Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/journeyfromlondo01bare A JOURNEY FROM LONDON to GENOA, THROUGH ENGLAND, PORTUGAL, SPAIN, \ and v£ R A N C E, By JOSEPH BARETTI, Secretary for Foreign Correfpondence to 'the Royal Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, IN FOUR VOLUMES, VOL. I, % LONDON, Printed for T. Davies, in Ruflel-Street, Covent- Garden , and L. D a v i s, in Holborn. MDCCLXX. • *• T O T H E PRESIDENT AND MEMBERS O F T H E ROYAL ACADEMY O F PAINTING, SCULPTURE, and ARCHITECTURE, GENTLEMEN, I N my various rambles through various countries, I have nei- ther feen nor heard of a fet of artifts comparable to that which your monarch aflembled when he formed you into an academy, In- ftead of attempting to exprefs my A 2 grati- iv DEDICATION. gratitude to that royal goodnefs, which has deigned to connedi me with fo refpeflable a fociety, I will revere and love it in filence, and endeavour to fhow that I deferve what it has bellowed, by a vigorous exertion of my abilities whenever occalion fhall call them into your fervice. In the mean while, gen- tlemen, give me leave to dedicate to you the firll work I have pre- pared for publication lince I had the honour of belonging to you. You have a right to this fmall token of an affection, which inclination as well as duty has kindled in the breaft of Your moll humble and moll devoted fervant, JOSEPH BARETTI. PREFACE. JHave not a better apology to offer for my confidence in prefienting this enlight- ened nation with thefe volumes , than that the accounts of Spain hitherto publifhed in the Englijh language , are in general ad- judged to be very imp erf e 51. 'This obfervation , which I had often heard repeated by many Engli/hmen of difiinguijhed knowledge y has emboldened me to publijh my remarks upon that country . In the deferiptions that follow y I hope it will appear that I have fpared no pains to carry my reader in fome meafure along with me ; to make him fee what I faw y hear what I heard y feel what I felt y and even think and fancy whatever I thought and Vi PREFACE. and fancied myfelf. Should this method prove agreeable > and procure the honour of a favourable reception to my work, 1 ftoall owe it in a great part to riiy mofi revered friertd Dr. Samuel J ohnfon, who fuggejied it to me y juft as I was fetting out on my firft journey to Spain. It was he that exhorted me to write daily , and with all pojftble minutenefs : it was he that pointed out the topics which would moft inter eft and moft delight in a fu- ture publication. To his injunctions I have kept as clofe as I was able , and my only fear upon this occafton, is, that fome want of dexterity in the management of my nar- ratives may juftly have fubjeCled me to the charge of egotifm , as I am convinced that 1 have paftjed too frequently from my fab- jeSl to myfelf and made myfelf as much too of- ten the hero of my own ftory . Yet this fear is not fo predominant , as to exclude the hope that fuch an impropriety will be overlooked if I have but fucceeded in the main point , and effectually aftifted the imagination of my reader to form an ideatolerably juft of Spain , by by exhibiting as well the face of the country f as the manners of the inhabitants . This it will appear that I have laboured pretty hard to attain \ and as this is the chief end of a traveller s narrative y the real critick will not be difpleafed that it has been principally purfued 9 that fubordinate and incidental parts have been lefs diligently confdered, and that > where attention was mof required , it has been moft liberally be- J n r -A ■ , V • * . . . v A. '• ' ' ' ' - » V- . ■ 'A • • t<;- ♦ . • A:" . ■ • ' r * t V • < * \ • .. ' __ LETTER I. Notice given of the departure. London, Aug. 13, 1760. DEAR BROTHERS, r ¥ '^'O -morrow I £hall at laft quit this .JL metropolis, and fet out for Fal- mouth on my way home through Por- tugal, Spain, and the fouthern part of France. A long round-about way ! But you know that ill communication is Hopped between Dover and Calais be- caufe of the war ; and fmce I muft go a long journey, I care not how long I make it. I go through Portugal and Spain rather than Holland, becaufe of Holland I have heard and read enough, whereas I know little of Portugal and Vol, L B lefs [ 2 ] Ids of Spain, as there are but very im> perfedt accounts of either. Befides, that going the Falmouth- way, I fliall like- wife fee the weftern part of this king- dom, which 1 have not viiited. T o-morrow then is the day, from which I reckon that in about two months, or three at moft, I lhall have the inexpref- fible pleafure of feeing you again, after an abfence of full ten years. My blood runs warmer and my heartbeats quicker,, when I think that after fo long a fepa~ ration I am going to fit down again to a domeftic meal with one of my brothers fronting me, and one at each fide of me ! Now therefore, England, farewell! I quit thee with lefs regret, becaufe I am returning to my native country after a very long abfence, confidering the fhort- nefs of life. Yet I cannot leave thee without tears. May Heaven guard and profper thee, thou illuftrious mother of polite men and virtuous women ! Thou great [ 3 ] great mart of literature ! Thou nurfery of invincible foldiers, of bold naviga- tors, and ingenious artifts, farewell, fare^- well ! I have now forgotten all the croffies and anxieties I have undergone in thy regions for the fpace of ten years : but never will I forget thofe many amongft thy fons who have affifted me in my wants, encouraged me in my difficulties, comforted me in my adverlities, and im- parted to me the light of their knowledge in the dark and intricate mazes of life ! Farewell, imperial England, farewell, farewell ! L E T T E Pv II. People in the Jl age- coach . Salijhury and its cathedral . Militia . Bone-lace and Ducking-Jlool at Jloniton . Love whence ari/ing, Exeter, Aug. 16, 1760. T> Eli OLD ! I am diftant from Lon- don a hundred and fixtv miles, and On [ 4 ] On Friday I fet out in one of thofc numberlefs coaches that are continually going backwards and forwards from town to town. The coach contained fix peo- ple y and all fix proved agreeable com- pany to each other, though collected by mere chance: three women on one fide, and three men over againft them. This begins to look like a novel j and yet it is no novel at all. In this coach were an elderly aunt with her two nieces, an Englilh gentleman, a Scotch officer, and your eldeft brother. The fix horfes went on at a great rate. I knew the officer's country by his pronunciation, as well as by his earneft talking with the aunt about nobility. This was his fa- vourite topick. But the Englishman and I, employed our time to better purpofe y chatting as faft as we could with the nieces, both modeftly talkative and mo- deftly pretty. Yet the good aunt was not fo deep funk into genealogy as her partner would have her 5 but turned to us [ 5 1 m from time to time, and encouraged her girls to be chearful and ling fongs, which they often did in fuch a manner, as to pleafe.even an Italian. So agreeable a company I fhall proba- bly not find in the remainder of my journey, as it is but feldom that poor travellers are fo lucky as to meet with fuch good-natured aunts, and with girls fo pretty, fo fprightly, and fo obliging. The Scotchman, though fomewhat ftiff and ridiculous with his accounts of the great nobility in Argylefhire, yet was not unwelcome, as he is a man of very good fenfe in other refpedts. The Eng- lish gentleman is learned beyond his age, and rather over civil, as he has but lately quitted the college. On the firfb day I faw nothing, as one may fay, becaufe we trotted along very fall. I could only obferve that the inns, where we alighted to change horfes and refrefh ourfelves, are all neat and good, as all inns are on all great roads in Eng- 13 3 land. [ 6 ] land. We croffed Salifbury in hafte on the fecond day : but as I had heard much of its cathedral, I chofe to give a look at it. So I alighted, and ran like a fury through the town. Thus running I took notice of the market, which is fpacious and plentifully ftored with meat and all forts of vegetables. Along the large ftreet I croffed, there is water run- ning on both fides juft by the houfes ; which muft be a great convenience to the inhabitants. I entered the cathedral for a minute. It is a ftately building, and much more gothic than that of Mi- lan ; but not half fo large, as far as I can remember. That of Milan I take to be the largeft edifice of the kind in the whole world. On a wide plain, not far from Salif- bury, there is that thing (I know not what name to give it) called Stone-henge. I ftiould be forry if you had notpreferved all my former defcriptions of feveral re- markable things in this kingdom. Were I never [ 7 1 I never to come to England again, as may cafily be the cafe, I fhall be very glad to have thofe defcriptions, in order to re- vive a pleafing remembrance from time to time. A poor pleafure, compared to that I fhould feel in feeing this country again ! But ftill, better little than no- thing. Not far from Salifbury there is like- wife a country-feat belonging to an Eng- lifh earl, where there is the amplefl col- lection of flatues, bulls, and other ancient monuments in this kingdom together with many fine paintings; almoft every thing brought at an immenfe expence from your fide of the Alps. I do not know what poffefled me, that I never went to fee that feat in the fpace of ten years, efpecially as I was twice in its neighbourhood. But men are naturally procraftinators : they put it off till next day, till next week ; and the next day or the next week never comes. B 4 On [ 8 J On the third day we dined at a little town called Honiton, where they make a good deal of that lace fo much admired by Italian ladies, that goes with us by the name of Merletti d’ Inghilt err a. I wonder why it is not made every where, as thofe who make it are neither philo- fophers nor conjurers, but poor ignorant women. I would have bought fome for fome people at Turin: but forbore, to avoid being plagued at the many cuftom- hgufes where I fhall be fearched before I reach home. At Honiton, from the window of the inn, I faw a battalion of militia newly raifed. They went through their mili- tary exercife ; and I own I did not much admire their movements. How- ever, they will drive the world before them when they come to be better mo- delled j and the French will find it no jeft, if ever they dare to come over in their fiat-bottom boats, and fet their feet on [ 9 ] on the Fritifh fhore, as they have been threatening this long v/hile. We dined haftily. Then theEnglilh- man and I walked out of the town, juft to ftretch our legs a little. We went fo far as a fmall rivulet, where I took no- tice of an engine called a Ducking-ftool. What is it ? I will tell you if I can. It is a ftool to fit on. A kind of armed wooden chair, fixed on the extremity of a pole about fifteen feet long. The pole is horizontally placed on a poft juft by the water, and loofely pegg’d to that poft ; fo that by raifing it at one end, you lower the ftool down into the midft of the rivulet. Do you comprehend me ? That ftool ferves at prefent to duck fcolds and termagants : but it is faid, that the fuperfiitious inhabitants of Ho- niton ufed formerly to place on it thofe old women whom they thought to be witches, and duck’d them unmercifully feveral times fometimes to death. While [ 10 ] While the young gentleman and 1 were gravely philofophifing on the no- tion of witches, which has been fo ge- neral at all times and in all countries, the coach overtook us. But inftead of getting into it, we wanted to pull the young ladies out *of it, and give them a plunge or two, becaufe in our days the opinion prevails, that all pretty girls are witches, and old women are' fo no more. Indeed Mifs Anne and Mifs Helen had a fine efcape, and may thank the coachman who was in hade, or they had paid for their bewitching looks. Not far from Honiton they left us as well as the Scotch officer, and the fepa- ration feemed grievous to us all. We kiffed and parted ; and not with eyes perfectly dry. Did I fay kiffed ? Yes, upon my word. But you Italians make fo much of a kifs, that there is no en- during you. Here we make nothing of it, efpecially on fuch occafions ; nor is there any harm in it, whatever you may think. [ I* ] think. What have you to fay, you peo- ple on the other fide of that huge moun- tain ? I am fure I (hall not abide your filly fafhions, now I am ufed to thofe of England. What a ridiculous thing is killing men and men, or women and women ! The Englifib have twenty times more wit than you. When I am amongfl you again, I will pofitively follow the Englifh fafhions : and fo, tell all the damfels in your neighbourhood, that I am coming to mend their manners. I will fet up as a reformer now I am a travell’d man, and will do as all travell’d men do, when they get back home. They look, and with good reafon, upon themfelves as a good deal the wifer for having feen the world. However, I felt more pain than I will tell you in the adt of quitting thofe two amiable maidens. Perhaps I have feen them for the laft time, and that is al- ways an ugly thought ! Nothing endears people fo faft to each other as travelling together [ 12 ] together in the fame vehicle ^ and the effedt is natural. Our love for perfons arifes from the pleafure we receive from them. The more pleafure they can give us, the greater our love. This is phi-* lofophy, or I am a blockhead. In that coach none of us could receive any plea- fure but what was got from one of the other five ; and each endeavoured to give fome, that he might receive fome. Thus one fung a fong, one told a ftory, one produced a pun, one did this, and ano- ther did that. The whole world was without the coach, and within there was nothing but ourfelves. Therefore having nothing elfe to love, we loved each other very fa ft. It has been ob- ferved, that the ftrongeft love is that contracted in a jail ; and the coach was for three days a perfedt jail to us : fo we were all become friends enough to grieve at parting. But what fignifies talking? We parted, and there is an end s fuch tranfitory joys and pains are the lot of travellers. [ J 3 ] travellers. The coach goes no further than this town, and I muft think to- morrow of another vehicle. LETTER III. Fine dr effing not blame able. Fifty broken nofcs. A prom ife to write trifles . Exeter Hill, Aag. 17, 1760- HIS morning early I walked all over this town. It is none of the fineft, very ill paved, and very dirty, tho’ it is fummer. In winter it muft be ten times worfe. The houfes are gene- rally built in fuch a ftyle of architecture, that Palladio v/ould have bang’d himfelf for vexation, if he had feen them. I went to give a look to the cathedral. As it is Sunday, it was full of people, and the parfon was preaching again!! the va- nity of drefling. What he faid upon the fubjedt was feniible enough, and feelingly delivered; but not much to the pur- pole. [ H ] pole, as I thought, becaufe the Exo- nians do not pique themfelves (thofe at le&ft who formed his audience) on the magnificence of their apparel. Many looked clean ; but not one gaudy. Yet, had they even been fine, I do not like to hear drefiing much condemned, Dreffing is one of the many things that encreafe the difference between the rea- fonable animal and the unreafonable ; and any thing, be it ever fo fmall, that increafes that difference, is never much amifs. Extremes to be fure are ex- tremes ; and the vanity of dreffing may- be carried fo far as to be ridiculous ; yet finful it can fcarcely ever be : therefore, if I were a preacher, I would never bear hard upon this point, becaufe I have ob- ferved that people well drefied, have in general a kind of refpedt for themfelves; and whoever refpedts himfelf, does a very good thing. As for my part, I love dreffing fo well, that if I could afford it. 7 i *$ ] it, I Would be half a beau all the year round. This cathedral is Gothic, like that of Salifbury ; but much inferior to it in many refpects. It is large enough for the town, but has nothing very remarkable, except the fifty figures (if I have counted J hem right) which adorn its front. They are alto-relievos, and all nofelefs. Time has pick’d off their nofes, and made duft of them, as it does of all nofes, whether marble or not. From the top of the church, where I afcended by a winding flair-cafe, the fleps of which are in bad order, 1 have taken a view of the country round. It is very fine, full of filial! hills covered with trees, and watered by many ftreams. Before the cathedral are fome trees planted in rows, each tree fantaflically cut in the form of a fan. About the walls of a ruined caftle, which* Hands higher than the town, there is a fine walk much frequented by women, as I could fee towards the latter part of the afternoon. t 1 6 ] afternoon. I faw few men there. The profped facing the caftle on the fide of the walk, is one of the mod pleafing. To-morrow my trunk will be forward- ed to Falmouth in a cart or waggon. The Englifli gentleman and I go to Ply- mouth, where I intend to make but a fhort flay. I want to be at Falmouth and embark for Lifbon. Having no more pretty girls to travel with, I find that I grow impatient, and long to fee my journey’s end, thinking more and more deeply on the three thoufand miles I have to go. It is thefeventh or eighth part of the globe’s circumference ! From Plymouth* and even from Falmouth, I will write to you again, and fend my letters back to London, that they may be forwarded to you from thence. From Falmouth onward I propofe to write to you every night, even when I am at fea* and tell you the ftory of every day. But what- ever I write, as I go on, fhall not be brought to you by any body but myfelL Be t 1 7 3 Be fure I will write a world of things that I (hall fee or hear. Trifles indeed they will commonly be, as I ihall have no leifure any where to make deep re- marks. Yet I will endeavour to be en- tertaining, at leafl; to myfelf j as I (hall probably have no other means of be* guiling the evenings but by my quilh LETTER IV, Manufactures of Serges andFapefry . Fathef Norbert and his workmen from France . Plymouth, Aug. 18, 1760, T Left Exeter this morning at eleven, after having vifited two manufacto- ries, one of ferges, and the other of that fort of tapeftry, which in French is called Gobelins from the place where it is made at Paris, The ferges of Exeter are, as I am told, chiefly exported into Catho- lic countries for the ufe of monks and nuns of various orders. In feveral ltore- houfes of that town there are fo many Vol. I. C bales [ >8 I l*. bales of it, as would fuffice to make aif intrenchment round the camp of the i^uftrians, who are faid to be fo nume- rous in Saxony. I mean that at Exeter they make a large quantity of thofe fer- ges : but travellers mull exaggerate if they will prove entertaining. Many fa- natical fpeculators would fain fee all our religious orders abolilhed : but, were it not for thofe other fanaticks who com- pofe thofe orders, Exeter would fare but poorly. As to the Gobelin-tapeftry, the art of making it in perfection was introduced in England by a famous anti-jefuit, the re- verend father Norbert, a French capu- chin-friar, whom Benedict XIV (a kind of anti-jefuit himfelf) permitted to go and live in England, on condition he fhould play the miffionary there, and convert the good people to his church. But, inftead of doing as he was bid, and as he had promifed, the honefc fellow took the liberty of feculariling himfelf, affirmed t *9 J affumed the name of Monfieur Parifot* land turned director of a manufactory of that fort of tapeftry. In this undertak- ing he found means of being affifted by a Voluntary fubfcription of the Englifh no- bility and gentry*- which amounted to more than ten thoufand pounds, as I was told at that time. That fubfcription the Monfieiir pocketted foon after his arrival in London. I went feveral times from London to Fulham to fee his looms, which would have procured him a pretty live- lihood if he had been a man of fome economy. But he lived at fuch a rate, and was poffefled of fo many virtues* ef- pecially thofe two cardinal ones vulgarly called lull and vanity, that he contracted many debts in a little time, turned bank- rupt, and ran away. The looms and other manufacturing implements which he could not carry off, were fold by auCtion ; and one Mr. Paf- favan bought them for little more than C a nothing. t « ] nothing. With them he fet up a dimi- nutive manufactory at Exeter, after hav- ing taken into his fervice a few deferters from the Gobelins of Paris, who were inticed away by the friar’s magnificent promifes. Thefe workmen, in confe- quence of thofe promifes, came over to England, fairly venturing a halter, if they had been caught in the at: of de- ferring. But the friar was far from keep- ing his word with them as foon as he had a fufficient number of them in his power. The falaries he then appointed them (and they were forced to accept) were but fcanty. On his running away from England, the poor fellows found themfelves in a very fad plight. They knew no other trade but that of tapef- try- making, were ignorant of the lan- guage, and could not go back to France, where they would have been hanged for their defertion. Mr. Paffavan picked out of the ftreets of London thofe few whom hunger and wretchednefs had not time to [ 21 ] to kill, and got them to Exeter, where he makes a penny out of their labour. One part of this itory I knew feme years ago : the other I had from thofe few Frenchmen at Exeter; and I fancy you will not be difpleafed with this anec- dote of a man fo much talked of in Italy for his virulent writings againft the Je- fuits ; whofe books were for a time in every body’s hands; and whofe charac- ter proved at laft no better than thofe of the word part amongft thofe W'hom he cenfured. I take now my leave of Exeter and of the organ of its cathedral, which the Exonians fcruple not to fay is the fineft in England. And now you nuift fancy that you fee me in a poft-chaife haftening to Plymouth, quite enamoured with the rural beauties of Devonlhire, which are not inferiour to the beft parts of Pied- mont and Lombardy. At night I reached this town with a whole neck. A lucky thing enough, confidering how precipi- C 3 toufly written thefe lines while fupper is mak- ing ready. Can any body fay that I am idle ? HIS morning I rambled about this fmall and irregular town, and vi- fited its two churches, called St. Andrew and St. Charles. The Englilh care but little for faints : yet they give their names to churches. A little piece of incon- gruity, as I take it. It proves how dif- ficult it is to get rid of ancient cuftoms. I walked a while on the key of the harbour and along the fea-fhore, where I faw nothing very remarkable, excepting two bay- mules. One of them was lame. And here, to keep up the character of a fkilful, attentive, and judicious traveller. LETTER V. A man of war and a dock lifted. Plymouth ftill, Aug. 19, 1760. I mull f 2 3 1 - ' \ S rnuft tell you that mules in England are far from being fo common as with us. Thefe two are almoft all that I have feen in ten years. Having noted down the lame mule in my memorandum-book with a pencil, I went towards the arfenal, or dock, as they call it here. It is about two miles diftant from the town. In my way there, and juft by it, I fpy’d a man of war of fixty or feventy guns, called the Not- tingham. They were refitting it, being juft come from a long voyage. As I had never feen the infide of a man of war, I ohofe to vifit it thoroughly with the af- fiftance of two failors, who explained to me the ufe of every thing in it, an- fwering my numerous and foolifh quef- tions with a great deal of patience. What is this, and what is that, and what is the ufe of that other thing ? Indeed the fellows were much in the right if they laughed at my ignorance of every thing. I am fure they winked at each other, and C 4 looked [ 24 ] looked arch : yet I fay it again, they were perfectly right to make fport of fuch a mere landman as I am. This vifit lafted little lefs than three hours. But, juft as it was over, and I was taking my leave of my friendly in- ftru&ors, a fun-burnt fort of a gentleman came on board ; one of the under-of- ficers, I think. He approached me with a very particular kind of civility fome- thing of opennefs mixed with roughnefs. Indeed I know not what name to give to that kind of civility. A medley of bold- nefs, contempt, felf-fufficiency, and kind- nefs. Extradt an idea out