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 EIGHTEENTH CENTURT 
 
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MARIE-THÉRÈSE OF AUSTRIA, DAUGHTER 
 
 OF CHARLES VI AND EiMPRESS 
 
 OF GERMANY 
 
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 EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 
 
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 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Although Mr. Swinburne's career was not dis- 
 tinguished by any of those remarkable incidents, 
 vicissitudes or adventures, which give interest to the 
 lives of mariners, soldiers, and explorers of distant 
 regions, it is desirable that the reader should be made 
 acquainted with the outline of his history, as well 
 as with the circumstances that gave rise to the corre- 
 spondence which I have undertaken to lay before the 
 public. 
 
 I shall commence, therefore, by stating that Henry 
 Swinburne first saw the light in May, 1752, and that 
 he was the third son of Sir John Swinburne, Bart., of 
 Capheaton, in the county of Northumberland, and 
 the youngest child of a numerous and very ancient 
 Catholic family. After receiving the first elements of 
 an excellent education under the superintendence of 
 his parents, Mr. Swinburne was sent to complete his 
 studies at the monastic seminary of Lacelle, in France. 
 There he made rapid progress in ancient and modem 
 languages, in history, philosophy and the belles lettres 
 
X INTRODUCTION 
 
 and, moreover, greatly improved his natural taste for 
 painting and the fine arts. Thus he was subsequently 
 enabled, not only to enrich the literature of his coun- 
 try with two productions that rendered his name con- 
 spicuous amongst the travellers of the last century, 
 but to execute an extensive series of drawings, as 
 remarkable for their accuracy as for their beauty of 
 design.^ 
 
 By the death of his eldest brother, Mr. Swinburne 
 came into the possession of an annuity, as well as a 
 small estate at Hamsterley, in the county of Durham ; 
 which, added to his own patrimony, placed him in 
 independent, though not in very wealthy, circumstances. 
 He therefore determined to avail himself of an opportu- 
 nity which occurred at that period, for making what was 
 called the *' grand tour," and proceeded to visit Turin, 
 Genoa, Florence and other parts of Italy. After im- 
 proving his classical knowledge and taste for antiquities 
 by a careful examination of the pictures, statues and 
 splendid relics of architecture which he encountered 
 during his travels, and having perfected himself in 
 drawing and in the language of the divine AUeghieri, 
 he bade a temporary adieu to Italy, and retraced his 
 steps, by way of Paris, towards his native land. 
 
 A circumstance occurred to him, however, ere he 
 reached the end of his journey, which not only delayed 
 
 I These drawings are in the possession of his daughter, Mrs. 
 R. Walker, late of Mitchel Grove, Sussex. 
 
INTRODUCTION XI 
 
 his progress, but influenced the destinies of his future 
 life; for it happened, during his passage through the 
 French capital, that he met with, and became tenderly 
 attached to, a Miss Baker, daughter of the then Solicitor- 
 General for the West Indies. This young lady, with 
 whom he became acquainted at the house of Lady 
 Webb, to whose superintendence she had been en- 
 trusted, was at that time placed for her education at 
 the convent of Ursuline Nuns — an establishment not 
 only in great repute amongst the French nobility, but 
 frequented by many young English and Irish ladies of 
 the most distinguished Catholic families. To the ad- 
 vantages of considerable personal beauty, graceful man- 
 ners, and a highly cultivated mind, Miss Baker added 
 the attraction of a good fortune ; so that she no sooner 
 made her appearance in Lady Webb's salons, than she 
 became an object of general attention, and, indeed, 
 received several flattering matrimonial oflers. Amongst 
 other persons of note who courted her smiles was 
 Charles Howard, subsequently Duke of Norfolk. 
 
 Diflering from the generality of the female sex in 
 her views ot the qualifications and ingredients ne- 
 cessary to insure worldly and domestic happiness, 
 Miss Baker was neither dazzled by the seductive 
 allurements of rank, nor biased by those of wealth. 
 Having been as much struck by the pleasing exterior, 
 interesting conversation and superior endowments of 
 young Swinburne, as he was fascinated by the beauty, 
 
XÎÎ INTRODUCTION 
 
 grace and intellectual powers of the fair West Indian, 
 she soon gave him to understand that his attentions 
 were not disagreeable, and at length rewarded his 
 assiduities by conferring upon him her hand and 
 fortune. 
 
 This marriage, which promised and ensured so 
 much felicity to both, had not been solemnised many 
 days ere Mr. Swinburne removed with his bride to 
 England, and, after a short stay in the metropoHs, 
 proceeded to his estate in the county of Durham. 
 There the young couple remained for some time, 
 either occupying themselves with those studies that 
 were so congenial to the tastes and talents of both, 
 or devoting themselves to the embellishment of the 
 house and grounds at Hamsterley. Indeed, the latter 
 soon became remarkable for being the most picturesque 
 and well laid out of any in that part of the country, 
 as they combined the classic precision of the Italian 
 style with the more wild and sylvan boldness of Eng- 
 lish park scenery. 
 
 Although few persons were more fully competent 
 to comprehend and value the tranquil enjoyments of 
 that retired and independent life so justly lauded by 
 Horace, so beautifully described by Cowley, it appears 
 that Mr. and Mrs. Swinburne had not long resided at 
 Hamsterley ere they became desirous of a change. 
 This arose partly from a mutual anxiety to increase 
 their store of knowledge by travelling ; partly from 
 
INTRODUCTION xiii 
 
 that restlessness and craving after locomotion, which 
 is, perhaps, a distinctive characteristic of the EngHsh 
 nation; and partly from their being disappointed in 
 not finding the slightest sympathy or congeniality of 
 taste and occupation amongst their country neigh- 
 bours. 
 
 The contrast between Mr. and Mrs. Swinburne 
 and the generality of their provincial acquaintances 
 was, in fact, most antipodal; for, whilst the former 
 almost exclusively devoted themselves to the cultiva- 
 tion of literature and the arts, the latter thought of 
 little else than that of corn or turnips, unless, indeed, it 
 were the pursuit of foxes. But the evil did not termi- 
 nate there ; for, as usual with provincial sportsmen, 
 they were not content with hunting all day, but most 
 unmercifully persisted in resuming, or rather recapitu- 
 lating, all the incidents of the chase over the bottle, 
 until the bottle eventually treated them as they had 
 treated Reynard, and ran them to ground beneath the 
 table; for it was considered in those days as dis- 
 creditable for a true fox-hunter to retire to his couch 
 sober, as it is now unseemly in a well-bred sportsman 
 to over-indulge in his cups. 
 
 But though Mr. Swinburne bore no share in the 
 roystering wind-up of the north-country Nimrods' even- 
 ings, he was not reluctant to participate, now and 
 then, in the manly pleasures of their mornings. He, 
 therefore, had less reason to complain of a want of 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 society than his wife, who found Httle enjoyment in 
 that of her female acquaintances. These ladies, whose 
 whole time and thoughts were absorbed in the per- 
 formance of their maternal and domestic duties, and 
 whose conversation rarely soared beyond the small 
 gossip of the adjoining parishes, attached little merit 
 to the possession of those accomplishments that dis- 
 tinguished IMrs. Swinburne. They were, in fact, as 
 little able to comprehend or estimate her talents as 
 she was to appreciate the skill with which they 
 executed those pickle and preserve accomplishments 
 that constituted the glory of a north-country house- 
 wife. It was, therefore, with no sUght satisfaction 
 that Mrs. Swinburne assented to her husband's pro- 
 posal that they should return to the Continent and 
 proceed to Italy, after visiting the south of France. 
 
 When two persons are united, not only by the 
 tenderest ties of affection, but by the utmost uni- 
 formity of tastes, studies and mental endowments — 
 when no difference exists between them, save in the 
 diversity of their acquirements ; when no desire 
 animates the one, save that of drawing forth and 
 exhibiting in the most favourable light the talents 
 and accomplishments of the other — and especially 
 when fortune has placed them in a situation where 
 they can gratify their inclinations — Httle time is re- 
 quired for preliminary discussion or preparation. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Swinburne were not long, therefore, ere 
 
INTRODUCTION XV 
 
 they concluded their domestic arrangements, and com- 
 menced those travels which furnished matter for his 
 valuable descriptions of Spain and Italy, as well as 
 for the following series of letters. These latter, 
 as will be seen, were principally addressed to his 
 brother, Sir Edward Swinburne, with whom he always 
 lived upon terms of the most cordial and fraternal 
 affection. 
 
 It is almost superfluous to dwell upon the merits 
 of the two productions above mentioned, or to recapitu- 
 late the praises that were bestowed upon them by 
 the critics of the day. I shall, nevertheless, observe 
 that these publications raised his name to a high place 
 as an antiquarian, philosopher and scholar, both at 
 home and abroad, and that they were commended by 
 men whose encomiums are of no ordinary weight. 
 
 Two of the authorities to whom I allude, are Mr. 
 Eustace and the Baron de Grimm. The former thus 
 speaks of Mr Swinburne in his " Classical Tour " : 
 " I quote this traveller with pleasure, because my 
 observations enable me to bear testimony to his accu- 
 racy." The second, in his ** Correspondence Littéraire," 
 holds the following still more complimentary language : 
 "Tous les voyages d'Italie connus," says Mons. de 
 Grimm, "ne m'empêcheront point de lire encore 
 celui-ci avec plaisir. Il a voyagé en philosophe et en 
 littérateur. Ses observations éclaircissent très heureuse- 
 ment plusieurs passages des auteurs anciens, et son 
 
XVI INTRODUCTION 
 
 ouvrage mérite la réconnaissance de tous ceux qui 
 s'appliquent à l'étude de l'antiquité." 
 
 Although this flattering eulogium was, of course, 
 solely intended for Mr. Swinburne, it is but fair to 
 observe that his wife was entitled to some participa- 
 tion in it ; for it appears that her husband was 
 accustomed, not only to consult her opinions previous 
 to commencing his literary labours, but that he sub- 
 mitted his manuscripts to her inspection during the 
 process of composition, and unhesitatingly followed her 
 suggestions and corrections. In fact, no woman could 
 have been better adapted for the companion of a scholar 
 and man of science than Mrs. Swinburne. In addition 
 to a competent knowledge of Greek and Latin, by 
 which she was enabled to peruse the best classic 
 authors in their original garb, she was mistress of 
 several modern languages ; she was an excellent mu- 
 sician, and though no practical artist, she was endowed 
 with no common tact and intuitive purity of taste, in 
 all matters concerned with the schools of painting and 
 sculpture. She was remarkable for her good sense, 
 sound judgment and quickness of perception, and 
 possessed, moreover, that just and comprehensive coup 
 d'œil which is so essential for the ready intelligence 
 of the arts. But if Mrs. Swinburne was eminent 
 for these endowments, she was not less distinguished 
 for her diffident and unpresuming manners, and for a 
 total absence of that pedantry and overweening vanity, 
 
INTRODUCTION XVll 
 
 which are too often observable among women who 
 lay claim, or who are really entitled, to the reputation 
 of superior intellect. 
 
 After quitting the north of England, Mr. and Mrs. 
 Swinburne directed their steps to Paris, and thence 
 to Bordeaux, where they passed the winter of 1776, 
 with their relatives the Dillons, with whom they were 
 closely allied by the marriage of Mademoiselle de Dillon 
 with Sir E. Swinburne. From Bordeaux they removed 
 to the Pyrenees, where they were joined by their friend, 
 Sir Thomas Gascoigne, who urged Mr. Swinburne to 
 accompany him on a tour through Spain. The only 
 motive that prevented the latter from immediately ac- 
 cepting this proposition was his reluctance to separate 
 himself from his wife. Finding, however, that he 
 should be able to establish Mrs. Swinburne and her 
 infants in an agreeable and convenient house near 
 Tarbes, and seeing also that she was extremely loath 
 that he should let slip the favourable opportunity of 
 visiting a country so little known to the public, and 
 so badly described by previous travellers, he yielded 
 to Sir Thomas's request, and in a short time the two 
 friends traversed the Eastern Pyrenees and proceeded 
 to Barcelona. 
 
 Following the shores of the Mediterranean from 
 the ancient Saguntum (Mur\'iedro) down to those of 
 the no less celebrated Alhambra, Sir Thomas and his 
 companion visited all the remarkable places that are 
 
 VOL. I b 
 
XVUl INTRODUCTION 
 
 scattered throughout those beautiful and once chival- 
 rous countries. Then leaving behind them the Sierra 
 Nevada, and the relics of the Abencerrages, they pro- 
 ceeded to Malaga, and thence to the shores of the 
 Atlantic, where they passed a few days in examining 
 the beauties of Cadiz and the warlike marvels of 
 Gibraltar. Having satisfied their curiosity at these two 
 places, they retraced their steps northward by Seville, 
 Cordova, and Andujar, to Madrid, whence they pro- 
 ceeded to Aranjuez, where they met with great atten- 
 tion from the Spanish Court. After a sojourn of some 
 days at this royal residence, the travellers once more 
 turned their steps towards the Pyrenees, and having 
 re-entered France by St. Jean de Luz, in due time 
 reached Tarbes, where Mr. Swinburne immediately 
 busied himself in arranging the materials which formed 
 the groundwork of his first publication. 
 
 Having prepared his manuscripts for the Press 
 and forwarded them to England, he removed with his 
 family to Marseilles, where he took ship for Naples, 
 intending, in the event of his first literary labours 
 proving successful, to extend his travels, and eventually 
 to give the result of his observations to the public in 
 a second publication. Having been furnished with 
 letters of introduction from persons of the highest 
 rank at Madrid to those of the greatest eminence at 
 the Court of Ferdinand IV., the Swinburnes received 
 the most flattering marks of attention, not only from 
 
INTRODUCTION XIX 
 
 the Neapolitan nobility, but from the King and Queen 
 of the Two Sicilies. Indeed, the latter appears to 
 have imbibed sentiments of great personal regard for 
 Mrs. Swinburne, as was proved not only by numerous 
 acts of kindness, but by autograph letter, expressive 
 of Her Majesty's friendly feelings. 
 
 Sicily being at that period little known to the 
 English public, save through the inaccurate work of 
 Brydone, Mr. Swinburne resolved to avail himself of 
 its vicinity, and to pass a few weeks in exploring the 
 relics of its ancient grandeur. Having procured letters 
 of introduction to the most distinguished civil and 
 ecclesiastical authorities, he embarked for Palermo, 
 visited the most interesting portions of the island, and, 
 after enriching his collection of notes and drawings, 
 returned to Naples, where he had left his wife and 
 children. From Naples, Mr. Swinburne extended his 
 exciirsions to Rome, Florence and Pisa; and having 
 completed the manuscript of his travels, he determined 
 to proceed to England for the purpose of superintending 
 its passage through the Press, as well as with the view 
 of looking to his affairs in the north. 
 
 During Mr. Swinburne's visit to his native country, 
 he was led to believe that if he were to return home 
 with his family, the Government would not feel adverse 
 to avail themselves of his talents by conferring upon 
 him some diplomatic or official situation. He therefore 
 rejoined Mrs. Swinburne as soon as his new publication 
 
XX INTRODUCTION 
 
 was ushered into the world, and, bidding adieu to 
 Naples, directed his steps northwards. The kindness 
 of Her Sicilian Majesty was manifested on this occa- 
 sion by furnishing them with letters of presentation 
 to her mother, the Empress Marie Thérèse, who, as 
 well as the Emperor Joseph, exhibited every mark of 
 kindness towards them during their short residence at 
 Vienna. Indeed, the former appears to have been so 
 well pleased with Mrs. Swinburne, that she conferred 
 upon her the order of the " Croix étoilée," an honour 
 the more remarkable, since Her Imperial Majesty, in 
 giving this decoration to a commoner, derogated from 
 the statutes of the order, which limit the admission 
 to women of noble birth, actually proving their six- 
 teen quarters.^ 
 
 From Vienna our travellers proceeded to Frank- 
 fort, Aix-la-Chapelle and Brussels, and thence to 
 England, where they had not long arrived ere they 
 received accounts that the whole of their property in 
 the West Indies had been devastated and utterly laid 
 waste by the French and Caribs. By this misfortune 
 Mr. Swinburne lost the whole of the fortune which 
 he received with his wife. This occurred, too, at a 
 time when a largely increasing family rendered the 
 loss doubly painful ; and there appeared little prospect 
 
 I An account of the origin of this female order will be found 
 in a subsequent note. 
 
INTRODUCTION xxi 
 
 of his obtaining indemnity, either from the French 
 Government or from his own. 
 
 Nevertheless, as the negotiations for the general 
 peace, subsequently signed at Versailles in September, 
 1783, were far advanced, he resolved to proceed to 
 Paris, and to lay his case before the French Govern- 
 ment ; trusting less, however, to the justice of the 
 latter, than to the generous protection of Marie Antoi- 
 nette, for whom he was furnished with letters of intro- 
 duction from her sister, the Queen of the Two Sicilies, 
 from her mother, the Empress Marie Thérèse, and 
 from her brother, the Emperor Joseph. Nor was he 
 disappointed, for the ill-fated Queen, who was then in 
 the zenith of her power, not only promised him her 
 mediation, but acted with so much energy and kind- 
 ness, that she procured for him a grant of all the 
 uncultivated Crown lands in the Island of St. Vincent, 
 as an indemnification for the valuable property which 
 had been devastated. This grant was recorded and ac- 
 knowledged in the treaty of peace, and thence assumed 
 the character of a sacred international act. 
 
 The value of the lands granted to Mr. Swinburne 
 was estimated at ;f 30,000 ; but Mr. Pitt, who was then 
 premier, no sooner saw the island in which they were 
 situated transferred to Great Britain, than he offered 
 Mr. Swinburne half that sum. This ofifer, being utterly 
 inadequate, was rejected, and unfortunately, as the 
 sequel will show ; for the Government being then sore 
 
XXÎi INTRODUCTION 
 
 pressed for money, Mr. Pitt brought a Bill into Parlia- 
 ment, the purport of which was to impose such heavy 
 taxes upon all uncultivated lands in the West Indies, 
 as would compel their possessors to abandon them to the 
 Government at a comparatively insignificant price. The 
 proportion of these lands being greater in St. Vincent 
 than in the other islands, the principal weight of this 
 Bill fell upon Mr. Swinburne. But remonstrances were 
 vain ; the measure passed, and the Government obtained 
 for ;f 6,500 property valued at nearly five times that sum. 
 
 The hardship of this case was considered so flagrant, 
 that Mr. Swinburne was recommended to petition the 
 House of Commons. But he wisely declined taking this 
 step, well knowing that a private individual has no 
 chance of success if he attempts to bring any measure 
 before the Legislature, the object of which is to prove 
 that the ministry have been guilty of, or that the House 
 has sanctioned, an act of spoliation. Mr. Swinburne 
 submitted, therefore, to his fate with as much philosophy 
 as possible, and retired to his small property in the north, 
 where he devoted himself to the education of his eldest 
 son and daughter.* 
 
 There is, of course, little in the ordinary routine 
 of an English country gentleman's existence, no matter 
 how intellectual or talented he may be, that can afford 
 subject of interest to the biographer ; but it appears that 
 
 I The latter married Mr. Paul Benfield. 
 
INTRODUCTION XXIU 
 
 Mr. Swinburne's domestic life presented so fair a picture 
 of tranquil ease and enlightened enjoyment, and the 
 system of education pursued by him with his children 
 combined so many moral and material advantages, 
 that it made a deep impression upon the mind of the 
 Marquis Ducrest, brother to Madame de Genlis, who 
 paid a visit to Hamsterley during the course of the 
 year 1787. Indeed, such was the captivating report 
 made of it by M. Ducrest to his sister, that, according 
 to her own acknowledgment, she founded her well- 
 known work " Les Veillées du Château " upon his 
 description. I must here observe that the Swinburnes 
 had made the acquaintance of the Marquis Ducrest 
 and Madame de Sillery (Genlis), during their first visit 
 to Paris in 1776, and afterwards continued upon terms 
 of the most intimate fiiendship with that celebrated 
 woman, with whom they maintained a most interesting 
 correspondence during many years. 
 
 In the meantime the Queen of France was not 
 backward in expressing profound regret that her kind 
 intentions should have proved so little beneficial to the 
 Swinburnes. In order to give them a further proof 
 of the gracious sympathy she felt upon the occasion, 
 she desired them to be informed that, if they felt dis- 
 posed to proceed to Paris, in order to make personal 
 application for further indemnification, she should be 
 ready to support their claims with all her influence. 
 Upon receiving this information, the Swinburnes again 
 
XXIV INTRODUCTION 
 
 removed with their family to the French capital, 
 where they remained until the eve of that direful 
 convulsion which inundated France with innocent 
 blood, and soon carried war and desolation through- 
 out the rest of Europe. 
 
 Whatever might have been the good intentions of 
 Marie Antoinette, they were unfortunately frustrated 
 by the rapid development and predominance of those 
 subversive and sanguinary principles which soon 
 dragged her down from the pinnacle of royal gran- 
 deur, happiness and popularity, to the utmost abyss 
 of human misery and degradation — a contrast the more 
 hideous from the rank and sex of the innocent victim, 
 and a consummation the more monstrous from the 
 devilish and brutal insults heaped upon the royal victim. 
 
 However, although the power once possessed by 
 Marie Antoinette had so decreased as to render it 
 impossible for her to obtain any pecuniary grant or 
 indemnification for Mr. and Mrs. Swinburne, she 
 evinced her kindness towards them, before their re- 
 turn to England, by directing their eldest son to be 
 enrolled amongst the royal pages, and placed under 
 the especial care of the Prince de Lambesc. This 
 was a favour that had never before been conferred 
 upon any Englishman, and was the more valuable 
 since the utmost care was bestowed upon the educa- 
 tion of all these youths, who, as may be supposed, 
 appertained to the noblest and most distinguished 
 
INTRODUCTION XXV 
 
 families, and who were subsequently provided for, 
 either in the military or civil household. 
 
 Young Henry Swinburne was not destined to 
 reap any of the ulterior advantages of this situation; 
 for the aspect of affairs soon became so alarming, 
 and the perils of all those persons attached to the 
 royal household were so imminent, that it was con- 
 sidered advisable for him to return to England. Nor 
 could he effect this entirely unscathed; for, having 
 been involved in an affray which took place at one 
 of the theatres, between a party of Royalists and 
 demagogues, he received a severe wound in his head, 
 and nearly paid the price of his attachment to the 
 Court by the sacrifice of his life. 
 
 Being aware of the advantage that he himself 
 had derived from travelling and an extensive inter- 
 course with the world, Mr. Swinburne resolved that 
 his son, who was a youth of remarkable promise, 
 should participate in similar benefits. Consequently, 
 as soon as the groundwork of his education was con- 
 cluded, young Swinburne was despatched into Italy, 
 under the care of the Abbé Campbell, a highly- 
 respectable Catholic clergyman. In due time the 
 worthy abbé and his charge reached Naples, where 
 they were joined by Mr. Pelham, afterwards Lord 
 Chichester, between whom and Mr. Swinburne's 
 family the warmest friendship continued to exist 
 down to the last moment of their lives. 
 
XXVI INTRODUCTION 
 
 Young Swinburne was, of course, most warmly 
 recommended by his parents to the recollection and 
 protection of Their Sicilian Majesties; and it appears 
 that the Queen was so zealous in her desire to 
 render him all the service in her power, that she 
 sought out for, and offered him the hand of, a ward 
 of the Crown, a young Maltese lady of ancient family, 
 who, in addition to high blood, was said to possess an 
 income of 50,000 ducats. But the young Englishman 
 seemed to have been as disinterested and as adverse to 
 enriching himself through the medium of a matrimonial 
 alliance as had been Mrs. Swinburne when she rejected 
 the brilliant offers that were made to her in her youth; 
 for he respectfully rejected this advantageous offer, and, 
 as the approach of the Republican armies rendered it 
 prudent for Englishmen to quit Italy, he lost no time 
 in proceeding back to his native land. 
 
 Having fixed upon the career of arms as his pro- 
 fession, a commission was soon procured for him, and 
 ere long he was appointed deputy assistant adjutant- 
 general upon the staff of Lord Moira, an appointment 
 for which he was principally indebted to his knowledge 
 of languages and his skill as a draughtsman. 
 
 The hopes that had been held out to Mr. Swinburne, 
 of his being employed by Government, were not realised 
 before the year 1796; for although interest had been 
 made in his favour with Mr. Pitt and other members 
 of the administration, it was not until Lord Spencer 
 
INTRODUCTION XXvii 
 
 came into office that he received an offer, through Sir 
 Evan Nepean and Mr. Huskisson, to proceed to France 
 as British commissioner for the adjustment of the pr**- 
 posed cartel for the exchange of prisoners. This dehcate 
 mission, which Mr. Swinburne consented to undertake, 
 was rendered still more difficult in consequence of the 
 capture of Sir Sidney Smith, whom the Revolutionary 
 Government held in close confinement in the Temple, 
 and refused to treat according to the ordinary usages 
 of war. It was also simultaneous with, but entirely 
 distinct from, that of Lord Malmesbury, who was 
 at the same time appointed minister plenipotentiary, 
 for the purpose of negotiating peace with the Direc- 
 tory. 
 
 The difficulties that Mr. Swinburne had to en- 
 counter are set forth in his letters, and are easily 
 understood when one considers the intricate nature 
 of the subject and the uncompromising tenacity of 
 the men with whom he had to deal. But one is at 
 a loss to comprehend why the British Government 
 should have recalled him from Paris, where he appears 
 not only to have conducted himself with great pru- 
 dence and discretion, but to have obtained the esteem 
 of all persons with whom it was his duty to transact 
 business. Such, however, was the case ; for he was 
 recalled at the very moment when there was every 
 prospect of effecting his object, and was replaced by 
 a Captain Coles, who was ere long compelled to return, 
 
XXVIU INTRODUCTION 
 
 after unsuccessfully attempting to establish himself upon 
 the same level as his predecessor. 
 
 The abrupt termination of Mr. Swinburne's mission 
 may, perhaps, be accounted for by the system too often 
 pursued at the English Foreign Office in regard to its 
 diplomatic agents; passive obedience, mechanical rou- 
 tine and a mere adherence to system being considered 
 of much greater importance, and a much higher re- 
 commendation in the eyes of the minister at the head 
 of that department, than the development of extra- 
 ordinary activity, brilliant talents, or zealous energy, 
 unless, indeed, the latter be exhibited by some man 
 who can boast of powerful patronage, or who can 
 confide in his own parliamentary influence. 
 
 Mr. Swinburne's recall, which was, in fact, a 
 species of diplomatic disgrace, was, of course, extremely 
 galling to a man of his susceptible and honourable 
 mind ; but all other sentiments, save those of parental 
 agony were merged in, and obliterated by, the terrible 
 calamity which assailed him a short time subsequent 
 to his return from France. This calamity, the most 
 painful that could befall a parent, was the loss of 
 the young and talented son of whom I have already 
 spoken. 
 
 In consequence of some change that took place in 
 Lord Moira's staff, young Swinburne was appointed 
 aide-de-camp and military secretary to General Knox, 
 who was about to proceed as commander-in-chief to 
 
INTRODUCTION Xxix 
 
 Jamaica. Little anticipating the melancholy doom that 
 awaited th-em, General Knox and his suite joyously 
 embarked on board a vessel called the Bahet, and, 
 after a boisterous passage, during which they ran great 
 risk, safely reached the island of Martinique. Here they 
 put in to refit, and renew their stock of provisions, and 
 eventually set sail for their ultimate destination. From 
 that period no tidings of the ship or her ill-fated crew 
 were ever received ; she was therefore supposed to have 
 foundered in the gale of wind which blew with fearful 
 violence a few hours after they weighed anchor from 
 Fort Royal. This supposition was the more natural, 
 since it appears that the same neglect was shown in 
 the selection of the Babefj formerly a French prize, as 
 was too often evinced, during the late war, in the choice 
 of unsound vessels for the transport of troops ; a bar- 
 barous neglect, from which even the present epoch is not 
 altogether free, but which was then the repeated cause 
 of destroying many valiant men. 
 
 The regret evinced by the public at the melancholy 
 fate of General Knox and his companions was universal ; 
 but the blow to the unhappy parents, who had centred 
 all their hopes in this son, was irreparable. Mr. Swin- 
 burne more than once alludes to this calamity in his 
 letters; but, with a generous desire not to afflict his 
 wife, he glosses over his own anguish, and, in order 
 to support her courage and soften her affliction, he 
 endeavours to conceal the fearful agony that is under- 
 
XXX INTRODUCTION 
 
 mining his own health, and filling his soul with the 
 bitterness of death. 
 
 The difficulties in which Mr. Swinburne was in- 
 volved by the sudden loss of his West Indian property, 
 and the demands of a numerous family, of whom eleven 
 were still living, induced him to apply to the Government 
 for some official situation that might augment his limited 
 resources. The application was met by an offer of the 
 lucrative appointment of vendue master to the island 
 of Trinidad, of which the valiant and much calumniated 
 Picton was then Governor. To this permanent office 
 was added the temporary mission of restoring the islands 
 of Santa Cruz and St. Thomas to the Danes. Mr. Swin- 
 burne would gladly have accepted any other employment 
 than one which compelled him to separate himself from 
 his family ; but the proposition was too advantageous to 
 be rejected, and he therefore bade adieu to his wife and 
 children, and embarked on board the Danish vessel of 
 war which was appointed to carry out General Wal- 
 tershoff and the troops of his nation, destined to take 
 repossession of the above-mentioned islands. 
 
 After executing the latter part of his mission, 
 Mr. Swinburne proceeded to the island of Trinidad, 
 where he sought to assuage the grief that was corrod- 
 ing his heart, by assiduously devoting his time to the 
 duties of his office, and by occupying his leisure hours 
 in the mteresting study of botany, and the collection 
 of an herbarium. He was destined, however, to 
 
INTRODUCTION XXxi 
 
 terminate his earthly career at a moment when, to 
 judge by his own letters, he least anticipated any evil 
 effects from the unhealthy climate where he was 
 doomed to reside. His overweening confidence in 
 his own strength, and his contempt for the dangers 
 that menace Europeans in Trinidad, soon proved fatal. 
 Ere many months he was struck by a coitp do soleil, 
 as he was riding from his country residence to his 
 ofl&ce in the town, and died almost suddenly. 
 
 His obsequies took place at St. Juan, where, 
 at a subsequent period, his friend Sir Ralph Wood- 
 ford raised a monument to his memory. Of the 
 eleven children who had to deplore the loss of this 
 excellent parent and good man, some are still living. 
 It is at the particular request of one of them, Mrs. 
 R. Walker, late of Mitchel Grove, Sussex, that I 
 have undertaken, with most imperfect materials, to 
 write the foregoing brief introductory memoir. I have 
 likewise added a few notes to the letters, some of 
 which may be found useful in elucidating certain 
 passages that might otherwise appear obscure. 
 
 CHARLES WHITE. 
 
 April 2othf 1840. 
 
LETTERS 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, VIENNA, &c. 
 
 TO SIR EDWARD SWINBURNE. 
 
 Paris, March, 1774. 
 
 Dear Brother, — You request me to give you 
 detailed accounts of my journey. The proposition 
 is too flattering not to be complied with. 
 
 We left London on the 26th of February, em- 
 barked next day at ten in the morning, and landed 
 at Calais at three in the afternoon. 
 
 The country near Calais is flat and poor, with- 
 out enclosures. At the distance of some miles it 
 grows hilly, with farmhouses and tufts of trees in 
 the valleys. Near Boulogne it is hilly and open. 
 Little wheat is sown ; though all is arable. We 
 slept at Montreuil. About Nampont are extensive 
 woodlands, with heaths, junipers, and fine oaks. 
 Near Bernayère are the ruins of a church, with 
 very elegant arches. The farmers drive four horses 
 
 VOL. I I 
 
LETTERS 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, VIENNA, &c. 
 
 TO SIR EDWARD SWINBURNE. 
 
 Paris, March, 1774. 
 
 Dear Brother, — You request me to give you 
 detailed accounts of my journey. The proposition 
 is too flattering not to be complied with. 
 
 We left London on the 26th of February, em- 
 barked next day at ten in the morning, and landed 
 at Calais at three in the afternoon. 
 
 The country near Calais is flat and poor, with- 
 out enclosures. At the distance of some miles it 
 grows hilly, with farmhouses and tufts of trees in 
 the valleys. Near Boulogne it is hilly and open. 
 Little wheat is sown ; though all is arable. We 
 slept at Montreuil. About Nampont are extensive 
 woodlands, with heaths, junipers, and fine oaks. 
 Near Bernayère are the ruins of a church, with 
 very elegant arches. The farmers drive four horses 
 
 VOL. I I 
 
2 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 in two-wheeled ploughs, attended only by one man. 
 There are vast plains of corn. The roads are most 
 wretchedly bad. 
 
 The part of the town of Abbeville by which 
 we entered, was almost destroyed and depopulated. 
 The churches and houses were in ruins, and the 
 fortifications demolished. This desolation was occa- 
 sioned lately by the wickedness of a keeper of the 
 powder magazine. He had for some time supplied 
 the deficiencies of his purse by the sale of the King's 
 powder; at length, however, the time of a strict 
 inspection approached, and the punishment he had 
 reason to expect struck him with terror. Seeing 
 that there was no way of preventing a discovery 
 of his theft, he resolved to blow up the magazine, 
 and thus to confound all accounts at once. It 
 cannot now be known whether he meant to sacri- 
 fice or to save himself. Be this as it may, he set 
 fire to the train, and blew up the magazine, himself, 
 and half the town of Abbeville into the bargain. 
 
 We there left the Paris road, and took that 
 of Dieppe, which, during this season of the year, 
 is scarcely passable ; it runs through narrow lanes 
 or hollow passes, in the middle of the boundless 
 corn-fields, worn so deep that the top of the 
 carriage did not appear. We were often obliged 
 to cross ploughed lands and ditches, to escape 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 3 
 
 dangerous holes, and I was sometimes compelled 
 to call in a peasant to assist me in keeping the 
 coach in its proper equilibrium. In spite of all 
 our care, it was once overturned, but fortunately 
 without occasioning any mischief. After many 
 fatigues, we reached Eu in the evening. The next 
 day we had to ascend a lofty hill, where there 
 did not seem to be any trace of a high road. It 
 was with difficulty the horses gained the summit, 
 where we had an extensive view of the sea, and 
 came within sight of Dieppe, situated in a deep 
 hollow, upon an inlet of the sea, surrounded by 
 high white cliffs. The roads after that were 
 almost bottomless. A finer country then presents 
 itself to the eye, with thick woods and great 
 quantities of oak and birch, planted in regular 
 rows. Lines of noble apple trees intersect the 
 plains in every direction. The farmers take great 
 care of the latter : they mat the stems round in 
 winter, and, by cutting out all the exuberant 
 wood, train them to one trunk, only leaving the 
 small upper branches, which join together, and 
 make a head like a mushroom. 
 
 Five miles from Rouen we descended through 
 extensive woods and deep roads to a pavement, 
 which brought us at last to the capital of Nor- 
 mandy, where we took up our quarters at "Le 
 
4 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Cheval Blanc," in the south suburb of St. Sever. 
 Behind this suburb is a large gravelly heath, finely 
 calculated for walking and riding; it abounds in 
 butcher's-broom.* Upon an eminence near it stands 
 a large convent of Carthusian monks. 
 
 Rouen is built in the shape of a half-circle, 
 of which the Seine is the radius; it is a noble 
 river. The quay, though little raised above the 
 water, and poorly built, is much thronged with 
 people. Several gates lead from it through the 
 ancient walls into the city. A bridge of boats 
 now supplies the place of a stone one, which 
 was swept away by the impetuosity of the floods. 
 Its piers still remain above water. 
 
 The streets of Rouen are dark, narrow, and 
 have an antique and gloomy appearance. The 
 churches are of a redundant Gothic architecture. 
 The cathedral of Notre Dame contains nothing 
 curious, except the monument of Cardinal George 
 d'Amboise, prime minister of Louis XII. He is 
 represented kneeling on a tomb, overloaded with 
 ornaments, figures, and escutcheons. The monu- 
 ment of Bréze, Maréchal de Normandie, is opposite.' 
 
 1 Ruscus acuUatus. 
 
 2 Louis de Bréze, Count de Maulevrier, Grand Marshal 
 of Normandy. His mother was a daughter of the celebrated 
 Agnes Sorel and Charles VII. He married, in 1514, the no 
 less celebrated Diane de Poictiers, whose charms had so great 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 5 
 
 John Duke of Bedford, Regent of France,* is 
 
 commemorated only by a lozenge of marble fixed 
 
 in the side-wall, with a modern inscription, behind 
 
 the high altar. On each side of the choir is 
 
 placed a heart, one of Richard Cœur de Lion, 
 
 the other of his elder brother Henry. 
 
 St. Ouen, a rich Benedictine abbey, has a 
 
 light Gothic church. The Exchange is a grand 
 
 edifice, situated in a dirty, narrow lane. Its hall, 
 
 though dark, is spacious and noble. In the calf 
 
 market Joan of Arc was burnt, and tradition 
 
 points out the window where the Regent sat to 
 
 see the execution. A bad statue of the maid was 
 
 set up in the last century.'' The environs of this 
 
 city are beautiful, the hills being well wooded, the 
 
 meadows extensive, and the soil dry. Villas are 
 
 dispersed on all sides. The Misses Ferguson, who 
 
 are residing here, speak much in favour of the 
 
 place and its society. 
 
 an influence over Henry îl. Thus, as a French author ob- 
 serves, "the issue of this family could boast of being descended 
 from the mistresses of two Kings of France, a title not very 
 honourable in our days ; but for some people there is always 
 a compensation." 
 
 1 John Duke of Bedford, Regent of France, temp. 
 Hen. VI. 
 
 2 The best statue extant of the renowned Maid of 
 Orleans is that in the gallery of Versailles, sculptured by the 
 gifted and lamented Duchess of Wurtemberg (Princess Marie 
 of France), whose premature death took place at Pisa, on the 
 2nd of January, 1839. 
 
6 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 We left Rouen by the lower road ; but the 
 river Seine had so far exceeded its natural bounds, 
 that we enjoyed little of the beauties of the pros- 
 pect, or the agreeable windings in its course. 
 We crossed it at the Pont-de-l' Arche. At Gaillon 
 is a very large Gothic palace of the Archbishop 
 of Rouen, commanding a charming view of the 
 river: woody hills rise on each side, ornamented 
 with country seats ; whilst the hollows are occupied 
 by villages and rich arable lands, down to the 
 flats near the water edge. The road to Mantes 
 is very bad; there the pavement begins. The 
 frequent appearance of the winding river, the thick 
 vineyards clinging to the declivities, the diversified 
 features of the vale, the distant broken banks im- 
 pending over towns and villages, form together a 
 group of objects that render this one of the 
 pleasantest journeys a person can take. 
 
 Mantes is well built, in a bold situation, and 
 the most ancient part of its Gothic church is very 
 handsome. The surrounding country is clothed 
 with vineyards and corn lands. At Meulan, in 
 an island, is L'Isle Belle, a disagreeable, low garden, 
 with a ruinous house, once the much admired 
 seat of the Bignons.^ We slept at St. Germain, 
 
 I The De Bignons were of a very ancient family, which 
 had furnished many illustrious members both to the bar and 
 parliament. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 7 
 
 and came next day to St. Denis, where we lodged 
 with our friend, Madame de Marçois, the mother 
 of Madame d'Anglures. Forty-five Kings of France 
 lie within the abbey. I was shown in the treasury 
 a very fine cameo of Nero, another of Augustus, 
 and a third of Domitian, hung at the necks of 
 saints, and a very beautiful agate vase. We then 
 came to Paris, and have taken up our abode at 
 Le Parc Royal, Rue du Colombier. 
 
 I have been to Pigalle, the statuary, to see 
 his famous monument of the Maréchal de Saxe, 
 destined for the church of Strasbourg. He is 
 represented in armour, descending into the tomb, 
 which Death opens, pointing to an hour-glass ; 
 France, on her knees, tries to drive the spectre 
 back. On his right hand lie the Imperial Eagle 
 and the English Leopard on their backs, and 
 the Dutch Lion running away, and under them 
 broken standards. A little boy, the genius of 
 war or love, is weeping on the left, with an 
 extinguished torch ; behind is the French flag 
 triumphant ; whilst Hercules leans on his club 
 by the sarcophagus in an attitude of grief. 
 
 The marshal's portrait is said to be a strong 
 resemblance; there is great puerility in the birds 
 and beasts, and the genius is highly absurd. 
 
 Pigalle has also a naked statue of Voltaire, 
 
8 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 sitting crowned with laurel ; a roll of parchment 
 which he holds in his hand serves as a sort of 
 covering. The periwig is not forgotten, and 
 altogether it is very ridiculous.* 
 
 Paris, April soth, 1774. 
 
 On Tuesday I set out for Versailles early, 
 pursuant to the directions I had previously re- 
 ceived from Lord Stormont, our ambassador ; and 
 having nothing but mere curiosity to gratify, 
 with no fear of disappointment, I made a tolerable 
 day of it. The Duke of Dorset^ was the only 
 Englishman presented with me. We met in the 
 Salle des Ambassadeurs, and there made acquaint- 
 ance. After a little waiting, the ambassador es- 
 corted us to the prime minister's levee (the Duke 
 d'Aiguillon^). If he said anything to me, it was 
 so little and so low that I do not recollect a word 
 of it. 
 
 In his ante-chamber the envoys of Europe were 
 assembled, decorated with ribands of all colours, 
 and crosses and keys of all metals. Among the 
 
 1 This statue of Voltaire is now in the vestibule of the 
 Théâtre Français. 
 
 2 John Frederick, third Duke, who afterwards married 
 Miss Cope. 
 
 3 Minister to Louis XV. after the disgrace of the Duke 
 de Choiseul. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 9 
 
 rest the famous Aranda,* late President of Castile, 
 but now, to the astonishment of everybody, am- 
 bassador to the Court of France by his own request. 
 He was the King of Spain's right hand when he 
 planned the expulsion and destruction of the 
 Jesuits, and his coming here seems to forebode some 
 mischievous designs hatching in Spain against 
 the peace of Europe, perhaps of England ; yet 
 some think Aranda only chose the journey to 
 take off the shock of an approaching disgrace. 
 
 About eleven the introductors gave notice of 
 the King's levee being ready, and so, in company 
 with a German baron, we trudged upstairs and 
 surprised His Most Christian Majesty in his waist- 
 coat, for none but the family ambassadors may 
 see him in buff. 
 
 After staring at us, talking about the opera 
 with some few of the crowds of courtiers, and 
 saying about one minute's prayer with his car- 
 dinal,'" he drew towards us, who were ranged near 
 the door in rank and file. All he said was: "Est-il 
 fils du vieux Duc de Dorset, que j'ai connu autre- 
 
 1 Count d' Aranda succeeded Count Florida Blanca 
 as minister to Charles IV. He was a man of eminent ta- 
 lents and enlightened views. He was overthrown by Godoy, 
 Prince of Peace. 
 
 2 The Cardinal de la Roche Aymon, grand almoner and 
 confessor to Louis XV. 
 
lO LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 fois ? " and so marched off. However, as they talked 
 much to others who stood near us, I can describe 
 them better from this view than from the subse- 
 quent one. 
 
 The Dauphin is very awkwardly made, and 
 uncouth in his motions. His face resembles his 
 grandfather's, but he is not near so handsome, 
 though he has by no means a bad countenance. 
 His nose is very prominent, his eyes are grey, and 
 his complexion is sallow. He seemed cheerful and 
 chatty, and I think his aspect bespeaks a good- 
 natured man. The second brother is a pretty 
 figure, and so is the third, only his mouth is rather 
 wide and drawn up in the middle to the top of 
 the gums. 
 
 They are not yet quite formed as to legs and 
 strength, and have all a good deal of that restless 
 motion, first upon one leg and then upon another, 
 which is also remarkable in some members of the 
 English royal family. 
 
 The questions they ask seem very frivolous and 
 puerile. I believe they find their time hang very 
 heavy on their hands, for they ran with great glee 
 to tickle one of the King's valets de chambre as he 
 was carrying out the King's dirty clothes. 
 
 Our next trot was to the Dauphin, who said 
 nothing. The same silence reigned at the levee 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. II 
 
 of his brothers, as to our share at least. The 
 Countess de Provence is a little dumpy woman, and 
 but a plain piece of goods ; her sister, the Countess 
 d'Artois, is rather prettier, having a fine skin and 
 tolerable eyes, but her nose is immense, and her 
 toes are turned in. Poor thing ! she seemed quite 
 frightened, and could hardly speak. 
 
 I did intend to reserve Madame du Barri for the 
 bonne bouche,^ but it must be the Dauphiness, who 
 quite won my heart. I can give you no account of 
 her particular features ; but her air, eyes, shape, 
 motion, her tout ensemble were most charming. She 
 spoke so cheerfully, and so easily, comme si elle se 
 sentait, as the French say : 
 
 " Elle avoit une grace, 
 Un je ne sais quoi qui surpasse 
 De l'amour les plus doux appas.'* 
 
 I This celebrated personage was born in 1746, of low 
 parents, at Vaucouleurs, near Orleans. Her father was one 
 Gomart, a clerk in the municipal tax-office (octroi), and her 
 mother was a girl called Bécu, a sempstress. After sundry 
 profligate adventures, she married William Count du Barri, 
 with whose brother John she had lived during some time. 
 Lebel, valet de chambre to Louis XV., being struck with her 
 beauty, introduced her to his royal master. Ere long she 
 was established at Versailles, where she reigned despotically 
 during many years. She and her family are said to have 
 extracted thirty millions of francs from the public treasury. 
 When Louis XV. formed his first intimacy with this fascinat- 
 ing woman, whose numerous adventures were known to all 
 the world, he said to the Duke de Richelieu : " Well 1 at all 
 
12 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 From her we passed to ths three, not Graces, but any 
 other trio you may think would suit them. I mean 
 the King's daughters ; the Dauphin's sisters were 
 not visible. 
 
 After all these perambulations up stairs and 
 down stairs through the royal family, we climbed 
 up a dark winding staircase, which I should have 
 suspected would have led to an apartment of the 
 Bastile, rather than to the temple of love and ele- 
 gance. In a low entresol we found the favourite 
 sultana in her morning gown, her capuchin on, and 
 her hair undressed ; she was very gracious, and 
 chatted a good deal, as everybody else seemed to 
 do at Versailles, about the opera. I could hardly 
 refrain from laughing at an involuntary exclamation 
 from my brother presentee, the Duke, whose mistress, 
 Mrs. Parsons, has, you know, been long out of her 
 teens. " Good heavens 1 " said his Grace in a 
 whisper to me, "why, her bloom is quite past." 
 
 She is of a middle age, just plump enough, 
 her face rather upon the yellow leaf, her eyes good, 
 and all her features regular ; but I cannot think 
 her a pleasing figure now, whatever she may have 
 been, or may be still, when made up and decked 
 out in her pride. 
 
 events I succeed Du Barri." — '* Yes I " replied the witty Duke, 
 bowing, " just as Your Most Gracious Majesty succeeds to 
 Pharamond, your illustrious predecessor." 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 1 3 
 
 There ended our business, and then we pro- 
 ceeded to dine at the Duke d'Aiguillon's, where we 
 found all the foreign ministers and some French. 
 Among the women were the Duchess of Mazarin, 
 once a famous beauty, and Madame de Forcalquier, 
 a lady celebrated for her amours and her beauty, 
 and cited as such by Helvetius in his posthumous 
 book. It is she who, on some dispute with her 
 second husband (she is the widow of two), received 
 a slap in the face from him. Seemingly reconciled 
 to the insult, she went out and stayed so late, that 
 M. de Forcalquier, with a great deal of company, 
 was seated at dinner when she returned. Upon 
 his asking her why she came so late, she ap- 
 proached him, and said she had been all over 
 Paris to find somebody who would take the soufflet 
 off her hand, but as no one chose to receive it, she 
 was under the necessity of returning it to him ; 
 and, as she spoke, she discharged a most violent 
 smack upon his cheek, and then flew off and took 
 her seat composedly at the table. 
 
 Our dinner was very good, but our Amphitryon 
 never spoke one word to us, and did not give us a 
 very famous idea of la politesse française. However, 
 we ate our pudding, held our tongues, and then 
 came away at our leisure. 
 
 The Baron, who was presented with us, is 
 called Schwenckt, as I read his name given to the 
 
14 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 introductor ; but his Hessian friend said there were 
 a few consonants left out. He soon got acquainted 
 with us, and let us into his history. This was his 
 first début in the world, being quite en droiture from 
 Westphalia. He stuck close to us for one, two, or 
 three presentations ; but the introducteur being called 
 away, and none but ambassadors having the privi- 
 lege of presenting, he was left in the lurch at the 
 Dauphiness's. However, he got pretty well through 
 this affair ; but at Madame's he was unluckily placed 
 behind the Swedish ambassador, whom he over- 
 topped by head and shoulders ; and whom should 
 the Princess address but this Swede, whilst our 
 Baron, who was unpresented, felt trh mal à son aise, 
 grew as red as fire, and looked most pitiable. 
 
 This scrape was nothing to what he under- 
 went at Madame du Barri's, where the whole 
 company consisted of ten persons. Here he 
 could not escape notice; and every time she 
 stared at him, which she did very often, M. le 
 Baron ducked, and made a profound rever- 
 ence. I thought I should have burst from the 
 desire of laughing; but as we had patronised him 
 so conspicuously all day, he could not do less 
 than sit by us at dinner. To our no small 
 amusement, but unfortunately for him, a large 
 rabbit was placed by him, which, it seems, he 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. I5 
 
 had a great aversion to, and this was a new 
 désagrément for him. If he publishes his tour, I 
 dare say he will give it as his opinion that being 
 presented is an infinitely more trying ceremony 
 than standing the fire of a regiment. 
 
 This morning news came of the King having 
 the small-pox, that he had been bled for it once 
 in the foot, and had blisters clapped to his back^ 
 — the most extraordinary mode of treating this 
 disorder I have ever heard of; he must be in 
 danger from his age and way of life. A few days 
 will decide his fate. The royal family are all sent 
 to Meudon, and his daughter, the nun, goes to- 
 morrow to join her sisters, who are the only 
 persons of his family left with him. The whole 
 town is in motion between Paris and Versailles. 
 What an epoch for ministers, both ins and outs! 
 
 Last night we were at the new opera of 
 
 Orphée, by Gluck. I was vastly disappointed : 
 
 the best of the music resembles in style and 
 
 force the common burlettas ; but, to do it justice, 
 
 the performers sang it abominably, not quite in 
 
 the French, yet not in the least in the Italian 
 
 style. Some of the dances, too, are ridiculously 
 
 I When someone told the Duke d'Ayen that Louis XV. 
 had taken the small-pox, he shrugged up his shoulders, and 
 said : "Je n'y crois pas — car il n'y a rien de petit chez le 
 grands." 
 
l6 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 grovelling and vulgar; but this he did in imitation 
 of Boyes, I suppose, to make the rest of the 
 opera show off better/ The dancers are very bad, 
 a thing uncommon on the French stage, where 
 at least one sense should have repaid for what 
 the other underwent. 
 
 I have filled my paper with mere nonsense, 
 but that is sometimes more agreeable in a corre- 
 spondence than either solidity or business. 
 
 Paris, May nth. 
 
 Since my last, everything in this capital has 
 worn the aspect of dulness and anxiety. No one 
 could be totally indifferent whilst the life of the 
 Grand Monarque was at stake ; though it aston- 
 ished me and all strangers to see how little the 
 generality of the natives seemed to care about the 
 event. 
 
 Louis XV. took to his bed on Monday, the 
 27th of April, the day after I was presented to 
 him, and in a day or two the small-pox made its 
 appearance. This was kept a profound secret from 
 
 1 This reminds me of the advice given by a wit to 
 the composer of a French opera, interspersed with dances, 
 which was not very successful upon its first representation. 
 ♦'What shall I do," said the composer, "to make it more 
 popular ? " — ♦• Do ? " replied the other ; " why, lengthen the 
 ballet and shorten the dresses of the figurantes." 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 17 
 
 him, for fear of his being frightened into confes- 
 sion, and consequently into the banishment of 
 Madame du Barri. 
 
 The physicians, whose constant practice is to 
 kill in this disorder, bled him twice, and would 
 have done it a third time had they imagined he 
 had blood sufficient for it. They also blistered 
 him severely, and brought a deal of the humour 
 out by that part of his body. Every day they 
 issued bulletins, with an account of the progress 
 of the malady, which, being posted up in the 
 palaces for the inspection of the public, were in- 
 tended to keep up their hopes. Could any credit 
 have been given to these papers, the generality 
 of people might have been lulled into confidence; 
 but, from the known fallaciousness of these ac- 
 counts, and the King's age and irregularities, 
 nobody believed he would get over the disorder. 
 Everybody was, therefore, in motion, and en- 
 deavouring to prepare himself for a great change 
 of men and measures. 
 
 About six days ago, however, the King dis- 
 covered the real nature of his case, which, it is 
 believed, was made known to him by his daughter, 
 Madame Louise, the Carmelite nun, who left her 
 convent to attend him in his illness; and, though 
 much against the mclinations of some people, he 
 
 VOL. I a 
 
l8 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 confessed himself, made a public avowal of his 
 faults, and ordered the Cardinal de la Roche 
 Aymon to repeat his words in the great gallery, 
 and to have them printed and distributed. They 
 expressed his sincere repentance for having so long 
 scandalised his people, of whom and of God he 
 asked pardon, and declared he only wished to re- 
 cover his health that he might devote the rest of 
 his life to the service of religion and of his people. 
 
 The natives seemed in great spirits at this 
 death-bed repentance ; but whether they gave credit 
 to such a thorough change is what I cannot pre- 
 tend to assume. The Viaticum was carried to 
 him with all the pomp imaginable. The canop> 
 was borne by Princes of the blood, and attended 
 by all the principal personages of the Court. It 
 was observed that the Dauphin seemed the most 
 affected of any, and wept profusely. 
 
 None of these spiritual aids availed, no more 
 than the descent of the relics of St. Geneviève, 
 nor the prayers of four hours in every church 
 of the metropolis. On Friday, Sutton, the English 
 inoculator, offered his services, but was refused, 
 as he did not choose to let the French physi- 
 cians into his secret. A mortification began to 
 appear about the stomach, and upon Saturday the 
 case was looked upon as desperate. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. IQ 
 
 During the first days of his illness, Madame 
 du Barri was wont to attend him at the hour of 
 dinner, that is, as soon as Madame Adelaide 
 retired from his chamber ; but, just before the 
 King's confession, she was sent to the Duke 
 d'Aiguillon at Ruelle, whence she took her de- 
 parture for Dauphiny.^ 
 
 On Monday Sutton was admitted, as the 
 doctors had given him over, the King being quite 
 out of his senses, and almost in the agonies of 
 death. Sutton administered emetics and cathar- 
 tics, and brought him to himself so well as tc 
 enable him to speak and ask pardon of the Prince 
 de Conti for all his usage of him. But all help 
 was now in vain, and Louis XV. expired at half- 
 past three in the afternoon of yesterday, May loth. 
 He had caught the infection, I am told, from a 
 girl who resided with some others in the Pare 
 aux Cerfs, a kind of seraglio, near Versailles.^ She 
 
 I She was proprietress of the splendid château of 
 Luciennes, in Dauphiny, the furniture and decorations of 
 which are said to have cost six millions of francs. After 
 being released from the abbey of Pont-aux-Dames, near 
 Meaux, where she was confined for some time by order of 
 Louis XVI., Madame du Barri passed the remainder of her 
 days at Luciennes, until she was arrested on the 22nd of 
 September, 1793, and guillotined by order of the Revolu- 
 tionary Committee on the 9th of November following. 
 Luciennes recently belonged to M. Lafitte. 
 
 i This establishment, which obtained such disgraceful 
 
 2 — 2 
 
20 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 was some time after taken into Madame du Barri's 
 service, and, being sent to Paris, where the small- 
 pox appeared on her, she died last week. 
 
 The royal family retired to Choisy yesterday. 
 The King's daughters attended their father during 
 all his sickness, but none of them have had the 
 small-pox. The Duke of Orleans^ waited on him 
 like a servant. The Archbishop of Paris, though 
 almost dead himself with a nephritic colic, went 
 to Versailles, but was not very graciously received. 
 
 On account of the infection, the body is not 
 
 to lie in state at the Louvre, but will be carried 
 
 to St. Denis, where it is to lie in state forty 
 
 days ; during which time no diversions of any 
 
 kind are to be permitted. How black and dull 
 
 then will be this land of foppery for six weeks I 
 
 Mourning is risen high in price, cloth ten livres 
 
 an ell. The mourning is to be for six months. 
 
 After the forty days the new King will go to 
 
 Rheims to be anointed. The processions for the 
 
 notoriety, was originally a beautiful campagne, called 
 l'Ermitage, in the park of Versailles, and belonged to 
 Madame de Pompadour. It was converted by that profli- 
 gate woman to its scandalous purposes in the year 1753. 
 It is affirmed that the expenses of the Pare aux Cerfs, and 
 its contemptible inmates, many of whom belonged to the 
 first families of France, was 150,000 francs per month. 
 Lacratelle says that the total expenses of the Pare aux 
 Cerfs absorbed one hundred millions of francs. 
 
 I The father of Louis Philippe, better known as Égalité. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 21 
 
 King's recovery, which were marshalled out and 
 regulated to last three days longer, are all at 
 an end, of course ; and I suppose the canons of 
 St. Geneviève will seal up their relics again, and 
 cover them, without any great parade.* 
 
 It was my lot to be the last person presented 
 to the King and Madame du Barri. We have 
 been driven from our late hotel to one in the 
 Faubourg St. Germains, Parc Royal, Rue du 
 Colombier, for which we had several coercive 
 reasons. One was, having a devil incarnate of a 
 landlady to deal with, lazy housemaids, and more- 
 over, a very pestilential smell exhaling throughout, 
 which is by no means an uncommon occurrence 
 in this most brilliant of towns. Our present 
 apartments are much better j the hotel is full. 
 We have the Duke of Dorset, a Chevalier Douglas 
 from l'Académie de Caen, Mr. Tuite, and Mr. Hall, 
 son to Jamaica Hall, whom you know. He has 
 been here six months, in which time he has made 
 
 I The relics of St. Geneviève, the patroness of Paris, 
 consisting of the bones of that saint, were preserved in the 
 church of that name, afterwards the Panthéon, and were 
 never brought forth, save in the event of the illness of the 
 King, or of some other public calamity. An unbeliever in 
 the miraculous agency of these relics having jeered the 
 Abbé of St. Geneviève upon their inefficacy on this 
 occasion, the satirical priest replied : '* What more would 
 you have them do — is he not dead ? " 
 
22 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 a shift to see the end of ten thousand pounds, 
 what with play, a lady of the stage, and his 
 tailor's bill. This last amounted (as my man 
 heard from his) to no less than a thousand 
 guineas ! His French valet de chambre, after de- 
 frauding him by exorbitant bills, &c., of about the 
 same sum, was detected at last by an English 
 wine merchant, and shown up to his master, who 
 discharged him. The other night Hall lost one 
 thousand five hundred more, and would have been 
 unable to discharge the bill of the house, if his 
 principal winner had not lent him a sum sufficient 
 for the purpose. He must be a thick-headed 
 youth, and unless this his first expedition out of 
 the British dominions should have refined his 
 understanding as it has cleared his pocket, I think 
 he will be fit for nothing but to be a mule-driver. 
 
 Mr. and Miss inhabit the back 
 
 apartments of the Hôtel d'Espagne opposite our 
 windows, and seem to live in great amity and 
 cordiality. They have a young child with them. 
 Madame d'Anglures goes on Friday to Orleans on 
 her way to Blois, and we have some thought of 
 joining her there, for a séjour in Paris will be a 
 dull concern at this period, though the grief of 
 the nation is by no means the cause of it. 1 
 never, indeed, saw joy more visible than it appears 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ET<^. 2$ 
 
 to be on the loss of this same Louis le bien-aimé, 
 whose illness was once the object of so much 
 alarm and anxiety. Indeed, never did a king 
 deserve more than he did to lose the affections 
 of his people. 
 
 I have been to the gallery of the Luxembourg, 
 where part of the royal collection is exhibited. 
 There are but very few fine pictures. The Jardins 
 de la Boissiere, in the Rue de Clichy, are in a 
 fine, commanding situation, but of wretched taste. 
 
 Orleans, June, 1774. 
 
 We left Paris some days ago, and, in compli- 
 ance with your wish that I should send you a 
 description of our tour, I will keep a sort of 
 journal of all I see, and forward it to you de terns 
 en terns. I intend giving way to my propensity 
 to taking views, wherever I see anything worth 
 admiring, and my letters to you may serve to 
 illustrate them. 
 
 On leaving Paris, we traversed a rich arable 
 country, full of quarries or pits of stone, worked 
 by a wheel. There are fine valleys near Monthery, 
 where the ruins of a castle rise boldly on the brow 
 of a hill above the town, the approach to which is 
 through avenues of trees. In the villages the 
 peasants plant acacias betore their doors, and 
 
24 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 the numbers increase as one advances nearer to 
 Orleans. After passing the plain of Beauce, and 
 the great forest of Orleans, which is all young 
 wood as far as I could see, we came to a flat 
 country full of villas and scattered cottages, and 
 arrived at Orleans at nine in the evening. The 
 Rue Royale, regularly built, leads from the Place 
 du M artery to the new bridge. This street is too 
 narrow. In a recess on one side is placed the 
 brass statue of the Pucelle, which was originally 
 raised by Charles VII. on the old bridge. He is 
 represented in armour, kneeling with her at the 
 feet of the Virgin Mary, holding the dead Christ 
 in her arms. There is no merit in any of these 
 figures. The bridge is upon elliptical arches, and 
 almost without any ascent either way. It is re- 
 markable for its simplicity and air of solidity; an 
 iron gate between small turrets closes the south 
 end, and opens upon a grand avenue. Near the 
 north end, one arch of the old crooked bridge 
 still remains ; parts of the old walls are standing, 
 thin and slightly built with pebbles buried in 
 mortar. The church of St. Agnes is remarkable 
 for having the upper part of its buttresses ter- 
 minated with a filigree banister instead of the 
 common pinnacle. Over the sacristy door are 
 foliages like crisped cabbage. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 25 
 
 The mall, or public walk, on the northern 
 rampart, is one of the finest shady avenues I ever 
 saw, but its being open to the north makes it 
 unfit for winter use. The cathedral of St. Croix 
 has been built at various periods. The west front 
 is quite new; it is Gothic in its ornaments, and 
 upon the whole a grand piece of work, though it 
 will not bear a comparison with the light elegant 
 buildings of the thirteenth century. The choir part, 
 which is ancient, is in a good style, but Grecian 
 pillars and a heavy screen of the Corinthian order 
 have been added to disfigure it, and to clash with 
 the airy roof and the light cloisters of Gothic 
 columns. 
 
 The Benedictine convent is so white within, 
 that no eye can bear to look upon it. Their 
 library is open to the public. The pavement of 
 the city is very strange, but clean. The inhabi- 
 tants are a wealthy set of men, but unfortunately 
 divided into jarring parties of nobles, financiers, 
 merchants, burghers, Jansenists, and Molinists.* 
 
 I The Jansenists were thus designated from their 
 following the so-called heterodox but severe dogmas of 
 Jansenius, Bishop of Ypres. The Molinists derived their 
 name from their adhesion to the doctrines of the Spanish 
 Jesuit, MoUna. The discussions and dissensions that arose 
 between these two sects occupied France and Rome during 
 fifty years, and might have continued to this hour had not 
 
26 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Their ton îs vulgar, but they keep very good 
 tables, and are extremely civil to strangers. Sugar 
 refineries, traffic, and manufacture of Spanish wool, 
 Levant trade for caps and coarse porcelain, are 
 the great branches of commerce in this town. 
 There is a great deal of what is called "devotion" 
 here. 
 
 In the time of the first French Kings, Orleans 
 was the capital of a kingdom. In 1429 it with- 
 stood the attack of the English, and the siege was 
 raised by the famous Joan d'Arc. There is great 
 abundance of fruit in the market here. The fashion- 
 able walk in winter is the cemetery of the 
 Cathedral of St. Croix, although there are heaps 
 of human bones piled up in every corner. I could 
 discover no traces of the fortifications mentioned 
 in the history of the siege of 1488. 
 
 I have visited the banks of the Loiret — a sweet 
 country. The river rises at La Sourée, a country- 
 house belonging to M. Boutin, two leagues south 
 of Orleans. It was the residence of Lord Boling- 
 broke during his exile.* The present possessor, 
 
 the Revolution put an end to all theological disputes, and 
 confounded all faith, all religion, in the same hideous 
 proscription. 
 
 I Henry, first Viscount Bolingbroke, Secretary of State 
 to Queen Anne. He was attainted in 1714. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 27 
 
 a financier, instead of following the dictates of 
 Nature, who pointed out such a scope for real 
 beauty and embellishments, has lavished immense 
 sums and taken incredible pains to distort every 
 feature of her, and to degrade each part of the 
 scenery. The spring which bubbles up with great 
 force and in a large volume of water in the plain 
 at the foot of the slope, is jammed up in a circular 
 basin, and then let through a narrow gullet into a 
 long canal, resembling in figure a child in swad- 
 dling clothes. He has opened vistas where there 
 is nothing to see, pruned up the trees till they 
 look like broomsticks, and levelled the low ground 
 till he has made a swamp of it. 
 
 There is one pretty retired walk of alders hang- 
 ing over another stream, but its colour is muddy 
 and inferior to that of the Loiret, which no sooner 
 escapes from these shades of false taste than it 
 swells into a fine river, deep and full. The plain 
 on the right hand is set thick with poplars and 
 willows, growing with pleasing luxuriancy. On the 
 left is a cultivated ridge of hills, crowned with 
 villas, gardens and cottages, reflected in the crystal 
 waters. Mills are at work, and boats ply upon the 
 Loiret at a musket shot from the spring, and shoals 
 ot fish are seen in every part of it. 
 
