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diff --git a/old/54519-h/54519-h.htm b/old/54519-h/54519-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index 1d5db5a..0000000 --- a/old/54519-h/54519-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,12541 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of Observations and Reflections Made in the Course of a Journey through France, Italy, and Germany, Vol. II, by Hester Lynch Piozzi. - </title> - - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - -<style type="text/css"> - -a { - text-decoration: none; -} - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - -h1,h2 { - text-align: center; - clear: both; -} - -hr { - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - clear: both; - width: 65%; - margin-left: 17.5%; - margin-right: 17.5%; -} - -p { - margin-top: 0.5em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: 0.5em; - text-indent: 1em; -} - -table { - margin: 1em auto 1em auto; - max-width: 40em; - border-collapse: collapse; -} - -td { - padding-left: 0.25em; - padding-right: 0.25em; -} - -.antiqua { - font-style: normal; -} - -.center { - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; -} - -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - -.footnotes { - margin-top: 1em; - border: dashed 1px; -} - -.footnote { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; - font-size: 0.9em; -} - -.footnote .label { - position: absolute; - right: 84%; - text-align: right; -} - -.fnanchor { - vertical-align: super; - font-size: .8em; - text-decoration: none; -} - -.noindent { - text-indent: 0em; -} - -.larger { - font-size: 150%; -} - -.pagenum { - position: absolute; - right: 4%; - font-size: smaller; - text-align: right; - font-style: normal; -} - -.poetry-container { - text-align: center; - margin: 1em; -} - -.poetry { - display: inline-block; - text-align: left; -} - -.poetry .stanza { - margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em; -} - -.poetry .verse { - text-indent: -3em; - padding-left: 3em; -} - -.poetry .indent1 { - text-indent: -2em; -} - -.poetry .indent6 { - text-indent: 3em; -} - -.poetry .indent13 { - text-indent: 10em; -} - -.right { - text-align: right; -} - -.smaller { - font-size: 80%; -} - -.smcap { - font-variant: small-caps; - font-style: normal; -} - -.titlepage { - text-align: center; - margin-top: 3em; - text-indent: 0em; -} - -.transnote { - background-color: #E6E6FA; - color: black; - text-align: center; - font-size: smaller; - padding: 0.5em; - margin-bottom: 5em; -} - -@media handheld { - -img { - max-width: 100%; - width: auto; - height: auto; -} - -.poetry { - display: block; - margin-left: 1.5em; -} -} - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -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) - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<p class="transnote">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.</p> - -<p class="titlepage larger">OBSERVATIONS <span class="smaller">AND</span> REFLECTIONS<br /> -<span class="smaller">MADE IN THE COURSE OF A</span><br /> -JOURNEY<br /> -<span class="smaller">THROUGH</span><br /> -<i>FRANCE, ITALY, <span class="smaller">AND</span> GERMANY.</i></p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> -<img src="images/deco_line.jpg" width="300" height="20" alt="Decorative line" /> -</div> - -<p class="center">By HESTER LYNCH PIOZZI.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> -<img src="images/deco_line.jpg" width="300" height="20" alt="Decorative line" /> -</div> - -<p class="center">IN TWO VOLUMES.<br /> -VOL. II.</p> - -<div class="figcenter" style="width: 300px;"> -<img src="images/deco_line.jpg" width="300" height="20" alt="Decorative line" /> -</div> - -<p class="center">LONDON:<br /> -Printed for A. <span class="smcap">Strahan</span>; and T. <span class="smcap">Cadell</span> in the Strand.<br /> -M DCC LXXXIX.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> - -<h1><span class="smcap">OBSERVATIONS and REFLECTIONS<br /> -made in a journey through</span><br /> -France, Italy, and Germany.</h1> - -<h2>NAPLES.</h2> - -<p>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 -<em>that</em> we saw plainly in the afternoon thirty -miles off, where I asked a Franciscan friar, -If it was the famous volcano? “Yes,” replied<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>My poor maid had by this time nearly -lost her wits with terror, and the French -valet, crushed with fatigue, and covered<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> -with rain and sea-spray, had just life enough -left to exclaim—“<i lang="fr">Ah, Madame! il me semble -que nous sommes venus icy exprès pour voir la -fin du monde</i><a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> -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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> -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?”</p> - -<p>The palaces and churches have no share in -one’s admiration at Naples, who scorns to depend -on man, however mighty, however skilful, -for <em>her</em> ornaments; while Heaven has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> -bestowed on her and her <i lang="it">contorni</i> 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 -<i lang="it">Grotto di Posilippo</i> 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, -<i lang="it">alla montagna</i>, or <i lang="it">alla marina</i>, <em>keep to the rock -side</em>, or <em>keep to the sea side</em>. 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 <em>Shor Apis</em> at Pozzuoli, where<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> -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 <em>Hope</em> at the bottom that better -times should come:—who can write prose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> -however in such places!—let the impossibility -of expressing my thoughts any other way excuse -the following</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse center">VERSES.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse center">I.</div> -<div class="verse">First of Achelous’ blood,</div> -<div class="verse">Fairest daughter of the flood,</div> -<div class="verse">Queen of the Sicilian sea,</div> -<div class="verse">Beauteous, bright Parthenope!</div> -<div class="verse">Syren sweet, whose magic force</div> -<div class="verse">Stops the swiftest in his course;</div> -<div class="verse">Wisdom’s self, when most severe,</div> -<div class="verse">Longs to lend a list’ning ear,</div> -<div class="verse">Gently dips the fearful oar,</div> -<div class="verse">Trembling eyes the tempting shore,</div> -<div class="verse">And sighing quits th’ enervate coast,</div> -<div class="verse">With only half his virtue lost.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse center">II.</div> -<div class="verse">Let thy warm, thy wond’rous clime,</div> -<div class="verse">Animate my artless rhyme,</div> -<div class="verse">Whilst alternate round me rise</div> -<div class="verse">Terror, pleasure, and surprise.—</div> -<div class="verse">Here th’ astonish’d soul surveys</div> -<div class="verse">Dread Vesuvius’ awful blaze,</div> -<div class="verse">Smoke that to the sky aspires,</div> -<div class="verse">Heavy hail of solid fires,</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> -<div class="verse">Flames the fruitful fields o’erflowing,</div> -<div class="verse">Ocean with the reflex glowing;</div> -<div class="verse">Thunder, whose redoubled sound</div> -<div class="verse">Echoes o’er the vaulted ground!—</div> -<div class="verse">Such thy glories, such the gloom</div> -<div class="verse">That conceals thy secret tomb,</div> -<div class="verse">Sov’reign of this enchanted sea,</div> -<div class="verse">Where sunk thy charms, Parthenope.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse center">III.</div> -<div class="verse">Now by the glimm’ring torch’s ray</div> -<div class="verse">I tread Pozzuoli’s cavern’d way—</div> -<div class="verse">Hollow grot! that might beseem</div> -<div class="verse">Th’ Ætnean cyclop, Polypheme:</div> -<div class="verse">And here the bat at noonday ’bides,</div> -<div class="verse">And here the houseless beggar hides,</div> -<div class="verse">While the holy hermit’s voice</div> -<div class="verse">Glads me with accustom’d noise.</div> -<div class="verse">Now I trace, or trav’llers err,</div> -<div class="verse">Modest Maro’s sepulchre,</div> -<div class="verse">Where nature, sure of his intent,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Is studious to conceal</div> -<div class="verse">That eminence he always meant</div> -<div class="verse indent1">We should not see but feel.</div> -<div class="verse">While Sannazarius from the steep</div> -<div class="verse">Views, well pleas’d, the fertile deep</div> -<div class="verse">Give life to them that seize the scaly fry,</div> -<div class="verse">And to their poet—<em>immortality</em>.</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse center">IV.</div> -<div class="verse">Next beauteous Baia’s warm remains invite</div> -<div class="verse">To Nero’s stoves my wond’ring sight;</div> -<div class="verse">Where palaces and domes destroy’d</div> -<div class="verse">Leave a flat unwholesome void:</div> -<div class="verse">Where underneath the cooling wave,</div> -<div class="verse">Ordain’d pollution’s fav’rite spot to lave,</div> -<div class="verse">Now hardly heaves the stifled sigh</div> -<div class="verse">Hot, hydropic luxury.</div> -<div class="verse">Yet, chas’d by Heav’n’s correcting hand,</div> -<div class="verse">Tho’ various crimes have fled the land;</div> -<div class="verse">Tho’ brutish vice, tyrannic pow’r,</div> -<div class="verse">No longer tread the trembling shore,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Or taint the ambient air;</div> -<div class="verse">By destiny’s kind care arrang’d,</div> -<div class="verse">Th’ inhabitants are scarcely chang’d;</div> -<div class="verse">For birds obscene, and beasts of prey,</div> -<div class="verse">That seek the night and shun the day,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Still find a dwelling there.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse center">V.</div> -<div class="verse">If then beneath the deep profound</div> -<div class="verse">Retires unseen the slipp’ry ground;</div> -<div class="verse indent1">If melted metals pour’d from high</div> -<div class="verse">A verdant mountain grows by time,</div> -<div class="verse">Where frisking kids can browze and climb,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">And softer scenes supply:</div> -<div class="verse">Let us who view the varying scene,</div> -<div class="verse">And tread th’ instructive paths between,</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> -<div class="verse">See famish’d Time his fav’rite sons devour,</div> -<div class="verse">Fix’d for an age—then swallow’d in an hour;</div> -<div class="verse">Let us at least be early wise,</div> -<div class="verse">And forward walk with heav’n-fix’d eyes,</div> -<div class="verse">Each flow’ry isle avoid, each precipice despise;</div> -<div class="verse">Till, spite of pleasure, fear, or pain,</div> -<div class="verse">Eternity’s firm coast we gain,</div> -<div class="verse">Whence looking back with alter’d eye,</div> -<div class="verse">These fleeting phantoms we’ll descry,</div> -<div class="verse">And find alike the song and theme</div> -<div class="verse">Was but—an empty, airy dream.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> -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 <i lang="it">Sieuroc</i>, o sia -<i lang="it">lo vento Greco</i>; and their manner of pronouncing -it led me to think it might possibly -be that called in Scripture <em>Euroc</em>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.</p> - -<p>Some curious inscriptions here, to me not -legible, shew how this poor country has been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> -overwhelmed by tyrants, earthquakes, Saracens! -not to mention the Goths and Vandals, -who however left no traces <em>but</em> desolation: -while, as the prophet Joel says, “<cite>The ground -was as the garden of Eden before them, and -behind them a desolate wilderness</cite>.”</p> - -<p>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 <em>no</em> occasion, are never heard to repeat -<em>his</em> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> -figures upon their skins with gunpowder: -these figures, large, and oddly displayed too, -according to the coarse notions of the wearer.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> -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 <em>January</em> always, to -signify the renovation of <em>sweets</em>; 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 <em>Janus</em>’s -presence, &c. good wishes were formed for -the Emperor’s felicity; and no word of ill -omen was to be pronounced.—<i lang="la">Cautum erat -apud Romanos ne quod mali ominis verbum -calendis <em class="antiqua">Januariis</em> efferretur</i>; says Pliny: -and the <i lang="la">strenæ</i> or new-years gifts, called -now by the French “les <i lang="fr">etrennes</i>,” and -practised by Lutherans as well as Romanists, -is the self-same veneration of old <em>Janus</em>, if -fairly traced up to Tatius King of the Sabines, -who sought a laurel bough plucked -from the grove of the goddess <em>Strenia</em>, or -<em>Strenua</em>, and presented it to his favourites on -the first of <em>January</em>, from whence the custom<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> -arose; and Symmachus, in his tenth book, -twenty-eighth epistle, mentions it clearly -when writing to the Emperors Theodosius -and Arcadius—“<i lang="la"><em class="antiqua">Strenuarum</em> usus adolevit -auctoritate Tatii regis, qui verbenas felicis -arboris ex luco Strenuæ anni</i>.”</p> - -<p>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 <i lang="fr">Les Etrennes</i>.</p> - -<p>As to <em>St. Januarius</em>, 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 <em>tattowed Indians</em>, when Naples -will shew one the effects of a like operation, -very <em>very</em> little better executed, on the broad -shoulders of numberless Lazaroni; and of this -there is no need to examine books for information,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> -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—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="la"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Et in otia natam</div> -<div class="verse">Parthenopen;</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">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.</p> - -<p>A Florentine nobleman told me once, that -he asked one of these fellows to carry his -portmanteau for him, and offered him a <i lang="it">carline</i>, -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: “<cite>Are you hungry, Master?</cite>” cries -the fellow. “<cite>No</cite>,” replied Count Manucci,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> -“<cite>but what of that?</cite>”—“<cite>Why then no more -am I</cite>:” was the answer, “<cite>and it is too hot -weather to carry burthens</cite>:” so turned about -upon the other side, and lay still.</p> - -<p>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 <i lang="it">fiacre</i> you pay so much -for a drive in, I forget the sum.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> -England herself possess in peace a creature -of the same kind, but handsomer still, and -from a still hotter climate, called the Zebra.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>The coat armour of Naples consists of an -unbridled horse; and by what I can make -out of their character, they much resemble -him;</p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="la"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Qualis ubi abruptis fugit præsæpia vinclis</div> -<div class="verse">Tandem liber æquus, &c. &c. &c.<a name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>;</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">generous and gay; headstrong and violent in -their disposition; easy to turn, but difficult<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> -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 <i lang="it">La Montagna -fu cattiva</i><a name="FNanchor_3" id="FNanchor_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a>, 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.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span></p> - -<p>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 <em>to</em>, 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 -<i lang="it">Ré Cattolico</i>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> -rough merriment can be ever attached to his -truly-honest, open, undesigning character.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p> - -<p>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 <em>their</em> 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 <em>their</em> 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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> -what the French call so properly <i lang="fr">ammunition de -Bouche</i>, 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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> -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 <em>me</em>, -appeared, perhaps from its frequent repetition, -to strike no one but myself.</p> - -<p>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. <i lang="fr">En cet état</i>, 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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> -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:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse indent13">To confess</div> -<div class="verse">Humbly her faults, and pardon beg; with tears</div> -<div class="verse">Watering the ground, and with her sighs the air</div> -<div class="verse">Frequenting, sent from heart contrite, in sign</div> -<div class="verse">Of sorrow unfeign’d, and humiliation meek.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> -he is <i lang="it">religioso, è di più cavaliere</i>. 