of thefe differ- ent ideas, and enjoy it. Hearing 1 was a ftranger who had never been before un- der the deck of a war-fliip, he took hold at once of both my hands, and grafped them fo tenacioufly, that I could not ef- cape him. “ Here , Sir , let's walk below , sf and Til Jhow her to you. A damn'd old “ baggage fie ; and we'll all go to the bottom €f in her next voyage ; but I don't care a [ ^5 ] tc rujh” It was with the utmoft diffi- culty I faved myfelf from his well-meant kindnefs. I entered an inn in the dock, and dined. After dinner I went in fearch of an engineer for whom I had a letter, in which he was deiired by a friend in Lon- don to {how me the dock and any other thing curious about Plymouth. He is a moil gentleman-like man, and poffeffed of much polite learning befides his {kill in his profeffion. He took me into the moll hidden re- cedes of the dock, and ihowed me every thing. There I faw great heaps of cannon and mountains of cannon-balls, impatiently waiting for an opportunity to affift in the propagation of the human fpecies : there I faw numberlefs mails of various fizes, all modeftly lying down in a vaft clofe : there I faw a prodigious long room, in which many men, running with $heir backs forwards and their bellies backwards* [ 26 3 backwards, (you comprehend me) were making thofe ropes, which are afterwards joined many together, and formed into cables as big as my waift. There I faw the vafh chauldronsfull of tar, where thofe ropes are boiled : and there I faw a very large wheel fo conftrudted, that it contains about a dozen men in itfelf, who make it turn with great velocity by their incef- fant trampling upon fome wooden bars that are laid acrofs its infide. You have feen what we call a winding-cage put in motion by the bird it contains ? That wheel is made upon the principles of a winding-cage, and thofe men in it may be called the bird. They had no more cloaths on than a frog, excepting their trowfers. The men turn the wheel ; the wheel moves a prefs ; the prefs fqueezes the ropes that have been boiled in the chauldrons; and the ropes thus fqueezed, emit the tar with which they were there impregnated. In fhort, I faw fo many things in that dock, that Briareus, who had [ *7 3 had fifty writing-hands out of his hun- dred, would not be able to fet them all down in an age, were he charged with making the inventory. Upon my credit, as I came out of that place I was little lefs than ftupified. My faculties were nearly overpowered by the immenfe va- riety of objedls that had paft before my eyes. It was dark when I got back to the inn. Fortifications. Mount Edgecombe . An ha- bitation Jit for Jean- Jacques. An anti- HE courteous engineer called upon me this morning early, and took me into a barge rowed by fix flout fel- lows, befides the man at the rudder. We crofled with great fwiftnefs a part of the harbour, and landed on a fmall rocky if- let, called St. Nicholas, which has been LETTER VI quarian and his daughter . Plymouth ftill, Aug. 20, 1760. placed [ 28 ] placed by nature in the very mouth of Plymouth-harbour. In lefs than half an hour we made the tour of the fortification upon it. Then we went to fee the cita- del, which is certainly very ftrong, and fo well provided with batteries, that woe to the French Argonaut who fhould ever dare to come in fearch of the golden fleece on this fhore. Yet I was not afto- nifhed at its flrength. He who has feen our fortrefles on the Alps, efpecially Fe- ll ejlre lies and La Brunette , needs not to be furprifed at any thing of that kind. It was Charles the Second who built this citadel, in order to bridle the inha- bitants of Plymouth, who had fided with Cromwell in the famous civil war. For thefe feveral years part they have been adding new fortifications to the harbour and the dock. So that, if the Plymouth- people had once the mortification to fee themfelves checked by them, they have now the pleafure to fee themfelves fecured againft all foreign invaders. No foe muft o [ 29 ] inuft now think of landing there without an immenfe force. I even queftion whe- ther it would be poffible for any force to take it (I mean any force the French can mufter) confidering how the approach to it is rendered difficult by St. Nicholas and the citadel mutually fupporting each other. Be it poffible or not, I fhould not be pleafed to be in the head-fhip that came on fo defperate an errand. After dinner we got again into the barge, and made towards a hill about as high as that of the capuchins on the right fide of your Po. They call it Mount- Edgecombe ; and it is, properly fpeak- ing, a promontory which juts out into the lea on the right fide of Plymouth- harbour. The proprietor of it is an Engliffi lord, who has a houfe upon it. In the whole world there is perhaps not another fo well lituated. A bold expreffi- on, you will fay. But were you to fee it, you would be aftonifhed at the prof- pedi it commands. From [ 3 ° ] From its windows, and indeed front that whole fide of the hill, you fee ftraight afore you the vaft ocean extending itfelf beyond the reach of eyes. The immenfe liquid plain has its uniformity interrupted only in one fmall place about ten miles from the land. I mean, that about ten miles off at fea there is a Light-houfe eredted on a rock, which Hands abfolutely by itfelf, and is called The Eddy -ft one. The Light-houfe is very vifible from Mount-Edgecombe, though at fuchadif- tance. On your left hand you have the harbour with the iflet of St. Nicholas, the citadel, the dock, and the town of Plymouth. The harbour fwarms with men of war and fhips of feveral fizes, fome at anchor and fome in motion, and with numberlefs boats perpetually row- ing or failing backwards and forwards j the whole of this furrounded by a vaft tradt of fine country, diverfified by a great many hills and ftreams of water. Add to this, that under the windows and all 7 about [ 3 1 1 about the park, there are cows, and deer, and geefe, and turkeys, and other animals peaceably feeding upon a verdant carpet bounded all round by a circular walk. A fine contrail to the bufy fcene tranfadled below in the harbour. What do you fay to it now ? They fpeak of the Chartreufe at Naples, and they fay it is the fined fituation in the world. I believe it* But Mount-Edge- combe is alfo the fined , and io you have two .fined, one at Naples, and the other in Devonshire. In Queen Elizabeth's time the admiral of the Spanish Armada, making fure of conquering this kingdom, begg’d Mount-Edgecombe of Philip II by way of reward for his intended con- qued. Philip promifed to give it ; but the Englilh admiral hindered him from keeping his promife, by accomplishing the dedrudtion of the Armada with his invention of fire- Ships. A horrible dorm had already begun that dedrudtion. Of [ 3 ^ ] Of the Light-houfe and rock oh whicfi it ftands, I favv once the model in Lon- don. There was formerly another light- houfe on that rock, which was wafhed away by the fea on a ftormy night, and Thill another that was accidentally burnt. I remember very well that I admired much the model of this. The ingenuity of the architect (one Mr. Smeaton) was great, who found the means of eredting fuch ah edifice in fuch a place ; that is, upon a floping rock perfectly naked, and almoft inceffantly beaten by millions of the moft tremendous waves. To think of digging that rock, and thus give the edifice a good foundation, was utterly impoflible, as the rock is near as hard as porphyry. Thearchitedt there- fore had a multitude of holes bored into it, and large iron bars driven into thofe holes. To bore fuch holes required no fmall labour, as you may imagine. Then, between bar and bar the foundation was laid, by connecting large flat ftones in inch [ 33 J Rsch a manner, that each entered into a part of the next. No fand was employed there but what was fetched fo far as the neighbourhood of Rome. You know the nature of the Pozzolana , that hardens under water every day more when mixed withlime> and incorporates with theftones « in fuch a manner, as to make one folid mafs with them in a little time. This was certainly a noble undertak- ing ; and thus the dangerous rock is made vifible to nodlurnal navigators, as lights are fhown every night on the top of that ftrange edifice by two men, who live conftantly there, and fometimes fee no body for whole months, efpecially in win- ter. Thofe men have provifions fent them from Plymouth when the weather will permit. But let them be ever fo plenti- fully fupplied, ftill they mull hufoand them with great care for fear of a long tempeftuous winter, that leaves no room for fending them anv thins:. What a O j o happy life fome mortals lead on the fur- Yol. I. D face [ 34 ] face of this globe ! To be fhut up in & fmall apartment (a very fmall one) on the top of a tower feventy foot high, and fee nothing but water from its narrow win- dows, and hear no other found but that of the raging billows incelfantly beating about them ! I am told that thofe billows are often fuch, as to approach the very top of the Light-houfe, and fprinkle its narrow windows. The celebrated Rouf- feau never heard of fuch a place, I fup- pofe ; or he would have begg’d the em- ploy of lamp-lighter there, he who hates fo much all converfe with mankind. It is impoffible to imagine a properer man- fion for a pbilofopher fo much out of hu- mour with this wicked world. After having walk’d a while in the circular walk of Mount-Edgecombe, and well confidered all the parts of that fur- prifing profpedt, I took my leave of the engineer, who was going another way, and went back to the barge with another gentleman who had dined with us. His chearful [ 35 3 chearful countenance, the livelinefs of his converfation, and the reverend hoarinefs of his locks, made me readily fympathife 'with him. He is a Naturalift and an Antiquarian. As we eroded the harbour again, he pointed at a place on the left hand, and made me take notice of fome large holes which go deep under the fhore. Near thofe holes, faid he, lived in ancient days a mighty giant called Og-magog ; and we are informed by an old chronicle, that he fought once a mod terrible battle with another giant called Corineus , whom he killed and threw head-long into the feajuft by thofe holes; fo that they have retained the name of the vidtor to this day, and are called The holes of Og-magog. On our landing at Plymouth the gen- tleman inlifted upon my going to eat a bit of fupper with him; and while it was making ready, he fhowed me his collec- tion of medals and natural curiolities. But oh the wonderful diferetion of a Na- D 2 turalift t 36 i turalift and Antiquarian ! He only point* ed curforily to a few of the rareft pieces in the collection* and did not teize me with minute and tirefome details. Many of his brethern have got the trick of keeping you along time, defcanting upon every rufty medal they have, upon every broken idolet, every reptile, every plant, every petrifaction, and every chryftallifa- tion y nor are they aware, that he who has not made fuch things the principal objedt of his ftudies, considers a good many of them as mere baubles, and can- not look upon them with fuch eager eyes as they do themfelves, who having em- ployed many of their thoughts about them, and been at a great deal of trouble in collecting, hold almoft every individual piece as dear as a jewel. Do not imagine however, that I con- demn the collectors of medals ; much lefs thofe of natural curiofities. He who has leifure and means, does very well to em- ploy them this way, if he knows of no better t 37 1 better to render himfelf ufeful to the lite- rary commonwealth. It is of considerable advantage in the profecution of our (In- dies to know Something of ancient coins and other remains of remote ages ; and it is a molt rational fatisfa&ion to be ac^ quainted with every pebble that lies in your way, with every weed you tread up- on, and with every flower you pluck up. And to be able to range almofl: every thing you fee in its proper clafs, will certainly help on life in a manner delightful as well as innocent. But to ho- nour accidental infpedtors with your pro- lix details, proves intolerably fatiguing. My gentleman is none of thefe over- officious explainers, and did not put me out of patience for a Angle moment. Nor will I pafs over in filence his daughter, who feemed to be very well verfed in the maidenly Science of (hells and butterflies, and not even ignorant of the manner in which coral is formed and infedts live in its cavities, as I found by conversation D 3 while [ 38 ] while at Tapper. Her father has made her the keeper of his cabinet, and fhe knows fo much of every thing in it, as to fupply pretty well his abfence when there is occafion to fhow it to ftrangers. I wifh we had in Italy many young ladies as learned as Mifs Betfey, and able to pro- cure themfelves fo harmlefs a paftime as that of examining the various productions of nature. I think it would be a very advantageous addition to that of dancing well, and fingering a harpfichord with a mafterly hand. But the pleafure of fcribbling has made me encroach upon the hour of going to bed. Therefore, good night. I fee the dawn peeping out. It is near four by my watch, and rather time to fet out than to go to fleep. However, I will go to fleep ^ and fo good night again. LET- [ 39 1 LETTER VII. Petty tyranny fcarcely avoidable . Incejjant rain . From an inn called Horfe-bridge, Aug. ai, 1760. HIS has proved a very rainy day. which has made my fhort journey very difagreeable. At the town where I dined, having nobody to talk to, and yet wanting to talk, I afked mine hoftefs how fhe went on in her bufinefs. Very poor- ly, faid the old woman. I am forry, faid I, to hear you fay fo. But how can this be, as this town feems fo populous ? She then informed me, that almoft the whole territory of that town belongs to a noble peer of this realm, who never goes there, and leaves all his concerns to the management of an agent. The agent by thefe means, from a very infignificant fellow that he originally was, is become a mod conliderable perfonage in the town and plays the bafliaw over almoft every body [ 40 ] body there. Do you fee (quoth the wo- man) that girl there ? Well : (he is a virtuous girl, and never would mind the agent. I will fay no more : but he took fomething amifs of us, and declared him- felf our enemy. He is all-powerful here, and does right and wrong, juft as he lifts : nor can we get any redrefs, as the juftice himfelf ftands in fear of him. Some of the townfmen, who have been wronged by the agent as well as we, are gone fe- verally to London to complain of him to the lord ; but never could get admittance, becaufe he is too great a man to be fpoke to by ordinary people ; befides that fe- veral of his grace’s fervants are in the bafhaw’s intereft, and take care to flop all information. Every body gives a good word to the lord, and fays that he would fet all things to rights ( a ) if he was but apprifed of what is doing in this place, (a) The complaints of the inhabitants ( as I was cafually apprifed fince my return to England ) have reached the peer , and the agent has been turned out of his place . To C 41 ] To diftrefs me and my family, the agent will have nothing further to do with any inhabitant who comes to my inn ; and he has it in his power to harrafs many, and deny bread to many, having, as I faid, the management of aimoft all the land in the territory, and many of them being the lord’s tenants. Thus I am ruined, continued the old woman, as I have no means of fubliftence butfuch chance-tra- vellers as you are, and the road from Plymouth to Falmouth net much fre- quented. Not a Angle glafs of cyder can I fell to any body dependant on that man. They all avoid me and my houfe as if the plague was in it ! Now, ye Englifhmen, faid I to myfelf, behold ! Here as well as elfewhere, the whale fwallows up the fmall fifties, whatever you may fay of your laws, which you think fo very antidotal againftall fort of tyranny. Your laws, you fay, are an adamantine (hield that covers your whole ifland. No opprefiion is here of any 7 kind j [ 42 ] kind ; no : not the leaf!; fhadow of it. But go to mine hoftefs, gentlemen, and you will hear another ftory. You will hear that it is in your country as in all others ; I mean that no fuch laws can be # * thought on by mortal legiflators, as per- fectly to fcreen the weak againft the ftrong, or the poor againft the rich ; efpecially when the fubjedt of complaint is not fo great as to draw the public at- tention, which is generally the cafe in thofe many oppreffions that the little en- dure from the great. Innumerable are the diftrefles that one part of mankind would heap upon the other, were it not for a law much higher than any you can pafs. That law you muft all endeavour to inculcate to each other, that it may fpread further and further. That alone will prove powerful if you keep it : but if you defpife or negledt it, none elfe will be much conducive to the fuppreffion and extinction of petty tyranny. Thus [ 43 1 Thus did I goon moralizing the whole afternoon, clofely fhut up in my chaife becaufe of the rain. This inn ofHorfe- bridge is the laft place in Devonfhire. To-morrow I fhall be in Cornwall by break of day. Chivalry -books. Variations of fpeech . Tin, Gold , and Coal-mines in Italy. Why Jhould I THIN piftol-fhot of the houfe where I wrote my laft, there is a brook with a plank over it. At the eaft- end of that plank Devonfhire ends, and at the w^eft-end Cornwall begins. Cornwall is a province frequently men- tioned in our ancient books of chivalry. It is reprefented as a country, where knights-errant often met with ftrange ad- ventures : With diftreffed damfels riding about on milk-white palfreys in fearch LETTER VIII. we work hard ? Falmouth, Aug. 22, 1760. of [ 44 ] of affiftance againft fome giant who had robbed them of their lovers, or againft fome necromancer who had fhut up fome beautiful queen in h«« enchanted tower. Why Cornwal was oftener named in thofe books than Devonfhire or fome other of the adjacent parts, is not eafy to fay. Perhaps fome fafhionable def- cription of that country determined their choice, or perhaps in the ages of chivalry Cornwall was better known to the Itali- ans than Devonfhire and other adjacent parts on account of the tin with which it abounds. The Italians were then the greateft (perhaps the only) navigators in Europe, and knew one better than the other upon that account. Give a better guefs if you can as to the prediledtion our romancers had for this province whenever they laid the fcene in Great Britain. As Falmouth is little lefs than three hundred miles from London, I expedted to be much puzzled in many parts by va- riation of fpeech. But I have found that the t 45 1 the fame language is very nearly fpoken all along the road. The very fpeech of Falmouth is fo like that of London, as not to give me the leaf! trouble. This would not have been the cafe in Italy, where in a much fhorter fpace you meet with dialedts quite unintelligible to the Tufcans or the Romans, and, what is fKH more furpriling, with other manners and other tenours of living, which is not perceptibly the cafe from London to Fal- mouth. However it is lucky that I happened not to come this way about a century and half ago 3 for I am told that a dialed! of the Welch language was then fpoken throughout this province, which had cer- tainly been utterly unintelligible to me. How the Cornifh came to be quite anni- hilated in fo fhort a time is matter of aflo- nifhment, confidering that the prefent inhabitants are not colonifts, but lineal defendants from the inhabitants of that age. As [ 4 « ] As it has rained apace ever fince I crofTed the fmall brook above-mentioned, I could fee almoft nothing thefe three days but the road and the inns where I alighted. I cannot therefore tell you any very remarkable thing of the country which I left behind. It was my intention to flop at Truro, and go to fee the tin- mines in its neighbourhood ; but this untimely rain, which ftill continues, has defeated my fcheme, and put me quite out of humour; fo that I jogged along to this place, and thus have deprived both you and myfelf of fome entertainment and information. Truro is the chief town of Cornwall. By what I could fee of it, I liked it bet- ter than either Exeter or Plymouth. Along one of the ftreets lie fcattered a great many fquare pieces of tin, each of about three hundred pounds weight, as I am told. They tell me likewife, that tin is dug out of the mine along with a great deal of earth ; and not in bits or lumps, but [ 47 1 but in grains as fmall as common fand. The tin is feparated from the earth by feveral walhings, and, when thus feparat- ed, is melted and cad: into thofe fquare pieces. The pieces are marked with the king’s {lamp, and a fmall duty is paid for that mark. Then it is melted again, and cad; into ingots about as big as my thumb, and little lefs than three fpans long ; and in this form is tin tranfported wherever it goes. I got one of thofe in- gots, and could as eafily bend it as I can a rope. In the bending it gives a fuccef- five cracking found, and yet it is not a found, properly fpeaking : it is rather a noife. Nor will an ingot break by bend- ing, except you twid: it hard, and con- trary-wife. The fquare pieces look very' much like filver unpolifhed, and emit a pretty found or tinckling when {truck with a flick or a {tone. It is a good thing for the Cornifh peo- ple to have plenty of a commodity like this, which is of general ufe, and almoft peculiar f 48 ] peculiar to their province. It makes then! ample amends for their foil, which in many places feemed to me very barren* I do not know whether we have any tin in Italy : but I have once feen an Eng- lifli book of travels (whofe title or au- thor I cannot now recoiled!) in which it is faid, that the hills about Spoleto and Norcia contain much of it. If this is true, our Italians muft be confidered as lefs induftrious than the Englilh, for not fearching into thofe hills. It is a re- mark made by many foreigners, that if nature does not place her treafures within the reach of our countrymen, they fcarce- ly deign to have recourfe to art in order to get at them. I will not for the prefent attempt to fettle the ballance of induftry between ours and other nations. Such a difcuffion would be endlefs. This how- ever I will fay, that we have coal-mines in feveral parts of Italy, which were never looked into, but by fome curious natura- lifts ; and that I have myfelf feen hun- * dreds t 49 J dteds of poor people fearching for gold ih fome of our rivers, particularly after a heavy fhower in a torrent called Orba 9 which runs between the high Monferrat and the Genoefe ; arid was told, that many a one is often fo lucky, as to get in a few hours as much of it as will fell for a crown and more. Yet no body ever made the lead; attempt towards difcover- ing the place from which that gold is waihed down. Thefe and feveral other negledts of this nature, have often been cenfured by ftrangers, and the character of the Itali- ans for induftry is not fo great in foreign countries as it ought perhaps to be. But though we do not iearch for coals and metals, yeti cannot find in my heart pee- vifhnefs enough to join with thefe cen- furers. It is true that to be rich is amoft convenient thing; and you will eafily be- lieve me when I tell you, that I ihould not at all be difpleafed at an income of ten thoufand pounds, and even ten thoufand Vol. I. E times / [ 50 J times more. But when I confider that Italy fares as well, taken all together, as any other country that can be named; that there are as few real wants amongft us as any where elfe ; that very few amongft our poor live in perfedl idlenefs ; and that few, very few, are thofe who can ever be enriched by hard and conftant labour ; when I confider all this, I cannot indeed wifh to fee labour much multiplied amongft our poor. And pray, why fhould they Ranfack the centre , and with impious hand Rifle the bowels of their mother earth For treafures better hid? and why fhould they work harder and harder, to no better purpofe than to make the rich ftill richer ? Italy has been fo favoured by provi- dence, that it might fliift by itfelf, bet- ter perhaps than any other country, if it were put to it. We have a fertile ground that yields with moderate labour not only every neceffary of life, but even a great manv J [ 51 5 many articles of luxury ; nay, we have thofe articles in fuch plenty, that we can well fpare a large (hare for other nations, and exchange them for what we fancy