fusion ensued. The plunging and kicking of the horses, and the shouts of the grooms who swung at their necks, continued till, at the sound of trumpet, the cord fell, and they all set off more regularly than could have been anticipated. Some minutes after, a rocket arose from the Piazza di Venezia, and a cannon from S. Angelo answered it; thus proclaiming when, and by which of the animals, the race had been won.

Before the races, but after the clearing away of the crowd, the French Ambassador paraded the Corso in his state carriages; a privilege, the exercise of which he ought to have enjoyed on Jeudi Gras, but which, on account of the rain, had been deferred till the Saturday following, for on Friday no masquerading was allowed; as, at Rome, that day of the week is kept in the same manner as Sundays are said to be observed in England. No masks are seen, no theatres or balls are held on Fridays.

On every other day the sort of amusement I have described was regularly repeated; but all was finished and quiet at six o'clock. On Mardi Gras, however,-the last day of the Carnival,the sport was protracted until eight in the evening. In then consisted in the illumination of

the windows on the Corso, and in the assembling of the people in that street: each person bore in his hand a lighted taper, and each endeavoured to extinguish those of his play-fellows. This fun occasioned, however, one or two very ridiculous and innocent, at least in their consequences, duels between foreigners, who did not understand the joke.

Such are the popular amusements of Carnival; for the gens comme il faut-an epithet now reestablished in French phraseology, and which, taken in its literal meaning as the commencement of a designation, the remainder of which is suppressed as unnecessary, might be heard with indifference by the most democratic ears, for the gens comme il faut pour ces choses là there were given a few masked balls, in which scarcely any characters were supported; most of the ladies going in fancy dresses, and men in dominos, which they immediately laid aside. Other evening parties were numerous and well attended. But all such fêtes are now at an end; the "magician has put on our foreheads the mar"vellous dust, and has pronounced over us the

magical words," which have put to flight the illusions of Carnival, and made us consent

"To live for forty days on ill-drest fishes,
"Because we have no sauces to our stews."

The last line does not, however, apply; as English fish-sauces are now to be found in every Italian capital. And as meat is allowed by all Curés, to whom a certificate of ill health, signed by a physician, is presented, the facility of obtaining such permissions may be imagined; as, also, the facility with which they are abused.

All the English travellers are now preparing to depart for Naples, to pass there the time of Lent: and the Romans are unable to conceal the joy they feel at their departure. This sentiment is curious; but I have perceived the same to be prevalent in every part of Italy. Adieu.

LETTER XI.

20th March, 1824.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

As I was returning on the 16th

from the walk on Monte Pincio, I perceived several persons running towards the Porta del Popolo; those I interrogated only knew that something had happened in that direction-what they were unable to say. An hour afterwards, as we were sitting down to dinner, a woman servant entered, apparently horror struck, saying that an English young lady had been drowned in the Tiber; that it was not yet certain who but that she feared it was "la Rosina, quella "bella, bella," whom she had seen, a few hours before, mounting her horse in the Piazza di

Spagna. Conceive our anxious uncertainty ! Though not personally acquainted with Miss Rose B, I had, in every assembly, admired, in common with all Rome, the beauty and amiability of this bouton de rose-rose-bud-as she was universally called; and had witnessed proofs of the kindness and goodness of her disposition. Her misfortune could no longer be doubted: within one hour after it had taken place, all my quarter of the town knew of it, and was in confusion; so general was the sympathy her fate excited.

Of the many different versions in which her catastrophe has been related, the following appears the most exact, and the most probable. Miss B, with the relations with whom she lived, and a party of ladies, after crossing on horseback the Ponte Molle, turned down on the right, and followed the bank of the Tiber. The road was sufficiently safe, until, arriving at an inclosure, that reaches nearly to the edge of the stream, they found the gate through which they had intended to pass shut. One of the party proposed passing between the hedge of the field and the river; and accordingly led the way. The horse of Miss B, whether startled at an