 The bridge of Olivet, near which Poltrot shot 
 
28 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 the Duke de Guise/ affords very beautiful pros- 
 pects on both sides. About a mile below is a 
 small country residence called La Motte Bouquin ; 
 the view from thence is delightful towards Or- 
 leans, which closes the northern horizon. The 
 upper garden is laid out in flat terraces and par- 
 terres and a small grove, all as pretty as the style 
 allows; but the real beauties of the place lie on 
 the edge of the river, which is here of a con- 
 siderable breadth, with clumps of aquatic trees 
 overshading its banks, and watermills going in 
 different points. A terrace by the waterside leads 
 to a covered walk between the Loiret and a canal, 
 which receives a supply from innumerable springs 
 that gush out of the hills. The waters are extremely 
 cold, and render the walk delicious in hot weather, 
 A seat in an arbour commands a romantic scene 
 down the water, and about a couple of miles lower 
 down the Loiret falls into the Loire. 
 
 La Boudon, a country-house on the Loiret, is 
 in a damp, aguish situation. The river is dammed 
 up by a mill into a pretty basin near it ; there are 
 many fine springs issuing out of the banks, and 
 
 I Francis, Duke de Guise, eldest son of Claude, first 
 Duke, one of the most eminent of this illustrious family, and 
 one of the most bitter enemies of the Huguenots, He was 
 shot by a Protestant gentleman named Poltrot de Merey, on 
 the gth of February, 1563, during the siege of Orleans. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 29 
 
 the walks are very rural by the waterside, but 
 
 it is by no means an ehgible residence. I walked 
 
 to the mouth of the Loiret, near the abbey of 
 
 St. Marmin — an agreeable grove almost fills the 
 
 angle at the junction of the rivers — but just at 
 
 that spot are too many acres of barren sand, on 
 
 which, however, grows a considerable quantity of 
 
 asparagus firom seeds washed down out of the 
 
 extensive gardens that cover the plain above. 
 
 M. Desfriches, a dilettante painter here, draws 
 
 landscapes in a mellow style and with fine lights ; 
 
 the foliage of his trees is remarkably light and well 
 
 raised, and he enlivens his clear parts by drawing 
 
 upon chalked paper and scraping, while he darkens 
 
 the shadow of the crayon with touches of Indian 
 
 ink. ^__ 
 
 BloiSf July. 
 
 Having sent the baggage by water, we brought 
 Madame d'Anglures and Madame de Marçois in 
 our coach to Blois. As far as Mauny the country 
 is a pretty vineyard, with an extensive view over 
 the Loire into Sologne, which appears a forest 
 from that distance. Near Beaugency is more 
 arable ground. It is an ancient town, on a declivity, 
 with ruined towers and walls. 
 
 I dined with the Marquis de Marigni at Menars; 
 he is the brother of the celebrated Madame de 
 
30 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Pompadour.^ The prospect from his house is 
 magnificent. The river forms a noble sweep in 
 front, and there is a boundless view over the 
 opposite plains, which are richly cultivated. The 
 terraces between the house and the river are con- 
 structed in the best taste and at an incredible 
 expense. The furniture of the house is most 
 superb. It consists of the finest Gobelin tapestry, 
 real chintz beds, fine worked silks, paintings, china 
 jars, mirrors, &c. The French may well say, 
 " Nous avons payé pour tout cela." 
 
 On the right of the château are an orangery 
 and temple, adjoining a wood intended to repre- 
 sent an English shrubbery. It is cut into narrow 
 winding paths, not deficient in taste. A small 
 stream tumbles down little cascades by the side 
 of it, and the walk is very judiciously extended 
 to the machine which raises the water to the 
 house, and occasionally keeps the rivulet running. 
 
 I Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, daughter of a butcher to 
 the Invalides, or, as otliers assert, of a M. de Tourneheim, 
 a rich fermier-général, who adopted her, gave her an admirable 
 education, and married her to his nephew, M. d'Étiolés. 
 Louis XV. met her at a masked ball at the Opera, became 
 forthwith enamoured of her, and it was not long ere she 
 was publicly recognised and courted as his mistress. In 
 1745 she was created Marquise de Pompadour, an ancient 
 and extinct title with which she had not the remotest con- 
 nection. Her brother, Poisson, was soon after created Mar- 
 quis de Marigni. She died at the palace of Versailles in 1764. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 31 
 
 The other part of the gardens is composed of a 
 large extent of low, young wood, cut into stars 
 and alleys, with statues and temples. A group 
 of Zephyrs and Flora is a pleasing piece of sculp- 
 ture. The park is divided since M. de Marigni 
 had the great post-road brought on this side of 
 the river by order of the Government, for his con- 
 venience. It abounds with game, and contains 
 about two hundred acres of wood. 
 
 Blois covers the steep slope of a rocky hill 
 on the northern banks of the Loire. Its streets 
 are precipitous, narrow and crooked. The buildings 
 of the upper town stand upon two knolls ; the low 
 town occupies a slip of level ground in the inter- 
 mediate hollow, which appears to have been stolen 
 from the river, that is said to have formerly run in 
 several channels and to have washed the foot of the 
 hills. It has long been confined, however, to one 
 straight bed, over which a noble stone bridge was 
 thrown in 1717, to join the suburb of Vienne to 
 the city. The walk and gates remain, and over 
 each of the latter is an image of the Virgin. On 
 the eastern point of the hill is the church of 
 Solenne, which the Bishop of Chartres made an 
 episcopal cathedral through the interest of Madame 
 de Maintenon. Several livings attached to it form 
 a revenue of sixty thousand livres for the bishop. 
 
32 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 The Steeple is a barbarous tower of the Cor- 
 inthian order, crowned with a kind of skull-cap, 
 all which composes a heavy pile of building. 
 
 The bishop's palace and gardens command a 
 very extensive view over town and country. Upon 
 the western extremity of the hill is the ancient 
 castle of the sovereigns of Blois. Twenty- three 
 families have apartments in it. The size of the 
 buildings, extent of the courts, and vestiges of 
 terraces, gardens and outworks, bespeak a royal 
 though abandoned residence. The west front of 
 the castle was built by Gaston d' Orleans, and 
 Mansard was the architect. It cost three millions 
 and a half of livres. The bad taste of the day 
 led Gaston to destroy the noble gardens, planted 
 far into the country by Catherine de Medicis, and 
 to surround his palace with bulwarks, like a state 
 prison. The low building at the east end was 
 built by Francis I., whose emblem (the Salaman- 
 der) appears everywhere. Henry, Duke de Guise, 
 was stabbed in the centre apartment, as he stood 
 near the balcony.^ His brother, the cardinal, was 
 
 I Henry of Lorraine, Duke de Guise, commonly called 
 the Balafré from a wound that he received in the face at 
 the battle of Château Thierri. He was murdered by order 
 of Henry HI., by a certain St. M alines, captain of the 
 Cent Suisses, as he was about to enter the council chamber, 
 December 23rd, 1558. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 33 
 
 despatched in the great tower, near the west end, 
 called La Tour du Château Reynault.^ 
 
 Blois is not mentioned until the ninth century. 
 It was afterwards governed by sovereign earls, of 
 which Stephen, King of England, was one. It 
 then devolved on the Crown, and many Kings of 
 France resided there, and adorned it with noble 
 edifices. The inhabitants, polished by the Court, 
 were long remarkable for the purity of their accent 
 and language. Innocent XII. erected it into an 
 episcopal see. The public walk here is over the 
 bridge, a short and hot one, but pleasant. 
 
 The conseil supérieur was fixed here* when the 
 parliament was destroyed, and was composed of 
 the members of the chambre des comptes, of needy 
 Parisian lawyers and people who were not bred to 
 the law. The establishment has made house-rent 
 dear, but has brought money to Blois. Society is 
 here on a very easy footing; all ranks intermix, 
 and seem to be clear of parties and quarrels. Card- 
 playing and evening walks constitute the chief 
 
 I Louis, Cardinal de Guise, who was within the council 
 chamber of the States-General, and hearing the voice of his 
 dying relation, sprang up and endeavoured to hasten to his 
 assistance, but he was held back by the Cardinal de Retz 
 and others, and conveyed to a distant chamber or cell, in 
 wUich he was assassinated on the following day. 
 
 7, These conseils supérieurs were established when Louis 
 XV. annulled the provincial parliaments. 
 
 VOL. I a 
 
34 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 amusements of the place, and certainly, " toutes les 
 femmes de Blots ne sont pas rousses et acariâtres ^^ 
 according to Voltaire's story, for we have met 
 some very good-humoured, apparently, with black 
 eyes and black hair. 
 
 At St. Gervais, a small village south of the 
 water, is prepared the famous creme de Blots, 
 which is sold throughout the year in pots at one 
 sou each. It is very savoury and rich ; I suppose, 
 whipped into a lather and thickened by some art. 
 The mills on the Loire are moored in the middle 
 of the stream, and shifted as the currents vary. 
 In summer, half the river disappears and leaves 
 large banks of sand. 
 
 At Blois they make liquorice cakes, but as it 
 is extracted from the wild root it has not the rich- 
 ness of the cultivated Pomfret plant. 
 
 Below the castle is the abbey of St. Jannes, 
 not far from the bridge; south of it is a great 
 extent of plain, bounded by the forest and extremely 
 fruitful in all sorts of corn except oats, of which I 
 saw no fields anywhere in the neighbourhood. The 
 gentle swellings that skirt the level are clothed 
 with vines, plots of kidney-beans and hemp. Hay 
 is abundant by the side of the little river Gauchon, 
 which comes from Chambord, and, traversing the 
 flat in a shallow black stream, overflows the meadows 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 35 
 
 half the year. For this reason the hay is coarse 
 and sour. The waters of the Loire are confined 
 on both sides by high, strong dykes, except where 
 the land is of no value, and then the superfluous 
 waters are allowed to spread in floods, to diminish 
 the weight elsewhere. 
 
 The forest of Prussec covers the hills south of 
 Blois. There are delightful rides in all parts of 
 it, and great variety of thickets, open groves and 
 verdant lawns, but no valuable timber. The country 
 people steal so much, and hack the trees in so 
 clumsy a manner, that none can come to any size. 
 The species most common in these woods are oak 
 with the common broad leaf, a kind with narrow 
 pale-coloured leaves, like those of the willow, beech, 
 hornbeam, maple, ash, hawthorn, holly, juniper, 
 laburnum, blackthorn, hazel and tall heath. 
 
 Beauregard, the seat of the Count de Gaucourt, 
 stands on the verge of the forest, in a fine situa- 
 tion. 
 
 I rode to Pont-le-Voye, a great Benedictine 
 college, then across the plains to the Pont-aux-Cailles, 
 where I had a charming view of the valleys at the 
 edge of the forest, with a church rising under a hill. 
 From thence we proceeded to Montels, a rambling 
 village near the Beuvron, a deep and muddy rivulet. 
 A large round rumous tower, and a ditch or moat, 
 
 3— a 
 
36 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Still remain of the old hunting-seat of the Earls of 
 Blois, on a bold, pleasant site. 
 
 Pont-le-Voye stands on a small eminence in a 
 valley surrounded with a vast plain and forests 
 on all sides. The Counts d'Amboise founded the 
 convent, of which the church remains imperfect. 
 The college is a separate establishment, and seems 
 conducted on a liberal, comprehensive plan. All 
 sorts of exercises and sciences are taught, as well 
 as ancient and modern languages. Eight hours 
 are allotted to study, play, and exercises. The 
 annual charge is thirty pounds, everything in- 
 cluded. The boys all sleep in separate beds. 
 There is a servant for each dormitory ; and three 
 invalid soldiers parade all night to prevent fire, 
 or alarm in case of accident. The monks have 
 a large domain, and the students are indulged 
 on holidays with refreshments at their different 
 farmhouses. The English master is an Irish 
 abbé with a strong brogue. 
 
 The forest of Blois, north of the river, leads 
 to the abbey of La Guiche, founded by Jean de 
 Chatillon, Earl of Blois, for nuns of St. Clare. 
 His monument, in black marble, is before the high 
 altar. The convent stands close to the river 
 Eisse, hemmed in by woody hills, and much ex- 
 posed to inundations. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 37 
 
 Chaumont is six leagues down the river. 
 Through sandy plains behind the suburb of 
 Vienne, and over the Cisson, up some pretty 
 fields, I came to the village of Candé. The 
 seigneur is a counsellor of the Parliament of 
 Paris, and has an elegant new house in an ad- 
 mirable position. 
 
 I crossed the Beuvron, and traversed a thick 
 wood — was some time at a loss for the road, till 
 I reached a cottage romantically situated in a 
 small lawn under a steep woody bank. About 
 half a mile further I got out of the woods, 
 and rode through some fine meadows to the 
 foot of the promontory on which the castle of 
 Chaumont rises most majestically, overlooking 
 the course of the Loire for many miles each way. 
 The opposite hills are beautiful. Blois is seen 
 plainly, and Orleans may be discovered on a 
 clear day, as well as Amboise, distant to the 
 west. 
 
 The castle in its present state was the work of 
 Cardinal George d'Amboise, who was born in the 
 old castle, the seat of his illustrious ancestors. 
 Diane de Poictiers, Catherine of Medicis, Sardina 
 of Lucca, &c., have possessed it in their turns. It 
 consists of a great gateway flanked with towers, 
 on which is carved a blazing mountain, meant for 
 
38 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 a quibble upon the name of the place.* The car- 
 dinal's hat and arms appear over many of the 
 windows, and in some of the apartments are the 
 devices and escutcheons of the Duchess of Valen- 
 tinois,** viz., quivers, bugle-horns, and crescents. 
 She ceded the castle to Catherine de Medicis, who 
 took a fancy to it. This gateway leads into what 
 was formerly a spacious court, but Le Roy pulled 
 down all the north range, and made a terrace, 
 which is a very beautiful walk in moderate weather. 
 The situation is, however, so elevated, that there is 
 almost always a great deal of wind, and frequently 
 so much as to render the place extremely dis- 
 agreeable. 
 
 Another day I rode through the forests of 
 Blois to the Vale of Chambord. There are de- 
 lightful eminences on the skirts of the forest, 
 covered with vines and coppice, through which 
 
 1 Chaumont, Chaud-mont. 
 
 2 The famous Diane de Poictiers, created Duchess of 
 Valentinois by Henry II., in 1548. The history of this 
 renowned beauty is too well known to require observation ; 
 but the following epigram, alluding to the immense influence 
 she had obtained over her royal lover, is perhaps less 
 common : — 
 
 ♦'Sirel si vous laissez, comme Charles* désire, 
 Comme Diane veut, par trop gouverner, 
 Fondre, pétrir, mollir, refondre, retourner. 
 Sir» ! vous n'êtes plus — vous n'êtes plus que cire.** 
 
 * Cardinal Charles de Lorraine, 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 3g 
 
 innumerable country-houses and cottages rear their 
 heads. The hedges abound in a variety of pretty 
 shrubs. The waters of the Eisse, as clear as 
 crystal, wind through large meadows divided by 
 rows of poplars. The hills on each side are 
 studded with houses. The ruins of the Château 
 de Bury rise nobly upon an eminence. Its white 
 towers make a fine contrast with the trees that 
 grow amongst them. 
 
 Chambord is three leagues out of Blois.^ Its 
 park is about twenty miles in circumference, full 
 of woods and corn-fields, but the walls are broken 
 down in many places. The Cisson runs through 
 it. The castle stands close to the river, in an 
 ugly marshy bottom. It is a stupendous pile of 
 building of stone, in a strange, whimsical style of 
 architecture, parts of which are neatly executed. 
 The great staircase is exactly a double corkscrew ; 
 two persons may descend at the same time, see 
 each other on a level through windows that are 
 opened in the niches, yet never join or overtake 
 one another. 
 
 The apartments are royally spacious, but en- 
 
 I Chambord was built by François I. It will be recol- 
 lected that this château was purchased by the nation, and 
 presented to the Duke de Bordeaux. The celebrated Paul 
 Louis Courrier wrote a libel upon this subject, and was fined 
 and imprisoned in consequence. 
 
40 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 tirely stripped of furniture, except the bed-chamber 
 of the late Maréchal de Saxe, and the theatre, 
 which is completely fitted up. Nobody now re- 
 sides in the main body of the house. It was a 
 hunting-seat of the Earls of Blois. In the six- 
 teenth century, François I. employed twelve hun- 
 dred men in converting this place into a park. 
 Stanislaus, King of Poland, resided here, and after 
 him Maréchal Saxe. Its situation cannot fail to 
 be unwholesome, as the palace is environed with 
 immense woods and standing waters ; however, 
 the inhabitants are thinning the forest very fast. 
 
 Bordeaux, August, 1774. 
 
 We left Blois after breakfasting with Lady 
 Kenmure, who has resided there ever since her 
 husband was attainted, and proceeded to Amboise, 
 a rude heap of strange buildings. The castle is 
 an uncouth compound of buildings of different 
 ages, upon an irregular rock, and enjoys a noble 
 view. On the hill west of the town is Chanteloup, 
 the seat of the deposed minister, the Duke de 
 Choiseul.^ The edifice is very extensive, of a fiat 
 
 I Etienne François, Duke de Choiseul, prime minister to 
 Louis XV., whose omnipotence continued intact until he and 
 his party fell victims to the intrigues of Madame du Barri, 
 who succeeded in getting him disgraced, and replaced by the 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 41 
 
 form, with large office wings. An old wood runs 
 behind it, and there is great variety of ground 
 in front. 
 
 St. Levis, at a league's distance from Tours, 
 runs close to a ridge of rocks that face a very 
 long range of hills. They are excavated, with 
 dwellings, and cellars with doors, windows, and 
 galleries. Where there is sufficient room, villas 
 and cottages are built before them, and hanging 
 gardens are contrived in the bank. Some romantic 
 ruins are placed on the point of the rocks, and, 
 with the winding Loire, the city of Tours, and 
 the abbey of Marmontier, compose one of the 
 most beautiful landscapes in nature. The new 
 bridge of Tours is of handsome white stone, with 
 flattened arches. The interior part of the city is 
 dirty, narrow, and ill-built; but a street is now 
 carrying round the town, a sort of boulevard, 
 which, although irregular, will be very grand. 
 We had a broad, excellent road here, in a vast 
 
 Duke d'Aiguillon and the Chancellor Maupeou. They men- 
 tion the following anecdote of Madame du Barri, who was 
 so intent upon the disgrace of Choiseul, and so inimical to 
 him, that she discharged her head cook because he happened 
 to bear a striking resemblance to her enemy. Having done 
 this, she said to Louis XV. : " I have discharged my Choiseul, 
 when wiïl you dismiss yours ? " The disgrace of Choiseul 
 took place in 1770, and was the forerunner of the exile of the 
 parliaments, and thence of a great portion of the disasters 
 that ensued. 
 
42 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 open tract of arable country, bearing a resemblance 
 to a disparked forest, studded with large tufted 
 chesnut and walnut trees, thickening into woods 
 and groves as the landscape retires up the hills; 
 there are many country seats on the eminences, 
 or at the verge of the wood. 
 
 The Creuse is a placid, muddy stream. Les 
 Ormes, the château of M. de Paulmy, is a spacious 
 new house, in a rich but false taste of decoration. 
 The banks of the Vienne, on which the garden 
 front looks, are fertile and pleasing; it winds in a 
 gentle, picturesque manner between handsome emi- 
 nences clad with vineyards and woods. The 
 higher plains are laid out in corn, and are full of 
 fruit trees. Châtelhérault affords a fine view, with 
 its steeples and bridges, over the placid Vienne ; 
 but, on a nearer look, its charms vanish, and the 
 town appears to the traveller in its true colours — 
 the nastiest, worst built, and worst paved place 
 in France. From hence a very beautiful road is 
 cut in a direct line up a gentle acclivity through 
 some large oak woods, with a château in perspec- 
 tive. The country grows barer on the approach 
 to that city, and an enchanting view suddenly un- 
 folds itself. 
 
 The river Clair, clear and silent, creeps through 
 the willows in a narrow vale, which hems in the 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 43 
 
 road on the left hand. Steep rocks close the 
 right side, and in front rises a fine amphitheatre 
 of villas, gardens, cottages, woods, and rocks. 
 One beautiful cypress adds greatly to the general 
 effect. At the extremity of this theatrical prospect, 
 Poitiers appears on the point of a high brow, 
 perched like an ancient fortress. There are some 
 striking ruins in the bottom, some towers clad 
 with ivy, and romantic vestiges of walls and cas- 
 cades. It is a poor, depopulated city, with some 
 remains of Roman magnificence still extant. The 
 public walks are very fine. It was at the distance 
 of a stone's throw from the town that the battle 
 was fought in 1356;^ many of the slain lie in the 
 church of the Cordeliers. 
 
 The country from thence is open, with a few 
 straggling chesnut trees. La Crutelle is a pretty 
 spot in a sequestered valley, shaded by oak woods, 
 and watered by a clear rivulet. The views from 
 the hills are almost boundless. Vivonne is a low, 
 dirty place, with a forest round it; its soil is 
 gravelly and red. Pruffée, an ugly town on an 
 eminence, belongs to the Count de Broglie, a very 
 tyrannical master. 
 
 Here begins a new mode of roofing : the roofs 
 
 I The celebrated battle of Poitiers, won by the Black 
 Prince. 
 
44 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 are almost flat, like those in the North of Italy, 
 the chimneys rising out of them. The eye dwells 
 with pleasure upon a rich landscape. Near An- 
 goulême it is bare and rocky; it stands on a high, 
 naked hill, with ugly walls and steeples. The 
 Charente flows in the valley, clear and slow. 
 Walnuts are the only trees. La Consonne, a 
 large convent of Genovesan canons, is remarkable 
 for the architecture of its cupola and some elegant 
 works in a screen before the principal entrance. 
 We passed Barbézieux, an ancient fortified place. 
 It is a marquisate belonging to the heiress of the 
 House of Le Tellier. 
 
 At Montlieu we entered les landes, or heaths, 
 which are a deep black sand, overgrown with 
 whins, furze and heaths, with some oak and chesnut 
 trees. In many places there are large clumps of 
 pinasters of a small size. We were almost suffo- 
 caled with dust and heat in these parts. At 
 Carignan is a well-cultivated country, a great deal 
 of Indian corn and vines. At Cabrac we crossed 
 the Dordogne in a boat, traversed the country 
 called Entre-deux-Mers, which generally inclines to 
 be wet and marshy. Many country-houses were 
 dispersed about. After passing a ridge of woody 
 hills, we crossed a broad plain to the Bastide, 
 where we ferried over the Garonne to Bordeaux. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 45 
 
 We have taken a house on the Fossés du Tanneur, 
 and shall stay here some time. 
 
 Few towns in the world can boast of so fine 
 a situation as this. The Garonne flows in a con- 
 cave semicircle before it, and opposite rise the 
 beautiful hills of Entre-deux-Mers. Its environs, 
 for many miles every way, are covered with vines. 
 The quay along the river is uniformly built for 
 a great length. The square, with the statue of 
 Louis XV., the exchange, the walks and ram- 
 parts, the Château Trompette, and, beyond it, the 
 great regular suburb of the Chartreuse, are such 
 beauties as few cities can show. There is nowhere 
 so great abundance of all kinds of provisions and 
 delicacies. The trade is very considerable. 
 
 The elegant steeple of the Cordeliers was built 
 while Guyenne belonged to the English, during the 
 reign of Edward III., whose initials appear upon 
 the tower. The Porte Basse, which is usually ac- 
 counted a Roman work, is only built with the 
 remains of some great ruin of that people. The 
 English never settled in Guyenne, except a very 
 few families; one of the name of Knollys exists 
 near Lisbourne. None but military men come 
 hither, unless, perhaps, dealers in wool and wine, 
 and none of these looked on Guyenne as their 
 home. Borsis, a learned antiquary here, says he 
 
46 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 has never found in any contract, confrérie or 
 agreement, any English name whatsoever, and 
 proves, by the memorandums of the chief mason, 
 and the account of the expense, that the steeple 
 of St. Michael's church was not built till the 
 English had lost the country; he says he has 
 discovered the ruins of a lion carved by the Sara- 
 cens after they had demolished Bordeaux. 
 
 Bordeaux, March, 1775. 
 There has been a great piece of work and re- 
 joicing here on the parliament being re-established 
 by Louis XVI., sous les auspices de son ministère; 
 the Count de Noailles brought the intelligence. 
 The exiled members returned to their stations, 
 and everybody seem.ed in an uproar of joy. M. 
 de Noailles landed at the Château Rouge from 
 the city barge, after rowing up and down the 
 river, through lines of ships, with their colours 
 flying, and saluting with their guns : he then 
 walked up through the Fossé de l'Intendance to 
 the Government palace between a file of bourgeoisie 
 sous les armes, and preceded by the town guards 
 on horseback and on foot. The acclamations of 
 the people and the crowded appearance of all the 
 windows seemed to please him very much, and, 
 hke the Duke de Guise in the " Henriade," he 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 47 
 
 came along bowing and smiling to the spectators 
 on either side.^ 
 
 In the afternoon all the parliament men and 
 women were assembled at La Chapelle de Barbet, 
 a mile from the town, to receive the premier -pre- 
 sident at a grand banquet. A triumphal arch and 
 the feast were prepared by the freemasons, who 
 distributed invitations, printed on satin, with 
 various devices. He afterwards proceeded to Bor- 
 deaux, escorted by one hundred and sixty coaches 
 full of all the town contains of people of fashion, 
 besides many young men on horseback, and the 
 maréchaussée, each side of the road, every house- 
 top, every window, being crammed as full as 
 could be with spectators. It was an animated 
 spectacle. He was received at his own house by 
 music, garlands and triumphal mottoes, and the 
 mob filled the house so that it was midnight be- 
 fore he got rid of them. 
 
 We went next day to the palace, where M. de 
 Noailles arrived with his guards en habit de cérémonie. 
 The return of the exiles was applauded by a most 
 numerous populace without and a large assembly 
 of gentlemen within the hall. The Manants, or 
 
 I The lines alluded to are these: — 
 " On vit paraître Guise," &c. 
 
 Hcnriade, Chant Troisième. 
 
48 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 such as remained in 1771, were hissed and hooted 
 at by the mob.^ One of the présidents à mortier,* 
 M. d'Augeard, brought us by a side door into the 
 salle de conseil ^ where he placed us close to M. de 
 Noailles. There were not above twenty strangers 
 admitted. The whole parliament was there, attired 
 in red gowns. M. de Noailles opened the assembly 
 with a short and proper speech, expressive of his 
 joy in being the instrument the King had chosen 
 to employ in restoring the parliament of Bordeaux 
 to his people, recommending union, &c. The 
 premier - president then rose and pronounced a 
 good discourse, but very severe on the ministers of 
 the late King, and replete with a greater spirit of 
 resolution and freedom than the Grand Mojiarque 
 might have liked to hear. The edict of re-establish- 
 ment was then read, which is similar to that of 
 Paris. The doors were then thrown open, and it 
 was again read to the multitude. Your friend, 
 M. de Salegourde, who had been exiled to Perre- 
 geux, having received a lettre de cachet like the rest, 
 is come back and takes his seat. 
 
 1 The people of Bordeaux applied this term, which 
 Uterally means a rustic, or boor, to all those members of 
 parliament who did not follow their colleagues into exile. 
 
 2 The présidents à mortier were so called from the pecu- 
 liar shape of their black velvet official caps, which resembled 
 a mortar. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 4g 
 
 The premier -president desired to be remem- 
 bered to you. It is a glorious epoch for him, and 
 has repaid him for all the vexations of his exile. 
 
 We are ail well here except Popsy,* who looks 
 poorly. Her expectations of re-captivating the 
 President de Verthamon are, I fear, vain ; he seems 
 to have no inclination to resume his chains. His 
 apathy affects her much. Edward Dillon succeeds 
 admirably at Court. Monsieur has created a tem- 
 porary charge of gentilhomme d'honneur for him, 
 and the Count d'Artois charges it upon his caisse. 
 It gives him four thousand livres d'appoi7itemens, and 
 is a fine step towards the summit of Fortune's 
 wheel, ^ 
 
 BagnereSf July 2jth, 'L'JJ^. 
 
 Dear Brother, — I have delayed writing that 
 I might have time to collect materials enough to 
 answer the purpose I propose in writing — viz., to 
 amuse you in some of your long evenings. Before 
 I proceed to give an account of my journey hither, 
 or my discovery since I arrived, I shall pass in 
 review what parts of yours may require an answer. 
 
 First with regard to Sorèze, which I take to 
 be the college you mention near Carcassonne; I 
 
 I Mademoiselle Dillon, afterwards Marchioness d'Osmond, 
 sister-in-law to Sir E. Swinburne, who married her elder sister. 
 
 VOL. I A. 
 
50 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 have not been able to get much intelligence here. 
 I passed very near it in going to see the reser- 
 voir at St. Ferrol, and believe it is situated close 
 by Berrel, in a pleasant, hilly country, and conse- 
 quently cannot fail of being in good air. When I 
 was at Pontlevry they talked to me a good deal 
 of their college in Languedoc ; it is bien monté and 
 ver}' numerous, especially in Spaniards, which, 
 perhaps, may hurt the accent. They look upon 
 it as rather on a higher footing and reputation 
 than Pontlevry, but I can say no more of it. I 
 shall let slip no opportunity of obtaining infor- 
 mation, for in all probability I shall be in that 
 neighbourhood in September, and perhaps may 
 meet with somebody from thence before that time, 
 
 I knew of poor N being ill some time 
 
 before you mentioned it; but as ill news always 
 travels quick enough, I was not eager to be the 
 messenger. I hope, however, things are not so 
 bad with the dear little fellow as you apprehend, 
 and perhaps it may save him from future attacks 
 by throwing out early the seeds of the disorder. I 
 really expected a touch of the gout some time 
 ago after drinking these waters, as I felt prickings 
 and uneasiness in my fingers, &c., but they went 
 off very soon, and upon comparing notes with other 
 people, as I found these shootings to be the common 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 51 
 
 effect of the waters in all constitutions, I became 
 easy, and concluded my day was not come. 
 
 On the i6th of June I left Bordeaux with Sir 
 Thomas Gascoigne and Mr. Harry Galway. From 
 Auch to Rabastiens the country is exceedingly 
 hilly, but beautiful, rich and well wooded ; the 
 roads the finest imaginable, carried down the hills 
 in an easy manner at an amazing expense. From 
 Rabastiens to Tarbes it is quite straight through 
 the plain, and this last-mentioned city stands in 
 the centre of one of the best cultivated extents of 
 plain I ever passed through. Though a bishop's 
 see, it is but small, and contains no curiosities of 
 any kind. Gentle eminences bound the plain on 
 three sides, the Pyrenees on the south. 
 
 From hence to Bagnères, about twelve miles, 
 is, perhaps, the prettiest drive in nature, gradually 
 and imperceptibly rising as you advance into the 
 valley of Bagnères ; the road passes through or 
 very near eighteen villages, besides cottages innu- 
 merable, fine open groves of oak and chesnut of 
 great size, orchards without end, multitudes of 
 clear streams running in all directions — small 
 meadows, through which the water is conveyed 
 so universally, and with so much skill, as to pro- 
 duce very tine second crops, large tracts of Turkey 
 wheat, flax, corn and millet. Hills gently risii.g 
 
 4—2 
 
52 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 from a point in the plain till they join the great 
 chain of mountains and the Pic-du-Midi, which is 
 something like the large point of Cheviot, peeping 
 up over the rest. These are the beautiful varieties 
 that you are feasted with in this journey. 
 
 The valley grows narrower and narrower till 
 the town of Bagnères, crossing the whole plain, 
 seems to forbid any further passage, the mountains 
 appearing almost to close behind it. Bagnères is 
 very well built, every house being a lodging-house, 
 and in general much better than any I remember 
 to have seen at other water-drinking places ; they 
 are all white-washed and covered with blue slate, 
 the jambs of the doors and window-sills of a 
 coarse bluish marble, got just above the town. 
 Some have marble pilasters, in no great taste, on 
 each side of their doors. The streets are crooked, 
 and paved with small pebbles. Water runs con- 
 tinually in the middle of every street, and large 
 canals, brought from the Adour for the use of 
 mills, cross the town in four or five places. 
 There are no considerable public buildings. The 
 Coston, or public walk, is short, gloomy and 
 damp, therefore little frequented. Indeed, most 
 people choose to walk out into the country, or 
 upon the public roads, which are more pleasant 
 than the town. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 53 
 
 The country round Bagnères, north and south, 
 consists of a circular plain without trees, crossed 
 by the Adour, which is no more than a violent 
 mountain torrent. On the east a very pleasant 
 ridge of collines confine the vale, and on the west 
 very high, bare mountains come down upon the 
 town, except that, just above the houses, are some 
 very handsome large groves on the slope of the 
 hills. All the smaller hills are beautiful, in great 
 cultivation, and charmingly set off with cottages 
 stuck irregularly on the summits and hollows, 
 with each its clump of large trees and its orchard. 
 Numberless fountains break out of these hillocks, 
 and altogether form enchanting views, contrasted 
 with the bare green tops of the mountains. 
 
 The mineral waters of Bagnères, notwithstand- 
 ing the assertions of the physicians, are, I really 
 think, all of one species, only varying in heat and 
 accidental mixtures. The waters of Salut are 
 a mile from the town, in a nook, under a bare, 
 rocky mountain; a most delightful road winding 
 up the valley leads to them, and they are the 
 most in vogue of any of the baths. There are 
 several in the meadows between the town and the 
 Salut, which is the weakest and coolest of all, 
 scarce having any warmth, and not the least taste. 
 
 There are many baths in the town, with dif- 
 
54 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 ferent properties assigned to them, really existing 
 nowhere but in the idea or roguery of doctors. All 
 come from the waters of La Reine, which issue 
 out of a beautiful grove half way up the hill at 
 the back of the town. They are boiling hot to the 
 hand, but not at all so to the stomach, and I 
 believe them to be far the most likely to be effi- 
 cacious, if there is any virtue in these waters, 
 which I believe to be small. I took those of the 
 Salut regularly for a month, and found, with 
 the help of very early rising, a good walk before 
 breakfast, sober living and exercise, that they 
 afforded me great lightness and greater ease in 
 taking my long walk up the mountains. The 
 baths are delicious. 
 
 I have not yet made any very long excursions, 
 but intend in the first moon of August to go to 
 Bareges and the Mature-du-Roy, which will be a 
 long ramble through the mountains, of which you 
 may expect a very minute detail. Meanwhile I 
 will give you an abstract of what I have remarked 
 in this neighbourhood, according as I find it in 
 my journal. 
 
 Bigorre, being a frais d'etat, is much better 
 off than its neighbours; the inhabitants more 
 numerous, better dressed, and much more at their 
 ease, scarcely any person being without some 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 55 
 
 small landed property. The malady amon^ the 
 horned cattle has been kept out of this country 
 by a timely exertion of their powers in indemnify- 
 ing such as killed their suspected cattle. 
 
 The mountains hereabouts afford vast plenty 
 of pasturage for innumerable herds of cattle and 
 flocks of sheep, that travel up from the plains in 
 summer, and constitute the riches of the province, 
 which has no external commerce or manufacture 
 at home. The plains produce immense quantities 
 of hay, maize, rye, some bearded wheat and bar- 
 ley, and very bad wine from vines which are 
 trained up to the cherry trees near Tarbes, but 
 none near Bagnères, except against houses. The 
 fruit here is not succulent or high-flavoured. 
 
 The woods that cover some of the mountains 
 are of beech, more for fuel than for timber. 
 Higher up are large tracts of silver fir, but not 
 very large, being all hacked and hewed, as wood 
 here belongs to the communautés of the neighbour- 
 ing villages. I am told there are many sorts of 
 firs and pines farther up. Oak does not abound in 
 the mountains, but grows to a great size on the 
 lower hills, where I am surprised to see whole 
 woods of beech and oak, all planted about the 
 thickness of a walking-stick with the head cut oif, 
 yet producing very noble, sound trees, to judge by 
 
56 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 the fine old timber close by, which has evidently 
 been planted. 
 
 This is very contrary to the received notions 
 of gardening in England. It must be a very windy 
 country, which in general hinders such plantations 
 firom thriving with us ; yet upon the bleak ridges 
 of their down-like hills I see every day rows of 
 fine oak, beech and birch, growing tall and healthy, 
 and small single ones put in to supply the place 
 of such as are felled for use, thriving very well 
 without any prop or shelter but a few briers to 
 keep off the cattle. 
 
 The finest beechwood I ever beheld, which we 
 rode in for hours, has all been planted out of 
 nurseries or woods. The chesnut trees are very 
 fine. It is surprising who can egg on the peasants 
 to plant upon the heaths and hills, where it seems 
 to be a kind of public undertaking. Large cherry 
 trees abound in the cultivated parts. Great tracts 
 of mountain have been by degrees cleared of wood, 
 partly through neglect and partly by design, to 
 procure more pasture for the cattle. The wood 
 having been so long thick on the summits, has 
 preserved them from the ravages of rain and tor- 
 rents, and there is a fine verdure on most of 
 them; but it is likely that, now they are bare, the 
 snows and storms will get hold, and in time wash 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 57 
 
 down all the soil, and leave the rocks bare and 
 peaked like the Alps, which are infinitely less 
 rounded and more irregular than the Pyrenees. 
 
 Of the shrub kind I have found great varie- 
 ties of my acquaintance : some of the sides of the 
 craggy mountains are clad with box. The lane 
 hedges afford holly, dogwood, viburnum, privet, 
 gooseberry-leaved currant, &c. Of the flower kind 
 I have not discovered many that are out of the 
 common beat. 
 
 Under the silver firs grow a great quantity of 
 pale London pride and single yellow ranunculuses. 
 This must suffice for the vegetable system. What 
 I have to say of the mineral kingdom will be 
 very short, as I hear of no mines near the place; 
 the rocks are composed in general, near Salut, 
 of a large stony slate containing much pyrites of 
 the cat-silver or pale false metal, kino, such as I 
 have at Hamsterley. Other parts are marble, 
 darkish blue and coarse. 
 
 In the vale of Campan, three leagues up the 
 river, is a large quarry of very pretty green and 
 white, and about the same distance south-east is 
 a quarry of red and white marble. Near Campan, 
 half way up the crags, is a cave, about one 
 hundred and four paces long, which I went to a 
 few days ago. It is narrow and vending, not 
 
5$ LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 handsome or lofty, and though moist, contains no 
 springs. They have broken and carried off all the 
 fine pieces of crystal and stalactites, and there are 
 only small pieces of either left, some of which I 
 brought away for specimens. 
 
 Madame de Brionne has had the ridiculous 
 vanity of having a marble plate put up in the 
 bottom of the grotto, that the world may know 
 that she and her company, among which even 
 the lackeys' names are engraven, penetrated so 
 far in 1765. 
 
 Limestone abounds here, and very good cement 
 is made with it. As for antiquities, all I can say 
 on that head will go in a very small compass. 
 The Romans knew of these baths, and probably 
 Bagnères comes from halnearia. There are three 
 inscriptions in the town, one to the Numen 
 Augusti, another to Mars, and a third, ** Nymphis 
 pro salute sua." There may be more, but I have 
 not met with them, nor with anybody like a 
 cicerone. Henry de Transtamare, afterwards King 
 of Castile, seized upon this place, and Marguerite 
 de Valois exempted it from all " lots et ventes,'" on 
 condition of a certain sum of money received for 
 apprentice fees being appropriated to dancing, 
 merrymaking and bonfires, firom St. John's to 
 St. Peter's Days. This privilege is well kept up. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 59 
 
 On those days every top of the neighbouring hills 
 has its fire, and all the country girls assemble to 
 dance in the town and neighbouring greens. 
 
 As to the people of the country, as far as I 
 have any occasion for experience, they are fair and 
 honest dealers, and not such dirty and pilfering 
 scoundrels as the Bordelois. No Protestants among 
 them. Their features harsh, and few pretty women, 
 but a sound, stout race of middling size. All go 
 barefoot, except when they dance, an exercise of 
 which they acquit themselves extremely well. The 
 paysannes wear red cloth, short peaked veils, very 
 unbecoming ; on holidays, the better sort have 
 them white, long and transparent ; they are an 
 industrious set of people. Their patois varies in 
 every village. 
 
 The only remnants of English conquest I have 
 found out are, a ruined fortress without an entrance, 
 on a very high hill, and the word hay, by which 
 name they understand foin. But perhaps this may 
 come from heno,^ which is Spanish for hay. 
 
 To say anything of the way of life at Bagnères 
 would be very unsatisfactory to you ; let it suffice 
 to say that the walks and surrounding country are 
 
 I The Spanish heno, Hke the Italian fieno, and French 
 foin, is derived from the Latin fenum; the English word 
 hay is from the German Heu, but the root is the same. 
 
60 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 charming. No public places but the wells early in 
 the morning, and assemblies at private houses for 
 cards; very dull and close. The Bishop of Tarbes, 
 who is affability and politeness itself, has an open 
 house, where he is always glad to receive strangers 
 to dine and spend part of the evening. 
 
 There are here a large posse of Americans ; 
 "vous savez ce qu'en vaut l'aune," so need no 
 further account of them. 
 
 We are threatened with a troupe de comédiens, 
 and more gaiety ; with how much foundation I 
 know not. However, my time is so well filled 
 with walking, riding, dining, sleeping, and that 
 very, very essential part of life, sauntering away 
 my time, that no part hangs heavy upon my 
 hands, nor can I manage to find a sufficient 
 quantity of it for reading, writing, &c. ; so pray 
 be grateful for that which I here bestow upon you. 
 
 Our present plan, Deo volente, is to remain 
 here, where Mrs. Swinburne joined me on the 
 ist inst., till about the second week of September; 
 then we intend going to Toulouse, and if Mrs. S. 
 pleases she will spend the winter at Aix or Nice, 
 whilst I and Sir Thomas turn off at Narbonne to 
 pass a few months in Spain. 
 
 As Sir Thomas carries me, and it is an oppor- 
 tunity I never can expect again, I believe I shall 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 6l 
 
 be tempted to go. Don't mention it to anybody 
 
 until I have taken my final resolution about the 
 
 project. 
 
 If such nonsense can be allowed a place in a 
 
 corner, I desire you will keep this letter till I see 
 
 you, for fear my notes and journals should be lost 
 
 in my frequent peregrinations. — Adieu 1 
 
 W. S. 
 
 August 20th f 1775. 
 
 Dear Brother, — I wish you may not find this 
 a much dearer letter than its contents are worth. 
 But I judge you by my own sentiments. I am 
 always reconciled to the postage of my friends' 
 letters, provided they are but full, no matter 
 whether of sense or trifles. 
 
 Our weather here is still very unsettled, rather 
 rainy than fair. Mrs. Swinburne proposes pass- 
 ing the winter at a house in the plain near Tarbes, 
 which is a pleasant situation, but a dull town ; 
 but the acquaintance of the bishop, who resides 
 there altogether and is very civil to us, and the 
 occupation her children give her, make her rather 
 unfit for the enjoyment of a more dissipated winter 
 residence. This has, besides, the additional merit 
 of being extremely cheap, very near us, and con- 
 sequently no expense or trouble in conveying bag 
 
62 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 and baggage thither; and is, moreover, in the way 
 to any other place she may prefer to remove to. 
 For my part, I shall go to Spain next month, v^^ith 
 my Pylades, by the way of Toulouse and Barcelona, 
 and return by Bayonne. 
 
 How far we shall push our travels, or how 
 long we shall be out, I cannot yet affirm, as it 
 will depend upon circumstances ; but our present 
 intention is to go as far as Grenada, Gibraltar, 
 Cadiz, perhaps from thence to Lisbon, and after- 
 wards to Madrid. You may expect an account of 
 my peregrinations, but will perhaps wait some time 
 for it, as I have some thoughts of making up a 
 pamphlet of it, if it answers my expectations. I 
 also intend drawing everything worth notice on 
 the route. 
 
 Direct to me " Poste Restante, à Bagnères." 
 Mrs. S. will take care to draw out the letters ; and 
 when you write, write a great deal, and pray re- 
 member, I know of nobody's marriage or death, 
 or any one occurrence of the country, nor am I 
 likely to know anything about it except from my 
 friends. Jack Errington must be at home by this 
 time, as he was lately at Bordeaux, on his return 
 from Spain. 
 
 Mrs. S. made a prodigious progress in Madame 
 d'Anglures' affairs, having, before she left Bordeaux, 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 63 
 
 persuaded M. la Burte to see his daughter, and 
 receive her in his house, to dine with her at ours, 
 and carry her into the country with him. He has 
 given her money, but how it will end I cannot yet 
 foresee. This is after twenty-two years of com- 
 plete abandonment of his child ; and this is Mrs. 
 Swinburne's doing, who is the most warm-hearted 
 and indefatigable of friends. 
 
 Malaga, January 6th, 1776. 
 
 To Mrs. S. — I must write you a few lines from 
 here, because the consul's brother or cousin sets 
 out this evening for Tarbes, so I could not resist 
 the temptation of writing, by him, to wish you and 
 the dear children many happy returns of the new 
 year ; but the heat in this place is so insufferable 
 and oppressive that I have hardly strength to hold 
 my pen. What must it be in the summer-time ! 
 
 We came here on horseback from Antequera, 
 where we left our luggage. We ascended the Sierra 
 by a most tremendous winding path over the rocks. 
 This pass is called the Escaruela ; there the Jesuits 
 had a large estate. The hedges are full of beautiful 
 flowers, almond trees in full blossom, marigold, 
 myrtle, cystus, periwinkle, trumpet honeysuckle, 
 and oleanders, in the beds of the torrents. We 
 
64 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 were glad to sit in the shade of a venta,^ to eat our 
 cold dinner, near a ruined village called Almoina, 
 with a demolished castle, in the very heart of the 
 Sierra. 
 
 We descended a range of steep hills to the 
 Playa, and soon arrived at the gates of Malaga. 
 Our accommodations are horrid, but the consul, 
 Mr. Marsh, is very civil. He has a sister in the 
 seraglio of the Emperor of Morocco. The cathedral 
 here, which was built in the time of Philip and 
 Mary, has the English arms over the altar. I saw 
 beautiful double yellow roses in a farmer's garden 
 in the Playa. The streets are narrow, the castle 
 Moorish. 
 
 We stayed a week at Grenada after I wrote to 
 you. It took that time for me to make my draw- 
 ings of that most curious of all palaces — the 
 Alhambra, which is situated on a hill covered 
 with wood, where fountains run through. There is 
 a Moorish arched entrance of the castle with a 
 horseshoe turn, mosaic ornaments, and a key in 
 the keystone. There are fine views from the para- 
 pets of the inner court, beautiful basso-relievos 
 added by Charles V. The doors are adorned with 
 rings of bronze, a lion and eagle's mouth. The 
 towers are lofty, built with cobble stones, joined 
 I A small roadside tavern. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 65 
 
 together in a smooth surface by mortar. We passed 
 under the aqueduct, which comes from the moun- 
 tains and supplies the castle with a fine stream. 
 
 We were assured that the last Moorish ambas- 
 sador was as well acquainted with every part of 
 this neighbourhood as if he had spent his life in it. 
 There are no remains of Morisco furniture. 
 
 We went to the play at Grenada — such a 
 stupid thing — a friar and his ass the principal 
 performers. 
 
 As late as twenty years ago, there were a great 
 many Moorish families remaining at Grenada ; but 
 they were found out and driven away, after being 
 pillaged of twelve millions of crowns. They made 
 the trade flourish, which now decays daily. There 
 are still Moors at Rio Daro, with round faces, small 
 bright eyes, little noses, and underlips advancing. 
 They are humble and smooth-tongued, but it is 
 hard to force money out of them. 
 
 Fruit and meat keep very well at the Alhambra, 
 for the cellars are very cool. The air is extremely 
 wholesome in the city, where in most houses a 
 small stream of water runs through the rooms in 
 which the family sleeps. We made acquaintance 
 with an old parasitical officer of family, Don Diego 
 Borroques. The Alhambra was opened on the ist 
 of January to the people, in commemoration of 
 
 VOL. I 5 
 
66 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 the surrender ; everybody paid some acknowledg- 
 ment to the governor, one Buccarelli, a drunkard, 
 who lives like a toad in a hole, and has a little 
 window over the door, where he sits and counts 
 the people, calculating what the day will be worth 
 to him. 
 
 I wrote my adieus on the wall behind the door 
 in one of the subterraneous rooms,^ near the Moorish 
 burial-place, in the two following concetti, and then 
 took my leave of this most curious and well-watered 
 
 edifice : — 
 
 Hail prophet, most indulgent to mankind I 
 If thus on earth thy paradise we find, 
 What must on high thy promised raptures prove, 
 Where black-eyed houris breathe eternal love I 
 Thy faith and doctrine sure were quite divine, 
 Had so much water but a little wine.^ 
 His regum heu ! nimis infelicium deliciis die pro capta 
 
 urbe triumphali mœstum, vale discernunt. — ^T. G. et H. S. 
 
 Angh. 
 
 1 These subterraneous chambers are similar to the tah- 
 khanehs, or underground apartments of Persia and Afghan- 
 istan, which form a cool retreat during the extreme heat 
 of day. 
 
 2 Mr. Swinburne's concetto calls to mind the following 
 old French drinking song: — 
 
 " Cet univers ah qu'il est beau I 
 Mais pourquoi dans ce bel ouvrage, 
 Le Seigneur a-t'il mis tant d'eau? 
 Le vin me plairoit d'avantage. 
 S'il n'a pas fait un élément 
 De cette liqueur rubiconde, 
 Le Seigneur s'est montré prudent — 
 Nous eussions bu le monde." 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 67 
 
 I walked up to see the Generaliffe, the Moorish 
 monarch's spring palace. The great hall is well 
 stuccoed ; it is well watered, and has some fine 
 myrtle hedges. We were shown a large cypress, 
 where the Abencerrage sat with the Queen. The 
 great drive of the town is on the Alameda, by the 
 side of the Xenil ; it would be a beautiful scene 
 were not the river too shallow. The people still 
 use the Moorish cry when they bathe or hear joyful 
 tidings; for those who knew trades were suffered 
 to remain when all the rest were expelled the 
 kingdom. 
 
 We paid a visit near Grenada to the late 
 minister, General Wall. At eighty-two he is very 
 active, walks his five or six hours a day, my pace, 
 which is a pretty brisk one, with his guns in his 
 hand, talking all the way. He has a fund of the 
 most entertaining anecdotes of Courts and courtiers. 
 His hunting seat belongs to the King, who has given 
 him up the revenue of the territory. It is a most 
 delicious habitation for winter. In the summer it 
 is not tenable, for the vapours are obnoxious, and 
 the heat insupportable. He then goes again to 
 Court for two months, and spends the autumn at 
 his house in the suburbs of Grenada. He was 
 extremely civil to us, and parted ft-om us with 
 great apparent regret, saying : " Such birds of 
 
 5—2 
 
68 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 passage seldom alight in these parts.*' And, in- 
 deed, he sees very little company of any kind. 
 
 Cadiz f January 14th , 1776. 
 
 Dear Brother, — First, many happy new years 
 to you all, and, secondly, thanks for your letter of 
 the 29th of October, which I found waiting for me 
 here. You see I have surpassed even your most 
 sanguine expectations, and have penetrated to the 
 ne plus ultra of Hercules. 
 
 I have been more minute and inquisitive about 
 every particular on the route, than a Fellow of the 
 Antiquarian Society in a heap of rubbish, and in- 
 tend most bravely to go into print hereafter. The 
 publication of a pompous book on Spain, by Mr. 
 Twiss, damped my ardour when I heard of it ; but 
 upon the perusal of the work my colour came 
 again, and the resolution has become doubly strong 
 in me. It is scarcely possible to write a more 
 shallow, pedantic, catch-penny book than that, and 
 I think a plain, unaffected tour may go down after 
 his bombast and trifles. I have besides drawn 
 every antiquity, city and remarkable view, in my 
 way, with great attention and accuracy, which 
 Mr. Twiss's prints are generally deficient in. His 
 Madonna is, no doubt, a fine print, but has as 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 69 
 
 little to do there as a copy of any other picture 
 in Spain. 
 
 I have employed several days in taking the 
 views inside and outside of the Moorish palace at 
 Grenada — the ornaments, capitals, dimensions, mo- 
 saics, &c., of its apartments — by which means I 
 have formed a collection that will give you a just 
 idea of their architecture, &c. Though I ought 
 not to anticipate, I cannot resist the temptation 
 of running slightly over the journey with you, and 
 faintly tracing the outlines of what I have seen in 
 the course of this long peregrination ; remember 
 it is for your own private amusement. 
 
 On the 24th of October we entered Spain at 
 Bellegarde, and arrived in four days at Barcelona. 
 You know the route ; therefore, as the roads are 
 exactly as you left them, I shall pass over that 
 much of Catalonia in silence. The hospitality of 
 our countrymen, the politeness of the intendant, 
 who was there in your time, and, by-the-bye, has 
 a most charming daughter, combined with the 
 general alacrity of the principal Spaniards to pro- 
 cure us a sight of everything curious about the 
 place, made us pass the time very agreeably till 
 the 19th of November, when we took our departure 
 for Valencia and the coast. Before we quitted 
 Barcelona we rode to Montserrat and stayed a 
 
70 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 day with the abbot. Here I made my first cam- 
 paign in the Spanish language, having no other 
 to convey our ideas by. 
 
 I am sorry to find, by what I can learn from 
 St. Germain, that you neglected seeing this moun- 
 tain on your way from Madrid. It is undoubtedly 
 one of the greatest curiosities in the world. Its 
 pyramidal rocks, the hermitages dispersed among 
 its precipices, more like the nests of eagles than 
 the dwellings of men, and the situation of the 
 convent in a cleft of the mountain, are most singu- 
 lar and romantic. In this point, as in all others, 
 you shall see my commonplace book, where I 
 have entered into the most minute details, and 
 on a rainy evening you will be able to bear the 
 reading of them, as they will make the matter 
 plainer to you, with the help of the drawings. 
 The roads from Barcelona to the confines of Va- 
 lencia are very rocky and disagreeable, the accom- 
 modation abominable, but the paysage most charming 
 — one never loses sight of the sea, sometimes viewing 
 it from a mountain, at others almost on a level with 
 it, catching a light through the olive trees. We 
 passed under an elegant Roman arch, and came 
 near the tomb of the two Scipios, but were dis- 
 appointed in our search for antiquities at Tarragona. 
 
 Tortosa and the Ebro afforded us no great 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 7I 
 
 entertainment, but we were highly delighted with 
 our travels along the coast of Valencia. Nature 
 and art have contributed to make a terrestrial 
 paradise of it to the eye, for there is so general 
 a want of taste in its productions, animal and 
 vegetable, that any English stomach would be 
 pursed up for want of matter to digest. Murviedro 
 (the ancient Saguntum) has still a theatre, pretty 
 entire, to show as its credentials. 
 
 From the Moorish castle that occupies the 
 summit of the hill you command a matchless 
 view of the plain of Valencia, perhaps twenty 
 leagues along the coast, that city rising in a forest 
 of olives, orange, palm, mulberry, and locust trees, 
 that cover the whole level before you ; the range 
 of broken mountains on the right, and the bound- 
 less Mediterranean on the left. 
 
 Shut your eyes and draw the picture in those 
 of your mind. The sun was so hot that we could 
 not stay long to enjoy the voluptuous feast. Per- 
 haps you never saw any locust trees or algarobas, 
 so it may be necessary to tell you that it is a 
 large bushy tree, an evergreen.^ The leaves are 
 of a bright deep beech-green, set opposite each 
 other on the branches. It produces a large pod, 
 very sweet and palatable, and is the food of the 
 I Robinia. 
 
72 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 mules in this kingdom of Valencia, where the 
 country is covered with them. Here I ate for 
 the first time the helota, or acorns of the ever- 
 green oak, and do not at all pity the gentlemen 
 of the golden age, for they are excellent eating. 
 
 Valencia is in so dead a flat, and so surrounded 
 with trees, that one cannot get a full sight of it 
 from any place; but it is a populous, large, dirty 
 city, full of churches like mesquitas, unpaved and 
 unpleasant. From thence we proceeded to Alicante, 
 a white town under a large rock, that was partly 
 blown up in Queen Anne's wars. Our countrymen 
 received us, as everywhere else, with open arms 
 and the greatest cordiality. Eletre, a large town 
 not far from thence, is unique, being situated in 
 the middle of an extensive wood, or rather forest, 
 of palm trees, now loaded with their orange-coloured 
 fruit; the branches are an object of commerce for 
 Italy in Lent. The plain of Murcia deserves its 
 reputation for richness and beauty; the mountains 
 that run along each side of it prevent the eye 
 from being disgusted with the sameness common 
 to a view over so large a flat, but the city is 
 nothing. Carthagena is a hole, but a most ad- 
 mirable port. The Spaniards seemed jealous of 
 us, but the governor permitted us very politely 
 to row all round it, and to see everything in the 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 73 
 
 arsenal ; this is very ill-provided, and shipbuilding 
 goes on slowly indeed. Fourteen hundred slaves, 
 that work twelve or sixteen hours out of the four- 
 and-twenty at a pump, to keep the docks clear of 
 water, is a curious but an unpleasant spectacle for 
 a man of the least humanity. Not half are Moors. 
 The labour is so severe, the place so unwholesome, 
 that they frequently drop down dead at the pump. 
 
 From Carthagena to Grenada, except in some 
 hollows near rivers, the country is a perfect naked 
 desert. On every pointed mountain along this 
 coast are towers of alarm, or ruined Moorish for- 
 tresses, the only objects that induce the jaded 
 traveller to stretch his head out of the chaise 
 window. The inconveniences that we experienced 
 in this long route, notwithstanding every possible 
 precaution we could take to be well provided, are 
 sufficient to deter all future travellers, if any such 
 should ask my opinion; but all difficulties vanish, 
 all pains are forgotten, when once we arrive at 
 Grenada — a heaven on earth. 
 
 The city is built partly on a high hill at the 
 foot of the Sierra Nevada, so called from being 
 almost always covered with snow; partly on the 
 slopes of this and two other eminences; but the 
 greatest extent of building runs along the plain 
 at the bottom ; two small rivers, the Xenil and 
 
74 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Daro, join and transverse its streets, where thou- 
 sands of streams run down every alley, and 
 through all its squares. The greatest quantity of 
 water, and the best in quality, comes down from 
 the Alhambra, an immense Moorish castle, built 
 on the middle hill that overlooks Grenada, and 
 this supply is brought in canals from the still 
 higher hills behind, where the art and labour of 
 the Moors are yet visible in spite of all the idle- 
 ness and neglect of the Spaniards in keeping up 
 and repairing their aqueducts and reservoirs. 
 
 Charles V. pulled down a great part of the 
 Moorish palace within the walls of the fortress, 
 and built a very beautiful square palace with a 
 Doric circus in it, in an admirable, chaste style of 
 architecture. Like many others of his projects, it 
 was never finished, and now remains exposed to 
 all the inclemency of the seasons. But they are 
 so mild at Grenada, that, if the mischievous hand 
 of man does not accelerate its destruction, it 
 may still remain for ages. Adjoining it are ths 
 palaces, destined by the Moorish kings for their 
 baths, their concerts, and their women. The 
 richness of the stucco work, the profusion of 
 water, marbles, paintings, and gildings, are truly 
 wonderful, and utterly unlike anything I ever met 
 with before. There is a light, fairy kind of 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 75 
 
 appearance in the pillars and ornaments, not to 
 be expressed, and the climate is so temperate 
 that no moss or damp appears anywhere ; the 
 views from its windows are divine — over the city, 
 and down the vega or plain, which is at least four 
 leagues or more, before it is closed in by the 
 mountains. But I could run on for hours on so 
 favourite a topic — it is time to stop, that I may 
 leave something for you to read hereafter. 
 
 We stayed eight days, during which we have 
 had the most delightful weather possible ever 
 since we left France ; except five days, whilst at 
 Barcelona, there has not been a drop of rain, but 
 rather too much sun. The Christmas holidays 
 were delicious. Such crowds of pretty women 
 (for they are very pretty and clear - skinned at 
 Grenada), sitting out on all the hills and public 
 walks in the evening, and such serenity in the 
 air, that it was always with the greatest reluctance 
 we retired to our habitation. 
 
 We spent two days at the bottom of the vega 
 with General Wall at his retirement, the Soto di 
 Roma. He has fitted up a small royal shooting 
 box very neatly, kills all his own meat, and 
 employs himself in draining, and making beautiful 
 drives through about four thousand acres of wood, 
 which covers all that part of the plain. He is a 
 
76 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 charming, agreeable man of eighty-two ; free and 
 communicative, active and merry, vi^alks five or 
 six hours every day, and seems to enjoy life as 
 well as other people can expect to do at fifty. 
 From his house we came to Antequera, where we 
 left our carriages and rode over diabolical moun- 
 tains to Malaga, where we stayed two days. Its 
 church is very grand in the inside, the outside 
 crowded. I am told it is almost as large as 
 St. Paul's, but it did not appear of that size to 
 me. From Antequera we had five days' deep 
 road and much rain through the rich but naked 
 plains of Andalusia, and yesterday came hither 
 from Port St. Mary in a bark. 
 
 The bay is superb, and gloriously crowded 
 with vessels. It now rains very hard; I hope it 
 does not mean to last. As you will in all pro- 
 bability see Dr. Percy, tell him that I have been 
 reading the romance of Don Alonzo de Aguilar, 
 which he has translated in his reliques of ancient 
 poetry, and, being in the country, am able to in- 
 form him that he has been led into a slight error 
 in the beginning by the words rio verde, which he 
 took to be only a poetical descriptive epithet, and 
 accordingly has changed it to gentle river. Now 
 Rio Verde (green river) is as much the name of 
 that river, where the skirmish happened, as Black- 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 77 
 
 wall is the name of the place to eat whitebait 
 in ; and it would be a little odd to make a copy 
 of verses upon that, and change Blackwall to gentle 
 wall. If you tell him this, mind, I do not mean 
 it as a criticism, only as a piece of information. 
 
 Rio Verde is a small torrent that falls into the 
 Mediterranean, near Ronda, at the foot of the 
 Sierra Bermeja, between Malaga and Gibraltar. 
 
 TO MR. B. 
 
 Cadiz, January 2^th, 1776. 
 
 Dear Sir, — You should have heard from me 
 long before I got so far into this country, but for 
 the following reasons: That I wished to send you 
 an account of our journey properly digested, and 
 free from all those errors that one naturally falls 
 into at the first arrival in a strange place, before 
 observation and experience have taught to dis- 
 tinguish solid and true information from vulgar and 
 frivolous intelligence. 
 
 As my coming into Spain was quite an im- 
 promptu, I had not leisure to acquaint you with 
 my motives, and left that office to Patty, which I 
 conclude she has long ago acquitted herself of. 
 
 I hope I shall have no reason to repent having 
 made this excursion, as I left her very well and 
 commodiously settled at Tarbes, where, according 
 
yS LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 to the letter she has written to me, she and the 
 children enjoy perfect health, and she passes her 
 time very agreeably. I have drawn accurate views 
 of all the cities and antiquities, &c., on my route, 
 and as no such things have yet appeared, I thought 
 engravings of these might be acceptable to the 
 public. 
 
 The publication of Twiss's book, I apprehended, 
 would render my plan abortive, but, on seeing it, 
 I found his views few in number, and so wretchedly 
 designed and executed as to convey hardly any 
 idea to me of the places he has meant to repre- 
 sent. I have taken notes of everything in the 
 journey, and intend digesting them, to serve as an 
 explanation to the drawing. I have enclosed the 
 first sheet of it, and shall continue so to do till 
 you let me know that the work is not worth the 
 postage. I beg you will spend a leisure hour in 
 perusing, altering and correcting it. 
 
 My intention is to avoid all attempts at humour 
 and witticisms, all trivial and puerile remarks, and 
 accounts which can only interest myself, such as 
 dinners and names of people that have been civil 
 to us, trifling accidents, &c., which constitute the 
 principal part of Twiss's book. The rest is made 
 up of quotations, blunders and nonsense. I never 
 read so silly a book, Baretti's not excepted. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 79 
 
 What I should wish to compass is to give a 
 faithful, clear, gentlemanlike account of everything 
 remarkable in this kingdom; and I have been for- 
 tunate enough to procure a great deal of authentic 
 information from the principal Spaniards, to whom 
 we brought letters of recommendation in every 
 tour, and who are much fonder of talking and 
 acquainting one with everything about their country 
 than the French themselves. Besides, were Twiss's 
 as excellent a book as it is a bad one, his tour and 
 ours interfere but seldom, as he has not visited the 
 northern parts of Spain. 
 
 I must now give you a short detail of our 
 journey, first premising that we were everywhere 
 received with the greatest kindness by the British 
 families settled in the seaports, who loaded us with 
 civilities during our stay among them, and with 
 wine and provisions at our departure, a very neces- 
 sary help in this part of the world. After remaining 
 in Barcelona long enough to make acquaintances, 
 and branch out our letters of recommendation to 
 all parts of Spain, we proceeded to Valencia ; then 
 through Alicante, Murcia, Carthagena, and Grenada 
 to Cadiz, having had only two bad days, as to the 
 weather, in our long journey from Barcelona to 
 Andalusia. 
 
 About three days' journey from Cadiz, we got 
 
8o LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 into the rainy country, and it has not ceased an 
 hour since, which is near a fortnight. It had rained 
 here for a fortnight before, and, if we beheve the 
 weatherwise, will continue a month longer. The 
 roads will not be passable for some time, so that 
 we are here kept prisoners, which is a great loss of 
 time ; but our quarters are good, for this town is 
 reckoned the most agreeable in Spain. There is an 
 excellent French comedy, a very indifferent Italian 
 opera, and a Spanish theatre, open every night. 
 
 The factory is very numerous,^ and glad to 
 make travellers welcome, so that we are feasted 
 and made much of, which keeps us in very good 
 humour. 
 
 As soon as the weather permits, we propose 
 going for a few days to Gibraltar, and return here 
 and make the best of our way, by Seville, Cordova, 
 and the Sierra Morena, to Madrid, where our stay 
 will be very short. Our journey out of Spain will 
 be by Segovia, Valladolid, Burgos and Bayonne. 
 
