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diff --git a/old/54519-0.txt b/old/54519-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 59c5347..0000000 --- a/old/54519-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7930 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Observations and Reflections Made in the -Course of a Journey through France, Ital, by Hester Lynch Piozzi - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: Observations and Reflections Made in the Course of a Journey through France, Italy, and Germany, Vol. II (of II) - -Author: Hester Lynch Piozzi - -Release Date: April 9, 2017 [EBook #54519] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS *** - - - - -Produced by Robert Connal and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by the -Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF/Gallica) at -http://gallica.bnf.fr) - - - - - -Transcriber’s Note: Mrs. Piozzi’s own manner of writing has been -retained, including spelling and grammar that is inconsistent and -perhaps unfamiliar to the modern reader. - - - - - - OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS - MADE IN THE COURSE OF A - JOURNEY - THROUGH - _FRANCE, ITALY, AND GERMANY._ - - By HESTER LYNCH PIOZZI. - - IN TWO VOLUMES. - VOL. II. - - LONDON: - Printed for A. STRAHAN; and T. CADELL in the Strand. - M DCC LXXXIX. - - - - -OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS - -MADE IN A JOURNEY THROUGH - -France, Italy, and Germany. - - - - -NAPLES. - - -On the tenth day of this month we arrived early at Naples, for I think -it was about two o’clock in the morning; and sure the providence of God -preserved us, for never was such weather seen by me since I came into the -world; thunder, lightning, storm at sea, rain and wind, contending for -mastery, and combining to extinguish the torches bought to light us the -last stage: Vesuvius, vomiting fire, and pouring torrents of red hot lava -down its sides, was the only object visible; and _that_ we saw plainly in -the afternoon thirty miles off, where I asked a Franciscan friar, If it -was the famous volcano? “Yes,” replied he, “that’s our mountain, which -throws up money for us, by calling foreigners to see the extraordinary -effects of so surprising a phænomenon.” The weather was quiet then, and -we had no notion of passing such a horrible night; but an hour after -dark, a storm came on, which was really dreadful to endure; or even look -upon: the blue lightning, whose colour shewed the nature of the original -minerals from which she drew her existence, shone round us in a broad -expanse from time to time, and sudden darkness followed in an instant: -no object then but the fiery river could be seen, till another flash -discovered the waves tossing and breaking, at a height I never saw before. - -Nothing sure was ever more sublime or awful than our entrance into Naples -at the dead hour we arrived, when not a whisper was to be heard in the -streets, and not a glimpse of light was left to guide us, except the -small lamp hung now and then at a high window before a favourite image of -the Virgin. - -My poor maid had by this time nearly lost her wits with terror, and the -French valet, crushed with fatigue, and covered with rain and sea-spray, -had just life enough left to exclaim--“_Ah, Madame! il me semble que nous -sommes venus icy exprès pour voir la fin du monde_[1].” - -The Ville de Londres inn was full, and could not accommodate our family; -but calling up the people of the Crocelle, we obtained a noble apartment, -the windows of which look full upon the celebrated bay which washes the -wall at our door. Caprea lies opposite the drawing-room or gallery, -which is magnificent; and my bed-chamber commands a complete view of the -mountain, which I value more, and which called me the first night twenty -times away from sleep and supper, though never so in want of both as at -that moment surely. - -Such were my first impressions of this wonderful metropolis, of which I -had been always reading summer descriptions, and had regarded somehow as -an Hesperian garden, an earthly paradise, where delicacy and softness -subdued every danger, and general sweetness captivated every sense;--nor -have I any reason yet to say it will not still prove so, for though wet, -and weary, and hungry, we wanted no fire, and found only inconvenience -from that they lighted on our arrival. It was the fashion at Florence -to struggle for a Terreno, but here we are all perched up one hundred -and forty two steps from the level of the land or sea; large balconies, -apparently well secured, give me every enjoyment of a prospect, which -no repetition can render tedious: and here we have agreed to stay till -Spring, which, I trust, will come out in this country as soon as the new -year calls it. - -Our eagerness to see sights has been repressed at Naples only by finding -every thing a sight; one need not stir out to look for wonders sure, -while this amazing mountain continues to exhibit such various scenes of -sublimity and beauty at exactly the distance one would chuse to observe -it from; a distance which almost admits examination, and certainly -excludes immediate fear. When in the silent night, however, one listens -to its groaning; while hollow sighs, as of gigantic sorrow, are often -heard distinctly in my apartment; nothing can surpass one’s sensations -of amazement, except the consciousness that custom will abate their -keenness: I have not, however, yet learned to lie quiet, when columns -of flame, high as the mountain’s self, shoot from its crater into the -clear atmosphere with a loud and violent noise; nor shall I ever forget -the scene it presented one day to my astonished eyes, while a thick -cloud, charged heavily with electric matter, passing over, met the fiery -explosion by mere chance, and went off in such a manner as effectually -baffles all verbal description, and lasted too short a time for a painter -to seize the moment, and imitate its very strange effect. Monsieur de -Vollaire, however, a native of France, long resident in this city, has -obtained, by perpetual observation, a power of representing Vesuvius -without that black shadow, which others have thought necessary to -increase the contrast, but which greatly takes away all resemblance of -its original. Upon reflection it appears to me, that the men most famous -at London and Paris for performing tricks with fire have been always -Italians in my time, and commonly Neapolitans; no wonder, I should think, -Naples would produce prodigious connoisseurs in this way; we have almost -perpetual lightning of various colours, according to the soil from whence -the vapours are exhaled; sometimes of a pale straw or lemon colour, often -white like artificial flame produced by camphor, but oftenest blue, -bright as the rays emitted through the coloured liquors set in the window -of a chemist’s shop in London--and with such thunder!!--“For God’s sake, -Sir,” said I to some of them, “is there no danger of the ships in the -harbour here catching fire? why we should all fly up in the air directly, -if once these flashes should communicate to the room where any of the -vessels keep their powder.”--“Gunpowder, Madam!” replies the man, amazed; -“why if St. Peter and St. Paul came here with gunpowder on board, we -should soon drive them out again: don’t you know,” added he, “that every -ship discharges her contents at such a place (naming it), and never comes -into our port with a grain on board?” - -The palaces and churches have no share in one’s admiration at Naples, -who scorns to depend on man, however mighty, however skilful, for _her_ -ornaments; while Heaven has bestowed on her and her _contorni_ all that -can excite astonishment, all that can impress awe. We have spent three or -four days upon Pozzuoli and its environs; its cavern scooped originally -by nature’s hand, assisted by the armies of Cocceius Nerva--ever -tremendous, ever gloomy grotto!--which leads to the road that shews you -Ischia, an old volcano, now an island apparently rent asunder by an -earthquake, the division too plain to beg assistance from philosophy: -this is commonly called the _Grotto di Posilippo_ though; you pass -through it to go to every place; not without flambeaux, if you would go -safely, and avoid the necessity the poor are under, who, driving their -carts through the subterranean passage, cry as they meet each other, to -avoid jostling, _alla montagna_, or _alla marina_, _keep to the rock -side_, or _keep to the sea side_. It is at the right hand, awhile before -you enter this cavern, that climbing up among a heap of bushes, you find -a hollow place, and there go down again--it is the tomb of Virgil; and, -for other antiquities, I recollect nothing shewed me when at Rome that -gave me as complete an idea how things were really carried on in former -days, as does the temple of _Shor Apis_ at Pozzuoli, where the area is -exactly all it ever was; the ring remains where the victim was fastened -to; the priests apartments, lavatories, &c. the drains for carrying the -beast’s blood away, all yet remains as perfect as it is possible. The -end of Caligula’s bridge too, but that they say is not his bridge, but a -mole built by some succeeding emperor--a madder or a wickeder it could -not be--though here Nero bathed, and here he buried his mother Agrippina. -Here are the centum camera, the prisons employed by that prince for the -cruellest of purposes; and here are his country palaces reserved for the -most odious ones: here effeminacy learned to subsist without delicacy or -shame, hence honour was excluded by rapacity, and conscience stupefied by -constant inebriation: here brainsick folly put nature and common sense -upon the rack--Caligula in madness courted the moon to his embraces--and -Sylla, satiated with blood, retired, and gave a premature banquet to -those worms he had so often fed with the flesh of innocence: here dwelt -depravity in various shapes, and here Pandora’s chambers left scarcely a -_Hope_ at the bottom that better times should come:--who can write prose -however in such places!--let the impossibility of expressing my thoughts -any other way excuse the following - - VERSES. - - I. - - First of Achelous’ blood, - Fairest daughter of the flood, - Queen of the Sicilian sea, - Beauteous, bright Parthenope! - Syren sweet, whose magic force - Stops the swiftest in his course; - Wisdom’s self, when most severe, - Longs to lend a list’ning ear, - Gently dips the fearful oar, - Trembling eyes the tempting shore, - And sighing quits th’ enervate coast, - With only half his virtue lost. - - II. - - Let thy warm, thy wond’rous clime, - Animate my artless rhyme, - Whilst alternate round me rise - Terror, pleasure, and surprise.-- - Here th’ astonish’d soul surveys - Dread Vesuvius’ awful blaze, - Smoke that to the sky aspires, - Heavy hail of solid fires, - Flames the fruitful fields o’erflowing, - Ocean with the reflex glowing; - Thunder, whose redoubled sound - Echoes o’er the vaulted ground!-- - Such thy glories, such the gloom - That conceals thy secret tomb, - Sov’reign of this enchanted sea, - Where sunk thy charms, Parthenope. - - III. - - Now by the glimm’ring torch’s ray - I tread Pozzuoli’s cavern’d way-- - Hollow grot! that might beseem - Th’ Ætnean cyclop, Polypheme: - And here the bat at noonday ’bides, - And here the houseless beggar hides, - While the holy hermit’s voice - Glads me with accustom’d noise. - Now I trace, or trav’llers err, - Modest Maro’s sepulchre, - Where nature, sure of his intent, - Is studious to conceal - That eminence he always meant - We should not see but feel. - While Sannazarius from the steep - Views, well pleas’d, the fertile deep - Give life to them that seize the scaly fry, - And to their poet--_immortality_. - - IV. - - Next beauteous Baia’s warm remains invite - To Nero’s stoves my wond’ring sight; - Where palaces and domes destroy’d - Leave a flat unwholesome void: - Where underneath the cooling wave, - Ordain’d pollution’s fav’rite spot to lave, - Now hardly heaves the stifled sigh - Hot, hydropic luxury. - Yet, chas’d by Heav’n’s correcting hand, - Tho’ various crimes have fled the land; - Tho’ brutish vice, tyrannic pow’r, - No longer tread the trembling shore, - Or taint the ambient air; - By destiny’s kind care arrang’d, - Th’ inhabitants are scarcely chang’d; - For birds obscene, and beasts of prey, - That seek the night and shun the day, - Still find a dwelling there. - - V. - - If then beneath the deep profound - Retires unseen the slipp’ry ground; - If melted metals pour’d from high - A verdant mountain grows by time, - Where frisking kids can browze and climb, - And softer scenes supply: - Let us who view the varying scene, - And tread th’ instructive paths between, - See famish’d Time his fav’rite sons devour, - Fix’d for an age--then swallow’d in an hour; - Let us at least be early wise, - And forward walk with heav’n-fix’d eyes, - Each flow’ry isle avoid, each precipice despise; - Till, spite of pleasure, fear, or pain, - Eternity’s firm coast we gain, - Whence looking back with alter’d eye, - These fleeting phantoms we’ll descry, - And find alike the song and theme - Was but--an empty, airy dream. - -When one has exhausted all the ideas presented to the mind by the sight -of Monte Nuovo, made in one night by the eruption of Solfa Terra, now -sunk into itself and almost extinguished; by the lake Avernus; by the -Phlegræan fields, where Jupiter killed the giants, with such thunderbolts -as fell about our ears the other night I trust, and buried one of them -alive under mount Ætna; when one has seen the Sybil’s grott, and the -Elysian plains, and every seat of fable and of verse; when one has run -about repeating Virgil’s verses and Claudian’s by turns, and handled the -hot sand under the cool waves of Baia; when one has seen Cicero’s villa -and Diana’s temple, and talked about antiquities till one is afraid of -one’s own pedantry, and tired of every one’s else; it is almost time -to recollect realities of more near interest to such of us as are not -ashamed of being Christians, and to remember that it was at Pozzuoli St. -Paul arrived after the storms he met with in these seas. The wind is -still called here _Sieuroc_, o sia _lo vento Greco_; and their manner -of pronouncing it led me to think it might possibly be that called in -Scripture _Euroc_lydon, abbreviated by that grammatical figure, which -lops off the concluding syllables. The old Pastor Patrobas too, who -received and entertained the Apostle here, lies interred under the altar -of an old church at Pozzuoli, made out of the remains of a temple to -Jupiter, whose pillars are in good preservation: I was earnest to see -the place at least, as every thing named in the New Testament is of true -importance, but one meets few people of the same taste: for Romanists -take most delight in venerating traditionary heroes, and Calvinists, -perhaps too easily disgusted, desire to venerate no heroes at all. - -Some curious inscriptions here, to me not legible, shew how this poor -country has been overwhelmed by tyrants, earthquakes, Saracens! not -to mention the Goths and Vandals, who however left no traces _but_ -desolation: while, as the prophet Joel says, “_The ground was as the -garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness_.” - -These Mahometan invaders, less savage, but not less cruel, afforded at -least an unwilling shelter in that which is now their capital, for the -wretched remains of literature. To their misty envelopement of science, -fatigued with struggling against perpetual suffocation, succeeded -imposture, barbarism, and credulity; with superstition at their head, who -still keeps her footing in this country: and inspires such veneration for -St. Januarius, his name, his blood, his statue, &c. that the Neapolitans, -who are famous for blasphemous oaths, and a facility of taking the most -sacred words into their mouths on every, and I may say, on _no_ occasion, -are never heard to repeat _his_ name without pulling off their hat, or -making some reverential sign of worship at the moment. And I have seen -Italians from other states greatly shocked at the grossness of these -their unenlightened neighbours, particularly the half-Indian custom of -burning figures upon their skins with gunpowder: these figures, large, -and oddly displayed too, according to the coarse notions of the wearer. - -As the weather is exceedingly warm, and there is little need of clothing -for comfort, our Lazaroni have small care about appearances, and go -with a vast deal of their persons uncovered, except by these strange -ornaments. The man who rows you about this lovely bay, has perhaps the -angel Raphael, or the blessed Virgin Mary, delineated on one brawny -sun-burnt leg, the saint of the town upon the other: his arms represent -the Glory, or the seven spirits of God, or some strange things, while a -brass medal hangs from his neck, expressive of his favourite martyr: whom -they confidently affirm is so madly venerated by these poor uninstructed -mortals, that when the mountain burns, or any great disaster threatens -them, they beg of our Saviour to speak to St. Januarius in their behalf, -and intreat him not to refuse them his assistance. Now though all this -was told me by friends of the Romish persuasion; and told me too with a -just horror of the superstitious folly; I think my remarks and inferences -were not agreeable to them, when expressing my notion that it was only -a relick of the adoration originally paid to Janus in Italy, where the -ground yielding up its frost to the soft breath of the new year, is not -ill-typified by the liquefaction of the blood; a ceremony which has -succeeded to various Pagan ones celebrated by Ovid in the first book -of his Fasti. We know from history too, that perfumes were offered in -_January_ always, to signify the renovation of _sweets_; and this was -so necessary, that I think Tacitus tells us Thrasea was first impeached -for absence at the time of the new year, when in _Janus_’s presence, &c. -good wishes were formed for the Emperor’s felicity; and no word of ill -omen was to be pronounced.--_Cautum erat apud Romanos ne quod mali ominis -verbum calendis_ Januariis _efferretur_; says Pliny: and the _strenæ_ -or new-years gifts, called now by the French “les _etrennes_,” and -practised by Lutherans as well as Romanists, is the self-same veneration -of old _Janus_, if fairly traced up to Tatius King of the Sabines, who -sought a laurel bough plucked from the grove of the goddess _Strenia_, or -_Strenua_, and presented it to his favourites on the first of _January_, -from whence the custom arose; and Symmachus, in his tenth book, -twenty-eighth epistle, mentions it clearly when writing to the Emperors -Theodosius and Arcadius--“Strenuarum _usus adolevit auctoritate Tatii -regis, qui verbenas felicis arboris ex luco Strenuæ anni_.” - -Octavius Cæsar took the name of Augustus on the first of January in -Janus’s temple, by Plancus’s advice, as a lucky day; and I suppose our -new-year’s ode, sung before the King of England, may be derived from -the same source. The old Fathers of the Church declaimed aloud against -the custom of new-years gifts, because they considered them as of Pagan -original. So much for _Les Etrennes_. - -As to _St. Januarius_, there certainly was a martyr of that name at -Naples, and to him was transferred much of the veneration originally -bestowed on the deity from whom he was probably named. One need not -however wander round the world with Banks and Solander, or stare so at -the accounts given us in Cook’s Voyages of _tattowed Indians_, when -Naples will shew one the effects of a like operation, very _very_ little -better executed, on the broad shoulders of numberless Lazaroni; and of -this there is no need to examine books for information, he who runs over -the Chiaja may read in large characters the gross superstition of the -Napolitani, who have no inclination to lose their old classical character -for laziness-- - - Et in otia natam - Parthenopen; - -says Ovid. I wonder however whether our people would work much surrounded -by similar circumstances; I fancy not: Englishmen, poor fellows! must -either work or starve; these folks want for nothing: a house would be an -inconvenience to them; they like to sleep out of doors, and it is plain -they have small care for clothing, as many who possess decent habiliments -enough, I speak of the Lazaroni, throw almost all off till some holiday, -or time of gala, and sit by the sea-side playing at moro with their -fingers. - -A Florentine nobleman told me once, that he asked one of these fellows to -carry his portmanteau for him, and offered him a _carline_, no small sum -certainly to a Neapolitan, and rather more in proportion than an English -shilling; he had not twenty yards to go with it: “_Are you hungry, -Master?_” cries the fellow. “_No_,” replied Count Manucci, “_but what of -that?_”--“_Why then no more am I_:” was the answer, “_and it is too hot -weather to carry burthens_:” so turned about upon the other side, and lay -still. - -This class of people, amounting to a number that terrifies one but to -think on, some say sixty thousand souls, and experience confirms no less, -give the city an air of gaiety and cheerfulness, and one cannot help -honestly rejoicing in. The Strada del Toledo is one continual crowd: -nothing can exceed the confusion to a walker, and here are little gigs -drawn by one horse, which, without any bit in his mouth, but a string -tied round his nose, tears along with inconceivable rapidity a small -narrow gilt chair, set between the two wheels, and no spring to it, nor -any thing else which can add to the weight; and this flying car is a kind -of _fiacre_ you pay so much for a drive in, I forget the sum. - -Horses are particularly handsome in this town, not so large as at -Milan, but very beautiful and spirited; the cream-coloured creatures, -such as draw our king’s state coach, are a common breed here, and shine -like sattin: here are some too of a shining silver white, wonderfully -elegant; and the ladies upon the Corso exhibit a variety scarcely -credible in the colour of their cattle which draw them: but the coaches, -harness, trappings, &c. are vastly inferior to the Milanese, whose -liveries are often splendid; whereas the four or five ill-dressed -strange-looking fellows that disgrace the Neapolitan equipages seem to -be valued only for their number, and have very often much the air of Sir -John Falstaff’s recruits. - -Yesterday however shewed me what I knew not had existed--a skew-ball or -pye-balled ass, eminently well-proportioned, coated like a racer in an -English stud, sixteen hands and a half high, his colour bay and white -in large patches, and his temper, as the proprietor told me, singularly -docile and gentle. I have longed perhaps to purchase few things in my -life more earnestly than this beautiful and useful animal, which I might -have had too for two pounds fifteen shillings English, but dared not, -lest like Dogberry I should have been written down for an ass by my merry -country folks, who, I remember, could not let the Queen of England -herself possess in peace a creature of the same kind, but handsomer -still, and from a still hotter climate, called the Zebra. - -Apropos to quadrupeds, when Portia, in the Merchant of Venice, enumerates -her lovers, she names the Neapolitan prince first; who, she says, does -nothing, for his part, but talk of his horse, and makes it his greatest -boast that he can shoe him himself. This is almost literally true of a -nobleman here; and they really do not throw their pains away; for it is -surprising to see what command they have their cattle in, though bits are -scarcely used among them. - -The coat armour of Naples consists of an unbridled horse; and by what I -can make out of their character, they much resemble him; - - Qualis ubi abruptis fugit præsæpia vinclis - Tandem liber æquus, &c. &c. &c.[2]; - -generous and gay; headstrong and violent in their disposition; easy to -turn, but difficult to stop. No authority is respected by them when some -strong passion animates them to fury: yet lazily quiet, and unwilling -to stir till accident rouses them to terror, or rage urges them forward -to incredible exertions of suddenly-bestowed strength. In the eruption -of 1779, their fears and superstitions rose to such a height, that they -seized the French ambassador upon the bridge, tore him almost out of his -carriage as he fled from Portici, and was met by them upon the Ponte -della Maddalena, where they threatened him with instant death if he did -not get out of his carriage, and prostrating himself before the statue -of St. Januarius, which stands there, intreat his protection for the -city. All this, however, Mons. le Comte de Clermont D’Amboise did not -comprehend a word of; but taking all the money out of his pocket, threw -it down, happily for him, at the feet of the figure, and pacified them at -once, gaining time by those means to escape their vengeance. - -It was, I think, upon some other occasion that Sir William Hamilton’s -book relates their unworthy treatment of the venerable Archbishop, who -refused them the relicks with which they had no doubt of saving the -menaced town; but every time Vesuvius burns with danger to the city, they -scruple not to insult their Sovereign as he flies from it; throwing large -stones after his chariot, guards, &c.; making the insurrection, it is -sure to occasion, more perilous, if possible, than the volcano itself. -And last night when _La Montagna fu cattiva_[3], as their expression was, -our Laquais de Place observed that it might possibly be because so many -hereticks and unbelievers had been up it the day before. “Oh! let us,” as -King David wisely chose, “fall into the hands of God--not into those of -man.” - -I wished exceedingly to purchase here the genuine account of -Massaniello’s far-famed sedition and revolt, more dreadful in a -certain way than any of the earthquakes which have at different times -shaken this hollow-founded country. But my friends here tell me it was -suppressed, and burned by the hands of the common executioner, with many -chastisements beside bestowed upon the writer, who tried to escape, but -found it more prudent to submit to justice. - -Thomas Agnello was the unluckily-adapted name of the mad fisherman who -headed the mob on that truly memorable occasion: but it is not an unusual -thing here to cut off the first syllable, and by the figure aphæresis -alter the appellation entirely. By that device of dropping the _to_, he -has been called Massaniello; and this is one of their methods to render -the patois of Naples as unintelligible to us, as if we had never seen -Italy till now; and one is above all things tormented with their way -of pronouncing names. Here are Don and Donna again at this town as at -Milan however, because the King of Spain, or _Ré Cattolico_, as these -people always call him, has still much influence; and they seem to think -nearly as respectfully of him as of their own immediate sovereign, who -is however greatly beloved among them; and so he ought to be, for he is -the representative of them all. He rides and rows, and hunts the wild -boar, and catches fish in the bay, and sells it in the market, as dear -as he can too; but gives away the money they pay him for it, and that -directly: so that no suspicion of meanness, or of any thing worse than a -little rough merriment can be ever attached to his truly-honest, open, -undesigning character. - -Stories of monarchs seldom give me pleasure, who seldom am persuaded to -give credit to tales told of persons few people have any access to, and -whose behaviour towards those few is circumscribed within the laws of -insipid and dull routine; but this prince lives among his subjects with -the old Roman idea of a window before his bosom I believe. They know the -worst of him is that he shoots at the birds, dances with the girls, eats -macaroni, and helps himself to it with his fingers, and rows against the -watermen in the bay, till one of them burst out o’bleeding at the nose -last week, with his uncourtly efforts to outdo the King, who won the -trifling wager by this accident: conquered, laughed, and leaped on shore -amidst the acclamations of the populace, who huzzaed him home to the -palace, from whence he sent double the sum he had won to the waterman’s -wife and children, with other tokens of kindness. Mean time, while he -resolves to be happy himself, he is equally determined to make no man -miserable. - -When the Emperor and the Grand Duke talked to him of their new projects -for reformation in the church, he told them he saw little advantage they -brought into _their_ states by these new-fangled notions; that when -he was at Florence and Milan, the deuce a Neapolitan could he find in -either, while his capital was crowded with refugees from thence; that in -short they might do _their_ way, but he would do his; that he had not -now an enemy in the world, public or private; and that he would not make -himself any for the sake of propagating doctrines he did not understand, -and would not take the trouble to study: that he should say his prayers -as he used to do, and had no doubt of their being heard, while he only -begged blessings on his beloved people. So if these wise brothers-in-law -would learn of him to enjoy life, instead of shortening it by unnecessary -cares, he invited them to see him the next morning play a great match at -tennis. - -The truth is, the jolly Neapolitans lead a coarse life, but it is an -unoppressed one. Never sure was there in any town a greater shew of -abundance: no settled market in any given place, I think, but every -third shop full of what the French call so properly _ammunition de -Bouche_, while whole boars, kids and small calves dangle from a sort of -neat scaffolding, all with their skins on, and make a pretty appearance. -Poulterers hang up their animals in the feathers too, not lay them on -boards plucked, as at London or Venice. - -The Strada del Toledo is at least as long as Oxford Road, and straight -as Bond-street, very wide too, the houses all of stone, and at least -eight stories high. Over the shops live people of fashion I am told, but -the persons of particularly high quality have their palaces in other -parts of the town; which town at last is not a large one, but full as an -egg: and Mr. Clarke, the antiquarian, who resides here always, informed -me that the late distresses in Calabria had driven many families to -Naples this year, beside single wanderers innumerable; which wonderfully -increased the daily throng one sees passing and repassing. To hear the -Lazaroni shout and bawl about the streets night and day, one would really -fancy one’s self in a semi-barbarous nation; and a Milanese officer, -who has lived long among them, protested that the manners of the great -corresponded in every respect with the idea given of them by the little. -His account of female conduct, and that even in the very high ranks, -was such as reminded me of Queen Oberea’s sincerity, when Sir Joseph -Banks joked her about Otoroo. It is however observable, and surely very -praiseworthy, that if the Italians are not ashamed of their crimes, -neither are they ashamed of their contrition. I saw this very morning an -odd scene at church, which, though new to _me_, appeared, perhaps from -its frequent repetition, to strike no one but myself. - -A lady with a long white dress, and veiled, came in her carriage, which -waited for her at the door, with her own arms upon it, and three servants -better dressed than is common here, followed and put a lighted taper -in her hand. _En cet état_, as the French say, she moved slowly up the -church, looking like Jane Shore in the last act, but not so feeble; and -being arrived at the steps of the high altar, threw herself quite upon -her face before it, remaining prostrate there at least five minutes, in -the face of the whole congregation, who, equally to my amazement, neither -stared nor sneered, neither laughed nor lamented, but minded their own -private devotions--no mass was saying--till the lady rose, kissed the -steps, and bathed them with her tears, mingled with sobs of no affected -or hypocritical penitence I am sure. Retiring afterwards to her own seat, -where she waited with others the commencement of the sacred office, -having extinguished her candle, and apparently lighted her heart; I felt -mine quite penetrated by her behaviour, and fancied her like our first -parent described by Milton in the same manner: - - To confess - Humbly her faults, and pardon beg; with tears - Watering the ground, and with her sighs the air - Frequenting, sent from heart contrite, in sign - Of sorrow unfeign’d, and humiliation meek. - -Let not this story, however, mislead any one to think that more general -decorum or true devotion can be found in churches of the Romish -persuasion than in ours--quite the reverse. This burst of penitential -piety was in itself an indecorous thing; but it is the nature and genius -of the people not to mind small matters. Dogs are suffered to run about -and dirty the churches all the time divine service is performing; while -the crying of babies, and the most indecent methods taken by the women -to pacify them, give one still juster offence. There is no treading for -spittle and nastiness of one sort or another, in all the churches of -Italy, whose inhabitants allow the filthiness of Naples, but endeavour to -justify the disorders of other cities; though I do believe nothing ever -equalled the Chiesa de Cavalieri at Pisa, in any Christian land. Santa -Giustina at Padua, the Redentore at Venice, St. Peter’s at Rome, and some -of the least frequented churches at Milan, are exceptions; they are kept -very clean, and do not, by the scandalous neglect of those appointed to -keep them, disgrace the beauty of their buildings. - -Here has, however, been a dreadful accident which puts such slight -considerations out of one’s head. A Friar has killed a woman in the -church just by the Crocelle inn, for having refused him favours he -suspected she had granted to another. No step is taken though towards -punishing the murderer, because he is _religioso, è di più cavaliere_. -What a miracle that more such outrages are not daily committed in -a country where profession of sanctity, and real high birth, are -protections from law and justice! Surely nothing but perfect sobriety and -great goodness of disposition can be alleged as a reason why worse is not -done every day. I said so to a gentleman just now, who assured me the -criminal would not escape very severe castigation; and that perhaps the -convent would inflict such severities upon that gentleman as would amply -supply the want of activity in the exertion of civil power. - -It is a stupid thing not to mention the common dress of the ordinary -women here, which ladies likewise adopt, if they venture out on foot, -desiring not to be known. Two black silk petticoats then serve entirely -to conceal their whole figure; as when both are tied round their waist, -one is suddenly turned up, and as they pull it quick over their heads, a -loose trimming of narrow black gauze drops over the face, while a hook -and eye fastens all close under the chin, and gives them an air not -unlike our country wenches, who throw the gown tail over their heads, -to protect them from a summer’s shower. The holiday dresses mean time of -the peasants round Naples, are very rich and cumbersome. One often sees -a great coarse raw-boned fellow on a Sunday, panting for heat under a -thick blue velvet coat comically enough; the females in a scarlet cloth -petticoat, with a broad gold lace at the bottom, a jacket open before, -but charged with heavy ornaments, and the head not unbecomingly dressed -with an embroidered handkerchief from Turkey, exactly as one sees them -represented here in prints, which they sell dear enough, God knows; -and ask, as I am informed by the purchasers, not twice or thrice, but -four or five times more than at last they take, as indeed for every -thing one buys here: One portrait is better, however, than a thousand -words, when single figures are to be delineated; but of the Grotta del -Cane, description gives a completer idea than drawing. Both are perhaps -nearly unnecessary indeed, when speaking of a place so often and so -accurately described. What surprised me most among the ceremonies of this -extraordinary place was, that the pent up vapour shut in an excavation -of the rock, should, upon opening the door, gradually move forwards a -few yards, but not rise up above a foot from the surface, nor, by what I -could observe, ever dissipate in air; I think we left it hovering over -the favourite spot, when the poor cur’s nose had been forcibly held in it -for a minute or two, but he took care after his recovery to keep a very -judicious distance. Sporting with animal life is always highly offensive; -and the fellow’s account that his dog was used to the operation, and -had already gone through it eight times, that it did him no harm, -&c. I considered as words used merely to quiet our impatience of the -experiment, which is infinitely more amusing when tried upon a lighted -flambeau, extinguishing it most completely in a moment. What connection -there is between flame and vitality, those who know more of the matter -than I do, must expound. Certain it is, that many sorts of vapour are -equally fatal to both; and where fermentation is either going forward, -or has lately been, people accustomed to such matters always try with a -candle whether the cask is approachable by man or not; and I once saw -a terrifying accident arise in a great brewhouse, from the headstrong -stupidity of a workman who would go down into a vat, the contents of -which had lately been drawn off, without sending his proper præcursor the -candle, to enquire if all was safe. The consequence was half expected by -his companions, who hearing him drop off the steps, and fall flat to the -bottom, began instantly hooking him up again, but there were no signs -of life; some ran for their master, others for a surgeon, but we were -nearest at hand, and recollecting what one had read of the recovery of -dogs at Naples, by tossing them suddenly into the lake Agnano, we made -the men carry their patient to the cooler, and plunging him over head -and ears, restored his life, exactly in the manner of the Grotta del -Cane experiment, which succeeded so completely in this fellow’s case, I -remember, that waking after the temporary suspension, we had much ado -to impress so insensible a mortal with a due sense of the danger his -rashness had incurred. - -But it is time to tell of Herculaneum, Pompeia, and Portici; of a -theatre, the scene of gaiety and pleasure, overwhelmed by torrents of -liquid fire! the inhabitants of a whole town surprised by immediate and -unavoidable destruction! Where that very town indeed was built with the -lava produced by former eruptions, one would think it scarce possible -that such calamities could be totally unexpected;--but no matter, life -must go on, though we all know death is coming;--so the bread was baking -in their ovens, the meat was smoking on their dishes, some of their -wine already decanted for use, the rest in large jars (_amphora_), now -petrified with their contents inside, and fixed to the walls of the -cellars in which they stand.--How dreadful are the thoughts which such -a sight suggests! how _very_ horrible the certainty, that such a scene -may be all acted over again to-morrow; and that we, who to-day are -spectators, may become spectacles to travellers of a succeeding century, -who mistaking our bones for those of the Neapolitans, may carry some of -them to their native country back again perhaps; as it came into my head -that a French gentleman was doing, when I saw him put a human bone into -his pocket this morning, and told him I hoped he had got the jaw of a -Gaulish officer, instead of a Roman soldier, for future reflections to -energize upon. Of all single objects offered here to one’s contemplation, -none are more striking than a woman’s foot, the _print_ of her foot I -mean, taken apparently in the very act of running from the river of -melted minerals that surrounded her, and which now serves as an intaglio -to commemorate the misery it caused. Another melancholy proof of what -needs no confirmation, is the impression of a sick female, known to be -so from the _stole_ she wore, a drapery peculiar to the sex; her bed, -converted into a substance like plaster of Paris, still retains the form -and covering of her who perished quietly upon it, without ever making -even an effort to escape. - -That one of these towns is crushed, or rather buried, under loads of -heavy lava, and is therefore difficult to disentangle, all have heard; -that Pompeia is only lightly covered with pumice-stones and ashes, is new -to nobody; it is in the power, as a Venetian gentleman said angrily, of -an English hen and chickens to scratch it open in a week, though these -lazy Neapolitans will leave it not half dislodged, before a new eruption -swallows all again. - -Our visit to Portici was more than equally provoking in the same way; to -see deposited there all the antiques which are so curious in themselves, -so _very_ valuable when considered as specimens of ancient art, and of -the mode of living practised in ancient Rome, kept at a place where I do -sincerely believe they will be again overwhelmed and confounded among the -king of Naples’s furniture, to the great torture of future antiquarians, -and to the disgrace of present insensibility. - -The _triclinia_ and _stibadia_ used at supper by the old Romans prove -the verses which our critics have been working at so long, to have been -at least well explained by them, and do infinite honour to those who, -without the advantage of seeing how the utensils were constructed, knew -perfectly well their way of carrying on life, from their acquaintance -with a language long since _dead_, and I am sure _buried_ under a heap -of rubbish heavier and more difficult to remove than all the lava heaped -on Herculaneum; but it is a source of perpetual wonder, and let me add -perpetual pleasure too, to know that Cicero, and Virgil, and Horace, if -alive, would find their writings as well understood, ay and as perfectly -tasted, by the scholars of Paris and London, as they had ever been by -their own old literary acquaintance. - -The sight of the _curule_ chair was charming, and one thought of old -Papyrius, his long white beard, and ivory stick with which he reproved -the insolence of a Gaulish soldier, who, when Brennus entered the city, -seeing all those venerable senators sitting in a row, took them for -inanimate figures, and stroked Papyrius’s beard, to feel whether he was -alive or no. The _curule_ chair was so called from _currus_ a chariot, -and this we examined had holes bored in it, where it had been fixed to -the car: I do think there is just such a one in the British Musæum, -but that did not much engage my attention, so great is the influence -of locality upon the mind. The way in which they decypher the old MSS. -here likewise is pretty and curious, and requires infinite patience, -which as far as they have gone has not been well repaid; the operation -_laboriosius est quam Sibyllæ folia colligere_[4], to use the words of -Politian, whose right name I learned at Florence to be _Messer Angelo di -Monte Pulciano_. - -May not, however, a more important consequence than any yet mentioned be -found deducible from what we have seen this day? for if _Jesus Christ_ -condescended to use the Roman, or commonly adopted custom of supping on -a _triclinium_ (as it is plain he did by the recumbent posture of St. -John), when eating the Passover for the last time with his disciples at -Jerusalem; that sect of Christians called Romanists ought sure to be -the _last_, not _first_, to exclude from salvation all such of their -brethren as do not receive the Lord’s Supper precisely in _their way_; -when nothing can be clearer, from our blessed Saviour’s example, than -that he thought old forms, if laudable, not necessary or essential to -the well-performing a devotional rite; seeing that to eat the Passover -according to original institution, those who communicated were bound to -take it _standing_, and with a staff in their hands beside as expressive -of more haste. - -The Christmas season here at Naples is very pleasingly observed; the -Italians are peculiarly ingenious in adorning their shops I think, and -setting out their wares; every grocer, fruiterer, &c. now mingles orange, -and lemon, and myrtle leaves, among the goods exposed at his door, as we -do greens in the churches of England, but with infinitely more taste; and -this device produces a very fine effect upon the whole, as one drives -along _la Strada del Toledo_, which all morning looks showy from these -decorations, and all evening splendid from the profusion of torches, -flambeaux, &c. that shine with less regularity indeed, but with more -lustre and greater appearance of expensive gaiety, than our neat, clean, -steady London lamps. Some odd, pretty, moveable coffee-houses too, or -lemonade-shops, set on wheels, and adorned, according to the possessor’s -taste, with gilding, painting, &c. and covered with ices, orgeats, and -other refreshments, as in emulation each of the other, and in a strange -variety of shapes and forms too, exquisitely well imagined for the most -part,--help forward the finery of Naples exceedingly: I have counted -thirty of these _galante_ shops on each side the street, which, with -their necessary illuminations, make a brilliant figure by candle-light, -till twelve o’clock, when all the show is over, and every body put out -their lights and quietly lie down to rest. Till that hour, however, few -things can exceed the tumultuous merriment of Naples, while _volantes_, -or running footmen, dressed like tumblers before a show, precede all -carriages of distinction, and endeavour to keep the people from being run -over; yet whilst they are listening to Policinello’s jokes, or to some -such street orator as Dr. Moore describes with equal truth and humour, -they often get crushed and killed; yet, as Pope says, - - See some strange comfort ev’ry state attend:-- - -The _Lazaroni_ who has his child run over by the coach of a man of -quality, has a regular claim upon him for no less than twelve _carlines_ -(about five shillings English); if it is his wife that meets with -the accident, he gets two _ducats_, live or die; and for the master -of the family (house he has none) three is the regular compensation; -and no words pass here about _trifles_. Truth is, human life is lower -rated in all parts of Italy than with us; they think nothing of an -individual, but see him perish (excepting by the hand of justice) as a -cat or dog. A young man fell from our carriage at Milan one evening; -he was not a servant of ours, but a friend which, after we were gone -home, the coachman had picked up to go with him to the fireworks which -were exhibited that night near the _Corso_: there was a crowd and an -_embarras_, and the fellow tumbled off and died upon the spot, and nobody -even spoke, or I believe _thought_ about the matter, except one woman, -who supposed that he had neglected to cross himself when he got up behind. - -The works of art here at Naples are neither very numerous nor very -excellent: I have seen the vaunted present of porcelain intended for -the king of England, in return for some cannon presented by him to this -court; and think it more entertaining in its design than admirable as a -manufacture. Every dish and plate, however, being the portrait as one may -say of some famous Etruscan vase, or other antique, dug out of the ruins -of these newly-discovered cities, with an account of its supposed story -engraved neatly round the figure, makes it interesting and elegant, and -worthy enough of one prince to accept, and another to bestow. - -There is a work of art, however, peculiar to this city, and attempted -in no other; on which surprising sums of money are lavished by many of -the inhabitants, who connect or associate to this amusement ideas of -piety and devotion: the thing when finished is called a _presepio_, and -is composed in honour of this sacred season, after which all is taken to -pieces, and arranged after a different manner next year. In many houses -a room, in some a whole suite of apartments, in others the terrace upon -the house-top, is dedicated to this very uncommon show; consisting of -a miniature representation in sycamore wood, properly coloured, of the -house at Bethlehem, with the blessed Virgin, St. Joseph, and our Saviour -in the manger, with attendant angels, &c. as in pictures of the nativity; -the figures are about six inches high, and dressed with the most exact -propriety. This however, though the principal thing intended to attract -spectators’ notice, is kept back, so that sometimes I scarcely saw it -at all; while a general and excellent landscape, with figures of men at -work, women dressing dinner, a long road in real gravel, with rocks, -hills, rivers, cattle, camels, every thing that can be imagined, fill -the other rooms, so happily disposed too for the most part, the light -introduced so artfully, the perspective kept so surprisingly!--one -wonders and cries out, it is certainly but a baby-house at best; yet -managed by people whose heads naturally turned towards architecture and -design, give them power thus to defy a traveller not to feel delighted -with the general effect; while if every single figure is not capitally -executed, and nicely expressed beside, the proprietor is truly miserable, -and will cut a new cow, or vary the horse’s attitude, against next -Christmas _coûte qui coûte_: and perhaps I should not have said so -much about the matter, if there had not been shewn me within this last -week, _presepios_ which have cost their possessors fifteen hundred or -two thousand English pounds; and, rather than relinquish or sell them, -many families have gone to ruin: I have wrote the sums down in letters, -not figures, for fear of the possibility of a mistake. One of these -playthings had the journey of the three kings represented in it, and the -presents were all of real gold and silver finely worked; nothing could be -better or more livelily finished.--“But, Sir,” said I, “why do you dress -up one of the Wise Men with a turban and _crescent_, six hundred years -before the birth of Mahomet, who first put that mark in the forehead of -his followers? The eastern Magi were not _Turks_; this is a breach of -_costume_.” My gentleman paused, and thanked me; said he would enquire if -there was nothing heretical in the objection; and if all was right, it -should be changed next year without fail. - -A young lady here of English parents, just ten years old, asked me, -very pertinently, “Why this pretty sight was called a _Presepio_?” but -said she suddenly, answering herself, “I suppose it is because it is -_preceptive_:” such a mistake was more valuable than knowledge, and gave -me great esteem of her understanding; the little girl’s name was Zaffory. - -The King’s _menagerie_ is neither rich in animals, nor particularly well -kept: I wonder a man of his character and disposition should not delight -in possessing a very fine one. The bears however were as tame as lapdogs; -there was a wolf too, larger than ever I saw a wolf, and an elephant that -played a hundred tricks at the command of his keeper, little less a -beast than he; but as Pope says, after Horace, - - Let bear or elephant be e’er so white, - The people sure, the people are the sight. - -Let us then tell about the two assemblies, _o sia conversazioni_, where -one goes in search of amusement as to the rooms of Bath or Tunbridge -exactly; only that one of these places is devoted to the _nobiltà_, the -other is called _de’ buoni amici_; and such is the state of subordination -in this country, that though the great people may come among the little -ones, and be sure of the grossest adulation, a merchant’s wife, shining -in diamonds, being obliged to stand up reverentially before the chair of -a countess, who does her the honour to speak to her; the poor _amici_ are -totally excluded from the subscription of the nobles, nor dare even to -return the salutation of a superior, should a good-natured person of that -rank be tempted, from frequently seeing them at the rooms, to give them a -kind nod in the street or elsewhere. All this seems comical enough to us, -and I had much ado to look grave, while a beautiful and well-educated -wife of a rich banker here, confessed herself not fit company for an -ignorant mean-looking woman of quality. But though such unintelligible -doctrines make one for a moment ashamed both of one’s sex and species, -that lady’s knowledge of various languages, her numerous accomplishments -in a thousand methods of passing time away with innocent elegance, and a -sort of studied address never observed in Italy before, gave me infinite -delight in her society, and daily increased my suspicion that she was a -foreigner, till nearer intimacy discovered her a German Lutheran, with -a singular head of thick blonde hair, so unlike those I see around me. -We grew daily better acquainted, and she shewed me--but not indignantly -at all--some ladies from the higher assembly sitting among _these_, very -low dressed indeed, a knotting-bag and counters in their lap, to shew -their contempt of the company; while such as spoke to them stood before -their seat, like children before a governess in England, as long as the -conversation lasted. - -I inquired if the men confined their addresses wholly to their own rank? -She said, beauty often broke the barrier, and when a pretty woman of the -second rank got a _cavalier servente_ of the first, much happiness and -much distinction was the consequence: but alas! he will not even _try_ to -push her up among the people of fashion, and when he meets any is sure to -look ashamed of his mistress; so that her felicity can consist only in -triumphing over equals, for to rival a superior is here an impossibility. - -Our Duke and Dutchess of Cumberland have made all Naples adore them -though, by going richly dressed, and behaving with infinite courtesy and -good-humour, at an assembly or ball given in the _lower rooms_, as the -English comically call them. A young Palermitan prince applauded them for -it exceedingly; so I took the liberty to express my wonder. “Oh,” replied -he, “we are not ignorant how much English manners differ from our own: I -have already, though but just eighteen years old, as sovereign of my own -state, under the King of both Sicilies, condemned a man to death _because -he was a rascal_, but the law and the people govern in England I know.” -My desire of hearing about Sicily, which we could not contrive to visit, -made me happy to cultivate Prince Ventimiglia’s acquaintance; he was -very studious, very learned of his age, and uncommonly clever: told me of -the antiquities his island had to boast, with great intelligence, and a -surprising knowledge of ancient history. - -We wished to have made a party to go in the same company to Pæstum, but -my cowardice kept me at home, so bad was the account of the roads and -accommodation; though Abate Bianconi of Milan, for whom I have so much -esteem, bid me remember to look at the buildings there attentively; -adding, that they were better worth our observation than all the boasted -antiquities at Rome; “as they had seen (said he) the original foundation -of her empire, and outlived its decay: that they had seen her second -birth too, and power under some of her pontiffs over all Europe about six -or seven centuries ago; and that they would now probably remain till all -_that_ was likewise abolished, with only slight traces left behind to -shew that _fuimus_, &c.” - -How mortifying it is to go home and never see this Pæstum! Prince -Ventimiglia went there with Mr. Cox; he professes his intention soon -to visit England, concerning the manners and customs of which he is -very inquisitive, and not ill-versed in the language; but books drop -oddly into people’s hands: This gentleman commended Ambrose Philips’s -Pastorals, and I remember the Florentines seemed strangely impressed -with the merit of the other Philips as a poet. Bonducci has translated -his Cyder, and calls him _emulous of Milton_, in good time! but it is -difficult to distinguish jest from earnest in a foreign language. - -I will not, if I can help it, lose sight of our Sicilian however, -till I have made him tell me something about Dionysius’s Ear, about -the eruptions of Ætna, and the _Castagno a cento cavalli_, which, he -protests, is not magnified by Brydone. - -It is wonderfully mortifying to think how little information after all -can be obtained of any thing new or any thing strange, though so far from -one’s own country. What I picked up most curious and diverting from our -conversation, was his expression of surprise, when at our house one day -he read a letter from his mother, telling him that such a lady, naming -her, remained still unmarried, and even unbetrothed, though now past -ten years old. “She will,” said I, “perhaps break through old customs, -and chuse for herself, as she is an orphan, and has no one whom she need -consult.”