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THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
:ozz;'s (Hester Lynch) Observation
'and Reflections made in the course of
Journey through France, Italy and Ge
many. 2 Vols., 8vo., newly bound hr
mottled caif gilt.r" First Edit., 17*
the last
SOUTHERN BRANCH,
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA,
LIBRARY,
d-OS ANGELES, CALIF.
OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS
MADE IN THE COURSE OF A
JOURNEY
THROUGH
ITALY, AND GERMANY.
By HESTER LYNCH PIOZZL
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
LONDON:
Printed for A. STRAHAN ; and T. CAD ELL in the Strand,
M DCC LXXXIX.
53510
9(7
PREFACE.
I WAS made to obferve at Rome fome vef-
tiges of an ancient cuftom very proper in
thofe days it was the parading of the flreets
by a fet of people called Precia^ who went
fome minutes before the Flamen Dialis to bid
the inhabitants leave work or play, and attend
wholly to the proceflionj but if ill omens
prevented the pageants from pafling, or if the
occafion of the fhow was deemed fcarcely worr
thy its celebration, thefe Precise flood a chance
of being ill-treated by the fpe&ators. A Pre-
fatory introduction to a work like this, can
hope little better ufage from the Public than
they had ; it proclaims the approach of what
has often pafTed by before, adorned moft cer-
A 2 tainly
iv PREFACE.
tainly with greater fplendour, perhaps conduct-
ed too with greater regularity and Ikill : Yet
will I not defpair of giving at leaft a momen-
tary amufement to my countrymen in general,
while their entertainment {hall ferve as a
vehicle fox conveying expreflions of particu-
lar kindnefs to thofe foreign individuals, whofe
tcndernefs foftened the forrows of abfence,
and who eagerly endeavoured by unmerited
attentions to fupply the lofs of their company
on whom nature and habit had given me
ftronger claims.
That I fhbuld make fome reflections, or
write down fome obfervations, in the courfe of
a long journey, is not ftrange ; that I Ihould
prefent them before the Public is I hope not
too daring : the prefumption grew up out of
their acknowledged favour, and if too kind
culture has encouraged a coarfe plant till it
runs to feed, a little coldnefs from the, fame
quarter will foon prove fufBcient to kill it.
The flattering partiality of private partifans
5 fometimes
PREFACE, v
ibmetimes induces authors to venture forth,
and ftand a public decifion ; but it is often
found to betray them too ; not to be tofled
by waves of perpetual contention, but rather
to fink in the filence of total neglect. What
wonder ! He who fwims in oil mufl be buoy-
ant indeed, if he efcapes falling certainly,
though gently, to the bottom ; while he who
commits his fafety to the bofom of the wide-
embracing ocean, is fure to be ftrongly fup-
ported, or at worft thrown upon the ihore.
On this principle it has been ftill my ftudy
to obtain from a humane and generous Public
that fhelter their protection beft affords from
the poifoned arrows of private malignity;
for though it is not difficult to defpife the
attempts of petty malice, I will not fay with
the Philofopher, that I mean to build a mo-
nument to my fame with the ftones thrown
at me to break my bones ; nor yet pretend
to the art of Swift's German Wonder-doer,
who promifed to make them fall about his
head
Yi PREFACE.
head like fo many pillows. Ink, as it re-
fembles Styx in its colour, fhould refemble it
a little in its operation too ; whoever has been
cnce dipt fhould become invulnerable : But it
is not fo ; the irritability of authors has long
been enrolled among the comforts of ill-nature,
and the triumphs of ftupidity ; fuch let it
long remain ! Let me at leaft take care in the
worft ftorms that may arife in public or in
private life, to fay with Lear,
I'm one
More fmn'd againftj than finning.
For the book ; I have not thrown my
thoughts into the form of private letters ; be-
caufe a work of which truth is. the beft re-
commendation, fhould not above all others
begin with a lie. My old acquaintance ra-
ther chofe to amufe themfelves with conjec-
tures, than to flatter me with tender inquiries
during my abfence : our correfpondence then
would
PREFACE.
VII
would not have been any amufement to the
Public, whofe treatment of me deferves every
poffible acknowledgment ; and more than thofe
acknowledgments will I not add to a work,
which, fuch as it is, I fubmit to their candour,
refolving to think as little of the event as I
can help ; for the labours of the prefs referable
thofe of the toilette, both fhould be attended
to, and finifhed with care ; but once com-
plete, fhould take up no more of our atten-
tion; unlefs we are difpofed at evening to de-
ftroy all effect of our morning's ftudy.
OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS
MADE IN A JOURNEY THROUGH
France, Italy, and Germany,
CALAIS.
September 7, 1784.
OF all pleafure, I fee much may be de-
ftroyed by eagernefs of anticipation : I
had told my female companion, to whom
travelling was new, how me would be fur-
prized and aftonifhed, at the difference found
in croffing the narrow fea from England to
France, and now me is not aftonifhed at all ;
why mould me ? We have lingered and loi-
tered fix and twenty hours from port to port,
while ficknefs and fatigue made her feel as if
much more time ftill had elapfed fince fhe
quitted the oppofite more. The truth is,
we wanted wind exceedingly ; and the flights
VOL. I. B of
2 OBSERVATIONS IN A
of fhaggs, and fhoals of maycril, both beau-
tiful enough, and both uncommon too at this
feafon, made us very little amends for the
tedioufnefs of a night pafTed on (hip-board,
Seeing the fun rife and fet, however, upon
an unobftructed horizon, was a new idea
gained to me, who never till now had the
opportunity. It confirmed the truth of that
maxim which tells us, that the human mind
muft have fomething left to fupply for itfelf
on the fight of all fublunary objects. When
my eyes have watched the rifmg or fetting
fun through a thick crowd of intervening
trees, or feen it fmk gradually behind a hill
which obftructed my clofer obfervation, fancy
has always painted the full view finer than
at laft I found it ; and if the fun itfelf cannot
fatisfy the cravings of a thirfty imagination,
let it at leaft convince us that nothing on this
fide Heaven can fatisfy them, and fd our
affiftions accordingly.
Pious reflections remind one of monks and
nuns ; I enquired of the Francifcan friar
who attended us at the inn, what was become
of Father Felix, who did the duties of the
quete, as it is called, about a dozen years
ago, when I recollect minding that his man-
ners
S
JOURNEY THROUGH FRANCE. 3
hers and ftory (truck Dr. Johnfon exceed-
ingly, who faid that fo complete a character
could fcarcely be found in romance. He had
been a foldier, it feems, and was no incom-
petent or mean fcholar : the books we found
open in his cell, mewed he had not neglected
modern or colloquial knowledge ; there was
a tranflation of Addilbn's Spectators, and Ra-
pin's DiiTertation on the contending Parties
of England called Whig and Tory. He had
likewife a violin, and fome printed mufic, for
his entertainment. I was glad to hear he was
well, and travelling to Barcelona on foot by
orders of the fuperior.
After dinner we fet out to fee Mifs Grey*
at her convent of Dominican Nuns ; who, I
hoped, would have remembered me, as many
of the ladies there had feized much of my
attention when laft abroad : they had how-
ever all forgotten me, nor could call to mind
how much they had once admired the beauty
.of my eldeft daughter, then a child, which I
thought impoflible to forget : one is always
more important in one's own eyes than in
thofe of others ; but no one is of importance
to a Nun, who is and ought to be employed
in other fpeculations.
B * When
4 OBSERVATIONS IN A
When the Great Mogul fhowed his fplen-
dour to a travelling dervife, who exprefled
his little admiration of it " Shall you not
often be thinking of me in future ?" faid the
monarch. " Perhaps I might," replied the
religieux, " if I were not always thinking
upon God.''
The women fpinning at their doors here,
or making lace, or employing themfelves in
fome manner, is particularly confclatory to
a Britim eye ; yet I do not recollect it ftruck
me laft time I was over : induftry without
buftle, and fome appearance of gain without
fraud, comfort one's heart ; while all the
profits of commerce fcarcely can be faid to
make immediate compenfation to a delicate
mind, for the noife and brutality obferved in
an Englifli port. I looked again for the
chapel, where the model of a fhip, elegantly
conftructed, hung from the top, and found
it in good prefervation : fome fcrupulous -
man had made the fhip, it feems, and thought,
perhaps juftly too, that he had fpent a greater
portion of time and care on the worlcman-
ihip than he ought to have done ; fo refolv-
ing no longer to indulge his vanity or fond-
nefs, fairly hung it up in the convent chapel,
and
JOURNEY THROUGH FRANCE. 5
and made a folemn vow to look on it no
more. I remember a much ftronger inftance
of felf-denial pradifed by a pretty young
lady of Paris once, who was enjoined by her
confeflbr to wring off the neck of her fa-
vourite bullfinch, as a penance for having
paired too much time in teaching him to pipe
tunes, peck from her hand, &c, She obeyed ;
but never could be prevailed on to fee the
prieft again.
We are going now to leave Calais, where
the women in long white camblet clokes,
foldiers with whifkers, girls in neat flippers,
and ihort petticoats contrived to mow them,
who wait upon you at the inn ; poftillions
with greafy night-caps, and vaft jack-boots,
driving your carriage harneffed with ropes, and
adorned with fheep-fkins, can never fail to
ftrike an Englifhman at his firft going abroad :
But what is our difference of manners,
compared to that prodigious effed: produced
by the much fhorter paffage from Spain to
Africa ; where , an hour's time, and fixteen
miles fpace only, carries you from Europe,
from civilization, from Chrittianity. A gen-
tleman's defcription of his feelings on Jfcat
occafion nifties now on my mind, and makes
B 3 me
6 OBSERVATIONS IN A
me half afhamed to fit here, in Deflein's
parlour, writing remarks, in good time!
upon places as well known as Weftminfter^
bridge to almoft all thofe who crofs it at this
moment ; while the cuftorn-houfe officers
intrufion puts me the lefs out of humour,
from the confcioufnefs that, if I am difturbed,
. I am difturbed from doing nothing*
CHANTILLY.
OUR way to this place lay through
Boulogne ; the fituation of which is pleaf-*
ing, and the fifh there excellent. I was
glad to fee Boulogne, though I can fcarcely tell
why ; but one is always glad to fee fomething
new, and talk of fomething old : for example,
the ftory I once heard of Mifs Afhe, fpeak-
ing of poor Dr. James, who loved profligate
converfa^ion dearly, " That man Ihould
fet up his quarters acrofs the water," faid
ihe ; " why Boulogne would be a feraglio
to him."
The country, as far as Montreuil, is a
coaiie one ; thin herbage in the plains and
fruit-
JOURNEY THROUGH FRANCE. 7
frmtlefs folds. The cattle too are miferably
poor and lean ; but where there is no grafs,
we can fcarcely expert them to be fat : they
muft not feed on wheat, I fuppofe, and can-
not digeft tobacco. Herds of fvvine, not
flocks of iheep, meet one's eye upon the
hills ; and the very fev: gentlemen's feats that
we have paffed by, em out of repair, and
deferted. The French do n*ot refide much in
private houfes, as the Englifh do ; but while
thofe of narrower fortunes flock to the coun-
try towns within their reach, thofe of
ampler purfes repair to Paris, where the rent
of their eftate fupplies them with pleafures at
no very enormous expencc. The road is
magnificent, like our old-fafhioned avenue
in a nobleman's park, but wider, and paved
in the middle ; this convenience continued
on for many hundred miles, and all at the
king's expence. Every man you meet, po-
litely pulls off his hat en paffant ; and the
gentlemen have commonly a good horfe un-
der them, but certainly a drefled one.
Sporting feafon is not come in yet, bnt
I believe the idea of fporting feldom enters
any head except an Englim one : here is
prodigious plenty of game, but the familiarity
B 4 with
8 OBSERVATIONS IN A
with which they walk about and fit by our
road-fide, fhews they feel no apprehenfions.
Harveft, even in France, is extremely
backward this year, I fee ; no crops are yet
got in, nor will reaping be likely to pay its
own charges. But though fummer is come
too late for profit, the pleafure it brings is
perhaps enhanced by delay : like a life, the
early part of which has been wafted in fick-
nefs, the poffeffor finds too little time remain-
ing for workj when health does come ; and
fpends all that he has left, naturally enough,
in enjoyment.
The pert vivacity of La Fille at Montreuil
was all we could find there worth remarking:
it filled up my notions of French flippancy
agreeably enough ; as no Englifh wench
would fo have anfwered one to be fure. She
had complained of our avant-coureur's beha-
viour. " II park fur k haut fon, mademoifelk"
(faid I), " mats il a k ccsur bon *.-" " QuydF
(replied fhe, fmartly), " mats cefl k to?i qul
fait k chanfon j~."
* He fets his talk to a founding tune, my dear, but
he is an honeft fellow.
f But I always thought it was the tune which made
the mufick.
The
JOURNEY THROUGH FRANCE. 9
The cathedral at Amiens made ample
amends for the country we pafied through to
fee it ; the Nef cT Amiens deferves the fame
of a firft-rate ftru&ure : and the ornaments
of its high altar feem particularly well chofen,
of an excellent tafte, and very capital execu-
tion. The vineyards from thence hither
ihew, that either the climate, or feafon, or
both, improve upon one: the grapes climb-
ing up fome not very tall golden-pippin trees,
and mingling their fruits at the top, have a
mighty pleafing effect ; and I obferve the
rage for Lombardy poplars is in equal force
here as about London : no tolerable houfe
have I pafled without feeing long rows of
them ; all young plantations, as one may
perceive by their fize. Refined countries
always are panting for fpeedy enjoyment :
the maxim of carpe diem* came into Rome
when luxury triumphed there ; and poets
and philofophers lent their ailiftance to deco-
rate and dignify her gaudy car. Till then we
read of no fuch hafte to be happy ; and on
the fame principle, while Americans con-
tentedly wait the flow growth of their colum-
* Seize the prefent moment.
rial
io OBSERVATIONS IN A
nal chefnut, our hot-bed inhabitants meafurc
the flender poplar with canes, anxioufly ad-
miring its quick growth and early elegance ;
yet are often cut down themfelves, before
their youthful favourite can afford them either
pleafure or advantage.
This charming palace and gardens were
new to neither of us, yet lovely to both : the
tame full, I remember fo well to have fed
from my hand eleven or twelve years ago,
are turned almoft all white ; can it be with
age I wonder ? the naturalifts muft tell. I
once faw a carp which weighed fix pounds
and an half taken out of a pond in Hertford-
fhire, where the owners knew it had refided
forty years at leaft ; and it was not white,
but of the common colour : Quere, how long
will they live ? and when will they begin to
change ? The ftables ftruck me as more mag-
nificent this time than the laft I faw them ;
the hounds were always dirtily and ill kept ;
but hunting is not the tafte of any nation now
but ours; none but a young Englifh heir fays
to his eftate as Goliah did to David, Come to
me^ and I will give thee to the beafls of the
jidd^ and to the fowls of the air ; as fome of
our old books of piety reproach us. Every
trick
JOURNEY THROUGH FRANCE. XI
trick that money can play with the moft
la vim abundance of water is here exhibited ;
nor is the fight of ayV/ d^cau^ or the murmur
of an artificial cafcade, undelightful in a hot
day, let the Nature-mongers fay what they
pleafe. The prince's cabinet, for a private
collection, is not a mean one ; but I was forry
to fee his quadrant rufted to the globe almoft,
and the poor planetarium out of all repair.
The great fluffed dog is a curiofity however ;
I never faw any of the canine fpecies fo
large, and withal fo beautiful, living or
dead.
The theatre belonging to the houfe is a
lovely one ; and the truly princely poffefTor,
when he heard once that an Englifh gentle-
man, travelling for amufement, had called at
Chantilly too late to enjoy the diverfion,
inftantly, though pafl twelve o'clock at night,
ordered a new reprefentation, that his curiofity
might be gratified. This is the fame Prince
of Conde, who going from Paris to his coun-
try-feat here for a month or two, when his
eldeft fon was nine years old, left him. fifty
louis d'ors as an allowance during his ab-
fence. At his return to town, the boy pro-
duced his purfe, crying " Papa ! hcrcs all the
money
12 OBSERVATIONS IN A
money fafe^ 1 have never touched it once" .
The Prince, in reply, took him gravely to the
window, and opening it, very quietly poured
all the louis d'ors into the ftreet; faying,
" Now, if you have neither virtue enough to
give away your money, nor fpirit enough to
Ipend it, always do this for the future, do
you hear ; that the poor may at leaft have a
chance for it."
PARIS.
THE fine paved road to this town has
many inconveniencies, and jars the nerves
terribly with its perpetual rattle ; the ap-
proach however always llrikes one as very
fine, I think, and the boulevards and guin-
gettes look always pretty too : as wine, beer,
and fpirits are not permitted to be fold there,
one fees what England does not even pretend
to exhibit, which is gaiety without noife, and
a crowd without a riot. I was pleafed to go
over the churches again too, and re-experi-
ence that particular fenfation which the dif-
poiition of St. Rocque's altars and ornaments
alone
JOURNEY THROUGH FRANCE. 13
alone can give. In the evening we looked at
the new fquare called the Palais Royal,
whence the Due de Chartres has removed a
vaft number of noble trees, which it was a fin
and fhame to profane with an axe, after they
had adorned that fpot for fo many centuries.
The people were accordingly as angry, I
believe, as Frenchmen can be, when the folly
was firft committed : the court, however,
had wit enough to convert the place into a
fort of Vauxhall, with tents, fountains, fhops,
full of frippery, brilliant at once and worth-
lefs, to attract them ; with coffeehoufes fur-
rounding it on every fide ; and now they are all
again merry and happy^ fynonymous terms at
Paris, though often difunited in London ;
and Vive le Due de Chartres !
The French are really a contented race
of mortals; precluded almoft from pof-
fibility of adventure, the low Parifian leads
a gentle humble life, nor envies that great-
nefs he never can obtain ; but either won-
ders delightedly, or diverts himfelf phi-
lofophically with the fight of fplendours
which feldom fail to excite ferious envy in an
Englifhman, and fometimes occafion even
fuicide, from difappointed hopes, which never
could
T4 OBSERVATIONS IN A
could take root in the heart of thefe un*
afpiring people. Reflections of this caft are
fuggefted to one here in every fhop, where
the behaviour of the mafter at firft fight con-
tradicts all that our fatirifts tell us of the
fupple Gaul^ &c. A mercer in this town
fhews you a few filks, and thofe he fcarcely
opens; votts devez cholfir *, is all he thinks
of faying, to invite your cuftom ; then takes
out his fnuff-box, and yawns in your face,
fatigued by your inquiries. For my own
part, I find my natural difguft of fuch beha-
viour greatly repelled, by the recollection
that the man I am fpeaking to is no inhabit-
ant of
A happy land, where circulating pow'r
Flows thro* each member of th' embodied ftate -
S. JOHNSON.
and I feel well- inclined to refpecl: the peaceful
tenor of a life, which likes not to be broken
in upon, for the fake of obtaining riches,
which when gotten muft end only in the
pleafure of counting them. A Frenchman
who mould make his fortune by trade to-
* Chufe what you like.
morrow.
JOURNEY THROUGH FRANCE. 15
morrow, would be no nearer advancement in
fociety or fituation : why then mould he
folicit, by arts he is too lazy to delight in the
practice of, that opulence which would afford
fo flight an improvement to his comforts ? He
lives as well as he wimes already ; he goes
to the Boulevards every night, treats his wife
with a glafs of lemonade or ice, and holds up
his babies by turns, to hear the jokes of Jean
Pottage* Were he to recommend his goods,
like the Londoner, with ftudied eloquence and
attentive flattery, he could net hope like him
that the eloquence he now beftows on the
decorations of a hat, or the varnifh of an
equipage, may one day ferve to torment a
miriifter, and obtain a poft of honour for his
fon ; he could not hope that on fome future
day his flattery might be liftened to by fome
lady of more birth than beauty, or riches
perhaps, when happily employed upon a very
different fubject, and be the means of lifting
himfelf into a ftate of diftinclion, his chil-
dren too into public notoriety.
Emulation, ambition, avarice, however,
muft in all arbitrary governments be confined
to the great ; the other fet of mortals, for
there are none there of middling rank, live,
as
16 OBSERVATIONS IN A
as it fhould feem, like eunuchs in a feraglio ;
feel themfelves irrevocably doomed to pro-
mote the pleafure of their fuperiors, nor ever
dream of fighing for enjoyments from which
an irremeable boundary divides them.
They fee at the beginning of their lives how
that life muft neceflarily end, and trot with
a quiet, contented, and unaltered pace down
their long, ftraight, and {haded avenue j
while we, with anxious folicitude, and reft-
lefs hurry, watch the quick turnings of our
ferpentine walk ; which ftill prefents, either
to light or expectation, fome changes of va-
riety in the ever-fhifting profpect, till the
unthought-of, unexpected end comes fud-
denly upon us, and finifhes at once the fluc-
tuating fcene. Reflections muft now give
way to facts for a moment, though few Eng-
lifh 'people want to be told that every hotel
here, belonging to people of condition, is
fhut out from the ftreet like our Burlington-
houfe, which gives a general gloom to the
look of this city fo famed for its gaiety : the
ftreets are narrow too, and ill-paved; and
very noify, from the echo made by ftone
buildings drawn up to a prodigious height,
many of the houfes having feven, and, fome
6 of
JOURNEY THROUGH FRANCE. 17
bf them even eight ftories from the bottom.
The contradictions one meets with every
moment likewife ftrike even a curfory ob*
ferver a countefs in a morning, her hair
drefled, with diamonds too perhaps, a dirty
black handkerchief about her neck, and a flat
filver ring on her finger^ like our ale-wives ;
a femme publlque^ drefled avowedly for the
purpofes of alluring the men, with not a very
fmall crucifix hanging at her bofom ; and
the Virgin Mary's fign at an alehoufc door,
with thefe words,
Je fuis la mere de mon Dieu,
Et la gardienne de ce lieu *.
I have, however, borrowed Bocage's Re-
marks upon the Englifh nation, which ferve
to damp my fpirit of criticifm exceedingly :
She had more opportunities than I for ob-
fervationj not lefs quicknefs of difcernment
furely ; and her ftay in London was longer
than mine in Paris. Yet, how was fhe de-
ceived in many points !
* The mother of my God am I,
And keep this houfe right carefully.
VOL. I. C I will
i8 OBSERVATIONS IN A
I will tell nothing that I did not fee ; and
among the objects one would certainly avoid
feeing if it were poffible, is the deformity of
the poor. Such various modes of \varping
the human figure could hardly be obferved
in England by a furgeon in high practice, as
meet me about this country incefTantly. I
have feen them in the galleries and outer-
courts even of the palace itfelf, and am glad
to turn my eyes for relief on the Duke of
Orleans' s pictures ; a glorious collection !
The Italian noblemen, in whofe company
we faw it, acknowledged with candour the
good tafte of the felection ; and I was glad
to fee again what had delighted me fo many
years before : particularly, the three Marys,
by Annibale Caracci; and Rubens's odd con-
: ceit of making Juno's Peacock peck Paris's
leg, for having refufed the apple to his
miftrefs.
The manufacture at the Gobelins feems
. exceedingly improved ; the colouring lefs in-
harmonious, the drawing more correct ; but
our Parifians are not juft now thinking about
fuch matters ; they are all wild for love of a
new comedy, written by Monf. de Beaumar-
chais,' and called, " Le Manage de Figaro,"
7 full
JOURNEY THROUGH FRANCE. i 9
full of fuch wit as we were fond of in the
reign of Charles the Second, indecent mer-
riment, and grofs immorality ; mixed, how-
ever, with much acrimonious fatire, as if
Sir George Etherege and Johnny Gay had
clubbed their powers of ingenuity at once to
divert and to corrupt their auditors ; who
now carry the verfes of this favourite piece
upon their fans, pocket-handkerchiefs, &c.
as our women once did thofe of the Beggar's
Opera*
We have enjoyed fome very agreeable
fociety here in the company of Comte Tur-
coni, a Milanefe Nobleman who, defirous
to efcape all the frivolous, and petty dif-
tinclion which birth alone beftows, has
long fixed his refidence in Paris, where
talents find their influence, and where a great
city affords that unobferved freedom of
thought and action which can fcarcely be
expected by a man of high rank in a fmaller
circle ; but which, when once tafted, will
not feldom be preferred to the attentive
watchfulnefs of more confined fociety.
The famous Venetian too, who has written
fo many fuccefsful comedies, and is now
C 2 em-
20 OBSERVATIONS IN A
employed upon his own Memoirs, at the
age of eighty^four, was a delightful addition
to our Coterie, Goldoni. He is garrulous,
good-humoured, and gay ; refembling the
late James Harris of Salifbury in perfon not
manner, and feems juftly efteemed, and
highly, by his countrymen.
The converfation of the Marquis Trotti
and the Abate Bucchetti is likewife parti-
cularly pleafing; efpecially to me, who am
naturally defirous to live as much as pof-
fible among Italians of general know-
ledge, good tafte, and polimed manners,
before I enter their country, where the
language will be fo very indifpenfable.
Mean time I have ftolen a day to vifit my
old acquaintance the Englifh Auftin Nuns at
the Foflee, and found the whole community
alive and cheerful ; they are many of them
agreeable women, and having feen Dr. John-
fon with me when I was laft abroad, enquired
much for him: Mrs. Fermor, the Priorefs,
niece to Belinda in the Rape of the Lock,
taking oecafion to tell me, comically enough,
" That me believed there was but little com-
fort to be found in a houfe that harboured
JOURNEY THROUGH FRANCE. 2 i
poets; for that (he remembered Mr. Pope's
praife made her aunt very troublefome and
conceited, while his numberlefs caprices
would have employed ten fervants to wait on
him ; and he gave one" (faid fhe) " no
amends by his talk neither, for he only fate
dozing all day, when the fweet wine was
out, and made his verfes chiefly in the night ;
during which feafon he kept himfelf awake by
drinking cofFee, which it was one of the maids
bufmefs to make for him, and they took it
by turns."
Thefe ladies really live here as comfortably
for aught I fee as peace, quietnefs, and the
certainty of a good dinner every day can
make them. Juil fo much happier than as
many old maids who inhabit Milman Street
and Chapel Row, as they are fure not to be
robbed by a treacherous, or infulted by a
favoured, fervant in the decline of life,
when protection is grown hopelefs and refift-
ance vain ; and as they enjoy at leaft a moral
certainty of never living worfe than they do
to-day : while the little knot of unmarried
females turned fifty round Red Lion
Square may always be ruined by a runaway
C 3
22 OBSERVATIONS IN A
agent, a bankrupted banker, or a roguifo
fteward ; and even the petty pleafures of fix-
penny quadrille may become by that mif-
fortune too coftly for their income. Aurefte^
as the French fay, the difference is fmall:
both coteries fit feparate in the morning, go
to prayers at noon, and read the chapters for
the day : change their neat drefs, eat their
little dinner, and play at fmall games for
fmall fums in the evening ; when recollection
tires, and chat runs low.
But more adventurous characters claim my
prefent attention. All Paris I think, myfelf
among the reft, aflembled to fee the valiant
brothers, Robert and Charles, mount yefter-
day into the air, in company with a certain
Pilatre de Rofier, who conducted them in the
new-invented flying chariot faftened to an
air-balloon. It was from the middle of the
Tuilleries that they fet out, a place very fa-
vourable and well-contrived for fuch public
purpofes. But all was fo nicely managed,
fo cleverly carried on fomehow, that the
order and decorum of us who remained on
firm ground, ftruck me more than even the
very ftrange fight of human creatures float-
ing
JOURNEY THROUGH FRANCE. 23
ing in the wind : but I have really been wit-
nefs to ten times as much buftle and confu-
fion at a crowded theatre in London, than
what thefe peaceable Parifians made when the
whole city was gathered together. Nobody
was hurt, nobody was frighted, nobody could
even pretend to feel themfelves incommoded.
Such are among the few comforts that refult
from a defpotic government.
My republican fpirit, however, boiled up
a little laft Monday, when I had to petition
Monf. de Calonne for the reftoration of
feme trifles detained in the cuftom-houfe at
Calais. His politenefs, indeed, and the
fight of others performing like ads of humi-
liation, reconciled me in fome meafure to the
drudgery of running from fubaltern to fub-
altern, intreating, in pathetic terms, the re-
miffion of a law which is at laft either juft
or unjuft ; if juft, no felicitation fhould,
methinks, be permitted to change it ; if un-
juft, what can be fo grating as the obligation
to folicit ?
\Ve mean to quit Paris to-morrow ; I
therefore enquired this evening, what was
become of our aerial travellers. A very
grave man replied, " Je crois^ Madame, qu Us
C 4 font
24 OBSERVATIONS IN A
font deja arrives ccs Meffieurs la, au lieu ou
les vents feforment*"
LYONS.
Sept. 25, 1784.
WE left the capital at our intended time,
and put into the carriage, for amufement, a,
book ferioufly recommended by Mr. Gol-
doni ; but which diverted me only by the
fanfaronades that it contained. The author
has, however, got the premium by this per-
formance, which the Academy of Berlin
promifed to whoever wrote beft this year on
any Belles Lettres fubjecT:. This gentleman
judicioufly chofe to give reafons for the uni-
verfality of the French language, and has
been fo gaily infolent to every other Euro-
pean nation in his flimfy pamphlet, that
fome will probably praife, many reply to,
all read, and all forget it. I will confefs
myfelf fo feized on by his fprightly imper-
tinence, that I wifhed for leifure to tranflate,
and wit to anfwer him at firft, but the want
* I fancy, Ma'am, the gentlemen are gone to fee the
place where all the winds blow from.
Of
JOURNEY THROUGH FRANCE. 3.5
of one foiid thought by which to recollect
his exiftence has cured me ; and I now find
that he was delicioufly cool and fliarp, like
the ordinary wine of the country we are paff-
ing through, which having no body^ can nei*-
ther keep its little power long, nor even
ufe it while frefh to any fenfible effecT:.
The country is really beautiful ; but de-
fcriptions are fo fallacious, one half defpairs
of communicating one's ideas as they are:
for either well-chofen words do not prefent
themfelves, or being well-chofen they detain
the reader, and fix his mind on them, inftead
of the things defcribed. Certain it is that I
had formed no adequate notion of the fine
river called the Yonne, with cattle grazing
on its fertile banks : thofe banks not clothed
indeed with our foft verdure, but with royal
purple, proceeding from an autumnal daify
of that colour that enamels every meadow
at this feafon. Here fmall enclofures feem
unknown to the inhabitants, who are ftrewed
up and down expanfive views of a moft pro-
ductive country ; where vineyards fwell upon
the rifing grounds, and young wheat orna-
ments the valleys below : while clufters of afpir-
ing poplars, or a fingle walnut-tree of greater
fize
26 OBSERVATIONS IN A
fize and dignity unite in attra&ing attention,
and infpiring poetical ideas. Here is no
tedious uniformity to fatigue the eye, nor
rugged afperities to difguft it ; but ceafelefs
variety of colouring among the plants, while
the cerulean willow, the yellow walnut, the
gloomy beech, and filver theophraftus, feera
fcattered by the open hand of lavifh Nature
over a landfcape of refpectable extent, uniting
that fublimity which a wide expanfe always
conveys to the mind, with that diftindnefs
fo defired by the eye ; which cultivation alone
can offer and fertility beftow. Every town
that fhould adorn thefe lovely plains, how-'
ever, exhibits, upon a nearer approach,
mifery ; the more mortifying, as it is lefs
expedted by a fpedtator, who requires at
leaft fome days experience to convince him
that the fquallid fcenes of wretchednefs and
dirt in which he is obliged to pafs the night,
will prove more than equivalent to the plea^
fures he has enjoyed in the day-time, de^
rived from an appearance of elegance and
wealth elegance, the work of Nature, not
of man; and opulence, the immediate gift
of God, and not the refult of commerce. He
who mould fix his refidence in France, lives
like
JOURNEY THROUGH FRANCE. 27
like Sir Gawaine in our old romance, whofe
wife was bound by an enchantment, that
obliged her at evening to lay down the va-
rious beauties which had charmed admiring
multitudes all day, and become an object of
odium and difguft.
The French do feem indeed an idle race ;
and poverty, perhaps for that reafon, forces
her way among them, through a climate that
might tempt other mortals to improve its
bleflings; but, as the motto to the arms
they are fo proud of exprefles it " they
toll not, neither do they fpin" Content,
the bane of induftry, as Mandeville calls
it, renders them happy with what Hea-
ven has unfolicited fhaken into their lap;
and who knows but the fpirit of blam-
ing fuch behaviour may be lefs pleafing to
God that gives, than is the behaviour
itfelf?
Let us not, mean time, be forward to fup-
pofe, that whatever one fees done, is done upon
principle, as fuch fancies will for ever mif-
lead one : much muft be left to chance, when
we are judging the conduct either of nations
or individuals. And furely I never knew till
now, that fo little religion could exift in any
Chriftiaa
28 OBSERVATIONS IN A
Chriftian country as in this, where they drive
their carts, and keep their little fhops open
on a Sunday, forbearing neither pleafure nor
bufinefs, as I fee, on account of obferving
that day upon which their Redeemer rofe
again. They have a tradition among the
meaner people, that when Chrift was cruci-
fied, he turned his head towards France, over
which he pronounced his laft blefTmg ; but
we muft accufe them, if fo, of being very
ungrateful favourites.
This ftately city, Lyons, is very happily
and finely fituated ; the Rhone, which flows
by its fide, inviting mills, manufactures, &c,
feems refolved to contradict and warn away
all I have been faying ; but we muft remem-
ber, it is five days journey from Paris hither,
and I have been fpeaking only of the little
places we pafled through in coming along.
The avenue here, which leads to one of
the greateft objects in the nation, is moft
worthy of that object's dignity indeed : the
marriage of two rivers, which having their
fources at a prodigious diftance from each
other, meet here, and together roll their
beneficial tribute to the fea. Howell's re-
mark, " That the Saone refembles a Spaniard
ia
JOURNEY THROUGH FRANCE. 23
in the flownefs of its current, and that the
Rhone is emblematic of French rapidity," can-
not be kept a moment out of one's head: it
is equally obfervable, that the junction adds
little in appearance to their ftrength and gran-
deur, and that each makes a better figure
feparate than united.
La Montagne d'Or is a lovely hill above
the town, and I am told that many Englim
families refide upon it, but we have no time
to make minute enquiries. L'Hotel de la
Croix de Malthe affords excellent accommo-
dations within, and a delightful profpect with-
out. The Baths too have attracted my no-
tice much, and will, I hope, repair my ftrength,
fo as to make me no troublefome fellow-
traveller. How little do thofe ladies confult
their own intereft, who make impatience of
petty inconveniences their beft fupplement
for converfation ! fancy themfelves more im-
portant as lefs contented ; and imagine all
delicacy to confifl in the difficulty of being
pleafed ! Surely a dip in this delightful river
will reftore my health, and enable me to pafs
the mountains, of which our prefent compa/
nions give me a very formidable account.
Tfce
30 OBSERVATIONS IN A
The manufacturers here, at Lyons, deferve"
a volume, and I fhall fcarcely give them a page
though nothing I ever law at London or
Paris can compare with the beauty of thefe
velvets, or with the art necefiary to produce
fuch an effecT:, while the wrong fide is fmooth,
not ftruck through. The hangings for the
Emprefs of Ruffia's bed-chamber are won-
derfully executed ; the defign elegant, the
colouring brilliant : A fcreen too for the Grand
Signer is finely linifhed here ; he would, I
truft, have been contented with magnificence
In the choice of his furniture, but Mr. Pernon
has added tafte to it, and contrived in appear-
ance to fink an urn or vafe of crimfon velvet
in a back ground of gold tiflue with furpri-
fing ingenuity.
It is obfervable, that the further people ad-
vance in elegance, the lefs they value fplen-
dour; diftindlion being at laft the pofitive
thing which mortals elevated above compe-
tency naturally pant after. Neceffity muft
firft be fupplied we know, convenience then
requires to be contented ; but as foon as men
can find means after that period to make
themfelves eminent for tafte, they learn to
defpife
JOURNEY THROUGH FRANCE. 31
defpife thofe paltry diftindions which riches
alone can beflow.
Talking of Tafte leads one to fpeak of gar-
dening ; and having pafled yefterday between
two villas belonging to fome of the moft opu-
lent merchants of Lyons, I gained an oppor-
tunity of obferving the difpofal of thofe
grounds that are appropriated to pleafure ;
where the {hade of ftraight long-drawn al-
leys, formed by a clofe junction of ancient
elm trees, kept a dazzling fun from incom-
moding our fight, and rendering the turf fo
moffy and comfortable to one's tread, that my
heart never felt one longing wih for the
beauties of a lawn and fhrubbery though I
fhould certainly think fuch a manner* of lay-
ing out a Lancafhire gentleman's feat in the
north of England a mad one, where the
heat of the fun ought to be invited in, not
fhut out ; and where a large lake of water is
wanted for his beams to fparkle upon, inftead
of a fountain to trickle and to murmur, and
to refrefh one with the idea of coolnefs which
it excites. Here, however, where the Rhone
is navigable up to the very houfe, I fee not
but it is rational enough to form jet d'eaux
of the fuperfluous water, and to content one's
felf
$z OBSERVATIONS IN A
felf with a Bird Cage Walk, when we are
fure at the end of it to find ourfelves fur-
rounded by an horizon, of extent enough to
give the eye full employment, and of a bright
colouring which affords it but little relief.
That among the gems of Europe our ifland
holds the rank of an emerald^ was once fug-
gefted to me, and I could never part with
the idea ; furely France muft in the fame
fcale be rated as the ruby\ for here is no
grafs, no verdure to repofe the fight upon,
except that of high foreft trees, the vineyards
being fliort cut, and fupported by white flicks,
the fize of thole which in our flower gardens
fupport a favourite carnation; and thefe placed
clofe together by thoufands on a hill rather
perplex than pleafe a fpectator of the coun-
try, who muft wait till he recollects the fu-
periority of their produce, before he prefers
them to a Herefordfhire orchard or a Kentifh
hop- ground.
Well ! well ! it is better to wafte no
more words on places however, where the
people have done fo much to engage and
to deferve our attention.
Such was the hofpitality I have here been
Witnefs to, and fuch the luxuries of the Ly-
2 onnois
JOURNEY THROUGH FRANCE. 33
bnnois at table, that I counted fix and thirty
dimes where we dined, and twenty-four
where we fuppedi Every thing was ferved up
in filver at both places, and all was uniformly
magnificent^ except the linen, which might
have been finer. We were not a Very nu-
merous company from eighteen to twenty-
two, as I remember, morning and evening;
but the ladies played upon the pedal harp,
the gentlemen fung gaily, if not fweetly
-after fupper : I never received more kihdnefs
for my own part in any fortnight of my life,
nor ever heard that kihdnefs more pleafmgly
or lefs coarfely expreffed. Thefe .arc mer-
chants, I am told, with whom I have been
living ; and perhaps my heart more readily
receives and repays their careffes for having
heard fo. Let princes difpute, and foldiers
reciprocally Support their quarrels ; but let
the wealthy traders of every nation unite to
pour the oil of commerce over the too agitated
ocean of human life, and fmooth down thofe
afperities which obftrud fraternal concord.
The Duke and Duchefs of Cumberland
lodge here at our hotel ; I faw them treated with
diftinguifhed refped to-night at the theatre,
VOL. L D where
34 OBSERVATIONS IN A
where a force de danfer*) I actually was
moved to fhed many tears over the diftrefies
of Sophie de Brabant. Surely thefe panto-
mimes will very foon fupplant all poetry,
when, as Gratiano fays, " Our words will
" fuddenly become fuperfluous, and difcourfe
** grow commendable in none but parrots."
Some converfation here, however, ftruck
me as curious ; the more fo as I had heard
the fubject (lightly touched upon at Paris ;
but faintly there, as the laft founds of an
echo, while here they are all loud, all in
earneft, and all their heads feemed turned,
I think, about fomething, or nothing, which
they call animal magnetifm. I cannot imagine
how it has feized them fo: a man who un-
dertakes to cure diforders by the touch, is
no new thing ; our Philofophical Tranfa&ions
make mention of Gretrex the ftroaker, in
Charles the Second's reign. The prefent
mountebank, it is true, feems more hardy
in his experiments, and toafts of being able
to caufe diforders in the human frame, as
well as to remove them. A gentleman at
yefterday's dinner-party mentioned, that he
* By dint of dancing alone.
took
JOURNEY THROUGH FRANCE. 35
took pupils ; and, before I had exprefled the
aftonifhment I felt, profefled himfelf a dif-
ciple ; and was happy to aflure us, he faid,
that though he had not yet attained the de-
firable power of putting a perfon into a ca-
talepfy at pleafure, he could throw a woman
into a deep fwoon, from which no arts but
his own could recover her. How difficult
is it to reftrain one's contempt and indig-
nation from a buffoonery fo mean, or a
practice fo diabolical ! This folly may pof-
fibly find its way into England I fliould be
very forry.
To-morrow we leave Lyons. I fliould have
liked to pafs through Switzerland, the Der-
byfhire of Europe ; but I am told the feafon
is too far advanced, as we mean to fpend
Chriftmas at Milan.
D 2
OBSERVATIONS IN A
TURIN,
Oftober 17, 1784.
WE have at length pafied the Alps, and
are fafely arrived at this lovely little
city, whence I look back on the majeftic boun-
daries of Italy, with amazement at his courage
xvho firft profaned them : furely the immediate
fenfation conveyed to the mind by the fight
of fuch tremendous appearances muft be in
every traveller the fame, a fenfation of fulnefs
never experienced before, a fatisfa&ion that
there is fomething great to be feen on earth
fome object capable of contenting even fancy.
Who he was who firft of all people pervaded
thefe fortifications, raifed by nature for the
defence of her European Paradife, is not afcer-
tained; but the great Duke of Savoy has
wifely left his name engraved on a monument
upon the firft confiderable afcent from Pont
Bon-
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 3;
Bonvoifin, as being author of a beautiful
road cut through the folid ftone for a great
length of way, and having by this means
encouraged others to affift in facilitating a
paflage fo truly defirable, till one of the
great wonders now to be obferved among
the Alps, is the eafe with which even a de-
licate traveller may crofs them. In thefe
profpecls, colouring is carried to its utmoft
point of perfection, particularly at the time
I found it, variegated with golden touches of
autumnal tints ; immenfe cafcades mean time
burfting from naked mountains on the one
fide ; cultivated fields, rich with vineyards,
on the other, and tufted with elegant fhrubs
that invite one to pluck and carry them away
to where they would be treated with much
more refpect. Little towns flicking in the
clefts, where one would imagine it was im-
poffible to clamber; light clouds often failing
under the feet of the high-perched inhabitants,
while the found of a deep and rapid though
narrow river, darning with violence among
the infolently impeding rocks at the bottom,
and bells in thickly-fcattered fpires calling
the quiet Savoyards to church upon the fteep
D 3 fides
38 OBSERVATIONS IN A
fides of every hill fill one's mind with fuch
mutable, fuch various ideas, as no other place
can ever poffibly afford,
I had the fatisfaction of feeing a chamois
at a diftance, and fpoke with a fellow who
had killed five hungry bears that made de-^
predation on his paftures : we looked on him
with reverence as a monfter-tamer of anti-
quity, Hercules or Cadmus ; he had the fkin
of a beaft wrapt round his middle, which
confirmed the fancy but our fervants, who
borrowed from no fictitious records the few
ideas that adorned their talk, told us he re-
minded them of John the Baptifl. I had
fcarce recovered the mock of this too fublime
comparifon, when we approached his cottage,
and found the felons nailed againft the wall,
like foxes heads or fpread kites in England,
Here are many goats, but neither white nor
large, like thofe which browze upon the
fteeps of Snowdon, or clamber among the
cliffs of Plinlimmon.
I chatted with a peafant in the Haute Mo-
rienne, concerning the endemial fwelling of
the throat, which is found in feven out of
every ten perfons here : he told me what I
had always heard, but do not yet believe,
that
4
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 39
that it was produced by drinking the fnow
water. Certain it is, thefe places are not
wholefome to live in ; moft of the inhabitants
are troubled with weak and fore eyes: and
I recollect Sir Richard Jebb telling me, more
than feven years ago, that when he pafied
through Savoy, the various applications made
to him, either for the cure or prevention of
blindnefs by numberlefs unfortunate wretches
that crowded round him, haftened his quit-
ting a province where fuch horrible com-
plaints prevailed. One has heard it related
that the goiftre or gozzo of the throat is
reckoned a beauty by thofe who pofTefs it ;
but I fpoke with many, and all agreed to
lament it as a misfortune. That it does really
proceed merely from living in a fnowy coun-
try, would be well confirmed by accounts of
a fimilar ficknefs being endemial in Canada ;
but of an American goiftre I have never yet
heard and Wales, methinks, is fnowy
enough, and mountainous enough, God
knows ; yet were fuch an excrefcence to be
feen there, the people would never have done
wondering, and blefling themfelves.
The mines of Derbyfhire, however, do not
very unfrequently exhibit fomething of the
D 4 fame
40 OBSERVATIONS IN A
fame appearance among thofe who work in
them ; and as Savoy is impregnated with
many minerals, I {hould be apter to attribute
this extenfion of the gland to their influence
over the conftitution, than to that of fnow
water, which can fcarcely be efficacious in a
degree of power equal to the producing fo,
very violent an efFed.
The wolves do certainly come down from
thefe mountains in large troops, juft as.
Thomfon defcribes them :
Burning for blood ; boney, and gaunt, and grim.
But it is now the famionable philofophy
every where to confider this creature as the
original of our domeftic friend, the dog. It
was a long time before my heart afFented to
its truth, yet furely their hunting thus in
packs confirms it ; and the Jackall's willing-
nefs to connect with either race, mews one
that the fpecies cannot be far removed, and
that he makes the made between the wolf
and rough haired fhepherd's cur.
Of the longevity of man this diftricl;
affords us no pleafmg examples. Thepeafants
here are apparently unhealthy, and they fay
- fhort-
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 4 ,
fliort-lived. We are told by travellers of
former days, that there is a region of the air
fo fubtle as to extinguifh the two powers of
tafte and fmell ; and thofe who have croffed
the Cordilleras of the Andes fay, that fitu-
ations have been explored among their points
in South America, where thofe fenfes have
been found to fuffer a temporary fufpenfion.
Our voyageurs aeriens * may now be ufeful
to fettle that queftion among others, and
Pambamarca's heights may remain un-
trodden.
As for Mount Cenis, I never felt my-
felf more hungry, or better enjoyed a good
dinner, than I did upon it's top : but the trout
in the lake there have been over praifed;
their pale colour allured me but little in the
firft place, nor is their flavour equal to that
of trout found in running water. Going
down the Italian fide of the Alps is, after
all, an aftonifhing journey ; and affords the
moft magnificent fcenery in nature, which
varying at every ftep, gives new impreffion
to the mind each moment of one's paflage ;
while the portion of terror excited either by
* Our acroftatic travellers.
real
42 OBSERVATIONS IN A
real or fancied dangers on the way, is juft
fufficient to mingle with the pleafure, and
make one feel the full effect of fublimity. To
the chairmen who carry one though, no-
thing can be new ; it is obfervable that the
glories of thefe objects have never faded
I heard them fpeak to each other of their
beauties, and the change of light fmce they
had pafled by laft time, while a fellow who
fpoke Englifh as well as a native told us,
that having lived in a gentleman's fervice
twenty years between London and Dublin,
he at length begged his difcharge, chufmg to
retire and finifh his days a peafant upon thefe
mountains, where he firft opened his eyes
upon fcenes that made all other views of
nature infipid to his tafte.
If impreflions of beauty remain, however,
thofe of danger die away by frequent reitera-.
tion ; the men who carried me feemed
amazed that I mould feel any emotions of fear.
Queft ce donCy madame ? * was the coldly-
afked queftion to my repeated injunction
of prenez garde\\ not very apparently
* What's the matter, my lady ? f Take care.
unne-
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 43
unneceflary neither, where the leaft flip
muft have been fatal both to them and
me.
Novalefa is the town we flopped at, upon
entering Piedmont ; where the hollow found
of a heavy darning torrent that has accom-
panied us hitherto, firft grows faint, and the
ideas of common life catch hold of one again ;
as the noife of it is heard from a greater
diftance, its ftream grows wider, and its
courfe more tranquil. For compenfation of
danger, eafe mould be adminiftered ; but
one's quiet is here fo difturbed by infects,
and polluted by dirt, that one recollects the
conduct of the Lapland rein-deer, who feeks
the fummit of the hill at the hazard of his
life, to avoid thofe gnats which fting him to
madnefs in the valley.
Suza mewed nothing that I took much
intereft in, except its name ; and nobody tells
me why it is honoured with that old Afiatick
appellation. At the next town, called St.
Andre, or St. Ambroife, I forget which, we
got an admirable dinner ; and faw our room
decorated with a large map of London, which
I looked on with fenfations different from
thofe
44 OBSERVATIONS IN A
thofe ever before excited by the fame object.
Amfterdam and Conftantinople covered the
other fides of the wall ; and over the door of
the chamber itfelf was written, as our people
write the Lamb or the Lion, *< Les trols
Vllles Herettquts * "
The avenue to Turin, mod magnificently
planted, and drawn in a wide flraight line,
ihaded like the Bird-cage walk in St. James's
Park, for twelve miles in length, is a dull
work, but very ufeful and convenient in fo
hot a country ; it has been completed by the
tafte, and at the fole expence, of his Sardi-
nian majefty, that he may enjoy a cool fhady
drive from one of his palaces to the other.
The town to which this long approach con-
veys one does not difgrace its entrance. It
is built in form of a ftar, with a large ftone
in its centre, on which you are defired to
fland, and fee the ftreets all branch regularly
from it, each ftreet terminating with a beau-
tiful view of the furrounding country, like
fpots of ground feen in many of the old-
fafhioned parks in England, when the etoile
and vifla were the mode. I think there is
* The three Heretical Cities,
2 mil
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 4S
flill one fubfifting even now, if I remember
right, in Kenfmgton Gardens. Such fymme-
try is really a foft repofe for the eye, weaned
with following a foaring falcon through the
half-fightlefs regions of the air, or darting
down imineafurable precipices, to examine if
the human figure could be difcerned at fuch a
depth below one. Model of elegance, exact
Turin ! where Italian hofpitality firft con-
foled, and Italian arts firft repaid, the fatigues
of my journey : how {hall I bear to leave my
new-obtained acquaintance ? how fhall I con-
fent to quit this lovely city ? where, from the
box put into my poffeffion by the Prince
de la Cifterna, I firft faw an Italian opera
acted in an Italian theatre ; where the won-
ders of Porporati's hand {hewed me that our
Bartolozzi was not without a competitor;
and where every pleafure which politenefs can
Invent, and kindnefs can beftow, was held
out for my acceptance. Should we be fe-
duced, however, to wafte time here, we
fhould have reafon in a future day to repent
our choice ; like one who, enamoured of
Lord Pembroke's great hall at Wilton, Ihould
fail to afford himfelf leifure for looking over
the better-furnifhed apartments.
This
46 OBSERVATIONS IN A
This charming town is the falon of Italy ;
but it is a finely-proportioned and well-or-
namented falon^ happily conftructed to call
in the frefh air at the end of every ftreet,
through which a rapid ftream is directed,
that ought to carry off all nuifances, which
here have no apology from want of any con-
venience purchafable by money ; and which
muft for that reafon be the choice of inha-
bitants, who would perhaps be too happy,
had they a natural tafte for that neatnefs
which might here be enjoyed in its purity.
The arches formed to defend pafiengers from
the rain and fun, which here might have
even ferious effects from their violence,
deferve much praife j while their architecture,
uniting our ideas of comfort and beauty to-
gether, form a traveller's tafte, and teach him
to admire that perfection, of which a minia-
ture may certainly be found at Turin, when
once a police fhall be eftablifhed there to pre-
vent fuch places being ufed for the very
groffeft purpofes, and polluted with fmells
that poifon all one's pleafure.
It is faid, that few European palaces exceed
in fplendour that of Sardinia's king ; I found
it
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 47
it very fine indeed, and the pictures dazzling.
The death of a dropfical woman well known
among all our connoifleurs detained my
attention longeft : the value fet on it here is
ten thoufand pounds. The horfe cut out of
a block of marble at the ftairs-foot at-
tracted me not a little ; but we are told that
the impreflion it makes will foon be effaced
by the fight of greater wonders. Mean time
I go about like Stephano and his ignorant
companions, who longed for all the glittering
furniture of Profpero's cell in the Tempeft,
while thofe who know the place better are
vindicated in crying, " Let It alone^ thou fool,
it is but trajh"
Some letters from home directed me to en-
quire in this town for Doctor Charles Allioni,
who kindly received, and permitted me to
examine the rarities, of which he has a very
capital collection. His foffil fifh in flate
blue flate, are furprifmgly well preferved ;
but there is in the world, it feems, a chryf-
talized trout, not flat, nor the flefh eaten
away, as I underftand, but round ; and, as it
were, cafed in chryftal like our afpiques, or
fruit in jelly : the colour ftill fo perfect that
you may plainly perceive the fpots upon it,
he
48 OBSERVATIONS IN A
he fays. To my enquiries after this wonder-
ful petrefaction, he replied, " That it might
be bought for a thoufand pounds ;" and
added, " that if he were a Rlcco Inglefe *, he
would not hefitate for the price :" " Where
may I fee it, Sir ?" faid I ; but to that queftion
no intreaties could produce an anfwer, after
he once found I had no mind to buy.
That frefh-water fiih have been known to
remain locked in the flinty bofom of Monte
Uda in Carnia, the Academical Difcourie of
Cyrillo de Cremona, pronounced there in the
year 1749,- might have informed us ; and we
are all familiar, I fuppofe, with the anchor
named in the fifteenth book of Ovid's Meta-
morphofes. Strabo mentions pieces of a
galley found three thoufand ftadii from any
fea ; and Dr. Allioni tells me, that Monte
Bolca has been long acknowledged to contain
the form's, now diligently digging out under
the patronage of ibme learned naturalifts at
Verona. The trout, however, is of value
much beyond thefe productions certainly, as
it is clofed round as if in a tranfparent cafe
we find, hermetically fealed by the foft hand
* Rich Englifhman.
Of
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY, 49
of Nature, who fpoiled none of her own
^ornaments in preferring them for the infpec-
tion of heir favourite ftudents.
The amiable old profeflbr from whom thefe
particulars were obtained, and who endured
my teizing him in bad Italian for intelligence
he cared not to communicate, with infinite
fweetnefs and patience grew kinder to me
as I became more troublefome to him : and
Shewing me the book upon botany to which
he had juft then put the laft line, turned his
dim eyes from me, and faid, as they filled
with tears, " You, Madam, are the lafl
vifitor I mall ever more admit to talk upon
earthly fubjects ; my work is done; I finifhed
it as you were entering : my bufinefs now
is but to wait the will of God, and die ; do
you, who I hope will live long and hap-
pily, feek out your own falvation, and pray
for mine." Poor dear Doctor Allioni !
My enquiries concerning this truly vene-
rable mortal ended in being told that his
relations and heirs teized him cruelly to fell
his manufcripts, infeds, &c. and divide the
money amongft them before he died. An
Englifh fcholaf of the fame abilities would
V<DL. L E be
OBSERVATIONS IN A
be apt 'enough to defpife fuch admonitions, and
difpofe at his own liking and leifure of what
his indufhy alone had gained, his learning
only collected ; but there feems to be much
more family fondnefs on the Continent than
in our ifland; more attention to parents,
more care for uncles, and nephews, and
fifters, and aunts, than in a commercial coun-
try like ours, where, for the moft part, each
one makes his own way feparate ; and hav-
ing received little affiftance at the beginning
of life, confiders himfelf as little indebted at
the clofe of it.
Whoever takes a long journey, however he
may at his firft commencement be tempted
to accumulate fehemes of convenience and
combinations of travelling niceties, will caft
them off in the courfe of his travels as in-
cumbrances ; and whoever fets out in life, I
believe, with a crowd of relations round him,
will, on the fame principle, feel difpofed ta
drop one or two of them at every turn,- as
they hang about and impede his progrefs^
and make his own game fingle-handed* I
fpeak of Englifomen^ whofe religion and go-
vernment infpire rather a fpirit of public
13 bene-
-
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 5I
benevolence, than contrail the focial affec-
tions to a. point ; and co-operate, befides, to
prompt that genius for adventure, and tafte
of general knowledge, which has fmall chance
to Ipring up in the inhabitants of a feudal
ftate; where each confiders his family as
himfelf, and having derived all the comfort
he has ever enjoyed from his relations, re*
folves to return their favours at the end of a
life, which they make happy, in proportion
as it is fo : and this accounts for the equa-
lity required in continental marriages, which
are avowedly made here without regard to
inclination, as the keeping up a family,
not the choice of a companion, is confidered
as important ; while the lady bred up in the
fame notions, complies with her firft duties,
and confiders the fecond as infinitely more
tlifpenfable.
E 2
OBSERVATIONS IN A
GENOA.
Nov. i, 1784.
IT was on the twenty-firft of laft month
that we paffed from Turin to Monte Cafale ;
and I wondered, as I do flill, to fee the face
of Nature yet without a wrinkle, though the
feafon is fo far advanced. Like a Parifian
female of forty years old, drefled for court,
and ftored with fuch variety of well-arranged
allurements, that the men fay to each other
as fhe pafles. " Des qu'elle a ceflee d'eftre
jolie, elle n'en devient que plus belle, ce me
femble*."