will do us good. We want nothing realy, but a fucceffion of good governors care- ful to fee that people may have a ihare fuitable to their feveral ranks of thofe bleffings which the country yields with great liberality; and let Englifh, Dutch, or other people, born in climates lefs kind than ours, perpetually contrive new fchemes to load their poor with work, and think perpetually how to put them all (if it were feafible) about unbofoming mountains, or plowing the ocean in num- berlefs directions, in order to encreafe the number of the few who are to enjoy without working. Too much mud be endured by thofe, to whofe lot it falls to go upon fuch errands ; and I like not to fee our poor employed in occupations that kill £>me and harafs many. E 2 I know [ 52 1 I know that politicians and traders’ have millions of things ready to offer againft reafonings like this. The very dulleft amongft them, thinks himfelf equal to the talk of proving, that the Italians, becaufe lefs induftrious, muft of courfe be lefs happy than the Englifh or the Dutch, who are the modern patterns of induftry. But let us take notice, that in the dictionary of traders and politici- ans, riches and happinefs are made per- fectly fynonimous, though they are not ftriCtly fo in the lexicon of philofophers; and let us refleCt above all, that it is im- poffible ro enrich the hundredth part of the inhabitants of any country, but through the hard and inceffant labour of the other ninety nine parts. L£ T- I 53 } I * LETTER IX. Pilchards. Packet-boats , and lajl farewell to England. Falmouth (till. One o’clock in the afternoon, Aug. 23, 1760. M Y trunk has been carried this mi- nute on board 3 I have already dined 3 I have paid four guineas for the permif- fion of embarking 3 and have no fur- ther bufinefs here but to wait for the fig- nal of departure. The weather is per- fectly fair, and the wind as favourable as one can wifh, fince the ftreamer on the maft-head points exactly toLhbon. It was a moft lucky thing that I reached Falmouth laft night. Had I tarried four and twenty hours longer on the road, I fhould have been obliged to pafs a week or a fortnight here, waiting for another packet 3 which had proved fomewhat vexatious, as this place affords no other amufement to an unknown E 3 ftranger. C 54 ] granger* but that of walking about, or looking on the fea. La ft night I fupped with fome gen- tlemen juft arrived from the place where I am going. They had a very bad paf- fage. Calms and ftorms alternately ; and were full four and forty days about it. If this was to be my cafe, it would heartily make me curfe my curiofity to fee Por- tugal and Spain. However let us hope for the beft. I have now advanced too far to retreat, and will take my chance. So by and by I fhall be in England no more ! This is no pleafing confideration. By and by I fhall be toft up and down the waves. And this other confideration, do you think it pleafing ? But, what is really not pleafing, I fhall have no other company on board, except the people that belong to the packet. What fhall I do to employ my time if the paftage proves long ? Scribble and read. But a man cannot read and fcribble for ever. I fhall want a little talk likewife ; and the > ‘ . ■ . '» • people r 55 3 people of the packet, I fuppofe, will have other bufinefs to mind than my convene. Put all this together, and fay whether my prefent fituation can raife your envy. But it is a folly to abandon ourfelves to our imaginations when they are of the gloomy kind. I had not much reft laft night, as I went to bed much vexed at the rain that continued pouring without any fort of difcretion. But rifing with the fun, I was mightly pleafed to fee it fhine in its greateft glory, and not the leaft fpeck of a cloud in the whole horizon, I walked along the £hore, waiting for the captain of the packet, with whom I was to go for the paftport. In my walk I met with a gentleman, an early rifer, it feems, as well as myfelf. I bowed ; he bowed. Going for Lifbon, fir ? Yes, fir. I hope you will have a good paflage. I thank you kindly. Words beget words. We faid fomething of the war; we made a jeft of the French ; praifed the king of E 4 Pruflia, [ 0 ] Pruflla, prince Ferdinand, and fo forth. Then we came to talk of Falmouth, He told me that he traded much in pilch- ards ; and that he fent every year feve- ral fhip-loads to fevera] parts of Europe* and particularly to Italy. Pilchards, as I could colled! from his difcourfe, are the chief commodity that the Falmouth people have for trade. The fifh comes in this neighbourhood gene- rally three times a year, and always in large fhoals. That which is caught in winter proves befl: and fells beft. They take immenfe quantities of it ; fait it ; how it in large barrels ; and fell it for the greateft part to the feveral catholic nations. Should the Pope turn Protef- tant, and abolifh lent and meagre days, or only tell us that it is no fin to eat a good fowl on a Friday, the Falmouthians would have no great temptation to laugh at thejeft. Yet, befides this refource, they have money neceflarily circulating in the town, in confequence of the many packets [ 57 ] packets here ftationed for feveral parts of the Weft-Indies, Spain, and Portugal. Nor is this country barren and unplea- fant. I like very well what I have feen of it, and Falmouth feems to me one of thofe innumerable places where a man may live agreeably, provided he has wherewithal to fupply all his wants. But hark ! it is the fignal-gun that calls me on board with its refounding voice. So farewell England, farewell again and again. LETTER V yv. Sea-Jicknefs. Monjieur or the Dog . Neither Fight nor Jlorm . Englifhmen mending . From on board the King-George-Packet, «bout a hundred and fifty miles off Falmouth. Aug. 24, 1760. Y esterday about two o’clock in the afternoon I came haftily on board. The fails were fpread, and in lefs than three hours, with the fhore always in view, we found ourfelves off a place called t 58 ] called Land s Lnd , which (as the name implies) is the weftern-moft point of England. I fetch’d a deep figh when a little after I faw it no more. It was near eight when all I could fee about us was nothing but water, water, water. The fky was quite bright, the wind blew very frefh, and the fea was as flat as the table I am writing upon : fo that, finding 1 was already thirty miles from the fliore without the lead: fymp- tom of the fea-ficknefs, I made fure I jfhould efcape it. It came into my head that about five and twenty years ago, crofiing that little puddle pompoufly called the Adriatic Sea by the Venetians, I was taken ill within two or three miles from the land ; and that the fame had happened ten years ago when I went from Boulogne to Dover. This was good ground enough for hope, confider- ing my prefent diftance from the fhore. Yet that hope was blafted, and at lun- fet [ 59 3 fet my flomach wrought with fuch vio- lence, that for near three hours I was more ill than words can exprefs. I was carried down little lefs than fenfelefs, and put to bed. An end was foon put to my torment by my falling into a moft profound fleep, in fpight of the incelfant crackings of the fhip, and in fpight of the walking, talking, finging, and jump- ing of the failors. It was near eight this morning when I was awakened by fome of the fellows crying out a fail , a fail . As I found my- felf tolerably well, I got up inftantly, and went upon deck, where about an hour after I faw through my fpying-glafs a (hip that feemed to make towards us. Now, thought I, I fhall have fomething to enliven my letter of to-day. Every man on board was looking at the fhip, fome through telefcopes, and fome with their own eyes. None could as yet tell whether it was a friend or a foe. This packet [ 6o ] packet is a mod fpecial failer; fo that none of our people feared being overtaken by any purfuer, and we went on as if no body had been in fight. The captain inquired with great kindnefs after my health, hoped I would be fick no more, and order’d tea, which was mod accept- able, as my throat was very fore becaufe of the efforts made lafl night. I break- fafted heartily ; then looked again at the ill ip that followed; then took up a book ; then went down to dine; then went up to look at the fliip again ; then read a- gain and again. Towards five this after- noon the fliip was within two. or three miles of us, and feveral of our people were pofitive that it was Marjhal BelliJJe , a privateer of Morlaix that carries twelve or fourteen guns. By what marks they could know it, I cannot tell. As this ©pinion prevailed, our tars wifhed the Dog would come an inch nearer, juft to give him a broadfide or two, by way of pay- [ 6i ] paying him for his fawcinefs in looking at us. As we have a few guns more than the Dog, (for dog is the word) we would prefently cure him of his impertinence. But packets are ftriftly forbidden to fight, when fighting can be avoided by failing away. They cannot even ftop to attack enemies of inferior force. Therefore Monfieur, or the Dog, (the two words are fynonimous) is perfectly fafe, and may follow as long as he lifts. We have now fpread a few additional fails, and the captain tells me, that in about two hours we fhall fee him no more if this wind continues. My account of this voyage therefore will not be graced with the nar- ration of a naval combat, which would make it much prettier ; and it will prove quite infipid if we are alfo fo unlucky as not to meet with a ftorm to excite a little my powers of defcription. But what fhall I fay now the privateer has difappeared ? I want a fubjedt for fcribbling [ 62 ] fcribbling half an hour longer, and here I have none at hand. Let me ftep back to the dear ifland I quitted yefterday. The farther I went from London, the more tradable feem’d the low people. None did I meet that was fparing of bows and civil behaviour ; and in the whole journey I never was honoured once with the pretty appellation of French dog, fa liberally beftowed by the London rabble upon thofe who have an outlandifh look ; and you know how few are the ftrangers that can look like natives any where. This cuftom of abufing ftrangers without theieaft provocation, is by many attributed to the freedom of the Englifh government : But I am far from being of this opinion, as the cuftom of abufing ftrangers is not peculiar to the Englifti. There are other governments quite diffe- rent from the Britifh, where the low people make thus free with thofe who are not their countrymen ; and call them t 63 j by injurious names as they go by. How- ever, in the fpace of ten years, I have ob- ferved that the Englifh populacg have confiderably mended their manners in this particular ; and am perfuaded that in about twenty years more they will become quite as civil to Grangers as the French and the Italians. When I firfl went to London, I remember that a flranger could fcarcely walk about with his hair in a bag without being affronted. Every porter and every flreet-walker would give a pull to his bag, merely to rejoice themfelves and paffengers : but now, both flrangers and natives wear bags about London without moleftation ; nor is th eFrench-dog by far fo much in faihion as it was then, when they would even be- llow it upon a Turk, whofe chin w r a& fhaded by a beard, and whofe head was hidden in a turban. The low people all over the kingdom feem to think that there are but two na- tions in the world, the Englifh and the French * [ 6 4 ] French ; and he mu ft be a Frenchman who is not an Englifhman. Then they know fomething of a fea-faring people called the Dutch, for whom they have the greateft contempt. But talk to them of other nations ; of the Italians for in- ftance : They have heard fomething of the Italians; but a’n’t the’Talians French ? What are they ? Have they any bread to eat, or any beer to drink, like the Eng- lifh ? Or do they feed upon foop-meagre and frogs like the French ? Here you will be apt to wonder at the ignorance of the Englifh populace : but while you wonder, be pleafed to recoi- led: that our Italian populace are full as ignorant, and even more. What no- tions have our populace of the Englifh ? They have heard that the Englifh do not believe the Pope to be infallible : of courfe they are not Chriftians. But what are they ? No body knows for certain ; but the Englifh believe in tranfmigration, and that they fhall be turned into fome animal [ 65 ] animal or other after death ; mean while they are all Lords, and not men and women, but fomething ejfe, no body knows what. Such are the notions our low people have of the Englifh ; and what encreafes their abfurdity is, that they fee Englifh travellers every day, who look as much like men as the Pope himfelf. And as to the Englifh notions about eating and drinking, did you ever hear of the honeft Neapolitan who was going to Rome? He put bread and onions in his poft- chaife, not knowing (faid he) whether there was any thing to eat at fuch a diftance from Naples. Excufing therefore their rudenefs to i Grangers, and their contempt for all other countries, [into which contempt they are betray'd by many of their daily fcribblers, who are inceffantly reviling all other countries^] the populace of Eng- land is far from being fo hateful as ftrangers are apt to think a little after Vol.L F their • 3 - [ 66 ] their arrival in London. I have feen them contribute as many (hillings as they could fpare, towards the maintenance of the French prifoners they have made in the prefent war : I have feen them forry when the news came that Damiens had ftabb’d the King of France : and I have heard an univerfal fhout of joy when their parliament voted a hundred thoufand pounds to the Portuguefe on hearing of the tremendous earthquake. What do you fay to this ? Is it poffible to hate people of this make ? What fignifies their ridiculous cuftom of calling names, by which foreign blockheads are fo much offended ? But ’tis time to go to bed. If I am in the humour to-morrow, I will re- fume this topic, and tell you more of the Englifh. Except a little fore-throat, I now find myfelf better than ever I was in my life ; and yet laft night my fick- nefs was fo horrible, that I thought it 1m- [ *7 ] impoflible to furvive it. It is really a thing that feels fatal. LETTER XL Acquaintance contracted at Sea . A Bag~ HE Captain's name is Bawn, and the Lieutenant’s Oak. They are both very kind and very civil ; nor did I ever fee any people mind their bufinefs more clofely than they do theirs. I think they live without deep. They are always upon deck, and attentive to the failors, that each may flick to his refpedtive duty. Scarcely dare I to exchange ten words with either for fear of proving trouble- fome. However, when we are alongfide of a buttock of beef as they phrafe it, we talk fail enough, and drink to each other merrily. But you do not know that I have found a treafure in this fhip. Yes, pipe . Ju?io's and Venus's . King George Packet, Aug. 25, 1760. F 2 r *8 ] 9 indeed ; and this treafure h the Surgeon. This morning, as we were both in the great room (I mean a room which is eight or nine feet wide) I faw this fur- geon looking into a quarto book, which I perceived to be an Italian dictionary. Do you read Italian, Sir ? “ I have been as people will often fay in France. To learn a language in a month I think impofiible as well as you. But as to the enabling myfelf to underftand the pilot in a month, you will recoiled that I have known the Spanifh tongue thefe five and twenty years, and that the Portuguefe is but a dialed: of the Spanilh ; nor do I think that it differs quite fo much from it as the dialed of Venice does from the lan- guage of Tufcany. Then, I it lend not H 4 to [ I0 4 ] to be a critic in the Lufitanic and mailer all its niceties and prettineffes. I want no more of it than will decently help me on while I flay in Portugal : and fo you fee that my confidence as to the pi- lot, is not quite fo ill-grounded as yon thought. I will not let this opportunity flip of telling you, that there is an infallible way to give your little fon a facility of pronouncing any language, if you intend to make him learn more than one. Lend me your ear, and I will tell you how this may be done. Our people of rank at Turin have got a notion, that their children muft never be fuffered to fpeak any Piedmontefe but what is fpoken in the metropolis ; and in confequence pf this notion they keep a ftridl watch upon the poor little things for fear they ihould catch the clownifli accent on the oppolite fide of the Po. This practice is wrong, and I wifli you may never adopt it. Let the boy learp i [ 10 5 ] the polite fpeech of his town ; but be not afraid to let him learn likewife that of the peafants : nay, encourage him to mimick their talk. By making him learn two fpeeches inftead of one, you will enable him to articulate more founds than by his learning only one. And if it is in your power, I would even have you fhift him from place to place while his organs of fpeech are yet tender and pliant, and bring him to mimick any uncouth fpeech of Piedmont or Monferrat. Take him likewife frequently to the play, and make him mind the different Italian di- aledts fpoken by the Dramatis Perfonae, and repeat as much of their nonfenfe as it is poffible. Nothing will ever fpoil his polite Piedmontefe when he hears it con- ftantly fpoke at home $ and yet number- lefs are the founds that he will certainly enable himfelf to form, if you will but put him thus in the way. Many Italians are to be found in Paris and in London, who in a very little time fpeak [ 106 ] Ipeak French and English with fuch a right pronounciation as to be miftaken for natives. The reafon is, that Italy abounds more with different dialedts than any other country of the fame dimenfion, and that few are its inhabitants but what know more than one, either by moving from place to place, or by going to thofe plays in which every interlocutor fpeaks the dialedt of his own town. On the other hand you do not meet with a French gentleman in a hundred able to pronounce a foreign language right, not even when he has ftudied it a great while, and when he can fpeak it with purity of phrafeology and gram- matical correctnefs. No other reafon can be affigned for this, but that in his in- fancy his Mamma was terrified when fhe caught him in the abominable adt of ut- tering any found that border’d on the poijjdrd or the badaut , and reprimanded him with fuch feverity as if he had com- mitted a great crime. He was thus brought [ I0 7 3 brought up with an untradable tongue that never will utter any found but what is genuine Gallic. But, Sir, come upon deck, and you will fee the Rock. The Rock I fufped to be fome part of the Portugal coaft $ and fo farewel in hafte. Navigation ended . Batijle and Kelly . Blunge or pay . Banks of the Tagus . OOK at the date, and give me joy. We landed this evening about eight o’clock. I was very glad to be rid of my floating habitation $ yet forry to leave the Captain, the Lieutenant, and my good Surgeon. They have treated me with kindnefs and civility, for which I fhall remember them as long as I live. Well ; I arn landed : and there is an end of navigation. But I thought it very odd that when fir ft on ftiore I could not * > . V, ' ( ■ * ' LETTER XVIII. Lifbon, Aug. 30, 1760. about midnight. ftand [ ioS ] ftand upon my legs, but tottered to the right and the left, as if my blood had been in an undulating motion. This difficulty of flanding and walking with a fleady foot was not the effedt of any gid- dinefs* I cannot tell what it was, but it feem’d as if the ground had moved like a fhip : yet in the fhip I could ftand or walk very well, and, as I thought, with- out tottering. Thus unable when I landed to make ufe of my legs, I was obliged to hire a man who handed me for about a mile to a coffee-houfe. The odd motion of my blood fubfided by de- grees as I went on, and in lefs than two hours I was again like myfelf. From the coffee-houfe I fent my helper to enquire after one Batifle , a faithful French fervant I had formerly in Lon- don. He was prefently found out ; and hearing of my unexpected arrival, rofe haftily from fupper and came to me quite out of breath with running, his coun- tenance full of joy and furprife. This [ I0 9 1 This Batifte took me to one Kelly , an old Irifhman who keeps a kind of an inn on the fummit of a hill called Buenos Aires . I was quite fatigued when we reach’d it. Here I have taken up my quarters for the time I fhail Hay in Lif- bon ; and now let me come to the con- clusion of my voyage. It was about ten in the morning when our people had a full view of the Rock of Lijbon ; that is, of a very high promon- tory on the left hand as you enter the Tagus, and at no great diftance from the mouth of it. That promontory looks perfectly bar- ren, and has the appearance of a huge heap of rugged flones. Yet I am told that up and down it, there are many fine fpots ; that in the lower parts it is em- bellished with vineyards ; that in Several places it is covered with trees ; and that it has even fome flats where fheep and cattle are grazing. I am [ no ] I am told farther that on the utmoft top of it, there is a convent cut into the rock itfelf, called the Cork-convent by the failors, becaufe the friars there have moll of their utenfils and furniture made of cork, as the place is fo damp, that they cannot have them of any other ma- terial. In fhort fo many curious things were told me about that rock and about the fituation and form of that convent, that I have fome defire to go and fee it. But we will think of this another time. Let us for the prefent go on with the iri- terefting ftory of this day. When the Rock was full in view I was called upon deck* There a failor flood up to me, and informed me with a civil faucy face, that it was the failors* cuftom to duck in the fea any body who faw the Rock for the firft time : and as that happened to be my cafe, he humbly defired my compliance with that cuftom by ftripping immediately, except I rather chofe i t't i chofe to be duck’d with my cloaths alt my back. This unexpected addrefs did not ftartle me much, as it occur’d direCtly, that this was nothing more than a harmlefs fcheme to get a little drink-money* However, to encreafe the humour of it I made myfelf as ferious as an old bear* and fpeaking flow and loud that I might be heard from deck to deck, €t Sir, faid I, you and your companions are wel~ “ come to drown me, if you think it proper ; you know, Sir, that I cannot u be fo ridiculous as to attempt the leaff u refiftance againfl; a body of men who ** would drown an army of Frenchmen, “ if juftly provoked. As to the ceremony, I certainly fhould have no objection, “ were the ocean an ocean of Dorchefter- “ beer or London-porter : yet, as it hap- €C pens that it is made of a liquor I always “ had an unconquerable abhorrence of* cc I would rather compound the matter* “ and if any body elfe, you yourfelf for “ inftance* [ 112 5 tc instance, fliould be fo generous as t6 €< be duck'd or drown'd in my {lead, 1 “ would endeavour to convince you and fC this honorable company that my pre- €t dominant vice is not ingratitude." 