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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> -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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> -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;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>But it is time to tell of Herculaneum, Pompeia, -and Portici; of a theatre, the scene of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> -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 (<i lang="la">amphora</i>), 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 <em>very</em> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> -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 <em>print</em> 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 <em>stole</em> 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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> -dislodged, before a new eruption swallows all -again.</p> - -<p>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 <em>very</em> 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.</p> - -<p>The <i lang="la">triclinia</i> and <i lang="la">stibadia</i> 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 <em>dead</em>, and I am sure <em>buried</em> -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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>The sight of the <i lang="la">curule</i> 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 <i lang="la">curule</i> chair was so -called from <i lang="la">currus</i> 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 <i lang="la">laboriosius est quam Sibyllæ folia colligere</i><a name="FNanchor_4" id="FNanchor_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a>, -to use the words of Politian, whose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> -right name I learned at Florence to be <i lang="it">Messer -Angelo di Monte Pulciano</i>.</p> - -<p>May not, however, a more important consequence -than any yet mentioned be found -deducible from what we have seen this day? -for if <em>Jesus Christ</em> condescended to use the -Roman, or commonly adopted custom of supping -on a <i lang="la">triclinium</i> (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 <em>last</em>, -not <em>first</em>, to exclude from salvation all such of -their brethren as do not receive the Lord’s -Supper precisely in <em>their way</em>; 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 <em>standing</em>, and with a staff in their hands -beside as expressive of more haste.</p> - -<p>The Christmas season here at Naples is very -pleasingly observed; the Italians are peculiarly -ingenious in adorning their shops I think, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> -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 <i lang="it">la Strada del Toledo</i>, -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 <i lang="it">galante</i> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> -quietly lie down to rest. Till that hour, however, -few things can exceed the tumultuous -merriment of Naples, while <i lang="it">volantes</i>, 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,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">See some strange comfort ev’ry state attend:—</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">The <i lang="it">Lazaroni</i> 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 <i lang="it">carlines</i> -(about five shillings English); if it is his wife -that meets with the accident, he gets two -<i lang="it">ducats</i>, 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 -<em>trifles</em>. 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> -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 <i lang="it">Corso</i>: there was a -crowd and an <i lang="it">embarras</i>, and the fellow tumbled -off and died upon the spot, and nobody -even spoke, or I believe <em>thought</em> about the -matter, except one woman, who supposed that -he had neglected to cross himself when he got -up behind.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>There is a work of art, however, peculiar -to this city, and attempted in no other; on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> -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 -<i lang="it">presepio</i>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> -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 <i lang="fr">coûte -qui coûte</i>: and perhaps I should not have said -so much about the matter, if there had not -been shewn me within this last week, <i lang="it">presepios</i> -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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> -with a turban and <em>crescent</em>, six hundred years -before the birth of Mahomet, who first put -that mark in the forehead of his followers? -The eastern Magi were not <em>Turks</em>; this is a -breach of <em>costume</em>.” 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.</p> - -<p>A young lady here of English parents, -just ten years old, asked me, very pertinently, -“Why this pretty sight was called a <em>Presepio</em>?” -but said she suddenly, answering -herself, “I suppose it is because it is <em>preceptive</em>:” -such a mistake was more valuable -than knowledge, and gave me great esteem -of her understanding; the little girl’s name -was Zaffory.</p> - -<p>The King’s <i lang="fr">menagerie</i> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> -keeper, little less a beast than he; but as -Pope says, after Horace,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Let bear or elephant be e’er so white,</div> -<div class="verse">The people sure, the people are the sight.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Let us then tell about the two assemblies, -<i lang="it">o sia conversazioni</i>, 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 <i lang="it">nobiltà</i>, the other is -called <i lang="it">de’ buoni amici</i>; 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 <i lang="it">amici</i> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> -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 -<em>these</em>, 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.</p> - -<p>I inquired if the men confined their addresses -wholly to their own rank? She said, -beauty often broke the barrier, and when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> -a pretty woman of the second rank got a -<i lang="it">cavalier servente</i> of the first, much happiness -and much distinction was the consequence: -but alas! he will not even <em>try</em> 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.</p> - -<p>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 <em>lower rooms</em>, 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 <em>because he was a -rascal</em>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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 -<em>that</em> was likewise abolished, with only slight -traces left behind to shew that <i lang="la">fuimus</i>, &c.”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> -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 <em>emulous -of Milton</em>, in good time! but it is difficult -to distinguish jest from earnest in a foreign -language.</p> - -<p>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 <i lang="it">Castagno -a cento cavalli</i>, which, he protests, is -not magnified by Brydone.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> -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, <em>what would come -of it?</em>”—“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 <em>alive</em> 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 <em>love</em> be in the -case, all <em>personal attachment</em> 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,</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">For now I’ve found out that as Michaelmas day</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Is still the forerunner of Lammas;</div> -<div class="verse">So wedding another is just the right way</div> -<div class="verse indent1">To get at my dear Mr. Thomas.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>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 <em>me</em>, called by others <em>Don Raphael</em> -and <em>Donna Camilla</em>, 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 -<em>she</em>, starting, cried, “Oh God forbid, my -dear friend!” in an accent that made me think -she had already suffered something from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> -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 <em>you</em>, madam, at the moment -of the fatal accident?”—“Who? <em>me</em>?” 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 -<em>so</em> dark all on a sudden, and the brazier—Oh, -Lord Jesus! I felt the brazier slide from me,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> -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, <em>run, run</em>.—I know not -how nor where, but all amongst falling -houses it was, and people shrieked so, and -there was <em>such</em> a noise! My poor son! he -was fifteen years old; he tried to hold me -fast in the crowd. I remember kissing <em>him</em>: -Dear lad, dear lad! I said. I could speak <em>just -then</em>: 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. <i lang="it">Padre mio!</i> said I—<i lang="it">Padre -mio!</i> 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 <em>there</em> again? No, no; that’s a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> -curst place; I lost my son in it. <em>Never, never</em> -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 <em>he!</em> ah, poor dear lad! he loved his mother; -he held <em>me</em> fast—No, no, I’ll never see -that place again: God has cursed it <em>now</em>; I -am sure he has.”</p> - -<p>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: -<em>her</em> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> -round a man, and leaves him only the nearer -objects to repose and dwell on.</p> - -<p>Such was Captain ——’s situation! he had -none but a foreign servant with him. We -thought it might sooth him to hear “<cite>Can I -do any thing for you, Sir?</cite>” 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 <i lang="it">Buco Protestante</i>; 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 <em>perpetual</em> apartments here, no -better place has been hitherto provided for -them than this kitchen ground; on which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> -grow cabbages, cauliflowers, &c. sold to their -country folks for double price I trow, the remaining -part of the season.</p> - -<p>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 <em>superiors</em>. As I was disposed -to see nothing <em>but</em> harm in disputing -with such a competitor, our conference finished -soon; but the fact is certain.</p> - -<p>Indeed few things can be foolisher than to -debate the propriety of customs one is not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> -bound to observe or comply with. If you -dislike them, the remedy is easy; turn yours -and your horses heads the other way.</p> - -<p class="right">20th January 1786.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>Be this as it will, the vaunted view from the -castle of St. Elmo, though much more deeply -<em>interesting</em>, is in consequence of this defect less -<em>naturally</em> 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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span></p> - -<p>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.”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> -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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> -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</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">His rushy couch, his frugal fare,</div> -<div class="verse">His blessing and repose.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Goldsmith.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>This Hermit is a Frenchman. <i lang="fr">J’ai dansé -dans mon lit tans de fois</i><a name="FNanchor_5" id="FNanchor_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a>, 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. -<i lang="fr">Vit’elle encore? Vit’elle encore?</i><a name="FNanchor_6" id="FNanchor_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> -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, <i lang="it">scappar via</i>, 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 <em>Janualis</em> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> -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?</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> -particularly attentive, “Yes, Madam,” said -he, “I do assure you, that <em>Don</em> Horace and -<em>Don</em> 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 <cite>Ave Maria</cite>.”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span></p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><i lang="it">Sia come sia</i><a name="FNanchor_7" id="FNanchor_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a>, as the Italians express themselves, -these environs are beyond all power<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> -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 <em>living wight</em>, 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.</p> - -<p>How judicious is Mr. Addison’s remark, -“That <i lang="la">Siste Viator!</i> 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 <i lang="la">Caput Bovis</i> -over the doors in New Tavistock-street.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> -the fashion: his death, occasioned -by the <i lang="la">morbus pedicularis</i>, 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 <i lang="la">post obit</i> 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.</p> - -<p>The Queen of Naples is delivered, and -we are all to make merry: the <i lang="it">Castello -d’Uovo</i>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> -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 <i lang="it">festa di ballo</i>, or masquerade, -given here however, was exceedingly -gay, and the dresses surprisingly rich: <em>our</em> -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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span></p> - -<p>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 <em>pig</em>, which was -placed on the top, and illuminated with no -small ingenuity: the fire catching hold of -his tail first—<i lang="it">con rispetto</i>—as said our Cicerone. -But <i lang="it">il Rè Lear è le sue tre Figlie</i> are -advertised, and I am sick to-night and cannot -go.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Oh what a time have I chose out, &c.</div> -<div class="verse">To wear a kerchief—would I were not sick!</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> -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. <i lang="it">Maladetti!</i> 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 <em>me</em>, 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 <em>must</em> shoot myself, the -world is so <em>very</em> dull I am tired on’t.”—He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> -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 <em>them</em> though, if I can -catch them; but want of money hinders me -from prosecuting the search.” <em>That</em> 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 -<em>such are the sentiments of an Englishman</em>.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span></p> - -<p>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 <em>ground-plot</em>, as a <em>surveyor</em> -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.</p> - -<p>The word gems reminds one of <i lang="it">Capo di -Monte</i>, where the king’s <i lang="it">cameos</i> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> -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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> -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 <i lang="fr">en ce genre</i>, -difficult to conceive.</p> - -<p>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 <em>Chiaja</em>; 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 <em>vulgar</em> character, ever crossed -the fancy of Schidone; for a <i lang="it">Lazaroni</i> at -Naples, like a sailor at Portsmouth, is no mean<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> -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,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And mingle with the people’s wretched lee—</div> -<div class="verse">Oh line extreme of human infamy!—</div> -<div class="verse">Lest by her look or colour be exprest</div> -<div class="verse">The mark of aught high-born, or ever better drest.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>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 -<em>character</em> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> -delight!—How can one coldly sit to hear the -connoisseurs <em>admire the folds of the drapery</em>? -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.</p> - -<p>But I am called from my observations and -reflexions, to see what the Neapolitans call -<i lang="it">il trionfo di Policinello</i>, 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 <em>their</em> characters.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> -uniform, viz. the white habit and puce-coloured -mask of <i lang="it">caro</i> 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.</p> - -<p>What I have learned from this show, and -many others of the same kind, is of no greater -value than the derivation of <em>his name</em> who is so -much the favourite of Naples: but from the -mask he appears in, cut and coloured so as -exactly to resemble a <em>flea</em>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> -innumerable insects that infest them; and, -last of all, <em>his name</em>, which, corrupt it how we -please, was originally <em>Pulicinello</em>; leaves me -persuaded that the appellation is merely <em>little -flea</em>.