The profpect from St. Salvadore's hill
derives new beauties from the yellow au-
tumn ; and exhibits fuch glowing proofs
of opulence and fertility, as words can
with difficulty communicate. The animals,
however, do not feem benefited in proportion
to the apparent riches of the country : afles,
indeed, grow to a confiderable fize, but the
* She's grown handfomer, I think, fmce fhe has
left off being pretty.
oxen
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 53
oxen are very fmall, among paftures that
might fuffice for Bakewell's bulls ; and thefe
are all little, and almoft all white ; a colour
which gives unfavourable ideas either of
ftrength or duration.
The blanche rofe among vegetables fcat-
ters a lefs powerful perfume than the red
one ; whilft in the mineral kingdom filver
holds but the fecond place to gold, which
imbibing the bright hues of its parent-fun,
becomes the firft arid greateft of all metallic
productions. One may obferve too, that
yellow is the earlieft colour to falute the rifmg
year, the laft to leave it: crocufes, prim-
rofes, and cowflips give the firft earneft of
refufcitating fummer; while the lemon-co-
loured butterfly, whofe name I have forgot-
ten, ventures out, before any others of her
kind can brave the parting breath of winter's
laft ftorms ; ftouteft to refift cold, and ftea-
dieft in her manner of flying. The prefent
feafon is yellow indeed, and nothing is to be
feen now but fun-flowers and African mary-
golds around us ; one bough befides, on every
tree we pafs one bough at leaft is tinged
with the golden hue ; and if it does put one
E 3 in
54 OBSERVATIONS IN A
in mind of that prefented to Proferpine, we
may add the original line too, and fay,
Uno avulfo, non deficit alter *.
The fure-footed and docile mule, with
which in England I was but little acquainted,
here claims no fmall attention, from his fu-
perior fize and beauty : the difagreeable noife
they make fo frequently, however, hinders
one from wifhing to ride them it is not
braying fomehow, but worfe ; it is neighing
out of tune.
I Jiave put nothing down about eating
fince we arrived in Italy, where no wretched
hut have I yet entered that does not afford
foup, better than one often taftes in England
even at magnificent tables. Game of all
forts woodcocks in particular. Porporati,
the fo juftly-famed engraver, produced upon
his hofpitable board, one of the pleafant
days we paffed with him, a couple fo exceed-
ingly large, Jthat I hefitated, and looked again,
to fee whether they were really woodcocks,
till the long bill convinced me.
* Pluck one away, another ftill remains.
One
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY, 55
One reads of the luxurious emperors that
made fine difhes of the little birds brains,
phenicopter's tongues, &c. and of the ator
who regaled his guefts with nightingale-pie,
with juft deteftation of fuch curiofity and
expence : but thrufhes, larks, and blackbirds,
are fo very frequent between Turin and
Novi, I think they might ferve to feed all the
fantaftical appetites to which Vitellius himfelf
could give encouragement and example.
The Italians retain their taftes for fmall-
birds in full force ; and confider beccafichi,
ortolani, &c. as the moft agreeable dainties :
it muft be confeffed that they drefs them in-
comparably. The fheep here are all lean and
dirty-looking, few in number too; but the
better the foil the worfe the mutton we
know, and here is no land to throw away,
where every inch turns to profit in the olive-
yards, vines, or fomething of much higher
value than letting out to feed fheep.
Population feems much as in France, I
think: but the families are not, in either
nation, difpofed according to Britifh notions
of propriety ; all fluffed together into little
towns and large houfes, entaffees, as the
French call it, one upon another, in fuch a
E 4 ftrange
5 6 OBSERVATIONS IN A
flrange way, that were it not for the quantity
of grapes on which the poor, people live,
with other acefcent food enjoined by the
church, and doubtlefs fuggefted by the cli-
mate, I think putrid fevers muft neceflarily
carry off crowds of them at once.
The head-drefs of the women in this drive
through fome of the northern ftates of Italy
varied at every poft ; from the velvet cap,
commonly a crimfon one, worn by the girls
in Savoia, to the Piedmontefe plait round the
bodkin at Turin, and the odd kind of white
wrapper ufed in the exterior provinces of the
Genoefe dominions. Uniformity of almoft
any fort gives a certain pleafure to the eye,
and it feems an invariable rule in thefe coun-
tries that all the women of every diftrict
fhould drefs juft alike. It is the beft way of
making the men's tafk eafy in judging which
is handfomeft ; for tafte fo varies the human
figure in France and England, that it is im-
poffible to have an idea how many pretty
faces and agreeable forms would lofe and
how many gain admirers in thofe nations,
were a fudden edict to be published that all
(hould drefs exactly alike for a year. Mean
time,
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. S7
time, fmce we left Defleins, no fuch delight-
ful place by way of inn have we yet feen as
here at Novi. My chief amufement at Alex-
andria was to look out upon the huddled mar-
ket-place, as a great dramatic writer of our day
has called it ; and who could help longing there
for Zoffani's pencil to paint the lively fcene ?
Faffing the Po by moon-light near Ca-
fale exhibited an entertainment of a very
different nature, not unmixed with ill-
concealed fear indeed ; though the con-
trivance of crofting it is not worfe managed
than a ferry at Kew or Richmond ufed to be
before our bridges were built. Bridges over
the rapid Po would, however, be truly ridicu-
lous ; when fwelled by the mountain fnows it
tears down all before it in its fury, and inun-
dates the country round.
The drive from Novi on to Genoa is fo
beautiful, fo grand, fo replete with imagery,
that fancy itfelf can add little to its charms :
yet, after every elegance and every ornament
have been juftly admired, from the cloud
which veils the hill, to the wild fhrubs which
perfume the valley; from the precipices
jvhich alarm the imagination, to the tufts of
which flayer and footh it; the fea
fuddenly
5 3 OBSERVATIONS IN A
fuddenly appearing at the end of the Boc-
chetta terminates our view, and takes from
one even the hope of expreffing our delight
In words adequate to the things defcribed.
Genoa la Superba flands proudly on the
margin of a gulph crowded with Ihips, and
refounding with voices, which never fail to
animate a Britifh hearer the failor's fhout,
the manner's call, fwelled by fuccefsful com-
merce, or ftrengthened by newly-acquired
fame.
After a long journey by land, fuch
fcenes are peculiarly delightful ; but defcrip-
tion tangles, not communicates, the fenfations
imbibed upon the fpot. Here are fo many
things to defcribe ! fuch churches ! fuch
palaces ! fuch pictures ! one would imagine
the Genoefe poflefled the empire of the
ocean, were it not well known that they call
but fix galleys their own, and feventy years
ago fuffered all the horrors of a bombard-
ment.
The Dorian palace is exceedingly fine;
the Durazzo palace, for ought I know, is,
finer ; and marble here feems like what one
reads of filver in King Solomon's time,
which, fays the Scripture^ " was nothing
counted
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 53
counted on in the days of Solomon" Cafa
Brignoli too is fplendid and commodious ;
the terraces and gardens on the houfe-tops,
and the frefco paintings outfide, give one
new ideas of human life ; and exhibits a
degree of luxury unthought-on in colder
climates. But here we live on green peafe
and figs the firft day of November, while
orange and lemon trees flaunt over the walls
more common than pears in England.
The Balbi manfion, filled with pictures, de-
tained us from the churches filled with more.
I have heard fome of the Italians confefs that
Genoa even pretends to vie with Rome her-
felf in ecclefiaftical fplendour. In devotion
I Ihould think fhe would be with difficulty
outdone : the people drop down on their
knees in the ftreet, and crowd to the church
doors while the benediction is pronouncing,
with a zeal which one might hope would
draw down ftores of grace upon their heads.
Yet I hear from the inhabitants of other
provinces, that they have a bad character
among their neighbours, who love not the
lafe Ligurian y and accufe them of many im-
moralities. They tell one too of a difre-
jmtable faying here, how there are at Genoa
men
o OBSERVATIONS IN A
men without honefty, women without mo-
defty, a fea with no fifh, and a wood with
no birds. Birds, however, here certainly are
by the million, and we have eaten fifh fmce
we came every day ; but I am informed they
are neither cheap nor plentiful, nor confidered
as excellent in their kinds. Here is maca-
roni enough however! the people bring in
fuch a vaft difh of it at a time, it difgufts
one.
The ftreets of the town are much too nar-
row for beauty or convenience impracticable
to coaches, and fo befet with beggars that
it is dreadful. A chair is therefore, above
all things, neceflary to be carried in, even a
dozen fteps, if you are likely to feel fhocked
at having your knees fuddenly clafped by a
figure hardly human ; who perhaps holding
you fbrcioly for a minute, conjures you
loudly, by the facred wounds of our Lord
Jefus Chrift, to have companion upon bis ;
{hewing you at the fame time fuch undeni-
able and horrid proofs of the anguifh. he is
fufFering, that one muft be a monfter to quit
him unrelieved. Such pathetic mifery, fuch
difgufting diftrefs, did I never fee before, as
J have been witnefs to in this gaudy city
aw}
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 61
and that not occafionally or by accident, but
all day long, and in fuch numbers that hu-
manity Ihrinks from the defcription. Sure,
charity is not the virtue that they pray for,
when begging a bleffing at the church-door.
One ihould not however fpeak unkindly
of a people whofe affectionate regard for our
country fhewed itfelf fo clearly during the
late war: a few days refidence with the
Englifh conful here at his country feat gave
me an opportunity of hearing many inftances
of the Republic's generous attachment to
Great Britain, whofe triumphs at Gibraltar
over the united forces of France and Spain
were honeftly enjoyed by the friendly Ge-
noefe, who gave many proofs of their fin-
cerity, more folid than thofe clamorous ones
of huzzaing our minifter about wherever he
went, and crying Viva il General ELLIOTT ;
while many young gentlemen of high faihion
offered themfelves to go volunteers aboard
our fleet, and were with difficulty reftrained.
We have been fhewed fome beautiful vil-
las belonging to the noblemen of this city,
among which Lomellino's pleafed me beft ;
as the water there was fo particularly beau-
tiful, that he had generoufly left it at full
liberty
62 OBSERVATIONS IN A
liberty to roll unconduded, and murmur
through his tafteful pleafure grounds, much
in the manner of our lovely Leafowes ; hap-
pily uniting with Englifh fimplicity, the
glowing charms that refult from an Italian
iky. My eyes were fo wearied with fquare
edged bafons of marble, and jets d'eaux,
furrounded by water nymphs and dolphins,
that I felt vaft relief from Lomellino's garden^
who, like me,
Tir'd with the joys parterres and fountains yield.
Finds out at laft he better likes a field.
Such felicity of fituation I never faw till
now, when one looks upon the painted front
of this gay manfion, commanding from its
fine balcony a rich and extenfive view at
once of the fea, the city, and the fnow-topt
mountains ; while from the windows on the
other fide the houfe, one's eye fmks into
groves of cedar, ilex, and orange trees, not
apparently cultivated with inceflant care, or
placed in pots, artfully funk under ground to
conceal them from one's fight, but rifmg
into height truly refpe&able.
The fea air, except in particular places
where the land lies in fome dire&ion that
counteracts
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 63
counteracts its influence, is naturally inimical
to timber ; though the green coafts of De-
vonmire are finely fringed with wood ; and
here, at Lomellino's villa, in the Genoefe
ftate, I found two plane trees, of a fize and
ferious dignity, that recalled to my mind the
folemn oak before our duke of Dorfet's feat
at Knowle and chefnuts, which would not
difgrace the forefts of America. A rural
theatre, cut in turf, with a concealed orcheftra
and fod feats for the audience, with a mofTy
ftage, not incommodious neither, and an
admirable contrivance for fhifting the fcenes,
and favouring the exits, entrances, &c. of
the performers, gave me a perfect idea of
that refined luxury which hot countries alone
infpire while another elegantly conftru&ed
fpot, meant and often ufed for the enter-
tainment of tenants and dependants who
come to rejoice on the birth or wedding day
of a kind landlord, make one fupprefs one's
fighs after a free country at leaft fufpend
them ; and fill one's heart with tendernefs
towards men, who have {kill to foften au-
thority with indulgence, and virtue to reward
obedience with protection*
A family
64 OBSERVATIONS IN A
A family coming laft night to vifit at d
houfe where I had the honour of being ad-
mitted as an intimate, gave me another proof
of my prefent ftate of remotenefs from Eng-
lifh manners. The party confifted of an old
nobleman, who could trace his genealogy
unblemifhed up to one of the old Roman
emperors, but whofe fortune is now in a
hopelefs ftate of decay : his lady, not in-
ferior to himfelf in birth or haughtinefs of
air and carriage, but much impaired by age,
ill health, and pecuniary diftrefles ; thefe had
however no way leflened her ideas of her
own dignity, or the refpect of her cavalier
fervente and her fon, who waited on her
with an unremitted attention ; prefenting her
their little dirty tin fnuff-boxes upon one
knee by turns ; which ceremony the lefs fur-
prifed me, as having feen her train made of
a dyed and watered luteftring, borne gravely
after her up flairs by a footman, the exprefs
image of Edgar in the ftorm-fcene of king
Lear who, as the fool fays, " wifely refervd
" a blanket ', elfe had we all been ''JJoamed.^
Our converfation was meagre, but ferious.
There was mufic ; and the door being left at
jar, as we call it, I watched the wretched
fervant
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 65
fervant who ftaid in the antichamber, and
Found that he was liftening in fpight of for-
row and ftarving.
With this flight fketch of national manners
I finifh my chapter, and proceed to the de-
fcription of, or rather obfervations and reflec-
tions made during a winter's refidence at
M I L A N*
FOR we did not ftay at Pavia to fee any
thing: it rained fo, that no pleafure could
have been obtained by the fight of a botani-
cal garden ; and as to the univerfity, I have
the promife of feeing it upon a future day,
in company of fome literary friends. Truth
to tell, our weather is fuddenly become fo
wet, the roads fo heavy with inceflant rain,
that king William's departure from his own
foggy country, or his welcome to our gloomy
one, where this month is melancholy even
to a proverb, could not have been clouded
with a thicker atmofphere furely, than was
mine to Milan upon the fourth day of difmal
November, 1784*
VOL. I. F Italians,
6 OBSERVATIONS IN A
Italians, by what I can obferve, fuffer their
minds to be much under the dominion of
the fky ; and attribute every change in their
health, or even humour, as ferioufly to its
influence, as if there were no nearer caufes of
alteration than the ftate of the air, and as if
no doubt remained of its immediate power,
though they are willing enough here to poifon
it with the fcent of wood-aihes within doors,
while fires in the grate feem to run rather
low, and a brazier full of that pernicious fluff
is fubftituted in its place, and driven under
the table during dinner. It is furprifing how
very elegant, not to fay magnificent, thofe
dinners are in gentlemen's or noblemen's
houfes ; fuch numbers of dimes at once ; not
large joints, but infinite variety: and I think
their cooking excellent. Fafhion keeps mofl
of the fine people'out of town yet ; we have
therefore had leifure to eftablifh our own
houfehold for the winter, and have done fo
as commodioully as if our habitation was
fixed here for life. This I am delighted
with, as one may chance to gain that in-
fight into every day behaviour, and common
occurrences, which can alone be called know-
ing fomething of a country : counting
churches,
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 67
churches, pictures, palaces, may be done by
thofe who run from town to townj with no
impreffion made but on their bones. I
ought to learn that which before us lies in
daily life, if proper ufe were made of
my derm-naturalization ; yet impediments to
knowledge fpring up round the very tree
itfelf for furely if there was much wrong, I
would not tell it of thofe who feem inclined
to find all right in me ; nor can I think
that a fame for minute obfervatibn, and {kill
to difcern folly with a microfcopic eye, is in
any wife able to compenfate for the corrofrons
of confcience, where fuch difcoveries have
been attained by breach of confidence, and
treachery towards unguarded, becaufe unfuf-
pedting innocence of conduit. We are al-
ways* laughing at one another for running
over none but the vifible objects in every
city, and for avoiding the convcrfation of
the natives, except on general fubje&s of li-
terature returning home only to tell again
what has already been told. By the candid
inhabitants of Italian Mates, however, much
honour is given to our Britim travellers, who,
as they fay, vlaggiono con profitlo *, and
* Travel for improvement,
F 2 fcarc?
68 OBSERVATIONS IN A
fcarce ever fail to carry home with them
from other nations, every thing which can
benefit or adorn their own. Candour, and
a good humoured wiliingnefs to receive and
reciprocate pleafure, feems indeed one of the
itanding virtues of Italy ; I have as yet feen
no faftidious contempt, or affected rejection
of any thing for being what we call low ;
and I have a notion there is much lefs of
thofe difUnctions at Milan than at London,
where birth does fo little for a man, that if
he depends on that^ and forbears other me-
thods of diftinguifhirig himfelf from his foot-
man, he will ftand a chance of being treated
no better than him by the world. Here a
perfon's rank is afcertained, and his fociety
fettled, at his immediate entrance into life ; a
gentleman and lady will always be regarded
as fuch, let what will be their behaviour.
It is therefore highly commendable when
they feek to adorn their minds by culture, ot
pluck out thofe weeds, which in hot coun-
tries will fpring up among the riches of the
harveft, and afford a fure, but no immediately
pleafing proof of the foil's natural fertility.
But my country-women would rather hear
a little of our Interleur^ or, as we call it, fa-
mily
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 69
mily management ; which appears arranged
in a manner totally new to me ; who find*
the lady of every houfe as unacquainted with
her own, and her hufband's affairs, as I who
apply to her for information. No houfe
account, no weekly bills perplex her peace ;
if eight fervants are kept, we will fay, fix of
thefe are men, and two of thofe men out of
livery. The pay of thefe principal figures
in the family, when at the higheft rate, is
fifteen pence Englim a day, out of which
they find clothes and eating for fifteen
pence includes board-wages ; and moft of
thefe fellows are married too, and have four
or five children each. The dinners dreft at
home are, for this reafon, more exactly con-
trived than in England to fuit the number
of guefts, and there are always half a dozen ;
for dining alone ^ or the matter and miftrefs
tete-a-tete as we do, is unknown to them,
who make fociety very eafy, and refolve to
live much together. No odd fenfation then,
fomething like mame, fuch as we feel when
too many dimes are taken empty from table,
touches them at all ; the common courfes
are eleven, and eleven fmall plates, and it is
their fport arid pleafure, if poflible, to clear
F 3 all
7 o OBSERVATIONS IN A
all away. A footman's wages is a fhilllng
a day, like our common labourers, arid paid
him, as they are paid, every Saturday night.
His livery, mean time, changed at leaft twice
ayear^ makes him as rich a man as the butler
and valet but when evening comes, it is
the comicalleft fight in the world to fee
them all go gravely home, and you may die
in the night for want of help, though fur-
rounded by fhowy attendants all day. Till
the hour of departure, however, it is expected
that two or three of them at leaft fit in the
antichamber, as it is called, to anfwer the
bell, which, if we confefs the truth, is no
flight fervice or hardfhip ; for the flairs, high
and wide as thofe of Windfor palace, all
ftone too, run up from the door immediately
to that apartment, which is very large, and
very cold, with bricks to fet their feet on
only, and a brazier filled with warm wood
afhes, to keep their fingers from freezing,
which in fummer they employ with cards,
and feem but little inclined to lay them down
when ladies pafs through to the receiving
room. The ftrange familiarity this clafs of
people think proper to afltime, half joining
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 71
in the converfation, and crying oibo *, when
the mafter affirms fomething they do not
quite affent to, is apt to fhock one at begin-
ning, the more when one reflects upon the
equally offenfive humility they fhow on
being firft accepted into the family ; when
it is expected that they receive the new
mafter, or lady's hand, in a half kneeling
pofture, and kifs it, as women under the
rank of Countefs do the Queen of England's
when prefented at our court. This obfequi-
oufnefs, however, vanifhes completely upon
acquaintance, and the footman, if not very
ferioufly admonimed indeed, yawns, fpits,
and difplays what one of our travel-writers
emphatically terms his flag of abomination be-
hind the chair of a woman of quality, without
the flighted fenfation of its impropriety. There
is, however, a fort of odd farcical drollery
mingled with this groflhefs, which tends
greatly to difarm one's wrath ; and I felt
more inclined to laugh than be angry one
day, when, from the head of my own table,
I faw the fervant of a nobleman who dined
with us cramming fome chicken patte's down
* Oh dear !
7* OBSERVATIONS IN A
his throat behind the door ; our own folks
humoroufly trying to choak him, by pre-
tending that his lord called him, while his
mouth was full. Of a thoufand comical
things in the fame way, I will relate one :
Mr. Piozzi's valet was dreffing my hair at
Paris one morning, while fome man fate at
an oppofite window of the fame inn, fmging
and playing upon the violoncello : I had not
obferved the circumftance, but my perruc-
chiere's diftrefs was evident ; he writhed and
twifted about like a man pinched with the
cholic, and pulled a hundred queer faces : at
laft What is the matter, Ercolani, faid I, are
you not well ? Miftrefs, replies the fellow,
if that beaft don't leave off foon, I mall run
mad with rage, or elfe die; and fo you'll
fee an honeft Venetian lad killed by a
French dog's howling.
The phrafe of miftrefs is here not confined
to fervants at all ; gentlemen, when they ad-
drefs one, cry, mia padrona *, mighty fweetly,
and in a peculiarly pleafing tone. Nothing,
to fpeak truth, can exceed the agreeablenefs
of a well-bred Italian's addrefs when fpeak-
ing to a lady, whom they alone know how
* My miftrefs.
to
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 73
to flatter, fo as to retain her dignity, and not
lofe their own ; refpectful, yet tender ; at-
tentive, not officious j the politenefs of a man
of fafhion here is true politenefs, free from all
affectation, and honeftly expreflive of what
he really feels, a true value for the perfon
fpoken to, without the fmalleft defire of
fhining himfelf ; equally removed from fop-
pery on one fide, or indifference on the
other. The manners of the men here are
certainly pleafing to a very eminent degree,
and in their converfation there is a mixture,
not unfrequent too, of claffical allufions, which
ftrike one with a fort of literary pleafure I
cannot eafily defcribe. Yet is there no pe-
dantry in their ufe of expreffions, which with
us would be laughable or liable to cenfure :
l}ut Roman notions here are not quite extinct ;
and even the houfe-maid, or donna dl gros^
as they call her, fwears by Diana fo comi-
cally, there is no telling. They chriften their
boys Fabius, their daughters Claudia, very
commonly. When they mention a thing
known, as we fay, to Tom o" 1 Styles and John
oNokeS) they ufe the words, Tissio and Sem-
pronio. A lady tells me, me was at a lols
about the dance yefterday evening, becaufe
ftie
74 OBSERVATIONS IN A
fhe had not been mftruded in the program-
ma ; and a gentleman, talking of the pleafures
he enjoyed flipping laft night at a friend's
houfe, exclaims, Eramo pur jerifera in Appol-
line * / alluding to Lucullus's entertainment
given to Pompey and Cicero, as I remember,
in the chamber of Apollo. But here is
enough of this more of it, in their own
pretty phrafe, feccarebbe pur Nettunno f . It
was long ago that Aufonius faid of them more
than I can fay, and Mr. Addifon has tranf-
lated the lines in their praife better than I
could have done.
<c Et Mediolani mira omnia copia rerum :
<c Innumeras culta^que domus facunda virorum
" Ingenia et mores laeti."
Milan with plenty and with wealth o'erfiows,
And numerousftreets and cleanly dwellings (hows;
The people, blefs'd by Nature's happy force 3
Are eloquent and cheerful in difcourfe.
What I have faid this moment will, how^
ever, account in fome meafure for a thing
which he treats with infinite contempt, not
unjuftly perhaps; yet does it not deferve
* We pafied yefter evening as if we had been in the
Apollo.
f Would dry up old Neptune himfelf,
the
7
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 7S
the ridicule handed down from his time by
all who have touched the fubjecl:, It is about
the author, who before his theatrical repre-
fentation prefixes an odd declaration, that
though he names Pluto, and Neptune, and I
know not who, upon the ftage, yet he be-
lieves none of thofe fables, but conliders
himfelf as a Chriftian, a Catholick, &c. All
this does appear very abfurdly fuperfluous
to us- } but as I obferved, they live nearer
the original feats of paganifm ; many old
cuftoms are yet retained, and the names not
loft among them, or laid up merely for
literary purpofes as in England. They fwear ;
per Bacco perpetually in common difcourfe ;
and once I faw a gentleman in the heat of
converfation blum at the recollection that he
had faid barba Jove^ where he meant God Al-
mighty.
It is likewife unkind enough in Mr.
Addifon, perhaps unjuft too, to fpeak with
fcorn of the libraries, or ftate of literature, at
Milan. The collection of books at Brera is
prodigious, and has been lately much in-
creafed by the Pertufanian and Firmian li-
braries falling into it : a more magnificent
repofjtory for learning, a more comfortable
fituation
7 6 OBSERVATIONS IN A
fituation for ftudents, fo complete and per-
fect a difpofition of the books, will fcarcely
be found ,in any other city not profefledly a
univerfity, I believe ; and here are profeffors
worthy of the higheft literary ftations, that
do honour to learning herfelf. I will not
indulge myfelf by naming any one, where
all deferve the higheft praife ; and it is fo dif-
ficult to reftrain one's pen upon fo favourite
a fubject, that I fhall only name fome rarities
which particularly ftruck me, and avoid fur^
ther temptations, where the fenfe of obli-
gation, and the recollection of partial kind-
nefs, infpire an inclination to praifes which
appear tedious to thofe readers who could not
enter into my feelings, and of courie would
fcarcely excufe them.
Thirteen volumes of MS. Pfalms, written
with wonderful elegance and manual nicety,
ftruck me as very curious : they were done
by the Certofmi monks lately eradicated, and
with beautiful illuminations to almoft every
page. A Livy, printed here in 1418, frefh
and perfect ; and a Pliny, of the Parma prefs*
dated 1472 ; are extremely valuable. But the
pleafure I received from obferving that the
learned librarian had not denied a place to Til-
lotfon'i
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 77
lotfon's works) was counteracted by finding
Bolingbroke's philofophy upon the fame fhelf,
and enjoying exactly the fame reputation as
to the truth of the doctrine contained in
either; for both were Englifh, and of courfe
heretical*
But I muft not live longer at Milan with-*
out mentioning the Duomo, firft in all Eu-
rope of the Gothic race ; whofe folemn
fadnefs and gloomy dignity make it a moft
magnificent cathedral ; while the rich trea-
fures it conceals below exceeded my belief or
expectation.
We came here juft before the feafon of
commemorating the virtues of the immortal
Carlo Borromeo, to whofe excellence all Italy
bears teftimony, and Milan mojl while the
Lazaretto erected by him remains a ftanding
monument of his piety, charity, and pe-
culiar regard to this city, which he made his
reiidence during the dreadful plague that fo
devafted it; tenderly giving to its helplefs
inhabitants the confolation of feeing their
prieft, provider, and protector, all united un-
der one incomparable character, who fearlefs
of death remained among them, and com-
forted
78 OBSERVATIONS IN A
forted their forrows with his ccnftant pre-
fence. It would be endlefs to enumerate the
fchools, hofpitals, infirmaries, erected by this
furprifmg man. The peculiar excellence of
his lazaretto, however, depends on each ha-
bitation being nicely feparated from every
other, fo as to keep infection aloof; while
uniformity of architecture is ftill preferved,
being built in a regular quadrangle, with a
chapel in the middle, and a frefh ftrcam
flowing round, fo as to benefit every particu-
lar houfe, and keep out all neceility of con-
nection between the fick. I am become bet-
ter acquainted with thefe matters, as this is
the precife time when the immortal Carlo
Borromeo's actions are rehearfed, and his
praifes celebrated, by people appointed in
every church to preach his example and re-
cord his excellence.
A ftatue of folid filver, large as life, and
refembling, as they hope, his perfon, de-
corated with rings, &c. of immenfe value,
is now expofed in church for people to vene-
rate ; and the fubterranean chapel, where
his body lies, is all wainfcoted, as I may fay,
with filver; every feparate compartment
chafed, like our old-fafhioned watch-cafes,
with
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 79
with fome ftory out of his life, which lafted
but fortyvfeven years, after having done more
good than any other perfon in ninety-four ;
as a capuchin friar faid this morning-, who
mounted the pulpit to praife him, and feemed
to be well thought on by his auditors. The
chanting tone in which he fpoke difpleafed
me, however, who can be at lafl no compe-
tent judge of eloquence in any language but
my own.
There is a national rhetoric in every
country, dependant on national manners ;
and thofe gefticulations of body, or depref-
fions of voice, which produce pity and com-
miferation in one place, may, without cenfure
of the orator or of his hearers, excite
contempt and ofcitancy in another. The
fentiments of the preacher / heard were
juft and vigorous ; and if that fuffices not to
content a foreign ear, woe be to me, who
now live among thofe to whom I am myfelf
a foreigner ; and who at beft can but be
expected to forgive, for the fake of the things
faid, that accent and manner with which I
am obliged to exprefs them.
By the indulgence of private friendmip, I
have now enjoyed the uncommon amufement
of
go OBSERVATIONS IN A
of feeing a theatrical exhibition performed
by friars in a convent for their own diverfion^
and that of fome felect friends. The monks
of St. Victor had, it feems, obtained permif-
fion, this carnival, to reprefent a little odd
fort of play, written by one of their com-
munity chiefly in the Milanefe dialect^
though the upper characters fpoke Tufcan.
The fubjecl: of this drama was taken, naturally
enough, from fome events, real or fictitious,
which were fuppofed to have happened in
the environs of Milan, about a hundred
years ago, when the Torriani and Vifconti
families difputed for fuperiority. Its con-
ftruclion was compounded of comic, and
diftrefsful fcenes, of which the laft gave me
moft delight ; and much was I amazed, in-
deed, to feel my cheeks wet with tears at a
friar's play, founded on ideas of parental
tendernefs. The comic part, however, was
intolerably grofs ; the jokes coarfe, and inca-
pable of diverting any but babies, or men
who, by a kind of intellectual privation, con-
trive to perpetuate babyhood, in the vain
hope of preferving innocence : nor could I
flicker myfelf by faying how little I under-
ftood of the dialect it was written in, as the
action
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. g*
action was nothing lefs than equivocal 5
and in the burletta which was tacked to it by
way of farce, I faw the foprano fingers who
played the women's parts, and who fee more
of the world than thefe friars, blufh for
fhame, two or three times, while the com-
pany, moft of them grave ecclefiaftics, ap-
plauded with rapturous delight.
The wearifome length of the whole would,
however, have furfeited me, had the amufe-
ment been more eligible ; but thefe dear
monks do not get a holiday often, I truft ;
fo in the manner of fchool-boys, or rather
fchool- girls in England (for our boys are foon
above fuch ftuff), they were never tired of
this dull buffoonery, and kept us liftening to
It till one o'clock in the morning.
Pleafure, when it does comej always burfts
up in an unexpected place ; I derived much
from obferving in the faces of thefe cheerful
friars, that intelligent fhrewdnefs and arch
penetration fo vifible in the countenances of
our Welch farmers, and curates of country
villages in Flintfhire, Caernarvonshire, &c.
which Howel (beft judge in fuch a cafe)
obferves in his Letters, and learnedly ac-
counts for ; but which I had wholly forgotten
VOL. J. G till
32 OBSERVATIONS IN A
till the monks of St. Victor brought it
to my remembrance.
The brothers who remained unemployed,
and clear from ftage occupations, formed the
orcheftra; thofe that were left then without
any immediate bufmefs upon their hands,
chatted gaily with the company, producing,
plenty of refrefhments ; and I was really very
angry with myfelf for feeling fo cynically
difpofed r when every thing poffible was done
to pleafe me. Gari one help however figh-
ing, to think that the monaftic life, fo
capable of being ufed for the nobleft pur-
pofes, and originally fuggefled by the purefl
motives, fhould, from the vaft diverfity of
orders,, the increafe of wealth and general
corruption of mankind, degenerate into a
ftate either of mental apathy, as among the
fequeftered monks, or of vicious luxury, as
among the more free and open focieties ?
Yet-muft one ftill behold both with regret
and indignation, that rage for innovation which
delights to throw down places once the re-
treats of Piety and Learning Piety, who
fought in vain to wall and fortify herfelf
againfl thofe feductions which fmce have
fapped
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 83
Tapped the venerable fabric that they feared to
batter ; and Learning, who firft opened the
eyes of men, that now ungratefully begin to
turn them only on the defects of their bene-
fadrefs.
The Chriftmas functions here were fhowy,
and I thought well-contrived ; the public
ones are what I fpeak of: but I was prefent
lately at a private merrymaking, where all
diftinctions feemed pleafingly thrown down
by a fpirit of innocent gaiety. The Mar-
quis's daughter mingled in country-dances
with the apothecary's prentice, while, her
truly noble parents looked on with generous
pleafure, and encouraged the mirth of the
moment. Priefts, ladie?, gentlemen of the
very firft quality, romped with the girls of
the houfe in high good-humour, and/ripped
it away without the incumbrance of petty
pride, or the mean vanity of giving what they
expreffively call foggexzione, to thofe who
were proud of their company and protection.
A new-married wench, whofe little fortune
of a hundred crowns had been given her by
the fubfcription of many in the room, feemed
as free with them all, as the moft equal dif-
G 2 tribution
84 OBSERVATIONS IN A
tribution of birth or riches could have made
her: me laughed aloud, and rattled in the
ears of the gentlemen ; replied with farcaftic
coarfenefs when they joked her, and ap-
parently delighted to promote fuch conver-
fation as they would not otherwife have tried
at. The ladies fhouted for joy, encouraged
the girl with lefs delicacy than defire of mer-
riment, and promoted a general banimment
of decorum ; though I do believe with full as
much or more purity of intention, than may
be often met with in a polimed circle at Paris
itfelf.
Such fociety, however, can pleafe a ftran-
ger only as it is odd and as it is new ; when
ceremony ceafes, hilarity is left in a ftate too-
natural not to offend people accuftomed to
fcenes of high civilization ; and I fuppofe
few of us could return, after twenty-five
years old, to the coarfe comforts of a roll and
treacle.
Another ftyle of amufement, very diffe-
rent from this laft, called us out two or three
days ago, to hear the famous PafTione de
Metaftafio fung in St. Celfo's church. The
building is fpacious, the architecture elegant,
and the ornaments rich. A cuftom too was
on
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 85
on this occafion omitted, which I diilike ex-
ceedingly ; that of deforming the beautiful
edifices dedicated to God's fervicc with da-
mafk hangings and gold lace on the capitals
of all the pillars upon days of gala, fo very
perverfely, that the effect of proportion is loft
to the eye, while the church conveys no idea
to the mind but of a tattered theatre ; and
when the frippery decorations fade, nothing
can exclude the recollection of an old clothes
fhop. St. Celfo was however left clear from
thefe difgraceful ornaments : there aflembled
together a numerous and brilliant, if not an
attentive audience ; and St. Peter's part in the
oratorio was fung by a foprano voice, with
no appearance of peculiar propriety to be
lure ; but a fatirical nobleman near me faid,
that " Nothing could poflibly be more hap-
pily imagined, as the mutilation of poor St.
Peter was continuing daily, and in full
force ;" alluding to the mperor's rough
reformations : and he does not certainly fpare
the coat any more than Jack in our Tale of
a Tub, when he is rending away the em-
broidery. Here, however, the parallel muft
end ; for Jack, though zealous, was never
^ccufed of burning the lace, if I remember
G 3 right^
86 OBSERVATIONS IN A
right, and putting the gold in his pocket.
It happened oddly, that chatting freely one
clay before dinner with fome literary friends
on the fubject of coat armour, we had talked
about the Vifconti ferpent, which is the arms
of Milan ; and the fpread eagle of Auftria,
which we laughingly agreed ought to eat double
becaufe it had two necks: when the conver-
fation infenfibly turned on the oppreffions of
the prefent hour ; and I, to put all away with
a joke, propofed the fortes Homericte to
decide on their future deftiny. Somebody in
company infifted that / fhould open the
book I did fo, at the omen in the twelfth
book of the Iliad, and read thefe words :
Jove's bird on founding pinions beat the ikies ;
A bleeding ferpent of enormous fize
His talons truffed ; alive and curling round
She flung the bird, whofe throat receiv'd the/
wound.
Mad with the fmart he drops the fatal prey,
In airy circles wings his painful way,
Floats on the winds; and rends the heavens with
cries:
Amid the hofts the fallen ferpent lies ;
They, pale with terror, mark its fpires unrolPd,
And Jove's portent with beating hearts behold.
It
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 8 7
It is now time to talk a little of the theatre ;
and furely a receptacle fo capacious to con-
tain four thoufand people, a place of entrance
fo commodious to receive them, a fhow fo
princely, fo very magnificent to entertain
them, muft be fought in vain out of Italy,
The centre front box, richly adorned with
gilding, arms, and trophies, is appropriated
to the court, whofe canopy is carried up to
what we call the firft gallery in England ;
the crefcent of boxes ending with the ftage,
confift of nineteen on a fide, fmall boudoirs^
for fuch they feem ; and are as fuch fitted up
with filk hangings, girandoles, &c. and
placed fo judicioufly as to catch every found
of the fingers, if they do but whifper : I will
not fay it is equally advantageous to the
figure, as to the voice ; no performers look-
ing adequate to the place they recite upon, fo
very (lately is the building itfelf, being all of
ftone, with an immenfe portico, and flairs which
for width you might without hyperbole drive
your chariot up. An immenfe fideboard at
the firft lobby, lighted and furnifhed with
luxurious and elegant plenty, as many peo-
ple fend for fuppers to their box, and enter-
tain a knot of friends there with infinite
G 4 conve-
88 OBSERVATIONS IN A
convenience and fplendour. A iilk curtain,
the colour of your hangings, defends the
clofet from intrufive eyes, if you think proper
to drop it ; and when drawn up, gives gaiety
and fhow to the general appearance of the
whole : while acrofs the corridor leading to
thefe boxes, anothfr fmali chamber, num-
bered like that it belongs to, is appropriated
to the life of your fervants, and furnimed
with every conveniency to make chocolate,
ferve lemonade, &c.
Can one wonder at the contempt fhewn by
foreigners when they fee Englim women of
fafhion fqueezed into holes lined with dirty
torn red paper, and the walls of it covered
with a wretched crimfon fluff? Well! but this
theatre is built in place of a church founded
by the famous Beatrice de Scala, in confe-
quence of a vow fhe made to erect one if
God would be pleafed to fend her a fon. The
church was pulled down and the playhoufe
erected. The Arch-duke loft a fon that
year; and the pious folks cried, " A judg-
ment !" but nobody minded them, I believe ;
many, however, that are fcrupulous will not
go. Meantime it is a beautiful theatre to be
iure \ the fineft fabric railed in modern days,
I do
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 89
I do believe, for the purpofes of entertain-
ment ; but we muft not be partial. While
London has twelve capital rooms for the pro-
fefled amufement of the Public, Milan has
but one ; there,, is in it, however, a ridotto
chamber for cards, of a noble fize, where
fome little gaming goes on in carnival time ;
but though the inhabitants complain of the
enormities committed there, I fuppofe more
money is loft and won at one club in St.
James's ftreet during a week, than here at
Milan in the whole winter.
Every nation complains of the wickednefs
of its own inhabitants, and confiders them as
the worft people in the world, till they have
feen others no better; and then, like indi-
viduals with their private forrows, they find
change produces no alleviation. The Mount
of Miferies, in the Spectator, where all the
people change with their neighbours, lay
down an undutiful fon, and carry away with
them a hump- back, or whatever had been
the fource of difquiet to another, whom he
had blamed for bearing fo ill a misfortune
thought trifling till he took it on himfelf,
js an admirably well conftrucled fable, and
is
9 o OBSERVATIONS IN A
is applicable to public as well as private com-
plaints.
A gentleman who had long practifed as a
folicitor, and was retired from bufmefs, ftored
with a perfect knowledge of mankind fo far
as his experience could inform him, told me
once, that whoever died before fixty years
old, if he had made his own fortune, was
likely to leave it according as friendfhip,
gratitude, and public fpirit dictated : either
to thofe who had ferved, or thofe who had
pleafed him ; or, not unfrequently, to benefit
ibme charity, fet up fome fchool, or the like :
" but let a man once turn fixty," faid he,
" and his natural heirs are fure of him :" for
having feen many people, he has likewife
been difgufted by many ; and though he does
not love his relations better than he did, the
difcovery that others are but little fuperior to
them in thofe excellencies he has fought about
the world in vain for, he begins to enquire
for his nephew's little boy, whom as he
never faw, never could have offended him ;
and if he does not break the chain of a fa-
vourite watch, or any other fuch boyifh trick,
the eftate is his for ever, upon no principle
but this in the teftator.
So
jmJRNEY THROUGH ITALY. 9 i
So it is by thofe who travel a good deal ;
by what I have feen, every country has fo
much in it to be juftly complained of, that
moft men finim by preferring their own.
That neither complaints nor rejoicings here
at Milan, however, proceed from affectation,
is a choice comfort : the Lombards poffefs the
fkill to pleafe you without feigning ; and fo
artlefs are their manners, you cannot even
fufpect them of inimcerity. They have,
perhaps for that very reafon, few comedies,
and fewer novels among them : for the worft
of every man's character is already well
known to the reft ; but be his conduct what
it will, the heart is commonly right enough
il buon cuor Lombardo is famed through-
out all Italy, and nothing can become pro-
verbial without an excellent reafon. Little
opportunity is therefore given to writers who
carry the dark lanthorn of life into its deepeft
receffes unwind the hidden wickednefs of
a Mafkwell or a IVJonkton, develope the
folds of vice, and fpy out the internal worth-
leffnefs of apparent virtue ; which from thefe
difcerning eyes cannot be cloked even by
that early-taught affectation w r hich renders it
a real ingenuity to difcover, if in a highly
6 poliihed
92 OBSERVATIONS IN A
polifhed capital a man or woman has Ot
has not good parts or principles fo com-
pletely are the firft overlaid with literature,
and the laft perverted by refinement.
April 2, 1785.
THE cold weather continues ftill, and we
have heavy mows ; but fo admirable is the
police of this well-regulated town, that when
over-night it has fallen to the height of four
feet, no very uncommon occurrence, no one
can fee in the morning that even a flake has
been there, fo completely do the poor and
the prifoners rid us of it all, by throwing
immenfe loads of it into a navigable canal
that runs quite round the city, and carries
every nuifance with it clearly away fo that
no inconveniencies can arife,
Italians feem to me to have no feeling of
cold ; they open the cafements for win-
dows we have none (now in winter), and
cry, cbe btl frefchctto* ! while I am ftarving
outright. If there is a flam of a few faggots
in the chimney that juft fcorches one a little,
no lady goes near it, but fits at the other
* What a frefh breeze !
eml
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 93
end of a high-roofed room, the wind whitt-
ling round her ears, and her feet upon a
perforated brafs box, rilled with wood em-
bers, which the cavalier fervente pulls out
from time to time, and replenishes with hotter
afhes raked out from between the andirons.
How fitting with thefe fumes under their
petticoats improves their beauty of com-
plexion I know not ; certain it is, they pity
us exceedingly for our manner of managing
ourfelves, and enquire of their countrymen
who have lived here a-while, how their
health endured the burning foffils in the
chambers at London. I have heard two or
three Italians fay, vorrei ancb" 1 io veder quelF
Inghilterra^ ma quejlo carbone fojjlh * / To
church, however, and to the theatre, ladies
have a great green velvet bag carried for
them, adorned with gold taflels, and lined
with fur, to keep their feet from freezing, as
carpets are not in ufe here. Poor women
run about the ftreets with a little earthen
pipkin hanging on their arm, filled with fire,
even if they are fent on an errand ; while
men of all ranks walk wrapped up in an odd
* I would go fee this fame England myfelfl think, but
that fuel made of minerals frights me !
fort
94 OBSERVATIONS IN A
fort of white riding coat, not buttoned to-
gether, but folded round their body after the
fafhion of the old Roman drefs that one has
feen in ftatues, and this they call Gaban t
retaining many Spanifh words iince the time
that they were under Spaniih government.
$ttfcar+ to feek, is quite familiar here as at
Madrid, and inflead of Ragazzo, I have heard
the Milanefe fay Mozzo di Stalla, which is
originally a Caftilian word I believe, and fpelt
by them with the c con cedilla, Moo. They
have likewife Latin phrafes oddly mingled
among their own ; a gentleman faid yefter-
day, that he was going to Cafa Sororis, to his
fifter's ; and the ftrange word Minga, which
meets one at every turn, is corrupted, I be*
lieve, from Mica, a crumb. Piaz minga, I
have not a crumb of pleafure in it, &c.
The uniformity of drefs here pleafes the eye,
and their cuftom of going veiled to church,
and always without a hat, which they confider
as profanation of the temple as they call it, de-
lights ine much ; it has an air of decency in
the individuals, of general refpect for the
place, and of a refolution not to let external
images intrude on devout thoughts. The
hanging churches, and even public pillars,
fet
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 95
fet up in the ftreets or fquares for purpofes
of adoratio'n, with black, when any perfon
of confequence dies, difpleafes me more ; it
is fo very diftnal, fo paltry a piece of pride
and expiring vanity, and fo dirty a cuftom,
calling bugs and fpiders, and all manner of
vermin about one fo in thofe black trappings,
it is terrible ; but if they remind us of our
end, and fet us about preparing for it, the
benefit is greater than the evil.
The equipages On the Corfo here are very-
numerous, in proportion to the fize of the
eity, and exceffively fhowy : the horfes are
long-tailed, heavy, and for the moft part
black, with high rifmg forehands,, while the
finking of the back is artfully concealed by
the harnefs of red Morocco leather richly
ornamented, and white reins. To this mag-
nificence much is added by large leopard,,
panther, or tyger {kins, Deautifully ftriped or
fpotted by Nature's hand, and held faft or*
the horfes by heavy filming taffels of gold, co-
loured lace, &c. wonderfully handfome; while
the driver, clothed in a bright fcarlet drefs,.
adorned and trimmed with bear's {kin, makes
a noble figure on the box at this feafon up-
on days of gala. The carnival,, however,
exhibits-
96*' OBSERVATIONS IN A
exhibits a variety unfpeakable ; boats
barges painted of a thoufand colours, drawn
upon wheels, and filled with maiks and
merry-makers, who throw fugar-plums at
each other, to the infinite delight of the
town, whofe populoufnefa that mow evinces
to perfection, for every window and balcony
is crowded to excefs ; the ftreets are fuller
than one can exprefs of gazers, and general
mirth and gaiety prevail. When the fkfhing
feafon is over, and .you are no Jonger to be
dazzled with finery or ftunned with noife y
the nobility of Milan for gentry there are
none fairly flip a check cafe over the ham-
mock, as we do to our beft chairs in England,
clap a coarfe leather cover on the carriage
top, the coachman wearing a vaft brown
great . coat, whLn he fpreads on each fide
him over the corners of his coach-box, and
looks as fomebody was faying like a fitting
hen.
The paving of our ftreets here at Milan
is worth mentioning, only becaufe it is directly
contrary to the London method of perform-
ing the fame operation. They lay the large
flag ftones at this place in two rows, for the
coach wheels to roll fmoothly over, leaving
walkers
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 9?
xvalkers to accommodate themfelves, and bear
the {harp pebbles to their tread as they may.
In every thing great, and every thing little,
the diverfity of government muft perpetually
occur ; where that is defpotic, fmall care will
be taken of the common people ; where that
is popular, little attention will be paid to the
great ones. I never in my whole life heard
fo much of birth and family as fmce I came
to this town ; where blood enjoys a thoufand
exclufive privileges, where Cavalier and
Dama are words of the firft, nay of the only
importance ; where wit and beauty are con-
fidered as ufelefs without a long pedigree ;
and virtue, talents, wealth, and wifdom, are
thought on only ar medals to hang upon the
branch of a genealogical tree, as we tie trin-
kets to a watch in England.
I went to church, twenty yards from our
own door, with a fervant to wait on me,
three or four mornings ago ; there was a
lady particularly well drefled, very handfome,
two footmen attending on her at a diftance,
took my attention. Peter, faid I, to my own
man, as we came out, cbi e quella dama ?
ivbo is that lady f Non e dama, replies the
fellow, contemptuouily fmiling at my fim-
VOL. I. H plicity
98 OBSERVATIONS IN A
plicity -Jlje is tto lady. I thought fhe might
be fomebody's kept miftrefs, and afked him
whofe ? Dio tie liberty returns Peter, in a
kinder accent for there heart came in, and
he would not injure her character God
forbid : e moglie d^un ricco banchiere fhe is
a rich banker's wife. You may fee, added
he, that fhe is no lady if you look the fer-
vants carry no velvet ftool for her to kneel
upon, and they have no coat armour in the
lace to their liveries : JJje a lady ! repeated he
again with infinite contempt.
I am told that the Arch-duke is very de-
firous to clofe this breach of diftinetion, and
to draw merchants and traders with their
wives up into higher notice than they were
wont to remain in. I do not think he will
by that means conciliate the affection of any
rank. The prejudices in favour of nobility
are too ftrong to be lhaken here, much lefs
rooted out fo : the very fervants would rather
ftarve in the houfe of a man of family, than
eat after a perfon of inferior quality, whom
they confider as their equal, and almoil treat
him as fuch to his face. Shall we then be
able to refufe our particular veneration to
thofe characters of high rank here, who add
the
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. ^
the charm of a cultivated mind to that fitu-
ation which, united even with ignorance,
would enfure them refpect ? When fcholarfhip
is found among the great in Italy, it has the
additional merit of having grown up in their
own bofoms, without encouragement from
emulation, or the leaft interefted motive.
His companions do not think much the more
of him for that kind of fuperiority. I fup-
pofe, fays a friend of his, , he muft be fond
of ftudy ; for chi penfa di una maniera^ chi
penfa d* un altra^ per me fono Jlato fempre tg-
norantijjimo *.
Thefe voluntary confeflions of many a
quality, which, whether poflefled or not by
Englifh people, would certainly never be
avowed, fpring from that native fmcerity I
have been praifing for though family con-
nections are prized fo highly here, no man
feems amamed that he has no family to
boaft : all feigning would indeed be ufelefs
and impracticable ; yet it ftruck me with
aftonifhment too, to hear a well-bred clergy-
man who vifits at many genteel houfes, fay
gravely to his friend, no longer ago than
* One man is of one mind, another of another : I was
always a flieer dunce for my own part.
H 2 yefterday
ioo OBSERVATIONS IN A
yefterday that friend a man too eminent
both for talents and fortune " Yes, there is
" a grand invitation at filch a place to-night,
" but I don't go, becaufe / am not a gentle-
" man -percbe non fono cavaliere ; and the
" mafter defired I would let you know that
" // t was for no other reafon that you had not
" a card too, my good friend ; for it is an
" invitation of none but people offaJJjion you
"fee" At all this nobody flares, nobody
laughs, and nobody's throat is cut in confe-
quence of their fmcere declarations.
The women are not behind-hand in open-
nefs of confidence and comical fincerity. We
have all heard much of Italian cicifbeifm ;
j had a mind to know how matters really
ftood ; and took the neareft way to inform-
ation by afking a mighty beautiful and ap-
parently artlefs young creature, not noble,
how that affair was managed, for there is no
harm done / am fure, faid I : " Why no,"
replied fhe, " no great harm to be fure : ex-
" cept wearifome attentions from a man one
" cares little about : for my own part," con-
tinued fhe, " I deteft the cuftom, as I happea
" to love my hufband exceffively, and defire
" nobody's company in the world but his.
We'
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. X0 i
w We are not people of fafiion though you
*' know, nor at all rich ; fo how Ihould we
" fet fafhions for our betters ? They would
" only fay, fee how jealous he is ! if Mr.
" Sttcb-a-one fat much with me at home, or
" went with me to the Corfo ; and I mujl go
" with fome gentleman you know : and the
" men are fuch ungenerous creatures, and
** have fuch ways with them : I want money
" often, and this cavaliere fervente pays the
" bills, and fo the connection draws clofer
" that's a/L" And your hufband ! faid I
*' Oh, why he likes to fee me well drefled ;
** he is very good natured, and very charm-
*' ing ; I love him to my heart." And your
confeffor ! cried I. " Oh, why he is ufed
" to it " in the Milanefe dialect e affuefaa.
Well ! we will not fend people to Milan
to ftudy delicacy or very refined morality to
be fure ; but were the cruft of Britifh affect-
ation lifted off many a character at home,
I know not whether better, that is bonefler,
hearts would be found under it than that of
this pretty girl. God forbid that I fhould
prove an advocate for vice; but let us re-
member, that the banimment of all hypocrify
and deceit is a vaft compenfation for the
H 3 want
IC2 OBSERVATIONS IN A
want of one great virtue. The certainty that
the worft, whatever that worft may be, meets
your immediate infpedtion, gives great re-
pole to the mind : you know there is no
latent poiion lurking out of fight ; no colours
to come out ftronger by throwing water fud-^
denly againft them, as you do to old frefco
paintings : and talking freely with women in
this country, though you may have a chance
to light on ignorance, you are never teized
by folly.
The mind of an Italian, whether man or
woman, feldom fails, for ought I fee, to make
up in extent what is wanted in cultivation;
and that they poffefs the art of pleafmg in an
eminent degree, the conftancy with which
they are mutually beloved by each other is the
beft proof.
Ladies of diftinclion bring with them when
they marry, befides fortune, as many clothes
as will laft them feven years ; for fafhions do
not change here as often as at London or
Paris ; yet is pin-money allowed, and an
attention paid to the wife that no Englim-
woman can form an idea of: in every family
her duties are few ; for, as I have obferved,
houfehold management falls to the matter's
{hare
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. ,03
fhare of courfe, when all the fervants are men
almoft, and thofe all paid by the week or
day. Children are very feldom feen by thofe
who vifit great houfes : if they do come down
for five minutes after dinner, the parents are
talked of as dot'wg on them, and nothing
can equal the pious and tender return made
to fathers and mothers in this country, for
even an apparently moderate fhare of fond-
nefs {hewn to them in a ftate of infancy*
I faw an old Marchionefs the other day, who
had I believe been exquifitely beautiful,
lying in bed in a fpacious apartment, juft like
ours in the old palaces, with the tefter touch-
ing the top almoft : (he had her three grown-
up fons ftanding round her, with an affec-
tionate defire of pleafing, and fhewing her
whatever could footh or amufe her fo that
it charmed me ; and I was told, and obferved
indeed, that when they quitted her prefence
a half kneeling bow, and a kind kifs of her
ftill white hand, was the ceremony ufed.
I knew myfelf brought thither only that me
might be entertained with the fight of the
foreigner and was equally ftruck at her ap-
pearance more fo I mould imagine than
{he could be at mine ; when thefe dear men
H 4 aflifted
104 OBSERVATIONS IN A
ailifted in moving her pillows with emulative
attention, and rejoiced with each other
apart, that their mother looked fo well to-
day. Two or three fervants out of livery
brought us refrefhments I remember ; but
her maid attended in the antichamber, and
anfwered the bell at her bed's head, which
was exceedingly magnificent in the old ftyle
of grandeur crimfon damafk, if I recollect
right, with family arms at the back ; arid {he
lay on nine or eleven pillows, laced with
ribbon, and two large bows to each, very
elegant and expenfive in any country :
with all this, to prove that the Italians have
little fenfation of cold, here was no fire, but
a fufFocating brazier, which flood near the
door that opened, and was kept open, into
the maid's apartment.
A woman here in every ftage of life has
really a degree of attention fhewn her that is
furprifing : if conjugal difputes arife in a fa-
mily, fo as to make them become what we call
town-talk, the public voice is fure to run
againft the hufband ; if feparation enfues, all
poflible countenance is given to the wife,
while the gentleman is fomewhat lefs willingly
received ; and all the ftories of paft difgufts
are
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 105
are related to his prejudice : nor wUl the
lady whom he wifhes to ferve look very-
kindly on a man who treats his own wife
with unpolitenefs. Che cuore deve avere!
fays me : What a heart he muft have ! lo
non mene fido ficuro : I fhall take care not to
truft him fure.
National character is a great matter : I did
not know there had been fuch a difference
in the ways of thinking, merely from cuftom
and climate, as I fee there is ; though one
has always read of it : it was however en-
tertaining enough to hear a travelled gentle-
man haranguing away three nights ago at
our houfe in praife of Englifh cleanlinefs,
and telling his auditors how all the men in
London, that were noble^ put on a clean
fhirt every day, and the women warned the
ftreet before his houfe-door every morning.
" Che fchlavitu mai!" exclaimed a lady of
quality, who was liftening: " ma natural
** mente far a per commando del principe?
"What a land of Jlavery ! " fays Donna
Louifa, I heard her; " but it is all done by
*' command of the fovcreign, I fuppofc"
1 1 Their
106 OBSERVATIONS IN A
Their ideas of juftice are no lefs fmgular
than of delicacy : but thole are more eafily
accounted for ; fo is their amiable carriage
towards inferiors, calling their own and their
friends fervants by tender names, and fpeak-
ing to all below themfelves with a graciouf-
nefs not often ufed by Englifh men or wo-
men even to their equals. The pleafure
too which the high people here exprefs when
the low ones are diverted, is charming. ,
We think it vulgar to be merry when the
mob is fo ; but if rolling down a hill, like
Greenwich, was the cuftom here, as with us,
all Milan would run to fee the fport, and
rejoice in the felicity of their fellow-crea-
tures. When I exprefs my admiration of
fuch condefcending fweetnefs, they reply
e un uomo come im altro; e battez-zato come
noi\ and the like Why he is a man of the
fame nature as we : he has been chriflened as
well as ourfelves, they reply. Yet do I not
for this reafon condemn the Englifh as natu-
rally haughty above their continental neigh-
bours. Our government has left fo narrow
a fpace between the upper and under ranks
pf people in Great Britain while our cha-
ritable
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 107
ritable and truly Chriftian religion is ftill fo
conftantly employed in railing the deprefled,
by giving them means of changing their
fituation, that if our perfons of condition fail
even for a moment to watch their port, main-
taining by dignity what they or their fa-
thers have acquired by merit, they are
inftantly and fuddenly broken in upon by the
well- employed talents, or fwiftly-acquired
riches, of men born on the other fide the
thin partition ; whilft in Italy the gulph is
totally impaflable, and birth alone can entitle
man or woman to the fociety of gentlemen
and ladies. This firmly-fixed idea of fubor-
dination (which I once heard a Venetian fay,
he believed muft exift in heaven from one
angel to another) accounts immediately for a
little converfation which I am now going to
relate.
