whole a light, airy, and compact appearance. Over one of the altars is a beautiful painting of Baroccio. I should prefer Perugia to any town, not a capital, I have seen in Italy: its inhabitants amount to ten or twelve thousand.

It was dark, when, having descended the woody sides of a steep hill, and followed for some time the banks of the Thrasymene, we called up the keepers of a newly-established, uncomfortable inn. We were soon served at supper by five waiters; who, with their hats on their heads, ran against one another, and caused great confusion by their bustling, awkward goodwill. Such were the inconveniences we suffered on the shores of the Thrasymene! I repeated Dido's "exoriare aliquis...," but applied it to the establishing of an opposition tavern. Nevertheless, as that we lodged at was evidently in the high road toward perfection, I do not doubt but that half its waiters, and all their hats, will soon stay below stairs; when it will be a most desirable gite for classical or picturesque travellers.

On the following day, leaving Cortona on the right, we refreshed at Arezzo. It was not without great pleasure that I again heard good

Italian spoken by the people,-by a people, whose dress and appearance shewed that they respected themselves, and their own ease and comfort, and did not pass their lives as if waiting for death to deliver them from evils and inconveniences they were themselves too slothful to remedy;—that I again saw the carefully, neatly cultivated territory of Florence, and the black plumes of the trim peasant girls, who were walking in the market streets of the villages, with a nosegay of flowers at their breasts, and a string of roses round their white straw or black beaver hats; for the women of Tuscany, until of a "certain age," wear these hats, of the same shape as those of the men, surmounted by large black plumes, which give them a gay, shewy appearance.

A lone but well-served inn was our sleepingplace for the next night. On the morning following we began the last day's journey; and, traversing a country, the aspect of which improved with every step we made, we at length looked down on the pleasing, contented-looking plain of Florence, covered with a slight white haze, that reflected the beams of the sun, then descending behind the dome and its beautiful

belfry, and glittering through the slight fretwork of its Gothic windows.

Since leaving Monterosi, we had met but few pilgrims; most of them being, as I have before said, from Tuscany, they choose the road through Sienna, it being the shorter of the Adieu.

two.

LETTER XL.

Florence, 21st May, 1825.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

You cannot conceive the pleasure I at first felt on again finding myself in a handsome, quiet, gentlemanlike, if I may so call it, town. Here is not the sullen, melancholy discontent of Rome; or the bustle, the noise, and the rags of Naples; here palaces and cottages are not intermixed indifferently in the same street; here, instead of "immondezari-dunghills” fuming at every step, here the streets and squares are adorned with bronzes and sculptures of Donatello and Gian Bologna; for here is the true country of the fine arts. Rome itself cannot dispute with it this title; which Florence claims

and supports by the extensive trade it makes of them, by its innumerable shops of alabaster sculpture, by the galleries it contains, and, above all, by the taste shewn by the people, and the interest they take in them, for here the body of the people are amateurs. At Rome the public galleries are open only twice a week; on those days they are frequented solely by artists or foreigners, never by a disinterested Roman of any class. At Florence, the Grand Duke Leopold made a present of the gallery to the nation, and declared it the property of the state: and the state is worthy of it. It is open to the public on all days, except Sundays and festivals; persons are appointed to conduct visiters round the apartments, and to explain the contents to them: these custodi are most strictly forbidden to receive any remuneration. It is true, that few Florentines of the higher ranks are seen in the gallery; but I scarcely ever entered it without finding the custode engaged in explaining to fifteen or twenty men and women, of the town and country, peasants and common soldiers,-and these latter are numerous, all of whom admire with discretion, and listen with attention to the kind and good-natured illustrations of the keeper. I