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 <em>valley</em> (I might say <em>hole</em>) this -house is set in, looks too little for it; and -offends one in the same manner as the more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> -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 <i lang="fr">paitrie des -graces</i>; 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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,—<em>a real one</em>; -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> -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: <em>it is this</em>, -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.</p> - -<p>My stay has been always much shorter than -I wished it, in every great town of Italy; but -<em>here!</em> where numberless wonders strike the -sense without fatiguing it, I do feel double<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>To-morrow I shall take my last look at the -Bay, and driving forward, hope at night to -lodge at Terracina.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span class="smcap">JOURNEY from NAPLES to ROME.</span></h2> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> -is so odd that they should never yet have arrived -at calling their money by other names -than those of the weights, an <em>ounce</em> and a -<em>grain</em>; the coins however are not ugly.</p> - -<p>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 -<i lang="la">imago barbata, sed intonsa</i>, 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, <i lang="la">ut Anxur -fuit quæ nunc Terracinæ sunt</i><a name="FNanchor_8" id="FNanchor_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a>. The -tenth Thebaid too speaks much <i lang="la">de templo<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> -sacro et Junoni puellæ, Jovis Axuro</i><a name="FNanchor_9" id="FNanchor_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a>; 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 <cite>Propria que -maribus</cite>,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="la"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Et genus Anxur quod dat utrumque?</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>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:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="la"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Circeumque jugum, queis Jupiter Anxuris arvis</div> -<div class="verse">Præsidet<a name="FNanchor_10" id="FNanchor_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a>.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse right">7th <span class="smcap">Æneid</span>.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> -enough to encourage this superstitious worship -of the beardless Jupiter.</p> - -<p>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,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="la"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Sive salutiferis candidus Anxur acquis<a name="FNanchor_11" id="FNanchor_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a>.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">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 -<i lang="it">mal aria</i> 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 <em>Virgil</em>?” said one of our company. “<i lang="fr">Eh mon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> -Dieu, Madame, vous l’avez divinée</i><a name="FNanchor_12" id="FNanchor_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a>,” 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, <em>Virgil</em> or <em>Homer</em>; had he -chanced to mention that <em>Molo di Gaeta</em> 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,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse indent6">——Upon what coast,</div> -<div class="verse">On what <em>new</em> region is Ulysses tost?</div> -<div class="verse">Possest by wild barbarians fierce in arms,</div> -<div class="verse">Or men whose bosoms tender pity warms?</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Pope’s Odyssey.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> -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 <em>dead</em> among mankind—to the present -hour, when even her second splendours, -like the last gleams of an <i lang="la">aurora borealis</i>, fade -gradually from the view, and sink almost imperceptibly -into decay. Nor can the exemplary -virtues and admirable conduct of <em>this</em>, -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—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Where Circe dwelt, the daughter of the day.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">That such enchantresses should inhabit such -regions could have been scarce a wonder in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> -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;</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse indent6">——Hail, <em>foreign</em> wonder!</div> -<div class="verse">Whom certes our rough shades did never breed.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Milton.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">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 <em>feel</em>; 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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> -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—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">When like the baseless fabric of a vision,</div> -<div class="verse">The cloud-capt tow’rs, the gorgeous palaces,</div> -<div class="verse">The solemn temples, the great globe itself,</div> -<div class="verse">Yea all which it inherit, shall dissolve;</div> -<div class="verse">And like some unsubstantial pageant faded</div> -<div class="verse">Leave not a wreck behind.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<h2>ROME.</h2> - -<p>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;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> -though a temporary rail and <i lang="fr">trottoir</i> 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. <i lang="it">Soprano</i> singers did not so -surprise me with their feminine appearance in -the Opera; but these clumsy <i lang="it">figurantes</i>! 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 <i lang="fr">la premiere danseuse</i> -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 -<em>tender</em> applauses from the pit convinced us of -<em>their heart-felt</em> approbation! and in the parterre -fat gentlemen much celebrated at Rome -for their taste and refinement.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span></p> - -<p>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 <em>outside</em> the doors, than -<em>in</em>. 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 <em>Romans</em>: who, as I could not avoid remarking, -certainly deserve to rule over all the -world once more, if, as we often read in history, -<em>command</em> is to be best learned from the -practice of <em>obedience</em>.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p> - -<p>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 <i lang="it">il carnovale -è morto</i>, 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 <i lang="it">Strada del Popolo</i> as light as -day, and produce a wonderfully pretty effect, -gay, natural, and pleasing.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> -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 <em>human</em> 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. <em>They</em> 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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> -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 <em>aisle</em>. 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 <em>first</em> 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 <i lang="la">simplex -munditiis</i>, or <em>freedom from decoration</em>; 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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 <em>should</em> 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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> -than for a Christian priest or sovereign, since -universal dominion has been abolished. Nothing, -however, <em>can</em> 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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span></p> - -<p>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 <i lang="it">Capella Sestini</i>, 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 <i lang="la">miserere</i> -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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> -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 <em>Messiah</em>’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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>But how, said Cyrus, shall I make men -think me more excellent than themselves? <em>By -being really so</em>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> -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, <em>I hope it will cure my rheumatism</em>. -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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> -these remarkable words, <em>seeing I also am a -man</em><a name="FNanchor_13" id="FNanchor_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a>. 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 <em>wind</em>:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="la"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Redde aquilam Cæsari, Francorum lilia regi,</div> -<div class="verse">Sydera redde polo, cætera Brasche tibi.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></p> - -<p class="noindent">These verses were given me by an agreeable -Benedictine Friar, member of a convent belonging -to St. Paul’s <i lang="it">fuor delle mura</i>; he was -a learned man, a native of Ragusa, had been -particularly intimate with Wortley Montague, -whose variety of acquirements had impressed -him exceedingly.</p> - -<p>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,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="la"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse"><i lang="la">Hoc specus accepit post aurea tecta Neronem</i><a name="FNanchor_14" id="FNanchor_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a>.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> -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 <em>red cap Popes</em> -enough, mine shall be only white,” and <em>white it is</em>.</p> - -<p>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 <i lang="it">Bocca della Verita</i>; and extremely curious -we thought it to see their ceremonies upon -Palm Sunday, when their aged patriarch, not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> -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 <em>first</em> thing the Emperor <em>did</em> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> -at dinner, went out to converse with him. -“<em>Pull aside the curtain, Sir</em>,” said the stranger, -“<em>for I am in haste to see this master-piece of -your immortal Raphael</em>.” 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 <i lang="it">Monte Citoria</i> 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 <em>the Emperor</em>. -“Is he expected?” enquired the -gentleman. “Every day, Sir,” replies the Friar. -“And <em>well now</em>,” cries the foreigner, “what -sort of a man do you expect to see?” “Why, -Sir, you seem a traveller, did <em>you</em> 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.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span></p> - -<p>This dialogue, natural and simple, had taken -such hold of our good <i lang="fr">religieux</i>’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 <em>Cæsar</em>:”—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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> -<i lang="fr">arabesques</i> 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.</p> - -<p>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 -<em>me</em>: they were very gross and indecent -ones to be sure; so I felt offended, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> -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 -<i lang="fr">l’investiture du royaume de Naples</i>; 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:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="la"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Vendit Alexander claves, altaria, Christum,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Vendere jure potest, emerat ille prius<a name="FNanchor_15" id="FNanchor_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a>.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span></p> -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>I looked here for what some French <i lang="fr">recueil</i>, -<em>Menagiana</em> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> -engraving on them with these remarkable -words;</p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="la"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Habet sua fulmina Juno<a name="FNanchor_16" id="FNanchor_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a>.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">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.</p> - -<p>We were shewn one morning lately the -spot where it is supposed St. Paul suffered -decapitation; and our <i lang="it">Cicerone</i> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> -in company, and a steady Calvinist, -loudly ridiculed the tradition, called it an idle -tale, and triumphantly expressed his <em>certain -conviction</em>, that such an event <em>could not possibly</em> -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 <em>his</em> 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 <em>common</em> -and <em>vulgar</em> 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 <em>above</em> the <em>comprehension</em> and beyond<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> -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?</p> - -<p>But we have been called to pass some moments -on the Cælian hill; and see the <i lang="it">Chiesa -di San Gregorio</i>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> -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 <em>her</em> what <em>she</em> 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.”</p> - -<p>The <i lang="it">vecchia</i> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> -amazed was I two days ago at the answer of -<em>our</em> <i lang="it">vecchia</i>, when curiosity prompted me to -ask her age:—“<em>O, Madam, I am a very aged -woman</em>,” was the reply, “<em>and have two -grandchildren married; I am forty-two years -old, <span class="antiqua" lang="it">poveretta me!</span></em>” I told an Italian gentleman -who dined with us what Caterina had -said, and begged him to ask the <i lang="fr">laquais de -place</i>, 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.</p> - -<p>Yet such things seem strange to <em>us</em>; 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 <i lang="fr">verd antique</i>, very fine and worthy of -Wilton house; with some exceeding good<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p> - -<p>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 <i lang="it">basilica</i>; 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 <i lang="it">cappella Corsini</i>; in -riches and magnificence to <i lang="it">cappella Borghese</i>, -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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span></p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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, “<i lang="fr">A la fin voila ce qui est vrayment -noble; cet Alexandre là; il paroit effectivement -le roy de France même</i><a name="FNanchor_17" id="FNanchor_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a>.”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> -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 <i lang="la">plaudits</i> 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 <em>die like -an emperor</em>. 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 <em>their -fate</em>, and <em>his tyranny</em> who could take advantage, -as they expressed it, of their relation’s caprice.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> -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; <em>he went to law</em> with -the family for it, which I thought a very -strange thing; <em>and lost his cause</em>, which I -thought a still stranger.</p> - -<p>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 <em>water</em>-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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> -<i lang="it">giall’ antique</i>, but of <i lang="it">paglia</i><a name="FNanchor_18" id="FNanchor_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a>, which no house -but this possesses, amaze and delight <i lang="la">indocti -doctique</i> 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.</p> - -<p>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 <i lang="it">virtù</i>, arranged this stupendous -collection, in conjunction with the cardinal, -whose taste was by all his contemporaries -acknowledged the best in Rome.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>What has most struck me here as a real -improvement upon social and civil life, was -the school of Abate Sylvester, who, upon the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> -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 <em>life</em> has been spent, and all my <em>youth</em>, 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 <em>knowing</em> a syllogism and <em>appearing</em> -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; <i lang="it">peccato!</i> said the wench -distinctly; she was about ten years old perhaps: -but a little boy of seven was deservedly the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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 <em>we sleep!</em> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> -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—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="la"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Barbarini faciunt barbara, &c.