Here were two men taken up laft week,
one for murdering his fellow-fervant in cold
blood, while the undefended creature had the
lemonade tray in his hand going in to ferve
company ; the other for breaking the new
lamps lately fet up with intention to light this
town in the manner of the ftreets at Paris.
I hope," faid I, " that they will hang the
I murderer."
io8 OBSERVATIONS IN A
murderer." " I rather hope," replied a very
fenfible lady who fate near me, " that they
will hang the perfon who broke the lamps :
for," added fhe, " the firft committed his
crime only out of revenge, poor fellow ! be-
caufe the other had got his miftrefs from him
by treachery ; but this creature has had the
impudence to break our fine new lamps, all
for the fake of fpiting the Arch-duke" The
Arch-duke meantime hangs nobody at all ;
but fets his prifoners to work upon the roads,
public buildings, &c. where they labour in
their chains ; and where, ftrange to tell ! they
often infult paflengers who refufe them alms
when afked as they go by ; and, ftranger ftill !
they are not punifhed for it when they do.
Here is certainly much defpotic power in
Italy, but, I fancy, very little cppreffion ;
perhaps authority, once acknowledged, does
not delight itfelf always by the fatigue of
exertion. Sat ejl proftraffe leoni is an old
adage, with which perhaps I may be the
better acquainted, as it is the motto to my
own coat of arms ; and unlefs fovereignty is
hungry, for ought I fee, he does not certainly
devour.
The
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 109
The certainty of their irrevocable doom,
foftened by kind ufage from their fuperiors,
makes, in the mean time, an odd fort of
humorous drollery fpring up among the
common people, who are much happier here
at Milan than I expected to find them : every
great houfe giving meat, broth, &c. to poor
dependents with liberal good-nature enough,
fo that mighty little wandering mifery is
feen in the ftreets ; unlike thofe of Genoa,
who feem mocked with the word liberty^
while forrow, ficknds, and the moft pinch-
ing want, pine at the doors of marble palaces,
whofe owners are unfeeling as their walls.
Our ordinary people here in Lombardy
are well clothed, fat, flout, and merry ; and
defirous to divert themfelves, and their pro-
tectors, whom they love at their hearts.
There is however a degree of effrontery
among the women that amazes me, and of
which I had no idea, till a friend fhewed me
one evening from my own box at the opera,
fifty or a hundred low mop -keepers wives,
difperfed about the pit at the theatre, drefled
in men's clothes, per dt/impegno as they call
k ; that they might be more at liberty for-
footh to clap and hifs, and quarrel and joftle,
no OBSERVATIONS IN A
&c. I felt fhocked. " One who comes from
a free government need not wonder fo" faid he :
" On the contrary, Sir," replied I, " where
every body has hopes, at leaft poffibility, of
bettering his ftation, and advancing nearer to
the limits of upper life, none except the mod
abandoned of their fpecies will wholly lofe
fight of fuch decorous conduct as alone can
grace them when they have reached their
wifh : whereas your people know their def-
tiny, future as well as prefent, and think no
more of deferving a higher poft, than they
think of obtaining it." Let me add, how-
ever, that if thefe women were a little riotous
during the Eafter holidays, they are dillc-
tantes only. In this city no female pro~
feffors of immorality and open liberdnage,
difgraceful at once, and pernicious to fo-
ciety, are permitted to range the ftreets in
queft of prey ; to the horror of all thinking
people, and the ruin of all heedlefs ones.
With which obfervation, to continue the
tour of Italy, we this day leave, for a
twelvemonth at leaft, Milano il grande, after
having fpent, though not quite nnifhed the
winter in it ; as there fell a very heavy fnow
laft Saturday, which hindered our fetting out a
week
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. m
week ago, though this is the fixth of April ;
and exactly five months have now fmce laft
November been pafled among thofe who
have I hope approved our conduct and
efteemed our manners. That they Ihould
trouble themfelves to examine our income,
report our phrafes, and liften, perhaps with
fome little mixture of envy, after every in-
ftance of unfhakable attachment fhewn to each
other, would be lefs pleafing ; but that I verily
believe they have at laft difmifled us with
general good wifhes, proceeding from innate
goodnefs of heart, and the hope of feeing
again, in a year's time or fo, two people
who have fupplied fo many tables here with
materials for converfation, when the fountain
of talk was ftopt by deficiencies, and the little
ftream of prattle ceafed to murmur for want
of a few pebbles to break its courfe.
We are going to Venice by the way of Cre-
mona, and hope for amufement from exter-
nal objects : let us at leaft not deferve or in-
vite difappointment by feeking for pleafure
beyond the limits of innocence.
H2 OBSERVATIONS IN A
FROM MILAN TO PADUA.
THE firft evening's drive carried us no
farther than Lodi, a place renowned through
all Europe for its excellent cheefe, as our
well-known ballad bears teftimony :
Let Lodi or Parmefan bring up the rear,
Thofe verfes were imitated, I fancy, from
a French fong written by Monfieur des
Yveteaux, of whofe extraordinary life and
death much has been faid by his cotem-
porary wits, particularly how feme of them
found him playing at fhepherd and fhep-
herdefs in his own garden with a pretty
Savoyard wench, at feventy- eight years old,
en habit de berger, avec un chapeau coulcur de
rofe *, &c. when he fhewed them the fa-
mous lines, Avoir pen de parent^ moms dc
tram que de rente^ &c. which do certainly
bear a very near affinity to our Old Man's
* In a paftoral habit, and a hat turned up with pink.
Wifh,
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. ,, 3
Wifh, published in Dryden's Mifcellanies ;
who, among other luxuries, refolves to eat
Lodi cheefe, I remember
The town, however, bringing no other
ideas either new or old to our minds, we
went to the opera, and heard Morichelli
fing : after which they gave us a new dra-
matic dance, made upon the ftory of Don
John, or the Libertine ; a tale which, whe-
ther true or falfe, facl: or fable, has furnifhed
every Chriftian country in the world, I
believe, with fome fubjecl: of reprefentation.
It makes me no fport, however ; the idea of
an impenitent fmner going to hell is too
ferioufly terrifying to make amufement out
of. Let mythology, which is now grown
good for little elfe, be danced upon the ftage;
where Mr. Veftris may bounce and ftruggle
in the character of Alcides on his funeral
pile, with no very glaring impropriety ; and
fuch baubles ferve befide to keep old claffical
ftories in the heads of our young people ;
who, if they mujl have torches to blaze in
their eyes, may divert themfelves with Pluto
catching up Ceres's daughter, and driving
her away to Tartarus ; but let Don John
alone. I have at leaft half a notion that the
VOL. I. I horrible
fi4 OBSERVATIONS IN A
horrible hiftory is half true ; if fo, it is furely
very grofs to reprcfent it by dancing. Should
fuch falfe foolifh tafte prevail in England
(but I hope it will not), we might perhaps go
happily through the whole book of God's
Revenge againft Murder, or the Annals of
Newgate, on the ftage, as a variety of pretty
ftories may be found there of the fame caft ;
while ftatues of Hercules and Minerva, with
their infignia as heathen deities, might be
placed, with equal attention to religion, cof-
tume, and general fitnefs, as decorations for
the monuments of Wejlminjler Abbey.
The country we came through to Cre-
mona is rich and fertile, the roads deep and
miry of courfe ; very few of the Lombardy
poplars, of which I expected to fee fo many :
but Phaeton's fifters feem to have danced all
away from the odoriferous banks of the Po,
to the green fides of the Thames, I think ;
meantime here is no other timber in the
country but a few draggling am, and willows
without end. The old Eridanus, however,
makes a majeftic figure at Cremona, and
frights the inhabitants when it overflows.
There are not many to be frighted though,
for the town is thinly peopled ; but exqui-
fitely
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 115
fitely clean, perhaps for that very reafon ; and
the cathedral, of a mixed Grecian and Gothic
architecture, has a refpeclable appearance ;
while two enormous lions, of red marble,
frown at its door, and the crucifixion, painted
by Pordenone, with a rough but powerful
pencil, ftrikes one at the entrance: I have
feen nothing finer than the figure of the
Centurion upon the fore-ground, who feems
to cry out, with foldier-like courage and
apoftolic fervour, Truly this is the Son of
God.
The great clock here too is very curious :
having, befides the twenty-four hours, a
minute and fecond finger, like a flop watch,
and mews the phafes of the moon, with her
triple rotation clearly to all who walk acrofs
the piazza. Yet I truft the dwellers at Cre-
mona are no better aftronomers than thofe
who live in other places ; to what purpofe
then all thefe reprefentations with which
Italy is crowded ; proceflions, paintings, &c.
befides the moral dances, as they call them
now ? One word of folid inftruction to the
ear, conveys more knowledge to the mind
at laft, than all thefe marionettes prefented
to the eye.
I 2 The
n6 OBSERVATIONS IN A
The tower of Cremona is of a furpriiing
height and elegant form ; we climbed, not
without fome difficulty, to its top, and faw
the flat plains of Lombardy ftretched out all
round us. Profpects, however, and high
towers have I feen ; that in Mr. Hoare's
grounds, dedicated to King Alfred, is a
much finer ftrucliure than this, and the view
from it much more variegated certainly ; I
think of greater extent ; though there is more
dignity in thefe objects, while the Po twifts
through them, and diftant mountains mingle
with the iky at the end of a lengthened
horizon.
What I have never feen till now, we were
made to obferve in the octagon gallery
which crowns this pretty ftru&ure, where in
every compartment there are channels cut in
the ftone to guide the eye or reft the tele-
fcope, that fo a fpedator need not be fruit-
lefsly teized, as one almoft always is, by
thofe who mew one a profpect, with Look
there I See there ! &c. At this place nothing
needs be done but lay the glafs or put the
eye even with the lines which point to Berga-
mo, Mantua, or where you pleafe ; and look
there becomes ftiperfluous as offenfive.
The
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. n 7
The bells in the tower amufed us in ano-
ther way : an old man who has the care of
them, delighted much in telling us how he
rung tunes upon them before the Duke of
Parma, who prefented him with money, and
bid him ring again : and not a little was the
good man amazed, when one of our company
fate down and played on them himfelf : a
thing he had never before been witnefs to,
he faid, except once, when a furprifing mu-
fician arrived from England, and performed
the like feat : by his defcription of the perfon,
and the time of his paffing through Cremona,
we conjectured he meant Dr. Burney.
The moil dreadful of all roads carried us
next morning to Mantua, where we had let-
ters for an agreeable friend, who neglected
nothing that could entertain or inftrucl us.
He mewed me the field where it is fuppofed
the houfe flood in which Virgil was born,
and told me what he knew of the evidence
that he was born there : certain it is that
much care is taken to keep the place fenced,
from an idea of its being the identical fpot,
and I hope it is fo.
The theatres here are beautiful beyond all
telling : it is a mame not to take the model
I 3 of
1x8 OBSERVATIONS IN A *
of the fmall one, and build a place of enter-
tainment on the plan. There cannot furely
be any plan more elegant.
We had a concert of admirable mufic at
the houfe of our new acquaintance, in the
evening, and were introduced by his means
to many people of fafhion ; the ladies were
pretty, and drefled with much tafte ; no caps
at all, but flowers in their heads, and ear-
rings of filver fillagree finely worked ; long,
light, and thin : I never faw fuch before, but
it would be an exceeding pretty fafhion.
They hung down quite low upon the
neck and moulders, and had a pleafing
effea.
Mantua ftands in the middle of a deep
fwampy marm, that fends up a thick foggy
vapour all winter, a flench intolerable during
the fummer months. Its inhabitants lament
the want of population; and indeed I
counted but five carriages in the ftreets while
we remained in the town. Seven thoufand
Jews occupy a third part of the city, founded
by old Tirefias's daughter, where they have a
fynagogue, and live after their own fafhion.
The dialed here is clofer to that Italian which
foreigners learn, and thejadies fpeak more
Tufcan,
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. n 9
Tufcan, I think, than at Milan, but it is a
ladys town as I told them.
<c Ille etiam patriis agmen ciet Ocnus ab oris
<c Fatidics Mantus et Tufci filius amnis,
Cf Qui muros matrifque dedit tibi Mantua
<c nomen."
Ocnus was next, who led his native train
Of hardy warriors thro' the wat'ry plain,
The fon of Manto by the Tufcan ftream,
From whence the Mantuan town derives its
name. DRYDEN.
The annual fair is what contributes moft to
keeping their folks alive though, for fuch are
the roads it is fcarce poffible any ftrangers
fhould come near them, and our people com-
plain that the inns are very extortionate :
here is one building, however, that promifes
wonders from its prodigious fize and magni-
ficence ; I only wonder fuch accommodation
fhould be thought necefTary.
The gentleman who {hewed us the Ducal
palace, feemed himfelf much ftruck with its
convenience and fplendour ; but I had feen
Verfailles, Turin, and Genoa. What can be feen
here, and here alone, are the numerous and
I 4 incom-
120 OBSERVATIONS IN A
incomparable works of Giulio Romano ; of
\vhich no words that I can ufe would give my
readers any adequate idea. For fuch excel-
lence language has no praife, and of fuch
performances tafle will admit no criticifm.
The giants could fcarcely have been more
amazed at Jupiter's thunder, than I was at
their painted fall. If Rome is to exhibit
any thing beyond this, I {hall really be more
dazzled than delighted ; for imagination will
ftretch no further, and admiration will endure,
no more.
Sunday, April 10.
Here is no appearance of fpring yet,
though fo late in the year ; what muft it be
in England ? One almond and one plum
tree have I feen in bloflbm ; but no green
leaf out of the bud : fo cheerlefs has been the
road between Mantua and Verona, which,
however, makes amends for all on our
arrival. How beautiful the entrance is of
this charming city, how grand the gate, how
handfome the drive forward, may all be read
here in a printed book called Verona illuf-
trata ;,
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. J2 r
trata : but my felicity in finding the amphi-
theatre fo well preferred, can only be found
in my own heart, which began fenfibly to
dilate at the feeing an old Roman coliffeum
kept fo nicely, and repaired fo well. It is
faid that the arena here is abfolutely per-
fect ; and if the galleries are a little deficient,
there can be no difpute concerning the
podium^ or lower feats, which remain exactly
as they were in old times : while I have
heard that the building of the fame kind now
exifting at Nifmes, fhews the manner of en-
tering exceeding well ; and the great one
built by Vefpafian has every thing elfe : fo
that an exact idea of the old Circus may be
obtained among them all. That fomething
fhould always be left to conjecture, is how-
ever not unpleafing ; various opinions ani-
mate the arguments on both fides, and bring
out fire by collifion with the understanding
of others engaged in the fame refearches.
A bull-feaft given here to divert the Em-
peror as he paffed through, muft have excited
many pleafing fenfations, while the inha-
bitants fate on feats once occupied by the
mafters of the world ; and what is more
worth wonder, fate at the feet of a Tranfal-
1 2 pine
122 OBSERVATIONS IN A
pine C&far, for fo the fovereign of Germany
is even now called by his Milanefe fubjects
in common difcourfe ; and when one looks
upon the arms of Auftria, a fpread eagle,
and recollects that when the Roman empire
was divided, the old eagle was . fplit, one
face looking toward the Eaft, the other to-
ward the Weft, in token of fhared pofleflion,
it affects one ; and calls up claffic imagery
to the mind.
The collection of antiquities belonging to
the Philharmonic fociety is very refpectable ;
they reminded me of the Arundel marbles at
Oxford, and I faid fo. " Ob!" replied
the man who {hewed thefe, " that collection
was very valuable to be fare, but the bad air,
and the fmoke of coal fires in England^ have
ruined them long ago. ^ I fufpected that my
gentleman talked by rote, and examining the
book called Verona illuftrata, found the remark
there ; but that is malafede y and a very ridicu-
lous prejudice. Iwillconfefs however, if they
pleafe, that our original treaty between Mar-
donius and the Perfian army, at the end of
which the Greek general Ariftides, although
himfelf a Sabian, attefted the fun as witnefs,
incompliance with their religion who wor-
1 1 fhipped
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 123
(hipped that luminary, at leaft held it in
the higheft veneration, as the refidence of
Ororaafdes the good Principle, who was con-
fidered by the Magians as for ever clothed
with light : I will confider that, I fay, if they
infifl upon it, as a marble of lefs confequence
than the laft will and teftament of an old
inhabitant of Sparta which is fhewn at
Verona, and which they fay difpofes of the
iron money ufed during the firft of many
years that the laws of Lycurgus lafted.
Here is a very fine palace belonging to the
Bevi-1'acqua family, befides the Cafa Verzi, as
famous for its elegant Doric architecture, as
the charming miflrefs of it for her Attic wit.
St. Zeno is the church which ftruck me
mod : the eternal and all- feeing eye placed
over the door ; Fortune's wheel too, com-
pofed of fix figures curioufly difpofed, and not
unlike our man alphabet, two mounting, two
fitting, and two tumbling, over againft it : on
the outfide of the wheel this diftich,
En ego Fortuna moderor mortalibus ufum,
Ekvo, depono, bona cunctis vel mala dono *
* Here I Madam Fortune my favours beftow,
Some good and fome ill to the high and the low.
this
124 OBSERVATIONS IN A
this other on the infide of the wheel, lefs
plainly to be read :
Induo nudatos, denudo vefte paratos,
In me conndit, fi quis derifus abiblt *.
This is a town full of beauties, wits, and
rarities : numberlefs perfons of the firft emi-
nence have always adorned it, and the pre-
fent inhabitants have no mind to degenerate ;
while the Nobleman that is immediately de-
fcended from that houfe which Giambattifta
della Torre made famous for his fkill in
aftronomy, employs himfelf in a much more
ufeful, if not a nobler ftudy ; and is com-
pleting for the prefs a new fyftem of edu-
cation. It was very petulantly, arid very
fpitefully faid by Voltaire, that Italy was now
no more than la boutique*, and the Italians,
les merchands friplers de I'Eztrope J. The
Greek remains here have flill an air of
youthful elegance about them, which ftrikes
one very forcibly where fo good opportunity
offers of comparing them with the fabrics
formed by their deftruclive fucceflbrs, the
Goths ; who have left fome line old black-
* The naked I clothe, and the pompous I ftrip ;
If in me you confide, I may give you the flip.
t The old clothes (hop. J The flop- fellers of Europe.
looking
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. ,25
looking monuments (which look as if they
had flood in our coal ftnoke for centuries) to
the memory of the Scaligers; and furely the
great critic of that name could not have
taken a more certain method of proving his
defcent from thefe his barbarous anceftors,
than that which his relationship to them na-
turally, I fuppofe, infpired him with the
avowed preference of birth to .talents, of long-
drawn genealogy to hardly-acquired lite-
rature. We will however grow lefs pre-
judiced ourfelves ; and fince there are ftill
whole nations of people exifting, who con-
fider the counting up many generations back
as a felicity not to be exchanged for any-
other without manifeft lofs, we may poflibly
reconcile the opinion to common fenfe, by
reflecting that one preconception of the ibve-
reign good is, that it mould certainly be
indeprivablc\ and except birth, what is there
earthly after all that may not drop, or elfe be
torn from its poflefTor by accident, folly,
force, or malice ?
James Harris fays, that virtue anfwers to
the character of indeprivability, but one is
left only to wifh that his pofition were true ;
the continuance of virtue depends on the
con-
126 OBSERVATIONS IN A
continuance of reafon, from which a blow on
the head, a fudden fit of terror, or twenty
other accidents may feparate us in a moment.
Nothing can make us not one's father's child
however, and the advantages of bloody fuch
as they are, may furely be deemed inde-
privable.
Gothic and Grecian architecture refembles
Gothic and Grecian manners, which natu-
rally do give their colour to fuch arts as are
naturally the refult of them. Tyranny and
gloomy fufpicion are the charafteriftics of the
one, opennefs and fociability ftrongly mark
the other when to the gay portico fucceeded
the fallen drawbridge, and to the lively cor-
ridor, a fecret paflage and a winding flair-
cafe.
It is difficult, if not impoffible however, to
withhold one's refpect from thofe barbarians
who could thus change the face of art, almoft
of nature; who could overwhelm courage
and counteract learning ; who not only de-
voured the works of wifdom and the labours
of ftrength, but left behind them too a fettled
fyftem of feudatorial life and ariftocratic
power, ftill undcftroyed in Europe, though
hourly
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. J27
hourly attacked, battered by commerce, and
fapped by civilization.
When Smeathman told us about twelve
years ago, how an immenfe body of African
ants, which appeared, as they moved for-
wards, like the whole earth in agitation-
covered and fuddenly arrefted a folemn ele-
phant, as he grazed unfufpicioufly on the
plain ; he told us too that in eight hours
time no trace was left either of the devafters
or devafted, excepting the fkeleton of the
noble creature neatly picked : a ftanding
proof of the power of numbers againft fingle
force.
Thefe northern emigrants the Goths, how-
ever, have done more ; they have fixed 2i
mode of carrying on human affairs, that I
think will never be fo far exterminated as
to leave no veftiges behind : and even while
one contemplates the mifchicf they have
made even while one's pen engraves one's
indignation at their fuccefs ; the old baron
in his caftle, preceded and furrounded by
loyal dependants, who defired only to live
under his protection and die in his defence,
infpires a notion of dignity unattainable by
thofe who, feeking the beautiful, are by fo
far
128 OBSERVATIONS IN A
far removed from the fublime of life, and
affords to the mind momentary images of
furly magnificence, ill exchanged perhaps by
fancy^ though truth has happily fubftituted
a fucceffion of foft ideas and focial comforts :
knowledge, virtue, riches, happinefs. Let
it be remembered however, that if the theme
is fuperior to the fong, we always find thofe
poets who live in the fecond clals, celebrating
the days pad by thofe who had their exift-
ence in the fir ft. Thefe reflections are for-
ced upon me by the view of Lombard man-
ners, and the accounts I daily pick up con-
cerning the Brefcian and Bergamafc no-
bility ; who ftill exert the Gothic power of
protecting murderers who profefs themfelves
their vaflals ; and who ftill exercife thcfe
virtues and vices natural to man in his femi-
barbarous ftate : fervent devotion, conftant
love, heroic friendfhip, on the one part; grofs
fuperftition, indulgence of brutal appetite,
and diabolical revenge, on the other.
In all hot countries, however, flowers and
weeds fhoot up to enormous growth : in
colder climes, where poifon can fcarce be
feared, perfumes can feldom be boafted.
Verona,
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 129
Verona is the gayeft looking town I ever
lived in ; beautifully fituated, the hills around
it elegant, the mountains at a diftance ve-
nerable : the filver Adige rolling through the
valley, while fuch a glow of bloflbms now
ornament the rifmg grounds, and fuch cheer-
fulnefs fmiles in the fweet countenances
of its inhabitants, that one is tempted to
think it the birth-place of Euphrofyne, where
Zephyr with Aurora playing,
As he met her once a maying, :c.
Fill'd her with thee a daughter fair,
So buxom* blythe, and debonair -
as Milton fays. Here are vines, mulberries,
olives ; of courfe, wine, filk, and oil : every
thing that can feduce, every thing that
ought to fatisfy defiring man. Kere then
in confequence do actually delight to refide
mirth and good-humour in their holiday
drefs. A verona mezzz mattl *, fay the Italians
themfelves of them, and I Tee nothing feem-
ingly go forward here but Improvifatori,
reciting (lories or verfes to entertain the po-
pulace ; boys flying kites, cut fquare like a
diamond on the cards, and called Stelle ; men
* The people at Verona are half out of their wits.
VOL. I. K ajnufmg
i 3 o OBSERVATIONS IN A
amufmg themfelves at a game called Palla-
majo, fomething like our cricket, only that
they throw the ball with a hollow ftick, not
with the hand, but it requires no fmall cor-
poral ftrength ; and I know not why our
Englifh people have fuch a notion of Italian
effeminacy : games of very ftrong exertion
are in ufe among them ; and I have not
yet felt one hot day fmce I left. France.
They fhewed us an agreeable garden here
belonging to fome man of fafhion, whofe name
I know not ; it was cut in a rock, yet the
grotto difappointed me : they had not taken
fuch advantages of the fituation as Lomel-
lino would have done, and I recollected the
tafteful creations in my own country, Pains
Hill and Stour Head.
The Veronefe nobleman fhewed however
the fpirit of his country, if we let loofe the
genius of ours. The emperor had vifited
his improvements it feems, and on the fpot
where he kifled the children of the houfe,
their father fet up a ftone to record the
honour.
Our attendant related a tender ftory to me
more interefting, which happened in this
garden, of an Englifh gentleman, who having
i hired
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. i 3 t
hired the houfe, &c. one feafon, found his fa-
vourite fervant ill there, and like to die : the
poor creature exprefTed his concern at the into-
lerant cruelty of that feel: which denies Chrift-
ianscfany other denomination but their own
a place in confecrated ground, and lamented
his diftance from home with an anxious
earneftnefs that haftened his end : when the
humanity of his mafter fent him to the land-
lord, who kindly gave permiflion that he
might lie undifturbed under his turf, as one
places one's lap-dog in England ; and there^
as our Laquais de place obferved, he did no
harm, though he e was a heretic ; and the
Engliih gentleman wept over his grave.
I never faw cyprefs trees of fuch a growth as
in this fpot but then there are no other trees;
Inter viburna cyprejjl came of courfe into one's
head : and this noble plant, rich in foliage,
and bright, not dufky in colour, looked from
its manner of growing like a vaft evergreen
poplar.
Our equipages here are ftrangely in-
ferior to thofe we left behind at Milan.
Oil is burned in the converfation rooms
too, and fmells very oifenfively but
they lament our Juffocatlon in England, and
K 2 black
132 OBSERVATIONS IN A
black fmoke, while what proceeds from thefe
lamps would ruin the fineft furniture in the
world before five weeks were expired . I faw
no fuch ufed at Turin, Genoa, or Milan.
The horfes here are not equal to thofe I
have admired on the Corfo at other great
towns ; but it is pleafing to obferve the contraft
between the high bred, airy, elegant Englifh
hunter, and the majeftic, docile, and well-
broken war horfe of Lombardy. Shall we
fancy there is Gothic and Grecian to be found
even among the animals ? or is not that too
fanciful ?
That every thing ufeful, and every thing
ornamental, firft revived in Italy, is well
known ; but I was never aware till now,
though we talk of Italian book-keeping, that
the little cant words employed in compting-
houfes, took their original from the Lombard
language, unlefs perhaps that of Ditto, which
every moment recurs, meaning Detto or Su-
detto, as that which was already faid before :
but this place has afforded me an opportu-
nity of difcovering what the people meant,
who called a large portion of ground in
South w ark fome years ago a plant ', above
all things. The ground was deftined to the
3 purpoies
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 133
purpofes of extenfive commerce, but the appel-
lation of a plant gave me much difturbance,
from my inability to fathom the meaning of it.
I have here found out, that the Lombards call
many things a plant ; and fay of their cities,
palaces, &c. in familiar difcourfe cbe la
planta e biwna^ la pianta e cattiva *, &V.
Thus do words which carry a forcible
cxpreffion in one language, appear ridicu-
lous enough in another, till the true de-
rivation is known. Another reflection too
occurs as curious ; that after the overthrow
of all bufmefs, all knowledge, and all pleafure
refulting from either, by the Goths, Italy
iliould be the firft to cheriQi and revive
thofe money-getting occupations, which now
thrive better in more Northern climates :
but the chymifts fay juftly, that fermentation
ads with a fort of creative power, and that
while the mafs of matter is fermenting, no
certain judgment can be made what fpirit
it will at laft throw up : fo perhaps we ought
not to wonder at all, that the firft idea of
banking came originally from this now un-
commercial country ; that the very name of
bankrupt was brought over from their money-
* The plant is a good or a bad one, &c.
K 3 changers,
I 3 4 OBSERVATIONS IN A
changers, who fat in the market-place with
a bench or banco, before them, receiving and
paying ; till, unable fometimes to make the
due returns, the enraged creditors broke
their little board, which was called making
bancarotta, a phrafe but too well known in the
purlieus, which becaufe they firft fettled there
in London was called Lombard Street , where
the word is flill in full force I believe,
oh word of fear !
Unpleafing to commercial ear.
A vifit to the colle&ion of Signor Vincenzo
Bozza beft aflifted me in changing, or at
leaft turning the courfe of my ideas. No-
thing in natural hiftory appears more worthy
the confideration of the learned world, than
does this repofitory of petrefactions, fo un-
common that fcarcely any thing except the
teftimony of one's own eyes could convince
one that flying fifh, natives, and intending to
remain inhabitants, of the Pacific Ocean, are
daily dug out of the bowels of Monte Bolca
near Verona, where they muft doubtlefs have
been driven by the deluge, as no lefs than
omnipotent power and general concuflion
could have fufficed to feize and fix them
for
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 135
for centuries in the hollow cavities of a rock
at leaft feventy-two miles from the neareft
lea. Their learned proprietor, however,
who was obligingly defirous to mew me every
attention, anfwering a hundred troublefome
queftions with much civility, told us, that
few of his numerous vifitants gave that plain
account of the phenomenon, (hewing greater
difpofition to conjure up more difficult caufes,
and attribute the whole to the world's eter-
nity : a notion not lefs contrary to found
philofophy and common fenfe, than it is re-
pugnant to faith, and the doctrines of Re-
velation ; which prophefied long ago, that
in the laft days mould come f coffer s^ 'walking
after their own lujls^ and faying, Where is
now the promlfe of his coming ? for fince
the time that our fathers fell ajleep^ all things
continue as they were from the beginning of the
creation.
Well ! thefe are unpleafant reflections : I
would rather, before leaving the plains of
Lombardy, give my country-women one
reafon for detaining them p long there : it
cannot be an uninterefling reafon to us, when
we reflect that our firft head-dreffes were
made by Mi/aners ; that a court gown was
K 4 early
136 OBSERVATIONS IN A
early known in England by the name of a
mantua^ from Manto, the daughter of Tere-
fias, who founded the city fo called ; and that
fome of the beft materials for making thefe
mantuas is flill named from the town it is
manufactured in a Padua foy.
We are going thither immediately through
Vicenza ; where the works of Palladio's im-
mortal hand appear in full perfection ; and no-
thing fure can add to the elegancies of architec-
ture difplayed in its environs. I fatigued my-
felf to death almoft by walking three miles out
of town, to fee the famous villa from whence
Merriworth Caftle in Kent was modelled ;
and drew inceffant cenfures on his tafte who
built at the bottom of a deep valley the
imitation of a houfe calculated for a hill.
Here I pleafed my eyes by glancing them
over an extenfive profpect, bounded by
mountains on the one fide, on another by
the fea, at fo prodigious a diftance however
as to be wholly undifcoverabie by the naked
eye ; nor could I, or any other unaccuftomed
fpectator, have feen, as my Italian companions
did, the effect produced by marine vapours
upon the intermediate atmofphere, which
they made me remark from the windows of
the
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 137
the palace, inferior in every thing but fitu-
ation to Merriworth, and with that patriotic
confolation I leave Vincenza.
Padua la dotta afforded me much pleafure,
from the politenefs of the Countefs Ferres,
bora a German ; of the Houfe of Starenberg :
fhe thought proper to ihew me a thoufarid
civilities, in confequence of a kind letter which
we carried her from Count Wiltfeck, the
Auftrian minifter at Milan ; called the literati
of the town about us, and gave me the plea-
fure of converting with the Abate Cefarotti,
who tranflated Offian ; and the Profeflbr Sta-
tJco, whofe attentions I ought never to for-
get, I was furprifed at length to hear kind
inquiries after Englifh acquaintance made
in my native language by the botanical pro-
feflbr, who fpoke much of Doctor Johnfon,
and with great regard : he had, it feems, fpent
much time in our ifland about thirty years
before. When we were fhewn the phyfic
garden, nicely kept and excellently furnimed,
the Countefs took occafion to obferve, that
tranfplanted trees never throve, and ftrongly
expreffed her unfaded attachment to her
native foil : though Ihe had more good fenfe
than to neglect every opportunity of culti-
vating
138 OBSERVATIONS IN A
vating that in which fortune had placed
her.
The tomb of Antenor, fuppofed to be pre-
ferved in this town, has, I find, but flight
evidence to boaft with regard to its authen-
ticity : whofever tomb it is, the antiquity
of the monument, and dignity of the remains,
are fcarcely queftionable ; and I fee not but it
may be Antenor's.
There is no place affigned for it but the
open ftreet, becaufe it could not (fay they)
have contained a baptized body, as there are
proofs innumerable of its being fabricated
many and many years before the birth of
Jefus Chrift : yet I never pafs by without
being hurt that it mould have no better fi-
tuation affigned it, till I recoiled: that the old
Romans always buried people by the high-
way, which made the Jijle viatof* proper
for their tomb-ftones, as Mr. Addifon fome-
where remarks ; which are foolifhly enough
engraven upon ours : and till I confider too
that the Archbiihop of Canterbury, or the
Patriarch of Antioch, where Chriftians were
firft called fuch, would lie no nearer a Chrift-
jan Church than old Antenor does, were
* Stop traveller,
they
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. i 39
they unfortunate enough to die, and be put
under ground at Padua.
The fhrine of St. Antonio is however fuf-
ficiently venerated ; and the riches of his
church really amazed me : fuch filver lamps i
fuch votive offerings ! fuch glorious fculpture !
the has relievos, reprefenting his life and mi-
racles, are beyond any thing we have yet feen ;
one compartment particularly, the workman-
fhip, I think, of Sanfovino, where an old
woman is reprefented to a degree of finifhecl
nicety and curiofity of perfection which I
Jcnew not that marble could exprefs.
The hall of juftice, which they oppofe to our
Weftminfter-hall, but between which there
js no refemblance, is two hundred and fifty-
fix feet long, and eighty-fix broad ; the form
of it a rhomboid; the walls richly ornamented
by Pietro d'Abano, who originally defigned,
and began to paint the figures round the
fides : they have however been retouched
by Giotto, who added the figns of the Zo-
diac to Petev's myfterious performances, which
meant to explain the planetary influences, as
he was a man deeply dipped in judicial aftro*
logy ; and there is his own portrait among
them, drefled like a Zoroaftrian prieft, with
a planet
i 4 o OBSERVATIONS IN A
a planet in the corner. At the bottom of the
Jiall hangs the famous crucifixion, for the
purpofe of doing which completely well, it
is told that Giotto faftened up a real man,
and juftly incurred the Pope's difpleafure,
who coming one day unawares to fee his
painter work, caught the unhappy wretch
ftruggh'ng in the clofet, and threatened im-
mediately to fign the artift's death 5 who
with Italian promptnefs ran to the picture,
and daubed it over with his brufh and co-
lours ; by this method obliging his fovereign
to delay execution till the work was repaired,
which no one but himfelf could finim ; mean
time the man recovers of his wounds, and
the tale ends, whether true or falfe, accord-
ing to the hearer's wifh,
The debtor's ftone at the oppofite end of
the hall has likewife many entertaining
ftories annexed to it : the bankrupt is obliged
to fit there in prefence of his creditors and
judges, in a very difgraceful ftate; and many
accounts are told one, of the various effeds fuch
diftrefTes have had on the mind : but fuicide
is a crime rarely committed out of England,
and the Italians look with juft horror on our
people
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. HI
people for being fo eafily incited to a fin,
which takes from him that commits it all
power and poffibility of repentance.
A Frenchman whom I fent for once at
Bath to drefs my hair, gave me an excellent
trait of his own national character, fpeaking
upon that fubject, when he meant to fatirife
ours. " You have lived feme years in England*
friend, faid I, do you like it ? " " Mais non k
madame, pas parfaitement bien *." " You
have travelled much in Italy, do you like
that better ?'* " Ah, Dieu ne plaife, madame,
je n'aime gueres meffieurs les Italiens f."
" What do they do to make you hate them
fo ?" " Mais c'eft que les Italiens fe tuent
Tun 1'autre (replied the fellow), et les Anglois
fe font un plaifir de fe tuer eux mefmes : pardi
je ne me fens rien moins qu'un vrai gout
pour ces gentillefles la, et j'aimerois mieux
me trouver a Paris ^ pour rlrc un pen J."
The
* Why no truly ma'am, not much.
f Oh, God forbid no, I cannot endure thofe Italians.
J Why, really, the Italians have fuch a paflion for
murdering each other, ma'am, and the Englifti fuch
an odd delight in killing themfelves, that I, who have
acquired no tafte for fuch agreeable amufements, grow
fomewhat
I 4 2 OBSERVATIONS IN A
The Lucrezia Padovana, who has a monu-
ment erected here in this juftice hall to her
memory, is the only inftance of felf-murder
I have been told yet ; and her's was a very
glorious one, and neceflary to the preferva-
tion of her , honour, which was endangered
by the magiftrate, who made that the barter
for her huiband's life, in defence of which
{he was pleading; much like the ftory of
Ifabella, Angelo, and Claudio, in Shake-
fpear's Meafure for Meafure. This lady,
whofe family name I have forgotten, flabbed
herfelf in prefence of the monfter who re-
duced her to fuch neceffity, and by that means
preferved her hufband's life, by fuddenly con-
verting the heart of her hateful lover, who
from that dreadful day devoted himfelf to
penitence and prayer.
The chaftity of the Patavian ladies is cele-
brated by fome old Latin poet, but I cannot
recoiled: which. Lucrezia, however, was a
Chriftian. I could not much regard the
monument of Livy though, for looking at
fomewhat impatient to return to Paris, and get a good
laugh among my old acquaintance.
her's,
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 143
her's, which attracted and detained my at-
tention more particularly.
The Univerfity of Padua is a noble infti-
tution ; and thofe who have excelled among
the ftudents, are recorded on tablets, for the
moft part brafs, hung round the walls, made
venerable by their arms and characters. It
was pleafmg to fee fo many Britiih names
among them Scotchmen for the moft part ;
though I enquired in vain for the admirable
Crichton. Sir Richard Blackmore was there,
but not one native of France. We were
fpiteful enough to fancy, that was the reafon
that Abbe Richard fays nothing of the efta-
blimment.
Befides the civilities {hewn us here by Mr.
Bonaldi and his agreeable lady, Signora An-
netta, we were recommended by letters from
the Venetian refident at Milan, to Abate Toal-
do, profeflbr of aftronomy ; who wimed to do
all in his power to oblige and entertain us.
His obfervatory is a good one ; but the
learned amiable fcholar, who refides in the
firft floor of it, complained to us that he
was fickly, old, and poor ; three bad quali-
fications, as he obferved, for the amufement
of travellers, who commonly arrive hungry
for novelty, and thirfty for information.
His
144 OBSERVATIONS IN A
His quadrant was very fine, the planetarium of
orrery quite out of repair ; and his references
of courfe were obliged to be made to a fort
of map or chart of the heavenly bodies (a
folar fyftem at leaft with comets) that hung
up in his room as a fubftitute. He had little
reverence for the petrefa&ions of Monte
Bolca I perceived, which he confidered as
mere hifus natures. He mewed me poor
Petrarch's tomb from his obfervatory, bid
me look on Sir Ifaac's full-length picture in
the room, and faid, the world would fee no
more fuch men. Of our Mafkelyne, how-
ever, no man could fpeak with more efteem,
or expreffions of generous friendfhip. His
fitting chamber was a pleafant one ; and I
mould not have left it fo fcon, but in com-
paffion to his health, which our company
\vas more likely to injure than affift. He afked
me, if I did not find Padua la dotta a very
ftinking nafty town ? but added, that litera-
ture and dirt had long been intimately ac-
quainted, and that this city was commonly
called among the Italians, " Porcil de Padua"
Padua the pig-Jtye-
Fire is fuppofed to be the greateft purifier,
and Padua has gone through that operation
twice
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 145
twice completely, being burned the firft time
by Attila; after which, Narfes the famous eu-
nuch rebuilt and fettled it in the year 558, if my
information is good : but after her protector's
death, the Longobards burned x her again,
and fhe lay in afhes till Charlemagne reftored
her to more than original beauty. Under
Otho fhe, like many other cities of Italy,
was governed by her own laws, and re-
mained a republic till the year 1237, when
fhe received the German yoke, afterwards
broken by the Scaligers ; nor was their trea-
cherous afTaflmation followed by lefs than the
lofs both of Verona and this city, xvhich was
found in pofleflion of the Emperor Maximi-
lian fome years after: but when the State of
Venice recovered their dominion over it in.
1409, they fortified it fo ftrcngly that the
Confederate princes united in the league of
Cambray aflaulted it in vain.
Santa Giuftina's church is the rnoft beau-
tiful place of worfhip I have ever yet feen ;
fo regularly, fo uniformly noble, uncrowded
with figures too: the entrance ftrikes you
with its fimple grandeur, while the fmall
chapels to the right and left hand are kept
back behind a colonade of pillars, and do not
VOL, I. L diftraft
I 4 6 OBSERVATIONS IN A
diftral attention, and create confufion of
ideas, as do the numerous cupolas of St. An-
thony's more magnificent but lefs pleafing
ftructure. The high altar here at Santa Giuf-
tina's church ftands at the end, and greatly
increafes the effect on entering, which always
lufFers when the length is broken. Nothing,
however, is to be perfect in this world, and
Paul Veronefe's fine view of the fuffering
martyr has not fize enough for the place ;
and is befide crowded with fmall unconfe-
quential figures, which cannot be diftin-
guimed at a diftance. Some carvings round
the altar, reprefenting, in wooden bas-reliefs,
the hiftory of the Old and New Teftament,
are admirable in their kind ; and I am told
that the organ on which Bertoni, a blind
nephew of Ferdinand, our well-known com-
pofer, played to entertain us, is one of the
firft in Italy: but an ordinary inftrument
would have charmed us had he touched it.
I muft not leave the Terra Firma, as they
call it, without mentioning once more fome
of the animals it produces; among which the
afles are fo juftly renowned for their fize and
beauty, that come un afmo di Padua is pro-
verbial when fpeaking of ftrength among the
Italians ;
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 147
Italians : how fhould it be otherwife, indeed,
where every herb and every fhrub breathes
fragrance ; and where the quantity as well as
quality of their food naturally fo increafes
their milk, that I mould think fome of them
might yield as much as an ordinary cow ?
When I was at Genoa, I remember re-
marking fomething like this to Doctor Batt*
an Englifh phyfician fettled there j and ex-
prefled my furprife that our confumptive
country-folks, with whom the Italians never
ceafe to reproach us, do not, when they
come here for health, rely much on the be-
neficial produce of thefe afles for a cure ;
which, if it is haftened by their afliftance in
our ifland, muft furely be performed much
quicker in this. The anfwer would have been
better recollected, I fancy, had it appeared
to me more fatisfactory ; but he knew what
he was talking of, and I did not ; fo conclude
he defpifed me accordingly.
The Carinthian bulls too, that do all the
heavy work in this rich and heavy land, how
wonderfully handfome they are ! Such fym-
metry and beauty have I never feen in any
cattle, fcarcely in thofe of Derbyfhire, where
fo much attention has been beftowed upon
L 2 their
i 4 * OBSERVATIONS IN A
their breeding. The colour here is fo ele-
gant; they are almoft all blue roans, like
Lord Grofvenor's horfes in London, or thole
of the Duke of Ceftos at Milan: the horns
longer, and much more finely fhaped, than
thofe of our bulls, and white as polifhed-
ivory, tapering off to a point, with a blight
black tip at the end, refembling an ermine's
tail. As this creature is not "a native, but
only a neighbour of Italy, we will fay no
more about him.
A tranfplanted Hollander, carried thither
originally from China, feems to thrive par-
ticularly well in this part of the world ;
the little pug dog, or Dutch maftiff, which
our Englifh. ladies were once fo fond of, that
poor Garrick thought it worth his while to
ridicule them for it in the famous dramatic
fatire called Lethe, has quitted London for
Padua, I perceive ; where he is reftored hap-
pily to his former honours, and every car-
riage I meet here has a pug in it. That
breed of dogs is now fo near extirpated
among us, that I recollect only Lord Penryn
who poflefles fuch an animal ; and I doubt
not but many of the under-claffes among
brutes do in the fame manner extinguish
7 and
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. H9
and revive by chance, caprice, or accident
perpetually, through many tracts of the in-
habited world, fo as to remain out of fight in
certain diftricts for centuries together.
This toxvn, as Abbe Toaldo obferved, is
old, and dirty, and melancholy-looking-, in
itfelf; but Terence told us long ago, and
truly, " that it was not the walls, but the
company, made every place delightful :'* and
thefe inhabitants, though few in number, are
fo exceedingly cheerful, fo charming, their
language is fo mellifluous, their manners fo
foothing, I can fcarcely bear to leave them
without tears.
Verona was the firft place I felt reluctance
to quit; but the Venetian ftate certainly
pofleffes uncommon, and to me almoft unac-
countable, attractions. Be that as it will, we
leave thefe fweet Paduans to-morrow; the
coach is difpofed of, and we are to fet out
upon our watry journey to their wonder-
fully-fituated metropolis, or as they call it
prettily, La Bella Dominants*
150 OBSERVATIONS IN A
VENICE.
WE went down the Brenta in a barge that
brought us in eight hours to Venice, the firft
appearance of which revived all the ideas
infpired by Canaletti, whofe views of this
town are moft fcrupuloufly exact ; thofe
efpecially which one fees at the Queen of
England's houfe in St. James's Park; to fuch
a degree indeed, that we knew all the fa-
mous towers, fteeples, &c. before we reached
them. It was wonderfully entertaining to
find thus realized all the pleafures that ex-
cellent painter had given us fo many times
reafon to expect ; and I do believe that
Venice, like other Italian beauties, will be
obferved to pofiefs features fo ftriking, fo
prominent, and fo difcriminated, that her
portrait, like theirs, will not be found diffi-
cult to take, nor the impreffion fhe has once
made eafy to erafe. Britifh charms captivate
lefs powerfully, lefs certainly, lefs fuddenly :
but being of a fofter fort, iricreafe upon ac-
quaintance ;
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. I5I
quaintance; and after the connexion has
continued for fome years, will be relinquifhed
with pain, perhaps even in exchange for
warmer colouring and ftronger expreflion.
St. Mark's Place, after all I had read and
all I had heard of it, exceeded expectation :
fuch a clufter of excellence, fuch a conftella-
tion of artificial beauties, my mind had never
ventured to excite the idea of within herfelf ;
though affifted with all the powers of doing
fo which painters can beftow, and with all
the advantages derived from verbal and writ-
ten defcription. It was half an hour before
I could think of looking for the bronze horfes,
of which one has heard fo much ; and from
which when one has once begun to look,
there is no poffibility of withdrawing one's
attention. The general effect produced by
fuch architecture, fuch painting, fuch pillars;
illuminated as I faw them laft night by the
moon at full, rifmg out of the fea, produced
an effect like enchantment ; and indeed the
more than magical fweetnefs of Venetian
manners, dialect, and addrefs, confirms one's
notion, and realizes the fcenes laid by Fene-
}pn in their once tributary ifland of Cyprus,
L 4 The
151 OBSERVATIONS IN A
The pole fet up as commemorative of their-
paft dominion over it, grieves one the more,
when every hour fhews how congenial that
place muft have been to them, if every thing
pne reads of it has any foundation in truth.
The Ducal palace is fo beautiful, it were
worth while almoft to crofs the Alps to fee
that, and return home again : and St. Mark's
church, whofe Mofaic paintings on the out-:
fide are furpafied.by no work of art, delights
pne no lefs on entering with its numberlefs
rarities j the flooring firft, which is all
paved with precious ftones of the fccond
rank, in fmall fquares, not bigger than a
playing card, and fometimes lefs. By the
fecond rank in gems I mean, carnelion,
agate, jafper, ferpentine, and verd antique ;
on which you place your feet without re-
morfe, but net without a very odd fenfation,
when you find the ground undulated beneath
them, to reprefent the waves of the fea, and
perpetuate marine ideas, which prevail in
every thing at Venice. We were not fhewn
the treafury, arid it was impofiible to get a
light of the manufcript in St. Mark's own
hand-writing, carefully preferved here, and
juftly efteemed even beyond the jewels given
M
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 153
as votive offerings to his fhrine, whieh are of
immerife value.
The pictures in the Doge's houfe are a
magnificent collection ; and the Noah's Ark
by BafTano would doubtlefs afford an actual
iludy for natural hiftorians as well as
painters, and is confidered as a model of per-
fection from which fucceeding artifts may
learn to draw animal life : fcarcely a creature
can be recollected which has not its proper
place in the picture ; but the penfive cat
upon the fore-ground took moft of my at-
tention, and held it away from the meeting
of the Pope and Doge by the other brother
Baffano, who here proves that his pencil is
not diverted of dignity, as the connoiffeurs
fometimes tell us that he is. But it is not
one picture, or two, or twenty, that feize.s
one's mind here; it is the accumulation of
various objects, tach worthy to detain it.
Wonderful indeed, and fweetly-fatisfying
to the intellectual appetite, is the variety, the
plenty of pleafures which ferve to enchain
the imagination, and fafcinate the traveller's
eye, keeping it ever on this little fpot ; for
though I have heard fome of the inhabitants
talk of its vaftnefs, it is fcarcely bigger than
our
154 OBSERVATIONS IN A
our Porftnan Square, I think, not larger at
the very moft than Lincoln's-Inn-Fields.
It is indeed obfervable that few people
know how to commend a thing fo as to
make their praifes enhance its value. One
hears a pretty woman not unfrequently ad-
mired for her wit, a woman of talents won-
dered at for her beauty ; while I can think on
no reafon for fuch perverfion of language,
unlefs it is that a fmall fhare of elegance will
content thofe whofe delight is to hear decla-
mation ; and that the moft hackeyed fenti-
ments will feem new, when uttered by a pair
of rofy lips, and feconded by the expreffion
of eyes from which every thing may be ex-
pected,
To return to St. Mark's Place, whence we
have never Jirayed : I muft mention thofe
pictures which reprefent his miracles, and the
carrying his body away from Alexandria:
events attefted fo as to bring them credit
from many wife men, and which have more
authenticity of their truth, than many ftories
told one up and down here. So great is the
devotion of the common people here to their
tutelar faint, that when they cry out, as we
$lo Old England for ever ! they do not fay,
Viva
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. , 5S
Viva Venecia I but Viva San Marco ! And
I doubt mucb if that was not once the
way with us ; in one of Shakefpear's plays
an expiring prince being near to give all
up for gone, is animated by his fon in thefe
words, " Courage father, cry St. George /"
We had an opportunity of feeing bis day
celebrated with a very grand proceffion the
other morning, April 23, when a live boy
perfonated the hero of the fhow; but fate
fo ftill upon his painted courfer, that it was
long before I perceived him to breathe. The
ftreets were vaftly crowded with fpectators,
that in every place make the principal part
of ti\Qfpeftacle.
It is odd that a cuftom which in contem-
plation feems fo unlikely to pleafe, fhould
when put in practice appear highly neceflary,
and productive of an effecl: which can be
obtained no other way. Were the houfes in
Parliament Street to hang damafk curtains,
worked carpets, pieces of various coloured
filks, with fringe or lace round them, out of
every window when the King of England
goes to the Houfe, with numberlefs well-
fdrefled ladies leaning out to fee him pafs, it
would give one an idea of the continental
4 towns
J5 6 OBSERVATIONS IN A
towns upon a gala day. But our people
would be apt to cry out, Monmoutb Street !
and look aihamed if their neighbours faw the
fame deckerwork counterpane or crimfon
curtain produced at Eafter, which made a
figure at Chriftmas the December before ; fo
that no end would be put to expence in our
country, were .fuch a fancy to take place.
The rainy weather befide would fpoil all our
finery at once ; and here^ though it is ftill
cold enough to be fure, and the women wear
fattins, yet ftill one fhivers over a bad fire
only becaufe there is no place to walk and
,wann one's felf ; for I have not feen a drop
of rain. The truth is, this town cannot be a
wholefome one, for there is fcarcely a poffi-
bility of taking exercife ; nor have. I been
once able to circulate my blood by motion
.fince our arrival, except perhaps by climbing
the beautiful tower which ftands (as every
thing elfe does) in St. Mark's Place. And
you may drive a garden-chair up that^ fo
eafy is the afcent, fo broad and luminous the
.way. From the top is prefented to one's
fight the mod ftriking of all profpeds, water
bounded by land not land by water. The
curious and elegant iflets upon which, and
into
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. i 57
mto which, the piles of Venice are driven,
exhibiting clutters of houfes, churches, palaces,
every thing ftarted up in the midft of the
.fea, ib as to excite amazement.
But the horfes have not been fpoken of,
though one pair drew Apollo's car at Delphos.
The other, which we call modern, and laugh
while we call them fo, were made however
before the days of Conftantine the Great.
They are of bright yellow bra fs, not black
bronze, as I expected to find them, and grace
the glorious church I am never weary of ad-
miring ; where I went one day on purpofe
to find out the red marble on which Pope
Alexander III. fate, and placed his foot upon
the neck of the Emperor : the ftone has this
infcription half legible round it, Super
ajpldem et bajilifcum ambulabis *. How does
this lovely Piazza di San Marco render a
newly-arrived fpeclator breathlefs with de-
light ! while not a fpan of it is unoccupied
by actual beauty ; though the whole appears
uncrowded, as in the works of nature, not of
art.
T t was upon the day appointed for making
a new chancellor, however, that one ought
* Thou fhalt tread on the afp and the bafilifk.
to
r$8 OBSERVATIONS Iff A
to have looked at this lovely city; when
every fhop, adorned with its own peculiar
produce, was difpofed to hail the paflage
of its favourite, in at manner fo lively, fo
luxuriant, and at the fame time fo tafteful
there's no telling. Milliners crowned the
new dignitary's picture with flowers^ while
columns of gauze, twifted round with rib-*
band, in the moft elegant ftyle,- fupported
the figure on each fide, and made the pretti-
eft appearance poflible* The furrier formed
his {kins into reprefentations of the animal
they had once belonged to ; fo the lion was
feen dandling the kid at one door, while the
fox ftood courting a badger out of his hole
at the other. The poulterers and fruiterers
were by many thought the moft beautiful
ihops in town, from the variety of fancies
difplayed in the difpofal of their goods j and
I admired at the truly Italian ingenuity of a
gunfmith, who had found the art of turning
his inftruments of terror into objects of de-
light, by his judicious manner of placing
and arranging them. Every fhop Was illu-
minated with a large glafs chandelier before
it, befides the wax candles and coloured
lamps interfperfed among the ornaments
within*
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY, 15^
within. The fenators have much the appear-
ance of our lawyers going robed to Weft-
minfter Hall, but the gentiluomini, as they
are called, wear red drefles, and remind me
of the Doctors of the ecclefiaftical courts in
Doctors Commons.
It is obfervable that all long robes denote
peaceful occupations, and that the Ihort cut
coat is the emblem of a military profeflion,
once the difgrace of humanity, now unfor-
tunately become its falfe and cruel pride.
When the enemies of King David meant
to declare war againft him, they cut the
fkirts of his ambaflador's clothes off, to fhew
him he muft prepare for battle; and the
Orientals ftill confider fhort drefles as a dif-
graceful preparation for hoftile proceedings ;
nor could any thing have reconciled Europe
to the cuftom, except our horror of Turkifh
manners, and defire of being diftinguifhed
from the Saracens at the time of the Holy
War.
I have faid nothing yet about the gon-
dolas, which every body knows are black,
and give an air of melancholy at firfl fight,
yet are nothing lefs than forrowful ; it is like
painting
160 OBSERVATIONS IN A
painting the lively Mrs. Cholmondeley iri
the character of Milton's
Penfive Nun, devout and pure,
Sober, iledfaft, and demure
As I once faw her drawn by a famous handj
to {hew a Venetian lady in her gondola arid
zendaletto, which is black like the gondola,
but wholly calculated like that for the pur-
pofes of refined gallantry. So is the nightly
rendezvous, the coffee-houfe, and cafino ; for
whilft Palladio's palaces ferve to adorn the
grand canal, and ftrike thofe who enter
Venice with furprife at its magnificence ;
thofe fnug retreats are intended for the relax-
ation of thofe who inhabit the more fplendid
apartments, and are fatigued with exertions
of dignity, and neceflity of no fmall ex-
pence. They breathe the true fpirit of our
luxurious Lady Mary, who probably learned
it here, or of the flill more dilTolute Turks,
our prefent neighbours; who would have
thought not unworthy a Tefta Veneziana,
her famous ftanza, beginning,
But when the long hours of public are paft,
And we meet with champagne and a chicken at laft.
Surely
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 161
Surely fhe had then prefent to her warm
imagination a favourite Cafmo in the Piazza
St. Marco. That her learned and highly-
accomplifhed fon imbibed her tafte and talents
for fenfual delights, has been long known
in England ; it is not fo perhaps that there
is a fhowy monument erected to his me-
mory at Padua, fetting forth his variety and
compafs of knowledge in a long Latin in-
fcription. The good old monk who mewed
it. me feemed generoufly and reafonably
fhocked, that fuch a man Ihould at laft expire
with fomewhat more firm perfuafions of the
truth of the Mahometan religion than any
other; but that he doubted greatly of all, and
had not for many years profefled himfelf a
Chriftian of any fed: or denomination what-
ever.
