the latter is very obligingly inserted in a parenthesis. We are also very gravely told of a tree called Frasino (frassino) and of the shrubs Liquorizia, Sommaso, and Laurier-rose; which, "being interpreted," are the Ash, Liquorice, Sumach, and Rose-bay.

Let us not, however, defraud Mr. Beckford of his due measure of praise. His long residence abroad has given a justness and a minuteness to some of his observations, which stamp them with a real value. He seldom allows prejudice or nationality to obscure his own good sense; and his manner is, for the most part, lively and entertaining, for he says much in a small compass, and usually says it well. Whoever intends to make the tour of Italy may derive many useful hints from his diversified pages, especially from his excellent directions concerning economy. His account of some of the more sequestered and remote districts, which are seldom visited by the traveller, and the manners and customs of whose inhabitants frequently furnish ample room for variety and interest of remark, will invite the curiosity of those readers who love to deviate from the beaten track. To such, his journeys to Vallombrosa and the convents on the Appenines, and his excursions to Calci, Certosa, &c. will afford a pleasing relief from the more hackneyed subjects of observation. We might visit many villas in England before we met with such a prohibition as is stuck up in the drawing room of the villa Prini- Che non sia lecito a chichessia pisciar sopra le scale.

For the sake of those whose health and fortune have been injured, we extract these notices of Ma sa, a small town four posts from Pisa.

'The orange and lemon trees suffer so little from the winter, that in the month of January many were covered with tipe fruit, and still in flower. The aloes had fruited in the open air, and yet the neigh. bouring mountains were covered with snow. In short, you see win. ter, but do not fecl it; and strangers excepted, none approach a fire.

Furnished lodgings may be had for ten sequins a month, linen, &c. included. A chair costs fifteen Florence livres a month. A coach is unnecessary. A servant is paid four crowns, and keeps himself; if you keep him, he then has ten pauls only (five shillings): and I am informed, that a maid does all the work of the house and kitchen in a Massa family, besides waiting on the lady, for three livres a month (two shillings and threepence). The price of a box at the Theatre for the Carnival, is three sequins: you pay at the door six soldi florentini (about threepence English), or may be alb n• néd, for seven pauls. The best beef is half a paul a pound; pork the same; sea fish, six soldi; a fowl, two pauls; a capon, three; a pigeon, one. The Massa livre is somewhat less than half the value

of

of the Florentine, and you will generally observe, that where the livre is small, moncy is scarce, and consequently a sequin at Massa will go as far as two in Tuscany.

The best families make a figure with five hundred sequins a year. Few have that income, none exceed it. The poorest of the Nobility may have from a hundred to a hundred and fifty sequins, and no more. If you inquire how they contrive to live on so little,-I believe you will find, by selling the corn of the month of June, before the end of the Carnival. I am only answerable for the mildness of the climate; economy of living; and civility of the inhabitants. My visit being to a person who was lodged in the palace, I can give no account of the accommodation: I fear it is indifferent; but, without doubt, if two or three English families were to establish themselves at Massa, they would soon find every convenience that is necessary.'

The ensuing miscellaneous strictures, on the habits and customs of the Florentines, will exemplify the light and easy manner in which the author not unfrequently indulges:

Dress is no article of expence. You are not obliged, as in France, to have different clothes for the different seasons: you are at liberty to dress as you please; and an English frock may be worn throughout the year. We are told, that a country gentleman appeared at the Opera at Paris the beginning of autumn in his summer suit: he was stared at as a monster, and babit d'eté, habit d'eté was repeated all over the theatre. A friend of ours, by some strange fatality, wore a pair of point-ruffles in the month of May: the impropriety would have utterly ruined another man ;-this gentleman, who is a man of wit, excused himself by saying he had a cold. The Florentines are too wise to trouble themselves with numberless suits of clothes, for the sole benefit of their tailors. They go to the Opera in frocks; and during the Carnival, to the Balls in bauttes. They have a dress coat, and a Gala carriage; the latter lasts them their lives,-nor do they, like some that shall be nameless, change their carriages every two or three years to enrich their coachmakers. They have also Gala liveries; but they are made to last as long as they can. Every day liveries must last two years: those who make a figure, give two; one for the summer, the other for the winter,-but each is to last

two seasons.

