+horses one by one. On the other hand, baron de Leutrum, who was at the
+head of a large body of Piedmontese troops, had it in his power to
+block up the passes of the mountains, and even to destroy this road in
+such a manner, that the enemy could not possibly advance. Why these
+precautions were not taken, I do not pretend to explain: neither can I
+tell you wherefore the prince of Monaco, who is a subject and partizan
+of France, was indulged with a neutrality for his town, which served as
+a refreshing-place, a safe port, and an intermediate post for the
+French succours sent from Marseilles to Genoa. This I will only venture
+to affirm, that the success and advantage of great alliances are often
+sacrificed to low, partial, selfish, and sordid considerations. The
+town of Monaco is commanded by every heighth in its neighbourhood; and
+might be laid in ashes by a bomb-ketch in four hours by sea.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I was fortunate enough to be recommended to a lady in Genoa, who
+treated us with great politeness and hospitality. She introduced me to
+an abbate, a man of letters, whose conversation was extremely
+agreeable. He already knew me by reputation, and offered to make me
+known to some of the first persons in the republic, with whom he lived
+in intimacy. The lady is one of the most intelligent and best-bred
+persons I have known in any country. We assisted at her conversazione,
+which was numerous. She pressed us to pass the winter at Genoa; and
+indeed I was almost persuaded: but I had attachments at Nice, from
+which I could not easily disengage myself.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The few days we staved at Genoa were employed in visiting the most
+remarkable churches and palaces. In some of the churches, particularly
+that of the Annunciata, I found a profusion of ornaments, which had
+more magnificence than taste. There is a great number of pictures; but
+very few of them are capital pieces. I had heard much of the ponte
+Carignano, which did not at all answer my expectation. It is a bridge
+that unites two eminences which form the higher part of the city, and
+the houses in the bottom below do not rise so high as the springing of
+its arches. There is nothing at all curious in its construction, nor
+any way remarkable, except the heighth of the piers from which the
+arches are sprung. Hard by the bridge there is an elegant church, from
+the top of which you have a very rich and extensive prospect of the
+city, the sea and the adjacent country, which looks like a continent of
+groves and villas. The only remarkable circumstance about the
+cathedral, which is Gothic and gloomy, is the chapel where the
+pretended bones of John the Baptist are deposited, and in which thirty
+silver lamps are continually burning. I had a curiosity to see the
+palaces of Durazzo and Doria, but it required more trouble to procure
+admission than I was willing to give myself: as for the arsenal, and
+the rostrum of an ancient galley which was found by accident in
+dragging the harbour, I postponed seeing them till my return.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Having here provided myself with letters of credit for Florence and
+Rome, I hired the same boat which had brought us hither, to carry us
+forward to Lerici, which is a small town about half way between Genoa
+and Leghorn, where travellers, who are tired of the sea, take
+post-chaises to continue their route by land to Pisa and Florence. I
+payed three loui'dores for this voyage of about fifty miles; though I
+might have had a feluca for less money. When you land on the wharf at
+Genoa, you are plied by the feluca men just as you are plied by the
+watermen at Hungerford-stairs in London. They are always ready to set
+off at a minute's warning for Lerici, Leghorn, Nice, Antibes,
+Marseilles, and every part of the Riviera.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The wind being still unfavourable, though the weather was delightful,
+we rowed along shore, passing by several pretty towns, villages, and a
+vast number of cassines, or little white houses, scattered among woods
+of olive-trees, that cover the hills; and these are the habitations of
+the velvet and damask weavers. Turning Capo Fino we entered a bay,
+where stand the towns of Porto Fino, Lavagna, and Sestri di Levante, at
+which last we took up our night's lodging. The house was tolerable, and
+we had no great reason to complain of the beds: but, the weather being
+hot, there was a very offensive smell, which proceeded from some skins
+of beasts new killed, that were spread to dry on an outhouse in the
+yard. Our landlord was a butcher, and had very much the looks of an
+assassin. His wife was a great masculine virago, who had all the air of
+having frequented the slaughter-house. Instead of being welcomed with
+looks of complaisance, we were admitted with a sort of gloomy
+condescension, which seemed to say, "We don't much like your company;
+but, however, you shall have a night's lodging in favour of the patron
+of the gondola, who is our acquaintance." In short, we had a very bad
+supper, miserably dressed, passed a very disagreeable night, and payed
+a very extravagant bill in the morning, without being thanked for our
+custom. I was very glad to get out of the house with my throat uncut.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Sestri di Levante is a little town pleasantly situated on the seaside;
+but has not the conveniency of a harbour. The fish taken here is mostly
+carried to Genoa. This is likewise the market for their oil, and the
+paste called macaroni, of which they make a good quantity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Next day, we skirted a very barren coast, consisting of almost
+perpendicular rocks, on the faces of which, however, we saw many
+peasants' houses and hanging terraces for vines, made by dint of
+incredible labour. In the afternoon, we entered by the Porti di Venere
+into the bay, or gulf of Spetia or Spezza, which was the Portus Lunae
+of the ancients. This bay, at the mouth of which lies the island
+Palmaria, forms a most noble and secure harbour, capacious enough to
+contain all the navies in Christendom. The entrance on one side is
+defended by a small fort built above the town of Porto Venere, which is
+a very poor place. Farther in there is a battery of about twenty guns;
+and on the right hand, opposite to Porto Venere, is a block-house,
+founded on a rock in the sea. At the bottom of the bay is the town of
+Spetia on the left, and on the right that of Lerici, defended by a
+castle of very little strength or consequence. The whole bay is
+surrounded with plantations of olives and oranges, and makes a very
+delightful appearance. In case of a war, this would be an admirable
+station for a British squadron, as it lies so near Genoa and Leghorn;
+and has a double entrance, by means of which the cruisers could sail in
+and out continually, which way soever the wind might chance to sit. I
+am sure the fortifications would give very little disturbance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the post-house in Lerici, the accommodation is intolerable. We were
+almost poisoned at supper. I found the place where I was to lie so
+close and confined, that I could not breathe in it, and therefore lay
+all night in an outward room upon four chairs, with a leather
+portmanteau for my pillow. For this entertainment I payed very near a
+loui'dore. Such bad accommodation is the less excusable, as the fellow
+has a great deal of business, this being a great thoroughfare for
+travellers going into Italy, or returning from thence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I might have saved some money by prosecuting my voyage directly by sea
+to Leghorn: but, by this time, we were all heartily tired of the water,
+the business then was to travel by land to Florence, by the way of
+Pisa, which is seven posts distant from Lerici. Those who have not
+their own carriage must either hire chaises to perform the whole
+journey, or travel by way of cambiatura, which is that of changing the
+chaises every post, as the custom is in England. In this case the great
+inconvenience arises from your being obliged to shift your baggage
+every post. The chaise or calesse of this country, is a wretched
+machine with two wheels, as uneasy as a common cart, being indeed no
+other than what we should call in England a very ill-contrived
+one-horse chair, narrow, naked, shattered and shabby. For this vehicle
+and two horses you pay at the rate of eight paoli a stage, or four
+shillings sterling; and the postilion expects two paoli for his
+gratification: so that every eight miles cost about five shillings, and
+four only, if you travel in your own carriage, as in that case you pay
+no more than at the rate of three paoli a horse.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+About three miles from Lerici, we crossed the Magra, which appeared as
+a rivulet almost dry, and in half a mile farther arrived at Sarzana, a
+small town at the extremity of the Genoese territories, where we
+changed horses. Then entering the principalities of Massa and Carrara,
+belonging to the duke of Modena, we passed Lavenza, which seems to be a
+decayed fort with a small garrison, and dined at Massa, which is an
+agreeable little town, where the old dutchess of Modena resides.
+Notwithstanding all the expedition we could make, it was dark before we
+passed the Cerchio, which is an inconsiderable stream in the
+neighbourhood of Pisa, where we arrived about eight in the evening.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The country from Sarzana to the frontiers of Tuscany is a narrow plain,
+bounded on the right by the sea, and on the left by the Apennine
+mountains. It is well cultivated and inclosed, consisting of
+meadow-ground, corn fields, plantations of olives; and the trees that
+form the hedge-rows serve as so many props to the vines, which are
+twisted round them, and continued from one to another. After entering
+the dominions of Tuscany, we travelled through a noble forest of
+oak-trees of a considerable extent, which would have appeared much more
+agreeable, had we not been benighted and apprehensive of robbers. The
+last post but one in this days journey, is at the little town of
+Viareggio, a kind of sea-port on the Mediterranean, belonging to Lucia.
+The roads are indifferent, and the accommodation is execrable. I was
+glad to find myself housed in a very good inn at Pisa, where I promised
+myself a good night's rest, and was not disappointed. I heartily wish
+you the same pleasure, and am very sincerely&mdash;Yours.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap27"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER XXVII
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+NICE, January 28, 1765.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR SIR,&mdash;Pisa is a fine old city that strikes you with the same
+veneration you would feel at sight of an antient temple which bears the
+marks of decay, without being absolutely dilapidated. The houses are
+well built, the streets open, straight, and well paved; the shops well
+furnished; and the markets well supplied: there are some elegant
+palaces, designed by great masters. The churches are built with taste,
+and tolerably ornamented. There is a beautiful wharf of freestone on
+each side of the river Arno, which runs through the city, and three
+bridges thrown over it, of which that in the middle is of marble, a
+pretty piece of architecture: but the number of inhabitants is very
+inconsiderable; and this very circumstance gives it an air of majestic
+solitude, which is far from being unpleasant to a man of a
+contemplative turn of mind. For my part, I cannot bear the tumult of a
+populous commercial city; and the solitude that reigns in Pisa would
+with me be a strong motive to choose it as a place of residence. Not
+that this would be the only inducement for living at Pisa. Here is some
+good company, and even a few men of taste and learning. The people in
+general are counted sociable and polite; and there is great plenty of
+provisions, at a very reasonable rate. At some distance from the more
+frequented parts of the city, a man may hire a large house for thirty
+crowns a year: but near the center, you cannot have good lodgings,
+ready furnished, for less than a scudo (about five shillings) a day.
+The air in summer is reckoned unwholesome by the exhalations arising
+from stagnant water in the neighbourhood of the city, which stands in
+the midst of a fertile plain, low and marshy: yet these marshes have
+been considerably drained, and the air is much meliorated. As for the
+Arno, it is no longer navigated by vessels of any burthen. The
+university of Pisa is very much decayed; and except the little business
+occasioned by the emperor's gallies, which are built in this town,
+[This is a mistake. No gallies have been built here for a great many
+years, and the dock is now converted into stables for the Grand Duke's
+Horse Guards.] I know of no commerce it carried on: perhaps the
+inhabitants live on the produce of the country, which consists of corn,
+wine, and cattle. They are supplied with excellent water for drinking,
+by an aqueduct consisting of above five thousand arches, begun by
+Cosmo, and finished by Ferdinand I. Grand-dukes of Tuscany; it conveys
+the water from the mountains at the distance of five miles. This noble
+city, formerly the capital of a flourishing and powerful republic,
+which contained above one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants,
+within its walls, is now so desolate that grass grows in the open
+streets; and the number of its people do not exceed sixteen thousand.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+You need not doubt but I visited the Campanile, or hanging-tower, which
+is a beautiful cylinder of eight stories, each adorned with a round of
+columns, rising one above another. It stands by the cathedral, and
+inclines so far on one side from the perpendicular, that in dropping a
+plummet from the top, which is one hundred and eighty-eight feet high,
+it falls sixteen feet from the base. For my part, I should never have
+dreamed that this inclination proceeded from any other cause, than an
+accidental subsidence of the foundation on this side, if some
+connoisseurs had not taken great pains to prove it was done on purpose
+by the architect. Any person who has eyes may see that the pillars on
+that side are considerably sunk; and this is the case with the very
+threshold of the door by which you enter. I think it would have been a
+very preposterous ambition in the architects, to show how far they
+could deviate from the perpendicular in this construction; because in
+that particular any common mason could have rivalled them; [All the
+world knows that a Building with such Inclination may be carried up
+till a line drawn from the Centre of Gravity falls without the
+Circumference of the Base.] and if they really intended it as a
+specimen of their art, they should have shortened the pilasters on that
+side, so as to exhibit them intire, without the appearance of sinking.
+These leaning towers are not unfrequent in Italy; there is one at
+Bologna, another at Venice, a third betwixt Venice and Ferrara, and a
+fourth at Ravenna; and the inclination in all of them has been supposed
+owing to the foundations giving way on one side only.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In the cathedral, which is a large Gothic pile, [This Edifice is not
+absolutely Gothic. It was built in the Twelfth Century after the Design
+of a Greek Architect from Constantinople, where by that time the art
+was much degenerated. The Pillars of Granite are mostly from the
+Islands of Ebba and Giglia on the coast of Tuscany, where those
+quarries were worked by the antient Romans. The Giullo, and the verde
+antico are very beautiful species of marble, yellow and green; the
+first, antiently called marmor numidicum, came from Africa; the other
+was found (according to Strabo) on the mons Taygetus in Lacedemonia:
+but, at present, neither the one nor the other is to be had except
+among the ruins of antiquity.] there is a great number of massy pillars
+of porphyry, granite, jasper, giullo, and verde antico, together with
+some good pictures and statues: but the greatest curiosity is that of
+the brass-gates, designed and executed by John of Bologna,
+representing, embossed in different compartments, the history of the
+Old and New Testament. I was so charmed with this work, that I could
+have stood a whole day to examine and admire it. In the Baptisterium,
+which stands opposite to this front, there are some beautiful marbles,
+particularly the font, and a pulpit, supported by the statues of
+different animals.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Between the cathedral and this building, about one hundred paces on one
+side, is the famous burying-ground, called Campo Santo, from its being
+covered with earth brought from Jerusalem. It is an oblong square,
+surrounded by a very high wall, and always kept shut. Within-side there
+is a spacious corridore round the whole space, which is a noble walk
+for a contemplative philosopher. It is paved chiefly with flat
+grave-stones: the walls are painted in fresco by Ghiotto, Giottino,
+Stefano, Bennoti, Bufalmaco, and some others of his cotemporaries and
+disciples, who flourished immediately after the restoration of
+painting. The subjects are taken from the Bible. Though the manner is
+dry, the drawing incorrect, the design generally lame, and the
+colouring unnatural; yet there is merit in the expression: and the
+whole remains as a curious monument of the efforts made by this noble
+art immediately after her revival. [The History of Job by Giotto is
+much admired.] Here are some deceptions in perspective equally
+ingenious and pleasing; particularly the figures of certain animals,
+which exhibit exactly the same appearance, from whatever different
+points of view they are seen. One division of the burying-ground
+consists of a particular compost, which in nine days consumes the dead
+bodies to the bones: in all probability, it is no other than common
+earth mixed with quick-lime. At one corner of the corridore, there are
+the pictures of three bodies represented in the three different stages
+of putrefaction which they undergo when laid in this composition. At
+the end of the three first days, the body is bloated and swelled, and
+the features are enlarged and distorted to such a degree, as fills the
+spectator with horror. At the sixth day, the swelling is subsided, and
+all the muscular flesh hangs loosened from the bones: at the ninth,
+nothing but the skeleton remains. There is a small neat chapel at one
+end of the Campo Santo, with some tombs, on one of which is a beautiful
+bust by Buona Roti. [Here is a sumptuous cenotaph erected by Pope
+Gregory XIII. to the memory of his brother Giovanni Buoncampagni. It is
+called the Monumentum Gregorianum, of a violet-coloured marble from
+Scravezza in this neighbourhood, adorned with a couple of columns of
+Touchstone, and two beautiful spherical plates of Alabaster.] At the
+other end of the corridore, there is a range of antient sepulchral
+stones ornamented with basso-relievo brought hither from different
+parts by the Pisan Fleets in the course of their expeditions. I was
+struck with the figure of a woman lying dead on a tomb-stone, covered
+with a piece of thin drapery, so delicately cut as to shew all the
+flexures of the attitude, and even all the swellings and sinuosities of
+the muscles. Instead of stone, it looks like a sheet of wet linen. [One
+of these antiquities representing the Hunting of Meleager was converted
+into a coffin for the Countess Beatrice, mother of the famous Countess
+Mathilda; it is now fixed to the outside of the church wall just by one
+of the doors, and is a very elegant piece of sculpture. Near the same
+place is a fine pillar of Porphyry supporting the figure of a Lion, and
+a kind of urn which seems to be a Sarcophagus, though an inscription
+round the Base declares it is a Talentum in which the antient Pisans
+measured the Census or Tax which they payed to Augustus: but in what
+metal or specie this Census was payed we are left to divine. There are
+likewise in the Campo Santo two antique Latin edicts of the Pisan
+Senate injoining the citizens to go into mourning for the Death of
+Caius and Lucius Caesar the Sons of Agrippa, and heirs declared of the
+Emperor. Fronting this Cemetery, on the other side of the Piazza of the
+Dome, is a large, elegant Hospital in which the sick are conveniently
+and comfortably lodged, entertained, and attended.]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+For four zechines I hired a return-coach and four from Pisa to
+Florence. This road, which lies along the Arno, is very good; and the
+country is delightful, variegated with hill and vale, wood and water,
+meadows and corn-fields, planted and inclosed like the counties of
+Middlesex and Hampshire; with this difference, however, that all the
+trees in this tract were covered with vines, and the ripe clusters
+black and white, hung down from every bough in a most luxuriant and
+romantic abundance. The vines in this country are not planted in rows,
+and propped with sticks, as in France and the county of Nice, but twine
+around the hedge-row trees, which they almost quite cover with their
+foliage and fruit. The branches of the vine are extended from tree to
+tree, exhibiting beautiful festoons of real leaves, tendrils, and
+swelling clusters a foot long. By this oeconomy the ground of the
+inclosure is spared for corn, grass, or any other production. The trees
+commonly planted for the purpose of sustaining the vines, are maple,
+elm, and aller, with which last the banks of the Arno abound. [It would
+have been still more for the advantage of the Country and the Prospect,
+if instead of these they had planted fruit trees for the purpose.] This
+river, which is very inconsiderable with respect to the quantity of
+water, would be a charming pastoral stream, if it was transparent; but
+it is always muddy and discoloured. About ten or a dozen miles below
+Florence, there are some marble quarries on the side of it, from whence
+the blocks are conveyed in boats, when there is water enough in the
+river to float them, that is after heavy rains, or the melting of the
+snow upon the mountains of Umbria, being part of the Apennines, from
+whence it takes its rise.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Florence is a noble city, that still retains all the marks of a
+majestic capital, such as piazzas, palaces, fountains, bridges,
+statues, and arcades. I need not tell you that the churches here are
+magnificent, and adorned not only with pillars of oriental granite,
+porphyry, Jasper, verde antico, and other precious stones; but also
+with capital pieces of painting by the most eminent masters. Several of
+these churches, however, stand without fronts, for want of money to
+complete the plans. It may also appear superfluous to mention my having
+viewed the famous gallery of antiquities, the chapel of St. Lorenzo,
+the palace of Pitti, the cathedral, the baptisterium, Ponte de Trinita,
+with its statues, the triumphal arch, and every thing which is commonly
+visited in this metropolis. But all these objects having been
+circumstantially described by twenty different authors of travels, I
+shall not trouble you with a repetition of trite observations.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+That part of the city which stands on each side of the river, makes a
+very elegant appearance, to which the four bridges and the stone-quay
+between them, contribute in a great measure. I lodged at the widow
+Vanini's, an English house delightfully situated in this quarter. The
+landlady, who is herself a native of England, we found very obliging.
+The lodging-rooms are comfortable; and the entertainment is good and
+reasonable. There is a considerable number of fashionable people at
+Florence, and many of them in good circumstances. They affect a gaiety
+in their dress, equipage, and conversation; but stand very much on
+their punctilio with strangers; and will not, without great reluctance,
+admit into their assemblies any lady of another country, whose noblesse
+is not ascertained by a title. This reserve is in some measure
+excusable among a people who are extremely ignorant of foreign customs,
+and who know that in their own country, every person, even the most
+insignificant, who has any pretensions to family, either inherits, or
+assumes the title of principe, conte, or marchese.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With all their pride, however, the nobles of Florence are humble enough
+to enter into partnership with shop-keepers, and even to sell wine by
+retail. It is an undoubted fact, that in every palace or great house in
+this city, there is a little window fronting the street, provided with
+an iron-knocker, and over it hangs an empty flask, by way of sign-post.
+Thither you send your servant to buy a bottle of wine. He knocks at the
+little wicket, which is opened immediately by a domestic, who supplies
+him with what he wants, and receives the money like the waiter of any
+other cabaret. It is pretty extraordinary, that it should not be deemed
+a disparagement in a nobleman to sell half a pound of figs, or a palm
+of ribbon or tape, or to take money for a flask of sour wine; and yet
+be counted infamous to match his daughter in the family of a person who
+has distinguished himself in any one of the learned professions.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Though Florence be tolerably populous, there seems to be very little
+trade of any kind in it: but the inhabitants flatter themselves with
+the prospect of reaping great advantage from the residence of one of
+the arch-dukes, for whose reception they are now repairing the palace
+of Pitti. I know not what the revenues of Tuscany may amount to, since
+the succession of the princes of Lorraine; but, under the last dukes of
+the Medici family, they were said to produce two millions of crowns,
+equal to five hundred thousand pounds sterling. These arose from a very
+heavy tax upon land and houses, the portions of maidens, and suits at
+law, besides the duties upon traffick, a severe gabelle upon the
+necessaries of life, and a toll upon every eatable entered into this
+capital. If we may believe Leti, the grand duke was then able to raise
+and maintain an army of forty thousand infantry, and three thousand
+horse; with twelve gallies, two galeasses, and twenty ships of war. I
+question if Tuscany can maintain at present above one half of such an
+armament. He that now commands the emperor's navy, consisting of a few
+frigates, is an Englishman, called Acton, who was heretofore captain of
+a ship in our East India company's service. He has lately embraced the
+catholic religion, and been created admiral of Tuscany.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There is a tolerable opera in Florence for the entertainment of the
+best company, though they do not seem very attentive to the musick.
+Italy is certainly the native country of this art; and yet, I do not
+find the people in general either more musically inclined, or better
+provided with ears than their neighbours. Here is also a wretched troop
+of comedians for the burgeois, and lower class of people: but what
+seems most to suit the taste of all ranks, is the exhibition of church
+pageantry. I had occasion to see a procession, where all the noblesse
+of the city attended in their coaches, which filled the whole length of
+the great street called the Corso. It was the anniversary of a
+charitable institution in favour of poor maidens, a certain number of
+whom are portioned every year. About two hundred of these virgins
+walked in procession, two and two together, cloathed in violet-coloured
+wide gowns, with white veils on their heads, and made a very classical
+appearance. They were preceded and followed by an irregular mob of
+penitents in sack-cloth, with lighted tapers, and monks carrying
+crucifixes, bawling and bellowing the litanies: but the great object
+was a figure of the Virgin Mary, as big as the life, standing within a
+gilt frame, dressed in a gold stuff, with a large hoop, a great
+quantity of false jewels, her face painted and patched, and her hair
+frizzled and curled in the very extremity of the fashion. Very little
+regard had been paid to the image of our Saviour on the cross; but when
+his lady-mother appeared on the shoulders of three or four lusty
+friars, the whole populace fell upon their knees in the dirt. This
+extraordinary veneration paid to the Virgin, must have been derived
+originally from the French, who pique themselves on their gallantry to
+the fair sex.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Amidst all the scenery of the Roman catholic religion, I have never yet
+seen any of the spectators affected at heart, or discover the least
+signs of fanaticism. The very disciplinants, who scourge themselves in
+the Holy-week, are generally peasants or parties hired for the purpose.
+Those of the confrairies, who have an ambition to distinguish
+themselves on such occasions, take care to secure their backs from the
+smart, by means of secret armour, either women's boddice, or quilted
+jackets. The confrairies are fraternities of devotees, who inlist
+themselves under the banners of particular saints. On days of
+procession they appear in a body dressed as penitents and masked, and
+distinguished by crosses on their habits. There is scarce an
+individual, whether noble or plebeian, who does not belong to one of
+these associations, which may be compared to the FreeMasons,
+Gregoreans, and Antigallicans of England.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Just without one of the gates of Florence, there is a triumphal arch
+erected on occasion of the late emperor's making his public entry, when
+he succeeded to the dukedom of Tuscany: and herein the summer evenings,
+the quality resort to take the air in their coaches. Every carriage
+stops, and forms a little separate conversazione. The ladies sit
+within, and the cicisbei stand on the foot-boards, on each side of the
+coach, entertaining them with their discourse. It would be no
+unpleasant inquiry to trace this sort of gallantry to its original, and
+investigate all its progress. The Italians, having been accused of
+jealousy, were resolved to wipe off the reproach, and, seeking to avoid
+it for the future, have run into the other extreme. I know it is
+generally supposed that the custom of choosing cicisbei, was calculated
+to prevent the extinction of families, which would otherwise often
+happen in consequence of marriages founded upon interest, without any
+mutual affection in the contracting parties. How far this political
+consideration may have weighed against the jealous and vindictive
+temper of the Italians, I will not pretend to judge: but, certain it
+is, every married lady in this country has her cicisbeo, or servente,
+who attends her every where, and on all occasions; and upon whose
+privileges the husband dares not encroach, without incurring the
+censure and ridicule of the whole community. For my part, I would
+rather be condemned for life to the gallies, than exercise the office
+of a cicisbeo, exposed to the intolerable caprices and dangerous
+resentment of an Italian virago. I pretend not to judge of the national
+character, from my own observation: but, if the portraits drawn by
+Goldoni in his Comedies are taken from nature, I would not hesitate to
+pronounce the Italian women the most haughty, insolent, capricious, and
+revengeful females on the face of the earth. Indeed their resentments
+are so cruelly implacable, and contain such a mixture of perfidy, that,
+in my opinion, they are very unfit subjects for comedy, whose province
+it is, rather to ridicule folly than to stigmatize such atrocious vice.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+You have often heard it said, that the purity of the Italian is to be
+found in the lingua Toscana, and bocca Romana. Certain it is, the
+pronunciation of the Tuscans is disagreeably guttural: the letters C
+and G they pronounce with an aspiration, which hurts the ear of an
+Englishman; and is I think rather rougher than that of the X, in
+Spanish. It sounds as if the speaker had lost his palate. I really
+imagined the first man I heard speak in Pisa, had met with that
+misfortune in the course of his amours.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+One of the greatest curiosities you meet with in Italy, is the
+Improvisatore; such is the name given to certain individuals, who have
+the surprising talent of reciting verses extempore, on any subject you
+propose. Mr. Corvesi, my landlord, has a son, a Franciscan friar, who
+is a great genius in this way.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+When the subject is given, his brother tunes his violin to accompany
+him, and he begins to rehearse in recitative, with wonderful fluency
+and precision. Thus he will, at a minute's warning, recite two or three
+hundred verses, well turned, and well adapted, and generally mingled
+with an elegant compliment to the company. The Italians are so fond of
+poetry, that many of them, have the best part of Ariosto, Tasso, and
+Petrarch, by heart; and these are the great sources from which the
+Improvisatori draw their rhimes, cadence, and turns of expression. But,
+lest you should think there is neither rhime nor reason in protracting
+this tedious epistle, I shall conclude it with the old burden of my
+song, that I am always&mdash;Your affectionate humble servant.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap28"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER XXVIII
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+NICE, February 5, 1765.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR SIR,&mdash;Your entertaining letter of the fifth of last month, was a
+very charitable and a very agreeable donation: but your suspicion is
+groundless. I assure you, upon my honour, I have no share whatever in
+any of the disputes which agitate the public: nor do I know any thing
+of your political transactions, except what I casually see in one of
+your newspapers, with the perusal of which I am sometimes favoured by
+our consul at Villefranche. You insist upon my being more particular in
+my remarks on what I saw at Florence, and I shall obey the injunction.
+The famous gallery which contains the antiquities, is the third story
+of a noble stone-edifice, built in the form of the Greek Pi, the upper
+part fronting the river Arno, and one of the legs adjoining to the
+ducal-palace, where the courts of justice are held. As the house of
+Medici had for some centuries resided in the palace of Pitti, situated
+on the other side of the river, a full mile from these tribunals, the
+architect Vasari, who planned the new edifice, at the same time
+contrived a corridore, or covered passage, extending from the palace of
+Pitti along one of the bridges, to the gallery of curiosities, through
+which the grand-duke passed unseen, when he was disposed either to
+amuse himself with his antiquities, or to assist at his courts of
+judicature: but there is nothing very extraordinary either in the
+contrivance or execution of this corridore.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+If I resided in Florence I would give something extraordinary for
+permission to walk every day in the gallery, which I should much prefer
+to the Lycaeum, the groves of Academus, or any porch or philosophical
+alley in Athens or in Rome. Here by viewing the statues and busts
+ranged on each side, I should become acquainted with the faces of all
+the remarkable personages, male and female, of antiquity, and even be
+able to trace their different characters from the expression of their
+features. This collection is a most excellent commentary upon the Roman
+historians, particularly Suetonius and Dion Cassius. There was one
+circumstance that struck me in viewing the busts of Caracalla, both
+here and in the Capitol at Rome; there was a certain ferocity in the
+eyes, which seemed to contradict the sweetness of the other features,
+and remarkably justified the epithet Caracuyl, by which he was
+distinguished by the antient inhabitants of North-Britain. In the
+language of the Highlanders caracuyl signifies cruel eye, as we are
+given to understand by the ingenious editor of Fingal, who seems to
+think that Caracalla is no other than the Celtic word, adapted to the
+pronunciation of the Romans: but the truth is, Caracalla was the name
+of a Gaulish vestment, which this prince affected to wear; and hence he
+derived that surname. The Caracuyl of the Britons, is the same as the
+upodra idon of the Greeks, which Homer has so often applied to his
+Scolding Heroes. I like the Bacchanalian, chiefly for the fine drapery.
+The wind, occasioned by her motion, seems to have swelled and raised it
+from the parts of the body which it covers. There is another gay
+Bacchanalian, in the attitude of dancing, crowned with ivy, holding in
+her right hand a bunch of grapes, and in her left the thyrsus. The head
+of the celebrated Flora is very beautiful: the groupe of Cupid and
+Psyche, however, did not give me all the pleasure I expected from it.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Of all the marbles that appear in the open gallery, the following are
+those I most admire. Leda with the Swan; as for Jupiter, in this
+transformation, he has much the appearance of a goose. I have not seen
+any thing tamer; but the sculptor has admirably shewn his art in
+representing Leda's hand partly hid among the feathers, which are so
+lightly touched off, that the very shape of the fingers are seen
+underneath. The statue of a youth, supposed to be Ganymede, is compared
+by the connoisseurs to the celebrated Venus, and as far as I can judge,
+not without reason: it is however, rather agreeable than striking, and
+will please a connoisseur much more than a common spectator. I know not
+whether it is my regard to the faculty that inhances the value of the
+noted Esculapius, who appears with a venerable beard of delicate
+workmanship. He is larger than the life, cloathed in a magnificent
+pallium, his left arm resting on a knotted staff, round which the snake
+is twined according to Ovid.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Hunc modo serpentem baculum qui nexibus ambit Perspice&mdash;
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Behold the snake his mystic Rod intwine.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+He has in his hand the fascia herbarum, and the crepidae on his feet.
+There is a wild-boar represented lying on one side, which I admire as a
+master-piece. The savageness of his appearance is finely contrasted
+with the case and indolence of the attitude. Were I to meet with a
+living boar lying with the same expression, I should be tempted to
+stroke his bristles. Here is an elegant bust of Antinous, the favourite
+of Adrian; and a beautiful head of Alexander the Great, turned on one
+side, with an expression of languishment and anxiety in his
+countenance. The virtuosi are not agreed about the circumstance in
+which he is represented; whether fainting with the loss of blood which
+he suffered in his adventure at Oxydrace; or languishing with the fever
+contracted by bathing in the Cydnus; or finally complaining to his
+father Jove, that there were no other worlds for him to conquer. The
+kneeling Narcissus is a striking figure, and the expression admirable.
+The two Bacchi are perfectly well executed; but (to my shame be it
+spoken) I prefer to the antique that which is the work of Michael
+Angelo Buonaroti, concerning which the story is told which you well
+know. The artist having been blamed by some pretended connoisseurs, for
+not imitating the manner of the ancients, is said to have privately
+finished this Bacchus, and buried it, after having broke off an arm,
+which he kept as a voucher. The statue, being dug up by accident, was
+allowed by the best judges, to be a perfect antique; upon which
+Buonaroti produced the arm, and claimed his own work. Bianchi looks
+upon this as a fable; but owns that Vasari tells such another of a
+child cut in marble by the same artist, which being carried to Rome,
+and kept for some time under ground, was dug up as an antique, and sold
+for a great deal of money. I was likewise attracted by the Morpheus in
+touchstone, which is described by Addison, who, by the bye,
+notwithstanding all his taste, has been convicted by Bianchi of several
+gross blunders in his account of this gallery.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With respect to the famous Venus Pontia, commonly called de Medicis,
+which was found at Tivoli, and is kept in a separate apartment called
+the Tribuna, I believe I ought to be intirely silent, or at least
+conceal my real sentiments, which will otherwise appear equally absurd
+and presumptuous. It must be want of taste that prevents my feeling
+that enthusiastic admiration with which others are inspired at sight of
+this statue: a statue which in reputation equals that of Cupid by
+Praxiteles, which brought such a concourse of strangers of old to the
+little town of Thespiae. I cannot help thinking that there is no beauty
+in the features of Venus; and that the attitude is aukward and out of
+character. It is a bad plea to urge that the antients and we differ in
+the ideas of beauty. We know the contrary, from their medals, busts,
+and historians. Without all doubt, the limbs and proportions of this
+statue are elegantly formed, and accurately designed, according to the
+nicest rules of symmetry and proportion; and the back parts especially
+are executed so happily, as to excite the admiration of the most
+indifferent spectator. One cannot help thinking it is the very Venus of
+Cnidos by Praxiteles, which Lucian describes. "Hercle quanta dorsi
+concinnitas! ut exuberantes lumbi amplexantes manus implent! quam scite
+circumductae clunium pulpae in se rotundantur, neque tenues nimis ipsis
+ossibus adstrictae, neque in immensam effusae Pinguedinem!" That the
+statue thus described was not the Venus de Medicis, would appear from
+the Greek inscription on the base, KLEOMENIS APPOLLODOROI ATHINAIOS
+EPOESEI. Cleomenes filius Apollodori fecit; did we not know that this
+inscription is counted spurious, and that instead of EPOESEI, it should
+be EPOIESE. This, however, is but a frivolous objection, as we have
+seen many inscriptions undoubtedly antique, in which the orthography is
+false, either from the ignorance or carelessness of the sculptor.
+Others suppose, not without reason, that this statue is a
+representation of the famous Phryne, the courtesan of Athens, who at
+the celebration of the Eleusinian games, exhibited herself coming out
+of the bath, naked, to the eyes of the whole Athenian people. I was
+much pleased with the dancing faun; and still better with the Lotti, or
+wrestlers, the attitudes of which are beautifully contrived to shew the
+different turns of the limbs, and the swelling of the muscles: but,
+what pleased me best of all the statues in the Tribuna was the
+Arrotino, commonly called the Whetter, and generally supposed to
+represent a slave, who in the act of whetting a knife, overhears the
+conspiracy of Catiline. You know he is represented on one knee; and
+certain it is, I never saw such an expression of anxious attention, as
+appears in his countenance.  But it is not mingled with any marks of
+surprise, such as could not fail to lay hold on a man who overhears by
+accident a conspiracy against the state. The marquis de Maffei has
+justly observed that Sallust, in his very circumstantial detail of that
+conspiracy, makes no mention of any such discovery. Neither does it
+appear that the figure is in the act of whetting, the stone which he
+holds in one hand being rough and unequal no ways resembling a
+whetstone. Others alledge it represents Milico, the freedman of
+Scaevinus, who conspired against the life of Nero, and gave his
+poignard to be whetted to Milico, who presented it to the emperor, with
+an account of the conspiracy: but the attitude and expression will by
+no means admit of this interpretation. Bianchi, [This antiquarian is
+now imprisoned for Life, for having robbed the Gallery and then set it
+on fire.] who shows the gallery, thinks the statue represents the augur
+Attius Navius, who cut a stone with a knife, at the command of
+Tarquinius Priscus. This conjecture seems to be confirmed by a
+medallion of Antoninus Pius, inserted by Vaillant among his Numismata
+Prestantiora, on which is delineated nearly such a figure as this in
+question, with the following legend. "Attius Navius genuflexus ante
+Tarquinium Priscum cotem cultro discidit." He owns indeed that in the
+statue, the augur is not distinguished either by his habit or emblems;
+and he might have added, neither is the stone a cotes. For my own part,
+I think neither of these three opinions is satisfactory, though the
+last is very ingenious. Perhaps the figure allude to a private
+incident, which never was recorded in any history. Among the great
+number of pictures in this Tribuna, I was most charmed with the Venus
+by Titian, which has a sweetness of expression and tenderness of
+colouring, not to be described. In this apartment, they reckon three
+hundred pieces, the greatest part by the best masters, particularly by
+Raphael, in the three manners by which he distinguished himself at
+different periods of his life. As for the celebrated statue of the
+hermaphrodite, which we find in another room, I give the sculptor
+credit for his ingenuity in mingling the sexes in the composition; but
+it is, at best, no other than a monster in nature, which I never had
+any pleasure in viewing: nor, indeed, do I think there was much talent
+required in representing a figure with the head and breasts of a woman,
+and all the other parts of the body masculine. There is such a
+profusion of curiosities in this celebrated musaeum; statues, busts,
+pictures, medals, tables inlaid in the way of marquetry, cabinets
+adorned with precious stones, jewels of all sorts, mathematical
+instruments, antient arms and military machines, that the imagination
+is bewildered, and a stranger of a visionary turn, would be apt to
+fancy himself in a palace of the fairies, raised and adorned by the
+power of inchantment.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In one of the detached apartments, I saw the antependium of the altar,
+designed for the famous chapel of St. Lorenzo. It is a curious piece of
+architecture, inlaid with coloured marble and precious stones, so as to
+represent an infinite variety of natural objects. It is adorned with
+some crystal pillars, with capitals of beaten gold. The second story of
+the building is occupied by a great number of artists employed in this
+very curious work of marquetry, representing figures with gems and
+different kinds of coloured marble, for the use of the emperor. The
+Italians call it pietre commesse, a sort of inlaying with stones,
+analogous to the fineering of cabinets in wood. It is peculiar to
+Florence, and seems to be still more curious than the Mosaic work,
+which the Romans have brought to great perfection.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The cathedral of Florence is a great Gothic building, encrusted on the
+outside with marble; it is remarkable for nothing but its cupola, which
+is said to have been copied by the architect of St. Peter's at Rome,
+and for its size, which is much greater than that of any other church
+in Christendom.  [In this cathedral is the Tomb of Johannes Acutus
+Anglus, which a man would naturally interpret as John Sharp; but his
+name was really Hawkwood, which the Italians have corrupted into Acut.
+He was a celebrated General or Condottiere who arrived in Italy at the
+head of four thousand soldiers of fortune, mostly Englishmen who had
+served with him in the army of King Edward III., and were dismissed at
+the Peace of Bontigny. Hawkwood greatly distinguished himself in Italy
+by his valour and conduct, and died a very old man in the Florentine
+service. He was the son of a Tanner in Essex, and had been put
+apprentice to a Taylor.] The baptistery, which stands by it, was an
+antient temple, said to be dedicated to Mars. There are some good
+statues of marble within; and one or two of bronze on the outside of
+the doors; but it is chiefly celebrated for the embossed work of its
+brass gates, by Lorenzo Ghiberti, which Buonaroti used to say, deserved
+to be made the gates of Paradise. I viewed them with pleasure: but
+still I retained a greater veneration for those of Pisa, which I had
+first admired: a preference which either arises from want of taste, or
+from the charm of novelty, by which the former were recommended to my
+attention. Those who would have a particular detail of every thing
+worth seeing at Florence, comprehending churches, libraries, palaces,
+tombs, statues, pictures, fountains, bridge, etc. may consult Keysler,
+who is so laboriously circumstantial in his descriptions, that I never
+could peruse them, without suffering the headache, and recollecting the
+old observation, that the German genius lies more in the back than in
+the brain.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I was much disappointed in the chapel of St. Lorenzo. Notwithstanding
+the great profusion of granite, porphyry, jasper, verde antico,
+lapis-lazuli, and other precious stones, representing figures in the
+way of marquetry, I think the whole has a gloomy effect. These pietre
+commesse are better calculated for cabinets, than for ornaments to
+great buildings, which ought to be large masses proportioned to the
+greatness of the edifice. The compartments are so small, that they
+produce no effect in giving the first impression when one enters the
+place; except to give an air of littleness to the whole, just as if a
+grand saloon was covered with pictures painted in miniature. If they
+have as little regard to proportion and perspective, when they paint
+the dome, which is not yet finished, this chapel will, in my opinion,
+remain a monument of ill taste and extravagance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The court of the palace of Pitti is formed by three sides of an elegant
+square, with arcades all round, like the palace of Holyrood house at
+Edinburgh; and the rustic work, which constitutes the lower part of the
+building, gives it an air of strength and magnificence. In this court,
+there is a fine fountain, in which the water trickles down from above;
+and here is also an admirable antique statue of Hercules, inscribed
+LUSIPPOI ERGON, the work of Lysippus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The apartments of this palace are generally small, and many of them
+dark. Among the paintings the most remarkable is the Madonna de la
+Seggiola, by Raphael, counted one of the best coloured pieces of that
+great master. If I was allowed to find fault with the performance, I
+should pronounce it defective in dignity and sentiment. It is the
+expression of a peasant rather than of the mother of God. She exhibits
+the fondness and joy of a young woman towards her firstborn son,
+without that rapture of admiration which we expect to find in the
+Virgin Mary, while she contemplates, in the fruit of her own womb, the
+Saviour of mankind. In other respects, it is a fine figure, gay,
+agreeable, and very expressive of maternal tenderness; and the bambino
+is extremely beautiful. There was an English painter employed in
+copying this picture, and what he had done was executed with great
+success. I am one of those who think it very possible to imitate the
+best pieces in such a manner, that even the connoisseurs shall not be
+able to distinguish the original from the copy. After all, I do not set
+up for a judge in these matters, and very likely I may incur the
+ridicule of the virtuosi for the remarks I have made: but I am used to
+speak my mind freely on all subjects that fall under the cognizance of
+my senses; though I must as freely own, there is something more than
+common sense required to discover and distinguish the more delicate
+beauties of painting. I can safely say, however, that without any
+daubing at all, I am, very sincerely&mdash;Your affectionate humble servant.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap29"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER XXIX
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+NICE, February 20, 1765.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR SIR,&mdash;Having seen all the curiosities of Florence, and hired a
+good travelling coach for seven weeks, at the price of seven zequines,
+something less than three guineas and a half, we set out post for Rome,
+by the way of Sienna, where we lay the first night. The country through
+which we passed is mountainous but agreeable. Of Sienna I can say
+nothing from my own observation, but that we were indifferently lodged
+in a house that stunk like a privy, and fared wretchedly at supper. The
+city is large and well built: the inhabitants pique themselves upon
+their politeness, and the purity of their dialect. Certain it is, some
+strangers reside in this place on purpose to learn the best
+pronunciation of the Italian tongue. The Mosaic pavement of their
+duomo, or cathedral, has been much admired; as well as the history of
+Aeneas Sylvius, afterwards pope Pius II., painted on the walls of the
+library, partly by Pietro Perugino, and partly by his pupil Raphael
+D'Urbino.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Next day, at Buon Convento, where the emperor Henry VII. was poisoned
+by a friar with the sacramental wafer, I refused to give money to the
+hostler, who in revenge put two young unbroke stone-horses in the
+traces next to the coach, which became so unruly, that before we had
+gone a quarter of a mile, they and the postilion were rolling in the
+dust. In this situation they made such efforts to disengage themselves,
+and kicked with such violence, that I imagined the carriage and all our
+trunks would have been beaten in pieces. We leaped out of the coach,
+however, without sustaining any personal damage, except the fright; nor
+was any hurt done to the vehicle. But the horses were terribly bruised,
+and almost strangled, before they could be disengaged. Exasperated at
+the villany of the hostler, I resolved to make a complaint to the
+uffiziale or magistrate of the place. I found him wrapped in an old,
+greasy, ragged, great-coat, sitting in a wretched apartment, without
+either glass, paper, or boards in the windows; and there was no sort of
+furniture but a couple of broken chairs and a miserable truckle-bed. He
+looked pale, and meagre, and had more the air of a half-starved
+prisoner than of a magistrate. Having heard my complaint, he came forth
+into a kind of outward room or bellfrey, and rung a great bell with his
+own hand. In consequence of this signal, the postmaster came up stairs,
+and I suppose he was the first man in the place, for the uffiziale
+stood before him cap-in-hand, and with great marks of humble respect
+repeated the complaint I had made. This man assured me, with an air of
+conscious importance, that he himself had ordered the hostler to supply
+me with those very horses, which were the best in his stable; and that
+the misfortune which happened was owing to the misconduct of the
+fore-postilion, who did not keep the fore-horses to a proper speed
+proportioned to the mettle of the other two. As he took the affair upon
+himself, and I perceived had an ascendancy over the magistrate, I
+contented myself with saying, I was certain the two horses had been put
+to the coach on purpose, either to hurt or frighten us; and that since
+I could not have justice here I would make a formal complaint to the
+British minister at Florence. In passing through the street to the
+coach, which was by this time furnished with fresh horses, I met the
+hostler, and would have caned him heartily; but perceiving my
+intention, he took to his heels and vanished. Of all the people I have
+ever seen, the hostlers, postilions, and other fellows hanging about
+the post-houses in Italy, are the most greedy, impertinent, and
+provoking. Happy are those travellers who have phlegm enough to
+disregard their insolence and importunity: for this is not so
+disagreeable as their revenge is dangerous. An English gentleman at
+Florence told me, that one of those fellows, whom he had struck for his
+impertinence, flew at him with a long knife, and he could hardly keep
+him at sword's point. All of them wear such knives, and are very apt to
+use them on the slightest provocation. But their open attacks are not
+so formidable as their premeditated schemes of revenge; in the
+prosecution of which the Italians are equally treacherous and cruel.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This night we passed at a place called Radicofani, a village and fort,
+situated on the top of a very high mountain. The inn stands still lower
+than the town. It was built at the expence of the last grand-duke of
+Tuscany; is very large, very cold, and uncomfortable. One would imagine
+it was contrived for coolness, though situated so high, that even in
+the midst of summer, a traveller would be glad to have a fire in his
+chamber. But few, or none of them have fireplaces, and there is not a
+bed with curtains or tester in the house. All the adjacent country is
+naked and barren. On the third day we entered the pope's territories,
+some parts of which are delightful. Having passed Aqua-Pendente, a
+beggarly town, situated on the top of a rock, from whence there is a
+romantic cascade of water, which gives it the name, we travelled along
+the side of the lake Bolsena, a beautiful piece of water about thirty
+miles in circuit, with two islands in the middle, the banks covered
+with noble plantations of oak and cypress. The town of Bolsena standing
+near the ruins of the antient Volsinium, which was the birth-place of
+Sejanus, is a paultry village; and Montefiascone, famous for its wine,
+is a poor, decayed town in this neighbourhood, situated on the side of
+a hill, which, according to the author of the Grand Tour, the only
+directory I had along with me, is supposed to be the Soracte of the
+ancients. If we may believe Horace, Soracte was visible from Rome: for,
+in his ninth ode, addressed to Thaliarchus, he says,
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Vides, ut alta stet nive candidum<BR>
+  Soracte&mdash;<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  You see how deeply wreathed with snow<BR>
+  Soracte lifts his hoary head,<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+but, in order to see Montefiascone, his eyesight must have penetrated
+through the Mons Cyminus, at the foot of which now stands the city of
+Viterbo. Pliny tells us, that Soracte was not far from Rome, haud
+procul ab urbe Roma; but Montefiascone is fifty miles from this city.
+And Desprez, in his notes upon Horace, says it is now called Monte S.
+Oreste. Addison tells us he passed by it in the Campania. I could not
+without indignation reflect upon the bigotry of Mathilda, who gave this
+fine country to the see of Rome, under the dominion of which no country
+was ever known to prosper.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+About half way between Montefiascone and Viterbo, one of our
+fore-wheels flew off, together with a large splinter of the axle-tree;
+and if one of the postilions had not by great accident been a
+remarkably ingenious fellow, we should have been put to the greatest
+inconvenience, as there was no town, or even house, within several
+miles. I mention this circumstance, by way of warning to other
+travellers, that they may provide themselves with a hammer and nails, a
+spare iron-pin or two, a large knife, and bladder of grease, to be used
+occasionally in case of such misfortune.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The mountain of Viterbo is covered with beautiful plantations and
+villas belonging to the Roman nobility, who come hither to make the
+villegiatura in summer. Of the city of Viterbo I shall say nothing, but
+that it is the capital of that country which Mathilda gave to the Roman
+see. The place is well built, adorned with public fountains, and a
+great number of churches and convents; yet far from being populous, the
+whole number of inhabitants, not exceeding fifteen thousand. The
+post-house is one of the worst inns I ever entered.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After having passed this mountain, the Cyminus of the antients, we
+skirted part of the lake, which is now called de Vico, and whose banks
+afford the most agreeable rural prospects of hill and vale, wood, glade
+and water, shade and sun-shine. A few other very inconsiderable places
+we passed, and descended into the Campania of Rome, which is almost a
+desert. The view of this country in its present situation, cannot but
+produce emotions of pity and indignation in the mind of every person
+who retains any idea of its antient cultivation and fertility. It is
+nothing but a naked withered down, desolate and dreary, almost without
+inclosure, corn-field, hedge, tree, shrub, house, hut, or habitation;
+exhibiting here and there the ruins of an antient castellum, tomb, or
+temple, and in some places the remains of a Roman via. I had heard much
+of these antient pavements, and was greatly disappointed when I saw
+them. The Via Cassia or Cymina is paved with broad, solid,
+flint-stones, which must have greatly incommoded the feet of horses
+that travelled upon it as well as endangered the lives of the riders
+from the slipperiness of the pavement: besides, it is so narrow that
+two modern carriages could not pass one another upon it, without the
+most imminent hazard of being overturned. I am still of opinion that we
+excel the ancient Romans in understanding the conveniences of life.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Grand Tour says, that within four miles of Rome you see a tomb on
+the roadside, said to be that of Nero, with sculpture in basso-relievo
+at both ends. I did see such a thing more like a common grave-stone,
+than the tomb of an emperor. But we are informed by Suetonius, that the
+dead body of Nero, who slew himself at the villa of his freedman, was
+by the care of his two nurses and his concubine Atta, removed to the
+sepulchre of the Gens Domitia, immediately within the Porta del Popolo,
+on your left hand as you enter Rome, precisely on the spot where now
+stands the church of S. Maria del Popolo. His tomb was even
+distinguished by an epitaph, which has been preserved by Gruterus.
+Giacomo Alberici tells us very gravely in his History of the Church,
+that a great number of devils, who guarded the bones of this wicked
+emperor, took possession, in the shape of black ravens, of a
+walnut-tree, which grew upon the spot; from whence they insulted every
+passenger, until pope Paschal II., in consequence of a solemn fast and
+a revelation, went thither in procession with his court and cardinals,
+cut down the tree, and burned it to ashes, which, with the bones of
+Nero, were thrown into the Tyber: then he consecrated an altar on the
+place, where afterwards the church was built. You may guess what I felt
+at first sight of the city of Rome, which, notwithstanding all the
+calamities it has undergone, still maintains an august and imperial
+appearance. It stands on the farther side of the Tyber, which we
+crossed at the Ponte Molle, formerly called Pons Milvius, about two
+miles from the gate by which we entered. This bridge was built by
+Aemilius Censor, whose name it originally bore. It was the road by
+which so many heroes returned with conquest to their country; by which
+so many kings were led captive to Rome; and by which the ambassadors of
+so many kingdoms and states approached the seat of empire, to deprecate
+the wrath, to sollicit the friendship, or sue for the protection of the
+Roman people. It is likewise famous for the defeat and death of
+Maxentius, who was here overcome by Constantine the Great. The space
+between the bridge and Porta del Popolo, on the right-hand, which is
+now taken up with gardens and villas, was part of the antient Campus
+Martius, where the comitiae were held; and where the Roman people
+inured themselves to all manner of exercises: it was adorned with
+porticos, temples, theatres, baths, circi, basilicae, obelisks,
+columns, statues, and groves. Authors differ in their opinions about
+the extent of it; but as they all agree that it contained the Pantheon,
+the Circus Agonis, now the Piazza Navona, the Bustum and Mausoleum
+Augusti, great part of the modern city must be built upon the ancient
+Campus Martius. The highway that leads from the bridge to the city, is
+part of the Via Flaminia, which extended as far as Rimini; and is well
+paved, like a modern street. Nothing of the antient bridge remains but
+the piles; nor is there any thing in the structure of this, or of the
+other five Roman bridges over the Tyber, that deserves attention. I
+have not seen any bridge in France or Italy, comparable to that of
+Westminster either in beauty, magnificence, or solidity; and when the
+bridge at Black-Friars is finished, it will be such a monument of
+architecture as all the world cannot parallel. As for the Tyber, it is,
+in comparison with the Thames, no more than an inconsiderable stream,
+foul, deep, and rapid. It is navigable by small boats, barks, and
+lighters; and, for the conveniency of loading and unloading them, there
+is a handsome quay by the new custom-house, at the Porto di Ripetta,
+provided with stairs of each side, and adorned with an elegant
+fountain, that yields abundance of excellent water.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We are told that the bed of this river has been considerably raised by
+the rubbish of old Rome, and this is the reason usually given for its
+being so apt to overflow its banks. A citizen of Rome told me, that a
+friend of his lately digging to lay the foundation of a new house in
+the lower part of the city, near the bank of the river, discovered the
+pavement of an antient street, at the depth of thirty-nine feet from
+the present surface of the earth. He therefore concluded that modern
+Rome is near forty feet higher in this place, than the site of the
+antient city, and that the bed of the river is raised in proportion;
+but this is altogether incredible. Had the bed of the Tyber been
+antiently forty feet lower at Rome, than it is at present, there must
+have been a fall or cataract in it immediately above this tract, as it
+is not pretended that the bed of it is raised in any part above the
+city; otherwise such an elevation would have obstructed its course, and
+then it would have overflowed the whole Campania. There is nothing
+extraordinary in its present overflowings: they frequently happened of
+old, and did great mischief to the antient city. Appian, Dio, and other
+historians, describe an inundation of the Tiber immediately after the
+death of Julius Caesar, which inundation was occasioned by the sudden
+melting of a great quantity of snow upon the Apennines. This calamity
+is recorded by Horace in his ode to Augustus.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Vidimus flavum Tiberim retortis<BR>
+  Littore Etrusco violenter undis,<BR>
+  Ire dejectum monumenta regis,<BR>
+  Templaque Vestae:<BR>
+  Iliae dum se nimium querenti,<BR>
+  Jactat ultorem; vagus et sinistra<BR>
+  Labitur ripa, Jove non probante<BR>
+  Uxorius Amnis.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Livy expressly says, "Ita abundavit Tiberis, ut Ludi Apollinares, circo
+inundato, extra portam Collinam ad aedem Erycinae Veneris parati sint,"
+"There was such an inundation of the Tiber that, the Circus being
+overflowed, the Ludi Appollinares were exhibited without the gate
+Collina, hard by the temple of Venus Erycina." To this custom of
+transferring the Ludi Appollinares to another place where the Tyber had
+overflowed the Circus Maximus, Ovid alludes in his Fasti.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Altera gramineo spectabis equiriacampo<BR>
+  Quem Tiberis curvis in latus urget aquis,<BR>
+  Qui tamen ejecta si forte tenebitur unda,<BR>
+  Coelius accipiet pulverulentus equos.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Another race thy view shall entertain<BR>
+  Where bending Tiber skirts the grassy plain;<BR>
+  Or should his vagrant stream that plain o'erflow,<BR>
+  The Caelian hill the dusty course will show.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Porta del Popolo (formerly, Flaminia,) by which we entered Rome, is
+an elegant piece of architecture, adorned with marble columns and
+statues, executed after the design of Buonaroti. Within-side you find
+yourself in a noble piazza, from whence three of the principal streets
+of Rome are detached. It is adorned with the famous Aegyptian obelisk,
+brought hither from the Circus Maximus, and set up by the architect
+Dominico Fontana in the pontificate of Sixtus V. Here is likewise a
+beautiful fountain designed by the same artist; and at the beginning of
+the two principal streets, are two very elegant churches fronting each
+other. Such an august entrance cannot fail to impress a stranger with a
+sublime idea of this venerable city.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Having given our names at the gate, we repaired to the dogana, or
+custom-house, where our trunks and carriage were searched; and here we
+were surrounded by a number of servitori de piazza, offering their
+services with the most disagreeable importunity. Though I told them
+several times I had no occasion for any, three of them took possession
+of the coach, one mounting before and two of them behind; and thus we
+proceeded to the Piazza d'Espagna, where the person lived to whose
+house I was directed. Strangers that come to Rome seldom put up at
+public inns, but go directly to lodging houses, of which there is great
+plenty in this quarter. The Piazza d'Espagna is open, airy, and
+pleasantly situated in a high part of the city immediately under the
+Colla Pinciana, and adorned with two fine fountains. Here most of the
+English reside: the apartments are generally commodious and well
+furnished; and the lodgers are well supplied with provisions and all
+necessaries of life. But, if I studied oeconomy, I would choose another
+part of the town than the Piazza d'Espagna, which is, besides, at a
+great distance from the antiquities. For a decent first floor and two
+bed-chambers on the second, I payed no more than a scudo (five
+shillings) per day. Our table was plentifully furnished by the landlord
+for two and thirty pauls, being equal to sixteen shillings. I hired a
+town-coach at the rate of fourteen pauls, or seven shillings a day; and
+a servitore di piazza for three pauls, or eighteen-pence. The coachman
+has also an allowance of two pauls a day. The provisions at Rome are
+reasonable and good, the vitella mongana, however, which is the most
+delicate veal I ever tasted, is very dear, being sold for two pauls, or
+a shilling, the pound. Here are the rich wines of Montepulciano,
+Montefiascone, and Monte di Dragone; but what we commonly drink at
+meals is that of Orvieto, a small white wine, of an agreeable flavour.
+Strangers are generally advised to employ an antiquarian to instruct
+them in all the curiosities of Rome; and this is a necessary expence,
+when a person wants to become a connoisseur in painting, statuary, and
+architecture. For my own part I had no such ambition. I longed to view
+the remains of antiquity by which this metropolis is distinguished; and
+to contemplate the originals of many pictures and statues, which I had
+admired in prints and descriptions. I therefore chose a servant, who
+was recommended to me as a sober, intelligent fellow, acquainted with
+these matters: at the same time I furnished myself with maps and plans
+of antient and modern Rome, together with the little manual, called,
+Itinerario istruttivo per ritrovare con facilita tutte le magnificenze
+di Roma e di alcune citta', e castelli suburbani. But I found still
+more satisfaction in perusing the book in three volumes, intitled, Roma
+antica, e moderna, which contains a description of everything
+remarkable in and about the city, illustrated with a great number of
+copper-plates, and many curious historical annotations. This directory
+cost me a zequine; but a hundred zequines will not purchase all the
+books and prints which have been published at Rome on these subjects.
+Of these the most celebrated are the plates of Piranesi, who is not
+only an ingenious architect and engraver, but also a learned
+antiquarian; though he is apt to run riot in his conjectures; and with
+regard to the arts of antient Rome, has broached some doctrines, which
+he will find it very difficult to maintain. Our young gentlemen who go
+to Rome will do well to be upon their guard against a set of sharpers,
+(some of them of our own country,) who deal in pictures and antiques,
+and very often impose upon the uninformed stranger, by selling him
+trash, as the productions of the most celebrated artists. The English
+are more than any other foreigners exposed to this imposition. They are
+supposed to have more money to throw away; and therefore a greater
+number of snares are laid for them. This opinion of their superior
+wealth they take a pride in confirming, by launching out into all
+manner of unnecessary expence: but, what is still more dangerous, the
+moment they set foot in Italy, they are seized with the ambition of
+becoming connoisseurs in painting, musick, statuary, and architecture;
+and the adventurers of this country do not fail to flatter this
+weakness for their own advantage. I have seen in different parts of
+Italy, a number of raw boys, whom Britain seemed to have poured forth
+on purpose to bring her national character into contempt, ignorant,
+petulant, rash, and profligate, without any knowledge or experience of
+their own, without any director to improve their understanding, or
+superintend their conduct. One engages in play with an infamous
+gamester, and is stripped perhaps in the very first partie: another is
+pillaged by an antiquated cantatrice; a third is bubbled by a knavish
+antiquarian; and a fourth is laid under contribution by a dealer in
+pictures. Some turn fiddlers, and pretend to compose: but all of them
+talk familiarly of the arts, and return finished connoisseurs and
+coxcombs, to their own country. The most remarkable phaenomenon of this
+kind, which I have seen, is a boy of seventy-two, now actually
+travelling through Italy, for improvement, under the auspices of
+another boy of twenty-two. When you arrive at Rome, you receive cards
+from all your country-folks in that city: they expect to have the visit
+returned next day, when they give orders not to be at home; and you
+never speak to one another in the sequel. This is a refinement in
+hospitality and politeness, which the English have invented by the
+strength of their own genius, without any assistance either from
+France, Italy, or Lapland. No Englishman above the degree of a painter
+or cicerone frequents any coffee-house at Rome; and as there are no
+public diversions, except in carnival-time, the only chance you have of
+seeing your compatriots is either in visiting the curiosities, or at a
+conversazione. The Italians are very scrupulous in admitting
+foreigners, except those who are introduced as people of quality: but
+if there happens to be any English lady of fashion at Rome, she
+generally keeps an assembly, to which the British subjects resort. In
+my next, I shall communicate, without ceremony or affectation, what
+further remarks I have made at Rome, without any pretence, however, to
+the character of a connoisseur, which, without all doubt, would fit
+very aukwardly upon,&mdash;Dear Sir, Your Friend and Servant.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap30"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER XXX
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+NICE, February 28, 1765.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR SIR,&mdash;Nothing can be more agreeable to the eyes of a stranger,
+especially in the heats of summer, than the great number of public
+fountains that appear in every part of Rome, embellished with all the
+ornaments of sculpture, and pouring forth prodigious quantities of
+cool, delicious water, brought in aqueducts from different lakes,
+rivers, and sources, at a considerable distance from the city. These
+works are the remains of the munificence and industry of the antient
+Romans, who were extremely delicate in the article of water: but,
+however, great applause is also due to those beneficent popes who have
+been at the expence of restoring and repairing those noble channels of
+health, pleasure, and convenience. This great plenty of water,
+nevertheless, has not induced the Romans to be cleanly. Their streets,
+and even their palaces, are disgraced with filth. The noble Piazza
+Navona, is adorned with three or four fountains, one of which is
+perhaps the most magnificent in Europe, and all of them discharge vast
+streams of water: but, notwithstanding this provision, the piazza is
+almost as dirty, as West Smithfield, where the cattle are sold in
+London. The corridores, arcades, and even staircases of their most
+elegant palaces, are depositories of nastiness, and indeed in summer
+smell as strong as spirit of hartshorn. I have a great notion that
+their ancestors were not much more cleanly. If we consider that the
+city and suburbs of Rome, in the reign of Claudius, contained about
+seven millions of inhabitants, a number equal at least to the sum total
+of all the souls in England; that great part of antient Rome was
+allotted to temples, porticos, basilicae, theatres, thermae, circi,
+public and private walks and gardens, where very few, if any, of this
+great number lodged; that by far the greater part of those inhabitants
+were slaves and poor people, who did not enjoy the conveniencies of
+life; and that the use of linen was scarce known; we must naturally
+conclude they were strangely crouded together, and that in general they
+were a very frowzy generation. That they were crouded together appears
+from the height of their houses, which the poet Rutilius compared to
+towers made for scaling heaven. In order to remedy this inconvenience,
+Augustus Caesar published a decree, that for the future no houses
+should be built above seventy feet high, which, at a moderate
+computation, might make six stories. But what seems to prove, beyond
+all dispute, that the antient Romans were dirty creatures, are these
+two particulars. Vespasian laid a tax upon urine and ordure, on
+pretence of being at a great expence in clearing the streets from such
+nuisances; an imposition which amounted to about fourteen pence a year
+for every individual; and when Heliogabalus ordered all the cobwebs of
+the city and suburbs to be collected, they were found to weigh ten
+thousand pounds. This was intended as a demonstration of the great
+number of inhabitants; but it was a proof of their dirt, rather than of
+their populosity. I might likewise add, the delicate custom of taking
+vomits at each other's houses, when they were invited to dinner, or
+supper, that they might prepare their stomachs for gormandizing; a
+beastly proof of their nastiness as well as gluttony. Horace, in his
+description of the banquet of Nasiedenus, says, when the canopy, under
+which they sat, fell down, it brought along with it as much dirt as is
+raised by a hard gale of wind in dry weather.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;              &mdash;trahentia pulveris atri,<BR>
+  Quantum non aquilo Campanis excitat agris.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Such clouds of dust revolving in its train<BR>
+  As Boreas whirls along the level plain.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I might observe, that the streets were often encumbered with the
+putrefying carcasses of criminals, who had been dragged through them by
+the heels, and precipitated from the Scalae Gemoniae, or Tarpeian rock,
+before they were thrown into the Tyber, which was the general
+receptacle of the cloaca maxima and all the filth of Rome: besides, the
+bodies of all those who made away with themselves, without sufficient
+cause; of such as were condemned for sacrilege, or killed by thunder,
+were left unburned and unburied, to rot above ground.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I believe the moderns retain more of the customs of antient Romans,
+than is generally imagined. When I first saw the infants at the enfans
+trouves in Paris, so swathed with bandages, that the very sight of them
+made my eyes water, I little dreamed, that the prescription of the
+antients could be pleaded for this custom, equally shocking and absurd:
+but in the Capitol at Rome, I met with the antique statue of a child
+swaddled exactly in the same manner; rolled up like an Aegyptian mummy
+from the feet. The circulation of the blood, in such a case, must be
+obstructed on the whole surface of the body; and nothing be at liberty
+but the head, which is the only part of the child that ought to be
+confined. Is it not surprising that common sense should not point out,
+even to the most ignorant, that those accursed bandages must heat the
+tender infant into a fever; must hinder the action of the muscles, and
+the play of the joints, so necessary to health and nutrition; and that
+while the refluent blood is obstructed in the veins, which run on the
+surface of the body, the arteries, which lie deep, without the reach of
+compression, are continually pouring their contents into the head,
+where the blood meets with no resistance? The vessels of the brain are
+naturally lax, and the very sutures of the skull are yet unclosed. What
+are the consequences of this cruel swaddling? the limbs are wasted; the
+joints grow rickety; the brain is compressed, and a hydrocephalus, with
+a great head and sore eyes, ensues. I take this abominable practice to
+be one great cause of the bandy legs, diminutive bodies, and large
+heads, so frequent in the south of France, and in Italy.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I was no less surprised to find the modern fashion of curling the hair,
+borrowed in a great measure from the coxcombs and coquettes of
+antiquity. I saw a bust of Nero in the gallery at Florence, the hair
+represented in rows of buckles, like that of a French petit-maitre,
+conformable to the picture drawn of him by Suetonius. Circa cultum adeo
+pudendum, ut coman semper in gradus formatam peregrinatione achaica,
+etiam pene verticem sumpserit, So very finical in his dress, that he
+wore his hair in the Greek fashion, curled in rows almost to the crown
+of his head. I was very sorry however to find that this foppery came
+from Greece. As for Otho, he wore a galericulum, or tour, on account of
+thin hair, propter raritatem capillorum. He had no right to imitate the
+example of Julius Caesar, who concealed his bald head with a wreath of
+laurel. But there is a bust in the Capitol of Julia Pia, the second
+wife of Septimius Severus, with a moveable peruke, dressed exactly in
+the fashionable mode, with this difference, that there is no part of it
+frizzled; nor is there any appearance of pomatum and powder. These
+improvements the beau-monde have borrowed from the natives of the Cape
+of Good Hope.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Modern Rome does not cover more than one-third of the space within the
+walls; and those parts that were most frequented of old are now
+intirely abandoned. From the Capitol to the Coliseo, including the
+Forum Romanum and Boarium, there is nothing intire but one or two
+churches, built with the fragments of ancient edifices. You descend
+from the Capitol between the remaining pillars of two temples, the
+pedestals and part of the shafts sunk in the rubbish: then passing
+through the triumphal arch of Septimius Severus, you proceed along the
+foot of Mons Palatinus, which stands on your right hand, quite covered
+with the ruins of the antient palace belonging to the Roman emperors,
+and at the foot of it, there are some beautiful detached pillars still
+standing. On the left you see the remains of the Templum Pacis, which
+seems to have been the largest and most magnificent of all the temples
+in Rome. It was built and dedicated by the emperor Vespasian, who
+brought into it all the treasure and precious vessels which he found in
+the temple of Jerusalem. The columns of the portico he removed from
+Nero's golden house, which he levelled with the ground. This temple was
+likewise famous for its library, mentioned by Aulus Gellius, Further
+on, is the arch of Constantine on the right, a most noble piece of
+architecture, almost entire; with the remains of the Meta Sudans before
+it; and fronting you, the noble ruins of that vast amphitheatre, called
+the Colossaeum, now Coliseo, which has been dismantled and dilapidated
+by the Gothic popes and princes of modern Rome, to build and adorn
+their paultry palaces. Behind the amphitheatre were the thermae of the
+same emperor Titus Vespasian. In the same quarter was the Circus
+Maximus; and the whole space from hence on both sides, to the walls of
+Rome, comprehending above twice as much ground as the modern city, is
+almost covered with the monuments of antiquity. I suppose there is more
+concealed below ground than appears above. The miserable houses, and
+even garden-walls of the peasants in this district, are built with
+these precious materials. I mean shafts and capitals of marble columns,
+heads, arms, legs, and mutilated trunks of statues. What pity it is
+that among all the remains of antiquity, at Rome, there is not one
+lodging-house remaining. I should be glad to know how the senators of
+Rome were lodged. I want to be better informed touching the cava
+aedium, the focus, the ara deorum penatum, the conclavia, triclinia,
+and caenationes; the atria where the women resided, and employed
+themselves in the woolen manufacture; the praetoria, which were so
+spacious as to become a nuisance in the reign of Augustus; and the
+Xysta, which were shady walks between two porticos, where the men
+exercised themselves in the winter. I am disgusted by the modern taste
+of architecture, though I am no judge of the art. The churches and
+palaces of these days are crowded with pretty ornaments, which distract
+the eye, and by breaking the design into a variety of little parts,
+destroy the effect of the whole. Every door and window has its separate
+ornaments, its moulding, frize, cornice, and tympanum; then there is
+such an assemblage of useless festoons, pillars, pilasters, with their
+architraves, entablatures, and I know not what, that nothing great or
+uniform remains to fill the view; and we in vain look for that
+simplicity of grandeur, those large masses of light and shadow, and the
+inexpressible EUSUINOPTON, which characterise the edifices of the
+antients. A great edifice, to have its full effect, ought to be isole,
+or detached from all others, with a large space around it: but the
+palaces of Rome, and indeed of all the other cities of Italy, which I
+have seen, are so engaged among other mean houses, that their beauty
+and magnificence are in a great measure concealed. Even those which
+face open streets and piazzas are only clear in front. The other
+apartments are darkened by the vicinity of ordinary houses; and their
+views are confined by dirty and disagreeable objects. Within the court
+there is generally a noble colonnade all round, and an open corridore
+above, but the stairs are usually narrow, steep, and high, the want of
+sash-windows, the dullness of their small glass lozenges, the dusty
+brick floors, and the crimson hangings laced with gold, contribute to
+give a gloomy air to their apartments; I might add to these causes, a
+number of Pictures executed on melancholy subjects, antique mutilated
+statues, busts, basso relieves, urns, and sepulchral stones, with which
+their rooms are adorned. It must be owned, however, there are some
+exceptions to this general rule. The villa of cardinal Alexander Albani
+is light, gay, and airy; yet the rooms are too small, and too much
+decorated with carving and gilding, which is a kind of gingerbread
+work. The apartments of one of the princes Borghese are furnished in
+the English taste; and in the palazzo di colonna connestabile, there is
+a saloon, or gallery, which, for the proportions, lights, furniture,
+and ornaments, is the most noble, elegant, and agreeable apartment I
+ever saw.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It is diverting to hear all Italian expatiate upon the greatness of
+modern Rome. He will tell you there are above three hundred palaces in
+the city; that there is scarce a Roman prince, whose revenue does not
+exceed two hundred thousand crowns; and that Rome produces not only the
+most learned men, but also the most refined politicians in the
+universe. To one of them talking in this strain, I replied, that
+instead of three hundred palaces, the number did not exceed fourscore;
+that I had been informed, on good authority, there were not six
+individuals in Rome who had so much as forty thousand crowns a year,
+about ten thousand pounds sterling; and that to say their princes were
+so rich, and their politicians so refined, was, in effect, a severe
+satire upon them, for not employing their wealth and their talents for
+the advantage of their country. I asked why their cardinals and princes
+did not invite and encourage industrious people to settle and cultivate
+the Campania of Rome, which is a desert? why they did not raise a
+subscription to drain the marshes in the neighbourhood of the city, and
+thus meliorate the air, which is rendered extremely unwholsome in the
+summer, by putrid exhalations from those morasses? I demanded of him,
+why they did not contribute their wealth, and exert their political
+refinements, in augmenting their forces by sea and land, for the
+defence of their country, introducing commerce and manufactures, and in
+giving some consequence to their state, which was no more than a mite
+in the political scale of Europe? I expressed a desire to know what
+became of all those sums of money, inasmuch as there was hardly any
+circulation of gold and silver in Rome, and the very bankers, on whom
+strangers have their credit, make interest to pay their tradesmen's
+bills with paper notes of the bank of Spirito Santo? And now I am upon
+this subject, it may not be amiss to observe that I was strangely
+misled by all the books consulted about the current coin of Italy. In
+Tuscany, and the Ecclesiastical State, one sees nothing but zequines in
+gold, and pieces of two paoli, one paolo, and half a paolo, in silver.
+Besides these, there is a copper coin at Rome, called bajocco and mezzo
+bajocco. Ten bajocchi make a paolo: ten paoli make a scudo, which is an
+imaginary piece: two scudi make a zequine; and a French loui'dore is
+worth two zequines and two paoli.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Rome has nothing to fear from the catholic powers, who respect it with
+a superstitious veneration as the metropolitan seat of their religion:
+but the popes will do well to avoid misunderstandings with the maritime
+protestant states, especially the English, who being masters of the
+Mediterranean, and in possession of Minorca, have it in their power at
+all times, to land a body of troops within four leagues of Rome, and to
+take the city, without opposition. Rome is surrounded with an old wall,
+but altogether incapable of defence. Or if it was, the circuit of the
+walls is so extensive, that it would require a garrison of twenty
+thousand men. The only appearance of a fortification in this city, is
+the castle of St. Angelo, situated on the further bank of the Tyber, to
+which there is access by a handsome bridge: but this castle, which was
+formerly the moles Adriani, could not hold out half a day against a
+battery of ten pieces of cannon properly directed. It was an expedient
+left to the invention of the modern Romans, to convert an ancient tomb
+into a citadel. It could only serve as a temporary retreat for the pope
+in times of popular commotion, and on other sudden emergencies; as it
+happened in the case of pope Clement VII. when the troops of the
+emperor took the city by assault; and this only, while he resided at
+the Vatican, from whence there is a covered gallery continued to the
+castle: it can never serve this purpose again, while the pontiff lives
+on Monte Cavallo, which is at the other end of the city. The castle of
+St. Angelo, howsoever ridiculous as a fortress, appears respectable as
+a noble monument of antiquity, and though standing in a low situation,
+is one of the first objects that strike the eye of a stranger
+approaching Rome. On the opposite side of the river, are the wretched
+remains of the Mausoleum Augusti, which was still more magnificent.
+Part of the walls is standing, and the terraces are converted into
+garden-ground. In viewing these ruins, I remembered Virgil's pathetic
+description of Marcellus, who was here intombed.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Quantos ille virum, magnum mavortis ad urbem.<BR>
+  Campus aget gemitus, vel que Tyberine, videbis<BR>
+  Funera, cum tumulum, preter labere recentem.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Along his Banks what Groans shall Tyber hear,<BR>
+  When the fresh tomb and funeral pomp appear!<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The beautiful poem of Ovid de Consolatione ad Liviam, written after the
+ashes of Augustus and his nephew Marcellus, of Germanicus, Agrippa, and
+Drusus, were deposited in this mausoleum, concludes with these lines,
+which are extremely tender:
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Claudite jam Parcae nimium reserata sepulchra;<BR>
+  Claudite, plus justo, jam domus ista patet!<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Ah! shut these yawning Tombs, ye sister Fates!<BR>
+  Too long unclos'd have stood those dreary Gates!<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+What the author said of the monument, you will be tempted to say of
+this letter, which I shall therefore close in the old stile, assuring
+you that I ever am,&mdash;Yours most affectionately.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap31"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER XXXI
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+NICE, March 5, 1765
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR SIR,&mdash;In my last I gave you my opinion freely of the modern
+palaces of Italy. I shall now hazard my thoughts upon the gardens of
+this country, which the inhabitants extol with all the hyperboles of
+admiration and applause. I must acknowledge however, I have not seen
+the famous villas at Frascati and Tivoli, which are celebrated for
+their gardens and waterworks. I intended to visit these places; but was
+prevented by an unexpected change of weather, which deterred me from
+going to the country. On the last day of September the mountains of
+Palestrina were covered with snow; and the air became so cold at Rome,
+that I was forced to put on my winter cloaths. This objection
+continued, till I found it necessary to set out on my return to
+Florence. But I have seen the gardens of the Poggio Imperiale, and the
+Palazzo de Pitti at Florence, and those of the Vatican, of the pope's
+palace on Monte Cavallo, of the Villa Ludovisia, Medicea, and Pinciana,
+at Rome; so that I think I have some right to judge of the Italian
+taste in gardening. Among those I have mentioned, that of the Villa
+Pinciana, is the most remarkable, and the most extensive, including a
+space of three miles in circuit, hard by the walls of Rome, containing
+a variety of situations high and low, which favour all the natural
+embellishments one would expect to meet with in a garden, and exhibit a
+diversity of noble views of the city and adjacent country.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+In a fine extensive garden or park, an Englishman expects to see a
+number of groves and glades, intermixed with an agreeable negligence,
+which seems to be the effect of nature and accident. He looks for shady
+walks encrusted with gravel; for open lawns covered with verdure as
+smooth as velvet, but much more lively and agreeable; for ponds,
+canals, basins, cascades, and running streams of water; for clumps of
+trees, woods, and wildernesses, cut into delightful alleys, perfumed
+with honeysuckle and sweet-briar, and resounding with the mingled
+melody of all the singing birds of heaven: he looks for plats of
+flowers in different parts to refresh the sense, and please the fancy;
+for arbours, grottos, hermitages, temples, and alcoves, to shelter him
+from the sun, and afford him means of contemplation and repose; and he
+expects to find the hedges, groves, and walks, and lawns kept with the
+utmost order and propriety. He who loves the beauties of simple nature,
+and the charms of neatness will seek for them in vain amidst the groves
+of Italy. In the garden of the Villa Pinciana, there is a plantation of
+four hundred pines, which the Italians view with rapture and
+admiration: there is likewise a long walk, of trees extending from the
+garden-gate to the palace; and plenty of shade, with alleys and hedges
+in different parts of the ground: but the groves are neglected; the
+walks are laid with nothing but common mould or sand, black and dusty;
+the hedges are tall, thin and shabby; the trees stunted; the open
+ground, brown and parched, has scarce any appearance of verdure. The
+flat, regular alleys of evergreens are cut into fantastic figures; the
+flower gardens embellished with thin cyphers and flourished figures in
+box, while the flowers grow in rows of earthen-pots, and the ground
+appears as dusky as if it was covered with the cinders of a
+blacksmith's forge. The water, of which there is great plenty, instead
+of being collected in large pieces, or conveyed in little rivulets and
+streams to refresh the thirsty soil, or managed so as to form agreeable
+cascades, is squirted from fountains in different parts of the garden,
+through tubes little bigger than common glyster-pipes. It must be owned
+indeed that the fountains have their merit in the way of sculpture and
+architecture; and that here is a great number of statues which merit
+attention: but they serve only to encumber the ground, and destroy that
+effect of rural simplicity, which our gardens are designed to produce.
+In a word, here we see a variety of walks and groves and fountains, a
+wood of four hundred pines, a paddock with a few meagre deer, a
+flower-garden, an aviary, a grotto, and a fish-pond; and in spite of
+all these particulars, it is, in my opinion, a very contemptible
+garden, when compared to that of Stowe in Buckinghamshire, or even to
+those of Kensington and Richmond. The Italians understand, because they
+study, the excellencies of art; but they have no idea of the beauties
+of nature. This Villa Pinciana, which belongs to the Borghese family,
+would make a complete academy for painting and sculpture, especially
+for the study of antient marbles; for, exclusive of the statues and
+busts in the garden, and the vast collection in the different
+apartments, almost the whole outside of the house is covered with
+curious pieces in basso and alto relievo. The most masterly is that of
+Curtius on horseback, leaping into the gulph or opening of the earth,
+which is said to have closed on receiving this sacrifice. Among the
+exhibitions of art within the house, I was much struck with a Bacchus,
+and the death of Meleager, represented on an antient sepulchre. There
+is also an admirable statue of Silenus, with the infant Bacchus in his
+arms; a most beautiful gladiator; a curious Moor of black marble, with
+a shirt of white alabaster; a finely proportioned bull of black marble
+also, standing upon a table of alabaster; a black gipsey with a head,
+hands, and feet of brass; and the famous hermaphrodite, which vies with
+that of Florence: though the most curious circumstance of this article,
+is the mattrass executed and placed by Bernini, with such art and
+dexterity, that to the view, it rivals the softness of wool, and seems
+to retain the marks of pressure, according to the figure of the
+superincumbent statue. Let us likewise own, for the honour of the
+moderns, that the same artist has produced two fine statues, which we
+find among the ornaments of this villa, namely, a David with his sling
+in the attitude of throwing the stone at the giant Goliah; and a Daphne
+changing into laurel at the approach of Apollo. On the base of this
+figure, are the two following elegant lines, written by pope Urban
+VIII. in his younger years.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Quisquis amans sequitur fugitivae gaudia formae,<BR>
+  Fronde manus implet, baccas vel carpit amaras.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Who pants for fleeting Beauty, vain pursuit!<BR>
+  Shall barren Leaves obtain, or bitter fruit.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I ought not to forget two exquisite antique statues of Venus, the
+weeping slave, and the youth pulling a thorn out of his foot.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I do not pretend to give a methodical detail of the curiosities of
+Rome: they have been already described by different authors, who were
+much better qualified than I am for the talk: but you shall have what
+observations I made on the most remarkable objects, without method,
+just as they occur to my remembrance; and I protest the remarks are all
+my own: so that if they deserve any commendation, I claim all the
+merit; and if they are impertinent, I must be contented to bear all the
+blame.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The piazza of St. Peter's church is altogether sublime. The double
+colonnade on each side extending in a semi-circular sweep, the
+stupendous Aegyptian obelisk, the two fountains, the portico, and the
+admirable facade of the church, form such an assemblage of magnificent
+objects, as cannot fail to impress the mind with awe and admiration:
+but the church would have produced a still greater effect, had it been
+detached entirely from the buildings of the Vatican, It would then have
+been a master-piece of architecture, complete in all its parts, intire
+and perfect: whereas, at present, it is no more than a beautiful member
+attached to a vast undigested and irregular pile of building. As to the
+architecture of this famous temple, I shall say nothing; neither do I
+pretend to describe the internal ornaments. The great picture of Mosaic
+work, and that of St. Peter's bark tossed by the tempest, which appear
+over the gate of the church, though rude in comparison with modern
+pieces, are nevertheless great curiosities, when considered as the work
+of Giotto, who flourished in the beginning of the fourteenth century.
+His master was Cimabue, who learned painting and architecture of the
+Grecian artists, who came from Constantinople, and first revived these
+arts in Italy. But, to return to St. Peter's, I was not at all pleased
+with the famous statue of the dead Christ in his mother's lap, by
+Michael Angelo. The figure of Christ is as much emaciated, as if he had
+died of a consumption: besides, there is something indelicate, not to
+say indecent, in the attitude and design of a man's body, stark naked,
+lying upon the knees of a woman. Here are some good pictures, I should
+rather say copies of good pictures, done in Mosaic to great perfection;
+particularly a St. Sebastian by Domenichino, and Michael the Archangel,
+from a painting of Guido Rheni. I am extremely fond of all this
+artist's pieces. There is a tenderness and delicacy in his manner; and
+his figures are all exquisitely beautiful, though his expression is
+often erroneous, and his attitudes are always affected and unnatural.
+In this very piece the archangel has all the air of a French
+dancing-master; and I have seen a Madonna by the same hand, I think it
+is in the Palazzo di Barberini, in which, though the figures are
+enchanting, the Virgin is represented holding up the drapery of the
+infant, with the ridiculous affectation of a singer on the stage of our
+Italian opera. The Mosaic work, though brought to a wonderful degree of
+improvement, and admirably calculated for churches, the dampness of
+which is pernicious to the colours of the pallet, I will not yet
+compare to the productions of the pencil. The glassyness (if I may be
+allowed the expression) of the surface, throws, in my opinion, a false
+light on some parts of the picture; and when you approach it, the
+joinings of the pieces look like so many cracks on painted canvas.
+Besides, this method is extremely tedious and expensive. I went to see
+the artists at work, in a house that stands near the church, where I
+was much pleased with the ingenuity of the process; and not a little
+surprized at the great number of different colours and tints, which are
+kept in separate drawers, marked with numbers as far as seventeen
+thousand. For a single head done in Mosaic, they asked me fifty
+zequines. But to return to the church. The altar of St. Peter's choir,
+notwithstanding all the ornaments which have been lavished upon it, is
+no more than a heap of puerile finery, better adapted to an Indian
+pagod, than to a temple built upon the principles of the Greek
+architecture. The four colossal figures that support the chair, are
+both clumsy and disproportioned. The drapery of statues, whether in
+brass or stone, when thrown into large masses, appears hard and
+unpleasant to the eye and for that reason the antients always imitated
+wet linen, which exhibiting the shape of the limbs underneath, and
+hanging in a multiplicity of wet folds, gives an air of lightness,
+softness, and ductility to the whole.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+These two statues weigh 116,257 pounds, and as they sustain nothing but
+a chair, are out of all proportion, inasmuch as the supporters ought to
+be suitable to the things supported. Here are four giants holding up
+the old wooden chair of the apostle Peter, if we may believe the book
+De Identitate Cathedrae Romanae, Of the Identity of the Roman Chair.
+The implements of popish superstition; such as relicks of pretended
+saints, ill-proportioned spires and bellfreys, and the nauseous
+repetition of the figure of the cross, which is in itself a very mean
+and disagreeable object, only fit for the prisons of condemned
+criminals, have contributed to introduce a vitious taste into the
+external architecture, as well as in the internal ornaments of our
+temples. All churches are built in the figure of a cross, which
+effectually prevents the eye from taking in the scope of the building,
+either without side or within; consequently robs the edifice of its
+proper effect. The palace of the Escurial in Spain is laid out in the
+shape of a gridiron, because the convent was built in consequence of a
+vow to St. Laurence, who was broiled like a barbecued pig. What pity it
+is, that the labours of painting should have been so much employed on
+the shocking subjects of the martyrology. Besides numberless pictures
+of the flagellation, crucifixion, and descent from the cross, we have
+Judith with the head of Holofernes, Herodias with the head of John the
+Baptist, Jael assassinating Sisera in his sleep, Peter writhing on the
+cross, Stephen battered with stones, Sebastian stuck full of arrows,
+Laurence frying upon the coals, Bartholomew flaed alive, and a hundred
+other pictures equally frightful, which can only serve to fill the mind
+with gloomy ideas, and encourage a spirit of religious fanaticism,
+which has always been attended with mischievous consequences to the
+community where it reigned.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The tribune of the great altar, consisting of four wreathed brass
+pillars, gilt, supporting a canopy, is doubtless very magnificent, if
+not over-charged with sculpture, fluting, foliage, festoons, and
+figures of boys and angels, which, with the hundred and twenty-two
+lamps of silver, continually burning below, serve rather to dazzle the
+eyes, and kindle the devotion of the ignorant vulgar, than to excite
+the admiration of a judicious observer.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There is nothing, I believe, in this famous structure, so worthy of
+applause, as the admirable symmetry and proportion of its parts.
+Notwithstanding all the carving, gilding, basso relievos, medallions,
+urns, statues, columns, and pictures with which it abounds, it does
+not, on the whole, appear over-crouded with ornaments. When you first
+enter, your eye is filled so equally and regularly, that nothing
+appears stupendous; and the church seems considerably smaller than it
+really is. The statues of children, that support the founts of holy
+water when observed from the door, seem to be of the natural size; but
+as you draw near, you perceive they are gigantic. In the same manner,
+the figures of the doves, with olive branches in their beaks, which are
+represented on the wall, appear to be within your reach; but as you
+approach them, they recede to a considerable height, as if they had
+flown upwards to avoid being taken.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I was much disappointed at sight of the Pantheon, which, after all that
+has been said of it, looks like a huge cockpit, open at top. The
+portico which Agrippa added to the building, is undoubtedly very noble,
+though, in my opinion, it corresponds but ill with the simplicity of
+the edifice. With all my veneration for the antients, I cannot see in
+what the beauty of the rotunda consists. It is no more than a plain
+unpierced cylinder, or circular wall, with two fillets and a cornice,
+having a vaulted roof or cupola, open in the centre. I mean the
+original building, without considering the vestibule of Agrippa. Within
+side it has much the air of a mausoleum. It was this appearance which,
+in all probability, suggested the thought to Boniface IV. to transport
+hither eight and twenty cart-loads of old rotten bones, dug from
+different burying-places, and then dedicate it as a church to the
+blessed Virgin and all the holy martyrs. I am not one of those who
+think it is well lighted by the hole at the top, which is about nine
+and twenty feet in diameter, although the author of the Grand Tour
+calls it but nine. The same author says, there is a descent of eleven
+steps to go into it; that it is a hundred and forty-four feet in
+heighth, and as many in breadth; that it was covered with copper,
+which, with the brass nails of the portico, pope Urban VIII. took away,
+and converted into the four wreathed pillars that support the canopy of
+the high altar in the church of St. Peter, &amp;c. The truth is, before the
+time of pope Alexander VII. the earth was so raised as to cover part of
+the temple, and there was a descent of some steps into the porch: but
+that pontiff ordered the ground to be pared away to the very pedestal
+or base of the portico, which is now even with the street, so that
+there is no descent whatsoever. The height is two hundred palmi, and
+the breadth two hundred and eighteen; which, reckoning fife palmi at
+nine inches, will bring the height to one hundred and fifty, and the
+breadth to one hundred and sixty-three feet six inches. It was not any
+covering of copper which pope Urban VIII. removed, but large brass
+beams, which supported the roof of the portico. They weighed 186,392
+pounds; and afforded metal enough not only for the pillars in St.
+Peter's church, but also for several pieces of artillery that are now
+in the castle of St. Angelo. What is more extraordinary, the gilding of
+those columns is said to have cost forty thousand golden crowns: sure
+money was never worse laid out. Urban VIII. likewise added two bellfrey
+towers to the rotunda; and I wonder he did not cover the central hole
+with glass, as it must be very inconvenient and disagreeable to those
+who go to church below, to be exposed to the rain in wet weather, which
+must also render it very damp and unwholesome. I visited it several
+times, and each time it looked more and more gloomy and sepulchral.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The magnificence of the Romans was not so conspicuous in their temples,
+as in their theatres, amphitheatres, circusses, naumachia, aqueducts,
+triumphal arches, porticoes, basilicae, but especially their thermae,
+or bathing-places. A great number of their temples were small and
+inconsiderable; not one of them was comparable either for size or
+magnificence, to the modern church of St. Peter of the Vatican. The
+famous temple of Jupiter Capitolinus was neither half so long, nor half
+so broad: it was but two hundred feet in length, and one hundred and
+eighty-five in breadth; whereas the length of St. Peter's extends to
+six hundred and thirty-eight feet, and the breadth to above five
+hundred. It is very near twice as large as the temple of Jupiter
+Olympius in Greece, which was counted one of the seven wonders of the
+world. But I shall take another opportunity to explain myself further
+on the antiquities of this city; a subject, upon which I am disposed to
+be (perhaps impertinently) circumstantial. When I begin to run riot,
+you should cheek me with the freedom of a friend. The most distant hint
+will be sufficient to,&mdash;Dear Sir, Yours assuredly.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap32"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER XXXII
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+NICE, March 10, 1765.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR SIR,&mdash;The Colossaeum or amphitheatre built by Flavius Vespasian,
+is the most stupendous work of the kind which antiquity can produce.
+Near one half of the external circuit still remains, consisting of four
+tire of arcades, adorned with columns of four orders, Doric, Ionic,
+Corinthian, and Composite. The height and extent of it may be guessed
+from the number of spectators it contained, amounting to one hundred
+thousand; and yet, according to Fontana's mensuration, it could not
+contain above thirty-four thousand persons sitting, allowing a foot and
+an half for each person: for the circuit of the whole building did not
+exceed one thousand five hundred and sixty feet. The amphitheatre at
+Verona is one thousand two hundred and ninety feet in circumference;
+and that of Nismes, one thousand and eighty. The Colossaeum was built
+by Vespasian, who employed thirty thousand Jewish slaves in the work;
+but finished and dedicated by his son Titus, who, on the first day of
+its being opened, produced fifty thousand wild beasts, which were all
+killed in the arena. The Romans were undoubtedly a barbarous people,
+who delighted in horrible spectacles. They viewed with pleasure the
+dead bodies of criminals dragged through the streets, or thrown down
+the Scalae Gemoniae and Tarpeian rock, for their contemplation. Their
+rostra were generally adorned with the heads of some remarkable
+citizens, like Temple-Bar, at London. They even bore the sight of
+Tully's head fixed upon that very rostrum where he had so often
+ravished their ears with all the charms of eloquence, in pleading the
+cause of innocence and public virtue. They took delight in seeing their
+fellow-creatures torn in pieces by wild beasts, in the amphitheatre.
+They shouted with applause when they saw a poor dwarf or slave killed
+by his adversary; but their transports were altogether extravagant,
+when the devoted captives were obliged to fight in troops, till one
+side was entirely butchered by the other. Nero produced four hundred
+senators, and six hundred of the equestrian order, as gladiators in the
+public arena: even the women fought with wild beasts, as well as with
+each other, and drenched the amphitheatres with their blood. Tacitus
+says, "Sed faeminarum illustrium, senatorumque filiorum plures per
+arenam faedati sunt," "But many sons of Senators, and even Matrons of
+the first Rank, exposed themselves in this vile exercise." The
+execrable custom of sacrificing captives or slaves at the tombs of
+their masters and great men, which is still preserved among the negroes
+of Africa, obtained also among the antients, Greeks as well as Romans.
+I could never, without horror and indignation, read that passage in the
+twenty-third book of the Iliad, which describes twelve valiant Trojan
+captives sacrificed by the inhuman Achilles at the tomb of his friend
+Patroclus.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Dodeka men Troon megathumon uias eathlous<BR>
+  Tous ama pantas pur eathiei.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Twelve generous Trojans slaughtered in their Bloom,<BR>
+  With thy lov'd Corse the Fire shall now consume.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Even Virgil makes his pious Hero sacrifice eight Italian youths to the
+manes of Pallas. It is not at all clear to me, that a people is the
+more brave, the more they are accustomed to bloodshed in their public
+entertainments. True bravery is not savage but humane. Some of this
+sanguinary spirit is inherited by the inhabitants of a certain island
+that shall be nameless&mdash;but, mum for that. You will naturally suppose
+that the Coliseo was ruined by the barbarians who sacked the city of
+Rome: in effect, they robbed it of its ornaments and valuable
+materials; but it was reserved for the Goths and Vandals of modern
+Rome, to dismantle the edifice, and reduce it to its present ruinous
+condition. One part of it was demolished by pope Paul II. that he might
+employ the stones of it in building the palace of St. Mark. It was
+afterwards dilapidated for the same purposes, by the cardinals Riarius
+and Farnese, which last assumed the tiara under the name of Paul III.
+Notwithstanding these injuries, there is enough standing to convey a
+very sublime idea of ancient magnificence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Circi and Naumachia, if considered as buildings and artificial
+basins, are admirable; but if examined as areae intended for horse and
+chariot races, and artificial seas for exhibiting naval engagements,
+they seem to prove that the antient Romans were but indifferently
+skilled and exercised either in horsemanship or naval armaments. The
+inclosure of the emperor Caracalla's circus is still standing, and
+scarce affords breathing room for an English hunter. The Circus
+Maximus, by far the largest in Rome, was not so long as the Mall; and I
+will venture to affirm, that St. James's Park would make a much more
+ample and convenient scene for those diversions. I imagine an old Roman
+would be very much surprised to see an English race on the course at
+New-Market. The Circus Maximus was but three hundred yards in breadth.
+A good part of this was taken up by the spina, or middle space, adorned
+with temples, statues, and two great obelisks; as well as by the
+euripus, or canal, made by order of Julius Caesar, to contain
+crocodiles, and other aquatic animals, which were killed occasionally.
+This was so large, that Heliogabalus, having filled it with excellent
+wine, exhibited naval engagements in it, for the amusement of the
+people. It surrounded three sides of the square, so that the whole
+extent of the race did not much exceed an English mile; and when Probus
+was at the expence of filling the plain of it with fir-trees to form a
+wood for the chace of wild beasts, I question much if this forest was
+more extensive than the plantation in St. James's Park, on the south
+side of the canal: now I leave you to judge what ridicule a king of
+England would incur by converting this part of the park into a chace
+for any species of animals which are counted game in our country.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Roman emperors seemed more disposed to elevate and surprize, than
+to conduct the public diversions according to the rules of reason and
+propriety. One would imagine, it was with this view they instituted
+their naumachia, or naval engagements, performed by half a dozen small
+gallies of a side in an artificial basin of fresh water. These gallies
+I suppose were not so large as common fishing-smacks, for they were
+moved by two, three, and four oars of a side according to their
+different rates, biremes, triremes, and quadriremes. I know this is a
+knotty point not yet determined; and that some antiquarians believe the
+Roman gallies had different tires or decks of oars; but this is a
+notion very ill supported, and quite contrary to all the figures of
+them that are preserved on antient coins and medals. Suetonius in the
+reign of Domitian, speaking of these naumachia, says, "Edidit navales
+pugnas, pene justarum classium, effosso, et circumducto juxta Tyberim
+lacu, atque inter maximas imbres prospectavit," "He exhibited naval
+engagements of almost intire fleets, in an artificial Lake formed for
+the purpose hard by the Tyber, and viewed them in the midst of
+excessive Rains." This artificial lake was not larger than the piece of
+water in Hyde-Park; and yet the historian says, it was almost large
+enough for real or intire fleets. How would a British sailor relish an
+advertisement that a mock engagement between two squadrons of men of
+war would be exhibited on such a day in the Serpentine river? or that
+the ships of the line taken from the enemy would be carried in
+procession from Hyde-Park-Corner to Tower-wharf? Certain it is,
+Lucullus, in one of his triumphs, had one hundred and ten ships of war
+(naves longas) carried through the streets of Rome. Nothing can give a
+more contemptible idea of their naval power, than this testimony of
+their historians, who declare that their seamen or mariners were formed
+by exercising small row-boats in an inclosed pool of fresh water. Had
+they not the sea within a few miles of them, and the river Tyber
+running through their capital! even this would have been much more
+proper for exercising their watermen, than a pond of still-water, not
+much larger than a cold-bath. I do believe in my conscience that half a
+dozen English frigates would have been able to defeat both the
+contending fleets at the famous battle of Actium, which has been so
+much celebrated in the annals of antiquity, as an event that decided
+the fate of empire.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It would employ me a whole month to describe the thermae or baths, the
+vast ruins of which are still to be seen within the walls of Rome, like
+the remains of so many separate citadels. The thermae Dioclesianae
+might be termed an august academy for the use and instruction of the
+Roman people. The pinacotheca of this building was a complete musaeum
+of all the curiosities of art and nature; and there were public schools
+for all the sciences. If I may judge by my eye, however, the thermae
+Antonianae built by Caracalla, were still more extensive and
+magnificent; they contained cells sufficient for two thousand three
+hundred persons to bathe at one time, without being seen by one
+another. They were adorned with all the charms of painting,
+architecture, and sculpture. The pipes for convoying the water were of
+silver. Many of the lavacra were of precious marble, illuminated by
+lamps of chrystal. Among the statues, were found the famous Toro, and
+Hercole Farnese.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Bathing was certainly necessary to health and cleanliness in a hot
+country like Italy, especially before the use of linen was known: but
+these purposes would have been much better answered by plunging into
+the Tyber, than by using the warm bath in the thermae, which became
+altogether a point of luxury borrowed from the effeminate Asiatics, and
+tended to debilitate the fibres already too much relaxed by the heat of
+the climate. True it is, they had baths of cool water for the summer:
+but in general they used it milk-warm, and often perfumed: they
+likewise indulged in vapour-baths, in order to enjoy a pleasing
+relaxation, which they likewise improved with odoriferous ointments.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The thermae consisted of a great variety of parts and conveniences; the
+natationes, or swimming places; the portici, where people amused
+themselves in walking, conversing, and disputing together, as Cicero
+says, In porticibus deambulantes disputabant; the basilicae, where the
+bathers assembled, before they entered, and after they came out of the
+bath; the atria, or ample courts, adorned with noble colonnades of
+Numidian marble and oriental granite; the ephibia, where the young men
+inured themselves to wrestling and other exercises; the frigidaria, or
+places kept cool by a constant draught of air, promoted by the
+disposition and number of the windows; the calidaria, where the water
+was warmed for the baths; the platanones, or delightful groves of
+sycamore; the stadia, for the performances of the athletae; the
+exedrae, or resting-places, provided with seats for those that were
+weary; the palestrae, where every one chose that exercise which pleased
+him best; the gymnasia, where poets, orators, and philosophers recited
+their works, and harangued for diversion; the eleotesia, where the
+fragrant oils and ointments were kept for the use of the bathers; and
+the conisteria, where the wrestlers were smeared with sand before they
+engaged. Of the thermae in Rome, some were mercenary, and some opened
+gratis. Marcus Agrippa, when he was edile, opened one hundred and
+seventy private baths, for the use of the people. In the public baths,
+where money was taken, each person paid a quadrans, about the value of
+our halfpenny, as Juvenal observes,
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Caedere Sylvano porcum, quadrante lavari.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  The victim Pig to God Sylvanus slay,<BR>
+  And for the public Bath a farthing pay.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+But after the hour of bathing was past, it sometimes cost a great deal
+more, according to Martial,
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Balnea post decimam, lasso centumque petuntur<BR>
+  Quadrantes&mdash;<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  The bathing hour is past, the waiter tir'd;<BR>
+  An hundred Farthings now will be requir'd.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Though there was no distinction in the places between the first
+patrician and the lowest plebeian, yet the nobility used their own
+silver and gold plate, for washing, eating, and drinking in the bath,
+together with towels of the finest linen. They likewise made use of the
+instrument called strigil, which was a kind of flesh-brush; a custom to
+which Persius alludes in this line,
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  I puer, et strigiles Crispini ad balnea defer.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Here, Boy, this Brush to Crispin's Bagnio bear.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The common people contented themselves with sponges. The bathing time
+was from noon till the evening, when the Romans ate their principal
+meal. Notice was given by a bell, or some such instrument, when the
+baths were opened, as we learn from Juvenal,
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Redde Pilam, sonat Aes thermarum, ludere pergis?<BR>
+  Virgine vis sola lotus abdire domum.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Leave off; the Bath Bell rings&mdash;what, still play on?<BR>
+  Perhaps the maid in private rubs you down.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There were separate places for the two sexes; and indeed there were
+baths opened for the use of women only, at the expence of Agrippina,
+the mother of Nero, and some other matrons of the first quality. The
+use of bathing was become so habitual to the constitutions of the
+Romans, that Galen, in his book De Sanitate tuenda, mentions a certain
+philosopher, who, if he intermitted but one day in his bathing, was
+certainly attacked with a fever. In order to preserve decorum in the
+baths, a set of laws and regulations were published, and the thermae
+were put under the inspection of a censor, who was generally one of the
+first senators in Rome. Agrippa left his gardens and baths, which stood
+near the pantheon, to the Roman people: among the statues that adorned
+them was that of a youth naked, as going into the bath, so elegantly
+formed by the hand of Lysippus, that Tiberius, being struck with the
+beauty of it, ordered it to be transferred into his own palace: but the
+populace raised such a clamour against him, that he was fain to have it
+reconveyed to its former place. These noble baths were restored by
+Adrian, as we read in Spartian; but at present no part of them remains.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+With respect to the present state of the old aqueducts, I can give you
+very little satisfaction. I only saw the ruins of that which conveyed
+the aqua Claudia, near the Porta Maggiore, and the Piazza of the
+Lateran. You know there were fourteen of those antient aqueducts, some
+of which brought water to Rome from the distance of forty miles. The
+channels of them were large enough to admit a man armed on horseback;
+and therefore when Rome was besieged by the Goths, who had cut off the
+water, Belisarius fortified them with works to prevent the enemy from
+entering the city by those conveyances. After that period, I suppose
+the antient aqueducts continued dry, and were suffered to run to ruins.
+Without all doubt, the Romans were greatly obliged to those
+benefactors, who raised such stupendous works for the benefit, as well
+as the embellishment of their city: but it might have been supplied
+with the same water through pipes at one hundredth part of the expence;
+and in that case the enemy would not have found it such an easy matter
+to cut it off. Those popes who have provided the modern city so
+plentifully with excellent water, are much to be commended for the care
+and expence, they have bestowed in restoring the streams called acqua
+Virgine, acqua Felice, and acqua Paolina, which afford such abundance
+of water as would plentifully supply a much larger city than modern
+Rome.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It is no wonder that M. Agrippa, the son-in-law, friend, and favourite
+of Augustus, should at the same time have been the idol of the people,
+considering how surprisingly he exerted himself for the emolument,
+convenience, and pleasure of his fellow-citizens. It was he who first
+conducted this acqua Virgine to Rome: he formed seven hundred
+reservoirs in the city; erected one hundred and five fountains; one
+hundred and thirty castella, or conduits, which works he adorned with
+three hundred statues, and four hundred pillars of marble, in the space
+of one year. He also brought into Rome, the aqua Julia, and restored
+the aqueduct of the aqua Marzia, which had fallen to decay. I have
+already observed the great number of baths which he opened for the
+people, and the magnificent thermae, with spacious gardens, which he
+bequeathed to them as a legacy. But these benefactions, great and
+munificent as they seem to be, were not the most important services he
+performed for the city of Rome. The common-sewers were first made by
+order of Tarquinius Priscus, not so much with a view to cleanliness, as
+by way of subterranean drains to the Velabrum, and in order to carry
+off the stagnant water, which remained in the lower parts, after heavy
+rains. The different branches of these channels united at the Forum,
+from whence by the cloaca Maxima, their contents were conveyed into the
+Tyber. This great cloaca was the work of Tarquinius Superbus. Other
+sewers were added by Marcus Cato, and Valerius Flaccus, the censors.
+All these drains having been choaked up and ruinous, were cleared and
+restored by Marcus Agrippa, who likewise undermined the whole city with
+canals of the same kind, for carrying of the filth; he strengthened and
+enlarged the cloaca maxima, so as to make it capable of receiving a
+large cart loaded with hay; and directed seven streams of water into
+these subterranean passages, in order to keep them always clean and
+open. If, notwithstanding all these conveniences, Vespasian was put to
+great expence in removing the ordure from the public streets, we have
+certainly a right to conclude that the antient Romans were not more
+cleanly than the modern Italians.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+After the mausolea of Augustus, and Adrian, which I have already
+mentioned, the most remarkable antient sepulchres at Rome, are those of
+Caius Cestius, and Cecilia Metella. The first, which stands by the
+Porta di S. Paolo, is a beautiful pyramid, one hundred and twenty feet
+high, still preserved intire, having a vaulted chamber within-side,
+adorned with some ancient painting, which is now almost effaced. The
+building is of brick, but eased with marble. This Caius Cestius had
+been consul, was very rich, and acted as one of the seven Epulones, who
+superintended the feasts of the gods, called Lectisternia, and
+Pervigilia. He bequeathed his whole fortune to his friend M. Agrippa,
+who was so generous as to give it up to the relations of the testator.
+The monument of Cecilia Metella, commonly called Capo di Bove, is
+without the walls on the Via Appia. This lady was daughter of Metellus
+Creticus, and wife to Crassus, who erected this noble monument to her
+memory. It consisted of two orders, or stories, the first of which was
+a square of hewn stone: the second was a circular tower, having a
+cornice, adorned with ox heads in basso relievo, a circumstance from
+which it takes the name of Capo di Bove. The ox was supposed to be a
+most grateful sacrifice to the gods. Pliny, speaking of bulls and oxen,
+says,
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Hinc victimae optimae et laudatissima deorum placatio.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+They were accounted the best Victims and most agreeable to appease the
+anger of the Gods.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+This tower was surmounted by a noble cupola or dome, enriched with all
+the ornaments of architecture. The door of the building was of brass;
+and within-side the ashes of Cecilia were deposited in a fluted marble
+urn, of curious workmanship, which is still kept in the Palazzo
+Farnese. At present the surface of the ground is raised so much as to
+cover the first order of the edifice: what we see is no more than the
+round tower, without the dome and its ornaments; and the following
+inscription still remains near the top, facing the Via Appia.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  CAECILLAE<BR>
+  Q. CRETICI F.<BR>
+  METELLAE<BR>
+  CRASSI.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+To Caecilia Metella, Daughter of Q. Criticus: wife of Crassus.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Now we are talking of sepulchral inscriptions, I shall conclude this
+letter with the copy of a very singular will, made by Favonius
+Jocundus, who died in Portugal, by which will the precise situation of
+the famous temple of Sylvanus is ascertained.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+"Jocundi. Ego gallus Favonius Jocundus P. Favoni F. qui bello contra
+Viriatum Succubui, Jocundum et Prudentem filios, e me et Quintia Fabia
+conjuge mea ortos, et Bonorum Jocundi Patris mei, et eorum, quae mihi
+ipsi acquisivi haeredes relinquo; hac tamen conditione, ut ab urbe
+Romana huc veniant, et ossa hic mea, intra quinquennium exportent, et
+via latina condant in sepulchro, jussu meo condito, et mea voluntate;
+in quo velim neminem mecum, neque servum, neque libertum inseri; et
+velim ossa quorumcunque sepulchro statim meo eruantur, et jura
+Romanorum serventur, in sepulchris ritu majorum retinendis, juxta
+volantatem testatoris; et si secus fecerint, nisi legittimae oriantur
+causae, velim ea omnia, quae filijs meis relinquo, pro reparando templo
+dei Sylvani, quod sub viminali monte est, attribui; manesque mei a
+Pont. max; a flaminibus dialibus, qui in capitolio sunt, opem
+implorent, ad liberorum meorum impietatem ulciscendam; teneanturque
+sacerdotes dei Silvani, me in urbem referre, et sepulchro me meo
+condere. Volo quoque vernas qui domi meae sunt, omnes a praetore urbano
+liberos, cum matribus dimitti, singulisque libram argenti puri, et
+vestem unam dori. In Lusitania. In agro VIII. Cal Quintilis, bello
+viriatino."
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I, Gallus Favonius Jocundus, son of P. Favonius, dying in the war
+against Viriatus, declare my sons Jocundus and Prudens, by my wife
+Quintia Fabia, joint Heirs of my Estate, real and personal; on
+condition, however, that they come hither within a time of five years
+from this my last will, and transport my remains to Rome to be
+deposited in my Sepulchre built in the via latina by my own order and
+Direction: and it is my will that neither slave nor freedman shall be
+interred with me in the said tomb; that if any such there be, they
+shall be removed, and the Roman law obeyed, in preserving in the
+antient Form the sepulchre according to the will of the Testator. If
+they act otherwise without just cause, it is my will that the whole
+estate, which I now bequeathe to my children, shall be applied to the
+Reparation of the Temple of the God Sylvanus, at the foot of Mount
+Viminalis; and that my Manes [The Manes were an order of Gods supposed
+to take cognisance of such injuries.] I shall implore the assistance of
+the Pontifex maximus, and the Flaminisdiales in the Capitol, to avenge
+the Impiety of my children; and the priests of Sylvanus shall engage to
+bring my remains to Rome and see them decently deposited in my own
+Sepulchre. It is also my will that all my domestic slaves shall be
+declared free by the city Praetor, and dismissed with their mothers,
+after having received each, a suit of cloaths, and a pound weight of
+pure silver from my heirs and Executors.&mdash;At my farm in Lusitania, July
+25. During the Viriatin war.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+My paper scarce affords room to assure you that I am ever,&mdash;Dear Sir,
+Your faithful, etc.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap33"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER XXXIII
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+NICE, March 30, 1765.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR SIR,&mdash;YOU must not imagine I saw one half of the valuable pictures
+and statues of Rome; there is such a vast number of both in this
+capital, that I might have spent a whole year in taking even a
+transient view of them; and, after all, some of them would have been
+overlooked. The most celebrated pieces, however, I have seen; and
+therefore my curiosity is satisfied. Perhaps, if I had the nice
+discernment and delicate sensibility of a true connoisseur, this
+superficial glimpse would have served only to whet my appetite, and to
+detain me the whole winter at Rome. In my progress through the Vatican,
+I was much pleased with the School of Athens, by Raphael, a piece which
+hath suffered from the dampness of the air. The four boys attending to
+the demonstration of the mathematician are admirably varied in the
+expression. Mr. Webb's criticism on this artist is certainly just. He
+was perhaps the best ethic painter that ever the world produced. No man
+ever expressed the sentiments so happily, in visage, attitude, and
+gesture: but he seems to have had too much phlegm to strike off the
+grand passions, or reach the sublime parts of painting. He has the
+serenity of Virgil, but wants the fire of Homer. There is nothing in
+his Parnassus which struck me, but the ludicrous impropriety of
+Apollo's playing upon a fiddle, for the entertainment of the nine
+muses. [Upon better information I must retract this censure; in as
+much, as I find there was really a Musical Instrument among the
+antients of this Figure, as appears by a small statue in Bronze, to be
+still seen in the Florentine Collection.]
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The Last Judgment, by Buonaroti, in the chapel of Sixtus IV. produced
+to my eye the same sort of confusion, that perplexes my ear at a grand
+concert, consisting of a great variety of instruments: or rather, when
+a number of people are talking all at once. I was pleased with the
+strength of expression, exhibited in single figures, and separate
+groupes: but, the whole together is a mere mob, without subordination,
+keeping, or repose. A painter ought to avoid all subjects that require
+a multiplicity of groupes and figures; because it is not in the power
+of that art to unite a great number in one point of view, so as to
+maintain that dependence which they ought to have upon one another.
+Michael Angelo, with all his skill in anatomy, his correctness of
+design, his grand composition, his fire, and force of expression, seems
+to have had very little idea of grace. One would imagine he had chosen
+his kings, heroes, cardinals, and prelates, from among the facchini of
+Rome: that he really drew his Jesus on the Cross, from the agonies of
+some vulgar assassin expiring on the wheel; and that the originals of
+his Bambini, with their mothers, were literally found in a stable. In
+the Sala Regia, from whence the Sistian chapel is detached, we see,
+among other exploits of catholic heroes, a representation of the
+massacre of the protestants in Paris, Tholouse, and other parts of
+France, on the eve of St. Bartholomew, thus described in the
+Descrizione di Roma, "Nella prima pittura, esprime Georgio Vasari
+l'istoria del Coligni, grand' amiraglio, di Francia, che come capo de
+ribelli, e degl'ugonotti, fu ucciso; e nell'altra vicina, la strage
+fatta in Parigi, e nel regno, de rebelli, e degl'Ugonotti." "In the
+first picture, George Vasari represents the history of Coligni, high
+admiral of France, who was slain as head of the rebels and huegonots;
+and in another near it, the slaughter that was made of the rebels and
+huegonots in Paris and other parts of the kingdom." Thus the court of
+Rome hath employed their artists to celebrate and perpetuate, as a
+meritorious action, the most perfidious, cruel, and infamous massacre,
+that ever disgraced the annals of any nation.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I need not mention the two equestrian statues of Constantine the Great,
+and Charlemagne, which stand at opposite ends of the great portico of
+St. Peter's church; because there is nothing in them which particularly
+engaged my attention. The sleeping Cleopatra, as you enter the court of
+the Belvedere, in the Vatican, is much admired; but I was better
+pleased with the Apollo, which I take to be the most beautiful statue
+that ever was formed. The Nile, which lies in the open court,
+surmounted with the little children, has infinite merit; but is much
+damaged, and altogether neglected. Whether it is the same described in
+Pliny, as having been placed by Vespasian in the Temple of Peace, I do
+not know. The sixteen children playing about it, denoted the swelling
+of the Nile, which never rose above sixteen cubits. As for the famous
+groupe of Laocoon, it surpassed my expectation. It was not without
+reason that Buonaroti called it a portentous work; and Pliny has done
+it no more than justice in saying it is the most excellent piece that
+ever was cut in marble; and yet the famous Fulvius Ursini is of opinion
+that this is not the same statue which Pliny described. His reasons,
+mentioned by Montfaucon, are these. The statues described by Pliny were
+of one stone; but these are not. Antonioli, the antiquary, has in his
+Possession, pieces of Laocoon's snakes, which were found in the ground,
+where the baths of Titus actually stood, agreeable to Pliny, who says
+these statues were placed in the buildings of Titus. Be that as it may,
+the work which we now see does honour to antiquity. As you have seen
+innumerable copies and casts of it, in marble, plaister, copper, lead,
+drawings, and prints, and read the description of it in Keysler, and
+twenty other books of travels, I shall say nothing more on the subject;
+but that neither they nor I, nor any other person, could say too much
+in its praise. It is not of one piece indeed. In that particular Pliny
+himself might be mistaken. "Opus omnibus et picturae, et statuariae
+artis praeponendum. Ex uno lapide eum et Liberos draconumque mirabiles
+nexus de consilii sententia fecere succubi artifices." "A work
+preferable to all the other Efforts of Painting and Statuary. The most
+excellent artists joined their Talents in making the Father and his
+Sons, together with the admirable Twinings of the Serpents, of one
+Block." Buonaroti discovered the joinings, though they were so artfully
+concealed as to be before invisible. This amazing groupe is the work of
+three Rhodian sculptors, called Agesander, Polydore, and Athenodorus,
+and was found in the thermae of Titus Vespasian, still supposing it to
+be the true antique. As for the torso, or mutilated trunk of a statue,
+which is called the school of Michael Angelo, I had not time to
+consider it attentively; nor taste enough to perceive its beauties at
+first sight. The famous horses on Monte Cavallo, before the pope's
+palace, which are said to have been made in emulation, by Phidias and
+Praxiteles, I have seen, and likewise those in the front of the
+Capitol, with the statues of Castor and Pollux; but what pleased me
+infinitely more than all of them together, is the equestrian statue of
+Corinthian brass, standing in the middle of this Piazza (I mean at the
+Capitol) said to represent the emperor Marcus Aurelius. Others suppose
+it was intended for Lucius Verus; a third set of antiquaries contend
+for Lucius Septimius Severus; and a fourth, for Constantine, because it
+stood in the Piazza of the Lateran palace, built by that emperor, from
+whence pope Paul III. caused it to be removed to the Capitol. I
+considered the trophy of Marius as a very curious piece of sculpture,
+and admired the two sphinxes at the bottom of the stairs leading to
+this Piazza, as the only good specimens of design I have ever seen from
+Aegypt: for the two idols of that country, which stand in the ground
+floor of the Musaeum of the Capitol, and indeed all the Aegyptian
+statues in the Camera Aegyptiaca of this very building, are such
+monstrous misrepresentations of nature, that they never could have
+obtained a place among the statues of Rome, except as curiosities of
+foreign superstition, or on account of the materials, as they are
+generally of basaltes, porphyry, or oriental granite.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At the farther end of the court of this Musaeum, fronting the entrance,
+is a handsome fountain, with the statue of a river-god reclining on his
+urn; this is no other than the famous Marforio, so called from its
+having been found in Martis Fore. It is remarkable only as being the
+conveyance of the answers to the satires which are found pasted upon
+Pasquin, another mutilated statue, standing at the corner of a street.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The marble coffin, supposed to have contained the ashes of Alexander
+Severus, which we find in one of these apartments, is a curious
+antique, valuable for its sculpture in basso relievo, especially for
+the figures on the cover, representilig that emperor and his mother
+Julia Mammea.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I was sorry I had not time to consider the antient plan of Rome,
+disposed in six classes, on the stair-case of this Musaeum, which was
+brought hither from a temple that stood in the Forum Boarium, now
+called Campo vaccine.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It would be ridiculous in me to enter into a detail of the vast
+collection of marbles, basso relievos, inscriptions, urns, busts, and
+statues, which are placed in the upper apartments of this edifice. I
+saw them but once, and then I was struck with the following
+particulars. A bacchanalian drunk; a Jupiter and Leda, at least equal
+to that in the gallery at Florence; an old praesica, or hired mourner,
+very much resembling those wrinkled hags still employed in Ireland, and
+in the Highlands of Scotland, to sing the coronach at funerals, in
+praise of the deceased; the famous Antinous, an elegant figure, which
+Pousin studied as canon or rule of symmetry; the two fauns; and above
+all the mirmillone, or dying gladiator; the attitude of the body, the
+expression of the countenance, the elegance of the limbs, and the
+swelling of the muscles, in this statue, are universally admired; but
+the execution of the back is incredibly delicate. The course of the
+muscles called longissimi dorsi, are so naturally marked and tenderly
+executed, that the marble actually emulates the softness of the flesh;
+and you may count all the spines of the vertebrae, raising up the skin
+as in the living body; yet this statue, with all its merit, seems
+inferior to the celebrated dying gladiator of Ctesilas, as described by
+Pliny, who says the expression of it was such, as appears altogether
+incredible. In the court, on the opposite side of the Capitol, there is
+an admirable statue of a lion devouring an horse, which was found by
+the gate of Ostia, near the pyramid of Caius Cestius; and here on the
+left hand, under a colonade, is what they call the Columna Rostrata,
+erected in honour of Caius Duilius, who first triumphed over the
+Carthaginians by sea. But this is a modern pillar, with the old
+inscription, which is so defaced as not to be legible. Among the
+pictures in the gallery and saloon above, what pleased me most was the
+Bacchus and Ariadne of Guido Rheni; and the wolf suckling Romulus and
+Remus, by Rubens. The court of the Palazzo Farnese is surrounded with
+antique statues, among which the most celebrated are, the Flora, with a
+most delicate drapery; the gladiator, with a dead boy over his
+shoulder; the Hercules, with the spoils of the Nemean lion, but that
+which the connoisseurs justly esteem above all the rest is Hercules, by
+Glycon, which you know as well as I do, by the great reputation it has
+acquired. This admirable statue having been found without the legs,
+these were supplied by Gulielmo de la Porta so happily, that when
+afterwards the original limbs were discovered, Michael Angelo preferred
+those of the modern artist, both in grace and proportion; and they have
+been retained accordingly. In a little house, or shed, behind the
+court, is preserved the wonderful group of Dirce, commonly called the
+Toro Farnese, which was brought hither from the thermae Caracallae.
+There is such spirit, ferocity, and indignant resistance expressed in
+the bull, to whose horns Dirce is tied by the hair, that I have never
+seen anything like it, either upon canvass, or in stone. The statues of
+the two brothers endeavouring to throw him into the sea are beautiful
+figures, finely contrasted; and the rope, which one of them holds in a
+sort of loose coil, is so surprisingly chizzelled, that one can hardly
+believe it is of stone. As for Dirce herself, she seems to be but a
+subaltern character; there is a dog upon his hind legs barking at the
+bull, which is much admired. This amazing groupe was cut out of one
+stone, by Appollonius and Tauriscus, two sculptors of Rhodes; and is
+mentioned by Pliny in the thirty-sixth book of his Natural History. All
+the precious monuments of art, which have come down to us from
+antiquity, are the productions of Greek artists. The Romans had taste
+enough to admire the arts of Greece, as plainly appears by the great
+collections they made of their statues and pictures, as well as by
+adopting their architecture and musick: but I do not remember to have
+read of any Roman who made a great figure either as a painter or a
+statuary. It is not enough to say those professions were not honourable
+in Rome, because painting, sculpture, and musick, even rhetoric,
+physic, and philosophy were practised and taught by slaves. The arts
+were always honoured and revered at Rome, even when the professors of
+them happened to be slaves by the accidents and iniquity of fortune.
+The business of painting and statuary was so profitable, that in a free
+republic, like that of Rome, they must have been greedily embraced by a
+great number of individuals: but, in all probability, the Roman soil
+produced no extraordinary genius for those arts. Like the English of
+this day, they made a figure in poetry, history, and ethics; but the
+excellence of painting, sculpture, architecture, and music, they never
+could attain. In the Palazzo Picchini I saw three beautiful figures,
+the celebrated statues of Meleager, the boar, and dog; together with a
+wolf, of excellent workmanship. The celebrated statue of Moses, by
+Michael Angelo, in the church of St. Peter in Vincula, I beheld with
+pleasure; as well as that of Christ, by the same hand, in the Church of
+S. Maria sopra Minerva. The right foot, covered with bronze, gilt, is
+much kissed by the devotees. I suppose it is looked upon as a specific
+for the toothache; for, I saw a cavalier, in years, and an old woman
+successively rub their gums upon it, with the appearance of the most
+painful perseverance.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+You need not doubt but that I went to the church of St. Peter in
+Montorio, to view the celebrated Transfiguration, by Raphael, which, if
+it was mine, I would cut in two parts. The three figures in the air
+attract the eye so strongly, that little or no attention is payed to
+those below on the mountain. I apprehend that the nature of the subject
+does not admit of that keeping and dependence, which ought to be
+maintained in the disposition of the lights and shadows in a picture.
+The groupes seem to be intirely independent of each other. The
+extraordinary merit of this piece, I imagine, consists, not only in the
+expression of divinity on the face of Christ; but also in the
+surprising lightness of the figure, that hovers like a beautiful
+exhalation in the air. In the church of St. Luke, I was not at all
+struck by the picture of that saint, drawing the portrait of the Virgin
+Mary, although it is admired as one of the best pieces of Raphael.
+Indeed it made so little impression upon me, that I do not even
+remember the disposition of the figures. The altar-piece, by Andrea
+Sacchi, in the church of St. Romauldus, would have more merit, if the
+figure of the saint himself had more consequence, and was represented
+in a stronger light. In the Palazzo Borghese, I chiefly admired the
+following pieces: a Venus with two nymphs; and another with Cupid, both
+by Titian: an excellent Roman Piety, by Leonardo da Vinci; and the
+celebrated Muse, by Dominechino, which is a fine, jolly, buxom figure.
+At the palace of Colorina Connestabile, I was charmed with the
+Herodias, by Guido Rheni; a young Christ; and a Madonna, by Raphael;
+and four landscapes, two by Claude Lorraine, and the other two, by
+Salvator Rosa. In the palazetto, or summerhouse belonging to the
+Palazzo Rospigliosi, I had the satisfaction of contemplating the Aurora
+of Guido, the colours of which still remain in high perfection,
+notwithstanding the common report that the piece is spoiled by the
+dampness of the apartment. The print of this picture, by Freij, with
+all its merit, conveys but an imperfect idea of the beauty of the
+original. In the Palazzo Barberini, there is a great collection of
+marbles and pictures: among the first, I was attracted by a beautiful
+statue of Venus; a sleeping faun, of curious workmanship; a charming
+Bacchus, lying on an antient sculpture, and the famous Narcissus. Of
+the pictures, what gave me most pleasure was the Magdalen of Guido,
+infinitely superior to that by Le Brun in the church of the Carmelites
+at Paris; the Virgin, by Titian; a Madonna, by Raphael, but not
+comparable to that which is in the Palazzo de Pitti, at Florence; and
+the death of Germanicus, by Poussin, which I take to be one of the best
+pieces in this great collection. In the Palazzo Falconeri there is a
+beautiful St. Cecilia, by Guercino; a holy family, by Raphael; and a
+fine expressive figure of St. Peter weeping, by Dominechino. In the
+Palazzo Altieri, I admired a picture, by Carlo Maratti, representing a
+saint calling down lightning from heaven to destroy blasphemers. It was
+the figure of the saint I admired, merely as a portrait. The execution
+of the other parts was tame enough: perhaps they were purposely kept
+down, in order to preserve the importance of the principal figure. I
+imagine Salvator Rosa would have made a different disposition on the
+same subject: that amidst the darkness of a tempest, he would have
+illuminated the blasphemer with the flash of lightning by which he was
+destroyed: this would have thrown a dismal gleam upon his countenance,
+distorted by the horror of his situation as well as by the effects of
+the fire; and rendered the whole scene dreadfully picturesque. In the
+same palace, I saw the famous holy family, by Corregio, which he left
+unfinished, and no other artist would undertake to supply; for what
+reason I know not. Here too is a judgment of Paris, by Titian, which is
+reckoned a very valuable piece. In the Palazzo Odescalchi, there is a
+holy family, by Buonaroti, and another by Raphael, both counted
+excellent, though in very different stiles, extremely characteristic of
+those two great rival artists.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+If I was silly enough to make a parade, I might mention some hundreds
+more of marbles and pictures, which I really saw at Rome; and even eke
+out that number with a huge list of those I did not see: but whatever
+vanity I may have, it has not taken this turn; and I assure you, upon
+my word and honour, I have described nothing but what actually fell
+under my own observation. As for my critical remarks, I am afraid you
+will think them too superficial and capricious to belong to any other
+person but&mdash;Your humble servant.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap34"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER XXXIV
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+NICE, April 2, 1765.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR SIR,&mdash;I have nothing to communicate touching the library of the
+Vatican, which, with respect to the apartments and their ornaments, is
+undoubtedly magnificent. The number of books it contains does not
+exceed forty thousand volumes, which are all concealed from the view,
+and locked up in presses: as for the manuscripts, I saw none but such
+as are commonly presented to strangers of our nation; some very old
+copies of Virgil and Terence; two or three Missals, curiously
+illuminated; the book De Septem Sacramentis, written in Latin by Henry
+VIII. against Luther; and some of that prince's love letters to Anne
+Boleyn. I likewise visited the Libreria Casanatense, belonging to the
+convent of the church called S. Maria Sopra Minerva. I had a
+recommendation to the principal librarian, a Dominican friar, who
+received me very politely, and regaled me with a sight of several
+curious MSS. of the classics.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Having satisfied my curiosity at Rome, I prepared for my departure, and
+as the road between Radicofani and Montefiascone is very stony and
+disagreeable, I asked the banker Barazzi, if there was not a better way
+of returning to Florence, expressing a desire at the same time to see
+the cascade of Terni. He assured me that the road by Terni was forty
+miles shorter than the other, much more safe and easy, and accommodated
+with exceeding good auberges. Had I taken the trouble to cast my eyes
+upon the map, I must have seen, that the road by Terni, instead of
+being forty miles shorter, was much longer than the other: but this was
+not the only mistake of Signiore Barazzi. Great part of this way lies
+over steep mountains, or along the side of precipices, which render
+travelling in a carriage exceeding tedious, dreadful, and dangerous;
+and as for the public houses, they are in all respects the most
+execrable that ever I entered. I will venture to say that a common
+prisoner in the Marshalsea or King's-Bench is more cleanly and
+commodiously lodged than we were in many places on this road. The
+houses are abominably nasty, and generally destitute of provision: when
+eatables were found, we were almost poisoned by their cookery: their
+beds were without curtains or bedstead, and their windows without
+glass; and for this sort of entertainment we payed as much as if we had
+been genteelly lodged, and sumptuously treated. I repeat it again; of
+all the people I ever knew, the Italians are the most villainously
+rapacious. The first day, having passed Civita Castellana, a small town
+standing on the top of a hill, we put up at what was called an
+excellent inn, where cardinals, prelates, and princes, often lodged.
+Being meagre day, there was nothing but bread, eggs, and anchovies, in
+the house. I went to bed without supper, and lay in a pallet, where I
+was half devoured by vermin. Next day, our road, in some places, lay
+along precipices, which over-hang the Nera or Nar, celebrated in
+antiquity for its white foam, and the sulphureous quality of its waters.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Sulfurea nar albus aqua, fontesque velini.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Sulphureous nar, and the Velinian streams.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It is a small, but rapid stream, which runs not far from hence, into
+the Tyber. Passing Utricoli, near the ruins of the ancient Ocriculum,
+and the romantic town of Narni, situated on the top of a mountain, in
+the neighbourhood of which is still seen standing one arch of the
+stupendous bridge built by Augustus Caesar, we arrived at Terni, and
+hiring a couple of chaises before dinner, went to see the famous
+Cascata delle Marmore, which is at the distance of three miles. We
+ascended a steep mountain by a narrow road formed for a considerable
+way along the brink of a precipice, at the bottom of which brawls the
+furious river Nera, after having received the Velino. This last is the
+stream which, running from the Lago delle Marmore, forms the cascade by
+falling over a precipice about one hundred and sixty feet high. Such a
+body of water rushing down the mountain; the smoak, vapour, and thick
+white mist which it raises; the double rainbow which these particles
+continually exhibit while the sun shines; the deafening sound of the
+cataract; the vicinity of a great number of other stupendous rocks and
+precipices, with the dashing, boiling, and foaming of the two rivers
+below, produce altogether an object of tremendous sublimity: yet great
+part of its effect is lost, for want of a proper point of view, from
+which it might be contemplated. The cascade would appear much more
+astonishing, were it not in some measure eclipsed by the superior
+height of the neighbouring mountains. You have not a front perspective;
+but are obliged to view it obliquely on one side, standing upon the
+brink of a precipice, which cannot be approached without horror. This
+station might be rendered much more accessible, and altogether secure,
+for the expence of four or five zequines; and a small tax might be
+levied for the purpose from travellers by the aubergiste at Terni, who
+lets his calasses for half a zequine a piece to those that are curious
+to see this phaenomenon. Besides the two postilions whom I payed for
+this excursion, at the rate of one stage in posting, there was a fellow
+who posted himself behind one of the chaises, by way of going to point
+out the different views of the cascade; and his demand amounted to four
+or five pauls. To give you an idea of the extortion of those villainous
+publicans, I must tell you that for a dinner and supper, which even
+hunger could not tempt us to eat, and a night's lodging in three
+truckle beds, I paid eighty pauls, amounting to forty shillings
+sterling. You ask me why I submitted to such imposition? I will tell
+you&mdash;I have more than once in my travels made a formal complaint of the
+exorbitancy of a publican, to the magistrate of the place; but I never
+received any satisfaction, and have lost abundance of time. Had I
+proceeded to manual correction, I should have alarmed and terrified the
+women: had I peremptorily refused to pay the sum total, the landlord,
+who was the post-master, would not have supplied me with horses to
+proceed on my journey. I tried the experiment at Muy in France, where I
+put myself into a violent passion, had abundance of trouble, was
+detained till it was almost night, and after all found myself obliged
+to submit, furnishing at the same time matter of infinite triumph to
+the mob, which had surrounded the coach, and interested themselves
+warmly in favour of their townsman. If some young patriot, in good
+health and spirits, would take the trouble as often as he is imposed
+upon by the road in travelling, to have recourse to the fountain-head,
+and prefer a regular complaint to the comptroller of the posts, either
+in France or Italy, he would have ample satisfaction, and do great
+service to the community. Terni is an agreeable town, pretty well
+built, and situated in a pleasant valley, between two branches of the
+river Nera, whence it was called by the antients, Interamna. Here is an
+agreeable piazza, where stands a church that was of old a heathen
+temple. There are some valuable paintings in the church. The people are
+said to be very civil, and provisions to be extremely cheap. It was the
+birthplace of the emperor Tacitus, as well as of the historian of the
+same name. In our journey from hence to Spoleto, we passed over a high
+mountain, (called, from its height, Somma) where it was necessary to
+have two additional horses to the carriage, and the road winds along a
+precipice. which is equally dangerous and dreadful. We passed through
+part of Spoleto, the capital of Umbria, which is a pretty large city.
+Of this, however, I give no other account from my own observation, but
+that I saw at a distance the famous Gothic aqueduct of brick: this is
+mentioned by Addison as a structure, which, for the height of its
+arches, is not equalled by any thing in Europe. The road from hence to
+Foligno, where we lay, is kept in good order, and lies through a
+delightful plain, laid out into beautiful inclosures, abounding with
+wine, oil, corn, and cattle, and watered by the pastoral streams of the
+famous river Clitumnus, which takes its rise in three or four separate
+rivulets issuing from a rock near the highway. On the right-hand, we
+saw several towns situated on rising grounds, and among the rest, that
+of Assissio, famous for the birth of St. Francis, whose body, being
+here deposited, occasions a concourse of pilgrims. We met a Roman
+princess going thither with a grand retinue, in consequence of a vow
+she had made for the re-establishment of her health. Foligno, the
+Fulginium of the antients, is a small town, not unpleasant, lying in
+the midst of mulberry plantations, vineyards, and corn-fields, and
+built on both sides of the little river Topino. In choosing our beds at
+the inn, I perceived one chamber locked, and desired it might be
+opened; upon which the cameriere declared with some reluctance,
+"Besogna dire a su' eccellenza; poco fa, che una bestia e morta in
+questa camera, e non e ancora lustrata," "Your Excellency must know
+that a filthy Beast died lately in that Chamber, and it is not yet
+purified and put in order." When I enquired what beast it was, he
+replied, "Un'eretico Inglese," "An English heretic." I suppose he would
+not have made so free with our country and religion, if he had not
+taken us for German catholics, as we afterwards learned from Mr. R&mdash;i.
+Next day, we crossed the Tyber, over a handsome bridge, and in mounting
+the steep hill upon which the city of Perugia stands, our horses being
+exhausted, were dragged backwards by the weight of the carriage to the
+very edge of a precipice, where, happily for us, a man passing that
+way, placed a large stone behind one of the wheels, which stopped their
+motion, otherwise we should have been all dashed in pieces. We had
+another ugly hill to ascend within the city, which was more difficult
+and dangerous than the other: but the postilions, and the other beasts
+made such efforts, that we mounted without the least stop, to the
+summit, where we found ourselves in a large piazza, where the horses
+are always changed. There being no relays at the post, we were obliged
+to stay the whole day and night at Perugia, which is a considerable
+city, built upon the acclivity of a hill, adorned with some elegant
+fountains, and several handsome churches, containing some valuable
+pictures by Guido, Raphael, and his master Pietro Perugino, who was a
+native of this place. The next stage is on the banks of the lake, which
+was the Thrasimene of the antients, a beautiful piece of water, above
+thirty miles in circumference, having three islands, abounding with
+excellent fish: upon a peninsula of it, there is a town and castle. It
+was in this neighbourhood where the consul Flaminius was totally
+defeated with great slaughter by Hannibal. From Perugia to Florence,
+the posts are all double, and the road is so bad that we never could
+travel above eight and twenty miles a day. We were often obliged to
+quit the carriage, and walk up steep mountains; and the way in general
+was so unequal and stony, that we were jolted even to the danger of our
+lives. I never felt any sort of exercise or fatigue so intolerable; and
+I did not fail to bestow an hundred benedictions per diem upon the
+banker Barazzi, by whose advice we had taken this road; yet there was
+no remedy but patience. If the coach had not been incredibly strong, it
+must have been shattered to pieces. The fifth night we passed at a
+place called Camoccia, a miserable cabaret, where we were fain to cook
+our own supper, and lay in a musty chamber, which had never known a
+fire, and indeed had no fire-place, and where we ran the risque of
+being devoured by rats. Next day one of the irons of the coach gave way
+at Arezzo, where we were detained two hours before it could be
+accommodated. I might have taken this opportunity to view the remains
+of the antient Etruscan amphitheatre, and the temple of Hercules,
+described by the cavalier Lorenzo Guazzesi, as standing in the
+neighbourhood of this place: but the blacksmith assured me his work
+would be finished in a few minutes; and as I had nothing so much at
+heart as the speedy accomplishment of this disagreeable journey, I
+chose to suppress my curiosity, rather than be the occasion of a
+moment's delay. But all the nights we had hitherto passed were
+comfortable in comparison to this, which we suffered at a small
+village, the name of which I do not remember. The house was dismal and
+dirty beyond all description; the bed-cloaths filthy enough to turn the
+stomach of a muleteer; and the victuals cooked in such a manner, that
+even a Hottentot could not have beheld them without loathing. We had
+sheets of our own, which were spread upon a mattrass, and here I took
+my repose wrapped in a greatcoat, if that could be called repose which
+was interrupted by the innumerable stings of vermin. In the morning, I
+was seized with a dangerous fit of hooping-cough, which terrified my
+wife, alarmed my people, and brought the whole community into the
+house. I had undergone just such another at Paris, about a year before.
+This forenoon, one of our coach wheels flew off in the neighbourhood of
+Ancisa, a small town, where we were detained above two hours by this
+accident; a delay which was productive of much disappointment, danger,
+vexation, and fatigue. There being no horses at the last post, we were
+obliged to wait until those which brought us thither were sufficiently
+refreshed to proceed. Understanding that all the gates of Florence are
+shut at six, except two that are kept open for the accommodation of
+travellers; and that to reach the nearest of these gates, it was
+necessary to pass the river Arno in a ferry-boat, which could not
+transport the carriage; I determined to send my servant before with a
+light chaise to enter the nearest gate before it was shut, and provide
+a coach to come and take us up at the side of the river, where we
+should be obliged to pass in the boat: for I could not bear the
+thoughts of lying another night in a common cabaret. Here, however,
+another difficulty occurred. There was but one chaise, and a dragoon
+officer, in the imperial troops, insisted upon his having bespoke it
+for himself and his servant. A long dispute ensued, which had like to
+have produced a quarrel: but at length I accommodated matters, by
+telling the officer that he should have a place in it gratis, and his
+servant might ride a-horse-back. He accepted the offer without
+hesitation; but, in the mean time, we set out in the coach before them,
+and having proceeded about a couple of miles, the road was so deep from
+a heavy rain, and the beasts were so fatigued, that they could not
+proceed. The postilions scourging the poor animals with great
+barbarity, they made an effort, and pulled the coach to the brink of a
+precipice, or rather a kind of hollow-way, which might be about seven
+or eight feet lower than the road. Here my wife and I leaped out, and
+stood under the rain up to the ancles in mud; while the postilions
+still exercising their whips, one of the fore-horses fairly tumbled
+down the descent, arid hung by the neck, so that he was almost
+strangled before he could be disengaged from the traces, by the
+assistance of some foot travellers that happened to pass. While we
+remained in this dilemma, the chaise, with the officer and my servant,
+coming up, we exchanged places; my wife and I proceeded in the chaise,
+and left them with Miss C&mdash; and Mr. R&mdash;, to follow in the coach. The
+road from hence to Florence is nothing but a succession of steep
+mountains, paved and conducted in such a manner, that one would imagine
+the design had been to render it impracticable by any sort of
+wheel-carriage. Notwithstanding all our endeavours, I found it would be
+impossible to enter Florence before the gates were shut. I flattered
+and threatened the driver by turns: but the fellow, who had been
+remarkably civil at first, grew sullen and impertinent. He told me I
+must not think of reaching Florence: that the boat would not take the
+carriage on board; and that from the other side, I must walk five miles
+before I should reach the gate that was open: but he would carry me to
+an excellent osteria, where I should be entertained and lodged like a
+prince. I was now convinced that he had lingered on purpose to serve
+this inn-keeper; and I took it for granted that what he told me of the
+distance between the ferry and the gate was a lie. It was eight o'clock
+when we arrived at his inn. I alighted with my wife to view the
+chambers, desiring he would not put up his horses. Finding it was a
+villainous house, we came forth, and, by this time, the horses were put
+up. I asked the fellow how he durst presume to contradict my orders,
+and commanded him to put them to the chaise. He asked in his turn if I
+was mad? If I thought I and the lady had strength and courage enough to
+walk five miles in the dark, through a road which we did not know, and
+which was broke up by a continued rain of two days? I told him he was
+an impertinent rascal, and as he still hesitated, I collared him with
+one hand, and shook my cane over his head with the other. It was the
+only weapon I had, either offensive or defensive; for I had left my
+sword, and musquetoon in the coach. At length the fellow obeyed, though
+with great reluctance, cracking many severe jokes upon us in the mean
+time, and being joined in his raillery by the inn-keeper, who had all
+the external marks of a ruffian. The house stood in a solitary
+situation, and not a soul appeared but these two miscreants, so that
+they might have murdered us without fear of detection. "You do not like
+the apartments? (said one) to be sure they were not fitted up for
+persons of your rank and quality!" "You will be glad of a worse
+chamber, (continued the other) before you get to bed." "If you walk to
+Florence tonight, you will sleep so sound, that the fleas will not
+disturb you." "Take care you do not take up your night's lodging in the
+middle of the road, or in the ditch of the city-wall." I fired inwardly
+at these sarcasms, to which, however, I made no reply; and my wife was
+almost dead with fear. In the road from hence to the boat, we met with
+an ill-looking fellow, who offered his service to conduct us into the
+city, and such was our situation, that I was fain to accept his
+proposal, especially as we had two small boxes in the chaise by
+accident, containing some caps and laces belonging to my wife, I still
+hoped the postilion had exaggerated in the distance between the boat
+and the city gate, and was confirmed in this opinion by the ferryman,
+who said we had not above half a league to walk. Behold us then in this
+expedition; myself wrapped up in a very heavy greatcoat, and my cane in
+my hand. I did not imagine I could have walked a couple of miles in
+this equipage, had my life been depending; my wife a delicate creature,
+who had scarce ever walked a mile in her life; and the ragamuffin
+before us with our boxes under his arm. The night was dark and wet; the
+road slippery and dirty; not a soul was seen, nor a sound was heard:
+all was silent, dreary, and horrible. I laid my account with a violent
+fit of illness from the cold I should infallibly catch, if I escaped
+assassination, the fears of which were the more troublesome as I had no
+weapon to defend our lives. While I laboured under the weight of my
+greatcoat which made the streams of sweat flow down my face and
+shoulders, I was plunging in the mud, up to the mid-leg at every step;
+and at the same time obliged to support my wife, who wept in silence,
+half dead with terror and fatigue. To crown our vexation, our conductor
+walked so fast, that he was often out of sight, and I imagined he had
+run away with the boxes. All I could do on these occasions, was to
+hollow as loud as I could, and swear horribly that I would blow his
+brains out. I did not know but these oaths and menaces might keep other
+rogues in awe. In this manner did we travel three long miles, making
+almost an intire circuit of the city-wall, without seeing the face of a
+human creature, and at length reached the gate, where we were examined
+by the guard, and allowed to pass, after they had told us it was a long
+mile from thence to the house of Vanini, where we proposed to lodge. No
+matter, being now fairly within the city, I plucked up my spirits, and
+performed the rest of the journey with such ease, that I am persuaded,
+I could have walked at the same pace all night long, without being very
+much fatigued. It was near ten at night, when we entered the auberge in
+such a draggled and miserable condition, that Mrs. Vanini almost
+fainted at sight of us, on the supposition that we had met with some
+terrible disaster, and that the rest of the company were killed. My
+wife and I were immediately accommodated with dry stockings and shoes,
+a warm apartment, and a good supper, which I ate with great
+satisfaction, arising not only from our having happily survived the
+adventure, but also from a conviction that my strength and constitution
+were wonderfully repaired: not but that I still expected a severe cold,
+attended with a terrible fit of the asthma: but in this I was luckily
+disappointed. I now for the first time drank to the health of my
+physician Barazzi, fully persuaded that the hardships and violent
+exercise I underwent by following his advice, had greatly contributed
+to the re-establishment of my health. In this particular, I imitate the
+gratitude of Tavernier, who was radically cured of the gout by a
+Turkish aga in Aegypt, who gave him the bastinado, because he would not
+look at the head of the bashaw of Cairo, which the aga had in a bag, to
+be presented to the grand signior at Constantinople.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I did not expect to see the rest of our company that night, as I never
+doubted but they would stay with the coach at the inn on the other side
+of the Arno: but at mid-night we were joined by Miss C&mdash; and Mr. R&mdash;,
+who had left the carriage at the inn, under the auspices of the captain
+and my servant, and followed our foot-steps by walking from the
+ferry-boat to Florence, conducted by one of the boatmen. Mr. R&mdash; seemed
+to be much ruffled and chagrined; but, as he did not think proper to
+explain the cause, he had no right to expect that I should give him
+satisfaction for some insult he had received from my servant. They had
+been exposed to a variety of disagreeable adventures from the
+impracticability of the road. The coach had been several times in the
+most imminent hazard of being lost with all our baggage; and at one
+place, it was necessary to hire a dozen of oxen, and as many men, to
+disengage it from the holes into which it had run. It was in the
+confusion of these adventures, that the captain and his valet, Mr. R&mdash;
+and my servant, had like to have gone all by the ears together. The
+peace was with difficulty preserved by the interposition of Miss C&mdash;,
+who suffered incredibly from cold and wet, terror, vexation, and
+fatigue: yet happily no bad consequence ensued. The coach and baggage
+were brought safely into Florence next morning, when all of us found
+ourselves well refreshed, and in good spirits. I am afraid this is not
+the case with you, who must by this time be quite jaded with this long
+epistle, which shall therefore be closed without further ceremony
+by,&mdash;Yours always.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap35"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER XXXV
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+NICE, March 20, 1765.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR SIR,&mdash;The season being far advanced, and the weather growing
+boisterous, I made but a short stay at Florence, and set out for Pisa,
+with full resolution to take the nearest road to Lerici, where we
+proposed to hire a felucca for Genoa. I had a great desire to see
+Leghorn and Lucca; but the dread of a winter's voyage by sea in an open
+boat effectually restrained my curiosity. To avoid the trouble of
+having our baggage shifted every post, I hired two chaises to Pisa for
+a couple of zequines, and there we arrived in safety about seven in the
+evening, though not without fear of the consequence, as the calesses
+were quite open, and it rained all the way. I must own I was so sick of
+the wretched accommodation one meets with in every part of Italy,
+except the great cities, so averse to the sea at this season, and so
+fond of the city of Pisa, that I should certainly have stayed here the
+winter, had not I been separated from my books and papers, as well as
+from other conveniencies and connexions which I had at Nice; and
+foreseen that the thoughts of performing the same disagreeable voyage
+in the spring would imbitter my whole winter's enjoyment. I again hired
+two calesses for Lerici, proposing to lie at Sarzana, three miles short
+of that place, where we were told we should find comfortable lodging,
+and to embark next day without halting. When we departed in the
+morning, it rained very hard, and the Cerchio, which the chaises had
+formerly passed, almost without wetting the wheels, was now swelled to
+a mighty river, broad and deep and rapid. It was with great difficulty
+I could persuade my wife to enter the boat; for it blew a storm, and
+she had seen it in coming over from the other side hurried down a
+considerable way by the rapidity of the current, notwithstanding all
+the efforts of the watermen. Near two hours were spent in transporting
+us with our chaises. The road between this and Pietra Santa was
+rendered almost impassable. When we arrived at Massa, it began to grow
+dark, and the post-master assured us that the road to Sarzana was
+overflowed in such a manner as not to be passed even in the day-time,
+without imminent danger. We therefore took up our lodging for the night
+at this house, which was in all respects one of the worst we had yet
+entered. Next day, we found the Magra as large and violent as the
+Cerchio: however, we passed it without any accident, and in the
+afternoon arrived at Lerici. There we were immediately besieged by a
+number of patrons of feluccas, from among whom I chose a Spaniard,
+partly because he looked like an honest man, and produced an ample
+certificate, signed by an English gentleman; and partly, because he was
+not an Italian; for, by this time, I had imbibed a strong prejudice
+against the common people of that country. We embarked in the morning
+before day, with a gale that made us run the lee-gunwale in the water;
+but, when we pretended to turn the point of Porto Venere, we found the
+wind full in our teeth, and were obliged to return to our quarters,
+where we had been shamefully fleeced by the landlord, who,
+nevertheless, was not such an exorbitant knave as the post-master,
+whose house I would advise all travellers to avoid. Here, indeed, I had
+occasion to see an instance of prudence and oeconomy, which I should
+certainly imitate, if ever I had occasion to travel this way by myself.
+An Englishman, who had hired a felucca from Antibes to Leghorn, was put
+in here by stress of weather; but being aware of the extortion of
+innkeepers, and the bad accommodation in their houses, he slept on
+board on his own mattrasses; and there likewise he had all his
+conveniencies for eating. He sent his servant on shore occasionally to
+buy provision, and see it cooked according to his direction in some
+public house; and had his meals regularly in the felucca. This evening
+he came ashore to stretch his legs, and took a solitary walk on the
+beach, avoiding us with great care, although he knew we were English;
+his valet who was abundantly communicative, told my servant, that in
+coming through France, his master had travelled three days in company
+with two other English gentlemen, whom he met upon the road, and in all
+that time he never spoke a word to either, yet in other respects, he
+was a good man, mild, charitable, and humane. This is a character truly
+British. At five o'clock in the morning we put to sea again, and though
+the wind was contrary, made shift to reach the town of Sestri di
+Levante, where we were most graciously received by the publican butcher
+and his family. The house was in much better order than before; the
+people were much more obliging; we passed a very tolerable night, and
+had a very reasonable bill to pay in the morning. I cannot account for
+this favourable change any other way, than by ascribing it to the
+effects of a terrible storm, which had two days before torn up a great
+number of their olive-trees by the roots, and done such damage as
+terrified them into humility and submission. Next day, the water being
+delightful, we arrived by one o'clock in the afternoon at Genoa. Here I
+made another bargain with our patron Antonio, to carry us to Nice. He
+had been hitherto remarkably obliging, and seemingly modest. He spoke
+Latin fluently, and was tinctured with the sciences. I began to imagine
+he was a person of a good family, who had met with misfortunes in life,
+and respected him accordingly: but I afterwards found him mercenary,
+mean, and rapacious. The wind being still contrary, when we departed
+from Genoa, we could get no further than Finale, where we lodged in a
+very dismal habitation, which was recommended to us as the best auberge
+in the place. What rendered it the more uncomfortable, the night was
+cold, and there was not a fire-place in the house, except in the
+kitchen. The beds (if they deserved that name) were so shockingly
+nasty, that we could not have used them, had not a friend of Mr. R&mdash;
+supplied us with mattrasses, sheets, and coverlets; for our own sheets
+were on board the felucca, which was anchored at a distance from the
+shore. Our fare was equally wretched: the master of the house was a
+surly assassin, and his cameriere or waiter, stark-staring mad. Our
+situation was at the same time shocking and ridiculous. Mr. R&mdash;
+quarrelled over night with the master, who swore in broken French to my
+man, that he had a good mind to poniard that impertinent Piedmontese.
+In the morning, before day, Mr. R&mdash;, coming into my chamber, gave me to
+understand that he had been insulted by the landlord, who demanded six
+and thirty livres for our supper and lodging. Incensed at the rascal's
+presumption, I assured him I would make him take half the money, and a
+good beating into the bargain. He replied, that he would have saved me
+the trouble of beating him, had not the cameriere, who was a very
+sensible fellow, assured him the padrone was out of his senses, and if
+roughly handled, might commit some extravagance. Though I was
+exceedingly ruffled, I could not help laughing at the mad cameriere's
+palming himself upon R&mdash;y, as a sensible fellow, and transferring the
+charge of madness upon his master, who seemed to be much more knave
+than fool. While Mr. R&mdash; went to mass, I desired the cameriere to bid
+his master bring the bill, and to tell him that if it was not
+reasonable, I would carry him before the commandant. In the mean time I
+armed myself with my sword in one hand and my cane in the other. The
+inn-keeper immediately entered, pale and staring, and when I demanded
+his bill, he told me, with a profound reverence that he should be
+satisfied with whatever I myself thought proper to give. Surprised at
+this moderation, I asked if he should be content with twelve livres,
+and he answered, "Contentissimo," with another prostration. Then he
+made an apology for the bad accommodation of his house, and complained,
+that the reproaches of the other gentleman, whom he was pleased to call
+my majorduomo, had almost turned his brain. When he quitted the room,
+his cameriere, laying hold of his master's last words, pointed to his
+own forehead, and said, he had informed the gentleman over night that
+his patron was mad. This day we were by a high wind in the afternoon,
+driven for shelter into Porto Mauritio, where we found the post-house
+even worse than that of Finale; and what rendered it more shocking was
+a girl quite covered with the confluent smallpox, who lay in a room
+through which it was necessary to pass to the other chambers, and who
+smelled so strong as to perfume the whole house. We were but fifteen
+miles from St. Remo, where I knew the auberge was tolerable, and
+thither I resolved to travel by land. I accordingly ordered five mules
+to travel post, and a very ridiculous cavalcade we formed, the women
+being obliged to use common saddles; for in this country even the
+ladies sit astride. The road lay along one continued precipice, and was
+so difficult, that the beasts never could exceed a walking pace. In
+some places we were obliged to alight. Seven hours were spent in
+travelling fifteen short miles: at length we arrived at our old
+lodgings in St. Remo, which we found white-washed, and in great order.
+We supped pretty comfortably; slept well; and had no reason to complain
+of imposition in paying the bill. This was not the case in the article
+of the mules, for which I was obliged to pay fifty livres, according to
+the regulation of the posts. The postmaster, who came along with us,
+had the effrontery to tell me, that if I had hired the mules to carry
+me and my company to St. Remo, in the way of common travelling, they
+would have cost me but fifteen livres; but as I demanded post-horses, I
+must submit to the regulations. This is a distinction the more absurd,
+as the road is of such a nature as renders it impossible to travel
+faster in one way than in another; nor indeed is there the least
+difference either in the carriage or convenience, between travelling
+post and journey riding. A publican might with the same reason charge
+me three livres a pound for whiting, and if questioned about the
+imposition, reply, that if I had asked for fish I should have had the
+same whiting for the fifth part of the money: but that he made a wide
+difference between selling it as fish, and selling it as whiting. Our
+felucca came round from Porto Mauritio in the night, and embarking next
+morning, we arrived at Nice about four in the afternoon.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Thus have I given you a circumstantial detail of my Italian expedition,
+during which I was exposed to a great number of hardships, which I
+thought my weakened constitution could not have bore; as well as to
+violent fits of passion, chequered, however, with transports of a more
+agreeable nature; insomuch that I may say I was for two months
+continually agitated either in mind or body, and very often in both at
+the same time. As my disorder at first arose from a sedentary life,
+producing a relaxation of the fibres, which naturally brought on a
+listlessness, indolence, and dejection of the spirits, I am convinced
+that this hard exercise of mind and body, co-operated with the change
+of air and objects, to brace up the relaxed constitution, and promote a
+more vigorous circulation of the juices, which had long languished even
+almost to stagnation. For some years, I had been as subject to colds as
+a delicate woman new delivered. If I ventured to go abroad when there
+was the least moisture either in the air, or upon the ground, I was
+sure to be laid up a fortnight with a cough and asthma. But, in this
+journey, I suffered cold and rain, and stood, and walked in the wet,
+heated myself with exercise, and sweated violently, without feeling the
+least disorder; but, on the contrary, felt myself growing stronger
+every day in the midst of these excesses. Since my return to Nice, it
+has rained the best part of two months, to the astonishment of all the
+people in the country; yet during all that time I have enjoyed good
+health and spirits. On Christmas-Eve, I went to the cathedral at
+midnight, to hear high mass celebrated by the new bishop of Nice, in
+pontificalibus, and stood near two hours uncovered in a cold gallery,
+without having any cause in the sequel to repent of my curiosity. In a
+word, I am now so well that I no longer despair of seeing you and the
+rest of my friends in England; a pleasure which is eagerly desired
+by,&mdash;Dear Sir, Your affectionate humble Servant.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap36"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER XXXVI
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+NICE, March 23, 1766.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR SIR,&mdash;You ask whether I think the French people are more taxed
+than the English; but I apprehend, the question would be more apropos
+if you asked whether the French taxes are more insupportable than the
+English; for, in comparing burthens, we ought always to consider the
+strength of the shoulders that bear them. I know no better way of
+estimating the strength, than by examining the face of the country, and
+observing the appearance of the common people, who constitute the bulk
+of every nation. When I, therefore, see the country of England smiling
+with cultivation; the grounds exhibiting all the perfection of
+agriculture, parcelled out into beautiful inclosures, cornfields, hay
+and pasture, woodland and common, when I see her meadows well stocked
+with black cattle, her downs covered with sheep; when I view her teams
+of horses and oxen, large and strong, fat and sleek; when I see her
+farm-houses the habitations of plenty, cleanliness, and convenience;
+and her peasants well fed, well lodged, well cloathed, tall and stout,
+and hale and jolly; I cannot help concluding that the people are well
+able to bear those impositions which the public necessities have
+rendered necessary. On the other hand, when I perceive such signs of
+poverty, misery and dirt, among the commonalty of France, their
+unfenced fields dug up in despair, without the intervention of meadow
+or fallow ground, without cattle to furnish manure, without horses to
+execute the plans of agriculture; their farm-houses mean, their
+furniture wretched, their apparel beggarly; themselves and their beasts
+the images of famine; I cannot help thinking they groan under
+oppression, either from their landlords, or their government; probably
+from both.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The principal impositions of the French government are these: first,
+the taille, payed by all the commons, except those that are privileged:
+secondly, the capitation, from which no persons (not even the nobles)
+are excepted: thirdly, the tenths and twentieths, called Dixiemes and
+Vingtiemes, which every body pays. This tax was originally levied as an
+occasional aid in times of war, and other emergencies; but by degrees
+is become a standing revenue even in time of peace. All the money
+arising from these impositions goes directly to the king's treasury;
+and must undoubtedly amount to a very great sum. Besides these, he has
+the revenue of the farms, consisting of the droits d'aydes, or excise
+on wine, brandy, &amp;c. of the custom-house duties; of the gabelle,
+comprehending that most oppressive obligation on individuals to take a
+certain quantity of salt at the price which the farmers shall please to
+fix; of the exclusive privilege to sell tobacco; of the droits de
+controlle, insinuation, centieme denier, franchiefs, aubeine, echange
+et contre-echange arising from the acts of voluntary jurisdiction, as
+well as certain law-suits. These farms are said to bring into the
+king's coffers above one hundred and twenty millions of livres yearly,
+amounting to near five millions sterling: but the poor people are said
+to pay about a third more than this sum, which the farmers retain to
+enrich themselves, and bribe the great for their protection; which
+protection of the great is the true reason why this most iniquitous,
+oppressive, and absurd method of levying money is not laid aside. Over
+and above those articles I have mentioned, the French king draws
+considerable sums from his clergy, under the denomination of dons
+gratuits, or free-gifts; as well as from the subsidies given by the
+pays d'etats such as Provence, Languedoc, and Bretagne, which are
+exempted from the taille. The whole revenue of the French king amounts
+to between twelve and thirteen millions sterling. These are great
+resources for the king: but they will always keep the people miserable,
+and effectually prevent them from making such improvements as might
+turn their lands to the best advantage. But besides being eased in the
+article of taxes, there is something else required to make them exert
+themselves for the benefit of their country. They must be free in their
+persons, secure in their property, indulged with reasonable leases, and
+effectually protected by law from the insolence and oppression of their
+superiors.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Great as the French king's resources may appear, they are hardly
+sufficient to defray the enormous expence of his government. About two
+millions sterling per annum of his revenue are said to be anticipated
+for paying the interest of the public debts; and the rest is found
+inadequate to the charge of a prodigious standing army, a double
+frontier of fortified towns and the extravagant appointments of
+ambassadors, generals, governors, intendants, commandants, and other
+officers of the crown, all of whom affect a pomp, which is equally
+ridiculous and prodigal. A French general in the field is always
+attended by thirty or forty cooks; and thinks it is incumbent upon him,
+for the glory of France, to give a hundred dishes every day at his
+table. When don Philip, and the marechal duke de Belleisle, had their
+quarters at Nice, there were fifty scullions constantly employed in the
+great square in plucking poultry. This absurd luxury infects their
+whole army. Even the commissaries keep open table; and nothing is seen
+but prodigality and profusion. The king of Sardinia proceeds upon
+another plan. His troops are better cloathed, better payed, and better
+fed than those of France. The commandant of Nice has about four hundred
+a year of appointments, which enable him to live decently, and even to
+entertain strangers. On the other hand, the commandant of Antibes,
+which is in all respects more inconsiderable than Nice, has from the
+French king above five times the sum to support the glory of his
+monarch, which all the sensible part of mankind treat with ridicule and
+contempt. But the finances of France are so ill managed, that many of
+their commandants, and other officers, have not been able to draw their
+appointments these two years. In vain they complain and remonstrate.
+When they grow troublesome they are removed. How then must they support
+the glory of France? How, but by oppressing the poor people. The
+treasurer makes use of their money for his own benefit. The king knows
+it; he knows his officers, thus defrauded, fleece and oppress his
+people: but he thinks proper to wink at these abuses. That government
+may be said to be weak and tottering which finds itself obliged to
+connive at such proceedings. The king of France, in order to give
+strength and stability to his administration, ought to have sense to
+adopt a sage plan of oeconomy, and vigour of mind sufficient to execute
+it in all its parts, with the most rigorous exactness. He ought to have
+courage enough to find fault, and even to punish the delinquents, of
+what quality soever they may be: and the first act of reformation ought
+to be a total abolition of all the farms. There are, undoubtedly, many
+marks of relaxation in the reins of the French government, and, in all
+probability, the subjects of France will be the first to take advantage
+of it. There is at present a violent fermentation of different
+principles among them, which under the reign of a very weak prince, or
+during a long minority, may produce a great change in the constitution.
+In proportion to the progress of reason and philosophy, which have made
+great advances in this kingdom, superstition loses ground; antient
+prejudices give way; a spirit of freedom takes the ascendant. All the
+learned laity of France detest the hierarchy as a plan of despotism,
+founded on imposture and usurpation. The protestants, who are very
+numerous in southern parts, abhor it with all the rancour of religious
+fanaticism. Many of the commons, enriched by commerce and manufacture,
+grow impatient of those odious distinctions, which exclude them from
+the honours and privileges due to their importance in the commonwealth;
+and all the parliaments, or tribunals of justice in the kingdom, seem
+bent upon asserting their rights and independence in the face of the
+king's prerogative, and even at the expence of his power and authority.
+Should any prince therefore be seduced by evil counsellors, or misled
+by his own bigotry, to take some arbitrary step, that may be extremely
+disagreeable to all those communities, without having spirit to exert
+the violence of his power for the support of his measures, he will
+become equally detested and despised; and the influence of the commons
+will insensibly encroach upon the pretensions of the crown. But if in
+the time of a minority, the power of the government should be divided
+among different competitors for the regency, the parliaments and people
+will find it still more easy to acquire and ascertain the liberty at
+which they aspire, because they will have the balance of power in their
+hands, and be able to make either scale preponderate. I could say a
+great deal more upon this subject; and I have some remarks to make
+relating to the methods which might be taken in the case of a fresh
+rupture with France, for making a vigorous impression on that kingdom.
+But these I in list defer till another occasion, having neither room
+nor leisure at present to add any thing, but that I am, with great
+truth,&mdash;Dear Sir, Your very humble Servant.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap37"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER XXXVII
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+NICE, April 2, 1765.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR DOCTOR,&mdash;As I have now passed a second winter at Nice I think
+myself qualified to make some further remarks on this climate. During
+the heats of last summer, I flattered myself with the prospect of the
+fine weather I should enjoy in the winter; but neither I, nor any
+person in this country, could foresee the rainy weather that prevailed
+from the middle of November, till the twentieth of March. In this short
+period of four months, we have had fifty-six days of rain, which I take
+to be a greater quantity than generally falls during the six worst
+months of the year in the county of Middlesex, especially as it was,
+for the most part, a heavy, continued rain. The south winds generally
+predominate in the wet season at Nice: but this winter the rain was
+accompanied with every wind that blows, except the south; though the
+most frequent were those that came from the east and north quarters.
+Notwithstanding these great rains, such as were never known before at
+Nice in the memory of man, the intermediate days of fair weather were
+delightful, and the ground seemed perfectly dry. The air itself was
+perfectly free from moisture. Though I live upon a ground floor,
+surrounded on three sides by a garden, I could not perceive the least
+damp, either on the floors, or the furniture; neither was I much
+incommoded by the asthma, which used always to harass me most in wet
+weather. In a word, I passed the winter here much more comfortably than
+I expected. About the vernal equinox, however, I caught a violent cold,
+which was attended with a difficulty of breathing, and as the sun
+advances towards the tropic, I find myself still more subject to
+rheums. As the heat increases, the humours of the body are rarefied,
+and, of consequence, the pores of the skin are opened; while the east
+wind sweeping over the Alps and Apennines, covered with snow, continues
+surprisingly sharp and penetrating. Even the people of the country, who
+enjoy good health, are afraid of exposing themselves to the air at this
+season, the intemperature of which may last till the middle of May,
+when all the snow on the mountains will probably be melted: then the
+air will become mild and balmy, till, in the progress of summer, it
+grows disagreeably hot, and the strong evaporation from the sea makes
+it so saline, as to be unhealthy for those who have a scorbutical
+habit. When the sea-breeze is high, this evaporation is so great as to
+cover the surface of the body with a kind of volatile brine, as I
+plainly perceived last summer. I am more and more convinced that this
+climate is unfavourable for the scurvy. Were I obliged to pass my life
+in it, I would endeavour to find a country retreat among the mountains,
+at some distance from the sea, where I might enjoy a cool air, free
+from this impregnation, unmolested by those flies, gnats, and other
+vermin which render the lower parts almost uninhabitable. To this place
+I would retire in the month of June, and there continue till the
+beginning of October, when I would return to my habitation in Nice,
+where the winter is remarkably mild and agreeable. In March and April
+however, I would not advise a valetudinarian to go forth, without
+taking precaution against the cold. An agreeable summer retreat may be
+found on the other side of the Var, at, or near the town of Grasse,
+which is pleasantly situated on the ascent of a hill in Provence, about
+seven English miles from Nice. This place is famous for its pomatum,
+gloves, wash-balls, perfumes, and toilette-boxes, lined with bergamot.
+I am told it affords good lodging, and is well supplied with provisions.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We are now preparing for our journey to England, from the exercise of
+which I promise myself much benefit: a journey extremely agreeable, not
+only on that account, but also because it will restore me to the
+company of my friends, and remove me from a place where I leave nothing
+but the air which I can possibly regret.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The only friendships I have contracted at Nice are with strangers, who,
+like myself, only sojourn here for a season. I now find by experience,
+it is great folly to buy furniture, unless one is resolved to settle
+here for some years. The Nissards assured me, with great confidence,
+that I should always be able to sell it for a very little loss; whereas
+I find myself obliged to part with it for about one-third of what it
+cost. I have sent for a coach to Aix, and as soon as it arrives, shall
+take my departure; so that the next letter you receive from me will be
+dated at some place on the road. I purpose to take Antibes, Toulon,
+Marseilles, Aix, Avignon, and Orange, in my way: places which I have
+not yet seen; and where, perhaps, I shall find something for your
+amusement, which will always be a consideration of some weight
+with,&mdash;Dear Sir, Yours.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap38"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER XXXVIII
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+To DR. S&mdash; AT NICE
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+TURIN, March 18, 1765.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR SIR,&mdash;Turin is about thirty leagues from Nice, the greater part of
+the way lying over frightful mountains covered with snow. The
+difficulty of the road, however, reaches no farther than Coni, from
+whence there is an open highway through a fine plain country, as far as
+the capital of Piedmont, and the traveller is accommodated with chaise
+and horses to proceed either post, or by cambiatura, as in other parts
+of Italy. There are only two ways of performing the journey over the
+mountains from Nice; one is to ride a mule-back, and the other to be
+carried in a chair. The former I chose, and set out with my servant on
+the seventh day of February at two in the afternoon. I was hardly clear
+of Nice, when it began to rain so hard that in less than an hour the
+mud was half a foot deep in many parts of the road. This was the only
+inconvenience we suffered, the way being in other respects practicable
+enough; for there is but one small hill to cross on this side of the
+village of L'Escarene, where we arrived about six in the evening. The
+ground in this neighbourhood is tolerably cultivated, and the mountains
+are planted to the tops with olive trees. The accommodation here is so
+very bad, that I had no inclination to be a-bed longer than was
+absolutely necessary for refreshment; and therefore I proceeded on my
+journey at two in the morning, conducted by a guide, whom I hired for
+this purpose at the rate of three livres a day. Having ascended one
+side, and descended the other, of the mountain called Braus, which took
+up four hours, though the road is not bad, we at six reached the
+village of Sospello, which is agreeably situated in a small valley,
+surrounded by prodigious high and barren mountains. This little plain
+is pretty fertile, and being watered by a pleasant stream, forms a
+delightful contrast with the hideous rocks that surround it. Having
+reposed myself and my mules two hours at this place, we continued our
+journey over the second mountain, called Brovis, which is rather more
+considerable than the first, and in four hours arrived at La Giandola,
+a tolerable inn situated betwixt the high road and a small river, about
+a gunshot from the town of Brieglie, which we leave on the right. As we
+jogged along in the grey of the morning, I was a little startled at two
+figures which I saw before me, and began to put my pistols in order. It
+must be observed that these mountains are infested with contrabandiers,
+a set of smuggling peasants, very bold and desperate, who make a
+traffic of selling tobacco, salt, and other merchandize, which have not
+payed duty, and sometimes lay travellers under contribution. I did not
+doubt but there was a gang of these free-booters at hand; but as no
+more than two persons appeared, I resolved to let them know we were
+prepared for defence, and fired one of my pistols, in hope that the
+report of it, echoed from the surrounding rocks, would produce a proper
+effect: but, the mountains and roads being entirely covered with snow
+to a considerable depth, there was little or no reverberation, and the
+sound was not louder than that of a pop-gun, although the piece
+contained a good charge of powder. Nevertheless, it did not fail to
+engage the attention of the strangers, one of whom immediately wheeled
+to the left about, and being by this time very near me, gave me an
+opportunity of contemplating his whole person. He was very tall,
+meagre, and yellow, with a long hooked nose, and small twinkling eyes.
+His head was eased in a woollen night-cap, over which he wore a flapped
+hat; he had a silk handkerchief about his neck, and his mouth was
+furnished with a short wooden pipe, from which he discharged wreathing
+clouds of tobacco-smoke. He was wrapped in a kind of capot of green
+bays, lined with wolf-skin, had a pair of monstrous boots, quilted on
+the inside with cotton, was almost covered with dirt, and rode a mule
+so low that his long legs hung dangling within six inches of the
+ground. This grotesque figure was so much more ludicrous than terrible,
+that I could not help laughing; when, taking his pipe out of his mouth,
+he very politely accosted me by name. You may easily guess I was
+exceedingly surprised at such an address on the top of the mountain
+Brovis: but he forthwith put an end to it too, by discovering himself
+to be the marquis M&mdash;, whom I had the honour to be acquainted with at
+Nice. After having rallied him upon his equipage, he gave me to
+understand he had set out from Nice the morning of the same day that I
+departed; that he was going to Turin, and that he had sent one of his
+servants before him to Coni with his baggage. Knowing him to be an
+agreeable companion, I was glad of this encounter, and we resolved to
+travel the rest of the way together. We dined at La Giandola, and in
+the afternoon rode along the little river Roida, which runs in a bottom
+between frightful precipices, and in several places forms natural
+cascades, the noise of which had well-nigh deprived us of the sense of
+hearing; after a winding course among these mountains, it discharges
+itself into the Mediterranean at Vintimiglia, in the territory of
+Genoa. As the snow did not lie on these mountains, when we cracked our
+whips, there was such a repercussion of the sound as is altogether
+inconceivable. We passed by the village of Saorgio, situated on an
+eminence, where there is a small fortress which commands the whole
+pass, and in five hours arrived at our inn, on this side the Col de
+Tende, where we took up our quarters, but had very little reason to
+boast of our entertainment. Our greatest difficulty, however, consisted
+in pulling off the marquis's boots, which were of the kind called
+Seafarot, by this time so loaded with dirt on the outside, and so
+swelled with the rain within, that he could neither drag them after him
+as he walked, nor disencumber his legs of them, without such violence
+as seemed almost sufficient to tear him limb from limb. In a word, we
+were obliged to tie a rope about his heel, and all the people in the
+house assisting to pull, the poor marquis was drawn from one end of the
+apartment to the other before the boot would give way: at last his legs
+were happily disengaged, and the machines carefully dried and stuffed
+for next day's journey.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We took our departure from hence at three in the morning, and at four,
+began to mount the Col de Tende, which is by far the highest mountain
+in the whole journey: it was now quite covered with snow, which at the
+top of it was near twenty feet thick. Half way up, there are quarters
+for a detachment of soldiers, posted here to prevent smuggling, and an
+inn called La Ca, which in the language of the country signifies the
+house. At this place, we hired six men to assist us in ascending the
+mountain, each of them provided with a kind of hough to break the ice,
+and make a sort of steps for the mules. When we were near the top,
+however, we were obliged to alight, and climb the mountain supported
+each by two of those men, called Coulants who walk upon the snow with
+great firmness and security. We were followed by the mules, and though
+they are very sure-footed animals, and were frost-shod for the
+occasion, they stumbled and fell very often; the ice being so hard that
+the sharp-headed nails in their shoes could not penetrate. Having
+reached the top of this mountain, from whence there is no prospect but
+of other rocks and mountains, we prepared for descending on the other
+side by the Leze, which is an occasional sledge made of two pieces of
+wood, carried up by the Coulants for this purpose. I did not much
+relish this kind of carriage, especially as the mountain was very
+steep, and covered with such a thick fog that we could hardly see two
+or three yards before us. Nevertheless, our guides were so confident,
+and my companion, who had passed the same way on other occasions, was
+so secure, that I ventured to place myself on this machine, one of the
+coulants standing behind me, and the other sitting before, as the
+conductor, with his feet paddling among the snow, in order to moderate
+the velocity of its descent. Thus accommodated, we descended the
+mountain with such rapidity, that in an hour we reached Limon, which is
+the native place of almost all the muleteers who transport merchandize
+from Nice to Coni and Turin. Here we waited full two hours for the
+mules, which travelled with the servants by the common road. To each of
+the coulants we paid forty sols, which are nearly equal to two
+shillings sterling. Leaving Limon, we were in two hours quite
+disengaged from the gorges of the mountains, which are partly covered
+with wood and pasturage, though altogether inaccessible, except in
+summer; but from the foot of the Col de Tende, the road lies through a
+plain all the way to Turin. We took six hours to travel from the inn
+where we had lodged over the mountain to Limon, and five hours from
+thence to Coni. Here we found our baggage, which we had sent off by the
+carriers one day before we departed from Nice; and here we dismissed
+our guides, together with the mules. In winter, you have a mule for
+this whole journey at the rate of twenty livres; and the guides are
+payed at the rate of two livres a day, reckoning six days, three for
+the journey to Coni, and three for their return to Nice. We set out so
+early in the morning in order to avoid the inconveniencies and dangers
+that attend the passage of this mountain. The first of these arises
+from your meeting with long strings of loaded mules in a slippery road,
+the breadth of which does not exceed a foot and an half. As it is
+altogether impossible for two mules to pass each other in such a narrow
+path, the muleteers have made doublings or elbows in different parts,
+and when the troops of mules meet, the least numerous is obliged to
+turn off into one of these doublings, and there halt until the others
+are past. Travellers, in order to avoid this disagreeable delay, which
+is the more vexatious, considering the excessive cold, begin the ascent
+of the mountain early in the morning before the mules quit their inns.
+But the great danger of travelling here when the sun is up, proceeds
+from what they call the Valanches. These are balls of snow detached
+from the mountains which over-top the road, either by the heat of the
+sun, or the humidity of the weather. A piece of snow thus loosened from
+the rock, though perhaps not above three or four feet in diameter,
+increases sometimes in its descent to such a degree, as to become two
+hundred paces in length, and rolls down with such rapidity, that the
+traveller is crushed to death before he can make three steps on the
+road. These dreadful heaps drag every thing along with them in their
+descent. They tear up huge trees by the roots, and if they chance to
+fall upon a house, demolish it to the foundation. Accidents of this
+nature seldom happen in the winter while the weather is dry; and yet
+scarce a year passes in which some mules and their drivers do not
+perish by the valanches. At Coni we found the countess C&mdash; from Nice,
+who had made the same journey in a chair, carried by porters. This is
+no other than a common elbow-chair of wood, with a straw bottom,
+covered above with waxed cloth, to protect the traveller from the rain
+or snow, and provided with a foot-board upon which the feet rest.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It is carried like a sedan-chair; and for this purpose six or eight
+porters are employed at the rate of three or four livres a head per
+day, according to the season, allowing three days for their return. Of
+these six men, two are between the poles carrying like common chairmen,
+and each of these is supported by the other two, one at each hand: but
+as those in the middle sustain the greatest burthen, they are relieved
+by the others in a regular rotation. In descending the mountain, they
+carry the poles on their shoulders, and in that case, four men are
+employed, one at each end.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At Coni, you may have a chaise to go with the same horses to Turin, for
+which you pay fifteen livres, and are a day and a half on the way. You
+may post it, however, in one day, and then the price is seven livres
+ten sols per post, and ten sols to the postilion. The method we took
+was that of cambiatura. This is a chaise with horses shifted at the
+same stages that are used in posting: but as it is supposed to move
+slower, we pay but five livres per post, and ten sols to the postilion.
+In order to quicken its pace, we gave ten sols extraordinary to each
+postilion, and for this gratification, he drove us even faster than the
+post. The chaises are like those of Italy, and will take on near two
+hundred weight of baggage.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Coni is situated between two small streams, and though neither very
+large nor populous, is considerable for the strength of its
+fortifications. It is honoured with the title of the Maiden-Fortress,
+because though several times besieged, it was never taken. The prince
+of Conti invested it in the war of 1744; but he was obliged to raise
+the siege, after having given battle to the king of Sardinia. The place
+was gallantly defended by the baron Leutrum, a German protestant, the
+best general in the Sardinian service: but what contributed most to the
+miscarriage of the enemy, was a long tract of heavy rains, which
+destroyed all their works, and rendered their advances impracticable.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I need not tell you that Piedmont is one of the most fertile and
+agreeable countries in Europe, and this the most agreeable part of all
+Piedmont, though it now appeared to disadvantage from the rigorous
+season of the year: I shall only observe that we passed through
+Sabellian, which is a considerable town, and arrived in the evening at
+Turin. We entered this fine city by the gate of Nice, and passing
+through the elegant Piazza di San Carlo, took up our quarters at the
+Bona Fama, which stands at one corner of the great square, called La
+Piazza Castel.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Were I even disposed to give a description of Turin, I should be
+obliged to postpone it till another opportunity, having no room at
+present to say any thing more, but that I am always&mdash;Yours.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap39"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER XXXIX
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+AIX EN PROVENCE, May 10, 1765.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR SIR,&mdash;I am thus far on my way to England. I had resolved to leave
+Nice, without having the least dispute with any one native of the
+place; but I found it impossible to keep this resolution. My landlord,
+Mr. C&mdash;, a man of fashion, with whose family we had always lived in
+friendship, was so reasonable as to expect I should give him up the
+house and garden, though they were to be paid for till Michaelmas, and
+peremptorily declared I should not be permitted to sub-let them to any
+other person. He had of his own accord assured me more than once that
+he would take my furniture off my hands, and trusting to this
+assurance, I had lost the opportunity, of disposing it to advantage:
+but, when the time of my departure drew near, he refused to take it, at
+the same time insisting upon having the key of the house and garden, as
+well as on being paid the whole rent directly, though it would not be
+due till the middle of September. I was so exasperated at this
+treatment from a man whom I had cultivated with particular respect,
+that I determined to contest it at law: but the affair was accommodated
+by the mediation of a father of the Minims, a friend to both, and a
+merchant of Nice, who charged himself with the care of the house and
+furniture. A stranger must conduct himself with the utmost
+circumspection to be able to live among these people without being the
+dupe of imposition.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I had sent to Aix for a coach and four horses, which I hired at the
+rate of eighteen French livres a day, being equal to fifteen shillings
+and nine-pence sterling. The river Var was so swelled by the melting of
+the snow on the mountains, as to be impassable by any wheel-carriage;
+and, therefore, the coach remained at Antibes, to which we went by
+water, the distance being about nine or ten miles. This is the
+Antipolis of the antients, said to have been built like Nice, by a
+colony from Marseilles. In all probability, however, it was later than
+the foundation of Nice, and took its name from its being situated
+directly opposite to that city. Pliny says it was famous for its
+tunny-fishery; and to this circumstance Martial alludes in the
+following lines
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  Antipolitani, fateor, sum filia thynni.<BR>
+  Essem si Scombri non tibi missa forem.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="poem">
+  I'm spawned from Tunny of Antibes, 'tis true.<BR>
+  Right Scomber had I been, I ne'er had come to you.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The famous pickle Garum was made from the Thynnus or Tunny as well as
+from the Scomber, but that from the Scomber was counted the most
+delicate. Commentators, however, are not agreed about the Scomber or
+Scombrus. Some suppose it was the Herring or Sprat; others believe it
+was the mackarel; after all, perhaps it was the Anchovy, which I do not
+find distinguished by any other Latin name: for the Encrasicolus is a
+Greek appellation altogether generical. Those who would be further
+informed about the Garum and the Scomber may consult Caelius Apicius de
+recogninaria, cum notis, variorum.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+At present, Antibes is the frontier of France towards Italy, pretty
+strongly fortified, and garrisoned by a battalion of soldiers. The town
+is small and inconsiderable: but the basin of the harbour is surrounded
+to seaward by a curious bulwark founded upon piles driven in the water,
+consisting of a wall, ramparts, casemates, and quay. Vessels lie very
+safe in this harbour; but there is not water at the entrance of it to
+admit of ships of any burthen. The shallows run so far off from the
+coast, that a ship of force cannot lie near enough to batter the town;
+but it was bombarded in the late war. Its chief strength by land
+consists in a small quadrangular fort detached from the body of the
+place, which, in a particular manner, commands the entrance of the
+harbour. The wall of the town built in the sea has embrasures and
+salient angles, on which a great number of cannon may be mounted.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I think the adjacent country is much more pleasant than that on the
+side of Nice; and there is certainly no essential difference in the
+climate. The ground here is not so encumbered; it is laid out in
+agreeable inclosures, with intervals of open fields, and the mountains
+rise with an easy ascent at a much greater distance from the sea, than
+on the other side of the bay. Besides, here are charming rides along
+the beach, which is smooth and firm. When we passed in the last week of
+April, the corn was in the ear; the cherries were almost ripe; and the
+figs had begun to blacken. I had embarked my heavy baggage on board a
+London ship, which happened to be at Nice, ready to sail: as for our
+small trunks or portmanteaus, which we carried along with us, they were
+examined at Antibes; but the ceremony was performed very superficially,
+in consequence of tipping the searcher with half-a-crown, which is a
+wonderful conciliator at all the bureaus in this country.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+We lay at Cannes, a neat village, charmingly situated on the beach of
+the Mediterranean, exactly opposite to the isles Marguerites, where
+state-prisoners are confined. As there are some good houses in this
+place, I would rather live here for the sake of the mild climate, than
+either at Antibes or Nice. Here you are not cooped up within walls, nor
+crowded with soldiers and people: but are already in the country, enjoy
+a fine air, and are well supplied with all sorts of fish.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The mountains of Esterelles, which in one of my former letters I
+described as a most romantic and noble plantation of ever-greens,
+trees, shrubs, and aromatic plants, is at present quite desolate. Last
+summer, some execrable villains set fire to the pines, when the wind
+was high. It continued burning for several months, and the
+conflagration extended above ten leagues, consuming an incredible
+quantity of timber. The ground is now naked on each side of the road,
+or occupied by the black trunks of the trees, which have been scorched
+without falling. They stand as so many monuments of the judgment of
+heaven, filling the mind with horror and compassion. I could hardly
+refrain from shedding tears at this dismal spectacle, when I recalled
+the idea of what it was about eighteen months ago.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+As we stayed all night at Frejus, I had an opportunity of viewing the
+amphitheatre at leisure. As near as I can judge by the eye, it is of
+the same dimensions with that of Nismes; but shockingly dilapidated.
+The stone seats rising from the arena are still extant, and the cells
+under them, where the wild beasts were kept. There are likewise the
+remains of two galleries one over another; and two vomitoria or great
+gateways at opposite sides of the arena, which is now a fine green,
+with a road through the middle of it: but all the external architecture
+and the ornaments are demolished. The most intire part of the wall now
+constitutes part of a monastery, the monks of which, I am told, have
+helped to destroy the amphitheatre, by removing the stones for their
+own purposes of building. In the neighbourhood of this amphitheatre,
+which stands without the walls, are the vestiges of an old edifice,
+said to have been the palace where the imperator or president resided:
+for it was a Roman colony, much favoured by Julius Caesar, who gave it
+the name of Forum Julii, and Civitas Forojuliensis. In all probability,
+it was he who built the amphitheatre, and brought hither the water ten
+leagues from the river of Ciagne, by means of an aqueduct, some arcades
+of which are still standing on the other side of the town. A great
+number of statues were found in this place, together with antient
+inscriptions, which have been published by different authors. I need
+not tell you that Julius Agricola, the father-in-law of Tacitus, the
+historian, was a native of Frejus, which is now a very poor
+inconsiderable place. From hence the country opens to the left, forming
+an extensive plain between the sea and the mountains, which are a
+continuation of the Alps, that stretches through Provence and Dauphine.
+This plain watered with pleasant streams, and varied with vineyards,
+corn-fields, and meadow-ground, afforded a most agreeable prospect to
+our eyes, which were accustomed to the sight of scorching sands, rugged
+rocks, and abrupt mountains in the neighbourhood of Nice. Although this
+has much the appearance of a corn-country, I am told it does not
+produce enough for the consumption of its inhabitants, who are obliged
+to have annual supplies from abroad, imported at Marseilles. A
+Frenchman, at an average, eats three times the quantity of bread that
+satisfies a native of England, and indeed it is undoubtedly the staff
+of his life. I am therefore surprised that the Provencaux do not
+convert part of their vineyards into corn-fields: for they may boast of
+their wine as they please; but that which is drank by the common
+people, not only here, but also in all the wine countries of France, is
+neither so strong, nourishing, nor (in my opinion) so pleasant to the
+taste as the small-beer of England. It must be owned that all the
+peasants who have wine for their ordinary drink are of a diminutive
+size, in comparison of those who use milk, beer, or even water; and it
+is a constant observation, that when there is a scarcity of wine, the
+common people are always more healthy, than in those seasons when it
+abounds. The longer I live, the more I am convinced that wine, and all
+fermented liquors, are pernicious to the human constitution; and that
+for the preservation of health, and exhilaration of the spirits, there
+is no beverage comparable to simple water. Between Luc and Toulon, the
+country is delightfully parcelled out into inclosures. Here is plenty
+of rich pasturage for black cattle, and a greater number of pure
+streams and rivulets than I have observed in any other parts of France.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Toulon is a considerable place, even exclusive of the basin, docks, and
+arsenal, which indeed are such as justify the remark made by a stranger
+when he viewed them. "The king of France (said he) is greater at Toulon
+than at Versailles." The quay, the jetties, the docks, and magazines,
+are contrived and executed with precision, order, solidity, and
+magnificence. I counted fourteen ships of the line lying unrigged in
+the basin, besides the Tonant of eighty guns, which was in dock
+repairing, and a new frigate on the stocks. I was credibly informed
+that in the last war, the king of France was so ill-served with cannon
+for his navy, that in every action there was scarce a ship which had
+not several pieces burst. These accidents did great damage, and
+discouraged the French mariners to such a degree, that they became more
+afraid of their own guns than of those of the English. There are now at
+Toulon above two thousand pieces of iron cannon unfit for service. This
+is an undeniable proof of the weakness and neglect of the French
+administration: but a more suprizing proof of their imbecility, is the
+state of the fortifications that defend the entrance of this very
+harbour. I have some reason to think that they trusted for its security
+entirely to our opinion that it must be inaccessible. Capt. E&mdash;, of one
+of our frigates, lately entered the harbour with a contrary wind, which
+by obliging him to tack, afforded an opportunity of sounding the whole
+breadth and length of the passage. He came in without a pilot, and made
+a pretence of buying cordage, or some other stores; but the French
+officers were much chagrined at the boldness of his enterprize. They
+alleged that he came for no other reason but to sound the channel; and
+that he had an engineer aboard, who made drawings of the land and the
+forts, their bearings and distances. In all probability, these
+suspicions were communicated to the ministry; for an order immediately
+arrived, that no stranger should be admitted into the docks and arsenal.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Part of the road from hence to Marseilles lies through a vast mountain,
+which resembles that of Estrelles; but is not so well covered with
+wood, though it has the advantage of an agreeable stream running
+through the bottom.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I was much pleased with Marseilles, which is indeed a noble city,
+large, populous, and flourishing. The streets of what is called the new
+Town are open, airy and spacious; the houses well built, and even
+magnificent. The harbour is an oval basin, surrounded on every side
+either by the buildings or the land, so that the shipping lies
+perfectly secure; and here is generally an incredible number of
+vessels. On the city side, there is a semi-circular quay of free-stone,
+which extends thirteen hundred paces; and the space between this and
+the houses that front it, is continually filled with a surprising crowd
+of people. The gallies, to the number of eight or nine, are moored with
+their sterns to one part of the wharf, and the slaves are permitted to
+work for their own benefit at their respective occupations, in little
+shops or booths, which they rent for a trifle. There you see tradesmen
+of all kinds sitting at work, chained by one foot, shoe-makers,
+taylors, silversmiths, watch and clock-makers, barbers,
+stocking-weavers, jewellers, pattern-drawers, scriveners, booksellers,
+cutlers, and all manner of shop-keepers. They pay about two sols a day
+to the king for this indulgence; live well and look jolly; and can
+afford to sell their goods and labour much cheaper than other dealers
+and tradesmen. At night, however, they are obliged to lie aboard.
+Notwithstanding the great face of business at Marseilles, their trade
+is greatly on the decline; and their merchants are failing every day.
+This decay of commerce is in a great measure owing to the English, who,
+at the peace, poured in such a quantity of European merchandize into
+Martinique and Guadalupe, that when the merchants of Marseilles sent
+over their cargoes, they found the markets overstocked, and were
+obliged to sell for a considerable loss. Besides, the French colonists
+had such a stock of sugars, coffee, and other commodities lying by them
+during the war, that upon the first notice of peace, they shipped them
+off in great quantities for Marseilles. I am told that the produce of
+the islands is at present cheaper here than where it grows; and on the
+other hand the merchandize of this country sells for less money at
+Martinique than in Provence.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+A single person, who travels in this country, may live at a reasonable
+rate in these towns, by eating at the public ordinaries: but I would
+advise all families that come hither to make any stay, to take
+furnished lodgings as soon as they can: for the expence of living at an
+hotel is enormous. I was obliged to pay at Marseilles four livres a
+head for every meal, and half that price for my servant, and was
+charged six livres a day besides for the apartment, so that our daily
+expence, including breakfast and a valet de place, amounted to two
+loui'dores. The same imposition prevails all over the south of France,
+though it is generally supposed to be the cheapest and most plentiful
+part of the kingdom. Without all doubt, it must be owing to the folly
+and extravagance of English travellers, who have allowed themselves to
+be fleeced without wincing, until this extortion is become authorized
+by custom. It is very disagreeable riding in the avenues of Marseilles,
+because you are confined in a dusty high road, crouded with carriages
+and beasts of burden, between two white walls, the reflection from
+which, while the sun shines, is intolerable. But in this neighbourhood
+there is a vast number of pleasant country-houses, called Bastides,
+said to amount to twelve thousand, some of which may be rented ready
+furnished at a very reasonable price. Marseilles is a gay city, and the
+inhabitants indulge themselves in a variety of amusements. They have
+assemblies, a concert spirituel, and a comedy. Here is also a spacious
+cours, or walk shaded with trees, to which in the evening there is a
+great resort of well-dressed people.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Marseilles being a free port, there is a bureau about half a league
+from the city on the road to Aix, where all carriages undergo
+examination; and if any thing contraband is found, the vehicle,
+baggage, and even the horses are confiscated. We escaped this
+disagreeable ceremony by the sagacity of our driver. Of his own accord,
+he declared at the bureau, that we had bought a pound of coffee and
+some sugar at Marseilles, and were ready to pay the duty, which
+amounted to about ten sols. They took the money, gave him a receipt,
+and let the carriage pass, without further question.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I proposed to stay one night only at Aix: but Mr. A&mdash;r, who is here,
+had found such benefit from drinking the waters, that I was persuaded
+to make trial of them for eight or ten days. I have accordingly taken
+private lodgings, and drank them at the fountain-head, not without
+finding considerable benefit. In my next I shall say something further
+of these waters, though I am afraid they will not prove a source of
+much entertainment. It will be sufficient for me to find them
+contribute in any degree to the health of&mdash;Dear Sir, Yours assuredly.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap40"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER XL
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+BOULOGNE, May 23, 1765.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR DOCTOR,&mdash;I found three English families at Aix, with whom I could
+have passed my time very agreeably but the society is now dissolved.
+Mr. S&mdash;re and his lady left the place in a few days after we arrived.
+Mr. A&mdash;r and lady Betty are gone to Geneva; and Mr. G&mdash;r with his
+family remains at Aix. This gentleman, who laboured under a most
+dreadful nervous asthma, has obtained such relief from this climate,
+that he intends to stay another year in the place: and Mr. A&mdash;r found
+surprizing benefit from drinking the waters, for a scorbutical
+complaint. As I was incommoded by both these disorders, I could not but
+in justice to myself, try the united efforts of the air and the waters;
+especially as this consideration was re-inforced by the kind and
+pressing exhortations of Mr. A&mdash;r and lady Betty, which I could not in
+gratitude resist.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Aix, the capital of Provence, is a large city, watered by the small
+river Are. It was a Roman colony, said to be founded by Caius Sextus
+Calvinus, above a century before the birth of Christ. From the source
+of mineral water here found, added to the consul's name, it was called
+Aquae Sextiae. It was here that Marius, the conqueror of the Teutones,
+fixed his headquarters, and embellished the place with temples,
+aqueducts, and thermae, of which, however, nothing now remains. The
+city, as it now stands, is well built, though the streets in general
+are narrow, and kept in a very dirty condition. But it has a noble
+cours planted with double rows of tall trees, and adorned with three or
+four fine fountains, the middlemost of which discharges hot water
+supplied from the source of the baths. On each side there is a row of
+elegant houses, inhabited chiefly by the noblesse, of which there is
+here a considerable number. The parliament, which is held at Aix,
+brings hither a great resort of people; and as many of the inhabitants
+are persons of fashion, they are well bred, gay, and sociable. The duc
+de Villars, who is governor of the province, resides on the spot, and
+keeps an open assembly, where strangers are admitted without reserve,
+and made very welcome, if they will engage in play, which is the sole
+occupation of the whole company. Some of our English people complain,
+that when they were presented to him, they met with a very cold
+reception. The French, as well as other foreigners, have no idea of a
+man of family and fashion, without the title of duke, count, marquis,
+or lord, and where an English gentleman is introduced by the simple
+expression of monsieur tel, Mr. Suchathing, they think he is some
+plebeian, unworthy of any particular attention.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Aix is situated in a bottom, almost surrounded by hills, which,
+however, do not screen it from the Bize, or north wind, that blows
+extremely sharp in the winter and spring, rendering the air almost
+insupportably cold, and very dangerous to those who have some kinds of
+pulmonary complaints, such as tubercules, abscesses, or spitting of
+blood. Lord H&mdash;, who passed part of last winter in this place,
+afflicted with some of these symptoms, grew worse every day while he
+continued at Aix: but, he no sooner removed to Marseilles, than all his
+complaints abated; such a difference there is in the air of these two
+places, though the distance between them does not exceed ten or twelve
+miles. But the air of Marseilles, though much more mild than that of
+Aix in the winter is not near so warm as the climate of Nice, where we
+find in plenty such flowers, fruit, and vegetables, even in the
+severest season, as will not grow and ripen, either at Marseilles or
+Toulon.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+If the air of Aix is disagreeably cold in the winter, it is rendered
+quite insufferable in the summer, from excessive heat, occasioned by
+the reflexion from the rocks and mountains, which at the same time
+obstruct the circulation of air: for it must be observed, that the same
+mountains which serve as funnels and canals, to collect and discharge
+the keen blasts of winter, will provide screens to intercept intirely
+the faint breezes of summer. Aix, though pretty well provided with
+butcher's meat, is very ill supplied with potherbs; and they have no
+poultry but what comes at a vast distance from the Lionnois. They say
+their want of roots, cabbage, cauliflower, etc. is owing to a scarcity
+of water: but the truth is, they are very bad gardeners. Their oil is
+good and cheap: their wine is indifferent: but their chief care seems
+employed on the culture of silk, the staple of Provence, which is every
+where shaded with plantations of mulberry trees, for the nourishment of
+the worms. Notwithstanding the boasted cheapness of every article of
+housekeeping, in the south of France, I am persuaded a family may live
+for less money at York, Durham, Hereford, and in many other cities of
+England than at Aix in Provence; keep a more plentiful table; and be
+much more comfortably situated in all respects. I found lodging and
+provision at Aix fifty per cent dearer than at Montpellier, which is
+counted the dearest place in Languedoc.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+The baths of Aix, so famous in antiquity, were quite demolished by the
+irruptions of the barbarians. The very source of the water was lost,
+till the beginning of the present century (I think the year 1704), when
+it was discovered by accident, in digging for the foundation of a
+house, at the foot of a hill, just without the city wall. Near the same
+place was found a small stone altar, with the figure of a Priapus, and
+some letters in capitals, which the antiquarians have differently
+interpreted. From this figure, it was supposed that the waters were
+efficacious in cases of barrenness. It was a long time, however, before
+any person would venture to use them internally, as it did not appear
+that they had ever been drank by the antients. On their re-appearance,
+they were chiefly used for baths to horses, and other beasts which had
+the mange, and other cutaneous eruptions. At length poor people began
+to bathe in them for the same disorders, and received such benefit from
+them, as attracted the attention of more curious inquirers. A very
+superficial and imperfect analysis was made and published, with a few
+remarkable histories of the cures they had performed, by three
+different physicians of those days; and those little treatises, I
+suppose, encouraged valetudinarians to drink them without ceremony.
+They were found serviceable in the gout, the gravel, scurvy, dropsy,
+palsy, indigestion, asthma, and consumption; and their fame soon
+extended itself all over Languedoc, Gascony, Dauphine, and Provence.
+The magistrates, with a view to render them more useful and commodious,
+have raised a plain building, in which there are a couple of private
+baths, with a bedchamber adjoining to each, where individuals may use
+them both internally and externally, for a moderate expence. These
+baths are paved with marble, and supplied with water each by a large
+brass cock, which you can turn at pleasure. At one end of this edifice,
+there is an octagon, open at top, having a bason, with a stone pillar
+in the middle, which discharges water from the same source, all round,
+by eight small brass cocks; and hither people of all ranks come of a
+morning, with their glasses, to drink the water, or wash their sores,
+or subject their contracted limbs to the stream. This last operation,
+called the douche, however, is more effectually undergone in the
+private bath, where the stream is much more powerful. The natural
+warmth of this water, as nearly as I can judge from recollection, is
+about the same degree of temperature with that in the Queen's Bath, at
+Bath in Somersetshire. It is perfectly transparent, sparkling in the
+glass, light and agreeable to the taste, and may be drank without any
+preparation, to the quantity of three or four pints at a time. There
+are many people at Aix who swallow fourteen half pint glasses every
+morning, during the season, which is in the month of May, though it may
+be taken with equal benefit all the year round. It has no sensible
+operation but by urine, an effect which pure water would produce, if
+drank in the same quantity.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+If we may believe those who have published their experiments, this
+water produces neither agitation, cloud, or change of colour, when
+mixed with acids, alkalies, tincture of galls, syrup of violets, or
+solution of silver. The residue, after boiling, evaporation, and
+filtration, affords a very small proportion of purging salt, and
+calcarious earth, which last ferments with strong acids. As I had
+neither hydrometer nor thermometer to ascertain the weight and warmth
+of this water; nor time to procure the proper utensils, to make the
+preparations, and repeat the experiments necessary to exhibit a
+complete analysis, I did not pretend to enter upon this process; but
+contented myself with drinking, bathing, and using the douche, which
+perfectly answered my expectation, having, in eight days, almost cured
+an ugly scorbutic tetter, which had for some time deprived me of the
+use of my right hand. I observed that the water, when used externally,
+left always a kind of oily appearance on the skin: that when, we boiled
+it at home, in an earthen pot, the steams smelled like those of
+sulphur, and even affected my lungs in the same manner: but the bath
+itself smelled strong of a lime-kiln. The water, after standing all
+night in a bottle, yielded a remarkably vinous taste and odour,
+something analogous to that of dulcified spirit of nitre. Whether the
+active particles consist of a volatile vitriol, or a very fine
+petroleum, or a mixture of both, I shall not pretend to determine: but
+the best way I know of discovering whether it is really impregnated
+with a vitriolic principle, too subtil and fugitive for the usual
+operations of chymistry, is to place bottles, filled with wine, in the
+bath, or adjacent room, which wine, if there is really a volatile acid,
+in any considerable quantity, will be pricked in eight and forty hours.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Having ordered our coach to be refitted, and provided with fresh
+horses, as well as with another postilion, in consequence of which
+improvements, I payed at the rate of a loui'dore per diem to Lyons and
+back again, we departed from Aix, and the second day of our journey
+passing the Durance in a boat, lay at Avignon. This river, the Druentia
+of the antients, is a considerable stream, extremely rapid, which
+descends from the mountains, and discharges itself in the Rhone. After
+violent rains it extends its channel, so as to be impassable, and often
+overflows the country to a great extent. In the middle of a plain,
+betwixt Orgon and this river, we met the coach in which we had
+travelled eighteen months before, from Lyons to Montpellier, conducted
+by our old driver Joseph, who no sooner recognized my servant at a
+distance, by his musquetoon, than he came running towards our carriage,
+and seizing my hand, even shed tears of joy. Joseph had been travelling
+through Spain, and was so imbrowned by the sun, that he might have
+passed for an Iroquois. I was much pleased with the marks of gratitude
+which the poor fellow expressed towards his benefactors. He had some
+private conversation with our voiturier, whose name was Claude, to whom
+he gave such a favourable character of us, as in all probability
+induced him to be wonderfully obliging during the whole journey.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+You know Avignon is a large city belonging to the pope. It was the
+Avenio Cavarum of the antients, and changed masters several times,
+belonging successively to the Romans, Burgundians, Franks, the kingdom
+of Arles, the counts of Provence, and the sovereigns of Naples. It was
+sold in the fourteenth century, by queen Jane I. of Naples, to Pope
+Clement VI. for the sum of eighty thousand florins, and since that
+period has continued under the dominion of the see of Rome. Not but
+that when the duc de Crequi, the French ambassador, was insulted at
+Rome in the year 1662, the parliament of Provence passed an arret,
+declaring the city of Avignon, and the county Venaiss in part of the
+ancient domain of Provence; and therefore reunited it to the crown of
+France, which accordingly took possession; though it was afterwards
+restored to the Roman see at the peace of Pisa. The pope, however,
+holds it by a precarious title, at the mercy of the French king, who
+may one day be induced to resume it, upon payment of the original
+purchase-money. As a succession of popes resided here for the space of
+seventy years, the city could not fail to be adorned with a great
+number of magnificent churches and convents, which are richly
+embellished with painting, sculpture, shrines, reliques, and tombs.
+Among the last, is that of the celebrated Laura, whom Petrarch has
+immortalized by his poetry, and for whom Francis I. of France took the
+trouble to write an epitaph. Avignon is governed by a vice-legate from
+the pope, and the police of the city is regulated by the consuls.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+It is a large place, situated in a fruitful plain, surrounded by high
+walls built of hewn stone, which on the west side are washed by the
+Rhone. Here was a noble bridge over the river, but it is now in ruins.
+On the other side, a branch of the Sorgue runs through part of the
+city. This is the river anciently called Sulga, formed by the famous
+fountain of Vaucluse in this neighbourhood, where the poet Petrarch
+resided. It is a charming transparent stream, abounding with excellent
+trout and craw-fish. We passed over it on a stone bridge, in our way to
+Orange, the Arausio Cavarum of the Romans, still distinguished by some
+noble monuments of antiquity. These consist of a circus, an aqueduct, a
+temple, and a triumphal arch, which last was erected in honour of Caius
+Marius, and Luctatius Catulus, after the great victory they obtained in
+this country over the Cimbri and Teutones. It is a very magnificent
+edifice, adorned on all sides with trophies and battles in basso
+relievo. The ornaments of the architecture, and the sculpture, are
+wonderfully elegant for the time in which it was erected; and the whole
+is surprisingly well preserved, considering its great antiquity. It
+seems to me to be as entire and perfect as the arch of Septimius
+Severus at Rome. Next day we passed two very impetuous streams, the
+Drome and the Isere. The first, which very much resembles the Var, we
+forded: but the Isere we crossed in a boat, which as well as that upon
+the Durance, is managed by the traille, a moveable or running pulley,
+on a rope stretched between two wooden machines erected on the opposite
+sides of the river. The contrivance is simple and effectual, and the
+passage equally safe and expeditious. The boatman has nothing to do,
+but by means of a long massy rudder, to keep the head obliquely to the
+stream, the force of which pushes the boat along, the block to which it
+is fixed sliding upon the rope from one side to the other. All these
+rivers take their rise from the mountains, which are continued through
+Provence and Dauphine, and fall into the Rhone: and all of them, when
+swelled by sudden rains, overflow the flat country. Although Dauphine
+affords little or no oil, it produces excellent wines, particularly
+those of Hermitage and Cote-roti. The first of these is sold on the
+spot for three livres the bottle, and the other for two. The country
+likewise yields a considerable quantity of corn, and a good deal of
+grass. It is well watered with streams, and agreeably shaded with wood.