 We have enjoyed the most delightful weather 
 possible on the road. As we travelled almost 
 always south, the sun was rather too powerful, but 
 always so high as not to come into the windows 
 and beam in our eyes. The pace we went was 
 
 I The company of merchants. Each foreign nation 
 had, and still has, its factory. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 8 1 
 
 very slow, for the roads are wofully bad, but the 
 fineness of the weather made amends for every- 
 thing. I generally walked half the day's journey, 
 or occasionally rode an ambling mule, which we 
 purchased in Catalonia, the easiest monture in the 
 world. You may sleep, or carry a glass of wine 
 steady, though they go at such a rate as will keep 
 a horse in a very long trot or canter. I have seen 
 two that have gone from Rens, near Tarragona, 
 to Barcelona, between sun and sun. 
 
 We made about two days' and a half journey 
 of it. As we carry beds and provision with us, 
 we have been able to put up with the wretched 
 hovels called inns. Without those precautions, one 
 must be a muleteer to get a wink of sleep, and often 
 run the risk of lying down on the floor supperless. 
 
 If these letters appear any way amusing to 
 you I shall continue them till I have completed 
 this tour; if not, I shall drop the scheme, and 
 keep my remarks to myself. The drawings, I 
 think, stand a fair chance, as I am sure of their 
 exactness and value. 
 
 TO MR. B. 
 
 Gibraltar, Feb. 2gth, 1776. 
 After long and weary expectation, the weather 
 at last cleared up, and we were enabled to leave 
 
 VOL. I 6 
 
82 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Cadiz last Saturday afternoon on horseback. We 
 slept at Chiclana, a pleasant town, where most of 
 the merchants resort, in spring and autumn, to 
 spend a few weeks at their villas, which compose 
 the greatest part of the town. The next day we 
 were worse off, being obliged to pass the night at 
 a small thatched house on the wastes. My bed 
 was straw from the stable; the rest slept in the 
 smoky crib on cork stools round the fire. 
 
 On Monday we reached San Roque, where 
 the Spanish governor of the lines resides, and 
 procured proper passes, with which we got into 
 this extraordinary place next morning early. The 
 whole country from Chiclana to San Roque is 
 either forest or heath, with few signs of inhabi- 
 tants, and the worst roads in the world, even for 
 mules. 
 
 General Boyd, and other persons to whom we 
 brought letters, received us very politely. For a 
 few days the bustle and military appearance of 
 the place may be entertaining enough, but the 
 style of life cannot please much longer. It was 
 no small satisfaction to be once more on British 
 ground, to hear our own language spoken, and to 
 see so many jolly roast-beef faces, after having so 
 long been used to swarthy, peaked countenances 
 and small-limbed people. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 83 
 
 The soldiery here look like giants. The Hano- 
 verians are tall, but not so well made below. 
 They agree very well with the English, being a 
 quick, good-natured people, keeping much together, 
 and disHked by none but the wine-houses, who 
 have lost very good friends in the three regiments 
 lately sent away. 
 
 While we were at Cadiz there came in three 
 American ships, consigned to a friend of ours. 
 The cargoes and ships were sold. They had 
 come from different parts of the coast, and all 
 agree that the distress for every kind of neces- 
 sary and convenience was very great among the 
 provincials when they came away, and great 
 murmurings among the sober part of the people. 
 All the captains are North American born. 
 
 Our stay here will be short, and we intend 
 to run over to Tangiers for a few days; for the 
 Barbary coast looks so near that it is quite 
 tempting, and the good oranges that come daily 
 from thence are a further inducement to see the 
 fine country which produces them. 
 
 This place is a tower of Babel — such a con- 
 fusion of tongues and dresses 1 English, French, 
 Spanish, Hebrew, Italian, Arabic — you may hear 
 all in half the length of a street. 
 
 We have seven Dutch men-of-war here, with 
 
 6—2 
 
84 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Admiral Hartsing; and one English frigate, the 
 Experiment, Sir Thomas Rich. His lady is with 
 him. — ^Adieu. 
 
 Cadiz, March 20th, 1776. 
 
 Dear Brother, — I think my last to you was 
 from this place, about the middle of January; 
 since which our peregrinations have not extended 
 very far. Six weeks* incessant rain detained us 
 here — half January and almost all February. 
 The carnival was not brilliant, as no public 
 assemblies were allowed by the old fool of a 
 governor. The theatres were the great resource. 
 The French one, monté sur le ton le plus mag- 
 nifique, with an excellent actress, La Vertueil, a^- 
 the head, and every one much better than I ever 
 saw together on a provincial stage in France. 
 
 The Italian opera is pretty well as to dan- 
 cers, but infamous as to singers. The Spanish 
 play is not so good as I have seen it in other 
 places; but always full, as it begins directly 
 after dinner; and a hon ton person may very 
 easily make his appearance at the three houses 
 in the course of the evening. 
 
 We had some private dances, but cards and 
 conversation were the principal amusements. The 
 number of English, Irish, French, and other 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 85 
 
 foreign hotels, is very considerable. Most of the 
 proprietors are women. There is a great deal of 
 gambling; and, take it all in all, Cadiz is not 
 a very agreeable place, even in fine weather ; 
 for it is so confined by the sea on every side 
 that one can hardly get a walk; and then such 
 mauvaises odeurs in every street, that a foreign 
 nose takes some time to get accustomed to them. 
 It is, moreover, full of street robbers, who ren- 
 der it dangerous after the day is down ; but I 
 confess I have not met with anything of the 
 kind. The place might be kept clear of all with 
 a very moderate police ; for it is a small town, 
 shut up on every side, with a strong garrison. 
 
 All the streets are so constructed as to end 
 in some square, or in the walk that goes round 
 the city. The houses are very lofty, with flat 
 roofs and little kinds of towers, or spires, all along 
 the parapets, to serve as supports to awnings in 
 summer. The second story is the Stage d'honneur. 
 Every house has a vestibule, which is filth itself. 
 
 The bay surpasses all ideas I had of marine 
 beauty. Its numberless creeks, islands, forts, 
 windings, the great quantity of ships of war, and 
 others, constantly going in or out, or riding in 
 the centre, altogether make an enchanting view. 
 
 On the 26th ult. we went by land (not at all 
 
86 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 the plan, for ten hours' sailing would have carried 
 us into Gibraltar) to visit that celebrated rock. 
 Our journey thither, on muleback, was excessively 
 tedious, being two days' and a half tiresome riding, 
 through very bad roads, over a desert country, 
 mountainous and boggy. Some parts were pretty 
 enough, such as fine woods full of uncommon 
 plants, and large plains in pasture, well stocked 
 with cattle ; but the accommodations were bad 
 even for Spain, and that is being superlatively so. 
 
 The great novelty we found in the situation 
 of Gibraltar, the hurry and pomp of military music 
 and parade, and the civility and hospitality of its 
 officers, made us pass the first week with great 
 pleasure. But when we had heard all the marches, 
 and all the signals, &c., had dined round and seen 
 everything to be seen, it began to tire us. 
 
 We made three attempts to get to Barbary; 
 but the wind blew so regularly contrary that we 
 were forced to give up all thoughts of it — very 
 much against the grain, for we had set our hearts 
 upon it. 
 
 A Dutch fleet and one of our frigates enlivened 
 the place, which has suffered much in its society 
 by the departure of three regiments, and the arrival 
 of the Hanoverians, who are a quick, sober, hand- 
 some set of men, speak neither English nor French, 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 8/ 
 
 have no women with them, and live a very retired, 
 parsimonious life. They do their duty well, are 
 always exercising, but are not by any means so 
 alert as our troops. They keep entirely together. 
 Their dress is as near that of our soldiers as can 
 be ; but as they wear stiff black gaiters, with high 
 tops, instead of the half-boots of the English, they 
 march with bent knees, and look exceedingly 
 pinched up. 
 
 We returned by the same road to this place 
 last Sunday, intend staying a week longer here, 
 and then proceed to Madrid, through Seville and 
 Cordova. 
 
 We passed a day at St. Mary's with General 
 O'Reilly, who was extremely polite to us, and, 
 according to custom, very chatty. He is a fine, 
 likely fellow, ard we have promised to spend a 
 few days with him when we leave Cadiz. I am 
 curious to be well acquainted with a man who 
 makes so much noise in the world. The Spaniards 
 are certainly preparing for a second attack upon 
 Algiers, unless they should choose to turn off and 
 try their strength against Gibraltar, which I appre- 
 hend we need not be very uneasy about. 
 
 Let me know a little how things go on with 
 you, where you have spent your severe winter, 
 and when you intend to bring your boys over to 
 
88 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Liège ; what new plans are carried into execution 
 at Capheaton. All this, and a thousand such 
 minutiae, become of great importance when they 
 have travelled some hundred of leagues. 
 
 Madrid, April 2gth, 1776. 
 
 Dear Brother, — Upon my word, I admire 
 you for your assurance in saying you had written 
 me a long letter — four short sides in your large 
 hand, full of paragraphs and puncta ad lineam. You 
 meant you thought it long enough for you to write, 
 but I assure you it is full short when I come to 
 read it. 
 
 Yours to Brigadier Vaughan goes off to-morrow 
 to Coin, near Malaga, Costa di Grenada, which I 
 believe will be his direction for some time, if you 
 choose to write any more to him. We arrived 
 here this morning, having left Cadiz on the 3rd. 
 We stayed three days with General Count O'Reilly 
 at Port St. Mary, half a day at Xérès, three at 
 Seville, four at Cordova, and one at Toledo. The 
 remainder were employed in drawling through the 
 rich plains and woody vales of Andalusia, and the 
 bleak, bare, boundless plains of La Mancha. 
 
 You expect, no doubt, some light to be thrown 
 on the character of O'Reilly, a man who for some 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 89 
 
 time past has made a noise in the world, and 
 astonished by the rapidity of his rise and the 
 greatness of the favour he is in at Court. It 
 must appear presumptuous in anybody to attempt 
 to draw the character of another with whom he 
 has lived only three days; but I sincerely think 
 myself tolerably well qualified to sketch it, and, 
 perhaps, hit it off with some degree of resemblance. 
 He is so eager in all his conversation, and treated 
 us with so much friendship and openness, that I 
 am sure he acted and spoke vdthout any intention 
 to hide his real opinions from us. He speaks 
 many languages, but expresses himself with most 
 fluency in Spanish. His ideas are strong, and his 
 conception of arguments and things above measure 
 quick and forcible; his memory furnishing him 
 with a knowledge of what has passed in different 
 countries, that gives strength to his arguments on 
 military and political subjects. His plans are 
 upon a grand scale, and in discourse he is fond 
 of expressing his admiration of Scipio and those 
 great heroes of antiquity who were above the 
 opinions ot the world, and who retired contented 
 with the applause of their own conscience, and of 
 the few virtuous men able to judge impartially of 
 their actions. 
 
 In the inspectorship he is allowed to have 
 
go LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 great merit, and to despatch his business with 
 celerity and regularity. He has seen, heard and 
 dived into all the arcana of war and politics, as 
 well as what the French call économie publique, 
 and talks so much of honour and probity that his 
 hearers become alarmed lest he should be palming 
 the appearance upon them for the reality. 
 
 I believe his ambition to be ardent and un- 
 bounded. He expatiated freely upon his Algiers 
 expedition, said he saw all was lost and over as 
 soon as he landed, as they had disobeyed his 
 orders and deviated from his plans ; at that 
 moment he assured us he was twenty times in 
 the mind de risquer le tout pour le tout; but, by 
 what he thinks the greatest effort of courage, he 
 dared to retire baffled, and stand all that malice 
 and envy would vomit out against him on his 
 return. 
 
 He expressed great regret at losing us, pro- 
 bably parceque fai de bonnes oreilles, et que je sais 
 écouter. 
 
 Seville is a most heavenly place in winter and 
 in spring. We passed our evenings whilst there 
 among the orange groves in the King's garden, 
 w^atered by jets d'eau, in the style of those you 
 have seen in Italy, squirting up along the walks. 
 The cathedral did not answer my expectations, as 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 91 
 
 it is encumbered with choirs and chapels ; nor is 
 the Gothic so light and airy as York Minster. The 
 Moorish tower adjoining is very handsome; it is 
 called La Giralda. 
 
 The Alcazar, or King's palace, has the arms 
 of the two kingdoms represented in the Saracenic 
 ornaments of the great entrance, which is quite 
 Oriental. Philip V., who died there, added a new 
 part to this palace ; the gardens are like fairy-land, 
 with galleries, waterworks, myrtle and yellow jas- 
 mine hedges, and orange groves. Water runs 
 through every part, and ends in a pond full of 
 tench, where Philip used to fish by torchlight. 
 
 The orange trees about Seville are quite 
 timber, loaded with fi-uit. We rode under them 
 as in a forest, and crossed the plain to St. Ilde- 
 fonso, a convent of Hieronymites, near which is 
 Old Seville, or Italica, built by Scipio, and the 
 birthplace of Trajan. Seven little hills form the 
 situation of this ancient colony, of which very little 
 remains except the rubbish and form of its amphi- 
 theatre. 
 
 There is a snuff manufactory at Seville, the 
 only one in Spain. They make use of Brazil and 
 Havannah tobacco. There are nearly five hundred 
 people in one room making cigars. 
 
 Our acquaintance at Seville consisted only of 
 
92 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 the Marchioness de Malespina and the Duke of 
 Medina Cœli, who is a sort of king in effig}'. He 
 parades in great state along the Alameda with 
 three coaches, each drawn by six mules, and 
 lackeys innumerable, in yellow liveries, every one 
 stopping to bow to him as he passes. 
 
 My man, St. Germain, was clapped into prison 
 for carrying my pistols through the streets to the 
 saddler's to have the holsters fitted to them. A 
 strict police this I 
 
 We journeyed on to Cordova, having such 
 bad accommodations on the road as to be obliged 
 to pass the night on a table. Cordova is an ugly- 
 built city, with a fine country behind it. Its 
 famous mosque, or mesquita, is one of the most 
 ancient edifices in Europe since the fall of the 
 Roman empire, having been erected in the eighth 
 century. Although much spoilt, the chapels, and 
 a vast choir in the Gothic taste, built in Ferdi- 
 nand V.'s time, retain, in the greater part of their 
 extent, their ancient form and appearance. It is 
 quite a wilderness of pillars and low-arched aisles, 
 and is the most extraordinary sight you can 
 imagine, especially as I first saw it by candle- 
 light. It is the most ancient Moorish place of 
 worship in Spain, but has none of that fairy 
 character of ornament that sets off the Alhambra 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 93 
 
 of Grenada ; indeed, its columns are all antique 
 Roman, and many of its capitals Corinthian. The 
 Moors capped such as had lost their capitals with 
 rude, massive imitations of what they admired in 
 their ruins of ancient Cordova. 
 
 If my calculation come near the truth, and 
 I believe it does, this square building stood origi- 
 nally upon nearly one thousand columns, all jasper 
 and marble. But I pass over all this slightly, 
 because hereafter you will be sufficiently tired of 
 columns and arches when you come to read my 
 minute account of these places. 
 
 Don Pedro the Cruel built a part of the Alcazar 
 at Seville, probably with Moorish architects, so 
 like to the style of their buildings that all the 
 authors who have travelled this way have con- 
 founded them together and called it the Moorish 
 part ; but a large Gothic inscription in the prin- 
 cipal front denotes the name of the builder and 
 the year of its erection. Besides, the arms of 
 Castile and Leon are interwoven in the ornaments ; 
 and the Moors seldom put up the representation 
 of any animal or living creature.^ I own, had 
 I not seen all those marks, the beauty of its court 
 would have led me to call it Mussulman. 
 
 I The representation of any living animal or human figure 
 is forbidden by the Koran. 
 
94 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 The women are very handsome at Cordova. 
 Don Bart. Cesar took us in his coach to the 
 bishop's country - house near the river. He (the 
 bishop) has 220,000 ducats a year, but cannot 
 bequeath it by will, and the King is his heir. 
 
 The Potro at Cordova, mentioned in " Don 
 Quixote," is a fountain in the street that leads to 
 Madrid. 
 
 The most beautiful country I ever passed 
 through, and most romantic, was after we left 
 Cordova ; hanging woods, dells and purling streams 
 — the Guadalquivir flowing to the right, one of 
 the most charming drives in Spain. 
 
 There is more gilding in the church of Toledo 
 than in all the French palaces put together, which 
 is not saying a little. They have even gilt the 
 lines of separation between the stones on the pillars. 
 
 I shall leave all these Christian and Mahome- 
 dan ecclesiastical topics to give you an account of 
 the colonies of Carlotta, Louisiana and Carolina,^ 
 which, as an improver and an Agricola, will interest 
 you fully as much. The two first are a great 
 way from, and much smaller than, the last of the 
 
 I La Carolina is situated to the north-east of Baylen, on 
 the high road from Cordova, by Andujar and Manzanares, to 
 Madrid. It is the chief town of the district called Poblaciones 
 de la Sierra Morena, and is built on one of the spurs of those 
 mountains. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 95 
 
 three. As Carolina is the chief, a description of 
 it will give every insight you can desire into the 
 others. 
 
 The eastern extremity of the Sierra Morena, 
 though a broken, hilly country, cannot be called 
 a ridge of mountains when compared to the Alps 
 and Pyrenees, but it is very high land. Eight 
 years ago it was covered with forests, the re- 
 ceptacle of thieves and wolves ; and before the 
 colony arrived from Alsace and the neighbouring 
 provinces of Germany, a hundred Catalans were 
 despatched to clear it of the former of these vermin ; 
 the latter, cultivation was to eradicate. Of the 
 first settlers, the greater part died from the im- 
 moderate use of liquor, the unwholesome herbs 
 they culled in the mountains, and the heat of the 
 climate. They, as well as all subsequent inhabi- 
 tants, are bound to remain there for ten years, 
 and care is taken to keep them to their engage- 
 ment. The King fed them for three years, and 
 gave to each family about thirty acres of land to 
 clear, the implements of husbandry, ten cows, ten 
 goats, a house and one year's seed-corn. The un- 
 married had nothing. At the end of ten years 
 the land is to become theirs in fee-simple, paying 
 a small quit-rent to the King. 
 
 There is a great variety of all sorts of land. 
 
96 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 but in general they have made it all arable. You 
 may imagine, notwithstanding the King's good 
 intentions, that many abuses crept into the manage- 
 ment. The first director was a sad rascal, and 
 used to remove the poor Germans firom land they 
 had tilled to others in waste, and for a valuable 
 consideration put a Spanish family in their place. 
 
 I shall now proceed to sketch out a view of 
 its present appearance. Carolina is built on an 
 elevated plain, not quite level, where eight years 
 ago there was not a single house. From hence 
 you command a most extensive prospect over 
 almost all Andalusia and Grenada. The streets 
 are broad and straight; the houses neat, though 
 low and small ; walks are planted, and two or 
 three squares built for public uses, as well as a 
 governor's house and a church ; a large platform 
 before the town is laid out in gardens. The roads 
 are drawn in right lines all over the new coun- 
 try. The town is mostly inhabited by Spaniards 
 and Catalan manufacturers of cloth. The foreign- 
 ers are settled at pretty equal distances over 
 every part of the colony, in small houses pro- 
 portioned to the size of their allotments; but in 
 general they are run up in a slovenly manner. 
 They have left the evergreen oaks standing in all 
 the places where they were of any size ; this, 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 97 
 
 added to the prodigious extent of waving green 
 corn, affords an enchanting prospect. 
 
 The new colony extends about three leagues 
 breadthways and lengthways, but there are many 
 straggling plantations in the nooks of the hills at 
 a great distance from the rest. The great fault is 
 a want of a proper quantity of water. The butter 
 they make here is as fine as any I ever ate at 
 home. 
 
 There cannot be a sight more pleasing to 
 humanity than this new creation of industry and 
 population ; and we must not give way to the 
 gloomy thought that the mismanagement and in- 
 constancy of government, or the knavery of inferior 
 men in office, will sooner or later injure, if not 
 totally destroy, this rising colony. The number 
 of the inhabitants of the Carolina department, 
 I am told, amounts to eight thousand ; but I could 
 not learn how far that district extended, as there 
 are several new villages erecting not far from it, 
 such as Carboneros and Agua-Romana, Vistaalegre 
 and Navas de Tolosa. 
 
 The latter is famous for a victory over the 
 Moors. It is a strange, mountainous place for 
 armies to engage in. We had an adventure near 
 it. Having sent our carriage on, we had walked 
 through a woody dell by the side of a rivulet and 
 
 VOL. I 
 
98 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 found ourselves among a party of ladies and gentle- 
 men dancing and eating sweetmeats, who politely 
 pressed us to join their party and partake of an 
 entertainment in the neighbourhood, which we 
 were obliged to refuse. A capuchin seemed the 
 Godelureau of the company, and was flirting wûth 
 the prettiest of the ladies. The latter wore hand- 
 kerchiefs and palatines. We had bad roads and 
 an ugly country on entering Madrid ; the corn- 
 fields came up to the very houses. — Adieu. 
 
 TO MR. BAKER. 
 
 Madrid, June 1st, 1776. 
 
 Dear Sir, — A few days after my arrival here, 
 which was on the 27th of April, we set oif for Aran- 
 juez, where the Court is, through a hilly, straight 
 road and bare hills. The vale of the Tagus is fine, 
 and the avenues noble. We visited Lord Grantham 
 on our arrival, and attended a most execrable Italian 
 opera. Next day we visited the Marquis de Grim- 
 aldi, who is the prime minister. 
 
 There are beautiful gardens in the island, where 
 we met the Princess of Asturias walking.^ If she 
 encounters any presented person in her perambula- 
 
 I Maria Louisa, afterwards celebrated as the wife of 
 Charles IV. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 99 
 
 tiens, he must necessarily attend her; but we were 
 not yet of the privileged number. 
 
 The Prince was sailing in his golden galley 
 on the Tagus. The King^ goes out shooting every 
 day, and sometimes twice a day. He seldom speaks 
 to young men, and likes old people best, especially 
 monks. We were a day or two afterwards pre- 
 sented to him, to the Prince and Princess of 
 Asturias and Don Louis, then to the Infantas 
 Donna Maria Josepha, Don Gabriel, and Don 
 Antonio ; and we dined out almost every day, at 
 the Duke de Losada's, at the French ambassador's 
 (the Marquis d'Ossuna), at the Duke d'Arco's, at 
 Marco Zeno*s (the Venetian ambassador), and most 
 frequently at Grimaldi's. 
 
 The Spanish grandees do not like to mix with 
 other company. They tutoyent each other, and a 
 grandee can only marry a grandee's daughter. 
 
 The ladies here wear no rouge, and have low 
 heels. The life led by the young Spanish ladies 
 of rank is very strange. In the evening they meet 
 at the house of some relation, but never join in 
 conversation, from whence they hasten home to 
 dress their own suppers and chat with their maids. 
 In the morning they loiter and pray, dine on their 
 
 1 Charles III. 
 
 7—2 
 
100 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 pucherOy'^ and the time passes till at last they attach 
 themselves to a cortejo.^ The married ladies whom 
 I met seemed clever, but ill-educated, pettish, and 
 violent. 
 
 There is much talk here of the amours of the 
 Count de Mora with the Duchess of Huescar, who 
 has married his father Fuentes, and broken the 
 son's heart. 
 
 We attended a bull feast, which is a shocking 
 spectacle. An Indian of Buenos Ayres hampered 
 and fastened the animal with a rope to a post ; 
 then got on him, cut the rope, sat upon him, and 
 killed another bull. 
 
 On Good Friday the King absolves criminals 
 by laying his hand on the sentences of those whom 
 he chooses to pardon. 
 
 Don Louis is so proud and ambitious, that 
 the inquisitor- general informed the King it was 
 dangerous to take him out shooting. Five hundred 
 thousand pounds sterling are spent on this place. 
 
 There are twelve thousand head of deer in 
 
 1 A puchero is literally a glazed pipkin, in which the 
 soup and bouilli is cooked. This soup forms the basis of 
 the olla. It is the standing dish of all classes in Spain, and 
 thence the name of the vessel is used figuratively for the 
 contents. The Spaniards say: "Venga usted a comer el 
 puchero," as the French say: "Venez manger la soupe." 
 
 2 The cortejo holds the same place as the Italian cavalicrc 
 servante» 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. lOl 
 
 the woods of Aranjuez. The King has one hun- 
 dred and fifteen sets of mules, and ten thousand 
 persons follow the Court when it changes palaces. 
 
 We went to Villa Mayor to see the royal stud 
 of asses, monstrous beasts with large heads and 
 legs, fourteen hands high. On this occasion we 
 met the Princess, with a party, riding on some of 
 these animals magnificently caparisoned. 
 
 Don Gabriel is a great mechanic and painter. 
 There are paintings of his done with tufts of wool 
 in the King's apartment. Don Antonio amuses 
 himself in the gardens with filling and drawing 
 an earth-cart. 
 
 Philip II. pulled up all the vines on these 
 hills, and destroyed the villages, in order not to 
 be overlooked. Charles V. (Emperor of Germany) 
 was the first monarch who resided here. 
 
 The servants here are never discharged. The 
 Duke of Infantado gives upwards of ten thousand 
 pounds sterling in wages and pensions. 
 
 On our return from Aranjuez, where we re- 
 mained about three weeks, I went to see the 
 palace of Buen Retiro, where are a fine portrait 
 of Isabella of Castile, statues of Charles V., Philip 
 IV. and IL, aud Mary of Hungary. There is also 
 a representation of an auto da fe. The new palace 
 is richly decorated with marble busts, and some 
 
102 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 pieces of Titian. We have received our passports, 
 and are on the eve of departure. I will conclude 
 this letter on the road. 
 
 St. Jean-de-Luz, June iSfh, 1776. 
 
 Having now leisure to finish my letter, I will 
 begin by our drive from Madrid, where we met 
 a set of galley slaves, which reminded me of 
 Don Quixote, and bevies of girls dancing round 
 poles, holding ribands in their hands. We passed 
 through beautiful woods, and had a grand view of 
 the Escurial. On arriving there, we sent in a 
 letter from the Marquis Grimaldi to the prior, 
 who appointed eight o'clock next morning for our 
 seeing the convent. 
 
 I rose betimes to take a view of the Escurial, 
 and at eight we were admitted. The staircase is 
 grand. There is a magnificent organ in the 
 church, and a lofty cupola. We descended into 
 the sepulchre of the royal family, where some 
 lines came into my head, which I shall send you 
 
 herewith. 
 
 There are fine botanical paintings m the 
 
 library, and a gold book. But I will give no 
 
 more description, as you will have it au long. 
 
 On leaving the Escurial, we travelled along the 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. I03 
 
 foot of the mountains, through parkish grounds 
 full of deer and oak trees. Our muleteer amused 
 us with singing romances. We had a view of the 
 palace of Rio Frio, Segovia, and the immense 
 plains of Old Castile. 
 
 When we arrived at St. Ildephonso, we waited 
 on the intendant with Grimaldi's order, and were 
 taken by him to the glass manufactory and bottle- 
 houses. The glasses are cut with aquafortis. They 
 make coloured glass there. 
 
 Mr. Dowling, the engineer, took us to see the 
 gardens. The waterworks are quite incomparable, 
 and infinitely superior to those of Versailles, both 
 as regards height and clearness of water. The 
 fountain of the frogs and cascade are noble spouts. 
 
 The architecture of the palace is crowded and 
 ugly. There is a vast collection of pictures. A 
 St. Anne, by Murillo, teaching the Virgin to read, 
 struck me most, as the girl is the very picture of 
 my little Patty. There are also many antique 
 busts and statues. 
 
 The King has already shot several persons in 
 his shooting parties, from his badness of sight, 
 which does not diminish his passion for the 
 amusement. He pays annually thirty thousand 
 francs sterling for damage done to the corn about 
 Segovia. 
 
104 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 We rode to the last-named city through an 
 open corn country, so laid out for the convenience 
 of the King's shooting. The aqueduct, a Roman 
 work, begins at some distance from the city. The 
 streets are straggling. The cathedral is a light 
 but solid Gothic edifice. The alcazar, or palace, 
 contains the mint; the view from it of the river 
 and valley is superb. The ceilings have the por- 
 traits of all the sovereigns of Spain from Pelasgus 
 to Isabella. 
 
 We passed through a vineyard country, and 
 saw numberless larkspurs in the waste, which are 
 called, in Spanish, espuelas de cahallero (knights' 
 spurs). At an inn we had a specimen of what 
 Cervantes tells us served for the squire's beard ; 
 a cow's tail, which the hostess hung at her door, 
 into which she stuck her comb. We regretted 
 our Catalonian muleteers, for those of Madrid are 
 very dull and slow. 
 
 On arriving at Valladolid we were joined by 
 Mr. Geddes, the principal of the Scotch college. 
 It is a vast city, seemingly run up in a hurry 
 with bad materials. The streets have porticos on 
 each side. Even the palace is old and ruinous. 
 The river is considerable, and the walks very 
 pretty. 
 
 Before we came to Villa Rodrigo we crossed 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. I05 
 
 the Puiserga, on a bridge of twenty-two arches. 
 The women there wear hoods, the men montero 
 caps faced with red and blue. 
 
 The position of Burgos, on a hill and its slope, 
 is very picturesque. Its cathedral is a noble Gothic 
 building with statues on every part, even the pin- 
 nacles of the steeple. The gates of the city are 
 adorned with those of the famous judges of Castile, 
 by Diego Rodriguez. 
 
 We then travelled down a very handsome vale, 
 bounded on the right hand by low woody hills, 
 behind which appeared high blue snowy mountains. 
 We met several Aragonian carts, that were laden 
 with chains and spears for bull feasts, from Bilbao. 
 
 At Miranda we were ferried across the Ebro, 
 for the bridge was swept away last year. The 
 women seemed a sturdy race, working out in the 
 fields, wearing lambskin caps, which they make 
 themselves for their wedding. 
 
 As soon as we entered Biscay, there seemed to 
 be an air of wealth and liberty. It is a beautiful 
 country, admirably cultivated. At Vittoria, the 
 capital, we should have been delayed had it not 
 been for our passports. 
 
 The women of Vittoria are very pretty. The 
 streets are dark, and are built on hilly ground, 
 with steps of communication. 
 
I06 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Our journey continued through a charming 
 country ; fine corn plains, and every cottage 
 having its garden. Here the females wear hand- 
 kerchiefs and plaited hair for their headdress ; 
 the men woollen cloths or towels wrapped round 
 their legs for stockings. Some women tie their 
 hair in knots à la Ramillies. We met a grand 
 wedding, so I could judge of the different fashions. 
 
 At Tolosa there appeared to be a numerous 
 population. We saw two women riding in panniers 
 balanced on the same horse. ^ 
 
 We had now arrived in sight of Fontarabia, 
 Andayes, and the Bay of Biscay. We passed the 
 Bidassoa in a boat ; the coaches forded it. We 
 then left Spain, and entered France, where we 
 went through a strict examination of our baggage. 
 
 In consequence of the dreadful state of the 
 roads, we had the misfortune to have our axle- 
 tree broken, which detains us here, and gives me 
 time to complete my letter. — Adieu. 
 
 FRAGMENT OF AN ELEGY WRITTEN IN THE 
 ROYAL VAULT OF THE ESCURIAL. 
 
 Through gilded halls, that daze our ravished eyes 
 With Raphael's magic and with Titian's glow, 
 Through sounding choirs where wreaths of incense rise, 
 
 I A remnant of the custom still in common use through- 
 out the East, where the women are usually transported in 
 kejawehs, camel panniers. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. I07 
 
 The dark procession solemn moves, and slow. 
 
 Before it yawns the monarch's last abode — 
 
 Few are the steps the pageant has to tread, 
 
 Ere hasty priests consign their royal load 
 
 To dust, and silence on its marble bed. 
 
 The pomp retires — swift flies the courtly crowd, 
 
 With venal pace, to hail the rising morn; 
 
 And soon oblivion's soporific cloud 
 
 Will cling oppressive round the laurelled urn — 
 
 Save when some veteran, with an honest tear, 
 
 The sacred ashes of his chief bedews, — 
 
 Save when ambition, checked in her career. 
 
 The fatal change with bitter anguish rues. 
 
 Let us, my friend, a while prolong our stay, 
 
 And take a lesson of th' impartial bier. 
 
 These vaults with philosophic eye survey, 
 
 And judge their tenants, without hope or fear, 
 
 Whatl even here must gold and marble glare, 
 
 Must architecture lend her art sublime ? 
 
 Barely to second vanity's fond prayer. 
 
 That dying pants to live beyond her time I 
 
 Shut out that light ! the mansion of the dead 
 
 A salutary horror should diffuse; 
 
 No flow'ret gay should round the chaptrels spread, 
 
 But grave the forms and solemn be the hues. 
 
 In urns of porphyry, in rows of gold. 
 
 See where the mighty lords of Spain are laid 1 
 
 In two short lines their history is told; 
 
 Upon the peasant's stone as much is said — 
 
 They lived, they died — high up and next to-day 
 
 Reposes Charles ; ^ who late had learnt to rest, — 
 
 Charles, who so long had made mankind his prey, 
 
 Then sick, not satiate, left the bloody feast. 
 
 Ximenes^ cleared the youthful monarch's way 
 
 Of every thorn which anarchy had nursed, 
 
 And happy Charles saw prostrate realms obey 
 
 Where that stem prelate's memory was cursed. 
 
 1 Charles, fifth Emperor. 
 
 2 Cardinal Ximenes, regent of Spain. 
 
I08 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 What boots the hope that wamied Padilla's^ breast? 
 
 What boots the courage of his manly spouse? 
 
 Of what avail is liberty's behest, 
 
 That bids Toledo from her torpor rouse ? 
 
 Dull falls her lance, defenceless is her shield, 
 
 And blunt her sword at Villalar is found. 
 
 The bird of Jove in triumph skims the field, 
 
 And bows her neck for ever to the ground. 
 
 Thus vapours twinkling in the morning shade, 
 
 Hang o'er the fens, and dance with mimic glare; 
 
 The sun bursts out in fiery pomp arrayed, 
 
 And each vain meteor is dissolved in air. 
 
 A new-found world'^ by rapid conquest won, 
 
 At Charles's feet pours forth its precious hoard. 
 
 From temples watched by virgins of the sun. 
 
 And bloody shrines where Montezume adored. 
 
 On royal prey th' imperial eagle falls, 
 
 By Bourbon^ lured to that luxuriant mead 
 
 Where rapid Tesin winds round Pavia's walls, 
 
 And Bruno's sons ten thousand heifers feed. 
 
 E'en now the Gauls with flattering accent tell 
 
 Their rueful story of that day of blood,^ 
 
 When round their prince a line of heroes fell, 
 
 And GaUic corses choked the Lombard flood. 
 
 See gallant Francis, faint with many a wound, 
 
 At bay no longer keeps the pressing throng — 
 
 Bereft of friends, begirt with foes around. 
 
 He sinks and yields, in honour only strong.s 
 
 Be noble, Charles, and soothe the pangs of grief, 
 
 To soften thraldom every succour lend ; 
 
 The hour may come when some more favoured chief 
 
 Beneath his lance may make thy valour bend. 
 
 1 Juan de Padilla headed the insurrection at Toledo 
 against Charles's German ministers. 
 
 2 Conquest of Peru and Mexico. 
 
 3 Constable de Bourbon. 
 
 4 Battle of Pa via in 1525. 
 
 5 Francis I., King of France. ("Tout est perdu fors 
 l'honneur.") 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. log 
 
 That hour is come ; and Fortune, fond of youth, 
 
 From Caesar's temples takes the withered wreath — 
 
 Algiers and Metz enforce the sacred truth — 
 
 " Nought stamps man happy but the seal of Death." 
 
 New foes with ancient enemies combine ; 
 
 His veteran heroes sleep among the dead, 
 
 And spent in embryo is Potosi's mine ; 
 
 Age and disease have cramped his active nerves; 
 
 No more he darts like lightning cross the world; 
 
 His hopes and fears in vast confusion hurl'd. 
 
 New to misfortunes, and untaught by woes, 
 
 Charles flies despairing to the monkish cell, 
 
 But flies in vain, for hither also goes 
 
 The restless spirit death alone can quell. 
 
 Here it is quelled ; — ^in vain the march shall beat, 
 
 And martial sounds shall rattle round the dome; 
 
 Victorious shouts, or shrieks of dire defeat, 
 
 Alike are lost, and cannot pierce the tomb. 
 
 From loathsome caves the bloated serpent sends 
 
 Infectious blasts to taint the vernal air; 
 
 Its blighted head each sickening floweret bends, 
 
 The leaf is shrivelled, and the lawn is bare. 
 
 So Philip issues forth from his murky hall. 
 
 Tyrannic mandates traced with bloody hand; 
 
 Murder stalks forth at Superstition's call, 
 
 And streams of blood o'erflow the Flemish land. 
 
 Oh I had he known, when with a jealous hand 
 
 He nipped the leading blossom of his crown. 
 
 That he had cast his offspring from the land, 
 
 To graft a bud of Bourbon on his throne I 
 
 Be to his mem'ry some indulgence given. 
 
 Whose daring genius bade this fabric rise; 
 
 Gaze on this mighty holocaust to heaven, 
 
 And view the founder with forgiving eyes. 
 
 The urns two Philips and one Charles contain, 
 
 Three kingly puppets, instruments of State, 
 
 Degenerate, weak, unable to sustain 
 
 A crumbhng empire, sinking with its weight. 
 
 The sun of Austria, 'fore whose noontide ray 
 
 The dazzled world its head in terror bowed. 
 
no LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Now tumbled headlong down its evening way, 
 Pale, feeble, sick, involved in misty cloud. — 
 In scenes like these the moralising sage 
 Reads bitter lessons to ambitious man — 
 How weak his pride, how impotent his rage — 
 His schemes how empty, and how short his span I 
 
 Toulouse y Septemher ^rd, 1776. 
 
 Dear Brother, — We went to Aranjuez, where 
 the Court was on the 2nd or 3rd of May, and met 
 with the most distinguished accueil possible from 
 everybody ; walking in the morning, eating a great 
 deal, and sitting at cards, operas, or quietly at 
 Lord Grantham's in the evening. All the ministers, 
 especially Losada and Grimaldi, were remarkably 
 kind and polite, the ambassadors very civil ; as 
 for Lord Grantham, he could not have behaved 
 in a more cordial manner to his own brother, and 
 I esteem myself peculiarly happy in having made 
 his acquaintance, and obtained his friendship, as 
 I have great reason to hope I have made that 
 acquisition. 
 
 The King was anxious for us to see everything 
 there and at Madrid, and we had every reason to 
 be flattered with our reception. The fine woods 
 on the banks of the Tagus, a great rarity in Spain, 
 the luxuriant flower gardens, of which the island 
 garden is as beautiful a spot as any I know, and 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. Ill 
 
 the charming uniformity of the new streets, render 
 Aranjuez a most agreeable residence in the spring 
 months; but I do not believe it is wholesome, for 
 I had a week's attack of the headache, which, how- 
 ever, passed over without any other bad conse- 
 quences. We stayed about a fortnight at Madrid, 
 where I got copies of many valuable transla- 
 tions from Arabic manuscripts, and the plans and 
 measurements of the Moorish palaces, &c., with 
 many other articles of great use and satisfaction 
 to me. 
 
 I have since been labouring very hard in polish- 
 ing and arranging my tour ; I think it will be 
 interesting from the great helps I have had, which 
 few travellers can expect, and from the exactitude 
 of the drawings. I hope to have the literary part 
 ready this winter, but I am under great difficulties 
 about engravings ; however, I hope to get them over 
 soon. As you are acquainted with the country 
 from Madrid to Bayonne, I shall not enter into any 
 detail on that head, except that the new road 
 through the Biscayan mountains is very fine ; rather 
 too narrow, but perhaps the country is too rugged 
 to allow of more breadth. 
 
 We arrived at Bayonne about the igth or 20th 
 of June, and rode post from thence to Tarbes, 
 seventeen and a half posts, in ten hours, in one of 
 
112 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 the hottest days we have had this year ; yet we 
 were not in the least incommoded by it. 
 
 After a week's stay at Tarbes, where I found 
 all in perfect health, we went to Bagnères, where 
 we passed six weeks most agreeably in a select 
 society of people that were perfectly easy and 
 sans façon. 
 
 Mrs. Dillon and Popsy were of the set, you 
 may be sure. We usually dined at home, but 
 spent the evening all together. The weather was 
 very hot, but we were never without a breeze to 
 refresh the air. 
 
 We came to Toulouse about the i6th of last 
 month, and, after settling the nurse and children 
 in lodgings, went to pass a week with the Bishop 
 of Comminges, where Mrs. Dillon had already 
 been some time. We there found a match already 
 settled between the eldest Osmond, nephew to 
 the bishop, captain in the regiment cf Bourgogne 
 cavalry, and Mademoiselle Popsy. It is a very 
 sudden affair, having then only been entamé four 
 days. I daresay they will be happy, for Popsy 
 semble prendre gout à la chose y and they lived en- 
 tirely for each other during our whole stay. Les 
 amans sont ennuyeux, and, therefore, we did not 
 repine at their making use of their privilege and 
 retiring into corners. Mrs. Dillon is in high 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 113 
 
 spirits. The gentleman is not very brilliant in his 
 person, but that is her affair. He seems very fond 
 of her; and his good uncle, v^^ho is the best- 
 natured creature in the world, does everything to 
 promote their happiness. The family is very good, 
 from Normandy, and protected by the House of 
 Orleans, so that he may hope to get promotion. 
 The bishop was very polite to us. 
 
 We returned here, where the company of 
 Madame de St. Géry, a very lively, agreeable 
 woman, and Mr. Macarthy's library, make us spend 
 our time very agreeably. 
 
 We shall set out with Sir Thomas Gascoigne, 
 on Monday next, for Montpellier and Lyons. 
 After a short stay there to buy clothes, &c., we 
 shall go to Marseilles, stay there a few weeks, and 
 then take ship for Naples, where we shall spend 
 the winter. 
 
 The Spanish ministers have been so obliging 
 as to send us letters of recommendation to all 
 the principal people at the Neapolitan Court, and, 
 moreover, have mentioned us in their private 
 correspondence, which will ensure us a welcome 
 reception. These are our schemes for next winter. 
 As yet we have not thought where the ensuing 
 spring and summer are to be passed, and when 
 we shall be back in England. 
 
 8 
 
114 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 I have been so great a rambler of late, that I 
 can scarcely recollect having lived in a house of 
 my own ; and the inconveniences and v^^ants of 
 inns are becoming so habitual to me, that I am 
 quite contented with them, and think ot nothing 
 better. I am afraid we cannot hope to meet you 
 this year ; the best thing you can do is to ccme 
 and dance at the wedding. I have just heard 
 that all the noce is coming here to-morrow. 
 
 I do not know if you were ever at St. Ilde- 
 phonso; if not, it may perhaps be an object of 
 curiosity to you. By particular orders, we had 
 all the waterworks played off for us, and really 
 they far exceeded my expectations. The statues 
 and triumphal arches, from which the jets d'eau 
 issue, are executed in a very good style, and, 
 being all bronzed over, make a fine show. Their 
 greatest beauty, however, is neither the height to 
 which they spout, nor the ornaments that hang 
 round them ; but the prodigious clearness and 
 limpidity of the water, which is truly admirable. 
 No rock crystal can reflect the rays of the sun 
 with such brilliancy. We were fortunate enough 
 to have a bright afternoon, without a breath of 
 wind, so that the column of water went up per- 
 fectly steady and true. The gardens of this palace 
 are pleasant and shady, but the trees do not thrive, 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. II5 
 
 from being planted too old and in too shallow a 
 soil. They have been at immense expense in 
 digging and blasting round the roots, in order to 
 put in fresh earth, and give them room to seek 
 for nourishment. 
 
 Arts and sciences make great progress in 
 Spain. They have arrived at a great pitch of 
 perfection in printing, and, after having published 
 Calderon, are now printing an edition of Lopez 
 de la Vega. The academy has engraved several 
 antiquities, but as yet offered none to public sale, 
 except views of the Gothic cathedral of Burgos, 
 which I have had sent me since I left Spain. 
 
 Casiri, Arabic librarian to the King, was pre- 
 vailed upon to lend me the translation of all the 
 Arabian manuscripts in the Escurial, or rather an 
 analysis of them, and all the plans that the 
 academy has taken at Cordova, Grenada, &c. 
 I shut myself up for four days at Madrid to copy 
 out what I thought useful for my project, and am 
 sure nobody ever had the same opportunities. 
 I am at present busy v^riting it out fair, and shall 
 send it with all the Moorish architecture to 
 England. The other views I shall get engraved 
 where I can, or perhaps take a few lessons, and 
 etch them myself. 
 
 I have not had a letter from England the 
 
 8—2 
 
Il6 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Lord knows when ; so can tell you no news of 
 any kind, except that Lady Tyrconnel has made 
 an elopement with Smith Lorraine, only to 
 Marybone. She declined to see both her husband 
 and father, who came to fetch her. Her lord has 
 positively refused to sue for a divorce, as he 
 would not give her the satisfaction of marrying 
 her paramour. 
 
 Marseilles, November iSth, 1776. 
 
 Dear Brother, — Do you prefer a speedy 
 answer, written by a sick body, with a cold and 
 stuffed head upon him, to waiting till I am in 
 better health, that I may furnish you with better 
 entertainment ? I can do either with a safe 
 conscience, for I am very sure I run no risk of 
 your having left Vienna easily in the winter. 
 However, as I can get no answer at present to 
 this most sensible question of mine, I must take 
 it for granted you like me to go on with my 
 letter. 
 
 We arrived here about ten days ago, and with 
 great difficulty procured a lodging up three pair 
 of stairs at a most extravagant price. During a 
 couple of days we exerted all our talents in 
 ferreting out a better situation, and got into the 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. II7 
 
 best house I was ever in in France, just out of 
 the town, in so fine a situation and air, so large, 
 so well furnished and convenient, that I do not 
 like the thoughts of leaving it. 
 
 The garden is very spacious, and the view 
 over the harbour and court delightful. But, how- 
 ever, we have agreed to leave all this, and commit 
 ourselves and all the fortunes of Ilium to the 
 uncertainty of the waves, in the first week in 
 December, having hired a large, tight vessel for 
 that time to convey us direct to Naples. Sir 
 Thomas, who is grown so well habituated to a 
 quiet family life, that he cannot think of leaving 
 us, goes also. 
 
 We left Toulouse on the 2ist instant, and 
 joined Lady Warwick and General Clarke at 
 Montpellier, where we spent a month very agree- 
 ably, and I may say usefully, for I took lessons 
 in botany of the King's gardener to perfect myself 
 in Linnseus's system. I drew and painted plants, 
 wrote a great deal, and walked still more, having 
 met with an intelligent cicerone, who procured me 
 a sight of all that is curious in the cabinets of 
 the town, among which the collection of birds of 
 the Baron de Tongères is the most remarkable. 
 
 General Clarke has a house for the winter just 
 out of Montpellier, and we had a great deal of 
 
Il8 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 their company. We then established our quarters 
 for a week at Nismes, and I spent a great deal of 
 my time, whilst there, in M. Seguier's cabinet. 
 He has a valuable collection of antiques, medals, 
 and natural history, with a noble library ; he 
 himself is a perfect assemblage of all kinds of 
 knowledge.^ 
 
 We made an excursion to Aries, where we 
 found a great many Roman antiquities, but few 
 in good preservation. It would be too tedious to 
 enter into details ; but that you may not have 
 reason to think me very stupid, I will recapitu- 
 late what we saw in that city, which is out of 
 the beaten track of travellers. 
 
 In the first place we were conducted to an 
 unfinished amphitheatre, not equal in size and 
 beauty to that of Nismes, probably built about 
 the beginning of the empire of Christianity, and 
 the last gasp of pagan worship and pagan shows ; 
 secondly, an Egyptian obelisk, without hierogly- 
 phics, set up in a square ; thirdly, two columns, 
 
 I Antoine Louis de Seguier, a descendant of the cele- 
 brated Chancellor, born at Nismes in 1703. He was 
 renowned for his love for, and knowledge of, antiquities. 
 He published the fruits of his travels and researches in 
 various highly esteemed works. He died in 1784, and 
 bequeathed his noble library and collection of medals and 
 antiques to his native city. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. II9 
 
 twenty-five feet high, which supported the pro- 
 scenium of the theatre, a work of Constantine's ; 
 fourthly, part of the pediment and two columns 
 of a public hall or temple ; fifthly, the model of 
 the Venus found here, but ordered to Versailles 
 by Louis XIV. ; and lastly, the great burial-place 
 out of the town, called the Elysian fields, full of 
 enormous stone temples of various designs and 
 dimensions. 
 
 From Nismes we went over the Pont-de-Gard, 
 to which they have joined a bridge and made the 
 great road, and thence to Avignon. I must com- 
 memorate the view of that city from the opposite 
 rocks, as the finest I ever saw or expect to see. 
 We visited Vaucluse, which, being low in water, 
 was little worth seeing — Hareshaw Linn is worth 
 fifty of it — and Orange, where we were well 
 pleased with the circus or theatre, and the arch. 
 From Avignon we went across the country (by a 
 horrible road par parenthèse) to Berry, to see a 
 Roman monument, which compensated us for our 
 trouble. 
 
 About a mile firom the cown, on a small hill 
 m a vineyard, stand together (but not directed 
 towards each other, which puzzles me to find out 
 whether they were meant to have any connection, 
 or whether they only form part of a great number 
 
120 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 of buildings) the remains of a very much orna- 
 mented triumphal arch, and a perfectly entire 
 mausoleum, the prettiest bijou I ever saw; it is 
 square-built below, about eighteen feet every way. 
 Upon the socle rises a square with small Ionic 
 pilasters. At each corner and on the face are 
 four different basso-relievos, representing a combat 
 between horse and foot, with triumphs, captives, 
 &c. Upon this is raised a part with a Corinthian 
 column at each angle, and pierced through with 
 four ornamented arched doors. The entablement 
 above is enriched with ornaments on the frieze, 
 and on the architrave is an inscription which has 
 been variously interpreted by antiquarians, but 
 certainly denotes a sepulchral monument. Upon 
 this entablement is placed an open circular temple, 
 with its dome resting upon twelve very short Cor- 
 inthian pillars. 
 
 Within this temple are two statues of unequal 
 size, togatcB, without heads. I do not know how 
 they got them in ; for they are too large to pass 
 between the pillars after the temple was finished. 
 It is a charming edifice. The only thing that 
 occurs as a fault, is the thickness of the columns, 
 quite different from the regulated proportions of 
 the Corinthian order ; but they have not a bad 
 effect, far from it; and who knows whether the 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 121 
 
 architect, like Shakespeare, did not think himself 
 at liberty to strike out new rules ? 
 
 I do not think you ever passed that way; if 
 you did, you will think all this description de trop, 
 Aix was our next step, and then we came to this 
 busy, crowded town, which is brimful of English. 
 You shall hear from me soon after we arrive at 
 Naples, or, if we go to the bottom, my ghost shall 
 come and pinch your toe at Vienna. 
 
 My Spanish tour is almost ready for the press ; 
 I only wait for a proper hand to send them with, 
 and to have answers from England about the pub- 
 lication, &c. 
 
 I know nothing new to add to the trash I have 
 written above ; so good night, for I have a symptom 
 of a headache, which I have no mind to bring to 
 a categorical answer. — Yours, &c. 
 
 Naples f January i6th, 1777. 
 
 We have got apartments on the Chiaia, which 
 is the pleasantest situation here; the weather is 
 fine, and Vesuvius is covered with snow. There 
 are a great many English here at present, of whom 
 those I know are Lord John Clinton, Lord Tylney, 
 Messrs. Osbaldeston, Dillon, Tierney, Molyneux, 
 Lady Catherine and Miss Murray. No English 
 
122 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 minister is here at present, and M. de Sa, the 
 Portuguese envoy, does the business of presenting 
 the English. 
 
 Sir Thomas and I went for that purpose to 
 the King's palace at Caserta, through a wood of 
 elms and a very fine road. I was not much 
 charmed with the beauty and manners of either 
 of Their Majesties. The King is thin but strong, 
 of a fair complexion like his father. The Queen 
 is rather ugly than otherwise. She did not say a 
 word, and scarcely looked at us. We dined that day 
 with the Prince de Jacci, who was extremely civil 
 and attentive, and then went with him to the opera 
 of Teseo. I know not by whom the music is com- 
 posed, but it does not do credit to Italian fame, 
 and as to the dancing, it was quite shocking. The 
 house was finely illuminated, and very full of com- 
 pany. I have also been to the Teatro Nuovo, 
 which is small, with a bad approach. The Buffo 
 being ill, our amusement was not great. 
 
 This place is delightful, and more enjoyable 
 that I can express. I have walked up the hills, 
 and came down by the castle of St. Elmo, from 
 whence the prospect is absolutely matchless. No- 
 thing can be gayer than the town, nor kinder than 
 we find its inhabitants. I know not whether it 
 is in consequence of their natural good -nature, 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 123 
 
 nourished by the balminess of the climate, and 
 cheerfulness of all nature around, où gît dans son 
 orgueil tout le néant de l'homme, or whether the 
 civility is caused by the letters I brought from 
 the Duke Grimaldi and the Duke de Losardi. 
 Non importa! The Princess Francavilla is all 
 kindness; we have been with her to St. Carlos, 
 and to rècevimento, at a lying-in-lady's, the Duchess 
 of Montecalos, and a ball at Madame Andre's, wife 
 of the Swedish Consul; also at Cavalière Cecco 
 Mauro's, an officer who, after making his fortune 
 by play, is spending it all in giving balls. 
 
 We attended a profession, at StS Chiara, of 
 the sister of the Prince della Rocca, where there 
 was much music, and a very fine gilt church. The 
 nuns seem extremely rich, and enjoy great liberty. 
 All the female convents are under the immediate 
 jurisdiction of the sovereigns. The Queen visits 
 them in their turns in the summer, and takes a 
 numerous suite with her to partake of the grand 
 entertainment given by the nuns. The King is 
 legate of the see of Rome by birth. All Neapolitan 
 noblemen must ask leave of absence, which is 
 generally granted for six months, and perhaps 
 renewed twice, but never more ; if they remained 
 out of the country longer, they would have their 
 estates seized. 
 
124 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 The Sicilians are not under the same restraint. 
 Where there is no heir within the fourth degree, 
 the King is the heir to the noble fief, as the titles 
 remain on the lands, which are plundered. Many 
 of the Princes are not gentlemen. 
 
 Lord Tilney has soirées every week, which are 
 very agreeable. 
 
 We have had violent hail-storms, through one 
 of which I found myself taking a walk to Puzzuoli, 
 which was very pleasant, notwithstanding the wind 
 and occasional pelting of the storm. The sea was 
 rough and grand ; the hills are nothing but a heap 
 of cinders hardened. The weather is now grown 
 more hot. I had a walk over the hills out of the 
 Camaldoli, by narrow hollow roads through the 
 volcanic rocks, and returned through woods to the 
 lake Agnano, which is full of wild fowl, not near so 
 pretty as our lakes, as there is too much flat 
 border to this. 
 
 I went in a calèche beyond the Torre del 
 Greco and Monte St. Angelo, into the vineyards, 
 to the spot where the lava stopped some days ago ; 
 it had just blocked up the road, overturned a 
 cottage, and buried a vineyard before it ceased 
 running. There is yet great heat in it, and at 
 night it flames. During daylight there is only a 
 trembling vapour which indicates the heat under 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. I25 
 
 it. The lava is very uneven and broken in the 
 surface, dark and shagged like iron slag. It re- 
 sembles the appearance of the first workings of a 
 mine or slate quarry. 
 
 Mrs. Swinburne has been presented to the 
 Queen by Princess Francavilla. She was very 
 civil to her. Upon the following day there was a 
 grand gala at the Court on account of its being 
 the King of Spain's birthday; we saw there the 
 Prince of San Lorenzo, who last summer used to 
 sit in the Calle Toledo without any clothes on, 
 and orders were issued for him to be taken up 
 and shut up in Castle St. Elmo, if he did not 
 wear them. 
 
 Lady Anne Severino is arrived, the eldest 
 daughter of the second Lord Derwentwater, and 
 heiress of the earldom of Newburgh, if her nephew 
 have no children. She is married to a Venetian 
 
 nobleman. 
 
 January 2yth. 
 
 There was a ball the other night in the 
 Queen*s apartments in dominos and masks. The 
 King made one of them. Next evening the tri- 
 umphal car of the four seasons of the Duke of 
 Madelona paraded the streets, a festino of the 
 Cavalièri on St*. Lucia, which was stupid enough. 
 There were few masks of character, and all seemed 
 
126 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 mute. We dined with Lady Orford, the daughter- 
 in-law of Sir Robert Walpole, and now separated 
 from her husband. She is very fond of whist, and 
 is peculiar for always saying at the end, ** And two 
 by honours y ' by which declaration, if not always 
 investigated, she often makes two more on her 
 score than are her due, unless playing with those 
 who are accustomed to her pranks. She is at the 
 same time very severe with regard to others, and 
 scolds famously both her partner and her antago- 
 nists. 
 
 We were amused the other night at Lord 
 Tilney's card party by a scena. A Mrs. Sperme, 
 who is a sort of toady of Lady Orford's, and 
 generally makes up her whist party, happened 
 to have thirteen trumps dealt to her. She was 
 in great dismay, being frightened to death at 
 Lady O., and feeling sure she would accuse her 
 of cheating, at least by innuendos, if not openly. 
 In her agitation she got up and asked leave to 
 speak to Lord Tilney, to whom she told her dis- 
 tress, and asked him what she should do. 
 
 *' Do, madam ! " said he; " why, play them out, 
 to be sure." 
 
 The wind now is what is called tramontana, 
 which is not very pleasant. I have been lakmg 
 a walk through the grotto of Fosilipo m a road 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. I27 
 
 to the left, where the peasants were very busy 
 pruning their vines and poplars, and tying them 
 together. Fellows at the top were singing as 
 loud as they could bawl ditties like those of the 
 Spaniards. I stopped opposite Nisida, to enjoy 
 the pleasures of such a prospect, and ascended 
 the neck of land on the left, where the violets 
 were out, and the rock of tufa covered with purple 
 stocks and gillyflower. Then I descended towards 
 the sea of the bay, where I fell in with the Villa 
 Maza. I there read a long inscription on marble, 
 denoting that here were the fishponds of Pollio,* 
 who fed his lampreys with human gore and flesh, 
 and bequeathed these ponds, which are near 
 Posilipo, to Augustus. I could not get admit- 
 tance, as the farmer's people were at work, so I 
 returned up the banks of ashes, washed into gullies 
 by the rains, to the village, and came home by 
 the stairs near Virgil's tomb. 
 
 There is a divine prospect from Capo di 
 Monte. When the palace there was nearly 
 finished, it was ascertained that there was no 
 water. I saw a glorious collection of pictures 
 and medals belonging to the house of Farnese. 
 
 I This monster was consul during the reign of Augustus, 
 who having discovered the horrible practices of Pollio Videus, 
 ordered the ponds to be filled up, and dismissed him from 
 his favour. 
 
128 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 February Sth, 
 
 There have been magnîficent balls at the Court, 
 but one of them the other night was stopped and 
 put an end to dans le beau milieu by Her Majesty, 
 who could not contain her jealousy of the Duchess 
 of Lucciana, and in her fury she ordered every 
 one to depart. They say she is also very jealous 
 of the dancer Rossi, whom the King admires, é 
 gelosia d'impero, non gelosia d'amor. 
 
 The French ambassador gives great balls, which 
 are very agreeable; and a French theatre is set up, 
 where we saw Les Dehors Trompeurs very well acted. 
 We dined one day with Prince Francavilla, and 
 went after dinner to see the procession of Don 
 Marco Ottoboni through the Calle Toledo, con- 
 sisting of sledges and hunters of various nations, 
 richly dressed. The masks afterwards came to 
 the Court ball in their dresses. 
 
 There has been another profession at St. Mary's 
 of Egypt. The devotee was daughter of the Duchess 
 of Monterolendo. The Duchess is very handsome 
 still, as are most of her children, of whom she has 
 had above twenty. She would much rather her 
 daughter married, as it costs her more to make 
 them nuns than to get husbands for such pretty 
 girls. A thousand pounds scarcely defrays the 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. I29 
 
 musical and other expenses of these ceremonies, 
 besides a pension to the nun, and something they 
 reserve a power over in favour of the monastery, 
 vi^hen they shall arrive at the great offices of the 
 convent. 
 
 The Landgrave of Hesse Cassel is arrived, and 
 made his début at the French ambassador's ball. 
 We went to the Fiorentini theatre, which had very 
 pretty music, and good actors. II Matrimonio per 
 Concorso (or in Contratto) was performed. 
 
 The festinos are crowded, and there is no end 
 
 to the balls. 
 
 February 12th, 
 
 Yesterday we dined early to go to the house 
 of the Marquis de Sambuca, the Prime Minister, 
 where the King, Queen, and chief nobility were 
 present in the Calle Toledo. The street was lined 
 with a double row of guards behind ropes, the 
 coaches paraded in the middle, and the foot people 
 crowded it as thick as can possibly be conceived. 
 Every window was full of spectators, leaning upon 
 tapestry and silk hangings. With difficulty could 
 the postilions, by cracking their whips, make room 
 for the five cars of the Madelona, and the sledges 
 of the hunters with horsemen and hounds attending 
 them. 
 
 This parade of Ottoboni was closed by the 
 
 VOL. I Q 
 
130 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Bucentaur. The last that came was an English 
 packet-boat, manned by the royal cadets. After 
 these carriages had passed twice before Their 
 Majesties, the street was cleared by the dragoons, 
 and everybody driven behind the cords, and then, 
 on the firing of a few petards, a dozen hack 
 horses, with fellows on them riding bare backed, 
 came galloping down the street. The prize was a 
 piece of tissue. This was but poor work ; but the 
 next race of fine barbs without riders was very 
 amusing, and its coup d'œil admirable. 
 
 Waiting until dark, the carriages returned in 
 the same order, very well illuminated. Madelonas 
 stopped opposite the King, and played off a pretty 
 brisk firework out of the front of each car. The 
 illuminations of the Bucentaur were beautiful be- 
 yond measure. I never saw finer sights than 
 these. 
 
 From thence we went to the ball at Court, 
 where an excellent hot supper was served, each 
 person eating on his knees, and in the best manner 
 he could. In the ball-room the chairs were set 
 so as to form a square in the middle of the room, 
 and the company sat facing each other in a double 
 row. The attention of the Count de I'Acerra to 
 our table of English was beyond expression. We 
 were served with pies, hams, wines, fruit in the 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. I3I 
 
 greatest profusion. The King played at Macao, 
 and at twelve went to the Festino d'Unione at 
 the Casino. Soon after we broke up. Both the 
 King and Queen spoke much to us, and the King 
 said he had seen little Harry the day before pull 
 off his hat to him, and look very pretty when he 
 did so. 
 
 The King is very good-natured and well dis- 
 posed, as many traits evince. He is boyish and 
 romping, and very fond of amusement ; excels 
 in telling a story, and setting it off in the most 
 ridiculous colours. He speaks Italian and French, 
 but generally talks Neapolitan. His voice is harsh, 
 and his gestures boisterous. He has no very strong 
 passion for women, and what country girls and 
 others he has taken a fancy to has been at the 
 instigation of those about him, who put him up 
 to it. He has no jealousy about him. His in- 
 trigues have lain in the sphere of Contadine, 
 except a Madame Golard, wife to a French author 
 on Economy, and an Englishwoman. But he 
 found out she had a cancer, and she and her 
 husband were banished immediately. He has had 
 some flirtations with ladies of rank, one of whom 
 was exiled because that the Queen found a note of 
 hers to the King, with some extraordinary expres- 
 sions. His present views are upon the Rossi, first 
 
 9—2 
 
132 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 dancer at the opera, and late mistress to the Duke 
 of Arcos. She always comes to the balcony, when 
 the King appears at his, to see the masks. They 
 say he was in love with the Duchess of Lucciana, 
 daughter of the Marquis de Gonzuala, Secretary 
 of State. 
 
 The Queen has something very disagreeable in 
 her manner of speaking, moving her whole face 
 when she talks, and gesticulating violently. Her 
 voice is very hoarse, and her eyes goggle. She 
 has acquired a roundness in her shoulders, and is 
 very fond of showing her hand, which is beautiful. 
 If she sees or suspects the King to be taken with 
 any woman, she plagues her life out, is in horrid 
 humour, and leaves no stone unturned to break 
 off all connection between them ; whether from 
 real jealousy or apprehension of losing the power 
 she has over her husband, which is very great, 
 since she has got quit of old Tanucci.* The King 
 cries out in vain that his case is very hard, that 
 he cannot go where he pleases, &c. 
 
 I Bernard Tanucci, minister to Ferdinand IV., a native 
 of Pisa, where he was educated for the bar, and soon dis- 
 tinguished himself by his talents. He at length rose to the 
 highest dignity, and died at Naples in 1783. He has not 
 only left behind him several works on jurisprudence and 
 philosophy, but the reputation of being an excellent states- 
 man and liberal-minded minister. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 1 33 
 
 The disgrace of Tanucci had long been the 
 main object of the Queen, and the King was very 
 glad to leave her free scope to follow that plan. 
 Wilseky, the imperial envoy, managed it by means 
 of the interposition of the Queen of France. The 
 King of Spain reluctantly gave way, on condition 
 that there should be no more masked balls at the 
 theatre — a strange bargain I 
 
 Sambuca, who succeeded Tanucci, was a 
 creature of Prince Jacci's, and looks very unlike 
 a genius : his aspect is heavy and inanimate : his 
 first manœuvre was very impolitic and blundering, 
 in laying a tax upon oil, which he was obliged to 
 take off the week after. The present system is 
 to keep a strong garrison in Naples, and to take 
 care that the inhabitants shall always be supplied 
 with food at a moderate rate. These measures, it 
 is said, will insure perpetual quiet in this, formerly, 
 so turbulent a people. 
 
 A fund has long been established for purchasing 
 corn and selling it for less to the poor in case of a 
 scarcity. Tanucci and his creatures are accused of 
 having defirauded the King and embezzling most of 
 the money, and one of the agents has absconded. 
 