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">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 -<cite>Maffei Barberini Poemata</cite>; 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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>The church that now stands where a temple -to Bacchus was built, <i lang="it">fuori delle mura</i>, engaged -our attention this morning. Nothing can be -fresher than the old decorations in honour of -this jocund deity; the figures of men and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> -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 <em>it is</em> -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, -<em>they</em> were flung away by mistaken zeal -and prejudice; but an Englishman, say they, -who loves an unbeliever, got possession of a -<em>tooth</em>: 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;—<em>his</em> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> -than <em>his</em>, 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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> -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 <em>idolatrous</em>. -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;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> -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 <em>in being a show</em>. -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.</p> - -<p>But let us wish for any thing now rather -than a <em>fine sight</em>. I am tired with the very -word <em>a sight</em>; 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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> -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 -<em>ready found</em>. 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?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> -But the principles of trade are formed in direct -opposition to that spirit of subordination by -which alone <em>their</em> 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;</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">As man perhaps the moment of his breath</div> -<div class="verse">Receives the lurking principle of death;</div> -<div class="verse">The young disease, which must subdue at length,</div> -<div class="verse">Grows with his growth, and strengthens with his strength.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span></p> - -<p>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 <em>must</em> 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 <em>all</em> 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 <i lang="it">abate</i> with -the <i lang="fr">petit collet</i> 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 -<em>self</em>, whether nation or individual, as a standard<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> -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. <i lang="la">Quod sis esse velis</i><a name="FNanchor_19" id="FNanchor_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a>, 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.</p> - -<p>I must not quit Rome however without a -word of Angelica Kauffman, who, though -neither English nor Italian, has contrived to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> -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 <em>Job</em>, -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 <em>original</em>. -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 <i lang="la">forum boarium</i> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> -sacrificed victim; and there are in fact ancient -figures in many bas-reliefs of this town, which -represent the inferior officers, or <i lang="la">popæ</i>, 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 <i lang="la">limus</i>, -and there was a purple welt sewed on it in -such a manner as to represent a serpent:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="la"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Velati limo, et verbenâ tempora vincti<a name="FNanchor_20" id="FNanchor_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a>;</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">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.</p> - -<p>But it is time to take leave of this <i lang="la">Roma -triumphans</i>, as she is represented in one statue -with a weeping province at her foot, <em>so</em> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span> -that instructive guide, particularly the singular -inscription on Gaudentius the actor’s -tomb, importing that Vespasian rewarded him -with death, but that <em>Kristus</em>, 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 <em>him</em> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> -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:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Evil communication corrupts good manners.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> -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 <em>use</em> only, or at best <em>amusement</em>, 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.</p> - -<p>But I shall be glad <em>now</em> 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 <em>Italy</em> and <em>England</em> again; but the -<em>harebell</em> by cultivation becomes a <em>hyacinth</em>, the -<em>tulip</em> 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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> -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 <i lang="la">per annum</i>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> -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 <em>any</em> other <em>possible reason</em> except the -want of a pedigree, would conclude that <em>his</em> -must be essentially deficient, and lament -their having laid out so many caresses on an -impostor.</p> - -<p>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;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> -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 <em>Livia</em>, a <em>Probus</em>, or <em>Gallienus</em>, -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 <em>conquer</em> their neighbours -once again, at least to <em>ruin</em> them, by -dint of digging up their dead heroes, and calling -in the assistance of their old Pagan deities, -<em>now</em> useful to them in a <em>new</em> manner, and ever -propitious to this city, although</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Enlighten’d Europe with disdain</div> -<div class="verse">Beholds the reverenc’d heathen train,</div> -<div class="verse">Nor names them more in this her clearer day,</div> -<div class="verse">Unless with fabled force to aid the poet’s lay.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">R. Merry.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span></p> - -<h2>FROM ROME TO ANCONA.</h2> - -<p>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 <i lang="la">Vinum Veientanum</i> 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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> -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 <em>Dr. Priestley</em> and <em>Mr. -Parsons</em>.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> -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 <em>now</em> yellow -with brimstone, and well deserving the epithet -of <em>sulphureous Nar</em>.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span></p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>Why the inhabitants will have this tumbling -river be <em>Topino</em>, I know not; but no -suggestions of mine could make them name it -Velino, as our travellers uniformly call it: -for, say they, <i lang="it">quello è il nome del sorgente</i><a name="FNanchor_21" id="FNanchor_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a>; and -in fact Virgil’s line,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="la"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Sulfureâ Nar, albus acqua fontesque Velini,</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">says no more.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span> -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 -<em>look for streams immortaliz’d in song</em>: for being -tied together only with ropes, we cannot hurry -through a country most delightful of all others -to be detained in.</p> - -<p>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: <i lang="la">Adjacet templum priscum -et religiosum. Stat Clitumnus ipse amictus ornatusque</i><a name="FNanchor_22" id="FNanchor_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a>.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> -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 <em>Darking</em>. 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.”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> -I think these vagabonds distressed in earnest at -<em>this</em> 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, <em>that the money might be better bestowed -upon the living poor</em>. 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> -their share of it away, if once possessed, is now, -from being so often repeated, become neither -<em>bright</em> nor <em>new</em>. 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 -<em>for them</em>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> -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 <em>their</em> presents should -have been placed together: far, far even from -the wooden image of <em>her</em> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> -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 <em>all</em> expence almost; -and it is not from the state of Loretto these -treasures are taken at last: they <em>bring</em> 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 <em>them</em> the sapphires, &c. they have sent -in presents to Loretto.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span></p> - -<p>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 <i lang="it">Santa Casa</i>: -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 <em>holy well</em>. -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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> -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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> -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 <em>no foundation</em>, 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.</p> - -<p>What Dr. Moore says of the singing chaplains -with <i lang="it">soprano</i> 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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> -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 <cite>Mater Dei</cite>, confounded -her idea with that of their <cite>Mater Deorum</cite>; -and we were shewn, among the rarities -of Rome, a <em>bronze Madonna</em>, with a tower -on her head, exactly as Cybele is represented.</p> - -<p>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 <em>them</em> -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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span></p> - -<p>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!</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> -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:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="la"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Flet noctem, &c.<a name="FNanchor_23" id="FNanchor_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">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 <i lang="it">roccolo</i> 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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span></p> - -<p>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;</p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="la"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">A Siculis condita est colonia Ancona<a name="FNanchor_24" id="FNanchor_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a>.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>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:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="la"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Illic Dalmaticis obnoxia fluctibus Ancon<a name="FNanchor_25" id="FNanchor_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a>.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">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—<em>serious</em> -complaint I mean except at that savage-looking -place called Radicofani; and -some other petty town in Tuscany, near<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> -Sienna, where I eat too many eggs and -grapes, because there was nothing else.</p> - -<p>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 “<em>No, Sir</em>,” echoed round a -well-furnished inn or tavern; which puts -them but in the place of Socrates at the fair, -who cried out—“<em>How many things have these -people gathered together that I do not want!</em>”—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 -<i lang="it">schiavitù</i>, as he called it, of living like a gentleman,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> -“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 <em>home</em>, 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 <i lang="it">quaresima</i>,” -will he say, “nor <i lang="it">carnovale</i> in <em>any</em> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> -amused in theirs, without any esteem of it -at all.</p> - -<p>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;—“<i lang="it">Son stato ladro padrone</i><a name="FNanchor_26" id="FNanchor_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a>;”—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 <i lang="it">castigato</i>, it is -enough sure, no need to make him be melancholy -too:”—and added with true Italian -good-nature,—“<i lang="it">Siamo tutti peccatori</i><a name="FNanchor_27" id="FNanchor_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a>.”</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> -commerce away from Venice, which has -already lost so much.</p> - -<p>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,—“<i lang="la">Inter Cæsares optimus</i><a name="FNanchor_28" id="FNanchor_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a>,”—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; <i lang="la">Sis tu felicior Augusto, -melior Trajano</i><a name="FNanchor_29" id="FNanchor_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a>.</p> - -<p>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 <em>his</em> notice; and -patronised in succeeding times by the good -Corsini Pope, Clement XII., whose care for -them appears by the useful <i lang="it">lazaretto</i> he built,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> -“to save,” said he, “our best subjects, our -subjects of Ancona.”</p> - -<p>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 <em>Rubicon</em> in my way back -to England, and our comfortable return to</p> - -<hr /> - -<h2>BOLOGNA,</h2> - -<p>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 <i lang="la">Diocletianus reposuit</i>, resolving -perhaps to end where Julius Cæsar had begun; -he died at Salo however in Dalmatia,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="la"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Quâ maris Adriaci longas ferit unda Salones.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>Ravenna l’Antica tired more than it pleased -us; <em>Fano</em> is a populous pretty little town; -but I know no reason why it was originally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> -dedicated to Fortune. Truth is, we are weary -of these sacred <em>fanes</em>, and long to see once -more our amiable friends at Venice and at -Milan.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> -idea, and were one to hear that the -race of wasps were extirpated, it would grieve -one.</p> - -<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> -for a muffin, a mop, and a morning newspaper: -three things equally unknown in Italy, -as the other three among us.</p> - -<p>With regard to pictures however, <i lang="fr">l’Appetit -vient en mangeant</i><a name="FNanchor_30" id="FNanchor_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a>, 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.</p> - -<p>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 -<i lang="fr">du nouveau continent</i> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> -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 <em>his</em> 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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span></p> - -<p>At Bologna though, every thing puts people -in mind of their <em>prayers</em>; 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, <em>What are these -dear creatures muttering about now for, as if -their salvation depended upon it?</em>—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</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span></p> - -<h2>PADUA.</h2> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> -display fervent adoration, maternal tenderness, -and meek humility at once! How -often have I said, <em>this</em> 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 <em>this</em>. 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 <em>little one-eyed -man</em>, had a fancy to represent his <em>real</em> -appellation of <em>John Francis Barbieri</em> 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 <em>long beard</em> for <em>Barbieri</em>.</p> - -<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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 <em>so</em> -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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="it"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Bologna la Grassa</div> -<div class="verse">Ma Padua la passa<a name="FNanchor_31" id="FNanchor_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a>,</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">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 -<em>now</em>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span></p> - -<h2>VENICE.</h2> - -<p>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;”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Nor prov’d the bliss that lulls Italia’s breast,</div> -<div class="verse">When red-brow’d evening calmly sinks to rest.