--“Impossible, Madam!” was the reply.--“But tell me, Prince, -for information’s sake, if such a lady, this girl for example, should -venture to assert the rights of humanity, and make a choice somewhat -unusual, _what would come of it?_”--“Why nothing in the world would come -of it,” answered he; “the lass would be immediately at liberty again, for -no man so circumstanced could be permitted to leave the country _alive_ -you know, nor would her folly benefit his family at all, as her estate -would be immediately adjudged to the next heir. No person of inferior -rank in our country would therefore, unless absolutely mad, set his life -to hazard for the sake of a frolic, the event of which is so well known -beforehand;--less still, because, if _love_ be in the case, all _personal -attachment_ may be fully gratified, only let her but be once legally -married to a man every way her equal.” Could one help recollecting -Fielding’s song in the Virgin unmasked? who says, - - For now I’ve found out that as Michaelmas day - Is still the forerunner of Lammas; - So wedding another is just the right way - To get at my dear Mr. Thomas. - -I will mention another talk I had with a Sicilian lady. We met at the -house of the Swedish minister, Monsieur André, uncle to the lamented -officer who perished in our sovereign’s service in America; and while -the rest of the company were entertaining themselves with cards and -music, I began laughing in myself at hearing the gentleman and lady -who sat next _me_, called by others _Don Raphael_ and _Donna Camilla_, -because those two names bring Gil Blas into one’s head. Their agreeable -and interesting conversation however soon gave my mind a more serious -turn when discoursing on the liberal premiums now offered by the King of -Naples to those who are willing to rebuild and repeople Messina. Donna -Camilla politely introduced me to a very sick but pleasing-looking lady, -who she said was going to return thither: at which _she_, starting, -cried, “Oh God forbid, my dear friend!” in an accent that made me think -she had already suffered something from the concussions that overwhelmed -that city in the year 1783. Her inviting manner, her soft and interesting -eyes, whose languid glances seemed to shew beauty sunk in sorrow, and -spirit oppressed by calamity, engaged my utmost attention, while Don -Raphael pressed her to indulge the foreigner’s curiosity with some -particulars of the distresses she had shared. Her own feelings were all -she could relate she said--and those confusedly. “You see that girl -there,” pointing to a child about seven or eight years old, who stood -listening to the harpsichord: “she escaped! I cannot, for my soul, guess -how, for we were not together at the time.”--“Where were _you_, madam, -at the moment of the fatal accident?”--“Who? _me_?” and her eyes lighted -up with recollected terror: “I was in the nursery with my maid, employed -in taking stains out of some Brussels lace upon a brazier; two babies, -neither of them four years old, playing in the room. The eldest boy, -dear lad! had just left us, and was in his father’s country-house. The -day grew _so_ dark all on a sudden, and the brazier--Oh, Lord Jesus! I -felt the brazier slide from me, and saw it run down the long room on its -three legs. The maid screamed, and I shut my eyes and knelt at a chair. -We thought all over; but my husband came, and snatching me up, cried, -_run, run_.--I know not how nor where, but all amongst falling houses -it was, and people shrieked so, and there was _such_ a noise! My poor -son! he was fifteen years old; he tried to hold me fast in the crowd. I -remember kissing _him_: Dear lad, dear lad! I said. I could speak _just -then_: but the throng at the gate! Oh that gate! Thousands at once! ay, -thousands! thousands at once: and my poor old confessor too! I knew him: -I threw my arms about his aged neck. _Padre mio!_ said I--_Padre mio!_ -Down he dropt, a great stone struck his shoulder; I saw it coming, and -my boy pulled me: he saved my life, dear, dear lad! But the crash of the -gate, the screams of the people, the heat--Oh such a heat! I felt no more -on’t though; I saw no more on’t; I waked in bed, this girl by me, and her -father giving me cordials. We were on shipboard, they told me, coming -to Naples to my brother’s house here; and do you think I’ll ever go -back _there_ again? No, no; that’s a curst place; I lost my son in it. -_Never, never_ will I see it more! All my friends try to persuade me, but -the sight of it would do my business. If my poor boy were alive indeed! -but _he!_ ah, poor dear lad! he loved his mother; he held _me_ fast--No, -no, I’ll never see that place again: God has cursed it _now_; I am sure -he has.” - -A narrative so melancholy, so tender, and so true, could not fail of its -effect. I ran for refuge to the harpsichord, where a lady was singing -divinely. I could not listen though: _her_ grateful sweetness who told -the dismal story, followed me thither: she had seen my ill-suppressed -tears, and followed to embrace me. The tale she had told saddened my -heart, and the news we heard returning to the Crocelle did not contribute -to lighten its weight, while an amiable young Englishman, who had long -lain ill there, was now breathing his last, far from his friends, his -country, or their customs; all easily dispensed with, perhaps derided, -during the bustle of a journey, and in the madness of superfluous -health; but sure to be sighed after, when life’s last twilight shuts in -precipitately closer and closer round a man, and leaves him only the -nearer objects to repose and dwell on. - -Such was Captain ----’s situation! he had none but a foreign servant -with him. We thought it might sooth him to hear “_Can I do any thing -for you, Sir?_” in an English voice: so I sent my maid: he had no -commands he said; he could not eat the jelly she had made him; he wished -some clergyman could be found that he might speak to: such a one was -vainly enquired for, till it was discovered that ill-health had driven -Mr. Mentze to Naples, who kindly administered the last consolation a -Christian can receive; and heard the next day, when confined himself to -bed, of his countryman’s being properly thrust by the banker into the -_Buco Protestante_; so they contemptuously call a dirty garden one drives -by in this town, where not less than a hundred people, small and great, -from our island, annually resort, leaving fifty or sixty thousand pounds -behind them at a moderate computation; though if their bodies are obliged -to take _perpetual_ apartments here, no better place has been hitherto -provided for them than this kitchen ground; on which grow cabbages, -cauliflowers, &c. sold to their country folks for double price I trow, -the remaining part of the season. - -Well! well! if the Neapolitans do bury Christians like dogs, they make -some singular compensations we will confess, by nursing dogs like -Christians. A very veracious man informed me yester morning, that his -poor wife was half broken-hearted at hearing such a Countess’s dog -was run over; “for,” said he, “having suckled the pretty creature -herself, she loved it like one of her children.” I bid him repeat the -circumstance, that no mistake might be made: he did so; but seeing me -look shocked, or ashamed, or something he did not like,--“Why, madam,” -said the fellow, “it is a common thing enough for ordinary men’s wives to -suckle the lapdogs of ladies of quality:” adding, that they were paid for -their milk, and he saw no harm in gratifying one’s _superiors_. As I was -disposed to see nothing _but_ harm in disputing with such a competitor, -our conference finished soon; but the fact is certain. - -Indeed few things can be foolisher than to debate the propriety of -customs one is not bound to observe or comply with. If you dislike them, -the remedy is easy; turn yours and your horses heads the other way. - - 20th January 1786. - -Here are the most excellent, the most incomparable fish I ever eat; red -mullets, large as our maycril, and of singularly high flavour; besides -the calamaro, or ink-fish, a dainty worthy of imperial luxury; almond and -even apple trees in blossom, to delight those who can be paid for coarse -manners and confined notions by the beauties of a brilliant climate. Here -are all the hedges in blow as you drive towards Pozzuoli, and a snow of -white May-flowers clustering round Virgil’s tomb. So strong was the sun’s -heat this morning, even before eleven o’clock, that I carried an umbrella -to defend me from his rays, as we sauntered about the walks, which are -spacious and elegant, laid out much in the style of St. James’s Park, but -with the sea on one side of you, the broad street, called Chiaja, on the -other. What trees are planted there however, either do not grow up so as -to afford shade, or else they cut them, and trim them about to make them -in pretty shapes forsooth, as we did in England half a century ago. - -Be this as it will, the vaunted view from the castle of St. Elmo, though -much more deeply _interesting_, is in consequence of this defect less -_naturally_ pleasing than the prospect from Lomellino’s villa near Genoa, -or Lord Clifford’s park, called King’s Weston, in Somersetshire; those -two places being, in point of mere situation, possessed of beauties -hitherto unrivalled by any thing I have seen. Nor does the steady -regularity of this Mediterranean sea make me inclined to prefer it to -our more capricious or rather active channel. Sea views have at best too -little variety, and when the flux and reflux of the tide are taken away -from one, there remains only rough and smooth: whereas the hope which its -ebb and flow keep constantly renovating, serves to animate, and a little -change the course of one’s ideas, just as its swelling and sinking is of -use, to purify in some degree, and keep the whole from stagnation. - -I made inquiry after the old story of Nicola Pesce, told by Kircher, -and sweetly brought back to all our memories by Goldsmith, who, as Dr. -Johnson said of him, touched nothing that he did not likewise adorn; but -I could gain no addition to what we have already heard. That there was -such a man is certain, who, though become nearly amphibious by living -constantly in the water, only coming sometimes on shore for sleep and -refreshment, suffered avarice to be his ruin, leaping voluntarily into -the Gulph of Charybdis to fetch out a gold cup thrown in thither to -tempt him--what could a gold cup have done one would wonder for Nicola -Pesce?--yet knowing the dangers of the place, he braved them all it -seems for this bright reward; and was supposed to be devoured by one of -the polypus fish, who, sticking close to the rocks, extend their arms -for prey. When I expressed my indignation that he should so perish; -“He forgot perhaps,” said one present, “to recommend himself to Santo -Gennaro.” - -The castle on this hill, called the Castel St. Elmo, would be much my -comfort did I fix at Naples; for here are eight thousand soldiers -constantly kept, to secure the city from sudden insurrection; his majesty -most wisely trusting their command only to Spanish or German officers, or -some few gentlemen from the northern states of Italy, that no personal -tenderness for any in the town below may intervene, if occasion for -sudden severity should arise. We went to-day and saw their garrison, -comfortably and even elegantly kept; and I was wicked enough to rejoice -that the soldiers were never, but with the very utmost difficulty, -permitted to go among the towns-men for a moment. - -To-morrow we mount the Volcano, whose present peaceful disposition has -tempted us to inspect it more nearly. Though it appears little less -than presumption thus to profane with eyes of examination the favourite -alembic of nature, while the great work of projection is carrying on; -guarded as all its secret caverns are too with every contradiction; snow -and flame! solid bodies heated into liquefaction, and rolling gently -down one of its sides; while fluids congeal and harden into ice on the -other; nothing can exceed the curiosity of its appearance, now the lava -is less rapid, and stiffens as it flows; stiffens too in ridges very -surprisingly, and gains an odd aspect, not unlike the pasteboard waves -representing sea at a theatre, but black, because this year’s eruption -has been mingled with coal. The connoisseurs here know the different -degrees, dates, and shades of lava to a perfection that amazes one; -and Sir William Hamilton’s courage, learning, and perfect skill in -these matters, is more people’s theme here than the Volcano itself. -Bartolomeo, the Cyclop of Vesuvius as he is called, studies its effects -and operations too with much attention and philosophical exactness, -relating the adventures he has had with our minister on the mountain to -every Englishman that goes up, with great success. The way one climbs is -by tying a broad sash with long ends round this Bartolomeo, letting him -walk before one, and holding it fast. As far as the Hermitage there is -no great difficulty, and to that place some chuse to ride an ass, but I -thought walking safer; and there you are sure of welcome and refreshment -from the poor good old man, who sets up a little cross wherever the fire -has stopt near his cell; shews you the place with a sort of polite -solemnity that impresses, spreads his scanty provisions before you -kindly, and tells the past and present state of the eruption accurately, -inviting you to partake of - - His rushy couch, his frugal fare, - His blessing and repose. - - GOLDSMITH. - -This Hermit is a Frenchman. _J’ai dansé dans mon lit tans de fois_[5], -said he: the expression was not sublime when speaking of an earthquake, -to be sure; I looked among his books, however, and found Bruyere. “Would -not the Duc de Rochefoucault have done better?” said I. “Did I never see -you before, Madam?” said he; “yes, sure I have, and dressed you too, -when I was a hair-dresser in London, and lived with Mons. Martinant, and -I dressed pretty Miss Wynne too in the same street. _Vit’elle encore? -Vit’elle encore?_[6] Ah I am old now,” continued he; “I remember when -black pins first came up.” This was charming, and in such an unexpected -way, I could hardly prevail upon myself ever to leave the spot; but Mrs. -Greatheed having been quite to the crater’s edge with her only son, a -baby of four years old; shame rather than inclination urged me forward; I -asked the little boy what he had seen; I saw the chimney, replied he, and -it was on fire, but I liked the elephant better. - -That the situation of the crater changed in this last eruption is of -little consequence; it will change and change again I suppose. The -wonder is, that nobody gets killed by venturing so near, while red-hot -stones are flying about them so. The Bishop of Derry did very near get -his arm broke; and the Italians are always recounting the exploits of -these rash Britons who look into the crater, and carry their wives and -children up to the top; while we are, with equal justice, amazed at the -courageous Neapolitans, who build little snug villages and dwell with as -much confidence at the foot of Vesuvius, as our people do in Paddington -or Hornsey. When I enquired of an inhabitant of these houses how she -managed, and whether she was not frighted when the Volcano raged, lest it -should carry away her pretty little habitation: “Let it go,” said she, -“we don’t mind now if it goes to-morrow, so as we can make it answer by -raising our vines, oranges, &c. against it for three years, our fortune -is made before the fourth arrives; and then if the red river comes we can -always run away, _scappar via_, ourselves, and hang the property. We only -desire three years use of the mountain as a hot wall or forcing-house, -and then we are above the world, thanks be to God and St. Januarius,” who -always comes in for a large share of their veneration; and this morning -having heard that the Neapolitans still present each other with a cake -upon New-year’s day, I began to hug my favourite hypothesis closer, -recollecting the old ceremony of the wheaten cake seasoned with salt, -and called _Janualis_ in the Heathen days. All this however must still -end in mere conjecture; for though the weather here favours one’s idea -of Janus, who loosened the furrow and liquefied the frost, to which the -melting our martyr’s blood might, without much straining of the matter, -be made to allude; yet it must be recollected after all, that the miracle -is not performed in this month but that of May, and that St. Januarius -did certainly exist and give his life as testimony to the truth of our -religion, in the third century. Can one wonder, however, if corruptions -and mistakes should have crept in since? And would it not have been -equal to a miracle had no tares sprung up in the field of religion, when -our Saviour himself informs us that there is an enemy ever watching his -opportunity to plant them? - -These dear people too at Rome and Naples do live so in the very hulk of -ship-wrecked or rather foundered Paganism, have their habitation so at -the very bottom of the cask, can it fail to retain the scent when the -lees are scarce yet dried up, clean or evaporated? That an odd jumble of -past and present days, past and present ideas of dignity, events, and -even manner of portioning out their time, still confuse their heads, -may be observed in every conversation with them; and when a few weeks -ago we revisited, in company of some newly-arrived English friends, the -old baths of Baiæ, Locrine lake, &c. Tobias, who rowed us over, bid us -observe the Appian way under the water, where indeed it appears quite -clearly, even to the tracks of wheels on its old pavement made of very -large stones; and seeing me perhaps particularly attentive, “Yes, -Madam,” said he, “I do assure you, that _Don_ Horace and _Don_ Virgil, of -whom we hear such a deal, used to come from Rome to their country-seats -here in a day, over this very road, which is now overflowed as you see -it, by repeated earthquakes, but which was then so good and so unbroken, -that if they rose early in the morning they could easily gallop hither -against the _Ave Maria_.” - -It was very observable in our second visit paid to the Stuffe San -Germano, that they had increased prodigiously in heat since mount -Vesuvius had ceased throwing out fire, though at least fourteen miles -from it, and a vast portion of the sea between them; it vexed me to -have no thermometer again, but by what one’s immediate feelings could -inform us, there were many degrees of difference. I could not now bear my -hand on any part of them for a moment. The same luckless dog was again -produced, and again restored to life, like the lady in Dryden’s Fables, -who is condemned to be hunted, killed, recovered, and set on foot again -for the amusement of her tormentors; a story borrowed from the Italian. - -Solfaterra burned my fingers as I plucked an incrustation off, -which allured me by the beauty of its colours, and roared with more -violence than when I was there before. This horrible volcano is by no -means extinguished yet, but seems pregnant with wonders, principally -combustible, and likely to break with one at every step, all the earth -round it being hollow as a drum, and I should think of no great thickness -neither; so plainly does one hear the sighings underneath, which some of -the country people imagine to be tortured spirits howling with agony. - -It is supposed that Lake Agnano, where the dog is flung in, if the dewy -grass do not suffice to recover him, with its humidity and freshness, -as it often does; is but another crater of another volcano, long ago -self-destroyed by scorpion-like suicide; and it is like enough it may be -so. There are not wanting however those that think, or say at least, how -a subterraneous or subaqueous city remains even now under that lake, but -lies too deep for inspection. - -_Sia come sia_[7], as the Italians express themselves, these environs are -beyond all power of comprehension, much more beyond all effort of words -to describe; and as Sannazarius says of Venice, so I am sure it may be -said of this place, “That man built Rome, but God created Naples:” for -surely, surely he has honoured no other spot with such an accumulation -of his wonders: nor can any thing more completely bring the description -of the devoted cities mentioned in Genesis before one’s eyes, than these -concealed fires, which there I trust burst up unexpectedly, and, attended -by such lightning as only hot countries can exhibit, devoured all at -once, nor spared the too incredulous inquirer, who turned her head back -with contempt of expected judgments, but entangling her feet in the -pursuing stream of lava, fixed her fast, a monument of bituminous salt. - -Though surrounded by such terrifying objects, the Neapolitans are not, -I think, disposed to cowardly, though easily persuaded to devotional -superstitions; they are not afraid of spectres or supernatural -apparitions, but sleep contentedly and soundly in small rooms, made for -the ancient dead, and now actually in the occupation of old Roman bodies, -the catacombs belonging to whom are still very impressive to the fancy; -and I have known many an English gentleman, who would not endure to -have his courage impeached by _living wight_, whose imagination would -notwithstanding have disturbed his slumbers not a little, had he been -obliged to pass one night where these poor women sleep securely, wishing -only for that money which travellers are not unwilling to bestow; and -perhaps a walk among these hollow caves of death, these sad repositories -of what was once animated by valour and illuminated by science, strike -one much more than all the urns and lachrymatories of Portici. - -How judicious is Mr. Addison’s remark, “That _Siste Viator!_ which has a -striking effect among the Roman tombs placed by the road side, loses all -its power over the mind when placed in the body of a church:” I think -he might have said the same, had he lived to see funereal urns used as -decorations of hackney-coach pannels, and _Caput Bovis_ over the doors in -New Tavistock-street. - -It is worth recollecting however, that the Dictator Sylla is supposed -to be the first man of consequence who ordered his body to be burned -at Rome, as till then, burial was apparently the fashion: his death, -occasioned by the _morbus pedicularis_, made his interment difficult, and -what necessity suggested to be done for him, grew up into a custom, and -the sycophants of power, ever hasty to follow their superiors, now shewed -their zeal even in _post obit_ imitation. But while I am writing, more -modern and less tyrannic claimants for respect agreeably disturb one’s -meditations on the cruelty and oppression used by these wicked possessors -of immortal though ill-gotten fame. - -The Queen of Naples is delivered, and we are all to make merry: the -_Castello d’Uovo_, just under our windows, is to be illuminated: and from -the Carthusian convent on the hill, to my poor solitary old acquaintance -the hermit and hair-dresser, who inhabits a cleft in mount Vesuvius, all -resolve to be happy, and to rejoice in the felicity of a prince that -loves them.--Shouting, and candles, and torches, and coloured lamps, -and Polinchinello above all the rest, did their best to drive forward -the general joy, and make known the birth of the royal baby for many -miles round the capital; and there was a splendid opera the next night, -in this finest of all fine theatres, though that of Milan pleases me -better; as I prefer the elegant curtains which festoon it over the boxes -there, to our heavy gilt ornaments here at Naples; and their boasted -looking-glasses, never cleaned, have no effect as I perceive towards -helping forward the enchantment. A _festa di ballo_, or masquerade, -given here however, was exceedingly gay, and the dresses surprisingly -rich: _our_ party, a very large one, all Italians, retired at one in -the morning to quite the finest supper of its size I ever saw. Fish of -various sorts, incomparable in their kinds, composed eight dishes of -the first course; we had thirty-eight set on the table in that course, -forty-nine in the second, with wines and dessert truly magnificent, for -all which Mr. Piozzi protested to me that we paid only three shillings -and sixpence a head English money; but for the truth of that he must -answer: we sate down twenty-two persons to supper, and I observed there -were numbers of these parties made in different taverns, or apartments -adjoining to the theatre, whither after refreshment we returned, and -danced till day-light. - -The theatre is a vast building, even when not inhabited or set off -by lights and company: all of stone too, like that of Milan; but -particularly defended from fire by St. Anthony, who has an altar and -chapel erected to his honour, and showily decorated at the door; and on -Sunday night, January the twenty-second, there were fireworks exhibited -in honour of himself and his _pig_, which was placed on the top, and -illuminated with no small ingenuity: the fire catching hold of his tail -first--_con rispetto_--as said our Cicerone. But _il Rè Lear è le sue tre -Figlie_ are advertised, and I am sick to-night and cannot go. - - Oh what a time have I chose out, &c. - To wear a kerchief--would I were not sick! - -My loss however is somewhat compensated; for though I could not see our -own Shakespear’s play acted at Naples, I went some days after to one of -the charming theatres this town is entertained by every evening, and -saw a play which struck me exceedingly: the plot was simply this--An -Englishman appears, dressed precisely as a Quaker, his hat on his head, -his hands in his pockets, and with a very pensive air says he will -take that pistol, producing one, and shoot himself; “for,” says he, -“the politics go wrong at home now, and I hate the ministerial party, -so England does not please me; I tried France, but the people there -laughed so about nothing, and sung so much out of tune, I could not bear -France; so I went over to Holland; those Dutch dogs are so covetous and -hard-hearted, they think of nothing but their money; I could not endure -a place where one heard no sound in the whole country but frogs croaking -and ducats chinking. _Maladetti!_ so I went to Spain, where I narrowly -escaped a sun-stroke for the sake of seeing those idle beggarly dons, -that if they do condescend to cobble a man’s shoe, think they must do it -with a sword by their side. I came here to Naples therefore, but ne’er a -woman will afford one a chase, all are too easily caught to divert _me_, -who like something in prospect; and though it is so fine a country, one -can get no fox-hunting, only running after a wild pig. Yes, yes, I _must_ -shoot myself, the world is so _very_ dull I am tired on’t.”--He then -coolly prepares matters for the operation, when a young woman bursts -into his apartment, bewails her fate a moment, and then faints away. Our -countryman lays by his pistol, brings the lady to life, and having heard -part of her story, sets her in a place of safety. More confusion follows; -a gentleman enters storming with rage at a treacherous friend he hints -at, and a false mistress; the Englishman gravely advises him to shoot -himself: “No, no,” replies the warm Italian, “I will shoot _them_ though, -if I can catch them; but want of money hinders me from prosecuting -the search.” _That_ however is now instantly supplied by the generous -Briton, who enters into their affairs, detects and punishes the rogue -who had betrayed them all, settles the marriage and reconciliation of -his new friends, adds himself something to the good girl’s fortune, and -concludes the piece with saying that he has altered his intentions, and -will think no more of shooting himself, while life may in all countries -be rendered pleasant to him who will employ it in the service of his -fellow-creatures; and finishes with these words, that _such are the -sentiments of an Englishman_. - -Were this pretty story in the hands of one of our elegant dramatic -writers, how charming an entertainment would it make us! Mr. Andrews -shall have it certainly, for though very flattering in its intentions -towards our countrymen, and the _ground-plot_, as a _surveyor_ would call -it, well imagined; the play itself was scarcely written I believe, and -very little esteemed by the Italians; who made excuses for its grossness, -and said that their theatre was at a very low ebb; and so I believe it -is. Yet their genius is restless, and for ever fermenting; and although, -like their volcano, of which every individual has a spark, it naturally -throws out of its mouth more rubbish than marble; like that too, from -some occasional eruptions we may gather gems stuck fast among substances -of an inferior nature, which want only disentangling, and a new polish, -to make them valued, even beyond those that reward the toil of an -expecting miner. - -The word gems reminds one of _Capo di Monte_, where the king’s -_cameos_ are taken care of, and where the medallist may find perpetual -entertainment; for I do believe nothing can exceed the riches of this -collection; though it requires good eyes, great experience, and long -study, to examine their merits with accurate skill, and praise them -with intelligent rapture: of these three requisites I boast none, so -cannot enjoy this regale as much as many others; but I have a mortal -aversion to those who encumber the general progress of science by -reciprocating contempt upon its various branches: the politician however, -who weighs the interests of contending powers, or endeavours at the -happiness of regulating some particular state; who studies to prevent -the encroachments of prerogative, or impede advances to anarchy; hears -with faint approbation, at best, of the discoveries made in the moon -by modern astronomers--discoveries of a country where he can obtain no -power, and settle no system of government--discoveries too, which can -only be procured by peeping through glasses which few can purchase, at -a place which no man can desire to approach. While the musical composer -equally laments the fate of the fossilist, who literally buries his -talent in the ground, and equally dead to all the charms of taste, the -transports of true expression, and the delights of harmony, rises with -the sun only to shun his beams, and seek in the dripping caverns of the -earth the effects of his diminished influence. The medallist has had much -of this scorn to contend with; yet he that makes it his study to register -great events, is perhaps next to him who has contributed to their birth: -and this palace displays a degree of riches _en ce genre_, difficult to -conceive. - -I was, however, better entertained by admiring the incomparable -Schidonis, which are to be found only here: he was a scholar, or rather -an imitator, of Correggio; and what he has done seems more the result -of genius animated by observation, than of profound thought or minute -nicety; he painted such ragged folks as he found upon the _Chiaja_; yet -his pictures differ no less from the Dutch school, than do those which -flow from the majestic pencil of the demi-divine Caracci and their -followers, and for the same reason; their minds reflected dignity and -grace, his eyes looked upon forms finely proportioned, though covered -with tatters, or perhaps scarcely covered at all; no smugness, no -plumpness, no _vulgar_ character, ever crossed the fancy of Schidone; -for a _Lazaroni_ at Naples, like a sailor at Portsmouth, is no mean -character, though he is a coarse one; it is in the low Parisian, and the -true-bred London blackguard, we must look for innate baseness, and near -approaches to brutality; nor are the Hollanders wanting in originals I -trust, when one has seen so many copies of the human form from their -hands, divested of soul as I may say, and, like Prior’s Emma when she -resolves to ramble with her outlawed lover, - - And mingle with the people’s wretched lee-- - Oh line extreme of human infamy!-- - Lest by her look or colour be exprest - The mark of aught high-born, or ever better drest. - -Here is a beautiful performance too of the Venetian school--a -resurrection of Lazarus, by Leandro Bassano, esteemed the best -performance of that family, and full of merit--the merit of _character_ -I mean; while Mary’s eyes are wholly employed, and her mind apparently -engrossed by the Saviour’s benignity, and almighty power; Martha thinks -merely on the present exertion of them, and only watches the deliverance -of her beloved brother from the tomb: the restored Lazarus too--an -apparent corpse, re-awakened suddenly to a thousand sensations at once, -wonder, gratitude, and affectionate delight!--How can one coldly sit to -hear the connoisseurs _admire the folds of the drapery_? Lanfranc’s St. -Michael too is a very noble picture; and though his angel is infinitely -less angelic than that of Guido, his devil is a less ordinary and vulgar -devil than that of his fellow-student, which somewhat too much resembles -the common peeping satyr in a landscape; whereas Lanfranc’s Lucifer seems -embued with more intellectual vices--rage, revenge, and ambition. - -But I am called from my observations and reflexions, to see what the -Neapolitans call _il trionfo di Policinello_, a person for whom they -profess peculiar value. Harlequin and Brighella here scarcely share the -fondness of an audience, while at Venice, Milan, &c. much pleasantry is -always cast into _their_ characters. - -The triumph was a pageant of prodigious size, set on four broad wheels -like our waggons, but larger; it consisted of a pyramid of men, -twenty-eight in number, placed with wonderful ingenuity all of one -size, something like what one has seen exhibited at Sadler’s Wells, the -Royal Circus, &c.; dressed in one uniform, viz. the white habit and -puce-coloured mask of _caro_ Policinello; disposed too with that skill -which tumblers alone can either display or describe; a single figure, -still in the same dress, crowning the whole, and forming a point at the -top, by standing fixed on the shoulders of his companions, and playing -merrily on the fiddle; while twelve oxen of a beautiful white colour, and -trapped with many shining ornaments, drew the whole slowly over the city, -amidst the acclamations of innumerable spectators, that followed and -applauded the performance with shouts. - -What I have learned from this show, and many others of the same kind, is -of no greater value than the derivation of _his name_ who is so much the -favourite of Naples: but from the mask he appears in, cut and coloured so -as exactly to resemble a _flea_, with hook nose and wrinkles, like the -body of that animal; his employment too, being ever ready to hop, and -skip, and jump about, with affectation of uncommon elasticity, giving his -neighbours a sly pinch from time to time: all these circumstances, added -to the very intimate acquaintance and connection all the Neapolitans -have with this, the least offensive of all the innumerable insects -that infest them; and, last of all, _his name_, which, corrupt it how -we please, was originally _Pulicinello_; leaves me persuaded that the -appellation is merely _little flea_. - -A drive to Caserta, the king’s great palace, not yet quite finished, -carries me away from this important study, and leaves me little time to -enjoy the praises due to a discovery of so much consequence. - -The drive perhaps pleased us better than the palace, which is a -prodigious mass of building indeed, and to my eye appears to cover more -space than proud Versailles itself; court within court, and quadrangle -within quadrangle; it is an enormous bulk to be sure--not pile--for it -is not high in proportion to the surrounding objects somehow; and being -composed all of brick, presents ideas rather of squat solidity, than -of princely magnificence. Ostentation is expected always to strike, as -elegance is known to charm, the beholder; and space seldom fails in -its immediate effect upon the mind; but here the _valley_ (I might say -_hole_) this house is set in, looks too little for it; and offends one -in the same manner as the more beautiful buildings do at Buxton, where -from every hill one expects to tumble down upon the new Crescent below. -The stair-case is such, however, as I am persuaded no other palace can -shew; vastly wider than any the French king can boast, and infinitely -more precious with regard to the marbles which compose its sides. The -immensity of it, however, though it enhances the value, does not do much -honour to the taste of him who contrived it. No apartments can answer the -expectations raised by such an approach; and in fact the chapel alone is -worthy an ascent so fit for a triumphal procession, instead of a pair of -stairs. That chapel is I confess of exquisite beauty and elegance; and -there is a picture, by Mengs, of the blessed Virgin Mary’s presentation -when a girl, that is really _paitrie des graces_; it scarcely can be -admired or commended enough, and one can scarcely prevail on one’s self -ever to quit it. Her marriage, a picture on the other side, is not so -happily imagined; but it seems as if the painter thought that joke too -good to part with, that there never was a particularly excellent picture -of a wedding; and that Poussin himself failed, when having represented -all the six other sacraments so admirably, that of marriage has been -found fault with by the connoisseurs of every succeeding generation. - -Well! if the palace at Caserta must be deemed more heavy than handsome, -I fear the gardens must likewise be avowed to be laid out in a manner -one would rather term savage than natural: all artifice is banished -however: the king of Naples scorns petty tricks for the amusement of -petty minds;--he turns a whole river down his cascade,--_a real one_; -and if its formation is not of the first rate for assuming an appearance -of nature, it has the merit of being sincerely that which others only -pretend to be: while I am told that his architects are now employed in -connecting the great stones awkwardly disposed in two rows down each side -the torrent, with the very rocks and mountains among which the spring -rises; if they effect this, their cascade will, so far as ever I have -read or heard, be single in its kind. - -Van Vittelli’s aqueduct is a prodigiously beautiful, magnificent, -and what is more, a useful performance: having the finest models of -antiquity, he is said to have surpassed them all. Why such superb and -expensive methods should be still used to conduct water up and down -Italy, any more than other nations, or why they are not equally necessary -in France and England, nobody informs me. Madame de Bocages enquired long -ago, when she was taken to see the fountain Trevi at Rome, why they had -no water at Paris but the Seine? I think the question so natural, that -one wishes to repeat it; and one great reason, little urged by others, -incites me to look with envy on the delicious and almost innumerable -gushes of water that cool the air of Naples and of Rome, and pour -their pellucid tides through almost every street of those luxurious -cities: _it is this_, that I consider them as a preservative against -that dreadfullest of all maladies, canine madness; a distemper which, -notwithstanding the excessive heat, has here scarcely a name. Sure it is -the plenty of drink the dogs meet at every turn, that must be the sole -cause of a blessing so desirable. - -My stay has been always much shorter than I wished it, in every great -town of Italy; but _here!_ where numberless wonders strike the sense -without fatiguing it, I do feel double pleasure; and among all the new -ideas I have acquired since England lessened to my sight upon the sea, -those gained at Naples will be the last to quit me. The works of art may -be found great and lovely, but the drunken Faun and the dying Gladiator -will fade from one’s remembrance, and leave the glow of Solfaterra and -the gloom of Posilippo indelibly impressed. Vesuvius too! that terrified -me so when first we drove into this amazing town, what future images can -ever obliterate the thrilling sensations it at first occasioned? Surely -the sight of old friends after a tedious absence can alone supply the -vacancy that a mind must feel which quits such sublime, such animated -scenery, and experiences a sudden deprivation of delight, finding -the bosom all at once unfurnished of what has yielded it for three -swiftly-flown months, perpetual change of undecaying pleasures. - -To-morrow I shall take my last look at the Bay, and driving forward, hope -at night to lodge at Terracina. - - - - -JOURNEY FROM NAPLES TO ROME. - - -The morning of the day we left our fair Parthenope was passed in -recollecting her various charms: every one who leaves her carries off the -same sensations. I have asked several inhabitants of other Italian States -what they liked best in Italy except home; it was Naples always, dear -delightful Naples! When I say this, I mean always to exclude those whose -particular pursuits lead them to cities which contain the prize they -press for. English people when unprejudiced express the like preference. -Attachments formed by love or friendship, though they give charms to -every place, cannot be admitted as a reason for commending any one above -the rest. A traveller without candour it is vain to read; one might as -well hope to get a just view of nature by looking through a coloured -glass, as to gain a true account of foreign countries, by turning over -pages dictated by prejudice. - -With the nobility of Naples I had no acquaintance, and can of course -say nothing of their manners. Those of the middling people seem to be -behind-hand with their neighbours; it is so odd that they should never -yet have arrived at calling their money by other names than those of the -weights, an _ounce_ and a _grain_; the coins however are not ugly. - -The evening of the day we left this surprising city was spent out of its -king’s dominions, at Terracina, which now affords one of the best inns in -Italy; it is kept by a Frenchman, whose price, though high, is regulated, -whose behaviour is agreeable, and whose suppers and beds are delightful. -Near the spot where his house now stands, there was in ancient Pagan -days a temple, erected to the memory of the beardless Jupiter called -Anxurus, of which Pausanias, and I believe Scaliger too, take notice; -though the medal of Pansa is _imago barbata, sed intonsa_, they tell -me; and Statius extends himself in describing the innocence of Jupiter -and Juno’s conversation and connection in their early youth. Both of -them had statues of particular magnificence venerated with very peculiar -ceremonies, erected for them in this town, however, _ut Anxur fuit quæ -nunc Terracinæ sunt_[8]. The tenth Thebaid too speaks much _de templo -sacro et Junoni puellæ, Jovis Axuro_[9]; and who knows after all whether -these odd circumstances might not be the original reason of Anxur’s -grammatical peculiarity, well known to all from the line in old _Propria -que maribus_, - - Et genus Anxur quod dat utrumque? - -This place was founded and colonised by Æmilius Mamercus and Lucius -Plautus, Anno Mundi 3725 I think; they took the town of Priverna, and -sent each three hundred citizens to settle this new city, where Jupiter -Anxurus was worshipped, as Virgil among so many other writers bears -testimony: - - Circeumque jugum, queis Jupiter Anxuris arvis - Præsidet[10]. - - 7th ÆNEID. - -Æmilius Mamercus was a very pious consul, and when he served before with -Genutius his colleague, made himself famous for driving the nail into -Minerva’s temple to stop the progress of the plague; he was therefore -likely enough to encourage this superstitious worship of the beardless -Jupiter. - -Some books of geography, very old ones, had given me reason to make -enquiry after a poisonous fountain in the rocks near Terracina. My -enquiries were not vain. The fountain still exists, and whoever drinks it -dies; though Martial says, - - Sive salutiferis candidus Anxur acquis[11]. - -The place is now cruelly unwholesome however; so much so, that our French -landlord protests he is obliged to leave it all the summer months, -at least the very hot season, and retire with his family to Molo di -Gaeta. He told us with rational delight enough of a visit the Pope had -made to those places some few years ago; and that he had been heard -to say to some of his attendants how there was no _mal aria_ at all -thereabouts in past days: an observation which had much amazed them. It -was equally their wonder how his Holiness went o’walking about with a -book in his hand or pocket, repeating verses by the sea-side. One of them -had asked the name of the book, but nobody could remember it. “Was it -_Virgil_?” said one of our company. “_Eh mon Dieu, Madame, vous l’avez -divinée_[12],” replied the man. But, O dear (thought I), how would these -poor people have stared, if their amiable sovereign, enlightened and -elegant as his mind is, had happened to talk more in their presence of -what he had been reading on the sea shore, _Virgil_ or _Homer_; had he -chanced to mention that _Molo di Gaeta_ was in ancient times the seat of -the Lestrygones, and inhabited by canibals, men who eat one another! and -surely it is scarcely less comical than curious, to recollect how Ulysses -expresses his sensations on first landing just by this now lovely and -highly-cultivated spot, when he pathetically exclaims, - - ----Upon what coast, - On what _new_ region is Ulysses tost? - Possest by wild barbarians fierce in arms, - Or men whose bosoms tender pity warms? - - POPE’S ODYSSEY. - -Poor Cicero might indeed have asked the question seven or eight centuries -after, in days falsely said to be civilized to a state of perfection; -when his most inhuman murder near this town, completed the measure of -their crimes; who to their country’s fate added that of its philosopher, -its orator, its acknowledged father and preserver.--Cruel, ungrateful -Rome! ever crimson with the blood of its own best citizens--theatre of -civil discord and proscriptions, unheard of in any history but her’s; -who, next to Jerusalem in sins, has been next in sufferings too; though -twice so highly favoured by Heaven--from the dreadful moment when all -her power was at once crushed by barbarism, and even her language -rendered _dead_ among mankind--to the present hour, when even her second -splendours, like the last gleams of an _aurora borealis_, fade gradually -from the view, and sink almost imperceptibly into decay. Nor can the -exemplary virtues and admirable conduct of _this_, and of her four last -princes, redeem her from ruin long threatened to her past tyrannical -offences; any more than could the merits of Marcus Aurelius and Antoninus -Pius compensate for the crimes of Tiberius, Caligula, and Nero.