So have I feen fome youth fet out,
Half Proteftant, half Papift ;
And wand'ring long the world about,
Some new religion to find out,
Turn Infidel or Atheift.
We have been told much of the fufpicious
temper of Venetian laws ; and have heard
often that every difcourfe is fuffered, except
fuch as tends to political converfation, in this
Vot. L M city ;
i6i OBSERVATIONS IN A
city; and that whatever nobleman, native
of Venice, is feen fpeaking familiarly with a
foreign minifter, runs a rifque of punifh-
ments too terrible to be thought on.
How far that manner of proceeding may
be wife or juft, I know not ; certain it is that
they have preferved their laws inviolate,
their city unattempted, and their republic re-
fpectable, through all the concuffions that have
ihaken the reft of Europe. Surrounded by
envious powers, it becomes them to be. vigi-
lant ; confcious of the value of their uncon-
quered ftate, it is no wonder that they love
her ; and furely the true Amor Patrice never
glowed more warmly in old Roman bofoms
than in theirs, who draw, as many families
here do, their pedigree from the corifuls of
the Commonwealth. Love without jealoufy
is feldom to be met with, efpecially in thefe
warm climates let us then permit them to
be jealous of a conftitution which all the
other ftates of Italy look on with envy not
unmixed with malice, and propagate ftrange
ftories to its difadvantage.
That fufpicion mould be concealed under
the mafk of gaiety is neither very new nor
very ftrange: the reign of our Charles the
Second
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 163
Second was equally famous for plots, per-
juries, and cruel chaftifements, as for wanton
levity and indecent frolics : but here at
Venice there are no unpermitted frolics ;
her rulers love to fee her gay and cheerful ;
they are the fathers of their country, and if
they indulge^ take care riot to fpoil her.
With regard to common chat, I have heard
many a liberal and eloquent difquifition upon
the ftate of Europe in general, and of Venice
in particular, from feveral agreeable friends
at their own Cafino, who did not appear to
have more fears upon them than myfelf,
and I know not why they fhould.- Che-
valier Emo is defervedly a favourite with
them, and we ufed to talk whole evenings of
him and of General Elliott ; the bombarding
of Tunis, and defence of Gibraltar. The
news-papers fpoke of fome fireworks exhi-
bited in England in honour of their hero ;
they were " vrayment feux de joye" faid an
agreeable Venetian, they were not feux d'
artifice.
The deep fecrecy of their councils, how-
ever, and unrelenting fteadinefs of their re-
folutions, cannot be better explained than by
telling a little ftory, which will illuftrate the
M 2 private
164 OBSERVATIONS IN A
private virtue as well as the public authority
of thefe extraordinary people ; for though
the tale is now in abler hands (intending, as
I am told, to form a tragedy upon its bafis),
the fummary may ferve to adorn my little
work ; as a landfcape painter refufes not to
throw the ftory of Phaeton's petition for
Apollo's car into his picture, for the purpofe
of illuminating the back ground, though Ovid
has written the ftory and Titian has paint-
ed it.
Some years ago then, perhaps a hundred,
one of the many fpies who ply this town by
night, ran to the ftate inquifitor, with in-
formation that fuch a nobleman (naming
him) had connections with the French am-
baflador, and went privately to his houfe
every night at a certain hour. The mejfer-
grando, as they call him, could not believe,
nor would proceed, without better and
ftronger proof, againft a man for whom he
had an intimate perfonal friendfhip, and on
whofe virtue he counted with very particular
reliance. Another fpy was therefore fet, and
brought back the fame intelligence, adding
the defcripdon of his difguife : on which the
worthy magiflrate put on his mafk and
bauta,
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 165
bauta, and went out himfelf ; when his eyes
confirming the report of his informants, and
the reflection on his duty ftifling all remorfe,
he fent publicly for Fofcarini in the morn-
ing, whom the populace attended all weep-^
ing to his door.
Nothing but refolute denial of the crime
alleged could however be forced from the
firm-minded citizen, who, fenfible of the dif-
covery, prepared for that punifhment he
knew to be inevitable, and fubmitted to the
fate his friend was obliged to inflict : no lefs
than a dungeon for life, that dungeon fo
horrible that I have heard Mr. Howard was
not permitted to fee it,
The people lamented, but their lamemV
ations were vain. The magiftrate who con-
demned him never recovered the fhock :
but Fofcarini was heard of no more, till an
old lady died forty years after in Paris, whofe
laft confeffion declared fhe was vifited with
amorous intentions by a nobleman of Venice
whofe name fhe never knew, while fhe re-
fid ed there as companion to the ambafTadrefs.
So was Fofcarini loft ! fo died he a martyr
to love, and tendernefs for female reputa-
tion ! Is it not therefore a ftory fit to be
M 3 celebrated
166 OBSERVATIONS IN A
celebrated by that lady's pen, who has cho-
fen it as the bails of her future tragedy ?
But I will anticipate no further.
Well ! this is the firft place I have feen
which has been capable in any degree of ob-
literating the idea of Genoa la fuperba, which
has till now purfued me, nor could the gloo-
my dignity of the cathedral at Milan, or the
ftriking view of the arena at Verona, nor the
Sala de Giuftizia at lettered Padua, banilh
her beautiful image from my mind : nor can
I now acknowledge without fhame, that I
have ceafed to regret the mountains, the
chefnut groves, and flanting orange trees,
which climbed my chamber window there^
and at this time too ! when
Young-ey'd Spring profufely throws
From her green lap the pink and rofe.
But whoever fees St. Mark's Place lighted
up of an evening, adorned with every ex-
cellence of human art, and pregnant with
pleafure, expreffed by intelligent counte-
nances fparkling with every grace of nature ;
the fea warning its walls, the moon-beams
dancing on its fubjugated waves, fport and
laughter refounding from the cofFee-houfes,
girls
4
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 167
girls with guitars {kipping about the fquare,
mafks and merry-makers fmging as they pafs
you, unlefs a barge with a band of mufic is
heard at fome diftance upon the water, and
calls attention to founds made fweeter by
the element over which they are brought
whoever is led fuddenly I fay to tjiis fcene of
feemingly perennial gaiety, will be apt to
cry out of Venice, as Eve fays to Adam in.
Milton,
With thee converfing I forget all time,
and their change all pleafe alike.
For it is fure there are in this town many
aftonifhing privations of all that are ufed to
make other places delightful : and as poor
Omai the favage faid, when about to
return to Otaheite No horfe there ! no afs !
no cow, no golden pippin s, no dif}} of tea ! Ah^
mtffey ! I go 'without every thing I always fo
content there though.
It is really juft fo one lives at this lovely
Venice : one has heard of a horfe being
exhibited for a mow there, and yefterday 1
watched the poor people paying a penny a
piece for the fight of a fluffed one, and am
more than perfuaded of the truth of what
M 4 I am
168 OBSERVATIONS IN A
I am told here, That numberlefs inhabitants
live and die in this great capital, nor ever
find out or think of enquiring how the milk
brought from Terra Firma is originally pro-
duced. When fuch fancies crofs me I wi(h
to exclaim, Ah, happy England ! whence ig-
norance is banimed by the diffufion of lite-
rature, and narrownefs of notions is ridiculed
even in the loweft clafs of life. Candour
muft however confefs, that while the poffeffor
of a Northern coal-mine riots in that variety
of adulation which talents deferve and riches
contrive to obtain, thofe who labour in it
are often natives of the difmal region ; where
many have been known to be born, and
work, and die, without having ever feen the
fun, or other light than fuch as a candle can
beftow. Let fuch dark recollections give
place to more cheerful imagery.
We have juft now been carried to fee the
fo juftly-renowned arfenal, and unluckily
miffed the mip-launch we went thither chiefly
to fee. It is no great matter though ! one
comes to Italy to look at buildings, ftatues,
pictures, people ! The mips and guns of
England have been fuch as fupported her
greatnefs, eftablifhed her dominion, and ex-
tended
JOUftNEY THROUGH ITALY. ,6 9
tended her commerce in fuch a manner as
to excite the admiration and terror of Eu-
rope, whofe kingdoms vainly as perfidioufly
combined with her own colonies againft
that power which they maintained, in fpite of
the united efforts of half the globe. I mall
hardly fee finer mips and guns till I go home
again, though the keeping all together on one
ifland fo that ifland walled in too com-
pletely with only a fingle door to come in
and out at is a conftruction of peculiar hap-
pinefs and convenience ; while dock, ar-
moury, rope-walk, all is contained in this
fpace, exactly two miles round I think.
What pleafed me beft, befides the whole,
which is beft worth being pleafed with, was
the fmall arms : there are fo many Turkifh
inftruments of deftruction among them quite
new to me, and the picture commemorating
the cruel death of their noble gallant leader
Bragadin, fo inhumanly treated by the Sa-
racens in 1571. With infinite gratitude to
his amiable defcendant, who mewed me un-
merited civility, dining with us often, and
inviting us to his houfe, &c. I leave this re-
pofitory of the Republic's ftores with one
obfervation, That however fufpicious the Ve-
netians
i 7 o OBSERVATIONS IN A
netians are faid to be, I found it much more
eafy for Englifhmen to look over their docks,
than for a foreigner to find his way into ours.
Another reflection occurs on examination
of this fpot ; it is, that the renown attached
to it in general converfation, is a proof that
the world prefers convenience to fplendour ; for
here are no fuperfluous ornaments, and I am
apt to think many go away from it praifing
beauties by which they have been but little
ftruck, and utilities they have but little un-
derftood.
From this (how you are commonly carried
to the glafs manufactory at Murano ; once
the retreat of piety and freedom, when the
Altinati fled the fury of the Huns : a beauti-
ful fpot it is, and delightfully as oddly fitu-
ated ; but thefe are gems ivhich inlay the bofom
of the deep, as Milton fays and this perhaps,
the prettieft among them, is walked over by
travellers with that curiofity which is natu-
rally excited, in one perfon by the veneration
of religious antiquity; in another, by the
attention juftly claimed by human induftry
and art. Here may be feen a valuable library
of books, and here may be feen glafles of
all colours, all forts, and all prices, I believe :
but
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 1?I
but whoever has looked much upon the
London work in this way, will net be eafily
dazzled by the luftre of Venetian cryftal ;
and whoever has feen the Paris mirrors, will
not be aftonimed at any breadth into which
glafs can be fpread.
We will return to Venice, the view of
which from the Zueca, a word contracted
from Giudecca, as I am told, would invite
one never more to ftray from it farther at
leaft than to St. George's church, on another
little oppofite ifland, whence the profpect is
furely wonderful ; and one fits longing for a
pencil to repeat what has been fo often ex-
quifitely painted by Ganaletti, juft as foolifhly
as one fnatches up a pen to tell what has
been fo much better told already by Doctor
Moore. It was to this church I was fent,
however, for the purpofe of feeing a famous
picture painted by Paul Veronefe, of the
marriage at Cana in Galilee where our Sa-
viour's firft miracle was performed ; in which
iinmenfe work the artift is well known to
have - commemorated his own likenefs, and
that of many of his family, which adds value
to the piece, when we confider it as a col-
lection of portraits, befides the hiftory it
reprefents.
>7 2 OBSERVATIONS IN A
reprefents. When we arrived, the picture
was kept in a refedory belonging to friars
{of what order I have forgotten), and no
woman could be admitted. My difappoint-
ment was fo great that I was deprived even of
the powers of folicitation by the extreme ill-
humour it occafioned ; and my few intreaties
for admiffion were completely difregarded
by the good old monk, who remained outfide
with me, while the gentlemen vifited the
convent without moleftation. At my return
to Venice I met little comfort, as every body
told me it was my own fault, for I might
put on men's clothes and fee it whenever I
pleafed, as nobody then would ftop, though
perhaps all of them would know me.
If fuch flight gratifications however as
feeing a favourite picture, can be purchafed
no cheaper than by violating truth in one's
own perfon, and encouraging the violation
of it in others, it were better furely die
without having ever procured to one's felf
fuch frivolous enjoyments; and I hope al-
ways to reject the temptation of deceiving
miftaken piety, or infulting harmlefs error.
But it is almoft time to talk of the Rialto,
faid to be the fineft fmgle arch in Europe,
and
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 173
and I fuppofe it is fo ; very beautiful too
when looked on from the water, but fo
dirtily kept, and deformed with mean {hops,
that paffing over it, difguft gets the better
of every other fenfation. The truth is, our
dear Venetians are nothing lefs. than cleanly ;
St. Mark's Place is all covered over in a
morning with chicken-coops, which ftink one
to death ; as nobody I believe thinks of
changing their bafkets : and all about the
Ducal palace is made fo very offenfive by
the refort of human creatures for every pur-
pofe moft unworthy of fo charming a place,
that all enjoyment of its beauties is rendered
difficult to a perfon of any delicacy ; and
poifoned fo provokingly, that I do never ceafe
to wonder that fo little police and proper
regulation are eftablifhed in a city fo particu-
larly lovely, to render her fweet and whole-*
fome. It was at the Rialto that the firft ftone
of this fair town was laid, upon the twenty-
fifth of March, as I am told here, with ideal
reference to the vernal equinox, the moment
when philofophers have fuppofed that the fun
firft fhone upon our earth, and when Chrif-
tians believe that the redemption of it was
firft announced to her within whofe womb
it was conceived.
The
174 OBSERVATIONS IN A
The name of Venice has been varioufly
accounted for ; but I believe our ordinary
people in England are neareft to the right,
who call it Venus in their common difcourfe ;
as that god'defs was, like her beft beloved feat
of refidence, born of the fea's light froth,
according to old fables, and partook of her
native element, the gay and gentle, not
rough and boifterous qualities. It is faid too,
and I fear with too much truth, that there
are in this town forne permitted profefibrs of
the inveigling arts, who ftill continue to cry
Vent etiam y as their anceftors did when fly-
ing from the Goths they fought thefe fands
for refuge, and gave their lion wings. Till
once well fixed, they kindly called their
continental neighbours, round to fhare their
liberty, and to accept that happinefs they
were willing to beftow and to diffufe ; and
from this call this Vent, etlam it is, that the
learned men among them derive the word
Venetia.
I have afked feveral friends about the truth
of what one has been always hearing of in
England, that the Venetian gondoliers fmg
Taffo and Ariofto's verfes in the ftreets at
night ; fometimes quarrelling with each
other
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 175
other concerning the merit of their favourite
poets ; but what I have been told fmce I
came here, of their attachment to their
refpeclive mafters, and fecrecy when trufted
by them in love affairs, feems far more
probable ; as they are proud to exqefs when
they ferve a nobleman of high birth, and
will tell you with an air of importance, that
the houfe of Memmo, Monferiigo, or Grat-
terola, has been ferved by their anceftors for
thefe eighty or perhaps a hundred years ;
tranfmitting family pride thus from gene-
ration to generation; even when that pride
is but reflected only like the mock rainbow
of a fummer iky. But hark ! while I am
writing this peevim reflection in my room, I
hear fome voices under my window anfwer-
ing each other upon the Grand Canal. It is, it
is the gondolieri fure enough ; they are at this
moment finging to an odd fort of tune, but
in no unmufical manner, the flight of Ermi-
nia from Taflb's Jerufalem. Oh, how pretty !
how pleafmg ! This wonderful city realizes
the moft romantic ideas ever formed of it,
and defies imagination to efcape her various
powers of enflaving it.
Apropos
176 OBSERVATIONS IN A
Apropos to fmging; we were this evening
carried to a well-known confervatory called
the Mendicant! ; who performed an oratorio
in the church with great, and I dare fay
deferred applatife. It was difficult for me to
perfuade myfelf that all the performers were
women, till, watching carefully, our eyes con-
vinced us, as they were but flightly grated.
The fight of girls, however, handling the
double bafs, and blowing into the balloon,
did not much pleafe me ; arid the deep-toned
voice of her who fung the part of Saul,
feemed an odd unnatural thing enough.
What I found moft curious and pretty, was to
hear Latin verfes, of the old Leonine race
broken into eight and fix, and fung in
rhyme by thefe women, as if they were airs of
Metaftafio ; all in their dulcified pronuncia-
tion too, for the patois runs equally through
every language when fpoken by a Vene-
tian.
Well ! thefe pretty fyrens were delighted
to feize upon us, and prelTed our vifit to their
parlour with a fvveetnefs that I know not
who would have refifted. We had no fuch
intent ; and amply did their performance
repay
JOURNEY THROUGH If ALY. 177
-frepay my curioflty,-) for vifiting Venetian
beauties, fo juftly celebrated for their feducing
manners and foft addrefs. They accom-
panied their voices with the forte-piano, and
fung a thoufand buffo fongs, with all that
gay voluptuoufnels for which their country
is renowned.
The fchool, however, is running to ruin
apace ; and perhaps the conduct of the mar-
ried women here may contribute to make
fuch confervatorios ufelefs and neglected.
When the Duchefs of Montefpan afked
the famous Louifon D'Arquien, by way of
infult, as (he prefled too near her, " Comment
allolt le metier * ?" " Depuis que les dames
s'en melent" (replied the courtefan with no
improper fpirit,) " // ne vaut plus rien f ."
It may be thefe fyrens have fuffered in the
fame caufe ; I thought the ardency of their
manners an additional proof of their hunger
for frefli prey.
Will Naples, the original feat of Ulyfles's
feducers, mew us any thing ftronger than
this ? I hardly expect or wifh it. The ftate
* How goes the profeflion ?
f Why fince the quality has taken to it ma'am, it
brings us in very little indeed.
VOL. I. N of
178 OBSERVATIONS IN A
of raufic in Italy^lf one may believe thofe
who ought to know it beft, is not what it
was. The manner of fmging is much
changed, I am told ; and fome affectations
have been fuflfered to encroach upon their
natural graces. Among the perfons who
exhibited their talents at the Countefs of Ro-
fenberg's laft week, our country-woman's
performance was moft applauded ; but when
I name Lady Clarges, no one will wonder.
It is faid that painting is now but little
cultivated among them; Rome will however
be the place for fuch enquiries. Angelica
Kauffinan being fettled there, feems a proof
of their tafte for living merit ; and if one
thing more than another evinces Italian
candour and true good-nature, it is perhaps
their generous willingnefs to be ever happy
in acknowledging foreign excellence, and
their delight in bringing forward the eminent
qualities of every other nation ; never info-
lently vaunting or bragging of their own.
Unlike to this is the national fpirit and con-
fined ideas of perfc 'lion inherent in a Gallic
mind, whofe fole politenefs is an applique
ftuck upon the coat, but never embroidered
into it*
The
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 179
The obfervation made here laft night by a
Parifian lady, gave me a proof of this I
little wanted. We met at the Cafmo of the
Senator Angelo Quirini, where a fort of
literary coterie afTemble every evening, and
form a fociety fo inftructive and amufmg, fo
fure to be filled with the firft company in
Venice, and fo hofpitably open to all tra-
vellers of character, that nothing can now
be to me a higher intellectual gratification
than my admittance among them ; as in
future no place will ever be recollected with
more pleafure, no hours with more gratitude,
than thofe pafled moft delightfully by me in
that moft agreeable apartment*
I exprefled to the French lady my admi-
ration of St. Mark's Place. " C^efl que vous
nave* jamals i)ue la foire Sf. Qvide" faid
flie ; "je vous affure que celafurpajfe beaucoup
ces trifles palais qiion vantetant *." And this
could only have been arrogance, for fhe was
a very fenfible and a very accomplifhed wo-
man ; and when talked to about the literary
* You admire it, fays fhe,' only becaufe you never
faw the fair at St. Ovid's in Paris ; I aflure you there is
no comparifon between thofe gay illuminations and thefe
difmal palaces the Venetians are fo fond of.
N 2 merits
i8o OBSERVATIONS IN A
merits of her own countrymen, fpoke with
great acutenefs and judgment.
General knowledge, however, it muft be
confeffed (meaning that general ftock that
every one recurs to for the common inter-
courfe of converfation), will be found more
frequently in France, than even in England ;
where, though all cultivate the arts of table
eloquence and afTembly-room rhetoric, few,
from mere fhynefs, venture to gather in the
profits of their plentiful harveft ; but rather
cloud their countenances with mock im-
portance, while their hearts feel no hope beat
higher in them, than the humble one of
efcaping without being ridiculed ; or than
in Italy, where nobody dreams of cultivating
converfation at all as an art ; or ftudies for
any other than the natural reafon, of inform-
ing or diverting themfelves, without the moft
diftant idea of gaining admiration, or fhin-
ing in company, by the quantity of fcience
they have accumulated in folitude. Here
no man lies awake in the night for vexation
that he miffed recollecting the laft line of a
Latin epigram till the moment of application
was loft ; nor any lady changes colour with
trepidation at the fe verity viable in her huf-
band's
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 181
band's countenance when the chickens are
over-roafted, or the ice-creams melt with
the room's exceffive heat.
Among the noble Senators of Venice,
meantime, many good fcholars, many Belles
Lettres converfers, and what is more valu-
able, many thinking men, may be found, and
found hourly, who employ their powers
wholly in care for the ftate ; and make their
pleafure, like true patriots, out of her fe~
licity. The ladies indeed appear to fludy but
one fcience ;
And where the leflbn taught
Is but to pleafe, can pleafure feem a fault ?
Like all fenfualifts, however, they fail of the
end propofed, from hurry to obtain it ; and
confume thofe charms which alone can pro-
cure them continuance or change of admirers;
they injure their health too irreparably, and
that in their earlieft youth ; for few remain
unmarried till fifteen, and at thirty have a
wan and faded look. On ne goute pas fes
plaifirs Icy r , on les avale *, faid Madame la
Prefidente yefterday, very judicioufly ; yet it
* They do not taftc their pleafures here, they fwallow
them whole.
N 3 is
182 OBSERVATIONS IN A
is only fpeaking popularly that one can be
fuppofed to mean, what however no one
much refufes to aflert, that the Venetian
ladies are amoroufly inclined : the truth is,
no check being put upon inclination, each
acts according to immediate impulfe ; and
there are more devotees, perhaps, and more
doating mothers at Venice than any where
elfe, for the fame reafon as there are more
females who pradlife gallantry, only becaufe
there are more women there who do their
own ivay^ and follow unreftrained where
paflion, appetite, or imagination lead them.
To try Venetian dames by Englim rules,
would be worfe than all the tyranny com-
plained of when fome Eaft Indian was
condemned upon the Coventry ad for flitting
his wife's nofe ; a common practice in his
country, and perfectly agreeable to cuftom
and the ufage du pays. Here is no ftruggle
for female education as with us, no re-
fources in ftudy, no duties of family-manage-
ment ; no bill of fare to be looked over in
the morning, no account-book to be fettled
at noon ; no neceflity of reading, to fupply
without difgrace the evening's chat; no
laughing at the card-table, or tittering in the
corner;
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 183
corner if a lap/us lingua has produced a
miftake, which malice never fails to record.
A lady in Italy is fure of applaufe, fo fhe
takes little pains to obtain it. A Venetian
lady has in particular fo fweet a manner na-
turally, that fhe really charms without any
fettled intent to do fo, merely from that irre-
iiftible good-humour and mellifluous tone of
voice which feize the foul, and detain it
in defpite of Juno-like majefty, or Minerva-
like wit. Nor ever was there prince or
fhepherd, Paris I think was both, who
would not have beftowed his apple here.
Mean while my countryman Howel la-
ments that the women at Venice are fo little.
But why fo ? the diminutive progeny of Vul-
can^ the Cablrs^ myfterioufly adored of old,
were of a fize below that of the leaft living
woman, if we believe Herodotus ; and they
were worfhipped with more conftant as well
as more fervent devotion, than the fymme-
trical goddefs of Beauty herfelf.
A cuftom, which prevails here, of wearing
little or no rouge, and increafmg the native
palenefs of their {kins, by fcarce lightly
wiping the very white powder from their
faces, is a method no Frenchwoman of
N 4 quality
I $4 OBSERVATIONS IN A
quality would like to adopt ; yet furely the
Venetians are not behind-hand in the art of
gaining admirers ; and they do not, like
their painters, depend upon colouring to en-
fure it.
Nothing can be a greater proof of the
little confequence which drefs gives to a wo-
man, than the reflection one muft make on a
Venetian lady's mode of appearance in her
zendalet, without which nobody ftirs out of
their houfe in a morning. It confifts of a
full black filk petticoat, floped juft to train
a very little on the ground, and flounced
with gauze of the fame colour. A fkeleton
wire upon the head, fuch as we ufe to make
up hats, throwing loofely over it a large
piece of black mode or perfian, fo as to fhade
the face like a curtain, the front being trim-
med with a very deep black lace, or fouflet
gauze infinitely becoming. The thin filk
that remains to be difpofed of, they roll back
fo as to difcover the bolbm ; faften it with a
puff before at the top of their flomacher, and
once more rolling it back from the fhape, tie
it gracefully behind, and let it hang in two
long ends.
The
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY, ,85
The evening ornament is a filk hat, fhaped
like a man's, and of the fame colour, with
a white or worked lining at moft, and fome-
times one feather ; a great black filk cloak,
lined with white, and perhaps a narrow
border down before, with a vaft heavy round
handkerchief of black lace, which lies over
neck and {houlders, and conceals fhape and
all completely. Here is furely little appear-
ance of art, no craping or frizzing the hair,
which is flat at the top, and all of one length,
hanging in long curls about the back or fides
as it happens. No brown powder, and
no rouge at all. Thus without variety does
a Venetian lady contrive to delight the eye,
and without much inftruction too to charm
the ear. A fource of thought fairly cut off
befide, in giving her no room to fhew tafte
in drefs, or invent new fancies and difpofi-
tion of ornaments for to-morrow. The go-
vernment takes all that trouble off her hands,
knows every pin fhe wears, and where to
find her at any moment of the day or night.
Mean time nothing conveys to a Britifh
obferver a ftronger notion of loofe living and
licentious diflblutenefs, than the fight of one's
fervants, gondoliers, and other attendants, on
the
i86 OBSERVATIONS IN A
the fcenes and circles of pleafure, where you
find them, though never drunk, dead with
fleep upon the flairs, or in their boats, or in
the open ftreet, for that matter, like over-
fwilled voters at an election in England. One
may trample on them if one will, they
hardly can be awakened ; and their compa-
nions, who have more life left, fet the others
literally on their feet, to make them capable
of obeying their mafter or lady's call.
With all this appearance of levity, how-
ever, there is an unremitted attention to the
affairs of ftate; nor is any fenator feen to
come late or negligently to council next day,
however he may have amufed himfelf all
night.
The fight of the Bucentoro prepared for
Gala, and the glories of Venice upon Afcen-
fion-day, muft now put an end to other
obfervations. We had the honour and com-
fort of feeing all from a galley belonging to
a noble Venetian Bragadin, whofe civilities
to us were fingularly kind as well as ex-
tremely polite. His attentions did not ceafe
with the morning fhow, which we fhared in
common with numbers of fafhionable people
that filled his fliip, and partook of his pro-
fufc
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 187
fufe elegant refrefhments ; but he folio wed
us after dinner to the houfe of our Englifh
friends, and took fix of us together in a gay
bark, adorned with his arms, and rowed by
eight gondoliers in fuperb liveries, made up
for the occafion to match the boat, which
was like them white, blue and filver, a flag
of the fame colours flying from the ftern, till
we arrived at the Corfo ; fo they call the
place of contention where the rowers exert
their fkill and ingenuity; and numberlefs
oafs darning the waves at once, make the
only agitation of which the fea feems ca-
pable ; while ladies, now no longer drefled
in black, but ornamented with all their
jewels, flowers, &c. difplay their beauties
unveiled upon the water ; and covering the
lagoons with gaiety and fplendour, bring to
one's mind the games in Virgil, and the
galley of Cleopatra, by turns.
Never was locality fo fubfervient to the
purpofes of pleafure as in this city ; where
pleafure has fet up her airy ftandard, and
which on this occafion looked like what one
reads in poetry of Amphitrite's court; and
I ventured to tell a nobleman who was
kindly attentive in mewing us every poflible
politeuefs,
188 OBSERVATIONS IN A
politenefs, that had Venus rifen from the
Adriatic fea, fhe would fcarcely have been
tempted to quit it for Olympus. I was upon
the whole more ftruck with the evening's
gaiety, than with the magnificence in which
the morning began to fhine. The truth is,
we had been long prepared for feeing the
Bucentoro ; had heard and read every thing
I fancy that could have been thought or faid
upon the fubject, from the fullen Englimmen
who rank it with a company's barge floating
up the Thames upon my Lord Mayor's day,
to the old writers who compare it with
Thefeus's fhip ; in imitation of which, it is
faid, this calls itfelf the very identical veflel
wherein Pope Alexander performed the ori-
ginal ceremony in the year 1171; and
though, perhaps, not a whole plank of that
old galley can be now remaining in this,
fo often careened, repaired, and adorned fmce
that time, I fee nothing ridiculous in declaring
that it is the fame ihip ; any more than in
faying the oak I planted an acorn thirty years
ago, is the fame tree I faw fpriqg up then
a little twig, which not even a moderate
fceptic will deny ; though he takes fo much
to perfuade plain folks out of their
own
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. ^9
own exiftence, by laughing us out of the dull
notion that he who dies a withered old
fellow at fourfcore, fhould ever be confidered
as the fame perfon whom his mother brought
forth a pretty little plump baby eighty years
before when, fays he cunningly, you are
forced yourfelf to confefs, that his mother,
who died four months afterwards, would
not know him again now ; though while me
lived, he was never out of her arms.
Vain wifdom all ! and falfe Philofophy,
Which finds no end, in wandering mazes loft.
And better is it to travel, as Dr. Johnfon fays
Browne did, from one place where he faw
little, to another where he faw no more
than write books to confound common fenfe,
and make men raife up doubts of a Being to
whom they muft one day give an account.
We will return to the Bucentoro, which ?
as its name imports, holds two hundred peo-
ple, and is heavy befides with ftatues, co-
lumns, &c. The top covered with crimfon
velvet, and the fides enlivened by twenty-
one oars on each hand. Mufical performers
attend in another barge, while foreigners in
gilded pajots increafe the general fhow.
3 Mean
igo OBSERVATIONS IN A
Mean time, the veflel that contains the
doge, &c. carries him flowly out to fea,
where in prefence of his fenators he drops
a plain gold ring into the water, with thefe
words, Defponfamus te mare^ in fignum veri
ferpetuique domin'n *.
Our weather was favourable, and the peo-
ple all feemed happy : when the ceremony
is put off from day to day, it naturally damps
their fpirits, and produces fuperftitious pre-
fages of an unlucky year: nor is that ftrange,
for the feafon of ftorms ought furely to be
pafl in a climate fo celebrated for mildnefs
and equanimity. The praifes of Italian
weather, though wearifomely frequent among
us, feem however much confined to this
ifland for aught I fee ; who am often tired
with hearing their complaints of their own
iky, now that they are under it : always too
cold or too hot, or a fciroc wind, or a rainy
day, or a hard froft, cbe gelajin al penjierl ~j~ ;
or fomething to murmur about, while their
only great nuifances pafs unnoticed, the
heaps of dirt, and crowds of beggars, who
infeft the ftreets, and poifon the pleafures of
* We efpoufe thee, O fea ! in fign of true and per-
petual dominion.
f Which freezes even one's fancy.
2 fociety.
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. t$t
Fociety. While ladies are eating ice at a
coffee-houfe door, while decent people are
hearing mafs at the altar, while ftrangers
are furveying the beauties of the place no
peace, no enjoyment can one obtain for the
beggars ; numerous beyond credibility, faucy
and airy, and odd in their manners ; and
exhibiting fuch various lamenefles and hor-
rible deformities in their figure, that I can
fometimes hardly believe my eyes but am
willing to be told, what is not very impro-
bable, that many of them come from a great
di fiance to pafs the feafon of afcenfion here
at Venice. I never indeed faw any thing
fo gently endured, which it appeared fo little
difficult to remedy; but though I hope it
would be hard to find a place where more
alms are afked, or lefs are given, than in
Venice ; yet I never faw refufals fo plea-
fmgly foftened, as by the manners of the
high Italians towards the low. Ladies in
particular are fo foft-mouthed, fo tender in
replying to thofe who have their lot caft far
below them, that one feels one's own harflier
difpofition corrected by their fweetnefs ; and
when they called my maid fifter^ in good
time preffing her hand with affectionate
kindnefs,
up OBSERVATIONS IN A
kindnefs, it melted me ; though I feared from
lime to time there muft be hypocrify at
bottom of men fugared words, till I caught
a lady of condition yefierday turning to the
window, and praying fervently for the girl's
converfion to chriflianity, all from a tender
and pious emotion of her gentle heart: as
notwithftanding their carefTes, no man is
more firmly perfuaded of a mathematical
Jruth than they are of mine, and my maid's
living in a (late of certain and eternal re-
probation ma fanno veramente vergogna a
nol altrl *, fay they, quite in the fpirit of the
old Romans, who thought all nations bar-
barous except their own.
A woman of quality, near whom I fate at
the fine ball Bragadin made two nights ago
in honour of this gay feafon, enquired how
I had pafled the morning. I named feveral
churches I had looked into, particularly that
which they efteem beyond the reft as a fa-
vourite work of Palladio, and called the Re-
deniore. " You do very right," fays fhe, " to
look at our churches, as you have none in
England, I know but then you have fo
* But they really fhame wen its.
many
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 193
itiany other fine things fuch charming Jled
buttons for example ; " prefling my hand to
ihew that fhe meant no offence ; for, added
fhe, cbi penfa d'una manlera^ chi penfa cfun
altra *.
Here are many theatres^ the word infi-
nitely fuperior to ours ; the beft, fir be-
low thofe of Milan and Turin : but then
here are other diverfions, and every one's
dependance for pleafure is not placed upon
the opera. They have now thrown up a
fort of temporary wall of painted canvafs, in
an oval form, within St. Mark's Place, pro-
fufely illuminated round the new-formed
walk, which is covered in at top, and
adorned with {hops round the right hand
fide, with pillars to fupport the canopy ; the
lamps, &c. on the left hand. This open
Ranelagh, fo fuited to the climate, is exceed-
ingly pleafmg -.here is room to fit, to
chat, to faunter up and down, from two
o'clock in the morning, when the opera ends,
till a hot fun fends us all home to reft for
late hours muft be complied with at Venice,
or you can have no diverfion at all, as the
* One perfon is of one mind you know, another of
another.
VOL. I. O earlieft
t94 OBSERVATIONS IN A
carlieft Cafino belonging to your fobere$ '
friends has not a candle lighted in it till
paft midnight.
But I am called from my book to fee the
public library ; not a lage one I find, but
ornamented with pieces of fculpture, whofe
eminence has not, I am fure, waited for my
defcription : the Jupiter and Leda parti-
cularly, faid to be the work of Phidias, whofe
Ganymede in the fame collection they tell
us is equally excellent. Having heard that
Guarini's manufcript of the Paftor Fido,
written in his own hand, was fafely kept at
this place, I afked for it, and was enter-
tained to fee his numberlefs corrections and
variations from the original thought, like
thofe of Pope's Homer preferved in the
Britifh Mufeum ; fome of which I copied
over for Doctor Johnfon to print, at the time
he publilhed his Lives of the Englifh Poets.
My curiofity led me to look in the Paftor
Fido for the famous paiTage of Legge humana^
inhumana^ &c. and it was obfervable enough
that he had written it three different ways
before he pitched on that peculiar expref-
fion which caufed his book to be prohibited.
Seeing the manufcript I took notice, how-
20 ever,
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 195
ever, of the beautiful penmanfhip with which
it was written : our Englifh hand-writing
cotemporary to his was coarfe, if I recollect,
and very angular ; but Italian hand was the
firfl to become elegant, and ftill retains fome
privileges amongft us. Once more, every
thing fmall, and every thing great, revived
after the dark ages in Italy.
Looking at the Mint was an hour's time
fpent with lefs amufement. The depuration of
gold may be performed many ways, and the
proofs of its purity given by various methods :
I was gratified well enough upon the whole
however, in watching the neatnefs of their
procefs, in weighing the gold, &c. and keep-
ing it more free from alloy than any other
coin of any other ftate : a zecchine will bend
between your fingers from the malleability of
the metal we may try in vain at a guinea,
or louis d'or. The operation of feparating
filver ore from gold by the powers of aqua
fords, precipitating the firft-named metal by
iufpenfion of a copper plate in the liquid,
and called quartation ; was I believe wholly
unknown to the ancients, who got much
earlier at the art of weighing gold in water,
teftifted by the old ftory of King Hiero's crow?t.
O 2 Talking
19* OBSERVATIONS IN A
Talking of kings, and crowns, and gold,
reminds me of my regret for not feeing the
treafure kept in St. Mark's church here, with
the motto engraven on the cheft which con-
tains it :
Quando qnefto fcrinio s'aprira,
Tutto il mondo tremera *.
Of this it was faid in our Charles the Firil's
time, that there was enough in it to pay fix
kings' ranfoms : when Pacheco, the Spanifh
ambaflador, hearing fo much of it, afked in
derifion, If the cheft had any bottom ? and
being anfwered in the affirmative, made reply ?
That there was the difference between his
matter's treafures and thofe of the Venetian
Republic, for the mines of Mexico and Po-
tofi had no bottom. Strange ! if all thefe
precious ftones, metals, &c. have been all
fpent fince then, and nothing left except a
few relics of no intrinfic value.
It is well enough known, that in the year
1450, one of the natives of theifland of Can-
dia, who have never been men of much charac-
ter, made a fort of mine, or airfhaft, or rather
* When this fcrutoire fha'l open'd be,
The world fhall aii with wonder flee.
perhaps
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. ,g 7
perhaps a burrow, like thofe conftructed by
rabbit?, down which he went and got quite
under the church, ftealing out gems, money^
&c. to a vaft amount ; but being difcovered
by the treachery of his companion, was
caught and hanged between the two columns
that face the fea on the Piazzetta.
It ftrikes a perfon who has lived fome
months in other parts of Italy, to fee fo very
few clergymen at Venice, and none hardly
who have much the look or air of a man of
fafhion. Milan, though fuch heavy com-
plaints are daily made there of encroachments
on church power and depredations on church
opulence, ftill fwarms with ecclefiaftics ; and
in an aflembly of thirty people, there are
never fewer than ten or twelve at the very
leaft. But here it fhould feem as if the po-
litical cry of fuorl i preti * f which is faid
loudly in the council-chamber before any
vote is fufFered to pafs into a law, were
carried in the converfation rooms too, for a
prieft is here lefs frequent than a clergyman
at London; and thofe one fees about, are
almoft all ordinary men, decent and humble
* Out with the clergy,
03 in
198 OBSERVATIONS IN A
in. their appearance, of a bamful diftant
carriage, like the parfon of the parim in North
Wales, or le cure du village in the South of
France ; and feems no way related to an
Abate of Milan or Turin , ilill lefs to Monjieur
T Abbe at Paris.
Though this Republic has long maintained
A fort of independency from the court of
Rome, having (hewn themfelves weary of
the Jefuits two hundred years before any
other potentate difmiffed them ; while many
of the Venetian populace followed them
about, crying Andate^ andate^ n'tente pigliate,
emai ritornate*; and although there is a pa-
triarch here who takes care of church matters,
and is attentive to keep his clergy from ever
meddling with or even mentioning affairs
of ftate, as in fuch a cafe the Republic would
not fcruple punifhing them as laymen ; yet
has Venice kept, as they call it, St. Peter's
boat from finking more than once, when me
faw the Pope's territories endangered, or his
fovereignty infulted : nor is there any city
more eminent for the decency with which
divine fervice is adminiftered, or for the de-
vout and decorous behaviour of individuals
* Begone, begone ; nothing take, nor turn anon.
at
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 199
at the time any facred office is performing.
She has ever behaved like a true Chriftian
potentate, keeping her faith firm, and her
honour fcrupuloufly clear, in all treaties and
conventions with other ftates fewer in-
ftances being given of Venetian falfehood or
treachery towards neighbouring nations, than
of any other European power, excepting
only Britain, her truly-beloved ally; with
whom fhe never had a difference, and whofe
caufe was fo warmly efpoufed laft war by
the inhabitants of this friendly ftate, that
numbers of young nobility were willing to
run a-volunteering in her defence, but that
the laws of Venice forbid her nobles ranging
from home without leave given from the
flate. It was therefore not an ill faying,
though an old one perhaps, that the govern-
ment of Venice was rich and confolatory like
its treacle, being compounded nicely of all
the other forms : a grain of monarchy, a fcru-
ple of democracy, a dram of oligarchy, and an
ounce of ariftocracy ; as the tenaca fo much
efteemed, is faid to be a compofition of the four
principal drugs but can never be got ge-
nuine except here^ at the original Difpcnfary.
Indeed the longevity of this incom-
parable commonwealth is a certain proof
04 of'
aco OBSERVATIONS IN A
of its temperance, exercife, and cheerfulness^
the great prefervatives in every body, poli-
tic as well natural. Nor fhould the love of
peace be left out of her euiogium, who has fo
often reconciled contending princes, that Thu-
anus gave her, fome centuries ago, due praife
for her pacific difpolition, fo neceflfary to the
health of a commercial ftare, and called her
city civilis prudentite officina
Another reafon may be found for the long-
continu j .. iperity of Venice, in her c^nftant
adhereu i. j a precept, the neglecl of which
mull at length fhake, or rather loofen the foun-
dations of every ftate ; for it is a maxim here,
handed down from generation to generation,
that change breeds more mifchief from its
novelty, than advantage from its utility :
quoting the axiom in Latin, it runs thus : Ipfa
mutatio confuetudinis magis perturbat novitate^
quam adjuvat utllitate. And when Henry the
Fourth of France folicited the abrogation of one
of the Senate's decrees, her ambarTador replied,
That // decreti di Venezia rajfomigli avanopoco
iGridi di Parigi*^ meaningthe declaratory pub-
lications of the Grand Monarque, proclaimed
to-day perhaps, repealed to-morrow " for
* The decrees of Venice little refemble the edicts of Paris.
Sire,"
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. ^
Sire," added he, " our fenate deliberates long
before it decrees, but what is once decreed
{here is feldpm or ever recalled."
The patriotifm inherent in the breafts of in-
dividuals makes another ftrong caufe of this
Hate's exemption from decay : they fay them-
felves, that the foul of old Rome has tranfmi-
grated to Venice, and that every galley which
goes into adion confiders itfelf as charged with
the fate of the commonwealth. Dulce et
decorum eft pro p atria mori, feems a fentence
grown obfolete in other ItalLm ftates, but is
ftill in full force here ; and I doubt not but
the high-born and high-fouled ladies of this
day, would willingly, as did their generous
anceftors in 1600, part with their rings,
bracelets, every ornament, to make ropes for
thofe (hips which defend their dearer country.
The perpetual ftate of warfare maintained
by this nation againft the Turks, has never
leflened nor cooled : yet have their Maho-
metan neighbours and natural enemies no
perfidy to charge them with in the time of
peace or of hoftility : nor can Venice be
charged with the mean vice of flickering a
defire of depredation, under the hypocritical
cant of protecting that religion which teaches
univerfal*
202 OBSERVATIONS IN A
univerfal benevolence and charity to all man-
kind. Their vicinity to Turkey has, how-
ever, made them contract fome fimilarity of
manners ; for what, except being imbued
with Turkifh notions, can account for the
people's rage here, young and old, rich and
poor, to pour down fuch quantities of coffee ?
I have already had feven cups to-day, and feel
frighted left we fhould fome of us be killed with
fo ftrange an abufe of it. On the oppofite (here,
acrofs the Adriatic, opium is taken to coun-
teract its effects ; but thefe dear Venetians
have no notion of fleep being neceffary to
their exiftence I believe, as fome or other of
them feem conftantly in motion ; and there
is really no hour of the four and twenty in
which the town feems perfectly ftill and
quiet ; no moment in which it can be faid^
that
Night ! fable goddefs ! from her ebon throne,
In raylefs majefly here ftretches forth
Her leaden fceptre o'er a ilumb'ring world.
Accordingly I never did meet with any de
fcription of Night in the Venetian poets, fo
common with other authors ; and I am per-
fuaded if one were to live here (which could
not
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 203
not be long I think) he fhould forget the
life of deep ; for what with the market
folks bringing up the boats from Terra Firma
loaded with every produce of nature, neatly
arranged in thefe flat-bottomed conveyances f
the coming up of which begins about three
o'clock in a morning and ends about fix ;
the Gondoliers rowing home their matters
and ladies about that hour, and fo on till
eight ; the common bufmefs of the town,
which it is then time to begin ; the (late
affairs and/r^/, which often like our Houfe
of Commons fit late, and detain many gen-
tlemen from the circles of morning amufe-
ments ; that I find very entertaining ; parti-
cularly the ftreet orators and mountebanks
in Piazza St. Marco ; the fhops and flails
where chickens, ducks, &c. are fold by auc-
tion, comically enough, to the higheft bidder;
a flourifhing fellow, with a hammer in his
hand, mining away in character of auctio-
neer ; the crowds which fill the courts of ju-
dicature, when any cauie of confequence is to
be tried ; the clamorous voices, keen obfer-
vations, poignant farcafms, and acute con-
tentions carried on by the advocates, who
feem more awake, or in their own phrafe
fvdti,
2P4 OBSERVATIONS IN A
fuelti, than all the reft : all thefe things
take up fo much time, that twenty-four
Jiours do not fuffice for the bufmefs and
diverfions of Venice ; where dinner muft be
eaten as in other places, though I can fcarcely
find a minute to fpare for it, while fuch fifh
wait one's knife and fork as I moft certainly
did never fee before, and as I fuppofe are
not to be feen in any fea but this, in fuch
perfection. Frefh fturgeon, ton, as they call
it, and frefh anchovies, large as herrings, and
drefled like fprats in London, incomparable ;
turbots, like thofe of Torbay exadly, and
plentiful as there, with enprmous pipers, are
what one principally eats here. The friecj
liver, without which an Italian can hardly
go on from day to day, is fo charmingly drefT-
ed at Milan, that I grew to like it as well as
they ; but at Venice it is fad fluff, and they
call itfegao.
Well ! the ladies, who never hardly dine
at all, rife about feven in the evening, when
the gentlemen- are juft got ready to attend
them ; and fit fipping their chocolate on a
chair at the coffee-houfe door with great
tranquillity, chatting over the common to-
pics of the times : nor do they appear half
'fo
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. >$
fo fhy of each other as the Milanefe ladies,
who feldom feem to have any pleafure in the
foft converfe of a female friend. But though
certainly no women can be more charming
than thefe Venetian dames, they have for-
gotten the old mythological fable, that the
yoimgeft of the Graces was married to Sleep.
By which it was intended we fhould confider
that (late as rieceflary to the reparation not
only of beauty but of youth, and every power
of pleafing.
There are men here however who, be-
caufe they are not quite in the gay world,
keep themfelves awake whole nights at ftudy;
and much has been told me, of a collection of
books belonging to a private fcholar, Pinelli,
who goes very little out, as worthy attentive
examination.
All literary topics are pleafmgly difcufled
at Quirini's Cafmo, where every thing may
be learned by the converfation of the com-
pany, as Dodtor Johnfon faid of his literary
Club ; but more agreeably, becaufe women
are always half the number of perfons admit-
ted here*
One evening our fociety was amufed by
the entrance of a foreign nobleman, exa&ly
what
2 o$ OBSERVATIONS IN A -
what we mould in London emphatically call
a CharaEter^ learned, loud, and overbear-
ing ; though of a carriage that imprefied
great efteem. I have not often liflened to
fo well-furnifhed a talker ; nor one more
capable of giving great information. He
had feen the Pyramids of Egypt, he told us;
had climbed Mount Horeb, and vifited Da-
mafcus ; but poflefTed the art of detaining our
attention more on himfelf, than on the things
or places he harangued about ; for converfa-
tion that can fcarcely be called, where one
man holds the company fufpended on his
account of matters pompoufly though in-
firudively related. He ftaid here a very
little while among us ; is a native of France,
a grandee of Spain, a man of uncommon
talents, and a traveller. I mould be forry
never to meet him more.
The Abate Arteaga, a Spanim ecclefi-
aftic of the fame agreeable coterie, feemed of
a very different and far more pleafmg cha-
racter ; full of general knowledge, eminent
in particular fcholarfhip, elegant in his fenti-
ments, and found in his learning. I liked
his company exceedingly, and refpected his
opinions.
Zinga-
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. ao;
Zingarelli, the great mufical compofer, was
another occafional member of this charming
fociety : his wit and repartie are famous, and
his bons mots are repeated wherever one runs
to. I cannot tranflate any of them, but will
write one down, which will make fuch of my
readers laugh as underftand Italian.- The
Emperor was at Milan, and afked Zingarelli
his opinion of a favourite finger ? " lo penfo
maejla che non e cattivo fuddito dei prin-
cipif replied the mafter, " quantunque
far a gran nemico dt giove" " How fo?"
enquired the King. <c Maejla" anfwered
our lively Neapolitan, " ella sa naturalmente
fbe Giove tuona, ma quefto fluona." This
\ve fee at once was humour not wit; and
Tallies of humour are fcarcely ever capable of
tranflation.
An odd thing to which I was this morning
witnefs, has called my thoughts away to a
curious train of reflections upon the animal
race ; and how far they may be made com-
panionable and intelligent. The famous
Ferdinand Bertoni, fo well known in London
by his long refidence among us, and from the
undifputed merit of his compofitions, now
inhabits this his native city, and being fond
of
2o8 OBSERVATIONS IN A
of dumb creatures, as we call them, took tc
petting a pigeon, one of the few animals
which can live at Venice, where,' as I ob-
ferved, fcarcely. any quadrupeds can be ad-
mitted, or would exift with, any degree of
comfort to themfelves*. .This .creature hasj
however, by keeping his mafter company,
I truft, obtained fo perfect an ear and tafte
for mufic, that no one who fees his beha-
viour, can doubt for a moment of the pleafure
he takes in Hearing Mr. Bertoni play and
fmg : for as foon as he fits down to the in-
ftrument, Columbo begins making his wings^
perches on the piano-forte, and exprefles the
moft indubitable emotions of delight. If
however he or any one elfe ftrike i note
falfe, or make any kind of difcord upon the
keys, the dove never fails to mew evident
tokens of anger and diftrefs; and if teized
too long, grows quite enraged ; pecking the
offender's legs and ringers in fuch a manner,
as to leave nothing lefs doubtful than the fln-
cerity of his refentment. Signora Cecilia
Giuliani, a fcholar of Bertoni's, who has
received fome overtures from the London
theatre lately, will, if me ever arrives there,
bear teftimony to the truth of an aflertion
very
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 209
very difficult to believe, and to which I
fhould hardly myfelf give credit, were I not
witnefs to it every morning that I chufe-to call
and confirm my own belief. A friend prefent
protefted he fhould feel afraid to touch the
harpfichord before fo nice a critic; and
though we all laughed at the aflertion, Ber-
toni declared he never knew the bird's
judgment fail ; and that he often kept him
out of the room, for fear of his affronting
or tormenting thofe who came to take mufi-
cal inftrudions. With regard to other actions
of life, I faw nothing particular in the pigeon,
but his tamenefs, and flrong attachment to
his mafter : for though never winged, and
only clipped a very little, he never feeks to
range away from the houfe or quit his mat-
ter's fervice, any more than the dove of
Anacreon :
While his better lot beftows
Sweet repaft and foft repofe;
And when feaft and frolic tire,
Drops afleep upon his lyre.
All the difficulty will be indeed for us other
two-legged creatures to leave the fweet focie-
ties of charming Venice; but they begin to
VOL. I. P grow
aio OBSERVATIONS IN A
grow fatiguing now, as the weather increafes-
in warmth.
I do think the Turkifh failor gave an
admirable account of a carnival, when he
told hjs Mahometan friends at his return,
That thofe poor Chriftians were all difordered
in their fenfes, and nearly in a ftate of actual
madnefs, while he remained among them, till
one day, on a fudden, they luckily found out
a certain grey powder that cured fuch fymp-
toms ; and laying it on their heads one
Wednefday morning, the wits of all the in-
habitants were happily reftored at a Jlroke :
the people grew fober, quiet, and compofed ;
and went about their bufmefs juft like other
folks. He meant the afhes ftrewed on the
heads of all one meets in the ftreets through
many a Catholic country ; when all maf-
querading, money- making, &c. fubfide for
forty days, and give, from the force of the
contraft, a greater appearance of devotion
and decorous behaviour in Venice, than al-
moft any where elfe during Lent.
I do not for my own part think well of all
that violence, that fhong light and fhadow
in
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 21 1
in matters of religion ; which requires rather
an even tenour of good works, proceeding
from found faith, than any of thefe ftaring
teftimonials of repentance, as if it were a
work to be done once a year only. But nei-
ther do I think any Chriftian has a right to
condemn another for his opinions or practice ;
when St. Paul exprefsly fays, that " One
man ejleemeth one day above another^ another
man ejleemeth every day alike ; let every man
be fully perfuaded in his oivn mind. But
'who art thou^ that judgeft another mans
fervant*?"
The Venetians, to confefs the truth, are
not quite fo ftrenuoufly bent on the unattain-
able felicity of finding every man in the
fame mind, as others of the Italians are ; and
one great reafon why they are more gay and
lefs malignant, have fewer ftrong prejudices
than others of their countrymen, is merely
becaufe they are happier. Moft of the
fecond rank, and I believe all of the firft rank
among them, have fome mare in governing
the reft ; it is therefore neceflary to exclude
ignorance, and natural to encourage focial
* Romans, chap. xiv.
P 2 plea-
212 ' OBSERVATIONS IN A
pleafures. Each individual feels his own
importance, and fcorns to contribute to the
degradation of the whole, by indulging a
grofs depravity of manners, or at leaft of
principles. Every perfon lifted one degree
from the loweft, finds it his intereft as well
as duty to love his country, and lend his
little fupport to the general fabric 'of a ftate
they all know how to refpect ; while the very
vulgar willingly perform the condition ex-
acted, and punctually pay obedience for pro-
tection. They have an unlimited confidence
in their rulers, who live amongft them ; and
can defire only their utmoft good. How
they are governed, comes feldom into their
heads to enquire ; " Che ne penfa lu *" fays a
low Venetian, if you aik him, and humour-
oufly points at a Clariffimo palling by while
you talk. They have indeed all the reafon
to be certain, that where the power is divided
among fuch numbers, one will be fure to
counteract another if mifchief towards the
whole be intended.
Of all ariftocracies furely this is the moft
rationally and happily, as well as moft re-
fpedably founded; for though one's heart
* Let htm look to that.
13 revolts
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 213
revolts againft the names of Baron and Vaflal,
while the petty tyrants live fcattered far from
each other, as in Poland, Ruflia, and many
parts of Germany, like lions in the defert,
or eagles in the rock, fecure in their diftance
from equals or fuperiors ; yet here at Venice,
where every nobleman is a baron, and all
together inhabit one city, no fubject can fuf-
fer from the tyranny of the reft, though all
may benefit from the general protection : as
each is feparately in awe of his neighbour,
and delires to fecure his client's tendernefs by
indulgence, inftead of wifhing to difguft him
by oppreffion : unlike the ft ate fo powerfully
delineated by our incomparable poet in his
jPaulina,
Where dwelt in haughty wretchednefs a lord,
Whofe rage was juftice, and whofe law his word ;
Who faw unmov'd the vaffal perifli near,
The widow's anguifli, and the orphan's tear;
Infenfible to pity -ftern he flood,
Like fome rude rock amid the Cafpian flood,
Where Ihipwreck'd Tailors unafilfted lie,
And as they curfe its barren bofom, die.
And it is, I truft, for no deeper reafon that
the fubjeds of this republic refident in the
capital, are lefs favage and more happy than
who live upon the Terra Finna j where
? 3 man ?
214 OBSERVATIONS IN A
many outrages are ftill committed, difgraceful
to the ftate, from the mere facility offenders
find, either in efcaping to the dominion of
other princes, or of finding fhelter at home
from the madly-beftowed protection thefe old
barons on the Continent ceafe not yet to give,
to ruffians who profefs their fervice, and ac-
knowledge dependence upon them. In the
town, however, little is known of thefe en-
ormities, and lefs is talked on ; and what
information has come to my ears of the mur-
ders done at Brefcia and Bergamo, was given
me at Milan ; where Blainville's accounts of
that country, though written fo long ago, did
not fail to receive confirmation from the lips
of thofe who knew perfectly well what they
were talking about. And I am told that
Labbia^ Giovanni Labbia, the new Podefta
lent to Brefcia, has worked wonderful re-
formation among the inhabitants of that ter-
ritory; where I am afhamed to relate the
computation of fubjects loft to the ftate, by
being killed in cold blood during the years
1780 and 1781.
The following fonnet, addreiTed to the
new Magiftrate, by the elegant and learned
Abbe
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 215
Abbe Bettolini, will entertain fuch of my
readers as underftand Italian:
No, Brenno, il popol tuo non e fpietato,
Colpa non e di clima, o fuol nemico :
Ma gli inulti delitti, e'l vezzo antico
D'impune andar col ferro e fuoco a lato,
Ira noi finor nudriro un branco irato
D'Orfi e di lupi; il malaccorto amico
Ti fvenava un fellon fgherro mendico,
E per cauto timor n'era onorato.
Al primiero fpuntar d'un faufto lume
Tutto cangio : curvanfi in falci i teli,
Mille Pluto perde vittime ufate.