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>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.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="it"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Fama tra noi Roma pomposa e santa,</div> -<div class="verse">Venezia ricca, saggia, e signorile<a name="FNanchor_32" id="FNanchor_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a>,</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="la"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Viderat Adriacis Venetam Neptunus in undis</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Stare urbem, et toti ponere jura Mari;</div> -<div class="verse">Nunc mihi Tarpeias quantum vis Jupiter, arces</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Objice, et illa tui mœnia Martis ait</div> -<div class="verse">Sit Pelago Tibrim præfers, urbem aspice utramque</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Illam homines dices, hanc posuisse Deos.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>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, <em>this</em> was the manner in which -those two cities would in future times strike -all impartial observers, it would have been -<em>enough</em>; and it would have been <em>true</em>, and -when fiction has done its best,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="fr"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Le vray seul est aimable<a name="FNanchor_33" id="FNanchor_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a>.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span></p> - -<p class="noindent">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.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">When Neptune first with pleasure and surprise,</div> -<div class="verse">Proud from her subject sea saw Venice rise;</div> -<div class="verse">Let Jove, said he, vaunt his fam’d walls no more,</div> -<div class="verse">Tarpeia’s rock, or Tyber’s fane-full shore;</div> -<div class="verse">While human hands those glittering fabrics frame,</div> -<div class="verse">By touch celestial beauteous Venice came.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">It is a sweet place sure enough, and the caged<a name="FNanchor_34" id="FNanchor_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> -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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> -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,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">I’m strangled with the waste fertility,</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">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 -<i lang="it">orefice</i>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> -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 <i lang="it">nobiltà</i>, though -Guercino has made <em>his</em> 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!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="la"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Non Hybla non me specifer capit Nilus,</div> -<div class="verse">Nec quæ paludes delicata Pomptinus</div> -<div class="verse">Ex arce clivi spectat uva Sestini.</div> -<div class="verse">Quid concupiscam? quæris ergo,—<em>dormire</em><a name="FNanchor_35" id="FNanchor_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a>.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span></p> - -<h2>To PADUA.</h2> - -<p>Then we returned the twelfth of June, and -surely it is too difficult to describe the sweet -sensations excited by the enjoyment of</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Each rural sight, each rural sound;</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">as the dear banks of the Brenta first saluted our -return to <i lang="la">terra firma</i> from the watery residence -of our <i lang="it">bella dominante</i>. 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> -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 <em>not</em> 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 <em>must</em> be very insipid, while <em>we</em> 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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> -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 <em>there</em> 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:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="la"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Scire tuum nihil est, nisi te scire hoc sciat alter<a name="FNanchor_36" id="FNanchor_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a>.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> -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. <i lang="it">Spacca -monte</i> means just our English Drawcansir, a -fellow that splits mountains with his bluster, -a captain <em>Blowmedown</em>.</p> - -<p>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 <i lang="it">il bel Inglese -a Cavallo</i>; 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> -says it will now carry us safely round the world -if we please; our first stage however will be -no farther than to pretty</p> - -<hr /> - -<h2>VERONA.</h2> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span></p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 <em>their</em> constitutions, and -<em>say</em> that no harm comes of it; and when I tell -them how differently we manage in England, -cry, “<i lang="it">mi pare che dev’essere schiavitù grande -in quel paese della benedetta libertà</i><a name="FNanchor_37" id="FNanchor_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a>.” 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<hr /> - -<h2>PARMA.</h2> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> -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, <em>Annabella, -or the Sable Matron</em>; 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, “<i lang="it">per divozione</i>,” 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> -person roughly on some occasion, was condemned -by her confessor to try for a couple -of hours what begging <em>was</em>, 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 <i lang="fr">laquais -de place</i> 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 <em>this</em> 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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span></p> - -<p>We went again however to see Virgil’s -field, and recollected that <i lang="la">tenet nunc Parthenope</i>; -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.</p> - -<p>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—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">There is no world without Verona’s walls;</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">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.</p> - -<p>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 <i lang="it">Madona -della Scodella</i> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> -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 <i lang="fr">Les Avantures de Telemaque</i>, -perhaps: and who shall dare say, that -Lillo, Bunyan, and Antonio Corregio, were -not <em>naturally</em> 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?</p> - -<p>Piacenza we found to offer us few objects -of attention: an <i lang="it">improvisatore</i>, and not a very -bad one, amused that time which would -otherwise have been passed in lamenting our<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> -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 <i lang="it">cicala</i> on the trees, or -<i lang="it">lucciola</i> 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 <i lang="it">Ponte della Trinitá</i>, 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!</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> -began to rejoice in hearing the people cry -<i lang="it">no’ cor’ altr’</i> 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.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span></p> - -<h2>MILAN.</h2> - -<p class="right">21st June 1786.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> -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 <em>both</em> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> -Hours in Guercino’s Aurora<a name="FNanchor_38" id="FNanchor_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a>. 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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> -any wife promote his service, or their salvation. -Many superstitious and many unmeaning -ceremonies <em>do</em> 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.</p> - -<p>Another odd affinity strikes me. Half a -century ago there was an annual procession at -Shrewsbury, called by way of pre-eminence -<em>Shrewsbury Show</em>; 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> -of some wench, who was ever after called the -<em>Queen</em>, because she had been carried in triumph -as such on the day of <em>Shrewsbury Show</em>. 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 <em>Madonna</em>, -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> -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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span> -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 <em>Leonardiana</em><a name="FNanchor_39" id="FNanchor_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a>, -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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 -<em>him</em>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span> -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 <em>he himself</em>, 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 <em>there</em>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> -live where the everlasting scourge held over -London and Bath, of <em>what will they think?</em> -and <em>what will they say?</em> 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.</p> - -<p>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 <em>Abate Bossi</em>. Should -I forbear to add <em>my</em> 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 <em>Hough</em> well known in -England by the title of the <em>good</em> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> -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:</p> - -<table summary="Words that can be read either along the rows or the columns to make a sentence"> - <tr> - <td>Natalis</td> - <td>Adventus</td> - <td>Partus</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Matris</td> - <td>Fratris</td> - <td>Conjugis</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Felix</td> - <td>Optatus</td> - <td>Incolumis</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td>Principem</td> - <td>Aulam</td> - <td>Urbem</td> - </tr> - <tr> - <td colspan="3" class="center">Lectificabant.</td> - </tr> -</table> - -<p>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 <em>pretend</em> to love no one; -they <em>do</em> love their rulers; and, rather grieve -than growl at the afflictions caused by their -rapacity.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> -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 <em>polite</em> -comes from <em>polish</em> I suppose; and at Paris -the place where you enjoy <i lang="fr">le veritable vernis -St. Martin</i> in perfection, the people can -scarcely be termed <em>polished</em>, or even <em>varnished</em>: -they are <em>glazed</em>; and everything slides off -the <i lang="fr">exterieur</i> 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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> -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 <em>me</em>. 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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> -additional delight, where satiety of pleasure -seems the sole evil to be dreaded.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> -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 -<em>within</em> the island, and a prospect of unequalled -variety <em>without</em>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> -himself the right of raising men upon the -main land, and of coining money at <em>Macau</em>, -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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> -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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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: -<em>he</em> 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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span></p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> -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 <em>worshipping on high places</em>, 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.</p> - -<p>All the environs of this <i lang="it">Varesotto</i> are very -charmingly varied with mountains, lakes, and -cultivated life; the only fault in our prospect<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> -is the want of water. Had I told my companions -of yesterday perhaps, that the view -from <i lang="it">Madonna del Monte</i> 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 <em>Art</em>.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> -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,—“<em>Here, this is nature! -is it not?</em> pure nature!—<i lang="it">Tutto naturale si, -secondo l’uso Inglese</i><a name="FNanchor_40" id="FNanchor_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a>.”</p> - -<p>Well! we have really passed a prodigiously -gay <i lang="it">villegiatura</i> here in this charming country, -where the snowy cap of the <i lang="fr">gros</i> 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 <i lang="fr">glacieres</i>: -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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> -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 <i lang="it">tarocco</i>, and hear the horns and -clarinets, while sipping our ice or swallowing -our lemonade. The <i lang="it">cicala</i> 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 <i lang="it">lucciola</i> 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 <em>hyale</em>. 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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span></p> - -<p>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 <i lang="it">improviso</i> 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 <em>do</em> -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 <em>her</em>, for they can hardly -believe that there is existing a person, who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> -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,—“<i lang="it">Cioè con un mondo -d’amici cosi</i><a name="FNanchor_41" id="FNanchor_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a>.”—“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, “<i lang="it">Dio ne liberi</i><a name="FNanchor_42" id="FNanchor_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a>.”—This -is national character.</p> - -<p>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 (<i lang="fr">la physique</i>, as the French -call it), geography, astronomy, chymistry, are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>We were shewn on one side the water as -we went across, a small place called Campioni, -which is <i lang="it">feudo Imperiale</i>, 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 <em>very</em> -shocking thing he may have done during the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>Lugano meantime scorns absolute authority: -our Cicerone there, in reply to the -question asked in Italy three times a-day I -believe—<i lang="it">Che Principe fà qui la sua residenza?</i><a name="FNanchor_43" id="FNanchor_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a>—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 -<em>Christians</em>, and the other half <em>Protestants</em>; 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</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Content, the bane of industry,</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span></p> - -<p class="noindent">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</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Pyrrhus will ne’er approve his own injustice,</div> -<div class="verse">Or form excuses while his heart condemns him.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">They beat their bosoms at the feet of a crucifix in -the street, with no more hypocrisy than they beat<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> -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 <em>ruminating</em> 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.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span></p> - -<h2>BERGAMO</h2> - -<p>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 <i lang="fr">touffu</i>, -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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> -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 -<i lang="it">roccolo</i> to be left out from among the amusements -of Brescian and Bergamasc nobility; -nor is the eating of them when taken to be -despised: <i lang="it">beccaficos</i> and <i lang="it">ortolans</i> 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,—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Where every sense is lost in every joy,</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">as Hughes expresses it; and where, in the delightful -villa of our highly accomplished acquaintance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> -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 <i lang="it">cavalier servente</i> 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:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="la"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Contemptrix sexus, omniscia Clelia sexum,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Illustrat studio, moribus, arte metro<a name="FNanchor_44" id="FNanchor_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a>.