 Ill-natured people say the Queen's gallantries 
 are numerous, and that her confidante was the 
 Duchess of San Severo, whose husband was at one 
 
134 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 time a great favourite with the King. For some 
 unknown reasons the Queen has had a quarrel 
 with the Duchess, who, to revenge herself, per- 
 suaded her husband to inform His Majesty of his 
 conduct, upon promise of his never divulging the 
 name of his informer. The King, who was just 
 then worried to death by the Queen's real or 
 affected jealousies, was quite enchanted with this 
 discovery, and could not help telling her of it the 
 first time she upbraided him with going astray. 
 This attack made her furious, and she never 
 rested till she learned firom him the name of the 
 person who had given him this information. The 
 Duke of San Severo was banished firom Naples, 
 and his vexation brought on a fever, of which he 
 died. 
 
 The King once carried his jokes so far as, at 
 a grand supper at Posilipo, to take Guarini by 
 the hand and bring him up from the end of the 
 table to the seat next the Queen, saying that was 
 his place ; she boiled with anger, but was forced 
 to swallow the affront, and, as soon as she could, 
 had him removed to Turin, there furnished a 
 house for him, and gave him a magnificent set of 
 porcelain, which she had received as a present 
 firom the Emperor', besides a very fine diamond 
 star and cross. Her present favourite is an officer 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. I35 
 
 in the guards, son of the late Prince of Marrico. 
 They are much together at the masquerades, &c. 
 She is only allowed 50,000 ducats a year for every 
 expense, therefore cannot be very generous. 
 
 The streets of Naples are paved with square 
 blocks of lava, which must be at least a hundred 
 years old ; each stone is laid in its place by con- 
 tract, at a tarino, or two carlini. The Calle To- 
 ledo requires new paving once in seven or eight 
 years. I cannot think this people so very wicked 
 as they are represented to be by authors, who 
 sometimes only copy one another ; for, during the 
 vast crowding and embarras of the shows on 
 Tuesday, not the least quarrel or tumult of any 
 kind could be perceived, a thing I defy Paris or 
 London to show the parallel of; nay, in the great 
 famine of 1764, the only violence a hungry popu- 
 lace (increased to double its numbers by the influx 
 of people from the provinces, where every crop 
 had failed) can be said to have committed, was 
 storming one baker's house. It is written that, 
 winter and summer, the streets are crowded with 
 fellows that sleep on the ground and under bulks. 
 I am sure all this winter the streets have been 
 empty during night of all sleepers, nor do I think 
 it possible for any creatures to have lain out in 
 such weather. 
 
136 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 We have had parties at the house of Gen- 
 sano, at Princess Feralito's and Lord Tilney's, 
 where I met the Polish Prince Solkonski and his 
 wife. It is he who was taken prisoner, when he 
 was fighting for the Russians, by the King of 
 Prussia, who sent him prisoner to the fortress of 
 Glogau, and compelled the troops he had levied 
 to enter the Prussian service. We had a grand 
 dinner at Lord Dalrymple's, after which a puppet- 
 show and conversazione. 
 
 February 2^th. 
 
 Mrs. Swinburne and I went to Puzzuoli, 
 where we took a boat to Agrippina's tomb, and 
 landed below Baia, firom whence we walked to 
 the Piscina Mirabile and the Elysian fields, 
 and dined at a cottage, where we drank some 
 excellent wine, of the growth that is bought up, 
 carried about at sea for a few months, and then 
 sold at Naples for French wine. We had also 
 some good buffalo cheese, called Caccio di Cavallo. 
 We then visited the Monte Nuovo, which is 
 covered with low shrubs, the remains of the 
 Lucrine lake, passed up to Nero's baths, then took 
 a boat in the bay of Baia, and rowed along the 
 Via Appia, which appears very plainly. The 
 Piscina Mirabile, built by Agrippa for watermg 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. I37 
 
 the Roman fleet, supplied by an aqueduct carried 
 along the hills for many miles, was a noble 
 work. We picked up on the shore some mosaics, 
 small medals and marbles. 
 
 We visited Pompeii with Sir Thomas, Mr. 
 Stanley and Mr. Pelham ; and words cannot ex- 
 press how much I was interested and delighted. 
 I will not send you a description of it, as so 
 many are in print. 
 
 Sir Thomas and I went to Court at Santo 
 Leuci, near Caserta, dined at San Nicolo di 
 Strada with some Italian gentlemen, then to the 
 prime minister's at Caserta, and accompanied the 
 Prince of Sweden into the park, where the King 
 and Queen were under an arbour of leaves, facing 
 the flight of steps, down which the waters of the 
 aqueduct were let off at the signal of a gun 
 which the King fired. Immediately after this the 
 fire was repeated over the hills by a crowd of 
 chasseurs and peasants, who hallooed, and popped 
 away as they advanced down the hill to drive the 
 game towards us. Some wild boars came down, 
 and one plunged through the cascade. The King 
 did not fire at them, but shot a hare. Upon the 
 whole, though there was not much in it, the 
 scene was rural and pleasing. 
 
 We then drove to the King's hunting-box in 
 
138 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 the park upon a hill, where we played at cards 
 with His Majesty, till about nine, and then re- 
 turned to Naples. The King was very courteous 
 and good-humoured. Before he sat down, he 
 begged there might be no ceremony, as this was 
 only a casino. He told us a long story of an 
 escape he had from a wild buffalo once, near 
 Nola, by climbing up a tree. He is apt to give 
 into the marvellous, a trick his father is very 
 often caught at. 
 
 Lady Orford gives many dinners. We met 
 there the other day some pleasant people, Cavalier 
 Mozzif Lord Dalrymple, Lord Graham, and Mr. 
 Crosbie, with whom we made a party the next 
 day to Portici, where Princess Francavilla in- 
 formed us an excavation was about to be made 
 of more rooms. It was a charming excursion. 
 Traversing the beautiful fragrant plains, and cross- 
 ing the winding river Sarno, which is as clear as 
 crystal, we ascended through a vineyard over 
 heaps of ashes to the excavation which has been 
 made on the brow of a hill, from whence is a view 
 of Ischia, Procida, Naples, Portici, Vesuvius, ana 
 the Apennines, which extend beyond Castell' a 
 mare, and all the vale of Nola. The principal 
 place now opened here is a vapour-bath, with its 
 flues. The superintendent treated us with a 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. I39 
 
 magnificent basket of fruit. The grapes were 
 curiously dried with pine-apple kernels in each. 
 The oxen here are singularly large and white. 
 
 On our return we had the pleasure of finding 
 our firiend Mr. Bankes arrived, and took him 
 with us to spend the evening at the Duchess of 
 Cotossiano's. 
 
 Naples, March 12th. 
 
 We have made many excursions — one, of 
 course, to the top of the mountain, on a mule 
 from Portici, which I rode to the point where 
 vegetation ceases ; there I left it, and ascended 
 the cone by the help of a man, who went before 
 with a handkerchief round his waist for me to 
 hold by. We met and followed several persons 
 on the same errand. I confess I was disappointed 
 at the summit. 
 
 We have visited Cumse and the Lake Avernus. 
 The ruins of the ancient city are numerous — broken 
 pieces of marble and stucco lie about everywhere. 
 The people go forth after the rain to see what 
 has been washed down, and find many curious 
 things. 
 
 The other day I took a boat and rowed round 
 the Punta di PosiHpo to the island of Nisida, which 
 belongs to the Marchese di Petrono, and is farmed 
 
140 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 at seven hundred scudi. It produces honey and 
 rabbits. The Porto Savono is a circular crater, 
 very strongly characterised. I saw some very 
 large black snakes in the grass and on the walls. 
 The ships perform quarantine here. I found in 
 the corner of a house in a vineyard north of the 
 grotto the Colunna Milliaria of white marble, with 
 this inscription: "Imp. Csesar D.M. Nerva Nervae 
 Germanicus De Maximus Trib. Potestate vis." 
 
 The Pisciarelli are hot boiling streams that 
 issue out of the side of the Solfatara towards the 
 Lake Agnano. You hear the great caldron boil 
 with vast violence through a narrow canal. The 
 waters smell disagreeably of sulphur, and the earth 
 around is red and yellow. 
 
 Some days ago we dined at Caserta, at Prince 
 Francavilla's, and walked in the boschetto, a charm- 
 ing grove of evergreen and common oaks. The 
 King has cut down a large portion of it to build 
 a foolish dirt pie of a fortress for his amuse- 
 ment. At the end of the wood is the Peschiera, 
 a square pond, with a pretty thatched room, and 
 an island in the middle. They have two tame 
 pelicans there. We then went to the aqueduct, 
 which conveys the Acqua Julia to Caserta, over 
 the valley through which the King of Spain 
 marched his army to Nantes. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. I4I 
 
 The Recollets is a beautifully woody spot. 
 Old Cascita rises on the crown of a lofty hill. 
 We continued mounting and winding to a ruined 
 chapel, from which we commanded the finest land 
 view imaginable over all the Campania Felici. 
 
 Thence we drove to the palace, which is per- 
 haps the most perfect, sumptuous, and extensive 
 in the world — such profusion of marble, all the 
 produce of the two kingdoms of the Two Sicilies. 
 
 The Prince Francavilla has his stud at Difesa, 
 where we dined with him. It is a flat grass 
 country, very unwholesome in summer. On our 
 return we stopped at the King's haras, and saw 
 all his horses and mares, sad cattle, indeed, never 
 crossed or improved. 
 
 The husbandmen hereabouts bury their beans 
 and lupins before flower for manure, and hoe and 
 dig all the plain under the vines, harrowing and 
 smoothing with oxen. 
 
 The excursions we make are delightfully 
 amusing and interesting ; for, except in taking 
 views, my wife has the same propensities as 
 myself for antiquities, and our mode of life is so 
 pleasant in this delicious climate, where no im- 
 pediment of weather prevents our daily journeys 
 of discovery, that it is impossible for me to ex- 
 press how agreeably the time passes. " Vedi 
 
142 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Napoli e poi mori " is the Neapolitan proverb • 
 but I say, on the contrary, that after living at 
 Naples it is impossible not to wish to live that 
 one may return to it. However, at present we 
 have no thoughts of quitting it, and that is still 
 better. Mais enfin ce mauvais terns viendra I L'on 
 ne peut pas se domicilier hors de son pays. 
 
 April 8fh, 
 
 The English have clubbed to give a puppet- 
 show burletta. The other day the city magistrates 
 walked in procession to seven churches; all were 
 dressed in black velvet, embroidered, with scarlet 
 tissue sleeves and waistcoats. The ladies here are 
 carried about in rich Sedan chairs, and their 
 liveries are very magnificent. 
 
 The Queen is very generous, but has not a 
 large allowance. When she first took a fancy to 
 Nasarino, she told the Princess of Stigliano, whose 
 cecisbeo he then was, that she must give him up 
 to her, and the Stigliano consented ; but the 
 gallant himself was restive, and would not be dis- 
 posed of, and devoted his time and attendance 
 to a third lady, whom he really loved. 
 
 The Prince of Stigliano is extremely timorous. 
 He refused the viceroyship of Sicily until the King 
 allowed him to take the Spanish regiment of Arra- 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. I43 
 
 gon cavalry with him. He sailed with it and 
 landed with it. It happened soon after his arrival 
 that he assisted at a procession, at the end of 
 which the whole crowd threw down their torches 
 and bawled out **Viva Maria! muora 1' Inferno 1 " 
 The poor frightened viceroy, thinking the rebellious 
 Sicilians were crying ** Muora il governo ! " was 
 seized with violent convulsions, and forced to be 
 carried into the sacristy.^ 
 
 Another time one of his coach-horses fell down 
 on the parade, and the mob ran to help his peo- 
 ple. Stigliano, supposing it was a revolt breaking 
 out, jumped out of the coach and flew for refuge 
 to a neighbouring church, calling out to the 
 cavalry to follow him and save his life. Cer- 
 tainly Sancho Panza was fitter for a viceroy. 
 
 The King was educated by a friar of no good 
 reputation, one Tanucci Samiandro, of the Sof- 
 frada family, which claims to be descended from 
 
 I A similar but amusing quid pro quo took place, in a 
 humbler sphere, at Paris, in 1829. A German company of 
 comedians proceeded to that capital to give a few repre- 
 sentations. The reputation for beauty of the prima donna, 
 Fischer, had preceded her. The piece chosen for the début 
 was the Freischutz, in which Agathe (Madame Fischer) ap- 
 pears in the first scene with a bandage over her forehead. 
 Some wag in the pit, being impatient to see her face, called 
 out "A bas le fichu 1" which Agathe, who understood little 
 French, mistook for "Bas la Fischer 1" and, being over- 
 whelmed at such a greeting, fell into hysterics. 
 
144 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 the Lombards. His Majesty's manners are not 
 very refined ; when the Emperor was here, and 
 standing at a balcony with his brother-in-law, the 
 latter made a very unwarrantable noise, and, by 
 way of apology, said, " E necessario per la salute, 
 fratello mio."' 
 
 We dined yesterday with the Marquis de 
 Sambuca, who, during the whole time of dinner, 
 never opened his lips, either to eat or speak, and 
 looked quite planet-struck. I thought he was 
 seized with some mad fit, or hypochondria, but it 
 came out afterwards that his dismayed appearance 
 was caused by Carlino, the intendant of the King's 
 bakehouse, who had been put in prison for cheat- 
 ing, having made his escape from thence, and 
 was just retaken as he was endeavouring to get 
 to the King to make a discovery of everything ; 
 which, it is believed, would have strongly impli- 
 cated Sambuca. 
 
 I have visited Dottore Cyrillo's house near 
 
 I It is recorded of the Count d'Artois that, upon re- 
 turning to the pavilion Marsan one night from the opera, 
 and entering his own apartments, he gave his hat to his 
 gentleman-in-waiting, and at the same time committed a 
 similar solecism in good breeding, saying the while, as he 
 coolly looked at his attendant, " Ah I quel bonheur d'être 
 seul." The Persians look upon their slaves as "nobody"; 
 the Count d'Artois appears to have considered his "gentle- 
 man" in the same light. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. I45 
 
 Capo di Monte, to see his drawings of Calabria. 
 In his Hbrary is the skeleton of a celebrated 
 courtesan who was attempted to be converted by 
 a famous Jesuit. His endeavours proving fruitless, 
 he threatened her that, unless she changed her 
 way of life, and listened to his admonitions, she 
 should die on such a day and at such an hour. 
 Accordingly, she expired at the precise time, and 
 the Jesuit pretended to have heard her ghost con- 
 fess she was punished for having slighted his pre- 
 diction. As this adventure was long the public 
 talk, an eminent anatomist had her body exhumed 
 and dissected. 
 
 It is strange that now, the middle of April, 
 Mount Vesuvius, as well as the Sorrento moun- 
 tains, should be covered with snow. 
 
 The Prince de Janni has a villa at Résina, 
 where we dined. His gardens are extensive, and 
 have outlet to the sea. We afterwards saw the 
 gardens of the Duke of Montelione, which are 
 very fine ; there is a prodigious quantity of pine- 
 apples, but poor things. Here the gardeners put 
 the sets of the plants into a hot-house, if it may 
 be so called, where there is no fire, and common 
 mould instead of tan. In a month they produce 
 fruit, which I have not yet tasted in perfection. 
 At Chiaramonte are a great many botanical plants. 
 
 VOL. I 10 
 
146 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Sannazar's tomb is in the church of Mergellina. 
 That of Virgil is nothing at all ; it is strangely 
 situated in a nook of the rock. Over the right 
 hand of the entrance into the grotto of Posilipo, 
 opposite to it, is the following inscription : — 
 
 " Qui cineras ? tumuli his vestigia I 
 Conditus olim ille est qui cecinit pascua rura, duces." 
 
 May 2'^rd, 
 
 I went with Mr. Thomas Pelham a pleasant 
 trip to Capri in five hours. We had charming 
 weather and a smooth sea. The landing-place is 
 one of the most enchanting spots imaginable, em- 
 belHshed by a variety of timber, evergreens, and 
 country-houses, with the town rising above them 
 all. 
 
 All fruits thrive there, and no inch of the soil 
 is lost. The points of view are delightful, and 
 vary every moment. The eastern is divided from 
 the western part of the island by immense per- 
 pendicular rocks, and the. only communication is 
 by a staircase of above four hundred steps. We 
 mounted the eastern heights to the point which 
 hangs over the sea. Here was Tiberms' summer 
 villa, of which the vaults and reservoirs are still 
 pretty perfect. Above his palace now stands a 
 hermitage, from which the view of the Pestan 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 147 
 
 coast, and of all the Gulf of Naples and coast of 
 Romagna, is quite matchless; on a neighbouring 
 point is a ruin which they call La Lanterna. 
 
 Having rested to cool ourselves, we descended 
 to the Carthusian convent, which is beautifully 
 situated. There is a long range of arches, called 
 by our guide " the shops of the ancients." Caper 
 bushes, now in lîower, grew plentifully upon them. 
 There are the remains, also, of another magnificent 
 palace of Tiberius Cassar, and there seems to have 
 been a theatre near it. We dined in a village, 
 then rowed off to Massa, coasting round the cape, 
 and in raptures at every new landscape which 
 opened at each turn of the promontories. No 
 painter can imagine a richer prospect than that 
 of the woody sloping shore of Massa, with its 
 convents peeping up through the woods, with such 
 a variety of verdure as render the tints superla- 
 tively mellow and pleasing to the eye. We passed 
 by Sorrento, Castell' a mare, and returned by 
 moonlight, enjoying a delicious evening, and still 
 sea, with the animating prospect of the lights of 
 Naples. 
 
 June lofh. 
 
 The weather is grown extremely hot, but the 
 country is in high beauty, refreshed by a heavy 
 rain. The walnut trees are good shelter, and the 
 
 ID — 2 
 
148 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 pomegranate flowers very ornamental to the road; 
 the sirocco wind is oppressive. We dined at 
 Portici, at the Maggiordomo's, and afterwards saw 
 the King draw up a detachment of the cadets, 
 Lipariotes and chasseurs, and hold a council of 
 war, like a child playing à la madame. 
 
 At six His Majesty marched into the Boschetto, 
 where we followed him. The advanced guards, 
 his new Cacciatore, attacked and drove away the 
 enemy's light troops; and after several skirmishes 
 between the different corps, the defenders were 
 obliged to retire into the castle; the besiegers 
 then attacked and took by escalade a house in 
 the woods. 
 
 At eight o'clock the company came down to 
 the Pallone, where a large vestibule or card-room 
 was erected for the occasion, at one end of which 
 was a very grand theatre, at the other an immense 
 ball-room. Though run up in such a hurry, and 
 slightly built, they are exceedingly elegant and well 
 proportioned. We had a French play, after which 
 we all adjourned to the card-room to take refresh- 
 ments, and from thence to the ball. About twelve 
 the King and Queen retired, and soon after the 
 assembly broke up, walking to their coaches by the 
 light of a charming illumination, through the wood 
 and large gardens, where the fountains formed a 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. I49 
 
 pleasing decoration. The presence of the Sovereigns 
 in these parties, instead of causing any formality, 
 seems to make everything more jovial and merry. 
 
 Next evening the ball was repeated, and many 
 more English were invited. Mr. Spence and Miss 
 Snow,* by their furious dancing, entertained the 
 King prodigiously; he was in roars of laughter, 
 bravoed, clapped his hands, and encouraged them 
 to skip and jump about. Each of them was 
 conscious how much the other was laughed at, 
 and took care to tell it to all the company, with- 
 out suspecting that their own figure and perform- 
 ance could be the object of merriment. There was 
 an Italian play, great stuff. 
 
 The King continues to divert himself with his 
 camp, pushing on trenches, besieging, &c., till the 
 cadets and Lipariotes have quarrelled in good 
 earnest, and began doing mischief to each other. 
 One of the latter was very dangerously wounded by 
 being fired at too near. Whilst the villeggiatura 
 was acting, a bomb was thrown into the castle, 
 among the company. 
 
 The Queen is exceedingly prodigal. At the birth 
 of her son, the king gave her 100,000 ducats, which 
 she squandered away in a twelvemonth, besides her 
 
 I This lady was so fat that she was called " Double 
 Stout." 
 
150 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 allowance, which is 50,000. It is universally the 
 custom at Naples for the husband to give his wife, 
 on her lying-in, one hundred ounces, and the god- 
 father is at all the expense of the christening. In 
 Russia, whoever visits a lady in the straw, must 
 slip a piece of gold under her pillow. 
 
 The common people here are not very gallant ; 
 one never sees any flirtations going on among them. 
 The fair is a gingerbread representation in the Largo 
 Castello, within a narrow semicircle ; a great deal 
 of board-work painted with evergreens, and lanterns 
 hung about, which give a dim light. At noon all the 
 tents are let down, and all the world is asleep. In 
 the evening, till eleven or twelve, the populace crowd 
 hither to saunter, and then retiring to rest, leave the 
 scene clear for people of quality, who take possession 
 of it till one. The fashionable drive on Sundays in 
 summer is along the Chiaia to Posilipo ; there are 
 generally fireworks at the Carmes. 
 
 Mr. Spence has made quite a conquest of the 
 King by his ridiculous dancing, which I suppose the 
 King takes for buffoonery. He has him to play at 
 tennis with him, and they are as great as inkle- 
 weavers. 
 
 Count Pennicolto, a Polish general, has come 
 to beg I will be security for him for three hundred 
 ounces 1 A modest request from an almost perfect 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. I5I 
 
 stranger. He says he is sent here as agent from the 
 King of Poland, to recover principal and interest 
 from the crown of Naples for a large sum lent upon 
 Naples to Philip IL in 1588, by Queen Bona Sfortia, 
 Queen of Poland. The Elector Palatine has received 
 one half, and the House of Condé pretends to the 
 other, but Poland puts in a juster claim; ça m'est 
 bien égal. 
 
 There is a Mrs. Hart here, who was a nun at 
 Milan ; she is of the Pietra family, and eloped with 
 an Englishman : she threw herself at Queen Caro- 
 line's feet, to get the Pope's pardon for her and a 
 release from her vows. 
 
 The Duke d'Ayen and the Tessés are just 
 arrived in a French frigate. 
 
 July 20th. 
 
 I embarked some days ago for Ischia, with 
 Pelham and Spence, to dine with Prince Franca- 
 villa, who has a villa there. Just above it are the 
 stufas or vapour baths, the smell of which is very 
 powerful even to those who walk in the road below. 
 Myrtles in full blossom are abundant, and number- 
 less flowers perfumed the air ; a small honeysuckle in 
 particular, sweeter than anything I ever smelt. 
 
 The air is now so hot, that going out of a room 
 at Prince Francavilla's to the window, it struck one 
 
152 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 all of a sudden like stepping into the steam of an 
 oven ; but I cannot say that I have felt or seen any 
 one feel any bad effects of lassitude or faintness 
 from the heat. 
 
 We came away at seven, and arrived at Naples 
 about twelve, by the mildest moonshiny night imagi- 
 nable, with just a breeze to keep us going, whilst 
 we and most of the crew lay down to rest. It was 
 altogether a most pleasant evening, with a refreshing 
 breeze to allay the fury of the lion,^ which now rages. 
 In addition to our party at the Prince's, we there 
 met and made acquaintance with the Abbé Galiani, 
 one of the beaux esprits of Madame du Deffand's and 
 Madame Geoffrin's society, an extremely clever and 
 witty man, and an author.^ 
 
 There have been horse races at Portici, and 
 grand fireworks at the palace, in honour of St. 
 Anthony ; then a ball. 
 
 Figs and melons are in abundance here ; filberts 
 are supposed to be aborigines of this country. They 
 have no nuts like our long-skinned filberts, but all of 
 the Spanish kind. Turkey wheat is forbidden to be 
 sold in the streets of Naples, but the police is so in- 
 efficient that it is sold at every corner. 
 
 1 The Lion, or Sol Leone, the name given to the dog-days. 
 
 2 The Abbé Galiani was one of the clique of French 
 philosophers of Voltaire's and d'Alembert's school. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. I53 
 
 From the experience I have acquired from the 
 quarrels and adventures of our servants and neigh- 
 bours, I conclude there is not such another race of 
 rogues as the common people of Naples.* 
 
 A mariner died the other day in a house oppo- 
 site my windows, and the gesticulations of the 
 widow were truly ludicrous. She tore her hair by 
 handfuls, and yelled horribly ; but when her step-son 
 came to seize upon her late husband's effects, she 
 flew at him like a fury, and began fighting. She 
 opposed the body's being removed to be buried, and 
 afterwards threw herself fainting upon the window, 
 with her daughters all tearing their hair, scratch- 
 ing their cheeks, &c. This is the custom of the 
 country, and is done without the necessity of 
 feeling any real grief. 
 
 In Calabria widows are forced to scream and 
 roar, and tear their hair for grief; but the rich 
 people hire women to perform these grimaces for 
 them. 
 
 I have observed that the people of Naples 
 never pay any court to the women in public, and 
 never seem to sit making love to them, or ap- 
 pear fonder of one girl than another. 
 
 In the Guardia del Corpo (bodyguards) none 
 
 I This, although in contradiction of Mr. Swinburne's 
 previous praises of the Neapolitans, is more near the truth. 
 
154 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 but young men nobly born are admitted without 
 very great probation, and those of great houses 
 are soon advanced from the rank of cadet to that 
 of officers in their own troop. Those of inferior 
 birth are slow in getting forward; and, as in each 
 regiment there is a company, a lieutenant, and a 
 pair of colours allotted to the Guardia del Corpo, 
 they are placed out as the vacancies happen. 
 Among them is a very handsome young man, 
 the son of a valet de chambre (which kind of ser- 
 vitude is the greatest bar that can be thrown in 
 a man's way who wishes to enter the service) ; 
 yet, by interest, and particularly that of the Abbé 
 GaHani, who is his real father, he was admitted 
 and kept his ground. He is now the cecisbeo 
 of the Marchioness de la Sambuca, and, they say, 
 patronised by the Queen herself. 
 
 The King's Volontari della Marina, or Li- 
 pariotes, are a most complete and handsome 
 regiment, commanded by all the young men of the 
 highest rank at Court. The uniform is green, Hned 
 and cuffed with scarlet, and yellow buttons. The 
 soldiers perform their evolutions wonderfully well. 
 The King has been their major, and takes infinite 
 pains with them. He always wears their regi- 
 mentals. All summer they row his galliots, and 
 in the winter follow him out shooting. I am 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 155 
 
 sorry to add that this brilliant set of soldiers is 
 
 composed of the most abandoned wretches under 
 
 the sun. Scarce one but has several murders 
 
 upon his head, and I do not suppose all these 
 
 rascals together would stand the charge of one 
 
 company of resolute, cool grenadiers. 
 
 The Queen is very superstitious, and is always 
 
 going to some church or saint, and now has 
 
 chosen for the godfather of the child she is in 
 
 expectation of, the poorest pezzente or almsman 
 
 of San Gennaro, one of those who have their feet 
 
 washed on Maundy Thursday, and carry the dead 
 
 poor to their graves ; and this is out of devotion ! 
 
 It is a custom in use with many of the ladies 
 
 here. They often have no godmothers for their 
 
 children. 
 
 August 20th, 
 
 I have been walking to the end of Posilipo, 
 and enjoying something of a cool day. The King 
 of Spain intended carrying on that magnificent 
 road, taken from the sea, and built with immense 
 blocks of lava, brought firom near Puzzuoli. It 
 would have crossed the hill in a zigzag line, and 
 been a most noble work, saving the disagreeable 
 necessity of going through the grotto. His con- 
 fessor, a capuchin, was the director and supervisor 
 of this work. But the present King, who in all 
 
156 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 probability will not leave one monument of his 
 reign behind him, has never thought of going on 
 with it. It was his father who built Caserta, the 
 aqueduct, the great hospital, the palace of Portici, 
 made the roads to Bovino and Evoli, dug out 
 Herculaneum and Pompeii, and constructed the 
 whole Strada Nuova and the Molo at Naples. 
 
 Paesiello's music is wretchedly sung at the 
 opera, and the dancers are bad, except Le Picq, 
 who teaches the young Princes. We had a bril- 
 liant gala at Court last week for the Queen's 
 birthday. 
 
 The quantity of water-melons consumed in 
 Naples is prodigious. The greatest part is sold 
 in the cellars or grottos under the streets. One 
 shop under the Porta di Chiaia sells five hundred 
 a day, and six hundred on holidays. 
 
 I went with Prince Butera to see the plans 
 of Brindini at Pigonati's, which are making out 
 for the King. It appears that a statue of His 
 Majesty is to be erected on a point of land which 
 is to be changed into an island by a new cut 
 (to be converted into an oyster-bed), and called 
 Isola di San Ferdinando — a most ridiculous idea. 
 The works of Brindini have already cost 26,000 
 ducats. 
 
 The other night, at a ball at Posilipo, the 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 1 57 
 
 Queen was taken ill and retired, and, not long 
 after, the roar of the cannon announced the birth 
 of a Prince. He has since been christened by the 
 innumerable names of Francis, Louis, Januarius, 
 Jean Baptiste, Pasquale, Balthazar, Melchior, Gas- 
 par, &c., &c. The Queen had a new doctor, Mr. 
 Pears, called in, in preference to Viventor, the 
 established one, which has caused a great sensa- 
 tion. Viventor is the son of a practitioner of Nola, 
 himself an ignorant pretender to physic, and only 
 constituted doctor to the Queen's household from 
 having married her favourite maid, as everything 
 is done by favour here. By making himself a jack- 
 of-all-trades, and playing with the King, he obtained 
 an almost uncontrolled power in all departments, 
 directed the marine department, modelled the army, 
 and, like a second Struensee, disposed of everything 
 with the greatest annoyance and brutality. He 
 had a scheme for improving the naval affairs, and 
 subduing the Algerines; but the loss of the ships 
 he expected success from, has lessened his conse- 
 quence; and now the Queen, having thrown off 
 her slavery to his will, has done his business, to 
 the great joy of all Naples. 
 
 When a person here is in a brown study, or 
 rêvant à la suisse, they say he is fishing for " Car- 
 melachi," which are manches de couteau, or razor 
 
158 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 fish, taken in a very sedate manner; viz., a man 
 walks upright into the sea, and seems quite lost 
 in thought, till he feels something pricking about 
 his feet ; then he darts down, and catches hold 
 of the fish. 
 
 There are four families here that came from 
 Arragon, and settled in the kingdom of Naples, 
 viz., Carolina, Count d'Acerra ; Gucoaro, Duke of 
 Novino ; Cavallanes, Marquis of Santo Mario ; and 
 Count d'Avilos. They walk together in the pro- 
 cession of the octave of Corpus Christi, to visit the 
 great altar. 
 
 The dissipation of the Neapolitans is really 
 disgusting. All ranks seem to live only for tawdry 
 show and idleness. Every day there are fireworks 
 and music, with some devotional procession or 
 another; these are so common that nobody 
 minds them. In one firework, let off before 
 some Madonna, was a paper statue of a doctor 
 giving a lavement of squibs to Pulchineilo.^ 
 
 Expense and prodigality are at their height 
 
 I In the ancient part of the city of Antwerp, said to 
 have been built by the Romans, there for a long time existed 
 a small image of the god Priapus. It was suggested by one 
 of the town council that this pagan emblem ought to be 
 effaced, and the niche, in which it stood, purified by some 
 Christian image. The proposition was carried, and a small 
 statue of the Virgin, at this hour, occupies the place of ti;e 
 Roman effigy. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 15g 
 
 here. The rich are oppressed with debts ; the 
 working people always spend the produce of their 
 labour before they have received it ; and from the 
 King to the lazzaroni there is not such a nation of 
 idle, irregular fellows in the world. 
 
 The Queen had three young ladies praying for 
 her safe delivery, who are now to be portioned off 
 as wives or nuns. When one of her children was 
 ill of a swelled face, she sent it regularly to kiss 
 an image of St. Jago, in one of the churches. 
 
 The women here seem to give avarice and 
 vanity the first rank among their passions. Forty 
 years ago there were not ten women at Naples 
 who knew what a cap was ; but luxury has much 
 increased since that time, and now the ladies are 
 all à la française. 
 
 The politics of this Court are very strange, 
 and, in compliance with the bigotry of His Most 
 Catholic Majesty, Tanucci's projects of under- 
 mining the power of the Church are quite knocked 
 on the head. The Hackney has just been pre- 
 sented to the Pope, with more than common 
 pomp, though His Holiness was informed last 
 year that this humiliating ceremony would never 
 be performed again.^ 
 
 I The establishment of the tribute, of which the presen- 
 tation of the palfrey was the emblem, dated from the epoch 
 
l6o LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Last year the King named to the bishopric of 
 Aquila the Professor of Common Law in the Uni- 
 versity of Naples, who immediately wrote a letter 
 to the tribunal and magistrates of that city, 
 notifying his nomination, and descanting upon 
 the happiness of Aquila in being under the sole 
 command of the King, free from all interference 
 of the Court of Rome. The Pope was outrageous 
 at this, and refused to grant the bulls, or to con- 
 secrate the recipient. At last the latter was forced 
 to recant, went to Rome, and was consecrated. 
 In the bulls, the Pope talks of the plenitude of 
 his power, of his bishops in his city of Aquila, in 
 his fief the kingdom of Naples. When Sambuca 
 expostulated with the King on the disgraceful 
 tribute of the haquenécy Ferdinand shrugged up his 
 shoulders, and said he should have no objections 
 to refuse it, " ma bisogna far acconsentir il Papa." 
 
 The King spends in his household about six 
 hundred thousand ducats yearly, and the annual 
 sums paid for masses said in this city alone 
 amounts to as much more. 
 
 I have been to see the drawing of the lottery, 
 
 of the Norman Kings, who thereby acknowledged the right or 
 sovereignty of the Pope to the kingdom of Naples. This 
 custom was aboUshed at the period of the French invasion, 
 and has not been re-estabUshed. 
 
CHARLES IV, KING OF SPAIN 
 ABDICATED IN MARCH, i8oS 
 
 After a painting by Don Francisco Goya y 
 
 Liicientes, in the Musée du Prado, 
 
 Madrid 
 
■&<>h^t.^t 1.S99 ■U.-SM 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. l6l 
 
 in the great hall of the Vicaria. Five numbers 
 were extracted by a little boy, after the boxes had 
 been shaken by some lazzaroni. 
 
 There is no place where music seems to be 
 in less esteem than Naples, or where so little is 
 heard ; no one ever attends to it, even from the 
 finest singers and performers, and even the com- 
 mon people appear utter strangers to it. There 
 is no national music, and, except a few draw- 
 ling kind of sequadillas, probably bequeathed to 
 them by the Spaniards, you never hear any such 
 things as vielles, organs, guitars, &c., in the 
 streets. 
 
 All the ladies of quality here, let the circum- 
 stances of their husbands be what they will, have 
 a hundred ducats per month for pin-money, and no 
 more. At the birth of every child, the husband 
 makes her a present of one hundred ounces, 
 and many other things of value, according to her 
 fortune. 
 
 The King, it is said, takes a boat at mid- 
 night, or later, to go to his rendezvous on the 
 coast of Portici. The Lucciana's husband has 
 been absent for many weeks, at his country house 
 near Aversa. 
 
 Madame Santo Marco, one of the beauties of 
 Naples, laid a scheme, about two years ago, for 
 
 VOL. I XX 
 
1 63 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 making a conquest of the King, at Caserta, which 
 succeeded ; but the Queen being apprised of it, 
 gave His Majesty such a lecture as frightened him 
 out of his wits, and brought him back to Naples 
 upon his knees. She forgave him, on his promising 
 never to offend again, to which he willingly agreed. 
 The marchesa was exiled, and the Prince de la 
 Rocca, one of the principal actors, was wise enough 
 to retire for two years to his estate, where he re- 
 ceived the red riband of San Gennaro, which the 
 King promised him when he was his confidante in 
 the affair. On his return to Court, he waited on 
 Their Majesties to thank them for it, and was most 
 graciously received by both ; but as soon as the 
 King returned to the inner apartments, he giddily 
 or maliciously told the Queen that La Rocca, to 
 whom she was so civil, had been the agent in the 
 San Marco business. " You have told me too late," 
 said the Queen. 
 
 The Abbé Galiani had, the other day, a religious 
 dispute with some Italian gentlemen, in which he 
 attempted to prove to them that the Gospel of St. 
 Mark was an abstract of St. Matthew. After much 
 wrangling and discussion, one of the company 
 proposed to change the subject, and to talk of the 
 pretty women of Naples ; among others of Madame 
 Santo Marco. " Eh ? " said the Abbé, " à che 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 1 63 
 
 serve ? non vi ho detto gia venti volte che Santo 
 Marco é Tepitome di San Matteo ? " * 
 
 We see the Abbé often, and he enlivens our 
 conversation by his wit. He has explained some 
 passages of Horace with great ingenuity, and means 
 to publish a new edition, with his observations. 
 The Marquis Tanucci was so envious of all men 
 of any kind of knowledge, that he did his utmost 
 to keep them down, and never liked Galiani after 
 he had heard King Charles say that he had met 
 him in his library, and found him excessively 
 clever and knowing upon all the subjects he had 
 questioned him upon. 
 
 September Sth, 
 The Chiaia was crowded by daybreak with a 
 gay populace, in very splendid holiday clothes and 
 characteristic national finery, moving from Naples 
 to its environs to pay homage to the Madonna di pie 
 di Grotta. The troops in garrison pitched their tents 
 and repaired to their posts, lining all the Chiaia to- 
 wards the sea. The picture was incomparable. All 
 the nobility, in gala coaches, passed along to enjoy 
 the sight, and to be seen themselves. Great dinners 
 were given at all the houses on the line. The Count 
 
 I San Matteo is the portion of the city principally in- 
 habited by women of bad character ; hence the Abbe's bitter 
 sarcasm. 
 
 II — 2 
 
164 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 de Chatenay and Abbé Galiani dined with us. At 
 five the King passed in his state-coach, with twenty- 
 two carriages preceding or following him ; the spec- 
 tacle was brilliant. 
 
 The origin of this ceremony is the supposed 
 miracle of the blessed Virgin, to three or four old 
 women and monks, recommending a church to be 
 built to her honour, where her image was stuck up 
 against the wall ; and as the Viceroy, Don Pedro di 
 Toledo, was very fond of Puzzuoli, having already 
 a country-house opposite the spot, the cunning 
 Jesuits fixed the scene of this mummery in that 
 quarter; which induced the viceroy to build the 
 church, and to institute the procession, as he was 
 delighted to find his favourite residence likely to 
 become a place of resort. 
 
 The small-pox has declared itself on the fool 
 Don Philip, the King's elder brother, and the whole 
 Court is in alarm. There seemed to be great de- 
 bates about what was to be done ; at last it was 
 arranged for the royal family (except the sick man) 
 to set out for Santa Lucia, to the great vexation of 
 all Naples ; with, however, the consoling promise 
 of feasts and rejoicings on their return, at the end 
 of forty days. The Queen has invited Vincenzo 
 Montalto, brother of the Duke of Tragnito, to go 
 with her to Santa Lucia. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 165 
 
 There are many Monache di casa in Naples who 
 make vows, but live at home, and have not the best 
 reputations ; also the nuns of San Vicenzo, who are 
 a kind of Magdalens. They go about the streets 
 begging, with their faces covered. One of them, the 
 other day, came in a hurry up to a groom-boy, at 
 the Duke of Valentino's stable door, and begged he 
 would give her leave to rest herself in the stable for 
 a short time, feeling very ill from the heat. The 
 boy consented, and allowed her to rest within for a 
 quarter of an hour. She then came out, thanked 
 him, and went her way. Some time after, the lad, 
 going in to dress his horses, heard a squeaking 
 under the manger, and found the nun had left 
 them a fine chopping boy. 
 
 Neither men nor women walk here, either in 
 town or country, except a little at night ; they 
 pass most of their time at the Bassette table. 
 
 The "Cavalli di razzi," especially of the plains, 
 are all weak, and unable to perform other work 
 than parading upon the pavement. They are al- 
 ways being bled and physicked. Indeed, the air 
 here is the greatest generator of blood imaginable. 
 The horses of the mountains are stout and hardy. 
 
 The council for managing the affairs of the 
 Jesuits having refused to let the old tenant at 
 Casteir a mare continue, as he would not pay an 
 
l66 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 increased rent, the fellow put himself in the King's 
 way, and tendered him the quarter's rent. The 
 King was so delighted at receiving what he called 
 the first money of the Jesuits he had even seen, 
 that he gave the farmer a fresh lease, on condi- 
 tion that he always brought him the money in 
 gold. 
 
 October ^rd. 
 
 The Infante Don Philip, an idiot, died upon 
 the 17th instant, and four days after his body 
 was carried in a coach, preceded by twenty-four 
 servants with flambeaux, and the judge of the 
 Court on horseback, to Santa Chiara, to be ex- 
 posed on a catafalqua. The troops lined the 
 road. The catafalqua had this inscription on it : 
 " Raptus est, mutant ne malitiâ intellectum ejus." 
 
 All is in gala, and there are no signs of a 
 funeral ceremony. The Queen has returned, and 
 is giving a conversazione at the Belvedera.^ 
 
 We have been on a villeggiatura to Vietri, 
 where Galiani joined our party. He has many 
 amusing stories and anecdotes. Here are a few of 
 them : A Gascon walking one sharp, frosty day, 
 
 I San Vietri was formerly called Marciana, because 
 it was part of the estate given by Trajan to his sister. 
 I am told a bishop of La Cava broke and buried all the 
 statues found there. The &iar's convent was a temple 
 called Votares. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 167 
 
 clad in a light summer silk, a friend coming up 
 asked him how he could do with such a coat in 
 such a bitter cold day. " Cadedis ! comment je 
 fais ? " replied the other ; "Eh ! je gèle." 
 
 The Salernitans and Cavaccioli hate each 
 other mortally. Two of the former were quarrel- 
 ling, and one called the other a filthy Cavacciolo. 
 " No, no," said the second, " I am no Cavacciolo 
 neither — I am a Christian." 
 
 A Calabrese beggar being ready to die with 
 hunger at Rome, as no one gave him a farthing, 
 applied for advice to a countryman of his, a beg- 
 gar also, whose stand seemed to produce a com- 
 fortable maintenance. His friend told him he must 
 use a little art, and, if he did not excite compassion, 
 he must do as he did — put on a kind of Jewish 
 habit, and pretend to be a "povero Ebreo fatto 
 Cristiano," and for that reason ejected from the 
 synagogue. Approving of this counsel, the other 
 prepared his dress in such a manner as to have 
 a very Jewish appearance. Thus accoutred, and 
 sure of success, he repaired to the corner of a 
 street ; but in going he totally forgot the word 
 ** Ebreo," and attacked the compassionate passen- 
 gers with, " Fratelli, la carita per I'amor di Dio 
 — un poco di limosina a un povero Calabrese fatto 
 Cristiano." Although this blunder excited the 
 
l68 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 laughter rather than the pity of the gentry, 
 yet they could not help, in the fulness of their 
 merriment, opening their purse-strings to the 
 beggar. 
 
 When Charles V, returned from Tunis he 
 travelled by land through Calabria and to Naples, 
 and did much good by the road. Seeing Calabria 
 without corn, and being told it was too mountain- 
 ous and too cold for it to ripen, he ordered rye- 
 seed to be brought from Germany. It succeeds 
 well, and is now universal over these parts, where 
 it is known by the name of " Germano." At La 
 Cava, the town council met to consider what pre- 
 sent they should give the Emperor. Some were 
 for pine-apples, the kernels of which are of a vast 
 size ; but the majority carried it in favour of a 
 kind of fig, which they cover with mats in winter, 
 and in March (the time of the Emperor's passing) 
 the fruit is very ripe and delicious eating. The 
 Emperor received the deputies very graciously, 
 and expressing great surprise at the fineness of 
 the fruit at that season of the year, inquired 
 whether they could preserve any quantity of them, 
 and whether they were in abundance. ** Oh ! " 
 said the wise mayor, "we have such plenty that 
 we give them to our hogs." " What," said 
 Charles, '* to your hogs ?— then take your figs back 
 
COURTS Oif PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 169 
 
 again ; " and, so saying, he flung a ripe one full 
 in the face of the orator. The courtiers following 
 the example of their Sovereign, the poor deputies 
 had their faces all besmeared and their eyes 
 bunded up with the fruit. As they were returning 
 from the audience, one of these sapient senators, 
 taking the whole to be part of the ceremonial 
 of a reception by an Emperor, observed to his 
 brethren how lucky it was they had carried the 
 point in favour of figs; for, had they presented 
 pine-apples, they would undoubtedly have had 
 their brains knocked out. 
 
 About the period of the revival of letters, the 
 Itahans were upon the point of returning to pagan- 
 ism. The passion for Virgil grew to such a pitch, 
 that the Holy See thought it necessary to interpose. 
 In order, therefore, to take that author out of the 
 hands of young persons, they prevailed upon Vida 
 and Sannazzaro to compose their sacred poems, 
 ** Christiados," &c., to supply the place of the Latin 
 poet whose work was so much idolized.'^ 
 
 I Of Vida, little is known; but James Sannazar, who was 
 bom at Naples in 1458, has left behind him a distinguished 
 reputation. His most celebrated productions are his " Arca- 
 dia," his " De partu Virginis " (translated into French under 
 the title of " Couches sacrées de la Vierge "), and his '• SaUces 
 et lamentatio de morte Christi." The latter obtained for its 
 author the title of the " Christian Virgil." Sannazar, who 
 was very wealthy, died in 1530, and was buried in a magnifi- 
 
170 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Galiani has a plan of having the whole kingdom 
 ot Naples represented in relievo, with cork, by the 
 makers of the Presepio. 
 
 He tells me St. Foix discovered, by the papers 
 in the French Secretary of State's office, that the 
 Masque de fer y mentioned by Voltaire, was the Duke 
 of Monmouth, supposed to have been beheaded on 
 Tower Hill, but in reality brought to the Bastille 
 after the fall of the Stuarts. James had promised 
 his brother Charles, upon his sacrificing Monmouth 
 to him, by refusing to acknowledge his marriage 
 with Lucy "Waters, that he would never take away 
 his life.* 
 
 cent tomb in the church of Santa Maria del Parto at Naples. 
 The following distich was engraved upon his monument; — 
 " Da sacro cineri flores : hic ille maroni 
 Syncerus musa proximus, ut tumulo." 
 Syncenis was the Latin name given to him. 
 
 I St. Foix, author of " Ess. Hist, sur Paris," &c., pre- 
 tended, but did not prove, that the unhappy captive, known 
 as the " Iron Mask," was the Duke of Monmouth. In a work 
 published at Amsterdam, called " Mémoires secrets pour ser- 
 vir à l'histoire de Perse," attributed to Voltaire, as well as in 
 the " Siècle de Louis XIV.," it is confidently affirmed that 
 this prisoner was the Count de Vernandois, son of Madame 
 de la Vallière and Louis XIV., who was supposed to have 
 died suddenly whilst with the army of Flanders in 1683. 
 Others again assert that the prisoner was an illegitimate son 
 of Anne of Austria, and consequently brother to Louis XIV. 
 Others opine for the Duke de Beaufort. But the probabilities 
 are that the victim was the celebrated Fouquet, minister of 
 finance to the dissolute monarch who signed the Edict of 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. I71 
 
 The divers of the Gulf are surprising fellows, 
 swimming in the water with a little basket, into 
 which they put their fish. They dive, and remain 
 working and pulling the shell-fish off the rocks, for 
 four or even five minutes, with their feet above 
 water, as I have seen myself (my watch in my 
 hand). They gain sometimes eight or ten carlini a 
 day by their work; but they die young, the violence 
 of the exertion weakening their chests. 
 
 The Neapolitan citizens, or middling sort of 
 people, live very poorly as to eating, their little in- 
 come being curtailed by the calls of show and finery. 
 When they are invited to dinner, it is scarcely cred- 
 ible what quantities they devour. It is the custom 
 to serve every dish, and send it round, and almost 
 an affront to ask anybody if he will have any of this 
 dish. He will answer, " Voleté I ma non sono 
 ammalato I " When strangers are invited to dine 
 with you, their servants do not wait, but you give 
 them two carlini, wherewith to get themselves a 
 dinner. 
 
 Lachryma Christi is, methinks, no longer a 
 
 Nantes. In speaking of the death of the Count de Vernandois, 
 it may not be irrevelant to repeat the words of Madame de la 
 ValUère, when they announced this event to her. She at first 
 burst into tears, but recovering herself, said, "C'est trop 
 pleurer la mort d'un fils dont je n'ai pas assez pleuré la 
 naissance." 
 
172 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 very delicious wine ; it is strong and sound, with, 
 a burnt, acrid taste.* 
 
 November ^th. 
 
 There is to be no more mourning, the King of 
 Spain having disapproved of it, which is a rare 
 comedy. There was a grand gala at Court yester- 
 day, to celebrate the fête of San Carlo Borromeo. 
 The opera was Catone. 
 
 We visited some days ago the Spirito Santo and 
 the Pellegrini. The monks, when dead, are put 
 dressed into their coffins, which are filled with tufa ; 
 the flesh is thus consumed in a few months. They 
 are then taken out, and stuck up in niches, attired 
 in the habit of the confraternity, with their names 
 and the time of death over them, and thus exposed 
 to public view. The number of pilgrims fed and 
 lodged at the Pellegrini is very great ; sometimes 
 forty a night going upon various pilgrimages, to 
 St. Jago di Loretto, St. Nicola di Bari, &c. 
 
 I took a trip to Lake Agnano, which was beauti- 
 ful beyond expression. There were many people on 
 
 I A ridiculous mistake was once committed by a good 
 honest country squire of my acquaintance, who had received a 
 present of some of this wine, and neither understood its name, 
 nor whence it came. " What say you to a glass of wine ? " 
 said he one day to me at dinner? I bowed, and he continued, 
 " What shall it be ? " " Anything." " Come, then, let us 
 try some of L 's wine that he bought at Christie's I" 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 1 73 
 
 the banks, trying to get a shot at the wild deer 
 swimming about in the clear water, which had no 
 appearance of fog, or noxious vapour ; but the 
 peasant who lives at the temple assured me it was 
 very unhealthy in summer ; and his looks were a 
 guarantee for his words. I saw some very pretty 
 kingfishers skimming across. After admiring all the 
 charming effects of light and shade on the land and 
 water, and taking a minute sketch of the temple, I 
 went back to Baia, and up a narrow path over the 
 hills, and came down to Lake Fusaro, where the 
 King was in a boat, shooting wild fowl. 
 
 The other day the King met an old woman 
 near Caserta, of whom he bought a turkey. She, 
 not knowing the blackguard-looking fellow she was 
 with to be the Sovereign, accompanied him towards 
 the palace with his purchase. As soon as he ap- 
 peared there, the drums beat, and the guard turned 
 out ; upon which the old woman, who knew the 
 signal, pulled him back and told him to get out 
 of the way, for that lou pazzo was coming, who 
 would run over them ; and that lou rey pazzo made 
 nothing of trampling people under his horses' feet ; 
 that he was constantly running about instead of 
 minding his business, and so everything went al 
 diavolo. "There is no justice," added she, "no 
 law; and all things are extremely dear." The 
 
174 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 King then conducted her in, and you may suppose 
 that she was frightened out of her wits when she 
 found out who it was, by his reception at the 
 gate. His Majesty, who was extremely diverted 
 at her terror, made her repeat it all to the Queen, 
 who gave her some money.^ 
 
 He never gives anything himself, but gets 
 everything to be given by the Queen. One day, 
 however, he gave his eldest daughter an ounce, 
 and the child seemed so delighted, and hugged 
 him so much for it, that the Queen could not 
 help taking notice of it, and asking the Princess 
 why she showed such extravagant joy for one 
 piece, when she had had so many from her upon 
 fifty occasions. " Oh, mamma," said the girl, " but 
 this is the first I ever was able to get out of papa ! " 
 The King was quite affected and absolutely cast 
 down for some time by this reproach. 
 
 It is said he sent the Marquis Pignatelli with 
 a thousand ounces to the Duchess of Lucciano, 
 and that Pignatelli kept five hundred for himself, 
 which afterwards came to the King's knowledge, 
 but he never showed any resentment. 
 
 Don Ferdinando di Leon, who is a magistrate, 
 fell in love with the Marchesa di Santo Marco, 
 
 I Lou Pazzo (the madcap) was the nickname given to 
 Ferdinand by the lazzaroni. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 175 
 
 and lent her a sum out of the Pièta to pay off 
 her husband's debts, notwithstanding which piece 
 of generosity she always disliked him. 
 
 Donna Teresina del Sangro is a merry, 
 agreeable woman, but a sad thief. She has 
 played all sorts of tricks, pawned other people's 
 effects, &c. She is much in favour ; so much, 
 that the King ensured her a pension for thirty 
 years, that she might be enabled to borrow money 
 upon it. 
 
 Our friend, Prince Francavilla, was the cher 
 ami of the late Queen Amalia. His rise was very 
 sudden; from being a neglected youth, taken no 
 notice of, nor likely to be connected at Court, he 
 became maggiordomo to the Queen. He was very 
 handsome. 
 
 When any joyful event happens in the royal 
 family, it is customary to grant an indulto ; — the 
 most unjust thing ever heard of in any country. 
 The King orders all debtors for money due to 
 particuliers (individuals) to be set at liberty, but 
 those confined for sums due to the King's account 
 are detained ; so that a fellow who is shut up for 
 not paying debts owing to his neighbour is released, 
 whilst he who is m debt to the King, because that 
 man's failure has rendered him unable to discharge 
 the taxes imposed upon him, shall be detained to 
 
I'jS LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 rot in prison. No creditor can arrest anybody until 
 the expiration of six months. 
 
 The curé of La Madonna di Fiorentini is a 
 great rogue. He pretends he has a miraculous 
 Madonna; and lately a tradesman's wife, having 
 two children ill of the small-pox, made an ex voto 
 to this Madonna of her last gown. The two chil- 
 dren died, and in a furious passion she attacked 
 the curé. The affair seeming likely to entail dis- 
 agreeable consequences, he managed to have the 
 gowns restored, by means of a bucket drawn from 
 a well. The woman was much surprised, and the 
 curé was called in to explain the miracle. He per- 
 suaded her she had received the greatest favour 
 by the children being taken out of the world, as 
 otherwise they were both destined to come to the 
 gallows. 
 
 Giannone wrote his **Storia dTtalia" with an eye 
 to the papal and other ecclesiastical vexations, and 
 it has been thought to have contributed to deliver 
 his nation from its slavish veneration and terror 
 for all papal measures. Abbé Galiani has made 
 thereupon the following ingenious comparison, 
 which I translate : — " Did you never see a smoke- 
 jack, with a little man in red working away, and 
 seemingly turning the wheel, and setting the whole 
 machine in motion ? Those that are acquainted 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 1 77 
 
 with the mechanism of the piece know that, on 
 the contrary, he is carried away by the force of 
 the general motion. Just so when you see an 
 author, or a minister, seemingly in a great splut- 
 tering, and acting or writing with virulence and 
 energy, be assured it is not he that stimulates his 
 country ; it is the general tendency of the humours 
 set in motion that sets him at work, and gives 
 him the ideas of his subject." 
 
 Victor Amadeus was base and mean enough 
 to have Giannone seized and confined for life, as 
 an enemy to the Pope. 
 
 November 12th, 
 
 This day there is a promotion of the knights 
 of Saint Januarius.^ It is plain that Casamanico 
 and Butera are in high favour, from the number 
 of their relations and friends included in the list. 
 
 The old families of Naples, great barons from 
 time immemorial, are : Aqua Viva, Dukes of Atri, 
 now Counts of Conversano, San Severino, Lords 
 of Ringone, Rufo, Prince of Siglio, and Canteleno, 
 Toro, Sango, Colonna, and Orsini, from Rome. 
 From the Seggias of Naples come the Caraffas, 
 
 I Ordin& di San Gennaro. This order was established, 
 in 1738, by King Charles, upon his marriage with tho 
 Princess Amaha, daughter of Augustus III. of Poland. 
 
 VOL. I 
 
 12 
 
178 
 
 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Capiccis, Caraccioli, Pignatelli, Spinetti, &c. The 
 papal families are : Ludovici, Piccolomini, Gae- 
 tani ; the Genoese : Doria, Spinola, Grimaldi, and 
 Cataneo, Prince of Miandro. 
 
 The Seggias were originally places where the 
 nobility assembled to settle their quota of taxes, 
 &c. When the parliaments were abolished, and 
 the Seggias became considerable, the great barons 
 of the kingdom were obliged to get themselves in- 
 scribed in their lists. 
 
 Yesterday Galiani and Jerningham dined with 
 us, and we then saw a corso of barbs, and an- 
 other of mares, both won by English horses. 
 After that we went to a ball at Posilipo, where 
 the Queen overloaded us with kindness ; she talked 
 to us half the time of the ball, and said she had 
 such a sincere regard for Mrs. S. that, if circum- 
 stances would allow, she should have looked upon 
 it as the greatest happiness of her life to have 
 made her her constant companion ; and ended by 
 assuring us she was fond, very fond, of us all. 
 The King also was very good-natured. 
 
 The Cavalier Gatti has had, for moculating 
 the royal family, a diamond ring, with the cipher 
 of the two Princesses, the portrait of the Prince 
 on a box, and a pension of six hundred ducats 
 for life. He never prepares for inoculation. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 1 79 
 
 Sir William and Lady Hamilton are just ar 
 rived at Naples, where he has come as ambassa- 
 dor. They are very civil and agreeable. We met 
 them at dinner at Prince Francavilla's ; also Lady 
 Betty and Mr. Mackenzie, and Mr. Dutens.* We 
 had there a young ass served up for dinner and 
 eaten. It is like bad venison. 
 
 Palermo, December 2^th, 
 
 I believe the date of this letter will surprise 
 you, as, from what I have written before, you had 
 reason to think my scheme of visiting Sicily was 
 laid aside. It was a sudden determination brought 
 me hither. My wife's health not permitting her 
 to move to Rome as soon as we had intended, 
 and it being resolved, in a council of very partial 
 counsellors, that it was much better to spend the 
 carnival at Naples, I then, having much time 
 upon my hands, resolved to pay a visit to this 
 celebrated island. 
 
 I now sit down to write out of charity for 
 two persons — first, for you, whom I suppose im- 
 
 1 Louis Dutens, a French literary man, much in vogue 
 in those days, especially with the English. He is the author 
 of the "Correspondence interceptée de l'Histoire abrégée de 
 l'Europe," &c. He accompanied Lord Mountstuart, British 
 envoy to the Court of Turin, as private secretary. 
 
 12 — 2 
 
l8o LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 mersed in Northumberland snow, huddled over 
 your solitary fire, and half asleep over some musty 
 book that you could never hope to get through 
 except in such circumstances ; and, secondly, for 
 myself, who am waiting here till the rain ceases 
 a little, that I may set out on my land tour, for 
 which I have been ready some days, and am only 
 detained in the hope of a few dry hours. 
 
 This, you know, is not the pleasantest of all 
 possible situations, and, therefore, a little babbling 
 with one's friends is a relief. However, I have 
 made the most of the bad weather, having been 
 studying very hard many learned folios relating to 
 the antiquities and natural history of Sicily; so 
 that I am somewhat better stocked with learning 
 than I was when I landed. 
 
 I sailed from Naples in a French sloop, and, 
 without meeting with any accident, or seeing any- 
 thing remarkable during the passage, arrived here 
 in exactly thrice four-and-twenty hours. We had 
 calms, contrary winds and dirty weather, otherwise 
 the passage is commonly run in six -and -thirty 
 hours or two days. The appearance of Palermo 
 is very agreeable from the sea, as the capes ad- 
 vance, so as to form a very large and almost 
 perfect half-moon. Its present port is artificial, 
 being rendered secure by a mole running out 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. l8l 
 
 above a mile. The old harbour is only for fish- 
 ing-boats. The plain extends to the foot of high 
 mountains, which are tolerably green. To say it 
 is a garden of orange groves, full of villas, is the 
 best method I can take to give you an idea of it. 
 Even at this time of the year it is beautiful; but 
 the soil is so rocky that it is disagreeable to go 
 out of town in a carriage. 
 
 Palermo is a small town ; its form is almost 
 square, divided into four parts by two straight 
 streets that cross each other at right angles, in 
 the centre, being terminated by four gates, where 
 they join in a kind of octagon square, adorned 
 with statues of the seasons, and of some Spanish 
 kings. These streets, though not well paved, are 
 yet bearable ; whereas the rest are as bad as the 
 pavement of Chastelheraut, which you cannot but 
 remember. The buildings in these two are hand- 
 some, and pretty regular; but, except the palazzi 
 and the convents, the rest of the town is horribly 
 built. There are statues of kings and saints with- 
 out number; indeed, marble is in plenty, but I 
 cannot say good statuaries are so easily come at. 
 
 The Domo is a large Gothic edifice, different 
 firom the style of our English cathedrals, but, 
 though barbarous, not deficient in grandeur and 
 merit. I have found some antiquities of the 
 
1 82 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Saracens, particularly interesting to me after my 
 Spanish studies; and have also had some success 
 in my chasse aux médailles, having had a box full 
 of silver and brass ones given me by the arch- 
 bishop, who is particularly civil to me. I brought 
 a letter to him from Abbé Galiani ; also one to 
 Prince Torremuza, a civil, learned man, who took 
 me to the museum. Prato Amenos' daughter sent, 
 two days after my arrival, to offer me her coach, 
 and the Duke of Castellana called on me. I have 
 seen Butera's sister and brother-in-law. 
 
 The viceroy (Prince of Stigliano) is a block- 
 head, very stingy, and fait mal les honneurs de sa 
 place. The people regret their old master Fogliani, 
 whom they drove out; for he used to scatter his 
 money amongst them, and hundreds of idle hands 
 that lived upon his charities have since found the 
 difference between him and his successor, 
 
 I went to the Ricevimento for the son's mar- 
 riage, but never saw anything so stupid. The 
 Princess of Stigliano told me I was welcome to 
 come on common nights when she did not receive 
 all the town. That was the utmost extent of her 
 civility, though she mentioned my being recom- 
 mended by her husband's friend Losada. 
 
 I never beheld such an ugly race as the 
 Palermitan ladies — quite monsters The only 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 1 83 
 
 tolerably pretty woman is the young Princess of 
 Villafranca. 
 
 The country about Palermo is charming, and 
 so full of orange trees that it appears summer 
 whenever the rain allows one to put one's head 
 out of doors. I have got a good snug room, 
 where I pass most of my time, except an hour 
 or two at the archbishop's. 
 
 I went to a soirée at the Prince of Patagonia's 
 country-house, where was assembled a collection 
 of frightful women, being the principal belles of 
 Palermo. I am sorry I left Brydone's book at 
 Naples by mistake, for it would have amused me 
 on the road, and I should be glad to see how 
 far he deserves the reputation of lying that most 
 travellers have bestowed on his work. However, 
 he is certainly right in what he says of the 
 scarcity of female beauty in this part of the 
 world. I have Baron Reidesel's voyage with me ; 
 it is incorrect and credulous. His Puglia journey 
 gave me a disgust, from the continual blunders he 
 makes ; but I am afraid his Sicilian one will prove 
 worse. 
 
 I have been to the top of Monte Pellegrino, 
 the ancient Eryx, where Hamilcar Barcas, father 
 to Hannibal, remained five years with his army, 
 during the first Punic war, in spite of all the efforts 
 
184 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 of the Romans to drive him away, as he was 
 master of the seas. Santa Rosalia is placed there 
 now, and there is a fine road cut up the steep 
 rock. 
 
 Among the villas in this neighbourhood are 
 some very showy ones, some in a modern taste; 
 one at the Bagaria, belonging to a Monsignore, 
 is a very pretty, elegant house, far beyond any of 
 the gingerbread stucco things in Italy. Inlaid 
 work is done here in perfection, but they only 
 work when ordered, so I cannot purchase any. 
 The silks here are not good. I have hired a 
 muleteer, who conveyed Madame de Tessé round 
 the island, and a very civil intelligent fellow for 
 a guard. His accoutrement is very magnificent, 
 à la houssarde, with a velvet cap laced with silver. 
 I have also provided myself with a good travelling 
 cap, that covers ears and shoulders. 
 
 I propose going to Segesta (or ^gesta, 
 founded by -^neas), but I dare not think on 
 the confounded long route I have to go. I am 
 ready, but the weather is not. I have attempted 
 some excursions in the neighbourhood, and have as 
 often been completely soaked through. However, 
 I am in hopes, as it has become very cold, and 
 the mountains behind us are covered with snow, 
 that I shall get away to-morrow or the next day. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 185 
 
 To tell you the truth, I wish I were fairly 
 back at Naples. Qu'ai-je à faire dans cette galère ? 
 But as that kind of fretting after one's dieux 
 pénates can do nobody any good, and may do me 
 harm, I shall not dwell upon the idea. 
 
 Naples, February 22nd, 1778. 
 
 You have, no doubt, long ago received my 
 letter from Palermo, which, I think, was written 
 in the last week of December. Since that I have 
 accomplished the tour of Sicily, and returned on 
 horseback through the whole length of Calabria, 
 arriving here on the 13th of February, exactly two 
 months from the day I left Naples. The journey 
 might have been made much shorter, had I not 
 been delayed by rivers, and want of resolution in 
 quitting Messina. Not that the charms of that 
 place detained me, but the impossibility to come 
 home by land, and the want of a ship to bring 
 me by sea. 
 
 Luckily I overcame my own backwardness, 
 and all the sinister ideas put into my head about 
 roads and robbers, and have had reason to rejoice 
 at my courage, for the journey amply repaid my 
 trouble. I met with no accident of any kind, 
 performed the route in eight days, and had the 
 
l86 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 finest weather through the finest country; besides 
 which, the season has been so boisterous that my 
 things are not yet come by sea firom Sicily. 
 