+The weather was pleasant, and we had a continued song of nightingales
+from Aix to Fontainebleau.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+I cannot pretend to specify the antiquities of Vienne, antiently called
+Vienna Allobrogum. It was a Roman colony, and a considerable city,
+which the antients spared no pains and expence to embellish. It is
+still a large town, standing among several hills on the banks of the
+Rhone, though all its former splendor is eclipsed, its commerce
+decayed, and most of its antiquities are buried in ruins. The church of
+Notre Dame de la Vie was undoubtedly a temple. On the left of the road,
+as you enter it, by the gate of Avignon, there is a handsome obelisk,
+or rather pyramid, about thirty feet high, raised upon a vault
+supported by four pillars of the Tuscan order. It is certainly a Roman
+work, and Montfaucon supposes it to be a tomb, as he perceived an
+oblong stone jetting out from the middle of the vault, in which the
+ashes of the defunct were probably contained. The story of Pontius
+Pilate, who is said to have ended his days in this place, is a fable.
+On the seventh day of our journey from Aix, we arrived at Lyons, where
+I shall take my leave of you for the present, being with great
+truth&mdash;Yours, etc.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<A NAME="chap41"></A>
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+LETTER XLI
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+BOULOGNE, June 13, 1765.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+DEAR SIR,&mdash;I am at last in a situation to indulge my view with a sight
+of Britain, after an absence of two years; and indeed you cannot
+imagine what pleasure I feel while I survey the white cliffs of Dover,
+at this distance. Not that I am at all affected by the nescia qua
+dulcedine natalis soli, of Horace. That seems to be a kind of
+fanaticism founded on the prejudices of education, which induces a
+Laplander to place the terrestrial paradise among the snows of Norway,
+and a Swiss to prefer the barren mountains of Solleure to the fruitful
+plains of Lombardy. I am attached to my country, because it is the land
+of liberty, cleanliness, and convenience: but I love it still more
+tenderly, as the scene of all my interesting connexions; as the
+habitation of my friends, for whose conversation, correspondence, and
+esteem, I wish alone to live.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+Our journey hither from Lyons produced neither accident nor adventure
+worth notice; but abundance of little vexations, which may be termed
+the Plagues of Posting. At Lyons, where we stayed only a few days, I
+found a return-coach, which I hired to Paris for six loui'dores. It was
+a fine roomy carriage, elegantly furnished, and made for travelling; so
+strong and solid in all its parts, that there was no danger of its
+being shaken to pieces by the roughness of the road: but its weight and
+solidity occasioned so much friction between the wheels and the
+axle-tree, that we ran the risque of being set on fire three or four
+times a day. Upon a just comparison of all circumstances posting is
+much more easy, convenient, and reasonable in England than in France.
+The English carriages, horses, harness, and roads are much better; and
+the postilions more obliging and alert. The reason is plain and
+obvious. If I am ill-used at the post-house in England, I can be
+accommodated elsewhere. The publicans on the road are sensible of this,
+and therefore they vie with each other in giving satisfaction to
+travellers. But in France, where the post is monopolized, the
+post-masters and postilions, knowing that the traveller depends
+intirely upon them, are the more negligent and remiss in their duty, as
+well as the more encouraged to insolence and imposition. Indeed the
+stranger seems to be left intirely at the mercy of those fellows,
+except in large towns, where he may have recourse to the magistrate or
+commanding officer. The post stands very often by itself in a lone
+country situation, or in a paultry village, where the post-master is
+the principal inhabitant; and in such a case, if you should be
+ill-treated, by being supplied with bad horses; if you should be
+delayed on frivolous pretences, in order to extort money; if the
+postilions should drive at a waggon pace, with a view to provoke your
+impatience; or should you in any shape be insulted by them or their
+masters; and I know not any redress you can have, except by a formal
+complaint to the comptroller of the posts, who is generally one of the
+ministers of state, and pays little or no regard to any such
+representations. I know an English gentleman, the brother of an earl,
+who wrote a letter of complaint to the Duc de Villars, governor of
+Provence, against the post-master of Antibes, who had insulted and
+imposed upon him. The duke answered his letter, promising to take order
+that the grievance should be redressed; and never thought of it after.
+Another great inconvenience which attends posting in France, is that if
+you are retarded by any accident, you cannot in many parts of the
+kingdom find a lodging, without perhaps travelling two or three posts
+farther than you would choose to go, to the prejudice of your health,
+and even the hazard of your life; whereas on any part of the post-road
+in England, you will meet with tolerable accommodation at every stage.
+Through the whole south of France, except in large cities, the inns are
+cold, damp, dark, dismal, and dirty; the landlords equally disobliging
+and rapacious; the servants aukward, sluttish, and slothful; and the
+postilions lazy, lounging, greedy, and impertinent. If you chide them
+for lingering, they will continue to delay you the longer: if you
+chastise them with sword, cane, cudgel, or horse-whip, they will either
+disappear entirely, and leave you without resource; or they will find
+means to take vengeance by overturning your carriage. The best method I
+know of travelling with any degree of comfort, is to allow yourself to
+become the dupe of imposition, and stimulate their endeavours by
+extraordinary gratifications. I laid down a resolution (and kept it) to
+give no more than four and twenty sols per post between the two
+postilions; but I am now persuaded that for three-pence a post more, I
+should have been much better served, and should have performed the
+journey with much greater pleasure. We met with no adventures upon the
+road worth reciting. The first day we were retarded about two hours by
+the dutchess D&mdash;lle, and her son the duc de R&mdash;f&mdash;t, who by virtue of
+an order from the minister, had anticipated all the horses at the post.
+They accosted my servant, and asked if his master was a lord? He
+thought proper to answer in the affirmative, upon which the duke
+declared that he must certainly be of French extraction, inasmuch as he
+observed the lilies of France in his arms on the coach. This young
+nobleman spoke a little English. He asked whence we had come; and
+understanding we had been in Italy, desired to know whether the man
+liked France or Italy best? Upon his giving France the preference, he
+clapped him on the shoulder, and said he was a lad of good taste. The
+dutchess asked if her son spoke English well, and seemed mightily
+pleased when my man assured her he did. They were much more free and
+condescending with my servant than with myself; for, though we saluted
+them in passing, and were even supposed to be persons of quality, they
+did not open their lips, while we stood close by them at the inn-door,
+till their horses were changed. They were going to Geneva; and their
+equipage consisted of three coaches and six, with five domestics
+a-horseback. The dutchess was a tall, thin, raw-boned woman, with her
+head close shaved. This delay obliged us to lie two posts short of
+Macon, at a solitary auberge called Maison Blanche, which had nothing
+white about it, but the name. The Lionnois is one of the most agreeable
+and best-cultivated countries I ever beheld, diversified with hill,
+dale, wood, and water, laid out in extensive corn-fields and rich
+meadows, well stocked with black cattle, and adorned with a surprising
+number of towns, villages, villas, and convents, generally situated on
+the brows of gently swelling hills, so that they appear to the greatest
+advantage. What contributes in a great measure to the beauty of this,
+and the Maconnois, is the charming pastoral Soame, which from the city
+of Chalons winds its silent course so smooth and gentle, that one can
+scarce discern which way its current flows. It is this placid
+appearance that tempts so many people to bathe in it at Lions, where a
+good number of individuals are drowned every summer: whereas there is
+no instance of any persons thus perishing in the Rhone, the rapidity of
+it deterring every body from bathing in its stream. Next night we
+passed at Beaune where we found nothing good but the wine, for which we
+paid forty sols the bottle. At Chalons our axle-tree took fire; an
+accident which detained us so long, that it was ten before we arrived
+at Auxerre, where we lay. In all probability we must have lodged in the
+coach, had not we been content to take four horses, and pay for six,
+two posts successively. The alternative was, either to proceed with
+four on those terms, or stay till the other horses should come in and
+be refreshed. In such an emergency, I would advise the traveller to put
+up with the four, and he will find the postilions so much upon their
+mettle, that those stages will be performed sooner than the others in
+which you have the full complement.
+</P>
+
+<P>
+There was an English gentleman laid up at Auxerre with a broken arm, to
+whom I sent my compliments, with offers of service; but his servant
+told my man that he did not choose to see any company, and had no
+occasion for my service. This sort of reserve seems peculiar to the
+English disposition. When two natives of any other country chance to
+meet abroad, they run into each other's embrace like old friends, even
+though they have never heard of one another till that moment; whereas
+two Englishmen in the same situation maintain a mutual reserve and
+diffidence, and keep without the sphere of each other's attraction,
+like two bodies endowed with a repulsive power. We only stopped to
+change horses at Dijon, the capital of Burgundy, which is a venerable
+old city; but we passed part of a day at Sens, and visited a
+manufacture of that stuff we call Manchester velvet, which is here made
+and dyed to great perfection, under the direction of English workmen,
+who have been seduced from their own country. At Fontainebleau, we went
+to see the palace, or as it is called, the castle, which though an
+irregular pile of building, affords a great deal of lodging, and
+contains some very noble apartments, particularly the hall of audience,
+with the king's and queen's chambers, upon which the ornaments of
+carving and gilding are lavished with profusion rather than propriety.
+Here are some rich parterres of flower-garden, and a noble orangerie,
+which, however, we did not greatly admire, after having lived among the
+natural orange groves of Italy. Hitherto we had enjoyed fine summer
+weather, and I found myself so well, that I imagined my health was
+intirely restored: but betwixt Fontainebleau and Paris, we were
+overtaken by a black storm of rain, sleet, and hail, which seemed to
+reinstate winter in all its rigour; for the cold weather continues to
+this day. There was no resisting this attack. I caught cold
+immediately; and this was reinforced at Paris, where I stayed but three
+days. The same man, (Pascal Sellier, rue Guenegaud, fauxbourg St.
+Germain) who owned the coach that brought us from Lyons, supplied me
+with a returned berline to Boulogne, for six loui'dores, and we came
+hither by easy journeys. The first night we lodged at Breteuil, where
+we found an elegant inn, and very good accommodation. But the next we
+were forced to take up our quarters, at the house where we had formerly
+passed a very disagreeable night at Abbeville. I am now in tolerable
+lodging, where I shall remain a few weeks, merely for the sake of a
+little repose; then I shall gladly tempt that invidious straight which
+still divides you from&mdash;Yours, &amp;c.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+APPENDIX A
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+A Short List of Works, mainly on Travel in France and Italy during the
+Eighteenth Century, referred to in connection with the Introduction.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+ADDISON, JOSEPH. Remarks on Several Parts of Italy. London, 1705.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+ANCONE, ALESSANDRO D'. Saggio di una bibliografia ragionata dei Viaggi
+in Italia. 1895.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+ANDREWS, Dr. JOHN. Letters to a Young Gentleman in setting out for
+France. London, 1784.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+ARCHENHOLTZ, J. W. VON. Tableau de l'Angleterre et de l'Italie. 3 vols.
+Gotha, 1788.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+ARDOUIN-DUMAZET Voyage en France. Treizieme serie. La Provence
+Maritime. Paris, 1898.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+ASTRUC, JEAN. Memoires pour servir a l'histoire de la Faculte de
+Medicine de Montpellier, 1767.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+BABEAU, ANTOINE. Voyageurs en France. Paris, 1885.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+BALLY, L. E. Souvenirs de Nice. 1860.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+BARETTI, G. M. Account of the Manners and Customs of Italy. 2 vols.
+London, 1770.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+BASTIDE, CHARLES. John Locke. Ses theories politiques en Angleterre.
+Paris, 1907.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+BECKFORD, WILLIAM. Italy, Spain, and Portugal. By the author of
+"Vathek." London, 1834; new ed. 1840.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+BERCHTOLD, LEOPOLD. An Essay to direct the Inquiries of Patriotic
+Travellers. 2 vols. London, 1789.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+BOULOGNE-SUR-MER et la region Boulonnaise. Ouvrage offert par la ville
+aux membres de l'Association Francaise. 2 vols.  1899.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+BRETON DE LA MARTINIERE, J. Voyage en Piemont. Paris, 1803.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+BROSSES, CHARLES DE. Lettres familieres ecrites d'Italie. 1740.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+BURTON, JOHN HILL. The Scot Abroad. 2 vols. Edinburgh. 1864.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+CASANOVA DE SEINGALT, JACQUES. Memoires ecrits par lui-meme. 6 vols.
+Bruxelles, 1879.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+CLEMENT, PIERRE. L'Italie en 1671. Paris, 1867. 12mo.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+COOTE'S NEW GEOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 2 vols., folio, 1739.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+CRAIG, G. DUNCAN. Mie jour; or Provencal Legend, Life, Language, and
+Literature. London, 1877.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+DAVIS, Dr. I. B. Ancient and Modern History of Nice. London, 1807.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+DEJOB, C. Madame de Stael et l'Italie. Paris, 1890.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+DEMPSTER, C. L. H. The Maritime Alps and their Sea-Board. London, 1885.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+DORAN, DR. JOHN. Mann and Manners at the Court of Florence. London,
+1876.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+DRAMARD, E. Bibliographie du Boulonnais, Calaisis, etc. Paris, 1869.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+DUTENS, L. Itineraire des Routes. First edition, 1775.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+EVELYN, JOHN. Diary, edited by H. B. Wheatley. 4 vols. London, 1879.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+FERBER, G. G. Travels through Italy, translated by R. E. Raspe. London,
+1776.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+FODERE, FRANCOIS EMILE. Voyage aux Alpes Maritimes. 2 vols. Paris, 1821.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+FORSYTH, JOSEPH. Remarks on Antiquities, Arts, and Letters, during an
+Excursion in Italy in the year 1802 and 1803. London, 1812; 4th
+Edition, 1835.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+GARDNER, EDMUND G. The Story of Florence. London, 1900.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+GERMAIN, M. A. Histoire de la Commune de Montpellier. 3 vols.
+Montpellier, 1853.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+GIOFFREDO, PIETRO. Storia delle Alpi Marittime . . . libri xxvi. Ed.
+Gazzera. 1836.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+GOETHE. Autobiography, Tour in Italy, Miscellaneous Travels, and
+Wilhelm Meister's Travels (Bohn).
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+GROSLEY, PIERRE JEAN. Nouveaux Memoires sur l'Italie. London, 1764. New
+Observations on Italy. Translated by Thomas Nugent. 1769.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+HARE, AUGUSTUS J. C. The Rivieras. 1897.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+HILLARD, G. S. Six Months in Italy. Boston, 1853; 7th edition, 1863.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+JEFFERYS, THOMAS. Description of the Maritime Parts of France. With
+Maps. 1761.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+JOANNE, ADOLPHE. Provence, Alpes Maritimes. Paris, 1881 (Bibliog., p.
+xxvii).
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+JONES (of Nayland), WILLIAM. Observations in a Journey to Paris.
+London, 1777.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+KOTZEBUE, A. F. F. VON. Travels through Italy in 1804 and 1805. 4 vols.
+London, 1807.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+LALANDE, J. J. DE. Voyage en Italie. 6 vols. 12mo. 1768.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+LEE, EDWIN. Nice et son climat. Paris, 1863.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+LENOTRE, G. Paris revolutionnaire. Paris, 1895.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+LENTHERIC, CHARLES. La Provence Maritime, ancienne et moderne. Paris,
+1880. Les voies antiques de la Region du Rhone. Avignon, 1882.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+LUCHAIRE, A. Hist. des Instit. Monarchiques de la France. 2 vols. 1891.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+MAUGHAM, H. N. The Book of Italian Travel. London, 1903.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+MERCIER, M. New Pictures of Paris. London, 1800.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+METRIVIER, H. Monaco et ses Princes. 2 vols. 1862.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+MILLINGEN, J. G. Sketches of Ancient and Modern Boulogne. London, 1826.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+MONTAIGNE, MICHEL DE. Journal du Voyage en Italie (Querlon). Rome, 1774.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+MONTESQUIEU, CHARLES DE SECONDAT, BARON DE. Voyages. Bordeaux, 1894.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+MONTFAUCON. Travels of the Learned Dr. Montfaucon from Paris through
+Italy. London, 1712.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+MOORE, DR. JOHN. A View of Society and Manners in France (2 vols.,
+1779), and in Italy (2 vols., 1781)
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+NASH, JAMES. Guide to Nice, 1884.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+NORTHALL, JOHN. Travels through Italy. London, 1766.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+NUGENT, THOMAS. The Grand Tour. 3rd edition. 4 vols. 1778.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+PALLIARI, LEA. Notices historiques sur le comte et la ville de Nice.
+Nice, 1875.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+PETHERICK, E, A. Catalogue of the York Gate Library. An Index to the
+Literature of Geography. London, 1881.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+PIOZZI, HESTER LYNCH. Observations and Reflections made in the course
+of a Journey through France, Italy, and Germany. In 2 vols. London,
+1789.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+RAE, JOHN. Life of Adam Smith. London, 1885.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+RICHARD, L'ABBE. Description historique et critique de l'Italie. 6
+vols. Paris, 1768.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+RICHARDERIE, BOUCHER DE LA. Bibliotheque des voyages. Paris, 1808.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+RIGBY, DR. Letters from France in 1789, edited by Lady Eastlake.
+London, 1880.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+ROSE, WILLIAM STEWART. Letters from the North of Italy to Henry Hallam.
+2 vols. 1819.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+ROUX, JOSEPH. Statistique des Alpes Maritimes. 2 vols. 1863.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+RUFFINI, GIOVANNI, D. Doctor Antonio; a Tale. Paris, 1855.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+SAYOUS, A. Le Dix-huitieme siecle a l'etranger. 2 vols. Paris, 1861.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+SECCOMBE, THOMAS. Smollett's Travels, edited with bibliographical note,
+etc. By Thomas Seccombe (Works, Constable's Edition, vol. xi.). 1900.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+SHARP, SAMUEL. Letters from Italy. London, 1769.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+SHERLOCK, MARTIN. Letters from an English Traveller. (New English
+version.) 2 vols. 1802.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+SMOLLETT, T. Travels through France and Italy. 2 vols. London, 1766.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+SPALDING, WILLIAM. Italy and the Italian Islands. 3 vols. London, 1841.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+STAEL, MME. DE. Corinne, ou l'Italie. 1807.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+STARKE, MARIANA. Letters from Italy, 1792-1798. 9 vols. 1800. Travels
+on the Continent for the use of Travellers. 1800, 1820, 1824, etc.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+STENDHAL. Rome, Naples, and Florence, in 1817. London, 1818.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+STERNE, LAURENCE. A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy. By
+Mr. Yorick. 2 vols. London, 1768.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+STOLBERZ, COUNT F. L. ZU. Travels through Germany, Switzerland, Italy,
+etc. Translated by Thomas Holcroft. 1796.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+TAINE, HENRI. Voyage en Italie. 1866.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+TALBOT, SIR R. Letters on the French Nation. London, 2 vols.1771, 12mo.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+TEYSSEIRE, T. Monographie sur le climat de Nice. 1881.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+THICKNESSE, PHILIP. Useful Hints to those who make the Tour of France
+in a Series of Letters. London, 1768. A year's Journey through France,
+etc. 2, vols. 1777.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+TISSERAND, E. Chronique de Provence . . . de la cite de Nice, etc. 2
+vols. Nice, 1862.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+TWINING FAMILY PAPERS. London, 1887.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+VIOLLET, PAUL. Hist. des Instit. polit. et administratifs de la France.
+2 vols. Paris, 1890-98.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+WHATLEY, STEPHEN. The Travels and Adventures of J. Massey. Translated
+from the French. 1743.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+WILLIAMS, C. THEODORE. The Climate of the South of France. 1869.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+WINCKELMANN, J. J. Lettres familieres. Amsterdam, 1781. Reflections on
+the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks. Translated by H. Fuseli.
+London, 1765. Voyage en Italie de J. J. Barthelemy . . . avec des
+morceaux inedits de Winckelmann. 1801.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+YOUNG, ARTHUR. Travels in France during 1787, 1788, 1789, edited by M.
+Betham-Edwards. 1889.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+YOUNG, EDWARD. Sa vie et ses oeuvres, par W. Thomas. Paris, 1901.
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+APPENDIX B
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Short Notes on one or two unfamiliar Words which Smollett helped to
+domesticate in England.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Berline. Swift and Chesterfield both use this for a heavy coach. The
+most famous berline was that used in the flight to Varennes. The name
+came from Brandenburg in the time of Frederick William.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Bize. Smollett's spelling of bise&mdash;the cutting N.N.E. wind which makes
+Geneva so beautiful, but intolerable in the winter.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Brasiere=brasero. A tray for hot charcoal used for warming rooms at
+Nice. Smollett practically introduced this word. Dried olives were
+often used as fuel.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Calesse, calash, caleche. A low two-wheeled carriage of light
+construction, with a movable folding hood; hence applied to a hood
+bonnet as in Mrs. Gaskell's Cranford.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Cassine. Latin casa, cassa, cassina; the Italian cassina, A small
+detached house in the fields, often whitewashed and of mean appearance.
+Smollett uses the word as an equivalent for summer cottage. Cf. bastide
+as used by Dumas. Cabane has practically replaced cassine in modern
+French. See Letter XXIV.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Cambiatura. The system of changing chaises every post, common in
+England, but unusual abroad except in Tuscany.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Cicisbeo. The word is used by Lady Mary Montagu in her Letters (1718)
+as cecisbeo. Smollett's best account is in Letter XVII. See
+Introduction, p. xliii.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Conversazione. Gray uses the word for assembly in 1710, but Smollett, I
+believe, is about the first Englishman to define it properly.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Corinth. This was still used as a variant of currant, though adherence
+to it was probably rather pedantic on Smollett's part (cf. his use of
+"hough" for hoe). Boswell uses the modern form.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Corridore. This word was used by Evelyn, and the correct modern
+spelling given by Johnson in 1753; but Smollett as often adheres to the
+old form.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Douche. Italian doccia. Smollett is perhaps the first writer to explain
+the word and assign to it the now familiar French form (Letter XL).
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Feluca. An Arab word to denote a coasting boat, oar or sail propelled.
+Nelson and Marryat write felucca. It was large enough to accommodate a
+post-chaise (Letter XXV).
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Gabelle. Supposed to be derived from the Arabic kabala, the irksome tax
+on salt, from which few provinces in France were altogether free, swept
+away in 1790. Smollett describes the exaction in San Remo.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Garum. Used by Smollett for the rich fish sauce of the ancients,
+equivalent to a saumure, perhaps, in modern French cookery. In the
+Middle Ages the word is used both for a condiment and a beverage.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Improvisatore. A performer in the Commedia delle Arte, of which
+Smollett gives a brief admiring account in his description of Florence
+(Letter XXVII). For details of the various elements, the doti,
+generici, lazzi, etc., see Carlo Gozzi.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Liqueur. First used by Pope. "An affected, contemptible expression"
+(Johnson).
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Macaroni. "The paste called macaroni" (Letter XXVI) was seen by
+Smollett in the neighbourhood of its origin near Genoa, which city
+formed the chief market.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Maestral. An old form of mistral, the very dry wind from the N.N.W.,
+described by Smollett as the coldest he ever experienced.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Patois. See Letter XXII. ad fin.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Pietre commesse. A sort of inlaying with stones, analogous to the
+fineering of cabinets in wood (Letter XXVIII). Used by Evelyn in 1644.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Polenta. A meal ground from maize, which makes a good "pectoral"
+(Letter XXII).
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Pomi carli. The most agreeable apples Smollett tasted, stated to come
+from the marquisate of Final, sold by the Emperor Charles VI. to the
+Genoese.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Preniac. A small white wine, mentioned in Letter IV., from Boulogne, as
+agreeable and very cheap.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Seafarot boots. Jack-boots or wading boots, worn by a Marquis of Savoy,
+and removed by means of a tug-of-war team and a rope coiled round the
+heel (see Letter XXVIII).
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Sporcherie. With respect to delicacy and decorum you may peruse Dean
+Swift's description of the Yahoos, and then you will have some idea of
+the sporcherie that distinguishes the gallantry of Nice (Letter XVII).
+Ital. sporcheria, sporcizia.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Strappado or corda. Performed by hoisting the criminal by his hands
+tied behind his back and dropping him suddenly "with incredible pain"
+(Letter XX). See Introduction, p. xliv, and Christie, Etienne Dolet,
+1899, P. 231.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Tartane. From Italian tartana, Arabic taridha; a similar word being
+used in Valencia and Grand Canary for a two-wheeled open cart. One of
+the commonest craft on the Mediterranean (cf. the topo of the
+Adriatic). For different types see Larousse's Nouveau Dictionnaire.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Tip. To "tip the wink" is found in Addison's Tatler (No. 86), but "to
+tip" in the sense of to gratify is not common before Smollett, who uses
+it more than once or twice in this sense (cf. Roderick Random, chap.
+xiv. ad fin.)
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Valanches. For avalanches (dangers from to travellers, see Letter
+XXXVIII).
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Villeggiatura. An early adaptation by Smollett of the Italian word for
+country retirement (Letter XXIX).
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR>
+
+<H3 ALIGN="center">
+APPENDIX C
+</H3>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Currency of Savoy in the time of Smollett.
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+  Ten bajocci=one paolo (6d.).<BR>
+  Ten paoli=one scudo (six livres or about 5s.).<BR>
+  Two scudi=one zequin.<BR>
+  Two zequin=one louid'or.<BR>
+</P>
+
+<P CLASS="noindent">
+Afterword.&mdash;I should be ungrateful were I not to create an epilogue for
+the express purpose of thanking M. Morel, H. S Spencer  Scott, Dr.
+Norman Moore, W. P. Courtney, G. Whale, D. S. MacColl, Walter Sichel
+(there may be others), who have supplied hints for my annotations, and
+I should like further, if one might inscribe such a trifle, to inscribe
+this to that difficult critic, Mr. Arthur Vincent, who, when I told him
+I was about it, gave expression to the cordial regret that so well
+hidden a treasure of our literature (as he regarded the Travels) was to
+be "vulgarised."
+</P>
+
+<BR><BR><BR><BR>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Travels Through France and Italy, by 
+Tobias Smollett
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+Project Gutenberg's Travels Through France and Italy, by Tobias Smollett
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Travels Through France and Italy
+
+Author: Tobias Smollett
+
+Posting Date: November 28, 2009 [EBook #2311]
+Release Date: September, 2000
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRAVELS THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Martin Adamson.  HTML version by Al Haines.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Travels Through France And Italy
+
+
+By
+
+Tobias Smollett
+
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+By
+
+Thomas Seccombe
+
+I
+
+Many pens have been burnished this year of grace for the purpose of
+celebrating with befitting honour the second centenary of the birth of
+Henry Fielding; but it is more than doubtful if, when the right date
+occurs in March 1921, anything like the same alacrity will be shown to
+commemorate one who was for many years, and by such judges as Scott,
+Hazlitt, and Charles Dickens, considered Fielding's complement and
+absolute co-equal (to say the least) in literary achievement.
+Smollett's fame, indeed, seems to have fallen upon an unprosperous
+curve. The coarseness of his fortunate rival is condoned, while his is
+condemned without appeal. Smollett's value is assessed without
+discrimination at that of his least worthy productions, and the
+historical value of his work as a prime modeller of all kinds of new
+literary material is overlooked. Consider for a moment as not wholly
+unworthy of attention his mere versatility as a man of letters. Apart
+from Roderick Random and its successors, which gave him a European
+fame, he wrote a standard history, and a standard version of Don
+Quixote (both of which held their ground against all comers for over a
+century). He created both satirical and romantic types, he wrote two
+fine-spirited lyrics, and launched the best Review and most popular
+magazine of his day. He was the centre of a literary group, the founder
+to some extent of a school of professional writers, of which strange
+and novel class, after the "Great Cham of Literature," as he called Dr.
+Johnson, he affords one of the first satisfactory specimens upon a
+fairly large scale. He is, indeed, a more satisfactory, because a more
+independent, example of the new species than the Great Cham himself.
+The late Professor Beljame has shown us how the milieu was created in
+which, with no subvention, whether from a patron, a theatre, a
+political paymaster, a prosperous newspaper or a fashionable
+subscription-list, an independent writer of the mid-eighteenth century,
+provided that he was competent, could begin to extort something more
+than a bare subsistence from the reluctant coffers of the London
+booksellers. For the purpose of such a demonstration no better
+illustration could possibly be found, I think, than the career of Dr.
+Tobias Smollett. And yet, curiously enough, in the collection of
+critical monographs so well known under the generic title of "English
+Men of Letters"--a series, by the way, which includes Nathaniel
+Hawthorne and Maria Edgeworth--no room or place has hitherto been found
+for Smollett any more than for Ben Jonson, both of them, surely,
+considerable Men of Letters in the very strictest and most
+representative sense of the term. Both Jonson and Smollett were to an
+unusual extent centres of the literary life of their time; and if the
+great Ben had his tribe of imitators and adulators, Dr. Toby also had
+his clan of sub-authors, delineated for us by a master hand in the
+pages of Humphry Clinker. To make Fielding the centre-piece of a group
+reflecting the literature of his day would be an artistic
+impossibility. It would be perfectly easy in the case of Smollett, who
+was descried by critics from afar as a Colossus bestriding the summit
+of the contemporary Parnassus.
+
+Whatever there may be of truth in these observations upon the eclipse
+of a once magical name applies with double force to that one of all
+Smollett's books which has sunk farthest in popular disesteem. Modern
+editors have gone to the length of excommunicating Smollett's Travels
+altogether from the fellowship of his Collective Works.  Critic has
+followed critic in denouncing the book as that of a "splenetic"
+invalid. And yet it is a book for which all English readers have cause
+to be grateful, not only as a document on Smollett and his times, not
+only as being in a sense the raison d'etre of the Sentimental Journey,
+and the precursor in a very special sense of Humphry Clinker, but also
+as being intrinsically an uncommonly readable book, and even, I venture
+to assert, in many respects one of Smollett's best. Portions of the
+work exhibit literary quality of a high order: as a whole it represents
+a valuable because a rather uncommon view, and as a literary record of
+travel it is distinguished by a very exceptional veracity.
+
+I am not prepared to define the differentia of a really first-rate book
+of travel. Sympathy is important; but not indispensable, or Smollett
+would be ruled out of court at once. Scientific knowledge, keen
+observation, or intuitive power of discrimination go far. To enlist our
+curiosity or enthusiasm or to excite our wonder are even stronger
+recommendations. Charm of personal manner, power of will,
+anthropological interest, self-effacement in view of some great
+objects--all these qualities have made travel-books live. One knows
+pretty nearly the books that one is prepared to re-read in this
+department of literature. Marco Polo, Herodotus, a few sections in
+Hakluyt, Dampier and Defoe, the early travellers in Palestine,
+Commodore Byron's Travels, Curzon and Lane, Doughty's Arabia Deserta,
+Mungo Park, Dubois, Livingstone's Missionary Travels, something of
+Borrow (fact or fable), Hudson and Cunninghame Graham, Bent, Bates and
+Wallace, The Crossing of Greenland, Eothen, the meanderings of
+Modestine, The Path to Rome, and all, or almost all, of E. F. Knight. I
+have run through most of them at one breath, and the sum total would
+not bend a moderately stout bookshelf. How many high-sounding works on
+the other hand, are already worse than dead, or, should we say, better
+dead? The case of Smollett's Travels, there is good reason to hope, is
+only one of suspended animation.
+
+To come to surer ground, it is a fact worth noting that each of the
+four great prose masters of the third quarter of the eighteenth century
+tried his hand at a personal record of travel. Fielding came first in
+1754 with his Journal of a Voyage to Lisbon. Twelve years later was
+published Smollett's Travels through France and Italy. Then, in 1768,
+Sterne's Sentimental Journey; followed in 1775 by Johnson's Journey to
+the Hebrides. Each of the four--in which beneath the apparel of the man
+of letters we can discern respectively the characteristics of police
+magistrate, surgeon, confessor, and moralist--enjoyed a fair amount of
+popularity in its day. Fielding's Journal had perhaps the least
+immediate success of the four. Sterne's Journey unquestionably had the
+most. The tenant of "Shandy Hall," as was customary in the first heyday
+of "Anglomania," went to Paris to ratify his successes, and the
+resounding triumph of his naughtiness there, by a reflex action,
+secured the vote of London. Posterity has fully sanctioned this
+particular "judicium Paridis." The Sentimental Journey is a book sui
+generis, and in the reliable kind of popularity, which takes concrete
+form in successive reprints, it has far eclipsed its eighteenth-century
+rivals. The fine literary aroma which pervades every line of this small
+masterpiece is not the predominant characteristic of the Great Cham's
+Journey. Nevertheless, and in spite of the malignity of the "Ossianite"
+press, it fully justified the assumption of the booksellers that it
+would prove a "sound" book. It is full of sensible observations, and is
+written in Johnson's most scholarly, balanced, and dignified style. Few
+can read it without a sense of being repaid, if only by the portentous
+sentence in which the author celebrates his arrival at the shores of
+Loch Ness, where he reposes upon "a bank such as a writer of romance
+might have delighted to feign," and reflects that a "uniformity of
+barrenness can afford very little amusement to the traveller; that it
+is easy to sit at home and conceive rocks and heath and waterfalls; and
+that these journeys are useless labours, which neither impregnate the
+imagination nor enlarge the understanding." Fielding's contribution to
+geography has far less solidity and importance, but it discovers to not
+a few readers an unfeigned charm that is not to be found in the pages
+of either Sterne or Johnson. A thoughtless fragment suffices to show
+the writer in his true colours as one of the most delightful fellows in
+our literature, and to convey just unmistakably to all good men and
+true the rare and priceless sense of human fellowship.
+
+There remain the Travels through France and Italy, by T. Smollett,
+M.D., and though these may not exhibit the marmoreal glamour of
+Johnson, or the intimate fascination of Fielding, or the essential
+literary quality which permeates the subtle dialogue and artful
+vignette of Sterne, yet I shall endeavour to show, not without some
+hope of success among the fair-minded, that the Travels before us are
+fully deserving of a place, and that not the least significant, in the
+quartette.
+
+The temporary eclipse of their fame I attribute, first to the studious
+depreciation of Sterne and Walpole, and secondly to a refinement of
+snobbishness on the part of the travelling crowd, who have an uneasy
+consciousness that to listen to common sense, such as Smollett's, in
+matters of connoisseurship, is tantamount to confessing oneself a
+Galilean of the outermost court. In this connection, too, the itinerant
+divine gave the travelling doctor a very nasty fall. Meeting the latter
+at Turin, just as Smollett was about to turn his face homewards, in
+March 1765, Sterne wrote of him, in the famous Journey of 1768, thus:
+
+"The learned Smelfungus travelled from Boulogne to Paris, from Paris to
+Rome, and so on, but he set out with the spleen and jaundice, and every
+object he passed by was discoloured or distorted. He wrote an account
+of them, but 'twas nothing but the account of his miserable feelings."
+"I met Smelfungus," he wrote later on, "in the grand portico of the
+Pantheon--he was just coming out of it. ''Tis nothing but a huge
+cockpit,' said he--'I wish you had said nothing worse of the Venus de
+Medici,' replied I--for in passing through Florence, I had heard he had
+fallen foul upon the goddess, and used her worse than a common
+strumpet, without the least provocation in nature. I popp'd upon
+Smelfungus again at Turin, in his return home, and a sad tale of
+sorrowful adventures had he to tell, 'wherein he spoke of moving
+accidents by flood and field, and of the cannibals which each other
+eat, the Anthropophagi'; he had been flayed alive, and bedevil'd, and
+used worse than St. Bartholomew, at every stage he had come at. 'I'll
+tell it,' cried Smelfungus, 'to the world.' 'You had better tell it,'
+said I, 'to your physician.'"
+
+To counteract the ill effects of "spleen and jaundice" and exhibit the
+spirit of genteel humour and universal benevolence in which a man of
+sensibility encountered the discomforts of the road, the incorrigible
+parson Laurence brought out his own Sentimental Journey. Another effect
+of Smollett's book was to whet his own appetite for recording the
+adventures of the open road. So that but for Travels through France and
+Italy we might have had neither a Sentimental Journey nor a Humphry
+Clinker. If all the admirers of these two books would but bestir
+themselves and look into the matter, I am sure that Sterne's only too
+clever assault would be relegated to its proper place and assessed at
+its right value as a mere boutade. The borrowed contempt of Horace
+Walpole and the coterie of superficial dilettanti, from which
+Smollett's book has somehow never wholly recovered, could then easily
+be outflanked and the Travels might well be in reasonable expectation
+of coming by their own again.
+
+
+II
+
+In the meantime let us look a little more closely into the special and
+somewhat exceptional conditions under which the Travel Letters of
+Smollett were produced. Smollett, as we have seen, was one of the first
+professional men of all work in letters upon a considerable scale who
+subsisted entirely upon the earnings of his own pen. He had no
+extraneous means of support. He had neither patron, pension, property,
+nor endowment, inherited or acquired. Yet he took upon himself the
+burden of a large establishment, he spent money freely, and he prided
+himself upon the fact that he, Tobias Smollett, who came up to London
+without a stiver in his pocket, was in ten years' time in a position to
+enact the part of patron upon a considerable scale to the crowd of
+inferior denizens of Grub Street. Like most people whose social
+ambitions are in advance of their time, Smollett suffered considerably
+on account of these novel aspirations of his. In the present day he
+would have had his motor car and his house on Hindhead, a seat in
+Parliament and a brief from the Nation to boot as a Member for
+Humanity. Voltaire was the only figure in the eighteenth century even
+to approach such a flattering position, and he was for many years a
+refugee from his own land. Smollett was energetic and ambitious enough
+to start in rather a grand way, with a large house, a carriage,
+menservants, and the rest. His wife was a fine lady, a "Creole" beauty
+who had a small dot of her own; but, on the other hand, her income was
+very precarious, and she herself somewhat of a silly and an incapable
+in the eyes of Smollett's old Scotch friends. But to maintain such a
+position--to keep the bailiffs from the door from year's end to year's
+end--was a truly Herculean task in days when a newspaper "rate" of
+remuneration or a well-wearing copyright did not so much as exist, and
+when Reviews sweated their writers at the rate of a guinea per sheet of
+thirty-two pages. Smollett was continually having recourse to loans. He
+produced the eight (or six or seven) hundred a year he required by
+sheer hard writing, turning out his History of England, his Voltaire,
+and his Universal History by means of long spells of almost incessant
+labour at ruinous cost to his health. On the top of all this cruel
+compiling he undertook to run a Review (The Critical), a magazine (The
+British), and a weekly political organ (The Briton). A charge of
+defamation for a paragraph in the nature of what would now be
+considered a very mild and pertinent piece of public criticism against
+a faineant admiral led to imprisonment in the King's Bench Prison, plus
+a fine of L100. Then came a quarrel with an old friend, Wilkes--not the
+least vexatious result of that forlorn championship of Bute's
+government in The Briton. And finally, in part, obviously, as a
+consequence of all this nervous breakdown, a succession of severe
+catarrhs, premonitory in his case of consumption, the serious illness
+of the wife he adored, and the death of his darling, the "little Boss"
+of former years, now on the verge of womanhood. To a man of his
+extraordinarily strong affections such a series of ills was too
+overwhelming. He resolved to break up his establishment at Chelsea, and
+to seek a remedy in flight from present evils to a foreign residence.
+Dickens went to hibernate on the Riviera upon a somewhat similar
+pretext, though fortunately without the same cause, as far as his
+health was concerned.
+
+Now note another very characteristic feature of these Travel Letters.
+Smollett went abroad not for pleasure, but virtually of necessity. Not
+only were circumstances at home proving rather too much for him, but
+also, like Stevenson, he was specifically "ordered South" by his
+physicians, and he went with the deliberate intention of making as much
+money as possible out of his Travel papers. In his case he wrote long
+letters on the spot to his medical and other friends at home. When he
+got back in the summer of 1765 one of his first cares was to put the
+Letters together. It had always been his intention carefully to revise
+them for the press. But when he got back to London he found so many
+other tasks awaiting him that were so far more pressing, that this part
+of his purpose was but very imperfectly carried out. The Letters
+appeared pretty much as he wrote them. Their social and documentary
+value is thereby considerably enhanced, for they were nearly all
+written close down to the facts. The original intention had been to go
+to Montpellier, which was still, I suppose, the most popular health
+resort in Southern Europe. The peace of 1763 opened the way. And this
+brings us to another feature of distinction in regard to Smollett's
+Travels. Typical Briton, perfervid Protestant of Britain's most
+Protestant period, and insular enrage though he doubtless was, Smollett
+had knocked about the world a good deal and had also seen something of
+the continent of Europe. He was not prepared to see everything couleur
+de rose now. His was quite unlike the frame of mind of the ordinary
+holiday-seeker, who, partly from a voluntary optimism, and partly from
+the change of food and habit, the exhilaration caused by novel
+surroundings, and timidity at the unaccustomed sounds he hears in his
+ears, is determined to be pleased with everything. Very temperamental
+was Smollett, and his frame of mind at the time was that of one
+determined to be pleased with nothing. We know little enough about
+Smollett intime. Only the other day I learned that the majority of
+so-called Smollett portraits are not presentments of the novelist at
+all, but ingeniously altered plates of George Washington. An
+interesting confirmation of this is to be found in the recently
+published Letters of Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe to Robert Chambers.
+"Smollett wore black cloaths--a tall man--and extreamly handsome. No
+picture of him is known to be extant--all that have been foisted on the
+public as such his relations disclaim--this I know from my aunt Mrs.
+Smollett, who was the wife of his nephew, and resided with him at
+Bath." But one thing we do know, and in these same letters, if
+confirmation had been needed, we observe the statement repeated,
+namely, that Smollett was very peevish. A sardonic, satirical, and
+indeed decidedly gloomy mood or temper had become so habitual in him as
+to transform the man. Originally gay and debonnair, his native
+character had been so overlaid that when he first returned to Scotland
+in 1755 his own mother could not recognise him until he "gave over
+glooming" and put on his old bright smile. [A pleasant story of the
+Doctor's mother is given in the same Letters to R. Chambers (1904). She
+is described as an ill-natured-looking woman with a high nose, but not
+a bad temper, and very fond of the cards. One evening an Edinburgh
+bailie (who was a tallow chandler) paid her a visit. "Come awa',
+bailie," said she, "and tak' a trick at the cards." "Troth madam, I hae
+nae siller!" "Then let us play for a pound of candles."] His was
+certainly a nervous, irritable, and rather censorious temper. Like Mr.
+Brattle, in The Vicar of Bulhampton, he was thinking always of the evil
+things that had been done to him. With the pawky and philosophic Scots
+of his own day (Robertson, Hume, Adam Smith, and "Jupiter" Carlyle) he
+had little in common, but with the sour and mistrustful James Mill or
+the cross and querulous Carlyle of a later date he had, it seems to me,
+a good deal. What, however, we attribute in their case to bile or
+liver, a consecrated usage prescribes that we must, in the case of
+Smollett, accredit more particularly to the spleen. Whether dyspeptic
+or "splenetic," this was not the sort of man to see things through a
+veil of pleasant self-generated illusion. He felt under no obligation
+whatever to regard the Grand Tour as a privilege of social distinction,
+or its discomforts as things to be discreetly ignored in relating his
+experience to the stay-at-home public. He was not the sort of man that
+the Tourist Agencies of to-day would select to frame their
+advertisements. As an advocatus diaboli on the subject of Travel he
+would have done well enough. And yet we must not infer that the magic
+of travel is altogether eliminated from his pages. This is by no means
+the case: witness his intense enthusiasm at Nimes, on sight of the
+Maison Carree or the Pont du Gard; the passage describing his entry
+into the Eternal City; [Ours "was the road by which so many heroes
+returned with conquest to their country, by which so many kings were
+led captive to Rome, and by which the ambassadors of so many kingdoms
+and States approached the seat of Empire, to deprecate the wrath, to
+sollicit the friendship, or sue for the protection of the Roman
+people."] or the enviable account of the alfresco meals which the party
+discussed in their coach as described in Letter VIII.
+
+As to whether Smollett and his party of five were exceptionally
+unfortunate in their road-faring experiences must be left an open
+question at the tribunal of public opinion. In cold blood, in one of
+his later letters, he summarised his Continental experience after this
+wise: inns, cold, damp, dark, dismal, dirty; landlords equally
+disobliging and rapacious; servants awkward, sluttish, and slothful;
+postillions lazy, lounging, greedy, and impertinent. With this last
+class of delinquents after much experience he was bound to admit the
+following dilemma:--If you chide them for lingering, they will contrive
+to delay you the longer. If you chastise them with sword, cane, cudgel,
+or horsewhip (he defines the correctives, you may perceive, but leaves
+the expletives to our imagination) they will either disappear entirely,
+and leave you without resource, or they will find means to take
+vengeance by overturning your carriage. The only course remaining would
+be to allow oneself to become the dupe of imposition by tipping the
+postillions an amount slightly in excess of the authorized
+gratification. He admits that in England once, between the Devizes and
+Bristol, he found this plan productive of the happiest results. It was
+unfortunate that, upon this occasion, the lack of means or slenderness
+of margin for incidental expenses should have debarred him from having
+recourse to a similar expedient. For threepence a post more, as
+Smollett himself avows, he would probably have performed the journey
+with much greater pleasure and satisfaction. But the situation is
+instructive. It reveals to us the disadvantage under which the novelist
+was continually labouring, that of appearing to travel as an English
+Milord, en grand seigneur, and yet having at every point to do it "on
+the cheap." He avoided the common conveyance or diligence, and insisted
+on travelling post and in a berline; but he could not bring himself to
+exceed the five-sou pourboire for the postillions. He would have meat
+upon maigre days, yet objected to paying double for it. He held aloof
+from the thirty-sou table d'hote, and would have been content to pay
+three francs a head for a dinner a part, but his worst passions were
+roused when he was asked to pay not three, but four. Now Smollett
+himself was acutely conscious of the false position. He was by nature
+anything but a curmudgeon. On the contrary, he was, if I interpret him
+at all aright, a high-minded, open-hearted, generous type of man. Like
+a majority, perhaps, of the really open-handed he shared one trait with
+the closefisted and even with the very mean rich. He would rather give
+away a crown than be cheated of a farthing. Smollett himself had little
+of the traditional Scottish thriftiness about him, but the people among
+whom he was going--the Languedocians and Ligurians--were notorious for
+their nearness in money matters. The result of all this could hardly
+fail to exacerbate Smollett's mood and to aggravate the testiness which
+was due primarily to the bitterness of his struggle with the world,
+and, secondarily, to the complaints which that struggle engendered. One
+capital consequence, however, and one which specially concerns us, was
+that we get this unrivalled picture of the seamy side of foreign
+travel--a side rarely presented with anything like Smollett's skill to
+the student of the grand siecle of the Grand Tour. The rubs, the rods,
+the crosses of the road could, in fact, hardly be presented to us more
+graphically or magisterially than they are in some of these chapters.
+Like Prior, Fielding, Shenstone, and Dickens, Smollett was a
+connoisseur in inns and innkeepers. He knew good food and he knew good
+value, and he had a mighty keen eye for a rogue. There may, it is true,
+have been something in his manner which provoked them to exhibit their
+worst side to him. It is a common fate with angry men. The trials to
+which he was subjected were momentarily very severe, but, as we shall
+see in the event, they proved a highly salutary discipline to him.
+
+To sum up, then, Smollett's Travels were written hastily and vigorously
+by an expert man of letters. They were written ad vivum, as it were,
+not from worked-up notes or embellished recollections. They were
+written expressly for money down. They were written rather en noir than
+couleur de rose by an experienced, and, we might almost perhaps say, a
+disillusioned traveller, and not by a naif or a niais. The statement
+that they were to a certain extent the work of an invalid is, of
+course, true, and explains much. The majority of his correspondents
+were of the medical profession, all of them were members of a group
+with whom he was very intimate, and the letters were by his special
+direction to be passed round among them. [We do not know precisely who
+all these correspondents of Smollett were, but most of them were
+evidently doctors and among them, without a doubt, John Armstrong,
+William Hunter, George Macaulay, and above all John Moore, himself an
+authority on European travel, Governor on the Grand Tour of the Duke of
+Hamilton (Son of "the beautiful Duchess"), author of Zeluco, and father
+of the famous soldier. Smollett's old chum, Dr. W. Smellie, died 5th
+March 1763.] In the circumstances (bearing in mind that it was his
+original intention to prune the letters considerably before
+publication) it was only natural that he should say a good deal about
+the state of his health. His letters would have been unsatisfying to
+these good people had he not referred frequently and at some length to
+his spirits and to his symptoms, an improvement in which was the
+primary object of his journey and his two years' sojourn in the South.
+Readers who linger over the diary of Fielding's dropsy and Mrs.
+Fielding's toothache are inconsistent in denouncing the luxury of
+detail with which Smollett discusses the matter of his imposthume.
+
+What I claim for the present work is that, in the first place, to any
+one interested in Smollett's personality it supplies an unrivalled key.
+It is, moreover, the work of a scholar, an observer of human nature,
+and, by election, a satirist of no mean order. It gives us some
+characteristic social vignettes, some portraits of the road of an
+unsurpassed freshness and clearness. It contains some historical and
+geographical observations worthy of one of the shrewdest and most
+sagacious publicists of the day. It is interesting to the etymologist
+for the important share it has taken in naturalising useful foreign
+words into our speech. It includes (as we shall have occasion to
+observe) a respectable quantum of wisdom fit to become proverbial, and
+several passages of admirable literary quality. In point of date
+(1763-65) it is fortunate, for the writer just escaped being one of a
+crowd. On the whole, I maintain that it is more than equal in interest
+to the Journey to the Hebrides, and that it deserves a very
+considerable proportion of the praise that has hitherto been lavished
+too indiscriminately upon the Voyage to Lisbon. On the force of this
+claim the reader is invited to constitute himself judge after a fair
+perusal of the following pages. I shall attempt only to point the way
+to a satisfactory verdict, no longer in the spirit of an advocate, but
+by means of a few illustrations and, more occasionally, amplifications
+of what Smollett has to tell us.
+
+
+III
+
+As was the case with Fielding many years earlier, Smollett was almost
+broken down with sedentary toil, when early in June 1763 with his wife,
+two young ladies ("the two girls") to whom she acted as chaperon, and a
+faithful servant of twelve years' standing, who in the spirit of a
+Scots retainer of the olden time refused to leave his master (a good
+testimonial this, by the way, to a temper usually accredited with such
+a splenetic sourness), he crossed the straits of Dover to see what a
+change of climate and surroundings could do for him.
+
+On other grounds than those of health he was glad to shake the dust of
+Britain from his feet. He speaks himself of being traduced by malice,
+persecuted by faction, abandoned by false patrons, complaints which
+will remind the reader, perhaps, of George Borrow's "Jeremiad," to the
+effect that he had been beslavered by the venomous foam of every
+sycophantic lacquey and unscrupulous renegade in the three kingdoms.
+But Smollett's griefs were more serious than what an unkind reviewer
+could inflict. He had been fined and imprisoned for defamation. He had
+been grossly caricatured as a creature of Bute, the North British
+favourite of George III., whose tenure of the premiership occasioned
+riots and almost excited a revolution in the metropolis. Yet after
+incurring all this unpopularity at a time when the populace of London
+was more inflamed against Scotsmen than it has ever been before or
+since, and having laboured severely at a paper in the ministerial
+interest and thereby aroused the enmity of his old friend John Wilkes,
+Smollett had been unceremoniously thrown over by his own chief, Lord
+Bute, on the ground that his paper did more to invite attack than to
+repel it. Lastly, he and his wife had suffered a cruel bereavement in
+the loss of their only child, and it was partly to supply a change from
+the scene of this abiding sorrow, that the present journey was
+undertaken.
+
+The first stages and incidents of the expedition were not exactly
+propitious. The Dover Road was a byword for its charges; the Via Alba
+might have been paved with the silver wrung from reluctant and
+indignant passengers. Smollett characterized the chambers as cold and
+comfortless, the beds as "paultry" (with "frowsy," a favourite word),
+the cookery as execrable, wine poison, attendance bad, publicans
+insolent, and bills extortion, concluding with the grand climax that
+there was not a drop of tolerable malt liquor to be had from London to
+Dover. Smollett finds a good deal to be said for the designation of "a
+den of thieves" as applied to that famous port (where, as a German lady
+of much later date once complained, they "boot ze Bible in ze bedroom,
+but ze devil in ze bill"), and he grizzles lamentably over the seven
+guineas, apart from extras, which he had to pay for transport in a
+Folkestone cutter to Boulogne Mouth.
+
+Having once arrived at Boulogne, Smollett settled down regularly to his
+work as descriptive reporter, and the letters that he wrote to his
+friendly circle at home fall naturally into four groups. The first
+Letters from II. to V. describe with Hogarthian point, prejudice and
+pungency, the town and people of Boulogne. The second group, Letters
+VI.-XII., deal with the journey from Boulogne to Nice by way of Paris,
+Lyon, Nimes, and Montpellier. The third group, Letters XIII.-XXIV., is
+devoted to a more detailed and particular delineation of Nice and the
+Nicois. The fourth, Letters XXV.-XLI., describes the Italian expedition
+and the return journey to Boulogne en route for England, where the
+party arrive safe home in July 1765.
+
+Smollett's account of Boulogne is excellent reading, it forms an apt
+introduction to the narrative of his journey, it familiarises us with
+the milieu, and reveals to us in Smollett a man of experience who is
+both resolute and capable of getting below the surface of things. An
+English possession for a short period in the reign of the Great Harry,
+Boulogne has rarely been less in touch with England than it was at the
+time of Smollett's visit. Even then, however, there were three small
+colonies, respectively, of English nuns, English Jesuits, and English
+Jacobites. Apart from these and the English girls in French seminaries
+it was estimated ten years after Smollett's sojourn there that there
+were twenty-four English families in residence. The locality has of
+course always been a haunting place for the wandering tribes of
+English. Many well-known men have lived or died here both native and
+English. Adam Smith must have been there very soon after Smollett. So
+must Dr. John Moore and Charles Churchill, one of the enemies provoked
+by the Briton, who went to Boulogne to meet his friend Wilkes and died
+there in 1764. Philip Thicknesse the traveller and friend of
+Gainsborough died there in 1770. After long search for a place to end
+his days in Thomas Campbell bought a house in Boulogne and died there,
+a few months later, in 1844. The house is still to be seen, Rue St.
+Jean, within the old walls; it has undergone no change, and in 1900 a
+marble tablet was put up to record the fact that Campbell lived and
+died there. The other founder of the University of London, Brougham, by
+a singular coincidence was also closely associated with Boulogne.
+[Among the occupants of the English cemetery will be found the names of
+Sir Harris Nicolas, Basil Montagu, Smithson Pennant, Sir William
+Ouseley, Sir William Hamilton, and Sir C. M. Carmichael. And among
+other literary celebrities connected with the place, apart from Dickens
+(who gave his impressions of the place in Household Words, November
+1854) we should include in a brief list, Charles Lever, Horace Smith,
+Wilkie Collins, Mrs. Henry Wood, Professor York Powell, the Marquis of
+Steyne (Lord Seymour), Mrs. Jordan, Clark Russell, and Sir Conan Doyle.
+There are also memorable associations with Lola Montes, Heinrich Heine,
+Becky Sharpe, and above all Colonel Newcome. My first care in the place
+was to discover the rampart where the Colonel used to parade with
+little Clive. Among the native luminaries are Daunou, Duchenne de
+Boulogne, one of the foremost physiologists of the last century, an
+immediate predecessor of Charcot in knowledge of the nervous system,
+Aug. Mariette, the Egyptologist, Aug. Angellier, the biographer of
+Burns, Sainte-Beuve, Prof. Morel, and "credibly," Godfrey de Bouillon,
+of whom Charles Lamb wrote "poor old Godfrey, he must be getting very
+old now." The great Lesage died here in 1747.] The antiquaries still
+dispute about Gessoriacum, Godfrey de Bouillon, and Charlemagne's Tour.
+Smollett is only fair in justifying for the town, the older portions of
+which have a strong medieval suggestion, a standard of comparison
+slightly more distinguished than Wapping. He never lets us forget that
+he is a scholar of antiquity, a man of education and a speculative
+philosopher. Hence his references to Celsus and Hippocrates and his
+ingenious etymologies of wheatear and samphire, more ingenious in the
+second case than sound. Smollett's field of observation had been wide
+and his fund of exact information was unusually large. At Edinburgh he
+had studied medicine under Monro and John Gordon, in company with such
+able and distinguished men as William Hunter, Cullen, Pitcairn,
+Gregory, and Armstrong--and the two last mentioned were among his
+present correspondents. As naval surgeon at Carthagena he had undergone
+experience such as few literary men can claim, and subsequently as
+compiler, reviewer, party journalist, historian, translator,
+statistician, and lexicographer, he had gained an amount of
+miscellaneous information such as falls to the lot of very few minds of
+his order of intelligence. He had recently directed the compilation of
+a large Universal Geography or Gazetteer, the Carton or Vivien de St.
+Martin if those days--hence his glib references to the manners and
+customs of Laplanders, Caffres, Kamskatchans, and other recondite types
+of breeding. His imaginative faculty was under the control of an
+exceptionally strong and retentive memory. One may venture to say,
+indeed, without danger of exaggeration that his testimonials as regards
+habitual accuracy of statement have seldom been exceeded. Despite the
+doctor's unflattering portraits of Frenchmen, M. Babeau admits that his
+book is one written by an observer of facts, and a man whose
+statements, whenever they can be tested, are for the most part
+"singularly exact." Mr. W. J. Prouse, whose knowledge of the Riviera
+district is perhaps almost unequalled out of France, makes this very
+remarkable statement. "After reading all that has been written by very
+clever people about Nice in modern times, one would probably find that
+for exact precision of statement, Smollett was still the most
+trustworthy guide," a view which is strikingly borne out by Mr. E.
+Schuyler, who further points out Smollett's shrewd foresight in regard
+to the possibilities of the Cornice road, and of Cannes and San Remo as
+sanatoria." Frankly there is nothing to be seen which he does not
+recognise." And even higher testimonies have been paid to Smollett's
+topographical accuracy by recent historians of Nice and its
+neighbourhood.
+
+The value which Smollett put upon accuracy in the smallest matters of
+detail is evinced by the corrections which he made in the margin of a
+copy of the 1766 edition of the Travels. These corrections, which are
+all in Smollett's own and unmistakably neat handwriting, may be divided
+into four categories. In the first place come a number of verbal
+emendations. Phrases are turned, inverted and improved by the skilful
+"twist of the pen" which becomes a second nature to the trained
+corrector of proofs; there are moreover a few topographical corrigenda,
+suggested by an improved knowledge of the localities, mostly in the
+neighbourhood of Pisa and Leghorn, where there is no doubt that these
+corrections were made upon the occasion of Smollett's second visit to
+Italy in 1770. [Some not unimportant errata were overlooked. Thus
+Smollett's representation of the droit d'aubaine as a monstrous and
+intolerable grievance is of course an exaggeration. (See Sentimental
+Journey; J. Hill Burton, The Scot Abroad, 1881, p. 135; and Luchaire,
+Instit. de France.) On his homeward journey he indicates that he
+travelled from Beaune to Chalons and so by way of Auxerre to Dijon. The
+right order is Chalons, Beaune, Dijon, Auxerre. As further examples of
+the zeal with which Smollett regarded exactitude in the record of facts
+we have his diurnal register of weather during his stay at Nice and the
+picture of him scrupulously measuring the ruins at Cimiez with
+packthread.] In the second place come a number of English renderings of
+the citations from Latin, French, and Italian authors. Most of these
+from the Latin are examples of Smollett's own skill in English verse
+making. Thirdly come one or two significant admissions of overboldness
+in matters of criticism, as where he retracts his censure of Raphael's
+Parnassus in Letter XXXIII. Fourthly, and these are of the greatest
+importance, come some very interesting additional notes upon the
+buildings of Pisa, upon Sir John Hawkwood's tomb at Florence, and upon
+the congenial though recondite subject of antique Roman hygiene. [Cf.
+the Dinner in the manner of the Ancients in Peregrine Pickle, (xliv.)
+and Letters IX. to XL in Humphry Clinker.]
+
+After Smollett's death his books were for the most part sold for the
+benefit of his widow. No use was made of his corrigenda. For twenty
+years or so the Travels were esteemed and referred to, but as time went
+on, owing to the sneers of the fine gentlemen of letters, such as
+Walpole and Sterne, they were by degrees disparaged and fell more or
+less into neglect. They were reprinted, it is true, either in
+collective editions of Smollett or in various collections of travels;
+[For instance in Baldwin's edition of 1778; in the 17th vol. of Mayor's
+Collection of Voyages and Travels, published by Richard Phillips in
+twenty-eight vols., 1809; and in an abbreviated form in John Hamilton
+Moore's New and Complete Collection of Voyages and Travels (folio, Vol.
+11. 938-970).] but they were not edited with any care, and as is
+inevitable in such cases errors crept in, blunders were repeated, and
+the text slightly but gradually deteriorated. In the last century
+Smollett's own copy of the Travels bearing the manuscript corrections
+that he had made in 1770, was discovered in the possession of the
+Telfer family and eventually came into the British Museum. The second
+volume, which affords admirable specimens of Smollett's neatly written
+marginalia, has been exhibited in a show-case in the King's Library.
+
+The corrections that Smollett purposed to make in the Travels are now
+for the second time embodied in a printed edition of the text. At the
+same time the text has been collated with the original edition of 1766,
+and the whole has been carefully revised. The old spelling has been, as
+far as possible, restored. Smollett was punctilious in such matters,
+and what with his histories, his translations, his periodicals, and his
+other compilations, he probably revised more proof-matter for press
+than any other writer of his time. His practice as regards orthography
+is, therefore, of some interest as representing what was in all
+probability deemed to be the most enlightened convention of the day.
+
+To return now to the Doctor's immediate contemplation of Boulogne, a
+city described in the Itineraries as containing rien de remarquable.
+The story of the Capuchin [On page 21. A Capuchin of the same stripe is
+in Pickle, ch. Ill. sq.] is very racy of Smollett, while the vignette
+of the shepherd at the beginning of Letter V. affords a first-rate
+illustration of his terseness. Appreciate the keen and minute
+observation concentrated into the pages that follow, [Especially on p.
+34 to p. 40.] commencing with the shrewd and economic remarks upon
+smuggling, and ending with the lively description of a Boulonnais
+banquet, very amusing, very French, very life-like, and very
+Smollettian. In Letter V. the Doctor again is very much himself. A
+little provocation and he bristles and stabs all round. He mounts the
+hygienic horse and proceeds from the lack of implements of cleanliness
+to the lack of common decency, and "high flavoured instances, at which
+even a native of Edinburgh would stop his nose." [This recalls
+Johnson's first walk up the High Street, Edinburgh, on Bozzy's arm. "It
+was a dusky night: I could not prevent his being assailed by the
+evening effluvia of Edinburgh. . . . As we marched along he grumbled in
+my ear, 'I smell you in the dark!'"] And then lest the southrons should
+escape we have a reference to the "beastly habit of drinking from a
+tankard in which perhaps a dozen filthy mouths have slabbered as is the
+custom in England." With all his coarsenesses this blunt Scot was a
+pioneer and fugleman of the niceties. Between times most nations are
+gibbetted in this slashing epistle. The ingenious boasting of the
+French is well hit off in the observation of the chevalier that the
+English doubtless drank every day to the health of the Marquise de
+Pompadour. The implication reminded Smollett of a narrow escape from a
+duello (an institution he reprobates with the utmost trenchancy in this
+book) at Ghent in 1749 with a Frenchman who affirmed that Marlborough's
+battles were purposely lost by the French generals in order to mortify
+Mme. de Maintenon. Two incidents of some importance to Smollett
+occurred during the three months' sojourn at Boulogne. Through the
+intervention of the English Ambassador at Paris (the Earl of Hertford)
+he got back his books, which had been impounded by the Customs as
+likely to contain matter prejudicial to the state or religion of
+France, and had them sent south by shipboard to Bordeaux. Secondly, he
+encountered General Paterson, a friendly Scot in the Sardinian service,
+who confirmed what an English physician had told Smollett to the effect
+that the climate of Nice was infinitely preferable to that of
+Montpellier "with respect to disorders of the breast." Smollett now
+hires a berline and four horses for fourteen louis, and sets out with
+rather a heavy heart for Paris. It is problematic, he assures his good
+friend Dr. Moore, whether he will ever return. "My health is very
+precarious."
+
+
+IV
+
+The rapid journey to Paris by way of Montreuil, Amiens, and Clermont,
+about one hundred and fifty-six miles from Boulogne, the last
+thirty-six over a paved road, was favourable to superficial observation
+and the normal corollary of epigram. Smollett was much impressed by the
+mortifying indifference of the French innkeepers to their clients. "It
+is a very odd contrast between France and England. In the former all
+the people are complaisant but the publicans; in the latter there is
+hardly any complaisance but among the publicans." [In regard to two
+exceptional instances of politeness on the part of innkeepers, Smollett
+attributes one case to dementia, the other, at Lerici, to mental shock,
+caused by a recent earthquake.] Idleness and dissipation confront the
+traveller, not such a good judge, perhaps, as was Arthur Young
+four-and-twenty years later. "Every object seems to have shrunk in its
+dimensions since I was last in Paris." Smollett was an older man by
+fifteen years since he visited the French capital in the first flush of
+his success as an author. The dirt and gloom of French apartments, even
+at Versailles, offend his English standard of comfort. "After all, it
+is in England only where we must look for cheerful apartments, gay
+furniture, neatness, and convenience. There is a strange incongruity in
+the French genius. With all their volatility, prattle, and fondness for
+bons mots they delight in a species of drawling, melancholy, church
+music. Their most favourite dramatic pieces are almost without
+incident, and the dialogue of their comedies consists of moral insipid
+apophthegms, entirely destitute of wit or repartee." While amusing
+himself with the sights of Paris, Smollett drew up that caustic
+delineation of the French character which as a study in calculated
+depreciation has rarely been surpassed. He conceives the Frenchman
+entirely as a petit-maitre, and his view, though far removed from
+Chesterfield's, is not incompatible with that of many of his cleverest
+contemporaries, including Sterne. He conceives of the typical Frenchman
+as regulating his life in accordance with the claims of impertinent
+curiosity and foppery, gallantry and gluttony. Thus:
+
+"If a Frenchman is capable of real friendship, it must certainly be the
+most disagreeable present he can possibly make to a man of a true
+English character. You know, madam, we are naturally taciturn, soon
+tired of impertinence, and much subject to fits of disgust. Your French
+friend intrudes upon you at all hours; he stuns you with his loquacity;
+he teases you with impertinent questions about your domestic and
+private affairs; he attempts to meddle in all your concerns, and forces
+his advice upon you with the most unwearied importunity; he asks the
+price of everything you wear, and, so sure as you tell him, undervalues
+it without hesitation; he affirms it is in a bad taste, ill contrived,
+ill made; that you have been imposed upon both with respect to the
+fashion and the price; that the marquis of this, or the countess of
+that, has one that is perfectly elegant, quite in the bon ton, and yet
+it cost her little more than you gave for a thing that nobody would
+wear.
+
+"If a Frenchman is admitted into your family, and distinguished by
+repeated marks of your friendship and regard, the first return he makes
+for your civilities is to make love to your wife, if she is handsome;
+if not, to your sister, or daughter, or niece. If he suffers a repulse
+from your wife, or attempts in vain to debauch your sister, or your
+daughter, or your niece, he will, rather than not play the traitor with
+his gallantry, make his addresses to your grandmother; and ten to one
+but in one shape or another he will find means to ruin the peace of a
+family in which he has been so kindly entertained. What he cannot
+accomplish by dint of compliment and personal attendance, he will
+endeavour to effect by reinforcing these with billets-doux, songs, and
+verses, of which he always makes a provision for such purposes. If he
+is detected in these efforts of treachery, and reproached with his
+ingratitude, he impudently declares that what he had done was no more
+than simple gallantry, considered in France as an indispensable duty on
+every man who pretended to good breeding. Nay, he will even affirm that
+his endeavours to corrupt your wife, or deflower your daughter, were
+the most genuine proofs he could give of his particular regard for your
+family.
+
+"If there were five hundred dishes at table, a Frenchman will eat of
+all of them, and then complain he has no appetite--this I have several
+times remarked. A friend of mine gained a considerable wager upon an
+experiment of this kind; the petit-maitre ate of fourteen different
+plates, besides the dessert, then disparaged the cook, declaring he was
+no better than a marmiton, or turnspit."
+
+The gross unfairness, no less than the consummate cleverness, of this
+caricature compels us to remember that this was written in the most
+insular period of our manners, and during a brief lull in a century of
+almost incessant mutual hostility between the two nations. Aristocrats
+like Walpole, Gibbon, and Chesterfield could regard France from a
+cosmopolitan point of view, as leading the comite of nations. But to
+sturdy and true-born patriots, such as Hogarth and Smollett, reciprocal
+politeness appeared as grotesque as an exchange of amenities would be
+between a cormorant and an ape. Consequently, it was no doubt with a
+sense of positive relief to his feelings that Smollett could bring
+himself to sum up the whole matter thus. "A Frenchman lays out his
+whole revenue upon taudry suits of cloaths, or in furnishing a
+magnificent repas of fifty or a hundred dishes, one-half of which are
+not eatable or intended to be eaten. His wardrobe goes to the fripier,
+his dishes to the dogs, and himself to the devil."
+
+These trenchant passages were written partly, it may be imagined, to
+suit the English taste of the day. In that object they must have
+succeeded, for they were frequently transcribed into contemporary
+periodicals. In extenuation of Smollett's honesty of purpose, however,
+it may be urged that he was always a thoroughgoing patriot, [Witness
+his violently anti-French play, the Reprisal of 1757.] and that, coming
+from a Calvinistic country where a measure of Tartufism was a necessary
+condition of respectability, he reproduces the common English error of
+ignoring how apt a Frenchman is to conceal a number of his best
+qualities. Two other considerations deserve attention. The
+race-portrait was in Smollett's day at the very height of its
+disreputable reign. Secondly, we must remember how very profoundly
+French character has been modified since 1763, and more especially in
+consequence of the cataclysms of 1789 and 1870.
+
+Smollett's vis comica is conspicuous in the account of the coiffure of
+the period and of the superstitious reverence which a Frenchman of that
+day paid to his hair. In tracing the origin of this superstition he
+exhibits casually his historical learning. The crine profuso and barba
+demissa of the reges crinitos, as the Merovingians were called, are
+often referred to by ancient chroniclers. Long hair was identified with
+right of succession, as a mark of royal race, and the maintenance of
+ancient tradition. A tondu signified a slave, and even under the
+Carolingians to shave a prince meant to affirm his exclusion from the
+succession.
+
+
+V
+
+A general improvement in English roads, roadside inns, and methods of
+conveyance commenced about 1715. The continental roads lagged behind,
+until when Arthur Young wrote in 1788-89 they had got badly into
+arrears. The pace of locomotion between Rome and England changed very
+little in effect from the days of Julius Caesar to those of George III.
+It has been said with point that Trajan and Sir Robert Peel, travelling
+both at their utmost speed achieved the distance between Rome and
+London in an almost precisely similar space of time. Smollett decided
+to travel post between Paris and Lyons, and he found that the journey
+lasted full five days and cost upwards of thirty guineas. [One of the
+earliest printed road books in existence gives the posts between Paris
+and Lyons. This tiny duodecimo, dated 1500, and more than worth its
+weight in gold has just been acquired by the British Museum. On the old
+Roman routes, see Arnold's Lectures on Modern History, 1842.] Of roads
+there was a choice between two. The shorter route by Nevers and Moulins
+amounted to just about three hundred English miles. The longer route by
+Auxerre and Dijon, which Smollett preferred extended to three hundred
+and thirty miles. The two roads diverged after passing Fontainebleau,
+the shorter by Nemours and the longer by Moret. The first road was the
+smoother, but apart from the chance of seeing the Vendange the route de
+Burgoyne was far the more picturesque. Smollett's portraiture of the
+peasantry in the less cultivated regions prepares the mind for Young's
+famous description of those "gaunt emblems of famine." In Burgundy the
+Doctor says, "I saw a peasant ploughing the ground with a jackass, a
+lean cow, and a he-goat yoked together." His vignette of the fantastic
+petit-maitre at Sens, and his own abominable rudeness, is worthy of the
+master hand that drew the poor debtor Jackson in the Marshalsea in
+Roderick Random.
+
+His frank avowal of ill temper at the time deprives our entertainment
+of the unamiable tinge of which it would otherwise have partaken. "The
+truth is, I was that day more than usually peevish, from the bad
+weather as well as from the dread of a fit of asthma, with which I was
+threatened. And I daresay my appearance seemed as uncouth to him as his
+travelling dress appeared to me. I had a grey, mourning frock under a
+wide greatcoat, a bob-wig without powder, a very large laced hat, and a
+meagre, wrinkled, discontented countenance."
+
+From Lyons the traveller secured a return berline going back to Avignon
+with three mules and a voiturier named Joseph. Joseph, though he turned
+out to be an ex-criminal, proved himself the one Frenchman upon whose
+fidelity and good service Smollett could look back with unfeigned
+satisfaction. The sight of a skeleton dangling from a gibbet near
+Valence surprised from this droll knave an ejaculation and a story,
+from which it appeared only too evident that he had been first the
+comrade and then the executioner of one of the most notorious brigands
+of the century. The story as told by Smollett does not wholly agree
+with the best authenticated particulars. The Dick Turpin of eighteenth
+century France, Mandrin has engendered almost as many fables as his
+English congener. [See Maignien's Bibliographie des Ecrits relatifs a
+Mandrin.] As far as I have been able to discover, the great freebooter
+was born at St. Etienne in May 1724. His father having been killed in a
+coining affair, Mandrin swore to revenge him. He deserted from the army
+accordingly, and got together a gang of contrebandiers, at the head of
+which his career in Savoy and Dauphine almost resembles that of one of
+the famous guerilla chieftains described in Hardman's Peninsular Scenes
+and Sketches. Captured eventually, owing to the treachery of a comrade,
+he was put to death on the wheel at Valence on 26th May 1755. Five
+comrades were thrown into jail with him; and one of these obtained his
+pardon on condition of acting as Mandrin's executioner. Alas, poor
+Joseph!
+
+Three experiences Smollett had at this season which may well fall to
+the lot of road-farers in France right down to the present day. He was
+poisoned with garlic, surfeited with demi-roasted small birds, and
+astonished at the solid fare of the poorest looking travellers. The
+summer weather, romantic scenery, and occasional picnics, which
+Smollett would have liked to repeat every summer under the arches of
+the Pont du Gard--the monument of antiquity which of all, excepting
+only the Maison Carree at Nimes, most excited his enthusiastic
+admiration, all contributed to put him into an abnormally cheerful and
+convalescent humour. . . .
+
+Smollett now bent his steps southwards to Montpellier. His baggage had
+gone in advance. He was uncertain as yet whether to make Montpellier or
+Nice his headquarters in the South. Like Toulouse and Tours, and Turin,
+Montpellier was for a period a Mecca to English health and pleasure
+seekers abroad. A city of no great antiquity, but celebrated from the
+twelfth century for its schools of Law and Physic, it had been
+incorporated definitely with France since 1382, and its name recurs in
+French history both as the home of famous men in great number and as,
+before and after the brief pre-eminence of La Rochelle, the rival of
+Nimes as capital of Protestantism in the South. Evelyn, Burnet, the two
+Youngs, Edward and Arthur, and Sterne have all left us an impression of
+the city. Prevented by snow from crossing the Mont Cenis, John Locke
+spent two winters there in the days of Charles II. (1675-77), and may
+have pondered a good many of the problems of Toleration on a soil under
+which the heated lava of religious strife was still unmistakeable. And
+Smollett must almost have jostled en route against the celebrated
+author of The Wealth of Nations, who set out with his pupil for
+Toulouse in February 1764. A letter to Hume speaks of the number of
+English in the neighbourhood just a month later. Lomenie de Brienne was
+then in residence as archbishop. In the following November, Adam Smith
+and his charge paid a visit to Montpellier to witness a pageant and
+memorial, as it was supposed, of a freedom that was gone for ever, the
+opening of the States of Languedoc. Antiquaries and philosophers went
+to moralise on the spectacle in the spirit in which Freeman went to
+Andorra, Byron to the site of Troy, or De Tocqueville to America. It
+was there that the great economist met Horne Tooke.
+
+Smollett's more practical and immediate object in making this
+pilgrimage was to interview the great lung specialist, known locally to
+his admiring compatriots as the Boerhaave of Montpellier, Dr. Fizes.
+The medical school of Montpellier was much in evidence during the third
+quarter of the eighteenth century, and for the history of its various
+branches there are extant numerous Memoires pour Servir, by Prunelle,
+Astruc, and others. Smollett was only just in time to consult the
+reigning oracle, for the "illustrious" Dr. Fizes died in the following
+year. He gives us a very unfavourable picture of this "great lanthorn
+of medicine," who, notwithstanding his prodigious age, his stoop, and
+his wealth, could still scramble up two pairs for a fee of six livres.
+More than is the case with most medical patients, however, should we
+suspect Smollett of being unduly captious. The point as to how far his
+sketch of the French doctor and his diagnosis was a true one, and how
+far a mere caricature, due to ill health and prejudice, has always
+piqued my curiosity. But how to resolve a question involving so many
+problems not of ordinary therapeutic but of historical medicine! In
+this difficulty I bethought me most fortunately of consulting an
+authority probably without a rival in this special branch of medical
+history, Dr. Norman Moore, who with his accustomed generosity has given
+me the following most instructive diagnosis of the whole situation.
+
+"I have read Smollett's account of his illness as it appears in several
+passages in his travels and in the statement which he drew up for
+Professor 'F.' at Montpellier.
+
+"Smollett speaks of his pulmonic disorder, his 'asthmatical disorder,'
+and uses other expressions which show that his lungs were affected. In
+his statement he mentions that he has cough, shortness of breath,
+wasting, a purulent expectoration, loss of appetite at times, loss of
+strength, fever, a rapid pulse, intervals of slight improvement and
+subsequent exacerbations.
+
+"This shortness of breath, he says, has steadily increased. This group
+of symptoms makes it certain that he had tuberculosis of the lungs, in
+other words, was slowly progressing in consumption.
+
+"His darting pains in his side were due to the pleurisy which always
+occurs in such an illness.
+
+"His account shows also the absence of hopelessness which is a
+characteristic state of mind in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis.
+
+"I do not think that the opinion of the Montpellier professor deserves
+Smollett's condemnation. It seems to me both careful and sensible and
+contains all the knowledge of its time. Smollett, with an inconsistency
+not uncommon in patients who feel that they have a serious disease,
+would not go in person to the Professor, for he felt that from his
+appearance the Professor would be sure to tell him he had consumption.
+He half hoped for some other view of the written case in spite of its
+explicit statements, and when Professor F-- wrote that the patient had
+tubercles in his lungs, this was displeasing to poor Smollett, who had
+hoped against hope to receive--some other opinion than the only
+possible one, viz., that he undoubtedly had a consumption certain to
+prove fatal."
+
+The cruel truth was not to be evaded. Smollett had tuberculosis, though
+not probably of the most virulent kind, as he managed to survive
+another seven years, and those for the most part years of unremitting
+labour. He probably gained much by substituting Nice for Montpellier as
+a place to winter in, for although the climate of Montpellier is clear
+and bright in the highest degree, the cold is both piercing and
+treacherous. Days are frequent during the winter in which one may stand
+warmly wrapped in the brilliant sun and feel the protection of a
+greatcoat no more than that of a piece of gauze against the icy and
+penetrating blast that comes from "the roof of France."
+
+Unable to take the direct route by Arles as at present, the
+eastward-bound traveller from Montpellier in 1764 had to make a
+northerly detour. The first stone bridge up the Rhone was at Avignon,
+but there was a bridge of boats connecting Beaucaire with Tarascon.
+Thence, in no very placable mood, Smollett set out in mid-November by
+way of Orgon [Aix], Brignolles and le Muy, striking the Mediterranean
+at Frejus. En route he was inveigled into a controversy of unwonted
+bitterness with an innkeeper at le Muy. The scene is conjured up for us
+with an almost disconcerting actuality; no single detail of the
+author's discomfiture is omitted. The episode is post-Flaubertian in
+its impersonal detachment, or, as Coleridge first said, "aloofness." On
+crossing the Var, the sunny climate, the romantic outline of the
+Esterelles, the charms of the "neat village" of Cannes, and the first
+prospect of Nice began gradually and happily to effect a slight
+mitigation in our patient's humour. Smollett was indubitably one of the
+pioneers of the Promenade des Anglais. Long before the days of "Dr.
+Antonio" or Lord Brougham, he described for his countrymen the almost
+incredible dolcezza of the sunlit coast from Antibes to Lerici. But how
+much better than the barren triumph of being the unconscious fugleman
+of so glittering a popularity must have been the sense of being one of
+the first that ever burst from our rude island upon that secluded
+little Piedmontese town, as it then was, of not above twelve thousand
+souls, with its wonderful situation, noble perspective and unparalleled
+climate. Well might our travel-tost doctor exclaim, "When I stand on
+the rampart and look around I can scarce help thinking myself
+enchanted." It was truly a garden of Armida for a native of one of the
+dampest corners of North Britain.
+
+"Forty or fifty years ago, before the great transformation took place
+on the French Riviera, when Nizza, Villafranca, and Mentone were
+antique Italian towns, and when it was one of the eccentricities of
+Lord Brougham, to like Cannes, all that sea-board was a delightful
+land. Only a hundred years ago Arthur Young had trouble to get an old
+woman and a donkey to carry his portmanteau from Cannes to Antibes. I
+can myself remember Cannes in 1853, a small fishing village with a
+quiet beach, and Mentone, a walled town with mediaeval gates and a
+castle, a few humble villas and the old Posta to give supper to any
+passing traveller. It was one of the loveliest bits of Italy, and the
+road from Nizza to Genoa was one long procession for four days of
+glorious scenery, historic remnants, Italian colour, and picturesque
+ports. From the Esterelles to San Remo this has all been ruined by the
+horde of northern barbarians who have made a sort of Trouville,
+Brighton, or Biarritz, with American hotels and Parisian boulevards on
+every headland and bay. First came the half underground railway, a long
+tunnel with lucid intervals, which destroyed the road by blocking up
+its finest views and making it practically useless. Then miles of
+unsightly caravanserais high walls, pompous villas, and Parisian
+grandes rues crushed out every trace of Italy, of history, and
+pictorial charm." So writes Mr. Frederic Harrison of this delectable
+coast, [In the Daily Chronicle, 15th March 1898.] as it was, at a
+period within his own recollection--a period at which it is hardly
+fanciful to suppose men living who might just have remembered Smollett,
+as he was in his last days, when he returned to die on the Riviera di
+Levante in the autumn of 1771. Travel had then still some of the
+elements of romance. Rapidity has changed all that. The trouble is that
+although we can transport our bodies so much more rapidly than Smollett
+could, our understanding travels at the same old pace as before. And in
+the meantime railway and tourist agencies have made of modern travel a
+kind of mental postcard album, with grand hotels on one side, hotel
+menus on the other, and a faint aroma of continental trains haunting,
+between the leaves as it were. Our real knowledge is still limited to
+the country we have walked over, and we must not approach the country
+we would appreciate faster than a man may drive a horse or propel a
+bicycle; or we shall lose the all-important sense of artistic approach.
+Even to cross the channel by time-table is fatal to that romantic
+spirit (indispensable to the true magic of travel) which a slow
+adjustment of the mind to a new social atmosphere and a new historical
+environment alone can induce. Ruskin, the last exponent of the Grand
+Tour, said truly that the benefit of travel varies inversely in
+proportion to its speed. The cheap rapidity which has made our villes
+de plaisir and cotes d'azur what they are, has made unwieldy boroughs
+of suburban villages, and what the rail has done for a radius of a
+dozen miles, the motor is rapidly doing for one of a score. So are we
+sped! But we are to discuss not the psychology of travel, but the
+immediate causes and circumstances of Smollett's arrival upon the
+territory of Nice.
+
+
+VI
+
+Smollett did not interpret the ground-plan of the history of Nice
+particularly well. Its colonisation from Massilia, its long connection
+with Provence, its occupation by Saracens, its stormy connection with
+the house of Anjou, and its close fidelity to the house of Savoy made
+no appeal to his admiration. The most important event in its recent
+history, no doubt, was the capture of the city by the French under
+Catinat in 1706 (Louis XIV. being especially exasperated against what
+he regarded as the treachery of Victor Amadeus), and the razing to the
+ground of its famous citadel. The city henceforth lost a good deal of
+its civic dignity, and its morale was conspicuously impaired. In the
+war of the Austrian succession an English fleet under Admiral Matthews
+was told off to defend the territory of the Nicois against the
+attentions of Toulon. This was the first close contact experienced
+between England and Nice, but the impressions formed were mutually
+favourable. The inhabitants were enthusiastic about the unaccustomed
+English plan of paying in full for all supplies demanded. The British
+officers were no less delighted with the climate of Nice, the fame of
+which they carried to their northern homes. It was both directly and
+indirectly through one of these officers that the claims of Nice as a
+sanatorium came to be put so plainly before Smollett. [Losing its
+prestige as a ville forte, Nice was henceforth rapidly to gain the new
+character of a ville de plaisir. In 1763, says one of the city's
+historians, Smollett, the famous historian and novelist, visited Nice.
+"Arriving here shattered in health and depressed in spirits, under the
+genial influence of the climate he soon found himself a new man. His
+notes on the country, its gardens, its orange groves, its climate
+without a winter, are pleasant and just and would seem to have been
+written yesterday instead of more than a hundred years ago. . . . His
+memory is preserved in the street nomenclature of the place; one of the
+thoroughfares still bears the appellation of Rue Smollett." (James
+Nash, The Guide to Nice, 1884, p. 110.)]
+
+Among other celebrated residents at Nice during the period of
+Smollett's visit were Edward Augustus, Duke of York, the brother of
+George III., who died at Monaco a few years later, and Andre Massena, a
+native of the city, then a lad of six.
+
+Before he left Montpellier Smollett indulged in two more seemingly
+irresistible tirades against French folly: one against their persistent
+hero-worship of such a stuffed doll as Louis le Grand, and the second
+in ridicule of the immemorial French panacea, a bouillon. Now he gets
+to Nice he feels a return of the craving to take a hand's turn at
+depreciatory satire upon the nation of which a contemporary hand was
+just tracing the deservedly better-known delineation, commencing
+
+  Gay sprightly land of mirth and social ease,
+  Pleas'd with thyself, whom all the world can please. . . .
+
+Such inveteracy (like Dr. Johnson's against Swift) was not unnaturally
+suspected by friends in England of having some personal motive. In his
+fifteenth letter home, therefore, Smollett is assiduous in disclaiming
+anything of the kind. He begins by attempting an amende honorable, but
+before he has got well away from his exordium he insensibly and most
+characteristically diverges into the more congenial path of censure,
+and expands indeed into one of his most eloquent passages--a
+disquisition upon the French punctilio (conceived upon lines somewhat
+similar to Mercutio's address to Benvolio), to which is appended a
+satire on the duello as practised in France, which glows and burns with
+a radiation of good sense, racy of Smollett at his best.
+
+To eighteenth century lovers the discussion on duelling will recall
+similar talks between Boswell and Johnson, or that between the
+lieutenant and Tom in the Seventh Book of Tom Jones, but, more
+particularly, the sermon delivered by Johnson on this subject a propos
+of General Oglethorpe's story of how he avoided a duel with Prince
+Eugene in 1716. "We were sitting in company at table, whence the Prince
+took up a glass of wine and by a fillip made some of it fly in
+Oglethorpe's face. Here was a nice dilemma. To have challenged him
+instantly might have fixed a quarrelsome character upon the young
+soldier: to have taken no notice of it might have been counted as
+cowardice. Oglethorpe, therefore, keeping his eye on the Prince, and
+smiling all the time, as if he took what His Highness had done in jest,
+said, "Mon Prince" (I forget the French words he used), "that's a good
+joke; but we do it much better in England," and threw a whole glass of
+wine in the Prince's face. An old general who sat by said, "Il a bien
+fait, mon Prince, vous l'avez commence," and thus all ended in good
+humour."
+
+In Letter XIII. Smollett settles down to give his correspondents a
+detailed description of the territory and people of Nice. At one time
+it was his intention to essay yet another branch of authorship and to
+produce a monograph on the natural history, antiquities, and topography
+of the town as the capital of this still unfamiliar littoral; with the
+late-born modesty of experience, however, he recoils from a task to
+which he does not feel his opportunities altogether adequate. [See p.
+152.] A quarter of Smollett's original material would embarrass a
+"Guide"-builder of more recent pattern.
+
+Whenever he got near a coast line Smollett could not refrain from
+expressing decided views. If he had lived at the present day he would
+infallibly have been a naval expert, better informed than most and more
+trenchant than all; but recognizably one of the species, artist in
+words and amateur of ocean-strategy. [Smollett had, of course, been
+surgeon's mate on H.M.S. Cumberland, 1740-41.] His first curiosity at
+Nice was raised concerning the port, the harbour, the galleys moored
+within the mole, and the naval policy of his Sardinian Majesty. His
+advice to Victor Amadeus was no doubt as excellent and as unregarded as
+the advice of naval experts generally is. Of more interest to us is his
+account of the slave-galleys. Among the miserable slaves whom "a
+British subject cannot behold without horror and compassion," he
+observes a Piedmontese count in Turkish attire, reminding the reader of
+one of Dumas' stories of a count among the forcats. To learn that there
+were always volunteer oarsmen among these poor outcasts is to reflect
+bitterly upon the average happiness of mankind. As to whether they wore
+much worse off than common seamen in the British navy of the period
+(who were only in name volunteers and had often no hope of discharge
+until they were worn out) under such commanders as Oakum or Whiffle [In
+Roderick Random.] is another question. For confirmation of Smollett's
+account in matters of detail the reader may turn to Aleman's Guzman
+d'Afarache, which contains a first-hand description of the life on
+board a Mediterranean slave galley, to Archenholtz's Tableau d'Italie
+of 1788, to Stirling Maxwell's Don John of Austria (1883, i. 95), and
+more pertinently to passages in the Life of a Galley Slave by Jean
+Marteilhe (edited by Miss Betham-Edwards in 1895). After serving in the
+docks at Dunkirk, Marteilhe, as a confirmed protestant, makes the
+journey in the chain-gang to Marseilles, and is only released after
+many delays in consequence of the personal interest and intervention of
+Queen Anne. If at the peace of Utrecht in 1713 we had only been as
+tender about the case of our poor Catalan allies! Nice at that juncture
+had just been returned by France to the safe-keeping of Savoy, so that
+in order to escape from French territory, Marteilhe sailed for Nice in
+a tartane, and not feeling too safe even there, hurried thence by
+Smollett's subsequent route across the Col di Tende. Many Europeans
+were serving at this time in the Turkish or Algerine galleys. But the
+most pitiable of all the galley slaves were those of the knights of St.
+John of Malta. "Figure to yourself," wrote Jacob Houblon [The Houblon
+Family, 1907 ii. 78. The accounts in Evelyn and Goldsmith are probably
+familiar to the reader.] about this year, "six or seven hundred dirty
+half-naked Turks in a small vessel chained to the oars, from which they
+are not allowed to stir, fed upon nothing but bad biscuit and water,
+and beat about on the most trifling occasion by their most inhuman
+masters, who are certainly more Turks than their slaves."
+
+After several digressions, one touching the ancient Cemenelion, a
+subject upon which the Jonathan Oldbucks of Provence without exception
+are unconscionably tedious, Smollett settles down to a capable
+historical summary preparatory to setting his palette for a picture of
+the Nissards "as they are." He was, as we are aware, no court painter,
+and the cheerful colours certainly do not predominate. The noblesse for
+all their exclusiveness cannot escape his censure. He can see that they
+are poor (they are unable to boast more than two coaches among their
+whole number), and he feels sure that they are depraved. He attributes
+both vices unhesitatingly to their idleness and to their religion. In
+their singularly unemotional and coolly comparative outlook upon
+religion, how infinitely nearer were Fielding and Smollett than their
+greatest successors, Dickens and Thackeray, to the modern critic who
+observes that there is "at present not a single credible established
+religion in existence." To Smollett Catholicism conjures up nothing so
+vividly as the mask of comedy, while his native Calvinism stands for
+the corresponding mask of tragedy. [Walpole's dictum that Life was a
+comedy to those who think, a tragedy for those who feel, was of later
+date than this excellent mot of Smollett's.] Religion in the sunny
+spaces of the South is a "never-failing fund of pastime." The mass (of
+which he tells a story that reminds us of Lever's Micky Free) is just a
+mechanism invented by clever rogues for an elaborate system of petty
+larceny. And what a ferocious vein of cynicism underlies his strictures
+upon the perverted gallantry of the Mariolaters at Florence, or those
+on the two old Catholics rubbing their ancient gums against St. Peter's
+toe for toothache at Rome. The recurring emblems of crosses and gibbets
+simply shock him as mementoes of the Bagne.
+
+At Rome he compares a presentment of St. Laurence to "a barbecued pig."
+"What a pity it is," he complains, "that the labours of painting should
+have been employed on such shocking objects of the martyrology,"
+floggings, nailings, and unnailings... "Peter writhing on the cross,
+Stephen battered with stones, Sebastian stuck full of arrows,
+Bartholomew flayed alive," and so on. His remarks upon the famous Pieta
+of Michael Angelo are frank to the point of brutality. The right of
+sanctuary and its "infamous prerogative," unheard of in England since
+the days of Henry VII., were still capable of affording a lesson to the
+Scot abroad. "I saw a fellow who had three days before murdered his
+wife in the last month of pregnancy, taking the air with great
+composure and serenity, on the steps of a church in Florence."
+Smollett, it is clear, for all his philosophy, was no degenerate
+representative of the blind, unreasoning seventeenth-century
+detestation of "Popery and wooden shoes."
+
+Smollett is one of the first to describe a "conversazione," and in
+illustration of the decadence of Italian manners, it is natural that he
+should have a good deal to tell us about the Cicisbeatura. His account
+of the cicisbeo and his duties, whether in Nice, Florence, or Rome, is
+certainly one of the most interesting that we have. Before Smollett and
+his almost contemporary travel correspondent, Samuel Sharp, it would
+probably be hard to find any mention of the cicisbeo in England, though
+the word was consecrated by Sheridan a few years later. Most of the
+"classic" accounts of the usage such as those by Mme. de Stael,
+Stendhal, Parini, Byron and his biographers date from very much later,
+when the institution was long past its prime if not actually moribund.
+Now Smollett saw it at the very height of its perfection and at a time
+when our decorous protestant curiosity on such themes was as lively as
+Lady Mary Montagu had found it in the case of fair Circassians and
+Turkish harems just thirty years previously. [A cicisbeo was a dangler.
+Hence the word came to be applied punningly to the bow depending from a
+clouded cane or ornamental crook. In sixteenth-century Spain, home of
+the sedan and the caballero galante, the original term was bracciere.
+In Venice the form was cavaliere servente. For a good note on the
+subject, see Sismondi's Italian Republics, ed. William Boulting, 1907,
+p. 793.] Like so much in the shapes and customs of Italy the
+cicisbeatura was in its origin partly Gothic and partly Oriental. It
+combined the chivalry of northern friendship with the refined passion
+of the South for the seclusion of women. As an experiment in protest
+against the insipidity which is too often an accompaniment of conjugal
+intercourse the institution might well seem to deserve a more tolerant
+and impartial investigation than it has yet received at the hands of
+our sociologists. A survival so picturesque could hardly be expected to
+outlive the bracing air of the nineteenth century. The north wind blew
+and by 1840 the cicisbeatura was a thing of the past.
+
+Freed from the necessity of a systematic delineation Smollett rambles
+about Nice, its length and breadth, with a stone in his pouch, and
+wherever a cockshy is available he takes full advantage of it. He
+describes the ghetto (p. 171), the police arrangements of the place
+which he finds in the main highly efficient, and the cruel punishment
+of the strappado. The garrucha or strappado and the garrotes, combined
+with the water-torture and the rack, represented the survival of the
+fittest in the natural selection of torments concerning which the Holy
+Office in Italy and Spain had such a vast experience. The strappado as
+described by Smollett, however, is a more severe form of torture even
+than that practised by the Inquisition, and we can only hope that his
+description of its brutality is highly coloured. [See the extremely
+learned disquisition on the whole subject in Dr. H. C. Lea's History of
+the Inquisition in Spain, 1907, vol. iii. book vi chap. vii.] Smollett
+must have enjoyed himself vastly in the market at Nice. He gives an
+elaborate and epicurean account of his commissariat during the
+successive seasons of his sojourn in the neighbourhood. He was not one
+of these who live solely "below the diaphragm"; but he understood food
+well and writes about it with a catholic gusto and relish (156-165). He
+laments the rarity of small birds on the Riviera, and gives a highly
+comic account of the chasse of this species of gibier. He has a good
+deal to say about the sardine and tunny fishery, about the fruit and
+scent traffic, and about the wine industry; and he gives us a graphic
+sketch of the silkworm culture, which it is interesting to compare with
+that given by Locke in 1677. He has something to say upon the general
+agriculture, and more especially upon the olive and oil industry. Some
+remarks upon the numerous "mummeries" and festas of the inhabitants
+lead him into a long digression upon the feriae of the Romans. It is
+evident from this that the box of books which he shipped by way of
+Bordeaux must have been plentifully supplied with classical literature,
+for, as he remarks with unaffected horror, such a thing as a bookseller
+had not been so much as heard of in Nice. Well may he have expatiated
+upon the total lack of taste among the inhabitants! In dealing with the
+trade, revenue, and other administrative details Smollett shows himself
+the expert compiler and statistician a London journalist in large
+practice credits himself with becoming by the mere exercise of his
+vocation. In dealing with the patois of the country he reveals the
+curiosity of the trained scholar and linguist. Climate had always been
+one of his hobbies, and on learning that none of the local
+practitioners was in a position to exact a larger fee than sixpence
+from his patients (quantum mutatus the Nice physician of 1907!) he felt
+that he owed it to himself to make this the subject of an independent
+investigation. He kept a register of the weather during the whole of
+his stay, and his remarks upon the subject are still of historical
+interest, although with Teysseire's minutely exact Monograph on the
+Climatology of Nice (1881) at his disposal and innumerable commentaries
+thereon by specialists, the inquirer of to-day would hardly go to
+Smollett for his data. Then, as now, it is curious to find the rumour
+current that the climate of Nice was sadly deteriorating. "Nothing to
+what it was before the war!" as the grumbler from the South was once
+betrayed into saying of the August moon. Smollett's esprit chagrin was
+nonplussed at first to find material for complaint against a climate in
+which he admits that there was less rain and less wind than in any
+other part of the world that he knew. In these unwonted circumstances
+he is constrained to fall back on the hard water and the plague of
+cousins or gnats as affording him the legitimate grievance, in whose
+absence the warrior soul of the author of the Ode to Independence could
+never be content.
+
+
+VII
+
+For his autumn holiday in 1764 Smollett decided on a jaunt to Florence
+and Rome, returning to Nice for the winter; and he decided to travel as
+far as Leghorn by sea. There was choice between several kinds of small
+craft which plied along the coast, and their names recur with cheerful
+frequency in the pages of Marryat and other depictors of the
+Mediterranean. There was the felucca, an open boat with a tilt over the
+stern large enough to freight a post-chaise, and propelled by ten to
+twelve stout mariners. To commission such a boat to Genoa, a distance
+of a hundred miles, cost four louis. As alternative, there was the
+tartane, a sailing vessel with a lateen sail. Addison sailed from
+Marseilles to Genoa in a tartane in December 1699: a storm arose, and
+the patron alarmed the passengers by confessing his sins (and such
+sins!) loudly to a Capuchin friar who happened to be aboard. Smollett
+finally decided on a gondola, with four rowers and a steersman, for
+which he had to pay nine sequins (4 1/2 louis). After adventures off
+Monaco, San Remo, Noli, and elsewhere, the party are glad to make the
+famous phones on the Torre della Lanterna, of which banker Rogers sings
+in his mediocre verse:
+
+  Thy pharos Genoa first displayed itself
+  Burning in stillness on its rocky seat;
+  That guiding star so oft the only one,
+  When those now glowing in the azure vault
+  Are dark and silent
+
+Smollett's description of Genoa is decidedly more interesting. He
+arrived at a moment specially propitious to so sardonic an observer,
+for the Republic had fallen on evil times, having escaped from the
+clutches of Austria in 1746 by means of a popular riot, during which
+the aristocracy considerately looked the other way, only to fall into
+an even more embarrassed and unheroic position vis-a-vis of so
+diminutive an opponent as Corsica. The whole story is a curious
+prototype of the nineteenth century imbroglio between Spain and Cuba.
+Of commonplaces about the palaces fruitful of verbiage in Addison and
+Gray, who says with perfect truth, "I should make you sick of marble
+were I to tell you how it is lavished here," Smollett is sparing
+enough, though he evidently regards the inherited inclination of
+Genoese noblemen to build beyond their means as an amiable weakness.
+His description of the proud old Genoese nobleman, who lives in marble
+and feeds on scraps, is not unsympathetic, and suggests that the
+"deceipt of the Ligurians," which Virgil censures in the line
+
+  Haud Ligurum extremus, dum fallere fata sinebant
+
+may possibly have been of this Balderstonian variety. But Smollett had
+little room in his economy for such vapouring speculations. He was as
+unsentimental a critic as Sydney Smith or Sir Leslie Stephen. He wants
+to know the assets of a place more than its associations. Facts,
+figures, trade and revenue returns are the data his shrewd mind
+requires to feed on. He has a keen eye for harbours suitable for an
+English frigate to lie up in, and can hardly rest until his sagacity
+has collected material for a political horoscope.
+
+Smollett's remarks upon the mysterious dispensations of Providence in
+regard to Genoa and the retreat of the Austrians are charged to the
+full with his saturnine spirit. His suspicions were probably well
+founded. Ever since 1685 Genoa had been the more or less humiliated
+satellite of France, and her once famous Bank had been bled pretty
+extensively by both belligerents. The Senate was helpless before the
+Austrian engineers in 1745, and the emancipation of the city was due
+wholly to a popular emeute. She had relapsed again into a completely
+enervated condition. Smollett thought she would have been happier under
+British protection. But it is a vicious alternative for a nation to
+choose a big protector. It was characteristic of the Republic that from
+1790 to 1798 its "policy" was to remain neutral. The crisis in regard
+to Corsica came immediately after Smollett's visit, when in 1765, under
+their 154th doge Francesco Maria Rovere, the Genoese offered to abandon
+the island to the patriots under Paoli, reserving only the possession
+of the two loyal coast-towns of Bonifazio and Calvi. [See Boswell's
+Corsica, 1766-8.] At Paoli's instance these conciliatory terms were
+refused. Genoa, in desperation and next door to bankruptcy, resolved to
+sell her rights as suzerain to France, and the compact was concluded by
+a treaty signed at Versailles in 1768. Paoli was finally defeated at
+Ponte Novo on 9th May 1769, and fled to England. On 15th August the
+edict of "Reunion" between France and Corsica was promulgated. On the
+same day Napoleon Buonaparte was born at Ajaccio.
+
+After a week at Genoa Smollett proceeded along the coast to Lerici.
+There, being tired of the sea, the party disembarked, and proceeded by
+chaise from Sarzano to Cercio in Modenese territory, and so into
+Tuscany, then under the suzerainty of Austria. His description of Pisa
+is of an almost sunny gaiety and good humour. Italy, through this
+portal, was capable of casting a spell even upon a traveller so
+case-hardened as Smollett. The very churches at Pisa are "tolerably
+ornamented." The Campo Santo and Tower fall in no way short of their
+reputation, while the brass gates so far excel theirs that Smollett
+could have stood a whole day to examine and admire them. These agremens
+may be attributable in some measure to "a very good inn."  In stating
+that galleys were built in the town, Smollett seems to have fallen a
+victim, for once, to guide-book information. Evelyn mentions that
+galleys were built there in his time, but that was more than a hundred
+years before. The slips and dock had long been abandoned, as Smollett
+is careful to point out in his manuscript notes, now in the British
+Museum. He also explains with superfluous caution that the Duomo of
+Pisa is not entirely Gothic. Once arrived in the capital of Tuscany,
+after admitting that Florence is a noble city, our traveller is anxious
+to avoid the hackneyed ecstasies and threadbare commonplaces, derived
+in those days from Vasari through Keysler and other German
+commentators, whose genius Smollett is inclined to discover rather "in
+the back than in the brain."
+
+The two pass-words for a would-be connoisseur, according to Goldsmith,
+were to praise Perugino, and to say that such and such a work would
+have been much better had the painter devoted more time and study to
+it. With these alternatives at hand one might pass with credit through
+any famous continental collection. Smollett aspired to more
+independence of thought and opinion, though we perceive at every turn
+how completely the Protestant prejudice of his "moment" and "milieu"
+had obtained dominion over him. To his perception monks do not chant or
+intone, they bawl and bellow their litanies. Flagellants are hired
+peasants who pad themselves to repletion with women's bodices. The
+image of the Virgin Mary is bejewelled, hooped, painted, patched,
+curled, and frizzled in the very extremity of the fashion. No
+particular attention is paid by the mob to the Crucified One, but as
+soon as his lady-mother appeared on the shoulders of four lusty friars
+the whole populace fall upon their knees in the dirt. We have some
+characteristic criticism and observation of the Florentine nobles, the
+opera, the improvisatori, [For details as to the eighteenth-century
+improvisatore and commedia delle arte the reader is referred to
+Symonds's Carlo Gozzi. See also the Travel Papers of Mrs. Piozzi;
+Walpole's Letters to Sir Horace Mann, and Doran's Mann and Manners at
+the Court of Florence. (Vide Appendix A, p. 345)] the buildings, and
+the cicisbei. Smollett nearly always gives substantial value to his
+notes, however casual, for he has an historian's eye, and knows the
+symptoms for which the inquirer who comes after is likely to make
+inquisition.
+
+Smollett's observations upon the state of Florence in Letters XXVII and
+XXVIII are by no means devoid of value. The direct rule of the Medici
+had come to an end in 1737, and Tuscany (which with the exception of
+the interlude of 1798-1814 remained in Austrian hands down to 1860) was
+in 1764 governed by the Prince de Craon, viceroy of the Empress Maria
+Theresa. Florence was, indeed, on the threshold of the sweeping
+administrative reforms instituted by Peter Leopold, the archduke for
+whom Smollett relates that they were preparing the Pitti Palace at the
+time of his stay. This Prince governed the country as Grand Duke from
+1765 to 1790, when he succeeded his brother as Emperor, and left a name
+in history as the ill-fated Leopold. Few more active exponents of
+paternal reform are known to history. But the Grand Duke had to deal
+with a people such as Smollett describes. Conservative to the core,
+subservient to their religious directors, the "stupid party" in
+Florence proved themselves clever enough to retard the process of
+enlightenment by methods at which even Smollett himself might have
+stood amazed. The traveller touches an interesting source of biography
+when he refers to the Englishman called Acton, formerly an East India
+Company captain, now commander of the Emperor's Tuscan Navy, consisting
+of "a few frigates." This worthy was the old commodore whom Gibbon
+visited in retirement at Leghorn. The commodore was brother of Gibbon's
+friend, Dr. Acton, who was settled at Besancon, where his noted son,
+afterwards Sir John Acton, was born in 1736. Following in the footsteps
+of his uncle the commodore, who became a Catholic, Smollett tells us,
+and was promoted Admiral of Tuscany, John Acton entered the Tuscan
+Marine in 1775.
+
+[Sir John Acton's subsequent career belongs to history. His origin made
+him an expert on naval affairs, and in 1776 he obtained some credit for
+an expedition which he commanded against the Barbary pirates. In 1778
+Maria Carolina of Naples visited her brother Leopold at Florence, and
+was impressed by Acton's ugliness and reputation for exceptional
+efficiency. Her favourite minister, Prince Caramanico, persuaded the
+Grand Duke, Leopold, to permit Acton to exchange into the Neapolitan
+service, and reorganize the navy of the southern kingdom. This actually
+came to pass, and, moreover, Acton played his cards so well that he
+soon engrossed the ministries of War and Finance, and after the death
+of Caracciolo, the elder, also that of Foreign Affairs. Sir William
+Hamilton had a high opinion of the" General," soon to become
+Field-Marshal. He took a strong part in resistance to revolutionary
+propaganda, caused to be built the ships which assisted Nelson in 1795,
+and proved himself one of the most capable bureaucrats of the time. But
+the French proved too strong, and Napoleon was the cause of his
+disgrace in 1804. In that year, by special dispensation from the Pope,
+he married his niece, and retired to Palermo, where he died on 12th
+August 1811.]
+
+Let loose in the Uffizi Gallery Smollett shocked his sensitive
+contemporaries by his freedom from those sham ecstasies which have too
+often dogged the footsteps of the virtuosi. Like Scott or Mark Twain at
+a later date Smollett was perfectly ready to admire anything he could
+understand; but he expressly disclaims pretensions to the nice
+discernment and delicate sensibility of the connoisseur. He would never
+have asked to be left alone with the Venus de Medicis as a modern
+art-critic is related to have asked to be left alone with the Venus of
+Rokeby. He would have been at a loss to understand the state of mind of
+the eminent actor who thought the situation demanded that he should be
+positively bereft of breath at first sight of the Apollo Belvedere, and
+panting to regain it, convulsively clutched at the arm of his
+companion, with difficulty articulating, "I breathe." Smollett refused
+to be hypnotized by the famous Venus discovered at Hadrian's villa,
+brought from Tivoli in 1680, and then in the height of its renown; the
+form he admired, but condemned the face and the posture. Personally I
+disagree with Smollett, though the balance of cultivated opinion has
+since come round to his side. The guilt of Smollett lay in criticizing
+what was above criticism, as the contents of the Tribuna were then held
+to be. And in defence of this point of view it may at least be said
+that the Uffizi was then, with the exception of the Vatican, the only
+gallery of first-rate importance open to the travelling public on the
+Grand Tour. Founded by Cosimo I, built originally by George Vasari, and
+greatly enlarged by Francis I, who succeeded to the Grand Duchy in
+1574, the gallery owed most perhaps to the Cardinal, afterwards
+Ferdinand I, who constructed the Tribuna, and to Cardinal Leopold, an
+omnivorous collector, who died in 1675. But all the Medici princes
+added to the rarities in the various cabinets, drawing largely upon the
+Villa Medici at Rome for this purpose, and the last of them, John
+Gaston (1723-1737), was one of the most liberal as regards the freedom
+of access which he allowed to his accumulated treasures. Among the
+distinguished antiquaries who acted as curators and cicerones were
+Sebastiano Bianchi, Antonio Cocchi, Raymond Cocchi, Joseph Bianchi, J.
+B. Pelli, the Abbe Lanzi, and Zacchiroli. The last three all wrote
+elaborate descriptions of the Gallery during the last decades of the
+eighteenth century. There was unhappily an epidemic of dishonesty among
+the custodians of gems at this period, and, like the notorious Raspe,
+who fled from Cassel in 1775, and turned some of his old employers to
+ridicule in his Baron Munchausen, Joseph Bianchi was convicted first of
+robbing his cabinet and then attempting to set it on fire, for which
+exploit the "learned and judicious Bianchi," as Smollett called him in
+his first edition, was sent to prison for life. The Arrotino which
+Smollett so greatly admired, and which the delusive Bianchi declared to
+be a representation of the Augur Attus Naevius, is now described as "A
+Scythian whetting his knife to flay Marsyas."
+
+Kinglake has an amusingly cynical passage on the impossibility of
+approaching the sacred shrines of the Holy Land in a fittingly
+reverential mood. Exactly the same difficulty is experienced in
+approaching the sacred shrines of art. Enthusiasm about great artistic
+productions, though we may readily understand it to be justifiable, is
+by no means so easily communicable. How many people possessing a real
+claim to culture have felt themselves puzzled by their insensibility
+before some great masterpiece! Conditions may be easily imagined in
+which the inducement to affect an ecstasy becomes so strong as to prove
+overpowering. Many years ago at Florence the loiterers in the Tribuna
+were startled by the sudden rush into the place of a little man whose
+literary fame gave him high claims to intuitive taste. He placed
+himself with high clasped hand before the chief attraction in that room
+of treasures. "There," he murmured, "is the Venus de Medicis, and here
+I must stay--for ever and for ever." He had scarcely uttered these
+words, each more deeply and solemnly than the preceding, when an
+acquaintance entered, and the enthusiast, making a hasty inquiry if
+Lady So-and-So had arrived, left the room not to return again that
+morning. Before the same statue another distinguished countryman used
+to pass an hour daily. His acquaintance respected his raptures and kept
+aloof; but a young lady, whose attention was attracted by sounds that
+did not seem expressive of admiration, ventured to approach, and found
+the poet sunk in profound, but not silent, slumber. From such
+absurdities as these, or of the enthusiast who went into raptures about
+the head of the Elgin Ilissos (which is unfortunately a headless
+trunk), we are happily spared in the pages of Smollett. In him complete
+absence of gush is accompanied by an independent judgement, for which
+it may quite safely be claimed that good taste is in the ascendant in
+the majority of cases.
+
+From Florence Smollett set out in October 1764 for Siena, a distance of
+forty-two miles, in a good travelling coach; he slept there, and next
+day, seven and a half miles farther on, at Boon Convento, hard by
+Montepulciano, now justly celebrated for its wine, he had the amusing
+adventure with the hostler which gave occasion for his vivid portrait
+of an Italian uffiziale, and also to that irresistible impulse to cane
+the insolent hostler, from the ill consequences of which he was only
+saved by the underling's precipitate flight. The night was spent at
+Radicofani, five and twenty miles farther on. A clever postilion
+diversified the route to Viterbo, another forty-three miles. The party
+was now within sixteen leagues, or ten hours, of Rome. The road from
+Radicofani was notoriously bad all the way, but Smollett was too
+excited or too impatient to pay much attention to it. "You may guess
+what I felt at first sight of the city of Rome."
+
+"When you arrive at Rome," he says later, in somewhat more accustomed
+vein, "you receive cards from all your country folk in that city. They
+expect to have the visit returned next day, when they give orders not
+to be at home, and you never speak to one another in the sequel. This
+is a refinement in hospitality and politeness which the English have
+invented by the strength of their own genius without any assistance
+either from France, Italy, or Lapland." It is needless to recapitulate
+Smollett's views of Rome. Every one has his own, and a passing
+traveller's annotations are just about as nourishing to the imagination
+as a bibliographer's note on the Bible. Smollett speaks in the main
+judiciously of the Castle of St. Angelo, the Piazza and the interior of
+St. Peter's, the Pincian, the Forum, the Coliseum, the Baths of
+Caracalla, and the other famous sights of successive ages. On Roman
+habits and pastimes and the gullibility of the English cognoscente he
+speaks with more spice of authority. Upon the whole he is decidedly
+modest about his virtuoso vein, and when we reflect upon the way in
+which standards change and idols are shifted from one pedestal to
+another, it seems a pity that such modesty has not more votaries. In
+Smollett's time we must remember that Hellenic and primitive art,
+whether antique or medieval, were unknown or unappreciated. The
+reigning models of taste in ancient sculpture were copies of
+fourth-century originals, Hellenistic or later productions. Hence
+Smollett's ecstasies over the Laocoon, the Niobe, and the Dying
+Gladiator. Greek art of the best period was hardly known in authentic
+examples; antiques so fine as the Torso of Hercules were rare. But
+while his failures show the danger of dogmatism in art criticism,
+Smollett is careful to disclaim all pretensions to the nice discernment
+of the real connoisseur. In cases where good sense and sincere
+utterance are all that is necessary he is seldom far wrong. Take the
+following description for example:--
+
+"You need not doubt but that I went to the church of St. Peter in
+Montorio, to view the celebrated Transfiguration by Raphael, which, if
+it was mine, I would cut in two parts. The three figures in the air
+attract the eye so strongly that little or no attention is paid to
+those below on the mountain. I apprehend that the nature of the subject
+does not admit of that keeping and dependence which ought to be
+maintained in the disposition of the lights and shadows in a picture.
+The groups seem to be entirely independent of each other. The
+extraordinary merit of this piece, I imagine, consists not only in the
+expression of divinity on the face of Christ, but also in the
+surprising lightness of the figure that hovers like a beautiful
+exhalation in the air."
+
+Smollett's remarks about the "Last Judgement" of Michael Angelo, (that
+it confuses the eye as a number of people speaking at once confounds
+the ear; and that while single figures are splendid, the whole together
+resembles a mere mob, without subordination, keeping, or repose) will
+probably be re-echoed by a large proportion of the sightseers who gaze
+upon it yearly. But his description of the "Transfiguration" displays
+an amount of taste and judgement which is far from being so widely
+distributed. For purposes of reproduction at the present day, I may
+remind the reader that the picture is ordinarily "cut in two." and the
+nether portion is commonly attributed to Raphael's pupils, while the
+"beautiful exhalation," as Smollett so felicitously terms it, is
+attributed exclusively to the master when at the zenith of his powers.
+His general verdict upon Michael Angelo and Raphael has much in it that
+appeals to a modern taste. Of Raphael, as a whole, he concludes that
+the master possesses the serenity of Virgil, but lacks the fire of
+Homer; and before leaving this same Letter XXXIII, in which Smollett
+ventures so many independent critical judgements, I am tempted to cite
+yet another example of his capacity for acute yet sympathetic
+appreciation.
+ "In the Palazzo Altieri I admired a picture, by Carlo Maratti,
+representing a saint calling down lightning from heaven to destroy
+blasphemers. It was the figure of the saint I admired, merely as a
+portrait. The execution of the other parts was tame enough; perhaps
+they were purposely kept down in order to preserve the importance of
+the principal figure. I imagine Salvator Rosa would have made a
+different disposition on the same subject--that amidst the darkness of
+a tempest he would have illuminated the blasphemer with the flash of
+lightning by which he was destroyed. This would have thrown a dismal
+gleam upon his countenance, distorted by the horror of his situation as
+well as by the effects of the fire, and rendered the whole scene
+dreadfully picturesque."
+
+Smollett confuses historical and aesthetic grandeur. What appeals to
+him most is a monument of a whole past civilization, such as the Pont
+du Gard. His views of art, too, as well as his views of life, are
+profoundly influenced by his early training as a surgeon. He is not
+inclined by temperament to be sanguine. His gaze is often fixed, like
+that of a doctor, upon the end of life; and of art, as of nature, he
+takes a decidedly pathological view. Yet, upon the whole, far from
+deriding his artistic impressions, I think we shall be inclined rather
+to applaud them, as well for their sanity as for their undoubted
+sincerity.
+
+For the return journey to Florence Smollett selected the alternative
+route by Narni, Terni, Spoleto, Foligno, Perugia, and Arezzo, and, by
+his own account, no traveller ever suffered quite so much as he did
+from "dirt," "vermin," "poison," and imposture. At Foligno, where
+Goethe also, in his travels a score of years or so later, had an
+amusing adventure, Smollett was put into a room recently occupied by a
+wild beast (bestia), but the bestia turned out on investigation to be
+no more or no less than an "English heretic." The food was so filthy
+that it might have turned the stomach of a muleteer; their coach was
+nearly shattered to pieces; frozen with cold and nearly devoured by
+rats. Mrs. Smollett wept in silence with horror and fatigue; and the
+bugs gave the Doctor a whooping-cough. If Smollett anticipated a
+violent death from exhaustion and chagrin in consequence of these
+tortures he was completely disappointed. His health was never
+better,--so much so that he felt constrained in fairness to drink to
+the health of the Roman banker who had recommended this nefarious
+route. [See the Doctor's remarks at the end of Letter XXXV.] By
+Florence and Lerici he retraced his steps to Nice early in 1765, and
+then after a brief jaunt to Turin (where he met Sterne) and back by the
+Col di Tende, he turned his face definitely homewards. The journey home
+confirmed his liking for Pisa, and gives an opening for an amusing
+description of the Britisher abroad (Letter XXXV). We can almost
+overhear Thackeray, or the author of Eothen, touching this same topic
+in Letter XLI. "When two natives of any other country chance to meet
+abroad, they run into each other's embrace like old friends, even
+though they have never heard of one another till that moment; whereas
+two Englishmen in the same situation maintain a mutual reserve and
+diffidence, and keep without the sphere of each other's attraction,
+like two bodies endowed with a repulsive power." Letter XXXVI gives
+opportunity for some discerning remarks on French taxation. Having
+given the French king a bit of excellent advice (that he should abolish
+the fermiers generaux), Smollett proceeds, in 1765, to a forecast of
+probabilities which is deeply significant and amazingly shrewd. The
+fragment known as Smollett's Dying Prophecy of 1771 has often been
+discredited. Yet the substance of it is fairly adumbrated here in the
+passage beginning, "There are undoubtedly many marks of relaxation in
+the reins of French government," written fully six years previously.
+After a pleasing description of Grasse, "famous for its pomatum,
+gloves, wash-balls, perfumes, and toilette boxes lined with bergamot,"
+the homeward traveller crossed the French frontier at Antibes, and in
+Letter XXXIX at Marseille, he compares the galley slaves of France with
+those of Savoy. At Bath where he had gone to set up a practice,
+Smollett once astonished the faculty by "proving" in a pamphlet that
+the therapeutic properties of the waters had been prodigiously
+exaggerated. So, now, in the south of France he did not hesitate to
+pronounce solemnly that "all fermented liquors are pernicious to the
+human constitution." Elsewhere he comments upon the immeasurable
+appetite of the French for bread. The Frenchman will recall the story
+of the peasant-persecuting baron whom Louis XII. provided with a
+luxurious feast, which the lack of bread made uneatable; he may not
+have heard a story told me in Liege at the Hotel Charlemagne of the
+Belgian who sought to conciliate his French neighbour by remarking, "Je
+vois que vous etes Francais, monsieur, parceque vous mangez beaucoup de
+pain," and the Frenchman's retort, "Je vois que vous etes lye monsieur,
+parceque vous mangez beaucoup de tout!" From Frejus Smollett proceeds
+to Toulon, repeating the old epigram that "the king of France is
+greater at Toulon than at Versailles." The weather is so pleasant that
+the travellers enjoy a continual concert of "nightingales" from Vienne
+to Fontainebleau. The "douche" of Aix-les-Bains having been explained,
+Smollett and his party proceeded agreeably to Avignon, where by one of
+the strange coincidences of travel he met his old voiturier Joseph "so
+embrowned by the sun that he might have passed for an Iroquois." In
+spite of Joseph's testimonial the "plagues of posting" are still in the
+ascendant, and Smollett is once more generous of good advice. Above
+all, he adjures us when travelling never to omit to carry a hammer and
+nails, a crowbar, an iron pin or two, a large knife, and a bladder of
+grease. Why not a lynch pin, which we were so carefully instructed how
+to inquire about in Murray's Conversation for Travellers?
+
+But-the history of his troublous travels is drawing to an end. From
+Lyons the route is plain through Macon, Chalons, Dijon, Auxerre, Sells,
+and Fontainebleau--the whole itinerary almost exactly anticipates that
+of Talfourd's Vacation Tour one hundred and ten years later, except
+that on the outward journey Talfourd sailed down the Rhone.
+
+Smollett's old mental grievances and sores have been shifted and to
+some extent, let us hope, dissipated by his strenuous journeyings, and
+in June 1765, after an absence of two years, he is once more enabled to
+write,
+
+"You cannot imagine what pleasure I feel while I survey the white
+cliffs of Dover at this distance [from Boulogne]. Not that I am at all
+affected by the nescio qua dulcedine natalis soli of Horace.
+
+"That seems to be a kind of fanaticism, founded on the prejudices of
+education, which induces a Laplander to place the terrestrial paradise
+among the snows of Norway, and a Swiss to prefer the barren mountains
+of Soleure to the fruitful plains of Lombardy. I am attached to my
+country, because it is the land of liberty, cleanliness, and
+convenience; but I love it still more tenderly, as the scene of all my
+interesting connections, as the habitation of my friends, for whose
+conversation, correspondence, and esteem I wish alone to live."
+
+For the time being it cannot be doubted that the hardships Smollett had
+to undergo on his Italian journey, by sea and land, and the violent
+passions by which he was agitated owing to the conduct of refractory
+postilions and extortionate innkeepers, contributed positively to brace
+up and invigorate his constitution. He spoke of himself indeed as
+"mended by ill-treatment" not unlike Tavernier, the famous
+traveller,--said to have been radically cured of the gout by a Turkish
+aga in Egypt, who gave him the bastinado because he would not look at
+the head of the bashaw of Cairo. But Fizes was right after all in his
+swan-prescription, for poor Smollett's cure was anything but a radical
+one. His health soon collapsed under the dreary round of incessant
+labour at Chelsea. His literary faculty was still maturing and
+developing. His genius was mellowing, and a later work might have
+eclipsed Clinker. But it was not to be. He had a severe relapse in the
+winter. In 1770 he had once more to take refuge from overwork on the
+sunny coast he had done so much to popularize among his countrymen, and
+it was near Leghorn that he died on 17th September 1771.
+
+  ANNO AETATIS 51.
+  EHEV!  QVAM PROCVL A PATRIA!
+  PROPE LIBVRNI PORTVM, IN ITALIA
+  JACET SEPVLTVS.
+
+  THOMAS SECCOMBE. ACTON, May 1907.
+
+
+
+LETTER I
+
+BOULOGNE SUR MER, June 23, 1763.
+
+DEAR SIR,--You laid your commands upon me at parting, to communicate
+from time to time the observations I should make in the course of my
+travels and it was an injunction I received with pleasure. In
+gratifying your curiosity, I shall find some amusement to beguile the
+tedious hours, which, without some such employment, would be rendered
+insupportable by distemper and disquiet.
+
+You knew, and pitied my situation, traduced by malice, persecuted by
+faction, abandoned by false patrons, and overwhelmed by the sense of a
+domestic calamity, which it was not in the power of fortune to repair.
+
+You know with what eagerness I fled from my country as a scene of
+illiberal dispute, and incredible infatuation, where a few worthless
+incendiaries had, by dint of perfidious calumnies and atrocious abuse,
+kindled up a flame which threatened all the horrors of civil dissension.
+
+I packed up my little family in a hired coach, and attended by my
+trusty servant, who had lived with me a dozen of years, and now refused
+to leave me, took the road to Dover, in my way to the South of France,
+where I hoped the mildness of the climate would prove favourable to the
+weak state of my lungs.
+
+You advised me to have recourse again to the Bath waters, from the use
+of which I had received great benefit the preceding winter: but I had
+many inducements to leave England. My wife earnestly begged I would
+convey her from a country where every object served to nourish her
+grief: I was in hopes that a succession of new scenes would engage her
+attention, and gradually call off her mind from a series of painful
+reflections; and I imagined the change of air, and a journey of near a
+thousand miles, would have a happy effect upon my own constitution.
+But, as the summer was already advanced, and the heat too excessive for
+travelling in warm climates, I proposed staying at Boulogne till the
+beginning of autumn, and in the mean time to bathe in the sea, with a
+view to strengthen and prepare my body for the fatigues of such a long
+journey.
+
+A man who travels with a family of five persons, must lay his account
+with a number of mortifications; and some of these I have already
+happily overcome. Though I was well acquainted with the road to Dover,
+and made allowances accordingly, I could not help being chagrined at
+the bad accommodation and impudent imposition to which I was exposed.
+These I found the more disagreeable, as we were detained a day
+extraordinary on the road, in consequence of my wife's being indisposed.
+
+I need not tell you this is the worst road in England with respect to
+the conveniences of travelling, and must certainly impress foreigners
+with an unfavourable opinion of the nation in general. The chambers are
+in general cold and comfortless, the beds paultry, the cookery
+execrable, the wine poison, the attendance bad, the publicans insolent,
+and the bills extortion; there is not a drop of tolerable malt liquor
+to be had from London to Dover.
+
+Every landlord and every waiter harangued upon the knavery of a
+publican in Canterbury, who had charged the French ambassador forty
+pounds for a supper that was not worth forty shillings. They talked
+much of honesty and conscience; but when they produced their own bills,
+they appeared to be all of the same family and complexion. If it was a
+reproach upon the English nation, that an innkeeper should pillage
+strangers at that rate; it is a greater scandal, that the same fellow
+should be able to keep his house still open. I own, I think it would be
+for the honour of the kingdom to reform the abuses of this road; and in
+particular to improve the avenue to London by the way of Kent-Street,
+which is a most disgraceful entrance to such an opulent city. A
+foreigner, in passing through this beggarly and ruinous suburb,
+conceives such an idea of misery and meanness, as all the wealth and
+magnificence of London and Westminster are afterwards unable to
+destroy. A friend of mine, who brought a Parisian from Dover in his own
+post-chaise, contrived to enter Southwark after it was dark, that his
+friend might not perceive the nakedness of this quarter. The stranger
+was much pleased with the great number of shops full of merchandize,
+lighted up to the best advantage. He was astonished at the display of
+riches in Lombard-Street and Cheapside. The badness of the pavement
+made him find the streets twice as long as they were. They alighted in
+Upper Brook-Street by Grosvenor-Square; and when his conductor told him
+they were then about the middle of London, the Frenchman declared, with
+marks of infinite surprize, that London was very near as long as Paris.
+
+On my arrival at Dover I payed off my coachman, who went away with a
+heavy heart. He wanted much to cross the sea, and endeavoured to
+persuade me to carry the coach and horses to the other side. If I had
+been resolved to set out immediately for the South, perhaps I should
+have taken his advice. If I had retained him at the rate of twenty
+guineas per month, which was the price he demanded, and begun my
+journey without hesitation, I should travel more agreeably than I can
+expect to do in the carriages of this  country; and the difference of
+the expence would be a mere trifle. I would advise every man who
+travels through France to bring his own vehicle along with him, or at
+least to purchase one at Calais or Boulogne, where second-hand berlins
+and chaises may be generally had at reasonable rates. I have been
+offered a very good berlin for thirty guineas: but before I make the
+purchase, I must be better informed touching the different methods of
+travelling in this country.
+
+Dover is commonly termed a den of thieves; and I am afraid it is not
+altogether without reason, it has acquired this appellation. The people
+are said to live by piracy in time of war; and by smuggling and
+fleecing strangers in time of peace: but I will do them the justice to
+say, they make no distinction between foreigners and natives. Without
+all doubt a man cannot be much worse lodged and worse treated in any
+part of Europe; nor will he in any other place meet with more flagrant
+instances of fraud, imposition, and brutality. One would imagine they
+had formed a general conspiracy against all those who either go to, or
+return from the continent. About five years ago, in my passage from
+Flushing to Dover, the master of the packet-boat brought-to all of a
+sudden off the South Foreland, although the wind was as favourable as
+it could blow. He was immediately boarded by a customhouse boat, the
+officer of which appeared to be his friend. He then gave the passengers
+to understand, that as it was low water, the ship could not go into the
+harbour; but that the boat would carry them ashore with their baggage.
+
+The custom-house officer demanded a guinea for this service, and the
+bargain was made. Before we quitted the ship, we were obliged to
+gratify the cabin-boy for his attendance, and to give drink-money to
+the sailors. The boat was run aground on the open beach; but we could
+not get ashore without the assistance of three or four fellows, who
+insisted upon being paid for their trouble. Every parcel and bundle, as
+it was landed, was snatched up by a separate porter: one ran away with
+a hat-box, another with a wig-box, a third with a couple of shirts tied
+up in a handkerchief, and two were employed in carrying a small
+portmanteau that did not weigh forty pounds. All our things were
+hurried to the custom-house to be searched, and the searcher was paid
+for disordering our cloaths: from thence they were removed to the inn,
+where the porters demanded half-a-crown each for their labour. It was
+in vain to expostulate; they surrounded the house like a pack of hungry
+bounds, and raised such a clamour, that we were fain to comply. After
+we had undergone all this imposition, we were visited by the master of
+the packet, who, having taken our fares, and wished us joy of our happy
+arrival in England, expressed his hope that we would remember the poor
+master, whose wages were very small, and who chiefly depended upon the
+generosity of the passengers. I own I was shocked at his meanness, and
+could not help telling him so. I told him, I could not conceive what
+title he had to any such gratification: he had sixteen passengers, who
+paid a guinea each, on the supposition that every person should have a
+bed; but there were no more than eight beds in the cabin, and each of
+these was occupied before I came on board; so that if we had been
+detained at sea a whole week by contrary winds and bad weather, one
+half of the passengers must have slept upon the boards, howsoever their
+health might have suffered from this want of accommodation.
+Notwithstanding this check, he was so very abject and importunate, that
+we gave him a crown a-piece, and he retired.
+
+The first thing I did when I arrived at Dover this last time, was to
+send for the master of a packet-boat, and agree with him to carry us to
+Boulogne at once, by which means I saved the expence of travelling by
+land from Calais to this last place, a journey of four-and-twenty
+miles. The hire of a vessel from Dover to Boulogne is precisely the
+same as from Dover to Calais, five guineas; but this skipper demanded
+eight, and, as I did not know the fare, I agreed to give him six. We
+embarked between six and seven in the evening, and found ourselves in a
+most wretched hovel, on board what is called a Folkstone cutter. The
+cabin was so small that a dog could hardly turn in it, and the beds put
+me in mind of the holes described in some catacombs, in which the
+bodies of the dead were deposited, being thrust in with the feet
+foremost; there was no getting into them but end-ways, and indeed they
+seemed so dirty, that nothing but extreme necessity could have obliged
+me to use them. We sat up all night in a most uncomfortable situation,
+tossed about by the sea, cold, arid cramped and weary, and languishing
+for want of sleep. At three in the morning the master came down, and
+told us we were just off the harbour of Boulogne; but the wind blowing
+off shore, he could not possibly enter, and therefore advised us to go
+ashore in the boat. I went upon deck to view the coast, when he pointed
+to the place where he said Boulogne stood, declaring at the same time
+we were within a short mile of the harbour's mouth. The morning was
+cold and raw, and I knew myself extremely subject to catch cold;
+nevertheless we were all so impatient to be ashore, that I resolved to
+take his advice. The boat was already hoisted out, and we went on board
+of it, after I had paid the captain and gratified his crew. We had
+scarce parted from the ship, when we perceived a boat coming towards us
+from the shore; and the master gave us to understand, it was coming to
+carry us into the harbour. When I objected to the trouble of shifting
+from one boat to another in the open sea, which (by the bye) was a
+little rough; he said it was a privilege which the watermen of Boulogne
+had, to carry all passengers ashore, and that this privilege he durst
+not venture to infringe. This was no time nor place to remonstrate. The
+French boat came alongside half filled with water, and we were handed
+from the one to the other. We were then obliged to lie upon our oars,
+till the captain's boat went on board and returned from the ship with a
+packet of letters. We were afterwards rowed a long league, in a rough
+sea, against wind and tide, before we reached the harbour, where we
+landed, benumbed with cold, and the women excessively sick: from our
+landing-place we were obliged to walk very near a mile to the inn where
+we purposed to lodge, attended by six or seven men and women,
+bare-legged, carrying our baggage. This boat cost me a guinea, besides
+paying exorbitantly the people who carried our things; so that the
+inhabitants of Dover and of Boulogne seem to be of the same kidney, and
+indeed they understand one another perfectly well. It was our honest
+captain who made the signal for the shore-boat before I went upon deck;
+by which means he not only gratified his friends, the watermen of
+Boulogne, but also saved about fifteen shillings portage, which he must
+have paid had he gone into the harbour; and thus he found himself at
+liberty to return to Dover, which he reached in four hours. I mention
+these circumstances as a warning to other passengers. When a man hires
+a packet-boat from Dover to Calais or Boulogne, let him remember that
+the stated price is five guineas; and let him insist upon being carried
+into the harbour in the ship, without paying the least regard to the
+representations of the master, who is generally a little dirty knave.
+When he tells you it is low water, or the wind is in your teeth, you
+may say you will stay on board till it is high water, or till the wind
+comes favourable. If he sees you are resolute, he will find means to
+bring his ship into the harbour, or at least to convince you, without a
+possibility of your being deceived, that it is not in his power. After
+all, the fellow himself was a loser by his finesse; if he had gone into
+the harbour, he would have had another fare immediately back to Dover,
+for there was a Scotch gentleman at the inn waiting for such an
+opportunity.
+
+Knowing my own weak constitution, I took it for granted this morning's
+adventure would cost me a fit of illness; and what added to my chagrin,
+when we arrived at the inn, all the beds were occupied; so that we were
+obliged to sit in a cold kitchen above two hours, until some of the
+lodgers should get up. This was such a bad specimen of French
+accommodation, that my wife could not help regretting even the inns of
+Rochester, Sittingbourn, and Canterbury: bad as they are, they
+certainly have the advantage, when compared with the execrable auberges
+of this country, where one finds nothing but dirt and imposition. One
+would imagine the French were still at war with the English, for they
+pillage them without mercy.
+
+Among the strangers at this inn where we lodged, there was a gentleman
+of the faculty, just returned from Italy. Understanding that I intended
+to winter in the South of France, on account of a pulmonic disorder, he
+strongly recommended the climate of Nice in Provence, which, indeed, I
+had often heard extolled; and I am almost resolved to go thither, not
+only for the sake of the air, but also for its situation on the
+Mediterranean, where I can have the benefit of bathing; and from whence
+there is a short cut by sea to Italy, should I find it necessary to try
+the air of Naples.
+
+After having been ill accommodated three days at our inn, we have at
+last found commodious lodgings, by means of Mrs. B-, a very agreeable
+French lady, to whom we were recommended by her husband, who is my
+countryman, and at present resident in London. For three guineas a
+month we have the greatest part of a house tolerably furnished; four
+bed-chambers on the first floor, a large parlour below, a kitchen, and
+the use of a cellar.
+
+These, I own, are frivolous incidents, scarce worth committing to
+paper; but they may serve to introduce observations of more
+consequence; and in the mean time I know nothing will be indifferent to
+you, that concerns--Your humble servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER II
+
+BOULOGNE SUR MER, July 15, 1763.
+
+DEAR SIR,--The custom-house officers at Boulogne, though as alert, are
+rather more civil than those on your side of the water. I brought no
+plate along with me, but a dozen and a half of spoons, and a dozen
+teaspoons: the first being found in one of our portmanteaus, when they
+were examined at the bureau, cost me seventeen livres entree; the
+others being luckily in my servant's pocket, escaped duty free. All
+wrought silver imported into France, pays at the rate of so much per
+mark: therefore those who have any quantity of plate, will do well to
+leave it behind them, unless they can confide in the dexterity of the
+shipmasters; some of whom will undertake to land it without the
+ceremony of examination. The ordonnances of France are so unfavourable
+to strangers, that they oblige them to pay at the rate of five per
+cent. for all the bed and table linen which they bring into the
+kingdom, even though it has been used. When my trunks arrived in a ship
+from the river Thames, I underwent this ordeal: but what gives me more
+vexation, my books have been stopped at the bureau; and will be sent to
+Amiens at my expence, to be examined by the chambre syndicale; lest
+they should contain something prejudicial to the state, or to the
+religion of the country. This is a species of oppression which one
+would not expect to meet with in France, which piques itself on its
+politeness and hospitality: but the truth is, I know no country in
+which strangers are worse treated with respect to their essential
+concerns. If a foreigner dies in France, the king seizes all his
+effects, even though his heir should be upon the spot; and this tyranny
+is called the droit d'aubaine founded at first upon the supposition,
+that all the estate of foreigners residing in France was acquired in
+that kingdom, and that, therefore, it would be unjust to convey it to
+another country. If an English protestant goes to France for the
+benefit of his health, attended by his wife or his son, or both, and
+dies with effects in the house to the amount of a thousand guineas, the
+king seizes the whole, the family is left destitute, and the body of
+the deceased is denied christian burial. The Swiss, by capitulation,
+are exempted from this despotism, and so are the Scots, in consequence
+of an ancient alliance between the two nations. The same droit
+d'aubaine is exacted by some of the princes in Germany: but it is a
+great discouragement to commerce, and prejudices every country where it
+is exercised, to ten times the value of what it brings into the coffers
+of the sovereign.
+
+I am exceedingly mortified at the detention of my books, which not only
+deprives me of an amusement which I can very ill dispense with; but, in
+all probability, will expose me to sundry other inconveniencies. I must
+be at the expence of sending them sixty miles to be examined, and run
+the risque of their being condemned; and, in the mean time, I may lose
+the opportunity of sending them with my heavy baggage by sea to
+Bourdeaux, to be sent up the Garonne to Tholouse, and from thence
+transmitted through the canal of Languedoc to Cette, which is a
+sea-port on the Mediterranean, about three or four leagues from
+Montpelier.
+
+For the recovery of my books, I had recourse to the advice of my
+landlord, Mons. B--. He is a handsome young fellow, about twenty-five
+years of age, and keeps house with two maiden sisters, who are
+professed devotees. The brother is a little libertine, good natured and
+obliging; but a true Frenchman in vanity, which is undoubtedly the
+ruling passion of this volatile people. He has an inconsiderable place
+under the government, in consequence of which he is permitted to wear a
+sword, a privilege which he does not fail to use. He is likewise
+receiver of the tythes of the clergy in this district, an office that
+gives him a command of money, and he, moreover, deals in the wine
+trade. When I came to his house, he made a parade of all these
+advantages: he displayed his bags of money, and some old gold which his
+father had left him. He described his chateau in the country; dropped
+hints of the fortunes that were settled upon mademoiselles his sisters;
+boasted of his connexions at court; and assured me it was not for my
+money that he let his lodgings, but altogether with a view to enjoy the
+pleasure of my company. The truth, when stript of all embellishments,
+is this: the sieur B-- is the son of an honest bourgeois lately dead,
+who left him the house, with some stock in trade, a little money, and a
+paltry farm: his sisters have about three thousand livres (not quite
+140 L) apiece; the brother's places are worth about fifty pounds a
+year, and his connexions at court are confined to a commis or clerk in
+the secretary's office, with whom he corresponds by virtue of his
+employment. My landlord piques himself upon his gallantry and success
+with the fair-sex: he keeps a fille de joye, and makes no secret of his
+amours. He told miss C-- the other day, in broken English, that, in the
+course of the last year, he had made six bastards. He owned, at the
+same time, he had sent them all to the hospital; but, now his father is
+dead, he would himself take care of his future productions. This,
+however, was no better than a gasconade. Yesterday the house was in a
+hot alarm, on account of a new windfall of this kind: the sisters were
+in tears; the brother was visited by the cure of the parish; the lady
+in the straw (a sempstress) sent him the bantling in a basket, and he
+transmitted it by the carriers to the Enfans trouves at Paris.
+
+But to return from this digression: Mr. B-- advised me to send a
+requete or petition to the chancellor of France, that I might obtain an
+order to have my books examined on the spot, by the president of
+Boulogne, or the procureur du roy, or the sub-delegate of the
+intendance. He recommended an advocat of his acquaintance to draw up
+the memoire, and introduced him accordingly; telling me at the same
+time, in private, that if he was not a drunkard, he would be at the
+head of his profession. He had indeed all the outward signs of a sot; a
+sleepy eye, a rubicund face, and carbuncled nose. He seemed to be a
+little out at elbows, had marvellous foul linen, and his breeches were
+not very sound: but he assumed an air of importance, was very
+courteous, and very solemn. I asked him if he did not sometimes divert
+himself with the muse: he smiled, and promised, in a whisper, to shew
+me some chansonettes de sa facon. Meanwhile he composed the requete in
+my name, which was very pompous, very tedious, and very abject. Such a
+stile might perhaps be necessary in a native of France; but I did not
+think it was at all suitable to a subject of Great-Britain. I thanked
+him for the trouble he had taken, as he would receive no other
+gratification; but when my landlord proposed to send the memoire to his
+correspondent at Paris, to be delivered to the chancellor, I told him I
+had changed my mind, and would apply to the English ambassador. I have
+accordingly taken the liberty to address myself to the earl of H--; and
+at the same time I have presumed to write to the duchess of D--, who is
+now at Paris, to entreat her grace's advice and interposition. What
+effect these applications may have, I know not: but the sieur B--
+shakes his head, and has told my servant, in confidence, that I am
+mistaken if I think the English ambassador is as great a man at Paris
+as the chancellor of France.
+
+I ought to make an apology for troubling you with such an
+unentertaining detail, and consider that the detention of my books must
+be a matter of very little consequence to any body, but to--Your
+affectionate humble servant.
+
+LETTER III
+
+BOULOGNE, August 15, 1763.
+
+SIR--I am much obliged to you for your kind enquiries after my health,
+which has been lately in a very declining condition. In consequence of
+a cold, caught a few days after my arrival in France, I was seized with
+a violent cough, attended with a fever, and stitches in my breast,
+which tormented me all night long without ceasing. At the same time I
+had a great discharge by expectoration, and such a dejection of spirits
+as I never felt before. In this situation I took a step which may
+appear to have been desperate. I knew there was no imposthume in my
+lungs, and I supposed the stitches were spasmodical. I was sensible
+that all my complaints were originally derived from relaxation. I
+therefore hired a chaise, and going to the beach, about a league from
+the town, plunged into the sea without hesitation. By this desperate
+remedy, I got a fresh cold in my head: but my stitches and fever
+vanished the very first day; and by a daily repetition of the bath, I
+have diminished my cough, strengthened my body, and recovered my
+spirits. I believe I should have tried the same experiment, even if
+there had been an abscess in my lungs, though such practice would have
+been contrary to all the rules of medicine: but I am not one of those
+who implicitly believe in all the dogmata of physic. I saw one of the
+guides at Bath, the stoutest fellow among them, who recovered from the
+last stage of a consumption, by going into the king's bath, contrary to
+the express injunction of his doctor. He said, if he must die, the
+sooner the better, as he had nothing left for his subsistence. Instead
+of immediate death, he found instant case, and continued mending every
+day, till his health was entirely re-established. I myself drank the
+waters of Bath, and bathed, in diametrical opposition to the opinion of
+some physicians there settled, and found myself better every day,
+notwithstanding their unfavourable prognostic. If I had been of the
+rigid fibre, full of blood, subject to inflammation, I should have
+followed a different course. Our acquaintance, doctor C--, while he
+actually spit up matter, and rode out every day for his life, led his
+horse to water, at the pond in Hyde-Park, one cold frosty morning, and
+the beast, which happened to be of a hot constitution, plunged himself
+and his master over head and ears in the water. The poor doctor
+hastened home, half dead with fear, and was put to bed in the
+apprehension of a new imposthume; instead of which, he found himself
+exceedingly recruited in his spirits, and his appetite much mended. I
+advised him to take the hint, and go into the cold bath every morning;
+but he did not chuse to run any risque. How cold water comes to be such
+a bugbear, I know not: if I am not mistaken, Hippocrates recommends
+immersion in cold water for the gout; and Celsus expressly says, in
+omni tussi utilis est natatio: in every cough swimming is of service.
+
+I have conversed with a physician of this place, a sensible man, who
+assured me he was reduced to meer skin and bone by a cough and hectic
+fever, when he ordered a bath to be made in his own house, and dipped
+himself in cold water every morning. He at the same time left off
+drinking and swallowing any liquid that was warm. He is now strong and
+lusty, and even in winter has no other cover than a single sheet. His
+notions about the warm drink were a little whimsical: he imagined it
+relaxed the tone of the stomach; and this would undoubtedly be the case
+if it was drank in large quantities, warmer than the natural
+temperature of the blood. He alledged the example of the inhabitants of
+the Ladrone islands, who never taste any thing that is not cold, and
+are remarkably healthy. But to balance this argument I mentioned the
+Chinese, who scarce drink any thing but warm tea; and the Laplanders,
+who drink nothing but warm water; yet the people of both these nations
+are remarkably strong, healthy, and long-lived.
+
+You desire to know the fate of my books. My lord H--d is not yet come
+to France; but my letter was transmitted to him from Paris; and his
+lordship, with that generous humanity which is peculiar to his
+character, has done me the honour to assure me, under his own hand,
+that he has directed Mr. N--lle, our resident at Paris, to apply for an
+order that my books may be restored.
+
+I have met with another piece of good fortune, in being introduced to
+general Paterson and his lady, in their way to England from Nice, where
+the general has been many years commandant for the king of Sardinia.
+You must have heard of this gentleman, who has not only eminently
+distinguished himself, by his courage and conduct as an officer; but
+also by his probity and humanity in the exercise, of his office, and by
+his remarkable hospitality to all strangers, especially the subjects of
+Great-Britain, whose occasions called them to the place where he
+commanded. Being pretty far advanced in years, he begged leave to
+resign, that he might spend the evening of his days in his own country;
+and his Sardinian majesty granted his request with regret, after having
+honoured him with very particular marks of approbation and esteem. The
+general talks so favourably of the climate of Nice, with respect to
+disorders of the breast, that I am now determined to go thither. It
+would have been happy for me had he continued in his government. I
+think myself still very fortunate, in having obtained of him a letter
+of recommendation to the English consul at Nice, together with
+directions how to travel through the South of France. I propose to
+begin my journey some time next month, when the weather will be
+temperate to the southward; and in the wine countries I shall have the
+pleasure of seeing the vintage, which is always a season of festivity
+among all ranks of people.
+
+You have been very much mis-informed, by the person who compared
+Boulogne to Wapping: he did a manifest injustice to this place which is
+a large agreeable town, with broad open streets, excellently paved; and
+the houses are of stone, well built and commodious. The number of
+inhabitants may amount to sixteen thousand. You know this was generally
+supposed to be the portus Itius, and Gessoriacum of the antients:
+though it is now believed that the portus Itius, from whence Caesar
+sailed to Britain, is a place called Whitsand, about half way between
+this place and Calais. Boulogne is the capital of the Boulonnois, a
+district extending about twelve leagues, ruled by a governor
+independent of the governor of Picardy; of which province, however,
+this country forms a part. The present governor is the duc d'Aumout.
+The town of Boulogne is the see of a bishop suffragan of Rheims, whose
+revenue amounts to about four-and-twenty thousand livres, or one
+thousand pounds sterling. It is also the seat of a seneschal's court,
+from whence an appeal lies to the parliament of Paris; and thither all
+condemned criminals are sent, to have their sentence confirmed or
+reversed. Here is likewise a bailiwick, and a court of admiralty. The
+military jurisdiction of the city belongs to a commandant appointed by
+the king, a sort of sinecure bestowed upon some old officer. His
+appointments are very inconsiderable: he resides in the Upper Town, and
+his garrison at present consists of a few hundreds of invalids.
+
+Boulogne is divided into the Upper and Lower Towns. The former is a
+kind of citadel, about a short mile in circumference, situated on a
+rising ground, surrounded by a high wall and rampart, planted with rows
+of trees, which form a delightful walk. It commands a fine view of the
+country and Lower Town; and in clear weather the coast of England, from
+Dover to Folkstone, appears so plain, that one would imagine it was
+within four or five leagues of the French shore. The Upper Town was
+formerly fortified with outworks, which are now in ruins. Here is a
+square, a town-house, the cathedral, and two or three convents of nuns;
+in one of which there are several English girls, sent hither for their
+education. The smallness of the expence encourages parents to send
+their children abroad to these seminaries, where they learn scarce any
+thing that is useful but the French language; but they never fail to
+imbibe prejudices against the protestant religion, and generally return
+enthusiastic converts to the religion of Rome. This conversion always
+generates a contempt for, and often an aversion to, their own country.
+Indeed it cannot reasonably be expected that people of weak minds,
+addicted to superstition, should either love or esteem those whom they
+are taught to consider as reprobated heretics. Ten pounds a year is the
+usual pension in these convents; but I have been informed by a French
+lady who had her education in one of them, that nothing can be more
+wretched than their entertainment.
+
+The civil magistracy of Boulogne consists of a mayor and echevins; and
+this is the case in almost all the towns of France.
+
+The Lower Town is continued from the gate of the Upper Town, down the
+slope of a hill, as far as the harbour, stretching on both sides to a
+large extent, and is much more considerable than the Upper, with
+respect to the beauty of the streets, the convenience of the houses,
+and the number and wealth of the inhabitants. These, however, are all
+merchants, or bourgeoise, for the noblesse or gentry live all together
+in the Upper Town, and never mix with the others. The harbour of
+Boulogne is at the mouth of the small river, or rather rivulet Liane,
+which is so shallow, that the children wade through it at low water. As
+the tide makes, the sea flows in, and forms a pretty extensive harbour,
+which, however, admits nothing but small vessels. It is contracted at
+the mouth by two stone jetties or piers, which seem to have been
+constructed by some engineer, very little acquainted with this branch
+of his profession; for they are carried out in such a manner, as to
+collect a bank of sand just at the entrance of the harbour. The road is
+very open and unsafe, and the surf very high when the wind blows from
+the sea. There is no fortification near the harbour, except a paltry
+fort mounting about twenty guns, built in the last war by the prince de
+Cruy, upon a rock about a league to the eastward of Boulogne. It
+appears to be situated in such a manner, that it can neither offend,
+nor be offended. If the depth of water would admit a forty or fifty gun
+ship to lie within cannon-shot of it, I apprehend it might be silenced
+in half an hour; but, in all probability, there will be no vestiges of
+it at the next rupture between the two crowns. It is surrounded every
+day by the sea, at high water; and when it blows a fresh gale towards
+the shore, the waves break over the top of it, to the terror and
+astonishment of the garrison, who have been often heard crying
+piteously for assistance. I am persuaded, that it will one day
+disappear in the twinkling of an eye. The neighbourhood of this fort,
+which is a smooth sandy beach, I have chosen for my bathing place. The
+road to it is agreeable and romantic, lying through pleasant
+cornfields, skirted by open downs, where there is a rabbit warren, and
+great plenty of the birds so much admired at Tunbridge under the name
+of wheat-ears. By the bye, this is a pleasant corruption of white-a-se,
+the translation of their French name cul-blanc, taken from their colour
+for they are actually white towards the tail.
+
+Upon the top of a high rock, which overlooks the harbour, are the
+remains of an old fortification, which is indiscriminately called, Tour
+d'ordre, and Julius Caesar's fort. The original tower was a light-house
+built by Claudius Caesar, denominated Turris ardens, from the fire
+burned in it; and this the French have corrupted into Tour d'ordre; but
+no vestiges of this Roman work remain; what we now see, are the ruins
+of a castle built by Charlemagne. I know of no other antiquity at
+Boulogne, except an old vault in the Upper Town, now used as a
+magazine, which is said to be part of an antient temple dedicated to
+Isis.
+
+On the other side of the harbour, opposite to the Lower Town, there is
+a house built, at a considerable expence, by a general officer, who
+lost his life in the late war. Never was situation more inconvenient,
+unpleasant, and unhealthy. It stands on the edge of an ugly morass
+formed by the stagnant water left by the tide in its retreat: the very
+walks of the garden are so moist, that, in the driest weather, no
+person can make a tour of it, without danger of the rheumatism.
+Besides, the house is altogether inaccessible, except at low water, and
+even then the carriage must cross the harbour, the wheels up to the
+axle-tree in mud: nay, the tide rushes in so fast, that unless you
+seize the time to a minute, you will be in danger of perishing. The
+apartments of this house are elegantly fitted up, but very small; and
+the garden, notwithstanding its unfavourable situation, affords a great
+quantity of good fruit. The ooze, impregnated with sea salt, produces,
+on this side of the harbour, an incredible quantity of the finest
+samphire I ever saw. The French call it passe-pierre; and I suspect its
+English name is a corruption of sang-pierre. It is generally found on
+the faces of bare rocks that overhang the sea, by the spray of which it
+is nourished. As it grew upon a naked rock, without any appearance of
+soil, it might be naturally enough called sang du pierre, or
+sangpierre, blood of the rock; and hence the name samphire. On the same
+side of the harbour there is another new house, neatly built, belonging
+to a gentleman who has obtained a grant from the king of some ground
+which was always overflowed at high water. He has raised dykes at a
+considerable expence, to exclude the tide, and if he can bring his
+project to bear, he will not only gain a good estate for himself, but
+also improve the harbour, by increasing the depth at high-water.
+
+In the Lower Town of Boulogne there are several religious houses,
+particularly a seminary, a convent of Cordeliers, and another of
+Capuchins. This last, having fallen to decay, was some years ago
+repaired, chiefly by the charity of British travellers, collected by
+father Graeme, a native of North-Britain, who had been an officer in
+the army of king James II. and is said to have turned monk of this
+mendicant order, by way of voluntary penance, for having killed his
+friend in a duel. Be that as it may, he was a well-bred, sensible man,
+of a very exemplary life and conversation; and his memory is much
+revered in this place. Being superior of the convent, he caused the
+British arms to be put up in the church, as a mark of gratitude for the
+benefactions received from our nation. I often walk in the garden of
+the convent, the walls of which are washed by the sea at high-water. At
+the bottom of the garden is a little private grove, separated from it
+by a high wall, with a door of communication; and hither the Capuchins
+retire, when they are disposed for contemplation. About two years ago,
+this place was said to be converted to a very different use. There was
+among the monks one pere Charles, a lusty friar, of whom the people
+tell strange stories. Some young women of the town were seen mounting
+over the wall, by a ladder of ropes, in the dusk of the evening; and
+there was an unusual crop of bastards that season. In short, pere
+Charles and his companions gave such scandal, that the whole fraternity
+was changed; and now the nest is occupied by another flight of these
+birds of passage. If one of our privateers had kidnapped a Capuchin
+during the war, and exhibited him, in his habit, as a shew in London,
+he would have proved a good prize to the captors; for I know not a more
+uncouth and grotesque animal, than an old Capuchin in the habit of his
+order. A friend of mine (a Swiss officer) told me, that a peasant in
+his country used to weep bitterly, whenever a certain Capuchin mounted
+the pulpit to hold forth to the people. The good father took notice of
+this man, and believed he was touched by the finger of the Lord. He
+exhorted him to encourage these accessions of grace, and at the same
+time to be of good comfort, as having received such marks of the divine
+favour. The man still continued to weep, as before, every time the monk
+preached; and at last the Capuchin insisted upon knowing what it was,
+in his discourse or appearance, that made such an impression upon his
+heart "Ah, father! (cried the peasant) I never see you but I think of a
+venerable goat, which I lost at Easter. We were bred up together in the
+same family. He was the very picture of your reverence--one would swear
+you were brothers. Poor Baudouin! he died of a fall--rest his soul! I
+would willingly pay for a couple of masses to pray him out of
+purgatory."
+
+Among other public edifices at Boulogne, there is an hospital, or
+workhouse, which seems to be established upon a very good foundation.
+It maintains several hundreds of poor people, who are kept constantly
+at work, according to their age and abilities, in making thread, all
+sorts of lace, a kind of catgut, and in knitting stockings. It is under
+the direction of the bishop; and the see is at present filled by a
+prelate of great piety and benevolence, though a little inclining to
+bigotry and fanaticism. The churches in this town are but indifferently
+built, and poorly ornamented. There is not one picture in the place
+worth looking at, nor indeed does there seem to be the least taste for
+the liberal arts.
+
+In my next, I shall endeavour to satisfy you in the other articles you
+desire to know. Mean-while, I am ever--Yours.
+
+
+
+LETTER IV
+
+BOULOGNE, September 1, 1763.
+
+SIR,--I am infinitely obliged to D. H-- for the favourable manner in
+which he has mentioned me to the earl of H-- I have at last recovered
+my books, by virtue of a particular order to the director of the
+douane, procured by the application of the English resident to the
+French ministry. I am now preparing for my long journey; but, before I
+leave this place, I shall send you the packet I mentioned, by Meriton.
+Mean-while I must fulfil my promise in communicating the observations I
+have had occasion to make upon this town and country.
+
+The air of Boulogne is cold and moist, and, I believe, of consequence
+unhealthy. Last winter the frost, which continued six weeks in London,
+lasted here eight weeks without intermission; and the cold was so
+intense, that, in the garden of the Capuchins, it split the bark of
+several elms from top to bottom. On our arrival here we found all kinds
+of fruit more backward than in England. The frost, in its progress to
+Britain, is much weakened in crossing the sea. The atmosphere,
+impregnated with saline particles, resists the operation of freezing.
+Hence, in severe winters, all places near the sea-side are less cold
+than more inland districts. This is the reason why the winter is often
+more mild at Edinburgh than at London. A very great degree of cold is
+required to freeze salt water. Indeed it will not freeze at all, until
+it has deposited all its salt. It is now generally allowed among
+philosophers, that water is no more than ice thawed by heat, either
+solar, or subterranean, or both; and that this heat being expelled, it
+would return to its natural consistence. This being the case, nothing
+else is required for the freezing of water, than a certain degree of
+cold, which may be generated by the help of salt, or spirit of nitre,
+even under the line. I would propose, therefore, that an apparatus of
+this sort should be provided in every ship that goes to sea; and in
+case there should be a deficiency of fresh water on board, the seawater
+may be rendered potable, by being first converted into ice.
+
+The air of Boulogne is not only loaded with a great evaporation from
+the sea, increased by strong gales of wind from the West and
+South-West, which blow almost continually during the greatest part of
+the year; but it is also subject to putrid vapours, arising from the
+low marshy ground in the neighbourhood of the harbour, which is every
+tide overflowed with seawater. This may be one cause of the scrofula
+and rickets, which are two prevailing disorders among the children in
+Boulogne. But I believe the former is more owing to the water used in
+the Lower Town, which is very hard and unwholsome. It curdles with
+soap, gives a red colour to the meat that is boiled in it, and, when
+drank by strangers, never fails to occasion pains in the stomach and
+bowels; nay, sometimes produces dysenteries. In all appearance it is
+impregnated with nitre, if not with something more mischievous: we know
+that mundic, or pyrites, very often contains a proportion of arsenic,
+mixed with sulphur, vitriol, and mercury. Perhaps it partakes of the
+acid of some coal mine; for there are coal works in this district.
+There is a well of purging water within a quarter of a mile of the
+Upper Town, to which the inhabitants resort in the morning, as the
+people of London go to the Dog-and-duck, in St. George's fields. There
+is likewise a fountain of excellent water, hard by the cathedral, in
+the Upper Town, from whence I am daily supplied at a small expence.
+Some modern chemists affirm, that no saline chalybeate waters can
+exist, except in the neighbourhood of coal damps; and that nothing can
+be more mild, and gentle, and friendly to the constitution, than the
+said damps: but I know that the place where I was bred stands upon a
+zonic of coal; that the water which the inhabitants generally use is
+hard and brackish; and that the people are remarkably subject to the
+king's evil and consumption. These I would impute to the bad water,
+impregnated with the vitriol and brine of coal, as there is nothing in
+the constitution of the air that should render such distempers
+endemial. That the air of Boulogne encourages putrefaction, appears
+from the effect it has upon butcher's meat, which, though the season is
+remarkably cold, we can hardly keep four-and-twenty hours in the
+coolest part of the house.
+
+Living here is pretty reasonable; and the markets are tolerably
+supplied. The beef is neither fat nor firm; but very good for soup,
+which is the only use the French make of it. The veal is not so white,
+nor so well fed, as the English veal; but it is more juicy, and better
+tasted. The mutton and pork are very good. We buy our poultry alive,
+and fatten them at home. Here are excellent turkies, and no want of
+game: the hares, in particular, are very large, juicy, and
+high-flavoured. The best part of the fish caught on this coast is sent
+post to Paris, in chasse-marines, by a company of contractors, like
+those of Hastings in Sussex. Nevertheless, we have excellent soles,
+skaite, flounders and whitings, and sometimes mackarel. The oysters are
+very large, coarse, and rank. There is very little fish caught on the
+French coast, because the shallows run a great way from the shore; and
+the fish live chiefly in deep water: for this reason the fishermen go a
+great way out to sea, sometimes even as far as the coast of England.
+Notwithstanding all the haste the contractors can make, their fish in
+the summer is very often spoiled before it arrives at Paris; and this
+is not to be wondered at, considering the length of the way, which is
+near one hundred and fifty miles. At best it must be in such a
+mortified condition, that no other people, except the negroes on the
+coast of Guinea, would feed upon it.
+
+The wine commonly drank at Boulogne comes from Auxerre, is very small
+and meagre, and may be had from five to eight sols a bottle; that is,
+from two-pence halfpenny to fourpence. The French inhabitants drink no
+good wine; nor is there any to be had, unless you have recourse to the
+British wine-merchants here established, who deal in Bourdeaux wines,
+brought hither by sea for the London market. I have very good claret
+from a friend, at the rate of fifteen-pence sterling a bottle; and
+excellent small beer as reasonable as in England. I don't believe there
+is a drop of generous Burgundy in the place; and the aubergistes impose
+upon us shamefully, when they charge it at two livres a bottle. There
+is a small white wine, called preniac, which is very agreeable and very
+cheap. All the brandy which I have seen in Boulogne is new, fiery, and
+still-burnt. This is the trash which the smugglers import into England:
+they have it for about ten-pence a gallon. Butcher's meat is sold for
+five sols, or two-pence halfpenny a pound, and the pound here consists
+of eighteen ounces. I have a young turkey for thirty sols; a hare for
+four-and-twenty; a couple of chickens for twenty sols, and a couple of
+good soles for the same price. Before we left England, we were told
+that there was no fruit in Boulogne; but we have found ourselves
+agreeably disappointed in this particular. The place is well supplied
+with strawberries, cherries, gooseberries, corinths, peaches, apricots,
+and excellent pears. I have eaten more fruit this season, than I have
+done for several years. There are many well-cultivated gardens in the
+skirts of the town; particularly one belonging to our friend Mrs. B--,
+where we often drink tea in a charming summer-house built on a rising
+ground, which commands a delightful prospect of the sea. We have many
+obligations to this good lady, who is a kind neighbour, an obliging
+friend, and a most agreeable companion: she speaks English prettily,
+and is greatly attached to the people and the customs of our nation.
+They use wood for their common fewel, though, if I were to live at
+Boulogne, I would mix it with coal, which this country affords. Both
+the wood and the coal are reasonable enough. I am certain that a man
+may keep house in Boulogne for about one half of what it will cost him
+in London; and this is said to be one of the dearest places in France.
+
+The adjacent country is very agreeable, diversified with hill and dale,
+corn-fields, woods, and meadows. There is a forest of a considerable
+extent, that begins about a short league from the Upper Town: it
+belongs to the king, and the wood is farmed to different individuals.
+
+In point of agriculture, the people in this neighbourhood seem to have
+profited by the example of the English. Since I was last in France,
+fifteen years ago, a good number of inclosures and plantations have
+been made in the English fashion. There is a good many tolerable
+country-houses, within a few miles of Boulogne; but mostly empty. I was
+offered a compleat house, with a garden of four acres well laid out,
+and two fields for grass or hay, about a mile from the town, for four
+hundred livres, about seventeen pounds a year: it is partly furnished,
+stands in an agreeable situation, with a fine prospect of the sea, and
+was lately occupied by a Scotch nobleman, who is in the service of
+France.
+
+To judge from appearance, the people of Boulogne are descended from the
+Flemings, who formerly possessed this country; for, a great many of the
+present inhabitants have fine skins, fair hair, and florid complexions;
+very different from the natives of France in general, who are
+distinguished by black hair, brown skins, and swarthy faces. The people
+of the Boulonnois enjoy some extraordinary privileges, and, in
+particular, are exempted from the gabelle or duties upon salt: how they
+deserved this mark of favour, I do not know; but they seem to have a
+spirit of independence among them, are very ferocious, and much
+addicted to revenge. Many barbarous murders are committed, both in the
+town and country; and the peasants, from motives of envy and
+resentment, frequently set their neighbours' houses on fire. Several
+instances of this kind have happened in the course of the last year.
+The interruption which is given, in arbitrary governments, to the
+administration of justice, by the interposition of the great, has
+always a bad effect upon the morals of the common people. The peasants
+too are often rendered desperate and savage, by the misery they suffer
+from the oppression and tyranny of their landlords. In this
+neighbourhood the labouring people are ill lodged and wretchedly fed;
+and they have no idea of cleanliness. There is a substantial burgher in
+the High Town, who was some years ago convicted of a most barbarous
+murder. He received sentence to be broke alive upon the wheel; but was
+pardoned by the interposition of the governor of the county, and
+carries on his business as usual in the face of the whole community. A
+furious abbe, being refused orders by the bishop, on account of his
+irregular life, took an opportunity to stab the prelate with a knife,
+one Sunday, as he walked out of the cathedral. The good bishop desired
+he might be permitted to escape; but it was thought proper to punish,
+with the utmost severity, such an atrocious attempt. He was accordingly
+apprehended, and, though the wound was not mortal, condemned to be
+broke. When this dreadful sentence was executed, he cried out, that it
+was hard he should undergo such torments, for having wounded a
+worthless priest, by whom he had been injured, while such-a-one (naming
+the burgher mentioned above) lived in ease and security, after having
+brutally murdered a poor man, and a helpless woman big with child, who
+had not given him the least provocation.
+
+The inhabitants of Boulogne may be divided into three classes; the
+noblesse or gentry, the burghers, and the canaille. I don't mention the
+clergy, and the people belonging to the law, because I shall
+occasionally trouble you with my thoughts upon the religion and
+ecclesiastics of this country; and as for the lawyers, exclusive of
+their profession, they may be considered as belonging to one or other
+of these divisions. The noblesse are vain, proud, poor, and slothful.
+Very few of them have above six thousand livres a year, which may
+amount to about two hundred and fifty pounds sterling; and many of them
+have not half this revenue. I think there is one heiress, said to be
+worth one hundred thousand livres, about four thousand two hundred
+pounds; but then her jewels, her cloaths, and even her linen, are
+reckoned part of this fortune. The noblesse have not the common sense
+to reside at their houses in the country, where, by farming their own
+grounds, they might live at a small expence, and improve their estates
+at the same time. They allow their country houses to go to decay, and
+their gardens and fields to waste; and reside in dark holes in the
+Upper Town of Boulogne without light, air, or convenience. There they
+starve within doors, that they may have wherewithal to purchase fine
+cloaths, and appear dressed once a day in the church, or on the
+rampart. They have no education, no taste for reading, no housewifery,
+nor indeed any earthly occupation, but that of dressing their hair, and
+adorning their bodies. They hate walking, and would never go abroad, if
+they were not stimulated by the vanity of being seen. I ought to except
+indeed those who turn devotees, and spend the greatest part of their
+time with the priest, either at church or in their own houses. Other
+amusements they have none in this place, except private parties of
+card-playing, which are far from being expensive. Nothing can be more
+parsimonious than the oeconomy of these people: they live upon soupe
+and bouille, fish and sallad: they never think of giving dinners, or
+entertaining their friends; they even save the expence of coffee and
+tea, though both are very cheap at Boulogne. They presume that every
+person drinks coffee at home, immediately after dinner, which is always
+over by one o'clock; and, in lieu of tea in the afternoon, they treat
+with a glass of sherbet, or capillaire. In a word, I know not a more
+insignificant set of mortals than the noblesse of Boulogne; helpless in
+themselves, and useless to the community; without dignity, sense, or
+sentiment; contemptible from pride. and ridiculous from vanity. They
+pretend to be jealous of their rank, and will entertain no
+correspondence with the merchants, whom they term plebeians. They
+likewise keep at a great distance from strangers, on pretence of a
+delicacy in the article of punctilio: but, as I am informed, this
+stateliness is in a great measure affected, in order to conceal their
+poverty, which would appear to greater disadvantage, if they admitted
+of a more familiar communication. Considering the vivacity of the
+French people, one would imagine they could not possibly lead such an
+insipid life, altogether unanimated by society, or diversion. True it
+is, the only profane diversions of this place are a puppet-show and a
+mountebank; but then their religion affords a perpetual comedy. Their
+high masses, their feasts, their processions, their pilgrimages,
+confessions, images, tapers, robes, incense, benedictions, spectacles,
+representations, and innumerable ceremonies, which revolve almost
+incessantly, furnish a variety of entertainment from one end of the
+year to the other. If superstition implies fear, never was a word more
+misapplied than it is to the mummery of the religion of Rome. The
+people are so far from being impressed with awe and religious terror by
+this sort of machinery, that it amuses their imaginations in the most
+agreeable manner, and keeps them always in good humour. A Roman
+catholic longs as impatiently for the festival of St. Suaire, or St.
+Croix, or St. Veronique, as a schoolboy in England for the
+representation of punch and the devil; and there is generally as much
+laughing at one farce as at the other. Even when the descent from the
+cross is acted, in the holy week, with all the circumstances that ought
+naturally to inspire the gravest sentiments, if you cast your eyes
+among the multitude that croud the place, you will not discover one
+melancholy face: all is prattling, tittering, or laughing; and ten to
+one but you perceive a number of them employed in hissing the female
+who personates the Virgin Mary. And here it may not be amiss to
+observe, that the Roman catholics, not content with the infinite number
+of saints who really existed, have not only personified the cross, but
+made two female saints out of a piece of linen. Veronique, or Veronica,
+is no other than a corruption of vera icon, or vera effigies, said to
+be the exact representation of our Saviour's face, impressed upon a
+piece of linen, with which he wiped the sweat from his forehead in his
+way to the place of crucifixion. The same is worshipped under the name
+of St. Suaire, from the Latin word sudarium. This same handkerchief is
+said to have had three folds, on every one of which was the impression:
+one of these remains at Jerusalem, a second was brought to Rome, and a
+third was conveyed to Spain. Baronius says, there is a very antient
+history of the sancta facies in the Vatican. Tillemont, however, looks
+upon the whole as a fable. Some suppose Veronica to be the same with
+St. Haemorrhoissa, the patroness of those who are afflicted with the
+piles, who make their joint invocations to her and St. Fiacre, the son
+of a Scotch king, who lived and died a hermit in France. The troops of
+Henry V. of England are said to have pillaged the chapel of this
+Highland saint; who, in revenge, assisted his countrymen, in the French
+service, to defeat the English at Bauge, and afterwards afflicted Henry
+with the piles, of which he died. This prince complained, that he was
+not only plagued by the living Scots, but even persecuted by those who
+were dead.
+
+I know not whether I may be allowed to compare the Romish religion to
+comedy, and Calvinism to tragedy. The first amuses the senses, and
+excites ideas of mirth and good-humour; the other, like tragedy, deals
+in the passions of terror and pity. Step into a conventicle of
+dissenters, you will, ten to one, hear the minister holding forth upon
+the sufferings of Christ, or the torments of hell, and see many marks
+of religious horror in the faces of the hearers. This is perhaps one
+reason why the reformation did not succeed in France, among a volatile,
+giddy, unthinking people, shocked at the mortified appearances of the
+Calvinists; and accounts for its rapid progress among nations of a more
+melancholy turn of character and complexion: for, in the conversion of
+the multitude, reason is generally out of the question. Even the
+penance imposed upon the catholics is little more than mock
+mortification: a murderer is often quit with his confessor for saying
+three prayers extraordinary; and these easy terms, on which absolution
+is obtained, certainly encourage the repetition of the most enormous
+crimes. The pomp and ceremonies of this religion, together with the
+great number of holidays they observe, howsoever they may keep up the
+spirits of the commonalty, and help to diminish the sense of their own
+misery, must certainly, at the same time, produce a frivolous taste for
+frippery and shew, and encourage a habit of idleness, to which I, in a
+great measure, ascribe the extreme poverty of the lower people. Very
+near half of their time, which might he profitably employed in the
+exercise of industry, is lost to themselves and the community, in
+attendance upon the different exhibitions of religious mummery.
+
+But as this letter has already run to an unconscionable length, I shall
+defer, till another occasion, what I have further to say on the people
+of this place, and in the mean time assure you, that I am always--Yours
+affectionately.
+
+
+
+LETTER V
+
+BOULOGNE, September 12, 1763.
+
+DEAR SIR,--My stay in this place now draws towards a period. 'Till
+within these few days I have continued bathing, with some advantage to
+my health, though the season has been cold and wet, and disagreeable.
+There was a fine prospect of a plentiful harvest in this neighbourhood.
+I used to have great pleasure in driving between the fields of wheat,
+oats, and barley; but the crop has been entirely ruined by the rain,
+and nothing is now to be seen on the ground but the tarnished straw,
+and the rotten spoils of the husbandman's labour. The ground scarce
+affords subsistence to a few flocks of meagre sheep, that crop the
+stubble, and the intervening grass; each flock under the protection of
+its shepherd, with his crook and dogs, who lies every night in the
+midst of the fold, in a little thatched travelling lodge, mounted on a
+wheel-carriage. Here he passes the night, in order to defend his flock
+from the wolves, which are sometimes, especially in winter, very bold
+and desperate.
+
+Two days ago we made an excursion with Mrs. B-- and Capt. L-- to the
+village of Samers, on the Paris road, about three leagues from
+Boulogne. Here is a venerable abbey of Benedictines, well endowed, with
+large agreeable gardens prettily laid out. The monks are well lodged,
+and well entertained. Tho' restricted from flesh meals by the rules of
+their order, they are allowed to eat wild duck and teal, as a species
+of fish; and when they long for a good bouillon, or a partridge, or
+pullet, they have nothing to do but to say they are out of order. In
+that case the appetite of the patient is indulged in his own apartment.
+Their church is elegantly contrived, but kept in a very dirty
+condition. The greatest curiosity I saw in this place was an English
+boy, about eight or nine years old, whom his father had sent hither to
+learn the French language. In less than eight weeks, he was become
+captain of the boys of the place, spoke French perfectly well, and had
+almost forgot his mother tongue. But to return to the people of
+Boulogne.
+
+The burghers here, as in other places, consist of merchants,
+shop-keepers, and artisans. Some of the merchants have got fortunes, by
+fitting out privateers during the war. A great many single ships were
+taken from the English, notwithstanding the good look-out of our
+cruisers, who were so alert, that the privateers from this coast were
+often taken in four hours after they sailed from the French harbour;
+and there is hardly a captain of an armateur in Boulogne, who has not
+been prisoner in England five or six times in the course of the war.
+They were fitted out at a very small expence, and used to run over in
+the night to the coast of England, where they hovered as English
+fishing smacks, until they kidnapped some coaster, with which they made
+the best of their way across the Channel. If they fell in with a
+British cruiser, they surrendered without resistance: the captain was
+soon exchanged, and the loss of the proprietor was not great: if they
+brought their prize safe into harbour, the advantage was considerable.
+In time of peace the merchants of Boulogne deal in wine brandies, and
+oil, imported from the South, and export fish, with the manufactures of
+France, to Portugal, and other countries; but the trade is not great.
+Here are two or three considerable houses of wine merchants from
+Britain, who deal in Bourdeaux wine, with which they supply London and
+other parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The fishery of mackarel
+and herring is so considerable on this coast, that it is said to yield
+annually eight or nine hundred thousand livres, about thirty-five
+thousand pounds sterling.
+
+The shop-keepers here drive a considerable traffic with the English
+smugglers, whose cutters are almost the only vessels one sees in the
+harbour of Boulogne, if we except about a dozen of those flat-bottomed
+boats, which raised such alarms in England, in the course of the war.
+Indeed they seem to be good for nothing else, and perhaps they were
+built for this purpose only. The smugglers from the coast of Kent and
+Sussex pay English gold for great quantities of French brandy, tea,
+coffee, and small wine, which they run from this country. They likewise
+buy glass trinkets, toys, and coloured prints, which sell in England,
+for no other reason, but that they come from France, as they may be had
+as cheap, and much better finished, of our own manufacture. They
+likewise take off ribbons, laces, linen, and cambrics; though this
+branch of trade is chiefly in the hands of traders that come from
+London and make their purchases at Dunkirk, where they pay no duties.
+It is certainly worth while for any traveller to lay in a stock of
+linen either at Dunkirk or Boulogne; the difference of the price at
+these two places is not great. Even here I have made a provision of
+shirts for one half of the money they would have cost in London.
+Undoubtedly the practice of smuggling is very detrimental to the fair
+trader, and carries considerable sums of money out of the kingdom, to
+enrich our rivals and enemies. The custom-house officers are very
+watchful, and make a great number of seizures: nevertheless, the
+smugglers find their account in continuing this contraband commerce;
+and are said to indemnify themselves, if they save one cargo out of
+three. After all, the best way to prevent smuggling, is to lower the
+duties upon the commodities which are thus introduced. I have been
+told, that the revenue upon tea has encreased ever since the duty upon
+it was diminished. By the bye, the tea smuggled on the coast of Sussex
+is most execrable stuff. While I stayed at Hastings, for the
+conveniency of bathing, I must have changed my breakfast, if I had not
+luckily brought tea with me from London: yet we have as good tea at
+Boulogne for nine livres a pound, as that which sells at fourteen
+shillings at London.
+
+The bourgeois of this place seem to live at their ease, probably in
+consequence of their trade with the English. Their houses consist of
+the ground-floor, one story above, and garrets. In those which are well
+furnished, you see pier-glasses and marble slabs; but the chairs are
+either paultry things, made with straw bottoms, which cost about a
+shilling a-piece, or old-fashioned, high-backed seats of needle-work,
+stuffed, very clumsy and incommodious. The tables are square fir
+boards, that stand on edge in a corner, except when they are used, and
+then they are set upon cross legs that open and shut occasionally. The
+king of France dines off a board of this kind. Here is plenty of
+table-linen however. The poorest tradesman in Boulogne has a napkin on
+every cover, and silver forks with four prongs, which are used with the
+right hand, there being very little occasion for knives; for the meat
+is boiled or roasted to rags. The French beds are so high, that
+sometimes one is obliged to mount them by the help of steps; and this
+is also the case in Flanders. They very seldom use feather-beds; but
+they lie upon a paillasse, or bag of straw, over which are laid two,
+and sometimes three mattrasses. Their testers are high and
+old-fashioned, and their curtains generally of thin bays, red, or
+green, laced with taudry yellow, in imitation of gold. In some houses,
+however, one meets with furniture of stamped linen; but there is no
+such thing as a carpet to be seen, and the floors are in a very dirty
+condition. They have not even the implements of cleanliness in this
+country. Every chamber is furnished with an armoire, or clothes-press,
+and a chest of drawers, of very clumsy workmanship. Every thing shews a
+deficiency in the mechanic arts. There is not a door, nor a window,
+that shuts close. The hinges, locks, and latches, are of iron, coarsely
+made, and ill contrived. The very chimnies are built so open, that they
+admit both rain and sun, and all of them smoke intolerably. If there is
+no cleanliness among these people, much less shall we find delicacy,
+which is the cleanliness of the mind. Indeed they are utter strangers
+to what we call common decency; and I could give you some
+high-flavoured instances, at which even a native of Edinburgh would
+stop his nose. There are certain mortifying views of human nature,
+which undoubtedly ought to be concealed as much as possible, in order
+to prevent giving offence: and nothing can be more absurd, than to
+plead the difference of custom in different countries, in defence of
+these usages which cannot fail giving disgust to the organs and senses
+of all mankind. Will custom exempt from the imputation of gross
+indecency a French lady, who shifts her frowsy smock in presence of a
+male visitant, and talks to him of her lavement, her medecine, and her
+bidet! An Italian signora makes no scruple of telling you, she is such
+a day to begin a course of physic for the pox. The celebrated reformer
+of the Italian comedy introduces a child befouling itself, on the
+stage, OE, NO TI SENTI? BISOGNA DESFASSARLO, (fa cenno che sentesi mal
+odore). I have known a lady handed to the house of office by her
+admirer, who stood at the door, and entertained her with bons mots all
+the time she was within. But I should be glad to know, whether it is
+possible for a fine lady to speak and act in this manner, without
+exciting ideas to her own disadvantage in the mind of every man who has
+any imagination left, and enjoys the entire use of his senses,
+howsoever she may be authorised by the customs of her country? There is
+nothing so vile or repugnant to nature, but you may plead prescription
+for it, in the customs of some nation or other. A Parisian likes
+mortified flesh: a native of Legiboli will not taste his fish till it
+is quite putrefied: the civilized inhabitants of Kamschatka get drunk
+with the urine of their guests, whom they have already intoxicated: the
+Nova Zemblans make merry on train-oil: the Groenlanders eat in the same
+dish with their dogs: the Caffres, at the Cape of Good Hope, piss upon
+those whom they delight to honour, and feast upon a sheep's intestines
+with their contents, as the greatest dainty that can be presented. A
+true-bred Frenchman dips his fingers, imbrowned with snuff, into his
+plate filled with ragout: between every three mouthfuls, he produces
+his snuff-box, and takes a fresh pinch, with the most graceful
+gesticulations; then he displays his handkerchief, which may be termed
+the flag of abomination, and, in the use of both, scatters his favours
+among those who have the happiness to sit near him. It must be owned,
+however, that a Frenchman will not drink out of a tankard, in which,
+perhaps, a dozen of filthy mouths have flabbered, as is the custom in
+England. Here every individual has his own gobelet, which stands before
+him, and he helps himself occasionally with wine or water, or both,
+which likewise stand upon the table. But I know no custom more beastly
+than that of using water-glasses, in which polite company spirt, and
+squirt, and spue the filthy scourings of their gums, under the eyes of
+each other. I knew a lover cured of his passion, by seeing this nasty
+cascade discharged from the mouth of his mistress. I don't doubt but I
+shall live to see the day, when the hospitable custom of the antient
+Aegyptians will be revived; then a conveniency will be placed behind
+every chair in company, with a proper provision of waste paper, that
+individuals may make themselves easy without parting company. I insist
+upon it, that this practice would not be more indelicate than that
+which is now in use. What then, you will say, must a man sit with his
+chops and fingers up to the ears and knuckles in grease? No; let those
+who cannot eat without defiling themselves, step into another room,
+provided with basons and towels: but I think it would be better to
+institute schools, where youth may learn to eat their victuals, without
+daubing themselves, or giving offence to the eyes of one another.
+
+The bourgeois of Boulogne have commonly soup and bouilli at noon, and a
+roast, with a sallad, for supper; and at all their meals there is a
+dessert of fruit. This indeed is the practice all over France. On
+meagre days they eat fish, omelettes, fried beans, fricassees of eggs
+and onions, and burnt cream. The tea which they drink in the afternoon
+is rather boiled than infused; it is sweetened all together with coarse
+sugar, and drank with an equal quantity of boiled milk.
+
+We had the honour to be entertained the other day by our landlord, Mr.
+B--, who spared no cost on this banquet, exhibited for the glory of
+France. He had invited a newmarried couple, together with the husband's
+mother and the lady's father, who was one of the noblesse of Montreuil,
+his name Mons. L--y. There were likewise some merchants of the town,
+and Mons. B--'s uncle, a facetious little man, who had served in the
+English navy, and was as big and as round as a hogshead; we were
+likewise favoured with the company of father K--, a native of Ireland,
+who is vicaire or curate of the parish; and among the guests was Mons.
+L--y's son, a pretty boy, about thirteen or fourteen years of age. The
+repas served up in three services, or courses, with entrees and hors
+d'oeuvres, exclusive of the fruit, consisted of about twenty dishes,
+extremely well dressed by the rotisseur, who is the best cook I ever
+knew, in France, or elsewhere; but the plates were not presented with
+much order. Our young ladies did not seem to be much used to do the
+honours of the table. The most extraordinary circumstance that I
+observed on this occasion--as, that all the French who were present ate
+of every dish that appeared; and I am told, that if there had been an
+hundred articles more, they would have had a trial of each. This is
+what they call doing justice to the founder. Mons. L--y was placed at
+the head of the table and indeed he was the oracle and orator of the
+company; tall, thin, and weather-beaten, not unlike the picture of Don
+Quixote after he had lost his teeth. He had been garde du corps, or
+life-guardman at Versailles; and by virtue of this office he was
+perfectly well acquainted with the persons of the king and the dauphin,
+with the characters of the ministers and grandees, and, in a word, with
+all the secrets of state, on which he held forth with equal solemnity
+and elocution. He exclaimed against the jesuits, and the farmers of the
+revenue, who, he said, had ruined France. Then, addressing himself to
+me, asked, if the English did not every day drink to the health of
+madame la marquise? I did not at first comprehend his meaning; but
+answered in general, that the English were not deficient in
+complaisance for the ladies. "Ah! (cried he) she is the best friend
+they have in the world. If it had not been for her, they would not have
+such reason to boast of the advantages of the war." I told him the only
+conquest which the French had made in the war, was atchieved by one of
+her generals: I meant the taking of Mahon. But I did not choose to
+prosecute the discourse, remembering that in the year 1749, I had like
+to have had an affair with a Frenchman at Ghent, who affirmed, that all
+the battles gained by the great duke of Marlborough were purposely lost
+by the French generals, in order to bring the schemes of madame de
+Maintenon into disgrace. This is no bad resource for the national
+vanity of these people: though, in general, they are really persuaded,
+that theirs is the richest, the bravest, the happiest, and the most
+powerful nation under the sun; and therefore, without some such cause,
+they must be invincible. By the bye, the common people here still
+frighten their wayward children with the name of Marlborough. Mr. B--'s
+son, who was nursed at a peasant's house, happening one day, after he
+was brought home, to be in disgrace with his father, who threatened to
+correct him, the child ran for protection to his mother, crying,
+"Faites sortir ce vilaine Malbroug," "Turn out that rogue Marlborough."
+It is amazing to hear a sensible Frenchman assert, that the revenues of
+France amount to four hundred millions of livres, about twenty millions
+sterling, clear of all incumbrances, when in fact their clear revenue
+is not much above ten. Without all doubt they have reason to inveigh
+against the fermiers generaux, who oppress the people in raising the
+taxes, not above two-thirds of which are brought into the king's
+coffers: the rest enriches themselves, and enables them to bribe high
+for the protection of the great, which is the only support they have
+against the remonstrances of the states and parliaments, and the
+suggestions of common sense; which will ever demonstrate this to be, of
+all others, the most pernicious method of supplying the necessities of
+government.
+
+Mons. L--y seasoned the severity of his political apothegms with
+intermediate sallies of mirth and gallantry. He ogled the venerable
+gentlewoman his commere, who sat by him. He looked, sighed, and
+languished, sung tender songs, and kissed the old lady's hand with all
+the ardour of a youthful admirer. I unfortunately congratulated him on
+having such a pretty young gentleman to his son. He answered, sighing,
+that the boy had talents, but did not put them to a proper use--"Long
+before I attained his age (said he) I had finished my rhetoric."
+Captain B--, who had eaten himself black in the face, and, with the
+napkin under his chin, was no bad representation of Sancho Panza in the
+suds, with the dishclout about his neck, when the duke's scullions
+insisted upon shaving him; this sea-wit, turning to the boy, with a
+waggish leer, "I suppose (said he) you don't understand the figure of
+amplification so well as Monsieur your father." At that instant, one of
+the nieces, who knew her uncle to be very ticklish, touched him under
+the short ribs, on which the little man attempted to spring up, but
+lost the centre of gravity. He overturned his own plate in the lap of
+the person that sat next to him, and falling obliquely upon his own
+chair, both tumbled down upon the floor together, to the great
+discomposure of the whole company; for the poor man would have been
+actually strangled, had not his nephew loosed his stock with great
+expedition. Matters being once more adjusted, and the captain condoled
+on his disaster, Mons. L--y took it in his head to read his son a
+lecture upon filial obedience. This was mingled with some sharp
+reproof, which the boy took so ill that he retired. The old lady
+observed that he had been too severe: her daughter-in-law, who was very
+pretty, said her brother had given him too much reason; hinting, at the
+same time, that he was addicted to some terrible vices; upon which
+several individuals repeated the interjection, ah! ah! "Yes (said Mons.
+L--y, with a rueful aspect) the boy has a pernicious turn for gaming:
+in one afternoon he lost, at billiards, such a sum as gives me horror
+to think of it." "Fifty sols in one afternoon," (cried the sister).
+"Fifty sols! (exclaimed the mother-in-law, with marks of astonishment)
+that's too much--that's too much!--he's to blame-- he's to blame! but
+youth, you know, Mons. L--y--ah! vive la jeunesse!"--"et l'amour!"
+cried the father, wiping his eyes, squeezing her hand, and looking
+tenderly upon her. Mr. B-- took this opportunity to bring in the young
+gentleman, who was admitted into favour, and received a second
+exhortation. Thus harmony was restored, and the entertainment concluded
+with fruit, coffee, and liqueurs.
+
+When a bourgeois of Boulogne takes the air, he goes in a one-horse
+chaise, which is here called cabriolet, and hires it for half-a-crown a
+day. There are also travelling chaises, which hold four persons, two
+seated with their faces to the horses, and two behind their backs; but
+those vehicles are all very ill made, and extremely inconvenient. The
+way of riding most used in this place is on assback. You will see every
+day, in the skirts of the town, a great number of females thus mounted,
+with the feet on either side occasionally, according as the wind blows,
+so that sometimes the right and sometimes the left hand guides the
+beast: but in other parts of France, as well as in Italy, the ladies
+sit on horseback with their legs astride, and are provided with drawers
+for that purpose.
+
+When I said the French people were kept in good humour by the fopperies
+of their religion, I did not mean that there were no gloomy spirits
+among them. There will be fanatics in religion, while there are people
+of a saturnine disposition, and melancholy turn of mind. The character
+of a devotee, which is hardly known in England, is very common here.
+You see them walking to and from church at all hours, in their hoods
+and long camblet cloaks, with a slow pace, demure aspect, and downcast
+eye. Those who are poor become very troublesome to the monks, with
+their scruples and cases of conscience: you may see them on their
+knees, at the confessional, every hour in the day. The rich devotee has
+her favourite confessor, whom she consults and regales in private, at
+her own house; and this spiritual director generally governs the whole
+family. For my part I never knew a fanatic that was not an hypocrite at
+bottom. Their pretensions to superior sanctity, and an absolute
+conquest over all the passions, which human reason was never yet able
+to subdue, introduce a habit of dissimulation, which, like all other
+habits, is confirmed by use, till at length they become adepts in the
+art and science of hypocrisy. Enthusiasm and hypocrisy are by no means
+incompatible. The wildest fanatics I ever knew, were real sensualists
+in their way of living, and cunning cheats in their dealings with
+mankind.
+
+Among the lower class of people at Boulogne, those who take the lead,
+are the sea-faring men, who live in one quarter, divided into classes,
+and registered for the service of the king. They are hardy and
+raw-boned, exercise the trade of fishermen and boatmen, and propagate
+like rabbits. They have put themselves under the protection of a
+miraculous image of the Virgin Mary, which is kept in one of their
+churches, and every year carried in procession. According to the
+legend, this image was carried off, with other pillage, by the English,
+when they took Boulogne, in the reign of Henry VIII. The lady, rather
+than reside in England, where she found a great many heretics, trusted
+herself alone in an open boat, and crossed the sea to the road of
+Boulogne, where she was seen waiting for a pilot. Accordingly a boat
+put off to her assistance, and brought her safe into the harbour: since
+which time she has continued to patronize the watermen of Boulogne. At
+present she is very black and very ugly, besides being cruelly
+mutilated in different parts of her body, which I suppose have been
+amputated, and converted into tobacco-stoppers; but once a year she is
+dressed in very rich attire, and carried in procession, with a silver
+boat, provided at the expence of the sailors. That vanity which
+characterises the French extends even to the canaille. The lowest
+creature among them is sure to have her ear-rings and golden cross
+hanging about her neck. Indeed this last is an implement of
+superstition as well as of dress, without which no female appears. The
+common people here, as in all countries where they live poorly and
+dirtily, are hard-featured, and of very brown, or rather tawny
+complexions. As they seldom eat meat, their juices are destitute of
+that animal oil which gives a plumpness and smoothness to the skin, and
+defends those fine capillaries from the injuries of the weather, which
+would otherwise coalesce, or be shrunk up, so as to impede the
+circulation on the external surface of the body. As for the dirt, it
+undoubtedly blocks up the pores of the skin, and disorders the
+perspiration; consequently must contribute to the scurvy, itch, and
+other cutaneous distempers.
+
+In the quarter of the matelots at Boulogne, there is a number of poor
+Canadians, who were removed from the island of St. John, in the gulph
+of St. Laurence, when it was reduced by the English. These people are
+maintained at the expence of the king, who allows them soldier's pay,
+that is five sols, or two-pence halfpenny a day; or rather three sols
+and ammunition bread. How the soldiers contrive to subsist upon this
+wretched allowance, I cannot comprehend: but, it must be owned, that
+those invalids who do duty at Boulogne betray no marks of want. They
+are hale and stout, neatly and decently cloathed, and on the whole look
+better than the pensioners of Chelsea.
+
+About three weeks ago I was favoured with a visit by one Mr. M--, an
+English gentleman, who seems far gone in a consumption. He passed the
+last winter at Nismes in Languedoc, and found himself much better in
+the beginning of summer, when he embarked at Cette, and returned by sea
+to England. He soon relapsed, however, and (as he imagines) in
+consequence of a cold caught at sea. He told me, his intention was to
+try the South again, and even to go as far as Italy. I advised him to
+make trial of the air of Nice, where I myself proposed to reside. He
+seemed to relish my advice, and proceeded towards Paris in his own
+carriage.
+
+I shall to-morrow ship my great chests on board of a ship bound to
+Bourdeaux; they are directed, and recommended to the care of a merchant
+of that place, who will forward them by Thoulouse, and the canal of
+Languedoc, to his correspondent at Cette, which is the sea-port of
+Montpellier. The charge of their conveyance to Bourdeaux does not
+exceed one guinea. They consist of two very large chests and a trunk,
+about a thousand pounds weight; and the expence of transporting them
+from Bourdeaux to Cette, will not exceed thirty livres. They are
+already sealed with lead at the customhouse, that they may be exempted
+from further visitation. This is a precaution which every traveller
+takes, both by sea and land: he must likewise provide himself with a
+passe-avant at the bureau, otherwise he may be stopped, and rummaged at
+every town through which he passes. I have hired a berline and four
+horses to Paris, for fourteen loui'dores; two of which the voiturier is
+obliged to pay for a permission from the farmers of the poste; for
+every thing is farmed in this country; and if you hire a carriage, as I
+have done, you must pay twelve livres, or half-a-guinea, for every
+person that travels in it. The common coach between Calais and Paris,
+is such a vehicle as no man would use, who has any regard to his own
+case and convenience and it travels at the pace of an English waggon.
+
+In ten days I shall set out on my journey; and I shall leave Boulogne
+with regret. I have been happy in the acquaintance of Mrs. B--, and a
+few British families in the place; and it was my good fortune to meet
+here with two honest gentlemen, whom I had formerly known in Paris, as
+well as with some of my countrymen, officers in the service of France.
+My next will be from Paris. Remember me to our friends at A--'s. I am a
+little heavy-hearted at the prospect of removing to such a distance
+from you. It is a moot point whether I shall ever return. My health is
+very precarious. Adieu.
+
+
+
+LETTER VI
+
+PARIS, October 12, 1763.
+
+DEAR SIR,--Of our journey from Boulogne I have little to say. The
+weather was favourable, and the roads were in tolerable order. We found
+good accommodation at Montreuil and Amiens; but in every other place
+where we stopped, we met with abundance of dirt, and the most flagrant
+imposition. I shall not pretend to describe the cities of Abbeville and
+Amiens, which we saw only en passant; nor take up your time with an
+account of the stables and palace of Chantilly, belonging to the prince
+of Conde, which we visited the last day of our journey; nor shall I
+detain you with a detail of the Trefors de St. Denis, which, together
+with the tombs in the abbey church, afforded us some amusement while
+our dinner was getting ready. All these particulars are mentioned in
+twenty different books of tours, travels, and directions, which you
+have often perused. I shall only observe, that the abbey church is the
+lightest piece of Gothic architecture I have seen, and the air within
+seems perfectly free from that damp and moisture, so perceivable in all
+our old cathedrals. This must be owing to the nature of its situation.
+There are some fine marble statues that adorn the tombs of certain
+individuals here interred; but they are mostly in the French taste,
+which is quite contrary to the simplicity of the antients. Their
+attitudes are affected, unnatural, and desultory; and their draperies
+fantastic; or, as one of our English artists expressed himself, they
+are all of a flutter. As for the treasures, which are shewn on certain
+days to the populace gratis, they are contained in a number of presses,
+or armoires, and, if the stones are genuine, they must be inestimable:
+but this I cannot believe. Indeed I have been told, that what they shew
+as diamonds are no more than composition: nevertheless, exclusive of
+these, there are some rough stones of great value, and many curiosities
+worth seeing. The monk that shewed them was the very image of our
+friend Hamilton, both in his looks and manner.
+
+I have one thing very extraordinary to observe of the French auberges,
+which seems to be a remarkable deviation from the general character of
+the nation. The landlords, hostesses, and servants of the inns upon the
+road, have not the least dash of complaisance in their behaviour to
+strangers. Instead of coming to the door, to receive you as in England,
+they take no manner of notice of you; but leave you to find or enquire
+your way into the kitchen, and there you must ask several times for a
+chamber, before they seem willing to conduct you up stairs. In general,
+you are served with the appearance of the most mortifying indifference,
+at the very time they are laying schemes for fleecing you of your
+money. It is a very odd contrast between France and England; in the
+former all the people are complaisant but the publicans; in the latter
+there is hardly any complaisance but among the publicans. When I said
+all the people in France, I ought also to except those vermin who
+examine the baggage of travellers in different parts of the kingdom.
+Although our portmanteaus were sealed with lead, and we were provided
+with a passe-avant from the douane, our coach was searched at the gate
+of Paris by which we entered; and the women were obliged to get out,
+and stand in the open street, till this operation was performed.
+
+I had desired a friend to provide lodgings for me at Paris, in the
+Fauxbourg St. Germain; and accordingly we found ourselves accommodated
+at the Hotel de Montmorency, with a first floor, which costs me ten
+livres a day. I should have put up with it had it been less polite; but
+as I have only a few days to stay in this place, and some visits to
+receive, I am not sorry that my friend has exceeded his commission. I
+have been guilty of another piece of extravagance in hiring a carosse
+de remise, for which I pay twelve livres a day. Besides the article of
+visiting, I could not leave Paris, without carrying my wife and the
+girls to see the most remarkable places in and about this capital, such
+as the Luxemburg, the Palais-Royal, the Thuilleries, the Louvre, the
+Invalids, the Gobelins, &c. together with Versailles, Trianon, Marli,
+Meudon, and Choissi; and therefore, I thought the difference in point
+of expence would not be great, between a carosse de remise and a
+hackney coach. The first are extremely elegant, if not too much
+ornamented, the last are very shabby and disagreeable. Nothing gives me
+such chagrin, as the necessity I am under to hire a valet de place, as
+my own servant does not speak the language. You cannot conceive with
+what eagerness and dexterity those rascally valets exert themselves in
+pillaging strangers. There is always one ready in waiting on your
+arrival, who begins by assisting your own servant to unload your
+baggage, and interests himself in your affairs with such artful
+officiousness, that you will find it difficult to shake him off, even
+though you are determined beforehand against hiring any such domestic.
+He produces recommendations from his former masters, and the people of
+the house vouch for his honesty.
+
+The truth is, those fellows are very handy, useful, and obliging; and
+so far honest, that they will not steal in the usual way. You may
+safely trust one of them to bring you a hundred loui'dores from your
+banker; but they fleece you without mercy in every other article of
+expence. They lay all your tradesmen under contribution; your taylor,
+barber, mantua-maker, milliner, perfumer, shoe-maker, mercer, jeweller,
+hatter, traiteur, and wine-merchant: even the bourgeois who owns your
+coach pays him twenty sols per day. His wages amount to twice as much,
+so that I imagine the fellow that serves me, makes above ten shillings
+a day, besides his victuals, which, by the bye, he has no right to
+demand. Living at Paris, to the best of my recollection, is very near
+twice as dear as it was fifteen years ago; and, indeed, this is the
+case in London; a circumstance that must be undoubtedly owing to an
+increase of taxes; for I don't find that in the articles of eating and
+drinking, the French people are more luxurious than they were
+heretofore. I am told the entrees, or duties, payed upon provision
+imported into Paris, are very heavy. All manner of butcher's meat and
+poultry are extremely good in this place. The beef is excellent. The
+wine, which is generally drank, is a very thin kind of Burgundy. I can
+by no means relish their cookery; but one breakfasts deliciously upon
+their petit pains and their pales of butter, which last is exquisite.
+
+The common people, and even the bourgeois of Paris live, at this
+season, chiefly on bread and grapes, which is undoubtedly very wholsome
+fare. If the same simplicity of diet prevailed in England, we should
+certainly undersell the French at all foreign markets for they are very
+slothful with all their vivacity and the great number of their holidays
+not only encourages this lazy disposition, but actually robs them of
+one half of what their labour would otherwise produce; so that, if our
+common people were not so expensive in their living, that is, in their
+eating and drinking, labour might be afforded cheaper in England than
+in France. There are three young lusty hussies, nieces or daughters of
+a blacksmith, that lives just opposite to my windows, who do nothing
+from morning till night. They eat grapes and bread from seven till
+nine, from nine till twelve they dress their hair, and are all the
+afternoon gaping at the window to view passengers. I don't perceive
+that they give themselves the trouble either to make their beds, or
+clean their apartment. The same spirit of idleness and dissipation I
+have observed in every part of France, and among every class of people.
+
+Every object seems to have shrunk in its dimensions since I was last in
+Paris. The Louvre, the Palais-Royal, the bridges, and the river Seine,
+by no means answer the ideas I had formed of them from my former
+observation. When the memory is not very correct, the imagination
+always betrays her into such extravagances. When I first revisited my
+own country, after an absence of fifteen years, I found every thing
+diminished in the same manner, and I could scarce believe my own eyes.
+
+Notwithstanding the gay disposition of the French, their houses are all
+gloomy. In spite of all the ornaments that have been lavished on
+Versailles, it is a dismal habitation. The apartments are dark,
+ill-furnished, dirty, and unprincely. Take the castle, chapel, and
+garden all together, they make a most fantastic composition of
+magnificence and littleness, taste, and foppery. After all, it is in
+England only, where we must look for cheerful apartments, gay
+furniture, neatness, and convenience. There is a strange incongruity in
+the French genius. With all their volatility, prattle, and fondness for
+bons mots, they delight in a species of drawling, melancholy, church
+music. Their most favourite dramatic pieces are almost without
+incident; and the dialogue of their comedies consists of moral, insipid
+apophthegms, intirely destitute of wit or repartee. I know what I
+hazard by this opinion among the implicit admirers of Lully, Racine,
+and Moliere.
+
+I don't talk of the busts, the statues, and pictures which abound at
+Versailles, and other places in and about Paris, particularly the great
+collection of capital pieces in the Palais-royal, belonging to the duke
+of Orleans. I have neither capacity, nor inclination, to give a
+critique on these chef d'oeuvres, which indeed would take up a whole
+volume. I have seen this great magazine of painting three times, with
+astonishment; but I should have been better pleased, if there had not
+been half the number: one is bewildered in such a profusion, as not to
+know where to begin, and hurried away before there is time to consider
+one piece with any sort of deliberation. Besides, the rooms are all
+dark, and a great many of the pictures hang in a bad light. As for
+Trianon, Marli, and Choissi, they are no more than pigeon-houses, in
+respect to palaces; and, notwithstanding the extravagant eulogiums
+which you have heard of the French king's houses, I will venture to
+affirm that the king of England is better, I mean more comfortably,
+lodged. I ought, however, to except Fontainebleau, which I have not
+seen.
+
+The city of Paris is said to be five leagues, or fifteen miles, in
+circumference; and if it is really so, it must be much more populous
+than London; for the streets are very narrow, and the houses very high,
+with a different family on every floor. But I have measured the best
+plans of these two royal cities, and am certain that Paris does not
+take up near so much ground as London and Westminster occupy; and I
+suspect the number of its inhabitants is also exaggerated by those who
+say it amounts to eight hundred thousand, that is two hundred thousand
+more than are contained in the bills of mortality. The hotels of the
+French noblesse, at Paris, take up a great deal of room, with their
+courtyards and gardens; and so do their convents and churches. It must
+be owned, indeed, that their streets are wonderfully crouded with
+people and carriages.
+
+The French begin to imitate the English, but only in such particulars
+as render them worthy of imitation. When I was last at Paris, no person
+of any condition, male or female, appeared, but in full dress, even
+when obliged to come out early in the morning, and there was not such a
+thing to be seen as a perruque ronde; but at present I see a number of
+frocks and scratches in a morning, in the streets of this metropolis.
+They have set up a petite poste, on the plan of our penny-post, with
+some improvements; and I am told there is a scheme on foot for
+supplying every house with water, by leaden pipes, from the river
+Seine. They have even adopted our practice of the cold bath, which is
+taken very conveniently, in wooden houses, erected on the side of the
+river, the water of which is let in and out occasionally, by cocks
+fixed in the sides of the bath. There are different rooms for the
+different sexes: the accommodations are good, and the expence is a
+trifle. The tapestry of the Gobelins is brought to an amazing degree of
+perfection; and I am surprised that this furniture is not more in
+fashion among the great, who alone are able to purchase it. It would be
+a most elegant and magnificent ornament, which would always nobly
+distinguish their apartments from those, of an inferior rank; and in
+this they would run no risk of being rivalled by the bourgeois. At the
+village of Chaillot, in the neighbourhood of Paris, they make beautiful
+carpets and screen-work; and this is the more extraordinary, as there
+are hardly any carpets used in this kingdom. In almost all the
+lodging-houses, the floors are of brick, and have no other kind of
+cleaning, than that of being sprinkled with water, and swept once a
+day. These brick floors, the stone stairs, the want of wainscotting in
+the rooms, and the thick party-walls of stone, are, however, good
+preservatives against fire, which seldom does any damage in this city.
+Instead of wainscotting, the walls are covered with tapestry or damask.
+The beds in general are very good, and well ornamented, with testers
+and curtains.
+
+Twenty years ago the river Seine, within a mile of Paris, was as
+solitary as if it had run through a desert. At present the banks of it
+are adorned with a number of elegant houses and plantations, as far as
+Marli. I need not mention the machine at this place for raising water,
+because I know you are well acquainted with its construction; nor shall
+I say any thing more of the city of Paris, but that there is a new
+square, built upon an elegant plan, at the end of the garden of the
+Thuilleries: it is called Place de Louis XV. and, in the middle of it,
+there is a good equestrian statue of the reigning king.