--Let the -death of Cicero, which inspired this rhapsody, contribute to excuse it; -and let me turn my eyes to the bewitching spot-- - - Where Circe dwelt, the daughter of the day. - -That such enchantresses should inhabit such regions could have been -scarce a wonder in Homer’s time I trow; the same country still retains -the same power of producing singers, to whom our English may with -propriety enough cry out; - - ----Hail, _foreign_ wonder! - Whom certes our rough shades did never breed. - - MILTON. - -That she should be the offspring of Phœbus too, in a place where the -sun’s rays have so much power, was a well-imagined fable one may _feel_; -and her instructions to Ulysses for his succeeding voyage, just, apt, -and proper: enjoining him a prayer to Crateis the mother of Scylla, to -pacify her rapacious daughter’s fury, is the least intelligible of all -Circe’s advice, to me. But when I saw the nasty trick they had at Naples, -of spreading out the ox-hides to dry upon the sea shore, as one drives to -Portici; the Sicilian herds, mentioned in the Odyssey, and their crawling -skins, came into my head in a moment. - -We have left these scenes of fabulous wonder and real pleasure however; -left the warm vestiges of classic story, and places which have produced -the noblest efforts of the human mind; places which have served as no -ignoble themes for truly immortal song; all quitted now! all left for -recollection to muse on, and for fancy to combine: but these eyes I fear -will never more survey them. Well! no matter-- - - When like the baseless fabric of a vision, - The cloud-capt tow’rs, the gorgeous palaces, - The solemn temples, the great globe itself, - Yea all which it inherit, shall dissolve; - And like some unsubstantial pageant faded - Leave not a wreck behind. - - - - -ROME. - - -We are come here just in time to see the three last days of the carnival, -and very droll it is to walk or drive, and see the people run about the -streets, all in some gay disguise or other, and masked, and patched, and -painted to make sport. The Corso is now quite a scene of distraction; the -coachmen on the boxes pretending to be drunk, and throwing sugar-plumbs -at the women, which it grows hard to find out in the crowd and confusion, -as the evening, which shuts in early, is the festive hour: and there -is some little hazard in parading the streets, lest an accident might -happen; though a temporary rail and _trottoir_ are erected, to keep -the carriages off. Our high joke, however, seems to consist in the -men putting on girls clothes: a woman is somewhat a rarity at Rome, -and strangely superfluous as it should appear by the extraordinary -substitutes found for them on the stage: it is more than wonderful to -see great strong fellows dancing the women’s parts in these fashionable -dramas, pastoral and heroic ballets as they call them. _Soprano_ singers -did not so surprise me with their feminine appearance in the Opera; but -these clumsy _figurantes_! all stout, coarse-looking men, kicking about -in hooped petticoats, were to me irresistibly ridiculous: the gentlemen -with me however, both Italians and English, were too much disgusted -to laugh, while _la premiere danseuse_ acted the coquet beauty, or -distracted mother, with a black beard which no art could subdue, and -destroyed every illusion of the pantomime at a glance. All this struck -nobody but us foreigners after all; tumultuous and often _tender_ -applauses from the pit convinced us of _their heart-felt_ approbation! -and in the parterre fat gentlemen much celebrated at Rome for their taste -and refinement. - -As their exhibition did not please our party, notwithstanding its -singularity, we went but once to the theatre, except when a Festa di -Ballo was advertised to begin at eleven o’clock one night, but detained -the company waiting on its stairs for two hours at least beyond the time: -for my own part I was better amused _outside_ the doors, than _in_. -Masquerades can of themselves give very little pleasure except when they -are new things. What was most my delight and wonder to observe, was the -sight of perhaps two hundred people of different ranks, all in my mind -strangely ill-treated by a nobleman; who having a private supper in the -room, prevented their entrance who paid for admission; all mortified, all -crowded together in an inconvenient place; all suffering much from heat, -and more from disappointment; yet all in perfect good humour with each -other, and with the gentleman who detained in longing and ardent, but -not impatiently-expressed expectation, such a number of _Romans_: who, -as I could not avoid remarking, certainly deserve to rule over all the -world once more, if, as we often read in history, _command_ is to be best -learned from the practice of _obedience_. - -The masquerade was carried on when we had once begun it, with more taste -and elegance here, than either at Naples or Milan; so it was at Florence, -I remember; more dresses of contrivance and fancy being produced. We had -a very pretty device last night, of a man who pretended to carry statues -about as if for sale: the gentlemen and ladies who personated the figures -were incomparable from the choice of attitudes, and skill in colouring; -but _il carnovale è morto_, as the women of quality told us last night -from their coaches, in which they carried little transparent lanthorns of -a round form, red, blue, green, &c. to help forward the shine; and these -they throw at each other as they did sugar plums in the other towns, -while the millions of small thin bougie candles held in every hand, and -stuck up at every balcony, make the _Strada del Popolo_ as light as day, -and produce a wonderfully pretty effect, gay, natural, and pleasing. - -The unstudied hilarity of Italians is very rejoicing to the heart, from -one’s consciousness that it is the result of cheerfulness really felt, -not a mere incentive to happiness hoped for. The death of Carnovale, who -was carried to his grave with so many candles suddenly extinguished at -twelve o’clock last night, has restored us to a tranquil possession of -ourselves, and to an opportunity of examining the beauties of nature and -art that surround one. - -St. Peter’s church is incontestably the first object in this city, so -crowded with single figures: That this church should be built in the form -of a Latin cross instead of a Greek one may be wrong for ought I know; -that columns would have done better than piers inside, I do not think; -but that whatever has been done by man might have been done better, if -that is all the critics want, I readily allow. This church is, after all -their objections, nearer to perfect than any other building in the world; -and when Michael Angelo, looking at the Pantheon, said, “Is this the best -our vaunted ancestors could do? If so, I will shew the advancement of the -art, in suspending a dome of equal size to this up in the air.” he made a -glorious boast, and was perhaps the only person ever existing who could -have performed his promise. - -The figures of angels, or rather cherubims, eight feet high, which -support the vases holding holy water, as they are made after the form -of babies, do perfectly and closely represent infants of eighteen or -twenty months old; nor till one comes quite close to them indeed, is -it possible to discern that they are colossal. This is brought by some -as a proof of the exact proportions kept, and of the prodigious space -occupied, by the area of this immense edifice; and urged by others, as -a peculiarity of the _human_ body to deceive so at a distance, most -unjustly; for one is surprised exactly in the same manner by the doves, -which ornament the church in various parts of it. _They_ likewise appear -of the natural size, and completely within one’s reach upon entering -the door, but soon as approached, recede to a considerable height, and -prove their magnitude nicely proportioned to that of the angels and other -decorations. - -The canopied altar, and its appurtenances, are likewise all colossal -I think, when they tell me of four hundred and fifty thousand pounds -weight of bronze brought from the Pantheon, and used to form the wreathed -pillars which support, and the torses that adorn it. Yet airy lightness -and exquisite elegance are the characteristics of the fabric, not gloomy -greatness, or heavy solidity. How immense then must be the space it -stands on! four hundred and sixty-seven of my steps carried me from the -door to the end. Warwick castle would be contained in its middle _aisle_. -Here are one hundred and twenty silver lamps, each larger than I could -lift, constantly burning round the altar; and one never sees either -them, or the light they dispense, till forced upon the observation of -them, so completely are they lost in the general grandeur of the whole. -In short, with a profusion of wealth that astonishes, and of splendour -that dazzles, as soon as you enter on an examination of its secondary -parts, every man’s _first_ impression at entering St. Peter’s church, -must be surprise at seeing it so clear of superfluous ornament. This is -the true character of innate excellence, the _simplex munditiis_, or -_freedom from decoration_; the noble simplicity to which no embellishment -can add dignity, but seems a mere appendage. Getting on the top of this -stupendous edifice, is however the readiest way to fill one’s mind with -a deserving notion of its extent, capacity, and beauty; nor is any -operation easier, so happily contrived is the ascent. Contrivance here -is an ill-chosen word too, so luminous so convenient is the walk, so -spacious the galleries beside, that all idea of danger is removed, when -you perceive that even round the undefended cornice, our king’s state -coach might be most safely driven. - -The monuments, although incomparable, scarcely obtain a share of your -admiration for the first ten times of your surveying the place; Guglielmo -della Porta’s famous figure, supporting that dedicated to the memory -of Paul the Third, was found so happy an imitation of female beauty -by some madman here however, that it is said he was inflamed with a -Pigmalion-like passion for it, of which the Pontiff hearing, commanded -the statue to be draped. The steps at almost the end of this church we -have all heard were porphyry, and so they are; how many hundred feet long -I have now forgotten:--no matter; what I have not forgotten is, that I -thought as I looked at them--why so they _should_ be porphyry--and that -was all. While the vases and cisterns of the same beautiful substance -at Villa Borghese attracted my wonder; and Clement X.’s urn at St. John -de Lateran, appeared to me an urn fitter for the ashes of an Egyptian -monarch, Busiris or Sesostris, than for a Christian priest or sovereign, -since universal dominion has been abolished. Nothing, however, _can_ -look very grand in St. Peter’s church; and though I saw the general -benediction given (I hope partook it) upon Easter day, my constant -impression was, that the people were below the place; no pomp, no glare, -no dove and glory on the chair of state, but what looked too little for -the area that contained them. Sublimity disdains to catch the vulgar -eye, she elevates the soul; nor can long-drawn processions, or splendid -ceremonies, suffice to content those travellers who seek for images that -never tarnish, and for truths that never can decay. Pius Sextus, in his -morning dress, paying his private devotions at the altar, without any -pageantry, and with very few attendants, struck me more a thousand and -a thousand times, than when arrayed in gold, in colours, and diamonds, -he was carried to the front of a balcony big enough to have contained -the conclave; and there, shaded by two white fans, which, though really -enormous, looked no larger than that a girl carries in her pocket, -pronounced words which on account of the height they came from were -difficult to hear. - -All this is known and felt by the managers of these theatrical -exhibitions so certainly, that they judiciously confine great part of -them to the _Capella Sestini_, which being large enough to impress -the mind with its solemnity, and not spacious enough for the priests, -congregation, and all, to be lost in it, is well adapted for those -various functions that really make Rome a scene of perpetual gala during -the holy week; which an English friend here protested to me he had never -spent with so little devotion in his life before. The _miserere_ has, -however, a strong power over one’s mind--the absence of all instrumental -music, the steadiness of so many human voices, the gloom of the place, -the picture of Michael Angelo’s last judgment covering its walls, united -with the mourning dress of the spectators--is altogether calculated with -great ingenuity to give a sudden stroke to the imagination, and kindle -that temporary blaze of devotion it is wisely enough intended to excite: -but even this has much of its effect destroyed, from the admission of too -many people: crowd and bustle, and struggle for places, leave no room for -any ideas to range themselves, and least of all, serious ones: nor would -the opening of our sacred music in Westminster Abbey, when nine hundred -performers join to celebrate _Messiah_’s praises, make that impression -which it does upon the mind, were not the king, and court, and all the -audience, as still as death, when the first note is taken. - -The ceremony of washing the pilgrims feet is a pleasing one: it is seen -in high perfection here at Rome; where all that the pope personally -performs is done with infinite grace, and with an air of mingled majesty -and sweetness, difficult to hit, but singularly becoming in him, who is -both priest of God, and sovereign of his people. - -But how, said Cyrus, shall I make men think me more excellent than -themselves? _By being really so_, replies Xenophon, putting his words -into the mouth of Cambyses. Pius Sextus takes no deeper method I believe, -yet all acknowledge his superiour merit: No prince can less affect state, -nor no clergyman can less adopt hypocritical behaviour. The Pope powders -his hair like any other of the Cardinals, and is, it seems, the first -who has ever done so. When he takes the air it is in a fashionable -carriage, with a few, a very few guards on horseback, and is by no means -desirous of making himself a shew. Now and then an old woman begs his -blessing as he passes; but I almost remember the time when our bishops -of Bangor and St. Asaph were followed by the country people in North -Wales full as much or more, and with just the same feelings. One man -in particular we used to talk of, who came from a distant part of our -mountainous province, with much expence in proportion to his abilities, -poor fellow, and terrible fatigue; he was a tenant of my father’s, who -asked him how he ventured to undertake so troublesome a journey? It was -to get my good Lord’s blessing, replied the farmer, _I hope it will -cure my rheumatism_. Kissing the slipper at Rome will probably, in a -hundred years more, be a thing to be thus faintly recollected by a few -very old people; and it is strange to me it should have lasted so long. -No man better knows than the present learned and pious successor of St. -Peter, that St. Peter himself would permit no act of adoration to his -own person; and that he severely reproved Cornelius for kneeling to him, -charging him to rise and stand upon his feet, adding these remarkable -words, _seeing I also am a man_[13]. Surely it will at last be found out -among them that such a ceremony is inconsistent with the Pope’s character -as a Christian priest, however it may suit state matters to continue it -in the character of a sovereign. The road he is now making on every side -his capital to facilitate foreigners approach, the money he has laid out -on the conveniencies of the Vatican, the desire he feels of reforming a -police much in want of reformation, joined to an immaculate character -for private virtue and an elegant taste for the fine arts, must make -every one wish for a long continuance of his health and dignity; though -the wits and jokers, when they see his arms up, as they are often placed -in galleries, &c. about the palace, and consist of a zephyr blowing on -a flower, a pair of eagle’s wings, and a few stars, have invented this -Epigram, to say that when the Emperor has got his eagle back, the King of -France his fleurs de lys, and the stars are gone to heaven, Braschi will -have nothing left him but the _wind_: - - Redde aquilam Cæsari, Francorum lilia regi, - Sydera redde polo, cætera Brasche tibi. - -These verses were given me by an agreeable Benedictine Friar, member of a -convent belonging to St. Paul’s _fuor delle mura_; he was a learned man, -a native of Ragusa, had been particularly intimate with Wortley Montague, -whose variety of acquirements had impressed him exceedingly. - -He shewed us the curiosities of his church, the finest in Rome next to -St. Peter’s, and had silver gates; but the plating is worn off and only -the brass remains. There is an old Egyptian candlestick above five feet -high preserved here, and many other singularities adorn the church. -The Pillars are 136 in number, all marble, and each consisting of one -unjoined and undivided piece; 40 of these are fluted, and two which did -belong to a temple of Mars are seven feet and a half each in diameter. -Here is likewise the place where Nero ran for refuge to the house of his -freed-man, and in the cloister a stone, with this inscription on it, - - _Hoc specus accepit post aurea tecta Neronem_[14]. - -Here is an altar supported by four pillars of red porphyry, and here -are the pictures of all the popes; St. Peter first, and our present -Braschi last. It has given much occasion for chat that there should -now be no room left to hang a successor’s portrait, and that he who now -occupies the chair is painted in powdered hair and a white head-dress, -such as he wears every day, to the great affliction of his courtiers, who -recommended the usual state diadem; but “No, no,” said he, “there have -been _red cap Popes_ enough, mine shall be only white,” and _white it is_. - -This beautiful edifice was built by the Emperor Theodosius, and there -is an old picture at the top, of our Saviour giving the benediction in -the form that all the Greek priests give it now. Apropos, there have -been many sects of Oriental Christians dropt into the Church of Rome -within these late years; a very venerable old Armenian says Greek mass -regularly in St. Peter’s church every day before one particular altar; -his long black dress and white beard attracted much of my notice; he -saw it did, and now whenever we meet in the street by chance he kindly -stands still to bless me. But the Syriac or Maronites have a church to -themselves just by the _Bocca della Verita_; and extremely curious we -thought it to see their ceremonies upon Palm Sunday, when their aged -patriarch, not less than ninety-three years old, and richly attired with -an inconvenient weight of drapery, and a mitre shaped like that of Aaron -in our Bibles exactly, was supported by two olive coloured orientals, -while he pronounced a benediction on the tree that stood near the altar, -and was at least ten feet high. The attendant clergy, habited after their -own eastern taste, and very superbly, had broad phylacteries bound on -their foreheads after the fashion of the Jews, and carried long strips of -parchment up and down the church, with the law written on them in Syriac -characters, while they formed themselves into a procession and led their -truly reverend principal back to his place. An exhibition so striking, -with the view of many monuments round the walls, sacred to the memory -of such, and such a bishop of Damascus, gave so strong an impression of -Asiatic manners to the mind, that one felt glad to find Europe round one -at going out again. One of the treasures much renowned in it we have seen -to-day, the transfiguration painted by Rafaelle; it was the _first_ thing -the Emperor _did_ visit when he came to Rome, and so a Franciscan Friar -who shews it, told us. He saw a gentleman walk into church it seems, and -leaving his friends at dinner, went out to converse with him. “_Pull -aside the curtain, Sir_,” said the stranger, “_for I am in haste to see -this master-piece of your immortal Raphael_.” I was as willing to be in -a hurry as he, says the Friar, and observed how fortunate it was for us -that it could not be moved, otherwise we had lost it long ago; for, Sir, -said I, they would have carried it away from poor _Monte Citoria_ to -some finer temple long ago; though, let me tell you, this is an elegant -Doric building too, and one of Bramante’s best works, much admired by -the English in particular. I hope, if it please God now that I should -live but a very little longer, I may have the honour of shewing it _the -Emperor_. “Is he expected?” enquired the gentleman. “Every day, Sir,” -replies the Friar. “And _well now_,” cries the foreigner, “what sort of -a man do you expect to see?” “Why, Sir, you seem a traveller, did _you_ -ever see him?” quoth the Franciscan. “Yes, sure, my good friend, very -often indeed, he is as plain a man as myself, has good intentions, and an -honest heart; and I think you would like him if you knew him, because he -puts nobody out of their way.” - -This dialogue, natural and simple, had taken such hold of our good -_religieux_’s fancy, that not a word would he say about the picture, -while his imagination was so full of the prince, and of his own -amazement at the salutation of his companions, when returning to the -refectory;--“Why, Gaetano,” cried they, “thou hast been conversing with -_Cæsar_:”--I too liked the tale, because it was artless, and because it -was true. But the picture surpasses all praise; the woman kneeling on the -fore-ground, her back to the spectators, seems a repetition of the figure -in Raphael’s famous picture of the Vatican on fire, that is shewn in the -chambers called particularly by his name; where the personifications of -Justice and Meekness, engraved by Strange, seize one’s attention very -forcibly; it is observable, that the first is every body’s favourite in -the painting, the last in the engraving. - -Raphael’s Bible, as one of the long galleries is comically called by the -connoisseurs, breaks one’s neck to look at it. The stories, beginning -with Adam and Eve, are painted in small compartments; the colouring as -vivid now as if it were done last week; and the _arabesques_ so gay -and pretty, they are very often represented on fans; and we have fine -engravings in England of all, yet, though exquisitely done, they give one -somehow a false notion of the whole: so did Piranesi’s prints too, though -invaluable, when considered by themselves as proofs of the artist’s -merit. His judicious manner, however, of keeping all coarse objects -from interfering with the grand ones, though it mightily increases the -dignity, and adds to the spirit of his performance, is apt to lead him -who wishes for information, into a style of thinking that will at last -produce disappointment as to general appearances, which here at Rome is -really disproportionate to the astonishing productions of art contained -within its walls. - -But I must leave this glorious Vatican, with the perpetual regret of -having seen scarcely any thing of its invaluable library, except the -prodigious size and judicious ornaments of it: neither book nor MS. -could I prevail on the librarian to shew me, except some love-letters -from Henry the Eighth of England to Anne Boleyn, which he said were -most likely to interest _me_: they were very gross and indecent ones to -be sure; so I felt offended, and went away, in a very ill humour, to -see Castle St. Angelo; where the emperor Adrian intended perpetually -to repose; but the urn containing his ashes is now kept in a garden -belonging to one of the courts in the palace, near the Apollo and other -Greek statues of peculiar excellence. From his tomb too, some of the -pillars of St. Paul’s were taken, and this splendid mausolæum converted -into a sort of citadel, where Sixtus Quintus deposited three millions -of gold, it is said; and Alexander the Sixth retired to shield himself -from Charles the Eighth of France, who entered Rome by torch-light in -1494, and forced the Pope to give him what the French historians call -_l’investiture du royaume de Naples_; after which he took Capua, and -made his conquering entry into Naples the February following, 1495; -Ferdinand, son of Alphonso, flying before him. This Pope was the father -of the famous Cæsar Borgia; and it was on this occasion, I believe, that -the French wits made the well-known distich on his notorious avarice and -rapacity: - - Vendit Alexander claves, altaria, Christum, - Vendere jure potest, emerat ille prius[15]. - -This Castle St. Angelo went once, I believe, under the name of the -Ælian Bridge, when the emperor Adrian first fixed his mind on making a -monument for himself there. The soldiers of Belisarius are said to have -destroyed numberless statues which then adorned it, by their odd manner -of defending the place from the Gothic assaulters. It is now a sort of -tower for the confinement of state prisoners; and decorated with many -well-painted, but ill-kept pictures of Polydore and Julio Romano. - -The fireworks exhibited here on Easter-day are the completest things of -their kind in the world; three thousand rockets, all sent up into the air -at once, make a wonderful burst indeed, and serve as a pretty imitation -of Vesuvius: the lighting up of the building too on a sudden with -fire-pots, had a new and beautiful effect; we all liked the entertainment -vastly. - -I looked here for what some French _recueil_, _Menagiana_ if I remember -rightly, had taught me to expect; this was some brass cannon belonging to -Christina queen of Sweden, who had caused them to be cast, and added an -engraving on them with these remarkable words; - - Habet sua fulmina Juno[16]. - -No such thing, however, could be found or heard of. Indeed a search after -truth requires such patience, such penetration, and such learning, that -it is no wonder she is so seldom got a glimpse of; whoever is diligently -desirous to find her, is so perplexed by ignorance, so retarded by -caution, so confounded by different explications of the same thing -recurring at every turn, so sickened with silly credulity on the one -hand, and so offended with pertness and pyrrhonism on the other, that it -is fairly rendered impossible for one to keep clear of prejudices, while -the steady resolution to do so becomes itself a prejudice.--But with -regard to little follies, it is better to laugh at than lament them. - -We were shewn one morning lately the spot where it is supposed St. -Paul suffered decapitation; and our _Cicerone_ pointed out to us three -fountains, about the warmth of Buxton, Matlock, or Bristol water, -which were said to have burst from the ground at the moment of his -martyrization. A Dutch gentleman in company, and a steady Calvinist, -loudly ridiculed the tradition, called it an idle tale, and triumphantly -expressed his _certain conviction_, that such an event _could not -possibly_ have ever taken place. To this assertion no reply was made; -and as we drove home all together, the conversation having taken a -wide range and a different turn, he related in the course of it a long -Rousseau-like tale of a lady he once knew, who having the strongest -possible attachment to one lover, married another upon principles of -filial obedience, still retaining inviolate her passion for the object of -her choice, who, adorned with every excellence and every grace, continued -a correspondence with her across the Atlantic ocean; having instantly -changed his hemisphere, not to give the husband disturbance; who on his -part admired their letters, many of which were written in _his_ praise, -who had so cruelly interrupted their felicity. Seeing some marks of -disbelief in my countenance, he begun observing, in an altered tone of -voice, that _common_ and _vulgar_ minds might hold such events to be out -of possibility, and such sentiments to be out of nature, but it was only -because they were _above_ the _comprehension_ and beyond the reach of -people educated in large and corrupt capitals, Paris, Rome, or London, -to think true. Now was not some share of good breeding (best learned in -great capitals perhaps) necessary to prevent one from retorting upon such -an orator--that it was more likely nature should have been permitted -to deviate in favour of Paul the apostle of Jesus Christ, than of a -fat inhabitant of North Zealand, no way distinguished from the mass of -mankind? - -But we have been called to pass some moments on the Cælian hill; and see -the _Chiesa di San Gregorio_, interesting above all others to travellers -who delight in the vestiges of Pagan Rome: as, having been built upon a -Patrician’s house, it still to a great degree retains the form of one; -while to the scholar who is pleased with anecdotes of ecclesiastical -history, the days recur when the stone chair they shew us, contented the -meek and venerable bishop of Rome who sate in it, while his gentle spirit -sought the welfare of every Christian, and refused to persecute even -the benighted and unbelieving Jews; opposing only the arms of piety and -prayer, to the few enemies his transcendent excellence had raised him. -His picture here is considered as a master-piece of Annibale Caracci; -and it is strange to think that the trial-pieces, as they are called, -should be erroneously treated of in the Carpenteriana: when speaking of -the contention between the two scholars, to decide which the master sent -for an old woman, Monsieur de Carpentier tells us the dispute lay between -Domenichino and Albano--a gross mistake; as it was Guido, not Albano, who -ventured to paint something in rivalry with Domenichino, relative to St. -Andrew and his martyrdom; and these trial-pieces produced from her the -same preference given by every spectator who has seen them since; for -when Caracci (unwilling to offend either of his scholars, as both were -men of the highest rank and talents) enquired of _her_ what _she_ thought -of Guido’s performance?--“Indeed,” replied the old woman, “I have never -yet looked at it, so fully has my mind been occupied by the powers shewn -in that of Domenichino.” - -The _vecchia_ is here at Rome the common phrase when speaking of your -only female servant, a person not unlike an Oxford or Cambridge bed-maker -in appearance; and much amazed was I two days ago at the answer of _our_ -_vecchia_, when curiosity prompted me to ask her age:--“_O, Madam, I am a -very aged woman_,” was the reply, “_and have two grandchildren married; I -am forty-two years old_, poveretta me!” I told an Italian gentleman who -dined with us what Caterina had said, and begged him to ask the _laquais -de place_, who waited on us at table, a similar question. He appeared a -large, well-looking, sturdy fellow, about thirty-eight years old; but -said he was scarce twenty-two; that he had been married six years, and -had five children. How old was your wife when you met?--“Thirteen, Sir,” -answered Carlo: so all is kept even at least; for if they end life sooner -than in colder climates, they begin it earlier it is plain. - -Yet such things seem strange to _us_; so do a thousand which occur in -these warm countries in the commonest life. Brick floors, for example, -with hangings of a dirty printed cotton, affording no bad shelter for -spiders, bugs, &c.; a table in the same room, encrusted with _verd -antique_, very fine and worthy of Wilton house; with some exceeding good -copies of the finest pictures here at Rome; form the furniture of our -present lodging: and now we have got the little casement windows clean to -look at it, I pass whole hours admiring, even in the copy, our glorious -descent from the cross, by Daniel de Volterra; which to say truth loses -less than many a great performance of the same kind, because its merits -consist in composition and design; and as sentiment, not style, is -translatable, so grouping and putting figures finely together can be -easier transmitted by a copy, than the meaner excellencies of colouring -and finishing. Homer and Cervantes may be enjoyed by those who never -learned their language, at least to a great degree; while a true taste -of Gray’s Odes or Martial’s Epigrams has been hitherto found exceedingly -difficult to communicate. It would, however, be cruel to deny the merit -of colouring to Daniel de Volterra’s descent from the cross, only because -being painted in fresco it has suffered so terribly by time and want of -care, but it is now kept covered, and they remove the curtain when any -body desires to contemplate its various beauties. - -The church of Santa Maria Maggiore has been too long unspoken of, rich -as it is with the first gold torn from the unfortunate aborigines of -America; a present from Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain to the Pope, -in return for that permission he had given them to exert and establish -their sanguinary sway over those luckless nations. One pillar from the -temple of Peace is an ill-adapted ornament to this edifice, built nearly -in the form of an ancient _basilica_; and with so expensive a quantity -of gilding, that it is said two hundred and fifty thousand pounds were -expended on one chapel only, which is at last inferior in fame and beauty -to _cappella Corsini_; in riches and magnificence to _cappella Borghese_, -where an amethyst frame of immense value surrounds the names, in gold -cypher, of our blessed Saviour and his Mother, the ground of which is of -transparent jasper, and cannot be matched for elegance or perfection, -being at least four feet high (the tablets I mean), and three feet wide. -But to this Borghese family, I am well persuaded, it would be a real -fatigue to count the wealth which they enjoy. - -Villa Pamphili is a lovely place, or might be made so; but laying out -pleasure grounds is not the forte of Italian taste. I never saw one of -them, except Lomellino of Genoa, who had higher notions of a garden than -what an opera scene affords; and that is merely a range of trees in great -pots with gilded handles, and rows of tall cypresses planted one between -every two pots, all straight over against each other in long lines; with -an octangular marble bason to hold water in the middle, covered for the -most part with a thick green scum. - -At Villa Pamphili is a picture of Sanctorius, who made the weighing -balance spoken of by Addison in the Spectator; it was originally -contrived for the Pamphili Pope. And here is an old statue of Clodius -profaning the mysteries of the Bona Dea, as we read in the Roman history. -And here are camels working in the park like horses: we found them -playing about at their leisure when we were at Pisa, and at Milan they -were shewed for a show; so little does one state of Italy connect with -another. These three cities cannot possibly be much further from each -other than London, York, and Exeter; yet the manners differ entirely, -and what is done in one place is not known at all in the other. It must -be remembered that they are all separate states. - -At the Farnesini palace our amusements were of a nature very contrary -to this; but every place produces amusement when one is willing to be -pleased. After looking over the various and inestimable productions -of art contained there, we came at last to the celebrated marriage of -Alexander’s Roxana; where, say some of the books of description, the -world’s greatest hero is represented by Europe’s greatest painter. Some -French gentlemen were in our company, and looking steadily at the picture -for a while, one of them exclaimed, “_A la fin voila ce qui est vrayment -noble; cet Alexandre là; il paroit effectivement le roy de France -même_[17].” - -The Spada palace boasts Guercino’s Dido, so disliked by the critics, who -say she looks spitted; but extremely esteemed by those that understand -its merit in other respects. There is also the very statue kept at this -palace, at the feet of which Cæsar fell when he was assassinated at -the capitol: those who shew it never fail to relate his care to die -gracefully; which was likewise the last desire that occupied Lucretia’s -mind: Augustus too, justly considering his life as scenical, desired the -_plaudits_ of his friends at its conclusion: and even Flavius Vespasian, -a plain man as one should think during a pretty large portion of his -existence, wished at last to _die like an emperor_. That this statue -of Pompey should have been accidentally found with the head lying in -one man’s ground and the body in another, is curious enough: a rage for -appropriation gets the better of all the love of arts; so the contending -parties (like the sisters in David Simple, with their fine-worked carpet) -fairly severed the statue, and took home each his half; the proprietor -of this palace meanwhile purchased the two pieces, stuck them once more -together, and here they are.--Pity but the sovereign had carried both off -for himself.--Pius Sextus however is not so disposed: he has had a legacy -left him within these last years, to the prejudice of some nobleman’s -heirs; who loudly lamented _their fate_, and _his tyranny_ who could take -advantage, as they expressed it, of their relation’s caprice. The Pope -did not give it them back, because they behaved so ill, he said; but -neither did he seize what was left him, by dint of despotic authority; -_he went to law_ with the family for it, which I thought a very strange -thing; _and lost his cause_, which I thought a still stranger. - -We have just been to see his gardens; they are poor things enough; -and the device of representing Vulcan’s cave with the Cyclops, in -_water_-works, was more worthy of Ireland than Rome! Monte Cavallo is -however a palace of prodigious dignity; the pictures beyond measure -excellent; his collection of china-ware valuable and tasteful, and there -are two Mexican jars that can never be equalled. - -Villa Albani is the most dazzling of any place yet however; and the -caryatid pillars the finest things in it, though replete with wonders, -and distracting with objects each worthy a whole day’s attention. Here -is an antique list of Euripides’s plays in marble, as those tell me who -can read the Greek inscriptions; I lose infinite pleasure every day, -for want of deeper learning. Pillars not only of _giall’ antique_, but -of _paglia_[18], which no house but this possesses, amaze and delight -_indocti doctique_ though; the Vatican itself cannot shew such: a red -marble mask here, three feet and a half in diameter, is unrivalled; they -tell you it is worth its own weight in louis d’ors: a canopus in basalt -too; and cameos by the thousand. - -Mengs should have painted a more elegant Apollo for the centre of such -a gallery; but his muses make amends; the Viaggiana says they are all -portraits, but I could get nobody to tell me whose. The Abbé Winckelman, -who if I recollect aright lost his life by his passion for _virtù_, -arranged this stupendous collection, in conjunction with the cardinal, -whose taste was by all his contemporaries acknowledged the best in Rome. - -We were carried this morning to a cabinet of natural history belonging to -another cardinal, but it did not answer the account given of it by our -conductors. - -What has most struck me here as a real improvement upon social and civil -life, was the school of Abate Sylvester, who, upon the plan of Monsieur -L’Epée at Paris, teaches the deaf and dumb people to speak, read, write, -and cast accounts; he likewise teaches them the principles of logic, -and instructs them in the sacred mysteries of our holy religion. I am -not naturally credulous, nor apt to take payment in words for meanings; -much of my _life_ has been spent, and all my _youth_, in the tuition of -babies; I was of course less likely to be deceived; and I can safely say, -that they did appear to have learned all he taught them: that appearance -too, if it were no more, is so difficult to obtain, the patience required -from the master is so very great, and the good he is doing to mankind -so extensive, that I did not like offensively to detect the difference -between _knowing_ a syllogism and _appearing_ to know it. With regard -to morality, the pupils have certainly gained many præcognita. While -the capital scholars were shewing off to another party, I addressed a -girl who sat working in the window, and perceived that she could explain -the meaning of the commandments competently well. To prove the truth, I -pretended to pick a gentleman’s pocket who stood near me; _peccato!_ said -the wench distinctly; she was about ten years old perhaps: but a little -boy of seven was deservedly the master’s favourite; he really possessed -the most intelligent and interesting countenance I ever saw, and when to -explain the major, minor, and consequence, he put the two first together -into his hat with an air of triumph, we were enchanted with him. Some one -to teize him said he had red hair; he instantly led them to a picture of -our Saviour which hung in the room, said it was the same colour of his, -and ought to be respected. - -Surely it is little to the credit of us English, that this worthy Abbé -Sylvester should have a stipend from government; that Monsieur L’Epée de -Paris should be encouraged in the same good work; that Mr. Braidwood’s -Scotch pupils should justly engage every one’s notice--while _we sleep!_ -A friend in company seeing me fret at this, asked me if I, or any one -else, had ever seen or heard of a person really qualified for the common -duties of society by any of these professors;--“That a deaf and dumb man -should understand how to discourse about the hypostatic union,” added -he, “I will not desire; but was there ever known in Paris, Edinburgh, or -Rome, a deaf and dumb shoemaker, carpenter, or taylor? Or did ever any -watchmaker, fishmonger, or wheelwright, ever keep and willingly employ a -deaf and dumb journeyman?”--Nobody replied; and we went on our way to see -what was easier decided upon and understood--the tomb of Raphael at the -Pantheon. - -Among the many tours that have been written, a musical tour, an -astronomical tour, &c. I wonder we have never had a sepulchral tour, -making the tombs of famous men its object of attention. That Raphael, -Caracci, with many more people of eminence, sleep at the Pantheon, is -however but a secondary consideration; few can think of the monuments in -this church, till they have often contemplated its architecture, which -is so finely proportioned that on first entering you think it smaller -than it really is: the pillars are enormous, the shafts all of one piece, -the composition Egyptian granite; these are the sixteen which support -the portico built by Agrippa; whose car, adorned with trophies and drawn -by brazen horses, once decorated the pediment, where the holes formed -by the cramps which fastened it are still visible. Genseric changed the -gate, and connoisseurs know not where he placed that which Agrippa made: -the present gate is magnificent, but does not fit the place; much of -the brass plating was removed by Urban the Eighth, and carried to St. -Peter’s: he was the Barberini pope; and of him the people said-- - - Barbarini faciunt barbara, &c. - -He was a poet however, and could make epigrams himself; there is a very -fine edition of his poems printed at Paris under the title of _Maffei -Barberini Poemata_; and such was his knowledge of Greek literature, -that he was called the Attic bee. The drunken faun asleep at Palazzo -Barberini, by some accounted the first statue in Rome, we owe wholly to -his care in its preservation. - -But the Pantheon must not be quitted till we have mentioned its pavement, -where the precious stones are not disposed, as in many churches, without -taste or care, apparently by chance; here all is inlaid, so as to -enchant the eye with its elegance, while it dazzles one with its riches: -the black porphyry, in small squares, disposed in compartments, and -inscribed as one may call it in pavonazzino perhaps; the red, bounded -by serpentine; the granites, in giall antique, have an undescribable -effect; no Florence table was ever so beautiful: nor can we here regret -the caryatid pillars said by Pliny to have graced this temple in his -time; while the four prodigious columns, two of Egyptian granite, two of -porphyry, still remain, and replace them so very well. Montiosius, who -sought for the pillars said by Pliny to have been placed by Diogenes, an -Athenian architect, as supporters of this temple, relates however, that -in the year 1580 he saw four of them buried in the ground as high as -their shoulders: but it does not seem a tale much attended to; though I -confess my own desire of digging, as he points out the place so exactly, -on the right hand side of the portico. The best modern caryatids are in -the old Louvre at Paris, done by Goujon; but those of Villa Albani are -true antiques, perfect in beauty, inestimable in value. - -The church that now stands where a temple to Bacchus was built, _fuori -delle mura_, engaged our attention this morning. Nothing can be fresher -than the old decorations in honour of this jocund deity; the figures -of men and women carrying grapes, oxen drawing barrels, &c. all the -progress of a gay and plenteous vintage; a sacrifice at the end. I forget -to whom the church is now dedicated, but _it is_ a church; and from under -it has been dug up a sarcophagus, all of one piece of red porphyry, which -represents on its sides a Bacchanalian triumph; the coffin is nine feet -long, and the Pope intends removing it to the Vatican, as a companion -to that of Scipio Æmilianus, found a few months ago; his name engraven -on it, and his bones inside. Before the proper precautions could be -taken however, _they_ were flung away by mistaken zeal and prejudice; -but an Englishman, say they, who loves an unbeliever, got possession of -a _tooth_: meantime the ashes of the emperor Adrian, who, as Eusebius -tells us, set up the figure of a swine on the gates of Bethlehem, built -a temple in honour of Venus, on Mount Calvary; another to Jupiter, -upon the hill whence our Saviour ascended into heaven in sight of his -disciples;--_his_ ashes are kept in a gilt pine-apple, brought from -Castle St. Angelo, and preserved among other rarities in the Pope’s -musæum. So poor Scipio’s remains needed not to have been treated worse -than _his_, as we know not how good a Christian he might have made, -had he lived but 150 years later: we are sure that he was a wise and a -warlike man; that he fulfilled the scriptures unwittingly by burning -Carthage; and that he protected Polybius, whom he would scarcely suffer -out of his sight. - -After looking often at the pictures of St. Sebastian, I have now seen -his church founded by Constantine: he lies here in white marble, done by -Bernini; and here are more marvellous columns.--I am tired of looking out -words to express their various merits. - -The catacombs attract me more strongly; here, and here alone, can one -obtain a just idea of the melancholy lives, and dismal deaths, endured -by those who first dared at Rome to profess a religion inoffensive -and beneficial to all mankind. San Filippo Neri has his body somewhat -distinguished from the rest of these old pious Christians, among whom -he lived to a surprising age, making a cave his residence. Relics are -now dug up every day from these retreats, and venerated as having once -belonged to martyrs murdered for their early attachment to a belief -now happily displayed over one quarter of the world, and making daily -progress in another not discovered when those heroic mortals died to -attest its truth. There is however great danger of deception in digging -out the relics, these catacombs having been in Trajan’s time made a -burial-place for slaves; and such it continued to be during the reign -of those Roman emperors who despised rather than persecuted the new -religion in its infancy. The consciousness of this fact should cure the -passion many here shew for relics, the authenticity of which can never -be ascertained. Those shewn to the people in St. Peter’s church one -evening in the holy week, all came from here it seems; and loudly do our -Protestant travellers exclaim at their idolatry who kneel during the -exposure; though for my life I cannot see how the custom is _idolatrous_. -He who at the moment a dead martyr’s robe is shewn him, begs grace of God -to follow that great example, is certainly doing no harm, or in any wise -contradicting the rules of our Anglican church, whose collects for every -saint’s day express a like supplication for power to imitate that saint’s -good example; if once they worship the relics indeed, it were better -they were burned; and to say true, they should not be exposed without a -sermon explaining their use, lest vulgar minds might be unhappily misled -to mistake the real end of their exposure, and profanely substitute the -creature for the Creator. Meanwhile no one has a right to ridicule the -love of what once belonged to a favourite character, who has ever felt -attachment to a dead friend’s snuff-box, or desire of possessing Scipio -Æmilianus’s tooth. - -But the best effort to excite temporary devotion, and commemorate sacred -seasons, was the illuminated cross upon Good Friday night, depending -from the high dome of St. Peter’s church; where its effect upon the -architecture is strangely powerful, so large are the masses both of -light and shade; whilst the sublime images raised in one’s mind by its -noble simplicity and solitary light, hover before the fancy, and lead -recollection round through a thousand gloomy and mysterious passages, -with no unsteady pace however, while she follows the rays which beam from -the Redeemer’s cross. Being obliged indeed to go with company to these -solemnities, takes off from their effect, and turns imagination into -another channel, disagreeably enough, but it must be so; where there is a -thing to be seen every one will go to see it, and that which was intended -to produce sensations of gladness, gratitude, or wonder, ends _in being -a show_. The consciousness of this fact only kept me from wishing to see -the Duomo di Milano, or the cathedral of Canterbury illuminated just so, -with lamps placed in rows upon a plain wooden cross; which surely would -have, upon those old Gothic structures, an unequalled effect as to the -forming of light and shadow. - -But let us wish for any thing now rather than a _fine sight_. I am tired -with the very word _a sight_; while the Jesuits church here at Rome, -with the figure of St. Ignatius all covered with precious stones, with -bronze angels by Bernini, and every decoration that money can purchase -and industry collect, rather dazzles than delights one, I think. - -The Italians seem to find out, I know not why, that it is a good thing -the Jesuits are gone; though they steadily endeavour to retain those -principles of despotism which it was their peculiar province to inspire -and confirm, and whilst all men must see that the work of education goes -on worse in other hands. Indeed nothing can be wilder than committing -youth to the tuition of monks and nuns, unless, like them, they were -intended for the cloister. Young people are but too ready to find fault -with their teachers, and these are given into the hands of those teachers -who have a fault _ready found_. Every christian, every moral instruction -driven into their tender minds, weakens with the experience that he or -she who inculcated it was a recluse; and that they who are to live in the -world forsooth, must have more enlarged notions: whereas, to a Jesuit -tutor, no such objection could be made; they were themselves men of the -world, their institution not only permitted but obliged them to mingle -with mankind, to study characters, to attend to the various transactions -passing round them, and take an active part. It was indeed this spirit -pushed too far, which undid and destroyed their order, so useful to the -church of Rome. Connections with various nations they found best obtained -by commerce, and the sweets of commerce once tasted, what body of men has -been yet able to relinquish? But the principles of trade are formed in -direct opposition to that spirit of subordination by which alone _their_ -existence could continue; and it is unjust to charge any single event or -person with the dissolution of a body, incompatible with that state of -openness and freedom to which Europe is hastening. Incorporated societies -too carry, like individuals, the seeds of their own destruction in their -bosoms; - - As man perhaps the moment of his breath - Receives the lurking principle of death; - The young disease, which must subdue at length, - Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength. - -Every warehouse opened in every part of Europe, every settlement obtained -abroad, facilitated their undoing, by loosening the band which tied them -close together. Extremes can never keep their distance from each other, -while human affairs trot but in a circle; and surely no stronger proof of -that position can be found, than the sight of Quakers in Pensylvania, and -Jesuits in Paraguay, who lived with their converted Indian neighbours, -alike in harmony, and peace, and love. - -We have been led to reflections of this sort by a view of girls portioned -here at Rome once a year, some for marriage and others for a nunnery; -the last set were handsomest and fewest, and the people I converse with -say that every day makes almost visible diminution in the number of -monks and nuns. I know not, however, whether Italy will go on much the -better for having so few convents; some should surely be left, nay some -_must_ be left in a country where it is not possible for every man to -obtain a decent livelihood by labour as in England: no army, no navy, -very little commerce possible to the inland states, and very little need -of it in any; little study of the law too, where the prince or baron’s -lips pronounce on the decision of property; what must people do where -so few professions are open? Can they _all_ be physicians, priests, -or shopkeepers, where little physic is taken, and few goods bought? -There are already more clergy than can live, and I saw an _abate_ with -the _petit collet_ at Lucca, playing in the orchestra at the opera for -eighteen pence pay. Let us be all contented with the benefits received -from heaven, and let us learn better than to set up _self_, whether -nation or individual, as a standard to which all others must be reduced; -while imitation is at last but meanness, and each may in his own sphere -serve God and love his neighbours, while variety renders life more -pleasing. _Quod sis esse velis_[19], is an admirable maxim, and surely -no self-denial is necessary to its practice; while God has kindly given -to Italians a bright sky, a penetrating intellect, a genius for the -polite and liberal arts, and a soil which produces literally, as well as -figuratively, almost spontaneous fruits. He has bestowed on Englishmen a -mild and wholesome climate, a spirit of application and improvement, a -judicious manner of thinking to increase, and commerce to procure, those -few comforts their own island fails to produce. The mind of an Italian -is commonly like his country, extensive, warm, and beautiful from the -irregular diversification of its ideas; an ardent character, a glowing -landscape. That of an Englishman is cultivated, rich, and regularly -disposed; a steady character, a delicious landscape. - -I must not quit Rome however without a word of Angelica Kauffman, who, -though neither English nor Italian, has contrived to charm both nations, -and shew her superior talents both here and there. Beside her paintings, -of which the world has been the judge, her conversation attracts all -people of taste to her house, which none can bear to leave without -difficulty and regret. But a sight of the Santa Croce palace, with its -disgusting _Job_, and the man in armour so visibly horror-striken, puts -all painters but Salvator Rosa for a while out of one’s head. This -master’s works are not frequent, though he painted with facility. I -suppose he is difficult to imitate or copy, so what we have of him is -_original_. There are too many living objects here in Job’s condition, -not to render walking in the streets extremely disagreeable; and though -we are told there are seventeen markets in Rome, I can find none, the -_forum boarium_ being kept alike in all parts of the city for ought I -see; butchers standing at their shop doors, which are not shut nor the -shop cleaned even on Sundays, while blood is suffered to run along the -kennels in a manner very shocking to humanity. Mr. Greatheed made me -remark that the knife they use now, is the same employed by the old -Romans in cutting up the sacrificed victim; and there are in fact -ancient figures in many bas-reliefs of this town, which represent the -inferior officers, or _popæ_, with a priest’s albe reaching from their -arms and tucked up tight, with the sacrificing knife fastened to it, -exactly as the modern butcher wears his dress. The apron was called -_limus_, and there was a purple welt sewed on it in such a manner as to -represent a serpent: - - Velati limo, et verbenâ tempora vincti[20]; - -which Servius explains at length, but gives no reason for the serpentine -form, by some people exalted, particularly Mr. Hogarth, as nearly allied -to the perfection of all possible grace. This looks hypothetical, but -when the map of both hemispheres displayed before one, shews that the -Sun’s path forms the same line, called by pre-eminence Ecliptic, we will -pardon their predilection in its favour. - -But it is time to take leave of this _Roma triumphans_, as she is -represented in one statue with a weeping province at her foot, _so_ -beautiful! it reminded me of Queen Eleanor and fair Rosamond. The -Viaggiana sent me to look for many things I should not have found -without that instructive guide, particularly the singular inscription on -Gaudentius the actor’s tomb, importing that Vespasian rewarded him with -death, but that _Kristus_, for so Christ is spelt, will reward him with -a finer theatre in heaven. He was one of our early martyrs it appears, -and an altar to _him_ would surely be now more judiciously placed at a -play-house door than one to good St. Anthony, under whose protection the -theatre at Naples is built; with no great propriety it must be confessed, -when that Saint, disgusted by the levities of life, retired to finish -his existence, far from the haunts of man, among the horrors of an -unfrequented desert. So has it chanced however, that by many sects of -Christians, the player and his profession have been severely reprobated; -Calvinists forbid them their walls as destructive to morality, while -Romanists, considering them as justly excommunicated, refuse them the -common rites of sepulture. Scripture affords no ground for such severity. -Dr. Johnson once told me that St. Paul quoted in his epistles a comedy of -Menander; and I got the librarian at Venice to shew me the passage marked -as a quotation in one of the old editions: it is then a fair inference -enough that the apostle could never have prohibited to his followers -the sight of plays, when he cited them himself; they were indeed more -innocent than any other show of the days he lived in, and if well managed -may be always made subservient to the great causes of religion and -virtue. The passage cited was this: - - Evil communication corrupts good manners. - -And now with regard to the present state of morals at Rome, one must not -judge from staring stories told one; it is like Heliogabalus’s method of -computing the number of his citizens from the weight of their cobwebs. It -is wonderful to me the people are no worse, where no methods are taken to -keep them from being bad. - -As to the society, I speak not from myself, for I saw nothing of it; some -English liked it, but more complained. Wanting amusement, however, can be -no complaint, even without society, in a city so pregnant with wonders, -so productive of reflections; and if the Roman nobles are haughty, -who can wonder; when one sees doors of agate, and chimney-pieces of -amethyst, one can scarcely be surprised at the possessors pride, -should they in contempt turn their backs upon a foreigner, whom they -are early taught to consider as the Turks consider women, creatures -formed for their _use_ only, or at best _amusement_, and devoted to -certain destruction at the hour of death. With such principles, the -hatred and scorn they naturally feel for a protestant will easily swell -into superciliousness, or burst out into