 I know you expect an account of my tour, 
 but I cannot undertake to give it en detail, and 
 will refer you to future letters and to my journal 
 for minuter information. I can only now afford 
 you a very slight sketch. You must not be in 
 expectation of anything romantic, à la Don 
 Quixote or Gil Bias, for I am ashamed to say 
 neither accident nor adventure befel me during 
 the whole of my absence ; so, if I wish to excite 
 your wonder, I must make up a pack of lies and 
 nonsensical froth, like Brydone. 
 
 To the good archbishop's paternal care I owe 
 the comfort of having had excellent beds and ac- 
 commodation every night I passed in Sicily. My 
 muleteers were attentive and civil, and their 
 beasts good, but they were rather too fond of 
 short days' journey ; indeed, often the unlucky 
 position of the towns and villages obliged us to 
 halt many miles short of the distance we might 
 have accomplished, there being very few single 
 houses in most parts of the island. 
 
 From Palermo we followed the coast west 
 and south to Alcano, which is some miles from 
 the sea, among the hills. The country is rich, 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 187 
 
 but horrid for travellers, such as I was, after rain. 
 Plantations of manna, a kind of flowering ash, 
 may be seen in all shrubberies. It is the most 
 particular object on the coast, and the principal 
 place for it is Favarotta. 
 
 At Alcano there is a great deal of sumach, 
 which is pounded and exported for the purposes 
 of tanning fine hides. I proceeded due south 
 towards the African sea, and visited the temple of 
 Segesta, one of the finest and most entire of the 
 Doric order existing. I will show you the de- 
 signs of it when we meet. 
 
 At Castel Vetrano, a place where I drank 
 some of the strongest and best white wines that I 
 ever tasted in my life, I was glad to get out of 
 the deep clays and bare hilly country which con- 
 stitute the general run of the inland parts of Sicily. 
 The rocks are composed of a shining substance, 
 firom which the plaster or gypsum is extracted, 
 and these micacious quarries continue far along 
 the coast eastward. The vale of Castel Vetrano 
 is a charming spot ; all a woody, rich garden, of 
 many miles' extent, with a narrow border of sandy 
 hillocks along the shore. Here are the ruins of 
 Silenus, a city which stood on the slope of a 
 hill, with a port at the mouth of a trifling river, 
 and is said to have received its name from the 
 
l88 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 quantity of parsley {selinon) that grew there. 
 Little or nothing of it remains. On the hill 
 above are the remnants of three Doric temples, 
 standing on a flat like those of Passtum. 
 
 I rode for several days eastward along the 
 coast, which is uneven and bare, except the valleys 
 near the sides of rivers. At Sciacca the hot sul- 
 phurous waters, which gave it the name of Thermae 
 Selinuntiae, still retain their force. Not many 
 miles off, on the top of a rocky mountain, are 
 hot sulphurous vapour and other baths, in caverns 
 under a church — a thing I do not recollect ever 
 meeting with elsewhere, as such phenomena in 
 nature are generally placed low. It demonstrates 
 the vicinity of the focus to every part of Sicily, 
 though, apparently, Etna is the only volcano in 
 the island. 
 
 At Girgenti (a shocking poor town on the 
 point of a high mountain four miles from the 
 sea), I was struck with the beauties of ancient 
 Agrigentum ; its situation was as happy as that 
 of Girgenti is wretched. Its temples stand in a 
 line on a hill, where the abrupt rocks formed a 
 rampart to the south. The ground is covered 
 with orange, olive and other charming woods. 
 The Temple of Concord and others are almost 
 entire; that of Jupiter Olympus was the largest 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 189 
 
 in the world, but never finished. The great pond, 
 though dried up, can still be traced. The Recol- 
 lets have a convent in the centre of the old tov^m, 
 and there is a beautiful view from their terrace. 
 
 This is one of the greatest corn ports in the 
 island ; and, for the purpose of exportation, they 
 have made a harbour where nature never meant 
 one. It does not succeed very well, but is a help 
 and advantage to the place and coast. There is 
 no other on the Southern shore (Cape Trapani 
 belongs to the Western), and the foreign ships lie 
 in the roads to load by means of barges. There are 
 no Sicilian vessels of large tonnage. The liberty of 
 exportation, though partially granted, and often un- 
 justly withheld, has thrown a deluge of wealth of late 
 years into the island, and they have ploughed out 
 vast tracts of land, in consequence of the great price 
 corn bears. The Sicilians assured me their island 
 could neither produce more corn, nor more inhabi- 
 tants than it does ; but to one who was a witness of 
 their slight mode of cultivation, and who has read 
 that Syracuse alone contained as many inhabitants 
 as all Sicily can boast of at present, such assertions 
 can meet with very little credit.^ 
 
 I The circumference of Syracuse, according to Strabo, 
 was twenty-two English miles. During the reign of Dionysius 
 the Elder, it maintained an army of 100,000 infantry, 10,000 
 cavalry, and also 400 ships of war. 
 
I go LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 I went to Alicata, then on the sands to Terra 
 Nova, where one column of a temple remains. Here 
 I first beheld Mount Etna, covered with snow. 
 About Pietra Prezzia are high mountains which 
 shut out great parts of Sicily from its view. 
 
 Here I altered my course and struck into the 
 heart of the island to Calatagirone, through a rich 
 and pleasant country, the almond trees all in 
 blossom, and the sun so hot as to be troublesome. 
 You may guess my surprise to find Calatagirone 
 a place full of gentry and coaches, which, no 
 doubt, must have dropped from the skies, for they 
 cannot have got up the mountain it stands upon in 
 the usual way. 
 
 The town is large, towering on the pinnacle of 
 a high mountain, over many finely cultivated hills, 
 clad with vineyards and orchards. A large plain 
 stretches for thirty miles to the foot of Etna, which 
 here appears in full glory, a most stupendous cone 
 indeed 1 The snow covers about one fourth of its 
 height, then comes a dark brown region, lower down 
 a number of white villages, and at the foot stands 
 Catania. 
 
 I met at Calatagirone a vast number of well- 
 dressed, elegant young people, had a most agreeable 
 supper served up by a French cook, and a very 
 sprightly boti ton conversation, quite upon a dif- 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. I91 
 
 ferent style from the awkward manner of Palermo. 
 I own I was as much astonished as if I had found 
 it in some remote part of Barbary. Yet this 
 place has no commerce of any kind. It certainly 
 is remarkable for the elegance of manners and 
 politeness of its inhabitants, and I am told there 
 are also other inland towns full of better-bred 
 people than those on the coast. 
 
 I travelled on an immense plain of thirty-four 
 miles* breadth to Lentini, which affords nothing 
 curious but its lake, full of trout, of the eggs of 
 which is made a caviare, called butarga, that is very 
 good.^ This place has the worst malaria of all 
 Sicily, being a long chain of marshy ponds to the 
 sea, abounding with water-fowl. As we travelled 
 along them, the report of the fowling-pieces was 
 so frequent as to resemble the noise of a regiment 
 exercising. 
 
 I next steered south, over a stony country, to 
 Syracuse, where I revelled four days in the bishop's 
 palace, tasting such varieties of exquisite wines as I 
 had no idea of before. The weather was heavenly, 
 and my stay there was the most agreeable part of 
 my tour. The climate is so mild, that on the 14th 
 of January I plucked off the tree and ate a handful 
 
 I The Greeks of the islands make this butarga^ which is 
 sold in cakes, of the roe of the mullet. 
 
192 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 of fresh tender almonds. Roses, honeysuckles and 
 carnations, in several gardens, were in bloom. The 
 situation is matchless — I mean that of the whole 
 ancient city, for the present one is very small, but 
 even that is in a pleasing position. The fortifica- 
 tions that defend the land-gate are strong, and in 
 good repair; but to the sea the place is weak 
 enough, and the entrance to the port narrow. 
 
 I spent a whole day in riding and walking round 
 
 the walls of the ancient city, which are of some 
 
 height above the ground. Strabo's account must be 
 
 just, of their being twenty-two miles round. This 
 
 immense city commanded the most magnificent view 
 
 imaginable. Little vestige of buildings remains in 
 
 this vast enclosure, except part of the theatre. The 
 
 Latomiae, or subterraneous prisons, are curious. 
 
 That called the Ear of Dionysius is a large quarry, 
 
 wrought in a circular form, and certainly made use 
 
 of as a dungeon, as the ear is artificially cut, and has 
 
 many rings in the wall for fastening chains to, for 
 
 the hands and feet. At the top it is narrowed and 
 
 twisted in the shape of an S till it terminates in a 
 
 groove, which is conveyed to a small closet high up 
 
 over the entrance, where the listeners sat. From 
 
 the breaches in it, the hearing there is now very 
 
 imperfect, as those tell me who have been let 
 
 down by ropes from the top. The echo in the 
 
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 S '^ 
 
 
 
 
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 1 
 
 
 9 
 
 
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COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. I93 
 
 cave is wonderful ; the tearing of a sheet of paper 
 is like the cracking of a whip ; the walls are 
 smooth, cut so as to make it impossible to escape, 
 for the top projects very much over the bottom. 
 
 In the middle of a part of the rock was the 
 guard-house, and all around the summit of the rocks 
 runs the water of an aqueduct. The Latomise, at 
 the Capuchin convent, nearer the sea, are very exten- 
 sive, and divided into several courts, now filled with 
 a wilderness of orange and lemon trees, olives and 
 almonds, which, from luxuriancy of growth, have 
 taken root in the clefts of the rocks. 
 
 The catacombs are lower down, and reckoned 
 more wonderful than those of Rome or Naples. 
 In many of the mouths of the skeletons were 
 found medals. The marks of the wheels worn in 
 the rock trace out the streets of the town. 
 
 I went seven miles through a low, marshy 
 meadow, upon the winding, deep water of the 
 Anapus, up to the fountain of Cyane, now called 
 La Pisma. It is a circular pool of clear water in 
 a flat meadow, where the spring rises. I could 
 not see it boil, or in any violent motion, yet it 
 runs down with great velocity, is full of fish, and 
 its banks are covered with the Egyptian papyrus. 
 I believe this is the only place in Europe where it 
 is to be found. It is called La Perucca, from 
 
 VOL. I 13 
 
194 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 the mop form of its head. So much for sweet 
 Syracuse ! 
 
 The next night I passed at Augusta, a town 
 on an isthmus in a beautiful bay. Then came 
 to Catania, the finest city in Sicily. Its build- 
 ings are grand and its streets wide, and the dis- 
 position of them peculiarly handsome. It is built 
 upon black lava, vomited out of two hills, near 
 the foot of Etna, in 1669, which is quite different 
 from that of Vesuvius. It is impenetrable, and 
 unproductive of the least dust that might give 
 hopes of a disposition to vegetation. The Prince 
 of Biscari, to whom I brought a letter, has made 
 gardens and walks upon it, but every tree is 
 planted in earth brought from other places. His 
 museum contains many precious articles. His 
 cabinet of cameos and intaglios is a rich one, 
 and his cretas and vases are curious. I spent 
 some days with him very agreeably. There is a 
 very fine convent of Benedictines at Catania. 
 
 The snow lay too low on Etna to tempt me 
 to climb to its summit ; but I dined in the tree 
 of the Centi Cavalli, which is the most curious, 
 but not the most striking, of the trees thereabouts, 
 for it is not easy at first sight to believe it ever 
 to have been one trunk, though I saw it was so 
 upon examination. There are some chesnut trees, 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 1 95 
 
 as yet undivided, of astonishing width ; I measured 
 one seventy-eight feet round — about the size of 
 the dining-room at Capheaton. The wonderful 
 size of Etna makes one think with contempt of 
 the Neapolitan Vesuvius, 
 
 At Taormina, the situation of the theatre upon 
 a lofty, narrow promontory running into the sea, 
 and affording a full view of Etna on one side and 
 Italy and the harbour of Messina on the other, 
 occupied my attention very agreeably. The ride 
 to Messina is pleasant along the shore, under 
 woody hills, with many pretty towns on the tops 
 of them. The Palazzata, or semicircular range of 
 regular houses, that runs along the port of Messina, 
 is, undoubtedly, the grandest thing of the kind I 
 ever saw ; adding thereto the noble haven, the very 
 fine citadel, and the opposite mountains of Cala- 
 bria, which do not appear at the distance of a 
 stone's throw. 
 
 The town has two fine streets, and a large 
 cathedral remarkable for its ancient columns and 
 the richness of its marbles. The hills behind are 
 handsome, but there are no rides amongst them, 
 nor any other walk at Messina than along the 
 beach. That near the port is a very fine one. 
 Many of the buildings are in ruins, others un- 
 finished. 
 
 13—2 
 
igÔ LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 There is the greatest appearance of depopu- 
 lation everywhere since the plague, and the ruin 
 of the trade. The harbour is so deep that ships 
 can only lie close along the quay. 
 
 Having waited there six days to no purpose, 
 in hopes of prevailing on a Provençal vessel to 
 carry me to Naples, and the wind being quite 
 fallen, I left my baggage, arms, and almost every- 
 thing behind, and hired a boat with six oars to 
 take me as far towards Naples as it could. 
 
 The tide, which sets very strong into the 
 Faro at stated times, obliged us to lie-to all the 
 evening, just without Cape Peloso ; and in the 
 night we sailed and rowed about fifty miles, 
 having a fine moon, and the coast at about ten 
 miles from us on our right, and the Lipari Island 
 about sixty on our left. 
 
 Next morning we made the south part of the 
 Gulf of St. Eufemia, and were in hopes of reach- 
 ing the Cape of Cetraro, but the wind obliged us 
 to put into Tropea, a small bishop's see on a rock 
 projecting into the gulf. I there hired horses to 
 take me and my two servants to Cosenza. We 
 had delightful weather, and a very pleasant ride 
 to Monteleone, a considerable town, charmingly 
 situated, where I lodged at a convent, and saun- 
 tered about while supper was preparmg. It com- 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. I97 
 
 mands a beautiful view of the sea. The olive woods 
 are thick and full-leaved on the slopes of the hills, 
 and the corn-fields intersected by roads of fine 
 green sward, upon which I saw several carriages 
 out on airing, and priests without number enjoy- 
 ing the evening sun. 
 
 Next day I passed by some rich villages with 
 great beauty of cultivation about them, passed a 
 large river, and came to sleep at the foot of the 
 mountains at Nicastro. The town is in a valley, 
 with fine woods and lofty mountains — a very ro- 
 mantic situation. On the following morning we 
 ascended the mountains, and travelled up and 
 down them, in forests of chesnut and oak of pro- 
 digious bulk and age ; there are immense quanti- 
 ties of fine timber. 
 
 Cosenza is an ugly, poor city, built in a narrow 
 pass where two rivers meet, and in winter is seldom 
 without clouds and rain. In summer the air is 
 noxious. The river Crato runs to the east, through 
 an immense plain into the sea, near the ancient 
 Sibaris.^ 
 
 I continued my road over the hills to Morano, 
 through a very mountainous country, where the 
 
 I This city was at one time so powerful that it sent 
 300,000 men into the field. The subsequent effeminacy of 
 its inhabitants gave rise to the appellation of a " Sybarite." 
 
igS LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 finest views, most noble timber, richest vallej^s, 
 and pleasantly seated towns, occur in great variety, 
 with beautiful rivers and torrents. I saw from one 
 mountain the seas on either side, and boats upon 
 them. Then to Lago Nero, a large town, worse 
 than the wild villages you have passed in the Alps. 
 I rode through the charming plain of Diano. Vil- 
 lages line the spurs of the hills on both sides, for 
 the malaria prevents the lowlands being inhabited. 
 It is a delightful tract of country. At the end of it 
 we came to our inn at La Polla. The river Negro, 
 which runs down the plain, goes underground for 
 above a mile, and bursts out with vast impetuosity 
 at the head of another vale, where it winds its course 
 to the plains of Eboli, waters the royal gardens at 
 Persano, and falls into the sea a few miles north of 
 Pesto. 
 
 The views during this day's ride were enchant- 
 ing. At " La Duchesse," a royal hunting-box, we 
 came to a good road, and, descending through the 
 King's forest, crossed the bridge of Eboli, and came 
 to the fine road made by the King of Spain. I took 
 a coach and post-horses, and late that night reached 
 Naples, to my great comfort — most happy to get 
 back au sein de ma famille and to find all well. 
 
 Considering that we are in the height of car- 
 nival, and that the King and Queen are parading the 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. I99 
 
 Streets in a most superb masquerade, representing 
 the return of the Grand Seignior from Mecca, I 
 think you owe me some thanks for having the 
 courage and friendship to retire from all this 
 gaiety to write you such a voluminous letter. 
 
 This cavalcade is the finest exhibition, perhaps 
 ever seen ; the dresses, trappings, arms, &c., are 
 de la dernière magnificencCy not excepting a car for the 
 ladies, perfectly in costume. Twenty -four Janis- 
 saries go first, then the King as Aga to twenty-four 
 spahis or horsemen. Then the divan, with four 
 ambassadors from China, Siam, Persia, and Hindo- 
 stan. The car of Sultanas, of which the Queen is 
 one, drawn by eight horses, musicians, vases as 
 presents, perfumes, horses, camels, &c. This is 
 all performed by the noblesse about Court, and the 
 King's guards. 
 
 As it has been raining sadly during the carnival, 
 the King was very much afraid of this brilliant spec- 
 tacle being frustrated by the weather; therefore he 
 had five hundred masses said for obtaining fine 
 weather for that one day. It did not rain, and 
 he has been going about telling everybody how he 
 prevented it. The masked balls here are extremely 
 splendid this year. I was at one last night with 
 Sir Thomas, who was disguised en femme de chambre, 
 to the great diversion of the King, who took him 
 
200 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 under his arm, and paraded him about the galleries, 
 ready to die with laughing. — Adieu! This letter is 
 already too long. 
 
 Naples, March 25^/1, 1778. 
 
 By a mistake of the banker's, your letter of the 
 loth of January was sent to Messina, and delayed 
 so long, that it only returned to Naples yesterday. 
 I do not think any more of going to England this 
 year, on account of the great trouble and expense 
 it would put me to, and because the only affair 
 of consequence that might call me home is the 
 division of the common, which I find firom your 
 letter can be transacted just as well in my 
 absence. 
 
 I sent you an account of my Sicilian trip in a 
 long letter some time ago, which I trust you re- 
 ceived. Naples is very gay, the balls at Court more 
 numerous and brilliant than last year, and the play 
 deeper. 
 
 We have many English here ; the prettiest is 
 Lady Smith, daughter of Tom Délavai.^ Lady 
 Maynard is also here, and we have had the devil 
 to pay about her. Lord Maynard has left no stone 
 unturned to get her presented, but in vain ; and 
 
 X Lady Smith was the Miss Parsons before alluded to. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 201 
 
 poor Lady Hamilton has had a great deal of trouble 
 about refusing it. The King has put an absolute 
 negative upon the proposal, and all seems quiet 
 again, though I cannot answer for this cabal per- 
 mitting the Hamiltons to be long at peace. 
 
 Sir William and Lady Hamilton are very civil 
 to us, and we live on the most intimate terms 
 with them. We have had a ball at Prince Ca- 
 riati's, on the occasion of his son's (the Duke of 
 Seminera's) marriage with Donna Margarita Bran- 
 caforte. A most noble room was built on purpose; 
 the French ambassador made one in a rich quad- 
 rille of Spaniards. 
 
 Some days ago the King and Queen went to 
 Astroni, and we, as well as all the English, were 
 there to see the wild boars hunted. The weather 
 was delightful and the locale charming; the royal 
 pair gracious and affable beyond measure; but the 
 sport was sad — a mere butchery of hogs. 
 
 The Queen and the company were within a 
 palisade, on a rising ground, under some fine oaks. 
 
 The King and several of his courtiers were 
 stationed on horseback, in the plain in firont, with 
 large spears in their hands. A body of hunters 
 drove all the game from the hanging woods which 
 line the sides of the immense crater, to the spot 
 where the King was placed; and this was the 
 
202 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 best part of the sport, for it was a cheerful scene 
 to see such crowds beat the thicket, and to hear 
 their continued firing, shouting and hallooing. The 
 boars ran down into the open grounds, and there 
 large hounds were let loose to stop them, in 
 order that the horsemen might come up and spear 
 them ; but as the dogs were too large and too 
 numerous for these tame animals, the poor beasts 
 generally tumbled about sprawling, for the royal 
 hero to drive his spear into them at his leisure. 
 
 The Queen was very chatty, made the ladies 
 sit on fagots near her, and was very attentive to 
 the company. The King ordered a wild boar to 
 be sent to each of the English ladies present. The 
 Queen then walked firom Astroni to the lake of 
 Agnano, where she sat until dark, conversing with 
 some foreigners and two or three of her Court. 
 Lady Maynard was present at the day's diversion, 
 and with her companions formed a group apart. 
 None but herself could have supported such a 
 disagreeable situation. They say the Queen is 
 not unwilling to receive her, but the King will 
 not hear of it. Lord Maynard asked him in the 
 tennis-court, and was refused plump. 
 
 The Queen is now thicker than ever with 
 Madame Santo Marco, who patronises Lady May- 
 nard. I saw the latter at a splendid ball given 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 203 
 
 by Lord Tilney, where she and her gang assisted, 
 seceding from the rest of the company to one 
 corner of the room. 
 
 We have a beautiful new ballet just now at 
 St. Carlo, the Syrosa Persiana; and Le Picq, 
 who is a great favourite with Her Majesty, dances 
 like an angel. The Queen has projected a grand 
 dance, of a Chinese construction, in which she 
 and the King are to take a part. For that pur- 
 pose, numberless lessons are given and rehearsals 
 set on foot ; notwithstanding which, I am told 
 this ballet will not take place ; indeed, by all ac- 
 counts, it is a very unbecoming one for sovereigns, 
 fiill of genuflexions and prosternations. 
 
 The Queen has been very kind to my chil- 
 dren, having had them to play with hers, and 
 loaded them with the most expensive toys, silver 
 cages, gilt coaches, &c. We have taken leave of 
 her, having fixed to set out in a day or two for 
 Rome. She was extremely gracious, and press- 
 ingly invited us to return; indeed, I shall be very, 
 very sorry to leave Naples ; mais il faut faire une 
 fin; and although I have no mighty reasons to 
 call me more to one place than another, I can- 
 not reconcile to my conscience the staying so long 
 from Rome, where you know I have never yet 
 been. You must direct to me there at Mr. Byre's. 
 
204 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 We made our last appearance last night at a 
 grand conversazione, given at Caserta, to celebrate 
 the King's recovery from his inoculation. Gatti 
 was very much fêté. 
 
 Rome, May, 
 
 I am happy if ever man was, car me voici à 
 Rome, V unique objet de mon désir ^ (not ressentiment). 
 We arrived in time to behold, besides all its own 
 intrinsic merits, the ceremony of holy week ; but 
 in these last I confess I am disappointed — they 
 fall far below my expectations — there is neither 
 decency nor magnificence. Such a noise ! such 
 crowding and difficulties I I have seen finer and 
 more imposing solemnities in a French cathedral 
 than here in Rome, except, indeed, the Pope's 
 High Mass in St. Peter's on Easter-day, which is 
 a very noble exhibition. His blessing the people 
 firom the windows of St. Peter's is one of the 
 most striking sights in the world, and I think the 
 grandest. 
 
 Pius VI. does it admirably, and exhibits one 
 of the most majestic figures possible, as he rises 
 up, lifts his arms above his head, and blesses the 
 three points of the compass. The Miserere is 
 
 I Quotation from Corneille's " Les Horaces." 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 205 
 
 performed in his chapel by fine voices, without 
 instruments. 
 
 On Thursday night an illumined cross, let 
 down from the cupola of St. Peter's, had a very 
 grand effect. Many painters came to study and 
 take views firom it, as well as of the inside of the 
 church by that light. Some I have seen are 
 singularly beautiful, from the strong contrast of 
 light and shade. 
 
 Sir Thomas and myself were presented to the 
 Pope soon after our arrival. He received us at 
 the door of the apartment, as he was going out 
 to walk. Abbé Grant, who conducted us, talked 
 so much, that the Pope could not get in a word. 
 His Holiness is a very handsome, tall man, with 
 fair hair, half white, and a ruddy face, with a 
 turned-up nose. He speaks French, but did not 
 to us — indeed, he addressed himself entirely to 
 Abbé Grant. 
 
 A few days after, Mrs. Swinburne was pre- 
 sented to him, and took the children, as he came 
 up from his devotions in the chapel of the Sacra- 
 ment at St. Peter's. She made the children kiss 
 his foot. He then held it out for her to kiss, 
 and next day he sent her some very beautiful 
 beads and stones of oriental agate. He performs 
 all his ceremonies with much grace, and appears 
 
206 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 to have practised and studied his actions before 
 he comes out of his room. He is very proud of 
 his legs and feet, and wears his gown short to 
 show them. He sits up very late, and rises early, 
 but sleeps in the afternoon, and takes a mile walk 
 to Ponte Molle about sunset. 
 
 Abbé Grant, who generally performs the part 
 of cicerone or introducteur to the English, is a 
 Scotchman, and was brought up to London as 
 a rebel in the year 1745-6, in the same ship with 
 Lords Balmerino, Kilmarnock, &c. Whilst on 
 the voyage, a Scotch servant said to him, ** You 
 will be saved." Grant shook his head, and replied, 
 "I fear not, friend." "You will," said the other; 
 "but you will be the only one." 
 
 Not putting any faith in the second- sight of 
 his countryman, he had no hopes, both from the 
 inveteracy of the Court party, and from his having 
 no friends to intercede for him. By the merest 
 chance no proofs or witnesses appeared against 
 him, and therefore, to his great surprise, he was 
 acquitted. He then immediately set out for Rome, 
 where he has resided ever since. He told me that 
 the cruelty and violence of the Duke of Cumber- 
 land's army were incredible, and that a Jacobite 
 house being set • on fire (the inhabitants having 
 been permitted to come out beforehand), one little 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 207 
 
 girl, crying, said she had forgotten her doll, and 
 ran back up the stairs for it, upon which a brutal 
 soldier dashed her from the window of the house 
 after her family, and she died on the spot. 
 
 The approach to St. Peter's does not quite 
 please me ; the houses facing the church are so 
 shabby. The vestibule is charming, and the inside 
 divine ; yet in some things I prefer St. Paul's. 
 The great door there has a more solemn general 
 effect; yet the cupola roof of St. Peter's, and the 
 unity of all the parts, are quite sublime. The two 
 fountains are delightful ; they discharge such a 
 quantity of water in so agreeable a manner, as to 
 realise all my ideas taken from drawings. 
 
 Upon Easter Monday we began our tour of 
 all the antiquities, churches, &c., under the direc- 
 tion of Mr. Byres, the antiquary, and commenced 
 by the Campo Vaccino, which was originally a 
 marsh, where the Romans and the Sabines fought. 
 In this marsh Curtius, the Sabine, was drowned, 
 which probably gave rise to the fable of his 
 devoting himself. In the north-west corner of 
 the forum stood the temple of Mars, now the 
 church of San Martino. There lay the statue of 
 Marforio, so called from its position. It is now 
 removed to the court of the Capitol. Its rival 
 Pasquin took its name from a barber, a great 
 
208 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 newsmonger and encourager of seditious wit, near 
 whose door Marforio lay. It was at that time 
 almost the only ancient statue known of above 
 ground. The shop still retained the name of 
 Pasquin after his death, and is to this day 
 a school for a similar epigrammatic literature. 
 When Alexander VII. (Ottoboni by name) suc- 
 ceeded Innocent X., Pasquin said to Marforio, 
 ** Allegrezza I per un Papa cattivo abbiamo otto 
 buoni."^ 
 
 The arch of Septimius Severus, in the forum, 
 is covered with rubbish twenty feet higher than 
 the old foundation, although it was the ascent to 
 the Capitol. Next to it is a part of the rampart, 
 on which stands the portico of the temple of 
 Concord, where Cicero convened the Senate 
 in Catiline's conspiracy. It was burnt by the 
 soldiers of Vitellius, and very ill restored, for 
 the Ionic columns do not match ; they are of 
 Egyptian granite, and, like most others brought 
 to Rome, were probably ready cut for other 
 
 I Another of Pasquin's satires on Popes Pio VI. and 
 VII. is worth recording. It was written at the time when 
 the latter went to France and crowned Napoleon. 
 •' Romani vi diro un bel quadro — 
 
 D'un santo padre chi fu coronar un ladro. 
 
 Un Pio, per conservar la fede, lascia la sede; 
 
 Un altro, per conservar la sede, lascia la fede 1 *' 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. SOQ 
 
 edifices. Next was the arch of Tiberius, of which 
 no vestige remains. All triumphal arches were 
 built over great thoroughfares. 
 
 But I find myself getting into a description of 
 Rome, which you will not thank me for ; so I will 
 tell you of an excursion we made some days ago 
 to dine at Frescati, with Lady Betty and Mr. 
 Mackenzie, Mr. Dutens and Abbé Grant. The 
 hills thereabout are beautiful. Cardinal York was 
 officiating in the church when we went in, and 
 immediately sent to tell the ladies they must pull 
 off their hats, or else go out. This peremptory 
 order of the ex-Prince could not very easily be 
 complied with, according to the present mode 
 of ladies' hats being fastened on the cushion by 
 long pins, &c., unless His Royal Highness had 
 provided a perruquier to extricate them. They 
 therefore refused to obey. Many messages passed 
 and repassed. Mrs. S. sent him word that she 
 had not heard mass, and left the omission on his 
 conscience. He is an ugly, foolish-looking, long- 
 visaged fellow, very like his grandfather, full of 
 pride, and just such another obstinate bigot. 
 
 We then walked to the Aldobrandini Villa, and 
 saw the waterworks ; one is very pretty, as it is seen 
 tumbling down the hill through a grove of trees. 
 Thence we went to Villa Conti, where are a noble 
 
 VOL. i 14 
 
2IO LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 wood, shady walks and lofty jets d'eau. After 
 dinner we went through Villa Bracciano, a wood 
 and drive very like Gibride. The views from these 
 villas are extensive, but the Campagna is a horrid 
 object. 
 
 Abbé Grant told us a comical story of Cardinal 
 York and Cardinal de Bernis. They were sitting 
 together one day, when the floor of the room gave 
 way, and partly fell in. Frightened to death, and 
 thinking themselves on the verge of eternity, they 
 both called with a loud voice, the one, '* Eccel- 
 lenza 1 assoluzione in articulo mortis Î '* the other, 
 *' Altezza réale ! assoluzione in articulo mortis 1 " 
 However, their fears were groundless — I do not 
 mean to pun — for the floor did not fall a great 
 way, and they met with no hurt. 
 
 Two days after, we went to Tivoli with the 
 same party. The Campagna is bare, but cultivated 
 tant bien que mal. The situation of Tivoli is bold and 
 commanding, the cascade grand, and the temple of 
 the Sibyl beautifully placed on the point of a rock ; 
 but it would be more conspicuous were it not for the 
 filthy houses of the town. Its environs are won- 
 derful. Below is the grotto of Neptune, where the 
 Teverone rushes through the rocks from precipice to 
 precipice, and theft glides through a bridge, perhaps 
 of its own forming. From the walk on the hill-side 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 211 
 
 you see at once the valley, the winding river, the 
 towns of Tivoli, Caveatella, the arches of Mœcenas's 
 villa, and the Campagna of Rome; the sea, St. 
 Peter's cupola and the Alban hill. There is not 
 a richer view, nor one more difficult to paint; 
 yet I have attempted it. I have also taken a 
 view of Villa Millina. 
 
 The ride is delicious through the gardens of 
 Villa Madama, one much neglected, and up a bank 
 of wood of arbor Judas, flowering ash, and other 
 pretty trees. Villa Millina stands on the point of 
 a hill, backed by rows of cypresses, and has by far 
 the finest prospect of Rome. 
 
 There are many musicians here. Nardini, who 
 is the first violin player in the world, comes to us in 
 the evening, and RufTma Battoni, daughter of the 
 famous portrait painter, a beautiful girl, has a 
 divine voice, and delights us with her singing. 
 
 Her father has painted one of the rooms in the 
 palace of Monte Cavallo, which is an enormous 
 building in a charming situation. The coffee-house 
 where Benedict XIV. received the King of Naples, 
 is a vestibule with a room at each end, and a 
 balcony commanding half of Rome. It contains 
 some fine pictures. 
 
 The Coliseo is a stupendous edifice. The 
 stations and clean walks which have been made 
 
 14— a 
 
212 LETTERS FROM THB 
 
 in the inside are very picturesque additions in my 
 eyes, though I would not acknowledge it to an 
 antiquarian: it was built by Vespasian. 
 
 Villa Albani is airy, rich and elegant ; two noble 
 alabaster vases, one at each end of the hall, are 
 valued at £2,000 each; and amidst a profusion of 
 statues and antiques, one must notice the basso- 
 relievo of Antinous, which was found in Adrian's 
 villa — perhaps, the finest in the world. The owner 
 refused 40,000 crowns for it, offered by the late 
 Pope. It is over a chimney, and is an exquisite 
 performance. The room it occupies is the richest 
 I ever saw with mosaics and grotesques ; the 
 ceiling representing Apollo and the Muses is by 
 Mengs, the first Muse being done to represent 
 Madame de Prié.* 
 
 The family Albani were originally in the service 
 of the Dukes of Urbino, and the last duke having 
 been persuaded to resign his duchy during his life 
 to the Holy See, chose Albani to go to Rome to 
 make a formal abdication for him. Albani was 
 aware of the duke's fickle temper, and made no 
 doubt that he would change his mind, which he 
 accordingly did; but, being won by the Pope, he 
 bribed the messenger (that was sent to bring him 
 
 I Mistress to the Duke de Bourbon, regent after the 
 death of the Duke of Orleans. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 213 
 
 back) to return and pretend he was already in Rome 
 before he reached him, and thus the abdication 
 took place. But the ambassador durst not go 
 back to Urbino; and the Pope, whose interests 
 he had served, made him senator of Rome, and 
 his son was afterwards Pope Clement XI. The 
 present Pope's functions are mostly performed by 
 Cardinal Albani. 
 
 Villa Pamphili is the finest of all the villas 
 for rural beauty; there is one charming meadow 
 in it, surrounded with stone pines. 
 
 Rome, July, 1778. 
 
 On the 28th of last month, the Constable of 
 Naples, Colonna, presented the white horses, as a 
 tribute from the King of Naples, to the Pope. 
 The procession of his coaches was grand, but the 
 ceremony in the church was performed in a very 
 hurried manner, it being so crowded that the Pope 
 and Constable had scarce room for their business. 
 
 At sunset the cupola of St. Peter's was illu- 
 minated with paper lamps and large pots of fire, 
 which continued to blaze most part of the night. 
 It was the finest sight of the kind I ever beheld. 
 We saw the fireworks of Castel St. Angelo, which 
 were very fine, from the apartments of Marquis 
 Rossi. The next day being St. Peter's, the church 
 
214 LETTERS FROM THB 
 
 was richly bedecked ; St. Peter's statue was robed 
 in cloth of gold ; fine gold chandeliers were placed 
 on the steps of the altar. There was a brilliant 
 illumination there that night, as well as at the 
 castle and at the Constable's. The appearance 
 was very grand. 
 
 We have had the Piazza Navona overflowed 
 in part, and coaches drove about it all night ; few 
 go thither now, but it was formerly much resorted 
 to. The Pope ordered the water to be let off at 
 nightfall, which has spoiled all the sport. The 
 custom began under Innocent X., when Donna 
 Olympia, his sister-in-law, who received company 
 every Sunday, had the Piazza filled with water, 
 to refresh the air in August. 
 
 Many English are at Rome ; among others, 
 the famous Duchess of Kingston, alias Countess of 
 Bristol, alias Miss Chudleigh ; also Mr. Howard, 
 an excellent philanthropist, who makes it the 
 business of his life to travel for the sake of in- 
 specting prisons, and spends his fortune and time 
 in the service of the unfortunate ; Lady Catherine 
 and the Miss Beauclercs, Lord and Lady Lucan, 
 and the two Misses Bingham, the Bishop of 
 Derry, Mr. and Mrs. King, the Herveys, Pitts, 
 Moles worths, &c. 
 
 The Duke and Duchess of Lucciano are 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 2I5 
 
 arrived, being on their travels by order of the 
 Neapolitan Court. It is said the reason of their exile 
 is the Queen having found a billet from the duchess 
 in the King's pocket, in which she upbraided him 
 for being led by the nose by the Queen. 
 
 We v^ere yesterday at a grand dinner given 
 by the Maltese ambassador, in consequence of the 
 ceremony of the Pope's blessing the stucco or 
 helmet of the Grand Master of Malta. 
 
 I was present during divine service a few days 
 ago at the Greek church. They say mass behind 
 a screen with three doors in it. Mr. Sennett, an 
 Irish abbé, who went with me, remarked after- 
 wards to Mrs. Swinburne that it was all said in 
 Greek, except the Kyrie EleisoUy which was in 
 Latin ! He is a capital one for Irishisms. He 
 told us some English lady (I forget who) was 
 come to Rome on purpose to sit to Battoni for 
 her son's picture; and assured me solemnly that 
 my new servant was very likely to shoot me. You 
 may imagine how I was startled, but I suppose 
 you are aware that he meant suit. He is very 
 unhappy just now, with remorse for having refused 
 alms to a famous beggar on the steps of St. 
 Peter's, who is just dead, and turns out to be a 
 saint, and is to be canonised. 
 
 Apropos of Irishmen, I find there has been a 
 
2l6 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 cardinal of every nation except an Irish one; per- 
 haps lest he should encroach upon the authority 
 of the Pope in making bulls. 
 
 Having obtained permission to inspect the 
 manuscripts in the library of the Vatican, I saw 
 Henry VIII.'s letter to his mistress, in French 
 and in English; legible enough, but very nonsen- 
 sical. The Christian museum is curious ; also a 
 fine hall of the Papyri for reading in, the ceiling 
 painted by Mengs ; a collection of medallions ; 
 and some gold ones of Louis XV. 
 
 We see much of Lady Lucan and her daugh- 
 ters, who are very accomplished — sing charmingly 
 and paint well, which she herself does likewise. 
 There is a Lady and Miss Knight here, the latter 
 a bel esprit, clever and learned. Her mother is 
 quite the contrary; she is always making mis- 
 takes which are very amusing — she addressed the 
 bust of Numa (whom, firom the termination of the 
 name, and firom the veil it wears, she took for a 
 female), with " Your most obedient, Mrs. Numa." 
 She talks of the romantic groves where Tasso 
 composed his Ariosto, and of the extraordinary 
 circumstance of a church having been erected in 
 honour of St. John's latter end} 
 
 I Lady Knight's mistake was not more comical than 
 that of the French tourist who called it St. Jean des Latrines, 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 21J 
 
 I have taken a view of Rome from Monte 
 Testuccio, which hill is one of the greatest curi- 
 osities I know. If all the pottery -ware of the 
 town were brought hither and broken, it would 
 not make such another heap. It must be a pro- 
 duction of the lower ages, for there have been 
 found in it at a great depth two sarcophagi, of 
 the time of Adrian. It was probably formed by 
 some Pope or Christian Emperor ordering all the 
 pagan urns to be broken and thrown near it. The 
 prospect from it is beautiful. 
 
 I have seen some men play at the ancient 
 discus, a large flat round wooden thing, with a 
 groove all round the edge ; in this they put a cord, 
 and set it off underhand by a jerk; they seem to 
 play for length at long bowls. 
 
 We dined yesterday at the Capitol with the 
 Senator, Prince Rezzonico, nephew to Clement 
 XIII., in company with Cardinal Rezzonico, 
 Baronessa Gavotta, ambassadress of Bologna, 
 Marchesa Lepri, Monsignor Pignatelli, Comte de 
 Chatelet, and some prelates and abbaies, which 
 latter are in abundance here. Where the Sena- 
 tor's house is, was the posterna publica, of which 
 the solids of the pillars remain ; close by are three 
 columns of Jupiter Tonans, of most exquisite 
 architecture, a work finished to a surprising de- 
 
2l8 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 gree of nicety. Augustus erected this temple after 
 his Spanish expedition, because, when travelling 
 in the night, his litter and torch -bearer were 
 struck with lightning, and himself remained un- 
 hurt. 
 
 Below, on the west of Severus's arch, are the 
 dungeons of the Pallian prisons, now converted 
 into chapels ; as it is supposed St. Peter was 
 chained there, and that the well in the bottom 
 one sprang up miraculously, to assist him in 
 baptizing his guards. The Gemonian stairs were 
 adjoining.^ The two twin deities holding the 
 horses at the top of the steps represented Caius 
 and Lucius Caesar, Augustus's grandchildren. 
 
 Having carried my little girl to Tivoli for 
 change of air, I took the opportunity of riding 
 towards the site of Horace's villa, described by 
 Abbé Chaupy. We passed over low hills, seem- 
 ingly volcanelliy like Montenuovo, heaps of lava, 
 peperino, cinders, and some ruins of the Via 
 Valeria. Casteldama is situated upon a high hill, 
 crowned with olive, oak, or chesnut, a handsome 
 object over the Teverone. Turning into hollow 
 valleys and a narrow course of the river, we came 
 to a view of Vico Varo, the Varia, where Horace's 
 
 I It was from the top of these stairs that the bodies 
 of malefactors were cast down to be devoured by dogs. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 219 
 
 five peasants went to attend the meeting of the 
 magistrates. The situation of the town, which 
 belongs to the Bolognesi, is delightful. About 
 eight miles from Tivoli the vale of Licenza takes 
 up the course of a small brook or river to Licenza, 
 formerly called Digentia. 
 
 At the confluence of the Teverone is San 
 Cosimato, a romantic convent on a hill. In the 
 angle where these valleys meet, stand Cantalupo 
 and Bardillo, the ancient rugosus Pagus Mandela, 
 Then following up this riotous little torrent, I 
 came to the Castello of Rocca Giovane, perched 
 upon a rock. The vale then widens into a kind 
 of plain, planted with poplars, vines, and fruit 
 trees, and in front is the village of Licenza, on 
 a peaked rock, half hid by a chesnut wood, 
 which forms the extremity of a ridge of fine culti- 
 vated grounds, joining Monte Gennaro (Lucretilis), 
 near which was Horace's bathing pavilion. 
 
 The temple of Vacuna stood on the side of an 
 opposite hill, where its ruins are still to be seen. 
 Fine small meadows, with noble walnut and oak 
 scattered over them, render this a beautiful place 
 to spend a summer's day in ; the Ratini, or 
 Horace's fountain, rises in the middle, which 
 the Orsini proprietors have collected in a basin 
 and brought into a cascade. The fountain springs 
 
220 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 out high up the mountain, and is always abun- 
 dant, sometimes committing great disorders, and 
 tinging everything of a whitish clay colour. 
 
 On a line with the cascade, on the brow of the 
 hill, is a platform near the little casino of Orsini. 
 Here stood the main body of Horace's house, and 
 from the plan one may imagine that his baths 
 were at the extremity of his garden, on the flat 
 top of the long ridge. I saw two bits of column 
 and of a capital or cornice ; there are many pieces 
 of blue and red stucco in the ruins of the pavilion. 
 Abbé Chaupy's description is very accurate. It 
 must have been a charming summer retreat, 
 literally a latebra ; for, till you have advanced a 
 mile or two up the valley, you can see nothing 
 even of Licenza, nor suspect, when looking from 
 the Via Valeria, that any such beautiful spot 
 exists. On my return to Rome, I found it many 
 degrees hotter than Tivoli. 
 
 The churches called Basilica are those which 
 were originally palaces. In all these there was 
 a hall of judgment, as every patrician had one 
 in his house for the use of his clients; all the 
 ancient kings were lawgivers and interpreters, 
 therefore the courts of justice were held in their 
 palaces. 
 
 The Palatine hill was, till lately, occupied by 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 221 
 
 the Orti Farnesiani and the Villa Magnanî, both 
 of which have been destroyed to dig for the antiqui- 
 ties and bricks of the golden house of Nero. The 
 latter is now the property of the present French 
 king's valet de chambre, Laborde, or rather of 
 Madame du Barri, for whom it was bought. The 
 view from the hill is fine, as it commands almost 
 every considerable object. Under some clumps of 
 evergreen oaks, they have collected many pieces of 
 cornices, &c., formerly ornaments of the imperial 
 halls ; they are finely wrought, and very curiously 
 finished. One may easily trace the origin of the 
 Ionic capital firom this sample. Suppose the first 
 builder to have erected a cork tree to support his 
 roof, and finding it not stand even, put a piece of 
 the bark at top to make it level : dryness made the 
 bark curl downwards, which thus gave the curves of 
 the capital ; the angular volute was probably taken 
 firom a ram's head, and acanthus grows in plenty 
 in their gardens. 
 
 There were two hippodromes ; one is still entire, 
 with a music-room in the middle of its length. One 
 of these opened into magnificent baths, now far 
 underground: the ceiling is gilded and painted, 
 and is still very firesh. There are many remains 
 of underground apartments. 
 
 Between the Palatine and Aventine hills was 
 
222 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 the Circus Maximus ; the Emperor could enjoy the 
 spectacle from his palace, and the seats were dis- 
 posed against the terrace and slopes of the hills. 
 Julius Csesar was the first who had permanent seats 
 made; before him each person erected booths and 
 scaffolds, which his family occupied or let. 
 
 At the foot of the hill were the temple of 
 Neptune and altar of Hercules, where Evander 
 was sacrificing when iEneas came, and from 
 whence (the only place it can be done from) he 
 showed him the different hills of Rome. 
 
 " Miratur, facilisqu oculos fert omnia circum, 
 iEneas, capiturque locis." 
 
 Near this is the fountain of Juturna, sister to 
 Turnus, King of the Rutuli, whom Jupiter changed 
 into a fountain for rejecting his addresses. The 
 twin founders were discovered at this place, and 
 near the spot where their temple afterwards stood, 
 Castor and Pollux were seen watering their horseS; 
 after assisting the Romans in the battle of Lake 
 Regillus, 
 
 Rome, Jan, 8th, 1779. 
 
 Since the dreadful loss I met with of my angelic 
 child,^ I have been thoroughly incapacitated from 
 
 I A fine boy, who fell a victim to the malaria. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 223 
 
 continuing any correspondence, or troubling myself 
 with any of the occurrences around me. We have 
 since learnt the death of the eldest Prince of Naples, 
 which has plunged his mother into the greatest 
 affliction. He was a sweet boy of four years old, 
 courteous and clever in all his httle actions, but 
 weakened by too much care. He was the favourite 
 of both his father and his mother. 
 
 The letter we have received on the subject from 
 Lady Hamilton contains this remarkable passage : 
 "Never was anything more terrible than the com- 
 bination of accidents which contributed to make 
 the scene of the death of the Hereditary Prince of 
 Naples more horrible. The Queen did not suspect 
 his danger till the moment the physicians declared 
 there were no hopes, at which news one of the 
 women, going to call the King, dropped down in 
 convulsions; her companion fell into the same 
 state, and they could not be removed out of the 
 Queen's hearing. Six men could not hold them, 
 and at that moment one of these was struck with 
 apoplexy. It blew a dreadful hurricane from the 
 mountains, the roof of the house took fire, and to 
 add to the distress and danger, all the corridors 
 had been filled with hay to prevent noise." 
 
 Sympathy of feeling has induced my wife to 
 rouse from the lethargy of grief she has been 
 
224 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 plunged in these last four months, and for the first 
 time since her affliction to take a pen in her hand, 
 to write a letter of condolence to the Queen, who 
 just before this death sent some kind messages to 
 her through Lady Hamilton on the illness of our 
 little boy. I enclose you a copy of Her Majesty's 
 answer. 
 
 I have been staying a few days in the country 
 with Count Gastaldi, at Monte Rotondo, fifteen 
 miles up the Tiber, which is an agreeable mixture 
 of hill and dale. The views are fine on the river, 
 and extend over the plains towards Monte San 
 Gennaro, Tivoli, and Palestrina. We rode through 
 vineyards and villa gardens to Lamentana, the 
 ancient Nomentum, a small place with a large 
 palace of Prince Borghese (Salentinae) on the brow 
 of a hill. Then to Ponte Lamentana, on the 
 Anio, where the Prince has some game preserves 
 in his noble hanging woods. 
 
 I have formed an acquaintance with the Car- 
 dinal de Bernis, who is a clever man, and has seen 
 much of the world. His exterior is pleasing, and 
 his manners agreeable. When very young, and an 
 abbé, he solicited preferment, and for that purpose 
 begged an audience of the Cardinal de Fleury, the 
 minister and ruler of France. That minister hap- 
 pened to have taken a great dislike to him, and said 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 225 
 
 very crossly, " Monsieur l'abbé, vos sollicitations sont 
 inutiles, et soyez sur que vous n'aurez rien durant 
 ma vie." " J'attendrai, Monseigneur," was his 
 reply. Nor did he wait in vain, for he was in 
 course of time raised to the post of minister of 
 foreign affairs, but afterwards disgraced in conse- 
 quence of a quarrel he had with Madame de 
 Pompadour, who had till then been his bene- 
 factress. He was succeeded by the Duke de 
 Choiseul. 
 
 The Duchess de Noailles has left Rome to 
 return to Paris, having finished her journey, 
 undertaken for the purpose of speaking to the 
 Pope on the subject of the Jesuits. Mr. Jenkins 
 tells me he has seen a letter from their principal 
 at Vienna to Ricci (the general of the Jesuits), 
 who had great confidence in the justice and piety 
 of Marie Thérèse, and thought she would prove 
 a buckler to the Order in their distress, and 
 resist the attempts of the French cabinet for its 
 destruction. His correspondent answered his hopes 
 thus : " Depend not upon her, for if every drop 
 of blood of the Jesuits were demanded, and 
 necessary for the marriage of her daughters, she 
 would without hesitation spill it ! " 
 
 The frost now at Rome is prodigious ; I 
 walked on a pool of water quite hard, and the 
 
 VOL. I 15 
 
226 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 fountains on the hill of St. John are full of icicles. 
 The travellers for Naples have been detained at 
 San Marino by the snows of La Faiola. 
 
 Last month and October, which is the villeg- 
 giatura season here, there were great fêtes at the 
 casino of Villa Borghese; I did not go to them, 
 but heard from those who did that it was very 
 splendid and agreeable. The Prince gave music 
 and refreshments there, with many sorts of diver- 
 sions, such as tilting at the ring, and grand balls 
 in the evening. There is an inscription there of 
 Cardinal Scipio's putting up, which gives leave 
 to all comers to do what they please there, as 
 the gardens are more for the public than the 
 master. It is near the bust of an Emperor, which 
 I take to be Adrian, with a curled head, and his 
 hair turned back and twisted on the crown like 
 that of a woman. 
 
 The Borghese Palace has a vast collection of 
 pictures, and not a good room in it; it is built 
 in the shape of a harpsichord. 
 
 I was persuaded some nights ago to attend 
 the opera at the Argentina. It was Adriano 
 in SiriUy the music bad, and the theatre dirty, 
 cold, and dark, with a great show of diamonds 
 in the boxes. Monsignor Spinelli had pubUshed 
 an edict, prohibiting any clapping or hissmg, 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 227 
 
 which kept all as still as a mouse, contrary to 
 the custom of preceding years, when there was 
 nothing but riot and confusion, the men standing 
 up in the pit, waving handkerchiefs, and the ladies 
 holding out their cloaks as flags of triumph. The 
 music was so dull, that I thought this universal 
 silence and attention rather de trop. The singers, 
 however, were good; Ronca was the prima, and 
 David the tenor. He sang so well that he was 
 applauded by the governor, who, having tried the 
 dastardly spirit of the Romans, enjoyed his victory, 
 and gave leave to clap twice. The dancers are 
 horrid jumping things, and the fellows in women's 
 clothes (for females are not here allowed to exhibit 
 on the stage) are too ridiculous. 
 
 The Irish Dominicans have made an excava- 
 tion at Santo Sisto, which I walked to see. They 
 have found a rough column, consisting of a very 
 valuable piece of Giallo Antico. The saw was in 
 it, and had already cut off a large slice; they 
 value it at four thousand crowns; also fine slabs 
 of porphyry and green marble; nothing is at pre- 
 sent in hand for St. Peter's, in the shape of 
 mosaics. There are fifteen thousand colours among 
 the pastes in the magazines ; one man alone has 
 the secret of making them, and he has only im- 
 parted it to his sons. 
 
 15—2 
 
228 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 The origin of the story of St. Luke having 
 been a painter is, that about the time of the taking 
 of Constantinople by Mahomet IL, the most 
 famous painter of Madonnas was one Luke, and 
 he being looked upon as a holy man, perhaps a 
 martyr, his pictures came to be held in high esti- 
 mation, and he was very soon confounded by the 
 barbarous western devotees with his namesake the 
 Evangelist. 
 
 That wonderful picture, the Transfiguration, is 
 at San Pietro, in Montorio. No miniature can be 
 more highly finished, nor can anything be more 
 admirable, or better connected, in spite of all the 
 French criticisms on this last work of Raphael. 
 It was done for France, but stopped by the Medici 
 family, and given to the Church. At Raphael's 
 funeral this exquisite work of his was carried in 
 procession. Its preservation is very good, and being 
 on the high altar the light is favourable. Another 
 favourite picture of mine is Guido's Madonna, at 
 the Bolognesi Palace ; its wonderful expression of 
 devotion and inward pleasure is most admirable. 
 
 A story concerning the Duke Mattei is much 
 talked of. In rummaging over his family papers, 
 he found, in the handwriting of one of his ances- 
 tors, a note, which gave the following renseigne- 
 ment : — ** Go to the garden, and so many feet 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 239 
 
 from such a corner you will find a bronze nail 
 driven into the wall ; take it out, and behind 
 that place you will see a bronze key, with which 
 open a door that you will find built up so many 
 yards north of the nail ; enter this door, and go 
 down the ten steps ; you will then come to another 
 door, which the key will open, and this leads to 
 a long gallery. You must then break open the 
 wall at the bottom, and in a niche behind it you 
 will discover very considerable treasures of my 
 hiding." 
 
 The Duke went immediately to the garden ; to 
 his great joy found the nail, and set to work 
 with great secrecy to discover the rest. By the 
 truth of the second and third circumstances, he 
 judged of the certainty of the rest; and having 
 associated proper persons, and enjoined caution 
 and secrecy, proceeded in his excavation. Every- 
 thing answered to the directions, and when they 
 came to the last wall, they broke it down, with 
 the full confidence that their labours would be 
 crowned with success; when behold, in the niche 
 was an enormous pair of horns, which the jocose 
 ancestor had placed there. 
 
 Under the Palazzo Massimi great treasures 
 are supposed to be hid, because in the sack of 
 Rome the principal Romans carried their wealth 
 
230 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 thither, and walled it up in the cellars under- 
 neath; they have attempted to open these vaults, 
 but the level of the water is now so much above 
 that of the floor that they have never been able 
 to proceed. 
 
 From the Queen of Naples to Mrs, Swinburne, 
 
 Madame, — La consolation que je ressens du 
 rétablissement de votre cher et aimable fils m'anime 
 à vous écrire. J'ai voulu le faire il y a quelques 
 mois, pour vous assurer du vif intérêt que je 
 prenois à tout ce qui vous regarde ; je n'ai jamais 
 eu le courage de rouvrir votre playe par des inutiles 
 consolations, et j'en ai gémi en silence, me con- 
 tentant de m'informer de votre santé, avec cet 
 intérêt et amitié que vos estimables qualités m'ont 
 inspiré pour votre digne personne. 
 
 A présent, que par le plus affreux des malheurs, 
 j'ai éprouvé quelle douleur c'est pour une mère 
 de perdre son enfant chéri, celui sur lequel elle 
 fonde toutes ses espérances, consolations et com- 
 plaisances. J'ai été d'autant plus sensible à la 
 maladie du charmant Henry, et infiniment con- 
 solé de son rétablissement. Que Dieu vous bénisse 
 et votre charmante famille, vous le méritez, étant 
 si digne et bonne mère ; comme telle, je suis sûre 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 23I 
 
 que vous aurez eu compassion du coup affreux 
 qui m'a enlevé mon cher, beau, et parfait Charles. 
 Cet enfant était d'une santé parfaite, augmenté 
 en beauté et capacité, et parfaitement robuste. En 
 moins de 60 heures je l'ai perdu. Ce sont de ces 
 douleurs qui anéantissent. Vous en comprendrez 
 toute la force, et me plaindrez; mais j'oublie que 
 je n'ai écrite celle-cy, que pour vous assurer de 
 ma satisfaction sur le retour de la santé du cher 
 Henry, et point pour renouveller votre juste 
 douleur en vous parlant de la mienne; mais c'est 
 que ne pensant à autre chose j'y reviens toujours. 
 Saluez de ma part votre aimable époux; j'em- 
 brasse la chère Fanny et le beau Henry: soyez 
 sure, madame, que je suis, avec une véritable 
 estime. 
 
 Votre très aflfectionêe amie, 
 
 Charlotte H. N. 
 
 Rome, February Sth, 1779. 
 
 We have great crowds and regularity on the 
 Corso, but no show. The Maltese ambassador 
 makes use of his privilege, and drives down the 
 middle of the street. The Zagorolo and Ceri 
 families were dressed like Turks, in blue and 
 white ; the other masks were vulgar. I think 
 
232 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 little of this famous sight. Prince Pirratino went 
 out of his place, and was fined very smartly; the 
 officer on duty was sent to prison for permitting 
 it — a good sample of Governor Spinelli's spirit. 
 
 The masquerade at the Teatro Aliberti was 
 well lighted up, with very few good masks; some 
 figures of Terminus Pan not amiss. The American 
 provinces were represented by thirteen men and 
 women, meant for Quakers, dressed in round 
 pink hats, encircled with ribbons, on which were 
 inscribed "M.W.M.C.," and '^devinez'*; short coats, 
 white and pink, with slashed sleeves. The men 
 wore long beards. They gave away English en- 
 gravings, of an angel breaking the chains of a 
 negro. There was no fun, no noise, no gaiety, 
 no humorous characters. These entertainments 
 do not begin till midnight, after supper. 
 
 We went last evening to the Torredinoni 
 theatre, near the Ponte St. Angelo. It was the 
 siege of Jerusalem by the Crusaders, intermixed 
 with humours of Punch and Briscotto, who being 
 both in love with Armida's maid, they cut cards 
 for her, then fought, and Punch lopped off his an- 
 tagonist's arm, leg, and head, which she put on 
 again. The whole of this motley exhibition is too 
 stupid for a rational creature to sit out. 
 
 We have had an elegant dinner at the Senator's, 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 233 
 
 with the repetition of Salieri*s new opera in the 
 evening. Sir Thomas has brought us the Petroni 
 collection of medals from Naples. He says Lord 
 Maynard, having attended and cured the Prince 
 of Marino with James's powders, has made Lady 
 Maynard quite popular, and she and Santo Marco 
 are great friends. We have had a pleasant dinner 
 at Duke Grimaldi's. The Duchess of Cori and 
 the Misses Bingham sang in the evening. 
 
 Two evenings after, the Duke gave the Inter- 
 mezzi of Valli, by Cimarosa, to a very splendid 
 audience of cardinals and ladies and gentlemen 
 in masquerade dresses, in the theatre of his 
 palace, with supper, &c. 
 
 The festinos here are crowded and brilliant, 
 but there is no wit or drollery. The last day 
 of the carnival the people walk about singing 
 the dirge for the funeral of the carnival, the 
 houses being all illuminated. 
 
 There is a considerable feud among the 
 
 English.^ Lady Susan will not visit Lady 
 
 Berkeley. The latter gave a ball, and many 
 
 I It is singular that at all periods, English, when abroad, 
 seem to enjoy no sport so much as that of quarrelling with 
 their fellow countrymen and women. Go where one will, 
 to Rome, Paris, Brussels, or elsewhere, the same detestable 
 system of backbiting, defamation and illiberality is to be found. 
 Never did any nation so completely depart from the sensible 
 and charitable proverb of " Vivre et laisser vivre." 
 
234 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 English absented themselves ; we did not, for 
 Mrs. S. is the friend of her amiable daughter 
 Lady Louisa, who is very musical and sings 
 charmingly to the harp. 
 
 At the Duke of Ceri's we heard a can- 
 tata of Metastasio's {La pace tra la vertu e la 
 bellezza), music by Boron, the singers (amateurs) 
 excellent. 
 
 Lady C. Beauclerk has had a raffle of a 
 bas-relief of Casper and Alcyone by Mr. Bankes, 
 which I won and gave to Sir Thomas. The 
 Lucans have given some pleasant dances. 
 
 The Pope was walking to-day through the 
 Piazza di Spagna, and I was struck by the 
 majesty of his figure. They say he is very 
 rich. 
 
 I went with some Russians to see the statues 
 of the Vatican by torchlight. It is surprising 
 what a different effect they have, and how much 
 better the expression and merits are understood 
 by these means, than when seen by the false 
 lights all of them are placed in. The Apollo is 
 really a divinity. 
 
 I have been spending my mornings in the 
 Vatican library, collating Horace for Galiani, and 
 met there the cosmopolite and his family. He 
 is the king of the mountebanks. The history 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC, 235 
 
 of this charlatan is curious. In his youth he 
 served a doctor in Peru, and was heir to his 
 secrets. Afterwards he travelled as a quack over 
 Europe ; then into the East, where he was lucky 
 enough to cure the scaldhead of some bashaw or 
 nabob, who made him a present of such a large 
 sum of money as enabled him to draw 12,000 
 crowns a year from the bank of Genoa, where 
 he placed the capital. He travels now with a 
 superb retinue, merely for his amusement; has 
 three servants on horseback, with rich red liveries, 
 and sits himself in a gilt coach. Some people 
 think he has found the philosopher's stone. 
 
 My walk to-day was out of Porto San Sebas- 
 tiano, where the meadows are pleasant. Under 
 a little hill is the fountain of the nymph Egeria, 
 an arched grotto, picturesque enough. Near this 
 cave is the church of St. Urban, evidently a 
 temple of Bacchus. In the valley not far off, 
 near the rivulet, is a brick temple, said to be 
 erected to the god of Ridicule, to deride Hanni- 
 bal for approaching thus near to the walls of 
 Rome. Near the gate of St. John is the church 
 of Santa Croce, restored and spoilt by Benedict 
 XIV., by whose order the porphyry columns were 
 closed up in huge pilasters and arcades, being 
 the barbarous taste of Borromini's school. 
 
236 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Rome, March 2nd. 
 
 I can now give you an account of an excur- 
 sion I made with Sir Thomas to Terni. Our 
 first post was a villa of Livia's. The hills there 
 are naked and unpleasant, and the air pestilen- 
 tial. The Via Flaminia remains entire for many 
 miles, and, pour le malheur des voyageurs, serves 
 for a road still. Near Castel Nuovo is a forest- 
 like country of stunted oaks, with an immense 
 view over Sabina and the Campagna. About 
 Castel Regnano the country is fine, full of olives 
 and vines. Thence to Civita Castellana is a 
 beautiful country, Mount Soracte or St. Oreste 
 on the right rising up singly on the plain. 
 
 Civita is the ancient Vici, so long the enemy 
 of Rome. The castle was built by Michael Angelo, 
 and seems a large magnificent fortress, like Castle 
 St. Angelo, at Rome. A handsome bridge joins 
 the insulated rock to the country; from thence 
 to the hill, which hangs over the Tiber at 
 Borghetto, is one of the prettiest landscapes 
 imaginable, with woods and groves of oaks, 
 bounding green fields. The mountain of Viterbo 
 is on the left, where Capriola, a grand palace, is 
 distinctly seen, though ten miles off. 
 
 At Borghetto we crossed the river at the 
 Ponte Felice, and re-ascended to Otricoli, which 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 237 
 
 commands a wonderfully fine view, with all the 
 windings of the Tiber, and a multitude of houses 
 on the heights, hedges of pyracantha in berry, 
 and a great variety of landscape, through a woody 
 vale to Narni, a town of some size built on un- 
 level ground. The view from it over the immense 
 vale of Terni is magnificent. The Nera winds 
 so very intricately, the numberless convents and 
 cottages are so white and beautifully placed, the 
 plains so richly cultivated and wooded, the tints 
 of the vines, elms, poplars, so various, and the 
 mountains of such different hues and appear- 
 ances, that I cannot but think it matchless. 
 
 Ten miles of low roads among vineyards 
 brought us to Terni, a well-built town in the 
 plain, very thin of inhabitants. The palace of 
 the Spada is its most showy building. The walks 
 about it are pleasant, and the rides delightful. 
 
 The next day we hired horses, and rode early, 
 through vineyards and olive woods, to see the 
 famous cascade. On the way we came to a turn 
 where we had a pleasing view of the Nera, as 
 it winds out of the mountains between two very 
 high rocks. A couple of villas at the bottom, 
 with their orange gardens, enlivened the scene. 
 The village of Papilia is on a point to the 
 right ; the road cut up on the rock, and a ruin 
 
238 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 on its summit, are fine additions. By a steep 
 winding road we got to the level of the cascade, 
 or the vale of Ricti. The rock at the point was 
 blown up, and the passage widened round it 
 about twenty years ago. 
 
 We crossed a kind of canal cut in the petri- 
 faction which is upon the rocks, and were 
 brought by our cicerone, a ragged tailor, to a 
 point where we had a near view of the tremen- 
 dous fall, being on its left side, a few yards 
 lower than the level of the top. 
 
 The Velino rushes out of a long canal be- 
 tween two rocks overshaded with wood, and 
 precipitates itself downwards above two hundred 
 feet, with several lesser falls, before it comes to 
 the Nera in the valley. It is wonderfully fine. 
 Unfortunately there was not much water, and one 
 side was dry; but there was enough to make it 
 a noble sight. The steam, or cloud, arising from 
 it, is very considerable, and everything partakes 
 of the petrifaction that is sprinkled by it. Very 
 fine sponges, or petrified mushrooms, are found. 
 I got a piece of a petrified bough. 
 
 This cut was made by Curius eighty-five 
 years before Christ, to drain the vale of Ricti. 
 There is a sluice of iron to prevent more than a 
 certain quantity of water from coming over, lest 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 239 
 
 the too sudden discharge, at certain periods of the 
 year, should lay Rome under water. At that time 
 the Velino overflows its banks prodigiously, and 
 does a great deal of damage ; but as it vents part 
 of its overplus into the lake of Pie di Luco, the 
 harm is not so great as it might be. 
 