+
+You have often heard that Louis XIV. frequently regretted, that his
+country did not afford gravel for the walks of his gardens, which are
+covered with a white, loose sand, very disagreeable both to the eyes
+and feet of those who walk upon it; but this is a vulgar mistake. There
+is plenty of gravel on the road between Paris and Versailles, as well
+as in many other parts of this kingdom; but the French, who are all for
+glare and glitter, think the other is more gay and agreeable: one would
+imagine they did not feel the burning reflexion from the white sand,
+which in summer is almost intolerable.
+
+In the character of the French, considered as a people, there are
+undoubtedly many circumstances truly ridiculous. You know the
+fashionable people, who go a hunting, are equipped with their jack
+boots, bag wigs, swords and pistols: but I saw the other day a scene
+still more grotesque. On the road to Choissi, a fiacre, or
+hackney-coach, stopped, and out came five or six men, armed with
+musquets, who took post, each behind a separate tree. I asked our
+servant who they were imagining they might be archers, or footpads of
+justice, in pursuit of some malefactor. But guess my surprise, when the
+fellow told me, they were gentlemen a la chasse. They were in fact come
+out from Paris, in this equipage, to take the diversion of
+hare-hunting; that is, of shooting from behind a tree at the hares that
+chanced to pass. Indeed, if they had nothing more in view, but to
+destroy the game, this was a very effectual method; for the hares are
+in such plenty in this neighbourhood, that I have seen a dozen
+together, in the same field. I think this way of hunting, in a coach or
+chariot, might be properly adopted at London, in favour of those
+aldermen of the city, who are too unwieldy to follow the hounds a
+horseback.
+
+The French, however, with all their absurdities, preserve a certain
+ascendancy over us, which is very disgraceful to our nation; and this
+appears in nothing more than in the article of dress. We are contented
+to be thought their apes in fashion; but, in fact, we are slaves to
+their taylors, mantua-makers, barbers, and other tradesmen. One would
+be apt to imagine that our own tradesmen had joined them in a
+combination against us. When the natives of France come to London, they
+appear in all public places, with cloaths made according to the fashion
+of their own country, and this fashion is generally admired by the
+English. Why, therefore, don't we follow it implicitly? No, we pique
+ourselves upon a most ridiculous deviation from the very modes we
+admire, and please ourselves with thinking this deviation is a mark of
+our spirit and liberty. But, we have not spirit enough to persist in
+this deviation, when we visit their country: otherwise, perhaps, they
+would come to admire and follow our example: for, certainly, in point
+of true taste, the fashions of both countries are equally absurd. At
+present, the skirts of the English descend from the fifth rib to the
+calf of the leg, and give the coat the form of a Jewish gaberdine; and
+our hats seem to be modelled after that which Pistol wears upon the
+stage. In France, the haunch buttons and pocketholes are within half a
+foot of the coat's extremity: their hats look as if they had been pared
+round the brims, and the crown is covered with a kind of cordage,
+which, in my opinion, produces a very beggarly effect. In every other
+circumstance of dress, male and female, the contrast between the two
+nations, appears equally glaring. What is the consequence? when an
+Englishman comes to Paris, he cannot appear until he has undergone a
+total metamorphosis. At his first arrival he finds it necessary to send
+for the taylor, perruquier, hatter, shoemaker, and every other
+tradesman concerned in the equipment of the human body. He must even
+change his buckles, and the form of his ruffles; and, though at the
+risque of his life, suit his cloaths to the mode of the season. For
+example, though the weather should be never so cold, he must wear his
+habit d'ete, or demi-saison. Without presuming to put on a warm dress
+before the day which fashion has fixed for that purpose; and neither
+old age nor infirmity will excuse a man for wearing his hat upon his
+head, either at home or abroad. Females are (if possible) still more
+subject to the caprices of fashion; and as the articles of their dress
+are more manifold, it is enough to make a man's heart ake to see his
+wife surrounded by a multitude of cotturieres, milliners, and
+tire-women. All her sacks and negligees must be altered and new
+trimmed. She must have new caps, new laces, new shoes, and her hair new
+cut. She must have her taffaties for the summer, her flowered silks for
+the spring and autumn, her sattins and damasks for winter. The good
+man, who used to wear the beau drop d'Angleterre, quite plain all the
+year round, with a long bob, or tye perriwig, must here provide himself
+with a camblet suit trimmed with silver for spring and autumn, with
+silk cloaths for summer, and cloth laced with gold, or velvet for
+winter; and he must wear his bag-wig a la pigeon. This variety of dress
+is absolutely indispensible for all those who pretend to any rank above
+the meer bourgeois. On his return to his own country, all this frippery
+is useless. He cannot appear in London until he has undergone another
+thorough metamorphosis; so that he will have some reason to think, that
+the tradesmen of Paris and London have combined to lay him under
+contribution: and they, no doubt, are the directors who regulate the
+fashions in both capitals; the English, however, in a subordinate
+capacity: for the puppets of their making will not pass at Paris, nor
+indeed in any other part of Europe; whereas a French petit maitre is
+reckoned a complete figure every where, London not excepted. Since it
+is so much the humour of the English at present to run abroad, I wish
+they had anti-gallican spirit enough to produce themselves in their own
+genuine English dress, and treat the French modes with the same
+philosophical contempt, which was shewn by an honest gentleman,
+distinguished by the name of Wig-Middleton. That unshaken patriot still
+appears in the same kind of scratch perriwig, skimming-dish hat, and
+slit sleeve, which were worn five-and-twenty years ago, and has
+invariably persisted in this garb, in defiance of all the revolutions
+of the mode. I remember a student in the temple, who, after a long and
+learned investigation of the to kalon, or beautiful, had resolution
+enough to let his beard grow, and wore it in all public places, until
+his heir at law applied for a commission of lunacy against him; then he
+submitted to the razor, rather than run any risque of being found non
+compos.
+
+Before I conclude, I must tell you, that the most reputable
+shop-keepers and tradesmen of Paris think it no disgrace to practise
+the most shameful imposition. I myself know an instance of one of the
+most creditable marchands in this capital, who demanded six francs an
+ell for some lutestring, laying his hand upon his breast at the same
+time, and declaring en conscience, that it had cost him within three
+sols of the money. Yet in less than three minutes, he sold it for four
+and a half, and when the buyer upbraided him with his former
+declaration, he shrugged up his shoulders, saying, il faut marchander.
+I don't mention this as a particular instance. The same mean
+disingenuity is universal all over France, as I have been informed by
+several persons of veracity.
+
+The next letter you have from me will probably be dated at Nismes, or
+Montpellier. Mean-while, I am ever--Yours.
+
+
+
+LETTER VII
+
+To MRS. M--. PARIS, October, 12, 1763.
+
+MADAM,--I shall be much pleased if the remarks I have made on the
+characters of the French people, can afford you the satisfaction you
+require. With respect to the ladies I can only judge from their
+exteriors: but, indeed, these are so characteristic, that one can
+hardly judge amiss; unless we suppose that a woman of taste and
+sentiment may be so overruled by the absurdity of what is called
+fashion, as to reject reason, and disguise nature, in order to become
+ridiculous or frightful. That this may be the case with some
+individuals, is very possible. I have known it happen in our own
+country, where the follies of the French are adopted and exhibited in
+the most aukward imitation: but the general prevalence of those
+preposterous modes, is a plain proof that there is a general want of
+taste, and a general depravity of nature. I shall not pretend to
+describe the particulars of a French lady's dress. These you are much
+better acquainted with than I can pretend to be: but this I will be
+bold to affirm, that France is the general reservoir from which all the
+absurdities of false taste, luxury, and extravagance have overflowed
+the different kingdoms and states of Europe. The springs that fill this
+reservoir, are no other than vanity and ignorance. It would be
+superfluous to attempt proving from the nature of things, from the
+first principles and use of dress, as well as from the consideration of
+natural beauty, and the practice of the ancients, who certainly
+understood it as well as the connoisseurs of these days, that nothing
+can be more monstrous, inconvenient, and contemptible, than the fashion
+of modern drapery. You yourself are well aware of all its defects, and
+have often ridiculed them in my hearing. I shall only mention one
+particular of dress essential to the fashion in this country, which
+seems to me to carry human affectation to the very farthest verge of
+folly and extravagance; that is, the manner in which the faces of the
+ladies are primed and painted. When the Indian chiefs were in England
+every body ridiculed their preposterous method of painting their cheeks
+and eye-lids; but this ridicule was wrong placed. Those critics ought
+to have considered, that the Indians do not use paint to make
+themselves agreeable; but in order to be the more terrible to their
+enemies. It is generally supposed, I think, that your sex make use of
+fard and vermillion for very different purposes; namely, to help a bad
+or faded complexion, to heighten the graces, or conceal the defects of
+nature, as well as the ravages of time. I shall not enquire at present,
+whether it is just and honest to impose in this manner on mankind: if
+it is not honest, it may be allowed to be artful and politic, and
+shews, at least, a desire of being agreeable. But to lay it on as the
+fashion in France prescribes to all the ladies of condition, who indeed
+cannot appear without this badge of distinction, is to disguise
+themselves in such a manner, as to render them odious and detestable to
+every spectator, who has the least relish left for nature and
+propriety. As for the fard or white, with which their necks and
+shoulders are plaistered, it may be in some measure excusable, as their
+skins are naturally brown, or sallow; but the rouge, which is daubed on
+their faces, from the chin up to the eyes, without the least art or
+dexterity, not only destroys all distinction of features, but renders
+the aspect really frightful, or at best conveys nothing but ideas of
+disgust and aversion. You know, that without this horrible masque no
+married lady is admitted at court, or in any polite assembly; and that
+it is a mark of distinction which no bourgeoise dare assume. Ladies of
+fashion only have the privilege of exposing themselves in these
+ungracious colours. As their faces are concealed under a false
+complexion, so their heads are covered with a vast load of false hair,
+which is frizzled on the forehead, so as exactly to resemble the wooly
+heads of the Guinea negroes. As to the natural hue of it, this is a
+matter of no consequence, for powder makes every head of hair of the
+same colour; and no woman appears in this country, from the moment she
+rises till night, without being compleatly whitened. Powder or meal was
+first used in Europe by the Poles, to conceal their scald heads; but
+the present fashion of using it, as well as the modish method of
+dressing the hair, must have been borrowed from the Hottentots, who
+grease their wooly heads with mutton suet and then paste it over with
+the powder called buchu. In like manner, the hair of our fine ladies is
+frizzled into the appearance of negroes wool, and stiffened with an
+abominable paste of hog's grease, tallow, and white powder. The present
+fashion, therefore, of painting the face, and adorning the head,
+adopted by the beau monde in France, is taken from those two polite
+nations the Chickesaws of America and the Hottentots of Africa. On the
+whole, when I see one of those fine creatures sailing along, in her
+taudry robes of silk and gauze, frilled, and flounced, and furbelowed,
+with her false locks, her false jewels, her paint, her patches, and
+perfumes; I cannot help looking upon her as the vilest piece of
+sophistication that art ever produced.
+
+This hideous masque of painting, though destructive of all beauty, is,
+however, favourable to natural homeliness and deformity. It accustoms
+the eyes of the other sex, and in time reconciles them to frightfull
+objects; it disables them from perceiving any distinction of features
+between woman and woman; and, by reducing all faces to a level, gives
+every female an equal chance for an admirer; being in this particular
+analogous to the practice of the antient Lacedemonians, who were
+obliged to chuse their helpmates in the dark. In what manner the
+insides of their heads are furnished, I would not presume to judge from
+the conversation of a very few to whom I have had access: but from the
+nature of their education, which I have heard described, and the
+natural vivacity of their tempers, I should expect neither sense,
+sentiment, nor discretion. From the nursery they are allowed, and even
+encouraged, to say every thing that comes uppermost; by which means
+they acquire a volubility of tongue, and a set of phrases, which
+constitutes what is called polite conversation. At the same time they
+obtain an absolute conquest over all sense of shame, or rather, they
+avoid acquiring this troublesome sensation; for it is certainly no
+innate idea. Those who have not governesses at home, are sent, for a
+few years, to a convent, where they lay in a fund of superstition that
+serves them for life: but I never heard they had the least opportunity
+of cultivating the mind, of exercising the powers of reason, or of
+imbibing a taste for letters, or any rational or useful accomplishment.
+After being taught to prattle, to dance and play at cards, they are
+deemed sufficiently qualified to appear in the grand monde, and to
+perform all the duties of that high rank and station in life. In
+mentioning cards, I ought to observe, that they learn to play not
+barely for amusement, but also with a view to advantage; and, indeed,
+you seldom meet with a native of France, whether male or female, who is
+not a compleat gamester, well versed in all the subtleties and finesses
+of the art. This is likewise the case all over Italy. A lady of a great
+house in Piedmont, having four sons, makes no scruple to declare, that
+the first shall represent the family, the second enter into the army,
+the third into the church, and that she will breed the fourth a
+gamester. These noble adventurers devote themselves in a particular
+manner to the entertainment of travellers from our country, because the
+English are supposed to be full of money, rash, incautious, and utterly
+ignorant of play. But such a sharper is most dangerous, when he hunts
+in couple with a female. I have known a French count and his wife, who
+found means to lay the most wary under contribution. He was smooth,
+supple, officious, and attentive: she was young, handsome,
+unprincipled, and artful. If the Englishman marked for prey was found
+upon his guard against the designs of the husband, then madam plied him
+on the side of gallantry. She displayed all the attractions of her
+person. She sung, danced, ogled, sighed, complimented, and complained.
+If he was insensible to all her charms, she flattered his vanity, and
+piqued his pride, by extolling the wealth and generosity of the
+English; and if he proved deaf to all these insinuations she, as her
+last stake, endeavoured to interest his humanity and compassion. She
+expatiated, with tears in her eyes, on the cruelty and indifference of
+her great relations; represented that her husband was no more than the
+cadet of a noble family--, that his provision was by no means suitable.
+either to the dignity of his rank, or the generosity of his
+disposition: that he had a law-suit of great consequence depending,
+which had drained all his finances; and, finally, that they should be
+both ruined, if they could not find some generous friend, who would
+accommodate them with a sum of money to bring the cause to a
+determination. Those who are not actuated by such scandalous motives,
+become gamesters from meer habit, and, having nothing more solid to
+engage their thoughts, or employ their time, consume the best part of
+their lives, in this worst of all dissipation. I am not ignorant that
+there are exceptions from this general rule: I know that France has
+produced a Maintenon, a Sevigine, a Scuderi, a Dacier, and a Chatelet;
+but I would no more deduce the general character of the French ladies
+from these examples, than I would call a field of hemp a flower-garden.
+because there might be in it a few lillies or renunculas planted by the
+hand of accident.
+
+Woman has been defined a weaker man; but in this country the men are,
+in my opinion, more ridiculous and insignificant than the women. They
+certainly are more disagreeable to a rational enquirer, because they
+are more troublesome. Of all the coxcombs on the face of the earth, a
+French petit maitre is the most impertinent: and they are all petit
+maitres from the marquis who glitters in lace and embroidery, to the
+garcon barbier covered with meal, who struts with his hair in a long
+queue, and his hat under his arm. I have already observed, that vanity
+is the great and universal mover among all ranks and degrees of people
+in this nation; and as they take no pains to conceal or controul it,
+they are hurried by it into the most ridiculous and indeed intolerable
+extravagance.
+
+When I talk of the French nation, I must again except a great number of
+individuals, from the general censure. Though I have a hearty contempt
+for the ignorance, folly, and presumption which characterise the
+generality, I cannot but respect the talents of many great men, who
+have eminently distinguished themselves in every art and science: these
+I shall always revere and esteem as creatures of a superior species,
+produced, for the wise purposes of providence, among the refuse of
+mankind. It would be absurd to conclude that the Welch or Highlanders
+are a gigantic people, because those mountains may have produced a few
+individuals near seven feet high. It would be equally absurd to suppose
+the French are a nation of philosophers, because France has given birth
+to a Des Cartes, a Maupertuis, a Reaumur, and a Buffon.
+
+I shall not even deny, that the French are by no means deficient in
+natural capacity; but they are at the same time remarkable for a
+natural levity, which hinders their youth from cultivating that
+capacity. This is reinforced by the most preposterous education, and
+the example of a giddy people, engaged in the most frivolous pursuits.
+A Frenchman is by some Jesuit, or other monk, taught to read his mother
+tongue, and to say his prayers in a language he does not understand. He
+learns to dance and to fence, by the masters of those noble sciences.
+He becomes a compleat connoisseur in dressing hair, and in adorning his
+own person, under the hands and instructions of his barber and valet de
+chambre. If he learns to play upon the flute or the fiddle, he is
+altogether irresistible. But he piques himself upon being polished
+above the natives of any other country by his conversation with the
+fair sex. In the course of this communication, with which he is
+indulged from his tender years, he learns like a parrot, by rote, the
+whole circle of French compliments, which you know are a set of phrases
+ridiculous even to a proverb; and these he throws out indiscriminately
+to all women, without distinction in the exercise of that kind of
+address, which is here distinguished by the name of gallantry: it is no
+more than his making love to every woman who will give him the hearing.
+It is an exercise, by the repetition of which he becomes very pert,
+very familiar, and very impertinent. Modesty, or diffidence, I have
+already said, is utterly unknown among them, and therefore I wonder
+there should be a term to express it in their language.
+
+If I was obliged to define politeness, I should call it, the art of
+making one's self agreeable. I think it an art that necessarily implies
+a sense of decorum, and a delicacy of sentiment. These are qualities,
+of which (as far as I have been able to observe) a Frenchman has no
+idea; therefore he never can be deemed polite, except by those persons
+among whom they are as little understood. His first aim is to adorn his
+own person with what he calls fine cloaths, that is the frippery of the
+fashion. It is no wonder that the heart of a female, unimproved by
+reason, and untinctured with natural good sense, should flutter at the
+sight of such a gaudy thing, among the number of her admirers: this
+impression is enforced by fustian compliments, which her own vanity
+interprets in a literal sense, and still more confirmed by the
+assiduous attention of the gallant, who, indeed, has nothing else to
+mind. A Frenchman in consequence of his mingling with the females from
+his infancy, not only becomes acquainted with all their customs and
+humours; but grows wonderfully alert in performing a thousand little
+offices, which are overlooked by other men, whose time hath been spent
+in making more valuable acquisitions. He enters, without ceremony, a
+lady's bed-chamber, while she is in bed, reaches her whatever she
+wants, airs her shift, and helps to put it on. He attends at her
+toilette, regulates the distribution of her patches, and advises where
+to lay on the paint. If he visits her when she is dressed, and
+perceives the least impropriety in her coeffure, he insists upon
+adjusting it with his own hands: if he sees a curl, or even a single
+hair amiss, he produces his comb, his scissars, and pomatum, and sets
+it to rights with the dexterity of a professed friseur. He 'squires her
+to every place she visits, either on business, or pleasure; and, by
+dedicating his whole time to her, renders himself necessary to her
+occasions. This I take to be the most agreeable side of his character:
+let us view him on the quarter of impertinence. A Frenchman pries into
+all your secrets with the most impudent and importunate curiosity, and
+then discloses them without remorse. If you are indisposed, he
+questions you about the symptoms of your disorder, with more freedom
+than your physician would presume to use; very often in the grossest
+terms. He then proposes his remedy (for they are all quacks), he
+prepares it without your knowledge, and worries you with solicitation
+to take it, without paying the least regard to the opinion of those
+whom you have chosen to take care of your health. Let you be ever so
+ill, or averse to company, he forces himself at all times into your
+bed-chamber, and if it is necessary to give him a peremptory refusal,
+he is affronted. I have known one of those petit maitres insist upon
+paying regular visits twice a day to a poor gentleman who was
+delirious; and he conversed with him on different subjects, till he was
+in his last agonies. This attendance is not the effect of attachment,
+or regard, but of sheer vanity, that he may afterwards boast of his
+charity and humane disposition: though, of all the people I have ever
+known, I think the French are the least capable of feeling for the
+distresses of their fellow creatures. Their hearts are not susceptible
+of deep impressions; and, such is their levity, that the imagination
+has not time to brood long over any disagreeable idea, or sensation. As
+a Frenchman piques himself on his gallantry, he no sooner makes a
+conquest of a female's heart, than he exposes her character, for the
+gratification of his vanity. Nay, if he should miscarry in his schemes,
+he will forge letters and stories, to the ruin of the lady's
+reputation. This is a species of perfidy which one would think should
+render them odious and detestable to the whole sex; but the case is
+otherwise. I beg your pardon, Madam; but women are never better
+pleased, than when they see one another exposed; and every individual
+has such confidence in her own superior charms and discretion, that she
+thinks she can fix the most volatile, and reform the most treacherous
+lover.
+
+If a Frenchman is admitted into your family, and distinguished by
+repeated marks of your friendship and regard, the first return he makes
+for your civilities is to make love to your wife, if she is handsome;
+if not, to your sister, or daughter, or niece. If he suffers a repulse
+from your wife, or attempts in vain to debauch your sister, or your
+daughter, or your niece, he will, rather than not play the traitor with
+his gallantry, make his addresses to your grandmother; and ten to one,
+but in one shape or another, he will find means to ruin the peace of a
+family, in which he has been so kindly entertained. What he cannot
+accomplish by dint of compliment, and personal attendance, he will
+endeavour to effect, by reinforcing these with billets-doux, songs, and
+verses, of which he always makes a provision for such purposes. If he
+is detected in these efforts of treachery, and reproached with his
+ingratitude, he impudently declares, that what he had done was no more
+than simple gallantry, considered in France as an indispensible duty on
+every man who pretended to good breeding. Nay, he will even affirm,
+that his endeavours to corrupt your wife, or your daughter, were the
+most genuine proofs he could give of his particular regard for your
+family.
+
+If a Frenchman is capable of real friendship, it must certainly be the
+most disagreeable present he can possibly make to a man of a true
+English character, You know, Madam, we are naturally taciturn, soon
+tired of impertinence, and much subject to fits of disgust. Your French
+friend intrudes upon you at all hours: he stuns you with his loquacity:
+he teases you with impertinent questions about your domestic and
+private affairs: he attempts to meddle in all your concerns; and forces
+his advice upon you with the most unwearied importunity: he asks the
+price of every thing you wear, and, so sure as you tell him undervalues
+it, without hesitation: he affirms it is in a bad taste, ill-contrived,
+ill-made; that you have been imposed upon both with respect to the
+fashion and the price; that the marquise of this, or the countess of
+that, has one that is perfectly elegant, quite in the bon ton, and yet
+it cost her little more than you gave for a thing that nobody would
+wear.
+
+If there were five hundred dishes at table, a Frenchman will eat of all
+of them, and then complain he has no appetite. This I have several
+times remarked. A friend of mine gained a considerable wager upon an
+experiment of this kind: the petit maitre ate of fourteen different
+plats, besides the dessert; then disparaged the cook, declaring he was
+no better than a marmiton, or turnspit.
+
+The French have the most ridiculous fondness for their hair, and this I
+believe they inherit from their remote ancestors. The first race of
+French kings were distinguished by their long hair, and certainly the
+people of this country consider it as an indispensible ornament. A
+Frenchman will sooner part with his religion than with his hair, which,
+indeed, no consideration will induce him to forego. I know a gentleman
+afflicted with a continual head-ach, and a defluxion on his eyes, who
+was told by his physician that the best chance he had for being cured,
+would be to have his head close shaved, and bathed every day in cold
+water. "How (cried he) cut my hair? Mr. Doctor, your most humble
+servant!" He dismissed his physician, lost his eye-sight, and almost
+his senses, and is now led about with his hair in a bag, and a piece of
+green silk hanging like a screen before his face. Count Saxe, and other
+military writers have demonstrated the absurdity of a soldier's wearing
+a long head of hair; nevertheless, every soldier in this country wears
+a long queue, which makes a delicate mark on his white cloathing; and
+this ridiculous foppery has descended even to the lowest class of
+people. The decrotteur, who cleans your shoes at the corner of the Pont
+Neuf, has a tail of this kind hanging down to his rump, and even the
+peasant who drives an ass loaded with dung, wears his hair en queue,
+though, perhaps, he has neither shirt nor breeches. This is the
+ornament upon which he bestows much time and pains, and in the
+exhibition of which he finds full gratification for his vanity.
+Considering the harsh features of the common people in this country,
+their diminutive stature, their grimaces, and that long appendage, they
+have no small resemblance to large baboons walking upright; and perhaps
+this similitude has helped to entail upon them the ridicule of their
+neighbours.
+
+A French friend tires out your patience with long visits; and, far from
+taking the most palpable hints to withdraw, when he perceives you
+uneasy he observes you are low-spirited, and therefore he will keep you
+company. This perseverance shews that he must either be void of
+penetration, or that his disposition must be truly diabolical. Rather
+than be tormented with such a fiend, a man had better turn him out of
+doors, even though at the hazard of being run thro' the body.
+
+The French are generally counted insincere, and taxed with want of
+generosity. But I think these reproaches are not well founded.
+High-flown professions of friendship and attachment constitute the
+language of common compliment in this country, and are never supposed
+to be understood in the literal acceptation of the words; and, if their
+acts of generosity are but very rare, we ought to ascribe that rarity,
+not so much to a deficiency of generous sentiments, as to their vanity
+and ostentation, which engrossing all their funds, utterly disable them
+from exerting the virtues of beneficence. Vanity, indeed, predominates
+among all ranks, to such a degree, that they are the greatest egotists
+in the world; and the most insignificant individual talks in company
+with the same conceit and arrogance, as a person of the greatest
+importance. Neither conscious poverty nor disgrace will restrain him in
+the least either from assuming his full share of the conversation, or
+making big addresses to the finest lady, whom he has the smallest
+opportunity to approach: nor is he restrained by any other
+consideration whatsoever. It is all one to him whether he himself has a
+wife of his own, or the lady a husband; whether she is designed for the
+cloister, or pre-ingaged to his best friend and benefactor. He takes it
+for granted that his addresses cannot but be acceptable; and, if he
+meets with a repulse, he condemns her taste; but never doubts his own
+qualifications.
+
+I have a great many things to say of their military character, and
+their punctilios of honour, which last are equally absurd and
+pernicious; but as this letter has run to an unconscionable length, I
+shall defer them till another opportunity. Mean-while, I have the
+honour to be, with very particular esteem--Madam, Your most obedient
+servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER VIII
+
+To MR. M--
+
+LYONS, October 19, 1763.
+
+DEAR SIR,--I was favoured with yours at Paris, and look upon your
+reproaches as the proof of your friendship. The truth is, I considered
+all the letters I have hitherto written on the subject of my travels,
+as written to your society in general, though they have been addressed
+to one individual of it; and if they contain any thing that can either
+amuse or inform, I desire that henceforth all I send may be freely
+perused by all the members.
+
+With respect to my health, about which you so kindly enquire, I have
+nothing new to communicate. I had reason to think that my bathing in
+the sea at Boulogne  produced a good effect, in strengthening my
+relaxed fibres. You know how subject I was to colds in England; that I
+could not stir abroad after sun-set, nor expose myself to the smallest
+damp, nor walk till the least moisture appeared on my skin, without
+being laid up for ten days or a fortnight. At Paris, however, I went
+out every day, with my hat under my arm, though the weather was wet and
+cold: I walked in the garden at Versailles even after it was dark, with
+my head uncovered, on a cold evening, when the ground was far from
+being dry: nay, at Marli, I sauntered above a mile through damp alleys,
+and wet grass: and from none of these risques did I feel the least
+inconvenience.
+
+In one of our excursions we visited the manufacture for porcelain,
+which the king of France has established at the village of St. Cloud,
+on the road to Versailles, and which is, indeed, a noble monument of
+his munificence. It is a very large building, both commodious and
+magnificent, where a great number of artists are employed, and where
+this elegant superfluity is carried to as great perfection as it ever
+was at Dresden. Yet, after all, I know not whether the porcelain made
+at Chelsea may not vie with the productions either of Dresden, or St.
+Cloud. If it falls short of either, it is not in the design, painting,
+enamel, or other ornaments, but only in the composition of the metal,
+and the method of managing it in the furnace. Our porcelain seems to be
+a partial vitrification of levigated flint and fine pipe clay, mixed
+together in a certain proportion; and if the pieces are not removed
+from the fire in the very critical moment, they will be either too
+little, or too much vitrified. In the first case, I apprehend they will
+not acquire a proper degree of cohesion; they will be apt to be
+corroded, discoloured, and to crumble, like the first essays that were
+made at Chelsea; in the second case, they will be little better than
+imperfect glass.
+
+There are three methods of travelling from Paris to Lyons, which, by
+the shortest road is a journey of about three hundred and sixty miles.
+One is by the diligence, or stagecoach, which performs it in five days;
+and every passenger pays one hundred livres, in consideration of which,
+he not only has a seat in the carriage, but is maintained on the road.
+The inconveniences attending this way of travelling are these. You are
+crouded into the carriage, to the number of eight persons, so as to sit
+very uneasy, and sometimes run the risque of being stifled among very
+indifferent company. You are hurried out of bed, at four, three, nay
+often at two o'clock in the morning. You are obliged to eat in the
+French way, which is very disagreeable to an English palate; and, at
+Chalons, you must embark upon the Saone in a boat, which conveys you to
+Lyons, so that the two last days of your journey are by water. All
+these were insurmountable objections to me, who am in such a bad state
+of health, troubled with an asthmatic cough, spitting, slow fever, and
+restlessness, which demands a continual change of place, as well as
+free air, and room for motion. I was this day visited by two young
+gentlemen, sons of Mr. Guastaldi, late minister from Genoa at London. I
+had seen them at Paris, at the house of the dutchess of Douglas. They
+came hither, with their conductor, in the diligence, and assured me,
+that nothing could be more disagreeable than their situation in that
+carriage.
+
+Another way of travelling in this country is to hire a coach and four
+horses; and this method I was inclined to take: but when I went to the
+bureau, where alone these voitures are to be had, I was given to
+understand, that it would cost me six-and-twenty guineas, and travel so
+slow that I should be ten days upon the road. These carriages are let
+by the same persons who farm the diligence; and for this they have an
+exclusive privilege, which makes them very saucy and insolent. When I
+mentioned my servant, they gave me to understand, that I must pay two
+loui'dores more for his seat upon the coach box. As I could not relish
+these terms, nor brook the thoughts of being so long upon the road, I
+had recourse to the third method, which is going post.
+
+In England you know I should have had nothing to do, but to hire a
+couple of post-chaises from stage to stage, with two horses in each;
+but here the case is quite otherwise. The post is farmed from the king,
+who lays travellers under contribution for his own benefit, and has
+published a set of oppressive ordonnances, which no stranger nor native
+dares transgress. The postmaster finds nothing but horses and guides:
+the carriage you yourself must provide. If there are four persons
+within the carriage, you are obliged to have six horses, and two
+postillions; and if your servant sits on the outside, either before or
+behind, you must pay for a seventh. You pay double for the first stage
+from Paris, and twice double for passing through Fontainbleau when the
+court is there, as well as at coming to Lyons, and at leaving this
+city. These are called royal posts, and are undoubtedly a scandalous
+imposition.
+
+There are two post roads from Paris to Lyons, one of sixty-five posts,
+by the way of Moulins; the other of fifty-nine, by the way of Dijon in
+Burgundy. This last I chose, partly to save sixty livres, and partly to
+see the wine harvest of Burgundy, which, I was told, was a season of
+mirth and jollity among all ranks of people. I hired a very good coach
+for ten loui'dores to Lyons, and set out from Paris on the thirteenth
+instant, with six horses, two postillions, and my own servant on
+horseback. We made no stop at Fontainbleau, though the court was there;
+but lay at Moret, which is one stage further, a very paltry little town
+where, however, we found good accommodation.
+
+I shall not pretend to describe the castle or palace of Fontainbleau,
+of which I had only a glimpse in passing; but the forest, in the middle
+of which it stands, is a noble chace of great extent, beautifully wild
+and romantic, well stored with game of all sorts, and abounding with
+excellent timber. It put me in mind of the New Forest in Hampshire; but
+the hills, rocks, and mountains, with which it is diversified, render
+it more agreeable.
+
+The people of this country dine at noon, and travellers always find an
+ordinary prepared at every auberge, or public-house, on the road. Here
+they sit down promiscuously, and dine at so much a head. The usual
+price is thirty sols for dinner, and forty for supper, including
+lodging; for this moderate expence they have two courses and a dessert.
+If you eat in your own apartment, you pay, instead of forty sols,
+three, and in some places, four livres ahead. I and my family could not
+well dispense with our tea and toast in the morning, and had no stomach
+to eat at noon. For my own part, I hate French cookery, and abominate
+garlick, with which all their ragouts, in this part of the country, are
+highly seasoned: we therefore formed a different plan of living upon
+the road. Before we left Paris, we laid in a stock of tea, chocolate,
+cured neats' tongues, and saucissons, or Bologna sausages, both of
+which we found in great perfection in that capital, where, indeed,
+there are excellent provisions of all sorts. About ten in the morning
+we stopped to breakfast at some auberge, where we always found bread,
+butter, and milk. In the mean time, we ordered a poulard or two to be
+roasted, and these, wrapped in a napkin, were put into the boot of the
+coach, together with bread, wine, and water. About two or three in the
+afternoon, while the horses were changing, we laid a cloth upon our
+knees, and producing our store, with a few earthen plates, discussed
+our short meal without further ceremony. This was followed by a dessert
+of grapes and other fruit, which we had also provided. I must own I
+found these transient refreshments much more agreeable than any regular
+meal I ate upon the road. The wine commonly used in Burgundy is so weak
+and thin, that you would not drink it in England. The very best which
+they sell at Dijon, the capital of the province, for three livres a
+bottle, is in strength, and even in flavour, greatly inferior to what I
+have drank in London. I believe all the first growth is either consumed
+in the houses of the noblesse, or sent abroad to foreign markets. I
+have drank excellent Burgundy at Brussels for a florin a bottle; that
+is, little more than twenty pence sterling.
+
+The country from the forest of Fontainbleau to the Lyonnois, through
+which we passed, is rather agreeable than fertile, being part of
+Champagne and the dutchy of Burgundy, watered by three pleasant
+pastoral rivers, the Seine, the Yonne, and the Saone. The flat country
+is laid out chiefly for corn; but produces more rye than wheat. Almost
+all the ground seems to be ploughed up, so that there is little or
+nothing lying fallow. There are very few inclosures, scarce any meadow
+ground, and, so far as I could observe, a great scarcity of cattle. We
+sometimes found it very difficult  to procure half a pint of milk for
+our tea. In Burgundy I saw a peasant ploughing the ground with a
+jack-ass, a lean cow, and a he-goat, yoked together. It is generally
+observed, that a great number of black cattle are bred and fed on the
+mountains of Burgundy, which are the highest lands in France; but I saw
+very few. The peasants in France are so wretchedly poor, and so much
+oppressed by their landlords, that they cannot afford to inclose their
+grounds, or give a proper respite to their lands; or to stock their
+farms with a sufficient number of black cattle to produce the necessary
+manure, without which agriculture can never be carried to any degree of
+perfection. Indeed, whatever efforts a few individuals may make for the
+benefit of their own estates, husbandry in France will never be
+generally improved, until the farmer is free and independent.
+
+From the frequency of towns and villages, I should imagine this country
+is very populous; yet it must be owned, that the towns are in general
+thinly inhabited. I saw a good number of country seats and plantations
+near the banks of the rivers, on each side; and a great many convents,
+sweetly situated, on rising grounds, where the air is most pure, and
+the prospect most agreeable. It is surprising to see how happy the
+founders of those religious houses have been in their choice of
+situations, all the world over.
+
+In passing through this country, I was very much struck with the sight
+of large ripe clusters of grapes, entwined with the briars and thorns
+of common hedges on the wayside. The mountains of Burgundy are covered
+with vines from the bottom to the top, and seem to be raised by nature
+on purpose to extend the surface, and to expose it the more
+advantageously to the rays of the sun. The vandange was but just begun,
+and the people were employed in gathering the grapes; but I saw no
+signs of festivity among them. Perhaps their joy was a little damped by
+the bad prospect of their harvest; for they complained that the weather
+had been so unfavourable as to hinder the grapes from ripening. I
+thought, indeed, there was something uncomfortable in seeing the
+vintage thus retarded till the beginning of winter: for, in some parts,
+I found the weather extremely cold; particularly at a place called
+Maison-neuve, where we lay, there was a hard frost, and in the morning
+the pools were covered with a thick crust of ice. My personal
+adventures on the road were such as will not bear a recital. They
+consisted of petty disputes with landladies, post-masters, and
+postillions. The highways seem to be perfectly safe. We did not find
+that any robberies were ever committed, although we did not see one of
+the marechaussee from Paris to Lyons. You know the marechaussee are a
+body of troopers well mounted, maintained in France as safe-guards to
+the public roads. It is a reproach upon England that some such patrol
+is not appointed for the protection of travellers.
+
+At Sens in Champagne, my servant, who had rode on before to bespeak
+fresh horses, told me, that the domestic of another company had been
+provided before him, altho' it was not his turn, as he had arrived
+later at the post. Provoked at this partiality, I resolved to chide the
+post-master, and accordingly addressed myself to a person who stood at
+the door of the auberge. He was a jolly figure, fat and fair, dressed
+in an odd kind of garb, with a gold laced cap on his head, and a
+cambric handkerchief pinned to his middle. The sight of such a
+fantastic petit maitre, in the character of a post-master, increased my
+spleen. I called to him with an air of authority, mixed with
+indignation, and when he came up to the coach, asked in a peremptory
+tone, if he did not understand the king's ordonnance concerning the
+regulation of the posts? He laid his hand upon his breast; but before
+he could make any answer, I pulled out the post-book, and began to
+read, with great vociferation, the article which orders, that the
+traveller who comes first shall be first served. By this time the fresh
+horses being put to the carriage, and the postillions mounted, the
+coach set off all of a sudden, with uncommon speed. I imagined the
+post-master had given the fellows a signal to be gone, and, in this
+persuasion, thrusting my head out at the window, I bestowed some
+epithets upon him, which must have sounded very harsh in the ears of a
+Frenchman. We stopped for a refreshment at a little town called
+Joigne-ville, where (by the bye) I was scandalously imposed upon, and
+even abused by a virago of a landlady; then proceeding to the next
+stage, I was given to understand we could not be supplied with fresh
+horses. Here I perceived at the door of the inn, the same person whom I
+had reproached at Sens. He came up to the coach, and told me, that
+notwithstanding what the guides had said, I should have fresh horses in
+a few minutes. I imagined he was master both of this house and the
+auberge at Sens, between which he passed and repassed occasionally; and
+that he was now desirous of making me amends for the affront he had put
+upon me at the other place. Observing that one of the trunks behind was
+a little displaced, he assisted my servant in adjusting it: then he
+entered into conversation with me, and gave me to understand, that in a
+post-chaise, which we had passed, was an English gentleman on his
+return from Italy. I wanted to know who he was, and when he said he
+could not tell, I asked him, in a very abrupt manner, why he had not
+enquired of his servant. He shrugged up his shoulders, and retired to
+the inn door. Having waited about half an hour, I beckoned to him, and
+when he approached, upbraided him with having told me that I should be
+supplied with fresh horses in a few minutes: he seemed shocked, and
+answered, that he thought he had reason for what he said, observing,
+that it was as disagreeable to him as to me to wait for a relay. As it
+began to rain, I pulled up the glass in his face, and he withdrew again
+to the door, seemingly ruffled at my deportment. In a little time the
+horses arrived, and three of them were immediately put to a very
+handsome post-chaise, into which he stepped, and set out, accompanied
+by a man in a rich livery on horseback. Astonished at this
+circumstance, I asked the hostler who he was, and he replied, that he
+was a man of fashion (un seigneur) who lived in the neighbourhood of
+Auxerre. I was much mortified to find that I had treated a nobleman so
+scurvily, and scolded my own people for not having more penetration
+than myself. I dare say he did not fail to descant upon the brutal
+behaviour of the Englishman; and that my mistake served with him to
+confirm the national reproach of bluntness, and ill breeding, under
+which we lie in this country. The truth is, I was that day more than
+usually peevish, from the bad weather, as well as from the dread of a
+fit of the asthma, with which I was threatened: and I dare say my
+appearance seemed as uncouth to him, as his travelling dress appeared
+to me. I had a grey mourning frock under a wide great coat, a bob wig
+without powder, a very large laced hat, and a meagre, wrinkled,
+discontented countenance.
+
+The fourth night of our journey we lay at Macon, and the next day
+passed through the Lyonnois, which is a fine country, full of towns,
+villages, and gentlemen's houses. In passing through the Maconnois, we
+saw a great many fields of Indian corn, which grows to the height of
+six or seven feet: it is made into flour for the use of the common
+people, and goes by the name of Turkey wheat. Here likewise, as well as
+in Dauphine, they raise a vast quantity of very large pompions, with
+the contents of which they thicken their soup and ragouts.
+
+As we travelled only while the sun was up, on account of my ill health,
+and the post horses in France are in bad order, we seldom exceeded
+twenty leagues a day.
+
+I was directed to a lodging-house at Lyons, which being full they
+shewed us to a tavern, where I was led up three pair of stairs, to an
+apartment consisting of three paltry chambers, for which the people
+demanded twelve livres a day: for dinner and supper they asked
+thirty-two, besides three livres for my servant; so that my daily
+expence would have amounted to about forty-seven livres, exclusive of
+breakfast and coffee in the afternoon. I was so provoked at this
+extortion, that, without answering one word, I drove to another
+auberge, where I now am, and pay at the rate of two-and-thirty livres a
+day, for which I am very badly lodged, and but very indifferently
+entertained. I mention these circumstances to give you an idea of the
+imposition to which strangers are subject in this country. It must be
+owned, however, that in the article of eating, I might save half the
+money by going to the public ordinary; but this is a scheme of
+oeconomy, which (exclusive of other disagreeable circumstances) neither
+my own health, nor that of my wife permits me to embrace. My journey
+from Paris to Lyons, including the hire of the coach, and all expences
+on the road, has cost me, within a few shillings, forty loui'dores.
+From Paris our baggage (though not plombe) was not once examined till
+we arrived in this city, at the gate of which we were questioned by one
+of the searchers, who, being tipt with half a crown, allowed us to
+proceed without further enquiry.
+
+I purposed to stay in Lyons until I should receive some letters I
+expected from London, to be forwarded by my banker at Paris: but the
+enormous expence of living in this manner has determined me to set out
+in a day or two for Montpellier, although that place is a good way out
+of the road to Nice. My reasons for taking that route I shall
+communicate in my next. Mean-while, I am ever,-- Dear Sir, Your
+affectionate and obliged humble servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER IX
+
+MONTPELLIER, November 5, 1763.
+
+DEAR SIR,--The city of Lyons has been so often and so circumstantially
+described, that I cannot pretend to say any thing new on the subject.
+Indeed, I know very little of it, but what I have read in books; as I
+had but one day to make a tour of the streets, squares, and other
+remarkable places. The bridge over the Rhone seems to be so slightly
+built, that I should imagine it would be one day carried away by that
+rapid river; especially as the arches are so small, that, after great
+rains they are sometimes bouchees, or stopped up; that is, they do not
+admit a sufficient passage for the encreased body of the water. In
+order to remedy this dangerous defect, in some measure, they found an
+artist some years ago, who has removed a middle pier, and thrown two
+arches into one. This alteration they looked upon as a masterpiece in
+architecture, though there is many a common mason in England, who would
+have undertaken and performed the work, without valuing himself much
+upon the enterprize. This bridge, as well as that of St. Esprit, is
+built, not in a strait line across the river, but with a curve, which
+forms a convexity to oppose the current. Such a bend is certainly
+calculated for the better resisting the general impetuosity of the
+stream, and has no bad effect to the eye.
+
+Lyons is a great, populous, and flourishing city but I am surprised to
+find it is counted a healthy place, and that the air of it is esteemed
+favourable to pulmonic disorders. It is situated on the confluence of
+two large rivers, from which there must be a great evaporation, as well
+as from the low marshy grounds, which these rivers often overflow. This
+must render the air moist, frouzy, and even putrid, if it was not well
+ventilated by winds from the mountains of Swisserland; and in the
+latter end of autumn, it must be subject to fogs. The morning we set
+out from thence, the whole city and adjacent plains were covered with
+so thick a fog, that we could not distinguish from the coach the head
+of the foremost mule that drew it. Lyons is said to be very hot in
+summer, and very cold in winter; therefore I imagine must abound with
+inflammatory and intermittent disorders in the spring and fall of the
+year.
+
+My reasons for going to Montpellier, which is out of the strait road to
+Nice, were these. Having no acquaintance nor correspondents in the
+South of France, I had desired my credit might be sent to the same
+house to which my heavy baggage was consigned. I expected to find my
+baggage at Cette, which is the sea-port of Montpellier; and there I
+also hoped to find a vessel, in which I might be transported by sea to
+Nice, without further trouble. I longed to try what effect the boasted
+air of Montpellier would have upon my constitution; and I had a great
+desire to see the famous monuments of antiquity in and about the
+ancient city of Nismes, which is about eight leagues short of
+Montpellier.
+
+At the inn where we lodged, I found a return berline, belonging to
+Avignon, with three mules, which are the animals commonly used for
+carriages in this country. This I hired for five loui'dores. The coach
+was large, commodious, and well-fitted; the mules were strong and in
+good order; and the driver, whose name was Joseph, appeared to be a
+sober, sagacious, intelligent fellow, perfectly well acquainted with
+every place in the South of France. He told me he was owner of the
+coach, but I afterwards learned, he was no other than a hired servant.
+I likewise detected him in some knavery, in the course of our journey;
+and plainly perceived he had a fellow-feeling with the inn-keepers on
+the road; but, in other respects, he was very obliging, serviceable,
+and even entertaining. There are some knavish practices of this kind,
+at which a traveller will do well to shut his eyes, for his own ease
+and convenience. He will be lucky if he has to do with a sensible
+knave, like Joseph, who understood his interest too well to be guilty
+of very flagrant pieces of imposition.
+
+A man, impatient to be at his journey's end, will find this a most
+disagreeable way of travelling. In summer it must be quite intolerable.
+The mules are very sure, but very slow. The journey seldom exceeds
+eight leagues, about four and twenty miles a day: and as those people
+have certain fixed stages, you are sometimes obliged to rise in a
+morning before day; a circumstance very grievous to persons in ill
+health. These inconveniences, however, were over-balanced by other
+agreemens. We no, sooner quitted Lyons, than we got into summer
+weather, and travelling through a most romantic country, along the
+banks of the Rhone, had opportunities (from the slowness of our pace)
+to contemplate its beauties at leisure.
+
+The rapidity of the Rhone is, in a great measure, owing to its being
+confined within steep banks on each side. These are formed almost
+through its whole course, by a double chain of mountains, which rise
+with all abrupt ascent from both banks of the river. The mountains are
+covered with vineyards, interspersed with small summer-houses, and in
+many places they are crowned with churches, chapels, and convents,
+which add greatly to the romantic beauty of the prospect. The highroad,
+as far as Avignon, lies along the side of the river, which runs almost
+in a straight line, and affords great convenience for inland commerce.
+Travellers, bound to the southern parts of France, generally embark in
+the diligence at Lyons, and glide down this river with great velocity,
+passing a great number of towns and villages on each side, where they
+find ordinaries every day at dinner and supper. In good weather, there
+is no danger in this method of travelling, 'till you come to the Pont
+St. Esprit, where the stream runs through the arches with such
+rapidity, that the boat is sometimes overset. But those passengers who
+are under any apprehension are landed above-bridge, and taken in again,
+after the boat has passed, just in the same manner as at London Bridge.
+The boats that go up the river are drawn against the stream by oxen,
+which swim through one of the arches of this bridge, the driver sitting
+between the horns of the foremost beast. We set out from Lyons early on
+Monday morning, and as a robbery had been a few days before committed
+in that neighbourhood, I ordered my servant to load my musquetoon with
+a charge of eight balls. By the bye, this piece did not fail to attract
+the curiosity and admiration of the people in every place through which
+we passed. The carriage no sooner halted, than a crowd immediately
+surrounded the man to view the blunderbuss, which they dignified with
+the title of petit canon. At Nuys in Burgundy, he fired it in the air,
+and the whole mob dispersed, and scampered off like a flock of sheep.
+In our journey hither, we generally set out in a morning at eight
+o'clock, and travelled 'till noon, when the mules were put up and
+rested a couple of hours. During this halt, Joseph went to dinner, and
+we went to breakfast, after which we ordered provision for our
+refreshment in the coach, which we took about three or four in the
+afternoon, halting for that purpose, by the side of some transparent
+brook, which afforded excellent water to mix with our wine. In this
+country I was almost poisoned with garlic, which they mix in their
+ragouts, and all their sauces; nay, the smell of it perfumes the very
+chambers, as well as every person you approach. I was also very sick of
+been ficas, grives, or thrushes, and other little birds, which are
+served up twice a day at all ordinaries on the road. They make their
+appearance in vine-leaves, and are always half raw, in which condition
+the French choose to eat them, rather than run the risque of losing the
+juice by over-roasting.
+
+The peasants on the South of France are poorly clad, and look as if
+they were half-starved, diminutive, swarthy, and meagre; and yet the
+common people who travel, live luxuriously on the road. Every carrier
+and mule-driver has two meals a day, consisting each of a couple of
+courses and a dessert, with tolerable small wine. That which is called
+hermitage, and grows in this province of Dauphine, is sold on the spot
+for three livres a bottle. The common draught, which you have at meals
+in this country, is remarkably strong, though in flavour much inferior
+to that of Burgundy. The accommodation is tolerable, though they demand
+(even in this cheap country) the exorbitant price of four livres a head
+for every meal, of those who choose to eat in their own apartments. I
+insisted, however, upon paying them with three, which they received,
+though not without murmuring and seeming discontented. In this journey,
+we found plenty of good mutton, pork, poultry, and game, including the
+red partridge, which is near twice as big as the partridge of England.
+Their hares are likewise surprisingly large and juicy. We saw great
+flocks of black turkeys feeding in the fields, but no black cattle; and
+milk was so scarce, that sometimes we were obliged to drink our tea
+without it.
+
+One day perceiving a meadow on the side of the road, full of a flower
+which I took to be the crocus, I desired my servant to alight and pull
+some of them. He delivered the musquetoon to Joseph, who began to
+tamper with it, and off it went with a prodigious report, augmented by
+an eccho from the mountains that skirted the road. The mules were so
+frightened, that they went off at the gallop; and Joseph, for some
+minutes, could neither manage the reins, nor open his mouth. At length
+he recollected himself, and the cattle were stopt, by the assistance of
+the servant, to whom he delivered the musquetoon, with a significant
+shake of the head. Then alighting from the box, he examined the heads
+of his three mules, and kissed each of them in his turn. Finding they
+had received no damage, he came up to the coach, with a pale visage and
+staring eyes, and said it was God's mercy he had not killed his beasts.
+I answered, that it was a greater mercy he had not killed his
+passengers; for the muzzle of the piece might have been directed our
+way as well as any other, and in that case Joseph might have been
+hanged for murder. "I had as good be hanged (said he) for murder, as be
+ruined by the loss of my cattle." This adventure made such an
+impression upon him, that he recounted it to every person we met; nor
+would he ever touch the blunderbuss from that day. I was often diverted
+with the conversation of this fellow, who was very arch and very
+communicative. Every afternoon, he used to stand upon the foot-board,
+at the side of the coach, and discourse with us an hour together.
+Passing by the gibbet of Valencia, which stands very near the
+high-road, we saw one body hanging quite naked, and another lying
+broken on the wheel. I recollected, that Mandrin had suffered in this
+place, and calling to Joseph to mount the foot-board, asked if he had
+ever seen that famous adventurer. At mention of the name of Mandrin,
+the tear started in Joseph's eye, he discharged a deep sigh, or rather
+groan, and told me he was his dear friend. I was a little startled at
+this declaration; however, I concealed my thoughts, and began to ask
+questions about the character and exploits of a man who had made such
+noise in the world.
+
+He told me, Mandrin was a native of Valencia, of mean extraction: that
+he had served as a soldier in the army, and afterwards acted as
+maltotier, or tax-gatherer: that at length he turned contrebandier, or
+smuggler, and by his superior qualities, raised himself to the command
+of a formidable gang, consisting of five hundred persons well armed
+with carbines and pistols. He had fifty horses for his troopers, and
+three hundred mules for the carriage of his merchandize. His
+head-quarters were in Savoy: but he made incursions into Dauphine, and
+set the marechaussee at defiance. He maintained several bloody
+skirmishes with these troopers, as well as with other regular
+detachments, and in all those actions signalized himself by his courage
+and conduct. Coming up at one time with fifty of the marechaussee who
+were in quest of him, he told them very calmly, he had occasion for
+their horses and acoutrements, and desired them to dismount. At that
+instant his gang appeared, and the troopers complied with his request,
+without making the least opposition. Joseph said he was as generous as
+he was brave, and never molested travellers, nor did the least injury
+to the poor; but, on the contrary, relieved them very often. He used to
+oblige the gentlemen in the country to take his merchandize, his
+tobacco, brandy, and muslins, at his own price; and, in the same
+manner, he laid the open towns under contribution. When he had no
+merchandize, he borrowed money off them upon the credit of what he
+should bring when he was better provided. He was at last betrayed, by
+his wench, to the colonel of a French regiment, who went with a
+detachment in the night to the place where he lay in Savoy, and
+surprized him in a wood-house, while his people were absent in
+different parts of the country. For this intrusion, the court of France
+made an apology to the king of Sardinia, in whose territories he was
+taken. Mandrin being conveyed to Valencia, his native place, was for
+some time permitted to go abroad, under a strong guard, with chains
+upon his legs; and here he conversed freely with all sorts of people,
+flattering himself with the hopes of a pardon, in which, however, he
+was disappointed. An order came from court to bring him to his trial,
+when he was found guilty, and condemned to be broke on the wheel.
+Joseph said he drank a bottle of wine with him the night before his
+execution. He bore his fate with great resolution, observing that if
+the letter which he had written to the King had been delivered, he
+certainly should have obtained his Majesty's pardon. His executioner
+was one of his own gang, who was pardoned on condition of performing
+this office. You know, that criminals broke upon the wheel are first
+strangled, unless the sentence imports, that they shall be broke alive.
+As Mandrin had not been guilty of cruelty in the course of his
+delinquency, he was indulged with this favour. Speaking to the
+executioner, whom he had formerly commanded, "Joseph (dit il), je ne
+veux pas que tu me touche, jusqu'a ce que je sois roid mort," "Joseph,"
+said he, "thou shalt not touch me till I am quite dead."--Our driver
+had no sooner pronounced these words, than I was struck with a
+suspicion, that he himself was the executioner of his friend Mandrin.
+On that suspicion, I exclaimed, "Ah! ah! Joseph!" The fellow blushed up
+to the eyes, and said, Oui, son nom etoit Joseph aussi bien que le
+mien, "Yes, he was called Joseph, as I am." I did not think proper to
+prosecute the inquiry; but did not much relish the nature of Joseph's
+connexions. The truth is, he had very much the looks of a ruffian;
+though, I must own, his behaviour was very obliging and submissive.
+
+On the fifth day of our journey, in the morning, we passed the famous
+bridge at St. Esprit, which to be sure is a great curiosity, from its
+length, and the number of its arches: but these arches are too small:
+the passage above is too narrow; and the whole appears to be too
+slight, considering the force and impetuosity of the river. It is not
+comparable to the bridge at Westminster, either for beauty or solidity.
+Here we entered Languedoc, and were stopped to have our baggage
+examined; but the searcher, being tipped with a three-livre piece,
+allowed it to pass. Before we leave Dauphine, I must observe, that I
+was not a little surprized to see figs and chestnuts growing in the
+open fields, at the discretion of every passenger. It was this day I
+saw the famous Pont du Garde; but as I cannot possibly include, in this
+letter, a description of that beautiful bridge, and of the other
+antiquities belonging to Nismes, I will defer it till the next
+opportunity, being, in the mean time, with equal truth and
+affection,--Dear Sir, Your obliged humble Servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER X
+
+MONTPELLIER, November 10, 1763.
+
+DEAR SIR,--By the Pont St. Esprit we entered the province of Languedoc,
+and breakfasted at Bagniole, which is a little paltry town; from
+whence, however, there is an excellent road through a mountain, made at
+a great expence, and extending about four leagues. About five in the
+afternoon, I had the first glimpse of the famous Pont du Garde, which
+stands on the right hand, about the distance of a league from the
+post-road to Nismes, and about three leagues from that city. I would
+not willingly pass for a false enthusiast in taste; but I cannot help
+observing, that from the first distant view of this noble monument,
+till we came near enough to see it perfectly, I felt the strongest
+emotions of impatience that I had ever known; and obliged our driver to
+put his mules to the full gallop, in the apprehension that it would be
+dark before we reached the place. I expected to find the building, in
+some measure, ruinous; but was agreeably disappointed, to see it look
+as fresh as the bridge at Westminster. The climate is either so pure
+and dry, or the free-stone, with which it is built, so hard, that the
+very angles of them remain as acute as if they had been cut last year.
+Indeed, some large stones have dropped out of the arches; but the whole
+is admirably preserved, and presents the eye with a piece of
+architecture, so unaffectedly elegant, so simple, and majestic, that I
+will defy the most phlegmatic and stupid spectator to behold it without
+admiration. It was raised in the Augustan age, by the Roman colony of
+Nismes, to convey a stream of water between two mountains, for the use
+of that city. It stands over the river Gardon, which is a beautiful
+pastoral stream, brawling among rocks, which form a number of pretty
+natural cascades, and overshadowed on each side with trees and shrubs,
+which greatly add to the rural beauties of the scene. It rises in the
+Cevennes, and the sand of it produces gold, as we learn from Mr.
+Reaumur, in his essay on this subject, inserted in the French Memoirs,
+for the year 1718. If I lived at Nismes, or Avignon (which last city is
+within four short leagues of it) I should take pleasure in forming
+parties to come hither, in summer, to dine under one of the arches of
+the Pont du Garde, on a cold collation.
+
+This work consists of three bridges, or tire of arches, one above
+another; the first of six, the second of eleven, and the third of
+thirty-six. The height, comprehending the aqueduct on the top, amounts
+to 174 feet three inches: the length between the two mountains, which
+it unites, extends to 723. The order of architecture is the Tuscan, but
+the symmetry of it is inconceivable. By scooping the bases of the
+pilasters, of the second tire of arches, they had made a passage for
+foot-travellers: but though the antients far excelled us in beauty,
+they certainly fell short of the moderns in point of conveniency. The
+citizens of Avignon have, in this particular, improved the Roman work
+with a new bridge, by apposition, constructed on the same plan with
+that of the lower tire of arches, of which indeed it seems to be a
+part, affording a broad and commodious passage over the river, to
+horses and carriages of all kinds. The aqueduct, for the continuance of
+which this superb work was raised, conveyed a stream of sweet water
+from the fountain of Eure, near the city of Uzes, and extended near six
+leagues in length.
+
+In approaching Nismes, you see the ruins of a Roman tower, built on the
+summit of a hill, which over-looks the city. It seems to have been
+intended, at first, as a watch, or signal-tower, though, in the sequel,
+it was used as a fortress: what remains of it, is about ninety feet
+high; the architecture of the Doric order. I no sooner alighted at the
+inn, than I was presented with a pamphlet, containing an account of
+Nismes and its antiquities, which every stranger buys. There are
+persons too who attend in order to shew the town, and you will always
+be accosted by some shabby antiquarian, who presents you with medals
+for sale, assuring you they are genuine antiques, and were dug out of
+the ruins of the Roman temple and baths. All those fellows are cheats;
+and they have often laid under contribution raw English travellers, who
+had more money than discretion. To such they sell the vilest and most
+common trash: but when they meet with a connoisseur, they produce some
+medals which are really valuable and curious.
+
+Nismes, antiently called Nemausis, was originally a colony of Romans,
+settled by Augustus Caesar, after the battle of Actium. It is still of
+considerable extent, and said to contain twelve thousand families; but
+the number seems, by this account, to be greatly exaggerated. Certain
+it is, the city must have been formerly very extensive, as appears from
+the circuit of the antient walls, the remains of which are still to be
+seen. Its present size is not one third of its former extent. Its
+temples, baths, statues, towers, basilica, and amphitheatre, prove it
+to have been a city of great opulence and magnificence. At present, the
+remains of these antiquities are all that make it respectable or
+remarkable; though here are manufactures of silk and wool, carried on
+with good success. The water necessary for these works is supplied by a
+source at the foot of the rock, upon which the tower is placed; and
+here were discovered the ruins of Roman baths, which had been formed
+and adorned with equal taste and magnificence. Among the rubbish they
+found a vast profusion of columns, vases, capitals, cornices,
+inscriptions, medals, statues, and among other things, the finger of a
+colossal statue in bronze, which, according to the rules of proportion,
+must have been fifteen feet high. From these particulars, it appears
+that the edifices must have been spacious and magnificent. Part of a
+tesselated pavement still remains. The antient pavement of the bath is
+still intire; all the rubbish has been cleared away; and the baths, in
+a great measure, restored on the old plan, though they are not at
+present used for any thing but ornament. The water is collected into
+two vast reservoirs, and a canal built and lined with hewn stone. There
+are three handsome bridges thrown over this vast canal. It contains a
+great body of excellent water, which by pipes and other small branching
+canals, traverses the town, and is converted to many different purposes
+of oeconomy and manufacture. Between the Roman bath and these great
+canals, the ground is agreeably laid out in pleasure-walks. for the
+recreation of the inhabitants. Here are likewise ornaments of
+architecture, which savour much more of French foppery, than of the
+simplicity and greatness of the antients. It is very surprizing, that
+this fountain should produce such a great body of water, as fills the
+basin of the source, the Roman basin, two large deep canals three
+hundred feet in length, two vast basins that make part of the great
+canal, which is eighteen hundred feet long, eighteen feet deep, and
+forty-eight feet broad. When I saw it, there was in it about eight or
+nine feet of water, transparent as crystal. It must be observed,
+however, for the honour of French cleanliness, that in the Roman basin,
+through which this noble stream of water passes, I perceived two
+washerwomen at work upon children's clouts and dirty linnen. Surprized,
+and much disgusted at this filthy phaenomenon, I asked by what means,
+and by whose permission, those dirty hags had got down into the basin,
+in order to contaminate the water at its fountain-head; and understood
+they belonged to the commandant of the place, who had keys of the
+subterranean passage.
+
+Fronting the Roman baths are the ruins of an antient temple, which,
+according to tradition, was dedicated to Diana: but it has been
+observed by connoisseurs, that all the antient temples of this goddess
+were of the Ionic order; whereas, this is partly Corinthian, and partly
+composite. It is about seventy foot long, and six and thirty in
+breadth, arched above, and built of large blocks of stone, exactly
+joined together without any cement. The walls are still standing, with
+three great tabernacles at the further end, fronting the entrance. On
+each side, there are niches in the intercolumniation of the walls,
+together with pedestals and shafts of pillars, cornices, and an
+entablature, which indicate the former magnificence of the building. It
+was destroyed during the civil war that raged in the reign of Henry
+III. of France.
+
+It is amazing, that the successive irruptions of barbarous nations, of
+Goths, Vandals, and Moors; of fanatic croisards, still more sanguinary
+and illiberal than those Barbarians, should have spared this temple, as
+well as two other still more noble monuments of architecture, that to
+this day adorn the city of Nismes: I mean the amphitheatre and the
+edifice, called Maison Carree--The former of these is counted the
+finest monument of the kind, now extant; and was built in the reign of
+Antoninus Pius, who contributed a large sum of money towards its
+erection. It is of an oval figure, one thousand and eighty feet in
+circumference, capacious enough to hold twenty thousand spectators. The
+architecture is of the Tuscan order, sixty feet high, composed of two
+open galleries, built one over another, consisting each of threescore
+arcades. The entrance into the arena was by four great gates, with
+porticos; and the seats, of which there were thirty, rising one above
+another, consisted of great blocks of stone, many of which still
+remain. Over the north gate, appear two bulls, in alto-relievo,
+extremely well executed, emblems which, according to the custom of the
+Romans, signified that the amphitheatre was erected at the expence of
+the people. There are in other parts of it some work in bas-relief, and
+heads or busts but indifferently carved. It stands in the lower part of
+the town, and strikes the spectator with awe and veneration. The
+external architecture is almost intire in its whole circuit; but the
+arena is filled up with houses--This amphitheatre was fortified as a
+citadel by the Visigoths, in the beginning of the sixth century. They
+raised within it a castle, two towers of which are still extant; and
+they surrounded it with a broad and deep fossee, which was filled up in
+the thirteenth century. In all the subsequent wars to which this city
+was exposed, it served as the last resort of the citizens, and
+sustained a great number of successive attacks; so that its
+preservation is almost miraculous. It is likely, however, to suffer
+much more from the Gothic avarice of its own citizens, some of whom are
+mutilating it every day, for the sake of the stones, which they employ
+in their own private buildings. It is surprizing, that the King's
+authority has not been exerted to put an end to such sacrilegious
+violation.
+
+If the amphitheatre strikes you with an idea of greatness, the Maison
+Carree enchants you with the most exquisite beauties of architecture
+and sculpture. This is an edifice, supposed formerly to have been
+erected by Adrian, who actually built a basilica in this city, though
+no vestiges of it remain: but the following inscription, which was
+discovered on the front of it, plainly proves, that it was built by the
+inhabitants of Nismes, in honour of Caius and Lucius Caesar, the
+grandchildren of Augustus by his daughter Julia, the wife of Agrippa.
+
+  C. CAESARI. AVGVSTI. F. COS.
+  L CAESARI. AVGMI. F. COS.
+  DESIGNATO.
+  PRINCIPIBVS IVVENTUTIS.
+
+To Caius and Lucius Caesar, sons of Augustus, consuls elect, Princes of
+the Roman youth.
+
+This beautiful edifice, which stands upon a pediment six feet high, is
+eighty-two feet long, thirty-five broad, and thirty-seven high, without
+reckoning the pediment. The body of it is adorned with twenty columns
+engaged in the wall, and the peristyle, which is open, with ten
+detached pillars that support the entablature. They are all of the
+Corinthian order, fluted and embellished with capitals of the most
+exquisite sculpture, the frize and cornice are much admired, and the
+foliage is esteemed inimitable. The proportions of the building are so
+happily united, as to give it an air of majesty and grandeur, which the
+most indifferent spectator cannot behold without emotion. A man needs
+not be a connoisseur in architecture, to enjoy these beauties. They are
+indeed so exquisite that you may return to them every day with a fresh
+appetite for seven years together. What renders them the more curious,
+they are still entire, and very little affected, either by the ravages
+of time, or the havoc of war. Cardinal Alberoni declared, that it was a
+jewel that deserved a cover of gold to preserve it from external
+injuries. An Italian painter, perceiving a small part of the roof
+repaired by modern French masonry, tore his hair, and exclaimed in a
+rage, "Zounds! what do I see? harlequin's hat on the head of Augustus!"
+
+Without all doubt it is ravishingly beautiful. The whole world cannot
+parallel it; and I am astonished to see it standing entire, like the
+effects of inchantment, after such a succession of ages, every one more
+barbarous than another. The history of the antiquities of Nismes takes
+notice of a grotesque statue, representing two female bodies and legs,
+united under the head of an old man; but, as it does not inform us
+where it is kept, I did not see it.
+
+The whole country of Languedoc is shaded with olive trees, the fruit of
+which begins to ripen, and appears as black as sloes; those they pickle
+are pulled green, and steeped for some time in a lye made of quick lime
+or wood ashes, which extracts the bitter taste, and makes the fruit
+tender. Without this preparation it is not eatable. Under the olive and
+fig trees, they plant corn and vines, so that there is not an inch of
+ground unlaboured: but here are no open fields, meadows, or cattle to
+be seen. The ground is overloaded; and the produce of it crowded to
+such a degree, as to have a bad effect upon the eye, impressing the
+traveller with the ideas of indigence and rapacity. The heat in summer
+is so excessive, that cattle would find no green forage, every blade of
+grass being parched up and destroyed. The weather was extremely hot
+when we entered Montpellier, and put up at the Cheval Blanc, counted
+the best auberge in the place, tho' in fact it is a most wretched
+hovel, the habitation of darkness, dirt, and imposition. Here I was
+obliged to pay four livres a meal for every person in my family, and
+two livres at night for every bed, though all in the same room: one
+would imagine that the further we advance to the southward the living
+is the dearer, though in fact every article of housekeeping is cheaper
+in Languedoc than many other provinces of France. This imposition is
+owing to the concourse of English who come hither, and, like simple
+birds of passage, allow themselves to be plucked by the people of the
+country, who know their weak side, and make their attacks accordingly.
+They affect to believe, that all the travellers of our country are
+grand seigneurs, immensely rich and incredibly generous; and we are
+silly enough to encourage this opinion, by submitting quietly to the
+most ridiculous extortion, as well as by committing acts of the most
+absurd extravagance. This folly of the English, together with a
+concourse of people from different quarters, who come hither for the
+re-establishment of their health, has rendered Montpellier one of the
+dearest places in the South of France. The city, which is but small,
+stands upon a rising ground fronting the Mediterranean, which is about
+three leagues to the southward: on the other side is an agreeable
+plain, extending about the same distance towards the mountains of the
+Cevennes. The town is reckoned well built, and what the French call
+bien percee; yet the streets are in general narrow, and the houses
+dark. The air is counted salutary in catarrhous consumptions, from its
+dryness and elasticity: but too sharp in cases of pulmonary imposthumes.
+
+It was at Montpellier that we saw for the first time any signs of that
+gaiety and mirth for which the people of this country are celebrated.
+In all other places through which we passed since our departure from
+Lyons, we saw nothing but marks of poverty and chagrin. We entered
+Montpellier on a Sunday, when the people were all dressed in their best
+apparel. The streets were crowded; and a great number of the better
+sort of both sexes sat upon stone seats at their doors, conversing with
+great mirth and familiarity. These conversations lasted the greatest
+part of the night; and many of them were improved with musick both
+vocal and instrumental: next day we were visited by the English
+residing in the place, who always pay this mark of respect to new
+comers. They consist of four or five families, among whom I could pass
+the winter very agreeably, if the state of my health and other reasons
+did not call me away.
+
+Mr. L-- had arrived two days before me, troubled with the same
+asthmatic disorder, under which I have laboured so long. He told me he
+had been in quest of me ever since he left England. Upon comparing
+notes, I found he had stopped at the door of a country inn in Picardy,
+and drank a glass of wine and water, while I was at dinner up stairs;
+nay, he had even spoke to my servant, and asked who was his master, and
+the man, not knowing him, replied, he was a gentleman from Chelsea. He
+had walked by the door of the house where I lodged at Paris, twenty
+times, while I was in that city; and the very day before he arrived at
+Montpellier, he had passed our coach on the road.
+
+The garrison of this city consists of two battalions, one of which is
+the Irish regiment of Berwick, commanded by lieutenant colonel Tents, a
+gentleman with whom we contracted an acquaintance at Boulogne. He
+treats us with great politeness, and indeed does every thing in his
+power to make the place agreeable to us. The duke of Fitz-James, the
+governor, is expected here in a little time. We have already a
+tolerable concert twice a week; there will be a comedy in the winter;
+and the states of Provence assemble in January, so that Montpellier
+will be extremely gay and brilliant. These very circumstances would
+determine me to leave it. I have not health to enjoy these pleasures: I
+cannot bear a croud of company such as pours in upon us unexpectedly at
+all hours; and I foresee, that in staying at Montpellier, I should be
+led into an expence, which I can ill afford. I have therefore forwarded
+the letter I received from general P--n, to Mr. B--d, our consul at
+Nice, signifying my intention of going thither, and explaining the kind
+of accommodation I would choose to have at that place.
+
+The day after our arrival, I procured tolerable lodgings in the High
+Street, for which I pay fifty sols, something more than two shillings
+per day; and I am furnished with two meals a day by a traiteur for ten
+livres: but he finds neither the wine nor the dessert; and indeed we
+are but indifferently served. Those families who reside here find their
+account in keeping house. Every traveller who comes to this, or any
+other, town in France with a design to stay longer than a day or two,
+ought to write beforehand to his correspondent to procure furnished
+lodgings, to which he may be driven immediately, without being under
+the necessity of lying in an execrable inn; for all the inns of this
+country are execrable.
+
+My baggage is not yet arrived by the canal of Languedoc; but that gives
+me no disturbance, as it is consigned to the care of Mr. Ray, an
+English merchant and banker of this place; a gentleman of great probity
+and worth, from whom I have received repeated marks of uncommon
+friendship and hospitality.
+
+The next time you hear of me will be from Nice: mean-while, I remain
+always,--Dear Sir, Your affectionate humble servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER XI
+
+MONTPELLIER, November 12.
+
+DEAR DOCTOR--I flattered myself with the hope of much amusement during
+my short stay at Montpellier.--The University, the Botanical Garden,
+the State of Physic in this part of the world, and the information I
+received of a curious collection of manuscripts, among which I hoped to
+find something for our friend Dr. H--r; all these particulars promised
+a rich fund of entertainment, which, however, I cannot enjoy.
+
+A few days after my arrival, it began to rain with a southerly wind,
+and continued without ceasing the best part of a week, leaving the air
+so loaded with vapours, that there was no walking after sun-set;
+without being wetted by the dew almost to the skin. I have always found
+a cold and damp atmosphere the most unfavourable of any to my
+constitution. My asthmatical disorder. which had not given me much
+disturbance since I left Boulogne, became now very troublesome,
+attended with fever, cough spitting, and lowness of spirits; and I
+wasted visibly every day. I was favoured with the advice of Dr.
+Fitzmaurice, a very worthy sensible physician settled in this place:
+but I had the curiosity to know the opinion of the celebrated professor
+F--, who is the Boerhaave of Montpellier. The account I had of his
+private character and personal deportment, from some English people to
+whom he was well known, left me no desire to converse with him: but I
+resolved to consult with him on paper. This great lanthorn of medicine
+is become very rich and very insolent; and in proportion as his wealth
+increases, he is said to grow the more rapacious. He piques himself
+upon being very slovenly, very blunt, and very unmannerly; and perhaps
+to these qualifications be owes his reputation rather than to any
+superior skill in medicine. I have known them succeed in our own
+country; and seen a doctor's parts estimated by his brutality and
+presumption.
+
+F-- is in his person and address not unlike our old acquaintance Dr.
+Sm--ie; he stoops much, dodges along, and affects to speak the Patois,
+which is a corruption of the old Provencial tongue, spoken by the
+vulgar in Languedoc and Provence. Notwithstanding his great age and
+great wealth, he will still scramble up two pair of stairs for a fee of
+six livres; and without a fee he will give his advice to no person
+whatsoever.
+
+He is said to have great practice in the venereal branch and to be
+frequented by persons of both sexes infected with this distemper, not
+only from every part of France, but also from Spain, Italy, Germany,
+and England. I need say nothing of the Montpellier method of cure,
+which is well known at London; but I have some reason to think the
+great professor F--, has, like the famous Mrs. Mapp, the bone-setter,
+cured many patients that were never diseased.
+
+Be that as it may, I sent my valet de place, who was his townsman and
+acquaintance, to his house, with the following case, and a loui'dore.
+
+Annum aetatis, post quadragesimum, tertium, Temperamentum humidum,
+crassum, pituitarepletum, catarrhis saepissime profligatum. Catarrhus,
+febre, anxietate et dyspnoea, nunquam non comitatus. Irritatio
+membranae piuitariae trachaealis, tussim initio aridam, siliquosam,
+deinde vero excreationem copiosam excitat: sputum albumini ovi
+simillimum.
+
+Accedente febre, urina pallida, limpida: ad akmen flagrante, colorem
+rubrum, subflavum induit: coctione peracta, sedimentum lateritium
+deponit.
+
+Appetitus raro deest: digestio segnior sed secura, non autem sine ructu
+perfecta. Alvus plerumque stipata: excretio intestinalis minima,
+ratione ingestorum habita. Pulsus frequens, vacillans, exilis,
+quandoquidem etiam intermittens.
+
+Febre una extincta, non deficit altera. Aliaque et eadem statim
+nascitur. Aer paulo frigidior, vel humidior, vestimentum inusitatum
+indutum; exercitatio paulullum nimia; ambulatio, equitatio, in quovis
+vehiculo jactatio; haec omnia novos motus suscitant. Systema nervosum
+maxime irritabile, organos patitur. Ostiola in cute hiantia, materiei
+perspirabili, exitum praebentia, clauduntur. Materies obstructa
+cumulatur; sanguine aliisque humoribus circumagitur: fit plethora.
+Natura opprimi nolens, excessus huius expulsionem conatur. Febris nova
+accenditur. Pars oneris, in membranam trachaealem laxatam ac
+debilitatam transfertur. Glandulae pituitariae turgentes bronchia
+comprimunt. Liber aeri transitus negatur: hinc respiratio difficilis.
+Hac vero translatione febris minuitur: interdiu remittitur. Dyspnoea
+autem aliaque symptomata vere hypochondriaca, recedere nolunt. Vespere
+febris exacerbatur. Calor, inquietudo, anxietas et asthma, per noctem
+grassantur. Ita quotidie res agitur, donec. Vis vitae paulatim crisim
+efficit. Seminis joctura, sive in somniis effusi, seu in gremio veneris
+ejaculati, inter causas horum malorum nec non numeretur.
+
+Quibusdam abhinc annis, exercitationibus juvenilibus subito remissis,
+in vitam sedentariam lapsum. Animo in studia severiora converso, fibre
+gradatim laxabantur. Inter legendum, et scribendum inclinato corpore in
+pectus malum, ruebat. Morbo ingruenti affectio scorbutica auxilium
+tulit. Invasio prima nimium aspernata. Venientibus hostibus non
+occursum. Cunctando res non restituta. Remedia convenientia stomachus
+perhorrescebat. Gravescente dyspnoea phlebotomia frustra tentata.
+Sanguinis missione vis vitae diminuta: fiebat pulsitis debilior,
+respiratio difficilior. In pejus ruunt omnia. Febris anomala in
+febriculam continuam mutata. Dyspnoea confirmata. Fibrarum compages
+soluta. Valetudo penitus eversa.
+
+His agitatus furiis, aeger ad mare provolat: in fluctus se precipitem,
+dat: periculum factum spem non fefellit: decies iteratum, felix
+faustumque evasit. Elater novus fibris conciliatur. Febricula fugatur.
+Acris dyspnoea solvitur. Beneficium dextra ripa partum, sinistra
+perditum. Superficie corporis, aquae marine frigore et pondere,
+compressa et contracta, interstitia fibrarum occluduntur: particulis
+incrementi novis partes abrasas reficientibus, locus non datur.
+Nutritio corporis, via pristina clausa, qua data porta ruit: in
+membranam pulmonum, minus firmatam facile fertur, et glandulis per
+sputum rejicitur.
+
+Hieme pluviosa, regnante dolores renovantur; tametsi tempore sereno
+equitatio profuit. Aestate morbus vix ullum progrediebatur. Autumno,
+valetudine plus declinata, thermis Bathoniensibus solatium haud frustra
+quaesitum. Aqua ista mire medicata, externe aeque ac interne adhibita,
+malis levamen attulit. Hiems altera, frigida, horrida, diuturna,
+innocua tamen successit. Vere novo casus atrox diras procellas animo
+immisit: toto corpore, tota mente tumultuatur. Patria relicta,
+tristitia, sollecitudo, indignatio, et saevissima recordatio sequuntur.
+Inimici priores furore inveterato revertuntur. Rediit febris hectica:
+rediit asthma cum anxietate, tusse et dolore lateris lancinanti.
+
+Desperatis denique rebus, iterum ad mare, veluti ad anceps remedium
+recurritur. Balneum hoc semper benignum. Dolor statim avolat. Tertio
+die febris, retrocessit. Immersio quotidiana antemeridiana, ad vices
+quinquaginta repetita, symptomata graviora subjugavit.-- Manet vero
+tabes pituitaria: manet temperamentum in catarrhos proclive. Corpus
+macrescit. Vires delabuntur.
+
+The professor's eyes sparkled at sight of the fee; and he desired the
+servant to call next morning for his opinion of the case, which
+accordingly I received in these words:
+
+"On voit par cette relation que monsieur le consultant dont on n'a pas
+juge a propos de dire l'age, mais qui nous paroit etre adulte et d'un
+age passablement avance, a ete sujet cy devant a des rhumes frequens
+accompagnes de fievre; on ne detaille point (aucune epoque), on parle
+dans la relation d'asthme auquel il a ete sujet, de scorbut ou
+affection scorbutique dont on ne dit pas les symptomes. On nous fait
+scavoir qu'il s'est bien trouve de l'immersion dans l'eau de la mer, et
+des eaux de Bath.
+
+"On dit a present qu'il a une fievre pituitaire sans dire depuis
+combien de temps. Qu'il lui reste toujours son temperament enclin aux
+catharres. Que le corps maigrit, et que les forces se perdent. On ne
+dit point s'il y a des exacerbations dans cette fievre ou non, si le
+malade a appetit ou non, s'il tousse ou non, s'il crache ou non, en un
+mot on n'entre dans aucun detail sur ces objets, sur quoi le conseil
+soussigne estime que monsieur le consultant est en fievre lente, et que
+vraisemblable le poumon souffre de quelque tubercules qui peut-etre
+sont en fonte, ce que nous aurions determine si dans la relation on
+avoit marque les qualites de crachats.
+
+"La cause fonchere de cette maladie doit etre imputee a une lymphe
+epaisse et acrimonieuse, qui donne occasion a des tubercules au pomon,
+qui etant mis on fonte fournissent au sang des particules acres et le
+rendent tout acrimonieux.
+
+"Les vues que l'on doit avoir dans ce cas sent de procurer des bonnes
+digestions (quoique dans la relation ou ne dit pas un mot sur les
+digestions) de jetter un douce detrempe dans la masse du sang, d'en
+ebasser l'acrimonie et de l'adoucir, de diviser fort doucement a
+lymphe, et de deterger le poumon, lui procurant meme du calme suppose
+que la toux l'inquiete, quoique cependant on ne dit pas un mot sur la
+toux dans la relation. C'est pourquoi on le purgera avec 3 onces de
+manne, dissoutes dans un verre de decoction de 3 dragmes de polypode de
+chesne, on passera ensuite a des bouillons qui seront faits avec un
+petit poulet, la chair, le sang, le coeur et le foye d'une tortue de
+grandeur mediocre c'est a dire du poid de 8 a 12 onces avec sa
+coquille, une poignee de chicoree amere de jardin, et une pincee de
+feuilles de lierre terrestre vertes on seches. Ayant pris ces bouillons
+15 matins on se purgera comme auparavant, pour en venir a des bouillons
+qui seront faits avec la moitie d'un mou de veau, une poignee de
+pimprenelle de jardin, et une dragme de racine d'angelique concassee.
+
+Ayant pris ces bouillons 15 matins, on se purgera somme auparavant pour
+en venir an lait d'anesse que l'on prendra le matin a jeun, a la dose
+de 12 a 16 onces y ajoutant un cuilleree de sucre rape, on prendra ce
+lait le matin a jeun observant de prendre pendant son usage de deux
+jours l'un un moment avant le lait un bolus fait avec 15 grains de
+craye de Braincon en poudre fine, 20 grains de corail prepare, 8 grains
+d'antihectique de poterius, et ce qu'il faut de syrop de lierre
+terrestre, mais les jour on ou ne prendra pas le bolus on prendra un
+moment avant le lait 3 on 4 gouttes de bon baume de Canada detrempees
+dans un demi cuilleree de syrop de lierre terrestre. Si le corps
+maigrit de plus en plus, je suis d'avis que pendant l'usage du lait
+d'anesse on soupe tous les soirs avec une soupe au lait de vache.
+
+"On continuera l'usage du lait d'anesse tant, que le malade pourra le
+supporter, ne le purgeant que par necessite et toujours avec la
+medecine ordonnee.
+
+"Au reste, si monsieur le consultant ne passe les nuits bien calmes, il
+prendra chaque soir a l'heure de sommeil six grains des pilules de
+cynoglosse, dent il augmentera la dose d'un grain de plus toutes les
+fois que la dose du jour precedent, n'aura pas ete suffisante pour lui
+faire passer la nuit bien calme.
+
+"Si les malade tousse il usera soit de jour soit de nuit par petites
+cuillerees a casse d'un looch, qui sera fait avec un once de syrop de
+violat et un dragme de blanc de baleine.
+
+"Si les crachats sent epais et qu'il crache difficilement, en ce cas il
+prendra une ou deux fois le jour, demi dragme de blanc de baleine
+reduit on poudre avec un pen de sucre candit qu'il avalera avec une
+cuilleree d'eau.
+
+"Enfin il doit observer un bon regime de vivre, c'est pourquoi il fera
+toujours gras et seulement en soupes, bouilli et roti, il ne mangera
+pas les herbes des soupes, et on salera peu son pot, il se privera du
+beuf, cochon, chair noir, oiseaux d'eau, ragouts, fritures,
+patisseries, alimens sales, epices, vinaigres, salades, fruits, cruds,
+et autres crudites, alimens grossiers, ou de difficille digestion, la
+boisson sera de l'eau tant soit peu rougee de bon vin au diner
+seulement, et il ne prendra a souper qu'une soupe.
+
+  Delibere a MONTPELLIER
+  le 11 Novembre.
+  F--.
+  Professeur en l'universite honoraire.
+
+Receu vingt et quatre livres.
+
+I thought it was a little extraordinary that a learned professor should
+reply in his mother tongue, to a case put in Latin: but I was much more
+surprised, as you will also be, at reading his answer, from which I was
+obliged to conclude, either that he did not understand Latin; or that
+he had not taken the trouble to read my memoire. I shall not make any
+remarks upon the stile of his prescription, replete as it is with a
+disgusting repetition of low expressions: but I could not but, in
+justice to myself, point out to him the passages in my case which he
+had overlooked. Accordingly, having marked them with letters, I sent it
+back, with the following billet.
+
+"Apparement Mons. F-- n'a pas donne beaucoup d'attention au memoire de
+ma sante que j'ai on l'honneur de lui presenter-- 'Monsieur le
+consultant (dit il) dont on n'a pas juge it propos de dire
+l'age.'--Mais on voit dans le memoire a No. 1. 'Annum aetatis post
+quadragesimum tertium.'
+
+"Mr. F-- dit que 'je n'ai pas marque aucune epoque. Mais a No. 2 du
+memoire il trouvera ces mots. 'Quibusdam abbinc annis.' J'ai meme
+detaille le progres de la maladie pour trois ans consecutifs.
+
+"Mons. F-- observe, 'On no dit point s'il y a des exacerbations dans
+cette fievre ou non.' Qu'il. Regarde la lettre B, il verra, Vespere
+febris exacerbatur. Calor, inquietudo, anxietas et asthma per noctem
+grassantur.'
+
+"Mons. F-- remarque, 'On ne dit point si le malade a appetit ou non,
+s'il tousse ou non, s'il crache ou non, en un mot on n'entre dans aucun
+detail sur ces objets.' Mais on voit toutes ces circonstances
+detaillees dans la memoire a lettre A, 'Irritatio membranae trachaealis
+tussim, initio aridam, siliquosam, deinde vero excreationem copiosam
+excitat. Sputum albumini ovi simillimum. Appetitus raro deest. Digestio
+segnior sed secura.'
+
+"Mons. F-- observe encore, 'qu'on ne dit pas un mot sur la toux dans la
+relation.' Mais j'ai dit encore a No. 3 de memoire, 'rediit febris
+hectica; rediit asthma cum anxietate, tusse et dolore lateris
+lancinante.'
+
+"Au reste, je ne puis pas me persuader qu'il y ait des tubercules au
+poumon, parce que j'ai ne jamais crache de pus, ni autre chose que de
+la pituite qui a beaucoup de ressemblance au blanc des oeufs. Sputum
+albumini ovi simillimum. Il me paroit done que ma maladie doit son
+origine a la suspension de l'exercice du corps, au grand attachement
+d'esprit, et a une vie sedentaire qui a relache le sisteme fibreux; et
+qu'a present on pent l'appeller tubes pituitaria, non tubes purulenta.
+J'espere que Mons. Faura la bonte de faire revision du memoire, et de
+m'en dire encore son sentiment."
+
+Considering the nature of the case, you see I could not treat him more
+civilly. I desired the servant to ask when he should return for an
+answer, and whether he expected another fee. He desired him to come
+next morning, and, as the fellow assured me, gave him to understand,
+that whatever monsieur might solicit, should be for his (the servant's)
+advantage. In all probability he did not expect another gratification,
+to which, indeed, he had no title. Mons. F-- was undoubtedly much
+mortified to find himself detected in such flagrant instances of
+unjustifiable negligence, arid like all other persons in the same
+ungracious dilemma, instead of justifying himself by reason or
+argument, had recourse to recrimination. In the paper which he sent me
+next day, he insisted in general that he had carefully perused the case
+(which you will perceive was a self-evident untruth); he said the
+theory it contained was idle; that he was sure it could not be written
+by a physician; that, with respect to the disorder, he was still of the
+same opinion; and adhered to his former prescription; but if I had any
+doubts I might come to his house, and he would resolve them.
+
+I wrapt up twelve livres in the following note, and sent it to his
+house.
+
+"C'est ne pas sans raison que monsieur F-- jouit d'une si grande
+reputation. Je n'ai plus de doutes, graces a Dieu et a monsieur F--e. "
+"It is not without reason that monsieur Fizes enjoys such a large share
+of reputation. I have no doubts remaining; thank Heaven and monsieur
+Fizes."
+
+To this I received for answer. "Monsieur n'a plus de doutes: j'en suis
+charme. Receu douze livres. F--, &c." "Sir, you have no doubts
+remaining; I am very glad of it. Received twelve livres. Fizes, &c."
+
+Instead of keeping his promise to the valet, he put the money in his
+pocket; and the fellow returned in a rage, exclaiming that he was un
+gros cheval de carosse, a great coach-horse.
+
+I shall make no other comment upon the medicines, and the regimen which
+this great Doctor prescribed; but that he certainly mistook the case:
+that upon the supposition I actually laboured under a purulent
+discharge from the lungs, his remedies savour strongly of the old
+woman; and that there is a total blank with respect to the article of
+exercise, which you know is so essential in all pulmonary disorders.
+But after having perused my remarks upon his first prescription, he
+could not possibly suppose that I had tubercules, and was spitting up
+pus; therefore his persisting in recommending the same medicines he had
+prescribed on that supposition, was a flagrant absurdity.--If, for
+example, there was no vomica in the lungs; and the business was to
+attenuate the lymph, what could be more preposterous than to advise the
+chalk of Briancon, coral, antihecticum poterii, and the balm of Canada?
+As for the turtle-soupe, it is a good restorative and balsamic; but, I
+apprehend, will tend to thicken rather than attenuate the phlegm. He
+mentions not a syllable of the air, though it is universally allowed,
+that the climate of Montpellier is pernicious to ulcerated lungs; and
+here I cannot help recounting a small adventure which our doctor had
+with a son of Mr. O--d, merchant in the city of London. I had it from
+Mrs. St--e who was on the spot. The young gentleman, being consumptive,
+consulted Mr. F--, who continued visiting and prescribing for him a
+whole month. At length, perceiving that he grew daily worse, "Doctor
+(said he) I take your prescriptions punctually; but, instead of being
+the better for them, I have now not an hour's remission from the fever
+in the four-and-twenty.--I cannot conceive the meaning of it." F--, who
+perceived he had not long to live, told him the reason was very plain:
+the air of Montpellier was too sharp for his lungs, which required a
+softer climate. "Then you're a sordid villain (cried the young man) for
+allowing me to stay here till my constitution is irretrievable." He set
+out immediately for Tholouse, and in a few weeks died in the
+neighbourhood of that city.
+
+I observe that the physicians in this country pay no regard to the
+state of the solids in chronical disorders, that exercise and the cold
+bath are never prescribed, that they seem to think the scurvy is
+entirely an English disease; and that, in all appearance, they often
+confound the symptoms of it, with those of the venereal distemper.
+Perhaps I may be more particular on this subject in a subsequent
+letter. In the mean time, I am ever,-- Dear Sir, Yours sincerely.
+
+
+
+LETTER XII
+
+NICE, December 6, 1763.
+
+DEAR SIR,--The inhabitants of Montpellier are sociable, gay, and
+good-tempered. They have a spirit of commerce, and have erected several
+considerable manufactures, in the neighbourhood of the city. People
+assemble every day to take the air on the esplanade, where there is a
+very good walk, just without the gate of the citadel: but, on the other
+side of the town, there is another still more agreeable, called the
+peirou, from whence there is a prospect of the Mediterranean on one
+side, and of the Cevennes on the other. Here is a good equestrian
+statue of Louis XIV, fronting one gate of the city, which is built in
+form of a triumphal arch, in honour of the same monarch. Immediately
+under the pierou is the physic garden, and near it an arcade just
+finished for an aqueduct, to convey a stream of water to the upper
+parts of the city. Perhaps I should have thought this a neat piece of
+work, if I had not seen the Pont du Garde: but, after having viewed the
+Roman arches, I could not look upon this but with pity and contempt. It
+is a wonder how the architect could be so fantastically modern, having
+such a noble model, as it were, before his eyes.
+
+There are many protestants at this place, as well as at Nismes, and
+they are no longer molested on the score of religion. They have their
+conventicles in the country, where they assemble privately for worship.
+These are well known; and detachments are sent out every Sunday to
+intercept them; but the officer has always private directions to take
+another route. Whether this indulgence comes from the wisdom and lenity
+of the government, or is purchased with money of the commanding
+officer, I cannot determine: but certain it is, the laws of France
+punish capitally every protestant minister convicted of having
+performed the functions of his ministry in this kingdom; and one was
+hanged about two years ago, in the neighbourhood of Montauban.
+
+The markets in Montpellier are well supplied with fish, poultry,
+butcher's meat, and game, at reasonable rates. The wine of the country
+is strong and harsh, and never drank, but when mixed with water.
+Burgundy is dear, and so is the sweet wine of Frontignan, though made
+in the neighbourhood of Cette. You know it is famous all over Europe,
+and so are the liqueurs, or drams of various sorts, compounded and
+distilled at Montpellier. Cette is the sea-port, about four leagues
+from that city: but the canal of Languedoc comes up within a mile of
+it; and is indeed a great curiosity: a work in all respects worthy of a
+Colbert, under whose auspices it was finished. When I find such a
+general tribute of respect and veneration paid to the memory of that
+great man, I am astonished to see so few monuments of public utility
+left by other ministers. One would imagine, that even the desire of
+praise would prompt a much greater number to exert themselves for the
+glory and advantage of their country; yet in my opinion, the French
+have been ungrateful to Colbert, in the same proportion as they have
+over-rated the character of his master. Through all France one meets
+with statues and triumphal arches erected to Louis XIV, in consequence
+of his victories; by which, likewise, he acquired the title of Louis le
+Grand. But how were those victories obtained? Not by any personal merit
+of Louis. It was Colbert who improved his finances, and enabled him to
+pay his army. It was Louvois that provided all the necessaries of war.
+It was a Conde, a Turenne, a Luxemburg, a Vendome, who fought his
+battles; and his first conquests, for which he was deified by the pen
+of adulation, were obtained almost without bloodshed, over weak,
+dispirited, divided, and defenceless nations. It was Colbert that
+improved the marine, instituted manufactures, encouraged commerce,
+undertook works of public utility, and patronized the arts and
+sciences. But Louis (you will say) had the merit of choosing and
+supporting those ministers, and those generals. I answer, no. He found
+Colbert and Louvois already chosen: he found Conde and Turenne in the
+very zenith of military reputation. Luxemburg was Conde's pupil; and
+Vendome, a prince of the blood, who at first obtained the command of
+armies in consequence of his high birth, and happened to turn out a man
+of genius. The same Louis had the sagacity to revoke the edict of
+Nantz; to entrust his armies to a Tallard, a Villeroy, and a Marsin. He
+had the humanity to ravage the country, burn the towns, and massacre
+the people of the Palatinate. He had the patriotism to impoverish and
+depopulate his own kingdom, in order to prosecute schemes of the most
+lawless ambition. He had the Consolation to beg a peace from those he
+had provoked to war by the most outrageous insolence; and he had the
+glory to espouse Mrs. Maintenon in her old age, the widow of the
+buffoon Scarron. Without all doubt, it was from irony he acquired the
+title le Grand.
+
+Having received a favourable answer from Mr. B--, the English consul at
+Nice, and recommended the care of my heavy baggage to Mr. Ray, who
+undertook to send it by sea from Cette to Villefranche, I hired a coach
+and mules for seven loui'dores, and set out from Montpellier on the
+13th of November, the weather being agreeable, though the air was cold
+and frosty. In other respects there were no signs of winter: the olives
+were now ripe, and appeared on each side of the road as black as sloes;
+and the corn was already half a foot high. On the second day of our
+journey, we passed the Rhone on a bridge of boats at Buccaire, and lay
+on the other side at Tarrascone. Next day we put up at a wretched place
+called Orgon, where, however, we were regaled with an excellent supper;
+and among other delicacies, with a dish of green pease. Provence is a
+pleasant country, well cultivated; but the inns are not so good here as
+in Languedoc, and few of them are provided with a certain convenience
+which an English traveller can very ill dispense with. Those you find
+are generally on the tops of houses, exceedingly nasty; and so much
+exposed to the weather, that a valetudinarian cannot use them without
+hazard of his life. At Nismes in Languedoc, where we found the Temple
+of Cloacina in a most shocking condition, the servant-maid told me her
+mistress had caused it to be made on purpose for the English
+travellers; but now she was very sorry for what she had done, as all
+the French who frequented her house, instead of using the seat, left
+their offerings on the floor, which she was obliged to have cleaned
+three or four times a day. This is a degree of beastliness, which would
+appear detestable even in the capital of North-Britain. On the fourth
+day of our pilgrimage, we lay in the suburbs of Aix, but did not enter
+the city, which I had a great curiosity to see. The villainous asthma
+baulked me of that satisfaction. I was pinched with the cold, and
+impatient to reach a warmer climate. Our next stage was at a paltry
+village, where we were poorly entertained. I looked so ill in the
+morning, that the good woman of the house, who was big with child, took
+me by the hand at parting, and even shed tears, praying fervently that
+God would restore me to my health. This was the only instance of
+sympathy, compassion, or goodness of heart, that I had met with among
+the publicans of France. Indeed at Valencia, our landlady,
+understanding I was travelling to Montpellier for my health would have
+dissuaded me from going thither; and exhorted me, in particular, to
+beware of the physicians, who were all a pack of assassins. She advised
+me to eat fricassees of chickens, and white meat, and to take a good
+bouillon every morning.
+
+A bouillon is an universal remedy among the good people of France;
+insomuch, that they have no idea of any person's dying, after having
+swallowed un bon bouillon. One of the English gentlemen, who were
+robbed and murdered about thirty years ago between Calais and Boulogne,
+being brought to the post-house of Boulogne with some signs of life,
+this remedy was immediately administered. "What surprises me greatly,
+(said the post-master, speaking of this melancholy story to a friend of
+mine, two years after it happened) I made an excellent bouillon, and
+poured it down his throat with my own hands, and yet he did not
+recover." Now, in all probability, this bouillon it was that stopped
+his breath. When I was a very young man, I remember to have seen a
+person suffocated by such impertinent officiousness. A young man of
+uncommon parts and erudition, very well esteemed at the university of
+G--ow was found early one morning in a subterranean vault among the
+ruins of an old archiepiscopal palace, with his throat cut from ear to
+ear. Being conveyed to a public-house in the neighbourhood, he made
+signs for pen, ink, and paper, and in all probability would have
+explained the cause of this terrible catastrophe, when an old woman,
+seeing the windpipe, which was cut, sticking out of the wound, and
+mistaking it for the gullet, by way of giving him a cordial to support
+his spirits, poured into it, through a small funnel, a glass of burnt
+brandy, which strangled him in the tenth part of a minute. The gash was
+so hideous, and formed by so many repeated strokes of a razor, that the
+surgeons believed he could not possibly be the perpetrator himself;
+nevertheless this was certainly the case.
+
+At Brignolles, where we dined, I was obliged to quarrel with the
+landlady, and threaten to leave her house, before she would indulge us
+with any sort of flesh-meat. It was meagre day, and she had made her
+provision accordingly. She even hinted some dissatisfaction at having
+heretics in her house: but, as I was not disposed to eat stinking fish,
+with ragouts of eggs and onions, I insisted upon a leg of mutton, and a
+brace of fine partridges, which I found in the larder. Next day, when
+we set out in the morning from Luc, it blew a north-westerly wind so
+extremely cold and biting, that even a flannel wrapper could not keep
+me tolerably warm in the coach. Whether the cold had put our coachman
+in a bad humour, or he had some other cause of resentment against
+himself, I know not; but we had not gone above a quarter of a mile,
+when he drove the carriage full against the corner of a garden wall,
+and broke the axle-tree, so that we were obliged to return to the inn
+on foot, and wait a whole day, until a new piece could be made and
+adjusted. The wind that blew, is called Maestral, in the Provencial
+dialect, and indeed is the severest that ever I felt. At this inn, we
+met with a young French officer who had been a prisoner in England, and
+spoke our language pretty well. He told me, that such a wind did not
+blow above twice or three times in a winter, and was never of long
+continuance, that in general, the weather was very mild and agreeable
+during the winter months; that living was very cheap in this part of
+Provence, which afforded great plenty of game. Here, too, I found a
+young Irish recollet, in his way from Rome to his own country. He
+complained, that he was almost starved by the inhospitable disposition
+of the French people; and that the regular clergy, in particular, had
+treated him with the most cruel disdain. I relieved his necessities,
+and gave him a letter to a gentleman of his own country at Montpellier.
+
+When I rose in the morning, and opened a window that looked into the
+garden, I thought myself either in a dream, or bewitched. All the trees
+were cloathed with snow, and all the country covered at least a foot
+thick. "This cannot be the south of France, (said I to myself) it must
+be the Highlands of Scotland!" At a wretched town called Muy, where we
+dined, I had a warm dispute with our landlord, which, however, did not
+terminate to my satisfaction. I sent on the mules before, to the next
+stage, resolving to take post-horses, and bespoke them accordingly of
+the aubergiste, who was, at the same time, inn-keeper and post-master.
+We were ushered into the common eating-room, and had a very indifferent
+dinner; after which, I sent a loui'dore to be changed, in order to pay
+the reckoning. The landlord, instead of giving the full change,
+deducted three livres a head for dinner, and sent in the rest of the
+money by my servant. Provoked more at his ill manners, than at his
+extortion, I ferreted him out of a bed-chamber, where he had concealed
+himself, and obliged him to restore the full change, from which I paid
+him at the rate of two livres a head. He refused to take the money,
+which I threw down on the table; and the horses being ready, stepped
+into the coach, ordering the postillions to drive on. Here I had
+certainly reckoned without my host. The fellows declared they would not
+budge, until I should pay their master; and as I threatened them with
+manual chastisement, they alighted, and disappeared in a twinkling. I
+was now so incensed, that though I could hardly breathe; though the
+afternoon was far advanced, and the street covered with wet snow, I
+walked to the consul of the town, and made my complaint in form. This
+magistrate, who seemed to be a taylor, accompanied me to the inn, where
+by this time the whole town was assembled, and endeavoured to persuade
+me to compromise the affair. I said, as he was the magistrate, I would
+stand to his award. He answered, "that he would not presume to
+determine what I was to pay." I have already paid him a reasonable
+price for his dinner, (said I) and now I demand post-horses according
+to the king's ordonnance. The aubergiste said the horses were ready,
+but the guides were run away; and he could not find others to go in
+their place. I argued with great vehemence, offering to leave a
+loui'dore for the poor of the parish, provided the consul would oblige
+the rascal to do his duty. The consul shrugged up his shoulders, and
+declared it was not in his power. This was a lie, but I perceived he
+had no mind to disoblige the publican. If the mules had not been sent
+away, I should certainly have not only payed what I thought proper, but
+corrected the landlord into the bargain, for his insolence and
+extortion; but now I was entirely at his mercy, and as the consul
+continued to exhort me in very humble terms, to comply with his
+demands, I thought proper to acquiesce. Then the postillions
+immediately appeared: the crowd seemed to exult in the triumph of the
+aubergiste; and I was obliged to travel in the night, in very severe
+weather, after all the fatigue and mortification I had undergone.
+
+We lay at Frejus, which was the Forum Julianum of the antients, and
+still boasts of some remains of antiquity; particularly the ruins of an
+amphitheatre, and an aqueduct. The first we passed in the dark, and
+next morning the weather was so cold that I could not walk abroad to
+see it. The town is at present very inconsiderable, and indeed in a
+ruinous condition. Nevertheless, we were very well lodged at the
+post-house, and treated with more politeness than we had met with in
+any other part of France.
+
+As we had a very high mountain to ascend in the morning, I ordered the
+mules on before to the next post, and hired six horses for the coach.
+At the east end of Frejus, we saw close to the road on our left-hand,
+the arcades of the antient aqueduct, and the ruins of some Roman
+edifices, which seemed to have been temples. There was nothing striking
+in the architecture of the aqueduct. The arches are small and low,
+without either grace or ornament, and seem to have been calculated for
+mere utility.
+
+The mountain of Esterelles, which is eight miles over, was formerly
+frequented by a gang of desperate banditti, who are now happily
+exterminated: the road is very good, but in some places very steep and
+bordered by precipices. The mountain is covered with pines, and the
+laurus cerasus, the fruit of which being now ripe, made a most romantic
+appearance through the snow that lay upon the branches. The cherries
+were so large that I at first mistook them for dwarf oranges. I think
+they are counted poisonous in England, but here the people eat them
+without hesitation. In the middle of the mountain is the post-house,
+where we dined in a room so cold, that the bare remembrance of it makes
+my teeth chatter. After dinner I chanced to look into another chamber
+that fronted the south, where the sun shone; and opening a window
+perceived, within a yard of my hand, a large tree loaded with oranges,
+many of which were ripe. You may judge what my astonishment was to find
+Winter in all his rigour reigning on one side of the house, and Summer
+in all her glory on the other. Certain it is, the middle of this
+mountain seemed to be the boundary of the cold weather. As we proceeded
+slowly in the afternoon we were quite enchanted. This side of the hill
+is a natural plantation of the most agreeable ever-greens, pines, firs,
+laurel, cypress, sweet myrtle, tamarisc, box, and juniper, interspersed
+with sweet marjoram, lavender, thyme, wild thyme, and sage. On the
+right-hand the ground shoots up into agreeable cones, between which you
+have delightful vistas of the Mediterranean, which washes the foot of
+the rock; and between two divisions of the mountains, there is a bottom
+watered by a charming stream, which greatly adds to the rural beauties
+of the scene.
+
+This night we passed at Cannes, a little fishing town, agreeably
+situated on the beach of the sea, and in the same place lodged Monsieur
+Nadeau d'Etrueil, the unfortunate French governor of Guadeloupe,
+condemned to be imprisoned for life in one of the isles Marguerite,
+which lie within a mile of this coast.
+
+Next day we journeyed by the way of Antibes, a small maritime town,
+tolerably well fortified; and passing the little river Loup, over a
+stone-bridge, arrived about noon at the village of St. Laurent, the
+extremity of France, where we passed the Var, after our baggage had
+undergone examination. From Cannes to this village the road lies along
+the sea-side; and sure nothing can be more delightful. Though in the
+morning there was a frost upon the ground, the sun was as warm as it is
+in May in England. The sea was quite smooth, and the beach formed of
+white polished pebbles; on the left-hand the country was covered with
+green olives, and the side of the road planted with large trees of
+sweet myrtle growing wild like the hawthorns in England. From Antibes
+we had the first view of Nice, lying on the opposite side of the bay,
+and making a very agreeable appearance. The author of the Grand Tour
+says, that from Antibes to Nice the roads are very bad, through rugged
+mountains bordered with precipices On the left, and by the sea to the
+right; whereas, in fact, there is neither precipice nor mountain near
+it.
+
+The Var, which divides the county of Nice from Provence, is no other
+than a torrent fed chiefly by the snow that melts on the maritime Alps,
+from which it takes its origin. In the summer it is swelled to a
+dangerous height, and this is also the case after heavy rains: but at
+present the middle of it is quite dry, and the water divided into two
+or three narrow streams, which, however, are both deep and rapid. This
+river has been absurdly enough by some supposed the Rubicon, in all
+probability from the description of that river in the Pharsalia of
+Lucan, who makes it the boundary betwixt Gaul and Italy--
+
+                         --et Gallica certus
+  Limes ab Ausoniis disterminat arva colonis.
+
+  A sure Frontier that parts the Gallic plains
+  From the rich meadows of th' Ansonian swains.
+
+whereas, in fact, the Rubicon, now called Pisatello, runs between
+Ravenna and Rimini.--But to return to the Var. At the village of St.
+Laurent, famous for its Muscadine wines, there is a set of guides
+always in attendance to conduct you in your passage over the river. Six
+of those fellows, tucked up above the middle, with long poles in their
+hands, took charge of our coach, and by many windings guided it safe to
+the opposite shore. Indeed there was no occasion for any; but it is a
+sort of a perquisite, and I did not choose to run any risque, how small
+soever it might be, for the sake of saving half a crown, with which
+they were satisfied. If you do not gratify the searchers at St. Laurent
+with the same sum, they will rummage your trunks, and turn all your
+cloaths topsy turvy. And here, once for all, I would advise every
+traveller who consults his own case and convenience, to be liberal of
+his money to all that sort of people; and even to wink at the
+imposition of aubergistes on the road, unless it be very flagrant. So
+sure as you enter into disputes with them, you will be put to a great
+deal of trouble, and fret yourself to no manner of purpose. I have
+travelled with oeconomists in England, who declared they would rather
+give away a crown than allow themselves to be cheated of a farthing.
+This is a good maxim, but requires a great share of resolution and
+self-denial to put it in practice. In one excursion of about two
+hundred miles my fellow-traveller was in a passion, and of consequence
+very bad company from one end of the journey to the other. He was
+incessantly scolding either at landlords, landladies, waiters,
+hostlers, or postilions. We had bad horses, and bad chaises; set out
+from every stage with the curses of the people; and at this expence I
+saved about ten shillings in the whole journey. For such a paltry
+consideration, he was contented to be miserable himself, and to make
+every other person unhappy with whom he had any concern. When I came
+last from Bath it rained so hard, that the postilion who drove the
+chaise was wet to the skin before we had gone a couple of miles. When
+we arrived at the Devises, I gave him two shillings instead of one, out
+of pure compassion. The consequence of this liberality was, that in the
+next stage we seemed rather to fly than to travel upon solid ground. I
+continued my bounty to the second driver, and indeed through the whole
+journey, and found myself accommodated in a very different manner from
+what I had experienced before. I had elegant chaises, with excellent
+horses; and the postilions of their own accord used such diligence,
+that although the roads were broken by the rain, I travelled at the
+rate of twelve miles an hour; and my extraordinary expence from Bath to
+London, amounted precisely to six shillings.
+
+The river Var falls into the Mediterranean a little below St. Laurent,
+about four miles to the westward of Nice. Within the memory of persons
+now living, there have been three wooden bridges thrown over it, and as
+often destroyed in consequence of the jealousy subsisting between the
+kings of France and Sardinia; this river being the boundary of their
+dominions on the side of Provence. However, this is a consideration
+that ought not to interfere with the other advantages that would accrue
+to both kingdoms from such a convenience. If there was a bridge over
+the Var, and a post-road made from Nice to Genoa, I am very confident
+that all those strangers who now pass the Alps in their way to and from
+Italy, would choose this road as infinitely more safe, commodious, and
+agreeable. This would also be the case with all those who hire felucas
+from Marseilles or Antibes, and expose themselves to the dangers and
+inconveniences of travelling by sea in an open boat.
+
+In the afternoon we arrived at Nice, where we found Mr. M--e, the
+English gentleman whom I had seen at Boulogne, and advised to come
+hither. He had followed my advice, and reached Nice about a month
+before my arrival, with his lady, child, and an old gouvernante. He had
+travelled with his own post-chaise and horses, and is now lodged just
+without one of the gates of the city, in the house of the count de
+V--n, for which he pays five loui'dores a month. I could hire one much
+better in the neighbourhood of London, for the same money. Unless you
+will submit to this extortion, and hire a whole house for a length of
+time, you will find no ready-furnished lodgings at Nice. After having
+stewed a week in a paltry inn, I have taken a ground floor for ten
+months at the rate of four hundred livres a year, that is twenty pounds
+sterling, for the Piedmontese livre is about an English shilling. The
+apartments are large, lofty, and commodious enough, with two small
+gardens, in which there is plenty of sallad, and a great number of
+oranges and lemons: but as it required some time to provide furniture,
+our consul Mr. B--d, one of the best natured and most friendly men in
+the world, has lent me his lodgings, which are charmingly situated by
+the sea-side, and open upon a terrace, that runs parallel to the beach,
+forming part of the town wall. Mr. B--d himself lives at Villa Franca,
+which is divided from Nice by a single mountain, on the top of which
+there is a small fort, called the castle of Montalban. Immediately
+after our arrival we were visited by one Mr. de Martines, a most
+agreeable young fellow, a lieutenant in the Swiss regiment, which is
+here in garrison. He is a Protestant, extremely fond of our nation, and
+understands our language tolerably well. He was particularly
+recommended to our acquaintance by general P-- and his lady; we are
+happy in his conversation; find him wonderfully obliging, and extremely
+serviceable on many occasions. We have likewise made acquaintance with
+some other individuals, particularly with Mr. St. Pierre, junior, who
+is a considerable merchant, and consul for Naples. He is a well-bred,
+sensible young man, speaks English, is an excellent performer on the
+lute and mandolin, and has a pretty collection of books. In a word, I
+hope we shall pass the winter agreeably enough, especially if Mr. M--e
+should hold out; but I am afraid he is too far gone in a consumption to
+recover. He spent the last winter at Nismes, and consulted F-- at
+Montpellier. I was impatient to see the prescription, and found it
+almost verbatim the same he had sent to me; although I am persuaded
+there is a very essential difference between our disorders. Mr. M--e
+has been long afflicted with violent spasms, colliquative sweats,
+prostration of appetite, and a disorder in his bowels. He is likewise
+jaundiced all over, and I am confident his liver is unsound. He tried
+the tortoise soup, which he said in a fortnight stuffed him up with
+phlegm. This gentleman has got a smattering of physic, and I am afraid
+tampers with his own constitution, by means of Brookes's Practice of
+Physic, and some dispensatories, which he is continually poring over. I
+beg pardon for this tedious epistle, and am--Very sincerely, dear Sir,
+Your affectionate, humble servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER XIII
+
+NICE, January 15, 1764.
+
+DEAR SIR,--I am at last settled at Nice, and have leisure to give you
+some account of this very remarkable place. The county of Nice extends
+about fourscore miles in length, and in some places it is thirty miles
+broad. It contains several small towns, and a great number of villages;
+all of which, this capital excepted, are situated among mountains, the
+most extensive plain of the whole country being this where I now am, in
+the neighbourhood of Nice. The length of it does not exceed two miles,
+nor is the breadth of it, in any part, above one. It is bounded by the
+Mediterranean on the south. From the sea-shore, the maritime Alps begin
+with hills of a gentle ascent, rising into mountains that form a sweep
+or amphitheatre ending at Montalban, which overhangs the town of Villa
+Franca. On the west side of this mountain, and in the eastern extremity
+of the amphitheatre, stands the city of Nice, wedged in between a steep
+rock and the little river Paglion, which descends from the mountains,
+and washing the town-walls on the west side, falls into the sea, after
+having filled some canals for the use of the inhabitants. There is a
+stone-bridge of three arches over it, by which those who come from
+Provence enter the city. The channel of it is very broad, but generally
+dry in many places; the water (as in the Var) dividing itself into
+several small streams. The Paglion being fed by melted snow and rain in
+the mountains, is quite dry in summer; but it is sometimes swelled by
+sudden rains to a very formidable torrent. This was the case in the
+year 1744, when the French and Spanish armies attacked eighteen
+Piedmontese battalions, which were posted on the side of Montalban. The
+assailants were repulsed with the loss of four thousand men, some
+hundreds of whom perished in repassing the Paglion, which had swelled
+to a surprising degree during the battle, in consequence of a heavy
+continued rain. This rain was of great service to the Piedmontese, as
+it prevented one half of the enemy from passing the river to sustain
+the other. Five hundred were taken prisoners: but the Piedmontese,
+foreseeing they should be surrounded next day by the French, who had
+penetrated behind them, by a pass in the mountains, retired in the
+night. Being received on board the English Fleet, which lay at Villa
+Franca, they were conveyed to Oneglia. In examining the bodies of those
+that were killed in the battle, the inhabitants of Nice perceived, that
+a great number of the Spanish soldiers were circumcised; a
+circumstance, from which they concluded, that a great many Jews engage
+in the service of his Catholic majesty. I am of a different opinion.
+The Jews are the least of any people that I know, addicted to a
+military life. I rather imagine they were of the Moorish race, who have
+subsisted in Spain, since the expulsion of their brethren; and though
+they conform externally to the rites of the Catholic religion, still
+retain in private their attachment to the law of Mahomet.
+
+The city of Nice is built in form of an irregular isosceles triangle,
+the base of which fronts the sea.  On the west side it is surrounded by
+a wall and rampart; on the east, it is over-hung by a rock, on which we
+see the ruins of an old castle, which, before the invention of
+artillery, was counted impregnable. It was taken and dismantled by
+marechal Catinat, in the time of Victor Amadaeus, the father of his
+Sardinian majesty. It was afterwards finally demolished by the duke of
+Berwick towards the latter end of queen Anne's war. To repair it would
+be a very unnecessary expence, as it is commanded by Montalban, and
+several other eminences.
+
+The town of Nice is altogether indefensible, and therefore without
+fortifications. There are only two iron guns upon a bastion that fronts
+the beach; and here the French had formed a considerable battery
+against the English cruisers, in the war of 1744, when the Mareschal
+Duke de Belleisle had his headquarters at Nice. This little town,
+situated in the bay of Antibes, is almost equidistant from Marseilles,
+Turin, and Genoa, the first and last being about thirty leagues from
+hence by sea; and the capital of Piedmont at the same distance to the
+northward, over the mountains. It lies exactly opposite to Capo di
+Ferro, on the coast of Barbary; and, the islands of Sardinia and
+Corsica are laid down about two degrees to the eastward, almost exactly
+in a line with Genoa. This little town, hardly a mile in circumference,
+is said to contain twelve thousand inhabitants. The streets are narrow;
+the houses are built of stone, and the windows in general are fitted
+with paper instead of glass. This expedient would not answer in a
+country subject to rain and storms; but here, where there is very
+little of either, the paper lozenges answer tolerably well. The
+bourgeois, however, begin to have their houses sashed with glass.
+Between the town-wall and the sea, the fishermen haul up their boats
+upon the open beach; but on the other side of the rock, where the
+castle stood, is the port or harbour of Nice, upon which some money has
+been expended. It is a small basin, defended to seaward by a mole of
+free-stone, which is much better contrived than executed: for the sea
+has already made three breaches in it; and in all probability, in
+another winter, the extremity of it will be carried quite away. It
+would require the talents of a very skilful architect to lay the
+foundation of a good mole, on an open beach like this; exposed to the
+swell of the whole Mediterranean, without any island or rock in the
+offing, to break the force of the waves. Besides, the shore is bold,
+and the bottom foul. There are seventeen feet of water in the basin,
+sufficient to float vessels of one hundred and fifty ton; and this is
+chiefly supplied by a small stream of very fine water; another great
+convenience for shipping. On the side of the mole, there is a constant
+guard of soldiers, and a battery of seven cannon, pointing to the sea.
+On the other side, there is a curious manufacture for twisting or
+reeling silk; a tavern, a coffee-house, and several other buildings,
+for the convenience of the sea-faring people. Without the harbour, is a
+lazarette, where persons coming from infected places, are obliged to
+perform quarantine. The harbour has been declared a free-port, and it
+is generally full of tartans, polacres, and other small vessels, that
+come from Sardinia, Ivica, Italy, and Spain, loaded with salt, wine,
+and other commodities; but here is no trade of any great consequence.
+
+The city of Nice is provided with a senate, which administers justice
+under the auspices of an avocat-general, sent hither by the king. The
+internal oeconomy of the town is managed by four consuls; one for the
+noblesse, another for the merchants, a third for the bourgeois, and a
+fourth for the peasants. These are chosen annually from the
+town-council. They keep the streets and markets in order, and
+superintend the public works. There is also an intendant, who takes
+care of his majesty's revenue: but there is a discretionary power
+lodged in the person of the commandant, who is always an officer of
+rank in the service, and has under his immediate command the regiment
+which is here in garrison. That which is here now is a Swiss battalion,
+of which the king has five or six in his service. There is likewise a
+regiment of militia, which is exercised once a year. But of all these
+particulars, I shall speak more fully on another occasion.
+
+When I stand upon the rampart, and look round me, I can scarce help
+thinking myself inchanted. The small extent of country which I see, is
+all cultivated like a garden. Indeed, the plain presents nothing but
+gardens, full of green trees, loaded with oranges, lemons, citrons, and
+bergamots, which make a delightful appearance. If you examine them more
+nearly, you will find plantations of green pease ready to gather; all
+sorts of sallading, and pot-herbs, in perfection; and plats of roses,
+carnations, ranunculas, anemonies, and daffodils, blowing in full
+glory, with such beauty, vigour, and perfume, as no flower in England
+ever exhibited.
+
+I must tell you, that presents of carnations are sent from hence, in
+the winter, to Turin and Paris; nay, sometimes as far as London, by the
+post. They are packed up in a wooden box, without any sort of
+preparation, one pressed upon another: the person who receives them,
+cuts off a little bit of the stalk, and steeps them for two hours in
+vinegar and water, when they recover their full bloom and beauty. Then
+he places them in water-bottles, in an apartment where they are
+screened from the severities of the weather; and they will continue
+fresh and unfaded the best part of a month.
+
+Amidst the plantations in the neighbourhood of Nice, appear a vast
+number of white bastides, or country-houses, which make a dazzling
+shew. Some few of these are good villas, belonging to the noblesse of
+this county; and even some of the bourgeois are provided with pretty
+lodgeable cassines; but in general, they are the habitations of the
+peasants, and contain nothing but misery and vermin. They are all built
+square; and, being whitened with lime or plaister, contribute greatly
+to the richness of the view. The hills are shaded to the tops with
+olive-trees, which are always green; and those hills are over-topped by
+more distant mountains, covered with snow. When I turn myself towards
+the sea, the view is bounded by the horizon; yet in a clear morning,
+one can perceive the high lands of Corsica. On the right hand, it is
+terminated by Antibes, and the mountain of Esterelles, which I
+described in my last. As for the weather, you will conclude, from what
+I have said of the oranges, flowers, etc. that it must be wonderfully
+mild and serene: but of the climate, I shall speak hereafter. Let me
+only observe, en passant, that the houses in general have no chimnies,
+but in their kitchens; and that many people, even of condition, at
+Nice, have no fire in their chambers, during the whole winter. When the
+weather happens to be a little more sharp than usual, they warm their
+apartments with a brasiere or pan of charcoal.
+
+Though Nice itself retains few marks of antient splendor, there are
+considerable monuments of antiquity in its neighbourhood. About two
+short miles from the town, upon the summit of a pretty high hill, we
+find the ruins of the antient city Cemenelion, now called Cimia, which
+was once the metropolis of the Maritime Alps, and the scat of a Roman
+president. With respect to situation, nothing could be more agreeable
+or salubrious. It stood upon the gentle ascent and summit of a hill,
+fronting the Mediterranean; from the shore of which, it is distant
+about half a league; and, on the other side, it overlooked a bottom, or
+narrow vale, through which the Paglion (antiently called Paulo) runs
+towards the walls of Nice. It was inhabited by a people, whom Ptolomy
+and Pliny call the Vedantij: but these were undoubtedly mixed with a
+Roman colony, as appears by the monuments which still remain; I mean
+the ruins of an amphitheatre, a temple of Apollo, baths, aqueducts,
+sepulchral, and other stones, with inscriptions, and a great number of
+medals which the peasants have found by accident, in digging and
+labouring the vineyards and cornfields, which now cover the ground
+where the city stood.
+
+Touching this city, very little is to be learned from the antient
+historians: but that it was the seat of a Roman praeses, is proved by
+the two following inscriptions, which are still extant.
+
+  P. AELIO. SEVERINO.
+  V. E. P.
+  PRAESIDI. OPTIMO.
+  ORDO. CEMEN.
+  PATRONO.
+
+By the Senate of Cemenelion, Dedicated to His Excellency P. Aelius
+Severinus, the best of Governors and Patrons.
+
+This is now in the possession of the count de Gubernatis, who has a
+country-house upon the spot. The other, found near the same place, is
+in praise of the praeses Marcus Aurelius Masculus.
+
+  M. AVRELIO. MASCVLO.
+  V. E.
+  OB. EXIMIAM. PRAESIDATVS
+  EIVS. INTEGRITATEM. ET
+  EGREGIAM. AD OMNES HOMINES
+  MANSVETVDINEM. ET. VRGENTIS
+  ANNONAE. SINCERAM. PRAEBITIONEM.
+  AC. MVNIFICENTIAM. ET. QVOD. AQVAE
+  VSVM. VETVSTATE. LAPSVM. REQVI-
+  SITVM. AC. REPERTVM. SAECVLI
+  FELICITATE. CVRSVI. PRISTINO
+  REDDIDERIT.
+  COLLEG. III.
+  QVIB. EX. SCC. P. EST
+  PATRONO. DIGNISS.
+
+Inscribed by the three corporations under the authority of the Senate,
+to their most worthy Patron, His Excellency M. Aurelius Masculus, in
+testimony of their gratitude for the blessings of his incorruptible
+administration, his wonderful affability to all without Distinction,
+his generous Distribution of Corn in time of Dearth, his munificence in
+repairing the ruinous aqueduct, in searching for, discovering and
+restoring the water to its former course for the Benefit of the
+Community.
+
+This president well deserved such a mark of respect from a people whom
+he had assisted in two such essential articles, as their corn and their
+water. You know the praeses of a Roman province had the jus sigendi
+clavi, the right to drive a nail in the Kalendar, the privilege of
+wearing the latus clavus, or broad studs on his garment, the gladius,
+infula, praetexta, purpura & annulus aureus, the Sword, Diadem, purple
+Robe, and gold Ring, he had his vasa, vehicula, apparitores, Scipio
+eburneus, & sella curulis, Kettledrums, [I know the kettledrum is a
+modern invention; but the vasa militari modo conclamata was something
+analogous.] Chariots, Pursuivants, ivory staff, and chair of state.
+
+I shall give you one more sepulchral inscription on a marble, which is
+now placed over the gate of the church belonging to the convent of St.
+Pont, a venerable building, which stands at the bottom of the hill,
+fronting the north side of the town of Nice. This St. Pont, or Pontius,
+was a Roman convert to Christianity, who suffered martyrdom at
+Cemenelion in the year 261, during the reigns of the emperors Valerian
+and Gallienus. The legends recount some ridiculous miracles wrought in
+favour of this saint, both before and after his death. Charles V.
+emperor of Germany and king of Spain, caused this monastery to be built
+on the spot where Pontius suffered decapitation. But to return to the
+inscription: it appears in these words.
+
+  M. M. A.
+  FLAVIAE. BASILLAE. CONIVG. CARISSIM.
+  DOM. ROMA. MIRAE. ERGA. MARITUM. AMORIS.
+  ADQ. CASTITAT. FAEMINAE. QVAE. VIXIT
+  ANN. XXXV. M. III. DIEB. XII. AVRELIVS
+  RHODISMANVS. AVG. LIB. COMMEM. ALP.
+  MART. ET. AVRELIA, ROMVLA. FILII.
+  IMPATIENTISSIM. DOLOR. EIVS. ADFLICTI
+  ADQ. DESOLATI. CARISSIM. AC MERENT. FERET.
+  FEC. ET. DED,
+
+Freely consecrated by Aurelius Rhodismanus, the Emperor's Freedman, to
+the much honoured memory of his dear Consort Flavia Aurelia of Rome, a
+woman equally distinguished by her unblemished Virtue and conjugal
+affection. His children Martial and Aurelia Romula deeply affected and
+distressed by the Violence of his Grief, erected and dedicated a
+monument to their dear deserving Parent.  [I don't pretend to translate
+these inscriptions literally, because I am doubtful about the meaning
+of some abbreviations.]
+
+The amphitheatre of Cemenelion is but very small, compared to that of
+Nismes. The arena is ploughed up, and bears corn: some of the seats
+remain, and part of two opposite porticos; but all the columns, and the
+external facade of the building, are taken away so that it is
+impossible to judge of the architecture, all we can perceive is, that
+it was built in an oval form. About one hundred paces from the
+amphitheatre stood an antient temple, supposed to have been dedicated
+to Apollo. The original roof is demolished, as well as the portico; the
+vestiges of which may still be traced. The part called the Basilica,
+and about one half of the Cella Sanctior, remain, and are converted
+into the dwelling-house and stable of the peasant who takes care of the
+count de Gubernatis's garden, in which this monument stands. In the
+Cella Sanctior, I found a lean cow, a he-goat, and a jack-ass; the very
+same conjunction of animals which I had seen drawing a plough in
+Burgundy. Several mutilated statues have been dug up from the ruins of
+this temple; and a great number of medals have been found in the
+different vineyards which now occupy the space upon which stood the
+antient city of Cemenelion. These were of gold, silver, and brass. Many
+of them were presented to Charles Emanuel I. duke of Savoy. The prince
+of Monaco has a good number of them in his collection; and the rest are
+in private hands. The peasants, in digging, have likewise found many
+urns, lachrymatories, and sepulchral stones, with epitaphs, which are
+now dispersed among different convents and private houses. All this
+ground is a rich mine of antiquities, which, if properly worked, would
+produce a great number of valuable curiosities. Just by the temple of
+Apollo were the ruins of a bath, composed of great blocks of marble,
+which have been taken away for the purposes of modern building. In all
+probability, many other noble monuments of this city have been
+dilapidated by the same barbarous oeconomy. There are some subterranean
+vaults, through which the water was conducted to this bath, still
+extant in the garden of the count de Gubernatis. Of the aqueduct that
+conveyed water to the town, I can say very little, but that it was
+scooped through a mountain: that this subterranean passage was
+discovered some years ago, by removing the rubbish which choaked it up:
+that the people penetrating a considerable way, by the help of lighted
+torches, found a very plentiful stream of water flowing in an aqueduct,
+as high as an ordinary man, arched over head, and lined with a sort of
+cement. They could not, however, trace this stream to its source; and
+it is again stopped up with earth and rubbish. There is not a soul in
+this country, who has either spirit or understanding to conduct an
+inquiry of this kind. Hard by the amphitheatre is a convent of
+Recollets, built in a very romantic situation, on the brink of a
+precipice. On one side of their garden, they ascend to a kind of
+esplanade, which they say was part of the citadel of Cemenelion. They
+have planted it with cypress-trees, and flowering-shrubs. One of the
+monks told me, that it is vaulted below, as they can plainly perceive
+by the sound of their instruments used in houghing the ground. A very
+small expence would bring the secrets of this cavern to light. They
+have nothing to do, but to make a breach in the wall, which appears
+uncovered towards the garden.
+
+The city of Cemenelion was first sacked by the Longobards, who made an
+irruption into Provence, under their king Alboinus, about the middle of
+the sixth century. It was afterwards totally destroyed by the Saracens,
+who, at different times, ravaged this whole coast. The remains of the
+people are supposed to have changed their habitation, and formed a
+coalition with the inhabitants of Nice.
+
+What further I have to say of Nice, you shall know in good time; at
+present, I have nothing to add, but what you very well know, that I am
+always your affectionate humble servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER, XIV
+
+NICE, January 20, 1764.
+
+DEAR SIR,--Last Sunday I crossed Montalban on horseback, with some
+Swiss officers, on a visit to our consul, Mr. B--d, who lives at Ville
+Franche, about half a league from Nice. It is a small town, built upon
+the side of a rock, at the bottom of the harbour, which is a fine
+basin, surrounded with hills on every side, except to the south, where
+it lies open to the sea. If there was a small island in the mouth of
+it, to break off the force of the waves, when the wind is southerly, it
+would be one of the finest harbours in the world; for the ground is
+exceeding good for anchorage: there is a sufficient depth of water, and
+room enough for the whole navy of England. On the right hand, as you
+enter the port, there is an elegant fanal, or lighthouse, kept in good
+repair: but in all the charts of this coast which I have seen, this
+lanthorn is laid down to the westward of the harbour; an error equally
+absurd and dangerous, as it may mislead the navigator, and induce him
+to run his ship among the rocks, to the eastward of the lighthouse,
+where it would undoubtedly perish. Opposite to the mouth of the harbour
+is the fort, which can be of no service, but in defending the shipping
+and the town by sea; for, by land, it is commanded by Montalban, and
+all the hills in the neighbourhood. In the war of 1744, it was taken
+and retaken. At present, it is in tolerable good repair. On the left of
+the fort, is the basin for the gallies, with a kind of dock, in which
+they are built, and occasionally laid up to be refitted. This basin is
+formed by a pretty stone mole; and here his Sardinian majesty's two
+gallies lie perfectly secure, moored with their sterns close to the
+jette. I went on board one of these vessels, and saw about two hundred
+miserable wretches, chained to the banks on which they sit and row,
+when the galley is at sea. This is a sight which a British subject,
+sensible of the blessing he enjoys, cannot behold without horror and
+compassion. Not but that if we consider the nature of the case, with
+coolness and deliberation, we must acknowledge the justice, and even
+sagacity, of employing for the service of the public, those malefactors
+who have forfeited their title to the privileges of the community.
+Among the slaves at Ville Franche is a Piedmontese count, condemned to
+the gallies for life, in consequence of having been convicted of
+forgery. He is permitted to live on shore; and gets money by employing
+the other slaves to knit stockings for sale. He appears always in the
+Turkish habit, and is in a fair way of raising a better fortune than
+that which he has forfeited.
+
+It is a great pity, however, and a manifest outrage against the law of
+nations, as well as of humanity, to mix with those banditti, the
+Moorish and Turkish prisoners who are taken in the prosecution of open
+war. It is certainly no justification of this barbarous practice, that
+the Christian prisoners are treated as cruelly at Tunis and Algiers. It
+would be for the honour of Christendom, to set an example of generosity
+to the Turks; and, if they would not follow it, to join their naval
+forces, and extirpate at once those nests of pirates, who have so long
+infested the Mediterranean. Certainly, nothing can be more shameful,
+than the treaties which France and the Maritime Powers have concluded
+with those barbarians. They supply them with artillery, arms, and
+ammunition, to disturb their neighbours. They even pay them a sort of
+tribute, under the denomination of presents; and often put up with
+insults tamely, for the sordid consideration of a little gain in the
+way of commerce. They know that Spain, Sardinia, and almost all the
+Catholic powers in the Mediterranean, Adriatic, and Levant, are at
+perpetual war with those Mahometans; that while Algiers, Tunis, and
+Sallee, maintain armed cruisers at sea, those Christian powers will not
+run the risque of trading in their own bottoms, but rather employ as
+carriers the maritime nations, who are at peace with the infidels. It
+is for our share of this advantage, that we cultivate the piratical
+States of Barbary, and meanly purchase passports of them, thus
+acknowledging them masters of the Mediterranean.
+
+The Sardinian gallies are mounted each with five-and-twenty oars, and
+six guns, six-pounders, of a side, and a large piece of artillery
+amidships, pointing ahead, which (so far as I am able to judge) can
+never be used point-blank, without demolishing the head or prow of the
+galley. The accommodation on board for the officers is wretched. There
+is a paltry cabin in the poop for the commander; but all the other
+officers lie below the slaves, in a dungeon, where they have neither
+light, air, nor any degree of quiet; half suffocated by the heat of the
+place; tormented by fleas, bugs, and lice; and disturbed by the
+incessant noise over head. The slaves lie upon the naked banks, without
+any other covering than a tilt. This, however, is no great hardship, in
+a climate where there is scarce any winter. They are fed with a very
+scanty allowance of bread, and about fourteen beans a day and twice a
+week they have a little rice, or cheese, but most of them, while they
+are in harbour knit stockings, or do some other kind of work, which
+enables them to make some addition to this wretched allowance. When
+they happen to be at sea in bad weather, their situation is truly
+deplorable. Every wave breaks over the vessel, and not only keeps them
+continually wet, but comes with such force, that they are dashed
+against the banks with surprising violence: sometimes their limbs are
+broke, and sometimes their brains dashed out. It is impossible (they
+say) to keep such a number of desperate people under any regular
+command, without exercising such severities as must shock humanity. It
+is almost equally impossible to maintain any tolerable degree of
+cleanliness, where such a number of wretches are crouded together
+without conveniences, or even the necessaries of life. They are ordered
+twice a week to strip, clean, and bathe themselves in the sea: but,
+notwithstanding all the precautions of discipline, they swarm with
+vermin, and the vessel smells like an hospital, or crouded jail. They
+seem, nevertheless, quite insensible of their misery, like so many
+convicts in Newgate: they laugh and sing, and swear, and get drunk when
+they can. When you enter by the stern, you are welcomed by a band of
+music selected from the slaves; and these expect a gratification. If
+you walk forwards, you must take care of your pockets. You will be
+accosted by one or other of the slaves, with a brush and blacking-ball
+for cleaning your shoes; and if you undergo this operation, it is ten
+to one but your pocket is picked. If you decline his service, and keep
+aloof, you will find it almost impossible to avoid a colony of vermin,
+which these fellows have a very dexterous method of conveying to
+strangers. Some of the Turkish prisoners, whose ransom or exchange is
+expected, are allowed to go ashore, under proper inspection; and those
+forcats, who have served the best part of the time for which they were
+condemned, are employed in public works, under a guard of soldiers. At
+the harbour of Nice, they are hired by ship-masters to bring ballast,
+and have a small proportion of what they earn, for their own use: the
+rest belongs to the king. They are distinguished by an iron shackle
+about one of their legs. The road from Nice to Ville Franche is scarce
+passable on horseback: a circumstance the more extraordinary, as those
+slaves, in the space of two or three months, might even make it fit for
+a carriage, and the king would not be one farthing out of pocket, for
+they are quite idle the greatest part of the year.
+
+The gallies go to sea only in the summer. In tempestuous weather, they
+could not live out of port. Indeed, they are good for nothing but in
+smooth water during a calm; when, by dint of rowing, they make good
+way. The king of Sardinia is so sensible of their inutility, that he
+intends to let his gallies rot; and, in lieu of them, has purchased two
+large frigates in England, one of fifty, and another of thirty guns,
+which are now in the harbour of Ville Franche. He has also procured an
+English officer, one Mr. A--, who is second in command on board of one
+of them, and has the title of captain consulteur, that is, instructor
+to the first captain, the marquis de M--i, who knows as little of
+seamanship as I do of Arabic.
+
+The king, it is said, intends to have two or three more frigates, and
+then he will be more than a match for the Barbary corsairs, provided
+care be taken to man his fleet in a proper manner: but this will never
+be done, unless he invites foreigners into his service, officers as
+well as seamen; for his own dominions produce neither at present. If he
+is really determined to make the most of the maritime situation of his
+dominions, as well as of his alliance with Great-Britain, he ought to
+supply his ships with English mariners, and put a British commander at
+the head of his fleet. He ought to erect magazines and docks at Villa
+Franca; or if there is not conveniency for building, he may at least
+have pits and wharfs for heaving down and careening; and these ought to
+be under the direction of Englishmen, who best understand all the
+particulars of marine oeconomy. Without all doubt, he will not be able
+to engage foreigners, without giving them liberal appointments; and
+their being engaged in his service will give umbrage to his own
+subjects: but, when the business is to establish a maritime power,
+these considerations ought to be sacrificed to reasons of public
+utility. Nothing can be more absurd and unreasonable, than the murmurs
+of the Piedmontese officers at the preferment of foreigners, who
+execute those things for the advantage of their country, of which they
+know themselves incapable. When Mr. P--n was first promoted in the
+service of his Sardinian majesty, he met with great opposition, and
+numberless mortifications, from the jealousy of the Piedmontese
+officers, and was obliged to hazard his life in many rencounters with
+them, before they would be quiet. Being a man of uncommon spirit, he
+never suffered the least insult or affront to pass unchastised. He had
+repeated opportunities of signalizing his valour against the Turks; and
+by dint of extraordinary merit, and long services not only attained the
+chief command of the gallies, with the rank of lieutenant-general, but
+also acquired a very considerable share of the king's favour, and was
+appointed commandant of Nice. His Sardinian majesty found his account
+more ways than one, in thus promoting Mr. P--n. He made the acquisition
+of an excellent officer, of tried courage and fidelity, by whose advice
+he conducted his marine affairs. This gentleman was perfectly well
+esteemed at the court of London. In the war of 1744, he lived in the
+utmost harmony with the British admirals who commanded our fleet in the
+Mediterranean. In consequence of this good understanding, a thousand
+occasional services were performed by the English ships, for the
+benefit of his master, which otherwise could not have been done,
+without a formal application to our ministry; in which case, the
+opportunities would have been lost. I know our admirals had general
+orders and instructions, to cooperate in all things with his Sardinian
+majesty; but I know, also, by experience, how little these general
+instructions avail, when the admiral is not cordially interested in the
+service. Were the king of Sardinia at present engaged with England in a
+new war against France, and a British squadron stationed upon this
+coast, as formerly, he would find a great difference in this
+particular. He should therefore carefully avoid having at Nice a
+Savoyard commandant, utterly ignorant of sea affairs; unacquainted with
+the true interest of his master; proud, and arbitrary; reserved to
+strangers, from a prejudice of national jealousy; and particularly
+averse to the English.
+
+With respect to the antient name of Villa Franca, there is a dispute
+among antiquarians. It is not at all mentioned in the Itinerarium of
+Antoninus, unless it is meant as the port of Nice. But it is more
+surprising, that the accurate Strabo, in describing this coast,
+mentions no such harbour. Some people imagine it is the Portus Herculis
+Monaeci. But this is undoubtedly what is now called Monaco; the harbour
+of which exactly tallies with what Strabo says of the Portus Monaeci--
+neque magnas, neque multas capit naves, It holds but a few vessels and
+those of small burthen. Ptolomy, indeed, seems to mention it under the
+name of Herculis Portus, different from the Portus Monaeci. His words
+are these: post vari ostium ad Ligustrium mare, massiliensium, sunt
+Nicaea, Herculis Portus, Trophaea Augusti, Monaeci Portus, Beyond the
+mouth of the Var upon the Ligurian Coast, the Marsilian Colonies are
+Nice, Port Hercules, Trophaea and Monaco. In that case, Hercules was
+worshipped both here and at Monaco, and gave his name to both places.
+But on this subject, I shall perhaps speak more fully in another
+letter, after I have seen the Trophaea Augusti, now called Tourbia, and
+the town of Monaco, which last is about three leagues from Nice. Here I
+cannot help taking notice of the following elegant description from the
+Pharsalia, which seems to have been intended for this very harbour.
+
+  Finis et Hesperiae promoto milite varus,
+  Quaque sub Herculeo sacratus numine Portus
+  Urget rupe cava Pelagus, non Corus in illum
+  Jus habet, aut Zephirus, solus sua littora turbat
+  Circius, et tuta prohibet statione Monaeci.
+
+  The Troops advanc'd as far
+  As flows th' Hesperian Boundary, the Var;
+  And where the mountain scoop'd by nature's hands,
+  The spacious Port of Hercules, expands;
+
+  Here the tall ships at anchor safe remain
+  Tho' Zephyr blows, or Caurus sweeps the Plain;
+  The Southern Blast alone disturbs the Bay;
+  And to Monaco's safer Port obstructs the way.
+
+The present town of Villa Franca was built and settled in the
+thirteenth century, by order of Charles II. king of the Sicilies, and
+count of Provence, in order to defend the harbour from the descents of
+the Saracens, who at that time infested the coast. The inhabitants were
+removed hither from another town, situated on the top of a mountain in
+the neighbourhood, which those pirates had destroyed. Some ruins of the
+old town are still extant. In order to secure the harbour still more
+effectually, Emanuel Philibert, duke of Savoy, built the fort in the
+beginning of the last century, together with the mole where the gallies
+are moored. As I said before, Ville Franche is built on the face of a
+barren rock, washed by the sea; and there is not an acre of plain
+ground within a mile of it. In summer, the reflexion of the sun from
+the rocks must make it intolerably hot; for even at this time of the
+year, I walked myself into a profuse sweat, by going about a quarter of
+a mile to see the gallies.
+
+Pray remember me to our friends at A--'s, and believe me to be ever
+yours.
+
+
+
+LETTER XV
+
+NICE, January 3, 1764.
+
+MADAM,--In your favour which I received by Mr. M--l, you remind me of
+my promise, to communicate the remarks I have still to make on the
+French nation; and at the same time you signify your opinion, that I am
+too severe in my former observations. You even hint a suspicion, that
+this severity is owing to some personal cause of resentment; but, I
+protest, I have no particular cause of animosity against any individual
+of that country. I have neither obligation to, nor quarrel with, any
+subject of France; and when I meet with a Frenchman worthy of my
+esteem, I can receive him into my friendship with as much cordiality,
+as I could feel for any fellow-citizen of the same merit. I even
+respect the nation, for the number of great men it has produced in all
+arts and sciences. I respect the French officers, in particular, for
+their gallantry and valour; and especially for that generous humanity
+which they exercise towards their enemies, even amidst the horrors of
+war. This liberal spirit is the only circumstance of antient chivalry,
+which I think was worth preserving. It had formerly flourished in
+England, but was almost extinguished in a succession of civil wars,
+which are always productive of cruelty and rancour. It was Henry IV. of
+France, (a real knight errant) who revived it in Europe. He possessed
+that greatness of mind, which can forgive injuries of the deepest dye:
+and as he had also the faculty of distinguishing characters, he found
+his account, in favouring with his friendship and confidence, some of
+those who had opposed him in the field with the most inveterate
+perseverance. I know not whether he did more service to mankind in
+general, by reviving the practice of treating his prisoners with
+generosity, than he prejudiced his own country by patronizing the
+absurd and pernicious custom of duelling, and establishing a punto,
+founded in diametrical opposition to common sense and humanity.
+
+I have often heard it observed, that a French officer is generally an
+agreeable companion when he is turned of fifty. Without all doubt, by
+that time, the fire of his vivacity, which makes him so troublesome in
+his youth, will be considerably abated, and in other respects, he must
+be improved by his experience. But there is a fundamental error in the
+first principles of his education, which time rather confirms than
+removes. Early prejudices are for the most part converted into habits
+of thinking; and accordingly you will find the old officers in the
+French service more bigotted than their juniors, to the punctilios of
+false honour.
+
+A lad of a good family no sooner enters into the service, than he
+thinks it incumbent upon him to shew his courage in a rencontre. His
+natural vivacity prompts him to hazard in company every thing that
+comes uppermost, without any respect to his seniors or betters; and ten
+to one but he says something, which he finds it necessary to maintain
+with his sword. The old officer, instead of checking his petulance,
+either by rebuke or silent disapprobation, seems to be pleased with his
+impertinence, and encourages every sally of his presumption. Should a
+quarrel ensue, and the parties go out, he makes no efforts to
+compromise the dispute; but sits with a pleasing expectation to learn
+the issue of the rencontre. If the young man is wounded, he kisses him
+with transport, extols his bravery, puts him into the hands of the
+surgeon, and visits him with great tenderness every day, until he is
+cured. If he is killed on the spot, he shrugs up his shoulders--says,
+quelle dommage! c'etoit un amiable enfant! ah, patience! What pity! he
+was a fine Boy! It can't be helpt! and in three hours the defunct is
+forgotten. You know, in France, duels are forbid, on pain of death: but
+this law is easily evaded. The person insulted walks out; the
+antagonist understands the hint, and follows him into the street, where
+they justle as if by accident, draw their swords, and one of them is
+either killed or disabled, before any effectual means can be used to
+part them. Whatever may be the issue of the combat, the magistrate
+takes no cognizance of it; at least, it is interpreted into an
+accidental rencounter, and no penalty is incurred on either side. Thus
+the purpose of the law is entirely defeated, by a most ridiculous and
+cruel connivance. The meerest trifles in conversation, a rash word, a
+distant hint, even a look or smile of contempt, is sufficient to
+produce one of these combats; but injuries of a deeper dye, such as
+terms of reproach, the lie direct, a blow, or even the menace of a
+blow, must be discussed with more formality. In any of these cases, the
+parties agree to meet in the dominions of another prince, where they
+can murder each other, without fear of punishment. An officer who is
+struck, or even threatened with a blow must not be quiet, until he
+either kills his antagonist, or loses his own life. A friend of mine,
+(a Nissard) who was in the service of France, told me, that some years
+ago, one of their captains, in the heat of passion, struck his
+lieutenant. They fought immediately: the lieutenant was wounded and
+disarmed. As it was an affront that could not be made up, he no sooner
+recovered of his wounds, than he called out the captain a second time.
+In a word, they fought five times before the combat proved decisive at
+last, the lieutenant was left dead on the spot. This was an event which
+sufficiently proved the absurdity of the punctilio that gave rise to
+it. The poor gentleman who was insulted, and outraged by the brutality
+of the aggressor, found himself under the necessity of giving him a
+further occasion to take away his life. Another adventure of the same
+kind happened a few years ago in this place. A French officer having
+threatened to strike another, a formal challenge ensued; and it being
+agreed that they should fight until one of them dropped, each provided
+himself with a couple of pioneers to dig his grave on the spot. They
+engaged just without one of the gates of Nice, in presence of a great
+number of spectators, and fought with surprising fury, until the ground
+was drenched with their blood. At length one of them stumbled, and
+fell; upon which the other, who found himself mortally wounded,
+advancing, and dropping his point, said, "Je te donne ce que tu m'as
+ote." "I'll give thee that which thou hast taken from me." So saying,
+he dropped dead upon the field. The other, who had been the person
+insulted, was so dangerously wounded that he could not rise. Some of
+the spectators carried him forthwith to the beach, and putting him into
+a boat, conveyed him by sea to Antibes. The body of his antagonist was
+denied Christian burial, as he died without absolution, and every body
+allowed that his soul went to hell: but the gentlemen of the army
+declared, that he died like a man of honour. Should a man be never so
+well inclined to make atonement in a peaceable manner, for an insult
+given in the heat of passion, or in the fury of intoxication, it cannot
+be received. Even an involuntary trespass from ignorance, or absence of
+mind, must be cleansed with blood. A certain noble lord, of our
+country, when he was yet a commoner, on his travels, involved himself
+in a dilemma of this sort, at the court of Lorrain. He had been riding
+out, and strolling along a public walk, in a brown study, with his
+horse-whip in his hand, perceived a caterpillar crawling on the back of
+a marquis, who chanced to be before him. He never thought of the petit
+maitre; but lifting up his whip, in order to kill the insect, laid it
+across his shoulders with a crack, that alarmed all the company in the
+walk. The marquis's sword was produced in a moment, and the aggressor
+in great hazard of his life, as he had no weapon of defence. He was no
+sooner waked from his reverie, than he begged pardon, and offered to
+make all proper concessions for what he had done through mere
+inadvertency. The marquis would have admitted his excuses, had there
+been any precedent of such an affront being washed away without blood.
+A conclave of honour was immediately assembled; and after long
+disputes, they agreed, that an involuntary offence, especially from
+such a kind of man, d'un tel homme, might be attoned by concessions.
+That you may have some idea of the small beginning, from which many
+gigantic quarrels arise, I shall recount one that lately happened at
+Lyons, as I had it from the mouth of a person who was an ear and eye
+witness of the transaction. Two Frenchmen, at a public ordinary,
+stunned the rest of the company with their loquacity. At length, one of
+them, with a supercilious air, asked the other's name. "I never tell my
+name, (said he) but in a whisper." "You may have very good reasons for
+keeping it secret," replied the first. "I will tell you," (resumed the
+other): with these words he rose; and going round to him, pronounced,
+loud enough to be heard by the whole company, "Je m'appelle Pierre
+Paysan; et vous etes un impertinent." "My name is Peter Peasant, and
+you are an impertinent fellow." So saying, he walked out: the
+interrogator followed him into the street, where they justled, drew
+their swords, and engaged. He who asked the question was run through
+the body; but his relations were so powerful, that the victor was
+obliged to fly his country, was tried and condemned in his absence; his
+goods were confiscated; his wife broke her heart; his children were
+reduced to beggary; and he himself is now starving in exile. In England
+we have not yet adopted all the implacability of the punctilio. A
+gentleman may be insulted even with a blow, and survive, after having
+once hazarded his life against the aggressor. The laws of honour in our
+country do not oblige him either to slay the person from whom he
+received the injury, or even to fight to the last drop of his own
+blood. One finds no examples of duels among the Romans, who were
+certainly as brave and as delicate in their notions of honour as the
+French. Cornelius Nepos tells us, that a famous Athenian general,
+having a dispute with his colleague, who was of Sparta, a man of a
+fiery disposition, this last lifted up his cane to strike him. Had this
+happened to a French petit maitre, death must have ensued: but mark
+what followed--The Athenian, far from resenting the outrage, in what is
+now called a gentlemanlike manner, said, "Do, strike if you please; but
+hear me." He never dreamed of cutting the Lacedemonian's throat; but
+bore with his passionate temper, as the infirmity of a friend who had a
+thousand good qualities to overbalance that defect.
+
+I need not expatiate upon the folly and the mischief which are
+countenanced and promoted by the modern practice of duelling. I need
+not give examples of friends who have murdered each other, in obedience
+to this savage custom, even while their hearts were melting with mutual
+tenderness; nor will I particularize the instances which I myself know,
+of whole families ruined, of women and children made widows and
+orphans, of parents deprived of only sons, and of valuable lives lost
+to the community, by duels, which had been produced by one unguarded
+expression, uttered without intention of offence, in the heat of
+dispute and altercation. I shall not insist upon the hardship of a
+worthy man's being obliged to devote himself to death, because it is
+his misfortune to be insulted by a brute, a bully, a drunkard, or a
+madman: neither will I enlarge upon this side of the absurdity, which
+indeed amounts to a contradiction in terms; I mean the dilemma to which
+a gentleman in the army is reduced, when he receives an affront: if he
+does not challenge and fight his antagonist, he is broke with infamy by
+a court-martial; if he fights and kills him, he is tried by the civil
+power, convicted of murder, and, if the royal mercy does not interpose,
+he is infallibly hanged: all this, exclusive of the risque of his own
+life in the duel, and his conscience being burthened with the blood of
+a man, whom perhaps he has sacrificed to a false punctilio, even
+contrary to his own judgment. These are reflections which I know your
+own good sense will suggest, but I will make bold to propose a remedy
+for this gigantic evil, which seems to gain ground everyday: let a
+court be instituted for taking cognizance of all breaches of honour,
+with power to punish by fine, pillory, sentence of infamy, outlawry,
+and exile, by virtue of an act of parliament made for this purpose; and
+all persons insulted, shall have recourse to this tribunal: let every
+man who seeks personal reparation with sword, pistol, or other
+instrument of death, be declared infamous, and banished the kingdom:
+let every man, convicted of having used a sword or pistol, or other
+mortal weapon, against another, either in duel or rencountre,
+occasioned by any previous quarrel, be subject to the same penalties:
+if any man is killed in a duel, let his body be hanged upon a public
+gibbet, for a certain time, and then given to the surgeons: let his
+antagonist be hanged as a murderer, and dissected also; and some mark
+of infamy be set on the memory of both. I apprehend such regulations
+would put an effectual stop to the practice of duelling, which nothing
+but the fear of infamy can support; for I am persuaded, that no being,
+capable of reflection, would prosecute the trade of assassination at
+the risque of his own life, if this hazard was at the same time
+reinforced by the certain prospect of infamy and ruin. Every person of
+sentiment would in that case allow, that an officer, who in a duel robs
+a deserving woman of her husband, a number of children of their father,
+a family of its support, and the community of a fellow-citizen, has as
+little merit to plead from exposing his own person, as a highwayman, or
+housebreaker, who every day risques his life to rob or plunder that
+which is not of half the importance to society. I think it was from the
+Buccaneers of America, that the English have learned to abolish one
+solecism in the practice of duelling: those adventurers decided their
+personal quarrels with pistols; and this improvement has been adopted
+in Great Britain with good success; though in France, and other parts
+of the continent, it is looked upon as a proof of their barbarity. It
+is, however, the only circumstance of duelling, which savours of common
+sense, as it puts all mankind upon a level, the old with the young, the
+weak with the strong, the unwieldy with the nimble, and the man who
+knows not how to hold a sword with the spadassin, who has practised
+fencing from the cradle. What glory is there in a man's vanquishing an
+adversary over whom he has a manifest advantage? To abide the issue of
+a combat in this case, does not even require that moderate share of
+resolution which nature has indulged to her common children.
+Accordingly, we have seen many instances of a coward's provoking a man
+of honour to battle. In the reign of our second Charles, when duels
+flourished in all their absurdity, and the seconds fought while their
+principals were engaged, Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, not content with
+having debauched the countess of Shrewsbury and publishing her shame,
+took all opportunities of provoking the earl to single combat, hoping
+he should have an easy conquest, his lordship being a puny little
+creature, quiet, inoffensive, and every way unfit for such personal
+contests. He ridiculed him on all occasions; and at last declared in
+public company, that there was no glory in cuckolding Shrewsbury, who
+had not spirit to resent the injury. This was an insult which could not
+be overlooked. The earl sent him a challenge; and they agreed to fight,
+at Barns-Elms, in presence of two gentlemen, whom they chose for their
+seconds. All the four engaged at the same time; the first thrust was
+fatal to the earl of Shrewsbury; and his friend killed the duke's
+second at the same instant. Buckingham, elated with his exploit, set
+out immediately for the earl's seat at Cliefden, where he lay with his
+wife, after having boasted of the murder of her husband, whose blood he
+shewed her upon his sword, as a trophy of his prowess. But this very
+duke of Buckingham was little better than a poltroon at bottom. When
+the gallant earl of Ossory challenged him to fight in Chelsea fields,
+he crossed the water to Battersea, where he pretended to wait for his
+lordship; and then complained to the house of lords, that Ossory had
+given him the rendezvous, and did not keep his appointment. He knew the
+house would interpose in the quarrel, and he was not disappointed.
+Their lordships obliged them both to give their word of honour, that
+their quarrel should have no other consequences.
+
+I ought to make an apology for having troubled a lady with so many
+observations on a subject so unsuitable to the softness of the fair
+sex; but I know you cannot be indifferent to any thing that so nearly
+affects the interests of humanity, which I can safely aver have alone
+suggested every thing which has been said by, Madam, Your very humble
+servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER XVI
+
+NICE, May 2, 1764.
+
+DEAR DOCTOR,--A few days ago, I rode out with two gentlemen of this
+country, to see a stream of water which was formerly conveyed in an
+aqueduct to the antient city of Cemenelion, from whence this place is
+distant about a mile, though separated by abrupt rocks and deep
+hollows, which last are here honoured with the name of vallies. The
+water, which is exquisitely cool, and light and pure, gushes from the
+middle of a rock by a hole which leads to a subterranean aqueduct
+carried through the middle of the mountain. This is a Roman work, and
+the more I considered it, appeared the more stupendous. A peasant who
+lives upon the spot told us, he had entered by this hole at eight in
+the morning, and advanced so far, that it was four in the afternoon
+before he came out. He said he walked in the water, through a regular
+canal formed of a hard stone, lined with a kind of cement, and vaulted
+overhead; but so high in most parts he could stand upright, yet in
+others, the bed of the canal was so filled with earth and stones, that
+he was obliged to stoop in passing. He said that there were air-holes
+at certain distances (and indeed I saw one of these not far from the
+present issue) that there were some openings and stone seats on the
+sides, and here and there figures of men formed of stone, with hammers
+and working tools in their hands. I am apt to believe the fellow
+romanced a little, in order to render his adventure the more
+marvellous: but I am certainly informed, that several persons have
+entered this passage, and proceeded a considerable way by the light of
+torches, without arriving at the source, which (if we may believe the
+tradition of the country) is at the distance of eight leagues from this
+opening; but this is altogether incredible. The stream is now called la
+fontaine de muraille, and is carefully conducted by different branches
+into the adjacent vineyards and gardens, for watering the ground. On
+the side of the same mountain, more southerly, at the distance of half
+a mile, there is another still more copious discharge of the same kind
+of water, called la source du temple. It was conveyed through the same
+kind of passage, and put to the same use as the other; and I should
+imagine they are both from the same source, which, though hitherto
+undiscovered, must be at a considerable distance, as the mountain is
+continued for several leagues to the westward, without exhibiting the
+least signs of water in any other part. But, exclusive of the
+subterranean conduits, both these streams must have been conveyed
+through aqueducts extending from hence to Cemenelion over steep rocks
+and deep ravines, at a prodigious expence. The water from this source
+du temple, issues from a stone building which covers the passage in the
+rock. It serves to turn several olive, corn, and paper mills, being
+conveyed through a modern aqueduct raised upon paultry arcades at the
+expence of the public, and afterwards is branched off in very small
+streams, for the benefit of this parched and barren country. The Romans
+were so used to bathing, that they could not exist without a great
+quantity of water; and this, I imagine, is one reason that induced them
+to spare no labour and expence in bringing it from a distance, when
+they had not plenty of it at home. But, besides this motive, they had
+another: they were so nice and delicate in their taste of water, that
+they took great pains to supply themselves with the purest and lightest
+from afar, for drinking and culinary uses, even while they had plenty
+of an inferior sort for their bath, and other domestic purposes. There
+are springs of good water on the spot where Cemenelion stood: but there
+is a hardness in all well-water, which quality is deposited in running
+a long course, especially, if exposed to the influence of the sun and
+air. The Romans, therefore, had good reason to soften and meliorate
+this element, by conveying it a good length of way in open aqueducts.
+What was used in the baths of Cemenelion, they probably brought in
+leaden pipes, some of which have been dug up very lately by accident.
+You must know, I made a second excursion to these antient ruins, and
+measured the arena of the amphitheatre with packthread. It is an oval
+figure; the longest diameter extending to about one hundred and
+thirteen feet, and the shortest to eighty-eight; but I will not answer
+for the exactness of the measurement. In the center of it, there was a
+square stone, with an iron ring, to which I suppose the wild beasts
+were tied, to prevent their springing upon the spectators. Some of the
+seats remain, the two opposite entrances, consisting each of one large
+gate, and two lateral smaller doors, arched: there is also a
+considerable portion of the external wall; but no columns, or other
+ornaments of architecture. Hard by, in the garden of the count de
+Gubernatis, I saw the remains of a bath, fronting the portal of the
+temple, which I have described in a former letter; and here were some
+shafts of marble pillars, particularly a capital of the Corinthian
+order beautifully cut, of white alabaster. Here the count found a large
+quantity of fine marble, which he has converted to various uses; and
+some mutilated statues, bronze as well as marble. The peasant shewed me
+some brass and silver medals, which he has picked up at different times
+in labouring the ground; together with several oblong beads of coloured
+glass, which were used as ear-rings by the Roman ladies; and a small
+seal of agate, very much defaced. Two of the medals were of Maximian
+and Gallienus; the rest were so consumed, that I could not read the
+legend. You know, that on public occasions, such as games, and certain
+sacrifices, handfuls of medals were thrown among the people; a
+practice, which accounts for the great number which have been already
+found in this district. I saw some subterranean passages, which seemed
+to have been common sewers; and a great number of old walls still
+standing along the brink of a precipice, which overhangs the Paglion.
+The peasants tell me, that they never dig above a yard in depth,
+without finding vaults or cavities. All the vineyards and
+garden-grounds, for a considerable extent, are vaulted underneath; and
+all the ground that produces their grapes, fruit, and garden-stuff, is
+no more than the crumpled lime and rubbish of old Roman buildings,
+mixed with manure brought from Nice. This antient town commanded a most
+noble prospect of the sea; but is altogether inaccessible by any kind
+of wheel carriage. If you make shift to climb to it on horseback, you
+cannot descend to the plain again, without running the risk of breaking
+your neck.
+
+About seven or eight miles on the other side of Nice, are the remains
+of another Roman monument which has greatly suffered from the barbarity
+of successive ages. It was a trophy erected by the senate of Rome, in
+honour of Augustus Caesar, when he had totally subdued all the
+ferocious nations of these Maritime Alps; such as the Trumpilini
+Camuni, Vennontes, Isnarci, Breuni, etc. It stands upon the top of a
+mountain which overlooks the town of Monaco, and now exhibits the
+appearance of an old ruined tower. There is a description of what it
+was, in an Italian manuscript, by which it appears to have been a
+beautiful edifice of two stories, adorned with columns and trophies in
+alto-relievo, with a statue of Augustus Caesar on the top. On one of
+the sides was an inscription, some words of which are still legible,
+upon the fragment of a marble found close to the old building: but the
+whole is preserved in Pliny, who gives it, in these words, lib. iii.
+cap. 20.
+
+  IMPERATORI CAESARI DIVI. F. AVG. PONT.
+  MAX. IMP. XIV. TRIBVNIC. POTEST. XVIII.
+  S. P. Q. R.
+  QVODEIVSDVCTV, AVSPICIISQ. GENIES ALPINAE OMNES,
+  QVAE A MARI SVPERO AD INFERVM PERTINEBANT, SVB
+  IMPERIVM PO. RO. SUNT REDAC. GENTES ALPINAE DEVICTAE.
+  TRVMPILINI CAMVNI, VENNONETES, ISNARCI, BREVNI,
+  NAVNES, FOCVNATES, VINDELICORVM GENTES QVATVOR,
+  CONSVANETES, VIRVCINATES, LICATES, CATENATES, ABI-
+  SONTES, RVGVSCI, SVANETES, CALVCONES, BRIXENTES,
+  LEPONTII, VIBERI, NANTVATES, SEDVNI, VERAGRI,
+  SALASSI, ACITAVONES MEDVLLI, VCINI, CATVRIGES,
+  BRIGIANI, SOGIVNTII, NEMALONES, EDENETES,
+  ESVBIANI, VEAMINI, GALLITAE, TRIVLLATI,
+  ECTINI, VERGVNNI, EGVITVRI. NEMENTVRI,
+  ORATELLI, NERVSCI, VELAVNI, SVETRI.
+
+This Trophy is erected by the Senate and People of Rome to the Emperor
+Caesar Augustus, son of the divine Julius, in the fourteenth year of
+his imperial Dignity, and in the eighteenth of his Tribunician Power,
+because under his command and auspices all the nations of the Alps from
+the Adriatic to the Tuscanian Sea, were reduced under the Dominion of
+Rome. The Alpine nations subdued were the Trumpelini, etc.
+
+Pliny, however, is mistaken in placing this inscription on a trophy
+near the Augusta praetoria, now called Aosta, in Piedmont: where,
+indeed, there is a triumphal arch, but no inscription. This noble
+monument of antiquity was first of all destroyed by fire; and
+afterwards, in Gothic times, converted into a kind of fortification.
+The marbles belonging to it were either employed in adorning the church
+of the adjoining village, which is still called Turbia, a corruption of
+Trophaea; [This was formerly a considerable town called Villa Martis,
+and pretends to the honour of having given birth to Aulus Helvius, who
+succeeded Commodus as emperor of Rome, by the name of Pertinax which he
+acquired from his obstinate refusal of that dignity, when it was forced
+upon him by the senate. You know this man, though of very low birth,
+possessed many excellent qualities, and was basely murdered by the
+praetorian guards, at the instigation of Didius Tulianus. For my part,
+I could never read without emotion, that celebrated eulogium of the
+senate who exclaimed after his death, Pertinace, imperante, securi
+viximus neminem timuimus, patre pio, patre senatus, patre omnium,
+honorum, We lived secure and were afraid of nothing under the
+Government of Pertinax, our affectionate Father, Father of the Senate,
+Father to all the children of Virtue.] or converted into tomb-stones,
+or carried off to be preserved in one or two churches of Nice. At
+present, the work has the appearance of a ruinous watch-tower, with
+Gothic battlements; and as such stands undistinguished by those who
+travel by sea from hence to Genoa, and other ports of Italy. I think I
+have now described all the antiquities in the neighbourhood of Nice,
+except some catacombs or caverns, dug in a rock at St. Hospice, which
+Busching, in his geography, has described as a strong town and seaport,
+though in fact, there is not the least vestige either of town or
+village. It is a point of land almost opposite to the tower of Turbia,
+with the mountains of which it forms a bay, where there is a great and
+curious fishery of the tunny fish, farmed of the king of Sardinia. Upon
+this point there is a watch-tower still kept in repair, to give notice
+to the people in the neighbourhood, in case any Barbary corsairs should
+appear on the coast. The catacombs were in all probability dug, in
+former times, as places of retreat for the inhabitants upon sudden
+descents of the Saracens, who greatly infested these seas for several
+successive centuries. Many curious persons have entered them and
+proceeded a considerable way by torch-light, without arriving at the
+further extremity; and the tradition of the country is, that they reach
+as far as the ancient city of Cemenelion; but this is an idle
+supposition, almost as ridiculous as that which ascribes them to the
+labour and ingenuity of the fairies: they consist of narrow
+subterranean passages, vaulted with stone and lined with cement. Here
+and there one finds detached apartments like small chambers, where I
+suppose the people remained concealed till the danger was over.
+Diodorus Siculus tells us, that the antient inhabitants of this country
+usually lived under ground. "Ligures in terra cubant ut plurimum;
+plures ad cava, saxa speluncasque ab natura factas ubi tegantur corpora
+divertunt," "The Ligurians mostly lie on the bare ground; many of them
+lodge in bare Caves and Caverns where they are sheltered from the
+inclemency of the weather." This was likewise the custom of the
+Troglodytae, a people bordering upon Aethiopia who, according to
+Aelian, lived in subterranean caverns; from whence, indeed they took
+their name trogli, signifying a cavern; and Virgil, in his Georgics,
+thus describes the Sarmatae,
+
+  Ipsi in defossis specubus, secura sub alta
+  Ocia agunt terra.--
+
+  In Subterranean Caves secure they lie
+  Nor heed the transient seasons as they fly.
+
+These are dry subjects; but such as the country affords. If we have not
+white paper, we must snow with brown. Even that which I am now
+scrawling may be useful, if, not entertaining: it is therefore the more
+confidently offered by--Dear Sir, Yours affectionately.
+
+
+
+LETTER XVII
+
+NICE, July 2, 1764.
+
+DEAR SIR,--Nice was originally a colony from Marseilles. You know the
+Phocians (if we may believe Justin and Polybius) settled in Gaul, and
+built Marseilles, during the reign of Tarquinius Priscus at Rome. This
+city flourished to such a degree, that long before the Romans were in a
+condition to extend their dominion, it sent forth colonies, and
+established them along the coast of Liguria. Of these, Nice, or Nicaea,
+was one of the most remarkable; so called, in all probability, from the
+Greek word Nike, signifying Victoria, in consequence of some important
+victory obtained over the Salii and Ligures, who were the antient
+inhabitants of this country. Nice, with its mother city, being in the
+sequel subdued by the Romans, fell afterwards successively under the
+dominion of the Goths, Burgundians, and Franks, the kings of Arles, and
+the kings of Naples, as counts of Provence. In the year one thousand
+three hundred and eighty-eight, the city and county of Nice being but
+ill protected by the family of Durazzo, voluntarily surrendered
+themselves to Amadaeus, surnamed the Red, duke of Savoy; and since that
+period, they have continued as part of that potentate's dominions,
+except at such times as they have been over-run and possessed by the
+power of France, which hath always been a troublesome neighbour to this
+country. The castle was begun by the Arragonian counts of Provence, and
+afterwards enlarged by several successive dukes of Savoy, so as to be
+deemed impregnable, until the modern method of besieging began to take
+place. A fruitless attempt was made upon it in the year one thousand
+five hundred and forty-three, by the French and Turks in conjunction:
+but it was reduced several times after that period, and is now in
+ruins. The celebrated engineer Vauban, being commanded by Louis XIV to
+give in a plan for fortifying Nice, proposed, that the river Paglion
+should be turned into a new channel, so as to surround the town to the
+north, and fall into the harbour; that where the Paglion now runs to
+the westward of the city walls, there should be a deep ditch to be
+filled with sea-water; and that a fortress should be built to the
+westward of this fosse. These particulars might be executed at no very
+great expence; but, I apprehend, they would be ineffectual, as the town
+is commanded by every hill in the neighbourhood; and the exhalations
+from stagnating sea-water would infallibly render the air unwholesome.
+Notwithstanding the undoubted antiquity of Nice, very few monuments of
+that antiquity now remain. The inhabitants say, they were either
+destroyed by the Saracens in their successive descents upon the coast,
+by the barbarous nations in their repeated incursions, or used in
+fortifying the castle, as well as in building other edifices. The city
+of Cemenelion, however, was subject to the same disasters, and even
+entirely ruined, nevertheless, we still find remains of its antient
+splendor. There have been likewise a few stones found at Nice, with
+antient inscriptions; but there is nothing of this kind standing,
+unless we give the name of antiquity to a marble cross on the road to
+Provence, about half a mile from the city. It stands upon a pretty high
+pedestal with steps, under a pretty stone cupola or dome, supported by
+four Ionic pillars, on the spot where Charles V. emperor of Germany,
+Francis I. of France, and pope Paul II. agreed to have a conference, in
+order to determine all their disputes. The emperor came hither by sea,
+with a powerful fleet, and the French king by land, at the head of a
+numerous army. All the endeavours of his holiness, however, could not
+effect a peace; but they agreed to a truce of ten years. Mezerai
+affirms, that these two great princes never saw one another on this
+occasion; and that this shyness was owing to the management of the
+pope, whose private designs might have been frustrated, had they come
+to a personal interview. In the front of the colonade, there is a small
+stone, with an inscription in Latin, which is so high, and so much
+defaced, that I cannot read it.
+
+In the sixteenth century there was a college erected at Nice, by
+Emanuel Philibert, duke of Savoy, for granting degrees to students of
+law; and in the year one thousand six hundred and fourteen, Charles
+Emanuel I. instituted the senate of Nice; consisting of a president,
+and a certain number of senators, who are distinguished by their purple
+robes, and other ensigns of authority. They administer justice, having
+the power of life and death, not only through the whole county of Nice,
+but causes are evoked from Oneglia, and some other places, to their
+tribunal, which is the dernier ressort, from whence there is no appeal.
+The commandant, however, by virtue of his military power and
+unrestricted authority, takes upon him to punish individuals by
+imprisonment, corporal pains, and banishment, without consulting the
+senate, or indeed, observing any form of trial. The only redress
+against any unjust exercise of this absolute power, is by complaint to
+the king; and you know, what chance a poor man has for being redressed
+in this manner.
+
+With respect to religion, I may safely say, that here superstition
+reigns under the darkest shades of ignorance and prejudice. I think
+there are ten convents and three nunneries within and without the walls
+of Nice; and among them all, I never could hear of one man who had made
+any tolerable advances in any kind of human learning. All ecclesiastics
+are exempted from any exertion of civil power, being under the
+immediate protection and authority of the bishop, or his vicar. The
+bishop of Nice is suffragan of the archbishop of Ambrun in France; and
+the revenues of the see amount to between five and six hundred pounds
+sterling. We have likewise an office of the inquisition, though I do
+not hear that it presumes to execute any acts of jurisdiction, without
+the king's special permission. All the churches are sanctuaries for all
+kinds of criminals, except those guilty of high treason; and the
+priests are extremely jealous of their privileges in this particular.
+They receive, with open arms, murderers, robbers, smugglers, fraudulent
+bankrupts, and felons of every denomination; and never give them up,
+until after having stipulated for their lives and liberty. I need not
+enlarge upon the pernicious consequences of this infamous prerogative,
+calculated to raise and extend the power and influence of the Roman
+church, on the ruins of morality and good order. I saw a fellow, who
+had three days before murdered his wife in the last month of pregnancy,
+taking the air with great composure and serenity, on the steps of a
+church in Florence; and nothing is more common, than to see the most
+execrable villains diverting themselves in the cloysters of some
+convents at Rome.
+
+Nice abounds with noblesse, marquisses, counts, and barons. Of these,
+three or four families are really respectable: the rest are novi
+homines, sprung from Bourgeois, who have saved a little money by their
+different occupations, and raised themselves to the rank of noblesse by
+purchase. One is descended from an avocat; another from an apothecary;
+a third from a retailer of wine, a fourth from a dealer in anchovies;
+and I am told, there is actually a count at Villefranche, whose father
+sold macaroni in the streets. A man in this country may buy a
+marquisate, or a county, for the value of three or four hundred pounds
+sterling, and the title follows the fief; but he may purchase lettres
+de noblesse for about thirty or forty guineas. In Savoy, there are six
+hundred families of noblesse; the greater part of which have not above
+one hundred crowns a year to maintain their dignity. In the mountains
+of Piedmont, and even in this country of Nice, there are some
+representatives of very antient and noble families, reduced to the
+condition of common peasants; but they still retain the antient pride
+of their houses, and boast of the noble blood that runs in their veins.
+A gentleman told me, that in travelling through the mountains, he was
+obliged to pass a night in the cottage of one of these rusticated
+nobles, who called to his son in the evening, "Chevalier, as-tu donne a
+manger aux cochons?" "Have you fed the Hogs, Sir Knight?" This,
+however, is not the case with the noblesse of Nice. Two or three of
+them have about four or five hundred a year: the rest, in general, may
+have about one hundred pistoles, arising from the silk, oil, wine, and
+oranges, produced in their small plantations, where they have also
+country houses. Some few of these are well built, commodious, and
+situated; but, for the most part, they are miserable enough. Our
+noblesse, notwithstanding their origin, and the cheap rate at which
+their titles have been obtained, are nevertheless extremely tenacious
+of their privileges, very delicate in maintaining the etiquette, and
+keep at a very stately distance from the Bourgeoisie. How they live in
+their families, I do not choose to enquire; but, in public, Madame
+appears in her robe of gold, or silver stuff, with her powder and
+frisure, her perfumes, her paint and her patches; while Monsieur Le
+Comte struts about in his lace and embroidery. Rouge and fard are more
+peculiarly necessary in this country, where the complexion and skin are
+naturally swarthy and yellow. I have likewise observed, that most of
+the females are pot-bellied; a circumstance owing, I believe, to the
+great quantity of vegetable trash which they eat. All the horses,
+mules, asses, and cattle, which feed upon grass, have the same
+distension. This kind of food produces such acid juices in the stomach,
+as excite a perpetual sense of hunger. I have been often amazed at the
+voracious appetites of these people. You must not expect that I should
+describe the tables and the hospitality of our Nissard gentry. Our
+consul, who is a very honest man, told me, he had lived four and thirty
+years in the country, without having once eat or drank in any of their
+houses.
+
+The noblesse of Nice cannot leave the country without express leave
+from the king; and this leave, when obtained, is for a limited time,
+which they dare not exceed, on pain of incurring his majesty's
+displeasure. They must, therefore, endeavour to find amusements at
+home; and this, I apprehend, would be no easy task for people of an
+active spirit or restless disposition. True it is, the religion of the
+country supplies a never-failing fund of pastime to those who have any
+relish for devotion; and this is here a prevailing taste. We have had
+transient visits of a puppet-shew, strolling musicians, and
+rope-dancers; but they did not like their quarters, and decamped
+without beat of drum. In the summer, about eight or nine at night, part
+of the noblesse may be seen assembled in a place called the Pare; which
+is, indeed, a sort of a street formed by a row of very paltry houses on
+one side, and on the other, by part of the town-wall, which screens it
+from a prospect of the sea, the only object that could render it
+agreeable. Here you may perceive the noblesse stretched in pairs upon
+logs of wood, like so many seals upon the rocks by moon-light, each
+dame with her cicisbeo: for, you must understand, this Italian fashion
+prevails at Nice among all ranks of people; and there is not such a
+passion as jealousy known. The husband and the cicisbeo live together
+as sworn brothers; and the wife and the mistress embrace each other
+with marks of the warmest affection. I do not choose to enter into
+particulars. I cannot open the scandalous chronicle of Nice, without
+hazard of contamination. With respect to delicacy and decorum, you may
+peruse dean Swift's description of the Yahoos, and then you will have
+some idea of the porcheria, that distinguishes the gallantry of Nice.
+But the Pare is not the only place of public resort for our noblesse in
+a summer's evening. Just without one of our gates, you will find them
+seated in ditches on the highway side, serenaded with the croaking of
+frogs, and the bells and braying of mules and asses continually passing
+in a perpetual cloud of dust. Besides these amusements, there is a
+public conversazione every evening at the commandant's house called the
+Government, where those noble personages play at cards for farthings.
+In carnival time, there is also, at this same government, a ball twice
+or thrice a week, carried on by subscription. At this assembly every
+person, without distinction, is permitted to dance in masquerade: but,
+after dancing, they are obliged to unmask, and if Bourgeois, to retire.
+No individual can give a ball, without obtaining a permission and guard
+of the commandant; and then his house is open to all masques, without
+distinction, who are provided with tickets, which tickets are sold by
+the commandant's secretary, at five sols a-piece, and delivered to the
+guard at the door. If I have a mind to entertain my particular friends,
+I cannot have more than a couple of violins; and, in that case, it is
+called a conversazione.
+
+Though the king of Sardinia takes all opportunities to distinguish the
+subjects of Great-Britain with particular marks of respect, I have seen
+enough to be convinced, that our nation is looked upon with an evil eye
+by the people of Nice; and this arises partly from religious
+prejudices, and partly from envy, occasioned by a ridiculous notion of
+our superior wealth. For my own part, I owe them nothing on the score
+of civilities; and therefore, I shall say nothing more on the subject,
+lest I should be tempted to deviate from that temperance and
+impartiality which I would fain hope have hitherto characterised the
+remarks of,-- Dear Sir, your faithful, humble servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER XVIII
+
+NICE, September 2, 1764.
+
+DEAR DOCTOR,--I wrote in May to Mr. B-- at Geneva, and gave him what
+information he desired to have, touching the conveniences of Nice. I
+shall now enter into the same detail, for the benefit of such of your
+friends or patients, as may have occasion to try this climate.
+
+The journey from Calais to Nice, of four persons in a coach, or two
+post-chaises, with a servant on horseback, travelling post, may be
+performed with ease, for about one hundred and twenty pounds, including
+every expence. Either at Calais or at Paris, you will always find a
+travelling coach or berline, which you may buy for thirty or forty
+guineas, and this will serve very well to reconvey you to your own
+country.
+
+In the town of Nice, you will find no ready-furnished lodgings for a
+whole family. Just without one of the gates, there are two houses to be
+let, ready-furnished, for about five loui'dores per month. As for the
+country houses in this neighbourhood, they are damp in winter, and
+generally without chimnies; and in summer they are rendered
+uninhabitable by the heat and the vermin. If you hire a tenement in
+Nice, you must take it for a year certain; and this will cost you about
+twenty pounds sterling. For this price, I have a ground floor paved
+with brick, consisting of a kitchen, two large halls, a couple of good
+rooms with chimnies, three large closets that serve for bed-chambers,
+and dressing-rooms, a butler's room, and three apartments for servants,
+lumber or stores, to which we ascend by narrow wooden stairs. I have
+likewise two small gardens, well stocked with oranges, lemons, peaches,
+figs, grapes, corinths, sallad, and pot-herbs. It is supplied with a
+draw-well of good water, and there is another in the vestibule of the
+house, which is cool, large, and magnificent. You may hire furniture
+for such a tenement for about two guineas a month: but I chose rather
+to buy what was necessary; and this cost me about sixty pounds. I
+suppose it will fetch me about half the money when I leave the place.
+It is very difficult to find a tolerable cook at Nice. A common maid,
+who serves the people of the country, for three or four livres a month,
+will not live with an English family under eight or ten. They are all
+slovenly, slothful, and unconscionable cheats. The markets at Nice are
+tolerably well supplied. Their beef, which comes from Piedmont, is
+pretty good, and we have it all the year. In the winter we have
+likewise excellent pork, and delicate lamb; but the mutton is
+indifferent. Piedmont, also, affords us delicious capons, fed with
+maize; and this country produces excellent turkeys, but very few geese.
+Chickens and pullets are extremely meagre. I have tried to fatten them,
+without success. In summer they are subject to the pip, and die in
+great numbers. Autumn and winter are the seasons for game; hares,
+partridges, quails, wild-pigeons, woodcocks, snipes, thrushes,
+beccaficas, and ortolans. Wild-boar is sometimes found in the
+mountains: it has a delicious taste, not unlike that of the wild hog in
+Jamaica; and would make an excellent barbecue, about the beginning of
+winter, when it is in good case: but, when meagre, the head only is
+presented at tables. Pheasants are very scarce. As for the heath-game,
+I never saw but one cock, which my servant bought in the market, and
+brought home; but the commandant's cook came into my kitchen, and
+carried it of, after it was half plucked, saying, his master had
+company to dinner. The hares are large, plump, and juicy. The
+partridges are generally of the red sort; large as pullets, and of a
+good flavour: there are also some grey partridges in the mountains; and
+another sort of a white colour, that weigh four or five pounds each.
+Beccaficas are smaller than sparrows, but very fat, and they are
+generally eaten half raw. The best way of dressing them is to stuff
+them into a roll, scooped of it's crum; to baste them well with butter,
+and roast them, until they are brown and crisp. The ortolans are kept
+in cages, and crammed, until they die of fat, then eaten as dainties.
+The thrush is presented with the trail, because the bird feeds on
+olives. They may as well eat the trail of a sheep, because it feeds on
+the aromatic herbs of the mountain. In the summer, we have beef, veal,
+and mutton, chicken, and ducks; which last are very fat, and very
+flabby. All the meat is tough in this season, because the excessive
+heat, and great number of flies, will not admit of its being kept any
+time after it is killed. Butter and milk, though not very delicate, we
+have all the year. Our tea and fine sugar come from Marseilles, at a
+very reasonable price.
+
+Nice is not without variety of fish; though they are not counted so
+good in their kinds as those of the ocean. Soals, and flat-fish in
+general, are scarce. Here are some mullets, both grey and red. We
+sometimes see the dory, which is called St Pierre; with rock-fish,
+bonita, and mackarel. The gurnard appears pretty often; and there is
+plenty of a kind of large whiting, which eats pretty well; but has not
+the delicacy of that which is caught on our coast. One of the best fish
+of this country, is called Le Loup, about two or three pounds in
+weight; white, firm, and well-flavoured. Another, no-way inferior to
+it, is the Moustel, about the same size; of a dark-grey colour, and
+short, blunt snout; growing thinner and flatter from the shoulders
+downwards, so as to resemble a soal at the tail. This cannot be the
+mustela of the antients, which is supposed to be the sea lamprey. Here
+too are found the vyvre, or, as we call it, weaver; remarkable for its
+long, sharp spines, so dangerous to the fingers of the fishermen. We
+have abundance of the saepia, or cuttle-fish, of which the people in
+this country make a delicate ragout; as also of the polype de mer,
+which is an ugly animal, with long feelers, like tails, which they
+often wind about the legs of the fishermen. They are stewed with
+onions, and eat something like cow-heel. The market sometimes affords
+the ecrivisse de mer, which is a lobster without claws, of a sweetish
+taste; and there are a few rock oysters, very small and very rank.
+Sometimes the fishermen find under water, pieces of a very hard cement,
+like plaister of Paris, which contain a kind of muscle, called la
+datte, from its resemblance to a date. These petrifactions are commonly
+of a triangular form and may weigh about twelve or fifteen pounds each
+and one of them may contain a dozen of these muscles which have nothing
+extraordinary in the taste or flavour, though extremely curious, as
+found alive and juicy, in the heart of a rock, almost as hard as
+marble, without any visible communication with the air or water. I take
+it for granted, however, that the inclosing cement is porous, and
+admits the finer parts of the surrounding fluid. In order to reach the
+muscles, this cement must be broke with large hammers; and it may be
+truly said, the kernal is not worth the trouble of cracking the shell.
+[These are found in great plenty at Ancona and other parts of the
+Adriatic, where they go by the name of Bollani, as we are informed by
+Keysler.] Among the fish of this country, there is a very ugly animal
+of the eel species, which might pass for a serpent: it is of a dusky,
+black colour, marked with spots of yellow, about eighteen inches, or
+two feet long. The Italians call it murena; but whether it is the fish
+which had the same name among the antient Romans, I cannot pretend to
+determine. The antient murena was counted a great delicacy, and was
+kept in ponds for extraordinary occasions. Julius Caesar borrowed six
+thousand for one entertainment: but I imagined this was the river
+lamprey. The murena of this country is in no esteem, and only eaten by
+the poor people.
+
+Craw-fish and trout are rarely found in the rivers among the mountains.
+The sword-fish is much esteemed in Nice, and called l'empereur, about
+six or seven feet long: but I have never seen it. [Since I wrote the
+above letter, I have eaten several times of this fish, which is as
+white as the finest veal, and extremely delicate. The emperor
+associates with the tunny fish, and is always taken in their company.]
+They are very scarce; and when taken, are generally concealed, because
+the head belongs to the commandant, who has likewise the privilege of
+buying the best fish at a very low price. For which reason, the choice
+pieces are concealed by the fishermen, and sent privately to Piedmont
+or Genoa. But, the chief fisheries on this coast are of the sardines,
+anchovies, and tunny. These are taken in small quantities all the year;
+but spring and summer is the season when they mostly abound. In June
+and July, a fleet of about fifty fishing-boats puts to sea every
+evening about eight o'clock, and catches anchovies in immense
+quantities. One small boat sometimes takes in one night twenty-five
+rup, amounting to six hundred weight; but it must be observed, that the
+pound here, as well as in other parts of Italy, consists but of twelve
+ounces. Anchovies, besides their making a considerable article in the
+commerce of Nice, are a great resource in all families. The noblesse
+and burgeois sup on sallad and anchovies, which are eaten on all their
+meagre days. The fishermen and mariners all along this coast have
+scarce any other food but dry bread, with a few pickled anchovies; and
+when the fish is eaten, they rub their crusts with the brine. Nothing
+can be more delicious than fresh anchovies fried in oil: I prefer them
+to the smelts of the Thames. I need not mention, that the sardines and
+anchovies are caught in nets; salted, barrelled, and exported into all
+the different kingdoms and states of Europe. The sardines, however, are
+largest and fattest in the month of September. A company of adventurers
+have farmed the tunny-fishery of the king, for six years; a monopoly,
+for which they pay about three thousand pounds sterling. They are at a
+very considerable expence for nets, boats, and attendance. Their nets
+are disposed in a very curious manner across the small bay of St.
+Hospice, in this neighbourhood, where the fish chiefly resort. They are
+never removed, except in the winter, and when they want repair: but
+there are avenues for the fish to enter, and pass, from one inclosure
+to another. There is a man in a boat, who constantly keeps watch. When
+he perceives they are fairly entered, he has a method for shutting all
+the passes, and confining the fish to one apartment of the net, which
+is lifted up into the boat, until the prisoners are taken and secured.
+The tunny-fish generally runs from fifty to one hundred weight; but
+some of them are much larger. They are immediately gutted, boiled, and
+cut in slices. The guts and head afford oil: the slices are partly
+dried, to be eaten occasionally with oil and vinegar, or barrelled up
+in oil, to be exported. It is counted a delicacy in Italy and Piedmont,
+and tastes not unlike sturgeon. The famous pickle of the ancients,
+called garum, was made of the gills and blood of the tunny, or thynnus.
+There is a much more considerable fishery of it in Sardinia, where it
+is said to employ four hundred persons; but this belongs to the duc de
+St. Pierre. In the neighbourhood of Villa Franca, there are people
+always employed in fishing for coral and sponge, which grow adhering to
+the rocks under water. Their methods do not favour much of ingenuity.
+For the coral, they lower down a swab, composed of what is called
+spunyarn on board our ships of war, hanging in distinct threads, and
+sunk by means of a great weight, which, striking against the coral in
+its descent, disengages it from the rocks; and some of the pieces being
+intangled among the threads of the swab, are brought up with it above
+water. The sponge is got by means of a cross-stick, fitted with hooks,
+which being lowered down, fastens upon it, and tears it from the rocks.
+In some parts of the Adriatic and Archipelago, these substances are
+gathered by divers, who can remain five minutes below water. But I will
+not detain you one minute longer; though I must observe, that there is
+plenty of fine samphire growing along all these rocks, neglected and
+unknown.--Adieu.
+
+
+
+LETTER XIX
+
+NICE, October 10, 1764.
+
+DEAR SIR,--Before I tell you the price of provisions at Nice, it will
+be necessary to say something of the money. The gold coin of Sardinia
+consists of the doppia di savoia, value twenty-four livres Piedmontese,
+about the size of a loui'dore; and the mezzo doppia, or piece of twelve
+livres. In silver, there is the scudo of six livres, the mezzo scudo of
+three; and the quarto, or pezza di trenta soldi: but all these are very
+scarce. We seldom see any gold and silver coin, but the loui'dore, and
+the six, and three-livre Pieces of France; a sure sign that the French
+suffer by their contraband commerce with the Nissards. The coin chiefly
+used at market is a piece of copper silvered, that passes for seven
+sols and a half; another of the same sort, valued two sols and a half.
+They have on one side the impression of the king's head; and on the
+other, the arms of Savoy, with a ducal crown, inscribed with his name
+and titles. There are of genuine copper, pieces of one sol, stamped on
+one side with a cross fleuree; and on the reverse, with the king's
+cypher and crown, inscribed as the others: finally, there is another
+small copper piece, called piccalon, the sixth part of a sol, with a
+plain cross, and on the reverse, a slip-knot surmounted with a crown;
+the legend as above. The impression and legend on the gold and silver
+coins, are the same as those on the pieces of seven sols and a half.
+The livre of Piedmont consists of twenty sols, and is very near of the
+same value as an English shilling: ten sols, therefore, are equal to
+six-pence sterling. Butcher's meat in general sells at Nice for three
+sols a pound; and veal is something dearer: but then there are but
+twelve ounces in the pound, which being allowed for, sixteen ounces,
+come for something less than twopence halfpenny English. Fish commonly
+sells for four sols the twelve ounces, or five for the English pound;
+and these five are equivalent to three-pence of our money: but
+sometimes we are obliged to pay five, and even six sols for the
+Piedmontese pound of fish. A turkey that would sell for five or six
+shillings at the London market, costs me but three at Nice. I can buy a
+good capon for thirty sols, or eighteen-pence; and the same price I pay
+for a brace of partridges, or a good hare. I can have a woodcock for
+twenty-four sols; but the pigeons are dearer than in London. Rabbits
+are very rare; and there is scarce a goose to be seen in the whole
+county of Nice. Wild-ducks and teal are sometimes to be had in the
+winter; and now I am speaking of sea-fowl, it may not be amiss to tell
+you what I know of the halcyon, or king's-fisher. It is a bird, though
+very rare in this country about the size of a pigeon; the body brown,
+and the belly white: by a wonderful instinct it makes its nest upon the
+surface of the sea, and lays its eggs in the month of November, when
+the Mediterranean is always calm and smooth as a mill-pond. The people
+about here call them martinets, because they begin to hatch about
+Martinmass. Their nests are sometimes seen floating near the shore, and
+generally become the prize of the boys, who are very alert in catching
+them.
+
+You know all sea-birds are allowed by the church of Rome to be eaten on
+meagre days, as a kind of fish; and the monks especially do not fail to
+make use of this permission. Sea turtle, or tortoises, are often found
+at sea by the mariners, in these latitudes: but they are not the green
+sort, so much in request among the aldermen of London. All the
+Mediterranean turtle are of the kind called loggerhead, which in the
+West-Indies are eaten by none but hungry seamen, negroes, and the
+lowest class of people. One of these, weighing about two hundred
+pounds, was lately brought on shore by the fishermen of Nice, who found
+it floating asleep on the surface of the sea. The whole town was
+alarmed at sight of such a monster, the nature of which they could not
+comprehend. However, the monks, called minims, of St. Francesco di
+Paolo, guided by a sure instinct, marked it as their prey, and
+surrounded it accordingly. The friars of other convents, not quite so
+hungry, crowding down to the beach, declared it should not be eaten;
+dropped some hints about the possibility of its being something
+praeternatural and diabolical, and even proposed exorcisms and
+aspersions with holy water. The populace were divided according to
+their attachment to this, or that convent: a mighty clamour arose; and
+the police, in order to remove the cause of their contention, ordered
+the tortoise to be recommitted to the waves; a sentence which the
+Franciscans saw executed, not without sighs and lamentation. The
+land-turtle, or terrapin, is much better known at Nice, as being a
+native of this country; yet the best are brought from the island of
+Sardinia. The soup or bouillon of this animal is always prescribed here
+as a great restorative to consumptive patients. The bread of Nice is
+very indifferent, and I am persuaded very unwholesome. The flour is
+generally musty, and not quite free of sand. This is either owing to
+the particles of the mill-stone rubbed off in grinding, or to what
+adheres to the corn itself, in being threshed upon the common ground;
+for there are no threshing-floors in this country. I shall now take
+notice of the vegetables of Nice. In the winter, we have green pease,
+asparagus, artichoaks, cauliflower, beans, French beans, celery, and
+endive; cabbage, coleworts, radishes, turnips, carrots, betteraves,
+sorrel lettuce, onions, garlic, and chalot. We have potatoes from the
+mountains, mushrooms, champignons, and truffles. Piedmont affords white
+truffles, counted the most delicious in the world: they sell for about
+three livres the pound. The fruits of this season are pickled olives,
+oranges, lemons, citrons, citronelles, dried figs, grapes, apples,
+pears, almonds, chestnuts, walnuts, filberts, medlars, pomegranates,
+and a fruit called azerolles, [The Italians call them Lazerruoli.]
+about the size of a nutmeg, of an oblong shape, red colour, and
+agreeable acid taste. I might likewise add the cherry of the Laurus
+cerasus, which is sold in the market; very beautiful to the eye, but
+insipid to the palate. In summer we have all those vegetables in
+perfection. There is also a kind of small courge, or gourd, of which
+the people of the country make a very savoury ragout, with the help of
+eggs, cheese, and fresh anchovies. Another is made of the badenjean,
+which the Spaniards call berengena: [This fruit is called Melanzana in
+Italy and is much esteemed by the Jews in Leghorn. Perhaps Melanzana is
+a corruption of Malamsana.] it is much eaten in Spain and the Levant,
+as well as by the Moors in Barbary. It is about the size and shape of a
+hen's egg, inclosed in a cup like an acorn; when ripe, of a faint
+purple colour. It grows on a stalk about a foot high, with long spines
+or prickles. The people here have different ways of slicing and
+dressing it, by broiling, boiling, and stewing, with other ingredients:
+but it is at best an insipid dish. There are some caperbushes in this
+neighbourhood, which grow wild in holes of garden walls, and require no
+sort of cultivation: in one or two gardens, there are palm-trees; but
+the dates never ripen. In my register of the weather, I have marked the
+seasons of the principal fruits in this country. In May we have
+strawberries, which continue in season two or three months. These are
+of the wood kind; very grateful, and of a good flavour; but the
+scarlets and hautboys are not known at Nice. In the beginning of June,
+and even sooner, the cherries begin to be ripe. They are a kind of
+bleeding hearts; large, fleshy, and high flavoured, though rather too
+luscious. I have likewise seen a few of those we call Kentish cherries
+which are much more cool, acid, and agreeable, especially in this hot
+climate. The cherries are succeeded by the apricots and peaches, which
+are all standards, and of consequence better flavoured than what we
+call wall-fruit. The trees, as well as almonds, grow and bear without
+care and cultivation, and may be seen in the open fields about Nice,
+but without proper culture, the fruit degenerates. The best peaches I
+have seen at Nice are the amberges, of a yellow hue, and oblong shape,
+about the size of a small lemon. Their consistence is much more solid
+than that of our English peaches, and their taste more delicious.
+Several trees of this kind I have in my own garden. Here is likewise
+plenty of other sorts; but no nectarines. We have little choice of
+plumbs. Neither do I admire the pears or apples of this country: but
+the most agreeable apples I ever tasted, come from Final, and are
+called pomi carli. The greatest fault I find with most fruits in this
+climate, is, that they are too sweet and luscious, and want that
+agreeable acid which is so cooling and so grateful in a hot country.
+This, too, is the case with our grapes, of which there is great plenty
+and variety, plump and juicy, and large as plumbs. Nature, however, has
+not neglected to provide other agreeable vegetable juices to cool the
+human body. During the whole summer, we have plenty of musk melons. I
+can buy one as large as my head for the value of an English penny: but
+one of the best and largest, weighing ten or twelve pounds, I can have
+for twelve sols, or about eight-pence sterling. From Antibes and
+Sardinia, we have another fruit called a watermelon, which is well
+known in Jamaica, and some of our other colonies. Those from Antibes
+are about the size of an ordinary bomb-shell: but the Sardinian and
+Jamaica watermelons are four times as large. The skin is green, smooth,
+and thin. The inside is a purple pulp, studded with broad, flat, black
+seeds, and impregnated with a juice the most cool, delicate, and
+refreshing, that can well be conceived. One would imagine the pulp
+itself dissolved in the stomach; for you may eat of it until you are
+filled up to the tongue, without feeling the least inconvenience. It is
+so friendly to the constitution, that in ardent inflammatory fevers, it
+is drank as the best emulsion. At Genoa, Florence, and Rome, it is sold
+in the streets, ready cut in slices; and the porters, sweating under
+their burthens, buy, and eat them as they pass. A porter of London
+quenches his thirst with a draught of strong beer: a porter of Rome, or
+Naples, refreshes himself with a slice of water-melon, or a glass of
+iced-water. The one costs three half-pence; the last, half a
+farthing--which of them is most effectual? I am sure the men are
+equally pleased. It is commonly remarked, that beer strengthens as well
+as refreshes. But the porters of Constantinople, who never drink any
+thing stronger than water, and eat very little animal food, will lift
+and carry heavier burthens than any other porters in the known world.
+If we may believe the most respectable travellers, a Turk will carry a
+load of seven hundred weight, which is more (I believe) than any
+English porter ever attempted to carry any length of way.
+
+Among the refreshments of these warm countries, I ought not to forget
+mentioning the sorbettes, which are sold in coffee-houses, and places
+of public resort. They are iced froth, made with juice of oranges,
+apricots, or peaches; very agreeable to the palate, and so extremely
+cold, that I was afraid to swallow them in this hot country, until I
+found from information and experience, that they may be taken in
+moderation, without any bad consequence.
+
+Another considerable article in house-keeping is wine, which we have
+here good and reasonable. The wine of Tavelle in Languedoc is very near
+as good as Burgundy, and may be had at Nice, at the rate of six-pence a
+bottle. The sweet wine of St. Laurent, counted equal to that of
+Frontignan, costs about eight or nine-pence a quart: pretty good Malaga
+may be had for half the money. Those who make their own wine choose the
+grapes from different vineyards, and have them picked, pressed, and
+fermented at home.
+
+That which is made by the peasants, both red and white, is generally
+genuine: but the wine-merchants of Nice brew and balderdash, and even
+mix it with pigeons dung and quick-lime. It cannot be supposed, that a
+stranger and sojourner should buy his own grapes, and make his own
+provision of wine: but he may buy it by recommendation from the
+peasants, for about eighteen or twenty livres the charge, consisting of
+eleven rup five pounds; in other words, of two hundred and eighty
+pounds of this country, so as to bring it for something less than
+three-pence a quart. The Nice wine, when mixed with water, makes an
+agreeable beverage. There is an inferior sort for servants drank by the
+common people, which in the cabaret does not cost above a penny a
+bottle. The people here are not so nice as the English, in the
+management of their wine. It is kept in flacons, or large flasks,
+without corks, having a little oil at top. It is not deemed the worse
+for having been opened a day or two before; and they expose it to the
+hot sun, and all kinds of weather, without hesitation. Certain it is,
+this treatment has little or no effect upon its taste, flavour, and
+transparency.
+
+The brandy of Nice is very indifferent: and the liqueurs are so
+sweetened with coarse sugar, that they scarce retain the taste or
+flavour of any other ingredient.
+
+The last article of domestic oeconomy which I shall mention is fuel, or
+wood for firing, which I buy for eleven sols (a little more than
+six-pence halfpenny) a quintal, consisting of one hundred and fifty
+pound Nice weight. The best, which is of oak, comes from Sardinia. The
+common sort is olive, which being cut with the sap in it, ought to be
+laid in during the summer; otherwise, it will make a very uncomfortable
+fire. In my kitchen and two chambers, I burned fifteen thousand weight
+of wood in four weeks, exclusive of charcoal for the kitchen stoves,
+and of pine-tops for lighting the fires. These last are as large as
+pineapples, which they greatly resemble in shape, and to which, indeed,
+they give their name; and being full of turpentine, make a wonderful
+blaze. For the same purpose, the people of these countries use the
+sarments, or cuttings of the vines, which they sell made up in small
+fascines. This great consumption of wood is owing to the large fires
+used in roasting pieces of beef, and joints, in the English manner. The
+roasts of this country seldom exceed two or three pounds of meat; and
+their other plats are made over stove holes. But it is now high time to
+conduct you from the kitchen, where you have been too long detained
+by--Your humble servant.
+
+P.S.--I have mentioned the prices of almost all the articles in
+house-keeping, as they are paid by the English: but exclusive of
+butcher's meat, I am certain the natives do not pay so much by thirty
+per cent. Their imposition on us, is not only a proof of their own
+villany and hatred, but a scandal on their government; which ought to
+interfere in favour of the subjects of a nation, to which they are so
+much bound in point of policy, as well as gratitude.
+
+
+
+
+LETTER XX
+
+NICE, October 22, 1764.
+
+SIR,--As I have nothing else to do, but to satisfy my own curiosity,
+and that of my friends, I obey your injunctions with pleasure; though
+not without some apprehension that my inquiries will afford you very
+little entertainment. The place where I am is of very little importance
+or consequence as a state or community; neither is there any thing
+curious or interesting in the character or oeconomy of its inhabitants.
+
+There are some few merchants in Nice, said to be in good circumstances.
+I know one of them, who deals to a considerable extent, and goes twice
+a year to London to attend the sales of the East-India company. He buys
+up a very large quantity of muslins, and other Indian goods, and
+freights a ship in the river to transport them to Villa Franca. Some of
+these are sent to Swisserland; but, I believe, the greater part is
+smuggled into France, by virtue of counterfeit stamps, which are here
+used without any ceremony. Indeed, the chief commerce of this place is
+a contraband traffick carried on to the disadvantage of France; and I
+am told, that the farmers of the Levant company in that kingdom find
+their account in conniving at it. Certain it is, a great quantity of
+merchandize is brought hither every week by mules from Turin and other
+parts in Piedmont, and afterwards conveyed to the other side of the
+Var, either by land or water. The mules of Piedmont are exceeding
+strong and hardy. One of them will carry a burthen of near six hundred
+weight. They are easily nourished, and require no other respite from
+their labour, but the night's repose. They are the only carriage that
+can be used in crossing the mountains, being very sure-footed: and it
+is observed that in choosing their steps, they always march upon the
+brink of the precipice. You must let them take their own way, otherwise
+you will be in danger of losing your life; for they are obstinate, even
+to desperation. It is very dangerous for a person on horseback to meet
+those animals: they have such an aversion to horses, that they will
+attack them with incredible fury, so as even to tear them and their
+riders in pieces; and the best method for avoiding this fate, is to
+clap spurs to your beast, and seek your safety in flight. I have been
+more than once obliged to fly before them. They always give you
+warning, by raising a hideous braying as soon as they perceive the
+horse at a distance. The mules of Provence are not so mischievous,
+because they are more used to the sight and society of horses: but
+those of Piedmont are by far the largest and the strongest I have seen.
+
+Some very feasible schemes for improving the commerce of Nice have been
+presented to the ministry of Turin; but hitherto without success. The
+English import annually between two and three thousand bales of raw
+silk, the growth of Piedmont; and this declaration would be held legal
+evidence. In some parts of France, the cure of the parish, on All
+Souls' day, which is called le jour des morts, says a libera domine for
+two sols, at every grave in the burying-ground, for the release of the
+soul whose body is there interred.
+
+The artisans of Nice are very lazy, very needy, very aukward, and void
+of all ingenuity. The price of their labour is very near as high as at
+London or Paris. Rather than work for moderate profit, arising from
+constant employment, which would comfortably maintain them and their
+families, they choose to starve at home, to lounge about the ramparts,
+bask themselves in the sun, or play at bowls in the streets from
+morning 'till night.
+
+The lowest class of people consists of fishermen, day labourers,
+porters, and peasants: these last are distributed chiefly in the small
+cassines in the neighbourhood of the city, and are said to amount to
+twelve thousand. They are employed in labouring the ground, and have
+all the outward signs of extreme misery. They are all diminutive,
+meagre, withered, dirty, and half naked; in their complexions, not
+barely swarthy, but as black as Moors; and I believe many of them are
+descendants of that people. They are very hard favoured; and their
+women in general have the coarsest features I have ever seen: it must
+be owned, however, they have the finest teeth in the world. The
+nourishment of those poor creatures consists of the refuse of the
+garden, very coarse bread, a kind of meal called polenta, made of
+Indian corn, which is very nourishing and agreeable, and a little oil;
+but even in these particulars, they seem to be stinted to very scanty
+meals. I have known a peasant feed his family with the skins of boiled
+beans. Their hogs are much better fed than their children. 'Tis pity
+they have no cows, which would yield milk, butter, and cheese, for the
+sustenance of their families. With all this wretchedness, one of these
+peasants will not work in your garden for less than eighteen sols,
+about eleven pence sterling, per diem; and then he does not half the
+work of an English labourer. If there is fruit in it, or any thing he
+can convey, he will infallibly steal it, if you do not keep a very
+watchful eye over him. All the common people are thieves and beggars;
+and I believe this is always the case with people who are extremely
+indigent and miserable. In other respects, they are seldom guilty of
+excesses. They are remarkably respectful and submissive to their
+superiors. The populace of Nice are very quiet and orderly. They are
+little addicted to drunkenness. I have never heard of one riot since I
+lived among them; and murder and robbery are altogether unknown. A man
+may walk alone over the county of Nice, at midnight, without danger of
+insult. The police is very well regulated. No man is permitted to wear
+a pistol or dagger' on pain of being sent to the gallies. I am
+informed, that both murder and robbery are very frequent in some parts
+of Piedmont. Even here, when the peasants quarrel in their cups, (which
+very seldom happens) they draw their knives, and the one infallibly
+stabs the other. To such extremities, however, they never proceed,
+except when there is a woman in the case; and mutual jealousy
+co-operates with the liquor they have drank, to inflame their passions.