arrogance, the moment it is -unrestrained by the necessity of forms among the rich, and the desire of -pillage in the poor. - -But I shall be glad _now_ to exchange lapis lazuli for violets, and -verd antique for green fields. Here are more amethysts about Rome than -lilacs; and the laburnum which at this gay season adorns the environs -of London, I look for in vain about the Porta del Popolo. The proud -purple tulip which decorates the ground hereabouts, opposed to the -British harebell, is _Italy_ and _England_ again; but the _harebell_ by -cultivation becomes a _hyacinth_, the _tulip_ remains where it began. We -are now at the 16th of April, yet I know not how or why it is, although -the oaks, young, small, and straggling as they are, have the leaves come -out all broad and full already, though the fig is bursting out every day -and hour, and the mulberry tree, so tardy in our climate, that I have -often been unable to see scarcely a bud upon them even in May, is here -completely furnished. Apple trees are yet in blossom round this city, and -the few elms that can be found, are but just unfolding. Common shrubs -continue their wintry appearance, and in the general look of spring -little is gained. The hedges now of Kent and Surrey are filled with -fragrance I am sure, and primroses in the remoter provinces torment the -sportsmen with spoiling the drag on a soft scenting morning; while limes, -horse-chesnuts, &c. contribute to produce an effect not so inferior to -that fostered by Italian sunshine, as I expected to find it. - -Why the first breath of far-distant summer should thus affect the oak -and fig, yet leave the elm and apple as with us, the botanists must -tell; few advances have been made in vegetation since we left Naples, -that is certain; the hedges were as forward near Pozzuoli two full -months ago. And here are no China oranges to be bought; no, nor a -cherry or strawberry to be seen, while every man of fashion’s table in -London is covered with them; and all the shops of Covent-garden and St. -James’s-street hang out their luxurious temptations of fruit, to prove -the proximity of summer, and the advantages of industrious cultivation. -Our eating pleased me more at every town than this; where however a man -might live very well I believe for sixpence a-day, and lodge for twenty -pounds a-year; and whoever has no attachment to religion, friends, or -country, no prejudices to plague his neighbours with, and no dislike -to take the world as it goes, for six or seven years of his life, may -spend them profitably at Rome, if either his business or his pleasure be -made out of the works of art; as an income of two, or indeed one hundred -pounds _per annum_, will purchase a man more refined delights of that -kind here, than as many thousands in England: nor need he want society at -the first houses, palaces one ought to call them, as Italians measure no -man’s merit by the weight of his purse; they know how to reverence even -poverty, and soften all its sorrows with an appearance of respect, when -they find it unfortunately connected with noble birth. His own country -folk’s neglect, as they pass through, would indeed be likely enough to -disturb his felicity, and lessen the kindness of his Roman friends, who -having no idea of a person’s being shunned for _any_ other _possible -reason_ except the want of a pedigree, would conclude that _his_ must be -essentially deficient, and lament their having laid out so many caresses -on an impostor. - -The air of this city is unwholesome to foreigners, but if they pass -the first year, the remainder goes well enough; many English seem very -healthy, who are established here without even the smallest intention -of returning home to Great Britain, for which place we are setting out -to-morrow, 19th April 1786, and quit a town that still retains so many -just pretences to be styled the first among the cities of the earth; to -which almost as many strangers are now attracted by curiosity, as were -dragged thither by violence in the first stage of its dominion, impelled -by superstitious zeal in the second. The rage for antiquities now seems -to have spread its contagion of connoisseurship over all those people -whose predecessors tore down, levelled, and destroyed, or buried under -ground their statues, pictures, every work of art; Poles, Russians, -Swedes, and Germans innumerable, flock daily hither in this age, to -admire with rapture the remains of those very fabrics which their own -barbarous ancestors pulled down ten centuries ago; and give for the -head of a _Livia_, a _Probus_, or _Gallienus_, what emperors and queens -could not then use with any efficacy, for the preservation of their own -persons, now grown sacred by rust, and valuable from their difficulty to -be decyphered. The English were wont to be the only travellers of Europe, -the only dupes too in this way; but desire of distinction is diffused -among all the northern nations, and our Romans here have it more in -their power, with that prudence to assist them which it is said they do -not want, if not to _conquer_ their neighbours once again, at least to -_ruin_ them, by dint of digging up their dead heroes, and calling in the -assistance of their old Pagan deities, _now_ useful to them in a _new_ -manner, and ever propitious to this city, although - - Enlighten’d Europe with disdain - Beholds the reverenc’d heathen train, - Nor names them more in this her clearer day, - Unless with fabled force to aid the poet’s lay. - - R. MERRY. - - - - -FROM ROME TO ANCONA. - - -In our road hither we passed through what remains of Veia, once so -esteemed and liked by the Romans, that they had a good mind, after -they had driven Brennus back, to change the seat of empire and remove -it there; but a belief in augury prevented it, and that event was put -off till Constantine, seduced by beauties of situation, made the fatal -change, and broke the last thread which had so long bound tight together -the fasces of Roman sway. We did not taste the _Vinum Veientanum_ -mentioned by Martial and Horace, but trotted on to Civita Castellana, -where Camillus rejected the base offer of the schoolmaster of Fescennium; -a good picture of his well-judged punishment is still preserved in the -Capitol. - -The first night of our journey was spent at Otricoli, where I heard the -cuckoo sing in a shriller sharper note than he does in England. I had -never listened to him before since I left my own country, and his song -alone would have convinced me I was no longer in it. Porta di Fuga -at Spoleta gates, commemorating poor Hannibal’s precipitate retreat -after the battle of Thrasymene, may perhaps detain us a while upon this -Flaminian way; it was not Titus Flaminius though, whose negotiations -ruined Hannibal for ever, that gave name to the road, but Caius of the -same family; they had been Flamens formerly, and were therefore called -Flaminius, when drawn up by accident or merit into notice; the same -custom still obtains with us: we have _Dr. Priestley_ and _Mr. Parsons_. - -Narni Bridge cost us some trouble in clambering, and more in disputing -whether it was originally an aqueduct or a bridge--or both. It is a -magnificent structure, irregularly built, the arches of majestic height, -but all unequal. There was water enough under it when I was there to take -off the impropriety apparent to many of turning so large an arch over -so small a stream. Yet notwithstanding that the river was much swelled -by long continuance of the violent rains which lately so overflowed the -city of Rome, assisted by the Tyber, that people went about the streets -in boats, notwithstanding the snows tumbled down from the surrounding -mountains, must have much increased the quantity, and lowered the colour -of the river:--We found it even _now_ yellow with brimstone, and well -deserving the epithet of _sulphureous Nar_. - -The next day’s drive carried us forward to Terni, where a severe -concussion of the earth suffered only three nights since, kept all the -little town in terrible alarm; the houses were deserted, the churches -crowded, supplications and processions in every street, and people -singing all night to the Virgin under our window. - -Well! the next morning we hired horses for our gentlemen; a little -cart, not inconvenient at all, for my maid and me; and scrambled over -many rocks to view the far-famed waterfall, through a sweet country, -pleasingly intersected with hedges and planted with vines; the ground -finely undulated, and rising by gradations of hill till the eye loses -itself among the lofty Appenines; surly as they seem, and one would -think impervious; but against human art and human ambition, the boundary -of rocks and roaring seas lift their proud heads in vain. Man renders -them subservient to his imperial will, and forces them to facilitate, -not impede his dominion; while ocean’s self supports his ships, and the -mountain yields marble to decorate his palace. - -This is however no moment and no place to begin a panegyric upon the -power of man, and of his skill to subjugate the works of nature, where -the people are trembling at its past, and dreading its future effects. - -The cascade we came to see is formed by the fall of a whole river, which -here abruptly drops into the Nar, from a height so prodigious, and by a -course so unbroken, that it is difficult to communicate, so as to receive -the idea: for no eye can measure the depth of the precipice, such is -the tossing up of foam from its bottom; and the terrible noise heard -long before one arrives so stunned and confounded all my wits at once, -that many minutes passed before I observed the horror in our conductors, -who coming with us, then first perceived how the late earthquake had -twisted the torrent out of its proper channel, and thrown it down another -neighbouring rock, leaving the original bed black and deserted, as a -dismal proof of the concussion’s force. - -One of our English friends who had visited Schaffhausen, made no -difficulty to prefer this wonderful cascade to the fall of the Rhine -at that place; and what with the fissures made in the ground by recent -earthquakes, the sight of propt-up cottages which fright the fancy -more than those already fallen, and the roar of dashing waters driven -from their destined currents by what the people here emphatically term -palpitations of the earth; one feels a thousand sensations of sublimity -unexcited by less accidents, and soon obliterated by real danger. - -Why the inhabitants will have this tumbling river be _Topino_, I know -not; but no suggestions of mine could make them name it Velino, as our -travellers uniformly call it: for, say they, _quello è il nome del -sorgente_[21]; and in fact Virgil’s line, - - Sulfureâ Nar, albus acqua fontesque Velini, - -says no more. - -The mountains after Terni grow steep and difficult; no one who wishes to -see the Appenines in perfection must miss this road, yet are they not -comparable to the Alps at best, which being more lofty, more craggy, and -almost universally terminating in points of granite devoid of horizontal -strata, give one a more majestic idea of their original and duration. -Spoleto is on the top of one of them, and Porta della Fuga meets one at -its gates. Here as our coach broke (and who can wonder?) we have time to -talk over old stories, and _look for streams immortaliz’d in song_: for -being tied together only with ropes, we cannot hurry through a country -most delightful of all others to be detained in. - -The little temple to the river god Clitumnus afforded matter of -discussion amongst our party, whether this was, or was not the very -one mentioned by Pliny: _Adjacet templum priscum et religiosum. Stat -Clitumnus ipse amictus ornatusque_[22]. - -Mr. Greatheed was angry with me for admiring spiral columns, as he -said pillars were always meant to support something, and spiral lines -betrayed weakness. Mr. Chappelow quoted every classic author that had -ever mentioned the white cattle; and I said that so far as they were -whiter than other beasts of the same kind, so far were they worse; for -that whiteness in the works of nature shewed feebleness still more than -spirals in the works of art perhaps. So chatting on--but on no Flaminian -way, we arrived at Foligno; where the people told us that it was the -quality of those waters to turn the clothing of many animals white, and -accordingly all the fowls looked like those of _Darking_. I had however -no taste of their beauty, recollecting that when I kept poultry, some -accident poisoned me a very beautiful black hen, the breed of Lord -Mansfield at Caen Wood: she recovered her illness; but at the next -moulting season, her feathers came as white as the swans. “Let us look,” -says Mr. Sh----, “if all the women here have got grey hair.” - -Tolentino and Macerata we will not speak about, while Loretto courts -description, and the richest treasures of Europe stand in the most -delicious district of it. The number of beggars offended me, because -I hold it next to impossibility that they should want in a country so -luxuriantly abundant; and their prostrations as they kneel and kiss the -ground before you, are more calculated to produce disgust from British -travellers, than compassion. Nor can I think these vagabonds distressed -in earnest at _this_ time above all others; when their sovereign provides -them with employment on the beautiful new road he is making, and insists -on their being well paid, who are found willing to work. But the town -itself of Loretto claims my attention; so clear are its streets, so -numerous and cheerful and industrious are its inhabitants: one would -think they had resolved to rob passengers of the trite remark which the -sight of dead wealth always inspires, _that the money might be better -bestowed upon the living poor_. For here are very few poor families, and -fewer idlers than one expects to see in a place where not business but -devotion is the leading characteristic. So quiet too and inoffensive are -the folks here, that scarcely any robberies or murders, or any but very -petty infringements of the law, are ever committed among them. Yet people -grieve to see that wealth collected, which once diffused would certainly -make many happy; and those treasures lying dead, which well dispersed -might keep thousands alive. This observation, not always made perhaps by -those who feel it most, or that would soonest give their share of it -away, if once possessed, is now, from being so often repeated, become -neither _bright_ nor _new_. We will not however be petulantly hasty to -censure those who first began the lamentation, remembering that our -blessed Saviour’s earliest disciples, and those most immediately about -him too, could not forbear grudging to see precious ointment poured -upon his feet, whom they themselves confessed to be the Son of God. We -should likewise recollect his mild but grave reproof of those men who -gave so decided a preference to the poor over his sacred person, so soon -to be sacrificed _for them_, and his testimony to the woman’s earnest -love and zeal expressed by giving him the finest thing she had. Such -acceptance as she met with, I suppose prompted the hopes of many who -have been distinguished by their rich presents to Loretto; and let not -those at least mock or molest them, who have been doing nothing better -with their money. Upon examination of the jewels it is curious to observe -that the intrinsic value of the presents is manifestly greater, the -more ancient they are; but taste succeeds to solidity in every thing, -and proofs of that position may be found every step one treads. The -vestments, all embroidered over with picked pearl, are quite beyond my -powers of estimation. The gold baby given at the birth of Louis Quatorze, -of size and weight equal to the real infant, has had its value often -computed; I forget the sum though. A rock of emeralds in their native -bed presented by the Queen of Portugal, though of Occidental growth, is -surely inestimable; and our sanguinary Mary’s heart of rubies is highly -esteemed. I asked if Charles the Ninth of France had sent any thing; for -I thought _their_ presents should have been placed together: far, far -even from the wooden image of _her_ who was a model of meekness, and -carried in her spotless bosom the Prince of Peace. Many very exquisite -pieces of art too have found their way into the Virgin’s cabinet; the -pearl however is the striking rarity, as it exhibits in the manner of -a blot on marble, the figure of our blessed Saviour sitting on a cloud -clasped in his mother’s arms. Princess Borghese sent an elegantly-set -diamond necklace no longer ago than last Christmas-day; it is valued at a -thousand pounds sterling English: but the riches of that family appear -to me inexhaustible. Whoever sees it will say, she might have spent the -money better; but let them reflect that one may say that of _all_ expence -almost; and it is not from the state of Loretto these treasures are -taken at last: they _bring_ money there; and if any person has a right -to complain, it must be the subjects of distant princes, who yet would -scarcely have divided among _them_ the sapphires, &c. they have sent in -presents to Loretto. - -It was curious to see the devotees drag themselves round the holy house -upon their knees; but the Santa Scala at Rome had shewn me the same -operation performed with more difficulty; and a written injunction at -bottom, less agreeable for Italians to comply with, than any possible -prostration; viz. That no one should spit as he went up or down, except -in his pocket-handkerchief. The lamps which burn night and day before the -black image here at Loretto are of solid gold, and there is such a crowd -of them I scarcely could see the figure for my own part; and that one may -see still less, the attendant canons throw a veil over one’s face going -in. - -The confessionals, where all may be heard in their own language, is not -peculiar to this church; I met with it somewhere else, but have forgotten -where, though I much esteemed the establishment. It is very entertaining -here too, to see inscriptions in twelve different tongues, giving an -account of the miraculous removal and arrival here of the _Santa Casa_: I -was delighted with the Welch one; and our conductor said there came not -unfrequently pilgrims from the vale of Llwydd, who in their turns told -the wonders of their _holy well_. In Latin then, and Greek, and Hebrew, -Syriac, Phœnician, Arabic, French, Spanish, German, Welch, and Tuscan, -may you read a story, once believed of equal credit, and more revered I -fear, than even the sacred words of God speaking by the scriptures; but -which is now certainly upon the wane. I told a learned ecclesiastic at -Rome, that we should return home by the way of Loretto:--“There is no -need,” said he, “to caution a native of your island against credulity; -but pray do not believe that we are ourselves satisfied with the tale you -will read there; no man of learning but knows, that Adrian destroyed -every trace and vestige of Christianity that he could find in the East; -and he was acute, and diligent, and powerful. The empress Helena long -after him, with piety that equalled even his profaneness, could never -hear of this holy house; how then should it have waited till so many -long years after Jesus Christ? Truth is, Pope Boniface the VIIIth, who -canonized St. Louis, who instituted the jubilee, who quarrelled with -Philippe le Bel about a new crusade, and who at last fretted himself -to death, though he had conquered all his enemies, because he feared -some loss of power to the church;--desired to give mankind a new object -of attention, and encouraged an old visionary, in the year 1296, to -propagate the tale he half-believed himself; how the blessed Virgin -had appeared to him, and related the story you will read upon the -walls, which was then first committed to paper. In consequence of this -intelligence, Boniface sent men into the East that he could best depend -upon, and they brought back just such particulars as would best please -the Pope; and in those days you can scarce think how quick the blaze of -superstition caught and communicated itself: no one wished to deny what -his neighbour was willing to believe, and what he himself would then -have gained no credit by contradicting. Positive evidence of what the -house really was, or whence it came, it was in a few years impossible -to obtain; nor did Boniface the VIIIth know it himself I suppose, much -less the old visionary who first set the matter a-going. Meantime the -house itself has _no foundation_, whatever the story may have; it is a -very singular house as you may see; it has been venerated by the best -and wisest among Christians now for five hundred years: even the Turks -(who have the same method of honouring their Prophet with gifts, as we -do the Virgin Mary) respect the very name of Loretto:--why then should -the place be to any order of thinking beings a just object of insult or -mockery?”--Here he ended his discourse, the recollection of which never -left me whilst we remained at the place. - -What Dr. Moore says of the singing chaplains with _soprano_ voices, -who say mass at the altars of Loretto, is true enough, and may perhaps -have been originally borrowed from the Pagan celebration of the rites -of Cybele. When Christianity was young, and weak, and tender, and -unsupported by erudition, dreadful mistakes and errors easily crept in: -the heathen converts hearing much of _Mater Dei_, confounded her idea -with that of their _Mater Deorum_; and we were shewn, among the rarities -of Rome, a _bronze Madonna_, with a tower on her head, exactly as Cybele -is represented. - -That the jewels are taken out of this treasury and replaced with false -stones, is a speech always said over fine things by the vulgar: I have -heard the same thing affirmed of the diamonds at St. Denis; and can -recollect the common people saying, when our King of England was crowned, -that all the real precious stones were locked up, or sold for state -expences; while the jewels shewn to _them_ were only calculated to dazzle -for the day. As there is always infinite falsehood in the world, so there -is always wonderful care, however ill applied, to avoid being duped; a -terror which hangs heavily over weak minds in particular, and frights -them as far from truth on the one side, as credulity tempts them away -from it on the other. - -But we must visit the apothecary’s pots, painted by Raphael, and leave -Loretto, to proceed along the side of this lovely sea, hearing the -pilgrims sing most sweetly as they go along in troops towards the town, -with now and then a female voice peculiarly distinguished from the -rest: by this means a new image is presented to one’s mind; the sight -of such figures too half alarm the fancy, and give an air of distance -from England, which nothing has hitherto inspired half so strongly. This -charming Adriatic gulph beside, though more than delicious to drive by, -does not, like the Mediterranean, convey homeish or familiar ideas; one -feels that it belongs exclusively to Venice; one knows that ancient -Greece is on the opposite shore, and that with a quick sail one should -soon see Macedonia; and descending but a little to the southward, visit -Athens, Corinth, Sparta, Thebes--seats of philosophy, freedom, virtue; -whence models of excellence and patterns of perfection have been drawn -for twenty succeeding centuries! - -Here are plenty of nightingales, but they do not sing as well as in -Hertfordshire: birds gain in colour as you approach the tropic, but they -lose in song; under the torrid zone I have heard they never sing at all; -with us in England the latest leave off by midsummer, when the work of -incubation goes forward, and the parental duties begin: the nightingale -too chuses the coolest hour; and though I have yet heard her in Italy -only early in the mornings, Virgil knew she sung in the night: - - Flet noctem, &c.[23] - -To hear birds it is however indispensably necessary that there should be -high trees; and except in these parts of Italy, and those about Genoa and -Sienna, no timber of any good growth can I find. The _roccolo_ too, and -other methods taken to catch small birds, which many delight in eating, -and more in taking, lessen the quantity of natural music vexatiously -enough; while gaudy insects ill supply their place, and sharpen their -stings at pleasure when deprived of their greatest enemies. We are here -less tormented than usual however, while the prospects are varied so that -every look produces a new and beautiful landscape. - -Ancona is a town perfectly agreeable to strangers, from the good humour -with which every nation is received, and every religion patiently -endured: something of all this the scholars say may be found in the -derivation of its name, which being Greek I have nothing to do with. -Pliny tells us its original, and says; - - A Siculis condita est colonia Ancona[24]. - -That Dalmatia should be opposite, yet to us at present inaccessible, we -all regret; I drank sea water however, so did not leave untasted the -waves which Lucan speaks of: - - Illic Dalmaticis obnoxia fluctibus Ancon[25]. - -The fine turbots did not any of them fall to our share; but here are -good fish, and, to say true, every thing eatable as much in perfection -as possible: I could never since I arrived at Turin find real cause of -complaint--_serious_ complaint I mean except at that savage-looking place -called Radicofani; and some other petty town in Tuscany, near Sienna, -where I eat too many eggs and grapes, because there was nothing else. - -Nice accommodations must not be looked for, and need not be regretted, -where so much amusement during the day gives one good disposition to -sleep sound at night: the worst is, men and women, servants and masters, -must often mess together; but if one frets about such things, it is -better stay at home. The Italians like travelling in England no better -than the English do travelling in Italy; whilst an exorbitant expence is -incurred by the journey, not well repaid to them by the waiters white -chitterlins, tambour waistcoats, and independent “_No, Sir_,” echoed -round a well-furnished inn or tavern; which puts them but in the place -of Socrates at the fair, who cried out--“_How many things have these -people gathered together that I do not want!_”--A noble Florentine -complained exceedingly to me once of the English hotels, where he was -made to help pay for those good gold watches the fellows who attended him -drew from their pockets; so he set up his quarters comically enough at -the waggoners full Moon upon the old bridge at Bath, to be quit of the -_schiavitù_, as he called it, of living like a gentleman, “where,” says -he, “I am not known to be one.” The truth is, a continental nobleman can -have little heart of a country, where, to be treated as a man of fashion, -he must absolutely behave as such: his rank is ascertained at _home_, and -people’s deportment to him regulated by long-established customs; nor can -it be supposed flattering to its prejudices, to feel himself jostled in -the street, or driven against upon the road by a rich trader, while he -is contriving the cheapest method of going to look over his manufactory. -Wealth diffused makes all men comfortable, and leaves no man splendid; -gives every body two dishes, but nobody two hundred. Objects of show are -therefore unfrequent in England, and a foreigner who travels through our -country in search of positive sights, will, after much money spent, go -home but poorly entertained:--“There is neither _quaresima_,” will he -say, “nor _carnovale_ in _any_ sense of the word, among those insipid -islanders.”--For he who does not love our government, and taste our -manners which result from it, can never be delighted in England; while -the inhabitants of our nation may always be amused in theirs, without -any esteem of it at all. - -I know not how Ancona produced all these tedious reflexions: it is a -trading place, and a sea-port town. Men working in chains upon the new -mole did not please me though, and their insensibility shocks one:--“Give -a poor thief something, master,” says one impudent fellow;--“_Son stato -ladro padrone_[26];”--with a grin. That such people should be corrupt -or coarse however is no wonder; what surprised me most was, that when -one of our company spoke of his conduct to a man of the town--“Why, -what would you have, Sir?”--replies the person applied to--“when the -poor creature is _castigato_, it is enough sure, no need to make him be -melancholy too:”--and added with true Italian good-nature,--“_Siamo tutti -peccatori_[27].” - -The mole is a prodigious work indeed; a warm friend to Venice can scarce -wish its speedy conclusion, as the useful and necessary parts of the -project are already nearly accomplished, and it would be pity to seduce -more commerce away from Venice, which has already lost so much. - -The triumphal arch of Trajan, described by every traveller, and justly -admired by all; white as his virtue, shining as his character, and -durable as his fame; fixed our eyes a long time in admiration, and made -us, while we examined the beautiful structure, recollect his incomparable -qualities to whom it was dedicated,--“_Inter Cæsares optimus_[28],”--says -one of their old writers: nor could either column or arch be so sure a -proof that he was thought so, as the wish breathed at the inauguration of -succeeding emperors; _Sis tu felicior Augusto, melior Trajano_[29]. - -If these Ancona men were not proud of themselves, one should hate them; -descended as they are from those Syracusans liberated by Timoleon, who -freed them first from the tyranny of Dionysius; fostered afterwards by -Trajan, as peculiarly worth _his_ notice; and patronised in succeeding -times by the good Corsini Pope, Clement XII., whose care for them appears -by the useful _lazaretto_ he built, “to save,” said he, “our best -subjects, our subjects of Ancona.” - -But we are hastening forward as fast as our broken carriage will permit, -to Padua, where we shall leave it: thither to arrive, we pass through -Senegallia, built by the Gauls, and still retaining the Gaulish name, -but now little remarkable. What struck me most was my own crossing the -_Rubicon_ in my way back to England, and our comfortable return to - - - - -BOLOGNA, - - -After admiring the high forehead and innocent simper of Baroccio’s -beauties at Pesaro, where the best European silk now comes from; against -which the produce of Rimini vainly endeavours to vie. That town was once -an Umbrian colony I think, and there is a fine memorial there where -_Diocletianus reposuit_, resolving perhaps to end where Julius Cæsar had -begun; he died at Salo however in Dalmatia, - - Quâ maris Adriaci longas ferit unda Salones. - -Ravenna l’Antica tired more than it pleased us; _Fano_ is a populous -pretty little town; but I know no reason why it was originally dedicated -to Fortune. Truth is, we are weary of these sacred _fanes_, and long to -see once more our amiable friends at Venice and at Milan. - -I have missed San Marino at last, but receive kind assurances every day -that the loss is small; being now little more than a convent seated on -a hill, which affords refuge for robbers; and that the present Pope -meditates its destruction as a nuisance to the neighbouring towns. There -never was any coin struck there it seems; I thought there had: but the -train of reflections excited by even a distant view of it are curious -enough as opposed to its protectress Rome; which, founded by robbers and -banditti, ends in being the seat of sanctity and priestly government; -while San Marino, begun by a hermit, and secluded from all other states -for the mere purposes of purer devotion, finishes by its necessary -removal as a repository for assassins, and a refuge for those who break -the laws with violence. - -Such is this variable and capricious world! and so dies away my desire to -examine this political curiosity; the extinction of which I am half sorry -for. Privation is still a melancholy idea, and were one to hear that the -race of wasps were extirpated, it would grieve one. - -Bologna affords one time for every meditation. No inn upon the Bath road -is more elegant than the Pellegrino; and we regretted our broken equipage -the less as it drew us slowly through so sweet a country. The medlar -blossoms adorn the hedges with their blanche roses; the hawthorn bushes, -later here than with us, perfume them; and the roads, little travelled, -do not torment one with the dust as in England, where it not only offends -the traveller, but takes away some beauty from the country, by giving a -brown or whitish look to the shrubs and trees. We shall repose here very -comfortably, or at least change our mode of being busy, which refreshes -one perhaps more than positive idleness. “But life,” says some writer, -“is a continual fever;” and sure ours has been completely so for these -two years. A charming lady of our country, for whom I have the highest -esteem, protests she shall be happy to get back to London if it is only -for the relief of sitting still, and resolving to see no more sights: -exchanging fasto, fiera, and frittura, for a muffin, a mop, and a -morning newspaper: three things equally unknown in Italy, as the other -three among us. - -With regard to pictures however, _l’Appetit vient en mangeant_[30], as I -experienced completely when traversing the Zampieri palace with eagerness -that increased at every step. I once more half-worshipped the works of -divine Guercino. Nothing shall prevent my going to his birth-place at -Cento, whether in our way or out of it. - -We ran about the Specola again, and received a thousand polite attentions -from the gentleman who shewed it. The piece of native gold here is much -finer than that we saw among the treasures of Loretto, which being -_du nouveau continent_ is always inferior. “But every thing does,” as -Mons. de Buffon observes, “degenerate in the West except birds;” and -the Brazilian plumage seems to surpass all possibility of further glow. -The continent however shews us no specimens preserved half as well as -those of Sir Ashton Lever. The marine rarities here at Bologna are very -capital; but I saw them to advantage now, in company of Mr. Chappelow. -We find this city at once hot, and loud, and pious; less empty of -occupation though than last time; for here is a new Gonfaloniere chosen -in to-day, and the drums beat, and the trumpets sound, and some donations -are distributed about, much in the proportions Tom Davis describes -Garrick’s to have been; small pieces of money, and large pieces of cake, -with quantities of meat, bread, and birds, borne about the town in -procession, to make display of _his_ bounty, who gives all this away at -the time he is elected into office. Kids dressed with ribbon therefore, -alive and carried on men’s shoulders showily adorned, lambs washed white -as snow, and pretty red and white calves hanging their simple faces out -of fine gilt baskets, paraded the streets all day. What struck us most -however was an ox, handsomer and of a more silvery coat than I thought an -ox’s hide capable of being brought to; his horns gold, and a garland of -roses between them. This was beautiful; reminded one of all one had ever -read and heard of victims going to sacrifice; and put in our heads again -the old stories of Hercules, Eurystheus, &c. - -At Bologna though, every thing puts people in mind of their _prayers_; -so a few good women nothing doubting but when shows were going forward, -religious meanings must be near at hand, dropt down on their knees in -the street, and recommended themselves, or their dead friends perhaps, -to heaven, with fervent and innocent earnestness, while the cattle -passed along. An English clergyman in our company, hurt and grieved, yet -half-disposed to laugh, cried, _What are these dear creatures muttering -about now for, as if their salvation depended upon it?_--It was absurd -enough to be sure; but in order to check our tittering disposition, -I recollected to him, that I had once heard an ignorant woman in -Hertfordshire repeat the absolution herself after the priest, with -equally ill-placed fervour: for which he reprimanded her, and afterwards -explained to her the grossness of the impropriety. When we have added to -our stock of connoisseurship the graceful Sampson, drinking after his -victory, by Guido, in this town, we shall quit it, and proceed through -empty and deserted Ferrara to - - - - -PADUA. - - -We set out then for Ferrara, in our kind friend’s post-chaise; that is, -my maid and I did: our good-natured gentlemen creeping slowly after in -the broken coach; and how ended this project for insuring safety? Why in -the chaise losing its hind wheel, and in our return to the carriage we -had quitted. But it is for ever so, I think;--the sick folks live always, -and the well ones die. - -We took turn therefore and left our friends; but could not forbear a -visit to Cento, where I wished much to see what Guercino had done for -the ornament of his native place, and was amply repaid my pains by the -sight of one picture, which, for its immediate power over the mind, at -least over mine, has no equal even in Palazzo Zampieri. It is a scene -highly touching. The appearance of our Saviour to his Mother after his -resurrection. The dignity, the divinity of the Christ! the terror-checked -transport visible in the parent Saint, whose expressive countenance -and pathetic attitude display fervent adoration, maternal tenderness, -and meek humility at once! How often have I said, _this_ is the finest -picture we have seen yet! when looking on the Caraccis and their school. -I will say no more, the painter’s art can go no further than _this_. -My partial preference of Guercino to any thing and to every thing, -shall not however bribe me to suppress my grief and indignation at his -strange method of commemorating his own name over the altar where he was -baptised, which shocks every protestant traveller by its profaneness, -while the Romanists admire his invention, and applaud his piety. Guercino -then, so called because he was the _little one-eyed man_, had a fancy -to represent his _real_ appellation of _John Francis Barbieri_ in the -church; and took this mode as an ingenious one, painting St. John upon -the right hand, St. Francis on the left, as two large full-length -figures, and God the Father in the middle with a _long beard_ for -_Barbieri_. - -This is a mixture of Abel Drugger’s contrivance in the Alchymist, and -the infantine folly of three babies I once knew in England, children -of a nobleman, who were severely whipt by their governess for playing -at Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, sitting upon three chairs, with -solemn countenances, in order to impress their tender fancies with a -representation of what the good governess innocently and laudably had -told them about the mysterious and incomprehensible Trinity. Let me add, -that the eldest of these babies was not six years old, and the youngest -but four, when they were caught in the blasphemous folly. Our Italians -seem to be got very little further at forty. - -Padua appears cleaner and prettier than it did last year; but so many -things contribute to make me love it better, that it is no wonder one is -prejudiced in its favour. It was _so_ difficult to get safe hither, the -roads being very bad, the people were so kind when we were here last, and -the very inn-keeper and his assistants seemed so obligingly rejoiced to -see us again, that I felt my heart quite expand at entering the Aquila -d’oro, where we were soon rejoined by Mr. and Mrs. Greatheed, with whom -we had parted in the Romagna, when they took the Perugia road, instead -of returning by Bologna, a place they had seen before. Had we come -three days sooner we might have seen the transit of Mercury from Abate -Toaldo’s observatory; but our own transit took up all our thoughts, and -it is a very great mercy that we are come safe at last. I think it was as -much as four bulls and six horses could do to drag us into Rovigo. - - Bologna la Grassa - Ma Padua la passa[31], - -say the Venetians: and round this town where the heat is indeed -prodigious, they get the best vipers for the Venice treacle, I am told. -Here are quantities of curious plants to be seen blooming now in the -botanical garden, and our kind professor told me I need not languish so -for horse chesnuts; for they would all be in flower as we returned up the -Brenta from Venice. “They are all in flower _now_, Sir,” said I, “in my -own grounds, eight miles from London: but our English oaks are not half -so forward as yours are.” He recollected the aphorism so much a favourite -with our country folks; how a British heart ought not to dilate with the -early sunshine of prosperity, or droop at the first blasts of adverse -fortune, as the British oak refuses to put out his leaves at summer’s -early felicitations, and scorns to drop them at winter’s first rude shake. - -Well! I have once more walked over St. Antony’s church, and examined the -bas-reliefs that adorn his shrine; but their effect has ceased. Whoever -has spent some time in the Musæum Clementinum is callous to the wonders -which sculpture can perform. - -Has one not read in Ulloa’s travels, of a resting-place on the side of a -Cordillera among the Andes, where the ascending traveller is regularly -observed to put on additional clothing, while he who comes down the -mountain feels so hot that he throws his clothes away? So it is with the -shrine of St. Antonio di Padua, and one’s passion for the sculpture that -adorns it: while Santa Giustina’s church regains her power over the mind, -a power never missed by simplicity, while great effort has often small -effect. But we are hastening to Venice, and shall leave our cares and our -coach behind; superfluous as they both are, in a city which admits of -neither. - - - - -VENICE. - - -Our watery journey was indeed delightful; friendship, music, poetry -combined their charms with those of nature to enchant us, and make -one think the passage was too short, though longing to embrace our -much-regretted sweet companions. The scent of odoriferous plants, the -smoothness of the water, the sweetness of the piano forte, which allured -to its banks many of the gay inhabitants, who glad of a change in the -variety of their amusements, came down to the shores and danced or sang, -as we went by, seized every sense at once, and filled me with unaffected -pleasure. I longed to see the weeping willow planted along this elegant -stream; but the Venetians like to see nothing weep I fancy: yet the Salix -Babylonica would have a fine effect here, and spread to a prodigious -growth, like those on which the captive Israelites once hung their harps, -on the banks of the river Euphrates. “Of all Europe however,” Millar -says, “it prospers best in pensive Britain;” - - Nor prov’d the bliss that lulls Italia’s breast, - When red-brow’d evening calmly sinks to rest. - -These lines, quoted from Merry’s Paulina, remind me of the pleasure we -enjoyed in reading that glorious poem as we floated down the Brenta. -I have certainly read no poetry since; that would be like looking at -Sansovino’s sculpture, after having seen the Apollo, the Venus, and the -Flora Farnese. The view of Venice only made us shut the book. Lovely -Venice! wise in her councils, grave and steady in her just authority, -splendid in her palaces, gay in her casinos, and charming in all. - - Fama tra noi Roma pomposa e santa, - Venezia ricca, saggia, e signorile[32], - -says the Italian who celebrates all their towns by adding a well-adapted -epithet to each. But Sannazarius, who experienced in return for it more -than even British bounty would have bestowed, exalts it in his famous -epigram to a decided preference even over Rome itself. - - Viderat Adriacis Venetam Neptunus in undis - Stare urbem, et toti ponere jura Mari; - Nunc mihi Tarpeias quantum vis Jupiter, arces - Objice, et illa tui mœnia Martis ait - Sit Pelago Tibrim præfers, urbem aspice utramque - Illam homines dices, hanc posuisse Deos. - -And now really, if the subject did not bribe me to admiration of them, I -should have much ado to think these six lines better worth fifty pounds -a piece, the price Sannazarius was paid for them, than many lines I have -read; as mythological allusions are always cheaply obtained, and this can -hardly be said to run with any peculiar happiness: for if Mars built the -Wall, and Jupiter founded the Capitol, how could Neptune justly challenge -this last among all people, to look on both, and say, That men built -Rome, but the Gods founded Venice. Had he said, that after all their -pains, _this_ was the manner in which those two cities would in future -times strike all impartial observers, it would have been _enough_; and it -would have been _true_, and when fiction has done its best, - - Le vray seul est aimable[33]. - -Here, however, is the best translation or imitation I can make, of the -best praise ever given to this justly celebrated city. Baron Cronthal, -the learned librarian of Brera, gave me, when at Milan, the epigram, and -persuaded me to try at a translation, but I never could succeed till I -had been upon the grand canal. - - When Neptune first with pleasure and surprise, - Proud from her subject sea saw Venice rise; - Let Jove, said he, vaunt his fam’d walls no more, - Tarpeia’s rock, or Tyber’s fane-full shore; - While human hands those glittering fabrics frame, - By touch celestial beauteous Venice came. - -It is a sweet place sure enough, and the caged[34] nightingales who, -when men are most silent, answer each other across the canals, increase -the enchantments of Venetian moonlight; while the full gondolas skimming -over the tide with a lanthorn in their stern, like glow-worms of a dark -evening, dashing the cool wave too as they glide along, leave no moments -unmarked by peculiarity of pleasure. The Doge’s wedding has however been -less brilliant this year; his galleys have been sent to fight the Turks -and Corsairs, and the splendor at home of course suffers some temporary -diminution; but the corso of boats in the evening must be for ever -charming, and the musical parties upon the water delightful. We passed -this morning in Pinelli’s library, a collection so valuable from the -frequence of old editions, particularly the old fourteen hundreds as we -call them, that it is supposed they will be purchased by some crowned -head; and here are specimens of Aldus’s printing too, very curious; but -there are too many curiosities, - - I’m strangled with the waste fertility, - -as Milton says. Pinelli had an excellent taste for pictures likewise, -and here at Venice there are paintings to satisfy, nay satiate -connoisseurship herself. Tintoret’s force of colouring at St. Rocque’s, -displayed in the crucifixion, can surely be exceeded by no disposition of -light and shade; but the Scuola Bolognese has hardened my heart against -merit of any other sort, so much more easy to be obtained, than that -of character, dignity, and truth. Paul Veronese forgets too seldom his -original trade of _orefice_, there is too much gold and silver in his -drapery; and though Darius’s ladies are judiciously adorned with a great -deal of it here at Palazzo Pisani, I would willingly have abated some -brocade, for an addition of expressive majesty in the Alexander. What a -striking difference there is too between Guercino’s prodigal returned, -and a picture at some Venetian palace of the same story treated by -Leandro Bassano! yet who can forbear crying out Nature, nature! when in -the last named work one sees the faithful spaniel run out to meet and -acknowledge his poor young master though in rags, while the cook admiring -the uncommon fatness of the calf, seems to anticipate the pleasure of -a jolly day: so if the old father does look a little like pantaloon, -why one forgives him, for we are not told that the fable had to do with -_nobiltà_, though Guercino has made _his_ master of the house a rich -and stately oriental, who meets and consoles, near a column of Grecian -architecture, his penitent son, whose half-uncovered form exhibits beauty -sunk into decay, and whose graceful expression of shame and sorrow -shew the dignity of his original birth, and little expectation of the -ill-endured pains his poverty has caused: the elder brother, meantime, -glowing with resentment, and turning with apparent scorn away from the -sight of a scene so little to the honour of the family. Basta! as the -Italians say; when we were at Rome we purchased a fine view of St. Mark’s -Place Venice; now we are at Venice we have bought a sketch of Guido’s -Aurora. The Doge’s dinner was magnificent, the plate older and I think -finer than the Pope’s; I forget on what occasion it was given, I mean -the feast, but had it been an annual ceremony our kind friends would -have shewn it us last year. We must leave them once more, for a long -time I fear, but I part with less regret because the heat grows almost -insupportable; and either the stench of the small canals, or else the -too great abundance of sardelline, a fresh anchovy with which these seas -abound, keep me unwell and in perpetual fear of catching a putrid fever, -should I indulge in eating once again of so rich but dangerous a dainty. -Besides that one may be tired of exertion, and fatigued with festivity, -purchased at the price of sleep and quiet. - - Non Hybla non me specifer capit Nilus, - Nec quæ paludes delicata Pomptinus - Ex arce clivi spectat uva Sestini. - Quid concupiscam? quæris ergo,--_dormire_[35]. - - - - -To PADUA. - - -Then we returned the twelfth of June, and surely it is too difficult to -describe the sweet sensations excited by the enjoyment of - - Each rural sight, each rural sound; - -as the dear banks of the Brenta first saluted our return to _terra firma_ -from the watery residence of our _bella dominante_. We dined at a lovely -villa belonging to an amiable friend upon the margin of the river, where -the kind embraces of the Padrona di Casa, added to the fragrance of her -garden, and the sweet breath of oxen drawing in her team, revived me once -more to the enjoyment of cheerful conversation, by restoring my natural -health, and proving beyond a possibility of doubt, that my late disorder -was of the putrid kind. We dined in a grotto-like room, and partook -the evening refreshments, cake, ice, and lemonade, under a tree by the -river side, whilst my own feelings reminded me of the sailors delight -described in Anson’s voyages when they landed at Juan Fernandez. Night -was best disposed of in the barge, and I observed as we entered Padua -early in the morning, how surprisingly quick had been the progress of -summer; but in these countries vegetation is so rapid, that every thing -makes haste to come and more to go. Scarce have you tasted green pease or -strawberries, before they are out of season; and if you do _not_ swallow -your pleasures, as Madame la Presidente said, you have a chance to miss -of getting any pleasures at all. Here is no mediocrity in any thing, no -moderate weather, no middle rank of life, no twilight; whatever is not -night is day, and whatever is not love is hatred; and that the English -should eat peaches in May, and green pease in October, sounds to Italian -ears as a miracle; they comfort themselves, however, by saying that they -_must_ be very insipid, while _we_ know that fruits forced by strong -fire are at least many of them higher in flavour than those produced by -sun; the pine-apple particularly, which West Indians confess eats better -with us than with them. Figs and cherries, however, defy a hot-house, -and grapes raised by art are worth little except for shew; peaches, -nectarines, and ananas are the glory of a British gardener, and no -country but England can shew such. Our morning, passed at the villa of -the senator Quirini, set us on this train of thinking, for every culled -excellence adorned it, and brought to my mind Voltaire’s description -of Pococuranti in Candide, false only in the ostentation, and _there_ -the character fails; misled by a French idea, that pleasure is nothing -without the delight of shewing that you are pleased, like the old adage, -or often-quoted passage about learning: - - Scire tuum nihil est, nisi te scire hoc sciat alter[36]. - -A Venetian has no such notions; by force of mind and dint of elegance -inherent in it, he pleases himself first, and finds every body else -delighted of course, nor would quit his own country except for paradise; -while an English nobleman clumps his trees, and twists his river, to -comply with his neighbour’s taste, when perhaps he has none of his own; -feels disgusted with all he has done, and runs away to live in Italy. - -The evening of this day was spent at the theatre, where I was glad the -audience were no better pleased, for the plaudits of an Italian Platea -at an air they like, when one’s nerves are weak and the weather very -hot, are all but totally insupportable. What then must these poor actors -have suffered, who laboured so violently to entertain us? A tragedy in -rhyme upon the subject of Julius Sabinus and his wife Epponina was the -representation; and wonderfully indeed did the players struggle, and -bounce, and sprunt, like vigorous patients resisting the influence of -a disease called opisthotonos, or dry gripes of Jamaica; “Were their -jaws once locked we should do better,” said Mr. Chappelow. “Che spacca -monti mai!” exclaimed the gentle Padovani. _Spacca monte_ means just our -English Drawcansir, a fellow that splits mountains with his bluster, a -captain _Blowmedown_. - -The fair at Padua is a better place for spending one’s time than the -theatre; it is built round a pretty area, and I much wonder the middle -is not filled by a band of music. Our Astley is expected to shine here -shortly, and the ladies are in haste to see _il bel Inglese a Cavallo_; -but we must be seduced to stay no longer among those whom I must ever -leave with grateful regret and truly affectionate regard. Our carriage is -repaired, and the man says it will now carry us safely round the world -if we please; our first stage however will be no farther than to pretty - - - - -VERONA. - - -The road from Padua hither is a vile one; one can scarcely make twenty -miles a-day in any part of the Venetian state. Its senators, accustomed -to water carriage, have little care for us who go by land. The Palanzuola -way is worse however, and I am glad once more to see sweet Verona. - -Petruchio and Catharine might easily have met with all the adventures -related by Grumio on their journey thither, but when once arrived she -should have been contented. This city is as lovely as ever, more so than -it was last April twelvemonth, when the spring was sullen and backward; -every hill now glows with the gay produce of summer, and every valley -smiles with plenty expected or pleasure possessed. The antiquities -however look less respectable than when I left them; no amphitheatre -will do after the Roman Colossæum, and our triumphal arch here looked -so pitiful, I wondered what was come to it. So must it always happen to -the performances of art, which we compare one against another, and find -that as man made the best of them, so some man may in some moment make a -better still: but the productions of nature are the works of God; we can -only compare them with other things done by the same Almighty Master, -whose power is equally discernible in all, from the fly’s antennæ to -the elephant’s proboscis. Bozza’s collection gave birth to this last -sentence; the farther one goes the more astonishing grows his musæum, the -neglect of which is sure no credit to the present age. I find his cabinet -much fuller than I left it, and adorned with many new specimens from the -southern seas, besides flying-fish innumerable, beautifully preserved, -and one predaceous creature caught in the very act of gorging his prey, -a proof of their destruction being instant as that of the dwellers in -Pompeia, who had their dinners dished when the eruption overwhelmed them. - -We took leave of our learned friends here with concern, but hope to -see them again, and tread the stucco floors so prettily mottled and -variegated, they look like the cold mock turtle soup exactly, which -London pastry-cooks keep in their shops, ready for immediate use. - -What an odd thing is custom! here is weather to fry one in, yet -after exercise, and in a state of the most violent perspiration, no -consequences follow the use of iced beverages, except the sense of -pleasure resulting from them at the moment. Should a Bath belle indulge -in such luxury, after dancing down forty couple at Mr. Tyson’s ball, -we should expect to hear next day of her surfeit at least, if not of -her sudden death. Lying-in ladies take the same liberty with _their_ -constitutions, and _say_ that no harm comes of it; and when I tell them -how differently we manage in England, cry, “_mi pare che dev’essere -schiavitù grande in quel paese della benedetta libertà_[37].” Fine -muslin linen nicely got up is however, say they, one of the things to be -produced only in Great Britain, and much do our Italian ladies admire it, -though they look very charmingly with much less trouble taken. I lent -one lady at some place, I remember, my maid, to shew her, as she so much -wished it, how the operation of clear-starching was performed; but as -soon as it began, she laughed at the superfluous fatigue, as she called -it; and her servants crossed themselves in every corner of the room, -with wonder that such niceties should be required.