 Having seen all we wished at the cascade, 
 we rode up the narrow vale, and, coming in sight 
 of an opening in the mountains, had a pretty 
 peep of the lake through the trees. 
 
 Desirous of spending some hours of a most 
 delicious day on the water, we dismounted, and 
 got into a crazy ferry-boat, paddled along by one 
 man with two shovels. He rowed us up the 
 canal which communicated between the lake and 
 the river. The waters of the lake are clear, but 
 not like those of Keswick ; they are said to have 
 a petrifying quality. The lake is deep, and sur- 
 rounded by a great variety of lofty, well-wooded 
 mountains, where we heard the noise of people 
 hunting wild boar. 
 
 Pie di Luco stands prettily round the foot 
 of a conical hill, on the top of which is a ruined 
 castle. The fishery is abundant in tench, pike, 
 barbel, and trout of a wonderful size. The fish- 
 ing in nets is confined to the proprietors, but 
 angling with lines is open to the whole world. 
 
240 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 People row about in slender flat boats, scarcely 
 sufficiently fastened to be safe. 
 
 After enjoying the charms of the prospect, and 
 the different appearances of the land and water, 
 we returned to Papilia, where, leaving our horses, 
 we crossed the bridge, and through the gardens of 
 a ruined villa of Count Castellis, we trudged up 
 the narrow ridge, along the water-side, under thick 
 woods and impending rocks, till we came in full 
 front of the cascade. Glorious indeed! but from 
 the position of the sun we had no rainbow; the 
 steam or cloud was driven about by the wind, but 
 as no rays reached it, the usual phenomenon was 
 not produced. 
 
 There is a curious tradition concerning this cas- 
 cade having been formed by the lava of the neigh- 
 bouring mountain of St. Arcangelo, which throws 
 back the Velino, so as to form the lake of Pie di 
 Luco. What great antiquity would not that evince, 
 as it was in the time of the Roman Republic that 
 the cut was made, to give vent to the Velino I 
 
 Our horses were sent down to meet us, and 
 we made the best of our way to Terni. We 
 slept at Narni, and saw the bridge built by 
 Augustus over the Nar. One arch is entire, of 
 large stones without mortar; the present bridge 
 looks like a dwarf near it. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 24I 
 
 TO MRS. S. 
 
 Rome, May ^th. 
 
 The heat was insufferable all the way to 
 Capua, nor did I once look out on the country, 
 as I usually do, or make any remarks ; for my 
 thoughts were full of Naples, and the dear objects 
 it contained. 
 
 We supped and slept at St. Agatha, where we 
 met two ladies who looked like actresses. They 
 had been ordered out of the kingdom, and were 
 on their road, escorted by two ministri} 
 
 Sleeping was out of the question, for my 
 slumbers were disturbed by the nightingales, which 
 made a dreadfully loud concert all night under my 
 window. You will compare me as a Vandal to 
 old Walton, who complained of the horrid smell 
 of fresh violets in the fields disturbing the scent 
 for the hounds. 
 
 Next morning we crossed the ferry of the 
 Garigliano, the tower of which passage stands 
 near the ruins of Minturnae. From Mola de 
 Gaeta we took a boat and crossed over to Gaeta, 
 from whence the view is noble all round, especially 
 the orange groves of Mola and Castiglione. I 
 was better able to enjoy my journey than the day 
 
 I Officers of the police. 
 VOL. I 16 
 
24a LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 before, and took notes as I went, which I believe 
 was a great bore to my companion, qiti ne se 
 soucie pas de la belle Nature, We dined, on our 
 arrival here, at Mr. Monson's vineyard, and met 
 several people we knew. All Rome is in distress 
 at the death of the Marchioness de Puymontbrun, 
 niece to Cardinal Bernis. She fell a victim to the 
 
 small-pox. .. 
 
 Florence, May i^th. 
 
 On leaving Rome we passed through the 
 valley of Terni, than which nothing can be more 
 refreshing and agreeable. It is a very close and 
 winding dale, with thick young woods of oak and 
 common pine, and old olive trees. Spoleto may 
 well have served as a barrier to Rome against 
 Hannibal. It stands on the slope of a very high 
 round rock. A river, which at present has no 
 water in it, almost makes it an island. Its castle, 
 where the governor lodges, is on the top, and 
 water is conveyed into the city from the opposite 
 mountains by an aqueduct. The plain begins at 
 the low town, and extends beyond Foligno. 
 
 The hills behind Spoleto are beautifully wooded 
 and cultivated, and studded with convents and 
 casinos. The city is neatly built, and well enough 
 paved. In the middle of every street is a row of 
 bricks, which make it pleasant walking. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 243 
 
 As soon as I had dined I took a ragged cice- 
 rone, and walked up the hill to see the curiosities 
 of the place, amongst which is Porta Fuga, which 
 stretches across a street, with an inscription de- 
 noting Hannibal to have been driven from this 
 gate; but I believe it is a piece of building pos- 
 terior to the Roman empire. There is an arch 
 dedicated to Tiberius. 
 
 The cathedral was shut, and the sacristan 
 asleep ; so I saw nothing of it. We turned off 
 below the aqueduct, which at present conveys 
 very little water. It is on many narrow arches 
 of a most stupendous height. Upon the woody 
 mountain, which is connected with the town by 
 the aqueduct, are a convent and about a dozen 
 hermitages, called Monte Luco, full of devotees. 
 Those in the hermitages beg; but the persons in 
 the convent are in easy circumstances, and do 
 not make vows. The situation is beautiful. 
 Charles Vernet has put the aqueduct and castle 
 into one of his views of the Apennines. 
 
 Hence to Foligno, the mountain on our right 
 hand is full of villages, convents, and country 
 houses, the largest of which belongs to a Spoletan 
 marquis. At a place called Campetti, a few yards 
 beyond the post-house at Le Vene, so called from 
 the sources of the Clitumnus, a small ancient 
 
 16 — 2 
 
244 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 chapel on the rock is supposed to have been 
 dedicated to the god of the river. In the early 
 days of Christianity, paganism being ousted, it 
 was consecrated to Giesu Salvatore. Its archi- 
 tecture is almost Gothic. Indeed, the Christians 
 have added ornaments in the solid of the pedi- 
 ment — a cross and grapes in flourishes. These 
 ornaments, and much work in all the architecture, 
 bespeak a decline in the art. Upon the whole, 
 there is nothing very elegant in this temple. That 
 of the Sibyl at Tivoli had quite another effect 
 upon me. 
 
 Just above is Perignano, then a village called 
 Juri. Foligno in the plain is a relief to the eye, 
 after the ups and downs of Spoleto. Raphael's 
 famous picture at the Comtesse is painted on 
 wood. It is much chipped, as if burnt by the 
 sun. The colours are lively. The Virgin in the 
 clouds is very beautiful; the cherubims behind her 
 look like a cloudy sky. Directly under her is a 
 pretty angel holding a scroll; behind, a landscape 
 with figures, and a village which gives a crooked 
 look to the whole. On the Virgin's right is St. 
 John the Baptist; before him kneels St. Francis, 
 marked with his stigmates ; on the other side is 
 a bishop, with his hand on the head of a man 
 kneeling. The latter, who wears a scarlet robe, 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 245 
 
 and tunic lined with ermine, is supposed to be 
 St. Jerome ; but that is impossible, as he has no 
 beard, and no lion near him. It is probably 
 some cardinal saint, or the man who bespoke the 
 picture. 
 
 The cathedral is plain, but sufficiently distin- 
 guished. There is a pretty semicircular walk on 
 the ramparts, with seats, from which one has a 
 fine view of the country. 
 
 The better sort of women here wear blue veils ; 
 the peasants wear large square tovaglie on their 
 heads, with a double white veil falling very low 
 behind. 
 
 We went on to Spillo, the ancient Flaminia, 
 and to La Madonna degli Angeli, a large convent 
 of Franciscans, who have a vast chapel and cupola. 
 In the middle is the house of their founder. 
 
 I walked two miles up to Assisi, a large town 
 on the side of a steep mountain, with a great 
 patriarchal convent about the middle of the ascent. 
 It has a noble refectory with a large " Last Supper" 
 by Salernino. There are eighty friars. In the upper 
 part of the town is the front of a temple of Minerva, 
 now a church. This antiquity consists of six fluted 
 Corinthian columns, on separate bases, or steps 
 between each. It is a precious monument, a 
 pleasing piece of architecture. I wonder at its 
 
246 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 being so little known or copied, for I have never 
 seen a print or drawing of it. 
 
 A hilly road brought us to Perugia, which 
 stands in the form of a star, on the crown of a 
 very high eminence. The streets are large, the 
 buildings showy ; the sa7ito anello, or wedding ring 
 of the Blessed Virgin, their grand relic, being ex- 
 posed for rain, made the Domo a place of general 
 resort that morning, and most of the pictures 
 were covered with damask hangings. The beauti- 
 ful " Descent from the Cross," by Barbiero, was 
 luckily not among the number of cl-othed ones, and 
 a wonderful picture it is. Abbé Tonelli, the cice- 
 rone, joined us and took us to the Cambio, a kind 
 of exchange, low and dark, all painted by Pietro 
 Perrugino, with many admirable figures and fine 
 colours. There are also at St. Agostino's many 
 chefs d' œuvre by the same hand; and a billet of 
 his writing is kept in the sacristy, very ill written 
 and ill spelt. At the Nuns of Monteleone is an 
 "Assumption," supposed to be by Raphael — his 
 last work. 
 
 I crossed the Tiber, which is here a pretty 
 clear river, with fine poplar groves and vineyards 
 along its banks. I observed that the men I gene- 
 rally met all over this country had roses stuck 
 behind their ears, which brought to my mind 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 247 
 
 Falstaff's witticisms, and shows that the same 
 customs were once common in England. The 
 women of Perugia wear black gauze coifs over 
 their hair. The men are very smart. 
 
 After passing through very bad roads, we 
 traversed a high hill, finely wooded, to the Torri- 
 cella, or the Trasimene lake, which is the most 
 beautiful piece of water I ever saw. It has not 
 the wild and grand sublimity of Keswick, nor the 
 monstrous mountains of the Leman ; but softness 
 of contour and pretty turns mark it strongly with 
 a character of Greek beauty. A woody range of 
 hills advances into its waters, with a tower on a 
 rock at the extremity of each promontory. Two 
 or three islands, one of which has a picturesque 
 steeple on it, mark the different lines of distance: 
 a high, conical mountain appears far off. The 
 shore is flat and full of reeds. A boat or two 
 gave life to the surface of the water. 
 
 For many miles we had a dreadful road, over 
 the ground where Hannibal vanquished Flaminius. 
 As soon as we got on the Tuscan territories, 
 which are not designated by any guards, barriers, or 
 boundary monuments, I found the roads much better. 
 We slept at Carnotria, and I was pleased to 
 see all the country girls with little smart round 
 straw hats, coquettishly tied. The faces of the 
 
248 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 people were quite altered. Here we saw round, 
 chubby cheeks, and small features in proportion 
 to the face; whereas further south the very reverse 
 is remarkable. I no longer perceived the grand 
 large nose and expanded eye. 
 
 We walked to Cortona, a very steep mile, and 
 had a fine view every way, especially towards the 
 lake. Cortona is a melancholy town. The day 
 was extremely hot, and no horses being at the 
 post, I took refuge from a broiling sun in the 
 church porch, where I found several grave citizens 
 seated in the shade. They were discoursing con- 
 cerning a girl that positively refused to own who 
 was the father of her child. They guessed every- 
 body they could think of, but decided on none. 
 At last one wiser than the rest exclaimed : " Do 
 not trouble yourselves with guessing; you will 
 soon learn who the man is, for the Grand Duke 
 is to be here in a few days, and he is sure to 
 find out, for you know he pries into everything, 
 and knows all that passes." 
 
 This royal inquisitor seems, however, to be 
 very popular among the common people, and 
 takes great pains in making improvements. He 
 is now busy in opening a canal from the lake, to 
 render the navigation of the Chiena more constant, 
 as well as useful. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 249 
 
 We next came through Arezza, a large well- 
 built town, and along the rich vale of Arno, to 
 Florence. I lodge at Mrs. Hatchfield's, and dined, 
 on my arrival, at Sir Horace Mann's, where I met 
 Harvey Aston, Smith Barry, Falkenor, Vernon, 
 and Crosbie. 
 
 We went to the opera, where, for the first 
 time, I beheld the poor unhappy representative 
 of the Stuart race in the Count d'Albanie. He 
 goes regularly to the theatre, and always falls 
 asleep in a corner of his box, at the end of the 
 first act, being generally intoxicated. His face is 
 red, and his eyes are fiery, otherwise he is not an 
 ill-looking man. The Countess is not handsome, 
 being black and sallow, with a pug nose. She 
 always wears a hat. Alfieri, the Piedmontese, is 
 a constant attendant in her box, with her dame 
 de compagnie, Madame Malgan. 
 
 Le Cascine is a delightful place, along the 
 Arno, with woods and meadows exactly like an 
 English plantation, and a fine alley of stone 
 pines, that grow like fans. 
 
 You shall have an account of the gallery, 
 
 &c., in my next. 
 
 Florence, June loth. 
 
 We saw the collection of gems, and the cabinet 
 of medals, which are thrown about in a strange 
 
250 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 confusion ; all metals and all sizes, according to 
 chronology — a most uncertain and puzzling mode 
 of arrangement. 
 
 Lord Tilney gave us a dinner, where we met 
 a great number of Neapolitans. We dined also 
 with Lady Orford at her villa at Fiesole, in a 
 glorious situation for views, and a very convenient, 
 elegant house, perhaps the best furnished in Italy 
 for neatness and propriety, but too high, too much 
 confined, and on a rock which reflects a burning 
 heat in summer. 
 
 The society here seems on a pleasant footing. 
 There appear to be no feuds, no opposition sets, 
 which, among the English, is too often the case. 
 Sir Horace Mann's keeping open house is probably 
 a preventive, being a sort of centre, or point de re- 
 union. We see a good deal of Lord and Lady 
 Cowper, whose house is very pleasant. Mrs. S. 
 went with her to Castello, to deliver her letter to 
 the Grand Duchess, and we were at the opera 
 with them last night. On coming out, we passed 
 close to the Pretender, who was carried away, at 
 the end of the performance, being half asleep, and 
 completely intoxicated, which is his invariable 
 custom , every night. Such is the force of habit.^ 
 
 I Habit or custom is sometimes exemplified in a 
 manner less filthy than that cited of the Pretender. Segur 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 25 1 
 
 I drew my wife's attention to this undeserving 
 object of all her Jacobitical adoration. 
 
 Cavalier Mozzi is here, and the Chevalier 
 Lorenzi, a man of great wit and naivete. He 
 lived much at Paris among the unbelievers and 
 philosophers of both sexes, Madame du Deffand, 
 Madame de Boufflers, «&c. When he returned to 
 Florence he heard a church bell ringing, upon 
 which he exclaimed; "What is that for?" "For 
 illness," was the reply. " Et quoi," cried Lorenzi, 
 *' on dit encore la messe dans ce paysci ? " 
 
 A quack doctor was called to attend a friend 
 of Lorenzi's who was dangerously ill, and ordered 
 him to take forty of his pills. " II est mort au 
 quatrième," said Lorenzi, in a rage, as he told 
 the story; "jugez s'il les eut toutes prises!'* 
 
 mentions two instances, both equally pleasant. The Duke 
 
 de had been in love during twenty years with Madame 
 
 de , and had been in the habit of passing almost every 
 
 evening of his life at her house. At length her husband 
 died, they were married, and of course she removed to the 
 Duke's mansion. After dinner, upon the first day, the 
 Duchess, seeing her husband absorbed in meditation, said 
 to him : " Qu'avez-vous, mon ami ? À quoi revez-vous ? " 
 " Ma foi, mon amie," replied he, "je songois à une chose 
 assez embarrassante. Où irai-je à l'avenir passer mes 
 soirées?" The second example is that of the learned 
 Marsais, the grammarian. Finding his death approaching, 
 he called to a brother academician who stood by his bed- 
 side, and said : " Go tell, tell the academy que je m'en vais, 
 eu que je m'en vas, car l'un et Vautre peuvent se dird." 
 
252 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 We intend leaving this place in a day or two 
 for Vienna, through Bologna, and I have agreed 
 with a Mantuan vettiirino to take us with thirteen 
 horses to Bologna, and nine to Vienna, including 
 all expenses for eating, lodging, &c., for us, our 
 children, and five servants; the price, two hundred 
 sequins — about twenty too much. 
 
 Turin, June i^th. 
 
 Your letter, which I found here on my arrival, 
 was an agreeable surprise. We came firom 
 Florence to Pisa, which is a fine city, and has 
 something grand and noble even in its present 
 deserted condition, that in a melancholy manner 
 reminds one of its former splendour. It is 
 large, well-built, and well-paved, but so desolate 
 that grass grows in the streets. As a formidable 
 republic, it formerly poured out its citizens to the 
 conquest of distant countries; though now it 
 wears the livery of despotism, misery, and depo- 
 pulation. The benefits of Leopold's improvements 
 have not yet extended thither. 
 
 The Arno, which at this spot is a tolerably 
 large river, divides the city into two almost equal 
 parts. The best bridge is all marble, and it is 
 there that the two divisions of the town meet 
 every third year, to assert, with clubs and coats 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 253 
 
 of mail, the honour of St. Anthony's hog and St. 
 Mary's kitten. 
 
 The cathedral is a fine Gothic pile of marble 
 supported on twenty-six antique granite pillars; 
 the roof grand and richly gilt, and the gate of 
 carved bronze. At one end of the church is the 
 famous leaning tower, of white marble. It really 
 bends one way fifteen feet firom the perpendicular. 
 Whether built so on purpose, or sunk by accident, 
 is doubtful, and I am inclined to be of the first 
 opinion, as the pillars on the undermost side are 
 longer than the others, and the little turret at the 
 top is much more upright than the rest of the 
 steeple.* 
 
 At the other extremity of the square, about 
 the dome, is the battistero of marble ; an octa- 
 gonal Gothic temple, ornamented all round with 
 columns of divers sorts and figures. The inside 
 is supported on pillars that leave a passage round, 
 and give a light, easy air to the edifice. The 
 echo of this building is very strong. 
 
 But the most curious place at Pisa is the 
 Campo Santo, near the battistero; a long, square 
 
 I A similar curiosity may be seen at Bridgnorth, where 
 there is an ancient tower, whose summit extends to some 
 distance over the base. This has given rise to the pro- 
 vincial expression of " All on one side, like Bridgnorth 
 tower." 
 
254 
 
 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Gothic cloister of white marble. In the middle 
 is a cœmiterium of earth brought from the Holy 
 Land, as ballast to the Pisan galleys, in the days 
 of the republic. In the vaults of the cloister 
 repose the bones of the old citizens of Pisa. 
 Around on the wall are fresco paintings done by 
 the first restorers of the art in Italy — which, 
 although they fall infinitely short of the perfection 
 that Raphael long afterwards arrived at, have 
 great merit in the airs of the heads, and also in 
 the whimsical ideas they have introduced into 
 their pieces, some of which would make you laugh. 
 I was myself diverted by the sight of the pro- 
 fessors of the university, stalking up and down 
 the town with huge spectacles on their noses. 
 
 From Pisa, I entered a more interesting, 
 though much less famous republic, I mean the 
 existing one of Lucca, the prettiest little toy of a 
 commonwealth imaginable. The city, situated in 
 the midst of a small but rich and beautiful plain, 
 hemmed in on every side by woody hills, is quite 
 round, well fortified, and solidly but not showily 
 built. The ramparts are planted with trees, and 
 afford the most agreeable walk. I have scarce 
 ever felt greater satisfaction than that I enjoyed 
 at the air of plenty, riches, and content, this 
 little tract of land wears ; it is the emblem of 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 255 
 
 real liberty. The government is aristocratic, and 
 has a gonfaloniere and nine anziani at its head, 
 that are changed every tv^o months. It really 
 looks upon its subjects as children, for everybody 
 seems to thrive, and double crops are reaped here 
 for one that is produced in other states. 
 
 When there was a scarcity of bread, some 
 years since, throughout Italy, the Lucchese set 
 sentries to prevent exportation of corn, and then 
 distributed it out of the public granaries to the 
 villages, &c., on the easy condition of being reim- 
 bursed in the space of nine years. 
 
 The nobility are very rich; the men the best 
 made in Italy ; extremely polite and affable to 
 strangers. I had an opportunity of knowing some 
 of the Lucchese ladies and gentlemen during the 
 few days I stayed there, having brought a letter 
 from Sir Horace Mann, and was much pleased 
 with their civility and manners. 
 
 I could almost have kissed their state's motto, 
 Libertas, at the proofs I had of its salutary effects, 
 and should have preferred if, instead of a black, 
 foolish daub (done, as they say, by Nicodemus), 
 which they call II porto santo, and which is 
 stamped on their coins, they had done honour to 
 the cap and staff of liberty. 
 
 The sumptuary laws, which forbid the wear- 
 
256 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 ing anything but black, is the only thing I should 
 wish altered in this little paradise, as it gives a 
 rather dismal cast to a naturally gay scene.^ 
 
 From thence, along the coast, through woods 
 of corks and evergreen oaks, we came to a most 
 picturesque country ; the hills woody, and crowned 
 with ruined castles ; the river Magra rolling 
 through vast plains, planted with mulberry trees ; 
 the valleys enclosed, full of cornfields thick set 
 with trees, on which the vines hang from branch 
 to branch along the road. 
 
 We passed through the mountains which con- 
 tain quarries of the famous Carrara marble ; 
 embarked in a felucca at Lerici, and passed to 
 the Gulf of Spezzia, a place replete with every 
 beauty which land and water, united in a popu- 
 lous country, can procure. 
 
 Imagine a large basin of seven miles diameter 
 every way, with three large cultivated islands in 
 the mouth, and Porto Venere and another tower 
 
 I Although Lucca is no longer a republic, it enjoys as 
 much liberty, and infinitely more tranquillity and happiness 
 than perhaps was the case in the days of its independence. 
 His Royal Highness the reigning Duke is universally be- 
 loved, and has no other object in view, at least, as regards 
 the Duchy of Lucca, than the welfare of his subjects. People 
 may wear what colour they please, and say and do what they 
 please. This is real Uberty, and is felt to be so, for Lucca is, 
 at present, a place of refuge to many who can find no shelter 
 elsewhere. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 257 
 
 to defend the passage. There are many large 
 fortresses on the shore, along which stand several 
 considerable towns and villages, and round the 
 gulf is a range of beautiful hills, rising one above 
 another, entirely covered with olive and fig trees. 
 
 We passed this charming bay too quickly, for 
 soon after we had nothing before us but bare 
 brown mountains and rugged rocks. Night luckily 
 relieved us from this ugly view, and next morning, 
 on doubling the cape, about twenty miles from 
 Genoa, we coasted for many miles under the 
 beautiful mountains which form the Riviera di 
 Levante, covered with buildings, allotted to the 
 velvet manufactories ; and as we approached Genoa 
 the fairy landscape increased in beauty. 
 
 At a few miles' distance I enjoyed the grandest 
 and most agreeable view imaginable. The amphi- 
 theatre formed by the hills round the city, the 
 palaces and churches, the moles, the lighthouse, 
 and fine populous coast, are fine beyond descrip- 
 tion. The port is most beautifully formed by 
 nature, in an exact half-moom. 
 
 I took a sketch of the famous lighthouse as 
 well as I could by stealth, for nobody is allowed 
 to make drafts of any part of Genoa. In point 
 of beauty of situation, that city may vie with any, 
 perhaps, in the world. It is built on a small 
 
 VOL. I 17 
 
2c8 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 tract of even ground, which seems stolen from the 
 sea, and occupies principally the eastern part of 
 the crescent. The hills that rise immediately 
 above it are covered with villas, which, at a dis- 
 tance, appear to be part of the town. 
 
 Fish is not very plentiful in the harbour, but 
 the gulf is much better stocked than is generally 
 imagined ; but as every fisherman is forced to give 
 to the State the third part of his capture, besides 
 heavy entrance duties, they prefer carrying their 
 fish anywhere rather than to the capital. I saw 
 them take many loassi^ sardines, and other fish. 
 At night the port is full of boats with lights, at 
 which a certain sort of fish leaps up, and then 
 lies on the surface of the water stupefied with the 
 glare, till the boatman lances his harpoon into it. 
 
 Towards the land, for a good way, are the 
 palaces of nobles, painted as most of the houses 
 there are, and very lofty, with terraces to the 
 sea. The roofs of the town houses are covered 
 with earth, and serve as gardens to the great 
 mansions beneath them, being railed round with 
 marble banisters, and ornamented with urns and 
 statues. 
 
 The custom of painting the outsides of the 
 houses with representations of deities, &c., and 
 the dissensions in the families, gave rise to a sort 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 259 
 
 of proverb in the Genoese paiois, which is some- 
 thing to this purport: — 
 
 Walls thick and servants thin, 
 
 The gods without, and the devil within. 
 
 The lower class of people inhabit another 
 quarter, near the gate of the old mole, where the 
 burgesses of the city mount guard, in a guard- 
 room situated near the edge of the rock. 
 
 I visited the fortification erected by M. de 
 Boufflers in 1748, when he came to defend the 
 Genoese against the Germans, who had been let 
 into the town by capitulation, and whose troops 
 were quartered in the Borgo di San Pietro 
 d'Arena, and in the mountain near the Borgo 
 della Bisogna. Their officers had the key of the 
 gate which leads to Turin, and the inhabitants 
 could neither go in nor out without their per- 
 mission. The Genoese nobles, being bound by 
 oath to submit, remained quiet; but the populace, 
 with three determined leaders, rose and at length 
 drove the Austrians out of both walls. 
 
 The ringleaders of this rising were Spagnoletto, 
 a shoemaker, Barbarossa, a peasant, and Carborre, 
 a servant. They fixed a gallows in the Piazza della 
 Nunziati, and decreed to hang up all those who 
 should refuse to take up arms. They seized on 
 the arsenal, notwithstanding the protestation of 
 
 17 — 2 
 
260 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 the Doge. One of their chiefs, on being asked 
 what recompense he demanded, contented himself 
 with asking to be made a courier, or postman to 
 the republic. The others were made colonels, and 
 received the pay of that rank for their lives. When 
 the Germans returned the French were come, and 
 their fresh attack proved fruitless. 
 
 We stayed a very short time at Genoa. Our 
 road to Campo Marone was all along the river. 
 Upon the hills are an amazing number of country 
 seats, churches, and villages, which, being all white, 
 form a lively prospect, joined to the greenness of 
 the gardens, which are very plentiful thereabouts. 
 We had then a long ascent through a very rough 
 road, and had a fine view of the sea from the 
 summit of the hills. 
 
 The haystacks there are made in a particular 
 manner, and so contrived as to resist the fury of 
 the winds that blow violently on those heights. 
 They have a thatched roof, fastened at each 
 corner to a thick pole, which serves, when squeezed 
 down, to keep it fixed. The houses of some of 
 the villages are thatched, * a thing not common in 
 Piedmont. 
 
 On the way to Voltagio the mountains are 
 dull and uninteresting — no rocks, no woods, no 
 variety. This part of the Apennines is far inferior 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 261 
 
 to the Alps in diversity of romantic scenes, and 
 the many pleasing prospects amidst rushing waters, 
 huge rocks, and stupendous precipices, which occur 
 in travelling through the latter. 
 
 The road was paved, but very rough; a tor- 
 rent, scarcely perceptible, rolls along in the hollow 
 beneath. There is a kind of aqueduct in the valley. 
 These defiles are called La Bocchetta. 
 
 Beyond Voltagio the road runs along the sides 
 of stupendous precipices, which are very disagree- 
 able sights. On a high rocky mountain in the 
 midst of the Apennines is the fort of Gavio ; the 
 village is at the foot of the hill. The river Leone 
 runs below in the valley; the sand of its bottom 
 is green. 
 
 The women in these mountains and the country 
 about Genoa are very ugly; all black as gipsies. 
 They plait and twist their coal-black hair in a 
 round upon the crown of their head ; then fasten 
 it together with a large silver or steel bodkin. The 
 front is cropped and kept back with pomatum. 
 In winter they wear a veil of white linen, checked 
 with red flowers, which they throw over their 
 heads ; it falls down to the hips, and some of them 
 hide almost all their faces behind it. 
 
 We passed many mulberry trees planted among 
 vines, and came to Novi, the last town in the 
 
202 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Genoese dominions. Its houses are painted on 
 the outside with several colours. 
 
 The country about Alessandria is very like 
 that near most of the fortified towns in French 
 Flanders — low, bare, and intersected with innumer- 
 able roads. 
 
 Alessandria della paglia is called so, as some 
 say, from its ancient walls being only dirt and 
 stones, and, therefore, so nicknamed by the Em- 
 peror Frederick Barbarossa. Others pretend that 
 it was out of derision for the abuse of the great 
 name of Alexandria; or, more likely, the appella- 
 tion may have come from the great quantity of 
 straw which the capital of so large a corn countr}' 
 might have brought to market. The buildings 
 of this town are poor, the streets narrow. The 
 coaches seem very crazy, for the coachmen stop 
 short at every gutter to go over quietly, for fear 
 of shaking them to pieces. The Alessandrines 
 have a peculiar jargon of their own. 
 
 We dined late at Asti. The fortifications of 
 this ancient city (formerly Hasta Pompeia) are 
 now quite demolished. It seems to have had a 
 double wall, and what remains of the outwork is 
 singularly constructed, being all built with small 
 arches, only open towards the town. 
 
 We passed San Michaele and Piormo ; the 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 263 
 
 latter town cuts a good figure, as it is situated on 
 the brow of a hill, which terminates a low watery 
 valley. From thence to Turin we travelled in the 
 dark, but we could just see the snowy top of 
 Monte Viso, rising above the rest of the Alps in a 
 conical form. 
 
 Turm, June 6th, 1779. 
 
 We have taken up our abode at l'Auberge 
 Royale. Soon after our arrival we had a visit 
 from Mr. Poyntz, the chargé d'affaires, who ob- 
 tained leave for us to attend the King's ball at La 
 Vénerie, his country palace, about three miles 
 from Turin. There was a brilliant assemblage 
 there, of men in showy uniforms, being the élite 
 of the Sardinian army. They dressed in blue ; the 
 infantry wear white waistcoats and breeches; the 
 cavalry buff; a shoulder-knot distinguishes the 
 latter. The officers wear broad-laced button-holes, 
 but no epaulettes. Rows of lace distinguish 
 ranks. The uniforms are very neat. 
 
 I was introduced to one or two of the prin- 
 cipal Sardinian officers, who spoke to me in 
 Italian. I noticed the peculiarity of their using 
 the B instead of V in their dialect, which illus- 
 trates the Sardinian proverb; 
 
 "Felices quibus vivere est bibere." 
 
264 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 The Other sense of it is, I understand, equally 
 correct. There being no minuets, the ball was 
 not so formal as those things usually are, but the 
 room was a perfect Calcutta. 
 
 The King was on the point of speaking to 
 us, but his bashfulness could not be surmounted, 
 and he sheered off. The Prince of Piedmont 
 spoke to us, and said he recollected Sir Thomas 
 and Mr. Dillon. He is thin and sickly, like a 
 worn-out man. His wife, Madame Clotilde of 
 France, is as fat as butter, very merry and good- 
 natured. She has no children. The Duke de 
 Chablais seems to be a mere driveller — the rest 
 of the Princes are absolute Corsican fairies.^ The 
 substance and strength of the stock seems quite 
 exhausted in them. They are the smallest, under- 
 formed things I ever saw, the Corsican fairy 
 excepted. The Queen looks like an old woman 
 of ninety, totally withered and worn out. She 
 has had twenty-one children. The Duchess of 
 Chablais is pretty, like Madame d'Artois. The 
 youngest Princess is very pretty, light and elegant, 
 but very short. The Prince and Princess of 
 Carignan were absent on account of mourning. 
 
 Many of the ladies who danced were particu- 
 larly handsome, and more especially Madame d'Arza. 
 I Alluding to a famous dwarf so styled. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 265 
 
 The Spanish ambassador, Villa Hermosa, is a 
 most easy, polite, good sort of man, just like an 
 Englishman in his manner. We returned to 
 Turin at ten o'clock, by moonlight. 
 
 I have since been to their palace in the 
 morning. The first apartment is a large square 
 hall, the ceiling of which is painted in panels, 
 but spoilt by the fire the French set to it, when 
 they plundered the palace, during the war in the 
 beginning of the century. There are ten large 
 pictures of ladies hunting, and below ten hunting 
 pieces of Daniel Mieli, which are full of figures, 
 dressed in the habits of his time. The great 
 gallery is superior to that of Versailles for length, 
 height, and breadth, but not so handsomely orna- 
 mented. The stables are very extensive, and the 
 orangery well worth seeing. The church is very 
 fine ; it has a dome in the form of a Greek cross ; 
 its proportions are admirable, and the architec- 
 ture noble and elegant. There is plenty of game 
 and deer in the park, and a theatre made by 
 plantations of trees ; a labyrinth of hornbeam 
 hedges, a menagerie, several fine broad alleys, and 
 a long mall ; but water is prodigiously wanted. 
 
 We dined at Mr. Poyntz's with Mr. Head, 
 Mr. Maxwell, and Count Castel Alfieri, a young 
 Piedmontese of the academy. There are few 
 
266 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 English here, except some youths with their tutors. 
 We drove post to the Valentin, a noble avenue, 
 where we saw several beautiful women ; then to 
 the Italian comedy, where the Arlechino was 
 execrable ; and after that we paid a visit to 
 Madame de St. Gilles, a very agreeable person. 
 
 Turin is supposed to have existed long before 
 Rome, and to have been the capital of the 
 Taurini. There are but few remains of antiquity 
 to support its pretensions. When the old walls 
 of the town were destroyed, to make the square 
 near the Porta Palazzo, many ancient altars and 
 stones were dug out of the foundations, with in- 
 scriptions on them. These are fixed on the walls 
 of the university. The emblem of a bull is sup- 
 posed to be derived from the ancient Taurini. 
 
 The fortifications are strong, and all the walls 
 are planted with fine old oaks, which afford a 
 very pleasant shade. The citadel is very strong, 
 and underwent a close siege in 1706, till Prince 
 Eugène drove off the French by the victory he 
 gained in the plains on each side of the Dora. 
 It was there, at the Porte de Secours, that Victor 
 Amedius came to get admittance after his abdica- 
 tion, and was refused by the Baron de Remy. 
 The French made several violent attacks upon 
 this place, but were always repulsed. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC, 267 
 
 A soldier in the corps of miners, one Pietro 
 Molo, blew himself up, with several companies of 
 French grenadiers, in order to save the fort, 
 which the enemy was on the point of taking. 
 His children enjoy a pension from the King. His 
 noble intention was confided to his companions, 
 whom he desired to get away, and recommend his 
 family to the Duke, having resolved to sacrifice 
 himself for his country. 
 
 Turin is divided into two parts, the old and 
 the new. The new is well built, and chiefly in- 
 habited by the nobility, whose palaces are ele- 
 gant, and contribute to the embellishment of the 
 town. The interior of them is generally well 
 furnished, with extensive collections of paintings, 
 particularly those of the Marquesses da Fana and 
 d'Ormea. 
 
 We went to the little opera-house of Farig- 
 nan, which is the only one open at this time of 
 the year. No one seems to attend to the music 
 or representation. The ladies receive visits in 
 their boxes, e fanno conversazione. This theatre 
 is but ill lighted. It does to dance in during the 
 carnival, when the opera is held at the grand 
 theatre adjoining the palace, which is very large, 
 and one of the most magnificent in Italy. Its 
 form is exactly that of the section of an egg ; the 
 
268 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 stage is very extensive, and they often have twenty 
 or thirty horses upon it. 
 
 The Jews here have a quarter ot their own, 
 called Ghetto, with a synagogue and burial-place. 
 Every Jew is obliged to wear a yellow riband, 
 sewn on the breast of his coat. 
 
 The street which leads to the gate of the Po 
 is the grandest in the city, and probably the 
 finest in Europe. The palace of the Prince of 
 Piedmont is very handsome. I have not sufficient 
 time at present to give you an exact idea of this 
 small but beautiful city. 
 
 Lyons, June. 
 
 From Novalesa we set out en porteurs, at three 
 o'clock. The heat was excessive, at which our 
 carriers seemed enchanted 1 We were seated on 
 a little stool with a back to it, fixed on poles, 
 which two men bore like chairmen ; and a rope 
 was placed so as to swing our legs upon. In 
 this equipage we were carried up for three hours, 
 through roads where no horsemen could attempt 
 to ride. 
 
 On one side of us, firom a cavern m the top 
 of a high rock, gushed forth the river Cencola, 
 which, after falling in several cascades, takes its 
 course along the valley, and discharges itself into 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 269 
 
 the Dora. No words can describe the badness of 
 the roads, which turn incessantly from left to 
 right, from right to left, over rocks and loose 
 stones. A ravine, through which some furious 
 torrent has dashed headlong, and torn up every- 
 thing before it, is a turnpike compared to this. 
 
 We saw no uncommon insects or beasts in 
 our journey. As we ascended, I beheld in succes- 
 sion hawthorn, oak, juniper, larch, laurestinus, 
 beech, barberry, hazel, gooseberry, brier, ash, 
 cherry and sloe, before we reached La Perrière; 
 afterwards larch, and crimson polyanthuses. 
 
 A covered way is constructed here, in order 
 to prevent accidents from avalanches. The pas- 
 tures in the plains are enamelled with red, white, 
 yellow, and purple pansies, a small flower of 
 bright blue, and plenty of flox adonis. The high 
 peaks on the left are called la come rouge, and la 
 glacière de Bar, In front is one of the prettiest 
 cascades in the Alps. After La Perrière the 
 larch woods cease. There are, however, many 
 hardy pines. 
 
 From thence to La Grande Croix is a plain, 
 full of white clover, large blue flowers, and a 
 small yellow cistus. The pastures are covered 
 with white ranunculi and white heart's-ease. 
 
 I thought the lake small and ugly. The 
 
270 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 larches near it were blighted. The rocks are of 
 a friable marble, like salt. 
 
 After descending a short distance, we came 
 to the large woods, which are very fine. Soon 
 after begin the spruce firs intermingled with 
 larches and pines, forming a noble forest. 
 
 We arrived at eight at Lans le Bourg, but 
 the baggage did not get down until ten that night, 
 and the carriage not till six the next morning. 
 
 The women on this side of Mont Cenis wear 
 an odd head-dress ; it consists of a piece of blue 
 cloth drawn together, which binds up their hair 
 behind; and in the middle of their forehead is 
 a square bit of red or green velvet, with some 
 tinsel sewn round it. 
 
 Our road from Modane to St. Michel, a 
 miserable inn, lay over rocks and precipices, the 
 mountains above us being covered with firs and 
 birch trees. From thence the rocks above the 
 highway are quite perpendicular. They consist of 
 a kind of coarse marble, of a bluish gray colour. 
 About St. Jean de Maurienne, goitres are numerous. 
 Indeed, most of the inhabitants of these countries 
 are affected with them., as well as many of the 
 Turin nobility. This protuberance is attributed 
 to the melted snow, which is drank here in 
 spring. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 27I 
 
 We travelled along the road above the banks 
 of the Arco, that flows amidst rocks and woods in 
 continual cascades, and crossed it on a bridge of 
 stone, and another of wood. The industry of the 
 Savoyards is great ; they improve every little spot 
 of land they find among the rocks. 
 
 We stopped at Aiguebelle, a small town at 
 the bottom of a hill, hemmed in on every side 
 by the mountains. The setting sun afforded us 
 a sight only to be seen in such a country ; its 
 rays gilding the snowy summits of the mountains, 
 made them appear of a bright fiery colour, and 
 above them the thick white clouds were streaked 
 with three or four reflections of a beautiful rainbow. 
 
 We travelled all the way to Chambery be- 
 tween ridges of mountains which kept the sun off 
 us ; their tops were almost always hid amongst 
 the clouds, and their flanks girded with woods. 
 
 Montmeilian, noted for its good red wine, 
 stands on the declivity of a hill. High on the 
 top is the fort which was besieged by the French, 
 and taken after a short resistance, in the last 
 wars of Italy. The town is half in ruins, having 
 never been rebuilt since that destructive period. 
 Sudden storms of violent rain prevented our see- 
 ing the convent of the Grande Chartreuse, which 
 is much cried up by travellers. Every stranger 
 
272 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 is treated with a supper, bed, and breakfast. We 
 travelled beneath the shade of the mountains 
 which encompass it, and slept at Chambery, where 
 there is little to be seen. 
 
 As we proceeded from thence, we enjoyed the 
 sight of a noble waterfall. It issues out of a cleft 
 on the very summit of a lofty mountain, rushes 
 down its side upon a precipice, over which it 
 spouts with great violence upon the rocks below, 
 and forms a most agreeable cascade. The height 
 from its source, as our guide assured us, is more 
 than two hundred ioises. After the melting of the 
 snow in spring, it falls down with such force that 
 it comes close to the road, which is at a consider- 
 able distance. 
 
 We next reached a spot where the road is 
 cut through a very large rocky mountain, called 
 La Grotta. Charles Emmanuel, second Duke of 
 Savoy, had it blown up, and a pavement made. 
 The road is broad but steep, between vast rocks 
 that hang over it, and at the entrance is an in- 
 scription in Latin denoting that, in the year 1663, 
 the passage had been cut by the Duke, for the 
 relief and convenience of travellers. 
 
 From the top of the cliff, through a cavity, 
 rushes down a stream so strongly impregnated 
 with iron as to stain the rock red ; and further 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 273 
 
 on there is a large grotto, out of which a con- 
 siderable brook rolls forth, and forms a cascade. 
 There is also a spacious cavern without water. 
 
 We dined at Les Echelles, a small place, near 
 which, on two eminences, are the ruins of two old 
 castles. At a little distance from thence, a guide 
 led us up the hills, to the place where a separation 
 has been made of the Savoy from the French 
 territories. A mountain was blown up with gun- 
 powder, and a passage through the middle of it 
 made for the Guyer, which ran before through 
 several holes in the rock. 
 
 We passed along the side of a high smooth 
 rock, polished by the hand of man. The narrow 
 road is rendered safe by a wall of stone cut out 
 of a great crag, which hangs over the precipice. 
 At the end of this passage is a little door, hewn 
 through the stone, by which we came to a narrow 
 wooden bridge, in the centre of which is a pillar 
 with the fleuYs-de-lys on one face, and the white 
 cross on the other. It joins the two roads to- 
 gether. The water beneath rolls over huge stones 
 and precipices, upon which one can hardly look 
 without dread. The prospect terminates in a vast 
 rocky mountain, from behind which the river 
 pours forth its angry waters. The crags on each 
 side are immensely high, and quite impracticable. 
 
 VOL. I i3 
 
274 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Their summits bend over the valley, almost near 
 enough to touch each other. 
 
 Many ruined castles exist in this part of 
 Savoy, and among them the Château de Roque- 
 fort, where Mandrin, a famous French smuggler, 
 was taken. The road winds about incessantly, until 
 at length we found ourselves at a surprising height, 
 amidst rocks and precipices, through which rushes 
 the river that separates France from Savoy. The 
 way is hewn out along the side of a large rocky 
 mountain, whose head is covered with clouds. 
 Parapets keep the traveller from tumbling over, 
 which might otherwise happen, as the passage is 
 narrow and slippery. Thickets and rocks hide 
 the precipices; box bushes are common there- 
 abouts. 
 
 Pont de Beauvoisin is the frontier town of 
 France and Savoy. The little river Guyer divides 
 the town, and the two kingdoms; the latter join 
 in the middle of the bridge, which is of stone. 
 
 On entering France, chesnut and walnut trees 
 are planted in plenty along the roadside, and 
 stone pillars are set up at the distance of every 
 half league. 
 
 I looked back to take leave of the scenery of 
 Savoy, just after a heavy shower of rain, which 
 had refreshed all the atmosphere, and beheld a 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 275 
 
 ridge of mountains tipped with clouds as white 
 as milk ; below, mists rising slowly from the 
 valley, hills covered with wood on one side, on 
 the other rocks of enormous size and height; 
 hamlets and enclosures without number spangled 
 the valley, and a complete rainbow overarched 
 the whole. 
 
 Lyons is enclosed with a wall of masonry; it 
 has six gates, all of which are shut at night. The 
 houses near the river are very lofty, and built of 
 white stone. There is one belonging to a magis- 
 trate, let out to a number of different families, 
 which brings in 20,000 livres a year to the pro- 
 prietor. The Place Louis le Grand is spacious 
 and well built, with the statue of that Monarch 
 in the middle. 
 
 Close to the quay is a famous manufactory of 
 silk and brocades, the designs of which are most 
 delightfully imagined, and the prices of the work 
 reasonable. 
 
 The " Charité " is a building of surprising 
 extent, capable of containing ten thousand people. 
 Here the old and decrepit poor are employed at 
 some easy work, according to their capacity, and 
 here likewise vagabonds are shut up and forced to 
 work ; for not a beggar is suffered in the streets 
 of Lyons. The work of these poor people is so 
 
 I8-— 2 
 
276 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 beneficial, that, besides what is sufficient for the 
 nourishment of those within, every week they 
 distribute fifteen hundred loaves of bread to the 
 indigent in the town. 
 
 In front of this building are the ramparts, 
 where the inhabitants take the air in their coaches, 
 as far as the confluence of the two rivers, Rhone 
 and Saone. The difference between the waters 
 of each is as easily perceptible as those of the 
 Rhine and Moselle at Coblentz. The Rhone, 
 rough and impetuous, rushes with fury against 
 the opposite rocks, and dashes back the sleepy 
 waters of the silent Saone a considerable way. 
 As the winds that blow through the openings in 
 the mountains are violent, sudden and unsettled 
 here, no windmills succeed; therefore watermills 
 are built on the Saone, which renders its navi- 
 gation extremely dangerous. 
 
 Desirous of seeing the antiquities, I climbed up 
 a steep hill to an open place, where the convents 
 of the Minimes and the Ursulines are built. The 
 gardener of the latter admitted us into the garden, 
 and led us by the light of a candle down a few 
 old steps into a cavern, which was anciently a bath, 
 or more probably a reservoir, of the Romans, for 
 the waters that were conveyed thither over the 
 hill by aqueducts. This subterranean building 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 277 
 
 is a quadrangular vault, divided into two square 
 rooms, with four doors each, and a gallery that 
 runs quite round them. The walls, roof and 
 floor are laid with cement, several inches thick, 
 and so hard that not a flaw can be perceived in 
 it, except where it has been broken by hammers, 
 out of curiosity. Two holes are in a corner, one 
 of which served to admit the water, the other to 
 let it run off when too full. 
 
 In the vineyard of the Minimes are the re- 
 mains of a Roman amphitheatre, which anciently 
 had a communication with the palace of the Roman 
 governors, that stood on the ground where a con- 
 vent of Visitandine Nuns has since been erected. 
 The good fathers have built their house of the 
 stones of this theatre, and are daily destroying it 
 more and more. 
 
 From their convent I walked further up the 
 mountains, to the church of St. Irenœus, a 
 bishop who suffered martyrdom in this place. It 
 is the most ancient in Lyons, and built over a sub- 
 terranean chapel, where the primitive Christians 
 hid themselves, and secretly performed the sacred 
 rites, until they were discovered and dragged out 
 to death. The saint's body and that of his com- 
 panions lie in this chapel. On its door is an in- 
 scription in Latin verse, and half-way up the hill. 
 
278 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 against the front of a cottage, are the following 
 words, engraved on marble : — " Souvenez vous, 
 passans Chrétiens, que le sang de nos saints 
 martyrs a coulé dans ce chemin-ci, pour la foi 
 de Jésus Christ." 
 
 On this mountain stood the ancient Lugdunum. 
 Its old walls yet remain. On its summit are the 
 ruins of a once magnificent aqueduct, which con- 
 veyed water over the mountains from a place eight 
 leagues off. A portion of it is still remaining, 
 very solid and thick, built with pebbles, cemented 
 together with a bitumen scarcely to be broken 
 with hammers. 
 
 Paris, June. 
 
 We passed to Chalons through Villefranche. 
 Its steeple and bridge, with a kind of ruinous 
 citadel behind it, have a lively effect. The men 
 wear little round hats, tied on the top of their 
 heads, with crowns too little to fit. 
 
 Near Beaune we entered the famous wine 
 country of Burgundy. The vines are low, and 
 are trained to little stakes, or oaken echalas. We 
 passed through a hilly country to Dijon. Its 
 environs are bleak, but the Gothic steeples and 
 well-grown trees afford an agreeable view of the 
 city from many points. The streets are wide. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 279 
 
 There is an equestrian statue of Louis XIV., and 
 in the church two white marble monuments ; the 
 one of Philip, first Duke of Burgundy,^ of the 
 second race, and the other of his son John, and 
 that son's wife, a Bavarian. He is styled son of 
 Philip of Burgundy, and Jane the daughter of the 
 King of Bacignê. What this means, Heaven 
 knows — it may be Bohême; but Philip married 
 Margaret of Flanders. 
 
 We passed a pleasant village, where the 
 Bishop of Dijon is building a fine house. There 
 is hereabouts abundance of excellent firuit. Next 
 day we travelled in an ugly open country, near 
 the serpentining river Yonne, down which much 
 wood is floated to Paris. 
 
 The approach to Auxerre is picturesque. Its 
 lofty steeples have a handsome appearance, and 
 the walks round the town are pleasant. 
 
 Joigny stands well on the river. Sens is an 
 ugly, ill-built city. Its cathedral is large and 
 Gothic. In the choir is the mausoleum of the late 
 Dauphin and Dauphiness, by Corton ; a piece of 
 
 I Philip of Burgundy, called the Bold, was married at 
 Ghent, in 1369, to Margaret, daughter of Louis de Mâle, 
 Count of Flanders. She had been previously married to 
 Philip de Rouvre, Duke of Burgundy, in 1354, he being seven, 
 and she only four years old. He died ere he attained 
 manhood. 
 
28o LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 true French confusion, allegory, and want of taste. 
 The country improves near Maret. 
 
 We rested at Fontainebleau, where I visited the 
 palace. The King enters it by the gate which 
 opens upon the Bourbonnois road, and leads into 
 a large court. The apartments which are built 
 round this court are of brick, and are allotted for 
 the reception of officers of state and foreign 
 ministers. The Mathurins, who perform in the 
 chapel, live at one end of it. 
 
 Two flights of steps carry you up to the 
 palace. The gallery of stags is one of the most 
 curious things to be seen there. It is long and 
 well lighted. Between every two windows are 
 placed, on pillars, stags' heads of plaster, with real 
 horns stuck in them. Every pair differs in some- 
 thing from the rest. Some are of an odd form 
 by accident, some by nature, but all are equally 
 surprising, whether by the redundancy or the scar- 
 city of the antlers, and the positions they grew in. 
 Underneath each is an inscription, denoting the date 
 of the death of the stag they belonged to. The 
 first are of Henry the Fourth's killing. It was 
 in this gallery that Christina, Queen of Sweden, 
 caused her favourite, Monaldeschi, to be murdered.^ 
 
 I An Italian by birth, who had long been Master of 
 the Horse, confident and favourite to Christina. Becom- 
 ing tired of him at length, she determined to have him 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 281 
 
 There is another gallery made by Francis I., 
 crowded with pictures, each supported by two 
 large figures in stone, and each panel filled with 
 the cipher and emblem of the founder, viz., a 
 salamander. This gallery was one of the first 
 architectural essays after the restoration of the 
 arts in France. 
 
 The chapel is very long; full of ancient gild- 
 ings and ornaments. On the ceiling is painted 
 the history of the creation of the world. The 
 pavement is of blue and white marble. The apart- 
 ments of the royal family are not very extraordi- 
 nary. In one of the Queen's rooms is a ceiling 
 and floor, which my guide assured me had been 
 there since the days of St. Louis. 
 
 I saw a great deal of fine tapestry, among the 
 rest Le Brun's battles of Alexander, copied at 
 the Gobelins. There is a good picture of Louis 
 XI n. in the King's bedchamber, the wainscot 
 panels of which are as fine as gold and allegorical 
 paintings can make them. The bed is blue, em- 
 broidered with silver. 
 
 murdered, and she put her resolve into execution with so 
 much sang froid, that she sent a confessor to him, and bade 
 him prepare for death. Neither the supplications of the 
 victim, nor the remonstrances of her own confessor, could 
 turn her from her purpose. The unfortunate wretch was 
 assassinated by one of her own servants, in the Galerie des 
 Cerfs, at Fontainebleau, in 1657. 
 
282 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Next to these is a council-room, where the 
 preliminaries of peace were signed in 1763 by the 
 Dukes of Bedford and PrasHn.^ In one of the 
 courts is a large piece of water, stocked with carp 
 of a most amazing magnitude. 
 
 Fontainebleau is situated in the midst of an 
 extensive sandy valley, encompassed on every side 
 by barren craggy hills or woods. An infinity of 
 straight paths are cut through the forest on every 
 side, for the convenience of stag-hunting. We 
 travelled through a delightful wilderness of young 
 trees and brushwood, and saw at a distance emi- 
 nences of stone, covered with heath and small 
 birch trees. They convey an idea of the old 
 tumuli raised to the honour of deceased heroes, 
 in the northern parts of Europe. 
 
 We proceeded through thick woods of tall old 
 oaks, that intertwined their branches across the 
 road, and arrived about two at the Royal Hotel 
 in Paris. I lost no time in sending the Queen of 
 Naples' letter to her ambassador, Casafacioli, to 
 deliver to her sister the Queen of France. 
 
 I John, fourth Duke of Bedford, who was appointed 
 ambassador to the Court of Versailles in 1762, and on the 
 loth of February, 1763, signed the peace between England, 
 France, Spain, and Portugal, called the Peace of Paris. 
 M. de Praslin, cousin to the Duke de Choiseul, was 
 Minister of Marine. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 283 
 
 London, July. 
 
 I stopped at Chantilly on my way from Paris. 
 It is low and ugly. The most ridiculous serpentine 
 walks are made round a square pond, without 
 shrubs or variety ; and on one side a channel 
 following it, as broad as a basin. We slept at 
 Clermont. Fitzjames is extensive, but dull. The 
 cathedral makes a good figure at Amiens. 
 
 We met at Calais the Duchess of Devonshire, 
 with Lord and Lady Spencer and Lady Anne 
 Spencer, on their way to Spa ; and I had the 
 first sight of my Spanish travels in print, which 
 were lent me by the charming Duchess in the 
 most flattering manner. She has an exquisite 
 figure and a sweet countenance, though I have 
 seen many more striking as to beauty; but she 
 seems the picture of candour and innocence. 
 
 Hamsterley, Sept, /[th, 177g. 
 
 I have spent three weeks agreeably at my 
 brother's new lodge at Mounces, on the Moors, 
 where we had fine weather and excellent sport ; 
 also some pleasant parties at Lord Percy's castle 
 at Keelder, with Lord and Lady Percy, Lord 
 Aylesford, Mr. Charlton and Mr. Hall. We had 
 the border toast, viz.: "The sheep of the border, 
 
284 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 that claes our back and crams our weam, and may 
 the shank bane of every sheep mak' a whittle 
 haft to cut the throats of our enemies wi'." 
 
 At Keelder is a large stone or tomb, called 
 Brand's Well, a famous but now unknown hero 
 of these hills. 
 
 I rode to the head of the Tyne, which is at a 
 sulphurous cold well, where people come to bathe ; 
 it is in a wide vale, with bare hills on both sides, 
 from north to south. The place where the water 
 rises is the highest point of the valley, and swells 
 up so as to be able to let the water out either 
 way ; the bathers lodge in a kind of village close 
 by. However, I am inclined to think the source 
 of the Tyne is really at the head of Deadwater, 
 a current which comes out east from the northern 
 hills, but is not called Tyne till it joins Keelder 
 at the lodge, where stood Bell's chapel, o^ which 
 nothing remains but part of a cross and some 
 large grave-stones. 
 
 I dined at Beaufront with Mr. Errington, who 
 is as cracked as ever man was. I wonder he is still 
 allowed to be at large and to see company. He 
 has the mania of fancying he has been created 
 Duke of Hexham. He has erected a pillar in his 
 grounds, with the ducal arms, supporters and 
 coronet, on Stagshaw bank — a most public station. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 285 
 
 as it is the rendezvous of an annual fair. A foreign 
 title is his idea, for a foreign crown is over his 
 door. 
 
 I joined my brother at Capheaton, who is not 
 a little glad to get home, after having been taken 
 prisoner/ We had a large party on the occasion 
 — Lord Adam Gordon and many officers, Sir M. 
 Ridley, Mr. Riddell of Swinburne, &c. Sir M. 
 Ridley's father was the miller of Blagdon mill. 
 Mr. Riddell's father lived at Fenham, and was 
 called "the auld fox of Fenham," as old Sir John 
 Swinburne was styled ** the auld carl of Cap- 
 heaton." 
 
 I send you my adieus to Mounces. 
 
 Je quitte donc demain ce montagneux asile, 
 Où le ciel, à mes vœux rendu moins difficile, 
 A permi pour un tems l'oubli de mes malheurs. 
 Ah ! puis-je le quitter sans répandre des pleurs ? 
 Loin de tous les objets où mon ame ulcérée. 
 Revoit sous maintes formes une image adorée.^ 
 Loin des ennuis mortels, qu'entraine un peu de bien. 
 J'avais pu m'etourdir en ne pensant à rien. 
 Demain donc finira ce train de vie aimable. 
 Mes soucis renaîtront — mon bonheur est au diable. 
 Que le sommeil est doux ! le réveil prompt et frais 1 
 Quand les premiers rayons éclairent nos volets, 
 De la cime obscurcie écartant les nuages, 
 
 1 He was taken prisoner on board a ship coming from 
 the Continent. 
 
 2 His daughter. 
 
286 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Le soleil nous annonce un jour libre d'orages. 
 
 Ardens et pleins d'espoir, nos chasseurs empressés, 
 
 Grimpent sur ces monts noirs, l'un sur l'autre entassés. 
 
 Où l'industrie humaine inconnue 
 
 Laisse voir la Nature originelle et nue — 
 
 Adam les reverroit avec affection, 
 
 Porter en corps l'habit, de leur création. 
 
 Le chien hardi, nerveux, sur un terrain immens©, 
 
 Passe comme un éclair, vers le gibier s'avance, 
 
 Le suit, s'arrête et reste immobile — attentif — 
 
 Le chasseur suit de près d'un pas ferme et hatif— 
 
 Un cri s'élève — on part — c'est le coq de bruyère! 
 
 Mais il tombe à l'instant sous l'arme meurtrière. 
 
 Près du faîte ondoyant de ces Alpes du Nord, 
 
 Une eau fraîche et limpide échappe sans effort; 
 
 En vain veut elle fuir — la mousse, la fougère, 
 
 Par un mur spongieux arrêtent sa carrière. 
 
 Ici sur le midi, content de nos succès, 
 
 Nous portons au diner grand faim, peu d'apprêts ; 
 
 Puis sur l'herbe étendus (sofa doux quoique agreste), 
 
 Nous digérons en paix, et dormons la sieste. 
 
 Le zephir parfumé, l'air pur, délicieux. 
 
 Assoupissent nos sens — ainsi dormoient les dieux. 
 
 Plymouth^ October 2nd, 
 
 From Newby (Lord Grantham's), a finely 
 furnished house with capital antiques, Sir Thomas 
 and I set out for the camp of cavalry at Exeter. 
 The country is hilly about there, with much moor, 
 and very bad roads, and horrible bridges. 
 
 I visited Mr. Parker at Saltram, where we 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC, 287 
 
 met Lord Grantham, Mr. and Miss Robinson, 
 the Duke and Duchess of Rutland, Colonel 
 Hervey, and Admiral Shuldham. Saltram is in 
 a noble situation, commanding a view of Cat- 
 water, Plymouth citadel and Mount Edgcumbe, 
 and has a fine hanging wood and walk of two 
 miles about the water. The house is grand. 
 
 Our first expedition firom thence was up the 
 Plym, a charming ride for miles, through vales 
 and hanging oak woods of vast extent. Salmon 
 abounds in this little river. From the Barn, four 
 miles south of Saltram, is a glorious view of all 
 the Sound, Plymouth, its forts and islands, the 
 Hamoaze, docks, shipping, Mount Edgcumbe, and 
 the camps. 
 
 Our next course took us across the Lavy at 
 low water, and we rode through Plymouth, which 
 is ill paved and ugly; thence two miles further 
 on to Dock, on as bad a road as any in England ; 
 took boat at Malton Cove, crossed the Narrows, 
 and landed near the low gate of Mount Edg- 
 cumbe. Avenues lead up to the house; a good 
 approach, low gardens, charming views of the 
 sea, shipping, fort, islands, &c. 
 
 The vegetation is surprising— such handsome 
 evergreens, cypresses, magnolias, myrtles, all 
 blooming in the open air. The house is Gothic 
 
288 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 and ill constructed, with an ugly hall of Devon- 
 shire marble ; but there is no describing the 
 grandeur of the prospects. 
 
 There is a new road cut along the side of 
 the hill towards the sea, through a wilderness 
 of pines, arbutus, and other evergreens. Close to 
 the park is Maker Church, from the steeple of 
 which are made the signals ; and near it is an 
 encampment. 
 
 The dockyard is a grand piece of work. All 
 the buildings are constructed of the materials dug 
 out to form the docks — a marble excellent for 
 lime. 
 
 We went with a large party to meet the Duke 
 of Rutland's regiment, commanded by Colonel 
 St. Léger, coming into barracks ; then went on 
 board the Ocean, Capt. Ourry, and sailed into 
 the Sound, saluting the Lord Admiral, &c. 
 
 Next day we left Saltram for Bath. 
 
 LondoUy January ^th, 1780. 
 
 I am just returned from a visit at Belvoir 
 
 Castle, in company with Sir Thomas G . It is 
 
 the worst disposed and coldest house in England, 
 and I doubt whether anything can ever be made 
 of it, on account of its exposed, bleak situation, 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 289 
 
 and the inconvenient plan it is constructed upon.* 
 The oldest parts are Rose's and Stanton's tower; 
 the latter so called, because the holder of Stanton 
 estate is obliged to come, on summons, with a 
 hundred men to defend that tower. The cellar 
 under it is curious for its roof. The chapel 
 seems ancient; the rest is modernised and very 
 ugly. Long reaches of even wall render the 
 general appearance of Belvoir, from below and 
 from the other hills, hke a Patagonian sheepfold. 
 The gallery is low, but very long, and the picture- 
 room is good. The bed-chambers are bad, all too 
 low in the ceilings. 
 
 The Duke and Duchess were very polite and 
 hospitable. It is impossible to do the honours 
 better than she does, or to be more pleasing; in- 
 deed, to look at her is of itself a gratification, 
 for she is extraordinarily beautiful.* They have 
 three little children. 
 
 The party in the castle, besides ourselves 
 
 1 This opinion has not been confirmed ; for the skill of 
 the architect, and the good taste of the present Duke, 
 have rendered Belvoir Castle one of the most comfortable, 
 as it is one of the noblest, habitations in Great Britain. 
 
 2 Few women in Europe surpassed either of the two 
 last Duchesses of Rutland in grace, beauty, and every good 
 quality that can exalt or adorn the sex. Mr. Swinburne, 
 of course, alluded to the Duchess Isabella, daughter of 
 Charles, fourth Duke of Beaufort. 
 
 VOL. I ,g 
 
290 
 
 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 and the family, consisted of Lord Chatham, the 
 Thorotons, Messrs. Pulteney,^ Taylor, and Crofts, 
 Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Mr. Chamberlayn, a 
 blind man who rides extremely hard fox-hunting, 
 and tells wonderful stories.^ The hours were very 
 irregular. 
 
 There is an extensive, but interesting, view 
 from the brow of the hill. The castle looks well 
 
 1 Afterwards Sir James, who was Secretary at War 
 and married Lady Bath. 
 
 2 One of the stories attributed to him, though it has 
 been given to another equally celebrated dealer in fiction, 
 runs thus: He was talking of his travels in Switzerland, 
 where, par parenthèse, he had never been ; so someone 
 asked him if he recollected Mont Blanc. " I shall not 
 easily forget it," replied he, " for I never had such sport 
 in all my life — Nimrod the hunter, who did things in good 
 form, never bagged such game." "Sport on Mont Blanc 1" 
 exclaimed the other. "Yes." "What! — chamois?" "No, 
 sir, cherubim — ah, you may well stare! But cherubim, I 
 repeat, as sure as they and seraphim continually do cry." 
 Being pressed to explain, he continued : " Egad, I had 
 scarcely reached the summit before Bang, my pet spaniel, 
 bolted forward, and in a few seconds ran back wagging 
 his tail, and — may I be set down as a goose if he did 
 not drop a cherubim at my feet. Poor little thing — it had 
 evidently stayed out rather late, lost its way among the 
 clouds, and had been half frozen ; so I just wet its lips 
 with a little brandy, placed it in my bosom, and carried 
 it down to Chamouny, where it quickly revived. I then 
 put it into a cage, and had the pleasure to hear it sing. 
 I intended to bring it over as a present to Wilberforce, 
 but my pious intentions were frustrated." " Why, what 
 became of it ? " " Confound it, sir, the cursed cat ate it." 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 29I 
 
 from some points of the woods. The library is 
 well stored with old books of history, antiquity, 
 and jurisprudence. 
 
 I accompanied Sir Thomas and Sir Joshua to 
 Burleigh, where we saw the pictures. It is far 
 from being a capital collection. The Raphael is 
 undoubtedly a copy, and the Carlo Dolci a very 
 ignoble character. Some heads and sketches 
 are excellent. Two monkeys in fine habits, by 
 Teniers, are very good. 
 
 I have, since my return, been to see Sir 
 Joshua's picture of the Nativity, for the new 
 college at Oxford, where it is to be executed on 
 glass. Non mi place I It is a sad, monstrous, 
 bad-coloured thing. 
 
