young’s TRAVELS in FRANCE.

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with terrible eyes in Italy ; in the north of Europe they have attra&ive powers; herethey have every fort of power; the fphere of the activity of an eye beam is enlarged,and he who travels as I do for the plough, mull take care, as I fhall in future, to keep outof the reach of it. From the ramparts of the town, below the houfe of the count deBrembate, there is a profpefl: of fertile land, hardly to be equalled. In front, to thefouth, a range of Appenines rifes above the fog, that hangs over a part of the plain.To the weft, an innnenfe curve of the Alps, that bound the Milanefe and Piedmont;their heads uninterruptedly in fnow, form one of the fineft mountain-barriers to beimagined. To the eaft, the view an unbroken, unlimited level. This vaft plain, at one’sfeet, feems a level wood, with towns, churches, towers, and houfes. Near Bergamo , theangle of vifion permits the fields to be feen, and therefore more pidlurefque. Similarfeatures mull; givWimilar profpects, this refembles that of the Superga. It is as hot to-day, and every day of fun-fhine, as in England in June.

The 18th. Yefterday I agreed with a vetturino, to take me this morning, at fix o’clock,to Brefcia ; but not being perfectly well, I infifted that he fhould not come for mewithout his vetlura, nor before the time. The rafeal knocked me up at five, and thenwithout the carriage; it was only four fteps, he faid, and wanted to hurry away mytrunk. I begin to know them, and therefore fteadily refufed to ftir : after much vainperfuafion, away they went, and in three quarters of an hour returned. The fellowdrove me a full mile and half, on the road to Brefcia, to an inn, where there was ano-ther vetturino, to whom he had fold me; and there I found myfelf, packed with threeother perfons, in the worft place ; to the contrary of all which the fcoundrel had fignedan agreement. My expreflions of anger only got me laughed at. The u'orld has notfucha fetof villains as thefe vetturini. I have read guides and directories, and travels,that fpeak of this way of journeying as paffable ;—if not good, very bearable ; but theymuftbe very partial, or very carelefs, if they mention them without indignation. Theircarriages are wretched, open, crazy,jolting, dirty dung-carts; and as to their horfes, Ithought, till I faw them, that the Irifh garrans had no rivals on the globe ; but the ca-valli de vetturini convinced me of the error. My company were two merchant-likepeople, and a young man going to the univerfity of Padua ; the tw'o firft repeating pray-ers, and counting beads. How the country came to be well irrigated, is a queftion ?Pater-nofters will neither dig canals, nor make cheefe.-32 miles.

The 19th. I had letters for Signore Pilati, fecretary to the fociety of agriculture;he was in the country at his brother’s farm, whither I went with pleafure ; he was tointroduce me to Count Corniano, the prefident, but he is abfent, twenty miles out ofmy road. In the evening to the opera ; the houfe large, but ugly : the Avara, badlyafted ; and the tafte of the audience (the pit, not the boxes, fhew a nation) ftill worfe.Puns, conceits, diftortions, and exaggerated action, gained great applaufe. A child,telling his name, of ten or a dozen hard fyllables, and an exaggerated mimickry of at-tempting to repeat them, were encored more violently than the fineft airs would havebeen. This depravity of national tafte is amazing, amonglt a people that have producedfuch proofs of genius inalmoft every walk of life.

The 20th. After a repetition of the old plagues, to find a vetturino for Verona, agreeat laft at the extravagant price of 33 lire. Depart, after dinner, with a young womanand a boy of eight or nine years old. She had not two ideas beyond her fnuff-box, anda crucifix. I have no opinion of Venetian police, from the villainous roads through alltheir territory ; they confift every where of great ftonts, broken pavements, or mud.The country is not near fo rich as the Milanefe, but all thickly inclofed with hedges,full of mulberries j and incumbered, to ufe Profeffor Symonds’s juft expreffion, with

pollards