--Well they might! for -I caught a great tall fellow ironing his lady’s best neck-handkerchief -with the warming-pan here at Padua very quietly; and she was a woman of -quality too, and looked as lovely, when the toilette was once performed, -as if much more attention had been bestowed upon it. - - - - -PARMA. - - -We passed through Mantua the 18th of June, where nothing much attracted -my notice, except a female figure in the street, veiled from head to -foot, and covered wholly in black; she walked backward and forward -along the same portion of the same street, from one to three o’clock, -in the heat of the burning sun; her hand held out; but when I, more -from curiosity than any better motive put money in it, she threw it -silently away, and the beggars picked it up, while she held her hand -again as before. This conduct, in any town of England, would be deemed -madness or mischief; the woman would be carried before a magistrate to -give an account of herself, should the mob forbear to uncase her till -they came; or some charitable person would seize and carry her home, -fill her pockets with money, and coax her out of the anecdotes of her -past life to put in the Magazine; her print would be published, and many -engravers struggle for its profits; the name at bottom, _Annabella, or -the Sable Matron_; while novels would be written without end, and the -circulating libraries would lend them out all the live-long day. Things -are differently carried on however at Mantua: I asked one shopkeeper, -and she gravely replied, “_per divozione_,” and took no further notice: -another (to my inquiries, which appeared to him far odder than the -woman’s conduct) said, The lady was possibly doing a little penance; -that he had not minded her till I spoke, but that perhaps it might be -some woman of fashion, who having refused a poor person roughly on some -occasion, was condemned by her confessor to try for a couple of hours -what begging _was_, and learn humanity from experience of evil. The idea -charmed me; while the man coolly said, all this was only his conjecture; -but that such things were done too often to attract attention; and hoped -such virtue was not rare enough to excite wonder. My just applause of -such sentiments was stopt by the _laquais de place_ calling me to dinner; -when he informed me, that he had asked about the person whose behaviour -struck me so, and could now tell me all there was to be known; she was -a lady of quality, he said, who had lost a dear friend on that day some -years past, and that she wore black for two hours ever since upon its -anniversary; but that she would now change her dress, and I should see -her in the evening at the opera. My recollecting that if _this_ were her -case, I ought to have been keeping her company (as no one ever lost a -friend so dear to them as was my incomparable mother, who likewise left -me to mourn her loss on this day thirteen years), spoiled my appetite, -and took from me all power of meeting the lady at the theatre. - -We went again however to see Virgil’s field, and recollected that _tenet -nunc Parthenope_; congratulated the giants on their superiority over -Pietro de Cortona’s paltry creatures, in one of the Roman palaces; and -drove forward to Parma, through bad roads enough. - -This Mantua is a very disagreeable town; nor was Romeo wrong in lamenting -his banishment to it; for though I will not say with him that-- - - There is no world without Verona’s walls; - -yet it must be allowed that few places do unite such various -excellencies, and that the contrast is very striking between that city -and this. - -Parma exhibits an appearance somewhat different from all the rest; -yet we should scarcely have visited it but for the sake of the four -surprising pictures it contains: the _Madona della Scodella_ is nature -itself; and St. Girolamo exhibits such a proof of fancy and fervour, as -are almost inconceivable; the general effect, and the difficulty one has -to take one’s eye off it, afford conviction of its superior merit, and -greatly compensate for that taste, character, and expression, which are -found only in the Caraccis and their school. Corregio was perhaps one -of the most powerful geniusses that has appeared on earth; destitute -of knowledge, or of the means of acquiring it, he has left glorious -proofs of what uninstructed man may do, and is perhaps a greater honour -to the human species, than those who, from fermenting erudition of -various kinds, produce performances of more complicated worth. The Fatal -Curiosity, and Pilgrim’s Progress, will live as long as the Prince of -Abyssinia, or _Les Avantures de Telemaque_, perhaps: and who shall dare -say, that Lillo, Bunyan, and Antonio Corregio, were not _naturally_ equal -to Johnson, Michael Angelo, and the Archbishop of Cambray?--Have I said -enough, or can enough be ever said in praise of a painter, whose works -the great Annibale Caracci delighted to study, to copy, and to praise? - -Piacenza we found to offer us few objects of attention: an -_improvisatore_, and not a very bad one, amused that time which would -otherwise have been passed in lamenting our paucity of entertainment; -while his artful praises of England put me in good humour, spite of -the weather, which is too hot to bear. With all our lamentations about -the heat however, here is no _cicala_ on the trees, or _lucciola_ in -the hedges, as at Florence; the days are a little longer too, and the -crepuscule less abrupt in its departure. How often, upon the _Ponte -della Trinitá_, have I secretly regretted the long-drawn evenings of an -English summer; when the dewy night-fall refreshes the air, and silent -dusk brings on a train of meditations uninspired by Italian skies! In -this decided country all that is not broad day is dark night; all that -is not loud mirth, is penitence and grief; when the rain falls, it falls -in a torrent; when the sun shines, it glows like a burning-glass; where -the people are rich, they stick gems in their very walls, and make their -chimneys of amethyst; where they are poor, they clasp your knees in -an agony of pinching want, and display diseases which cannot be a day -survived! - -Talking on about Italy in which there is no mediocrity, and of England -in which there is nothing else, we arrived at Lodi; where I began to -rejoice in hearing the people cry _no’ cor’ altr’_ again, in reply to -our commands; because we were now once more returned to the district and -dialect of dear Milan, where we have cool apartments and warm friends; -and where, after an absence of fifteen months, we shall again see -those acquaintance with whom we lived much before; a sensation always -delightfully soothing, even when one returns to less amiable scenes, -and less productive of innocent pleasure than these have been to me. -The consciousness of having, while at a distance, seen few people more -agreeable than those one left behind; the natural thankfulness of one’s -heart to God, for having preserved one’s life so as to see them again, -expands philanthropy; and gives unaffected comfort in the restored -society of companions long concealed from one by accident or distance. - - - - -MILAN. - - - 21st June 1786. - -After rejoicing over my house and my friends; after asking a hundred -questions, and hearing a hundred stories of those long left; after -reciprocating common civilities, and talking over common topics, we -observed how much the general look of Milan was improved in these last -fifteen months; how the town was become neater, the ordinary people -smarter, the roads round their city mended, and the beggars cleared -away from the streets. We did not find however that the people we -talked to were at all charmed with these new advantages: their convents -demolished, their processions put an end to, the number of their priests -of course contracted, and their church plate carried by cart-loads to -the mint; holidays forbidden, and every saint’s name erased from the -calendar, excepting only St. Peter and St. Paul; whilst those shopkeepers -who worked for monasteries, and those musicians who sung or played -in oratorios, are left to find employment how they can;--cloud the -countenances of all, and justly; as such sudden and rough reforms shock -the feelings of the multitude; offend the delicacy of the nobles; make -a general stagnation of business and of pleasure, in a country where -_both_ depend upon religious functions; and terrify the clergy into no -ill-grounded apprehensions of being found in a few years more wholly -useless, and as such dismissed.--Well! whatever is done hastily, can -scarcely be done quite well; and wherever much is done, a great part -of it will doubtless be done wrong. A considerable portion of all this -however will be confessed useful, and even necessary, when the hour -of violence on one side, and prejudice on the other, is past away; as -the fire of London has been found beneficial by those who live in the -newly-restored town. Meantime I think the present precipitation indecent -enough for my own part; a thousand little errors would burn out of -themselves, were they suffered to die quietly away; and when the morning -breaks in naturally, it is superfluous as awkward to put the stars out -with one’s fingers, like the Hours in Guercino’s Aurora[38]. Whoever -therefore will be at the pains a little to pick their principles, not -grasp them by the bunch, will find as many unripe at one end, I believe, -as there are rotten at the other: for could we see these hasty innovators -erecting public schools for the instruction of the poor, or public -work-houses for their employment; did they unlock the treasure-house -of true religion, by publishing the Bible in every dialect of their -dominions, and oblige their clergy to read it with the souls committed -to their charge;--I should have a better idea of their sincerity and -disinterested zeal for God’s glory, than they give by tearing down his -statues, or those of his blessed Virgin Mother, which Carlo Borromæo set -up. - -The folly of hanging churches with red damask would surely fade away of -itself; among people of good sense and good taste; who could not long -be simple enough to suppose, that concealing Greek architecture with -such transient finery, and giving to God’s house the air of a tattered -theatre, could in any wife promote his service, or their salvation. -Many superstitious and many unmeaning ceremonies _do_ die off every day, -because unsupported by reason or religion: Doctor Carpanni, a learned -lawyer, told me but to-day, that here in Lombardy they had a custom, -no longer ago than in his father’s time, of burying a great lord or -possessor of lands, with a ceremony of killing on his grave the favourite -horse, dog, &c. that he delighted in when alive; a usage borrowed from -the Oriental Pagans, who burn even the widows of the deceased upon their -funeral pile; and among our monuments in Westminster Abbey, set up in the -days of darkness, I have minded now and then the hawk and greyhound of -a nobleman lying in marble at his feet; some of our antiquarians should -tell us if they killed them. - -Another odd affinity strikes me. Half a century ago there was an annual -procession at Shrewsbury, called by way of pre-eminence _Shrewsbury -Show_; when a handsome young girl of about twelve years old rode round -the town, and wished prosperity to every trade assembled at the fair: I -forget what else made the amusement interesting; but have heard my mother -tell of the particular beauty of some wench, who was ever after called -the _Queen_, because she had been carried in triumph as such on the day -of _Shrewsbury Show_. Now if nobody gives a better derivation of that old -custom, it may perhaps be found a dreg of the Romish superstition, which -as many years ago, in various parts of Italy, prompted people to dress -up a pretty girl, on the 25th of March, or other season dedicated to the -Virgin, and carry her in procession about the streets, singing litanies -to her, &c. and ending, in profaneness of admiration, a day begun in -idleness and folly. At Rome however no such indecorous absurdities are -encouraged: we saw a beautiful figure of the _Madonna_, dressed from a -picture of Guido Rheni, borne about one day; but no human creature in -the street offered to kneel, or gave one the slightest reason to say -or suppose that she was worshipped: some sweet hymns were sung in her -praise, as the procession moved slowly on; but no impropriety could I -discern, who watched with great attention. - -It is time to have done with all this though, and go see the Ambrosian -library; which, as far as I can judge, is perfectly respectable. The -Prefect’s politeness kindly offered my curiosity any thing I was -particularly anxious to see, and the learned Mr. Dugati was exceedingly -obliging. The old Virgil preserved here with Petrarch’s marginal notes -in his own hand-writing, interest one much; this little narration, -evidently written for his own fancy to feed on, of the day and hour -he first felt the impression of Laura’s charms, is the best proof of -his genuine passion for that lady, as he certainly never meant for our -inspection what he wrote down in his own Virgil. Here is likewise the -valuable MS. of Flavius Josephus the Jewish historian, a curiosity -deservedly admired and esteemed: it is kept with peculiar care I think, -and is in high preservation: A Syriac bible too, very fine indeed, from -which I understand they are now going to print off some copies. I have -been taught by the scholars not to think a Syriac bible of the Samaritan -text so very rare; but the Septuagint in that language is so exceedingly -scarce, that many are persuaded this is the only one extant; and as our -Lord, in his quotations from the old law, usually cites that version, -it is justly preferred to all others. Leonardo da Vinci’s famous folio -preserved in this library, for which James I. of England offered three -thousand ducats, an event recorded here over the chest that contains it -on a tablet of marble, deserves attention and reverence: nothing seems -above, nothing below, the observation of that prodigious genius. He has -in this, and other volumes of the same curious work, apparently put down -every painter’s or mathematician’s thought that crossed his imagination. -It is a _Leonardiana_[39], the common-place book of a great and wise man; -nor did our British sovereign ever with more good sense evince his true -love of learning, than by his princely offer of its purchase. - -Till now the looking at friends, and rarities, and telling old stories, -and seeing new sights, &c. has lulled my conscience asleep, nor suffered -me to recollect that, dazzled by the brightness of the Corregios at -Parma, the account of their press, the finest in Europe, and infinitely -superior to our Baskerville, escaped me. They have a glorious collection -too of bibles in their library; their illuminations are most delicate, -and their bindings pompous, but they possess a modern MS. of such -singular perfection, that none of those finished when chirography was -more cultivated than it is now, can at all pretend to compare with it. -The characters are all gilt, the leaves vellum, the miniatures finished -with a degree of nicety rarely found in union, as here, with the utmost -elegance and taste. No words I can use will give a just idea of this -little MS.: whoever is a true fancier of such things, would find his -trouble well repaid, if he left London only to look at it. The book -contains private devotions for the duchess with suitable ornaments--I -will talk no more of it. - -The fine colossal figure of the Virgin Mary in heaven crowned by her -Son’s hand, painted in the cieling of some church at Parma, has a bad -light, and it is difficult to comprehend its sublimity. One approaches -nearer to understand the merits of that singular performance when one -looks at Caracci’s copy of it, kept in the Ambrosian library here at -Milan. But how was I surprised to hear related as a fact happening to -_him_, the old story told to all who go to see St. Paul’s cathedral in -London, of our Sir James Thornhill, who, while he was intent on painting -the cupola, walked backward to look at the effect, till, arriving at -the very edge of the scaffold, he was in danger of dashing his brains -out by falling from that horrible height upon the marble below, had not -some bystander possessed readiness of mind to run suddenly forward, and -throw a pencil daubed in white stuff which stood near him, at the figure -Sir James’s eyes were fixed on, which provoked the painter to follow him -threatening, and so saved his life. Could such an accident have happened -twice? and is it likely that to either of these persons it ever happened -at all? Would such men as Annibal Caracci and Sir James Thornhill have -exposed themselves upon an undefended scaffold, without railing it round -to prevent their tumbling down, when engaged in a work that would take -them many days, nay weeks, to finish it? Impossible! in every nation -traditionary tales shake my belief exceedingly; and what astonishes one -more than it disgusts, if possible, is to see the same story fitted to -more nations than one. - -It is now many years since a counsellor related at my house in Surrey -the following narration, of which I had then no doubts, or idea of -suspicion; for he said he was himself witness to the fact, and laid the -scene at St. Edmondsbury, a town in our county of Suffolk: how a man -accused of murder, with every corroborating circumstance, escaped by the -steady resolution of one juryman, who could not, by any arguments or -remonstrances of his companions, be prevailed on to pronounce the fellow -guilty, though every possible circumstance combined to ascertain him as -the person who took the deceased’s life; and how, after all was over, -the juryman confessed privately to the judge, that _he himself_, by such -and such an accident, had killed the farmer, of whose death the other -stood accused. This event, true or false, of which I have since found the -rudiments in a French Recueil, was told me at Venice by a gentleman as -having happened _there_, under the immediate inspection of a friend he -named. Quere, whether any such thing ever happened at all in any time or -place? but laxity of narration, and contempt of all exactness, at last -extinguish one’s best-founded confidence in the lips of mortal man. It -is, however, clearly proved, that no duty is so difficult as to preserve -truth in all our transactions, while no transaction is so trifling as -to preclude temptation of infringing it: for if there is no interest -that prompts a liar, his vanity suffices; nor will we mention the -suggestions of cowardice, malignity, or any species of vice, when, as in -these last-mentioned stories, many fictions are invented by well-meaning -people, who hope to prevent mischief, inculcate the possibility of -hanging innocence, &c. and violate truth out of regard to virtue. - -Well, well! our good Italians here will not condescend to live or lie, -if now and then they scruple not to tell one. No man in this country -pretends either to tenderness or to indifference, when he feels no -disposition to be indifferent or tender; and so removed are they from -all affectation of sensibility or of refinement, that when a conceited -Englishman starts back in pretended rapture from a Raphael he has perhaps -little taste for, it is difficult to persuade these sincerer people -that his transports are possibly put on, only to deceive some of his -countrymen who stand by, and who, if he took no notice of so fine a -picture, would laugh, and say he had been throwing his time away, without -making even the common and necessary improvements expected from every -gentleman who travels through Italy; yet surely it is a choice delight -to live where the everlasting scourge held over London and Bath, of -_what will they think?_ and _what will they say?_ has no existence; -and to reflect that I have now sojourned near two years in Italy, and -scarcely can name one conceited man, or one affected woman, with whom, in -any rank of life, I have been in the least connected. - -In Naples we see the works of nature displayed; at Rome and Florence we -survey the performances of art; at every place in Italy there is much -worthy one’s esteem, said the Venetian Resident one day very elegantly; -and at Milan there is the _Abate Bossi_. Should I forbear to add _my_ -testimony to such talents and such virtue, which, expanded by nature -to the wide range of human benevolence, he knows how to concentre -occasionally for the service of private friendship, how great would be my -ingratitude and neglect, while no character ever so completely resembled -his, as that of the famous _Hough_ well known in England by the title of -the _good_ Bishop of Worcester. His ingenuity in composing and placing -these words on the 13th of May 1775, is perhaps one of his least valuable -jeux d’esprit; but pretty, when one knows that on that day the empress -was born, on that day the archduke arrived at Milan on a visit to his -brother, and on that day the duchess was delivered of a son. The words -may be read our way or the Chinese: - - Natalis Adventus Partus - Matris Fratris Conjugis - Felix Optatus Incolumis - Principem Aulam Urbem - Lectificabant. - -What a foolish thing it is in princes to give pain in a place like this, -where all are disposed to derive pleasure even from praising them! There -is a natural loyalty among the Lombards, which oppression can scarcely -extinguish, or tyranny destroy; and, as I have said a thousand times, -they _pretend_ to love no one; they _do_ love their rulers; and, rather -grieve than growl at the afflictions caused by their rapacity. - -I was told that I should find few discriminations of character in Italy; -but the contrary proves true, and I do not wonder at it. Among those -people who, by being folded or driven all together in flocks as the -French are, with one fashion to serve for the whole society, a man may -easily contract a similarity of manners by rubbing down each asperity of -character against his nearest neighbour, no less plastic than himself; -but here, where there is little apprehension of ridicule, and little -spirit of imitation, monotonous tediousness is almost sure to be escaped. -The very word _polite_ comes from _polish_ I suppose; and at Paris the -place where you enjoy _le veritable vernis St. Martin_ in perfection, -the people can scarcely be termed _polished_, or even _varnished_: they -are _glazed_; and everything slides off the _exterieur_ of course, -leaving the heart untouched. It is the same thing with other productions -of nature; in caverns we see petrifactions shooting out in angular and -excentric forms, because in Castleton Hole dame Nature has fair play; -while the broad beach at Brighthelmstone, evermore battered by the same -ocean, exhibits only a heap of round pebbles, and those round pebbles all -alike. - -But we must cease reflections, and begin describing again. We have got a -country house for the remaining part of the hot weather upon the confines -of the Milanese dominions, where Switzerland first begins to bow her -bleak head, and soften gradually in the sunshine of Italian fertility. -From every walk and villa round this delightful spot, one sees an -assemblage of beauties rarely to be met with: and there is a resemblance -in it to the Vale of Llwydd, which makes it still more interesting -to _me_. But we have obtained leave to spend a week of our destined -Villeggiatura at the Borromæan palace, situated in the middle of Lago -Maggiore, on the island so truly termed Isola Bella; every step to which -from our villa at Varese teems with new beauties, and only wants the sea -to render it, in point of mere landscape, superior to any thing we have -seen yet. - -Our manner of living here is positively like nothing real, and the -fanciful description of oriental magnificence, with Seged’s retirement -in the Rambler to his palace on the Lake Dambea, is all I ever read -that could come in competition with it: for here is one barge full of -friends from Milan, another carrying a complete band of thirteen of the -best musicians in Italy, to amuse ourselves and them with concerts every -evening upon the water by moonlight, while the inhabitants of these -elysian regions who live upon the banks, come down in crowds to the -shores glad to receive additional delight, where satiety of pleasure -seems the sole evil to be dreaded. - -It is well known that the wild mountains of Savoy, the rich plains of -Lombardy, the verdant pastures of Piedmont, and the pointed Alps of -Switzerland, form the limits of Lago Maggiore: where, upon a naked rock, -torn I trust from some surrounding hill, or happily thrown up in the -middle of the water by a subterranean volcano, the Count Borromæo, in the -year 1613, began to carry earth; and lay out a pretty garden, which from -that day has been perpetually improving, till an appearance of eastern -grandeur which it now wears, is rendered still more charming by all -the studied elegance of art, and the conveniencies of common life. The -palace is constructed as if to realise Johnson’s ideas in his Prince of -Abyssinia: the garden consists of ten terraces; the walls of which are -completely covered with orange, lemon, and cedrati trees, whose glowing -colours and whose fragrant scent are easily discerned at a considerable -distance, and the perfume particularly often reaches as far as to the -opposite shore: nor are standards of the same plants wanting. I measured -one not the largest in the grove, which had been planted one hundred -and five years; it was a full yard and a quarter round. There were -forty-six of them set near each other, and formed a delightful shade. The -cedrati fruit grows as large as a late romana melon with us in England; -and every thing one sees, and every thing one hears, and every thing -one tastes, brings to one’s mind the fortunate islands and the golden -age. Walks, woods, and terraces _within_ the island, and a prospect of -unequalled variety _without_, make this a kind of fairy habitation, so -like something one has seen represented on theatres, that my female -companion cried out as we approached the place, “If we go any nearer -now, I am sure it will all vanish into air.” There is solidity enough -however: a little village consisting of eighteen fishermen’s houses, and -a pretty church, with a dozen of well-grown poplars before it, together -with the palace and garden, compose the territory, which commodiously -contains two hundred and fifty souls, as the circuit is somewhat more -than a measured mile and a half, but not two miles in all: and we have -cannons to guard our Calypso-like dominion, for which Count Borromæo pays -tribute to the king of Sardinia; but has himself the right of raising -men upon the main land, and of coining money at _Macau_, a little town -amid the hollows of these rocks, which present their irregular fronts to -the lake in a manner surprisingly beautiful. He has three other islets on -the same water, for change of amusement; of which that named la Superiore -is covered with a hamlet, and l’Isola Madre with a wood full of game, -guinea fowl, and common poultry; a summer-house beside furnished with -chintz, and containing so many apartments, that I am told the uncle of -the present possessor, having quarrelled with his wife, and resolving -in a pet to leave the world, shut himself up on that little spot of -earth, and never touched the continent, as I may call it, for the last -seventeen years of his life. Let me add, that he had there his church -and his chaplain, three musical professors in constant pay, and a pretty -yatcht to row or sail, and fetch in friends, physicians, &c. from the -main land. His nephew has not the same taste at all, seldom spending -more than a week, and that only once a-year, among his islands, which -are kept however quite in a princely style: the family crest, a unicorn, -made in white marble, and of colossal greatness, proudly overlooking ten -broad terraces which rise in a pyramidal form from the water: each wall -richly covered with orange and lemon trees, and every parapet concealed -under thickly-flowering shrubs of incessant variety, as if every climate -had been culled, to adorn this tiny spot. More than a hundred beds -are made in the palace, which has likewise a grotto floor of infinite -ingenuity, and beautiful from being happily contrasted against the -general splendour of the house itself. I have seen no such effort of what -we call taste since I left England, as these apartments on a level with -the lake exhibit, being all roofed and wainscotted with well-disposed -shellwork, and decorated with fountains in a lively and pleasing manner. -The library up stairs had many curious books in it--a Camden’s Britannia -particularly, translated into Spanish; an Arabic Bible worthy of the -Bodleian collection, and well-chosen volumes of natural history to a very -serious degree of expence. Painting is not the first or second boast of -Count Borromæo, but there are some tolerable landscapes by Tempesta, and -three famous pictures of Luca Giordano, well known in London by the -general diffusion of their prints, representing the Rape of the Sabines, -the Judgment of Paris, and the Triumph of Galatea. These large history -pieces adorn the walls of the vast room we dine in; where, though we -never sit down fewer than twenty or twenty-five people to table, all seem -lost from the greatness of its size, till the concert fills it in the -evening. - -It is the garden however more than the palace which deserves description. -He who has the care of it was born upon the island, and never strayed -further than four miles, he tells me, from the borders of his master’s -lake. Sure he must think the fall of man a fable: _he_ lives in Eden -still. How much must such a fellow be confounded, could he be carried -blind-folded in the midst of winter to London or to Paris! and set down -in Fleet-street or Rue St. Honoré! That he understands his business so -as to need no tuition from the inhabitants of either city, may be seen -by a fig-tree which I found here ingrafted on a lemon; both bear fruit -at the same moment, whilst a vine curls up the stem of the lemon-tree, -dangling her grapes in that delicious company with apparent satisfaction -to herself. Another inoculation of a moss-rose upon an orange, and a -third of a carnation upon a cedrati tree, gave me new knowledge of what -the gardener’s art, aided by a happy climate, could perform. But when -rowing round the lake with our band of music yesterday, we touched at a -country seat upon the side which joins the Milanese dominion, and I found -myself presented with currants and gooseberries by a kind family, who -having made their fortune in Amsterdam, had imbibed some Dutch ideas; my -mind immediately felt her elastic force, and willingly confessed that -liberty, security, and opulence alone give the true relish to productions -either of art or nature; that freedom can make the currants of Holland -and golden pippins of Great Britain sweeter than all the grapes of -Italy; while to every manly understanding some share of the government -in a well-regulated state, with the every-day comforts of common life -made durable and certain by the laws of a prosperous country, are at -last far preferable to splendid luxuries precariously enjoyed under the -consciousness of their possible privation when least expected by the hand -of despotic power. - -St. Carlo Borromæo’s colossal statue in bronze fixed up at the place of -his nativity by the side of this beautiful water, fifteen miles from -l’Isola Bella, was our next object of curiosity. It is wonderfully well -proportioned for its prodigious magnitude, which, though often measured -and well known, will never cease to astonish travellers, while twelve -men can be easily contained in his head only, as some of our company had -the curiosity to prove; but repented their frolic, as the metal heated -by such a sun became insupportable. Abate Bianconi bid me remark that it -was just the height of twelve men, each six feet high; that it is but -just once and a half less than that erected by Nero, which gives name -to the Roman Colosseo; that it is to be seen clearly at the distance -of twelve miles, though placed to no advantage, as situation has been -sacrificed to the greater propriety of setting it up upon the place where -he was actually born, whose memory they hold, and justly, in such perfect -veneration. I returned home persuaded that the cardinal’s dress, though -an unfavourable one to pictures, is very happily adapted to a colossal -statue, as the three cloaks or petticoats made a sort of step-ladder -drapery which takes off exceedingly from the offence that is given by too -long lines to the eye. - -We returned to our enchanted palace with music playing by our side: I -never saw a party of pleasure carried on so happily. The weather was -singularly bright and clear, the moon at full, the French-horns breaking -the silence of the night, invited echo to answer them. The nine days (and -we enjoyed seventeen or eighteen hours out of every twenty-four) seemed -nine minutes. When we came home to our country-house in the Varesotto, -verses and sonnets saluted our arrival, and congratulated our wedding-day. - -The Madonna del Monte was the next show which called us abroad; it is -within a few miles of our present sweet habitation, is celebrated for its -prospect, and is indeed a very astonishing spot of ground, exhibiting at -one view the three cities of Turin, Milan, and Genoa; and leading the eye -still forward into the South of France. The lakes, which to those who -go o’pleasuring upon them, seem like seas, and very like the mouth of -our river Dart, where she disgorges her elegantly-ornamented stream into -the harbour at Kingsweare, here afford too little water in proportion, -though five in number, and the largest fifty miles round. I scarcely -ever saw so much land within the eye from any place. That the road -should be adorned with chapels up the mountain is less strange: there is -a church dedicated to the Virgin at top. We have one here in Italy in -every district almost, as the rage of _worshipping on high places_, so -expressly and repeatedly forbidden in scripture, has lasted surprisingly -in the world. Every resting-place is marked, and decorated with statues -cut in wood, and painted to imitate human life with very extraordinary -skill. They are capital performances of their kind, and most resemble, -but I think excel, Mrs. Wright’s finest figures in wax. A convent of -nuns, situated on the summit of the hill, where these chapels end in -an exceeding pretty church, entertained our large party with the most -hospitable kindness; gave us a handsome dinner and delicious dessert. We -diverted the ladies with a little concert in return, and passed a truly -delightful day. - -All the environs of this _Varesotto_ are very charmingly varied with -mountains, lakes, and cultivated life; the only fault in our prospect is -the want of water. Had I told my companions of yesterday perhaps, that -the view from _Madonna del Monte_ reminded me of Chirk Castle Hill in -North Wales, they would have laughed; yet from that extraordinary spot -are to be distinctly seen several fertile counties, with many great, -and many small towns, and a most extensive landscape, watered by the -large and navigable rivers Severn and Dee, roughened by the mountains -of Merionethshire, and bounded by the Irish sea: I think that view has -scarce its equal any where; and, if any where, it is here in the vicinity -of Varese, where many gay villas interspersed contribute to variegate and -enliven a scene highly finished by the hand of Nature, and wanting little -addition from her attendant _Art_. - -Of the noblemen’s feats in the neighbourhood it may indeed be remarked, -that however spacious the house, and however splendid the furniture -may prove upon examination, however pompous the garden may be to the -first glance, and the terraces however magnificent,--spiders are -seldom excluded from the mansion, or weeds from the pleasure-ground of -the possessor. A climate so warm would afford some excuse for this -nastiness, could one observe the inhabitants were discomposed at such an -effect from a good cause, or if one could flatter one’s self that they -themselves were hurt at it; but when they gravely display an embroidered -bed or counterpane worthy of Arachne’s fingers before her metamorphosis, -covered over by her present labours, who can forbear laughing?--The -gardener in two minutes arriving to assist you up slopes, all flourishing -with cat’s-tail and poppy; while your friends cry,--“_Here, this is -nature! is it not?_ pure nature!--_Tutto naturale si, secondo l’uso -Inglese_[40].” - -Well! we have really passed a prodigiously gay _villegiatura_ here in -this charming country, where the snowy cap of the _gros_ St. Bernard -cools the air, though at so great a distance; and we have the pleasure -of seeing Switzerland, without the pain of feeling its cold, or the -fatigue of climbing its _glacieres_: the Alps of the Grisons rise up like -a fortification behind us; the sun glows hot in our rich and fertile -valleys, and throws up every vegetable production with all the poignant -flavour that Summer can bestow; nor is shade wanting from the walnut -and large chesnut trees, under which we often dine, and sing, and play -at _tarocco_, and hear the horns and clarinets, while sipping our ice -or swallowing our lemonade. The _cicala_ now feels the genial influence -of that heat she requires, but her voice here is weak, compared to the -powers she displayed so much to our disturbance in Tuscany; and the -_lucciola_ has lost much of her scintillant beauty, but she darts up and -down the hedges now and then. Here is an emerald-coloured butterfly, -whose name I know not, plays over the lakes and standing pools, in a very -pleasing abundance; the most exquisitely-tinted æphemera frolic before -one all day long; and Antiope flutters in every parterre, and shares the -garden sweets with a pale primrose-coloured creature of her own kind, -whose wings are edged with brown, and, if I can remember right, bears -the name of _hyale_. But we are not yet past the residence of scorpions, -which certainly do commit suicide when provoked beyond all endurance; a -story I had always heard, but never gave much credit to. - -But I am disturbed from writing my book by the good-humoured gaiety of -our cheerful friends, with whom we never sit down fewer than fourteen or -fifteen to table I think, and surely never rise from it without many a -genuine burst of honest merriment undisguised by affectation, unfettered -by restraint. Our gentlemen make _improviso_ rhymes, and cut comical -faces; go out to the field after dinner, and play at a sort of blindman’s -buff, which they call breaking the pan; nor do the low ones in company -arrange their minds as I see in compliment to the high ones, but tell -their opinions with a freedom I little expected to find: mixed society -is very rare among them, almost unknown it seems; but when they _do_ mix -at a country place like this, the great are kind, to do them justice, -and the little not servile. They are wise indeed in making society easy -to them, for no human being suffers solitude so ill as does an Italian. -An English lady once made me observe, that a cat never purs when she -is alone, let her have what meat and warmth she will; I think these -social-spirited Milanese are like _her_, for they can hardly believe that -there is existing a person, who would not willingly prefer any company -to none: when we were at the islands three weeks ago,--“A charming -place,” says one of our companions,--“_Cioè con un mondo d’amici -cosi_[41].”--“But with one’s own family, methinks,” said I, “and a good -library of books, and this sweet lake to bathe in:”--“O!” cried they all -at once, “_Dio ne liberi_[42].”--This is national character. - -Why there are no birds of the watery kind, coots, wild ducks, cargeese, -upon these lakes, nobody informs me: I have been often told that of -Geneva swarms with them, and it is but a very few miles off: our people -though have little care to ascertain such matters, and no desire at -all to investigate effects and causes; those who study among them, -study classic authors and learn rhetoric; poetry too is by no means -uncultivated at Milan, where the Abate Parini’s satires are admirable, -and so esteemed by those who themselves know very well how to write, and -how to judge: common philosophy (_la physique_, as the French call it), -geography, astronomy, chymistry, are oddly left behind somehow; and it -is to their ignorance of these matters that I am apt to impute Italian -credulity, to which every wonder is welcome. - -We have now passed one day in Switzerland however, rowing to the little -town Lugano over its pretty lake. The mountains at the end are a neat -miniature of Vesuvius, Somma, &c.; and the situation altogether looks as -a picture of Naples would look, if painted by Brughuel; but not so full -of figures. A fanciful traveller too might be tempted to think he could -discern some streaks of liberty in the manners of the people, if it were -but in the inn-keeper at whose house we dined; this may however be merely -my own prejudice, and somebody told me it was so. - -We were shewn on one side the water as we went across, a small place -called Campioni, which is _feudo Imperiale_, and governed by the Padre -Abate of a neighbouring convent, who has power even over the lives of his -subjects for six years; at the expiration of which term another despot of -the day is chosen--appointed I should have said; and the last returns to -his original state, amenable however for any _very_ shocking thing he may -have done during the course of his dictatorship; and no complaint has -been ever made yet of any such governor so circumstanced and appointed, -whose conduct is commonly but too mild and clement. This I thought worth -remarking, as consolatory to one’s feelings. - -Lugano meantime scorns absolute authority: our Cicerone there, in reply -to the question asked in Italy three times a-day I believe--_Che Principe -fà qui la sua residenza?_[43]--replied, that they were plagued with no -Principi at all, while the thirteen Cantons protected all their subjects; -and though, as the man expressed it, only half of them were _Christians_, -and the other half _Protestants_; no church or convent had ever wanted -respect; while their town regularly received a monthly governor from -every canton, and was perfectly contented with this ambulatory dominion. -Here was the first gallows I have seen these two years. They have -a pretty commerce too at Lugano for the size of the place, and the -shopkeepers shew that officiousness and attention seldom observed in -arbitrary states, where - - Content, the bane of industry, - -soon leads people to neglect the trouble of getting, for the pleasure -of spending their money. One therefore sees the inhabitants of Italian -cities for the most part merry and cheerful, or else pious and penitent; -little attentive to their shops, but easily disposed to loiter under -their mistress’s window with a guitar, or rove about the streets at night -with a pretty girl under their arm, singing as they go, or squeaking -with a droll accent, if it is the time for masquerades. Fraud, avarice, -ambition, are the vices of republican states and a cold climate; -idleness, sensuality, and revenge, are the weeds of a warm country and -monarchical governments. If these people are not good, they at least -wish they were better; they do not applaud their own conduct when their -passions carry them too far; nor rejoice, like old Moneytrap or Sir Giles -Overreach, in their successful sins: but rather say with Racine’s hero, -translated by Philips, that - - Pyrrhus will ne’er approve his own injustice, - Or form excuses while his heart condemns him. - -They beat their bosoms at the feet of a crucifix in the street, with no -more hypocrisy than they beat a tambourine there; perhaps with no more -effect neither, if no alteration of behaviour succeeds their contrition: -yet when an Englishman (who is probably more ashamed of repenting than of -sinning) accuses them of false pretensions to pious fervour, he wrongs -them, and would do well to repent himself. - -But a natural curiosity seen at Milan this 16th day of August 1786, leads -my mind into another channel. I went to wait upon and thank the lady, or -the relations of the lady, who lent us her house at Varese, and make our -proper acknowledgments; and at that visit saw something very uncommon -surely: though I remember Doctor Johnson once said, that nobody had ever -seen a very strange thing; and challenged the company (about seventeen -people, myself among them) to produce a strange thing;--but I had not -then seen Avvocato B----, a lawyer here at Milan, and a man respected -in his profession, who actually chews the cud like an ox; which he did -at my request, and in my presence: he is apparently much like another -tall stout man, but has many extraordinary properties, being eminent for -strength, and possessing a set of ribs and sternum very surprising, -and worthy the attention of anatomists: his body, upon the slightest -touch, even through all his clothes, throws out electric sparks; he -can reject his meals from his stomach at pleasure, and did absolutely -in the course of two hours, the only two I ever passed in his company, -go through, to oblige me, the whole operation of eating, masticating, -swallowing, and returning by the mouth, a large piece of bread and a -peach. With all this conviction, nothing more was wanting; but I obtained -beside, the confirmation of common friends, who were willing likewise to -bear testimony of this strange accidental variety. What I hear of his -character is, that he is a low-spirited, nervous man; and I suppose his -_ruminating_ moments are spent in lamenting the singularities of his -frame:--be this how it will, we have now no time to think any more of -them, as we are packing up for a trip to Bergamo, a city I have not yet -seen. - - - - -BERGAMO - - -Is built up a steep hill, like Lansdown road at Bath; the buildings -not so regular; the prospect not inferior, but of a different kind, -resembling that one sees from Wrotham hill in Kent, but richer, and -presenting a variety beyond credibility, when it is premised that scarce -any water can be seen, and that the plains of Lombardy are low and flat: -within the eye however one may count all the original blessings bestowed -on humankind,--corn, wine, oil, and fruit;--the inclosures being small -too, and the trees _touffu_, as the French call it. No parterre was ever -more beautifully disposed than are the fields surveyed from the summit -of the hill, where stands the Marquis’s palace elegantly sheltered by a -still higher rising ground behind it, and commanding from every window -of its stately front a view of prodigious extent and almost unmatched -beauty: as the diversification of colouring reminds one of nothing but -the fine pavement at the Roman Pantheon, so curiously intersected are the -patches of grass and grain, flax and vines, arable and tilth, in this -happy disposition of earth and its most valuable products; while not a -hedge fails to afford perfume that fills the very air with fragrance, -from the sweet jessamine that, twisting through it, lends a weak support -to the wild grapes, which, dangling in clusters, invite ten thousand -birds of every European species I believe below the size of a pigeon. -Nor is the taking of these creatures by the _roccolo_ to be left out -from among the amusements of Brescian and Bergamasc nobility; nor is the -eating of them when taken to be despised: _beccaficos_ and _ortolans_ -are here in high perfection; and it was from these northern districts of -Italy I trust that Vitellius, and all the classic gluttons of antiquity, -got their curious dishes of singing-bird pye, &c. The rich scent of -melons at every cottage door is another delicious proof of the climate’s -fertility and opulence,-- - - Where every sense is lost in every joy, - -as Hughes expresses it; and where, in the delightful villa of our highly -accomplished acquaintance the Marquis of Aracieli, we have passed ten -days in all the pleasures which wit could invent, money purchase, or -friendship bestow. The last nobleman who resided here, father to the -present lord, was _cavalier servente_ to the immortal Clelia Borromæo, -whose virtues and varieties of excellence would fill a volume; nor can -there be a stronger proof of her uncommon, almost unequalled merit, than -the long-continued esteem of the famous Vallisnieri, whose writings on -natural history, particularly insects, are valued for their learning, -as their author was respected for his birth and talents. Letters from -him are still preserved in the family by Marchese Aracieli, and breathe -admiration of the conduct, beauty, and extensive knowledge possessed by -this worthy descendant of the Borromæan house; to whose incomparable -qualities his father’s steady attachment bore the truest testimony, while -the son still speaks of her death with tears, and delights in nothing -more than in paying just tribute to her memory. He shewed me this pretty -distich in her praise, made improviso by the celebrated philosopher -Vallisnieri: - - Contemptrix sexus, omniscia Clelia sexum, - Illustrat studio, moribus, arte metro[44]. - -The Italians are exceedingly happy in the power of making verses -improviso, either in their _old_ or their _new_ language: we were -speaking the other day of the famous epigram in Ausonius; - - Infelix Dido, nulli bene nupta marito, - Hoc moriente fugis, hoc fugiente peris[45]. - -Our equally noble and ingenious master of the house rendered it in -Italian thus immediately: - - Misera Dido! fra i nuziali ardori, - L’un muore e fuggi--l’altro fuggi e mori. - -This is more compressed and clever than that of Guarini _himself_ I think, - - Oh fortunata Dido! - Mal fornita d’amante e di marito, - Ti fu quel traditor, l’altro tradito; - Mori l’úno e fuggisti, - Fuggi l’altro e moristi. - -Though this latter has been preserved with many deserved eulogiums from -Crescembini, and likewise by Mr. de Chevreau. - -Could I clear my head of prejudice for such talents as I find here, and -my heart of partial regard, which is in reality but grateful friendship, -justly due from me for so many favours received; could I forget that we -are now once more in the state of Venice, where every thing assumes an -air of cheerfulness unknown to other places, I might perhaps perceive -that the fair at Bergamo differs little from a fair in England, except -that these cattle are whiter and ours larger. _How a score of good ewes -now?