ENGLISH YOUNG LADIES. The Clergyman-Village Inn-Rectory-The Ladies-White Hands. WHEN, after having lost property and country, I carried on the same trade as Dionysius after he lost the crown, and was consoling myself in this troublesome profession, and trying to ennoble it in my own eyes by the example of Milton, who before he became one of Cromwell's secretaries had played the part of the schoolmaster, and by the example also of Machiavel, who, after having been secretary to the Florentine republic, and many times ambassador, found himself almost reduced to the necessity of practising this profession in some Tuscan village,*—I received a polite note from a clergyman of the English church, requesting me to give lessons in Italian to his three daughters: I complied without hesitation. And now behold me, one fine morning, mounted on a hired horse (which might compete with an Italian brigliadoro), riding off at a smart trot to a village (which the English rather "I must remain then in my rags, without being able to find any man to remember my services, or think me good for anything. But it is impossible that I can do so long, because I am daily growing poorer, and I foresee, that if God does not show himself more favourable to me, I shall be forced to forsake my house, and hire myself for a teacher or clerk to some magistrate, since I can do no otherwise,-or establish myself in some remote corner of the land, and teach children to read and write, leaving my party here to believe me dead." So wrote this great and good Italian to Francisco Vettori, on the 3d August, 1514. emphatically call a town), where the clergyman's family resided. This town by hyperbole is inhabited solely by small farmers. The houses are of the natural red colour of brick, so disagreeable to the eye, yet nevertheless so general in England and Scotland, except the inns, which are white-washed, and the clergyman's house, which might be termed the sun of the village. I alighted at an inn, which was neat, and furnished with every convenience: such as would not be found in one of the most superb cities in Italy. When English houses are to be mentioned, it is impossible not to follow the example of Homer, and constantly repeat the same epithet "neat." The fire had already long been burning in the strangers' room, the newspapers on the table promised a compensation for the rigid silence that stage Ꮓ coach passengers observe: on one shelf were brushes, that a spotless purity might be preserved, on another a book of religious morals, and writing materials, clean and unstained. I rested myself at my ease, gazing at the engravings of thirty or forty years old, which, unhappy elves! from great cities and elegant apartments, generally descend in their latter days to embellish the humble dwellings of some rustic village. My repose was not in the least disturbed by those inhospitable offers the landlords make every moment in Italy, by way of getting off their old stale provisions; seasoned with panegyrics just about as true as panegyrics usually are. I rang the bell when it pleased me ;-a servant girl instantly appeared; I ordered breakfast-breakfast instantly appeared: I rang again when I had done, and the girl again appeared: I ordered her to clear away, and everything vanished in the twinkling of an eye; the whole was done by a few magic monosyllables. Eleven o'clock struck; it was the hour appointed for the lesson in England, time is all distributed, -there is no margin, punctuality is more than a duty. Even I, therefore, exact as the church-clock, entered at the instant the garden in front of the clergyman's house, filled with shrubs and flowers, with pathways unsoiled by the smallest litter, thick-planted with shady trees in front, not so much to protect the house from the sun and wind, as to screen it from the impertinent gaze of the passengers. In this country, modesty everywhere holds dominion; neither houses nor inhabitants thrust themselves forward with that boldness and confidence which seem natural |