 We were at a pleasant dinner yesterday, at 
 Mr. John Pitt's, where were Lord and Lady Edg- 
 cumbe,* with their cub of a son in a Highland 
 dress; and Mrs. Greville, a charming woman, whom 
 I sat next to, and whose agreeable way of con- 
 versing delighted me. From thence we went to 
 Lady Lucan's rout. Her own drawings and 
 paintings furnish the rooms. 
 
 1 The then Viscount Edgcumbe, who was raised to 
 the earldom of Mount Edgcumbe in 1789. The youth in 
 the Highland dress was the present Earl's father. 
 
 19 — 2 
 
202 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Ostend, February lyth. 
 
 We were tempted by Mr. Elliot, the British 
 envoy at Brussels, to come hither in his sloop 
 from Margate, after paying a visit to Lord 
 Holland at Kingsgate, so called from the landing 
 of Charles and James in 1683. We embarked at 
 seven in the evening ; the sea was extremely 
 rough, and we rolled much all night. Our people 
 appeared to know little of the coast, for when 
 we discovered, at daybreak, the Flemish downs, 
 they disputed about which was Nieuport, and 
 which Ostend. I convinced them that what we 
 saw was neither one nor t'other, but a place to 
 the north of Ostend, so we had to veer about, 
 and with such unskilful steersmen and so feeble 
 a crew, that it was a work of great difficulty and 
 danger. 
 
 By the help of some Tuscan mariners, who 
 were passengers, we accomplished it, and bore 
 away fifteen miles southward along the shore, 
 running with the strength of a high tide over 
 sandbanks and shoals, where few ships ever 
 passed with impunity. About one we came off 
 the harbour of Ostend, but, as the tide ebbed, we 
 could not get in. The rain and wind increased ; 
 the sea ran mountains high, and the ship tossed 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 293 
 
 about so cruelly, that we boldly ventured into an 
 English boat, and got safe into Ostend, though 
 with great risk and a complete wetting. The 
 ship did not get in till seven hours after. 
 
 Mr. Elliot set off for Brussels. We were com- 
 pelled to remain for want of horses. Many Dutch, 
 English, and Baltic trading ships are in the harbour. 
 Its entrance is dangerous, and many vessels are 
 lost there. The women dress here in coloured 
 camlet hoods and cloaks ; the mariners in blue 
 tunics over red waistcoats. 
 
 Rheims, February 2^rd, 
 
 We left Ostend on the i8th, hired four carriage 
 horses, very dear, on account of the tricks of the 
 postmasters, but had no trouble at all at the 
 douane. We traversed an ugly country to Ypres. 
 They give the horses brown bread in a trough. 
 The price of posting is expensive in the Empress 
 Queen's dominions. 
 
 Passed Menin, a dismantled frontier town. 
 Its remaining gate has the French arms over it. 
 There are a number of harpies in the shape of 
 commis on both frontiers, but a few sous set all 
 right and easy. 
 
 The road to Lille is almost impassable. The 
 
294 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 streets are quite infectious, from the cartloads of 
 dirt carried out for manure. 
 
 We travelled through avenues of Lombardy 
 poplars to Cambray, in frost and snow. They 
 advertise there the sale of red and black ashes 
 for manure. I bought some ruffles, fabrique du 
 pays. 
 
 From Cambray we had most abominable roads, 
 over woody hills and deep fields, to Laon ; it was 
 hard labour to get there at all. The King's 
 foundries are near La Fere. About Laon we 
 began to get into a wine country. Laon is a 
 small city of an oblong form, situated upon a com- 
 manding eminence. The steeples of the cathedral 
 are singular and intricate ; the outside is supported 
 by pillars. 
 
 We arrived at Rheims after a tedious drive; 
 for the narrow wheels of the carts and wagons 
 cut up the roads, and render them very rough. 
 The country is bare and ugly. My sister, Mrs. 
 Charlton, who resides here, was much pleased to 
 see me, and persuaded me to remain a couple of 
 days with her. 
 
 Rheims is ill built, the houses of wood, and 
 the streets narrow, with a broad kennel in the 
 middle. The great square is handsome. There is 
 a bronze statue of Louis XV., a very middling 
 
COURTS OP PAKIS, NAPLES, ETC. 295 
 
 performance, the hands and arms long and 
 withered, the attitude heavy and iU expressed. 
 It bears an inscription something to this pur- 
 
 P""^* ■"" De l'amour des Français instruisez la terre, 
 Louis fit ici le serment d'être leur père, 
 Serment qu'U ne viola jamais, &c. 
 
 Two colossal statues support the pedestal, 
 which I took for Peace or Abundance, and Forti- 
 tude; but I ought to have suspected French 
 allegory of lying deeper, for in the description of 
 the place I find that one (a woman with a hon 
 and rudder) is Moderate Government, and the 
 other (a man sitting leaning on his arm), the 
 happiness of the people under that government. 
 Œdipus himself would have been puzzled to make 
 
 out this enigma. 
 
 The abbey of St. Nicaise is a beautiful Gothic 
 church. It contains an ancient sarcophagus of 
 great size, with basso-relievos representing a hero 
 hunting a lion, attended by figures dressed as 
 Dacians; one has a Phrygian cap, and, but for 
 their beards, they might all be Phrygians; but I 
 do not recollect ever to have seen that nation 
 portrayed with beards. The sculpture is not of 
 the best time, but before Constantine. 
 
 The St. Ampoule is kept at the Benedictine 
 
2g6 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 abbey of St. Remy;^ a very ugly old Gothic 
 edifice, of the first ages of French devotion, with 
 stumpy, thick pillars clustered together, and clumsy 
 capitals, some of which have binds — an old mode 
 in the Gothic style. This architecture, though 
 shorter in its proportions, has a great affinity with 
 that of Durham Abbey. 
 
 The cathedral in the centre of Rheims is a 
 stupendous pile, and as much crowded with statues 
 as the Domo of Milan. Though a wonderful 
 piece of Gothic magnificence, I confess that York 
 Minster pleases me more. The painted glass is 
 admirable ; the fine red purple among it is pecu- 
 liarly pleasing to the eye. 
 
 To end the evening, my sister took me to 
 an assembly and supper, of very queer-looking 
 folk, but, en revanche, we had excellent cham- 
 pagne. 
 
 1 The St. Ampoule, or holy phial, which contains the 
 consecrated oil made use of to anoint the French monarchs 
 from Clovis down to Charles X., was, according to tradi- 
 tion, brought down from heaven by a dove, and delivered 
 into the hands of St. Remy, who was apprized of its 
 object by a vision. This holy phial was taken from the 
 abbey in 1793, and broken to atoms by one of the sacrile- 
 gious deputies of the National Convention ; but the clergy 
 now assert, at least they did so prior to the coronation of 
 Charles X., that the phial broken by the terrorists was not 
 the real St. Ampoule, but a fac-simile, the true relic having 
 been secreted and preserved. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 297 
 
 PariSt March ist, 1780. 
 
 From Rheims the country improves, and about 
 Fismes grows hilly and agreeable. Soissons has 
 a good appearance, though it is rather a desolate 
 city. We passed extensive forests of beech and 
 other timber of considerable size, cut into rides, 
 belonging to the Duke of Orleans, who has a seat 
 thereabouts. We slept at Villers Cotterets, and 
 next day reached Paris, through avenues pruned 
 up like broomsticks. 
 
 I have seen Jerningham, Laville, and my two 
 nephews at the English Monks, where I dined 
 with them, and supped with Madame Martinville, 
 with the Duke de Lauzun and M. de Vismes. 
 
 I went last night to see the opera of Atys — 
 the words by Quenault. That horrid screamer. 
 Mile, des Plant, was worse than ever. The dances 
 were moelleuses; but young Vestris and Madame 
 Theodore were charming. Edward Dillon has just 
 got the regiment of Guienne infantry. 
 
 (Without date,) 
 
 We left Paris on the second, on our way to 
 Fontainebleau, where the quantity of country-seats 
 on the verge of the forest has a fine effect in the 
 landscape. Madame de Montesson's villa is one 
 
298 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 of the largest, and commands a noble prospect: 
 the forest, even without leaves, is magnificent. 
 We came in sight of the Loire, near Briare, 
 about noon, and enjoyed the grand and unequalled 
 prospects which that noble river affords — such a 
 fine reach of winding water, with a noble breadth 
 of surface, such luxuriance of culture and variety 
 of country. As we advanced, all these beauties 
 increased upon us. From the brow above Pouilly 
 is the most enchanting coup d'ail imaginable. 
 
 Nevers is an ugly town. The motto over its 
 northern gate is a sample of French flattery, viz., 
 " Au grand homme modeste, au père de son peuple, 
 au maître de nos cœurs." This was meant for 
 Louis Quinze, " dans les beaux jours de son 
 règne.'" 
 
 I The name given to Louis XV., " dans les beaux 
 jours de son règne," was " le bien aimé," an honourable 
 epithet that he did not long retain, for the love of his 
 subjects was soon converted into hatred and contempt. 
 The following lines were in the mouths of all the people 
 many years before his death: — 
 
 " Le bien aimé de l'Almanac, 
 N'est pas le bien aimé de la France; 
 Il fait tout ab hoc ab hac, 
 Le bien aimé de l'Almanac. 
 Il met tout dans le même sac, 
 Et la justice et la finance ; 
 Le bien aimé de l'Almanac, 
 N'est pas le bien aimé de la France 1" 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 299 
 
 Moulins is a pretty city, with walks and foun- 
 tains. The bridge over the Allier is handsome. 
 There are many mulberry trees, and the environs 
 are gay and pleasant : the female knifesellers are 
 as tormenting as Italian beggars. 
 
 We breakfasted at La Palisse, an ugly seat 
 of the Chabannes family, who reside there half 
 the year. The Loire begins to be navigable 
 about Roanne. Crowds of long slender boats, 
 that ply on it, are loaded with all sorts of mer- 
 chandise from Lyons, and many with a bad kind 
 of coal. The President de St. Vincent has a 
 large country-house there, with terraces one above 
 the other, and a fine stream below. 
 
 At Château Morand, a seat of the Mirepoix, 
 one enjoys a most extensive prospect to the 
 north, where the view is only arrested by the 
 dimness of the horizon. From thence are steep 
 mountains with snow on their summits, and a 
 most wild landscape. We descended the long 
 Montagne de Tarare, through eminences of very 
 agreeable aspect, and fine woods of oak and silver 
 firs, with country-seats and villages below. The 
 vale of Bresle is very rich and handsome, but the 
 roads are most abominable. 
 
 We met the Baron de Polnitz at Lyons, and 
 went to see Les Plaideurs, by Racine, wretchedly 
 
300 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 acted. The afterpiece was MidaSy with Gretry's 
 music, but so ill sung, that Midas himself, so far 
 from being wrong in his judgment, would have 
 deserved his ass's ears if he had not condemned 
 Apollo. It was a full house, with innumerable 
 ugly women. 
 
 We agreed with a vetiurino to take us to 
 Turin in seven days, for twenty-four louis, and 
 found it a very comfortable way of travelling, 
 having laid in a good stock of hermitage and 
 tongues. The rivers are delightful on entering 
 Savoy, and we had good roads, which were more 
 enjoyable for being a novelty. 
 
 At Turin we dined at Lord Mountstuart's 
 (the British envoy), with Lord Herbert, &c. ; 
 next day, at the Count de Monstresol's. We 
 then continued our route through Alessandria to 
 Fiorenzolo. 
 
 I remarked the method of dressing vines in 
 this part of Lombardy. Among the rows of corn 
 is a row of fallow, in the midst of which grows 
 the vine, supported by small poles stuck in lattice 
 wire. On each side, the twigs are carried out 
 to larger poles, stuck into the ground so as to 
 slope out very much at top ; and the arrange- 
 ment altogether forms a funnel. 
 
 On the 22nd we arrived at Parma. Went to 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 30! 
 
 the Boschettina. I admired the " Madonna della 
 Scobella" by Correggio, particularly the Infant 
 Jesus — his eyes and graceful attitude ; it is 
 Divinity itself. What I found fault with — if 
 such an expression can be allowable — was the 
 heaviness of the clouds. 
 
 We visited the Benedictine refectory, to see 
 Correggio's " Last Supper." I learnt here the 
 manner of the death of the late Infante Don 
 Philip, who fell from his horse, and was devoured 
 by his own hounds.^ It was given out that 
 he was taken ill at Alessandria, where he had 
 been to see a favourite lady whom he wished to 
 marry. 
 
 His son, now reigning, is a fat fool, dotes 
 upon the Dominican friars, gets up at daybreak 
 to go to matins, and plagues the poor priests 
 out of their lives if they do not attend to all 
 their duties. His wife, the Archduchess Maria 
 Ameha, is a very bad paymistress. She buys a 
 horse one day upon tick, to sell it the next for 
 half-price, to raise the wind. The Grand Master 
 of Loretto is just returned hither from Parma, 
 where he has been in vain soliciting payment for 
 his bill of expenses (400 sequins) whilst she was 
 
 I The Infante Don Philip of Parma is said by his 
 biographers to have died of small-pox in 1759. 
 
302 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 at his house. The hereditary prince has a separate 
 household. 
 
 There are two pieces by the divine Correggio 
 in a side chapel of the cathedral, which is as 
 dark as pitch. 
 
 The palace is pitiful. The plan M. du Tillot 
 had adopted for building it was sumptuous, but 
 as he opposed the Duke's marriage with the Arch- 
 duchess, she has taken care it should be laid aside. 
 The old palace was never finished ; in it is the 
 great Farnesian theatre, last made use of when 
 Don Carlos was here. It is in the style of a 
 Roman theatre. The orchestra is on the right 
 hand of the audience, in a recess of the pit. 
 There are no stage-boxes, nor any partitions. 
 The pit can be filled with water, if required, for 
 naumachias. It holds 14,000 persons, and would 
 require 11,000 francs' worth of wax to illuminate 
 it. It is now useless. 
 
 There is a bad French bust there of the Infante 
 Don Philip, and one of the Empress his daughter 
 (Elizabeth, first wife of Joseph II.) She was a 
 most accomplished creature : but to what end 
 were all her talents and charms? In a humble 
 sphere I could furnish a parallel. 
 
 I saw many good Parmeggianos, one Schidone, 
 and the beauty of beauties, the Correggio, as fresh 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 303 
 
 as the day it was painted. I could have gazed 
 on it for ever. Such brilliancy, such expression, 
 such truth of colour I The smile of the Virgin is 
 so noble, natural and complacent, no copy would 
 ever come up to it, and not Raphael himself, 
 divine as he is, can do more for my feelings than 
 Correggio. It is on fig-tree wood. The picture 
 was painted in 1523, for Donna Cola, wife of Orazio 
 Mergongi, for four hundred livres, equal to one 
 hundred sequins now. She was so pleased with 
 it, that she gave him, over and above his bargain, 
 a sow, two loads of fagots, and some sacks of 
 corn. This account is taken from a MS. of the 
 Custodes Batistero, and contradicts the story of 
 Correggio having been ill paid, and dying from the 
 fatigue of carrying the picture. 
 
 We journeyed to Modena, and saw the hospital 
 built by the late Duke, called Pantheon Atesti- 
 num. His statue is in coarse white marble, look- 
 ing like a fool as much as the original could do. 
 The Duomo is gloomy. 
 
 We next passed through a country producing 
 little corn, but studded with elms, pollarded to 
 death. At San Arcangelo is a brick and stucco 
 arch, erected to Pope Ganganelli, who was born 
 here. The cultivation is very poor throughout this 
 most charming country. 
 
304 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Near Rimini I came in sight of the Adriatic 
 Sea. The shore is planted with mulberries and 
 vines to the water's edge. The tints in the waves 
 were very singular and strangely marked ; the first 
 line dark bluish green, going off into a bright 
 yellow green, terminating near the land in a 
 muddy yellow. 
 
 Rimini is large and ugly. The famous bridge 
 of Augustus, though of marble, resembles Tibur- 
 tine stone. Its architecture is simple. 
 
 At the other end of the town is a triumphal 
 arch, erected in honour of Augustus, repaired with 
 brick. The unfinished Franciscan church was 
 erected in 1450, by Sigismund Pandolfo Malatesta, 
 Lord of Rimini. It is crowded in every part 
 with his cipher and arms. The inside is heaped 
 with statues and embroidered with foliages, of 
 the time of the first revival of arts in Florence. 
 
 We passed through Cuma, a large city, 
 prettily situated, the native place of Pius VI., 
 and slept at Pesaro, near which is Gradasa, a 
 seat of the Marchesa Mosca, formerly the villa 
 of the Dukes of Urbino. It is delightfully 
 situated, with a fine land and water prospect, and 
 has a pleasant walk along the river down to the 
 port on the sea. Not a shell is to be found on 
 the sea-shore. Tamarisks grow in the hedges. 
 
CHARLES-MAURICE DE TALLEYRAND- 
 PÈRIGORD, PRINCE DE BÈNÉVENT 
 
 After a painting hy Ary ScJicffcr, in the possession 
 of Mgr. le duc iVAuniale^ Paris 
 
-g^fcyi.^ ;*:>!' ^y <? .^-,^^^>j2.^ 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 305 
 
 and lambs without end are selling for Easter 
 Sunday. 
 
 Pesaro was the winter residence of the sove- 
 reigns of Urbino, and at that time the most 
 agreeable place in Italy, and the school of polite- 
 ness and gallantry. It is a large, well-built city, 
 with many palaces, monuments of its ancient 
 grandeur. It is inhabited by a poor nobility, and 
 almost ruined by the change of masters ; which 
 is the case of almost all the lesser towns on 
 the coast. The air of Pesaro is not good in 
 summer. 
 
 There are very pretty women about Fano, a 
 pleasant town on the beach. Sinigaglia is a more 
 stirring place, and has a canal and quay, with a 
 whole quarter newly built, amongst which the un- 
 finished college of the Jesuits cuts a great figure. 
 The view from thence of Ancona is beautiful; 
 its promontory and buildings advancing into the 
 sea are noble objects ; the richest cultivation on 
 all its hills renders its environs delicious. The 
 Lazaretto is a grand pentagon in an island. The 
 ascent and descent to and from the town are very 
 steep, but the roads are good. Trajan's arch is 
 on the pier ; several ships are there, French and 
 English. 
 
 VOL. I 20 
 
306 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 We journeyed on to Loretto, through a most 
 beautiful country. It stands on the summit of 
 a lofty eminence that commands views over a rich 
 and hilly country on every side, and the sea at 
 four or five miles' distance. Its population seems 
 numerous; the buildings are paltry, except the 
 church and great hospital. The outside of the 
 church is not of a pleasing architecture, and 
 the inside is greasy and smoky. I never was 
 in a dirtier place, nor one so crowded with the 
 most filthy, nauseous beings in the human form. 
 Villains of all denominations and countries come 
 as pilgrims, through devotion, idleness, or a desire 
 of atoning for their crimes. 
 
 We were ordered to leave our canes at the 
 door, and then the soldiers made way for us into 
 the Casa Santa, which is in a blaze of light, from 
 the quantity of lamps reflected by heaps of dia- 
 monds, and plates of gold and silver, that cover 
 all the walls. The basso-relievos are very fine ; 
 the ex votos of numberless crowned heads hang 
 in clusters about the inside, and seem neglected, 
 notwithstanding their immense value. The trea- 
 sury is a large room, with cupboards, containing 
 incredible riches in diamonds, precious stones, 
 pearls, &c. What a pillage may, perhaps, be 
 made here at a future day, by some now unborn 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 307 
 
 Vandal I — enough to buy kingdoms.* There is a 
 fine Madonna by Raphael. 
 
 We set off at noon, through a charming 
 country enclosed with olive plantations, vines, 
 and corn, and pulse of all the sorts, except rice. 
 We passed through the gates of Maurata, a large 
 city on the brow of a hill, a picturesque object, 
 with its domes. We got back into the mountains, 
 where the valleys are delicious, but the roads 
 narrow and dangerous ; which we experienced by 
 the postilion not locking the wheel, and being 
 obliged to drive full gallop above a mile down 
 the winding roads, with rocks on one hand, and 
 a precipice on the other. We slept at Tolentino. 
 
 Next day we ascended to a large circular 
 meadow on the highest point of the road, called 
 Col Fiorito. The water is marshy, and here rise 
 the brooks that run different ways — one into the 
 Adriatic, the other into the Tiber. These places 
 must have been craters of volcanoes, extinct for 
 many ages, and now are subterranean lakes, or 
 reservoirs, covered with a thin coat of soil. Here 
 very lately was committed a great robbery. Forty 
 
 I The Vandals wer& bora, for the Republican armies 
 quickly disposed of these treasures, and what little escaped 
 the first pillage was afterwards swallowed up by the Im- 
 perial legions. 
 
 20 — 2 
 
3o8 
 
 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 ruffians plundered a number of merchants going 
 to the fair of Sinigaglia. 
 
 We came to Palo, a village famous for its 
 paper-mills and grotto, a cavern full of crystal- 
 lizations, &c. Through a long and superlatively 
 beautiful descent, varied by grand views from 
 Foligno, we arrived at Rome. Fireworks were 
 going on at the Castle St. Angelo. We stayed 
 only to dine with the Senator, and left the 
 "eternal city" for Naples. 
 
 Naples, May 2^th. 
 
 We went a day or two ago to Pompeii, and 
 dined in the country-house. The city was built 
 on various lavas. The ruins of the temple are of 
 the same order of architecture as those of Paestum. 
 The paintings of the rooms delighted me as much 
 as ever. The shops, with their stone parapets, 
 are exactly like the modern ones of Naples and 
 Rome. 
 
 I have made several excursions with Minasi. 
 We sailed on the gulf, and ran into Meta, at the 
 end of the plain of Sorrento ; dined at a fishing- 
 house; then walked up the rich plain, the high 
 cultivation of which exceeds that of the Terra di 
 Lavoro. Another day we went to Vietri, where 
 we lodged at the Dominican convent. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 309 
 
 In the mountains above Tropea are large 
 tracts of chesnuts, and the small-leaved ash, the 
 omas, which produces the manna. They do not 
 plant it, but cut down the strong stems, and 
 spring it from the old stocks. In July they make 
 a small gash leaning upwards, the second day 
 another, and form cups with maple leaves, into 
 which the gum exudes. 
 
 The tyranny exercised on the poor peasants in 
 this article is very great. The manna is farmed 
 out, and a certain number of countrymen are 
 appointed to gather it, during which time they 
 are not at liberty to absent themselves, or under- 
 take the most necessary labours for themselves. 
 They scarcely derive any benefit from their work, 
 as they are paid five carlini for a rotolo of manna 
 (thirty-three ounces), which the farmers sell in 
 Naples for nine carlini a pound (twelve ounces). 
 If they burn or destroy the trees, though \nld, 
 their punishment is very severe ; and if the 
 smallest quantity is found in their houses, they 
 are sent to prison. Eight hundred poor men, 
 thus oppressed, contributed two carlini apiece 
 for a memorial to the King, but no notice was 
 taken of it. 
 
 Vesuvius is now in flames and smoke, and 
 seems to threaten worse. 
 
3IO 
 
 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 The Queen, on taking leave of us, made a 
 present to Mrs. S. of a pair of diamond brace- 
 lets, with her picture and ciphers, and two fine 
 medals. 
 
 Rome, June 1st. 
 
 On leaving Naples we slept the first night at 
 Terracina, and the second at Velletri, at the 
 Palazzo Lancelotto. We travelled twenty miles 
 on the Appian Way, which has been lately re- 
 paired ; it was a glorious sight. The canal is 
 fine. They have lowered the road, although 
 Trajan had raised it, out of economy ; but I fear 
 it will afford the water greater ease in overflowing 
 it again. 
 
 There is to be a town built at Mesa. The 
 Forum Appii is a large building of white marble. 
 We dined at Sermonata, and came on next day 
 through New Albano, round by Gensano and the 
 vale of La Riccia, to Rome. 
 
 I have had an audience of Pius VI. in the 
 Vatican. He received me very graciously, and 
 conversed familiarly on political subjects for 
 about half-an-hour, during which time he sat at 
 a table, and I stood by it. We talked Italian. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 311 
 
 Florence, June 2yth, 
 
 We left Rome on the 20th, with vetttmni ; 
 hired horses and mules, and put the heavy bag- 
 gage in a cart. The appearance of the Campagna 
 di Roma is very desolate; scarcely a house to be 
 seen; a few ruined towers, scattered trees, and a 
 feeble cultivation of arable land, left to itself to 
 weed and ripen. If it wore well peopled, the air 
 would lose its pestilential quality, and this would 
 be a pretty country, though I imagine it would 
 always suffer from want of water. 
 
 We dined at I'Osteria di Bacano, a single 
 house in the middle of a large volcanic crater, 
 quite round and free from water, except what is 
 wasted from a fine fountain, or trough, from the 
 houses at Ronciglione, a large town on a high 
 hill, in a pretty vineyard country. A strong sul- 
 phurous smell exhaled from a small lake, or pond, 
 with fine poplar groves on its edge. 
 
 We went down the chain that forms the crust 
 or wall of the crater of the Lake of Vico, into 
 one of the most delightful scenes in the world, 
 skirting the edge of a fine, large, irregular lake, 
 the waters of which are smooth as glass. Moderate 
 eminences, with many pleasing variations of 
 height, covered with woods of aged oaks, beech 
 
312 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 and chesnut, encircle the lake. Between them 
 and the water is a stretch of wide meadow land, 
 full of cows and horses grazing. A large cone 
 rises up on one side of the water, and throws it 
 back in a picturesque manner, contributing to 
 a beautiful irregularity of shape on the lake. The 
 woods are noble; they grow thinner as they 
 descend, forming clumps and groves. Near the 
 water's edge are scattered, on the green sward, 
 some fine single trees. 
 
 We climbed up the opposite mountain, which 
 is woody, steep, and long. It is called La Mon- 
 tagna di Viterbo, and in ancient days was Mons 
 Ciminus. Its passage was the cause of a triumph 
 to Fabius. 
 
 Many of the trees on the hills, viz., oak, 
 beech, chesnut, flowering ash, and large syca- 
 mores, are decaying from age. 
 
 We passed through Viterbo, where nothing is 
 remarkable. It stands on a slope at the foot of 
 the high mountain. There is a tiresome ascent, 
 through noble woods and rocks of tufa. After 
 crossing a large plain, we came to the hill of 
 Montefiascone, a large village on the top of the 
 ridge that forms the bank or coast of the vale of 
 the lake of Bolsena, entirely of tufa and lava ; 
 and under the town are vaults cut in them. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 313 
 
 where the delicious white wine of the same name 
 is kept as fresh as in snow. 
 
 We slept at a solitary house at the foot of 
 the hill of Montefiascone, and had a noble view 
 of the hill of Bolsena, with a fine tract of country 
 behind it. The two islands in the middle of the 
 water have a fine effect ; so also have the rich 
 vineyards and olive-yards between the town and 
 the lake. 
 
 I never had a pleasanter morning's journey 
 than that of our next day, amidst noble hanging 
 woods, down to the lake of Bolsena, through 
 scenes as varied as they are enchanting. The 
 town stands at the head of the lake, picturesquely 
 embosomed in the rich woods that clothe the 
 side of the hill behind. 
 
 The fine expanse of water, with two hand- 
 some islands and beautiful eminences, with woods 
 and towns upon them on every side, and the 
 smiling appearance of the lowlands we passed 
 through, are the faint outhnes of this handsome 
 picture. 
 
 You will laugh at my enthusiastic description 
 of a country which all the world has (and your- 
 self, perhaps) passed through. But you must 
 recollect what Bacon says, that " the eye of a 
 painter sees more than other eyes." All is in- 
 
314 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 teresting to one who delights in taking views 
 from Nature; a cloud, a wave, is an object of 
 remark, which another takes no notice of. 
 
 A party of gentlemen were preparing their 
 repast on the grass, in consequence of a fishing 
 expedition, and seemed to be carousing in high 
 glee. We turned off firom the lake to the ruined 
 town of St. Lorenzo, which stands on a small 
 eminence in a most delightful spot, near a fine 
 stream. Unfortunately, such situations in this 
 climate are, in summer, subject to the influence 
 of a most noxious air; which induced Clement 
 XIV. to remove the inhabitants to a bare hill 
 above, where a new village was built under his 
 auspices, in a regular form, with a circular place 
 in the centre, and a church. 
 
 From all I hear, that Pope also appears to 
 have taken great pains for the benefit of his 
 territories, and that so public-spirited a sovereign 
 should have had enemies is surprising; yet there 
 is no doubt of his having been poisoned. Abbé 
 Grant told me that whilst Ganganelli was saying 
 mass on Holy Thursday before his death, his 
 maggiordomo prepared as usual his chocolate in 
 a small antechamber. Being curious to know how 
 far the service was advanced, he stepped to a 
 door to peep into the church, and almost imme- 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 315 
 
 diately turned back to the buffet; but as he re- 
 turned, he perceived a man passing like lightning 
 from the opposite door. The Pope then came in, 
 and directly took up the cup of chocolate, of 
 which he drank half, but refused the remainder, 
 as he said it had a bad taste. He was not long 
 without being attacked by a mortal disorder, 
 which was of such a virulent and putrid character 
 that his body fell to pieces, nor could his head 
 be kept on his shoulders after death. A nun at 
 Viterbo, who passed for a prophetess, had an- 
 nounced his death, and letters were chalked on 
 the walls of the Vatican, implying that he would 
 not outlive the September of that year. 
 
 Pius VI. had a fright like this about two 
 years ago. He was then so burnt up that he 
 could not bear the pressure of his shirt, which 
 was kept from his body by hoops, and his flesh 
 almost burnt the hands of his attendants when 
 they touched it. 
 
 We passed through woods of ancient oak to 
 Aquapendente, an ugly, ruinous place, on the 
 brink of a precipice, without any appearance of 
 water, but with very beautiful landscapes ; and 
 descended a long, woody hill, to a river and a 
 good bridge. This vale is full of charming flowers. 
 We dined at a single house at the foot of the 
 
3l6 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 mountain, then ascended the hill of Radicofani, 
 along a steep but good road. We got to the top 
 by the help of oxen. 
 
 The master of the posthouse would not receive 
 us, so we proceeded, by starlight, six miles down 
 the northern side, to Ricorsi, a lonely barn — so 
 bad a one that we preferred passing the night in 
 our carriage. We had a little before crossed a 
 rivulet of white sulphurous water, where the in- 
 crustations of white travertino are made, of which 
 models are taken off in different moulds. The 
 water falls from on high upon a pavement, where 
 the mould is set sloping to face it, and receives 
 the sprinklings, which in a very short time form 
 a thick crust on the mould, and give a very fine 
 hard basso-relievo of the subject. 
 
 Radicofani is a fortress and village on the 
 summit of an extinct volcano. AU near it seems 
 to be confusion. On the northern side is a large 
 tract covered with detached rocks of lava. It is 
 seen a vast way off on both sides, and forms the 
 boundary of Tuscany and the Papal territories. 
 The country is fine on the Roman side, but the 
 appearance of the natives improves as one enters 
 Tuscany. There are more houses scattered about, 
 more signs of industry and attempts to improve 
 the cultivation ; the people also are better dressed. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 317 
 
 Gentlemen's seats appear on the eminences, and 
 many houses have a general look of comfort and 
 industry. 
 
 We dined at Buonconvento, and had excellent 
 wine of Montepulciano, sweet and white, like 
 good mild cider. We then proceeded to Sienna, 
 which stands on the crown of a lofty eminence, 
 and is very conspicuous from all sides. 
 
 The Augustines is a handsome modernised 
 church, with large paintings. The most conspi- 
 cuous are, one of "St. Anthony," by Spagnoletti, 
 and a fine " Christ bearing the Cross," by Salvator. 
 The church has pleasant cloisters and a good 
 library. The grates of one of the chapels are of 
 bronze work, representing knotted ropes. 
 
 The Domo is Gothic, of white and black 
 marble ; the outside front is loaded with statues, 
 busts and paintings; the inside is ugly, except 
 the pulpit, which is of white marble, worked 
 elegantly, in the style of the cinque centi. The 
 stairs are the best thing there ; some of the orna- 
 ments are charming. 
 
 The Chizi chapel is brilliant from the lapis- 
 lazuli of the altar, and from the verde antico 
 columns and rosso antico arms. 
 
 Next day we reached Florence, passing Pog- 
 gibonzi, and through a beautifully hilly country, 
 
3l8 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 superior to any other in Italy. We lodge at 
 Veneni's, where we found many of our acquaint- 
 ance, and also a general invitation from Sir Horace 
 waiting for us. 
 
 Verona, June 2isU 
 
 We left Florence on the 14th, and slept at 
 Pietra Mala, a horrid inn. Dined next day at 
 Pianora, and thence to Bologna. Saw some fine 
 pictures : Domenichino's " Mart3n:dom of St. 
 Agnes " — ^the agony and expression very fine ; 
 ** St. Cecilia,*' by Raphael ; and, at the Capuchins 
 the famous " Crucifixion," by Guido. 
 
 I walked three miles up to the Madonna 
 della Guardia, under a brick portico, built by sub- 
 scription and ex votos. There is nothing remark- 
 able about the church but the view, and the 
 image, called a work of St. Luke, now in great 
 vogue during all the earthquakes. 
 
 We arrived on the 19th at Modena, and saw 
 the palace, where there are grand apartments 
 allotted to stranger Princes. The arsenal is full 
 of arms, and in good order. The great albergo is 
 a noble building and establishment, where old and 
 young, when left unprovided for, are received, 
 nourished, and, if capable, employed. 
 
COURTS OP PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 31g 
 
 We went to see a collection of curious medals 
 belonging to a Jew, some of which are very fine. 
 He assured us that the King of Naples had 
 offered four hundred ounces for leave to select 
 forty pieces. This we would scarcely give credit 
 to, knowing how little His Neapolitan Majesty 
 cares about anything beyond macaroni. The Jew 
 supported his fibs by laying his hand upon his 
 heart, and saying: "Je vous jure sur mon âme, 
 que je vous dis la vérité." " I suppose he is a 
 Sadducee," said Mrs. S. to me. 
 
 Our road firom Modena lay through a flat 
 country, the most richly cultivated, perhaps, in the 
 world. La Mirandola is poorly built, and has 
 a desolate appearance ; the grass grows in its 
 streets. The prebendaries wear a crimson riband 
 round their necks. The castle is modern, though 
 ruinous. 
 
 We took the Verona road, through a wet, 
 enclosed, but luxuriant country, with farmhouses 
 and cottages in plenty, but no villages. With 
 the least rain there would have been no chance 
 of getting on. As it was, we found it far from 
 pleasant. 
 
 On reaching Rêvera, a village on the Po, we 
 crossed in a strong, roomy ferry-boat, and slept 
 at Ostiglia, on the north side of the river. The 
 
320 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 next day we were obliged to have three pair of 
 oxen to travel across the low country, which is 
 intersected in so many directions, that the num- 
 bers of steep, narrow brick enclosures can scarcely 
 be counted. Horses could hardly have tugged up 
 the carriages. 
 
 We entered the Venetian territory at Ponte 
 Molino, a ruinous-looking castle, which we passed 
 through. The doganista (custom-house officers) 
 let us proceed very quietly. There are rice- 
 grounds on the flat. We dined at Isola. Plenty 
 of mulberry trees and Indian corn. 
 
 Verona seemed of an immense size as we 
 approached it. We passed through a vast length 
 of town. 
 
 Next day I walked out of the east gate, and 
 back down to the riverside, where I took a sketch 
 of the bridge — one of the finest possible, not 
 unlike that over the Saone at Lyons, but hand- 
 somer. The castle and walls are fine objects 
 over the bridge. There is also an exquisite 
 prospect fi-om the castle San Felice. 
 
 We went to San Georgio, a convent of nuns, 
 built by San Michèle, a Veronese architect, about 
 the time of Palladio, whose style his resembles, 
 and he has imitated it in many houses of the 
 town. The church has a lightsome, elegant 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 32I 
 
 cupola, but, owing to the shake of an earthquake, 
 it has been necessary to support it by cross-bars, 
 which have a bad effect. 
 
 An antique tomb, serving for a gate near 
 the old castle, has the name of Vitruvius on it;* 
 and as that great architect was of this city, it is 
 supposed to be his, but I think it a modern 
 inscription. In the church of the Franciscans 
 the chapel of the family Pellegrini, by Michèle, 
 in gray marble, is reckoned by Dutens the ne plus 
 ultra of architecture. I think it not to be com- 
 pared to the Corsini chapel in St. John Lateran, 
 at Rome. Near this chapel is a gate of a Gothic 
 order, not opened, and called porta stoppa. 
 
 The museum of the Philharmonic, adjoining 
 the theatre, is handsome enough. There is an 
 academy for poetry and music, and an association 
 of nobility for exercise, riding, &c. The outer 
 part of the amphitheatre is all destroyed except 
 four arches, but the circus is entire, and has 
 lately been repaired at great expense. This 
 society has great revenues in houses, &c., and 
 a body of gentlemen to direct its funds. The 
 building contains room for thirty-six thousand 
 people sitting, and six thousand in the arena. 
 
 I M. Vitruvius Pollio, according to the best authorities, 
 was born at Formiae. He lived in the time of Augustus. 
 VOL. I 21 
 
322 
 
 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 They are now busy taking away the earth, and 
 reducing it to the ancient level. 
 
 Clagenfurthf July ist. 
 
 We came from Verona along the Adige, 
 through a level plain of vines, trees, corn, &c. 
 Dined at Dolci, and slept at Borghetto, the first 
 place in the Trentin. Our trunks were superficially 
 examined and sealed. We slept next night at 
 Alia. La Chiusa is a very narrow pass between 
 rocks, on the river, which is of a bad muddy 
 colour, but rapid and full. Roveredo is an ex- 
 tensive town, with pretty environs. Trent is a 
 large ugly city. The palace is half Gothic. We 
 entered the Tyrol near a torrent, two miles from 
 thence. We had payments of barriers without end. 
 The women wear gray or green caps, like 
 the crown of a hat without brim, or green round 
 hats, which the men have also, or black fly caps 
 fastened behind with a bodkin through the hair. 
 The men wear straps over each shoulder, of green 
 list, like porters' straps, to keep up their lower 
 garments. 
 
 We dined at Salerno, where we saw some 
 pleasant rivers and pine woods, resembling those 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 323 
 
 of Tarare, the vale growing narrower and more 
 romantic as we advanced. 
 
 Botzen is a large town, at the junction of 
 two valleys ; a pretty country surrounds it. We 
 crossed the Adige, which is here a rapid, broad 
 torrent; the mountains then closed in upon us, 
 and there was scarcely room for a road along the 
 water's edge. Noble hanging woods and perpen- 
 dicular rocks, with patches of cultivation, afford 
 beautiful prospects hereabouts. 
 
 We dined at a single house a mile beyond 
 the post of Deutschen, an old mansion belonging 
 to a priest — a most romantic spot; and from 
 thence we had a charming drive to Kollmann, a 
 small village on the hill, commanding such views 
 as can but seldom be matched. A fine castle on 
 the point of a rock, on the other side of the 
 river, is a grand object; and the rivers, fields, 
 hills, and woody mountains are sublime. Behind 
 the town falls a beautiful cascade of sheets of 
 water, from the summit of a mountain. This 
 place reminded me of Bagnères. 
 
 We travelled next day through a most beauti- 
 ful country to Brixen, a large town on the river, 
 in a broad plain, with several valleys ending in 
 it. Here the Inspruck road falls into that of 
 Styria. It was a long evening's drive to Brun- 
 
 21 — a 
 
324 
 
 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 ecken, through a charming country. Here we 
 found a good inn. The town is of moderate size, 
 with a castle prettily placed on the hill, and has 
 some great works for iron manufacture. 
 
 We ascended the course of the Adige, through 
 a delicious valley closed in by laurels and spruce 
 firs. The forests are the most extensive that I 
 ever passed through, with numberless trees, but 
 no large-sized timber. Between Niederdorf and 
 Sillian, we came to the highest lands in the 
 valley. The Adige, which is here only a torrent, 
 descends by a narrow gully of dark woods from 
 the bare white rocks, which rise loftily behind the 
 woody mountains, which are still full of snow. 
 These are the boundaries of Italy, and are called 
 Staur. 
 
 We slept at a single house called Mitterwald, 
 in a dark glen, close by the river Drau. We 
 dined at Ober Drauburg, a village belonging to 
 Prince Portia, and thence came to Greiffenberg, 
 a clean village, with good accommodations. We 
 entered Carinthia, near Lienz, and after a few 
 miles of narrow passes came to a very beautiful 
 plain, and dined at Spital, a large seat of Prince 
 Portia, who resides there constantly, being a 
 sort of sovereign Prince under the Emperor. 
 
 The saint of the Tyrol is St. Florianus, repre- 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 325 
 
 sented by a soldier, with a flag, pouring a bucket 
 of water on a house on fire. 
 
 We now passed a charming tract of country. 
 The river flows through the midst of a large plain 
 of flax and meadow land, with many villages ; and 
 a ridge of hills running between it and the high 
 mountains is covered with magnificent woods, I 
 saw one spruce fir of thirteen feet in circumfer- 
 ence. 
 
 At St. Paternion, the next village we came to, 
 we found a variation in the dress of the people, 
 the women wearing black hats with bugle bands, 
 and a brass or studded leathern girdle, ft-om 
 which hangs a knife. Goitres are almost uni- 
 versal here, and there are many idiots. 
 
 We passed the confines of the Venetian States, 
 and dined at Villach, an ill-built town on the 
 Drau, in a beautiful country. Velden, where we 
 slept, is a neat house, on the borders of a fine 
 lake, which seems to be many miles long. Here 
 stands a ruinous pile of buildings, formerly the 
 residence of some great chief. It belongs to 
 Count de Dietrichstein, and serves as a post- 
 house. The women here wear men's shirts, with 
 a red girdle and large flat hats. 
 
 We travelled on the side of the lake called 
 the Wertsee, the borders of which are finely 
 
326 
 
 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 wooded and have many picturesque buildings, 
 especially a church on a rocky peninsula. A 
 canal through a vast plain leads to Clagenfurth, 
 the capital of Carinthia, vi^hich is a well-built city, 
 with large, though low, houses. The streets are 
 straight and wide, but none of them are paved, 
 except the main one. In the great square, Her- 
 cules, like a buffoon, is grinning and wielding 
 his club at a colossal dragon (the arms of the 
 city). 
 
 The fortifications are in the modern style. 
 
 Vienna, July loth. 
 
 From Clagenfurth we journeyed to St. Veit, 
 the poor suburb of a small town in a flat ; after 
 which, we passed through rich vales, with woods 
 on each side, and iron mills, in a romantic 
 country ; and then, entering Styria, reached 
 Neumarkt, a small walled town. Thence to 
 Unzmarkt were the finest larches in the world, 
 in great quantities, and spruce firs of large size and 
 beauty. I will not reckon among the pleasant 
 objects of the landscape a great many gibbets, 
 with men hanging on them, and heads exposed 
 on wheels, ignobly placed near the road, as a 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 327 
 
 terror to the robbers, which, till lately, infested 
 these parts. Marie Thérèse's emissaries have been 
 indefatigable in putting them down. 
 
 We saw an innumerable number of Martagon 
 lilies among the corn and flax-fields. The Mans, 
 a considerable river, flows through the valley, past 
 Unzmarkt to Judenburg, a large ugly town, in a 
 plain surrounded by woody hills. The drive from 
 the pretty hamlet of St. Laurent, along the banks 
 of the Muhr, was beautiful. It wound beneath 
 the hanging fir woods to Leoben. 
 
 The roads in Styria are much cut up, and 
 very unpleasant. Leoben is pretty and clean, 
 though built in a barbarous taste. The walls of 
 the houses are decorated with armorial bearings, 
 figures of saints, stories out of sacred history, 
 and various ornaments of architecture. The town 
 stands on the river Muhr, which is the prettiest 
 stream I have seen since I entered the Tyrol. 
 
 We dined at Marzhofen, a populous hamlet, 
 and slept at Krieglach. Next day we passed 
 Marzzuschlag, famous for its iron forges, in a fine 
 valley overhung with mountains and pines. We 
 ascended the hills which divide Styria firom 
 Austria. It is a noble road, with a grand view 
 towards the plain of Vienna. Schottwien is a 
 most romantic little town, amidst a defile of rocks 
 
328 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 and woods, beautifully thrown upon each other, 
 with fine streams running down on each side, 
 and a hundred charming points of view. The 
 castle of the seigneur (the Count de Reicheg) is 
 on the summit of one of the highest hills. 
 
 We had a fine entrance into the plains of 
 Neustadt, a large walled town, which stands in 
 the plain near a river. A dusty, dreary level took 
 us to Neunkirchen, between which and Neustadt 
 is a long village of several houses and a church, 
 lately built on each side of the road, with paled-off 
 gardens, enclosures, vineyards, and walks. This 
 new settlement is called Teresia. The women 
 here wear handkerchiefs about their necks and 
 faces — a frightful costume. 
 
 We had a good view of Vienna from the hill ; 
 it resembles the situation and country about Paris. 
 The architecture also resembles that of the French 
 capital in the best sort of houses. We passed 
 along a dusty suburb round the town, which is 
 as ugly as anything can be, to the custom-house, 
 where we underwent a severe examination, and 
 paid thirteen florins, duties for mere trifles ; we 
 then established ourselves in tolerable lodgings at 
 the Glanderfirchen Haus in the Ober Bresmer 
 Strass. I called, soon after my arrival, upon 
 Sir Robert Keith, who came directly to see Mrs. S. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 329 
 
 He had just received accounts from England of 
 the dreadful riots in London. 
 
 Vienna, July 24th, 
 
 The evening after our arrival, we went to the 
 German play with Sir Robert Keith and the 
 Countess de Thun. The theatre is of medium size 
 and well lighted up, but the boxes are extremely 
 small ; yet the price of one of them is ^fioo a 
 year. The greatest part of the pit is taken up for 
 the parterre noble, where ladies and gentlemen go 
 as to the boxes. 
 
 Sir Robert took us to Prince Kaunitz*s after 
 the theatre, where a numerous party of ladies, 
 ministers, &c., were assembled.^ There were cards 
 and billiards. 
 
 Next morning we walked in the Lausgarten 
 
 I Prince Kaunitz Rietberg, the celebrated minister of 
 Marie Thérèse, was bom in 1710, and destined for the 
 Church; but having come into possession of the family 
 estates by the death of his elder brother, he embraced the 
 diplomatic career, was appointed ambassador to Louis XV., 
 and succeeded in forming the famous league between 
 Austria and France against Prussia. This gained him so 
 much credit, that he was appointed prime minister, and 
 continued to enjoy the favour of the Crown until his 
 death, which occurred in 1798. 
 
330 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 with Countess de Thun,^ who is a charming 
 woman, all attention and kindness to us. She 
 has three daughters, all handsome ; but Elizabeth, 
 the eldest, is quite a beauty. We went with her 
 to the widowed Princess Esterhazy, and then to 
 Prince Kaunitz, who has a reunion every night. 
 
 The Hoffgarten is a very fine public garden, 
 in an island of the Danube, with charming shady 
 walks, and a great variety of views over the city, 
 suburbs and hills. The Danube, which flows 
 majestically through the lofty woods and level 
 fields, is traversed by two wooden bridges. 
 
 We paid several visits during the next evening, 
 and, on the 13th, breakfasted with Prince Galitzin 
 at his casino in the Prater, a pretty box, in a 
 large grove of old trees, with a little garden, like 
 a citizen's world in an acre of ground. We were 
 regaled with a most splendid breakfast, and met 
 a great deal of good company. Most of the ladies 
 came on horseback, riding à l'anglaise. We went 
 afterwards, in Sir Robert Keith's carriage, to dine 
 with Prince Kaunitz at Laxenburg, two leagues 
 distant from Vienna. There are avenues of horse- 
 chesnut and lime-trees all the way, in an open, 
 
 I The Countess de Thun, daughter to Prince Kaunitz. 
 Her daughter afterwards married Count Razamowski, fa- 
 vourite to the Czarina Elizabeth. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 33 1 
 
 even country. Laxenburg is a small town in the 
 hollow part of the great plain. There is an old 
 château, newly patched up, and a strange, low 
 palace, the residence of the Imperial family. The 
 generality of the nobility have their houses here ; 
 but that of Prince Kaunitz is the only grand one, 
 and he has laid out a great deal of money upon 
 it. There is one noble room ; the rest are low 
 and small for a person of such consequence. 
 
 At dinner we had the Count de Burghausen, 
 the Countess da Thun, the Countess de Clary, a 
 young widow, the favourite of Kaunitz, and Baron 
 Swieten, son of the famous physician, Mr. Beaky. 
 After dinner the Prince treated us with the clean- 
 ing of his gums — one of the most nauseous opera- 
 tions I ever witnessed, and it lasted a prodigious 
 long time, accompanied with all manner of noises. 
 He carries a hundred implements in his pocket 
 for this purpose — such as glasses of all sorts for 
 seeing before and behind his teeth, a whetting 
 steel for his knife, pincers to hold the steel with, 
 knives and scissors without number, and cottons 
 and lawns for wiping his eyes. His whims are 
 innumerable. Nothing allusive to the mortality 
 of human nature must ever be rung in his ears. 
 To mention the small-pox is enough to knock him 
 up for the day. I saw an instance of this ; for 
 
332 
 
 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Burghausen, having been long absent, came out 
 with it, and the Prince looked as black as could 
 be all the rest of the day. To derange the train 
 of his ideas puts him sadly out of sorts. The 
 other day, he sent a favourite dish of meat as a 
 present to an aunt of his, four years after her 
 decease, and would not have known it but for 
 a blundering servant, who blabbed it to him. 
 
 He is full of childish vanities, and wishes to 
 be thought to excel in everything. He used to 
 have a spiral glass for mixing the oil and vinegar 
 for salads, which he shook every day with great 
 parade and affectation. At last the bottle broke 
 in his hands, and covered him and his two neigh- 
 bouring ladies with its contents. A gentleman 
 not opening a bottle of champagne to his mind, 
 he called for one to give the company a lesson 
 in uncorking and frothing the liquor : unluckily, 
 he missed the calculation of his parabola, and 
 poured out the wine into his uplifted sleeve, as 
 well as into his waistcoat, &c. By-the-bye, he is 
 dressed very oddly ; his wig comes down upon 
 his nose, with a couple of small straggling curls 
 on each side, placed in a very ridiculous manner. 
 He is extremely fond of adulation, will swallow 
 anything in its shape, and, indeed, lays it upon 
 himself with a very liberal hand. One of his 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 333 
 
 peculiarities is a detestation of musk. He is a 
 sovereign Count of Rietberg, in right of his 
 mother, which brings him in about ^^3,000 a 
 year. His paternal fortune is 3^4,000. He has 
 enormous debts, but gets ^f 10,000 a year from 
 the Empress, and is never stinted by her. His 
 expenditure in fancies and trifles is incredible. 
 He studied at Leipsic with great reputation, and 
 is an excellent Latin scholar, but no Grecian ; 
 he understands English, French and Italian very 
 perfectly, and reads a great deal, or rather a great 
 deal is read to him. He has good taste, and has 
 raised the arts from barbarism to great perfection 
 at Vienna. In business he is intelligent, and far 
 above any mean subterfuges or falsehoods. He 
 is always silent when he does not choose to ex- 
 press his real sentiments.^ It was he who made 
 the alliance with France, but he has long since 
 been convinced of his error, and would willingly 
 retrieve it ; but the times are not proper for a 
 change. 
 
 I " Tongues," said Prince Talleyrand, '* are given to 
 men, in order that they may disguise their real sentiments;" 
 a maxim that he pilfered from Euripides, who says that 
 each person has two tongues — one to tell the truth, and 
 the other to use according as occasion may require. Erasmus 
 employs the same axiom in his " Eulogium on Folly." Prince 
 Kaunitz's system was the most moral, for he preferred silence 
 to telling untruths. 
 
334 
 
 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Having never lived much in the world before 
 his present elevation, Prince Kaunitz has neither 
 bosom friends nor bitter enemies; he is cold and 
 insensible ; has made no man's fortune, nor ruined 
 anyone. * 
 
 His wife was a Messalina, and after her death 
 he took to actresses, whose dupe he was, to his 
 cost. He has no affection for his children. The 
 two eldest sons are bornés, but gentle, worthy 
 creatures ; the third and fourth absolute non- 
 entities ; the fifth a sad roué. 
 
 Kaunitz rides very well, and is fond of show- 
 ing off. The Empress ordered his picture to be 
 taken, and gave the inscription to be placed under 
 it, denoting him to have been for three years her 
 minister, her friend and her confidant. The Em- 
 peror once entertained a great aversion for him, 
 and a few years ago Kaunitz, who fancies he can 
 do everything, drew up the plan of a campaign so 
 supremely ridiculous that the Emperor was con- 
 vinced he had nothing more than the pretensions 
 
 I Helvetius (" de l'Esprit," vol. i.) says : " If a minister 
 were deaf to the solicitation of relatives and friends, and 
 only raised men of pre-eminent merit to the first places, this 
 just minister would pass in the world as useless, heartless, 
 and, perhaps, dishonest. To the shame of the age be it 
 said," he adds, " men high in office rarely ever owe their 
 reputation of being good friends, relations, benevolent and 
 virtuous, except to acts of nepotism and injustice." 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 335 
 
 and arts of a State quack. Of late, however, 
 il en est revenu sur son compte, and is now convinced 
 of his abilities, and is very intimate with him. 
 
 After dinner we walked in the gardens and 
 woods, through canopies of fine old oaks and 
 pretty woodland paths — pleasant enough were it 
 not for the gnats, which quite devoured me. La 
 petite veuve, the Countess de Clary, lives by play, 
 does the honours of the house, and has likewise 
 her affectations. She was married at fifteen to 
 Count Clary, of seventy-five, and soon became a 
 widow. She seems good-natured, and understands 
 English perfectly — which, indeed, most of the 
 German ladies do. 
 
 There is a heronry here, and much hawking. 
 We heard two French horns in the woods. They 
 almost make that instrument too fine, and un- 
 naturally learned. 
 
 The Emperor is allowed no power. He wishes 
 exceedingly to go to Flanders, having much at 
 heart a new system for restoring that country to 
 its ancient state of a great mart. But Prince 
 Charles of Lorraine is such a favourite with the 
 Empress that he is never to be contradicted, and 
 the Emperor does not go for fear of quarrelling 
 with him, which would inevitably be the case, 
 their ideas on the subject not agreeing. 
 
336 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 The Prater is a superb park, with a long 
 avenue of horse - chesnuts. The banks of the 
 Danube are long and woody. Many hinds and 
 stags graze on both sides, and there is fine scope 
 for riding and driving. 
 
 In the Graben is a house so long, and divided 
 into so many apartments, that it lets for thirty- 
 six thousand florins a year. Near it is the stump 
 of an aged tree, leaning against the wall, into 
 which everyone who is made free of the Black- 
 smith's Company is obliged to drive a nail up 
 to the head. The number of nails already sticking 
 in it renders it difficult now to find a spare place. 
 There is no populace in Vienna, everybody be- 
 longing to some company or association. 
 
 We had a great dinner at Sir Robert Keith's. 
 The principal persons present were Mr. and 
 Madame Thun and their daughters, Mr. and 
 Madame de Walthen, the Lucchese and Hano- 
 verian envoys, Starsa and Swieten, with Fludyer, 
 Stratton and Madame de Bassovirtz, I afterwards 
 accompanied Baron de Swieten on a visit to the 
 old Prince of Saxe Hildburghausen, who, at eighty 
 years old, can raise a weight of three hundred 
 pounds. He always retires to his rest at eight 
 o'clock, and as he walks firom the salon to his 
 bed-chamber, has men posted, who pull off his wig 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 337 
 
 and clothes, so that he is ready for his bed 
 by the time he gets to the door of his bed- 
 chamber. Thus scarcely two minutes sufBce for 
 his toilette. We have since dined with him at 
 the Belvedere Gardens, and went afterwards to 
 Schonbrun to wait upon the grande maîtresse of 
 the Empress and of the Archduchesses Elizabeth 
 and Marianne. 
 
 Schonbrunn Palace is of an immense length, 
 and of unequal heights, but with nothing pleasing 
 or really grand in its architecture. It was built 
 at many different periods; that is, whenever the 
 Empress had occasion for an increase of apart- 
 ments. At first it was nothing but a rendezvous 
 de chasse of Charles VI, It was the only place 
 the Empress had to live in when first she came 
 to the throne, being then immersed in a long 
 and dangerous war; and when peace was signed, 
 and all became quiet, she had become too much 
 attached to the place to leave it. Its situation 
 is far from agreeable, being close to the little 
 river Wien, without any pleasant object in sight. 
 The gardens are fine in their way. Opposite the 
 palace is a hill, with a long portico-kind of 
 building upon it, as ugly as possible. It is 
 Prince Kaunitz's masterpiece and what he par- 
 ticularly prides himself upon. Fifty thousand 
 
 VOL. I 22 
 
338 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 pounds, at least, have been spent in altering and 
 modelling this hill. 
 
 The Empress has such an internal fever and 
 heat of blood that she cannot bear to have the 
 windows closed at any season of the year. Some- 
 times the wind is so strong during the night that 
 it throws down the chairs in her room, blows 
 the curtains against her face and awakens her. 
 Her son, the Emperor, is extremely chilly, not- 
 withstanding all her children were brought up in 
 so hardy a manner that their attendants were 
 almost starved. The Emperor still sleeps upon a 
 a bed of skins. 
 
 The Empress is generous, even to prodigality, 
 and would be miserable if she knew of anyone 
 in want that it was not in her power to relieve. 
 The Duke of Saxony and his wife, the Arch- 
 duchess Christina, drain her prodigiously. The 
 Emperor calls him his dear brother-in-law. 
 
 Kaunitz used always to shut the windows 
 when he came into the Empress's apartments, but 
 now he will not come to council any more. 
 
 We have innumerable visits and evening 
 parties and find the society very agreeable. Our 
 presentation to the Empress has taken place. 
 The two Archduchesses and the Archduke Maxi- 
 milian were with her. She received us in her 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 339 
 
 salle d'audience, was very gracious, and conversed 
 about our family and that of the Queen of Naples. 
 She stood all the time fanning herself, then nous 
 congédia with a polite bow. 
 
 The Archduchess Marianne is pleasing, and 
 like a woman of the world. The Archduchess 
 Elizabeth was beautiful before she had the small- 
 pox, but is now plain. She complains of never 
 seeing anyone, except in her sister's company, 
 who, as the eldest, engrosses the conversation. 
 She is naturally lively and very volatile, and 
 suffers sadly from ennui. A short time ago an 
 ulcer came in her cheek, which ate it quite 
 through and confined her many weeks to her 
 room. On Sir Robert Keith coming to condole 
 with her on this accident, she burst out laughing, 
 and told him he was wrong to think it a subject 
 of condolence. ** Croyez-moi,** said she, "pour 
 une Archiduchesse de quarante ans, qui n'est point 
 mariée, un trou à la joue est un amusement ; 
 for," added she, " no event which breaks through 
 the sameness and tediousness of my life ought 
 to be considered as a misfortune." She told him 
 it was a blot on the reign of Marie Thérèse 
 to have kept her old daughters under restraint 
 like children and denied them the pleasure of 
 mixing in society. 
 
 22 — 2 
 
340 
 
 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Maximilian is a good-natured, neither-here- 
 nor-there kind of youth. 
 
 Prince Auersberg is a surprising man of 
 eighty-six, who rides, eats, drinks and walks, as 
 if he were but thirty. He was in England the 
 year Queen Anne died. 
 
 The ramparts are the general place of meeting 
 in the evening. Their circumference is about 
 three miles. 
 
 The soil which produces the fine Tokay has 
 so much heat, that Count Collar, the Hungarian 
 vice-chancellor, tells me he went that way last 
 December, through ice and snow, and found 
 none upon that spot. No snow ever lies on the 
 salt-mines either. He also assured me that the 
 Tokay sometimes shoots forth bits of gold, which 
 has been sucked up in the growth of the vine. 
 
 The Calvinist reform is tolerated in Hungary, 
 but not the Lutheran. There is no punishment of 
 death in Bohemia. The Court wish to make a 
 reform there, by abolishing the covvêe — viz., the 
 obligation of working for the lords — and giving 
 leases to the peasants; but it has not yet been 
 able to accomplish its desire. 
 
 In Poland the nobility contract their marriages 
 in such a manner as always to leave a doubt and 
 a way of proving their nullity, which gives rise 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 34I 
 
 to numberless divorces; and it sometimes happens 
 that a woman sits at a table with three men who 
 have been her husbands, without her character 
 being at all infringed upon in consequence. How 
 the nuncios make out the legality ot these dispen- 
 sations I know not. 
 
 August 4th, 
 
 The other day I accompanied Mrs. S. to 
 Schonbrunn, where we walked in the gardens. 
 The temple, or portico, of Doric arches, is a 
 strange concern. There was a sale going on in 
 the middle of it. The Empress sent for us to go 
 to her. She was sitting in a corner of the palace, 
 at a table, parfilant. She spoke very pleasingly 
 and good-humouredly, and after some time made 
 a sign to Mrs. S. to sit down, then asked her 
 many questions, and at last told her the Arch- 
 duchess Marianne wished to see her. Taking 
 this as a congés we waited upon the Archduchess 
 and were delighted with her. She seems very 
 amiable, showed us great kindness, and appears 
 to have taken a great fancy to Mrs. S. 
 
 The Empress has a fine face, but is enor- 
 mously fat and unwieldy. A few days ago her 
 chamberlain, Sinzendorff, waited on her with a 
 petition from some part of her territories, which 
 
342 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 was very interesting to her. They were alone in 
 the apartment, both standing whilst he read to 
 her the document. Sinzendorff is a thin old man, 
 stiff and erect, and troubled with a rheumatic 
 complaint, which has, in some measure, paralysed 
 his frame. It happened that the paper fell to the 
 ground. The Empress bade him pick it up. 
 ** Hélas ! madame," said he, "il y a vingt années 
 que je ne me suis courbé ! " She would have 
 stooped for it herself, but was too unwieldy; he 
 was accordingly obliged to ring the bell for the 
 purpose, and the groom of the chambers, on 
 entering, found Her Imperial Majesty in a violent 
 fit of laughter.^ 
 
 Viennay August i^th. 
 
 On the afternoon of Thursday we went to the 
 Empress's drawing-room at Schonbrunn, held upon 
 the occasion of the Archduke Maximilian being 
 elected coadjutor and successor to the Elector of 
 Cologne. There was an immense crowd, consider- 
 ing the time of the year, when many of the nobility 
 
 I A similar anecdote is related of George IV. (when 
 
 Regent) and Lady H d, with this difference, that the 
 
 latter is said to have dropped her handkercliief, when she 
 had a bad cold. Neither being dressed for stooping, and 
 her ladyship's nose requiring assistance, the bell was obliged 
 to be rung, and a fresh handkerchief asked for. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 343 
 
 are absent on their estates. The Empress and the 
 ambassadors played at cards, but the former rose 
 often from her seat to address and coax the 
 French ambassador (Breteuil), whom she took 
 extraordinary notice of, indeed, rather fulsomely, 
 probably on account of France having suffered 
 the coadjutorship to pass uncontested. She also 
 spoke long and kindly to Mrs. S., who certainly 
 had no hand in the election. 
 
 We were there presented to the Duke Albert 
 and the Archduchess Christina. She is very 
 handsome and has the most beautiful hand in 
 the world ; indeed, that is a characteristic of her 
 family. The divine Metastasio was also present. 
 He is a little, old, sheepish-looking, peaked-faced 
 abbate, with a curled wig, just like those worn 
 fifty years ago. His name was originally Raspi, 
 or rather, I believe, Trapassi. 
 
 There was also Marshal Laudohn,^ a thin 
 man, with a very withered face ; Marshal Had- 
 
 I The celebrated Marshal Laudohn, who commanded 
 the Imperial armies during a portion of the Seven Years' 
 War. It was to him that Frederick the Great paid the 
 compliment of saying: ♦« Placez-vous à côté de moi; je 
 n'aime pas vous avoir en face." Laudohn's name inspired 
 so much terror in Germany, that it was long used to 
 frighten the naughty children. " Nimm dich in acht I Der 
 Laudohn ist da 1 " was a constant exclamation, just as our 
 nurses talk of " raw-head-and-bloody-bones." 
 
344 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 dick, fat and jolly; and Marshal Lacy, thîn and 
 amiable looking. 
 
 Mrs. S. now frequently spends her evenings 
 with the Archduchess Marianne, and sometimes 
 with the Empress. At Kaunitz's we generally 
 adjourn after dinner to his garden and have fruit 
 and refreshments under the trees. 
 
 August 24th, 
 
 I have been presented to Joseph II., who is 
 just returned to Vienna. Some other English 
 were presented at the same time, viz., my nephew 
 Bedingfeld, Messrs. Sheldon, Chaplin and Stratton. 
 The Emperor spoke to me very graciously and 
 said his mother had mentioned us to him. He is 
 less than I expected, and much better looking. 
 He has harassed himself much, and does not 
 seem strongly built. 
 
 The next day the Empress herself presented 
 Mrs. S. to the Emperor at Schonbrunn, where she 
 remained to dine with Madame de Salmour, 
 grande maîtresse to the Archduchess Marianne, 
 the widow of a Piedmontese nobleman, and herself 
 a Pole, being daughter to Lubienski, a Polish 
 grandee. On the partition of Poland taking place, 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 345 
 
 the whole Court was assembled in an ante- 
 chamber, in order to proceed regularly to the 
 chapel and hear a grand Te Deum composed for 
 the occasion. Madame de Salmour was among 
 the company, being in attendance on the Arch- 
 duchess. The Empress said to her : " Madame de 
 Salmour, je vous dispense d*y aller." "Votre 
 majesté a raison," she replied; "j'y serais peut- 
 être tentée d'y faire des vœux contre les oppres- 
 seurs de ma patrie!" Her remark did not offend, 
 for the successful are seldom cross. 
 