_ as Master Shallow says; but I really did ask the price of a pair -of good strong oxen for work, and heard it was ten zecchines; about -half the price given at Blackwater, but ours are stouter, and capable -of rougher service. It is strange to me where these creatures are kept -all the rest of the year, for except at fair time one very seldom sees -them, unless in actual employment of carting, ploughing, &c. Nothing -is so little animated by the sight of living creatures as an Italian -prospect. No sheep upon their hills, no cattle grazing in their meadows, -no water-fowl, swans, ducks, &c. upon their lakes; and when you leave -Lombardy, no birds flying in the air, save only from time to time betwixt -Florence and Bologna, a solitary kite soaring over the surly Appenines, -and breaking the immense void which fatigues the eye; a ragged lad or -wench too now and then leading a lean cow to pick among the hedges, has a -melancholy appearance, the more so as it is always fast held by a string, -and struggles in vain to get loose. These however are only consequences -of luxuriant plenty, for where the farmer makes four harvests of his -grass, and every other speck of ground is profitably covered with grain, -vines, &c. all possibility of open pasturage is precluded. Horses too, -so ornamental in an English landscape, will never be seen loose in an -Italian one, as they are all _chevaux entiers_, and cannot be trusted in -troops together as ours are, even if there was ground uninclosed for them -to graze on, like the common lands in Great Britain. A nobleman’s park is -another object never to be seen or expected in a country, where people -would really be deserving much blame did they retain in their hands for -mere amusement ten or twelve miles circuit of earth, capable to produce -two or three thousand pounds a-year profit to their families, beside -making many tenants rich and happy in the mean time. I will confess, -however, that the absence of all these _agrèmens_ gives a flatness and -uniformity to the views which we cannot complain of in England; but -when Italians consider the cause, they will have reason to be satisfied -with the effect, especially while vegetable nature flourishes in full -perfection, while every step crushes out perfume from the trodden herbs, -and those in the hedges dispense with delightful liberality a fragrance -that enchants one. Hops and pyracanthus cover the sides of every cottage; -and the scent of truffles attracts, and the odour of melons gratifies -one’s nerves, when driving among the habitations of fertile Lombardy. - -The old church here of mingled Gothic and Grecian architecture pleased -me exceedingly, it sends one back to old times so, and shews one the -progress of _barbarism_, rapid and gigantic in its strides, to overturn, -confound, and destroy what taste was left in the world at the moment of -its _onset_. Here is a picture of the Israelites passing over the Red -Sea, which Luca Giordano, contrary to his usual custom, seems to have -taken pains with, a rarity of course; and here are some single figures -of the prophets, heroes, and judges of the Old Testament, painted with -prodigious spirit indeed, by Ciro Ferri. That which struck me as most -capital, was Gideon wringing the dew out of the fleece, full of character -and glowing with expression. - -The theatre has fallen down, but they are building it up again with a -nicety of proportion that will ensure it from falling any more. Italians -cannot live without a theatre; they have erected a temporary one to -serve during the fair time, and even that is beautiful. The Terzetto of -charming Guglielmi was sung last night; I liked it still better than -when we heard it performed by singers of more established reputation at -St. Carlo; but then I like every thing at Bergamo, till it comes to the -thunder storms, which are far more innoxious here than at Naples or in -Tuscany. - -We could contemplate electricity from this fine hill yesterday with -great composure, being amused with her caprices and not endangered by -her anger. There has however been a fierce tempest in the neighbourhood, -which has greatly lowered the spirits of the farmer; and we have been -told another tale, that lowers mine much more as an Englishwoman, -because the people of this town complain of strange failure in their -accustomed orders for silk from England, and the foreigners make -disgraceful conjectures about our commerce, in consequence of that -failure. - -Here is a report prevailing too, of King George III. being assassinated, -which, though we all know to be false, fails not to produce much -unpleasing talk. Were the Londoners aware of the diffusion of their -newspapers, and the strange ideas taken up by foreigners about things -which pass by _us_ like a day dream, I think more caution would be -used, and characters less lightly hung up to infamy or ridicule, on -which those very prints mean not to bestow so lasting or severe a -punishment, as their ill word produces at a distance from home, whither -the contradiction often misses though the report arrives, and mischief, -originally little intended, becomes the fatal consequence of a joke. But -it is time to return to - - - - -MILAN, - - -Whence I went for my very first airing to Casa Simonetti, in search of -the echo so celebrated by my country-folks and fellow-travellers, but -did not find all that has been said of it strictly true. It certainly -does repeat a single sound more than seventy times, but has no power to -give back by reverberation a whole sentence. I have met too with another -petty mortification; having been taught by Cave to expect, that in our -Ambrosian library here at Milan, there was a MS. of Boethius preserved -relative to his condemnation, and confessing his design of subverting the -Gothic government in Lombardy. I therefore prevailed on Canonico Palazzi, -a learned old ecclesiastic, to go with me and beg a sight of it. The -præfect politely promised indulgence, but referred me to a future day; -and when we returned again at the time appointed, shewed me only Pere -Mabillon’s book, in which we read that it is to be found no where but -at Florence, in the library of Lorenzo de Medicis. We were however shewn -some curiosities to compensate our trouble, particularly the skeleton of -the lady mentioned by Dr. Moore and Lady Millar with some contempt. This -is the copy of her inscription: - - ÆGROTANTIUM - SANITATI - MORTUORUM - INSPECTIONE - VIVENTES - PROSPICERE - POSSINT - HUNC - ΣΚΕΛΕΤΟΝ - P. - -A MS. of the Consolations of Philosophy, very finely written in the tenth -century, and kept in elegant preservation;--a private common-place of -Leonardo da Vinci never shewn, full of private memoirs, caricaturas, -hints for pictures, sketches, remarks, &c.; it is invaluable. But there -is another treasure in this town, the præfect tells me, by the same -inimitable master, no other than an alphabet, pater noster, &c. written -out by himself for the use of his own little babies, and ornamented with -vignettes, &c. to tempt them to study it. I shall not see it however, as -Conte Trivulci is out of town, to whom it belongs. I have not neglected -to go see the monument erected to one of his family, with the famous -inscription, - - Hic quiescit qui nunquam quievit; - -preserved by father Bouhours. The same day shewed me the remains of a -temple to Hercules, with many of the fine old pillars still standing. -They are soon to be taken down we hear for the purpose of widening the -street, as Carfax was at Oxford. - -My hunger after a journey to Pavia is much abated; since professor -Villa, whose erudition is well known, and whose works do him so much -honour, informed me that the inscription said by Pere Mabillon still -to subsist in praise of Boethius, is long since perished by time; nor -do they now shew the brick tower in which it is said he was confined -while he wrote his Consolations of Philosophy: for the tower is fallen -to the ground, and so is the report, every body being now persuaded -that they were composed in a strong place then standing upon the spot -called Calventianus Ager, from the name of a noble house to which it had -belonged for ages, and which I am told Cicero mentions as a family half -Placentian, half Milaneze. The field still goes by the name of _Il Campo -Calvenziano_; but, as it now belongs to people careless of remote events, -however interesting to literature, is not adorned by any obelisk, or -other mark, to denote its past importance, in having been once the scene -of sufferings gloriously endured by the most zealous christian, the most -steady patriot, and the most refined philosopher of the age in which he -lived. - -I have seen a fine MS. of the Consolations copied in the tenth century, -not only legible but beautiful; and I have been assured that the hymns -written by his first wife Elpis, who, though she brought him no children, -as Bertius says, was yet _fida curarum, et studiorum socia_[46], are -still sung in the Romish churches at Brescia and Bergamo, somewhat -altered from the state we find them in at the end of Cominus’s edition of -the Consolations. - -Tradition too, I find, agrees with Procopius in telling that this widow -of Boethius, Rusticiana, daughter of Symmachus, spent all the little -money she had left in hiring people to throw down in the night all the -statues set up in Rome to the honour of Theodoric, who had sentenced her -husband to a death so dreadful, that it gave occasion to many fabulous -tales reported by Martin Rota as miraculous truths. His bones, gathered -up as relics by Otho III., were placed in a chapel dedicated to St. -Austin in St. Peter’s church at Pavia four hundred and seventy-two years -after his death, with an epitaph preserved by Pere Mabillon, but now no -longer legible. - -We are now cutting hay here for the last time this season, and all the -environs smell like spring on this 15th September 1786. The autumnal -tint, however, falls fast upon the trees, which are already rich with a -deep yellow hue. A wintery feel upon the atmosphere early in a morning, -heavy fogs about noon, and a hollow wind towards the approach of night, -make it look like the very last week of October in England, and warn us -that summer is going. The same circumstances prompt me, who am about to -forsake this her favourite region, to provide furs, flannels, &c. for the -passing of those Alps which look so formidable when covered with snow at -their present distance. Our swallows are calling their clamorous council -round me while I write; but the butterflies still flutter about in the -middle of the day, and grapes are growing more wholesome as with us when -the mornings begin to be frosty. Our deserts, however, do not remind us -of Tuscany: the cherries here are not particularly fine, and the peaches -all part from the stone--miserable things! an English gardener would not -send them to table: the figs too were infinitely finer at Leghorn, and -nectarines have I never seen at all. - -Well, here is the opera begun again; some merry wag, Abate Casti I think, -has accommodated and adapted the old story of king Theodore to put in -ridicule the present king of Sweden, who is hated of the emperor for some -political reasons I forget what, and he of course patronises the jester. -Our honest Lombards, however, take no delight in mimicry, and feel more -disgust than pleasure when simplicity is insulted, or distress made more -corrosive by the bitterness of a scoffing spirit. I have tried to see -whether they would laugh at any oddity in their neighbour’s manner, -but never could catch any, except perhaps now and then a sly Roman who -had a liking for it. “I see nothing absurd about the man,” says one -gentleman; “every body may have some peculiarity, and most people have; -but such things make me no sport: let us, when we have a mind to laugh, -go and laugh at Punchinello.”--From such critics, therefore, the king of -Sweden is safe enough, as they have not yet acquired the taste of hunting -down royalty, and crowing with infantine malice, when possessed of the -mean hope that they are able to pinch a noble heart. This old-fashioned -country, which detests the sight of suffering majesty, hisses off its -theatre a performance calculated to divert them at the expence of a -sovereign prince, whose character is clear from blame, and whose personal -weaknesses are protected by his birth and merit; while it is to his open, -free, and politely generous behaviour alone, they owe the knowledge that -he _has_ such foibles. Paisiello, therefore, cannot drive it down by his -best music, though the poor king of Sweden is a Lutheran too, and if any -thing would make them hate him, _that_ would. - -One vice, however, sometimes prevents the commission of another, and that -same prevailing idea which prompts these prejudiced Romanists to conclude -him doomed to lasting torments who dares differ from them, though in -points of no real importance, inspires them at the same time with such -compassion for his supposed state of predestinated punishment, that they -rather incline to defend him from further misery, and kindly forbear to -heap ridicule in this world upon a person who is sure to suffer eternal -damnation in the other. - -How melancholy that people who possess such hearts should have the head -thus perversely turned! I can attribute it but to one cause; their -strange neglect and forbearance to read and study God’s holy word: for -not a very few of them have I found who seem to disbelieve the Old -Testament entirely, yet remain steadily and strenuously attached to the -precedence their church claims over every other; and who shall wonder -if such a combination of bigotry with scepticism should produce an -evaporation of what little is left of popery from the world, as emetics -triturated with opium are said to produce a sudorific powder which no -earthly constitution can resist? - -But the Spanish grandee, who not only entertained but astonished us all -one night with his conversation at Quirini’s Casino at Venice, is arrived -here at Milan, and plays upon the violin. He challenged acquaintance -with us in the street, half invited himself to our private concert -last night, and did us the honour to perform there, with the skill of -a professor, the eager desire of a dilletante, and the tediousness of -a solitary student; he continued to amaze, delight, and fatigue us for -four long hours together. He is a man of prodigious talents, and replete -with variety of knowledge. A new dance has been tried at here too, but -was not well received, though it represents the terrible story which, -under Madame de Genlis’ pen, had such uncommon success among the reading -world, and is called _La sepolta viva_; but as the duchess Girafalco, -whose misfortune it commemorates, is still alive, the pantomime will -probably be suppressed: for she has relations at Milan it seems, and -one lady distinguished for elegance of form, and charms of voice and -manner, told me yesterday with equal sweetness, spirit, and propriety, -that though the king of Naples sent his soldiers to free her aunt from -that horrible dungeon where she had been nine years confined, yet if -her miseries were to become the subject of stage representation, she -could hardly be pronounced happy, or even at ease. Truth is, I would -be loath to see the spirit of producing every one’s private affairs, -true or false, before the public eye, spread into _this_ country: No! -let that humour be confined to Great Britain, where the thousand real -advantages resulting from living in a free state, richly compensate for -the violations of delicacy annexed to it; and where the laws do protect, -though the individuals insult one: but _here_, why the people would be -miserable indeed, if to the oppression which may any hour be exercised -over them by their prince, were likewise to be added the liberties -taken perpetually in London by one’s next door neighbour, of tearing -forth every transaction, and publishing even every conjecture to one’s -disadvantage. - -With these reflections, and many others, excited by gratitude to private -friends, and general admiration of a country so justly esteemed, we shall -soon take our leave of Milan, famed for her truly hospitable disposition; -a temper of mind sometimes abused by travellers perhaps, whose birth -and pretensions are seldom or ever inquired into, whilst no people are -more careful of keeping their rank inviolate by never conversing on equal -terms with a countryman or woman of their own, who cannot produce a -proper length of ancestry. - -I will not leave them though, without another word or two about their -language, which, though it sounded strangely coarse and broad to be sure, -as we returned home from Florence, Rome, and Venice, I felt sincerely -glad to hear again; and have some notion by their way of pronouncing -_bicchiere_, a word used here to express every thing that holds water, -that our _pitcher_ was probably derived from it; and the Abate Divecchio, -a polite scholar, and an uncommonly agreeable companion, seemed to think -so too. His knowledge of the English language, joined to the singular -power he has over his own elegant Tuscan tongue, made me torment him with -a variety of inquiries about these confusing dialects, which leave me at -last little chance to understand any, whilst a child is called _bambino_ -at Florence, _putto_ at Venice, _schiatto_ at Bergamo, and _creatura_ at -Rome; and at Milan they call a wench _tosa_: an apron is _grembiule_ -at Florence I think, _traversa_ at Venice, _bigarrol_ at Brescia and -some other parts of Lombardy, _senale_ at Rome, and at Milan _scozzà_. A -foreigner may well be distracted by varieties so striking; but the turn -and idiom differ ten times more still, and I love to hear our Milanese -call an oak _robur_ rather than _quercia_ somehow, and tell a lady when -dressed in white, that she is _tutto in albedine_. - -On Friday the 22d of September then we left Milan, and I dropt a tear or -two in remembrance of the many civilities shewn by our kind and partial -companions. The Abate Bianconi made me wild to go to Dresden, and enjoy -the Correggios now moved from Modena to that gallery. I find he thinks -the old Romans pronounced Cicero and Cæsar as the moderns do, and many -English scholars are of the same mind; but here are coins dug up now out -of the Veronese mountain with the word Carolus, spelt _Karrulus_, upon -them quite plain; and Christus was spelt _Kristus_ in Vespasian’s time -it is certain, because of the player’s monument at Rome.--Dr. Johnson, I -remember, was always steady to that opinion; but it is time to leave all -this, and rejoice in my third arrival at gay, cheerful, charming - - - - -VERONA, - - -Whither some sweet leave-taking verses have followed us, written by -the facetious Abate Ravasi, a native of Rome, but for many years an -inhabitant of Milan. His agreeable sonnet, every line ending with -_tutto_, being upon a subject of general importance, would serve as a -better specimen of his abilities than lines dictated only by partial -friendship;--but I hear _that_ is already circulated about the world, and -printed in one of our magazines; to them let him trust his fame, they -will pay my just debts. - -We have now seen this enchanting spot in spring, summer, and autumn; -nor could winter’s self render it undelightful, while uniting every -charm, and gratifying every sense. Greek and Roman antiquities salute -one at the gates; Gothic remains render each place of worship venerable: -Nature in her holiday dress decks the environs, and society animates -with intellectual fire the amiable inhabitants. Oh! were I to live here -long, I should not only excuse, but applaud the Scaligers for straining -probability, and neglecting higher praise, only to claim kindred with -the Scalas of Verona. Improvisation at this place pleases me far better -than it did in Tuscany. Our truly-learned Abate Lorenzi astonishes all -who hear him, by _repeating_, not _singing_, a series of admirably just -and well-digested thoughts, which he, and he alone, possesses the power -of arranging suddenly as if by magic, and methodically as if by study, -to rhymes the most melodious, and most varied; while the Abbé Bertola, -of the university at Pavia, gives one pleasure by the same talent in -a manner totally different, singing his unpremeditated strains to the -accompaniment of a harpsichord, round which stand a little chorus of -friends, who interpolate from time to time two lines of a well-known -song, to which he pleasingly adapts his compositions, and goes on gracing -the barren subject, and adorning it with every possible decoration of -wit, and every desirable elegance of sentiment. Nothing can surely -surpass the happy promptitude of his expression, unless it is the -brilliancy of his genius. - -We were in a large company last night, where a beautiful woman of quality -came in dressed according to the present taste, with a gauze head-dress, -adjusted turbanwise, and a heron’s feather; the neck wholly bare. Abate -Bertola bid me look at her, and, recollecting himself a moment, made this -Epigram improviso: - - Volto e Crin hai di Sultana, - Perchè mai mi vien disdetto, - Sodducente Mussulmana - Di gittarti il _Fazzoletto_? - -of which I can give no better imitation than the following: - - While turban’d head and plumage high - A Sultaness proclaims my Cloe; - Thus tempted, tho’ no Turk, I’ll try - The handkerchief you scorn--to throw ye. - -This is however a weak specimen of his powers, whose charming fables -have so completely, in my mind, surpassed all that has ever been written -in that way since La Fontaine. I am strongly tempted to give one little -story out of his pretty book. - - Una lucertoletta - Diceva al cocodrillo, - Oh quanto mi diletta - Di veder finalmente - Un della mia famiglia - Si grande e si potente! - Ho fatto mille miglia - Per venirvi a vedere, - Mentre tra noi si serba - Di voi memoria viva; - Benche fuggiam tra l’erba - E il sassoso sentiero: - In sen però non langue - L’onor del prisco sangue. - L’anfibio rè dormiva - A questi complimenti, - Pur sugli ultimi accenti - Dal sonno se riscosse - E dimandò chi fosse? - La parentela antica, - Il viaggio, la fatica, - Quella torno a dire, - Ed ei torne a dormire. - - Lascia i grandi ed i potenti, - A sognar per parenti; - Puoi cortesi stimarli - Se dormon mentre parli. - - Walking full many a weary mile - The lizard met the crocodile; - And thus began--how fat, how fair, - How finely guarded, Sir, you are! - ’Tis really charming thus to see - One’s kindred in prosperity. - I’ve travell’d far to find your coast, - But sure the labour was not lost: - For you must think we don’t forget - Our loving cousin now so great; - And tho’ our humble habitations - Are such as suit our slender stations, - The honour of the lizard blood - Was never better understood. - - Th’ amphibious prince, who slept content, - Ne’er listening to her compliment, - At this expression rais’d his head, - And--Pray who are you? cooly said; - The little creature now renew’d - Her history of toils subdu’d, - Her zeal to see her cousin’s face, - The glory of her ancient race; - But looking nearer, found my lord - Was fast asleep again--and snor’d. - - Ne’er press upon a rich relation - Rais’d to the ranks of higher station; - Or if you will disturb your coz, - Be happy that he does but doze. - -But I will not be seduced by the pleasure of praising my sweet friends at -Verona, to lengthen this chapter with further panegyrics upon a place I -leave with the truest tenderness, and with the sincerest regret; while -the correspondence I hope long to maintain with the charming Contessa -Mosconi, must compensate all it can for the loss of her agreeable -Coterie, where my most delightful evenings have been spent; where so -many topics of English literature have been discussed; where Lorenzi -read Tasso to us of an afternoon, Bertola made verses, and the cavalier -Pindemonte conversed; where the three Graces, as they are called, joined -their sweet voices to sing when satiety of pleasure made us change our -mode of being happy, and kept one from wishing ever to hear any thing -else; while countess Carminati sung Bianchi’s duets with the only tenor -fit to accompany a voice so touching, and a taste so refined. _Verona! -qui te viderit, et non amarit_, says some old writer, I forget who, -_protinus amor perditissimo; is credo se ipsum non amat_[47]. Indeed I -never saw people live so pleasingly together as these do; the women -apparently delighting in each other’s company, without mean rivalry, or -envy of those accomplishments which are commonly bestowed by heaven with -diversity enough for all to have their share. The world surely affords -room for every body’s talents, would every body that possessed them but -think so; and were malice and affectation once completely banished from -cultivated society, _Verona_ might be found in many places perhaps; she -is now confined, I think, to the sweet state of _Venice_. - - - - -JOURNEY THROUGH TRENT, INSPRUCK, MUNICK, AND SALTZSBURG, TO VIENNA. - - -The Tyrolese Alps are not as beautiful as those of Savoy, though the -river that runs between them is wider too; but that very circumstance -takes from the horror which constitutes beauty in a rocky country, -while a navigable stream and the passage of large floats convey ideas -of commerce and social life, leaving little room for the solitary -fancies produced, and the strokes of sublimity indelibly impressed, by -the mountains of La Haute Morienne. The sight of a town where all the -theological learning of Europe was once concentred, affords however much -ground of mental amusement; while the sight of two nations, not naturally -congenial, living happily together, as the Germans and Italians here do, -is pleasing to all. - -We saw the apartments of the Prince Bishop, but found few things worth -remarking, except that in the pictures of Carlo Loti there is a shade of -the Flemish school to be discerned, which was pretty as we are now hard -upon the confines. Our sovereign here keeps his little menagerie in a -mighty elegant style: the animals possess an insulated rock, surrounded -by the Adige, and planted with every thing that can please them best; the -wild, or more properly the predatory creatures, are confined, but in very -spacious apartments; with each a handsome outlet for amusement: while -such as are granivorous rove at pleasure over their domain, to which -their master often comes in summer to eat ice at a banquetting house -erected for him in the middle, whence a prospect of a peculiar nature is -enjoyed; great beauty, much variety, and a very limited horizon, like -some of the views about Bath. - -At the death of one prince another is chosen, and government carried on -as at Rome in miniature. We staid here two nights and one day, thought -perpetually of Matlock and Ivy Bridge, and saw some rarities belonging -to a man who shewed us a picture of our Saviour’s circumcision, and told -us it was _San Simeone_, a baby who having gone through many strange -operations and torments among some Jews who stole him from his parents, -as the story goes here at Trent, they murdered him at last, and he became -a saint and a martyr, to whom much devotion is paid at this place, though -I fancy he was never heard of any where else. - -The river soon after we left Trent contracted to a rapid and narrow -torrent, such as dashes at the foot of the Alps in Savoy; the rocks -grew more pointed, and the prospects gained in sublimity at every step; -though the neatness of the culture, and quantity of vines, with the -variegated colouring of the woods, continued to excite images more soft -than formidable, less solemn than lovely. The barberry bushes bind -every mountain round the middle as with a scarlet sash, and when we -looked down upon them from a house situated as if in the place which -the Frenchman seemed to have a notion of, when he thought the aerian -travellers were gone _au lieu ou les vents se forment_, they looked -wonderfully pretty. The cleanliness and comfort with which we are now -lodged at every inn, evince our distance from France however, and even -from Italy, where low cielings, clean windows, and warm rooms, are -deemed pernicious to health, and destructive of true delight. Here -however we find ourselves cruelly distressed for want of language, and -must therefore depend on our eyes only, not our ears, for information -concerning the golden house, or more properly the golden roof, long known -to subsist at Inspruck. The story, as well as I can gather it, is this: -That some man was reproached with spending more than he could afford, -till some of his neighbours cried out, “Why he’ll roof his house with -gold soon, but who shall pay the expence?”--“_I_ will;” quoth the piqued -German, and actually did gild his tiles. My heart tells me however, -though my memory will not call up the particulars, that I have heard a -tale very like this before now; but one is always listening to the same -stories I think: At Rome, when they shew a fine head lightly sketched by -Michael Angelo, they inform you how he left it on Raphael’s wall, after -the manner of Apelles and Protogenes; it is called Testa di Ciambellaro, -because he came disguised as a seller of _ciambelle_, or little biscuits, -while Raphael’s scholars were painting at the Farnesini. At Milan, when -they point out to you the extraordinary architecture of the church _detto -il Giardino_, the roof of which is supported by geometrical dependance -of one part upon another, without columns or piers, they tell how the -architect ran away the moment it was finished, for fear its sudden fall -might disgrace him. This tale was very familiar to me, I had heard it -long ago related of a Welch bridge; but it is better only say what is -true. - -This is a sweetly situated town, and a rapid stream runs through it as at -Trent; and it is no small comfort to find one’s self once more waited on -by clean looking females, who make your bed, sweep your room, &c. while -the pewters in the little neat kitchens, as one passes through, amaze me -with their brightness, that I feel as if in a new world, it is _so_ long -since I have seen any metal but gold unencrusted by nastiness, and gold -_will_ not be dirty. - -The clumsy churches here are more violently crowded with ornaments than -I have found them yet; and for one crucifix or Madonna to be met with on -Italian roads, here are at least forty; an ill carved and worse painted -figure of a bleeding Saviour, large as life, meets one at every turn; and -I feel glad when the odd devotion of the inhabitants hangs a clean shirt -or laced waistcoat over it, or both. Another custom they have wholly new -to me, that of keeping the real skeletons of their old nobles, or saints, -or any one for whom they have peculiar veneration, male or female, in a -large clean glass box or crystal case, placed horizontally, and dressed -in fine scarlet and gold robes, the poor naked skull crowned with a -coronet, and the feet peeping out below the petticoats. These melancholy -objects adorn all their places of worship, being set on brackets by the -wall inside, and remind me strangely of our old ballad of Death and the -Lady; - - Fair lady, lay your costly robes aside, &c. - -No body ever mentions that Inspruck is subject to fires, and I wonder at -it, as the roofs are all wood cut tile-ways; and heavily pensile, like -our barns in England, for the snow to roll off the easier. - -Well! we are far removed indeed from Italian architecture, Italian -sculpture, and Italian manners; but here are twenty-eight old kings, or -keysers, as our German friends call them, large as life, and of good -solid bronze, curiously worked to imitate lace, embroidery, &c. standing -in two rows, very extraordinarily, up one of their churches. I have not -seen more frowning visages or finer dresses for a long time; and here is -a warm feel as one passes by the houses, even in the street, from the -heat of the stoves, which most ingeniously conceal from one’s view that -most cheerful of all sights in cold weather, a good fire. This seems a -very unnecessary device, and the heated porcelain is apt to make one’s -head ache beside; all for the sake of this cunning contrivance, to make -one enjoy the effect of fire without seeing the cause. - -The women that run about the town, mean time, take the nearest way to be -warm, wrapping themselves up in cloth clothes, like so many fishermen at -the mouth of the Humber, and wear a sort of rug cap grossly unbecoming. -But too great an attention to convenience disgusts as surely as too -little; and while a Venetian wench apparently seeks only to captivate the -contrary sex, these German girls as plainly proclaim their resolution not -to sacrifice a grain of personal comfort for the pleasure of pleasing all -the men alive. - -How truly hateful are extremes of every thing each day’s experience -convinces; from superstition and infidelity, down to the Fribble and the -Brute, one’s heart abhors the folly of reversing wrong to look for right, -which lives only in the middle way; and Solomon, the wisest man of any -age or nation, places the sovereign good in mediocrity of every thing, -moral, political, and religious. - -With this good axiom of _nequid nimis_[48] in our mouths and minds, we -should not perhaps have driven so very hard; but a less effort would -have detained us longer from the finest object I almost ever saw; the -sun rising between six and seven o’clock upon the plains of Munich, and -discovering to our soothed sight a lovely champain country, such as -might be called a flat I fear, by those who were not like us accustomed -to a hilly one; but after four-and-twenty hours passed among the Alps, -I feel sincerely rejoiced to quit the clouds and get upon a level with -human creatures, leaving the goats and chamois to delight as they do in -bounding from rock to rock, with an agility that amazes one. - -Our weather continuing particularly fine, it was curious to watch one -picturesque beauty changing for another as we drove along; for no sooner -were the rich vineyards and small inclosures left behind, than large -pasture lands filled with feeding or reposing cattle, cows, oxen, horses, -fifty in a field perhaps, presented to our eyes an object they had not -contemplated for two years before, and revived ideas of England, which -had long lain buried under Italian fertility. - -Instead of lying down to rest, having heard we had friends at the same -inn, we ran with them to see the picture gallery, more for the sake of -doing again what we had once done before at Paris with the same agreeable -company, than with any hope of entertainment, which however upon trial -was found by no means deficient. Had there been no more than the glow of -colouring which results from the sight of so many Flemish pictures at -once, it must have struck one forcibly; but the murder of the Innocents -by Rubens, a great performance, gave me an opportunity of observing the -different ways by which that great master, Guido Rheni, and Le Brun, lay -hold of the human heart. The difference does not however appear to me -inspired at all by what we term national character; for the inhabitants -of Germany are reckoned slow to anger, and of phlegmatic dispositions, -while a Frenchman is accounted light and airy in his ideas, an Italian -fiery and revengeful. Yet Rubens’s principal figure follows the ruffian -who has seized her child, and with a countenance at once exciting and -expressive of horror, endeavours, and almost arrives at tearing both his -eyes out. One actually sees the fellow struggling between his efforts -to hold the infant fast, and yet rid himself of the mother, while blood -and anguish apparently follow the impression her nails are making in -the tenderest parts of his face. Guido, on the contrary, in one of the -churches at Bologna, exhibits a beautiful young creature of no mean -rank, elegant in her affliction, and lovely in her distress, sitting with -folded arms upon the fore-ground, contemplating the cold corpse of her -murdered baby; his nurse wringing her hands beside them, while crowds of -distracted parents fill the perspective, and the executioners themselves -appear to pay unwilling obedience to their inhuman king, who is seen -animating them himself from the top of a distant tower.--Le Brun mean -time, with more imagination and sublimity than either, makes even brute -animals seem sensible, and shudder at a scene so dreadful; while the very -horses who should bear the cruel prince over the theatre of his crimes, -snort and tremble, and turning away with uncontrollable fury, refuse by -trampling in their blood to violate such injured innocence!--Enough of -this. - -The patient German is seen in all they shew us, from the painting of -Brughuel to the music of Haydn. A friend here who speaks good Italian -shewed us a collection of rarities, among which was a picture formed of -butterflies wings; and a set of boxes one within another, till my eyes -were tired with trying to discern, and the patience of my companions was -wearied with counting them, when the number passed seventy-three: this -amusement has at least the grace of novelty to recommend it. I had not -formed to myself an idea of such unmeaning, such tasteless, yet truly -elaborate nicety of workmanship, as may be found in the Elector’s chapel, -where every relic reposes in some frame, enamelled and adorned with a -minuteness of attention and delicacy of manual operation that astonishes. -The prodigious quantity of these gold or ivory figures, finished so as to -require a man’s whole life to each of them, are of immense value in their -way at least, and fill one’s mind with a sort of petty and frivolous -wonder totally unexperienced till now, bringing to one’s recollection -every hour Pope’s famous line-- - - Lo! what huge heaps of littleness around! - -The contrast between this chapel and Cappella Borghese never left my -fancy for a moment: but if the cost of these curious trifles caused my -continued surprise, how was that surprise increased by observing the -bed-chamber of the Elector; where they told us that no less than one -hundred thousand pounds sterling were buried under loads of gold tissue, -red velvet, and old-fashioned carved work, without the merit even of an -attempt towards elegance or taste? - -Nimphenbourg palace and gardens reminded me of English gardening forty -years ago, while-- - - Grove nods at grove, each alley has a brother, - And half the platform just reflects the other. - -I do think I can recollect going with my parents and friends to see Lord -Royston’s seat at Wrest, when we lived in Hertfordshire, in the year -1750; and it was just such a place as Nimphenbourg is at this day. Now -for some just praise: every thing is kept so neat here, so clean, so -sweet, so comfortably nice, that it is a real pleasure somehow either to -go out in this town or stay at home: the public baths are delicious; the -private rooms with boarded floors, all swept, and brushed, and dusted, -that not a cobweb can be seen in Munich, except one kept for a rarity, -with the Virgin and Child worked in it, and wrought to such an unrivalled -pitch of delicate fineness, that till we held it up to the light no -naked eye could discern the figures it contained, till a microscope soon -discovered the skill and patience requisite to its production;--great -pains indeed, and little effect! We have left the country where things -were exactly the reverse,--great effect, and little pains! But it is the -same in every thing. - -The women’s scrupulous attention to keep their persons clear from -dirt, makes their faces look doubly fair; their complexions have quite -a lustre upon them, like some of our wenches in the West of England, -whose transparent skins shew, by the motion of the blood beneath, an -illuminated countenance that stands in the place of eye-language, -and betrays the sentiments of the innocent heart with uncontrolable -sincerity. These girls however will not be found to attract or retain -lovers, like an Italian, whose black eyes and white teeth (though their -possessor thinks no more of cleaning the last-named beauty than the -first) tell her mind clearly, and with little pains again produce certain -and strong effect. Our stiff gold-stuff cap here too, as round, as hard, -and as heavy as an old Japan China bason, and not very unlike one, is -by no means favourable to the face, as it is clapped close round the -head, the hair combed all smooth out of sight, and a plaited border of -lace to it made firm with double-sprigged wire; giving its wearer all the -hardness and prim look of a Quaker, without that idea of simplicity which -in their dress compensates for the absence of every ornament. - -The gentlemen’s _maniere de s’ajuster_ is to me equally striking: an -old nobleman who takes delight in shewing us the glories of his little -court (where I have a notion he himself holds some honourable office) -came to dine with us yesterday in a dressed coat of fine, clean, white -broad-cloth, laced all down with gold, and lined with crimson sattin, of -which likewise the waistcoat was made, and laced about with a narrower -lace, but pretty broad too; so that I thought I saw the very coat my -father went in to the old king’s birth-day five and thirty years ago. -There is more stateliness too and ceremonious manners in the conversation -of this gentleman, and the friends he introduced us to, than I have -of late been accustomed to; and they fatigue one with long, dry, -uninteresting narratives. The innkeepers are honest, but inflexible; the -servants silent and sullen; the postillions slow and inattentive; and -every thing exhibits the reverse of what we have left behind. - -The treasures of this little Elector are prodigious, his jewels superb; -the Electress’s pearls are superior in size and regularity to those -at Loretto, but that distinguished by the name of the “Pearl of the -Palatinate” is surely incomparable, and, as such, always carried to the -election of a new Emperor, when each brings his finest possession in his -hand, like the Princess of Babylon’s wooers,--which was perhaps meant -by Voltaire as a joke upon the custom. This pearl is about the bigness -and shape of a very fine filberd, the upper part or cap of it jet black, -smooth and perfectly beautiful; _it is unique in the known world_. - -Our Prince’s dinner here is announced by the sound of drums and trumpets, -and he has always a concert playing while he dines: pomp is at this place -indeed so artfully substituted instead of general consequence, that while -one remains here one scarcely feels aware how little any one but his own -courtiers can be thinking about the Elector of Bavaria; but ceremony is -of most use where there is least importance, and glitter best hides the -want of solidity. - -From Munich to Saltzbourg nothing can exceed the beauties of the -country; whole woods, and we may say forests, of ever-green timber, keep -all idea of winter kindly at a distance: the road lies through these -elegantly-varied thickets, which sometimes are formed of cedars, often -of foxtailed pines, while a pale larch sometimes, and gloomy cypress, -hinder the verdure from being too monotonous; here are likewise mingled -among them some oak and beech of a majestic size. Nor do our prospects -want that dignity which mountains alone can bestow; those which separate -Bavaria from Hungary are high, and of considerable extent; a long range -they are of bulky fortifications, behind which I am informed the country -is far coarser than here. - -The cathedral at Saltzbourg is modern, built upon the model of St. -Peter’s at Rome, but on a small scale: one now sees how few the defects -are of that astonishing pile, though brought close to one’s eye, by being -stript of the awful magnitude that kept examination at a distance. The -musical bells remind me of those at Bath, and every thing here seems, as -at Bath, the work of this present century; but there is a Benedictine -convent seated on the top of a hill above the town, of exceeding -antiquity, founded before the conquest of England by William the Norman; -under which lie its founder and protectors, the old Dukes of Bavaria; -which they are happy to shew travellers, with the registered account of -their young Prince _Adam_, who came over to our island with William, and -gained a settlement: they were pleased when I proved to them, that his -blood was not yet wholly extinct among us. - -A fever hindered us here from looking at the salt-works, from which the -city takes its name: but the water-works at Heelbrun pleased us for a -moment; and I never saw beavers live so happily as with the Archbishop of -Saltzbourg, who suffers, and even encourages, his tame ones to dig, and -build, and amuse themselves their own way: he has fish too which eat out -of his hand, and are not carp, but I do not know what they are; my want -of language distracts me. These German streams appear to us particularly -pellucid, and, by what I can gather from the people, this water never -freezes. The taste of gardening seems just what ours was in England -before Stowe was planned, and they divert you now with puppets moved by -concealed machinery, as I recollect their doing at places round London, -called the Spaniard at Hampstead and Don Saltero’s at Chelsea. - -The Prince Archbishop’s income is from three to four hundred thousand a -year I understand, and he spends it among his subjects, who half adore -him. His chief delight is in brute animals they tell me, particularly -horses, which engross so much of his attention that he keeps one hundred -and seventeen for his own private and personal use, of various merits, -beauties, and pedigrees; never surely was so elegant, so capital a -stud! And he is singularly fond of a breed of fine silky-haired English -setting-dogs, red and white, and very high upon their legs. - -The country which carried us forward to Vienna is eminently fine, and -fine in a way that is now once more grown new to me; no hedges here, no -small inclosures at all; but rich land, lying like as in Dorsetshire, -divided into arable and pasture grounds, clumped about with woods of -ever-green. Such is the genius of this sovereign for English manners and -English agriculture, that no conversation is said to be more welcome at -his court than what relates to the sports or profits of the field in -Britain; to which accounts he listens with good-humoured earnestness, and -talks of a fine scenting day with the true taste of an English country -gentleman. - -On this day I first saw the Danube at Lintz, where, though but just -burst from the spring, it is already so deep and strong that scarcely -any wooden bridge is capable to resist it, and accordingly it did a few -months ago overwhelm many cottages and fields, among which we passed. -The inhabitants here call it _Donaw_ from its swiftness; and it deserves -beside, any name expressive of that singular purity which distinguishes -the German torrents. - -The rivers of France, Italy, and England, give one no idea of that -elemental perfection found in the fluids here; not a pebble, not a fish -in these translucent streams, but may be discerned to a depth of twelve -feet. As the water in Germany, so is the atmosphere in Italy, a medium -so little obstructed by vapour I remember, that Vesuvius looked as near -to Naples, from our window, as does lord Lisburne’s park from the little -town of Exmouth opposite, a distance of about five miles I believe, and -the other is near ten. Let me add, that this peculiarity brings every -object forward with a certain degree of hardness not wholly pleasing -to the eye. The prospects round Naples have another fault, resulting -from too great perfection: the sky’s brilliant uniformity, and utter -cloudlessness for many months together, takes away those broad masses of -light and shade, with the volant shadows that cross our British hills, -relieving the sight, and discriminating the landscape. - -The scenery round Conway Castle in North Wales, with a thunder-storm -rolling over the mountain; the sea strongly illuminated on one side, with -the sun shining bright upon the verdure on the other; the lights dropping -in patches about one; exhibits a variety, the which to equal will be very -difficult, let us travel as far as we please. - -Magnificence of a far different kind however claims our present -attention--a convent and church shewn us at Molcke upon our way, -the residence of eighteen friars who inhabit a stately palace it is -confessed, while three immense courts precede your entrance to a splendid -structure of enormous size, on which the finery bestowed amazed even me, -who came from Rome; nor had entertained an idea of seeing such gilding, -and carving, and profusion of expence, lavished on a place of religious -retirement in our road to - - - - -VIENNA. - - -We entered the capital by night; but I fancied, perhaps from having -been told so, that I saw something like a look of London round me. -Apartments furnished wholly in the Paris taste take off that look a -little; so do the public walks and drives which are formed etoile-wise, -and moving slowly up and down the avenues, you see large stags, wild -boars, &c. grazing at liberty: this is grander than our park, and graver -than the Corso. Whenever they lay out a piece of water in this country, -it is covered as in ours with swans, who have completely quitted the -odoriferous Po for the clear and rapid Danube. - -Vienna was not likely to strike one with its churches; yet the old -cathedral is majestic, and by no means stript of those ornaments which, -while one sect of Christians think it particularly pleasing in the sight -of God to retain, is hardly warrantable in another sect, though wiser, to -be over-hasty in tearing away. Here are however many devotional figures -and chapels left in the streets I see, which, from the tales told in -Austrian Lombardy, one had little reason to expect; but the emperor is -tender even to the foibles of his Viennese subjects, while he shews -little feeling to Italian misery. Men drawing carts along the roads -and street afford, indeed, somewhat an awkward proof the government’s -lenity when human creatures are levelled with the beasts of burden, and -called _stott eisel_, or _stout asses_, as I understand, who by this -information have learned that the frame which supports a picture is for -the same reason called an _eisel_, as we call a thing to hang clothes on -a _horse_. It is the genius of the German language to degrade all our -English words somehow: they call a coach a _waggon_, and ask a lady -if she will buy pomatum to _smear_ her hair with. Such is however the -resemblance between their tongue and ours, that the Italians protest they -cannot separate either the ideas or the words. - -I must mention our going to the post-office with a Venetian friend -to look for letters, where, after receiving some surly replies from -the people who attended there, our laquais de place reminded my male -companions that they should stand _uncovered_. Finding them however -somewhat dilatory in their obedience, a rough fellow snatched the hat -from one of their heads, saying, “_Don’t you know, Sir, that you are -standing before the emperor’s officers?_”--“_I know_,” replied the prompt -Italian, “_that we are come to a country where people wear their hats -in the church, so need not wonder we are bid to take them off in the -post-office_.” Well, where rulers are said or supposed to be tyrannical, -it is rational that good provision should be made for arms; otherwise -despotism dwindles into nugatory pompousness and airy show; Prospero’s -empire in the enchanted island of Shakespeare is not more shadowy than -the sight of princedom united with impotence of power:--such have I -seen, but such is not the character of Keysar’s dominion. The arsenal -here is the finest thing in the world I suppose; it grieved me to feel -the ideas of London and Venice fade before it so; but the enormous size -and solidity of the quadrangle, the quantity and disposition of the -cannon, bombs, and mortars, filled my mind with enforced respect, and -shook my nerves with the thought of what might follow such dreadful -preparation. - -Nothing can in fact be grander than the sight of the Austrian eagle, -all made out in arms, eight ancient heroes sternly frowning round it. -The choice has fallen on Cæsar, Pompey, Alexander, Scipio, Hannibal, -Fabius Maximus, Cyrus, and Themistocles. I should have thought Pyrrhus -worthier the company of all the rest than this last-named hero; but -petty criticisms are much less worthy a place in Vienna’s arsenal, which -impresses one with a very majestic idea of Imperial greatness. - -On the first of November we tried at an excursion into Hungary, where -we meant to have surveyed the Danube in all its dignity at Presburgh, -and have heard Hayden at Estherhazie. But my being unluckily taken -ill, prevented us from prosecuting our journey further than a wretched -village, where I was laid up with a fever, and disappointed my company of -much hoped-for entertainment. It was curious however to find one’s self -within a few posts of the places one had read so much of; and the words -_Route de Belgrade_ upon a finger-post gave me sensations of distance -never felt before. The comfortable sight of a protestant chapel near me -made much amends however. The officiating priests were of the Moravian -sect it seems, and dear Mr. Hutton’s image rushed upon my mind. A burial -passing by my windows, struck me as very extraordinary: not one follower -or even bearer being dressed in black, but all with green robes trimmed -with dark brown furs, not robes neither; but like long coats down to the -men’s heels, cut in skirts, and trimmed up those skirts as well as round -the bottom with fur. - -It was a melancholy country that we passed through, very bleak and -dismal, and I trust would not have mended upon us had we gone further. -The few people one sees are all ignorant, and can all speak Latin--such -as it is--very fluently. I have lived with many very knowing people who -never could speak it with any fluency at all. Such is life!