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">The Italians are exceedingly happy in the -power of making verses improviso, either in -their <em>old</em> or their <em>new</em> language: we were -speaking the other day of the famous epigram -in Ausonius;</p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="la"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Infelix Dido, nulli bene nupta marito,</div> -<div class="verse">Hoc moriente fugis, hoc fugiente peris<a name="FNanchor_45" id="FNanchor_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a>.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">Our equally noble and ingenious master of the -house rendered it in Italian thus immediately:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="it"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Misera Dido! fra i nuziali ardori,</div> -<div class="verse">L’un muore e fuggi—l’altro fuggi e mori.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">This is more compressed and clever than that -of Guarini <em>himself</em> I think,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="it"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Oh fortunata Dido!</div> -<div class="verse">Mal fornita d’amante e di marito,</div> -<div class="verse">Ti fu quel traditor, l’altro tradito;</div> -<div class="verse">Mori l’úno e fuggisti,</div> -<div class="verse">Fuggi l’altro e moristi.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span></p> - -<p class="noindent">Though this latter has been preserved with -many deserved eulogiums from Crescembini, -and likewise by Mr. de Chevreau.</p> - -<p>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. <cite>How a score of good ewes -now?</cite> 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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> -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 <i lang="fr">chevaux entiers</i>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span> -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 <i lang="fr">agrèmens</i> 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.</p> - -<p>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 <em>barbarism</em>, rapid and -gigantic in its strides, to overturn, confound, -and destroy what taste was left in the world -at the moment of its <em>onset</em>. 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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 <em>us</em> 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</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span></p> - -<h2>MILAN,</h2> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> -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:</p> - -<p class="center">ÆGROTANTIUM<br /> -SANITATI<br /> -MORTUORUM<br /> -INSPECTIONE<br /> -VIVENTES<br /> -PROSPICERE<br /> -POSSINT<br /> -HUNC<br /> -ΣΚΕΛΕΤΟΝ<br /> -P.</p> - -<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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> -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,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="la"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Hic quiescit qui nunquam quievit;</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> -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 <i lang="it">Il Campo Calvenziano</i>; -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.</p> - -<p>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 <i lang="la">fida curarum, et studiorum -socia</i><a name="FNanchor_46" id="FNanchor_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a>, 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.</p> - -<p>Tradition too, I find, agrees with Procopius -in telling that this widow of Boethius,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span> -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 <em>has</em> 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, <em>that</em> would.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span></p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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?</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span></p> - -<p>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 -<i lang="it">La sepolta viva</i>; 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> -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 <em>this</em> 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 <em>here</em>, 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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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 <i lang="it">bicchiere</i>, -a word used here to express every thing that -holds water, that our <em>pitcher</em> 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 <i lang="it">bambino</i> at Florence, <i lang="it">putto</i> at Venice, -<i lang="it">schiatto</i> at Bergamo, and <i lang="it">creatura</i> at Rome;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span> -and at Milan they call a wench <i lang="it">tosa</i>: an -apron is <i lang="it">grembiule</i> at Florence I think, <i lang="it">traversa</i> -at Venice, <i lang="it">bigarrol</i> at Brescia and some -other parts of Lombardy, <i lang="it">senale</i> at Rome, -and at Milan <i lang="it">scozzà</i>. 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 <i lang="it">robur</i> -rather than <i lang="it">quercia</i> somehow, and tell a lady -when dressed in white, that she is <i lang="it">tutto in -albedine</i>.</p> - -<p>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 <em>Karrulus</em>, upon -them quite plain; and Christus was spelt -<em>Kristus</em> in Vespasian’s time it is certain, because -of the player’s monument at Rome.—Dr. -Johnson, I remember, was always steady<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span> -to that opinion; but it is time to leave all -this, and rejoice in my third arrival at gay, -cheerful, charming</p> - -<hr /> - -<h2>VERONA,</h2> - -<p>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 -<i lang="it">tutto</i>, 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 <em>that</em> 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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> -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 <em>repeating</em>, not -<em>singing</em>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span> -of his expression, unless it is the brilliancy -of his genius.</p> - -<p>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:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="it"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Volto e Crin hai di Sultana,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Perchè mai mi vien disdetto,</div> -<div class="verse">Sodducente Mussulmana</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Di gittarti il <em>Fazzoletto</em>?</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">of which I can give no better imitation than -the following:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">While turban’d head and plumage high</div> -<div class="verse indent1">A Sultaness proclaims my Cloe;</div> -<div class="verse">Thus tempted, tho’ no Turk, I’ll try</div> -<div class="verse indent1">The handkerchief you scorn—to throw ye.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="it"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Una lucertoletta</div> -<div class="verse">Diceva al cocodrillo,</div> -<div class="verse">Oh quanto mi diletta</div> -<div class="verse">Di veder finalmente</div> -<div class="verse">Un della mia famiglia</div> -<div class="verse">Si grande e si potente!</div> -<div class="verse">Ho fatto mille miglia</div> -<div class="verse">Per venirvi a vedere,</div> -<div class="verse">Mentre tra noi si serba</div> -<div class="verse">Di voi memoria viva;</div> -<div class="verse">Benche fuggiam tra l’erba</div> -<div class="verse">E il sassoso sentiero:</div> -<div class="verse">In sen però non langue</div> -<div class="verse">L’onor del prisco sangue.</div> -<div class="verse">L’anfibio rè dormiva</div> -<div class="verse">A questi complimenti,</div> -<div class="verse">Pur sugli ultimi accenti</div> -<div class="verse">Dal sonno se riscosse</div> -<div class="verse">E dimandò chi fosse?</div> -<div class="verse">La parentela antica,</div> -<div class="verse">Il viaggio, la fatica,</div> -<div class="verse">Quella torno a dire,</div> -<div class="verse">Ed ei torne a dormire.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Lascia i grandi ed i potenti,</div> -<div class="verse">A sognar per parenti;</div> -<div class="verse">Puoi cortesi stimarli</div> -<div class="verse">Se dormon mentre parli.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Walking full many a weary mile</div> -<div class="verse">The lizard met the crocodile;</div><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span> -<div class="verse">And thus began—how fat, how fair,</div> -<div class="verse">How finely guarded, Sir, you are!</div> -<div class="verse">’Tis really charming thus to see</div> -<div class="verse">One’s kindred in prosperity.</div> -<div class="verse">I’ve travell’d far to find your coast,</div> -<div class="verse">But sure the labour was not lost:</div> -<div class="verse">For you must think we don’t forget</div> -<div class="verse">Our loving cousin now so great;</div> -<div class="verse">And tho’ our humble habitations</div> -<div class="verse">Are such as suit our slender stations,</div> -<div class="verse">The honour of the lizard blood</div> -<div class="verse">Was never better understood.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Th’ amphibious prince, who slept content,</div> -<div class="verse">Ne’er listening to her compliment,</div> -<div class="verse">At this expression rais’d his head,</div> -<div class="verse">And—Pray who are you? cooly said;</div> -<div class="verse">The little creature now renew’d</div> -<div class="verse">Her history of toils subdu’d,</div> -<div class="verse">Her zeal to see her cousin’s face,</div> -<div class="verse">The glory of her ancient race;</div> -<div class="verse">But looking nearer, found my lord</div> -<div class="verse">Was fast asleep again—and snor’d.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Ne’er press upon a rich relation</div> -<div class="verse">Rais’d to the ranks of higher station;</div> -<div class="verse">Or if you will disturb your coz,</div> -<div class="verse">Be happy that he does but doze.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>But I will not be seduced by the pleasure of -praising my sweet friends at Verona, to -lengthen this chapter with further panegyrics<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span> -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. <i lang="la">Verona! qui -te viderit, et non amarit</i>, says some old -writer, I forget who, <i lang="la">protinus amor perditissimo; -is credo se ipsum non amat</i><a name="FNanchor_47" id="FNanchor_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a>. Indeed -I never saw people live so pleasingly together -as these do; the women apparently delighting -in each other’s company, without mean rivalry,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span> -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, -<em>Verona</em> might be found in many places -perhaps; she is now confined, I think, to -the sweet state of <em>Venice</em>.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span class="smcap">JOURNEY<br /> -through<br /> -TRENT, INSPRUCK, MUNICK, and<br /> -SALTZSBURG, to VIENNA.</span></h2> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span></p> - -<p>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 <em>San Simeone</em>, -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span> -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 <i lang="fr">au lieu ou les -vents se forment</i>, 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?”—“<em>I</em> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span> -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 <i lang="it">ciambelle</i>, 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 <i lang="it">detto il -Giardino</i>, 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.</p> - -<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span> -that I feel as if in a new world, it is <em>so</em> -long since I have seen any metal but gold unencrusted -by nastiness, and gold <em>will</em> not be -dirty.</p> - -<p>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;</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Fair lady, lay your costly robes aside, &c.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span></p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>The women that run about the town, mean -time, take the nearest way to be warm, wrapping<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>With this good axiom of <i lang="la">nequid nimis</i><a name="FNanchor_48" id="FNanchor_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span> -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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span> -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—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Lo! what huge heaps of littleness around!</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span> -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?</p> - -<p>Nimphenbourg palace and gardens reminded -me of English gardening forty years ago, -while—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Grove nods at grove, each alley has a brother,</div> -<div class="verse">And half the platform just reflects the other.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>The gentlemen’s <i lang="fr">maniere de s’ajuster</i> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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; -<em>it is unique in the known world</em>.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span> -Bavaria; but ceremony is of most use where -there is least importance, and glitter best hides -the want of solidity.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span> -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 <em>Adam</em>, 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.</p> - -<p>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;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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 -<em>Donaw</em> from its swiftness; and it deserves beside, -any name expressive of that singular purity -which distinguishes the German torrents.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>Magnificence of a far different kind however -claims our present attention—a convent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span> -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</p> - -<hr /> - -<h2>VIENNA.</h2> - -<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span> -who have completely quitted the odoriferous -Po for the clear and rapid Danube.</p> - -<p>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 <i lang="de">stott eisel</i>, or -<em>stout asses</em>, as I understand, who by this information -have learned that the frame which -supports a picture is for the same reason called -an <i lang="de">eisel</i>, as we call a thing to hang clothes on -a <em>horse</em>. It is the genius of the German language -to degrade all our English words somehow:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span> -they call a coach a <em>waggon</em>, and ask -a lady if she will buy pomatum to <em>smear</em> 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.</p> - -<p>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 <em>uncovered</em>. Finding them -however somewhat dilatory in their obedience, -a rough fellow snatched the hat from -one of their heads, saying, “<cite>Don’t you -know, Sir, that you are standing before the -emperor’s officers?</cite>”—“<cite>I know</cite>,” replied the -prompt Italian, “<cite>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</cite>.” 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span> -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 <i lang="fr">Route de Belgrade</i> 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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span> -Presburg or Buda, for the sake of eating a -fine Danube carp.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span> -holding up a bottle to the light by Gerard -Douw, are great examples.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 <em>his</em> 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, <em>or they said so</em>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span> -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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span> -titter in corners at what is passing in the -rooms, public or private: I had lived so long -away from <em>them</em>, that I had half forgotten -their existence.</p> - -<p>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, -<i lang="la">Optat ephippia bos piger</i><a name="FNanchor_49" id="FNanchor_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a>; 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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span> -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 -<em>Cyprus</em> wine, let him drink <em>that</em>, and content -himself with commending the <em>old hock</em>.</p> - -<p>Apropos, we hear that <em>Sacchini</em>, 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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span> -by the fire of Italian genius, and disdained -by the dignity of British science.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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; -<em>very, very</em> fine it is however, and full of expression -and character. The Caracci school<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span></p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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, “<cite>There was a man sent from -God whose name was <em class="antiqua">John</em>.