+In Nice, the common people retire to their lodgings at eight o'clock in
+winter, and nine in summer. Every person found in the streets after
+these hours, is apprehended by the patrole; and, if he cannot give a
+good account of himself, sent to prison. At nine in winter, and ten in
+summer, there is a curfew-bell rung, warning the people to put out
+their lights, and go to bed. This is a very necessary precaution in
+towns subject to conflagrations; but of small use in Nice, where there
+is very little combustible in the houses.
+
+The punishments inflicted upon malefactors and delinquents at Nice are
+hanging for capital crimes; slavery on board the gallies for a limited
+term, or for life, according to the nature of the transgression;
+flagellation, and the strappado. This last is performed, by hoisting up
+the criminal by his hands tied behind his back, on a pulley about two
+stories high; from whence, the rope being suddenly slackened, he falls
+to within a yard or two of the ground, where he is stopped with a
+violent shock arising from the weight of his body, and the velocity of
+his descent, which generally dislocates his shoulders, with incredible
+pain. This dreadful execution is sometimes repeated in a few minutes on
+the same delinquent; so that the very ligaments are tore from his
+joints, and his arms are rendered useless for life.
+
+The poverty of the people in this country, as well as in the South of
+France, may be conjectured from the appearance of their domestic
+animals. The draughthorses, mules, and asses, of the peasants, are so
+meagre, as to excite compassion. There is not a dog to be seen in
+tolerable case; and the cats are so many emblems of famine, frightfully
+thin, and dangerously rapacious. I wonder the dogs and they do not
+devour young children. Another proof of that indigence which reigns
+among the common people, is this: you may pass through the whole South
+of France, as well as the county of Nice, where there is no want of
+groves, woods, and plantations, without hearing the song of blackbird,
+thrush, linnet, gold-finch, or any other bird whatsoever. All is silent
+and solitary. The poor birds are destroyed, or driven for refuge, into
+other countries, by the savage persecution of the people, who spare no
+pains to kill, and catch them for their own subsistence. Scarce a
+sparrow, red-breast, tomtit, or wren, can 'scape the guns and snares of
+those indefatigable fowlers. Even the noblesse make parties to go a la
+chasse, a-hunting; that is, to kill those little birds, which they eat
+as gibier, or game.
+
+The great poverty of the people here, is owing to their religion. Half
+of their time is lost in observing the great number of festivals; and
+half of their substance is given to mendicant friars and parish
+priests. But if the church occasions their indigence, it likewise, in
+some measure, alleviates the horrors of it, by amusing them with shows,
+processions, and even those very feasts, which afford a recess from
+labour, in a country where the climate disposes them to idleness. If
+the peasants in the neighbourhood of any chapel dedicated to a saint,
+whose day is to be celebrated, have a mind to make a festin, in other
+words, a fair, they apply to the commandant of Nice for a license,
+which costs them about a French crown. This being obtained, they
+assemble after service, men and women, in their best apparel, and dance
+to the musick of fiddles, and pipe and tabor, or rather pipe and drum.
+There are hucksters' stands, with pedlary ware and knick-knacks for
+presents; cakes and bread, liqueurs and wine; and thither generally
+resort all the company of Nice. I have seen our whole noblesse at one
+of these festins, kept on the highway in summer, mingled with an
+immense crowd of peasants, mules, and asses, covered with dust, and
+sweating at every pore with the excessive heat of the weather. I should
+be much puzzled to tell whence their enjoyment arises on such
+occasions; or to explain their motives for going thither, unless they
+are prescribed it for pennance, as a fore-taste of purgatory.
+
+Now I am speaking of religious institutions, I cannot help observing,
+that the antient Romans were still more superstitious than the modern
+Italians; and that the number of their religious feasts, sacrifices,
+fasts, and holidays, was even greater than those of the Christian
+church of Rome. They had their festi and profesti, their feriae
+stativae, and conceptivae, their fixed and moveable feasts; their
+esuriales, or fasting days, and their precidaneae, or vigils. The
+agonales were celebrated in January; the carmentales, in January and
+February; the lupercales and matronales, in March; the megalesia in
+April; the floralia, in May; and the matralia in June. They had their
+saturnalia, robigalia, venalia, vertumnalia, fornacalia, palilia, and
+laralia, their latinae, their paganales, their sementinae, their
+compitales, and their imperativae; such as the novemdalia, instituted
+by the senate, on account of a supposed shower of stones. Besides,
+every private family had a number of feriae, kept either by way of
+rejoicing for some benefit, or mourning for some calamity. Every time
+it thundered, the day was kept holy. Every ninth day was a holiday,
+thence called nundinae quasi novendinae. There was the dies
+denominalis, which was the fourth of the kalends; nones and ides of
+every month, over and above the anniversary of every great defeat which
+the republic had sustained, particularly the dies alliensis, or
+fifteenth of the kalends of December, on which the Romans were totally
+defeated by the Gauls and Veientes; as Lucan says--et damnata diu
+Romanis allia fastis, and Allia in Rome's Calendar condemn'd. The vast
+variety of their deities, said to amount to thirty thousand, with their
+respective rites of adoration, could not fail to introduce such a
+number of ceremonies, shews, sacrifices, lustrations, and public
+processions, as must have employed the people almost constantly from
+one end of the year to the other. This continual dissipation must have
+been a great enemy to industry; and the people must have been idle and
+effeminate. I think it would be no difficult matter to prove, that
+there is very little difference, in point of character, between the
+antient and modern inhabitants of Rome; and that the great figure which
+this empire made of old, was not so much owing to the intrinsic virtue
+of its citizens, as to the barbarism, ignorance, and imbecility of the
+nations they subdued. Instances of public and private virtue I find as
+frequent and as striking in the history of other nations, as in the
+annals of antient Rome; and now that the kingdoms and states of Europe
+are pretty equally enlightened, and ballanced in the scale of political
+power, I am of opinion, that if the most fortunate generals of the
+Roman commonwealth were again placed at the head of the very armies
+they once commanded, instead of extending their conquests over all
+Europe and Asia, they would hardly be able to subdue, and retain under
+their dominion, all the petty republics that subsist in Italy.
+
+But I am tired with writing; and I believe you will be tired with
+reading this long letter notwithstanding all your prepossession in
+favour of--Your very humble servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXI
+
+NICE, November 10, 1764.
+
+DEAR DOCTOR,--In my enquiries about the revenues of Nice, I am obliged
+to trust to the information of the inhabitants, who are much given to
+exaggerate. They tell me, the revenues of this town amount to one
+hundred thousand livres, or five thousand pounds sterling; of which I
+would strike off at least one fourth, as an addition of their own
+vanity: perhaps, if we deduct a third, it will be nearer the truth.
+For, I cannot find out any other funds they have, but the butchery and
+the bakery, which they farm at so much a year to the best bidder; and
+the droits d'entree, or duties upon provision brought into the city;
+but these are very small. The king is said to draw from Nice one
+hundred thousand livres annually, arising from a free-gift, amounting
+to seven hundred pounds sterling, in lieu of the taille, from which
+this town and county are exempted; an inconsiderable duty upon wine
+sold in public-houses; and the droits du port. These last consist of
+anchorage, paid by all vessels in proportion to their tonnage, when
+they enter the harbours of Nice and Villa Franca. Besides, all foreign
+vessels, under a certain stipulated burthen, that pass between the
+island of Sardinia and this coast, are obliged, in going to the
+eastward, to enter; and pay a certain regulated imposition, on pain of
+being taken and made prize. The prince of Monaco exacts a talliage of
+the same kind; and both he and the king of Sardinia maintain armed
+cruisers to assert this prerogative; from which, however, the English
+and French are exempted by treaty, in consequence of having paid a sum
+of money at once. In all probability, it was originally given as a
+consideration for maintaining lights on the shore, for the benefit of
+navigators, like the toll paid for passing the Sound in the Baltic.
+[Upon further inquiry I find it was given in consideration of being
+protected from the Corsairs by the naval force of the Duke of Savoy and
+Prince of Monaco.] The fanal, or lanthorn, to the eastward of Villa
+Franca, is kept in good repair, and still lighted in the winter. The
+toll, however, is a very troublesome tax upon feluccas, and other small
+craft, which are greatly retarded in their voyages, and often lose the
+benefit of a fair wind, by being obliged to run inshore, and enter
+those harbours. The tobacco the king manufactures at his own expence,
+and sells for his own profit, at a very high price; and every person
+convicted of selling this commodity in secret, is sent to the gallies
+for life. The salt comes chiefly from Sardinia, and is stored up in the
+king's magazine from whence it is exported to Piedmont, and other parts
+of his inland dominions. And here it may not be amiss to observe, that
+Sardinia produces very good horses, well-shaped, though small; strong,
+hardy, full of mettle, and easily fed. The whole county of Nice is said
+to yield the king half a million of livres, about twenty-five thousand
+pounds sterling, arising from a small donative made by every town and
+village: for the lands pay no tax, or imposition, but the tithes to the
+church. His revenue then flows from the gabelle on salt and wine, and
+these free-gifts; so that we may strike off one fifth of the sum at
+which the whole is estimated; and conclude, that the king draws from
+the county at Nice, about four hundred thousand livres, or twenty
+thousand pounds sterling. That his revenues from Nice are not great,
+appears from the smallness of the appointments allowed to his officers.
+The president has about three hundred pounds per annum; and the
+intendant about two. The pay of the commandant does not exceed three
+hundred and fifty pounds: but he has certain privileges called the tour
+du baton, some of which a man of spirit would not insist upon. He who
+commands at present, having no estate of his own, enjoys a small
+commandery, which being added to his appointments at Nice, make the
+whole amount to about five hundred pounds sterling.
+
+If we may believe the politicians of Nice, the king of Sardinia's whole
+revenue does not fall short of twenty millions of Piedmontese livres,
+being above one million of our money. It must be owned, that there is
+no country in Christendom less taxed than that of Nice; and as the soil
+produces the necessaries of life, the inhabitants, with a little
+industry, might renew the golden age in this happy climate, among their
+groves, woods, and mountains, beautified with fountains, brooks,
+rivers, torrents, and cascades. In the midst of these pastoral
+advantages, the peasants are poor and miserable. They have no stock to
+begin the world with. They have no leases of the lands they cultivate;
+but entirely depend, from year to year, on the pleasure of the
+arbitrary landholder, who may turn them out at a minute's warning; and
+they are oppressed by the mendicant friars and parish priests, who rob
+them of the best fruits of their labour: after all, the ground is too
+scanty for the number of families which are crouded on it.
+
+You desire to know the state of the arts and sciences at Nice; which,
+indeed, is almost a total blank. I know not what men of talents this
+place may have formerly produced; but at present, it seems to be
+consecrated to the reign of dulness and superstition. It is very
+surprising, to see a people established between two enlightened
+nations, so devoid of taste and literature. Here are no tolerable
+pictures, busts, statues, nor edifices: the very ornaments of the
+churches are wretchedly conceived, and worse executed. They have no
+public, nor private libraries that afford any thing worth perusing.
+There is not even a bookseller in Nice. Though they value themselves
+upon their being natives of Italy, they are unacquainted with music.
+The few that play upon instruments, attend only to the execution. They
+have no genius nor taste, nor any knowledge of harmony and composition.
+Among the French, a Nissard piques himself on being Provencal; but in
+Florence, Milan, or Rome, he claims the honour of being born a native
+of Italy. The people of condition here speak both languages equally
+well; or, rather, equally ill; for they use a low, uncouth phraseology;
+and their pronunciation is extremely vitious. Their vernacular tongue
+is what they call Patois; though in so calling it, they do it
+injustice.--Patois, from the Latin word patavinitas, means no more than
+a provincial accent, or dialect. It takes its name from Patavium, or
+Padua, which was the birthplace of Livy, who, with all his merit as a
+writer, has admitted into his history, some provincial expressions of
+his own country. The Patois, or native tongue of Nice, is no other than
+the ancient Provencal, from which the Italian, Spanish and French
+languages, have been formed. This is the language that rose upon the
+ruins of the Latin tongue, after the irruptions of the Goths, Vandals,
+Huns, and Burgundians, by whom the Roman empire was destroyed. It was
+spoke all over Italy, Spain, and the southern parts of France, until
+the thirteenth century, when the Italians began to polish it into the
+language which they now call their own: The Spaniards and French,
+likewise, improved it into their respective tongues. From its great
+affinity to the Latin, it was called Romance, a name which the
+Spaniards still give to their own language. As the first legends of
+knight-errantry were written in Provencal, all subsequent performances
+of the same kind, have derived from it the name of romance; and as
+those annals of chivalry contained extravagant adventures of knights,
+giants, and necromancers, every improbable story or fiction is to this
+day called a romance. Mr. Walpole, in his Catalogue of royal and noble
+Authors, has produced two sonnets in the antient Provencal, written by
+our king Richard I. surnamed Coeur de Lion; and Voltaire, in his
+Historical Tracts, has favoured the world with some specimens of the
+same language. The Patois of Nice, must, without doubt, have undergone
+changes and corruptions in the course of so many ages, especially as no
+pains have been taken to preserve its original purity, either in
+orthography or pronunciation. It is neglected, as the language of the
+vulgar: and scarce any-body here knows either its origin or
+constitution. I have in vain endeavoured to procure some pieces in the
+antient Provencal, that I might compare them with the modern Patois:
+but I can find no person to give me the least information on the
+subject. The shades of ignorance, sloth, and stupidity, are
+impenetrable. Almost every word of the Patois may still be found in the
+Italian, Spanish, and French languages, with a small change in the
+pronunciation. Cavallo, signifying a horse in Italian and Spanish is
+called cavao; maison, the French word for a house, is changed into
+maion; aqua, which means water in Spanish, the Nissards call daigua. To
+express, what a slop is here! they say acco fa lac aqui, which is a
+sentence composed of two Italian words, one French, and one Spanish.
+This is nearly the proportion in which these three languages will be
+found mingled in the Patois of Nice; which, with some variation,
+extends over all Provence, Languedoc, and Gascony. I will now treat you
+with two or three stanzas of a canzon, or hymn, in this language, to
+the Virgin Mary, which was lately printed at Nice.
+
+  1
+
+  Vierge, maire de Dieu,
+  Nuostro buono avocado,
+  Embel car uvostre sieu,
+  En Fenestro adourado,
+  Jeu vous saludi,
+  E demandi en socours;
+  E sense autre preludi,
+  Canti lous uvostre honours.
+
+  Virgin, mother of God,
+  our good advocate,
+  With your dear son,
+  In Fenestro adored,
+  I salute you,
+  And ask his assistance;
+  And without further prelude,
+  I sing your honours.
+
+[Fenestro is the name of a place in this neighbourhood, where there is
+a supposed miraculous sanctuary, or chapel, of the Virgin Mary.]
+
+  2.
+
+  Qu'ario de Paradis!
+  Que maesta divine!
+  Salamon es d'advis,
+  Giugiar de uvostro mino;
+  Vous dis plus bello:
+  E lou dis ben soven
+  De toutoi lei femello,
+  E non s'engano ren.
+
+  What air of Paradise!
+  What majesty divine!
+  Solomon is of opinion,
+  To judge of your appearance;
+  Says you are the fairest
+  And it is often said
+  Of all females,
+  And we are not all deceived.
+
+  3.
+
+  Qu'ario de Paradis!
+  Que maesta divine!
+  La bellezzo eblovis;
+  La bonta l'ueigl raffino.
+  Sias couronado;
+  Tenes lou monde en man
+  Sus del trono assettado,
+  Riges lou avostre enfan.
+
+  What air of Paradise!
+  What majesty divine!
+  The beauty dazzles;
+  The goodness purifies the eye:
+  You are crowned:
+  You hold the world in your hand:
+  Seated on the throne,
+  You support your child.
+
+You see I have not chosen this canzon for the beauty and elegance of
+thought and expression; but give it you as the only printed specimen I
+could find of the modern Provencal. If you have any curiosity to be
+further acquainted with the Patois, I will endeavour to procure you
+satisfaction. Meanwhile, I am, in plain English,--Dear Sir, Ever yours.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXII
+
+NICE, November 10, 1764.
+
+DEAR SIR,--I had once thoughts of writing a complete natural history of
+this town and county: but I found myself altogether unequal to the
+task. I have neither health, strength, nor opportunity to make proper
+collections of the mineral, vegetable, and animal productions. I am not
+much conversant with these branches of natural philosophy. I have no
+books to direct my inquiries. I can find no person capable of giving me
+the least information or assistance; and I am strangely puzzled by the
+barbarous names they give to many different species, the descriptions
+of which I have read under other appelations; and which, as I have
+never seen them before, I cannot pretend to distinguish by the eye. You
+must therefore be contented with such imperfect intelligence as my
+opportunities can afford.
+
+The useful arts practised at Nice, are these, gardening and
+agriculture, with their consequences, the making of wine, oil, and
+cordage; the rearing of silk-worms, with the subsequent management and
+manufacture of that production; and the fishing, which I have already
+described.
+
+Nothing can be more unpromising than the natural soil of this
+territory, except in a very few narrow bottoms, where there is a stiff
+clay, which when carefully watered, yields tolerable pasturage. In
+every other part, the soil consists of a light sand mingled with
+pebbles, which serves well enough for the culture of vines and olives:
+but the ground laid out for kitchen herbs, as well as for other fruit
+must be manured with great care and attention. They have no black
+cattle to afford such compost as our farmers use in England. The dung
+of mules and asses, which are their only beasts of burthen, is of very
+little value for this purpose; and the natural sterility of their
+ground requires something highly impregnated with nitre and volatile
+salts. They have recourse therefore to pigeons' dung and ordure, which
+fully answer their expectations. Every peasant opens, at one corner of
+his wall, a public house of office for the reception of passengers; and
+in the town of Nice, every  tenement is provided with one of these
+receptacles, the contents of which are carefully preserved for sale.
+The peasant comes with his asses and casks to carry it off before day,
+and pays for it according to its quality, which he examines and
+investigates, by the taste and flavour. The jakes of a protestant
+family, who eat gras every day, bears a much higher price than the
+privy of a good catholic who lives maigre one half of the year. The
+vaults belonging to the convent of Minims are not worth emptying.
+
+The ground here is not delved with spades as in England, but laboured
+with a broad, sharp hough, having a short horizontal handle; and the
+climate is so hot and dry in the summer, that the plants must be
+watered every morning and evening, especially where it is not shaded by
+trees. It is surprising to see how the productions of the earth are
+crouded together. One would imagine they would rob one another of
+nourishment; and moreover be stifled for want of air; and doubtless
+this is in some measure the case. Olive and other fruit trees are
+planted in rows very close to each other. These are connected by vines,
+and the interstices, between the rows, are filled with corn. The
+gardens that supply the town with sallad and pot-herbs, lye all on the
+side of Provence, by the highway. They are surrounded with high
+stone-walls, or ditches, planted with a kind of cane or large reed,
+which answers many purposes in this country. The leaves of it afford
+sustenance to the asses, and the canes not only serve as fences to the
+inclosures; but are used to prop the vines and pease, and to build
+habitations for the silkworms: they are formed into arbours, and wore
+as walking-staves. All these gardens are watered by little rills that
+come from the mountains, particularly, by the small branches of the two
+sources which I have described in a former letter, as issuing from the
+two sides of a mountain, under the names of Fontaine de Muraille, and
+Fontaine du Temple.
+
+In the neighbourhood of Nice, they raise a considerable quantity of
+hemp, the largest and strongest I ever saw. Part of this, when dressed,
+is exported to other countries; and part is manufactured into cordage.
+However profitable it may be to the grower, it is certainly a great
+nuisance in the summer. When taken out of the pits, where it has been
+put to rot, the stench it raises is quite insupportable; and must
+undoubtedly be unwholesome.
+
+There is such a want of land in this neighbourhood, that terraces are
+built over one another with loose stones, on the faces of bare rocks,
+and these being covered with earth and manured, are planted with
+olives, vines, and corn. The same shift was practised all over
+Palestine, which was rocky and barren, and much more populous than the
+county of Nice.
+
+Notwithstanding the small extent of this territory, there are some
+pleasant meadows in the skirts of Nice, that produce excellent clover;
+and the corn which is sown in open fields, where it has the full
+benefit of the soil, sun, and air, grows to a surprizing height. I have
+seen rye seven or eight feet high. All vegetables have a wonderful
+growth in this climate. Besides wheat, rye, barley, and oats, this
+country produces a good deal of Meliga, or Turkish wheat, which is what
+we call Indian corn. I have, in a former letter, observed that the meal
+of this grain goes by the name polenta, and makes excellent
+hasty-pudding, being very nourishing, and counted an admirable
+pectoral. The pods and stalks are used for fuel: and the leaves are
+much preferable to common straw, for making paillasses.
+
+The pease and beans in the garden appear in the winter like beautiful
+plantations of young trees in blossom; and perfume the air. Myrtle,
+sweet-briar, sweet-marjoram, sage, thyme, lavender, rosemary, with many
+other aromatic herbs and flowers, which with us require the most
+careful cultivation, are here found wild in the mountains.
+
+It is not many years since the Nissards learned the culture of
+silk-worms, of their neighbours the Piedmontese; and hitherto the
+progress they have made is not very considerable: the whole county of
+Nice produces about one hundred and thirty-three bales of three hundred
+pounds each, amounting in value to four hundred thousand livres.
+
+In the beginning of April, when the mulberry-leaves, begin to put
+forth, the eggs or grains that produce the silk-worm, are hatched. The
+grains are washed in wine, and those that swim on the top, are thrown
+away as good for nothing. The rest being deposited in small bags of
+linen, are worn by women in their bosoms, until the worms begin to
+appear: then they are placed in shallow wooden boxes, covered with a
+piece of white paper, cut into little holes, through which the worms
+ascend as they are hatched, to feed on the young mulberry-leaves, of
+which there is a layer above the paper. These boxes are kept for warmth
+between two mattrasses, and visited every day. Fresh leaves are laid
+in, and the worms that feed are removed successively to the other place
+prepared for their reception. This is an habitation, consisting of two
+or three stories, about twenty inches from each other, raised upon four
+wooden posts. The floors are made of canes, and strewed with fresh
+mulberry-leaves: the corner posts, and other occasional props, for
+sustaining the different floors, are covered with a coat of loose
+heath, which is twisted round the wood. The worms when hatched are laid
+upon the floors; and here you may see them in all the different stages
+(if moulting or casting the slough, a change which they undergo three
+times successively before they begin to work. The silk-worm is an
+animal of such acute and delicate sensations, that too much care cannot
+be taken to keep its habitation clean, and to refresh it from time to
+time with pure air. I have seen them languish and die in scores, in
+consequence of an accidental bad smell. The soiled leaves, and the
+filth which they necessarily produce, should be carefully shifted every
+day; and it would not be amiss to purify the air sometimes with fumes
+of vinegar, rose, or orange-flower water. These niceties, however, are
+but little observed. They commonly lie in heaps as thick as shrimps in
+a plate, some feeding on the leaves, some new hatched, some intranced
+in the agonies of casting their skin, sonic languishing, and some
+actually dead, with a litter of half-eaten faded leaves about them, in
+a close room, crouded with women and children, not at all remarkable
+for their cleanliness. I am assured by some persons of credit, that if
+they are touched, or even approached, by a woman in her catamenia, they
+infallibly expire. This, however, must be understood of those females
+whose skins have naturally a very rank flavour, which is generally
+heightened at such periods. The mulberry-leaves used in this country
+are of the tree which bears a small white fruit not larger than a
+damascene. They are planted on purpose, and the leaves are sold at so
+much a pound. By the middle of June all the mulberry-trees are
+stripped; but new leaves succeed, and in a few weeks, they are cloathed
+again with fresh verdure. In about ten days after the last moulting,
+the silk-worm climbs upon the props of his house, and choosing a
+situation among the heath, begins to spin in a most curious manner,
+until he is quite inclosed,   and the cocon or pod of silk, about the
+size of a pigeon's egg, which he has produced remains suspended by
+several filaments. It is no unusual to see double cocons, spun by two
+worms included under a common cover. There must be an infinite number
+of worms to yield any considerable quantity of silk. One ounce of eggs
+or grains produces, four rup, or one hundred Nice pounds of cocons; and
+one rup, or twenty-five pounds of cocons, if they are rich, gives three
+pounds of raw silk; that is, twelve pounds of silk are got from one
+ounce of grains, which ounce of grains its produced by as many worms as
+are inclosed in one pound, or twelve ounces of cocons. In preserving
+the cocons for breed, you must choose an equal number of males and
+females; and these are very easily distinguished by the shape of the
+cocons; that which contains the male is sharp, and the other obtuse, at
+the two ends. In ten or twelve days after the cocon is finished, the
+worm makes its way through it, in the form of a very ugly, unwieldy,
+aukward butterfly, and as the different sexes are placed by one another
+on paper or linen, they immediately engender. The female lays her eggs,
+which are carefully preserved; but neither she nor her mate takes any
+nourishment, and in eight or ten days after they quit the cocons, they
+generally die. The silk of these cocons cannot be wound, because the
+animals in piercing through them, have destroyed the continuity of the
+filaments. It is therefore, first boiled, and then picked and carded
+like wool, and being afterwards spun, is used in the coarser stuffs of
+the silk manufacture. The other cocons, which yield the best silk, are
+managed in a different manner. Before the inclosed worm has time to
+penetrate, the silk is reeled off with equal care and ingenuity. A
+handful of the cocons are thrown away into a kettle of boiling water,
+which not only kills the animal, but dissolves the glutinous substance
+by which the fine filaments of the silk cohere or stick together, so
+that they are easily wound off, without breaking. Six or seven of these
+small filaments being joined together are passed over a kind of
+twisting iron, and fixed to the wheel, which one girl turns, while
+another, with her hands in the boiling water, disentangles the threads,
+joins them when they chance to break, and supplies fresh cocons with
+admirable dexterity and dispatch. There is a manufacture of this kind
+just without one of the gates of Nice, where forty or fifty of these
+wheels are worked together, and give employment for some weeks to
+double the number of young women. Those who manage the pods that float
+in the boiling water must be very alert, otherwise they will scald
+their fingers. The smell that comes from the boiling cocons is
+extremely offensive. Hard by the harbour, there is a very curious mill
+for twisting the silk, which goes by water. There is in the town of
+Nice, a well regulated hospital for poor orphans of both sexes, where
+above one hundred of them are employed in dressing, dyeing, spinning,
+and weaving the silk. In the villages of Provence, you see the poor
+women in the streets spinning raw silk upon distaves: but here the same
+instrument is only used for spinning hemp and flax; which last,
+however, is not of the growth of Nice--But lest I should spin this
+letter to a tedious length, I will now wind up my bottom, and bid you
+heartily farewell.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXIII
+
+NICE, December 19, 1764.
+
+SIR,--In my last, I gave you a succinct account of the silkworm, and
+the management of that curious insect in this country. I shall now
+proceed to describe the methods of making wine and oil.
+
+The vintage begins in September. The grapes being chosen and carefully
+picked, are put into a large vat, where they are pressed by a man's
+naked feet, and the juices drawn off by a cock below. When no more is
+procured by this operation, the bruised grapes are put into the press,
+and yield still more liquor. The juice obtained by this double
+pressure, being put in casks, with their bungs open, begins to ferment
+and discharge its impurities at the openings. The waste occasioned by
+this discharge, is constantly supplied with fresh wine, so that the
+casks are always full. The fermentation continues for twelve, fifteen,
+or twenty days, according to the strength and vigour of the grape. In
+about a month, the wine is fit for drinking. When the grapes are of a
+bad, meagre kind, the wine dealers mix the juice with pigeons'-dung or
+quick-lime, in order to give it a spirit which nature has denied: but
+this is a very mischievous adulteration.
+
+The process for oil-making is equally simple. The best olives are those
+that grow wild; but the quantity of them is very inconsiderable. Olives
+begin to ripen and drop in the beginning of November: but some remain
+on the trees till February, and even till April, and these are counted
+the most valuable. When the olives are gathered, they must be
+manufactured immediately, before they fade and grow wrinkled, otherwise
+they will produce bad oil. They are first of all ground into a paste by
+a mill-stone set edge-ways in a circular stone-trough, the wheel being
+turned by water.
+
+This paste is put into trails or circular cases made of grass woven,
+having a round hole at top and bottom; when filled they resemble in
+shape our Cheshire cheeses. A number of these placed one upon another,
+are put in a press, and being squeezed, the oil with all its
+impurities, runs into a receptacle below fixed in the ground. From
+hence it is laded into a wooden vat, half filled with water. The sordes
+or dirt falls to the bottom; the oil swims a-top; and being skimmed
+off, is barrelled up in small oblong casks. What remains in the vat, is
+thrown into a large stone cistern with water, and after being often
+stirred, and standing twelve or fourteen days, yields a coarser oil
+used for lamps and manufactures. After these processes, they extract an
+oil still more coarse and fetid from the refuse of the whole.
+Sometimes, in order to make the olives grind the more easily into a
+paste, and part with more oil, they are mixed with a little hot water:
+but the oil thus procured is apt to grow rancid. The very finest,
+called virgin oil, is made chiefly of green olives, and sold at a very
+high price, because a great quantity is required to produce a very
+little oil. Even the stuff that is left after all these operations,
+consisting of the dried pulp, is sold for fuel, and used in brasieres
+for warming apartments which have no chimney.
+
+I have now specified all the manufactures of Nice which are worth
+mentioning. True it is, there is some coarse paper made in this
+neighbourhood; there are also people here who dress skins and make
+leather for the use of the inhabitants: but this business is very ill
+performed: the gloves and shoes are generally rotten as they come from
+the hands of the maker. Carpenter's, joiner's, and blacksmith's work is
+very coarsely and clumsily done. There are no chairs to be had at Nice,
+but crazy things made of a few sticks, with rush bottoms, which are
+sold for twelve livres a dozen. Nothing can be more contemptible than
+the hard-ware made in this place, such as knives, scissors, and
+candle-snuffers. All utensils in brass and copper are very ill made and
+finished. The silver-smiths make nothing but spoons, forks, paultry
+rings, and crosses for the necks of the women.
+
+The houses are built of a ragged stone dug from the mountains, and the
+interstices are filled with rubble; so that the walls would appear very
+ugly, if they were not covered with plaister, which has a good effect.
+They generally consist of three stories, and are covered with tiles.
+The apartments of the better sort are large and lofty, the floors paved
+with brick, the roofs covered with a thick coat of stucco, and the
+walls whitewashed. People of distinction hang their chambers with
+damask, striped silk, painted cloths, tapestry, or printed linnen. All
+the doors, as well as the windows, consist of folding leaves. As there
+is no wainscot in the rooms, which are divided by stone partitions and
+the floors and cieling are covered with brick and stucco, fires are of
+much less dreadful consequence here than in our country. Wainscot would
+afford harbour for bugs: besides, white walls have a better effect in
+this hot climate. The beds commonly used in this place, and all over
+Italy, consist of a paillasse, with one or two mattrasses, laid upon
+planks, supported by two wooden benches. Instead of curtains there is a
+couziniere or mosquito net, made of a kind of gauze, that opens and
+contracts occasionally, and incloses the place where you lie: persons
+of condition, however, have also bedsteads and curtains; but these last
+are never used in the summer.
+
+In these countries, people of all ranks dine exactly at noon; and this
+is the time I seize in winter, for making my daily tour of the streets
+and ramparts, which at all other hours of the day are crowded with men,
+women, children and beasts of burthen. The rampart is the common road
+for carriages of all kinds. I think there are two private coaches in
+Nice, besides that of the commandant: but there are sedan chairs, which
+may be had at a reasonable rate. When I bathed in the summer, I paid
+thirty sols, equal to eighteen-pence, for being carried to and from the
+bathing place, which was a mile from my own house.
+
+Now I am speaking of bathing, it may not be amiss to inform you that
+though there is a fine open beach, extending several miles to the
+westward of Nice, those who cannot swim ought to bathe with great
+precaution, as the sea is very deep, and the descent very abrupt from
+within a yard or two of the water's edge. The people here were much
+surprised when I began to bathe in the beginning of May. They thought
+it very strange, that a man seemingly consumptive should plunge into
+the sea, especially when the weather was so cold; and some of the
+doctors prognosticated immediate death. But, when it was perceived that
+I grew better in consequence of the bath, some of the Swiss officers
+tried the same experiment, and in a few days, our example was followed
+by several inhabitants of Nice. There is, however, no convenience for
+this operation, from the benefit of which the fair sex must be intirely
+excluded, unless they lay aside all regard to decorum; for the shore is
+always lined with fishing-boats, and crouded with people. If a lady
+should be at the expence of having a tent pitched on the beach where
+she might put on and of her bathing-dress, she could not pretend to go
+into the sea without proper attendants; nor could she possibly plunge
+headlong into the water, which is the most effectual, and least
+dangerous way of bathing. All that she can do is to have the sea-water
+brought into her house, and make use of a bathing-tub, which may be
+made according to her own, or physician's direction.
+
+What further I have to say of this climate and country, you shall have
+in my next; and then you will be released from a subject, which I am
+afraid has been but too circumstantially handled by-- Sir, Your very
+humble servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXIV
+
+NICE, January 4, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR.,--The constitution of this climate may be pretty well
+ascertained, from the inclosed register of the weather, which I kept
+with all possible care and attention. From a perusal of it, you will
+see that there is less rain and wind at Nice, than in any other part of
+the world that I know; and such is the serenity of the air, that you
+see nothing above your head for several months together, but a charming
+blue expanse, without cloud or speck. Whatever clouds may be formed by
+evaporation of the sea, they seldom or never hover over this small
+territory; but, in all probability, are attracted by the mountains that
+surround it, and there fall in rain or snow: as for those that gather
+from other quarters, I suppose their progress hitherward is obstructed
+by those very Alps, which rise one over another, to an extent of many
+leagues. This air being dry, pure, heavy, and elastic, must be
+agreeable to the constitution of those who labour under disorders
+arising from weak nerves, obstructed perspiration, relaxed fibres, a
+viscidity of lymph, and a languid circulation. In other respects, it
+encourages the scurvy, the atmosphere being undoubtedly impregnated
+with sea-salt. Ever since my arrival at Nice, I have had a scorbutical
+eruption on my right hand, which diminishes and increases according to
+the state of my health. One day last summer, when there was a strong
+breeze from the sea, the surface of our bodies was covered with a salt
+brine, very perceptible to the taste; my gums, as well as those of
+another person in my family, began to swell, and grow painful, though
+this had never happened before; and I was seized with violent pains in
+the joints of my knees. I was then at a country-house fronting the sea,
+and particularly exposed to the marine air. The swelling of our gums
+subsided as the wind fell: but what was very remarkable, the
+scurvy-spot on my hand disappeared, and did not return for a whole
+month. It is affirmed that sea-salt will dissolve, and render the blood
+so fluid, that it will exude through the coats of the vessels. Perhaps
+the sea-scurvy is a partial dissolution of it, by that mineral absorbed
+from the air by the lymphatics on the surface of the body, and by those
+of the lungs in respiration. Certain it is, in the last stages of the
+sea-scurvy, the blood often bursts from the pores; and this phaenomenon
+is imputed to a high degree of putrefaction: sure enough it is attended
+with putrefaction. We know that a certain quantity of salt is required
+to preserve the animal juices from going putrid: but, how a greater
+quantity should produce putrefaction, I leave to wiser heads to
+explain. Many people here have scorbutical complaints, though their
+teeth are not affected. They are subject to eruptions on the skin,
+putrid gums, pains in the bones, lassitude, indigestion, and low
+spirits; but the reigning distemper is a marasmus, or consumption,
+which proceeds gradually, without any pulmonary complaint, the
+complexion growing more and more florid, 'till the very last scene of
+the tragedy. This I would impute to the effects of a very dry, saline
+atmosphere, upon a thin habit, in which there is an extraordinary waste
+by perspiration. The air is remarkably salt in this district, because
+the mountains that hem it in, prevent its communication with the
+circumambient atmosphere, in which the saline particles would otherwise
+be diffused; and there is no rain, nor dew, to precipitate or dissolve
+them. Such an air as I have described, should have no bad effect upon a
+moist, phlegmatic constitution, such as mine; and yet it must be owned,
+I have been visibly wasting since I came hither, though this decay I
+considered as the progress of the tabes which began in England. But the
+air of Nice has had a still more sensible effect upon Mr. Sch--z, who
+laboured under nervous complaints to such a degree, that life was a
+burthen to him. He had also a fixed pain in his breast, for which
+complaint he had formerly tried the air of Naples, where he resided
+some considerable time, and in a great measure recovered: but, this
+returning with weakness, faintness, low spirits, and entire loss of
+appetite, he was advised to come hither; and the success of his journey
+has greatly exceeded his expectation. Though the weather has been
+remarkably bad for this climate, he has enjoyed perfect health. Since
+he arrived at Nice, the pain in his breast has vanished; he eats
+heartily, sleeps well, is in high spirits, and so strong, that he is
+never off his legs in the day-time. He can walk to the Var and back
+again, before dinner; and he has climbed to the tops of all the
+mountains in this neighbourhood. I never saw before such sudden and
+happy effects from the change of air. I must also acknowledge, that
+ever since my arrival at Nice, I have breathed more freely than I had
+done for some years, and my spirits have been more alert. The father of
+my housekeeper, who was a dancing-master, had been so afflicted with an
+asthmatic disorder, that he could not live in France, Spain, or Italy;
+but found the air of Nice so agreeable to his lungs, that he was
+enabled to exercise his profession for above twenty years, and died
+last spring turned of seventy. Another advantage I have reaped from
+this climate is my being, in a great measure, delivered from a slow
+fever which used to hang about me, and render life a burthen. Neither
+am I so apt to catch cold as I used to be in England and France; and
+the colds I do catch are not of the same continuance and consequence,
+as those to which I was formerly subject. The air of Nice is so dry,
+that in summer, and even in winter, (except ill wet weather) you may
+pass the evening, and indeed the whole night, sub Dio, without feeling
+the least dew or moisture; and as for fogs, they are never seen in this
+district. In summer, the air is cooled by a regular sea-breeze blowing
+from the cast, like that of the West-Indies. It begins in the forenoon,
+and increases with the heat of the day. It dies away about six or
+seven; and immediately after sun-set is succeeded by an agreeable
+land-breeze from the mountains. The sea-breeze from the eastward,
+however, is not so constant here, as in the West-Indies between the
+tropicks, because the sun, which produces it, is not so powerful. This
+country lies nearer the region of variable winds, and is surrounded by
+mountains, capes, and straights, which often influence the constitution
+and current of the air. About the winter solstice, the people of Nice
+expect wind and rain, which generally lasts, with intervals, 'till the
+beginning of February: but even during this, their worst weather, the
+sun breaks out occasionally, and you may take the air either a-foot or
+on horseback every day; for the moisture is immediately absorbed by the
+earth, which is naturally dry. They likewise lay their account with
+being visited by showers of rain and gusts of wind in April. A week's
+rain in the middle of August makes them happy. It not only refreshes
+the parched ground, and plumps up the grapes and other fruit, but it
+cools the air and assuages the beets, which then begin to grow very
+troublesome; but the rainy season is about the autumnal equinox, or
+rather something later. It continues about twelve days or a fortnight,
+and is extremely welcome to the natives of this country. This rainy
+season is often delayed 'till the latter end of November, and sometimes
+'till the month of December; in which case, the rest of the winter is
+generally dry. The heavy rains in this country generally come with a
+south-west wind, which was the creberque procellis Africus, the stormy
+southwest, of the antients. It is here called Lebeche, a corruption of
+Lybicus: it generally blows high for a day or two, and rolls the
+Mediterranean before it in huge waves, that often enter the town of
+Nice. It likewise drives before it all the clouds which had been formed
+above the surface of the Mediterranean. These being expended in rain,
+fair weather naturally ensues. For this reason, the Nissards observe le
+lebeche racommode le tems, the Lebeche settles the weather. During the
+rains of this season, however, the winds have been variable. From the
+sixteenth of November, 'till the fourth of January, we have had two and
+twenty days of heavy rain: a very extraordinary visitation in this
+country: but the seasons seem to be more irregular than formerly, all
+over Europe. In the month of July, the mercury in Fahrenheit's
+thermometer, rose to eighty-four at Rome, the highest degree at which
+it was ever known in that country; and the very next day, the Sabine
+mountains were covered with snow. The same phaemomenon happened on the
+eleventh of August, and the thirtieth of September. The consequence of
+these sudden variations of weather, was this: putrid fevers were less
+frequent than usual; but the sudden cheek of perspiration from the
+cold, produced colds, inflammatory sore throats, and the rheumatism. I
+know instances of some English valetudinarians, who have passed the
+winter at Aix, on the supposition that there was little or no
+difference between that air and the climate of Nice: but this is a very
+great mistake, which may be attended with fatal consequences. Aix is
+altogether exposed to the north and north-west winds, which blow as
+cold in Provence, as ever I felt them on the mountains of Scotland:
+whereas Nice is entirely screened from these winds by the Maritime
+Alps, which form an amphitheatre, to the land-side, around this little
+territory: but another incontestible proof of the mildness of this
+climate, is deduced from the oranges, lemons, citrons, roses,
+narcissus's, july-flowers, and jonquils, which ripen and blow in the
+middle of winter. I have described the agreeable side of this climate;
+and now I will point out its inconveniences. In the winter, but
+especially in the spring, the sun is so hot, that one can hardly take
+exercise of any sort abroad, without being thrown into a breathing
+sweat; and the wind at this season is so cold and piercing, that it
+often produces a mischievous effect on the pores thus opened. If the
+heat rarifies the blood and juices, while the cold air constringes the
+fibres, and obstructs the perspiration, inflammatory disorders must
+ensue. Accordingly, the people are then subject to colds, pleurisies,
+peripneumonies, and ardent fevers. An old count advised me to stay
+within doors in March, car alors les humeurs commencent a se remuer,
+for then the humours begin to be in motion. During the heats of summer,
+some few persons of gross habits have, in consequence of violent
+exercise and excess, been seized with putrid fevers, attended with
+exanthemata, erisipelatous, and miliary eruptions, which commonly prove
+fatal: but the people in general are healthy, even those that take very
+little exercise: a strong presumption in favour of the climate! As to
+medicine, I know nothing of the practice of the Nice physicians. Here
+are eleven in all; but four or five make shift to live by the
+profession. They receive, by way of fee, ten sols (an English
+six-pence) a visit, and this is but ill paid: so you may guess whether
+they are in a condition to support the dignity of physic; and whether
+any man, of a liberal education, would bury himself at Nice on such
+terms. I am acquainted with an Italian physician settled at Villa
+Franca, a very good sort of a man, who practises for a certain salary,
+raised by annual contribution among the better sort of people; and an
+allowance from the king, for visiting the sick belonging to the
+garrison and the gallies. The whole may amount to near thirty pounds.
+
+Among the inconveniences of this climate, the vermin form no
+inconsiderable article. Vipers and snakes are found in the mountains.
+Our gardens swarm with lizzards; and there are some few scorpions; but
+as yet I have seen but one of this species. In summer, notwithstanding
+all the care and precautions we can take, we are pestered with
+incredible swarms of flies, fleas, and bugs; but the gnats, or couzins,
+are more intolerable than all the rest. In the day-time, it is
+impossible to keep the flies out of your mouth, nostrils, eyes, and
+ears. They croud into your milk, tea, chocolate, soup, wine, and water:
+they soil your sugar, contaminate your victuals, and devour your fruit;
+they cover and defile your furniture, floors, cielings, and indeed your
+whole body. As soon as candles are lighted, the couzins begin to buz
+about your ears in myriads, and torment you with their stings, so that
+you have no rest nor respite 'till you get into bed, where you are
+secured by your mosquito-net. This inclosure is very disagreeable in
+hot weather; and very inconvenient to those, who, like me, are subject
+to a cough and spitting. It is moreover ineffectual; for some of those
+cursed insects insinuate themselves within it, almost every night; and
+half a dozen of them are sufficient to disturb you 'till morning. This
+is a plague that continues all the year; but in summer it is
+intolerable. During this season, likewise, the moths are so
+mischievous, that it requires the utmost care to preserve woollen
+cloths from being destroyed. From the month of May, 'till the beginning
+of October, the heat is so violent, that you cannot stir abroad after
+six in the morning 'till eight at night, so that you are entirely
+deprived of the benefit of exercise: There is no shaded walk in, or
+near the town; and there is neither coach nor chaise to hire, unless
+you travel post. Indeed, there is no road fit for any wheel carriage,
+but the common highway to the Var, in which you are scorched by the
+reflexion of the sun from the sand and stones, and at the same time
+half stifled with dust. If you ride out in the cool of the evening, you
+will have the disadvantage of returning in the dark.
+
+Among the demerits of Nice, I must also mention the water which is used
+in the city. It is drawn from wells; and for the most part so hard,
+that it curdles with soap. There are many fountains and streams in the
+neighbourhood, that afford excellent water, which, at no great charge,
+might be conveyed into the town, so as to form conduits in all the
+public streets: but the inhabitants are either destitute of public
+spirit, or cannot afford the expense. [General Paterson delivered a
+Plan to the King of Sardinia for supplying Nice with excellent water
+for so small an expence as one livre a house per annum; but the
+inhabitants remonstrated against it as an intolerable Imposition.] I
+have a draw-well in my porch, and another in my garden, which supply
+tolerable water for culinary uses; but what we drink, is fetched from a
+well belonging to a convent of Dominicans in this neighbourhood. Our
+linnen is washed in the river Paglion; and when that is dry, in the
+brook called Limpia, which runs into the harbour.
+
+In mentioning the water of this neighbourhood, I ought not to omit the
+baths of Rocabiliare, a small town among the mountains, about five and
+twenty miles from Nice. There are three sources, each warmer than the
+other; the warmest being nearly equal to the heat of the king's bath at
+Bath in Somersetshire, as far as I can judge from information. I have
+perused a Latin manuscript, which treats of these baths at Rocabiliare,
+written by the duke of Savoy's first physician about sixty years ago.
+He talks much of the sulphur and the nitre which they contain; but I
+apprehend their efficacy is owing to the same volatile vitriolic
+principle, which characterises the waters at Bath. They are attenuating
+and deobstruent, consequently of service in disorders arising from a
+languid circulation, a viscidity of the juices, a lax fibre, and
+obstructed viscera. The road from hence to Rocabiliare is in some parts
+very dangerous, lying along the brink of precipices, impassable to any
+other carriage but a mule. The town itself affords bad lodging and
+accommodation, and little or no society. The waters are at the distance
+of a mile and a half from the town: there are no baths nor shelter, nor
+any sort of convenience for those that drink them; and the best part of
+their efficacy is lost, unless they are drank at the fountain-head. If
+these objections were in some measure removed, I would advise
+valetudinarians, who come hither for the benefit of this climate, to
+pass the heats of summer at Rocabiliare, which being situated among
+mountains, enjoys a cool temperate air all the summer. This would be a
+salutary respite from the salt air of Nice, to those who labour under
+scorbutical complaints; and they would return with fresh vigour and
+spirits, to pass the winter in this place, where no severity of weather
+is known. Last June, when I found myself so ill at my cassine, I had
+determined to go to Rocabiliare, and even to erect a hut at the spring,
+for my own convenience. A gentleman of Nice undertook to procure me a
+tolerable lodging in the house of the cure, who was his relation. He
+assured me, there was no want of fresh butter, good poultry, excellent
+veal, and delicate trout; and that the articles of living might be had
+at Rocabiliare for half the price we paid at Nice: but finding myself
+grow better immediately on my return from the cassine to my own house,
+I would not put myself to the trouble and expence of a further removal.
+
+I think I have now communicated all the particulars relating to Nice,
+that are worth knowing; and perhaps many more than you desired to know:
+but, in such cases, I would rather be thought prolix and
+unentertaining, than deficient in that regard and attention with which
+I am very sincerely,--Your friend and servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXV
+
+NICE, January 1, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--It was in deference to your opinion, reinforced by my own
+inclination, and the repeated advice of other friends, that I resolved
+upon my late excursion to Italy. I could plainly perceive from the
+anxious solicitude, and pressing exhortations contained in all the
+letters I had lately received from my correspondents in Britain, that
+you had all despaired of my recovery. You advised me to make a
+pilgrimage among the Alps, and the advice was good. In scrambling among
+those mountains, I should have benefited by the exercise, and at the
+same time have breathed a cool, pure, salubrious air, which, in all
+probability, would have expelled the slow fever arising in a great
+measure from the heat of this climate. But, I wanted a companion and
+fellow traveller, whose conversation and society could alleviate the
+horrors of solitude. Besides, I was not strong enough to encounter the
+want of conveniences, and even of necessaries to which I must have been
+exposed in the course of such an expedition. My worthy friend Dr. A--
+earnestly intreated me to try the effect of a sea-voyage, which you
+know has been found of wonderful efficacy in consumptive cases. After
+some deliberation, I resolved upon the scheme, which I have now happily
+executed. I had a most eager curiosity to see the antiquities of
+Florence and Rome: I longed impatiently to view those wonderful
+edifices, statues, and pictures, which I had so often admired in prints
+and descriptions. I felt an enthusiastic ardor to tread that very
+classical ground which had been the scene of so many great
+atchievements; and I could not bear the thought of returning to England
+from the very skirts of Italy, without having penetrated to the capital
+of that renowned country. With regard to my health, I knew I could
+manage matters so as to enjoy all the benefits that could be expected
+from the united energy of a voyage by sea, a journey by land, and a
+change of climate.
+
+Rome is betwixt four and five hundred miles distant from Nice, and one
+half of the way I was resolved to travel by water. Indeed there is no
+other way of going from hence to Genoa, unless you take a mule, and
+clamber along the mountains at the rate of two miles an hour, and at
+the risque of breaking your neck every minute. The Apennine mountains,
+which are no other than a continuation of the maritime Alps, form an
+almost continued precipice from Villefranche to Lerici, which is almost
+forty-five miles on the other side of Genoa; and as they are generally
+washed by the sea, there is no beach or shore, consequently the road is
+carried along the face of the rocks, except at certain small intervals,
+which are occupied by towns and villages. But, as there is a road for
+mules and foot passengers, it might certainly be enlarged and improved
+so as to render it practicable by chaises and other wheel-carriages,
+and a toll might be exacted, which in a little time would defray the
+expence: for certainly no person who travels to Italy, from England,
+Holland, France, or Spain, would make a troublesome circuit to pass the
+Alps by the way of Savoy and Piedmont, if he could have the convenience
+of going post by the way of Aix, Antibes, and Nice, along the side of
+the Mediterranean, and through the Riviera of Genoa, which from the sea
+affords the most agreeable and amazing prospect I ever beheld. What
+pity it is, they cannot restore the celebrated Via Aurelia, mentioned
+in the Itinerarium of Antoninus, which extended from Rome by the way of
+Genoa, and through this country as far as Arles upon the Rhone. It was
+said to have been made by the emperor Marcus Aurelius; and some of the
+vestiges of it are still to be seen in Provence. The truth is, the
+nobility of Genoa, who are all merchants, from a low, selfish, and
+absurd policy, take all methods to keep their subjects of the Riviera
+in poverty and dependence. With this view, they carefully avoid all
+steps towards rendering that country accessible by land; and at the
+same time discourage their trade by sea, lest it should interfere with
+the commerce of their capital, in which they themselves are personally
+concerned.
+
+Those who either will not or cannot bear the sea, and are equally
+averse to riding, may be carried in a common chair, provided with a
+foot-board, on men's shoulders: this is the way of travelling practised
+by the ladies of Nice, in crossing the mountains to Turin; but it is
+very tedious and expensive, as the men must be often relieved.
+
+The most agreeable carriage from here to Genoa, is a feluca, or open
+boat, rowed by ten or twelve stout mariners. Though none of these boats
+belong to Nice, they are to be found every day in our harbour, waiting
+for a fare to Genoa; and they are seen passing and repassing
+continually, with merchandize or passengers, between Marseilles,
+Antibes, and the Genoese territories. A feluca is large enough to take
+in a post-chaise; and there is a tilt over the stern sheets, where the
+passengers sit, to protect them from the rain: between the seats one
+person may lie commodiously upon a mattress, which is commonly supplied
+by the patron. A man in good health may put up with any thing; but I
+would advise every valetudinarian who travels this way, to provide his
+own chaise, mattrass, and bedlinnen, otherwise he will pass his time
+very uncomfortably. If you go as a simple passenger in a feluca, you
+pay about a loui'dore for your place, and you must be intirely under
+the direction of the patron, who, while he can bear the sea, will
+prosecute his voyage by night as well as by day, and expose you to many
+other inconveniencies: but for eight zequines, or four loui'dores, you
+can have a whole feluca to yourself, from Nice to Genoa, and the master
+shall be obliged to put a-shore every evening. If you would have it
+still more at your command, you may hire it at so much per day, and in
+that case, go on shore as often, and stay as long as you please. This
+is the method I should take, were I to make the voyage again; for I am
+persuaded I should find it very near as cheap, and much more agreeable
+than any other.
+
+The distance between this place and Genoa, when measured on the carte,
+does not exceed ninety miles: but the people of the felucas insist upon
+its being one hundred and twenty. If they creep along shore round the
+bottoms of all the bays, this computation may be true: but, except when
+the sea is rough, they stretch directly from one head-land to another,
+and even when the wind is contrary, provided the gale is not fresh,
+they perform the voyage in two days and a half, by dint of rowing: when
+the wind is favourable, they will sail it easily in fourteen hours.
+
+A man who has nothing but expedition in view, may go with the courier,
+who has always a light boat well manned, and will be glad to
+accommodate a traveller for a reasonable gratification. I know an
+English gentleman who always travels with the courier in Italy, both by
+sea and land. In posting by land, he is always sure of having part of a
+good calash, and the best horses that can be found; and as the expence
+of both is defrayed by the public, it costs him nothing but a present
+to his companion, which does not amount to one fourth part of the
+expence he would incur by travelling alone. These opportunities may be
+had every week in all the towns of Italy.
+
+For my own part, I hired a gondola from hence to Genoa. This is a boat
+smaller than a feluca, rowed by four men, and steered by the patron;
+but the price was nine zequines, rather more than I should have payed
+for a feluca of ten oars. I was assured that being very light, it would
+make great way; and the master was particularly recommended to me, as
+an honest man and an able mariner. I was accompanied in this voyage by
+my wife and Miss C--, together with one Mr. R--, a native of Nice, whom
+I treated with the jaunt, in hopes that as he was acquainted with the
+customs of the country, and the different ways of travelling in it, he
+would save us much trouble, and some expence: but I was much
+disappointed. Some persons at Nice offered to lay wagers that he would
+return by himself from Italy; but they were also disappointed.
+
+We embarked in the beginning of September, attended by one servant. The
+heats, which render travelling dangerous in Italy, begin to abate at
+this season. The weather was extremely agreeable; and if I had
+postponed my voyage a little longer, I foresaw that I should not be
+able to return before winter: in which case I might have found the sea
+too rough, and the weather too cold for a voyage of one hundred and
+thirty-five miles in an open boat.
+
+Having therefore provided myself with a proper pass, signed and sealed
+by our consul, as well as with letters of recommendation from him to
+the English consuls at Genoa and Leghorn, a precaution which I would
+advise all travellers to take, in case of meeting with accidents on the
+road, we went on board about ten in the morning, stopped about half an
+hour at a friend's country-house in the bay of St. Hospice, and about
+noon entered the harbour of Monaco, where the patron was obliged to pay
+toll, according to the regulation which I have explained in a former
+letter. This small town, containing about eight or nine hundred souls,
+besides the garrison, is built on a rock which projects into the sea,
+and makes a very romantic appearance. The prince's palace stands in the
+most conspicuous part, with a walk of trees before it. The apartments
+are elegantly furnished, and adorned with some good pictures. The
+fortifications are in good repair, and the place is garrisoned by two
+French battalions. The present prince of Monaco is a Frenchman, son of
+the duke Matignon who married the heiress of Monaco, whose name was
+Grimaldi. The harbour is well sheltered from the wind; but has not
+water sufficient to admit vessels of any great burthen. Towards the
+north, the king of Sardinia's territories extend to within a mile of
+the gate; but the prince of Monaco can go upon his own ground along
+shore about five or six miles to the eastward, as far as Menton,
+another small town, which also belongs to him, and is situated on the
+seaside. His revenues are computed at a million of French livres,
+amounting to something more than forty thousand pounds sterling: but,
+the principality of Monaco, consisting of three small towns, and an
+inconsiderable tract of barren rock, is not worth above seven thousand
+a year; the rest arises from his French estate. This consists partly of
+the dutchy of Matignon, and partly of the dutchy of Valentinois, which
+last was given to the ancestors of this prince of Monaco, in the year
+1640, by the French king, to make up the loss of some lands in the
+kingdom of Naples, which were confiscated when he expelled the Spanish
+garrison from Monaco, and threw himself into the arms of France: so
+that he is duke of Valentinois as well as of Matignon, in that kingdom.
+He lives almost constantly in France; and has taken the name and arms
+of Grimaldi.
+
+The Genoese territories begin at Ventimiglia, another town lying on the
+coast, at the distance of twenty miles from Nice, a circumstance from
+which it borrows the name. Having passed the towns of Monaco, Menton,
+Ventimiglia, and several other places of less consequence that lie
+along this coast, we turned the point of St. Martin with a favourable
+breeze, and might have proceeded twenty miles further before night: but
+the women began to be sick, as well as afraid at the roughness of the
+water; Mr. R-- was so discomposed, that he privately desired the patron
+to put ashore at St. Remo, on pretence that we should not find a
+tolerable auberge in any other place between this and Noli, which was
+at the distance of forty miles. We accordingly landed, and were
+conducted to the poste, which our gondeliere assured us was the best
+auberge in the whole Riviera of Genoa. We ascended by a dark, narrow,
+steep stair, into a kind of public room, with a long table and benches,
+so dirty and miserable, that it would disgrace the worst hedge
+ale-house in England. Not a soul appeared to receive us. This is a
+ceremony one must not expect to meet with in France; far less in Italy.
+Our patron going into the kitchen, asked a servant if the company could
+have lodging in the house; and was answered, "he could not tell: the
+patron was not at home." When he desired to know where the patron was,
+the other answered, "he was gone to take the air." E andato a
+passeggiare. In the mean time, we were obliged to sit in the common
+room among watermen and muleteers. At length the landlord arrived, and
+gave us to understand, that he could accommodate us with chambers. In
+that where I lay, there was just room for two beds, without curtains or
+bedstead, an old rotten table covered with dried figs, and a couple of
+crazy chairs. The walls had been once white-washed: but were now hung
+with cobwebs, and speckled with dirt of all sorts; and I believe the
+brick-floor had not been swept for half a century. We supped in an
+outward room suitable in all respects to the chamber, and fared
+villainously. The provision was very ill-dressed, and served up in the
+most slovenly manner. You must not expect cleanliness or conveniency of
+any kind in this country. For this accommodation I payed as much as if
+I had been elegantly entertained in the best auberge of France or Italy.
+
+Next day, the wind was so high that we could not prosecute our voyage,
+so that we were obliged to pass other four and twenty hours in this
+comfortable situation. Luckily Mr. R-- found two acquaintances in the
+place; one a Franciscan monk, a jolly fellow; and the other a maestro
+di capella, who sent a spinnet to the inn, and entertained us agreeably
+with his voice and performance, in both of which accomplishments he
+excelled. The padre was very good humoured, and favoured us with a
+letter of recommendation to a friend of his, a professor in the
+university of Pisa. You would laugh to see the hyperbolical terms in
+which he mentioned your humble servant; but Italy is the native country
+of hyperbole.
+
+St. Remo is a pretty considerable town, well-built upon the declivity
+of a gently rising hill, and has a harbour capable of receiving small
+vessels, a good number of which are built upon the beach: but ships of
+any burden are obliged to anchor in the bay, which is far from being
+secure. The people of St. Remo form a small republic, which is subject
+to Genoa.
+
+They enjoyed particular privileges, till the year 1753, when in
+consequence of a new gabelle upon salt, they revolted: but this effort
+in behalf of liberty did not succeed. They were soon reduced by the
+Genoese, who deprived them of all their privileges, and built a fort by
+the sea-side, which serves the double purpose of defending the harbour
+and over-awing the town. The garrison at present does not exceed two
+hundred men. The inhabitants are said to have lately sent a deputation
+to Ratisbon, to crave the protection of the diet of the empire. There
+is very little plain ground in this neighbourhood; but the hills are
+covered with oranges, lemons, pomegranates, and olives, which produce a
+considerable traffic in fine fruit and excellent oil. The women of St.
+Remo are much more handsome and better tempered than those of Provence.
+They have in general good eyes, with open ingenuous countenances. Their
+dress, though remarkable, I cannot describe: but upon the whole, they
+put me in mind of some portraits I have seen, representing the females
+of Georgia and Mingrelia.
+
+On the third day, the wind being abated, though still unfavourable, we
+reimbarked and rowed along shore, passing by Porto-mauricio, and
+Oneglia; then turning the promontory called Capo di Melle, we proceeded
+by Albenga, Finale, and many other places of inferior note.
+Portomauricio is seated on a rock washed by the sea, but indifferently
+fortified, with an inconsiderable harbour, which none but very small
+vessels can enter. About two miles to the eastward is Oneglia, a small
+town with fortifications, lying along the open beach, and belonging to
+the king of Sardinia. This small territory abounds with olive-trees,
+which produce a considerable quantity of oil, counted the best of the
+whole Riviera. Albenga is a small town, the see of a bishop, suffragan
+to the archbishop of Genoa. It lies upon the sea, and the country
+produces a great quantity of hemp. Finale is the capital of a
+marquisate belonging to the Genoese, which has been the source of much
+trouble to the republic; and indeed was the sole cause of their rupture
+with the king of Sardinia and the house of Austria in the year 1745.
+The town is pretty well built; but the harbour is shallow, open, and
+unsafe; nevertheless, they built a good number of tartans and other
+vessels on the beach and the neighbouring country abounds with oil and
+fruit, particularly with those excellent apples called pomi carli,
+which I have mentioned in a former letter.
+
+In the evening we reached the Capo di Noli, counted very dangerous in
+blowing weather. It is a very high perpendicular rock or mountain
+washed by the sea, which has eaten into it in divers places, so as to
+form a great number of caverns. It extends about a couple of miles, and
+in some parts is indented into little creeks or bays, where there is a
+narrow margin of sandy beach between it and the water. When the wind is
+high, no feluca will attempt to pass it; even in a moderate breeze, the
+waves dashing against the rocks and caverns, which echo with the sound,
+make such an awful noise, and at the same time occasion such a rough
+sea, as one cannot hear, and see, and feel, without a secret horror.
+
+On this side of the Cape, there is a beautiful strand cultivated like a
+garden; the plantations extend to the very tops of the hills,
+interspersed with villages, castles, churches, and villas. Indeed the
+whole Riviera is ornamented in the same manner, except in such places
+as admit of no building nor  cultivation.
+
+Having passed the Cape, we followed the winding of the coast, into a
+small bay, and arrived at the town of Noli, where we proposed to pass
+the night. You will be surprised that we did not go ashore sooner, in
+order to take some refreshment; but the truth is, we had a provision of
+ham, tongues, roasted pullets, cheese, bread, wine, and fruit, in the
+feluca, where we every day enjoyed a slight repast about one or two
+o'clock in the afternoon. This I mention as a necessary piece of
+information to those who may be inclined to follow the same route. We
+likewise found it convenient to lay in store of l'eau de vie, or
+brandy, for the use of the rowers, who always expect to share your
+comforts.  On a meagre day, however, those ragamuffins will rather die
+of hunger than suffer the least morsel of flesh-meat to enter their
+mouths. I have frequently tried the experiment, by pressing them to eat
+something gras, on a Friday or Saturday: but they always declined it
+with marks of abhorrence, crying, Dio me ne libere! God deliver me from
+it! or some other words to that effect. I moreover observed, that not
+one of those fellows ever swore an oath, or spoke an indecent word.
+They would by no means put to sea, of a morning, before they had heard
+mass; and when the wind was unfavourable, they always set out with a
+hymn to the Blessed Virgin, or St. Elmo, keeping time with their oars
+as they sung. I have indeed remarked all over this country, that a man
+who transgresses the institutions of the church in these small matters,
+is much more infamous than one who has committed the most flagrant
+crimes against nature and morality. A murderer, adulterer, or s--m--te,
+will obtain easy absolution from the church, and even find favour with
+society; but a man who eats a pidgeon on a Saturday, without express
+licence, is avoided and abhorred, as a monster of reprobation. I have
+conversed with several intelligent persons on the subject; and have
+reason to believe, that a delinquent of this sort is considered as a
+luke-warm catholic, little better than a heretic; and of all crimes
+they look upon heresy as the most damnable.
+
+Noli is a small republic of fishermen subject to Genoa; but very
+tenacious of their privileges. The town stands on the beach, tolerably
+well built, defended by a castle situated on a rock above it; and the
+harbour is of little consequence. The auberge was such as made us
+regret even the inn we had left at St. Remo. After a very odd kind of
+supper, which I cannot pretend to describe, we retired to our repose:
+but I had not been in bed five minutes, when I felt something crawling
+on different parts of my body, and taking a light to examine, perceived
+above a dozen large bugs. You must know I have the same kind of
+antipathy to these vermin, that some persons have to a cat or breast of
+veal. I started up immediately, and wrapping myself in a great coat,
+sick as I was, laid down in the outer room upon a chest, where I
+continued till morning.
+
+One would imagine that in a mountainous country like this, there should
+be plenty of goats; and indeed, we saw many flocks of them feeding
+among the rocks, yet we could not procure half a pint of milk for our
+tea, if we had given the weight of it in gold. The people here have no
+idea of using milk, and when you ask them for it, they stand gaping
+with a foolish face of surprise, which is exceedingly provoking. It is
+amazing that instinct does not teach the peasants to feed their
+children with goat's milk, so much more nourishing and agreeable than
+the wretched sustenance on which they live. Next day we rowed by Vado
+and Savona, which last is a large town, with a strong citadel, and a
+harbour, which was formerly capable of receiving large ships: but it
+fell a sacrifice to the jealousy of the Genoese, who have partly
+choaked it up, on pretence that it should not afford shelter to the
+ships of war belonging to those states which might be at enmity with
+the republic.
+
+Then we passed Albifola, Sestri di Ponente, Novi, Voltri, and a great
+number of villages, villas, and magnificent palaces belonging to the
+Genoese nobility, which form almost a continued chain of buildings
+along the strand for thirty miles.
+
+About five in the afternoon, we skirted the fine suburbs of St. Pietro
+d' Arena, and arrived at Genoa, which makes a dazzling appearance when
+viewed from the sea, rising like an amphitheatre in a circular form
+from the water's edge, a considerable way up the mountains, and
+surrounded on the land side by a double wall, the most exterior of
+which is said to extend fifteen miles in circuit. The first object that
+strikes your eye at a distance, is a very elegant pharos, or
+lighthouse, built on the projection of a rock on the west side of the
+harbour, so very high, that, in a clear day, you may see it at the
+distance of thirty miles. Turning the light-house point, you find
+yourself close to the mole, which forms the harbour of Genoa. It is
+built at a great expence from each side of the bay, so as to form in
+the sea two long magnificent jettes. At the extremity of each is
+another smaller lanthorn. These moles are both provided with
+brass-cannon, and between them is the entrance into the harbour. But
+this is still so wide as to admit a great sea, which, when the wind
+blows hard from south and south-west, is very troublesome to the
+shipping. Within the mole there is a smaller harbour or wet dock,
+called Darsena, for the gallies of the republic. We passed through a
+considerable number of ships and vessels lying at anchor, and landing
+at the water-gate, repaired to an inn called La Croix de Malthe in the
+neighbourhood of the harbour. Here we met with such good entertainment
+as prepossessed us in favour of the interior parts of Italy, and
+contributed with other motives to detain us some days in this city. But
+I have detained you so long, that I believe you wish I may proceed no
+farther; and therefore I take my leave for the present, being very
+sincerely-- Yours.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVI
+
+NICE, January 15, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--It is not without reason that Genoa is called La superba.
+The city itself is very stately; and the nobles are very proud. Some
+few of them may be proud of their wealth: but, in general, their
+fortunes are very small. My friend Mr. R-- assured me that many Genoese
+noblemen had fortunes of half a million of livres per annum: but the
+truth is, the whole revenue of the state does not exceed this sum; and
+the livre of Genoa is but about nine pence sterling. There are about
+half a dozen of their nobles who have ten thousand a year: but the
+majority have not above a twentieth part of that sum. They live with
+great parsimony in their families; and wear nothing but black in
+public; so that their expences are but small. If a Genoese nobleman
+gives an entertainment once a quarter, he is said to live upon the
+fragments all the rest of the year. I was told that one of them lately
+treated his friends, and left the entertainment to the care of his son,
+who ordered a dish of fish that cost a zechine, which is equal to about
+ten shillings sterling. The old gentleman no sooner saw it appear on
+the table, than unable to suppress his concern, he burst into tears,
+and exclaimed, Ah Figliuolo indegno! Siamo in Rovina! Siamo in
+precipizio! Ah, Prodigal! ruined! undone!
+
+I think the pride or ostentation of the Italians in general takes a
+more laudable turn than that of other nations. A Frenchman lays out his
+whole revenue upon tawdry suits of cloaths, or in furnishing a
+magnificent repas of fifty or a hundred dishes, one half of which are
+not eatable nor intended to be eaten. His wardrobe goes to the fripier;
+his dishes to the dogs, and himself to the devil, and after his decease
+no vestige of him remains. A Genoese, on the other hand, keeps himself
+and his family at short allowance, that he may save money to build
+palaces and churches, which remain to after-ages so many monuments of
+his taste, piety, and munificence; and in the mean time give employment
+and bread to the poor and industrious. There are some Genoese nobles
+who have each five or six elegant palaces magnificently furnished,
+either in the city, or in different parts of the Riviera. The two
+streets called Strada Balbi and Strada Nuova, are continued double
+ranges of palaces adorned with gardens and fountains: but their being
+painted on the outside has, in my opinion, a poor effect.
+
+The commerce of this city is, at present, not very considerable; yet it
+has the face of business. The streets are crowded with people; the
+shops are well furnished; and the markets abound with all sorts of
+excellent provision. The wine made in this neighbourhood is, however,
+very indifferent; and all that is consumed must be bought at the public
+cantine, where it is sold for the benefit of the state. Their bread is
+the whitest and the best I have tasted any where; and the beef, which
+they have from Piedmont, is juicy and delicious. The expence of eating
+in Italy is nearly the same as in France, about three shillings a head
+for every meal. The state of Genoa is very poor, and their bank of St.
+George has received such rude shocks, first from the revolt of the
+Corsicans, and afterwards from the misfortunes of the city, when it was
+taken by the Austrians in the war of 1745, that it still continues to
+languish without any near prospect of its credit being restored.
+Nothing shews the weakness of their state, more than their having
+recourse to the assistance of France to put a stop to the progress of
+Paoli in Corsica; for after all that has been said of the gallantry and
+courage of Paoli and his islanders, I am very credibly informed that
+they might be very easily suppressed, if the Genoese had either vigour
+in the council or resolution in the field.
+
+True it is, they made a noble effort in expelling the Austrians who had
+taken possession of their city; but this effort was the effect of
+oppression and despair, and if I may believe the insinuations of some
+politicians in this part of the world, the Genoese would not have
+succeeded in that attempt, if they had not previously purchased with a
+large sum of money the connivance of the only person who could defeat
+the enterprize. For my own part, I can scarce entertain thoughts so
+prejudicial to the character of human nature, as to suppose a man
+capable of sacrificing to such a consideration, the duty he owed his
+prince, as well as all regard to the lives of his soldiers, even those
+who lay sick in hospitals, and who, being dragged forth, were miserably
+butchered by the furious populace. There is one more presumption of his
+innocence, he still retains the favour of his sovereign, who could not
+well be supposed to share in the booty. "There are mysteries in
+politics which were never dreamed of in our philosophy, Horatio!" The
+possession of Genoa might have proved a troublesome bone of contention,
+which it might be convenient to lose by accident. Certain it is, when
+the Austrians returned after their expulsion, in order to retake the
+city, the engineer, being questioned by the general, declared he would
+take the place in fifteen days, on pain of losing his head; and in four
+days after this declaration the Austrians retired. This anecdote I
+learned from a worthy gentleman of this country, who had it from the
+engineer's own mouth. Perhaps it was the will of heaven. You see how
+favourably, providence has interposed in behalf of the reigning empress
+of Russia, first in removing her husband: secondly in ordaining the
+assassination of prince Ivan, for which the perpetrators have been so
+liberally rewarded; it even seems determined to shorten the life of her
+own son, the only surviving rival from whom she had any thing to fear.
+
+The Genoese have now thrown themselves into the arms of France for
+protection: I know not whether it would not have been a greater mark of
+sagacity to cultivate the friendship of England, with which they carry
+on an advantageous commerce. While the English are masters of the
+Mediterranean, they will always have it in their power to do incredible
+damage all along the Riviera, to ruin the Genoese trade by sea, and
+even to annoy the capital; for notwithstanding all the pains they have
+taken to fortify the mole and the city, I am greatly deceived if it is
+not still exposed to the danger, not only of a bombardment, but even of
+a cannonade. I am even sanguine enough to think a resolute commander
+might, with a strong squadron, sail directly into the harbour, without
+sustaining much damage, notwithstanding all the cannon of the place,
+which are said to amount to near five hundred. I have seen a cannonade
+of above four hundred pieces of artillery, besides bombs and cohorns,
+maintained for many hours, without doing much mischief.
+
+During the last siege of Genoa, the French auxiliaries were obliged to
+wait at Monaco, until a gale of wind had driven the English squadron
+off the coast, and then they went along shore in small vessels at the
+imminent risque of being taken by the British cruisers. By land I
+apprehend their march would be altogether impracticable, if the king of
+Sardinia had any interest to oppose it. He might either guard the
+passes, or break up the road in twenty different places, so as to
+render it altogether impassable. Here it may not be amiss to observe,
+that when Don Philip advanced from Nice with his army to Genoa, he was
+obliged to march so close to the shore, that in above fifty different
+places, the English ships might have rendered the road altogether
+impassable. The path, which runs generally along the face of a
+precipice washed by the sea, is so narrow that two men on horseback can
+hardly pass each other; and the road itself so rugged, slippery, and
+dangerous, that the troopers were obliged to dismount, and lead their
+horses one by one. On the other hand, baron de Leutrum, who was at the
+head of a large body of Piedmontese troops, had it in his power to
+block up the passes of the mountains, and even to destroy this road in
+such a manner, that the enemy could not possibly advance. Why these
+precautions were not taken, I do not pretend to explain: neither can I
+tell you wherefore the prince of Monaco, who is a subject and partizan
+of France, was indulged with a neutrality for his town, which served as
+a refreshing-place, a safe port, and an intermediate post for the
+French succours sent from Marseilles to Genoa. This I will only venture
+to affirm, that the success and advantage of great alliances are often
+sacrificed to low, partial, selfish, and sordid considerations. The
+town of Monaco is commanded by every heighth in its neighbourhood; and
+might be laid in ashes by a bomb-ketch in four hours by sea.
+
+I was fortunate enough to be recommended to a lady in Genoa, who
+treated us with great politeness and hospitality. She introduced me to
+an abbate, a man of letters, whose conversation was extremely
+agreeable. He already knew me by reputation, and offered to make me
+known to some of the first persons in the republic, with whom he lived
+in intimacy. The lady is one of the most intelligent and best-bred
+persons I have known in any country. We assisted at her conversazione,
+which was numerous. She pressed us to pass the winter at Genoa; and
+indeed I was almost persuaded: but I had attachments at Nice, from
+which I could not easily disengage myself.
+
+The few days we staved at Genoa were employed in visiting the most
+remarkable churches and palaces. In some of the churches, particularly
+that of the Annunciata, I found a profusion of ornaments, which had
+more magnificence than taste. There is a great number of pictures; but
+very few of them are capital pieces. I had heard much of the ponte
+Carignano, which did not at all answer my expectation. It is a bridge
+that unites two eminences which form the higher part of the city, and
+the houses in the bottom below do not rise so high as the springing of
+its arches. There is nothing at all curious in its construction, nor
+any way remarkable, except the heighth of the piers from which the
+arches are sprung. Hard by the bridge there is an elegant church, from
+the top of which you have a very rich and extensive prospect of the
+city, the sea and the adjacent country, which looks like a continent of
+groves and villas. The only remarkable circumstance about the
+cathedral, which is Gothic and gloomy, is the chapel where the
+pretended bones of John the Baptist are deposited, and in which thirty
+silver lamps are continually burning. I had a curiosity to see the
+palaces of Durazzo and Doria, but it required more trouble to procure
+admission than I was willing to give myself: as for the arsenal, and
+the rostrum of an ancient galley which was found by accident in
+dragging the harbour, I postponed seeing them till my return.
+
+Having here provided myself with letters of credit for Florence and
+Rome, I hired the same boat which had brought us hither, to carry us
+forward to Lerici, which is a small town about half way between Genoa
+and Leghorn, where travellers, who are tired of the sea, take
+post-chaises to continue their route by land to Pisa and Florence. I
+payed three loui'dores for this voyage of about fifty miles; though I
+might have had a feluca for less money. When you land on the wharf at
+Genoa, you are plied by the feluca men just as you are plied by the
+watermen at Hungerford-stairs in London. They are always ready to set
+off at a minute's warning for Lerici, Leghorn, Nice, Antibes,
+Marseilles, and every part of the Riviera.
+
+The wind being still unfavourable, though the weather was delightful,
+we rowed along shore, passing by several pretty towns, villages, and a
+vast number of cassines, or little white houses, scattered among woods
+of olive-trees, that cover the hills; and these are the habitations of
+the velvet and damask weavers. Turning Capo Fino we entered a bay,
+where stand the towns of Porto Fino, Lavagna, and Sestri di Levante, at
+which last we took up our night's lodging. The house was tolerable, and
+we had no great reason to complain of the beds: but, the weather being
+hot, there was a very offensive smell, which proceeded from some skins
+of beasts new killed, that were spread to dry on an outhouse in the
+yard. Our landlord was a butcher, and had very much the looks of an
+assassin. His wife was a great masculine virago, who had all the air of
+having frequented the slaughter-house. Instead of being welcomed with
+looks of complaisance, we were admitted with a sort of gloomy
+condescension, which seemed to say, "We don't much like your company;
+but, however, you shall have a night's lodging in favour of the patron
+of the gondola, who is our acquaintance." In short, we had a very bad
+supper, miserably dressed, passed a very disagreeable night, and payed
+a very extravagant bill in the morning, without being thanked for our
+custom. I was very glad to get out of the house with my throat uncut.
+
+Sestri di Levante is a little town pleasantly situated on the seaside;
+but has not the conveniency of a harbour. The fish taken here is mostly
+carried to Genoa. This is likewise the market for their oil, and the
+paste called macaroni, of which they make a good quantity.
+
+Next day, we skirted a very barren coast, consisting of almost
+perpendicular rocks, on the faces of which, however, we saw many
+peasants' houses and hanging terraces for vines, made by dint of
+incredible labour. In the afternoon, we entered by the Porti di Venere
+into the bay, or gulf of Spetia or Spezza, which was the Portus Lunae
+of the ancients. This bay, at the mouth of which lies the island
+Palmaria, forms a most noble and secure harbour, capacious enough to
+contain all the navies in Christendom. The entrance on one side is
+defended by a small fort built above the town of Porto Venere, which is
+a very poor place. Farther in there is a battery of about twenty guns;
+and on the right hand, opposite to Porto Venere, is a block-house,
+founded on a rock in the sea. At the bottom of the bay is the town of
+Spetia on the left, and on the right that of Lerici, defended by a
+castle of very little strength or consequence. The whole bay is
+surrounded with plantations of olives and oranges, and makes a very
+delightful appearance. In case of a war, this would be an admirable
+station for a British squadron, as it lies so near Genoa and Leghorn;
+and has a double entrance, by means of which the cruisers could sail in
+and out continually, which way soever the wind might chance to sit. I
+am sure the fortifications would give very little disturbance.
+
+At the post-house in Lerici, the accommodation is intolerable. We were
+almost poisoned at supper. I found the place where I was to lie so
+close and confined, that I could not breathe in it, and therefore lay
+all night in an outward room upon four chairs, with a leather
+portmanteau for my pillow. For this entertainment I payed very near a
+loui'dore. Such bad accommodation is the less excusable, as the fellow
+has a great deal of business, this being a great thoroughfare for
+travellers going into Italy, or returning from thence.
+
+I might have saved some money by prosecuting my voyage directly by sea
+to Leghorn: but, by this time, we were all heartily tired of the water,
+the business then was to travel by land to Florence, by the way of
+Pisa, which is seven posts distant from Lerici. Those who have not
+their own carriage must either hire chaises to perform the whole
+journey, or travel by way of cambiatura, which is that of changing the
+chaises every post, as the custom is in England. In this case the great
+inconvenience arises from your being obliged to shift your baggage
+every post. The chaise or calesse of this country, is a wretched
+machine with two wheels, as uneasy as a common cart, being indeed no
+other than what we should call in England a very ill-contrived
+one-horse chair, narrow, naked, shattered and shabby. For this vehicle
+and two horses you pay at the rate of eight paoli a stage, or four
+shillings sterling; and the postilion expects two paoli for his
+gratification: so that every eight miles cost about five shillings, and
+four only, if you travel in your own carriage, as in that case you pay
+no more than at the rate of three paoli a horse.
+
+About three miles from Lerici, we crossed the Magra, which appeared as
+a rivulet almost dry, and in half a mile farther arrived at Sarzana, a
+small town at the extremity of the Genoese territories, where we
+changed horses. Then entering the principalities of Massa and Carrara,
+belonging to the duke of Modena, we passed Lavenza, which seems to be a
+decayed fort with a small garrison, and dined at Massa, which is an
+agreeable little town, where the old dutchess of Modena resides.
+Notwithstanding all the expedition we could make, it was dark before we
+passed the Cerchio, which is an inconsiderable stream in the
+neighbourhood of Pisa, where we arrived about eight in the evening.
+
+The country from Sarzana to the frontiers of Tuscany is a narrow plain,
+bounded on the right by the sea, and on the left by the Apennine
+mountains. It is well cultivated and inclosed, consisting of
+meadow-ground, corn fields, plantations of olives; and the trees that
+form the hedge-rows serve as so many props to the vines, which are
+twisted round them, and continued from one to another. After entering
+the dominions of Tuscany, we travelled through a noble forest of
+oak-trees of a considerable extent, which would have appeared much more
+agreeable, had we not been benighted and apprehensive of robbers. The
+last post but one in this days journey, is at the little town of
+Viareggio, a kind of sea-port on the Mediterranean, belonging to Lucia.
+The roads are indifferent, and the accommodation is execrable. I was
+glad to find myself housed in a very good inn at Pisa, where I promised
+myself a good night's rest, and was not disappointed. I heartily wish
+you the same pleasure, and am very sincerely--Yours.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVII
+
+NICE, January 28, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--Pisa is a fine old city that strikes you with the same
+veneration you would feel at sight of an antient temple which bears the
+marks of decay, without being absolutely dilapidated. The houses are
+well built, the streets open, straight, and well paved; the shops well
+furnished; and the markets well supplied: there are some elegant
+palaces, designed by great masters. The churches are built with taste,
+and tolerably ornamented. There is a beautiful wharf of freestone on
+each side of the river Arno, which runs through the city, and three
+bridges thrown over it, of which that in the middle is of marble, a
+pretty piece of architecture: but the number of inhabitants is very
+inconsiderable; and this very circumstance gives it an air of majestic
+solitude, which is far from being unpleasant to a man of a
+contemplative turn of mind. For my part, I cannot bear the tumult of a
+populous commercial city; and the solitude that reigns in Pisa would
+with me be a strong motive to choose it as a place of residence. Not
+that this would be the only inducement for living at Pisa. Here is some
+good company, and even a few men of taste and learning. The people in
+general are counted sociable and polite; and there is great plenty of
+provisions, at a very reasonable rate. At some distance from the more
+frequented parts of the city, a man may hire a large house for thirty
+crowns a year: but near the center, you cannot have good lodgings,
+ready furnished, for less than a scudo (about five shillings) a day.
+The air in summer is reckoned unwholesome by the exhalations arising
+from stagnant water in the neighbourhood of the city, which stands in
+the midst of a fertile plain, low and marshy: yet these marshes have
+been considerably drained, and the air is much meliorated. As for the
+Arno, it is no longer navigated by vessels of any burthen. The
+university of Pisa is very much decayed; and except the little business
+occasioned by the emperor's gallies, which are built in this town,
+[This is a mistake. No gallies have been built here for a great many
+years, and the dock is now converted into stables for the Grand Duke's
+Horse Guards.] I know of no commerce it carried on: perhaps the
+inhabitants live on the produce of the country, which consists of corn,
+wine, and cattle. They are supplied with excellent water for drinking,
+by an aqueduct consisting of above five thousand arches, begun by
+Cosmo, and finished by Ferdinand I. Grand-dukes of Tuscany; it conveys
+the water from the mountains at the distance of five miles. This noble
+city, formerly the capital of a flourishing and powerful republic,
+which contained above one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants,
+within its walls, is now so desolate that grass grows in the open
+streets; and the number of its people do not exceed sixteen thousand.
+
+You need not doubt but I visited the Campanile, or hanging-tower, which
+is a beautiful cylinder of eight stories, each adorned with a round of
+columns, rising one above another. It stands by the cathedral, and
+inclines so far on one side from the perpendicular, that in dropping a
+plummet from the top, which is one hundred and eighty-eight feet high,
+it falls sixteen feet from the base. For my part, I should never have
+dreamed that this inclination proceeded from any other cause, than an
+accidental subsidence of the foundation on this side, if some
+connoisseurs had not taken great pains to prove it was done on purpose
+by the architect. Any person who has eyes may see that the pillars on
+that side are considerably sunk; and this is the case with the very
+threshold of the door by which you enter. I think it would have been a
+very preposterous ambition in the architects, to show how far they
+could deviate from the perpendicular in this construction; because in
+that particular any common mason could have rivalled them; [All the
+world knows that a Building with such Inclination may be carried up
+till a line drawn from the Centre of Gravity falls without the
+Circumference of the Base.] and if they really intended it as a
+specimen of their art, they should have shortened the pilasters on that
+side, so as to exhibit them intire, without the appearance of sinking.
+These leaning towers are not unfrequent in Italy; there is one at
+Bologna, another at Venice, a third betwixt Venice and Ferrara, and a
+fourth at Ravenna; and the inclination in all of them has been supposed
+owing to the foundations giving way on one side only.
+
+In the cathedral, which is a large Gothic pile, [This Edifice is not
+absolutely Gothic. It was built in the Twelfth Century after the Design
+of a Greek Architect from Constantinople, where by that time the art
+was much degenerated. The Pillars of Granite are mostly from the
+Islands of Ebba and Giglia on the coast of Tuscany, where those
+quarries were worked by the antient Romans. The Giullo, and the verde
+antico are very beautiful species of marble, yellow and green; the
+first, antiently called marmor numidicum, came from Africa; the other
+was found (according to Strabo) on the mons Taygetus in Lacedemonia:
+but, at present, neither the one nor the other is to be had except
+among the ruins of antiquity.] there is a great number of massy pillars
+of porphyry, granite, jasper, giullo, and verde antico, together with
+some good pictures and statues: but the greatest curiosity is that of
+the brass-gates, designed and executed by John of Bologna,
+representing, embossed in different compartments, the history of the
+Old and New Testament. I was so charmed with this work, that I could
+have stood a whole day to examine and admire it. In the Baptisterium,
+which stands opposite to this front, there are some beautiful marbles,
+particularly the font, and a pulpit, supported by the statues of
+different animals.
+
+Between the cathedral and this building, about one hundred paces on one
+side, is the famous burying-ground, called Campo Santo, from its being
+covered with earth brought from Jerusalem. It is an oblong square,
+surrounded by a very high wall, and always kept shut. Within-side there
+is a spacious corridore round the whole space, which is a noble walk
+for a contemplative philosopher. It is paved chiefly with flat
+grave-stones: the walls are painted in fresco by Ghiotto, Giottino,
+Stefano, Bennoti, Bufalmaco, and some others of his cotemporaries and
+disciples, who flourished immediately after the restoration of
+painting. The subjects are taken from the Bible. Though the manner is
+dry, the drawing incorrect, the design generally lame, and the
+colouring unnatural; yet there is merit in the expression: and the
+whole remains as a curious monument of the efforts made by this noble
+art immediately after her revival. [The History of Job by Giotto is
+much admired.] Here are some deceptions in perspective equally
+ingenious and pleasing; particularly the figures of certain animals,
+which exhibit exactly the same appearance, from whatever different
+points of view they are seen. One division of the burying-ground
+consists of a particular compost, which in nine days consumes the dead
+bodies to the bones: in all probability, it is no other than common
+earth mixed with quick-lime. At one corner of the corridore, there are
+the pictures of three bodies represented in the three different stages
+of putrefaction which they undergo when laid in this composition. At
+the end of the three first days, the body is bloated and swelled, and
+the features are enlarged and distorted to such a degree, as fills the
+spectator with horror. At the sixth day, the swelling is subsided, and
+all the muscular flesh hangs loosened from the bones: at the ninth,
+nothing but the skeleton remains. There is a small neat chapel at one
+end of the Campo Santo, with some tombs, on one of which is a beautiful
+bust by Buona Roti. [Here is a sumptuous cenotaph erected by Pope
+Gregory XIII. to the memory of his brother Giovanni Buoncampagni. It is
+called the Monumentum Gregorianum, of a violet-coloured marble from
+Scravezza in this neighbourhood, adorned with a couple of columns of
+Touchstone, and two beautiful spherical plates of Alabaster.] At the
+other end of the corridore, there is a range of antient sepulchral
+stones ornamented with basso-relievo brought hither from different
+parts by the Pisan Fleets in the course of their expeditions. I was
+struck with the figure of a woman lying dead on a tomb-stone, covered
+with a piece of thin drapery, so delicately cut as to shew all the
+flexures of the attitude, and even all the swellings and sinuosities of
+the muscles. Instead of stone, it looks like a sheet of wet linen. [One
+of these antiquities representing the Hunting of Meleager was converted
+into a coffin for the Countess Beatrice, mother of the famous Countess
+Mathilda; it is now fixed to the outside of the church wall just by one
+of the doors, and is a very elegant piece of sculpture. Near the same
+place is a fine pillar of Porphyry supporting the figure of a Lion, and
+a kind of urn which seems to be a Sarcophagus, though an inscription
+round the Base declares it is a Talentum in which the antient Pisans
+measured the Census or Tax which they payed to Augustus: but in what
+metal or specie this Census was payed we are left to divine. There are
+likewise in the Campo Santo two antique Latin edicts of the Pisan
+Senate injoining the citizens to go into mourning for the Death of
+Caius and Lucius Caesar the Sons of Agrippa, and heirs declared of the
+Emperor. Fronting this Cemetery, on the other side of the Piazza of the
+Dome, is a large, elegant Hospital in which the sick are conveniently
+and comfortably lodged, entertained, and attended.]
+
+For four zechines I hired a return-coach and four from Pisa to
+Florence. This road, which lies along the Arno, is very good; and the
+country is delightful, variegated with hill and vale, wood and water,
+meadows and corn-fields, planted and inclosed like the counties of
+Middlesex and Hampshire; with this difference, however, that all the
+trees in this tract were covered with vines, and the ripe clusters
+black and white, hung down from every bough in a most luxuriant and
+romantic abundance. The vines in this country are not planted in rows,
+and propped with sticks, as in France and the county of Nice, but twine
+around the hedge-row trees, which they almost quite cover with their
+foliage and fruit. The branches of the vine are extended from tree to
+tree, exhibiting beautiful festoons of real leaves, tendrils, and
+swelling clusters a foot long. By this oeconomy the ground of the
+inclosure is spared for corn, grass, or any other production. The trees
+commonly planted for the purpose of sustaining the vines, are maple,
+elm, and aller, with which last the banks of the Arno abound. [It would
+have been still more for the advantage of the Country and the Prospect,
+if instead of these they had planted fruit trees for the purpose.] This
+river, which is very inconsiderable with respect to the quantity of
+water, would be a charming pastoral stream, if it was transparent; but
+it is always muddy and discoloured. About ten or a dozen miles below
+Florence, there are some marble quarries on the side of it, from whence
+the blocks are conveyed in boats, when there is water enough in the
+river to float them, that is after heavy rains, or the melting of the
+snow upon the mountains of Umbria, being part of the Apennines, from
+whence it takes its rise.
+
+Florence is a noble city, that still retains all the marks of a
+majestic capital, such as piazzas, palaces, fountains, bridges,
+statues, and arcades. I need not tell you that the churches here are
+magnificent, and adorned not only with pillars of oriental granite,
+porphyry, Jasper, verde antico, and other precious stones; but also
+with capital pieces of painting by the most eminent masters. Several of
+these churches, however, stand without fronts, for want of money to
+complete the plans. It may also appear superfluous to mention my having
+viewed the famous gallery of antiquities, the chapel of St. Lorenzo,
+the palace of Pitti, the cathedral, the baptisterium, Ponte de Trinita,
+with its statues, the triumphal arch, and every thing which is commonly
+visited in this metropolis. But all these objects having been
+circumstantially described by twenty different authors of travels, I
+shall not trouble you with a repetition of trite observations.
+
+That part of the city which stands on each side of the river, makes a
+very elegant appearance, to which the four bridges and the stone-quay
+between them, contribute in a great measure. I lodged at the widow
+Vanini's, an English house delightfully situated in this quarter. The
+landlady, who is herself a native of England, we found very obliging.
+The lodging-rooms are comfortable; and the entertainment is good and
+reasonable. There is a considerable number of fashionable people at
+Florence, and many of them in good circumstances. They affect a gaiety
+in their dress, equipage, and conversation; but stand very much on
+their punctilio with strangers; and will not, without great reluctance,
+admit into their assemblies any lady of another country, whose noblesse
+is not ascertained by a title. This reserve is in some measure
+excusable among a people who are extremely ignorant of foreign customs,
+and who know that in their own country, every person, even the most
+insignificant, who has any pretensions to family, either inherits, or
+assumes the title of principe, conte, or marchese.
+
+With all their pride, however, the nobles of Florence are humble enough
+to enter into partnership with shop-keepers, and even to sell wine by
+retail. It is an undoubted fact, that in every palace or great house in
+this city, there is a little window fronting the street, provided with
+an iron-knocker, and over it hangs an empty flask, by way of sign-post.
+Thither you send your servant to buy a bottle of wine. He knocks at the
+little wicket, which is opened immediately by a domestic, who supplies
+him with what he wants, and receives the money like the waiter of any
+other cabaret. It is pretty extraordinary, that it should not be deemed
+a disparagement in a nobleman to sell half a pound of figs, or a palm
+of ribbon or tape, or to take money for a flask of sour wine; and yet
+be counted infamous to match his daughter in the family of a person who
+has distinguished himself in any one of the learned professions.
+
+Though Florence be tolerably populous, there seems to be very little
+trade of any kind in it: but the inhabitants flatter themselves with
+the prospect of reaping great advantage from the residence of one of
+the arch-dukes, for whose reception they are now repairing the palace
+of Pitti. I know not what the revenues of Tuscany may amount to, since
+the succession of the princes of Lorraine; but, under the last dukes of
+the Medici family, they were said to produce two millions of crowns,
+equal to five hundred thousand pounds sterling. These arose from a very
+heavy tax upon land and houses, the portions of maidens, and suits at
+law, besides the duties upon traffick, a severe gabelle upon the
+necessaries of life, and a toll upon every eatable entered into this
+capital. If we may believe Leti, the grand duke was then able to raise
+and maintain an army of forty thousand infantry, and three thousand
+horse; with twelve gallies, two galeasses, and twenty ships of war. I
+question if Tuscany can maintain at present above one half of such an
+armament. He that now commands the emperor's navy, consisting of a few
+frigates, is an Englishman, called Acton, who was heretofore captain of
+a ship in our East India company's service. He has lately embraced the
+catholic religion, and been created admiral of Tuscany.
+
+There is a tolerable opera in Florence for the entertainment of the
+best company, though they do not seem very attentive to the musick.
+Italy is certainly the native country of this art; and yet, I do not
+find the people in general either more musically inclined, or better
+provided with ears than their neighbours. Here is also a wretched troop
+of comedians for the burgeois, and lower class of people: but what
+seems most to suit the taste of all ranks, is the exhibition of church
+pageantry. I had occasion to see a procession, where all the noblesse
+of the city attended in their coaches, which filled the whole length of
+the great street called the Corso. It was the anniversary of a
+charitable institution in favour of poor maidens, a certain number of
+whom are portioned every year. About two hundred of these virgins
+walked in procession, two and two together, cloathed in violet-coloured
+wide gowns, with white veils on their heads, and made a very classical
+appearance. They were preceded and followed by an irregular mob of
+penitents in sack-cloth, with lighted tapers, and monks carrying
+crucifixes, bawling and bellowing the litanies: but the great object
+was a figure of the Virgin Mary, as big as the life, standing within a
+gilt frame, dressed in a gold stuff, with a large hoop, a great
+quantity of false jewels, her face painted and patched, and her hair
+frizzled and curled in the very extremity of the fashion. Very little
+regard had been paid to the image of our Saviour on the cross; but when
+his lady-mother appeared on the shoulders of three or four lusty
+friars, the whole populace fell upon their knees in the dirt. This
+extraordinary veneration paid to the Virgin, must have been derived
+originally from the French, who pique themselves on their gallantry to
+the fair sex.
+
+Amidst all the scenery of the Roman catholic religion, I have never yet
+seen any of the spectators affected at heart, or discover the least
+signs of fanaticism. The very disciplinants, who scourge themselves in
+the Holy-week, are generally peasants or parties hired for the purpose.
+Those of the confrairies, who have an ambition to distinguish
+themselves on such occasions, take care to secure their backs from the
+smart, by means of secret armour, either women's boddice, or quilted
+jackets. The confrairies are fraternities of devotees, who inlist
+themselves under the banners of particular saints. On days of
+procession they appear in a body dressed as penitents and masked, and
+distinguished by crosses on their habits. There is scarce an
+individual, whether noble or plebeian, who does not belong to one of
+these associations, which may be compared to the FreeMasons,
+Gregoreans, and Antigallicans of England.
+
+Just without one of the gates of Florence, there is a triumphal arch
+erected on occasion of the late emperor's making his public entry, when
+he succeeded to the dukedom of Tuscany: and herein the summer evenings,
+the quality resort to take the air in their coaches. Every carriage
+stops, and forms a little separate conversazione. The ladies sit
+within, and the cicisbei stand on the foot-boards, on each side of the
+coach, entertaining them with their discourse. It would be no
+unpleasant inquiry to trace this sort of gallantry to its original, and
+investigate all its progress. The Italians, having been accused of
+jealousy, were resolved to wipe off the reproach, and, seeking to avoid
+it for the future, have run into the other extreme. I know it is
+generally supposed that the custom of choosing cicisbei, was calculated
+to prevent the extinction of families, which would otherwise often
+happen in consequence of marriages founded upon interest, without any
+mutual affection in the contracting parties. How far this political
+consideration may have weighed against the jealous and vindictive
+temper of the Italians, I will not pretend to judge: but, certain it
+is, every married lady in this country has her cicisbeo, or servente,
+who attends her every where, and on all occasions; and upon whose
+privileges the husband dares not encroach, without incurring the
+censure and ridicule of the whole community. For my part, I would
+rather be condemned for life to the gallies, than exercise the office
+of a cicisbeo, exposed to the intolerable caprices and dangerous
+resentment of an Italian virago. I pretend not to judge of the national
+character, from my own observation: but, if the portraits drawn by
+Goldoni in his Comedies are taken from nature, I would not hesitate to
+pronounce the Italian women the most haughty, insolent, capricious, and
+revengeful females on the face of the earth. Indeed their resentments
+are so cruelly implacable, and contain such a mixture of perfidy, that,
+in my opinion, they are very unfit subjects for comedy, whose province
+it is, rather to ridicule folly than to stigmatize such atrocious vice.
+
+You have often heard it said, that the purity of the Italian is to be
+found in the lingua Toscana, and bocca Romana. Certain it is, the
+pronunciation of the Tuscans is disagreeably guttural: the letters C
+and G they pronounce with an aspiration, which hurts the ear of an
+Englishman; and is I think rather rougher than that of the X, in
+Spanish. It sounds as if the speaker had lost his palate. I really
+imagined the first man I heard speak in Pisa, had met with that
+misfortune in the course of his amours.
+
+One of the greatest curiosities you meet with in Italy, is the
+Improvisatore; such is the name given to certain individuals, who have
+the surprising talent of reciting verses extempore, on any subject you
+propose. Mr. Corvesi, my landlord, has a son, a Franciscan friar, who
+is a great genius in this way.
+
+When the subject is given, his brother tunes his violin to accompany
+him, and he begins to rehearse in recitative, with wonderful fluency
+and precision. Thus he will, at a minute's warning, recite two or three
+hundred verses, well turned, and well adapted, and generally mingled
+with an elegant compliment to the company. The Italians are so fond of
+poetry, that many of them, have the best part of Ariosto, Tasso, and
+Petrarch, by heart; and these are the great sources from which the
+Improvisatori draw their rhimes, cadence, and turns of expression. But,
+lest you should think there is neither rhime nor reason in protracting
+this tedious epistle, I shall conclude it with the old burden of my
+song, that I am always--Your affectionate humble servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXVIII
+
+NICE, February 5, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--Your entertaining letter of the fifth of last month, was a
+very charitable and a very agreeable donation: but your suspicion is
+groundless. I assure you, upon my honour, I have no share whatever in
+any of the disputes which agitate the public: nor do I know any thing
+of your political transactions, except what I casually see in one of
+your newspapers, with the perusal of which I am sometimes favoured by
+our consul at Villefranche. You insist upon my being more particular in
+my remarks on what I saw at Florence, and I shall obey the injunction.
+The famous gallery which contains the antiquities, is the third story
+of a noble stone-edifice, built in the form of the Greek Pi, the upper
+part fronting the river Arno, and one of the legs adjoining to the
+ducal-palace, where the courts of justice are held. As the house of
+Medici had for some centuries resided in the palace of Pitti, situated
+on the other side of the river, a full mile from these tribunals, the
+architect Vasari, who planned the new edifice, at the same time
+contrived a corridore, or covered passage, extending from the palace of
+Pitti along one of the bridges, to the gallery of curiosities, through
+which the grand-duke passed unseen, when he was disposed either to
+amuse himself with his antiquities, or to assist at his courts of
+judicature: but there is nothing very extraordinary either in the
+contrivance or execution of this corridore.
+
+If I resided in Florence I would give something extraordinary for
+permission to walk every day in the gallery, which I should much prefer
+to the Lycaeum, the groves of Academus, or any porch or philosophical
+alley in Athens or in Rome. Here by viewing the statues and busts
+ranged on each side, I should become acquainted with the faces of all
+the remarkable personages, male and female, of antiquity, and even be
+able to trace their different characters from the expression of their
+features. This collection is a most excellent commentary upon the Roman
+historians, particularly Suetonius and Dion Cassius. There was one
+circumstance that struck me in viewing the busts of Caracalla, both
+here and in the Capitol at Rome; there was a certain ferocity in the
+eyes, which seemed to contradict the sweetness of the other features,
+and remarkably justified the epithet Caracuyl, by which he was
+distinguished by the antient inhabitants of North-Britain. In the
+language of the Highlanders caracuyl signifies cruel eye, as we are
+given to understand by the ingenious editor of Fingal, who seems to
+think that Caracalla is no other than the Celtic word, adapted to the
+pronunciation of the Romans: but the truth is, Caracalla was the name
+of a Gaulish vestment, which this prince affected to wear; and hence he
+derived that surname. The Caracuyl of the Britons, is the same as the
+upodra idon of the Greeks, which Homer has so often applied to his
+Scolding Heroes. I like the Bacchanalian, chiefly for the fine drapery.
+The wind, occasioned by her motion, seems to have swelled and raised it
+from the parts of the body which it covers. There is another gay
+Bacchanalian, in the attitude of dancing, crowned with ivy, holding in
+her right hand a bunch of grapes, and in her left the thyrsus. The head
+of the celebrated Flora is very beautiful: the groupe of Cupid and
+Psyche, however, did not give me all the pleasure I expected from it.
+
+Of all the marbles that appear in the open gallery, the following are
+those I most admire. Leda with the Swan; as for Jupiter, in this
+transformation, he has much the appearance of a goose. I have not seen
+any thing tamer; but the sculptor has admirably shewn his art in
+representing Leda's hand partly hid among the feathers, which are so
+lightly touched off, that the very shape of the fingers are seen
+underneath. The statue of a youth, supposed to be Ganymede, is compared
+by the connoisseurs to the celebrated Venus, and as far as I can judge,
+not without reason: it is however, rather agreeable than striking, and
+will please a connoisseur much more than a common spectator. I know not
+whether it is my regard to the faculty that inhances the value of the
+noted Esculapius, who appears with a venerable beard of delicate
+workmanship. He is larger than the life, cloathed in a magnificent
+pallium, his left arm resting on a knotted staff, round which the snake
+is twined according to Ovid.
+
+Hunc modo serpentem baculum qui nexibus ambit Perspice--
+
+Behold the snake his mystic Rod intwine.
+
+He has in his hand the fascia herbarum, and the crepidae on his feet.
+There is a wild-boar represented lying on one side, which I admire as a
+master-piece. The savageness of his appearance is finely contrasted
+with the case and indolence of the attitude. Were I to meet with a
+living boar lying with the same expression, I should be tempted to
+stroke his bristles. Here is an elegant bust of Antinous, the favourite
+of Adrian; and a beautiful head of Alexander the Great, turned on one
+side, with an expression of languishment and anxiety in his
+countenance. The virtuosi are not agreed about the circumstance in
+which he is represented; whether fainting with the loss of blood which
+he suffered in his adventure at Oxydrace; or languishing with the fever
+contracted by bathing in the Cydnus; or finally complaining to his
+father Jove, that there were no other worlds for him to conquer. The
+kneeling Narcissus is a striking figure, and the expression admirable.
+The two Bacchi are perfectly well executed; but (to my shame be it
+spoken) I prefer to the antique that which is the work of Michael
+Angelo Buonaroti, concerning which the story is told which you well
+know. The artist having been blamed by some pretended connoisseurs, for
+not imitating the manner of the ancients, is said to have privately
+finished this Bacchus, and buried it, after having broke off an arm,
+which he kept as a voucher. The statue, being dug up by accident, was
+allowed by the best judges, to be a perfect antique; upon which
+Buonaroti produced the arm, and claimed his own work. Bianchi looks
+upon this as a fable; but owns that Vasari tells such another of a
+child cut in marble by the same artist, which being carried to Rome,
+and kept for some time under ground, was dug up as an antique, and sold
+for a great deal of money. I was likewise attracted by the Morpheus in
+touchstone, which is described by Addison, who, by the bye,
+notwithstanding all his taste, has been convicted by Bianchi of several
+gross blunders in his account of this gallery.
+
+With respect to the famous Venus Pontia, commonly called de Medicis,
+which was found at Tivoli, and is kept in a separate apartment called
+the Tribuna, I believe I ought to be intirely silent, or at least
+conceal my real sentiments, which will otherwise appear equally absurd
+and presumptuous. It must be want of taste that prevents my feeling
+that enthusiastic admiration with which others are inspired at sight of
+this statue: a statue which in reputation equals that of Cupid by
+Praxiteles, which brought such a concourse of strangers of old to the
+little town of Thespiae. I cannot help thinking that there is no beauty
+in the features of Venus; and that the attitude is aukward and out of
+character. It is a bad plea to urge that the antients and we differ in
+the ideas of beauty. We know the contrary, from their medals, busts,
+and historians. Without all doubt, the limbs and proportions of this
+statue are elegantly formed, and accurately designed, according to the
+nicest rules of symmetry and proportion; and the back parts especially
+are executed so happily, as to excite the admiration of the most
+indifferent spectator. One cannot help thinking it is the very Venus of
+Cnidos by Praxiteles, which Lucian describes. "Hercle quanta dorsi
+concinnitas! ut exuberantes lumbi amplexantes manus implent! quam scite
+circumductae clunium pulpae in se rotundantur, neque tenues nimis ipsis
+ossibus adstrictae, neque in immensam effusae Pinguedinem!" That the
+statue thus described was not the Venus de Medicis, would appear from
+the Greek inscription on the base, KLEOMENIS APPOLLODOROI ATHINAIOS
+EPOESEI. Cleomenes filius Apollodori fecit; did we not know that this
+inscription is counted spurious, and that instead of EPOESEI, it should
+be EPOIESE. This, however, is but a frivolous objection, as we have
+seen many inscriptions undoubtedly antique, in which the orthography is
+false, either from the ignorance or carelessness of the sculptor.
+Others suppose, not without reason, that this statue is a
+representation of the famous Phryne, the courtesan of Athens, who at
+the celebration of the Eleusinian games, exhibited herself coming out
+of the bath, naked, to the eyes of the whole Athenian people. I was
+much pleased with the dancing faun; and still better with the Lotti, or
+wrestlers, the attitudes of which are beautifully contrived to shew the
+different turns of the limbs, and the swelling of the muscles: but,
+what pleased me best of all the statues in the Tribuna was the
+Arrotino, commonly called the Whetter, and generally supposed to
+represent a slave, who in the act of whetting a knife, overhears the
+conspiracy of Catiline. You know he is represented on one knee; and
+certain it is, I never saw such an expression of anxious attention, as
+appears in his countenance.  But it is not mingled with any marks of
+surprise, such as could not fail to lay hold on a man who overhears by
+accident a conspiracy against the state. The marquis de Maffei has
+justly observed that Sallust, in his very circumstantial detail of that
+conspiracy, makes no mention of any such discovery. Neither does it
+appear that the figure is in the act of whetting, the stone which he
+holds in one hand being rough and unequal no ways resembling a
+whetstone. Others alledge it represents Milico, the freedman of
+Scaevinus, who conspired against the life of Nero, and gave his
+poignard to be whetted to Milico, who presented it to the emperor, with
+an account of the conspiracy: but the attitude and expression will by
+no means admit of this interpretation. Bianchi, [This antiquarian is
+now imprisoned for Life, for having robbed the Gallery and then set it
+on fire.] who shows the gallery, thinks the statue represents the augur
+Attius Navius, who cut a stone with a knife, at the command of
+Tarquinius Priscus. This conjecture seems to be confirmed by a
+medallion of Antoninus Pius, inserted by Vaillant among his Numismata
+Prestantiora, on which is delineated nearly such a figure as this in
+question, with the following legend. "Attius Navius genuflexus ante
+Tarquinium Priscum cotem cultro discidit." He owns indeed that in the
+statue, the augur is not distinguished either by his habit or emblems;
+and he might have added, neither is the stone a cotes. For my own part,
+I think neither of these three opinions is satisfactory, though the
+last is very ingenious. Perhaps the figure allude to a private
+incident, which never was recorded in any history. Among the great
+number of pictures in this Tribuna, I was most charmed with the Venus
+by Titian, which has a sweetness of expression and tenderness of
+colouring, not to be described. In this apartment, they reckon three
+hundred pieces, the greatest part by the best masters, particularly by
+Raphael, in the three manners by which he distinguished himself at
+different periods of his life. As for the celebrated statue of the
+hermaphrodite, which we find in another room, I give the sculptor
+credit for his ingenuity in mingling the sexes in the composition; but
+it is, at best, no other than a monster in nature, which I never had
+any pleasure in viewing: nor, indeed, do I think there was much talent
+required in representing a figure with the head and breasts of a woman,
+and all the other parts of the body masculine. There is such a
+profusion of curiosities in this celebrated musaeum; statues, busts,
+pictures, medals, tables inlaid in the way of marquetry, cabinets
+adorned with precious stones, jewels of all sorts, mathematical
+instruments, antient arms and military machines, that the imagination
+is bewildered, and a stranger of a visionary turn, would be apt to
+fancy himself in a palace of the fairies, raised and adorned by the
+power of inchantment.
+
+In one of the detached apartments, I saw the antependium of the altar,
+designed for the famous chapel of St. Lorenzo. It is a curious piece of
+architecture, inlaid with coloured marble and precious stones, so as to
+represent an infinite variety of natural objects. It is adorned with
+some crystal pillars, with capitals of beaten gold. The second story of
+the building is occupied by a great number of artists employed in this
+very curious work of marquetry, representing figures with gems and
+different kinds of coloured marble, for the use of the emperor. The
+Italians call it pietre commesse, a sort of inlaying with stones,
+analogous to the fineering of cabinets in wood. It is peculiar to
+Florence, and seems to be still more curious than the Mosaic work,
+which the Romans have brought to great perfection.
+
+The cathedral of Florence is a great Gothic building, encrusted on the
+outside with marble; it is remarkable for nothing but its cupola, which
+is said to have been copied by the architect of St. Peter's at Rome,
+and for its size, which is much greater than that of any other church
+in Christendom.  [In this cathedral is the Tomb of Johannes Acutus
+Anglus, which a man would naturally interpret as John Sharp; but his
+name was really Hawkwood, which the Italians have corrupted into Acut.
+He was a celebrated General or Condottiere who arrived in Italy at the
+head of four thousand soldiers of fortune, mostly Englishmen who had
+served with him in the army of King Edward III., and were dismissed at
+the Peace of Bontigny. Hawkwood greatly distinguished himself in Italy
+by his valour and conduct, and died a very old man in the Florentine
+service. He was the son of a Tanner in Essex, and had been put
+apprentice to a Taylor.] The baptistery, which stands by it, was an
+antient temple, said to be dedicated to Mars. There are some good
+statues of marble within; and one or two of bronze on the outside of
+the doors; but it is chiefly celebrated for the embossed work of its
+brass gates, by Lorenzo Ghiberti, which Buonaroti used to say, deserved
+to be made the gates of Paradise. I viewed them with pleasure: but
+still I retained a greater veneration for those of Pisa, which I had
+first admired: a preference which either arises from want of taste, or
+from the charm of novelty, by which the former were recommended to my
+attention. Those who would have a particular detail of every thing
+worth seeing at Florence, comprehending churches, libraries, palaces,
+tombs, statues, pictures, fountains, bridge, etc. may consult Keysler,
+who is so laboriously circumstantial in his descriptions, that I never
+could peruse them, without suffering the headache, and recollecting the
+old observation, that the German genius lies more in the back than in
+the brain.
+
+I was much disappointed in the chapel of St. Lorenzo. Notwithstanding
+the great profusion of granite, porphyry, jasper, verde antico,
+lapis-lazuli, and other precious stones, representing figures in the
+way of marquetry, I think the whole has a gloomy effect. These pietre
+commesse are better calculated for cabinets, than for ornaments to
+great buildings, which ought to be large masses proportioned to the
+greatness of the edifice. The compartments are so small, that they
+produce no effect in giving the first impression when one enters the
+place; except to give an air of littleness to the whole, just as if a
+grand saloon was covered with pictures painted in miniature. If they
+have as little regard to proportion and perspective, when they paint
+the dome, which is not yet finished, this chapel will, in my opinion,
+remain a monument of ill taste and extravagance.
+
+The court of the palace of Pitti is formed by three sides of an elegant
+square, with arcades all round, like the palace of Holyrood house at
+Edinburgh; and the rustic work, which constitutes the lower part of the
+building, gives it an air of strength and magnificence. In this court,
+there is a fine fountain, in which the water trickles down from above;
+and here is also an admirable antique statue of Hercules, inscribed
+LUSIPPOI ERGON, the work of Lysippus.
+
+The apartments of this palace are generally small, and many of them
+dark. Among the paintings the most remarkable is the Madonna de la
+Seggiola, by Raphael, counted one of the best coloured pieces of that
+great master. If I was allowed to find fault with the performance, I
+should pronounce it defective in dignity and sentiment. It is the
+expression of a peasant rather than of the mother of God. She exhibits
+the fondness and joy of a young woman towards her firstborn son,
+without that rapture of admiration which we expect to find in the
+Virgin Mary, while she contemplates, in the fruit of her own womb, the
+Saviour of mankind. In other respects, it is a fine figure, gay,
+agreeable, and very expressive of maternal tenderness; and the bambino
+is extremely beautiful. There was an English painter employed in
+copying this picture, and what he had done was executed with great
+success. I am one of those who think it very possible to imitate the
+best pieces in such a manner, that even the connoisseurs shall not be
+able to distinguish the original from the copy. After all, I do not set
+up for a judge in these matters, and very likely I may incur the
+ridicule of the virtuosi for the remarks I have made: but I am used to
+speak my mind freely on all subjects that fall under the cognizance of
+my senses; though I must as freely own, there is something more than
+common sense required to discover and distinguish the more delicate
+beauties of painting. I can safely say, however, that without any
+daubing at all, I am, very sincerely--Your affectionate humble servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXIX
+
+NICE, February 20, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--Having seen all the curiosities of Florence, and hired a
+good travelling coach for seven weeks, at the price of seven zequines,
+something less than three guineas and a half, we set out post for Rome,
+by the way of Sienna, where we lay the first night. The country through
+which we passed is mountainous but agreeable. Of Sienna I can say
+nothing from my own observation, but that we were indifferently lodged
+in a house that stunk like a privy, and fared wretchedly at supper. The
+city is large and well built: the inhabitants pique themselves upon
+their politeness, and the purity of their dialect. Certain it is, some
+strangers reside in this place on purpose to learn the best
+pronunciation of the Italian tongue. The Mosaic pavement of their
+duomo, or cathedral, has been much admired; as well as the history of
+Aeneas Sylvius, afterwards pope Pius II., painted on the walls of the
+library, partly by Pietro Perugino, and partly by his pupil Raphael
+D'Urbino.
+
+Next day, at Buon Convento, where the emperor Henry VII. was poisoned
+by a friar with the sacramental wafer, I refused to give money to the
+hostler, who in revenge put two young unbroke stone-horses in the
+traces next to the coach, which became so unruly, that before we had
+gone a quarter of a mile, they and the postilion were rolling in the
+dust. In this situation they made such efforts to disengage themselves,
+and kicked with such violence, that I imagined the carriage and all our
+trunks would have been beaten in pieces. We leaped out of the coach,
+however, without sustaining any personal damage, except the fright; nor
+was any hurt done to the vehicle. But the horses were terribly bruised,
+and almost strangled, before they could be disengaged. Exasperated at
+the villany of the hostler, I resolved to make a complaint to the
+uffiziale or magistrate of the place. I found him wrapped in an old,
+greasy, ragged, great-coat, sitting in a wretched apartment, without
+either glass, paper, or boards in the windows; and there was no sort of
+furniture but a couple of broken chairs and a miserable truckle-bed. He
+looked pale, and meagre, and had more the air of a half-starved
+prisoner than of a magistrate. Having heard my complaint, he came forth
+into a kind of outward room or bellfrey, and rung a great bell with his
+own hand. In consequence of this signal, the postmaster came up stairs,
+and I suppose he was the first man in the place, for the uffiziale
+stood before him cap-in-hand, and with great marks of humble respect
+repeated the complaint I had made. This man assured me, with an air of
+conscious importance, that he himself had ordered the hostler to supply
+me with those very horses, which were the best in his stable; and that
+the misfortune which happened was owing to the misconduct of the
+fore-postilion, who did not keep the fore-horses to a proper speed
+proportioned to the mettle of the other two. As he took the affair upon
+himself, and I perceived had an ascendancy over the magistrate, I
+contented myself with saying, I was certain the two horses had been put
+to the coach on purpose, either to hurt or frighten us; and that since
+I could not have justice here I would make a formal complaint to the
+British minister at Florence. In passing through the street to the
+coach, which was by this time furnished with fresh horses, I met the
+hostler, and would have caned him heartily; but perceiving my
+intention, he took to his heels and vanished. Of all the people I have
+ever seen, the hostlers, postilions, and other fellows hanging about
+the post-houses in Italy, are the most greedy, impertinent, and
+provoking. Happy are those travellers who have phlegm enough to
+disregard their insolence and importunity: for this is not so
+disagreeable as their revenge is dangerous. An English gentleman at
+Florence told me, that one of those fellows, whom he had struck for his
+impertinence, flew at him with a long knife, and he could hardly keep
+him at sword's point. All of them wear such knives, and are very apt to
+use them on the slightest provocation. But their open attacks are not
+so formidable as their premeditated schemes of revenge; in the
+prosecution of which the Italians are equally treacherous and cruel.
+
+This night we passed at a place called Radicofani, a village and fort,
+situated on the top of a very high mountain. The inn stands still lower
+than the town. It was built at the expence of the last grand-duke of
+Tuscany; is very large, very cold, and uncomfortable. One would imagine
+it was contrived for coolness, though situated so high, that even in
+the midst of summer, a traveller would be glad to have a fire in his
+chamber. But few, or none of them have fireplaces, and there is not a
+bed with curtains or tester in the house. All the adjacent country is
+naked and barren. On the third day we entered the pope's territories,
+some parts of which are delightful. Having passed Aqua-Pendente, a
+beggarly town, situated on the top of a rock, from whence there is a
+romantic cascade of water, which gives it the name, we travelled along
+the side of the lake Bolsena, a beautiful piece of water about thirty
+miles in circuit, with two islands in the middle, the banks covered
+with noble plantations of oak and cypress. The town of Bolsena standing
+near the ruins of the antient Volsinium, which was the birth-place of
+Sejanus, is a paultry village; and Montefiascone, famous for its wine,
+is a poor, decayed town in this neighbourhood, situated on the side of
+a hill, which, according to the author of the Grand Tour, the only
+directory I had along with me, is supposed to be the Soracte of the
+ancients. If we may believe Horace, Soracte was visible from Rome: for,
+in his ninth ode, addressed to Thaliarchus, he says,
+
+  Vides, ut alta stet nive candidum
+  Soracte--
+
+  You see how deeply wreathed with snow
+  Soracte lifts his hoary head,
+
+but, in order to see Montefiascone, his eyesight must have penetrated
+through the Mons Cyminus, at the foot of which now stands the city of
+Viterbo. Pliny tells us, that Soracte was not far from Rome, haud
+procul ab urbe Roma; but Montefiascone is fifty miles from this city.
+And Desprez, in his notes upon Horace, says it is now called Monte S.
+Oreste. Addison tells us he passed by it in the Campania. I could not
+without indignation reflect upon the bigotry of Mathilda, who gave this
+fine country to the see of Rome, under the dominion of which no country
+was ever known to prosper.
+
+About half way between Montefiascone and Viterbo, one of our
+fore-wheels flew off, together with a large splinter of the axle-tree;
+and if one of the postilions had not by great accident been a
+remarkably ingenious fellow, we should have been put to the greatest
+inconvenience, as there was no town, or even house, within several
+miles. I mention this circumstance, by way of warning to other
+travellers, that they may provide themselves with a hammer and nails, a
+spare iron-pin or two, a large knife, and bladder of grease, to be used
+occasionally in case of such misfortune.
+
+The mountain of Viterbo is covered with beautiful plantations and
+villas belonging to the Roman nobility, who come hither to make the
+villegiatura in summer. Of the city of Viterbo I shall say nothing, but
+that it is the capital of that country which Mathilda gave to the Roman
+see. The place is well built, adorned with public fountains, and a
+great number of churches and convents; yet far from being populous, the
+whole number of inhabitants, not exceeding fifteen thousand. The
+post-house is one of the worst inns I ever entered.
+
+After having passed this mountain, the Cyminus of the antients, we
+skirted part of the lake, which is now called de Vico, and whose banks
+afford the most agreeable rural prospects of hill and vale, wood, glade
+and water, shade and sun-shine. A few other very inconsiderable places
+we passed, and descended into the Campania of Rome, which is almost a
+desert. The view of this country in its present situation, cannot but
+produce emotions of pity and indignation in the mind of every person
+who retains any idea of its antient cultivation and fertility. It is
+nothing but a naked withered down, desolate and dreary, almost without
+inclosure, corn-field, hedge, tree, shrub, house, hut, or habitation;
+exhibiting here and there the ruins of an antient castellum, tomb, or
+temple, and in some places the remains of a Roman via. I had heard much
+of these antient pavements, and was greatly disappointed when I saw
+them. The Via Cassia or Cymina is paved with broad, solid,
+flint-stones, which must have greatly incommoded the feet of horses
+that travelled upon it as well as endangered the lives of the riders
+from the slipperiness of the pavement: besides, it is so narrow that
+two modern carriages could not pass one another upon it, without the
+most imminent hazard of being overturned. I am still of opinion that we
+excel the ancient Romans in understanding the conveniences of life.
+
+The Grand Tour says, that within four miles of Rome you see a tomb on
+the roadside, said to be that of Nero, with sculpture in basso-relievo
+at both ends. I did see such a thing more like a common grave-stone,
+than the tomb of an emperor. But we are informed by Suetonius, that the
+dead body of Nero, who slew himself at the villa of his freedman, was
+by the care of his two nurses and his concubine Atta, removed to the
+sepulchre of the Gens Domitia, immediately within the Porta del Popolo,
+on your left hand as you enter Rome, precisely on the spot where now
+stands the church of S. Maria del Popolo. His tomb was even
+distinguished by an epitaph, which has been preserved by Gruterus.
+Giacomo Alberici tells us very gravely in his History of the Church,
+that a great number of devils, who guarded the bones of this wicked
+emperor, took possession, in the shape of black ravens, of a
+walnut-tree, which grew upon the spot; from whence they insulted every
+passenger, until pope Paschal II., in consequence of a solemn fast and
+a revelation, went thither in procession with his court and cardinals,
+cut down the tree, and burned it to ashes, which, with the bones of
+Nero, were thrown into the Tyber: then he consecrated an altar on the
+place, where afterwards the church was built. You may guess what I felt
+at first sight of the city of Rome, which, notwithstanding all the
+calamities it has undergone, still maintains an august and imperial
+appearance. It stands on the farther side of the Tyber, which we
+crossed at the Ponte Molle, formerly called Pons Milvius, about two
+miles from the gate by which we entered. This bridge was built by
+Aemilius Censor, whose name it originally bore. It was the road by
+which so many heroes returned with conquest to their country; by which
+so many kings were led captive to Rome; and by which the ambassadors of
+so many kingdoms and states approached the seat of empire, to deprecate
+the wrath, to sollicit the friendship, or sue for the protection of the
+Roman people. It is likewise famous for the defeat and death of
+Maxentius, who was here overcome by Constantine the Great. The space
+between the bridge and Porta del Popolo, on the right-hand, which is
+now taken up with gardens and villas, was part of the antient Campus
+Martius, where the comitiae were held; and where the Roman people
+inured themselves to all manner of exercises: it was adorned with
+porticos, temples, theatres, baths, circi, basilicae, obelisks,
+columns, statues, and groves. Authors differ in their opinions about
+the extent of it; but as they all agree that it contained the Pantheon,
+the Circus Agonis, now the Piazza Navona, the Bustum and Mausoleum
+Augusti, great part of the modern city must be built upon the ancient
+Campus Martius. The highway that leads from the bridge to the city, is
+part of the Via Flaminia, which extended as far as Rimini; and is well
+paved, like a modern street. Nothing of the antient bridge remains but
+the piles; nor is there any thing in the structure of this, or of the
+other five Roman bridges over the Tyber, that deserves attention. I
+have not seen any bridge in France or Italy, comparable to that of
+Westminster either in beauty, magnificence, or solidity; and when the
+bridge at Black-Friars is finished, it will be such a monument of
+architecture as all the world cannot parallel. As for the Tyber, it is,
+in comparison with the Thames, no more than an inconsiderable stream,
+foul, deep, and rapid. It is navigable by small boats, barks, and
+lighters; and, for the conveniency of loading and unloading them, there
+is a handsome quay by the new custom-house, at the Porto di Ripetta,
+provided with stairs of each side, and adorned with an elegant
+fountain, that yields abundance of excellent water.
+
+We are told that the bed of this river has been considerably raised by
+the rubbish of old Rome, and this is the reason usually given for its
+being so apt to overflow its banks. A citizen of Rome told me, that a
+friend of his lately digging to lay the foundation of a new house in
+the lower part of the city, near the bank of the river, discovered the
+pavement of an antient street, at the depth of thirty-nine feet from
+the present surface of the earth. He therefore concluded that modern
+Rome is near forty feet higher in this place, than the site of the
+antient city, and that the bed of the river is raised in proportion;
+but this is altogether incredible. Had the bed of the Tyber been
+antiently forty feet lower at Rome, than it is at present, there must
+have been a fall or cataract in it immediately above this tract, as it
+is not pretended that the bed of it is raised in any part above the
+city; otherwise such an elevation would have obstructed its course, and
+then it would have overflowed the whole Campania. There is nothing
+extraordinary in its present overflowings: they frequently happened of
+old, and did great mischief to the antient city. Appian, Dio, and other
+historians, describe an inundation of the Tiber immediately after the
+death of Julius Caesar, which inundation was occasioned by the sudden
+melting of a great quantity of snow upon the Apennines. This calamity
+is recorded by Horace in his ode to Augustus.
+
+  Vidimus flavum Tiberim retortis
+  Littore Etrusco violenter undis,
+  Ire dejectum monumenta regis,
+  Templaque Vestae:
+  Iliae dum se nimium querenti,
+  Jactat ultorem; vagus et sinistra
+  Labitur ripa, Jove non probante
+  Uxorius Amnis.
+
+Livy expressly says, "Ita abundavit Tiberis, ut Ludi Apollinares, circo
+inundato, extra portam Collinam ad aedem Erycinae Veneris parati sint,"
+"There was such an inundation of the Tiber that, the Circus being
+overflowed, the Ludi Appollinares were exhibited without the gate
+Collina, hard by the temple of Venus Erycina." To this custom of
+transferring the Ludi Appollinares to another place where the Tyber had
+overflowed the Circus Maximus, Ovid alludes in his Fasti.
+
+  Altera gramineo spectabis equiriacampo
+  Quem Tiberis curvis in latus urget aquis,
+  Qui tamen ejecta si forte tenebitur unda,
+  Coelius accipiet pulverulentus equos.
+
+  Another race thy view shall entertain
+  Where bending Tiber skirts the grassy plain;
+  Or should his vagrant stream that plain o'erflow,
+  The Caelian hill the dusty course will show.
+
+The Porta del Popolo (formerly, Flaminia,) by which we entered Rome, is
+an elegant piece of architecture, adorned with marble columns and
+statues, executed after the design of Buonaroti. Within-side you find
+yourself in a noble piazza, from whence three of the principal streets
+of Rome are detached. It is adorned with the famous Aegyptian obelisk,
+brought hither from the Circus Maximus, and set up by the architect
+Dominico Fontana in the pontificate of Sixtus V. Here is likewise a
+beautiful fountain designed by the same artist; and at the beginning of
+the two principal streets, are two very elegant churches fronting each
+other. Such an august entrance cannot fail to impress a stranger with a
+sublime idea of this venerable city.
+
+Having given our names at the gate, we repaired to the dogana, or
+custom-house, where our trunks and carriage were searched; and here we
+were surrounded by a number of servitori de piazza, offering their
+services with the most disagreeable importunity. Though I told them
+several times I had no occasion for any, three of them took possession
+of the coach, one mounting before and two of them behind; and thus we
+proceeded to the Piazza d'Espagna, where the person lived to whose
+house I was directed. Strangers that come to Rome seldom put up at
+public inns, but go directly to lodging houses, of which there is great
+plenty in this quarter. The Piazza d'Espagna is open, airy, and
+pleasantly situated in a high part of the city immediately under the
+Colla Pinciana, and adorned with two fine fountains. Here most of the
+English reside: the apartments are generally commodious and well
+furnished; and the lodgers are well supplied with provisions and all
+necessaries of life. But, if I studied oeconomy, I would choose another
+part of the town than the Piazza d'Espagna, which is, besides, at a
+great distance from the antiquities. For a decent first floor and two
+bed-chambers on the second, I payed no more than a scudo (five
+shillings) per day. Our table was plentifully furnished by the landlord
+for two and thirty pauls, being equal to sixteen shillings. I hired a
+town-coach at the rate of fourteen pauls, or seven shillings a day; and
+a servitore di piazza for three pauls, or eighteen-pence. The coachman
+has also an allowance of two pauls a day. The provisions at Rome are
+reasonable and good, the vitella mongana, however, which is the most
+delicate veal I ever tasted, is very dear, being sold for two pauls, or
+a shilling, the pound. Here are the rich wines of Montepulciano,
+Montefiascone, and Monte di Dragone; but what we commonly drink at
+meals is that of Orvieto, a small white wine, of an agreeable flavour.
+Strangers are generally advised to employ an antiquarian to instruct
+them in all the curiosities of Rome; and this is a necessary expence,
+when a person wants to become a connoisseur in painting, statuary, and
+architecture. For my own part I had no such ambition. I longed to view
+the remains of antiquity by which this metropolis is distinguished; and
+to contemplate the originals of many pictures and statues, which I had
+admired in prints and descriptions. I therefore chose a servant, who
+was recommended to me as a sober, intelligent fellow, acquainted with
+these matters: at the same time I furnished myself with maps and plans
+of antient and modern Rome, together with the little manual, called,
+Itinerario istruttivo per ritrovare con facilita tutte le magnificenze
+di Roma e di alcune citta', e castelli suburbani. But I found still
+more satisfaction in perusing the book in three volumes, intitled, Roma
+antica, e moderna, which contains a description of everything
+remarkable in and about the city, illustrated with a great number of
+copper-plates, and many curious historical annotations. This directory
+cost me a zequine; but a hundred zequines will not purchase all the
+books and prints which have been published at Rome on these subjects.
+Of these the most celebrated are the plates of Piranesi, who is not
+only an ingenious architect and engraver, but also a learned
+antiquarian; though he is apt to run riot in his conjectures; and with
+regard to the arts of antient Rome, has broached some doctrines, which
+he will find it very difficult to maintain. Our young gentlemen who go
+to Rome will do well to be upon their guard against a set of sharpers,
+(some of them of our own country,) who deal in pictures and antiques,
+and very often impose upon the uninformed stranger, by selling him
+trash, as the productions of the most celebrated artists. The English
+are more than any other foreigners exposed to this imposition. They are
+supposed to have more money to throw away; and therefore a greater
+number of snares are laid for them. This opinion of their superior
+wealth they take a pride in confirming, by launching out into all
+manner of unnecessary expence: but, what is still more dangerous, the
+moment they set foot in Italy, they are seized with the ambition of
+becoming connoisseurs in painting, musick, statuary, and architecture;
+and the adventurers of this country do not fail to flatter this
+weakness for their own advantage. I have seen in different parts of
+Italy, a number of raw boys, whom Britain seemed to have poured forth
+on purpose to bring her national character into contempt, ignorant,
+petulant, rash, and profligate, without any knowledge or experience of
+their own, without any director to improve their understanding, or
+superintend their conduct. One engages in play with an infamous
+gamester, and is stripped perhaps in the very first partie: another is
+pillaged by an antiquated cantatrice; a third is bubbled by a knavish
+antiquarian; and a fourth is laid under contribution by a dealer in
+pictures. Some turn fiddlers, and pretend to compose: but all of them
+talk familiarly of the arts, and return finished connoisseurs and
+coxcombs, to their own country. The most remarkable phaenomenon of this
+kind, which I have seen, is a boy of seventy-two, now actually
+travelling through Italy, for improvement, under the auspices of
+another boy of twenty-two. When you arrive at Rome, you receive cards
+from all your country-folks in that city: they expect to have the visit
+returned next day, when they give orders not to be at home; and you
+never speak to one another in the sequel. This is a refinement in
+hospitality and politeness, which the English have invented by the
+strength of their own genius, without any assistance either from
+France, Italy, or Lapland. No Englishman above the degree of a painter
+or cicerone frequents any coffee-house at Rome; and as there are no
+public diversions, except in carnival-time, the only chance you have of
+seeing your compatriots is either in visiting the curiosities, or at a
+conversazione. The Italians are very scrupulous in admitting
+foreigners, except those who are introduced as people of quality: but
+if there happens to be any English lady of fashion at Rome, she
+generally keeps an assembly, to which the British subjects resort. In
+my next, I shall communicate, without ceremony or affectation, what
+further remarks I have made at Rome, without any pretence, however, to
+the character of a connoisseur, which, without all doubt, would fit
+very aukwardly upon,--Dear Sir, Your Friend and Servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXX
+
+NICE, February 28, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--Nothing can be more agreeable to the eyes of a stranger,
+especially in the heats of summer, than the great number of public
+fountains that appear in every part of Rome, embellished with all the
+ornaments of sculpture, and pouring forth prodigious quantities of
+cool, delicious water, brought in aqueducts from different lakes,
+rivers, and sources, at a considerable distance from the city. These
+works are the remains of the munificence and industry of the antient
+Romans, who were extremely delicate in the article of water: but,
+however, great applause is also due to those beneficent popes who have
+been at the expence of restoring and repairing those noble channels of
+health, pleasure, and convenience. This great plenty of water,
+nevertheless, has not induced the Romans to be cleanly. Their streets,
+and even their palaces, are disgraced with filth. The noble Piazza
+Navona, is adorned with three or four fountains, one of which is
+perhaps the most magnificent in Europe, and all of them discharge vast
+streams of water: but, notwithstanding this provision, the piazza is
+almost as dirty, as West Smithfield, where the cattle are sold in
+London. The corridores, arcades, and even staircases of their most
+elegant palaces, are depositories of nastiness, and indeed in summer
+smell as strong as spirit of hartshorn. I have a great notion that
+their ancestors were not much more cleanly. If we consider that the
+city and suburbs of Rome, in the reign of Claudius, contained about
+seven millions of inhabitants, a number equal at least to the sum total
+of all the souls in England; that great part of antient Rome was
+allotted to temples, porticos, basilicae, theatres, thermae, circi,
+public and private walks and gardens, where very few, if any, of this
+great number lodged; that by far the greater part of those inhabitants
+were slaves and poor people, who did not enjoy the conveniencies of
+life; and that the use of linen was scarce known; we must naturally
+conclude they were strangely crouded together, and that in general they
+were a very frowzy generation. That they were crouded together appears
+from the height of their houses, which the poet Rutilius compared to
+towers made for scaling heaven. In order to remedy this inconvenience,
+Augustus Caesar published a decree, that for the future no houses
+should be built above seventy feet high, which, at a moderate
+computation, might make six stories. But what seems to prove, beyond
+all dispute, that the antient Romans were dirty creatures, are these
+two particulars. Vespasian laid a tax upon urine and ordure, on
+pretence of being at a great expence in clearing the streets from such
+nuisances; an imposition which amounted to about fourteen pence a year
+for every individual; and when Heliogabalus ordered all the cobwebs of
+the city and suburbs to be collected, they were found to weigh ten
+thousand pounds. This was intended as a demonstration of the great
+number of inhabitants; but it was a proof of their dirt, rather than of
+their populosity. I might likewise add, the delicate custom of taking
+vomits at each other's houses, when they were invited to dinner, or
+supper, that they might prepare their stomachs for gormandizing; a
+beastly proof of their nastiness as well as gluttony. Horace, in his
+description of the banquet of Nasiedenus, says, when the canopy, under
+which they sat, fell down, it brought along with it as much dirt as is
+raised by a hard gale of wind in dry weather.
+
+                --trahentia pulveris atri,
+  Quantum non aquilo Campanis excitat agris.
+
+  Such clouds of dust revolving in its train
+  As Boreas whirls along the level plain.
+
+I might observe, that the streets were often encumbered with the
+putrefying carcasses of criminals, who had been dragged through them by
+the heels, and precipitated from the Scalae Gemoniae, or Tarpeian rock,
+before they were thrown into the Tyber, which was the general
+receptacle of the cloaca maxima and all the filth of Rome: besides, the
+bodies of all those who made away with themselves, without sufficient
+cause; of such as were condemned for sacrilege, or killed by thunder,
+were left unburned and unburied, to rot above ground.
+
+I believe the moderns retain more of the customs of antient Romans,
+than is generally imagined. When I first saw the infants at the enfans
+trouves in Paris, so swathed with bandages, that the very sight of them
+made my eyes water, I little dreamed, that the prescription of the
+antients could be pleaded for this custom, equally shocking and absurd:
+but in the Capitol at Rome, I met with the antique statue of a child
+swaddled exactly in the same manner; rolled up like an Aegyptian mummy
+from the feet. The circulation of the blood, in such a case, must be
+obstructed on the whole surface of the body; and nothing be at liberty
+but the head, which is the only part of the child that ought to be
+confined. Is it not surprising that common sense should not point out,
+even to the most ignorant, that those accursed bandages must heat the
+tender infant into a fever; must hinder the action of the muscles, and
+the play of the joints, so necessary to health and nutrition; and that
+while the refluent blood is obstructed in the veins, which run on the
+surface of the body, the arteries, which lie deep, without the reach of
+compression, are continually pouring their contents into the head,
+where the blood meets with no resistance? The vessels of the brain are
+naturally lax, and the very sutures of the skull are yet unclosed. What
+are the consequences of this cruel swaddling? the limbs are wasted; the
+joints grow rickety; the brain is compressed, and a hydrocephalus, with
+a great head and sore eyes, ensues. I take this abominable practice to
+be one great cause of the bandy legs, diminutive bodies, and large
+heads, so frequent in the south of France, and in Italy.
+
+I was no less surprised to find the modern fashion of curling the hair,
+borrowed in a great measure from the coxcombs and coquettes of
+antiquity. I saw a bust of Nero in the gallery at Florence, the hair
+represented in rows of buckles, like that of a French petit-maitre,
+conformable to the picture drawn of him by Suetonius. Circa cultum adeo
+pudendum, ut coman semper in gradus formatam peregrinatione achaica,
+etiam pene verticem sumpserit, So very finical in his dress, that he
+wore his hair in the Greek fashion, curled in rows almost to the crown
+of his head. I was very sorry however to find that this foppery came
+from Greece. As for Otho, he wore a galericulum, or tour, on account of
+thin hair, propter raritatem capillorum. He had no right to imitate the
+example of Julius Caesar, who concealed his bald head with a wreath of
+laurel. But there is a bust in the Capitol of Julia Pia, the second
+wife of Septimius Severus, with a moveable peruke, dressed exactly in
+the fashionable mode, with this difference, that there is no part of it
+frizzled; nor is there any appearance of pomatum and powder. These
+improvements the beau-monde have borrowed from the natives of the Cape
+of Good Hope.
+
+Modern Rome does not cover more than one-third of the space within the
+walls; and those parts that were most frequented of old are now
+intirely abandoned. From the Capitol to the Coliseo, including the
+Forum Romanum and Boarium, there is nothing intire but one or two
+churches, built with the fragments of ancient edifices. You descend
+from the Capitol between the remaining pillars of two temples, the
+pedestals and part of the shafts sunk in the rubbish: then passing
+through the triumphal arch of Septimius Severus, you proceed along the
+foot of Mons Palatinus, which stands on your right hand, quite covered
+with the ruins of the antient palace belonging to the Roman emperors,
+and at the foot of it, there are some beautiful detached pillars still
+standing. On the left you see the remains of the Templum Pacis, which
+seems to have been the largest and most magnificent of all the temples
+in Rome. It was built and dedicated by the emperor Vespasian, who
+brought into it all the treasure and precious vessels which he found in
+the temple of Jerusalem. The columns of the portico he removed from
+Nero's golden house, which he levelled with the ground. This temple was
+likewise famous for its library, mentioned by Aulus Gellius, Further
+on, is the arch of Constantine on the right, a most noble piece of
+architecture, almost entire; with the remains of the Meta Sudans before
+it; and fronting you, the noble ruins of that vast amphitheatre, called
+the Colossaeum, now Coliseo, which has been dismantled and dilapidated
+by the Gothic popes and princes of modern Rome, to build and adorn
+their paultry palaces. Behind the amphitheatre were the thermae of the
+same emperor Titus Vespasian. In the same quarter was the Circus
+Maximus; and the whole space from hence on both sides, to the walls of
+Rome, comprehending above twice as much ground as the modern city, is
+almost covered with the monuments of antiquity. I suppose there is more
+concealed below ground than appears above. The miserable houses, and
+even garden-walls of the peasants in this district, are built with
+these precious materials. I mean shafts and capitals of marble columns,
+heads, arms, legs, and mutilated trunks of statues. What pity it is
+that among all the remains of antiquity, at Rome, there is not one
+lodging-house remaining. I should be glad to know how the senators of
+Rome were lodged. I want to be better informed touching the cava
+aedium, the focus, the ara deorum penatum, the conclavia, triclinia,
+and caenationes; the atria where the women resided, and employed
+themselves in the woolen manufacture; the praetoria, which were so
+spacious as to become a nuisance in the reign of Augustus; and the
+Xysta, which were shady walks between two porticos, where the men
+exercised themselves in the winter. I am disgusted by the modern taste
+of architecture, though I am no judge of the art. The churches and
+palaces of these days are crowded with pretty ornaments, which distract
+the eye, and by breaking the design into a variety of little parts,
+destroy the effect of the whole. Every door and window has its separate
+ornaments, its moulding, frize, cornice, and tympanum; then there is
+such an assemblage of useless festoons, pillars, pilasters, with their
+architraves, entablatures, and I know not what, that nothing great or
+uniform remains to fill the view; and we in vain look for that
+simplicity of grandeur, those large masses of light and shadow, and the
+inexpressible EUSUINOPTON, which characterise the edifices of the
+antients. A great edifice, to have its full effect, ought to be isole,
+or detached from all others, with a large space around it: but the
+palaces of Rome, and indeed of all the other cities of Italy, which I
+have seen, are so engaged among other mean houses, that their beauty
+and magnificence are in a great measure concealed. Even those which
+face open streets and piazzas are only clear in front. The other
+apartments are darkened by the vicinity of ordinary houses; and their
+views are confined by dirty and disagreeable objects. Within the court
+there is generally a noble colonnade all round, and an open corridore
+above, but the stairs are usually narrow, steep, and high, the want of
+sash-windows, the dullness of their small glass lozenges, the dusty
+brick floors, and the crimson hangings laced with gold, contribute to
+give a gloomy air to their apartments; I might add to these causes, a
+number of Pictures executed on melancholy subjects, antique mutilated
+statues, busts, basso relieves, urns, and sepulchral stones, with which
+their rooms are adorned. It must be owned, however, there are some
+exceptions to this general rule. The villa of cardinal Alexander Albani
+is light, gay, and airy; yet the rooms are too small, and too much
+decorated with carving and gilding, which is a kind of gingerbread
+work. The apartments of one of the princes Borghese are furnished in
+the English taste; and in the palazzo di colonna connestabile, there is
+a saloon, or gallery, which, for the proportions, lights, furniture,
+and ornaments, is the most noble, elegant, and agreeable apartment I
+ever saw.
+
+It is diverting to hear all Italian expatiate upon the greatness of
+modern Rome. He will tell you there are above three hundred palaces in
+the city; that there is scarce a Roman prince, whose revenue does not
+exceed two hundred thousand crowns; and that Rome produces not only the
+most learned men, but also the most refined politicians in the
+universe. To one of them talking in this strain, I replied, that
+instead of three hundred palaces, the number did not exceed fourscore;
+that I had been informed, on good authority, there were not six
+individuals in Rome who had so much as forty thousand crowns a year,
+about ten thousand pounds sterling; and that to say their princes were
+so rich, and their politicians so refined, was, in effect, a severe
+satire upon them, for not employing their wealth and their talents for
+the advantage of their country. I asked why their cardinals and princes
+did not invite and encourage industrious people to settle and cultivate
+the Campania of Rome, which is a desert? why they did not raise a
+subscription to drain the marshes in the neighbourhood of the city, and
+thus meliorate the air, which is rendered extremely unwholsome in the
+summer, by putrid exhalations from those morasses? I demanded of him,
+why they did not contribute their wealth, and exert their political
+refinements, in augmenting their forces by sea and land, for the
+defence of their country, introducing commerce and manufactures, and in
+giving some consequence to their state, which was no more than a mite
+in the political scale of Europe? I expressed a desire to know what
+became of all those sums of money, inasmuch as there was hardly any
+circulation of gold and silver in Rome, and the very bankers, on whom
+strangers have their credit, make interest to pay their tradesmen's
+bills with paper notes of the bank of Spirito Santo? And now I am upon
+this subject, it may not be amiss to observe that I was strangely
+misled by all the books consulted about the current coin of Italy. In
+Tuscany, and the Ecclesiastical State, one sees nothing but zequines in
+gold, and pieces of two paoli, one paolo, and half a paolo, in silver.
+Besides these, there is a copper coin at Rome, called bajocco and mezzo
+bajocco. Ten bajocchi make a paolo: ten paoli make a scudo, which is an
+imaginary piece: two scudi make a zequine; and a French loui'dore is
+worth two zequines and two paoli.
+
+Rome has nothing to fear from the catholic powers, who respect it with
+a superstitious veneration as the metropolitan seat of their religion:
+but the popes will do well to avoid misunderstandings with the maritime
+protestant states, especially the English, who being masters of the
+Mediterranean, and in possession of Minorca, have it in their power at
+all times, to land a body of troops within four leagues of Rome, and to
+take the city, without opposition. Rome is surrounded with an old wall,
+but altogether incapable of defence. Or if it was, the circuit of the
+walls is so extensive, that it would require a garrison of twenty
+thousand men. The only appearance of a fortification in this city, is
+the castle of St. Angelo, situated on the further bank of the Tyber, to
+which there is access by a handsome bridge: but this castle, which was
+formerly the moles Adriani, could not hold out half a day against a
+battery of ten pieces of cannon properly directed. It was an expedient
+left to the invention of the modern Romans, to convert an ancient tomb
+into a citadel. It could only serve as a temporary retreat for the pope
+in times of popular commotion, and on other sudden emergencies; as it
+happened in the case of pope Clement VII. when the troops of the
+emperor took the city by assault; and this only, while he resided at
+the Vatican, from whence there is a covered gallery continued to the
+castle: it can never serve this purpose again, while the pontiff lives
+on Monte Cavallo, which is at the other end of the city. The castle of
+St. Angelo, howsoever ridiculous as a fortress, appears respectable as
+a noble monument of antiquity, and though standing in a low situation,
+is one of the first objects that strike the eye of a stranger
+approaching Rome. On the opposite side of the river, are the wretched
+remains of the Mausoleum Augusti, which was still more magnificent.
+Part of the walls is standing, and the terraces are converted into
+garden-ground. In viewing these ruins, I remembered Virgil's pathetic
+description of Marcellus, who was here intombed.
+
+  Quantos ille virum, magnum mavortis ad urbem.
+  Campus aget gemitus, vel que Tyberine, videbis
+  Funera, cum tumulum, preter labere recentem.
+
+  Along his Banks what Groans shall Tyber hear,
+  When the fresh tomb and funeral pomp appear!
+
+The beautiful poem of Ovid de Consolatione ad Liviam, written after the
+ashes of Augustus and his nephew Marcellus, of Germanicus, Agrippa, and
+Drusus, were deposited in this mausoleum, concludes with these lines,
+which are extremely tender:
+
+  Claudite jam Parcae nimium reserata sepulchra;
+  Claudite, plus justo, jam domus ista patet!
+
+  Ah! shut these yawning Tombs, ye sister Fates!
+  Too long unclos'd have stood those dreary Gates!
+
+What the author said of the monument, you will be tempted to say of
+this letter, which I shall therefore close in the old stile, assuring
+you that I ever am,--Yours most affectionately.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXI
+
+NICE, March 5, 1765
+
+DEAR SIR,--In my last I gave you my opinion freely of the modern
+palaces of Italy. I shall now hazard my thoughts upon the gardens of
+this country, which the inhabitants extol with all the hyperboles of
+admiration and applause. I must acknowledge however, I have not seen
+the famous villas at Frascati and Tivoli, which are celebrated for
+their gardens and waterworks. I intended to visit these places; but was
+prevented by an unexpected change of weather, which deterred me from
+going to the country. On the last day of September the mountains of
+Palestrina were covered with snow; and the air became so cold at Rome,
+that I was forced to put on my winter cloaths. This objection
+continued, till I found it necessary to set out on my return to
+Florence. But I have seen the gardens of the Poggio Imperiale, and the
+Palazzo de Pitti at Florence, and those of the Vatican, of the pope's
+palace on Monte Cavallo, of the Villa Ludovisia, Medicea, and Pinciana,
+at Rome; so that I think I have some right to judge of the Italian
+taste in gardening. Among those I have mentioned, that of the Villa
+Pinciana, is the most remarkable, and the most extensive, including a
+space of three miles in circuit, hard by the walls of Rome, containing
+a variety of situations high and low, which favour all the natural
+embellishments one would expect to meet with in a garden, and exhibit a
+diversity of noble views of the city and adjacent country.
+
+In a fine extensive garden or park, an Englishman expects to see a
+number of groves and glades, intermixed with an agreeable negligence,
+which seems to be the effect of nature and accident. He looks for shady
+walks encrusted with gravel; for open lawns covered with verdure as
+smooth as velvet, but much more lively and agreeable; for ponds,
+canals, basins, cascades, and running streams of water; for clumps of
+trees, woods, and wildernesses, cut into delightful alleys, perfumed
+with honeysuckle and sweet-briar, and resounding with the mingled
+melody of all the singing birds of heaven: he looks for plats of
+flowers in different parts to refresh the sense, and please the fancy;
+for arbours, grottos, hermitages, temples, and alcoves, to shelter him
+from the sun, and afford him means of contemplation and repose; and he
+expects to find the hedges, groves, and walks, and lawns kept with the
+utmost order and propriety. He who loves the beauties of simple nature,
+and the charms of neatness will seek for them in vain amidst the groves
+of Italy. In the garden of the Villa Pinciana, there is a plantation of
+four hundred pines, which the Italians view with rapture and
+admiration: there is likewise a long walk, of trees extending from the
+garden-gate to the palace; and plenty of shade, with alleys and hedges
+in different parts of the ground: but the groves are neglected; the
+walks are laid with nothing but common mould or sand, black and dusty;
+the hedges are tall, thin and shabby; the trees stunted; the open
+ground, brown and parched, has scarce any appearance of verdure. The
+flat, regular alleys of evergreens are cut into fantastic figures; the
+flower gardens embellished with thin cyphers and flourished figures in
+box, while the flowers grow in rows of earthen-pots, and the ground
+appears as dusky as if it was covered with the cinders of a
+blacksmith's forge. The water, of which there is great plenty, instead
+of being collected in large pieces, or conveyed in little rivulets and
+streams to refresh the thirsty soil, or managed so as to form agreeable
+cascades, is squirted from fountains in different parts of the garden,
+through tubes little bigger than common glyster-pipes. It must be owned
+indeed that the fountains have their merit in the way of sculpture and
+architecture; and that here is a great number of statues which merit
+attention: but they serve only to encumber the ground, and destroy that
+effect of rural simplicity, which our gardens are designed to produce.
+In a word, here we see a variety of walks and groves and fountains, a
+wood of four hundred pines, a paddock with a few meagre deer, a
+flower-garden, an aviary, a grotto, and a fish-pond; and in spite of
+all these particulars, it is, in my opinion, a very contemptible
+garden, when compared to that of Stowe in Buckinghamshire, or even to
+those of Kensington and Richmond. The Italians understand, because they
+study, the excellencies of art; but they have no idea of the beauties
+of nature. This Villa Pinciana, which belongs to the Borghese family,
+would make a complete academy for painting and sculpture, especially
+for the study of antient marbles; for, exclusive of the statues and
+busts in the garden, and the vast collection in the different
+apartments, almost the whole outside of the house is covered with
+curious pieces in basso and alto relievo. The most masterly is that of
+Curtius on horseback, leaping into the gulph or opening of the earth,
+which is said to have closed on receiving this sacrifice. Among the
+exhibitions of art within the house, I was much struck with a Bacchus,
+and the death of Meleager, represented on an antient sepulchre. There
+is also an admirable statue of Silenus, with the infant Bacchus in his
+arms; a most beautiful gladiator; a curious Moor of black marble, with
+a shirt of white alabaster; a finely proportioned bull of black marble
+also, standing upon a table of alabaster; a black gipsey with a head,
+hands, and feet of brass; and the famous hermaphrodite, which vies with
+that of Florence: though the most curious circumstance of this article,
+is the mattrass executed and placed by Bernini, with such art and
+dexterity, that to the view, it rivals the softness of wool, and seems
+to retain the marks of pressure, according to the figure of the
+superincumbent statue. Let us likewise own, for the honour of the
+moderns, that the same artist has produced two fine statues, which we
+find among the ornaments of this villa, namely, a David with his sling
+in the attitude of throwing the stone at the giant Goliah; and a Daphne
+changing into laurel at the approach of Apollo. On the base of this
+figure, are the two following elegant lines, written by pope Urban
+VIII. in his younger years.
+
+  Quisquis amans sequitur fugitivae gaudia formae,
+  Fronde manus implet, baccas vel carpit amaras.
+
+  Who pants for fleeting Beauty, vain pursuit!
+  Shall barren Leaves obtain, or bitter fruit.
+
+I ought not to forget two exquisite antique statues of Venus, the
+weeping slave, and the youth pulling a thorn out of his foot.
+
+I do not pretend to give a methodical detail of the curiosities of
+Rome: they have been already described by different authors, who were
+much better qualified than I am for the talk: but you shall have what
+observations I made on the most remarkable objects, without method,
+just as they occur to my remembrance; and I protest the remarks are all
+my own: so that if they deserve any commendation, I claim all the
+merit; and if they are impertinent, I must be contented to bear all the
+blame.
+
+The piazza of St. Peter's church is altogether sublime. The double
+colonnade on each side extending in a semi-circular sweep, the
+stupendous Aegyptian obelisk, the two fountains, the portico, and the
+admirable facade of the church, form such an assemblage of magnificent
+objects, as cannot fail to impress the mind with awe and admiration:
+but the church would have produced a still greater effect, had it been
+detached entirely from the buildings of the Vatican, It would then have
+been a master-piece of architecture, complete in all its parts, intire
+and perfect: whereas, at present, it is no more than a beautiful member
+attached to a vast undigested and irregular pile of building. As to the
+architecture of this famous temple, I shall say nothing; neither do I
+pretend to describe the internal ornaments. The great picture of Mosaic
+work, and that of St. Peter's bark tossed by the tempest, which appear
+over the gate of the church, though rude in comparison with modern
+pieces, are nevertheless great curiosities, when considered as the work
+of Giotto, who flourished in the beginning of the fourteenth century.
+His master was Cimabue, who learned painting and architecture of the
+Grecian artists, who came from Constantinople, and first revived these
+arts in Italy. But, to return to St. Peter's, I was not at all pleased
+with the famous statue of the dead Christ in his mother's lap, by
+Michael Angelo. The figure of Christ is as much emaciated, as if he had
+died of a consumption: besides, there is something indelicate, not to
+say indecent, in the attitude and design of a man's body, stark naked,
+lying upon the knees of a woman. Here are some good pictures, I should
+rather say copies of good pictures, done in Mosaic to great perfection;
+particularly a St. Sebastian by Domenichino, and Michael the Archangel,
+from a painting of Guido Rheni. I am extremely fond of all this
+artist's pieces. There is a tenderness and delicacy in his manner; and
+his figures are all exquisitely beautiful, though his expression is
+often erroneous, and his attitudes are always affected and unnatural.
+In this very piece the archangel has all the air of a French
+dancing-master; and I have seen a Madonna by the same hand, I think it
+is in the Palazzo di Barberini, in which, though the figures are
+enchanting, the Virgin is represented holding up the drapery of the
+infant, with the ridiculous affectation of a singer on the stage of our
+Italian opera. The Mosaic work, though brought to a wonderful degree of
+improvement, and admirably calculated for churches, the dampness of
+which is pernicious to the colours of the pallet, I will not yet
+compare to the productions of the pencil. The glassyness (if I may be
+allowed the expression) of the surface, throws, in my opinion, a false
+light on some parts of the picture; and when you approach it, the
+joinings of the pieces look like so many cracks on painted canvas.
+Besides, this method is extremely tedious and expensive. I went to see
+the artists at work, in a house that stands near the church, where I
+was much pleased with the ingenuity of the process; and not a little
+surprized at the great number of different colours and tints, which are
+kept in separate drawers, marked with numbers as far as seventeen
+thousand. For a single head done in Mosaic, they asked me fifty
+zequines. But to return to the church. The altar of St. Peter's choir,
+notwithstanding all the ornaments which have been lavished upon it, is
+no more than a heap of puerile finery, better adapted to an Indian
+pagod, than to a temple built upon the principles of the Greek
+architecture. The four colossal figures that support the chair, are
+both clumsy and disproportioned. The drapery of statues, whether in
+brass or stone, when thrown into large masses, appears hard and
+unpleasant to the eye and for that reason the antients always imitated
+wet linen, which exhibiting the shape of the limbs underneath, and
+hanging in a multiplicity of wet folds, gives an air of lightness,
+softness, and ductility to the whole.
+
+These two statues weigh 116,257 pounds, and as they sustain nothing but
+a chair, are out of all proportion, inasmuch as the supporters ought to
+be suitable to the things supported. Here are four giants holding up
+the old wooden chair of the apostle Peter, if we may believe the book
+De Identitate Cathedrae Romanae, Of the Identity of the Roman Chair.
+The implements of popish superstition; such as relicks of pretended
+saints, ill-proportioned spires and bellfreys, and the nauseous
+repetition of the figure of the cross, which is in itself a very mean
+and disagreeable object, only fit for the prisons of condemned
+criminals, have contributed to introduce a vitious taste into the
+external architecture, as well as in the internal ornaments of our
+temples. All churches are built in the figure of a cross, which
+effectually prevents the eye from taking in the scope of the building,
+either without side or within; consequently robs the edifice of its
+proper effect. The palace of the Escurial in Spain is laid out in the
+shape of a gridiron, because the convent was built in consequence of a
+vow to St. Laurence, who was broiled like a barbecued pig. What pity it
+is, that the labours of painting should have been so much employed on
+the shocking subjects of the martyrology. Besides numberless pictures
+of the flagellation, crucifixion, and descent from the cross, we have
+Judith with the head of Holofernes, Herodias with the head of John the
+Baptist, Jael assassinating Sisera in his sleep, Peter writhing on the
+cross, Stephen battered with stones, Sebastian stuck full of arrows,
+Laurence frying upon the coals, Bartholomew flaed alive, and a hundred
+other pictures equally frightful, which can only serve to fill the mind
+with gloomy ideas, and encourage a spirit of religious fanaticism,
+which has always been attended with mischievous consequences to the
+community where it reigned.
+
+The tribune of the great altar, consisting of four wreathed brass
+pillars, gilt, supporting a canopy, is doubtless very magnificent, if
+not over-charged with sculpture, fluting, foliage, festoons, and
+figures of boys and angels, which, with the hundred and twenty-two
+lamps of silver, continually burning below, serve rather to dazzle the
+eyes, and kindle the devotion of the ignorant vulgar, than to excite
+the admiration of a judicious observer.
+
+There is nothing, I believe, in this famous structure, so worthy of
+applause, as the admirable symmetry and proportion of its parts.
+Notwithstanding all the carving, gilding, basso relievos, medallions,
+urns, statues, columns, and pictures with which it abounds, it does
+not, on the whole, appear over-crouded with ornaments. When you first
+enter, your eye is filled so equally and regularly, that nothing
+appears stupendous; and the church seems considerably smaller than it
+really is. The statues of children, that support the founts of holy
+water when observed from the door, seem to be of the natural size; but
+as you draw near, you perceive they are gigantic. In the same manner,
+the figures of the doves, with olive branches in their beaks, which are
+represented on the wall, appear to be within your reach; but as you
+approach them, they recede to a considerable height, as if they had
+flown upwards to avoid being taken.
+
+I was much disappointed at sight of the Pantheon, which, after all that
+has been said of it, looks like a huge cockpit, open at top. The
+portico which Agrippa added to the building, is undoubtedly very noble,
+though, in my opinion, it corresponds but ill with the simplicity of
+the edifice. With all my veneration for the antients, I cannot see in
+what the beauty of the rotunda consists. It is no more than a plain
+unpierced cylinder, or circular wall, with two fillets and a cornice,
+having a vaulted roof or cupola, open in the centre. I mean the
+original building, without considering the vestibule of Agrippa. Within
+side it has much the air of a mausoleum. It was this appearance which,
+in all probability, suggested the thought to Boniface IV. to transport
+hither eight and twenty cart-loads of old rotten bones, dug from
+different burying-places, and then dedicate it as a church to the
+blessed Virgin and all the holy martyrs. I am not one of those who
+think it is well lighted by the hole at the top, which is about nine
+and twenty feet in diameter, although the author of the Grand Tour
+calls it but nine. The same author says, there is a descent of eleven
+steps to go into it; that it is a hundred and forty-four feet in
+heighth, and as many in breadth; that it was covered with copper,
+which, with the brass nails of the portico, pope Urban VIII. took away,
+and converted into the four wreathed pillars that support the canopy of
+the high altar in the church of St. Peter, &c. The truth is, before the
+time of pope Alexander VII. the earth was so raised as to cover part of
+the temple, and there was a descent of some steps into the porch: but
+that pontiff ordered the ground to be pared away to the very pedestal
+or base of the portico, which is now even with the street, so that
+there is no descent whatsoever. The height is two hundred palmi, and
+the breadth two hundred and eighteen; which, reckoning fife palmi at
+nine inches, will bring the height to one hundred and fifty, and the
+breadth to one hundred and sixty-three feet six inches. It was not any
+covering of copper which pope Urban VIII. removed, but large brass
+beams, which supported the roof of the portico. They weighed 186,392
+pounds; and afforded metal enough not only for the pillars in St.
+Peter's church, but also for several pieces of artillery that are now
+in the castle of St. Angelo. What is more extraordinary, the gilding of
+those columns is said to have cost forty thousand golden crowns: sure
+money was never worse laid out. Urban VIII. likewise added two bellfrey
+towers to the rotunda; and I wonder he did not cover the central hole
+with glass, as it must be very inconvenient and disagreeable to those
+who go to church below, to be exposed to the rain in wet weather, which
+must also render it very damp and unwholesome. I visited it several
+times, and each time it looked more and more gloomy and sepulchral.
+
+The magnificence of the Romans was not so conspicuous in their temples,
+as in their theatres, amphitheatres, circusses, naumachia, aqueducts,
+triumphal arches, porticoes, basilicae, but especially their thermae,
+or bathing-places. A great number of their temples were small and
+inconsiderable; not one of them was comparable either for size or
+magnificence, to the modern church of St. Peter of the Vatican. The
+famous temple of Jupiter Capitolinus was neither half so long, nor half
+so broad: it was but two hundred feet in length, and one hundred and
+eighty-five in breadth; whereas the length of St. Peter's extends to
+six hundred and thirty-eight feet, and the breadth to above five
+hundred. It is very near twice as large as the temple of Jupiter
+Olympius in Greece, which was counted one of the seven wonders of the
+world. But I shall take another opportunity to explain myself further
+on the antiquities of this city; a subject, upon which I am disposed to
+be (perhaps impertinently) circumstantial. When I begin to run riot,
+you should cheek me with the freedom of a friend. The most distant hint
+will be sufficient to,--Dear Sir, Yours assuredly.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXII
+
+NICE, March 10, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--The Colossaeum or amphitheatre built by Flavius Vespasian,
+is the most stupendous work of the kind which antiquity can produce.
+Near one half of the external circuit still remains, consisting of four
+tire of arcades, adorned with columns of four orders, Doric, Ionic,
+Corinthian, and Composite. The height and extent of it may be guessed
+from the number of spectators it contained, amounting to one hundred
+thousand; and yet, according to Fontana's mensuration, it could not
+contain above thirty-four thousand persons sitting, allowing a foot and
+an half for each person: for the circuit of the whole building did not
+exceed one thousand five hundred and sixty feet. The amphitheatre at
+Verona is one thousand two hundred and ninety feet in circumference;
+and that of Nismes, one thousand and eighty. The Colossaeum was built
+by Vespasian, who employed thirty thousand Jewish slaves in the work;
+but finished and dedicated by his son Titus, who, on the first day of
+its being opened, produced fifty thousand wild beasts, which were all
+killed in the arena. The Romans were undoubtedly a barbarous people,
+who delighted in horrible spectacles. They viewed with pleasure the
+dead bodies of criminals dragged through the streets, or thrown down
+the Scalae Gemoniae and Tarpeian rock, for their contemplation. Their
+rostra were generally adorned with the heads of some remarkable
+citizens, like Temple-Bar, at London. They even bore the sight of
+Tully's head fixed upon that very rostrum where he had so often
+ravished their ears with all the charms of eloquence, in pleading the
+cause of innocence and public virtue. They took delight in seeing their
+fellow-creatures torn in pieces by wild beasts, in the amphitheatre.
+They shouted with applause when they saw a poor dwarf or slave killed
+by his adversary; but their transports were altogether extravagant,
+when the devoted captives were obliged to fight in troops, till one
+side was entirely butchered by the other. Nero produced four hundred
+senators, and six hundred of the equestrian order, as gladiators in the
+public arena: even the women fought with wild beasts, as well as with
+each other, and drenched the amphitheatres with their blood. Tacitus
+says, "Sed faeminarum illustrium, senatorumque filiorum plures per
+arenam faedati sunt," "But many sons of Senators, and even Matrons of
+the first Rank, exposed themselves in this vile exercise." The
+execrable custom of sacrificing captives or slaves at the tombs of
+their masters and great men, which is still preserved among the negroes
+of Africa, obtained also among the antients, Greeks as well as Romans.
+I could never, without horror and indignation, read that passage in the
+twenty-third book of the Iliad, which describes twelve valiant Trojan
+captives sacrificed by the inhuman Achilles at the tomb of his friend
+Patroclus.
+
+  Dodeka men Troon megathumon uias eathlous
+  Tous ama pantas pur eathiei.
+
+  Twelve generous Trojans slaughtered in their Bloom,
+  With thy lov'd Corse the Fire shall now consume.
+
+Even Virgil makes his pious Hero sacrifice eight Italian youths to the
+manes of Pallas. It is not at all clear to me, that a people is the
+more brave, the more they are accustomed to bloodshed in their public
+entertainments. True bravery is not savage but humane. Some of this
+sanguinary spirit is inherited by the inhabitants of a certain island
+that shall be nameless--but, mum for that. You will naturally suppose
+that the Coliseo was ruined by the barbarians who sacked the city of
+Rome: in effect, they robbed it of its ornaments and valuable
+materials; but it was reserved for the Goths and Vandals of modern
+Rome, to dismantle the edifice, and reduce it to its present ruinous
+condition. One part of it was demolished by pope Paul II. that he might
+employ the stones of it in building the palace of St. Mark. It was
+afterwards dilapidated for the same purposes, by the cardinals Riarius
+and Farnese, which last assumed the tiara under the name of Paul III.
+Notwithstanding these injuries, there is enough standing to convey a
+very sublime idea of ancient magnificence.
+
+The Circi and Naumachia, if considered as buildings and artificial
+basins, are admirable; but if examined as areae intended for horse and
+chariot races, and artificial seas for exhibiting naval engagements,
+they seem to prove that the antient Romans were but indifferently
+skilled and exercised either in horsemanship or naval armaments. The
+inclosure of the emperor Caracalla's circus is still standing, and
+scarce affords breathing room for an English hunter. The Circus
+Maximus, by far the largest in Rome, was not so long as the Mall; and I
+will venture to affirm, that St. James's Park would make a much more
+ample and convenient scene for those diversions. I imagine an old Roman
+would be very much surprised to see an English race on the course at
+New-Market. The Circus Maximus was but three hundred yards in breadth.
+A good part of this was taken up by the spina, or middle space, adorned
+with temples, statues, and two great obelisks; as well as by the
+euripus, or canal, made by order of Julius Caesar, to contain
+crocodiles, and other aquatic animals, which were killed occasionally.
+This was so large, that Heliogabalus, having filled it with excellent
+wine, exhibited naval engagements in it, for the amusement of the
+people. It surrounded three sides of the square, so that the whole
+extent of the race did not much exceed an English mile; and when Probus
+was at the expence of filling the plain of it with fir-trees to form a
+wood for the chace of wild beasts, I question much if this forest was
+more extensive than the plantation in St. James's Park, on the south
+side of the canal: now I leave you to judge what ridicule a king of
+England would incur by converting this part of the park into a chace
+for any species of animals which are counted game in our country.
+
+The Roman emperors seemed more disposed to elevate and surprize, than
+to conduct the public diversions according to the rules of reason and
+propriety. One would imagine, it was with this view they instituted
+their naumachia, or naval engagements, performed by half a dozen small
+gallies of a side in an artificial basin of fresh water. These gallies
+I suppose were not so large as common fishing-smacks, for they were
+moved by two, three, and four oars of a side according to their
+different rates, biremes, triremes, and quadriremes. I know this is a
+knotty point not yet determined; and that some antiquarians believe the
+Roman gallies had different tires or decks of oars; but this is a
+notion very ill supported, and quite contrary to all the figures of
+them that are preserved on antient coins and medals. Suetonius in the
+reign of Domitian, speaking of these naumachia, says, "Edidit navales
+pugnas, pene justarum classium, effosso, et circumducto juxta Tyberim
+lacu, atque inter maximas imbres prospectavit," "He exhibited naval
+engagements of almost intire fleets, in an artificial Lake formed for
+the purpose hard by the Tyber, and viewed them in the midst of
+excessive Rains." This artificial lake was not larger than the piece of
+water in Hyde-Park; and yet the historian says, it was almost large
+enough for real or intire fleets. How would a British sailor relish an
+advertisement that a mock engagement between two squadrons of men of
+war would be exhibited on such a day in the Serpentine river? or that
+the ships of the line taken from the enemy would be carried in
+procession from Hyde-Park-Corner to Tower-wharf? Certain it is,
+Lucullus, in one of his triumphs, had one hundred and ten ships of war
+(naves longas) carried through the streets of Rome. Nothing can give a
+more contemptible idea of their naval power, than this testimony of
+their historians, who declare that their seamen or mariners were formed
+by exercising small row-boats in an inclosed pool of fresh water. Had
+they not the sea within a few miles of them, and the river Tyber
+running through their capital! even this would have been much more
+proper for exercising their watermen, than a pond of still-water, not
+much larger than a cold-bath. I do believe in my conscience that half a
+dozen English frigates would have been able to defeat both the
+contending fleets at the famous battle of Actium, which has been so
+much celebrated in the annals of antiquity, as an event that decided
+the fate of empire.
+
+It would employ me a whole month to describe the thermae or baths, the
+vast ruins of which are still to be seen within the walls of Rome, like
+the remains of so many separate citadels. The thermae Dioclesianae
+might be termed an august academy for the use and instruction of the
+Roman people. The pinacotheca of this building was a complete musaeum
+of all the curiosities of art and nature; and there were public schools
+for all the sciences. If I may judge by my eye, however, the thermae
+Antonianae built by Caracalla, were still more extensive and
+magnificent; they contained cells sufficient for two thousand three
+hundred persons to bathe at one time, without being seen by one
+another. They were adorned with all the charms of painting,
+architecture, and sculpture. The pipes for convoying the water were of
+silver. Many of the lavacra were of precious marble, illuminated by
+lamps of chrystal. Among the statues, were found the famous Toro, and
+Hercole Farnese.
+
+Bathing was certainly necessary to health and cleanliness in a hot
+country like Italy, especially before the use of linen was known: but
+these purposes would have been much better answered by plunging into
+the Tyber, than by using the warm bath in the thermae, which became
+altogether a point of luxury borrowed from the effeminate Asiatics, and
+tended to debilitate the fibres already too much relaxed by the heat of
+the climate. True it is, they had baths of cool water for the summer:
+but in general they used it milk-warm, and often perfumed: they
+likewise indulged in vapour-baths, in order to enjoy a pleasing
+relaxation, which they likewise improved with odoriferous ointments.
+
+The thermae consisted of a great variety of parts and conveniences; the
+natationes, or swimming places; the portici, where people amused
+themselves in walking, conversing, and disputing together, as Cicero
+says, In porticibus deambulantes disputabant; the basilicae, where the
+bathers assembled, before they entered, and after they came out of the
+bath; the atria, or ample courts, adorned with noble colonnades of
+Numidian marble and oriental granite; the ephibia, where the young men
+inured themselves to wrestling and other exercises; the frigidaria, or
+places kept cool by a constant draught of air, promoted by the
+disposition and number of the windows; the calidaria, where the water
+was warmed for the baths; the platanones, or delightful groves of
+sycamore; the stadia, for the performances of the athletae; the
+exedrae, or resting-places, provided with seats for those that were
+weary; the palestrae, where every one chose that exercise which pleased
+him best; the gymnasia, where poets, orators, and philosophers recited
+their works, and harangued for diversion; the eleotesia, where the
+fragrant oils and ointments were kept for the use of the bathers; and
+the conisteria, where the wrestlers were smeared with sand before they
+engaged. Of the thermae in Rome, some were mercenary, and some opened
+gratis. Marcus Agrippa, when he was edile, opened one hundred and
+seventy private baths, for the use of the people. In the public baths,
+where money was taken, each person paid a quadrans, about the value of
+our halfpenny, as Juvenal observes,
+
+  Caedere Sylvano porcum, quadrante lavari.
+
+  The victim Pig to God Sylvanus slay,
+  And for the public Bath a farthing pay.
+
+But after the hour of bathing was past, it sometimes cost a great deal
+more, according to Martial,
+
+  Balnea post decimam, lasso centumque petuntur
+  Quadrantes--
+
+  The bathing hour is past, the waiter tir'd;
+  An hundred Farthings now will be requir'd.
+
+Though there was no distinction in the places between the first
+patrician and the lowest plebeian, yet the nobility used their own
+silver and gold plate, for washing, eating, and drinking in the bath,
+together with towels of the finest linen. They likewise made use of the
+instrument called strigil, which was a kind of flesh-brush; a custom to
+which Persius alludes in this line,
+
+  I puer, et strigiles Crispini ad balnea defer.
+
+  Here, Boy, this Brush to Crispin's Bagnio bear.
+
+The common people contented themselves with sponges. The bathing time
+was from noon till the evening, when the Romans ate their principal
+meal. Notice was given by a bell, or some such instrument, when the
+baths were opened, as we learn from Juvenal,
+
+  Redde Pilam, sonat Aes thermarum, ludere pergis?
+  Virgine vis sola lotus abdire domum.
+
+  Leave off; the Bath Bell rings--what, still play on?
+  Perhaps the maid in private rubs you down.
+
+There were separate places for the two sexes; and indeed there were
+baths opened for the use of women only, at the expence of Agrippina,
+the mother of Nero, and some other matrons of the first quality. The
+use of bathing was become so habitual to the constitutions of the
+Romans, that Galen, in his book De Sanitate tuenda, mentions a certain
+philosopher, who, if he intermitted but one day in his bathing, was
+certainly attacked with a fever. In order to preserve decorum in the
+baths, a set of laws and regulations were published, and the thermae
+were put under the inspection of a censor, who was generally one of the
+first senators in Rome. Agrippa left his gardens and baths, which stood
+near the pantheon, to the Roman people: among the statues that adorned
+them was that of a youth naked, as going into the bath, so elegantly
+formed by the hand of Lysippus, that Tiberius, being struck with the
+beauty of it, ordered it to be transferred into his own palace: but the
+populace raised such a clamour against him, that he was fain to have it
+reconveyed to its former place. These noble baths were restored by
+Adrian, as we read in Spartian; but at present no part of them remains.
+
+With respect to the present state of the old aqueducts, I can give you
+very little satisfaction. I only saw the ruins of that which conveyed
+the aqua Claudia, near the Porta Maggiore, and the Piazza of the
+Lateran. You know there were fourteen of those antient aqueducts, some
+of which brought water to Rome from the distance of forty miles. The
+channels of them were large enough to admit a man armed on horseback;
+and therefore when Rome was besieged by the Goths, who had cut off the
+water, Belisarius fortified them with works to prevent the enemy from
+entering the city by those conveyances. After that period, I suppose
+the antient aqueducts continued dry, and were suffered to run to ruins.
+Without all doubt, the Romans were greatly obliged to those
+benefactors, who raised such stupendous works for the benefit, as well
+as the embellishment of their city: but it might have been supplied
+with the same water through pipes at one hundredth part of the expence;
+and in that case the enemy would not have found it such an easy matter
+to cut it off. Those popes who have provided the modern city so
+plentifully with excellent water, are much to be commended for the care
+and expence, they have bestowed in restoring the streams called acqua
+Virgine, acqua Felice, and acqua Paolina, which afford such abundance
+of water as would plentifully supply a much larger city than modern
+Rome.
+
+It is no wonder that M. Agrippa, the son-in-law, friend, and favourite
+of Augustus, should at the same time have been the idol of the people,
+considering how surprisingly he exerted himself for the emolument,
+convenience, and pleasure of his fellow-citizens. It was he who first
+conducted this acqua Virgine to Rome: he formed seven hundred
+reservoirs in the city; erected one hundred and five fountains; one
+hundred and thirty castella, or conduits, which works he adorned with
+three hundred statues, and four hundred pillars of marble, in the space
+of one year. He also brought into Rome, the aqua Julia, and restored
+the aqueduct of the aqua Marzia, which had fallen to decay. I have
+already observed the great number of baths which he opened for the
+people, and the magnificent thermae, with spacious gardens, which he
+bequeathed to them as a legacy. But these benefactions, great and
+munificent as they seem to be, were not the most important services he
+performed for the city of Rome. The common-sewers were first made by
+order of Tarquinius Priscus, not so much with a view to cleanliness, as
+by way of subterranean drains to the Velabrum, and in order to carry
+off the stagnant water, which remained in the lower parts, after heavy
+rains. The different branches of these channels united at the Forum,
+from whence by the cloaca Maxima, their contents were conveyed into the
+Tyber. This great cloaca was the work of Tarquinius Superbus. Other
+sewers were added by Marcus Cato, and Valerius Flaccus, the censors.
+All these drains having been choaked up and ruinous, were cleared and
+restored by Marcus Agrippa, who likewise undermined the whole city with
+canals of the same kind, for carrying of the filth; he strengthened and
+enlarged the cloaca maxima, so as to make it capable of receiving a
+large cart loaded with hay; and directed seven streams of water into
+these subterranean passages, in order to keep them always clean and
+open. If, notwithstanding all these conveniences, Vespasian was put to
+great expence in removing the ordure from the public streets, we have
+certainly a right to conclude that the antient Romans were not more
+cleanly than the modern Italians.
+
+After the mausolea of Augustus, and Adrian, which I have already
+mentioned, the most remarkable antient sepulchres at Rome, are those of
+Caius Cestius, and Cecilia Metella. The first, which stands by the
+Porta di S. Paolo, is a beautiful pyramid, one hundred and twenty feet
+high, still preserved intire, having a vaulted chamber within-side,
+adorned with some ancient painting, which is now almost effaced. The
+building is of brick, but eased with marble. This Caius Cestius had
+been consul, was very rich, and acted as one of the seven Epulones, who
+superintended the feasts of the gods, called Lectisternia, and
+Pervigilia. He bequeathed his whole fortune to his friend M. Agrippa,
+who was so generous as to give it up to the relations of the testator.
+The monument of Cecilia Metella, commonly called Capo di Bove, is
+without the walls on the Via Appia. This lady was daughter of Metellus
+Creticus, and wife to Crassus, who erected this noble monument to her
+memory. It consisted of two orders, or stories, the first of which was
+a square of hewn stone: the second was a circular tower, having a
+cornice, adorned with ox heads in basso relievo, a circumstance from
+which it takes the name of Capo di Bove. The ox was supposed to be a
+most grateful sacrifice to the gods. Pliny, speaking of bulls and oxen,
+says,
+
+  Hinc victimae optimae et laudatissima deorum placatio.
+
+They were accounted the best Victims and most agreeable to appease the
+anger of the Gods.
+
+This tower was surmounted by a noble cupola or dome, enriched with all
+the ornaments of architecture. The door of the building was of brass;
+and within-side the ashes of Cecilia were deposited in a fluted marble
+urn, of curious workmanship, which is still kept in the Palazzo
+Farnese. At present the surface of the ground is raised so much as to
+cover the first order of the edifice: what we see is no more than the
+round tower, without the dome and its ornaments; and the following
+inscription still remains near the top, facing the Via Appia.
+
+  CAECILLAE
+  Q. CRETICI F.
+  METELLAE
+  CRASSI.
+
+To Caecilia Metella, Daughter of Q. Criticus: wife of Crassus.
+
+Now we are talking of sepulchral inscriptions, I shall conclude this
+letter with the copy of a very singular will, made by Favonius
+Jocundus, who died in Portugal, by which will the precise situation of
+the famous temple of Sylvanus is ascertained.
+
+"Jocundi. Ego gallus Favonius Jocundus P. Favoni F. qui bello contra
+Viriatum Succubui, Jocundum et Prudentem filios, e me et Quintia Fabia
+conjuge mea ortos, et Bonorum Jocundi Patris mei, et eorum, quae mihi
+ipsi acquisivi haeredes relinquo; hac tamen conditione, ut ab urbe
+Romana huc veniant, et ossa hic mea, intra quinquennium exportent, et
+via latina condant in sepulchro, jussu meo condito, et mea voluntate;
+in quo velim neminem mecum, neque servum, neque libertum inseri; et
+velim ossa quorumcunque sepulchro statim meo eruantur, et jura
+Romanorum serventur, in sepulchris ritu majorum retinendis, juxta
+volantatem testatoris; et si secus fecerint, nisi legittimae oriantur
+causae, velim ea omnia, quae filijs meis relinquo, pro reparando templo
+dei Sylvani, quod sub viminali monte est, attribui; manesque mei a
+Pont. max; a flaminibus dialibus, qui in capitolio sunt, opem
+implorent, ad liberorum meorum impietatem ulciscendam; teneanturque
+sacerdotes dei Silvani, me in urbem referre, et sepulchro me meo
+condere. Volo quoque vernas qui domi meae sunt, omnes a praetore urbano
+liberos, cum matribus dimitti, singulisque libram argenti puri, et
+vestem unam dori. In Lusitania. In agro VIII. Cal Quintilis, bello
+viriatino."
+
+I, Gallus Favonius Jocundus, son of P. Favonius, dying in the war
+against Viriatus, declare my sons Jocundus and Prudens, by my wife
+Quintia Fabia, joint Heirs of my Estate, real and personal; on
+condition, however, that they come hither within a time of five years
+from this my last will, and transport my remains to Rome to be
+deposited in my Sepulchre built in the via latina by my own order and
+Direction: and it is my will that neither slave nor freedman shall be
+interred with me in the said tomb; that if any such there be, they
+shall be removed, and the Roman law obeyed, in preserving in the
+antient Form the sepulchre according to the will of the Testator. If
+they act otherwise without just cause, it is my will that the whole
+estate, which I now bequeathe to my children, shall be applied to the
+Reparation of the Temple of the God Sylvanus, at the foot of Mount
+Viminalis; and that my Manes [The Manes were an order of Gods supposed
+to take cognisance of such injuries.] I shall implore the assistance of
+the Pontifex maximus, and the Flaminisdiales in the Capitol, to avenge
+the Impiety of my children; and the priests of Sylvanus shall engage to
+bring my remains to Rome and see them decently deposited in my own
+Sepulchre. It is also my will that all my domestic slaves shall be
+declared free by the city Praetor, and dismissed with their mothers,
+after having received each, a suit of cloaths, and a pound weight of
+pure silver from my heirs and Executors.--At my farm in Lusitania, July
+25. During the Viriatin war.
+
+My paper scarce affords room to assure you that I am ever,--Dear Sir,
+Your faithful, etc.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXIII
+
+NICE, March 30, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--YOU must not imagine I saw one half of the valuable pictures
+and statues of Rome; there is such a vast number of both in this
+capital, that I might have spent a whole year in taking even a
+transient view of them; and, after all, some of them would have been
+overlooked. The most celebrated pieces, however, I have seen; and
+therefore my curiosity is satisfied. Perhaps, if I had the nice
+discernment and delicate sensibility of a true connoisseur, this
+superficial glimpse would have served only to whet my appetite, and to
+detain me the whole winter at Rome. In my progress through the Vatican,
+I was much pleased with the School of Athens, by Raphael, a piece which
+hath suffered from the dampness of the air. The four boys attending to
+the demonstration of the mathematician are admirably varied in the
+expression. Mr. Webb's criticism on this artist is certainly just. He
+was perhaps the best ethic painter that ever the world produced. No man
+ever expressed the sentiments so happily, in visage, attitude, and
+gesture: but he seems to have had too much phlegm to strike off the
+grand passions, or reach the sublime parts of painting. He has the
+serenity of Virgil, but wants the fire of Homer. There is nothing in
+his Parnassus which struck me, but the ludicrous impropriety of
+Apollo's playing upon a fiddle, for the entertainment of the nine
+muses. [Upon better information I must retract this censure; in as
+much, as I find there was really a Musical Instrument among the
+antients of this Figure, as appears by a small statue in Bronze, to be
+still seen in the Florentine Collection.]
+
+The Last Judgment, by Buonaroti, in the chapel of Sixtus IV. produced
+to my eye the same sort of confusion, that perplexes my ear at a grand
+concert, consisting of a great variety of instruments: or rather, when
+a number of people are talking all at once. I was pleased with the
+strength of expression, exhibited in single figures, and separate
+groupes: but, the whole together is a mere mob, without subordination,
+keeping, or repose. A painter ought to avoid all subjects that require
+a multiplicity of groupes and figures; because it is not in the power
+of that art to unite a great number in one point of view, so as to
+maintain that dependence which they ought to have upon one another.
+Michael Angelo, with all his skill in anatomy, his correctness of
+design, his grand composition, his fire, and force of expression, seems
+to have had very little idea of grace. One would imagine he had chosen
+his kings, heroes, cardinals, and prelates, from among the facchini of
+Rome: that he really drew his Jesus on the Cross, from the agonies of
+some vulgar assassin expiring on the wheel; and that the originals of
+his Bambini, with their mothers, were literally found in a stable. In
+the Sala Regia, from whence the Sistian chapel is detached, we see,
+among other exploits of catholic heroes, a representation of the
+massacre of the protestants in Paris, Tholouse, and other parts of
+France, on the eve of St. Bartholomew, thus described in the
+Descrizione di Roma, "Nella prima pittura, esprime Georgio Vasari
+l'istoria del Coligni, grand' amiraglio, di Francia, che come capo de
+ribelli, e degl'ugonotti, fu ucciso; e nell'altra vicina, la strage
+fatta in Parigi, e nel regno, de rebelli, e degl'Ugonotti." "In the
+first picture, George Vasari represents the history of Coligni, high
+admiral of France, who was slain as head of the rebels and huegonots;
+and in another near it, the slaughter that was made of the rebels and
+huegonots in Paris and other parts of the kingdom." Thus the court of
+Rome hath employed their artists to celebrate and perpetuate, as a
+meritorious action, the most perfidious, cruel, and infamous massacre,
+that ever disgraced the annals of any nation.
+
+I need not mention the two equestrian statues of Constantine the Great,
+and Charlemagne, which stand at opposite ends of the great portico of
+St. Peter's church; because there is nothing in them which particularly
+engaged my attention. The sleeping Cleopatra, as you enter the court of
+the Belvedere, in the Vatican, is much admired; but I was better
+pleased with the Apollo, which I take to be the most beautiful statue
+that ever was formed. The Nile, which lies in the open court,
+surmounted with the little children, has infinite merit; but is much
+damaged, and altogether neglected. Whether it is the same described in
+Pliny, as having been placed by Vespasian in the Temple of Peace, I do
+not know. The sixteen children playing about it, denoted the swelling
+of the Nile, which never rose above sixteen cubits. As for the famous
+groupe of Laocoon, it surpassed my expectation. It was not without
+reason that Buonaroti called it a portentous work; and Pliny has done
+it no more than justice in saying it is the most excellent piece that
+ever was cut in marble; and yet the famous Fulvius Ursini is of opinion
+that this is not the same statue which Pliny described. His reasons,
+mentioned by Montfaucon, are these. The statues described by Pliny were
+of one stone; but these are not. Antonioli, the antiquary, has in his
+Possession, pieces of Laocoon's snakes, which were found in the ground,
+where the baths of Titus actually stood, agreeable to Pliny, who says
+these statues were placed in the buildings of Titus. Be that as it may,
+the work which we now see does honour to antiquity. As you have seen
+innumerable copies and casts of it, in marble, plaister, copper, lead,
+drawings, and prints, and read the description of it in Keysler, and
+twenty other books of travels, I shall say nothing more on the subject;
+but that neither they nor I, nor any other person, could say too much
+in its praise. It is not of one piece indeed. In that particular Pliny
+himself might be mistaken. "Opus omnibus et picturae, et statuariae
+artis praeponendum. Ex uno lapide eum et Liberos draconumque mirabiles
+nexus de consilii sententia fecere succubi artifices." "A work
+preferable to all the other Efforts of Painting and Statuary. The most
+excellent artists joined their Talents in making the Father and his
+Sons, together with the admirable Twinings of the Serpents, of one
+Block." Buonaroti discovered the joinings, though they were so artfully
+concealed as to be before invisible. This amazing groupe is the work of
+three Rhodian sculptors, called Agesander, Polydore, and Athenodorus,
+and was found in the thermae of Titus Vespasian, still supposing it to
+be the true antique. As for the torso, or mutilated trunk of a statue,
+which is called the school of Michael Angelo, I had not time to
+consider it attentively; nor taste enough to perceive its beauties at
+first sight. The famous horses on Monte Cavallo, before the pope's
+palace, which are said to have been made in emulation, by Phidias and
+Praxiteles, I have seen, and likewise those in the front of the
+Capitol, with the statues of Castor and Pollux; but what pleased me
+infinitely more than all of them together, is the equestrian statue of
+Corinthian brass, standing in the middle of this Piazza (I mean at the
+Capitol) said to represent the emperor Marcus Aurelius. Others suppose
+it was intended for Lucius Verus; a third set of antiquaries contend
+for Lucius Septimius Severus; and a fourth, for Constantine, because it
+stood in the Piazza of the Lateran palace, built by that emperor, from
+whence pope Paul III. caused it to be removed to the Capitol. I
+considered the trophy of Marius as a very curious piece of sculpture,
+and admired the two sphinxes at the bottom of the stairs leading to
+this Piazza, as the only good specimens of design I have ever seen from
+Aegypt: for the two idols of that country, which stand in the ground
+floor of the Musaeum of the Capitol, and indeed all the Aegyptian
+statues in the Camera Aegyptiaca of this very building, are such
+monstrous misrepresentations of nature, that they never could have
+obtained a place among the statues of Rome, except as curiosities of
+foreign superstition, or on account of the materials, as they are
+generally of basaltes, porphyry, or oriental granite.
+
+At the farther end of the court of this Musaeum, fronting the entrance,
+is a handsome fountain, with the statue of a river-god reclining on his
+urn; this is no other than the famous Marforio, so called from its
+having been found in Martis Fore. It is remarkable only as being the
+conveyance of the answers to the satires which are found pasted upon
+Pasquin, another mutilated statue, standing at the corner of a street.
+
+The marble coffin, supposed to have contained the ashes of Alexander
+Severus, which we find in one of these apartments, is a curious
+antique, valuable for its sculpture in basso relievo, especially for
+the figures on the cover, representilig that emperor and his mother
+Julia Mammea.
+
+I was sorry I had not time to consider the antient plan of Rome,
+disposed in six classes, on the stair-case of this Musaeum, which was
+brought hither from a temple that stood in the Forum Boarium, now
+called Campo vaccine.
+
+It would be ridiculous in me to enter into a detail of the vast
+collection of marbles, basso relievos, inscriptions, urns, busts, and
+statues, which are placed in the upper apartments of this edifice. I
+saw them but once, and then I was struck with the following
+particulars. A bacchanalian drunk; a Jupiter and Leda, at least equal
+to that in the gallery at Florence; an old praesica, or hired mourner,
+very much resembling those wrinkled hags still employed in Ireland, and
+in the Highlands of Scotland, to sing the coronach at funerals, in
+praise of the deceased; the famous Antinous, an elegant figure, which
+Pousin studied as canon or rule of symmetry; the two fauns; and above
+all the mirmillone, or dying gladiator; the attitude of the body, the
+expression of the countenance, the elegance of the limbs, and the
+swelling of the muscles, in this statue, are universally admired; but
+the execution of the back is incredibly delicate. The course of the
+muscles called longissimi dorsi, are so naturally marked and tenderly
+executed, that the marble actually emulates the softness of the flesh;
+and you may count all the spines of the vertebrae, raising up the skin
+as in the living body; yet this statue, with all its merit, seems
+inferior to the celebrated dying gladiator of Ctesilas, as described by
+Pliny, who says the expression of it was such, as appears altogether
+incredible. In the court, on the opposite side of the Capitol, there is
+an admirable statue of a lion devouring an horse, which was found by
+the gate of Ostia, near the pyramid of Caius Cestius; and here on the
+left hand, under a colonade, is what they call the Columna Rostrata,
+erected in honour of Caius Duilius, who first triumphed over the
+Carthaginians by sea. But this is a modern pillar, with the old
+inscription, which is so defaced as not to be legible. Among the
+pictures in the gallery and saloon above, what pleased me most was the
+Bacchus and Ariadne of Guido Rheni; and the wolf suckling Romulus and
+Remus, by Rubens. The court of the Palazzo Farnese is surrounded with
+antique statues, among which the most celebrated are, the Flora, with a
+most delicate drapery; the gladiator, with a dead boy over his
+shoulder; the Hercules, with the spoils of the Nemean lion, but that
+which the connoisseurs justly esteem above all the rest is Hercules, by
+Glycon, which you know as well as I do, by the great reputation it has
+acquired. This admirable statue having been found without the legs,
+these were supplied by Gulielmo de la Porta so happily, that when
+afterwards the original limbs were discovered, Michael Angelo preferred
+those of the modern artist, both in grace and proportion; and they have
+been retained accordingly. In a little house, or shed, behind the
+court, is preserved the wonderful group of Dirce, commonly called the
+Toro Farnese, which was brought hither from the thermae Caracallae.
+There is such spirit, ferocity, and indignant resistance expressed in
+the bull, to whose horns Dirce is tied by the hair, that I have never
+seen anything like it, either upon canvass, or in stone. The statues of
+the two brothers endeavouring to throw him into the sea are beautiful
+figures, finely contrasted; and the rope, which one of them holds in a
+sort of loose coil, is so surprisingly chizzelled, that one can hardly
+believe it is of stone. As for Dirce herself, she seems to be but a
+subaltern character; there is a dog upon his hind legs barking at the
+bull, which is much admired. This amazing groupe was cut out of one
+stone, by Appollonius and Tauriscus, two sculptors of Rhodes; and is
+mentioned by Pliny in the thirty-sixth book of his Natural History. All
+the precious monuments of art, which have come down to us from
+antiquity, are the productions of Greek artists. The Romans had taste
+enough to admire the arts of Greece, as plainly appears by the great
+collections they made of their statues and pictures, as well as by
+adopting their architecture and musick: but I do not remember to have
+read of any Roman who made a great figure either as a painter or a
+statuary. It is not enough to say those professions were not honourable
+in Rome, because painting, sculpture, and musick, even rhetoric,
+physic, and philosophy were practised and taught by slaves. The arts
+were always honoured and revered at Rome, even when the professors of
+them happened to be slaves by the accidents and iniquity of fortune.
+The business of painting and statuary was so profitable, that in a free
+republic, like that of Rome, they must have been greedily embraced by a
+great number of individuals: but, in all probability, the Roman soil
+produced no extraordinary genius for those arts. Like the English of
+this day, they made a figure in poetry, history, and ethics; but the
+excellence of painting, sculpture, architecture, and music, they never
+could attain. In the Palazzo Picchini I saw three beautiful figures,
+the celebrated statues of Meleager, the boar, and dog; together with a
+wolf, of excellent workmanship. The celebrated statue of Moses, by
+Michael Angelo, in the church of St. Peter in Vincula, I beheld with
+pleasure; as well as that of Christ, by the same hand, in the Church of
+S. Maria sopra Minerva. The right foot, covered with bronze, gilt, is
+much kissed by the devotees. I suppose it is looked upon as a specific
+for the toothache; for, I saw a cavalier, in years, and an old woman
+successively rub their gums upon it, with the appearance of the most
+painful perseverance.
+
+You need not doubt but that I went to the church of St. Peter in
+Montorio, to view the celebrated Transfiguration, by Raphael, which, if
+it was mine, I would cut in two parts. The three figures in the air
+attract the eye so strongly, that little or no attention is payed to
+those below on the mountain. I apprehend that the nature of the subject
+does not admit of that keeping and dependence, which ought to be
+maintained in the disposition of the lights and shadows in a picture.
+The groupes seem to be intirely independent of each other. The
+extraordinary merit of this piece, I imagine, consists, not only in the
+expression of divinity on the face of Christ; but also in the
+surprising lightness of the figure, that hovers like a beautiful
+exhalation in the air. In the church of St. Luke, I was not at all
+struck by the picture of that saint, drawing the portrait of the Virgin
+Mary, although it is admired as one of the best pieces of Raphael.
+Indeed it made so little impression upon me, that I do not even
+remember the disposition of the figures. The altar-piece, by Andrea
+Sacchi, in the church of St. Romauldus, would have more merit, if the
+figure of the saint himself had more consequence, and was represented
+in a stronger light. In the Palazzo Borghese, I chiefly admired the
+following pieces: a Venus with two nymphs; and another with Cupid, both
+by Titian: an excellent Roman Piety, by Leonardo da Vinci; and the
+celebrated Muse, by Dominechino, which is a fine, jolly, buxom figure.
+At the palace of Colorina Connestabile, I was charmed with the
+Herodias, by Guido Rheni; a young Christ; and a Madonna, by Raphael;
+and four landscapes, two by Claude Lorraine, and the other two, by
+Salvator Rosa. In the palazetto, or summerhouse belonging to the
+Palazzo Rospigliosi, I had the satisfaction of contemplating the Aurora
+of Guido, the colours of which still remain in high perfection,
+notwithstanding the common report that the piece is spoiled by the
+dampness of the apartment. The print of this picture, by Freij, with
+all its merit, conveys but an imperfect idea of the beauty of the
+original. In the Palazzo Barberini, there is a great collection of
+marbles and pictures: among the first, I was attracted by a beautiful
+statue of Venus; a sleeping faun, of curious workmanship; a charming
+Bacchus, lying on an antient sculpture, and the famous Narcissus. Of
+the pictures, what gave me most pleasure was the Magdalen of Guido,
+infinitely superior to that by Le Brun in the church of the Carmelites
+at Paris; the Virgin, by Titian; a Madonna, by Raphael, but not
+comparable to that which is in the Palazzo de Pitti, at Florence; and
+the death of Germanicus, by Poussin, which I take to be one of the best
+pieces in this great collection. In the Palazzo Falconeri there is a
+beautiful St. Cecilia, by Guercino; a holy family, by Raphael; and a
+fine expressive figure of St. Peter weeping, by Dominechino. In the
+Palazzo Altieri, I admired a picture, by Carlo Maratti, representing a
+saint calling down lightning from heaven to destroy blasphemers. It was
+the figure of the saint I admired, merely as a portrait. The execution
+of the other parts was tame enough: perhaps they were purposely kept
+down, in order to preserve the importance of the principal figure. I
+imagine Salvator Rosa would have made a different disposition on the
+same subject: that amidst the darkness of a tempest, he would have
+illuminated the blasphemer with the flash of lightning by which he was
+destroyed: this would have thrown a dismal gleam upon his countenance,
+distorted by the horror of his situation as well as by the effects of
+the fire; and rendered the whole scene dreadfully picturesque. In the
+same palace, I saw the famous holy family, by Corregio, which he left
+unfinished, and no other artist would undertake to supply; for what
+reason I know not. Here too is a judgment of Paris, by Titian, which is
+reckoned a very valuable piece. In the Palazzo Odescalchi, there is a
+holy family, by Buonaroti, and another by Raphael, both counted
+excellent, though in very different stiles, extremely characteristic of
+those two great rival artists.
+
+If I was silly enough to make a parade, I might mention some hundreds
+more of marbles and pictures, which I really saw at Rome; and even eke
+out that number with a huge list of those I did not see: but whatever
+vanity I may have, it has not taken this turn; and I assure you, upon
+my word and honour, I have described nothing but what actually fell
+under my own observation. As for my critical remarks, I am afraid you
+will think them too superficial and capricious to belong to any other
+person but--Your humble servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXIV
+
+NICE, April 2, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--I have nothing to communicate touching the library of the
+Vatican, which, with respect to the apartments and their ornaments, is
+undoubtedly magnificent. The number of books it contains does not
+exceed forty thousand volumes, which are all concealed from the view,
+and locked up in presses: as for the manuscripts, I saw none but such
+as are commonly presented to strangers of our nation; some very old
+copies of Virgil and Terence; two or three Missals, curiously
+illuminated; the book De Septem Sacramentis, written in Latin by Henry
+VIII. against Luther; and some of that prince's love letters to Anne
+Boleyn. I likewise visited the Libreria Casanatense, belonging to the
+convent of the church called S. Maria Sopra Minerva. I had a
+recommendation to the principal librarian, a Dominican friar, who
+received me very politely, and regaled me with a sight of several
+curious MSS. of the classics.
+
+Having satisfied my curiosity at Rome, I prepared for my departure, and
+as the road between Radicofani and Montefiascone is very stony and
+disagreeable, I asked the banker Barazzi, if there was not a better way
+of returning to Florence, expressing a desire at the same time to see
+the cascade of Terni. He assured me that the road by Terni was forty
+miles shorter than the other, much more safe and easy, and accommodated
+with exceeding good auberges. Had I taken the trouble to cast my eyes
+upon the map, I must have seen, that the road by Terni, instead of
+being forty miles shorter, was much longer than the other: but this was
+not the only mistake of Signiore Barazzi. Great part of this way lies
+over steep mountains, or along the side of precipices, which render
+travelling in a carriage exceeding tedious, dreadful, and dangerous;
+and as for the public houses, they are in all respects the most
+execrable that ever I entered. I will venture to say that a common
+prisoner in the Marshalsea or King's-Bench is more cleanly and
+commodiously lodged than we were in many places on this road. The
+houses are abominably nasty, and generally destitute of provision: when
+eatables were found, we were almost poisoned by their cookery: their
+beds were without curtains or bedstead, and their windows without
+glass; and for this sort of entertainment we payed as much as if we had
+been genteelly lodged, and sumptuously treated. I repeat it again; of
+all the people I ever knew, the Italians are the most villainously
+rapacious. The first day, having passed Civita Castellana, a small town
+standing on the top of a hill, we put up at what was called an
+excellent inn, where cardinals, prelates, and princes, often lodged.
+Being meagre day, there was nothing but bread, eggs, and anchovies, in
+the house. I went to bed without supper, and lay in a pallet, where I
+was half devoured by vermin. Next day, our road, in some places, lay
+along precipices, which over-hang the Nera or Nar, celebrated in
+antiquity for its white foam, and the sulphureous quality of its waters.
+
+  Sulfurea nar albus aqua, fontesque velini.
+
+  Sulphureous nar, and the Velinian streams.
+
+It is a small, but rapid stream, which runs not far from hence, into
+the Tyber. Passing Utricoli, near the ruins of the ancient Ocriculum,
+and the romantic town of Narni, situated on the top of a mountain, in
+the neighbourhood of which is still seen standing one arch of the
+stupendous bridge built by Augustus Caesar, we arrived at Terni, and
+hiring a couple of chaises before dinner, went to see the famous
+Cascata delle Marmore, which is at the distance of three miles. We
+ascended a steep mountain by a narrow road formed for a considerable
+way along the brink of a precipice, at the bottom of which brawls the
+furious river Nera, after having received the Velino. This last is the
+stream which, running from the Lago delle Marmore, forms the cascade by
+falling over a precipice about one hundred and sixty feet high. Such a
+body of water rushing down the mountain; the smoak, vapour, and thick
+white mist which it raises; the double rainbow which these particles
+continually exhibit while the sun shines; the deafening sound of the
+cataract; the vicinity of a great number of other stupendous rocks and
+precipices, with the dashing, boiling, and foaming of the two rivers
+below, produce altogether an object of tremendous sublimity: yet great
+part of its effect is lost, for want of a proper point of view, from
+which it might be contemplated. The cascade would appear much more
+astonishing, were it not in some measure eclipsed by the superior
+height of the neighbouring mountains. You have not a front perspective;
+but are obliged to view it obliquely on one side, standing upon the
+brink of a precipice, which cannot be approached without horror. This
+station might be rendered much more accessible, and altogether secure,
+for the expence of four or five zequines; and a small tax might be
+levied for the purpose from travellers by the aubergiste at Terni, who
+lets his calasses for half a zequine a piece to those that are curious
+to see this phaenomenon. Besides the two postilions whom I payed for
+this excursion, at the rate of one stage in posting, there was a fellow
+who posted himself behind one of the chaises, by way of going to point
+out the different views of the cascade; and his demand amounted to four
+or five pauls. To give you an idea of the extortion of those villainous
+publicans, I must tell you that for a dinner and supper, which even
+hunger could not tempt us to eat, and a night's lodging in three
+truckle beds, I paid eighty pauls, amounting to forty shillings
+sterling. You ask me why I submitted to such imposition? I will tell
+you--I have more than once in my travels made a formal complaint of the
+exorbitancy of a publican, to the magistrate of the place; but I never
+received any satisfaction, and have lost abundance of time. Had I
+proceeded to manual correction, I should have alarmed and terrified the
+women: had I peremptorily refused to pay the sum total, the landlord,
+who was the post-master, would not have supplied me with horses to
+proceed on my journey. I tried the experiment at Muy in France, where I
+put myself into a violent passion, had abundance of trouble, was
+detained till it was almost night, and after all found myself obliged
+to submit, furnishing at the same time matter of infinite triumph to
+the mob, which had surrounded the coach, and interested themselves
+warmly in favour of their townsman. If some young patriot, in good
+health and spirits, would take the trouble as often as he is imposed
+upon by the road in travelling, to have recourse to the fountain-head,
+and prefer a regular complaint to the comptroller of the posts, either
+in France or Italy, he would have ample satisfaction, and do great
+service to the community. Terni is an agreeable town, pretty well
+built, and situated in a pleasant valley, between two branches of the
+river Nera, whence it was called by the antients, Interamna. Here is an
+agreeable piazza, where stands a church that was of old a heathen
+temple. There are some valuable paintings in the church. The people are
+said to be very civil, and provisions to be extremely cheap. It was the
+birthplace of the emperor Tacitus, as well as of the historian of the
+same name. In our journey from hence to Spoleto, we passed over a high
+mountain, (called, from its height, Somma) where it was necessary to
+have two additional horses to the carriage, and the road winds along a
+precipice. which is equally dangerous and dreadful. We passed through
+part of Spoleto, the capital of Umbria, which is a pretty large city.