Viva 1'Eroe, il comun padre, il nume
Gridan le gente a fi bei di ferbate.
E fia che ardifca dir che fiam crudele.
Imitation.
No, Brennus, no longer thy fons fhall retain
Of their founder ferocious, th' original (lain ;
It cannot be natural cruelty fure,
The reproaches for which from all men we endure ;
Nor climate nor foil (hall henceforth bear the blame,
'Tis cuftom alone, and that cuftom our fhame :
While arm'd at all points men were fuffer'd to rove,
And brandifh the fteel in defence of their love;
What wonder that conduct or caution fhould fail,
And horrid Lycanthropy's terrors prevail ?
P 4 Now
216 OBSERVATIONS IN A
Now juftice refumes her infignia, we find
New light breaking in on each nebulous mind ;
While commiflion'd from Heaven, a parent, a friend
Sees our fwords at his nod into reaping-hooks bend,
And fouls fnatch'd from death round the hero attend.
From thefe verfes, written by a native of
Brefcia, one may fee how matters flood there
very, very little while ago : but here at
Venice the people are of a particularly fweet
and gentle difpofition, good-humoured with
each other, and kind to flrangers ; little dif-
pofed to public affrays (which would indeed
be punifhed and put a fudden end to in an
inftant), nor yet to any fecret or hidden
treachery. They watch the hour of a Re-
gatta with impatience, to make fome merit
with the woman of their choice, and boaft
of their families who have won in the manly
contefl forty or fifty years ago, perhaps when
honoured with the badge and livery of fome
noble houfe : for here almoft every thing is
hereditary, as in England almoft every thing
is elective j nor had I an idea how much
ftate affairs influence the private life of indi-
viduals in a country, till I left trufting to
books, and looked a little about me. The
low
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 217
low Venetian, however, knows that he
works for the commonwealth, and is happy ;
for things go round, fays he, // Turco magna
St. Marco-, St. Marco magna ;///, ml magtiQ
//', e tl tu magna unaltro *.
Apropos to this cuftom of calling Venice
(when they fpeak of it) San Marco ; I heard
fo comical a ftory yefterday that I cannot
refufe the pleafure of inferting it ; and if my
readers do not find it as pleafant as I did,
they may certainly leave it out, without the
fmalleft prejudice either to the book, the
author, or themfelves.
The procurator Tron was at Padua, it
feems, and had a fancy to drive forward to
Vicenza that afternoon, but being particularly
fond of a favourite pair of horfes which drew
his chariot that day, would by no means
venture if it happened to rain ; and took the
trouble to enquire of Abate Toaldo, " \Vhe*
ther he thought fuch a thing likely to happen,
from the appearance of the fky ?" The pro-
feflbr, not knowing why the queftion was
aiked, faid, " he rather thought it would not
* The Turk feeds on St. Mark, St. Mark devours
me ; I eat thee, neighbour, and thou fubfifteft on fome-
body elfe.
rain
2i8 OBSERVATIONS IN A
rain for four hours at moft." In confequence
of this information our fenator ordered his
equipage directly, got into it, and bid the
driver make hafte to Vicenza : but before he
was half-way on his journey, fuch torrents
came down from a black cloud that burft
directly over their heads, that his horfes
were drenched in wet, and their mortified
matter turned immediately back to Padua,
that they might fuffer no further inconveni-
ence. To pafs away the evening, which he
did not mean to have fpent there, and to
quiet his agitated fpirits by thinking on fome-
thing elfe, he walked under the Portico to a
neighbouring coffee-houfe, where fate the
Abate Toaldo in company of a few friends ;
wholly unconfcious that he had been the caufe
of vexing the Procuratore ; who, after a ihoit
paufe, cried out, in a true Venetian fpirit of
anger and humour oddly blended together,
* l Mi die a Signor Profeffore Toaldo^ ch'i c il
piu gran minchion di tutti ifanti in Paradifo?"
Pray tell me Doctor (we (hould fay), who is the
greateft blockhead among all the faints of
Heaven ? The Abbe looked aftoniihed, but
hearing the queflion repeated in a more
peevifh accent ftill, replied gravely, " Eccel-
lenza
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 219
lenza non fon fatto io per rifpondere a tale
dimande My lord, I have no anfwer ready
for fuch extraordinary queftions. Why then,
replies the Procuratore Tron, I will anfwer
this queftion myfelf. St. Marco veeTetta
" el vero mincbion : mentre mantiene tantl
" prof effort per Jludlare (che fo io mi) delle
" Jldh ; roba ajlronomica che non vale un
"Jico; e loro non f anno dirli nemmeno s'ha da
<c plovere o no? y " Why it is St. Mark, do
*' you fee, that is the true blockhead and
* r dupe, in keeping fo many profeflbrs to ftudy
" the flars and fluff; when with all their
<c aftronomy they cannot tell him whether it
" will rain or no.''
Well, pax tibi) Marce ! I fee that I have
faid more about Venice, where I have lived
five weeks, than about Milan, where I flayed
five months ; but
Si placeat varios hominum cognofcere vultus,
Area longa pater, fancto contermina Marco,
Celfus ubi Adriacas, Venetus Leo defpicit undas,
Hie circum genres cunc~ris e parribus orbis,
jErhiopes, Turcos, Slaves, Arabefque, Syrofque,
Inveniefque Cypri, Creras, Macedumque colonos,
Innumerofque alios varia regione profedlos:
Saspe eriam nee vifa prius, nee cognira cernes,
Quae fi cundla velim tenui defcribere verfu,
Heic
<Z20 OBSERVATIONS IN A
Heic omnes citius nautas celerefque P hafelos,
Et fimul Adriaci pifces numerabo profimdi,
Imitated loofely.
If change of faces pleafe your roving fight,
Or various characters your mind delight,
i o gay St. Mark's with eagernefs repair i
For curiofity may pafture there.
Venetia's lion bending o'er the waves,
There fees reflected -tyrants, freemen, flaves,
The fwarthy Moor, the foft Circaflian dame.
The Britifh failor not unknown to fame;
Innumerous nations crowd the lofty door,
Innumerous footfteps print the fandy more j
While verfe might eafier name the fcaly tribe,
That in her feas their nourifhment imbibe,
Than Venice and her various charms defcribe.
It is really pity ever to quit the fweefc
feducements of a place fo pleafing ; which at-?
trads the inclination and flatters the vanity
of one, who, like myfelf, has received the
moft polite attentions, and been diverted with
every amufement that could be devifed.
Kind, friendly, lovely Venetians ! who appear
to feel real fondnefs for the inhabitants of
Great Britain, while Cavalier Pindemonte
writes fuch verfes in its praife. Yet muft
the
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 22I
tfie journey go forward, no flaying to pick
every flower upon the road.
On Saturday next then am I to forfake
but I hope not for ever this gay, this gallant
city, fo often defcribed, fo certainly admired ;
feen with rapture, quitted with regret : feat
of enchantment ! head-quarters of pleafure,
farewell !
Leave us as we ought to be,
Leave the Britons rough and free.
It was on the twenty-firft of May then
that we returned up the Brenta in a barge
to Padua , flopping from time to time to
give refrefhmeiit to our conductors and their
horfe, which draws on the fide, as one fees
them at Richmond ; where the banks are
fcarcely more beautifully adorned by art,
than here by nature ; though the Brenta is
a much narrower river than the Thames at
Richmond, and its villas, fo jufHy celebrated,
far lefs frequent. The fublimity of their
architecture however, the magnificence of
their orangeries, the happy conftruttion of
the cool arcades, and general air of feftivity
which breathes upon the banks of this truly
wizard Jlream^ planted with dancing, not
weeping
222 OBSERVATIONS IN A
weeping willows, to which on a bright even*
ing the lads and laffes run for fhelter from
the fun beams,
Et fugit ad falices, et fe cupit ante videri * ;
are I fuppofe peculiar to itfelf, and beft de-
fcribed by Monfieur de Voltaire, whofe Po-
cocurante the Venetian fenator in Gandide
that pofTefTes all delights in his villa upon the
banks of the Brenta, is a very lively por-
trait, and would be natural too ; but that
Voltaire, as a Frenchman, could not forbear
making his character fpeak in a very unltalian
manner, boafting of his felicity in a ftyle they
never ufe, for they are really no puffers, no
vaunters of that which they poflefs ; make no
difgraceful comparifons between their own
rarities and the want of them in other coun-
tries, nor offend you as the French do, with
falfe pity and hateful confolations.
If any thing in England feem to excite
their wonder and ill-placed compaflion, it is
our coal fires, which they perfift in thinking'
ftrangely unwholefome and a melancholy
proof that we are grievoufly devoid of wood,
* While tripping to the wood my wanton hies,
She wifhes to be fen before (he flies.
before
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 223
before we can prevail upon ourfelves to dig
the bowels of old earth for fewel, at the
hazard of our precious health, if not of its
certain lofs ; nor could I convince the wifeft
man I tried at, that wood burned to chark
is a real poifon, while it would be difficult
by any procefs of chemiftry to force much
evil out of coal. They are fteadily of opi-
nion, that confumptions are occafioned by
thefe fires, and that all the fubjecls of Great
Britain are confumptively difpofed, merely
becaufe thofe who are fo, go into Italy for
change of air: though I never heard that
the wood fmoke helped their breath, or a
brazierfull of afhes under the table their
appetite. Mean time, whoever feeks to con-
vince inftead of perfuade an Italian, will
find he has been employed in a Sifyphean
labour ; the ftone may roll to the top, but
is fure to return, and reft at his feet who had
courage to try the experiment. Logic is a
fcience they love riot, and I think fteadily
refufe to cultivate ; nor is argument a ftyle of
converfation they naturally affect as Lady
Macbeth fays, " Queflion enragetb him;' and
the dialogues of Socrates would to them be
as difgufting as the violence of Xantippe.
10 Well,
224 OBSERVATIONS IN A
Well, here we are at Padua again ! where
I will run, and fee once more the places I
was before fo pleafed with. The beautiful
church of Santa Giuftina, the ancient church
adorned by Cimabue, Giotto, &c. where you
fancy yourfelf on a fudden tranfported to
Dante's Paradifo, and with for Barry the
painter, to point your admiration of its fub-
lime and extraordinary merits ; but not the
{hrine of -St. Anthony, or the tomb of An-
tenor, one rich with gold, the other vene-
rable with ruft, can keep my attention fixed
on them, while an Italian May offers to every
fenfe, the fweets of nature in elegant perfec-
tion. One view of a fmiling landfchape,
lively in verdure, enamelled with flowers,
and exhilarating with the found of mufic
tinder every tree,
Where many a youth and many a maid
Dances in the chequer'd fhade j
And young and old come forth to play,
On a fun-mine holiday j
drives Palladio and Sanfovino from one's
head; and leaves nothing very ftrongly im-
prefled upon one's heart but the recollection
of kindnefs received and efteem reciprocated.
Thole
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 22$
Thofe pleafures have indeed purfued me
hither ; the amiable Countefs Ferris has not
Forgotten us; heir attentions are numerous,
tender, and polite. I went to the play with
her, where I was unlucky enough to mifs
the reprefentation of Romeo and Juliet,
which was acted the night before with great
applaufe, under the name of Tragedia Ve~
ronefe. Monfieur de Voltaire was then pre-
mature in his declarations, that Shakefpear
was unknown, or known only to be cen-
fured, except in his native country. Count
Kinigl at Milan took occafion to tell me
that they acted Hamlet and Lear when he
was laft at Vienna ; and I know not how it
is, but to an Englifh traveller each place
prefents ideas originally fuggefted by Shakef-
pear, of whom nature and truth are the per-
petual mirrors : other authors remind one of
things which one has feen in life but the
fcenes of life itfelf remind one of Shakefpear.
When I firft looked on the Rialto, with what
immediate images did it fupply me ? Oh,
the old long-cheriftied images of the penfive
merchant, the generous friend, the gay
companion, and their final triumph over
the practices of a cruel Jew. Anthonio,
VOL. L Q Gratiano,
226 OBSERVATIONS IN A
Gratiano, met me at every turn ; and when
I confefled fome of thefe feelings before the
profeflbr of natural hiftory here, who had
fpent fome time in London ; he obferved,
that no native of our ifland could fit three
hours, and not fpeak of Shakefpear : he added
many kind expreffions of partial liking to
our nation, and our poets : and 1'Abate
Cefarotti good-humouredly confefled his little
{kill in the Englifli language when he tranf-
lated their fo much-admired Offian ; but he
had ftudied it pretty hard fmce, he faid, and
his veriion of Gray's Elegy is charming.
Gray and Young are the favourite writers
among us, as far as I have yet heard them
talked over upon the continent ; the firft has
fecured them by his refidence at Florence, and
his Latin verfes I believe ; the fecond, by
his piety and brilliant thoughts. Even Ro-
manifts are difpofed to think dear Dr. Young
very near to Chriftianity an idea which
muft either make one laugh or cry, while
Sweet peace, and heavenly hope, and humble joy,
Divinely beam on bis exalted foul.
But I muft tell what I have been feeing
at the theatre, and mould tell it much
better
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 227
better, had not the charms of Cotmtefs Ferris's
converfation engaged my mind, which would
otherwife perhaps have been more feized on
than it was, by the fight of an old pantomime,
or wretched farce (for there was fpeaking in
it, I remember)^ exploded long fmce from our
very loweft places of diverfion, arid now ex-
hibited here at Padua before a very polite
and a very literary audience ; and in a better
theatre by far than our newly-adorned opera-
houfe in the Hay-market. Its fubject was
no other than the birth of Harlequin ; but
the place and circumftances combined to
make me look on it in a light which fhewed
it to uncommon advantage. The ftorm, for
example, the thunder, darknefs, &c. which
is fo folemnly made to precede an incantation,
apparently not meant to be ridiculous, after
which, a huge egg is fomehow miraculoufly
produced upon the ftage, put me in mind of
the very old mythologifts, who thus defired
to reprefent the chaotic ftate of things, when
Nightj Ocean, and Tartarus difputed in
perpetual confufion ; till Love and Mufic
feparated the elements, and as Dryden
fays,
2 Then
228 OBSERVATIONS IN A
Then hot and cold, and moift and dry/
In order to their ftations leap,
And mufic's power obey.
For Cupid, advancing to a flow tune,
fteadies with his wand the rolling mafs upon
the ftage, that then begins to teem with its
motley inhabitant, and juft reprefentative of
the created world, active, wicked, gay, amu-
fing, which gains your heart, but never your
efteem: tricking, fhifting, and worthlefs as
it is but after all its fri/ks, all its efcapes, is
condemned at laft to burn in fire, and pafs
entirely away. Such was, I truft, the idea of
the perfon, whoever he was, that had the
honour firft to compofe this curious exhi-
bition, and model this mythological device
into a pantomime ! for the mundane, or as
Proclus calls it, the orphick egg, is poffibly
the earlieft of all methods taken to explain
the rife, progress, and final conclufion of our
earth and atmofphere ; and was the original
theory brought from Egypt into Greece by
Orpheus. Nor has that prodigious genius,
Dr. Thomas Burnet, fcorned to adopt it fe-
rioufly in his Telluris Tbeoria facra, written
lefs than a century ago, adapting it with
wonderful
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 2 ? 9
wonderful ingenuity to the Chriftian fyftem
and Mofaical account of things ; to which it
certainly does accommodate itfelf the better,
as the form of an egg well refembles that of
our habitable globe ; and the internal divi-
fions, our four elements, leaving the central
fire for the yolk. I therefore regarded our
pantomime here at Padua with a degree of
reverence I fhould have found difficult to
excite in myfelf at Sadler's Wells ; where
ideas of antiquity would have been little
likely to crofs my fancy. Sure I am, how-
ever, that the original inventor of this old
pantomime had his head very full at the
time of fome very ancient learning.
Now then I muft leave this lovely ftate of
Venice, where if the paupers in every town of
it did not crowd about one, tormenting paflen-
gers with unextinguimable clamour, and fur-
rounding them with fights of horror unfit to
be furveyed by any eyes except thofe of the
furgeon, who fhould alleviate their anguifh,
or at leaft conceal their truly unfpeakable
diftrefles one fhould break one's heart almoft
at the thoughts of quitting people who fhow
fuch tendernefs towards their friends, that
lefs than ocular conviction would fcarce per-
fuade
230 OBSERVATIONS IN A
fuade me to believe fuch wandering mifeiy
could remain difregarded among the moft
amiable and pleafmg people in the world.
His excellency Bragadin half promifed me
that fome fteps mould be taken at Venice
at leaft, to remove a nuifance fo difgraceful ;
and faid, that when I came again, I mould
walk about the town in white fattin flippers,
and never fee a beggar from one end of it
to the other.
On the twenty-fixth of May then, with
the fenator Quirini's letters to Gorilla, with
the Countefs of Starenberg's letters to fome
Tufcan friends of her's ; and with the light
of a full moon, if we mould w r ant it, we fet
out again in queft of new adventures, and
mean to fleep this night under the pope's
protection: may God but grant us his!
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 231
F E R R E R A,
WE have crofled the Po, which I expected
to have found more magnificent, confidering
the refpedtable ftate I left it in at Cremona;
but fcarcely any thing anfwers that expecta-
tion which fancy has long been fermenting
in one's mind.
I took a young woman once with me to
the coaft of Suflex, who, at twenty-feven
years old and a native of England, had never
feen the fea ; nor any thing elfe indeed ten
miles out of London ; And well, child !
faid I, are not you much furprifed ? " It is
a fine fight, to be fure," replied fhe coldly,
" but," but what ? you are not difappointed
are you ? " No, not difappointed, but it is
not quite what I expected when I- faw the
ocean." Tell me then, pray good girl, and
tell me quickly, what did you expect to fee ?
" Why I expeffed" with a hefitating accent,
" / expetted to fee a great deal of water ^
Tl^is anfwer fet me then into a fit of laugh-
* 3 2 OBSERVATIONS IN A
ter, but I have now found out that I am np^
a whit wifer than Peggy : for what did I
figure to myfelf that I fhould find the Po ?
only a great deal of water to be fure ; and a
very great deal of water it certainly is, and
much more, God knows, than I ever faw
before, except between the mores of Calais
and Dover; yet I did feel fomething like
clifappointment too ; when my imagination
wandering over all that the poets had faid
ab .it it, and finding earth too little to con-
tain their fables, recollected that they had
thought Eridanus worthy of a place among the
conflellations, I wifhed to fee fuch a river as
was worthy all thefe praifes, and even then ?
fays I,
O'er golden fands let rich Paftolus 'flow,
And trees weep amber on the banks of Po,
But are we fure after all it was upon the
banks thefe trees, not now exifling, were ever
to be found ? they grew in the Eleclrides if
I remember right, and even there Lucian
laughingly laid, that he fpread his garments
in vain to catch the valuable diflillation
which' poetry had taught him to expect ;
and Strabo (worfe news ftill !) faid that there
were
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 233
were no Eledtrides neither ; fo as we knew
before fiction is falfe : and had I not dif-
covered it by any other means, I might
have recollected a comical conteft enough be-
tween a literary lady once, and Doctor John-
fon, to which I was myfelf a witnefs ; when.
he, maintaining the happinefs and purity of
a country life and rural manners, with her
beft eloquence, and fhe had a great deal ;
added as corroborative and almoft incon-
teftable authority, that the Poets faid fo :
" and didft thou not know then," replied he,
" my darling dear, that the Poets lye ?
When they tell us, however, that great
rivers have horns, which twifted off become
cornua copise, difpenfmg pleafure and plenty,
they entertain us it muft be confeffed ; and
never was allegory more nearly allied with
truth, than in the lines of Virgil ;
Gemina aurattis taurino cornua vultu,
jEridanus, quo non alius per pinguia culta,
In mare purpureum violentior influit amnis
fo accurately tfanflated by Doctor Warton,
who would not reject the epithet bull-faced^
* Whence buU-fac'd, fo adorn'd witli gilded horns,
Than whom no river through fuch level meads,
Pown to the fea in fwifter torrents fpeeds.
becaufe
234 OBSERVATIONS IN A
becaufe he knew it was given in imitation of
the ThefTalian river Achelous, that fought
for Dejanira ; and Servius, who makes him
father to the Syrens, fays that many ftreams,
in compliment to this original one, were
reprefented with horns, becaufe of their
winding courfe. Whether Monfieur Varillas,
or our immortal Addifon, mention their
being fo perpetuated on medals now exifting,
I know not ; but in this land of rarities we
mall foon hear or fee.
Mean time let us leave looking for thefe
weeping Heliades, and enquire what became
of the Swan, that poor Phaeton's friend and
coufm turned into, for very grief and fear
at feeing him tumble in the water. For
my part I believe that riot only now he
Eligit contraria flumina flammis,
but that the whole country is grown dif-^
agreeably hot to him, and the fight of the
fun's chariot fo near frightens him ftill ; for
he certainly lives more to his tafte, and fings
fweeter I believe on the banks of the
Thames, than in Italy, where we have never
yet feen but one-, and that was kept in a
fmall
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 235
fmall marble bafon cf water at the Durazzo
palace at Genoa, and feemed miferably out
of condition. I enquired why they gave
him no companion ? and received for anfwer,
*' That it would be wholly ufelefs, as they
were creatures who never bred out of their
own country" But any reply ferves any
common Italian, who is little difpofed to
inveftigate matters ; and if you teafe him
with too much ratiocination, is apt to cry
out, " Cofa ferve fojiftieare coji? ci far a
andare tutti matti *.*' They have indeed fo
many external amufements in the mere face
of the country, that one is better inclined to
pardon them, than one would be to forgive
inhabitants of lefs happy climates, mould
they fuffer their intellectual powers to pine
for want of exercife, not food : for here is
enough to think upon, God knows, were
they difpofed fo to employ their time ; where
one may juftly affirm that,
On every thorn delightful wifdom grows,
And in each rill, fome fweet inftrucYion flows ;
* What fignifies all this minutenefs of inquiry ? it will
chive us mad.
But
236 OBSERVATIONS IN A
But fome untaught o'erhear the murmuring
rill,
In Tpite of facred leifure blockheads ftill.
The road from Padua hither is not a good
one ; but fo adorned, one cares not much
whether it is good or no : fo fweetly are the
mulberry-trees planted on each fide, witk
vines richly feftooning up and down them, as
if for the decoration of a dance at the opera.
One really expects the flower-girls with
balkets, or garlands, and fcarcely can per-
fuade one's felf that all is real.
Never fure was any thing more rejoicing
to the heart, than this lovely feafon in this
lovely country. The city of Ferrara too is
a fine one ; Ferrara la civile, the Italians call
it, but it feems rather to merit the epithet
folenne ; fo ftately are its buildings, fo wide
and uniform its ftreets. My pen was juft
upon the point of praifmg its cleanlinefs too,
till I reflected there was nobody to dirty it.
I looked half an hour before I could find one
beggar, a bad account of poor Ferrara ; but
it brought to my mind how unreafonably my
daughter and myfelf had laughed feyen years
ago, at reading in an extract from fome of
the
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 237
the foreign gazettes, how the famous Inv-
provifatore Talaffi, who was in England about
the year 1770, and entertained with his
juftly- admired talents the literati at London ;
had publifhed an account of his vifit to Mr.
Thrale, at a villa eight miles from Weftmin-
fter-bridge, during that time, when he had
the good fortune, he faid, to meet many
celebrated characters at his country-feat ; and
the mortification which nearly overbalanced
it, to mifs feeing the immortal Garrick then
confined by illnefs. In all this, however,
there was nothing ridiculous ; but we fancied
his defcription of Streatham village truly fo ;
when we read that he called it Luogo ajfai
popolato ed ameno *, an expreffion apparently
pompous, and inadequate to the fubject : but
the jeft difappeared when I got into his town;
a place which perhaps may be faid to poflefs
every other excellence but that of being
popolato ed ameno ; and I fmcerely believe
that no Ferrara-man could have miffed mak-
ing the fame or a like obfervation ; as in this
finely-conftructed city, the grafs literally
grows in the ftreet ; nor do I hear that the
ftate of the air and water is fuch as is likely
* A populous and delightful place.
7 to
238 OBSERVATIONS IN A
to tempt new inhabitants. How much then^
and how reafonably muft he have wondered,
and how eafily muft he have been led to
exprefs his wonder, at feeing a village no
bigger than that of Streatham, contain a
number of people equal, as I doubt not but
it does, to all the dwellers in Ferrara !
Mr. Talafli is reckoned in his own country
a man of great genius ; in ours he was, as I re-
collect, received with much attention, as a per*
fon able and willing to give us demonftfation
that improvifo verfes might be made, and
fung extemporaneoufly to fome well-known
tune, generally one which admits of and
requires very long lines ; that fo alternate
rhymes may not be improper, as they give
more time to think forward, and gain a mo-
ment for competition. Of this power, many,
till they faw it done, did not believe the
exiftence ; and many, after they had feen it
done, perfifted mfaying^ perhaps in thinking,
that it could be done only in Italian. I can-
not however believe that they poflefs any
exclufive privileges or fupernatural gifts ;
though it will be hard to find one who thinks
better of them than I do : but Spaniards can
fing fequedillas under their miftreiles window
well
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 239
well enough ; and our Welch people can
make the harper fit down in the church-yard
after fervice is over, and placing themfelves
round him, command the inftrument to go
over fome old fong-tune : when having lif-
tened a while, one of the company forms a
ftanza of verfes, which run to it in well-
adapted meafure ; and as he ends, another
begins : continuing the tale, or retorting the
fatire, according to the ftyle in which the firft
began it. All this too in a language lefs.
perhaps than any other melodious to the ear,
though Howell found out a refemblance be-
tween their profody and that of the Italian
writers in early days, when they held agno-
minations, or the inforcement of confonant
words and fyllables one upon the other, to be
elegant in a more eminent degree than they
do now. For example, in Welch, 'Tewgrls^
todyrris, tyr derr'm^ gwillt, &c. in Italian,
Donne, danno chc felo qffronto affronta : In
felva falvo a me^ with a thoufand more.
The whole fecret of improvifation, however,
feems to confift in this ; that extempore verfes
are never written down, and one may eafily
conceive that much may go off well with a
4 good
a 4 OBSERVATIONS IN A
good voice in fmging, which no one would
read if they were once regiftered by the
pen.
I have already aflerted that the Italians are
not a laughing nation : were ridicule to ftep
in among them, many innocent pleafures
would foon be loft ; and this among the
firft. For who would rifque the making
impromptu poems at Paris ? pour s*attirer
perfiflage in every Coterie comme ilfaut * Or in
London, at the hazard of being taken ojf, and
held up for a laughing-flock at every print-
feller s 'window ? A man muft have good
courage in England, before he ventures at
diverting a little company by fuch devices :
while one would yawn, and one would whif-
per, a third would walk gravely out of the
room, and fay to his friend upon th flairs^
" Why fure we had better read our old
poets at home, than be called together, like
fools, to hear what comes uppermoft in fuch-
a-one's head, about his Daphne! In good
time ! Why I have been tired of Daphne fmce
I was fourteen years old." But the beft jeft
* To draw upon one's felf the ridicule of every polite
affembly.
Of
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 241
of all would be, to fee an ordinary fellow, a
ftrolling player for example, fet ferioufly to
make or repeat verfes in our ftreets or fquares
concerning his fweetheart's cruelty ; when he
would be in more danger from that of the
mob and the magiftrates ; who, if the firft
did not throw dirt at him, and drive him
home quickly, would come themfelves,
and examine into his fanity, and if they
found him not Jlatutably mad^ commit him
for a vagrant.
Different amufements, like different forts
of food, fuit different countries ; and this is
among the efforts of thofe who have learned
to refine their pleofures without fo refining
their ideas as to be able no longer to hit on
any pleafure fubtle enough to efcape their own
power of ridiculing it.
This city of Ferrara has produced feme
curious and oppofite characters in times pair,
however empty it may now be thought : one
painter too, and one finger,, both fuper-emi-
nent in their profeffions, have dropped their
own names, and are beft known to fame by
that of // and La Ferrarefe. Nor can I leave
it without fome reflections on the extraor-
VOL. I. R dinary
Z4 2 OBSERVATIONS IN A
dinary life of Renee de France, daughter of
Louis XII. furnamed the Juft, and Anne de
Bretagne, his firft wife. This lady having
married the famous Hercules D'Efte, one of
the handfomeft men in Europe, lived with
him here in much apparent felicity as
Duchefs of Ferrara ; but took fuch an aver-
fion to the church and court of Rome, from
the fuperftitions me faw pradifed in Italy,
that though me refolved to diflemble her
opinions during the life of her hufband,
whom me wifhed not to difguft, at the in-
ftant of his death me quitted all her dignities ;
and retiring to France, was protected by her
father in the open profeffion of Calvinifm,
living a life of privacy and purity among the
Huguenots in the fouthern provinces. This
Louis le Jufte was he who gave the French
what little pretenfions they have ever ob-
tained on which to fix the foundations of
future liberty : he firft eftablifhed a parlia-
ment at Rouen, another at Aix ; but while
thus gentle to his fubjects, he was a fcourge
to Italy, made his public entry into Genoa
as Sovereign, and tore the Milanefe from the
Sforza family, fomewhatbefore the year 1550.
The
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 24^
The well-known Francifcus Ferrarienfis,
whofe name was Silvefter, is a character very
oppofite to that of fair Renee : he wrote the
beft apology for the Romariifts againft Lu-
ther, and gained applaufe from both fides for
his controverfial powers ; while the ftrictnefs
of his life gave weight to his doctrine, and
ornamented the feet which he delighted to
defend.
By a native of Ferrara too were firft col-
lected the books that were earlieft placed in
the Ambrofian library at Milan, Barnardine
Ferrarius, whofe deep erudition and fimple
manners gained him the favour of Frederick
Borromeo, who fent him to Spain to pick up
literary rarities, which he beftowed with
pleafure on the place where he had received his
education* His treatife on the rites of fepul-
ture ufed by the ancients is in good eftima-
tion ; and Sir Thomas Brown, in his Urn
Burial^ owes him much obligation.
The cuftom of wearing fwords here feems
to proceed from fome connection they have
had with the Spaniards ; and Dr. Moore has
given us an admirable account of why the
Highland broad-fword is ftill called an An-
drew Ferrara.
R a The
244 OBSERVATIONS IN A
The Venetians, not often or eafily inti-
midated by Papal power, having taken this
city in the year 1303, were obliged to reftore
it, for fear of the confequences of Pope Boni-
face the Eighth's excommunications ; his
difpleafure having before then produced
dreadful effects in the confpiracy of Baja-
monti Tiepulo ; which was fuppreffed, and
he killed, by a woman, out of a flaming
zeal for the honour and tranquillity of her
country : and fo difmterefted too was her
fpirit of patriotifm, that the only reward {he
required for a fervice fo effential,. was that a
conftant memorial of it might be preferved
in the drefs of the Doge ; who from that
moment obliged himfelf to wear a woman's
cap under the ftate diadem, and fo his fuccef-
fors ftill continue to do.
But Ferrara has other diftinclions. Bo-
narelli here, at the academy of gl'Intrepidi,
read his able defence of that paftoral- comedy
fo much applauded and cenfured, called
Filli dl Sclro ; and here the great Arioflo
lived and died.
Nothing leads however to a lefs gloomy
train of thought, than the tomb of a cele-
brated man ; where virtue, wit, or valour-
triumph
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 245
triumph over death, and wait the confum-
mation of all fublunary things, before the
remembrance of fuch fuperiority fliall be loft.
Italy muft be fhaken from her deepeft
foundation, and England made a fcene of
general ruin, when Shakefpear and Ariofto
fhall be forgotten, and their names con-
founded among deedlefs nobility, and worth-
Jefs wafters of treafure, long ago pafled from
hand to hand, perhaps from the dwellers in
one continent to the inhabitants of another.
It has been equally the fate of thefe two
heroes of modern literature, that they have
pleafed their countrymen more than foreign-
ers ; but is that any diminution of their
merit ? or fhould it ferve as a reafon for mak-
ing difgraceful comparifons between Ariofto
and Virgil, whom he fcorned to imitate ? A
dead language is like common ground ;
all have a right to pafture, and all a claim to
give or to withhold admiration. Virgil is the
old original trough at the corner of the road,
where every pafTer-by pays, drinks, and goes
on his journey well refremed. But the clear
fpring in the meadow fure, though private
property, and lately dug, deferves attention :
R 3 and
246 OBSERVATIONS IN A
and confers delight not only on the actual
matter of the ground, but on all his vifitants
\vho can climb the ftyle, and lift the filver
cup to their lips which hangs by the foun-
tain-fide.
I am glad, however, to be gone from a
place where they are thinking lefs of all thefe
worthies juft at prefent, than of a circum-
ftance which cannot redound to their ho^
nour, as it might have happened to any other
town, and could do great good to none : no
lefs than the happy arrival of Jofeph, and
Leopold, and Maximilian of Auftria, on the
thirtieth . of May 1775; and this wonderful
event have they recorded in a pompous in-
fcription upon a ftone fet at the inn door.
But princes can make poets, and fcatter
felicity with little exertion on their own
parts.
At Tuillemont, an Englifh gentleman once
told me he had the misfortune to fleep one
night where all the people's heads were full
of the Emperor, who had dined there the
day before ; and fome wife fellow of the
place wrote thefe lines under his. picture :
Ingreditur
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 247
Ingreditur magnus magno de Casfare Casfar,
Thenas, fub figno Cervi, fua prandia fumit.
He immediately fet down this diftich under
them :
Our poor little town has no little to brag,
The Emperor was here, and he dined at the
Stag.
The people of the inn concluding that this
muft be a high-drained compliment, it pro-
duced him many thanks from all, and a better
breakfaft than he would otherwife have ob-
tained at Tuillemont.
To-morrow we go forward to Bologna.
R 4
248 OBSERVATIONS IN A
BOLOGNA
SEEMS at firft fight a very forrowful town,
and has a general air of melancholy that
furprifes one, as it is very handfomely and
regularly built ; and fet in a country fb par-
ticularly beautiful, that it is not eafy to ex-
prefs the nature of its beauty, and to exprefs
it fo that thofe who inhabit other countries
can underftand me.
The territory belonging to Bologna la
Grafla concenters all its charms in a hap-
py embonpoint^ which leaves no wrinkle
unfilled up, no bone to be difcerned ;
like the fat figure of Gunhilda at Fonthill,
painted by Chevalier Cafali, with a face full
of woe, but with a fleeknefs of fkin that
denotes nothing lefs than affliction. From
the top of the only eminence, one looks
down here upon a country which to me has
a new and fingular appearance ; the whole
horizon appearing one thick carpet of the
fofteft and moPc vivid green, from the vici-
nity of the broad-leaved mulberry trees, I
truft, drawn ftiil clofer and clofer together by
their
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 249
their amicable and pacific companions the
vines, which keep cluttering round, and
connect them fo intimately that no object
can be feparately or diftinctly viewed, any
more than the habitations formed by animals
who live in mofs, when a large portion of it
is prefented to the philofopher for fpeculation.
One would not therefore, on a flight and cur-
fory infpection, fufpect this of being a
painter's country, where no prominence of
features arrefts the fight, no exprefiion of
latent meaning employs the mind, and no
abruptnefs of tranfition tempts fancy to
follow, or imagination to fupply, the fudden
lofs of what it contemplated before.
Here however the great Caraccis kept
their fchool ; here then was every idea of
dignity and majeftic beauty to be met with;
and if / meet with nothing in nature near
this place to excite fuch ideas, it is my fault,
not Bologna's.
If vain the toil,
We ought to blame the culture, not the foil.
Wonderful indeed ! yet not at all dif-
tracting is the variety of excellence that one
contem-
250 OBSERVATIONS IN A
contemplates here ; fuch matters ! and fuch
fcholars ! The fweetly playful pencil of Al-
bano, I would compare to Waller among
our Englifh poets ; Domenichino to Otway,
and Guido Rheni to Rowe ; if fuch liberties
might be permitted on the old notion of
ut piftura poefis. But there is an idea
about the world, that one ought in delicacy
to declare one's utter incapacity of underftand-
jng pictures, unlefs immediately of the profef-
fion. And why fo ? No man protefts, that
he cannot read poetry, he can make no plea-
fure out of Milton or Shakefpear, or fhudder
at the ingratitude of Lear's daughters on the
fiage. Why then mould people pretend in-
fenfibility, when divine Guercino exerts his
unrivalled powers of the pathetic in the fine
picture at Zampieri palace, of Hagar's dif-
miffion into the defert with her fon ? While
none elfe could have touched with fuch truth
of expreffion the countenances of each ; leav-
ing him moft to be pitied, perhaps, who
iffues the command againft his will ; accom-
panying it however with innumerable bene-
dictions, and alleviating its feverity with the
ibfteft tendernefs.
He
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 2 $i
He only among our poets could have
planned fuch a picture, who penned the
Eloifa, and knew the agonies of a foul ftrug-
gling againft unpermitted paffions, and con-
quering from the nobleft motives of faith and
of obedience.
Glorious exertion of excellence ! This is
the firft time my heart has been made really
alive to the powers of this magical art.
Candid Italians ! let me again exclaim ; they
{hewed us a Vandyke in the fame palace,
furrounded by the works of their own incom-
parable countrymen; and tbere y fay they,
" Quafi quafifi pub clrcondarla *." You may
almoft run round it, was the expreffion.
The picture was a very fine one ; a fingle
figure of the Madona, highly painted, and
happily placed among thofe who knew, be-
caufe they pofiefled his perfections who drew
it. Were Homer alive, and acquainted with
our language, he would admire that Shake-
fpear whom Voltaire condemns. Twice in
this town has Guido fhewed thofe powers
which critics have denied him : the power of
grouping his figures with propriety, and dif-
* You may almoft run round her.
tributing
* 5 2 OBSERVATIONS IN A
tributing his light and fhadow to advantage ;
as he has (hewn it but twice, however, it is
certain the connoifTeurs are not very wrong,
and even in thofe very performances one may
read their juftification : for Job, though fur-
rounded by a crowd of people, has a ftrangely
infulated look, and the fweet fufferer on the
fore-ground of his Herodian cruelty feems
wholly uninterefted in the general diftrefs,
and occupies herfelf and every fpetator com-
pletely and folely with her own particular
grief.
The boafted Raphael here does not in
my eyes triumph over the wonders of this
Caracci fchool. At Rome, I am told, his
fuperiority is more viable. Nous verrons *.
The referved picture of St. Peter and St.
Paul, kept in the laft chamber of the Zam^
pieri palace, and covered with a filk curtain,
is valued beyond any fpecimen of the paint-
ing art which can be moved from Italy to
England. We are taught to hope it will
foon come among us ; and many fay the
fale cannot be now long delayed. Why
Guido mould never draw another picture
like that, or at all in the fame ftyle, who can
* We fhall fee.
tell?
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 253
tell ? it certainly does unite every perfection j
and every poflible excellence, except choice
of fubjecl:, which cannot be happy I think,
when the fubjecl: itfelf is left difputable.
I will mention only one other picture : it
is in an obfcure church, not an unfrequented
one by thefe pious Bolognefe, who are the
moft devout people I ever lived amongft, but
I think not much vifited by travellers. It
is painted by Albano, and reprefents the
Redeemer of mankind as a boy fcarce thirteen
years old: ingenuous modefty, and meek
refignation, beaming from each intelligent
feature of a face divinely beautiful, and
throwing out luminous rays round his facred
head, while the blefled Virgin and St. Jofeph,
placed on each fide him, adore his goodnefs
with tranfport not unmixed with wonder:
the inftruments of his future paffion caft at
his feet, directing us to confider him as in
that awful moment voluntarily devoting
himfelf for the fins of the whole world.
This picture, from the fublimity of the
fubjecl:, the lively colouring, and clear ex-
preffion, has few ecfuals ; the pyramidal group
drops in as of itfelf, unfought for, from the
3 raifed
254 OBSERVATIONS IN A
raifed ground on which our Saviour ftands ;
and among numberlefs wild conceits and ex-
travagant fancies of painters, not only per-
mitted but encouraged in this country, to
deviate into what we juftly think profane re-
prefentations of the deity : this is the moil
pleafmg and inoffenfive device I have feen.
The auguft Creator too is likewife more
wifely concealed by Albano than by other
artifts, who daringly prefume to exhibit that
of which no mortal man can give or receive a
juft idea. But we will have done for a while
with connohTeurmip.
This fat Bologna has a triflful look, from
the numberlefs priefts, friars, and women all
drefled in black, who fill the ftreets, and flop
on a fudden to pray, when I fee nothing
done to call forth immediate addreffes to
Heaven. Extremes do certainly meet how-
ever, and my Lord Peter in this place is fa
like his fanatical brother Jack, that I know
not what is come to him. To-morrow is the
day of corpus dominl ; why it mould be pre-
ceded by fuch difmal ceremonies I know not ;
there is nothing melancholy in the idea, but
we mall be fare of a magnificent proceflion.
6 So
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 255
So it was too, and wonderfully well
attended: noblemen and ladies, with tapers in
their hands, and their trains borne by well-
drefled pages, had a fine effed. All (till in
black.
Black, but fuch as in efteem
Prince Memnon's fifter might befeem ->
With fable Hole of cyprefs lawn,
O'er their decent fhoulders drawn.
I never faw a fpectacle fo ftately, fo fo-
lemn a fhow in my life before, and was
much lefs tired of the long continued march,
than were my Roman Catholic companions.
Our inn is not a good one j the Pellegrino
is engaged for the King of Naples and his
train : the place we are houfed in, is full of
bugs, and every odious vermin : no wonder,
furely, where fuch oven-like porticoes catch
and retain the heat as if conftru&ed on fet
purpofe fo to do. The Montagnola at night
was fomething of relief, but contrary to every
other refort of company : the lefs it is fre-
quented the gayer it appears ; for Nature
there has been lavifli of her bounties, which
feem difregarded by X:he Bologneie, who un-
luckily find out that there is a burying-
grounc!
256 OBSERVATIONS IN A
ground within view, though at no fmall
diftance really ; and planting themfelves over
againft that, they ftand or kneel for many
minutes together in whole rovvSj praying, as
I underftand, for the fouls which once ani-
mated the bodies of the people whom they
believe to lie interred there ; all this too
even at the hours dedicated to amufement.
Cardinal Buon Compagni, the legate, fent
from Rome here, is gone home ; and the
vice* legate officiated in his place, much to
the confolation of the inhabitants, who ob-
ferved with little delight or gratitude his
endeavours to improve their trade, or his
care to maintain their privileges j while his
natural difmclination to hypocritical manners,
or what we fo emphatically call cant^ gave
them an averfion to his perfon and diilike of
his government, which he might have pre-
vented by formality of look, and very tri-
fling compliances. But every thing helps
to prove, that if you would pleafe peo-
ple, it muft be done their way, not your
own.
Here are fome charming manufactures in
this town, and I fear it requires much felf-
denial in an Englifhwoman not to long at
leaft
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 257
lead for the fine crapes, tiffanies, &c. which
might here be bought I know not how cheap,
and would make onefo happy in London or
at Bath. But thefe Cuftomhoufe officers !
thefe rats de cave, as the French comically
call them, will not let a ribbon pafs. Such is
the reftlefs jealoufy of little ftates, and fuch
their unremitted attention to keep the goods
made in one place out of the gates of ano-
ther. Few things upon a journey contribute
to torment and difguft one more than the
teafmg enquiries at the door of every city,
who one is, what one's name is ? what one's
rank in life or employment is ; that fo all
may be written down and carried to the chief
magiftrate for his information, who immediate-
ly difpatches a proper perfon to examine whe-
ther you gave in a true report ; where you
lodge, why you came, how long you mean to
ftay ; with twenty more inquifitive fpeeches,
which to afubjec~t of more liberal governments
muft necefTarily appear impertinent as frivolous,
and make all my hopes of bringing home
the moft trifling prefents for a friend abortive.
So there is an end of that felicity, and we
muft fit like the gid at the fair, defcribed by
Gay,
VOL. I. S Where
258 OBSERVATIONS IN A
Where the coy nymph knives, combs, and fcifTars
fpies,
And looks on thimbles with defiring eyes.
The Specola, fo they call their mufeum
here, of natural and artificial rarities, is very
fine indeed; the infcription too denoting its
univerfality, is fublimely generous : I thought
of our Bath hofpital in England ; more ufe-
fully, if not more magnificently fo ; but durft
not tell the profeflbf, who fhewed the place.
At our going in he was apparently much out
of humour, and unwilling to talk, but grew
gradually kinder, and more communicative ;
and I had at laft a thoufand thanks to pay
for an attention that rendered the fight of all
more valuable. Nothing can furpafs the
neatnefs and precifion with which this elegant
repofitory is kept, and the curiofities con-
tained in it have fpecimens very uncommon.
The native gold fhewed here is fuppofed to
be the largeft and moft perfect lump in Eu-
rope ; wonderfully beautiful it certainly is,
and the coral here is fuch as can be feen no-
where elfe ; they {hewed me fome which
looked like an actual tree.
It might reafonably lower the fpirits of phi-
lofophy, and tend to reftraining the genius of
remote
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 259
remote enquiry, did we reflect that the very
firft fubllance given into our hand as an
amufement, or fubject of fpeculation, as foon
as we arrive in this great world of wonders,
never gets fully underftood by thofe who
fiudy hard eft, or live longed in it.
Coral is a fubftance, concerning which the
natural .hiftorians have had many difputes,
and fettled nothing yet; knowing, as it mould
feem, but little more of its original, than they
did when they fucked it firft. Of gold we
have found perhaps but too many uies ; but
when the profeffor told us here at Bologna,
that filver in the mine was commonly found
mixed with arfenick^ a corroding poifon, or
leady a narcotic one ; who could help being
led forward to a train of thought on the
nature and ufe and abufe of money and mi-
nerals in general. Smvez (as RouiTeau fays),
la cbainc de tout cela *.
The aftronomical apparatus at this place is
a fplendid one ; but the models of archi-
tecture, fortifications, &c. are only more
numerous ; not fo exact or elegant I think
as thofe the King of England has for his
own private ufe at the Queen's " houfe in
* Follow this clue, and fee where it will lead you to.
S 2 St.
260 OBSERVATIONS IN A
St. James's Park. The fpecimens of a human
figure in wax are the work of a woman,
whofe picture, is accordingly fet up in the
fchool : they are reckoned incomparable of
their kind, arid bring to one's fancy Milton's
fine defcription of our firft parents :
Two of far nobler kind erect and tall.
This Univerfity has been particularly civil
to women ; many very learned ladies of
France and Germany have been and are
ftill members of it ; and la Dottoreffa Laura
Baffi gave lectures not many years ago in
this very fpot, upon the mathematics and
natural philofophy, till (he grew very old and
infirm ; but her pupils always handed her
very refpectfully to and from the Doctor's
chair. Che brava do?metta cUera ! * fays the
gentleman who fhewed me the academy, as
we came out at the door ; over which a
marble tablet, with an infcription more pious
than pompous, is placed to her memory ; but
turning away his eyes while they filled with
tears tuttl muofono f, added he, and I fol-
lowed ; as nothing either of energy or pathos
could be added to a reflection fo juft, fo
* Ah, what a fine woman was that !
t All muft die.
tender,
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 261
tender, and fo true : we parted fadly there-
fore with our agreeable companion and in-
ftrudor juft where her cenotaph (for the
body lies buried in a neighbouring church)
was erected ; and mall probably meet no
more ; for as he faid and fighed tuttl
muofono *.
The great. Caffini too, who though of an
Italian family, was born at Nice I think, and
died at Paris, drew his meridian line through
the church of St. Petronius in this city, acrofs
the pavement, where it ftill remains a monu-
ment to his memory, who difcovered the
third and fifth fatellites of Jupiter. Such
was in his time the reputation of a mineral
fpring near Bologna, that Pope Alexander
the Seventh fet him to analyfe the waters of
it j and fo fatisfactory were his proofs of its
very flight importance to health, that the
fame pope called him to Rome to examine
the waters round that capital ; but dying
foon after his arrival, he had no time to re-
compence Caflini's labours, though a very
elegantly-minded man, and a great encourager
of learning in all its branches. The fuccefTor
to this fcvereign, Rofpigliofi, had different
* All muft die.
S 3 employment
262 OBSERVATIONS IN A
employment found for him, in helping the
Venetians to regain Candia from the Turks,
his difappointment in not being able to ac-
complifh which defign broke his heart ; and
Caffini, returning to Bologna, found it lefs
pleafing than it was before he left it, fo went
to Paris, and died there at ninety or ninety-
one years old, as I remember, early in this
prefent century, but not till after he had en-
joyed the pleafure of hearing that Count
Marfigli had founded an academy at the
place where he had ftudied whiift his faculties
were flrong.
Another church, fituated on the only hill
one can obferve for miles, is dedicated to the
Madonna St. Luc, as it is called ; and a very
beautiful and curiouily covered way is made
to it up the hill, for three miles in length,
and at a prodigious expence, to guard the
figure from the rain as it is carried in pro-
ceffion. The afcent is fo gentle that one hardly
feels it. Pillars fupport the roof, which de-
fends you from a fun-ftroke, while the air
and profpet are let in between them on the
right hand as you go. The left fide is clofed
up by a wall, adorned from time to time
with frefco painting?, reprefenting the birth
and
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 263
and moft diftinguifhed paflages in the life
of the blefied Virgin. Round thefe paint-
ings a little chapel is railed in, open, airy,
and elegantly, not very pompoufly, adorned ;
there are either feven or twelve of them, I
forget which, that ferve to reft the procef-
fion as it paries, on days particularly dedi-
cated to her fervice. When you arrive at
the top, a church of a moft beautiful con-
ftrudtion recompenfes your long but not te-
dious walk, and there are fome admirable
pictures in it, particularly one of St. William
laying, down his armour, and taking up the
habit of a Carthufian, very fine but the
figure of the Madonna is the prize they value,
and before this I did fee fome men kneel
with a truly idolatrous devotion. That it
was painted by St. Luke is believed by them
all. But if it was painted by St. Luke, faid I,
what then ? do you think he, or the ftill more
excellent perfon it was done for, would ap-
prove of your worfhipping any thing but
God ? To this no anfwer was made ; and I
thought one man looked as if he had grace
enough to be amamed of himfeif.
The girls, who fit in clufters at the chapel
doors as one goes up, linging hymns in
S 4 praife
264. OBSERVATIONS IN A
praife of the Virgin Mary, pleafed me much,
as it was a mode of veneration inoffenfive to
religion, and agreeable to the fancy; but
feeing them bow down to that black figure,
in open defiance of the Decalogue, fhocked
me. Why all the very very early pictures
of the Virgin, and many of our blefled Savi-
our himfelf, done in the firft ages of Chrifti-
anity fhould be black, or at leaft tawny, is
to me wholly incomprehenfible, nor could I
ever yet obtain an explanation of its caufe
from men of learning or from connoifleurs.
We have in England a black Madonna,
very ancient ofcourfe, and of Jmmenfe value,
in the cathedral of Wells in Somerfetmire ;
it is painted on glafs, and ftands in the mid-
dle pane of the upper window I think, is a
profile face, and eminently handfome. My
mind tells me that I have feen another fome-
where in Great Britain, but cannot recollect
the fpot, unlefs it were Arundel Caftle in
Suffex, but I am not fure : none was ever
painted fo fince the days of Pietro Perugino
I believe, fo their antiquity is unqueflionable ;
he and his few contemporaries drew her
white, as Sir Jofhua Reynolds and Pompeio
Battoni.
WhiHl
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 165
Whilft I perambulated the palaces of the
Bolognefe nobility, gloomy though fpaeious,
and melancholy though fpleridid, I could not
but admire at Richardfon's judgment when he
makes his beautiful Bigot, his interefting Cle-
mentina, an inhabitant of fuperftitious Bo-
logna. The unconquerable attachment me
{hews to original prejudices, and the horror
of what me has been taught to confider as
herefy, could fcarcely have been attributed fo
happily to the dweller in any town but this :
where I hear nothing but the found of peo-
ple faying their rofaries, and fee nothing in
the ftreet but people telling their beads.
The Porretta palace is hourly prefenting itfelf
to my imagination, which delights in the
aflurance that genius cannot be confined by
place. Dear Richardfon at Salifbury Court
Fleet Street, and Parfon's Green Fulham,
felt all within him that travelling can tell, or
experience confirm : he had feen little, and
Johnfon has often told me that he had read lit-
tle ; but what he did read never forfook a me-
mory that was not contented with retaining,
but fermented all that fell into it, and made
a new creation from the fertility of his own
rich
266 OBSERVATIONS IN A
rich mind. Thefe are the men for whom
monuments need not be erected.
They in our pleafure and aftonifhment,
Do build themfelves a live-long monument;
as Milton fays of a much greater writer ftill.
But the King of Naples is arrived, and
that attention which wits and fcholars can
retain for centuries, may not be unjuftly paid
to princes while they laft.
Our Bolognefe have hit upon an odd
method of entertaining him however : no
other than making a reprefentation of Mount
Vefuvius on the Montagnuola, or place of
evening refort, hoping at leaft to treat him
with fomething new I trow. Were the King
of England to vifit thefe cari Bolognefe^
furely they would fhew him Weftminfter
Bridge, with a view of the Archbifhop's
palace at Lambeth on one fide the river, and
Somerfet-houfe on the other.
A pretty throne, or ftate-box, was foon got
in order, that it was ; and the motion excited
by carrying the fire- works to have them pre-
pared for the evening's mow, gave life to
the morning, which hung lefs heavily than
ufual ;
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 267
iifual ; nor did the people recoiled the
church-yard at a diftance, while the merry
King of Naples was near them. His Majefty
appeared perfectly contented and good-hu-
moured, and happy with whatever was done
for his amufement. I remember his beha-
viour at Milan though, too well to be fur-
prifed at his pleafantnefs of difpofition, when
my maid was delighted to fee him dance
among the girls at a Fefta di Ballo, from
whence I retired early myfelf, and fent her
back to enjoy it all in my domino. He
played at cards too when at Milan I recollecl,
in the common Ridotto Chamber at the
Theatre, and played for common fums, fo
as to charm every one with his kindnefs and
affability.
I am glad however that we mail now be
foon releafed from this upon the whole dif-
agreeable town, where there is the beft pof-
fible food too for body and mind ; but where
the inhabitants feem to think only of the next
world, and do little to amufe thofe who
have not yet quite done with this. If they are
fmcere mean time, God will blefs them with
a long continuance of the appellation they fo
juftly
2 68 OBSERVATIONS IN A
juftly deferve; and thofe travellers who pafs
through will find fome amends in the rich
cream and incomparable dinners every day,
for the infects that devour them every
night ; and will, if they are wife, feek com-
penfation from the company of the half ani-
mated pictures that crowd the palaces and
churches, for the half dead inhabitants who
kneel in the ftreets of Bologna*
FLORENCE.
WE flept no-where, except perhaps in the
carnage, between our laft refidence at Bo-
logna and this delightful city, to which we
panned apparently through a new region of
the earth, or even air ; clambering up moun-
tains covered with fnow, and viewing with
amazement the little vallies between, where,
after quitting the fummer feafon, all glow-
ing with heat and fpread into verdure, we
found cherry-trees in bloflbm, oaks and
walnuts fcarcely beginning to bud. Thefe
mountains are however much below thofe of
Savoy for dignity and beauty of appearance,
though
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 269
though high enough to be troublefome, and
barren enough to be defolate. Thefe Appe-
nines have been called by fome the Back
Bone of Italy, as Varenius and others ftyle
the Mountains of the Moon in Africa, Back
Bone of the World ; and thefe, as they do,
run in a long chain down the middle of the
Peninfula they are placed in ; but being
rounded at top are fuppofed to be aquatick,
while the Alps, Andes, &c. are of late ac-
knowledged by philofophers to be volcanic,
as the moft lofty of them terminate in points
of granite, wholly devoid of horizontal
ftrata, and without petrifactions contained in
them,
Here the tracts around difplay
How impetuous ocean's fway
Once with wafteful fury fpread
The wild waves o'er each mountain's head.
PARSONS.
But the offspring of fire fomohow Jbould be '
more ftriking than that of water, however
violent might have been the concuffion that
produced them ; and there is no comparifon
between the fenfations felt in paffingthe Roche
Melon, and thefe more neatly-moulded Ap-
penines ; upon whofe tops I am told too no
7 lakes
2 7 o OBSERVATIONS IN A
lakes have been formed, as on Mount Cenis,
or even on Snowdon in North Wales,
where a very beautiful lake adorns the fum-
mit of the rock ; which affords trout precifely
fuch as you eat before you go down to No-
valefa, but not fo large.
Sir William Hamilton, however, is the
man to be referred to in all thefe matters ; no
man has examined the peculiar properties and
general nature of mountains, thofe which
vomit fire in particular, with half as much
application, infpired by half as much genius,
as he has done.
We arrived late at our inn, an Englifh one
they fay it is ; and many of, the laft miles
were parTed very pleafantly by my maid and
myfelf, in anticipating the comforts we mould
receive by finding ourfelves among our own
country folks. In good time ! and by once
more eating, fleeping, &c. all in the Engll/b
way, as her phrafe is. Accordingly, here
are fmall low beds again, fcft and clean, and
down pillows ; here are currant tarts, which
the Italians fcorn to touch, but which we are
happy and delighted to pay not ten but
twenty times their value for, becaufe a cur-
rant tart is fo much in the Euglijh way : and
here
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 271
here are beans and bacon in a climate where
it is impoffible that bacon fhould be either
wholefome or agreeable ; and one eats infi-
nitely worfe than one did* at Milan, Venice,
or Bologna : and infinitely dearer too ; but
that makes it ftill more completely in the
EngliJJj isuay*
Mean time here we are however in Arno's
Vale ; the full moon mining over Fiefole,
which I fee from my windows. Milton's
verfes every moment in one's mouth, and Ga-
lileo's houfe twenty yards from one's door^
Whence her bright orb the Tufcan artift view'd,
At evening from the top of Fefole;
Or in Val d'Arno to defcry new lands,
Rivers or mountains on her fpotty globe.