3« ] This country is one of the hottefl: in Europe ; yet its inhabitants are not melted into flendernefs. I never faw any where fo many fat men in one place as I have feen to day. In Lifbon both men and women of the better fort feem to love gaudinefs in drefs. The Ladies, like thofe of Tufcany and other parts of Italy, wear many artificial flowers ftuck in their hair. It is a pretty fafhion. I faw feveral beautiful faces to day, and many a pair of brilliant eyes. Here, as in France and Italy, they have the abfurd cuftom of dieffing their children too much. I hate to fee a little girl with a tupee, and a little fword at the fide of a little boy. The Englifh are not guilty of fuch folly. In England boys and girls, even when they are fons and daugh- ters of Earls and Dukes, are never made to look like dwarfifh men and dwarfifh women : and this may be the reafon, that England abounds lefs with fops and coquets than either France or Italy. LET- t >37 ] LETTER XX. Effects cf the Earthquake . A City not to he rebuilt in hajle . Lifbon, Sept. i. 1760. I Have now vilited the ruins of Lifbon at full leifure, and a dreadful inde- lible image is now imprinted on my mind ! But do not expeCt from me fuch a de- fcription of thefe ruins, as may even im- perfectly convey that image to you. Such a fcene of horrible defolation no words are equal to : no words at leaft that I could poffibly put together ; and it is ocular infpeCtion only, that can give an adequate idea of the calamity which this city has fuffer’d from the ever-memo^ able earthquake. As far as I can judge after having walk’d the whole morning and the whole afternoon about thefe ruins, fo much of Lifbon has been deftroy’d as would make a town more than twice as great as Turin. [ 138 ] Turin (a). In fuch a fpace nothing is to be feen but vaft heaps of rubbifh, out of which arife in numberlefs places the miferable remains of fhatter’d walls and broken pillars. Along a ftreet which is full four miles in length, fcarcely a building flood the fhock : and I fee by the materials in the rubbiih, that many of the houfes along that ftreet muft have been large and ftately, and intermixed with noble churches and other public edifices ; nay, by the quantities of marble fcatter’d on every fide, it plainly appears that one fourth at leaft of that ftreet was intirely built of marble. The rage of the earthquake (if I may call it rage) feems to have turned chiefly againft; (a ) Turin , a fortified town in Piedmont , and the King tf Sardinia's refideme , is little more than a mile in length „ taken from the Po-gaie to that of Sufa y and not quite fo much from the King' s palace to the New- gate. Lijbonfrom the Alcantara-gate to the Slave's bagnio is ( or was ) about four miles y and a mile and a half broad almoft throughout , [ 139 ] againft that long lireet, as almoft every edifice on either fide is in a manner le- velled with the ground : whereas \n. other parts of the town many houfes, churches, and other buildings are left Handing; though all fo cruelly fhattered, as not to be repaired without great expence: Nor is there throughout the whole town a Angle building of any kind, but what wears vifible marks of the horrible con- cufllon. I cannot be regular in fpeaking of the various things that ftruck me to day, but muft note them down as well as my crouding thoughts will permit. My whole frame was fhaking as I afcended this and that heap of rubbifh. Who knows, thought I, but I Hand now di- re&ly over fome mangled body that was fuddenly buried under this heap! Some worthy man! Some beautiful woman! Some helplefs infant! A whole family perhaps!— Then I came in fight of a ruined .[ 14 ° ] ruined church. Confider its walls giving way! The roof and cupola linking at once, and crulhing hundreds and thou- fands of all ages, of all ranks, of all con- ditions ! This was a convent : this was a nunnery : this was a college : this an hofpital ! Refledt on whole communities loft in an inftant! The dreadful idea comes round and round with irreliftible intrufion. As I was thus rambling over thofe ru- ins, an aged woman feized me by the hand with fome eagernefs, and pointing to a place juft by : Here, ftranger (faid Ihe) do you fee this cellar? It was only my cellar once; but now it is my habi- tation, becaufe I have none elfe left ! My houfe tumbled as I was in it, and in this cellar was I fhut by the ruins for nine whole days. I had perilhed with hunger, but for the grapes that I had hung to the cieling. At the end of nine days I heard people over my head, who were fearch- ing [ Hi ] ing the rubbilh. I cried as loud as I could; they removed the rubbilh, and took me out. I alked her what were her thoughts in that difmal fituation; what her hopes, what her fears. Fears I had none, faid jfhe. I implored the affiftance of St. An- thony who was my protestor ever fincel was born. I expedted my deliverance every moment, and was fure of it. But, alas ! I did not know what I was pray- ing for! It had been much better for me to die at once ! I came out unhurt: but what fignifies living a Ihort while longer in forrow and in want, and not a friend alive! My whole family perilhed! We were thirteen in all : and now -"- - none but myfelf ! Hear of another deliverance no lefs un- common. A gentleman was going in his calafh along a kind of terrace, raifed on the brink of an eminence which com- mands the whole town. The frighten'd mules leap’d down that eminence at the firft [ 142 ] firft fhock. They and the rider wer® killed on the fpot and the calalh broken to pieces, and yet the gentleman got off unhurt. But there would be no end of relating the ftrange accidents that befel many- on that dreadful day. Every body you meet has twenty to telh The King had two palaces in Lifbon and they were both deftroyed. Yet none of the royal family perifhed. They were juft going from Lijbon to (a) Bel* lem> and juft in a part of the road where there was nohoufe nigh. Had they flay- ed a quarter of an hour longer in town, or reached BellJm a quarter of an hour fooner, they had probably periihed, as the royal palace at Bellem was likewife nearly deftroyed. King, Queen, Prin- cefies, and all their attendants were obliged to encamp in a garden and in the neigh- [a) Bellem is a town or village about three miles from Lijbon , where the King and royal family pafs the bejl part of the year , [ J 43 3 neighbouring fields : and I well remem- ber that the Britifh Envoy who was there at that time, wrote over to his court, that five days after the earthquake he went to Bellem to pay his refpedts to them, but that the Queen had fent him word (he could not receive him, as file was under a tent, and in no condition to be feen. Imagine what the mifery of the people muft have been when even the royal family fuffered fo much. Nor mu ft I forget to mention the uni- verfal conflagration that followed the earthquake. You know that this mis- fortune fell out on All-Saints day, at ten o’clock in the morning; that is, when all the kitchen-fires were lighted againft dinner time, and all the churches illumi- nated in honour of the day. The fires in the kitchens and the lights in the churches rolled againft the combuftible matters ihat could not fail to be in their way, and the ruined town was prefently in a flame. Lijbon is furnifhed with water by f 144 ] by means of aqueduds ; but the aque- duds were broken by the concuflion: fo that little or no water was at hand. Yet had it been ever fo plentiful, ftill the town would not have efcaped the confla* gration, becaufe (a) every body ran away to the fields and other open places: and thus more lofs was caufed by the fire than by the earthquake itfelf, as it con- fumed all that people had in their houfes, which might in a good meafure have been dug out of the ruins if it had not been confumed by that fire. What a fpedacle for three hundred thoufand peo- ple to fee their homes burning all at once ! But is it not furprifing, after fuch an earthquake and fuch a conflagration, to hear (a) Mr. Clark fays , that on the firjl Jhaking of the ground the people “ throng'd into the churches' * How could he believe thofe who told him this P He fays alfo , that only 49 1 mercantile bufinefs tranfadted at leaf! for a few years in an humbler place than the grand Portico ; but I cannot help faying, that, if I were allowed to wilh in favour of the poor inhabitants of Lifbon, I would rather fee one of their old flreets rebuilt, than the grandeft Arfenal : ra- ther fome few ftore-houfes to fecure mer- chandizes, than a great Portico for their owners to confabulate under. But the people, for whom I could form fuch wifhes, feem to have another way of < thinking, and who knows but as foon as that wonderful Arfenal is compleated they fet about to rebuild their inquifition, their cathedral, or fome ftupendous con- vent ? It feems the prevailing opinion amongft the Portuguefe, that the numbers loft in the ruins of this town, amounted to more than ninety thoufand. But fuppofe they exaggerate by two thirds, as the un- happy are apt to do, ftill a number re- L 3 mains [ 15 ° ] mains that makes the blood run cold at- Nor is Liibon the only place in Portu- gal that has undergone this woeful vifi- tation. I am told that other towns have fuffer’d ftill more in proportion. One in particular called Setubal was fo perfectly deftroyed that not one perfon efcaped ! But I will quit this fubjedt. It fills one with fadnefs to no manner of pur- pofe. The laying of a fundamental ftone . A pa- triarchal pomp. Pied-horfes. Have feen the King of Portugal and his whole court in great gala/ this being a memorable anniverfary, as his Majefty this day three years narrowly efcaped being treacheroufly murdered by the Dukod’Aveiro and his affociates. the thought! LETTER XXI. That C 15* ] That was a bloody tranfadiion, and no lets incomprehenfible than bloody. It is not eafily conceived that the Duke fhould be prompted and follicited to take away his Sovereign’s life by many relations and friends, and by the whole body of the Portuguefe jefuits : that fo execrable aeon- fpiracy fhould require the concurrence of many* when at laft it was to be executed by a few : that the dreadful fecret fhould beentrufted with men and women, matters* and fervants, ecclefiattics and lay-men* and not one out of fome hundred fhould be tempted by hope, impelled by terror, or induced by a better motive to difeover it in time: that fuch a fecret fhould fo faithfully be kept by the whole gang of the confpirators as not even to be fuf- pedted by fo wary and fufpicious a govern- ment ! all this is quite incomprehenfible. But let us come to the gala. In that village called Bellem , already named, a wooden edifice has been eredled within thefe few days upon the very fpot L 4 where [ *52 ] where his Majefty was fired at by the murderers. This edifice is eighty of my fteps irl length and five and twenty broad. The infide of it was hung with a kind of red ferge ftriped and fringed with a tinfel- lace. In the middle of it was placed an altar gtorioufly adorned. Facing the al- tar there Were two pews, one for the King and the other for the Queen, befides a fmatter for Don Bajlian Jofeph de Carvalho fecretary of State. Under the Queen’s pew there was a kind of throne for Car - dinal Saldanha the patriarch. The re- mainder of the place was occupied pell- mell by the nobility of the kingdom, fo- reign miniflers, and all Grangers well drefs-d. The patriarch’s attendants how- ever, as well as the muflcians, had fome benches to themfelves. As the day proved inexpreffibly hot, the doors and windows of the edifice were kept open during the ceremony, fo that the numberlefs fpedtators from with- out [ *53 ] out enjoyed it near as well as thofe within. About nine o’clock Secretary Carvalho made his appearance preceded by many gentlemen, many fervants, a drummer, and a trumpeter, all on horfeback. He was alone in a coach drawn by fix grey horfes, attended by two grooms on foot, one on each fide of the coach, and by five and twenty of the King’s horfe- guards. He had fcarcely alighted and got to his pew, when behold the Patriarch ! Ex- cepting the Pope, there is no ecclefiaftic in the world that is ever furrounded with fo great a pomp as this Patriarch. But his revenue, they fay, amounts to thirty thoufand pounds fterling, and fo he may well afford it. Two coaches full of priefts began the march. Then followed fifty of his Emi- nence’s fervants walking two and two in blue liveries trimm’d with a crimfon filk- lace, all uncover’d, all well powder’d, and [ * 54 - 1 and all wearing large cloaks that reached the ground. A pried: on horfeback went before them, holding up a filver-crofs fix’d on the top of a ftick filver’d over. Then followed feven coaches. The two firft were occupied by his Eminences ec*- clefiaftical officers. In the third was the Patriarch himfelf with his matter of the ceremonies who kept- his back to the horfes. Two priefts walk’d on foot, one on this fide of the coach and the other on the other. Each bore in his hand an urn- brello of crimfon- velvet, fring’d round with gold. They were both fo tall, that they put me in mind of Don Fracajfa and DonTempeJia in the poem of Riccia?~detto> The coach of the Patriarch both within and without was lined with blue velvet, gilt and painted very much and very well. Then followed his ftate-coach empty, fo rich and fo fine that Queen Semiramis would not have thought it unworthy of herfelf. Then three more coaches full again of officers ; I mean ecclefiaflics all. even C *55 ] even fome of the fifty that walk’d in pro^ eeflion. Each of the four firfi: coaches was drawn by fix pied-horfes ; that is, horfes ftreak’d with black and white, which, it feems, are not fo uncommon in Portugal and Spain, as they are in other countries. They all galop’d ; but their galopping was fo clofe and fliort, that the attendants on foot could keep up with it, though they walked with great flownefs and folemnity. The three next coaches, inftead of horfes, had fix mules each, much finer than any I ever law in Italy. The Patriarch was drefs’d? in his great pontificals. And how did he look ? In Petrarch’s words Stavaji tutto umile in tanta gloria . While this noble proceflion was advan- cing towards the wooden edifice, more than twenty other coaches, each drawn by fix mules, appeared from feveral parts, and in them were the dignitaries and ca- nons of Lifbon-Cathedral. They all alighted at the door of the edifice and walk’d [ *5<> ] walk'd partly to the right and partly the left of the Patriarch's throne. I had quitted my chaife and borrowed Batijies horfe, that I might look at all the great folks with better convenience. Was I pleafed with fo magnificent a (how, or was I difgufted by fo vain a parade ? I was pleafed, becaufe I am no morofe phi- lofopher. Such fights are naturally de- lightful, and I never found my account in counteracting nature. I overheard an Englifhman damn the puppet-dhow, and thought him ill-natured or difcontented. The King then came in a coach and fix, the horfes black and white like the Patriarch’s, furrounded with four and twenty of his horfe-guards. Don Pedro was with him. The Queen followed im- mediately with her four daughters and an elderly lady, all in one coach, with four more coaches, two before and two be- hind, full of ladies, all coaches and fix. Her Majefty was environed by a troop of her own horfe-guards, who are much better [ »57 3 better drefs’d than the King’s, and, as I am told, all foreigners, chiefly Irifh, Scotch, and Germans, She and the Prin- ceffes were mod magnificently drefs’d, wearing mod ample hoops, their heads, necks, breafts, arms, waifts, and feet glittering with jewels. The Princefles have very fine fhapes, fine completions, and the fineft eyes that can be feen. One of them (I think the third, but am not fure) as far as my wretched eyes could judge at the diltance of feven or eight yards, is a ftriking beauty. I was pleafed to fee them fo lively and hopping out of the coach with fo much nimblenefs. In the pew they all kneeled for a mo- ment, except the Queen who fat down and fell a-reading and killing the leaves of her book. As Ihe did this more than forty times in a few minutes I afk’d what was the meaning of that killing, and was anfwer’d that it was her Majelty’s cuftom to kifs the name of God, of our blelfed Lady, and of all Saints and Angels in any book t 158 3 V book that (he reads. This Angularity brought to my mind an Engliih Philo- fopher (Mr. Boyle, if I do not midake) who ufed to bow whenever God's name was mentioned. The Queen lay’d down her book and a great Te Deum was fung with much noife of mufic. The T^e Deum was fol- low’d by the litanies. The King then got up, and attended by Don Pedro, Secretary Carvalho, and fome other gentlemen of his court, de- fended into a kind of hole about bread- high, where filver-fhovels, (liver-ham- mers, and other implements of mafonry had been placed before hand with dones, brick, and mortar. His Majedy put fome gold and filver medals at the bottom of that hole and cover’d them with a quadrangular done ; then both he and his attendants took up their (hovels, and fell a covering that done with bricks and mortar, beating the bricks with the ham- mers from time to time, as they were directed [ *59 J diredled by a gentleman, who, I fuppofe, is the King’s architect. And thus was placed the fundamental flone of a mod noble church, which is to be forthwith eredted there by way of Ex-vofo to our bleffed Lady for the miraculous deliver- ance the King obtained through her means from the blunderbulfes of the Duke d’Aveiro and the other aflaffins. In a few minutes the bufinefs of lay- ing the /tone was over, during which I could not help wondering at fome vulgar women who, looking through one of the windows, laughed immoderately at the mafons, probably becaufe they were fomewhat aukward at their new trade, and this difcompofed a little the gravity of the by-ftanders. Yet no body took any particular notice of their imperti- nence. The King and his company returned to their places, and as foon as they were feated, the Patriarch quitting his throne flood up to the altar and celebrated a high [ i6o ] high mafs affifted by his dignitaries and canons with the ceremonies obferved by the Cardinals to the Pope, when his Ho- linefs officiates in the mod folemn functions. During the mafs the mulx- cians play’d and fung mod glorioufly. The King has a good many in his fer- vice, and, what is remarkable, more than forty Italians, partly fingers and partly players upon feveral inftruments. The mafs lafted a full hour, and was followed by the patriarchal benediction, after which the company broke up and every body went home tired and fatigued. The heat without was great, as the fun ilione very bright, but within was quite intolerable. At fome diftance from the edifice there was all the while a foot battalion upon guard, the common men ill-drefled and ill-comb’d. They were not allow’d to fire as they do in Italy upon the like oc- cafions ; and this I thought judicioufly ordered, as they would have frighted the horfes [ 161 ] horfes and mules, and made them prance over the multitude : and I was alfo ple.afed to fee feveral officers repeatedly command the horfe-guards to keep clofe and ride foftly, that no body might be hurt. The day before yefterday at the Am- phitheatre I had feen a good number of ladies. To-day I faw many more at the wooden edifice, and had reafon to be pleafed at the fight in both places. To- day efpecially they were all richly drefs’d, thick-fet with jewels, and many of them very handfome. They are in general much fairer than one would expedl in fo hot a latitude, which makes me fuppofe that they take care not to go much in the fun. Almoft all have open counte- nances and fimpering looks. A good contrail to their men, whofe fkins are rather fwarthy, and whofe faces are ful- len and grave, even when they attempt to fmile, which they do often enough. The falutation of men to ladies confifts Vol. I. M in [ 162 ] in a fhort and quick genuflexion, fucfi as we mal^e in Italy to our beft Madonas when we are in a hurry. But this com- pliment the ladies fcarcely return with a nod, efpecially to inferiors. The gentle- men embrace each other with great re- fpedt when they meet, and kifs each other’s left fhoulder. I am told that no body in Lifbon is allowed to have horfes to his coach, chaife, or other vehicle, except the Royal Family, Minifters of State, Patriarch, foreign Minifters, and a few others. The reft make ufe of mules. Portugal, they fay, does not abound in horfes, and the Portuguefe are obliged to fmuggle many out of Spain, whence the fale is forbid- den under Revere penalties. Female drefs is no where variated fo much as amongft the low women in 'this country. Some hide themfelves under veils of different fluffs and colours, and feme appear quite uncovered. Some have their hair plaited up, fome let it flow down C >63 ] down their fhoulders, and fome confine it in one or more hanging trefTes. Some have coifures after the French manner, and fome wear hats after the Englifh. Many adorn their heads with ribbonds, and many with natural or artificial flowers. The earthquake has been the caufe of fo great a variety on this particular. As it has deprived the greatefc part of them of their wearing apparel, they drefs now as well as they can, and have no prevalent or national fafhion, LETTER XXII. Another fine ProfipeB. Rhyme and blank- verfie . Heavenly life at the pferonimites . Banks of the Pagus again . Sowing of Salt. Lifbon, Sept 5, 1760, A S I was looking yeilerday into a Portuguefe book, I took notice that it was printed en Lijboa Occidental. M 2 What E 164 ] Wha t means, faid I, this Occidental Li } - ben ? Is there any other befides this ? No fuch thing, quoth the French bookfeller. Some Lujitanian Literati af- firm, that the ancient OUJipo flood on the oppofite fide of the river, becaufe an an- cient infeription was once found there in which OUJipo is mentioned. Upon this fcanty foundation and to make a parade of erudition, fome of them beftow that epithet of Occidental on this town, with- out coniidering, that, were their conjec- tures true, ftill there would be no room for that diflin£tion, as no book was ever printed en Lijboa Oriental . How far the bookfeller is right or wrong I cannot determine. However, thought I, I will go and vifit the op- pofiie fide of the river, and fee if I can find out any thing worth a paragraph in a letter. A place fufpedted by the learned to have been LiJbon> well deferves a vifit. In confequence of this refolution this morning early I got into a boat with-lfo- tijte , [ * 6 5 ] itjle , and failed away to the other fide of the Tagus. The bank of the river on that fide I found a great deal higher than this. It is a perfed mountain. But where I land- ed there is no houfe nor room to build any. I faw a path that leads up to the top of the hill, and clamber'd up. The path is craggy and difficult enough. On the fummit there are two villages, one called Caftillo , the other Almada . Cajlillo has nothing that is remarkable, except the new ruins of an old-fafhion’d caftle, perhaps mooriffi, which probably gave name to the village. It is fituated on a cliff made in the form of a fugar- loaf, and I am told that it was decay'd and uninhabited even before the earth- quake reduced it in its prefent condition. At Almada , which is about a mulket- fhot from Cajlillo , I enter’d a fmall Do- minican convent, whofe cloifter- walls are incrufted with tiles painted blue, and fo very neat and clean, that the very M 3 look- [ 166 ] looking on them is cooling in this hot weather. The church which belong’d to the convent was thrown down by the firft (hock of the earthquake, and the fhattered bodies of about twenty men and fix times more women were dug out of its ruins. The convent flood the con- cufiion, fo that none of the friars perill- ed but that one who was faying mafs in the church. From the windows on the weft-fide you have a profpedl which excels even that of Mount Edgecombe in Devonfhire, as from thence you have Liibon full in your eyes : then Bellem , Cafcaes , St. Ju- lian, and all the villages, caftles, forti- fications, and other buildings along the river down to the fea, with an immenfe landfcape furrounding all this, bounded on one fide by the Reck of Lijbcn already mentioned, and in other places by other hills whofe names I know net. The profpedt from the eafl-windows is like- wife very fin?, though npt fo firiking, as if r i6 7 ] It confifts only of a long range of hills covered with vineyards interfperfed with numberlefs fruit-trees of every kind, efpecially oranges and lemons, with houfes and cottages from place to place. Charming Almada ! though not embel- lifhed by any better building than the Dominican convent, certainly becaufe there is no means of reaching fo high a place but on foot or on a mule. Both Almada and Cajlillo were little lefs than levelledjo the ground by the earthquake. After having enjoy’d the profpefts to my fatisfa&ion, I rolled down the craggy path again, got to the boat and went to fee an Englifh hofpital which Elands a little lower down on the fame fide of the river, and at the foot of the hill, where the ground juts out a little into the water. But there I faw nothing worth notice, except the Phyfician to the hof- pital, an old and ill-bred gentleman ; perhaps rendered ill-bred by jealoufy, as Jie has had the weaknefs at feventy to M 4 marry [ >68 ] marry a pretty Portuguefe girl of eighteen. He look’d very crofs whenhefaw me enter the garden of the hofpital, becaufe the young lady was then in it gathering fome fruit. As he had anfwer’d rather uncivil- ly fome civil queftion I had put to him, I was tempted to make him fret a little by addreffing her and begging a grape out of her bafket. However I refitted the temptation, as I reflected that I may myfelf pofiibly be guilty of the fame folly at his age, if ever I reach it. Therefore, after having taken a tour of the garden, I made him a bow, got again into