</cite>” I was much -amused with a sight of the Mexican MSS and -Peruvian quipos; nor are the Turkish figures<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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 <em>did</em> name that disorder, -though unconscious of the offence he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span> -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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span> -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 <em>eat</em> 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 -<em>very</em> strange; and the delight he took in -hearing the lady he lived with sing his songs,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span> -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 -<em>observations and reflections</em>.</p> - -<p><i lang="fr">Au reste</i>, as the French say; I have no notion -that Vienna, <i lang="it">sempre ventoso o velenoso</i><a name="FNanchor_50" id="FNanchor_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a>, -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 <em>particularly</em> 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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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 <em>hours</em> running from -Toddenham-court road to Derby.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span> -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 <em>here</em> 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 <em>led</em>, but <em>thrust</em> into temptation by such -a sudden transition from utter retirement to -open and busy life.</p> - -<p>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:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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—</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">In Mis’ry’s darkest caverns known,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">His useful care is ever nigh;</div> -<div class="verse">Where hopeless Anguish pours her groan,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">And lonely Want retires to die.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<em>so</em> 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:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span> -I took great delight in the conversation -of Mademoiselle Paradies.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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—“<i lang="fr">Tout noir, Monsieur, à la Venetienne</i>;”—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 (<em>and ought to have known better</em>), -souce some thick cream into the fine clear<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span> -coffee she presented him with; which every -body must confess to be <i lang="it">vera porcheria</i>! -a very <em>piggish trick</em>!—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 <em>to love gravy</em>;”—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.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span></p> - -<h2>PRAGUE.</h2> - -<p>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 <i lang="fr">aux -bains de Prague</i> 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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span></p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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!” -<i lang="la">Horresco referens</i>;—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 <em>new</em> -thing; the cathedral I am sure is an <em>old</em> -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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span> -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:—“<cite>Thrift, -thrift, Horatio</cite>;” as Hamlet observes; for our -expences in Great Britain are infinitely increased -by our advancement from splendor to -neatness.</p> - -<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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 <em>our</em> 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, <em>Monsieur Dannato</em>.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span> -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—“<cite>Ay, ay,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span> -it begins all about the fear of God, <span class="antiqua">&c.;</span> those -fellows</cite>,” continued he, “<cite>you know, are always -sure to be canters!</cite>”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span></p> - -<h2>DRESDEN;</h2> - -<p>Whither we arrive safe this 4th of -December,—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse indent6">——A wond’rous token</div> -<div class="verse">Of Heav’n’s kind care, with bones unbroken!</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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 <em>do</em> cut all their wood before their own -doors, why there is room to pass here without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span> -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 <em>so much at home</em>. 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?</p> - -<p>Here Brother Martin has all precedence -paid <em>him</em>; for though the court are Romanists, -their splendid church here is <em>called</em> -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 <em>our</em> bells on a Sunday morning at -Dresden.</p> - -<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span> -and saints, need not be driven out of churches -for fear they should be worshipped, than the -Lutherans admission of them into <em>theirs</em>; 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 <em>merry</em>, not a <em>holy</em> 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 <em>play</em>, they will soon find out -that they may <em>work</em> 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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span></p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 -<em>their</em> tenets, and weary heaven with prayers -for their conversion, as if the people were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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 <em>one</em> side the way always, -and returning the other, to avoid a crowd and -confusion.</p> - -<p>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 <i lang="fr">perlaches</i>, a sort of cloth -clogs, very useful and commodious. And -now I have seen the <i lang="it">Notte di Corregio</i> from -which almost all pictures of <em>effect</em> have taken<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span> -their original idea; and here are three other -Corregios inimitable, invaluable, incomparable. -Surely this <i lang="it">Notte</i> 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 <em>is</em> -suffices, this is the first single figure in Europe<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span> -as painting a <em>live woman</em>.—The Jupiter and -Ganymede is very droll indeed, and done -with very <em>un</em>-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 <em>his</em> country, I -do believe, as Claude Lorraine ever painted -in <em>his</em>.—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.</p> - -<p>But here are two pictures which display -prodigious genius, by a master of whom I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>We have seen the Elector’s treasures; and, -as a Frenchman would express it, <i lang="fr">C’est icy -qu’on voit des beaux diamants!</i><a name="FNanchor_51" id="FNanchor_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> The yellow -brilliant ring is <em>unique</em> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span> -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 <i lang="la">plica Polonica</i> 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!</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span> -united. Here is a book too, which -how it escaped Pinelli I know not, a Venetian -translation of the holy scriptures <i lang="it">a Brucioli</i>, -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span> -lately accustomed to see very little ceremony -used on <em>such</em> 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.</p> - -<p>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 <i lang="it">teologo</i>, 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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span> -This is the first town I have seen however, -where the butchers divided their beasts as we -do.</p> - -<p>The arsenal we have walked over delighted -us but little: Saxons should say to their -swords, like Benvolio in the play, “<cite>God send -me no need of thee!</cite>”—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.</p> - -<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span> -I only wonder they have so quickly -recovered a blow struck so hard.</p> - -<p>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 “<i lang="fr">ma chere comtesse!</i>”—carried it -as high I think as it can be carried.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span> -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 <em>this</em>. A custom of -fifteen or twenty grave-looking men, dressed -like counsellors in Westminster Hall, with -half a dozen boys in their company for <i lang="it">sopranos</i>, -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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span> -use among our distant provinces as late as -Gay’s time; he mentions it in a line of his -pastorals, and says—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">He preach’d the hour-glass in her praise quite out;</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">speaking of dead Blouzelind as I recollect. -It now seems a strange <i lang="fr">grossiereté</i>, but refinement -follows hard upon the heels of reformation.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span> -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: <i lang="fr">les etrennes de -Dresde</i> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span> -take all <em>theirs</em> 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.</p> - -<p>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;</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">While from the censer clouds of fragrance roll,</div> -<div class="verse">And swelling organs lift the rising soul.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span></p> -<p>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 <em>me</em>; but this -I saw, that beneath</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Such plain roofs as piety could raise,</div> -<div class="verse">Made vocal only by our maker’s praise,</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">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,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">His plainness moves men more than eloquence,</div> -<div class="verse">And to his flock, joy be the consequence!</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span></p> - -<p>The established sect here—<em>Lutheranism</em>, -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.</p> - -<p>We have recovered ourselves now from all -fatigues; our coach and our spirits are once -more repaired, and ready to set out for</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span></p> - -<h2>BERLIN.</h2> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>He who sighs for the happy union of situation, -climate, fertility, and grandeur, will<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span> -think <em>Genoa</em> 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; <em>Naples</em> is the -town that can afford him most matter both of -solemn and pleasing speculation.</p> - -<p>If ruins of pristine splendour, solid proofs -of universal dominion, <em>once</em>, nay <em>twice</em> enjoyed: -with the view of temporal power crushed -by its own weight, solicits his curiosity.—It -will be amply gratified at <em>Rome</em>; 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 <em>Venice</em> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span> -of architecture, and space make amends -for beauty, <em>Berlin</em> 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 -<em>Woolfleet oysters</em>. 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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[353]</a></span> -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 -<em>late lady’s mother’s</em> amber-boxes, produces -forth the wax figures of my lord John and -my lord Robert when <em>babies</em>. 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 <em>free</em> 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 <em>military</em> dominion, -as red is commonly the first and last colour -obtained by the chymist in his various experiments -upon artificial tints. This state is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span> -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 <em>said</em> to be an Æthiopian -manuscript, and such it certainly may be -for aught I know. What interested me much -more was our Tonson’s <cite>Cæsar</cite>, 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.</p> - -<p>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 <em>some</em> attractions -in every town; something that commanded -veneration or invited fondness; something<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[355]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="fr"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Ou sont ils donc, ces foudres de guerre,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Qui faisoient trembler l’univers?</div> -<div class="verse">Ils ne sont plus qu’un peu de terre,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Restes, qu’ont epargnis les vers<a name="FNanchor_52" id="FNanchor_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a>.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span></p> - -<h2>POTZDAM.</h2> - -<p>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 <i lang="fr">trottoir</i> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[358]</a></span> -Prussia. How different each from other in -his life! How like each other now! But</p> - -<div class="poetry-container" lang="fr"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Tous ces morts ont vecu; toi qui lis—tu mourras:</div> -<div class="verse">L’instant fatal approche, et tu n’y pense pas<a name="FNanchor_53" id="FNanchor_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a>.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>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 <em>their</em> 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 <em>peacemaker</em>; let us at least -look at the palace, now we have examined the -coffin of him whose study and delight was <em>war</em>.</p> - -<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[359]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span> -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, <cite>I give you a -vast deal of trouble</cite>. 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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span></p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<hr /> - -<h2><span class="smcap">POTZDAM to HANOVER.</span></h2> - -<p>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 <em>raise</em> were fallen in <em>battle</em> for his -amusement, retired with the five that were -left, and built a fine city!</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span></p> - -<p>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 <em>so</em> 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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span></p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>Magdebourg seems to have almost all its -streets united by bridges; the Elbe divides -there into so many branches, and none of them -small.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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 <em>her coffin!</em> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span> -livery upon the king of England’s servants -since I left home—“And if they <em>are</em> ragged -youngsters who wear it,” said I, “they are -my fellow-subjects, and glad am I to see -them!”</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[368]</a></span></p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[369]</a></span> -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 <em>poor</em> 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 <em>cat</em>, 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 <em>three quarters</em>, -after all her depredations.</p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[370]</a></span></p> - -<h2><span class="smcap">From HANOVER to BRUSSELS.</span></h2> - -<p>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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[371]</a></span> -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 <em>very</em> few people one finds here are of a -lazy disposition at all; but it is so seldom that -one meets with the <em>human face divine</em> in this -Western side of Germany, that one scarce -knows what they are, but by report.</p> - -<p>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 <em>three kings</em>, who -must have lost their way amazingly if ever -they wandered into Westphalia, and deserved -to lose their name of <em>wise men</em> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[372]</a></span> -told us, that the man said it had belonged -to <em>John the Baptist</em>, 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.</p> - -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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 <em>they</em> -who appear the ancient possessors of the land, -who, in the true style of Gothic supremacy,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[373]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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 <em>I</em> 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 <em>Teutsch</em>.</p> - -<p>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 <em>Teuchland</em> 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;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[374]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[375]</a></span> -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 <em>very</em> -poetical! but those who shewed it me at Venice -said the drawing was borrowed from -Guariento, I remember.