Our apartments here are better than we
hoped for, fituated moft fweetly on the banks
of this claffical ftream ; a noble terrace under-
neath our window, broad as the fouth parade
at Bath I think, and the line Ponte della
Santa Trinita within fight. Many people
have aflerted that this is the firft among
all bridges in the world ; but architecture
triumphs in the art of building bridges, and,
though this is a moft exquiiitely beautiful
fabric,
9
272 OBSERVATIONS IN A
fabric, I can fcarcely venture to call it ail
unrivalled one : it (hall, if the fine ftatues at
the corners can aflift its power over the fancy,
and if cleanlinefs can compenfate for ftately
magnificence, or for the fire of original and
unaflifted genius, it fhall obliterate from my
mind the Rialto at Venice, and the fine arch
thrown over the Conway at Llanwrft in our
North Wales.
I wrote to a lady at Venice this morning
though, to fay, however I might be charmed
by the fweets of Arno's fide, I could not for-
bear regretting the Grand Canal.
Count Manucci, a nobleman of this city,
formerly intimate with Mr. Thrale in Lon-
don and Mr. Piozzi at Paris, came early to
our apartments, and politely introduced us
to the defirable fociety of his fitters and his
friends. We have in his company and that
of Cavalier d'Elci, a learned and accom-
plifhed man, of high birth, deep erudition,
and polifhed manners, feen much, and with
every poflible advantage.
This morning they mewed us La Capella
St. Lorenzo, where I could but think how
furprifingly Mr. Addifon's prediction was
verified, that thefe flow Florentines would
not
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 273
hot perhaps he able to iinifh the burial-place
of their favourite family, before the family
itfelf fhould be extinct. This reflection felt
like one naturally fuggefted to me by the
place; Doctor Moore however has the ori-
ginal merit of it, as I afterwards found it
in his book: but it is the peculiar pro-
perty of natural thoughts well exprefled, to
fink into one's mind and incorporate them-
felves with it, fo as to make one forget they
were not all one's own.
Poets, as well as jejlers, do oft pruve
prophets : Prior's happy prediction for the fe-
male wits in one of his epilogues is corne
true already, when he fays,
Your time, poor fouls ! we'll take your very
money,
Female third nights {hall come fo thick upon
ye, &c.
and every hour gives one reafon to hope that
Mr. Pope's glorious prophecy in favour of
the Negroes will not now remain long unac-
complifhed, but that liberty will extend her
happy influence over the world ;
Till the freed Indians > in their native groves,
Reap their own fruits, and woo their fable loves.
VOL. I. T I will
* 7 4 OBSERVATIONS IN A
I will not extend myfelf in defcribing die
heaps of fplendid ruin in which the rich
chapel of St. Lorenzo now lies : fmce the
elegant Lord Corke's letters were written,
little can be faid about Florence not better
faid by him ; who has been particularly
copious in defcribing a city which every
body wifhes to fee copioufly defcribed.
The libraries here are exceedingly magni-
ficent ; and we were called juft now to that
which goes under MagliabechiV name, to
hear an eulogium finely pronounced upon
our circumnavigator Captain Cook ; whofe
character has attracted the attention, and ex-
torted the efteem of every European nation .
far lefs was the wonder that it forced my tears ;
they flowed from a thoufand caufes : my dif-
tance from England ! my plealure in hearing
an EngMiman thus lamented in a language
with which he had no acquaintance I
By ftrangers honour'd,. and by ftrangers mourn'd !
Every thing contributed to foften my heart,
though not to lower my fpirits. For when
a Florentine afked me, how I came to cry fo ?
I anfwered, in the words of their divine
Meftaftafio :
" Che
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 275
" Che quefto pianto mjo
" Tutto non e dolor;
" E meraviglia, e amore,
tc E riverenza, e fpeme,
" Son mille affetti affieme
tc Tutti raccolti al cor."
'Tis not grief alone, or fear,
Swells the heart, or prompts the tear;
Reverence, wonder, hope, and joy,
Thoufand thoughts my foul employ,
Struggling images, which lefs
Than falling tears can ne'er exprefs.
Giannetti, who pronounced the pane-
gyric, is the juftly-celebrated improvifatore >
fo famous for making Latin verfes impromptu^
as others do Italian ones : the fpeech has
been tranflated into Englim by Mr. Merry,
with whom I had the honour here firft to
make acquaintance, having met him at Mr.
Greatheed's, who is our fellow-lodger, and
with whom and his amiable family the time
pafles in reciprocations of confidential friend-
fhip and mutual efteem.
Lord and Lady Cowper too contribute to
make the fociety at this place more pleafmg
than can be imagined ; while Englim hofpi-
T 2 tality
276 OBSERVATIONS IN A
tality foftens down the ftatelinefs of Tufcan
manners.
Sir Horace Mann is fick and old ; but
there are converiations tit his houfe of a Sa-
turday evening, and fomEtimes a dinner, to
which we have been ahnoft always afked.
The fruits in this place begin to aftonifh
rne ; fuch cherries did I never yet Tee, or
even hear tell of, as when I caught the
Laquais de Place weighing two of them in a
fcale to fee if they came to an ounce. Thefe
are, in the London ftreet phrafe, cherries like
plums ^ in fize at leaft, but in flavour they far
exceed them, being exactly of the kind that
Vve call bleeding-hearts, hard to the bite, and
parting eafily from the ftone*. which is pro-
portionately fmall. Figs too are here in fuch
perfeclion, that it is not eafy for an Englifii
gardener to guefs at their excellence ; for it is
not by fuperior fize, but tafte and colour,
that they are diftinguifhed ; fmall, and green
on the outiide, a bright full crimfon within,
and we eat them with raw ham, and truly
delicious is the dainty. By raw ham, I mean
ham cured, not boiled or roafted. It is no
v/onder though that fruits fhould mature in
fach a fun as this is; which, to give a juft
notion
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 277
notion of its penetrating fire, I wjjl take leave
to tell my countrywomen is fo violent, that
1 ufe no other method of heating the pinch-
ing-irons to curl my hair, than that of poking
them out at a fouth window, with the handles
flmt in, and the glaffes darkened to keep us
from being actually fired in his beams.. Be-
fore I leave off fpeaking about the fruit, I
muft add, that both fig and cherry are pro-
duced by ftandards ; that the ftra wherries here
are fmall and high-flavoured, like our ivoods y
and that there are no other. England affords
greater variety in tJoat kind of fruit than any
nation ; and as to peaches, nectarines, or
green-gage plums, I have feen none yet.
Lady Cowper has made us a prefent of a
fmall pine-apple, but the Italians have no
tafte to it. Here is fun enough to ripen
them without hot-houfes I am fure, though
they repeatedly told us at Milan an ^
Venice, that this was the cooleft place to pafs
the fummer in, becaufe of the Appenine
mountains lhading us from the heat, which
they confefied to be intolerable with them.
Here however, they inform us, that ijt is
madnefs to retire into the country as Englifh
people do during the hot feaion j for as therp
I 7 $f OBSERVATIONS IN A
is no {hade from high timber trees, one is
bit to death by animals, gnats in particular,
which here are exceffively troublefome, even
in the town, notwithstanding we fcatter vine-
gar, and life ail the arts in our power; but the
ground-floor is cooleft, and every body ftrug-
gles to get themfelves a terreno as they call it.
Florence is full juft now, and Mr. Jean
Figliazzi, an intelligent gentleman who lives
here, and is well acquainted with both na-
tions, fays, that all the genteel people come to
take refuge from the country to Florence in
July arid Auguft, as the fubjecls of Great
Britain run to the country from the heats of
London or Bath.
The flowers too ! how rich they are in
fcent here ! how brilliant in colour ! how
magnificent in fize ! Wall-flowers perfuming
every ftreet, and even every paflage ; while
pinks and fmgle carnations grow befide them,
with no more foil than they require them-
felves ; and from the tops of houfes, where
you lead expect it, an aromatic flavour highly
gratifying is difTufed. The jefTamine is large,
broad-leaved, and beautiful as an orange-
flower ; but I have feen no rofes equal to thofe
at Lichfield, where on one tree I recollect
counting
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 2;9
counting eighty-four within my own reach ;
it grew againft the houfe of Doctor Darwin.
Such a profuiion of fweets made me enquire
yefterday morning for fome fcented pomatum,
and they brought me accordingly one pot
fmelling ftrong of garden mint, the other of
rue and tanfy.
Thus do the inhabitants of every place
forfeit or fling away thofe pleafures, which the
inhabitants of another place think they would
ufe in a much wifer manner, had Providence
beftowed the blefling upon them.
A young Milaneie once, whom I met in
London, faw me treat a hatter that lives in
Pallmall with the refpet due to his merit :
when the man was gone, " Pray, madam,"
fays the Italian, " is this a gran ricconc * ?"
" He is perhaps," replied I, " worth twenty
or thirty thoufand pounds ; I do not know
what ideas you annex to a gra?t riccone"
" Oh fantijjima vergine /" exclaims the youth,
" s'avcffi 10 mat Jettanta mlla xeccbini ! non Jo
pur troppo cofa nefarei ; ma quefto e cbiaro non
vender ei mat cappelli" " Oh dear me ! had
I once feventy thoufand fequins in my pocket,
* Heavy-purfed fellow.
T 4 I would
s8o OBSERVATIONS IN A
I would dear I cannot think myfelf what
I fhould do with them all : but this at lead is.
certain, I would not ^77 bats?
I have been carried to the Laurentian
library, where the librarian Bandi fhewed me
all poffible, and many unmerited civilities ;
which, for want of deeper erudition, I could
not make the ufe I wifhed of. We allied
however to fee fome famous manufcripts.
The Virgil has had a fac fim'ile made of it,
and a printed copy befides ; fo that it cannot
now efcape being known all over Europe.
The Bible in Chaldaic characters, fpoken of
by Langius as ineftimable, and brought hi-
ther, with many other valuable treafures
of the fame nature, by Lafcaris, after the
death of Lorenzo de Medici, who had fent
him for the fecond time to Conftantinople
for the purpofe of collecting Greek and Ori-?
ental books, but died before his return, is in
admirable prefervatian. The old geographi-
cal maps, made out in a very early age,
afforded me much amufement ; and the
Latin letters of Petrarch, with the portrait of
his Laura, were interefting to me perhaps
more than many other things rated much
higher
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 281
Jiigher by the learned, among thofe rarities
which adorn a library ib comprehenfive.
Every great nation except ours, which
was immeried in barbarifm, and engaged in
civil broils, feems to have courted the red-*
dence of Lafcaris, but the imiverfity of Paris
fixed his regard : and though Leo X. treated
with favour, and even friendfliip, the man
whom he had encouraged to intimacy when
Cardinal John of Medicis ; though he made
him fqperintendant of a Greek college at
Rome ; it is laid he always wifhed to die in
France, whither he returned in the reign of
Francis the Firft ; and wrote his Latin epi-r
grams, which I have heard Doctor Johnfon
prefer even to the Greek ones preferved in,
Anthologia ; ancj of which our Queen Eli-r
zabeth, infpired by Roger Afcham, defired
to fee the author ; but he was then upon a
vifit to Rome, where he died of the gout at
ninety-three years old,
June 24, i 7 F 5 ,
St. John the Baptift is the tutelary Saint
pf this city, and upon, this day of courfe all
poflible
2* OBSERVATIONS IN A
poffible rejoicings are made. After attending
divine fervice in the morning, we were car-
ried to a houfe whence we could conveniently
lee the proceffion pafs by. It was not folemn
and ftately as that I faw at Bologna, neither
was it gaudy and jocund like the mow made
at Venice upon St. George's day ; but con-
fifted chiefly in vaft heavy pageants, or a fort
of temporary building fet on wheels, and
drawn by oxen fome, and fome by horfes ;
others carried upon things made not unlike a
chairman's horfe in London, and fupported
by men, while priefts, in various coloured
drefTes, according to their feveral ftations
in the church, and to diftinguim the pa-
rimes, &c. to which they belong, follow
finging in praife of the faint.
Here is much emulation mewed too, I am
told, in thefe countries, where religion makes
the great and almoft the fole amufement of
men's lives, who mail make moft figure on
St. John the Baptift's day, produce moft mu-
iic, and go to moft expence. For all thefe
purpoies fubfcriptions are fet on foot, for
ornamenting and venerating fuch a picture,
ftatue, '. &c. which are then added to the
proceflioh by the managers, and called a
Confra-
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 283'
Confraternity, in honour of the Blefled Vir-
gin Mary, the Angel Raphael, or who comes
in their heads.
The lady of the houfe where we went to
partake the diverfion, was not wanting in
her part ; there could not be fewer than a
hundred and fifty people aflembled in her
rooms, but not crowded as we mould have
been in England ; for the apartments in Italy
are all high and large, and run in fuits like
Wanftead houfe in EfTex, or Devonmire
houfe in London exactly, but larger ftill :
and with immenfe balconies and windows,
not failies, which move all away, and give
good room and air. The ices, refrefhments,
&c. were all excellent in their kinds, and
liberally difpenfed. The lady feemed to do
the honours of her houfe with perfect good-
humour ; and every body being full-drefled,
though fo early in a morning, added much
to the general effect of the whole.
Here I had the honour of being introduced
to Cardinal Corfmi, who put me a little out
of countenance by faying fuddenly, " Well^
madam ! you never faw one of us red-legged
partridges before I believe ; but you are going to
I Rome
2&J. OBSERVATIONS IN A
Rome I hear , inhere you ivilljitodfucbfellvw*
as me no rarities" The truth is, I had feen
the amiable Prince d'Orini at Milan, who was
a Cardinal ; and who had taken delight in
fhowing me prodigious civilities : nothing ever
ftruck me more than his abrupt entrance one
night at our houfe, when we had a little
mufic, and every body ftood up the moment
he appeared : the Prince however walked for-
ward to the harpfichord> and bleffed my
hufband in a manner the mod graceful and
afFecling : thc.i fate the amufement out, and
returned the next morning to breakfaft with
us, when he indulged us with two hours
converfation at lead ; adding the kindeft and
moft preffing invitations to his country-feat
among the mountains of Brianza, w*hen we
iliould return from our tour of Italy in fprin^
1786. Florence therefore w r as not the firft
place that hew T ed me a Cardinal.
-*.
In the afternoon we all looked out of our
windows which faced the ftreet, not mine,
as they happily command a view of the river,
the Cafcine woods, &c. and from them en-
joyed a complete fight of an Italian horfq-
race. For after the coaches have paraded up
and
JOUkNEY THROUGH ITALY. 28$
find down fo'me time to (hew the equipages-,
liveries, &c. all have on a fudden notice to
quit the fcene of adion ; and all do quit it, in.
ftich a manner as is furprifing. The ftreet is
how covered with fawduft, and made faft at
both ends: the ftarting-poft is adorned with
elegant booths, lined with red velvet, for the
court and Gift nobility : at the other end a
piece of tapeftry is hung, to prevent the crea-
tures from dafhing their brains out when,
they reach the goal. Thoufands and ten
ihoufands of people on foot fill the courfe^
that it is landing wonder to me ftill that
numbers are not killed. The prizes are now
exhibited to view, quite in the old clafiical
ftyle ; a prece of crimfon damafk for the
vvinner perhaps ; a fmali filver bafon and
ewer for the feccnd ; and fo on, leaving no
performer unrewarded. At laft come out the
concurred without riders, but with a narrow^
ieathern ftrap hung acrcfs their backs, which
-has a lump of ivory fattened to the end of it^
all fet full of lharp fpikes like a hedge-hog}
and this goads them along while galloping)
vrorfe than any fpurs could do ; becaufe the
fafter they run, the more this odd machine
keeps jumping up and down, and pricking
their
8
2 86 OBSERVATIONS IN A
their fides ridiculoufly enough ; and it makes
one laugh to fee that fome of them are not
provoked by it not to run at all, but fet about
plunging, in order to rid themfelves of the
inconvenience, inftead of driving forward to
divert the mob ; who leap and fhout and
caper with delight, and lafli the laggers along
with great indignation indeed, and with the
moft comical geftures. I never faw horfes
in fo droll a ftate of degradation before, for
they are all ilriped or fpotted, or painted of
fome colour to diftinguifh them each from
other ; and nine or ten often ftart at a time,
to the great danger of lookers-on I think,
but exceedingly to my entertainment, who
have the comfort of Mrs. Greatheed's com-
pany, and the advantage of feeing all fafely
from her well-fituated terrene, or ground-floor.
The chariot-race was more fplendid, but
Jefs diverting : this was performed in the
Piazza, or Square, an unpaved open place
not bigger than Covent Garden I believe,
and the ground ftrangely uneven. The cars
were light and elegant ; one driver and two
horfes to each : the firft very much upon the
principle of the antique chariots defcribed by
old poets, and the laft trapped ihowily in
various
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 287
various colours, adapted to the carriages, that
people might make their betts accordingly up-
on the pink, the blue, the green, &c. I was
exceedingly amufed with feeing what fo com-
pletely revived all claffic images, and Teemed
fo little altered from the claffic times. Cava-
lier D'Elci, in reply to my expreffions of de-
light, told me that the fame fpirit ftill fub-
fifted exactly; but that in order to prevent
accidents arifing from the difputants r endea-
vours to overturn or circumvent each other,
it was now funk into a mere appearance of
conteft ; for that all the chariots belonged to
one man, who would doubtlefs be careful
enough that his coachmen mould not go to
fparring at the hazard of their horfes. The
farce was carried on to the end however, and
the winner fpread his velvet in triumph, and
drove round the courfe to enjoy the acclama-
tions and careffes of the crowd.
That St. John the Baptift's birth- day
fhould be celebrated by a horfe or chariot
race, appears to have little claim to the praife
of propriety ; but mankind feems agreed that
there muft be fome excufe for merriment;
and furely if any faint is to be venerated, he
Hands foremoft whom Chrift himfelf declared
to
288 OBSERVATIONS IN A
to be the greateft man ever born of a
man.
The old Romans had an inftitution in this
month of games to Neptune Equefter, as they
called their Sea God, with nt> great appear-
ance of good lenfe neither ; but the horie he
produced at the naming of Athens was the
caufe afligned thefe games are perhaps half
traiifmitted ones from thofe in the ancient
mythology.
The evening concluded, and the night
began with fire- works ; the church, or du-
omo, as a cathedral is always called in Italy^
was illuminated on the outfide, and very beau-
tiful, and very very magnificent was the ap-
pearance. The reflection of the cupola's
lights in the river gave us back a faint image
bf what we had been admiring ; and when
1 looked at them from my window, as xve
xvere retiring to reft; fuch, thought I, and
fainter flill are the images which can be
given of a fliow in written or verbal de-
icription ; yet my Engliih friends fhall not
want an account of what I have feen ; for
Italy, at laft, is only a fine well-known aca*
demy figure, from which we all fit down to
make drawings according as the light falls, and
our
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 289
our feat affords opportunity* Every man
fees that, and indeed moft things, with the
eyes of his then prefent humour, and begins
defcribing away fo as to convey a dignihed
or defpicable idea of the object in queftion,
jufl as his difpolition led him to interpret its
appearance,
Readers now are grown wifer, however,
than very much to mind us : they want no
further telling that one traveller was in pain,
and one in love when the tour of Italy was
made by them ; and fo they pick out their
intelligence accordingly, from various books,
written like two letters in the Tatler, giving
an account of a rejoicing night ; one endea-
vouring to excite majeftic ideas, the other
ludicrous ones of the very fame thing.
Well 'tis true enough, however, and has
been often enough laughed at, that the Italian
horfes run without riders, and fcamper down
a long ftreet with untrimmed hecis, hundreds
of people hooking them alo&g, as naughty
boys do a poor dog, that has a bone tied to his
rail in England. This diverfion was too good
to end with the day.
Dulnefs, dear Queen, repeats the jeft again.
VOL. I. U We
2 9 o OBSERVATIONS IN A
We had another, and another juft fuch
a race for three or four evenings toge-
ther, and they got an Englifh cock-tailed
nag, and fet him to the bufmefs, as they
faid he was trained to it ; but I don't recoi-
led his making a more brilliant figure than
his painted and chalked neighbours of the
Continent.
We will not be prejudiced, however ; that
the Florentines know how to manage horfes
is certain, if they would take the trouble.
Laft night's theatre exhibited a proof of fkill,,
which -might mame Aftley and all his rivals.
Count Pazzi having been prevailed on to
lend his fourbeautiful chefnut favourites from
his own carriage to draw a pageant upon the
ftage," I faw therri yefterday evening har-
nefled all abreaft, -their own mafter in a
dancer's habit I was told, guiding them him-
felf, and perfonating the Cid, which was the
name of the~ ballet, if I jremember right, mak-
ing his horfes go clear round the ftage r and
turning at the lamps of the orcheftra with
fuch dexterity, docility, and grace, that they
feemed rather to enjoy than feel difturbance
at the deafening noife of inftruments, the re-
peated burfts of applaufe, and hollow found
of their own hoofs upon the boards of a thea-
tre-
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 291
tre. I had no notion of fuch difcipline, and
thought the praifes, though very loud, not ill
beftowed : as it is furely one of man's ear-
lieft privileges to replenilh the earth with
animal life, and to fubdue it.
I have, for my own part, generally fpeak-
ing, little delight in the obftreperous cla-
mours of thefe heroic pantomimes; their
battles are fo noify, and the acclamations of
the fpectators fo diftreflmg to weak nerves, I
dread an Italian theatre it diftracls me.
And always the fame thing fo, every and
every night ! hoxv tedious it is !
This want of variety in the common
pleafures of Italy though, and that furprif-
ing content with which a nation fo fpright-
ly looks on the fame fluff, and laughs
at the fame joke for months and months to-
gether, is perhaps lefs defpicable to a think-
ing mind, than the affectation of wearinefs and
difguft, where probably it is not felt at all ;
and where a gay heart often lurks under a
clouded countenance, put on to deceive fpec-
tators into a notion of his philofophy who
wears it ; arid what is worfe, who wears it
chiefly as a mark of diftinclion cheaply ob-
tained ; for neither fcience, wit, nor courage
are now found neceffary to form a man of
U 2 fafhion,
292 OBSERVATIONS IN A
fafhion, or the ton, to which may be faid as
juftly as ever Mr. Pope affirmed it of iilence,
That routed reafon finds her fure retreat in thee.
Affectation is certainly that faint and
fickly weed which is the curfe of cultivated,
-not naturally fertile and extenfive coun-
tries ; an infecl: that infefts our forcing ftoves
and hot-houfe plants : and as the naturalifts
tell us all animals may be bred doivn to a
ftate very different from that in which they
were originally placed ; that carriers^ and fan-
tails, and cropper^ are produced by early ca-
ging, and minutely attending to the common
blue pigeon, nights of which cover the ploughed
fields in diftant provinces of England, and
fhew the rich and changeable plumage of
their fine neck to the fummer fun ; fo from
the warm and generous Briton of ancient
days may be produced, and happily bred
doiun^ the clay-cold coxcomb of St. James's-
ftreet.
In Italy, fo far at leaft as I have gone,
there is no impertinent defire of appearing
what one is not : no fearching for talk, and
torturing expreffion to vary its phrafes with
fomething new and fomething fine ; or elle
finking into filence from defpair of divert-
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 293
ing the company, and taking up the oppo-
fite method, contriving to imprefs them with
an idea of bright intelligence, concealed by
modeft doubts of our own powers, and ftifled
by deep thought upon abftrufe and difficult
topics. To get quit of all thefe deep-laid
fyftems of enjoyment, where
To take our breakfaft we project a fcheme,
Nor drink our tea without a ftratagerrij
like the lady in Doctor Young ; the fureft
method is to drop into Italy ; where a conver-
fazione at Venice or Florence, after the fo-
ciety of London, or les petit sfoupcrs de Paris,
where, in their own phrafe, un tableau n at-
tend pas I 'autre *, is like taking . a walk in
Ham Gardens, or the Leafowes, after les par-
terres de Verfailles ed i Terrazzi dl Genoa.
We are affected in the houfe, but natural in
the gardens. Italians are natural in fociety,
affected and conftrained in the difpofition of
their grounds. No one, however, is good or
bad, or wife or foolifh without a reafon why.
Reftraintis made for man, and where religious
and political liberty is enjoyed to its full ex-
* One picture don't wait for another.
U 3 tent,
294 OBSERVATIONS IN A
tent, as in Great Britain, the people will
forge fhackles for themfelves, and lay the
yoke heavy on fociety, to which, on the con-
trary, Italians give a loofe, as compenfa-
tion for their want of freedom in affairs of
church or ftate.
It is, I think, obfervable of uncontradict-
ed, homebred, and, as we fay, fpoiled chil-
dren, that when a dozen of them get together
for the purpofe of paffing a day in mutual
amufement, they will make to themfelves the
ftri&eft laws for their game, and rigidly pu-
nifh whatever breach of rule has been made
while the time allotted for diverfion lafts :
but in a fchool of girls, ftricHy kept, at their
hours of permitted recreation no diftinc~t
founds can be heard through the general cla-
mour of joy and confufion ; nor does any
thing come iefs into their heads than the notion
of impofmg regulations on themfelves, or
making fport out of the harm founds of rule
and government .
Ridicule too points her arrows only among
highly-polifhed focieties Paris arid London :
in the firft of which all wit is comprifed in the
power of ridiculing one's neighbours, and in
the other every artifice is put in practice to
4 efcape
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 295
efcape it. In Italy no fiich terrors reftrain
converfation ; no public cenfure purfues that
fantaftical behaviour which leads to no pub-
lic offence ; and as it is only fear which can
beget falfehood, thefe people feek fuch be-
havior as naturally fuits them ; and in our
theatrical phrafe, they let the character come
to them, they do not go to the character.
Let us not fail to remember after all, that
fuch feverity as we ufe, quickens the defire
ofpleafmg, and deadens,the diffufion of im-
moral fentiments, or indelicate language, in
England ; where, I muft add, for the honour
of my country, that if fuch liberties were
taken upon the ftage as are frequent in the
firft ranks of Italian fociety, they would be
hifled by thofe who paid only a /hilling for
their entrance : fo that affectation and a forced
refinement may be confidered as the bad
leaden ftatues ftill left in our delicately-neat
and highly-ornamented gardens ; of which
elegance and fcience are the white and red
rofes : but to be poffefled of theiry^^/j-, one
muft venture a little through the thorns.
Thorns, though figurative, remind one of the
cicala, a creature which leaves nothing elfe
untouched here. Surely their clamours and
U 4
296 OBSERVATIONS IN A
depredations have no equal. I ufed to walk
in the Boboli Gardens, defying the heat,
till they had eaten up the little {hade fome
hedges there afforded me ; and till, by their
inceflant noife, all thought is difturbed, and
no line prefented itfelf to my memory but
Sole fub ardenti refonant arbufta Cicadis*j
till Mr. Merry's fweet ode to fummer here
at Florence made one lefs difcontented,
To hear the light cicala's ceafelefs din,
Thar vibrates fhrill ; or the near- weeping brook
That feebly winds along,
And mourns his channel fhrunk. MERRY.
This animal has four wings, four eyes, and
two membranes like parchment under the
hard fcales he is covered with ; and thefe,
it is faid, create the uncommon noife he
makes, by blowing them fomewhat like bel-
lows, to iharpen the found ; which, whatever
it proceeds from, is louder than can be guefled
at by thofe who have not heard it in Tuf-
cany. He is of the locuft kind, an inch ancj
* While in the fcorching fun I trace in vain
Thy flying footfteps o'er the burning pla,in,
The creaking locufls with my voice confpire,
They fried with heat, and I with fierce deflre.
DRYDEN.
a half
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 297
a half long, and wonderfully light in propor-
tion ; though no fmall feeder, I fhould ima-
gine, by the total definition his noify tribe
make amongft the leaves, which are now
wholly ftript by them of all their verdure,
the fibres only being left ; and I obferved
yefterday evening, as we returned from air-
ing, another ftrange deprivation practifed on,
the mulberry leaves round the city, which
being all forcibly torn away for the ufe of
the filk-worms, make an odd fort of artificial
winter near the town walls ; and remind one
of the wretched geefe in Lincolnihire, pluck-
ed once a year for their feathers by their
truly unfeeling proprietors. I am told indeed,
that both revegetate, though I truft neither
tree nor bird can fail to experience fatal effects
one day or other in confequence of fo unna-
tural an operation. Here is fome ivy of un-
common growth, but I have feen larger both
at Beaumaris caftle in North Wales, and at
the abbey of Glaftonbury in Somerfetfhire :
but the great pines in the Cafcine woods
have, I fuppofe, no rival nearer than the
Caftagno a Cento Cavalli, mentioned by Mr.
Brydone. They afford little made or fhelter
from heat however, as their umbrella-like
covering
298 OBSERVATIONS IN A
covering is ftrangely fmall in proportion to
their height and fize ; fome of them being
ten, and fome twelve feet in diameter. Thefe
venerable, thefe glorious productions of na-
ture are all now marked for deftruclion
however ; all going to be put in wicker baf-
kets, and feed the Grand Duke's fires. I
faw a fellow hewing one down to-day, and
the reft are all to follow ; the feeble Floren-
tines had much ado to mafter it ;
Seemed the harmful hatchet to fear,
And to wound holy Eld would forbear,
as Spenfer fays : I did half hope they could
not get it down ;. but the loyal Tufcans
(evermore awed by the name oiprintipt) told
us it was right to get rid of them, as one of
the cones, of which they bore vaft quantities,
might chance to drop upon the head of a
PrincipettinO) or little Prince, as he pafTed
along.
I was obferving that reftraint was neceiTary
to man ; I have now learned a notion that
ncife is neceflary too. The clatter made
here in the Piazza del Duomo, where you
fit in your carriage at a coffee-houfe door,
and chat with your friends according to Ita-
lian
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 299
lian cuftom, while one eats ice, and another
calls for lemonade, to while away the time
after dinner, the noife made then and there,
I fay, is beyond endurance.
Our Florentines have nothing on earth to
do ; yet a dozen fellows crying ciambeUi^
little cakes, about the fquare, affifted by beg-
gars, who lie upon the church fteps, and
pray or rather promife to pray as loud as their
lungs will let them, for the anime fante di
purgatorio* -, ballad-fingers meantime endea-
vouring to drown thefe clamours in their
own, and gentlemen's fervants difputing at
the doors, whofe mafter fhall be firft ferved ;
ripping up the pedigrees of each to prove fu-
perior claims for a bifcuit or macaroon ; do
make fuch an intolerable clatter among them,
that one cannot, for one's life, hear one ano-
ther fpeak : and I did fay juft now, that it
were as good live at Breft or Portfmouth
when the rival fleets were fitting out, as here ;
where real tranquillity fubfifts under a buftle
merely imaginary. Our Grand Duke lives
with little ftate for aught I can obferve
here ; but where there is leaft pomp, there
* Holy fouls in purgatory.
is
3 oo OBSERVATIONS IN A
is commonly moft power ; for a man muft
}\^v&fometblng pour fe dedommager "f, as the
French exprefs it ; and this gentleman pof-
fefling they0//W<?, has no care for the clinquant,
I trow. He tells his fubjects when to go to
bed, and who to dance with, till the hour he
chufes they fhould retire to reft, with ex-
aUy that fort of old-fafhioned paternal au-
thority that fathers ufed to exercife over their
families in England before commerce had run
her levelling plough over all ranks, and an-
nihilated even the name of fubordinatioru
If he hear of any perfon living long in Flo-
rence without being able to give a good ac-
count of his bufinefs there, the Duke warns
him to go away ; and if he loiter after fuch
warning given, fends him out. Does any
nobleman fhine in pompous equipage or
fplendid table ; the Grand Duke enquires
foon into his pretenfions, and fcruples not
to give perfonal advice, and add grave re-
proofs with regard to the management of
each individual's private affairs, the eftablifh-
ment of their fons, marriage of their fifters a
t To make himfelf amends.
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 301
&c. When they appeared to complain of
this behaviour to me, I know not, replied I,
what to anfwer : one has always read and
heard that the Sovereigns ought to be-
have in defpotic governments like \hzfatbers
of their family : and the Archbifhop of Cam-
bray inculcates no other conduct than this,
when advifmg his pupil, heir to the crown
of France. " Yes, Madam," replied one of
my auditors, with an acutenefs truly Italian ;
" but this Prince is our father-in-law" The
truth is, much of an Englifli traveller's plea-
fure is taken off at Florence by the inceiTant
complaints of a government he does not un-
derftand, and of oppreflions he cannot re-
medy. 'Tis fo dull to hear people lament the
want of liberty, to which I queftion whether
they have any pretenfions ; and without ever
knowing whether it is the tyranny or the
tyrant they complain of. Tedious however
and moft unintereiling are their accounts of
grievances, which a fubjecT: of Great Britain
has much ado to comprehend, and more to
pity ; as they are now all heart-broken, be-
caufe they muft fay their prayers in their own
language and not in Latin, which, how it
can
9
3 02 OBSERVATIONS IN A
can be conftrued into misfortune, a Tufcan
alone can tell.
Lord Corke has given us many pleafmg
anecdotes of thofe who were formerly Princes
in this land. Had they a fovereign of the
old Medici family, they would go to bed
when be bid them quietly enough I believe,
and fay their prayers in what language be
would have them : 'tis in our parliamentary
phrafe, the men^ not the meafures^ that offend
them ; and while they pretend to whine as if
defpotifm difpleafed them, they deteft every
republican ftate, feel envy towards Venice,
and contempt for Lucca.
I would rather talk of their gallery than their
government : and furely nothing made by man
ever fo completely anfwered a raifed expectation,
as the apparent conteft between Titian's recum-
bent beauty, glowing with colour and animated
by the warmeft expreffion, and the Greek fta-
tue of fymmetrical perfection and finenefs
of form inimitable, where fculpture fupplies
all that fancy can defire, and all that imagi-
nation can fuggeft. Thefe two models of ex-
cellence feem placed near each other, at once
to
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 303
to mock all human praife, and defy all fu-
ture imitation. The liftening flave appears
difturbed by the blows of the wreftlers in the
fame room, and hearkens with an attentive
impatience, fuch as one has often felt when
unable to diftinguifh the words one wifhes to
repeat. You really then do not feem as if
you were alone in this tribune, fo animated
is every figure, fo full of life and foul : yet
I commend not the reprefenting of St. Catha-
rine with leering eyes, as fhe is here painted
by Titian ; that it is meant for a portrait, I
find no excufe ; fome character more fuited
to the expreffion fhould have been chofen ^
and if it were only the picture of a faint, that
expreffion was ftrangely out of character.
An anachronifm may be found in the Tobit
over the door too, by acute obfervers, who
will deem it ill-managed to paint the crofs in
the clouds, where it is an old teftament ftory,
and that ftory apocryphal befide ; might I
add, that Guido's meek Madonna, fo divine-
ly contrafted to the other women in the room,,
lofes fomething of dignity by the affected
pofition of the thumbs. I think I might leave
the tribune without a word faid of the St.
John by Raphael, which no words are wor-
thy
304 OBSERVATIONS IN A
thy to extol : 'tis all fublimity ; and when I
look on it I feel nothing but veneration pufh-
ed to aftonifhment. Unlike the elegant fi-
gure of the Baptift at Padua, covered with
glafs, and belonging to a convent of friars,
who told me, and truly, That it had no
equal ; it is painted by Guido with every per-
fection of form and every grace of expref-
fion. I agree with them it has no equal ; but
in the tribune at Florence may be found its
fuperior.
We were next conducted to the Niobe,
who has an apartment to herfelf : and now,
thought I, dear Mrs. Siddons has never feen
this figure : but thofe who can fee it or her,
without emotions equally impoflible to con-
tain or to fupprefs, deferve the fate of Niobe,
and have already half-fufFered it. Their
hearts and eyes are ftone.
Nothing is worth fpeaking of after this
Niobe! Her beauty! her maternal anguifli !
her clofely-clafped Chloris ! her half-railed
head, fcarcely daring to deprecate that ven-
geance of which me already feels fuch dread-*
ful effects ! What can one do
But drop the fhady curtain on the fcenc,
and
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 305
and run to fee the portraits of thofe artifts who
have exalted one's ideas of human nature, and
Ihewn what man can perform. Among thefe
worthies a Britim eye foon diftinguifhes Sir
Jofhua Reynolds ; a citizen of the world
fattens his to Leonardo da Vinci.
I have been out to dinner in the country
near Prato, and what a charming, what a
delightful thing is a nobleman's feat near
Florence ! How cheerful the fociety ! how
fplendid the climate ! how wonderful the
profpeds in this glorious country ! The Arno
rolling before his houfe, the Appenines rifing
behind it ! a fight of fertility enjoyed by its
inhabitants, and a view of fuch defences to
their property as nature alone can be-
ftow.
A peafantry fo rich too, that the wives and
daughters of the farmer go drefled in jewels ;
and thofe of no fmall value. A pair of one-
drop ear-rings, a broadifti necklace, with a
long piece hanging down the bofom, and
terminated with a crofs, all of fet garnets
clear and perfect, is a common, a very com-
mon treafure to the females about this coun-
try ; and on every Sunday or holiday, when
they drefs and mean to look pretty, their
VOL. I. X elegantly-
jo6 OBSERVATIONS IN A
elegantly-difpofed ornaments attract attention
ftrongly ; though I do not think them as
handfome as the Lombard lafTes, and our
Venetian friends proteft that the farmers at
Crema in their ftate are ftill richer.
La Contadinella Tofcana however, in a very
rich white filk petticoat, exceedingly full
and fhort, to mew her neat pink flipper and
pretty ancle, her pink corps de robe and
ftraps, with white filk lacing down the fto-
macher, puffed mift fleeves, with heavy lace
robbins ending at the elbow, and faftened at
the moulders with at leaft eight or nine bows
of narrow pink ribbon, a lawn handkerchief
trimmed with broad lace, put on fomewhat
eoquettimly, and finishing in front with a
nofegay, muft make a lovely figure at any
rate : though the hair is drawn away from
the face in a way rather too tight to be be-
coming, under a red velvet culhion edged
with gold, which helps to wear it off I think,
but gives the fmall Leghorn hat, lined with
green, a pretty perking air, which is infi-
nitely nymphim and fmart. A tolerably
pretty girl fo dreffed may furely more than
vie with a Jille d* opera upon the Paris ftage,
even were ihe not fet off as thefe are with
a very
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 307
a very rich fuit of pearls or fet garnets, that
in France or England would not be purchafed
for lefs than forty or fifty pounds : and I am
now fpeakirig of the women perpetually under
one's eye ; not one or two picked from the
crowd, like Mrs. Vanini, an inn-keeper's
wife in Florence, who, when fhe was drefled
for the mafquerade two nights ago, fubmitted
her finery to Mrs. Greatheed's infpection and
my own ; who agreed fhe could not be fo
adorned in England for lefs than a thoufand
pounds.
It is true the nobility are proud of letting
you fee how comfortably their dependants
live in Tufcany ; but can any pride be more
rational or generous, or any deiire more pa-
triotick ? Oh may they never look with lefs
delight on the happinefs of their inferiors L
and then they will not murmur at their
prince, whofe protection of this rank among
his fubjects is eminently tender and attentive.
Returning home from our fplendid dinner
and agreeable day pafled at Conte Mannucci's
country-feat, while our noble friends amufed
me with various chat, I thought fome unac \
countable fparks of fire feemed to ftrike up
and down the hedges as if in perpetual mo-
X 2 tion,
3 68 OBSERVATIONS IN A
tion, but checked the fancy concluding it a
trick of the imagination only ; till the even-
ing, which fhuts in flrangely quick here in
Tufcany, grew dark, and exhibited an ap-
pearance wholly new to me ; whofe furprife
that no flame followed thefe wandering fires
was not fmall, when I recollected the ftate
of deficcation that nature fuffered, and had
done for fome months. My diflike of inter-
rupting an agreeable converfation kept me
long from enquiring into the caufe of this ap-
pearance, which however I doubted not was
eleclrick, till they told me it was the lucclola y
or fire-fly ; of which a very good account is
given in twenty books, but I had forgotten
them all. As the Florence Mifcellany has
never been published, I will copy out what is
faid of it there, becaufe the Abate Fontana
was confiilted when that defcription was
given.
" This infect then differs from every other
of the luminous tribe, becaufe its light is by
no means continual, but emitted by flames^
fuddenly ftriking out as it flies; when
crufhed it leaves a luftre on the fpot for a
confiderable time, from whence one may
conclude its nature is phofphorick,"
Oh
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 309
Oh vagrant infect, type of our fhort life,
'Tis thus we fhine, and vanifh from the view i
For the cold feaibn comes,
And all our luftre's o'er.
MERRY'S Ode' to Summer.
It is faid I think, that no animal affords
an acid except ants, which are therefore moft
quickly deftroyed by lirne, pot-afh, &c. or
any ftrong alkali of courfe'; yet acid mufl the
lucciola be proved, or fhe can never be phof-
phorick furely ; as upon its analyfis that
flrangeft of all compofitions appears to be a
union of violent acid with 'inflammable mat-
ter, whence it may be termed an animal ftil-
phur, and is actually found to burn fucceff-
fully under a common glafs-bell ; and to
afford flowers too, which, by attracting the
humidity of the air, become a liquor like
oleum fulpburis per campanam *.
The colour of the fky viewed, when one
dares to look at it, through this pure atmo-
fphere is particularly beautiful ; of a much
more brilliant and celeftial blue I think, than
it appeared from the tower of St. Mark's
* Oil of fulphur by the bell,
X 3
3 io OBSERVATIONS IN A
Place, Venice. Were I to affirm that the fea is
of a more peculiar tranfparent brightnefs upon
the coaft of North Wales than elfewhere, it
would feem prejudice perhaps, and yet is
ftrictly true : I am not lefs perfuaded that the
fky appears of a finer tint in Tufcany than
any other country I have vifited : Naples
is however the vaunted climate, and that yet
remains to be examined.
I have been {hewed, at the horfe-race, the
theatre, &c. the unfortunate grandfon of
JCing James the Second. He goes much intq
publick ftill, though old and fickly ; gives the
Englim arms and livery, and wears the gar-
ter, which he has likewife beftowed upon his
natural daughter. The Princefs of Stcldberg,
his confort, whom he always called Queen,
has left him to end a life of difappointment
and forrow by bimfelf^ with the fad reflec-
tion, that even conjugal attachment, and of
courfe domeftic comfort, was denied to him,
and fled in defiance of poetry and fiction
fled with the crown, to its powerful an4
triumphant poflerTors.
The Duomo, or Cathedral, has engaged
xn.y attention all to-day : its prodigious fize,
perfect
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 3 n
perfect proportions, and exquifite tafte, ought
to have detained me longer. Though the
outfide does not pleafe me as well as if it had
been lefs rich and lefs magniiicent. Super-,
fiuity always defeats its own purpofe, of ftrik-
ing you with awe at its fuperior greatnefs ;
while Simplicity looks on, and laughs at its.
vain attempts. This wonderful church, built
of ftriped marbles, white, black, and red
alternately, has fcarcely the air of being fo
compofed, but looks like painted ivory to me^
who am obliged to think, and think again,
before I can be fure it is of fo ponderous
and mafly, as well as fo ineftirnable a fub-
ftance : nor can I, without more than equal
difficulty, perfuade myfelf to give its fudden
view the decided preference over St. Paul's in
London, which never, never miiTes its imme-
diate effedt on a fpedlator,
But ftands fublime in fimpleft majefty.
The Battifterio is another ftruclure clofe
to the church, and of furprifing beauty;
Michael Angelo faid the gates of it deferved
to be thofe which open Paradife : and that
ipeech was more the fpeech of a good work-
X 4 man,
3 i2 OBSERVATIONS IN A
man, than of a man \vhofe mind was exalted
by his profeffion. The gates are of brafs,
divided into ninety-fix compartments each,
and carved with fuch variety of invention,
fuch elaboration of art and ingenuity, that
no praife except that which he gave them
could have been too high. The font has not
been ufed fince the days when immerfion in
baptifm was deemed neceflary to falvation ; a
ceremony flill confidered by the Greek church
as indiipenfable. AVhy the difptites concern-
ing this facrament were carried on with more
decency and lefs lafting rancour among
Chriftians, than thofe which related to the
other great pledge of our pardon, the com-
municating with our Saviour Chrift in his
laft Supper, I know not, nor can imagine.
Every page of ecclefiaftical hiflory exhibits the
tenacioufnefs with which the fmalleft attend-
ant circumftance on this lad-mentioned facra-
xnent has been held faft by the Romanifts, who
dropped the immerfion at baptifm of them-
felves ; and in fo warm a climate too ! it moves
my wonder ; when nothing is more obvious
to the meaneft underftanding, than that if
the firft facrament is not rightly and duly
admi-
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 313
adminiftered, we never fhall arrive at re-
ceiving the other at all. I hope it is impof-
fible for any one lefs than myfelf to wifh the
continuance or revival of contentions fo di
graceful to humanity in general ; fo pecu-
liarly repugnant to the true fpirit of Chriftia-
nity, which confifts chiefly in charity, and
that brotherly love we know to have been
cemented by the blood of our blefledLord : yet
very ftrange it is to think, that while other
innovations have been refifted even to death,
fcarcely any among the many feels we have
divided into, retain the original form in that
ceremony fo emphatically called 'cbriftenmg*
Thefe obfeivations fuggefted by the fight
of the old font at Florence fhall now be fuc-
ceeded by lighter fubjects of reflection ;
among which the firft that prefents itfelf is
the fuperior elegance of the language; for
till we arrive here, all is dialect ; though by
this word I would not have any one miftake
me, or understand it as meant in the limited
fenfe of a provincial jargon, fuch as York-
fhire,Derbyihire, or Cornwall, prefent us with ;
where every found is corruption, barbarifm,
and vulgarity.
The
3 r* OBSERVATIONS IN A
The States of Italy being all under different
rulers, are kept feparate from each other, and
fpeak a different dialed ; that of Milan full
of confonants and harfh to the ear, but
abounding with claffical exprefiions that re-
joice one's heart, and fill one with the oddeft
but moft pleafmg fenfations imaginable. I
heard a lady there call a runaway nobleman
Profugo mighty prettily ; and added, that his
conduct had put all the town into orgqfmo
grande. All this, however, the Tufcans may
poffibly have in common with them. Myknow T -
ledge of the language muft remain ever too
imperfect for me to depend on my own fkill
in it ; all I can aflert is, that the Florentines
appear^ as far as I have been competent to
obferve, to depend more on their own co-
pious and beautiful language for exprefiion,
than the Milanefe do ; who run to Spanifh,
Greek, or Latin for affiftance, while half
their tongue is avowedly borrowed from the
French, whofe pronunciation, in the letter
#, they even profefs to retain.
At Venice, the fweetnefs of the patois is
irrefiftible ; their lips, incapable of uttering
any but the fweeteft founds, reject all confo-
nants
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 315
nants they can get quit of; and make their
mouths drop honey more completely than it
can be faid by any eloquence lefs mellifluous
than their own.
The Bolognefe dialed* is detefted by the ,
other Italians, as grofs and difagreeable in its
founds : but every nation has the good word
pf its own inhabitants ; and the language
which Abbate Bianconi praifes as nervous and
expreflive, I would ad vile no perfon, lefs
learned than himfelf, to cenfure as difgufting,
or condemn as dull. I ftaid very little at Bo-
logna ; faw nothing but their pictures, and
heard nothing but their prayers : thofe were
fuperior, I fancy, to all rivals. Language
can be never fpoken of by a foreigner to any
effect: of conviction. I have heard our coun-
tryman, Mr. Greatheed himfelf, who per-
haps poflefles more Italian than almoft any
Englimman, and ftudies it more clofely, re-
fufe to decide in critical difputations among
his literary friends here, though the fonnets
he writes in the Tufcan language are praifed
by the natives, who beft underftand it, and
have been by fome of them preferred to thofe
written by Milton himfelf. Mean time this is
acknow-
3 i6 OBSERVATIONS IN A
acknowledged to be the prime city for purity
of phrafe and delicacy of expreffion, which,
at laft, is fo difguifed to me by the guttural
manner in which many founds are pro-
nounced, that I feel half weary of running
about from town to town fo, and never arriving
at any, where I can underftand the converfa-
tion without putting all the attention poffible
to their difcourfe. I am now told that lefs
efforts will be neceflary at Rome.
Nothing can be prettier, however, than the
flow and tranquil manners of a Florentine ;
nothing more polifhed than his general ad-
drefs and behaviour : ever in the third per-
fon, though to a blackguard in the ftreet, if
he has not the honour of his particular ac-
quaintance, while intimacy produces voi in
thofe of the higheft rank, who call one ano-
ther Carlo and Angelo very fvveetly ; the la-
dies taking up the fame notion, and faying
Louifa, or Maddalena, without any addition
at all.
The Don and Donna of Milan were oiFen-
fivc to me fomehow, as they conveyed an idea
of Spain, not Italy. Here Signora is the
term, which better pleafes one's ear, and
Signora
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 31;
Signora ContefTa, Signora Principefla, if the
perfon is of higher quality, refembles our
manners more when we fay my Lady
Dutchefs, &c. What ftrikes me as moft ob-
fervable, is the uniformity of ftyle in all the
great towns.
At Venice the men of literature and
fafhion fpeak with the fame accent, and I
believe the fame quick turns of expreflion as
their Gondolier ; and the coachman at Mi-
lan talks no broader than the Countefs ; who,
if me does not fpeak always in French to a
foreigner, as me would willingly do, tries
in vain to talk Italian ; and having afked you
thus, alia capl f which means ha did capita ?
laughs at herfelf for trying to tofcaneggiare^
as me calls it, and gives the point up with
no cor altr. that comes in at the end of every
fentence, and means non occorrc altro ; there
is no more occurs upon the fubjecT:.
The Laquais de Place who attended us at
Bologna was one of the few perfons I had
met then, who fpo'ke a language perfectly
intelligible to me. " Are you a Florentine,
pi-ay friend, faid I ?" " No, madam, but
the combinations of this world having led me
to
318 OBSERVATIONS IN A
to talk much with ftrangers, I contrive to
tnfcani'ze it all I can for their advantage, and
doubt not but it will tend to my own at
kit."
Such a fentiment, fo exprefled by a foot-
man, would fet a plain man in London a
laughing, and make a fanciful Lady imagine
he was a nobleman difguifed. Here nobody
laughs, nor nobody ftares, nor wonders that
their valet fpeaks juft as good language,
or utters as well-turned fentences as them-
felves. Their cold anfwer to my amazement
is as comical as the fellow's fine ftyle e bat~
ti%zato*, fay they, come noi altri^. But we
are called away to hear the fair Fantaftici,
a young woman who makes improvifo verfes,
and fmgs them, as they tell me, with infi-
nite learning and tafte. She is fucceffor to the
celebrated Gorilla, who no longer exhibits
the power flie once held without a rival :
yet to her converfations every one ftill ftrives
for admittance, though ihe is now ill, and
old, and hoarfe with repeated colds. She
fpafes, however, now by no labour or fatigue
lo obtain and keep that fuperiority and ad-
* He has been baptized. -f As well as we.
miration
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 3 r 9
miration which one day perhaps gave her al-
moft equal trouble to receive and to repay. But
who can bear to lay their laurels by ? Go-
rilla is gay by nature, and witty, if I may
fay fo, by habit ; replete with fancy, and
powerful to combine images apparently dif-
tant. Mankind is at laft more juft to people
of talents than is univerfally allowed, I think.
Gorilla, without pretenfions either to imma-
culate character (in the Englifh fenfe), deep
erudition, or high birth, which an Italian
cfteems above all earthly things, has fo made
her way in the world, that all the nobility
of both fexes crowd to her houfe 5 that na
Prince pafles through Florence without wait-
ing on Gorilla ; that the Capitol will long re-
collect her being crowned there, and that
many fovereigns have not only fought her
company, but have been obliged to put up with
flights from her independent fpirit, and from
her airy, rather than haughty behaviour. She
is, however, (I cannot guefs why) not rich, and
keeps no carriage ; but enjoying all the effect
of money, convenience, company, and gene-
ral attention, is probably very happy ; as (he
does not much fuffer her thoughts of the
next
3 20 OBSERVATIONS IN A
next world to difturb her felicity in this, I
believe, while willing to turn every thing
into mirth, and make all admire her wit, even
at the expence of their own virtue. The fol-
lowing Epigram, made by her, will explain
my meaning, and give a fpecimen of her
prefent powers of improvifation, undecayed
by ill health ; and I might add, imdifmayed
by it. An old gentleman here, one Gaetano
Tefta Grofla had a young wife, whofe name
was Mary, and who brought him a fon when
he was more than feventy years old. Gorilla
led him gaily into the circle of company with
thefe words :
" Miei Signori lo vi prefento
" II buon Uomo Gaetano ;
<c Che non sa che cofa fia
" II mifterio fovr'umano
" Del Figliuolo di Maria.'*
Let not the infidels triumph however, or
rank among them the truly-illuftrious Gorilla \
'Tvvas but the rage, I hope, of keeping at any
rate the fame me has gained, when the fweet
voice is gone,, which once enchanted all who
heard it like the daughters of Pierius in Ovid.
And
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 321
And though I was exceedingly entertained
by the prefent improvifatrice, the charming
Fantaftici, whofe youth, beauty, erudition,
and fidelity to _her hufband, give her every
claim upon one's heart, and every juft pre-
tenfiori to applaufe, I could not, in the
midft of that delight, which claffick learn-
ing and mufical excellence combined -to
produce, forbear a grateful recollection of
the civilities I had received from Gorilla, and
half-regretting that her rival fhould be fo fue-
cefsfulj
For tho' the treacherous tapfter, Thomas,
Hangs a new angel ten doors from us,
We hold it both a mame and fin
To quit the true old Angel Inn.
Well ! if fome people have too little appear-
ance of refpect for religion, there are others
who offend one by having too much, and fo
the balance is kept even.
We were a walking laft night in the gar-
dens of Porto St. Gallo, and met two or three
well-looking women of the fecond rank, with
a baby, four or five years old at moil, drefled
in the habit of a Dominican Friar, beftowing
the benediction as he walked along like an
officiating Prieft. I felt a fhock given to all
VOL. I. Y my
322 OBSERVATIONS IN A
my nerves at once, and afked Cavalier D'Elci
the meaning of fo ftrange a device. His re-
ply to me was, " E^divozione mal intefa^
Signora *;"' and turning round to the other
gentlemen, " Now this folly, 1 ' faid he, " a
hundred years ago would have been the ob-
ject of profound veneration and prodigious
applaufe. Fifty years hence it would
be cenfured as hypocritical ; it is now
paffed by wholly unnoticed, except by this
foreign Lady, who, I believe, thought it
was done for a joke.
I have had a little fever fince I came hither
from the intenfe heat I truft ; but my maid
has a worfe ftill. Doclor Bicchierei, with
that liberality which ever is found to attend
real learning, prefcribed James's powders to
her^ and bid me attend to Buchan's Do-
meftick Medicine, and I fliould do well
enough he faid.
Mr. Greathced, Mr. Parfons, Mr. Bid-
dulph, and Mr. Piozzi, have been together on
a party of pleafure to fee the renowned Val-
lombrofa, and came home contradicting Mil-
ton, who fays the devils lay beftrewn
* 'Tis iJl-underftood devotion, madam.
Thick
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 3*3
Thick as autumnal leaves in Vallombrofa :
Whereas, fay they, the trees are all ever-
green in thofe woods. Milton, it feems, was
right notwithstanding : for the botanifts tell me,
that nothing makes more litterthan thefhedding
of leaves, which replace themfelves by others,
as on the plants ftiled ever-green, which
change like every tree, but only do not change
all at once, and remain ftript till fpring* They
(poke highly of their very kind and hofpitable
reception at the convent, where
Safe from pangs the worldling knows,
tiere fecure*in calm repofe,
Far from life's perplexing maze,
The pious fathers pafs their days ;
While the bell's fhrill-tinkling found
Regulates their eonilant round,
And
Here the traveller elate
Finds an ever- open gate :
All his wants find quick fupply,
While welcome beams from every eye".
PARSONS.
This pious foundation of retired Benedic-
tines, fituated in the Appenines, about eigh-
teen miles from Florence^ owes its original
Y 2 to
3 24 OBSERVATIONS IN A
to Giovanni Gualberto, a Tufcan nobleman,
whofe brother Hugo having been killed by a
relation in the year 1015, he refolved to
avenge his death ; but happening to meet the
arTafTm alone and in a folitary place, whi-
ther he appeared to have been driven by a
fenfe of guilt, and feeing him fuddenly drop
down at his feet, and without uttering a word
produce from his bofom a crucifix, holding
it up in a fupplicating gefture, with look fub-
miffively imploring, he felt the force of this
filent rhetoric, and generoufly gave his enemy
free pardon.
On further reflection upon the ftriking
fcene, Gualberto felt ftill more affeded ; and
from feeing the dangers and temptations
which fin-round a buftling life, refolved
to quit the too much mixed fociety of man-
kind, and fettle in a ftate of perpetual retire-
ment. For this purpofe he chofe Vallombrofa,
and there founded the famous convent fo
juftly admired by all who vifit it.