the boat, and failed up the' river, ftill on the fame fide, to the houfe of one O'Neal , an Irifh wine-merchant, whofe ample cellars are w^orth feeing. I found Mr. O'Neal quite the reverfe of the Phyfician. As he faw me in a heat, he made me drink fome of his beft wine, gave me a bifket, offer’d any other refreshment I chofe, and was even kind in the fame way to Batijle and my boat- [ i6 9 3 boatmen, nor would he {a) accept of any pecuniary equivalent. The houfe Mr. O'Neal has there, is defended from the encroachments of the river by a ftrong mole of large flat Hones. From that mole I enjoyed the fight of two Negros fwimming and playing gam- bols in the water. Had I never feen blacks before, I had miftaken them for fome particular fpecies of fifh. They fprang out of the water and wheel’d upon it, as tumblers do upon firm ground. For a few reis I made them ling feveral fongs in their Mofambique language, of which I comprehend nothing but that they were in rhyme. I wifhed myfelf a mu- fician, only to take down the tunes of what they fung, though very Ample with regard to harmony. Several writers both of Italy and of England have affirmed, that rhyme is a (a) / recommend him to thofe of' my Englifh readers who deal in Portugal~wi?ie . I am pojitive he deferves cujlomers for his k ndnefs to thirjly people ? even when they are per- fectly unknown to him y as was my cafe . [ l 7° ] a monkifh invention but I think them widely miftaken. It is not to be fuppofed that the Africans were taught rhyming by Miffionaries, who have other bufinefs when in thofe regions than that of teach- ing rhyme or blank-verfe to the natives. I heard once in Venice fome Arabian fongs which were in rhyme, and there is a French account of Arabia (wrote by a traveller whofe name I cannot at prefent recoiled) in which fome poetry of that wandering nation is preferved, all in rhyme. One Gages an Englifhman (who fuggefted to Cromwell the fcheme of tak- ing "Jamaica from the Spaniards) in a printed account of America has given us an old Mexican fong (words and mufick) which is in rhyme, and compofed long before Columbus was bom. Thefe and a multitude of other fuch reafons have convinced me, that rhyme is no monkifh invention, but one of the natural effentials of the poetry of all nations, ancient as well &s modern/ Greek and Latin only except- ed, [ 1 7 I ] ed, whofe verfes had feet inftead of rhymes. It is therefore blank-verfe that is to be confidered as not natural to poetry, and to be deemed an invention, as it really was, and not a very ancient one. But let me take my leave of the cour- teous O'Neal, and crofs the Tagus again as I go down the ftream. I was fet on ftiore at Be Hem, where I enter’d a mo ft fcurvy inn for a bad dinner. Then I vi- fited a famous convent of Jeronimites ; an order we have not in Piedmont, and not very common in other parts of weft- ern Italy. The church of that convent is actually repairing, as its roof was thrown down by the earthquake. The fcaffolding eredted for this purpofe did not permit me to fee much of it. I only could fee that it is one of the largeft I ever faw, built with fine marble of various colours, and adorned with the richeft altars. The architecture of the whole edifice was originally V I *7 2 ] originally gothic, but fome parts of the convent are fo no longer. The two gal- leries or cloifters which run one over the other, contain a number of ftatues, fome of the moll popular faints, and fome of faints whofe names and character I am not acquainted with, though the legend was my favourite book when I was a boy. There are a hundred and thirty mafs- friars in this convent, and I don’t know how many lay-ones. Their cells are very good rooms. Thofe who are lodged on the water-fide, may from their win- dows enjoy the fight of the fhips incef- fantly going up and down the river. The back apartments command a fpacious garden and a piece of uneven ground, wall’d in and full of olive-trees. Amongft thofe trees are feveral little cells and chapels belonging to feveral paultry finners of low condition who have repented, and are allowed to live there in perfedt idlenefs ; which way of confum- ing time is by them termed Vida celejie , a liea- I 3 3 a heavenly life ; nor is the appellation much amifs in my opinion, if it be taken in the poetical fenfe ; as the privilege of living without working, is really the chief blefling of this life. They fubfift upon mere accidental alms, of which they have plenty by the interceffion of St* Jerome, who like them lived in a cell or cave in the midft of a defart, and of courfe makes it his particular bufinefs that his followers be abundantly fupplied. As this convent is of royal foundation, you may be fure that the friars in it have a better chance for their dinners than ca- fual charities. They live very comfort- ably and have no other obligation but that of praying fome hour every day for their original benefactor and his fuccef- fors. This duty they are forced to per- form regularly, whether they are inclined to it or not. But the pious founders of religious houfes never thought that fre- quent and regular praying mult prove a hardfhip, and always took it for granted that i 174 1 that a number of men well fed, warmly drefs’d, and conveniently lodged, would never repine to folicit heaven for their deliverance out of purgatory. They fup- pofed that when worldly cares were re- moved, devotion would regularly take pofleffion of the heart, and I wi(h that they had never been miftaken. The church there, was formerly (and may be fo ftill for what I know) the burial-place of the Kings and Queens of Portugal. 1 am told there are in it feveral of their fepulchral monuments ; but I could not fee them becaufe of the fcaffolding* One of the Padres who (bowed me the place, encouraged me to eat of the fine grapes of the garden, and I can tell you that you have fcarceany fo good in Italy. Their figs are alfo excellent. They have many Brajilian plants in that garden, particularly that called Banana . They all grow in the open air, and with no particular culture that I could fee. By this [ 175 ] this you may judge of the heat of this climate. As I failed up again to Lijbort , I enjoyed again from the boat the line profpedt I had from the packet on my arrival. It is really as enchanting as can poffibly be conceived. By Bellem there is a noble ftru&ure called Pa$o de Vaca (the Palace of the Cow, an odd name) where the King’s horfes are educated for the ma- nage. It is embellished with bufts and Statues, partly placed in niches and partly on the ridge of its walls. Then the pa- lace called the Vice-queen s of the Indies; that of Marquis Gingez ; that of the French Ambaffador ; that of the late Pa- triarch ; that of the prefent Patriarch ; that of the Secretary of State for the ma- rine department ; the fortrefs called La Jonqueira ; the palace that was occupied by Cardinal Acciajoli the Pope s Nuncio, lately driven out of Portugal in a very abrupt and rou^h manner: then that of Count Ribeira ; that of Don Emanuel, uncle [ * 7 « ] uncle to his prefent majefty; that of Se~ cretary Carvalho, and another which has been degraded to a jail for ftate-crimi- nals, not far from which flood heretofore that of the Duke d' Aveiro, which is now nearly demolifhed, purfuant to the fen- tence that was paft on its matter. All thefe and other flrudtures, whofe names I have forgotten, would not mis- become the noblefl of our Italian towns. They adorn the intermediate fpace be- tween Bellem and Lifbon , nor has the earthquake damaged them much. Yet they are not the only decoration of that part of the fhore. There is befides a vaft number of houfes, as I faid already, all white, with their windows and window- fhutters or lattices painted green. When the {tones of the D y Aveiro palace are re- moved (which, by the bye, is done care- fully that they may not be fpoilt, as they are worth preferving) and the fpot is made level, fait is to be fowed upon it, that it may never bear any grafs : which to [ *77 ] to me feems a very unjuft puniftmient in* flifled upon a poor piece of ground that certainly had no part in the crime of its owner : dnd after the fowirig of that fup- pofed enemy to fertility, a high marble- column is to be eredted in the centre of that fpot with an infcription upon it, to perpetuate the infamy of that bloody traitor, whofe charadter (if I am not mif- informed) was a hateful mixture of the grofleft ignorance and the moft brutal pride. Men will determine according to their different difpofitions ; and he had a pundtilious abhorrence to that fort of honour which is at prefent generally dif- regarded throughout Europe, and tho- roughly exploded from France, where even the greateft Lords are ambitious of being a-kin to a certain fort of women. As I was coming back towards even- ing, I took the King~George-P acket in my way, drank a bumper with my fea- faring gentlemen, and had a touch at the bag-pipe. They have promifed to come Vol. L N and [ '78 ] and dine with me before they fet fail fo$r Falmouth , LETTER XXIII. A fpecimen of poetical Jlyle. An ac[uedu£h Liftxm, Sept. 6, 1760. U PON the report of others I have in a former letter mentioned the Arfenal they are actually building here. But I have been this day an ocular ad- mirer myfelf of its amplitude, and will venture to fay' that if the fmalleft clofet in it was turned into a , ball-room, we might have a dance in itof all the giants and gianteffes ever dream’d of by the noble JDon Quixote whenever the moon Was at the fulled. Indeed when it is fl- uid) ed (if ever it is) the poets of this country will be judly entitled to fay in their ufual emphatic drain, that in the new-built metropolis of the Lufianian em- * pire f true and aflonifing abridgment of puifant Afiria, dreaded Macedonia , fcicn - fife Greece, and all-conquering Rome) there is [ l 79 ] is fo vaft , fo beautiful, and fo cojlly an edi « jice, as may without exaggeration be com- pared to the mountainous temple of the chajle Ephefian Goddefs, to the unmeafur- able maufoleum of the faithful and farrow - ful Artemifa, to the incomprehenftble Nau- machian ftrudiures of the mofl ; magnificent though moft blood-thirfty Dioclefan , and even to thofe t error fir iking pyramids ereffi- ed on the extenftve fores of the ever fertile Ethiopian river , whofe ponder of ty has made the Egyptian provinces groan for centuries and centuries, and whofe fharp -pointed fummits pierce the far-fpreading darknefs that environs the adamantine throne of great Jupiter s refplendent queen, and feem to challenge to mortal and everlafing war the moft diftant, moft numerous, and moft unpropit ious conftellations . I will not fay that this manner of wri- ting is adopted by all the modern poets of Portugal: but amongft that infinity of fonnets juft published o\\ the laying of the fundamental ftone of the church, which ' N 2 is [ i»o ] is to be dedicated to the NoJJa Senhora da Liberacaom y a good many ran very much in this ftyle : and I dare to fay, that if this encomium on the new Arfenal was to be turned into a Portuguefe ode, it would not meet here with univerfal dif- approbation. To be ferious, this Arfenal is a huge fa- brick, and, in the opinion of many, quite difproportionate to the ufe intended. However, there is never any great harm in public edifices being too large, becaufe thofe parts in them which are fuperfluous oneway, may eafily be made ferviceable another. Thus many rooms in this may be turned upon occafion into grana- ries, ftore-rooms, quarters for foldiers, hofpitals, and other fuch receptacles, of which there are never enough in great capital cities. Tiiis edifice I vifited this morning; but I went to fee another of another kind in the afternoon, which furpafies it by far in point of bulk as well as magnificence. I mean [ i8i ] I mean the AqueduB in the valley of Al- cantara, by which Lijbon is fupplied with almoft all the water that is ufed by the inhabitants. That valley is funk between two rocky and barren declivities. The Aquedudt for about a quarter of a mile, which is the breadth of the valley, runs tranf- verfely over it, from the fummit of the weftern declivity to the oppofite fummit of the eaftern. A long range of fquare pillars fupports it : and to give you an idea of thefe pillars, it is enough to fay, that one of their fides meafures near twelve, and the other near thirteen times the length of my fword, which was the only inftrument I had to take fuch mea- fures ; and the fpace between the two middle-moil pillars is fuch, both in breadth and height, that a fifty-gun fhip with her fails fpread might pals through without obftrudtion. However, all the pillars are not of equal dimenfions with the two central. They grow lower and N 3 lower* [ i8a J lower, and the fpaces betwixt them di- minifih gradually on either fide the valley, as the ground gradually rifes on either fide. The pillars fupport an architrave whofe middle is formed into a canal, through which the water runs : and there is room enough left for three or four men to walk abreaft along the architrave on each fide the canal which is vaulted the whole length, and adorned from fpace to fpace with Lucarnes made in the form of little temples, each of which has a door or aperture large enough for a man to get at the water and clean the bottom of the canal in cafe of necefiity. The whole of this immenfe fabrick is of fine white marble dug out of a quarry not a mufket~fhot diftant : and I am told that about a league further off there are fome other parts of it which have their fihare of grandeur, though by no means comparable to what is feen in this valley. The earthquake had fpoilt it in two or three [ 1*3 ] three places : but the damage proved in- confiderable and was eafily remedied. And indeed I wonder not if it withftood ■ » the fhocks. A concuffion violent enough to effed: its dellrudtion, would lhatterthe whole kingdom of Portugal. When a man has once feen fuch a ftruc- ture as the Aquedudt of Alcantara , there is no danger of his ever forgetting it, as it is the nature of grand objects to force re- membrance. As long as I live I fhall pre- ferve the image of it, along with that of the valley which is rendered fo confpicu- ous by it. However, if there was no fuch thing as that glorious Aquedudt in that valley, ftill I Ihould never forget the valley itfelf, becaufe of an adventure I met in it of a pretty lingular kind. But the vifit to the two edifices, which was performed on foot and in the heat of the day, has fati- gued me fo much, that the account of it mull be delay’d till to-morrow. n 4 - LET- I 184. ] LETTER XXIV. Lapidation performed in a valley. Good , Mothers . Lifbon, Sept. 7, 1760, HILE I am waiting for the barber I may as well tell my ad** venture of yefterday in the Valley of Al- cantara. After having fully fatisfied my curiofi- ty with regard to the noble Aqueducft, we turned back the way we went. But as we afcended one fide of the valley we met with five or fix men wrapp’d up to their nofes in their ample cloaks, which it is the cuftom here to wear both winter and fummer. They pull’d oft their hats, and we pull’d off ours, becaufe this is another cuftom of the people here, to give each other this token of refpedt whenever they meet about the country. But the cloak’d fellows had not gone twenty yards from us, when, turning fuddenly I 185 ] fuddenly back, they began to hurl {tones at us with fuch precipitance and fury, as could not be defcribed by the bell Balearick poet of Majorca. What is the meaning of this ? cried I to my landlord Mr. Kelly . Run for your life was the anfwer: and he took to his heels with fuch cele- rity as if he had utterly forgot that he is full feventy. What could I do on feeing myfelf thus abandoned by my auxiliary troops ? Spare me the mortification of owning, that I made my retreat with as much hafte as I could, and thus baffled the cruel inten- tion of the villains, and the fatal confe- quence that might have enfued from that unexpected lapidation. And now tell me, dear brothers, the motive that induced them to treat me and my fellow-walker in fo barbarous a manner ? Sir, fays Kelly with an air of triumph, will you ftill laugh at me when I tell you that f 186 ] that you tarry too late at the Englifh Coffee-houfe ? Upon my foul, one night or other you will fee what it is in this country to come home at eleven and alone ! But here is the barber, and I mud: not make him wait. A Postscript in the evening. My Landlord has given you a hint that I am fo imprudent as to fpend an hour or two in the evening at a coffee-houfe, where all manner of Grangers refort, efpecially of the Englifh nation. Not one of thofe grangers have I as yet heard fpeak fa- vourably of the Portuguefe. On the con- trary they all join to paint them in the blacked: colours, and would fain per- fuade any new comer, that this is the mod: unpolifhed, mod: inhofpitable, and mod: hateful nation under the fun. But notwithdanding their invedtives I was until yederday-evening rather inclined to a contrary opinion, as fuch adertions fquared [ >87 1 fquared not with my firft curfory obfer- vations. I had taken notice that the Portuguefe are very refpedtful to each other, and quick to bow to any body they meet out of a croud : that they are enthufiaftic admirers of women, and treat them with a pleafing mixture of obfe- quioufnefs and gallantry : that they have a ftrong mufical turn, and are fond of fpending the firft part of the night in finging and playing about the ftreets ; nor had I feen any thing deferving cen- fure in their general behaviour at church. Thefe obvious charadteriftics of the Portuguefe I thought rather incompatible with treachery and unprovoked inhuma- nity ; befides that I know enough of mankind to be tolerably acquainted with their vile antipathies and with their readi- nefs feverally to abufe and depreciate their neighbours upon the flighted: pro- vocation, and often upon no provocation at all. No nation upon record has yet found grace before another, and each is thought [ >88 ] ; thought deteftable by the reft. This univerfal brutality in the grofs of man- kind, made me unwilling to believe the many bad things repeatedly told me of the Portuguefe ; and I fhould have per- illed unlhaken in my incredulity, had it not been for that iniquitous lapidation, which, I think, has given me ground enough to credit in a good meafure the uniform accufations brought againft them by all men of other nations that have re- fided here. You may pofiibly upbraid me Hill for my feeming facility in adopting this harfh opinion, and infill that my mo- tive is Hill very flight"and equivocal. And indeed I really, wilh I could perfuade my- felf that the low part of this nation is not a mafs of villains, and that the fel- lows in that Valley are by no means to be considered as the legal representatives of their peers, but only as a groupe of rogues who met unluckily together by mere chance. But [ iS 9 ] But that I may put you in a condition to judge adequately of this matter, I muft alfo tell you, that yefterday like- wife, as we were going to fee that Aque- duct, a parcel of children followed us at fome diftance in a moft clamorous man- ner, and loaded us with fuch execrable contumelies, as generally furpafs the abilities of children in other countries. The impotent infult of thofe growing rafcals, I fhould have forgot as foon as it was over, but for an ugly circumftance that attended it. The circumftance was, that feveral women, on hearing that hid- den vociferation, rufh’d out from feveral quarters, and joining with the perverfe children, encouraged them to give us more and more of their abufive language, and made them follow us much longer than they would otherwife have done if they had been left to themfelves. Some of thofe women were apparently mothers to fome of thofe children ; and what judgment can a man pafs upon a nation, when [ 190 ] when he fees mothers abetting their boys and girls in their averfion to Grangers, and fortifying them in their barbarous brutality ? Thus far have I already pufh’d my ob- fervations on the low part of the people within this town. I am willing to be- lieve that the higher fort are quite the reverfe, and that they know politenefs and humanity full as well as the higher fort of all other European nations, though I have not forgot the ftupid haughtinefs and forbidding look of the two gentle- men and the friar in the box at the Am- phitheatre. But whatever I may believe, don’t you begin to think that Portugal is rather too much in the neighbourhood of Africa ? LET- r »9i ] LETTER XXV. Good nuns. A fcheme for rendering girls Jlill more amiable . Heroifm of a young HIS morning I made a vifit to one of thofe many religious houfes that are maintains# in feveral parts of this kingdom at the King’s expence. It is call’d the Englijh Nunnery , becaufe no girl is admitted in it but what is born a fubjedt of England. Any fuch girl, either left deftitute in this country by parents unfuccefsful in trade, or willing to come from the'Britifh Ifles to devote herfelf in this country to chaftity and confinement, may make fure of a livelihood in that Nunnery 5 and the veil once taken, fhe needs not to fear the approaches of real want as long as her foul and body w T ill keep each other company. lifbon, Sept. S. 1 760. The [ * 9 2 1 The number of the nuns there amouriW to little more than twenty, and it is the chief anxiety of this little community to keep the number full, that the Go- vernment may not, in] cafe of too many vacancies, take upon itfelf to fill them with Portuguefe maidens, which the Englifh women apprehend would create feparate interefts, and caufe fuch feuds and parties arrvongft them, as they have hitherto been ftrangers to ever fince the firft foundation. Animated by this rare fpecies of ter- rour, the poor things fet their brains upon the utmofl: ftretch whenever death deprives their community of a member, and all efforts are unanimoufly made to- wards the railing of a recruit. With this diftant view, vou cannot conceive how prettily they flatter all their vifitors, efpecially thofe of their own fex ! They keep befides a large epiftolary correfpon- dence with their friends and acquaintance in [ i93 ] in 'England and Ireland , by which means they have not failed as yet to obtain the defired fupply. Whoever can fpeak Englifh, no matter whether Catholic or Proteftant, has a kind of right to vifit them at any time of the day ; and all their viiitors are ufed by them with fuch an endearing kind- nefs, that their parlatory is in a manner never empty from morning till night. The poor things are liberal to every body of chocolate, cakes, and fweet-meats, and will take much pains with their needles or otherwife to enlarge the num- ber of thofe vifitors, and allure them to frequent calls. Nuns in all countries are foft and obliging fpeakers ; but thefe are certain- ly the fofteft and moft obliging that ever fell in my way. Never was I told in a year fo many pretty and tender words as this morning in half an hour. On my apprifing them of my country, they ex- patiated on the immenfe goodnefs of Car- Vol. I. O dinal [ J 9 4 J dinal Acciaioli and the gentlemen of hfa court, who did them the honour of fee- ing them often. No nation, in their opinion, is fo good as the Italian, none fo witty, and none fo wife. In Short, not a fy liable ifiued out at their lips but what was dictated by mo deify and meek- nefs, humility and benevolence ; and I will poiitively fee them as often as I can while I day here, becaufe it is impoffible not to be pleafed with their converfe, though one is perfectly confcious that they make it a ftudy to treat every body with this gentlenefs of language and blandishment of manners. They certain- ly give you no reafon for harbouring the lead: fufpicion to their difadvantage, and their virtue is to all appearance without the lead alloy : but were they in reality quite different from what they appear (which I am thoroughly perfuaded is not the cafe), dill the drong appearance of their innocence and goodnefs is irrefidibly attracting, and the holy fimplicity of 4 their L *95 3 their behaviour can never fail of making a friend of every man who is once intro- duced to their acquaintance, though ever fo much aware of their flattery. The King, as I faid, allows them fuch a fum as enables them to find therh- felves in victuals, linen, and raiment. Thus they are freed from the anxiety of procuring the chief neceflaries of life. Yet life, even by reclufe women, cannot be pafied very comfortably with mere hecefiaries, and fome addition is wanting to keep it from