--and such -is learning! I long to talk about the sheep and swine: they seem very -worthy of observation; the latter large and finely shaped, of the old -savage race; one fancies them like those Eumæus tended, and perhaps they -are so; with tusks of singular beauty and whiteness, which the uniformly -brown colour of the creature shews off to much advantage; amidst his -dark curls, waving all over his high back and long sides, in the manner -of a curl-pated baby in England, only that the last is commonly fair and -blonde. - -The sheep are spotted like our pigs, but prettier; black and yellow like -a tortoise-shell cat, with horns as long as those of any he-goat I ever -saw, but very different; these animals carrying them straight upright -like an antelope, and they are of a spiral shape. Our mutton meantime is -detestable; but here are incomparable fish, carp large as small Severn -salmon, and they bring them to table cut in pounds, and the joul for a -handsome dish. I only wonder one has never heard of any ancient or any -modern gluttons driving away to Presburg or Buda, for the sake of eating -a fine Danube carp. - -With regard to men and women in Hungary, they are not thickly scattered, -but their lamentations are loud; the emperor having resumed all -the privileges granted them by Maria Theresa in the year 1740, or -thereabouts, when distress drove her to shelter in that country, and has -prohibited the importation of salt herrings which used to come duty free -from Amsterdam, so that their fasts are rendered incommodious from the -asperity of the soil, which produces very little vegetable food. - -Ground squirrels are frequent in the forests here; but without Pennant’s -Synopsis I never remember the Linnæan names of quadrupeds, so can get no -information of the animal called a glutton in English, whose skin I see -in every fur-shop, and who, I fancy, inhabits our Hungarian woods. - -The Imperial collection of pictures here is really a magnificent -repository of Italian taste, Flemish colouring, and Dutch exactness: in -which the Baptist, by Giulio Romano, the crucifixion by Vandyke, and the -physician holding up a bottle to the light by Gerard Douw, are great -examples. - -One does not in these countries look out particularly for the works -of Roman or Bolognese masters; but I remember a wonderful Caracci at -Munich, worthy a first place even in the Zampieri palace; the subject, -Venus sitting under a great tree diverting herself with seeing a scuffle -between the two boys Cupid and Anteros. - -In the gallery here at Vienna, many of the pictures have been handled -a good deal; one is dazzled with the brilliancy of these powerful -colourists: and here is a David Teniers surprisingly natural, of Abraham -offering up Isaac; a glorious Pordenone representing Santa Justina, -reminded me of her fine church at Padua, and _his_ centurion at Cremona, -which I know not who could excel; and here is Furino’s Sigismunda to be -seen, the same or a duplicate of that sold at Sir Luke Schaub’s sale -in London about thirty years ago, and called Correggio. I have seen it -at Merriworth too, if not greatly mistaken. The price it went for in -Langford’s auction-room I cannot surely forget, it was three thousand -pounds, _or they said so_. I will only add a word of a Dutch girl -representing Herodias, and so lively in its colouring, that I think the -king would have denied her who resembled it nothing, had he been a native -of Amsterdam. A Mount Calvary painted by the same hand is very striking, -with a crowd of people gathered about the cross, and men selling cakes to -the mob, as if at a fair or horse-race: two young peasants at fisty-cuffs -upon the fore ground quarrelling, as it should seem, about the propriety -of our Saviour’s execution. - -But I have this day heard so many and such interesting particulars -concerning the emperor, that I should not forgive myself if I failed to -record and relate them, the less because my authority was particularly -good, and the anecdotes singular and pleasing. - -He rises then at five o’clock every morning, even at this sharp season, -writes in private till nine, takes some refreshment then, and immediately -after calls his ministers, and employs the time till one professedly -in state affairs, rides out till three, returns and studies alone, -letting the people bring his dinner at the appointed hour, chuses out -of all the things they bring him one dish, and sets it on the stove to -keep hot, eating it when nature calls for food, but never detaining a -servant in the room to wait; at five he goes to the Corridor just near -his own apartment, where poor and rich, small and great, have access to -his person at pleasure, and often get him to arbitrate their law-suits, -and decide their domestic differences, as nothing is more agreeable to -him than finding himself considered by his people as their father, and -dispenser of justice over all his extensive dominions. His attention -to the duties he has imposed upon himself is so great, that, in order -to maintain a pure impartiality in his mind towards every claimant, he -suffers no man or woman to have any influence over him, and forbears even -the slight gratification of fondling a dog, lest it should take up too -much of his time. The emperor is a stranger upon principle to the joys -of confidence and friendship, but cultivates the acquaintance of many -ladies and gentlemen, at whose houses (when they see company) he drops -in, and spends the evening cheerfully in cards or conversation, putting -no man under the least restraint; and if he sees a new comer in look -disconcerted, goes up to him and says kindly, “Divert yourself your own -way, good Sir; and do not let me disturb you.” His coach is like the -commonest gentleman’s of Vienna; his servants distinguished only by the -plainness of their liveries; and, lest their insolence might make his -company troublesome to the houses where he visits, he leaves the carriage -in the street, and will not even be driven into the court-yard, where -other equipages and footmen wait. A large dish of hot chocolate thickened -with bread and cream is a common afternoon’s regale here, and the emperor -often takes one, observing to the mistress of the house how acceptable -such a meal is to him after so wretched a dinner. - -A few mornings ago showed his character in a strong light. Some poor -women were coming down the Danube on a float, the planks separated, and -they were in danger of drowning; as it was very early in the day, and -no one awake upon the shore except a sawyer that was cutting wood; who, -not being able to obtain from his phlegmatic neighbours that assistance -their case immediately required, ran directly to call the emperor who -he knew would be stirring, and who came flying to give that help which -from some happy accident was no longer wanted: but Joseph lost no good -humour on the occasion; on the contrary, he congratulated the women on -their deliverance, praising at the same time and rewarding the fellow for -having disturbed him. - -My informer told me likewise, that if two men dispute about any matter -till mischief is expected, the wife of one of them will often cry out, -“Come, have done, have done directly, or I’ll call our master, and -he’ll make you have done.” Now is it fair not to do every thing but -adore a sovereign like this? when we know that if such tales were told -us of Marcus Aurelius, or Titus Vespasian, it would be our delight to -repeat, our favourite learning to read of them. Such conduct would serve -succeeding princes for models, nor could the weight of a dozen centuries -smother their still rising fame. Yet is not my heart persuaded that the -reputation of Joseph the Second will be consigned immaculate from age -to age, like that of these immortal worthies, though dearly purchased -by the loss of ease and pleasure; while neither the mitred prelate nor -the blameless puritan pursue with blessings a heart unawed by splendour, -unsoftened by simplicity; a hand stretched forth rather to dispense -justice, than opening spontaneously to distribute charity. To speak less -solemnly, if men were nearer than they are to perfect creatures, absolute -monarchy would be the most perfect form of government, for the will of -the prince could never deviate from propriety; but if one king can see -all with his own eyes, and hear all with his own ears, no successor will -ever be able to do the same; and it is like giving Harrison 10,000 l. for -finding the longitude, to commend a person for having hit on the right -way of governing a great nation, while his science is incommunicable, and -his powers of execution must end with his life. - -The society here is charming; Sherlock says, that he who does not -like Vienna is his own satirist; I shall leave others to be mine. The -ladies here seem very highly accomplished, and speak a great variety of -languages with facility, studying to adorn the conversation with every -ornament that literature can bestow; nor do they appear terrified as in -London, lest pedantry should be imputed to them, for venturing sometimes -to use in company that knowledge they have acquired in private by -diligent application. Here also are to be seen young unmarried women once -again: misses, who wink at each other, and titter in corners at what is -passing in the rooms, public or private: I had lived so long away from -_them_, that I had half forgotten their existence. - -The horses here are trimmed at the heels, and led about in body clothes -like ours in England; but their drawing is ill managed, no shafts somehow -but a pole, which, when there is one horse only, looks awkward and badly -contrived. Beasts of various kinds plowing together has a strange look, -and the ox harnessed up like a hunter in a phaeton cuts a comical figure -enough. One need no longer say, _Optat ephippia bos piger_[49]; but it is -very silly, as no use can be thus made of that strength which lies only -in his head and horns. Plenty of wood makes the Germans profusely elegant -in their pales, hurdles, &c. which give an air of comfort and opulence, -and make the best compensation a cold climate can make for the hedges of -jessamine and medlar flowers, which I shall see no more. - -Our architecture here can hardly be expected to please an eye made -fastidious from the contemplation of Michael Angelo’s works at Rome, or -Palladio’s at Venice; nor will German music much delight those who have -been long accustomed to more simple melody, though intrinsic merit and -complicated excellence will always deserve the highest note of praise. -Whoever takes upon him to under-rate that which no one can obtain without -infinite labour and study, will ever be censured, and justly, for -refusing the reward due to deep research; but if a man’s taste leads him -to like _Cyprus_ wine, let him drink _that_, and content himself with -commending the _old hock_. - -Apropos, we hear that _Sacchini_, the Metastasio of musical composers, -is dead; but nobody at Vienna cares about his compositions. Our Italian -friends are more candid; they are always talking in favour of Bach and -Brughuel, Handel and Rubens. - -The cabinet of natural history is exceedingly fine, and the rooms -singularly well disposed. There are more cameos at Bologna, and one -superior specimen of native gold: every thing else I believe is better -here, and such opals did I never see before, no not at Loretto: the -petrified lemon and artichoke have no equals, and a brown diamond was new -to me to-day. A specimen of sea-salt filled with air bubbles like the -rings one buys at Vicenza, is worth going a long way to look at; but the -gentleman at Munich, who shewed us the Virgin Mary in a cobweb, had a -piece of red silver shot out into a ruby like crystal, more extraordinary -than any mineral production I have seen. Our attention was caught by -Maria Theresa’s bouquet, but one cannot forget the pearls belonging to -the electress of Bavaria. - -What seemed, however, most to charm the people who shewed the cabinet, -was a snuff-box consisting of various gems, none bigger than a -barley-corn, each of prodigious value, and the workmanship of more, every -square being inlaid so neatly, and no precious stone repeated, though -the number is no less than one hundred and eighty-three; a false bottom -besides of gold, opening with a spring touch, and discovering a written -catalogue of the jewels in the finest hand-writing, and the smallest -possible. This was to me a real curiosity, afforded a new and singular -proof of that astonishing power of eye, and delicacy of manual operation, -seconded by a patient and persevering attention to things frivolous -in themselves, which will be for ever alike neglected by the fire of -Italian genius, and disdained by the dignity of British science. - -We have seen other sort of things to-day however. The Hungarian and -Bohemian robes pleased me best, and the wild unset jewels in the diadem -of Transylvania impressed me with a valuable idea of Gothic greatness. -The service of gold plate too is very grand from its old-fashioned -solidity. I liked it better than I did the snuff-box; and here is a dish -in ivory puts one in mind of nothing but Achilles’s shield, so worked is -its broad margin with miniature representations of battles, landscapes, -&c. three dozen different stories round the dish, one might have looked -at it with microscopes for a week together. The porcelane plates have -been painted to ridicule Raphael’s pots at Loretto I fancy; Julio -Romano’s manner is comically parodied upon one of them. - -Prince Lichtenstein’s pictures are charming; a Salmacis in the water by -Albano is the best work of that master I ever saw, not diffused as his -works commonly are, but all collected somehow, and fine in a way I cannot -express for want of more knowledge; _very, very_ fine it is however, -and full of expression and character. The Caracci school again.--Here -is the whole history of Decius by Rubens too, wonderfully learned; and -an assumption of the Virgin so like Mrs. Pritchard our famous actress, -no portrait ever represented her so well. A St. Sebastian divinely -beautiful, by Vandyke; and a girl playing on the guitar, which you may -run round almost, by the coarse but natural hand of Caravagio. - -The library is new and splendid, and they buy books for it very -liberally. The learned and amiable Abbé Denys shewed me a thousand -unmerited civilities, was charmed with the character of Dr. Johnson, and -delighted with the story of his conversation at Rouen with Mons. l’Abbé -Rossette. This gentleman seems to love England very much, and English -literature; spoke of Humphry Prideaux with respect, and has his head -full of Ossian’s poetry, of which he can repeat whole pages. He shewed -me a fragment of Livy written in the fifth century, a psalter and creed -beautifully illuminated of the year nine hundred, and a large portion -of St. Mark’s gospel on blue paper of the year three hundred and seven. -A Bibbia de Poveri too, as the Italians call it, curious enough; the -figures all engraved on wood, and only a text at bottom to explain them. - -Winceslaus marked every book he ever possessed, it seems, with the five -vowels on the back; and almost every one with some little miniature made -by himself, recording his escape from confinement at Prague in Bohemia, -where the washer-woman having assisted him to get out of prison under -pretence of bathing, he has been very studious to register the event; -so much so that even on the margins of his bible he has been tempted to -paint past scenes that had better have been blotted from his memory. - -The Livy which learned men have hoped to find safe in the seraglio of -Constantinople, was burned by their late sultan Amurath, our Abbé Denys -tells me; the motive sprung from mistaken piety, but the effect is to -be lamented. He shewed me an Alcoran in extremely small characters, -surprisingly so indeed, taken out of a Turkish officer’s pocket when -John Sobiesky raised the siege of this city in the year 1590, and a -preacher took for his text the Sunday after, “_There was a man sent from -God whose name was_ John.” I was much amused with a sight of the Mexican -MSS and Peruvian quipos; nor are the Turkish figures of Adam and Eve, -our Saviour and his mother, less remarkable; but Mahomet surrounded by -a glory about his head, a veil concealing his face as too bright for -inspection, exceeded all the rest. - -Here are many ladies of fashion in this town very eminent for their -musical abilities, particularly Mesdemoiselles de Martinas, one of -whom is member of the Academies of Berlin and Bologna: the celebrated -Metastasio died in their house, after having lived with the family -sixty-five years more or less. They set his poetry and sing it very -finely, appearing to recollect his conversation and friendship, with -infinite tenderness and delight. He was to have been presented to the -Pope the very day he died, I understand, and in the delirium which -immediately preceded dissolution he raved much of the supposed interview. -Unwilling to hear of death, no one was ever permitted even to mention it -before him; and nothing put him so certainly out of humour, as finding -that rule transgressed even by his nearest friends. Even the small-pox -was not to be named in his presence, and whoever _did_ name that -disorder, though unconscious of the offence he had given, Metastasio -would see him no more. The other peculiarities I could gather from -Miss Martinas were these: That he had contentedly lived half a century -at Vienna, without ever even wishing to learn its language; that he -had never given more than five guineas English money in all that time -to the poor; that he always sat in the same seat at church, but never -paid for it, and that nobody dared ask him for the trifling sum; that -he was grateful and beneficent to the friends who began by being his -protectors, but ended much his debtors, for solid benefits as well as -for elegant presents, which it was his delight to be perpetually making -them, leaving to them at last all he had ever gained without the charge -even of a single legacy; observing in his will that it was to them he -owed it, and other conduct would in him have been injustice. Such were -the sentiments, and such the conduct of this great poet, of whom it is -of little consequence to tell, that he never changed the fashion of his -wig, the cut or colour of his coat, so that his portrait taken not very -long ago looks like those of Boileau or Moliere at the head of their -works. His life was arranged with such methodical exactness, that he -rose, studied, chatted, slept, and dined at the same hours for fifty -years together, enjoying uninterrupted health, which probably gave him -that happy sweetness of temper, or habitual gentleness of manners, which -never suffered itself to be ruffled, but when his sole injunction was -forgotten, and the death of any person whatever was unwittingly mentioned -before him. No solicitation had ever prevailed on him to dine from home, -nor had his nearest intimates ever seen him _eat_ more than a biscuit -with his lemonade, every meal being performed with even mysterious -privacy to the last. When his end approached by steps so very rapid, -he did not in the least suspect that it was coming; and Mademoiselle -Martinas has scarcely yet done rejoicing in the thought that he escaped -the preparations he so dreaded. His early passion for a celebrated -singer is well known upon the continent; since that affair finished, -all his pleasures have been confined to music and conversation. He had -the satisfaction of seeing the seventieth edition of his works I think -they said, but am ashamed to copy out the number from my own notes, it -seems so _very_ strange; and the delight he took in hearing the lady he -lived with sing his songs, was visible to every one. An Italian Abate -here said, comically enough, “Oh! he looked like a man in the state of -beatification always when Mademoiselle de Martinas accompanied his verses -with her fine voice and brilliant finger.” The father of Metastasio was -a goldsmith at Rome, but his son had so devoted himself to the family he -lived with, that he refused to hear, and took pains not to know, whether -he had in his latter days any one relation left in the world. On a -character so singular I leave my readers to make their own _observations -and reflections_. - -_Au reste_, as the French say; I have no notion that Vienna, _sempre -ventoso o velenoso_[50], can be a very wholesome place to live in; the -double windows, double feather-beds, &c. in a room without a chimney, -is surely ill contrived; and sleeping smothered up in down so, like a -hydrophobous patient in some parts of Ireland, is not _particularly_ -agreeable, though I begin to like it better than I did. All external air -is shut out in such a manner that I am frighted lest, after a certain -time, the room should become like an exhausted receiver, while the wind -whirls one about the street in such a manner that it is displeasing to -put out one’s head; and a physician from Ragusa settled here told me, -that wounded lungs are a common consequence of the triturated stone blown -about here; and in fact asthmas and consumptions are their reigning -diseases. - -Apropos, the plague is now raging in Transylvania; how little safe should -we think ourselves at London, were a disorder so contagious known to be -no farther distant than Derby? The distance is scarcely greater now from -Vienna to the place of distress; yet I will not say we are in much danger -to be sure, for that perpetual connection kept up between all the towns -and counties of Great Britain is unknown in other nations, and we should -be as many days going to Transylvania from here perhaps, as we should be -_hours_ running from Toddenham-court road to Derby. - -Sheenburn is pretty, but it is no season for seeing pretty places. The -streets of Vienna are not pretty at all, God knows; so narrow, so ill -built, so crowded, many wares placed upon the ground where there is a -little opening, seems a strange awkward disposition of things for sale; -and the people cutting wood in the street makes one half wild when -walking; it is hardly possible to pass another strange custom, borrowed -from Italy I trust, of shutting up their shops in the middle of the -day; it must tend, one would think, but little to the promotion of that -commerce which the sovereign professes to encourage, and I see no excuse -for it _here_ which can be made from heat, gaiety, or devotion. Many -families living in the same house, and at the entrance of the apartments -belonging to each, a strong iron gate to separate the residence of one -set from that of another, has likewise an odd melancholy look, like that -of a prison or a nunnery. Nunneries, however, here are none; and if the -old women turned out of those they have long dwelt in, are not provided -with decent pensions, it must surely distress even the Emperor’s cold -heart to see age driven from the refuges of disappointment, and forced to -wander through the world with inexperience for its guide, while youth is -no longer _led_, but _thrust_ into temptation by such a sudden transition -from utter retirement to open and busy life. - -We have been this morning to look over his academy of painting, &c. -His exhibition-room is neatly kept, and I dare say will prosper: the -students are zealous and laborious, and earnestly desire the promulgation -of science: their collection of models is meagre, but it will mend by -degrees. Perhaps Joseph the IId. is the first European sovereign who, -establishing a school for painting and sculpture, has insisted on the -artists never exercising their skill upon any subject which could hurt -any person’s delicacy;--an example well worthy honest praise and speedy -imitation. - -The very few charitable foundations established at Vienna by Imperial -munificence are well managed; their paucity is accounted for by the -recollection of many abuses consequent on the late Empress’s bounty; -her son therefore took all the annuities away, which he thought her -tenderness had been duped out of; but let it be remembered that when he -rides or walks in a morning, he always takes with him a hundred ducats, -out of which he never brings any home, but gives in private donations -what he knows to be well bestowed, without the ostentation of affected -generosity: it is not in rewards for past services perhaps, nor in -public and stately institutions, as I am told here, that this prince’s -liberalities are to be looked for; yet-- - - In Mis’ry’s darkest caverns known, - His useful care is ever nigh; - Where hopeless Anguish pours her groan, - And lonely Want retires to die. - -To-morrow (23d of November) we venture to leave Vienna and proceed -northwards, as I long to see the Dresden gallery. Here every thing -appears to me a caricatura of London; the language like ours, but -coarser; the plays like ours, but duller; the streets at night lighted -up, not like ours now, but very like what they were thirty or forty years -ago. - -Among the people I have seen here, Mademoiselle Paradies, the blind -performer on the harpsichord, interested me very much;--and she liked -England so, and the King and Queen were so kind to her, and she was _so_ -happy, she said!--While life and its vexations seem to oppress such -numbers of hearts, and cloud such variety of otherwise agreeable faces, -one must go to a blind girl to hear of happiness, it seems! But she has -wonderful talents for languages as well as music, and has learned the -English pronunciation most surprisingly. It is a soothing sight when one -finds the mind compensate for the body’s defects: I took great delight -in the conversation of Mademoiselle Paradies. - -The collection of rarities, particularly an Alexander’s head worthy of -Capo di Monte, now in the possession of Madame de Hesse, became daily -more my study, as I received more and more civilities from the charming -family at whose house it resides: there are some very fine cameos in it, -and a great variety of miscellaneous curiosities. - -So different are the customs here and at Venice, that the German ladies -offer you chocolate on the same salver with coffee, of an evening, and -fill up both with milk; saying that you may have the latter quite black -if you chuse it--“_Tout noir, Monsieur, à la Venetienne_;”--adding their -best advice not to risque a practice so unwholesome. While their care -upon that account reminds me chiefly of a friend, who lives upon the -Grand Canal, that in reply to a long panegyric upon English delicacy, -said she would tell a story that would prove them to be nasty enough, at -least in some things; for that she had actually seen a handsome young -nobleman, who came from London (_and ought to have known better_), souce -some thick cream into the fine clear coffee she presented him with; -which every body must confess to be _vera porcheria_! a very _piggish -trick_!--So necessary and so pleasing is conformity, and so absurd and -perverse is it ever to forbear such assimilation of manners, when not -inconsistent with the virtue, honour, or necessary interest:--let us -eat sour-crout in Germany, frittura at Milan, macaroni at Naples, and -beef-steaks in England, if one wishes to please the inhabitants of either -country; and all are very good, so it is a slight compliance. Poor Dr. -Goldsmith said once--“I would advise every young fellow setting out in -life _to love gravy_;”--and added, that he had formerly seen a glutton’s -eldest nephew disinherited, because his uncle never could persuade him to -say he liked gravy. - - - - -PRAGUE. - - -The inns between Vienna and this place are very bad; but we arrived here -safe the 24th of November, when I looked for little comfort but much -diversion; things turned out however exactly the reverse, and _aux bains -de Prague_ in Bohemia we found beds more elegant, dinners neater dressed, -apartments cleaner and with a less foreign aspect, than almost any where -else. Such is not mean time the general appearance of the town out of -doors, which is savage enough; and the celebrated bridge singularly -ugly I think, crowded with vast groupes of ill-made statues, and heavy -to excess, though not incommodious to drive over, and of a surprising -extent. These German rivers are magnificent, and our Mulda here (which is -but a branch of the Elbe neither) is respectable for its volume of water, -useful for the fish contained in it, and lovely in the windings of its -course. - -Bohemia seems no badly-cultivated country; the ground undulates like many -parts of Hertfordshire, and the property seems divided much in the same -manner as about Dunstable; my head ran upon Lilly-hoo, when they shewed -me the plains of Kolin. - -Doctor Johnson was very angry with a gentleman at our house once, I well -remember, for not being better company; and urged that he had travelled -into Bohemia, and seen Prague:--“Surely,” added he, “the man who has -seen Prague might tell us something new and something strange, and not -sit silent for want of matter to put his lips in motion!” _Horresco -referens_;--I have now been at Prague as well as Doctor Fitzpatrick, but -have brought away nothing very interesting I fear; unless that the floor -of the opera-stage there is inlaid, which so far as I have observed is -a _new_ thing; the cathedral I am sure is an _old_ thing, and charged -with heavy and ill-chosen ornaments, worthy of the age in which it was -fabricated!--One would be loth to see any alteration take place, or any -picture drive old Frank’s Three Kings, divided into three compartments, -from its station over the high altar. St. John Neppomucene has an altar -here all of solid silver, very bright and clean; his having been flung -into the river Mulda in the persecuting days, holding fast his crucifix -and his religion, gives him a rational title to veneration among the -martyrs, and he is considered as the tutelar saint here, where his statue -meets one at the entrance of every town. - -This truly Gothic edifice was very near being destroyed by the King of -Prussia, who bombarded the city thirty-five years ago; I saw the mark -made by one ball just at the cathedral door, and heard with horror of the -dreadful siege, when an egg was sold for a florin, and other eatables in -proportion: the whole town has, in consequence of that long blockade, a -ragged and half-ruined melancholy aspect; and the roads round it, then -broken up, have scarcely been mended since. - -The ladies too looked more like masquerading figures than any thing else, -as they sat in their boxes at the opera, with rich embroidered caps, or -bright pink and blue sattin head-dresses, with ermine or sable fronts, -a heavy gold tassel hanging low down from the left ear, and no powder; -which gives a girlish look, and reminded me of a fashion our lower -tradesmen in London had about fifteen or eighteen years ago, of dressing -their daughters, from nine to twelve years old, in puffed black sattin -caps, with a long ear hanging down on one side. It is a becoming mode -enough as the women wear it here, but gives no idea of cleanliness; and I -suppose that whilst finery retains its power of striking, delicacy keeps -her distance, nor attempts to come in play till the other has failed -of its effect. Ladies dress here very richly, as indeed I expected to -find them, and coloured silk stockings are worn as they were in England -till the days of the Spectator:--“_Thrift, thrift, Horatio_;” as Hamlet -observes; for our expences in Great Britain are infinitely increased by -our advancement from splendor to neatness. - -Here every thing seems at least five centuries behind-hand, and religion -has not purified itself the least in the world since the days of its -early struggle; for here Huss preached, and here Jerome, known by -the name of Jerome of Prague, first began to project the scheme of a -future reformation. The Bohemians had indeed been long before that -time indulged by the Popes with permission to receive the cup in the -sacrament, a favour granted no one else; and of that no notice was ever -taken, till further steps were made for the obtaining many alterations -that have crept in since that time in other nations, not so hasty to do -by violence what will one day be done of themselves without any violence -at all. - -I asked to see some Protestant meeting-houses, and was introduced to -a very pleasing-mannered Livornese, who spoke sweet Italian, and was -minister to a little place of worship which could not have contained two -hundred people at the most; in fact his flock were all soldiers, he said. -Not a person who could keep a shop was to be found of _our_ persuasion, -nor was Lutheranism half so much detested even in Italy, he said. Though -I remember the boys hooting us at Tivoli too, and calling our English -Gentlemen, _Monsieur Dannato_. - -The library does not seem ancient, but the grave person who shewed it -spoke very indifferent French, so that I could better trust my eyes than -my ears; this want of language is terrible!--A celestial globe moving -by clockwork concealed within, and shewing the sun’s place upon the -ecliptic very exactly, detained our attention agreeably; and I observed -a polyglot Bible printed at London in Cromwell’s time, with a compliment -to him in the preface, which they have expunged in succeeding editions. -A missal too was curious enough from its being decorated with some -singular illuminations upon one leaf; at the top of the page a figure of -Wickliffe is seen, striking the flint and steel; under him, in another -small compartment, Jerome of Prague blowing tinder to make his torch -kindle; below him again down the same side, Martin Luther, the flambeau -well lighted and blazing in his hand; at the bottom of the page poor -John Huss, betrayed by the Emperor who promised him protection, and -burning alive at a stake, to the apparent satisfaction of the charitable -fathers assembled at the council of Constance. Another curiosity should -be remembered; the manuscript letter from Zisca, the famous Protestant -general who headed the revolters in 1420; I was amazed to see in how -elegant an Italian hand it was written; the librarian said comically -enough--“_Ay, ay, it begins all about the fear of God_, &c.; _those -fellows_,” continued he, “_you know, are always sure to be canters!_” - -The reigning sovereign has made few changes in church matters here, -except that which was become almost indispensable, the resolution to have -mass said only at one altar, instead of many at a time; the contrary -practice does certainly disturb devotion, and produce unavoidable -indecorums, as no one can tell what he turns his back upon, while the -bell rings in so many places of a large church at once, and so many -different functions are going forward, that people’s attention must -almost necessarily be distracted. - -The eating here is incomparable; I never saw such poultry even at London -or Bath, and there is a plenty of game that amazes one; no inn so -wretched but you have a pheasant for your supper, and often partridge -soup. The fish is carried about the streets in so elegant a style it -tempts one; a very large round bathing-tub, as we should call it, set -barrow-wise on two not very low wheels, is easily pushed along by one -man, though full of the most pellucid water, in which the carp, tench, -and eels, are all leaping alive, to a size and perfection I am ashamed to -relate; but the tench of four and five pounds weight have a richness and -flavour one had no notion of till we arrived at Vienna, and they are the -same here. - -How trade stands or moves in these countries I cannot tell; there is -great rigour shewn at the custom-house; but till the shopkeepers learn to -keep their doors open at least for the whole of the short days, not shut -them up so and go to sleep at one or two o’clock for a couple of hours, -I think they do not deserve to be disturbed by customers who bring ready -money. To-morrow (30th November 1786) we set out, wrapped in good furs -and flannels, for - - - - -DRESDEN; - - -Whither we arrive safe this 4th of December,-- - - ----A wond’rous token - Of Heav’n’s kind care, with bones unbroken! - -As the ingenious Soame Jenyns says of a less hazardous drive in a less -barbarous country I hope: but really to English passengers in English -carriages, the road from Prague hither is too bad to think on; while -nothing literally impels one forward except the impossibility of going -back. Lady Mary Wortley says, her husband and postillions slept upon the -precipices between Lowositz and Aussig; but surely the way must have been -much better then, as all the opium in both would scarce have stupefied -their apprehensions now, when a fall into the Elbe must either have -interrupted or finished their nap; because our coach was held up every -step of the journey by men’s hands, while we walked at the bottom about -seven miles by the river’s side, suffering nothing but a little fatigue, -and enjoying the most cloudless beautiful weather ever seen. The Elbe is -here as wide I think as the Severn at Gloucester, and rolls through the -most varied and elegant landscape possible, not inferior to that which -adorns the sides of the little Dart in Devonshire, but on a greater -scale; every hill crowned with some wood, or ornamented by some castle. - -As soon as we arrived, tired and hungry, at Aussig, we put our shattered -coach on board a bark, and floated her down to Dresden; whither we drove -forward in the little carts of the country, called chaises, but very -rough and with no springs, as our very old-fashioned curricles were about -the year 1750. The brightness of the weather made even such a drive -delightful though, and the millions of geese on and off the river gave -animation to the views, and accounted for the frequency of those soft -downy feather-beds, which sooth our cares and relieve our fatigue so -comfortably every night. Hares will scarce move from near the carriage -wheels, so little apprehensive are they of offence; and the partridges -run before one so, it is quite amusing to look at them. The trout in -these great rivers are neither large nor red: I have never seen trout -worth catching since I left England; the river at Rickmansworth produces -(one should like to know why) that fish in far higher perfection than it -can be found in any other stream perhaps in Europe. - -The being served at every inn, since we came into Saxony, upon Dresden -china, gives one an odd feel somehow; but here at the Hôtel de Pologne -there is every thing one can wish, and served in so grand a style, that -I question whether any English inn or tavern can compare with it; so -elegantly fine is the linen, so beautiful the porcelaine of which every -the meanest utensil is made; and if the waiter did not appear before -one dressed like Abel Drugger with a green cloth apron, and did not his -entrance always fill the room with a strong scent of tobacco, I should -think myself at home again almost. This really does seem a very charming -town; the streets well built and spacious; the shops full of goods, and -the people willing to shew them; and if they _do_ cut all their wood -before their own doors, why there is room to pass here without brawling -and bones-breaking, which disgusts one so at Vienna; it seems lighter -too here than there; I cannot tell why, but every thing looks clean and -comfortable, and one feels _so much at home_. I hate prejudice; nothing -is so stupid, nothing so sure a mark of a narrow mind: yet who can be -sure that the sight of a Lutheran town does not afford in itself an -honest pleasure to one who has lived so long, though very happily, under -my Lord Peter’s protection? - -Here Brother Martin has all precedence paid _him_; for though the court -are Romanists, their splendid church here is _called_ only a chapel, and -they are not permitted to ring the bell, a privilege the Lutherans seem -much attached to, for nothing can equal the noise of _our_ bells on a -Sunday morning at Dresden. - -The architecture is truly hideous, but no ornaments are spared; and the -church of Notre Dame here is very magnificent. The china steeples all -over the country are the oddest things in the world; spires of blue or -green porcelaine tiles glittering in the sun have a strange effect. -But nothing can afford a stronger proof that crucifixes, Madonnas, -and saints, need not be driven out of churches for fear they should be -worshipped, than the Lutherans admission of them into _theirs_; for no -people can be further removed from idolatry, or better instructed in the -Christian religion, than the common people of this town; where a decent -observation of the sabbath struck me with most consolatory feelings, -after living at Paris, Rome, and Florence, where it is considered as -a _merry_, not a _holy_ day at all! and though there seems nothing -inconsistent or offensive in our rejoicing on the day of our Lord’s -resurrection, yet if people are encouraged to _play_, they will soon find -out that they may _work_ too, the shops will scarcely be shut, and all -appearance of regard to the fourth commandment will be done away. The -Lutherans really seem to observe the golden mean; they frequent their -churches all morning with a rigorous solemnity, no carts or business of -any sort goes forward in the streets, public and private devotion takes -up the whole forenoon; but they do not forbear to meet and dance after -six o’clock in the evening, or play a sober game for small sums at a -friend’s house. - -The society is to me very delightful; more women than men though, and the -women most agreeable; exceedingly sensible, well informed, and willing -to talk on every subject of general importance, but religion or politics -seem the favourite themes, and are I believe most studied here;--no -wonder, the court and city being of different sects, each steadily -and irrevocably fixed in a firm persuasion that their own is best, -causes an investigation that comes not in the head of people of other -countries; and it is wonderful to see even the low Romanists skilled in -controversial points to a degree that would astonish the people nearest -the Pope’s person, I am well persuaded. - -The Saxons are excessively loyal however, and have the sense to love and -honour their sovereign no less for his difference of opinion from theirs, -than if all were of one mind; yet knowing his principles, they watch -with a jealous eye against encroachments, while the amiable elector and -electress use every tender method to induce their subjects to embrace -_their_ tenets, and weary heaven with prayers for their conversion, as -if the people were heathens. One great advantage results from this odd -mixture of what so steadily resists uniting; it is the earnest desire -each has to justify and recommend their notions by their practice, -so that the inhabitants of Dresden are among the most moral, decent, -thinking people I have seen in my travels, or indeed in my life. The -general air and manner both of place and people, puts one in mind of the -pretty clean parts of our London, about Queen Square, Ormond Street, -Lincoln’s-Inn-Fields, and Southampton Row. - -The bridge is beautiful, more elegant than showy; the light iron railing -is better in some respects than a stone balustrade, and I do not dislike -the rule they make to themselves of going on _one_ side the way always, -and returning the other, to avoid a crowd and confusion. - -But it is time to talk about the picture gallery, where, cold as -our weather is, I contrive to pass three hours every day, my feet -well defended by _perlaches_, a sort of cloth clogs, very useful and -commodious. And now I have seen the _Notte di Corregio_ from which almost -all pictures of _effect_ have taken their original idea; and here are -three other Corregios inimitable, invaluable, incomparable. Surely this -_Notte_ might stand side by side with Raphael’s Transfiguration; and -as Sherlock says that Shakespear and Corneille would look only on the -Vesuvius side of the prospect at Naples, while Pope and Racine would -turn their heads towards Posilippo; so probably, while the two first -would fasten all their attention upon the Demoniac, the two last would -console their eyes with the sweetness of Corregio’s Nativity. His little -Magdalen too set round with jewels, itself more precious than any or than -all of them, possesses wonderful powers of attraction; it is an hour -before one can recollect that there are some glorious Titians in the same -façade; but Caracci, who depends not on his colouring for applause, loses -little by their vicinity, and Poussin is always equally respectable. The -Rembrandts are beyond credibility perfect of their kind, and produce -a most powerful effect. His portrait of his own daughter has neither -equal nor price, I believe; though the girl has little dignity to be -sure, and less grace about her; but if to represent nature as she _is_ -suffices, this is the first single figure in Europe as painting a _live -woman_.--The Jupiter and Ganymede is very droll indeed, and done with -very _un_-Italian notions; but the eagle looks as if one might pluck his -feathers; it is very life itself.--A candle-light Rubens here is shewn -as a prodigious rarity; a Ruysdael as much resembling nature in _his_ -country, I do believe, as Claude Lorraine ever painted in _his_.--The -crayons Cupid of Mengs which dazzles, and the portrait of old Parr by -Vandycke which interests one, are pictures which call one to look at them -again and again; and the little Vanderwerfs kept in glass cases, smooth -as ivory, and finished to perfection, are all alike to be sure; one would -wonder that a man should never be weary of painting single figures so, -and constantly repeating the same idea; his eyes must have had peculiar -strength too, to endure such trials, mine have been pained enough this -morning with only looking at his labours, and those of the indefatigable -Denny. Let me refresh them with a Parnassus of Giacomo Tintoret, who puts -all the colourists to flight except Corregio. - -But here are two pictures which display prodigious genius, by a master of -whom I never heard any one speak, Ferdinand Bol, who unites grace and -dignity to the clear obscure of Rembrandt, whose scholar he was. Jacob -blessing Pharoah, painted by him, is delightful; and Joseph’s expressions -while he presents his father, full of affectionate partiality and fond -regard for the old man, heightens his personal beauty; while the king’s -character is happily managed too, and gives one the highest idea of the -artist’s skill. A Madonna reposing in her flight to Egypt with a fatigued -look, her head supported by her hand, is elegant, and worthy of the Roman -or Bolognese schools; the landscape is like Rembrandt. This gallery -boasts an Egyptian Mary by Spagnolet, too terrifying to look long at; and -a small picture by Lodovico Carracci of the Virgin clasping her Son, who -lies asleep in her lap, while a vision of his future crucifixion shewn -her by angels in the sky, agitates every charming feature of her face, -and causes a shrinking in her figure which no power of art can exceed. - -As I suffered so much for the sake of seeing this collection, I have -indulged myself too long in talking of it perhaps; but Garrick is dead, -and Siddons at a distance, and some compensation must be had; can any -thing afford it except the statues of Rome, and the pictures of Bologna? -here are a vast many from thence in this magnificent gallery. - -We had a concert made on purpose for us last night by some amiable -friends: it was a very good one. What I liked best though, was Mr. -Tricklir’s new invention of keeping a harpsichord always in tune; and -it seems to answer. I am no good mechanic, nor particularly fond of -multiplying combinations; but the device of adding a thermometer to shew -how much heat the strings will bear without relaxation seems ingenious -enough: we had a vast many experiments made, and nobody could put the -strings out of tune, or even break them, when his method was adopted; and -it does not take up two minutes in the operation. - -We have seen the Elector’s treasures; and, as a Frenchman would express -it, _C’est icy qu’on voit des beaux diamants!_[51] The yellow brilliant -ring is _unique_ it seems, and valued at an enormous sum; the green one -is larger, and set transparent; it is not green like an emerald, but pale -and bright, and beyond conception beautiful: hyacinths were new to me -here, their glorious colour dazzles one; and here is a white diamond from -the Great Mogul’s empire, of unequalled perfection; besides an onyx large -as a common dinner plate, well known to be first in the universe. What -majestic treasures are these!--The sapphires and rubies beat those of -Bavaria, but the Electress’s pearls at Munich are unrivalled yet. Saxony -is a very rich country in her own bosom it seems; the agates and jaspers -produced here are excellent, nor are good amethysts wanting; the topazes -are pale and sickly. - -Nothing can be finer, or in its way more tasteful, than a chimney-piece -made for the Elector, entirely from the manufacture and produce of -his own dominions; that part which we should form of marble is white -porcelane, with an exquisite bas-relief in the middle copied from -the antique; its sides are set with Saxon gems, cameowise; and such -carnelions much amaze one in so northern a latitude; the workmanship -is beyond praise.--I asked the gentleman who shewed us the cabinet of -natural history, why such richly-coloured minerals, and even precious -stones, were found in these climates; while every animal product grows -paler as it approaches the pole?--“Where phlogiston is frequent,” -replied he, “there is no danger of the tint being too lightly bestowed: -our quantity of iron here in Saxony, gives purple to the amethysts you -admire; and see here if the rainbow-stone of Labrador yields in glowing -hue to the productions of Mexico or Malabar.”--The specimens here however -were not as valuable as the conversation of him who has the care of them; -but a _plica Polonica_ took much of my attention; the size and weight of -it was enormous, its length four yards and a half; the person who was -killed by its growth was a Polish lady of quality well known in King -Augustus’s court; it is a very strange and a very shocking thing! - -Our library here is new and not eminently well stocked; but it is -too cold weather now to stand long looking at rarities. The first -Reformation bible published by Luther himself, with a portrait of the -first Protestant Elector, is however too curious and interesting to be -neglected; in frost and snow such sights might warm a heart well disposed -to see the word of God disseminated, which had lain too long locked up -by ignorance and interest united. Here is a book too, which how it -escaped Pinelli I know not, a Venetian translation of the holy scriptures -_a Brucioli_, the date 1592. King Augustus’s maps please one from their -costliness; the Elector has twelve volumes of them; every letter is gold, -every city painted in miniature at the corners, while arms, trophies, &c. -adorn the whole, to an incredible expence: they were engraved on purpose -for his use; and that no other Prince might ever have such again, he -ordered the plates to be broke. - -Sunday, December 17. I am just now returned home from the Lutheran church -of Notre Dame; where, though the communicants do not kneel down like -us, it is odd to say I never saw the sacrament administered with such -solemnity and pomp. Four priests ornamented with a large cross on the -back, a multitude of lighted tapers blazing round them, a uniformity in -the dress of all who received, and music played in a flat third somehow -very impressively, as they moved round in a sort of procession, making a -profound reverence to the altar when they passed it, struck me extremely, -who have been lately accustomed to see very little ceremony used on -_such_ occasions; and I well remember at Pisa in particular, that while -we were looking about the church for curiosity, one poor woman knelt down -just by us, and a priest coming out administered the sacrament to her -alone, the whole finishing in less than five minutes I am persuaded. I -said to Mr. Seydelman, when we had returned home to-day, that the Saxons -seemed to follow the first manner in reformation, our Anglicans the -second, and the Calvinists the third: he understood my allusion to the -cant of connoisseurship. - -The sedan chairs here give the town a sort of homeish look; I had not -been carried in one since I left Genoa, and it is so comfortable this -cold clear weather! A regular market too, though not a fine one, has -an English air; and a saddle of mutton, or more properly a chine, was -a sight I had not contemplated for two years and a half. The Italians -do call a cook _teologo_, out of sport; but I think he would be the -properest theologian in good earnest, to tell why Catholics and -Protestants should not cut their meat alike at least, if they cannot -agree in other points. This is the first town I have seen however, where -the butchers divided their beasts as we do. - -The arsenal we have walked over delighted us but little: Saxons should -say to their swords, like Benvolio in the play, “_God send me no need of -thee!_”--for the Emperor is on one side of them, and the King of Prussia -on the other. This last is always mentioned as a pacific prince though; -and the first has so much to do and to think of, I hope he will forget -Dresden, and suffer them to possess their fine territory and gems in -perfect peace and quietness. One thing however was odd and pretty, and -worth remarking, That at Rome there was an arsenal in the church--I mean -belonging to it; and here there is a church in the arsenal. - -The bombardment of this pretty town by their active neighbour Frederic; -the sweet Electress’s death in consequence of the personal mortifications -she received during that dreadful siege; the embarkation of the treasures -to send them safe away by water; and the various distresses suffered by -this city in the time of that great war;--make much of our conversation, -and that conversation is interesting. I only wonder they have so quickly -recovered a blow struck so hard. - -The gaiety and good-humour of the court are much desired by the Saxons, -who have a most lofty notion of princes, and repeat all they say, and all -that is said of them, with a most venerating affection. I see no national -partiality to England however, as in many other parts of Europe, though -our religions are so nearly allied: and here is a spirit of subordination -beyond what I have yet been witness to--an aunt kissing the hand of -her own niece (a baby not six years old), and calling her “_ma chere -comtesse!_”--carried it as high I think as it can be carried. - -The environs of Dresden are happily disposed, for though it is deep -winter we have had scarcely any snow, and the horizon is very clear, so -that one may be a tolerable judge of the prospects. Our river Elbe is -truly majestic and the great islands of ice floating down it have a fine -appearance. - -They do not double their sash-windows as at Vienna, but there is less -wind to keep out. In every place people have a trick of lamenting, and -there are two themes of lamentation universal for aught I see--the -weather and the poor. I see no beggars here, and feel no rain,--but hear -heavy complaints of both. Crying the hour in the night as at London -pleased me much; why the ceremony is accompanied by the sound of a horn, -nobody seems able to tell. The march of soldiers morning and night to -music through the streets is likewise agreeable, and gives ideas of -security; but driving great heavy waggons up and down, with two horses -a-breast, like a chaise in England, and a postillion upon one of them, is -very droll to look at. Ordinary fellows too in the Elector’s livery (blue -and yellow) would seem strange, but that as soon as Dover is left behind -every man seems to belong to some other man, and no man to himself. The -Emperor’s livery is very handsome, but I do not admire _this_. A custom -of fifteen or twenty grave-looking men, dressed like counsellors in -Westminster Hall, with half a dozen boys in their company for _sopranos_, -singing counterpoint under one’s window, has an odd effect; they are -confraternities of people I am told, who live in a sort of community -together, are maintained by contributing friends, and taught music at -their expence; so in order to accomplish themselves, and shew how well -they are accomplished, this curious contrivance is adopted. Every Sunday -we hear them again in the church belonging to the parish that maintains -them. A procession of bakers too is a droll oddity, but shews that where -there is much leisure for the common people, some cheap amusement must -be found: two of these bakers fight at the corner of every street for -precedence, which by this means often changes hands; yet does not the -conquered baker shew any signs of shame or depression, nor does the -contest last long, or prove interesting. I suppose they have settled -all the battles beforehand: no meaning seemed to be annexed either by -performers or spectators to the show; we could make little diversion out -of it, but have no doubt of its being an old superstition. - -On Christmas eve I went to Santa Sophia’s church, and heard a famous -preacher; his manner was energetic, and he kept an hour-glass by him, -finishing with strange abruptness the moment it was expired. This was in -use among our distant provinces as late as Gay’s time; he mentions it in -a line of his pastorals, and says-- - - He preach’d the hour-glass in her praise quite out; - -speaking of dead Blouzelind as I recollect. It now seems a strange -_grossiereté_, but refinement follows hard upon the heels of reformation. - -There is an agreeable fancy here, which one has always heard of, but -never seen perhaps; the notion of calling together a dozen pretty -children to receive presents upon Christmas eve. The custom is -exceedingly amiable in itself, and gives beside a pleasing pretext for -parents and relations to meet, and while away the time till supper in -reciprocating caresses with their babies, and rejoicing in that species -of happiness (the purest of all perhaps) which childhood alone can -either receive or bestow. I was invited to an exhibition of this sort, -and for some time saw little preparation for pleasure, except the sight -of fourteen or fifteen well-dressed little creatures, all under the age -of twelve I think, and more girls than boys: the company consisted of -three or four and twenty people; all spoke French, and I was directed to -observe how the young ones watched for the opening of a particular door; -which however remained shut so long, that I forgot it again, and had -begun to interest myself in chat with my nearest neighbour (no mother of -course), when the door flew wide, and the master of the house announced -the hour of felicity, shewing us an apartment gaily illuminated with -coloured lamps; a sort of tree in grotto-work adorned the middle, and the -presents were arranged all round; dolls innumerable, variously adjusted; -fine new clothes, fans, trinkets, work-baskets, little escritoires, -purses, pocket-books, toys, dancing-shoes,--every thing. The children -skipped about, and capered with exultation;--“My own mama! my dear aunt! -my sweet kind grandpapa!”