Such ftories lead one forward to the tombs
of Michael Angelo and the great Galileo,
which laft I looked on to-day with reverence,
pity, and wonder ; to think that a change fo
furprifmg fhould be made in worldly affairs
fmce
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 325
fince his time ; that the man who no longer
ago than the year 1636, was by the torments
and terrors of the Inquifition obliged for-
mally to renounce, as heretical, accurfed, and
contrary to religion, the revived doctrines of
Copernicus, {hould now have a monument
erected to his memory, in the very city where
he was born, whence he was cruelly torn away
to anfwer at Rome for the fuppofed offence ; to
which he returned; and ftrange to tell, in which
he lived on, by his own defire, with the wife
who, by her difcovery of his fentiments, and
information given to the priefts accordingly,
had caufed his ruin ; and who, after his
death, in a fit of mad miftaken zeal, flung
into the fire, in company with her confeflbr,
all the papers fhe could find in his ftudy.
How wonderful are thefe events ! and how
fweet muft the fcience of aftronomy have
been to that poor man, wjio fuffered all but
actual martyrdom in its caufe ! How odd too,,
that ever Galileo's fon, by fuch a mother as
we have juft defcribed, fhould apply himfelf
to the fame ftudies, and be the inventor of
the fimple pendulum fo neceflary to every
kind of clock-work !
Y 3 Reli-
326 OBSERVATIONS IN A
Religious prejudices however, and their
effects and thanks be to God their almoft
final conclufion too may be found nearer
home than Galileo's tomb ; while Milton
has a monument in the fame cathedral
with Dr. South, who perhaps would have
given credit to no human information, which
mould have told him that event would take
place.
We are now going foon to leave Florence,
feat of the arts and refidence of literature !
I mall be fincerely forry to quit a city where
not a ftep can be taken without a new or a
revived idea being added to our ftore; where
fuch ftatues as would in England have colleges
founded, or palaces built for their reception,
ftand in the open ftreet ; the Centaur, the
Sabine woman, and the Juftice : Where the
Madonna della Seggiola reigns triumphant
over all pictures for brilliancy of colouring
and vigour of pencil.
It was the portrait of Raphaelle's favourite
miftrefs, and his own child by her fate for
the Bambino : is it then wonderful that it
fhould want that heavenly expreffion of dig-
nity divine, and grace unutterable, which
breathes
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 327
breathes through the fchool of Caracci ?
Connoifieurs will have all excellence united
in one picture, and quarrel unkindly if merit
of any kind be wanting : Surely the Madonna
della Seggiola has nature to recommend it,
and much more need not be defired. If the
young and tender and playful innocence of
early infancy is what chiefly delights and
detains one's attention, it may be found to
its utmoft poflible perfection in a painter far
inferior to Raphael, Carlo Marratt.
If ibftnefs in the female character, and
meek humility of countenance, be all that
are wanted for the head of a Madonna, we
muft go to Elifabetta Sirani and Saffoferrata I
think ; but it is ever fo. The Cordelia of
Mrs. Gibber was beyond all comparifon fofter
and fweeter than that of her powerful fuc-
ceflbr Siddons ; yet who will fay that the
actrefles were equal ?
But I muft bid adieu to beautiful Florence,
where the ftreets are kept fo clean one is
afraid to dirty them^ and not ones fdf^ by
walking in them : where the public walks are
all nicely weeded, as in England, and the
gardens have a homeim and Bath-like look,
that is exceflively cheering to an Englifli
Y 4 eve:
328 OBSERVATIONS IN A
eye : where, when I dined at Prince Cor-
lim's table, I heard the Cardinal fay grace,
and thought of the ceremonies at Queen's
College, Oxford ; where I had the honour
of entertaining, at my own dinner on the
2jth of July, many of the Tufcan, and many
of the Englifh nobility j and Nardini kindly
played a folo in the evening at a concert we
gave in Meghitt's great room : where we
have compiled the little book amongft us,
known by the name of the Florence Mifcel-
lany ; as a memorial of that friendihip which
does me fo much honour, and which I ear->
neftly hope may long fubfift among us : -
where in fhort we have lived exceeding
comfortably, but where dear Mrs, Great-
heed and myfelf have encouraged each other,
in faying it would be particularly fad to dle^
not of the gnats, or more properly mufquitoes,
for they do not fting one quite to death,
though their venom has fwelled my arm fo as
to oMige me to carry it for this laft week in a
fling j but of the mal dl pctto^ which is ender
mial in this country, and much refembling
our pleurify in its effects.
BHndnefs too feems no uncommon misfor-
tune a.t Florence j from the ftrong reverberation
of
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 329
of the fun's rays on houfes of the clean-
eft and moft brilliant whitenefs ; kept fo
elegantly nice too, that I mould defpair of
feeing more delicacy at Amfterdam.
Apoplexies are likewife frequent enough :
1 faw a man carried out ftone dead from St.
Pancrazio's church one morning about noon-
day; but nobody feemed difturbed at the
event I think, except myfelf. Though this is
no good town to take one's laft leave of life
in neither ; as the body one has been fo long
taking care of, would in twenty-four hours
be hoifted up upon a common cart, with
thofe of all the people who died the fame
day, and being fairly carried out of Porto
San Gallo towards the dufk of evening,
would be mot into a hole dug away from the
city, properly enough, to protect Florence,
and keep it clear of putrid diforders and
difagreeable fmells. All this with little cere-
mony to be fure, and lefs diftinction ; for the
Grand Duke fuffers the pride of birth to laft
no longer than life however, and demolifhes
every hope of the woman of quality lying in
a feparate grave from the diftrefled object
who begged at her carriage door when me
was laft on an airing,
5
3jo OBSERVATIONS IN A
Let me add, that his liberality of fentiment
extends to virtue on the one hand, if hard-
nefs of heart may be complained of on the
other. He fuffers no difference of opinions
to operate on his philofophy, and I believe we
heretics here fhould fleep among the beft of
his Tufcan nobles. But there is no comfort
iu the poffibility of being buried alive by the
exceffive hafte with which people are catched
up and hurried away, before it can be known
almoft whether all fparks of life are extinct
or no. Such management, and the lament-
ations one hears made by the great, that they
fhould thus be forced to keep bad company
after death, remind me for ever of an old
French epigram, the fentiment of which I
perfectly recollect, but have forgotten the
vcrfes, of which however thefe lines are no
unfaithful tranflation :
I dreamt that in my houfe of clay,
A beggar buried by me lay;
Rafcal! go Mink apart, I cry'd,
IS or thus difgrace my noble fide.
Heyday ! cries he, what's here to do ?
I'm on my dunghill fure, as well as you.
Of elegant Florence then, fo ornamented
and fo lovely,, fo neat that it is faid flic mould
12 . be
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 331
be fcen only on holidays ; dedicated of old to
Flora, and ftill the refidence of fweetnefs,
grace, and the fine arts particularly ; of thefe
kind friends too, fo amiable, fo hofpitable,
where I had the choice of four boxes every
night at the theatre, and a certainty of
charming fociety in each, we muft at laft
unwillingly take leave ; and on to-morrow,
the twelfth day of September 1785, once
more commit oufelves to our coach, which
has hitherto met with no accident that could
affel us, and in which, with God's pro-
tedion, I fear not my journey through what
is left of Italy ; though fuch tremendous tales
are told in many of our travelling books, of
terrible roads and wicked poftillions, and
ladies labouring through the mire on foot, to
arrive at bad inns where nothing eatable could
be found. All which however is lefs defpi-
cable than Tournefort, the great French
botanift ; who, while his works fwell with
learning, and fparkle with general knowledge ;
while he enlarges your ftock of ideas, and di-
plays his own; laments pathetically that he
could not get down the partridges caught for
him in one of the Archipelagon iflands.,
becaufe
332 OBSERVATIONS IN A
becaufe they were not larded a la made
dc Paris.
LUCCA.
FROM the head-quarters of painting, fculp-
ture, and architecture then, where art is at
her acme, and from a people polifhed into
brilliancy, perhaps a little into weaknefs, we
drove through the celebrated vale of Arno ;
thick hedges on each fide us, which in fpring
muft have been covered with bloflbms and
fragrant with perfume ; now loaded with
uncultivated fruits ; the wild grape, rafpberry,
and azaroli, inviting to every fenfe, and
promifmg every joy. This beautiful and
fertile, this highly-adorned and truly deli-
cious country carried us forward to Lucca,
where the panther fits at the gate, and liberty
is written up on every wall and door. It is
fo long fmce I have feen the word, that even
the letters of it rejoice my heart ; but how
the panther came to be its emblem, who can
tell ? Unlefs the philofophy we learn from old
Lilly in our childhood were true, nee vult
panther a domari *.
* That the panther will never be tamed.
That
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 333
That this fairy commonwealth fhould fo
long have maintained its independency is
ftrange ; but Howel attributes her freedom to
the active and induftrious fpirit of the inha-
bitants, who, he fays, referable a hive of
bees, for order and for diligence. I never did
fee a place fo populous for the fize of it : one
is actually thronged running up and down
the ftreets of Lucca, though it is a little town
enough for a capital city to be fure ; larger
than Salifbury though, and prettier than Not-
tingham, the beauties of both which places it
unites with all the charms peculiar to itfelf.
The territory they claim, and of which no
power dares attempt to difpofiefs them, is
much about the fize of Rutland/hire I fancy ;
furrounded and apparently fenced in on every
fide, by the Appenines as by a wall, that
wall a hot one, on the fouthern fide, and
wholly planted over with vines, while the
foft fhadows which fall upon the declivity of
the mountains make it inexpreflibly pretty ;
and form, by the particular difpofition of
their light and fhadow, a variety which no
other profpect; fo confined can pcffibly en*
joy.
Thit
334 OBSERVATIONS IN A
This is the Ham gardens of Europe ; and
whoever has feen that fingular fpot in Derby-
fliire belonging to Mr. Port, has feen little
Lucca in a convex mirror. Some writer
calls it a ring upon the finger of the Emperor,
under \vhofe protection it has been hitherto
prefer ved fafe from the Grand Duke of Tuf-
cany till thefe days, in which the interefts cf
thofe two fovereigns, united by intimacy as
by blood and refemblance of character, are
become almoft exactly the fame.
A Doge, whom they call the Principe^ is
elected every two months ; and is affifted by
ten fenators in the adminiftration of juftice.
Their armoury is the prettied plaything I
ever yet faw, neatly kept, and capable of
furnifhing twenty-five thoufarid men with
arms. Their revenues are about equal to the
Duke of Bedford's I believe, eighty or
eighty-five thoufand pounds fterling a year ;
every fpot of ground belonging to thefe
people being cultivated to the higheft pitch
of perfection that agriculture, or rather gar-
dening (for one cannot call thefe enclofures
fields), will admit : and though it is holiday
time juft now, I fee no neglect of neceflary
duty.
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 33$
duty* They were watering away this morn-
ing at ieven o'clock, juft as we do in a
nurfery-ground about London, a hundred
men at once, or more, before they came
home to make themfelves fmart, and go to
hear nuific in their beft church, in honour of
fome faint, I have forgotten who ; but he is
the patron of Lucca, and cannot be accufed
cf negleding his charge, that is certain.
This city feems really under admirable
regulations ; here are fewer beggars than
even at Florence, where however one for
fifty in the ftates of Genoa or Venice do not
meet your eyes : And either the word liberty
has bewitched me, or I fee an air of plenty
without infolence, and bufinefs without noife,
that greatly delight me. Here is much cheer-
fulnefs too, and gay good-humour"; but this is
the feafon of devotion at Lucca, and in thefe
countries the ideas of devotion and diverfiori
are fo blended, that all religious worfhip feems
connected with, and to me now regularly
implies, a fejfau&jbow*
Well, as the Italians fay, " // mo ndo e
lello perche e variabile *." We Englifh drefs
* The world is pleafant becaufe it is various,
our
336 OBSERVATIONS IN A
our clergymen in black, arid go ourfelves tc
the theatre in colours. Here matters are
reverfed, the church at noon looked like a
flower-garden, fo gaily adorned were the
priefts, confrairies, &c. while the Opera-
houfe at night had more the air of a funeral,
as every body was drefled in black : a cir-
cumftance I had forgotten the meaning of,
till reminded that fuch was once the emula-
tion of finery among the perfons of fafhion in
this city, that it was found convenient to re-
ftrain the fpirit of expence, by obliging them to
wear conftant mourning : a very rational and
well-devifed rule in a town fo fmall, where
every body is known to every body ; and
\vhere, when this filly excitement to envy is
wifely removed, I know not what fhould
hinder the inhabitants from living like thofe
one reads of in the Golden Age ; which,
above all others, this climate mod refembles,
where pleafure contributes to footh life, com*
merce to quicken it, and faith extends its
profpects to eternity. Such is, or fuch at
leaft appears to me this lovely territory of
Lucca : where cheap living, free government,
and genteel fociety, may be enjoyed with a
tranquillity unknown to larger ftates : where
there
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 3.37
there are delicious and falutary baths a few
miles out of town, for the nobility to make
villeggiatura at ; and where, if thoie nobility
were at all difpofed to cultivate and commu-
nicate learning, every opportunity for ftudy
is afforded.
Some drawbacks will however always
be found from human felicity. I once
mentioned this place with warm expectations
of delight, to a Milanefe lady of extenfive
knowledge, and every elegant accomplifh-
ment worthy her high birth, the Gontcffa
Melzi Rcfta. " Why yes," faid me, tc if
you would find out the place where com-
mon fenfe ftagnates, and every topic of
converfation dwindles and perimes away
by too frequent or too urifkilful touching
and handling, you muft go to Lucca.
My ill-health fent me to their beautiful baths
one fummer ; where all the faculties of my
body were reftored, thank God, but thofe of
my foul were ftupified to fuch a degree, that
at laft I was fit to keep no other company
but Dame Luccbejt I think ; and our talk was
foon ended, heaven knows, for when they
had once alked me of an evening, what I had
for dinner ? and told me how many pair of
VOL. I. Z {lockings
3 3'8 OBSERVATIONS IN A
ftockings their neighbours fent to the wafli,
we had done."
This was a young, a charming, a lively
lady of quality; full of curiofity to know
the world, and of fpirits to buftle through
it; but had fhe been battered through the
various focieties of London and Paris for
eighteen or twenty years together, fhe would
have loved Lucca better, and defpifed it lefs.
" We muft not look for whales in the Euxine
Sea," fays an old writer ; and we muft not
look for great men or great things in little
nations to be fure, but let us refpect the in-
nocence of childhood, and regard with ten-
dernefs the territory of Lucca : where no
man has been murdered during the life or
memory of any of its peaceful inhabitants ;
where one robbery alone has been committed
for fixteen years ; and the thief hanged by a
Florentine executioner borrowed for the pur-
pofe, no Lucchefe being able or willing to
undertake fo horrible an office, with terrify-
ing circumftances of penitence and public
reprehenfion : where the governed are fo
few in proportion to the governors; all
power being circulated among four hundred
and fifty nobles, and the whole country pro-
4 dueing
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 339
ducing fcarcely ninety thoufand fouls. A great
boarding-fchool in England is really an in-
finitely more licentious place ; and groflfer
immoralities are every day connived at in it,
than are known to pollute this delicate and
curious commonwealth ; which keeps a coun-
cil always fubfifting, called the Difcoli, to
examine the lives and conduct, profeffions,
and even health of their fubjects : and once
o'year they fweep the > town of vagabonds,
which till then are caught up and detained in
a houfe of correction, and made to work, if
hot difabled by lameriefs, till the hour of their
releafe and difmiffion. I wondered there were
fo few beggars about, but the reafon is now
apparent : thefe we fee are neighbours, come
hither only for the three days gala.
I was wonderfully folicitous to obtain fome
of their coin, which carries on it the image
of no earthly prince ; but his head only who
came to redeem us from general flavery on
the one fide, Jefus Chrifl ; on the other, the
word Libertas.
Our peafant-girls here are in a new drefs
to me ; no more jewels to be feen, no more
pearls ; the finery of which fo dazzled me in
Tufcany : thefe wenches are prohibited fucli
Z 2 orna-
340 OBSERVATIONS IN A
ornaments it feems. A muflin handkerchief,
folded in a moft becoming manner, and
ftarchcd exactly enough to make it wear clean
four days, is the head-drefs of Lucchefe
lafles ; it is put on turban-wife, and they
button their gowns clofe, with long fleeves
a la Savoyard*; but it is made often of a
ftiff brocaded filk, and green lapels, with
cuffs of the fame colour ; nor do they wear
any hats at all, to defend them from a fun
which does undoubtedly mature the fig and
ripen the vine, but which, by the fame excefs
of power, exalts the venom of the viper, and
gives the fcorpion means to keep me in
perpetual torture for fear of his poifon$ of
which, though they affure us death is feldom
the confequence among them, I know his
fting would finifh me at once, becaufe the
gnats at Florence were fufficient to lame me
.for a confiderable time.
The dialed has loft much of the guttural
found that hurt one's ear at the laft place of
refidence ; but here is an odd fqueaking
accent, that diftinguifhes the Tufcan of
Lucca.
The place appropriated for airing, fhowing
fine equipages, &c. is beautiful beyond all
telling ;
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 341
telling ; from the peculiar fhadows on the
mountains. They make the baftions of the
town their Corfo, but none except the nobles
can go and drive upon one part of it. I
know not how many yards of ground is thus
fet apart, facred to fovereignty ; but it makes
one laugh.
Our inn here is an excellent one, as far as
I am concerned ; and the fallad-oil green,
like Irifh ufquebaugh, nothing was ever fo
excellent. I afked the French valet who
dreiTes our hair, " Si ce n etalt pas une repub-
llque mignonne* ?" " Mafoy, madame,je la
trouve plus tot la republique des rats et des
fouris f ;" replies the fellow, who had not
ilept all night, I afterwards underftood, for
the noife thole troublefome animals made in
his room,
* If it were not a dear little pretty commonwealth
this ?
t Faith, madam, I call it the republic of the rats an4
mice.
342 OBSERVATIONS IN A
PISA.
THIS town has been fo often defcribed that
it is as well known in England as in Italy aj-
moft ; where I, like others, have feen the
magnificent cathedral ; have examined the
two pillars which fupport its entrance, and
which once adorned Diana's temple at Ephe-
fus, one of the feven wonders of the world.
Their carving is indeed beyond all idea of
workmanfhip ; and the pofleffion of them
js ineftimable. I have feen the old ftones
with infcriptions on them, bearing date the
reign of Antoninus Pius, ftuck cafually, fome
with the letters reverfed, fome Hoping, ac-
cording to accident merely, as it appears to me,
in the body of the great church : and I have
feen the leaning tower that Lord Chefterneld
fo comically defcribes our Englifh travellers
eagernefs to fee. It is a beautiful building
though after all, and a ftrange thing that it
fhcuid lean fo. The cylindrical form, and
marble pillars that fupport each ftory, may
rationally enough attract a Granger's notice,
and
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 343
and one is forry the lower ftories have funk
from their foundations, originally defe&ive
ones I truft they were, though, God knows,
if the Italians do not huild towers well, it is
not for want either of fkill or of experience :
for there is a tower to every town I think,
and commonly fabricated with elaborate
nicety and well-fixed bafes. But as earth-
quakes and fubterranean fires here are fcarcely
a wonder, one need not marvel much at fee-
ing the ground retreat juft here* It is nearer
our hand, and quite as well worth our while
to enquire, why the tower at Bridgnorth in
Shropfhire leans exactly in the fame direction,
and is full as much out of the perpendicular
as this at Pifa.
The brazen gates here, carved by John of
Bologna, at leaft begun by him, are a won-
derful work ; and the marbles in the bap-
tiftery beat thofe of Florence for value and
for variety. A good lapidary might find per-
petual amufement in adjufting the claims of
fuperiority to thefe precious columns of ja-
per, granite, alabafler, &c. The different
animals which fupport the font being equally
Z 4 admirable
3U OBSERVATIONS IN A
admirable for their compofition as for their
\vorkmanfhip.
The Campo Santo is an extraordinary
place, and, for aught I know, unparalleled
for its power over the mind in exciting fe-
rious contemplations upon the body's decay,
and fuggefting confolatory thoughts concern-
ing the foul's immortality. Here in three
days, owing to quick-lime mixed among the
earth, vanifhes every veftige, every trace of
the human being carried thither feventy
hours before, and here round the walls Giotto
and Cimabue have exhaufted their invention
to imprefs the paflers-by with deep and pen-
five melancholy.
The four ftages of man's fliort life, infancy,
.childhood, maturity, and decrepit age, not
ill reprefented by one of the ancient artifts,
fhew the fad but not flow progrefs we make
to this dark abode; while the laft judgment,
hell, and paradife inform us- what events of
the utmoft confequence are to follow our
journey. All this a modern traveller finds
out to be vajlly ridiculous! though Doctor
Smollet- (ivhofe book I think he has read)
confefles, that the fpacious Corridor round
the
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 345
the Campo Santo di Pifa would make the
nobleft walk in the world perhaps for a con-
templative philofopher.
The tomb of Algarotti produces fofter
ideas when one looks at the fepulchre of a
man who, having deferved and obtained fuch
folid and extenfive praife, modeftly contented
himfelf with defiring that his epitaph might
be fo worded, as to record, upon a fimple but
lafting monument, that he had the honour
of being difciple to the immortal Nc f wto?j.
The battle of the bridge here at Pifa drew
a great many fpectators this year, as it has
not been performed for a confiderable time
before : the waiters at our inn here give a
better account of it than one fhould have got
perhaps from Cavalier or Dama, who would
have felt lefs interefted in the bufmefs, and
feen it from a greater diftance. The armies
of Sant' Antonio, and I think San Giovanni
Battifta, but I will not be pofitive as to the
Jaft, difputed the poffeffionof the bridge, and
fought gallantly I fancy ; but the firft re-
mained conqueror, as our very converfible
Camerieres took care to inform us, as it was
on that fide it feems that they had exerted
their valour.
Calling
346 OBSERVATIONS IN A
Calling theatres, and {hips, and running
horfes, and mock fights, and almoft every
thing fo by the names of Saints, whom we
venerate in filence, and they themfelves pub-
licly worfhip, has a moft profane and ofFen-
five found with it to be fure ; and fhocks de-
licate ears very dreadfully : and I ufed to
reprimand my maids at Milan for bringing
up the blefled Virgin Mary's name on every
trivial, almoft on every ludicrous occafion,
with a degree of iliarpnefs they were not ac-
cuftomed to, becaufe it kept me in a conftant
fhivering. Yet let us reflect a moment on
our own conduct in England, and we fhall
be forced candidly to confefs that the Puritans
alone keep their lips unpolluted by breach of
the third commandment, while the common
exclamation of good God ! fcrupled by few
people on the flighteft occurrences, and appa-
rently without any temptation in the world,
is no lefs than grofs irreverence of his facrecj
name, whom we acknowledge to be
Father of all, in every age
In every clime ador'd ;
By faint, by favage, and by fage a
Jehovah, Jove, or Lord.
Nor
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 347
Nor have the ladies at a London card-table
Italian ignorance to plead in their excufe ; as
not inftruclion but docility is wanted among
almoft all ranks of people in Great Britain,
where, if the Chriftian religion were praclifed
as it is underftood, little could be wiflied for
its eternal, as little is left out among the bleif-
ings of its temporal welfare.
I have been this morning to look at the
Grand Duke's camels, which (ic keeps in his.
park as we do deer in England. There were
a hundred and fixteen of them, pretty crea-
tures ! and they breed very well here, and
Jive quite at their eafe, only houfmg them
the tvinter months : they are perfectly docile
and gentle the man told me, apparently lefs
tender of their young than mares, but more
approachable by human creatures than even
fuch hoffes as have been long at grafs. That
dun hue one fees them of, is, it feems, not
totally and invariably the fame, though I
doubt not but it is fo in their native deferts.
Let it once become a fafhion for fovereigns
and other great men to keep and to carefs
them, we fhall fee camels as variegated as
cats, which in the woods are all of the uni-
formly-ftreaked tabby the males inclining
to
348 OBSERVATIONS IN A
to the brown fhade the females to blue
among them ; but being bred doivn^ be-^
come tortoife-fhell, and red, and every va-
riety of colour, which domeftication alcne can
beftow.
The mifery of Tufcany is, that all animals
thrive fo happily under this productive fun ;
fo that if you fcorn the Zanzariere, you are
'half-devoured before morning, and fo disfi-
gured, that I defy one's nearefl friends to re^
collect one's countenance ; while the fpiders
fling as much as any of their infects ; and
one of them bit me this very day till the blood
came.
With all this not ill-founded complaint of
thefe our active companions, my conftant
wonder is, that the grapes hang untouched
this 2o(h of September, in vaft heavy cluk
ters covered with bloom ; and unmolefted
by infects, which, with a quarter of this heat
in England, are encouraged to deftroy all our
fruit in fpite of the gardener's diligence to
blow up nefts, cover the walls with netting,
and hang them about with bottles of fyrup,
to court the creatures in, who otherwife fo
damage every fig and grape and plum of
purs, that nothing but the fkins are left re-
maining
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 349
maining by now. Here no filch contrivances
are either wanted or thought on ; and while
our iflanders are feduloufly bent to guard, and
ftudious to invent new devices to protect their
half dozen peaches from their half dozen
wafps, the ftandard trees of Italy are loaded
with high-flavoured and delicious fruits.
Here figs fky-dy'd a purple hue difclole,
Green looks the olive, the pomegranate glows ;
Here dangling pears exalted fcents unfold,
And yellow apples ripen into gold.
The roadfide is indeed hedged with fef-
toons of vines, crawling from olive to olive^
which they plant in the ditches of Tufcany as
we do willows in Britain : mulberry trees too
by the thoufand, and fome pollarded pop-
lars ferve for fupport to the glorious grapes
that will now foon be gathered. What leaft
contributes to the beauty of the country how*
ever, is perhaps moft fubfervient to its profits.
I am afhamed to write down the returns of
money gained by the oil alone in this terri-
tory and that of Lucca, where I was much
ftruck with the colour as well as the excel-
lence of this uieful commodity. Nor can I
tell why none of that green caft comes over
to
350 OBSERVATIONS IN A
to England, unlefs it is, that, like eflential oii
of chamomile, it lofes the tint by expofure
to the air.
An olive tree, however, is no elegahtly-
growing or happily-coloured plant : ftrag-
gling and dufky, one is forced to think of its
produce, before one can be pleafed with its
merits, as in a deformed and ugly friend or
companion.
The fogs now begin to fall pretty heavily
in a morning, and riflng about the middle of
the day, leave the fun at liberty to exert his
violence very powerfully. At night come
forth the inhabitants, like dor-beetles at fun-
fet on the coaft of Sufiex ; then is their
feafon to walk and chat, and fing and make
love, and run about the ftreet with a girl and
a guittar ; to eat ice and drink lemonade ;
but never to be feen drunk or quarrelfome, of
riotous. Though night is the true feafon of
Italian felicity, they place not their happinefs
in brutal frolics, any more than in malicious
titterings ; they are idle and they are merry :
it is, I think, the worft we can fay of them ;
they are idle becaufe there is little for them to
do, and merry becaufe they have little given
them to think about. To the bufy Englifhman
they
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 351
they might well apply thefe verfes of his own
Milton in the Mafque of Comus :
What have we with day to do ?
Sons of Care ! 'twas made for you, /
LEGHORN.
HERE we are by the fea-fide once more,
in a trading town too ; and I mould think
myfelf in England almoft, but for the differ-
ence of drefTes that pafs under my balcony :
for here we were immediately addrefled by a
young Englifh gentleman, who politely put
us in pofleflion of his apartments, the beft
fituated in the town ; and with him we talked
of the dear coaft of Devonfhire, agreed upon
the refemblance between that and thefe en-
virons, but gave the preference to home, 011
account of its undulated fhore, finely fringed
with woodlands, which here are wanting:
nor is this verdure equal to ours in vivid
colouring, or variegated with fo much tafte
as thofe lovely hills which are adorned by
the antiquities of Powderham Caftle, and the
fine difpofition of Lord Lifburne's park.
But
352 OBSERVATIONS IN A
But here is an Englifh conful at Leghorn
Yes indeed ! an Englilh chapel too ; our own
King's arms over the door, and in the delk
and pulpit an Englifh clergyman ; high in
character, eminent for learning, genteel in
his address, and charitable in every fenfe of
the word : as fuch, truly loved and honoured
by thofe of his own perfuafiori, exceedingly
refpeded by thofe of every other, which fill
this extraordinary city : a place fo populous,
that Cheapfide alone can furpafs it.
It is not a large place however ; one very-
long ftraight ftreet, and one very large wide
fquare, not lefs than Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, but
I think bigger, form the whole of Leghorn;
which I can compare to nothing but a camera
obfcura^ or magic lanthron, exhibiting prodi-
gious variety of different, and not unintereft-
ing figures, that pafs and re-pafs to my
mcefTant delight, and give that fort of empty
amufement which is a la portee de chacun *
fo completely, that for the prefent it really
ferves to drive every thing elfe from my
head, and makes me little defirous to quit
for any other diverfion the windows or bal-
cony, whence I look down now upon a Le-
* Within every one's reach.
vantine
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 353
vantine Jew, drefled in long robes, a fort
of odd turban, and immenfe beard: now
upon a Tufcan contadinella, with the little
ftraw hat, nofegay and jewels, I have been
fo often ftruck with. Here an Armenian
Chriflian, with long hair, long gown, long
beard, all black as a raven ; who calls upon
an old grey Francifcan friar for a walk ;
while a Greek woman, obliged to crofs the
ftreet on fome occafion, throws a vail white
veil all over her perfon, left fhe fhould un-
dergo the difgrace of being feen at all.
Sometimes a group goes by, compofed of
a broad Dutch failor, a dry-ftarched puritan,
and an old French officer ; whofe knowledge
of the world and habitual politenefs con-
trive to conceal the contempt he has of his
companions.
The geometricians tell us that the figure
which has moft angles bears the neareft re-
femblance to that which has no angles at all ;
fo here at Leghorn, where you can hardly
find forty men of a mind, difpute and con-
tention grow vain, a comfortable though
temporary union takes place, while na-
ture and opinion bend to interefl and ner
ceflity.
VOL. I. A a The
354 OBSERVATIONS IN A
The Conform of Leghorn are really very-
pretty ; the Appenine mountains degenerate
into hills as they run round the bay, but gain
in beauty what in fublimity they lofe.
To enjoy an open fea view, one muft drive
further ; and it really affords a noble profpect
from that rifing ground where I understand
that the rich Jews hold their fummer habi-
tations. They have a fynagogue in the town,
where I went one evening, and heard the
Hebrew fervice, and thought of what Dr.
Burney fays of their fmging.
It is however no credit to the Tufcans
to tell, that of all the people gathered toge-
ther here, they are the worft- looking I
fpeak of the men but it is fo. When com-
pared with the German foldiery, the Englifh
failors, the Venetian traders, the Neapolitan
peafants, for I have feen fome of them here,
how feeble a fellow is a genuine Florentine !
And when one recollects the cottagers of
Lombardy, that handfome hardy race ; bright
in their expreffion, and mufcular in their
ftrength ; it is ftill ftranger, what can have
weakened thefe too delicate Tufcans fo. As
they are very rich, and might be very happy
under
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 355
under the protection of a prince who lets
flip no opportunity of preferring his plebeian
to his patrician fubjects ; yet here at Leg-
horn they have a tender frame and an un-
healthy look, occafioned pofiibly by the ftag-
nant waters, which render the environs
unwholefome enough I believe ; and the
millions of live creatures they produce are
enough to diftracT: a perfon not accuftomed to
fuch buzzing company.
We went out for air yefterday morning
three or four miles beyond the town-walls,
where I looked fteadily at the fea, till I half
thought myfelf at home. The ocean being
peculiarly Britifh property favoured the idea,
and for a moment I felt as if on our fouthern.
coaft ; we walked forward towards the fhore,
arid I ftepped upon fome rocks that broke the
waves as they rolled in, and was wilhing for
a good bathing-houfe that one might enjoy the
benefit of falt-water fo long withheld ; till
I faw our laquals de place croffing himfelf at
the carriage door, and wondering, as I after-
wards found out, at my matchlefs intrepidity.
The mind however took another train of
thought, and we returned to the coach,
which when we arrived at I refufed to enter;
A a 2 not
356 OBSERVATIONS IN A
not without fcreaming I fear, as a vaft hornet
had taken poffefTion in our abfence, and the
very notion of fnch a companion threw me
into an agony. Our attendant's fpeech to the
coachman however, made me more than
amends : " Ora ft vcde amico" (fays he),
" cos'e la Donna ; del mare ifleffo non hapaura
" e pur va in convulfioni per via d^una
" mofca *." This truly Tuican and highly
contemptuous harangue, uttered with the
uttnoft deliberation, and added to the abfence
of the hornet, fent me laughing into the
carriage, with great efteem of our philofo-
phical RO/JO, for fo the fellow was called, be-
caufe he had red hair.
In a very clear day, it is faid, one may fee
Corfica from hence, though net lefs than
forty or fifty miles off: the pretty ifland
Gorgona however, whence our beft an-
chovies are brought to England, lies con-
fiantly in view,
AlTurgit ponti medio circumdua Gorgon.
RUTILIUS'S Itinerary.
* Now, my friend, do but cbferve what a thing is a
woman ! fhe is not afraid even of the roaring ocean, and
yet goes into fits almcfl at the fight of a fly.
How
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 357
How me came by that extraordinary name
though, is not I believe well known ; perhaps
her likenefc to one of the Cape Verd iflands,
the original Hefperides, might be the caufe ;
for it was there the daughters of Phorcus
iixcd their habitation : or may be, as Medufa
was called Gorgon par eminence^ becaufe fhe
applied herfelf to the enriching of ground,
this fertile iflet owes its appellation from being
particularly manured and fructified.
Here is an extraordinary good opera-
houfe ; admirable, dancers, who performed a
mighty pretty pantomime Comedie larmoy-
ante without words ; I liked it vaftly. The
famous Soprano finger Bedini was at Lucca ;
but here is our old London favourite Sig-
nora Giorgi, improved into a degree of per-
fection feldom found, and from her little
expected.
Mr. Udney the Britifh Conful is alone
now ; his lady has been obliged to leave him,
and take her children home for health's fake ;
but we faw his fine collection of pictures,
among which is a Danae that once belonged
to Queen Chriftina of Sweden, and fell from
her pofleffion into that of fome nobleman,
who being tormented by fetrples of morality
A a 3 upon
35 8 OBSERVATIONS IN A
upon his death-bed, refolved to part with all
his tmdraped figures, but not liking to lofe
the face of this Danae, put the picture into a
painter's hands to cut and clothe her : the
man, inftead of obeying orders he confidered
as barbarous, copied the whole, and drefled
the copy decently, fending it to his fick
friend, who never difcerned the trick ; and
kept the original to difpofe of, where fewer
fcruples impeded an advantageous fale. The
gentleman who bought it then, died ; when
Mr. Udney purchafed Danae, and highly
values her ; though fome connoiiTeurs fay fhe
is too young and ungrown a female for the
character. There is a Titian too in the fame
collection, of Cupid riding on a lion's back,
to which fome very remarkable ftory is an-
nexed ; but one's belief is fo afiailed by fuch
various tales, told of all the finking pictures
in Italy, that one grows more tenacious of it
every day I think ; fo that at laft the danger
will be of believing too little, inftead of too
much perhaps. Happy for travellers would
it be, were that difpofition of mind confined
to painting only : but if it (hould prove
extended to more ferious fubjects, we can
only hope that the violent excefs of the
temptation
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 359
temptation may prove fome excufe, or at leaft
in a flight degree extenuate the offence : A
wife man cannot believe half he hears in
Italy to be fure, but a pious man will be
cautious not to difcredit it all.
Our evening's walk was directed towards
the bury ing-ground appointed here to re-
ceive the bodies of our countrymen, and
confecrated according to the rites of the
Anglican church : for here, under protection
of a factory, we enjoy that which is vainly
fought for under the aufpices of a king's
ambaflador. Here we have a churchyard
of our own, and are not condemned as at
other towns in Italy, to be fluffed into a hole
like dogs, after having fpent our money
among them like princes. Prejudice how-
ever is not banifhed from Leghorn, though
convenience keeps all in good-humour with
each other. The Italians fail not to clafs the
fubjecls of Great Britain among the Pagan
inhabitants of the town, and to diftinguifh
themfelves, fay, " Not altri Chrijiiani* :"
their averiion to a Proteftant, conceal it as
they may, is ever implacable ; and the laft
* We that are Chriftians.
A a 4 day
360 OBSERVATIONS IN A
day only will convince them that it is cri-
minal.
Caelum non animum mutant *, is an old
cbfervation ; I pafled this afternoon in con-
firming the truth of it among the Englifh
traders fettled here : whofe coriverfation,
manners, ideas, and language, were fo truly
Londonjt/h) fo little changed by tranfmigra-
tion, that I thought fome enchantment had
fuddenly operated, and carried me to drink
tea in the regions of Buckler/bury.
Well ! it is a great delight to fee fuch a
fociety fubfifting in Italy after all ; eftablifhed
where diftrefs may run for refuge, arid fick-
nefs retire to prepare for lading repofe :
whence narrownefs of mind is baniflied by
principles of univerfal benevolence, and pre-
judice precluded by Chriftan chanty : where
the purfe of the Britifh merchant, ever open
to the poor, is certain to fuccour and to
foothe affliction; and where it is agreed that
more alms are given by the natives of our
ifland alone, than by all the reft of Leghorn,
and the palaces of Pifa put together.
* One changes one's fky but not one's foul.
I have
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 361
I have here fmifhed that work which
chiefly brought me hither ; the Anecdotes
of Dr. Johnfon's Life. It is from this port
they take their flight for England, while we
retire for refrefhment to the
BAGNI DI PISA.
BUT not only the waters here are admi-
rable, every look from every window gives
images imentertained before ; fublimity hap-
pily wedded with elegance, and majeftick
greatnefs enlivened, yet foftened by tafte.
The haughty mountain St. Juliano lifting
its brown head over our houfe on one fide,
tjie extenfive plain ftretched out before us on
tfie other ; a gravel walk neatly planted by
the fide of a peaceful river, which winds
through a valley richly cultivated with olive
yards and vines; and fprinkled, though
rarely, with dwellings, either magnificent or
pleafing : this lovely profpect, bounded only
by the fea, makes a variety inceflant as the
changes of the iky ; exhibiting early tran-
quillity, and evening fplendour by turns,
It
362 OBSERVATIONS IN A
It was perhaps particularly delightful to
me, to obtain once more a cottage in the
country, after running fo from one great city
to another; and for the firft week I did
nothing but rejoice in a folitude fo new, fo
falutiferous, fo total. I therefore begged my
hufband not to hurry us to Rome, but take
the houfe we lived in for a longer term, as I
would now play the Englifh houfe wife in
Italy I faid ; and accordingly began calling
the chickens and ducks under my window,
tafted the new wine as it ran purple from the
cafk, carefled the meek oxen that drew it to
our door ; and felt fenfations fo unaffectedly
paftoral, that nothing in romance ever ex-
ceeded my felicity.
The cold bath here is the moft delicate
imaginable ; of a moderate degree of coldnefs
though, not three degrees below Matlock
furely ; but omitting, fimply enough,, to
carry a thermometer, one can meafure the
heat of nothing. Our hot water here feems
about the temperature of the Queen's bath in
Somerfetmire ; it is purgative, not corrobo-
rant, they tell me ; and its tafte refembles
Cheltenham water exactly.
Thefe
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 363
Thefe fprings are much frequented by the
court I find, and here are very tolerable ac-
commodations ; but it is not the feafon now,
and our folitude is perfect in a place which
beggars all defcription, where the mountains
are mountains of marble, and the bufhes on
them bufhes of myrtle ; large as our haw-
thorns, and white with bloflbms, as they are
at the fame time of year in Devonfhire :
where the waters are falubrious, the herbage
odoriferous, every trodden ftep breathing
immediate fragrance from the crufhed fweets
of thyme, and marjoram, and winter favoury :
while the birds and the butterflies frolick
around, and flutter among the loaded lemon,
and orange, and olive trees, till imagination
is fatigued with following the charms that
furround one.
I am come home this moment from a long
but not tedious walk, among the crags of this
glorious mountain ; the bafe of which nearly
reaches, within half a mile perhaps, to the
territories of Lucca. Some country girls
pafled me with bafkets of fruit, chickens, &c.
on their heads. I addrefled them as natives
of the laft-named place, faying I knew them
to be fuch by their drefs and air ; one of them
inftantly
364 OBSERVATIONS IN A
iriftantly replied, " Oh fi^ fiamo Lucchefi^
noi altrl ; giaji puo vedere fubito una Reppub-
Uicana, e credo bene cWcllafe n e accorta beniffi-
mo cbejiamo del paefe della liber to*"
I will add that thefe females wear no orna-
ments at all ; are always proud and gay, and
fometimes a little faucy too. The Tuf-
can damfels, loaded with gold and pearls,
have a lefs afTured look, and appear difcon-
certed when in company with their freer
neighbours Let them tell why.
Mean time my fairy dream of fantaftic de-
light feems fading away apace. Mr. Piozzi
has been ill, and of a putrid complaint in his
throat, which above all things I fhould dread
in this hot climate. This accident, aflifted
by other concurring circumftances, has con-
vinced me that we are not fhut up in mea-
furelefs content as Shakefpeare calls it, even
under St. Julian's Hill : for here was no help
to be got ^n the firft place, except the ufelefs
converfation of a medical gentleman whofe
accent and language might have pleafed a dif-
engaged mind, but had little chance to tran-
* Oh yes, we are Lucca people fure enough, and I
am perfuaded that you foon favv in our faces that we
come from a land of liberty.
quillizq
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 365
quillize an affrighted one. What is worfe,
here was no reft to be had, for the mul-
titudes of vermin up flairs and below. When
we firft hired the houfe, I remember my maid
jumping up on one of the kitchen chairs while
a ragged lad cleared that apartment for her of
fcorpions to the number of feventeen. But
now the biters and ftingers drive me quite
*wild^ becaufe one muft keep the windows
open for air, and a fick man can enjoy none
of that, being clofed up in the Zanzariere, and
obliged to refpire the fame breath over and
over again ; which, with a fore throat and fe-
ver, is moft melancholy : but I keep it wet
with vinegar, and defy the hornets how I
can.
What is more furprifmg than all, however,
is to hear that no lemons can be procured for
lefs than two pence Englifh a-piece ; and now
I am almoft ready to join myfelf in the gene-
ral cry againft Italian impofition, and recol-
lect the proverb which teaches us
Chi ha da far con Tofco,
Non bifogna efler lofco* ;
* Who has to do with Tufcan wight,
Of both his eyes will need the light.
as
S 66 OBSERVATIONS IN A
as I am confident they cannot be worth
even two pence a hundred here, where they
hang like apples in our cyder countries ; but
the rogues know that my hufband is Tick, and
upon poor me they have no mercy.
I have fent our folks out to gather fruit at a
venture : and now this mifery will foon be
ended with his illnefs ; driven away by de-
luges of lemonade, I think, made in defiance
of wafps, flies, and a kind of volant beetle,
wonderfully beautiful and very pertinacious
in his attacks; and who makes dreadful de-
predations on my fugar and currant-jelly, fo
neceflary on this occafion of illnefs, and fo at-
tractive to all thefe deteftable inhabitants of
a place fo lovely.
My patient, however, complaining that
although I kept thefe harpies at a diftance, no
deep could yet be obtained ; I refolved when
he was rifen, and had changed his room, to
examine into the true caufe : and with my
maid's affiftance, unript the mattrefs, which
was without exaggeration or hyperbole all
alive with creatures wholly unknown to me.
Non-defcripts in naftinefs I believe they are,
like maggots with horns and tails ; fuch a
race as I never faw or heard of, and as would
9 have
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 367
have difgufted Mr. Leeuenhoeck himfelf.
My willingnefs to quit this place and its hun-
dred-footed inhabitants was quickened three
nights after by a thunder ftorm, fuch as no
dweller in more northern latitudes can form
an idea of; which, affifted by fome few flight
(hocks of an earthquake, frighted us all from
our beds, fick and well, and gave me an op-
portunity of viewing fuch flames of lightning
as I had never contemplated till now, and
fuch as it appeared impomble to efcape from
with life. The tremendous claps of thunder
re-echoing among thefe Appenines, which
double every found, were truly dreadful. I
really and fmcerely thought St. Julian*s moun-
tain was rent by one violent ftroke, accom-
panied with a rough concuflion, and that the
rock would fall upon our heads by morning;
while the agonies of my Engliih maid and the
French valet, became equally infupportable to
themfelves and me ; who could only repeat
the fame unheeded confolations, and proteft
our refolution of releafing them from this
theatre of diftra&ion the moment our depar-
ture mould become practicable. Mean time
the rain fell, and fuch a torrent came tum-
bling down the fides of St. Juliano, as I am
perfuaded
3 68 OBSERVATIONS IN A
perfuaded no female courage could have calm-
ly looked on. I therefore waited its abatement
in a darkened room, packed up our coach
without waiting to copy over the verfes my
admiration of the place had prompted, and
drove forward to Sienna, through Pifa again,
where our friends told us of the damages done
by the tempeft ; and fhewed us a pretty little
church juft out of town, where the officiat-
ing prieft at the altar was faved almoft by mi-
racle, as the lightning melted one of the cha-
lices completely, and twifted the brazen-gilt
crucifix quite round in a very aftonifhing
manner.
Here, however, is the proper place, if
any, to introduce the poem of feventy-
three fhort lines, calling itfelf an Ode to So-
ciety written in a Rate of perfect folitude, fe-
cluded from all mortal tread, as was our ha-
bitation at the Bagni di Pifa.
ODE
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 369
ODE TO SOCIETY,
I.
SOCIETY! gregarious dame !
Who knows thy favour'd haunts to name ?
Whether at Paris you prepare
The fupper and the chat to fhare;
While fix'd in artificial row,
Laughter difplays its teeth of fnow :
Grimace with raillery rejoices,
And fong of many mingled voices,
Till young coquetry's artful wile
Some foreign novice lhall beguile,
Who home return'd, ftill prates of thee>
Light, flippant, French SOCIETY.
II.
Or whether, with your zone unbound,
You ramble gaudy Venice round,
Refolv'd the inviting fweets to prove,
Of friendfhip warm, and willingxlove ;
Where foftly roll th' obedient leas,
Sacred to luxury and eafe,
In coffee- houfe or cafmo gay
Till the too quick return of day^ .
Th' enchanted votary who fighs
For fentiment3 without difguife,
VOL. I. B fc Clear,
370 OBSERVATIONS IN A
Clear, unaffected, fond, and free,
In Venice finds SOCIETY.
III.
Or if to wifer Britain led,
Your vagrant feet defire to tread
With meafur'd ftep and anxious care,
The precintts pure of Portman-fquare j
While wit with elegance eombin'd, ~9
And poliftYd manners there you'll find j >
The tafte correct- and fertile mind : }
Remember vigilance lurks near,
And filence with unnoticed fneer,
Who watches but to tell again
Your foibles with to-morrow's pen - f
Till titt'ring malice fmiles to fee
Your wonder-^-grave SOCIETY,
IV.
Far from your bufy crowded court,
Tranquillity makes her report ;
Where 'mid cold Staffa'^ columns rude y
Refides majeftic folitude ;
Or where in fome fad Brachman's cell.
Meek innocence delights to dwell,
Weeping with nnexperienc'd eye,
The death of a departed fly :
Or in Hetruria's heights fublime,
Where fcience felf might fear to climb,
BBt
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 371
feut that flie feeks a fmile fj-orn thee.
And wooes thy praife, SOCIETY;.
V;
Thence let me view the plains below*
From rough St. Julian's rugged brow -,
Hear the loud torrents fwifc defcending^
Or mark the beauteous rainbow bending*
Till Heaven regains its favourite hue,
./Ether divine ! celeftial blue !
Then bofom'd high in myrtle bower,
View letter'd Pifa's pendent tower j
The fea's wide fcene, the port's loud throng*
Of rude and gentle, right and wrong \
A motley groupe which yet agree
To call themfelves SOCIETY.
VL
Oh ! thou ftill fought by wealth and fame,
Difpenfer of applaufe and blame :
While flatt'ry ever at thy fide,
With (lander can thy fmiles divide j
Far from thy haunts, oh ! let me ftray,
But grant one friend to cheer my way,
Whofe converfe bland, whofe mufic's art,
May cheer my foul, and heal my heart ;
Let foft content our fteps purfue,
And blifs eternal bound our view :
Pow'r I'll refign, and pomp, and glee,
Thy beft-lov'd fweets SOCIETY.
Bb 2
3.72 OBSERVATIONS IN A
S. I EN N A.
26th October 1786.
WE arrived here laft night, having driven
through the fweeteft country in the world ;
and here are a few timber trees at laft, fuch
as I have not feen for a long time, the Tuf-
can fpirit of mutilation being fo great, that
every thing till now has been pollarded that
would have parted twenty feet in height : this
is done to fupport the vines, and not fufier
their rambling produce to run out of the way,
and efcape the gripe of the gatherers. I have
eaten too many of thefe delicious grapes how-
ever, and it is now my turn to be fick No
wonder, I know few who would refift a like
temptation, efpecially as the inn afforded but
a forry dinner, whilft every hedge provided
fo noble a deflert. Paffera pur la malattid*^
as thefe fofi> mouthed people tell me; the
fooner perhaps, as we are not here annoyed
by infects, which poifon the pleafure of other
* The diforder will die away though.
places-
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 373
places in Italy ; here are only R-zords^ lovely
creatures ! who being of a beautiful light
green colour upon the back and legs, refide
in whole families at the foot of every tree,
and turn their fcarlet bofoms to the fun, as if
to difplay the glories of colouring which his
beams alone can beftow.
The pleafing tales told of this pretty ani-
mal's amical difpofition towards man are ftric"r.-
}y true, I hear; and it is no longer ago than
yefterday I was told an odd anecdote of a
young farmer, who, carrying a bafket of figs
to his miftrefs, lay down in the field as he
crofled it, quite overcome with the weather,
and fell faft afleep. A ferpent, attracted by
the fcent, twined round the bafket, and
would have bit the fellow as well as robbed
him, had not a friendly lizard waked, and
given him warning of the danger.
Swift fays, that in the courfe of life he
meets many afles, but they have not lucky
names. I have met many vipers, and fo few
Hoards, it is furprifing ! but they will not
live in London.
All the ftories one has ever heard of
fweetnefs in language and delicacy in pronun-
ciation, fall fhort of Siennefe converfe. The
B b 3 girls
374 OBSERVATIONS IN A
girls who wait on us at the inn here, would
be treafures in England, could one get them
thither; and they need move nothing but
their tongues to make their fortunes. I told
Rofetta fo, and faid I would fteal from them
a poor girl of eight years old, whom they
kept out of charity, and called Olympia, to be
my language miftrefs. " Battexzata com e 9
fa lafeieremo Chriftiana*" was the anfwer.
It is impoflible, without their manners, to
exprefs their elegance, their fuperior delicacy,
graceful without diffufion, and terfe without
laconicifm. You afk the way to the town of
a peafant girl, and (he replies, <v Pajfatol
Ponte, o pur barcatol Flume, eccola a Sienna )."
And as we drove towards the city in the
evening, our poftillion fung improvifo verfes
on his fweetheart, a widow who lived down
at Piftoja, they told me. I was afhamed to
think that no defk or ftudy was likely to have
produced better on fo trite a fubject. Can-
dour muft confefs, however, that no thought
f Being baptized as foe is, we will leave her 4
Chriftian.
f The bridge once paflcd, or the river profled, Sienn^
Jie Before yo^ ?
was
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 375
was new, though the language made them
for a moment feem fo.
This town is neat and cleanly, and com-
fortable and airy. The profpecl: from the
public walks wants no beauty but water ; and
here is a fupprefied convent on the neigh-
bouring hill, where we half-longed to build
a pretty cottage, as the ground is now to be
-clifpofed of vaftly cheap; and half one's work
is already done in the apartments once occu-^
pied by friars. With half a word's perfuafion
I fhould fix for life here. The air is fo pure,
the language fo pleating, the place fo inviting ;
but we drive on,
There is, mean time, refident in the neigh*
bourhood an Englifh gentleman, his name
Greenfield, who has formed to himfelf a
mighty fweet habitation in the Englifh tafte,
but not extenfive, as his property don't reach
far : he is however a fort of little oracle in
the country I am told ; gives money, and
difpenfes James's powders to the poor, is happy
in the efteem of numberlefs people of fafhiori,
and the comfort of his country people's lives
befide ; who, travelling to Sienna, as many
do for the advantage of ftudying Italian to
B b 4 perfection,
376 OBSERVATIONS IN A
perfection, find a friend and companion
where perhaps it is leaft expected.
The cathedral here at Sienna deferves a vor
lume, and I fhall fcarcely give it a page. The
pavement of it is the juft pride of Italy, and
may challenge ,the world to produce its equal.
St. Mark's at Venice floored with precious
ftones dies away upon the comparifon ; this
being all inlaid with dove- coloured and white
marbles reprefenting hiftorical fubjecls not ill
told. Were this operation performed in mor
faic work, others of rival excellence might be
found. The pavement of Sienna's dome is
fo difpofed by an effort of art one never faw
but here, that it produces an effect moft re-
fembling that of a very fine and beautiful
fJarnafk table-cloth, where the large patterns
are correctly drawn.
Rome however is to be our next ftage, and
many of our Englifh gentlemen now here, are
with ourfelves impatiently waiting for the
numberlefs pleafures it is expected to afford
us. I will here clofe this chapter upon our
various defires ; one wifhing to fee St. Peters ;
one fetting his heart upon entering the Ca-
pitol : to-morrow's fun will light us all
fearch.
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY, 3.77
ROME.
THE firft fleeping place between Sienna
and this capital fhall not efcape mentioning ;
its name is Radicofani, its title an inn, and
its fituation the fummit of an exhaufted vol-
cano. Such a place did I never fee. The
violence of the mountain, when living, has
fplit it in a variety of places, and driven it to
a breadth of bafe beyond credibility, its
height being no longer formidable. Which-
ever way you turn your eyes, nothing but
portions of this black rock appear therefore ;
fo here is extent without fublimity, and here
is terror mingled with difguft. The infide
of the houfe is worthy of the profped feen
from its windows ; wild, fpacious, and fcan-
tily provided. Never had place fo much
the appearance of a haunted hall, where Sir
Rowland or Sir Bertrand might feel proud of
their courage when
The knight advancing flrikes the fatal door^
And hollow chambers fend a fullen roar.
MERRY.
TQ
378 OBSERVATIONS IN A
To this truly difmal repofmg place is how-
ever kindly added a little chapel ; and few
perfons can imagine what a comfortable feel
it gave me on entering it in the morning after
hearing the winds howl all night in the black
mountain. Here too we firft made acquaint-
ance with Signer Giovanni Ricci, a mighty
agreeable gentleman, who was kindly affiftant
$p us in a hundred little difficulties, afterwards
occafioned by horfes, poflillions, &c. which
at laft brought us through a bad country
enough to Viterbo, where we flept.
The melancholy appearance of the Cam-
pagna has been remarked and defcribed by
every traveller with difpleafure, by all with
truth. The ill look of the very few and
very unhealthy inhabitants confirms their de-
fcriptions ; and befide the pale and fwelled
faces which fhock one's fight, here is a brafly
fcent in the air as of verdigris, which offends
one's fmell ; the running water is of an odd
colour too, like that in which copper has been
fteeped. Thefe are fad defolated fcenes in<-
deed, though this is not the feafon for
mar aria neither, which, it is faid, begins
in May, and ends with September. The
prefent
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 379
prefent fovereign is mending matters as faft as
he can, we hear ; and the road now cutting,
will greatly facilitate accefs to his capital, but
cannot be done without a prodigious experuce.
The firft view of Rome is wonderfully ftrik-
ing.
Ye awful wrecks of ancient times !
Proud monuments of ages paft
Now mould'ring in decay. MERRY,
Put mingled with every crowding, every claf*
fical idea, comes to one's recollection an old
picture painted by R. Wilfon about thirty
years ago, which I am now fure muft have
Jjeen a very excellent reprefentation.
Well, then ! here we are, admirably lodg-
ed at Strofani's in the Piazza di Spagna, and
have only to chufe what we will fee and talk
pn firft among this galaxy of rarities which
(dazzles, diverts, confounds, and nearly fa-
tigues one. I will fpeak of the oldeft things
firft, as I was earneft to fee fomething of
Rome in its very early days, if poflible : for
example the Subljcian Bridge, defended by
Codes when the infant republic, like their
favourite Hercules in his cradle, ftrangled
2 the
3 So OBSERVATIONS IN A
the ferpent defpotifm : and of this bridge
ibme portion may yet be feen when the wa-
ter is very low.
The prifori is more ancient ftill however ;
it was built by the kings ; and by the folidity
of its walls, and depth of its dungeon, feems
built for eternity. Was it not this place {o
which Juvenal alludes, when he fays,
Felicia dicas
Tempora quas quondam fub regibus atquc
tribunis
Viderunt uno contentam carcere Romam.