+Of this, however, I give no other account from my own observation, but
+that I saw at a distance the famous Gothic aqueduct of brick: this is
+mentioned by Addison as a structure, which, for the height of its
+arches, is not equalled by any thing in Europe. The road from hence to
+Foligno, where we lay, is kept in good order, and lies through a
+delightful plain, laid out into beautiful inclosures, abounding with
+wine, oil, corn, and cattle, and watered by the pastoral streams of the
+famous river Clitumnus, which takes its rise in three or four separate
+rivulets issuing from a rock near the highway. On the right-hand, we
+saw several towns situated on rising grounds, and among the rest, that
+of Assissio, famous for the birth of St. Francis, whose body, being
+here deposited, occasions a concourse of pilgrims. We met a Roman
+princess going thither with a grand retinue, in consequence of a vow
+she had made for the re-establishment of her health. Foligno, the
+Fulginium of the antients, is a small town, not unpleasant, lying in
+the midst of mulberry plantations, vineyards, and corn-fields, and
+built on both sides of the little river Topino. In choosing our beds at
+the inn, I perceived one chamber locked, and desired it might be
+opened; upon which the cameriere declared with some reluctance,
+"Besogna dire a su' eccellenza; poco fa, che una bestia e morta in
+questa camera, e non e ancora lustrata," "Your Excellency must know
+that a filthy Beast died lately in that Chamber, and it is not yet
+purified and put in order." When I enquired what beast it was, he
+replied, "Un'eretico Inglese," "An English heretic." I suppose he would
+not have made so free with our country and religion, if he had not
+taken us for German catholics, as we afterwards learned from Mr. R--i.
+Next day, we crossed the Tyber, over a handsome bridge, and in mounting
+the steep hill upon which the city of Perugia stands, our horses being
+exhausted, were dragged backwards by the weight of the carriage to the
+very edge of a precipice, where, happily for us, a man passing that
+way, placed a large stone behind one of the wheels, which stopped their
+motion, otherwise we should have been all dashed in pieces. We had
+another ugly hill to ascend within the city, which was more difficult
+and dangerous than the other: but the postilions, and the other beasts
+made such efforts, that we mounted without the least stop, to the
+summit, where we found ourselves in a large piazza, where the horses
+are always changed. There being no relays at the post, we were obliged
+to stay the whole day and night at Perugia, which is a considerable
+city, built upon the acclivity of a hill, adorned with some elegant
+fountains, and several handsome churches, containing some valuable
+pictures by Guido, Raphael, and his master Pietro Perugino, who was a
+native of this place. The next stage is on the banks of the lake, which
+was the Thrasimene of the antients, a beautiful piece of water, above
+thirty miles in circumference, having three islands, abounding with
+excellent fish: upon a peninsula of it, there is a town and castle. It
+was in this neighbourhood where the consul Flaminius was totally
+defeated with great slaughter by Hannibal. From Perugia to Florence,
+the posts are all double, and the road is so bad that we never could
+travel above eight and twenty miles a day. We were often obliged to
+quit the carriage, and walk up steep mountains; and the way in general
+was so unequal and stony, that we were jolted even to the danger of our
+lives. I never felt any sort of exercise or fatigue so intolerable; and
+I did not fail to bestow an hundred benedictions per diem upon the
+banker Barazzi, by whose advice we had taken this road; yet there was
+no remedy but patience. If the coach had not been incredibly strong, it
+must have been shattered to pieces. The fifth night we passed at a
+place called Camoccia, a miserable cabaret, where we were fain to cook
+our own supper, and lay in a musty chamber, which had never known a
+fire, and indeed had no fire-place, and where we ran the risque of
+being devoured by rats. Next day one of the irons of the coach gave way
+at Arezzo, where we were detained two hours before it could be
+accommodated. I might have taken this opportunity to view the remains
+of the antient Etruscan amphitheatre, and the temple of Hercules,
+described by the cavalier Lorenzo Guazzesi, as standing in the
+neighbourhood of this place: but the blacksmith assured me his work
+would be finished in a few minutes; and as I had nothing so much at
+heart as the speedy accomplishment of this disagreeable journey, I
+chose to suppress my curiosity, rather than be the occasion of a
+moment's delay. But all the nights we had hitherto passed were
+comfortable in comparison to this, which we suffered at a small
+village, the name of which I do not remember. The house was dismal and
+dirty beyond all description; the bed-cloaths filthy enough to turn the
+stomach of a muleteer; and the victuals cooked in such a manner, that
+even a Hottentot could not have beheld them without loathing. We had
+sheets of our own, which were spread upon a mattrass, and here I took
+my repose wrapped in a greatcoat, if that could be called repose which
+was interrupted by the innumerable stings of vermin. In the morning, I
+was seized with a dangerous fit of hooping-cough, which terrified my
+wife, alarmed my people, and brought the whole community into the
+house. I had undergone just such another at Paris, about a year before.
+This forenoon, one of our coach wheels flew off in the neighbourhood of
+Ancisa, a small town, where we were detained above two hours by this
+accident; a delay which was productive of much disappointment, danger,
+vexation, and fatigue. There being no horses at the last post, we were
+obliged to wait until those which brought us thither were sufficiently
+refreshed to proceed. Understanding that all the gates of Florence are
+shut at six, except two that are kept open for the accommodation of
+travellers; and that to reach the nearest of these gates, it was
+necessary to pass the river Arno in a ferry-boat, which could not
+transport the carriage; I determined to send my servant before with a
+light chaise to enter the nearest gate before it was shut, and provide
+a coach to come and take us up at the side of the river, where we
+should be obliged to pass in the boat: for I could not bear the
+thoughts of lying another night in a common cabaret. Here, however,
+another difficulty occurred. There was but one chaise, and a dragoon
+officer, in the imperial troops, insisted upon his having bespoke it
+for himself and his servant. A long dispute ensued, which had like to
+have produced a quarrel: but at length I accommodated matters, by
+telling the officer that he should have a place in it gratis, and his
+servant might ride a-horse-back. He accepted the offer without
+hesitation; but, in the mean time, we set out in the coach before them,
+and having proceeded about a couple of miles, the road was so deep from
+a heavy rain, and the beasts were so fatigued, that they could not
+proceed. The postilions scourging the poor animals with great
+barbarity, they made an effort, and pulled the coach to the brink of a
+precipice, or rather a kind of hollow-way, which might be about seven
+or eight feet lower than the road. Here my wife and I leaped out, and
+stood under the rain up to the ancles in mud; while the postilions
+still exercising their whips, one of the fore-horses fairly tumbled
+down the descent, arid hung by the neck, so that he was almost
+strangled before he could be disengaged from the traces, by the
+assistance of some foot travellers that happened to pass. While we
+remained in this dilemma, the chaise, with the officer and my servant,
+coming up, we exchanged places; my wife and I proceeded in the chaise,
+and left them with Miss C-- and Mr. R--, to follow in the coach. The
+road from hence to Florence is nothing but a succession of steep
+mountains, paved and conducted in such a manner, that one would imagine
+the design had been to render it impracticable by any sort of
+wheel-carriage. Notwithstanding all our endeavours, I found it would be
+impossible to enter Florence before the gates were shut. I flattered
+and threatened the driver by turns: but the fellow, who had been
+remarkably civil at first, grew sullen and impertinent. He told me I
+must not think of reaching Florence: that the boat would not take the
+carriage on board; and that from the other side, I must walk five miles
+before I should reach the gate that was open: but he would carry me to
+an excellent osteria, where I should be entertained and lodged like a
+prince. I was now convinced that he had lingered on purpose to serve
+this inn-keeper; and I took it for granted that what he told me of the
+distance between the ferry and the gate was a lie. It was eight o'clock
+when we arrived at his inn. I alighted with my wife to view the
+chambers, desiring he would not put up his horses. Finding it was a
+villainous house, we came forth, and, by this time, the horses were put
+up. I asked the fellow how he durst presume to contradict my orders,
+and commanded him to put them to the chaise. He asked in his turn if I
+was mad? If I thought I and the lady had strength and courage enough to
+walk five miles in the dark, through a road which we did not know, and
+which was broke up by a continued rain of two days? I told him he was
+an impertinent rascal, and as he still hesitated, I collared him with
+one hand, and shook my cane over his head with the other. It was the
+only weapon I had, either offensive or defensive; for I had left my
+sword, and musquetoon in the coach. At length the fellow obeyed, though
+with great reluctance, cracking many severe jokes upon us in the mean
+time, and being joined in his raillery by the inn-keeper, who had all
+the external marks of a ruffian. The house stood in a solitary
+situation, and not a soul appeared but these two miscreants, so that
+they might have murdered us without fear of detection. "You do not like
+the apartments? (said one) to be sure they were not fitted up for
+persons of your rank and quality!" "You will be glad of a worse
+chamber, (continued the other) before you get to bed." "If you walk to
+Florence tonight, you will sleep so sound, that the fleas will not
+disturb you." "Take care you do not take up your night's lodging in the
+middle of the road, or in the ditch of the city-wall." I fired inwardly
+at these sarcasms, to which, however, I made no reply; and my wife was
+almost dead with fear. In the road from hence to the boat, we met with
+an ill-looking fellow, who offered his service to conduct us into the
+city, and such was our situation, that I was fain to accept his
+proposal, especially as we had two small boxes in the chaise by
+accident, containing some caps and laces belonging to my wife, I still
+hoped the postilion had exaggerated in the distance between the boat
+and the city gate, and was confirmed in this opinion by the ferryman,
+who said we had not above half a league to walk. Behold us then in this
+expedition; myself wrapped up in a very heavy greatcoat, and my cane in
+my hand. I did not imagine I could have walked a couple of miles in
+this equipage, had my life been depending; my wife a delicate creature,
+who had scarce ever walked a mile in her life; and the ragamuffin
+before us with our boxes under his arm. The night was dark and wet; the
+road slippery and dirty; not a soul was seen, nor a sound was heard:
+all was silent, dreary, and horrible. I laid my account with a violent
+fit of illness from the cold I should infallibly catch, if I escaped
+assassination, the fears of which were the more troublesome as I had no
+weapon to defend our lives. While I laboured under the weight of my
+greatcoat which made the streams of sweat flow down my face and
+shoulders, I was plunging in the mud, up to the mid-leg at every step;
+and at the same time obliged to support my wife, who wept in silence,
+half dead with terror and fatigue. To crown our vexation, our conductor
+walked so fast, that he was often out of sight, and I imagined he had
+run away with the boxes. All I could do on these occasions, was to
+hollow as loud as I could, and swear horribly that I would blow his
+brains out. I did not know but these oaths and menaces might keep other
+rogues in awe. In this manner did we travel three long miles, making
+almost an intire circuit of the city-wall, without seeing the face of a
+human creature, and at length reached the gate, where we were examined
+by the guard, and allowed to pass, after they had told us it was a long
+mile from thence to the house of Vanini, where we proposed to lodge. No
+matter, being now fairly within the city, I plucked up my spirits, and
+performed the rest of the journey with such ease, that I am persuaded,
+I could have walked at the same pace all night long, without being very
+much fatigued. It was near ten at night, when we entered the auberge in
+such a draggled and miserable condition, that Mrs. Vanini almost
+fainted at sight of us, on the supposition that we had met with some
+terrible disaster, and that the rest of the company were killed. My
+wife and I were immediately accommodated with dry stockings and shoes,
+a warm apartment, and a good supper, which I ate with great
+satisfaction, arising not only from our having happily survived the
+adventure, but also from a conviction that my strength and constitution
+were wonderfully repaired: not but that I still expected a severe cold,
+attended with a terrible fit of the asthma: but in this I was luckily
+disappointed. I now for the first time drank to the health of my
+physician Barazzi, fully persuaded that the hardships and violent
+exercise I underwent by following his advice, had greatly contributed
+to the re-establishment of my health. In this particular, I imitate the
+gratitude of Tavernier, who was radically cured of the gout by a
+Turkish aga in Aegypt, who gave him the bastinado, because he would not
+look at the head of the bashaw of Cairo, which the aga had in a bag, to
+be presented to the grand signior at Constantinople.
+
+I did not expect to see the rest of our company that night, as I never
+doubted but they would stay with the coach at the inn on the other side
+of the Arno: but at mid-night we were joined by Miss C-- and Mr. R--,
+who had left the carriage at the inn, under the auspices of the captain
+and my servant, and followed our foot-steps by walking from the
+ferry-boat to Florence, conducted by one of the boatmen. Mr. R-- seemed
+to be much ruffled and chagrined; but, as he did not think proper to
+explain the cause, he had no right to expect that I should give him
+satisfaction for some insult he had received from my servant. They had
+been exposed to a variety of disagreeable adventures from the
+impracticability of the road. The coach had been several times in the
+most imminent hazard of being lost with all our baggage; and at one
+place, it was necessary to hire a dozen of oxen, and as many men, to
+disengage it from the holes into which it had run. It was in the
+confusion of these adventures, that the captain and his valet, Mr. R--
+and my servant, had like to have gone all by the ears together. The
+peace was with difficulty preserved by the interposition of Miss C--,
+who suffered incredibly from cold and wet, terror, vexation, and
+fatigue: yet happily no bad consequence ensued. The coach and baggage
+were brought safely into Florence next morning, when all of us found
+ourselves well refreshed, and in good spirits. I am afraid this is not
+the case with you, who must by this time be quite jaded with this long
+epistle, which shall therefore be closed without further ceremony
+by,--Yours always.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXV
+
+NICE, March 20, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--The season being far advanced, and the weather growing
+boisterous, I made but a short stay at Florence, and set out for Pisa,
+with full resolution to take the nearest road to Lerici, where we
+proposed to hire a felucca for Genoa. I had a great desire to see
+Leghorn and Lucca; but the dread of a winter's voyage by sea in an open
+boat effectually restrained my curiosity. To avoid the trouble of
+having our baggage shifted every post, I hired two chaises to Pisa for
+a couple of zequines, and there we arrived in safety about seven in the
+evening, though not without fear of the consequence, as the calesses
+were quite open, and it rained all the way. I must own I was so sick of
+the wretched accommodation one meets with in every part of Italy,
+except the great cities, so averse to the sea at this season, and so
+fond of the city of Pisa, that I should certainly have stayed here the
+winter, had not I been separated from my books and papers, as well as
+from other conveniencies and connexions which I had at Nice; and
+foreseen that the thoughts of performing the same disagreeable voyage
+in the spring would imbitter my whole winter's enjoyment. I again hired
+two calesses for Lerici, proposing to lie at Sarzana, three miles short
+of that place, where we were told we should find comfortable lodging,
+and to embark next day without halting. When we departed in the
+morning, it rained very hard, and the Cerchio, which the chaises had
+formerly passed, almost without wetting the wheels, was now swelled to
+a mighty river, broad and deep and rapid. It was with great difficulty
+I could persuade my wife to enter the boat; for it blew a storm, and
+she had seen it in coming over from the other side hurried down a
+considerable way by the rapidity of the current, notwithstanding all
+the efforts of the watermen. Near two hours were spent in transporting
+us with our chaises. The road between this and Pietra Santa was
+rendered almost impassable. When we arrived at Massa, it began to grow
+dark, and the post-master assured us that the road to Sarzana was
+overflowed in such a manner as not to be passed even in the day-time,
+without imminent danger. We therefore took up our lodging for the night
+at this house, which was in all respects one of the worst we had yet
+entered. Next day, we found the Magra as large and violent as the
+Cerchio: however, we passed it without any accident, and in the
+afternoon arrived at Lerici. There we were immediately besieged by a
+number of patrons of feluccas, from among whom I chose a Spaniard,
+partly because he looked like an honest man, and produced an ample
+certificate, signed by an English gentleman; and partly, because he was
+not an Italian; for, by this time, I had imbibed a strong prejudice
+against the common people of that country. We embarked in the morning
+before day, with a gale that made us run the lee-gunwale in the water;
+but, when we pretended to turn the point of Porto Venere, we found the
+wind full in our teeth, and were obliged to return to our quarters,
+where we had been shamefully fleeced by the landlord, who,
+nevertheless, was not such an exorbitant knave as the post-master,
+whose house I would advise all travellers to avoid. Here, indeed, I had
+occasion to see an instance of prudence and oeconomy, which I should
+certainly imitate, if ever I had occasion to travel this way by myself.
+An Englishman, who had hired a felucca from Antibes to Leghorn, was put
+in here by stress of weather; but being aware of the extortion of
+innkeepers, and the bad accommodation in their houses, he slept on
+board on his own mattrasses; and there likewise he had all his
+conveniencies for eating. He sent his servant on shore occasionally to
+buy provision, and see it cooked according to his direction in some
+public house; and had his meals regularly in the felucca. This evening
+he came ashore to stretch his legs, and took a solitary walk on the
+beach, avoiding us with great care, although he knew we were English;
+his valet who was abundantly communicative, told my servant, that in
+coming through France, his master had travelled three days in company
+with two other English gentlemen, whom he met upon the road, and in all
+that time he never spoke a word to either, yet in other respects, he
+was a good man, mild, charitable, and humane. This is a character truly
+British. At five o'clock in the morning we put to sea again, and though
+the wind was contrary, made shift to reach the town of Sestri di
+Levante, where we were most graciously received by the publican butcher
+and his family. The house was in much better order than before; the
+people were much more obliging; we passed a very tolerable night, and
+had a very reasonable bill to pay in the morning. I cannot account for
+this favourable change any other way, than by ascribing it to the
+effects of a terrible storm, which had two days before torn up a great
+number of their olive-trees by the roots, and done such damage as
+terrified them into humility and submission. Next day, the water being
+delightful, we arrived by one o'clock in the afternoon at Genoa. Here I
+made another bargain with our patron Antonio, to carry us to Nice. He
+had been hitherto remarkably obliging, and seemingly modest. He spoke
+Latin fluently, and was tinctured with the sciences. I began to imagine
+he was a person of a good family, who had met with misfortunes in life,
+and respected him accordingly: but I afterwards found him mercenary,
+mean, and rapacious. The wind being still contrary, when we departed
+from Genoa, we could get no further than Finale, where we lodged in a
+very dismal habitation, which was recommended to us as the best auberge
+in the place. What rendered it the more uncomfortable, the night was
+cold, and there was not a fire-place in the house, except in the
+kitchen. The beds (if they deserved that name) were so shockingly
+nasty, that we could not have used them, had not a friend of Mr. R--
+supplied us with mattrasses, sheets, and coverlets; for our own sheets
+were on board the felucca, which was anchored at a distance from the
+shore. Our fare was equally wretched: the master of the house was a
+surly assassin, and his cameriere or waiter, stark-staring mad. Our
+situation was at the same time shocking and ridiculous. Mr. R--
+quarrelled over night with the master, who swore in broken French to my
+man, that he had a good mind to poniard that impertinent Piedmontese.
+In the morning, before day, Mr. R--, coming into my chamber, gave me to
+understand that he had been insulted by the landlord, who demanded six
+and thirty livres for our supper and lodging. Incensed at the rascal's
+presumption, I assured him I would make him take half the money, and a
+good beating into the bargain. He replied, that he would have saved me
+the trouble of beating him, had not the cameriere, who was a very
+sensible fellow, assured him the padrone was out of his senses, and if
+roughly handled, might commit some extravagance. Though I was
+exceedingly ruffled, I could not help laughing at the mad cameriere's
+palming himself upon R--y, as a sensible fellow, and transferring the
+charge of madness upon his master, who seemed to be much more knave
+than fool. While Mr. R-- went to mass, I desired the cameriere to bid
+his master bring the bill, and to tell him that if it was not
+reasonable, I would carry him before the commandant. In the mean time I
+armed myself with my sword in one hand and my cane in the other. The
+inn-keeper immediately entered, pale and staring, and when I demanded
+his bill, he told me, with a profound reverence that he should be
+satisfied with whatever I myself thought proper to give. Surprised at
+this moderation, I asked if he should be content with twelve livres,
+and he answered, "Contentissimo," with another prostration. Then he
+made an apology for the bad accommodation of his house, and complained,
+that the reproaches of the other gentleman, whom he was pleased to call
+my majorduomo, had almost turned his brain. When he quitted the room,
+his cameriere, laying hold of his master's last words, pointed to his
+own forehead, and said, he had informed the gentleman over night that
+his patron was mad. This day we were by a high wind in the afternoon,
+driven for shelter into Porto Mauritio, where we found the post-house
+even worse than that of Finale; and what rendered it more shocking was
+a girl quite covered with the confluent smallpox, who lay in a room
+through which it was necessary to pass to the other chambers, and who
+smelled so strong as to perfume the whole house. We were but fifteen
+miles from St. Remo, where I knew the auberge was tolerable, and
+thither I resolved to travel by land. I accordingly ordered five mules
+to travel post, and a very ridiculous cavalcade we formed, the women
+being obliged to use common saddles; for in this country even the
+ladies sit astride. The road lay along one continued precipice, and was
+so difficult, that the beasts never could exceed a walking pace. In
+some places we were obliged to alight. Seven hours were spent in
+travelling fifteen short miles: at length we arrived at our old
+lodgings in St. Remo, which we found white-washed, and in great order.
+We supped pretty comfortably; slept well; and had no reason to complain
+of imposition in paying the bill. This was not the case in the article
+of the mules, for which I was obliged to pay fifty livres, according to
+the regulation of the posts. The postmaster, who came along with us,
+had the effrontery to tell me, that if I had hired the mules to carry
+me and my company to St. Remo, in the way of common travelling, they
+would have cost me but fifteen livres; but as I demanded post-horses, I
+must submit to the regulations. This is a distinction the more absurd,
+as the road is of such a nature as renders it impossible to travel
+faster in one way than in another; nor indeed is there the least
+difference either in the carriage or convenience, between travelling
+post and journey riding. A publican might with the same reason charge
+me three livres a pound for whiting, and if questioned about the
+imposition, reply, that if I had asked for fish I should have had the
+same whiting for the fifth part of the money: but that he made a wide
+difference between selling it as fish, and selling it as whiting. Our
+felucca came round from Porto Mauritio in the night, and embarking next
+morning, we arrived at Nice about four in the afternoon.
+
+Thus have I given you a circumstantial detail of my Italian expedition,
+during which I was exposed to a great number of hardships, which I
+thought my weakened constitution could not have bore; as well as to
+violent fits of passion, chequered, however, with transports of a more
+agreeable nature; insomuch that I may say I was for two months
+continually agitated either in mind or body, and very often in both at
+the same time. As my disorder at first arose from a sedentary life,
+producing a relaxation of the fibres, which naturally brought on a
+listlessness, indolence, and dejection of the spirits, I am convinced
+that this hard exercise of mind and body, co-operated with the change
+of air and objects, to brace up the relaxed constitution, and promote a
+more vigorous circulation of the juices, which had long languished even
+almost to stagnation. For some years, I had been as subject to colds as
+a delicate woman new delivered. If I ventured to go abroad when there
+was the least moisture either in the air, or upon the ground, I was
+sure to be laid up a fortnight with a cough and asthma. But, in this
+journey, I suffered cold and rain, and stood, and walked in the wet,
+heated myself with exercise, and sweated violently, without feeling the
+least disorder; but, on the contrary, felt myself growing stronger
+every day in the midst of these excesses. Since my return to Nice, it
+has rained the best part of two months, to the astonishment of all the
+people in the country; yet during all that time I have enjoyed good
+health and spirits. On Christmas-Eve, I went to the cathedral at
+midnight, to hear high mass celebrated by the new bishop of Nice, in
+pontificalibus, and stood near two hours uncovered in a cold gallery,
+without having any cause in the sequel to repent of my curiosity. In a
+word, I am now so well that I no longer despair of seeing you and the
+rest of my friends in England; a pleasure which is eagerly desired
+by,--Dear Sir, Your affectionate humble Servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVI
+
+NICE, March 23, 1766.
+
+DEAR SIR,--You ask whether I think the French people are more taxed
+than the English; but I apprehend, the question would be more apropos
+if you asked whether the French taxes are more insupportable than the
+English; for, in comparing burthens, we ought always to consider the
+strength of the shoulders that bear them. I know no better way of
+estimating the strength, than by examining the face of the country, and
+observing the appearance of the common people, who constitute the bulk
+of every nation. When I, therefore, see the country of England smiling
+with cultivation; the grounds exhibiting all the perfection of
+agriculture, parcelled out into beautiful inclosures, cornfields, hay
+and pasture, woodland and common, when I see her meadows well stocked
+with black cattle, her downs covered with sheep; when I view her teams
+of horses and oxen, large and strong, fat and sleek; when I see her
+farm-houses the habitations of plenty, cleanliness, and convenience;
+and her peasants well fed, well lodged, well cloathed, tall and stout,
+and hale and jolly; I cannot help concluding that the people are well
+able to bear those impositions which the public necessities have
+rendered necessary. On the other hand, when I perceive such signs of
+poverty, misery and dirt, among the commonalty of France, their
+unfenced fields dug up in despair, without the intervention of meadow
+or fallow ground, without cattle to furnish manure, without horses to
+execute the plans of agriculture; their farm-houses mean, their
+furniture wretched, their apparel beggarly; themselves and their beasts
+the images of famine; I cannot help thinking they groan under
+oppression, either from their landlords, or their government; probably
+from both.
+
+The principal impositions of the French government are these: first,
+the taille, payed by all the commons, except those that are privileged:
+secondly, the capitation, from which no persons (not even the nobles)
+are excepted: thirdly, the tenths and twentieths, called Dixiemes and
+Vingtiemes, which every body pays. This tax was originally levied as an
+occasional aid in times of war, and other emergencies; but by degrees
+is become a standing revenue even in time of peace. All the money
+arising from these impositions goes directly to the king's treasury;
+and must undoubtedly amount to a very great sum. Besides these, he has
+the revenue of the farms, consisting of the droits d'aydes, or excise
+on wine, brandy, &c. of the custom-house duties; of the gabelle,
+comprehending that most oppressive obligation on individuals to take a
+certain quantity of salt at the price which the farmers shall please to
+fix; of the exclusive privilege to sell tobacco; of the droits de
+controlle, insinuation, centieme denier, franchiefs, aubeine, echange
+et contre-echange arising from the acts of voluntary jurisdiction, as
+well as certain law-suits. These farms are said to bring into the
+king's coffers above one hundred and twenty millions of livres yearly,
+amounting to near five millions sterling: but the poor people are said
+to pay about a third more than this sum, which the farmers retain to
+enrich themselves, and bribe the great for their protection; which
+protection of the great is the true reason why this most iniquitous,
+oppressive, and absurd method of levying money is not laid aside. Over
+and above those articles I have mentioned, the French king draws
+considerable sums from his clergy, under the denomination of dons
+gratuits, or free-gifts; as well as from the subsidies given by the
+pays d'etats such as Provence, Languedoc, and Bretagne, which are
+exempted from the taille. The whole revenue of the French king amounts
+to between twelve and thirteen millions sterling. These are great
+resources for the king: but they will always keep the people miserable,
+and effectually prevent them from making such improvements as might
+turn their lands to the best advantage. But besides being eased in the
+article of taxes, there is something else required to make them exert
+themselves for the benefit of their country. They must be free in their
+persons, secure in their property, indulged with reasonable leases, and
+effectually protected by law from the insolence and oppression of their
+superiors.
+
+Great as the French king's resources may appear, they are hardly
+sufficient to defray the enormous expence of his government. About two
+millions sterling per annum of his revenue are said to be anticipated
+for paying the interest of the public debts; and the rest is found
+inadequate to the charge of a prodigious standing army, a double
+frontier of fortified towns and the extravagant appointments of
+ambassadors, generals, governors, intendants, commandants, and other
+officers of the crown, all of whom affect a pomp, which is equally
+ridiculous and prodigal. A French general in the field is always
+attended by thirty or forty cooks; and thinks it is incumbent upon him,
+for the glory of France, to give a hundred dishes every day at his
+table. When don Philip, and the marechal duke de Belleisle, had their
+quarters at Nice, there were fifty scullions constantly employed in the
+great square in plucking poultry. This absurd luxury infects their
+whole army. Even the commissaries keep open table; and nothing is seen
+but prodigality and profusion. The king of Sardinia proceeds upon
+another plan. His troops are better cloathed, better payed, and better
+fed than those of France. The commandant of Nice has about four hundred
+a year of appointments, which enable him to live decently, and even to
+entertain strangers. On the other hand, the commandant of Antibes,
+which is in all respects more inconsiderable than Nice, has from the
+French king above five times the sum to support the glory of his
+monarch, which all the sensible part of mankind treat with ridicule and
+contempt. But the finances of France are so ill managed, that many of
+their commandants, and other officers, have not been able to draw their
+appointments these two years. In vain they complain and remonstrate.
+When they grow troublesome they are removed. How then must they support
+the glory of France? How, but by oppressing the poor people. The
+treasurer makes use of their money for his own benefit. The king knows
+it; he knows his officers, thus defrauded, fleece and oppress his
+people: but he thinks proper to wink at these abuses. That government
+may be said to be weak and tottering which finds itself obliged to
+connive at such proceedings. The king of France, in order to give
+strength and stability to his administration, ought to have sense to
+adopt a sage plan of oeconomy, and vigour of mind sufficient to execute
+it in all its parts, with the most rigorous exactness. He ought to have
+courage enough to find fault, and even to punish the delinquents, of
+what quality soever they may be: and the first act of reformation ought
+to be a total abolition of all the farms. There are, undoubtedly, many
+marks of relaxation in the reins of the French government, and, in all
+probability, the subjects of France will be the first to take advantage
+of it. There is at present a violent fermentation of different
+principles among them, which under the reign of a very weak prince, or
+during a long minority, may produce a great change in the constitution.
+In proportion to the progress of reason and philosophy, which have made
+great advances in this kingdom, superstition loses ground; antient
+prejudices give way; a spirit of freedom takes the ascendant. All the
+learned laity of France detest the hierarchy as a plan of despotism,
+founded on imposture and usurpation. The protestants, who are very
+numerous in southern parts, abhor it with all the rancour of religious
+fanaticism. Many of the commons, enriched by commerce and manufacture,
+grow impatient of those odious distinctions, which exclude them from
+the honours and privileges due to their importance in the commonwealth;
+and all the parliaments, or tribunals of justice in the kingdom, seem
+bent upon asserting their rights and independence in the face of the
+king's prerogative, and even at the expence of his power and authority.
+Should any prince therefore be seduced by evil counsellors, or misled
+by his own bigotry, to take some arbitrary step, that may be extremely
+disagreeable to all those communities, without having spirit to exert
+the violence of his power for the support of his measures, he will
+become equally detested and despised; and the influence of the commons
+will insensibly encroach upon the pretensions of the crown. But if in
+the time of a minority, the power of the government should be divided
+among different competitors for the regency, the parliaments and people
+will find it still more easy to acquire and ascertain the liberty at
+which they aspire, because they will have the balance of power in their
+hands, and be able to make either scale preponderate. I could say a
+great deal more upon this subject; and I have some remarks to make
+relating to the methods which might be taken in the case of a fresh
+rupture with France, for making a vigorous impression on that kingdom.
+But these I in list defer till another occasion, having neither room
+nor leisure at present to add any thing, but that I am, with great
+truth,--Dear Sir, Your very humble Servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVII
+
+NICE, April 2, 1765.
+
+DEAR DOCTOR,--As I have now passed a second winter at Nice I think
+myself qualified to make some further remarks on this climate. During
+the heats of last summer, I flattered myself with the prospect of the
+fine weather I should enjoy in the winter; but neither I, nor any
+person in this country, could foresee the rainy weather that prevailed
+from the middle of November, till the twentieth of March. In this short
+period of four months, we have had fifty-six days of rain, which I take
+to be a greater quantity than generally falls during the six worst
+months of the year in the county of Middlesex, especially as it was,
+for the most part, a heavy, continued rain. The south winds generally
+predominate in the wet season at Nice: but this winter the rain was
+accompanied with every wind that blows, except the south; though the
+most frequent were those that came from the east and north quarters.
+Notwithstanding these great rains, such as were never known before at
+Nice in the memory of man, the intermediate days of fair weather were
+delightful, and the ground seemed perfectly dry. The air itself was
+perfectly free from moisture. Though I live upon a ground floor,
+surrounded on three sides by a garden, I could not perceive the least
+damp, either on the floors, or the furniture; neither was I much
+incommoded by the asthma, which used always to harass me most in wet
+weather. In a word, I passed the winter here much more comfortably than
+I expected. About the vernal equinox, however, I caught a violent cold,
+which was attended with a difficulty of breathing, and as the sun
+advances towards the tropic, I find myself still more subject to
+rheums. As the heat increases, the humours of the body are rarefied,
+and, of consequence, the pores of the skin are opened; while the east
+wind sweeping over the Alps and Apennines, covered with snow, continues
+surprisingly sharp and penetrating. Even the people of the country, who
+enjoy good health, are afraid of exposing themselves to the air at this
+season, the intemperature of which may last till the middle of May,
+when all the snow on the mountains will probably be melted: then the
+air will become mild and balmy, till, in the progress of summer, it
+grows disagreeably hot, and the strong evaporation from the sea makes
+it so saline, as to be unhealthy for those who have a scorbutical
+habit. When the sea-breeze is high, this evaporation is so great as to
+cover the surface of the body with a kind of volatile brine, as I
+plainly perceived last summer. I am more and more convinced that this
+climate is unfavourable for the scurvy. Were I obliged to pass my life
+in it, I would endeavour to find a country retreat among the mountains,
+at some distance from the sea, where I might enjoy a cool air, free
+from this impregnation, unmolested by those flies, gnats, and other
+vermin which render the lower parts almost uninhabitable. To this place
+I would retire in the month of June, and there continue till the
+beginning of October, when I would return to my habitation in Nice,
+where the winter is remarkably mild and agreeable. In March and April
+however, I would not advise a valetudinarian to go forth, without
+taking precaution against the cold. An agreeable summer retreat may be
+found on the other side of the Var, at, or near the town of Grasse,
+which is pleasantly situated on the ascent of a hill in Provence, about
+seven English miles from Nice. This place is famous for its pomatum,
+gloves, wash-balls, perfumes, and toilette-boxes, lined with bergamot.
+I am told it affords good lodging, and is well supplied with provisions.
+
+We are now preparing for our journey to England, from the exercise of
+which I promise myself much benefit: a journey extremely agreeable, not
+only on that account, but also because it will restore me to the
+company of my friends, and remove me from a place where I leave nothing
+but the air which I can possibly regret.
+
+The only friendships I have contracted at Nice are with strangers, who,
+like myself, only sojourn here for a season. I now find by experience,
+it is great folly to buy furniture, unless one is resolved to settle
+here for some years. The Nissards assured me, with great confidence,
+that I should always be able to sell it for a very little loss; whereas
+I find myself obliged to part with it for about one-third of what it
+cost. I have sent for a coach to Aix, and as soon as it arrives, shall
+take my departure; so that the next letter you receive from me will be
+dated at some place on the road. I purpose to take Antibes, Toulon,
+Marseilles, Aix, Avignon, and Orange, in my way: places which I have
+not yet seen; and where, perhaps, I shall find something for your
+amusement, which will always be a consideration of some weight
+with,--Dear Sir, Yours.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXVIII
+
+To DR. S-- AT NICE
+
+TURIN, March 18, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--Turin is about thirty leagues from Nice, the greater part of
+the way lying over frightful mountains covered with snow. The
+difficulty of the road, however, reaches no farther than Coni, from
+whence there is an open highway through a fine plain country, as far as
+the capital of Piedmont, and the traveller is accommodated with chaise
+and horses to proceed either post, or by cambiatura, as in other parts
+of Italy. There are only two ways of performing the journey over the
+mountains from Nice; one is to ride a mule-back, and the other to be
+carried in a chair. The former I chose, and set out with my servant on
+the seventh day of February at two in the afternoon. I was hardly clear
+of Nice, when it began to rain so hard that in less than an hour the
+mud was half a foot deep in many parts of the road. This was the only
+inconvenience we suffered, the way being in other respects practicable
+enough; for there is but one small hill to cross on this side of the
+village of L'Escarene, where we arrived about six in the evening. The
+ground in this neighbourhood is tolerably cultivated, and the mountains
+are planted to the tops with olive trees. The accommodation here is so
+very bad, that I had no inclination to be a-bed longer than was
+absolutely necessary for refreshment; and therefore I proceeded on my
+journey at two in the morning, conducted by a guide, whom I hired for
+this purpose at the rate of three livres a day. Having ascended one
+side, and descended the other, of the mountain called Braus, which took
+up four hours, though the road is not bad, we at six reached the
+village of Sospello, which is agreeably situated in a small valley,
+surrounded by prodigious high and barren mountains. This little plain
+is pretty fertile, and being watered by a pleasant stream, forms a
+delightful contrast with the hideous rocks that surround it. Having
+reposed myself and my mules two hours at this place, we continued our
+journey over the second mountain, called Brovis, which is rather more
+considerable than the first, and in four hours arrived at La Giandola,
+a tolerable inn situated betwixt the high road and a small river, about
+a gunshot from the town of Brieglie, which we leave on the right. As we
+jogged along in the grey of the morning, I was a little startled at two
+figures which I saw before me, and began to put my pistols in order. It
+must be observed that these mountains are infested with contrabandiers,
+a set of smuggling peasants, very bold and desperate, who make a
+traffic of selling tobacco, salt, and other merchandize, which have not
+payed duty, and sometimes lay travellers under contribution. I did not
+doubt but there was a gang of these free-booters at hand; but as no
+more than two persons appeared, I resolved to let them know we were
+prepared for defence, and fired one of my pistols, in hope that the
+report of it, echoed from the surrounding rocks, would produce a proper
+effect: but, the mountains and roads being entirely covered with snow
+to a considerable depth, there was little or no reverberation, and the
+sound was not louder than that of a pop-gun, although the piece
+contained a good charge of powder. Nevertheless, it did not fail to
+engage the attention of the strangers, one of whom immediately wheeled
+to the left about, and being by this time very near me, gave me an
+opportunity of contemplating his whole person. He was very tall,
+meagre, and yellow, with a long hooked nose, and small twinkling eyes.
+His head was eased in a woollen night-cap, over which he wore a flapped
+hat; he had a silk handkerchief about his neck, and his mouth was
+furnished with a short wooden pipe, from which he discharged wreathing
+clouds of tobacco-smoke. He was wrapped in a kind of capot of green
+bays, lined with wolf-skin, had a pair of monstrous boots, quilted on
+the inside with cotton, was almost covered with dirt, and rode a mule
+so low that his long legs hung dangling within six inches of the
+ground. This grotesque figure was so much more ludicrous than terrible,
+that I could not help laughing; when, taking his pipe out of his mouth,
+he very politely accosted me by name. You may easily guess I was
+exceedingly surprised at such an address on the top of the mountain
+Brovis: but he forthwith put an end to it too, by discovering himself
+to be the marquis M--, whom I had the honour to be acquainted with at
+Nice. After having rallied him upon his equipage, he gave me to
+understand he had set out from Nice the morning of the same day that I
+departed; that he was going to Turin, and that he had sent one of his
+servants before him to Coni with his baggage. Knowing him to be an
+agreeable companion, I was glad of this encounter, and we resolved to
+travel the rest of the way together. We dined at La Giandola, and in
+the afternoon rode along the little river Roida, which runs in a bottom
+between frightful precipices, and in several places forms natural
+cascades, the noise of which had well-nigh deprived us of the sense of
+hearing; after a winding course among these mountains, it discharges
+itself into the Mediterranean at Vintimiglia, in the territory of
+Genoa. As the snow did not lie on these mountains, when we cracked our
+whips, there was such a repercussion of the sound as is altogether
+inconceivable. We passed by the village of Saorgio, situated on an
+eminence, where there is a small fortress which commands the whole
+pass, and in five hours arrived at our inn, on this side the Col de
+Tende, where we took up our quarters, but had very little reason to
+boast of our entertainment. Our greatest difficulty, however, consisted
+in pulling off the marquis's boots, which were of the kind called
+Seafarot, by this time so loaded with dirt on the outside, and so
+swelled with the rain within, that he could neither drag them after him
+as he walked, nor disencumber his legs of them, without such violence
+as seemed almost sufficient to tear him limb from limb. In a word, we
+were obliged to tie a rope about his heel, and all the people in the
+house assisting to pull, the poor marquis was drawn from one end of the
+apartment to the other before the boot would give way: at last his legs
+were happily disengaged, and the machines carefully dried and stuffed
+for next day's journey.
+
+We took our departure from hence at three in the morning, and at four,
+began to mount the Col de Tende, which is by far the highest mountain
+in the whole journey: it was now quite covered with snow, which at the
+top of it was near twenty feet thick. Half way up, there are quarters
+for a detachment of soldiers, posted here to prevent smuggling, and an
+inn called La Ca, which in the language of the country signifies the
+house. At this place, we hired six men to assist us in ascending the
+mountain, each of them provided with a kind of hough to break the ice,
+and make a sort of steps for the mules. When we were near the top,
+however, we were obliged to alight, and climb the mountain supported
+each by two of those men, called Coulants who walk upon the snow with
+great firmness and security. We were followed by the mules, and though
+they are very sure-footed animals, and were frost-shod for the
+occasion, they stumbled and fell very often; the ice being so hard that
+the sharp-headed nails in their shoes could not penetrate. Having
+reached the top of this mountain, from whence there is no prospect but
+of other rocks and mountains, we prepared for descending on the other
+side by the Leze, which is an occasional sledge made of two pieces of
+wood, carried up by the Coulants for this purpose. I did not much
+relish this kind of carriage, especially as the mountain was very
+steep, and covered with such a thick fog that we could hardly see two
+or three yards before us. Nevertheless, our guides were so confident,
+and my companion, who had passed the same way on other occasions, was
+so secure, that I ventured to place myself on this machine, one of the
+coulants standing behind me, and the other sitting before, as the
+conductor, with his feet paddling among the snow, in order to moderate
+the velocity of its descent. Thus accommodated, we descended the
+mountain with such rapidity, that in an hour we reached Limon, which is
+the native place of almost all the muleteers who transport merchandize
+from Nice to Coni and Turin. Here we waited full two hours for the
+mules, which travelled with the servants by the common road. To each of
+the coulants we paid forty sols, which are nearly equal to two
+shillings sterling. Leaving Limon, we were in two hours quite
+disengaged from the gorges of the mountains, which are partly covered
+with wood and pasturage, though altogether inaccessible, except in
+summer; but from the foot of the Col de Tende, the road lies through a
+plain all the way to Turin. We took six hours to travel from the inn
+where we had lodged over the mountain to Limon, and five hours from
+thence to Coni. Here we found our baggage, which we had sent off by the
+carriers one day before we departed from Nice; and here we dismissed
+our guides, together with the mules. In winter, you have a mule for
+this whole journey at the rate of twenty livres; and the guides are
+payed at the rate of two livres a day, reckoning six days, three for
+the journey to Coni, and three for their return to Nice. We set out so
+early in the morning in order to avoid the inconveniencies and dangers
+that attend the passage of this mountain. The first of these arises
+from your meeting with long strings of loaded mules in a slippery road,
+the breadth of which does not exceed a foot and an half. As it is
+altogether impossible for two mules to pass each other in such a narrow
+path, the muleteers have made doublings or elbows in different parts,
+and when the troops of mules meet, the least numerous is obliged to
+turn off into one of these doublings, and there halt until the others
+are past. Travellers, in order to avoid this disagreeable delay, which
+is the more vexatious, considering the excessive cold, begin the ascent
+of the mountain early in the morning before the mules quit their inns.
+But the great danger of travelling here when the sun is up, proceeds
+from what they call the Valanches. These are balls of snow detached
+from the mountains which over-top the road, either by the heat of the
+sun, or the humidity of the weather. A piece of snow thus loosened from
+the rock, though perhaps not above three or four feet in diameter,
+increases sometimes in its descent to such a degree, as to become two
+hundred paces in length, and rolls down with such rapidity, that the
+traveller is crushed to death before he can make three steps on the
+road. These dreadful heaps drag every thing along with them in their
+descent. They tear up huge trees by the roots, and if they chance to
+fall upon a house, demolish it to the foundation. Accidents of this
+nature seldom happen in the winter while the weather is dry; and yet
+scarce a year passes in which some mules and their drivers do not
+perish by the valanches. At Coni we found the countess C-- from Nice,
+who had made the same journey in a chair, carried by porters. This is
+no other than a common elbow-chair of wood, with a straw bottom,
+covered above with waxed cloth, to protect the traveller from the rain
+or snow, and provided with a foot-board upon which the feet rest.
+
+It is carried like a sedan-chair; and for this purpose six or eight
+porters are employed at the rate of three or four livres a head per
+day, according to the season, allowing three days for their return. Of
+these six men, two are between the poles carrying like common chairmen,
+and each of these is supported by the other two, one at each hand: but
+as those in the middle sustain the greatest burthen, they are relieved
+by the others in a regular rotation. In descending the mountain, they
+carry the poles on their shoulders, and in that case, four men are
+employed, one at each end.
+
+At Coni, you may have a chaise to go with the same horses to Turin, for
+which you pay fifteen livres, and are a day and a half on the way. You
+may post it, however, in one day, and then the price is seven livres
+ten sols per post, and ten sols to the postilion. The method we took
+was that of cambiatura. This is a chaise with horses shifted at the
+same stages that are used in posting: but as it is supposed to move
+slower, we pay but five livres per post, and ten sols to the postilion.
+In order to quicken its pace, we gave ten sols extraordinary to each
+postilion, and for this gratification, he drove us even faster than the
+post. The chaises are like those of Italy, and will take on near two
+hundred weight of baggage.
+
+Coni is situated between two small streams, and though neither very
+large nor populous, is considerable for the strength of its
+fortifications. It is honoured with the title of the Maiden-Fortress,
+because though several times besieged, it was never taken. The prince
+of Conti invested it in the war of 1744; but he was obliged to raise
+the siege, after having given battle to the king of Sardinia. The place
+was gallantly defended by the baron Leutrum, a German protestant, the
+best general in the Sardinian service: but what contributed most to the
+miscarriage of the enemy, was a long tract of heavy rains, which
+destroyed all their works, and rendered their advances impracticable.
+
+I need not tell you that Piedmont is one of the most fertile and
+agreeable countries in Europe, and this the most agreeable part of all
+Piedmont, though it now appeared to disadvantage from the rigorous
+season of the year: I shall only observe that we passed through
+Sabellian, which is a considerable town, and arrived in the evening at
+Turin. We entered this fine city by the gate of Nice, and passing
+through the elegant Piazza di San Carlo, took up our quarters at the
+Bona Fama, which stands at one corner of the great square, called La
+Piazza Castel.
+
+Were I even disposed to give a description of Turin, I should be
+obliged to postpone it till another opportunity, having no room at
+present to say any thing more, but that I am always--Yours.
+
+
+
+LETTER XXXIX
+
+AIX EN PROVENCE, May 10, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--I am thus far on my way to England. I had resolved to leave
+Nice, without having the least dispute with any one native of the
+place; but I found it impossible to keep this resolution. My landlord,
+Mr. C--, a man of fashion, with whose family we had always lived in
+friendship, was so reasonable as to expect I should give him up the
+house and garden, though they were to be paid for till Michaelmas, and
+peremptorily declared I should not be permitted to sub-let them to any
+other person. He had of his own accord assured me more than once that
+he would take my furniture off my hands, and trusting to this
+assurance, I had lost the opportunity, of disposing it to advantage:
+but, when the time of my departure drew near, he refused to take it, at
+the same time insisting upon having the key of the house and garden, as
+well as on being paid the whole rent directly, though it would not be
+due till the middle of September. I was so exasperated at this
+treatment from a man whom I had cultivated with particular respect,
+that I determined to contest it at law: but the affair was accommodated
+by the mediation of a father of the Minims, a friend to both, and a
+merchant of Nice, who charged himself with the care of the house and
+furniture. A stranger must conduct himself with the utmost
+circumspection to be able to live among these people without being the
+dupe of imposition.
+
+I had sent to Aix for a coach and four horses, which I hired at the
+rate of eighteen French livres a day, being equal to fifteen shillings
+and nine-pence sterling. The river Var was so swelled by the melting of
+the snow on the mountains, as to be impassable by any wheel-carriage;
+and, therefore, the coach remained at Antibes, to which we went by
+water, the distance being about nine or ten miles. This is the
+Antipolis of the antients, said to have been built like Nice, by a
+colony from Marseilles. In all probability, however, it was later than
+the foundation of Nice, and took its name from its being situated
+directly opposite to that city. Pliny says it was famous for its
+tunny-fishery; and to this circumstance Martial alludes in the
+following lines
+
+  Antipolitani, fateor, sum filia thynni.
+  Essem si Scombri non tibi missa forem.
+
+  I'm spawned from Tunny of Antibes, 'tis true.
+  Right Scomber had I been, I ne'er had come to you.
+
+The famous pickle Garum was made from the Thynnus or Tunny as well as
+from the Scomber, but that from the Scomber was counted the most
+delicate. Commentators, however, are not agreed about the Scomber or
+Scombrus. Some suppose it was the Herring or Sprat; others believe it
+was the mackarel; after all, perhaps it was the Anchovy, which I do not
+find distinguished by any other Latin name: for the Encrasicolus is a
+Greek appellation altogether generical. Those who would be further
+informed about the Garum and the Scomber may consult Caelius Apicius de
+recogninaria, cum notis, variorum.
+
+At present, Antibes is the frontier of France towards Italy, pretty
+strongly fortified, and garrisoned by a battalion of soldiers. The town
+is small and inconsiderable: but the basin of the harbour is surrounded
+to seaward by a curious bulwark founded upon piles driven in the water,
+consisting of a wall, ramparts, casemates, and quay. Vessels lie very
+safe in this harbour; but there is not water at the entrance of it to
+admit of ships of any burthen. The shallows run so far off from the
+coast, that a ship of force cannot lie near enough to batter the town;
+but it was bombarded in the late war. Its chief strength by land
+consists in a small quadrangular fort detached from the body of the
+place, which, in a particular manner, commands the entrance of the
+harbour. The wall of the town built in the sea has embrasures and
+salient angles, on which a great number of cannon may be mounted.
+
+I think the adjacent country is much more pleasant than that on the
+side of Nice; and there is certainly no essential difference in the
+climate. The ground here is not so encumbered; it is laid out in
+agreeable inclosures, with intervals of open fields, and the mountains
+rise with an easy ascent at a much greater distance from the sea, than
+on the other side of the bay. Besides, here are charming rides along
+the beach, which is smooth and firm. When we passed in the last week of
+April, the corn was in the ear; the cherries were almost ripe; and the
+figs had begun to blacken. I had embarked my heavy baggage on board a
+London ship, which happened to be at Nice, ready to sail: as for our
+small trunks or portmanteaus, which we carried along with us, they were
+examined at Antibes; but the ceremony was performed very superficially,
+in consequence of tipping the searcher with half-a-crown, which is a
+wonderful conciliator at all the bureaus in this country.
+
+We lay at Cannes, a neat village, charmingly situated on the beach of
+the Mediterranean, exactly opposite to the isles Marguerites, where
+state-prisoners are confined. As there are some good houses in this
+place, I would rather live here for the sake of the mild climate, than
+either at Antibes or Nice. Here you are not cooped up within walls, nor
+crowded with soldiers and people: but are already in the country, enjoy
+a fine air, and are well supplied with all sorts of fish.
+
+The mountains of Esterelles, which in one of my former letters I
+described as a most romantic and noble plantation of ever-greens,
+trees, shrubs, and aromatic plants, is at present quite desolate. Last
+summer, some execrable villains set fire to the pines, when the wind
+was high. It continued burning for several months, and the
+conflagration extended above ten leagues, consuming an incredible
+quantity of timber. The ground is now naked on each side of the road,
+or occupied by the black trunks of the trees, which have been scorched
+without falling. They stand as so many monuments of the judgment of
+heaven, filling the mind with horror and compassion. I could hardly
+refrain from shedding tears at this dismal spectacle, when I recalled
+the idea of what it was about eighteen months ago.
+
+As we stayed all night at Frejus, I had an opportunity of viewing the
+amphitheatre at leisure. As near as I can judge by the eye, it is of
+the same dimensions with that of Nismes; but shockingly dilapidated.
+The stone seats rising from the arena are still extant, and the cells
+under them, where the wild beasts were kept. There are likewise the
+remains of two galleries one over another; and two vomitoria or great
+gateways at opposite sides of the arena, which is now a fine green,
+with a road through the middle of it: but all the external architecture
+and the ornaments are demolished. The most intire part of the wall now
+constitutes part of a monastery, the monks of which, I am told, have
+helped to destroy the amphitheatre, by removing the stones for their
+own purposes of building. In the neighbourhood of this amphitheatre,
+which stands without the walls, are the vestiges of an old edifice,
+said to have been the palace where the imperator or president resided:
+for it was a Roman colony, much favoured by Julius Caesar, who gave it
+the name of Forum Julii, and Civitas Forojuliensis. In all probability,
+it was he who built the amphitheatre, and brought hither the water ten
+leagues from the river of Ciagne, by means of an aqueduct, some arcades
+of which are still standing on the other side of the town. A great
+number of statues were found in this place, together with antient
+inscriptions, which have been published by different authors. I need
+not tell you that Julius Agricola, the father-in-law of Tacitus, the
+historian, was a native of Frejus, which is now a very poor
+inconsiderable place. From hence the country opens to the left, forming
+an extensive plain between the sea and the mountains, which are a
+continuation of the Alps, that stretches through Provence and Dauphine.
+This plain watered with pleasant streams, and varied with vineyards,
+corn-fields, and meadow-ground, afforded a most agreeable prospect to
+our eyes, which were accustomed to the sight of scorching sands, rugged
+rocks, and abrupt mountains in the neighbourhood of Nice. Although this
+has much the appearance of a corn-country, I am told it does not
+produce enough for the consumption of its inhabitants, who are obliged
+to have annual supplies from abroad, imported at Marseilles. A
+Frenchman, at an average, eats three times the quantity of bread that
+satisfies a native of England, and indeed it is undoubtedly the staff
+of his life. I am therefore surprised that the Provencaux do not
+convert part of their vineyards into corn-fields: for they may boast of
+their wine as they please; but that which is drank by the common
+people, not only here, but also in all the wine countries of France, is
+neither so strong, nourishing, nor (in my opinion) so pleasant to the
+taste as the small-beer of England. It must be owned that all the
+peasants who have wine for their ordinary drink are of a diminutive
+size, in comparison of those who use milk, beer, or even water; and it
+is a constant observation, that when there is a scarcity of wine, the
+common people are always more healthy, than in those seasons when it
+abounds. The longer I live, the more I am convinced that wine, and all
+fermented liquors, are pernicious to the human constitution; and that
+for the preservation of health, and exhilaration of the spirits, there
+is no beverage comparable to simple water. Between Luc and Toulon, the
+country is delightfully parcelled out into inclosures. Here is plenty
+of rich pasturage for black cattle, and a greater number of pure
+streams and rivulets than I have observed in any other parts of France.
+
+Toulon is a considerable place, even exclusive of the basin, docks, and
+arsenal, which indeed are such as justify the remark made by a stranger
+when he viewed them. "The king of France (said he) is greater at Toulon
+than at Versailles." The quay, the jetties, the docks, and magazines,
+are contrived and executed with precision, order, solidity, and
+magnificence. I counted fourteen ships of the line lying unrigged in
+the basin, besides the Tonant of eighty guns, which was in dock
+repairing, and a new frigate on the stocks. I was credibly informed
+that in the last war, the king of France was so ill-served with cannon
+for his navy, that in every action there was scarce a ship which had
+not several pieces burst. These accidents did great damage, and
+discouraged the French mariners to such a degree, that they became more
+afraid of their own guns than of those of the English. There are now at
+Toulon above two thousand pieces of iron cannon unfit for service. This
+is an undeniable proof of the weakness and neglect of the French
+administration: but a more suprizing proof of their imbecility, is the
+state of the fortifications that defend the entrance of this very
+harbour. I have some reason to think that they trusted for its security
+entirely to our opinion that it must be inaccessible. Capt. E--, of one
+of our frigates, lately entered the harbour with a contrary wind, which
+by obliging him to tack, afforded an opportunity of sounding the whole
+breadth and length of the passage. He came in without a pilot, and made
+a pretence of buying cordage, or some other stores; but the French
+officers were much chagrined at the boldness of his enterprize. They
+alleged that he came for no other reason but to sound the channel; and
+that he had an engineer aboard, who made drawings of the land and the
+forts, their bearings and distances. In all probability, these
+suspicions were communicated to the ministry; for an order immediately
+arrived, that no stranger should be admitted into the docks and arsenal.
+
+Part of the road from hence to Marseilles lies through a vast mountain,
+which resembles that of Estrelles; but is not so well covered with
+wood, though it has the advantage of an agreeable stream running
+through the bottom.
+
+I was much pleased with Marseilles, which is indeed a noble city,
+large, populous, and flourishing. The streets of what is called the new
+Town are open, airy and spacious; the houses well built, and even
+magnificent. The harbour is an oval basin, surrounded on every side
+either by the buildings or the land, so that the shipping lies
+perfectly secure; and here is generally an incredible number of
+vessels. On the city side, there is a semi-circular quay of free-stone,
+which extends thirteen hundred paces; and the space between this and
+the houses that front it, is continually filled with a surprising crowd
+of people. The gallies, to the number of eight or nine, are moored with
+their sterns to one part of the wharf, and the slaves are permitted to
+work for their own benefit at their respective occupations, in little
+shops or booths, which they rent for a trifle. There you see tradesmen
+of all kinds sitting at work, chained by one foot, shoe-makers,
+taylors, silversmiths, watch and clock-makers, barbers,
+stocking-weavers, jewellers, pattern-drawers, scriveners, booksellers,
+cutlers, and all manner of shop-keepers. They pay about two sols a day
+to the king for this indulgence; live well and look jolly; and can
+afford to sell their goods and labour much cheaper than other dealers
+and tradesmen. At night, however, they are obliged to lie aboard.
+Notwithstanding the great face of business at Marseilles, their trade
+is greatly on the decline; and their merchants are failing every day.
+This decay of commerce is in a great measure owing to the English, who,
+at the peace, poured in such a quantity of European merchandize into
+Martinique and Guadalupe, that when the merchants of Marseilles sent
+over their cargoes, they found the markets overstocked, and were
+obliged to sell for a considerable loss. Besides, the French colonists
+had such a stock of sugars, coffee, and other commodities lying by them
+during the war, that upon the first notice of peace, they shipped them
+off in great quantities for Marseilles. I am told that the produce of
+the islands is at present cheaper here than where it grows; and on the
+other hand the merchandize of this country sells for less money at
+Martinique than in Provence.
+
+A single person, who travels in this country, may live at a reasonable
+rate in these towns, by eating at the public ordinaries: but I would
+advise all families that come hither to make any stay, to take
+furnished lodgings as soon as they can: for the expence of living at an
+hotel is enormous. I was obliged to pay at Marseilles four livres a
+head for every meal, and half that price for my servant, and was
+charged six livres a day besides for the apartment, so that our daily
+expence, including breakfast and a valet de place, amounted to two
+loui'dores. The same imposition prevails all over the south of France,
+though it is generally supposed to be the cheapest and most plentiful
+part of the kingdom. Without all doubt, it must be owing to the folly
+and extravagance of English travellers, who have allowed themselves to
+be fleeced without wincing, until this extortion is become authorized
+by custom. It is very disagreeable riding in the avenues of Marseilles,
+because you are confined in a dusty high road, crouded with carriages
+and beasts of burden, between two white walls, the reflection from
+which, while the sun shines, is intolerable. But in this neighbourhood
+there is a vast number of pleasant country-houses, called Bastides,
+said to amount to twelve thousand, some of which may be rented ready
+furnished at a very reasonable price. Marseilles is a gay city, and the
+inhabitants indulge themselves in a variety of amusements. They have
+assemblies, a concert spirituel, and a comedy. Here is also a spacious
+cours, or walk shaded with trees, to which in the evening there is a
+great resort of well-dressed people.
+
+Marseilles being a free port, there is a bureau about half a league
+from the city on the road to Aix, where all carriages undergo
+examination; and if any thing contraband is found, the vehicle,
+baggage, and even the horses are confiscated. We escaped this
+disagreeable ceremony by the sagacity of our driver. Of his own accord,
+he declared at the bureau, that we had bought a pound of coffee and
+some sugar at Marseilles, and were ready to pay the duty, which
+amounted to about ten sols. They took the money, gave him a receipt,
+and let the carriage pass, without further question.
+
+I proposed to stay one night only at Aix: but Mr. A--r, who is here,
+had found such benefit from drinking the waters, that I was persuaded
+to make trial of them for eight or ten days. I have accordingly taken
+private lodgings, and drank them at the fountain-head, not without
+finding considerable benefit. In my next I shall say something further
+of these waters, though I am afraid they will not prove a source of
+much entertainment. It will be sufficient for me to find them
+contribute in any degree to the health of--Dear Sir, Yours assuredly.
+
+
+
+LETTER XL
+
+BOULOGNE, May 23, 1765.
+
+DEAR DOCTOR,--I found three English families at Aix, with whom I could
+have passed my time very agreeably but the society is now dissolved.
+Mr. S--re and his lady left the place in a few days after we arrived.
+Mr. A--r and lady Betty are gone to Geneva; and Mr. G--r with his
+family remains at Aix. This gentleman, who laboured under a most
+dreadful nervous asthma, has obtained such relief from this climate,
+that he intends to stay another year in the place: and Mr. A--r found
+surprizing benefit from drinking the waters, for a scorbutical
+complaint. As I was incommoded by both these disorders, I could not but
+in justice to myself, try the united efforts of the air and the waters;
+especially as this consideration was re-inforced by the kind and
+pressing exhortations of Mr. A--r and lady Betty, which I could not in
+gratitude resist.
+
+Aix, the capital of Provence, is a large city, watered by the small
+river Are. It was a Roman colony, said to be founded by Caius Sextus
+Calvinus, above a century before the birth of Christ. From the source
+of mineral water here found, added to the consul's name, it was called
+Aquae Sextiae. It was here that Marius, the conqueror of the Teutones,
+fixed his headquarters, and embellished the place with temples,
+aqueducts, and thermae, of which, however, nothing now remains. The
+city, as it now stands, is well built, though the streets in general
+are narrow, and kept in a very dirty condition. But it has a noble
+cours planted with double rows of tall trees, and adorned with three or
+four fine fountains, the middlemost of which discharges hot water
+supplied from the source of the baths. On each side there is a row of
+elegant houses, inhabited chiefly by the noblesse, of which there is
+here a considerable number. The parliament, which is held at Aix,
+brings hither a great resort of people; and as many of the inhabitants
+are persons of fashion, they are well bred, gay, and sociable. The duc
+de Villars, who is governor of the province, resides on the spot, and
+keeps an open assembly, where strangers are admitted without reserve,
+and made very welcome, if they will engage in play, which is the sole
+occupation of the whole company. Some of our English people complain,
+that when they were presented to him, they met with a very cold
+reception. The French, as well as other foreigners, have no idea of a
+man of family and fashion, without the title of duke, count, marquis,
+or lord, and where an English gentleman is introduced by the simple
+expression of monsieur tel, Mr. Suchathing, they think he is some
+plebeian, unworthy of any particular attention.
+
+Aix is situated in a bottom, almost surrounded by hills, which,
+however, do not screen it from the Bize, or north wind, that blows
+extremely sharp in the winter and spring, rendering the air almost
+insupportably cold, and very dangerous to those who have some kinds of
+pulmonary complaints, such as tubercules, abscesses, or spitting of
+blood. Lord H--, who passed part of last winter in this place,
+afflicted with some of these symptoms, grew worse every day while he
+continued at Aix: but, he no sooner removed to Marseilles, than all his
+complaints abated; such a difference there is in the air of these two
+places, though the distance between them does not exceed ten or twelve
+miles. But the air of Marseilles, though much more mild than that of
+Aix in the winter is not near so warm as the climate of Nice, where we
+find in plenty such flowers, fruit, and vegetables, even in the
+severest season, as will not grow and ripen, either at Marseilles or
+Toulon.
+
+If the air of Aix is disagreeably cold in the winter, it is rendered
+quite insufferable in the summer, from excessive heat, occasioned by
+the reflexion from the rocks and mountains, which at the same time
+obstruct the circulation of air: for it must be observed, that the same
+mountains which serve as funnels and canals, to collect and discharge
+the keen blasts of winter, will provide screens to intercept intirely
+the faint breezes of summer. Aix, though pretty well provided with
+butcher's meat, is very ill supplied with potherbs; and they have no
+poultry but what comes at a vast distance from the Lionnois. They say
+their want of roots, cabbage, cauliflower, etc. is owing to a scarcity
+of water: but the truth is, they are very bad gardeners. Their oil is
+good and cheap: their wine is indifferent: but their chief care seems
+employed on the culture of silk, the staple of Provence, which is every
+where shaded with plantations of mulberry trees, for the nourishment of
+the worms. Notwithstanding the boasted cheapness of every article of
+housekeeping, in the south of France, I am persuaded a family may live
+for less money at York, Durham, Hereford, and in many other cities of
+England than at Aix in Provence; keep a more plentiful table; and be
+much more comfortably situated in all respects. I found lodging and
+provision at Aix fifty per cent dearer than at Montpellier, which is
+counted the dearest place in Languedoc.
+
+The baths of Aix, so famous in antiquity, were quite demolished by the
+irruptions of the barbarians. The very source of the water was lost,
+till the beginning of the present century (I think the year 1704), when
+it was discovered by accident, in digging for the foundation of a
+house, at the foot of a hill, just without the city wall. Near the same
+place was found a small stone altar, with the figure of a Priapus, and
+some letters in capitals, which the antiquarians have differently
+interpreted. From this figure, it was supposed that the waters were
+efficacious in cases of barrenness. It was a long time, however, before
+any person would venture to use them internally, as it did not appear
+that they had ever been drank by the antients. On their re-appearance,
+they were chiefly used for baths to horses, and other beasts which had
+the mange, and other cutaneous eruptions. At length poor people began
+to bathe in them for the same disorders, and received such benefit from
+them, as attracted the attention of more curious inquirers. A very
+superficial and imperfect analysis was made and published, with a few
+remarkable histories of the cures they had performed, by three
+different physicians of those days; and those little treatises, I
+suppose, encouraged valetudinarians to drink them without ceremony.
+They were found serviceable in the gout, the gravel, scurvy, dropsy,
+palsy, indigestion, asthma, and consumption; and their fame soon
+extended itself all over Languedoc, Gascony, Dauphine, and Provence.
+The magistrates, with a view to render them more useful and commodious,
+have raised a plain building, in which there are a couple of private
+baths, with a bedchamber adjoining to each, where individuals may use
+them both internally and externally, for a moderate expence. These
+baths are paved with marble, and supplied with water each by a large
+brass cock, which you can turn at pleasure. At one end of this edifice,
+there is an octagon, open at top, having a bason, with a stone pillar
+in the middle, which discharges water from the same source, all round,
+by eight small brass cocks; and hither people of all ranks come of a
+morning, with their glasses, to drink the water, or wash their sores,
+or subject their contracted limbs to the stream. This last operation,
+called the douche, however, is more effectually undergone in the
+private bath, where the stream is much more powerful. The natural
+warmth of this water, as nearly as I can judge from recollection, is
+about the same degree of temperature with that in the Queen's Bath, at
+Bath in Somersetshire. It is perfectly transparent, sparkling in the
+glass, light and agreeable to the taste, and may be drank without any
+preparation, to the quantity of three or four pints at a time. There
+are many people at Aix who swallow fourteen half pint glasses every
+morning, during the season, which is in the month of May, though it may
+be taken with equal benefit all the year round. It has no sensible
+operation but by urine, an effect which pure water would produce, if
+drank in the same quantity.
+
+If we may believe those who have published their experiments, this
+water produces neither agitation, cloud, or change of colour, when
+mixed with acids, alkalies, tincture of galls, syrup of violets, or
+solution of silver. The residue, after boiling, evaporation, and
+filtration, affords a very small proportion of purging salt, and
+calcarious earth, which last ferments with strong acids. As I had
+neither hydrometer nor thermometer to ascertain the weight and warmth
+of this water; nor time to procure the proper utensils, to make the
+preparations, and repeat the experiments necessary to exhibit a
+complete analysis, I did not pretend to enter upon this process; but
+contented myself with drinking, bathing, and using the douche, which
+perfectly answered my expectation, having, in eight days, almost cured
+an ugly scorbutic tetter, which had for some time deprived me of the
+use of my right hand. I observed that the water, when used externally,
+left always a kind of oily appearance on the skin: that when, we boiled
+it at home, in an earthen pot, the steams smelled like those of
+sulphur, and even affected my lungs in the same manner: but the bath
+itself smelled strong of a lime-kiln. The water, after standing all
+night in a bottle, yielded a remarkably vinous taste and odour,
+something analogous to that of dulcified spirit of nitre. Whether the
+active particles consist of a volatile vitriol, or a very fine
+petroleum, or a mixture of both, I shall not pretend to determine: but
+the best way I know of discovering whether it is really impregnated
+with a vitriolic principle, too subtil and fugitive for the usual
+operations of chymistry, is to place bottles, filled with wine, in the
+bath, or adjacent room, which wine, if there is really a volatile acid,
+in any considerable quantity, will be pricked in eight and forty hours.
+
+Having ordered our coach to be refitted, and provided with fresh
+horses, as well as with another postilion, in consequence of which
+improvements, I payed at the rate of a loui'dore per diem to Lyons and
+back again, we departed from Aix, and the second day of our journey
+passing the Durance in a boat, lay at Avignon. This river, the Druentia
+of the antients, is a considerable stream, extremely rapid, which
+descends from the mountains, and discharges itself in the Rhone. After
+violent rains it extends its channel, so as to be impassable, and often
+overflows the country to a great extent. In the middle of a plain,
+betwixt Orgon and this river, we met the coach in which we had
+travelled eighteen months before, from Lyons to Montpellier, conducted
+by our old driver Joseph, who no sooner recognized my servant at a
+distance, by his musquetoon, than he came running towards our carriage,
+and seizing my hand, even shed tears of joy. Joseph had been travelling
+through Spain, and was so imbrowned by the sun, that he might have
+passed for an Iroquois. I was much pleased with the marks of gratitude
+which the poor fellow expressed towards his benefactors. He had some
+private conversation with our voiturier, whose name was Claude, to whom
+he gave such a favourable character of us, as in all probability
+induced him to be wonderfully obliging during the whole journey.
+
+You know Avignon is a large city belonging to the pope. It was the
+Avenio Cavarum of the antients, and changed masters several times,
+belonging successively to the Romans, Burgundians, Franks, the kingdom
+of Arles, the counts of Provence, and the sovereigns of Naples. It was
+sold in the fourteenth century, by queen Jane I. of Naples, to Pope
+Clement VI. for the sum of eighty thousand florins, and since that
+period has continued under the dominion of the see of Rome. Not but
+that when the duc de Crequi, the French ambassador, was insulted at
+Rome in the year 1662, the parliament of Provence passed an arret,
+declaring the city of Avignon, and the county Venaiss in part of the
+ancient domain of Provence; and therefore reunited it to the crown of
+France, which accordingly took possession; though it was afterwards
+restored to the Roman see at the peace of Pisa. The pope, however,
+holds it by a precarious title, at the mercy of the French king, who
+may one day be induced to resume it, upon payment of the original
+purchase-money. As a succession of popes resided here for the space of
+seventy years, the city could not fail to be adorned with a great
+number of magnificent churches and convents, which are richly
+embellished with painting, sculpture, shrines, reliques, and tombs.
+Among the last, is that of the celebrated Laura, whom Petrarch has
+immortalized by his poetry, and for whom Francis I. of France took the
+trouble to write an epitaph. Avignon is governed by a vice-legate from
+the pope, and the police of the city is regulated by the consuls.
+
+It is a large place, situated in a fruitful plain, surrounded by high
+walls built of hewn stone, which on the west side are washed by the
+Rhone. Here was a noble bridge over the river, but it is now in ruins.
+On the other side, a branch of the Sorgue runs through part of the
+city. This is the river anciently called Sulga, formed by the famous
+fountain of Vaucluse in this neighbourhood, where the poet Petrarch
+resided. It is a charming transparent stream, abounding with excellent
+trout and craw-fish. We passed over it on a stone bridge, in our way to
+Orange, the Arausio Cavarum of the Romans, still distinguished by some
+noble monuments of antiquity. These consist of a circus, an aqueduct, a
+temple, and a triumphal arch, which last was erected in honour of Caius
+Marius, and Luctatius Catulus, after the great victory they obtained in
+this country over the Cimbri and Teutones. It is a very magnificent
+edifice, adorned on all sides with trophies and battles in basso
+relievo. The ornaments of the architecture, and the sculpture, are
+wonderfully elegant for the time in which it was erected; and the whole
+is surprisingly well preserved, considering its great antiquity. It
+seems to me to be as entire and perfect as the arch of Septimius
+Severus at Rome. Next day we passed two very impetuous streams, the
+Drome and the Isere. The first, which very much resembles the Var, we
+forded: but the Isere we crossed in a boat, which as well as that upon
+the Durance, is managed by the traille, a moveable or running pulley,
+on a rope stretched between two wooden machines erected on the opposite
+sides of the river. The contrivance is simple and effectual, and the
+passage equally safe and expeditious. The boatman has nothing to do,
+but by means of a long massy rudder, to keep the head obliquely to the
+stream, the force of which pushes the boat along, the block to which it
+is fixed sliding upon the rope from one side to the other. All these
+rivers take their rise from the mountains, which are continued through
+Provence and Dauphine, and fall into the Rhone: and all of them, when
+swelled by sudden rains, overflow the flat country. Although Dauphine
+affords little or no oil, it produces excellent wines, particularly
+those of Hermitage and Cote-roti. The first of these is sold on the
+spot for three livres the bottle, and the other for two. The country
+likewise yields a considerable quantity of corn, and a good deal of
+grass. It is well watered with streams, and agreeably shaded with wood.
+The weather was pleasant, and we had a continued song of nightingales
+from Aix to Fontainebleau.
+
+I cannot pretend to specify the antiquities of Vienne, antiently called
+Vienna Allobrogum. It was a Roman colony, and a considerable city,
+which the antients spared no pains and expence to embellish. It is
+still a large town, standing among several hills on the banks of the
+Rhone, though all its former splendor is eclipsed, its commerce
+decayed, and most of its antiquities are buried in ruins. The church of
+Notre Dame de la Vie was undoubtedly a temple. On the left of the road,
+as you enter it, by the gate of Avignon, there is a handsome obelisk,
+or rather pyramid, about thirty feet high, raised upon a vault
+supported by four pillars of the Tuscan order. It is certainly a Roman
+work, and Montfaucon supposes it to be a tomb, as he perceived an
+oblong stone jetting out from the middle of the vault, in which the
+ashes of the defunct were probably contained. The story of Pontius
+Pilate, who is said to have ended his days in this place, is a fable.
+On the seventh day of our journey from Aix, we arrived at Lyons, where
+I shall take my leave of you for the present, being with great
+truth--Yours, etc.
+
+
+
+LETTER XLI
+
+BOULOGNE, June 13, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--I am at last in a situation to indulge my view with a sight
+of Britain, after an absence of two years; and indeed you cannot
+imagine what pleasure I feel while I survey the white cliffs of Dover,
+at this distance. Not that I am at all affected by the nescia qua
+dulcedine natalis soli, of Horace. That seems to be a kind of
+fanaticism founded on the prejudices of education, which induces a
+Laplander to place the terrestrial paradise among the snows of Norway,
+and a Swiss to prefer the barren mountains of Solleure to the fruitful
+plains of Lombardy. I am attached to my country, because it is the land
+of liberty, cleanliness, and convenience: but I love it still more
+tenderly, as the scene of all my interesting connexions; as the
+habitation of my friends, for whose conversation, correspondence, and
+esteem, I wish alone to live.
+
+Our journey hither from Lyons produced neither accident nor adventure
+worth notice; but abundance of little vexations, which may be termed
+the Plagues of Posting. At Lyons, where we stayed only a few days, I
+found a return-coach, which I hired to Paris for six loui'dores. It was
+a fine roomy carriage, elegantly furnished, and made for travelling; so
+strong and solid in all its parts, that there was no danger of its
+being shaken to pieces by the roughness of the road: but its weight and
+solidity occasioned so much friction between the wheels and the
+axle-tree, that we ran the risque of being set on fire three or four
+times a day. Upon a just comparison of all circumstances posting is
+much more easy, convenient, and reasonable in England than in France.
+The English carriages, horses, harness, and roads are much better; and
+the postilions more obliging and alert. The reason is plain and
+obvious. If I am ill-used at the post-house in England, I can be
+accommodated elsewhere. The publicans on the road are sensible of this,
+and therefore they vie with each other in giving satisfaction to
+travellers. But in France, where the post is monopolized, the
+post-masters and postilions, knowing that the traveller depends
+intirely upon them, are the more negligent and remiss in their duty, as
+well as the more encouraged to insolence and imposition. Indeed the
+stranger seems to be left intirely at the mercy of those fellows,
+except in large towns, where he may have recourse to the magistrate or
+commanding officer. The post stands very often by itself in a lone
+country situation, or in a paultry village, where the post-master is
+the principal inhabitant; and in such a case, if you should be
+ill-treated, by being supplied with bad horses; if you should be
+delayed on frivolous pretences, in order to extort money; if the
+postilions should drive at a waggon pace, with a view to provoke your
+impatience; or should you in any shape be insulted by them or their
+masters; and I know not any redress you can have, except by a formal
+complaint to the comptroller of the posts, who is generally one of the
+ministers of state, and pays little or no regard to any such
+representations. I know an English gentleman, the brother of an earl,
+who wrote a letter of complaint to the Duc de Villars, governor of
+Provence, against the post-master of Antibes, who had insulted and
+imposed upon him. The duke answered his letter, promising to take order
+that the grievance should be redressed; and never thought of it after.
+Another great inconvenience which attends posting in France, is that if
+you are retarded by any accident, you cannot in many parts of the
+kingdom find a lodging, without perhaps travelling two or three posts
+farther than you would choose to go, to the prejudice of your health,
+and even the hazard of your life; whereas on any part of the post-road
+in England, you will meet with tolerable accommodation at every stage.
+Through the whole south of France, except in large cities, the inns are
+cold, damp, dark, dismal, and dirty; the landlords equally disobliging
+and rapacious; the servants aukward, sluttish, and slothful; and the
+postilions lazy, lounging, greedy, and impertinent. If you chide them
+for lingering, they will continue to delay you the longer: if you
+chastise them with sword, cane, cudgel, or horse-whip, they will either
+disappear entirely, and leave you without resource; or they will find
+means to take vengeance by overturning your carriage. The best method I
+know of travelling with any degree of comfort, is to allow yourself to
+become the dupe of imposition, and stimulate their endeavours by
+extraordinary gratifications. I laid down a resolution (and kept it) to
+give no more than four and twenty sols per post between the two
+postilions; but I am now persuaded that for three-pence a post more, I
+should have been much better served, and should have performed the
+journey with much greater pleasure. We met with no adventures upon the
+road worth reciting. The first day we were retarded about two hours by
+the dutchess D--lle, and her son the duc de R--f--t, who by virtue of
+an order from the minister, had anticipated all the horses at the post.
+They accosted my servant, and asked if his master was a lord? He
+thought proper to answer in the affirmative, upon which the duke
+declared that he must certainly be of French extraction, inasmuch as he
+observed the lilies of France in his arms on the coach. This young
+nobleman spoke a little English. He asked whence we had come; and
+understanding we had been in Italy, desired to know whether the man
+liked France or Italy best? Upon his giving France the preference, he
+clapped him on the shoulder, and said he was a lad of good taste. The
+dutchess asked if her son spoke English well, and seemed mightily
+pleased when my man assured her he did. They were much more free and
+condescending with my servant than with myself; for, though we saluted
+them in passing, and were even supposed to be persons of quality, they
+did not open their lips, while we stood close by them at the inn-door,
+till their horses were changed. They were going to Geneva; and their
+equipage consisted of three coaches and six, with five domestics
+a-horseback. The dutchess was a tall, thin, raw-boned woman, with her
+head close shaved. This delay obliged us to lie two posts short of
+Macon, at a solitary auberge called Maison Blanche, which had nothing
+white about it, but the name. The Lionnois is one of the most agreeable
+and best-cultivated countries I ever beheld, diversified with hill,
+dale, wood, and water, laid out in extensive corn-fields and rich
+meadows, well stocked with black cattle, and adorned with a surprising
+number of towns, villages, villas, and convents, generally situated on
+the brows of gently swelling hills, so that they appear to the greatest
+advantage. What contributes in a great measure to the beauty of this,
+and the Maconnois, is the charming pastoral Soame, which from the city
+of Chalons winds its silent course so smooth and gentle, that one can
+scarce discern which way its current flows. It is this placid
+appearance that tempts so many people to bathe in it at Lions, where a
+good number of individuals are drowned every summer: whereas there is
+no instance of any persons thus perishing in the Rhone, the rapidity of
+it deterring every body from bathing in its stream. Next night we
+passed at Beaune where we found nothing good but the wine, for which we
+paid forty sols the bottle. At Chalons our axle-tree took fire; an
+accident which detained us so long, that it was ten before we arrived
+at Auxerre, where we lay. In all probability we must have lodged in the
+coach, had not we been content to take four horses, and pay for six,
+two posts successively. The alternative was, either to proceed with
+four on those terms, or stay till the other horses should come in and
+be refreshed. In such an emergency, I would advise the traveller to put
+up with the four, and he will find the postilions so much upon their
+mettle, that those stages will be performed sooner than the others in
+which you have the full complement.
+
+There was an English gentleman laid up at Auxerre with a broken arm, to
+whom I sent my compliments, with offers of service; but his servant
+told my man that he did not choose to see any company, and had no
+occasion for my service. This sort of reserve seems peculiar to the
+English disposition. When two natives of any other country chance to
+meet abroad, they run into each other's embrace like old friends, even
+though they have never heard of one another till that moment; whereas
+two Englishmen in the same situation maintain a mutual reserve and
+diffidence, and keep without the sphere of each other's attraction,
+like two bodies endowed with a repulsive power. We only stopped to
+change horses at Dijon, the capital of Burgundy, which is a venerable
+old city; but we passed part of a day at Sens, and visited a
+manufacture of that stuff we call Manchester velvet, which is here made
+and dyed to great perfection, under the direction of English workmen,
+who have been seduced from their own country. At Fontainebleau, we went
+to see the palace, or as it is called, the castle, which though an
+irregular pile of building, affords a great deal of lodging, and
+contains some very noble apartments, particularly the hall of audience,
+with the king's and queen's chambers, upon which the ornaments of
+carving and gilding are lavished with profusion rather than propriety.
+Here are some rich parterres of flower-garden, and a noble orangerie,
+which, however, we did not greatly admire, after having lived among the
+natural orange groves of Italy. Hitherto we had enjoyed fine summer
+weather, and I found myself so well, that I imagined my health was
+intirely restored: but betwixt Fontainebleau and Paris, we were
+overtaken by a black storm of rain, sleet, and hail, which seemed to
+reinstate winter in all its rigour; for the cold weather continues to
+this day. There was no resisting this attack. I caught cold
+immediately; and this was reinforced at Paris, where I stayed but three
+days. The same man, (Pascal Sellier, rue Guenegaud, fauxbourg St.
+Germain) who owned the coach that brought us from Lyons, supplied me
+with a returned berline to Boulogne, for six loui'dores, and we came
+hither by easy journeys. The first night we lodged at Breteuil, where
+we found an elegant inn, and very good accommodation. But the next we
+were forced to take up our quarters, at the house where we had formerly
+passed a very disagreeable night at Abbeville. I am now in tolerable
+lodging, where I shall remain a few weeks, merely for the sake of a
+little repose; then I shall gladly tempt that invidious straight which
+still divides you from--Yours, &c.
+
+
+
+APPENDIX A
+
+A Short List of Works, mainly on Travel in France and Italy during the
+Eighteenth Century, referred to in connection with the Introduction.
+
+ADDISON, JOSEPH. Remarks on Several Parts of Italy. London, 1705.
+
+ANCONE, ALESSANDRO D'. Saggio di una bibliografia ragionata dei Viaggi
+in Italia. 1895.
+
+ANDREWS, Dr. JOHN. Letters to a Young Gentleman in setting out for
+France. London, 1784.
+
+ARCHENHOLTZ, J. W. VON. Tableau de l'Angleterre et de l'Italie. 3 vols.
+Gotha, 1788.
+
+ARDOUIN-DUMAZET Voyage en France. Treizieme serie. La Provence
+Maritime. Paris, 1898.
+
+ASTRUC, JEAN. Memoires pour servir a l'histoire de la Faculte de
+Medicine de Montpellier, 1767.
+
+BABEAU, ANTOINE. Voyageurs en France. Paris, 1885.
+
+BALLY, L. E. Souvenirs de Nice. 1860.
+
+BARETTI, G. M. Account of the Manners and Customs of Italy. 2 vols.
+London, 1770.
+
+BASTIDE, CHARLES. John Locke. Ses theories politiques en Angleterre.
+Paris, 1907.
+
+BECKFORD, WILLIAM. Italy, Spain, and Portugal. By the author of
+"Vathek." London, 1834; new ed. 1840.
+
+BERCHTOLD, LEOPOLD. An Essay to direct the Inquiries of Patriotic
+Travellers. 2 vols. London, 1789.
+
+BOULOGNE-SUR-MER et la region Boulonnaise. Ouvrage offert par la ville
+aux membres de l'Association Francaise. 2 vols.  1899.
+
+BRETON DE LA MARTINIERE, J. Voyage en Piemont. Paris, 1803.
+
+BROSSES, CHARLES DE. Lettres familieres ecrites d'Italie. 1740.
+
+BURTON, JOHN HILL. The Scot Abroad. 2 vols. Edinburgh. 1864.
+
+CASANOVA DE SEINGALT, JACQUES. Memoires ecrits par lui-meme. 6 vols.
+Bruxelles, 1879.
+
+CLEMENT, PIERRE. L'Italie en 1671. Paris, 1867. 12mo.
+
+COOTE'S NEW GEOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 2 vols., folio, 1739.
+
+CRAIG, G. DUNCAN. Mie jour; or Provencal Legend, Life, Language, and
+Literature. London, 1877.
+
+DAVIS, Dr. I. B. Ancient and Modern History of Nice. London, 1807.
+
+DEJOB, C. Madame de Stael et l'Italie. Paris, 1890.
+
+DEMPSTER, C. L. H. The Maritime Alps and their Sea-Board. London, 1885.
+
+DORAN, DR. JOHN. Mann and Manners at the Court of Florence. London,
+1876.
+
+DRAMARD, E. Bibliographie du Boulonnais, Calaisis, etc. Paris, 1869.
+
+DUTENS, L. Itineraire des Routes. First edition, 1775.
+
+EVELYN, JOHN. Diary, edited by H. B. Wheatley. 4 vols. London, 1879.
+
+FERBER, G. G. Travels through Italy, translated by R. E. Raspe. London,
+1776.
+
+FODERE, FRANCOIS EMILE. Voyage aux Alpes Maritimes. 2 vols. Paris, 1821.
+
+FORSYTH, JOSEPH. Remarks on Antiquities, Arts, and Letters, during an
+Excursion in Italy in the year 1802 and 1803. London, 1812; 4th
+Edition, 1835.
+
+GARDNER, EDMUND G. The Story of Florence. London, 1900.
+
+GERMAIN, M. A. Histoire de la Commune de Montpellier. 3 vols.
+Montpellier, 1853.
+
+GIOFFREDO, PIETRO. Storia delle Alpi Marittime . . . libri xxvi. Ed.
+Gazzera. 1836.
+
+GOETHE. Autobiography, Tour in Italy, Miscellaneous Travels, and
+Wilhelm Meister's Travels (Bohn).
+
+GROSLEY, PIERRE JEAN. Nouveaux Memoires sur l'Italie. London, 1764. New
+Observations on Italy. Translated by Thomas Nugent. 1769.
+
+HARE, AUGUSTUS J. C. The Rivieras. 1897.
+
+HILLARD, G. S. Six Months in Italy. Boston, 1853; 7th edition, 1863.
+
+JEFFERYS, THOMAS. Description of the Maritime Parts of France. With
+Maps. 1761.
+
+JOANNE, ADOLPHE. Provence, Alpes Maritimes. Paris, 1881 (Bibliog., p.
+xxvii).
+
+JONES (of Nayland), WILLIAM. Observations in a Journey to Paris.
+London, 1777.
+
+KOTZEBUE, A. F. F. VON. Travels through Italy in 1804 and 1805. 4 vols.
+London, 1807.
+
+LALANDE, J. J. DE. Voyage en Italie. 6 vols. 12mo. 1768.
+
+LEE, EDWIN. Nice et son climat. Paris, 1863.
+
+LENOTRE, G. Paris revolutionnaire. Paris, 1895.
+
+LENTHERIC, CHARLES. La Provence Maritime, ancienne et moderne. Paris,
+1880. Les voies antiques de la Region du Rhone. Avignon, 1882.
+
+LUCHAIRE, A. Hist. des Instit. Monarchiques de la France. 2 vols. 1891.
+
+MAUGHAM, H. N. The Book of Italian Travel. London, 1903.
+
+MERCIER, M. New Pictures of Paris. London, 1800.
+
+METRIVIER, H. Monaco et ses Princes. 2 vols. 1862.
+
+MILLINGEN, J. G. Sketches of Ancient and Modern Boulogne. London, 1826.
+
+MONTAIGNE, MICHEL DE. Journal du Voyage en Italie (Querlon). Rome, 1774.
+
+MONTESQUIEU, CHARLES DE SECONDAT, BARON DE. Voyages. Bordeaux, 1894.
+
+MONTFAUCON. Travels of the Learned Dr. Montfaucon from Paris through
+Italy. London, 1712.
+
+MOORE, DR. JOHN. A View of Society and Manners in France (2 vols.,
+1779), and in Italy (2 vols., 1781)
+
+NASH, JAMES. Guide to Nice, 1884.
+
+NORTHALL, JOHN. Travels through Italy. London, 1766.
+
+NUGENT, THOMAS. The Grand Tour. 3rd edition. 4 vols. 1778.
+
+PALLIARI, LEA. Notices historiques sur le comte et la ville de Nice.
+Nice, 1875.
+
+PETHERICK, E, A. Catalogue of the York Gate Library. An Index to the
+Literature of Geography. London, 1881.
+
+PIOZZI, HESTER LYNCH. Observations and Reflections made in the course
+of a Journey through France, Italy, and Germany. In 2 vols. London,
+1789.
+
+RAE, JOHN. Life of Adam Smith. London, 1885.
+
+RICHARD, L'ABBE. Description historique et critique de l'Italie. 6
+vols. Paris, 1768.
+
+RICHARDERIE, BOUCHER DE LA. Bibliotheque des voyages. Paris, 1808.
+
+RIGBY, DR. Letters from France in 1789, edited by Lady Eastlake.
+London, 1880.
+
+ROSE, WILLIAM STEWART. Letters from the North of Italy to Henry Hallam.
+2 vols. 1819.
+
+ROUX, JOSEPH. Statistique des Alpes Maritimes. 2 vols. 1863.
+
+RUFFINI, GIOVANNI, D. Doctor Antonio; a Tale. Paris, 1855.
+
+SAYOUS, A. Le Dix-huitieme siecle a l'etranger. 2 vols. Paris, 1861.
+
+SECCOMBE, THOMAS. Smollett's Travels, edited with bibliographical note,
+etc. By Thomas Seccombe (Works, Constable's Edition, vol. xi.). 1900.
+
+SHARP, SAMUEL. Letters from Italy. London, 1769.
+
+SHERLOCK, MARTIN. Letters from an English Traveller. (New English
+version.) 2 vols. 1802.
+
+SMOLLETT, T. Travels through France and Italy. 2 vols. London, 1766.
+
+SPALDING, WILLIAM. Italy and the Italian Islands. 3 vols. London, 1841.
+
+STAEL, MME. DE. Corinne, ou l'Italie. 1807.
+
+STARKE, MARIANA. Letters from Italy, 1792-1798. 9 vols. 1800. Travels
+on the Continent for the use of Travellers. 1800, 1820, 1824, etc.
+
+STENDHAL. Rome, Naples, and Florence, in 1817. London, 1818.
+
+STERNE, LAURENCE. A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy. By
+Mr. Yorick. 2 vols. London, 1768.
+
+STOLBERZ, COUNT F. L. ZU. Travels through Germany, Switzerland, Italy,
+etc. Translated by Thomas Holcroft. 1796.
+
+TAINE, HENRI. Voyage en Italie. 1866.
+
+TALBOT, SIR R. Letters on the French Nation. London, 2 vols.1771, 12mo.
+
+TEYSSEIRE, T. Monographie sur le climat de Nice. 1881.
+
+THICKNESSE, PHILIP. Useful Hints to those who make the Tour of France
+in a Series of Letters. London, 1768. A year's Journey through France,
+etc. 2, vols. 1777.
+
+TISSERAND, E. Chronique de Provence . . . de la cite de Nice, etc. 2
+vols. Nice, 1862.
+
+TWINING FAMILY PAPERS. London, 1887.
+
+VIOLLET, PAUL. Hist. des Instit. polit. et administratifs de la France.
+2 vols. Paris, 1890-98.
+
+WHATLEY, STEPHEN. The Travels and Adventures of J. Massey. Translated
+from the French. 1743.
+
+WILLIAMS, C. THEODORE. The Climate of the South of France. 1869.
+
+WINCKELMANN, J. J. Lettres familieres. Amsterdam, 1781. Reflections on
+the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks. Translated by H. Fuseli.
+London, 1765. Voyage en Italie de J. J. Barthelemy . . . avec des
+morceaux inedits de Winckelmann. 1801.
+
+YOUNG, ARTHUR. Travels in France during 1787, 1788, 1789, edited by M.
+Betham-Edwards. 1889.
+
+YOUNG, EDWARD. Sa vie et ses oeuvres, par W. Thomas. Paris, 1901.
+
+APPENDIX B
+
+Short Notes on one or two unfamiliar Words which Smollett helped to
+domesticate in England.
+
+Berline. Swift and Chesterfield both use this for a heavy coach. The
+most famous berline was that used in the flight to Varennes. The name
+came from Brandenburg in the time of Frederick William.
+
+Bize. Smollett's spelling of bise--the cutting N.N.E. wind which makes
+Geneva so beautiful, but intolerable in the winter.
+
+Brasiere=brasero. A tray for hot charcoal used for warming rooms at
+Nice. Smollett practically introduced this word. Dried olives were
+often used as fuel.
+
+Calesse, calash, caleche. A low two-wheeled carriage of light
+construction, with a movable folding hood; hence applied to a hood
+bonnet as in Mrs. Gaskell's Cranford.
+
+Cassine. Latin casa, cassa, cassina; the Italian cassina, A small
+detached house in the fields, often whitewashed and of mean appearance.
+Smollett uses the word as an equivalent for summer cottage. Cf. bastide
+as used by Dumas. Cabane has practically replaced cassine in modern
+French. See Letter XXIV.
+
+Cambiatura. The system of changing chaises every post, common in
+England, but unusual abroad except in Tuscany.
+
+Cicisbeo. The word is used by Lady Mary Montagu in her Letters (1718)
+as cecisbeo. Smollett's best account is in Letter XVII. See
+Introduction, p. xliii.
+
+Conversazione. Gray uses the word for assembly in 1710, but Smollett, I
+believe, is about the first Englishman to define it properly.
+
+Corinth. This was still used as a variant of currant, though adherence
+to it was probably rather pedantic on Smollett's part (cf. his use of
+"hough" for hoe). Boswell uses the modern form.
+
+Corridore. This word was used by Evelyn, and the correct modern
+spelling given by Johnson in 1753; but Smollett as often adheres to the
+old form.
+
+Douche. Italian doccia. Smollett is perhaps the first writer to explain
+the word and assign to it the now familiar French form (Letter XL).
+
+Feluca. An Arab word to denote a coasting boat, oar or sail propelled.
+Nelson and Marryat write felucca. It was large enough to accommodate a
+post-chaise (Letter XXV).
+
+Gabelle. Supposed to be derived from the Arabic kabala, the irksome tax
+on salt, from which few provinces in France were altogether free, swept
+away in 1790. Smollett describes the exaction in San Remo.
+
+Garum. Used by Smollett for the rich fish sauce of the ancients,
+equivalent to a saumure, perhaps, in modern French cookery. In the
+Middle Ages the word is used both for a condiment and a beverage.
+
+Improvisatore. A performer in the Commedia delle Arte, of which
+Smollett gives a brief admiring account in his description of Florence
+(Letter XXVII). For details of the various elements, the doti,
+generici, lazzi, etc., see Carlo Gozzi.
+
+Liqueur. First used by Pope. "An affected, contemptible expression"
+(Johnson).
+
+Macaroni. "The paste called macaroni" (Letter XXVI) was seen by
+Smollett in the neighbourhood of its origin near Genoa, which city
+formed the chief market.
+
+Maestral. An old form of mistral, the very dry wind from the N.N.W.,
+described by Smollett as the coldest he ever experienced.
+
+Patois. See Letter XXII. ad fin.
+
+Pietre commesse. A sort of inlaying with stones, analogous to the
+fineering of cabinets in wood (Letter XXVIII). Used by Evelyn in 1644.
+
+Polenta. A meal ground from maize, which makes a good "pectoral"
+(Letter XXII).
+
+Pomi carli. The most agreeable apples Smollett tasted, stated to come
+from the marquisate of Final, sold by the Emperor Charles VI. to the
+Genoese.
+
+Preniac. A small white wine, mentioned in Letter IV., from Boulogne, as
+agreeable and very cheap.
+
+Seafarot boots. Jack-boots or wading boots, worn by a Marquis of Savoy,
+and removed by means of a tug-of-war team and a rope coiled round the
+heel (see Letter XXVIII).
+
+Sporcherie. With respect to delicacy and decorum you may peruse Dean
+Swift's description of the Yahoos, and then you will have some idea of
+the sporcherie that distinguishes the gallantry of Nice (Letter XVII).
+Ital. sporcheria, sporcizia.
+
+Strappado or corda. Performed by hoisting the criminal by his hands
+tied behind his back and dropping him suddenly "with incredible pain"
+(Letter XX). See Introduction, p. xliv, and Christie, Etienne Dolet,
+1899, P. 231.
+
+Tartane. From Italian tartana, Arabic taridha; a similar word being
+used in Valencia and Grand Canary for a two-wheeled open cart. One of
+the commonest craft on the Mediterranean (cf. the topo of the
+Adriatic). For different types see Larousse's Nouveau Dictionnaire.
+
+Tip. To "tip the wink" is found in Addison's Tatler (No. 86), but "to
+tip" in the sense of to gratify is not common before Smollett, who uses
+it more than once or twice in this sense (cf. Roderick Random, chap.
+xiv. ad fin.)
+
+Valanches. For avalanches (dangers from to travellers, see Letter
+XXXVIII).
+
+Villeggiatura. An early adaptation by Smollett of the Italian word for
+country retirement (Letter XXIX).
+
+
+APPENDIX C
+
+Currency of Savoy in the time of Smollett.
+
+  Ten bajocci=one paolo (6d.).
+  Ten paoli=one scudo (six livres or about 5s.).
+  Two scudi=one zequin.
+  Two zequin=one louid'or.
+
+Afterword.--I should be ungrateful were I not to create an epilogue for
+the express purpose of thanking M. Morel, H. S Spencer  Scott, Dr.
+Norman Moore, W. P. Courtney, G. Whale, D. S. MacColl, Walter Sichel
+(there may be others), who have supplied hints for my annotations, and
+I should like further, if one might inscribe such a trifle, to inscribe
+this to that difficult critic, Mr. Arthur Vincent, who, when I told him
+I was about it, gave expression to the cordial regret that so well
+hidden a treasure of our literature (as he regarded the Travels) was to
+be "vulgarised."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Travels Through France and Italy, by
+Tobias Smollett
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of Travels through France and Italy
+#2 in our series by Tobias Smollett
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+Travels Through France And Italy
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+By Tobias Smollett
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+Scanned by Martin Adamson
+martin@grassmarket.freeserve.co.uk
+
+
+
+
+
+Travels Through France And Italy
+
+By Tobias Smollett
+
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+By
+
+Thomas Seccombe
+
+I
+
+Many pens have been burnished this year of grace for the purpose 
+of celebrating with befitting honour the second centenary of the 
+birth of Henry Fielding; but it is more than doubtful if, when 
+the right date occurs in March 1921, anything like the same 
+alacrity will be shown to commemorate one who was for many years, 
+and by such judges as Scott, Hazlitt, and Charles Dickens, 
+considered Fielding's complement and absolute co-equal (to say 
+the least) in literary achievement. Smollett's fame, indeed, 
+seems to have fallen upon an unprosperous curve. The coarseness 
+of his fortunate rival is condoned, while his is condemned 
+without appeal. Smollett's value is assessed without 
+discrimination at that of his least worthy productions, and the 
+historical value of his work as a prime modeller of all kinds of 
+new literary material is overlooked. Consider for a moment as not 
+wholly unworthy of attention his mere versatility as a man of 
+letters. Apart from Roderick Random and its successors, which 
+gave him a European fame, he wrote a standard history, and a 
+standard version of Don Quixote (both of which held their ground 
+against all comers for over a century). He created both satirical 
+and romantic types, he wrote two fine-spirited lyrics, and 
+launched the best Review and most popular magazine of his day. He 
+was the centre of a literary group, the founder to some extent of 
+a school of professional writers, of which strange and novel 
+class, after the "Great Cham of Literature," as he called Dr. 
+Johnson, he affords one of the first satisfactory specimens upon 
+a fairly large scale. He is, indeed, a more satisfactory, because 
+a more independent, example of the new species than the Great 
+Cham himself. The late Professor Beljame has shown us how the 
+milieu was created in which, with no subvention, whether from a 
+patron, a theatre, a political paymaster, a prosperous newspaper 
+or a fashionable subscription-list, an independent writer of the 
+mid-eighteenth century, provided that he was competent, could 
+begin to extort something more than a bare subsistence from the 
+reluctant coffers of the London booksellers. For the purpose of 
+such a demonstration no better illustration could possibly be 
+found, I think, than the career of Dr. Tobias Smollett. And yet, 
+curiously enough, in the collection of critical monographs so 
+well known under the generic title of "English Men of Letters"--a 
+series, by the way, which includes Nathaniel Hawthorne and Maria 
+Edgeworth--no room or place has hitherto been found for Smollett 
+any more than for Ben Jonson, both of them, surely, considerable 
+Men of Letters in the very strictest and most representative 
+sense of the term. Both Jonson and Smollett were to an unusual 
+extent centres of the literary life of their time; and if the 
+great Ben had his tribe of imitators and adulators, Dr. Toby also 
+had his clan of sub-authors, delineated for us by a master hand 
+in the pages of Humphry Clinker. To make Fielding the centre-piece 
+of a group reflecting the literature of his day would be an 
+artistic impossibility. It would be perfectly easy in the case of 
+Smollett, who was descried by critics from afar as a Colossus 
+bestriding the summit of the contemporary Parnassus.
+
+Whatever there may be of truth in these observations upon the 
+eclipse of a once magical name applies with double force to that 
+one of all Smollett's books which has sunk farthest in popular 
+disesteem. Modern editors have gone to the length of 
+excommunicating Smollett's Travels altogether from the fellowship 
+of his Collective Works.  Critic has followed critic in 
+denouncing the book as that of a "splenetic" invalid. And yet it 
+is a book for which all English readers have cause to be 
+grateful, not only as a document on Smollett and his times, not 
+only as being in a sense the raison d'etre of the Sentimental 
+Journey, and the precursor in a very special sense of Humphry 
+Clinker, but also as being intrinsically an uncommonly readable 
+book, and even, I venture to assert, in many respects one of 
+Smollett's best. Portions of the work exhibit literary quality of 
+a high order: as a whole it represents a valuable because a 
+rather uncommon view, and as a literary record of travel it is 
+distinguished by a very exceptional veracity.
+
+I am not prepared to define the differentia of a really first-rate 
+book of travel. Sympathy is important; but not indispensable, 
+or Smollett would be ruled out of court at once. Scientific 
+knowledge, keen observation, or intuitive power of discrimination 
+go far. To enlist our curiosity or enthusiasm or to excite our 
+wonder are even stronger recommendations. Charm of personal 
+manner, power of will, anthropological interest, self-effacement 
+in view of some great objects--all these qualities have made 
+travel-books live. One knows pretty nearly the books that one is 
+prepared to re-read in this department of literature. Marco Polo, 
+Herodotus, a few sections in Hakluyt, Dampier and Defoe, the 
+early travellers in Palestine, Commodore Byron's Travels, Curzon 
+and Lane, Doughty's Arabia Deserta, Mungo Park, Dubois, 
+Livingstone's Missionary Travels, something of Borrow (fact or 
+fable), Hudson and Cunninghame Graham, Bent, Bates and Wallace, 
+The Crossing of Greenland, Eothen, the meanderings of Modestine, 
+The Path to Rome, and all, or almost all, of E. F. Knight. I have 
+run through most of them at one breath, and the sum total would 
+not bend a moderately stout bookshelf. How many high-sounding 
+works on the other hand, are already worse than dead, or, should 
+we say, better dead? The case of Smollett's Travels, there is 
+good reason to hope, is only one of suspended animation.
+
+To come to surer ground, it is a fact worth noting that each of 
+the four great prose masters of the third quarter of the 
+eighteenth century tried his hand at a personal record of travel. 
+Fielding came first in 1754 with his Journal of a Voyage to 
+Lisbon. Twelve years later was published Smollett's Travels 
+through France and Italy. Then, in 1768, Sterne's Sentimental 
+Journey; followed in 1775 by Johnson's Journey to the Hebrides. 
+Each of the four--in which beneath the apparel of the man of 
+letters we can discern respectively the characteristics of police 
+magistrate, surgeon, confessor, and moralist--enjoyed a fair 
+amount of popularity in its day. Fielding's Journal had perhaps 
+the least immediate success of the four. Sterne's Journey 
+unquestionably had the most. The tenant of "Shandy Hall," as was 
+customary in the first heyday of "Anglomania," went to Paris to 
+ratify his successes, and the resounding triumph of his 
+naughtiness there, by a reflex action, secured the vote of 
+London. Posterity has fully sanctioned this particular "judicium 
+Paridis." The Sentimental Journey is a book sui generis, and in 
+the reliable kind of popularity, which takes concrete form in 
+successive reprints, it has far eclipsed its eighteenth-century 
+rivals. The fine literary aroma which pervades every line of this 
+small masterpiece is not the predominant characteristic of the 
+Great Cham's Journey. Nevertheless, and in spite of the malignity 
+of the "Ossianite" press, it fully justified the assumption of 
+the booksellers that it would prove a "sound" book. It is full 
+of sensible observations, and is written in Johnson's most 
+scholarly, balanced, and dignified style. Few can read it without 
+a sense of being repaid, if only by the portentous sentence in 
+which the author celebrates his arrival at the shores of Loch 
+Ness, where he reposes upon "a bank such as a writer of romance 
+might have delighted to feign," and reflects that a "uniformity 
+of barrenness can afford very little amusement to the traveller; 
+that it is easy to sit at home and conceive rocks and heath and 
+waterfalls; and that these journeys are useless labours, which 
+neither impregnate the imagination nor enlarge the 
+understanding." Fielding's contribution to geography has far less 
+solidity and importance, but it discovers to not a few readers an 
+unfeigned charm that is not to be found in the pages of either 
+Sterne or Johnson. A thoughtless fragment suffices to show the 
+writer in his true colours as one of the most delightful fellows 
+in our literature, and to convey just unmistakably to all good 
+men and true the rare and priceless sense of human fellowship.
+
+There remain the Travels through France and Italy, by T. 
+Smollett, M.D., and though these may not exhibit the marmoreal 
+glamour of Johnson, or the intimate fascination of Fielding, or 
+the essential literary quality which permeates the subtle 
+dialogue and artful vignette of Sterne, yet I shall endeavour to 
+show, not without some hope of success among the fair-minded, 
+that the Travels before us are fully deserving of a place, and 
+that not the least significant, in the quartette.
+
+The temporary eclipse of their fame I attribute, first to the 
+studious depreciation of Sterne and Walpole, and secondly to a 
+refinement of snobbishness on the part of the travelling crowd, 
+who have an uneasy consciousness that to listen to common sense, 
+such as Smollett's, in matters of connoisseurship, is tantamount 
+to confessing oneself a Galilean of the outermost court. In this 
+connection, too, the itinerant divine gave the travelling doctor 
+a very nasty fall. Meeting the latter at Turin, just as Smollett 
+was about to turn his face homewards, in March 1765, Sterne wrote 
+of him, in the famous Journey of 1768, thus:
+
+"The learned Smelfungus travelled from Boulogne to Paris, from 
+Paris to Rome, and so on, but he set out with the spleen and 
+jaundice, and every object he passed by was discoloured or 
+distorted. He wrote an account of them, but 'twas nothing but the 
+account of his miserable feelings." "I met Smelfungus," he wrote 
+later on, "in the grand portico of the Pantheon--he was just 
+coming out of it. ''Tis nothing but a huge cockpit,' said he--'I 
+wish you had said nothing worse of the Venus de Medici,' replied 
+I--for in passing through Florence, I had heard he had fallen 
+foul upon the goddess, and used her worse than a common strumpet, 
+without the least provocation in nature. I popp'd upon Smelfungus 
+again at Turin, in his return home, and a sad tale of sorrowful 
+adventures had he to tell, 'wherein he spoke of moving accidents 
+by flood and field, and of the cannibals which each other eat, 
+the Anthropophagi'; he had been flayed alive, and bedevil'd, and 
+used worse than St. Bartholomew, at every stage he had come at. 
+'I'll tell it,' cried Smelfungus, 'to the world.' 'You had better 
+tell it,' said I, 'to your physician.'"
+
+To counteract the ill effects of "spleen and jaundice" and 
+exhibit the spirit of genteel humour and universal benevolence in 
+which a man of sensibility encountered the discomforts of the 
+road, the incorrigible parson Laurence brought out his own 
+Sentimental Journey. Another effect of Smollett's book was to 
+whet his own appetite for recording the adventures of the open 
+road. So that but for Travels through France and Italy we might 
+have had neither a Sentimental Journey nor a Humphry Clinker. If 
+all the admirers of these two books would but bestir themselves 
+and look into the matter, I am sure that Sterne's only too clever 
+assault would be relegated to its proper place and assessed at 
+its right value as a mere boutade. The borrowed contempt of 
+Horace Walpole and the coterie of superficial dilettanti, from 
+which Smollett's book has somehow never wholly recovered, could 
+then easily be outflanked and the Travels might well be in 
+reasonable expectation of coming by their own again.
+
+II
+
+In the meantime let us look a little more closely into the 
+special and somewhat exceptional conditions under which the 
+Travel Letters of Smollett were produced. Smollett, as we have 
+seen, was one of the first professional men of all work in 
+letters upon a considerable scale who subsisted entirely upon the 
+earnings of his own pen. He had no extraneous means of support. 
+He had neither patron, pension, property, nor endowment, 
+inherited or acquired. Yet he took upon himself the burden of a 
+large establishment, he spent money freely, and he prided himself 
+upon the fact that he, Tobias Smollett, who came up to London 
+without a stiver in his pocket, was in ten years' time in a 
+position to enact the part of patron upon a considerable scale to 
+the crowd of inferior denizens of Grub Street. Like most people 
+whose social ambitions are in advance of their time, Smollett 
+suffered considerably on account of these novel aspirations of 
+his. In the present day he would have had his motor car and his 
+house on Hindhead, a seat in Parliament and a brief from the 
+Nation to boot as a Member for Humanity. Voltaire was the only 
+figure in the eighteenth century even to approach such a 
+flattering position, and he was for many years a refugee from his 
+own land. Smollett was energetic and ambitious enough to start in 
+rather a grand way, with a large house, a carriage, menservants, 
+and the rest. His wife was a fine lady, a "Creole" beauty who had 
+a small dot of her own; but, on the other hand, her income was 
+very precarious, and she herself somewhat of a silly and an 
+incapable in the eyes of Smollett's old Scotch friends. But to 
+maintain such a position--to keep the bailiffs from the door from 
+year's end to year's end--was a truly Herculean task in days when 
+a newspaper "rate" of remuneration or a well-wearing copyright 
+did not so much as exist, and when Reviews sweated their writers 
+at the rate of a guinea per sheet of thirty-two pages. Smollett 
+was continually having recourse to loans. He produced the eight 
+(or six or seven) hundred a year he required by sheer hard 
+writing, turning out his History of England, his Voltaire, and 
+his Universal History by means of long spells of almost incessant 
+labour at ruinous cost to his health. On the top of all this 
+cruel compiling he undertook to run a Review (The Critical), a 
+magazine (The British), and a weekly political organ (The 
+Briton). A charge of defamation for a paragraph in the nature of 
+what would now be considered a very mild and pertinent piece of 
+public criticism against a faineant admiral led to imprisonment 
+in the King's Bench Prison, plus a fine of £100. Then came a 
+quarrel with an old friend, Wilkes--not the least vexatious 
+result of that forlorn championship of Bute's government in The 
+Briton. And finally, in part, obviously, as a consequence of all 
+this nervous breakdown, a succession of severe catarrhs, 
+premonitory in his case of consumption, the serious illness of 
+the wife he adored, and the death of his darling, the "little 
+Boss" of former years, now on the verge of womanhood. To a man of 
+his extraordinarily strong affections such a series of ills was 
+too overwhelming. He resolved to break up his establishment at 
+Chelsea, and to seek a remedy in flight from present evils to a 
+foreign residence. Dickens went to hibernate on the Riviera upon 
+a somewhat similar pretext, though fortunately without the same 
+cause, as far as his health was concerned.
+
+Now note another very characteristic feature of these Travel 
+Letters. Smollett went abroad not for pleasure, but virtually of 
+necessity. Not only were circumstances at home proving rather too 
+much for him, but also, like Stevenson, he was specifically 
+"ordered South" by his physicians, and he went with the 
+deliberate intention of making as much money as possible out of 
+his Travel papers. In his case he wrote long letters on the spot 
+to his medical and other friends at home. When he got back in the 
+summer of 1765 one of his first cares was to put the Letters 
+together. It had always been his intention carefully to revise 
+them for the press. But when he got back to London he found so 
+many other tasks awaiting him that were so far more pressing, 
+that this part of his purpose was but very imperfectly carried 
+out. The Letters appeared pretty much as he wrote them. Their 
+social and documentary value is thereby considerably enhanced, 
+for they were nearly all written close down to the facts. The 
+original intention had been to go to Montpellier, which was 
+still, I suppose, the most popular health resort in Southern 
+Europe. The peace of 1763 opened the way. And this brings us to 
+another feature of distinction in regard to Smollett's Travels. 
+Typical Briton, perfervid Protestant of Britain's most Protestant 
+period, and insular enrage though he doubtless was, Smollett had 
+knocked about the world a good deal and had also seen something 
+of the continent of Europe. He was not prepared to see everything 
+couleur de rose now. His was quite unlike the frame of mind of 
+the ordinary holiday-seeker, who, partly from a voluntary 
+optimism, and partly from the change of food and habit, the 
+exhilaration caused by novel surroundings, and timidity at the 
+unaccustomed sounds he hears in his ears, is determined to be 
+pleased with everything. Very temperamental was Smollett, and his 
+frame of mind at the time was that of one determined to be 
+pleased with nothing. We know little enough about Smollett 
+intime. Only the other day I learned that the majority of so-
+called Smollett portraits are not presentments of the novelist at 
+all, but ingeniously altered plates of George Washington. An 
+interesting confirmation of this is to be found in the recently 
+published Letters of Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe to Robert 
+Chambers. "Smollett wore black cloaths--a tall man--and extreamly 
+handsome. No picture of him is known to be extant--all that have 
+been foisted on the public as such his relations disclaim--this I 
+know from my aunt Mrs. Smollett, who was the wife of his nephew, 
+and resided with him at Bath." But one thing we do know, and in 
+these same letters, if confirmation had been needed, we observe 
+the statement repeated, namely, that Smollett was very peevish. A 
+sardonic, satirical, and indeed decidedly gloomy mood or temper 
+had become so habitual in him as to transform the man. Originally 
+gay and debonnair, his native character had been so overlaid that 
+when he first returned to Scotland in 1755 his own mother could 
+not recognise him until he "gave over glooming" and put on his 
+old bright smile. [A pleasant story of the Doctor's mother is 
+given in the same Letters to R. Chambers (1904). She is described 
+as an ill-natured-looking woman with a high nose, but not a bad 
+temper, and very fond of the cards. One evening an Edinburgh 
+bailie (who was a tallow chandler) paid her a visit. "Come awa', 
+bailie," said she, "and tak' a trick at the cards." "Troth madam, 
+I hae nae siller!" "Then let us play for a pound of candles."] 
+His was certainly a nervous, irritable, and rather censorious 
+temper. Like Mr. Brattle, in The Vicar of Bulhampton, he was 
+thinking always of the evil things that had been done to him. 
+With the pawky and philosophic Scots of his own day (Robertson, 
+Hume, Adam Smith, and "Jupiter" Carlyle) he had little in common, 
+but with the sour and mistrustful James Mill or the cross and 
+querulous Carlyle of a later date he had, it seems to me, a good 
+deal. What, however, we attribute in their case to bile or liver, 
+a consecrated usage prescribes that we must, in the case of 
+Smollett, accredit more particularly to the spleen. Whether 
+dyspeptic or "splenetic," this was not the sort of man to see 
+things through a veil of pleasant self-generated illusion. He 
+felt under no obligation whatever to regard the Grand Tour as a 
+privilege of social distinction, or its discomforts as things to 
+be discreetly ignored in relating his experience to the stay-at-home 
+public. He was not the sort of man that the Tourist Agencies 
+of to-day would select to frame their advertisements. As an 
+advocatus diaboli on the subject of Travel he would have done 
+well enough. And yet we must not infer that the magic of travel 
+is altogether eliminated from his pages. This is by no means the 
+case: witness his intense enthusiasm at Nimes, on sight of the 
+Maison Carree or the Pont du Gard; the passage describing his 
+entry into the Eternal City; [Ours "was the road by which so many 
+heroes returned with conquest to their country, by which so many 
+kings were led captive to Rome, and by which the ambassadors of 
+so many kingdoms and States approached the seat of Empire, to 
+deprecate the wrath, to sollicit the friendship, or sue for the 
+protection of the Roman people."] or the enviable account of the 
+alfresco meals which the party discussed in their coach as 
+described in Letter VIII.
+
+As to whether Smollett and his party of five were exceptionally 
+unfortunate in their road-faring experiences must be left an open 
+question at the tribunal of public opinion. In cold blood, in one 
+of his later letters, he summarised his Continental experience 
+after this wise: inns, cold, damp, dark, dismal, dirty; landlords 
+equally disobliging and rapacious; servants awkward, sluttish, 
+and slothful; postillions lazy, lounging, greedy, and 
+impertinent. With this last class of delinquents after much 
+experience he was bound to admit the following dilemma:--If you 
+chide them for lingering, they will contrive to delay you the 
+longer. If you chastise them with sword, cane, cudgel, or 
+horsewhip (he defines the correctives, you may perceive, but 
+leaves the expletives to our imagination) they will either 
+disappear entirely, and leave you without resource, or they will 
+find means to take vengeance by overturning your carriage. The 
+only course remaining would be to allow oneself to become the 
+dupe of imposition by tipping the postillions an amount slightly 
+in excess of the authorized gratification. He admits that in 
+England once, between the Devizes and Bristol, he found this plan 
+productive of the happiest results. It was unfortunate that, upon 
+this occasion, the lack of means or slenderness of margin for 
+incidental expenses should have debarred him from having recourse 
+to a similar expedient. For threepence a post more, as Smollett 
+himself avows, he would probably have performed the journey with 
+much greater pleasure and satisfaction. But the situation is 
+instructive. It reveals to us the disadvantage under which the 
+novelist was continually labouring, that of appearing to travel 
+as an English Milord, en grand seigneur, and yet having at every 
+point to do it "on the cheap." He avoided the common conveyance 
+or diligence, and insisted on travelling post and in a berline; 
+but he could not bring himself to exceed the five-sou pourboire 
+for the postillions. He would have meat upon maigre days, yet 
+objected to paying double for it. He held aloof from the thirty-sou 
+table d'hote, and would have been content to pay three francs 
+a head for a dinner a part, but his worst passions were roused 
+when he was asked to pay not three, but four. Now Smollett 
+himself was acutely conscious of the false position. He was by 
+nature anything but a curmudgeon. On the contrary, he was, if I 
+interpret him at all aright, a high-minded, open-hearted, 
+generous type of man. Like a majority, perhaps, of the really 
+open-handed he shared one trait with the closefisted and even 
+with the very mean rich. He would rather give away a crown than 
+be cheated of a farthing. Smollett himself had little of the 
+traditional Scottish thriftiness about him, but the people among 
+whom he was going--the Languedocians and Ligurians--were 
+notorious for their nearness in money matters. The result of all 
+this could hardly fail to exacerbate Smollett's mood and to 
+aggravate the testiness which was due primarily to the bitterness 
+of his struggle with the world, and, secondarily, to the 
+complaints which that struggle engendered. One capital 
+consequence, however, and one which specially concerns us, was 
+that we get this unrivalled picture of the seamy side of foreign 
+travel--a side rarely presented with anything like Smollett's 
+skill to the student of the grand siecle of the Grand Tour. The 
+rubs, the rods, the crosses of the road could, in fact, hardly be 
+presented to us more graphically or magisterially than they are 
+in some of these chapters. Like Prior, Fielding, Shenstone, and 
+Dickens, Smollett was a connoisseur in inns and innkeepers. He 
+knew good food and he knew good value, and he had a mighty keen 
+eye for a rogue. There may, it is true, have been something in 
+his manner which provoked them to exhibit their worst side to 
+him. It is a common fate with angry men. The trials to which he 
+was subjected were momentarily very severe, but, as we shall see 
+in the event, they proved a highly salutary discipline to him.
+
+To sum up, then, Smollett's Travels were written hastily and 
+vigorously by an expert man of letters. They were written ad 
+vivum, as it were, not from worked-up notes or embellished 
+recollections. They were written expressly for money down. They 
+were written rather en noir than couleur de rose by an 
+experienced, and, we might almost perhaps say, a disillusioned 
+traveller, and not by a naif or a niais. The statement that they 
+were to a certain extent the work of an invalid is, of course, 
+true, and explains much. The majority of his correspondents were 
+of the medical profession, all of them were members of a group 
+with whom he was very intimate, and the letters were by his 
+special direction to be passed round among them. [We do not 
+know precisely who all these correspondents of Smollett were, but 
+most of them were evidently doctors and among them, without a 
+doubt, John Armstrong, William Hunter, George Macaulay, and above 
+all John Moore, himself an authority on European travel, Governor 
+on the Grand Tour of the Duke of Hamilton (Son of "the beautiful 
+Duchess"), author of Zeluco, and father of the famous soldier. 
+Smollett's old chum, Dr. W. Smellie, died 5th March 1763.] In the 
+circumstances (bearing in mind that it was his original intention 
+to prune the letters considerably before publication) it was only 
+natural that he should say a good deal about the state of his 
+health. His letters would have been unsatisfying to these good 
+people had he not referred frequently and at some length to his 
+spirits and to his symptoms, an improvement in which was the 
+primary object of his journey and his two years' sojourn in the 
+South. Readers who linger over the diary of Fielding's dropsy and 
+Mrs. Fielding's toothache are inconsistent in denouncing the 
+luxury of detail with which Smollett discusses the matter of his 
+imposthume.
+
+What I claim for the present work is that, in the first
+place, to any one interested in Smollett's personality it 
+supplies an unrivalled key. It is, moreover, the work of a 
+scholar, an observer of human nature, and, by election, a 
+satirist of no mean order. It gives us some characteristic social 
+vignettes, some portraits of the road of an unsurpassed freshness 
+and clearness. It contains some historical and geographical 
+observations worthy of one of the shrewdest and most sagacious 
+publicists of the day. It is interesting to the etymologist for 
+the important share it has taken in naturalising useful foreign 
+words into our speech. It includes (as we shall have occasion to 
+observe) a respectable quantum of wisdom fit to become 
+proverbial, and several passages of admirable literary quality. 
+In point of date (1763-65) it is fortunate, for the writer just 
+escaped being one of a crowd. On the whole, I maintain that it is 
+more than equal in interest to the Journey to the Hebrides, and 
+that it deserves a very considerable proportion of the praise 
+that has hitherto been lavished too indiscriminately upon the 
+Voyage to Lisbon. On the force of this claim the reader is 
+invited to constitute himself judge after a fair perusal of the 
+following pages. I shall attempt only to point the way to a 
+satisfactory verdict, no longer in the spirit of an advocate, but 
+by means of a few illustrations and, more occasionally, 
+amplifications of what Smollett has to tell us.
+
+III
+
+As was the case with Fielding many years earlier, Smollett was 
+almost broken down with sedentary toil, when early in June 1763 
+with his wife, two young ladies ("the two girls") to whom she 
+acted as chaperon, and a faithful servant of twelve years' 
+standing, who in the spirit of a Scots retainer of the olden time 
+refused to leave his master (a good testimonial this, by the way, 
+to a temper usually accredited with such a splenetic sourness), 
+he crossed the straits of Dover to see what a change of climate 
+and surroundings could do for him.
+
+On other grounds than those of health he was glad to shake the 
+dust of Britain from his feet. He speaks himself of being 
+traduced by malice, persecuted by faction, abandoned by false 
+patrons, complaints which will remind the reader, perhaps, of 
+George Borrow's "Jeremiad," to the effect that he had been 
+beslavered by the venomous foam of every sycophantic lacquey and 
+unscrupulous renegade in the three kingdoms. But Smollett's 
+griefs were more serious than what an unkind reviewer could 
+inflict. He had been fined and imprisoned for defamation. He had 
+been grossly caricatured as a creature of Bute, the North British 
+favourite of George III., whose tenure of the premiership 
+occasioned riots and almost excited a revolution in the 
+metropolis. Yet after incurring all this unpopularity at a time 
+when the populace of London was more inflamed against Scotsmen 
+than it has ever been before or since, and having laboured 
+severely at a paper in the ministerial interest and thereby 
+aroused the enmity of his old friend John Wilkes, Smollett had 
+been unceremoniously thrown over by his own chief, Lord Bute, on 
+the ground that his paper did more to invite attack than to repel 
+it. Lastly, he and his wife had suffered a cruel bereavement in 
+the loss of their only child, and it was partly to supply a 
+change from the scene of this abiding sorrow, that the present 
+journey was undertaken.
+
+The first stages and incidents of the expedition were not exactly 
+propitious. The Dover Road was a byword for its charges; the Via 
+Alba might have been paved with the silver wrung from reluctant 
+and indignant passengers. Smollett characterized the chambers as 
+cold and comfortless, the beds as "paultry" (with "frowsy," a 
+favourite word), the cookery as execrable, wine poison, 
+attendance bad, publicans insolent, and bills extortion, 
+concluding with the grand climax that there was not a drop of 
+tolerable malt liquor to be had from London to Dover. Smollett 
+finds a good deal to be said for the designation of "a den of 
+thieves" as applied to that famous port (where, as a German lady 
+of much later date once complained, they "boot ze Bible in ze 
+bedroom, but ze devil in ze bill", and he grizzles lamentably 
+over the seven guineas, apart from extras, which he had to pay 
+for transport in a Folkestone cutter to Boulogne Mouth.
+
+Having once arrived at Boulogne, Smollett settled down regularly 
+to his work as descriptive reporter, and the letters that he 
+wrote to his friendly circle at home fall naturally into four 
+groups. The first Letters from II. to V. describe with Hogarthian 
+point, prejudice and pungency, the town and people of Boulogne. 
+The second group, Letters VI.-XII., deal with the journey from 
+Boulogne to Nice by way of Paris, Lyon, Nimes, and Montpellier. 
+The third group, Letters XIII. -XXIV., is devoted to a more 
+detailed and particular delineation of Nice and the Nicois. The 
+fourth, Letters XXV.-XLI., describes the Italian expedition and 
+the return journey to Boulogne en route for England, where the 
+party arrive safe home in July 1765.
+
+Smollett's account of Boulogne is excellent reading, it forms an 
+apt introduction to the narrative of his journey, it familiarises 
+us with the milieu, and reveals to us in Smollett a man of 
+experience who is both resolute and capable of getting below the 
+surface of things. An English possession for a short period in 
+the reign of the Great Harry, Boulogne has rarely been less in 
+touch with England than it was at the time of Smollett's visit. 
+Even then, however, there were three small colonies, 
+respectively, of English nuns, English Jesuits, and English 
+Jacobites. Apart from these and the English girls in French 
+seminaries it was estimated ten years after Smollett's sojourn 
+there that there were twenty-four English families in residence. 
+The locality has of course always been a haunting place for the 
+wandering tribes of English. Many well-known men have lived or 
+died here both native and English. Adam Smith must have been 
+there very soon after Smollett. So must Dr. John Moore and 
+Charles Churchill, one of the enemies provoked by the Briton, who 
+went to Boulogne to meet his friend Wilkes and died there in 
+1764. Philip Thicknesse the traveller and friend of Gainsborough 
+died there in 1770. After long search for a place to end his days 
+in Thomas Campbell bought a house in Boulogne and died there, a 
+few months later, in 1844. The house is still to be seen, Rue St. 
+Jean, within the old walls; it has undergone no change, and in 
+1900 a marble tablet was put up to record the fact that Campbell 
+lived and died there. The other founder of the University of 
+London, Brougham, by a singular coincidence was also closely 
+associated with Boulogne. [Among the occupants of the English 
+cemetery will be found the names of Sir Harris Nicolas, Basil 
+Montagu, Smithson Pennant, Sir William Ouseley, Sir William 
+Hamilton, and Sir C. M. Carmichael. And among other literary 
+celebrities connected with the place, apart from Dickens (who 
+gave his impressions of the place in Household Words, November 
+1854) we should include in a brief list, Charles Lever, Horace 
+Smith, Wilkie Collins, Mrs. Henry Wood, Professor York Powell, 
+the Marquis of Steyne (Lord Seymour), Mrs. Jordan, Clark Russell, 
+and Sir Conan Doyle. There are also memorable associations with 
+Lola Montes, Heinrich Heine, Becky Sharpe, and above all Colonel 
+Newcome. My first care in the place was to discover the rampart 
+where the Colonel used to parade with little Clive. Among the 
+native luminaries are Daunou, Duchenne de Boulogne, one of the 
+foremost physiologists of the last century, an immediate 
+predecessor of Charcot in knowledge of the nervous system, Aug. 
+Mariette, the Egyptologist, Aug. Angellier, the biographer of 
+Burns, Sainte-Beuve, Prof. Morel, and "credibly," Godfrey de 
+Bouillon, of whom Charles Lamb wrote "poor old Godfrey, he must 
+be getting very old now." The great Lesage died here in 1747.] 
+The antiquaries still dispute about Gessoriacum, Godfrey de 
+Bouillon, and Charlemagne's Tour. Smollett is only fair in 
+justifying for the town, the older portions of which have a 
+strong medieval suggestion, a standard of comparison slightly 
+more distinguished than Wapping. He never lets us forget that he 
+is a scholar of antiquity, a man of education and a speculative 
+philosopher. Hence his references to Celsus and Hippocrates and 
+his ingenious etymologies of wheatear and samphire, more 
+ingenious in the second case than sound. Smollett's field of 
+observation had been wide and his fund of exact information was 
+unusually large. At Edinburgh he had studied medicine under Monro 
+and John Gordon, in company with such able and distinguished men 
+as William Hunter, Cullen, Pitcairn, Gregory, and Armstrong--and 
+the two last mentioned were among his present correspondents. As 
+naval surgeon at Carthagena he had undergone experience such as 
+few literary men can claim, and subsequently as compiler, 
+reviewer, party journalist, historian, translator, statistician, 
+and lexicographer, he had gained an amount of miscellaneous 
+information such as falls to the lot of very few minds of his 
+order of intelligence. He had recently directed the compilation 
+of a large Universal Geography or Gazetteer, the Carton or Vivien 
+de St. Martin if those days--hence his glib references to the 
+manners and customs of Laplanders, Caffres, Kamskatchans, and 
+other recondite types of breeding. His imaginative faculty was 
+under the control of an exceptionally strong and retentive 
+memory. One may venture to say, indeed, without danger of 
+exaggeration that his testimonials as regards habitual accuracy 
+of statement have seldom been exceeded. Despite the doctor's 
+unflattering portraits of Frenchmen, M. Babeau admits that his 
+book is one written by an observer of facts, and a man whose 
+statements, whenever they can be tested, are for the most part 
+"singularly exact." Mr. W. J. Prouse, whose knowledge of the 
+Riviera district is perhaps almost unequalled out of France, 
+makes this very remarkable statement. "After reading all that 
+has been written by very clever people about Nice in modern 
+times, one would probably find that for exact precision of 
+statement, Smollett was still the most trustworthy guide," a view 
+which is strikingly borne out by Mr. E. Schuyler, who further 
+points out Smollett's shrewd foresight in regard to the 
+possibilities of the Cornice road, and of Cannes and San Remo as 
+sanatoria." Frankly there is nothing to be seen which he does 
+not recognise." And even higher testimonies have been paid to 
+Smollett's topographical accuracy by recent historians of Nice 
+and its neighbourhood.
+
+The value which Smollett put upon accuracy in the smallest 
+matters of detail is evinced by the corrections which he made in 
+the margin of a copy of the 1766 edition of the Travels. These 
+corrections, which are all in Smollett's own and unmistakably 
+neat handwriting, may be divided into four categories. In the 
+first place come a number of verbal emendations. Phrases are 
+turned, inverted and improved by the skilful "twist of the pen" 
+which becomes a second nature to the trained corrector of proofs; 
+there are moreover a few topographical corrigenda, suggested by 
+an improved knowledge of the localities, mostly in the 
+neighbourhood of Pisa and Leghorn, where there is no doubt that 
+these corrections were made upon the occasion of Smollett's 
+second visit to Italy in 1770. [Some not unimportant errata were 
+overlooked. Thus Smollett's representation of the droit d'aubaine 
+as a monstrous and intolerable grievance is of course an 
+exaggeration. (See Sentimental Journey; J. Hill Burton, The Scot 
+Abroad, 1881, p. 135; and Luchaire, Instit. de France.) On his 
+homeward journey he indicates that he travelled from Beaune to 
+Chalons and so by way of Auxerre to Dijon. The right order is 
+Chalons, Beaune, Dijon, Auxerre. As further examples of the zeal 
+with which Smollett regarded exactitude in the record of facts we 
+have his diurnal register of weather during his stay at Nice and 
+the picture of him scrupulously measuring the ruins at Cimiez 
+with packthread.] In the second place come a number of English 
+renderings of the citations from Latin, French, and Italian 
+authors. Most of these from the Latin are examples of Smollett's 
+own skill in English verse making. Thirdly come one or two 
+significant admissions of overboldness in matters of criticism, 
+as where he retracts his censure of Raphael's Parnassus in Letter 
+XXXIII. Fourthly, and these are of the greatest importance, come 
+some very interesting additional notes upon the buildings of 
+Pisa, upon Sir John Hawkwood's tomb at Florence, and upon the 
+congenial though recondite subject of antique Roman hygiene. [Cf. 
+the Dinner in the manner of the Ancients in Peregrine Pickle, 
+(xliv.) and Letters IX. to XL in Humphry Clinker.]
+
+After Smollett's death his books were for the most part sold for 
+the benefit of his widow. No use was made of his corrigenda. For 
+twenty years or so the Travels were esteemed and referred to, but 
+as time went on, owing to the sneers of the fine gentlemen of 
+letters, such as Walpole and Sterne, they were by degrees 
+disparaged and fell more or less into neglect. They were 
+reprinted, it is true, either in collective editions of Smollett 
+or in various collections of travels; [For instance in Baldwin's 
+edition of 1778; in the 17th vol. of Mayor's Collection of 
+Voyages and Travels, published by Richard Phillips in twenty-eight 
+vols., 1809; and in an abbreviated form in John Hamilton 
+Moore's New and Complete Collection of Voyages and Travels 
+(folio, Vol. 11. 938-970).] but they were not edited with any 
+care, and as is inevitable in such cases errors crept in, 
+blunders were repeated, and the text slightly but gradually 
+deteriorated. In the last century Smollett's own copy of the 
+Travels bearing the manuscript corrections that he had made in 
+1770, was discovered in the possession of the Telfer family and 
+eventually came into the British Museum. The second volume, which 
+affords admirable specimens of Smollett's neatly written 
+marginalia, has been exhibited in a show-ease in the King's 
+Library.
+
+The corrections that Smollett purposed to make in the Travels are 
+now for the second time embodied in a printed edition of the 
+text. At the same time the text has been collated with the 
+original edition of 1766, and the whole has been carefully 
+revised. The old spelling has been, as far as possible, restored. 
+Smollett was punctilious in such matters, and what with his 
+histories, his translations, his periodicals, and his other 
+compilations, he probably revised more proof-matter for press 
+than any other writer of his time. His practice as regards 
+orthography is, therefore, of some interest as representing what 
+was in all probability deemed to be the most enlightened 
+convention of the day.
+
+To return now to the Doctor's immediate contemplation of 
+Boulogne, a city described in the Itineraries as containing rien 
+de remarquable. The story of the Capuchin [On page 21. A Capuchin 
+of the same stripe is in Pickle, ch. Ill. sq.] is very racy of 
+Smollett, while the vignette of the shepherd at the beginning of 
+Letter V. affords a first-rate illustration of his terseness. 
+Appreciate the keen and minute observation concentrated into the 
+pages that follow, [Especially on p. 34 to p. 40.] commencing 
+with the shrewd and economic remarks upon smuggling, and ending 
+with the lively description of a Boulonnais banquet, very 
+amusing, very French, very life-like, and very Smollettian. 
+In Letter V. the Doctor again is very much himself. A little 
+provocation and he bristles and stabs all round. He mounts the 
+hygienic horse and proceeds from the lack of implements of 
+cleanliness to the lack of common decency, and "high flavoured 
+instances, at which even a native of Edinburgh would stop his 
+nose." [This recalls Johnson's first walk up the High Street, 
+Edinburgh, on Bozzy's arm. "It was a dusky night: I could not 
+prevent his being assailed by the evening effluvia of Edinburgh. 
+. . . As we marched along he grumbled in my ear, 'I smell you in 
+the dark!'"] And then lest the southrons should escape we have a 
+reference to the "beastly habit of drinking from a tankard in 
+which perhaps a dozen filthy mouths have slabbered as is the 
+custom in England." With all his coarsenesses this blunt Scot was 
+a pioneer and fugleman of the niceties. Between times most 
+nations are gibbetted in this slashing epistle. The ingenious 
+boasting of the French is well hit off in the observation of the 
+chevalier that the English doubtless drank every day to the 
+health of the Marquise de Pompadour. The implication reminded 
+Smollett of a narrow escape from a duello (an institution he 
+reprobates with the utmost trenchancy in this book) at Ghent in 
+1749 with a Frenchman who affirmed that Marlborough's battles 
+were purposely lost by the French generals in order to mortify 
+Mme. de Maintenon. Two incidents of some importance to Smollett 
+occurred during the three months' sojourn at Boulogne. Through 
+the intervention of the English Ambassador at Paris (the Earl of 
+Hertford) he got back his books, which had been impounded by the 
+Customs as likely to contain matter prejudicial to the state or 
+religion of France, and had them sent south by shipboard to 
+Bordeaux. Secondly, he encountered General Paterson, a friendly 
+Scot in the Sardinian service, who confirmed what an English 
+physician had told Smollett to the effect that the climate of 
+Nice was infinitely preferable to that of Montpellier "with 
+respect to disorders of the breast." Smollett now hires a berline 
+and four horses for fourteen louis, and sets out with rather a 
+heavy heart for Paris. It is problematic, he assures his good 
+friend Dr. Moore, whether he will ever return. "My health is very 
+precarious."
+
+IV
+
+The rapid journey to Paris by way of Montreuil, Amiens, and 
+Clermont, about one hundred and fifty-six miles from Boulogne, 
+the last thirty-six over a paved road, was favourable to 
+superficial observation and the normal corollary of epigram. 
+Smollett was much impressed by the mortifying indifference of the 
+French innkeepers to their clients. "It is a very odd contrast 
+between France and England. In the former all the people are 
+complaisant but the publicans; in the latter there is hardly any 
+complaisance but among the publicans." [In regard to two 
+exceptional instances of politeness on the part of innkeepers, 
+Smollett attributes one case to dementia, the other, at Lerici, 
+to mental shock, caused by a recent earthquake.] Idleness and 
+dissipation confront the traveller, not such a good judge, 
+perhaps, as was Arthur Young four-and-twenty years later. "Every 
+object seems to have shrunk in its dimensions since I was last in 
+Paris." Smollett was an older man by fifteen years since he 
+visited the French capital in the first flush of his success as 
+an author. The dirt and gloom of French apartments, even at 
+Versailles, offend his English standard of comfort. "After all, 
+it is in England only where we must look for cheerful apartments, 
+gay furniture, neatness, and convenience. There is a strange 
+incongruity in the French genius. With all their volatility, 
+prattle, and fondness for bons mots they delight in a species of 
+drawling, melancholy, church music. Their most favourite dramatic 
+pieces are almost without incident, and the dialogue of their 
+comedies consists of moral insipid apophthegms, entirely 
+destitute of wit or repartee." While amusing himself with the 
+sights of Paris, Smollett drew up that caustic delineation of the 
+French character which as a study in calculated depreciation has 
+rarely been surpassed. He conceives the Frenchman entirely as a 
+petit-maitre, and his view, though far removed from 
+Chesterfield's, is not incompatible with that of many of his 
+cleverest contemporaries, including Sterne. He conceives of the 
+typical Frenchman as regulating his life in accordance with the 
+claims of impertinent curiosity and foppery, gallantry and 
+gluttony. Thus:
+
+"If a Frenchman is capable of real friendship, it must certainly 
+be the most disagreeable present he can possibly make to a man 
+of a true English character. You know, madam, we are naturally 
+taciturn, soon tired of impertinence, and much subject to fits of 
+disgust. Your French friend intrudes upon you at all hours; he 
+stuns you with his loquacity; he teases you with impertinent 
+questions about your domestic and private affairs; he attempts to 
+meddle in all your concerns, and forces his advice upon you with 
+the most unwearied importunity; he asks the price of everything 
+you wear, and, so sure as you tell him, undervalues it without 
+hesitation; he affirms it is in a bad taste, ill contrived, ill 
+made; that you have been imposed upon both with respect to the 
+fashion and the price; that the marquis of this, or the countess 
+of that, has one that is perfectly elegant, quite in the bon ton, 
+and yet it cost her little more than you gave for a thing that 
+nobody would wear.
+
+"If a Frenchman is admitted into your family, and distinguished 
+by repeated marks of your friendship and regard, the first return 
+he makes for your civilities is to make love to your wife, if she 
+is handsome; if not, to your sister, or daughter, or niece. If 
+he suffers a repulse from your wife, or attempts in vain to 
+debauch your sister, or your daughter, or your niece, he will, 
+rather than not play the traitor with his gallantry, make his 
+addresses to your grandmother; and ten to one but in one shape or 
+another he will find means to ruin the peace of a family in which 
+he has been so kindly entertained. What he cannot accomplish by 
+dint of compliment and personal attendance, he will endeavour to 
+effect by reinforcing these with billets-doux, songs, and verses, 
+of which he always makes a provision for such purposes. If he is 
+detected in these efforts of treachery, and reproached with his 
+ingratitude, he impudently declares that what he had done was no 
+more than simple gallantry, considered in France as an 
+indispensable duty on every man who pretended to good breeding. 
+Nay, he will even affirm that his endeavours to corrupt your 
+wife, or deflower your daughter, were the most genuine proofs he 
+could give of his particular regard for your family.
+
+"If there were five hundred dishes at table, a Frenchman will eat 
+of all of them, and then complain he has no appetite--this I have 
+several times remarked. A friend of mine gained a considerable 
+wager upon an experiment of this kind; the petit-maitre ate of 
+fourteen different plates, besides the dessert, then disparaged 
+the cook, declaring he was no better than a marmiton, or 
+turnspit."
+
+The gross unfairness, no less than the consummate cleverness, of 
+this caricature compels us to remember that this was written in 
+the most insular period of our manners, and during a brief lull 
+in a century of almost incessant mutual hostility between the two 
+nations. Aristocrats like Walpole, Gibbon, and Chesterfield could 
+regard France from a cosmopolitan point of view, as leading the 
+comite of nations. But to sturdy and true-born patriots, such as 
+Hogarth and Smollett, reciprocal politeness appeared as grotesque 
+as an exchange of amenities would be between a cormorant and an 
+ape. Consequently, it was no doubt with a sense of positive 
+relief to his feelings that Smollett could bring himself to sum 
+up the whole matter thus. "A Frenchman lays out his whole revenue 
+upon taudry suits of cloaths, or in furnishing a magnificent 
+repas of fifty or a hundred dishes, one-half of which are not 
+eatable or intended to be eaten. His wardrobe goes to the 
+fripier, his dishes to the dogs, and himself to the devil."
+
+These trenchant passages were written partly, it may be imagined, 
+to suit the English taste of the day. In that object they must 
+have succeeded, for they were frequently transcribed into 
+contemporary periodicals. In extenuation of Smollett's honesty of 
+purpose, however, it may be urged that he was always a 
+thoroughgoing patriot, [Witness his violently anti-French play, 
+the Reprisal of 1757.] and that, coming from a Calvinistic 
+country where a measure of Tartufism was a necessary condition of 
+respectability, he reproduces the common English error of 
+ignoring how apt a Frenchman is to conceal a number of his best 
+qualities. Two other considerations deserve attention. The race-portrait 
+was in Smollett's day at the very height of its 
+disreputable reign. Secondly, we must remember how very 
+profoundly French character has been modified since 1763, and 
+more especially in consequence of the cataclysms of 1789 and 
+1870.
+
+Smollett's vis comica is conspicuous in the account of the 
+coiffure of the period and of the superstitious reverence which a 
+Frenchman of that day paid to his hair. In tracing the origin of 
+this superstition he exhibits casually his historical learning. 
+The crine profuso and barba demissa of the reges crinitos, as the 
+Merovingians were called, are often referred to by ancient 
+chroniclers. Long hair was identified with right of succession, 
+as a mark of royal race, and the maintenance of ancient 
+tradition. A tondu signified a slave, and even under the 
+Carolingians to shave a prince meant to affirm his exclusion from 
+the succession.
+
+v
+
+A general improvement in English roads, roadside inns, and 
+methods of conveyance commenced about 1715. The continental roads 
+lagged behind, until when Arthur Young wrote in 1788-89 they had 
+got badly into arrears. The pace of locomotion between Rome and 
+England changed very little in effect from the days of Julius 
+Caesar to those of George III. It has been said with point that 
+Trajan and Sir Robert Peel, travelling both at their utmost speed 
+achieved the distance between Rome and London in an almost 
+precisely similar space of time. Smollett decided to travel post 
+between Paris and Lyons, and he found that the journey lasted 
+full five days and cost upwards of thirty guineas. [One of the 
+earliest printed road books in existence gives the posts between 
+Paris and Lyons. This tiny duodecimo, dated 1500, and more than 
+worth its weight in gold has just been acquired by the British 
+Museum. On the old Roman routes, see Arnold's Lectures on Modern 
+History, 1842.] Of roads there was a choice between two. The 
+shorter route by Nevers and Moulins amounted to just about three 
+hundred English miles. The longer route by Auxerre and Dijon, 
+which Smollett preferred extended to three hundred and thirty 
+miles. The two roads diverged after passing Fontainebleau, the 
+shorter by Nemours and the longer by Moret. The first road was 
+the smoother, but apart from the chance of seeing the Vendange 
+the route de Burgoyne was far the more picturesque. Smollett's 
+portraiture of the peasantry in the less cultivated regions 
+prepares the mind for Young's famous description of those "gaunt 
+emblems of famine." In Burgundy the Doctor says, "I saw a peasant 
+ploughing the ground with a jackass, a lean cow, and a he-goat 
+yoked together." His vignette of the fantastic petit-maitre at 
+Sens, and his own abominable rudeness, is worthy of the master 
+hand that drew the poor debtor Jackson in the Marshalsea in 
+Roderick Random.
+
+His frank avowal of ill temper at the time deprives our 
+entertainment of the unamiable tinge of which it would otherwise 
+have partaken. "The truth is, I was that day more than usually 
+peevish, from the bad weather as well as from the dread of a fit 
+of asthma, with which I was threatened. And I daresay my 
+appearance seemed as uncouth to him as his travelling dress 
+appeared to me. I had a grey, mourning frock under a wide 
+greatcoat, a bob-wig without powder, a very large laced hat, and 
+a meagre, wrinkled, discontented countenance."
+
+From Lyons the traveller secured a return berline going back to 
+Avignon with three mules and a voiturier named Joseph. Joseph, 
+though he turned out to be an ex-criminal, proved himself the one 
+Frenchman upon whose fidelity and good service Smollett could 
+look back with unfeigned satisfaction. The sight of a skeleton 
+dangling from a gibbet near Valence surprised from this droll 
+knave an ejaculation and a story, from which it appeared only too 
+evident that he had been first the comrade and then the 
+executioner of one of the most notorious brigands of the century. 
+The story as told by Smollett does not wholly agree with the best 
+authenticated particulars. The Dick Turpin of eighteenth century 
+France, Mandrin has engendered almost as many fables as his 
+English congener. [See Maignien's Bibliographie des Ecrits 
+relatifs a Mandrin.] As far as I have been able to discover, the 
+great freebooter was born at St. Etienne in May 1724. His father 
+having been killed in a coining affair, Mandrin swore to revenge 
+him. He deserted from the army accordingly, and got together a 
+gang of contrebandiers, at the head of which his career in Savoy 
+and Dauphine almost resembles that of one of the famous guerilla 
+chieftains described in Hardman's Peninsular Scenes and Sketches. 
+Captured eventually, owing to the treachery of a comrade, he was 
+put to death on the wheel at Valence on 26th May 1755. Five 
+comrades were thrown into jail with him; and one of these 
+obtained his pardon on condition of acting as Mandrin's 
+executioner. Alas, poor Joseph!
+
+Three experiences Smollett had at this season which may well fall 
+to the lot of road-farers in France right down to the present 
+day. He was poisoned with garlic, surfeited with demi-roasted 
+small birds, and astonished at the solid fare of the poorest 
+looking travellers. The summer weather, romantic scenery, and 
+occasional picnics, which Smollett would have liked to repeat 
+every summer under the arches of the Pont du Gard--the monument 
+of antiquity which of all, excepting only the Maison Carree at 
+Nimes, most excited his enthusiastic admiration, all contributed 
+to put him into an abnormally cheerful and convalescent 
+humour. . . .
+
+Smollett now bent his steps southwards to Montpellier. His 
+baggage had gone in advance. He was uncertain as yet whether to 
+make Montpellier or Nice his headquarters in the South. Like 
+Toulouse and Tours, and Turin, Montpellier was for a period a 
+Mecca to English health and pleasure seekers abroad. A city of no 
+great antiquity, but celebrated from the twelfth century for its 
+schools of Law and Physic, it had been incorporated definitely 
+with France since 1382, and its name recurs in French history 
+both as the home of famous men in great number and as, before and 
+after the brief pre-eminence of La Rochelle, the rival of Nimes 
+as capital of Protestantism in the South. Evelyn, Burnet, the two 
+Youngs, Edward and Arthur, and Sterne have all left us an 
+impression of the city. Prevented by snow from crossing the Mont 
+Cenis, John Locke spent two winters there in the days of Charles 
+II. (1675-77), and may have pondered a good many of the problems 
+of Toleration on a soil under which the heated lava of religious 
+strife was still unmistakeable. And Smollett must almost have 
+jostled en route against the celebrated author of The Wealth of 
+Nations, who set out with his pupil for Toulouse in February 
+1764. A letter to Hume speaks of the number of English in the 
+neighbourhood just a month later. Lomenie de Brienne was then in 
+residence as archbishop. In the following November, Adam Smith 
+and his charge paid a visit to Montpellier to witness a pageant 
+and memorial, as it was supposed, of a freedom that was gone for 
+ever, the opening of the States of Languedoc. Antiquaries and 
+philosophers went to moralise on the spectacle in the spirit in 
+which Freeman went to Andorra, Byron to the site of Troy, or De 
+Tocqueville to America. It was there that the great economist met 
+Horne Tooke.
+
+Smollett's more practical and immediate object in making this 
+pilgrimage was to interview the great lung specialist, known 
+locally to his admiring compatriots as the Boerhaave of 
+Montpellier, Dr. Fizes. The medical school of Montpellier was 
+much in evidence during the third quarter of the eighteenth 
+century, and for the history of its various branches there are 
+extant numerous Memoires pour Servir, by Prunelle, Astruc, and 
+others. Smollett was only just in time to consult the reigning 
+oracle, for the "illustrious" Dr. Fizes died in the following 
+year. He gives us a very unfavourable picture of this "great 
+lanthorn of medicine," who, notwithstanding his prodigious age, 
+his stoop, and his wealth, could still scramble up two pairs for 
+a fee of six livres. More than is the case with most medical 
+patients, however, should we suspect Smollett of being unduly 
+captious. The point as to how far his sketch of the French doctor 
+and his diagnosis was a true one, and how far a mere caricature, 
+due to ill health and prejudice, has always piqued my curiosity. 
+But how to resolve a question involving so many problems not of 
+ordinary therapeutic but of historical medicine! In this 
+difficulty I bethought me most fortunately of consulting an
+authority probably without a rival in this special branch of 
+medical history, Dr. Norman Moore, who with his accustomed 
+generosity has given me the following most instructive diagnosis 
+of the whole situation.
+
+"I have read Smollett's account of his illness as it appears in 
+several passages in his travels and in the statement which he 
+drew up for Professor 'F.' at Montpellier.
+
+"Smollett speaks of his pulmonic disorder, his 'asthmatical 
+disorder,' and uses other expressions which show that his lungs 
+were affected. In his statement he mentions that he has cough, 
+shortness of breath, wasting, a purulent expectoration, loss of 
+appetite at times, loss of strength, fever, a rapid pulse, 
+intervals of slight improvement and subsequent exacerbations. 
+
+"This shortness of breath, he says, has steadily increased. This 
+group of symptoms makes it certain that he had tuberculosis of 
+the lungs, in other words, was slowly progressing in consumption.
+
+"His darting pains in his side were due to the pleurisy which 
+always occurs in such an illness.
+
+"His account shows also the absence of hopelessness which is a 
+characteristic state of mind in patients with pulmonary 
+tuberculosis.
+
+"I do not think that the opinion of the Montpellier professor 
+deserves Smollett's condemnation. It seems to me both careful and 
+sensible and contains all the knowledge of its time. Smollett, 
+with an inconsistency not uncommon in patients who feel that they 
+have a serious disease, would not go in person to the Professor, 
+for he felt that from his appearance the Professor would be sure 
+to tell him he had consumption. He half hoped for some other view 
+of the written case in spite of its explicit statements, and when 
+Professor F-- wrote that the patient had tubercles in his lungs, 
+this was displeasing to poor Smollett, who had hoped against hope 
+to receive--some other opinion than the only possible one, viz., 
+that he undoubtedly had a consumption certain to prove fatal."
+
+The cruel truth was not to be evaded. Smollett had tuberculosis, 
+though not probably of the most virulent kind, as he managed to 
+survive another seven years, and those for the most part years of 
+unremitting labour. He probably gained much by substituting Nice 
+for Montpellier as a place to winter in, for although the climate 
+of Montpellier is clear and bright in the highest degree, the 
+cold is both piercing and treacherous. Days are frequent during 
+the winter in which one may stand warmly wrapped in the brilliant 
+sun and feel the protection of a greatcoat no more than that of a 
+piece of gauze against the icy and penetrating blast that comes 
+from "tile roof of France."
+
+Unable to take the direct route by Arles as at present, the 
+eastward-bound traveller from Montpellier in 1764 had to make a 
+northerly detour. The first stone bridge up the Rhone was at 
+Avignon, but there was a bridge of boats connecting Beaucaire 
+with Tarascon. Thence, in no very placable mood, Smollett set out 
+in mid-November by way of Orgon [Aix], Brignolles and le Muy, 
+striking the Mediterranean at Frejus. En route he was inveigled 
+into a controversy of unwonted bitterness with an innkeeper at le 
+Muy. The scene is conjured up for us with an almost disconcerting 
+actuality; no single detail of the author's discomfiture is 
+omitted. The episode is post-Flaubertian in its impersonal 
+detachment, or, as Coleridge first said, "aloofness." On crossing 
+the Var, the sunny climate, the romantic outline of the 
+Esterelles, the charms of the "neat village" of Cannes, and the 
+first prospect of Nice began gradually and happily to effect a 
+slight mitigation in our patient's humour. Smollett was 
+indubitably one of the pioneers of the Promenade des Anglais. 
+Long before the days of "Dr. Antonio" or Lord Brougham, he 
+described for his countrymen the almost incredible dolcezza of 
+the sunlit coast from Antibes to Lerici. But how much better 
+than the barren triumph of being the unconscious fugleman of so 
+glittering a popularity must have been the sense of being one of 
+the first that ever burst from our rude island upon that secluded 
+little Piedmontese town, as it then was, of not above twelve 
+thousand souls, with its wonderful situation, noble perspective 
+and unparalleled climate. Well might our travel-tost doctor 
+exclaim, "When I stand on the rampart and look around I can 
+scarce help thinking myself enchanted." It was truly a garden of 
+Armida for a native of one of the dampest corners of North 
+Britain.
+
+"Forty or fifty years ago, before the great transformation took 
+place on the French Riviera, when Nizza, Villafranca, and Mentone 
+were antique Italian towns, and when it was one of the 
+eccentricities of Lord Brougham, to like Cannes, all that sea-board 
+was a delightful land. Only a hundred years ago Arthur
+Young had trouble to get an old woman and a donkey to carry his 
+portmanteau from Cannes to Antibes. I can myself remember Cannes 
+in 1853, a small fishing village with a quiet beach, and Mentone, 
+a walled town with mediaeval gates and a castle, a few humble 
+villas and the old Posta to give supper to any passing traveller. 
+It was one of the loveliest bits of Italy, and the road from 
+Nizza to Genoa was one long procession for four days of glorious 
+scenery, historic remnants, Italian colour, and picturesque 
+ports. From the Esterelles to San Remo this has all been ruined 
+by the horde of northern barbarians who have made a sort of 
+Trouville, Brighton, or Biarritz, with American hotels and 
+Parisian boulevards on every headland and bay. First came the 
+half underground railway, a long tunnel with lucid intervals, 
+which destroyed the road by blocking up its finest views and 
+making it practically useless. Then miles of unsightly 
+caravanserais high walls, pompous villas, and Parisian grandes 
+rues crushed out every trace of Italy, of history, and pictorial 
+charm." So writes Mr. Frederic Harrison of this delectable coast, 
+[In the Daily Chronicle, 15th March 1898.] as it was, at a period 
+within his own recollection--a period at which it is hardly 
+fanciful to suppose men living who might just have remembered 
+Smollett, as he was in his last days, when he returned to die on 
+the Riviera di Levante in the autumn of 1771. Travel had then 
+still some of the elements of romance. Rapidity has changed all 
+that. The trouble is that although we can transport our bodies so 
+much more rapidly than Smollett could, our understanding travels 
+at the same old pace as before. And in the meantime railway and 
+tourist agencies have made of modern travel a kind of mental 
+postcard album, with grand hotels on one side, hotel menus on the 
+other, and a faint aroma of continental trains haunting, between 
+the leaves as it were. Our real knowledge is still limited to the 
+country we have walked over, and we must not approach the country 
+we would appreciate faster than a man may drive a horse or propel 
+a bicycle; or we shall lose the all-important sense of artistic 
+approach. Even to cross the channel by time-table is fatal to 
+that romantic spirit (indispensable to the true magic of travel) 
+which a slow adjustment of the mind to a new social atmosphere 
+and a new historical environment alone can induce. Ruskin, the 
+last exponent of the Grand Tour, said truly that the benefit of 
+travel varies inversely in proportion to its speed. The cheap
+rapidity which has made our villes de plaisir and cotes d'azur 
+what they are, has made unwieldy boroughs of suburban villages, 
+and what the rail has done for a radius of a dozen miles, the 
+motor is rapidly doing for one of a score. So are we sped! But we 
+are to discuss not the psychology of travel, but the immediate 
+causes and circumstances of Smollett's arrival upon the territory 
+of Nice.
+
+VI
+
+Smollett did not interpret the ground-plan of the history of Nice 
+particularly well. Its colonisation from Massilia, its long 
+connection with Provence, its occupation by Saracens, its stormy 
+connection with the house of Anjou, and its close fidelity to the 
+house of Savoy made no appeal to his admiration. The most 
+important event in its recent history, no doubt, was the capture 
+of the city by the French under Catinat in 1706 (Louis XIV. being 
+especially exasperated against what he regarded as the treachery 
+of Victor Amadeus), and the razing to the ground of its famous 
+citadel. The city henceforth lost a good deal of its civic 
+dignity, and its morale was conspicuously impaired. In the war of 
+the Austrian succession an English fleet under Admiral Matthews 
+was told off to defend the territory of the Nicois against the 
+attentions of Toulon. This was the first close contact 
+experienced between England and Nice, but the impressions formed 
+were mutually favourable. The inhabitants were enthusiastic about 
+the unaccustomed English plan of paying in full for all supplies 
+demanded. The British officers were no less delighted with the 
+climate of Nice, the fame of which they carried to their northern 
+homes. It was both directly and indirectly through one of these 
+officers that the claims of Nice as a sanatorium came to be put 
+so plainly before Smollett. [Losing its prestige as a ville 
+forte, Nice was henceforth rapidly to gain the new character of a 
+ville de plaisir. In 1763, says one of the city's historians, 
+Smollett, the famous historian and novelist, visited Nice. 
+"Arriving here shattered in health and depressed in spirits, 
+under the genial influence of the climate he soon found himself a 
+new man. His notes on the country, its gardens, its orange 
+groves, its climate without a winter, are pleasant and just and 
+would seem to have been written yesterday instead of more than a 
+hundred years ago. . . . His memory is preserved in the street 
+nomenclature of the place; one of the thoroughfares still bears 
+the appellation of Rue Smollett." (James Nash, The Guide to Nice, 
+1884, p. 110.)]
+
+Among other celebrated residents at Nice during the period of 
+Smollett's visit were Edward Augustus, Duke of York, the brother 
+of George III., who died at Monaco a few years later, and Andre 
+Massena, a native of the city, then a lad of six.
+
+Before he left Montpellier Smollett indulged in two more 
+seemingly irresistible tirades against French folly: one against 
+their persistent hero-worship of such a stuffed doll as Louis le 
+Grand, and the second in ridicule of the immemorial French 
+panacea, a bouillon. Now he gets to Nice he feels a return of the 
+craving to take a hand's turn at depreciatory satire upon the 
+nation of which a contemporary hand was just tracing the 
+deservedly better-known delineation, commencing
+
+Gay sprightly land of mirth and social ease,
+Pleas'd with thyself, whom all the world can please. . . .
+
+Such inveteracy (like Dr. Johnson's against Swift) was not 
+unnaturally suspected by friends in England of having some 
+personal motive. In his fifteenth letter home, therefore, 
+Smollett is assiduous in disclaiming anything of the kind. He 
+begins by attempting an amende honorable, but before he has got 
+well away from his exordium he insensibly and most 
+characteristically diverges into the more congenial path of 
+censure, and expands indeed into one of his most eloquent 
+passages--a disquisition upon the French punctilio (conceived upon 
+lines somewhat similar to Mercutio's address to Benvolio), to 
+which is appended a satire on the duello as practised in France, 
+which glows and burns with a radiation of good sense, racy of 
+Smollett at his best.
+
+To eighteenth century lovers the discussion on duelling will 
+recall similar talks between Boswell and Johnson, or that between 
+the lieutenant and Tom in the Seventh Book of Tom Jones, but, 
+more particularly, the sermon delivered by Johnson on this 
+subject a propos of General Oglethorpe's story of how he avoided 
+a duel with Prince Eugene in 1716. "We were sitting in company at 
+table, whence the Prince took up a glass of wine and by a fillip 
+made some of it fly in Oglethorpe's face. Here was a nice 
+dilemma. To have challenged him instantly might have fixed a 
+quarrelsome character upon the young soldier: to have taken no 
+notice of it might have been counted as cowardice. Oglethorpe, 
+therefore, keeping his eye on the Prince, and smiling all the 
+time, as if he took what His Highness had done in jest, said, 
+"Mon Prince" (I forget the French words he used), "that's a good 
+joke; but we do it much better in England," and threw a whole 
+glass of wine in the Prince's face. An old general who sat by 
+said, "Il a bien fait, mon Prince, vous l'avez commence," and 
+thus all ended in good humour."
+
+In Letter XIII. Smollett settles down to give his correspondents 
+a detailed description of the territory and people of Nice. At 
+one time it was his intention to essay yet another branch of 
+authorship and to produce a monograph on the natural history, 
+antiquities, and topography of the town as the capital of this 
+still unfamiliar littoral; with the late-born modesty of 
+experience, however, he recoils from a task to which he does not 
+feel his opportunities altogether adequate. [See p. 152.] A 
+quarter of Smollett's original material would embarrass a 
+"Guide"-builder of more recent pattern.
+
+Whenever he got near a coast line Smollett could not refrain from 
+expressing decided views. If he had lived at the present day he 
+would infallibly have been a naval expert, better informed than 
+most and more trenchant than all; but recognizably one of the 
+species, artist in words and amateur of ocean-strategy. [Smollett 
+had, of course, been surgeon's mate on H.M.S. Cumberland, 1740-41.] 
+His first curiosity at Nice was raised concerning the port, 
+the harbour, the galleys moored within the mole, and the naval 
+policy of his Sardinian Majesty. His advice to Victor Amadeus was 
+no doubt as excellent and as unregarded as the advice of naval 
+experts generally is. Of more interest to us is his account of 
+the slave-galleys. Among the miserable slaves whom "a British 
+subject cannot behold without horror and compassion," he observes 
+a Piedmontese count in Turkish attire, reminding the reader of 
+one of Dumas' stories of a count among the forcats. To learn that 
+there were always volunteer oarsmen among these poor outcasts is 
+to reflect bitterly upon the average happiness of mankind. As to 
+whether they wore much worse off than common seamen in the 
+British navy of the period (who were only in name volunteers and 
+had often no hope of discharge until they were worn out) under 
+such commanders as Oakum or Whiffle [In Roderick Random.] is 
+another question. For confirmation of Smollett's account in 
+matters of detail the reader may turn to Aleman's Guzman 
+d'Afarache, which contains a first-hand description of the life 
+on board a Mediterranean slave galley, to Archenholtz's Tableau 
+d'Italie of 1788, to Stirling Maxwell's Don John of Austria 
+(1883, i. 95), and more pertinently to passages in the Life of a 
+Galley Slave by Jean Marteilhe (edited by Miss Betham-Edwards in 
+1895). After serving in the docks at Dunkirk, Marteilhe, as a 
+confirmed protestant, makes the journey in the chain-gang to 
+Marseilles, and is only released after many delays in consequence 
+of the personal interest and intervention of Queen Anne. If at 
+the peace of Utrecht in 1713 we had only been as tender about the 
+case of our poor Catalan allies! Nice at that juncture had just 
+been returned by France to the safe-keeping of Savoy, so that in 
+order to escape from French territory, Marteilhe sailed for Nice 
+in a tartane, and not feeling too safe even there, hurried thence 
+by Smollett's subsequent route across the Col di Tende. Many 
+Europeans were serving at this time in the Turkish or Algerine 
+galleys. But the most pitiable of all the galley slaves were 
+those of the knights of St. John of Malta. "Figure to yourself," 
+wrote Jacob Houblon [The Houblon Family, 1907 ii. 78. The 
+accounts in Evelyn and Goldsmith are probably familiar to the 
+reader.] about this year, "six or seven hundred dirty half-naked 
+Turks in a small vessel chained to the oars, from which they are 
+not allowed to stir, fed upon nothing but bad biscuit and water, 
+and beat about on the most trifling occasion by their most 
+inhuman masters, who are certainly more Turks than their slaves."
+
+After several digressions, one touching the ancient Cemenelion, a 
+subject upon which the Jonathan Oldbucks of Provence without 
+exception are unconscionably tedious, Smollett settles down to a 
+capable historical summary preparatory to setting his palette for 
+a picture of the Nissards "as they are." He was, as we are aware, 
+no court painter, and the cheerful colours certainly do not 
+predominate. The noblesse for all their exclusiveness cannot 
+escape his censure. He can see that they are poor (they are 
+unable to boast more than two coaches among their whole number), 
+and he feels sure that they are depraved. He attributes both 
+vices unhesitatingly to their idleness and to their religion. In 
+their singularly unemotional and coolly comparative outlook upon 
+religion, how infinitely nearer were Fielding and Smollett than 
+their greatest successors, Dickens and Thackeray, to the modern 
+critic who observes that there is "at present not a single 
+credible established religion in existence." To Smollett 
+Catholicism conjures up nothing so vividly as the mask of comedy, 
+while his native Calvinism stands for the corresponding mask of 
+tragedy. [Walpole's dictum that Life was a comedy to those who 
+think, a tragedy for those who feel, was of later date than this 
+excellent mot of Smollett's.] Religion in the sunny spaces of the 
+South is a "never-failing fund of pastime." The mass (of which he 
+tells a story that reminds us of Lever's Micky Free) is just a 
+mechanism invented by clever rogues for an elaborate system of 
+petty larceny. And what a ferocious vein of cynicism underlies 
+his strictures upon the perverted gallantry of the Mariolaters at 
+Florence, or those on the two old Catholics rubbing their ancient 
+gums against St. Peter's toe for toothache at Rome. The recurring 
+emblems of crosses and gibbets simply shock him as mementoes of 
+the Bagne.
+
+At Rome he compares a presentment of St. Laurence to "a barbecued 
+pig." "What a pity it is," he complains, "that the labours of 
+painting should have been employed on such shocking objects of 
+the martyrology," floggings, nailings, and unnailings...
+"Peter writhing on the cross, Stephen battered with stones, 
+Sebastian stuck full of arrows, Bartholomew flayed alive," and so 
+on. His remarks upon the famous Pieta of Michael Angelo are frank 
+to the point of brutality. The right of sanctuary and its 
+"infamous prerogative," unheard of in England since the days of 
+Henry VII., were still capable of affording a lesson to the Scot 
+abroad. "I saw a fellow who had three days before murdered his 
+wife in the last month of pregnancy, taking the air with great 
+composure and serenity, on the steps of a church in Florence." 
+Smollett, it is clear, for all his philosophy, was no degenerate 
+representative of the blind, unreasoning seventeenth-century 
+detestation of "Popery and wooden shoes."
+
+Smollett is one of the first to describe a "conversazione," and 
+in illustration of the decadence of Italian manners, it is 
+natural that he should have a good deal to tell us about the 
+Cicisbeatura. His account of the cicisbeo and his duties, whether 
+in Nice, Florence, or Rome, is certainly one of the most 
+interesting that we have. Before Smollett and his almost 
+contemporary travel correspondent, Samuel Sharp, it would 
+probably be hard to find any mention of the cicisbeo in England, 
+though the word was consecrated by Sheridan a few years later. 
+Most of the "classic" accounts of the usage such as those by Mme. 
+de Stael, Stendhal, Parini, Byron and his biographers date from 
+very much later, when the institution was long past its prime if 
+not actually moribund. Now Smollett saw it at the very height of 
+its perfection and at a time when our decorous protestant 
+curiosity on such themes was as lively as Lady Mary Montagu had 
+found it in the case of fair Circassians and Turkish harems just 
+thirty years previously. [A cicisbeo was a dangler. Hence the 
+word came to be applied punningly to the bow depending from a 
+clouded cane or ornamental crook. In sixteenth-century Spain, 
+home of the sedan and the caballero galante, the original term 
+was bracciere. In Venice the form was cavaliere servente. For a 
+good note on the subject, see Sismondi's Italian Republics, ed. 
+William Boulting, 1907, p. 793.] Like so much in the shapes and 
+customs of Italy the cicisbeatura was in its origin partly Gothic 
+and partly Oriental. It combined the chivalry of northern 
+friendship with the refined passion of the South for the 
+seclusion of women. As an experiment in protest against the 
+insipidity which is too often an accompaniment of conjugal 
+intercourse the institution might well seem to deserve a more 
+tolerant and impartial investigation than it has yet received at 
+the hands of our sociologists. A survival so picturesque could 
+hardly be expected to outlive the bracing air of the nineteenth 
+century. The north wind blew and by 1840 the cicisbeatura was a 
+thing of the past.
+
+Freed from the necessity of a systematic delineation Smollett 
+rambles about Nice, its length and breadth, with a stone in his 
+pouch, and wherever a cockshy is available he takes full 
+advantage of it. He describes the ghetto (p. 171), the police 
+arrangements of the place which he finds in the main highly 
+efficient, and the cruel punishment of the strappado. The 
+garrucha or strappado and the garrotes, combined with the water-torture 
+and the rack, represented the survival of the fittest in 
+the natural selection of torments concerning which the Holy 
+Office in Italy and Spain had such a vast experience. The 
+strappado as described by Smollett, however, is a more severe 
+form of torture even than that practised by the Inquisition, and 
+we can only hope that his description of its brutality is highly 
+coloured. [See the extremely learned disquisition on the whole 
+subject in Dr. H. C. Lea's History of the Inquisition in Spain, 
+1907, vol. iii. book vi chap. vii.] Smollett must have enjoyed 
+himself vastly in the market at Nice. He gives an elaborate and 
+epicurean account of his commissariat during the successive 
+seasons of his sojourn in the neighbourhood. He was not one of 
+these who live solely "below the diaphragm"; but he understood 
+food well and writes about it with a catholic gusto and relish 
+(156-165). He laments the rarity of small birds on the Riviera, 
+and gives a highly comic account of the chasse of this species of 
+gibier. He has a good deal to say about the sardine and tunny 
+fishery, about the fruit and scent traffic, and about the wine 
+industry; and he gives us a graphic sketch of the silkworm 
+culture, which it is interesting to compare with that given by 
+Locke in 1677. He has something to say upon the general 
+agriculture, and more especially upon the olive and oil industry. 
+Some remarks upon the numerous "mummeries" and festas of the 
+inhabitants lead him into a long digression upon the feriae of 
+the Romans. It is evident from this that the box of books which 
+he shipped by way of Bordeaux must have been plentifully supplied 
+with classical literature, for, as he remarks with unaffected 
+horror, such a thing as a bookseller had not been so much as 
+heard of in Nice. Well may he have expatiated upon the total lack 
+of taste among the inhabitants! In dealing with the trade, 
+revenue, and other administrative details Smollett shows himself 
+the expert compiler and statistician a London journalist in large 
+practice credits himself with becoming by the mere exercise of 
+his vocation. In dealing with the patois of the country he 
+reveals the curiosity of the trained scholar and linguist. 
+Climate had always been one of his hobbies, and on learning that 
+none of the local practitioners was in a position to exact a 
+larger fee than sixpence from his patients (quantum mutatus the 
+Nice physician of 1907!) he felt that he owed it to himself to 
+make this the subject of an independent investigation. He kept a 
+register of the weather during the whole of his stay, and his 
+remarks upon the subject are still of historical interest, 
+although with Teysseire's minutely exact Monograph on the 
+Climatology of Nice (1881) at his disposal and innumerable 
+commentaries thereon by specialists, the inquirer of to-day would 
+hardly go to Smollett for his data. Then, as now, it is curious 
+to find the rumour current that the climate of Nice was sadly 
+deteriorating. "Nothing to what it was before the war!" as the 
+grumbler from the South was once betrayed into saying of the 
+August moon. Smollett's esprit chagrin was nonplussed at first to 
+find material for complaint against a climate in which he admits 
+that there was less rain and less wind than in any other part of 
+the world that he knew. In these unwonted circumstances he is 
+constrained to fall back on the hard water and the plague of 
+cousins or gnats as affording him the legitimate grievance, in 
+whose absence the warrior soul of the author of the Ode to 
+Independence could never be content.
+
+VII
+
+For his autumn holiday in 1764 Smollett decided on a jaunt to 
+Florence and Rome, returning to Nice for the winter; and he 
+decided to travel as far as Leghorn by sea. There was choice 
+between several kinds of small craft which plied along the coast, 
+and their names recur with cheerful frequency in the pages of 
+Marryat and other depictors of the Mediterranean. There was the 
+felucca, an open boat with a tilt over the stern large enough to 
+freight a post-chaise, and propelled by ten to twelve stout 
+mariners. To commission such a boat to Genoa, a distance of a 
+hundred miles, cost four louis. As alternative, there was the 
+tartane, a sailing vessel with a lateen sail. Addison sailed from 
+Marseilles to Genoa in a tartane in December 1699: a storm arose, 
+and the patron alarmed the passengers by confessing his sins (and 
+such sins!) loudly to a Capuchin friar who happened to be aboard. 
+Smollett finally decided on a gondola, with four rowers and a 
+steersman, for which he had to pay nine sequins (4 1/2 louis). 
+After adventures off Monaco, San Remo, Noli, and elsewhere, the 
+party are glad to make the famous phones on the Torre della 
+Lanterna, of which banker Rogers sings in his mediocre verse:
+
+Thy pharos Genoa first displayed itself 
+Burning in stillness on its rocky seat; 
+That guiding star so oft the only one, 
+When those now glowing in the azure vault 
+Are dark and silent
+
+Smollett's description of Genoa is decidedly more interesting. He 
+arrived at a moment specially propitious to so sardonic an 
+observer, for the Republic had fallen on evil times, having 
+escaped from the clutches of Austria in 1746 by means of a 
+popular riot, during which the aristocracy considerately looked 
+the other way, only to fall into an even more embarrassed and 
+unheroic position vis-a-vis of so diminutive an opponent as 
+Corsica. The whole story is a curious prototype of the nineteenth 
+century imbroglio between Spain and Cuba. Of commonplaces about 
+the palaces fruitful of verbiage in Addison and Gray, who says 
+with perfect truth, "I should make you sick of marble were I to 
+tell you how it is lavished here," Smollett is sparing enough, 
+though he evidently regards the inherited inclination of Genoese 
+noblemen to build beyond their means as an amiable weakness. His 
+description of the proud old Genoese nobleman, who lives in 
+marble and feeds on scraps, is not unsympathetic, and suggests 
+that the "deceipt of the Ligurians," which Virgil censures in the 
+line
+
+Haud Ligurum extremus, dum fallere fata sinebant
+
+may possibly have been of this Balderstonian variety. But 
+Smollett had little room in his economy for such vapouring 
+speculations. He was as unsentimental a critic as Sydney Smith or 
+Sir Leslie Stephen. He wants to know the assets of a place more 
+than its associations. Facts, figures, trade and revenue returns 
+are the data his shrewd mind requires to feed on. He has a keen 
+eye for harbours suitable for an English frigate to lie up in, 
+and can hardly rest until his sagacity has collected material for 
+a political horoscope.
+
+Smollett's remarks upon the mysterious dispensations of 
+Providence in regard to Genoa and the retreat of the Austrians 
+are charged to the full with his saturnine spirit. His suspicions 
+were probably well founded. Ever since 1685 Genoa had been the 
+more or less humiliated satellite of France, and her once famous 
+Bank had been bled pretty extensively by both belligerents. The 
+Senate was helpless before the Austrian engineers in 1745, and 
+the emancipation of the city was due wholly to a popular emeute. 
+She had relapsed again into a completely enervated condition. 
+Smollett thought she would have been happier under British 
+protection. But it is a vicious alternative for a nation to 
+choose a big protector. It was characteristic of the Republic 
+that from 1790 to 1798 its "policy" was to remain neutral. The 
+crisis in regard to Corsica came immediately after Smollett's 
+visit, when in 1765, under their 154th doge Francesco Maria 
+Rovere, the Genoese offered to abandon the island to the patriots 
+under Paoli, reserving only the possession of the two loyal 
+coast-towns of Bonifazio and Calvi. [See Boswell's Corsica, 1766-8.] 
+At Paoli's instance these conciliatory terms were refused. 
+Genoa, in desperation and next door to bankruptcy, resolved to 
+sell her rights as suzerain to France, and the compact was 
+concluded by a treaty signed at Versailles in 1768. Paoli was 
+finally defeated at Ponte Novo on 9th May 1769, and fled to 
+England. On 15th August the edict of "Reunion" between France and 
+Corsica was promulgated. On the same day Napoleon Buonaparte was 
+born at Ajaccio.
+
+After a week at Genoa Smollett proceeded along the coast to 
+Lerici. There, being tired of the sea, the party disembarked, and 
+proceeded by chaise from Sarzano to Cercio in Modenese territory, 
+and so into Tuscany, then under the suzerainty of Austria. His 
+description of Pisa is of an almost sunny gaiety and good humour. 
+Italy, through this portal, was capable of casting a spell even 
+upon a traveller so case-hardened as Smollett. The very churches 
+at Pisa are "tolerably ornamented." The Campo Santo and Tower 
+fall in no way short of their reputation, while the brass gates 
+so far excel theirs that Smollett could have stood a whole day to 
+examine and admire them. These agremens may be attributable in 
+some measure to "a very good inn."  In stating that galleys were 
+built in the town, Smollett seems to have fallen a victim, for 
+once, to guide-book information. Evelyn mentions that galleys 
+were built there in his time, but that was more than a hundred 
+years before. The slips and dock had long been abandoned, as 
+Smollett is careful to point out in his manuscript notes, now in 
+the British Museum. He also explains with superfluous caution 
+that the Duomo of Pisa is not entirely Gothic. Once arrived in 
+the capital of Tuscany, after admitting that Florence is a noble 
+city, our traveller is anxious to avoid the hackneyed ecstasies 
+and threadbare commonplaces, derived in those days from Vasari 
+through Keysler and other German commentators, whose genius 
+Smollett is inclined to discover rather "in the back than in the 
+brain."
+
+The two pass-words for a would-be connoisseur, according to 
+Goldsmith, were to praise Perugino, and to say that such and such 
+a work would have been much better had the painter devoted more 
+time and study to it. With these alternatives at hand one might 
+pass with credit through any famous continental collection. 
+Smollett aspired to more independence of thought and opinion, 
+though we perceive at every turn how completely the Protestant 
+prejudice of his "moment" and "milieu" had obtained dominion over 
+him. To his perception monks do not chant or intone, they bawl 
+and bellow their litanies. Flagellants are hired peasants who pad 
+themselves to repletion with women's bodices. The image of the 
+Virgin Mary is bejewelled, hooped, painted, patched, curled, and 
+frizzled in the very extremity of the fashion. No particular 
+attention is paid by the mob to the Crucified One, but as soon as 
+his lady-mother appeared on the shoulders of four lusty friars 
+the whole populace fall upon their knees in the dirt. We have 
+some characteristic criticism and observation of the Florentine 
+nobles, the opera, the improvisatori, [For details as to the 
+eighteenth-century improvisatore and commedia delle arte the 
+reader is referred to Symonds's Carlo Gozzi. See also the Travel 
+Papers of Mrs. Piozzi; Walpole's Letters to Sir Horace Mann, and 
+Doran's Mann and Manners at the Court of Florence. (Vide Appendix 
+A, p. 345)] the buildings, and the cicisbei. Smollett nearly 
+always gives substantial value to his notes, however casual, for 
+he has an historian's eye, and knows the symptoms for which the 
+inquirer who comes after is likely to make inquisition.
+
+Smollett's observations upon the state of Florence in Letters 
+XXVII and XXVIII are by no means devoid of value. The direct rule 
+of the Medici had come to an end in 1737, and Tuscany (which with 
+the exception of the interlude of 1798-1814 remained in Austrian 
+hands down to 1860) was in 1764 governed by the Prince de Craon, 
+viceroy of the Empress Maria Theresa. Florence was, indeed, on 
+the threshold of the sweeping administrative reforms instituted 
+by Peter Leopold, the archduke for whom Smollett relates that 
+they were preparing the Pitti Palace at the time of his stay. 
+This Prince governed the country as Grand Duke from 1765 to 1790, 
+when he succeeded his brother as Emperor, and left a name in 
+history as the ill-fated Leopold. Few more active exponents of 
+paternal reform are known to history. But the Grand Duke had to 
+deal with a people such as Smollett describes. Conservative to 
+the core, subservient to their religious directors, the "stupid 
+party" in Florence proved themselves clever enough to retard the 
+process of enlightenment by methods at which even Smollett 
+himself might have stood amazed. The traveller touches an 
+interesting source of biography when he refers to the Englishman 
+called Acton, formerly an East India Company captain, now 
+commander of the Emperor's Tuscan Navy, consisting of "a few 
+frigates." This worthy was the old commodore whom Gibbon visited 
+in retirement at Leghorn. The commodore was brother of Gibbon's 
+friend, Dr. Acton, who was settled at Besancon, where his noted 
+son, afterwards Sir John Acton, was born in 1736. Following in 
+the footsteps of his uncle the commodore, who became a Catholic, 
+Smollett tells us, and was promoted Admiral of Tuscany, John 
+Acton entered the Tuscan Marine in 1775.
+
+[Sir John Acton's subsequent career belongs to history. His 
+origin made him an expert on naval affairs, and in 1776 he 
+obtained some credit for an expedition which he commanded against 
+the Barbary pirates. In 1778 Maria Carolina of Naples visited her 
+brother Leopold at Florence, and was impressed by Acton's 
+ugliness and reputation for exceptional efficiency. Her favourite 
+minister, Prince Caramanico, persuaded the Grand Duke, Leopold, 
+to permit Acton to exchange into the Neapolitan service, and 
+reorganize the navy of the southern kingdom. This actually came 
+to pass, and, moreover, Acton played his cards so well that he 
+soon engrossed the ministries of War and Finance, and after the 
+death of Caracciolo, the elder, also that of Foreign Affairs. Sir 
+William Hamilton had a high opinion of the" General," soon to 
+become Field-Marshal. He took a strong part in resistance to 
+revolutionary propaganda, caused to be built the ships which 
+assisted Nelson in 1795, and proved himself one of the most 
+capable bureaucrats of the time. But the French proved too 
+strong, and Napoleon was the cause of his disgrace in 1804. In 
+that year, by special dispensation from the Pope, he married his 
+niece, and retired to Palermo, where he died on 12th August 
+1811.]
+
+Let loose in the Uffizi Gallery Smollett shocked his sensitive 
+contemporaries by his freedom from those sham ecstasies which 
+have too often dogged the footsteps of the virtuosi. Like Scott 
+or Mark Twain at a later date Smollett was perfectly ready to 
+admire anything he could understand; but he expressly disclaims 
+pretensions to the nice discernment and delicate sensibility of 
+the connoisseur. He would never have asked to be left alone with 
+the Venus de Medicis as a modern art-critic is related to have 
+asked to be left alone with the Venus of Rokeby. He would have 
+been at a loss to understand the state of mind of the eminent 
+actor who thought the situation demanded that he should be 
+positively bereft of breath at first sight of the Apollo 
+Belvedere, and panting to regain it, convulsively clutched at the 
+arm of his companion, with difficulty articulating, "I breathe." 
+Smollett refused to be hypnotized by the famous Venus discovered 
+at Hadrian's villa, brought from Tivoli in 1680, and then in the 
+height of its renown; the form he admired, but condemned the face 
+and the posture. Personally I disagree with Smollett, though the 
+balance of cultivated opinion has since come round to his side. 
+The guilt of Smollett lay in criticizing what was above 
+criticism, as the contents of the Tribuna were then held to be. 
+And in defence of this point of view it may at least be said that 
+the Uffizi was then, with the exception of the Vatican, the only 
+gallery of first-rate importance open to the travelling public on 
+the Grand Tour. Founded by Cosimo I, built originally by George 
+Vasari, and greatly enlarged by Francis I, who succeeded to the 
+Grand Duchy in 1574, the gallery owed most perhaps to the 
+Cardinal, afterwards Ferdinand I, who constructed the Tribuna, 
+and to Cardinal Leopold, an omnivorous collector, who died in 
+1675. But all the Medici princes added to the rarities in the 
+various cabinets, drawing largely upon the Villa Medici at Rome 
+for this purpose, and the last of them, John Gaston (1723-1737), 
+was one of the most liberal as regards the freedom of access 
+which he allowed to his accumulated treasures. Among the 
+distinguished antiquaries who acted as curators and cicerones 
+were Sebastiano Bianchi, Antonio Cocchi, Raymond Cocchi, Joseph 
+Bianchi, J. B. Pelli, the Abbe Lanzi, and Zacchiroli. The last 
+three all wrote elaborate descriptions of the Gallery during the 
+last decades of the eighteenth century. There was unhappily an 
+epidemic of dishonesty among the custodians of gems at this 
+period, and, like the notorious Raspe, who fled from Cassel in 
+1775, and turned some of his old employers to ridicule in his 
+Baron Munchausen, Joseph Bianchi was convicted first of robbing 
+his cabinet and then attempting to set it on fire, for which 
+exploit the "learned and judicious Bianchi," as Smollett called 
+him in his first edition, was sent to prison for life. The 
+Arrotino which Smollett so greatly admired, and which the 
+delusive Bianchi declared to be a representation of the Augur 
+Attus Naevius, is now described as "A Scythian whetting his knife 
+to flay Marsyas."
+
+Kinglake has an amusingly cynical passage on the impossibility of 
+approaching the sacred shrines of the Holy Land in a fittingly 
+reverential mood. Exactly the same difficulty is experienced in 
+approaching the sacred shrines of art. Enthusiasm about great 
+artistic productions, though we may readily understand it to be 
+justifiable, is by no means so easily communicable. How many 
+people possessing a real claim to culture have felt themselves 
+puzzled by their insensibility before some great masterpiece! 
+Conditions may be easily imagined in which the inducement to 
+affect an ecstasy becomes so strong as to prove overpowering. 
+Many years ago at Florence the loiterers in the Tribuna were 
+startled by the sudden rush into the place of a little man whose 
+literary fame gave him high claims to intuitive taste. He placed 
+himself with high clasped hand before the chief attraction in 
+that room of treasures. "There," he murmured, "is the Venus de 
+Medicis, and here I must stay--for ever and for ever." He had 
+scarcely uttered these words, each more deeply and solemnly than 
+the preceding, when an acquaintance entered, and the enthusiast, 
+making a hasty inquiry if Lady So-and-So had arrived, left the 
+room not to return again that morning. Before the same statue 
+another distinguished countryman used to pass an hour daily. His 
+acquaintance respected his raptures and kept aloof; but a young 
+lady, whose attention was attracted by sounds that did not seem 
+expressive of admiration, ventured to approach, and found the 
+poet sunk in profound, but not silent, slumber. From such 
+absurdities as these, or of the enthusiast who went into raptures 
+about the head of the Elgin Ilissos (which is unfortunately a 
+headless trunk), we are happily spared in the pages of Smollett. 
+In him complete absence of gush is accompanied by an independent 
+judgement, for which it may quite safely be claimed that good 
+taste is in the ascendant in the majority of cases.
+
+From Florence Smollett set out in October 1764 for Siena, a 
+distance of forty-two miles, in a good travelling coach; he slept 
+there, and next day, seven and a half miles farther on, at Boon 
+Convento, hard by Montepulciano, now justly celebrated for its 
+wine, he had the amusing adventure with the hostler which gave 
+occasion for his vivid portrait of an Italian uffiziale, and also 
+to that irresistible impulse to cane the insolent hostler, from 
+the ill consequences of which he was only saved by the 
+underling's precipitate flight. The night was spent at 
+Radicofani, five and twenty miles farther on. A clever postilion 
+diversified the route to Viterbo, another forty-three miles. The 
+party was now within sixteen leagues, or ten hours, of Rome. The 
+road from Radicofani was notoriously bad all the way, but 
+Smollett was too excited or too impatient to pay much attention 
+to it. "You may guess what I felt at first sight of the city of 
+Rome."
+
+"When you arrive at Rome," he says later, in somewhat more 
+accustomed vein, "you receive cards from all your country folk in 
+that city. They expect to have the visit returned next day, when 
+they give orders not to be at home, and you never speak to one 
+another in the sequel. This is a refinement in hospitality and 
+politeness which the English have invented by the strength of 
+their own genius without any assistance either from France, 
+Italy, or Lapland." It is needless to recapitulate Smollett's 
+views of Rome. Every one has his own, and a passing traveller's 
+annotations are just about as nourishing to the imagination as a 
+bibliographer's note on the Bible. Smollett speaks in the main 
+judiciously of the Castle of St. Angelo, the Piazza and the 
+interior of St. Peter's, the Pincian, the Forum, the Coliseum, 
+the Baths of Caracalla, and the other famous sights of successive 
+ages. On Roman habits and pastimes and the gullibility of the 
+English cognoscente he speaks with more spice of authority. Upon 
+the whole he is decidedly modest about his virtuoso vein, and 
+when we reflect upon the way in which standards change and idols 
+are shifted from one pedestal to another, it seems a pity that 
+such modesty has not more votaries. In Smollett's time we must 
+remember that Hellenic and primitive art, whether antique or 
+medieval, were unknown or unappreciated. The reigning models of 
+taste in ancient sculpture were copies of fourth-century 
+originals, Hellenistic or later productions. Hence Smollett's 
+ecstasies over the Laocoon, the Niobe, and the Dying Gladiator. 
+Greek art of the best period was hardly known in authentic 
+examples; antiques so fine as the Torso of Hercules were rare. 
+But while his failures show the danger of dogmatism in art 
+criticism, Smollett is careful to disclaim all pretensions to the 
+nice discernment of the real connoisseur. In cases where good 
+sense and sincere utterance are all that is necessary he is 
+seldom far wrong. Take the following description for example:--
+
+"You need not doubt but that I went to the church of St. Peter in 
+Montorio, to view the celebrated Transfiguration by Raphael, 
+which, if it was mine, I would cut in two parts. The three 
+figures in the air attract the eye so strongly that little or no 
+attention is paid to those below on the mountain. I apprehend 
+that the nature of the subject does not admit of that keeping and 
+dependence which ought to be maintained in the disposition of the 
+lights and shadows in a picture. The groups seem to be entirely 
+independent of each other. The extraordinary merit of this piece, 
+I imagine, consists not only in the expression of divinity on the 
+face of Christ, but also in the surprising lightness of the 
+figure that hovers like a beautiful exhalation in the air."
+
+Smollett's remarks about the "Last Judgement" of Michael Angelo, 
+(that it confuses the eye as a number of people speaking at once 
+confounds the ear; and that while single figures are splendid, 
+the whole together resembles a mere mob, without subordination, 
+keeping, or repose) will probably be re-echoed by a large 
+proportion of the sightseers who gaze upon it yearly. But his 
+description of the "Transfiguration" displays an amount of taste 
+and judgement which is far from being so widely distributed. For 
+purposes of reproduction at the present day, I may remind the 
+reader that the picture is ordinarily "cut in two." and the 
+nether portion is commonly attributed to Raphael's pupils, while 
+the "beautiful exhalation," as Smollett so felicitously terms it, 
+is attributed exclusively to the master when at the zenith of his 
+powers. His general verdict upon Michael Angelo and Raphael has 
+much in it that appeals to a modern taste. Of Raphael, as a 
+whole, he concludes that the master possesses the serenity of 
+Virgil, but lacks the fire of Homer; and before leaving this same 
+Letter XXXIII, in which Smollett ventures so many independent 
+critical judgements, I am tempted to cite yet another example of 
+his capacity for acute yet sympathetic appreciation.
+ "In the Palazzo Altieri I admired a picture, by Carlo Maratti, 
+representing a saint calling down lightning from heaven to 
+destroy blasphemers. It was the figure of the saint I admired, 
+merely as a portrait. The execution of the other parts was tame 
+enough; perhaps they were purposely kept down in order to 
+preserve the importance of the principal figure. I imagine 
+Salvator Rosa would have made a different disposition on the same 
+subject--that amidst the darkness of a tempest he would have 
+illuminated the blasphemer with the flash of lightning by which 
+he was destroyed. This would have thrown a dismal gleam upon his 
+countenance, distorted by the horror of his situation as well as 
+by the effects of the fire, and rendered the whole scene 
+dreadfully picturesque."
+
+Smollett confuses historical and aesthetic grandeur. What appeals 
+to him most is a monument of a whole past civilization, such as 
+the Pont du Gard. His views of art, too, as well as his views of 
+life, are profoundly influenced by his early training as a 
+surgeon. He is not inclined by temperament to be sanguine. His 
+gaze is often fixed, like that of a doctor, upon the end of life; 
+and of art, as of nature, he takes a decidedly pathological view. 
+Yet, upon the whole, far from deriding his artistic impressions, 
+I think we shall be inclined rather to applaud them, as well for 
+their sanity as for their undoubted sincerity.
+
+For the return journey to Florence Smollett selected the 
+alternative route by Narni, Terni, Spoleto, Foligno, Perugia, and 
+Arezzo, and, by his own account, no traveller ever suffered quite 
+so much as he did from "dirt," "vermin," "poison," and imposture. 
+At Foligno, where Goethe also, in his travels a score of years or 
+so later, had an amusing adventure, Smollett was put into a room 
+recently occupied by a wild beast (bestia), but the bestia turned 
+out on investigation to be no more or no less than an "English 
+heretic." The food was so filthy that it might have turned the 
+stomach of a muleteer; their coach was nearly shattered to 
+pieces; frozen with cold and nearly devoured by rats. Mrs. 
+Smollett wept in silence with horror and fatigue; and the bugs 
+gave the Doctor a whooping-cough. If Smollett anticipated a 
+violent death from exhaustion and chagrin in consequence of these 
+tortures he was completely disappointed. His health was never 
+better,--so much so that he felt constrained in fairness to drink 
+to the health of the Roman banker who had recommended this 
+nefarious route. [See the Doctor's remarks at the end of Letter 
+XXXV.] By Florence and Lerici he retraced his steps to Nice early 
+in 1765, and then after a brief jaunt to Turin (where he met 
+Sterne) and back by the Col di Tende, he turned his face 
+definitely homewards. The journey home confirmed his liking for 
+Pisa, and gives an opening for an amusing description of the 
+Britisher abroad (Letter XXXV). We can almost overhear Thackeray, 
+or the author of Eothen, touching this same topic in Letter XLI. 
+"When two natives of any other country chance to meet abroad, 
+they run into each other's embrace like old friends, even though 
+they have never heard of one another till that moment; whereas 
+two Englishmen in the same situation maintain a mutual reserve 
+and diffidence, and keep without the sphere of each other's 
+attraction, like two bodies endowed with a repulsive power." 
+Letter XXXVI gives opportunity for some discerning remarks on 
+French taxation. Having given the French king a bit of excellent 
+advice (that he should abolish the fermiers generaux), Smollett 
+proceeds, in 1765, to a forecast of probabilities which is deeply 
+significant and amazingly shrewd. The fragment known as 
+Smollett's Dying Prophecy of 1771 has often been discredited. Yet 
+the substance of it is fairly adumbrated here in the passage 
+beginning, "There are undoubtedly many marks of relaxation in the 
+reins of French government," written fully six years previously. 
+After a pleasing description of Grasse, "famous for its pomatum, 
+gloves, wash-balls, perfumes, and toilette boxes lined with 
+bergamot," the homeward traveller crossed the French frontier at 
+Antibes, and in Letter XXXIX at Marseille, he compares the galley 
+slaves of France with those of Savoy. At Bath where he had gone 
+to set up a practice, Smollett once astonished the faculty by 
+"proving" in a pamphlet that the therapeutic properties of 
+the waters had been prodigiously exaggerated. So, now, in the 
+south of France he did not hesitate to pronounce solemnly that 
+"all fermented liquors are pernicious to the human constitution." 
+Elsewhere he comments upon the immeasurable appetite of the
+French for bread. The Frenchman will recall the story of the 
+peasant-persecuting baron whom Louis XII. provided with a 
+luxurious feast, which the lack of bread made uneatable; he may 
+not have heard a story told me in Liege at the Hotel Charlemagne 
+of the Belgian who sought to conciliate his French neighbour by 
+remarking, "Je vois que vous etes Français, monsieur, parceque 
+vous mangez beaucoup de pain," and the Frenchman's retort, "Je 
+vois que vous etes lye monsieur, parceque vous mangez beaucoup 
+de tout!" From Frejus 
+Smollett proceeds to Toulon, repeating the old epigram that "the 
+king of France is greater at Toulon than at Versailles." The 
+weather is so pleasant that the travellers enjoy a continual 
+concert of "nightingales" from Vienne to Fontainebleau. The 
+"douche" of Aix-les-Bains having been explained, Smollett and his 
+party proceeded agreeably to Avignon, where by one of the strange 
+coincidences of travel he met his old voiturier Joseph "so 
+embrowned by the sun that he might have passed for an Iroquois." 
+In spite of Joseph's testimonial the "plagues of posting" are 
+still in the ascendant, and Smollett is once more generous of 
+good advice. Above all, he adjures us when travelling never to 
+omit to carry a hammer and nails, a crowbar, an iron pin or two, 
+a large knife, and a bladder of grease. Why not a lynch pin, 
+which we were so carefully instructed how to inquire about in 
+Murray's Conversation for Travellers?
+
+But-the history of his troublous travels is drawing to an end. 
+From Lyons the route is plain through Macon, Chalons, Dijon, 
+Auxerre, Sells, and Fontainebleau--the whole itinerary almost 
+exactly anticipates that of Talfourd's Vacation Tour one hundred 
+and ten years later, except that on the outward journey Talfourd 
+sailed down the Rhone.
+
+Smollett's old mental grievances and sores have been shifted and 
+to some extent, let us hope, dissipated by his strenuous 
+journeyings, and in June 1765, after an absence of two years, he 
+is once more enabled to write,
+
+"You cannot imagine what pleasure I feel while I survey the white 
+cliffs of Dover at this distance [from Boulogne]. Not that I am 
+at all affected by the nescio qua dulcedine natalis soli of 
+Horace.
+
+"That seems to be a kind of fanaticism, founded on the prejudices 
+of education, which induces a Laplander to place the terrestrial 
+paradise among the snows of Norway, and a Swiss to prefer the 
+barren mountains of Soleure to the fruitful plains of Lombardy. I 
+am attached to my country, because it is the land of liberty, 
+cleanliness, and convenience; but I love it still more tenderly, 
+as the scene of all my interesting connections, as the habitation 
+of my friends, for whose conversation, correspondence, and esteem 
+I wish alone to live."
+
+For the time being it cannot be doubted that the hardships 
+Smollett had to undergo on his Italian journey, by sea and land, 
+and the violent passions by which he was agitated owing to the 
+conduct of refractory postilions and extortionate innkeepers, 
+contributed positively to brace up and invigorate his 
+constitution. He spoke of himself indeed as "mended by ill-treatment" 
+not unlike Tavernier, the famous traveller,--said to 
+have been radically cured of the gout by a Turkish aga in Egypt, 
+who gave him the bastinado because he would not look at the head 
+of the bashaw of Cairo. But Fizes was right after all in his 
+swan-prescription, for poor Smollett's cure was anything but a 
+radical one. His health soon collapsed under the dreary round of 
+incessant labour at Chelsea. His literary faculty was still 
+maturing and developing. His genius was mellowing, and a later 
+work might have eclipsed Clinker. But it was not to be. He had a 
+severe relapse in the winter. In 1770 he had once more to take 
+refuge from overwork on the sunny coast he had done so much to 
+popularize among his countrymen, and it was near Leghorn that he 
+died on 17th September 1771.
+
+ANNO AETATIS 51.
+EHEV!	QVAM PROCVL A PATRIA!
+PROPE LIBVRNI PORTVM, IN ITALIA
+JACET SEPVLTVS.
+
+THOMAS SECCOMBE. ACTON, May 1907.
+
+
+LETTER I
+
+BOULOGNE SUR MER, June 23, 1763.
+
+DEAR SIR,--You laid your commands upon me at parting, to 
+communicate from time to time the observations I should make in 
+the course of my travels and it was an injunction I received with 
+pleasure. In gratifying your curiosity, I shall find some 
+amusement to beguile the tedious hours, which, without some such 
+employment, would be rendered insupportable by distemper and 
+disquiet.
+
+You knew, and pitied my situation, traduced by malice, persecuted 
+by faction, abandoned by false patrons, and overwhelmed by the 
+sense of a domestic calamity, which it was not in the power of 
+fortune to repair.
+
+You know with what eagerness I fled from my country as a scene of 
+illiberal dispute, and incredible infatuation, where a few 
+worthless incendiaries had, by dint of perfidious calumnies and 
+atrocious abuse, kindled up a flame which threatened all the 
+horrors of civil dissension.
+
+I packed up my little family in a hired coach, and attended by my 
+trusty servant, who had lived with me a dozen of years, and now 
+refused to leave me, took the road to Dover, in my way to the 
+South of France, where I hoped the mildness of the climate would 
+prove favourable to the weak state of my lungs.
+
+You advised me to have recourse again to the Bath waters, from 
+the use of which I had received great benefit the preceding 
+winter: but I had many inducements to leave England. My wife 
+earnestly begged I would convey her from a country where every 
+object served to nourish her grief: I was in hopes that a 
+succession of new scenes would engage her attention, and 
+gradually call off her mind from a series of painful reflections; 
+and I imagined the change of air, and a journey of near a 
+thousand miles, would have a happy effect upon my own 
+constitution. But, as the summer was already advanced, and the 
+heat too excessive for travelling in warm climates, I proposed 
+staying at Boulogne till the beginning of autumn, and in the mean 
+time to bathe in the sea, with a view to strengthen and prepare 
+my body for the fatigues of such a long journey.
+
+A man who travels with a family of five persons, must lay his 
+account with a number of mortifications; and some of these I have 
+already happily overcome. Though I was well acquainted with the 
+road to Dover, and made allowances accordingly, I could not help 
+being chagrined at the bad accommodation and impudent imposition 
+to which I was exposed. These I found the more disagreeable, as 
+we were detained a day extraordinary on the road, in consequence 
+of my wife's being indisposed.
+
+I need not tell you this is the worst road in England with 
+respect to the conveniences of travelling, and must certainly 
+impress foreigners with an unfavourable opinion of the nation in 
+general. The chambers are in general cold and comfortless, the 
+beds paultry, the cookery execrable, the wine poison, the 
+attendance bad, the publicans insolent, and the bills extortion; 
+there is not a drop of tolerable malt liquor to be had from 
+London to Dover.
+
+Every landlord and every waiter harangued upon the knavery of a 
+publican in Canterbury, who had charged the French ambassador 
+forty pounds for a supper that was not worth forty shillings. 
+They talked much of honesty and conscience; but when they 
+produced their own bills, they appeared to be all of the same 
+family and complexion. If it was a reproach upon the English 
+nation, that an innkeeper should pillage strangers at that rate; 
+it is a greater scandal, that the same fellow should be able to 
+keep his house still open. I own, I think it would be for the 
+honour of the kingdom to reform the abuses of this road; and in 
+particular to improve the avenue to London by the way of Kent-Street, 
+which is a most disgraceful entrance to such an opulent 
+city. A foreigner, in passing through this beggarly and ruinous 
+suburb, conceives such an idea of misery and meanness, as all the 
+wealth and magnificence of London and Westminster are afterwards 
+unable to destroy. A friend of mine, who brought a Parisian from 
+Dover in his own post-chaise, contrived to enter Southwark after 
+it was dark, that his friend might not perceive the nakedness of 
+this quarter. The stranger was much pleased with the great number 
+of shops full of merchandize, lighted up to the best advantage. 
+He was astonished at the display of riches in Lombard-Street and 
+Cheapside. The badness of the pavement made him find the streets 
+twice as long as they were. They alighted in Upper Brook-Street 
+by Grosvenor-Square; and when his conductor told him they were 
+then about the middle of London, the Frenchman declared, with 
+marks of infinite surprize, that London was very near as long as 
+Paris.
+
+On my arrival at Dover I payed off my coachman, who went away 
+with a heavy heart. He wanted much to cross the sea, and 
+endeavoured to persuade me to carry the coach and horses to the 
+other side. If I had been resolved to set out immediately for the 
+South, perhaps I should have taken his advice. If I had retained 
+him at the rate of twenty guineas per month, which was the price 
+he demanded, and begun my journey without hesitation, I should 
+travel more agreeably than I can expect to do in the carriages of 
+this  country; and the difference of the expence would be a mere
+trifle. I would advise every man who travels through France to 
+bring his own vehicle along with him, or at least to purchase one 
+at Calais or Boulogne, where second-hand berlins and chaises may 
+be generally had at reasonable rates. I have been offered a very 
+good berlin for thirty guineas: but before I make the purchase, I 
+must be better informed touching the different methods of 
+travelling in this country.
+
+Dover is commonly termed a den of thieves; and I am afraid it is 
+not altogether without reason, it has acquired this appellation. 
+The people are said to live by piracy in time of war; and by 
+smuggling and fleecing strangers in time of peace: but I will do 
+them the justice to say, they make no distinction between 
+foreigners and natives. Without all doubt a man cannot be much 
+worse lodged and worse treated in any part of Europe; nor will he 
+in any other place meet with more flagrant instances of fraud, 
+imposition, and brutality. One would imagine they had formed a 
+general conspiracy against all those who either go to, or return 
+from the continent. About five years ago, in my passage from 
+Flushing to Dover, the master of the packet-boat brought-to all 
+of a sudden off the South Foreland, although the wind was as 
+favourable as it could blow. He was immediately boarded by a 
+customhouse boat, the officer of which appeared to be his friend. 
