ably than you may imagine. My mornings were taken up with bathing, which I conducted in the following manner.

From our villa to the port I walked, as is there the custom, under a large umbrella, which, at the end of the season, was completely burnt out by the sun: I was still too much of a foreigner to carry in the other hand the large green fan generally made use of by the Livornesi, particularly the priests. Arrived near the pier, I discovered my boatman, Beppo, attired in his well-known dress-shoes without stockings, white pantaloons, red waistcoat, no coat, and on his head of black curly hair a large white straw hat, surrounded with a black band. His hand was raised to his eyes to defend them from the sun, while he endeavoured to descry if I was the "Milordo" he expected. When he had satisfied himself on this point, I saw him draw up to the pier his neatly-arranged boat, and touch his hat as I entered it; then, after he had cleared his way through the surrounding bathing boats, he would begin a series of observations on the American ships, which, laden with cotton or pepper, had arrived since the preceding day. In the midst of these remarks, he would some

times stop short, and point out a passing boat, in which was Iturbide, the ex-emperor of Mexico, afterwards shot when he undertook his rash expedition against the liberties of his countrymen, who had so handsomely "cashiered” him, and who then so generously provided for his widow and children.

We thus passed the mouth of the port; and turning to the right-within a ridge of large stones placed, about two hundred paces off, to defend a part of the fortifications of the town from the rougher sea, which would otherwise break against it—we rowed past the neat wooden bathing-house, situated half-way between these stones and the walls of the place; saw a set of women and men, who, having left their bathingrooms, paddled together in the shallow water around, while a grave soldier, with an enormous beard, paraded to and fro on the terrace at the top of the building, and preserved order and quiet; and then continuing our voyage, I soon turned the end of the scoglj ridge of stones, and having found a clear, deep water behind them, I drew close the curtains of my boat, undressed, and bathed; and, having again rowed back to the pier, took a hackney-coach, drawn (as all

those at Leghorn are) by one horse, and returned to my villa.

In one of these excursions it was my fortune to meet the barge that was bearing to his fleet without the port Ferdinand the First, king of Naples: he was then returning to his kingdom, which he deemed sufficiently purified from "constitutional" ideas by the allies he had sent before him, to cast into prison and exile all those who had supported or served under the institutions he had himself sworn to maintain.

In the evening, I sometimes drove to the Ardenza, a field of burnt grass and weeds, which, stretching along the broken, muddy shore, is the only public walk in the neighbourhood.

Leghorn is, however, the gayest summer residence in Italy: many English repair to it, particularly at the end of August, after the season of the Lucca baths. Balls are given by the Governor, by the English resident merchants, and by the foreign consuls: the theatre is generally good, and the bathing lasts till late in the

summer.

I have seen, in one of the suburbs of Leghorn, a better and more regular illumination than ever I beheld in any of the capitals of

Italy. This must be attributed to the popularity of the occasion-the fête of the Madonna di Montenero, a church some miles out of the town, but to which thousands of persons repair for the day: whereas in capitals, the illuminations are generally ordered in honour of the birth-day or fête of the sovereign, whom few think so good a patron as the Madonna: nor, I believe, does any prince pretend to be so.

I was not sorry to quit Leghorn. We followed the Florence road for twenty-two miles, as far as La Scala; where we turned off to the south. Arriving late at Sienna, we found the gate of the town shut: it was, however, opened to us without difficulty. In the morning of the following day, I walked up and down hill through the narrow streets of this ugly, ancient town, and visited all the lions pointed out to me: none of these are worth seeing, except its beautiful cathedral, so often described, and its curious and finely-engraved pavement. The pleasure of hearing the language of Sienna, even after that of Florence, is greater than can be supposed. In passing along the streets, I often stopped to inquire the way, (with which I was, however, well acquainted,) but wishing, through this pre

tended ignorance, to enjoy the pleasure of hearing the people speak their sweet and graceful language.

The road from Sienna to Acquapendente is as uninteresting, to say the least, as any I know; and the uncomfortable inns, or rather hovels, that border it, barely keep out the wind and rain. At one of these taverns, as I passed through the kitchen on my way up stairs, I saw the padron di casa wring the neck of a turkey: at supper this turkey was served up to us, drest in three different manners; it was disguised as bouilli-boiled beef, as a stew of turkey, and as a quarter of roast lamb!

Acquapendente appeared on the top of a precipice overhung with green shrubs, amongst which silvery streams fell perpendicularly, and lost themselves in the nut wood below.

After five miles of even ground on the top of this hill, and after traversing the poor village of S. Lorenzino, which consists solely of one superb octangular place, we descended through a small wood of oak trees to the beautiful lake of Bolsena. The vintage was here carrying on; and, from the basket of a passing peasant, we filled our carriage with fine large grapes. As

VOL. I.