ftagnating. Thofe mi- nute fuperfiuities, which the French call douceurs , fo indifpenfibly required to ren- der exigence fupportable, are left intire- ly to their induftry; and thefe they pro- cure partly by work and partly by mak- ing trifling prefents, which are often re- turn'd with liberality. Thefe are the two means by which they furnifh tbemfelves With that chocolate fo plentifully diftri- buted at their parlatory to their incefiant vifitors, and with thofe other petty things O 2 that [ 196 ] that alleviate the natural hardnefs of their condition. Some of them have fmall penfions paid them by their rela- tions and friends, and whatever is got by one, is kindly lhared by the whole f?fter- hood. As the reputation of this little com- munity was never fullied in the leaft ever fince their eftabliftiment (and I am told that this is not quite the cafe with the Portuguefe nunneries) is it not afto- nifhing that no Portuguefe parent ever thinks of fending his daughter amongft them as a boarder and by way of giving her a true maidenly education ? A daugh- ter thus placed would amongft other ad- vantages have that of learning a foreign language very well worth learning; and nothing contributes fo much to enlarge the fphere of our ideas, and to render a young woman amiable, as the knowledge of languages. Yet, few are the Portu- guefe, as I am told, who care for fuch an ornament in their daughters, or even in [ *97 ] in themfelves, excepting thofe of the higheft quality ; and they have befides a particular antipathy to the language of England, as the notion prevails amongft them, that there is no book in that lan- guage but what is againft religion nor does their inquifition allow of the impor- tation of any for fear of herefy : and it was not without contefl and bribery that I faved the few in my trunk from confif- cation at the cuilom-houfe. The vifiting of the Englijh Nunnery has brought a fcheme into my mind which I fhall cherifh long, and put in execution as foon as I can. Let me but be rich enough, and I will have four Nun- neries in Turin , and endow them with a revenue equal to the maintenance of twenty nuns in each. One of them fhall be filled with Florentine women, one of French, one of Spanilh, and one of Englifh. I will take it for granted that when fny Nunneries are ereded, endowed, and O 3 filled t 198 ] filled With proper inhabitants, my coun- trymen will have fenfe enough to fepd their little girls to them for education ; and by a refidence of about two years in each Nunnery, all the girls in Piedmont will be able, to fpeak four languages, be- fides their own ; which will certainly render them upon the w'hole the moffc lovely fet of maidens in Europe. But as I am not for turning pretty girls into nuns, I intend to make it the funda- mental law of my Nunneries, that none of the nuns ffiall be young and handfome. It will probably not prove very difficult to procure out of each refpedtive country one fcore of elderly maids or widows to fill them at firft, and to keep fucceffively the number quite complete ; nor do I in- tend to fubjedt them to the auflere rule of keeping always within doors. They fihall have a number of holidays to walk or ride out with their pupils, and be al- lowed all forts of diverfions becoming a fet of exemplary matrons. This [ *99 ] This fcheme I am confident you will think quite patriotick, and well worth taking place any where. But fetting it slide until a properer time, let me tell you a ftory of Lady Hill (the prefent Ab- befs of the Englijh Nunnery ) which really deferves to be faved from oblivion. This Lady took the veil there, becaufe, like the reft of her fifterhood, (as I fup- pofe) her circumftances did not permit a more agreeable choice : but foon after having made profeffion, a good eftate in Ireland was vacated by a relation that died inteftate, and of courfe devolved upon her by right of confanguinity. To get the eftate without going to Ireland herfelf, was thought difficult and fubjedt to much delay. Her Abbefs therefore reprefented her cafe to the Pa- triarch, who alone could difpenfe with her vow of conftant confinement; and the Patriarch (not a rigid bigot it feems) upon a fimple promife of return gave her leave to fecularize her drefs and depart. O 4 Sh$ [ 200 ] She did fo ; arrived in Ireland-, produced her title; took pofleffion ; and found herfelf at once in a condition to live in eafe and even fplendour in her native country. The temptation of flaying where one is, you will allow to be nearly irrefiftible in fuch a cafe, efpecially when you are additionally told, that fhe was not yet three and twenty, and handfome enough. However, if fhe was tempted, fhe was tempted in vain, for fhe fold the eftate as fpeedily as fhe could, and, faithful to her vow and promife, haflen’d back to the Nunnery with the money, which fhe laid out in fuch a manner as to contribute much to the eafe and convenience of her beloved community. This was done by a woman ! This fu« periority to worldly pleafure, and this fidelity to an onerous engagement, was found in a female breaft ! Would any friar in fimilar circumflances have be- haved fo nobly and have returned to his left [ 201 ] lefs heavy fetters after fo lucky an efcape ? This queftion I will not anfwer for the honour of my own fex. I will only con- clude the dory of Lady Hill, with telling you that her companions, druck with admiration as well as gratitude, chofe her immediately for their fuperior, and never after ceafed to pay her the veneration fo undoubtedly due to her unfhaken virtue. LETTER XXVI. Italian Capuchins . Odd JiJhes . Lifbon, Sept. 9, 1760. I Need not tell you that the crown of Portugal is podefs’d of feveral ultra- marine countries, the inhabitants of which are far from being all chridians ; and that all poffible endeavours have been ufed for thefe two or three lad centuries, to bring them all within the pale of the church, partly by mod detedable a£ts of violence, as hidorians tell us, and partly by [ 202 ] by the more lawful means of fending friars amongft them to preach them out of their ignorance and errors. Amongft thofe friars, the capuchins have long enjoy’d the reputation of being the moft zealous and moil fuccefsful con- verters. But as their order was never eftablifhed in this kingdom, the predecef- ( fors of his prefent Majefty thought fit to procure a number of them from thofe countries where they are eftablifhed, and efp.ecially from France and Italy, where indeed there are enough to fpare. I fuppofe it was no very difficult matter for the firft King of Portugal who thought of this fcheme, to put it in execution, and to obtain from the Pope and their General the permiffion of imparting as many ca- puchins here as were wanting. The de- fign once formed, numbers of them came over in an uninterrupted fucceffion ; and as it was neceflary for them all to learn this language before they were wafted pver to their refpe&ive millions, they were [ 20 3 ] wefe for a time, on their arrival here 4 fcatter’d about the convents of the Fran- ) - cifcans, who are in reality little lefs than capuchins themfelves, as the difference in their refpective inftitutions chiefly con- lifts in wearing a beard oj* no beard. However, to lodge the Capuchins with people who fhaved their chins, and fome- what jealous of their fuperior reputation for fanctity, was found productive of fe- veral inconveniencies. Therefore the late King came to the refolution of building two new convents in this capital, one for the French and the other for the Italian Capuchins, that each of the two bodies might live quite according to its own peculiar rules, depend on its own imme- diate fuperiors, and be by them directed to the acquifition of thofe means that would fit each friar for his fpeedy and diftant peregrination. On hearing of thefe two convents and their inhabitants I was prefently kindled by the defire of feeing a number of my country- [ 204 3 countrymen collected together in one of them } and to fatisfy that defire I fent Batijie yefterday to the Father Guardian of the Italians to beg of him, if it was not inconfiilent with their pra&ices, as I fuppofed it was not, to give me a dinner any day he pleafed at their common table, together with the permiffion of fpending a whole afternoon in the company of his community. My requeft was immediately granted, and the good Guardian pitch’d upon to- day, that 1 might be the fooner gratify’d. Accordingly this morning at ten o’clock, 1 went thither with the box of my chaife pretty well furnifhed with French bot- tles, as by way of return to their civility I thought of forcing them for once to fome extraordinary jollity by means of fuch liquors as I know they tafte but ieldom. The Guardian I found ready to receive me at the gate. He welcom’d me with infinite goodnefs, and feem’d perfedlv pleafed [ 20 5 3 pleafed with fo flattering a viflt, as he termed it. In a moment I had the whole brotherhood about me, which conflfts of about fifteen or fixteen, all middle-aged, all healthy, and all very chearful. I muff own that I was quite delighted to (hake fo many Italian hands, and to hear my native language uttered at once by fo many mouths. They took me diredlly to the church where a Pater and Ave was foon faid; then we vifited the convent quite through, from the kitchen up to the library. The convent ftands upon an eminence on that end of the town which is furthefi: from the fea, and commands a profpedi not much inferior to that of the Domi- cans of Almada on the oppofite fide of the river. The habitations of the capuchins in Italy are in general narrow, poor, and un- adorned : but this is quite otherwife, as the King who eredred it, fpared no ex- pence to render it acceptable to the flran- t g er s I [ z °6 ] gers he invited over. Their church is £ jnoble one, and richly ornamented, their dormitories and refedtory are fpacious and high- roofed, and their cells might as well be called very good rooms. The cieling of their library does not want ftuccos, nor their fhelves carvings ; and the molt precious Brajil - woods have been lavifhed in it as well as all about the convent. As to the books in that library, there is not as yet the tenth part of what it might contain ; and you may eafily ima- gine that the greateft part of them ate fuch, as can never pretend to the honour of admittance amongft thofe of the witty philofophers of the age. Some Latin Fa- thers limply bound make the firft figure in the place: then many School-divines and Cafuilis, with a confiderable number of Afceticks, and feveral collections of Italian and Portuguefe fermons. Amongft which Segueri and Fieyra hold the firft rank. A fmall Ihelf is filled up with ma- nufcripts, chiefly catechifms and prayers in [ 20 7 ] in feveral Indian and African languages* with fome imperfed Grammars and Dic- tionaries, or rather Nomenclators of thofe fame languages, compiled by former miffionaries and depofited there for their fucceffors to initiate themfelves in them before they fet out for thofe remote countries to which they are to go after a refidence in Portugal of a few months. Having fpent full two hours in that library, the bell called us to the refedory. As we entered it, the friars placed them- felves in two rows, one facing the other, and recited a long Latin grace with a fo- norous tone of voice, thofe of one row an- fwering alternately to thofe of the other with an edifying folemnity of devotion. We now fat to a table that runs along the upper part of the place, and is made in the form of a greek n. They placed me into the place of honour ; that is, the middle point, the Guardian on my right, the Vicar on the left, and the reft on each fide, except the youngeft of them all, who I [ 208 ] who mounted a fmall pulpit and began to read a Latin compliment compofed that very morning in commendation of fome body prefent. That compliment I was obliged to fwallow up to the laft fyllable, in fpight of my feveral attempts to inter- rupt the perufal, and repeated intreaties that they would not make fo prodigious a ftranger of their own countryman. It was that arrant rogue Batijle who fur- nifhed the orator with his theme, as I immediately guefs’d ; and he was liften- ing all the while at the door, heartily laughing at the difcompofure and confu- fion of his old matter; for which I gave him a good box on the ear while he was felicitating himfelf with old Kelly for his pretty contrivance on our return home. Silence being difpenfed by the Guar- dian out of favour to me, we all fell to our victuals with a brifk appetite, and though I had been very explicit in my meflage of yefterday about the treatment I expedted, yet Father Cook thought [ 209 ] proper for once to depart from his daily method, and gave us as many Italian and Portuguefe ragoos as he could poflibly ma- nufacture. We were elevated to high mirth during the whole dinner. Jokes were crack’d by dozens, no matter whe- ther witty or dull, and the bottles went round and round with as much brilknefs as if the Guardian and Vicar had been in Afia. They forced eyen a fong out of me in a language of which none of them knew a Angle word. The banquet laded an hour longer than it would have done if I had net been there, and ended with another Latin grace. This great bufinefs being over, they took me to the garden, the circumference of which is near half a mile, perfectly well kept, and full of the cboiceft fruits. It lies on a doping ground, and on the higheft fide of it there is a pretty large pond inhabited by a fort of fifties not to be found in any other place, as they be- lieve. The creatures, as far as I could fee, Vo l. I. P are [ 210 ] are about two fpans long, and half as large* with a prominent bunch upon their backs, and not good to eat like other fifhes. But what will furprize you to hear, they are of a nature fo gay, that they prove quite aftoniihing. Fijhes, fifhes, cried the Guar- dian, come to your dinner , come 9 come . The fifhes ftarted up, fprang and tumbled about the water, feized the many pieces of bread that he threw to them, and then retired out of fight. The pleafantnefs of fuch a fcene is not to be conceived. I begg’d that fome of the company would preach them a fermon, hoping they would come out again and behave quite as well as thofe of the Adriatick upon a certain occafion. The Fathers took the joke, and fmiled, and wondered I had not for- got my pretty Italian ftories in my long abfence from my native country. We then play’d at bowls under the grape-bowers, and, above all, chatted inceffantly. But what took my fancy moft, was a tranllation of one of the Cantos [ 21 1 ] Cantos of the 'Jerufalem delivered in the Genoefe dialed: which one of the Fathers read to the company. This, he faid, was a juvenile compofition of his ; and I thought it excellent in its kind. They are all fubjeds of the republic of Genoa , and have been fucceffively fo for many years, as a medley of them, formed at firft out of the feveral Italian ftates, was judged inconvenient foon after their in- trodudion iii Portugal. Towards evening I took my leave with a million of thanks for their kindnefs and good treatment; went to thecoffee-houfe, as ufual; then came home and fcribbled thus far : and now I have nothing fur- ther to tell, but that to-morrow I will begin a journey to Mafra , Cintra , and fome other places. Pa LET- [ 212 ] LETTER XXVII. A Jhort excurfion . Sad accommodations ■, Thanks to Aurora . Cintra, Sept, ix, 176a. T HOSE who have never gone twenty miles from home, are apt to fancy that travelling is a very pretty thing. But let him who holds this opi- nion, come to travel about Portugal, and I will fubmit to eat thirties if he does not rtagger in his notions about travel- ling. I have now been two days out of Lis- bon, becaufe I fuffered myfelf to be fe- duced by the defire of feeing Mafra and Cintra . But I pay dear for my folly, as I have undergone more mifery during thefe two days than ever fell to the (hare of any man during two centuries. The expreffion founds odd: but you know that extreme pain makes people mad. The [ 213 ] The deplorable account of thefe two days hardfhips and torments is now con- veyed to you by means of this letter from a room on the ground-floor of a houfe half-ruined, that goes in this country un- der the appellation of an inn, and would be thought in any other a rendezvous for witches. The furniture of this room confifts of three things. An ill-hewn bit of a fir- plank, which by means of three crooked fticks has obtained the name of ftool ; a tottering old table as fmooth as a rafp ; and a piece of coarfe and dirty canvafs ftretch’d wide upon the dufty floor made of broken bricks : and this is the beft bed that this inn could afford. Ye un- fortunate bones that crack’d fo many times laft night upon the ftony couch at Mafra! how fhall I fave you from breaking by and by when extended upon thefe uneven bricks, where I mu ft lay myfelf for wearinefs ! P3 But [ 214 ] But let me begin the fad chronicle from yeflerday morning and bring it or- derly down to this woeful evening : and while I take a pinch of fnuff to quicken my narration, take yourfelves a cordial that your hearts may not fail you while you read it. i Yeflerday morning therefore, a little before feven, I got into my chaife, at- tended by old Kelly on horfeback, and fat out for Mafra: but my brown mules went along with fofenatorial a pace, that it was part twelve when we reached a vil- lage called Cabeza , about twelve miles diflant from Lijbon . At the inn of Cabeza we flopped with a mind to get a dinner, if there v/as any to be got. A fmiling little fel- low fhowed me to a room, which would be a tolerable lodging for a Gypfey or a Jew, was it not that it admits too much light through the chinks of the cieling or roof, and that the floor is not [ 215 ] not near fo well paved as the great road. It prefently occurr’d that the fmiling little fellow had miftaken Kelly and me for the mules, and the mules for us : therefore I ftepp’d to fee how they were accommodated; and indeed I found that they had been received in an apartment much larger and cleaner than ours : how- ever I did not think proper to change places, becaufe, if our room had a per- forated roof, theirs had no roof at all. We fhould have had neither dinner that could be eaten, nor wine that could be drank, if Kelly had not defired his wife at all events to put fomething better than draw in the box of the chaife ; and the good woman had dropp’d into it a pigeon- pye, a roafted turkey, and a Barbary- tongue, together with half a dozen bot- tles of the bed wine. By means of fuch provender we baffled the defign of the Cabeza hoft, who wanted to poifon us with (linking lard and with a fowl that p 4 my [ 216 ] my negro found quite as tender as the tail of an old alligator. The finding rogue ! Beware of fellows that fmile for ever ! At night we reached Mafra , about eight miles diftant from Cabeza. The whole country from Lijbon to Mafra (very few fpots excepted) may very well difpute the praife of fterility with any de- fart in Nubia . The fupper that was offered us there, was not a bit inferior to the dinner at Cabeza . But our turkey had yet loft no more than a wing and a leg, and of the pigeon-pye two good thirds were ftill in ftore. But when the hour came to go to bed, what eloquence could ever exprefs the mifery I was to undergo ! I was led into a room, whofe deling was open from fpace to fpace. In that room there was a bed which, though not quite fo wide as America , had ftill feveral wild nations feat- t 21 7 3 fcattered all about, all painted black, and all as nimble as any Indians. I will leave it for you to guefs whether I could fhut my eyes a moment during the whole night amidft fo many enemies ! Lucid Aurora ! I humbly thank thee for thy early coming to call me out of that bed. Whatever flefh and blood I have ftill left, I will henceforwards acknow- ledge as thy gift ; and thy gift likewife was that appetite which permitted me to eat half a melon for my breakfaft. After breakfaft I paid my vifit to the Royal Convent, the defcription of which you fhall have to-morrow, if ever I get up alive from this piece of canvas, on which I am going to lay myfelf through mere impoffibility of keeping my body in a fitting pofture. LET- [ «8 ] LETTER XXVIII. Promontorium Lunce . Holes, and Holes, and Holes again . An odd evening walk . A cheerful dinner . CW/zj* dropp'd to a Mary Magdalen for a very good reafon . Cintra, Sept. iz. 1760. I Have had the good luck to fecure fuch a bed for to-night, and pafled the day befides with fo perfect a fatisfac- tion, that the dirty canvas and uneven bricks are already forgotten. And fo goes this fickle world ! A perpetual fhifting from good to evil, and from evil to good. And now the natural order of things feems to require a defeription of the Royal Convent : but what I have feen to-day prefies a great deal more upon my fancy, and my impatience of imparting to you a (hare of the pleafure I have re- ceived myfelf to-day, makes me invert the laws of narration without any great hefitation. This [ 219 ] This morning early I quitted this place along with my trufty Kelly . Leaving the mules and the horfe at the inn, each of us got aftride upon a jack-afs ; and fo we went up a high and deep mountain to fee a convent of Jeronimites which is on the fummit of it. That convent could formerly contain near a dozen of inhabitants ; yet at pre- fent there are but four or five, becaufe a part of it has been demolifhed by the earthquake. What is left of it confifts of five or fix rooms fupported by a por- tico that enclofes a court-yard. This yard is paved chequer-wife with white and blue tiles of earthen ware, and fo difpofed as to colledt all the rain-water into a ciftern under it. The walls of the portico are likewife incrufted with fuch parti-colour’d tiles. From the windows an extenfive prof- pedt is commanded, as that fummit is near a mile higher than the level of the fea. The eye runs freely over an immenfe tradt [ 220 ] trail of country, too much of it quite barren. The middle parts of the hill feem compofed of numberlefs broken rocks, fome as big as houfes. Yet between rock and rock the Fathers have cultivated fe- veral fmall bits of ground, which fur- nifh their little community with more pulfe and herbage than they want. It is pity that no fruit-tree will grow there, becaufe of the fharp air and chilling mifts : fo that whatever fruit they have, is fetched every day from Cintra with their other provisions, and carried up to them upon affes of their own. But be- ll des herbs and pulfe they cultivate Turkey-corn, with which they make favoury cakes for themfelves and vifitors, and feed poultry with the overplus. To the fummit of that mountain there is no accefs but by the path we went. Every other fide confifts of cliffs upon cliffs, inacceffible even to goats. As [ 221 j As the church and the convent were originally built in a moft folid manner, the earthquake had not ftrength enough to demolifh them intirely, though it was felt as violent there as in any other part of Portugal : nor did any of the friars periih, though the whole mountain was horribly fhaken, The church ftands on the very fpot that was formerly occupied by a Roman temple dedicated to the Moon, which had given the name of Promontorium Lunce to the hill. This fcrap of erudition I got from one of the friars. We flay’d thereabout two hours; then came down afoot, our jack-afles driven before us by the Negro. About mid- mountain I hired a guide to fhow us the way to another hill near two leagues from this. The fellow took us about and about through a pathlefs country, partly covered with loofe pieces of rocks, part- ly heathy, and partly fandy. Yet from fpace to fpace we met with numbers of fir [ 222 ] fir and cork-trees, with fome ftnall oaks and a few other plants, that contribute to render feveral parts of it romantically beautiful. The place we were going to, ftands on the fummit of another mountain no lefs high than the fuppofed Promontorium Lunce , called by the Portuguefe Cabo de Roca , and by the Englifh the Rock of hijbon . I hope you have not forgot that Rock, and the pleafure it gave me when I faw it for the firfl time. It was the Cork-Convent on its fummit I wanted to vifit, and we reached it with fome dif- ficulty, as we went to it by a crofs-road extremely rugged and fteep, and over feveral precipices that demanded much attention both from us and from our afles. The Cork-Convent is properly a her- mitage - y and you have but one path to it under a kind of arch irregularly cut through a piece of rock by the hand