+He then gave the passengers to understand, that as it was low 
+water, the ship could not go into the harbour; but that the boat 
+would carry them ashore with their baggage.
+
+The custom-house officer demanded a guinea for this service, and 
+the bargain was made. Before we quitted the ship, we were obliged 
+to gratify the cabin-boy for his attendance, and to give drink-money 
+to the sailors. The boat was run aground on the open beach; 
+but we could not get ashore without the assistance of three or 
+four fellows, who insisted upon being paid for their trouble. 
+Every parcel and bundle, as it was landed, was snatched up by a 
+separate porter: one ran away with a hat-box, another with a wig-box, 
+a third with a couple of shirts tied up in a handkerchief, 
+and two were employed in carrying a small portmanteau that did 
+not weigh forty pounds. All our things were hurried to the 
+custom-house to be searched, and the searcher was paid for 
+disordering our cloaths: from thence they were removed to the 
+inn, where the porters demanded half-a-crown each for their 
+labour. It was in vain to expostulate; they surrounded the house 
+like a pack of hungry bounds, and raised such a clamour, that we 
+were fain to comply. After we had undergone all this imposition, 
+we were visited by the master of the packet, who, having taken 
+our fares, and wished us joy of our happy arrival in England, 
+expressed his hope that we would remember the poor master, whose 
+wages were very small, and who chiefly depended upon the 
+generosity of the passengers. I own I was shocked at his 
+meanness, and could not help telling him so. I told him, I could 
+not conceive what title he had to any such gratification: he had 
+sixteen passengers, who paid a guinea each, on the supposition 
+that every person should have a bed; but there were no more than 
+eight beds in the cabin, and each of these was occupied before I 
+came on board; so that if we had been detained at sea a whole 
+week by contrary winds and bad weather, one half of the 
+passengers must have slept upon the boards, howsoever their 
+health might have suffered from this want of accommodation. 
+Notwithstanding this check, he was so very abject and 
+importunate, that we gave him a crown a-piece, and he retired.
+
+The first thing I did when I arrived at Dover this last time, was 
+to send for the master of a packet-boat, and agree with him to 
+carry us to Boulogne at once, by which means I saved the expence 
+of travelling by land from Calais to this last place, a journey 
+of four-and-twenty miles. The hire of a vessel from Dover to 
+Boulogne is precisely the same as from Dover to Calais, five 
+guineas; but this skipper demanded eight, and, as I did not know 
+the fare, I agreed to give him six. We embarked between six and 
+seven in the evening, and found ourselves in a most wretched 
+hovel, on board what is called a Folkstone cutter. The cabin was 
+so small that a dog could hardly turn in it, and the beds put me 
+in mind of the holes described in some catacombs, in which the 
+bodies of the dead were deposited, being thrust in with the feet 
+foremost; there was no getting into them but end-ways, and indeed 
+they seemed so dirty, that nothing but extreme necessity could 
+have obliged me to use them. We sat up all night in a most 
+uncomfortable situation, tossed about by the sea, cold, arid 
+cramped and weary, and languishing for want of sleep. At three in 
+the morning the master came down, and told us we were just off 
+the harbour of Boulogne; but the wind blowing off shore, he could 
+not possibly enter, and therefore advised us to go ashore in the 
+boat. I went upon deck to view the coast, when he pointed to the 
+place where he said Boulogne stood, declaring at the same time we 
+were within a short mile of the harbour's mouth. The morning was 
+cold and raw, and I knew myself extremely subject to catch cold; 
+nevertheless we were all so impatient to be ashore, that I 
+resolved to take his advice. The boat was already hoisted out, 
+and we went on board of it, after I had paid the captain and 
+gratified his crew. We had scarce parted from the ship, when we 
+perceived a boat coming towards us from the shore; and the master 
+gave us to understand, it was coming to carry us into the 
+harbour. When I objected to the trouble of shifting from one boat 
+to another in the open sea, which (by the bye) was a little 
+rough; he said it was a privilege which the watermen of Boulogne 
+had, to carry all passengers ashore, and that this privilege he 
+durst not venture to infringe. This was no time nor place to 
+remonstrate. The French boat came alongside half filled with 
+water, and we were handed from the one to the other. We were then 
+obliged to lie upon our oars, till the captain's boat went on 
+board and returned from the ship with a packet of letters. We 
+were afterwards rowed a long league, in a rough sea, against wind 
+and tide, before we reached the harbour, where we landed, 
+benumbed with cold, and the women excessively sick: from our 
+landing-place we were obliged to walk very near a mile to the inn 
+where we purposed to lodge, attended by six or seven men and 
+women, bare-legged, carrying our baggage. This boat cost me a 
+guinea, besides paying exorbitantly the people who carried our 
+things; so that the inhabitants of Dover and of Boulogne seem to 
+be of the same kidney, and indeed they understand one another 
+perfectly well. It was our honest captain who made the signal for 
+the shore-boat before I went upon deck; by which means he not 
+only gratified his friends, the watermen of Boulogne, but also 
+saved about fifteen shillings portage, which he must have paid 
+had he gone into the harbour; and thus he found himself at 
+liberty to return to Dover, which he reached in four hours. I 
+mention these circumstances as a warning to other passengers. 
+When a man hires a packet-boat from Dover to Calais or Boulogne, 
+let him remember that the stated price is five guineas; and let 
+him insist upon being carried into the harbour in the ship, 
+without paying the least regard to the representations of the 
+master, who is generally a little dirty knave. When he tells you 
+it is low water, or the wind is in your teeth, you may say you 
+will stay on board till it is high water, or till the wind comes 
+favourable. If he sees you are resolute, he will find means to 
+bring his ship into the harbour, or at least to convince you, 
+without a possibility of your being deceived, that it is not in 
+his power. After all, the fellow himself was a loser by his 
+finesse; if he had gone into the harbour, he would have had 
+another fare immediately back to Dover, for there was a Scotch 
+gentleman at the inn waiting for such an opportunity.
+
+Knowing my own weak constitution, I took it for granted this 
+morning's adventure would cost me a fit of illness; and what 
+added to my chagrin, when we arrived at the inn, all the beds 
+were occupied; so that we were obliged to sit in a cold kitchen 
+above two hours, until some of the lodgers should get up. This 
+was such a bad specimen of French accommodation, that my wife 
+could not help regretting even the inns of Rochester, 
+Sittingbourn, and Canterbury: bad as they are, they certainly 
+have the advantage, when compared with the execrable auberges of 
+this country, where one finds nothing but dirt and imposition. 
+One would imagine the French were still at war with the English, 
+for they pillage them without mercy.
+
+Among the strangers at this inn where we lodged, there was a 
+gentleman of the faculty, just returned from Italy. Understanding 
+that I intended to winter in the South of France, on account of a 
+pulmonic disorder, he strongly recommended the climate of Nice in 
+Provence, which, indeed, I had often heard extolled; and I am 
+almost resolved to go thither, not only for the sake of the air, 
+but also for its situation on the Mediterranean, where I can have 
+the benefit of bathing; and from whence there is a short cut by 
+sea to Italy, should I find it necessary to try the air of 
+Naples.
+
+After having been ill accommodated three days at our inn, we have 
+at last found commodious lodgings, by means of Mrs. B-, a very 
+agreeable French lady, to whom we were recommended by her 
+husband, who is my countryman, and at present resident in London. 
+For three guineas a month we have the greatest part of a house 
+tolerably furnished; four bed-chambers on the first floor, a 
+large parlour below, a kitchen, and the use of a cellar.
+
+These, I own, are frivolous incidents, scarce worth committing to 
+paper; but they may serve to introduce observations of more 
+consequence; and in the mean time I know nothing will be 
+indifferent to you, that concerns--Your humble servant.
+
+
+
+LETTER II
+
+BOULOGNE SUR MER, July 15, 1763.
+
+DEAR SIR,--The custom-house officers at Boulogne, though as 
+alert, are rather more civil than those on your side of the 
+water. I brought no plate along with me, but a dozen and a half 
+of spoons, and a dozen teaspoons: the first being found in one of 
+our portmanteaus, when they were examined at the bureau, cost me 
+seventeen livres entree; the others being luckily in my servant's 
+pocket, escaped duty free. All wrought silver imported into 
+France, pays at the rate of so much per mark: therefore those who 
+have any quantity of plate, will do well to leave it behind them, 
+unless they can confide in the dexterity of the shipmasters; some 
+of whom will undertake to land it without the ceremony of 
+examination. The ordonnances of France are so unfavourable to 
+strangers, that they oblige them to pay at the rate of five per 
+cent. for all the bed and table linen which they bring into the 
+kingdom, even though it has been used. When my trunks arrived in 
+a ship from the river Thames, I underwent this ordeal: but what 
+gives me more vexation, my books have been stopped at the bureau; 
+and will be sent to Amiens at my expence, to be examined by the 
+chambre syndicale; lest they should contain something prejudicial 
+to the state, or to the religion of the country. This is a 
+species of oppression which one would not expect to meet with in 
+France, which piques itself on its politeness and hospitality: 
+but the truth is, I know no country in which strangers are worse 
+treated with respect to their essential concerns. If a foreigner 
+dies in France, the king seizes all his effects, even though his 
+heir should be upon the spot; and this tyranny is called the 
+droit d'aubaine founded at first upon the supposition, that all 
+the estate of foreigners residing in France was acquired in that 
+kingdom, and that, therefore, it would be unjust to convey it to 
+another country. If an English protestant goes to France for the 
+benefit of his health, attended by his wife or his son, or both, 
+and dies with effects in the house to the amount of a thousand 
+guineas, the king seizes the whole, the family is left destitute, 
+and the body of the deceased is denied christian burial. The 
+Swiss, by capitulation, are exempted from this despotism, and so 
+are the Scots, in consequence of an ancient alliance between the 
+two nations. The same droit d'aubaine is exacted by some of the 
+princes in Germany: but it is a great discouragement to commerce, 
+and prejudices every country where it is exercised, to ten times 
+the value of what it brings into the coffers of the sovereign.
+
+I am exceedingly mortified at the detention of my books, which 
+not only deprives me of an amusement which I can very ill 
+dispense with; but, in all probability, will expose me to sundry 
+other inconveniencies. I must be at the expence of sending them 
+sixty miles to be examined, and run the risque of their being 
+condemned; and, in the mean time, I may lose the opportunity of 
+sending them with my heavy baggage by sea to Bourdeaux, to be 
+sent up the Garonne to Tholouse, and from thence transmitted 
+through the canal of Languedoc to Cette, which is a sea-port on 
+the Mediterranean, about three or four leagues from Montpelier.
+
+For the recovery of my books, I had recourse to the advice of my 
+landlord, Mons. B--. He is a handsome young fellow, about twenty-five 
+years of age, and keeps house with two maiden sisters, who 
+are professed devotees. The brother is a little libertine, good 
+natured and obliging; but a true Frenchman in vanity, which is 
+undoubtedly the ruling passion of this volatile people. He has an 
+inconsiderable place under the government, in consequence of 
+which he is permitted to wear a sword, a privilege which he does 
+not fail to use. He is likewise receiver of the tythes of the 
+clergy in this district, an office that gives him a command of 
+money, and he, moreover, deals in the wine trade. When I came to 
+his house, he made a parade of all these advantages: he displayed 
+his bags of money, and some old gold which his father had left 
+him. He described his chateau in the country; dropped hints of 
+the fortunes that were settled upon mademoiselles his sisters; 
+boasted of his connexions at court; and assured me it was not for 
+my money that he let his lodgings, but altogether with a view to 
+enjoy the pleasure of my company. The truth, when stript of all 
+embellishments, is this: the sieur B-- is the son of an honest 
+bourgeois lately dead, who left him the house, with some stock in 
+trade, a little money, and a paltry farm: his sisters have about 
+three thousand livres (not quite 140 L) apiece; the brother's 
+places are worth about fifty pounds a year, and his connexions at 
+court are confined to a commis or clerk in the secretary's 
+office, with whom he corresponds by virtue of his employment. My 
+landlord piques himself upon his gallantry and success with the 
+fair-sex: he keeps a fille de joye, and makes no secret of his 
+amours. He told miss C-- the other day, in broken English, that, 
+in the course of the last year, he had made six bastards. He 
+owned, at the same time, he had sent them all to the hospital; 
+but, now his father is dead, he would himself take care of his 
+future productions. This, however, was no better than a 
+gasconade. Yesterday the house was in a hot alarm, on account of 
+a new windfall of this kind: the sisters were in tears; the 
+brother was visited by the cure of the parish; the lady in the 
+straw (a sempstress) sent him the bantling in a basket, and he 
+transmitted it by the carriers to the Enfans trouves at Paris.
+
+But to return from this digression: Mr. B-- advised me to send a 
+requete or petition to the chancellor of France, that I might 
+obtain an order to have my books examined on the spot, by the 
+president of Boulogne, or the procureur du roy, or the sub-delegate 
+of the intendance. He recommended an advocat of his 
+acquaintance to draw up the memoire, and introduced him 
+accordingly; telling me at the same time, in private, that if he 
+was not a drunkard, he would be at the head of his profession. He 
+had indeed all the outward signs of a sot; a sleepy eye, a 
+rubicund face, and carbuncled nose. He seemed to be a little out 
+at elbows, had marvellous foul linen, and his breeches were not 
+very sound: but he assumed an air of importance, was very 
+courteous, and very solemn. I asked him if he did not sometimes 
+divert himself with the muse: he smiled, and promised, in a 
+whisper, to shew me some chansonettes de sa facon. Meanwhile he 
+composed the requete in my name, which was very pompous, very 
+tedious, and very abject. Such a stile might perhaps be necessary 
+in a native of France; but I did not think it was at all suitable 
+to a subject of Great-Britain. I thanked him for the trouble he 
+had taken, as he would receive no other gratification; but when 
+my landlord proposed to send the memoire to his correspondent at 
+Paris, to be delivered to the chancellor, I told him I had 
+changed my mind, and would apply to the English ambassador. I 
+have accordingly taken the liberty to address myself to the earl 
+of H--; and at the same time I have presumed to write to the 
+duchess of D--, who is now at Paris, to entreat her grace's 
+advice and interposition. What effect these applications may 
+have, I know not: but the sieur B-- shakes his head, and has told 
+my servant, in confidence, that I am mistaken if I think the 
+English ambassador is as great a man at Paris as the chancellor 
+of France.
+
+I ought to make an apology for troubling you with such an 
+unentertaining detail, and consider that the detention of my 
+books must be a matter of very little consequence to any body, 
+but to--Your affectionate humble servant.
+
+LETTER III
+
+BOULOGNE, August 15, 1763.
+
+SIR--I am much obliged to you for your kind enquiries after my 
+health, which has been lately in a very declining condition. In 
+consequence of a cold, caught a few days after my arrival in 
+France, I was seized with a violent cough, attended with a fever, 
+and stitches in my breast, which tormented me all night long 
+without ceasing. At the same time I had a great discharge by 
+expectoration, and such a dejection of spirits as I never felt 
+before. In this situation I took a step which may appear to have 
+been desperate. I knew there was no imposthume in my lungs, and I 
+supposed the stitches were spasmodical. I was sensible that all 
+my complaints were originally derived from relaxation. I 
+therefore hired a chaise, and going to the beach, about a league 
+from the town, plunged into the sea without hesitation. By this 
+desperate remedy, I got a fresh cold in my head: but my stitches 
+and fever vanished the very first day; and by a daily repetition 
+of the bath, I have diminished my cough, strengthened my body, 
+and recovered my spirits. I believe I should have tried the same 
+experiment, even if there had been an abscess in my lungs, though 
+such practice would have been contrary to all the rules of 
+medicine: but I am not one of those who implicitly believe in all 
+the dogmata of physic. I saw one of the guides at Bath, the 
+stoutest fellow among them, who recovered from the last stage of 
+a consumption, by going into the king's bath, contrary to the 
+express injunction of his doctor. He said, if he must die, the 
+sooner the better, as he had nothing left for his subsistence. 
+Instead of immediate death, he found instant case, and continued 
+mending every day, till his health was entirely re-established. I 
+myself drank the waters of Bath, and bathed, in diametrical 
+opposition to the opinion of some physicians there settled, and 
+found myself better every day, notwithstanding their unfavourable 
+prognostic. If I had been of the rigid fibre, full of blood, 
+subject to inflammation, I should have followed a different 
+course. Our acquaintance, doctor C--, while he actually spit 
+up matter, and rode out every day for his life, led his horse 
+to water, at the pond in Hyde-Park, one cold frosty morning, 
+and the beast, which happened to be of a hot constitution, 
+plunged himself and his master over head and ears in the water. 
+The poor doctor hastened home, half dead with fear, and 
+was put to bed in the apprehension of a new imposthume; instead 
+of which, he found himself exceedingly recruited in his spirits, 
+and his appetite much mended. I advised him to take the 
+hint, and go into the cold bath every morning; but he did not 
+chuse to run any risque. How cold water comes to be such a 
+bugbear, I know not: if I am not mistaken, Hippocrates recommends 
+immersion in cold water for the gout; and Celsus expressly says, 
+in omni tussi utilis est natatio: in every cough swimming is of 
+service.
+
+I have conversed with a physician of this place, a sensible man, 
+who assured me he was reduced to meer skin and bone by a cough 
+and hectic fever, when he ordered a bath to be made in his own 
+house, and dipped himself in cold water every morning. He at the 
+same time left off drinking and swallowing any liquid that was 
+warm. He is now strong and lusty, and even in winter has no other 
+cover than a single sheet. His notions about the warm drink were 
+a little whimsical: he imagined it relaxed the tone of the 
+stomach; and this would undoubtedly be the case if it was drank 
+in large quantities, warmer than the natural temperature of the 
+blood. He alledged the example of the inhabitants of the Ladrone 
+islands, who never taste any thing that is not cold, and are 
+remarkably healthy. But to balance this argument I mentioned the 
+Chinese, who scarce drink any thing but warm tea; and the 
+Laplanders, who drink nothing but warm water; yet the people of 
+both these nations are remarkably strong, healthy, and long-lived.
+
+You desire to know the fate of my books. My lord H--d is not yet 
+come to France; but my letter was transmitted to him from Paris; 
+and his lordship, with that generous humanity which is peculiar 
+to his character, has done me the honour to assure me, under his 
+own hand, that he has directed Mr. N--lle, our resident at Paris, 
+to apply for an order that my books may be restored.
+
+I have met with another piece of good fortune, in being 
+introduced to general Paterson and his lady, in their way to 
+England from Nice, where the general has been many years 
+commandant for the king of Sardinia. You must have heard of this 
+gentleman, who has not only eminently distinguished himself, by 
+his courage and conduct as an officer; but also by his probity 
+and humanity in the exercise, of his office, and by his 
+remarkable hospitality to all strangers, especially the subjects 
+of Great-Britain, whose occasions called them to the place where 
+he commanded. Being pretty far advanced in years, he begged leave 
+to resign, that he might spend the evening of his days in his own 
+country; and his Sardinian majesty granted his request with 
+regret, after having honoured him with very particular marks of 
+approbation and esteem. The general talks so favourably of the 
+climate of Nice, with respect to disorders of the breast, that I 
+am now determined to go thither. It would have been happy for me 
+had he continued in his government. I think myself still very 
+fortunate, in having obtained of him a letter of recommendation 
+to the English consul at Nice, together with directions how to 
+travel through the South of France. I propose to begin my journey 
+some time next month, when the weather will be temperate to the 
+southward; and in the wine countries I shall have the pleasure of 
+seeing the vintage, which is always a season of festivity among 
+all ranks of people.
+
+You have been very much mis-informed, by the person who compared 
+Boulogne to Wapping: he did a manifest injustice to this place 
+which is a large agreeable town, with broad open streets, 
+excellently paved; and the houses are of stone, well built and 
+commodious. The number of inhabitants may amount to sixteen 
+thousand. You know this was generally supposed to be the portus 
+Itius, and Gessoriacum of the antients: though it is now believed 
+that the portus Itius, from whence Caesar sailed to Britain, is a 
+place called Whitsand, about half way between this place and 
+Calais. Boulogne is the capital of the Boulonnois, a district 
+extending about twelve leagues, ruled by a governor independent 
+of the governor of Picardy; of which province, however, this 
+country forms a part. The present governor is the duc d'Aumout. 
+The town of Boulogne is the see of a bishop suffragan of Rheims, 
+whose revenue amounts to about four-and-twenty thousand livres, 
+or one thousand pounds sterling. It is also the seat of a 
+seneschal's court, from whence an appeal lies to the parliament 
+of Paris; and thither all condemned criminals are sent, to have 
+their sentence confirmed or reversed. Here is likewise a 
+bailiwick, and a court of admiralty. The military jurisdiction of 
+the city belongs to a commandant appointed by the king, a sort of 
+sinecure bestowed upon some old officer. His appointments are 
+very inconsiderable: he resides in the Upper Town, and his 
+garrison at present consists of a few hundreds of invalids.
+
+Boulogne is divided into the Upper and Lower Towns. The former is 
+a kind of citadel, about a short mile in circumference, situated 
+on a rising ground, surrounded by a high wall and rampart, 
+planted with rows of trees, which form a delightful walk. It 
+commands a fine view of the country and Lower Town; and in clear 
+weather the coast of England, from Dover to Folkstone, appears so 
+plain, that one would imagine it was within four or five leagues 
+of the French shore. The Upper Town was formerly fortified with 
+outworks, which are now in ruins. Here is a square, a town-house, 
+the cathedral, and two or three convents of nuns; in one of which 
+there are several English girls, sent hither for their education. 
+The smallness of the expence encourages parents to send their 
+children abroad to these seminaries, where they learn scarce any 
+thing that is useful but the French language; but they never fail 
+to imbibe prejudices against the protestant religion, and 
+generally return enthusiastic converts to the religion of Rome. 
+This conversion always generates a contempt for, and often an 
+aversion to, their own country. Indeed it cannot reasonably be 
+expected that people of weak minds, addicted to superstition, 
+should either love or esteem those whom they are taught to 
+consider as reprobated heretics. Ten pounds a year is the usual 
+pension in these convents; but I have been informed by a French 
+lady who had her education in one of them, that nothing can be 
+more wretched than their entertainment.
+
+The civil magistracy of Boulogne consists of a mayor and 
+echevins; and this is the case in almost all the towns of France.
+
+The Lower Town is continued from the gate of the Upper Town, down 
+the slope of a hill, as far as the harbour, stretching on both 
+sides to a large extent, and is much more considerable than the 
+Upper, with respect to the beauty of the streets, the convenience 
+of the houses, and the number and wealth of the inhabitants. 
+These, however, are all merchants, or bourgeoise, for the 
+noblesse or gentry live all together in the Upper Town, and never 
+mix with the others. The harbour of Boulogne is at the mouth of 
+the small river, or rather rivulet Liane, which is so shallow, 
+that the children wade through it at low water. As the tide 
+makes, the sea flows in, and forms a pretty extensive harbour, 
+which, however, admits nothing but small vessels. It is 
+contracted at the mouth by two stone jetties or piers, which seem 
+to have been constructed by some engineer, very little acquainted 
+with this branch of his profession; for they are carried out in 
+such a manner, as to collect a bank of sand just at the entrance 
+of the harbour. The road is very open and unsafe, and the surf 
+very high when the wind blows from the sea. There is no 
+fortification near the harbour, except a paltry fort mounting 
+about twenty guns, built in the last war by the prince de Cruy, 
+upon a rock about a league to the eastward of Boulogne. It 
+appears to be situated in such a manner, that it can neither 
+offend, nor be offended. If the depth of water would admit a 
+forty or fifty gun ship to lie within cannon-shot of it, I 
+apprehend it might be silenced in half an hour; but, in all 
+probability, there will be no vestiges of it at the next rupture 
+between the two crowns. It is surrounded every day by the sea, at 
+high water; and when it blows a fresh gale towards the shore, the 
+waves break over the top of it, to the terror and astonishment of 
+the garrison, who have been often heard crying piteously for 
+assistance. I am persuaded, that it will one day disappear in the 
+twinkling of an eye. The neighbourhood of this fort, which is a 
+smooth sandy beach, I have chosen for my bathing place. The road 
+to it is agreeable and romantic, lying through pleasant 
+cornfields, skirted by open downs, where there is a rabbit 
+warren, and great plenty of the birds so much admired at 
+Tunbridge under the name of wheat-ears. By the bye, this is a 
+pleasant corruption of white-a-se, the translation of their 
+French name cul-blanc, taken from their colour for they are 
+actually white towards the tail.
+
+Upon the top of a high rock, which overlooks the harbour, are the 
+remains of an old fortification, which is indiscriminately 
+called, Tour d'ordre, and Julius Caesar's fort. The original 
+tower was a light-house built by Claudius Caesar, denominated 
+Turris ardens, from the fire burned in it; and this the French 
+have corrupted into Tour d'ordre; but no vestiges of this Roman 
+work remain; what we now see, are the ruins of a castle built by 
+Charlemagne. I know of no other antiquity at Boulogne, except an 
+old vault in the Upper Town, now used as a magazine, which is 
+said to be part of an antient temple dedicated to Isis.
+
+On the other side of the harbour, opposite to the Lower Town, 
+there is a house built, at a considerable expence, by a general 
+officer, who lost his life in the late war. Never was situation 
+more inconvenient, unpleasant, and unhealthy. It stands on the 
+edge of an ugly morass formed by the stagnant water left by the 
+tide in its retreat: the very walks of the garden are so moist, 
+that, in the driest weather, no person can make a tour of it, 
+without danger of the rheumatism. Besides, the house is 
+altogether inaccessible, except at low water, and even then the 
+carriage must cross the harbour, the wheels up to the axle-tree 
+in mud: nay, the tide rushes in so fast, that unless you seize 
+the time to a minute, you will be in danger of perishing. The 
+apartments of this house are elegantly fitted up, but very small; 
+and the garden, notwithstanding its unfavourable situation, 
+affords a great quantity of good fruit. The ooze, impregnated 
+with sea salt, produces, on this side of the harbour, an 
+incredible quantity of the finest samphire I ever saw. The French 
+call it passe-pierre; and I suspect its English name is a 
+corruption of sang-pierre. It is generally found on the faces of 
+bare rocks that overhang the sea, by the spray of which it is 
+nourished. As it grew upon a naked rock, without any appearance 
+of soil, it might be naturally enough called sang du pierre, or 
+sangpierre, blood of the rock; and hence the name samphire. On 
+the same side of the harbour there is another new house, neatly 
+built, belonging to a gentleman who has obtained a grant from the 
+king of some ground which was always overflowed at high water. He 
+has raised dykes at a considerable expence, to exclude the tide, 
+and if he can bring his project to bear, he will not only gain a 
+good estate for himself, but also improve the harbour, by 
+increasing the depth at high-water.
+
+In the Lower Town of Boulogne there are several religious houses, 
+particularly a seminary, a convent of Cordeliers, and another of 
+Capuchins. This last, having fallen to decay, was some years ago 
+repaired, chiefly by the charity of British travellers, collected 
+by father Graeme, a native of North-Britain, who had been an 
+officer in the army of king James II. and is said to have turned 
+monk of this mendicant order, by way of voluntary penance, for 
+having killed his friend in a duel. Be that as it may, he was a 
+well-bred, sensible man, of a very exemplary life and 
+conversation; and his memory is much revered in this place. Being 
+superior of the convent, he caused the British arms to be put up 
+in the church, as a mark of gratitude for the benefactions 
+received from our nation. I often walk in the garden of the 
+convent, the walls of which are washed by the sea at high-water. 
+At the bottom of the garden is a little private grove, separated 
+from it by a high wall, with a door of communication; and hither 
+the Capuchins retire, when they are disposed for contemplation. 
+About two years ago, this place was said to be converted to a 
+very different use. There was among the monks one pere Charles, a 
+lusty friar, of whom the people tell strange stories. Some young 
+women of the town were seen mounting over the wall, by a ladder 
+of ropes, in the dusk of the evening; and there was an unusual 
+crop of bastards that season. In short, pere Charles and his 
+companions gave such scandal, that the whole fraternity was 
+changed; and now the nest is occupied by another flight of these 
+birds of passage. If one of our privateers had kidnapped a 
+Capuchin during the war, and exhibited him, in his habit, as a 
+shew in London, he would have proved a good prize to the captors; 
+for I know not a more uncouth and grotesque animal, than an old 
+Capuchin in the habit of his order. A friend of mine (a Swiss 
+officer) told me, that a peasant in his country used to weep 
+bitterly, whenever a certain Capuchin mounted the pulpit to hold 
+forth to the people. The good father took notice of this man, and 
+believed he was touched by the finger of the Lord. He exhorted 
+him to encourage these accessions of grace, and at the same time 
+to be of good comfort, as having received such marks of the 
+divine favour. The man still continued to weep, as before, every 
+time the monk preached; and at last the Capuchin insisted upon 
+knowing what it was, in his discourse or appearance, that made 
+such an impression upon his heart "Ah, father! (cried the 
+peasant) I never see you but I think of a venerable goat, which I 
+lost at Easter. We were bred up together in the same family. He 
+was the very picture of your reverence--one would swear you were 
+brothers. Poor Baudouin! he died of a fall--rest his soul! I 
+would willingly pay for a couple of masses to pray him out of 
+purgatory."
+
+Among other public edifices at Boulogne, there is an hospital, or 
+workhouse, which seems to be established upon a very good 
+foundation. It maintains several hundreds of poor people, who are 
+kept constantly at work, according to their age and abilities, in 
+making thread, all sorts of lace, a kind of catgut, and in 
+knitting stockings. It is under the direction of the bishop; and 
+the see is at present filled by a prelate of great piety and 
+benevolence, though a little inclining to bigotry and fanaticism. 
+The churches in this town are but indifferently built, and poorly 
+ornamented. There is not one picture in the place worth looking 
+at, nor indeed does there seem to be the least taste for the 
+liberal arts.
+
+In my next, I shall endeavour to satisfy you in the other 
+articles you desire to know. Mean-while, I am ever--Yours.
+
+LETTER IV
+
+BOULOGNE, September 1, 1763.
+
+SIR,--I am infinitely obliged to D. H-- for the favourable manner 
+in which he has mentioned me to the earl of H-- I have at last 
+recovered my books, by virtue of a particular order to the 
+director of the douane, procured by the application of the 
+English resident to the French ministry. I am now preparing for 
+my long journey; but, before I leave this place, I shall send you 
+the packet I mentioned, by Meriton. Mean-while I must fulfil my 
+promise in communicating
+the observations I have had occasion to make upon this town and 
+country.
+
+The air of Boulogne is cold and moist, and, I believe, of 
+consequence unhealthy. Last winter the frost, which continued six 
+weeks in London, lasted here eight weeks without intermission; 
+and the cold was so intense, that, in the garden of the 
+Capuchins, it split the bark of several elms from top to bottom. 
+On our arrival here we found all kinds of fruit more backward 
+than in England. The frost, in its progress to Britain, is much 
+weakened in crossing the sea. The atmosphere, impregnated with 
+saline particles, resists the operation of freezing. Hence, in 
+severe winters, all places near the sea-side are less cold than 
+more inland districts. This is the reason why the winter is often 
+more mild at Edinburgh than at London. A very great degree of 
+cold is required to freeze salt water. Indeed it will not freeze 
+at all, until it has deposited all its salt. It is now generally 
+allowed among philosophers, that water is no more than ice thawed 
+by heat, either solar, or subterranean, or both; and that this 
+heat being expelled, it would return to its natural consistence. 
+This being the case, nothing else is required for the freezing of 
+water, than a certain degree of cold, which may be generated by 
+the help of salt, or spirit of nitre, even under the line. I 
+would propose, therefore, that an apparatus of this sort should 
+be provided in every ship that goes to sea; and in case there 
+should be a deficiency of fresh water on board, the seawater may 
+be rendered potable, by being first converted into ice.
+
+The air of Boulogne is not only loaded with a great evaporation 
+from the sea, increased by strong gales of wind from the West and 
+South-West, which blow almost continually during the greatest 
+part of the year; but it is also subject to putrid vapours, 
+arising from the low marshy ground in the neighbourhood of the 
+harbour, which is every tide overflowed with seawater. This may 
+be one cause of the scrofula and rickets, which are two 
+prevailing disorders among the children in Boulogne. But I 
+believe the former is more owing to the water used in the Lower 
+Town, which is very hard and unwholsome. It curdles with soap, 
+gives a red colour to the meat that is boiled in it, and, when 
+drank by strangers, never fails to occasion pains in the stomach 
+and bowels; nay, sometimes produces dysenteries. In all 
+appearance it is impregnated with nitre, if not with something 
+more mischievous: we know that mundic, or pyrites, very often 
+contains a proportion of arsenic, mixed with sulphur, vitriol,
+and mercury. Perhaps it partakes of the acid of some coal mine; 
+for there are coal works in this district. There is a well of 
+purging water within a quarter of a mile of the Upper Town, to 
+which the inhabitants resort in the morning, as the people of 
+London go to the Dog-and-duck, in St. George's fields. There is 
+likewise a fountain of excellent water, hard by the cathedral, in 
+the Upper Town, from whence I am daily supplied at a small 
+expence. Some modern chemists affirm, that no saline chalybeate 
+waters can exist, except in the neighbourhood of coal damps; and 
+that nothing can be more mild, and gentle, and friendly to the 
+constitution, than the said damps: but I know that the place 
+where I was bred stands upon a zonic of coal; that the water 
+which the inhabitants generally use is hard and brackish; and 
+that the people are remarkably subject to the king's evil and 
+consumption. These I would impute to the bad water, impregnated 
+with the vitriol and brine of coal, as there is nothing in the 
+constitution of the air that should render such distempers 
+endemial. That the air of Boulogne encourages putrefaction, 
+appears from the effect it has upon butcher's meat, which, though 
+the season is remarkably cold, we can hardly keep four-and-twenty 
+hours in the coolest part of the house.
+
+Living here is pretty reasonable; and the markets are tolerably 
+supplied. The beef is neither fat nor firm; but very good for 
+soup, which is the only use the French make of it. The veal is 
+not so white, nor so well fed, as the English veal; but it is 
+more juicy, and better tasted. The mutton and pork are very good. 
+We buy our poultry alive, and fatten them at home. Here are 
+excellent turkies, and no want of game: the hares, in particular, 
+are very large, juicy, and high-flavoured. The best part of the 
+fish caught on this coast is sent post to Paris, in chasse-marines, 
+by a company of contractors, like those of Hastings in 
+Sussex. Nevertheless, we have excellent soles, skaite, flounders 
+and whitings, and sometimes mackarel. The oysters are very large, 
+coarse, and rank. There is very little fish caught on the French 
+coast, because the shallows run a great way from the shore; and 
+the fish live chiefly in deep water: for this reason the 
+fishermen go a great way out to sea, sometimes even as far as the 
+coast of England. Notwithstanding all the haste the contractors 
+can make, their fish in the summer is very often spoiled before 
+it arrives at Paris; and this is not to be wondered at, 
+considering the length of the way, which is near one hundred and 
+fifty miles. At best it must be in such a mortified condition, 
+that no other people, except the negroes on the coast of Guinea, 
+would feed upon it.
+
+The wine commonly drank at Boulogne comes from Auxerre, is very 
+small and meagre, and may be had from five to eight sols a 
+bottle; that is, from two-pence halfpenny to fourpence. The 
+French inhabitants drink no good wine; nor is there any to be 
+had, unless you have recourse to the British wine-merchants here 
+established, who deal in Bourdeaux wines, brought hither by sea 
+for the London market. I have very good claret from a friend, at 
+the rate of fifteen-pence sterling a bottle; and excellent small 
+beer as reasonable as in England. I don't believe there is a drop 
+of generous Burgundy in the place; and the aubergistes impose 
+upon us shamefully, when they charge it at two livres a bottle. 
+There is a small white wine, called preniac, which is very 
+agreeable and very cheap. All the brandy which I have seen in 
+Boulogne is new, fiery, and still-burnt. This is the trash which 
+the smugglers import into England: they have it for about ten-pence 
+a gallon. Butcher's meat is sold for five sols, or two-pence 
+halfpenny a pound, and the pound here consists of eighteen 
+ounces. I have a young turkey for thirty sols; a hare for four-and-twenty; 
+a couple of chickens for twenty sols, and a couple of 
+good soles for the same price. Before we left England, we were 
+told that there was no fruit in Boulogne; but we have found 
+ourselves agreeably disappointed in this particular. The place is 
+well supplied with strawberries, cherries, gooseberries, 
+corinths, peaches, apricots, and excellent pears. I have eaten 
+more fruit this season, than I have done for several years. There 
+are many well-cultivated gardens in the skirts of the town; 
+particularly one belonging to our friend Mrs. B--, where we often 
+drink tea in a charming summer-house built on a rising ground, 
+which commands a delightful prospect of the sea. We have many 
+obligations to this good lady, who is a kind neighbour, an 
+obliging friend, and a most agreeable companion: she speaks 
+English prettily, and is greatly attached to the people and the 
+customs of our nation. They use wood for their common fewel, 
+though, if I were to live at Boulogne, I would mix it with coal, 
+which this country affords. Both the wood and the coal are 
+reasonable enough. I am certain that a man may keep house in 
+Boulogne for about one half of what it will cost him in London; 
+and this is said to be one of the dearest places in France.
+
+The adjacent country is very agreeable, diversified with hill and 
+dale, corn-fields, woods, and meadows. There is a forest of a 
+considerable extent, that begins about a short league from the 
+Upper Town: it belongs to the king, and the wood is farmed to 
+different individuals.
+
+In point of agriculture, the people in this neighbourhood seem to 
+have profited by the example of the English. Since I was last in 
+France, fifteen years ago, a good number of inclosures and 
+plantations have been made in the English fashion. There is a 
+good many tolerable country-houses, within a few miles of 
+Boulogne; but mostly empty. I was offered a compleat house, with 
+a garden of four acres well laid out, and two fields for grass or 
+hay, about a mile from the town, for four hundred livres, about 
+seventeen pounds a year: it is partly furnished, stands in an 
+agreeable situation, with a fine prospect of the sea, and was 
+lately occupied by a Scotch nobleman, who is in the service of 
+France.
+
+To judge from appearance, the people of Boulogne are descended 
+from the Flemings, who formerly possessed this country; for, a 
+great many of the present inhabitants have fine skins, fair hair, 
+and florid complexions; very different from the natives of France 
+in general, who are distinguished by black hair, brown skins, and 
+swarthy faces. The people of the Boulonnois enjoy some 
+extraordinary privileges, and, in particular, are exempted from 
+the gabelle or duties upon salt: how they deserved this mark of 
+favour, I do not know; but they seem to have a spirit of 
+independence among them, are very ferocious, and much addicted to 
+revenge. Many barbarous murders are committed, both in the town 
+and country; and the peasants, from motives of envy and 
+resentment, frequently set their neighbours' houses on fire. 
+Several instances of this kind have happened in the course of the 
+last year. The interruption which is given, in arbitrary 
+governments, to the administration of justice, by the 
+interposition of the great, has always a bad effect upon the 
+morals of the common people. The peasants too are often rendered 
+desperate and savage, by the misery they suffer from the 
+oppression and tyranny of their landlords. In this neighbourhood 
+the labouring people are ill lodged and wretchedly fed; and they 
+have no idea of cleanliness. There is a substantial burgher in 
+the High Town, who was some years ago convicted of a most 
+barbarous murder. He received sentence to be broke alive upon the 
+wheel; but was pardoned by the interposition of the governor of 
+the county, and carries on his business as usual in the face of 
+the whole community. A furious abbe, being refused orders by the 
+bishop, on account of his irregular life, took an opportunity to 
+stab the prelate with a knife, one Sunday, as he walked out of 
+the cathedral. The good bishop desired he might be permitted to 
+escape; but it was thought proper to punish, with the utmost 
+severity, such an atrocious attempt. He was accordingly 
+apprehended, and, though the wound was not mortal, condemned to 
+be broke. When this dreadful sentence was executed, he cried out, 
+that it was hard he should undergo such torments, for having 
+wounded a worthless priest, by whom he had been injured, while 
+such-a-one (naming the burgher mentioned above) lived in ease and 
+security, after having brutally murdered a poor man, and a 
+helpless woman big with child, who had not given him the least 
+provocation.
+
+The inhabitants of Boulogne may be divided into three classes; 
+the noblesse or gentry, the burghers, and the canaille. I don't 
+mention the clergy, and the people belonging to the law, because 
+I shall occasionally trouble you with my thoughts upon the 
+religion and ecclesiastics of this country; and as for the 
+lawyers, exclusive of their profession, they may be considered as 
+belonging to one or other of these divisions. The noblesse are 
+vain, proud, poor, and slothful. Very few of them have above six 
+thousand livres a year, which may amount to about two hundred and 
+fifty pounds sterling; and many of them have not half this 
+revenue. I think there is one heiress, said to be worth one 
+hundred thousand livres, about four thousand two hundred pounds; 
+but then her jewels, her cloaths, and even her linen, are 
+reckoned part of this fortune. The noblesse have not the common 
+sense to reside at their houses in the country, where, by farming 
+their own grounds, they might live at a small expence, and 
+improve their estates at the same time. They allow their country 
+houses to go to decay, and their gardens and fields to waste; and 
+reside in dark holes in the Upper Town of Boulogne without light, 
+air, or convenience. There they starve within doors,
+that they may have wherewithal to purchase fine cloaths, and 
+appear dressed once a day in the church, or on the rampart. They 
+have no education, no taste for reading, no housewifery, nor 
+indeed any earthly occupation, but that of dressing their hair, 
+and adorning their bodies. They hate walking, and would never go 
+abroad, if they were not stimulated by the vanity of being seen. 
+I ought to except indeed those who turn devotees, and spend the 
+greatest part of their time with the priest, either at church or 
+in their own houses. Other amusements they have none in this 
+place, except private parties of card-playing, which are far from 
+being expensive. Nothing can be more parsimonious than the 
+oeconomy of these people: they live upon soupe and bouille, fish 
+and sallad: they never think of giving dinners, or entertaining 
+their friends; they even save the expence of coffee and tea, 
+though both are very cheap at Boulogne. They presume that every 
+person drinks coffee at home, immediately after dinner, which is 
+always over by one o'clock; and, in lieu of tea in the afternoon, 
+they treat with a glass of sherbet, or capillaire. In a word, I 
+know not a more insignificant set of mortals than the noblesse of 
+Boulogne; helpless in themselves, and useless to the community; 
+without dignity, sense, or sentiment; contemptible from pride. 
+and ridiculous from vanity. They pretend to be jealous of their 
+rank, and will entertain no correspondence with the merchants, 
+whom they term plebeians. They likewise keep at a great distance 
+from strangers, on pretence of a delicacy in the article of 
+punctilio: but, as I am informed, this stateliness is in a great 
+measure affected, in order to conceal their poverty, which would 
+appear to greater disadvantage, if they admitted of a more 
+familiar communication. Considering the vivacity of the French 
+people, one would imagine they could not possibly lead such an 
+insipid life, altogether unanimated by society, or diversion. 
+True it is, the only profane diversions of this place are a 
+puppet-show and a mountebank; but then their religion affords a 
+perpetual comedy. Their high masses, their feasts, their 
+processions, their pilgrimages, confessions, images, tapers, 
+robes, incense, benedictions, spectacles, representations, and 
+innumerable ceremonies, which revolve almost incessantly, furnish 
+a variety of entertainment from one end of the year to the other. 
+If superstition implies fear, never was a word more misapplied 
+than it is to the mummery of the religion of Rome. The people are 
+so far from being impressed with awe and religious terror by this 
+sort of machinery, that it amuses their imaginations in the most 
+agreeable manner, and keeps them always in good humour. A Roman 
+catholic longs as impatiently for the festival of St. Suaire, or 
+St. Croix, or St. Veronique, as a schoolboy in England for the 
+representation of punch and the devil; and there is generally as 
+much laughing at one farce as at the other. Even when the descent 
+from the cross is acted, in the holy week, with all the 
+circumstances that ought naturally to inspire the gravest 
+sentiments, if you cast your eyes among the multitude that croud 
+the place, you will not discover one melancholy face: all is 
+prattling, tittering, or laughing; and ten to one but you 
+perceive a number of them employed in hissing the female who 
+personates the Virgin Mary. And here it may not be amiss to 
+observe, that the Roman catholics, not content with the infinite 
+number of saints who really existed, have not only personified 
+the cross, but made two female saints out of a piece of linen. 
+Veronique, or Veronica, is no other than a corruption of vera 
+icon, or vera effigies, said to be the exact representation of 
+our Saviour's face, impressed upon a piece of linen, with which 
+he wiped the sweat from his forehead in his way to the place of 
+crucifixion. The same is worshipped under the name of St. Suaire, 
+from the Latin word sudarium. This same handkerchief is said to 
+have had three folds, on every one of which was the impression: 
+one of these remains at Jerusalem, a second was brought to Rome, 
+and a third was conveyed to Spain. Baronius says, there is a very 
+antient history of the
+sancta facies in the Vatican. Tillemont, however, looks upon the 
+whole as a fable. Some suppose Veronica to be the same with St. 
+Haemorrhoissa, the patroness of those who are afflicted with the 
+piles, who make their joint invocations to her and St. Fiacre, 
+the son of a Scotch king, who lived and died a hermit in France. 
+The troops of Henry V. of England are said to have pillaged the 
+chapel of this Highland saint; who, in revenge, assisted his 
+countrymen, in the French service, to defeat the English at 
+Bauge, and afterwards afflicted Henry with the piles, of which he 
+died. This prince complained, that he was not only plagued by the 
+living Scots, but even persecuted by those who were dead.
+
+I know not whether I may be allowed to compare the Romish 
+religion to comedy, and Calvinism to tragedy. The first amuses 
+the senses, and excites ideas of mirth and good-humour; the 
+other, like tragedy, deals in the passions of terror and pity. 
+Step into a conventicle of dissenters, you will, ten to one, hear 
+the minister holding forth upon the sufferings of Christ, or the 
+torments of hell, and see many marks of religious horror in the 
+faces of the hearers. This is perhaps one reason why the 
+reformation did not succeed in France, among a volatile, giddy, 
+unthinking people, shocked at the mortified appearances of the 
+Calvinists; and accounts for its rapid progress among nations of 
+a more melancholy turn of character and complexion: for, in the 
+conversion of the multitude, reason is generally out of the 
+question. Even the penance imposed upon the catholics is little 
+more than mock mortification: a murderer is often quit with his 
+confessor for saying three prayers extraordinary; and these easy 
+terms, on which absolution is obtained, certainly encourage the 
+repetition of the most enormous crimes. The pomp and ceremonies 
+of this religion, together with the great number of holidays they 
+observe, howsoever they may keep up the spirits of the 
+commonalty, and help to diminish the sense of their own misery, 
+must certainly, at the same time, produce a frivolous taste for 
+frippery and shew, and encourage a habit of idleness, to which I, 
+in a great measure, ascribe the extreme poverty of the lower 
+people. Very near half of their time, which might he profitably 
+employed in the exercise of industry, is lost to themselves and 
+the community, in attendance upon the different exhibitions of 
+religious mummery.
+
+But as this letter has already run to an unconscionable length, I 
+shall defer, till another occasion, what I have further to say on 
+the people of this place, and in the mean time assure you, that I 
+am always--Yours affectionately.
+
+LETTER V
+
+BOULOGNE, September 12, 1763.
+
+DEAR SIR,--My stay in this place now draws towards a period. 
+'Till within these few days I have continued bathing, with some 
+advantage to my health, though the season has been cold and wet, 
+and disagreeable. There was a fine prospect of a plentiful 
+harvest in this neighbourhood. I used to have great pleasure in 
+driving between the fields of wheat, oats, and barley; but the 
+crop has been entirely ruined by the rain, and nothing is now to 
+be seen on the ground but the tarnished straw, and the rotten 
+spoils of the husbandman's labour. The ground scarce affords 
+subsistence to a few flocks of meagre sheep, that crop the 
+stubble, and the intervening grass; each flock under the 
+protection of its shepherd, with his crook and dogs, who lies 
+every night in the midst of the fold, in a little thatched 
+travelling lodge, mounted on a wheel-carriage. Here he passes the 
+night, in order to defend his flock from the wolves, which are 
+sometimes, especially in winter, very bold and desperate.
+
+Two days ago we made an excursion with Mrs. B-- and Capt. L-- to 
+the village of Samers, on the Paris road, about three leagues 
+from Boulogne. Here is a venerable abbey of Benedictines, well 
+endowed, with large agreeable gardens prettily laid out. The 
+monks are well lodged, and well entertained. Tho' restricted from 
+flesh meals by the rules of their order, they are allowed to eat 
+wild duck and teal, as a species of fish; and when they long for 
+a good bouillon, or a partridge, or pullet, they have nothing to 
+do but to say they are out of order. In that case the appetite of 
+the patient is indulged in his own apartment. Their church is 
+elegantly contrived, but kept in a very dirty condition. The 
+greatest curiosity I saw in this place was an English boy, about 
+eight or nine years old, whom his father had sent hither to learn 
+the French language. In less than eight weeks, he was become 
+captain of the boys of the place, spoke French perfectly well, 
+and had almost forgot his mother tongue. But to return to the 
+people of Boulogne.
+
+The burghers here, as in other places, consist of merchants, 
+shop-keepers, and artisans. Some of the merchants have got 
+fortunes, by fitting out privateers during the war. A great many 
+single ships were taken from the English, notwithstanding the 
+good look-out of our cruisers, who were so alert, that the 
+privateers from this coast were often taken in four hours after 
+they sailed from the French harbour; and there is hardly a 
+captain of an armateur in Boulogne, who has not been prisoner in 
+England five or six times in the course of the war. They were 
+fitted out at a very small expence, and used to run over in the 
+night to the coast of England, where they hovered as English 
+fishing smacks, until they kidnapped some coaster, with which 
+they made the best of their way across the Channel. If they fell 
+in with a British cruiser, they surrendered without resistance: 
+the captain was soon exchanged, and the loss of the proprietor 
+was not great: if they brought their prize safe into harbour, 
+the advantage was considerable. In time of peace the merchants of 
+Boulogne deal in wine brandies, and oil, imported from the South, 
+and export fish, with the manufactures of France, to Portugal, 
+and other countries; but the trade is not great. Here are two or 
+three considerable houses of wine merchants from Britain, who 
+deal in Bourdeaux wine, with which they supply London and other 
+parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The fishery of mackarel 
+and herring is so considerable on this coast, that it is said to 
+yield annually eight or nine hundred thousand livres, about 
+thirty-five thousand pounds sterling.
+
+The shop-keepers here drive a considerable traffic with the 
+English smugglers, whose cutters are almost the only vessels one 
+sees in the harbour of Boulogne, if we except about a dozen of 
+those flat-bottomed boats, which raised such alarms in England, 
+in the course of the war. Indeed they seem to be good for nothing 
+else, and perhaps they were built for this purpose only. The 
+smugglers from the coast of Kent and Sussex pay English gold for 
+great quantities of French brandy, tea, coffee, and small wine, 
+which they run from this country. They likewise buy glass 
+trinkets, toys, and coloured prints, which sell in England, for 
+no other reason, but that they come from France, as they may be 
+had as cheap, and much better finished, of our own manufacture. 
+They likewise take off ribbons, laces, linen, and cambrics; 
+though this branch of trade is chiefly in the hands of traders 
+that come from London and make their purchases at Dunkirk, where 
+they pay no duties. It is certainly worth while for any traveller 
+to lay in a stock of linen either at Dunkirk or Boulogne; the 
+difference of the price at these two places is not great. Even 
+here I have made a provision of shirts for one half of the money 
+they would have cost in London. Undoubtedly the practice of 
+smuggling is very detrimental to the fair trader, and carries 
+considerable sums of money out of the kingdom, to enrich our 
+rivals and enemies. The custom-house officers are very watchful, 
+and make a great number of seizures: nevertheless, the smugglers 
+find their account in continuing this contraband commerce; and 
+are said to indemnify themselves, if they save one cargo out of 
+three. After all, the best way to prevent smuggling, is to lower 
+the duties upon the commodities which are thus introduced. I have 
+been told, that the revenue upon tea has encreased ever since the 
+duty upon it was diminished. By the bye, the tea smuggled on the 
+coast of Sussex is most execrable stuff. While I stayed at 
+Hastings, for the conveniency of bathing, I must have changed my 
+breakfast, if I had not luckily brought tea with me from London: 
+yet we have as good tea at Boulogne for nine livres a pound, as 
+that which sells at fourteen shillings at London.
+
+The bourgeois of this place seem to live at their ease, probably 
+in consequence of their trade with the English. Their houses 
+consist of the ground-floor, one story above, and garrets. In 
+those which are well furnished, you see pier-glasses and marble 
+slabs; but the chairs are either paultry things, made with straw 
+bottoms, which cost about a shilling a-piece, or old-fashioned, 
+high-backed seats of needle-work, stuffed, very clumsy and 
+incommodious. The tables are square fir boards, that stand on 
+edge in a corner, except when they are used, and then they are 
+set upon cross legs that open and shut occasionally. The king of 
+France dines off a board of this kind. Here is plenty of table-linen 
+however. The poorest tradesman in Boulogne has a napkin on 
+every cover, and silver forks with four prongs, which are used 
+with the right hand, there being very little occasion for knives; 
+for the meat is boiled or roasted to rags. The French beds are so 
+high, that sometimes one is obliged to mount them by the help of 
+steps; and this is also the case in Flanders. They very seldom 
+use feather-beds; but they lie upon a paillasse, or bag of straw, 
+over which are laid two, and sometimes three mattrasses. Their 
+testers are high and old-fashioned, and their curtains generally 
+of thin bays, red, or green, laced with taudry yellow, in 
+imitation of gold. In some houses, however, one meets with 
+furniture of stamped linen; but there is no such thing as a 
+carpet to be seen, and the floors are in a very dirty condition. 
+They have not even the implements of cleanliness in this country. 
+Every chamber is furnished with an armoire, or clothes-press, and 
+a chest of drawers, of very clumsy workmanship. Every thing shews 
+a deficiency in the mechanic arts. There is not a door, nor a 
+window, that shuts close. The hinges, locks, and latches, are of 
+iron, coarsely made, and ill contrived. The very chimnies are 
+built so open, that they admit both rain and sun, and all of them 
+smoke intolerably. If there is no cleanliness among these people, 
+much less shall we find delicacy, which is the cleanliness of the 
+mind. Indeed they are utter strangers to what we call common 
+decency; and I could give you some high-flavoured instances, at 
+which even a native of Edinburgh would stop his nose. There are 
+certain mortifying views of human nature, which undoubtedly ought 
+to be concealed as much as possible, in order to prevent giving 
+offence: and nothing can be more absurd, than to plead the 
+difference of custom in different countries, in defence of these 
+usages which cannot fail giving disgust to the organs and senses 
+of all mankind. Will custom exempt from the imputation of gross 
+indecency a French lady, who shifts her frowsy smock in presence 
+of a male visitant, and talks to him of her lavement, her 
+medecine, and her bidet! An Italian signora makes no scruple of 
+telling you, she is such a day to begin a course of physic for 
+the pox. The celebrated reformer of the Italian comedy introduces 
+a child befouling itself, on the stage, OE, NO TI SENTI? BISOGNA 
+DESFASSARLO, (fa cenno che sentesi mal odore). I have known a 
+lady handed to the house of office by her admirer, who stood at 
+the door, and entertained her with bons mots all the time she was 
+within. But I should be glad to know, whether it is possible for 
+a fine lady to speak and act in this manner, without exciting 
+ideas to her own disadvantage in the mind of every man who has 
+any imagination left, and enjoys the entire use of his senses, 
+howsoever she may be authorised by the customs of her country? 
+There is nothing so vile or repugnant to nature, but you may 
+plead prescription for it, in the customs of some nation or 
+other. A Parisian likes mortified flesh: a native of Legiboli 
+will not taste his fish till it is quite putrefied: the civilized 
+inhabitants of Kamschatka get drunk with the urine of their 
+guests, whom they have already intoxicated: the Nova Zemblans 
+make merry on train-oil: the Groenlanders eat in the same dish 
+with their dogs: the Caffres, at the Cape of Good Hope, piss upon 
+those whom they delight to honour, and feast upon a sheep's 
+intestines with their contents, as the greatest dainty that can 
+be presented. A true-bred Frenchman dips his fingers, imbrowned 
+with snuff, into his plate filled with ragout: between every 
+three mouthfuls, he produces his snuff-box, and takes a fresh 
+pinch, with the most graceful gesticulations; then he displays 
+his handkerchief, which may be termed the flag of abomination, 
+and, in the use of both, scatters his favours among those who 
+have the happiness to sit near him. It must be owned, however, 
+that a Frenchman will not drink out of a tankard, in which, 
+perhaps, a dozen of filthy mouths have flabbered, as is the 
+custom in England. Here every individual has his own gobelet, 
+which stands before him, and he helps himself occasionally with 
+wine or water, or both, which likewise stand upon the table. But 
+I know no custom more beastly than that of using water-glasses, 
+in which polite company spirt, and squirt, and spue the filthy 
+scourings of their gums, under the eyes of each other. I knew a 
+lover cured of his passion, by seeing this nasty cascade 
+discharged from the mouth of his mistress. I don't doubt but I 
+shall live to see the day, when the hospitable custom of the 
+antient Aegyptians will be revived; then a conveniency will be 
+placed behind every chair in company, with a proper provision of 
+waste paper, that individuals may make themselves easy without 
+parting company. I insist upon it, that this practice would not 
+be more indelicate than that which is now in use. What then, you 
+will say, must a man sit with his chops and fingers up to the 
+ears and knuckles in grease? No; let those who cannot eat without 
+defiling themselves, step into another room, provided with basons 
+and towels: but I think it would be better to institute schools, 
+where youth may learn to eat their victuals, without daubing 
+themselves, or giving offence to the eyes of one another.
+
+The bourgeois of Boulogne have commonly soup and bouilli at noon, 
+and a roast, with a sallad, for supper; and at all their meals 
+there is a dessert of fruit. This indeed is the practice all over 
+France. On meagre days they eat fish, omelettes, fried beans, 
+fricassees of eggs and onions, and burnt cream. The tea which 
+they drink in the afternoon is rather boiled than infused; it is 
+sweetened all together with coarse sugar, and drank with an equal 
+quantity of boiled milk.
+
+We had the honour to be entertained the other day by our 
+landlord, Mr. B--, who spared no cost on this banquet, exhibited 
+for the glory of France. He had invited a newmarried couple, 
+together with the husband's mother and the lady's father, who was 
+one of the noblesse of Montreuil, his name Mons. L--y. There were 
+likewise some merchants of the town, and Mons. B--'s uncle, a 
+facetious little man, who had served in the English navy, and was 
+as big and as round as a hogshead; we were likewise favoured with 
+the company of father K--, a native of Ireland, who is vicaire or 
+curate of the parish; and among the guests was Mons. L--y's son, 
+a pretty boy, about thirteen or fourteen years of age. The repas 
+served up in three services, or courses, with entrees and hors 
+d'oeuvres, exclusive of the fruit, consisted of about twenty 
+dishes, extremely well dressed by the rotisseur, who is the best 
+cook I ever knew, in France, or elsewhere; but the plates were not 
+presented with much order. Our young ladies did not seem to be 
+much used to do the honours of the table. The most extraordinary 
+circumstance that I observed on this occasion--as, that all the 
+French who were present ate of every dish that appeared; and I am 
+told, that if there had been an hundred articles more, they would 
+have had a trial of each. This is what they call doing justice to 
+the founder. Mons. L--y was placed at the head of the table and 
+indeed he was the oracle and orator of the company; tall, thin, 
+and weather-beaten, not unlike the picture of Don Quixote after 
+he had lost his teeth. He had been garde du corps, or life-guardman 
+at Versailles; and by virtue of this office he was 
+perfectly well acquainted with the persons of the king and the 
+dauphin, with the characters of the ministers and grandees, and, 
+in a word, with all the secrets of state, on which he held forth 
+with equal solemnity and elocution. He exclaimed against the 
+jesuits, and the farmers of the revenue, who, he said, had ruined 
+France. Then, addressing himself to me, asked, if the English did 
+not every day drink to the health of madame la marquise? I did 
+not at first comprehend his meaning; but answered in general, 
+that the English were not deficient in complaisance for the 
+ladies. "Ah! (cried he) she is the best friend they have in the 
+world. If it had not been for her, they would not have such 
+reason to boast of the advantages of the war." I told him the 
+only conquest which the French had made in the war, was atchieved 
+by one of her generals: I meant the taking of Mahon. But I did 
+not choose to prosecute the discourse, remembering that in the 
+year 1749, I had like to have had an affair with a Frenchman at 
+Ghent, who affirmed, that all the battles gained by the great 
+duke of Marlborough were purposely lost by the French generals, 
+in order to bring the schemes of madame de Maintenon into 
+disgrace. This is no bad resource for the national vanity of 
+these people: though, in general, they are really persuaded, that 
+theirs is the richest, the bravest, the happiest, and the most 
+powerful nation under the sun; and therefore, without some such 
+cause, they must be invincible. By the bye, the common people 
+here still frighten their wayward children with the name of 
+Marlborough. Mr. B--'s son, who was nursed at a peasant's house, 
+happening one day, after he was brought home, to be in disgrace 
+with his father, who threatened to correct him, the child ran for 
+protection to his mother, crying, "Faites sortir ce vilaine 
+Malbroug," "Turn out that rogue Marlborough." It is amazing to 
+hear a sensible Frenchman assert, that the revenues of France 
+amount to four hundred millions of livres, about twenty millions 
+sterling, clear of all incumbrances, when in fact their clear 
+revenue is not much above ten. Without all doubt they have reason 
+to inveigh against the fermiers generaux, who oppress the people 
+in raising the taxes, not above two-thirds of which are brought 
+into the king's coffers: the rest enriches themselves, and 
+enables them to bribe high for the protection of the great, which 
+is the only support they have against the remonstrances of the 
+states and parliaments, and the suggestions of common sense; 
+which will ever demonstrate this to be, of all others, the most 
+pernicious method of supplying the necessities of government.
+
+Mons. L--y seasoned the severity of his political apothegms with 
+intermediate sallies of mirth and gallantry. He ogled the 
+venerable gentlewoman his commere, who sat by him. He looked, 
+sighed, and languished, sung tender songs, and kissed the old 
+lady's hand with all the ardour of a youthful admirer. I 
+unfortunately congratulated him on having such a pretty young 
+gentleman to his son. He answered, sighing, that the boy had 
+talents, but did not put them to a proper use--"Long before I 
+attained his age (said he) I had finished my rhetoric." Captain 
+B--, who had eaten himself black in the face, and, with the 
+napkin under his chin, was no bad representation of Sancho Panza 
+in the suds, with the dishclout about his neck, when the duke's 
+scullions insisted upon shaving him; this sea-wit, turning to the 
+boy, with a waggish leer, "I suppose (said he) you don't 
+understand the figure of amplification so well as Monsieur your 
+father." At that instant, one of the nieces, who knew her uncle 
+to be very ticklish, touched him under the short ribs, on which 
+the little man attempted to spring up, but lost the centre of 
+gravity. He overturned his own plate in the lap of the person 
+that sat next to him, and falling obliquely upon his own chair, 
+both tumbled down upon the floor together, to the great 
+discomposure of the whole company; for the poor man would have 
+been actually strangled, had not his nephew loosed his stock with 
+great expedition. Matters being once more adjusted, and the 
+captain condoled on his disaster, Mons. L--y took it in his head 
+to read his son a lecture upon filial obedience. This was mingled 
+with some sharp reproof, which the boy took so ill that he 
+retired. The old lady observed that he had been too severe: her 
+daughter-in-law, who was very pretty, said her brother had given 
+him too much reason; hinting, at the same time, that he was 
+addicted to some terrible vices; upon which several individuals 
+repeated the interjection, ah! ah! "Yes (said Mons. L--y, with a 
+rueful aspect) the boy has a pernicious turn for gaming: in one 
+afternoon he lost, at billiards, such a sum as gives me horror to 
+think of it." "Fifty sols in one afternoon," (cried the sister). 
+"Fifty sols! (exclaimed the mother-in-law, with marks of 
+astonishment) that's too much--that's too much!--he's to blame-- 
+he's to blame! but youth, you know, Mons. L--y--ah! vive la 
+jeunesse!"--"et l'amour!" cried the father, wiping his eyes, 
+squeezing her hand, and looking tenderly upon her. Mr. B-- took 
+this opportunity to bring in the young gentleman, who was 
+admitted into favour, and received a second exhortation. Thus 
+harmony was restored, and the entertainment concluded with fruit, 
+coffee, and liqueurs.
+
+When a bourgeois of Boulogne takes the air, he goes in a one-horse 
+chaise, which is here called cabriolet, and hires it for 
+half-a-crown a day. There are also travelling chaises, which hold 
+four persons, two seated with their faces to the horses, and two 
+behind their backs; but those vehicles are all very ill made, and 
+extremely inconvenient. The way of riding most used in this place 
+is on assback. You will see every day, in the skirts of the town, 
+a great number of females thus mounted, with the feet on either 
+side occasionally, according as the wind blows, so that sometimes 
+the right and sometimes the left hand guides the beast: but in 
+other parts of France, as well as in Italy, the ladies sit on 
+horseback with their legs astride, and are provided with drawers 
+for that purpose.
+
+When I said the French people were kept in good humour by the 
+fopperies of their religion, I did not mean that there were no 
+gloomy spirits among them. There will be fanatics in religion, 
+while there are people of a saturnine disposition, and melancholy 
+turn of mind. The character of a devotee, which is hardly known 
+in England, is very common here. You see them walking to and from 
+church at all hours, in their hoods and long camblet cloaks, with 
+a slow pace, demure aspect, and downcast eye. Those who are poor 
+become very troublesome to the monks, with their scruples and 
+cases of conscience: you may see them on their knees, at the 
+confessional, every hour in the day. The rich devotee has her 
+favourite confessor, whom she consults and regales in private, at 
+her own house; and this spiritual director generally governs the 
+whole family. For my part I never knew a fanatic that was not an 
+hypocrite at bottom. Their pretensions to superior sanctity, and 
+an absolute conquest over all the passions, which human reason 
+was never yet able to subdue, introduce a habit of dissimulation, 
+which, like all other habits, is confirmed by use, till at length 
+they become adepts in the art and science of hypocrisy. 
+Enthusiasm and hypocrisy are by no means incompatible. The 
+wildest fanatics I ever knew, were real sensualists in their way 
+of living, and cunning cheats in their dealings with mankind.
+
+Among the lower class of people at Boulogne, those who take the 
+lead, are the sea-faring men, who live in one quarter, divided 
+into classes, and registered for the service of the king. They 
+are hardy and raw-boned, exercise the trade of fishermen and 
+boatmen, and propagate like rabbits. They have put themselves 
+under the protection of a miraculous image of the Virgin Mary, 
+which is kept in one of their churches, and every year carried in 
+procession. According to the legend, this image was carried off, 
+with other pillage, by the English, when they took Boulogne, in 
+the reign of Henry VIII. The lady, rather than reside in England, 
+where she found a great many heretics, trusted herself alone in 
+an open boat, and crossed the sea to the road of Boulogne, where 
+she was seen waiting for a pilot. Accordingly a boat put off to 
+her assistance, and brought her safe into the harbour: since 
+which time she has continued to patronize the watermen of 
+Boulogne. At present she is very black and very ugly, besides 
+being cruelly mutilated in different parts of her body, which I 
+suppose have been amputated, and converted into tobacco-stoppers; 
+but once a year she is dressed in very rich attire, and carried 
+in procession, with a silver boat, provided at the expence of the 
+sailors. That vanity which characterises the French extends even 
+to the canaille. The lowest creature among them is sure to have 
+her ear-rings and golden cross hanging about her neck. Indeed 
+this last is an implement of superstition as well as of dress, 
+without which no female appears. The common people here, as in 
+all countries where they live poorly and dirtily, are hard-featured, 
+and of very brown, or rather tawny complexions. As they 
+seldom eat meat, their juices are destitute of that animal oil 
+which gives a plumpness and smoothness to the skin, and defends 
+those fine capillaries from the injuries of the weather, which 
+would otherwise coalesce, or be shrunk up, so as to impede the 
+circulation on the external surface of the body. As for the dirt, 
+it undoubtedly blocks up the pores of the skin, and disorders the 
+perspiration; consequently must contribute to the scurvy, itch, 
+and other cutaneous distempers.
+
+In the quarter of the matelots at Boulogne. there is a number of 
+poor Canadians, who were removed from the island of St. John, in 
+the gulph of St. Laurence. when it was reduced by the English. 
+These people are maintained at the expence of the king, who 
+allows them soldier's pay, that is five sols, or two-pence 
+halfpenny a day; or rather three sols and ammunition bread. How 
+the soldiers contrive to subsist upon this wretched allowance, I 
+cannot comprehend: but, it must be owned, that those invalids who 
+do duty at Boulogne betray no marks of want. They are hale and 
+stout, neatly and decently cloathed, and on the whole look better 
+than the pensioners of Chelsea.
+
+About three weeks ago I was favoured with a visit by one Mr. M--, 
+an English gentleman, who seems far gone in a consumption. He 
+passed the last winter at Nismes in Languedoc, and found himself 
+much better in the beginning of summer, when he embarked at 
+Cette, and returned by sea to England. He soon relapsed, however, 
+and (as he imagines) in consequence of a cold caught at sea. He 
+told me, his intention was to try the South again, and even to go 
+as far as Italy. I advised him to make trial of the air of Nice, 
+where I myself proposed to reside. He seemed to relish my advice, 
+and proceeded towards Paris in his own carriage.
+
+I shall to-morrow ship my great chests on board of a ship bound 
+to Bourdeaux; they are directed, and recommended to the care of a 
+merchant of that place, who will forward them by Thoulouse, and 
+the canal of Languedoc, to his correspondent at Cette, which is 
+the sea-port of Montpellier. The charge of their conveyance to 
+Bourdeaux does not exceed one guinea. They consist of two very 
+large chests and a trunk, about a thousand pounds weight; and the 
+expence of transporting them from Bourdeaux to Cette, will not 
+exceed thirty livres. They are already sealed with lead at the 
+customhouse, that they may be exempted from further visitation. 
+This is a precaution which every traveller takes, both by sea and 
+land: he must likewise provide himself with a passe-avant at the 
+bureau, otherwise he may be stopped, and rummaged at every town 
+through which he passes. I have hired a berline and four horses 
+to Paris, for fourteen loui'dores; two of which the voiturier is 
+obliged to pay for a permission from the farmers of the poste; 
+for every thing is farmed in this country; and if you hire a 
+carriage, as I have done, you must pay twelve livres, or half-a-guinea, 
+for every person that travels in it. The common coach 
+between Calais and Paris, is such a vehicle as no man would use, 
+who has any regard to his own case and convenience and it travels 
+at the pace of an English waggon.
+
+In ten days I shall set out on my journey; and I shall leave 
+Boulogne with regret. I have been happy in the acquaintance of 
+Mrs. B--, and a few British families in the place; and it was my 
+good fortune to meet here with two honest gentlemen, whom I had 
+formerly known in Paris, as well as with some of my countrymen, 
+officers in the service of France. My next will be from Paris. 
+Remember me to our friends at A--'s. I am a little heavy-hearted 
+at the prospect of removing to such a distance from you. It is a 
+moot point whether I shall ever return. My health is very 
+precarious. Adieu.
+
+LETTER VI 
+
+PARIS, October 12, 1763.
+
+DEAR SIR,--Of our journey from Boulogne I have little to say. The 
+weather was favourable, and the roads were in tolerable order. We 
+found good accommodation at Montreuil and Amiens; but in every 
+other place where we stopped, we met with abundance of dirt, and 
+the most flagrant imposition. I shall not pretend to describe the 
+cities of Abbeville and Amiens, which we saw only en passant; nor 
+take up your time with an account of the stables and palace of 
+Chantilly, belonging to the prince of Conde, which we visited the 
+last day of our journey; nor shall I detain you with a detail of 
+the Trefors de St. Denis, which, together with the tombs in the 
+abbey church, afforded us some amusement while our dinner was 
+getting ready. All these particulars are mentioned in twenty 
+different books of tours, travels, and directions, which you have 
+often perused. I shall only observe, that the abbey church is the 
+lightest piece of Gothic architecture I have seen, and the air 
+within seems perfectly free from that damp and moisture, so 
+perceivable in all our old cathedrals. This must be owing to the 
+nature of its situation. There are some fine marble statues that 
+adorn the tombs of certain individuals here interred; but they 
+are mostly in the French taste, which is quite contrary to the 
+simplicity of the antients. Their attitudes are affected, 
+unnatural, and desultory; and their draperies fantastic; or, as 
+one of our English artists expressed himself, they are all of a 
+flutter. As for the treasures, which are shewn on certain days to 
+the populace gratis, they are contained in a number of presses, 
+or armoires, and, if the stones are genuine, they must be 
+inestimable: but this I cannot believe. Indeed I have been told, 
+that what they shew as diamonds are no more than composition: 
+nevertheless, exclusive of these, there are some rough stones of 
+great value, and many curiosities worth seeing. The monk that 
+shewed them was the very image of our friend Hamilton, both in 
+his looks and manner.
+
+I have one thing very extraordinary to observe of the French 
+auberges, which seems to be a remarkable deviation from the 
+general character of the nation. The landlords, hostesses, and 
+servants of the inns upon the road, have not the least dash of 
+complaisance in their behaviour to strangers. Instead of coming 
+to the door, to receive you as in England, they take no manner of 
+notice of you; but leave you to find or enquire your way into the 
+kitchen, and there you must ask several times for a chamber, 
+before they seem willing to conduct you up stairs. In general, 
+you are served with the appearance of the most mortifying 
+indifference, at the very time they are laying schemes for 
+fleecing you of your money. It is a very odd contrast between 
+France and England; in the former all the people are complaisant 
+but the publicans; in the latter there is hardly any complaisance 
+but among the publicans. When I said all the people in France, I 
+ought also to except those vermin who examine the baggage of 
+travellers in different parts of the kingdom. Although our 
+portmanteaus were sealed with lead, and we were provided 
+with a passe-avant from the douane, our coach was searched 
+at the gate of Paris by which we entered; and the women were 
+obliged to get out, and stand in the open street, till this 
+operation was performed.
+
+I had desired a friend to provide lodgings for me at Paris, in 
+the Fauxbourg St. Germain; and accordingly we found ourselves 
+accommodated at the Hotel de Montmorency, with a first floor, 
+which costs me ten livres a day. I should have put up with it had 
+it been less polite; but as I have only a few days to stay in 
+this place, and some visits to receive, I am not sorry that my 
+friend has exceeded his commission. I have been guilty of another 
+piece of extravagance in hiring a carosse de remise, for which I 
+pay twelve livres a day. Besides the article of visiting, I could 
+not leave Paris, without carrying my wife and the girls to see 
+the most remarkable places in and about this capital, such as the 
+Luxemburg, the Palais-Royal, the Thuilleries, the Louvre, the 
+Invalids, the Gobelins, &c. together with Versailles, Trianon, 
+Marli, Meudon, and Choissi; and therefore, I thought the 
+difference in point of expence would not be great, between a 
+carosse de remise and a hackney coach. The first are extremely 
+elegant, if not too much ornamented, the last are very shabby and 
+disagreeable. Nothing gives me such chagrin, as the necessity I 
+am under to hire a valet de place, as my own servant does not 
+speak the language. You cannot conceive with what eagerness and 
+dexterity those rascally valets exert themselves in pillaging 
+strangers. There is always one ready in waiting on your arrival, 
+who begins by assisting your own servant to unload your baggage, 
+and interests himself in your affairs with such artful 
+officiousness, that you will find it difficult to shake him off, 
+even though you are determined beforehand against hiring any such 
+domestic. He produces recommendations from his former masters, 
+and the people of the house vouch for his honesty.
+
+The truth is, those fellows are very handy, useful, and obliging; 
+and so far honest, that they will not steal in the usual way. You 
+may safely trust one of them to bring you a hundred loui'dores 
+from your banker; but they fleece you without mercy in every 
+other article of expence. They lay all your tradesmen under 
+contribution; your taylor, barber, mantua-maker, milliner, 
+perfumer, shoe-maker, mercer, jeweller, hatter, traiteur, and 
+wine-merchant: even the bourgeois who owns your coach pays him 
+twenty sols per day. His wages amount to twice as much, so that I 
+imagine the fellow that serves me, makes above ten shillings a 
+day, besides his victuals, which, by the bye, he has no right to 
+demand. Living at Paris, to the best of my recollection, is very 
+near twice as dear as it was fifteen years ago; and, indeed, this 
+is the case in London; a circumstance that must be undoubtedly 
+owing to an increase of taxes; for I don't find that in the 
+articles of eating and drinking, the French people are more 
+luxurious than they were heretofore. I am told the entrees, or 
+duties, payed upon provision imported into Paris, are very heavy. 
+All manner of butcher's meat and poultry are extremely good in 
+this place. The beef is excellent. The wine, which is generally 
+drank, is a very thin kind of Burgundy. I can by no means relish 
+their cookery; but one breakfasts deliciously upon their petit 
+pains and their pales of butter, which last is exquisite.
+
+The common people, and even the bourgeois of Paris live, at this 
+season, chiefly on bread and grapes, which is undoubtedly very 
+wholsome fare. If the same simplicity of diet prevailed in 
+England, we should certainly undersell the French at all foreign 
+markets for they are very slothful with all their vivacity and 
+the great number of their holidays not only encourages this lazy 
+disposition, but actually robs them of one half of what their 
+labour would otherwise produce; so that, if our common people 
+were not so expensive in their living, that is, in their eating 
+and drinking, labour might be afforded cheaper in England than in 
+France. There are three young lusty hussies, nieces or daughters 
+of a blacksmith, that lives just opposite to my windows, who do 
+nothing from morning till night. They eat grapes and bread from 
+seven till nine, from nine till twelve they dress their hair, and 
+are all the afternoon gaping at the window to view passengers. I 
+don't perceive that they give themselves the trouble either to 
+make their beds, or clean their apartment. The same spirit of 
+idleness and dissipation I have observed in every part of France, 
+and among every class of people.
+
+Every object seems to have shrunk in its dimensions since I was 
+last in Paris. The Louvre, the Palais-Royal, the bridges, and the 
+river Seine, by no means answer the ideas I had formed of them 
+from my former observation. When the memory is not very correct, 
+the imagination always betrays her into such extravagances. When 
+I first revisited my own country, after an absence of fifteen 
+years, I found every thing diminished in the same manner, and I 
+could scarce believe my own eyes.
+
+Notwithstanding the gay disposition of the French, their houses 
+are all gloomy. In spite of all the ornaments that have been 
+lavished on Versailles, it is a dismal habitation. The apartments 
+are dark, ill-furnished, dirty, and unprincely. Take the castle, 
+chapel, and garden all together, they make a most fantastic 
+composition of magnificence and littleness, taste, and foppery. 
+After all, it is in England only, where we must look for cheerful 
+apartments, gay furniture, neatness, and convenience. There is a 
+strange incongruity in the French genius. With all their 
+volatility, prattle, and fondness for bons mots, they delight in 
+a species of drawling, melancholy, church music. Their most 
+favourite dramatic pieces are almost without incident; and the 
+dialogue of their comedies consists of moral, insipid 
+apophthegms, intirely destitute of wit or repartee. I know what 
+I hazard by this opinion among the implicit admirers of Lully, 
+Racine, and Moliere.
+
+I don't talk of the busts, the statues, and pictures which abound 
+at Versailles, and other places in and about Paris, particularly 
+the great collection of capital pieces in the Palais-royal, 
+belonging to the duke of Orleans. I have neither capacity, nor 
+inclination, to give a critique on these chef d'oeuvres, which 
+indeed would take up a whole volume. I have seen this great 
+magazine of painting three times, with astonishment; but I should 
+have been better pleased, if there had not been half the number: 
+one is bewildered in such a profusion, as not to know where to 
+begin, and hurried away before there is time to consider one 
+piece with any sort of deliberation. Besides, the rooms are all 
+dark, and a great many of the pictures hang in a bad light. As 
+for Trianon, Marli, and Choissi, they are no more than pigeon-houses, 
+in respect to palaces; and, notwithstanding the 
+extravagant eulogiums which you have heard of the French king's 
+houses, I will venture to affirm that the king of England is 
+better, I mean more comfortably, lodged. I ought, however, to 
+except Fontainebleau, which I have not seen.
+
+The city of Paris is said to be five leagues, or fifteen miles, 
+in circumference; and if it is really so, it must be much more 
+populous than London; for the streets are very narrow, and the 
+houses very high, with a different family on every floor. But I 
+have measured the best plans of these two royal cities, and am 
+certain that Paris does not take up near so much ground as 
+London and Westminster occupy; and I suspect the number of its 
+inhabitants is also exaggerated by those who say it amounts to 
+eight hundred thousand, that is two hundred thousand more than 
+are contained in the bills of mortality. The hotels of the French 
+noblesse, at Paris, take up a great deal of room, with their 
+courtyards and gardens; and so do their convents and churches. It 
+must be owned, indeed, that their streets are wonderfully crouded 
+with people and carriages.
+
+The French begin to imitate the English, but only in such 
+particulars as render them worthy of imitation. When I was last 
+at Paris, no person of any condition,
+male or female, appeared, but in full dress, even when obliged to 
+come out early in the morning, and there was not such a thing to 
+be seen as a perruque ronde; but at present I see a number of 
+frocks and scratches in a morning, in the streets of this 
+metropolis. They have set up a petite poste, on the plan of our 
+penny-post, with some improvements; and I am told there is a 
+scheme on foot for supplying every house with water, by leaden 
+pipes, from the river Seine. They have even adopted our practice 
+of the cold bath, which is taken very conveniently, in wooden 
+houses, erected on the side of the river, the water of which is 
+let in and out occasionally, by cocks fixed in the sides of the 
+bath. There are different rooms for the different sexes: the 
+accommodations are good, and the expence is a trifle. The 
+tapestry of the Gobelins is brought to an amazing degree of 
+perfection; and I am surprised that this furniture is not more in 
+fashion among the great, who alone are able to purchase it. It 
+would be a most elegant and magnificent ornament, which would 
+always nobly distinguish their apartments from those, of an 
+inferior rank; and in this they would run no risk of being 
+rivalled by the bourgeois. At the village of Chaillot, in the 
+neighbourhood of Paris, they make beautiful carpets and screen-work; 
+and this is the more extraordinary, as there are hardly any 
+carpets used in this kingdom. In almost all the lodging-houses, 
+the floors are of brick, and have no other kind of cleaning, than 
+that of being sprinkled with water, and swept once a day. These 
+brick floors, the stone stairs, the want of wainscotting in the 
+rooms, and the thick party-walls of stone, are, however, good 
+preservatives against fire, which seldom does any damage in this 
+city. Instead of wainscotting, the walls are covered with 
+tapestry or damask. The beds in general are very good, and well 
+ornamented, with testers and curtains.
+
+Twenty years ago the river Seine, within a mile of Paris, was as 
+solitary as if it had run through a desert. At present the banks 
+of it are adorned with a number of elegant houses and 
+plantations, as far as Marli. I need not mention the machine at 
+this place for raising water, because I know you are well 
+acquainted with its construction; nor shall I say any thing more 
+of the city of Paris, but that there is a new square, built upon 
+an elegant plan, at the end of the garden of the Thuilleries: it 
+is called Place de Louis XV. and, in the middle of it, there is a 
+good equestrian statue of the reigning king.
+
+You have often heard that Louis XIV. frequently regretted, that 
+his country did not afford gravel for the walks of his gardens, 
+which are covered with a white, loose sand, very disagreeable 
+both to the eyes and feet of those who walk upon it; but this is 
+a vulgar mistake. There is plenty of gravel on the road between 
+Paris and Versailles, as well as in many other parts of this 
+kingdom; but the French, who are all for glare and glitter, think 
+the other is more gay and agreeable: one would imagine they did 
+not feel the burning reflexion from the white sand, which in 
+summer is almost intolerable.
+
+In the character of the French, considered as a people, there are 
+undoubtedly many circumstances truly ridiculous. You know the 
+fashionable people, who go a hunting, are equipped with their 
+jack boots, bag wigs, swords and pistols: but I saw the other day 
+a scene still more grotesque. On the road to Choissi, a fiacre, 
+or hackney-coach, stopped, and out came five or six men, armed 
+with musquets, who took post, each behind a separate tree. I 
+asked our servant who they were imagining they might be archers, 
+or footpads of justice, in pursuit of some malefactor. But guess 
+my surprise, when the fellow told me, they were gentlemen a la 
+chasse. They were in fact come out from Paris, in this equipage, 
+to take the diversion of hare-hunting; that is, of shooting from 
+behind a tree at the hares that chanced to pass. Indeed, if they 
+had nothing more in view, but to destroy the game, this was a 
+very effectual method; for the hares are in such plenty in this 
+neighbourhood, that I have seen a dozen together, in the same 
+field. I think this way of hunting, in a coach or chariot, might 
+be properly adopted at London, in favour of those aldermen of the 
+city, who are too unwieldy to follow the hounds a horseback.
+
+The French, however, with all their absurdities, preserve a 
+certain ascendancy over us, which is very disgraceful to our 
+nation; and this appears in nothing more than in the article of 
+dress. We are contented to be thought their apes in fashion; but, 
+in fact, we are slaves to their taylors, mantua-makers, barbers, 
+and other tradesmen. One would be apt to imagine that our own 
+tradesmen had joined them in a combination against us. When the 
+natives of France come to London, they appear in all public 
+places, with cloaths made according to the fashion of their own 
+country, and this fashion is generally admired by the English. 
+Why, therefore, don't we follow it implicitly? No, we pique 
+ourselves upon a most ridiculous deviation from the very modes we 
+admire, and please ourselves with thinking this deviation is a 
+mark of our spirit and liberty. But, we have not spirit enough to 
+persist in this deviation, when we visit their country: 
+otherwise, perhaps, they would come to admire and follow our 
+example: for, certainly, in point of true taste, the fashions of 
+both countries are equally absurd. At present, the skirts of the 
+English descend from the fifth rib to the calf of the leg, and 
+give the coat the form of a Jewish gaberdine; and our hats seem 
+to be modelled after that which Pistol wears upon the stage. In 
+France, the haunch buttons and pocketholes are within half a foot 
+of the coat's extremity: their hats look as if they had been 
+pared round the brims, and the crown is covered with a kind of 
+cordage, which, in my opinion, produces a very beggarly effect. 
+In every other circumstance of dress, male and female, the 
+contrast between the two nations, appears equally glaring. What 
+is the consequence? when an Englishman comes to Paris, he cannot 
+appear until he has undergone a total metamorphosis. At his first 
+arrival he finds it necessary to send for the taylor, perruquier, 
+hatter, shoemaker, and every other tradesman concerned in the 
+equipment of the human body. He must even change his buckles, and 
+the form of his ruffles; and, though at the risque of his life, 
+suit his cloaths to the mode of the season. For example, though 
+the weather should be never so cold, he must wear his habit 
+d'ete, or demi-saison. without presuming to put on a warm dress 
+before the day which fashion has fixed for that purpose; and 
+neither old age nor infirmity will excuse a man for wearing his 
+hat upon his head, either at home or abroad. Females are (if 
+possible) still more subject to the caprices of fashion; and as 
+the articles of their dress are more manifold, it is enough to 
+make a man's heart ake to see his wife surrounded by a multitude 
+of cotturieres, milliners, and tire-women. All her sacks and 
+negligees must be altered and new trimmed. She must have new 
+caps, new laces, new shoes, and her hair new cut. She must have 
+her taffaties for the summer, her flowered silks for the spring 
+and autumn, her sattins and damasks for winter. The good man, who 
+used to wear the beau drop d'Angleterre, quite plain all the year 
+round, with a long bob, or tye perriwig, must here provide 
+himself with a camblet suit trimmed with silver for spring and 
+autumn, with silk cloaths for summer, and cloth laced with gold, 
+or velvet for winter; and he must wear his bag-wig a la pigeon. 
+This variety of dress is absolutely indispensible for all those 
+who pretend to any rank above the meer bourgeois. On his return 
+to his own country, all this frippery is useless. He cannot 
+appear in London until he has undergone another thorough 
+metamorphosis; so that he will have some reason to think, that 
+the tradesmen of Paris and London have combined to lay him under 
+contribution: and they, no doubt, are the directors who regulate 
+the fashions in both capitals; the English, however, in a 
+subordinate capacity: for the puppets of their making will not 
+pass at Paris, nor indeed in any other part of Europe; whereas a 
+French petit maitre is reckoned a complete figure every where, 
+London not excepted. Since it is so much the humour of the 
+English at present to run abroad, I wish they had anti-gallican 
+spirit enough to produce themselves in their own genuine English 
+dress, and treat the French modes with the same philosophical 
+contempt, which was shewn by an honest gentleman, distinguished 
+by the name of Wig-Middleton. That unshaken patriot still appears 
+in the same kind of scratch perriwig, skimming-dish hat, and slit 
+sleeve, which were worn five-and-twenty years ago, and has 
+invariably persisted in this garb, in defiance of all the 
+revolutions of the mode. I remember a student in the temple, who, 
+after a long and learned investigation of the to kalon, or 
+beautiful, had resolution enough to let his beard grow, and wore 
+it in all public places, until his heir at law applied for a 
+commission of lunacy against him; then he submitted to the razor, 
+rather than run any risque of being found non compos.
+
+Before I conclude, I must tell you, that the most reputable shop-keepers 
+and tradesmen of Paris think it no disgrace to practise 
+the most shameful imposition. I myself know an instance of one of 
+the most creditable marchands in this capital, who demanded six 
+francs an ell for some lutestring, laying his hand upon his 
+breast at the same time, and declaring en conscience, that it had 
+cost him within three sols of the money. Yet in less than three 
+minutes, he sold it for four and a half, and when the buyer 
+upbraided him with his former declaration, he shrugged up his 
+shoulders, saying, il faut marchander. I don't mention this as a 
+particular instance. The same mean disingenuity is universal all 
+over France, as I have been informed by several persons of 
+veracity.
+
+The next letter you have from me will probably be dated at 
+Nismes, or Montpellier. Mean-while, I am ever--Yours.
+
+LETTER VII
+
+To MRS. M--.
+PARIS, October, 12, 1763.
+
+MADAM,--I shall be much pleased if the remarks I have made on the 
+characters of the French people, can afford you the satisfaction 
+you require. With respect to the ladies I can only judge from 
+their exteriors: but, indeed, these are so characteristic, that 
+one can hardly judge amiss; unless we suppose that a woman of 
+taste and sentiment may be so overruled by the absurdity of what 
+is called fashion, as to reject reason, and disguise nature, in 
+order to become ridiculous or frightful. That this may be the 
+case with some individuals, is very possible. I have known it 
+happen in our own country, where the follies of the French are 
+adopted and exhibited in the most aukward imitation: but the 
+general prevalence of those preposterous modes, is a plain proof 
+that there is a general want of taste, and a general depravity of 
+nature. I shall not pretend to describe the particulars of a 
+French lady's dress. These you are much better acquainted with 
+than I can pretend to be: but this I will be bold to affirm, that 
+France is the general reservoir from which all the absurdities of 
+false taste, luxury, and extravagance have overflowed the 
+different kingdoms and states of Europe. The springs that fill 
+this reservoir, are no other than vanity and ignorance. It would 
+be superfluous to attempt proving from the nature of things, from 
+the first principles and use of dress, as well as from the 
+consideration of natural beauty, and the practice of the 
+ancients, who certainly understood it as well as the connoisseurs 
+of these days, that nothing can be more monstrous, inconvenient, 
+and contemptible, than the fashion of modern drapery. You 
+yourself are well aware of all its defects, and have often 
+ridiculed them in my hearing. I shall only mention one particular 
+of dress essential to the fashion in this country, which seems to 
+me to carry human affectation to the very farthest verge of folly 
+and extravagance; that is, the manner in which the faces of the 
+ladies are primed and painted. When the Indian chiefs were in 
+England every body ridiculed their preposterous method of 
+painting their cheeks and eye-lids; but this ridicule was wrong 
+placed. Those critics ought to have considered, that the Indians 
+do not use paint to make themselves agreeable; but in order to be 
+the more terrible to their enemies. It is generally supposed, I 
+think, that your sex make use of fard and vermillion for very 
+different purposes; namely, to help a bad or faded complexion, to 
+heighten the graces, or conceal the defects of nature, as well as 
+the ravages of time. I shall not enquire at present, whether it 
+is just and honest to impose in this manner on mankind: if it is 
+not honest, it may be allowed to be artful and politic, and 
+shews, at least, a desire of being agreeable. But to lay it on as 
+the fashion in France prescribes to all the ladies of condition, 
+who indeed cannot appear without this badge of distinction, is to 
+disguise themselves in such a manner, as to render them odious 
+and detestable to every spectator, who has the least relish left 
+for nature and propriety. As for the fard or white, with which 
+their necks and shoulders are plaistered, it may be in some 
+measure excusable, as their skins are naturally brown, or sallow; 
+but the rouge, which is daubed on their faces, from the chin up 
+to the eyes, without the least art or dexterity, not only 
+destroys all distinction of features, but renders the aspect 
+really frightful, or at best conveys nothing but ideas of disgust 
+and aversion. You know, that without this horrible masque no 
+married lady is admitted at court, or in any polite assembly; and 
+that it is a mark of distinction which no bourgeoise dare assume. 
+Ladies of fashion only have the privilege of exposing themselves 
+in these ungracious colours. As their faces are concealed under a 
+false complexion, so their heads are covered with a vast load of 
+false hair, which is frizzled on the forehead, so as exactly to 
+resemble the wooly heads of the Guinea negroes. As to the natural 
+hue of it, this is a matter of no consequence, for powder makes 
+every head of hair of the same colour; and no woman appears in 
+this country, from the moment she rises till night, without being 
+compleatly whitened. Powder or meal was first used in Europe by 
+the Poles, to conceal their scald heads; but the present fashion 
+of using it, as well as the modish method of dressing the hair, 
+must have been borrowed from the Hottentots, who grease their 
+wooly heads with mutton suet and then paste it over with the 
+powder called buchu. In like manner, the hair of our fine ladies 
+is frizzled into the appearance of negroes wool, and stiffened 
+with an abominable paste of hog's grease, tallow, and white 
+powder. The present fashion, therefore, of painting the face, and 
+adorning the head, adopted by the beau monde in France, is taken 
+from those two polite nations the Chickesaws of America and the 
+Hottentots of Africa. On the whole, when I see one of those fine 
+creatures sailing along, in her taudry robes of silk and gauze, 
+frilled, and flounced, and furbelowed, with her false locks, her 
+false jewels, her paint, her patches, and perfumes; I cannot help 
+looking upon her as the vilest piece of sophistication that art 
+ever produced.
+
+This hideous masque of painting, though destructive of all 
+beauty, is, however, favourable to natural homeliness and 
+deformity. It accustoms the eyes of the other sex, and in time 
+reconciles them to frightfull objects; it disables them from 
+perceiving any distinction of features between woman and woman; 
+and, by reducing all faces to a level, gives every female an 
+equal chance for an admirer; being in this particular analogous 
+to the practice of the antient Lacedemonians, who were obliged to 
+chuse their helpmates in the dark. In what manner the insides of 
+their heads are furnished, I would not presume to judge from the 
+conversation of a very few to whom I have had access: but from 
+the nature of their education, which I have heard described, and 
+the natural vivacity of their tempers, I should expect neither 
+sense, sentiment, nor discretion. From the nursery they are 
+allowed, and even encouraged, to say every thing that comes 
+uppermost; by which means they acquire a volubility of tongue, 
+and a set of phrases, which constitutes what is called polite 
+conversation. At the same time they obtain an absolute conquest 
+over all sense of shame, or rather, they avoid acquiring this 
+troublesome sensation; for it is certainly no innate idea. Those 
+who have not governesses at home, are sent, for a few years, to a 
+convent, where they lay in a fund of superstition that serves 
+them for life: but I never heard they had the least opportunity 
+of cultivating the mind, of exercising the powers of reason, or 
+of imbibing a taste for letters, or any rational or useful 
+accomplishment. After being taught to prattle, to dance and play 
+at cards, they are deemed sufficiently qualified to appear in the 
+grand monde, and to perform all the duties of that high rank and 
+station in life. In mentioning cards, I ought to observe, that 
+they learn to play not barely for amusement, but also with a view 
+to advantage; and, indeed, you seldom meet with a native of 
+France, whether male or female, who is not a compleat gamester, 
+well versed in all the subtleties and finesses of the art. This 
+is likewise the case all over Italy. A lady of a great house in 
+Piedmont, having four sons, makes no scruple to declare, that the 
+first shall represent the family, the second enter into the army, 
+the third into the church, and that she will breed the fourth a 
+gamester. These noble adventurers devote themselves in a 
+particular manner to the entertainment of travellers from our 
+country, because the English are supposed to be full of money, 
+rash, incautious, and utterly ignorant of play. But such a 
+sharper is most dangerous, when he hunts in couple with a 
+female. I have known a French count and his wife, who found means 
+to lay the most wary under contribution. He was smooth, supple, 
+officious, and attentive: she was young, handsome, unprincipled, 
+and artful. If the Englishman marked for prey was found upon his 
+guard against the designs of the husband, then madam plied him on 
+the side of gallantry. She displayed all the attractions of her 
+person. She sung, danced, ogled, sighed, complimented, and 
+complained. If he was insensible to all her charms, she flattered 
+his vanity, and piqued his pride, by extolling the wealth and 
+generosity of the English; and if he proved deaf to all these 
+insinuations she, as her last stake, endeavoured to interest his 
+humanity and compassion. She expatiated, with tears in her eyes, 
+on the cruelty and indifference of her great relations; 
+represented that her husband was no more than the cadet of a 
+noble family --, that his provision was by no means suitable. 
+either to the dignity of his rank, or the generosity of his 
+disposition: that he had a law-suit of great consequence 
+depending, which had drained all his finances; and, finally, that 
+they should be both ruined, if they could not find some generous 
+friend, who would accommodate them with a sum of money to bring 
+the cause to a determination. Those who are not actuated by such 
+scandalous motives, become gamesters from meer habit, and, having 
+nothing more solid to engage their thoughts, or employ their 
+time, consume the best part of their lives, in this worst of all 
+dissipation. I am not ignorant that there are exceptions from 
+this general rule: I know that France has produced a Maintenon, a 
+Sevigine, a Scuderi, a Dacier, and a Chatelet; but I would no 
+more deduce the general character of the French ladies from these 
+examples, than I would call a field of hemp a flower-garden. 
+because there might be in it a few lillies or renunculas planted 
+by the hand of accident.
+
+Woman has been defined a weaker man; but in this country the men 
+are, in my opinion, more ridiculous and insignificant than the 
+women. They certainly are more disagreeable to a rational 
+enquirer, because they are more troublesome. Of all the coxcombs 
+on the face of the earth, a French petit maitre is the most 
+impertinent: and they are all petit maitres from the marquis who 
+glitters in lace and embroidery, to the garcon barbier covered 
+with meal, who struts with his hair in a long queue, and his hat 
+under his arm. I have already observed, that vanity is the great 
+and universal mover among all ranks and degrees of people in this 
+nation; and as they take no pains to conceal or controul it, they 
+are hurried by it into the most ridiculous and indeed intolerable 
+extravagance.
+
+When I talk of the French nation, I must again except a great 
+number of individuals, from the general censure. Though I have a 
+hearty contempt for the ignorance, folly, and presumption which 
+characterise the generality, I cannot but respect the talents of 
+many great men, who have eminently distinguished themselves in 
+every art and science: these I shall always revere and esteem as 
+creatures of a superior species, produced, for the wise purposes 
+of providence, among the refuse of mankind. It would be absurd to 
+conclude that the Welch or Highlanders are a gigantic people, 
+because those mountains may have produced a few individuals near 
+seven feet high. It would be equally absurd to suppose the French 
+are a nation of philosophers, because France has given birth to a 
+Des Cartes, a Maupertuis, a Reaumur, and a Buffon.
+
+I shall not even deny, that the French are by no means deficient 
+in natural capacity; but they are at the same time remarkable for 
+a natural levity, which hinders their youth from cultivating that 
+capacity. This is reinforced by the most preposterous education, 
+and the example of a giddy people, engaged in the most frivolous 
+pursuits. A Frenchman is by some Jesuit, or other monk, taught to 
+read his mother tongue, and to say his prayers in a language he 
+does not understand. He learns to dance and to fence, by the 
+masters of those noble sciences. He becomes a compleat 
+connoisseur in dressing hair, and in adorning his own person, 
+under the hands and instructions of his barber and valet de 
+chambre. If he learns to play upon the flute or the fiddle, he is 
+altogether irresistible. But he piques himself upon being 
+polished above the natives of any other country by his 
+conversation with the fair sex. In the course of this 
+communication, with which he is indulged from his tender years, 
+he learns like a parrot, by rote, the whole circle of French 
+compliments, which you know are a set of phrases ridiculous even 
+to a proverb; and these he throws out indiscriminately to all 
+women, without distinction in the exercise of that kind of 
+address, which is here distinguished by the name of gallantry: it 
+is no more than his making love to every woman who will give him 
+the hearing. It is an exercise, by the repetition of which he 
+becomes very pert, very familiar, and very impertinent. Modesty, 
+or diffidence, I have already said, is utterly unknown among 
+them, and therefore I wonder there should be a term to express 
+it in their language.
+
+If I was obliged to define politeness, I should call it, the art 
+of making one's self agreeable. I think it an art that 
+necessarily implies a sense of decorum, and a delicacy of 
+sentiment. These are qualities, of which (as far as I have been 
+able to observe) a Frenchman has no idea; therefore he never can 
+be deemed polite, except by those persons among whom they are as 
+little understood. His first aim is to adorn his own person with 
+what he calls fine cloaths, that is the frippery of the fashion. 
+It is no wonder that the heart of a female, unimproved by reason, 
+and untinctured with natural good sense, should flutter at the 
+sight of such a gaudy thing, among the number of her admirers: 
+this impression is enforced by fustian compliments, which her own 
+vanity interprets in a literal sense, and still more confirmed by 
+the assiduous attention of the gallant, who, indeed, has nothing 
+else to mind. A Frenchman in consequence of his mingling with the 
+females from his infancy, not only becomes acquainted with all 
+their customs and humours; but grows wonderfully alert in 
+performing a thousand little offices, which are overlooked by 
+other men, whose time hath been spent in making more valuable 
+acquisitions. He enters, without ceremony, a lady's bed-chamber, 
+while she is in bed, reaches her whatever she wants, airs her 
+shift, and helps to put it on. He attends at her toilette, 
+regulates the distribution of her patches, and advises where to 
+lay on the paint. If he visits her when she is dressed, and 
+perceives the least impropriety in her coeffure, he insists upon 
+adjusting it with his own hands: if he sees a curl, or even a 
+single hair amiss, he produces his comb, his scissars, and 
+pomatum, and sets it to rights with the dexterity of a professed 
+friseur. He 'squires her to every place she visits, either on 
+business, or pleasure; and, by dedicating his whole time to her, 
+renders himself necessary to her occasions. This I take to be the 
+most agreeable side of his character: let us view him on the 
+quarter of impertinence. A Frenchman pries into all your secrets 
+with the most impudent and importunate curiosity, and then 
+discloses them without remorse. If you are indisposed, he 
+questions you about the symptoms of your disorder, with more 
+freedom than your physician would presume to use; very often in 
+the grossest terms. He then proposes his remedy (for they are all 
+quacks), he prepares it without your knowledge, and worries you 
+with solicitation to take it, without paying the least regard to 
+the opinion of those whom you have chosen to take care of your 
+health. Let you be ever so ill, or averse to company, he forces 
+himself at all times into your bed-chamber, and if it is 
+necessary to give him a peremptory refusal, he is affronted. I 
+have known one of those petit maitres insist upon paying regular 
+visits twice a day to a poor gentleman who was delirious; and he 
+conversed with him on different subjects, till he was in his 
+last agonies. This attendance is not the effect of attachment, or 
+regard, but of sheer vanity, that he may afterwards boast of his 
+charity and humane disposition: though, of all the people I have 
+ever known, I think the French are the least capable of feeling 
+for the distresses of their fellow creatures. Their hearts are 
+not susceptible of deep impressions; and, such is their levity, 
+that the imagination has not time to brood long over any 
+disagreeable idea, or sensation. As a Frenchman piques himself on 
+his gallantry, he no sooner makes a conquest of a female's heart, 
+than he exposes her character, for the gratification of his 
+vanity. Nay, if he should miscarry in his schemes, he will forge 
+letters and stories, to the ruin of the lady's reputation. This 
+is a species of perfidy which one would think should render them 
+odious and detestable to the whole sex; but the case is 
+otherwise. I beg your pardon, Madam; but women are never better 
+pleased, than when they see one another exposed; and every 
+individual has such confidence in her own superior charms and 
+discretion, that she thinks she can fix the most volatile, and 
+reform the most treacherous lover.
+
+If a Frenchman is admitted into your family, and distinguished by 
+repeated marks of your friendship and regard, the first return he 
+makes for your civilities is to make love to your wife, if she is 
+handsome; if not, to your sister, or daughter, or niece. If he 
+suffers a repulse from your wife, or attempts in vain to debauch 
+your sister, or your daughter, or your niece, he will, rather 
+than not play the traitor with his gallantry, make his addresses 
+to your grandmother; and ten to one, but in one shape or another, 
+he will find means to ruin the peace of a family, in which he has 
+been so kindly entertained. What he cannot accomplish by dint of 
+compliment, and personal attendance, he will endeavour to effect, 
+by reinforcing these with billets-doux, songs, and verses, of 
+which he always makes a provision for such purposes. If he is 
+detected in these efforts of treachery, and reproached with his 
+ingratitude, he impudently declares, that what he had done was no 
+more than simple gallantry, considered in France as an 
+indispensible duty on every man who pretended to good breeding. 
+Nay, he will even affirm, that his endeavours to corrupt your 
+wife, or your daughter, were the most genuine proofs he could 
+give of his particular regard for your family.
+
+If a Frenchman is capable of real friendship, it must certainly 
+be the most disagreeable present he can possibly make to a man of 
+a true English character, You know, Madam, we are naturally 
+taciturn, soon tired of impertinence, and much subject to fits of 
+disgust. Your French friend intrudes upon you at all hours: he 
+stuns you with his loquacity: he teases you with impertinent 
+questions about your domestic and private affairs: he attempts to 
+meddle in all your concerns; and forces his advice upon you with 
+the most unwearied importunity: he asks the price of every thing 
+you wear, and, so sure as you tell him undervalues it, without 
+hesitation: he affirms it is in a bad taste, ill-contrived, ill-made; 
+that you have been imposed upon both with respect to the 
+fashion and the price; that the marquise of this, or the countess 
+of that, has one that is perfectly elegant, quite in the bon ton, 
+and yet it cost her little more than you gave for a thing that 
+nobody would wear.
+
+If there were five hundred dishes at table, a Frenchman will eat 
+of all of them, and then complain he has no appetite. This I have 
+several times remarked. A friend of mine gained a considerable 
+wager upon an experiment of this kind: the petit maitre ate of 
+fourteen different plats, besides the dessert; then disparaged 
+the cook, declaring he was no better than a marmiton, or 
+turnspit.
+
+The French have the most ridiculous fondness for their hair, and 
+this I believe they inherit from their remote ancestors. The 
+first race of French kings were distinguished by their long hair, 
+and certainly the people of this country consider it as an 
+indispensible ornament. A Frenchman will sooner part with his 
+religion than with his hair, which, indeed, no consideration will 
+induce him to forego. I know a gentleman afflicted with a 
+continual head-ach, and a defluxion on his eyes, who was told by 
+his physician that the best chance he had for being cured, would 
+be to have his head close shaved, and bathed every day in cold 
+water. "How (cried he) cut my hair? Mr. Doctor, your most humble 
+servant!" He dismissed his physician, lost his eye-sight, and 
+almost his senses, and is now led about with his hair in a bag, 
+and a piece of green silk hanging like a screen before his face. 
+Count Saxe, and other military writers have demonstrated the 
+absurdity of a soldier's wearing a long head of hair; 
+nevertheless, every soldier in this country wears a long queue, 
+which makes a delicate mark on his white cloathing; and this 
+ridiculous foppery has descended even to the lowest class of 
+people. The decrotteur, who cleans your shoes at the corner of 
+the Pont Neuf, has a tail of this kind hanging down to his rump, 
+and even the peasant who drives an ass loaded with dung, wears 
+his hair en queue, though, perhaps, he has neither shirt nor 
+breeches. This is the ornament upon which he bestows much time 
+and pains, and in the exhibition of which he finds full 
+gratification for his vanity. Considering the harsh features of 
+the common people in this country, their diminutive stature, 
+their grimaces, and that long appendage, they have no small 
+resemblance to large baboons walking upright; and perhaps this 
+similitude has helped to entail upon them the ridicule of their 
+neighbours.
+
+A French friend tires out your patience with long visits; and, 
+far from taking the most palpable hints to withdraw, when he 
+perceives you uneasy he observes you are low-spirited, and 
+therefore he will keep you company. This perseverance shews that 
+he must either be void of penetration, or that his disposition 
+must be truly diabolical. Rather than be tormented with such a 
+fiend, a man had better turn him out of doors, even though at the 
+hazard of being run thro' the body.
+
+The French are generally counted insincere, and taxed with want 
+of generosity. But I think these reproaches are not well founded. 
+High-flown professions of friendship and attachment constitute 
+the language of common compliment in this country, and are never 
+supposed to be understood in the literal acceptation of the 
+words; and, if their acts of generosity are but very rare, we 
+ought to ascribe that rarity, not so much to a deficiency of 
+generous sentiments, as to their vanity and ostentation, which 
+engrossing all their funds, utterly disable them from exerting 
+the virtues of beneficence. Vanity, indeed, predominates among 
+all ranks, to such a degree, that they are the greatest egotists 
+in the world; and the most insignificant individual talks in 
+company with the same conceit and arrogance, as a person of the 
+greatest importance. Neither conscious poverty nor disgrace will 
+restrain him in the least either from assuming his full share of 
+the conversation, or making big addresses to the finest lady, 
+whom he has the smallest opportunity to approach: nor is he 
+restrained by any other consideration whatsoever. It is all one 
+to him whether he himself has a wife of his own, or the lady a 
+husband; whether she is designed for the cloister, or pre-ingaged 
+to his best friend and benefactor. He takes it for granted that 
+his addresses cannot but be acceptable; and, if he meets with a 
+repulse, he condemns her taste; but never doubts his own 
+qualifications.
+
+I have a great many things to say of their military character, 
+and their punctilios of honour, which last are equally absurd and 
+pernicious; but as this letter has run to an unconscionable 
+length, I shall defer them till another opportunity. Mean-while, 
+I have the honour to be, with very particular esteem--Madam, Your 
+most obedient servant.
+
+LETTER VIII
+
+To MR. M--
+
+LYONS, October 19, 1763.
+
+DEAR SIR,--I was favoured with yours at Paris, and look upon your 
+reproaches as the proof of your friendship. The truth is, I 
+considered all the letters I have hitherto written on the subject 
+of my travels, as written to your society in general, though they 
+have been addressed to one individual of it; and if they contain 
+any thing that can either amuse or inform, I desire that 
+henceforth all I send may be freely perused by all the members.
+
+With respect to my health, about which you so kindly enquire, I 
+have nothing new to communicate. I had reason to think that my 
+bathing in the sea at Boulogne  produced a good effect, in 
+strengthening my relaxed fibres. You know how subject I was to 
+colds in England; that I could not stir abroad after sun-set, nor 
+expose myself to the smallest damp, nor walk till the least 
+moisture appeared on my skin, without being laid up for ten days 
+or a fortnight. At Paris, however, I went out every day, with my 
+hat under my arm, though the weather was wet and cold: I walked 
+in the garden at Versailles even after it was dark, with my head 
+uncovered, on a cold evening, when the ground was far from being 
+dry: nay, at Marli, I sauntered above a mile through damp alleys, 
+and wet grass: and from none of these risques did I feel the 
+least inconvenience.
+
+In one of our excursions we visited the manufacture for 
+porcelain, which the king of France has established at the 
+village of St. Cloud, on the road to Versailles, and which is, 
+indeed, a noble monument of his munificence. It is a very large 
+building, both commodious and magnificent, where a great number 
+of artists are employed, and where this elegant superfluity is 
+carried to as great perfection as it ever was at Dresden. Yet, 
+after all, I know not whether the porcelain made at Chelsea may 
+not vie with the productions either of Dresden, or St. Cloud. If 
+it falls short of either, it is not in the design, painting, 
+enamel, or other ornaments, but only in the composition of the 
+metal, and the method of managing it in the furnace. Our 
+porcelain seems to be a partial vitrification of levigated flint 
+and fine pipe clay, mixed together in a certain proportion; and 
+if the pieces are not removed from the fire in the very critical 
+moment, they will be either too little, or too much vitrified. In 
+the first case, I apprehend they will not acquire a proper degree 
+of cohesion; they will be apt to be corroded, discoloured, and to 
+crumble, like the first essays that were made at Chelsea; in the 
+second case, they will be little better than imperfect glass.
+
+There are three methods of travelling from Paris to Lyons, which, 
+by the shortest road is a journey of about three hundred and 
+sixty miles. One is by the diligence, or stagecoach, which 
+performs it in five days; and every passenger pays one hundred 
+livres, in consideration of which, he not only has a seat in the 
+carriage, but is maintained on the road. The inconveniences 
+attending this way of travelling are these. You are crouded into 
+the carriage, to the number of eight persons, so as to sit very 
+uneasy, and sometimes run the risque of being stifled among very 
+indifferent company. You are hurried out of bed, at four, three, 
+nay often at two o'clock in the morning. You are obliged to eat 
+in the French way, which is very disagreeable to an English 
+palate; and, at Chalons, you must embark upon the Saone in a 
+boat, which conveys you to Lyons, so that the two last days of 
+your journey are by water. All these were insurmountable 
+objections to me, who am in such a bad state of health, troubled 
+with an asthmatic cough, spitting, slow fever, and restlessness, 
+which demands a continual change of place, as well as free air, 
+and room for motion. I was this day visited by two young 
+gentlemen, sons of Mr. Guastaldi, late minister from Genoa at 
+London. I had seen them at Paris, at the house of the dutchess of 
+Douglas. They came hither, with their conductor, in the 
+diligence, and assured me, that nothing could be more 
+disagreeable than their situation in that carriage.
+
+Another way of travelling in this country is to hire a coach and 
+four horses; and this method I was inclined to take: but when I 
+went to the bureau, where alone these voitures are to be had, I 
+was given to understand, that it would cost me six-and-twenty 
+guineas, and travel so slow that I should be ten days upon the 
+road. These carriages are let by the same persons who farm the 
+diligence; and for this they have an exclusive privilege, which 
+makes them very saucy and insolent. When I mentioned my servant, 
+they gave me to understand, that I must pay two loui'dores more 
+for his seat upon the coach box. As I could not relish these 
+terms, nor brook the thoughts of being so long upon the road, I 
+had recourse to the third method, which is going post.
+
+In England you know I should have had nothing to do, but to hire 
+a couple of post-chaises from stage to stage, with two horses in 
+each; but here the case is quite otherwise. The post is farmed 
+from the king, who lays travellers under contribution for his own 
+benefit, and has published a set of oppressive ordonnances, which 
+no stranger nor native dares transgress. The postmaster finds 
+nothing but horses and guides: the carriage you yourself must 
+provide. If there are four persons within the carriage, you are 
+obliged to have six horses, and two postillions; and if your 
+servant sits on the outside, either before or behind, you must 
+pay for a seventh. You pay double for the first stage from Paris, 
+and twice double for passing through Fontainbleau when the court 
+is there, as well as at coming to Lyons, and at leaving this 
+city. These are called royal posts, and are undoubtedly a 
+scandalous imposition.
+
+There are two post roads from Paris to Lyons, one of sixty-five 
+posts, by the way of Moulins; the other of fifty-nine, by the way 
+of Dijon in Burgundy. This last I chose, partly to save sixty 
+livres, and partly to see the wine harvest of Burgundy, which, I 
+was told, was a season of mirth and jollity among all ranks of 
+people. I hired a very good coach for ten loui'dores to Lyons, 
+and set out from Paris on the thirteenth instant, with six 
+horses, two postillions, and my own servant on horseback. We made 
+no stop at Fontainbleau, though the court was there; but lay at 
+Moret, which is one stage further, a very paltry little town 
+where, however, we found good accommodation.
+
+I shall not pretend to describe the castle or palace of 
+Fontainbleau, of which I had only a glimpse in passing; but the 
+forest, in the middle of which it stands, is a noble chace of 
+great extent, beautifully wild and romantic, well stored with 
+game of all sorts, and abounding with excellent timber. It put me 
+in mind of the New Forest in Hampshire; but the hills, rocks, and 
+mountains, with which it is diversified, render it more 
+agreeable.
+
+The people of this country dine at noon, and travellers always 
+find an ordinary prepared at every auberge, or public-house, on 
+the road. Here they sit down promiscuously, and dine at so much a 
+head. The usual price is thirty sols for dinner, and forty for 
+supper, including lodging; for this moderate expence they have 
+two courses and a dessert. If you eat in your own apartment, you 
+pay, instead of forty sols, three, and in some places, four 
+livres ahead. I and my family could not well dispense with our 
+tea and toast in the morning, and had no stomach to eat at noon. 
+For my own part, I hate French cookery, and abominate garlick, 
+with which all their ragouts, in this part of the country, are 
+highly seasoned: we therefore formed a different plan of living 
+upon the road. Before we left Paris, we laid in a stock of tea, 
+chocolate, cured neats' tongues, and saucissons, or Bologna 
+sausages, both of which we found in great perfection in that 
+capital, where, indeed, there are excellent provisions of all 
+sorts. About ten in the morning we stopped to breakfast at some 
+auberge, where we always found bread, butter, and milk. In the 
+mean time, we ordered a poulard or two to be roasted, and these, 
+wrapped in a napkin, were put into the boot of the coach, 
+together with bread, wine, and water. About two or three in the 
+afternoon, while the horses were changing, we laid a cloth upon 
+our knees, and producing our store, with a few earthen plates,
+discussed our short meal without further ceremony. This was 
+followed by a dessert of grapes and other fruit, which we had 
+also provided. I must own I found these transient refreshments 
+much more agreeable than any regular meal I ate upon the road. 
+The wine commonly used in Burgundy is so weak and thin, that you 
+would not drink it in England. The very best which they sell at 
+Dijon, the capital of the province, for three livres a bottle, is 
+in strength, and even in flavour, greatly inferior to what I have 
+drank in London. I believe all the first growth is either 
+consumed in the houses of the noblesse, or sent abroad to foreign 
+markets. I have drank excellent Burgundy at Brussels for a florin 
+a bottle; that is, little more than twenty pence sterling.
+
+The country from the forest of Fontainbleau to the Lyonnois, 
+through which we passed, is rather agreeable than fertile, being 
+part of Champagne and the dutchy of Burgundy, watered by three 
+pleasant pastoral rivers, the Seine, the Yonne, and the Saone. 
+The flat country is laid out chiefly for corn; but produces more 
+rye than wheat. Almost all the ground seems to be ploughed up, so 
+that there is little or nothing lying fallow. There are very few 
+inclosures, scarce any meadow ground, and, so far as I could 
+observe, a great scarcity of cattle. We sometimes found it very 
+difficult  to procure half a pint of milk for our tea. In 
+Burgundy I saw a peasant ploughing the ground with a jack-ass, a 
+lean cow, and a he-goat, yoked together. It is generally 
+observed, that a great number of black cattle are bred and fed on 
+the mountains of Burgundy, which are the highest lands in France; 
+but I saw very few. The peasants in France are so wretchedly 
+poor, and so much oppressed by their landlords, that they cannot 
+afford to inclose their grounds, or give a proper respite to 
+their lands; or to stock their farms with a sufficient number of 
+black cattle to produce the necessary manure, without which 
+agriculture can never be carried to any degree of perfection. 
+Indeed, whatever efforts a few individuals may make for the 
+benefit of their own estates, husbandry in France will never be 
+generally improved, until the farmer is free and independent.
+
+From the frequency of towns and villages, I should imagine this 
+country is very populous; yet it must be owned, that the towns 
+are in general thinly inhabited. I saw a good number of country 
+seats and plantations near tile banks of the rivers, on each 
+side; and a great many convents, sweetly situated, on rising 
+grounds, where the air is most pure, and the prospect most 
+agreeable. It is surprising to see how happy the founders of 
+those religious houses have been in their choice of situations, 
+all the world over.
+
+In passing through this country, I was very much struck with the 
+sight of large ripe clusters of grapes, entwined with the briars 
+and thorns of common hedges on the wayside. The mountains of 
+Burgundy are covered with vines from the bottom to the top, and 
+seem to be raised by nature on purpose to extend the surface, and 
+to expose it the more advantageously to the rays of the sun. The 
+vandange was but just begun, and the people were employed in 
+gathering the grapes; but I saw no signs of festivity among them. 
+Perhaps their joy was a little damped by the bad prospect of 
+their harvest; for they complained that the weather had been so 
+unfavourable as to hinder the grapes from ripening. I thought, 
+indeed, there was something uncomfortable in seeing the vintage 
+thus retarded till the beginning of winter: for, in some parts, I 
+found the weather extremely cold; particularly at a place called 
+Maison-neuve, where we lay, there was a hard frost, and in the 
+morning the pools were covered with a thick crust of ice. My 
+personal adventures on the road were such as will not bear a 
+recital. They consisted of petty disputes with landladies, post-
+masters, and postillions. The highways seem to be perfectly safe. 
+We did not find that any robberies were ever committed, although 
+we did not see one of the marechaussee from Paris to Lyons. You 
+know the marechaussee are a body of troopers well mounted, 
+maintained in France as safe-guards to the public roads. It is a 
+reproach upon England that some such patrol is not appointed for 
+the protection of travellers.
+
+At Sens in Champagne, my servant, who had rode on before to 
+bespeak fresh horses, told me, that the domestic of another 
+company had been provided before him, altho' it was not his turn, 
+as he had arrived later at the post. Provoked at this partiality, 
+I resolved to chide the post-master, and accordingly addressed 
+myself to a person who stood at the door of the auberge. He was a 
+jolly figure, fat and fair, dressed in an odd kind of garb, with 
+a gold laced cap on his head, and a cambric handkerchief pinned 
+to his middle. The sight of such a fantastic petit maitre, in the 
+character of a post-master, increased my spleen. I called to him 
+with an air of authority, mixed with indignation, and when he 
+came up to the coach, asked in a peremptory tone, if he did not 
+understand the king's ordonnance concerning the regulation of the 
+posts? He laid his hand upon his breast; but before he could make 
+any answer, I pulled out the post-book, and began to read, with 
+great vociferation, the article which orders, that the traveller 
+who comes first shall be first served. By this time the fresh 
+horses being put to the carriage, and the postillions mounted, 
+the coach set off all of a sudden, with uncommon speed. I 
+imagined the post-master had given the fellows a signal to be 
+gone, and, in this persuasion, thrusting my head out at the 
+window, I bestowed some epithets upon him, which must have 
+sounded very harsh in the ears of a Frenchman. We stopped for a 
+refreshment at a little town called Joigne-ville, where (by the 
+bye) I was scandalously imposed upon, and even abused by a virago 
+of a landlady; then proceeding to the next stage, I was given to 
+understand we could not be supplied with fresh horses. Here I 
+perceived at the door of the inn, the same person whom I had 
+reproached at Sens. He came up to the coach, and told me, that 
+notwithstanding what the guides had said, I should have fresh 
+horses in a few minutes. I imagined he was master both of this 
+house and the auberge at Sens, between which he passed and 
+repassed occasionally; and that he was now desirous of making me 
+amends for the affront he had put upon me at the other place. 
+Observing that one of the trunks behind was a little displaced, 
+he assisted my servant in adjusting it: then he entered into 
+conversation with me, and gave me to understand, that in a post-chaise, 
+which we had passed, was an English gentleman on his 
+return from Italy. I wanted to know who he was, and when he said 
+he could not tell, I asked him, in a very abrupt manner, why he 
+had not enquired of his servant. He shrugged
+up his shoulders, and retired to the inn door. Having waited 
+about half an hour, I beckoned to him, and when he approached, 
+upbraided him with having told me that I should be supplied with 
+fresh horses in a few minutes: he seemed shocked, and answered, 
+that he thought he had reason for what he said, observing, that 
+it was as disagreeable to him as to me to wait for a relay. As it 
+began to rain, I pulled up the glass in his face, and he withdrew 
+again to the door, seemingly ruffled at my deportment. In a 
+little time the horses arrived, and three of them were 
+immediately put to a very handsome post-chaise, into which he 
+stepped, and set out, accompanied by a man in a rich livery on 
+horseback. Astonished at this circumstance, I asked the hostler 
+who he was, and he replied, that he was a man of fashion (un 
+seigneur) who lived in the neighbourhood of Auxerre. I was much 
+mortified to find that I had treated a nobleman so scurvily, and 
+scolded my own people for not having more penetration than 
+myself. I dare say he did not fail to descant upon the brutal 
+behaviour of the Englishman; and that my mistake served with him 
+to confirm the national reproach of bluntness, and ill breeding, 
+under which we lie in this country. The truth is, I was that day 
+more than usually peevish, from the bad weather, as well as from 
+the dread of a fit of the asthma, with which I was threatened: 
+and I dare say my appearance seemed as uncouth to him, as his 
+travelling dress appeared to me. I had a grey mourning frock 
+under a wide great coat, a bob wig without powder, a very large 
+laced hat, and a meagre, wrinkled, discontented countenance.
+
+The fourth night of our journey we lay at Macon, and the next day 
+passed through the Lyonnois, which is a fine country, full of 
+towns, villages, and gentlemen's houses. In passing through the 
+Maconnois, we saw a great many fields of Indian corn, which grows 
+to the height of six or seven feet: it is made into flour for the 
+use of the common people, and goes by the name of Turkey wheat. 
+Here likewise, as well as in Dauphine, they raise a vast quantity 
+of very large pompions, with the contents of which they thicken 
+their soup and ragouts.
+
+As we travelled only while the sun was up, on account of my ill 
+health, and the post horses in France are in bad order, we seldom 
+exceeded twenty leagues a day.
+
+I was directed to a lodging-house at Lyons, which being full they 
+shewed us to a tavern, where I was led up three pair of stairs, 
+to an apartment consisting of three paltry chambers, for which 
+the people demanded twelve livres a day: for dinner and supper 
+they asked thirty-two, besides three livres for my servant; so 
+that my daily expence would have amounted to about forty-seven 
+livres, exclusive of breakfast and coffee in the afternoon. I was 
+so provoked at this extortion, that, without answering one word, 
+I drove to another auberge, where I now am, and pay at the rate 
+of two-and-thirty livres a day, for which I am very badly lodged, 
+and but very indifferently entertained. I mention these 
+circumstances to give you an idea of the imposition to which 
+strangers are subject in this country. It must be owned, however, 
+that in the article of eating, I might save half the money by 
+going to the public ordinary; but this is a scheme of oeconomy, 
+which (exclusive of other disagreeable circumstances) neither my 
+own health, nor that of my wife permits me to embrace. My journey 
+from Paris to Lyons, including the hire of the coach, and all 
+expences on the road, has cost me, within a few shillings, forty 
+loui'dores. From Paris our baggage (though not plombe) was not 
+once examined till we arrived in this city, at the gate of which 
+we were questioned by one of the searchers, who, being tipt with 
+half a crown, allowed us to proceed without further enquiry,
+
+I purposed to stay in Lyons until I should receive some letters I 
+expected from London, to be forwarded by my banker at Paris: but 
+the enormous expence of living in this manner has determined me 
+to set out in a day or two for Montpellier, although that place 
+is a good way out of the road to Nice. My reasons for taking that 
+route I shall communicate in my next. Mean-while, I am ever,--
+Dear Sir, Your affectionate and obliged humble servant.
+
+LETTER IX
+
+MONTPELLIER, November 5, 1763.
+
+DEAR SIR,--The city of Lyons has been so often and so 
+circumstantially described, that I cannot pretend to say any 
+thing new on the subject. Indeed, I know very little of it, but 
+what I have read in books; as I had but one day to make a tour of 
+the streets, squares, and other remarkable places. The bridge 
+over the Rhone seems to be so slightly built, that I should 
+imagine it would be one day carried away by that rapid river; 
+especially as the arches are so small, that, after great rains 
+they are sometimes bouchees, or stopped up; that is, they do not 
+admit a sufficient passage for the encreased body of the water. 
+In order to remedy this dangerous defect, in some measure, they 
+found an artist some years ago, who has removed a middle pier, 
+and thrown two arches into one. This alteration they looked upon 
+as a masterpiece in architecture, though there is many a common 
+mason in England, who would have undertaken and performed the 
+work, without valuing himself much upon the enterprize. This 
+bridge, as well as that of St. Esprit, is built, not in a strait 
+line across the river, but with a curve, which forms a convexity 
+to oppose the current. Such a bend is certainly calculated for 
+the better resisting the general impetuosity of the stream, and 
+has no bad effect to the eye.
+
+Lyons is a great, populous, and flourishing city but I am 
+surprised to find it is counted a healthy place, and that the air 
+of it is esteemed favourable to pulmonic disorders. It is 
+situated on the confluence of two large rivers, from which there 
+must be a great evaporation, as well as from the low marshy 
+grounds, which these rivers often overflow. This must render the 
+air moist, frouzy, and even putrid, if it was not well ventilated 
+by winds from the mountains of Swisserland; and in the latter end 
+of autumn, it must be subject to fogs. The morning we set out 
+from thence, the whole city and adjacent plains were covered with 
+so thick a fog, that we could not distinguish from the coach the 
+head of the foremost mule that drew it. Lyons is said to be very 
+hot in summer, and very cold in winter; therefore I imagine must 
+abound with inflammatory and intermittent disorders in the spring 
+and fall of the year.
+
+My reasons for going to Montpellier, which is out of the strait 
+road to Nice, were these. Having no acquaintance nor 
+correspondents in the South of France, I had desired my credit 
+might be sent to the same house to which my heavy baggage was 
+consigned. I expected to find my baggage at Cette, which is the 
+sea-port of Montpellier; and there I also hoped to find a vessel, 
+in which I might be transported by sea to Nice, without further 
+trouble. I longed to try what effect the boasted air of 
+Montpellier would have upon my constitution; and I had a great 
+desire to see the famous monuments of antiquity in and about the 
+ancient city of Nismes, which is about eight leagues short of 
+Montpellier.
+
+At the inn where we lodged, I found a return berline, belonging 
+to Avignon, with three mules, which are the animals commonly used 
+for carriages in this country. This I hired for five loui'dores. 
+The coach was large, commodious, and well-fitted; the mules were 
+strong and in good order; and the driver, whose name was Joseph, 
+appeared to be a sober, sagacious, intelligent fellow, perfectly 
+well acquainted with every place in the South of France. He told 
+me he was owner of the coach, but I afterwards learned, he was no 
+other than a hired servant. I likewise detected him in some 
+knavery, in the course of our journey; and plainly perceived he 
+had a fellow-feeling with the inn-keepers on the road; but, in 
+other respects, he was very obliging, serviceable, and even 
+entertaining. There are some knavish practices of this kind, at 
+which a traveller will do well to shut his eyes, for his own ease 
+and convenience. He will be lucky if he has to do with a sensible 
+knave, like Joseph, who understood his interest too well to be 
+guilty of very flagrant pieces of imposition.
+
+A man, impatient to be at his journey's end, will find this a 
+most disagreeable way of travelling. In summer it must be quite 
+intolerable. The mules are very sure, but very slow. The journey 
+seldom exceeds eight leagues, about four and twenty miles a day: 
+and as those people have certain fixed stages, you are sometimes 
+obliged to rise in a morning before day; a circumstance very 
+grievous to persons in ill health. These inconveniences, however, 
+were over-balanced by other agreemens. We no, sooner quitted 
+Lyons, than we got into summer weather, and travelling through a 
+most romantic country, along the banks of the Rhone, had 
+opportunities (from the slowness of our pace) to contemplate its 
+beauties at leisure.
+
+The rapidity of the Rhone is, in a great measure, owing to its 
+being confined within steep banks on each side. These are formed 
+almost through its whole course, by a double chain of mountains, 
+which rise with all abrupt ascent from both banks of the river. 
+The mountains are covered with vineyards, interspersed with small 
+summer-houses, and in many places they are crowned with churches, 
+chapels, and convents, which add greatly to the romantic beauty 
+of the prospect. The highroad, as far as Avignon, lies along the 
+side of the river, which runs almost in a straight line, and 
+affords great convenience for inland commerce. Travellers, bound 
+to the southern parts of France, generally embark in the 
+diligence at Lyons, and glide down this river with great 
+velocity, passing a great number of towns and villages on each 
+side, where they find ordinaries every day at dinner and supper. 
+In good weather, there is no danger in this method of travelling, 
+'till you come to the Pont St. Esprit, where the stream runs 
+through the arches with such rapidity, that the boat is sometimes 
+overset. But those passengers who are under any apprehension are 
+landed above-bridge, and taken in again, after the boat has 
+passed, just in the same manner as at London Bridge. The boats 
+that go up the river are drawn against the stream by oxen, which 
+swim through one of the arches of this bridge, the driver sitting 
+between the horns of the foremost beast. We set out from Lyons 
+early on Monday morning, and as a robbery had been a few days 
+before committed in that neighbourhood, I ordered my servant to 
+load my musquetoon with a charge of eight balls. By the bye, this 
+piece did not fail to attract the curiosity and admiration of the 
+people in every place through which we passed. The carriage no 
+sooner halted, than a crowd immediately surrounded the man to 
+view the blunderbuss, which they dignified with the title of 
+petit canon. At Nuys in Burgundy, he fired it in the air, and the 
+whole mob dispersed, and scampered off like a flock of sheep. In 
+our journey hither, we generally set out in a morning at eight 
+o'clock, and travelled 'till noon, when the mules were put up and 
+rested a couple of hours. During this halt, Joseph went to 
+dinner, and we went to breakfast, after which we ordered 
+provision for our refreshment in the coach, which we took about 
+three or four in the afternoon, halting for that purpose, by the 
+side of some transparent brook, which afforded excellent water to 
+mix with our wine. In this country I was almost poisoned with 
+garlic, which they mix in their ragouts, and all their sauces; 
+nay, the smell of it perfumes the very chambers, as well as every 
+person you approach. I was also very sick of been ficas, grives, 
+or thrushes, and other little birds, which are served up twice a 
+day at all ordinaries on the road. They make their appearance in 
+vine-leaves, and are always half raw, in which condition the 
+French choose to eat them, rather than run the risque of losing 
+the juice by over-roasting.
+
+The peasants on the South of France are poorly clad, and look as 
+if they were half-starved, diminutive, swarthy, and meagre; and 
+yet the common people who travel, live luxuriously on the road. 
+Every carrier and mule-driver has two meals a day, consisting 
+each of a couple of courses and a dessert, with tolerable small 
+wine. That which is called hermitage, and grows in this province 
+of Dauphine, is sold on the spot for three livres a bottle. The 
+common draught, which you have at meals in this country, is 
+remarkably strong, though in flavour much inferior to that of 
+Burgundy. The accommodation is tolerable, though they demand 
+(even in this cheap country) the exorbitant price of four livres 
+a head for every meal, of those who choose to eat in their own 
+apartments. I insisted, however, upon paying them with three, 
+which they received, though not without murmuring and seeming 
+discontented. In this journey, we found plenty of good mutton, 
+pork, poultry, and game, including the red partridge, which is 
+near twice as big as the partridge of England. Their hares are 
+likewise surprisingly large and juicy. We saw great flocks of 
+black turkeys feeding in the fields, but no black cattle; and 
+milk was so scarce, that sometimes we were obliged to drink our 
+tea without it.
+
+One day perceiving a meadow on the side of the road, full of a 
+flower which I took to be the crocus, I desired my servant to 
+alight and pull some of them. He delivered the musquetoon to 
+Joseph, who began to tamper with it, and off it went with a 
+prodigious report, augmented by an eccho from the mountains that 
+skirted the road. The mules were so frightened, that they went 
+off at the gallop; and Joseph, for some minutes, could neither 
+manage the reins, nor open his mouth. At length he recollected 
+himself, and the cattle were stopt, by the assistance of the 
+servant, to whom he delivered the musquetoon, with a significant 
+shake of the head. Then alighting from the box, he examined the 
+heads of his three mules, and kissed each of them in his turn. 
+Finding they had received no damage,
+he came up to the coach, with a pale visage and staring eyes, and 
+said it was God's mercy he had not killed his beasts. I answered, 
+that it was a greater mercy he had not killed his passengers; for 
+the muzzle of the piece might have been directed our way as well 
+as any other, and in that case Joseph might have been hanged for 
+murder. "I had as good be hanged (said he) for murder, as be 
+ruined by the loss of my cattle." This adventure made such an 
+impression upon him, that he recounted it to every person we met; 
+nor would he ever touch the blunderbuss from that day. I was 
+often diverted with the conversation of this fellow, who was very 
+arch and very communicative. Every afternoon, he used to stand 
+upon the foot-board, at the side of the coach, and discourse with 
+us an hour together. Passing by the gibbet of Valencia, which 
+stands very near the high-road, we saw one body hanging quite 
+naked, and another lying broken on the wheel. I recollected, that 
+Mandrin had suffered in this place, and calling to Joseph to 
+mount the foot-board, asked if he had ever seen that famous 
+adventurer. At mention of the name of Mandrin, the tear started 
+in Joseph's eye, he discharged a deep sigh, or rather groan, and 
+told me he was his dear friend. I was a little startled at this 
+declaration; however, I concealed my thoughts, and began to ask 
+questions about the character and exploits of a man who had made 
+such noise in the world.
+
+He told me, Mandrin was a native of Valencia, of mean extraction: 
+that he had served as a soldier in the army, and afterwards acted 
+as maltotier, or tax-gatherer: that at length he turned 
+contrebandier, or smuggler, and by his superior qualities, raised 
+himself to the command of a formidable gang, consisting of five 
+hundred persons well armed with carbines and pistols. He had 
+fifty horses for his troopers, and three hundred mules for the 
+carriage of his merchandize. His head-quarters were in Savoy: but 
+he made incursions into Dauphine, and set the marechaussee at 
+defiance. He maintained several bloody skirmishes with these 
+troopers, as well as with other regular detachments, and in all 
+those actions signalized himself by his courage and conduct. 
+Coming up at one time with fifty of the marechaussee who were in 
+quest of him, he told them very calmly, he had occasion for their 
+horses and acoutrements, and desired them to dismount. At that 
+instant his gang appeared, and the troopers complied with his 
+request, without making the least opposition. Joseph said he was 
+as generous as he was brave, and never molested travellers, nor 
+did the least injury to the poor; but, on the contrary, relieved 
+them very often. He used to oblige the gentlemen in the country 
+to take his merchandize, his tobacco, brandy, and muslins, at his 
+own price; and, in the same manner, he laid the open towns under 
+contribution. When he had no merchandize, he borrowed money off 
+them upon the credit of what he should bring when he was better 
+provided. He was at last betrayed, by his wench, to the colonel 
+of a French regiment, who went with a detachment in the night to 
+the place where he lay in Savoy, and surprized him in a wood-house, 
+while his people were absent in different parts of the 
+country. For this intrusion, the court of France made an apology 
+to the king of Sardinia, in whose territories he was taken. 
+Mandrin being conveyed to Valencia, his native place, was for 
+some time permitted to go abroad, under a strong guard, with 
+chains upon his legs; and here he conversed freely with all sorts 
+of people, flattering himself with the hopes of a pardon, in 
+which, however, he was disappointed. An order came from court to 
+bring him to his trial, when he was found guilty, and condemned 
+to be broke on the wheel. Joseph said he drank a bottle of wine 
+with him the night before his execution. He bore his fate with 
+great resolution, observing that if the letter which he had 
+written to the King had been delivered, he certainly should have 
+obtained his Majesty's pardon. His executioner was one of his own 
+gang, who was pardoned on condition of performing this office. 
+You know, that criminals broke upon the wheel are first 
+strangled, unless the sentence imports, that they shall be broke 
+alive. As Mandrin had not been guilty of cruelty in the course of 
+his delinquency, he was indulged with this favour. Speaking to 
+the executioner, whom he had formerly commanded, "Joseph (dit 
+il), je ne veux pas que tu me touche, jusqu'a ce que je sois roid 
+mort," "Joseph," said he, "thou shalt not touch me till I am 
+quite dead."--Our driver had no sooner pronounced these words, 
+than I was struck with a suspicion, that he himself was the 
+executioner of his friend Mandrin. On that suspicion, I 
+exclaimed, "Ah! ah! Joseph!" The fellow blushed up to the eyes, 
+and said, Oui, son nom etoit Joseph aussi bien que le mien, "Yes, 
+he was called Joseph, as I am." I did not think proper to 
+prosecute the inquiry; but did not much relish the nature of 
+Joseph's connexions. The truth is, he had very much the looks of 
+a ruffian; though, I must own, his behaviour was very obliging 
+and submissive.
+
+On the fifth day of our journey, in the morning, we passed the 
+famous bridge at St. Esprit, which to be sure is a great 
+curiosity, from its length, and the number of its arches: but 
+these arches are too small: the passage above is too narrow; and 
+the whole appears to be too slight, considering the force and 
+impetuosity of the river. It is not comparable to the bridge at 
+Westminster, either for beauty or solidity. Here we entered 
+Languedoc, and were stopped to have our baggage examined; but the 
+searcher, being tipped with a three-livre piece, allowed it to 
+pass. Before we leave Dauphine, I must observe, that I was not a 
+little surprized to see figs and chestnuts growing in the open 
+fields, at the discretion of every passenger. It was this day I 
+saw the famous Pont du Garde; but as I cannot possibly include, 
+in this letter, a description of that beautiful bridge, and of 
+the other antiquities belonging to Nismes, I will defer it till 
+the next opportunity, being, in the mean time, with equal truth 
+and affection,--Dear Sir, Your obliged humble Servant.
+
+LETTER X
+
+MONTPELLIER, November 10, 1763.
+
+DEAR SIR,--By the Pont St. Esprit we entered the province of 
+Languedoc, and breakfasted at Bagniole, which is a little paltry 
+town; from whence, however, there is an excellent road through a 
+mountain, made at a great expence, and extending about four 
+leagues. About five in the afternoon, I had the first glimpse of 
+the famous Pont du Garde, which stands on the right hand, about 
+the distance of a league from the post-road to Nismes, and about 
+three leagues from that city. I would not willingly pass for a 
+false enthusiast in taste; but I cannot help observing, that from 
+the first distant view of this noble monument, till we came near 
+enough to see it perfectly, I felt the strongest emotions of 
+impatience that I had ever known; and obliged our driver to put 
+his mules to the full gallop, in the apprehension that it would 
+be dark before we reached the place. I expected to find the 
+building, in some measure, ruinous; but was agreeably 
+disappointed, to see it look as fresh as the bridge at 
+Westminster. The climate is either so pure and dry, or the free-stone, 
+with which it is built, so hard, that the very angles of 
+them remain as acute as if they had been cut last year. Indeed, 
+some large stones have dropped out of the arches; but the whole 
+is admirably preserved, and presents the eye with a piece of 
+architecture, so unaffectedly elegant, so simple, and majestic, 
+that I will defy the most phlegmatic and stupid spectator to 
+behold it without admiration. It was raised in the Augustan age, 
+by the Roman colony of Nismes, to convey a stream of water 
+between two mountains, for the use of that city. It stands over 
+the river Gardon, which is a beautiful pastoral stream, brawling 
+among rocks, which form a number of pretty natural cascades, and 
+overshadowed on each side with trees and shrubs, which greatly 
+add to the rural beauties of the scene. It rises in the Cevennes, 
+and the sand of it produces gold, as we learn from Mr. Reaumur, 
+in his essay on this subject, inserted in the French Memoirs, for 
+the year 1718. If I lived at Nismes, or Avignon (which last city 
+is within four short leagues of it) I should take pleasure in 
+forming parties to come hither, in summer, to dine under one of 
+the arches of the Pont du Garde, on a cold collation.
+
+This work consists of three bridges, or tire of arches, one above 
+another; the first of six, the second of eleven, and the third of 
+thirty-six. The height, comprehending the aqueduct on the top, 
+amounts to 174 feet three inches: the length between the two 
+mountains, which it unites, extends to 723. The order of 
+architecture is the Tuscan, but the symmetry of it is 
+inconceivable. By scooping the bases of the pilasters, of the 
+second tire of arches, they had made a passage for foot-travellers: 
+but though the antients far excelled us in beauty, 
+they certainly fell short of the moderns in point of conveniency. 
+The citizens of Avignon have, in this particular, improved the 
+Roman work with a new bridge, by apposition, constructed on the 
+same plan with that of the lower tire of arches, of which indeed 
+it seems to be a part, affording a broad and commodious passage 
+over the river, to horses and carriages of all kinds. The 
+aqueduct, for the continuance of which this superb work was 
+raised, conveyed a stream of sweet water from the fountain of 
+Eure, near the city of Uzes, and extended near six leagues in 
+length.
+
+In approaching Nismes, you see the ruins of a Roman tower, built 
+on the summit of a hill, which over-looks the city. It seems to 
+have been intended, at first, as a watch, or signal-tower, 
+though, in the sequel, it was used as a fortress: what remains of 
+it, is about ninety feet high; the architecture of the Doric 
+order. I no sooner alighted at the inn, than I was presented with 
+a pamphlet, containing an account of Nismes and its antiquities, 
+which every stranger buys. There are persons too who attend in 
+order to shew the town,
+and you will always be accosted by some shabby antiquarian, who 
+presents you with medals for sale, assuring you they are genuine 
+antiques, and were dug out of the ruins of the Roman temple and 
+baths. All those fellows are cheats; and they have often laid 
+under contribution raw English travellers, who had more money 
+than discretion. To such they sell the vilest and most common 
+trash: but when they meet with a connoisseur, they produce some 
+medals which are really valuable and curious.
+
+Nismes, antiently called Nemausis, was originally a colony of 
+Romans, settled by Augustus Caesar, after the battle of Actium. 
+It is still of considerable extent, and said to contain twelve 
+thousand families; but the number seems, by this account, to be 
+greatly exaggerated. Certain it is, the city must have been 
+formerly very extensive, as appears from the circuit of the 
+antient walls, the remains of which are still to be seen. Its 
+present size is not one third of its former extent. Its temples, 
+baths, statues, towers, basilica, and amphitheatre, prove it to 
+have been a city of great opulence and magnificence. At present, 
+the remains of these antiquities are all that make it respectable 
+or remarkable; though here are manufactures of silk and wool, 
+carried on with good success. The water necessary for these works 
+is supplied by a source at the foot of the rock, upon which the 
+tower is placed; and here were discovered the ruins of Roman 
+baths, which had been formed and adorned with equal taste and 
+magnificence. Among the rubbish they found a vast profusion of 
+columns, vases, capitals, cornices, inscriptions, medals, 
+statues, and among other things, the finger of a colossal statue 
+in bronze, which, according to the rules of proportion, must have 
+been fifteen feet high. From these particulars, it appears that 
+the edifices must have been spacious and magnificent. Part of a 
+tesselated pavement still remains. The antient pavement of the 
+bath is still intire; all the rubbish has been cleared away; and 
+the baths, in a great measure, restored on the old plan, though 
+they are not at present used for any thing but ornament. The 
+water is collected into two vast reservoirs, and a canal built 
+and lined with hewn stone. There are three handsome bridges 
+thrown over this vast canal. It contains a great body of 
+excellent water, which by pipes and other small branching canals, 
+traverses the town, and is converted to many different purposes 
+of oeconomy and manufacture. Between the Roman bath and these 
+great canals, the ground is agreeably laid out in pleasure-walks. 
+for the recreation of the inhabitants. Here are likewise 
+ornaments of architecture, which savour much more of French 
+foppery, than of the simplicity and greatness of the antients. It 
+is very surprizing, that this fountain should produce such a 
+great body of water, as fills the basin of the source, the Roman 
+basin, two large deep canals three hundred feet in length, two 
+vast basins that make part of the great canal, which is eighteen 
+hundred feet long. eighteen feet deep, and forty-eight feet 
+broad. When I saw it, there was in it about eight or nine feet of 
+water, transparent as crystal. It must be observed, however, for 
+the honour of French cleanliness, that in the Roman basin, 
+through which this noble stream of water passes, I perceived two 
+washerwomen at work upon children's clouts and dirty linnen. 
+Surprized, and much disgusted at this filthy phaenomenon, I asked 
+by what means, and by whose permission, those dirty hags had got 
+down into the basin, in order to contaminate the water at its 
+fountain-head; and understood they belonged to the commandant of 
+the place, who had keys of the subterranean passage.
+
+Fronting the Roman baths are the ruins of an antient temple, 
+which, according to tradition, was dedicated to Diana: but it has 
+been observed by connoisseurs, that all the antient temples of 
+this goddess were of the Ionic order; whereas, this is partly 
+Corinthian, and partly composite. It is about seventy foot long, 
+and six and thirty in breadth, arched above, and built of large 
+blocks of stone,
+exactly joined together without any cement. The walls are still 
+standing, with three great tabernacles at the further end, 
+fronting the entrance. On each side, there are niches in the 
+intercolumniation of the walls, together with pedestals and 
+shafts of pillars, cornices, and an entablature, which indicate 
+the former magnificence of the building. It was destroyed during 
+the civil war that raged in the reign of Henry III. of France.
+
+It is amazing, that the successive irruptions of barbarous 
+nations, of Goths, Vandals, and Moors; of fanatic croisards, 
+still more sanguinary and illiberal than those Barbarians, should 
+have spared this temple, as well as two other still more noble 
+monuments of architecture, that to this day adorn the city of 
+Nismes: I mean the amphitheatre and the edifice, called Maison 
+Carree--The former of these is counted the finest monument of the 
+kind, now extant; and was built in the reign of Antoninus Pius, 
+who contributed a large sum of money towards its erection. It is 
+of an oval figure, one thousand and eighty feet in circumference, 
+capacious enough to hold twenty thousand spectators. The 
+architecture is of the Tuscan order, sixty feet high, composed of 
+two open galleries, built one over another, consisting each of 
+threescore arcades. The entrance into the arena was by four great 
+gates, with porticos; and the seats, of which there were thirty, 
+rising one above another, consisted of great blocks of stone, 
+many of which still remain. Over the north gate, appear two 
+bulls, in alto-relievo, extremely well executed, emblems which, 
+according to the custom of the Romans, signified that the 
+amphitheatre was erected at the expence of the people. There are 
+in other parts of it some work in bas-relief, and heads or busts 
+but indifferently carved. It stands in the lower part of the 
+town, and strikes the spectator with awe and veneration. The 
+external architecture is almost intire in its whole circuit; but 
+the arena is filled up with houses--This amphitheatre was 
+fortified as a citadel by the Visigoths, in the beginning of the 
+sixth century. They raised within it a castle, two towers of 
+which are still extant; and they surrounded it with a broad and 
+deep fossee, which was filled up in the thirteenth century. In 
+all the subsequent wars to which this city was exposed, it served 
+as the last resort of the citizens, and sustained a great number 
+of successive attacks; so that its preservation is almost 
+miraculous. It is likely, however, to suffer much more from the 
+Gothic avarice of its own citizens, some of whom are mutilating 
+it every day, for the sake of the stones, which they employ in 
+their own private buildings. It is surprizing, that the King's 
+authority has not been exerted to put an end to such sacrilegious 
+violation.
+
+If the amphitheatre strikes you with an idea of greatness, the 
+Maison Carree enchants you with the most exquisite beauties of 
+architecture and sculpture. This is an edifice, supposed formerly 
+to have been erected by Adrian, who actually built a basilica in 
+this city, though no vestiges of it remain: but the following 
+inscription, which was discovered on the front of it, plainly 
+proves, that it was built by the inhabitants of Nismes, in honour 
+of Caius and Lucius Caesar, the grandchildren of Augustus by his 
+daughter Julia, the wife of Agrippa. 		
+
+C. CAESARI. AVGVSTI. F. COS.
+L CAESARI. AVGMI. F. COS.
+DESIGNATO.
+PRINCIPIBVS IVVENTUTIS.
+
+To Caius and Lucius Caesar, sons of Augustus, consuls elect, 
+Princes of the Roman youth.
+
+This beautiful edifice, which stands upon a pediment six feet 
+high, is eighty-two feet long, thirty-five broad, and thirty-seven 
+high, without reckoning the pediment. The body of it is 
+adorned with twenty columns engaged in the wall, and the 
+peristyle, which is open, with ten detached pillars that support 
+the entablature. They are all of the Corinthian order, fluted and 
+embellished with capitals of the most exquisite sculpture, the 
+frize and cornice are much admired, and the foliage is esteemed 
+inimitable. The proportions of the building are so happily 
+united, as to give it an air of majesty and grandeur, which the 
+most indifferent spectator cannot behold without emotion. A man 
+needs not be a connoisseur in architecture, to enjoy these 
+beauties. They are indeed so exquisite that you may return to 
+them every day with a fresh appetite for seven years together. 
+What renders them the more curious, they are still entire, and 
+very little affected, either by the ravages of time, or the havoc 
+of war. Cardinal Alberoni declared, that it was a jewel that 
+deserved a cover of gold to preserve it from external injuries. 
+An Italian painter, perceiving a small part of the roof repaired 
+by modern French masonry, tore his hair, and exclaimed in a rage, 
+"Zounds! what do I see? harlequin's hat on the head of Augustus!"
+
+Without all doubt it is ravishingly beautiful. The whole world 
+cannot parallel it; and I am astonished to see it standing 
+entire, like the effects of inchantment, after such a succession 
+of ages, every one more barbarous than another. The history of 
+the antiquities of Nismes takes notice of a grotesque statue, 
+representing two female bodies and legs, united under the head of 
+an old man; but, as it does not inform us where it is kept, I did 
+not see it.
+
+The whole country of Languedoc is shaded with olive trees, the 
+fruit of which begins to ripen, and appears as black as sloes; 
+those they pickle are pulled green, and steeped for some time in 
+a lye made of quick lime or wood ashes, which extracts the bitter 
+taste, and makes the fruit tender. Without this preparation it is 
+not eatable. Under the olive and fig trees, they plant corn and 
+vines, so that there is not an inch of ground unlaboured: but 
+here are no open fields, meadows, or cattle to be seen. The 
+ground is overloaded; and the produce of it crowded to such a 
+degree, as to have a bad effect upon the eye, impressing the 
+traveller with the ideas of indigence and rapacity. The heat in 
+summer is so excessive, that cattle would find no green forage, 
+every blade of grass being parched up and destroyed. The weather 
+was extremely hot when we entered Montpellier, and put up at the 
+Cheval Blanc, counted the best auberge in the place, tho' in fact 
+it is a most wretched hovel, the habitation of darkness, dirt, 
+and imposition. Here I was obliged to pay four livres a meal for 
+every person in my family, and two livres at night for every bed, 
+though all in the same room: one would imagine that the further 
+we advance to the southward the living is the dearer, though in 
+fact every article of housekeeping is cheaper in Languedoc than 
+many other provinces of France. This imposition is owing to the 
+concourse of English who come hither, and, like simple birds of 
+passage, allow themselves to be plucked by the people of the 
+country, who know their weak side, and make their attacks 
+accordingly. They affect to believe, that all the travellers of 
+our country are grand seigneurs, immensely rich and incredibly 
+generous; and we are silly enough to encourage this opinion, by 
+submitting quietly to the most ridiculous extortion, as well as 
+by committing acts of the most absurd extravagance. This folly of 
+the English, together with a concourse of people from different 
+quarters, who come hither for the re-establishment of their 
+health, has rendered Montpellier one of the dearest places in the 
+South of France. The city, which is but small, stands upon a 
+rising ground fronting the Mediterranean, which is about three 
+leagues to the southward: on the other side is an agreeable 
+plain, extending about the same distance towards the mountains of 
+the Cevennes. The town is reckoned well built, and what the 
+French call bien percee; yet the streets are in general narrow, 
+and the houses dark. The air is counted salutary in catarrhous 
+consumptions, from its dryness and elasticity: but too sharp in 
+cases of pulmonary imposthumes.
+
+It was at Montpellier that we saw for the first time any signs of 
+that gaiety and mirth for which the people of this country are 
+celebrated. In all other places through which we passed since our 
+departure from Lyons, we saw nothing but marks of poverty and 
+chagrin. We entered Montpellier on a Sunday, when the people were 
+all dressed in their best apparel. The streets were crowded; and 
+a great number of the better sort of both sexes sat upon stone 
+seats at their doors, conversing with great mirth and 
+familiarity. These conversations lasted the greatest part of the 
+night; and many of them were improved with musick both vocal and 
+instrumental: next day we were visited by the English residing in 
+the place, who always pay this mark of respect to new comers. 
+They consist of four or five families, among whom I could pass 
+the winter very agreeably, if the state of my health and other 
+reasons did not call me away.
+
+Mr. L-- had arrived two days before me, troubled with the same 
+asthmatic disorder, under which I have laboured so long. He told 
+me he had been in quest of me ever since he left England. Upon 
+comparing notes, I found he had stopped at the door of a country 
+inn in Picardy, and drank a glass of wine and water, while I was 
+at dinner up stairs; nay, he had even spoke to my servant, and 
+asked who was his master, and the man, not knowing him, replied, 
+he was a gentleman from Chelsea. He had walked by the door of the 
+house where I lodged at Paris, twenty times, while I was in that 
+city; and the very day before he arrived at Montpellier, he had 
+passed our coach on the road.
+
+The garrison of this city consists of two battalions, one of 
+which is the Irish regiment of Berwick, commanded by lieutenant 
+colonel Tents, a gentleman with whom we contracted an 
+acquaintance at Boulogne. He treats us with great politeness, and 
+indeed does every thing in his power to make the place agreeable 
+to us. The duke of Fitz-James, the governor, is expected here in 
+a little time. We have already a tolerable concert twice a week; 
+there will be a comedy in the winter; and the states of Provence 
+assemble in January, so that Montpellier will be extremely gay 
+and brilliant. These very circumstances would determine me to 
+leave it. I have not health to enjoy these pleasures: I cannot 
+bear a croud of company such as pours in upon us unexpectedly at 
+all hours; and I foresee, that in staying at Montpellier, I 
+should be led into an expence, which I can ill afford. I have 
+therefore forwarded the letter I received from general P--n, to 
+Mr. B--d, our consul at Nice, signifying my intention of going 
+thither, and explaining the kind of accommodation I would choose 
+to have at that place.
+
+The day after our arrival, I procured tolerable lodgings in the 
+High Street, for which I pay fifty sols, something more than two 
+shillings per day; and I am furnished with two meals a day by a 
+traiteur for ten livres: but he finds neither the wine nor the 
+dessert; and indeed we are but indifferently served. Those 
+families who reside here find their account in keeping house. 
+Every traveller who comes to this, or any other, town in France 
+with a design to stay longer than a day or two, ought to write 
+beforehand to his correspondent to procure furnished lodgings, to 
+which he may be driven immediately, without being under the 
+necessity of lying in an execrable inn; for all the inns of this 
+country are execrable.
+
+My baggage is not yet arrived by the canal of Languedoc; but that 
+gives me no disturbance, as it is consigned to the care of Mr. 
+Ray, an English merchant and banker of this place; a gentleman of 
+great probity and worth, from whom I have received repeated marks 
+of uncommon friendship and hospitality.
+
+The next time you hear of me will be from Nice: mean-while, I 
+remain always,--Dear Sir, Your affectionate humble servant.
+
+LETTER XI
+
+MONTPELLIER, November 12.
+
+DEAR DOCTOR--I flattered myself with the hope of much amusement 
+during my short stay at Montpellier.--The University, the 
+Botanical Garden, the State of
+Physic in this part of the world, and the information I received 
+of a curious collection of manuscripts, among which I hoped to 
+find something for our friend Dr. H--r; all these particulars 
+promised a rich fund of entertainment, which, however, I cannot 
+enjoy.
+
+A few days after my arrival, it began to rain with a southerly 
+wind, and continued without ceasing the best part of a week, 
+leaving the air so loaded with vapours, that there was no walking 
+after sun-set; without being wetted by the dew almost to the 
+skin. I have always found a cold and damp atmosphere the most 
+unfavourable of any to my constitution. My asthmatical disorder. 
+which had not given me much disturbance since I left Boulogne, 
+became now very troublesome, attended with fever, cough spitting, 
+and lowness of spirits; and I wasted visibly every day. I was 
+favoured with the advice of Dr. Fitzmaurice, a very worthy 
+sensible physician settled in this place: but I had the curiosity 
+to know the opinion of the celebrated professor F--, who is the 
+Boerhaave of Montpellier. The account I had of his private 
+character and personal deportment, from some English people to 
+whom he was well known, left me no desire to converse with him: 
+but I resolved to consult with him on paper. This great lanthorn 
+of medicine is become very rich and very insolent; and in 
+proportion as his wealth increases, he is said to grow the more 
+rapacious. He piques himself upon being very slovenly, very 
+blunt, and very unmannerly; and perhaps to these qualifications 
+be owes his reputation rather than to any superior skill in 
+medicine. I have known them succeed in our own country; and seen 
+a doctor's parts estimated by his brutality and presumption.
+
+F-- is in his person and address not unlike our old acquaintance 
+Dr. Sm--ie; he stoops much, dodges along, and affects to speak 
+the Patois, which is a corruption of the old Provencial tongue, 
+spoken by the vulgar in Languedoc and Provence. Notwithstanding 
+his great age and great wealth, he will still scramble up two 
+pair of stairs for a fee of six livres; and without a fee he will 
+give his advice to no person whatsoever.
+
+He is said to have great practice in the venereal branch and to 
+be frequented by persons of both sexes infected with this 
+distemper, not only from every part of France, but also from 
+Spain, Italy, Germany, and England. I need say nothing of the 
+Montpellier method of cure, which is well known at London; but I 
+have some reason to think the great professor F--, has, like the 
+famous Mrs. Mapp, the bone-setter, cured many patients that were 
+never diseased.
+
+Be that as it may, I sent my valet de place, who was his townsman 
+and acquaintance, to his house, with the following case, and a 
+loui'dore.
+
+Annum aetatis, post quadragesimum, tertium, Temperamentum 
+humidum, crassum, pituitarepletum, catarrhis saepissime 
+profligatum. Catarrhus, febre, anxietate et dyspnoea, nunquam non 
+comitatus. Irritatio membranae piuitariae trachaealis, tussim 
+initio aridam, siliquosam, deinde vero excreationem copiosam 
+excitat: sputum albumini ovi simillimum.
+
+Accedente febre, urina pallida, limpida: ad akmen flagrante, 
+colorem rubrum, subflavum induit: coctione peracta, sedimentum 
+lateritium deponit.
+
+Appetitus raro deest: digestio segnior sed secura, non autem sine 
+ructu perfecta. Alvus plerumque stipata: excretio intestinalis 
+minima, ratione ingestorum habita. Pulsus frequens, vacillans, 
+exilis, quandoquidem etiam intermittens.
+
+Febre una extincta, non deficit altera. Aliaque et eadem statim 
+nascitur. Aer paulo frigidior, vel humidior, vestimentum 
+inusitatum indutum; exercitatio paulullum nimia; ambulatio, 
+equitatio, in quovis vehiculo jactatio; haec omnia novos motus 
+suscitant. Systema nervosum maxime irritabile, organos patitur. 
+Ostiola in cute hiantia, materiei perspirabili, exitum 
+praebentia, clauduntur. Materies obstructa cumulatur; sanguine 
+aliisque humoribus circumagitur: fit plethora. Natura opprimi 
+nolens, excessus huius expulsionem conatur. Febris nova
+accenditur. Pars oneris, in membranam trachaealem laxatam ac 
+debilitatam transfertur. Glandulae pituitariae turgentes bronchia 
+comprimunt. Liber aeri transitus negatur: hinc respiratio 
+difficilis. Hac vero translatione febris minuitur: interdiu 
+remittitur. Dyspnoea autem aliaque symptomata vere 
+hypochondriaca, recedere nolunt. Vespere febris exacerbatur. 
+Calor, inquietudo, anxietas et asthma, per noctem grassantur. Ita 
+quotidie res agitur, donec. Vis vitae paulatim crisim efficit. 
+Seminis joctura, sive in somniis effusi, seu in gremio veneris 
+ejaculati, inter causas horum malorum nec non numeretur.
+
+Quibusdam abhinc annis, exercitationibus juvenilibus subito 
+remissis, in vitam sedentariam lapsum. Animo in studia severiora 
+converso, fibre gradatim laxabantur. Inter legendum, et 
+scribendum inclinato corpore in pectus malum, ruebat. Morbo 
+ingruenti affectio scorbutica auxilium tulit. Invasio prima 
+nimium aspernata. Venientibus hostibus non occursum. Cunctando 
+res non restituta. Remedia convenientia stomachus perhorrescebat. 
+Gravescente dyspnoea phlebotomia frustra tentata. Sanguinis 
+missione vis vitae diminuta: fiebat pulsitis debilior, respiratio 
+difficilior. In pejus ruunt omnia. Febris anomala in febriculam 
+continuam mutata. Dyspnoea confirmata. Fibrarum compages soluta. 
+Valetudo penitus eversa.
+
+His agitatus furiis, aeger ad mare provolat: in fluctus se 
+precipitem, dat: periculum factum spem non fefellit: decies 
+iteratum, felix faustumque evasit. Elater novus fibris 
+conciliatur. Febricula fugatur. Acris dyspnoea solvitur. 
+Beneficium dextra ripa partum, sinistra perditum. Superficie 
+corporis, aquae marine frigore et pondere, compressa et 
+contracta, interstitia fibrarum occluduntur: particulis 
+incrementi novis partes abrasas reficientibus, locus non datur. 
+Nutritio corporis, via pristina clausa, qua data porta ruit: in 
+membranam pulmonum, minus firmatam facile fertur, et glandulis 
+per sputum rejicitur.
+
+Hieme pluviosa, regnante dolores renovantur; tametsi tempore 
+sereno equitatio profuit. Aestate morbus vix ullum 
+progrediebatur. Autumno, valetudine plus declinata, thermis 
+Bathoniensibus solatium haud frustra quaesitum. Aqua ista mire 
+medicata, externe aeque ac interne adhibita, malis levamen 
+attulit. Hiems altera, frigida, horrida, diuturna, innocua tamen 
+successit. Vere novo casus atrox diras procellas animo immisit: 
+toto corpore, tota mente tumultuatur. Patria relicta, tristitia, 
+sollecitudo, indignatio, et saevissima recordatio sequuntur. 
+Inimici priores furore inveterato revertuntur. Rediit febris 
+hectica: rediit asthma cum anxietate, tusse et dolore lateris 
+lancinanti.
+
+Desperatis denique rebus, iterum ad mare, veluti ad anceps 
+remedium recurritur. Balneum hoc semper benignum. Dolor statim 
+avolat. Tertio die febris, retrocessit. Immersio quotidiana 
+antemeridiana, ad vices quinquaginta repetita, symptomata 
+graviora subjugavit.-- Manet vero tabes pituitaria: manet 
+temperamentum in catarrhos proclive. Corpus macrescit. Vires 
+delabuntur.
+
+The professor's eyes sparkled at sight of the fee; and he desired 
+the servant to call next morning for his opinion of the case, 
+which accordingly I received in these words:
+
+"On voit par cette relation que monsieur le consultant dont on 
+n'a pas juge a propos de dire l'age, mais qui nous paroit etre 
+adulte et d'un age passablement avance, a ete sujet cy devant a 
+des rhumes frequens accompagnes de fievre; on ne detaille point 
+(aucune epoque), on parle dans la relation d'asthme auquel il a 
+ete sujet, de scorbut ou affection scorbutique dont on ne dit pas 
+les symptomes. On nous fait scavoir qu'il s'est bien trouve de 
+l'immersion dans l'eau de la mer, et des eaux de Bath.
+
+"On dit a present qu'il a une fievre pituitaire sans dire depuis 
+combien de temps. Qu'il lui reste toujours son temperament enclin 
+aux catharres. Que le corps maigrit, et que les forces se 
+perdent. On ne dit point s'il y a des exacerbations dans cette 
+fievre ou non, si le malade a appetit ou non, s'il tousse ou non, 
+s'il crache ou non, en un mot on n'entre dans aucun detail sur 
+ces objets, sur quoi le conseil soussigne estime que monsieur le 
+consultant est en fievre lente, et que vraisemblable le poumon 
+souffre de quelque tubercules qui peut-etre sont en fonte, ce que 
+nous aurions determine si dans la relation on avoit marque les 
+qualites de crachats.
+
+"La cause fonchere de cette maladie doit etre imputee a une 
+lymphe epaisse et acrimonieuse, qui donne occasion a des 
+tubercules au pomon, qui etant mis on fonte fournissent au sang 
+des particules acres et le rendent tout acrimonieux.
+
+"Les vues que l'on doit avoir dans ce cas sent de procurer des 
+bonnes digestions (quoique dans la relation ou ne dit pas un mot 
+sur les digestions) de jetter un douce detrempe dans la masse du 
+sang, d'en ebasser l'acrimonie et de l'adoucir, de diviser fort 
+doucement a lymphe, et de deterger le poumon, lui procurant meme 
+du calme suppose que la toux l'inquiete, quoique cependant on ne 
+dit pas un mot sur la toux dans la relation. C'est pourquoi on le 
+purgera avec 3 onces de manne, dissoutes dans un verre de 
+decoction de 3 dragmes de polypode de chesne, on passera ensuite 
+a des bouillons qui seront faits avec un petit poulet, la chair, 
+le sang, le coeur et le foye d'une tortue de grandeur mediocre 
+c'est a dire du poid de 8 a 12 onces avec sa coquille, une 
+poignee de chicoree amere de jardin, et une pincee de feuilles de 
+lierre terrestre vertes on seches. Ayant pris ces bouillons 15 
+matins on se purgera comme auparavant, pour en venir a des 
+bouillons qui seront faits avec la moitie d'un mou de veau, une 
+poignee de pimprenelle de jardin, et une dragme de racine 
+d'angelique concassee.
+
+Ayant pris ces bouillons 15 matins, on se purgera somme 
+auparavant pour en venir an lait d'anesse que l'on prendra le 
+matin a jeun, a la dose de 12 a 16 onces y ajoutant un cuilleree 
+de sucre rape, on prendra ce lait le matin a jeun observant de 
+prendre pendant son usage de deux jours l'un un moment avant le 
+lait un bolus fait avec 15 grains de craye de Braincon en poudre 
+fine, 20 grains de corail prepare, 8 grains d'antihectique de 
+poterius, et ce qu'il faut de syrop de lierre terrestre, mais les 
+jour on ou ne prendra pas le bolus on prendra un moment avant le 
+lait 3 on 4 gouttes de bon baume de Canada detrempees dans un 
+demi cuilleree de syrop de lierre terrestre. Si le corps maigrit 
+de plus en plus, je suis d'avis que pendant l'usage du lait 
+d'anesse on soupe tous les soirs avec une soupe au lait de vache.
+
+"On continuera l'usage du lait d'anesse tant, que le malade 
+pourra le supporter, ne le purgeant que par necessite et toujours 
+avec la medecine ordonnee.
+
+"Au reste, si monsieur le consultant ne passe les nuits bien 
+calmes, il prendra chaque soir a l'heure de sommeil six grains 
+des pilules de cynoglosse, dent il augmentera la dose d'un grain 
+de plus toutes les fois que la dose du jour precedent, n'aura pas 
+ete suffisante pour lui faire passer la nuit bien calme.
+
+"Si les malade tousse il usera soit de jour soit de nuit par 
+petites cuillerees a casse d'un looch, qui sera fait avec un once 
+de syrop de violat et un dragme de blanc de baleine.
+
+"Si les crachats sent epais et qu'il crache difficilement, en ce 
+cas il prendra une ou deux fois le jour, demi dragme de blanc de 
+baleine reduit on poudre avec un pen de sucre candit qu'il 
+avalera avec une cuilleree d'eau.
+
+"Enfin il doit observer un bon regime de vivre, c'est pourquoi il 
+fera toujours gras et seulement en soupes, bouilli et roti, il ne 
+mangera pas les herbes des soupes, et on salera peu son pot, il 
+se privera du beuf, cochon, chair noir, oiseaux d'eau, ragouts, 
+fritures, patisseries, alimens sales, epices, vinaigres, salades, 
+fruits, cruds, et autres crudites, alimens grossiers, ou de 
+difficille digestion, la boisson sera de l'eau tant soit peu 
+rougee de bon vin au diner seulement, et il ne prendra a souper 
+qu'une soupe.
+
+Delibere a MONTPELLIER
+le 11 Novembre.
+F--.
+Professeur en l'universite honoraire.
+
+Receu vingt et quatre livres.
+
+I thought it was a little extraordinary that a learned professor 
+should reply in his mother tongue, to a case put in Latin: but I 
+was much more surprised, as you will also be, at reading his 
+answer, from which I was obliged to conclude, either that he did 
+not understand Latin; or that he had not taken the trouble to 
+read my memoire. I shall not make any remarks upon the stile of 
+his prescription, replete as it is with a disgusting repetition 
+of low expressions: but I could not but, in justice to myself, 
+point out to him the passages in my case which he had overlooked. 
+Accordingly, having marked them with letters, I sent it back, 
+with the following billet.
+
+"Apparement Mons. F-- n'a pas donne beaucoup d'attention au 
+memoire de ma sante que j'ai on l'honneur de lui presenter--
+'Monsieur le consultant (dit il) dont on n'a pas juge it propos 
+de dire l'age.'--Mais on voit dans le memoire a No. 1. 'Annum 
+aetatis post quadragesimum tertium.'
+
+"Mr. F-- dit que 'je n'ai pas marque aucune epoque. Mais a No. 2 
+du memoire il trouvera ces mots. 'Quibusdam abbinc annis.' J'ai 
+meme detaille le progres de la maladie pour trois ans 
+consecutifs.
+
+"Mons. F-- observe, 'On no dit point s'il y a des exacerbations 
+dans cette fievre ou non.' Qu'il. Regarde la lettre B, il verra, 
+Vespere febris exacerbatur. Calor, inquietudo, anxietas et asthma 
+per noctem grassantur.'
+
+"Mons. F-- remarque, 'On ne dit point si le malade a appetit ou
+non, s'il tousse ou non, s'il crache ou non, en un mot on n'entre 
+dans aucun detail sur ces objets.' Mais on voit toutes ces 
+circonstances detaillees dans la memoire a lettre A, 'Irritatio 
+membranae trachaealis tussim, initio aridam, siliquosam, deinde 
+vero excreationem copiosam excitat. Sputum albumini ovi 
+simillimum. Appetitus raro deest. Digestio segnior sed secura.'
+
+"Mons. F-- observe encore, 'qu'on ne dit pas un mot sur la toux 
+dans la relation.' Mais j'ai dit encore a No. 3 de memoire, 
+'rediit febris hectica; rediit asthma cum anxietate, tusse et 
+dolore lateris lancinante.'
+
+"Au reste, je ne puis pas me persuader qu'il y ait des tubercules 
+au poumon, parce que j'ai ne jamais crache de pus, ni autre chose 
+que de la pituite qui a beaucoup de ressemblance au blanc des 
+oeufs. Sputum albumini ovi simillimum. Il me paroit done que ma 
+maladie doit son origine a la suspension de l'exercice du corps, 
+au grand attachement d'esprit, et a une vie sedentaire qui a 
+relache le sisteme fibreux; et qu'a present on pent l'appeller 
+tubes pituitaria, non tubes purulenta. J'espere que Mons. Faura 
+la bonte de faire revision du memoire, et de m'en dire encore son 
+sentiment."
+
+Considering the nature of the case, you see I could not treat him 
+more civilly. I desired the servant to ask when he should return 
+for an answer, and whether he expected another fee. He desired 
+him to come next morning, and, as the fellow assured me, gave him 
+to understand, that whatever monsieur might solicit, should be for 
+his (the servant's) advantage. In all probability he did not 
+expect another gratification, to which, indeed, he had no title. 
+Mons. F-- was undoubtedly much mortified to find himself detected 
+in such flagrant instances of unjustifiable negligence, arid like 
+all other persons in the same ungracious dilemma, instead of 
+justifying himself by reason or argument, had recourse to 
+recrimination. In the paper which he sent me next day, he 
+insisted in general that he had carefully perused the case (which 
+you will perceive was a self-evident untruth); he said the theory 
+it contained was idle; that he was sure it could not be written 
+by a physician; that, with respect to the disorder, he was still 
+of the same opinion; and adhered to his former prescription; but 
+if I had any doubts I might come to his house, and he would 
+resolve them.
+
+I wrapt up twelve livres in the following note, and sent it to 
+his house.
+
+"C'est ne pas sans raison que monsieur F-- jouit d'une si grande 
+reputation. Je n'ai plus de doutes, graces a Dieu et a monsieur 
+F--e. " "It is not without reason that monsieur Fizes enjoys such 
+a large share of reputation. I have no doubts remaining; thank 
+Heaven and monsieur Fizes."
+
+To this I received for answer. "Monsieur n'a plus de doutes: j'en 
+suis charme. Receu douze livres. F--, &c." "Sir, you have no 
+doubts remaining; I am very glad of it. Received twelve livres. 
+Fizes, &c."
+
+Instead of keeping his promise to the valet, he put the money in 
+his pocket; and the fellow returned in a rage, exclaiming that he 
+was un gros cheval de carosse, a great coach-horse.
+
+I shall make no other comment upon the medicines, and the regimen 
+which this great Doctor prescribed; but that he certainly mistook 
+the case: that upon the supposition I actually laboured under a 
+purulent discharge from the lungs, his remedies savour strongly 
+of the old woman; and that there is a total blank with respect to 
+the article of exercise, which you know is so essential in all 
+pulmonary disorders. But after having perused my remarks upon his 
+first prescription, he could not possibly suppose that I had 
+tubercules, and was spitting up pus; therefore his persisting in 
+recommending the same medicines he had prescribed on that 
+supposition, was a flagrant absurdity.--If, for example, there 
+was no vomica in the lungs; and the business was to attenuate the 
+lymph, what could be more preposterous than to advise the chalk 
+of Briancon, coral, antihecticum poterii, and the balm of Canada? 
+As for the turtle-soupe, it is a good restorative and balsamic; 
+but, I apprehend, will tend to thicken rather than attenuate the 
+phlegm. He mentions not a syllable of the air, though it is 
+universally allowed, that the climate of Montpellier is 
+pernicious to ulcerated lungs; and here I cannot help recounting 
+a small adventure which our doctor had with a son of Mr. O--d, 
+merchant in the city of London. I had it from Mrs. St--e who was 
+on the spot. The young gentleman, being consumptive, consulted 
+Mr. F--, who continued visiting and prescribing for him a whole 
+month. At length, perceiving that he grew daily worse, "Doctor 
+(said he) I take your prescriptions punctually; but, instead of 
+being the better for them, I have now not an hour's remission 
+from the fever in the four-and-twenty.--I cannot conceive the 
+meaning of it." F--, who perceived he had not long to live, told 
+him the reason was very plain: the air of Montpellier was too 
+sharp for his lungs, which required a softer climate. "Then 
+you're a sordid villain (cried the young man) for allowing me to 
+stay here till my constitution is irretrievable." He set out 
+immediately for Tholouse, and in a few weeks died in the 
+neighbourhood of that city.
+
+I observe that the physicians in this country pay no regard to 
+the state of the solids in chronical disorders, that exercise and 
+the cold bath are never prescribed, that they seem to think the 
+scurvy is entirely an English disease; and that, in all 
+appearance, they often confound the symptoms of it, with those of 
+the venereal distemper. Perhaps I may be more particular on this 
+subject in a subsequent letter. In the mean time, I am ever,--
+Dear Sir, Yours sincerely.
+
+LETTER XII
+
+NICE, December 6, 1763.
+
+DEAR SIR,--The inhabitants of Montpellier are sociable, gay, and 
+good-tempered. They have a spirit of commerce, and have erected 
+several considerable manufactures, in the neighbourhood of the 
+city. People assemble every day to take the air on the esplanade, 
+where there is a very good walk, just without the gate of the 
+citadel: but, on the other side of the town, there is another 
+still more agreeable, called the peirou, from whence there is a 
+prospect of the Mediterranean on one side, and of the Cevennes on 
+the other. Here is a good equestrian statue of Louis XIV,
+fronting one gate of the city, which is built in form of a 
+triumphal arch, in honour of the same monarch. Immediately under 
+the pierou is the physic garden, and near it an arcade just 
+finished for an aqueduct, to convey a stream of water to the 
+upper parts of the city. Perhaps I should have thought this a 
+neat piece of work, if I had not seen the Pont du Garde: but, 
+after having viewed the Roman arches, I could not look upon this 
+but with pity and contempt. It is a wonder how the architect 
+could be so fantastically modern, having such a noble model, as 
+it were, before his eyes.
+
+There are many protestants at this place, as well as at Nismes, 
+and they are no longer molested on the score of religion. They 
+have their conventicles in the country, where they assemble 
+privately for worship. These are well known; and detachments are 
+sent out every Sunday to intercept them; but the officer has 
+always private directions to take another route. Whether this 
+indulgence comes from the wisdom and lenity of the government, or 
+is purchased with money of the commanding officer, I cannot 
+determine: but certain it is, the laws of France punish capitally 
+every protestant minister convicted of having performed the 
+functions of his ministry in this kingdom; and one was hanged 
+about two years ago, in the neighbourhood of Montauban.
+
+The markets in Montpellier are well supplied with fish, poultry, 
+butcher's meat, and game, at reasonable rates. The wine of the 
+country is strong and harsh, and never drank, but when mixed with 
+water. Burgundy is dear, and so is the sweet wine of Frontignan, 
+though made in the neighbourhood of Cette. You know it is famous 
+all over Europe, and so are the liqueurs, or drams of various 
+sorts, compounded and distilled at Montpellier. Cette is the sea-port, 
+about four leagues from that city: but the canal of 
+Languedoc comes up within a mile of it; and is indeed a great 
+curiosity: a work in all respects worthy of a Colbert, under 
+whose auspices it was finished. When I find such a general 
+tribute of respect and veneration paid to the memory of that 
+great man, I am astonished to see so few monuments of public 
+utility left by other ministers. One would imagine, that even the 
+desire of praise would prompt a much greater number to exert 
+themselves for the glory and advantage of their country; yet in 
+my opinion, the French have been ungrateful to Colbert, in the 
+same proportion as they have over-rated the character of his 
+master. Through all France one meets with statues and triumphal 
+arches erected to Louis XIV, in consequence of his victories; by 
+which, likewise, he acquired the title of Louis le Grand. But how 
+were those victories obtained? Not by any personal merit of 
+Louis. It was Colbert who improved his finances, and enabled him 
+to pay his army. It was Louvois that provided all the necessaries 
+of war. It was a Conde, a Turenne, a Luxemburg, a Vendome, who 
+fought his battles; and his first conquests, for which he was 
+deified by the pen of adulation, were obtained almost without 
+bloodshed, over weak, dispirited, divided, and defenceless 
+nations. It was Colbert that improved the marine, instituted 
+manufactures, encouraged commerce, undertook works of public 
+utility, and patronized the arts and sciences. But Louis (you 
+will say) had the merit of choosing and supporting those 
+ministers, and those generals. I answer, no. He found Colbert and 
+Louvois already chosen: he found Conde and Turenne in the very 
+zenith of military reputation. Luxemburg was Conde's pupil; and 
+Vendome, a prince of the blood, who at first obtained the command 
+of armies in consequence of his high birth, and happened to turn 
+out a man of genius. The same Louis had the sagacity to revoke 
+the edict of Nantz; to entrust his armies to a Tallard, a 
+Villeroy, and a Marsin. He had the humanity to ravage the 
+country, burn the towns, and massacre the people of the 
+Palatinate. He had the patriotism to impoverish and depopulate 
+his own kingdom, in order to prosecute schemes of the most 
+lawless ambition. He had the Consolation to beg a peace from 
+those he had provoked to war by the most outrageous insolence; 
+and he had the glory to espouse Mrs. Maintenon in her old age, 
+the widow of the buffoon Scarron. Without all doubt, it was from 
+irony he acquired the title le Grand.
+
+Having received a favourable answer from Mr. B--, the English 
+consul at Nice, and recommended the care of my heavy baggage to 
+Mr. Ray, who undertook to send it by sea from Cette to 
+Villefranche, I hired a coach and mules for seven loui'dores, and 
+set out from Montpellier on the 13th of November, the weather 
+being agreeable, though the air was cold and frosty. In other 
+respects there were no signs of winter: the olives were now ripe, 
+and appeared on each side of the road as black as sloes; and the 
+corn was already half a foot high. On the second day of our 
+journey, we passed the Rhone on a bridge of boats at Buccaire, 
+and lay on the other side at Tarrascone. Next day we put up at a 
+wretched place called Orgon, where, however, we were regaled with 
+an excellent supper; and among other delicacies, with a dish of 
+green pease. Provence is a pleasant country, well cultivated; but 
+the inns are not so good here as in Languedoc, and few of them 
+are provided with a certain convenience which an English 
+traveller can very ill dispense with. Those you find are 
+generally on the tops of houses, exceedingly nasty; and so much 
+exposed to the weather, that a valetudinarian cannot use them 
+without hazard of his life. At Nismes in Languedoc, where we 
+found the Temple of Cloacina in a most shocking condition, the 
+servant-maid told me her mistress had caused it to be made on 
+purpose for the English travellers; but now she was very sorry 
+for what she had done, as all the French who frequented her 
+house, instead of using the seat, left their offerings on the 
+floor, which she was obliged to have cleaned three or four times 
+a day. This is a degree of beastliness, which would appear 
+detestable even in the capital of North-Britain. On the fourth 
+day of our pilgrimage, we lay in the suburbs of Aix, but did not 
+enter the city, which I had a great curiosity to see. The 
+villainous asthma baulked me of that satisfaction. I was pinched 
+with the cold, and impatient to reach a warmer climate. Our next 
+stage was at a paltry village, where we were poorly entertained. 
+I looked so ill in the morning, that the good woman of the house, 
+who was big with child, took me by the hand at parting, and even 
+shed tears, praying fervently that God would restore me to my 
+health. This was the only instance of sympathy, compassion, or 
+goodness of heart, that I had met with among the publicans of 
+France. Indeed at Valencia, our landlady, understanding I was 
+travelling to Montpellier for my health would have dissuaded me 
+from going thither; and exhorted me, in particular, to beware of 
+the physicians, who were all a pack of assassins. She advised me 
+to eat fricassees of chickens, and white meat, and to take a good 
+bouillon every morning.
+
+A bouillon is an universal remedy among the good people of 
+France; insomuch, that they have no idea of any person's dying, 
+after having swallowed un bon bouillon. One of the English 
+gentlemen, who were robbed and murdered about thirty years ago 
+between Calais and Boulogne, being brought to the post-house of 
+Boulogne with some signs of life, this remedy was immediately 
+administered. "What surprises me greatly, (said the post-master, 
+speaking of this melancholy story to a friend of mine, two years 
+after it happened) I made an excellent bouillon, and poured it 
+down his throat with my own hands, and yet he did not recover." 
+Now, in all probability, this bouillon it was that stopped his 
+breath. When I was a very young man, I remember to have seen a 
+person suffocated by such impertinent officiousness. A young man 
+of uncommon parts and erudition, very well esteemed at the 
+university of G--ow was found early one morning in a subterranean 
+vault among the ruins of an old archiepiscopal palace, with his 
+throat cut from ear to ear. Being conveyed to a public-house in 
+the neighbourhood, he made signs for pen, ink, and paper, and in 
+all probability would have explained the cause of this terrible 
+catastrophe, when an old woman, seeing the windpipe, which was 
+cut, sticking out of the wound, and mistaking it for the gullet, 
+by way of giving him a cordial to support his spirits, poured 
+into it, through a small funnel, a glass of burnt brandy, which 
+strangled
+him in the tenth part of a minute. The gash was so hideous, and 
+formed by so many repeated strokes of a razor, that the surgeons 
+believed he could not possibly be the perpetrator himself; 
+nevertheless this was certainly the case.
+
+At Brignolles, where we dined, I was obliged to quarrel with the 
+landlady, and threaten to leave her house, before she would 
+indulge us with any sort of flesh-meat. It was meagre day, and 
+she had made her provision accordingly. She even hinted some 
+dissatisfaction at having heretics in her house: but, as I was 
+not disposed to eat stinking fish, with ragouts of eggs and 
+onions, I insisted upon a leg of mutton, and a brace of fine 
+partridges, which I found in the larder. Next day, when we set 
+out in the morning from Luc, it blew a north-westerly wind so 
+extremely cold and biting, that even a flannel wrapper could not 
+keep me tolerably warm in the coach. Whether the cold had put our 
+coachman in a bad humour, or he had some other cause of 
+resentment against himself, I know not; but we had not gone above 
+a quarter of a mile, when he drove the carriage full against the 
+corner of a garden wall, and broke the axle-tree, so that we were 
+obliged to return to the inn on foot, and wait a whole day, until 
+a new piece could be made and adjusted. The wind that blew, is 
+called Maestral, in the Provencial dialect, and indeed is the 
+severest that ever I felt. At this inn, we met with a young 
+French officer who had been a prisoner in England, and spoke our 
+language pretty well. He told me, that such a wind did not blow 
+above twice or three times in a winter, and was never of long 
+continuance, that in general, the weather was very mild and 
+agreeable during the winter months; that living was very cheap in 
+this part of Provence, which afforded great plenty of game. Here, 
+too, I found a young Irish recollet, in his way from Rome to his 
+own country. He complained, that he was almost starved by the 
+inhospitable disposition of the French people; and that the 
+regular clergy, in particular, had treated him with the most 
+cruel disdain. I relieved his necessities, and gave him a letter 
+to a gentleman of his own country at Montpellier.
+
+When I rose in the morning, and opened a window that looked into 
+the garden, I thought myself either in a dream, or bewitched. All 
+the trees were cloathed with snow, and all the country covered at 
+least a foot thick. "This cannot be the south of France, (said I 
+to myself) it must be the Highlands of Scotland!" At a wretched 
+town called Muy, where we dined, I had a warm dispute with our 
+landlord, which, however, did not terminate to my satisfaction. I 
+sent on the mules before, to the next stage, resolving to take 
+post-horses, and bespoke them accordingly of the aubergiste, who 
+was, at the same time, inn-keeper and post-master. We were 
+ushered into the common eating-room, and had a very indifferent 
+dinner; after which, I sent a loui'dore to be changed, in order 
+to pay the reckoning. The landlord, instead of giving the full 
+change, deducted three livres a head for dinner, and sent in the 
+rest of the money by my servant. Provoked more at his ill 
+manners, than at his extortion, I ferreted him out of a bed-chamber, 
+where he had concealed himself, and obliged him to 
+restore the full change, from which I paid him at the rate of two 
+livres a head. He refused to take the money, which I threw down 
+on the table; and the horses being ready, stepped into the coach, 
+ordering the postillions to drive on. Here I had certainly 
+reckoned without my host. The fellows declared they would not 
+budge, until I should pay their master; and as I threatened them 
+with manual chastisement, they alighted, and disappeared in a 
+twinkling. I was now so incensed, that though I could hardly 
+breathe; though the afternoon was far advanced, and the street 
+covered with wet snow, I walked to the consul of the town, and 
+made my complaint in form. This magistrate, who seemed to be a 
+taylor, accompanied me to the inn, where by this time the whole 
+town was assembled, and endeavoured to persuade me to compromise 
+the affair. I said, as he was the magistrate, I would stand to 
+his award. He answered, "that he would not presume to determine 
+what I was to pay." I have already paid him a reasonable price 
+for his dinner, (said I) and now I demand post-horses according 
+to the king's ordonnance. The aubergiste said the horses were 
+ready, but the guides were run away; and he could not find others 
+to go in their place. I argued with great vehemence, offering to 
+leave a loui'dore for the poor of the parish, provided the consul 
+would oblige the rascal to do his duty. The consul shrugged up 
+his shoulders, and declared it was not in his power. This was a 
+lie, but I perceived he had no mind to disoblige the publican. If 
+the mules had not been sent away, I should certainly have not 
+only payed what I thought proper, but corrected the landlord into 
+the bargain, for his insolence and extortion; but now I was 
+entirely at his mercy, and as the consul continued to exhort me 
+in very humble terms, to comply with his demands, I thought 
+proper to acquiesce. Then the postillions immediately appeared: 
+the crowd seemed to exult in the triumph of the aubergiste; and I 
+was obliged to travel in the night, in very severe weather, after 
+all the fatigue and mortification I had undergone.
+
+We lay at Frejus, which was the Forum Julianum of the antients, 
+and still boasts of some remains of antiquity; particularly the 
+ruins of an amphitheatre, and an aqueduct. The first we passed in 
+the dark, and next morning the weather was so cold that I could 
+not walk abroad to see it. The town is at present very 
+inconsiderable, and indeed in a ruinous condition. Nevertheless, 
+we were very well lodged at the post-house, and treated with more 
+politeness than we had met with in any other part of France.
+
+As we had a very high mountain to ascend in the morning, I 
+ordered the mules on before to the next post, and hired six 
+horses for the coach. At the east end of Frejus, we saw close to 
+the road on our left-hand, the arcades of the antient aqueduct, 
+and the ruins of some Roman edifices, which seemed to have been 
+temples. There was nothing striking in the architecture of the 
+aqueduct. The arches are small and low, without either grace or 
+ornament, and seem to have been calculated for mere utility.
+
+The mountain of Esterelles, which is eight miles over, was 
+formerly frequented by a gang of desperate banditti, who are now 
+happily exterminated: the road is very good, but in some places 
+very steep and bordered by precipices. The mountain is covered 
+with pines, and the laurus cerasus, the fruit of which being now 
+ripe, made a most romantic appearance through the snow that lay 
+upon the branches. The cherries were so large that I at first 
+mistook them for dwarf oranges. I think they are counted 
+poisonous in England, but here the people eat them without 
+hesitation. In the middle of the mountain is the post-house, 
+where we dined in a room so cold, that the bare remembrance of it 
+makes my teeth chatter. After dinner I chanced to look into 
+another chamber that fronted the south, where the sun shone; and 
+opening a window perceived, within a yard of my hand, a large 
+tree loaded with oranges, many of which were ripe. You may judge 
+what my astonishment was to find Winter in all his rigour 
+reigning on one side of the house, and Summer in all her glory 
+on the other. Certain it is, the middle of this mountain seemed 
+to be the boundary of the cold weather. As we proceeded slowly in 
+the afternoon we were quite enchanted. This side of the hill is a 
+natural plantation of the most agreeable ever-greens, pines, 
+firs, laurel, cypress, sweet myrtle, tamarisc, box, and juniper, 
+interspersed with sweet marjoram, lavender, thyme, wild thyme, 
+and sage. On the right-hand the ground shoots up into agreeable 
+cones, between which you have delightful vistas of the 
+Mediterranean, which washes the foot of the rock; and between two 
+divisions of the mountains, there is a bottom watered by a 
+charming stream, which greatly adds to the rural beauties of the 
+scene.
+
+This night we passed at Cannes, a little fishing town, agreeably 
+situated on the beach of the sea, and in the same place lodged 
+Monsieur Nadeau d'Etrueil, the
+unfortunate French governor of Guadeloupe, condemned to be 
+imprisoned for life in one of the isles Marguerite, which lie 
+within a mile of this coast.
+
+Next day we journeyed by the way of Antibes, a small maritime 
+town, tolerably well fortified; and passing the little river 
+Loup, over a stone-bridge, arrived about noon at the village of 
+St. Laurent, the extremity of France, where we passed the Var, 
+after our baggage had undergone examination. From Cannes to this 
+village the road lies along the sea-side; and sure nothing can be 
+more delightful. Though in the morning there was a frost upon the 
+ground, the sun was as warm as it is in May in England. The sea 
+was quite smooth, and the beach formed of white polished pebbles; 
+on the left-hand the country was covered with green olives, and 
+the side of the road planted with large trees of sweet myrtle 
+growing wild like the hawthorns in England. From Antibes we had 
+the first view of Nice, lying on the opposite side of the bay, 
+and making a very agreeable appearance. The author of the Grand 
+Tour says, that from Antibes to Nice the roads are very bad, 
+through rugged mountains bordered with precipices On the left, 
+and by the sea to the right; whereas, in fact, there is neither 
+precipice nor mountain near it.
+
+The Var, which divides the county of Nice from Provence, is no 
+other than a torrent fed chiefly by the snow that melts on the 
+maritime Alps, from which it takes its origin. In the summer it 
+is swelled to a dangerous height, and this is also the case after 
+heavy rains: but at present the middle of it is quite dry, and 
+the water divided into two or three narrow streams, which, 
+however, are both deep and rapid. This river has been absurdly 
+enough by some supposed the Rubicon, in all probability from the 
+description of that river in the Pharsalia of Lucan, who makes it 
+the boundary betwixt Gaul and Italy--
+
+                       --et Gallica certus
+Limes ab Ausoniis disterminat arva colonis.
+
+A sure Frontier that parts the Gallic plains
+From the rich meadows of th' Ansonian swains.
+
+whereas, in fact, the Rubicon, now called Pisatello, runs between 
+Ravenna and Rimini.--But to return to the Var. At the village of 
+St. Laurent, famous for its Muscadine wines, there is a set of 
+guides always in attendance to conduct you in your passage over 
+the river. Six of those fellows, tucked up above the middle, with 
+long poles in their hands, took charge of our coach, and by many 
+windings guided it safe to the opposite shore. Indeed there was 
+no occasion for any; but it is a sort of a perquisite, and I did 
+not choose to run any risque, how small soever it might be, for 
+the sake of saving half a crown, with which they were satisfied. 
+If you do not gratify the searchers at St. Laurent with the same 
+sum, they will rummage your trunks, and turn all your cloaths 
+topsy turvy. And here, once for all, I would advise every 
+traveller who consults his own case and convenience, to be 
+liberal of his money to all that sort of people; and even to wink 
+at the imposition of aubergistes on the road, unless it be very 
+flagrant. So sure as you enter into disputes with them, you will 
+be put to a great deal of trouble, and fret yourself to no manner 
+of purpose. I have travelled with oeconomists in England, who 
+declared they would rather give away a crown than allow 
+themselves to be cheated of a farthing. This is a good maxim, but 
+requires a great share of resolution and self-denial to put it in 
+practice. In one excursion of about two hundred miles my fellow-traveller 
+was in a passion, and of consequence very bad company 
+from one end of the journey to the other. He was incessantly 
+scolding either at landlords, landladies, waiters, hostlers, or 
+postilions. We had bad horses, and bad chaises; set out from 
+every stage with the curses of the people; and at this expence I 
+saved about ten shillings in the whole journey. For such a paltry 
+consideration, he was contented to be miserable himself, and to 
+make every other person unhappy with whom he had any concern. 
+When I came last from Bath it rained so hard, that the postilion 
+who drove the chaise was wet to the skin before we had gone a 
+couple of miles. When we arrived at the Devises, I gave him two 
+shillings instead of one, out of pure compassion. The consequence 
+of this liberality was, that in the next stage we seemed rather 
+to fly than to travel upon solid ground. I continued my bounty to 
+the second driver, and indeed through the whole journey, and 
+found myself accommodated in a very different manner from what I 
+had experienced before. I had elegant chaises, with excellent 
+horses; and the postilions of their own accord used such 
+diligence, that although the roads were broken by the rain, I 
+travelled at the rate of twelve miles an hour; and my 
+extraordinary expence from Bath to London, amounted precisely to 
+six shillings.
+
+The river Var falls into the Mediterranean a little below St. 
+Laurent, about four miles to the westward of Nice. Within the 
+memory of persons now living, there have been three wooden 
+bridges thrown over it, and as often destroyed in consequence of 
+the jealousy subsisting between the kings of France and Sardinia; 
+this river being the boundary of their dominions on the side of 
+Provence. However, this is a consideration that ought not to 
+interfere with the other advantages that would accrue to both 
+kingdoms from such a convenience. If there was a bridge over the 
+Var, and a post-road made from Nice to Genoa, I am very confident 
+that all those strangers who now pass the Alps in their way to 
+and from Italy, would choose this road as infinitely more safe, 
+commodious, and agreeable. This would also be the case with all 
+those who hire felucas from Marseilles or Antibes, and expose 
+themselves to the dangers and inconveniences of travelling by sea 
+in an open boat.
+
+In the afternoon we arrived at Nice, where we found Mr. M--e, the 
+English gentleman whom I had seen at Boulogne, and advised to 
+come hither. He had followed my advice, and reached Nice about a 
+month before my arrival, with his lady, child, and an old 
+gouvernante. He had travelled with his own post-chaise and 
+horses, and is now lodged just without one of the gates of the 
+city, in the house of the count de V--n, for which he pays five 
+loui'dores a month. I could hire one much better in the 
+neighbourhood of London, for the same money. Unless you will 
+submit to this extortion, and hire a whole house for a length of 
+time, you will find no ready-furnished lodgings at Nice. After 
+having stewed a week in a paltry inn, I have taken a ground floor 
+for ten months at the rate of four hundred livres a year, that is 
+twenty pounds sterling, for the Piedmontese livre is about an 
+English shilling. The apartments are large, lofty, and commodious 
+enough, with two small gardens, in which there is plenty of 
+sallad, and a great number of oranges and lemons: but as it 
+required some time to provide furniture, our consul Mr. B--d, one 
+of the best natured and most friendly men in the world, has lent 
+me his lodgings, which are charmingly situated by the sea-side, 
+and open upon a terrace, that runs parallel to the beach, forming 
+part of the town wall. Mr. B--d himself lives at Villa Franca, 
+which is divided from Nice by a single mountain, on the top of 
+which there is a small fort, called the castle of Montalban. 
+Immediately after our arrival we were visited by one Mr. de 
+Martines, a most agreeable young fellow, a lieutenant in the 
+Swiss regiment, which is here in garrison. He is a Protestant, 
+extremely fond of our nation, and understands our language 
+tolerably well. He was particularly recommended to our 
+acquaintance by general P-- and his lady; we are happy in his 
+conversation; find him wonderfully obliging, and extremely 
+serviceable on many occasions. We have likewise made acquaintance 
+with some other individuals, particularly with Mr. St. Pierre, 
+junior, who is a considerable merchant, and consul for Naples. He 
+is a well-bred, sensible young man, speaks English, is an 
+excellent performer on the lute and mandolin, and has a pretty 
+collection of books. In a word, I hope we shall pass the winter 
+agreeably enough, especially if Mr. M--e should hold out; but I am 
+afraid he is too far gone in a consumption to recover. He spent 
+the last winter at Nismes, and consulted F-- at Montpellier. I 
+was impatient to see the prescription, and found it almost 
+verbatim the same he had sent to me; although I am persuaded 
+there is a very essential difference between our disorders. Mr. 
+M--e has been long afflicted with violent spasms, colliquative 
+sweats, prostration of appetite, and a disorder in his bowels. He 
+is likewise jaundiced all over, and I am confident his liver is 
+unsound. He tried the tortoise soup, which he said in a fortnight 
+stuffed him up with phlegm. This gentleman has got a smattering 
+of physic, and I am afraid tampers with his own constitution, by 
+means of Brookes's Practice of Physic, and some dispensatories, 
+which he is continually poring over. I beg pardon for this 
+tedious epistle, and am--Very sincerely, dear Sir, Your 
+affectionate, humble servant.
+
+LETTER XIII
+
+NICE, January 15, 1764.
+
+DEAR SIR,--I am at last settled at Nice, and have leisure to give 
+you some account of this very remarkable place. The county of 
+Nice extends about fourscore miles in length, and in some places 
+it is thirty miles broad. It contains several small towns, and a 
+great number of villages; all of which, this capital excepted, 
+are situated among mountains, the most extensive plain of the 
+whole country being this where I now am, in the neighbourhood of 
+Nice. The length of it does not exceed two miles, nor is the 
+breadth of it, in any part, above one. It is bounded by the 
+Mediterranean on the south. From the sea-shore, the maritime Alps 
+begin with hills of a gentle ascent, rising into mountains that 
+form a sweep or amphitheatre ending at Montalban, which overhangs 
+the town of Villa Franca. On the west side of this mountain, and 
+in the eastern extremity of the amphitheatre, stands the city of 
+Nice, wedged in between a steep rock and the little river 
+Paglion, which descends from the mountains, and washing the town-walls 
+on the west side, falls into the sea, after having filled 
+some canals for the use of the inhabitants. There is a stone-bridge 
+of three arches over it, by which those who come from 
+Provence enter the city. The channel of it is very broad, but 
+generally dry in many places; the water (as in the Var) dividing 
+itself into several small streams. The Paglion being fed by 
+melted snow and rain in the mountains, is quite dry in summer; 
+but it is sometimes swelled by sudden rains to a very formidable 
+torrent. This was the case in the year 1744, when the French and 
+Spanish armies attacked eighteen Piedmontese battalions, which 
+were posted on the side of Montalban. The assailants were 
+repulsed with the loss of four thousand men, some hundreds of 
+whom perished in repassing the Paglion, which had swelled to a 
+surprising degree during the battle, in consequence of a heavy 
+continued rain. This rain was of great service to the 
+Piedmontese, as it prevented one half of the enemy from passing 
+the river to sustain the other. Five hundred were taken 
+prisoners: but the Piedmontese, foreseeing they should be 
+surrounded next day by the French, who had penetrated behind 
+them, by a pass in the mountains, retired in the night. Being 
+received on board the English Fleet, which lay at Villa Franca, 
+they were conveyed to Oneglia. In examining the bodies of those 
+that were killed in the battle, the inhabitants of Nice 
+perceived, that a great number of the Spanish soldiers were 
+circumcised; a circumstance, from which they concluded, that a 
+great many Jews engage in the service of his Catholic majesty. I 
+am of a different opinion. The Jews are the least of any people 
+that I know, addicted to a military life. I rather imagine they 
+were of the Moorish race, who have subsisted in Spain, since the 
+expulsion of their brethren; and though they conform externally 
+to the rites of the Catholic religion, still retain in private 
+their attachment to the law of Mahomet.
+
+The city of Nice is built in form of an irregular isosceles 
+triangle, the base of which fronts the sea.  On the west side it 
+is surrounded by a wall and rampart; on the east, it is over-hung 
+by a rock, on which we see the ruins of an old castle, which, 
+before the invention of artillery, was counted impregnable. It 
+was taken and dismantled by marechal Catinat, in the time of 
+Victor Amadaeus, the father of his Sardinian majesty. It was 
+afterwards finally demolished by the duke of Berwick towards the 
+latter end of queen Anne's war. To repair it would be a very 
+unnecessary expence, as it is commanded by Montalban, and several 
+other eminences.
+
+The town of Nice is altogether indefensible, and therefore 
+without fortifications. There are only two iron guns upon a 
+bastion that fronts the beach; and here the French had formed a 
+considerable battery against the English cruisers, in the war of 
+1744, when the Mareschal Duke de Belleisle had his headquarters 
+at Nice. This little town, situated in the bay of Antibes, is 
+almost equidistant from Marseilles, Turin, and Genoa, the first 
+and last being about thirty leagues from hence by sea; and the 
+capital of Piedmont at the same distance to the northward, over 
+the mountains. It lies exactly opposite to Capo di Ferro, on the 
+coast of Barbary; and, the islands of Sardinia and Corsica are 
+laid down about two degrees to the eastward, almost exactly in a 
+line with Genoa. This little town, hardly a mile in 
+circumference, is said to contain twelve thousand inhabitants. 
+The streets are narrow; the houses are built of stone, and the 
+windows in general are fitted with paper instead of glass. This 
+expedient would not answer in a country subject to rain and 
+storms; but here, where there is very little of either, the paper 
+lozenges answer tolerably well. The bourgeois, however, begin to 
+have their houses sashed with glass. Between the town-wall and 
+the sea, the fishermen haul up their boats upon the open beach; 
+but on the other side of the rock, where the castle stood, is the 
+port or harbour of Nice, upon which some money has been expended. 
+It is a small basin, defended to seaward by a mole of free-stone, 
+which is much better contrived than executed: for the sea has 
+already made three breaches in it; and in all probability, in 
+another winter, the extremity of it will be carried quite away. 
+It would require the talents of a very skilful architect to lay 
+the foundation of a good mole, on an open beach like this; 
+exposed to the swell of the whole Mediterranean, without any 
+island or rock in the offing, to break the force of the waves. 
+Besides, the shore is bold, and the bottom foul. There are 
+seventeen feet of water in the basin, sufficient to float vessels 
+of one hundred and fifty ton; and this is chiefly supplied by a 
+small stream of very fine water; another great convenience for 
+shipping. On the side of the mole, there is a constant guard of 
+soldiers, and a battery of seven cannon, pointing to the sea. On 
+the other side, there is a curious manufacture for twisting or 
+reeling silk; a tavern, a coffee-house, and several other 
+buildings, for the convenience of the sea-faring people. Without 
+the harbour, is a lazarette, where persons coming from infected 
+places, are obliged to perform quarantine. The harbour has been 
+declared a free-port, and it is generally full of tartans, 
+polacres, and other small vessels, that come from Sardinia, 
+Ivica, Italy, and Spain, loaded with salt, wine, and other 
+commodities; but here is no trade of any great consequence.
+
+The city of Nice is provided with a senate, which administers 
+justice under the auspices of an avocat-general, sent hither by 
+the king. The internal oeconomy of the town is managed by four 
+consuls; one for the noblesse. another for the merchants, a third 
+for the bourgeois, and a fourth for the peasants. These are 
+chosen annually from the town-council. They keep the streets and 
+markets in order, and superintend the public works. There is also 
+an intendant, who takes care of his majesty's revenue: but there 
+is a discretionary power lodged in the person of the commandant, 
+who is always an officer of rank in the service, and has under 
+his immediate command the regiment which is here in garrison. 
+That which is here now is a Swiss battalion, of which the king 
+has five or six in his service. There is likewise a regiment of 
+militia, which is exercised once a year. But of all these 
+particulars, I shall speak more fully on another occasion.