 All the Poles were presented to Joseph on his 
 return from Russia — that is to say, those whose 
 property was included in his share of Poland. 
 Most of them were dressed in the French fashion 
 and acquitted themselves respectfully of their 
 homage. A few were in the Polish habit ; among 
 the rest an old man, grave, sullen and backward. 
 Perceiving that he did not approach, the Emperor 
 went up to him, addressing him in a courteous 
 manner. The Pole remained sulky and shy. 
 Joseph asked if he amused himself at Vienna. 
 "Very little," was the reply. " I wonder at that," 
 said the Emperor, good-humouredly, " for there 
 never were such a vast number of your country- 
 men here as there are at this moment." "Nay," 
 said the Pole, "I have heard that about a hundred 
 
346 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 years ago Vienna was filled with Poles ! *'* The 
 Emperor, who tells this story himself, declares 
 he was quite confounded at this speech, and totally 
 unable to say another word ; but he was so pleased 
 with the man's boldness and amor patricB that 
 he felt almost inclined to shake hands with him. 
 
 Madame de Salmour told me that when she 
 was Madame de Lubienski, she knew the King 
 of Poland, and that he was so fond of Correggio's 
 " Magdalene," one of the forty pictures he bought 
 of the Duke of Modena, that wherever he went 
 this picture accompanied him in a case and was 
 hung up in his apartments. 
 
 Our friend Madame d'Ulsfield has given us 
 many particulars of the Empress's life. The 
 day of her appearing before the Hungarian nobles 
 they were in a large hall, where a balustrade was 
 put up to keep off the crowd. She came in 
 deep mourning, with her infant son in her arms, 
 and began a Latin speech, but as she pronounced 
 the first words of it, viz., " Afflicto rerum statu," 
 the tears suffocated her and impeded her utterance. 
 The whole assembly with one movement rose and, 
 
 I Alluding to the year 1683, when John Sobieski, King 
 of Poland, marched to the relief of Vienna, then besieged 
 by the Turks, whom he attacked and routed, and thus not 
 only liberated that capital, but Hungary, which had been 
 overrun by the Ottomans. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 347 
 
 with their fingers upraised, called out : " Moriemur 
 pro regina Theresa." 
 
 When Francis died, she was given to under- 
 stand from caballing courtiers, which equally exist 
 in all countries, that Joseph would probably seize 
 the reins of empire ; and being now Emperor 
 (having been elected King of the Romans previous 
 to his father's death), would not consent to be 
 subservient to his mother. She, therefore, felt un- 
 easy and uncomfortable ; but he soon put an end 
 to her fears, for, the first time they met, he 
 threw himself at her feet, saying: "Je serai toujours 
 votre fidèle Joseph, le plus dévoué de vos sujets ! " 
 
 The Empress is loved by the people as well 
 as admired. When she lay dangerously ill ot the 
 small-pox, Joseph met an old marshal on the stairs 
 coming firom the ante-room of her apartment, 
 where he had been to inquire how she was. He 
 was in a flood of tears on having learnt that her 
 recovery was despaired of. " Am I, then, such a 
 tyrant," said the Emperor, "that you dread being 
 governed by me?" "No, sir," said the soldier; 
 " but we know what we lose I " 
 
 Duke Albert of Saxony is very good-looking, 
 and made a conquest, not only of the Arch- 
 duchess Christina, whom he married, but of her 
 sister Josephine, whose nuptials with the King of 
 
348 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Naples were fixed upon by her mother. It was 
 not, however, her fate to be Queen of Naples, for, 
 having caught the small-pox, she died the very day 
 that had been fixed upon for her departure, and 
 her sister Carolina was soon after sent in her 
 place. 
 
 The most earnest wish of their mother was 
 obtained when she succeeded in making her 
 youngest daughter Queen of France. The Arch- 
 duchess Antoinette was, at fourteen, extremely 
 pious and well inclined in every respect ; and 
 when the marriage was arranged, Marie Thérèse, 
 whose religion did not prevent her giving way to 
 superstitious propensities, visited a nun of a neigh- 
 bouring convent who was considered able to see 
 into the future. She expressed her anxiety for 
 the soul of her pious, good child, now about to 
 be separated from her for the rest of her life, and 
 going to so depraved a Court as that of Louis 
 Quinze. The answer she received was this: "Elle 
 aura de grands revers, et puis elle redeviendra 
 pieuse.*' Struck by the thought of her good child 
 ceasing to be pious, which was implied by these 
 words, the Empress burst into tears and was 
 with difficulty restored to calmness. She, how- 
 ever, was not sufficiently credulous or provident 
 for the happiness of her young daughter to put 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 349 
 
 an end, on that account, to the negotiations for 
 the Archduchess's marriage. 
 
 The Empress is extremely imposed upon by 
 hypocrites of all sorts.^ Many an officer has gone 
 to her chapel and made all the grimaces of a 
 bigot and zealot, which has attracted her notice 
 and procured him promotion; after which he has 
 never appeared there again. She gives money to 
 all the soldiers who do duty about the palace, 
 and, on extraordinary occasions, to the officers, 
 and throws about ducats among the poor people 
 when she drives about the streets. She was, 
 formerly, very rigorous and as bad as an in- 
 quisitor, having ladies and gentlemen carried off 
 for the least irregularity of conduct; which, as 
 King Croquignolet^ says of the fillips, exacted for 
 his nose, "fatiguoient beaucoup le pauvre peuple." 
 However, at present, her fervour has abated con- 
 siderably. Her affairs are wretchedly managed, 
 
 I Mr. Swinburne mentions this as if it were an un- 
 common occurrence. It would be difficult to name any 
 sovereign who has not been imposed upon by hypocrites 
 and self-interested sycophants. Half the misfortunes that 
 occur to states arise from monarchs being led, instead of 
 leading. The welfare of the people must be that of all 
 crowned heads, for their own welfare depends upon it. 
 The welfare of courtiers, on the contrary, depends upon 
 the downfall of others. 
 
 2 King Croquignolet, the hero of the fairy-tale called 
 « Coque d'Œuf." 
 
350 
 
 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 without intelligence or ceremony. She gives, of 
 late, much money to priests to distribute in alms, 
 and, of course, the poor get little or nothing in 
 comparison with what they had when she herself 
 bestowed her charity without the medium it now 
 passes through. 
 
 September 12th. 
 
 I rode the other day up the mountain of 
 the Calemberg, towards a house of Count Coben- 
 zel, the view from which place is astonishingly 
 fine. The low mountains of Hungary bound the 
 horizon of an immense plain, through which the 
 Danube flows, divided by large woody islands 
 into a variety of lakes and canals. The bridges 
 may be traced all through, and Vienna lies under 
 the eye. I have also been up to the Camal- 
 dolin convent of Calemberg, backed with large 
 woods of oak and beech. It forms one point of 
 the ridge which advances into the plain ; the 
 Leopoldsberg, or Schlussel, is the other. This 
 last is a very narrow brow, with a kind of a 
 castle belonging to the Crown. The view from 
 it is wonderful, in which the abbey of Kloster 
 Neuberg is a grand object. 
 
 Our dinners and festive parties are innumer- 
 able. We breakfasted yesterday with General 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 35 1 
 
 Pellegrini, at a charming house on the ramparts, 
 delightfully situated, with a fine view of Vienna 
 from its windows. The interior is deliciously fitted 
 up. It contains a salon all painted with cameos, 
 well executed. We met the Emperor several even- 
 ings at Madame de Berghausen's. He was quite 
 easy and chatty; he listens with attention to what 
 is said by others, and talks freely and merrily. 
 One is apt to expect more from an Emperor 
 and to forget that he is one. His accent is 
 rather harsh and nasal. His French is very 
 good, except a few Germanisms. He sometimes 
 puts on his field-marshal's coat, often drives him- 
 self in a low phaeton with a pair of English 
 horses, and two servants behind in gray coats 
 turned up with yellow, and silver-laced waistcoats 
 and hats. 
 
 Vienna is divided into town and suburbs. 
 The former is small, not above three miles round. 
 It is hilly, but not much on a slope to a branch 
 of the Danube, on which side the fortifications 
 are not very considerable. Those on the west, 
 near the Schotten, are extremely lofty, because 
 on that side the ground without is high. The 
 Turks pitched their camp there in the last siege. 
 
 There are eight ways out of the city. The 
 gates are never shut. The streets are crooked, 
 
2^2 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 narrow and indifferently paved, with many dis- 
 agreeable smells, as there are no sewers to carry 
 off the dirt ; but the scavengers are often at work. 
 The houses are high, of brick, stuccoed over, with 
 heavy leaden ornaments and iron bars, as at 
 Rome, to the lower windows. It is usual for 
 several families to occupy the same house. St. 
 Stephen's, the cathedral, has a very curious and 
 lofty filigree steeple. The inside, which is Gothic, 
 is exceedingly black and smoky. 
 
 The squares are not large, except the H of. 
 The fountains, obelisks and groups in them are 
 in the style of the Agaglii at Naples. The library 
 is a superb building. The palace is convenient, 
 but not handsome, although the façade of Prince 
 CoUoredo's apartments is showy. The hotel of 
 the Council of War is a new grand building. The 
 arsenal contains a vast quantity of arms and 
 many curiosities, viz., trophies of the Turks, 
 Prince Eugène^s armour, which, in size, is like 
 that of a little boy; also the immense chain 
 which the Turks extended across the river to 
 prevent succours coming into the town by water ; 
 half of it fills the court, round which it is hung 
 on pegs. There is also a monstrous ill-made 
 cannon taken from the Turks. 
 
 There was formerly a Scotch college here, 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 353 
 
 but nothing now remains of that nation save the 
 name, which the church and gate still retain. 
 The Empress has about eighty capital houses in 
 town, where she lodges her officers of State, &c., 
 besides apartments in particular houses, reserved 
 in their leases. Few of the common people live 
 in the city. 
 
 There are two theatres; the French one is 
 the larger, that of the palace the cleaner and 
 prettier. Many houses have doors opening on 
 the ramparts, which is a great agrément. The 
 custom-house is a handsome quadrangle. The 
 fish-market is in a street parallel to the Danube, 
 and beyond the ancient walls, which still appear. 
 
 They say the town is lately much increased, 
 and formerly must have been little more than a 
 castle in size. 
 
 September iSth, 
 I dined lately in the suburbs, at the magni- 
 ficent villa of Prince Schwartzenberg, with Sir 
 R. Keith, Galippi, Auditor of Mexico, and Count 
 and Countess Ohenhausen, from Portugal. The 
 Countess is the grand-daughter of Tavora,^ and 
 
 I The Marquis de Tavora, who was implicated with 
 the Duke d'Aveiro in the famous conspiracy and attempt 
 to murder Joseph I., King of Portugal, in 1758. The con- 
 spiracy was discovered, and all the parties and their 
 families suffered death or unlimited imprisonment. 
 
 VOL. I 23 
 
^cA LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 from a year old was State prisoner with her 
 mother. We also had Countess Daun, and Mr. 
 Harford, son of the unfortunate Lord Baltimore. 
 
 We again met the Emperor at Madame de 
 Berghausen's, where he was extremely merry and 
 talkative, ridiculed the story of the King of 
 Poland's assassination, and talked of Mrs. Ma- 
 cauley and her hatred of kings. He said he 
 understood she had fainted away whenever they 
 were named, and asked if she put three stars 
 whenever she was obliged to mention one in her 
 history.* He spoke with horror of lettres de cachet 
 and arbitrary unformal condemnations ; and I 
 make no doubt, from all he seems to think, and 
 from what others say of him, that his accession 
 to power will be the means of bringing liberty 
 and happiness throughout his dominions, at least, 
 if he has moderation and head enough to begin 
 with prudence; but that is still a problem. Of 
 his intentions there is no doubt; of his success 
 a great deal. He will have much to cope with. 
 The friars and priests detest and abuse him and 
 there is a strong party of them.» They give out 
 
 1 A History of England. 
 
 2 The efforts of the Emperor Joseph to extend reli- 
 gious liberty to the whole of his subjects and to emanci- 
 pate the Protestants in liis Netherland dominions from the 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 355 
 
 that he has no friendship, constancy, or warmth 
 of heart, and that he is totally incapable of a 
 generous feeling; in short, they know not how 
 to speak ill enough of him. Mais je n'en crois 
 rien; it is something that a despotic potentate 
 should wish for freedom and liberty among his 
 people, and such a hobby-horse can but be bene- 
 ficial, if only to put it into the heads of others; 
 for as Laville, when he married, told us as an 
 excuse, " qu'il faut faire une fin ; " I say, vice 
 versa, "qu'il faut à toutes choses un commence- 
 ment." 
 
 September 2,2nd, 
 
 Two days ago the Emperor sent for me in 
 
 the evening to Schonbrunn, where I walked with 
 
 him in the gardens. He was very agreeable and 
 
 is certainly very clever. He is on the point of 
 
 exclusive penalties that affected them, were amongst the 
 causes that led to the Brabant Revolution in 1789. As a 
 sample of the spirit of the priesthood and of Catholic 
 tolerance, I quote the following reply made to the Emperor 
 by the Synod of Louvain, when H.T.M. asked their 
 opinion upon his project of according equal rights and pri- 
 vileges to all classes of his subjects without distinction of 
 faith. " Tolerance," said the reverend fathers, " would be 
 the cause of dissensions, hatreds and interminable discord; 
 because the Catholic reUgion regards all heretics, without 
 distinction, as victims devoted to eternal perdition. The 
 Catholic religion impresses this maxim upon her children 
 as an essential dogma and invariable article of her faith." 
 
 23 — 2 
 
35^ 
 
 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 setting out for Bohemia, and yesterday rode in 
 the Prater, showing the Empress, who was in her 
 carriage, the improvements that are making. He 
 rides very ill. 
 
 I was at a large dinner party of all nations, at 
 Foscarini's, the Venetian ambassador's. Ohen- 
 hausen mentioned an anecdote of Count OHvaréz,* 
 viz., his artful manner of informing Philip IV. 
 that Portugal was lost. ** I congratulate you, sire ! " 
 said he; **the estates of the Duke of Braganza 
 are all fallen to Your Majesty, for he has dared 
 to seat himself on the throne of Portugal." 
 
 We had in the evening a pleasant réunion 
 chez Madame de Berghen, where it is the fashion 
 to play at des jeux d'esprit» There is no form — 
 a most agreeable society, with dancing and supper 
 towards the end of the evening. Such parties 
 often take place here, which, in my opinion, are 
 pleasanter than large and formal assemblies and 
 balls. 
 
 I have visited the Imperial cabinet of natural 
 history. Baron Bâillon, the director, has arranged 
 it systematically to prove that the polypus system 
 is not here in all its positions, and that great 
 
 I The renowned Gasper Guzman, Conde Duque d'Oli- 
 varéz, prime minister to Philip IV. of Spain during twenty- 
 two years. He died in disgrace at Toro in 1643. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 357 
 
 part of those productions are vegetables and a 
 chain up to hfe. The petrified woods are curious, 
 the minerals rich, and the precious stones valuable, 
 particularly a large turnip of opal not to be set 
 a price upon. A Jew offered two hundred thou- 
 sand florins for it. There is a black diamond, 
 a rainbow diamond, and a nosegay composed of 
 all the precious stones existing. The collection 
 of shells is fine ; some are unique. 
 
 The medals we brought from Italy are much 
 admired here. We went to see Neuman's medals, 
 and dined with him at the convent of St. Doro- 
 thea; he is a learned man, and gave us his book 
 on " Nummi Indefiniti " — a strange composition. 
 He told us that Edenborg, in Hungary, is said 
 to have been called so by Edgar Atheling, 
 who resided there. 
 
 October i6th. 
 
 Kaunitz is the greatest tyrant and bashaw I 
 ever knew ; he has always some dishes and cakes 
 (peculiar dainties) reserved for himself, which 
 nobody dares to touch. As he mostly makes me 
 sit near him, the Countess de Thun warned me 
 not to transgress, which, perhaps, put it into my 
 head to do so, for I did not care a halfpenny 
 about him. Accordingly I took an opportunity, 
 
358 
 
 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 and, notwithstanding all the signs and distressed 
 looks of my wife opposite, I succeeded in carrying 
 off some of his favourite gauffres and sweetmeats. 
 He looked very awkward, grew quite reserved, and 
 me bouder for several days. I took no notice of 
 his pettishness, which amused me extremely, and 
 in about a week he came round of himself. I 
 was walking from dinner through a long string 
 of rooms, talking to the Nuncio, when I felt an 
 arm thrown over my shoulder, and, turning round, 
 saw it was Kaunitz in high good-humour. He 
 said he wanted my opinion of a variety of pictures 
 exhibited for his approbation by Michel, the en- 
 graver of Basle — who makes him his dupe for 
 these pictures are absolute daubs. Amongst others 
 is one of a pope, which the Nuncio and I thought 
 to be one of those exhibited at Rome at l'Ara 
 de Massimi, price sixteen paoli. 
 
 When the Grand Duke Leopold was to be 
 married at Innsbruck to the King of Spain's 
 daughter, Prince Kaunitz went thither before- 
 hand to see that everything was in order for the 
 fete. The opera, among the rest, engaged his 
 attention, and he questioned Gliick about it. 
 The composer assured him that the performers, 
 singers and decorations were perfect. " Well, 
 then," said the Prince, ** let us have the opera 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 35g 
 
 directly." "How?" exclaimed Gluck, "without 
 an audience ? " " Monsieur Gliick," he replied, 
 ** sachez que la qualité vaut bien la quantité ; 
 je suis moi seul une audience." He was obeyed, 
 and I heard him tell this with great triumph. 
 
 Kaunitz patronised a Diamice.^ One day, 
 when he carried his portfeuille to the Empress, 
 she began to upbraid him with the scandal of his 
 conduct. "Madame," said he, "je suis venu ici 
 pour parler des affaires de votre Majesté, non des 
 miennes." 
 
 On the loth, Mrs. S. had a long audience of 
 the Empress, who said, in conversation, she was 
 sure her son the Emperor would not live long, as 
 he imitated the King of Prussia in ever3^thing 
 and had not a constitution for it. She also told 
 her she was certain she, herself, would soon die, 
 and she only regretted life because she had set 
 her heart upon marrying the Archduke Francis 
 to her grand-daughter, Marie Thérèse of Naples. 
 She has since sent Mrs. S. the cross, patent and 
 statutes of the order of the croix êtoiUe? 
 
 1 A celebrated dancer and courtesan of that period. 
 
 2 This order for noble ladies, called the Sternkrmz ordm, 
 was instituted by the Empress Eleanor on the i8th of Sep- 
 tember, 1668. Its origin is curious. The House of Austria 
 believed that it possessed a small piece of the true cross. 
 This reUc, fixed in a small golden crucifix, was constantly 
 
26o LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 The Emperor is returned from Bohemia. I 
 went to Court the day after his arrival, and the 
 same evening to the German theatre, in Count 
 Rosenberg's box, to see Madame Sacco as Medea, 
 in a mélodrame. She does it almost alone, and 
 a terrible part it is ; the music is intended to ex- 
 press the passions, so that the v^ords are few. 
 She acted so well that it was too affecting, and 
 is certainly superior to anything I know of on any 
 other stage at present. The Emperor, who was 
 in the next box, interpreted it verse by verse to 
 Mrs. S. throughout the play as it went on. 
 
 The Emperor came one night since his return 
 to Madame Berghen's, and the society was not 
 rendered a bit more formal by his presence. He 
 entered into the amusements and was very good- 
 natured, but did not stay long. He is always 
 
 worn by the Emperors Maximilian and Ferdinand III. On 
 the death of the latter, Leopold presented it to the widowed 
 Empress Eleanor, who caused it to be mounted in a small 
 but costly rdiquarium of gold, enamel and crystal. On the 
 2nd of February, 1666, a fire suddenly broke out in the 
 Empress's apartments, and burned with such rapidity and 
 fury that she had scarcely time to save herself ere the 
 chamber in which the relic was deposited fell in. But 
 upon examining the ruins some days after, the little case 
 was found almost intact. The Empress, therefore, ordered 
 a procession; the Prince- Bishop of Vienna drew up a procès 
 verbal commemorative of the miracle; and, to render the 
 circumstance more striking, a bull was obtained from the 
 Pope, sanctioning the foundation of the order. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 361 
 
 thinking of politics, and one evening at the play 
 looked out of his adjoining box to tell Mrs. S. 
 that the Dutch were taking the part of the French 
 in the most glaring manner; and that if Pitt 
 (Lord Chatham) had been alive he would have 
 declared against Holland six months ago. 
 
 November zgth. 
 
 The day before we left Vienna, we took leave 
 of the Empress and the Archduchess Marianne, 
 who has desired Mrs. S. to correspond with her. 
 The Empress gave watches to the boys. We spent 
 an evening at Madame Berghen's, where a game 
 was played of subjects given around for verses. 
 On that of Vienna, I wrote these lines: 
 
 Belle Vienne ! délicieuse gîte ! 
 Ville pleine de plaisirs et d'attraits, 
 Depuis le tems heureux que je t'habite, 
 Chez toi de jour en jour plus je me plais. 
 Mais le tems passe, il faut que je te quitte. 
 Hélas ! mon cœur, attristé de regrets, 
 Au moment du depart encore hésite 
 À dire adieu, peut-être pour jamais ! 
 
 We slept the first night at St. Poellon. The 
 first post after passing Schonbrunn is through woody 
 mountains, as handsome as such scenes can be in 
 a tame manner; not the bold savage rocks and 
 waterfalls of the Alps, but the rich flowing hills of 
 
362 
 
 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Sussex and Surrey. We had some transitory peeps 
 of the Danube ; excellent roads ; an innumerable 
 quantity of beggars in every place. There are 
 several country-seats in noble situations. 
 
 Molck has an abbey of Benedictines, a most 
 superb edifice; its church has a large cupola and 
 two steeples. The lodging part is endless. Its 
 situation, on the point of a rock, looking both up 
 and down the Danube, is very grand, and the edifice 
 affords a striking object to all the country. 
 
 We now drove through a beautiful country with 
 every variety that can be desired in a landscape ; 
 noble reaches of the river and the distant blue moun- 
 tains of Bohemia and Styria. Many towns and large 
 country-seats give life to the vegetative scenery. 
 
 Ens, where we arrived in the evening, is a 
 poor, small town, the Lauriacum of the ancients, 
 on the point of a ridge above the river of the same 
 name, which falls into the Danube a quarter of 
 a mile below — a delightful position for prospect. 
 Count Aversberg resides in a large château at the 
 end, in the finest situation imagmable. The air is 
 good, but the cold in winter intense. 
 
 Mr. Bedingfeld was there to meet us, and 
 we went with a letter from the Nuncio to the 
 Augustinian College at San Florianus, a most 
 magnificent establishment. We were received by 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 363 
 
 the prelate with great politeness. A canon spoke 
 Italian to me, for I am sorry to say I did not 
 learn much German during my residence at the 
 capital, where French is universally spoken. The 
 galleries and apartments for the Imperial family 
 are extremely grand. There is the bed-chamber 
 of Prince Eugène, hung with military trophies, &c. 
 Two good portraits of him and Charles VI. are 
 reckoned the best likenesses of them existing. There 
 are a fine collection of manuscripts and a cabinet 
 of medals. The church is full of columns of one 
 piece, from the mountains of Saltzberg. 
 
 Lintz is a small town, the form of which 
 is square. On the old rampart (for there are no 
 fortifications) is a pleasant walk leading up to the 
 castle — a plain house where Leopold I. waited the 
 event of the battle of Vienna. It commands an 
 immense view of the Danube and of the great 
 wooden bridge over it. Boats are constantly pass- 
 ing, laden with cabbages for sauerkrout. It is a 
 beautiful country, with landscapes that might em- 
 ploy a painter for months. 
 
 From Lintz is a charming road by the water- 
 side. This picturesque country is all a new acqui- 
 sition of the Emperor's. At Scharding, a medium- 
 sized walled town, we crossed the Inn, a broad 
 rapid river, and entered Bavaria, a charming country. 
 
364 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 like the woody parts of Bedfordshire. The women 
 hereabouts no longer wear the large black hats of 
 the Austrians, but round-eared caps, and their petti- 
 coats very short. 
 
 Many parts of our journey resembled a park, 
 and that in the most elegant taste. Vilshofen is 
 prettily situated at the confluence of the Danube, 
 with a small stream of very black water. Strau- 
 bingen is a large, ugly town, where we found difficulty 
 in getting horses, as they were reserved for the Arch- 
 duke Maximilian in his passage from Magentheim, 
 the residence of the chief of the Teutonic order. 
 
 Ratisbon is a poorly-built, uneven and roughly- 
 paved town, with a kennel in the middle of each 
 street. Its cathedral is old and gothic, the steeples 
 poor, being covered with tiles, like houses. There 
 is no monument of any consequence, except a large 
 statue of a cardinal of the Palatine family. At 
 the Abbey of St. Emerand there is an ugly ginger- 
 bread monument of Henry, Prince of Tour and 
 Taxis, and statues of Charlemagne and St. Henri. 
 The diet is held in an old, dark, dismal town- 
 house. The magistracy, with the chamberlain, are 
 all Lutherans; the bishops, monks and canons are 
 Catholics, and as free as the burghers, all their 
 houses being asylums. The territories scarcely 
 extend beyond the walls, which go about two miles 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 365 
 
 out. There does not seem to be a handsome edifice 
 in the town. Every Prince, free state, abbot, &c., 
 in Germany has a minister here. The Electors 
 have ambassadors, among whom that of Mayence 
 ranks the first. 
 
 The roads from thence to Nuremberg are 
 execrable. This latter is a large, ill-situated town ; 
 its houses in the antique German style, painted 
 red and other colours on the outside. 
 
 On entering the territories of the Prince-Bishop 
 of Wurtzburg, appeared vineyards, the first we had 
 seen since we left Vienna. We passed the Mein at 
 Kitzingen. The appearance of Wurtzburg is grand, 
 as the number of steeples cut a great figure, as well 
 as the episcopal palace, which is built of a darkish 
 stone. It is the grandest and best furnished of 
 any I have seen; indeed, too large and magnifi- 
 cent for the petty sovereign lodged in it ; he has 
 some fine pictures, by Wouvermans and Brughels. 
 The great hall, painted by Tiepolo, is superb, as 
 well as a cabinet of mirrors painted in grotesques. 
 The bishop has three thousand regular troops and 
 as many militia, and is allowed forty thousand 
 florins yearly for pocket-money, every other ex- 
 pense being defrayed. 
 
 Next day we entered an immense forest, all 
 of reddish sand, and the stones the same colour. 
 
366 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 We then reached Aschaffenburg, on the Mein, a 
 town belonging to the Elector, who has a summer 
 residence there and has made drives and walks in 
 the forest. The palace of red stone is very un- 
 sightly, with tall steeples at each angle. He is 
 brother to the Prince of Wurtzburg, and is a 
 cross, ill-looking priest. 
 
 Hanau, on the banks of the river, is a very 
 pretty, regular town ; its houses neat and gaily 
 painted. The hereditary Prince of Hesse Cassel 
 resides near it and takes great pains to embellish 
 the place with walks, buildings, roads, &c. At 
 a small distance from the town he has created a 
 water-drinking place, called Wilhelmstadt, where 
 everything is laid out in the Vauxhall style. It 
 allures many people from Frankfort. There is a 
 print of him, dressed as a tapster, inviting people 
 to his rooms. His grenadiers have caps and 
 curls, and enormous pigtails.^ 
 
 I The attachment of the Elector of Hesse Cassel to 
 pigtails was exemplified in a laughable manner upon his 
 return to his dominions in 1813. Upon this occasion he 
 was greeted with the Uveliest demonstrations of rejoicings 
 and affection ; but nothing seemed to afford him pleasure, 
 or to excite his admiration, until at last an old officer 
 appeared before him with a queue of gigantic proportions. 
 Upon this the Elector's countenance expanded, he smiled 
 graciously and, turning round to his principal aide-de-camp, 
 exclaimed : " Gott sey gelobt, der hat ihn noch." (God 
 be praised, he has got it still.) 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 367 
 
 At Frankfort we put up at a very good inn, 
 l'Empereur. The situation of the town is flat. 
 The fortifications are modern and in good repair. 
 It is a very dear place. There are a few convents 
 and a great many Jews. The proverb current 
 here is that "The Calvinists have the money, the 
 Catholics the churches, and the Lutherans the 
 power." We went to see the golden bull of the 
 Emperor Charles IV., which is an old parchment 
 roll.^ 
 
 As we entered Limburg, an ill-looking fellow 
 all in tatters, followed by a corporal and two 
 sentinels in the same accoutrements, asked us our 
 names, and told us he was the guard of his 
 serene highness the Elector of Treves. It is a 
 medium-sized, ugly town. 
 
 We crossed the Rhine at Ehrenbreitstein on 
 a flying bridge, a convenient invention, preferable 
 to our ferry boats. Coblentz is a pretty town, in 
 the midst of a thousand natural beauties. Bonn 
 
 I The famous golden bull of Charles IV., which was 
 regarded as the fundamental law and constitution of the 
 Germanic Empire, was first promulgated at Nuremberg in 
 1354. Its purport is too well known to require comment, 
 especially as its main object has become a dead letter by 
 the dissolution of the Empire. Amongst other ordinances 
 of this bull, was the constitution of the seven electors, who 
 were thus nominated in honour of the seven candelabras 
 of the Apocalypse. 
 
268 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 is also a pretty town, neatly built, and its streets 
 tolerably well paved, all in black lava. It is 
 situated in a fiat near the river. The Elector of 
 Cologne's palace faces the south entry. It has 
 no beauty of architecture, and is all plain white, 
 without any pretensions. 
 
 We went to Court, and were invited to dine 
 with the Elector (Konigsegge). He is seventy- 
 three years old, a little hale, dark man, very 
 merry and affable. His table is none of the best; 
 no dessert wines handed about, nor any foreign 
 wines at all. He is easy and agreeable, having 
 lived all his life in ladies' company which he is 
 said to have liked better than his breviary. The 
 captains of his guard and a few other people of 
 the Court formed the company, amongst whom 
 were his two great nieces, Madame de Hatzfeld 
 and Madame de Taxis. 
 
 The palace is of an immense size, the ball- 
 room particularly large, but low. The cabinet of 
 natural history is rich and well provided with 
 birds, minerals and petrifactions. A large human 
 skull, petrified, with all its articulations, is a rare 
 piece. There are also various beautiful corals 
 and fungi and the efflorescence of lead from the 
 Tyrol. 
 
 The Elector goes about to all the assemblies 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC, 369 
 
 and plays at trictrac. He asked me to be of his 
 party, but I was not acquainted with their way 
 of playing. There is every evening an assembly 
 or play at Court. The Elector seems very strong 
 and healthy, and will, I think, hold the Archduke 
 a good tug yet. 
 
 There are only two English here; one is Mr. 
 Meadows, who is come in search of the Duchess 
 of Kingston, to compromise matters with her; 
 but he has not yet traced her out. She is said 
 to be at Riga with Prince Radzivil. 
 
 An avenue of limes, with very little interrup- 
 tion, lines the road to Cologne, than which there 
 cannot be a worse - built, uglier, or more dirty 
 city, as black as small coal can make it. The 
 cathedral is a Gothic structure, unfinished. The 
 choir alone is complete. 
 
 Aix-la-Chapelle, December ist, 1780. 
 
 We are now at the town where we were 
 married, and find many old acquaintances still 
 residing here. There is a strange medley of 
 ranks : Russian princesses, English ladies and 
 German burgomistresses. Madame Klotz has still 
 her whist and faro going on. The Nugents, 
 
 VOL. I 24 
 
370 
 
 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Lalandes, Lady Cooke and Count Riccî are here. 
 There is a kind of club instituted, to meet every 
 evening at Les Rois d'Angleterre. 
 
 The Bishop of Osnaburg^ has arrived here 
 from Spa, and dined with us at the table d'hote. 
 He is very young and rather good-looking. Prin- 
 cess Cazerni asked him to a supper at the 
 redoute, but he declined it. 
 
 I spent a day at Spa and v^^alked over the 
 hills to enjoy my old dear points of view. Spa 
 seemed still to me the lovely place I always 
 thought it, though the advantage of my honey- 
 moon having been spent there may have enhanced 
 its charms. Some alterations have taken place. 
 A temple has been built on the hill and a 
 guinguette at "Annette et Lubin's" walk. There 
 is a new ball-room and a playhouse. The last 
 season was very numerous, viz., twelve hundred 
 and thirty persons. Gaming is excessive and the 
 profits of the bank enormous; its effects benefit 
 the country, which is very flourishing, and there 
 are great things done in roads, buildings, &c. 
 But the sweet, rural, undressed life and social 
 pleasures of old Spa are, I fancy, vanished, and 
 there is now as much ceremony, dress and luxury 
 of all sorts as in a capital. 
 
 1 H.R.H. the late Duke of York. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 371 
 
 Brussels, February loth, 1781. 
 
 On leaving Aix-la-Chapelle we spent two days 
 at Liège. We went to the apartments at Court, 
 where the Prince-bishop recognised us as old ac- 
 quaintances and asked us to dinner the following 
 day. 
 
 On our arrival at Brussels, where, par paren- 
 thèse, we were kept about an hour at the gates, 
 we installed ourselves at l'Hôtel d'Angleterre, and 
 were visited by our envoy, Mr. Fitzherbert, the 
 Nuncio Davoust and many more. The houses 
 here are very neat, and those building at the 
 east end are grand. We have dined with Prince 
 Starhemberg and Lord Trentham. 
 
 The redoute is here a stupid, dirty, ill-lighted 
 ball at the playhouse, with no pretty or well- 
 dressed women, excepting, perhaps, the Duchess 
 d'Arenberg and Countess de Beaufort, née Mérode. 
 It was excessively crowded, with a great deal of 
 dancing. We met many English and supped at 
 Mrs. St. Leger's. 
 
 We have Lord and Lady Torrington and 
 their daughters, Mr. Taylor with six children, 
 the Duke of St. Albans, Coombe of the Diabo- 
 liad. Lady Juliana and Miss Penn, Lord St. 
 Asaph, &c. 
 
 24 — 2 
 
2y2 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 At St. Gudule's, the " Delivery of the Keys," 
 by Rubens, is a fine picture, but the carnations 
 are shaded with blue and other unnatural tints. 
 The drawing is incorrect and the heads of the 
 sheep not quite exact. At the church, in the 
 Place Royale, monks and nuns were assisting at 
 mass. 
 
 Brussels, April ^rd, 178 1. 
 
 We had, on the Emperor's name-day, a superb 
 gala at Prince Starhemberg's. The Emperor is 
 expected here. He never would come during the 
 life of Prince Charles, not to displease his mother, 
 with whom the latter was a great favourite. They 
 say Prince Charles had grown quite foolish latterly, 
 but he still thinks a great deal of his own conse- 
 quence, and whenever anything occurred which 
 did not please him, his usual remark was : " Eh 
 bien, n'importe; je n'en serai pas moins le Prince 
 Charles de Lorraine."* 
 
 I This reminds me of one Mr. Thomas , only son 
 
 of Sir James , a wealthy Irish baronet, whom Scrope 
 
 Davies and others were wont to rally for his dulness, and 
 to call him "poor Tom." "Never mind," replied the other 
 one day, "you may call me 'poor Tom' as much as you 
 please, but when my father dies I shall be ' rich Sir James.' " 
 Scrope Davies asked Tom's valet what he thought of his 
 master. "Why, sir," rejoined Le Jasmin, "if I may be 
 BO bold, I should say that he is one of the grun-horned&st 
 gentlemen I ever saw," 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 373 
 
 I have made acquaintance with Mentelli, au- 
 thor of "Cosmographie Élémentaire," rather in a 
 curious way. I happened to buy his " Géographie 
 Comparée," and finding in it some errors, I made 
 a note of them and sent them to him without 
 signing my name. Not long after, the bookseller 
 
 brought me a letter directed to Mr. and 
 
 insisted upon its being for me, as the writer had 
 desired he should give it to the person who had 
 bought of him the only set sent to Brussels. 
 This letter was so flattering that I answered it 
 in my own name and have thus opened a cor- 
 respondence. 
 
 I have made an excursion to Antwerp. Its 
 approach is as pretty as a flat is capable of 
 being made. The fortifications are in poor repair, 
 but the citadel is taken care of. The tower of 
 the cathedral looks beautiful over the town. I 
 climbed to the top of the steeple, which is said 
 to measure four hundred and sixty-six feet. I 
 reckoned five hundred and thirty-five steps, and 
 there is a height above where it is impossible to 
 ascend. From the steeple I saw Bergen-op-Zoom, 
 the sea and the winding course of the Scheldt, 
 and an immense tract of country. The churches 
 abound with capital works of Reubens, Vandyck, 
 and other Flemish artists. At St. André is a very 
 
374 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 beautiful picture of Mary Queen of Scots, over a 
 monumental inscription erected to her honour. At 
 the cathedral I admired the famous "Descent from 
 the Cross," by Reubens. 
 
 Malines is quite in a flat. Its ramparts are 
 out of all repair, and its ditches, overgrown with 
 bushes and green weeds, are quite offensive. The 
 houses are in the old gable-end form. There are 
 many convents. The cathedral makes a great 
 figure, its tower being of an enormous height and 
 seen all over the country. 
 
 At Vilvorde, the Empress has built a stu- 
 pendous workhouse; but, from an unwillingness 
 in the States to rid the streets of beggars, no use 
 is made of it.* 
 
 Since my return I have been with a party 
 of friends to see Château Charles, a country- 
 house built and left unfinished by the late Prince 
 Charles of Lorraine. It stands well, on a hill 
 on the verge of the forest of Soignes. One sees 
 from it Antwerp, Malines, Louvain and Brussels. 
 The most remarkable things in the house are a 
 Japan dressing-room, which is beautiful, and a 
 
 I This immense building is now converted into a prison, 
 and is in no lack of inmates. It merits a visit from tra- 
 vellers, as the regulations are admirable. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 375 
 
 chair which goes up to the top of the house by 
 machinery/ 
 
 Ghent, June. 
 
 We have been remaining here in expectation 
 of seeing the Emperor, who, however, went round 
 by Antwerp ; therefore, having my family here, I 
 went to meet him at Ostend. He had arrived 
 there the night before and had been walking all 
 the morning about the port. I went to him at 
 eleven o'clock and had a tête-à-tête with him of 
 nearly an hour, after which he received all peti- 
 tions till one. General Terzy was with him. He 
 w'3 in the back or ordinary room, which was 
 seen through and through. Terzy stood in the 
 court and ushered each petitioner in. When I 
 came I was pushed in directly. A lady in weeds 
 was there with him. He laughed at the interview 
 in public, dismissed her, and began to talk to me 
 of the peace and made me walk up and down the 
 room, forgetting the people waiting. He showed 
 me the proposals of the people of Antwerp for 
 opening the port, drawn up by a Mr. Hatfield, an 
 Englishman. The citizens offered to defray the 
 
 I This château, built by the Archduke Charles of 
 Lorraine, is no longer in existence. It was situated to the 
 right of the road near the small town of Terveuren. 
 
376 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 whole expense, and well they might if what I 
 have heard be true, that the vast capital vested 
 in the commercial houses of that city at the period 
 of that commercial ruin still remains unimpaired 
 and in great part still in specie. The Emperor 
 relishes the idea, but he is a man of half measures 
 — a groper in politics, without sufficient steadiness 
 or understanding to adopt and carry through a 
 great and vigorous plan. 
 
 He also communicated to me the proposal 
 he and the Empress of Russia had sent over to 
 Belgioioso, offering their mediation for peace. The 
 plan was to appoint a congress in Holland; the 
 British and American ambassadors were to take 
 adjoining hotels and to open a communication, 
 and the other persons were not to enter upon 
 business till those two were agreed. The plan 
 was sent over to Lord Stormont. The Emperor 
 gave me a copy of it and promised to give me 
 the answer at Ghent. 
 
 I returned to Ghent that evening, and three 
 days afterwards Joseph H. arrived at the inn of 
 St. Sebastian. Next morning he reviewed a bat- 
 talion of Clairfait's regiment, and d'Arberg's 
 dragoons, and gave audiences till four. After 
 dinner I waited on him at the town-house, where 
 he had received the magistrates. He there com- 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 377 
 
 municated to me Lord Stormont's letter and 
 refusal of the mediation, at which he felt very 
 indignant. "But," said he, "how can one expect 
 anything reasonable in one's concerns with a man 
 que j'ai vu pendant deux ans fou!" 
 
 He showed me the official answer, and allowed 
 me to take a copy of it as well as of his letter. 
 He seemed quite delighted with the reception he 
 had met with at Antwerp and at Ghent, and de- 
 clared he believed the people would give him their 
 blood if he asked for it. I observed that they 
 naturally rejoiced at the sight of a sovereign, not 
 having seen one since Philip H. He started, and 
 said, **Au nom de Dieu ne me comparez pas à 
 lui ! " 
 
 The crowd was immense all day and all night 
 at the inn where he lodged; so that, in order to 
 pay Mrs. S. a visit (she being at an inn on the 
 same side of the square), he and General Terzy 
 were obliged to come by a back way, through little 
 gardens and closes behind the houses along the 
 river, from one house to the other. When they 
 entered the court where we occupied the ground- 
 floor, our landlord ushered in His Majesty with a 
 taper in each hand. He sat with us an hour, 
 then returned the same way. From the silence 
 enforced, and the candles taken about, the people 
 
qyS LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 thought it was the sacrament administering to 
 some sick person, and many knelt down. 
 
 He gave an amusing account of his entry at 
 Bruges, where petitions were presented to him by 
 a drôle de corps, une espèce de fou, qui avoit l'air 
 d'un Marguillier en perruque blanche de travers, qui me 
 parla Italien. Never was anything better painted, 
 especially as I had met the person at Bruges. 
 
 Next day, by his order, I attended him when 
 the crowd was a little dispersed. He had dined 
 early and was walking about the room eating 
 strawberries. When he left Ghent he went to 
 Antwerp, making a round by Oudenarde and 
 Most, without going to Brussels where the grandees 
 had prepared a brilliant reception. 
 
 June i^th. 
 
 We came by the barge to Bruges, and dined 
 in company with Mr. Burgess, confessor of the 
 Augustine nuns. I could not help laughing when 
 I saw him, for it was he who had presented the 
 petitions to the Emperor and whom he had made 
 such a joke of. My risibility was the more excited 
 when he boasted of His Imperial Majesty's great 
 politeness and attention to his speech. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 379 
 
 London, July ist. 
 
 Having brought a parcel from his brother, 
 General Langlois, I called upon Mr. Benjamin 
 Langlois, Under-Secretary of State for Foreign 
 Affairs. The conversation by chance fell upon the 
 question of peace, which he avowed to be the most 
 desirable of blessings if it could be brought about 
 by any honourable means. I observed, in reply, 
 that it was not likely the present administration 
 should obtain it easily, since they had rejected the 
 mediation of Joseph II., the only friend we had 
 left in the world. 
 
 He stared as I repeated, verbatim, all I knew, 
 without discovering my author. Nothing could 
 exceed his apparent dismay; he protested that he 
 was the only person not of the cabinet who had 
 seen the letter. I refused to say more, and the 
 next morning I received a note from Lord Stormont, 
 requesting the favour of me to call on him at his 
 office. I complied, and, having no reason for 
 further silence, relieved him from his fears of 
 treachery by acquainting him from whence I had 
 derived my knowledge. I amused myself, however, 
 a little with his perplexity and uneasiness before I 
 let him into my secret. 
 
380 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 London,'^ April i^th, 1785. 
 
 Spent a day and night at York with my 
 sister, then came to Parlington, where I was 
 received with great cordiaUty by the Benedict 
 and Benedictina. She does not appear to me 
 any better looking than she was two years ago, 
 when he thought her so plain ; but times and 
 opinions change, one knows not why. I suppose 
 her fondness for dogs has charmed him, though 
 no one is so little of a puppy as himself; the 
 rooms are full of them, big and little. 
 
 On my way I went to see Woburn. There 
 is a noble plantation of magnificent timber, fine 
 turf, a large house, but in a hole, and apparently 
 a damp situation. The rooms above stairs are 
 grand and there is a vast number of valuable 
 portraits, &c. I was much amused by my travels 
 to London on horseback, in the mode of ancient 
 days when there were neither stage coaches nor 
 good roads. In my opinion it is pleasanter than 
 going in a postchaise ; that is to say, when there 
 is no necessity for so doing ; for necessity, though 
 
 I Here there is a considerable hiatus in Mr. S.'s corre- 
 spondence. None of the letters written by him from Paris, 
 upon his visit to that place in 1783, are forthcoming; 
 several others, it must be observed, are also missing. This 
 will account for the want of connection that is visible now 
 and then. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 381 
 
 it has no law, must, by imposing a restraint, 
 take off all pleasure. However, I conclude they 
 did not mind it formerly, as people would now; 
 it seemed so much a thing of course. It is re- 
 corded of our family that one of our aunts, or 
 great aunts, rode on a pillion, full dressed in 
 hoop, &c., to a masquerade, from Capheaton to 
 Callaby, danced all night and returned after the 
 ball in the same manner — about thirty miles' dis- 
 tance. 
 
 London is full and dinners numerous. The 
 pleasantest lounge is Ranelagh, where one meets 
 all the world. The routs do not suit me. I 
 was at one last night at old Lady Littleton's, 
 which would have cured me of liking them if I 
 had been so inclined. I was almost the only 
 man, certainly the youngest. There were plenty 
 of stiif ladies de l'ancienne couVf with Lady Mary 
 Duncan at their head, in saques, hoops, and fly- 
 caps at the tops of their toupees. Lady Little- 
 ton's cockatoo was the only tolerable piece of life 
 in the apartment. 
 
 Perhaps you don't know this anecdote of 
 Lady Mary Duncan. She was an heiress, and 
 Sir William Duncan was her physician during a 
 severe illness. One day she told him she had 
 made up her mind to marry, and upon his asking 
 
382 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 the name of the fortunate chosen one, she bid 
 him go home and open the Bible, giving him 
 chapter and verse, and he would find out. He 
 did so, and thus he read : " Nathan said to 
 David, 'Thou art the man.*"* 
 
 I have met the Prince of Wales at several 
 assemblies. He is a fine looking, fair young man, 
 said to be very like the Pretender in his early 
 youth when he landed in Scotland. He is pleas- 
 ing and well mannered. 
 
 I have been staying at Cashiobury, where the 
 park is extensive. There is a fine hill and hang- 
 ing wood over a large stream of clear water 
 full of trout. The house is in the shape of a 
 Greek n. The left wing is more modern than 
 the right, which is very old. There are fine old 
 
 1 A very pretty French widow, Madame Esther de 
 
 , was long the object of the secret affection of a friend 
 
 of mine, who had not courage to disclose his sentiments. 
 But women's eyes are quick in these matters and she 
 soon discovered the state of his heart. Being together 
 one day, the subject chanced to fall upon the ancient 
 Testament, upon which she said to him : " Do you know 
 which of the Kings of that Testament I, and all discreet 
 women, should prefer for a lover?" "No," replied he. 
 " I will tell you," answered she. " C'est Assuérus ! " 
 "Comment I" exclaimed he. " Mais 1 " rejoined the fair 
 widow, with a very significant smile, "c'est parceque il 
 savoit aimer Esther (et se taire)." My friend took the 
 hint, threw himself at her feet, and was accepted. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 383' 
 
 trees în the shrubbery, but an air of neglect 
 prevails throughout. 
 
 Sewell, publisher of the " European Magazine," 
 a work now in vogue, has written to Elmsley to 
 request memoirs of me, and my picture, to publish 
 in September. He thinks it proper to comply 
 with the request, for fear of some ridiculous mis- 
 representations. 
 
 LondoUf February, 1785. 
 
 In consequence of your request that I should 
 write often and in detail, I will give you some 
 account of our goings-on in this gay metropolis, 
 where we have been yet but a short time, but 
 have had plenty to do with many people we 
 know and dinner invitations pouring in by cart- 
 loads. Yet I think you are better off in the 
 country, for the cold weather and the fogs here 
 are very unpleasant. 
 
 My business with ministry occasions my being 
 in town, as it is of no avail to trust one's interests 
 in other hands without attending to them one's-self. 
 However, I am hitherto not much further ad- 
 vanced, for Mr. Rose cannot get Mr. Pitt to give 
 
^84 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 an answer about the purchase.* I have written 
 to him myself, and received a very polite letter 
 in return, apologising and promising an answer 
 as soon as possible; but that is already a fort- 
 night since. Pazienza ! en attendant we amuse 
 ourselves. 
 
 Some time ago, at a great dinner at Mr. 
 Wilkes's, we met Barons Weissembourg and Lein- 
 kowitz, Barthélémy, Conway and Mademoiselle 
 d'Eon, who is a very curious personage. M. de 
 Ste. Foix, who has known her from her first 
 appearance, has given me her story. She was 
 always in male attire and supposed to be a man. 
 She began by being a commis in the bureau of 
 M. de Sauvigny, Intendant de Paris, and as a 
 délassement she attended the fencing school, where 
 she attained great skill, which gave her an inclina- 
 tion for the military profession, and she obtained 
 from the Intendant the post of "lieutenant de 
 milice de I'lsle de France," but continued to write 
 in his office. When France wished to renew its 
 connection with Prussia, it was thought proper 
 to send an obscure person, pour tâter le terrain, 
 and sound the inclinations of that Court. One 
 Douglas, a refugee Scotchman, was chosen for 
 
 I Alluding to the purchase of Mr. Swinburne's West- 
 Indian property. 
 
CHARLES-GENE VIE VE-LOUIS-A UG USTE- 
 
 ANDRE-TIMOTHÉE DE BEAUMONT 
 
 CHEVALIER D'EON 
 
 Unknown artist. Painting in the possession of 
 Mine. Léon Blazy, Paris 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 385 
 
 that purpose, and he took d'Eon for his secretary 
 and employed her in carrying his confidential 
 despatches backwards and forwards; which brought 
 him into contact with more people in France, and 
 with Ste. Foix at Vienna, where he was charge 
 d'affaires under Praslin. When the Marquis de 
 l'Hôpital was named ambassador to Russia, d'Eon 
 was thought likely to be useful, and was appointed 
 secretary with the brevet of captain of dragoons. 
 From that time till 1761 she was employed in the 
 diplomatic line, when she asked the Count de 
 Broglie to make her one of his aides-de-camp, and 
 in that capacity she made half a campaign. Next 
 year she came with Nivernois to England, to settle 
 the preliminaries of the peace ; and, having carried 
 over the ratification, was decorated with the croix 
 de St. Louis and employed under Count de 
 Guerchies. 
 
 The discovery of her sex, and her being 
 forced to put on female attire, arose, I believe, 
 from a duel she was engaged in ; but I have not 
 heard this very accurately accounted for, though 
 I am told it was certainly by the orders of the 
 French government. She is very masculine-looking 
 and ugly, and looks more like a captain of 
 dragoons than a gentle belle. She still wears the 
 croix de St. Louis. 
 
 VOL. I 25 
 
386 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 I thought she appeared quite out of her 
 element as she accompanied the ladies upstairs 
 after dinner and cast a longing look at the wine 
 she was leaving.^ 
 
 I have met Count Oginsky, chief of the Con- 
 federates of Poland, a man of spirit and enter- 
 prise, but, unfortunately, almost the only one of 
 that sort in a nation of degenerate, corrupted 
 wretches.* If Poland had six or seven like him, 
 perhaps Poniatowsky would never have been king, 
 nor Poland divided by its ancient enemies. 
 
 We had a magnificent concert at Mrs. Con- 
 way's, with all the first-rate performers — Tenducci, 
 Cramer and Cherubini. Theresa Decamp, a 
 charming girl of fifteen, played, danced and 
 acted vastly well. The Prince of Wales was 
 
 1 Charles Geneviève Louise Augusta d'Eon de Beau- 
 mont — such were the names of this celebrated personage, 
 who was born at Tonnère in 1728. The motives that in- 
 duced the Court of France to force d'Eon to disguise 
 himself as a woman have never been cleared up. The 
 doubts that hung over his sex were entirely removed, 
 however, at his death, which took place in London in 
 1810. A certificate to that effect was signed by Mr. Cope- 
 land, the Père Elysée, and in which it is distinctly stated 
 that d'Eon was a man. 
 
 2 The recent struggles in Poland have shown that the 
 people of that unfortunate country do not merit the severe 
 epithets applied to them by Mr. Swinburne. Had he said 
 ** spirited, but rash and improvident," he would have been 
 more just. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 387 
 
 there. Mrs. Fitzherbert wears his picture in full 
 view round her neck ; therefore, I suppose matters 
 are settled between them. 
 
 I dined shortly afterwards at General Paoli's, 
 Townley's, Madame Pinto's and Mrs. Walsing- 
 ham*s,* where we had agreeable parties. The 
 latter is a very pleasant woman, and very dis- 
 criminating, for she has bound up my Spanish 
 tour in the most magnificent folio imaginable, 
 with illustrations, of her own putting in, of 
 prints, landscapes and portraits appertaining to 
 the work. It was lying on the table, and met my 
 eye one day that I dined there; so, if I proclaim 
 her a woman of taste, you will say, "Je suis payé 
 pour cela." Her daughter is just come out in 
 the world and is highly accomplished as well as 
 amiable. Lord Exeter has had a folio illustrated 
 of my travels in the same sumptuous manner as 
 Mrs. W. 
 
 We have morning concerts at Mrs. Hamil- 
 ton's (Sir William's sister-in-law), where her 
 second daughter sings extremely well. I met 
 Mrs. Siddons there; she is handsome, but too 
 stately for common life. I thought her acting in 
 the Fair Penitent very fine. I am told she never 
 gets off her tragedy-queen manner, and if she asks 
 I Mother to the late Baroness de Ros. 
 
 25— a 
 
388 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 at dinner for "the mustard, if you please," or, 
 " m thank you for the potatoes," it is in the 
 same dignified style.* 
 
 I went to see Mrs. Abingdon act Scrub in the 
 Beau's Stratagem, for her benefit, which she made 
 an apology for having chosen, in an epilogue which 
 was wonderfully well received ; but I confess I was 
 surprised at her making such an extraordinary 
 choice of a part that is totally unsuited to her. 
 She was at Mrs. Walsingham's the other evening 
 playing at cards, when some people came in from 
 the play in raptures at Miss Farren's performance 
 of Lady Teazle." She was much piqued at these 
 encomiums. Fancying them meant at her, she 
 said: "It would be very strange if she could not 
 play Lady Teazle well, she must have seen me in 
 it so often ! '* 
 
 At Paoli's I met Boswell, whose "Tour in the 
 
 1 This is true. Mrs. Siddons almost always, to use 
 her own expression, spoke in the language of Shakspeare, 
 and accounted for it by her mind being constantly absorbed 
 in meditating upon the words of our immortal bard, so 
 that she identified herself, as it were, with his phraseology. 
 Ahnost the last time I met her she said, "How fares 
 your good lady?" "Passing well," answered I. "Bear 
 my kind greetings, and commend me to her favour," re- 
 plied Mrs. Siddons, waving her hand. Then again one 
 day at dinner I proposed to help her to something. "I 
 cry you mercy," said she, " I've feasted sumptuously." 
 
 2 Miss Farren, who married Lord Derby. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 389 
 
 Hebrides with Dr. Johnson" I had just been read- 
 ing. It entertained me exceedingly and I think 
 has a fund of good stuff in it. They say he has 
 a constant custom, before he retires to rest, of 
 writing down all the interesting parts of the con- 
 versations he has had in the course of the day. 
 This practice being known, his brother barristers 
 on the circuit made him sign a paper of penalties 
 to be recovered if he kept any journal or made 
 notes of private discourse during their journey 
 together. He says. Dr. Johnson thought very 
 meanly of Mrs. Montague, and declared he could 
 never get through her book upon Shakspeare. 
 That is my sentiment exactly. 
 
 I have been reading ** Cagliostro's Memoirs," 
 which are quite a romance. 
 
 People seem to be crazy about balloons, which 
 are quite the rage at present and even supersede 
 politics, notwithstanding that some of the new 
 Icari seem to have shared the fate of their pre- 
 decessor.^ I went to see Arnold's balloon go up. 
 
 I Apropos of balloons. This reminds me of Dr. F , 
 
 a learned philosopher, aeronaut, and great admirer of the 
 canine race to boot. He had a poodle, to which his family 
 were much attached. " Being desirous to make an experi- 
 ment upon the effects of temperature on ' Moustache,* I 
 resolved," said he, ** to take him up with me in a balloon, 
 but was compelled to renounce this interesting project." 
 
390 
 
 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 From his son's forcing himself in, the balloon 
 could not raise the parachute, which was dashed 
 against the pales and torn from the car. Arnold, 
 with half the gallery, was pulled down, and his 
 son left to fly up with only a few ropes to hang 
 by. He ascended rapidly, but soon, from the 
 machine's bursting or his opening the valve, it 
 descended, and was almost reduced to a heap of 
 flat rags, which brought him down unhurt into 
 the Thames, where a boat took him in directly. 
 It was a very affecting scene ; poor Arnold fainted 
 away. 
 
 March 2^th. 
 
 At a dinner at Mr. Vaughan's, in the city, I 
 
 met Romilly, Shipley, Bishop of St. Asaph, three 
 
 Americans, &c. The behaviour of the latter at 
 
 table was truly ridiculous; it is not possible to 
 
 conceive anything more vulgar and contrary to 
 
 the manners of polished countries. A low farmer 
 
 in England would not do so many awkward and 
 
 improper things because he would feel more 
 
 shamefacedness.* 
 
 "Why?" demanded I. "Why," replied he, ingenuously, 
 " it blew so hard that my wife interfered, and said it would 
 be too cruel to expose the poor dog to such peril." 
 
 I Amongst other anecdotes illustrative of American man. 
 ners, there is one that I heard lately worth recording, for, 
 &i non c vero, é ben trovato. An English officer, Colonel 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 39I 
 
 Mr. Peachey has shown me some curious 
 drawings of the pagoda of Mudina brought over 
 by Captain Paterson, who also penetrated fifteen 
 hundred miles into the continent of Africa from 
 the Cape of Good Hope. He shot two came- 
 leopards, one of which the lions ate in the night, 
 the other he has brought home stuffed. It is the 
 first seen in England, and the first in Europe 
 since the Caesars. He says the natives spoke con- 
 fidently of unicorns and that he was within a few 
 days' march of the country where they abound. 
 
 We had an agreeable dinner at Lady Betty 
 Mackenzie's; a small party — Lady Mary Coke, 
 Dutens, William Townsend, Horace Walpole, and 
 Poyntz. Mr. Mackenzie told me several anecdotes, 
 
 A , was travelling in a stage to New York, and was 
 
 extremely annoyed by a firee and enlightened citizen's 
 perpetually spitting across him out of the window. He 
 bore this patiently for some time, till at last he ventured 
 to remonstrate, when the other said, " Why, Colonel, I 
 estimate you're a-poking fun at me — that I do. Now, I'm 
 not a-going to chaw my own bilge-water, not for no man. 
 Besides, you need not look so thundering ugly. Why, I've 
 practised all my hfe, and could squirt through the eye of 
 a needle without touching the steel, let alone such a great 
 
 saliva box as that there window." Colonel A remained 
 
 tranquil for some time; at last his anger got up, and he 
 spat bang in his companion's face, exclaiming, *' I beg you 
 a thousand pardons, squire, but I've not practised as much 
 as you have. No doubt by the time we reach New York 
 I shall be as great a dab as you are." The other rubbed 
 his eye and remained bouche close. 
 
392 
 
 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 one of Lady Yarmouth. She was at a large dinner, 
 seated at no great distance from a rich clergyman 
 and some bishopric having just fallen in, he care- 
 lessly expressed a wish that he were so lucky to 
 be named to it. " Do you expect it ? " said she 
 to him. " No, indeed, I do not," he replied ; " I 
 fear I am not so fortunate." "What say you to 
 a bet ? " said she ; " I'll bet you five thousand 
 pounds that you will get it." " Done," said the 
 clergyman ; and soon after he had the vacant 
 see. 
 
 Lady Betty told us that after her uncle's death 
 (her father was the great Mac Cullamore, as he 
 was called amongst his clan) she and her sisters 
 could not bear to recognise as Duke of Argyll their 
 cousin Jack (first cousin to her father), having 
 always been accustomed to dislike and quarrel with 
 him.^ He called on them, and sat some time, but 
 nothing could prevail on these girls to give him 
 the title of my Lord Duke. At last he rang the 
 bell for his carriage, and when the servant came 
 he gave no orders, leaving to them to say, " His 
 Grace's carriage " ; but Lady Betty was determined 
 not to do so, and pointing to him, she said, "The 
 carriage I the carriage ! " 
 
 I John, fourth Duke of Argyll. Lady Betty Mackenzie 
 and Lady Mary Coke were daughters of John, second Duke. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 393 
 
 Lady Betty could never have been pretty, but 
 they say Lady Mary was. It must have been in 
 days of yore indeed, for she is now so deadly pale 
 that her face is absolutely cadaverous. They say 
 Mr. Walpole was in love with her, but she was 
 persuaded to marry Lord Coke, who was quite a 
 madman, and shut her up for a long time in a 
 cage. 
 
 On Thursday, at Almack's, the Prince of 
 Wales never moved from Mrs. Fitzherbert's side 
 and supped en petit comité with her, Lady Beau- 
 champ, Lady Horatio Waldegrave and Mrs. 
 Musters, who all paid her the deference they 
 would to a Princess of Wales. About two she 
 yawned, and His Royal Highness, pulling out his 
 watch, showed her the hour. Up she rose, he 
 called her chair, and off she went, he following 
 directly. 
 
 We spent a day at Mrs. Garrick's villa at 
 Hampton, which is very pretty and must be still 
 more so in the summer. We had Mrs. Walsingham, 
 Mrs. Wilmot, Mr. Bowdler and Miss Hannah More. 
 Mrs. Garrick is a good-natured and rather agreeable 
 woman. She and Garrick were never asunder for 
 twenty-four hours. She was educated and patron- 
 ised by Lady Burlington, who paid her great 
 attention when she was Mademoiselle Violetta, 
 
394 
 
 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 dancing on the stage. The moment her dance 
 was over she was summoned to Lady B.*s box, 
 to remain there until it was her turn to perform 
 again. 
 
 She has not the least appearance of ever 
 having been pretty; has very small eyes and a 
 wide mouth. Her good - humour and elegance 
 captivated the heart of Garrick, and it appears 
 that she not only captured but retained it during 
 life. She has a box at Drury Lane, bestowed on 
 her by the managers, rather in the skies. She 
 lent it us to see the Beggar's Opera, which was 
 ill - attended, not as it must have been in those 
 days when it made ''Rich gay and Gay rich." 
 
 May igth. 
 
 We had a turtle dinner at Wilkes's yesterday. 
 I had met him the day before on the parade, and 
 the warmth of the weather and walk had carried 
 off all the powder from his bald pate. He is a 
 great complimenter and would stand talking to 
 me with his hat in his hand. A drummer and 
 his son passed us, and as I was going their way 
 I overheard their discourse. " What a queer- 
 looking bald fellow that was," said the boy. 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 395 
 
 " Don't you know him ? " replied the other ; " 'tis 
 Johnny Wilkes, and that bald head has more 
 brains in it than all our regiments put together, 
 drummers and all." I told this to Wilkes and it 
 made him chuckle. He was very amusing and 
 told me several droll things. 
 
 In 1783-4, the House of Commons went up 
 every day with an address to the King, praying 
 to remove Pitt and his ministry. The King always 
 received them on his throne and gave them an 
 answer. One of these days, at the club, George 
 Selv^n had been asking the Prince of Wales some 
 questions, to which he did not choose to reply 
 otherwise than by " Pshaw ! nonsense 1 " Not 
 long after, as they were both leaning on the 
 balcony looking at the Speaker going to Court, 
 the Prince said, " I wonder what will be His 
 Majesty's most gracious answer ?" "I cannot 
 tell," answered George Selwyn, ** what may be 
 the gracious answer of His prescrit Majesty; but I 
 can tell what will be the answer of our next 
 gracious sovereign." " Well, what will it be ? " 
 said the Prince. " Nonsense ! " Selwyn replied. 
 
 The other day, at a dinner in company with 
 the Prince of Wales, Wilkes being called upon 
 for a toast gave " The King, and long life to 
 himi" — "Since when have you become so loyal, 
 
396 LETTERS FROM THE 
 
 Wilkes ? " said the Prince, laughing. ** Ever since 
 I have had the honour of knowing your Royal 
 Highness," said he, with a respectful bow. 
 
 When the Prince was a little boy, having 
 been very troublesome in his father's room and 
 several times turned out of it by him, he returned 
 at last, and, thrusting his head into the doorway, 
 screamed out, " Wilkes and Liberty ! " 
 
 Wilkes told me that Churchill had sold to 
 George Kearsley twelve sermons for five hundred 
 pounds, and that he had only nine to produce. 
 The bookseller would not pay the money unless 
 the number was complete, so Wilkes himself 
 composed the three wanting, which were so much 
 superior (for Churchill wrote bad verse) that he 
 was afraid they would be found out not to be by 
 the same author as the other nine. 
 
 When Churchill was dying at Boulogne, two 
 capuchins insisted upon seeing and exhorting him, 
 which Wilkes daily refused. At last he persuaded 
 them to depart by hinting the danger they would 
 run of being perverted by the sick man, who was 
 a divine and one of the most eloquent of the 
 Church of England. 
 
 What a fine sample it is of party spirit to 
 choose Alderman Skinner for the auctioneer of 
 the Portland Museum — although he does not 
 
COURTS OF PARIS, NAPLES, ETC. 397 
 
 know a -cameo from an intaglio, nor a cockleshell 
 from a nautilus — merely because he is a stickler 
 in the City for the coalition and is chairman of 
 the committee formed against the administration. 
 
Joiôt cf cJlluôttationô 
 
 Mettezâ H^zttten at the Stid of the Sigkteentk Gentuzy 
 
 y O LU ME I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 MARIE-THÉRÈSE OF AUSTRIA Fronts. 
 
 CHARLES IV, KING OF SPAIN l6o 
 
 DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE • I92 
 
 CH.-M. DE TALLEYRAND-Pe'rIGORD 304 
 
 CHEVALIER D'EON 384 
 
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