And it is in this horrible fpot they mew
you the miraculous mark of St. Peter's head
ftruck againft the wall in going down, with
the fountain which burft out of the ground
for his refrefhment. Antiquaries, however,
aflure us, that he could not have ever been con-
fined there, as it was a place for ftate prifo-
ners only, and thofe of the higheft rank : they
likewife tell us that Jugurtha pafled feven
months there, which is as difficult to believe
as any miracle ever wrought ; for the world
was at leaft fomewhat civilized in thofe days,
and how it mould be contented with look-
jng quietly on whilft a Prince of Jugurtha's
confe-
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 381
confequence fhould be fo kept, appears incre-
dible at the diftance of 1900 years. That
Chriftians fhould be treated ftill worfe, if
worfe could be found for them, is lefs
ftrange, when every ftep one treads is upon
the bones of martyrs ; and who dares fay that
t^e furrounding campagna, fo often drenched
in innocent blood, may not have been curfed
with peftilence and fterility to all fucceeding
ages ? I have examined the place where
Sylla maflacred 000 fellow- citizens at once,
and find that it produces no herb but thiftles,
a weed almoft unknown in any other part of
Italy ; and one of the firft punimments be-
flowed on fmful man.
Marcellus's Theatre, an old fountain erecl'-
ed by Camillus when Dictator, and the Tar-
peian rock, attract attention powerfully : the
,lafl particularly,
Where brave Manlius flood,
And hurl'd indignant decads down,
And redden'd Tyber's flood. GREATHEED.
People have never done contradicting Bur-
net, who fays, in his travels, that a man
jnight jump down it now and not do himfelf
much
382 OBSERVATIONS IN A
much harm: the truth is, its prefent ap*
pearance is not formidable ; but I believe
it is not lefs than forty feet high at this
moment, though the ground is greatly
raifed.
Of all things at Rome the Cloaca is ac-
knowledged moft ancient; a very great and a
very ufeful work it is, of Ancus Martius^
fourth king of Rome. The juft and zealous
deteflation of Chriftians towards Pontius
Pilate, is here comically expreffed by their
placing his palace juft at its exit into the
Tyber ; and one who pretended to doubt of
its being his refidence, would be thought the
worfe of among therm
I recollect nothing elfe built before the
days of the Emperors, who, for the moft
part, were fuch difgracers of human nature
and human reafon, that one would almoft
wifli their names expunged, and all their
deeds obliterated from the face of the globe^
which could ever tamely iubmit to fuch truly
Wretched rulers.
The Capitol, built by Tarquin, ftood till
the days of Marius and Sylla it feems ; that
lafi>named Dictator erected a new one,
which
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 383
which was overthrown in the contefts about
Vitellius ; Vefpafian fet it up again, but his
performance was burned loon after its au-
thor's death ; and this we contemplate now,
is one of the works of Domitian, and cele-
brated by Martial of courfe. Adrian how-
ever added one room to it, dedicated to
Egyptian deities alone : as a matter of mere
tafte I fancy, like our introducing Chinefe
temples into the garden ; but many hold that
it was very ferious and fuperftitious regard,
infpired by the victory Canopus won over
the Perfian divinity of fire, by the fubtlety
of the Egyptian priefts, who, to defend their
idol from that all-fubduing element, wifely
fet upon his head a veflel filled with water,
and having previoufly made the figure of
Terra Gotta hollow, and full of water, with
holes bored at the bottom flopped only by
wax to keep it in,- a feemirig miracle extin-
guifhed the flames, as foon as approached by
Canopus ; whofe triumph was of courfe pro-
claimed, and he refpected accordingly. The
figure was a monkey, whofe fitting attitude
favoured the impofture : our antiquaries tell
us the ftory after Stiidas.
As
384 OBSERVATIONS IN A
As cruelty is more deteftable than fraud.!
one feels greater difguft at the fight of captive
monarchs without hands and arms, than even
thefe idolatrous brutalities infpire ; and no
greater proof can be obtained of Roman bar-
barity, than the ftatues one is (hewn here of
kings and generals over whom they triumph-
ed ; being made on purpofe for them without
hands and arms, of which they were deprived
immediately on their arrival at Rome.
Enormous heads and feet, to which the
other parts are wanting, let one fee, or at
leaft guefs,- what coloflal figures were once
belonging to them; yet fomehow thefe
celebrated artifts feem to me to have a little
confounded the ideas of big and great like
my countryman Fluellyn in Shakefpear's
play : while the two famous demi-gods
Caftor and Pollux, each his horfe in his hand,
(land one on each fide the ftairs which lead
to the Capitol, and are of a prodigious fize^
fifteen feet, as I remember. The knowing peo-
ple tell us they are portraits, and bid us obferve
that one has pupils to his eyes, the other not ;
but our laquais de place , who was a very fen-
fible fellow too, as he faw me ftand looking at
them, cried out, " Why now to be fure here
are
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 385
are a vaft many miracles in this holy city-
that there are :" and I heard one of our own
folks telling an Engliihman the other day,
how thefe two fnonftrous ftatues, horfes and
all I believe, came out of an egg : a very
extraordinary thing certainly ; but it is our
bufmefs to believe^ not to enquire. He faw
my countenance exprefs fomething he did not
like, and continued, " Eh bajla ! far a Jlato un
uovo ftrepitofoi e cofi finifce rijloria *."
In this repofitory of wonders, this glorious
campldoglio) one is firft {hewn as the moft
valuable curiofity, the two pigeons mentioned
by Pliny in old mofaic; and of prodigious
nicety is the workmanfhip, though done at
fuch a diftant period ; and here is the very
wolf which bears the very mark of the light-
ning mentioned by Cicero: and here is the
beautiful Antinous again; be meets one at
every turn, I think, and always hangs his
head as if aihafned : here too is the dying
gladiator ; wonderfully fine ! favage valour !
mean extraction ! horrible anguifli ! all
marking, all ftrongly charadteriftical expref-
* Well, well ! it was a famous egg we'll fay, and
there's an end.
VOL. I. C c fions
3 86 OBSERVATIONS IN A
(ions all there; yet all fwallowed up, in
that which does inevitably and certainly
fwallow up all things approaching death.
The collection of pictures here would put
any thing but thefe ftatues out of one's head :
Guide's Fortune flying over the globe, fcat-
tering her gifts ; of which fhe gave him one,
the moft precious, the moft defirable, How
elegantly gay and airy is this picture ! But
St. Sebaftian ftands oppofite, to fhew that he
could likewife excel in the pathetic. Titian's
famous Magdalen, of which the King of
France boafts one copy, a noble family at
Venice another, is protefted by the Roman
connoifleurs to refide here only ; but why
fhould not the artift be fond of repeating fo
fine an idea ? Guercino's Sybil however, in-
telligently penfive, and fweetly fenfible, is
the fingle figure I fhould prefer to them
all.
Before we quit the Capitol, it is pity not
to name Marforio ; broken, old, and
now almoft forgotten : though once com-
panion, or rather refpondent to Pafquin,
and once, a thoufand years before thofe days,
a ftatue of the river Nar, as his recumbent
pofture teftifies ; not Mars in the forum^ as
4 has
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 387
has been by fome fuppofed. The late Pope"
moved him from the ftreet, and fliut him up
with his betters in the Capitol.
Of Trajan and Antonine's Pillars what can
one fay ? That St. Peter and St. Paul ftand
on the tops of each, fetting forth that uncer-
tainty of human affairs which they preached
in their life-time, and {hewing that they^ who
were once the objects of contempt and ab-
horrence, are now become literally the head
fanes of the corner ; being but tod profoundly
venerated in that very cityj which once cruelly
perfecuted, and unjuftly put them to death.
Let us then who look on them recoiled their
advice, and fet our affections on a place of
greater liability. The columns are of very un-
equal excellence, that of Trajan's confefledly
the beft ; one grieves to think he never faw it
himfelf, as few princes were lefs puffed up
by well-deferved praife than he ; but dj ing
at Seleucia of a Jyfenteric fever, his afhes
were brought home, and kept on the top of
his own pillar in a gilt vafe ; which Sextus
Quintus with more zeal than tafte took down,
I fear deftroyed, and placed St. Peter there*
Apollodorus was the architect of the ele-
gant ftructure, on which, fays Ammianus
C c 2 Marcelr
388 OBSERVATIONS IN A
Marcellinus, the Gods themfelves gazed
with wonder, feeing that nothing but hea-
ven itfelf was finer: " Singular em fub omni
calo JlruEiuram etiam numlnum afcenjione mi-
rabilem"
I know not whether this is the proper place
to mention that the good Pope Gregory, who
added to the pofleflion of every cardinal vir-
tue the exertion of every Chriftian one,
having looked one day with peculiar fted-
faftnefs at this column, and being naturally
led to reflect on his character to whofe honour
it was erected, felt juft admiration of a mind
fo noble; and retiring to his devotions in a
church not far off, began praying earneftly
for Trajan's foul : till a preternatural voice,
accompanied with rays of light round the
altar he knelt at, commanded his forbear-
ance of further felicitation ; alluring him that
Trajan's foul was fecure in the care of his
Creator. Strange ! that thofe who record,
and give credit to fuch a ftory, can yet
continue as a duty their interceffions for
the dead !
But I have feen the Colifeo, which would
fwallow that of pretty Verona; it is four
times
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 389
times as large I am told, and would hold
fourfcore thoufand fpedators. After all the
depredations of all the Goths, and afterwards
of the Farnefe family, the ruin is glorioufly
beautiful ; poflibly more beautiful than when
it was quite whole ; there is enough left now
ior Truth to repofe upon, and a perch for Fancy
befide, to fly out from, and fetch in more.
The orders of its architecture are eafily
difcerned, though the height of the upper
ftory is truly tremendous; I climbed it once,
not to the top indeed, but till I was afraid to
look down from the place I was in, and
penetrated many of its recefles. The modern
Italians hare not loft their tafte of a prodi-
gious theatre ; were they once more a fingle
nation, they would rebuild this I fancy ; for
here are all the conveniencies in grande, as
they call it, that amaze one even in piccolo at
Milan and Turin : Here were fupper-rooms,
and taverns, and (hops, and I believe baths;
certainly long galleries big enough to drive a
coach round, and places where flaves waited
to receive the commands of mafters and
ladies, who perhaps if they did not wait to
pleafe them, would fcarcely fcruple to de-
C c 3 tain
39 o OBSERVATIONS IN A
tain them in the cage of offenders, and keep
them to make fport upon a future day.
The cruelties then exercifed on fervants at
Rome were truly dreadful ; and we all re-
member reading that in Auguftus's time,
when he did a private friend the honour to
dine with him, one of the waiters broke a
glafs he was about to prefent full of liquor to
the King ; at which offence the mafter being
enraged, fuddenly caufed him to be feized by
the reft, and thrown inftantly out of the
window to feed his lampreys, which lived in
a pond on which the apartment looked.
Auguftus faid nothing at the moment ; to
punifli the nobleman's inhumanity however,
he fent his officers next morning to break
every glafs in the houfe : A curious chaftife-
ment enough, and worthy of a nation who,
being powerful to erect, populous to fill, and
elegantly-fkilful to adorn fuch a fabric as this
Colifeum which I have juft been contem-:
plating, were yet contented and even happy to
view from its well-arranged feats, exhibitions
capable of giving nothing but difguft and
horror ; lions rending unarmed wretches in
pieces ; or, to the ftill deeper difgrace of poor
Humanity,
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 391
Humanity, thofe wretches armed unwillingly
againft each other, and dying to divert a
brutal populace.
Thefe reflections upon Pagan days and claf-
fical cruelties do not difturb however the
peace of an old hermit, who has chofen one
of thefe clofe-concealed recefles for his ha-
bitation, and accordingly dwells, difmally
enough, in a hole feldom vifited by travellers,
and certainly never enquired about by the
natives. I ftumbled on his ftrange apartment
by mere chance, and afked him why he had
chofen it ? He had been led in early youth,
he faid, to reflect upon the miferies fufFered
by the original profeflbrs of Chriftianity ; the
tortures inflicted on them in this horrible
amphitheatre, and the various viciffitudes of
Rome fmce : that he had dedicated himfelf
to thefe meditations: that he had left the
world feventeen years, never ftirring from
his cell but to buy food, which he eat alone
and fparingly, and to pay his devotions in
the Via Cruets, for fo the old Arena is now
called ; a fimple plain wooden crofs occupying
the middle of it, and round the Circus twelve
neat, not fplendid chapels ; a picture to each,
reprefenting the various ftages of our Sa-
C c 4 vjour's
392 OBSERVATIONS IN A
viour's paffion. Such are the meek triumphs
of our meek religion ! And that fuch fubfti*
tutes ihould have replaced the African fa-
vages, tigers, hyaenas, &c. and Roman
gladiators, not lefs ferocious than their four-
legged antagonifts, I am quite as willing to
rejoice at as the hermit : They muft be better
antiquarians too than I am, who regret that
a nunnery now covers the fpot where ambi-
tious Tullia drove over the bleeding body of
her murdered parent,
Preffit et induclris membra paterna rods :
That nunnery, fupported by ^the arch of
Nerva, which is all that is now left ftanding
of that Emperor's Forum.
I muft not however quit the Colifeunrjj
without repeating what pafled between the
King of Sweden and his Roman laquais de
place when he was here ; and the fellow, in
the true cant of his Ciceronefhip, exclaimed
as they looked up, " Ah Mac/la ! what
curfed Goths thofe were that tore away ib
many fine things here, and pulled down
fuch magnificent pillars, &c." " Hold,, hold
friend," replies the King of Sweden ; " I am
one of thofe curfed Goths myfelf you know ;
but
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 393
but what were your Roman nobles a-doing,
I would afk, when they laboured to deftroy
an edifice like this, and build their palaces
with its materials ?"
The baths of Livia are ftill elegantly de-
figned round her fmall apartments ; and one
has copies fold of them upon fans : the curio-
fity of the original is to fee how well the gilding
(lands; in many places it appears juil finished.
Thefe baths are difficult of accefs fomehow ; I
never could quite underfland how we got
in or out of them, but they did belong to the
Imperial palace, which covered this whole
Palatine hill, and here was Nero's golden
houfe, by what I could gather, but of that
I thank Heaven there is no trace left, except
fome little portion of the wall, which was
120 feet high, and fome marbles in fhades,
like women's worfted work upon canvafs,
very curious, and very wonderful ; as all are
natural marbles, and no dye ufed : the ex-
pence mufl have furpafled credibility.
The Temple of Vefta, fuppofed to be the
very temple to which Horace alludes in his
fecond Ode, is a pretty rotunda, and has
twenty pillars fluted of Parian marble : it is
now a church, as are moil of the heathen
temples.
Such
394 OBSERVATIONS IN A
Such adaptations do not pleafe one, but
then it muft be allowed and recollected that
one is very hard to pleafe : finding fault is fo
eafy, and doing right fo difficult !
The good Pope Gregory, who feared (by
facre4 infpiration one would think) all
which fhould come to pafs, broke many beau-
tiful antique ftatues, " left," faid he, " in-
duced by change of drefs or name perhaps
our Chriftians may be tempted to adore them :"
and we fay he was a blockhead, and burned
Livy's decads, and fo he did ; but he refufed
all titles of earthly dignity ; he cenfured the
Oriental Patriarchs for fubftituting temporal
fplendours in the place of primitive fimplicity ;
which he faid ought alone to diftinguifh the
followers of Jefus Chrift. He required a
Uriel: attention to morality from all his infe-
rior clergy ; obferved that thofe who ftrove
to be firft, would entf }n being laft ; and took
himfelf the title of fervant to the fervants of
God.
Well ! Sabinian, his fucceflbr, once his fa-
vourite Nuncio, flung his hooks in the fire as
foon as he was dead ; fo his injunctions were^
obeyed but while he lived to enforce them ;
and every day now {hews us how neceflary
they were : when, even in thefe enlightened
times,
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 395
times, there ftands an old figure that every
Abate in the town knows to have been origi-
nally made for the fabulous God of Phyfic,
Efculapiqs, is prayed to by many old women
and devotees of all ages indeed, juft at the
Via Sacra's entrance, and called St. Barto-
lomeo.
A beautiful Diana too, with her trufled-
up robes, the crefcent .alone wanting, ftands
on the high altar to receive homage in the
character of St. Agnes, in a pretty church
dedicated to her fuor delle Porte , where it is
fuppDfed fhe fuffered martyrdom ; and why ?
Why for not venerating that very Goddcfs
Diana, and for refufing to walk in her pro-
cefTion at the New.Moon^ like a good Chrif-
tian girl. " Such contradictions put one from
onesfelf" as Shakefpear fays.
We are this moment returned home from
Tivoli; have walked round Adrian's Villa,
and viewed his Hippodrome, which would
yet make an admirable open Manege. I have
feen the Cafcatelle, fo fweetly elegant, fo ru-
ral, fo romantic ; and I have looked with
due refpect on the places once inhabited, and
ever juftly celebrated by genius, wit, and
learning ; have fhuddered at revifiting the
fpot
39 6 OBSERVATIONS IN A
{"pot I haftened down to examine, while CUT
riofity was yet keen enough to make me ven-
ture a very dangerous and fcarcely-trctlden
path to Neptune's Grotto ; where, as you
defcend, the Cicerone (hews you a wheel of
fome coarfe carriage vifibly fluck faft in the
rock till it is become a part of it ; diftinguim-
ed from every other itone only by its fhape,
its projecting forward, and its fhewing the
hollow places in its fellies, where nails were
originally driven. This truly-curious, though
little venerable piece of antiquity, ferves to
affift the wife men in puzzling out the world's
age, by computing how many centuries go
to the petrifying a cart wheel. A violent
roar of dafhing waters at the bottom, and
a fall of the river at this place from the height
of 150 feet, were however by no means fa-
vourable to my arithmetical ftudies ; and I
returned perfectly difpofed to think the
world's age a lefs profitable, a lefs diverting
contemplation, than its folly.
We looked at the temple of the old god-
defs that cured coughs, now a Chriftian church,
dedicated to la Madonna della Toffe ; it is ex-
actly all it ever was, I believe ; and we dined
in the temple of Sibylla Tiburtina, a beautiful
edifice,
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 397
edifice, of which Mr. Jenkins has fent the
model to London in cork, which gives a more
exact reprefentation after all than the beft-
chofen words in the world. I would rather
make life of them to praife Mr. Jenkins's ge-
neral kindnefs and hofpitality to all his coun-
try-folks, who find a certain friend in him ;
and if they pleafe, a very competent in-
ftructor.
In order however to underftancl the mean-
ing offome fpherical pots obferved in the Cir-
cus of Garacalla, I chofe above all men to con-
fult Mr. Greatheed, whofe correct tafle, deep
refearch, and knowledge of architecture, led
me to prefer his account to every other, of
their ufe and neceffity : it mall be given in his
own words, which I am proud of his permif-
fion to copy;
" Of thofe pots you mention, there are not
any remaining in the Circus Maximus, as the
walls, feats and apodium of that have entirely
difappeared. They are to be feen in the Cir-
cus of Caracalla, on the Appian way ; of this,
and of this alone, enough ftill exifts to afcer-
tain the form, ftrudture, and parts of a Ro-
man courfe. It was furrounded by two pa-
rallel walls which fupported the feats of the'
fpectators. The exterior wall rofe to the
6 fummit
3 q8 OBSERVATIONS IN A
fummit of the gallery ; the interior one was
much lower, terminated with the loweft
rows, and formed the apodium. This rough
fedion may ferve to elucidate my defcription.
From wall to wall an arch was turned which
formed a quadrant, and on this the feats im-
mediately refted : but as the upper rows were
confiderably diftant from the crown of the
arch, it was neceflary to fill the intermediate
fpace with materials fufficiently ftrorig to
fupport the upper ftone benches and the
multitude. Had thefe been of folid fub-
ftance, they would have prefled prodi-
gious and difproportionate weight on the
fummit of the arch, a place leaft able to
endure it from its horizontal pofitiom
To remedy this de-
fect, the architect
caufed fpherical pots
to be baked; of thefe
each formed of itfelf
an arch fufficiently
powerful to fuftain
its Ihare of the in-
cumbent weight, and
- the whole was ren-
dered much lefs ponderous by the innume-
rable vacuities.
" A firm-
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 399
" A fimiliar expedient was likewife ufed to
diminifh the preflure of their domes, by em-
ploying the fcoriae of lava brought for that
purpofe from the Lipari Iflands. The num-
berlefs bubbles of this volcanic fubftance
give it the appearance of a honeycomb, and
anfwer the fame purpofe as the pots in Cara-
calla's Circus, fo much fo, that though very
hard, it is of lefs fpecific gravity than wood,
and confequently floats in water."
Before I quit the Circus of Caracalla, I
muft not forbear mentioning his buft, which
fo perfectly refembles Hogarth's idle 'Pren-
tice 5 but why fhould they not be alike ?
For black-guards are black-guards in every
degree,
I fuppofe, and the people here who {hew
one things, always take delight to fouce an
Englishman's hat upon his head, as if they
thought fo too.
This morning's ramble let us to fee the old
grotto, facred to Numa's famous nymph,
Nigeria, not far from Rome even now. I
wonder that it fhould efcape being built
round when Rome was fo extenfive as to
contain the crowds which we are told were
lodged
4 60 OBSERVATIONS IN A
lodged in it. That the city fpread chiefly the
other way, is fcarce an anfwer. London
fpreads chiefly the Mary bone way perhaps, yet
is much nearer to Rumford than it was fifty
or fixty years ago.
The fame remark may be made of the Tem-
ple of Mars without the walls, near the Porta
Capena : a rotunda it was on the road fide
then : it is on the road fide now, and a very
little way from the gate.
Caius Ceftius's fepulchre however, with-
out the walls, on the other fide, is one of the
moft perfect remains of antiquity we have
here. Aurelian made ufe of that as a boun-
dary we know : it ftands at prefent half with-
out and half within the limit that Emperor
fet to the city ; and is a very beautiful pyra-
mid a hundred and ten feet high, admirably
reprefented in Piranefi's prints, with an in-
fcription on the white marble of which it is
compofed, importing the name and office
and condition of its wealthy proprietor :
C. CeftitiS) feptcm vlr epulonum. He muft
have lived therefore fmce Julius Csefar's time
it is plain, as he firft increafed the number of
epulones to feven, from three their original
inftitution. It was probably a very lucrative
office
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 401
office for a man to be Jupiter's caterer; who,
as he never troubled himfelf with looking
over the bills, they were fuch commonly, I
doubt not, as made ample profits refult to
him who went to market ; and Caius Ceftius
was one of the rich contractors of thofe days,
who neglected no opportunity of acquiring
wealth for himfelf, while he confulted the
honour of Jupiter in providing for his maf-
ter's table very plentiful and elegant ban-
quets.
That fuch officers were in ufe too among
the Perfians during the time their monarchy
lafted, is plain from the apocryphal ftory of
Bel and the Dragon in our Bibles, where, to
the joy of every child that reads it, Daniel
detects the fraud of the priefts by fcattering
ames or faw-duft in the temple.
But I fear the critics will reprove me for fay-
ing that Julius Csefar only increafed the number
to feven, while many are of opinion he added
three more, and madethemadecemvirate: mean
time Livy tells us the inftitution began in the
year of Rome 553, during the confulate of
FulviusPurpurioand Marcellus,upon a motion
of Romuleius if I remember. They had the
privilege granted afterwards of edging the
gown with purple like the pontiffs, when
VOL. I. D d increafed
402 OBSERVATIONS IN A
increafed to feven in number ; and they were
always known by the name Seplemviratus,
or Septemviri Epulonum, to the lateft hours of
Paganifm.
The tomb of Caius Ceftius is fuppofed
to have coft twelve thoufand pounds fter-
ling of our money in thofe days; and
little did he dream that it fhould be made in
the courfe of time a repofirory for the bones
of divifos orbc Brltannos : for fuch it is now
appointed to be by government. All of us
who die at Rome, fleep with this purveyor of
the gods ; and from his monument {hall at
the laft day rife the re-animated body of our
learned and incomparable Sir James Macdo-
nald : whofe numerous and fplendid acquire-
ments, though by the time he had reached
twenty-four years old aftonifhed all who
knew him, never overwhelmed one little do-
meflic virtue. His filial piety however, his
hereditary courage, his extenfive knowledge,
his complicated excellencies, have now, I fear,
no other regifter to record their worth, than
a low ftone near the ftately pyramid of Ju-
piter's caterer.
The tomb of Caecilia Metella, wife of the
rich and famous CrafTus, claims our next at-
tention ; it is a beautiful ftructure, and flill
7 called
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 403
called Capodl Bove by the Italians,on account
of its being ornamented with the oxbead and
Jlo^vers which now flourifh over .every door in
the new-built ftreets .of London ; but the
original of which, as Livy tells us, and I
believe Plutarch too, was this. That Cora-
tius, a Sabine farmer, who poflefTed a parti-
cularly fine cow, was advifed by a foothfayer
to facrifice her to Diana upon the Aventine
Hill ; telling him, that the city where Jbt
now prefided Diana fhould become mif-
trefs of the world, and he who prefented her
with that cow fhould become mafter over
that city. The poor Sabine went away to
warn in the Tyber, and purify himfelf for
thefe approaching honours *; but in the mean
time, a boy having heard the difcourfe, and
reported it to Servius Tullius, he haftened to
the fpot, killed Coratius's cow for him, facri-
ficed her to Diana, and hung her head with
the horns on, and the garland juft as ihe
died, upon the temple door as an ornament.
From that time, it feems, the ornament
called Caput Bovis was in a manner confe-
crated to Diana, and her particular votaries
ufed it on their tombs. Nor could one eafily
* *A circumftance alluded to and parodied by Ben
Johnfon in hisAlchemift. See the conduct of Dapper, &c.
D d 2 account
4<H OBSERVATIONS IN A
account for the decorations of many Roman
farcophagi, till one recollects that they were
probably adapted to that divinity in whofe
temple they were to be placed, rather than
to the particular perfon occupying the tomb,
or than to our general ideas of death, time,
and eternity. It is probably for this reafon
that the immenfe farcophagus lately dug up
from under the temple of Bacchus without
the walls, cut out of one folid piece of red
porphyry, has fuch gay ornaments round it,
relative to the facrifices of Bacchus, &c. ; and
I fancy thefe ftone coffins, if we may call
them fo, were often made ready and fold to
any perfon who wifhed to bury their friend,
and who.chofe fome fiery reprefenting the
triumph of whatever deity they devoted
themfelves to. Were the modern inhabitants
of Rome who venerate St. Lorenzo, St.
Sebaftiano, &c. to place,, not uncharadlerifti-
caliy at all a gridiron, or an arrow on their
tombftone, it might puzzle fucceeding anti-
quarians, and yet be nothing out of the way
in the leaft.
Of the Egyptian obelifks at Rome I will
not ftrive to give any account, or even any
idea. They are too numerous, too wonder-
ful, too learned for me to talk about ; but I
muft
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 405
inuft not forbear to mention the broken
thing which lies down fomewhere in a heap
of rubbifh, and is laid to be the greateft rarity
in Rome, column, or obeli/k, and the greateft
antiquity furely, if 1630 years before the
birth of Chrift be its date ; as that was but
two centuries after the invention of letters by
Memnon 9 and juft about the time that Jofeph
the favourite of Pharaoh died. There is a
fphinx upon it, however, mighty clearly
exprefled ; and fome one faid, how ftrange it
was, if the world was no older than we think
it, that they mould, in fo early a ftage of
exiftence, reprefent, or even imagine to them-
felves a compound animal*": though the chi-
msera came in play when the world was
pretty young too, and the Prophet Ifaiah
(peaks of centaurs ; but that was long after
even Hefiod's time.
A modern traveller has however, with
much ingenuity of conjecture, given us an
* The ornaments of the ark and tabernacle exhibit
much improvement in the arts of engraving, carvingj
&c. -Nor did it feem to coft Aaron any trouble to make
a caft of Apis in the Wildernefs for the Ifraelites' amufe-
ment, 1491 years before Chrift; while the dog Anubis
was probably another figure with which Mofes was not
unacquainted, and that was certainly compofite : a cy-
.nocephalus I believe.
D d 3 excellent
4 c6 OBSERVATIONS IN A
excellent reafon why the Sphinx was pecu-
liar to Egypt, as the Nile was obferved to
overflow when the fun was in thofe figns of
the Zodiack :
The lion virgin Sphinx, which {hows
. What time the rich Nile overflows.
A'nd lure I think, as people lived longer then
than they do now ; as Mofes was contem-
porary with Cecrops, fo that monarchy and
a fettled form of government had begun to
obtain footing in Greece, and apparently mi-
grated a little weftward even then ; that this
column might have employed the artifts of
thofe days, without any fuch exceeding
ftretch of probability as our modern Arifto-
telians ftudy to make out, from their zeal
to eftablim Lis doctrine of the world's eternity.
While, if conjecture were once as liberally
permitted to believers as it is generoufly
afforded to fcepticks, I know not whether a
hint concerning Sphinx's original might not
be deduced from old Ifrael's laft blefiing to
his fons ; The lion of Judah^ with the head
of a virgin^ in whofe offspring that lion was one
day to fink and be loft, except his hinder parts ;
might naturally enough grow into a favourite
emblem among the inhabitants of a nation
who
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 407
who owed their exiftence to one of the
family ; and who would be ftill more in-
clined to commemorate the myftical blefling,
if they obferved the fructifying inundation to
happen regularly, as Mr. Savary fays, when
the Sun left Leo for Virgo.
The broken pillar has however carried me
too far perhaps, though every day pafTed in
the Pope's Mufxum confirms my belief, nay
certainty, that they did mingle the veneration
of Jofeph with that of their own gods : The
bufhel or meafure of corn on the Egyptian
Jupiter's head is a proof of it, and the name
Serapis, a further corroboration : the dream
which he explained for Pharaoh relative to
the event that fixed his favour in that coun-
try, was expreffed by cattle ; and for apu^
the oxs head^ was perfectly applicable to him
for every reafon.
But we will quit mythology for the Corfo.
This is the firft town in Italy I have arrived
at yet, where the ladies fairly drive up and
down a long flreet by way of fhewing their
drefs, equipages, &c. without even a pre-
tence of taking freih air. At Turin the view
from the place deftined to this amufement,
would tempt one out merely for its own
fake j and at Milan they drive along a planted
D d 4 walk,
4 o8 OBSERVATIONS IN A
walk, at leaft a (tone's throw beyond the
gates. Bologna calls its ferious inhabitants to
a little rifmg ground, whence the profpedt is
luxuriantly verdant and imiling. The Lucca
baftions are beyond all in a peculiar ftyle of
miniature beauty ; and even the Florentines,
though lazy enough, creep out to Porto St.
Gallo. But here at Roma la Santa, the ftreet
is all our Corfo ; a fine one doubtlefs, and
called the Strada del Popolo^ with infinite
propriety, for except in that ftrada there
is little populoufnefs enough God knows.
Twelve men to a woman even 'there, and as
many ecclefiaftics to a lay-man : all this
however is fair, when celibacy is once en-
joined as a duty in one profeffion, encou-
raged as a virtue in all. Where females are
fuperfluous, and half prohibited, it were as
foolifh to complain of the decay of popula-
tion, as it was comical in Omai the South
American favage, when he lamented that
no cattle bred upon their ifland ; and one of
our people replying, That they left fome
beafts on purpofe to furnim them ; he an-
fwered, " Yes, but the idol worihipped at
Bola-bola, another of the iflands, iniifted on
the males and females living feparate : fo
they
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 409
they had fent him the cows, and kept only the
bulls at home."
Au refte, as the French fay, we muft not
be too fure that all who drefs like Abates are
fuch. Many gentlemen wear black as the court
garb; many becaufe it is not coftly, and
many for reafons of mere convenience and
diflike of change.
I fee not here the attractive beauty which
caught my eye at Venice ; but the women at
Rome have a moft Juno-like carriage, and fill
up one's idea of Livia and Agrippina well
enough. The men have rounder faces than
one fees in other towns I think; bright,
black, and fomewhat prominent eyes, with
the fineft teeth in Europe. A ftory told me
this morning ftruck my fancy much ; of an
herb-woman, who kept a ftall here in the
market, and who, when the people ran out
flocking to fee the Queen of Naples as me
pafled, began exclaiming to her neighbours
" Ah) povera Roma ! tempo fu quando paffb
qui prigioniera la regina Zenobia ; altra cofa
arnica, robba tutta diverfa dlquejla rcginuccia*!'*
* " Ah, poor degraded Rome ! time was, my
dear, when the great Zenobia pafled through thefe ftreets
in chains ; anotherguefs figure from this little Queeney,
in good time !"
Acha-
4 io OBSERVATIONS IN A
A characteriftic fpeech enough ; but in this
town, unlike to every other, the things take
my attention all away from the people ; while,
in every other, the people have had much
more of my mind employed upon them, than
the things.
The arch of Conftantine, however, muft be
fpoken of ; the fooner, becaufe there is a con-
trivance at the top of it to conceal muficians,
which added, as it pafTed, to the noife and
gaiety of the triumph. Lord Scarfdale's back
front at Keddleftone exhibits an imitation of
this ftructure ; a motto, exprefJive of hofpi-
tality, filling up the part which, in the ori-
ginal, is adorned with the fiege of Verona,
that to me feems well done ; but Michael
Angelo carried off Trajan's head they tell us,
which had before been carried thither from
the arch of Trajan himfelf. The arch of Titus
Vefpafian ftruck me more than all the others
we have named though ; lefs for its being the
firft building in which the Compofite order of
architecture is made ufe of, among the num-
berlefs fabrics that furround one, than for the
evident completion of the prophecies which
it exhibits. Nothing can appear lefs injured
by time than the bas-reliefs, on one fide re-
prefenting
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 411
preferring the ark, and golden candlefticks ;
on the other, Titus himfelf, delight of human
kind, drawn by four horfes, his look at once
ferene and fublime. The Jews cannot endure,
I am told, to pafs under this arch, fo lively
is the annihilation of their government, and
utter extinction of their religion, carved upon
it. When reflecting on the continued cap-
tivity they have fuffered ever fmce this arch
was erected here at Rome, and which they
Hill fuffer, being ftrictly confined to their own
miferable Ghetto, which they dare not leave
without a mark upon their hat to diftinguim,
them, and are never permitted to ftir without
the walls, except in cuftody of fome one
whofe bufmefs it is to bring them back ; when
reflecting, I fay, on their forrows and punifti-
ments, one's heart half inclines to pity their
wretchednefs ; the dreadful recollection im-
mediately crofles one, that thefe are the direct
and lineal progeny of thofe very Jews who
cried out aloud " Let his blood be upon us y
and upon our children /" Unhappy race ! how
fweetly does St. Auftin fay of them " Li-
brarii nojln faftifunt^ quemadmodum folcnt //-
bros poft dominos ferre"
The
4 i2 OBSERVATIONS IN A
The area degli orefici is a curious thing
too, and worth obferving : the goldfmiths fet
it up in honour of Caracalla and Geta ; but
one plainly difcerns where poor Geta's head
has been carried off in one place, his figure
broken in another, apparently by Caracalla's
order. The building is of itfelf of little con-
fequence, but as a confirmation of hiftorical
truth.
The fountains of Rome mould have been
fpoken of long ago ; the number of them is
known to all though, and of their magnificence
words can give no idea. One print of the
Trevi is worth all the words of all the de-
fcribers together. Mofes ftriking the rock,
at another fountain, where water in torrents
tumble forth at the touch of the rod, has a
glorious effect, from the happinefs of the
thought, and an expreffion fo fuitable to the
fubjed. When I was told the ftory of Queen
Chriftina admiring the two prodigious foun-
tains before St. Peter's church, and begging
that they might leave off playing, becaufe me
thought them occafional, and in honour of her
arrival, not conftant and perpetual ; who
could help recollecting a fimilar tale told
about the Prince of Monaco, who was faid to
have
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 413
have exprefTed his concern, when he faw the
roads lighted up round London, that our king
fhould put himfelf to fo great an expence on
his account in good time ! thinking it a
temporary illumination made to receive him.
with diftinguifhed fplendour. Thefe anec-
dotes are very pretty now, if they are ftri&ly
true ; becaufe they fhevv the mind's petty
but natural difpofition, of reducing and at-
tributing all to felf: but if they are only in-
ventions, to raife the reputation of London
lamps, or Roman cafcades., one fcorns them ;
I really do hope, and half believe, that they
are true.
But I have been to fee the two Auroras of
Guido and Guercino. Villa Ludovifi con-
tains the laft, of which I will fpeak firft for
forty reafons the true one becaufe I like itbeft.
It is fo fenfible, fo poetical, fo beautiful. The
light increafes, and the figure advances to the
fancy : one expects Night to be waked before
one looks at her again, if ever one can be
prevailed upon to take one's eyes away. The
bat and owl are going foon to reft, and the
lamp burns more faintly as when day begins
to approach. The perfonification of Night is
wonderfully hit off. But Guercino isfucb a
painter !
414 OBSERVATIONS IN A
painter ! We were driving laft night to look
at the ColilTeo by moon-light there were a
few clouds juft to break the expanfe of azure
andfhew the gilding. I thought how like a fky
of Guercino's it was ; other painters remind
one of nature, but nature when moft lovely
makes one think of Guercino and his works.
The Rufpigliofi palace boafts the Aurora of
Guido both are ceilings, but this is not
rightly named fure. We fhould call it the
Phoebus, for Aurora holds only the fecond
place at bed : the fun is driving over her al-
moft ; it is a more luminous, a more grace-
ful, a more mowy picture than the other,
more univerfal too, exciting louder and of-
tener repeated praifes ; yet the other is fo dif-
criminated, fo tafteful, fo claffical ! We muft
go fee what Domenichino has done with the
fame fubjecl:.
I forget the name of the palace where it is
to be admired : but had we not feen the
others, one mould have faid this was divine.
It is a Phcebus again, this is ; not a bit of an
Aurora : and Truth is fpringing up from the
arms of Time to rejoice in the fun's broad
light. Her expreifion of tranfport at being
fet
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 415
fet free from obfcurity, is happy in an emi-
nent degree; but there are faults in her
form, and the Apollo has fcarcely dignity
enough in his. The horfes are beft in
Guido's picture : Aurora at the Villa Ludo-
vifi has but two ; they are very fpirited, but
it is the fpirit of three, not fix o'clock in a
fummer morning. Surely Thomfon had
been living under thefe two roofs when he
wrote fuch defcriptions as feem to have been
made on purpofe for them ; could any one
give a more perfect account of Guercino'p
performance than thefe words afford ?
The meek-ey'd morn appears, mother of dews s
At firft faint-gleaming in the dappled Eaft
Till far o'er sether fpreads the widening glow,
And from before the luftre of her face
White break the clouds away: with quicken'd
ftep
Brown Night retires, young Day pours in apace
And opens all the lawny profpecl: wide.
As for the Rufpigliofi palace I left thefe lines
in the room, written by the fame author, and
think them more capable than any defcrip-
tion I could make, of giving fome idea of
Guide's Phoebus.
While
41 6 OBSERVATIONS IN A
While yonder comes the powerful King of Day
Rejoicing in the Eaft -, the leflening cloud,
The kindling azure, and the mountains brow
Illum'd with fluid gold, his near approach
Betoken glad ; lo, now apparent all
He looks in boundlefs majefty abroad,
And fheds the fhining day.
So charming Thomfon wrote from his
lodgings at a milliner's in Bond-ftreet,
whence he feldom rofe early enough to fee
the fun do more than gliften on the oppoiing
windows of the ftreet : but genius, like truth,
cannot be kept down. So he wrote, and fo
they painted ! Ut piftura poefis.
The mufic is not in a ftate fo capital as we
left it in the north of Italy ; we regret Nar-
dini of Florence, Aleffandri of Venice, and
Ronzi of Milan ; and who that has heard
Signior Marched fmg, could ever hear a fuc-
ceflbr (for rival he has none), without
feeling total indifference to all their beft
endeavours ?
The converfations of Cardinal de Bernis
and Madame de Boccapaduli are what my
countrywomen talk moil of; but the Roman
ladies cannot endure 'perfumes, and faint
away even at an artificial rofe. I went but
once
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 417
once among them, when Memmo the Vene-
tian ambaflador did me the honour to intro-
duce mefomeivbere, but the converfation was
foon over, not fo my fhame ; when I per-
ceived all the company fhrink from me very
oddly, and flop their nofes with rue, which a
iervant brought to their affiftance on open
falvers. I was by this time more like to faint
away than they from confufion and diftrefs;
my kind protector informed me of the caufe ;
faid I had fome grains of marechale powder
in my hair perhaps, and led me out of the
aflembly ; to which no intreaties could prevail
on me ever to return, or make further at-
tempts to aflbciate with a delicacy fo very
fufceptible of offence.
Mean time the weather is exceedingly bad,
heavy, thick, and foggy as our own, for aught
I fee ; but fo it was at Milan too I well
remember : one's eye would not reach many
mornings acrofs the Naviglio that ran di-
rectly under our windows. For fine bright
Novembers we muft go to Conftantinople I
fancy ; certain it is that Rome will not
fupply them.
What however can make thefe Roman
ladies fly from odori fo, that a drop of laven-
VOL. I. E e der-
4 i& OBSERVATIONS IN A
der-waler in one's handkerchief, or a car-
nation in one's flomacher, is to throw them
all into convuliions thus ? Sure this is the
only inftance in which they forbear to
fabbncare fn Vantlco *, in their own phrafe i
the dames, of whom Juvenal delights to tell,
liked perfumes well enough if I remember ;
and Horace and Martial cry " Carpe rofas"
perpetually. Are the modern inhabitants
flill more refined than they in their refearches
after pleafure .? and are the prefent race of
ladies capable of increafmg, beyond that of
their anceftors, the keennefs of any corporea?
fenfe ? I fhbuld think not. Here are how-
ever amufements enough at Rome without
trying for their converfations.
The Barberini palace, whither I carried a
diffracting tooth-ach, amufed even that tor-
ture by the variety of its wonders. The
fleeping faun, praifed on from century to-
qentury, and never yet praifed enough ; fo
drunk, fo faft afleep, fo like a human body f
Modefty reproving Vanity, by Leonardo da
Vinci, fo totally beyond my expectation or
comprehenfion, great ! wife ! and fine f
* Build upon the old foundations.
Raphael's
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 419
Raphael's Miftrefs, painted by himfelf, and
copied by Julio Romano ; this picture gives
little fatisfadion though except from curio-
fity gratified, the woman is too coarfe.
Guide's Magdalen up ftairs, the famous
Magdalen, effacing every beauty, of foftnefs
mingled with diftrefs. A St. John too, by
dear Guercino, tranfcendent ! but fuch was
my anguifh the very rooms turned round :
I muft come again when lefs ill I believe.
Nothing can equal the naftinefs at one's
entrance to this magazine of perfection : but
the Roman nobles are not difgufted with all
forts of fcents it is plain ; thefe are not what
we mould call perfumes indeed, but certainly
tdori : of the fame nature as thofe one is
obliged to wade through before Trajan's Pil-
lar can be climbed.
That the general .appearance of a city
which contains fuch treafures mould be meau
and difgufting, while one literally often walks
upon granite, and tramples red porphyry
under one's feet, is one* of the greateft won-
ders to me, in a town of which the wonders
feem innumerable : that it fhould be nafty
beyond all telling, all endurance, with fuch
E e 2 . peren-
420 OBSERVATIONS Ift A
perennial ftreams of the pureft water libe-
rally difperfed, and triumphantly fcattered all
over it, is another unfathomable wonder :
that fo many poor fhould be iuffered to beg
in the ftreets, when not a hand can be got to
work in the fields, and that thofe poor ihould
be permitted to exhibit fights of deformity
and degradations of our fpecies to me unfeen
till now, at the mod foleinn moments, and
in churches where filver and gold, and richly-
arrayed priefts^ fcarcely fuffice to call off at-
tention from their fquallid miferies, I do not
try to comprehend. That the palaces which
tafte and expence combine to decorate fhould
look quietly on, while common paflengers
ufe their noble veflibules, nay flairs, for every
naufeous purpofe ; that princes whofe in-
comes equal thofe of our Dukes of Bedford
and Marlborough, fhould fuffer their fervants
to drefs other men's dinners for hire, or lend
out their equipages for a day's pleafuring,
and hang wet rags out of their palace win-
dows to dry, as at the mean habitation of a
pauper ; while looking in at thofe very win-
dows, nothing is to be feen but proofs of
opulence, and fcenes of fplendour, I will not
undertake
II
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 421
undertake to explain ; fure I am, that who-
ever knows Rome, will not condemn this
tbaucbc of it.
When I fpoke of their beggars, many not
unlike Salvator Rofa's Job at the Santa Croce
palace, I ought not to have omitted their
eloquence, and various talents. We talked to
a lame man one day at our own door, whofe
account of his illnefs would not have dif-
graced a medical profeflbr; fo judicious were
his fentiments, fo fcientific was his difcourfe.
The accent here too is perfectly pleafing, in-
telligible, and expreffive ; and I like their
cantilena vaftly.
The exceffive lenity of all Italian ftates
makes it dangerous to live among them ; a
feeming paradox, yet certainly moft true :
and whatever is evil in this way at any other
town, is worft at Rome; where thofe who
d-eferve hanging, enjoy almoft a moral cer-
tainty of never being hanged ; fo unwilling is
every body to detect the offender, and fo
numerous the churches to afford him pro-
tection if found out.
A man afked importunately in our ante-
chamber this morning for the padrone^
no names, and our fervants turned
E e 3 him
422 OBSERVATIONS IN A
him out. He went however only five doors
further, found a fick old gentleman fitting
in his lodging attended by a feeble fervant,
whom he bound, fluck a knife in the maf-
ter, rifled the apartments, and walked coolly
out again at noon- day : nor fhould we have
ever heard of fuch a trifle^ but that it hap-
pened juft by fo ; for here are no news-
papers to tell who is murdered, and nobody's
pity is excited, unlefs for the malefactor
when they hear he is caught.
But the Palazzo Farnefe is a more pleafmg
fpeculation ; the Hercules faces us entering ;
Guglielmo della Porta made his tegs I hear,
and when the real ones were found, his were
better : and Michael Angelo faid, it was not
worth rifquing the ftatue to try at reftoring
the old ones. There is another Hercules
Hands near, as a foil to Glycon's, I fuppofe ;
and the Italians tell you of our Mr. Sharp's
acutenefs in rinding fome fault till then un-
difcovered, a very flight one though, with
fome of the neck mufcles : they tell it ap-
provingly however, and make one admire
their candour, even beyond their Flora, who
carries that in her countenance which they
poffcfs in their hearts. Under a flied on the
right
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 423
right hand you find the famous groupe called
Toro Farnefe. It has been touched and re-
paired, they tell you, till much of the fpirit
is loft ; but I did not mifs it. The Bull and
the Brothers are greatnefs itfelf ; but Dirce
draws no compafTion by her looks fomehow,
and the lady who comes to her relief, feems
too cold a fpeclatrefs of the fcene.
There were feveral broken flatues in the
place, and while my companions were exa-
mining the groupe after I had done,
the wench's converfation who {hewed it
made my amufement: as we looked toge-
ther at an Egyptian Ifis^ or, as many call
her, the Ephefian Diana , with a hundred
breafts, very hideous, and fwathed about the
legs like a mummy at Cairo, or a baby at
Rome, I faid to the girl, " They ivorjljipped
thefe filthy things formerly before Jefns Chrlft
came-, but he taught us better ," added I, " and
ive are wifer now : how fooli/li 'was not if,
to pray to this ugly ' Jlone f" " The people
were wickeder then, very likely;" replied my
friend the wench, " but I do not fee that it
<Wiisfocl{/Jj at all"
Who fays the modern Romans are dege-
nerated ? I fwear I think them fo like their
E e 4 ancef-
424 OBSERVATIONS IN A
anceftors, that it is my delight to contemplate
the refemblance. A ftatue of a peafant car-
rying game at this very palace, is habited pre-r
cifely in the modern drefs, and Ihews how
very little change has yet been made. The
fhoes of the low fellows, too particularly at-
tract my notice: they exactly referable the
ancient ones, and when Perfms mentions his
ploughman peronatus arator r one fees he
would fay fo to-day.
The Dorian palace calls however, and peo-r
pie muft give way to things where the mira r
culous powers of Benvenuto Garofani are
concerned ; where Lodovico Caracci exhibits
a tefla del redtntore beyond all praife, uniting
every excellence, and exprefling every per-
fection ; where, in the deluge reprefented by
Bonati, one fees the eagle drooping from a,
xveight of rain, majefticinhis diftrefs, and look-
ing up to the luminous part of the picture as
if hoping to diicover fome ray of that fun he
never fliall fee again. How characteriftic !
how tafleful is the expreflion ! The famous
Virgin and Child too, fo often engraved and
copied.
I will run away from this Doria ; it is too
full of beauty it dazzles: and I will let
them
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 425
tliem fhew the pale green Gafpar Pouffins, fo
valuable, fo curious, to whom they pleafe,
while Nature and Claude content my fancy
and fill up every idea.
At the Colonna palace what have I remark-
ed .? That it poflefles the gayeft gallery be-
longing to any fubject upon earth : one hun-
dred and thirty-nine feet long, thirty-four
broad, and feventy high : profufely orna-
mented with pillars, pictures, ftatues, to a de-
gree of magnificence difficult to exprefs. The
Herodias here by Guido, is the perfection of
dancing grace. No Frenchman enters the
room that does not bear teftimony to its pecu-
liar excellence. But here's Guercino's fweet
returning Prodigal, and here is a Madonna
dlfperata burfting as from a cavern to embrace
the body of her dead fon and faviour. Such
a Iky too ! But it is treating too theatrically a
iubject which impreffes one more at laft in
the fimple Pieta * d' Annibale Caracci at Palazzo
Dona.
One wonderfully-imagined picture by An-
drea Sacchi, of Cain flying from the fight of
his murdered brother, mall alone detain me
from mentioning here at Rome what certainly
* The Chrift in his mother's lap, after crucifixion, is
always called in Italy a Pieta.
would
426 OBSERVATIONS IN A
would never have been thought on by Eng-
lifhmen had it remained at Windfor ; no
other than our old King Charles's cabinet,
fold to the Colonna family by Cromwell, and
fet about in the old-fafhioned way with gems,
cameos, &c. one of which has been ftolen.
And now to the Borghefe,whichl am told is
for a time to finifh my fatigues, as after three
days more we go to Naples. News perfectly
agreeable to me, who never have been well
here for two hours together.
All the great churches remain yet unvifited :
they are to be taken at our return in fpring ;
mean while I will go fee Mons Sacer in fpite
of connohTeurmip, though the place it feems
is nothing, and the profpect from it dull ;
but it produces thoughts, or what is next to
thought, recollection of books read, and
events related in one's early youth, when
names and flories make impreffion on a
mind not yet hardened by age, or contracted
by neceflary duty, fo as no longer to receive
with equal relifh the tales of other times.
The lake too, with the floating iflands, fhould
be mentioned ; the colour of which is even
blue with venom, and left a brafly tafte in
my mouth for a whole day, after only ob-
ferving how it boiled with rage on dropping
20 in
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 427
in a ftone, and incrufted a ftick with its tartar
in two minutes. One of our companions
indeed leaped upon the little fpots of ground
which float in it, and deferved to feel fome
effect of his rafhnefs ; but it is fufficient to
ftand near, I think ; one fcarcely can efcape
contagion. The fudden and violent powers
obiervable in this lake mould at leaft check
the computifts from thinking they can gather
the world's age from its petrefactions.
But we are called to the Vatican, where
the Apollo, Laocoon, Antinous, and Melea-
ger, with others of lefs diftinguifhed merit,
fuffer one to think on nothing but themfelves,
and of the artifts who framed fuch models of
perfection. Laocoon's agonies torment one.
I was forced to recollect the obfervation Dr.
Moore fays was firft made by Mr. Locke,
in order to harden my heart againft him who
appears to feel only for himfelf, when two
fuch youths are expiring clofe befide him.
But though painting can do much, and fculp-
ture perhaps more, at leaft one learnato think
fo here at Rome, the comfort is, that poetry
beats them both. Virgil knew, and Shake-
fpeare would have known, how to heighten
even
4 z8 OBSERVATIONS IN A
even this diftrefs, by adding paternal anguifh:
here is diftrefs enough however.
Let us once more acknowledge the mo-
cjefty and candour of Italians, when we re-
peat what has been fo often recorded, that
Michael Angelo refufed adding the arm that
was wanting to this chef d'ceuvre : and wheq.
Bernini undertook the tafk, he begged it
might remain always a different colour, that
he might not be fufpected of hoping that his
work could ever lie confounded with that of
the Greek artift.
Such is not the fpirit of the French : they
have been always adding to Don Quixote !
a perfonage whofe adventures were little likely
to crofs one's fancy in the Vatican ; but per-
fection is perfection.
Here ftands the Apollo though, in whom
alone no fault has yet been found. They
tell you, he has juft killed the ferpent Python.
" Let us beg of him," fays one of the com-
pany, " juft to turn round and demolifh
thofe curfed makes which are devouring the
poor old man and his boys yonder. This was
like the fpeech,. of Marches, done to the fine
bronze horfe under the heavenly ftatue of
Marcus Aurelius at the Capitol, and made me
hope
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 4,29
hope that ftory might be true. It is the fafhion
for every body to go fee Apollo by torch
light : he looks like Phtebus then, the Sun's
bright deity, and feems to fay to his admirers,
as that Divinity does to the prefumptuous
hero in Homer,
Oh fon of Tydeus, ceafe ! be wife, and fee
How vafl the difference 'twixt the gods and thee.
Indeed every body finds the remark obvi-
ous, that this ftatue is of beauty and dignity
beyond what human nature now can boaft;
and the Meleager juft at hand, with the Anti-
nous, confirm it ; for all elegance and all ex-
preffion, unpofleffed by the Apollo, they have y
while none can mifs the inferiority of their
general appearance to his.
The Mufeum Clementinum is altogether
fuch though, that thefe fingularly excellent
productions of art are only proper and well-
adapted ornaments of a gallery, fo ftately
as, on the other hand, that noble edifice feems
but the due repofitory of fuch inhabitants.
Never were place and decorations fo adapted :
never perhaps was fo refined a tafte engaged
on fubjects fo worthy its exertion. The fta-
tues
43 o OBSERVATIONS IN A
tues are difpofed with a propriety that charrris
one ; the fituation of the pillars fo contrived,
the colours of them fo chofen to carry the
eye forward not fatigue it ; the rooms fo
illuminated : Hagley park is not laid out with
more judicious attention to diverfify, and re-
lieve with various objects a mind delighting
in the contemplation of ornamented nature ;
than is. the Pope's Mufseum calculated to en-
chain admiration, and fix it in thofe apart-
ments where fublimity and beauty have efta-
blifhed their refidence ; and thofe would be
worfe than Goths, who could think of mov-
ing even an old torfo from the place where
Pius Sextus has commanded it to remain.
The other parts of this prodigious flructure
would take up one's life almoft to fee com-
pletely, to remember diftindly, and to de-
fcribe accurately. When the reader recollects
that St. Peter's, with all its appurtenances)
palace, library, mufceum, every thing that
we include in the word Vatican , is faid by the
Romans to occupy an equal quantity of
fpace, to that covered by the city of Turin :
the aflertion need not any longer be thought;
hyperbolical,
I will
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 431
I will fay no more about it till at our re-
turn from Naples we vifit all the churches.
Vopifcus faid, that the ftatues in his time
at Rome out-numbered the people ; and I
truft the remark is now almoft doubly true,
as every day and hour digs up dead worthies,
and the unwholefome weather muft furely
fend many of the living ones to their ancef-
tors : upon the whole, the men and women
of Porphyry, &c. pleafe me beft, as they do
not handle long knives to fo good an effect as
the others do, " qui alme blen a s*egorger en-
core*" f avs a French gentleman of them the
other day. There is however an air of cheer-
fulnefs in the ftreets at a night among the
poor, who fry fifh, and eat roots, faufages,
&c. as they walk about gaily enough, and
though they quarrel too often, never get drunk
at leaft.
The two houfes belonging to the Borghefe
family fhall conclude my firft journey to
Rome, and with that the firft volume of my
obfervations and reflections.
Their town palace is a fuite of rooms con-
ftructed like thofe at Wanftead exactly ; and
where you turn at the end to come back by
* Who have ftill a tafte to be cut-throats.
another
432 OBSERVATIONS IN A
another fuite, you find two alabafter fountains
of fuperior beauty, and two glafs luftres made
in London, but never wiped fince they left
Fleet-ftreet certainly. They do not. however
'want cleaning as the fountains do; which j
by the extraordinary ufe made of them, give
the whole palace an ofFenfive fmell.
Among the pictures here, the entombing our
blefled Saviour by Rafaelle is moll praifed :
it is fuppofed indeed wholly ineftimable, and
I believe is fo, while Venus, binding Cupid's
eyes, by Titian, engraved by Strange, is poffi-
bly one of the pleafanteft pictures in Rome.
The Chrift difputing with the Doctors is ini-
mitable, one of the wonderful works of Leo-
nardo da Vinci : but here is Domenichino's
Diana among her nymphs, very laboured, and
very learned. Why did it put me in mind of
Hogarth's (trolling adtrefles dreflmg in a barn ?
Villa Borghefe prefents more to one's mind
at once than it will bear, from the bas relief of
Curtius over the door that faces you going in, to
the laft gate of the garden you drive out at ;
large as the faloon is however, the figure of Cur-
tius feems too near you ; and the horfe's hind
quarters are heavy, and ill-fuited to the forehand ;
but
JOURNEY THROUGH ITALY. 433
but here are men and women enough, and
odd things that are neither, at this houfe 5 fo
we may let the horfe of Curtius alone.
Nothing can be gayer or more happily ex-
prefTed in its way than the Centaur, which
Dr. Moore, like Dr. Young, finds not fabu-
lous; while the brute runs away with the
man, and Cupid keeps urging him forward*
The fawn nurfing Bacchus when a baby, is
another femi-hu man figure of juft and high
eftimation ; and that very famous compofition
for which Cavalier Bernini has executed a
mattrefs infinitel 