I cannot commend their taste, their very magnificence is inelegant. Behind the same carriage you will frequently see one footman very tall, the other very short. I have just met two such, who, being cloathed in green, looked like the sign of Robin Hood and Little John. You will also see one with a cocked hat, the other with a round one. There is a want of feeling in these trifles somewhat beyond a want of taste. Strictly speaking, even their hair should be dressed alike; and, if they wear queues, they should be of equal length.

In all countries some customs are remarkable. When first I knew Florence, about twenty years ago, an odd custom prevailed at Court-all the men curtsied to the Grand Duke and the Grand

Duchess;

Duchess; foreigners only were permitted to bow, who were supposed to know no better.

A refusal is expressed by the fingers in Italy as in other countries by the head. A common salutation is with the fingers up; and they call you, with the fingers down.

It is said that the voice, in speaking, seldom rises higher, or sinks lower than three notes and a half. It is otherwise here; they change sometimes from their natural voice to a falsetto, till you are ready to laugh in their faces.

• They tell you, that if it rains on the third of April, it is to continue to rain for forty days after. We run a risk of losing all our faith in this country.

The Florentine Nobility were, as I have said, originally merchants; book keepers were then necessary. They have retained the custom ever since, and in some families not less than eight or ten of those persons are constantly employed-I know not how.

"The Noblesse sell wine, and hang out the sign of an empty fask at the Palace window. A retail trade, like this of the Florentine Nobility, an English wine merchant would think beneath his dignity. The best tap going at present is that of the Bishop of Fiesole.

It is ridiculous to see a Sposa Monaca dressed out to the height of the fashion, and driven about from one end of the town to the other. Mercy on us, what a mistake is here!-Content more easily proceeds from ignorance than conviction; nor is it prudent to indulge in any pleasures that are not always within our reach.

4

The kitchen frequently is at the top of the house. I asked a reason of a Florentine friend, and he gave me two; one, he said, was to prevent the smoke of the charcoal and smell of the dinner; the other, to render it more difficult for the servants to carry any thing away. As they are at board wages, the vulgar adage, safe bind, safe find, is never forgotten. Their masters know they are noc scrupulous, and never put temptation in their

way.

It was the custom in the time of JUVENAL to blow the fire with their mouths,-it is so now. I have a fellow in my family whose mouth is better than any bellows.

The extreme unction which is administered to those who are dying, is carried publicly, and in procession:-a custom as improper as unnecessary. The tinkling bell and hoarse voices of those that accompany it, are unpleasant sounds even to those who are well; and, at a time of epidemy, when deaths are frequent, might be fatal to those who are sick.-A Spanish proverb says:-" If you think you shall die, you will die."

They wear mourning but a short time for the nearest relation, and that not constantly. I have known a husband marry two months after his wife's decease. It is true he was an elderly gentleman, and had no time to lose.

'Ladies in child-bed keep the house for forty days, and do not get up till the twelfth day; yet many Contadinas, after the third day, are out at work in the fields. I have read that in some parts of

America

America the wife is no sooner delivered of her burden than she gets up, and her husband keeps his bed; she does the work of the house, and he goes through all the ceremonies of a lady in the straw. I had nearly forgotten one custom that I think will surprise you: they feed their cats, and poison their dogs. Though held in less veneration in Italy than in Egypt, the cat still seems to be an object of general affection. Florence swarms with them. Here are people who make a trade of feeding them, and are paid by the inhabitants, who, notwithstanding their great economy, keep more cats than catch mice, Dogs, on the other hand, are scarce :-that amiable and friendly animal is not only neglected, but, during the summer months, is poisoned in the streets. If you are here in the summer take care of Rover.