of nature. That arch is about two hundred fieps [ 223 ] fteps below the hermitage, and all other parts near that fummit are perfectly pathlefs and not to be clamber’d. Near that arch we left our aflfes in the cuftody of our guide, and afcended the reft of the mountain a-foot. And here, ye Mufes nine, I invoke your affiftance ! Help me to an adequate defcription of the oddeft, wildeft, moft romantic, and moft pleafing place that ever I was in ! The hermits had difcover’d us from a-far ; therefore we found them ready to receive us. We bow’d, fhook hands, and feem’d as pleafed as if we had long been moft intimate friends. The Father Su- periour aik’d us whether we had dined, and being anfwer’d in the negative, dis- patched one of his Friars to make fome- thing ready as faft as poffible. He then took us to fee the place which begins with a flat irregular area about forty yards fquare. The area is fronted by a huge rock va- rioufly perforated ; and its various per- fora- [ 2H j forations, caverns, or holes form the hermitage. The church of it is a hole ; the facrifty a hole j the confeffion-room a hole s the kitchin a hole ; the dormi- tory a hole , the refedtory a hole ; every cell a hole ; and the doors and windows of all thefe holes are flill nothing elfe but fo many other holes. But fo narrow are ,|hofe which form the doors of the cells, that ihould a man grow hydropic while in one of them, he never would be able to come out of it ; and the cells themfelves are fo fmall, that no tall friar when in his bed has room enough to ex- tend his legs. Yet in them they lie at night upon ftraw-bags, after having taken the precaution to (hut what they call their doors and windows with fmall planks. Not one hole in the whole place de- ferves the epithet of fpacious. The larg- eft is that which they term the Kitchen . A French cook would be angry at the proftitution of fo noble a word, but the friars are not fo fcrupulous. The fmoke of [ 225 3 of that kitchen is carried out by a cylin- drical perforation over the fire-place. Dame Nature indeed was in a merry mood when (he took it into her fancy to form fo whimfieal a place. You cannot conceive what little help (lie received from art to fit it for its prefent inhabi- tants. The earthquake (hook it to and fro, and, they fay, with inconceivable violence.. Yet that violence proved vain* and I do not wonder at it. The demo- lition of the hermitage cannot be effected but by the fall of the mountain. What adds to the Angularity of this natural edifice is, that every part in it is covered with cork ; the walls, floors, and all. And this is the reafon why the Eng- li(h failors call it the Cork-Convent . That cork prevents the bad effects of the dampnefs which would otherwife be very inconvenient, as many parts of its walls are cover’d with a thin mofs, and the water diftils through the pores of the rock in very fmall drops. Vol. I. Prom [ 226 ] From the hermitage they defcend by a range of irregular fteps to a piece of water and to their feveral fpots of gar- den. Not far from that water there is another hole, in which one of their pre- deceffors had the patience to live the laft twenty years of his life, without ever quitting it day or night. At leaft you are told fo by an infcription over that hole, abfurdly fupported by the teftimony of the friars themfelves, who were all born near two centuries after, according to the infcription, which I wifh fairly deftroy’d and the hole filled up for their own fake, as the place has no need of a lye to induce people to vifit it. No hu- man being could ever live in that hole for feveral reafons that I will forbear to tell. I faid that there is a piece of water on that eminence, which fertilizes feveral fpots. The friars are all gardeners and have vegetables of various forts in great abundance, but no fruit. The many fteps f 227 ] fteps by which they defcend to that water, they term humouroufly their evening walk ; and, abating the inconve- nience of the fteps, it is really a pleafant walk, fhaded with many trees and bufhes. After having vifited the whole hermi- tage we went to dinner. In the midft of that hole that is called the Pvefedory, a ftone ferves them fcr a table whenever the rain forces them to eat their victuals under fhelfcer. But to-day, as the weather was very fine, we chofe to dine in the area. Being a meagre day we had an ample difh of falt-fifh molt favourily drefs’d after the manner of the country with garlick and pimenta , a large fallad, and Dutch cheefe with pears* apples* grapes, and figs,- ten times more than we could eat, good bread, and excellent wine. During dinner the hermits kept us in chat with the greatefl good humour; told us of the many Englifh gentlemen and ladies that vifit them,, and help'd us to our glaffes very brifkly. The wine Q^a was [ 228 J was good, and we could not help drink- ing the Englifh Ladies. Thefe hermits are of the Francifcan order ; therefore will touch no money : but there is a Mary Magdalen painted over a kind of altar in the church ; and to Mary Magdalen you drop a coin flily. It would not otherwife be in the power of this little community to furnifh their numerous vifitors with meat and drink, aad entertain bertdes a good number of poor people who vifit the place, partly out of devotion and partly to get a meal. They admit ladies to vifit the her- mitage when they are in company with gentlemen ; otherwife not : and as to women of low rank, they are not allowed to afcend beyond the Arch mentioned before, except on fome feftival days. About an hour after dinner we took our leave and went back to our afies who had leifurely cropp’d the thirties about, while our guide and the Negro fearted merrily upon herrings, cheefe, and fruit. con- I 229 ) convey’d to them with a fufhcient quan- tity of bread and wine by one of the fa- thers. And now I may truly fay that I have feen the ftrangeft folitude that ever was inhabited by men, amidlt the molt plea- ting affemblage of craggs, rocks, trees, and bullies that can poffibly be fancied ; the whole commanding a molt wide and amazing profpedt, as from thence you difcover a vatt trad: of the ocean with many of the cattles and habitations at the mouth of the Tagus , the tops of the Royal Convent of Mafra , feveral vil- lages and hamlets, with many tingle cottages fcatter’d over a long chain of uneven mountains, fome of which are perfectly rocky and barren ; fome fhaded with oaks, fir-trees, and cork-trees ; and fome cover’d with vines, olive-trees, and lemon or orange-groves, belides num- berlefs other plants of every kind and generation. a 3 LET- [ 2 3 ° ] LETTER XXIX. Vaft many teeth a-going in a great houfe % Genealogical books . "The excellence of the circular figure. Gallantry of a devout King, Lifbon, Sept. 13, 1760. in the forenoon, I Am here again ready to give you an account of Mafra and Cintra . Mafra is fo inconfiderable a village, that the name of it would not be found in a map of Portugal, were it not for a vaft pile which King John V., Father to his prefent Majefty, caufed to be eredted within a muiket-fhot of it. That pile, which is perfectly quadran- gular, confifts of a church, two royal a- partments, and a convent. The church and apartments take up one half of it, and the convent the other half. The church is placed in the middle of the chief front towards the village, and is fpapous enough to contain more thar* a [ 2 3 I ] a thoufand people, exclufive of the choir: but it is fo very dark, that you cannot fee at one glance all the fine things in it; which is to be regretted, as neither gold, nor filver, bronze, precious marbles, nor even the deareft jewels, have been fpared to render it an objedt of aftonifhment. There are feveral altars in it, each as rich as art and money could make it. The chief one has a ftatue of mafly filver, with feveral large candlefticks, and fo many other rich ornaments, that it coft (they fay) half a million of crufa- does (#), and I am inclined to credit the aflertion. There are likewife fix organs, three on each fide, but none of them as yet finifli- ed. When they are, it will be curious to hear them all play in concert. People hope that the efifedt will prove extremely pleafing, but 1 am not quite fure of it, and am afraid of confufion. The church, Q _4 as (a) A Crufado is fomething more than an Englijh half- crown. [ 2 3 2 3 as I apprehend, is not ample enough for a collection of lb much found. However I may be miftaken. Of the two royal apartments, that on the right fide of the church as you go in, is called the Queen s, and that on the left the Kings . Both are large enough to af- ford a commodious lodgement to their Majefties and their attendants. Each is formed by a long range of rooms, clofets, and halls, and each communicates with the other by means of a paflage over a part of the church. I don’t know how they are furnifhed, becaufe the furniture is always laid up whenever their Majefties leave the place. The two principal flair- cafes which lead up to the apartments, are well lighted, fufficiently wide, and perfectly eafy. Each corner of that chief front Sup- ports a dome Somewhat in the form of a pavillion. Thofe domes viewed at a pro- per diftance have a fine effeCt, and con- trail [ 2 33 ] trail furprifingly well with the cupola, and the four belfrys in the church. ' The whole of that chief front is really as noble as art could poffibly make it. The gate in the middle of it has on each fide an infulated column of a kind of granite found fomewhere in this country which is little inferior to the Egyptian. Each column was cut out of a fingle block, and each is about three fathoms in circumference. Gn each fide of that gate there is a portico fupported by other fine columns, and ornamented with feveral gigantic fcatues made at Rome by excellent mailers. However the porticos feemed to me ra- ther too fmall for thofe ftatues, or the llatues too big for the porticos. But what ftruck me moil on that fide of the edifice, is the afcent to the church. That afcent takes up the bell part of the fpace between the edifice and the village, and the wide femicircular Heps of it make it C 234 1 it appear fo very grand, that I queftion whether we have in Italy any thing of the kind that can be compared to it. The roof of the apartments and the church, exclufive of the pavillion, the cupola, and the belfrys, is laid out in a kind of terrace that commands an exten- five profped. The belfrys contain a hun- dred and fixty bells of various iizes, and upon them many curious chimes are rung by means of fome engines which are con- tained in two towers beneath. But it is impoilible to give an idea of thofe engines without a number of drawings. It is enough to tell you, that they have coft near a million of crufadoes. They are in facl the greatefl objed of curiofity in the whole place, and the art of clock-making was, 1 think, quite exhausted in thofe two towers. So many wheels! So many fprings, pivots, rods, fome of brafs and fome of fteel! Who would attempt a de- feription ? A vaft deal of thinking has been laviflfd there : yet both the money 2 and t *35 ] and the ingenuity has all been fquander'd to produce nothing elfe but Tome bell- mufic, which mull prove difguftful if it Jafls more than three minutes. There are, amongft many fine parts, two court-yards there, that are furround- ed by the fineft porticos I ever faw ; finer than the Procuratie Nove at Venice. The porticos fupport feveral apartments for the officers of ftate when the court is there. Thofe apartments as well as thofe of their Majefties, communicate with that part of the building that has been allowed to the friars. That part confifts of three dormitories, a refectory, an infirmary, a kitchen, a library, and fome other places. One of the three dormitories I take to be about three hundred common fteps in length, and wide enough for ten men to walk a-breaft. They fay that the cells on each fide of the three dormitories are above fix hundred: nor are they narrow and low as in all other Francifcan con- vents, [ 2 3 6 ] yents, but fpacious and high vaulted; fo that each might as well be termed a room fit for any Roman prelate to live in. However the mafs-friars there, are not fo numerous as the cells. They are but three hundred, and the lay-friars a hundred and fifty. The furniture of each cell (thofe of the mafs-friars I mean) confifts of a naiv row uncover’d bed, (not very foft) a table, a few chairs, a flielf for books, and very little elfe. The lay-friars have no (helves, as the beft part of them cannot read. As to the refedtory, it is a glorious thing. The table that runs through it, admits of more than a hundred and fifty people on each fide. By this you may judge of its length : yet there is room enough left at one end of it for another table, at which the King will fometimes dine withfome of his grandees. As I entered the refedtory a little before the friars went to dinner, the cloth was laid; and I could not help taking notice, 4 that, C 2 37 3 that for every two they have a mug which contains about two bottles of wine. Thofe mugs are all alike, of white ear- then-ware, with the arms of the King on each. Befides the mugs, there are tren- chers of Brafil- wood, one for every two friars, with fix figs upon it, two bunches of grapes, and two lemons. The reft of their dinner (I have not feen it) confifts of three good difhes, fat or meagre as the day happens to be. Each friar has a wheaten loaf that weighs about a pound. Should they want more, they a Ik for more. When the three hundred Padres are at dinner, the hundred and fifty lay-friars wait behind with the greateft refpedt. It is the King that furnifhes them with that food which makes them all look fo florid and jolly. Such faces I never faw in my life, not even in the pictures of Paul Ve- ronefe , who delighted in paintiog friars handiome. They t =38 ] They fay that the maintenance of thk great family cofts the King no lefs than two hundred thoufand crufadoes a year 2 nor do I think it an exaggeration, confi- dering that at the rate of thirty two good teeth for each mouth, there are above fourteen thoufand teeth a-going twice a day the whole year round. Then there is the additional expence of their morning- chocolate, their cloaths, their firing, their great confumption of wax in the church and in the cells ; the candles and lamps in their dormitories and kitchen, befides many other articles tedious to enu- merate. What cofts but little, is their infirmary; but it muft be obferv’d that when any of them begins to grow old or turns fickly, he is fent to fome other con- vent, and one young and healthy fubfti- tuted in his room. Their infirmary I have not feen, nor their kitchen. Their library takes up a very large hall, befides a pretty large room. The hall contains C 239 ] contains little lefs than feventy thoufand volumes, and the room about ten thou- fand, as I was told. Amongft thefe laft there are as many Portuguefe books as could poffibly be colleded. I looked over the labels of a long quarto-Aielf on the right hand as you go in, and faw that they were all genealogical. If the au- thors of thofe quartos have adhered to truth, no nation under the fun is fo well apprifed of their ancehors as this. There is fcarce a family of any note throughout the kingdom but what can boaft of an hiftorian, and many have had more than one. Hence (foreigners fay) that noble elevation of mind which makes the Par- tuguefe look with the greatefl difdain upon all other nations and defpife every thing that is not Portuguefe : and hence perhaps (I fay myfelf) the fource of that immenfe rage which invaded the whole foul of the Duke D'Aveiro , and induced him to commit one of thofe actions, which never failed to bring ruin upon their [' 249 3 their perpetrators, as the hiftdries of all times and nations will tell us. That Duke could not bear with patience to have a few pages of his genealogical book blotted by any body; Befides that vaft number of genealo- gies in quarto and other (izes, there are in that lelfer library many hiftories of the Portuguefe conquefts in various parts of the ultramarine world. Then follow the theological and devotional books, which are far from being few; This to me is a proof that the Portuguefe are pious and (kilful in divinity. But what abounds there without meafure, are the lives of Saints, male and female, foreign and domeftic. They fay that St. Anthony alone has above a hundred volumes on thofe (helves, each telling his atchieve- ments in a different manner. No Alex- ander, no Auguftus, no King ofPruffia ever was honoured with fo much bio- graphy as good St. Anthony. According [ 241 3 According to the Father Librarian* that lefler library is much more valuable than the greater. And in one refped: he is certainly right. The books in the greater may be procured for love or mo- ney : but not thofe in the lefler, becaufe Portuguefe books are become very fcarce ever flnce the earthquake. The fire that follow’d itj has deflroyed many public and private libraries in this metropolis* and a Portuguefe book of any note is now become as dear as a ruby. However the Iofs of Portuguefe learn- ing will fcarcely be felt out of Portugal, as it never was in fafhion any where* and will fcarcely ever be. Few are the wri- ters of this country who ever had a name abroad. OJforio the Latin hiftorian is cer- tainly a name much confidered in the literary world, and that of Camoens , the Portuguefe Epic, has travelled beyond AUentejo and EJlremadura. Yet the works of thefe two are more commended than read. Our Italian friars extol one of Vox.. L R their t 242 ] their facred orators called Vieira , and put him upon a par with our Segneri : But I have not thegreateft opinion of our friars’ tafte in point of oratory. I have opened one of Vieira s volumes in that library, and chance direded my eyes upon the proem of a fermon,, in which the perfec- tions of the circular figure are pompoufly enumerated > after which the Lufitanian Cicero (as his countrymen call him) pro- ceeds to tell his audience, that if the Supreme Being was to flow himfelf under any geometrical figure , that would certainly be the circular in preference to the triangu- lar, the fquare , the pentagonal , the duo- decagonal, or any other known to the geo- metricians. What could I do after having read fuch a proem, but haftily replace the book on the fhelf? However Vieiras works muft have power, as they are much cfteemed by a great number of people, and I with I had time to fpare, to fee in what that power confifts. Before [ 2 43 1 Before I went to Mafra I had heard of a Portuguefe verfion of Metajlajios Operas, andafkedof the Father Librarian to fhow it me. But he had it not, nor had as yet heard of it. And what do you think that verfion is ? I am affured that the tranflator has given the Metaftafian heroes many livery-fervants, who take poffeffion of the fcene as faft as their re- fpedtive mafters go off, and have dialogues of their own with the chambermaids and nurfes of the heroines. You laugh! But what fault can you find in Achilles hav- ing a running footman, Semiramis a dry- nurfe, or Deidamia a little prating huffey of a cook-maid who bids the negro-boy to carry the chocolate up to his miftrefs ? If this is the dramatic tafte in Portugal, a verfion of Goldoni s works would make the Portuguefe full as happy, as the text does the Venetian gondoliers. The Portuguefe have a dictionary of their own language which is much com- mended both by themfelves and by fo- il 2 reigners. [ 244 3 reigners. But it was not the work of a native. Father Bluteau, a French Jefuit, compiled it. It is printed in eight or nine large quarto volumes. I wanted to buy it, but fomany volumes are toocum- berfome for a traveller j befides that the earthquake has put the price of it almoft out of the reach of my purfe. I fkimm’d overfeveral other Portuguefe books in the fpace of four hours that I paired in that library. In a medical one I read of a remedy for fore eyes, which feems no lefs excellent than fingular. ^The p erf on thus afflitted, fays the Portu- guefe phyfician, mufl neither read nor look on any white wall. The good-natured Librarian was in raptures to fee me fo inquilitive about the learning of his coun- try : but if I am allowed to draw infe- rence? from the little I pick’d up there, the moft famed Portuguefe writers are at belt but equal to our Achillini s and Ciampoli's in verfe, and to our Giuglaris and Tefauro's in profe, whofe diftorted way [ 2 45 ] way of thinking and turgidnefs of expref- fion have procured the appellation of Se~ colo cattivo to the lad century, whenever we confider it in a literary light. Our tumid Calloandro s , Eromends y Dianeas , Coralbds , and other books of that kind, feem tranflations from the Portuguefe. However, I wifh again I had leifure to look for a few months into the learning of this country. The large library at Mafra y I had no time to examine. Yet I have feen enough of it to know that it is a very good one. Befides the bed books in the learned lan- guages, I am told that it contains fome valuable manufcripts, particulary in He- brew and in Arabic ; and as I have feen feveral of the friars dudying there, it is mod probable that fome of them are learned. But a traveller had need to day a confiderable time in fuch places, in order to come away with jud ideas of the peo- ple, and this unluckily was not in my power at Mafra . R 3 Let [ 2+6 ] Let me now take my leave of the Father Librarian and enter the garden of the convent. It is pretty ample, confidering that it has been in a manner cut out of the folid rock, and much of the earth in it tranfported from diftant places. It has a large refervoir in the middle, befides fe- veral fountains. From fome doors in the walls of it, you may enter the royal park, enclofed likewife by a wall, which, they fay, is fourteen or fifteen miles round. The little I faw of that park from the windows of the cells, far from being embellifhed by that verdure which fmiles the whole year round in the parks of England, has very much the appear-* ance of a parch'd and rocky defart thinly fcattered with trees. But it; is the building that deferves all one's attention. Few edifices in Europe (perhaps not ten) ftand fo majeftick upon the face of the globe. The original ar- chitedt was a German who had been bred at Rome 5 and a very dilated genius he tnuft [ 2 47 J mufl have had to imagine fo vaft a fabrick andadjuft all the parts of it in fo noble and convenient a manner as he has done. The firft ftone of it was laid in 1717, if I am rightly informed ; and yet fome of its internal parts are not quite finilhed, though more than fix tboufand workmen were conftantly employed upon it during the firft twenty years, befides numberlefs artifts in Rome and other parts. It is but lately that the number of thofe workmen has been confiderably diminifhed. At prefen t there*are but two hundred. The occafion of the building of it, was a vow made by the archdutchefs who married King John V. On her ap- proaching the coaft of Portugal the firft land lhe fpy’d was the hills of Mafra , and the firft favour lhe afked of her royal fpoufe was, that he would eredt a temple there to the VirginMary and St. Anthony, to whofe joint protection fhe owned her- felf indebted for her fafe landing in Por- R 4 tugal. [ H8 ] tugal. His Majefty, the moft friar-ridden King that ever exifted, eafily granted her requeft. He went even fo far beyond it, as to add the palace, the convent, the garden, and the park, that he might due- ly honour the whole fpot that was blefs’d by the firft glance of his auguft Bride. An odd piece of gallantry ! As there are immenfe quarries of beautiful marbles and hard {tones all over the neighbour- hood of Mafra, the good Queen had the fatisfaftion before fhe died to fee the edi- fice far advanced and decorated with more than fifty gigantick flatues. LETTER XXX. No learning in a fecond life. Ignorance of knowing men. Organs and clock-work „ Moorijh ornaments. Lifbon, Sept. 13, 1760. in the Evening. A FTER having leifurely vifited the royal convent, I was taken back to the church by the King's organ- 7 maker. [ 249 1 maker, who wanted to fhow me the im- £ernal parts of one of the fix organs. Thofe parts I have examined with the greated attention, and the ufe of each I have heard mod: minutely explained. But my ignorance of the organ-making-art is fuch, that I dare not venture upon the lead: fketch of a defcription. How negli- gent have I been not to have bedow’d a fingle thought in the fpace of forty years upon tubes and bellows, that I plight eafily conceive how a vad