+
+When I stand upon the rampart, and look round me, I can scarce 
+help thinking myself inchanted. The small extent of country which 
+I see, is all cultivated like a garden. Indeed, the plain 
+presents nothing but gardens, full of green trees, loaded with 
+oranges, lemons, citrons, and bergamots, which make a delightful 
+appearance. If you examine them more nearly, you will find 
+plantations of green pease ready to gather; all sorts of 
+sallading, and pot-herbs, in perfection; and plats of roses, 
+carnations, ranunculas, anemonies, and daffodils, blowing in full 
+glory, with such beauty, vigour, and perfume, as no flower in 
+England ever exhibited.
+
+I must tell you, that presents of carnations are sent from hence, 
+in the winter, to Turin and Paris; nay, sometimes as far as 
+London, by the post. They are packed up in a wooden box, without 
+any sort of preparation, one pressed upon another: the person who 
+receives them, cuts off a little bit of the stalk, and steeps 
+them for two hours in vinegar and water, when they recover their 
+full bloom and beauty. Then he places them in water-bottles, in 
+an apartment where they are screened from the severities of the 
+weather; and they will continue fresh and unfaded the best part 
+of a month.
+
+Amidst the plantations in the neighbourhood of Nice, appear a 
+vast number of white bastides, or country-houses, which make a 
+dazzling shew. Some few of these are good villas, belonging to 
+the noblesse of this county; and even some of the bourgeois are 
+provided with pretty lodgeable cassines; but in general, they are 
+the habitations of the peasants, and contain nothing but misery 
+and vermin. They are all built square; and, being whitened with 
+lime or plaister, contribute greatly to the richness of the view. 
+The hills are shaded to the tops with olive-trees, which are 
+always green; and those hills are over-topped by more distant 
+mountains, covered with snow. When I turn myself towards the sea, 
+the view is bounded by the horizon; yet in a clear morning, one 
+can perceive the high lands of Corsica. On the right hand, it is 
+terminated by Antibes, and the mountain of Esterelles, which I 
+described in my last. As for the weather, you will conclude, from 
+what I have said of the oranges, flowers, etc. that it must be 
+wonderfully mild and serene: but of the climate, I shall speak 
+hereafter. Let me only observe, en passant, that the houses in 
+general have no chimnies, but in their kitchens; and that many 
+people, even of condition, at Nice, have no fire in their 
+chambers, during the whole winter. When the weather happens to be 
+a little more sharp than usual, they warm their apartments with a 
+brasiere or pan of charcoal.
+
+Though Nice itself retains few marks of antient splendor, there 
+are considerable monuments of antiquity in its neighbourhood. 
+About two short miles from the town, upon the summit of a pretty 
+high hill, we find the ruins of the antient city Cemenelion, now 
+called Cimia, which was once the metropolis of the Maritime Alps, 
+and the scat of a Roman president. With respect to situation, 
+nothing could be more agreeable or salubrious. It stood upon the 
+gentle ascent and summit of a hill, fronting the Mediterranean; 
+from the shore of which, it is distant about half a league; and, 
+on the other side, it overlooked a bottom, or narrow vale, 
+through which the Paglion (antiently called Paulo) runs towards 
+the walls of Nice. It was inhabited by a people, whom Ptolomy and 
+Pliny call the Vedantij: but these were undoubtedly mixed with a 
+Roman colony, as appears by the monuments which still remain; I 
+mean the ruins of an amphitheatre, a temple of Apollo, baths, 
+aqueducts, sepulchral, and other stones, with inscriptions, and a 
+great number of medals which the peasants have found by accident, 
+in digging and labouring the vineyards and cornfields, which now 
+cover the ground where the city stood.
+
+Touching this city, very little is to be learned from the antient 
+historians: but that it was the seat of a Roman praeses, is 
+proved by the two following inscriptions, which are still extant.
+
+P. AELIO. SEVERINO.
+V. E. P.
+PRAESIDI. OPTIMO.
+ORDO. CEMEN.
+PATRONO.
+
+By the Senate of Cemenelion, Dedicated to His Excellency P. 
+Aelius Severinus, the best of Governors and Patrons.
+
+This is now in the possession of the count de Gubernatis, who has 
+a country-house upon the spot. The other, found near the same 
+place, is in praise of the praeses Marcus Aurelius Masculus.
+
+M. AVRELIO. MASCVLO.
+V. E.
+OB. EXIMIAM. PRAESIDATVS
+EIVS. INTEGRITATEM. ET
+EGREGIAM. AD OMNES HOMINES
+MANSVETVDINEM. ET. VRGENTIS
+ANNONAE. SINCERAM. PRAEBITIONEM.
+AC. MVNIFICENTIAM. ET. QVOD. AQVAE
+VSVM. VETVSTATE. LAPSVM. REQVI-
+SITVM. AC. REPERTVM. SAECVLI
+FELICITATE. CVRSVI. PRISTINO
+REDDIDERIT.
+COLLEG. III.
+QVIB. EX. SCC. P. EST
+PATRONO. DIGNISS.
+
+Inscribed by the three corporations under the authority of the 
+Senate, to their most worthy Patron, His Excellency M. Aurelius 
+Masculus, in testimony of their gratitude for the blessings of 
+his incorruptible administration, his wonderful affability to all 
+without Distinction, his generous Distribution of Corn in time of 
+Dearth, his munificence in repairing the ruinous aqueduct, in 
+searching for, discovering and restoring the water to its former 
+course for the Benefit of the Community.
+
+This president well deserved such a mark of respect from a people 
+whom he had assisted in two such essential articles, as their 
+corn and their water. You know the praeses of a Roman province 
+had the jus sigendi clavi, the right to drive a nail in the 
+Kalendar, the privilege of wearing the latus clavus, or broad 
+studs on his garment, the gladius, infula, praetexta, purpura & 
+annulus aureus, the Sword, Diadem, purple Robe, and gold Ring, he 
+had his vasa, vehicula, apparitores, Scipio eburneus, & sella 
+curulis, Kettledrums, [I know the kettledrum is a modern 
+invention; but the vasa militari modo conclamata was something 
+analogous.] Chariots, Pursuivants, ivory staff, and chair of 
+state.
+
+I shall give you one more sepulchral inscription on a marble, 
+which is now placed over the gate of the church belonging to the 
+convent of St. Pont, a venerable building, which stands at the 
+bottom of the hill, fronting the north side of the town of Nice. 
+This St. Pont, or Pontius, was a Roman convert to Christianity, 
+who suffered martyrdom at Cemenelion in the year 261, during the 
+reigns of the emperors Valerian and Gallienus. The legends 
+recount some ridiculous miracles wrought in favour of this saint, 
+both before and after his death. Charles V. emperor of Germany 
+and king of Spain, caused this monastery to be built on the spot 
+where Pontius suffered decapitation. But to return to the 
+inscription: it appears in these words.
+
+M. M. A.
+FLAVIAE. BASILLAE. CONIVG. CARISSIM.
+DOM. ROMA. MIRAE. ERGA. MARITUM. AMORIS.
+ADQ. CASTITAT. FAEMINAE. QVAE. VIXIT
+ANN. XXXV. M. III. DIEB. XII. AVRELIVS
+RHODISMANVS. AVG. LIB. COMMEM. ALP.
+MART. ET. AVRELIA, ROMVLA. FILII.
+IMPATIENTISSIM. DOLOR. EIVS. ADFLICTI
+ADQ. DESOLATI. CARISSIM. AC MERENT. FERET.
+FEC. ET. DED,
+
+Freely consecrated by Aurelius Rhodismanus, the Emperor's 
+Freedman, to the much honoured memory of his dear Consort Flavia 
+Aurelia of Rome, a woman equally distinguished by her unblemished 
+Virtue and conjugal affection. His children Martial and Aurelia 
+Romula deeply affected and distressed by the Violence of his 
+Grief, erected and dedicated a monument to their dear deserving 
+Parent.  [I don't pretend to translate these inscriptions 
+literally, because I am doubtful about the meaning of some 
+abbreviations.]
+
+The amphitheatre of Cemenelion is but very small, compared to 
+that of Nismes. The arena is ploughed up, and bears corn: some of 
+the seats remain, and part of two opposite porticos; but all the 
+columns, and the external facade of the building, are taken away 
+so that it is impossible to judge of the architecture, all we can 
+perceive is, that it was built in an oval form. About one hundred 
+paces from the amphitheatre stood an antient temple, supposed to 
+have been dedicated to Apollo. The original roof is demolished, 
+as well as the portico; the vestiges of which may still be 
+traced. The part called the Basilica, and about one half of the 
+Cella Sanctior, remain, and are converted into the dwelling-house 
+and stable of the peasant who takes care of the count de 
+Gubernatis's garden, in which this monument stands. In the Cella 
+Sanctior, I found a lean cow, a he-goat, and a jack-ass; the very 
+same conjunction of animals which I had seen drawing a plough in 
+Burgundy. Several mutilated statues have been dug up from the 
+ruins of this temple; and a great number of medals have been 
+found in the different vineyards which now occupy the space upon 
+which stood the antient city of Cemenelion. These were of gold, 
+silver, and brass. Many of them were presented to Charles Emanuel 
+I. duke of Savoy. The prince of Monaco has a good number of them 
+in his collection; and the rest are in private hands. The 
+peasants, in digging, have likewise found many urns, 
+lachrymatories, and sepulchral stones, with epitaphs, which are 
+now dispersed among different convents and private houses. All 
+this ground is a rich mine of antiquities, which, if properly 
+worked, would produce a great number of valuable curiosities. 
+Just by the temple of Apollo were the ruins of a bath, composed 
+of great blocks of marble, which have been taken away for the 
+purposes of modern building. In all probability, many other noble 
+monuments of this city have been dilapidated by the same 
+barbarous oeconomy. There are some subterranean vaults, through 
+which the water was conducted to this bath, still extant in the 
+garden of the count de Gubernatis. Of the aqueduct that conveyed 
+water to the town, I can say very little, but that it was scooped 
+through a mountain: that this subterranean passage was discovered 
+some years ago, by removing the rubbish which choaked it up: that 
+the people penetrating a considerable way, by the help of lighted 
+torches, found a very plentiful stream of water flowing in an
+aqueduct, as high as an ordinary man, arched over head, and lined 
+with a sort of cement. They could not, however, trace this stream 
+to its source; and it is again stopped up with earth and rubbish. 
+There is not a soul in this country, who has either spirit or 
+understanding to conduct an inquiry of this kind. Hard by the 
+amphitheatre is a convent of Recollets, built in a very romantic 
+situation, on the brink of a precipice. On one side of their 
+garden, they ascend to a kind of esplanade, which they say was 
+part of the citadel of Cemenelion. They have planted it with 
+cypress-trees, and flowering-shrubs. One of the monks told me, 
+that it is vaulted below, as they can plainly perceive by the 
+sound of their instruments used in houghing the ground. A very 
+small expence would bring the secrets of this cavern to light. 
+They have nothing to do, but to make a breach in the wall, which 
+appears uncovered towards the garden.
+
+The city of Cemenelion was first sacked by the Longobards, who 
+made an irruption into Provence, under their king Alboinus, about 
+the middle of the sixth century.
+It was afterwards totally destroyed by the Saracens, who, at 
+different times, ravaged this whole coast. The remains of the 
+people are supposed to have changed their habitation, and formed 
+a coalition with the inhabitants of Nice.
+
+What further I have to say of Nice, you shall know in good time; 
+at present, I have nothing to add, but what you very well know, 
+that I am always your affectionate humble servant.
+
+LETTER, XIV
+
+NICE, January 20, 1764.
+
+DEAR SIR,--Last Sunday I crossed Montalban on horseback, with 
+some Swiss officers, on a visit to our consul, Mr. B--d, who 
+lives at Ville Franche, about half a league from Nice. It is a 
+small town, built upon the side of a rock, at the bottom of the 
+harbour, which is a fine basin, surrounded with hills on every 
+side, except to the south, where it lies open to the sea. If 
+there was a small island in the mouth of it, to break off the 
+force of the waves, when the wind is southerly, it would be one 
+of the finest harbours in the world; for the ground is exceeding 
+good for anchorage: there is a sufficient depth of water, and 
+room enough for the whole navy of England. On the right hand, as 
+you enter the port, there is an elegant fanal, or lighthouse, 
+kept in good repair: but in all the charts of this coast which I 
+have seen, this lanthorn is laid down to the westward of the 
+harbour; an error equally absurd and dangerous, as it may mislead 
+the navigator, and induce him to run his ship among the rocks, to 
+the eastward of the lighthouse, where it would undoubtedly 
+perish. Opposite to the mouth of the harbour is the fort, which 
+can be of no service, but in defending the shipping and the town 
+by sea; for, by land, it is commanded by Montalban, and all the 
+hills in the neighbourhood. In the war of 1744, it was taken and 
+retaken. At present, it is in tolerable good repair. On the left 
+of the fort, is the basin for the gallies, with a kind of dock, 
+in which they are built, and occasionally laid up to be refitted. 
+This basin is formed by a pretty stone mole; and here his 
+Sardinian majesty's two gallies lie perfectly secure, moored with 
+their sterns close to the jette. I went on board one of these 
+vessels, and saw about two hundred miserable wretches, chained to 
+the banks on which they sit and row, when the galley is at sea. 
+This is a sight which a British subject, sensible of the blessing 
+he enjoys, cannot behold without horror and compassion. Not but 
+that if we consider the nature of the case, with coolness and 
+deliberation, we must acknowledge the justice, and even sagacity, 
+of employing for the service of the public, those malefactors who 
+have forfeited their title to the privileges of the community. 
+Among the slaves at Ville Franche is a Piedmontese count, 
+condemned to the gallies for life, in consequence of having been 
+convicted of forgery. He is permitted to live on shore; and gets 
+money by employing the other slaves to knit stockings for sale. 
+He appears always in the Turkish habit, and is in a fair way of 
+raising a better fortune than that which he has forfeited.
+
+It is a great pity, however, and a manifest outrage against the 
+law of nations, as well as of humanity, to mix with those 
+banditti, the Moorish and Turkish prisoners who are taken in the 
+prosecution of open war. It is certainly no justification of this 
+barbarous practice, that the Christian prisoners are treated as 
+cruelly at Tunis and Algiers. It would be for the honour of 
+Christendom, to set an example of generosity to the Turks; and, 
+if they would not follow it, to join their naval forces, and 
+extirpate at once those nests of pirates, who have so long 
+infested the Mediterranean. Certainly, nothing can be more 
+shameful, than the treaties which France and the Maritime Powers 
+have concluded with those barbarians. They supply them with 
+artillery, arms, and ammunition, to disturb their neighbours. 
+They even pay them a sort of tribute, under the denomination of 
+presents; and often put up with insults tamely, for the sordid 
+consideration of a little gain in the way of commerce. They know 
+that Spain, Sardinia, and almost all the Catholic powers in the 
+Mediterranean, Adriatic, and Levant, are at perpetual war with 
+those Mahometans; that while Algiers, Tunis, and Sallee, maintain 
+armed cruisers at sea, those Christian powers will not run the 
+risque of trading in their own bottoms, but rather employ as 
+carriers the maritime nations, who are at peace with the 
+infidels. It is for our share of this advantage, that we 
+cultivate the piratical States of Barbary, and meanly purchase 
+passports of them, thus acknowledging them masters of the 
+Mediterranean.
+
+The Sardinian gallies are mounted each with five-and-twenty oars, 
+and six guns, six-pounders, of a side, and a large piece of 
+artillery amidships, pointing ahead, which (so far as I am able 
+to judge) can never be used point-blank, without demolishing the 
+head or prow of the galley. The accommodation on board for the 
+officers is wretched. There is a paltry cabin in the poop for the 
+commander; but all the other officers lie below the slaves, in a 
+dungeon, where they have neither light, air, nor any degree of 
+quiet; half suffocated by the heat of the place; tormented by 
+fleas, bugs, and lice; and disturbed by the incessant noise over 
+head. The slaves lie upon the naked banks, without any other 
+covering than a tilt. This, however, is no great hardship, in a 
+climate where there is scarce any winter. They are fed with a 
+very scanty allowance of bread, and about fourteen beans a day 
+and twice a week they have a little rice, or cheese, but most of 
+them, while they are in harbour knit stockings, or do some other 
+kind of work, which enables them to make some addition to this 
+wretched allowance. When they happen to be at sea in bad weather, 
+their situation is truly deplorable. Every wave breaks over the 
+vessel, and not only keeps them continually wet, but comes with 
+such force, that they are dashed against the banks with 
+surprising violence: sometimes their limbs are broke, and 
+sometimes their brains dashed out. It is impossible (they say) to 
+keep such a number of desperate people under any regular command, 
+without exercising such severities as must shock humanity. It is 
+almost equally impossible to maintain any tolerable degree of 
+cleanliness, where such a number of wretches are crouded together 
+without conveniences, or even the necessaries of life. They are 
+ordered twice a week to strip, clean, and bathe themselves in the 
+sea: but, notwithstanding all the precautions of discipline, they 
+swarm with vermin, and the vessel smells like an hospital, or 
+crouded jail. They seem, nevertheless, quite insensible of their 
+misery, like so many convicts in Newgate: they laugh and sing, 
+and swear, and get drunk when they can. When you enter by the 
+stern, you are welcomed by a band of music selected from the 
+slaves; and these expect a gratification. If you walk forwards, 
+you must take care of your pockets. You will be accosted by one 
+or other of the slaves, with a brush and blacking-ball for 
+cleaning your shoes; and if you undergo this operation, it is ten 
+to one but your pocket is picked. If you decline his service, and 
+keep aloof, you will find it almost impossible to avoid a colony 
+of vermin, which these fellows have a very dexterous method of 
+conveying to strangers. Some of the Turkish prisoners, whose 
+ransom or exchange is expected, are allowed to go ashore, under 
+proper inspection; and those forcats, who have served the best 
+part of the time for which they were condemned, are employed in 
+public works, under a guard of soldiers. At the harbour of Nice, 
+they are hired by ship-masters to bring ballast, and have a small 
+proportion of what they earn, for their own use: the rest belongs 
+to the king. They are distinguished by an iron shackle about one 
+of their legs. The road from Nice to Ville Franche is scarce 
+passable on horseback: a circumstance the more extraordinary, as 
+those slaves, in the space of two or three months, might even 
+make it fit for a carriage, and the king would not be one 
+farthing out of pocket, for they are quite idle the greatest 
+part of the year.
+
+The gallies go to sea only in the summer. In tempestuous weather, 
+they could not live out of port. Indeed, they are good for 
+nothing but in smooth water during a calm; when, by dint of 
+rowing, they make good way. The king of Sardinia is so sensible 
+of their inutility, that he intends to let his gallies rot; and, 
+in lieu of them, has purchased two large frigates in England, one 
+of fifty, and another of thirty guns, which are now in the 
+harbour of Ville Franche. He has also procured an English 
+officer, one Mr. A--, who is second in command on board of one of 
+them, and has the title of captain consulteur, that is, 
+instructor to the first captain, the marquis de M--i, who knows 
+as little of seamanship as I do of Arabic.
+
+The king, it is said, intends to have two or three more frigates, 
+and then he will be more than a match for the Barbary corsairs, 
+provided care be taken to man his fleet in a proper manner: but 
+this will never be done, unless he invites foreigners into his 
+service, officers as well as seamen; for his own dominions 
+produce neither at present. If he is really determined to make 
+the most of the maritime situation of his dominions, as well as 
+of his alliance with Great-Britain, he ought to supply his ships 
+with English mariners, and put a British commander at the head of 
+his fleet. He ought to erect magazines and docks at Villa Franca; 
+or if there is not conveniency for building, he may at least have 
+pits and wharfs for heaving down and careening; and these ought 
+to be under the direction of Englishmen, who best understand all 
+the particulars of marine oeconomy. Without all doubt, he will 
+not be able to engage foreigners, without giving them liberal 
+appointments; and their being engaged in his service will give 
+umbrage to his own subjects: but, when the business is to 
+establish a maritime power, these considerations ought to be 
+sacrificed to reasons of public utility. Nothing can be more 
+absurd and unreasonable, than the murmurs of the Piedmontese 
+officers at the preferment of foreigners, who execute those 
+things for the advantage of their country, of which they know 
+themselves incapable. When Mr. P--n was first promoted in the 
+service of his Sardinian majesty, he met with great opposition, 
+and numberless mortifications, from the jealousy of the 
+Piedmontese officers, and was obliged to hazard his life in many 
+rencounters with them, before they would be quiet. Being a man of 
+uncommon spirit, he never suffered the least insult or affront to 
+pass unchastised. He had repeated opportunities of signalizing 
+his valour against the Turks; and by dint of extraordinary merit, 
+and long services not only attained the chief command of the 
+gallies, with the rank of lieutenant-general, but also acquired a 
+very considerable share of the king's favour, and was appointed 
+commandant of Nice. His Sardinian majesty found his account more 
+ways than one, in thus promoting Mr. P--n. He made the 
+acquisition of an excellent officer, of tried courage and 
+fidelity, by whose advice he conducted his marine affairs. This 
+gentleman was perfectly well esteemed at the court of London. In
+the war of 1744, he lived in the utmost harmony with the British 
+admirals who commanded our fleet in the Mediterranean. In 
+consequence of this good understanding, a thousand occasional 
+services were performed by the English ships, for the benefit of 
+his master, which otherwise could not have been done, without a 
+formal application to our ministry; in which case, the 
+opportunities would have been lost. I know our admirals had 
+general orders and instructions, to cooperate in all things with 
+his Sardinian majesty; but I know, also, by experience, how 
+little these general instructions avail, when the admiral is not 
+cordially interested in the service. Were the king of Sardinia at 
+present engaged with England in a new war against France, and a 
+British squadron stationed upon this coast, as formerly, he would 
+find a great difference in this particular. He should therefore 
+carefully avoid having at Nice a Savoyard commandant, utterly 
+ignorant of sea affairs; unacquainted with the true interest of 
+his master; proud, and arbitrary; reserved to strangers, from a 
+prejudice of national jealousy; and particularly averse to the 
+English.
+
+With respect to the antient name of Villa Franca, there is a 
+dispute among antiquarians. It is not at all mentioned in the 
+Itinerarium of Antoninus, unless it is meant as the port of Nice. 
+But it is more surprising, that the accurate Strabo, in 
+describing this coast, mentions no such harbour. Some people 
+imagine it is the Portus Herculis Monaeci. But this is 
+undoubtedly what is now called Monaco; the harbour of which 
+exactly tallies with what Strabo says of the Portus Monaeci--
+neque magnas, neque multas capit naves, It holds but a few 
+vessels and those of small burthen. Ptolomy, indeed, seems to 
+mention it under the name of Herculis Portus, different from the 
+Portus Monaeci. His words are these: post vari ostium ad 
+Ligustrium mare, massiliensium, sunt Nicaea, Herculis Portus, 
+Trophaea Augusti, Monaeci Portus, Beyond the mouth of the Var 
+upon the Ligurian Coast, the Marsilian Colonies are Nice, Port 
+Hercules, Trophaea and Monaco. In that case, Hercules was 
+worshipped both here and at Monaco, and gave his name to both 
+places. But on this subject, I shall perhaps speak more fully in 
+another letter, after I have seen the Trophaea Augusti, now 
+called Tourbia, and the town of Monaco, which last is about three 
+leagues from Nice. Here I cannot help taking notice of the 
+following elegant description from the Pharsalia, which seems to 
+have been intended for this very harbour.
+
+Finis et Hesperiae promoto milite varus, 
+Quaque sub Herculeo sacratus numine Portus 
+Urget rupe cava Pelagus, non Corus in illum 
+Jus habet, aut Zephirus, solus sua littora turbat 
+Circius, et tuta prohibet statione Monaeci.
+
+The Troops advanc'd as far 
+As flows th' Hesperian Boundary, the Var; 
+And where the mountain scoop'd by nature's hands, 
+The spacious Port of Hercules, expands;
+
+Here the tall ships at anchor safe remain 
+Tho' Zephyr blows, or Caurus sweeps the Plain; 
+The Southern Blast alone disturbs the Bay; 
+And to Monaco's safer Port obstructs the way.
+
+The present town of Villa Franca was built and settled in the 
+thirteenth century, by order of Charles II. king of the Sicilies, 
+and count of Provence, in order to defend the harbour from the 
+descents of the Saracens, who at that time infested the coast. 
+The inhabitants were removed hither from another town, situated 
+on the top of a mountain in the neighbourhood, which those 
+pirates had destroyed. Some ruins of the old town are still 
+extant. In order to secure the harbour still more effectually, 
+Emanuel Philibert, duke of Savoy, built the fort in the beginning 
+of the last century, together with the mole where the gallies are 
+moored. As I said before, Ville Franche is built on the face of a 
+barren rock, washed by the sea; and there is not an acre of plain 
+ground within a mile of it. In summer, the reflexion of the sun 
+from the rocks must make it intolerably hot; for even at this 
+time of the year, I walked myself into a profuse sweat, by going 
+about a quarter of a mile to see the gallies.
+
+Pray remember me to our friends at A--'s, and believe me to be 
+ever yours.
+
+LETTER XV
+
+NICE, January 3, 1764.
+
+MADAM,--In your favour which I received by Mr. M--l, you remind me 
+of my promise, to communicate the remarks I have still to make on 
+the French nation; and at the same time you signify your opinion, 
+that I am too severe in my former observations. You even hint a 
+suspicion, that this severity is owing to some personal cause of 
+resentment; but, I protest, I have no particular cause of 
+animosity against any individual of that country. I have neither 
+obligation to, nor quarrel with, any subject of France; and when 
+I meet with a Frenchman worthy of my esteem, I can receive him 
+into my friendship with as much cordiality, as I could feel for 
+any fellow-citizen of the same merit. I even respect the nation, 
+for the number of great men it has produced in all arts and 
+sciences. I respect the French officers, in particular, for their 
+gallantry and valour; and especially for that generous humanity 
+which they exercise towards their enemies, even amidst the 
+horrors of war. This liberal spirit is the only circumstance of 
+antient chivalry, which I think was worth preserving. It had 
+formerly flourished in England, but was almost extinguished in a 
+succession of civil wars, which are always productive of cruelty 
+and rancour. It was Henry IV. of France, (a real knight errant) 
+who revived it in Europe. He possessed that greatness of mind, 
+which can forgive injuries of the deepest dye: and as he had 
+also the faculty of distinguishing characters, he found his 
+account, in favouring with his friendship and confidence, some of 
+those who had opposed him in the field with the most inveterate 
+perseverance. I know not whether he did more service to mankind 
+in general, by reviving the practice of treating his prisoners 
+with generosity, than he prejudiced his own country by 
+patronizing the absurd and pernicious custom of duelling, and 
+establishing a punto, founded in diametrical opposition to common 
+sense and humanity.
+
+I have often heard it observed, that a French officer is 
+generally an agreeable companion when he is turned of fifty. 
+Without all doubt, by that time, the fire of his vivacity, which 
+makes him so troublesome in his youth, will be considerably 
+abated, and in other respects, he must be improved by his 
+experience. But there is a fundamental error in the first 
+principles of his education, which time rather confirms than 
+removes. Early prejudices are for the most part converted into 
+habits of thinking; and accordingly you will find the old 
+officers in the French service more bigotted than their juniors, 
+to the punctilios of false honour.
+
+A lad of a good family no sooner enters into the service, than he 
+thinks it incumbent upon him to shew his courage in a rencontre. 
+His natural vivacity prompts him to hazard in company every thing 
+that comes uppermost, without any respect to his seniors or 
+betters; and ten to one but he says something, which he finds it 
+necessary to maintain with his sword. The old officer, instead of 
+checking his petulance, either by rebuke or silent 
+disapprobation, seems to be pleased with his impertinence, and 
+encourages every sally of his presumption. Should a quarrel 
+ensue, and the parties go out, he makes no efforts to compromise 
+the dispute; but sits with a pleasing expectation to learn the 
+issue of the rencontre. If the young man is wounded, he kisses 
+him with transport, extols his bravery, puts him into the hands 
+of the surgeon, and visits him with great tenderness every day, 
+until he is cured. If he is killed on the spot, he shrugs up his 
+shoulders--says, quelle dommage! c'etoit un amiable enfant! ah, 
+patience! What pity! he was a fine Boy! It can't be helpt! and in 
+three hours the defunct is forgotten. You know, in France, duels 
+are forbid, on pain of death: but this law is easily evaded. The 
+person insulted walks out; the antagonist understands the hint, 
+and follows him into the street, where they justle as if by 
+accident, draw their swords, and one of them is either killed or 
+disabled, before any effectual means can be used to part them. 
+Whatever may be the issue of the combat, the magistrate takes no 
+cognizance of it; at least, it is interpreted into an accidental 
+rencounter, and no penalty is incurred on either side. Thus the 
+purpose of the law is entirely defeated, by a most ridiculous and 
+cruel connivance. The meerest trifles in conversation, a rash 
+word, a distant hint, even a look or smile of contempt, is 
+sufficient to produce one of these combats; but injuries of a 
+deeper dye, such as terms of reproach, the lie direct, a blow, or 
+even the menace of a blow, must be discussed with more formality. 
+In any of these cases, the parties agree to meet in the dominions 
+of another prince, where they can murder each other, without fear 
+of punishment. An officer who is struck, or even threatened with 
+a blow must not be quiet, until he either kills his antagonist, 
+or loses his own life. A friend of mine, (a Nissard) who was in 
+the service of France, told me, that some years ago, one of their 
+captains, in the heat of passion, struck his lieutenant. They 
+fought immediately: the lieutenant was wounded and disarmed. As 
+it was an affront that could not be made up, he no sooner 
+recovered of his wounds, than he called out the captain a second 
+time. In a word, they fought five times before the combat proved 
+decisive at last, the lieutenant was left dead on the spot. This 
+was an event which sufficiently proved the absurdity of the 
+punctilio that gave rise to it. The poor gentleman who was 
+insulted, and outraged by the brutality of the aggressor, found 
+himself under the necessity of giving him a further occasion to 
+take away his life. Another adventure of the same kind happened a 
+few years ago in this place. A French officer having threatened 
+to strike another, a formal challenge ensued; and it being agreed 
+that they should fight until one of them dropped, each provided 
+himself with a couple of pioneers to dig his grave on the spot. 
+They engaged just without one of the gates of Nice, in presence 
+of a great number of spectators, and fought with surprising fury, 
+until the ground was drenched with their blood. At length one of 
+them stumbled, and fell; upon which the other, who found himself 
+mortally wounded, advancing, and dropping his point, said, "Je te 
+donne ce que tu m'as ote." "I'll give thee that which thou hast 
+taken from me." So saying, he dropped dead upon the field. The 
+other, who had been the person insulted, was so dangerously 
+wounded that he could not rise. Some of the spectators carried 
+him forthwith to the beach, and putting him into a boat, conveyed 
+him by sea to Antibes. The body of his antagonist was denied 
+Christian burial, as he died without absolution, and every body 
+allowed that his soul went to hell: but the gentlemen of the army 
+declared, that he died like a man of honour. Should a man be 
+never so well inclined to make atonement in a peaceable manner, 
+for an insult given in the heat of passion, or in the fury of 
+intoxication, it cannot be received. Even an involuntary trespass 
+from ignorance, or absence of mind, must be cleansed with blood. 
+A certain noble lord, of our country, when he was yet a commoner, 
+on his travels, involved himself in a dilemma of this sort, at 
+the court of Lorrain. He had been riding out, and strolling along 
+a public walk, in a brown study, with his horse-whip in his hand, 
+perceived a caterpillar crawling on the back of a marquis, who 
+chanced to be before him. He never thought of the petit maitre; 
+but lifting up his whip, in order to kill the insect, laid it 
+across his shoulders with a crack, that alarmed all the company 
+in the walk. The marquis's sword was produced in a moment, and 
+the aggressor in great hazard of his life, as he had no weapon of 
+defence. He was no sooner waked from his reverie, than he begged 
+pardon, and offered to make all proper concessions for what he 
+had done through mere inadvertency. The marquis would have 
+admitted his excuses, had there been any precedent of such an 
+affront being washed away without blood. A conclave of honour was 
+immediately assembled; and after long disputes, they agreed, that 
+an involuntary offence, especially from such a kind of man, d'un 
+tel homme, might be attoned by concessions. That you may have 
+some idea of the small beginning, from which many gigantic 
+quarrels arise, I shall recount one that lately happened at 
+Lyons, as I had it from the mouth of a person who was an ear and 
+eye witness of the transaction. Two Frenchmen, at a public 
+ordinary, stunned the rest of the company with their loquacity. 
+At length, one of them, with a supercilious air, asked the 
+other's name. "I never tell my name, (said he) but
+in a whisper." "You may have very good reasons for keeping it 
+secret," replied the first. "I will tell you," (resumed the 
+other): with these words he rose; and going round to him, 
+pronounced, loud enough to be heard by the whole company, "Je 
+m'appelle Pierre Paysan; et vous etes un impertinent." "My name 
+is Peter Peasant, and you are an impertinent fellow." So saying, 
+he walked out: the interrogator followed him into the street, 
+where they justled, drew their swords, and engaged. He who asked 
+the question was run through the body; but his relations were so 
+powerful, that the victor was obliged to fly his country, was 
+tried and condemned in his absence; his goods were confiscated; 
+his wife broke her heart; his children were reduced to beggary; 
+and he himself is now starving in exile. In England we have not 
+yet adopted all the implacability of the punctilio. A gentleman 
+may be insulted even with a blow, and survive, after having once 
+hazarded his life against the aggressor. The laws of honour in 
+our country do not oblige him either to slay the person from whom 
+he received the injury, or even to fight to the last drop of his 
+own blood. One finds no examples of duels among the Romans, who 
+were certainly as brave and as delicate in their notions of 
+honour as the French. Cornelius Nepos tells us, that a famous 
+Athenian general, having a dispute with his colleague, who was of 
+Sparta, a man of a fiery disposition, this last lifted up his 
+cane to strike him. Had this happened to a French petit maitre, 
+death must have ensued: but mark what followed--The Athenian, far 
+from resenting the outrage, in what is now called a gentlemanlike 
+manner, said, "Do, strike if you please; but hear me." He never 
+dreamed of cutting the Lacedemonian's throat; but bore with his 
+passionate temper, as the infirmity of a friend who had a 
+thousand good qualities to overbalance that defect.
+
+I need not expatiate upon the folly and the mischief which are 
+countenanced and promoted by the modern practice of duelling. I 
+need not give examples of friends who have murdered each other, 
+in obedience to this savage custom, even while their hearts were 
+melting with mutual tenderness; nor will I particularize the 
+instances which I myself know, of whole families ruined, of women 
+and children made widows and orphans, of parents deprived of only 
+sons, and of valuable lives lost to the community, by duels, 
+which had been produced by one unguarded expression, uttered 
+without intention of offence, in the heat of dispute and 
+altercation. I shall not insist upon the hardship of a worthy 
+man's being obliged to devote himself to death, because it is his 
+misfortune to be insulted by a brute, a bully, a drunkard, or a 
+madman: neither will I enlarge upon this side of the absurdity, 
+which indeed amounts to a contradiction in terms; I mean the 
+dilemma to which a gentleman in the army is reduced, when he 
+receives an affront: if he does not challenge and fight his 
+antagonist, he is broke with infamy by a court-martial; if he 
+fights and kills him, he is tried by the civil power, convicted 
+of murder, and, if the royal mercy does not interpose, he is 
+infallibly hanged: all this, exclusive of the risque of his own 
+life in the duel, and his conscience being burthened with the 
+blood of a man, whom perhaps he has sacrificed to a false 
+punctilio, even contrary to his own judgment. These are 
+reflections which I know your own good sense will suggest, but I 
+will make bold to propose a remedy for this gigantic evil, which 
+seems to gain ground everyday: let a court be instituted for 
+taking cognizance of all breaches of honour, with power to punish 
+by fine, pillory, sentence of infamy, outlawry, and exile, by 
+virtue of an act of parliament made for this purpose; and all 
+persons insulted, shall have recourse to this tribunal: let every 
+man who seeks personal reparation with sword, pistol, or other 
+instrument of death, be declared infamous, and banished the 
+kingdom: let every man, convicted of having used a sword or 
+pistol, or other mortal weapon, against another, either in duel 
+or rencountre, occasioned by any previous quarrel, be subject to 
+the same penalties: if any man is killed in a duel, let his body 
+be hanged upon a public gibbet, for a certain time, and then 
+given to the surgeons: let his antagonist be hanged as a 
+murderer, and dissected also; and some mark of infamy be set on 
+the memory of both. I apprehend such regulations would put an 
+effectual stop to the practice of duelling, which nothing but 
+the fear of infamy can support; for I am persuaded, that no 
+being, capable of reflection, would prosecute the trade of 
+assassination at the risque of his own life, if this hazard 
+was at the same time reinforced by the certain prospect of 
+infamy and ruin. Every person of sentiment would in that case 
+allow, that an officer, who in a duel robs a deserving woman 
+of her husband, a number of children of their father, a family 
+of its support, and the community of a fellow-citizen, has as 
+little merit to plead from exposing his own person, as a 
+highwayman, or housebreaker, who every day risques his life 
+to rob or plunder that which is not of half the importance 
+to society. I think it was from the Buccaneers of America, 
+that the English have learned to abolish one solecism in 
+the practice of duelling: those adventurers decided their 
+personal quarrels with pistols; and this improvement 
+has been adopted in Great Britain with good success; though 
+in France, and other parts of the continent, it is looked 
+upon as a proof of their barbarity. It is, however, the only 
+circumstance of duelling, which savours of common sense, as it 
+puts all mankind upon a level, the old with the young, the weak 
+with the strong, the unwieldy with the nimble, and the man who 
+knows not how to hold a sword with the spadassin, who has 
+practised fencing from the cradle. What glory is there in a man's 
+vanquishing an adversary over whom he has a manifest advantage? 
+To abide the issue of a combat in this case, does not even 
+require that moderate share of resolution which nature has 
+indulged to her common children. Accordingly, we have seen many 
+instances of a coward's provoking a man of honour to battle. In 
+the reign of our second Charles, when duels flourished in all 
+their absurdity, and the seconds fought while their principals 
+were engaged, Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, not content with 
+having debauched the countess of Shrewsbury and publishing her 
+shame, took all opportunities of provoking the earl to single 
+combat, hoping he should have an easy conquest, his lordship 
+being a puny little creature, quiet, inoffensive, and every way 
+unfit for such personal contests. He ridiculed him on all 
+occasions; and at last declared in public company, that there was 
+no glory in cuckolding Shrewsbury, who had not spirit to resent 
+the injury. This was an insult which could not be overlooked. The 
+earl sent him a challenge; and they agreed to fight, at Barns-Elms, 
+in presence of two gentlemen, whom they chose for their 
+seconds. All the four engaged at the same time; the first thrust 
+was fatal to the earl of Shrewsbury; and his friend killed the 
+duke's second at the same instant. Buckingham, elated with his 
+exploit, set out immediately for the earl's seat at Cliefden, 
+where he lay with his wife, after having boasted of the murder of 
+her husband, whose blood he shewed her upon his sword, as a 
+trophy of his prowess. But this very duke of Buckingham was 
+little better than a poltroon at bottom. When the gallant earl of 
+Ossory challenged him to fight in Chelsea fields, he crossed the 
+water to Battersea, where he pretended to wait for his lordship; 
+and then complained to the house of lords, that Ossory had given 
+him the rendezvous, and did not keep his appointment. He knew the 
+house would interpose in the quarrel, and he was not 
+disappointed. Their lordships obliged them both to give their 
+word of honour, that their quarrel should have no other 
+consequences.
+
+I ought to make an apology for having troubled a lady with so 
+many observations on a subject so unsuitable to the softness of 
+the fair sex; but I know you cannot be indifferent to any thing 
+that so nearly affects the interests of humanity, which I can 
+safely aver have alone suggested every thing which has been said 
+by, Madam, Your very humble servant.
+
+LETTER XVI
+
+NICE, May 2, 1764.
+
+DEAR DOCTOR,--A few days ago, I rode out with two gentlemen of 
+this country, to see a stream of water which was formerly 
+conveyed in an aqueduct to the antient city of Cemenelion, from 
+whence this place is distant about a mile, though separated by 
+abrupt rocks and deep hollows, which last are here honoured with 
+the name of vallies. The water, which is exquisitely cool, and 
+light and pure, gushes from the middle of a rock by a hole which 
+leads to a subterranean aqueduct carried through the middle of 
+the mountain. This is a Roman work, and the more I considered it, 
+appeared the more stupendous. A peasant who lives upon the spot 
+told us, he had entered by this hole at eight in the morning, and 
+advanced so far, that it was four in the afternoon before he came 
+out. He said he walked in the water, through a regular canal 
+formed of a hard stone, lined with a kind of cement, and vaulted 
+overhead; but so high in most parts he could stand upright, yet 
+in others, the bed of the canal was so filled with earth and 
+stones, that he was obliged to stoop in passing. He said that 
+there were air-holes at certain distances (and indeed I saw one 
+of these not far from the present issue) that there were some 
+openings and stone seats on the sides, and here and there figures 
+of men formed of stone, with hammers and working tools in their 
+hands. I am apt to believe the fellow romanced a little, in order 
+to render his adventure the more marvellous: but I am certainly 
+informed, that several persons have entered this passage, and 
+proceeded a considerable way by the light of torches, without 
+arriving at the source, which (if we may believe the tradition of 
+the country) is at the distance of eight leagues from this 
+opening; but this is altogether incredible. The stream is now 
+called la fontaine de muraille, and is carefully conducted by 
+different branches into the adjacent vineyards and gardens, for 
+watering the ground. On the side of the same mountain, more 
+southerly, at the distance of half a mile, there is another still 
+more copious discharge of the same kind of water, called la 
+source du temple. It was conveyed through the same kind of 
+passage, and put to the same use as the other; and I should 
+imagine they are both from the same source, which, though 
+hitherto undiscovered, must be at a considerable distance, as the 
+mountain is continued for several leagues to the westward, 
+without exhibiting the least signs of water in any other part. 
+But, exclusive of the subterranean conduits, both these streams 
+must have been conveyed through aqueducts extending from hence to 
+Cemenelion over steep rocks and deep ravines, at a prodigious 
+expence. The water from this source du temple, issues from a 
+stone building which covers the passage in the rock. It serves to 
+turn several olive, corn, and paper mills, being conveyed through 
+a modern aqueduct raised upon paultry arcades at the expence of 
+the public, and afterwards is branched off in very small streams, 
+for the benefit of this parched and barren country. The Romans 
+were so used to bathing, that they could not exist without a 
+great quantity of water; and this, I imagine, is one reason that 
+induced them to spare no labour and expence in bringing it from a 
+distance, when they had not plenty of it at home. But, besides 
+this motive, they had another: they were so nice and delicate in 
+their taste of water, that they took great pains to supply 
+themselves with the purest and lightest from afar, for drinking 
+and culinary uses, even while they had plenty of an inferior sort 
+for their bath, and other domestic purposes. There are springs of 
+good water on the spot where Cemenelion stood: but there is a 
+hardness in all well-water, which quality is deposited in running 
+a long course, especially, if exposed to the influence of the sun 
+and air. The Romans, therefore, had good reason to soften and 
+meliorate this element, by conveying it a good length of way in 
+open aqueducts. What was used in the baths of Cemenelion, they 
+probably brought in leaden pipes, some of which have been dug up 
+very lately by accident. You must know, I made a second excursion 
+to these antient ruins, and measured the arena of the 
+amphitheatre with packthread. It is an oval figure; the longest 
+diameter extending to about one hundred and thirteen feet, and 
+the shortest to eighty-eight; but I will not answer for the 
+exactness of the measurement. In the center of it, there was a 
+square stone, with an iron ring, to which I suppose the wild 
+beasts were tied, to prevent their springing upon the spectators. 
+Some of the seats remain, the two opposite entrances, consisting 
+each of one large gate, and two lateral smaller doors, arched: 
+there is also a considerable portion of the external wall; but no 
+columns, or other ornaments of architecture. Hard by, in the 
+garden of the count de Gubernatis, I saw the remains of a bath, 
+fronting the portal of the temple, which I have described in a 
+former letter; and here were some shafts of marble pillars, 
+particularly a capital of the Corinthian order beautifully cut, 
+of white alabaster. Here the count found a large quantity of fine 
+marble, which he has converted to various uses; and some 
+mutilated statues, bronze as well as marble. The peasant shewed 
+me some brass and silver medals, which he has picked up at 
+different times in labouring the ground; together with several 
+oblong beads of coloured glass, which were used as ear-rings by 
+the Roman ladies; and a small seal of agate, very much defaced. 
+Two of the medals were of Maximian and Gallienus; the rest were 
+so consumed, that I could not read the legend. You know, that on 
+public occasions, such as games, and certain sacrifices, handfuls 
+of medals were thrown among the people; a practice, which 
+accounts for the great number which have been already found in 
+this district. I saw some subterranean passages, which seemed to 
+have been common sewers; and a great number of old walls still 
+standing along the brink of a precipice, which overhangs the 
+Paglion. The peasants tell me, that they never dig above a yard 
+in depth, without finding vaults or cavities. All the vineyards 
+and garden-grounds, for a considerable extent, are vaulted 
+underneath; and all the ground that produces their grapes, fruit, 
+and garden-stuff, is no more than the crumpled lime and rubbish 
+of old Roman buildings, mixed with manure brought from Nice. This 
+antient town commanded a most noble prospect of the sea; but is 
+altogether inaccessible by any kind of wheel carriage. If you 
+make shift to climb to it on horseback, you cannot descend to the 
+plain again, without running the risk of breaking your neck.
+
+About seven or eight miles on the other side of Nice, are the 
+remains of another Roman monument which has greatly suffered from 
+the barbarity of successive ages. It was a trophy erected by the 
+senate of Rome, in honour of Augustus Caesar, when he had totally 
+subdued all the ferocious nations of these Maritime Alps; such as 
+the Trumpilini Camuni, Vennontes, Isnarci, Breuni, etc. It stands 
+upon the top of a mountain which overlooks the town of Monaco, 
+and now exhibits the appearance of an old ruined tower. There is 
+a description of what it was, in an Italian manuscript, by which 
+it appears to have been a beautiful edifice of two stories, 
+adorned with columns and trophies in alto-relievo, with a statue 
+of Augustus Caesar on the top. On one of the sides was an 
+inscription, some words of which are still legible, upon the 
+fragment of a marble found close to the old building: but the 
+whole is preserved in Pliny, who gives it, in these words, lib. 
+iii. cap. 20.
+
+IMPERATORI CAESARI DIVI. F. AVG. PONT.
+MAX. IMP. XIV. TRIBVNIC. POTEST. XVIII.
+S. P. Q. R.
+QVODEIVSDVCTV, AVSPICIISQ. GENIES ALPINAE OMNES,
+QVAE A MARI SVPERO AD INFERVM PERTINEBANT, SVB
+IMPERIVM PO. RO. SUNT REDAC. GENTES ALPINAE DEVICTAE.
+TRVMPILINI CAMVNI, VENNONETES, ISNARCI, BREVNI,
+NAVNES, FOCVNATES, VINDELICORVM GENTES QVATVOR,
+CONSVANETES, VIRVCINATES, LICATES, CATENATES, ABI-
+SONTES, RVGVSCI, SVANETES, CALVCONES, BRIXENTES,
+LEPONTII, VIBERI, NANTVATES, SEDVNI, VERAGRI,
+SALASSI, ACITAVONES MEDVLLI, VCINI, CATVRIGES,
+BRIGIANI, SOGIVNTII, NEMALONES, EDENETES,
+ESVBIANI, VEAMINI, GALLITAE, TRIVLLATI,
+ECTINI, VERGVNNI, EGVITVRI. NEMENTVRI,
+ORATELLI, NERVSCI, VELAVNI, SVETRI.
+
+This Trophy is erected by the Senate and People of Rome to the 
+Emperor Caesar Augustus, son of the divine Julius, in the 
+fourteenth year of his imperial Dignity, and in the eighteenth of 
+his Tribunician Power, because under his command and auspices all 
+the nations of the Alps from the Adriatic to the Tuscanian Sea, 
+were reduced under the Dominion of Rome. The Alpine nations 
+subdued were the Trumpelini, etc.
+
+Pliny, however, is mistaken in placing this inscription on a 
+trophy near the Augusta praetoria, now called Aosta, in Piedmont: 
+where, indeed, there is a triumphal arch, but no inscription. 
+This noble monument of antiquity was first of all destroyed by 
+fire; and afterwards, in Gothic times, converted into a kind of 
+fortification. The marbles belonging to it were either employed 
+in adorning the church of the adjoining village, which is still 
+called Turbia, a corruption of Trophaea; [This was formerly a 
+considerable town called Villa Martis, and pretends to the honour 
+of having given birth to Aulus Helvius, who succeeded Commodus as 
+emperor of Rome, by the name of Pertinax which he acquired from 
+his obstinate refusal of that dignity, when it was forced upon 
+him by the senate. You know this man, though of very low birth, 
+possessed many excellent qualities, and was basely murdered by 
+the praetorian guards, at the instigation of Didius Tulianus. For 
+my part, I could never read without emotion, that celebrated 
+eulogium of the senate who exclaimed after his death, Pertinace, 
+imperante, securi viximus neminem timuimus, patre pio, patre 
+senatus, patre omnium, honorum, We lived secure and were afraid 
+of nothing under the Government of Pertinax, our affectionate 
+Father, Father of the Senate, Father to all the children of 
+Virtue.] or converted into tomb-stones, or carried off to be 
+preserved in one or two churches of Nice. At present, the work 
+has the appearance of a ruinous watch-tower, with Gothic 
+battlements; and as such stands undistinguished by those who 
+travel by sea from hence to Genoa, and other ports of Italy. I 
+think I have now described all the antiquities in the 
+neighbourhood of Nice, except some catacombs or caverns, dug in a 
+rock at St. Hospice, which Busching, in his geography, has 
+described as a strong town and seaport, though in fact, there is 
+not the least vestige either of town or village. It is a point of 
+land almost opposite to the tower of Turbia, with the mountains 
+of which it forms a bay, where there is a great and curious 
+fishery of the tunny fish, farmed of the king of Sardinia. Upon 
+this point there is a watch-tower still kept in repair, to give 
+notice to the people in the neighbourhood, in case any Barbary 
+corsairs should appear on the coast. The catacombs were in all 
+probability dug, in former times, as places of retreat for the 
+inhabitants upon sudden descents of the Saracens, who greatly 
+infested these seas for several successive centuries. Many 
+curious persons have entered them and proceeded a considerable 
+way by torch-light, without arriving at the further extremity; 
+and the tradition of the country is, that they reach as far as 
+the ancient city of Cemenelion; but this is an idle supposition, 
+almost as ridiculous as that which ascribes them to the labour 
+and ingenuity of the fairies: they consist of narrow subterranean 
+passages, vaulted with stone and lined with cement. Here and 
+there one finds detached apartments like small chambers, where I 
+suppose the people remained concealed till the danger was over. 
+Diodorus Siculus tells us, that the antient inhabitants of this 
+country usually lived under ground. "Ligures in terra cubant ut 
+plurimum; plures ad cava, saxa speluncasque ab natura factas ubi 
+tegantur corpora divertunt," "The Ligurians mostly lie on the 
+bare ground; many of them lodge in bare Caves and Caverns where 
+they are sheltered from the inclemency of the weather." This was 
+likewise the custom of the Troglodytae, a people bordering upon 
+Aethiopia who, according to Aelian, lived in subterranean 
+caverns; from whence, indeed they took their name trogli, 
+signifying a cavern; and Virgil, in his Georgics, thus describes 
+the Sarmatae,
+
+Ipsi in defossis specubus, secura sub alta 
+Ocia agunt terra.--
+
+In Subterranean Caves secure they lie 
+Nor heed the transient seasons as they fly.
+
+These are dry subjects; but such as the country affords. If we 
+have not white paper, we must snow with brown. Even that which I 
+am now scrawling may be useful, if, not entertaining: it is 
+therefore the more confidently offered by--Dear Sir, Yours 
+affectionately.
+
+LETTER XVII
+
+NICE, July 2, 1764.
+
+DEAR SIR,--Nice was originally a colony from Marseilles. You know 
+the Phocians (if we may believe Justin and Polybius) settled in 
+Gaul, and built Marseilles, during the reign of Tarquinius 
+Priscus at Rome. This city flourished to such a degree, that long 
+before the Romans were in a condition to extend their dominion, 
+it sent forth colonies, and established them along the coast of 
+Liguria. Of these, Nice, or Nicaea, was one of the most 
+remarkable; so called, in all probability, from the Greek word 
+Nike, signifying Victoria, in consequence of some important 
+victory obtained over the Salii and Ligures, who were the antient 
+inhabitants of this country. Nice, with its mother city, being in 
+the sequel subdued by the Romans, fell afterwards successively 
+under the dominion of the Goths, Burgundians, and Franks, the 
+kings of Arles, and the kings of Naples, as counts of Provence. 
+In the year one thousand three hundred and eighty-eight, the city 
+and county of Nice being but ill protected by the family of 
+Durazzo, voluntarily surrendered themselves to Amadaeus, surnamed 
+the Red, duke of Savoy; and since that period, they have 
+continued as part of that potentate's dominions, except at such 
+times as they have been over-run and possessed by the power of 
+France, which hath always been a troublesome neighbour to this 
+country. The castle was begun by the Arragonian counts of 
+Provence, and afterwards enlarged by several successive dukes of 
+Savoy, so as to be deemed impregnable, until the modern method of 
+besieging began to take place. A fruitless attempt was made upon 
+it in the year one thousand five hundred and forty-three, by the 
+French and Turks in conjunction: but it was reduced several times 
+after that period, and is now in ruins. The celebrated engineer 
+Vauban, being commanded by Louis XIV to give in a plan for 
+fortifying Nice, proposed, that the river Paglion should be 
+turned into a new channel, so as to surround the town to the 
+north, and fall into the harbour; that where the Paglion now runs 
+to the westward of the city walls, there should be a deep ditch 
+to be filled with sea-water; and that a fortress should be built 
+to the westward of this fosse. These particulars might be 
+executed at no very great expence; but, I apprehend, they would 
+be ineffectual, as the town is commanded by every hill in the 
+neighbourhood; and the exhalations from stagnating sea-water 
+would infallibly render the air unwholesome. Notwithstanding the 
+undoubted antiquity of Nice, very few monuments of that antiquity 
+now remain. The inhabitants say, they were either destroyed by 
+the Saracens in their successive descents upon the coast, by the 
+barbarous nations in their repeated incursions, or used in 
+fortifying the castle, as well as in building other edifices. The 
+city of Cemenelion, however, was subject to the same disasters, 
+and even entirely ruined, nevertheless, we still find remains of 
+its antient splendor. There have been likewise a few stones found 
+at Nice, with antient inscriptions; but there is nothing of this 
+kind standing, unless we give the name of antiquity to a marble 
+cross on the road to Provence, about half a mile from the city. 
+It stands upon a pretty high pedestal with steps, under a pretty 
+stone cupola or dome, supported by four Ionic pillars, on the 
+spot where Charles V. emperor of Germany, Francis I. of France, 
+and pope Paul II. agreed to have a conference, in order to 
+determine all their disputes. The emperor came hither by sea, 
+with a powerful fleet, and the French king by land, at the head 
+of a numerous army. All the endeavours of his holiness, however, 
+could not effect a peace; but they agreed to a truce of ten 
+years. Mezerai affirms, that these two great princes never saw 
+one another on this occasion; and that this shyness was owing to 
+the management of the pope, whose private designs might have been 
+frustrated, had they come to a personal interview. In the front 
+of the colonade, there is a small stone, with an inscription in 
+Latin, which is so high, and so much defaced, that I cannot read 
+it.
+
+In the sixteenth century there was a college erected at Nice, by 
+Emanuel Philibert, duke of Savoy, for granting degrees to 
+students of law; and in the year one thousand six hundred and 
+fourteen, Charles Emanuel I. instituted the senate of Nice; 
+consisting of a president, and a certain number of senators, who 
+are distinguished by their purple robes, and other ensigns of 
+authority. They administer justice, having the power of life and 
+death, not only through the whole county of Nice, but causes are 
+evoked from Oneglia, and some other places, to their tribunal, 
+which is the dernier ressort, from whence there is no appeal. The 
+commandant, however, by virtue of his military power and 
+unrestricted authority, takes upon him to punish individuals by 
+imprisonment, corporal pains, and banishment, without consulting 
+the senate, or indeed, observing any form of trial. The only 
+redress against any unjust exercise of this absolute power, is by 
+complaint to the king; and you know, what chance a poor man has 
+for being redressed in this manner.
+
+With respect to religion, I may safely say, that here 
+superstition reigns under the darkest shades of ignorance and 
+prejudice. I think there are ten convents and three nunneries 
+within and without the walls of Nice; and among them all, I never 
+could hear of one man who had made any tolerable advances in any 
+kind of human learning. All ecclesiastics are exempted from any 
+exertion of civil power, being under the immediate protection and 
+authority of the bishop, or his vicar. The bishop of Nice is 
+suffragan of the archbishop of Ambrun in France; and the revenues 
+of the see amount to between five and six hundred pounds 
+sterling. We have likewise an office of the inquisition, though I 
+do not hear that it presumes to execute any acts of jurisdiction, 
+without the king's special permission. All the churches are 
+sanctuaries for all kinds of criminals, except those guilty of 
+high treason; and the priests are extremely jealous of their 
+privileges in this particular. They receive, with open arms, 
+murderers, robbers, smugglers, fraudulent bankrupts, and felons 
+of every denomination; and never give them up, until after 
+having stipulated for their lives and liberty. I need not enlarge 
+upon the pernicious consequences of this infamous prerogative, 
+calculated to raise and extend the power and influence of the 
+Roman church, on the ruins of morality and good order. I saw a 
+fellow, who had three days before murdered his wife in the last 
+month of pregnancy, taking the air with great composure and 
+serenity, on the steps of a church in Florence; and nothing is 
+more common, than to see the most execrable villains diverting 
+themselves in the cloysters of some convents at Rome.
+
+Nice abounds with noblesse, marquisses, counts, and barons. Of 
+these, three or four families are really respectable: the rest 
+are novi homines, sprung from Bourgeois, who have saved a little 
+money by their different occupations, and raised themselves to 
+the rank of noblesse by purchase. One is descended from an 
+avocat; another from an apothecary; a third from a retailer of 
+wine, a fourth from a dealer in anchovies; and I am told, there 
+is actually a count at Villefranche, whose father sold macaroni 
+in the streets. A man in this country may buy a marquisate, or a 
+county, for the value of three or four hundred pounds sterling, 
+and the title follows the fief; but he may purchase lettres de 
+noblesse for about thirty or forty guineas. In Savoy, there are 
+six hundred families of noblesse; the greater part of which have 
+not above one hundred crowns a year to maintain their dignity. In 
+the mountains of Piedmont, and even in this country of Nice, 
+there are some representatives of very antient and noble 
+families, reduced to the condition of common peasants; but they 
+still retain the antient pride of their houses, and boast of the 
+noble blood that runs in their veins. A gentleman told me, that 
+in travelling through the mountains, he was obliged to pass a 
+night in the cottage of one of these rusticated nobles, who 
+called to his son in the evening, "Chevalier, as-tu donne a 
+manger aux cochons?" "Have you fed the Hogs, Sir Knight?" This, 
+however, is not the case with the noblesse of Nice. Two or three 
+of them have about four or five hundred a year: the rest, in general, 
+may have about one hundred pistoles, arising from the silk, oil, wine, 
+and oranges, produced in their small plantations, where they have 
+also country houses. Some few of these are well built, 
+commodious, and situated; but, for the most part, they are 
+miserable enough. Our noblesse, notwithstanding their origin, and 
+the cheap rate at which their titles have been obtained, are 
+nevertheless extremely tenacious of their privileges, very 
+delicate in maintaining the etiquette, and keep at a very stately 
+distance from the Bourgeoisie. How they live in their families, I 
+do not choose to enquire; but, in public, Madame appears in her 
+robe of gold, or silver stuff, with her powder and frisure, her 
+perfumes, her paint and her patches; while Monsieur Le Comte 
+struts about in his lace and embroidery. Rouge and fard are more 
+peculiarly necessary in this country, where the complexion and 
+skin are naturally swarthy and yellow. I have likewise observed, 
+that most of the females are pot-bellied; a circumstance owing, I 
+believe, to the great quantity of vegetable trash which they eat. 
+All the horses, mules, asses, and cattle, which feed upon grass, 
+have the same distension. This kind of food produces such acid 
+juices in the stomach, as excite a perpetual sense of hunger. I 
+have been often amazed at the voracious appetites of these 
+people. You must not expect that I should describe the tables and 
+the hospitality of our Nissard gentry. Our consul, who is a very 
+honest man, told me, he had lived four and thirty years in the 
+country, without having once eat or drank in any of their houses.
+
+The noblesse of Nice cannot leave the country without express 
+leave from the king; and this leave, when obtained, is for a 
+limited time, which they dare not exceed, on pain of incurring 
+his majesty's displeasure. They must, therefore, endeavour to 
+find amusements at home; and this, I apprehend, would be no easy 
+task for people of an active spirit or restless disposition. True 
+it is, the religion of the country supplies a never-failing fund 
+of pastime to those who have any relish for devotion; and this is 
+here a prevailing taste. We have had transient visits of a 
+puppet-shew, strolling musicians, and rope-dancers; but they did 
+not like their quarters, and decamped without beat of drum. In 
+the summer, about eight or nine at night, part of the noblesse 
+may be seen assembled in a place called the Pare; which is, 
+indeed, a sort of a street formed by a row of very paltry houses 
+on one side, and on the other, by part of the town-wall, which 
+screens it from a prospect of the sea, the only object that could 
+render it agreeable. Here you may perceive the noblesse stretched 
+in pairs upon logs of wood, like so many seals upon the rocks by 
+moon-light, each dame with her cicisbeo: for, you must 
+understand, this Italian fashion prevails at Nice among all ranks 
+of people; and there is not such a passion as jealousy known. The 
+husband and the cicisbeo live together as sworn brothers; and the 
+wife and the mistress embrace each other with marks of the 
+warmest affection. I do not choose to enter into particulars. I 
+cannot open the scandalous chronicle of Nice, without hazard of 
+contamination. With respect to delicacy and decorum, you may 
+peruse dean Swift's description of the Yahoos, and then you will 
+have some idea of the porcheria, that distinguishes the gallantry 
+of Nice. But the Pare is not the only place of public resort for 
+our noblesse in a summer's evening. Just without one of our 
+gates, you will find them seated in ditches on the highway side, 
+serenaded with the croaking of frogs, and the bells and braying 
+of mules and asses continually passing in a perpetual cloud of 
+dust. Besides these amusements, there is a public conversazione 
+every evening at the commandant's house called the Government, 
+where those noble personages play at cards for farthings. In 
+carnival time, there is also, at this same government, a ball 
+twice or thrice a week, carried on by subscription. At this 
+assembly every person, without distinction, is permitted to dance 
+in masquerade: but, after dancing, they are obliged to unmask, 
+and if Bourgeois, to retire. No individual can give a ball, 
+without obtaining a permission and guard of the commandant; and 
+then his house is open to all masques, without distinction, who 
+are provided with tickets, which tickets are sold by the 
+commandant's secretary, at five sols a-piece, and delivered to 
+the guard at the door. If I have a mind to entertain my 
+particular friends, I cannot have more than a couple of violins; 
+and, in that case, it is called a conversazione.
+
+Though the king of Sardinia takes all opportunities to 
+distinguish the subjects of Great-Britain with particular marks 
+of respect, I have seen enough to be convinced, that our nation 
+is looked upon with an evil eye by the people of Nice; and this 
+arises partly from religious prejudices, and partly from envy, 
+occasioned by a ridiculous notion of our superior wealth. For my 
+own part, I owe them nothing on the score of civilities; and 
+therefore, I shall say nothing more on the subject, lest I should 
+be tempted to deviate from that temperance and impartiality which 
+I would fain hope have hitherto characterised the remarks of,--
+Dear Sir, your faithful, humble servant.
+
+LETTER XVIII
+
+NICE, September 2, 1764.
+
+DEAR DOCTOR,--I wrote in May to Mr. B-- at Geneva, and gave him 
+what information he desired to have, touching the conveniences of 
+Nice. I shall now enter into the same detail, for the benefit of 
+such of your friends or patients, as may have occasion to try 
+this climate.
+
+The journey from Calais to Nice, of four persons in a coach, or 
+two post-chaises, with a servant on horseback, travelling post, 
+may be performed with ease, for about one hundred and twenty 
+pounds, including every expence. Either at Calais or at Paris, 
+you will always find a travelling coach or berline, which you may 
+buy for thirty or forty guineas, and this will serve very well to 
+reconvey you to your own country.
+
+In the town of Nice, you will find no ready-furnished lodgings 
+for a whole family. Just without one of the gates, there are two 
+houses to be let, ready-furnished, for about five loui'dores per 
+month. As for the country houses in this neighbourhood, they are 
+damp in winter, and generally without chimnies; and in summer 
+they are rendered uninhabitable by the heat and the vermin. If 
+you hire a tenement in Nice, you must take it for a year certain; 
+and this will cost you about twenty pounds sterling. For this 
+price, I have a ground floor paved with brick, consisting of a 
+kitchen, two large halls, a couple of good rooms with chimnies, 
+three large closets that serve for bed-chambers, and dressing-rooms, 
+a butler's room, and three apartments for servants,
+lumber or stores, to which we ascend by narrow wooden stairs. I 
+have likewise two small gardens, well stocked with oranges, 
+lemons, peaches, figs, grapes, corinths, sallad, and pot-herbs. 
+It is supplied with a draw-well of good water, and there is 
+another in the vestibule of the house, which is cool, large, and 
+magnificent. You may hire furniture for such a tenement for about 
+two guineas a month: but I chose rather to buy what was 
+necessary; and this cost me about sixty pounds. I suppose it will 
+fetch me about half the money when I leave the place. It is very 
+difficult to find a tolerable cook at Nice. A common maid, who 
+serves the people of the country, for three or four livres a 
+month, will not live with an English family under eight or ten. 
+They are all slovenly, slothful, and unconscionable cheats. The 
+markets at Nice are tolerably well supplied. Their beef, which 
+comes from Piedmont, is pretty good, and we have it all the year. 
+In the winter we have likewise excellent pork, and delicate lamb; 
+but the mutton is indifferent. Piedmont, also, affords us 
+delicious capons, fed with maize; and this country produces 
+excellent turkeys, but very few geese. Chickens and pullets are 
+extremely meagre. I have tried to fatten them, without success. 
+In summer they are subject to the pip, and die in great numbers. 
+Autumn and winter are the seasons for game; hares, partridges, 
+quails, wild-pigeons, woodcocks, snipes, thrushes, beccaficas, 
+and ortolans. Wild-boar is sometimes found in the mountains: it 
+has a delicious taste, not unlike that of the wild hog in 
+Jamaica; and would make an excellent barbecue, about the 
+beginning of winter, when it is in good case: but, when meagre, 
+the head only is presented at tables. Pheasants are very scarce. 
+As for the heath-game, I never saw but one cock, which my servant 
+bought in the market, and brought home; but the commandant's cook 
+came into my kitchen, and carried it of, after it was half 
+plucked, saying, his master had company to dinner. The hares are 
+large, plump, and juicy. The partridges are generally of the red 
+sort; large as pullets, and of a good flavour: there are also 
+some grey partridges in the mountains; and another sort of a 
+white colour, that weigh four or five pounds each. Beccaficas are 
+smaller than sparrows, but very fat, and they are generally eaten 
+half raw. The best way of dressing them is to stuff them into a 
+roll, scooped of it's crum; to baste them well with butter, and 
+roast them, until they are brown and crisp. The ortolans are kept 
+in cages, and crammed, until they die of fat, then eaten as 
+dainties. The thrush is presented with the trail, because the 
+bird feeds on olives. They may as well eat the trail of a sheep, 
+because it feeds on the aromatic herbs of the mountain. In the 
+summer, we have beef, veal, and mutton, chicken, and ducks; which 
+last are very fat, and very flabby. All the meat is tough in this 
+season, because the excessive heat, and great number of flies, 
+will not admit of its being kept any time after it is killed. 
+Butter and milk, though not very delicate, we have all the year. 
+Our tea and fine sugar come from Marseilles, at a very reasonable 
+price.
+
+Nice is not without variety of fish; though they are not counted 
+so good in their kinds as those of the ocean. Soals, and flat-fish 
+in general, are scarce. Here are some mullets, both grey and 
+red. We sometimes see the dory, which is called St Pierre; with 
+rock-fish, bonita, and mackarel. The gurnard appears pretty 
+often; and there is plenty of a kind of large whiting, which eats 
+pretty well; but has not the delicacy of that which is caught on 
+our coast. One of the best fish of this country, is called Le 
+Loup, about two or three pounds in weight; white, firm, and well-flavoured. 
+Another, no-way inferior to it, is the Moustel, about 
+the same size; of a dark-grey colour, and short, blunt snout; 
+growing thinner and flatter from the shoulders downwards, so as 
+to resemble a soal at the tail. This cannot be the mustela of the 
+antients, which is supposed to be the sea lamprey. Here too are 
+found the vyvre, or, as we call it, weaver; remarkable for its 
+long, sharp spines, so dangerous to the fingers of the fishermen. 
+We have abundance of the saepia, or cuttle-fish, of which the 
+people in this country make a delicate ragout; as also of the 
+polype de mer, which is an ugly animal, with long feelers, like 
+tails, which they often wind about the legs of the fishermen. 
+They are stewed with onions, and eat something like cow-heel. The 
+market sometimes affords the ecrivisse de mer, which is a lobster 
+without claws, of a sweetish taste; and there are a few rock 
+oysters, very small and very rank. Sometimes the fishermen find 
+under water, pieces of a very hard cement, like plaister of 
+Paris, which contain a kind of muscle, called la datte, from its 
+resemblance to a date. These petrifactions are commonly of a 
+triangular form and may weigh about twelve or fifteen pounds each 
+and one of them may contain a dozen of these muscles which have 
+nothing extraordinary in the taste or flavour, though extremely 
+curious, as found alive and juicy, in the heart of a rock, almost 
+as hard as marble, without any visible communication with the air 
+or water. I take it for granted, however, that the inclosing 
+cement is porous, and admits the finer parts of the surrounding 
+fluid. In order to reach the muscles, this cement must be broke 
+with large hammers; and it may be truly said, the kernal is not
+worth the trouble of cracking the shell. [These are found 
+in great plenty at Ancona and other parts of the Adriatic, where 
+they go by the name of Bollani, as we are informed by Keysler.] 
+Among the fish of this country, there is a very ugly animal of 
+the eel species, which might pass for a serpent: it is of a 
+dusky, black colour, marked with spots of yellow, about eighteen 
+inches, or two feet long. The Italians call it murena; but 
+whether it is the fish which had the same name among the antient 
+Romans, I cannot pretend to determine. The antient murena was 
+counted a great delicacy, and was kept in ponds for extraordinary 
+occasions. Julius Caesar borrowed six thousand for one 
+entertainment: but I imagined this was the river lamprey. The 
+murena of this country is in no esteem, and only eaten by the 
+poor people.
+
+Craw-fish and trout are rarely found in the rivers among the 
+mountains. The sword-fish is much esteemed in Nice, and called 
+l'empereur, about six or seven feet long: but I have never seen 
+it. [Since I wrote the above letter, I have eaten several times 
+of this fish, which is as white as the finest veal, and extremely 
+delicate. The emperor associates with the tunny fish, and is 
+always taken in their company.] They are very scarce; and when 
+taken, are generally concealed, because the head belongs to the 
+commandant, who has likewise the privilege of buying the best 
+fish at a very low price. For which reason, the choice pieces are 
+concealed by the fishermen, and sent privately to Piedmont or 
+Genoa. But, the chief fisheries on this coast are of the 
+sardines, anchovies, and tunny. These are taken in small 
+quantities all the year; but spring and summer is the season when 
+they mostly abound. In June and July, a fleet of about fifty 
+fishing-boats puts to sea every evening about eight o'clock, and 
+catches anchovies in immense quantities. One small boat sometimes 
+takes in one night twenty-five rup, amounting to six hundred 
+weight; but it must be observed, that the pound here, as well as 
+in other parts of Italy, consists but of twelve ounces. 
+Anchovies, besides their making a considerable article in the 
+commerce of Nice, are a great resource in all families. The 
+noblesse and burgeois sup on sallad and anchovies, which are 
+eaten on all their meagre days. The fishermen and mariners all 
+along this coast have scarce any other food but dry bread, with a 
+few pickled anchovies; and when the fish is eaten, they rub their 
+crusts with the brine. Nothing can be more delicious than fresh 
+anchovies fried in oil: I prefer them to the smelts of the 
+Thames. I need not mention, that the sardines and anchovies are 
+caught in nets; salted, barrelled, and exported into all the 
+different kingdoms and states of Europe. The sardines, however, 
+are largest and fattest in the month of September. A company of 
+adventurers have farmed the tunny-fishery of the king, for six 
+years; a monopoly, for which they pay about three thousand pounds 
+sterling. They are at a very considerable expence for nets, 
+boats, and attendance. Their nets are disposed in a very curious 
+manner across the small bay of St. Hospice, in this 
+neighbourhood, where the fish chiefly resort. They are never 
+removed, except in the winter, and when they want repair: but 
+there are avenues for the fish to enter, and pass, from one 
+inclosure to another. There is a man in a boat, who constantly 
+keeps watch. When he perceives they are fairly entered, he has a 
+method for shutting all the passes, and confining the fish to one 
+apartment of the net, which is lifted up into the boat, until the 
+prisoners are taken and secured. The tunny-fish generally runs 
+from fifty to one hundred weight; but some of them are much 
+larger. They are immediately gutted, boiled, and cut in slices. 
+The guts and head afford oil: the slices are partly dried, to be 
+eaten occasionally with oil and vinegar, or barrelled up in oil, 
+to be exported. It is counted a delicacy in Italy and Piedmont, 
+and tastes not unlike sturgeon. The famous pickle of the 
+ancients, called garum, was made of the gills and blood of the 
+tunny, or thynnus. There is a much more considerable fishery of 
+it in Sardinia, where it is said to employ four hundred persons; 
+but this belongs to the duc de St. Pierre. In the neighbourhood 
+of Villa Franca, there are people always employed in fishing for 
+coral and sponge, which grow adhering to the rocks under water. 
+Their methods do not favour much of ingenuity. For the coral, 
+they lower down a swab, composed of what is called spunyarn on 
+board our ships of war, hanging in distinct threads, and sunk by 
+means of a great weight, which, striking against the coral in its 
+descent, disengages it from the rocks; and some of the pieces 
+being intangled among the threads of the swab, are brought up 
+with it above water. The sponge is got by means of a cross-stick, 
+fitted with hooks, which being lowered down, fastens upon it, and 
+tears it from the rocks. In some parts of the Adriatic and 
+Archipelago, these substances are gathered by divers, who can 
+remain five minutes below water. But I will not detain you one 
+minute longer; though I must observe, that there is plenty of 
+fine samphire growing along all these rocks, neglected and 
+unknown.--Adieu.
+
+LETTER XIX
+
+NICE, October 10, 1764.
+
+DEAR SIR,--Before I tell you the price of provisions at Nice, it 
+will be necessary to say something of the money. The gold coin of 
+Sardinia consists of the doppia di savoia, value twenty-four 
+livres Piedmontese, about the size of a loui'dore; and the mezzo 
+doppia, or piece of twelve livres. In silver, there is the scudo 
+of six livres, the mezzo scudo of three; and the quarto, or pezza 
+di trenta soldi: but all these are very scarce. We seldom see any 
+gold and silver coin, but the loui'dore, and the six, and three-livre 
+Pieces of France; a sure sign that the French suffer by 
+their contraband commerce with the Nissards. The coin chiefly 
+used at market is a piece of copper silvered, that passes for 
+seven sols and a half; another of the same sort, valued two sols 
+and a half. They have on one side the impression of the king's 
+head; and on the other, the arms of Savoy, with a ducal crown, 
+inscribed with his name and titles. There are of genuine copper, 
+pieces of one sol, stamped on one side with a cross fleuree; and 
+on the reverse, with the king's cypher and crown, inscribed as 
+the others: finally, there is another small copper piece, called 
+piccalon, the sixth part of a sol, with a plain cross, and on the 
+reverse, a slip-knot surmounted with a crown; the legend as 
+above. The impression and legend on the gold and silver coins, 
+are the same as those on the pieces of seven sols and a half. The 
+livre of Piedmont consists of twenty sols, and is very near of 
+the same value as an English shilling: ten sols, therefore, are 
+equal to six-pence sterling. Butcher's meat in general sells at 
+Nice for three sols a pound; and veal is something dearer: but 
+then there are but twelve ounces in the pound, which being 
+allowed for, sixteen ounces, come for something less than twopence 
+halfpenny English. Fish commonly sells for four sols the 
+twelve ounces, or five for the English pound; and these five are 
+equivalent to three-pence of our money: but sometimes we are 
+obliged to pay five, and even six sols for the Piedmontese pound 
+of fish. A turkey that would sell for five or six shillings at 
+the London market, costs me but three at Nice. I can buy a good 
+capon for thirty sols, or eighteen-pence; and the same price I 
+pay for a brace of partridges, or a good hare. I can have a 
+woodcock for twenty-four sols; but the pigeons are dearer than in 
+London. Rabbits are very rare; and there is scarce a goose to be 
+seen in the whole county of Nice. Wild-ducks and teal are 
+sometimes to be had in the winter; and now I am speaking of sea-fowl, 
+it may not be amiss to tell you what I know of the halcyon, 
+or king's-fisher. It is a bird, though very rare in this country 
+about the size of a pigeon; the body brown, and the belly white: 
+by a wonderful instinct it makes its nest upon the surface of the 
+sea, and lays its eggs in the month of November, when the 
+Mediterranean is always calm and smooth as a mill-pond. The 
+people about here call them martinets, because they begin to 
+hatch about Martinmass. Their nests are sometimes seen floating 
+near the shore, and generally become the prize of the boys, who 
+are very alert in catching them.
+
+You know all sea-birds are allowed by the church of Rome to be 
+eaten on meagre days, as a kind of fish; and the monks especially 
+do not fail to make use of this permission. Sea turtle, or 
+tortoises, are often found at sea by the mariners, in these 
+latitudes: but they are not the green sort, so much in request 
+among the aldermen of London. All the Mediterranean turtle are of 
+the kind called loggerhead, which in the West-Indies are eaten by 
+none but hungry seamen, negroes, and the lowest class of people. 
+One of these, weighing about two hundred pounds, was lately 
+brought on shore by the fishermen of Nice, who found it floating 
+asleep on the surface of the sea. The whole town was alarmed at 
+sight of such a monster, the nature of which they could not 
+comprehend. However, the monks, called minims, of St. Francesco 
+di Paolo, guided by a sure instinct, marked it as their prey, and 
+surrounded it accordingly. The friars of other convents, not 
+quite so hungry, crowding down to the beach, declared it should 
+not be eaten; dropped some hints about the possibility of its 
+being something praeternatural and diabolical, and even proposed 
+exorcisms and aspersions with holy water. The populace were 
+divided according to their attachment to this, or that convent: a 
+mighty clamour arose; and the police, in order to remove the 
+cause of their contention, ordered the tortoise to be recommitted 
+to the waves; a sentence which the Franciscans saw executed, not 
+without sighs and lamentation. The land-turtle, or terrapin, is 
+much better known at Nice, as being a native of this country; yet 
+the best are brought from the island of Sardinia. The soup or 
+bouillon of this animal is always prescribed here as a great 
+restorative to consumptive patients. The bread of Nice is very 
+indifferent, and I am persuaded very unwholesome. The flour is 
+generally musty, and not quite free of sand. This is either owing 
+to the particles of the mill-stone rubbed off in grinding, or to 
+what adheres to the corn itself, in being threshed upon the 
+common ground; for there are no threshing-floors in this country. 
+I shall now take notice of the vegetables of Nice. In the winter, 
+we have green pease, asparagus, artichoaks, cauliflower, beans, 
+French beans, celery, and endive; cabbage, coleworts, radishes, 
+turnips, carrots, betteraves, sorrel lettuce, onions, garlic, and 
+chalot. We have potatoes from the mountains, mushrooms, 
+champignons, and truffles. Piedmont affords white truffles, 
+counted the most delicious in the world: they sell for about 
+three livres the pound. The fruits of this season are pickled 
+olives, oranges, lemons, citrons, citronelles, dried figs, 
+grapes, apples, pears, almonds, chestnuts, walnuts, filberts, 
+medlars, pomegranates, and a fruit called azerolles, [The 
+Italians call them Lazerruoli.] about the size of a nutmeg, of an 
+oblong shape, red colour, and agreeable acid taste. I might 
+likewise add the cherry of the Laurus cerasus, which is sold in 
+the market; very beautiful to the eye, but insipid to the palate. 
+In summer we have all those vegetables in perfection. There is 
+also a kind of small courge, or gourd, of which the people of the 
+country make a very savoury ragout, with the help of eggs, 
+cheese, and fresh anchovies. Another is made of the badenjean, 
+which the Spaniards call berengena: [This fruit is called 
+Melanzana in Italy and is much esteemed by the Jews in Leghorn. 
+Perhaps Melanzana is a corruption of Malamsana.] it is much eaten 
+in Spain and the Levant, as well as by the Moors in Barbary. It 
+is about the size and shape of a hen's egg, inclosed in a cup 
+like an acorn; when ripe, of a faint purple colour. It grows on a 
+stalk about a foot high, with long spines or prickles. The people 
+here have different ways of slicing and dressing it, by broiling, 
+boiling, and stewing, with other ingredients: but it is at best 
+an insipid dish. There are some caperbushes in this 
+neighbourhood, which grow wild in holes of garden walls, and 
+require no sort of cultivation: in one or two gardens, there are 
+palm-trees; but the dates never ripen. In my register of the 
+weather, I have marked the seasons of the principal fruits in 
+this country. In May we have strawberries, which continue in 
+season two or three months. These are of the wood kind; very 
+grateful, and of a good flavour; but the scarlets and hautboys 
+are not known at Nice. In the beginning of June, and even sooner, 
+the cherries begin to be ripe. They are a kind of bleeding 
+hearts; large, fleshy, and high flavoured, though rather too 
+luscious. I have likewise seen a few of those we call Kentish 
+cherries which are much more cool, acid, and agreeable, 
+especially in this hot climate. The cherries are succeeded by the 
+apricots and peaches, which are all standards, and of consequence 
+better flavoured than what we call wall-fruit. The trees, as well 
+as almonds, grow and bear without care and cultivation, and may 
+be seen in the open fields about Nice. but without proper 
+culture, the fruit degenerates. The best peaches I have seen at 
+Nice are the amberges, of a yellow hue, and oblong shape, about 
+the size of a small lemon. Their consistence is much more solid 
+than that of our English peaches, and their taste more delicious. 
+Several trees of this kind I have in my own garden. Here is 
+likewise plenty of other sorts; but no nectarines. We have little 
+choice of plumbs. Neither do I admire the pears or apples of this 
+country: but the most agreeable apples I ever tasted, come from 
+Final, and are called pomi carli. The greatest fault I find with 
+most fruits in this climate, is, that they are too sweet and 
+luscious, and want that agreeable acid which is so cooling and so 
+grateful in a hot country. This, too, is the case with our 
+grapes, of which there is great plenty and variety, plump and 
+juicy, and large as plumbs. Nature, however, has not neglected to 
+provide other agreeable vegetable juices to cool the human body. 
+During the whole summer, we have plenty of musk melons. I can buy 
+one as large as my head for the value of an English penny: but 
+one of the best and largest, weighing ten or twelve pounds, I can 
+have for twelve sols, or about eight-pence sterling. From Antibes 
+and Sardinia, we have another fruit called a watermelon, which is 
+well known in Jamaica, and some of our other colonies. Those from 
+Antibes are about the size of an ordinary bomb-shell: but the 
+Sardinian and Jamaica watermelons are four times as large. The 
+skin is green, smooth, and thin. The inside is a purple pulp, 
+studded with broad, flat, black seeds, and impregnated with a 
+juice the most cool, delicate, and refreshing, that can well be 
+conceived. One would imagine the pulp itself dissolved in the 
+stomach; for you may eat of it until you are filled up
+to the tongue, without feeling the least inconvenience. It is so 
+friendly to the constitution, that in ardent inflammatory fevers, 
+it is drank as the best emulsion. At Genoa, Florence, and Rome, 
+it is sold in the streets, ready cut in slices; and the porters, 
+sweating under their burthens, buy, and eat them as they pass. A 
+porter of London quenches his thirst with a draught of strong 
+beer: a porter of Rome, or Naples, refreshes himself with a slice 
+of water-melon, or a glass of iced-water. The one costs three 
+half-pence; the last, half a farthing--which of them is most 
+effectual? I am sure the men are equally pleased. It is commonly 
+remarked, that beer strengthens as well as refreshes. But the 
+porters of Constantinople, who never drink any thing stronger 
+than water, and eat very little animal food, will lift and carry 
+heavier burthens than any other porters in the known world. If we 
+may believe the most respectable travellers, a Turk will carry a 
+load of seven hundred weight, which is more (I believe) than any 
+English porter ever attempted to carry any length of way.
+
+Among the refreshments of these warm countries, I ought not to 
+forget mentioning the sorbettes, which are sold in coffee-houses, 
+and places of public resort. They are iced froth, made with juice 
+of oranges, apricots, or peaches; very agreeable to the palate, 
+and so extremely cold, that I was afraid to swallow them in this 
+hot country, until I found from information and experience, that 
+they may be taken in moderation, without any bad consequence.
+
+Another considerable article in house-keeping is wine, which we 
+have here good and reasonable. The wine of Tavelle in Languedoc 
+is very near as good as Burgundy, and may be had at Nice, at the 
+rate of six-pence a bottle. The sweet wine of St. Laurent, 
+counted equal to that of Frontignan, costs about eight or nine-pence 
+a quart: pretty good Malaga may be had for half the money. 
+Those who make their own wine choose the grapes from different 
+vineyards, and have them picked, pressed, and fermented at home.
+
+That which is made by the peasants, both red and white, is 
+generally genuine: but the wine-merchants of Nice brew and 
+balderdash, and even mix it with pigeons dung and quick-lime. It 
+cannot be supposed, that a stranger and sojourner should buy his 
+own grapes, and make his own provision of wine: but he may buy it 
+by recommendation from the peasants, for about eighteen or twenty 
+livres the charge, consisting of eleven rup five pounds; in other 
+words, of two hundred and eighty pounds of this country, so as to 
+bring it for something less than three-pence a quart. The Nice 
+wine, when mixed with water, makes an agreeable beverage. There 
+is an inferior sort for servants drank by the common people, 
+which in the cabaret does not cost above a penny a bottle. The 
+people here are not so nice as the English, in the management of 
+their wine. It is kept in flacons, or large flasks, without 
+corks, having a little oil at top. It is not deemed the worse for 
+having been opened a day or two before; and they expose it to the 
+hot sun, and all kinds of weather, without hesitation. Certain it 
+is, this treatment has little or no effect upon its taste, 
+flavour, and transparency.
+
+The brandy of Nice is very indifferent: and the liqueurs are so 
+sweetened with coarse sugar, that they scarce retain the taste or 
+flavour of any other ingredient.
+
+The last article of domestic oeconomy which I shall mention is 
+fuel, or wood for firing, which I buy for eleven sols (a little 
+more than six-pence halfpenny) a quintal, consisting of one 
+hundred and fifty pound Nice weight. The best, which is of oak, 
+comes from Sardinia. The common sort is olive, which being cut 
+with the sap in it, ought to be laid in during the summer; 
+otherwise, it will make a very uncomfortable fire. In my kitchen 
+and two chambers, I burned fifteen thousand weight of wood in 
+four weeks, exclusive of charcoal for the kitchen stoves, and of 
+pine-tops for lighting the fires. These last are as large as 
+pineapples, which they greatly resemble in shape, and to which, 
+indeed, they give their name; and being full of turpentine, make 
+a wonderful blaze. For the same purpose, the people of these 
+countries use the sarments, or cuttings of the vines, which they 
+sell made up in small fascines. This great consumption of wood is 
+owing to the large fires used in roasting pieces of beef, and 
+joints, in the English manner. The roasts of this country seldom 
+exceed two or three pounds of meat; and their other plats are 
+made over stove holes. But it is now high time to conduct you 
+from the kitchen, where you have been too long detained by--Your 
+humble servant.
+
+P.S.--I have mentioned the prices of almost all the articles in 
+house-keeping, as they are paid by the English: but exclusive of 
+butcher's meat, I am certain the natives do not pay so much by 
+thirty per cent. Their imposition on us, is not only a proof of 
+their own villany and hatred, but a scandal on their government; 
+which ought to interfere in favour of the subjects of a nation, 
+to which they are so much bound in point of policy, as well as 
+gratitude.
+
+
+LETTER XX
+
+NICE, October 22, 1764.
+
+SIR,--As I have nothing else to do, but to satisfy my own 
+curiosity, and that of my friends, I obey your injunctions with 
+pleasure; though not without some apprehension that my inquiries 
+will afford you very little entertainment. The place where I am 
+is of very little importance or consequence as a state or 
+community; neither is there any thing curious or interesting in 
+the character or oeconomy of its inhabitants.
+
+There are some few merchants in Nice, said to be in good 
+circumstances. I know one of them, who deals to a considerable 
+extent, and goes twice a year to London to attend the sales of 
+the East-India company. He buys up a very large quantity of 
+muslins, and other Indian goods, and freights a ship in the river 
+to transport them to Villa Franca. Some of these are sent to 
+Swisserland; but, I believe, the greater part is smuggled into 
+France, by virtue of counterfeit stamps, which are here used 
+without any ceremony. Indeed, the chief commerce of this place is 
+a contraband traffick carried on to the disadvantage of France; 
+and I am told, that the farmers of the Levant company in that 
+kingdom find their account in conniving at it. Certain it is, a 
+great quantity of merchandize is brought hither every week by 
+mules from Turin and other parts in Piedmont, and afterwards 
+conveyed to the other side of the Var, either by land or water. 
+The mules of Piedmont are exceeding strong and hardy. One of them 
+will carry a burthen of near six hundred weight. They are easily 
+nourished, and require no other respite from their labour, but 
+the night's repose. They are the only carriage that can be used 
+in crossing the mountains, being very sure-footed: and it is 
+observed that in choosing their steps, they always march upon the 
+brink of the precipice. You must let them take their own way, 
+otherwise you will be in danger of losing your life; for they are 
+obstinate, even to desperation. It is very dangerous for a person 
+on horseback to meet those animals: they have such an aversion to 
+horses, that they will attack them with incredible fury, so as 
+even to tear them and their riders in pieces; and the best method 
+for avoiding this fate, is to clap spurs to your beast, and seek 
+your safety in flight. I have been more than once obliged to fly 
+before them. They always give you warning, by raising a hideous 
+braying as soon as they perceive the horse at a distance. The 
+mules of Provence are not so mischievous, because they are more 
+used to the sight and society of horses: but those of Piedmont 
+are by far the largest and the strongest I have seen.
+
+Some very feasible schemes for improving the commerce of Nice 
+have been presented to the ministry of Turin; but hitherto 
+without success. The English import annually between two and 
+three thousand bales of raw silk, the growth of Piedmont; and 
+this declaration would be held legal evidence. In some parts of 
+France, the cure of the parish, on All Souls' day, which is 
+called le jour des morts, says a libera domine for two sols, at 
+every grave in the burying-ground, for the release of the soul 
+whose body is there interred.
+
+The artisans of Nice are very lazy, very needy, very aukward, and 
+void of all ingenuity. The price of their labour is very near as 
+high as at London or Paris. Rather than work for moderate profit, 
+arising from constant employment, which would comfortably 
+maintain them and their families, they choose to starve at home, 
+to lounge about the ramparts, bask themselves in the sun, or play 
+at bowls in the streets from morning 'till night.
+
+The lowest class of people consists of fishermen, day labourers, 
+porters, and peasants: these last are distributed chiefly in the 
+small cassines in the neighbourhood of the city, and are said to 
+amount to twelve thousand. They are employed in labouring the 
+ground, and have all the outward signs of extreme misery. They 
+are all diminutive, meagre, withered, dirty, and half naked; in 
+their complexions, not barely swarthy, but as black as Moors; and 
+I believe many of them are descendants of that people. They are 
+very hard favoured; and their women in general have the coarsest 
+features I have ever seen: it must be owned, however, they have 
+the finest teeth in the world. The nourishment of those poor 
+creatures consists of the refuse of the garden, very coarse 
+bread, a kind of meal called polenta, made of Indian corn, which 
+is very nourishing and agreeable, and a little oil; but even in 
+these particulars, they seem to be stinted to very scanty meals. 
+I have known a peasant feed his family with the skins of boiled 
+beans. Their hogs are much better fed than their children. 'Tis 
+pity they have no cows, which would yield milk, butter, and 
+cheese, for the sustenance of their families. With all this 
+wretchedness, one of these peasants will not work in your garden 
+for less than eighteen sols, about eleven pence sterling, per 
+diem; and then he does not half the work of an English labourer. 
+If there is fruit in it, or any thing he can convey, he will 
+infallibly steal it, if you do not keep a very watchful eye over 
+him. All the common people are thieves and beggars; and I believe 
+this is always the case with people who are extremely indigent 
+and miserable. In other respects, they are seldom guilty of 
+excesses. They are remarkably respectful and submissive to their 
+superiors. The populace of Nice are very quiet and orderly. They 
+are little addicted to drunkenness. I have never heard of one 
+riot since I lived among them; and murder and robbery are 
+altogether unknown. A man may walk alone over the county of Nice, 
+at midnight, without danger of insult. The police is very well 
+regulated. No man is permitted to wear a pistol or dagger' on 
+pain of being sent to the gallies. I am informed, that both 
+murder and robbery are very frequent in some parts of Piedmont. 
+Even here, when the peasants quarrel in their cups, (which very 
+seldom happens) they draw their knives, and the one infallibly 
+stabs the other. To such extremities, however, they never 
+proceed, except when there is a woman in the case; and mutual 
+jealousy co-operates with the liquor they have drank, to inflame 
+their passions. In Nice, the common people retire to their 
+lodgings at eight o'clock in winter, and nine in summer. Every 
+person found in the streets after these hours, is apprehended by 
+the patrole; and, if he cannot give a good account of himself, 
+sent to prison. At nine in winter, and ten in summer, there is a 
+curfew-bell rung, warning the people to put out their lights, and 
+go to bed. This is a very necessary precaution in towns subject 
+to conflagrations; but of small use in Nice, where there is very 
+little combustible in the houses.
+
+The punishments inflicted upon malefactors and delinquents at 
+Nice are hanging for capital crimes; slavery on board the gallies 
+for a limited term, or for life, according to the nature of the 
+transgression; flagellation, and the strappado. This last is 
+performed, by hoisting up the criminal by his hands tied behind 
+his back, on a pulley about two stories high; from whence, the 
+rope being suddenly slackened, he falls to within a yard or two 
+of the ground, where he is stopped with a violent shock arising 
+from the weight of his body, and the velocity of his descent, 
+which generally dislocates his shoulders, with incredible pain. 
+This dreadful execution is sometimes repeated in a few minutes on 
+the same delinquent; so that the very ligaments are tore from his 
+joints, and his arms are rendered useless for life.
+
+The poverty of the people in this country, as well as in the 
+South of France, may be conjectured from the appearance of their 
+domestic animals. The draughthorses, mules, and asses, of the 
+peasants, are so meagre, as to excite compassion. There is not a 
+dog to be seen in tolerable case; and the cats are so many 
+emblems of famine, frightfully thin, and dangerously rapacious. I 
+wonder the dogs and they do not devour young children. Another 
+proof of that indigence which reigns among the common people, is 
+this: you may pass through the whole South of France, as well as 
+the county of Nice, where there is no want of groves, woods, and 
+plantations, without hearing the song of blackbird, thrush, 
+linnet, gold-finch, or any other bird whatsoever. All is silent 
+and solitary. The poor birds are destroyed, or driven for refuge, 
+into other countries, by the savage persecution of the people, 
+who spare no pains to kill, and catch them for their own 
+subsistence. Scarce a sparrow, red-breast, tomtit, or wren, can 
+'scape the guns and snares of those indefatigable fowlers. Even 
+the noblesse make parties to go a la chasse, a-hunting; that is, 
+to kill those little birds, which they eat as gibier, or game.
+
+The great poverty of the people here, is owing to their religion. 
+Half of their time is lost in observing the great number of 
+festivals; and half of their substance is given to mendicant 
+friars and parish priests. But if the church occasions their 
+indigence, it likewise, in some measure, alleviates the horrors 
+of it, by amusing them with shows, processions, and even those 
+very feasts, which afford a recess from labour, in a country 
+where the climate disposes them to idleness. If the peasants in 
+the neighbourhood of any chapel dedicated to a saint, whose day 
+is to be celebrated, have a mind to make a festin, in other 
+words, a fair, they apply to the commandant of Nice for a 
+license, which costs them about a French crown. This being 
+obtained, they assemble after service, men and women, in their 
+best apparel, and dance to the musick of fiddles, and pipe and 
+tabor, or rather pipe and drum. There are hucksters' stands, with 
+pedlary ware and knick-knacks for presents; cakes and bread, 
+liqueurs and wine; and thither generally resort all the company 
+of Nice. I have seen our whole noblesse at one of these festins, 
+kept on the highway in summer, mingled with an immense crowd of 
+peasants, mules, and asses, covered with dust, and sweating at 
+every pore with the excessive heat of the weather. I should be 
+much puzzled to tell whence their enjoyment arises on such 
+occasions; or to explain their motives for going thither, unless 
+they are prescribed it for pennance, as a fore-taste of 
+purgatory.
+
+Now I am speaking of religious institutions, I cannot help 
+observing, that the antient Romans were still more superstitious 
+than the modern Italians; and that the number of their religious 
+feasts, sacrifices, fasts, and holidays, was even greater than 
+those of the Christian church of Rome. They had their festi and 
+profesti, their feriae stativae, and conceptivae, their fixed and 
+moveable feasts; their esuriales, or fasting days, and their 
+precidaneae, or vigils. The agonales were celebrated in January; 
+the carmentales, in January and February; the lupercales and 
+matronales, in March; the megalesia in April; the floralia, in 
+May; and the matralia in June. They had their saturnalia, 
+robigalia, venalia, vertumnalia, fornacalia, palilia, and 
+laralia, their latinae, their paganales, their sementinae, their 
+compitales, and their imperativae; such as the novemdalia, 
+instituted by the senate, on account of a supposed shower of 
+stones. Besides, every private family had a number of feriae, 
+kept either by way of rejoicing for some benefit, or mourning for 
+some calamity. Every time it thundered, the day was kept holy. 
+Every ninth day was a holiday, thence called nundinae quasi 
+novendinae. There was the dies denominalis, which was the fourth 
+of the kalends; nones and ides of every month, over and above the 
+anniversary of every great defeat which the republic had 
+sustained, particularly the dies alliensis, or fifteenth of the 
+kalends of December, on which the Romans were totally defeated by 
+the Gauls and Veientes; as Lucan says--et damnata diu Romanis 
+allia fastis, and Allia in Rome's Calendar condemn'd. The vast 
+variety of their deities, said to amount to thirty thousand, with 
+their respective rites of adoration, could not fail to introduce 
+such a number of ceremonies, shews, sacrifices, lustrations, and 
+public processions, as must have employed the people almost 
+constantly from one end of the year to the other. This continual 
+dissipation must have been a great enemy to industry; and the 
+people must have been idle and effeminate. I think it would be no 
+difficult matter to prove, that there is very little difference, 
+in point of character, between the antient and modern inhabitants 
+of Rome; and that the great figure which this empire made of old, 
+was not so much owing to the intrinsic virtue of its citizens, as 
+to the barbarism, ignorance, and imbecility of the nations they 
+subdued. Instances of public and private virtue I find as 
+frequent and as striking in the history of other nations, as in 
+the annals of antient Rome; and now that the kingdoms and states 
+of Europe are pretty equally enlightened, and ballanced in the 
+scale of political power, I am of opinion, that if the most 
+fortunate generals of the Roman commonwealth were again placed at 
+the head of the very armies they once commanded, instead of 
+extending their conquests over all Europe and Asia, they would 
+hardly be able to subdue, and retain under their dominion, all 
+the petty republics that subsist in Italy.
+
+But I am tired with writing; and I believe you will be tired with 
+reading this long letter notwithstanding all your prepossession 
+in favour of--Your very humble servant.
+
+LETTER XXI
+
+NICE, November 10, 1764.
+
+DEAR DOCTOR,--In my enquiries about the revenues of Nice, I am 
+obliged to trust to the information of the inhabitants, who are 
+much given to exaggerate. They tell me, the revenues of this town 
+amount to one hundred thousand livres, or five thousand pounds 
+sterling; of which I would strike off at least one fourth, as an 
+addition of their own vanity: perhaps, if we deduct a third, it 
+will be nearer the truth. For, I cannot find out any other funds 
+they have, but the butchery and the bakery, which they farm at so 
+much a year to the best bidder; and the droits d'entree, or 
+duties upon provision brought into the city; but these are very 
+small. The king is said to draw from Nice one hundred thousand 
+livres annually, arising from a free-gift, amounting to seven 
+hundred pounds sterling, in lieu of the taille, from which this 
+town and county are exempted; an inconsiderable duty upon wine 
+sold in public-houses; and the droits du port. These last consist 
+of anchorage, paid by all vessels in proportion to their tonnage, 
+when they enter the harbours of Nice and Villa Franca. Besides, 
+all foreign vessels, under a certain stipulated burthen, that 
+pass between the island of Sardinia and this coast, are obliged, 
+in going to the eastward, to enter; and pay a certain regulated 
+imposition, on pain of being taken and made prize. The prince of 
+Monaco exacts a talliage of the same kind; and both he and the 
+king of Sardinia maintain armed cruisers to assert this 
+prerogative; from which, however, the English and French are 
+exempted by treaty, in consequence of having paid a sum of money 
+at once. In all probability, it was originally given as a 
+consideration for maintaining lights on the shore, for the 
+benefit of navigators, like the toll paid for passing the Sound 
+in the Baltic. [Upon further inquiry I find it was given in 
+consideration of being protected from the Corsairs by the naval 
+force of the Duke of Savoy and Prince of Monaco.] The fanal, or 
+lanthorn, to the eastward of Villa Franca, is kept in good 
+repair, and still lighted in the winter. The toll, however, is a 
+very troublesome tax upon feluccas, and other small craft, which 
+are greatly retarded in their voyages, and often lose the benefit 
+of a fair wind, by being obliged to run inshore, and enter those 
+harbours. The tobacco the king manufactures at his own expence, 
+and sells for his own profit, at a very high price; and every 
+person convicted of selling this commodity in secret, is sent to 
+the gallies for life. The salt comes chiefly from Sardinia, and 
+is stored up in the king's magazine from whence it is exported to 
+Piedmont, and other parts of his inland dominions. And here it 
+may not be amiss to observe, that Sardinia produces very good 
+horses, well-shaped, though small; strong, hardy, full of mettle, 
+and easily fed. The whole county of Nice is said to yield the 
+king half a million of livres, about twenty-five thousand pounds 
+sterling, arising from a small donative made by every town and 
+village: for the lands pay no tax, or imposition, but the tithes 
+to the church. His revenue then flows from the gabelle on salt 
+and wine, and these free-gifts; so that we may strike off one 
+fifth of the sum at which the whole is estimated; and conclude, 
+that the king draws from the county at Nice, about four hundred 
+thousand livres, or twenty thousand pounds sterling. That his 
+revenues from Nice are not great, appears from the smallness of 
+the appointments allowed to his officers. The president has about 
+three hundred pounds per annum; and the intendant about two. The 
+pay of the commandant does not exceed three hundred and fifty 
+pounds: but he has certain privileges called the tour du baton, 
+some of which a man of spirit would not insist upon. He who 
+commands at present, having no estate of his own, enjoys a small 
+commandery, which being added to his appointments at Nice, make 
+the whole amount to about five hundred pounds sterling.
+
+If we may believe the politicians of Nice, the king of Sardinia's 
+whole revenue does not fall short of twenty millions of 
+Piedmontese livres, being above one million of our money. It must 
+be owned, that there is no country in Christendom less taxed than 
+that of Nice; and as the soil produces the necessaries of life, 
+the inhabitants, with a little industry, might renew the golden 
+age in this happy climate, among their groves, woods, and 
+mountains, beautified with fountains, brooks, rivers, torrents, 
+and cascades. In the midst of these pastoral advantages, the 
+peasants are poor and miserable. They have no stock to begin the 
+world with. They have no leases of the lands they cultivate; but 
+entirely depend, from year to year, on the pleasure of the 
+arbitrary landholder, who may turn them out at a minute's 
+warning; and they are oppressed by the mendicant friars and 
+parish priests, who rob them of the best fruits of their labour: 
+after all, the ground is too scanty for the number of families 
+which are crouded on it.
+
+You desire to know the state of the arts and sciences at Nice; 
+which, indeed, is almost a total blank. I know not what men of 
+talents this place may have formerly produced; but at present, it 
+seems to be consecrated to the reign of dulness and superstition. 
+It is very surprising, to see a people established between two 
+enlightened nations, so devoid of taste and literature. Here are 
+no tolerable pictures, busts, statues, nor edifices: the very 
+ornaments of the churches are wretchedly conceived, and worse 
+executed. They have no public, nor private libraries that afford 
+any thing worth perusing. There is not even a bookseller in Nice. 
+Though they value themselves upon their being natives of Italy, 
+they are unacquainted with music. The few that play upon 
+instruments, attend only to the execution. They have no genius 
+nor taste, nor any knowledge of harmony and composition. Among 
+the French, a Nissard piques himself on being Provencal; but in 
+Florence, Milan, or Rome, he claims the honour of being born a 
+native of Italy. The people of condition here speak both 
+languages equally well; or, rather, equally ill; for they use a 
+low, uncouth phraseology; and their pronunciation is extremely 
+vitious. Their vernacular tongue is what they call Patois; though 
+in so calling it, they do it injustice.--Patois, from the Latin 
+word patavinitas, means no more than a provincial accent, or 
+dialect. It takes its name from Patavium, or Padua, which was the 
+birthplace of Livy, who, with all his merit as a writer, has 
+admitted into his history, some provincial expressions of his own 
+country. The Patois, or native tongue of Nice, is no other than 
+the ancient Provencal, from which the Italian, Spanish and 
+French languages, have been formed. This is the language that 
+rose upon the ruins of the Latin tongue, after the irruptions of 
+the Goths, Vandals, Huns, and Burgundians, by whom the Roman 
+empire was destroyed. It was spoke all over Italy, Spain, and the 
+southern parts of France, until the thirteenth century, when the 
+Italians began to polish it into the language which they now call 
+their own: The Spaniards and French, likewise, improved it into 
+their respective tongues. From its great affinity to the Latin, 
+it was called Romance, a name which the Spaniards still give to 
+their own language. As the first legends of knight-errantry were 
+written in Provencal, all subsequent performances of the same 
+kind, have derived from it the name of romance; and as those 
+annals of chivalry contained extravagant adventures of knights, 
+giants, and necromancers, every improbable story or fiction is to 
+this day called a romance. Mr. Walpole, in his Catalogue of royal 
+and noble Authors, has produced two sonnets in the antient 
+Provencal, written by our king Richard I. surnamed Coeur de Lion; 
+and Voltaire, in his Historical Tracts, has favoured the world 
+with some specimens of the same language. The Patois of Nice, 
+must, without doubt, have undergone changes and corruptions in 
+the course of so many ages, especially as no pains have been 
+taken to preserve its original purity, either in orthography or 
+pronunciation. It is neglected, as the language of the vulgar: 
+and scarce any-body here knows either its origin or constitution. 
+I have in vain endeavoured to procure some pieces in the antient 
+Provencal, that I might compare them with the modern Patois: but 
+I can find no person to give me the least information on the 
+subject. The shades of ignorance, sloth, and stupidity, are 
+impenetrable. Almost every word of the Patois may still be found 
+in the Italian, Spanish, and French languages, with a small 
+change in the pronunciation. Cavallo, signifying a horse in 
+Italian and Spanish is called cavao; maison, the French word for 
+a house, is changed into maion; aqua, which means water in 
+Spanish, the Nissards call daigua. To express, what a slop is 
+here! they say acco fa lac aqui, which is a sentence composed of 
+two Italian words, one French, and one Spanish. This is nearly 
+the proportion in which these three languages will be found 
+mingled in the Patois of Nice; which, with some variation, 
+extends over all Provence, Languedoc, and Gascony. I will now 
+treat you with two or three stanzas of a canzon, or hymn, in this 
+language, to the Virgin Mary, which was lately printed at Nice.
+
+1 
+
+Vierge, maire de Dieu, 
+Nuostro buono avocado, 
+Embel car uvostre sieu, 
+En Fenestro adourado, 
+Jeu vous saludi, 
+E demandi en socours; 
+E sense autre preludi,
+Canti lous uvostre honours.
+
+Virgin, mother of God, 
+our good advocate, 
+With your dear son, 
+In Fenestro adored, 
+I salute you, 
+And ask his assistance; 
+And without further prelude, 
+I sing your honours.
+
+[Fenestro is the name of a place in this neighbourhood, where 
+there is a supposed miraculous sanctuary, or chapel, of the 
+Virgin Mary.]
+
+2.
+
+Qu'ario de Paradis! 
+Que maesta divine! 
+Salamon es d'advis, 
+Giugiar de uvostro mino; 
+Vous dis plus bello: 
+E lou dis ben soven 
+De toutoi lei femello, 
+E non s'engano ren.
+
+What air of Paradise! 
+What majesty divine! 
+Solomon is of opinion, 
+To judge of your appearance; 
+Says you are the fairest 
+And it is often said 
+Of all females, 
+And we are not all deceived.
+
+3.
+
+Qu'ario de Paradis! 
+Que maesta divine! 
+La bellezzo eblovis; 
+La bonta l'ueigl raffino. 
+Sias couronado;
+Tenes lou monde en man 
+Sus del trono assettado, 
+Riges lou avostre enfan.
+
+What air of Paradise! 
+What majesty divine! 
+The beauty dazzles; 
+The goodness purifies the eye: 
+You are crowned: 
+You hold the world in your hand: 
+Seated on the throne, 
+You support your child.
+
+You see I have not chosen this canzon for the beauty and elegance 
+of thought and expression; but give it you as the only printed 
+specimen I could find of the modern Provencal. If you have any 
+curiosity to be further acquainted with the Patois, I will 
+endeavour to procure you satisfaction. Meanwhile, I am, in plain 
+English,--Dear Sir, Ever yours.
+
+LETTER XXII
+
+NICE, November 10, 1764.
+
+DEAR SIR,--I had once thoughts of writing a complete natural 
+history of this town and county: but I found myself altogether 
+unequal to the task. I have neither health, strength, nor 
+opportunity to make proper collections of the mineral, vegetable, 
+and animal productions. I am not much conversant with these 
+branches of natural philosophy. I have no books to direct my 
+inquiries. I can find no person capable of giving me the least 
+information or assistance; and I am strangely puzzled by the 
+barbarous names they give to many different species, the 
+descriptions of which I have read under other appelations; and 
+which, as I have never seen them before, I cannot pretend to 
+distinguish by the eye. You must therefore be contented with such 
+imperfect intelligence as my opportunities can afford.
+
+The useful arts practised at Nice, are these, gardening and 
+agriculture, with their consequences, the making of wine, oil, 
+and cordage; the rearing of silk-worms, with the subsequent 
+management and manufacture of that production; and the fishing, 
+which I have already described.
+
+Nothing can be more unpromising than the natural soil of this 
+territory, except in a very few narrow bottoms, where there is a 
+stiff clay, which when carefully watered, yields tolerable 
+pasturage. In every other part, the soil consists of a light sand 
+mingled with pebbles, which serves well enough for the culture of 
+vines and olives: but the ground laid out for kitchen herbs, as 
+well as for other fruit must be manured with great care and 
+attention. They have no black cattle to afford such compost as 
+our farmers use in England. The dung of mules and asses, which 
+are their only beasts of burthen, is of very little value for 
+this purpose; and the natural sterility of their ground requires 
+something highly impregnated with nitre and volatile salts. They 
+have recourse therefore to pigeons' dung and ordure, which fully 
+answer their expectations. Every peasant opens, at one corner of 
+his wall, a public house of office for the reception of 
+passengers; and in the town of Nice, every  tenement is provided 
+with one of these receptacles, the contents of which are 
+carefully preserved for sale. The peasant comes with his asses 
+and casks to carry it off before day, and pays for it according 
+to its quality, which he examines and investigates, by the taste 
+and flavour. The jakes of a protestant family, who eat gras every 
+day, bears a much higher price than the privy of a good catholic 
+who lives maigre one half of the year. The vaults belonging to the 
+convent of Minims are not worth emptying.
+
+The ground here is not delved with spades as in England, but 
+laboured with a broad, sharp hough, having a short horizontal 
+handle; and the climate is so hot and dry in the summer, that the 
+plants must be watered every morning and evening, especially 
+where it is not shaded by trees. It is surprising to see how the 
+productions of the earth are crouded together. One would imagine 
+they would rob one another of nourishment; and moreover be 
+stifled for want of air; and doubtless this is in some measure 
+the case. Olive and other fruit trees are planted in rows very 
+close to each other. These are connected by vines, and the 
+interstices, between the rows, are filled with corn. The gardens 
+that supply the town with sallad and pot-herbs, lye all on the 
+side of Provence, by the highway. They are surrounded with high 
+stone-walls, or ditches, planted with a kind of cane or large 
+reed, which answers many purposes in this country. The leaves of 
+it afford sustenance to the asses, and the canes not only serve 
+as fences to the inclosures; but are used to prop the vines and 
+pease, and to build habitations for the silkworms: they are 
+formed into arbours, and wore as walking-staves. All these 
+gardens are watered by little rills that come from the mountains, 
+particularly, by the small branches of the two sources which I 
+have described in a former letter, as issuing from the two sides 
+of a mountain, under the names of Fontaine de Muraille, and 
+Fontaine du Temple.
+
+In the neighbourhood of Nice, they raise a considerable quantity 
+of hemp, the largest and strongest I ever saw. Part of this, when 
+dressed, is exported to other countries; and part is manufactured 
+into cordage. However profitable it may be to the grower, it is 
+certainly a great nuisance in the summer. When taken out of the 
+pits, where it has been put to rot, the stench it raises is quite 
+insupportable; and must undoubtedly be unwholesome.
+
+There is such a want of land in this neighbourhood, that terraces 
+are built over one another with loose stones, on the faces of 
+bare rocks, and these being covered with earth and manured, are 
+planted with olives, vines, and corn. The same shift was 
+practised all over Palestine, which was rocky and barren, and 
+much more populous than the county of Nice.
+
+Notwithstanding the small extent of this territory, there are 
+some pleasant meadows in the skirts of Nice, that produce 
+excellent clover; and the corn which is sown in open fields, 
+where it has the full benefit of the soil, sun, and air, grows to 
+a surprizing height. I have seen rye seven or eight feet high. 
+All vegetables have a wonderful growth in this climate. Besides 
+wheat, rye, barley, and oats, this country produces a good deal 
+of Meliga, or Turkish wheat, which is what we call Indian corn. I 
+have, in a former letter, observed that the meal of this grain 
+goes by the name polenta, and makes excellent hasty-pudding, 
+being very nourishing, and counted an admirable pectoral. The 
+pods and stalks are used for fuel: and the leaves are much 
+preferable to common straw, for making paillasses.
+
+The pease and beans in the garden appear in the winter like 
+beautiful plantations of young trees in blossom; and perfume the 
+air. Myrtle, sweet-briar, sweet-marjoram, sage, thyme, lavender, 
+rosemary, with many other aromatic herbs and flowers, which with 
+us require the most careful cultivation, are here found wild in 
+the mountains.
+
+It is not many years since the Nissards learned the culture of 
+silk-worms, of their neighbours the Piedmontese; and hitherto the 
+progress they have made is not very considerable: the whole 
+county of Nice produces about one hundred and thirty-three bales 
+of three hundred pounds each, amounting in value to four hundred 
+thousand livres.
+
+In the beginning of April, when the mulberry-leaves, begin to put 
+forth, the eggs or grains that produce the silk-worm, are 
+hatched. The grains are washed in wine, and those that swim on 
+the top, are thrown away as good for nothing. The rest being 
+deposited in small bags of linen, are worn by women in their 
+bosoms, until the worms begin to appear: then they are placed in 
+shallow wooden boxes, covered with a piece of white paper, cut 
+into little holes, through which the worms ascend as they are 
+hatched, to feed on the young mulberry-leaves, of which there is 
+a layer above the paper. These boxes are kept for warmth between 
+two mattrasses, and visited every day. Fresh leaves are laid in, 
+and the worms that feed are removed successively to the other 
+place prepared for their reception. This is an habitation, 
+consisting of two or three stories, about twenty inches from each 
+other, raised upon four wooden posts. The floors are made of 
+canes, and strewed with fresh mulberry-leaves: the corner posts, 
+and other occasional props, for sustaining the different floors, 
+are covered with a coat of loose heath, which is twisted round 
+the wood. The worms when hatched are laid upon the floors; and 
+here you may see them in all the different stages (if moulting or 
+casting the slough, a change which they undergo three times 
+successively before they begin to work. The silk-worm is an 
+animal of such acute and delicate sensations, that too much care 
+cannot be taken to keep its habitation clean, and to refresh it 
+from time to time with pure air. I have seen them languish and 
+die in scores, in consequence of an accidental bad smell. The 
+soiled leaves, and the filth which they necessarily produce, 
+should be carefully shifted every day; and it would not be amiss 
+to purify the air sometimes with fumes of vinegar, rose, or 
+orange-flower water. These niceties, however, are but little 
+observed. They commonly lie in heaps as thick as shrimps in a 
+plate, some feeding on the leaves, some new hatched, some 
+intranced in the agonies of casting their skin, sonic 
+languishing, and some actually dead, with a litter of half-eaten 
+faded leaves about them, in a close room, crouded with women and 
+children, not at all remarkable for their cleanliness. I am 
+assured by some persons of credit, that if they are touched, or 
+even approached, by a woman in her catamenia, they infallibly 
+expire. This, however, must be understood of those females whose 
+skins have naturally a very rank flavour, which is generally 
+heightened at such periods. The mulberry-leaves used in this 
+country are of the tree which bears a small white fruit not 
+larger than a damascene. They are planted on purpose, and the 
+leaves are sold at so much a pound. By the middle of June all the 
+mulberry-trees are stripped; but new leaves succeed, and in a few 
+weeks, they are cloathed again with fresh verdure. In about ten 
+days after the last moulting, the silk-worm climbs upon the props 
+of his house, and choosing a situation among the heath, begins to 
+spin in a most curious manner, until he is quite inclosed,   and 
+the cocon or pod of silk, about the size of a pigeon's egg, which 
+he has produced remains suspended by several filaments. It is no 
+unusual to see double cocons, spun by two worms included under a 
+common cover. There must be an infinite number of worms to yield 
+any considerable quantity of silk. One ounce of eggs or grains 
+produces, four rup, or one hundred Nice pounds of cocons; and one 
+rup, or twenty-five pounds of cocons, if they are rich, gives 
+three pounds of raw silk; that is, twelve pounds of silk are got 
+from one ounce of grains, which ounce of grains its produced by 
+as many worms as are inclosed in one pound, or twelve ounces of 
+cocons. In preserving the cocons for breed, you must choose an 
+equal number of males and females; and these are very easily 
+distinguished by the shape of the cocons; that which contains the 
+male is sharp, and the other obtuse, at the two ends. In ten or 
+twelve days after the cocon is finished, the worm makes its way 
+through it, in the form of a very ugly, unwieldy, aukward 
+butterfly, and as the different sexes are placed by one another 
+on paper or linen, they immediately engender. The female lays her 
+eggs, which are carefully preserved; but neither she nor her mate 
+takes any nourishment, and in eight or ten days after they quit 
+the cocons, they generally die. The silk of these cocons cannot 
+be wound, because the animals in piercing through them, have 
+destroyed the continuity of the filaments. It is therefore, first 
+boiled, and then picked and carded like wool, and being 
+afterwards spun, is used in the coarser stuffs of the silk 
+manufacture. The other cocons, which yield the best silk, are 
+managed in a different manner. Before the inclosed worm has time 
+to penetrate, the silk is reeled off with equal care and 
+ingenuity. A handful of the cocons are thrown away into a kettle 
+of boiling water, which not only kills the animal, but dissolves 
+the glutinous substance by which the fine filaments of the silk 
+cohere or stick together, so that they are easily wound off, 
+without breaking. Six or seven of these small filaments being 
+joined together are passed over a kind of twisting iron, and 
+fixed to the wheel, which one girl turns, while another, with her 
+hands in the boiling water, disentangles the threads, joins them 
+when they chance to break, and supplies fresh cocons with 
+admirable dexterity and dispatch. There is a manufacture of this 
+kind just without one of the gates of Nice, where forty or fifty 
+of these wheels are worked together, and give employment for some 
+weeks to double the number of young women. Those who manage the 
+pods that float in the boiling water must be very alert, 
+otherwise they will scald their fingers. The smell that comes 
+from the boiling cocons is extremely offensive. Hard by the 
+harbour, there is a very curious mill for twisting the silk, 
+which goes by water. There is in the town of Nice, a well 
+regulated hospital for poor orphans of both sexes, where above 
+one hundred of them are employed in dressing, dyeing, spinning, 
+and weaving the silk. In the villages of Provence, you see the 
+poor women in the streets spinning raw silk upon distaves: but 
+here the same instrument is only used for spinning hemp and flax; 
+which last, however, is not of the growth of Nice--But lest I 
+should spin this letter to a tedious length, I will now wind up 
+my bottom, and bid you heartily farewell.
+
+LETTER XXIII
+
+NICE, December 19, 1764.
+
+SIR,--In my last, I gave you a succinct account of the silkworm, 
+and the management of that curious insect in this country. I 
+shall now proceed to describe the methods of making wine and oil.
+
+The vintage begins in September. The grapes being chosen and 
+carefully picked, are put into a large vat, where they are 
+pressed by a man's naked feet, and the juices drawn off by a cock 
+below. When no more is procured by this operation, the bruised 
+grapes are put into the press, and yield still more liquor. The 
+juice obtained by this double pressure, being put in casks, with 
+their bungs open, begins to ferment and discharge its impurities 
+at the openings. The waste occasioned by this discharge, is 
+constantly supplied with fresh wine, so that the casks are 
+always full. The fermentation continues for twelve, fifteen, or 
+twenty days, according to the strength and vigour of the grape. 
+In about a month, the wine is fit for drinking. When the grapes 
+are of a bad, meagre kind, the wine dealers mix the juice with 
+pigeons'-dung or quick-lime, in order to give it a spirit which 
+nature has denied: but this is a very mischievous adulteration.
+
+The process for oil-making is equally simple. The best olives are 
+those that grow wild; but the quantity of them is very 
+inconsiderable. Olives begin to ripen and drop in the beginning 
+of November: but some remain on the trees till February, and even 
+till April, and these are counted the most valuable. When the 
+olives are gathered, they must be manufactured immediately, 
+before they fade and grow wrinkled, otherwise they will produce 
+bad oil. They are first of all ground into a paste by a mill-stone 
+set edge-ways in a circular stone-trough, the wheel being 
+turned by water.
+
+This paste is put into trails or circular cases made of grass 
+woven, having a round hole at top and bottom; when filled they 
+resemble in shape our Cheshire cheeses. A number of these placed 
+one upon another, are put in a press, and being squeezed, the oil 
+with all its impurities, runs into a receptacle below fixed in 
+the ground. From hence it is laded into a wooden vat, half filled 
+with water. The sordes or dirt falls to the bottom; the oil swims 
+a-top; and being skimmed off, is barrelled up in small oblong 
+casks. What remains in the vat, is thrown into a large stone 
+cistern with water, and after being often stirred, and standing 
+twelve or fourteen days, yields a coarser oil used for lamps and 
+manufactures. After these processes, they extract an oil still 
+more coarse and fetid from the refuse of the whole. Sometimes, in 
+order to make the olives grind the more easily into a paste, and 
+part with more oil, they are mixed with a little hot water: but 
+the oil thus procured is apt to grow rancid. The very finest, 
+called virgin oil, is made chiefly of green olives, and sold at
+a very high price, because a great quantity is required to 
+produce a very little oil. Even the stuff that is left after all 
+these operations, consisting of the dried pulp, is sold for fuel, 
+and used in brasieres for warming apartments which have no 
+chimney.
+
+I have now specified all the manufactures of Nice which are worth 
+mentioning. True it is, there is some coarse paper made in this 
+neighbourhood; there are also people here who dress skins and 
+make leather for the use of the inhabitants: but this business is 
+very ill performed: the gloves and shoes are generally rotten as 
+they come from the hands of the maker. Carpenter's, joiner's, and 
+blacksmith's work is very coarsely and clumsily done. There are 
+no chairs to be had at Nice, but crazy things made of a few 
+sticks, with rush bottoms, which are sold for twelve livres a 
+dozen. Nothing can be more contemptible than the hard-ware made 
+in this place, such as knives, scissors, and candle-snuffers. All 
+utensils in brass and copper are very ill made and finished. The 
+silver-smiths make nothing but spoons, forks, paultry rings, and 
+crosses for the necks of the women.
+
+The houses are built of a ragged stone dug from the mountains, 
+and the interstices are filled with rubble; so that the walls 
+would appear very ugly, if they were not covered with plaister, 
+which has a good effect. They generally consist of three stories, 
+and are covered with tiles. The apartments of the better sort are 
+large and lofty, the floors paved with brick, the roofs covered 
+with a thick coat of stucco, and the walls whitewashed. People of 
+distinction hang their chambers with damask, striped silk, 
+painted cloths, tapestry, or printed linnen. All the doors, as 
+well as the windows, consist of folding leaves. As there is no 
+wainscot in the rooms, which are divided by stone partitions and 
+the floors and cieling are covered with brick and stucco, fires 
+are of much less dreadful consequence here than in our country. 
+Wainscot would afford harbour for bugs: besides, white walls have 
+a better effect in this hot climate. The beds commonly used in 
+this place, and all over Italy, consist of a paillasse, with one 
+or two mattrasses, laid upon planks, supported by two wooden 
+benches. Instead of curtains there is a couziniere or mosquito 
+net, made of a kind of gauze, that opens and contracts 
+occasionally, and incloses the place where you lie: persons of 
+condition, however, have also bedsteads and curtains; but these 
+last are never used in the summer.
+
+In these countries, people of all ranks dine exactly at noon; and 
+this is the time I seize in winter, for making my daily tour of 
+the streets and ramparts, which at all other hours of the day are 
+crowded with men, women, children and beasts of burthen. The 
+rampart is the common road for carriages of all kinds. I think 
+there are two private coaches in Nice, besides that of the 
+commandant: but there are sedan chairs, which may be had at a 
+reasonable rate. When I bathed in the summer, I paid thirty sols, 
+equal to eighteen-pence, for being carried to and from the 
+bathing place, which was a mile from my own house.
+
+Now I am speaking of bathing, it may not be amiss to inform you 
+that though there is a fine open beach, extending several miles 
+to the westward of Nice, those who cannot swim ought to bathe 
+with great precaution, as the sea is very deep, and the descent 
+very abrupt from within a yard or two of the water's edge. The 
+people here were much surprised when I began to bathe in the 
+beginning of May. They thought it very strange, that a man 
+seemingly consumptive should plunge into the sea, especially when 
+the weather was so cold; and some of the doctors prognosticated 
+immediate death. But, when it was perceived that I grew better in 
+consequence of the bath, some of the Swiss officers tried the 
+same experiment, and in a few days, our example was followed by 
+several inhabitants of Nice. There is, however, no convenience 
+for this operation, from the benefit of which the fair sex must 
+be intirely excluded, unless they lay aside all regard to 
+decorum; for the shore is always lined with fishing-boats, and 
+crouded with people. If a lady should be at the expence of having 
+a tent pitched on the beach where she might put on and of her 
+bathing-dress, she could not pretend to go into the sea without 
+proper attendants; nor could she possibly plunge headlong into 
+the water, which is the most effectual, and least dangerous way 
+of bathing. All that she can do is to have the sea-water brought 
+into her house, and make use of a bathing-tub, which may be made 
+according to her own, or physician's direction.
+
+What further I have to say of this climate and country, you shall 
+have in my next; and then you will be released from a subject, 
+which I am afraid has been but too circumstantially handled by--
+Sir, Your very humble servant.
+
+LETTER XXIV
+
+NICE, January 4, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR.,--The constitution of this climate may be pretty well 
+ascertained, from the inclosed register of the weather, which I 
+kept with all possible care and attention. From a perusal of it, 
+you will see that there is less rain and wind at Nice, than in 
+any other part of the world that I know; and such is the serenity 
+of the air, that you see nothing above your head for several 
+months together, but a charming blue expanse, without cloud or 
+speck. Whatever clouds may be formed by evaporation of the sea, 
+they seldom or never hover over this small territory; but, in all 
+probability, are attracted by the mountains that surround it, and 
+there fall in rain or snow: as for those that gather from other 
+quarters, I suppose their progress hitherward is obstructed by 
+those very Alps, which rise one over another, to an extent of 
+many leagues. This air being dry, pure, heavy, and elastic, must 
+be agreeable to the constitution of those who labour under 
+disorders arising from weak nerves, obstructed perspiration, 
+relaxed fibres, a viscidity of lymph, and a languid circulation. 
+In other respects, it encourages the scurvy, the atmosphere being 
+undoubtedly impregnated with sea-salt. Ever since my arrival at 
+Nice, I have had a scorbutical eruption on my right hand, which 
+diminishes and increases according to the state of my health. One 
+day last summer, when there was a strong breeze from the sea, the 
+surface of our bodies was covered with a salt brine, very 
+perceptible to the taste; my gums, as well as those of another 
+person in my family, began to swell, and grow painful, though 
+this had never happened before; and I was seized with violent 
+pains in the joints of my knees. I was then at a country-house 
+fronting the sea, and particularly exposed to the marine air. The 
+swelling of our gums subsided as the wind fell: but what was very 
+remarkable, the scurvy-spot on my hand disappeared, and did not 
+return for a whole month. It is affirmed that sea-salt will 
+dissolve, and render the blood so fluid, that it will exude 
+through the coats of the vessels. Perhaps the sea-scurvy is a 
+partial dissolution of it, by that mineral absorbed from the air 
+by the lymphatics on the surface of the body, and by those of the 
+lungs in respiration. Certain it is, in the last stages of the 
+sea-scurvy, the blood often bursts from the pores; and this 
+phaenomenon is imputed to a high degree of putrefaction: sure 
+enough it is attended with putrefaction. We know that a certain 
+quantity of salt is required to preserve the animal juices from 
+going putrid: but, how a greater quantity should produce 
+putrefaction, I leave to wiser heads to explain. Many people here 
+have scorbutical complaints, though their teeth are not affected. 
+They are subject to eruptions on the skin, putrid gums, pains in 
+the bones, lassitude, indigestion, and low spirits; but the 
+reigning distemper is a marasmus, or consumption, which proceeds 
+gradually, without any pulmonary complaint, the complexion 
+growing more and more florid, 'till the very last scene of the 
+tragedy. This I would impute to the effects of a very dry, saline 
+atmosphere, upon a thin habit, in which there is an extraordinary 
+waste by perspiration. The air is remarkably salt in this 
+district, because the mountains that hem it in, prevent its 
+communication with the circumambient atmosphere, in which the 
+saline particles would otherwise be diffused; and there is no 
+rain, nor dew, to precipitate or dissolve them. Such an air as I 
+have described, should have no bad effect upon a moist, 
+phlegmatic constitution, such as mine; and yet it must be owned, 
+I have been visibly wasting since I came hither, though this 
+decay I considered as the progress of the tabes which began in 
+England. But the air of Nice has had a still more sensible effect 
+upon Mr. Sch--z, who laboured under nervous complaints to such a 
+degree, that life was a burthen to him. He had also a fixed pain 
+in his breast, for which complaint he had formerly tried the air 
+of Naples, where he resided some considerable time, and in a 
+great measure recovered: but, this returning with weakness, 
+faintness, low spirits, and entire loss of appetite, he was 
+advised to come hither; and the success of his journey has 
+greatly exceeded his expectation. Though the weather has been 
+remarkably bad for this climate, he has enjoyed perfect health. 
+Since he arrived at Nice, the pain in his breast has vanished; he 
+eats heartily, sleeps well, is in high spirits, and so strong, 
+that he is never off his legs in the day-time. He can walk to the 
+Var and back again, before dinner; and he has climbed to the tops 
+of all the mountains in this neighbourhood. I never saw before 
+such sudden and happy effects from the change of air. I must also 
+acknowledge, that ever since my arrival at Nice, I have breathed 
+more freely than I had done for some years, and my spirits have 
+been more alert. The father of my housekeeper, who was a dancing-master, 
+had been so afflicted with an asthmatic disorder, that he 
+could not live in France, Spain, or Italy; but found the air of 
+Nice so agreeable to his lungs, that he was enabled to exercise 
+his profession for above twenty years, and died last spring 
+turned of seventy. Another advantage I have reaped from this 
+climate is my being, in a great measure, delivered from a slow 
+fever which used to hang about me, and render life a burthen. 
+Neither am I so apt to catch cold as I used to be in England and 
+France; and the colds I do catch are not of the same continuance 
+and consequence, as those to which I was formerly subject. The 
+air of Nice is so dry, that in summer, and even in winter, 
+(except ill wet weather) you may pass the evening, and indeed the 
+whole night, sub Dio, without feeling the least dew or moisture; 
+and as for fogs, they are never seen in this district. In summer, 
+the air is cooled by a regular sea-breeze blowing from the cast, 
+like that of the West-Indies. It begins in the forenoon, and 
+increases with the heat of the day. It dies away about six or 
+seven; and immediately after sun-set is succeeded
+by an agreeable land-breeze from the mountains. The sea-breeze 
+from the eastward, however, is not so constant here, as in the 
+West-Indies between the tropicks, because the sun, which produces 
+it, is not so powerful. This country lies nearer the region of 
+variable winds, and is surrounded by mountains, capes, and 
+straights, which often influence the constitution and current of 
+the air. About the winter solstice, the people of Nice expect 
+wind and rain, which generally lasts, with intervals, 'till the 
+beginning of February: but even during this, their worst weather, 
+the sun breaks out occasionally, and you may take the air either 
+a-foot or on horseback every day; for the moisture is immediately 
+absorbed by the earth, which is naturally dry. They likewise lay 
+their account with being visited by showers of rain and gusts of 
+wind in April. A week's rain in the middle of August makes them 
+happy. It not only refreshes the parched ground, and plumps up 
+the grapes and other fruit, but it cools the air and assuages the 
+beets, which then begin to grow very troublesome; but the rainy 
+season is about the autumnal equinox, or rather something later. 
+It continues about twelve days or a fortnight, and is extremely 
+welcome to the natives of this country. This rainy season is 
+often delayed 'till the latter end of November, and sometimes 
+'till the month of December; in which case, the rest of the 
+winter is generally dry. The heavy rains in this country 
+generally come with a south-west wind, which was the creberque 
+procellis Africus, the stormy southwest, of the antients. It is 
+here called Lebeche, a corruption of Lybicus: it generally blows 
+high for a day or two, and rolls the Mediterranean before it in 
+huge waves, that often enter the town of Nice. It likewise drives 
+before it all the clouds which had been formed above the surface 
+of the Mediterranean. These being expended in rain, fair weather 
+naturally ensues. For this reason, the Nissards observe le 
+lebeche racommode le tems, the Lebeche settles the weather. 
+During the rains of this season, however, the winds have been 
+variable. From the sixteenth of November, 'till the fourth of 
+January, we have had two and twenty days of heavy rain: a very 
+extraordinary visitation in this country: but the seasons seem to 
+be more irregular than formerly, all over Europe. In the month of 
+July, the mercury in Fahrenheit's thermometer, rose to eighty-four 
+at Rome, the highest degree at which it was ever known in 
+that country; and the very next day, the Sabine mountains were 
+covered with snow. The same phaemomenon happened on the eleventh 
+of August, and the thirtieth of September. The consequence of 
+these sudden variations of weather, was this: putrid fevers were 
+less frequent than usual; but the sudden cheek of perspiration 
+from the cold, produced colds, inflammatory sore throats, and the 
+rheumatism. I know instances of some English valetudinarians, who 
+have passed the winter at Aix, on the supposition that there was 
+little or no difference between that air and the climate of Nice: 
+but this is a very great mistake, which may be attended with 
+fatal consequences. Aix is altogether exposed to the north and 
+north-west winds, which blow as cold in Provence, as ever I felt 
+them on the mountains of Scotland: whereas Nice is entirely 
+screened from these winds by the Maritime Alps, which form an 
+amphitheatre, to the land-side, around this little territory: but 
+another incontestible proof of the mildness of this climate, is 
+deduced from the oranges, lemons, citrons, roses, narcissus's, 
+july-flowers, and jonquils, which ripen and blow in the middle of 
+winter. I have described the agreeable side of this climate; and 
+now I will point out its inconveniences. In the winter, but 
+especially in the spring, the sun is so hot, that one can hardly 
+take exercise of any sort abroad, without being thrown into a 
+breathing sweat; and the wind at this season is so cold and 
+piercing, that it often produces a mischievous effect on the 
+pores thus opened. If the heat rarifies the blood and juices, 
+while the cold air constringes the fibres, and obstructs the 
+perspiration, inflammatory disorders must ensue. Accordingly, the 
+people are then subject to colds, pleurisies, peripneumonies, and 
+ardent fevers. An old count advised me to stay within doors in 
+March, car alors les humeurs commencent a se remuer, for then the 
+humours begin to be in motion. During the heats of summer, some 
+few persons of gross habits have, in consequence of violent 
+exercise and excess, been seized with putrid fevers, attended 
+with exanthemata, erisipelatous, and miliary eruptions, which 
+commonly prove fatal: but the people in general are healthy, even 
+those that take very little exercise: a strong presumption in 
+favour of the climate! As to medicine, I know nothing of the 
+practice of the Nice physicians. Here are eleven in all; but four 
+or five make shift to live by the profession. They receive, by 
+way of fee, ten sols (an English six-pence) a visit, and this is 
+but ill paid: so you may guess whether they are in a condition to 
+support the dignity of physic; and whether any man, of a liberal 
+education, would bury himself at Nice on such terms. I am 
+acquainted with an Italian physician settled at Villa Franca, a 
+very good sort of a man, who practises for a certain salary, 
+raised by annual contribution among the better sort of people; 
+and an allowance from the king, for visiting the sick belonging 
+to the garrison and the gallies. The whole may amount to near 
+thirty pounds.
+
+Among the inconveniences of this climate, the vermin form no 
+inconsiderable article. Vipers and snakes are found in the 
+mountains. Our gardens swarm with lizzards; and there are some 
+few scorpions; but as yet I have seen but one of this species. In 
+summer, notwithstanding all the care and precautions we can take, 
+we are pestered with incredible swarms of flies, fleas, and bugs; 
+but the gnats, or couzins, are more intolerable than all the 
+rest. In the day-time, it is impossible to keep the flies out of 
+your mouth, nostrils, eyes, and ears. They croud into your milk, 
+tea, chocolate, soup, wine, and water: they soil your sugar, 
+contaminate your victuals, and devour your fruit; they cover and 
+defile your furniture, floors, cielings, and indeed your whole 
+body. As soon as candles are lighted, the couzins begin to buz 
+about your ears in myriads, and torment you with their stings, so 
+that you have no rest nor respite 'till you get into bed, where 
+you are secured by your mosquito-net. This inclosure is very 
+disagreeable in hot weather; and very inconvenient to those, who, 
+like me, are subject to a cough and spitting. It is moreover 
+ineffectual; for some of those cursed insects insinuate 
+themselves within it, almost every night; and half a dozen of 
+them are sufficient to disturb you 'till morning. This is a 
+plague that continues all the year; but in summer it is 
+intolerable. During this season, likewise, the moths are so 
+mischievous, that it requires the utmost care to preserve woollen 
+cloths from being destroyed. From the month of May, 'till the 
+beginning of October, the heat is so violent, that you cannot 
+stir abroad after six in the morning 'till eight at night, so 
+that you are entirely deprived of the benefit of exercise: There 
+is no shaded walk in, or near the town; and there is neither 
+coach nor chaise to hire, unless you travel post. Indeed, there 
+is no road fit for any wheel carriage, but the common highway to 
+the Var, in which you are scorched by the reflexion of the sun 
+from the sand and stones, and at the same time half stifled with 
+dust. If you ride out in the cool of the evening, you will have 
+the disadvantage of returning in the dark.
+
+Among the demerits of Nice, I must also mention the water which 
+is used in the city. It is drawn from wells; and for the most 
+part so hard, that it curdles with soap. There are many fountains 
+and streams in the neighbourhood, that afford excellent water, 
+which, at no great charge, might be conveyed into the town, so as 
+to form conduits in all the public streets: but the inhabitants 
+are either destitute of public spirit, or cannot afford the 
+expense. [General Paterson delivered a Plan to the King of 
+Sardinia for supplying Nice with excellent water for so small an 
+expence as one livre a house per annum; but the inhabitants 
+remonstrated against it as an intolerable Imposition.] I have a 
+draw-well in my porch, and another in my garden, which supply 
+tolerable water for culinary uses; but what we drink, is fetched 
+from a well belonging to a convent of Dominicans in this 
+neighbourhood. Our linnen is washed in the river Paglion; and 
+when that is dry, in the brook called Limpia, which runs into the 
+harbour.
+
+In mentioning the water of this neighbourhood, I ought not to 
+omit the baths of Rocabiliare, a small town among the mountains, 
+about five and twenty miles from Nice. There are three sources, 
+each warmer than the other; the warmest being nearly equal to the 
+heat of the king's bath at Bath in Somersetshire, as far as I can 
+judge from information. I have perused a Latin manuscript, which 
+treats of these baths at Rocabiliare, written by the duke of 
+Savoy's first physician about sixty years ago. He talks much of 
+the sulphur and the nitre which they contain; but I apprehend 
+their efficacy is owing to the same volatile vitriolic principle, 
+which characterises the waters at Bath. They are attenuating and 
+deobstruent, consequently of service in disorders arising from a 
+languid circulation, a viscidity of the juices, a lax fibre, and 
+obstructed viscera. The road from hence to Rocabiliare is in some 
+parts very dangerous, lying along the brink of precipices, 
+impassable to any other carriage but a mule. The town itself 
+affords bad lodging and accommodation, and little or no society. 
+The waters are at the distance of a mile and a half from the 
+town: there are no baths nor shelter, nor any sort of convenience 
+for those that drink them; and the best part of their efficacy is 
+lost, unless they are drank at the fountain-head. If these 
+objections were in some measure removed, I would advise 
+valetudinarians, who come hither for the benefit of this climate, 
+to pass the heats of summer at Rocabiliare, which being situated 
+among mountains, enjoys a cool temperate air all the summer. This 
+would be a salutary respite from the salt air of Nice, to those 
+who labour under scorbutical complaints; and they would return 
+with fresh vigour and spirits, to pass the winter in this place, 
+where no severity of weather is known. Last June, when I found 
+myself so ill at my cassine, I had determined to go to 
+Rocabiliare, and even to erect a hut at the spring, for my own 
+convenience. A gentleman of Nice undertook to procure me a 
+tolerable lodging in the house of the cure, who was his relation. 
+He assured me, there was no want of fresh butter, good poultry, 
+excellent veal, and delicate trout; and that the articles of 
+living might be had at Rocabiliare for half the price we paid at 
+Nice: but finding myself grow better immediately on my return 
+from the cassine to my own house, I would not put myself to the 
+trouble and expence of a further removal.
+
+I think I have now communicated all the particulars relating to 
+Nice, that are worth knowing; and perhaps many more than you 
+desired to know: but, in such cases, I would rather be thought 
+prolix and unentertaining, than deficient in that regard and 
+attention with which I am very sincerely,--Your friend and 
+servant.
+
+LETTER XXV
+
+NICE, January 1, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--It was in deference to your opinion, reinforced by my 
+own inclination, and the repeated advice of other friends, that I 
+resolved upon my late excursion to Italy. I could plainly 
+perceive from the anxious solicitude, and pressing exhortations 
+contained in all the letters I had lately received from my 
+correspondents in Britain, that you had all despaired of my 
+recovery. You advised me to make a pilgrimage among the Alps, and 
+the advice was good. In scrambling among those mountains, I 
+should have benefited by the exercise, and at the same time have 
+breathed a cool, pure, salubrious air, which, in all probability, 
+would have expelled the slow fever arising in a great measure 
+from the heat of this climate. But, I wanted a companion and 
+fellow traveller, whose conversation and society could alleviate 
+the horrors of solitude. Besides, I was not strong enough to 
+encounter the want of conveniences, and even of necessaries to 
+which I must have been exposed in the course of such an 
+expedition. My worthy friend Dr. A-- earnestly intreated me to 
+try the effect of a sea-voyage, which you know has been found of 
+wonderful efficacy in consumptive cases. After some deliberation, 
+I resolved upon the scheme, which I have now happily executed. I 
+had a most eager curiosity to see the antiquities of Florence and 
+Rome: I longed impatiently to view those wonderful edifices, 
+statues, and pictures, which I had so often admired in prints and 
+descriptions. I felt an enthusiastic ardor to tread that very 
+classical ground which had been the scene of so many great 
+atchievements; and I could not bear the thought of returning to 
+England from the very skirts of Italy, without having penetrated 
+to the capital of that renowned country. With regard to my 
+health, I knew I could manage matters so as to enjoy all the 
+benefits that could be expected from the united energy of a 
+voyage by sea, a journey by land, and a change of climate.
+
+Rome is betwixt four and five hundred miles distant from Nice, 
+and one half of the way I was resolved to travel by water. Indeed 
+there is no other way of going from hence to Genoa, unless you 
+take a mule, and clamber along the mountains at the rate of two 
+miles an hour, and at the risque of breaking your neck every 
+minute. The Apennine mountains, which are no other than a 
+continuation of the maritime Alps, form an almost continued 
+precipice from Villefranche to Lerici, which is almost forty-five 
+miles on the other side of Genoa; and as they are generally 
+washed by the sea, there is no beach or shore, consequently the 
+road is carried along the face of the rocks, except at certain 
+small intervals, which are occupied by towns and villages. But, 
+as there is a road for mules and foot passengers, it might 
+certainly be enlarged and improved so as to render it practicable 
+by chaises and other wheel-carriages, and a toll might be 
+exacted, which in a little time would defray the expence: for 
+certainly no person who travels to Italy, from England, Holland, 
+France, or Spain, would make a troublesome circuit to pass the 
+Alps by the way of Savoy and Piedmont, if he could have the 
+convenience of going post by the way of Aix, Antibes, and Nice, 
+along the side of the Mediterranean, and through the Riviera of 
+Genoa, which from the sea affords the most agreeable and amazing 
+prospect I ever beheld. What pity it is, they cannot restore the 
+celebrated Via Aurelia, mentioned in the Itinerarium of 
+Antoninus, which extended from Rome by the way of Genoa, and 
+through this country as far as Arles upon the Rhone. It was said 
+to have been made by the emperor Marcus Aurelius; and some of the 
+vestiges of it are still to be seen in Provence. The truth is, 
+the nobility of Genoa, who are all merchants, from a low, 
+selfish, and absurd policy, take all methods to keep their 
+subjects of the Riviera in poverty and dependence. With this 
+view, they carefully avoid all steps towards rendering that 
+country accessible by land; and at the same time discourage their 
+trade by sea, lest it should interfere with the commerce of their 
+capital, in which they themselves are personally concerned.
+
+Those who either will not or cannot bear the sea, and are equally 
+averse to riding, may be carried in a common chair, provided with 
+a foot-board, on men's shoulders: this is the way of travelling 
+practised by the ladies of Nice, in crossing the mountains to 
+Turin; but it is very tedious and expensive, as the men must be 
+often relieved.
+
+The most agreeable carriage from here to Genoa, is a feluca, or 
+open boat, rowed by ten or twelve stout mariners. Though none of 
+these boats belong to Nice, they are to be found every day in our 
+harbour, waiting for a fare to Genoa; and they are seen passing 
+and repassing continually, with merchandize or passengers, 
+between Marseilles, Antibes, and the Genoese territories. A 
+feluca is large enough to take in a post-chaise; and there is a 
+tilt over the stern sheets, where the passengers sit, to protect 
+them from the rain: between the seats one person may lie 
+commodiously upon a mattress, which is commonly supplied by the 
+patron. A man in good health may put up with any thing; but I 
+would advise every valetudinarian who travels this way, to 
+provide his own chaise, mattrass, and bedlinnen, otherwise he 
+will pass his time very uncomfortably. If you go as a simple 
+passenger in a feluca, you pay about a loui'dore for your place, 
+and you must be intirely under the direction of the patron, who, 
+while he can bear the sea, will prosecute his voyage by night as 
+well as by day, and expose you to many other inconveniencies: but 
+for eight zequines, or four loui'dores, you can have a whole 
+feluca to yourself, from Nice to Genoa, and the master shall be 
+obliged to put a-shore every evening. If you would have it still 
+more at your command, you may hire it at so much per day, and in 
+that case, go on shore as often, and stay as long as you please. 
+This is the method I should take, were I to make the voyage 
+again; for I am persuaded I should find it very near as cheap, 
+and much more agreeable than any other.
+
+The distance between this place and Genoa, when measured on the 
+carte, does not exceed ninety miles: but the people of the 
+felucas insist upon its being one hundred and twenty. If they 
+creep along shore round the bottoms of all the bays, this 
+computation may be true: but, except when the sea is rough, they 
+stretch directly from one head-land to another, and even when the 
+wind is contrary, provided the gale is not fresh, they perform 
+the voyage in two days and a half, by dint of rowing: when the 
+wind is favourable, they will sail it easily in fourteen hours.
+
+A man who has nothing but expedition in view, may go with the 
+courier, who has always a light boat well manned, and will be 
+glad to accommodate a traveller for a reasonable gratification. I 
+know an English gentleman who always travels with the courier in 
+Italy, both by sea and land. In posting by land, he is always 
+sure of having part of a good calash, and the best horses that 
+can be found; and as the expence of both is defrayed by the 
+public, it costs him nothing but a present to his companion, 
+which does not amount to one fourth part of the expence he would 
+incur by travelling alone. These opportunities may be had every 
+week in all the towns of Italy.
+
+For my own part, I hired a gondola from hence to Genoa. This is a 
+boat smaller than a feluca, rowed by four men, and steered by the 
+patron; but the price was nine zequines, rather more than I 
+should have payed for a feluca of ten oars. I was assured that 
+being very light, it would make great way; and the master was 
+particularly recommended to me, as an honest man and an able 
+mariner. I was accompanied in this voyage by my wife and Miss C--, 
+together with one Mr. R--, a native of Nice, whom I treated 
+with the jaunt, in hopes that as he was acquainted with the 
+customs of the country, and the different ways of travelling in 
+it, he would save us much trouble, and some expence: but I was 
+much disappointed. Some persons at Nice offered to lay wagers 
+that he would return by himself from Italy; but they were also 
+disappointed.
+
+We embarked in the beginning of September, attended by one 
+servant. The heats, which render travelling dangerous in Italy, 
+begin to abate at this season. The weather was extremely 
+agreeable; and if I had postponed my voyage a little longer, I 
+foresaw that I should not be able to return before winter: in 
+which case I might have found the sea too rough, and the weather 
+too cold for a voyage of one hundred and thirty-five miles in an 
+open boat.
+
+Having therefore provided myself with a proper pass, signed and 
+sealed by our consul, as well as with letters of recommendation 
+from him to the English consuls at Genoa and Leghorn, a 
+precaution which I would advise all travellers to take, in case 
+of meeting with accidents on the road, we went on board about ten 
+in the morning, stopped about half an hour at a friend's country-house 
+in the bay of St. Hospice, and about noon entered the 
+harbour of Monaco, where the patron was obliged to pay toll, 
+according to the regulation which I have explained in a former 
+letter. This small town, containing about eight or nine hundred 
+souls, besides the garrison, is built on a rock which projects 
+into the sea, and makes a very romantic appearance. The prince's 
+palace stands in the most conspicuous part, with a walk of trees 
+before it. The apartments are elegantly furnished, and adorned 
+with some good pictures. The fortifications are in good repair, 
+and the place is garrisoned by two French battalions. The present 
+prince of Monaco is a Frenchman, son of the duke Matignon who 
+married the heiress of Monaco, whose name was Grimaldi. The 
+harbour is well sheltered from the wind; but has not water 
+sufficient to admit vessels of any great burthen. Towards the 
+north, the king of Sardinia's territories extend to within a mile 
+of the gate; but the prince of Monaco can go upon his own ground 
+along shore about five or six miles to the eastward, as far as 
+Menton, another small town, which also belongs to him, and is 
+situated on the seaside. His revenues are computed at a million 
+of French livres, amounting to something more than forty thousand 
+pounds sterling: but, the principality of Monaco, consisting of 
+three small towns, and an inconsiderable tract of barren rock, is 
+not worth above seven thousand a year; the rest arises from his 
+French estate. This consists partly of the dutchy of Matignon, 
+and partly of the dutchy of Valentinois, which last was given to 
+the ancestors of this prince of Monaco, in the year 1640, by the 
+French king, to make up the loss of some lands in the kingdom of 
+Naples, which were confiscated when he expelled the Spanish 
+garrison from Monaco, and threw himself into the arms of France: 
+so that he is duke of Valentinois as well as of Matignon, in that 
+kingdom. He lives almost constantly in France; and has taken the 
+name and arms of Grimaldi.
+
+The Genoese territories begin at Ventimiglia, another town lying 
+on the coast, at the distance of twenty miles from Nice, a 
+circumstance from which it borrows the name. Having passed the 
+towns of Monaco, Menton, Ventimiglia, and several other places of 
+less consequence that lie along this coast, we turned the point 
+of St. Martin with a favourable breeze, and might have proceeded 
+twenty miles further before night: but the women began to be 
+sick, as well as afraid at the roughness of the water; Mr. R-- was 
+so discomposed, that he privately desired the patron to put 
+ashore at St. Remo, on pretence that we should not find a 
+tolerable auberge in any other place between this and Noli, which 
+was at the distance of forty miles. We accordingly landed, and 
+were conducted to the poste, which our gondeliere assured us was 
+the best auberge in the whole Riviera of Genoa. We ascended by a 
+dark, narrow, steep stair, into a kind of public room, with a 
+long table and benches, so dirty and miserable, that it would 
+disgrace the worst hedge ale-house in England. Not a soul 
+appeared to receive us. This is a ceremony one must not expect to 
+meet with in France; far less in Italy. Our patron going into the 
+kitchen, asked a servant if the company could have lodging in the 
+house; and was answered, "he could not tell: the patron was not 
+at home." When he desired to know where the patron was, the other 
+answered, "he was gone to take the air." E andato a passeggiare. 
+In the mean time, we were obliged to sit in the common room among 
+watermen and muleteers. At length the landlord arrived, and gave 
+us to understand, that he could accommodate us with chambers. In 
+that where I lay, there was just room for two beds, without 
+curtains or bedstead, an old rotten table covered with dried 
+figs, and a couple of crazy chairs. The walls had been once 
+white-washed: but were now hung with cobwebs, and speckled with 
+dirt of all sorts; and I believe the brick-floor had not been 
+swept for half a century. We supped in an outward room suitable 
+in all respects to the chamber, and fared villainously. The 
+provision was very ill-dressed, and served up in the most 
+slovenly manner. You must not expect cleanliness or conveniency 
+of any kind in this country. For this accommodation I payed as 
+much as if I had been elegantly entertained in the best auberge 
+of France or Italy. 
+
+Next day, the wind was so high that we could not prosecute our 
+voyage, so that we were obliged to pass other four and twenty 
+hours in this comfortable situation. Luckily Mr. R-- found two 
+acquaintances in the place; one a Franciscan monk, a jolly 
+fellow; and the other a maestro di capella, who sent a spinnet to 
+the inn, and entertained us agreeably with his voice and 
+performance, in both of which accomplishments he excelled. The 
+padre was very good humoured, and favoured us with a letter of 
+recommendation to a friend of his, a professor in the university 
+of Pisa. You would laugh to see the hyperbolical terms in which 
+he mentioned your humble servant; but Italy is the native country 
+of hyperbole.
+
+St. Remo is a pretty considerable town, well-built upon the 
+declivity of a gently rising hill, and has a harbour capable of 
+receiving small vessels, a good number of which are built upon 
+the beach: but ships of any burden are obliged to anchor in the 
+bay, which is far from being secure. The people of St. Remo form 
+a small republic, which is subject to Genoa.
+
+They enjoyed particular privileges, till the year 1753, when in 
+consequence of a new gabelle upon salt, they revolted: but this 
+effort in behalf of liberty did not succeed. They were soon 
+reduced by the Genoese, who deprived them of all their 
+privileges, and built a fort by the sea-side, which serves the 
+double purpose of defending the harbour and over-awing the town. 
+The garrison at present does not exceed two hundred men. The 
+inhabitants are said to have lately sent a deputation to 
+Ratisbon, to crave the protection of the diet of the empire. 
+There is very little plain ground in this neighbourhood; but the 
+hills are covered with oranges, lemons, pomegranates, and olives, 
+which produce a considerable traffic in fine fruit and excellent 
+oil. The women of St. Remo are much more handsome and better 
+tempered than those of Provence. They have in general good eyes, 
+with open ingenuous countenances. Their dress, though remarkable, 
+I cannot describe: but upon the whole, they put me in mind of 
+some portraits I have seen, representing the females of Georgia 
+and Mingrelia.
+
+On the third day, the wind being abated, though still 
+unfavourable, we reimbarked and rowed along shore, passing by 
+Porto-mauricio, and Oneglia; then turning the promontory called 
+Capo di Melle, we proceeded by Albenga, Finale, and many other 
+places of inferior note. Portomauricio is seated on a rock washed 
+by the sea, but indifferently fortified, with an inconsiderable 
+harbour, which none but very small vessels can enter. About two 
+miles to the eastward is Oneglia, a small town with 
+fortifications, lying along the open beach, and belonging to the 
+king of Sardinia. This small territory abounds with olive-trees, 
+which produce a considerable quantity of oil, counted the best of 
+the whole Riviera. Albenga is a small town, the see of a bishop, 
+suffragan to the archbishop of Genoa. It lies upon the sea, and 
+the country produces a great quantity of hemp. Finale is the 
+capital of a marquisate belonging to the Genoese, which has been 
+the source of much trouble to the republic; and indeed was the 
+sole cause of their rupture with the king of Sardinia and the 
+house of Austria in the year 1745. The town is pretty well built; 
+but the harbour is shallow, open, and unsafe; nevertheless, they 
+built a good number of tartans and other vessels on the beach and 
+the neighbouring country abounds with oil and fruit, particularly 
+with those excellent apples called pomi carli, which I have 
+mentioned in a former letter.
+
+In the evening we reached the Capo di Noli, counted very 
+dangerous in blowing weather. It is a very high perpendicular 
+rock or mountain washed by the sea, which has eaten into it in 
+divers places, so as to form a great number of caverns. It 
+extends about a couple of miles, and in some parts is indented 
+into little creeks or bays, where there is a narrow margin of 
+sandy beach between it and the water. When the wind is high, no 
+feluca will attempt to pass it; even in a moderate breeze, the 
+waves dashing against the rocks and caverns, which echo with the 
+sound, make such an awful noise, and at the same time occasion 
+such a rough sea, as one cannot hear, and see, and feel, without 
+a secret horror.
+
+On this side of the Cape, there is a beautiful strand cultivated 
+like a garden; the plantations extend to the very tops of the 
+hills, interspersed with villages, castles, churches, and villas. 
+Indeed the whole Riviera is ornamented in the same manner, except 
+in such places as admit of no building nor  cultivation.
+
+Having passed the Cape, we followed the winding of the coast, 
+into a small bay, and arrived at the town of Noli, where we 
+proposed to pass the night. You will be surprised that we did not 
+go ashore sooner, in order to take some refreshment; but the 
+truth is, we had a provision of ham, tongues, roasted pullets, 
+cheese, bread, wine, and fruit, in the feluca, where we every day 
+enjoyed a slight repast about one or two o'clock in the 
+afternoon. This I mention as a necessary piece of information to 
+those who may be inclined to follow the same route. We likewise 
+found it convenient to lay in store of l'eau de vie, or brandy, 
+for the use of the rowers, who always expect to share your 
+comforts.  On a meagre day, however, those ragamuffins will 
+rather die of hunger than suffer the least morsel of flesh-meat 
+to enter their mouths. I have frequently tried the experiment, by 
+pressing them to eat something gras, on a Friday or Saturday: but 
+they always declined it with marks of abhorrence, crying, Dio me 
+ne libere! God deliver me from it! or some other words to that 
+effect. I moreover observed, that not one of those fellows ever 
+swore an oath, or spoke an indecent word. They would by no means 
+put to sea, of a morning, before they had heard mass; and when 
+the wind was unfavourable, they always set out with a hymn to the 
+Blessed Virgin, or St. Elmo, keeping time with their oars as they 
+sung. I have indeed remarked all over this country, that a man 
+who transgresses the institutions of the church in these small 
+matters, is much more infamous than one who has committed the 
+most flagrant crimes against nature and morality. A murderer, 
+adulterer, or s--m--te, will obtain easy absolution from the 
+church, and even find favour with society; but a man who eats a 
+pidgeon on a Saturday, without express licence, is avoided and 
+abhorred, as a monster of reprobation. I have conversed with 
+several intelligent persons on the subject; and have reason to 
+believe, that a delinquent of this sort is considered as a luke-warm 
+catholic, little better than a heretic; and of all crimes 
+they look upon heresy as the most damnable.
+
+Noli is a small republic of fishermen subject to Genoa; but very 
+tenacious of their privileges. The town stands on the beach, 
+tolerably well built, defended by a castle situated on a rock 
+above it; and the harbour is of little consequence. The auberge 
+was such as made us regret even the inn we had left at St. Remo. 
+After a very odd kind of supper, which I cannot pretend to 
+describe, we retired to our repose: but I had not been in bed 
+five minutes, when I felt something crawling on different parts 
+of my body, and taking a light to examine, perceived above a 
+dozen large bugs. You must know I have the same kind of antipathy 
+to these vermin, that some persons have to a cat or breast of 
+veal. I started up immediately, and wrapping myself in a great 
+coat, sick as I was, laid down in the outer room upon a chest, 
+where I continued till morning.
+
+One would imagine that in a mountainous country like this, there 
+should be plenty of goats; and indeed, we saw many flocks of them 
+feeding among the rocks, yet we could not procure half a pint of 
+milk for our tea, if we had given the weight of it in gold. The 
+people here have no idea of using milk, and when you ask them for 
+it, they stand gaping with a foolish face of surprise, which is 
+exceedingly provoking. It is amazing that instinct does not teach 
+the peasants to feed their children with goat's milk, so much 
+more nourishing and agreeable than the wretched sustenance on 
+which they live. Next day we rowed by Vado and Savona, which last 
+is a large town, with a strong citadel, and a harbour, which was 
+formerly capable of receiving large ships: but it fell a 
+sacrifice to the jealousy of the Genoese, who have partly choaked 
+it up, on pretence that it should not afford shelter to the ships 
+of war belonging to those states which might be at enmity with 
+the republic.
+
+Then we passed Albifola, Sestri di Ponente, Novi, Voltri, and a 
+great number of villages, villas, and magnificent palaces 
+belonging to the Genoese nobility, which form almost a continued 
+chain of buildings along the strand for thirty miles.
+
+About five in the afternoon, we skirted the fine suburbs of St. 
+Pietro d' Arena, and arrived at Genoa, which makes a dazzling 
+appearance when viewed from the sea, rising like an amphitheatre 
+in a circular form from the water's edge, a considerable way up 
+the mountains, and surrounded on the land side by a double wall, 
+the most exterior of which is said to extend fifteen miles in 
+circuit. The first object that strikes your eye at a distance, is 
+a very elegant pharos, or lighthouse, built on the projection of 
+a rock on the west side of the harbour, so very high, that, in a 
+clear day, you may see it at the distance of thirty miles. 
+Turning the light-house point, you find yourself close to the 
+mole, which forms the harbour of Genoa. It is built at a great 
+expence from each side of the bay, so as to form in the sea two 
+long magnificent jettes. At the extremity of each is another 
+smaller lanthorn. These moles are both provided with brass-cannon, 
+and between them is the entrance into the harbour. But 
+this is still so wide as to admit a great sea, which, when the 
+wind blows hard from south and south-west, is very troublesome to 
+the shipping. Within the mole there is a smaller harbour or wet 
+dock, called Darsena, for the gallies of the republic. We passed 
+through a considerable number of ships and vessels lying at 
+anchor, and landing at the water-gate, repaired to an inn called 
+La Croix de Malthe in the neighbourhood of the harbour. Here we 
+met with such good entertainment as prepossessed us in favour of 
+the interior parts of Italy, and contributed with other motives 
+to detain us some days in this city. But I have detained you so 
+long, that I believe you wish I may proceed no farther; and 
+therefore I take my leave for the present, being very sincerely--
+Yours.
+
+LETTER XXVI
+
+NICE, January 15, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--It is not without reason that Genoa is called La 
+superba. The city itself is very stately; and the nobles are very 
+proud. Some few of them may be proud of their wealth: but, in 
+general, their fortunes are very small. My friend Mr. R-- assured 
+me that many Genoese noblemen had fortunes of half a million of 
+livres per annum: but the truth is, the whole revenue of the 
+state does not exceed this sum; and the livre of Genoa is but 
+about nine pence sterling. There are about half a dozen of their 
+nobles who have ten thousand a year: but the majority have not 
+above a twentieth part of that sum. They live with great 
+parsimony in their families; and wear nothing but black in 
+public; so that their expences are but small. If a Genoese 
+nobleman gives an entertainment once a quarter, he is said to 
+live upon the fragments all the rest of the year. I was told that 
+one of them lately treated his friends, and left the 
+entertainment to the care of his son, who ordered a dish of fish 
+that cost a zechine, which is equal to about ten shillings 
+sterling. The old gentleman no sooner saw it appear on the table, 
+than unable to suppress his concern, he burst into tears, and 
+exclaimed, Ah Figliuolo indegno! Siamo in Rovina! Siamo in 
+precipizio! Ah, Prodigal! ruined! undone!
+
+I think the pride or ostentation of the Italians in general takes 
+a more laudable turn than that of other nations. A Frenchman lays 
+out his whole revenue upon tawdry suits of cloaths, or in 
+furnishing a magnificent repas of fifty or a hundred dishes, one 
+half of which are not eatable nor intended to be eaten. His 
+wardrobe goes to the fripier; his dishes to the dogs, and himself 
+to the devil, and after his decease no vestige of him remains. A 
+Genoese, on the other hand, keeps himself and his family at short 
+allowance, that he may save money to build palaces and churches, 
+which remain to after-ages so many monuments of his taste, piety, 
+and munificence; and in the mean time give employment and bread 
+to the poor and industrious. There are some Genoese nobles who 
+have each five or six elegant palaces magnificently furnished, 
+either in the city, or in different parts of the Riviera. The two 
+streets called Strada Balbi and Strada Nuova, are continued 
+double ranges of palaces adorned with gardens and fountains: but 
+their being painted on the outside has, in my opinion, a poor 
+effect.
+
+The commerce of this city is, at present, not very considerable; 
+yet it has the face of business. The streets are crowded with 
+people; the shops are well furnished; and the markets abound with 
+all sorts of excellent provision. The wine made in this 
+neighbourhood is, however, very indifferent; and all that is 
+consumed must be bought at the public cantine, where it is sold 
+for the benefit of the state. Their bread is the whitest and the 
+best I have tasted any where; and the beef, which they have from 
+Piedmont, is juicy and delicious. The expence of eating in Italy 
+is nearly the same as in France, about three shillings a head for 
+every meal. The state of Genoa is very poor, and their bank of 
+St. George has received such rude shocks, first from the revolt 
+of the Corsicans, and afterwards from the misfortunes of the 
+city, when it was taken by the Austrians in the war of 1745, that 
+it still continues to languish without any near prospect of its 
+credit being restored. Nothing shews the weakness of their state, 
+more than their having recourse to the assistance of France to 
+put a stop to the progress of Paoli in Corsica; for after all 
+that has been said of the gallantry and courage of Paoli and his 
+islanders, I am very credibly informed that they might be very 
+easily suppressed, if the Genoese had either vigour in the council 
+or resolution in the field.
+
+True it is, they made a noble effort in expelling the Austrians 
+who had taken possession of their city; but this effort was the 
+effect of oppression and despair, and if I may believe the 
+insinuations of some politicians in this part of the world, the 
+Genoese would not have succeeded in that attempt, if they had not 
+previously purchased with a large sum of money the connivance of 
+the only person who could defeat the enterprize. For my own part, 
+I can scarce entertain thoughts so prejudicial to the character 
+of human nature, as to suppose a man capable of sacrificing to 
+such a consideration, the duty he owed his prince, as well as all 
+regard to the lives of his soldiers, even those who lay sick in 
+hospitals, and who, being dragged forth, were miserably butchered 
+by the furious populace. There is one more presumption of his 
+innocence, he still retains the favour of his sovereign, who 
+could not well be supposed to share in the booty. "There are 
+mysteries in politics which were never dreamed of in our 
+philosophy, Horatio!" The possession of Genoa might have proved a 
+troublesome bone of contention, which it might be convenient to 
+lose by accident. Certain it is, when the Austrians returned 
+after their expulsion, in order to retake the city, the engineer, 
+being questioned by the general, declared he would take the place 
+in fifteen days, on pain of losing his head; and in four days 
+after this declaration the Austrians retired. This anecdote I 
+learned from a worthy gentleman of this country, who had it from 
+the engineer's own mouth. Perhaps it was the will of heaven. You 
+see how favourably, providence has interposed in behalf of the 
+reigning empress of Russia, first in removing her husband: 
+secondly in ordaining the assassination of prince Ivan, for which 
+the perpetrators have been so liberally rewarded; it even seems 
+determined to shorten the life of her own son, the only surviving 
+rival from whom she had any thing to fear.
+
+The Genoese have now thrown themselves into the arms of France 
+for protection: I know not whether it would not have been a 
+greater mark of sagacity to cultivate the friendship of England, 
+with which they carry on an advantageous commerce. While the 
+English are masters of the Mediterranean, they will always have 
+it in their power to do incredible damage all along the Riviera, 
+to ruin the Genoese trade by sea, and even to annoy the capital; 
+for notwithstanding all the pains they have taken to fortify the 
+mole and the city, I am greatly deceived if it is not still 
+exposed to the danger, not only of a bombardment, but even of a 
+cannonade. I am even sanguine enough to think a resolute 
+commander might, with a strong squadron, sail directly into the 
+harbour, without sustaining much damage, notwithstanding all the 
+cannon of the place, which are said to amount to near five 
+hundred. I have seen a cannonade of above four hundred pieces of 
+artillery, besides bombs and cohorns, maintained for many hours, 
+without doing much mischief.
+
+During the last siege of Genoa, the French auxiliaries were 
+obliged to wait at Monaco, until a gale of wind had driven the 
+English squadron off the coast, and then they went along shore in 
+small vessels at the imminent risque of being taken by the 
+British cruisers. By land I apprehend their march would be 
+altogether impracticable, if the king of Sardinia had any 
+interest to oppose it. He might either guard the passes, or break 
+up the road in twenty different places, so as to render it 
+altogether impassable. Here it may not be amiss to observe, that 
+when Don Philip advanced from Nice with his army to Genoa, he was 
+obliged to march so close to the shore, that in above fifty 
+different places, the English ships might have rendered the road 
+altogether impassable. The path, which runs generally along the 
+face of a precipice washed by the sea, is so narrow that two men 
+on horseback can hardly pass each other; and the road itself so 
+rugged, slippery, and dangerous, that the troopers were obliged 
+to dismount, and lead their horses one by one. On the other hand, 
+baron de Leutrum, who was at the head of a large body of 
+Piedmontese troops, had it in his power to block up the passes of 
+the mountains, and even to destroy this road in such a manner, 
+that the enemy could not possibly advance. Why these precautions 
+were not taken, I do not pretend to explain: neither can I tell 
+you wherefore the prince of Monaco, who is a subject and partizan 
+of France, was indulged with a neutrality for his town, which 
+served as a refreshing-place, a safe port, and an intermediate 
+post for the French succours sent from Marseilles to Genoa. This 
+I will only venture to affirm, that the success and advantage of 
+great alliances are often sacrificed to low, partial, selfish, 
+and sordid considerations. The town of Monaco is commanded by 
+every heighth in its neighbourhood; and might be laid in ashes by 
+a bomb-ketch in four hours by sea.
+
+I was fortunate enough to be recommended to a lady in Genoa, who 
+treated us with great politeness and hospitality. She introduced 
+me to an abbate, a man of letters, whose conversation was 
+extremely agreeable. He already knew me by reputation, and 
+offered to make me known to some of the first persons in the 
+republic, with whom he lived in intimacy. The lady is one of the 
+most intelligent and best-bred persons I have known in any 
+country. We assisted at her conversazione, which was numerous. 
+She pressed us to pass the winter at Genoa; and indeed I was 
+almost persuaded: but I had attachments at Nice, from which I 
+could not easily disengage myself.
+
+The few days we staved at Genoa were employed in visiting the 
+most remarkable churches and palaces. In some of the churches, 
+particularly that of the Annunciata, I found a profusion of 
+ornaments, which had more magnificence than taste. There is a 
+great number of pictures; but very few of them are capital 
+pieces. I had heard much of the ponte Carignano, which did not at 
+all answer my expectation. It is a bridge that unites two 
+eminences which form the
+higher part of the city, and the houses in the bottom below do 
+not rise so high as the springing of its arches. There is nothing 
+at all curious in its construction, nor any way remarkable, 
+except the heighth of the piers from which the arches are sprung. 
+Hard by the bridge there is an elegant church, from the top of 
+which you have a very rich and extensive prospect of the city, 
+the sea and the adjacent country, which looks like a continent of 
+groves and villas. The only remarkable circumstance about the 
+cathedral, which is Gothic and gloomy, is the chapel where the 
+pretended bones of John the Baptist are deposited, and in which 
+thirty silver lamps are continually burning. I had a curiosity to 
+see the palaces of Durazzo and Doria, but it required more 
+trouble to procure admission than I was willing to give myself: 
+as for the arsenal, and the rostrum of an ancient galley which 
+was found by accident in dragging the harbour, I postponed seeing 
+them till my return.
+
+Having here provided myself with letters of credit for Florence 
+and Rome, I hired the same boat which had brought us hither, to 
+carry us forward to Lerici, which is a small town about half way 
+between Genoa and Leghorn, where travellers, who are tired of the 
+sea, take post-chaises to continue their route by land to Pisa 
+and Florence. I payed three loui'dores for this voyage of about 
+fifty miles; though I might have had a feluca for less money. 
+When you land on the wharf at Genoa, you are plied by the feluca 
+men just as you are plied by the watermen at Hungerford-stairs in 
+London. They are always ready to set off at a minute's warning 
+for Lerici, Leghorn, Nice, Antibes, Marseilles, and every part of 
+the Riviera.
+
+The wind being still unfavourable, though the weather was 
+delightful, we rowed along shore, passing by several pretty 
+towns, villages, and a vast number of cassines, or little white 
+houses, scattered among woods of olive-trees, that cover the 
+hills; and these are the habitations of the velvet and damask 
+weavers. Turning Capo Fino we entered a bay, where stand the 
+towns of Porto Fino, Lavagna, and Sestri di Levante, at which 
+last we took up our night's lodging. The house was tolerable, and 
+we had no great reason to complain of the beds: but, the weather 
+being hot, there was a very offensive smell, which proceeded from 
+some skins of beasts new killed, that were spread to dry on an 
+outhouse in the yard. Our landlord was a butcher, and had very 
+much the looks of an assassin. His wife was a great masculine 
+virago, who had all the air of having frequented the slaughter-house. 
+Instead of being welcomed with looks of complaisance, we 
+were admitted with a sort of gloomy condescension, which seemed 
+to say, "We don't much like your company; but, however, you shall 
+have a night's lodging in favour of the patron of the gondola, 
+who is our acquaintance." In short, we had a very bad supper, 
+miserably dressed, passed a very disagreeable night, and payed a 
+very extravagant bill in the morning, without being thanked for 
+our custom. I was very glad to get out of the house with my 
+throat uncut.
+
+Sestri di Levante is a little town pleasantly situated on the 
+seaside; but has not the conveniency of a harbour. The fish taken 
+here is mostly carried to Genoa. This is likewise the market for 
+their oil, and the paste called macaroni, of which they make a 
+good quantity.
+
+Next day, we skirted a very barren coast, consisting of almost 
+perpendicular rocks, on the faces of which, however, we saw many 
+peasants' houses and hanging terraces for vines, made by dint of 
+incredible labour. In the afternoon, we entered by the Porti di 
+Venere into the bay, or gulf of Spetia or Spezza, which was the 
+Portus Lunae of the ancients. This bay, at the mouth of which 
+lies the island Palmaria, forms a most noble and secure harbour, 
+capacious enough to contain all the navies in Christendom. The 
+entrance on one side is defended by a small fort built above the 
+town of Porto Venere, which is a very poor place. Farther in 
+there is a battery of about twenty guns; and on the right hand, 
+opposite to Porto Venere, is a block-house, founded on a rock in 
+the sea. At the bottom of the bay is the town of Spetia on the 
+left, and on the right that of Lerici, defended by a castle of 
+very little strength or consequence. The whole bay is surrounded 
+with plantations of olives and oranges, and makes a very 
+delightful appearance. In case of a war, this would be an 
+admirable station for a British squadron, as it lies so near 
+Genoa and Leghorn; and has a double entrance, by means of which 
+the cruisers could sail in and out continually, which way soever 
+the wind might chance to sit. I am sure the fortifications would 
+give very little disturbance.
+
+At the post-house in Lerici, the accommodation is intolerable. We 
+were almost poisoned at supper. I found the place where I was to 
+lie so close and confined, that I could not breathe in it, and 
+therefore lay all night in an outward room upon four chairs, with 
+a leather portmanteau for my pillow. For this entertainment I 
+payed very near a loui'dore. Such bad accommodation is the less 
+excusable, as the fellow has a great deal of business, this being 
+a great thoroughfare for travellers going into Italy, or 
+returning from thence.
+
+I might have saved some money by prosecuting my voyage directly 
+by sea to Leghorn: but, by this time, we were all heartily tired 
+of the water, the business then was to travel by land to 
+Florence, by the way of Pisa, which is seven posts distant from 
+Lerici. Those who have not their own carriage must either hire 
+chaises to perform the whole journey, or travel by way of 
+cambiatura, which is that of changing the chaises every post, as 
+the custom is in England. In this case the great inconvenience 
+arises from your being obliged to shift your baggage every post. 
+The chaise or calesse of this country, is a wretched machine with 
+two wheels, as uneasy as a common cart, being indeed no other 
+than what we should call in England a very ill-contrived one-horse 
+chair, narrow, naked, shattered and shabby. For this 
+vehicle and two horses you pay at the rate of eight paoli a 
+stage, or four shillings sterling; and the postilion expects two 
+paoli for his gratification: so that every eight miles cost about 
+five shillings, and four only, if you travel in your own 
+carriage, as in that case you pay no more than at the rate of 
+three paoli a horse.
+
+About three miles from Lerici, we crossed the Magra, which 
+appeared as a rivulet almost dry, and in half a mile farther 
+arrived at Sarzana, a small town at the extremity of the Genoese 
+territories, where we changed horses. Then entering the 
+principalities of Massa and Carrara, belonging to the duke of 
+Modena, we passed Lavenza, which seems to be a decayed fort with 
+a small garrison, and dined at Massa, which is an agreeable 
+little town, where the old dutchess of Modena resides. 
+Notwithstanding all the expedition we could make, it was dark 
+before we passed the Cerchio, which is an inconsiderable stream 
+in the neighbourhood of Pisa, where we arrived about eight in the 
+evening.
+
+The country from Sarzana to the frontiers of Tuscany is a narrow 
+plain, bounded on the right by the sea, and on the left by the 
+Apennine mountains. It is well cultivated and inclosed, 
+consisting of meadow-ground, corn fields, plantations of olives; 
+and the trees that form the hedge-rows serve as so many props to 
+the vines, which are twisted round them, and continued from one 
+to another. After entering the dominions of Tuscany, we travelled 
+through a noble forest of oak-trees of a considerable extent, 
+which would have appeared much more agreeable, had we not been 
+benighted and apprehensive of robbers. The last post but one in 
+this days journey, is at the little town of Viareggio, a kind of 
+sea-port on the Mediterranean, belonging to Lucia. The roads are 
+indifferent, and the accommodation is execrable. I was glad to 
+find myself housed in a very good inn at Pisa, where I promised 
+myself a good night's rest, and was not disappointed. I heartily 
+wish you the same pleasure, and am very sincerely--Yours.
+
+LETTER XXVII
+
+NICE, January 28, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--Pisa is a fine old city that strikes you with the same 
+veneration you would feel at sight of an antient temple which 
+bears the marks of decay, without being absolutely dilapidated. 
+The houses are well built, the streets open, straight, and well 
+paved; the shops well furnished; and the markets well supplied: 
+there are some elegant palaces, designed by great masters. The 
+churches are built with taste, and tolerably ornamented. There is 
+a beautiful wharf of freestone on each side of the river Arno, 
+which runs through the city, and three bridges thrown over it, of 
+which that in the middle is of marble, a pretty piece of 
+architecture: but the number of inhabitants is very 
+inconsiderable; and this very circumstance gives it an air of 
+majestic solitude, which is far from being unpleasant to a man of 
+a contemplative turn of mind. For my part, I cannot bear the 
+tumult of a populous commercial city; and the solitude that 
+reigns in Pisa would with me be a strong motive to choose it as a 
+place of residence. Not that this would be the only inducement 
+for living at Pisa. Here is some good company, and even a few men 
+of taste and learning. The people in general are counted sociable 
+and polite; and there is great plenty of provisions, at a very 
+reasonable rate. At some distance from the more frequented parts 
+of the city, a man may hire a large house for thirty crowns a 
+year: but near the center, you cannot have good lodgings, ready 
+furnished, for less than a scudo (about five shillings) a day. 
+The air in summer is reckoned unwholesome by the exhalations 
+arising from stagnant water in the neighbourhood of the city, 
+which stands in the midst of a fertile plain, low and marshy: yet 
+these marshes have been considerably drained, and the air is much 
+meliorated. As for the Arno, it is no longer navigated by vessels 
+of any burthen. The university of Pisa is very much decayed; and 
+except the little business occasioned by the emperor's gallies, 
+which are built in this town, [This is a mistake. No gallies have 
+been built here for a great many years, and the dock is now 
+converted into stables for the Grand Duke's Horse Guards.] I know 
+of no commerce it carried on: perhaps the inhabitants live on the 
+produce of the country, which consists of corn, wine, and cattle. 
+They are supplied with excellent water for drinking, by an 
+aqueduct consisting of above five thousand arches, begun by 
+Cosmo, and finished by Ferdinand I. Grand-dukes of Tuscany; it 
+conveys the water from the mountains at the distance of five 
+miles. This noble city, formerly the capital of a flourishing and 
+powerful republic, which contained above one hundred and fifty 
+thousand inhabitants, within its walls, is now so desolate that 
+grass grows in the open streets; and the number of its people do 
+not exceed sixteen thousand.
+
+You need not doubt but I visited the Campanile, or hanging-tower, 
+which is a beautiful cylinder of eight stories, each adorned with 
+a round of columns, rising one above another. It stands by the 
+cathedral, and inclines so far on one side from the 
+perpendicular, that in dropping a plummet from the top, which is 
+one hundred and eighty-eight feet high, it falls sixteen feet 
+from the base. For my part, I should never have dreamed that this 
+inclination proceeded from any other cause, than an accidental 
+subsidence of the foundation on this side, if some connoisseurs 
+had not taken great pains to prove it was done on purpose by the 
+architect. Any person who has eyes may see that the pillars on 
+that side are considerably sunk; and this is the case with the 
+very threshold of the door by which you enter. I think it would 
+have been a very preposterous ambition in the architects, to show 
+how far they could deviate from the perpendicular in this 
+construction; because in that particular any common mason could 
+have rivalled them; [All the world knows that a Building with 
+such Inclination may be carried up till a line drawn from the 
+Centre of Gravity falls without the Circumference of the Base.] 
+and if they really intended it as a specimen of their art, they 
+should have shortened the pilasters on that side, so as to 
+exhibit them intire, without the appearance of sinking. These 
+leaning towers are not unfrequent in Italy; there is one at 
+Bologna, another at Venice, a third betwixt Venice and Ferrara, 
+and a fourth at Ravenna; and the inclination in all of them has 
+been supposed owing to the foundations giving way on one side 
+only.
+
+In the cathedral, which is a large Gothic pile, [This Edifice is 
+not absolutely Gothic. It was built in the Twelfth Century after 
+the Design of a Greek Architect from Constantinople, where by 
+that time the art was much degenerated. The Pillars of Granite 
+are mostly from the Islands of Ebba and Giglia on the coast of 
+Tuscany, where those quarries were worked by the antient Romans. 
+The Giullo, and the verde antico are very beautiful species of 
+marble, yellow and green; the first, antiently called marmor 
+numidicum, came from Africa; the other was found (according to 
+Strabo) on the mons Taygetus in Lacedemonia: but, at present, 
+neither the one nor the other is to be had except among the ruins 
+of antiquity.] there is a great number of massy pillars of 
+porphyry, granite, jasper, giullo, and verde antico, together 
+with some good pictures and statues: but the greatest curiosity 
+is that of the brass-gates, designed and executed by John of 
+Bologna, representing, embossed in different compartments, the 
+history of the Old and New Testament. I was so charmed with this 
+work, that I could have stood a whole day to examine and admire 
+it. In the Baptisterium, which stands opposite to this front, 
+there are some beautiful marbles, particularly the font, and a 
+pulpit, supported by the statues of different animals.
+
+Between the cathedral and this building, about one hundred paces 
+on one side, is the famous burying-ground, called Campo Santo, 
+from its being covered with earth brought from Jerusalem. It is 
+an oblong square, surrounded by a very high wall, and always kept 
+shut. Within-side there is a spacious corridore round the whole 
+space, which is a noble walk for a contemplative philosopher. It 
+is paved chiefly with flat grave-stones: the walls are painted in 
+fresco by Ghiotto, Giottino, Stefano, Bennoti, Bufalmaco, and 
+some others of his cotemporaries and disciples, who flourished 
+immediately after the restoration of painting. The subjects are 
+taken from the Bible. Though the manner is dry, the drawing 
+incorrect, the design generally lame, and the colouring 
+unnatural; yet there is merit in the expression: and the whole 
+remains as a curious monument of the efforts made by this noble 
+art immediately after her revival. [The History of Job by Giotto 
+is much admired.] Here are some deceptions in perspective equally 
+ingenious and pleasing; particularly the figures of certain 
+animals, which exhibit exactly the same appearance, from whatever 
+different points of view they are seen. One division of the 
+burying-ground consists of a particular compost, which in nine 
+days consumes the dead bodies to the bones: in all probability, 
+it is no other than common earth mixed with quick-lime. At one 
+corner of the corridore, there are the pictures of three bodies 
+represented in the three different stages of putrefaction which 
+they undergo when laid in this composition. At the end of the 
+three first days, the body is bloated and swelled, and the 
+features are enlarged and distorted to such a degree, as fills 
+the spectator with horror. At the sixth day, the swelling is 
+subsided, and all the muscular flesh hangs loosened from the 
+bones: at the ninth, nothing but the skeleton remains. There is a 
+small neat chapel at one end of the Campo Santo, with some tombs, 
+on one of which is a beautiful bust by Buona Roti. [Here is a 
+sumptuous cenotaph erected by Pope Gregory XIII. to the memory of 
+his brother Giovanni Buoncampagni. It is called the Monumentum 
+Gregorianum, of a violet-coloured marble from Scravezza in this 
+neighbourhood, adorned with a couple of columns of Touchstone, 
+and two beautiful spherical plates of Alabaster.] At the other 
+end of the corridore, there is a range of antient sepulchral 
+stones ornamented with basso-relievo brought hither from 
+different parts by the Pisan Fleets in the course of their 
+expeditions. I was struck with the figure of a woman lying dead 
+on a tomb-stone, covered with a piece of thin drapery, so 
+delicately cut as to shew all the flexures of the attitude, and 
+even all the swellings and sinuosities of the muscles. Instead of 
+stone, it looks like a sheet of wet linen. [One of these 
+antiquities representing the Hunting of Meleager was converted 
+into a coffin for the Countess Beatrice, mother of the famous 
+Countess Mathilda; it is now fixed to the outside of the church 
+wall just by one of the doors, and is a very elegant piece of 
+sculpture. Near the same place is a fine pillar of Porphyry 
+supporting the figure of a Lion, and a kind of urn which seems to 
+be a Sarcophagus, though an inscription round the Base declares 
+it is a Talentum in which the antient Pisans measured the Census 
+or Tax which they payed to Augustus: but in what metal or specie 
+this Census was payed we are left to divine. There are likewise 
+in the Campo Santo two antique Latin edicts of the Pisan Senate 
+injoining the citizens to go into mourning for the Death of Caius 
+and Lucius Caesar the Sons of Agrippa, and heirs declared of the 
+Emperor. Fronting this Cemetery, on the other side of the Piazza 
+of the Dome, is a large, elegant Hospital in which the sick are 
+conveniently and comfortably lodged, entertained, and attended.]
+
+For four zechines I hired a return-coach and four from Pisa to 
+Florence. This road, which lies along the Arno, is very good; and 
+the country is delightful, variegated with hill and vale, wood 
+and water, meadows and corn-fields, planted and inclosed like the 
+counties of Middlesex and Hampshire; with this difference, 
+however, that all the trees in this tract were covered with 
+vines, and the ripe clusters black and white, hung down from 
+every bough in a most luxuriant and romantic abundance. The vines 
+in this country are not planted in rows, and propped with sticks, 
+as in France and the county of Nice, but twine around the hedge-
+row trees, which they almost quite cover with their foliage and 
+fruit. The branches of the vine are extended from tree to tree, 
+exhibiting beautiful festoons of real leaves, tendrils, and 
+swelling clusters a foot long. By this oeconomy the ground of the 
+inclosure is spared for corn, grass, or any other production. The 
+trees commonly planted for the purpose of sustaining the vines, 
+are maple, elm, and aller, with which last the banks of the Arno 
+abound. [It would have been still more for the advantage of the 
+Country and the Prospect, if instead of these they had planted 
+fruit trees for the purpose.] This river, which is very 
+inconsiderable with respect to the quantity of water, would be a 
+charming pastoral stream, if it was transparent; but it is always 
+muddy and discoloured. About ten or a dozen miles below Florence, 
+there are some marble quarries on the side of it, from whence the 
+blocks are conveyed in boats, when there is water enough in the 
+river to float them, that is after heavy rains, or the melting of 
+the snow upon the mountains of Umbria, being part of the 
+Apennines, from whence it takes its rise.
+
+Florence is a noble city, that still retains all the marks of a 
+majestic capital, such as piazzas, palaces, fountains, bridges, 
+statues, and arcades. I need not te11 you that the churches here 
+are magnificent, and adorned not only with pillars of oriental 
+granite, porphyry, Jasper, verde antico, and other precious 
+stones; but also with capital pieces of painting by the most 
+eminent masters. Several of these churches, however, stand 
+without fronts, for want of money to complete the plans. It may 
+also appear superfluous to mention my having viewed the famous 
+gallery of antiquities, the chapel of St. Lorenzo, the palace of 
+Pitti, the cathedral, the baptisterium, Ponte de Trinita, with 
+its statues, the triumphal arch, and every thing which is 
+commonly visited in this metropolis. But all these objects having 
+been circumstantially described by twenty different authors of 
+travels, I shall not trouble you with a repetition of trite 
+observations.
+
+That part of the city which stands on each side of the river, 
+makes a very elegant appearance, to which the four bridges and 
+the stone-quay between them, contribute in a great measure. I 
+lodged at the widow Vanini's, an English house delightfully 
+situated in this quarter. The landlady, who is herself a native 
+of England, we found very obliging. The lodging-rooms are 
+comfortable; and the entertainment is good and reasonable. There 
+is a considerable number of fashionable people at Florence, and 
+many of them in good circumstances. They affect a gaiety in their 
+dress, equipage, and conversation; but stand very much on their 
+punctilio with strangers; and will not, without great reluctance, 
+admit into their assemblies any lady of another country, whose 
+noblesse is not ascertained by a title. This reserve is in some 
+measure excusable among a people who are extremely ignorant of 
+foreign customs, and who know that in their own country, every 
+person, even the most insignificant, who has any pretensions to 
+family, either inherits, or assumes the title of principe, conte, 
+or marchese.
+
+With all their pride, however, the nobles of Florence are humble 
+enough to enter into partnership with shop-keepers, and even to 
+sell wine by retail. It is an undoubted fact, that in every 
+palace or great house in this city, there is a little window 
+fronting the street, provided with an iron-knocker, and over it 
+hangs an empty flask, by way of sign-post. Thither you send your 
+servant to buy a bottle of wine. He knocks at the little wicket, 
+which is opened immediately by a domestic, who supplies him with 
+what he wants, and receives the money like the waiter of any 
+other cabaret. It is pretty extraordinary, that it should not be 
+deemed a disparagement in a nobleman to sell half a pound of 
+figs, or a palm of ribbon or tape, or to take money for a flask 
+of sour wine; and yet be counted infamous to match his daughter 
+in the family of a person who has distinguished himself in any 
+one of the learned professions.
+
+Though Florence be tolerably populous, there seems to be very 
+little trade of any kind in it: but the inhabitants flatter 
+themselves with the prospect of reaping great advantage from the 
+residence of one of the arch-dukes, for whose reception they are 
+now repairing the palace of Pitti. I know not what the revenues 
+of Tuscany may amount to, since the succession of the princes of
+Lorraine; but, under the last dukes of the Medici family, they 
+were said to produce two millions of crowns, equal to five 
+hundred thousand pounds sterling. These arose from a very heavy 
+tax upon land and houses, the portions of maidens, and suits at 
+law, besides the duties upon traffick, a severe gabelle upon the 
+necessaries of life, and a toll upon every eatable entered into 
+this capital. If we may believe Leti, the grand duke was then 
+able to raise and maintain an army of forty thousand infantry, 
+and three thousand horse; with twelve gallies, two galeasses, and 
+twenty ships of war. I question if Tuscany can maintain at 
+present above one half of such an armament. He that now commands 
+the emperor's navy, consisting of a few frigates, is an 
+Englishman, called Acton, who was heretofore captain of a ship in 
+our East India company's service. He has lately embraced the 
+catholic religion, and been created admiral of Tuscany.
+
+There is a tolerable opera in Florence for the entertainment of 
+the best company, though they do not seem very attentive to the 
+musick. Italy is certainly the native country of this art; and 
+yet, I do not find the people in general either more musically 
+inclined, or better provided with ears than their neighbours. 
+Here is also a wretched troop of comedians for the burgeois, and 
+lower class of people: but what seems most to suit the taste of 
+all ranks, is the exhibition of church pageantry. I had occasion 
+to see a procession, where all the noblesse of the city attended 
+in their coaches, which filled the whole length of the great 
+street called the Corso. It was the anniversary of a charitable 
+institution in favour of poor maidens, a certain number of whom 
+are portioned every year. About two hundred of these virgins 
+walked in procession, two and two together, cloathed in violet-coloured 
+wide gowns, with white veils on their heads, and made a 
+very classical appearance. They were preceded and followed by an 
+irregular mob of penitents in sack-cloth, with lighted tapers, 
+and monks carrying crucifixes, bawling and bellowing the 
+litanies: but the great object was a figure of the Virgin Mary, 
+as big as the life, standing within a gilt frame, dressed in a 
+gold stuff, with a large hoop, a great quantity of false jewels, 
+her face painted and patched, and her hair frizzled and curled in 
+the very extremity of the fashion. Very little regard had
+been paid to the image of our Saviour on the cross; but when his 
+lady-mother appeared on the shoulders of three or four lusty 
+friars, the whole populace fell upon their knees in the dirt. 
+This extraordinary veneration paid to the Virgin, must have been 
+derived originally from the French, who pique themselves on their 
+gallantry to the fair sex.
+
+Amidst all the scenery of the Roman catholic religion, I have 
+never yet seen any of the spectators affected at heart, or 
+discover the least signs of fanaticism. The very disciplinants, 
+who scourge themselves in the Holy-week, are generally peasants 
+or parties hired for the purpose. Those of the confrairies, who 
+have an ambition to distinguish themselves on such occasions, 
+take care to secure their backs from the smart, by means of 
+secret armour, either women's boddice, or quilted jackets. The 
+confrairies are fraternities of devotees, who inlist themselves 
+under the banners of particular saints. On days of procession 
+they appear in a body dressed as penitents and masked, and 
+distinguished by crosses on their habits. There is scarce an 
+individual, whether noble or plebeian, who does not belong to one 
+of these associations, which may be compared to the FreeMasons, 
+Gregoreans, and Antigallicans of England.
+
+Just without one of the gates of Florence, there is a triumphal 
+arch erected on occasion of the late emperor's making his public 
+entry, when he succeeded to the dukedom of Tuscany: and herein 
+the summer evenings, the quality resort to take the air in their 
+coaches. Every carriage stops, and forms a little separate 
+conversazione. The ladies sit within, and the cicisbei stand on 
+the foot-boards, on each side of the coach, entertaining them 
+with their discourse. It would be no unpleasant inquiry to trace 
+this sort of gallantry to its original, and investigate all its 
+progress. The Italians, having been accused of jealousy, were 
+resolved to wipe off the reproach, and, seeking to avoid it for 
+the future, have run into the other extreme. I know it is 
+generally supposed that the custom of choosing cicisbei, was 
+calculated to prevent the extinction of families, which would 
+otherwise often happen in consequence of marriages founded upon 
+interest, without any mutual affection in the contracting 
+parties. How far this political consideration may have weighed 
+against the jealous and vindictive temper of the Italians, I will 
+not pretend to judge: but, certain it is, every married lady in 
+this country has her cicisbeo, or servente, who attends her every 
+where, and on all occasions; and upon whose privileges the 
+husband dares not encroach, without incurring the censure and 
+ridicule of the whole community. For my part, I would rather be 
+condemned for life to the gallies, than exercise the office of a 
+cicisbeo, exposed to the intolerable caprices and dangerous 
+resentment of an Italian virago. I pretend not to judge of the 
+national character, from my own observation: but, if the 
+portraits drawn by Goldoni in his Comedies are taken from nature, 
+I would not hesitate to pronounce the Italian women the most 
+haughty, insolent, capricious, and revengeful females on the face 
+of the earth. Indeed their resentments are so cruelly implacable, 
+and contain such a mixture of perfidy, that, in my opinion, they 
+are very unfit subjects for comedy, whose province it is, rather 
+to ridicule folly than to stigmatize such atrocious vice.
+
+You have often heard it said, that the purity of the Italian is 
+to be found in the lingua Toscana, and bocca Romana. Certain it 
+is, the pronunciation of the Tuscans is disagreeably guttural: 
+the letters C and G they pronounce with an aspiration, which 
+hurts the ear of an Englishman; and is I think rather rougher 
+than that of the X, in Spanish. It sounds as if the speaker had 
+lost his palate. I really imagined the first man I heard speak in 
+Pisa, had met with that misfortune in the course of his amours.
+
+One of the greatest curiosities you meet with in Italy, is the 
+Improvisatore; such is the name given to certain individuals, who 
+have the surprising talent of reciting verses extempore, on any 
+subject you propose. Mr. Corvesi, my landlord, has a son, a 
+Franciscan friar, who is a great genius in this way.
+
+When the subject is given, his brother tunes his violin to 
+accompany him, and he begins to rehearse in recitative, with 
+wonderful fluency and precision. Thus he will, at a minute's 
+warning, recite two or three hundred verses, well turned, and 
+well adapted, and generally mingled with an elegant compliment to 
+the company. The Italians are so fond of poetry, that many of 
+them, have the best part of Ariosto, Tasso, and Petrarch, by 
+heart; and these are the great sources from which the 
+Improvisatori draw their rhimes, cadence, and turns of 
+expression. But, lest you should think there is neither rhime nor 
+reason in protracting this tedious epistle, I shall conclude it 
+with the old burden of my song, that I am always--Your 
+affectionate humble servant.
+
+LETTER XXVIII
+
+NICE, February 5, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--Your entertaining letter of the fifth of last month, 
+was a very charitable and a very agreeable donation: but your 
+suspicion is groundless. I assure you, upon my honour, I have no 
+share whatever in any of the disputes which agitate the public: 
+nor do I know any thing of your political transactions, except 
+what I casually see in one of your newspapers, with the perusal 
+of which I am sometimes favoured by our consul at Villefranche. 
+You insist upon my being more particular in my remarks on what I 
+saw at Florence, and I shall obey the injunction. The famous 
+gallery which contains the antiquities, is the third story of a 
+noble stone-edifice, built in the form of the Greek Pi, the upper 
+part fronting the river Arno, and one of the legs adjoining to 
+the ducal-palace, where the courts of justice are held. As the 
+house of Medici had for some centuries resided in the palace of 
+Pitti, situated on the other side of the river, a full mile from 
+these tribunals, the architect Vasari, who planned the new 
+edifice, at the same time contrived a corridore, or covered 
+passage, extending from the palace of Pitti along one of the 
+bridges, to the gallery of curiosities, through which the grand-
+duke passed unseen, when he was disposed either to amuse himself 
+with his antiquities, or to assist at his courts of judicature: 
+but there is nothing very extraordinary either in the contrivance 
+or execution of this corridore.
+
+If I resided in Florence I would give something extraordinary for 
+permission to walk every day in the gallery, which I should much 
+prefer to the Lycaeum, the groves of Academus, or any porch or 
+philosophical alley in Athens or in Rome. Here by viewing the 
+statues and busts ranged on each side, I should become acquainted 
+with the faces of all the remarkable personages, male and female, 
+of antiquity, and even be able to trace their different 
+characters from the expression of their features. This collection 
+is a most excellent commentary upon the Roman historians, 
+particularly Suetonius and Dion Cassius. There was one 
+circumstance that struck me in viewing the busts of Caracalla, 
+both here and in the Capitol at Rome; there was a certain 
+ferocity in the eyes, which seemed to contradict the sweetness of 
+the other features, and remarkably justified the epithet 
+Caracuyl, by which he was distinguished by the antient 
+inhabitants of North-Britain. In the language of the Highlanders 
+caracuyl signifies cruel eye, as we are given to understand by 
+the ingenious editor of Fingal, who seems to think that Caracalla 
+is no other than the Celtic word, adapted to the pronunciation of 
+the Romans: but the truth is, Caracalla was the name of a Gaulish 
+vestment, which this prince affected to wear; and hence he 
+derived that surname. The Caracuyl of the Britons, is the same as 
+the upodra idon of the Greeks, which Homer has so often applied 
+to his Scolding Heroes. I like the Bacchanalian, chiefly for the 
+fine drapery. The wind, occasioned by her motion, seems to have 
+swelled and raised it from the parts of the body which it covers. 
+There is another gay Bacchanalian, in the attitude of dancing, 
+crowned with ivy, holding in her right hand a bunch of grapes, 
+and in her left the thyrsus. The head of the celebrated Flora is 
+very beautiful: the groupe of Cupid and Psyche, however, did not 
+give me all the pleasure I expected from it.
+
+Of all the marbles that appear in the open gallery, the following 
+are those I most admire. Leda with the Swan; as for Jupiter, in 
+this transformation, he has much the appearance of a goose. I 
+have not seen any thing tamer; but the sculptor has admirably 
+shewn his art in representing Leda's hand partly hid among the 
+feathers, which are so lightly touched off, that the very shape 
+of the fingers are seen underneath. The statue of a youth, 
+supposed to be Ganymede, is compared by the connoisseurs to the 
+celebrated Venus, and as far as I can judge, not without reason: 
+it is however, rather agreeable than striking, and will please a 
+connoisseur much more than a common spectator. I know not whether 
+it is my regard to the faculty that inhances the value of the 
+noted Esculapius, who appears with a venerable beard of delicate 
+workmanship. He is larger than the life, cloathed in a 
+magnificent pallium, his left arm resting on a knotted staff, 
+round which the snake is twined according to Ovid.
+
+Hunc modo serpentem baculum qui nexibus ambit 
+Perspice--
+
+Behold the snake his mystic Rod intwine.
+
+He has in his hand the fascia herbarum, and the crepidae on his 
+feet. There is a wild-boar represented lying on one side, which I 
+admire as a master-piece. The savageness of his appearance is 
+finely contrasted with the case and indolence of the attitude. 
+Were I to meet with a living boar lying with the same expression, 
+I should be tempted to stroke his bristles. Here is an elegant 
+bust of Antinous, the favourite of Adrian; and a beautiful head 
+of Alexander the Great, turned on one side, with an expression of 
+languishment and anxiety in his countenance. The virtuosi are not 
+agreed about the circumstance in which he is represented; whether 
+fainting with the loss of blood which he suffered in his 
+adventure at Oxydrace; or languishing with the fever contracted 
+by bathing in the Cydnus; or finally complaining to his father 
+Jove, that there were no other worlds for him to conquer. The 
+kneeling Narcissus is a striking figure, and the expression 
+admirable. The two Bacchi are perfectly well executed; but (to my 
+shame be it spoken) I prefer to the antique that which is the 
+work of Michael Angelo Buonaroti, concerning which the story is 
+told which you well know. The artist having been blamed by some 
+pretended connoisseurs, for not imitating the manner of the 
+ancients, is said to have privately finished this Bacchus, and 
+buried it, after having broke off an arm, which he kept as a 
+voucher. The statue, being dug up by accident, was allowed by the 
+best judges, to be a perfect antique; upon which Buonaroti 
+produced the arm, and claimed his own work. Bianchi looks upon 
+this as a fable; but owns that Vasari tells such another of a 
+child cut in marble by the same artist, which being carried to 
+Rome, and kept for some time under ground, was dug up as an 
+antique, and sold for a great deal of money. I was likewise 
+attracted by the Morpheus in touchstone, which is described by 
+Addison, who, by the bye, notwithstanding all his taste, has been 
+convicted by Bianchi of several gross blunders in his account of 
+this gallery.
+
+With respect to the famous Venus Pontia, commonly called de 
+Medicis, which was found at Tivoli, and is kept in a separate 
+apartment called the Tribuna, I believe I ought to be intirely 
+silent, or at least conceal my real sentiments, which will 
+otherwise appear equally absurd and presumptuous. It must be want 
+of taste that prevents my feeling that enthusiastic admiration 
+with which others are inspired at sight of this statue: a statue 
+which in reputation equals that of Cupid by Praxiteles, which 
+brought such a concourse of strangers of old to the little town 
+of Thespiae. I cannot help thinking that there is no beauty in 
+the features of Venus; and that the attitude is aukward and out 
+of character. It is a bad plea to urge that the antients and we 
+differ in the ideas of beauty. We know the contrary, from their 
+medals, busts, and historians. Without all doubt, the limbs and 
+proportions of this statue are elegantly formed, and accurately 
+designed, according to the nicest rules of symmetry and 
+proportion; and the back parts especially are executed so 
+happily, as to excite the admiration of the most indifferent 
+spectator. One cannot help thinking it is the very Venus of 
+Cnidos by Praxiteles, which Lucian describes. "Hercle quanta 
+dorsi concinnitas! ut exuberantes lumbi amplexantes manus 
+implent! quam scite circumductae clunium pulpae in se 
+rotundantur, neque tenues nimis ipsis ossibus adstrictae, neque 
+in immensam effusae Pinguedinem!" That the statue thus described 
+was not the Venus de Medicis, would appear from the Greek 
+inscription on the base, KLEOMENIS APPOLLODOROI ATHINAIOS 
+EPOESEI. Cleomenes filius Apollodori fecit; did we not know that 
+this inscription is counted spurious, and that instead of 
+EPOESEI, it should be EPOIESE. This, however, is but a frivolous 
+objection, as we have seen many inscriptions undoubtedly antique, 
+in which the orthography is false, either from the ignorance or 
+carelessness of the sculptor. Others suppose, not without reason, 
+that this statue is a representation of the famous Phryne, the 
+courtesan of Athens, who at the celebration of the Eleusinian 
+games, exhibited herself coming out of the bath, naked, to the 
+eyes of the whole Athenian people. I was much pleased with the 
+dancing faun; and still better with the Lotti, or wrestlers, the 
+attitudes of which are beautifully contrived to shew the 
+different turns of the limbs, and the swelling of the muscles: 
+but, what pleased me best of all the statues in the Tribuna was 
+the Arrotino, commonly called the Whetter, and generally supposed 
+to represent a slave, who in the act of whetting a knife, 
+overhears the conspiracy of Catiline. You know he is represented 
+on one knee; and certain it is, I never saw such an expression of 
+anxious attention, as appears in his countenance.  But it is not 
+mingled with any marks of surprise, such as could not fail to lay 
+hold on a man who overhears by accident a conspiracy against the 
+state. The marquis de Maffei has justly observed that Sallust, in 
+his very circumstantial detail of that conspiracy, makes no 
+mention of any such discovery. Neither does it appear that the 
+figure is in the act of whetting, the stone which he holds in one 
+hand being rough and unequal no ways resembling a whetstone. 
+Others alledge it represents Milico, the freedman of Scaevinus, 
+who conspired against the life of Nero, and gave his poignard to 
+be whetted to Milico, who presented it to the emperor, with an 
+account of the conspiracy: but the attitude and expression will 
+by no means admit of this interpretation. Bianchi, [This 
+antiquarian is now imprisoned for Life, for having robbed the 
+Gallery and then set it on fire.] who shows the gallery, thinks 
+the statue represents the augur Attius Navius, who cut a stone 
+with a knife, at the command of Tarquinius Priscus. This 
+conjecture seems to be confirmed by a medallion of Antoninus 
+Pius, inserted by Vaillant among his Numismata Prestantiora, on 
+which is delineated nearly such a figure as this in question, 
+with the following legend. "Attius Navius genuflexus ante 
+Tarquinium Priscum cotem cultro discidit." He owns indeed that in 
+the statue, the augur is not distinguished either by his habit or 
+emblems; and he might have added, neither is the stone a cotes. 