--resounded wherever we turned our heads; I -think it was the loveliest little show imaginable, and am sorry to know -how description must necessarily wrong it: _les etrennes de Dresde_ shall -however remain indelibly fixed in my memory. When the pretty dears had -appropriated and arranged their presents, cake and lemonade were brought -to quiet their agitated spirits, and all went home happy to bed. Their -sparkling eyes and rosy cheeks served for our theme till supper-time; -and I sat trying, but in vain, to find a reason why paternal affection -appears so much warmer always in Protestant countries, and filial piety -in those which remain firm to the church of Rome. - -We returned home to our inn exceedingly well amused; the supper had been -magnificent, and the preceding fast gave it additional relish. I now -tremble with apprehension however lest the show of yesterday was too -splendid: for if the mothers begin once to vie with each other whose -gifts shall be grandest, or if once the friend at whose house the treat -is prepared produces a more costly entertainment than his neighbours -have hitherto contented themselves with giving, this innocent and even -praiseworthy pastime will soon swell into expensive luxury, and burst -from having been poisoned by the corroding touch of malice and of envy. - -Our Saxons however seemed well-bred, airy, and agreeable in last night’s -hour of festivity; and could I have fancied their gaiety quite natural -like that of Venice or Verona, I might perhaps have caught the sweet -infection, and felt disposed to merriment myself; but much of this was -studied mirth one saw, and pleasure upon principle, as in our own island; -which, though more elegant, is less attractive. It is difficult to catch -the contagion of artificial hilarity, and a celebrated surgeon once told -me, that one might live with safety at Sutton-house among the inoculated -patients, without ever taking the disorder, unless the operation were -regularly performed upon one’s self. - -Well! we must shortly quit this very comfortable resting-place, and -leave a town more like our own than any I have yet seen; where, however, -the dresses, of ordinary women I mean, are extraordinary enough, each -when she is made up for show wearing a rich old-fashioned brocade cloke -lined with green lutestring, and edged round with narrow fur. This is -universal. Her neat black love-hood however is not so ugly as the man’s -bright yellow brass comb, stuck regularly in all their heads of long -straight hair who are not people of fashion; and no powder is ever used -among the Lutherans here in Saxony I see, except by gentlemen and ladies, -who often take all _theirs_ out when they go to church, from some -odd principle of devotion. It is very pretty though to see the little -clean-faced lads and wenches running to school so in a morning at every -protestant town, with the grammar and testament under their arm, while -every the meanest house has a folio bible in it, and all the people of -the lowest ranks can read it. - -On this 1st of January 1787, I may boast of having visited lord -Peter, Jack, and Martin, all in the course of one day. Hearing Mons. -Dumarre preach to the French Huguenots in the morning, attending the -established church at Notre Dame at noon, and going to the Elector’s -truly-magnificent place of worship at night, where Hasse’s Te Deum was -sung, and executed with prodigious regularity and pomp, over against an -altar decorated with well-employed splendour, exhibiting zeal for God’s -house, animated by elegant taste, and encouraged by royal presence; - - While from the censer clouds of fragrance roll, - And swelling organs lift the rising soul. - -I studied then to keep my mind, I hope I kept it free from narrow and -from vulgar prejudice, desirous only of seeing the three principal -sects of Christians adoring their Redeemer, each in the way they think -most likely to please him; nor will I mention which method had the most -immediate effect on _me_; but this I saw, that beneath - - Such plain roofs as piety could raise, - Made vocal only by our maker’s praise, - -Monsieur Dumarre produced from his peaceful auditors more tears of -gratitude and tenderness in true remembrance of the sacred season, -than were shed at either of the other churches. Indeed the sublime and -pathetic simplicity of the place, the truly-touching rhetoric of the -preacher, his story a sad one; while his persecuted family were forced to -fly their native country, driven thence by the rigour of Romish severity, -and his life exactly corresponding to the purity of that doctrine he -teaches: his tones of voice, his tranquillity of manners, - - His plainness moves men more than eloquence, - And to his flock, joy be the consequence! - -The established sect here--_Lutheranism_, keeps almost the exact medium -between the other two, though their places of worship strike me as -something more theatrical than one could wish; very stately they are -certainly, and very imposing. As few people however are fond of a -middle state, as here is prodigious encouragement given by the court -to Romanists, and full toleration from the state to the disciples of -John Calvin, I wonder more members of the national church do not quit -her communion for that of one of these chapels, which however owe their -very existence in Saxony to that truly christian and catholick spirit of -toleration, possessed by Martin alone. - -We have recovered ourselves now from all fatigues; our coach and our -spirits are once more repaired, and ready to set out for - - - - -BERLIN. - - -The road hither is all a heavy sand, cut through vast forests of -ever-green timber, but not beautiful like those of Bavaria, rather -tedious, flat, and tristful: to encrease which sensations, and make them -more grievous to us, our servants complained bitterly of the last long -frosty night, which we spent wholly in the carriage till it brought us -here, where the man of the house, a bad one enough indeed, speaks as good -English as I do, and has lived long in London. I am not much enchanted -with this place however. Dean Swift said, that a good style was only -proper words in proper places; and if a good city is to be judged of -in the same way, perhaps Berlin may obtain the first place, which one -would not on an immediate glance think it likely to deserve; as a mere -residence however, it will be difficult to find a finer. - -He who sighs for the happy union of situation, climate, fertility, and -grandeur, will think _Genoa_ transcends all that even a warm imagination -can wish. If with a very, very little less degree of positive beauty, he -feels himself chiefly affected by a number of Nature’s most interesting -features, finely, and even philosophically arranged; _Naples_ is the town -that can afford him most matter both of solemn and pleasing speculation. - -If ruins of pristine splendour, solid proofs of universal dominion, -_once_, nay _twice_ enjoyed: with the view of temporal power crushed by -its own weight, solicits his curiosity.--It will be amply gratified at -_Rome_; where all that modern magnificence can perform, is added to all -that ancient empire has left behind. Romantic ideas of Armida’s palace, -fancied scenes of perennial pleasure, and magical images of ever varying -delight, will be best realized at smiling _Venice_ of any place; but if -a city may be called perfect in proportion to its external convenience, -if making many houses to hold many people, keeping infection away by -cleanliness, and ensuring security against fire by a nice separation -of almost every building from almost every other; if uniformity of -appearance can compensate for elegance of architecture, and space make -amends for beauty, _Berlin_ certainly deserves to be seen, and he who -planned it, to be highly commended. The whole looks at its worst now; all -the churches are in mourning, so are the coaches: no theatre is open, and -no music heard, except now and then a melancholy German organ droning -its dull round of tunes under one’s window, without even the London -accompaniment of a hoarse voice crying _Woolfleet oysters_. Come! Berlin -can boast an arsenal capable of containing arms for two hundred and fifty -thousand men. The contempt of decoration for a place destined to real -use seemed respectable in itself, and characteristic of its founder. No -columns of guns or capitals of pistols, neatly placed, are to be seen -here. A vast, large, clean, cold-looking room, with swords and muskets -laid up only that they may be taken down, is all one has to look at in -Frederick’s preparations for attack or defence. - -In accumulation of ornaments one hopes to find elegance, and in -rejection of superfluity there is dignity of sentiment; but nothing -can excuse a sovereign prince for keeping as curiosities worthy a -traveller’s attention, a heap of trumpery fit to furnish out the shop of -a Westminster pawnbroker. Our cabinet of rarities here is literally no -better than twenty old country gentlemen’s seats, situated in the distant -provinces of England, shew to the servants of a neighbouring family upon -a Christmas visit, when the housekeeper is in good humour, and, gently -wiping the dust off my _late lady’s mother’s_ amber-boxes, produces forth -the wax figures of my lord John and my lord Robert when _babies_. For -this pitiable exhibition, ships cut in paper, and saints carved in wood, -we paid half a guinea each; not gratuity to the person who has them in -charge, but tax imposed by the government. Every house here is obliged -to maintain so many soldiers, excepting such and such only who have the -word _free_ written over their doors; here seem to be no people in the -town almost except soldiers though; so they naturally command whatever -is to be had. Most nations begin and end with a _military_ dominion, -as red is commonly the first and last colour obtained by the chymist -in his various experiments upon artificial tints. This state is yet -young, and many things in it not quite come to their full growth, so we -must not be rigorous in our judgments. I have seen the library, in which -we were for the first time shewn what is confidently _said_ to be an -Æthiopian manuscript, and such it certainly may be for aught I know. What -interested me much more was our Tonson’s _Cæsar_, a book remarkable for -having been written by the first hero and general in the world perhaps, -dedicated to the second, and possessed by the third. Here is an exceeding -perfect collection of all Hogarth’s prints. - -This city appears to be a very wholesome one; the houses are not high to -confine the air between them, or drive it forward in currents upon the -principle of Paris or Vienna; the streets are few, but long, straight, -and wide; ground has not been spared in its construction, which seems a -most judicious one; and with this well-earned praise I am most willing -to quit it. It is the first place of any consequence I have felt in a -hurry to run away from; for till now there have been _some_ attractions -in every town; something that commanded veneration or invited fondness; -something pleasing in its society, or instructive in its history. It -would however be sullen enough to feel no agreeable sensation in seeing -this child of the present century come to age so: the tomb of its author -is the object of our present curiosity, which will be gratified to-morrow. - - Ou sont ils donc, ces foudres de guerre, - Qui faisoient trembler l’univers? - Ils ne sont plus qu’un peu de terre, - Restes, qu’ont epargnis les vers[52]. - - - - -POTZDAM. - - -And now, if Berlin wants taste and magnificence, here’s Potzdam built -on purpose, I believe, to shew that even with both a place may be very -dismal and very disagreeable. The commonest buildings in this city look -like the best side of Grosvenor-square in London, or Queen’s-square at -Bath. I have not seen a street so narrow as Oxford Road, but many here -are much wider, with canals up the middle, and a row of trees planted -on each side, a gravel walk near the water for foot passengers, instead -of a _trottoir_ by the side of the houses. Every dwelling is ornamented -to a degree of profusion; but to one’s question of, “Who lives in these -palaces?” one hears that they are all empty space, or only occupied by -goods never wanted, or corn there is nobody to feed with: this amazes -one; and in fact here are no inhabitants of dignity at all proportioned -to the residences provided for them; so that when one sees the copies of -antique bas-reliefs, in no bad sculpture, decorating the doors whence -dangle a shoulder of mutton, or a shoemaker’s last, it either shocks one -or makes one laugh, like the old Bartholomew trick of putting a baby’s -face upon an old man’s shoulders, or sticking a king’s crown upon a -peasant’s head. - -The churches are very fine on the outside, but strangely plain within: -that, however, where the royal body reposes looked solemn and stately in -its mourning dress. Black velvet, with silver fringe and tassels very -rich and heavy, hung over the pulpit, family seat, &c. and every thing -struck one with an air of melancholy dignity. The king of Prussia’s -corpse, no longer animated by ambition, rests quietly in an unornamented -solid silver coffin, placed in a sort of closet above ground, the door to -which opens close to the pulpit’s feet, and shews the narrow space which -now holds his body, beside that of his father, and the great elector, as -he is still justly called. - -My sepulchral tour is now nearly finished: we have in the course of -this journey seen the last remains of many a celebrated mortal. Virgil, -Raphael, Ariosto, Scipio, Galileo, Petrarch, Carlo Borromeo, and the king -of Prussia. How different each from other in his life! How like each -other now! But - - Tous ces morts ont vecu; toi qui lis--tu mourras: - L’instant fatal approche, et tu n’y pense pas[53]. - -I could have wished before my return to have paused a moment on the -tomb of Melancthon, who might be said to have united in himself _their_ -separate perfections. Courage, genius, moderation, piety! persevering -steadiness in the right way himself; candid acknowledgment of merit, even -in his enemies, where he saw their intentions right, though he thought -their tenets and their conduct wrong. But we are removed far from the -dwelling of the _peacemaker_; let us at least look at the palace, now we -have examined the coffin of him whose study and delight was _war_. - -Sans Souci is surely an elegantly chosen spot, its architecture -excellent, its furniture rich yet delicate, the gardens very happily -disposed, the prospect from its windows agreeable, the pictures within -an admirable collection. A hall built in imitation of the Colonna -gallery shews Frederick’s taste at once and liberal spirit: the front -seems borrowed from something at St. Peter’s; all is beautiful; the -gilding of his long-room makes a very sudden and strong effect, nor are -marbles of immense value wanting; here is a specimen of every thing I -think, and two agate tables of prodigious size and beauty. The Silesian -chrysopaz, and Carolina marble of a bright scarlet colour, quite luminous -like the feathers of a fighting cock, struck me with their singular and -splendid appearance. Rubens’s merit was not new to me, I hope; yet here -is a resurrection of Lazarus, in which he has been lavish of it. The -composition of this picture seems to have been intended to surpass every -thing put together by other artists: its colouring glows like life. - -The king’s town-house, however, is finer far than this his villa was -designed to be; but I grew very tired walking over it: when one has -dragged through twenty-four rooms variously hung with pink and silver, -green and gold, &c. one grows cruelly weary with repeating the same -ideas by drawling through forty-eight more. I wished to see his own -private living apartments, and to mind with what books and pictures he -adorned the dressing-room he always sate in: the first were chiefly -works of Voltaire and Metastasio--the last were small landscapes of -Albano and Watteau. At our desire they shewed us the little bed he slept, -the chairs he sate in familiarly. Suetonius in French and Italian was -the last author he looked into; they have made a mark at the death of -Augustus, where he was reading when the same visitant called on him, -quite unexpected by himself it seems, though all his attendants were well -aware of his approach. As he expired he said, _I give you a vast deal -of trouble_. We saw the spot he sate in at the moment; for Frederick no -more died in his bed, than did the famous Flavius Vespasian; his servants -wept as they repeated the particulars, caressing while they spoke his -favourite dogs, one of which, a terrier, could hardly be prevailed upon -to quit the body. It used to amuse the king to see them frighted when he -would take them to a long room lined with French mirrors, which he did -now and then to laugh at the effect. - -Every thing at Potzdam shews a man in haste to enjoy what he had -laboured so hard to procure; nor did he ever refuse himself, they say, -any gratification that could make age less wearisome, or illness less -afflictive. He had much taste of English ingenuity--combinations of -convenience, and improvements in mechanism: his own writing-table, -however, was contrived by himself; it stands on four legs, one pair -longer than the other to make it slope; the covering is green velvet, -with a square hole for the standish to drop in and not spill the ink: I -liked the device exceedingly, but wondered he thought any device worth -his preference. His conversation to his servants was affable and even -gay; they loved his person, it is plain, and half adore his memory. - -Such were the manners then, and such the death, of the far-famed -philosopher of Sans Souci! And in truth, when he had so often set all -present and future happiness to hazard, it would have been inconsistent -not to hasten the enjoyment: nobody comes to inhabit his fine town, -however, which has much the look of buildings in a stage perspective. -Soldiers only, and such as sell wares necessary to soldiers, were all -the human creatures I could see here; nor are families, or travellers of -any sort indeed, better accommodated here than at inns of less pompous -appearance on the outside. - -For accommodations, however, I care but little; I have now walked over -the oldest and the youngest cities in all Europe, and have left each with -sincere admiration of their contents. Both are full of buildings and -empty of inhabitants, nor am I desirous to add to the number in either. I -was going to step forward into some room of the palace yesterday--“Madam, -come back this instant,” exclaimed our Cicerone; “if that chamber is -entered, my head will be off my shoulders in three days time.” Another -well attested anecdote may be worth relating: A gentleman with whom we -passed an agreeable evening at Berlin, whose lady invited to meet us -whatever was most charming in the town, told the following story of a -soldier who, being desirous of his body’s dissolution, but fearful of -his soul’s rushing unprepared into eternity, caught and murdered a six -months old baby; giving this strange account of his own feelings on -the occasion, and adding, that he did not like to kill an adult, lest -his own impatience of life’s insupportable torment might by that means -precipitate his neighbour to perdition; but that a baptized infant -would be sure of heaven, and he himself should gain time to prepare for -following it--“And, Lord!” said my informer, “what reasoners this world -has in it!” The soldier was hanged six weeks after the dreadful crime was -committed; he made a very decent and penitential end. - -On such facts what observations or reflections can result? I made none, -but gave God thanks that I was born a subject of Great Britain. - - - - -POTZDAM TO HANOVER. - - -On the 13th of January 1787 then we quitted Potzdam, strongly impressed -by the beauties of a town apparently fabricated by a modern Cadmus, who, -when all the soldiers that he could _raise_ were fallen in _battle_ for -his amusement, retired with the five that were left, and built a fine -city! - -Brandenbourg was our next resting place, and seemed to me to merit -a longer stay in it; I saw an old Runick figure in the street, its -size colossal, and its composition seemed black basalt; but of this -I could obtain no account for want of language, our still recurring -torment.--This place seems fuller of inhabitants than the last; but it -is _so_ melancholy to have no compensation for the fatigues of a tedious -journey! and in these countries information cannot be procured for -travellers that do not mean to reside, present letters, &c.; which task -we have at this season little taste to renew. - -Magdebourg makes a respectable appearance at a distance, from the -loftiness of its turrets; one sees them at least four long hours before -the roads which lead to it permit one’s approach; and the towers seem to -retire before one, like Ulysses’s fictitious country raised to deceive -him. Never was I so weary in my life as when we entered Magdebourg, -where, instead of going out to see sights as usual, I desired nothing so -sincerely as a hot supper and soft bed, which the inns of Germany never -fail to afford us in even elegant perfection. - -Our linen too, so beautifully, and I will add so unnecessarily fine! The -king of Naples probably never saw such sheets and table-cloths as we have -been comforted with here, not only at Dresden, but every post since. - -Magdebourg seems to have almost all its streets united by bridges; the -Elbe divides there into so many branches, and none of them small. - -Helmstadt is a little place which affords few images to the mind, and -Brunswick to mere passengers, as we were, seemed to yield none but sad -ones. The houses all of wood, even to prince Ferdinand’s palace, and -painted of a dull olive colour with heavy pensile roofs, giving the town -a melancholy look; but we met with young Englishmen who commended the -society, and said no place could be gayer than Brunswick. This is among -the reports one wishes to be true, and we are led the more willingly to -believe them. - -Another delight which I enjoyed at this city was, to find that every -body in it, and every body passing through it, adored the duchess, whose -partial fondness, and tender remembrance of her native country, justly -endears her name to every subject of Great Britain. Her chapel is pretty; -the garden, where they said she always walked two hours every day, put me -in mind of Gray’s-Inn walks twenty or thirty years ago; they were then -very like it. - -From these scenes of solitude without retirement, and of age without -antiquity, I was willing enough to be gone; but they would shew me one -curiosity they said, as I seemed to feel particular pleasure in speaking -of their charming duchess. We followed, and were shewn _her coffin!_ all -in silver, finely carved, chased, engraved, what you will. “Before she -is dead!” exclaimed I--“Before she was even married, madam,” replied -our Cicerone; “it is the very finest ever made in Brunswick; we had it -ready for her against she came home to us, and you see the plate left -vacant for her age.” I was glad to drive forward now, and slept at Peina; -which, though in itself a miserable place, exhibits one consolatory sight -for a Christian--the sight of toleration. Here Romanists, Lutherans, -and Calvinists, live all affectionately and quietly together, under the -protection of the bishop of Paderborne; and here I first saw the king -of England’s livery upon the king of England’s servants since I left -home--“And if they _are_ ragged youngsters who wear it,” said I, “they -are my fellow-subjects, and glad am I to see them!” - -The villages and churches hereabouts resemble those of Merionethshire, -only that not a mountain rears its head at all--one vast, wide, barren -flat, through which roads that no weather can render better than -barely passable brought us at length to Hanover, which stands, as all -these cities do in the north of Germany, upon an immense plain, with a -thick wood of noble timber trees breaking from time to time the almost -boundless void, and relieving the eye, which is fatigued by extent -without any object to repose upon, in a manner I can with difficulty -comprehend, much less explain; but the sight of a passing waggon, or -distant spire, is a felicity seldom found, though continually sought by -me, while travelling through these wide wasted countries, where no idea -is afforded to the imagination, no image remitted to the mind, but that -of two armies encountering each other, to dispute the plunder of some -place already unable to feed its few inhabitants. - -The horses however are exceedingly beautiful; we were offered a pair of -very fine ones for only forty pounds. They would have run such hazards -getting home! “There are two ways to chuse out of,” said I; “if we -purchase them, we shall repent on it every day till we arrive in London; -if we do not, we shall repent on it every day after we get there.” Such -is life! we did not buy the cattle. - -The cleanliness of the windows, the manner of paving and lighting the -streets at Hanover, put us in mind a little of some country towns in the -remoter provinces of England; and there seems to be likewise a little -glimpse of British manners, dress, &c. breaking through the common and -natural fashions of the country. This was very pleasing to us, but I -wished the place grander; I do not very well know why, but we had long -counted on comforts here as at home, and I had formed expectations of -something much more magnificent than we found; though the Duke of York’s -residence does give the town an air of cheerfulness it scarce could shew -without that advantage; and here are concerts and balls, and efforts -at being gay, which may probably succeed sometime. How did all the -talk however, and all the pamphlets, and all the lamentations made by -old King George’s new subjects, rush into my mind, when I recollected -the loud, illiberal, and indecent clamours made from the year 1720 to -the year 1750, at least till the alarm given by the Rebellion began to -operate, and open people’s eyes to the virtues of the reigning family! -for till then, no topic had so completely engrossed both press and -conversation, as the misfortunes accruing to _poor_ old England, from -their King’s desire of enriching his Electoral dominions, and feeding his -favourite Hanoverians with their good guineas, making fat the objects -of his partial tenderness with their best treasures--in good time! Such -groundless charges remind one of a story the famous French wit Monsieur -de Menage tells of his mother and her maid, who, having wasted or sold a -pound of butter, laid the theft upon the _cat_, persisting so violently -that it had been all devoured by the rapacious favourite, that Madame de -Menage said, “It’s very well; we will weigh the cat, poor thing! and know -the truth:” The scales were produced, but puss could be found to weigh -only _three quarters_, after all her depredations. - - - - -FROM HANOVER TO BRUSSELS. - - -Travelling night and day through the most dismal country I ever yet -beheld, brought us at length to Munster, where we had a good inn again, -and talked English. Well may all our writers agree in celebrating the -miseries of Westphalia! well may they, while the wretched inhabitants, -uniting poverty with pride, live on their hogs, with their hogs, and like -their hogs, in mud-walled cottages, a dozen of which together is called -by courtesy a village, surrounded by black heaths, and wild uncultivated -plains, over which the unresisted wind sweeps with a velocity I never -yet was witness to, and now and then, exasperated perhaps by solitude, -returns upon itself in eddies terrible to look on. Well, the woes of -mortal man are chiefly his own fault; war and ambition have depopulated -the country, which otherwise need not I believe be poor, as here is -capability enough, and the weather, though stormy, is not otherwise -particularly disagreeable. January is no mild month any where; even -Naples, so proverbially delicious, is noisy enough with thunder and -lightning; and the torrents of rain which often fall at this season at -Rome and Florence, make them unpleasing enough. Nor do I believe that the -_very_ few people one finds here are of a lazy disposition at all; but it -is so seldom that one meets with the _human face divine_ in this Western -side of Germany, that one scarce knows what they are, but by report. - -The town of Munster is catholic I see; their cathedral heavily and -clumsily adorned, like the old Lutheran church called Santa Sophia at -Dresden. One pair of their silver candlesticks however are eight feet -high, and exhibit more solidity than elegance. They told us something -about the _three kings_, who must have lost their way amazingly if ever -they wandered into Westphalia, and deserved to lose their name of _wise -men_ too, I think. We were likewise shewn the sword worn by St. Paul, -they told us, and a backgammon table preserved behind the high altar, I -could not for, my life find out why; at first our interpreter told us, -that the man said it had belonged to _John the Baptist_, but on further -enquiry we understood him that it was once used by some Anabaptists; as -that seemed no less wild a reason for keeping it there, than the other -seemed as an account of its original, we came away uninformed. - -Of the reason why Hams are better here than in any other part of Europe, -it was not so difficult to obtain the knowledge, and the inquiry was much -more useful. - -Poor people here burn a vast quantity of very fine old oak in their -cottages, which, having no chimney, detain the smoke a long time before -it makes its escape out at the door. This smoke gives the peculiar -flavour to that bacon which hangs from the roof, already fat with the -produce of the same tree growing about these districts in a plenty not -to be believed. Indeed the sole decoration of this devasted country is -the large quantity of majestic timber trees, almost all oak, living to -such an age, and spreading their broad arms with such venerable dignity, -that it is _they_ who appear the ancient possessors of the land, who, -in the true style of Gothic supremacy, suck all the nutriment of it to -themselves, only shaking off a few acorns to content the immediate hunger -of the animal race, which here seems in a state of great degeneracy -indeed, compared to those haughty vegetables. - -This day I saw a fryar; the first that has crossed my sight since we -left the town of Munich in Bavaria. On the road to Dusseldorp one sees -the country mend at every step; but even _I_ can perceive the language -harsher, the further one is removed from Hanover on either side: for -Hanover, as Madame de Bianconi told me at Dresden, is the Florence of -Germany; and the tongue spoken at that town is supposed, and justly, the -criterion of perfect _Teutsch_. - -The gallery of paintings here shall delay us but two or three days; I am -so very weary of living on the high roads of _Teuchland_ all winter long! -Gerard Dow’s delightful mountebank ought, however, to have two of those -days devoted to him, and here is the most capital Teniers which the world -has to show. Jaques Jordaens never painted any thing so well as the feast -in this gallery, where there are likewise some wonderful Sckalkens; -besides Rembrandt’s portrait of himself much out of repair, and old -Franck’s Seven Acts of Mercy varnished up, as well as the martyrdoms -representing some of the persecutions in early times of Christianity; -these might be called the Seven Acts of Cruelty--a duplicate of the -picture may be seen at Vienna. When one has mentioned the Vanderwerfs, -which are all sisters, and the demi-divine Carlo Dolce in the window, -representing the infant Jesus with flowers, full of sweetness and -innocent expression, it will be time to talk of the General Judgment, -painted with astonishing hardihood by Rubens, and which we stopt here -chiefly to see. The second Person of the Trinity is truly sublime, and -formed upon an idea more worthy of him, at least more correspondent to -the general ideas than that in Cappella Sestini; where a beholder is -tempted to think on Julius Cæsar somehow, instead of Jesus Christ--a -Conqueror, more than a Saviour of mankind. - -St. Michael’s figure is incomparable; those of Moses and St. Peter -happily imagined; the spirit of composition, the manner of grouping and -colouring, the general effect of the whole, prodigious! I know not why -he has so fallen below himself in the Madonna’s character; perhaps not -imitating Tintoret’s lovely Virgin in Paradise, he has done worse for -fear of being servile. Tintoret’s idea of her is so _very_ poetical! -but those who shewed it me at Venice said the drawing was borrowed from -Guariento, I remember. - -Who however except Rubens would have thought so justly, so liberally, -so wisely, about the Negro drawn up to heaven by the angels? who still -retains the old terrestrial character, so far as to shew a disposition -to laugh at _their_ situation who on earth tormented him. When all is -said, every body knows very well that Michael Angelo’s picture on this -subject is by far the finest; and that neither Rubens nor Tintoret -ever pretended, or even hoped to be thought as great artists as he: -but though Dante is a sublimer poet than Tasso, and Milton a writer of -more eminence than Pope, _these_ last will have readers, reciters, and -quoters, while the others must sit down contented with silent veneration -and acknowledged superiority. - -This day we saw the Rhine--what rivers these are! and what enormous -inhabitants they do contain! a brace of bream, and eels of a magnitude -and flavour very uncommon except in Germany, were our supper here. But -the manners begin I see to fade away upon the borders; our soft feather -beds are left behind; men too, sometimes sad, nasty, ill-looked fellows, -come in one’s room to sweep, &c. and light the fire in the stove, which -is now always made of lead, and the fumes are very offensive; no more -tight maids to be seen: but we shall get good roads; at Liege, down in a -dirty coal pit, the bad ones end I think; and that town may be said to -finish all our difficulties. After passing through our last disagreeable -resting-place then, one finds the manners take a tint of France, and -begins to see again what one has often seen before. The forests too are -fairly left behind, but neat agriculture, and comfortable cottages more -than supply their loss. Broom, juniper, every English shrub, announce -our proximity to Great Britain, while pots of mazerion in flower at the -windows shew that we are arrived in a country where spring is welcomed -with ceremony, as well as received with delight. The forwardness of the -season is indeed surprising; though it freezes at night now and then, -the general feel of the air is very mild; willows already give signs of -resuscitation, while flights of yellowhammers, a bird never observed in -Italy I think, enliven the fields, and look as if they expected food and -felicity to be near. - -Louvaine would have been a place well worth stopping at, they tell me; -but we were in haste to finish our journey and arrive at - - - - -BRUSSELS. - - -Every step towards this comfortable city lies through a country too well -known to need description, and too beautiful to be ever described as it -deserves. _Les Vues de Flandres_ are bought by the English, admired by -the Italians, and even esteemed by the French, who like few things out -of their own nation; but these places once belonged to Louis Quatorze, -and the language has taken such root it will never more be eradicated. -Here are very fine pictures in many private hands; Mr. Danot’s collection -does not want me to celebrate its merits; and here is a lovely park, -and a pleasing coterie of English, and a very gay carnival as can be, -people running about the streets in crowds; but their theatre is a vile -one: after Italy, it will doubtless be difficult to find masques that can -amuse, or theatres that can strike one. But never did nation possess a -family more charming than that of _La Duchesse d’Arenberg_, who, graced -with every accomplishment of mind and person, devotes her time and -thoughts wholly to the amusement of her amiable consort, calling round -them all which has any power of alleviating his distressful condemnation -to perpetual darkness, from an accident upon a shooting party that cost -him his sight about six or seven years ago. Mean time her arm always -guides, her elegant conversation always soothes him; and either from -_gaieté de cœur_, philosophical resolution to bear what heaven ordains -without repining, or a kind desire of corresponding with the Duchess’s -intentions, he appears to lose no pleasure himself, nor power of pleasing -others, by his misfortune; but dances, plays at cards, chats with his -English friends, and listens delightedly (as who does not?) when charming -Countess Cleri sings to the harpsichord’s accompaniment, with all -Italian taste, and all German execution. By the Duke D’Aremberg we were -introduced to Prince Albert of Saxony, and the Princesse Gouvernante, -whose resemblance to her Imperial brother is very striking; her hand -however, so eminently beautiful, is to be kissed no more; the abolition -of that ceremony has taken place in all the Emperor’s family. The palace -belonging to these princes is so entirely in the English taste, with -pleasure grounds, shrubbery, lawn, and laid out water, that I thought -myself at home, not because of the polite attentions received, for those -I have found _abroad_, where no merits of mine could possibly have -deserved, nor no services have purchased them. Spontaneous kindness, -and friendship resulting merely from that innate worth that loves to -energize its own affections on an object which some circumstances had -casually rendered interesting, are the lasting comforts I have derived -from a journey which has shewn me much variety, and impressed me with an -esteem of many characters I have been both the happier and the wiser for -having known. Such were the friends I left with regret, when, crossing -the Tyrolese Alps, I sent my last kind wishes back to the dear state -of Venice in a sigh; such too were my emotions, when we took leave last -night at Lady Torrington’s; and resolving to quit Brussels to-morrow for -Antwerp, determined to exchange the brilliant conversation of a _Boyle_, -for the glowing pencil of a _Rubens_. - - - - -ANTWERP. - - -This is a dismal heavy looking town--_so_ melancholy! the Scheld shut up! -the grass growing in the streets! those streets so empty of inhabitants! -and it was so famous once. _Atuatum nobile Brabantiæ opidum in ripâ -Schaldis flu. Europæ nationibus maximè frequentatum. Sumptuosis tam -privatis quam publicis nitet ædificiis_[54], say the not very old books -of geography when speaking of this once stately city; - - But trade’s proud empire sweeps to swift decay, - As ocean heaves the labour’d mole away. - - GOLDSMITH. - -And surely if the empire of Rome is actually fled away into air like a -dream, the opulence of Antwerp may well crumble to earth like a clod. -What defies time is genius; and of that, many and glorious proofs are yet -left behind in this place. The composition of a picture painted to adorn -the altar under which lies buried that which was mortal of its artist, is -beyond all meaner praise. The figure of St. George might stand by that -of Corregio, and suffer no diminution of one’s esteem. The descent from -the cross too!--Well! if Daniel de Volterra’s is more elegantly pathetic, -Rubens has put _his_ pathos in a properer place.--The blessed Virgin Mary -ought to be but the second figure certainly in a scene which represents -our almighty Saviour himself completing the redemption of all mankind. -But here is another devotional piece, highly poetical, almost dramatic, -representing Christ descending in anger to consume a guilty world. The -globe at a distance low beneath his feet, his pious mother prostrate -before him, covering part of it with her robe, and deprecating the divine -wrath in a most touching manner. St. Sebastian shewing his wounds with an -air of the tenderest supplication; Carlo Borromæo beseeching in heaven -for those fellow-creatures he ceased not loving or serving while on -earth; and St. Francis in the groupe, but surely ill-chosen; as he who -left the world, and planned only his own salvation by retirement from its -cares and temptations, would be unlikely enough to intreat for its longer -continuance: his dress however, so favourable to painters, was the reason -he was pitched upon I trust, as it affords a particularly happy contrast -to the cardinal’s robes of St. Carlo. - -I will finish my reflections upon painting here, and apologize for -their frequency only by confessing my fondness for the art; and my -conviction, that had I said nothing of that art in a journey through -Italy and Germany, where so much of every traveller’s attention is led -to mention it, I should have been justly blamed for affectation; while -being censured for impertinence disgusts me less of the two. What I have -learned from the Italians is a maxim more valuable than all my stock of -connoisseurship: _Che c’è in tutto il suo bene, e il suo male_--that -_there is much of evil and of good in every thing_: and the life of a -traveller evinces the truth of that position perhaps more than any -other. So persuaded, we made a bold endeavour to cross the Scheld; but -the wind was so outrageously high, no boat was willing to venture till -towards night: at that hour “_Unus, et hic audax_[55],” as Leander says, -offered his service to convey us; but the passage of the Rhine had been -so rough before, that I felt by no means disposed to face danger again -just at the close of the battle. - -When we find a disposition to talk over our adventures, the great ice -islands driving down _Rhenus ferox_, as Seneca justly calls it, and -threatening to run against and destroy our awkward ill-contrived boat, -may divert care over a winter’s fire, some evening in England, by -recollection of past perils. I thought it a dreadful one at the time; and -have no taste to renew a like scene for the sake of crossing the Scheld, -and arriving a very few moments sooner than returning through Brussels -will bring us--_a la Place de_ - - - - -LILLE; - - -Where every thing appears to me to be just like England, at least just -by it; and in fact four and twenty hours would carry us thither with a -fair wind: and now it really does feel as if the journey were over; and -even in that sensation, though there is some pleasure, there is some -pain too;--the time and the places are past;--and I have only left to -wish, that my improvements of the one, and my accounts of the others, -were better; for though Mr. Sherlock comforts his followers with the kind -assertion, That if a hundred men of parts travelled over Italy, and each -made a separate book of what _he_ saw and observed, a hundred excellent -compositions might be made, of which no two should be alike, yet all new, -all resembling the original, and all admirable of their kind.--One’s -constantly-recurring fear is, lest the readers should cry out, with -Juliet-- - - Yea, but all this did I know before! - -How truly might they say so, did I mention the oddity (for oddity it -still is) in this town of Lille, to see dogs drawing in carts as beasts -of burden, and lying down in the market-place when their work is done, -to gnaw the bones thrown them by their drivers: they are of mastiff race -seemingly, crossed by the bull-dog, yet not quarrelsome at all. This is -a very awkward and barbarous practice however, and, as far as I know, -confined to this city; for in all others, people seem to have found out, -that horses, asses, and oxen are the proper creatures to draw wheel -carriages--except indeed at Vienna, where the streets are so very narrow, -that the men resolve rather to be harnessed than run over. - -How fine I thought these churches thirteen years ago, comes now thirteen -times a-day into my head; they are not fine at all; but it was the first -time I had ever crossed the channel, and I thought every thing a wonder, -and fancied we were arrived at the world’s end almost; so differently -do the self-same places appear to the self-same people surrounded by -different circumstances! I now feel as if we were at Canterbury. Was one -to go to Egypt, the sight of Naples on the return home would probably -afford a like sensation of proximity: and I recollect, one of the -gentlemen who had been with Admiral Anson round the world told us, that -when he came back as near as our East India settlements, he considered -the voyage as finished, and all his toils at an end--so is my little -book; and (if Italy may be considered, upon Sherlock’s principle, as -a sort of academy-figure set up for us all to draw from) my design of -it may have a chance to go in the portfolio with the rest, after its -exhibition-day is over. - -With regard to the general effect travelling has upon the human mind, -it is different with different people. Brydone has observed, that the -magnetic needle loses her habits upon the heights of Ætna, nor ever more -regains her partiality for the _north_, till again newly touched by the -loadstone: it is so with many men who have lived long from home; they -find, like Imogen, - - That there’s living out of Britain; - -and if they return to it after an absence of several years, bring back -with them an alienated mind--this is not well. Others there are, who, -being accustomed to live a considerable time in places where they have -not the smallest intention to fix for ever, but on the contrary firmly -resolve to leave _sometime_, learn to treat the world as a man treats -his mistress, whom he likes well enough, but has no design to marry, and -of course never provides for--this is not well neither. A third set gain -the love of hurrying perpetually from place to place; living familiarly -with all, but intimately with none; till confounding their own ideas -(still undisclosed) of right and wrong, they learn to think virtue and -vice ambulatory, as Browne says; profess that climate and constitution -regulate men’s actions, till they try to persuade their companions into -a belief most welcome to themselves, that the will of God in one place -is by no means his will in another; and most resemble in their whirling -fancies a boy’s top I once saw shewn by a professor who read us a lecture -upon opticks; it was painted in regular stripes round like a narrow -ribbon, red, blue, green, and yellow; we set it a-spinning by direction -of our philosopher, who, whipping it merrily about, obtained as a -general effect the total privation of all the four colours, so distinct -at the beginning of its _tour_;--_it resembled a dirty white!_ - -With these reflexions and recollections we drove forward to Calais, where -I left the following lines at our inn: - - Over mountains, rivers, vallies, - Here are we return’d to Calais; - After all their taunts and malice, - Ent’ring safe the gates of Calais; - While, constrain’d, our captain dallies, - Waiting for a wind at Calais, - Muse! prepare some sprightly sallies - To divert _ennui_ at Calais. - Turkish ships, Venetian gallies, - Have we seen since last at Calais; - But tho’ Hogarth (rogue who rallies!) - Ridicules the French at Calais, - We, who’ve walk’d o’er many a palace, - Quite well content return to Calais; - For, striking honestly the tallies, - There’s little choice ’twixt them and Calais. - -It would have been graceless not to give these lines a companion on the -other side the water, like Dean Swift’s distich before and after he -climbed Penmanmaur: these verses were therefore written, and I believe -still remain, in an apartment of the Ship inn: - - He whom fair winds have wafted over, - First hails his native land at Dover, - And doubts not but he shall discover - Pleasure in ev’ry path round Dover; - Envies the happy crows which hover - About old Shakespeare’s cliff at Dover; - Nor once reflects that each young rover - Feels just the same, return’d to Dover. - From this fond dream he’ll soon recover - When debts shall drive him back to Dover, - Hoping, though poor, to live in clover, - Once safely past the straits of Dover. - But he alone’s his country’s lover, - Who, absent long, returns to Dover, - And can by fair experience prove her - The best he has found since last at Dover. - -THE END. - - - - -FOOTNOTES - - -[1] Lord, Madam! why we came here on purpose sure to see the end of the -world. - -[2] - - Freed from his keepers thus with broken reins - The wanton courser prances o’er the plains. - - DRYDEN. - -[3] When the mountain was in _ill-humour_. - -[4] More laborious than gathering up the Sibyl’s leaves. - -[5] I have danced in my bed so often this year. - -[6] Is she yet alive? Is she yet alive? - -[7] Be it as it may. - -[8] Which was once Anxur, and now is Terracina. - -[9] The temple sacred to the maiden Juno and un-razored Jove. - -[10] - - And the steep hills of Circe stretch around, - Where fair Feronia boasts her stately grove, - And Anxur glories in her guardian Jove. - - PITT. - -[11] White Anxur’s salutary waters roll. - -[12] Why, Madam, you have hit on it sure enough. - -[13] Surge, et ego ipse homo sum. VULGATE. - -[14] This hiding-hole received Nero after his golden house. - -[15] - - Our Alexander sells keys, altars, heaven; - When law and right are sold, he’ll buy:--that’s even. - -[16] Juno too has her thunder. - -[17] Here’s something at last that’s truly great however! why this -Alexander looks fit to be king of France. - -[18] _Paglia_ is a straw-coloured marble, wonderfully beautiful, and -extremely rare; found only in some northern tracts of Africa, I am told -here. - -[19] What you are already, that desire to be for ever. - -[20] Girt with the limus, and as to their temples, _they_ were crowned -with vervain. - -[21] That’s the name of the spring. - -[22] There was an old religious temple hard by, where Clitumnus himself -was venerated with suitable dress and ornaments. - -[23] Nightly lamenting, &c. - -[24] The colony of Ancona, founded by Sicilians. - -[25] - - The beauteous gulph which fair Ancona laves, - Ancona wash’d by white Dalmatian waves. - -[26] I am a light-fingered fellow, Master. - -[27] We are all sinners you know. - -[28] The best among the Cæsars. - -[29] Mayst thou be happier than Augustus!--better than Trajan! - -[30] Eating increases one’s appetite. - -[31] - - Though fat Bologna feeds to the fill, - Our Padua is fatter still. - -[32] - - Pompous and holy ancient Rome we call, - Venice rich, wise, and lordly over all. - -[33] Truth alone is pleasing. - -[34] - - Wilt thou have music? hark, Apollo plays, - And twenty _caged_ nightingales shall sing. - - SHAKESPEARE. - -[35] - - Not Hybla’s sweets, nor Naples devoloons, - Nor grapes which hide the hill with rich festoons; - Nor fat Bologna’s valley, have I chose; - What is your wish then? May I speak?--_repose_. - -[36] Thy knowledge is nothing till other men know that thou knowest it. - -[37] Methinks there seems to be much slavery required from those who -inhabit your fine free country of England. - -[38] In the fine cieling of Palazzo Ludovigi at Rome, the Hours which -surround Aurora’s chariot are employed in extinguishing the Stars with -their hands. - -[39] One volume of this Leonardiana is now in the private library of the -king of England at the queen’s house in the park, preserved from Charles -or James the First’s collection, and written with the left hand, or -rather backwards, to be read only with the help of a mirror. - -[40] All so natural and pretty,--quite in the English style. - -[41] That is, with a heap of friends about one in this manner. - -[42] Oh! God keep one from that. - -[43] What prince makes his residence here? - -[44] - - Her studies, manners, arts, to all proclaim - Fair Clelia’s glory, and her sex’s shame. - -[45] - - Two lords in vain unlucky Dido tries; - One dead, she flies the land; one fled--she dies. - -[46] Faithful to his cares, and companionable in his studies. - -[47] Whoever sees thee without being smitten with extraordinary passion, -must, I think, be incapable of loving even himself. - -[48] Nothing too much. - -[49] The lazy ox for trappings sighs. - -[50] Ever stormy or venemous. - -[51] Here’s the place to see fine diamonds. - -[52] - - What are they after all their pains, - These thunderbolts of war? - Mere caput mortuum that remains - Which worms vouchsafe to spare. - -[53] - - All these have liv’d; ye too who read must die: - Haste and be wise, the fateful minutes fly. - -[54] Antwerp is a noble town of Brabant, situated on the banks of the -Scheld; frequented by most of the nations in Europe, and sumptuous in its -buildings both public and private. - -[55] One--and he a bold one. - - - - -BOOKS printed for T. 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