I must leave off. -My house is in an uproar of laughter, at the expence of a poor cobler, my opposite neighbour. My servant having frequently missed different sums of money out of a drawer in my bed-chamber, he suspected the porter, and engaged his friend the cobler to watch and detect him. The affair did not appear difficult, -the money was always taken on a Monday, which was the day my weekly bills were settled; it was also observed, that the rob bery was committed at the time the other servants were all of them at dinner these circumstances caused the porter to be suspected; and it was thought that he used a false key, as the drawer was kept constantly locked. The cobler, who had readily accepted the office, made light of it; he used the common expression of his coun trymen, lascia fare,-and longed for the arrival of Monday to shew his prowess. At length Monday came, and the honest cobler, determined to take the thief, placed himself where he could best ob. serve all that passed in the chamber, and catch him in the fact. It was not long before he appeared :-he was cautious and cunning,he secured the door, he listened if all was quiet-there was a closet in the room, he examined it carefully, and then went to the chest of drawers to begin his operation.-The cobler now thought he had him safe enough,-but unluckily, as the Devil would have it, the parter, recollecting that he had not looked under the bed, lifted up the valance, and discovered our friend.--It is not easy to conceive the ridiculous figure the poor cobler made, lugged out from his hiding. place, taken prisoner, and brought down stai. s, as a culprit, by the very thief he had promised to detect. He seems determined never to turn thief-taker again. The porter is discharged.'

Mr. Beckford can likewise moralize with justice and feeling on some of the most striking characters that are portrayed in history:

Though I admire,' says he, the brilliant actions of a hero, it is seldom I can approve his sentiments. In Casar, for instance, I see conduct and activity beyond all example; a daring spirit which no peril could intimidate, nor any difficulties could subdue: sang froid in danger, resources in distress, and fortune ever favorable.but was he not, this friend of Catiline, profligate, ambitious, and cruel ?-as void of principle, as of humanity?-a curse to other nations, and a tyrant

το

to his own?-more dreadful than even pestilence or famine?-Rivers of tears, and seas of blood, were the price of every triumph, and he covered his bald head with laurel by the butchery of his fellowcreatures*.'

In the author's reprobation of arbitrary imprisonment, we recognize the manly and humane language of an enlightened Briton:

As the

'Confinement,' he observes, without a trial is the height of despotism. Delay in criminal examinations is cruelty, since it inflicts an unnecessary punishment on the innocent. Could I have persuaded myself to enter those dreary mansions of confined misery, I should have been curious to see if they are kept sweet and clean to prevent infection; if the lesser villains are kept separate from those whose crimes are more atrocious; and the men from the women. innocent man is frequently confined, as well as the guilty, common justice requires that his health may not suffer; and for your own sakes, Lords of the universe, take care that his morals be not cor rupted. The prosperity of a country depends much on its principles and morality. Carthage and Rome on their decline were cruel, immoral, and unjust.'

Humanity, however, seems not to have guided our traveller's pen, when he recommends the flogging of insolvent debtors, in a commercial country. The expediency of whipping, as a punishment, is at best problematical; and in every country in which commercial transactions are extended and multiplied, there will be many innocent though unfortunate bankrupts. Mr. Beckford will also permit us to express our unqualified regret, that he should plead in behalf of cock-fighting, bull-bait ing, &c. practices which are so abhorrent from the genuine spirit of civilization and of Christianity. True bravery and heroism are very dissimilar from ferocity, and derive their origin as well as their support from very different principles and dispositions. Indeed, could it be proved that the exhibition of barbarous scenes was requisite to the defence of our country, we should then not hesitate to aver that our country was unworthy of being defended.

It only remains to observe that, with the exceptions to which we have adverted, these Letters may considerably contribute to the amusement and instruction of the public.

By cruelty nothing more is meant than that which is necessarily included in a life unnecessarily dedicated to the destruction of mankind. CÆSAR was humanity itself compared with the cowardly cut-throats who immediately succeeded him."

REY. OCT. 1805.

L

ART.