+For my own part, I think neither of these three opinions is 
+satisfactory, though the last is very ingenious. Perhaps the 
+figure allude to a private incident, which never was recorded in 
+any history. Among the great number of pictures in this Tribuna, 
+I was most charmed with the Venus by Titian, which has a 
+sweetness of expression and tenderness of colouring, not to be 
+described. In this apartment, they reckon three hundred pieces, 
+the greatest part by the best masters, particularly by Raphael, 
+in the three manners by which he distinguished himself at 
+different periods of his life. As for the celebrated statue of 
+the hermaphrodite, which we find in another room, I give the 
+sculptor credit for his ingenuity in mingling the sexes in the 
+composition; but it is, at best, no other than a monster in 
+nature, which I never had any pleasure in viewing: nor, indeed, 
+do I think there was much talent required in representing a 
+figure with the head and breasts of a woman, and all the other 
+parts of the body masculine. There is such a profusion of 
+curiosities in this celebrated musaeum; statues, busts, pictures, 
+medals, tables inlaid in the way of marquetry, cabinets adorned 
+with precious stones, jewels of all sorts, mathematical 
+instruments, antient arms and military machines, that the 
+imagination is bewildered, and a stranger of a visionary turn, 
+would be apt to fancy himself in a palace of the fairies, raised 
+and adorned by the power of inchantment.
+
+In one of the detached apartments, I saw the antependium of the 
+altar, designed for the famous chapel of St. Lorenzo. It is a 
+curious piece of architecture, inlaid with coloured marble and 
+precious stones, so as to represent an infinite variety of 
+natural objects. It is adorned with some crystal pillars, with 
+capitals of beaten gold. The second story of the building is 
+occupied by a great number of artists employed in this very 
+curious work of marquetry, representing figures with gems and 
+different kinds of coloured marble, for the use of the emperor. 
+The Italians call it pietre commesse, a sort of inlaying with 
+stones, analogous to the fineering of cabinets in wood. It is 
+peculiar to Florence, and seems to be still more curious than the 
+Mosaic work, which the Romans have brought to great perfection.
+
+The cathedral of Florence is a great Gothic building, encrusted 
+on the outside with marble; it is remarkable for nothing but its 
+cupola, which is said to have been copied by the architect of St. 
+Peter's at Rome, and for its size, which is much greater than 
+that of any other church in Christendom.  [In this cathedral is 
+the Tomb of Johannes Acutus Anglus, which a man would naturally 
+interpret as John Sharp; but his name was really Hawkwood, which 
+the Italians have corrupted into Acut. He was a celebrated 
+General or Condottiere who arrived in Italy at the head of four 
+thousand soldiers of fortune, mostly Englishmen who had served 
+with him in the army of King Edward III., and were dismissed at 
+the Peace of Bontigny. Hawkwood greatly distinguished himself in 
+Italy by his valour and conduct, and died a very old man in the 
+Florentine service. He was the son of a Tanner in Essex, and had 
+been put apprentice to a Taylor.] The baptistery, which stands by 
+it, was an antient temple, said to be dedicated to Mars. There 
+are some good statues of marble within; and one or two of bronze 
+on the outside of the doors; but it is chiefly celebrated for the 
+embossed work of its brass gates, by Lorenzo Ghiberti, which 
+Buonaroti used to say, deserved to be made the gates of Paradise. 
+I viewed them with pleasure: but still I retained a greater 
+veneration for those of Pisa, which I had first admired: a 
+preference which either arises from want of taste, or from the 
+charm of novelty, by which the former were recommended to my 
+attention. Those who would have a particular detail of every 
+thing worth seeing at Florence, comprehending churches, 
+libraries, palaces, tombs, statues, pictures, fountains, bridge,
+etc. may consult Keysler, who is so laboriously circumstantial in 
+his descriptions, that I never could peruse them, without 
+suffering the headache, and recollecting the old observation, 
+that the German genius lies more in the back than in the brain.
+
+I was much disappointed in the chapel of St. Lorenzo. 
+Notwithstanding the great profusion of granite, porphyry, jasper, 
+verde antico, lapis-lazuli, and other precious stones, 
+representing figures in the way of marquetry, I think the whole 
+has a gloomy effect. These pietre commesse are better calculated 
+for cabinets, than for ornaments to great buildings, which ought 
+to be large masses proportioned to the greatness of the edifice. 
+The compartments are so small, that they produce no effect in 
+giving the first impression when one enters the place; except to 
+give an air of littleness to the whole, just as if a grand saloon 
+was covered with pictures painted in miniature. If they have as 
+little regard to proportion and perspective, when they paint the 
+dome, which is not yet finished, this chapel will, in my opinion, 
+remain a monument of ill taste and extravagance.
+
+The court of the palace of Pitti is formed by three sides of an 
+elegant square, with arcades all round, like the palace of 
+Holyrood house at Edinburgh; and the rustic work, which 
+constitutes the lower part of the building, gives it an air of 
+strength and magnificence. In this court, there is a fine 
+fountain, in which the water trickles down from above; and here 
+is also an admirable antique statue of Hercules, inscribed 
+LUSIPPOI ERGON, the work of Lysippus.
+
+The apartments of this palace are generally small, and many of 
+them dark. Among the paintings the most remarkable is the Madonna 
+de la Seggiola, by Raphael, counted one of the best coloured 
+pieces of that great master. If I was allowed to find fault with 
+the performance, I should pronounce it defective in dignity and 
+sentiment. It is the expression of a peasant rather than of the 
+mother of God. She exhibits the fondness and joy of a young woman 
+towards her firstborn son, without that rapture of admiration 
+which we expect to find in the Virgin Mary, while she 
+contemplates, in the fruit of her own womb, the Saviour of 
+mankind. In other respects, it is a fine figure, gay, agreeable, 
+and very expressive of maternal tenderness; and the bambino is 
+extremely beautiful. There was an English painter employed in 
+copying this picture, and what he had done was executed with 
+great success. I am one of those who think it very possible to 
+imitate the best pieces in such a manner, that even the 
+connoisseurs shall not be able to distinguish the original from 
+the copy. After all, I do not set up for a judge in these 
+matters, and very likely I may incur the ridicule of the 
+virtuosi for the remarks I have made: but I am used to speak my 
+mind freely on all subjects that fall under the cognizance of my 
+senses; though I must as freely own, there is something more than 
+common sense required to discover and distinguish the more 
+delicate beauties of painting. I can safely say, however, that 
+without any daubing at all, I am, very sincerely--Your 
+affectionate humble servant.
+
+LETTER XXIX
+
+NICE, February 20, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--Having seen all the curiosities of Florence, and hired 
+a good travelling coach for seven weeks, at the price of seven 
+zequines, something less than three guineas and a half, we set 
+out post for Rome, by the way of Sienna, where we lay the first 
+night. The country through which we passed is mountainous but 
+agreeable. Of Sienna I can say nothing from my own observation, 
+but that we were indifferently lodged in a house that stunk like 
+a privy, and fared wretchedly at supper. The city is large and 
+well built: the inhabitants pique themselves upon their 
+politeness, and the purity of their dialect. Certain it is, some 
+strangers reside in this place on purpose to learn the best 
+pronunciation of the Italian tongue. The Mosaic pavement of their 
+duomo, or cathedral, has been much admired; as well as the 
+history of Aeneas Sylvius, afterwards pope Pius II., painted on 
+the walls of the library, partly by Pietro Perugino, and partly 
+by his pupil Raphael D'Urbino.
+
+Next day, at Buon Convento, where the emperor Henry VII. was 
+poisoned by a friar with the sacramental wafer, I refused to give 
+money to the hostler, who in revenge put two young unbroke stone-horses 
+in the traces next to the coach, which became so unruly, 
+that before we had gone a quarter of a mile, they and the 
+postilion were rolling in the dust. In this situation they made 
+such efforts to disengage themselves, and kicked with such 
+violence, that I imagined the carriage and all our trunks would 
+have been beaten in pieces. We leaped out of the coach, however, 
+without sustaining any personal damage, except the fright; nor 
+was any hurt done to the vehicle. But the horses were terribly 
+bruised, and almost strangled, before they could be disengaged. 
+Exasperated at the villany of the hostler, I resolved to make a 
+complaint to the uffiziale or magistrate of the place. I found 
+him wrapped in an old, greasy, ragged, great-coat, sitting in a 
+wretched apartment, without either glass, paper, or boards in the 
+windows; and there was no sort of furniture but a couple of 
+broken chairs and a miserable truckle-bed. He looked pale, and 
+meagre, and had more the air of a half-starved prisoner than of a 
+magistrate. Having heard my complaint, he came forth into a kind 
+of outward room or bellfrey, and rung a great bell with his own 
+hand. In consequence of this signal, the postmaster came up 
+stairs, and I suppose he was the first man in the place, for the 
+uffiziale stood before him cap-in-hand, and with great marks of 
+humble respect repeated the complaint I had made. This man 
+assured me, with an air of conscious importance, that he himself 
+had ordered the hostler to supply me with those very horses, 
+which were the best in his stable; and that the misfortune which 
+happened was owing to the misconduct of the fore-postilion, who 
+did not keep the fore-horses to a proper speed proportioned to 
+the mettle of the other two. As he took the affair upon himself, 
+and I perceived had an ascendancy over the magistrate, I 
+contented myself with saying, I was certain the two horses had 
+been put to the coach on purpose, either to hurt or frighten us; 
+and that since I could not have justice here I would make a 
+formal complaint to the British minister at Florence. In passing 
+through the street to the coach, which was by this time furnished 
+with fresh horses, I met the hostler, and would have caned him 
+heartily; but perceiving my intention, he took to his heels and 
+vanished. Of all the people I have ever seen, the hostlers, 
+postilions, and other fellows hanging about the post-houses in 
+Italy, are the most greedy, impertinent, and provoking. Happy are 
+those travellers who have phlegm enough to disregard their 
+insolence and importunity: for this is not so disagreeable as 
+their revenge is dangerous. An English gentleman at Florence told 
+me, that one of those fellows, whom he had struck for his 
+impertinence, flew at him with a long knife, and he could hardly 
+keep him at sword's point. All of them wear such knives, and are 
+very apt to use them on the slightest provocation. But their open 
+attacks are not so formidable as their premeditated schemes of 
+revenge; in the prosecution of which the Italians are equally 
+treacherous and cruel.
+
+This night we passed at a place called Radicofani, a village and 
+fort, situated on the top of a very high mountain. The inn stands 
+still lower than the town. It was built at the expence of the 
+last grand-duke of Tuscany; is very large, very cold, and 
+uncomfortable. One would imagine it was contrived for coolness, 
+though situated so high, that even in the midst of summer, a 
+traveller would be glad to have a fire in his chamber. But few, 
+or none of them have fireplaces, and there is not a bed with 
+curtains or tester in the house. All the adjacent country is 
+naked and barren. On the third day we entered the pope's 
+territories, some parts of which are delightful. Having passed 
+Aqua-Pendente, a beggarly town, situated on the top of a rock, 
+from whence there is a romantic cascade of water, which gives it 
+the name, we travelled along the side of the lake Bolsena, a 
+beautiful piece of water about thirty miles in circuit, with two 
+islands in the middle, the banks covered with noble plantations 
+of oak and cypress. The town of Bolsena standing near the ruins 
+of the antient Volsinium, which was the birth-place of Sejanus, 
+is a paultry village; and Montefiascone, famous for its wine, is 
+a poor, decayed town in this neighbourhood, situated on the side 
+of a hill, which, according to the author of the Grand Tour, the 
+only directory I had along with me, is supposed to be the Soracte 
+of the ancients. If we may believe Horace, Soracte was visible 
+from Rome: for, in his ninth ode, addressed to Thaliarchus, he 
+says,
+
+Vides, ut alta stet nive candidum
+Soracte--
+
+You see how deeply wreathed with snow
+Soracte lifts his hoary head,
+
+but, in order to see Montefiascone, his eyesight must have 
+penetrated through the Mons Cyminus, at the foot of which now 
+stands the city of Viterbo. Pliny tells us, that Soracte was not 
+far from Rome, haud procul ab urbe Roma; but Montefiascone is 
+fifty miles from this city. And Desprez, in his notes upon 
+Horace, says it is now called Monte S. Oreste. Addison tells us 
+he passed by it in the Campania. I could not without indignation 
+reflect upon the bigotry of Mathilda, who gave this fine country 
+to the see of Rome, under the dominion of which no country was 
+ever known to prosper.
+
+About half way between Montefiascone and Viterbo, one of our 
+fore-wheels flew off, together with a large splinter of the axle-tree; 
+and if one of the postilions had not by great accident been 
+a remarkably ingenious fellow, we should have been put to the 
+greatest inconvenience, as there was no town, or even house, 
+within several miles. I mention this circumstance, by way of 
+warning to other travellers, that they may provide themselves 
+with a hammer and nails, a spare iron-pin or two, a large knife, 
+and bladder of grease, to be used occasionally in case of such 
+misfortune.
+
+The mountain of Viterbo is covered with beautiful plantations and 
+villas belonging to the Roman nobility, who come hither to make 
+the villegiatura in summer. Of the city of Viterbo I shall say 
+nothing, but that it is the capital of that country which 
+Mathilda gave to the Roman see. The place is well built, adorned 
+with public fountains, and a great number of churches and 
+convents; yet far from being populous, the whole number of 
+inhabitants, not exceeding fifteen thousand. The post-house is 
+one of the worst inns I ever entered.
+
+After having passed this mountain, the Cyminus of the antients, 
+we skirted part of the lake, which is now called de Vico, and 
+whose banks afford the most agreeable rural prospects of hill and 
+vale, wood, glade and water, shade and sun-shine. A few other 
+very inconsiderable places we passed, and descended into the 
+Campania of Rome, which is almost a desert. The view of this 
+country in its present situation, cannot but produce emotions of 
+pity and indignation in the mind of every person who retains any 
+idea of its antient cultivation and fertility. It is nothing but 
+a naked withered down, desolate and dreary, almost without 
+inclosure, corn-field, hedge, tree, shrub, house, hut, or 
+habitation; exhibiting here and there the ruins of an antient 
+castellum, tomb, or temple, and in some places the remains of a 
+Roman via. I had heard much of these antient pavements, and was 
+greatly disappointed when I saw them. The Via Cassia or Cymina is 
+paved with broad, solid, flint-stones, which must have greatly 
+incommoded the feet of horses that travelled upon it as well as 
+endangered the lives of the riders from the slipperiness of the 
+pavement: besides, it is so narrow that two modern carriages 
+could not pass one another upon it, without the most imminent 
+hazard of being overturned. I am still of opinion that we excel 
+the ancient Romans in understanding the conveniences of life.
+
+The Grand Tour says, that within four miles of Rome you see a 
+tomb on the roadside, said to be that of Nero, with sculpture in 
+basso-relievo at both ends. I did see such a thing more like a 
+common grave-stone, than the tomb of an emperor. But we are 
+informed by Suetonius, that the dead body of Nero, who slew 
+himself at the villa of his freedman, was by the care of his two 
+nurses and his concubine Atta, removed to the sepulchre of the 
+Gens Domitia, immediately within the Porta del Popolo, on your 
+left hand as you enter Rome, precisely on the spot where now 
+stands the church of S. Maria del Popolo. His tomb was even 
+distinguished by an epitaph, which has been preserved by 
+Gruterus. Giacomo Alberici tells us very gravely in his History 
+of the Church, that a great number of devils, who guarded the 
+bones of this wicked emperor, took possession, in the shape of 
+black ravens, of a walnut-tree, which grew upon the spot; 
+from whence they insulted every passenger, until pope Paschal II., 
+in consequence of a solemn fast and a revelation, went thither
+in procession with his court and cardinals, cut down the tree, 
+and burned it to ashes, which, with the bones of Nero, were 
+thrown into the Tyber: then he consecrated an altar on the 
+place, where afterwards the church was built. You may guess 
+what I felt at first sight of the city of Rome, which, 
+notwithstanding all the calamities it has undergone, still 
+maintains an august and imperial appearance. It stands on 
+the farther side of the Tyber, which we crossed at the Ponte 
+Molle, formerly called Pons Milvius, about two miles from the 
+gate by which we entered. This bridge was built by Aemilius 
+Censor, whose name it originally bore. It was the road by which 
+so many heroes returned with conquest to their country; by which 
+so many kings were led captive to Rome; and by which the 
+ambassadors of so many kingdoms and states approached the seat of 
+empire, to deprecate the wrath, to sollicit the friendship, or 
+sue for the protection of the Roman people. It is likewise famous 
+for the defeat and death of Maxentius, who was here overcome by 
+Constantine the Great. The space between the bridge and Porta del 
+Popolo, on the right-hand, which is now taken up with gardens and 
+villas, was part of the antient Campus Martius, where the 
+comitiae were held; and where the Roman people inured themselves 
+to all manner of exercises: it was adorned with porticos, 
+temples, theatres, baths, circi, basilicae, obelisks, columns, 
+statues, and groves. Authors differ in their opinions about the 
+extent of it; but as they all agree that it contained the 
+Pantheon, the Circus Agonis, now the Piazza Navona, the Bustum 
+and Mausoleum Augusti, great part of the modern city must be 
+built upon the ancient Campus Martius. The highway that leads 
+from the bridge to the city, is part of the Via Flaminia, which 
+extended as far as Rimini; and is well paved, like a modern 
+street. Nothing of the antient bridge remains but the piles; nor 
+is there any thing in the structure of this, or of the other five 
+Roman bridges over the Tyber, that deserves attention. I have not 
+seen any bridge in France or Italy, comparable to that of 
+Westminster either in beauty, magnificence, or solidity; and when 
+the bridge at Black-Friars is finished, it will be such a 
+monument of architecture as all the world cannot parallel. As for 
+the Tyber, it is, in comparison with the Thames, no more than an 
+inconsiderable stream, foul, deep, and rapid. It is navigable by 
+small boats, barks, and lighters; and, for the conveniency of 
+loading and unloading them, there is a handsome quay by the new 
+custom-house, at the Porto di Ripetta, provided with stairs of 
+each side, and adorned with an elegant fountain, that yields 
+abundance of excellent water. 
+
+We are told that the bed of this river has been considerably 
+raised by the rubbish of old Rome, and this is the reason usually 
+given for its being so apt to overflow its banks. A citizen of 
+Rome told me, that a friend of his lately digging to lay the 
+foundation of a new house in the lower part of the city, near the 
+bank of the river, discovered the pavement of an antient street, 
+at the depth of thirty-nine feet from the present surface of the 
+earth. He therefore concluded that modern Rome is near forty feet 
+higher in this place, than the site of the antient city, and that 
+the bed of the river is raised in proportion; but this is 
+altogether incredible. Had the bed of the Tyber been antiently 
+forty feet lower at Rome, than it is at present, there must have 
+been a fall or cataract in it immediately above this tract, as it 
+is not pretended that the bed of it is raised in any part above 
+the city; otherwise such an elevation would have obstructed its 
+course, and then it would have overflowed the whole Campania. 
+There is nothing extraordinary in its present overflowings: they 
+frequently happened of old, and did great mischief to the antient 
+city. Appian, Dio, and other historians, describe an inundation 
+of the Tiber immediately after the death of Julius Caesar, which 
+inundation was occasioned by the sudden melting of a great 
+quantity of snow upon the Apennines. This calamity is recorded by 
+Horace in his ode to Augustus.
+
+Vidimus flavum Tiberim retortis 
+Littore Etrusco violenter undis, 
+Ire dejectum monumenta regis, 
+Templaque Vestae:
+Iliae dum se nimium querenti,
+Jactat ultorem; vagus et sinistra 
+Labitur ripa, Jove non probante
+Uxorius Amnis.
+
+Livy expressly says, "Ita abundavit Tiberis, ut Ludi Apollinares, 
+circo inundato, extra portam Collinam ad aedem Erycinae Veneris 
+parati sint," "There was such an inundation of the Tiber that, 
+the Circus being overflowed, the Ludi Appollinares were exhibited 
+without the gate Collina, hard by the temple of Venus Erycina." 
+To this custom of transferring the Ludi Appollinares to another 
+place where the Tyber had overflowed the Circus Maximus, Ovid 
+alludes in his Fasti.
+
+Altera gramineo spectabis equiriacampo 
+Quem Tiberis curvis in latus urget aquis, 
+Qui tamen ejecta si forte tenebitur unda, 
+Coelius accipiet pulverulentus equos.
+
+Another race thy view shall entertain 
+Where bending Tiber skirts the grassy plain; 
+Or should his vagrant stream that plain o'erflow, 
+The Caelian hill the dusty course will show.
+
+The Porta del Popolo (formerly, Flaminia,) by which we entered 
+Rome, is an elegant piece of architecture, adorned with marble 
+columns and statues, executed after the design of Buonaroti. 
+Within-side you find yourself in a noble piazza, from whence 
+three of the principal streets of Rome are detached. It is 
+adorned with the famous Aegyptian obelisk, brought hither from 
+the Circus Maximus, and set up by the architect Dominico Fontana 
+in the pontificate of Sixtus V. Here is likewise a beautiful 
+fountain designed by the same artist; and at the beginning of the 
+two principal streets, are two very elegant churches fronting 
+each other. Such an august entrance cannot fail to impress a 
+stranger with a sublime idea of this venerable city.
+
+Having given our names at the gate, we repaired to the dogana, or 
+custom-house, where our trunks and carriage were searched; and 
+here we were surrounded by a number of servitori de piazza, 
+offering their services with the most disagreeable importunity. 
+Though I told them several times I had no occasion for any, three 
+of them took possession of the coach, one mounting before and two 
+of them behind; and thus we proceeded to the Piazza d'Espagna, 
+where the person lived to whose house I was directed. Strangers 
+that come to Rome seldom put up at public inns, but go directly 
+to lodging houses, of which there is great plenty in this 
+quarter. The Piazza d'Espagna is open, airy, and pleasantly 
+situated in a high part of the city immediately under the Colla 
+Pinciana, and adorned with two fine fountains. Here most of the 
+English reside: the apartments are generally commodious and well 
+furnished; and the lodgers are well supplied with provisions and 
+all necessaries of life. But, if I studied oeconomy, I would 
+choose another part of the town than the Piazza d'Espagna, which 
+is, besides, at a great distance from the antiquities. For a 
+decent first floor and two bed-chambers on the second, I payed no 
+more than a scudo (five shillings) per day. Our table was 
+plentifully furnished by the landlord for two and thirty pauls, 
+being equal to sixteen shillings. I hired a town-coach at the 
+rate of fourteen pauls, or seven shillings a day; and a servitore 
+di piazza for three pauls, or eighteen-pence. The coachman has 
+also an allowance of two pauls a day. The provisions at Rome are 
+reasonable and good, the vitella mongana, however, which is the 
+most delicate veal I ever tasted, is very dear, being sold for 
+two pauls, or a shilling, the pound. Here are the rich wines of 
+Montepulciano,  Montefiascone, and Monte di Dragone; but what we 
+commonly drink at meals is that of Orvieto, a small white wine, 
+of an agreeable flavour. Strangers are generally advised to 
+employ an antiquarian to instruct them in all the curiosities of 
+Rome; and this is a necessary expence, when a person wants to 
+become a connoisseur in painting, statuary, and architecture. For 
+my own part I had no such ambition. I longed to view the remains 
+of antiquity by which this metropolis is distinguished; and to 
+contemplate the originals of many pictures and statues, which I 
+had admired in prints and descriptions. I therefore chose a 
+servant, who was recommended to me as a sober, intelligent 
+fellow, acquainted with these matters: at the same time I 
+furnished myself with maps and plans of antient and modern Rome, 
+together with the little manual, called, Itinerario istruttivo 
+per ritrovare con facilita tutte le magnificenze di Roma e di 
+alcune citta', e castelli suburbani. But I found still more 
+satisfaction in perusing the book in three volumes, intitled, 
+Roma antica, e moderna, which contains a description of 
+everything remarkable in and about the city, illustrated with a 
+great number of copper-plates, and many curious historical 
+annotations. This directory cost me a zequine; but a hundred 
+zequines will not purchase all the books and prints which have 
+been published at Rome on these subjects. Of these the most 
+celebrated are the plates of Piranesi, who is not only an
+ingenious architect and engraver, but also a learned antiquarian; 
+though he is apt to run riot in his conjectures; and with regard 
+to the arts of antient Rome, has broached some doctrines, which 
+he will find it very difficult to maintain. Our young gentlemen 
+who go to Rome will do well to be upon their guard against a set 
+of sharpers, (some of them of our own country,) who deal in 
+pictures and antiques, and very often impose upon the uninformed 
+stranger, by selling him trash, as the productions of the most 
+celebrated artists. The English are more than any other 
+foreigners exposed to this imposition. They are supposed to have 
+more money to throw away; and therefore a greater number of 
+snares are laid for them. This opinion of their superior wealth 
+they take a pride in confirming, by launching out into all manner 
+of unnecessary expence: but, what is still more dangerous, the 
+moment they set foot in Italy, they are seized with the ambition 
+of becoming connoisseurs in painting, musick, statuary, and 
+architecture; and the adventurers of this country do not fail to 
+flatter this weakness for their own advantage. I have seen in 
+different parts of Italy, a number of raw boys, whom Britain 
+seemed to have poured forth on purpose to bring her national 
+character into contempt, ignorant, petulant, rash, and 
+profligate, without any knowledge or experience of their own, 
+without any director to improve their understanding, or 
+superintend their conduct. One engages in play with an infamous 
+gamester, and is stripped perhaps in the very first partie: 
+another is pillaged by an antiquated cantatrice; a third is 
+bubbled by a knavish antiquarian; and a fourth is laid under 
+contribution by a dealer in pictures. Some turn fiddlers, and 
+pretend to compose: but all of them talk familiarly of the arts, 
+and return finished connoisseurs and coxcombs, to their own 
+country. The most remarkable phaenomenon of this kind, which I 
+have seen, is a boy of seventy-two, now actually travelling 
+through Italy, for improvement, under the auspices of another boy 
+of twenty-two. When you arrive at Rome, you receive cards from 
+all your country-folks in that city: they expect to have the 
+visit returned next day, when they give orders not to be at home; 
+and you never speak to one another in the sequel. This is a 
+refinement in hospitality and politeness, which the English have 
+invented by the strength of their own genius, without any 
+assistance either from France, Italy, or Lapland. No Englishman 
+above the degree of a painter or cicerone frequents any coffee-house 
+at Rome; and as there are no public diversions, except in 
+carnival-time, the only chance you have of seeing your 
+compatriots is either in visiting the curiosities, or at a 
+conversazione. The Italians are very scrupulous in admitting 
+foreigners, except those who are introduced as people of quality: 
+but if there happens to be any English lady of fashion at Rome, 
+she generally keeps an assembly, to which the British subjects 
+resort. In my next, I shall communicate, without ceremony or 
+affectation, what further remarks I have made at Rome, without 
+any pretence, however, to the character of a connoisseur, which, 
+without all doubt, would fit very aukwardly upon,--Dear Sir, Your 
+Friend and Servant.
+
+LETTER XXX
+
+NICE, February 28, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--Nothing can be more agreeable to the eyes of a 
+stranger, especially in the heats of summer, than the great 
+number of public fountains that appear in every part of Rome, 
+embellished with all the ornaments of sculpture, and pouring 
+forth prodigious quantities of cool, delicious water, brought in 
+aqueducts from different lakes, rivers, and sources, at a 
+considerable distance from the city. These works are the remains 
+of the munificence and industry of the antient Romans, who were 
+extremely delicate in the article of water: but, however, great 
+applause is also due to those beneficent popes who have been at 
+the expence of restoring and repairing those noble channels of 
+health, pleasure, and convenience. This great plenty of water, 
+nevertheless, has not induced the Romans to be cleanly. Their 
+streets, and even their palaces, are disgraced with filth. The 
+noble Piazza Navona, is adorned with three or four fountains, one 
+of which is perhaps the most magnificent in Europe, and all of 
+them discharge vast streams of water: but, notwithstanding this 
+provision, the piazza is almost as dirty, as West Smithfield, 
+where the cattle are sold in London. The corridores, arcades, and 
+even staircases of their most elegant palaces, are depositories 
+of nastiness, and indeed in summer smell as strong as spirit of 
+hartshorn. I have a great notion that their ancestors were not 
+much more cleanly. If we consider that the city and suburbs of 
+Rome, in the reign of Claudius, contained about seven millions of 
+inhabitants, a number equal at least to the sum total of all the 
+souls in England; that great part of antient Rome was allotted to 
+temples, porticos, basilicae, theatres, thermae, circi, public 
+and private walks and gardens, where very few, if any, of this 
+great number lodged; that by far the greater part of those 
+inhabitants were slaves and poor people, who did not enjoy the 
+conveniencies of life; and that the use of linen was scarce 
+known; we must naturally conclude they were strangely crouded 
+together, and that in general they were a very frowzy generation. 
+That they were crouded together appears from the height of their 
+houses, which the poet Rutilius compared to towers made for 
+scaling heaven. In order to remedy this inconvenience, Augustus 
+Caesar published a decree, that for the future no houses should 
+be built above seventy feet high, which, at a moderate 
+computation, might make six stories. But what seems to prove, 
+beyond all dispute, that the antient Romans were dirty creatures, 
+are these two particulars. Vespasian laid a tax upon urine and 
+ordure, on pretence of being at a great expence in clearing the 
+streets from such nuisances; an imposition which amounted to about 
+fourteen pence a year for every individual; and when Heliogabalus 
+ordered all the cobwebs of the city and suburbs to be collected, 
+they were found to weigh ten thousand pounds. This was intended 
+as a demonstration of the great number of inhabitants; but it was 
+a proof of their dirt, rather than of their populosity. I might 
+likewise add, the delicate custom of taking vomits at each 
+other's houses, when they were invited to dinner, or supper, that 
+they might prepare their stomachs for gormandizing; a beastly 
+proof of their nastiness as well as gluttony. Horace, in his 
+description of the banquet of Nasiedenus, says, when the canopy, 
+under which they sat, fell down, it brought along with it as much 
+dirt as is raised by a hard gale of wind in dry weather.
+
+              --trahentia pulveris atri, 
+Quantum non aquilo Campanis excitat agris.
+
+Such clouds of dust revolving in its train 
+As Boreas whirls along the level plain.
+
+I might observe, that the streets were often encumbered with the 
+putrefying carcasses of criminals, who had been dragged through 
+them by the heels, and precipitated from the Scalae Gemoniae, or 
+Tarpeian rock, before they were thrown into the Tyber, which was 
+the general receptacle of the cloaca maxima and all the filth of 
+Rome: besides, the bodies of all those who made away with 
+themselves, without sufficient cause; of such as were condemned 
+for sacrilege, or killed by thunder, were left unburned and 
+unburied, to rot above ground.
+
+I believe the moderns retain more of the customs of antient 
+Romans, than is generally imagined. When I first saw the infants 
+at the enfans trouves in Paris, so swathed with bandages, that 
+the very sight of them made my eyes water, I little dreamed, that 
+the prescription of the antients could be pleaded for this 
+custom, equally shocking and absurd: but in the Capitol at Rome, 
+I met with the antique statue of a child swaddled exactly in the 
+same manner; rolled up like an Aegyptian mummy from the feet. The 
+circulation of the blood, in such a case, must be obstructed on 
+the whole surface of the body; and nothing be at liberty but the 
+head, which is the only part of the child that ought to be 
+confined. Is it not surprising that common sense should not point 
+out, even to the most ignorant, that those accursed bandages must 
+heat the tender infant into a fever; must hinder the action of 
+the muscles, and the play of the joints, so necessary to health 
+and nutrition; and that while the refluent blood is obstructed in 
+the veins, which run on the surface of the body, the arteries, 
+which lie deep, without the reach of compression, are continually 
+pouring their contents into the head, where the blood meets with 
+no resistance? The vessels of the brain are naturally lax, and 
+the very sutures of the skull are yet unclosed. What are the 
+consequences of this cruel swaddling? the limbs are wasted; the 
+joints grow rickety; the brain is compressed, and a 
+hydrocephalus, with a great head and sore eyes, ensues. I take 
+this abominable practice to be one great cause of the bandy legs, 
+diminutive bodies, and large heads, so frequent in the south of 
+France, and in Italy.
+
+I was no less surprised to find the modern fashion of curling the 
+hair, borrowed in a great measure from the coxcombs and coquettes 
+of antiquity. I saw a bust of Nero in the gallery at Florence, 
+the hair represented in rows of buckles, like that of a French 
+petit-maitre, conformable to the picture drawn of him by 
+Suetonius. Circa cultum adeo pudendum, ut coman semper in gradus 
+formatam peregrinatione achaica, etiam pene verticem sumpserit, 
+So very finical in his dress, that he wore his hair in the Greek 
+fashion, curled in rows almost to the crown of his head. I was 
+very sorry however to find that this foppery came from Greece. As 
+for Otho, he wore a galericulum, or tour, on account of thin 
+hair, propter raritatem capillorum. He had no right to imitate 
+the example of Julius Caesar, who concealed his bald head with a 
+wreath of laurel. But there is a bust in the Capitol of Julia 
+Pia, the second wife of Septimius Severus, with a moveable 
+peruke, dressed exactly in the fashionable mode, with this 
+difference, that there is no part of it frizzled; nor is there 
+any appearance of pomatum and powder. These improvements the 
+beau-monde have borrowed from the natives of the Cape of Good 
+Hope.
+
+Modern Rome does not cover more than one-third of the space 
+within the walls; and those parts that were most frequented of 
+old are now intirely abandoned. From the Capitol to the Coliseo, 
+including the Forum Romanum and Boarium, there is nothing intire 
+but one or two churches, built with the fragments of ancient 
+edifices. You descend from the Capitol between the remaining 
+pillars of two temples, the pedestals and part of the shafts sunk 
+in the rubbish: then passing through the triumphal arch of 
+Septimius Severus, you proceed along the foot of Mons Palatinus, 
+which stands on your right hand, quite covered with the ruins of 
+the antient palace belonging to the Roman emperors, and at the 
+foot of it, there are some beautiful detached pillars still 
+standing. On the left you see the remains of the Templum Pacis, 
+which seems to have been the largest and most magnificent of all 
+the temples in Rome. It was built and dedicated by the emperor 
+Vespasian, who brought into it all the treasure and precious 
+vessels which he found in the temple of Jerusalem. The columns of 
+the portico he removed from Nero's golden house, which he 
+levelled with the ground. This temple was likewise famous for its 
+library, mentioned by Aulus Gellius, Further on, is the arch of 
+Constantine on the right, a most noble piece of architecture, 
+almost entire; with the remains of the Meta Sudans before it; and 
+fronting you, the noble ruins of that vast amphitheatre, called 
+the Colossaeum, now Coliseo, which has been dismantled and 
+dilapidated by the Gothic popes and princes of modern Rome, to 
+build and adorn their paultry palaces. Behind the amphitheatre 
+were the thermae of the same emperor Titus Vespasian. In the same 
+quarter was the Circus Maximus; and the whole space from hence on 
+both sides, to the walls of Rome, comprehending above twice as 
+much ground as the modern city, is almost covered with the 
+monuments of antiquity. I suppose there is more concealed below 
+ground than appears above. The miserable houses, and even garden-walls 
+of the peasants in this district, are built with these 
+precious materials. I mean shafts and capitals of marble columns, 
+heads, arms, legs, and mutilated trunks of statues. What pity it 
+is that among all the remains of antiquity, at Rome, there is not 
+one lodging-house remaining. I should be glad to know how the 
+senators of Rome were lodged. I want to be better informed 
+touching the cava aedium, the focus, the ara deorum penatum, the 
+conclavia, triclinia, and caenationes; the atria where the women 
+resided, and employed themselves in the woolen manufacture; the 
+praetoria, which were so spacious as to become a nuisance in the 
+reign of Augustus; and the Xysta, which were shady walks between 
+two porticos, where the men exercised themselves in the winter. I 
+am disgusted by the modern taste of architecture, though I am no 
+judge of the art. The churches and palaces of these days are 
+crowded with pretty ornaments, which distract the eye, and by 
+breaking the design into a variety of little parts, destroy the 
+effect of the whole. Every door and window has its separate 
+ornaments, its moulding, frize, cornice. and tympanum; then there 
+is such an assemblage of useless festoons, pillars, pilasters, 
+with their architraves, entablatures, and I know not what, that 
+nothing great or uniform remains to fill the view; and we in vain 
+look for that simplicity of grandeur, those large masses of light 
+and shadow, and the inexpressible EUSUINOPTON, which characterise 
+the edifices of the antients. A great edifice, to have its full 
+effect, ought to be isole, or detached from all others, with a 
+large space around it: but the palaces of Rome, and indeed of all 
+the other cities of Italy, which I have seen, are so engaged 
+among other mean houses, that their beauty and magnificence are 
+in a great measure concealed. Even those which face open streets 
+and piazzas are only clear in front. The other apartments are 
+darkened by the vicinity of ordinary houses; and their views are 
+confined by dirty and disagreeable objects. Within the court 
+there is generally a noble colonnade all round, and an open 
+corridore above, but the stairs are usually narrow, steep, and 
+high, the want of sash-windows, the dullness of their small glass 
+lozenges, the dusty brick floors, and the crimson hangings laced 
+with gold, contribute to give a gloomy air to their apartments; I 
+might add to these causes, a number of Pictures executed on 
+melancholy subjects, antique mutilated statues, busts, basso 
+relieves, urns, and sepulchral stones, with which their rooms are 
+adorned. It must be owned, however, there are some exceptions to 
+this general rule. The villa of cardinal Alexander Albani 
+is light, gay, and airy; yet the rooms are too small, and 
+too much decorated with carving and gilding, which is a kind of 
+gingerbread work. The apartments of one of the princes Borghese 
+are furnished in the English taste; and in the palazzo di colonna 
+connestabile, there is a saloon, or gallery, which, for the 
+proportions, lights, furniture, and ornaments, is the most noble, 
+elegant, and agreeable apartment I ever saw.
+
+It is diverting to hear all Italian expatiate upon the greatness 
+of modern Rome. He will tell you there are above three hundred 
+palaces in the city; that there is scarce a Roman prince, whose 
+revenue does not exceed two hundred thousand crowns; and that 
+Rome produces not only the most learned men, but also the most 
+refined politicians in the universe. To one of them talking in 
+this strain, I replied, that instead of three hundred palaces, 
+the number did not exceed fourscore; that I had been informed, on 
+good authority, there were not six individuals in Rome who had so 
+much as forty thousand crowns a year, about ten thousand pounds 
+sterling; and that to say their princes were so rich, and their 
+politicians so refined, was, in effect, a severe satire upon 
+them, for not employing their wealth and their talents for the 
+advantage of their country. I asked why their cardinals and 
+princes did not invite and encourage industrious people to settle 
+and cultivate the Campania of Rome, which is a desert? why they 
+did not raise a subscription to drain the marshes in the 
+neighbourhood of the city, and thus meliorate the air, which is 
+rendered extremely unwholsome in the summer, by putrid 
+exhalations from those morasses? I demanded of him, why they did 
+not contribute their wealth, and exert their political 
+refinements, in augmenting their forces by sea and land, for the 
+defence of their country, introducing commerce and manufactures, 
+and in giving some consequence to their state, which was no more 
+than a mite in the political scale of Europe? I expressed a 
+desire to know what became of all those sums of money, inasmuch 
+as there was hardly any circulation of gold and silver in Rome, 
+and the very bankers, on whom strangers have their credit, make 
+interest to pay their tradesmen's bills with paper notes of the 
+bank of Spirito Santo? And now I am upon this subject, it may not 
+be amiss to observe that I was strangely misled by all the books 
+consulted about the current coin of Italy. In Tuscany, and the 
+Ecclesiastical State, one sees nothing but zequines in gold, and 
+pieces of two paoli, one paolo, and half a paolo, in silver. 
+Besides these, there is a copper coin at Rome, called bajocco and 
+mezzo bajocco. Ten bajocchi make a paolo: ten paoli make a scudo, 
+which is an imaginary piece: two scudi make a zequine; and a 
+French loui'dore is worth two zequines and two paoli.
+
+Rome has nothing to fear from the catholic powers, who respect it 
+with a superstitious veneration as the metropolitan seat of their 
+religion: but the popes will do well to avoid misunderstandings 
+with the maritime protestant states, especially the English, who 
+being masters of the Mediterranean, and in possession of Minorca, 
+have it in their power at all times, to land a body of troops 
+within four leagues of Rome, and to take the city, without 
+opposition. Rome is surrounded with an old wall, but altogether 
+incapable of defence. Or if it was, the circuit of the walls is 
+so extensive, that it would require a garrison of twenty thousand 
+men. The only appearance of a fortification in this city, is the 
+castle of St. Angelo, situated on the further bank of the Tyber, 
+to which there is access by a handsome bridge: but this castle, 
+which was formerly the moles Adriani, could not hold out half a 
+day against a battery of ten pieces of cannon properly directed. 
+It was an expedient left to the invention of the modern Romans, 
+to convert an ancient tomb into a citadel. It could only serve as 
+a temporary retreat for the pope in times of popular commotion, 
+and on other sudden emergencies; as it happened in the case of 
+pope Clement VII. when the troops of the emperor took the city by 
+assault; and this only, while he resided at the Vatican, from 
+whence there is a covered gallery continued to the castle: it can 
+never serve this purpose again, while the pontiff lives on Monte 
+Cavallo, which is at the other end of the city. The castle of St. 
+Angelo, howsoever ridiculous as a fortress, appears respectable 
+as a noble monument of antiquity, and though standing in a low 
+situation, is one of the first objects that strike the eye of a 
+stranger approaching Rome. On the opposite side of the river, are 
+the wretched remains of the Mausoleum Augusti, which was still 
+more magnificent. Part of the walls is standing, and the terraces 
+are converted into garden-ground. In viewing these ruins, I 
+remembered Virgil's pathetic description of Marcellus, who was 
+here intombed.
+
+Quantos ille virum, magnum mavortis ad urbem. 
+Campus aget gemitus, vel que Tyberine, videbis 
+Funera, cum tumulum, preter labere recentem.
+
+Along his Banks what Groans shall Tyber hear,
+When the fresh tomb and funeral pomp appear!
+
+The beautiful poem of Ovid de Consolatione ad Liviam, written 
+after the ashes of Augustus and his nephew Marcellus, of 
+Germanicus, Agrippa, and Drusus, were deposited in this 
+mausoleum, concludes with these lines, which are extremely 
+tender:
+
+Claudite jam Parcae nimium reserata sepulchra; 
+Claudite, plus justo, jam domus ista patet!
+
+Ah! shut these yawning Tombs, ye sister Fates!
+Too long unclos'd have stood those dreary Gates!
+
+What the author said of the monument, you will be tempted to say 
+of this letter, which I shall therefore close in the old stile, 
+assuring you that I ever am,--Yours most affectionately.
+
+LETTER XXXI
+
+NICE, March 5, 1765
+
+DEAR SIR,--In my last I gave you my opinion freely of the modern 
+palaces of Italy. I shall now hazard my thoughts upon the gardens 
+of this country, which the inhabitants extol with all the 
+hyperboles of admiration and applause. I must acknowledge 
+however, I have not seen the famous villas at Frascati and 
+Tivoli, which are celebrated for their gardens and waterworks. I 
+intended to visit these places; but was prevented by an 
+unexpected change of weather, which deterred me from going to the 
+country. On the last day of September the mountains of Palestrina 
+were covered with snow; and the air became so cold at Rome, that 
+I was forced to put on my winter cloaths. This objection 
+continued, till I found it necessary to set out on my return to 
+Florence. But I have seen the gardens of the Poggio Imperiale, 
+and the Palazzo de Pitti at Florence, and those of the Vatican, 
+of the pope's palace on Monte Cavallo, of the Villa Ludovisia, 
+Medicea, and Pinciana, at Rome; so that I think I have some right 
+to judge of the Italian taste in gardening. Among those I have 
+mentioned, that of the Villa Pinciana, is the most remarkable, 
+and the most extensive, including a space of three miles in 
+circuit, hard by the walls of Rome, containing a variety of 
+situations high and low, which favour all the natural 
+embellishments one would expect to meet with in a garden, and 
+exhibit a diversity of noble views of the city and adjacent 
+country.
+
+In a fine extensive garden or park, an Englishman expects to see 
+a number of groves and glades, intermixed with an agreeable 
+negligence, which seems to be the effect of nature and accident. 
+He looks for shady walks encrusted with gravel; for open lawns 
+covered with verdure as smooth as velvet, but much more lively 
+and agreeable; for ponds, canals, basins, cascades, and running 
+streams of water; for clumps of trees, woods, and wildernesses, 
+cut into delightful alleys, perfumed with honeysuckle and sweet-
+briar, and resounding with the mingled melody of all the singing 
+birds of heaven: he looks for plats of flowers in different parts 
+to refresh the sense, and please the fancy; for arbours, grottos, 
+hermitages, temples, and alcoves, to shelter him from the sun, 
+and afford him means of contemplation and repose; and he expects 
+to find the hedges, groves, and walks, and lawns kept with the 
+utmost order and propriety. He who loves the beauties of simple 
+nature, and the charms of neatness will seek for them in vain 
+amidst the groves of Italy. In the garden of the Villa Pinciana, 
+there is a plantation of four hundred pines, which the Italians 
+view with rapture and admiration: there is likewise a long walk, 
+of trees extending from the garden-gate to the palace; and plenty 
+of shade, with alleys and hedges in different parts of the 
+ground: but the groves are neglected; the walks are laid with 
+nothing but common mould or sand, black and dusty; the hedges are 
+tall, thin and shabby; the trees stunted; the open ground, brown 
+and parched, has scarce any appearance of verdure. The flat, 
+regular alleys of evergreens are cut into fantastic figures; the 
+flower gardens embellished with thin cyphers and flourished 
+figures in box, while the flowers grow in rows of earthen-pots, 
+and the ground appears as dusky as if it was covered with the 
+cinders of a blacksmith's forge. The water, of which there is 
+great plenty, instead of being collected in large pieces, or 
+conveyed in little rivulets and streams to refresh the thirsty 
+soil, or managed so as to form agreeable cascades, is squirted 
+from fountains in different parts of the garden, through tubes 
+little bigger than common glyster-pipes. It must be owned indeed 
+that the fountains have their merit in the way of sculpture and 
+architecture; and that here is a great number of statues which 
+merit attention: but they serve only to encumber the ground, and 
+destroy that effect of rural simplicity, which our gardens are 
+designed to produce. In a word, here we see a variety of walks 
+and groves and fountains, a wood of four hundred pines, a paddock 
+with a few meagre deer, a flower-garden, an aviary, a grotto, and 
+a fish-pond; and in spite of all these particulars, it is, in my 
+opinion, a very contemptible garden, when compared to that of 
+Stowe in Buckinghamshire, or even to those of Kensington and 
+Richmond. The Italians understand, because they study, the 
+excellencies of art; but they have no idea of the beauties of 
+nature. This Villa Pinciana, which belongs to the Borghese 
+family, would make a complete academy for painting and sculpture, 
+especially for the study of antient marbles; for, exclusive of 
+the statues and busts in the garden, and the vast collection in 
+the different apartments, almost the whole outside of the house 
+is covered with curious pieces in basso and alto relievo. The 
+most masterly is that of Curtius on horseback, leaping into the 
+gulph or opening of the earth, which is said to have closed on 
+receiving this sacrifice. Among the exhibitions of art within the 
+house, I was much struck with a Bacchus, and the death of 
+Meleager, represented on an antient sepulchre. There is also an 
+admirable statue of Silenus, with the infant Bacchus in his arms; 
+a most beautiful gladiator; a curious Moor of black marble, with 
+a shirt of white alabaster; a finely proportioned bull of black 
+marble also, standing upon a table of alabaster; a black gipsey 
+with a head, hands, and feet of brass; and the famous 
+hermaphrodite, which vies with that of Florence: though the most 
+curious circumstance of this article, is the mattrass executed 
+and placed by Bernini, with such art and dexterity, that to the 
+view, it rivals the softness of wool, and seems to retain the 
+marks of pressure, according to the figure of the superincumbent 
+statue. Let us likewise own, for the honour of the moderns, that 
+the same artist has produced two fine statues, which we find 
+among the ornaments of this villa, namely, a David with his sling 
+in the attitude of throwing the stone at the giant Goliah; and a 
+Daphne changing into laurel at the approach of Apollo. On the 
+base of this figure, are the two following elegant lines, written 
+by pope Urban VIII. in his younger years.
+
+Quisquis amans sequitur fugitivae gaudia formae, 
+Fronde manus implet, baccas vel carpit amaras.
+
+Who pants for fleeting Beauty, vain pursuit!
+Shall barren Leaves obtain, or bitter fruit.
+
+I ought not to forget two exquisite antique statues of Venus, the 
+weeping slave, and the youth pulling a thorn out of his foot.
+
+I do not pretend to give a methodical detail of the curiosities 
+of Rome: they have been already described by different authors, 
+who were much better qualified than I am for the talk: but you 
+shall have what observations I made on the most remarkable 
+objects, without method, just as they occur to my remembrance; 
+and I protest the remarks are all my own: so that if they deserve 
+any commendation, I claim all the merit; and if they are 
+impertinent, I must be contented to bear all the blame.
+
+The piazza of St. Peter's church is altogether sublime. The 
+double colonnade on each side extending in a semi-circular sweep, 
+the stupendous Aegyptian obelisk, the two fountains, the portico, 
+and the admirable facade of the church, form such an assemblage 
+of magnificent objects, as cannot fail to impress the mind with 
+awe and admiration: but the church would have produced a still 
+greater effect, had it been detached entirely from the buildings 
+of the Vatican, It would then have been a master-piece of 
+architecture, complete in all its parts, intire and perfect: 
+whereas, at present, it is no more than a beautiful member 
+attached to a vast undigested and irregular pile of building. As 
+to the architecture of this famous temple, I shall say nothing; 
+neither do I pretend to describe the internal ornaments. The 
+great picture of Mosaic work, and that of St. Peter's bark tossed 
+by the tempest, which appear over the gate of the church, though 
+rude in comparison with modern pieces, are nevertheless great 
+curiosities, when considered as the work of Giotto, who 
+flourished in the beginning of the fourteenth century. His master 
+was Cimabue, who learned painting and architecture of the Grecian 
+artists, who came from Constantinople, and first revived these 
+arts in Italy. But, to return to St. Peter's, I was not at all 
+pleased with the famous statue of the dead Christ in his mother's 
+lap, by Michael Angelo. The figure of Christ is as much 
+emaciated, as if he had died of a consumption: besides, there is 
+something indelicate, not to say indecent, in the attitude and 
+design of a man's body, stark naked, lying upon the knees of a 
+woman. Here are some good pictures, I should rather say copies of 
+good pictures, done in Mosaic to great perfection; particularly a 
+St. Sebastian by Domenichino, and Michael the Archangel, from a, 
+painting of Guido Rheni. I am extremely fond of all this artist's 
+pieces. There is a tenderness and delicacy in his manner; and his 
+figures are all exquisitely beautiful, though his expression is 
+often erroneous, and his attitudes are always affected and 
+unnatural. In this very piece the archangel has all the air of a 
+French dancing-master; and I have seen a Madonna by the same 
+hand, I think it is in the Palazzo di Barberini, in which, though 
+the figures are enchanting, the Virgin is represented holding up 
+the drapery of the infant, with the ridiculous affectation of a 
+singer on the stage of our Italian opera. The Mosaic work, though 
+brought to a wonderful degree of improvement, and admirably 
+calculated for churches, the dampness of which is pernicious to 
+the colours of the pallet, I will not yet compare to the 
+productions of the pencil. The glassyness (if I may be allowed 
+the expression) of the surface, throws, in my opinion, a false 
+light on some parts of the picture; and when you approach it, the 
+joinings of the pieces look like so many cracks on painted 
+canvas. Besides, this method is extremely tedious and expensive. 
+I went to see the artists at work, in a house that stands near 
+the church, where I was much pleased with the ingenuity of the 
+process; and not a little surprized at the great number of 
+different colours and tints, which are kept in separate drawers, 
+marked with numbers as far as seventeen thousand. For a single 
+head done in Mosaic, they asked me fifty zequines. But to return 
+to the church. The altar of St. Peter's choir, notwithstanding 
+all the ornaments which have been lavished upon it, is no more 
+than a heap of puerile finery, better adapted to an Indian pagod, 
+than to a temple built upon the principles of the Greek 
+architecture. The four colossal figures that support the chair, 
+are both clumsy and disproportioned. The drapery of statues, 
+whether in brass or stone, when thrown into large masses, appears 
+hard and unpleasant to the eye and for that reason the antients 
+always imitated wet linen, which exhibiting the shape of the 
+limbs underneath, and hanging in a multiplicity of wet folds, 
+gives an air of lightness, softness, and ductility to the whole.
+
+These two statues weigh 116,257 pounds, and as they sustain 
+nothing but a chair, are out of all proportion, inasmuch as the 
+supporters ought to be suitable to the things supported. Here are 
+four giants holding up the old wooden chair of the apostle Peter, 
+if we may believe the book De Identitate Cathedrae Romanae, Of 
+the Identity of the Roman Chair. The implements of popish 
+superstition; such as relicks of pretended saints, ill-proportioned 
+spires and bellfreys, and the nauseous repetition of 
+the figure of the cross, which is in itself a very mean and 
+disagreeable object, only fit for the prisons of condemned 
+criminals, have contributed to introduce a vitious taste into the 
+external architecture, as well as in the internal ornaments of 
+our temples. All churches are built in the figure of a cross, 
+which effectually prevents the eye from taking in the scope of 
+the building, either without side or within; consequently robs 
+the edifice of its proper effect. The palace of the Escurial in 
+Spain is laid out in the shape of a gridiron, because the convent 
+was built in consequence of a vow to St. Laurence, who was 
+broiled like a barbecued pig. What pity it is, that the labours 
+of painting should have been so much employed on the shocking 
+subjects of the martyrology. Besides numberless pictures of the 
+flagellation, crucifixion, and descent from the cross, we have 
+Judith with the head of Holofernes, Herodias with the head of 
+John the Baptist, Jael assassinating Sisera in his sleep, Peter 
+writhing on the cross, Stephen battered with stones, Sebastian 
+stuck full of arrows, Laurence frying upon the coals, Bartholomew 
+flaed alive, and a hundred other pictures equally frightful, 
+which can only serve to fill the mind with gloomy ideas, and 
+encourage a spirit of religious fanaticism, which has always been 
+attended with mischievous consequences to the community where it 
+reigned.
+
+The tribune of the great altar, consisting of four wreathed brass 
+pillars, gilt, supporting a canopy, is doubtless very 
+magnificent, if not over-charged with sculpture, fluting, 
+foliage, festoons, and figures of boys and angels, which, with 
+the hundred and twenty-two lamps of silver, continually burning 
+below, serve rather to dazzle the eyes, and kindle the devotion 
+of the ignorant vulgar, than to excite the admiration of a 
+judicious observer.
+
+There is nothing, I believe, in this famous structure, so worthy 
+of applause, as the admirable symmetry and proportion of its 
+parts. Notwithstanding all the carving, gilding, basso relievos, 
+medallions, urns, statues, columns, and pictures with which it 
+abounds, it does not, on the whole, appear over-crouded with 
+ornaments. When you first enter, your eye is filled so equally 
+and regularly, that nothing appears stupendous; and the church 
+seems considerably smaller than it really is. The statues of 
+children, that support the founts of holy water when observed 
+from the door, seem to be of the natural size; but as you draw 
+near, you perceive they are gigantic. In the same manner, the 
+figures of the doves, with olive branches in their beaks, which 
+are represented on the wall, appear to be within your reach; but 
+as you approach them, they recede to a considerable height, as if 
+they had flown upwards to avoid being taken.
+
+I was much disappointed at sight of the Pantheon, which, after 
+all that has been said of it, looks like a huge cockpit, open at 
+top. The portico which Agrippa added to the building, is 
+undoubtedly very noble, though, in my opinion, it corresponds but 
+ill with the simplicity of the edifice. With all my veneration 
+for the antients, I cannot see in what the beauty of tile rotunda 
+consists. It is no more than a plain unpierced cylinder, or 
+circular wall, with two fillets and a cornice, having a vaulted 
+roof or cupola, open in the centre. I mean the original building, 
+without considering the vestibule of Agrippa. Within side it has 
+much the air of a mausoleum. It was this appearance which, in all 
+probability, suggested the thought to Boniface IV. to transport 
+hither eight and twenty cart-loads of old rotten bones, dug from 
+different burying-places, and then dedicate it as a church to the 
+blessed Virgin and all the holy martyrs. I am not one of those 
+who think it is well lighted by the hole at the top, which is 
+about nine and twenty feet in diameter, although the author of 
+the Grand Tour calls it but nine. The same author says, there is 
+a descent of eleven steps to go into it; that it is a hundred and 
+forty-four feet in heighth, and as many in breadth; that it was 
+covered with copper, which, with the brass nails of the portico, 
+pope Urban VIII. took away, and converted into the four wreathed 
+pillars that support the canopy of the high altar in the church 
+of St. Peter, &c. The truth is, before the time of pope Alexander 
+VII. the earth was so raised as to cover part of the temple, and 
+there was a descent of some steps into the porch: but that 
+pontiff ordered the ground to be pared away to the very pedestal 
+or base of the portico, which is now even with the street, so 
+that there is no descent whatsoever. The height is two hundred 
+palmi, and the breadth two hundred and eighteen; which, reckoning 
+fife palmi at nine inches, will bring the height to one hundred 
+and fifty, and the breadth to one hundred and sixty-three feet 
+six inches. It was not any covering of copper which pope Urban 
+VIII. removed, but large brass beams, which supported the roof of 
+the portico. They weighed 186,392 pounds; and afforded metal 
+enough not only for the pillars in St. Peter's church, but also 
+for several pieces of artillery that are now in the castle of St. 
+Angelo. What is more extraordinary, the gilding of those columns 
+is said to have cost forty thousand golden crowns: sure money was 
+never worse laid out. Urban VIII. likewise added two bellfrey 
+towers to the rotunda; and I wonder he did not cover the central 
+hole with glass, as it must be very inconvenient and disagreeable 
+to those who go to church below, to be exposed to the rain in wet 
+weather, which must also render it very damp and unwholesome. I 
+visited it several times, and each time it looked more and more 
+gloomy and sepulchral.
+
+The magnificence of the Romans was not so conspicuous in their 
+temples, as in their theatres, amphitheatres, circusses, 
+naumachia, aqueducts, triumphal arches, porticoes, basilicae, but 
+especially their thermae, or bathing-places. A great number of 
+their temples were small and inconsiderable; not one of them was 
+comparable either for size or magnificence, to the modern church 
+of St. Peter of the Vatican. The famous temple of Jupiter 
+Capitolinus was neither half so long, nor half so broad: it was 
+but two hundred feet in length, and one hundred and eighty-five 
+in breadth; whereas the length of St. Peter's extends to six 
+hundred and thirty-eight feet, and the breadth to above five 
+hundred. It is very near twice as large as the temple of Jupiter 
+Olympius in Greece, which was counted one of the seven wonders of 
+the world. But I shall take another opportunity to explain myself 
+further on the antiquities of this city; a subject, upon which I 
+am disposed to be (perhaps impertinently) circumstantial. When I 
+begin to run riot, you should cheek me with the freedom of a 
+friend. The most distant hint will be sufficient to,--Dear Sir,
+Yours assuredly.
+
+LETTER XXXII
+
+NICE, March 10, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--The Colossaeum or amphitheatre built by Flavius 
+Vespasian, is the most stupendous work of the kind which 
+antiquity can produce. Near one half of the external circuit 
+still remains, consisting of four tire of arcades, adorned with 
+columns of four orders, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite. 
+The height and extent of it may be guessed from the number of 
+spectators it contained, amounting to one hundred thousand; and 
+yet, according to Fontana's mensuration, it could not contain 
+above thirty-four thousand persons sitting, allowing a foot and 
+an half for each person: for the circuit of the whole building 
+did not exceed one thousand five hundred and sixty feet. The 
+amphitheatre at Verona is one thousand two hundred and ninety 
+feet in circumference; and that of Nismes, one thousand and 
+eighty. The Colossaeum was built by Vespasian, who employed 
+thirty thousand Jewish slaves in the work; but finished and 
+dedicated by his son Titus, who, on the first day of its being 
+opened, produced fifty thousand wild beasts, which were all 
+killed in the arena. The Romans were undoubtedly a barbarous 
+people, who delighted in horrible spectacles. They viewed with 
+pleasure the dead bodies of criminals dragged through the 
+streets, or thrown down the Scalae Gemoniae and Tarpeian rock, 
+for their contemplation. Their rostra were generally adorned with 
+the heads of some remarkable citizens, like Temple-Bar, at 
+London. They even bore the sight of Tully's head fixed upon that 
+very rostrum where he had so often ravished their ears with all 
+the charms of eloquence, in pleading the cause of innocence and 
+public virtue. They took delight in seeing their fellow-creatures 
+torn in pieces by wild beasts, in the amphitheatre. 
+They shouted with applause when they saw a poor dwarf or slave 
+killed by his adversary; but their transports were altogether 
+extravagant, when the devoted captives were obliged to fight in 
+troops, till one side was entirely butchered by the other. Nero 
+produced four hundred senators, and six hundred of the equestrian 
+order, as gladiators in the public arena: even the women fought 
+with wild beasts, as well as with each other, and drenched the 
+amphitheatres with their blood. Tacitus says, "Sed faeminarum 
+illustrium, senatorumque filiorum plures per arenam faedati 
+sunt," "But many sons of Senators, and even Matrons of the first 
+Rank, exposed themselves in this vile exercise." The execrable 
+custom of sacrificing captives or slaves at the tombs of their 
+masters and great men, which is still preserved among the negroes 
+of Africa, obtained also among the antients, Greeks as well as 
+Romans. I could never, without horror and indignation, read that 
+passage in the twenty-third book of the Iliad, which describes 
+twelve valiant Trojan captives sacrificed by the inhuman Achilles 
+at the tomb of his friend Patroclus.
+
+Dodeka men Troon megathumon uias eathlous
+Tous ama pantas pur eathiei.
+
+Twelve generous Trojans slaughtered in their Bloom, 
+With thy lov'd Corse the Fire shall now consume.
+
+Even Virgil makes his pious Hero sacrifice eight Italian youths 
+to the manes of Pallas. It is not at all clear to me, that a 
+people is the more brave, the more they are accustomed to 
+bloodshed in their public entertainments. True bravery is not 
+savage but humane. Some of this sanguinary spirit is inherited by 
+the inhabitants of a certain island that shall be nameless--but, 
+mum for that. You will naturally suppose that the Coliseo was 
+ruined by the barbarians who sacked the city of Rome: in effect, 
+they robbed it of its ornaments and valuable materials; but it 
+was reserved for the Goths and Vandals of modern Rome, to 
+dismantle the edifice, and reduce it to its present ruinous 
+condition. One part of it was demolished by pope Paul II. that he 
+might employ the stones of it in building the palace of St. Mark. 
+It was afterwards dilapidated for the same purposes, by the 
+cardinals Riarius and Farnese, which last assumed the tiara under 
+the name of Paul III. Notwithstanding these injuries, there is 
+enough standing to convey a very sublime idea of ancient 
+magnificence.
+
+The Circi and Naumachia, if considered as buildings and 
+artificial basins, are admirable; but if examined as areae 
+intended for horse and chariot races, and artificial seas for 
+exhibiting naval engagements, they seem to prove that the antient 
+Romans were but indifferently skilled and exercised either in 
+horsemanship or naval armaments. The inclosure of the emperor 
+Caracalla's circus is still standing, and scarce affords 
+breathing room for an English hunter. The Circus Maximus, by far 
+the largest in Rome, was not so long as the Mall; and I will 
+venture to affirm, that St. James's Park would make a much more 
+ample and convenient scene for those diversions. I imagine an old 
+Roman would be very much surprised to see an English race on the 
+course at New-Market. The Circus Maximus was but three hundred 
+yards in breadth. A good part of this was taken up by the spina, 
+or middle space, adorned with temples, statues, and two great 
+obelisks; as well as by the euripus, or canal, made by order of 
+Julius Caesar, to contain crocodiles, and other aquatic animals, 
+which were killed occasionally. This was so large, that 
+Heliogabalus, having filled it with excellent wine, exhibited 
+naval engagements in it, for the amusement of the people. It 
+surrounded three sides of the square, so that the whole extent of 
+the race did not much exceed an English mile; and when Probus was 
+at the expence of filling the plain of it with fir-trees to form 
+a wood for the chace of wild beasts, I question much if this 
+forest was more extensive than the plantation in St. James's 
+Park, on the south side of the canal: now I leave you to judge 
+what ridicule a king of England would incur by converting this 
+part of the park into a chace for any species of animals which 
+are counted game in our country.
+
+The Roman emperors seemed more disposed to elevate and surprize, 
+than to conduct the public diversions according to the rules of 
+reason and propriety. One would imagine, it was with this view 
+they instituted their naumachia, or naval engagements, performed 
+by half a dozen small gallies of a side in an artificial basin of 
+fresh water. These gallies I suppose were not so large as common 
+fishing-smacks, for they were moved by two, three, and four oars 
+of a side according to their different rates, biremes, triremes, 
+and quadriremes. I know this is a knotty point not yet 
+determined; and that some antiquarians believe the Roman gallies 
+had different tires or decks of oars; but this is a notion very 
+ill supported, and quite contrary to all the figures of them that 
+are preserved on antient coins and medals. Suetonius in the reign 
+of Domitian, speaking of these naumachia, says, "Edidit navales 
+pugnas, pene justarum classium, effosso, et circumducto juxta 
+Tyberim lacu, atque inter maximas imbres prospectavit," "He 
+exhibited naval engagements of almost intire fleets, in an 
+artificial Lake formed for the purpose hard by the Tyber, and 
+viewed them in the midst of excessive Rains." This artificial 
+lake was not larger than the piece of water in Hyde-Park; and yet 
+the historian says, it was almost large enough for real or intire 
+fleets. How would a British sailor relish an advertisement that a 
+mock engagement between two squadrons of men of war would be 
+exhibited on such a day in the Serpentine river? or that the 
+ships of the line taken from the enemy would be carried in 
+procession from Hyde-Park-Corner to Tower-wharf? Certain it is, 
+Lucullus, in one of his triumphs, had one hundred and ten ships 
+of war (naves longas) carried through the streets of Rome. 
+Nothing can give a more contemptible idea of their naval power, 
+than this testimony of their historians, who declare that their 
+seamen or mariners were formed by exercising small row-boats in 
+an inclosed pool of fresh water. Had they not the sea within a 
+few miles of them, and the river Tyber running through their 
+capital! even this would have been much more proper for 
+exercising their watermen, than a pond of still-water, not much 
+larger than a cold-bath. I do believe in my conscience that half 
+a dozen English frigates would have been able to defeat both the 
+contending fleets at the famous battle of Actium, which has been 
+so much celebrated in the annals of antiquity, as an event that 
+decided the fate of empire.
+
+It would employ me a whole month to describe the thermae or 
+baths, the vast ruins of which are still to be seen within the 
+walls of Rome, like the remains of so many separate citadels. The 
+thermae Dioclesianae might be termed an august academy for the 
+use and instruction of the Roman people. The pinacotheca of this 
+building was a complete musaeum of all the curiosities of art and 
+nature; and there were public schools for all the sciences. If I 
+may judge by my eye, however, the thermae Antonianae built by 
+Caracalla, were still more extensive and magnificent; they 
+contained cells sufficient for two thousand three hundred persons 
+to bathe at one time, without being seen by one another. They 
+were adorned with all the charms of painting, architecture, and 
+sculpture. The pipes for convoying the water were of silver. Many 
+of the lavacra were of precious marble, illuminated by lamps of 
+chrystal. Among the statues, were found the famous Toro, and 
+Hercole Farnese.
+
+Bathing was certainly necessary to health and cleanliness in a 
+hot country like Italy, especially before the use of linen was 
+known: but these purposes would have been much better answered by 
+plunging into the Tyber, than by using the warm bath in the 
+thermae, which became altogether a point of luxury borrowed from 
+the effeminate Asiatics, and tended to debilitate the fibres 
+already too much relaxed by the heat of the climate. True it is, 
+they had baths of cool water for the summer: but in general they 
+used it milk-warm, and often perfumed: they likewise indulged in 
+vapour-baths, in order to enjoy a pleasing relaxation, which they 
+likewise improved with odoriferous ointments.
+
+The thermae consisted of a great variety of parts and 
+conveniences; the natationes, or swimming places; the portici, 
+where people amused themselves in walking, conversing, and 
+disputing together, as Cicero says, In porticibus deambulantes 
+disputabant; the basilicae, where the bathers assembled, before 
+they entered, and after they came out of the bath; the atria, or 
+ample courts, adorned with noble colonnades of Numidian marble 
+and oriental granite; the ephibia, where the young men inured 
+themselves to wrestling and other exercises; the frigidaria, or 
+places kept cool by a constant draught of air, promoted by the 
+disposition and number of the windows; the calidaria, where the 
+water was warmed for the baths; the platanones, or delightful 
+groves of sycamore; the stadia, for the performances of the 
+athletae; the exedrae, or resting-places, provided with seats for 
+those that were weary; the palestrae, where every one chose that 
+exercise which pleased him best; the gymnasia, where poets, 
+orators, and philosophers recited their works, and harangued for 
+diversion; the eleotesia, where the fragrant oils and ointments 
+were kept for the use of the bathers; and the conisteria, where 
+the wrestlers were smeared with sand before they engaged. Of the 
+thermae in Rome, some were mercenary, and some opened gratis. 
+Marcus Agrippa, when he was edile, opened one hundred and seventy 
+private baths, for the use of the people. In the public baths, 
+where money was taken, each person paid a quadrans, about the 
+value of our halfpenny, as Juvenal observes,
+
+Caedere Sylvano porcum, quadrante lavari.
+
+The victim Pig to God Sylvanus slay,
+And for the public Bath a farthing pay.
+
+But after the hour of bathing was past, it sometimes cost a great 
+deal more, according to Martial,
+
+Balnea post decimam, lasso centumque petuntur 
+Quadrantes--
+
+The bathing hour is past, the waiter tir'd; 
+An hundred Farthings now will be requir'd.
+
+Though there was no distinction in the places between the first 
+patrician and the lowest plebeian, yet the nobility used their 
+own silver and gold plate, for washing, eating, and drinking in 
+the bath, together with towels of the finest linen. They likewise 
+made use of the instrument called strigil, which was a kind of 
+flesh-brush; a custom to which Persius alludes in this line,
+
+I puer, et strigiles Crispini ad balnea defer.
+
+Here, Boy, this Brush to Crispin's Bagnio bear.
+
+The common people contented themselves with sponges. The bathing 
+time was from noon till the evening, when the Romans ate their 
+principal meal. Notice was given by a bell, or some such 
+instrument, when the baths were opened, as we learn from Juvenal,
+
+Redde Pilam, sonat Aes thermarum, ludere pergis? 
+Virgine vis sola lotus abdire domum.
+
+Leave off; the Bath Bell rings--what, still play on? 
+Perhaps the maid in private rubs you down.
+
+There were separate places for the two sexes; and indeed there 
+were baths opened for the use of women only, at the expence of 
+Agrippina, the mother of Nero, and some other matrons of the 
+first quality. The use of bathing was become so habitual to the 
+constitutions of the Romans, that Galen, in his book De Sanitate 
+tuenda, mentions a certain philosopher, who, if he intermitted 
+but one day in his bathing, was certainly attacked with a fever. 
+In order to preserve decorum in the baths, a set of laws and 
+regulations were published, and the thermae were put under the 
+inspection of a censor, who was generally one of the first 
+senators in Rome. Agrippa left his gardens and baths, which stood 
+near the pantheon, to the Roman people: among the statues that 
+adorned them was that of a youth naked, as going into the bath, 
+so elegantly formed by the hand of Lysippus, that Tiberius, being 
+struck with the beauty of it, ordered it to be transferred into 
+his own palace: but the populace raised such a clamour against 
+him, that he was fain to have it reconveyed to its former place. 
+These noble baths were restored by Adrian, as we read in 
+Spartian; but at present no part of them remains.
+
+With respect to the present state of the old aqueducts, I can 
+give you very little satisfaction. I only saw the ruins of that 
+which conveyed the aqua Claudia, near the Porta Maggiore, and the 
+Piazza of the Lateran. You know there were fourteen of those 
+antient aqueducts, some of which brought water to Rome from the 
+distance of forty miles. The channels of them were large enough 
+to admit a man armed on horseback; and therefore when Rome was 
+besieged by the Goths, who had cut off the water, Belisarius 
+fortified them with works to prevent the enemy from entering the 
+city by those conveyances. After that period, I suppose the 
+antient aqueducts continued dry, and were suffered to run to 
+ruins. Without all doubt, the Romans were greatly obliged to 
+those benefactors, who raised such stupendous works for the 
+benefit, as well as the embellishment of their city: but it might 
+have been supplied with the same water through pipes at one 
+hundredth part of the expence; and in that case the enemy would 
+not have found it such an easy matter to cut it off. Those popes 
+who have provided the modern city so plentifully with excellent 
+water, are much to be commended for the care and expence, they 
+have bestowed in restoring the streams called acqua Virgine, 
+acqua Felice, and acqua Paolina, which afford such abundance of 
+water as would plentifully supply a much larger city than modern 
+Rome.
+
+It is no wonder that M. Agrippa, the son-in-law, friend, and 
+favourite of Augustus, should at the same time have been the idol 
+of the people, considering how surprisingly he exerted himself 
+for the emolument, convenience, and pleasure of his fellow-citizens. 
+It was he who first conducted this acqua Virgine to 
+Rome: he formed seven hundred reservoirs in the city; erected one 
+hundred and five fountains; one hundred and thirty castella, or 
+conduits, which works he
+adorned with three hundred statues, and four hundred pillars of 
+marble, in the space of one year. He also brought into Rome, the 
+aqua Julia, and restored the aqueduct of the aqua Marzia, which 
+had fallen to decay. I have already observed the great number of 
+baths which he opened for the people, and the magnificent 
+thermae, with spacious gardens, which he bequeathed to them as a 
+legacy. But these benefactions, great and munificent as they seem 
+to be, were not the most important services he performed for the 
+city of Rome. The common-sewers were first made by order of 
+Tarquinius Priscus, not so much with a view to cleanliness, as by 
+way of subterranean drains to the Velabrum, and in order to carry 
+off the stagnant water, which remained in the lower parts, after 
+heavy rains. The different branches of these channels united at 
+the Forum, from whence by the cloaca Maxima, their contents were 
+conveyed into the Tyber. This great cloaca was the work of 
+Tarquinius Superbus. Other sewers were added by Marcus Cato, and 
+Valerius Flaccus, the censors. All these drains having been 
+choaked up and ruinous, were cleared and restored by Marcus 
+Agrippa, who likewise undermined the whole city with canals of 
+the same kind, for carrying of the filth; he strengthened and 
+enlarged the cloaca maxima, so as to make it capable of receiving 
+a large cart loaded with hay; and directed seven streams of water 
+into these subterranean passages, in order to keep them always 
+clean and open. If, notwithstanding all these conveniences, 
+Vespasian was put to great expence in removing the ordure from 
+the public streets, we have certainly a right to conclude that 
+the antient Romans were not more cleanly than the modern 
+Italians.
+
+After the mausolea of Augustus, and Adrian, which I have already 
+mentioned, the most remarkable antient sepulchres at Rome, are 
+those of Caius Cestius, and Cecilia Metella. The first, which 
+stands by the Porta di S. Paolo, is a beautiful pyramid, one 
+hundred and twenty feet high, still preserved intire, having a 
+vaulted chamber within-side, adorned with some ancient painting, 
+which is now almost effaced. The building is of brick, but eased 
+with marble. This Caius Cestius had been consul, was very rich, 
+and acted as one of the seven Epulones, who superintended the 
+feasts of the gods, called Lectisternia, and Pervigilia. He 
+bequeathed his whole fortune to his friend M. Agrippa, who was so 
+generous as to give it up to the relations of the testator. The 
+monument of Cecilia Metella, commonly called Capo di Bove, is 
+without the walls on the Via Appia. This lady was daughter of 
+Metellus Creticus, and wife to Crassus, who erected this noble 
+monument to her memory. It consisted of two orders, or stories, 
+the first of which was a square of hewn stone: the second was a 
+circular tower, having a cornice, adorned with ox heads in basso 
+relievo, a circumstance from which it takes the name of Capo di 
+Bove. The ox was supposed to be a most grateful sacrifice to the 
+gods. Pliny, speaking of bulls and oxen, says,
+
+Hinc victimae optimae et laudatissima deorum placatio.
+
+They were accounted the best Victims and most agreeable to 
+appease the anger of the Gods.
+
+This tower was surmounted by a noble cupola or dome, enriched 
+with all the ornaments of architecture. The door of the building 
+was of brass; and within-side the ashes of Cecilia were deposited 
+in a fluted marble urn, of curious workmanship, which is still 
+kept in the Palazzo Farnese. At present the surface of the ground 
+is raised so much as to cover the first order of the edifice: 
+what we see is no more than the round tower, without the dome and 
+its ornaments; and the following inscription still remains near 
+the top, facing the Via Appia. 
+
+CAECILLAE
+Q. CRETICI F.
+METELLAE
+CRASSI.
+
+To Caecilia Metella, Daughter of Q. Criticus: wife of Crassus.
+
+Now we are talking of sepulchral inscriptions, I shall conclude 
+this letter with the copy of a very singular will, made by 
+Favonius Jocundus, who died in Portugal, by which will the 
+precise situation of the famous temple of Sylvanus is 
+ascertained.
+
+"Jocundi.
+Ego gallus Favonius Jocundus P. Favoni F. qui bello contra 
+Viriatum Succubui, Jocundum et Prudentem filios, e me et Quintia 
+Fabia conjuge mea ortos, et Bonorum Jocundi Patris mei, et eorum, 
+quae mihi ipsi acquisivi haeredes relinquo; hac tamen conditione, 
+ut ab urbe Romana huc veniant, et ossa hic mea, intra 
+quinquennium exportent, et via latina condant in sepulchro, jussu 
+meo condito, et mea voluntate; in quo velim neminem mecum, neque 
+servum, neque libertum inseri; et velim ossa quorumcunque 
+sepulchro statim meo eruantur, et jura Romanorum serventur, in 
+sepulchris ritu majorum retinendis, juxta volantatem testatoris; 
+et si secus fecerint, nisi legittimae oriantur causae, velim ea 
+omnia, quae filijs meis relinquo, pro reparando templo dei 
+Sylvani, quod sub viminali monte est, attribui; manesque mei a 
+Pont. max; a flaminibus dialibus, qui in capitolio sunt, opem 
+implorent, ad liberorum meorum impietatem ulciscendam; 
+teneanturque sacerdotes dei Silvani, me in urbem referre, et 
+sepulchro me meo condere. Volo quoque vernas qui domi meae sunt, 
+omnes a praetore urbano liberos, cum matribus dimitti, 
+singulisque libram argenti puri, et vestem unam dori. In 
+Lusitania. In agro VIII. Cal Quintilis, bello viriatino."
+
+I, Gallus Favonius Jocundus, son of P. Favonius, dying in the war 
+against Viriatus, declare my sons Jocundus and Prudens, by my 
+wife Quintia Fabia, joint Heirs of my Estate, real and personal; 
+on condition, however, that they come hither within a time of 
+five years from this my last will, and transport my remains to 
+Rome to be deposited in my Sepulchre built in the via latina by 
+my own order and Direction: and it is my will that neither slave 
+nor freedman shall be interred with me in the said tomb; that if 
+any such there be, they shall be removed, and the Roman law 
+obeyed, in preserving in the antient Form the sepulchre according 
+to the will of the Testator. If they act otherwise without just 
+cause, it is my will that the whole estate, which I now bequeathe 
+to my children, shall be applied to the Reparation of the Temple 
+of the God Sylvanus, at the foot of Mount Viminalis; and that my 
+Manes [The Manes were an order of Gods supposed to take 
+cognisance of such injuries.] I shall implore the assistance of 
+the Pontifex maximus, and the Flaminisdiales in the Capitol, to 
+avenge the Impiety of my children; and the priests of Sylvanus 
+shall engage to bring my remains to Rome and see them decently 
+deposited in my own Sepulchre. It is also my will that all my 
+domestic slaves shall be declared free by the city Praetor, and 
+dismissed with their mothers, after having received each, a suit 
+of cloaths, and a pound weight of pure silver from my heirs and 
+Executors.--At my farm in Lusitania, July 25. During the Viriatin 
+war.
+
+My paper scarce affords room to assure you that I am ever,--Dear 
+Sir, Your faithful, etc.
+
+LETTER XXXIII
+
+NICE, March 30, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--YOU must not imagine I saw one half of the valuable 
+pictures and statues of Rome; there is such a vast number of both 
+in this capital, that I might have spent a whole year in taking 
+even a transient view of them; and, after all, some of them would 
+have been overlooked. The most celebrated pieces, however, I have 
+seen; and therefore my curiosity is satisfied. Perhaps, if I had 
+the nice discernment and delicate sensibility of a true 
+connoisseur, this superficial glimpse would have served only to 
+whet my appetite, and to detain me the whole winter at Rome. In 
+my progress through the Vatican, I was much pleased with the 
+School of Athens, by Raphael, a piece which hath suffered from 
+the dampness of the air. The four boys attending to the 
+demonstration of the mathematician are admirably varied in the 
+expression. Mr. Webb's criticism on this artist is certainly 
+just. He was perhaps the best ethic painter that ever the world 
+produced. No man ever expressed the sentiments so happily, in 
+visage, attitude, and gesture: but he seems to have had too much 
+phlegm to strike off the grand passions, or reach the sublime 
+parts of painting. He has the serenity of Virgil, but wants the 
+fire of Homer. There is nothing in his Parnassus which struck me, 
+but the ludicrous impropriety of Apollo's playing upon a fiddle, 
+for the entertainment of the nine muses. [Upon better information 
+I must retract this censure; in as much, as I find there was 
+really a Musical Instrument among the antients of this Figure, as 
+appears by a small statue in Bronze, to be still seen in the 
+Florentine Collection.]
+
+The Last Judgment, by Buonaroti, in the chapel of Sixtus IV. 
+produced to my eye the same sort of confusion, that perplexes my 
+ear at a grand concert, consisting of a great variety of 
+instruments: or rather, when a number of people are talking all 
+at once. I was pleased with the strength of expression, exhibited 
+in single figures, and separate groupes: but, the whole together 
+is a mere mob, without subordination, keeping, or repose. A 
+painter ought to avoid all subjects that require a multiplicity 
+of groupes and figures; because it is not in the power of that 
+art to unite a great number in one point of view, so as to 
+maintain that dependence which they ought to have upon one 
+another. Michael Angelo, with all his skill in anatomy, his 
+correctness of design, his grand composition, his fire, and force 
+of expression, seems to have had very little idea of grace. One 
+would imagine he had chosen his kings, heroes, cardinals, and 
+prelates, from among the facchini of Rome: that he really drew 
+his Jesus on the Cross, from the agonies of some vulgar assassin 
+expiring on the wheel; and that the originals of his Bambini, 
+with their mothers, were literally found in a stable. In the Sala 
+Regia, from whence the Sistian chapel is detached, we see, among 
+other exploits of catholic heroes, a representation of the 
+massacre of the protestants in Paris, Tholouse, and other parts 
+of France, on the eve of St. Bartholomew, thus described in the 
+Descrizione di Roma, "Nella prima pittura, esprime Georgio Vasari 
+l'istoria del Coligni, grand' amiraglio, di Francia, che come 
+capo de ribelli, e degl'ugonotti, fu ucciso; e nell'altra vicina, 
+la strage fatta in Parigi, e nel regno, de rebelli, e 
+degl'Ugonotti." "In the first picture, George Vasari represents 
+the history of Coligni, high admiral of France, who was slain as 
+head of the rebels and huegonots; and in another near it, the 
+slaughter that was made of the rebels and huegonots in Paris and 
+other parts of the kingdom." Thus the court of Rome hath employed 
+their artists to celebrate and perpetuate, as a meritorious 
+action, the most perfidious, cruel, and infamous massacre, that 
+ever disgraced the annals of any nation.
+
+I need not mention the two equestrian statues of Constantine the 
+Great, and Charlemagne, which stand at opposite ends of the great 
+portico of St. Peter's church; because there is nothing in them 
+which particularly engaged my attention. The sleeping Cleopatra, 
+as you enter the court of the Belvedere, in the Vatican, is much 
+admired; but I was better pleased with the Apollo, which I take 
+to be the most beautiful statue that ever was formed. The Nile, 
+which lies in the open court, surmounted with the little 
+children, has infinite merit; but is much damaged, and altogether 
+neglected. Whether it is the same described in Pliny, as having 
+been placed by Vespasian in the Temple of Peace, I do not know. 
+The sixteen children playing about it, denoted the swelling of 
+the Nile, which never rose above sixteen cubits. As for the 
+famous groupe of Laocoon, it surpassed my expectation. It was not 
+without reason that Buonaroti called it a portentous work; and 
+Pliny has done it no more than justice in saying it is the most 
+excellent piece that ever was cut in marble; and yet the famous 
+Fulvius Ursini is of opinion that this is not the same statue 
+which Pliny described. His reasons, mentioned by Montfaucon, are 
+these. The statues described by Pliny were of one stone; but 
+these are not. Antonioli, the antiquary, has in his Possession, 
+pieces of Laocoon's snakes, which were found in the ground, where 
+the baths of Titus actually stood, agreeable to Pliny, who says 
+these statues were placed in the buildings of Titus. Be that as 
+it may, the work which we now see does honour to antiquity. As 
+you have seen innumerable copies and casts of it, in marble, 
+plaister, copper, lead, drawings, and prints, and read the 
+description of it in Keysler, and twenty other books of travels, 
+I shall say nothing more on the subject; but that neither they 
+nor I, nor any other person, could say too much in its praise. It 
+is not of one piece indeed. In that particular Pliny himself 
+might be mistaken. "Opus omnibus et picturae, et statuariae artis 
+praeponendum. Ex uno lapide eum et Liberos draconumque mirabiles 
+nexus de consilii sententia fecere succubi artifices." "A work 
+preferable to all the other Efforts of Painting and Statuary. The 
+most excellent artists joined their Talents in making the Father 
+and his Sons, together with the admirable Twinings of the 
+Serpents, of one Block." Buonaroti discovered the joinings, 
+though they were so artfully concealed as to be before invisible. 
+This amazing groupe is the work of three Rhodian sculptors, 
+called Agesander, Polydore, and Athenodorus, and was found in the 
+thermae of Titus Vespasian, still supposing it to be the true 
+antique. As for the torso, or mutilated trunk of a statue, which 
+is called the school of Michael Angelo, I had not time to 
+consider it attentively; nor taste enough to perceive its 
+beauties at first sight. The famous horses on Monte Cavallo, 
+before the pope's palace, which are said to have been made in 
+emulation, by Phidias and Praxiteles, I have seen, and likewise 
+those in the front of the Capitol, with the statues of Castor and 
+Pollux; but what pleased me infinitely more than all of them 
+together, is the equestrian statue of Corinthian brass, standing 
+in the middle of this Piazza (I mean at the Capitol) said to 
+represent the emperor Marcus Aurelius. Others suppose it was 
+intended for Lucius Verus; a third set of antiquaries contend for 
+Lucius Septimius Severus; and a fourth, for Constantine, because 
+it stood in the Piazza of the Lateran palace, built by that 
+emperor, from whence pope Paul III. caused it to be removed to 
+the Capitol. I considered the trophy of Marius as a very curious 
+piece of sculpture, and admired the two sphinxes at the bottom of 
+the stairs leading to this Piazza, as the only good specimens of 
+design I have ever seen from Aegypt: for the two idols of that 
+country, which stand in the ground floor of the Musaeum of the 
+Capitol, and indeed all the Aegyptian statues in the Camera 
+Aegyptiaca of this very building, are such monstrous 
+misrepresentations of nature, that they never could have obtained 
+a place among the statues of Rome, except as curiosities of 
+foreign superstition, or on account of the materials, as they are 
+generally of basaltes, porphyry, or oriental granite.
+
+At the farther end of the court of this Musaeum, fronting the 
+entrance, is a handsome fountain, with the statue of a river-god 
+reclining on his urn; this is no other than the famous Marforio, 
+so called from its having been found in Martis Fore. It is 
+remarkable only as being the conveyance of the answers to the 
+satires which are found pasted upon Pasquin, another mutilated 
+statue, standing at the corner of a street.
+
+The marble coffin, supposed to have contained the ashes of 
+Alexander Severus, which we find in one of these apartments, is a 
+curious antique, valuable for its sculpture in basso relievo, 
+especially for the figures on the cover, representilig that 
+emperor and his mother Julia Mammea.
+
+I was sorry I had not time to consider the antient plan of Rome, 
+disposed in six classes, on the stair-case of this Musaeum, which 
+was brought hither from a temple that stood in the Forum Boarium, 
+now called Campo vaccine.
+
+It would be ridiculous in me to enter into a detail of the vast 
+collection of marbles, basso relievos, inscriptions, urns, busts, 
+and statues, which are placed in the upper apartments of this 
+edifice. I saw them but once, and then I was struck with the 
+following particulars. A bacchanalian drunk; a Jupiter and Leda, 
+at least equal to that in the gallery at Florence; an old 
+praesica, or hired mourner, very much resembling those wrinkled 
+hags still employed in Ireland, and in the Highlands of Scotland, 
+to sing the coronach at funerals, in praise of the deceased; the 
+famous Antinous, an elegant figure, which Pousin studied as canon 
+or rule of symmetry; the two fauns; and above all the mirmillone, 
+or dying gladiator; the attitude of the body, the expression of 
+the countenance, the elegance of the limbs, and the swelling of 
+the muscles, in this statue, are universally admired; but the 
+execution of the back is incredibly delicate. The course of the 
+muscles called longissimi dorsi, are so naturally marked and 
+tenderly executed, that the marble actually emulates the softness 
+of the flesh; and you may count all the spines of the vertebrae, 
+raising up the skin as in the living body; yet this statue, with 
+all its merit, seems inferior to the celebrated dying gladiator 
+of Ctesilas, as described by Pliny, who says the expression of it 
+was such, as appears altogether incredible. In the court, on the 
+opposite side of the Capitol, there is an admirable statue of a 
+lion devouring an horse, which was found by the gate of Ostia, 
+near the pyramid of Caius Cestius; and here on the left hand, 
+under a colonade, is what they call the Columna Rostrata, erected 
+in honour of Caius Duilius, who first triumphed over the 
+Carthaginians by sea. But this is a modern pillar, with the old 
+inscription, which is so defaced as not to be legible. Among the 
+pictures in the gallery and saloon above, what pleased me most 
+was the Bacchus and Ariadne of Guido Rheni; and the wolf suckling 
+Romulus and Remus, by Rubens. The court of the Palazzo Farnese is 
+surrounded with antique statues, among which the most celebrated 
+are, the Flora, with a most delicate drapery; the gladiator, with 
+a dead boy over his shoulder; the Hercules, with the spoils of 
+the Nemean lion, but that which the connoisseurs justly esteem 
+above all the rest is Hercules, by Glycon, which you know as well 
+as I do, by the great reputation it has acquired. This admirable 
+statue having been found without the legs, these were supplied by 
+Gulielmo de la Porta so happily, that when afterwards the 
+original limbs were discovered, Michael Angelo preferred those of 
+the modern artist, both in grace and proportion; and they have 
+been retained accordingly. In a little house, or shed, behind the 
+court, is preserved the wonderful group of Dirce, commonly called 
+the Toro Farnese, which was brought hither from the thermae 
+Caracallae. There is such spirit, ferocity, and indignant 
+resistance expressed in the bull, to whose horns Dirce is tied by 
+the hair, that I have never seen anything like it, either upon 
+canvass, or in stone. The statues of the two brothers 
+endeavouring to throw him into the sea are beautiful figures, 
+finely contrasted; and the rope, which one of them holds in a 
+sort of loose coil, is so surprisingly chizzelled, that one can 
+hardly believe it is of stone. As for Dirce herself, she seems to 
+be but a subaltern character; there is a dog upon his hind legs 
+barking at the bull, which is much admired. This amazing groupe 
+was cut out of one stone, by Appollonius and Tauriscus, two 
+sculptors of Rhodes; and is mentioned by Pliny in the thirty-
+sixth book of his Natural History. All the precious monuments of 
+art, which have come down to us from antiquity, are the 
+productions of Greek artists. The Romans had taste enough to 
+admire the arts of Greece, as plainly appears by the great 
+collections they made of their statues and pictures, as well as 
+by adopting their architecture and musick: but I do not remember 
+to have read of any Roman who made a great figure either as a 
+painter or a statuary. It is not enough to say those professions 
+were not honourable in Rome, because painting, sculpture, and 
+musick, even rhetoric, physic, and philosophy were practised and 
+taught by slaves. The arts were always honoured and revered at 
+Rome, even when the professors of them happened to be slaves by 
+the accidents and iniquity of fortune. The business of painting 
+and statuary was so profitable, that in a free republic, like 
+that of Rome, they must have been greedily embraced by a great 
+number of individuals: but, in all probability, the Roman soil 
+produced no extraordinary genius for those arts. Like the English 
+of this day, they made a figure in poetry, history, and ethics; 
+but the excellence of painting, sculpture, architecture, and 
+music, they never could attain. In the Palazzo Picchini I saw 
+three beautiful figures, the celebrated statues of Meleager, the 
+boar, and dog; together with a wolf, of excellent workmanship. 
+The celebrated statue of Moses, by Michael Angelo, in the church 
+of St. Peter in Vincula, I beheld with pleasure; as well as that 
+of Christ, by the same hand, in the Church of S. Maria sopra 
+Minerva. The right foot, covered with bronze, gilt, is much 
+kissed by the devotees. I suppose it is looked upon as a specific 
+for the toothache; for, I saw a cavalier, in years, and an old 
+woman successively rub their gums upon it, with the appearance of 
+the most painful perseverance.
+
+You need not doubt but that I went to the church of St. Peter in 
+Montorio, to view the celebrated Transfiguration, by Raphael, 
+which, if it was mine, I would cut in two parts. The three 
+figures in the air attract the eye so strongly, that little or no 
+attention is payed to those below on the mountain. I apprehend 
+that the nature of the subject does not admit of that keeping and 
+dependence, which ought to be maintained in the disposition of 
+the lights and shadows in a picture. The groupes seem to be 
+intirely independent of each other. The extraordinary merit of 
+this piece, I imagine, consists, not only in the expression of 
+divinity on the face of Christ; but also in the surprising 
+lightness of the figure, that hovers like a beautiful exhalation 
+in the air. In the church of St. Luke, I was not at all struck by 
+the picture of that saint, drawing the portrait of the Virgin 
+Mary, although it is admired as one of the best pieces of 
+Raphael. Indeed it made so little impression upon me, that I do 
+not even remember the disposition of the figures. The altar-piece, 
+by Andrea Sacchi, in the church of St. Romauldus, would 
+have more merit, if the figure of the saint himself had more 
+consequence, and was represented in a stronger light. In the 
+Palazzo Borghese, I chiefly admired the following pieces: a Venus 
+with two nymphs; and another with Cupid, both by Titian: an 
+excellent Roman Piety, by Leonardo da Vinci; and the celebrated 
+Muse, by Dominechino, which is a fine, jolly, buxom figure. At 
+the palace of Colorina Connestabile, I was charmed with the 
+Herodias, by Guido Rheni; a young Christ; and a Madonna, by 
+Raphael; and four landscapes, two by Claude Lorraine, and the 
+other two, by Salvator Rosa. In the palazetto, or summerhouse 
+belonging to the Palazzo Rospigliosi, I had the satisfaction of 
+contemplating the Aurora of Guido, the colours of which still 
+remain in high perfection, notwithstanding the common report that 
+the piece is spoiled by the dampness of the apartment. The print 
+of this picture, by Freij, with all its merit, conveys but an 
+imperfect idea of the beauty of the original. In the Palazzo 
+Barberini, there is a great collection of marbles and pictures: 
+among the first, I was attracted by a beautiful statue of Venus; 
+a sleeping faun, of curious workmanship; a charming Bacchus, 
+lying on an antient sculpture, and the famous Narcissus. Of the 
+pictures, what gave me most pleasure was the Magdalen of Guido, 
+infinitely superior to that by Le Brun in the church of the 
+Carmelites at Paris; the Virgin, by Titian; a Madonna, by 
+Raphael, but not comparable to that which is in the Palazzo de 
+Pitti, at Florence; and the death of Germanicus, by Poussin, 
+which I take to be one of the best pieces in this great 
+collection. In the Palazzo Falconeri there is a beautiful St. 
+Cecilia, by Guercino; a holy family, by Raphael; and a fine 
+expressive figure of St. Peter weeping, by Dominechino. In the 
+Palazzo Altieri, I admired a picture, by Carlo Maratti, 
+representing a saint calling down lightning from heaven to 
+destroy blasphemers. It was the figure of the saint I admired, 
+merely as a portrait. The execution of the other parts was tame 
+enough: perhaps they were purposely kept down, in order to 
+preserve the importance of the principal figure. I imagine 
+Salvator Rosa would have made a different disposition on the same 
+subject: that amidst the darkness of a tempest, he would have 
+illuminated the blasphemer with the flash of lightning by which 
+he was destroyed: this would have thrown a dismal gleam upon his 
+countenance, distorted by the horror of his situation as well as 
+by the effects of the fire; and rendered the whole scene 
+dreadfully picturesque. In the same palace, I saw the famous holy 
+family, by Corregio, which he left unfinished, and no other 
+artist would undertake to supply; for what reason I know not. 
+Here too is a judgment of Paris, by Titian, which is reckoned a 
+very valuable piece. In the Palazzo Odescalchi, there is a holy 
+family, by Buonaroti, and another by Raphael, both counted 
+excellent, though in very different stiles, extremely 
+characteristic of those two great rival artists.
+
+If I was silly enough to make a parade, I might mention some 
+hundreds more of marbles and pictures, which I really saw at 
+Rome; and even eke out that number with a huge list of those I 
+did not see: but whatever vanity I may have, it has not taken 
+this turn; and I assure you, upon my word and honour, I have 
+described nothing but what actually fell under my own 
+observation. As for my critical remarks, I am afraid you will 
+think them too superficial and capricious to belong to any other 
+person but--Your humble servant.
+
+LETTER XXXIV
+
+NICE, April 2, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--I have nothing to communicate touching the library of 
+the Vatican, which, with respect to the apartments and their 
+ornaments, is undoubtedly magnificent. The number of books it 
+contains does not exceed forty thousand volumes, which are all 
+concealed from the view, and locked up in presses: as for the 
+manuscripts, I saw none but such as are commonly presented to 
+strangers of our nation; some very old copies of Virgil and 
+Terence; two or three Missals, curiously illuminated; the book De 
+Septem Sacramentis, written in Latin by Henry VIII. against 
+Luther; and some of that prince's love letters to Anne Boleyn. I 
+likewise visited the Libreria Casanatense, belonging to the 
+convent of the church called S. Maria Sopra Minerva. I had a 
+recommendation to the principal librarian, a Dominican friar, who 
+received me very politely, and regaled me with a sight of several 
+curious MSS. of the classics.
+
+Having satisfied my curiosity at Rome, I prepared for my 
+departure, and as the road between Radicofani and Montefiascone 
+is very stony and disagreeable, I asked the banker Barazzi, if 
+there was not a better way of returning to Florence, expressing a 
+desire at the same time to see the cascade of Terni. He assured 
+me that the road by Terni was forty miles shorter than the other, 
+much more safe and easy, and accommodated with exceeding good 
+auberges. Had I taken the trouble to cast my eyes upon the map, I 
+must have seen, that the road by Terni, instead of being forty 
+miles shorter, was much longer than the other: but this was not 
+the only mistake of Signiore Barazzi. Great part of this way lies 
+over steep mountains, or along the side of precipices, which 
+render travelling in a carriage exceeding tedious, dreadful, and 
+dangerous; and as for the public houses, they are in all respects 
+the most execrable that ever I entered. I will venture to say 
+that a common prisoner in the Marshalsea or King's-Bench is more 
+cleanly and commodiously lodged than we were in many places on 
+this road. The houses are abominably nasty, and generally 
+destitute of provision: when eatables were found, we were almost 
+poisoned by their cookery: their beds were without curtains or 
+bedstead, and their windows without glass; and for this sort of 
+entertainment we payed as much as if we had been genteelly 
+lodged, and sumptuously treated. I repeat it again; of all the 
+people I ever knew, the Italians are the most villainously 
+rapacious. The first day, having passed Civita Castellana, a 
+small town standing on the top of a hill, we put up at what was 
+called an excellent inn, where cardinals, prelates, and princes, 
+often lodged. Being meagre day, there was nothing but bread, 
+eggs, and anchovies, in the house. I went to bed without supper, 
+and lay in a pallet, where I was half devoured by vermin. Next 
+day, our road, in some places, lay along precipices, which over-hang 
+the Nera or Nar, celebrated in antiquity for its white foam, 
+and the sulphureous quality of its waters.
+
+Sulfurea nar albus aqua, fontesque velini.
+
+Sulphureous nar, and the Velinian streams.
+
+It is a small, but rapid stream, which runs not far from hence, 
+into the Tyber. Passing Utricoli, near the ruins of the ancient 
+Ocriculum, and the romantic town of Narni, situated on the top of 
+a mountain, in the neighbourhood of which is still seen standing 
+one arch of the stupendous bridge built by Augustus Caesar, we 
+arrived at Terni, and hiring a couple of chaises before dinner, 
+went to see the famous Cascata delle Marmore, which is at the 
+distance of three miles. We ascended a steep mountain by a narrow 
+road formed for a considerable way along the brink of a 
+precipice, at the bottom of which brawls the furious river Nera, 
+after having received the Velino. This last is the stream which, 
+running from the Lago delle Marmore, forms the cascade by falling 
+over a precipice about one hundred and sixty feet high. Such a 
+body of water rushing down the mountain; the smoak, vapour, and 
+thick white mist which it raises; the double rainbow which these 
+particles continually exhibit while the sun shines; the deafening 
+sound of the cataract; the vicinity of a great number of other 
+stupendous rocks and precipices, with the dashing, boiling, and 
+foaming of the two rivers below, produce altogether an object of 
+tremendous sublimity: yet great part of its effect is lost, for 
+want of a proper point of view, from which it might be 
+contemplated. The cascade would appear much more astonishing, 
+were it not in some measure eclipsed by the superior height of 
+the neighbouring mountains. You have not a front perspective; but 
+are obliged to view it obliquely on one side, standing upon the 
+brink of a precipice, which cannot be approached without horror. 
+This station might be rendered much more accessible, and 
+altogether secure, for the expence of four or five zequines; and 
+a small tax might be levied for the purpose from travellers by 
+the aubergiste at Terni, who lets his calasses for half a zequine 
+a piece to those that are curious to see this phaenomenon. 
+Besides the two postilions whom I payed for this excursion, at 
+the rate of one stage in posting, there was a fellow who posted 
+himself behind one of the chaises, by way of going to point out 
+the different views of the cascade; and his demand amounted to 
+four or five pauls. To give you an idea of the extortion of those 
+villainous publicans, I must tell you that for a dinner and 
+supper, which even hunger could not tempt us to eat, and a 
+night's lodging in three truckle beds, I paid eighty pauls, 
+amounting to forty shillings sterling. You ask me why I submitted 
+to such imposition? I will tell you--I have more than once in my 
+travels made a formal complaint of the exorbitancy of a publican, 
+to the magistrate of the place; but I never received any 
+satisfaction, and have lost abundance of time. Had I proceeded to 
+manual correction, I should have alarmed and terrified the women: 
+had I peremptorily refused to pay the sum total, the landlord, 
+who was the post-master, would not have supplied me with horses 
+to proceed on my journey. I tried the experiment at Muy in 
+France, where I put myself into a violent passion, had abundance 
+of trouble, was detained till it was almost night, and after all 
+found myself obliged to submit, furnishing at the same time 
+matter of infinite triumph to the mob, which had surrounded the 
+coach, and interested themselves warmly in favour of their 
+townsman. If some young patriot, in good health and spirits, 
+would take the trouble as often as he is imposed upon by the road 
+in travelling, to have recourse to the fountain-head, and prefer 
+a regular complaint to the comptroller of the posts, either in 
+France or Italy, he would have ample satisfaction, and do great 
+service to the community. Terni is an agreeable town, pretty well 
+built, and situated in a pleasant valley, between two branches of 
+the river Nera, whence it was called by the antients, Interamna. 
+Here is an agreeable piazza, where stands a church that was of 
+old a heathen temple. There are some valuable paintings in the 
+church. The people are said to be very civil, and provisions to 
+be extremely cheap. It was the birthplace of the emperor Tacitus, 
+as well as of the historian of the same name. In our journey from 
+hence to Spoleto, we passed over a high mountain, (called, from 
+its height, Somma) where it was necessary to have two additional 
+horses to the carriage, and the road winds along a precipice. 
+which is equally dangerous and dreadful. We passed through part 
+of Spoleto, the capital of Umbria, which is a pretty large city. 
+Of this, however, I give no other account from my own 
+observation, but that I saw at a distance the famous Gothic 
+aqueduct of brick: this is mentioned by Addison as a structure,
+which, for the height of its arches, is not equalled by any thing 
+in Europe. The road from hence to Foligno, where we lay, is kept 
+in good order, and lies through a delightful plain, laid out into 
+beautiful inclosures, abounding with wine, oil, corn, and cattle, 
+and watered by the pastoral streams of the famous river 
+Clitumnus, which takes its rise in three or four separate 
+rivulets issuing from a rock near the highway. On the right-hand, 
+we saw several towns situated on rising grounds, and among the 
+rest, that of Assissio, famous for the birth of St. Francis, 
+whose body, being here deposited, occasions a concourse of 
+pilgrims. We met a Roman princess going thither with a grand 
+retinue, in consequence of a vow she had made for the re-establishment 
+of her health. Foligno, the Fulginium of the 
+antients, is a small town, not unpleasant, lying in the midst of 
+mulberry plantations, vineyards, and corn-fields, and built on 
+both sides of the little river Topino. In choosing our beds at 
+the inn, I perceived one chamber locked, and desired it might be 
+opened; upon which the cameriere declared with some reluctance, 
+"Besogna dire a su' eccellenza; poco fa, che una bestia e morta 
+in questa camera, e non e ancora lustrata," "Your Excellency must 
+know that a filthy Beast died lately in that Chamber, and it is 
+not yet purified and put in order." When I enquired what beast it 
+was, he replied, "Un'eretico Inglese," "An English heretic." I 
+suppose he would not have made so free with our country and 
+religion, if he had not taken us for German catholics, as we 
+afterwards learned from Mr. R--i. Next day, we crossed the Tyber, 
+over a handsome bridge, and in mounting the steep hill upon which 
+the city of Perugia stands, our horses being exhausted, were 
+dragged backwards by the weight of the carriage to the very edge 
+of a precipice, where, happily for us, a man passing that way, 
+placed a large stone behind one of the wheels, which stopped 
+their motion, otherwise we should have been all dashed in pieces. 
+We had another ugly hill to ascend within the city, which was 
+more difficult and dangerous than the other: but the postilions, 
+and the other beasts made such efforts, that we mounted without 
+the least stop, to the summit, where we found ourselves in a 
+large piazza, where the horses are always changed. There being no 
+relays at the post, we were obliged to stay the whole day and 
+night at Perugia, which is a considerable city, built upon the 
+acclivity of a hill, adorned with some elegant fountains, and 
+several handsome churches, containing some valuable pictures by 
+Guido, Raphael, and his master Pietro Perugino, who was a native 
+of this place. The next stage is on the banks of the lake, which 
+was the Thrasimene of the antients, a beautiful piece of water, 
+above thirty miles in circumference, having three islands, 
+abounding with excellent fish: upon a peninsula of it, there is a 
+town and castle. It was in this neighbourhood where the consul 
+Flaminius was totally defeated with great slaughter by Hannibal. 
+From Perugia to Florence, the posts are all double, and the road 
+is so bad that we never could travel above eight and twenty miles 
+a day. We were often obliged to quit the carriage, and walk up 
+steep mountains; and the way in general was so unequal and stony, 
+that we were jolted even to the danger of our lives. I never felt 
+any sort of exercise or fatigue so intolerable; and I did not 
+fail to bestow an hundred benedictions per diem upon the banker 
+Barazzi, by whose advice we had taken this road; yet there was no 
+remedy but patience. If the coach had not been incredibly strong, 
+it must have been shattered to pieces. The fifth night we passed 
+at a place called Camoccia, a miserable cabaret, where we were 
+fain to cook our own supper, and lay in a musty chamber, which 
+had never known a fire, and indeed had no fire-place, and where 
+we ran the risque of being devoured by rats. Next day one of the 
+irons of the coach gave way at Arezzo, where we were detained two 
+hours before it could be accommodated. I might have taken this 
+opportunity to view the remains of the antient Etruscan 
+amphitheatre. and the temple of Hercules, described by the 
+cavalier Lorenzo Guazzesi, as standing in the neighbourhood of 
+this place: but the blacksmith assured me his work would be 
+finished in a few minutes; and as I had nothing so much at heart 
+as the speedy accomplishment of this disagreeable journey, I 
+chose to suppress my curiosity, rather than be the occasion of a 
+moment's delay. But all the nights we had hitherto passed were 
+comfortable in comparison to this, which we suffered at a small 
+village, the name of which I do not remember. The house was 
+dismal and dirty beyond all description; the bed-cloaths filthy 
+enough to turn the stomach of a muleteer; and the victuals cooked 
+in such a manner, that even a Hottentot could not have beheld 
+them without loathing. We had sheets of our own, which were 
+spread upon a mattrass, and here I took my repose wrapped in a 
+greatcoat, if that could be called repose which was interrupted 
+by the innumerable stings of vermin. In the morning, I was seized 
+with a dangerous fit of hooping-cough, which terrified my wife, 
+alarmed my people, and brought the whole community into the 
+house. I had undergone just such another at Paris, about a year 
+before. This forenoon, one of our coach wheels flew off in the 
+neighbourhood of Ancisa, a small town, where we were detained 
+above two hours by this accident; a delay which was productive of 
+much disappointment, danger, vexation, and fatigue. There being 
+no horses at the last post, we were obliged to wait until those 
+which brought us thither were sufficiently refreshed to proceed. 
+Understanding that all the gates of Florence are shut at six, 
+except two that are kept open for the accommodation of 
+travellers; and that to reach the nearest of these gates, it was 
+necessary to pass the river Arno in a ferry-boat, which could not 
+transport the carriage; I determined to send my servant before 
+with a light chaise to enter the nearest gate before it was 
+shut, and provide a coach to come and take us up at the side of 
+the river, where we should be obliged to pass in the boat: for I 
+could not bear the thoughts of lying another night in a common 
+cabaret. Here, however, another difficulty occurred. There was 
+but one chaise, and a dragoon officer, in the imperial troops, 
+insisted upon his having bespoke it for himself and his servant. 
+A long dispute ensued, which had like to have produced a quarrel: 
+but at length I accommodated matters, by telling the officer that 
+he should have a place in it gratis, and his servant might ride 
+a-horse-back. He accepted the offer without hesitation; but, in the mean 
+time, we set out in the coach before them, and having proceeded 
+about a couple of miles, the road was so deep from a heavy rain, 
+and the beasts were so fatigued, that they could not proceed. The 
+postilions scourging the poor animals with great barbarity, they 
+made an effort, and pulled the coach to the brink of a precipice, 
+or rather a kind of hollow-way, which might be about seven or 
+eight feet lower than the road. Here my wife and I leaped out, 
+and stood under the rain up to the ancles in mud; while the 
+postilions still exercising their whips, one of the fore-horses 
+fairly tumbled down the descent, arid hung by the neck, so that 
+he was almost strangled before he could be disengaged from the 
+traces, by the assistance of some foot travellers that happened 
+to pass. While we remained in this dilemma, the chaise, with the 
+officer and my servant, coming up, we exchanged places; my wife 
+and I proceeded in the chaise, and left them with Miss C-- and Mr. 
+R--, to follow in the coach. The road from hence to Florence is 
+nothing but a succession of steep mountains, paved and conducted 
+in such a manner, that one would imagine the design had been to 
+render it impracticable by any sort of wheel-carriage. 
+Notwithstanding all our endeavours, I found it would be 
+impossible to enter Florence before the gates were shut. I 
+flattered and threatened the driver by turns: but the fellow, who 
+had been remarkably civil at first, grew sullen and impertinent. 
+He told me I must not think of reaching Florence: that the boat 
+would not take the carriage on board; and that from the other 
+side, I must walk five miles before I should reach the gate that 
+was open: but he would carry me to an excellent osteria, where I 
+should be entertained and lodged like a prince. I was now 
+convinced that he had lingered on purpose to serve this inn-keeper; 
+and I took it for granted that what he told me of the 
+distance between the ferry and the gate was a lie. It was eight 
+o'clock when we arrived at his inn. I alighted with my wife to 
+view the chambers, desiring he would not put up his horses. 
+Finding it was a villainous house, we came forth, and, by this 
+time, the horses were put up. I asked the fellow how he durst 
+presume to contradict my orders, and commanded him to put them to 
+the chaise. He asked in his turn if I was mad? If I thought I and 
+the lady had strength and courage enough to walk five miles in 
+the dark, through a road which we did not know, and which was 
+broke up by a continued rain of two days? I told him he was an 
+impertinent rascal, and as he still hesitated, I collared him 
+with one hand, and shook my cane over his head with the other. It 
+was the only weapon I had, either offensive or defensive; for I 
+had left my sword, and musquetoon in the coach. At length the 
+fellow obeyed, though with great reluctance, cracking many severe 
+jokes upon us in the mean time, and being joined in his raillery 
+by the inn-keeper, who had all the external marks of a ruffian. 
+The house stood in a solitary situation, and not a soul appeared 
+but these two miscreants, so that they might have murdered us 
+without fear of detection. "You do not like the apartments? (said 
+one) to be sure they were not fitted up for persons of your rank 
+and quality!" "You will be glad of a worse chamber, (continued 
+the other) before you get to bed." "If you walk to Florence 
+tonight, you will sleep so sound, that the fleas will not disturb 
+you." "Take care you do not take up your night's lodging in the 
+middle of the road, or in the ditch of the city-wall." I fired 
+inwardly at these sarcasms, to which, however, I made no reply; 
+and my wife was almost dead with fear. In the road from hence to 
+the boat, we met with an ill-looking fellow, who offered his 
+service to conduct us into the city, and such was our situation, 
+that I was fain to accept his proposal, especially as we had two 
+small boxes in the chaise by accident, containing some caps and
+laces belonging to my wife, I still hoped the postilion had 
+exaggerated in the distance between the boat and the city gate, 
+and was confirmed in this opinion by the ferryman, who said we 
+had not above half a league to walk. Behold us then in this 
+expedition; myself wrapped up in a very heavy greatcoat, and my 
+cane in my hand. I did not imagine I could have walked a couple 
+of miles in this equipage, had my life been depending; my wife a 
+delicate creature, who had scarce ever walked a mile in her life; 
+and the ragamuffin before us with our boxes under his arm. The 
+night was dark and wet; the road slippery and dirty; not a soul 
+was seen, nor a sound was heard: all was silent, dreary, and 
+horrible. I laid my account with a violent fit of illness from 
+the cold I should infallibly catch, if I escaped assassination, 
+the fears of which were the more troublesome as I had no weapon 
+to defend our lives. While I laboured under the weight of my 
+greatcoat which made the streams of sweat flow down my face and 
+shoulders, I was plunging in the mud, up to the mid-leg at every 
+step; and at the same time obliged to support my wife, who wept 
+in silence, half dead with terror and fatigue. To crown our 
+vexation, our conductor walked so fast, that he was often out of 
+sight, and I imagined he had run away with the boxes. All I could 
+do on these occasions, was to hollow as loud as I could, and 
+swear horribly that I would blow his brains out. I did not know 
+but these oaths and menaces might keep other rogues in awe. In 
+this manner did we travel three long miles, making almost an 
+intire circuit of the city-wall, without seeing the face of a 
+human creature, and at length reached the gate, where we were 
+examined by the guard, and allowed to pass, after they had told 
+us it was a long mile from thence to the house of Vanini, where 
+we proposed to lodge. No matter, being now fairly within the 
+city, I plucked up my spirits, and performed the rest of the 
+journey with such ease, that I am persuaded, I could have walked 
+at the same pace all night long, without being very much 
+fatigued. It was near ten at night, when we entered the auberge 
+in such a draggled and miserable condition, that Mrs. Vanini 
+almost fainted at sight of us, on the supposition that we had met 
+with some terrible disaster, and that the rest of the company 
+were killed. My wife and I were immediately accommodated with dry 
+stockings and shoes, a warm apartment, and a good supper, which I 
+ate with great satisfaction, arising not only from our having 
+happily survived the adventure, but also from a conviction that 
+my strength and constitution were wonderfully repaired: not but 
+that I still expected a severe cold, attended with a terrible fit 
+of the asthma: but in this I was luckily disappointed. I now for 
+the first time drank to the health of my physician Barazzi, fully 
+persuaded that the hardships and violent exercise I underwent by 
+following his advice, had greatly contributed to the re-establishment 
+of my health. In this particular, I imitate the 
+gratitude of Tavernier, who was radically cured of the gout by a 
+Turkish aga in Aegypt, who gave him the bastinado, because he 
+would not look at the head of the bashaw of Cairo, which the aga 
+had in a bag, to be presented to the grand signior at 
+Constantinople.
+
+I did not expect to see the rest of our company that night, as I 
+never doubted but they would stay with the coach at the inn on 
+the other side of the Arno: but at mid-night we were joined by 
+Miss C-- and Mr. R--, who had left the carriage at the inn, under 
+the auspices of the captain and my servant, and followed our 
+foot-steps by walking from the ferry-boat to Florence, conducted 
+by one of the boatmen. Mr. R-- seemed to be much ruffled and 
+chagrined; but, as he did not think proper to explain the cause, 
+he had no right to expect that I should give him satisfaction 
+for some insult he had received from my servant. They had been 
+exposed to a variety of disagreeable adventures from the 
+impracticability of the road. The coach had been several times in 
+the most imminent hazard of being lost with all our baggage; and 
+at one place, it was necessary to hire a dozen of oxen, and as 
+many men, to disengage it from the holes into which it had run. 
+It was in the confusion of these adventures, that the captain and 
+his valet, Mr. R-- and my servant, had like to have gone all by 
+the ears together. The peace was with difficulty preserved by the 
+interposition of Miss C--, who suffered incredibly from cold and 
+wet, terror, vexation, and fatigue: yet happily no bad 
+consequence ensued. The coach and baggage were brought safely 
+into Florence next morning, when all of us found ourselves well 
+refreshed, and in good spirits. I am afraid this is not the case 
+with you, who must by this time be quite jaded with this long 
+epistle, which shall therefore be closed without further ceremony 
+by,--Yours always.
+
+LETTER XXXV
+
+NICE, March 20, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--The season being far advanced, and the weather growing 
+boisterous, I made but a short stay at Florence, and set out for 
+Pisa, with full resolution to take the nearest road to Lerici, 
+where we proposed to hire a felucca for Genoa. I had a great 
+desire to see Leghorn and Lucca; but the dread of a winter's 
+voyage by sea in an open boat effectually restrained my 
+curiosity. To avoid the trouble of having our baggage shifted 
+every post, I hired two chaises to Pisa for a couple of zequines, 
+and there we arrived in safety about seven in the evening, though 
+not without fear of the consequence, as the calesses were quite 
+open, and it rained all the way. I must own I was so sick of the 
+wretched accommodation one meets with in every part of Italy, 
+except the great cities, so averse to the sea at this season, and 
+so fond of the city of Pisa, that I should certainly have stayed 
+here the winter, had not I been separated from my books and 
+papers, as well as from other conveniencies and connexions which 
+I had at Nice; and foreseen that the thoughts of performing the 
+same disagreeable voyage in the spring would imbitter my whole 
+winter's enjoyment. I again hired two calesses for Lerici, 
+proposing to lie at Sarzana, three miles short of that place, 
+where we were told we should find comfortable lodging, and to 
+embark next day without halting. When we departed in the morning, 
+it rained very hard, and the Cerchio, which the chaises had 
+formerly passed, almost without wetting the wheels, was now 
+swelled to a mighty river, broad and deep and rapid. It was with 
+great difficulty I could persuade my wife to enter the boat; for 
+it blew a storm, and she had seen it in coming over from the 
+other side hurried down a considerable way by the rapidity of the 
+current, notwithstanding all the efforts of the watermen. Near 
+two hours were spent in transporting us with our chaises. The 
+road between this and Pietra Santa was rendered almost 
+impassable. When we arrived at Massa, it began to grow dark, and 
+the post-master assured us that the road to Sarzana was 
+overflowed in such a manner as not to be passed even in the day-time, 
+without imminent danger. We therefore took up our lodging 
+for the night at this house, which was in all respects one of the 
+worst we had yet entered. Next day, we found the Magra as large 
+and violent as the Cerchio: however, we passed it without any 
+accident, and in the afternoon arrived at Lerici. There we were 
+immediately besieged by a number of patrons of feluccas, from 
+among whom I chose a Spaniard, partly because he looked like an 
+honest man, and produced an ample certificate, signed by an 
+English gentleman; and partly, because he was not an Italian; 
+for, by this time, I had imbibed a strong prejudice against the 
+common people of that country. We embarked in the morning before 
+day, with a gale that made us run the lee-gunwale in the water; 
+but, when we pretended to turn the point of Porto Venere, we 
+found the wind full in our teeth, and were obliged to return to 
+our quarters, where we had been shamefully fleeced by the 
+landlord, who, nevertheless, was not such an exorbitant knave as 
+the post-master, whose house I would advise all travellers to 
+avoid. Here, indeed, I had occasion to see an instance of 
+prudence and oeconomy, which I should certainly imitate, if ever 
+I had occasion to travel this way by
+myself. An Englishman, who had hired a felucca from Antibes to 
+Leghorn, was put in here by stress of weather; but being aware of 
+the extortion of innkeepers, and the bad accommodation in their 
+houses, he slept on board on his own mattrasses; and there 
+likewise he had all his conveniencies for eating. He sent his 
+servant on shore occasionally to buy provision, and see it cooked 
+according to his direction in some public house; and had his 
+meals regularly in the felucca. This evening he came ashore to 
+stretch his legs, and took a solitary walk on the beach, avoiding 
+us with great care, although he knew we were English; his valet 
+who was abundantly communicative, told my servant, that in coming 
+through France, his master had travelled three days in company 
+with two other English gentlemen, whom he met upon the road, and 
+in all that time he never spoke a word to either, yet in other 
+respects, he was a good man, mild, charitable, and humane. This 
+is a character truly British. At five o'clock in the morning we 
+put to sea again, and though the wind was contrary, made shift to 
+reach the town of Sestri di Levante, where we were most 
+graciously received by the publican butcher and his family. The 
+house was in much better order than before; the people were much 
+more obliging; we passed a very tolerable night, and had a very 
+reasonable bill to pay in the morning. I cannot account for this 
+favourable change any other way, than by ascribing it to the 
+effects of a terrible storm, which had two days before torn up a 
+great number of their olive-trees by the roots, and done such 
+damage as terrified them into humility and submission. Next day, 
+the water being delightful, we arrived by one o'clock in the 
+afternoon at Genoa. Here I made another bargain with our patron 
+Antonio, to carry us to Nice. He had been hitherto remarkably 
+obliging, and seemingly modest. He spoke Latin fluently, and was 
+tinctured with the sciences. I began to imagine he was a person 
+of a good family, who had met with misfortunes in life, and 
+respected him accordingly: but I afterwards found him mercenary, 
+mean, and rapacious. The wind being still contrary, when we 
+departed from Genoa, we could get no further than Finale, where 
+we lodged in a very dismal habitation, which was recommended to 
+us as the best auberge in the place. What rendered it the more 
+uncomfortable, the night was cold, and there was not a fire-place 
+in the house, except in the kitchen. The beds (if they deserved 
+that name) were so shockingly nasty, that we could not have used 
+them, had not a friend of Mr. R-- supplied us with mattrasses, 
+sheets, and coverlets; for our own sheets were on board the 
+felucca, which was anchored at a distance from the shore. Our 
+fare was equally wretched: the master of the house was a surly 
+assassin, and his cameriere or waiter, stark-staring mad. Our 
+situation was at the same time shocking and ridiculous. Mr. R-- 
+quarrelled over night with the master, who swore in broken French 
+to my man, that he had a good mind to poniard that impertinent 
+Piedmontese. In the morning, before day, Mr. R--, coming into my 
+chamber, gave me to understand that he had been insulted by the 
+landlord, who demanded six and thirty livres for our supper and 
+lodging. Incensed at the rascal's presumption, I assured him I 
+would make him take half the money, and a good beating into the 
+bargain. He replied, that he would have saved me the trouble of 
+beating him, had not the cameriere, who was a very sensible 
+fellow, assured him the padrone was out of his senses, and if 
+roughly handled, might commit some extravagance. Though I was 
+exceedingly ruffled, I could not help laughing at the mad 
+cameriere's palming himself upon R--y, as a sensible fellow, and 
+transferring the charge of madness upon his master, who seemed to 
+be much more knave than fool. While Mr. R-- went to mass, I 
+desired the cameriere to bid his master bring the bill, and to 
+tell him that if it was not reasonable, I would carry him before 
+the commandant. In the mean time I armed myself with my sword in 
+one hand and my cane in the other. The inn-keeper immediately 
+entered, pale and staring, and when I demanded his bill, he told 
+me, with a profound reverence that he should be satisfied with 
+whatever I myself thought proper to give. Surprised at this 
+moderation, I asked if he should be content with twelve livres, 
+and he answered, "Contentissimo," with another prostration. Then 
+he made an apology for the bad accommodation of his house, and 
+complained, that the reproaches of the other gentleman, whom he 
+was pleased to call my majorduomo, had almost turned his brain. 
+When he quitted the room, his cameriere, laying hold of his 
+master's last words, pointed to his own forehead, and said, he 
+had informed the gentleman over night that his patron was mad. 
+This day we were by a high wind in the afternoon, driven for 
+shelter into Porto Mauritio, where we found the post-house even 
+worse than that of Finale; and what rendered it more shocking was 
+a girl quite covered with the confluent smallpox, who lay in a 
+room through which it was necessary to pass to the other 
+chambers, and who smelled so strong as to perfume the whole 
+house. We were but fifteen miles from St. Remo, where I knew the 
+auberge was tolerable, and thither I resolved to travel by land. 
+I accordingly ordered five mules to travel post, and a very 
+ridiculous cavalcade we formed, the women being obliged to use 
+common saddles; for in this country even the ladies sit astride. 
+The road lay along one continued precipice, and was so difficult, 
+that the beasts never could exceed a walking pace. In some places 
+we were obliged to alight. Seven hours were spent in travelling 
+fifteen short miles: at length we arrived at our old lodgings in 
+St. Remo, which we found white-washed, and in great order. We 
+supped pretty comfortably; slept well; and had no reason to 
+complain of imposition in paying the bill. This was not the case 
+in the article of the mules, for which I was obliged to pay fifty 
+livres, according to the regulation of the posts. The postmaster, 
+who came along with us, had the effrontery to tell me, that if I 
+had hired the mules to carry me and my company to St. Remo, in 
+the way of common travelling, they would have cost me but fifteen 
+livres; but as I demanded post-horses, I must submit to the 
+regulations. This is a distinction the more absurd, as the road 
+is of such a nature as renders it impossible to travel faster in 
+one way than in another; nor indeed is there the least difference 
+either in the carriage or convenience, between travelling post 
+and journey riding. A publican might with the same reason charge 
+me three livres a pound for whiting, and if questioned about the 
+imposition, reply, that if I had asked for fish I should have had 
+the same whiting for the fifth part of the money: but that he 
+made a wide difference between selling it as fish, and selling it 
+as whiting. Our felucca came round from Porto Mauritio in the 
+night, and embarking next morning, we arrived at Nice about four 
+in the afternoon.
+
+Thus have I given you a circumstantial detail of my Italian 
+expedition, during which I was exposed to a great number of 
+hardships, which I thought my weakened constitution could not 
+have bore; as well as to violent fits of passion, chequered, 
+however, with transports of a more agreeable nature; insomuch 
+that I may say I was for two months continually agitated either 
+in mind or body, and very often in both at the same time. As my 
+disorder at first arose from a sedentary life, producing a 
+relaxation of the fibres, which naturally brought on a 
+listlessness, indolence, and dejection of the spirits, I am 
+convinced that this hard exercise of mind and body, co-operated 
+with the change of air and objects, to brace up the relaxed 
+constitution, and promote a more vigorous circulation of the 
+juices, which had long languished even almost to stagnation. For 
+some years, I had been as subject to colds as a delicate woman 
+new delivered. If I ventured to go abroad when there was the 
+least moisture either in the air, or upon the ground, I was sure 
+to be laid up a fortnight with a cough and asthma. But, in this 
+journey, I suffered cold and rain, and stood, and walked in the 
+wet, heated myself with exercise, and sweated violently,
+without feeling the least disorder; but, on the contrary, felt 
+myself growing stronger every day in the midst of these excesses. 
+Since my return to Nice, it has rained the best part of two 
+months, to the astonishment of all the people in the country; yet 
+during all that time I have enjoyed good health and spirits. On 
+Christmas-Eve, I went to the cathedral at midnight, to hear high 
+mass celebrated by the new bishop of Nice, in pontificalibus, and 
+stood near two hours uncovered in a cold gallery, without having 
+any cause in the sequel to repent of my curiosity. In a word, I 
+am now so well that I no longer despair of seeing you and the 
+rest of my friends in England; a pleasure which is eagerly 
+desired by,--Dear Sir, Your affectionate humble Servant.
+
+LETTER XXXVI
+
+NICE, March 23, 1766.
+
+DEAR SIR,--You ask whether I think the French people are more 
+taxed than the English; but I apprehend, the question would be 
+more apropos if you asked whether the French taxes are more 
+insupportable than the English; for, in comparing burthens, we 
+ought always to consider the strength of the shoulders that bear 
+them. I know no better way of estimating the strength, than by 
+examining the face of the country, and observing the appearance 
+of the common people, who constitute the bulk of every nation. 
+When I, therefore, see the country of England smiling with 
+cultivation; the grounds exhibiting all the perfection of 
+agriculture, parcelled out into beautiful inclosures, cornfields, 
+hay and pasture, woodland and common, when I see her meadows well 
+stocked with black cattle, her downs covered with sheep; when I 
+view her teams of horses and oxen, large and strong, fat and 
+sleek; when I see her farm-houses the habitations of plenty, 
+cleanliness, and convenience; and her peasants well fed, well 
+lodged, well cloathed, tall and stout, and hale and jolly; I 
+cannot help concluding that the people are well able to bear 
+those impositions which the public necessities have rendered 
+necessary. On the other hand, when I perceive such signs of 
+poverty, misery and dirt, among the commonalty of France, their 
+unfenced fields dug up in despair, without the intervention of 
+meadow or fallow ground, without cattle to furnish manure, 
+without horses to execute the plans of agriculture; their farm-houses 
+mean, their furniture wretched, their apparel beggarly; 
+themselves and their beasts the images of famine; I cannot help 
+thinking they groan under oppression, either from their 
+landlords, or their government; probably from both.
+
+The principal impositions of the French government are these: 
+first, the taille, payed by all the commons, except those that 
+are privileged: secondly, the capitation, from which no persons 
+(not even the nobles) are excepted: thirdly, the tenths and 
+twentieths, called Dixiemes and Vingtiemes, which every body 
+pays. This tax was originally levied as an occasional aid in 
+times of war, and other emergencies; but by degrees is become a 
+standing revenue even in time of peace. All the money arising 
+from these impositions goes directly to the king's treasury; and 
+must undoubtedly amount to a very great sum. Besides these, he 
+has the revenue of the farms, consisting of the droits d'aydes, 
+or excise on wine, brandy, &c. of the custom-house duties; of the 
+gabelle, comprehending that most oppressive obligation on 
+individuals to take a certain quantity of salt at the price which 
+the farmers shall please to fix; of the exclusive privilege to 
+sell tobacco; of the droits de controlle, insinuation, centieme 
+denier, franchiefs, aubeine, echange et contre-echange arising 
+from the acts of voluntary jurisdiction, as well as certain law-suits. 
+These farms are said to bring into the king's coffers 
+above one hundred and twenty millions of livres yearly, amounting 
+to near five millions sterling: but the poor people are said to 
+pay about a third more than this sum, which the farmers retain to 
+enrich themselves, and bribe the great for their protection; 
+which protection of the great is the true reason why this most 
+iniquitous, oppressive, and absurd method of levying money is not 
+laid aside. Over and above those articles I have mentioned, the 
+French king draws considerable sums from his clergy, under the 
+denomination of dons gratuits, or free-gifts; as well as from the 
+subsidies given by the pays d'etats such as Provence, Languedoc, 
+and Bretagne, which are exempted from the taille. The whole 
+revenue of the French king amounts to between twelve and thirteen 
+millions sterling. These are great resources for the king: but 
+they will always keep the people miserable, and effectually 
+prevent them from making such improvements as might turn their 
+lands to the best advantage. But besides being eased in the 
+article of taxes, there is something else required to make them 
+exert themselves for the benefit of their country. They must be 
+free in their persons, secure in their property, indulged with 
+reasonable leases, and effectually protected by law from the 
+insolence and oppression of their superiors.
+
+Great as the French king's resources may appear, they are hardly 
+sufficient to defray the enormous expence of his government. 
+About two millions sterling per annum of his revenue are said to 
+be anticipated for paying the interest of the public debts; and 
+the rest is found inadequate to the charge of a prodigious 
+standing army, a double frontier of fortified towns and the 
+extravagant appointments of ambassadors, generals, governors, 
+intendants, commandants, and other officers of the crown, all of 
+whom affect a pomp, which is equally ridiculous and prodigal. A 
+French general in the field is always attended by thirty or forty 
+cooks; and thinks it is incumbent upon him, for the glory of 
+France, to give a hundred dishes every day at his table. When don 
+Philip, and the marechal duke de Belleisle, had their quarters at 
+Nice, there were fifty scullions constantly employed in the great 
+square in plucking poultry. This absurd luxury infects their 
+whole army. Even the commissaries keep open table; and nothing is 
+seen but prodigality and profusion. The king of Sardinia proceeds 
+upon another plan. His troops are better cloathed, better payed, 
+and better fed than those of France. The commandant of Nice has 
+about four hundred a year of appointments, which enable him to 
+live decently, and even to entertain strangers. On the other 
+hand, the commandant of Antibes, which is in all respects more 
+inconsiderable than Nice, has from the French king above five 
+times the sum to support the glory of his monarch, which all the 
+sensible part of mankind treat with ridicule and contempt. But 
+the finances of France are so ill managed, that many of their 
+commandants, and other officers, have not been able to draw their 
+appointments these two years. In vain they complain and 
+remonstrate. When they grow troublesome they are removed. How 
+then must they support the glory of France? How, but by 
+oppressing the poor people. The treasurer makes use of their 
+money for his own benefit. The king knows it; he knows his 
+officers, thus defrauded, fleece and oppress his people: but he 
+thinks proper to wink at these abuses. That government may be 
+said to be weak and tottering which finds itself obliged to 
+connive at such proceedings. The king of France, in order to give 
+strength and stability to his administration, ought to have sense 
+to adopt a sage plan of oeconomy, and vigour of mind sufficient 
+to execute it in all its parts, with the most rigorous exactness. 
+He ought to have courage enough to find fault, and even to punish 
+the delinquents, of what quality soever they may be: and the 
+first act of reformation ought to be a total abolition of all the 
+farms. There are, undoubtedly, many marks of relaxation in the 
+reins of the French government, and, in all probability, the 
+subjects of France will be the first to take advantage of it. 
+There is at present a violent fermentation of different 
+principles among them, which under the reign of a very weak 
+prince, or during a long minority, may produce a great change in 
+the constitution. In proportion to the progress of reason and 
+philosophy, which have made great advances in this kingdom, 
+superstition loses ground; antient prejudices give way; a spirit 
+of freedom takes the ascendant. All the learned laity of France 
+detest the hierarchy as a plan of despotism, founded on imposture 
+and usurpation. The protestants, who are very numerous in 
+southern parts, abhor it with all the rancour of religious 
+fanaticism. Many of the commons, enriched by commerce and 
+manufacture, grow impatient of those odious distinctions, which 
+exclude them from the honours and privileges due to their 
+importance in the commonwealth; and all the parliaments, or 
+tribunals of justice in the kingdom, seem bent upon asserting 
+their rights and independence in the face of the king's 
+prerogative, and even at the expence of his power and authority. 
+Should any prince therefore be seduced by evil counsellors, or 
+misled by his own bigotry, to take some arbitrary step, that may 
+be extremely disagreeable to all those communities, without 
+having spirit to exert the violence of his power for the support 
+of his measures, he will become equally detested and despised; 
+and the influence of the commons will insensibly encroach upon 
+the pretensions of the crown. But if in the time of a minority, 
+the power of the government should be divided among different 
+competitors for the regency, the parliaments and people will find 
+it still more easy to acquire and ascertain the liberty at which 
+they aspire, because they will have the balance of power in their 
+hands, and be able to make either scale preponderate. I could say 
+a great deal more upon this subject; and I have some remarks to 
+make relating to the methods which might be taken in the case of 
+a fresh rupture with France, for making a vigorous impression on 
+that kingdom. But these I in list defer till another occasion, 
+having neither room nor leisure at present to add any thing, but 
+that I am, with great truth,--Dear Sir, Your very humble Servant.
+
+LETTER XXXVII
+
+NICE, April 2, 1765.
+
+DEAR DOCTOR,--As I have now passed a second winter at Nice I 
+think myself qualified to make some further remarks on this 
+climate. During the heats of last summer, I flattered myself with 
+the prospect of the fine weather I should enjoy in the winter; 
+but neither I, nor any person in this country, could foresee the 
+rainy weather that prevailed from the middle of November, till 
+the twentieth of March. In this short period of four months, we 
+have had fifty-six days of rain, which I take to be a greater 
+quantity than generally falls during the six worst months of the 
+year in the county of Middlesex, especially as it was, for the 
+most part, a heavy, continued rain. The south winds generally 
+predominate in the wet season at Nice: but this winter the rain 
+was accompanied with every wind that blows, except the south; 
+though the most frequent were those that came from the east and 
+north quarters. Notwithstanding these great rains, such as were 
+never known before at Nice in the memory of man, the intermediate 
+days of fair weather were delightful, and the ground seemed 
+perfectly dry. The air itself was perfectly free from moisture. 
+Though I live upon a ground floor, surrounded on three sides by a 
+garden, I could not perceive the least damp, either on the 
+floors, or the furniture; neither was I much incommoded by the 
+asthma, which used always to harass me most in wet weather. In a 
+word, I passed the winter here much more comfortably than I 
+expected. About the vernal equinox, however, I caught a violent 
+cold, which was attended with a difficulty of breathing, and as 
+the sun advances towards the tropic, I find myself still more 
+subject to rheums. As the heat increases, the humours of the body 
+are rarefied, and, of consequence, the pores of the skin are 
+opened; while the east wind sweeping over the Alps and Apennines, 
+covered with snow, continues surprisingly sharp and penetrating. 
+Even the people of the country, who enjoy good health, are afraid 
+of exposing themselves to the air at this season, the 
+intemperature of which may last till the middle of May, when all 
+the snow on the mountains will probably be melted: then the air 
+will become mild and balmy, till, in the progress of summer, it 
+grows disagreeably hot, and the strong evaporation from the sea 
+makes it so saline, as to be unhealthy for those who have a 
+scorbutical habit. When the sea-breeze is high, this evaporation 
+is so great as to cover the surface of the body with a kind of 
+volatile brine, as I plainly perceived last summer. I am more and 
+more convinced that this climate is unfavourable for the scurvy. 
+Were I obliged to pass my life in it, I would endeavour to find a 
+country retreat among the mountains, at some distance from the 
+sea, where I might enjoy a cool air, free from this impregnation, 
+unmolested by those flies, gnats, and other vermin which render 
+the lower parts almost uninhabitable. To this place I would 
+retire in the month of June, and there continue till the 
+beginning of October, when I would return to my habitation in 
+Nice, where the winter is remarkably mild and agreeable. In March 
+and April however, I would not advise a valetudinarian to go 
+forth, without taking precaution against the cold. An agreeable 
+summer retreat may be found on the other side of the Var, at, or 
+near the town of Grasse, which is pleasantly situated on the 
+ascent of a hill in Provence, about seven English miles from 
+Nice. This place is famous for its pomatum, gloves, wash-balls, 
+perfumes, and toilette-boxes, lined with bergamot. I am told it 
+affords good lodging, and is well supplied with provisions.
+
+We are now preparing for our journey to England, from the 
+exercise of which I promise myself much benefit: a journey 
+extremely agreeable, not only on that account, but also because 
+it will restore me to the company of my friends, and remove me 
+from a place where I leave nothing but the air which I can 
+possibly regret.
+
+The only friendships I have contracted at Nice are with 
+strangers, who, like myself, only sojourn here for a season. I 
+now find by experience, it is great folly to buy furniture, 
+unless one is resolved to settle here for some years. The 
+Nissards assured me, with great confidence, that I should always 
+be able to sell it for a very little loss; whereas I find myself 
+obliged to part with it for about one-third of what it cost. I 
+have sent for a coach to Aix, and as soon as it arrives, shall 
+take my departure; so that the next letter you receive from me 
+will be dated at some place on the road. I purpose to take 
+Antibes, Toulon, Marseilles, Aix, Avignon, and Orange, in my way: 
+places which I have not yet seen; and where, perhaps, I shall 
+find something for your amusement, which will always be a 
+consideration of some weight with,--Dear Sir, Yours.
+
+LETTER XXXVIII
+
+To DR. S-- AT NICE
+
+TURIN, March 18, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--Turin is about thirty leagues from Nice, the greater 
+part of the way lying over frightful mountains covered with snow. 
+The difficulty of the road, however, reaches no farther than 
+Coni, from whence there is an open highway through a fine plain 
+country, as far as the capital of Piedmont, and the traveller is 
+accommodated with chaise and horses to proceed either post, or by 
+cambiatura, as in other parts of Italy. There are only two ways 
+of performing the journey over the mountains from Nice; one is to 
+ride a mule-back, and the other to be carried in a chair. The 
+former I chose, and set out with my servant on the seventh day of 
+February at two in the afternoon. I was hardly clear of Nice, 
+when it began to rain so hard that in less than an hour the mud 
+was half a foot deep in many parts of the road. This was the only 
+inconvenience we suffered, the way being in other respects 
+practicable enough; for there is but one small hill to cross on 
+this side of the village of L'Escarene, where we arrived about 
+six in the evening. The ground in this neighbourhood is tolerably 
+cultivated, and the mountains are planted to the tops with olive 
+trees. The accommodation here is so very bad, that I had no 
+inclination to be a-bed longer than was absolutely necessary for 
+refreshment; and therefore I proceeded on my journey at two in 
+the morning, conducted by a guide, whom I hired for this purpose 
+at the rate of three livres a day. Having ascended one side, and 
+descended the other, of the mountain called Braus, which took up 
+four hours, though the road is not bad, we at six reached the 
+village of Sospello, which is agreeably situated in a small 
+valley, surrounded by prodigious high and barren mountains. This 
+little plain is pretty fertile, and being watered by a pleasant 
+stream, forms a delightful contrast with the hideous rocks that 
+surround it. Having reposed myself and my mules two hours at this 
+place, we continued our journey over the second mountain, called 
+Brovis, which is rather more considerable than the first, and in 
+four hours arrived at La Giandola, a tolerable inn situated 
+betwixt the high road and a small river, about a gunshot from the 
+town of Brieglie, which we leave on the right. As we jogged along 
+in the grey of the morning, I was a little startled at two 
+figures which I saw before me, and began to put my pistols in 
+order. It must be observed that these mountains are infested with 
+contrabandiers, a set of smuggling peasants, very bold and 
+desperate, who make a traffic of selling tobacco, salt, and other 
+merchandize, which have not payed duty, and sometimes lay 
+travellers under contribution. I did not doubt but there was a 
+gang of these free-booters at hand; but as no more than two 
+persons appeared, I resolved to let them know we were prepared 
+for defence, and fired one of my pistols, in hope that the report 
+of it, echoed from the surrounding rocks, would produce a proper 
+effect: but, the mountains and roads being entirely covered with 
+snow to a considerable depth, there was little or no 
+reverberation, and the sound was not louder than that of a pop-gun, 
+although the piece contained a good charge of powder. 
+Nevertheless, it did not fail to engage the attention of the 
+strangers, one of whom immediately wheeled to the left about, and 
+being by this time very near me, gave me an opportunity of 
+contemplating his whole person. He was very tall, meagre, and 
+yellow, with a long hooked nose, and small twinkling eyes. His 
+head was eased in a woollen night-cap, over which he wore a 
+flapped hat; he had a silk handkerchief about his neck, and his 
+mouth was furnished with a short wooden pipe, from which he 
+discharged wreathing clouds of tobacco-smoke. He was wrapped in a 
+kind of capot of green bays, lined with wolf-skin, had a pair of 
+monstrous boots, quilted on the inside with cotton, was almost 
+covered with dirt, and rode a mule so low that his long legs hung 
+dangling within six inches of the ground. This grotesque figure 
+was so much more ludicrous than terrible, that I could not help 
+laughing; when, taking his pipe out of his mouth, he very 
+politely accosted me by name. You may easily guess I was 
+exceedingly surprised at such an address on the top of the 
+mountain Brovis: but he forthwith put an end to it too, by 
+discovering himself to be the marquis M--, whom I had the honour 
+to be acquainted with at Nice. After having rallied him upon his 
+equipage, he gave me to understand he had set out from Nice the 
+morning of the same day that I departed; that he was going to 
+Turin, and that he had sent one of his servants before him to 
+Coni with his baggage. Knowing him to be an agreeable companion, 
+I was glad of this encounter, and we resolved to travel the rest 
+of the way together. We dined at La Giandola, and in the 
+afternoon rode along the little river Roida, which runs in a 
+bottom between frightful precipices, and in several places forms 
+natural cascades, the noise of which had
+well-nigh deprived us of the sense of hearing; after a winding 
+course among these mountains, it discharges itself into the 
+Mediterranean at Vintimiglia, in the territory of Genoa. As the 
+snow did not lie on these mountains, when we cracked our whips, 
+there was such a repercussion of the sound as is altogether 
+inconceivable. We passed by the village of Saorgio, situated on 
+an eminence, where there is a small fortress which commands the 
+whole pass, and in five hours arrived at our inn, on this side 
+the Col de Tende, where we took up our quarters, but had very 
+little reason to boast of our entertainment. Our greatest 
+difficulty, however, consisted in pulling off the marquis's 
+boots, which were of the kind called Seafarot, by this time so 
+loaded with dirt on the outside, and so swelled with the rain 
+within, that he could neither drag them after him as he walked, 
+nor disencumber his legs of them, without such violence as seemed 
+almost sufficient to tear him limb from limb. In a word, we were 
+obliged to tie a rope about his heel, and all the people in the 
+house assisting to pull, the poor marquis was drawn from one end 
+of the apartment to the other before the boot would give way: at 
+last his legs were happily disengaged, and the machines carefully 
+dried and stuffed for next day's journey.
+
+We took our departure from hence at three in the morning, and at 
+four, began to mount the Col de Tende, which is by far the 
+highest mountain in the whole journey: it was now quite covered 
+with snow, which at the top of it was near twenty feet thick. 
+Half way up, there are quarters for a detachment of soldiers, 
+posted here to prevent smuggling, and an inn called La Ca, which 
+in the language of the country signifies the house. At this 
+place, we hired six men to assist us in ascending the mountain, 
+each of them provided with a kind of hough to break the ice, and 
+make a sort of steps for the mules. When we were near the top, 
+however, we were obliged to alight, and climb the mountain 
+supported each by two of those men, called Coulants who walk upon 
+the snow with great firmness and security. We were followed by 
+the mules, and though they are very sure-footed animals, and were 
+frost-shod for the occasion, they stumbled and fell very often; 
+the ice being so hard that the sharp-headed nails in their shoes 
+could not penetrate. Having reached the top of this mountain, 
+from whence there is no prospect but of other rocks and 
+mountains, we prepared for descending on the other side by the 
+Leze, which is an occasional sledge made of two pieces of wood, 
+carried up by the Coulants for this purpose. I did not much 
+relish this kind of carriage, especially as the mountain was very 
+steep, and covered with such a thick fog that we could hardly see 
+two or three yards before us. Nevertheless, our guides were so 
+confident, and my companion, who had passed the same way on other 
+occasions, was so secure, that I ventured to place myself on this 
+machine, one of the coulants standing behind me, and the other 
+sitting before, as the conductor, with his feet paddling among 
+the snow, in order to moderate the velocity of its descent. Thus 
+accommodated, we descended the mountain with such rapidity, that 
+in an hour we reached Limon, which is the native place of almost 
+all the muleteers who transport merchandize from Nice to Coni and 
+Turin. Here we waited full two hours for the mules, which 
+travelled with the servants by the common road. To each of the 
+coulants we paid forty sols, which are nearly equal to two 
+shillings sterling. Leaving Limon, we were in two hours quite 
+disengaged from the gorges of the mountains, which are partly 
+covered with wood and pasturage, though altogether inaccessible, 
+except in summer; but from the foot of the Col de Tende, the road 
+lies through a plain all the way to Turin. We took six hours to 
+travel from the inn where we had lodged over the mountain to 
+Limon, and five hours from thence to Coni. Here we found our 
+baggage, which we had sent off by the carriers one day before we 
+departed from Nice; and here we dismissed our guides, together 
+with the mules. In winter, you have a mule for this whole journey 
+at the rate of twenty livres; and the
+guides are payed at the rate of two livres a day, reckoning six 
+days, three for the journey to Coni, and three for their return 
+to Nice. We set out so early in the morning in order to avoid the 
+inconveniencies and dangers that attend the passage of this 
+mountain. The first of these arises from your meeting with long 
+strings of loaded mules in a slippery road, the breadth of which 
+does not exceed a foot and an half. As it is altogether 
+impossible for two mules to pass each other in such a narrow 
+path, the muleteers have made doublings or elbows in different 
+parts, and when the troops of mules meet, the least numerous is 
+obliged to turn off into one of these doublings, and there halt 
+until the others are past. Travellers, in order to avoid this 
+disagreeable delay, which is the more vexatious, considering the 
+excessive cold, begin the ascent of the mountain early in the 
+morning before the mules quit their inns. But the great danger of 
+travelling here when the sun is up, proceeds from what they call 
+the Valanches. These are balls of snow detached from the 
+mountains which over-top the road, either by the heat of the sun, 
+or the humidity of the weather. A piece of snow thus loosened 
+from the rock, though perhaps not above three or four feet in 
+diameter, increases sometimes in its descent to such a degree, as 
+to become two hundred paces in length, and rolls down with such 
+rapidity, that the traveller is crushed to death before he can 
+make three steps on the road. These dreadful heaps drag every 
+thing along with them in their descent. They tear up huge trees
+by the roots, and if they chance to fall upon a house, demolish 
+it to the foundation. Accidents of this nature seldom happen in 
+the winter while the weather is dry; and yet scarce a year passes 
+in which some mules and their drivers do not perish by the 
+valanches. At Coni we found the countess C-- from Nice, who had 
+made the same journey in a chair, carried by porters. This is no 
+other than a common elbow-chair of wood, with a	straw bottom, 
+covered above with waxed cloth, to protect the traveller from the 
+rain or snow, and provided with a foot-board upon which the feet 
+rest.
+
+It is carried like a sedan-chair; and for this purpose six or 
+eight porters are employed at the rate of three or four livres a 
+head per day, according to the season, allowing three days for 
+their return. Of these six men, two are between the poles 
+carrying like common chairmen, and each of these is supported by 
+the other two, one at each hand: but as those in the middle 
+sustain the greatest burthen, they are relieved by the others in 
+a regular rotation. In descending the mountain, they carry the 
+poles on their shoulders, and in that case, four men are 
+employed, one at each end.
+
+At Coni, you may have a chaise to go with the same horses to 
+Turin, for which you pay fifteen livres, and are a day and a half 
+on the way. You may post it, however, in one day, and then the 
+price is seven livres ten sols per post, and ten sols to the 
+postilion. The method we took was that of cambiatura. This is a 
+chaise with horses shifted at the same stages that are used in 
+posting: but as it is supposed to move slower, we pay but five 
+livres per post, and ten sols to the postilion. In order to 
+quicken its pace, we gave ten sols extraordinary to each 
+postilion, and for this gratification, he drove us even faster 
+than the post. The chaises are like those of Italy, and will take 
+on near two hundred weight of baggage.
+
+Coni is situated between two small streams, and though neither 
+very large nor populous, is considerable for the strength of its 
+fortifications. It is honoured with the title of the Maiden-Fortress, 
+because though several times besieged, it was never 
+taken. The prince of Conti invested it in the war of 1744; but he 
+was obliged to raise the siege, after having given battle to the 
+king of Sardinia. The place was gallantly defended by the baron 
+Leutrum, a German protestant, the best general in the Sardinian 
+service: but what contributed most to the miscarriage of the 
+enemy, was a long tract of heavy rains, which destroyed all their 
+works, and rendered their advances impracticable.
+
+I need not tell you that Piedmont is one of the most fertile and 
+agreeable countries in Europe, and this the most agreeable part 
+of all Piedmont, though it now appeared to disadvantage from the 
+rigorous season of the year: I shall only observe that we passed 
+through Sabellian, which is a considerable town, and arrived in 
+the evening at Turin. We entered this fine city by the gate of 
+Nice, and passing through the elegant Piazza di San Carlo, took 
+up our quarters at the Bona Fama, which stands at one corner of 
+the great square, called La Piazza Castel.
+
+Were I even disposed to give a description of Turin, I should be 
+obliged to postpone it till another opportunity, having no room 
+at present to say any thing more, but that I am always--Yours.
+
+LETTER XXXIX
+
+AIX EN PROVENCE, May 10, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--I am thus far on my way to England. I had resolved to 
+leave Nice, without having the least dispute with any one native 
+of the place; but I found it impossible to keep this resolution. 
+My landlord, Mr. C--, a man of fashion, with whose family we had 
+always lived in friendship, was so reasonable as to expect I 
+should give him up the house and garden, though they were to be 
+paid for till Michaelmas, and peremptorily declared I should not 
+be permitted to sub-let them to any other person. He had of his 
+own accord assured me more than once that he would take my 
+furniture off my hands, and trusting to this assurance, I had 
+lost the opportunity, of disposing it to advantage: but, when the 
+time of my departure drew near, he refused to take it, at the 
+same time insisting upon having the key of the house and garden, 
+as well as on being paid the whole rent directly, though it would 
+not be due till the middle of September. I was so exasperated at 
+this treatment from a man whom I had cultivated with particular 
+respect, that I determined to contest it at law: but the affair 
+was accommodated by the mediation of a father of the Minims, a 
+friend to both, and a merchant of Nice, who charged himself with 
+the care of the house and furniture. A stranger must conduct 
+himself with the utmost circumspection to be able to live among 
+these people without being the dupe of imposition.
+
+I had sent to Aix for a coach and four horses, which I hired at 
+the rate of eighteen French livres a day, being equal to fifteen 
+shillings and nine-pence sterling. The river Var was so swelled 
+by the melting of the snow on the mountains, as to be impassable 
+by any wheel-carriage; and, therefore, the coach remained at 
+Antibes, to which we went by water, the distance being about nine 
+or ten miles. This is the Antipolis of the antients, said to have 
+been built like Nice, by a colony from Marseilles. In all 
+probability, however, it was later than the foundation of Nice, 
+and took its name from its being situated directly opposite to 
+that city. Pliny says it was famous for its tunny-fishery; and to 
+this circumstance Martial alludes in the following lines
+
+Antipolitani, fateor, sum filia thynni. 
+Essem si Scombri non tibi missa forem.
+
+I'm spawned from Tunny of Antibes, 'tis true. 
+Right Scomber had I been, I ne'er had come to you.
+
+The famous pickle Garum was made from the Thynnus or Tunny as 
+well as from the Scomber, but that from the Scomber was counted 
+the most delicate. Commentators, however, are not agreed about 
+the Scomber or Scombrus. Some suppose it was the Herring or 
+Sprat; others believe it was the mackarel; after all, perhaps it 
+was the Anchovy, which I do not find distinguished by any other 
+Latin name: for the Encrasicolus is a Greek appellation 
+altogether generical. Those who would be further informed about 
+the Garum and the Scomber may consult Caelius Apicius de 
+recogninaria, cum notis, variorum.
+
+At present, Antibes is the frontier of France towards Italy, 
+pretty strongly fortified, and garrisoned by a battalion of 
+soldiers. The town is small and inconsiderable: but the basin of 
+the harbour is surrounded to seaward by a curious bulwark founded 
+upon piles driven in the water, consisting of a wall, ramparts, 
+casemates, and quay. Vessels lie very safe in this harbour; but 
+there is not water at the entrance of it to admit of ships of any 
+burthen. The shallows run so far off from the coast, that a ship 
+of force cannot lie near enough to batter the town; but it was 
+bombarded in the late war. Its chief strength by land consists in 
+a small quadrangular fort detached from the body of the place, 
+which, in a particular manner, commands the entrance of the 
+harbour. The wall of the town built in the sea has embrasures and 
+salient angles, on which a great number of cannon may be mounted.
+
+I think the adjacent country is much more pleasant than that on 
+the side of Nice; and there is certainly no essential difference 
+in the climate. The ground here is not so encumbered; it is laid 
+out in agreeable inclosures, with intervals of open fields, and 
+the mountains rise with an easy ascent at a much greater distance 
+from the sea, than on the other side of the bay. Besides, here 
+are charming rides along the beach, which is smooth and firm. 
+When we passed in the last week of April, the corn was in the 
+ear; the cherries were almost ripe; and the figs had begun to 
+blacken. I had embarked my heavy baggage on board a London ship, 
+which happened to be at Nice, ready to sail: as for our small 
+trunks or portmanteaus, which we carried along with us, they were 
+examined at Antibes; but the ceremony was performed very 
+superficially, in consequence of tipping the searcher with half-a-crown, 
+which is a wonderful conciliator at all the bureaus in 
+this country.
+
+We lay at Cannes, a neat village, charmingly situated on the 
+beach of the Mediterranean, exactly opposite to the isles 
+Marguerites, where state-prisoners are confined. As there are 
+some good houses in this place, I would rather live here for the 
+sake of the mild climate, than either at Antibes or Nice. Here 
+you are not cooped up within walls, nor crowded with soldiers and 
+people: but are already in the country, enjoy a fine air, and are 
+well supplied with all sorts of fish.
+
+The mountains of Esterelles, which in one of my former letters I 
+described as a most romantic and noble plantation of ever-greens, 
+trees, shrubs, and aromatic plants, is at present quite desolate. 
+Last summer, some execrable villains set fire to the pines, when 
+the wind was high. It continued burning for several months, and 
+the conflagration extended above ten leagues, consuming an 
+incredible quantity of timber. The ground is now naked on each 
+side of the road, or occupied by the black trunks of the trees, 
+which have been scorched without falling. They stand as so many 
+monuments of the judgment of heaven, filling the mind with horror 
+and compassion. I could hardly refrain from shedding tears at 
+this dismal spectacle, when I recalled the idea of what it was 
+about eighteen months ago.
+
+As we stayed all night at Frejus, I had an opportunity of viewing 
+the amphitheatre at leisure. As near as I can judge by the eye, 
+it is of the same dimensions with that of Nismes; but shockingly 
+dilapidated. The stone seats rising from the arena are still 
+extant, and the cells under them, where the wild beasts were 
+kept. There are likewise the remains of two galleries one over 
+another; and two vomitoria or great gateways at opposite sides of 
+the arena, which is now a fine green, with a road through the 
+middle of it: but all the external architecture and the ornaments 
+are demolished. The most intire part of the wall now constitutes 
+part of a monastery, the monks of which, I am told, have helped 
+to destroy the amphitheatre, by removing the stones for their own 
+purposes of building. In the neighbourhood of this amphitheatre, 
+which stands without the walls, are the vestiges of an old 
+edifice, said to have been the palace where the imperator or 
+president resided: for it was a Roman colony, much favoured by 
+Julius Caesar, who gave it the name of Forum Julii, and Civitas 
+Forojuliensis. In all probability, it was he who built the 
+amphitheatre, and brought hither the water ten leagues from the 
+river of Ciagne, by means of an aqueduct, some arcades of which 
+are still standing on the other side of the town. A great number 
+of statues were found in this place, together with antient 
+inscriptions, which have been published by different authors. I 
+need not tell you that Julius Agricola, the father-in-law of 
+Tacitus, the historian, was a native of Frejus, which is now a 
+very poor inconsiderable place. From hence the country opens to 
+the left, forming an extensive plain between the sea and the 
+mountains, which are a continuation of the Alps, that stretches 
+through Provence and Dauphine. This plain watered with pleasant 
+streams, and varied with vineyards, corn-fields, and meadow-ground, 
+afforded a most agreeable prospect to our eyes, which 
+were accustomed to the sight of scorching sands, rugged rocks, 
+and abrupt mountains in the neighbourhood of Nice. Although this 
+has much the appearance of a corn-country, I am told it does not 
+produce enough for the consumption of its inhabitants, who are 
+obliged to have annual supplies from abroad, imported at 
+Marseilles. A Frenchman, at an average, eats three times the 
+quantity of bread that satisfies a native of England, and indeed 
+it is undoubtedly the staff of his life. I am therefore surprised 
+that the Provencaux do not convert part of their vineyards into 
+corn-fields: for they may boast of their wine as they please; but 
+that which is drank by the common people, not only here, but also 
+in all the wine countries of France, is neither so strong, 
+nourishing, nor (in my opinion) so pleasant to the taste as the 
+small-beer of England. It must be owned that all the peasants who 
+have wine for their ordinary drink are of a diminutive size, in 
+comparison of those who use milk, beer, or even water; and it is 
+a constant observation, that when there is a scarcity of wine, 
+the common people are always more healthy, than in those seasons 
+when it abounds. The longer I live, the more I am convinced that 
+wine, and all fermented liquors, are pernicious to the human 
+constitution; and that for the preservation of health, and 
+exhilaration of the spirits, there is no beverage comparable to 
+simple water. Between Luc and Toulon, the country is delightfully 
+parcelled out into inclosures. Here is plenty of rich pasturage 
+for black cattle, and a greater number of pure streams and 
+rivulets than I have observed in any other parts of France.
+
+Toulon is a considerable place, even exclusive of the basin, 
+docks, and arsenal, which indeed are such as justify the remark 
+made by a stranger when he viewed them. "The king of France (said 
+he) is greater at Toulon than at Versailles." The quay, the 
+jetties, the docks, and magazines, are contrived and executed 
+with precision, order, solidity, and magnificence. I counted 
+fourteen ships of the line lying unrigged in the basin, besides 
+the Tonant of eighty guns, which was in dock repairing, and a new 
+frigate on the stocks. I was credibly informed that in the last 
+war, the king of France was so ill-served with cannon for his 
+navy, that in every action there was scarce a ship which had not 
+several pieces burst. These accidents did great damage, and 
+discouraged the French mariners to such a degree, that they 
+became more afraid of their own guns than of those of the 
+English. There are now at Toulon above two thousand pieces of 
+iron cannon unfit for service. This is an undeniable proof of the 
+weakness and neglect of the French administration: but a more 
+suprizing proof of their imbecility, is the state of the 
+fortifications that defend the entrance of this very harbour. I 
+have some reason to think that they trusted for its security 
+entirely to our opinion that it must be inaccessible. Capt. E--, 
+of one of our frigates, lately entered the harbour with a 
+contrary wind, which by obliging him to tack, afforded an 
+opportunity of sounding the whole breadth and length of the 
+passage. He came in without a pilot, and made a pretence of 
+buying cordage, or some other stores; but the French officers 
+were much chagrined at the boldness of his enterprize. They 
+alleged that he came for no other reason but to sound the 
+channel; and that he had an engineer aboard, who made drawings of 
+the land and the forts, their bearings and distances. In all 
+probability, these suspicions were communicated to the ministry; 
+for an order immediately arrived, that no stranger should be 
+admitted into the docks and arsenal.
+
+Part of the road from hence to Marseilles lies through a vast 
+mountain, which resembles that of Estrelles; but is not so well 
+covered with wood, though it has the advantage of an agreeable 
+stream running through the bottom.
+
+I was much pleased with Marseilles, which is indeed a noble city, 
+large, populous, and flourishing. The streets of what is called 
+the new Town are open, airy and spacious; the houses well built, 
+and even magnificent. The harbour is an oval basin, surrounded on 
+every side either by the buildings or the land, so that the 
+shipping lies perfectly secure; and here is generally an 
+incredible number of vessels. On the city side, there is a semi-circular 
+quay of free-stone, which extends thirteen hundred 
+paces; and the space between this and the houses that front it, 
+is continually filled with a surprising crowd of people. The 
+gallies, to the number of eight or nine, are moored with their 
+sterns to one part of the wharf, and the slaves are permitted to 
+work for their own benefit at their respective occupations, in 
+little shops or booths, which they rent for a trifle. There you 
+see tradesmen of all kinds sitting at work, chained by one foot, 
+shoe-makers, taylors, silversmiths, watch and clock-makers, 
+barbers, stocking-weavers, jewellers, pattern-drawers, 
+scriveners, booksellers, cutlers, and all manner of shop-keepers. 
+They pay about two sols a day to the king for this indulgence; 
+live well and look jolly; and can afford to sell their goods and 
+labour much cheaper than other dealers and tradesmen. At night, 
+however, they are obliged to lie aboard. Notwithstanding the 
+great face of business at Marseilles, their trade is greatly on 
+the decline; and their merchants are failing every day. This 
+decay of commerce is in a great measure owing to the English, 
+who, at the peace, poured in such a quantity of European 
+merchandize into Martinique and Guadalupe, that when the 
+merchants of Marseilles sent over their cargoes, they found the 
+markets overstocked, and were obliged to sell for a considerable 
+loss. Besides, the French colonists had such a stock of sugars, 
+coffee, and other commodities lying by them during the war, that 
+upon the first notice of peace, they shipped them off in great 
+quantities for Marseilles. I am told that the produce of the 
+islands is at present cheaper here than where it grows; and on 
+the other hand the merchandize of this country sells for less 
+money at Martinique than in Provence.
+
+A single person, who travels in this country, may live at a 
+reasonable rate in these towns, by eating at the public 
+ordinaries: but I would advise all families that come hither to 
+make any stay, to take furnished lodgings as soon as they can: 
+for the expence of living at an hotel is enormous. I was obliged 
+to pay at Marseilles four livres a head for every meal, and half 
+that price for my servant, and was charged six livres a day 
+besides for the apartment, so that our daily expence, including 
+breakfast and a valet de place, amounted to two loui'dores. The 
+same imposition prevails all over the south of France, though it 
+is generally supposed to be the cheapest and most plentiful part 
+of the kingdom. Without all doubt, it must be owing to the folly 
+and extravagance of English travellers, who have allowed 
+themselves to be fleeced without wincing, until this extortion is 
+become authorized by custom. It is very disagreeable riding in 
+the avenues of Marseilles, because you are confined in a dusty 
+high road, crouded with carriages and beasts of burden, between 
+two white walls, the reflection from which, while the sun shines, 
+is intolerable. But in this neighbourhood there is a vast number 
+of pleasant country-houses, called Bastides, said to amount to 
+twelve thousand, some of which may be rented ready furnished at a 
+very reasonable price. Marseilles is a gay city, and the 
+inhabitants indulge themselves in a variety of amusements. 
+They have assemblies, a concert spirituel, and a comedy. 
+Here is also a spacious cours, or walk shaded with trees, to 
+which in the evening there is a great resort of well-dressed 
+people.
+
+Marseilles being a free port, there is a bureau about half a 
+league from the city on the road to Aix, where all carriages 
+undergo examination; and if any thing contraband is found, the 
+vehicle, baggage, and even the horses are confiscated. We escaped 
+this disagreeable ceremony by the sagacity of our driver. Of his 
+own accord, he declared at the bureau, that we had bought a pound 
+of coffee and some sugar at Marseilles, and were ready to pay the 
+duty, which amounted to about ten sols. They took the money, gave 
+him a receipt, and let the carriage pass, without further 
+question.
+
+I proposed to stay one night only at Aix: but Mr. A--r, who is 
+here, had found such benefit from drinking the waters, that I was 
+persuaded to make trial of them for eight or ten days. I have 
+accordingly taken private lodgings, and drank them at the 
+fountain-head, not without finding considerable benefit. In my 
+next I shall say something further of these waters, though I am 
+afraid they will not prove a source of much entertainment. It 
+will be sufficient for me to find them contribute in any degree 
+to the health of--Dear Sir, Yours assuredly.
+
+LETTER XL
+
+BOULOGNE, May 23, 1765.
+
+DEAR DOCTOR,--I found three English families at Aix, with whom I 
+could have passed my time very agreeably
+but the society is now dissolved. Mr. S--re and his lady left the 
+place in a few days after we arrived. Mr. A--r and lady Betty are 
+gone to Geneva; and Mr. G--r with his family remains at Aix. This 
+gentleman, who laboured under a most dreadful nervous asthma, has 
+obtained such relief from this climate, that he intends to stay 
+another year in the place: and Mr. A--r found surprizing benefit 
+from drinking the waters, for a scorbutical complaint. As I was 
+incommoded by both these disorders, I could not but in justice to 
+myself, try the united efforts of the air and the waters; 
+especially as this consideration was re-inforced by the kind and 
+pressing exhortations of Mr. A--r and lady Betty, which I could 
+not in gratitude resist.
+
+Aix, the capital of Provence, is a large city, watered by the 
+small river Are. It was a Roman colony, said to be founded by 
+Caius Sextus Calvinus, above a century before the birth of 
+Christ. From the source of mineral water here found, added to the 
+consul's name, it was called Aquae Sextiae. It was here that 
+Marius, the conqueror of the Teutones, fixed his headquarters, 
+and embellished the place with temples, aqueducts, and thermae, 
+of which, however, nothing now remains. The city, as it now 
+stands, is well built, though the streets in general are narrow, 
+and kept in a very dirty condition. But it has a noble cours 
+planted with double rows of tall trees, and adorned with three or 
+four fine fountains, the middlemost of which discharges hot water 
+supplied from the source of the baths. On each side there is a 
+row of elegant houses, inhabited chiefly by the noblesse, of 
+which there is here a considerable number. The parliament, which 
+is held at Aix, brings hither a great resort of people; and as 
+many of the inhabitants are persons of fashion, they are well 
+bred, gay, and sociable. The duc de Villars, who is governor of 
+the province, resides on the spot, and keeps an open assembly, 
+where strangers are admitted without reserve, and made very 
+welcome, if they will engage in play, which is the sole 
+occupation of the whole company. Some of our English people 
+complain, that when they were presented to him, they met with a 
+very cold reception. The French, as well as other foreigners, 
+have no idea of a man of family and fashion, without the title of 
+duke, count, marquis, or lord, and where an English gentleman is 
+introduced by the simple expression of monsieur tel, Mr. 
+Suchathing, they think he is some plebeian, unworthy of any 
+particular attention.
+
+Aix is situated in a bottom, almost surrounded by hills, which, 
+however, do not screen it from the Bize, or north wind, that 
+blows extremely sharp in the winter and spring, rendering the air 
+almost insupportably cold, and very dangerous to those who have 
+some kinds of pulmonary complaints, such as tubercules, 
+abscesses, or spitting of blood. Lord H--, who passed part of 
+last winter in this place, afflicted with some of these symptoms, 
+grew worse every day while he continued at Aix: but, he no sooner 
+removed to Marseilles, than all his complaints abated; such a 
+difference there is in the air of these two places, though the 
+distance between them does not exceed ten or twelve miles. But 
+the air of Marseilles, though much more mild than that of Aix in 
+the winter is not near so warm as the climate of Nice, where we 
+find in plenty such flowers, fruit, and vegetables, even in the 
+severest season, as will not grow and ripen, either at Marseilles 
+or Toulon.
+
+If the air of Aix is disagreeably cold in the winter, it is 
+rendered quite insufferable in the summer, from excessive heat, 
+occasioned by the reflexion from the rocks and mountains, which 
+at the same time obstruct the circulation of air: for it must be 
+observed, that the same mountains which serve as funnels and 
+canals, to collect and discharge the keen blasts of winter, will 
+provide screens to intercept intirely the faint breezes of 
+summer. Aix, though pretty well provided with butcher's meat, is 
+very ill supplied with potherbs; and they have no poultry but 
+what comes at a vast distance from the Lionnois. They say their 
+want of roots, cabbage, cauliflower, etc. is owing to a scarcity 
+of water: but the truth is, they are very bad gardeners. Their 
+oil is good and cheap: their wine is indifferent: but their chief 
+care seems employed on the culture of silk, the staple of 
+Provence, which is every where shaded with plantations of 
+mulberry trees, for the nourishment of the worms. Notwithstanding 
+the boasted cheapness of every article of housekeeping, in the 
+south of France, I am persuaded a family may live for less money 
+at York, Durham, Hereford, and in many other cities of England 
+than at Aix in Provence; keep a more plentiful table; and be much 
+more comfortably situated in all respects. I found lodging and 
+provision at Aix fifty per cent dearer than at Montpellier, which 
+is counted the dearest place in Languedoc.
+
+The baths of Aix, so famous in antiquity, were quite demolished 
+by the irruptions of the barbarians. The very source of the water 
+was lost, till the beginning of the present century (I think the 
+year 1704), when it was discovered by accident, in digging for 
+the foundation of a house, at the foot of a hill, just without 
+the city wall. Near the same place was found a small stone altar, 
+with the figure of a Priapus, and some letters in capitals, which 
+the antiquarians have differently interpreted. From this figure, 
+it was supposed that the waters were efficacious in cases of 
+barrenness. It was a long time, however, before any person would 
+venture to use them internally, as it did not appear that they 
+had ever been drank by the antients. On their re-appearance, they 
+were chiefly used for baths to horses, and other beasts which had 
+the mange, and other cutaneous eruptions. At length poor people 
+began to bathe in them for the same disorders, and received such 
+benefit from them, as attracted the attention of more curious 
+inquirers. A very superficial and imperfect analysis was made and 
+published, with a few remarkable histories of the cures they had 
+performed, by three different physicians of those days; and those 
+little treatises, I suppose, encouraged valetudinarians to drink 
+them without ceremony. They were found serviceable in the gout, 
+the gravel, scurvy, dropsy, palsy, indigestion, asthma, and 
+consumption; and their fame soon extended itself all over 
+Languedoc, Gascony, Dauphine, and Provence. The magistrates, with 
+a view to render them more useful and commodious, have raised a 
+plain building, in which there are a couple of private baths, 
+with a bedchamber adjoining to each, where individuals may use 
+them both internally and externally, for a moderate expence. 
+These baths are paved with marble, and supplied with water each 
+by a large brass cock, which you can turn at pleasure. At one end 
+of this edifice, there is an octagon, open at top, having a 
+bason, with a stone pillar in the middle, which discharges water 
+from the same source, all round, by eight small brass cocks; and 
+hither people of all ranks come of a morning, with their glasses, 
+to drink the water, or wash their sores, or subject their 
+contracted limbs to the stream. This last operation, called the 
+douche, however, is more effectually undergone in the private 
+bath, where the stream is much more powerful. The natural warmth 
+of this water, as nearly as I can judge from recollection, is 
+about the same degree of temperature with that in the Queen's 
+Bath, at Bath in Somersetshire. It is perfectly transparent, 
+sparkling in the glass, light and agreeable to the taste, and may 
+be drank without any preparation, to the quantity of three or 
+four pints at a time. There are many people at Aix who swallow 
+fourteen half pint glasses every morning, during the season, 
+which is in the month of May, though it may be taken with equal 
+benefit all the year round. It has no sensible operation but by 
+urine, an effect which pure water would produce, if drank in the 
+same quantity.
+
+If we may believe those who have published their experiments, 
+this water produces neither agitation, cloud, or change of 
+colour, when mixed with acids, alkalies, tincture of galls, syrup 
+of violets, or solution of silver. The residue, after boiling, 
+evaporation, and filtration, affords a very small proportion of 
+purging salt, and calcarious earth, which last ferments with 
+strong acids. As I had neither hydrometer nor thermometer to 
+ascertain the weight and warmth of this water; nor time to 
+procure the proper utensils, to make the preparations, and repeat 
+the experiments necessary to exhibit a complete analysis, I did 
+not pretend to enter upon this process; but contented myself with 
+drinking, bathing, and using the douche, which perfectly answered 
+my expectation, having, in eight days, almost cured an ugly 
+scorbutic tetter, which had for some time deprived me of the use 
+of my right hand. I observed that the water, when used 
+externally, left always a kind of oily appearance on the skin: 
+that when, we boiled it at home, in an earthen pot, the steams 
+smelled like those of sulphur, and even affected my lungs in the 
+same manner: but the bath itself smelled strong of a lime-kiln. 
+The water, after standing all night in a bottle, yielded a 
+remarkably vinous taste and odour, something analogous to that of 
+dulcified spirit of nitre. Whether the active particles consist 
+of a volatile vitriol, or a very fine petroleum, or a mixture of 
+both, I shall not pretend to determine: but the best way I know 
+of discovering whether it is really impregnated with a vitriolic 
+principle, too subtil and fugitive for the usual operations of 
+chymistry, is to place bottles, filled with wine, in the bath, or 
+adjacent room, which wine, if there is really a volatile acid, in 
+any considerable quantity, will be pricked in eight and forty 
+hours.
+
+Having ordered our coach to be refitted, and provided with fresh 
+horses, as well as with another postilion, in consequence of 
+which improvements, I payed at the rate of a loui'dore per diem 
+to Lyons and back again, we departed from Aix, and the second day 
+of our journey passing the Durance in a boat, lay at Avignon. 
+This river, the Druentia of the antients, is a considerable 
+stream, extremely rapid, which descends from the mountains, and 
+discharges itself in the Rhone. After violent rains it extends 
+its channel, so as to be impassable, and often overflows the 
+country to a great extent. In the middle of a plain, betwixt 
+Orgon and this river, we met the coach in which we had travelled 
+eighteen months before, from Lyons to Montpellier, conducted by 
+our old driver Joseph, who no sooner recognized my servant at a 
+distance, by his musquetoon, than he came running towards our 
+carriage, and seizing my hand, even shed tears of joy. Joseph had 
+been travelling through Spain, and was so imbrowned by the sun, 
+that he might have passed for an Iroquois. I was much pleased 
+with the marks of gratitude which the poor fellow expressed 
+towards his benefactors. He had some private conversation with 
+our voiturier, whose name was Claude, to whom he gave such a 
+favourable character of us, as in all probability induced him to 
+be wonderfully obliging during the whole journey.
+
+You know Avignon is a large city belonging to the pope. It was 
+the Avenio Cavarum of the antients, and changed masters several 
+times, belonging successively to the Romans, Burgundians, Franks, 
+the kingdom of Arles, the counts of Provence, and the sovereigns 
+of Naples. It was sold in the fourteenth century, by queen Jane 
+I. of Naples, to Pope Clement VI. for the sum of eighty thousand 
+florins, and since that period has continued under the dominion 
+of the see of Rome. Not but that when the duc de Crequi, the 
+French ambassador, was insulted at Rome in the year 1662, the 
+parliament of Provence passed an arret, declaring the city of 
+Avignon, and the county Venaiss in part of the ancient domain of 
+Provence; and therefore reunited it to the crown of France, which 
+accordingly took possession; though it was afterwards restored to 
+the Roman see at the peace of Pisa. The pope, however, holds it 
+by a precarious title, at the mercy of the French king, who may 
+one day be induced to resume it, upon payment of the original 
+purchase-money. As a succession of popes resided here for the 
+space of seventy years, the city could not fail to be adorned 
+with a great number of magnificent churches and convents, which 
+are richly embellished with painting, sculpture, shrines, 
+reliques, and tombs. Among the last, is that of the celebrated 
+Laura, whom Petrarch has immortalized by his poetry, and for whom 
+Francis I. of France took the trouble to write an epitaph. 
+Avignon is governed by a vice-legate from the pope, and the 
+police of the city is regulated by the consuls.
+
+It is a large place, situated in a fruitful plain, surrounded by 
+high walls built of hewn stone, which on the west side are washed 
+by the Rhone. Here was a noble bridge over the river, but it is 
+now in ruins. On the other side, a branch of the Sorgue runs 
+through part of the city. This is the river anciently called 
+Sulga, formed by the famous fountain of Vaucluse in this 
+neighbourhood, where the poet Petrarch resided. It is a charming 
+transparent stream, abounding with excellent trout and craw-fish. 
+We passed over it on a stone bridge, in our way to Orange, the 
+Arausio Cavarum of the Romans, still distinguished by some noble 
+monuments of antiquity. These consist of a circus, an aqueduct, a 
+temple, and a triumphal arch, which last was erected in honour of 
+Caius Marius, and Luctatius Catulus, after the great victory they 
+obtained in this country over the Cimbri and Teutones. It is a 
+very magnificent edifice, adorned on all sides with trophies and 
+battles in basso relievo. The ornaments of the architecture, and 
+the sculpture, are wonderfully elegant for the time in which it 
+was erected; and the whole is surprisingly well preserved, 
+considering its great antiquity. It seems to me to be as entire 
+and perfect as the arch of Septimius Severus at Rome. Next day we 
+passed two very impetuous streams, the Drome and the Isere. The 
+first, which very much resembles the Var, we forded: but the 
+Isere we crossed in a boat, which as well as that upon the 
+Durance, is managed by the traille, a moveable or running pulley, 
+on a rope stretched between two wooden machines erected on the 
+opposite sides of the river. The contrivance is simple and 
+effectual, and the passage equally safe and expeditious. The 
+boatman has nothing to do, but by means of a long massy rudder, 
+to keep the head obliquely to the stream, the force of which 
+pushes the boat along, the block to which it is fixed sliding 
+upon the rope from one side to the other. All these rivers take 
+their rise from the mountains, which are continued through 
+Provence and Dauphine, and fall into the Rhone: and all of them, 
+when swelled by sudden rains, overflow the flat country. Although 
+Dauphine affords little or no oil, it produces excellent wines, 
+particularly those of Hermitage and Cote-roti. The first of these 
+is sold on the spot for three livres the bottle, and the other 
+for two. The country likewise yields a considerable quantity of 
+corn, and a good deal of grass. It is well watered with streams, 
+and agreeably shaded with wood. The weather was pleasant, and we 
+had a continued song of nightingales from Aix to Fontainebleau.
+
+I cannot pretend to specify the antiquities of Vienne, antiently 
+called Vienna Allobrogum. It was a Roman colony, and a 
+considerable city, which the antients spared no pains and expence 
+to embellish. It is still a large town, standing among several 
+hills on the banks of the Rhone, though all its former splendor 
+is eclipsed, its commerce decayed, and most of its antiquities 
+are buried in ruins. The church of Notre Dame de la Vie was 
+undoubtedly a temple. On the left of the road, as you enter it, 
+by the gate of Avignon, there is a handsome obelisk, or rather 
+pyramid, about thirty feet high, raised upon a vault supported by 
+four pillars of the Tuscan order. It is certainly a Roman work, 
+and Montfaucon supposes it to be a tomb, as he perceived an 
+oblong stone jetting out from the middle of the vault, in which 
+the ashes of the defunct were probably contained. The story of 
+Pontius Pilate, who is said to have ended his days in this place, 
+is a fable. On the seventh day of our journey from Aix, we 
+arrived at Lyons, where I shall take my leave of you for the 
+present, being with great truth--Yours, etc.
+
+LETTER XLI
+
+BOULOGNE, June 13, 1765.
+
+DEAR SIR,--I am at last in a situation to indulge my view with a 
+sight of Britain, after an absence of two years; and indeed you 
+cannot imagine what pleasure I feel while I survey the white 
+cliffs of Dover, at this distance. Not that I am at all affected 
+by the nescia qua dulcedine natalis soli, of Horace. That seems 
+to be a kind of fanaticism founded on the prejudices of 
+education, which induces a Laplander to place the terrestrial 
+paradise among the snows of Norway, and a Swiss to prefer the 
+barren mountains of Solleure to the fruitful plains of Lombardy. 
+I am attached to my country, because it is the land of liberty, 
+cleanliness, and convenience: but I love it still more tenderly, 
+as the scene of all my interesting connexions; as the habitation 
+of my friends, for whose conversation, correspondence, and 
+esteem, I wish alone to live.
+
+Our journey hither from Lyons produced neither accident nor 
+adventure worth notice; but abundance of little vexations, which 
+may be termed the Plagues of Posting. At Lyons, where we stayed 
+only a few days, I found a return-coach, which I hired to Paris 
+for six loui'dores. It was a fine roomy carriage, elegantly 
+furnished, and made for travelling; so strong and solid in all 
+its parts, that there was no danger of its being shaken to 
+pieces by the roughness of the road: but its weight and solidity 
+occasioned so much friction between the wheels and the axle-tree, 
+that we ran the risque of being set on fire three or four times a 
+day. Upon a just comparison of all circumstances posting is much 
+more easy, convenient, and reasonable in England than in France. 
+The English carriages, horses, harness, and roads are much 
+better; and the postilions more obliging and alert. The reason is 
+plain and obvious. If I am ill-used at the post-house in England, 
+I can be accommodated elsewhere. The publicans on the road are 
+sensible of this, and therefore they vie with each other in 
+giving satisfaction to travellers. But in France, where the post 
+is monopolized, the post-masters and postilions, knowing that the 
+traveller depends intirely upon them, are the more negligent and 
+remiss in their duty, as well as the more encouraged to insolence 
+and imposition. Indeed the stranger seems to be left intirely at 
+the mercy of those fellows, except in large towns, where he may 
+have recourse to the magistrate or commanding officer. The post 
+stands very often by itself in a lone country situation, or in a 
+paultry village, where the post-master is the principal 
+inhabitant; and in such a case, if you should be ill-treated, by 
+being supplied with bad horses; if you should be delayed on 
+frivolous pretences, in order to extort money; if the postilions 
+should drive at a waggon pace, with a view to provoke your 
+impatience; or should you in any shape be insulted by them or 
+their masters; and I know not any redress you can have, except by 
+a formal complaint to the comptroller of the posts, who is 
+generally one of the ministers of state, and pays little or no 
+regard to any such representations. I know an English gentleman, 
+the brother of an earl, who wrote a letter of complaint to the 
+Duc de Villars, governor of Provence, against the post-master of 
+Antibes, who had insulted and imposed upon him. The duke answered 
+his letter, promising to take order that the grievance should be 
+redressed; and never thought of it after. Another great 
+inconvenience which attends posting in France, is that if you are 
+retarded by any accident, you cannot in many parts of the kingdom 
+find a lodging, without perhaps travelling two or three posts 
+farther than you would choose to go, to the prejudice of your 
+health, and even the hazard of your life; whereas on any part of 
+the post-road in England, you will meet with tolerable 
+accommodation at every stage. Through the whole south of France, 
+except in large cities, the inns are cold, damp, dark, dismal, 
+and dirty; the landlords equally disobliging and rapacious; the 
+servants aukward, sluttish, and slothful; and the postilions 
+lazy, lounging, greedy, and impertinent. If you chide them for 
+lingering, they will continue to delay you the longer: if you 
+chastise them with sword, cane, cudgel, or horse-whip, they will 
+either disappear entirely, and leave you without resource; or 
+they will find means to take vengeance by overturning your 
+carriage. The best method I know of travelling with any degree of 
+comfort, is to allow yourself to become the dupe of imposition, 
+and stimulate their endeavours by extraordinary gratifications. I 
+laid down a resolution (and kept it) to give no more than four 
+and twenty sols per post between the two postilions; but I am now 
+persuaded that for three-pence a post more, I should have been 
+much better served, and should have performed the journey with 
+much greater pleasure. We met with no adventures upon the road 
+worth reciting. The first day we were retarded about two hours by 
+the dutchess D--lle, and her son the duc de R--f--t, who by 
+virtue of an order from the minister, had anticipated all the 
+horses at the post. They accosted my servant, and asked if his 
+master was a lord? He thought proper to answer in the 
+affirmative, upon which the duke declared that he must certainly 
+be of French extraction, inasmuch as he observed the lilies of 
+France in his arms on the coach. This young nobleman spoke a 
+little English. He asked whence we had come; and understanding we 
+had been in Italy, desired to know whether the man liked France 
+or Italy best? Upon his giving France the preference, he clapped 
+him on the shoulder, and said he was a lad of good taste. The 
+dutchess asked if her son spoke English well, and seemed mightily 
+pleased when my man assured her he did. They were much more free 
+and condescending with my servant than with myself; for, though 
+we saluted them in passing, and were even supposed to be persons 
+of quality, they did not open their lips, while we stood close by 
+them at the inn-door, till their horses were changed. They were 
+going to Geneva; and their equipage consisted of three coaches 
+and six, with five domestics a-horseback. The dutchess was a 
+tall, thin, raw-boned woman, with her head close shaved. This 
+delay obliged us to lie two posts short of Macon, at a solitary 
+auberge called Maison Blanche, which had nothing white about it, 
+but the name. The Lionnois is one of the most agreeable and best-cultivated 
+countries I ever beheld, diversified with hill, dale, 
+wood, and water, laid out in extensive corn-fields and rich 
+meadows, well stocked with black cattle, and adorned with a 
+surprising number of towns, villages, villas, and convents, 
+generally situated on the brows of gently swelling hills, so that 
+they appear to the greatest advantage. What contributes in a 
+great measure to the beauty of this, and the Maconnois, is the 
+charming pastoral Soame, which from the city of Chalons winds its 
+silent course so smooth and gentle, that one can scarce discern 
+which way its current flows. It is this placid appearance that 
+tempts so many people to bathe in it at Lions, where a good 
+number of individuals are drowned every summer: whereas there is 
+no instance of any persons thus perishing in the Rhone, the 
+rapidity of it deterring every body from bathing in its stream. 
+Next night we passed at Beaune where we found nothing good but 
+the wine, for which we paid forty sols the bottle. At Chalons our 
+axle-tree took fire; an accident which detained us so long, that 
+it was ten before we arrived at Auxerre, where we lay. In all 
+probability we must have lodged in the coach, had not we been 
+content to take four horses, and pay for six, two posts 
+successively. The alternative was, either to proceed with four on 
+those terms, or stay till the other horses should come in and be 
+refreshed. In such an emergency, I would advise the traveller to 
+put up with the four, and he will find the postilions so much 
+upon their mettle, that those stages will be performed sooner 
+than the others in which you have the full complement.
+
+There was an English gentleman laid up at Auxerre with a broken 
+arm, to whom I sent my compliments, with offers of service; but 
+his servant told my man that he did not choose to see any 
+company, and had no occasion for my service. This sort of reserve 
+seems peculiar to the English disposition. When two natives of 
+any other country chance to meet abroad, they run into each 
+other's embrace like old friends, even though they have never 
+heard of one another till that moment; whereas two Englishmen in 
+the same situation maintain a mutual reserve and diffidence, and 
+keep without the sphere of each other's attraction, like two 
+bodies endowed with a repulsive power. We only stopped to change 
+horses at Dijon, the capital of Burgundy, which is a venerable 
+old city; but we passed part of a day at Sens, and visited a 
+manufacture of that stuff we call Manchester velvet, which is 
+here made and dyed to great perfection, under the direction of 
+English workmen, who have been seduced from their own country. At 
+Fontainebleau. we went to see the palace, or as it is called, the 
+castle, which though an irregular pile of building, affords a 
+great deal of lodging, and contains some very noble apartments, 
+particularly the hall of audience, with the king's and queen's 
+chambers, upon which the ornaments of carving and gilding are 
+lavished with profusion rather than propriety. Here are some rich 
+parterres of flower-garden, and a noble orangerie, which, 
+however, we did not greatly admire, after having lived among the 
+natural orange groves of Italy. Hitherto we had enjoyed fine 
+summer weather, and I found myself so well, that I imagined my 
+health was intirely restored: but betwixt Fontainebleau and 
+Paris, we were overtaken by a black storm of rain, sleet, and 
+hail, which seemed to reinstate winter in all its rigour; for the 
+cold weather continues to this day. There was no resisting this 
+attack. I caught cold immediately; and this was reinforced at 
+Paris, where I stayed but three days. The same man, (Pascal 
+Sellier, rue Guenegaud, fauxbourg St. Germain) who owned the 
+coach that brought us from Lyons, supplied me with a returned 
+berline to Boulogne, for six loui'dores, and we came hither by 
+easy journeys. The first night we lodged at Breteuil, where we 
+found an elegant inn, and very good accommodation. But the next 
+we were forced to take up our quarters, at the house where we had 
+formerly passed a very disagreeable night at Abbeville. I am now 
+in tolerable lodging, where I shall remain a few weeks, merely 
+for the sake of a little repose; then I shall gladly tempt that 
+invidious straight which still divides you from--Yours, &c.
+
+
+
+APPENDIX A
+
+A Short List of Works, mainly on Travel in France and Italy 
+during the Eighteenth Century, referred to in connection with the 
+Introduction.
+
+ADDISON, JOSEPH. Remarks on Several Parts of Italy. London, 1705.
+
+ANCONE, ALESSANDRO D'. Saggio di una bibliografia ragionata dei 
+Viaggi in Italia. 1895.
+
+ANDREWS, Dr. JOHN. Letters to a Young Gentleman in setting out 
+for France. London, 1784.
+
+ARCHENHOLTZ, J. W. VON. Tableau de l'Angleterre et de l'Italie. 3 
+vols. Gotha, 1788.
+
+ARDOUIN-DUMAZET Voyage en France. Treizieme serie. La Provence 
+Maritime. Paris, 1898.
+
+ASTRUC, JEAN. Memoires pour servir a l'histoire de la Faculte de 
+Medicine de Montpellier, 1767.
+
+BABEAU, ANTOINE. Voyageurs en France. Paris, 1885.
+
+BALLY, L. E. Souvenirs de Nice. 1860.
+
+BARETTI, G. M. Account of the Manners and Customs of Italy. 2 
+vols. London, 1770.
+
+BASTIDE, CHARLES. John Locke. Ses theories politiques en 
+Angleterre. Paris, 1907.
+
+BECKFORD, WILLIAM. Italy, Spain, and Portugal. By the author of 
+"Vathek." London, 1834; new ed. 1840.
+
+BERCHTOLD, LEOPOLD. An Essay to direct the Inquiries of Patriotic 
+Travellers. 2 vols. London, 1789.
+
+BOULOGNE-SUR-MER et la region Boulonnaise. Ouvrage offert par la 
+ville aux membres de l'Association Francaise. 2 vols.  1899.
+
+BRETON DE LA MARTINIERE, J. Voyage en Piemont. Paris, 1803.
+
+BROSSES, CHARLES DE. Lettres familieres ecrites d'Italie. 1740.
+
+BURTON, JOHN HILL. The Scot Abroad. 2 vols. Edinburgh. 1864.
+
+CASANOVA DE SEINGALT, JACQUES. Memoires ecrits par lui-meme. 6 
+vols. Bruxelles, 1879.
+
+CLEMENT, PIERRE. L'Italie en 1671. Paris, 1867. 12mo.
+
+COOTE'S NEW GEOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY. 2 vols., folio, 1739.
+
+CRAIG, G. DUNCAN. Mie jour; or Provencal Legend, Life, Language, 
+and Literature. London, 1877.
+
+DAVIS, Dr. I. B. Ancient and Modern History of Nice. London, 
+1807.
+
+DEJOB, C. Madame de Stael et l'Italie. Paris, 1890.
+
+DEMPSTER, C. L. H. The Maritime Alps and their Sea-Board. London, 
+1885.
+
+DORAN, DR. JOHN. Mann and Manners at the Court of Florence. 
+London, 1876.
+
+DRAMARD, E. Bibliographie du Boulonnais, Calaisis, etc. Paris, 
+1869.
+
+DUTENS, L. Itineraire des Routes. First edition, 1775.
+
+EVELYN, JOHN. Diary, edited by H. B. Wheatley. 4 vols. London, 
+1879.
+
+FERBER, G. G. Travels through Italy, translated by R. E. Raspe. 
+London, 1776.
+
+FODERE, FRANCOIS EMILE. Voyage aux Alpes Maritimes. 2 vols. 
+Paris, 1821.
+
+FORSYTH, JOSEPH. Remarks on Antiquities, Arts, and Letters, 
+during an Excursion in Italy in the year 1S02 and 1803. London, 
+1812; 4th Edition, I835.
+
+GARDNER, EDMUND G. The Story of Florence. London, 1900.
+
+GERMAIN, M. A. Histoire de la Commune de Montpellier. 3 vols. 
+Montpellier, 1853.
+
+GIOFFREDO, PIETRO. Storia delle Alpi Marittime . . . libri xxvi. 
+Ed. Gazzera. 1836.
+
+GOETHE. Autobiography, Tour in Italy, Miscellaneous Travels, and 
+Wilhelm Meister's Travels (Bohn).
+
+GROSLEY, PIERRE JEAN. Nouveaux Memoires sur l'Italie. London, 
+1764. New Observations on Italy. Translated by Thomas Nugent. 
+1769.
+
+HARE, AUGUSTUS J. C. The Rivieras. 1897.
+
+HILLARD, G. S. Six Months in Italy. Boston, 1853; 7th edition, 
+1863.
+
+JEFFERYS, THOMAS. Description of the Maritime Parts of France. 
+With Maps. 1761.
+
+JOANNE, ADOLPHE. Provence, Alpes Maritimes. Paris, 1881 
+(Bibliog., p. xxvii).
+
+JONES (of Nayland), WILLIAM. Observations in a Journey to Paris. 
+London, 1777.
+
+KOTZEBUE, A. F. F. VON. Travels through Italy in 1804 and 1805. 4 
+vols. London, 1807.
+
+LALANDE, J. J. DE. Voyage en Italie. 6 vols. 12mo. 1768.
+
+LEE, EDWIN. Nice et son climat. Paris, 1863.
+
+LENOTRE, G. Paris revolutionnaire. Paris, 1895.
+
+LENTHERIC, CHARLES. La Provence Maritime, ancienne et moderne. 
+Paris, 1880. Les voies antiques de la Region du Rhone. Avignon, 
+1882.
+
+LUCHAIRE, A. Hist. des Instit. Monarchiques de la France. 2 vols. 
+1891.
+
+MAUGHAM, H. N. The Book of Italian Travel. London, 1903.
+
+MERCIER, M. New Pictures of Paris. London, I8OO.
+
+METRIVIER, H. Monaco et ses Princes. 2 vols. I862.
+
+MILLINGEN, J. G. Sketches of Ancient and Modern Boulogne. London, 
+1826.
+
+MONTAIGNE, MICHEL DE. Journal du Voyage en Italie (Querlon). 
+Rome, 1774.
+
+MONTESQUIEU, CHARLES DE SECONDAT, BARON DE. Voyages. Bordeaux, 
+1894.
+
+MONTFAUCON. Travels of the Learned Dr. Montfaucon from Paris 
+through Italy. London, 1712.
+
+MOORE, DR. JOHN. A View of Society and Manners in France (2 
+vols., 1779), and in Italy (2 vols., 1781)
+
+NASH, JAMES. Guide to Nice, 1884.
+
+NORTHALL, JOHN. Travels through Italy. London, 1766.
+
+NUGENT, THOMAS. The Grand Tour. 3rd edition. 4 vols. 1778.
+
+PALLIARI, LEA. Notices historiques sur le comte et la ville de 
+Nice. Nice, 1875.
+
+PETHERICK, E, A. Catalogue of the York Gate Library. An Index to 
+the Literature of Geography. London, 1881.
+
+PIOZZI, HESTER LYNCH. Observations and Reflections made in the 
+course of a Journey through France, Italy, and Germany. In 2 
+vols. London, 1789.
+
+RAE, JOHN. Life of Adam Smith. London, 1885.
+
+RICHARD, L'ABBE. Description historique et critique de l'Italie. 
+6 vols. Paris, 1768.
+
+RICHARDERIE, BOUCHER DE LA. Bibliotheque des voyages. Paris, 
+1808.
+
+RIGBY, DR. Letters from France in 1789, edited by Lady Eastlake. 
+London, 1880.
+
+ROSE, WILLIAM STEWART. Letters from the North of Italy to Henry 
+Hallam. 2 vols. 1819.
+
+ROUX, JOSEPH. Statistique des Alpes Maritimes. 2 vols. 1863.
+
+RUFFINI, GIOVANNI, D. Doctor Antonio; a Tale. Paris, 1855.
+
+SAYOUS, A. Le Dix-huitieme siecle a l'etranger. 2 vols. Paris, 
+1861.
+
+SECCOMBE, THOMAS. Smollett's Travels, edited with bibliographical 
+note, etc. By Thomas Seccombe (Works, Constable's Edition, vol. 
+xi.). 1900.
+
+SHARP, SAMUEL. Letters from Italy. London, 1769.
+
+SHERLOCK, MARTIN. Letters from an English Traveller. (New English 
+version.) 2 vols. 1802.
+
+SMOLLETT, T. Travels through France and Italy. 2 vols. London, 
+1766.
+
+SPALDING, WILLIAM. Italy and the Italian Islands. 3 vols. London, 
+1841.
+
+STAEL, MME. DE. Corinne, ou l'Italie. 1807.
+
+STARKE, MARIANA. Letters from Italy, 1792-1798. 9 vols. 1800. 
+Travels on the Continent for the use of Travellers. 1800, 1820, 
+1824, etc.
+
+STENDHAL. Rome, Naples, and Florence, in 1817. London, 1818.
+
+STERNE, LAURENCE. A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy. 
+By Mr. Yorick. 2 vols. London, 1768.
+
+STOLBERZ, COUNT F. L. ZU. Travels through Germany, Switzerland, 
+Italy, etc. Translated by Thomas Holcroft. 1796.
+
+TAINE, HENRI. Voyage en Italie. 1866.
+
+TALBOT, SIR R. Letters on the French Nation. London, 2 vols.1771, 
+12mo.
+
+TEYSSEIRE, T. Monographie sur le climat de Nice. 1881.
+
+THICKNESSE, PHILIP. Useful Hints to those who make the Tour of 
+France in a Series of Letters. London, 1768. A year's Journey 
+through France, etc. 2, vols. 1777.
+
+TISSERAND, E. Chronique de Provence . . . de la cite de Nice, 
+etc. 2 vols. Nice, 1862.
+
+TWINING FAMILY PAPERS. London, 1887.
+
+VIOLLET, PAUL. Hist. des Instit. polit. et administratifs de la 
+France. 2 vols. Paris, 1890-98.
+
+WHATLEY, STEPHEN. The Travels and Adventures of J. Massey. 
+Translated from the French. 1743.
+
+WILLIAMS, C. THEODORE. The Climate of the South of France. 1869.
+
+WINCKELMANN, J. J. Lettres familieres. Amsterdam, 1781. 
+Reflections on the Painting and Sculpture of the Greeks. 
+Translated by H. Fuseli. London, 1765. Voyage en Italie de J. J. 
+Barthelemy . . . avec des morceaux inedits de Winckelmann. 1801.
+
+YOUNG, ARTHUR. Travels in France during 1787, 1788, 1789, edited 
+by M. Betham-Edwards. 1889.
+
+YOUNG, EDWARD. Sa vie et ses oeuvres, par W. Thomas. Paris, 
+1901.
+
+APPENDIX B
+
+Short Notes on one or two unfamiliar Words which Smollett helped 
+to domesticate in England.
+
+Berline. Swift and Chesterfield both use this for a heavy coach. 
+The most famous berline was that used in the flight to Varennes. 
+The name came from Brandenburg in the time of Frederick William.
+
+Bize. Smollett's spelling of bise--the cutting N.N.E. wind which 
+makes Geneva so beautiful, but intolerable in the winter.
+
+Brasiere=brasero. A tray for hot charcoal used for warming rooms 
+at Nice. Smollett practically introduced this word. Dried olives 
+were often used as fuel.
+
+Calesse, calash, caleche. A low two-wheeled carriage of light 
+construction, with a movable folding hood; hence applied to a 
+hood bonnet as in Mrs. Gaskell's Cranford.
+
+Cassine. Latin casa, cassa, cassina; the Italian cassina, A small 
+detached house in the fields, often whitewashed and of mean 
+appearance. Smollett uses the word as an equivalent for summer 
+cottage. Cf. bastide as used by Dumas. Cabane has practically 
+replaced cassine in modern French. See Letter XXIV.
+
+Cambiatura. The system of changing chaises every post, common in 
+England, but unusual abroad except in Tuscany.
+
+Cicisbeo. The word is used by Lady Mary Montagu in her Letters 
+(17I8) as cecisbeo. Smollett's best account is in Letter XVII. 
+See Introduction, p. xliii.
+
+Conversazione. Gray uses the word for assembly in 1710, but 
+Smollett, I believe, is about the first Englishman to define it 
+properly.
+
+Corinth. This was still used as a variant of currant, though 
+adherence to it was probably rather pedantic on Smollett's part 
+(cf. his use of "hough" for hoe). Boswell uses the modern form.
+
+Corridore. This word was used by Evelyn, and the correct modern 
+spelling given by Johnson in 1753; but Smollett as often adheres 
+to the old form.
+
+Douche. Italian doccia. Smollett is perhaps the first writer to 
+explain the word and assign to it the now familiar French form 
+(Letter XL).
+
+Feluca. An Arab word to denote a coasting boat, oar or sail 
+propelled. Nelson and Marryat write felucca. It was large enough 
+to accommodate a post-chaise (Letter XXV).
+
+Gabelle. Supposed to be derived from the Arabic kabala, the 
+irksome tax on salt, from which few provinces in France were 
+altogether free, swept away in 1790. Smollett describes the 
+exaction in San Remo.
+
+Garum. Used by Smollett for the rich fish sauce of the ancients, 
+equivalent to a saumure, perhaps, in modern French cookery. In 
+the Middle Ages the word is used both for a condiment and a 
+beverage.
+
+Improvisatore. A performer in the Commedia delle Arte, of which 
+Smollett gives a brief admiring account in his description of 
+Florence (Letter XXVII). For details of the various elements, the 
+doti, generici, lazzi, etc., see Carlo Gozzi.
+
+Liqueur. First used by Pope. "An affected, contemptible 
+expression" (Johnson).
+
+Macaroni. "The paste called macaroni" (Letter XXVI) was seen by 
+Smollett in the neighbourhood of its origin near Genoa, which 
+city formed the chief market.
+
+Maestral. An old form of mistral, the very dry wind from the 
+N.N.W., described by Smollett as the coldest he ever experienced.
+
+Patois. See Letter XXII. ad fin.
+
+Pietre commesse. A sort of inlaying with stones, analogous to the 
+fineering of cabinets in wood (Letter XXVIII). Used by Evelyn in 
+1644.
+
+Polenta. A meal ground from maize, which makes a good "pectoral" 
+(Letter XXII).
+
+Pomi carli. The most agreeable apples Smollett tasted, stated to 
+come from the marquisate of Final, sold by the Emperor Charles 
+VI. to the Genoese.
+
+Preniac. A small white wine, mentioned in Letter IV., from 
+Boulogne, as agreeable and very cheap.
+
+Seafarot boots. Jack-boots or wading boots, worn by a Marquis of 
+Savoy, and removed by means of a tug-of-war team and a rope 
+coiled round the heel (see Letter XXVIII).
+
+Sporcherie. With respect to delicacy and decorum you may peruse 
+Dean Swift's description of the Yahoos, and then you will have 
+some idea of the sporcherie that distinguishes the gallantry of 
+Nice (Letter XVII). Ital. sporcheria, sporcizia.
+
+Strappado or corda. Performed by hoisting the criminal by his 
+hands tied behind his back and dropping him suddenly "with 
+incredible pain" (Letter XX). See Introduction, p. xliv, and 
+Christie, Etienne Dolet, 1899, P. 231.
+
+Tartane. From Italian tartana, Arabic taridha; a similar word 
+being used in Valencia and Grand Canary for a two-wheeled open 
+cart. One of the commonest craft on the Mediterranean (cf. the 
+topo of the Adriatic). For different types see Larousse's Nouveau 
+Dictionnaire.
+
+Tip. To "tip the wink" is found in Addison's Tatler (No. 86), but 
+"to tip" in the sense of to gratify is not common before 
+Smollett, who uses it more than once or twice in this sense (cf. 
+Roderick Random, chap. xiv. ad fin.)
+
+Valanches. For avalanches (dangers from to travellers, see Letter 
+XXXVIII).
+
+Villeggiatura. An early adaptation by Smollett of the Italian 
+word for country retirement (Letter XXIX).
+
+
+APPENDIX C
+
+Currency of Savoy in the time of Smollett.
+
+Ten bajocci=one paolo (6d.). 
+Ten paoli=one scudo (six livres or about 5s.). 
+Two scudi=one zequin. 
+Two zequin=one louid'or.
+
+Afterword. -I should be ungrateful were I not to create an 
+epilogue for the express purpose of thanking M. Morel, H. S 
+Spencer  Scott, Dr. Norman Moore, W. P. Courtney, G. Whale, D. S. 
+MacColl, Walter Sichel (there may be others), who have supplied 
+hints for my annotations, and I should like further, if one might 
+inscribe such a trifle, to inscribe this to that difficult 
+critic, Mr. Arthur Vincent, who, when I told him I was about it, 
+gave expression to the cordial regret that so well hidden a 
+treasure of our literature (as he regarded the Travels) was to be 
+"vulgarised."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Travels through France and Italy
+
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