</p> - -<p>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 <em>their</em> -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, <em>these</em> last -will have readers, reciters, and quoters, while -the others must sit down contented with silent -veneration and acknowledged superiority.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[376]</a></span> -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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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</p> - -<hr /> - -<h2>BRUSSELS.</h2> - -<p>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. <i lang="fr">Les Vues de Flandres</i> -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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></span> -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 -<i lang="fr">La Duchesse d’Arenberg</i>, 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 <i lang="fr">gaieté de cœur</i>, -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,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span> -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 <em>abroad</em>, 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span> -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 <em>Boyle</em>, for the glowing pencil -of a <em>Rubens</em>.</p> - -<hr /> - -<h2>ANTWERP.</h2> - -<p>This is a dismal heavy looking town—<em>so</em> -melancholy! the Scheld shut up! the grass -growing in the streets! those streets so empty -of inhabitants! and it was so famous once. -<i lang="la">Atuatum nobile Brabantiæ opidum in ripâ Schaldis flu. -Europæ nationibus maximè frequentatum. -Sumptuosis tam privatis quam publicis -nitet ædificiis</i><a name="FNanchor_54" id="FNanchor_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a>, say the not very old books of -geography when speaking of this once stately -city;</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">But trade’s proud empire sweeps to swift decay,</div> -<div class="verse">As ocean heaves the labour’d mole away.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Goldsmith.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[381]</a></span></p> - -<p>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 <em>his</em> 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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[382]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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: <i lang="it">Che c’è in tutto il suo bene, e -il suo male</i>—that <em>there is much of evil and of -good in every thing</em>: and the life of a traveller -evinces the truth of that position perhaps more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[383]</a></span> -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 “<i lang="la">Unus, et hic audax</i><a name="FNanchor_55" id="FNanchor_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a>,” 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.</p> - -<p>When we find a disposition to talk over our -adventures, the great ice islands driving down -<i lang="la">Rhenus ferox</i>, 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—<i lang="fr">a la Place de</i></p> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[384]</a></span></p> - -<h2>LILLE;</h2> - -<p>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 <em>he</em> 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—</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Yea, but all this did I know before!</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[385]</a></span></p> -<p>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.</p> - -<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[386]</a></span> -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.</p> - -<p>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 <em>north</em>, till again newly -touched by the loadstone: it is so with many -men who have lived long from home; they -find, like Imogen,</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">That there’s living out of Britain;</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="noindent">and if they return to it after an absence of -several years, bring back with them an alienated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[387]</a></span> -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 <em>sometime</em>, -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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[388]</a></span> -effect the total privation of all the four colours, -so distinct at the beginning of its <em>tour</em>;—<em>it -resembled a dirty white!</em></p> - -<p>With these reflexions and recollections we -drove forward to Calais, where I left the -following lines at our inn:</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Over mountains, rivers, vallies,</div> -<div class="verse">Here are we return’d to Calais;</div> -<div class="verse">After all their taunts and malice,</div> -<div class="verse">Ent’ring safe the gates of Calais;</div> -<div class="verse">While, constrain’d, our captain dallies,</div> -<div class="verse">Waiting for a wind at Calais,</div> -<div class="verse">Muse! prepare some sprightly sallies</div> -<div class="verse">To divert <i lang="fr">ennui</i> at Calais.</div> -<div class="verse">Turkish ships, Venetian gallies,</div> -<div class="verse">Have we seen since last at Calais;</div> -<div class="verse">But tho’ Hogarth (rogue who rallies!)</div> -<div class="verse">Ridicules the French at Calais,</div> -<div class="verse">We, who’ve walk’d o’er many a palace,</div> -<div class="verse">Quite well content return to Calais;</div> -<div class="verse">For, striking honestly the tallies,</div> -<div class="verse">There’s little choice ’twixt them and Calais.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>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:</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[389]</a></span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">He whom fair winds have wafted over,</div> -<div class="verse">First hails his native land at Dover,</div> -<div class="verse">And doubts not but he shall discover</div> -<div class="verse">Pleasure in ev’ry path round Dover;</div> -<div class="verse">Envies the happy crows which hover</div> -<div class="verse">About old Shakespeare’s cliff at Dover;</div> -<div class="verse">Nor once reflects that each young rover</div> -<div class="verse">Feels just the same, return’d to Dover.</div> -<div class="verse">From this fond dream he’ll soon recover</div> -<div class="verse">When debts shall drive him back to Dover,</div> -<div class="verse">Hoping, though poor, to live in clover,</div> -<div class="verse">Once safely past the straits of Dover.</div> -<div class="verse">But he alone’s his country’s lover,</div> -<div class="verse">Who, absent long, returns to Dover,</div> -<div class="verse">And can by fair experience prove her</div> -<div class="verse">The best he has found since last at Dover.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="titlepage">THE END.</p> - -<hr /> - -<div class="footnotes"> - -<h2>FOOTNOTES</h2> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Lord, Madam! why we came here on purpose sure -to see the end of the world.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_2" id="Footnote_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Freed from his keepers thus with broken reins</div> -<div class="verse">The wanton courser prances o’er the plains.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Dryden.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_3" id="Footnote_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> When the mountain was in <em>ill-humour</em>.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_4" id="Footnote_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> More laborious than gathering up the Sibyl’s leaves.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_5" id="Footnote_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> I have danced in my bed so often this year.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_6" id="Footnote_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> Is she yet alive? Is she yet alive?</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_7" id="Footnote_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Be it as it may.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_8" id="Footnote_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Which was once Anxur, and now is Terracina.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_9" id="Footnote_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> The temple sacred to the maiden Juno and un-razored -Jove.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_10" id="Footnote_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">And the steep hills of Circe stretch around,</div> -<div class="verse">Where fair Feronia boasts her stately grove,</div> -<div class="verse">And Anxur glories in her guardian Jove.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Pitt.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_11" id="Footnote_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> White Anxur’s salutary waters roll.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_12" id="Footnote_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Why, Madam, you have hit on it sure enough.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_13" id="Footnote_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> Surge, et ego ipse homo sum. <span class="smcap">Vulgate.</span></p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_14" id="Footnote_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> This hiding-hole received Nero after his golden -house.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_15" id="Footnote_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Our Alexander sells keys, altars, heaven;</div> -<div class="verse">When law and right are sold, he’ll buy:—that’s even.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_16" id="Footnote_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Juno too has her thunder.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_17" id="Footnote_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> Here’s something at last that’s truly great however! -why this Alexander looks fit to be king of France.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_18" id="Footnote_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> <em>Paglia</em> is a straw-coloured marble, wonderfully beautiful, -and extremely rare; found only in some northern -tracts of Africa, I am told here.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_19" id="Footnote_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> What you are already, that desire to be for ever.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_20" id="Footnote_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Girt with the limus, and as to their temples, <em>they</em> -were crowned with vervain.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_21" id="Footnote_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> That’s the name of the spring.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_22" id="Footnote_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> There was an old religious temple hard by, where -Clitumnus himself was venerated with suitable dress and -ornaments.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_23" id="Footnote_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> Nightly lamenting, &c.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_24" id="Footnote_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> The colony of Ancona, founded by Sicilians.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_25" id="Footnote_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">The beauteous gulph which fair Ancona laves,</div> -<div class="verse">Ancona wash’d by white Dalmatian waves.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_26" id="Footnote_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> I am a light-fingered fellow, Master.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_27" id="Footnote_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> We are all sinners you know.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_28" id="Footnote_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> The best among the Cæsars.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_29" id="Footnote_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> Mayst thou be happier than Augustus!—better than -Trajan!</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_30" id="Footnote_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Eating increases one’s appetite.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_31" id="Footnote_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Though fat Bologna feeds to the fill,</div> -<div class="verse">Our Padua is fatter still.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_32" id="Footnote_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Pompous and holy ancient Rome we call,</div> -<div class="verse">Venice rich, wise, and lordly over all.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_33" id="Footnote_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Truth alone is pleasing.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_34" id="Footnote_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Wilt thou have music? hark, Apollo plays,</div> -<div class="verse">And twenty <em>caged</em> nightingales shall sing.</div> -</div> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse right"><span class="smcap">Shakespeare.</span></div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_35" id="Footnote_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Not Hybla’s sweets, nor Naples devoloons,</div> -<div class="verse">Nor grapes which hide the hill with rich festoons;</div> -<div class="verse">Nor fat Bologna’s valley, have I chose;</div> -<div class="verse">What is your wish then? May I speak?—<em>repose</em>.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_36" id="Footnote_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> Thy knowledge is nothing till other men know that -thou knowest it.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_37" id="Footnote_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> Methinks there seems to be much slavery required -from those who inhabit your fine free country of England.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_38" id="Footnote_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> 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.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_39" id="Footnote_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> 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.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_40" id="Footnote_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> All so natural and pretty,—quite in the English style.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_41" id="Footnote_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> That is, with a heap of friends about one in this -manner.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_42" id="Footnote_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> Oh! God keep one from that.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_43" id="Footnote_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> What prince makes his residence here?</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_44" id="Footnote_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Her studies, manners, arts, to all proclaim</div> -<div class="verse">Fair Clelia’s glory, and her sex’s shame.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_45" id="Footnote_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">Two lords in vain unlucky Dido tries;</div> -<div class="verse">One dead, she flies the land; one fled—she dies.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_46" id="Footnote_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> Faithful to his cares, and companionable in his studies.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_47" id="Footnote_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> Whoever sees thee without being smitten with extraordinary -passion, must, I think, be incapable of loving -even himself.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_48" id="Footnote_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> Nothing too much.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_49" id="Footnote_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> The lazy ox for trappings sighs.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_50" id="Footnote_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> Ever stormy or venemous.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_51" id="Footnote_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> Here’s the place to see fine diamonds.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_52" id="Footnote_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">What are they after all their pains,</div> -<div class="verse indent1">These thunderbolts of war?</div> -<div class="verse">Mere caput mortuum that remains</div> -<div class="verse indent1">Which worms vouchsafe to spare.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_53" id="Footnote_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> -<div class="stanza"> -<div class="verse">All these have liv’d; ye too who read must die:</div> -<div class="verse">Haste and be wise, the fateful minutes fly.</div> -</div> -</div> -</div> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_54" id="Footnote_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> 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.</p> - -</div> - -<div class="footnote"> - -<p><a name="Footnote_55" id="Footnote_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> One—and he a bold one.</p> - -</div> - -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p class="center larger">BOOKS printed for T. 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