variety of enchanting founds is drawn from them ! But too many are the things that a man ought to have dudied to be pro- perly qualified for a writer of travels. Mod people, when they confider the opportunities they have neglected of en- larging knowledge which it was a thou- fand times in their power to enlarge, have got a conceit that, were they to be- gin life a-new, they would apply with the keened eagernefs and mod dubborn jrefolution to all fciences, and fill up their minds [ 2 5 ° ] minds with whatever was known in this world ever fince the days of Pythagoras and Ariflotle . But fuch fpeculatifts have no right notions of things, in my opinio*. Let our lives be ever fo protracted, and our application ever fo unremitted, I think it is providential that we are not early fenlible of the much that there is for us to learn, and of the little that we can learn. Was this not the cafe, we would be feared aw r ay from the approaches of knowledge, and, inftead of acquiring the little which we do, it is my firm opinion that we would never have courage to fet about acquiring any. Indeed it is lucky that we begin our voyage through the ocean of learning quite unconfcious of its immenfity, otherwife our poor hearts would fail us at once, and we would do like the lazy wench, who having the houfe to clean* the beds to make, the difhes to wafli, and the dinner to drefs, grew fo defpe- rate. [ 251 3 rate, that fhe ran up to the garret, threw herfelf on her bed, and fell alleep. Such is the train of ideas that my ig- norance about organ-making has pro- duced. What a contempt muft that artift have conceived of me, on his finding me fo little inftrudled in fo noble a fcience ! Yet i have this comfort, that his contempt would have reached many a greater man, as many there are, who, like myfelf, are quite ignorant of things much below that of organ-making. How various are the fcholars in the various univerfities of Europe who eat bread twice or thrice a-day, and yet are utter ftrangers to the art of baking ? How many thofe, who are perpetually dipping their quills in a ftandilh, and yet know not how common ink is made ? How many who are fhaved every morning, and never thought to enquire about the in- gredients that compofe foap ? I recolledt a ftory to this purpofe which feems to me worth relating. Three Eng- lifh [ 2 5 2 j lilh wits, W aljhy Wycherley , and Pope , walking together along the fide of a field, were once engaged in a difpute about a blade of grafs which one of them chanced to pick up. This isamoft beautiful blade of wheat , faid one of them ; I never faw a finer ! It is no wheat at all, faid the other ; I take it to be rye. Fy upon you both, interrupted the third, it is neither rye nor wheat, but it is oats as fare as I am alive. Miller the Botanift happen’d to go by as they began to look crofs upon each other. They afk’d him ; and fo it happen’d that none of the three was right. The greatefi: part of what we call men of learning, are ignorant of the moft common things, and philofophers might learn from the very loweft of the people more than fome of them imagine : I mull: therefore not fret becaufe an organ-maker has taken me for a blockhead. He was right fo far as he went. The [ 253 ] The name of this man is Eugene A It* cholas Egan , a native of Ireland, He is fcarce four foot high ; but what body he has is all alive. He has obtained his place at Mafra neither by chance nor protec- tion, but by dint of fkill. The King had caufed eight famous organ-makers to come to Portugal from Italy, Germany, and other parts; and he whofe organ fhould prove beft, was to have that place. You may well imagine that each ftrove to conquer his rivals. But the immortal Caftrato Gajf'arello , together with the ce- lebrated compofer David Perez y having been deputed to judge of their feveral per- formances, unanimoufly decided in fa- vour of little Egans , and of courfe he had the place. His falary proved after- wards not fo ample as he expedted : but what is a falary to a genius ? He has de- feated his enemies; he has feen them quit Portugal with (ha me. After having ihewn me his organ, play’d a good while upon it, and repeat- edly t 254 ] edly touched a treble which is an inven- tion of his own, he took me to lee the belt friend he has in Mafra y the man who rings the bells of the royal convent. You are not to laugh when I tell you that I had the honour to pay a vifit to His Majefty’s bell-ringer, who is as great a man as ever pulled the ropes of a bell, and as eminent in his way as Plato was in his own. Befides that he can make thofe bells found in regular fubordina- tion, he can alfo ring fo many curious chimes upon them, that he delights the whole court. But what conftitutes him a great man and a genius, are two inftru* ments he has invented, one form’d of many bits of wood, the other of many bits of brick. Thofe bits he lays down in a particular order upon a table : then takes up two fmall wooden hammers, and plays upon them. What fweetnefs is contained in wood and bricks ! Upon both he plays the very beft overtures of Ha?idel and the mod difficult lefTons of 8 Scar •* [ 2 55 ] Scarlatti. Mafter Egan , who has himfelf added a new treble to the Organ, and of courfe is a proper judge of thefe matters, honours and loves this man, though but a Bell-ringer, and is not jealous of his abilities becaufe they do not interfere with his own. The fun was going down apace when I took my leave of thofe two wonderful men. I (hook hands with the bell-ringer and could not help embracing the pretty dwarf. The road between Mafra and Cintra is ftill fuch as it was after the flood when the waters fubfided, and I alighted twen- ty times from my chaife for fear of being overturned. I faw on both (ides the road in many places many (lone-blocks and marble-columns, as the quarries are there that have furnifhed the materials for the Royal Convent. It was dark when I reached Cintra , and my Negro took me to the Englijh Inn ; fo called be- caufe it is chiefly kept up by a fociety of Englifh t sj 6 i Engliih merchants, who go thither frorS Lijbon , either upon pleafure or to buy up oranges and lemons. When thofe merchants are there, they get the beft rooms, and with a very good reafon, as they have fitted it themfelves for their own reception. It happen’d that the whole houfe was full on my arrival, and as it was too late to procure any lodging, I was oblige ed to fleep upon the mentioned piece of canvas in a neighbouring houfe. But on my return from the Cork-convent the merchants were gone, and I had an ex- cellent bed. It is now time to tell you, that, be- fore the earthquake, Cintra was very well worth a vifit. A royal palace was there which is now almoft deftroy’d. They fay that it was many centuries ago one of the country-feats of the Moorijh Kings that wrefted Portugal and Spain from the hands of the Vandals , who had themfelyes wrefted both countries from thofe of the Romans « t 2 57 3 Romans . Moorijh or not Moorifh , I fee by its ruins, as well as by what remains ftanding, that it was once a great palace. There are ftill three of its halls to be feen. The ceiling of each is divided into little fpaces that have animals paint- ed in them. But each ceiling had but one animal allotted towards its ornament; and thus one contains nothing elfe but fo many fwans , the other nothing elfe but flags, and the third nothing elfe but magpyes. An odd tafte of decoration, efpecially as the fwans, the flags, and magpyes are uniform, and the pofture of each the fame as that of the next. Each fwan has a golden chain round his neck ; each flag fupports a coat of arms on his back ; and each magpye has the words per ben written by her fide ; which words, preceded by that of Piga , form an allu- fi vz Moorijh quibble I have already forgot. The walls of the three halls are in- cruftated with fquare pieces of marble of two different colours difpofed chequer- Voio L S wife, [ aj® j wife, and fo are the floors. On the ground- floor there is a fmall room where before the earthquake water was made to fpout from many little pipes concealed in the walls on the touching of a fpring ; and this is almofl: all that is left of that Moorijh palace. They are rebuilding it, and the King will have it reftored to its ancient form. A laudable thought, as pofterity will ftill fee what was the Moorijh tafte in architecture. From the windows of the hall where the ftags are painted, there is a fine profpedt; but I am fick of profpedts, and wfill give you no further defcriptioa of any. If you love profpe&s, get upon fteeples. The royal convent at Mafra has not fuffer’d much by the earthquake. The friars made me oblerve, that the little round members over the plinths of the two great columns on each fide the gate of the church, were crack’d and partly broken off. But that was almofl: all the damage [ H 9 ] damage the building has Undergbn£, though the trepidation of the ground Was fo great, that fome of the friars were thrown upon their faces as they were kneeling in the choir, and many people in the church {tumbled agairlft each other. Had the building inclined but an inch or two more, it would probably have gone down all at once and crufh’d them all in an inftant. I take now my leave of Cintra, of the beautiful fpot it Hands upon, of the re- maining halls of the Moorijh palace, and cf the high hills in that neighbourhood, where many Englifh and many Portu- guese have pretty country-houfes. I am told that not far from thence there is a fpot of ground about a league in length, and a mile broad, all planted with oran~ ges and lemons, whofe flowers in due fealon perfume a vaft trait of country,, They call it the valley of Collares , and compare it to the garden of Eden. In all probability, had I gone to fee it, I S a fhouid [ 26 o ] fhould have compared it to the territory of San Remo on the Ligurian coaft. As I came from Cintra towards Lif- bon I faw fome other parts of that Aque- duct that goes over the valley of Alcan - iara . I faw likewife fome agreeable Quintas ; that is, Country-houfes belong- ing to the Portuguefe nobility and gentry. Yet in general the country which I have feen during this fhort ramble, is rocky and barren, LETTER XXXI. People forbidden to talk . Robbers and not Murtherers . ConcuJJion from eafi to weft. Barraca's . Blacks and their progenies, fews and their perverfenefs . Creaking of wheels . Lifbon, Sept. 15. 1760, M Y enquiries here have not merely been limited to cuftoms and man- ners, to palaces and convents. I have done my utmoft to colled: genuine in- formation E 261 ] formation about the feveral tranfa&ions which have lately turned the eyes of all Europe to this country, and you would admire my induftry if I were to apprife you of all my endeavours to find the true motive of the Duke D' Aveiro s crime, the expulfion of the Jefuits, the banifh- ment of the King’s natural brothers, the unprecedented harfh treatment to Cardi- nal Acciajoliy and the exaltation of Don Baftian Jofeph de Carvalho to the very fummit of power. Thefe fubjefts are certainly worth in- quiry, efpecially as care has been taken to throw a veil over them, which will obflrudb future hiftorians. But my dili- gence of fearch has not been much re- warded. This government has forbidden every body to make thefe, and other cur- rent matters, the topics of their conver- fation : the prohibition fubje&s the tranfgrefibrs to fuch fevere penalties, and fo many have already been thrown into jail upon this account, that the poor fouls S 3 are [ ] are quite frighted at the mere mention of feme names nor is it eafy to bring any native to difclofe his opinion about any thing that looks political, though forwardnefs to decide and love of talking are two of the chief ingredients in the character of -he Portuguefe. As for the few particularities which I have been able to glean from foreigners, they are fo full of uncertainty, contradiction, and evident partiality, that inftead of mak- ing them any part of my letters, it will be better to fave them for oral entertain- ment. But I cannot quit this country with- out faying a few words more of the Je- fuits. From a brother who writes from Portugal , you have a kind of right to expeCt his opinion of them, as well as of the proceedings of this government againft them. As you are well acquainted with my way of thinking on feveral particulars, you will poflibly imagine that I approve of [ s6 3 3 of thofe proceedings, and that I confider thefe pretended Companions of Jtfus as a gang of traitors always ready to flab Sovereigns and overthrow kingdoms, as they are confidered by numberlefs people throughout Europe. But, whatever be the opinion of others, I never could do them fo much honour as to think them poffeffed of that fteadinefs of foul which is required to venture upon fuch great and bold a£ts of wickednefs. I have often watched them as an Order, and have likewife been intimately acquainted with a good number of their individuals 5 but have always found them (as well as all other Friars) fo poorly pufillanimous, as to be thoroughly perfuaded that a man of common courage might drive a dozen of them to the end of the world with a cudgel. Their conftant way of life, as it keeps them at a great diftance from all forts of danger, enervates their minds, and, indead of enterprife and intrepidity, ipfufes into them a female fpirit of S 4 meek- C 264 ] meeknefs and obfequioufnefs, with % plentiful mixture of diffimulation and hypocrify. Not one of the many I have known, but partook more or lefs of this character. With fuch a notion of them, produ- ced by many years of obfervation and refle&ion, I have read a good many of thofe books lately written againft them with a view to make them all be confi- dered as Confpirators, Traitors, and Re- gicides by principle and fyftem. But too much of malicious difingenuity is con- tained in thofe books. Far from having been convinced by the reafons offered in them, I do not even believe that they have had a hand in the attempt of D’Aveiro, for which I can very well ac- count in a fimple manner, and without having recourfe to marvellous complicat- ed plots. The very proceedings of this Government againft them have rivetted my incredulity as to their having par- taken in that attempt y nor is it poflible to [ 265 ] to conceive, that a large body of fuch men as I know them to be, cunning, cautious, and fearful, would enter into a confpiracy headed by a haughty, im- prudent, and defperate man fuch as D'Aveiro , and compofed of men and wo- men of different ages and conditions ; which confpiracy, had it even proved fuccefsful, would ftill, and at the very beft, have left them juft where they were and as they were. But let us grant for argument’s fake that fome few (or many, if you will) have entered into that confpiracy. Where was the difficulty to hang thofe few (or many) after a trial not fecret, not myfte- rious, but fair and open to the whole nation? Not one Jefuit has as yet been put to death upon this account, but all have been exported out of the country and banifhed it for ever, without the leaft difcrimination between the innocent and the guilty ; which levelling execution I cannot at all reconcile with my ideas of equity [ 266 ] equity and juftice. It is true that old Malagrida and two or three more (none of them Portuguefe, but all Italians, [ which is remarkable) have been detained and thrown into jail. They have now been above two years fa) in the inquifi- lion. But what has the inquifition to do with regicides, if this government is per- fuaded that regicides they are ? Why have they not been hanged with the Duke D’slveiro and the other confpirators ? The power that could eafily banifh thou- lands, could as eafily hang a dozen or two, or as many as you will, Why was this not done? Who could hinder it ? The pope? The people? Some foreign power? No. The whole world would have ap- proved of the punifhment inflicted upon convifted regicides. And why is recourfe had to the pens of mercenary writers, (a) Long after the date of this letter poor Malagrida has been burnt as an Herehck , charged amongjl other things of having written while in the prifons of the Inquifition , that the Virgin Mary fpoke Latin when fill in St. Anris womb. I know not what is become of his brother regicides. and [ 26 7 ] and fo much pains taken to blacken the whole order, when its guilty individuals were completely within the reach of avenging juftice? Why are fuch efforts made abroad to make the world believe that they are a fet of villains, when at home no body is allowed to fpeak either good or ill of them? That each jefuit is a downright villain, always ready at the nod of his general, his provincial, his rec- tor, or his prefedt, to turn traitor, to turn confpirator, to turn King-killer, is an affertion that may be credited by enthu- fiafts, and by thofe who hate without knowing why, whofe number is larger than vulgar obfervers are aware of ; but never will be credited by men of fober think- ing, by men acquainted with the varieties of our tempers and inclinations, by men who have remarked how perfedUy im~ poffible it is to bring a vaft number of individuals to think and adt as one man. My opinion of the Jefuits* fociety is therefore this, that they are obnoxious to 7 the \ 268 ] the great fociety of mankind, not becaufe they are traitors and regicides by princi- ple and fyftem, but becaufe they are inde- fatigable accumulators of riches which they do not want. Their maintenance re- quires but little, as they live in commu- nity, feed poorly, drefs poorly, and lodge poorly. What need have they to plunder their neighbours with their trade and banking, and hoard up treafures and trea- fures, when they lead a mean life and cannot by inftitution lead a better? Why are they for ever hunting after inherit- ances, always (or almoft always) to the prejudice of lawful heirs? What will they do with thofe treafures ? Or if they have any good reafon (which is inconceivable) for adting in this manner, why do they not tell it aloud ? Indeed if they are to be annihilated, this avarice of theirs is more than a fuffi- cient motive. But inftead of going this way to work, and call them Robbers, which may be done with juftice, as the defire [ 2 6 9 ] defire of robbing is the true and notorious fpirit of their order, great trouble is taken by means of the prefs at Lucca , Venice , Lugano , and other places, to cry them down as Murtherers , which in the nature of things cannot be the fpirit of a large body. Befides the fpirit of robbing, there is that of domineering, which might have been an article of accufation againft them. This is another of their true and notori- ous charadterifiicks, that has long made them odious to all men of fenfe and pro- bity. What need have they of influence and authority in the Hates where they are eftablifhed, and even in the Hates where they have no eflablifhment at all; that is, in thofe countries, "which we, perhaps with too much acrimony, call heretical? How are influence and authority in any Hate to be reconciled with that profefiion which obliges them to eat, drefs, and lodge poorly, as I faid, and to tread in the footfleps of Him whole companions 8 they [ ®7° i they call themfelves? Why do they evdf fhun the houfes of the poor, where reli- gious men ought always to be affifting and comforting ? And what buiinefs have they in the palaces of the great, where they are perpetually intruding? What are they doing in the courts of princes, where they are inceffantly endeavouring to get a greater and greater footing ? Ma- ny and many times has my indignation been raifed to fee them there, fmiling, bowing, whifpering, fawning, caballing, and intriguing ten thoufand times more than the meaneft courtiers. But of thefe and other matters Ragione - rem fiu adagio injieme poi y as the Evange- lift faid to AJiolfo . Mean while, as the hour of departure is approaching, I have employed yefterday and to-day in vifiting over again and a-foot the ruins of this metropolis, and thofe many clufters of habitations, which have been built for the reception of thofe unfortunate crea- tures C 2 7 X 3 tures whom the earthquake has bereft of their homes. Of thofe ruins I have already tried to give you fome idea : but I muft again re- commend to you not to forget when you read that defcription, that words cannot come up to fo vaft a fcene of horrible de- flation. By comparing the topography of thefe ruins (both in the town and country) with a map of Portugal, it appears that the main force of that memorable concuffion was colledted in a narrow line from Eaft to Weft ; and that the chief mifchief caufed by it, fell upon thofe buildings that happened to lie along that line : fo that it was not the folidity of its walls that faved the great edifice at Mafra from deftrudtion, but its being at fome diftance from the courfe of the motion. Had this not been the cafe, that edifice could never have efcaped the violence which fhattered the ftony fides of the high hill near Cintra , and made fome of its t * 7 * 1 ■ its cliffs roll down into the fubjacent plain. When the fury of the earthquake fub-* fided, and the univerfal diftraftion was in fome meafure appeafed, the inhabitants of Lijbon hastened to raife all about the neighbouring hills fuch temporary walls and roofs, as could immediately fereen them from the fevere weather that fuc~ ceeded the immenfe calamity, and have progreffively built feveral fmall villages compofed of fmall houfes and cottages, fome of wood and fome of brick, which are very pretty to look at, as they are re- gularly difpofed, and as it is the general enftom here to whitewafh the outfide of all their dwellings. Thofe fmall houfes and cottages they call Barracas : a very proper appellation, as this word, which has got admiffion in almoft all the languages of Europe, means in them all A very fmall habitation for man . In [ *73 1 I'ri crofting thofe parts of the town Which have not been demolifhed, it was impoffible not to take notice of the naf- tinefs of the ftreets. The abominable ftink and the vaft heaps that caufe it, render many of thofe ftreets impalTable. I am told that there are rigid laws againft the infamous practice of throwing any** filth down the windows: but what are laws when there is no power to enforce their execution ? One of the things that mo ft furprife a n ftranger as he rambles about this town, is that great number of Negroes who fwarm in every corner. Many of thefe unhappy wretches are natives of Africa, and many born of Afri- can partnts either in Portugal or in its ultramarine dominions. No fhip comes from thofe regions without bringing fome of either fex; and, when they are here,, they are alio wed to marry not only among themfelves, but alfo With thofe of a diffe- rent colour. Thefe crofs-marriages have Vo l. I. T filled [ 2 74 1 filled the country with different breeds of human monfters. A black and a white produce a mulatto , Then a mulattojoins With a black or a white, and two other creatures are engendered, both called me- Jlices . Then the meftices white join with the mejlices blacky or with true blacks, true white, or mulattos; and all branch out into fo many and various kinds, that it becomes very difficult, if not impoffible, to diftinguifh them by peculiar names, though they are all difcriminated by their peculiar hues. Tofuch a degree the original breed is here depraved, that to be a Blanco ; that is, a perfect white , is become a title of honour: fo that when a Portuguefe fays that he is a Blanco, you are not to under- Hand that he is a white many which is the real fignification of the word ; but that he is an honeft man, a man of honour, a man of family, a man of confequence and importance. To [ *75 1 To &11 thefe mongrel mixtures you may add the Jewifli. Portugal abounds with Jews who perfon&te Chriftians, and often intermarry both with the white and the other generations. You will eafily com- prehend that this cannot much contri- bute towards the farther improvement of thofe genealogies which make fo good a figure on the fhelves of the library at Mafra . Thefe ftrange combinations have filled this town with fuch a variety of odd fa- ces, as to make the traveller doubt whe- ther Lijhon is in Europe; and it may be forefeen, that in a few centuries not a drop of pure Portuguefe blood will be left here, but all will be corrupted between Jews and Negroes, notwithftanding their mod holy tribunal of the facred inquifi- tion. To obviate one qf the two evils (which might both be removed by a fecular tri- bunal) the inquifition is always upon the watch to difcover the Jews; and when T 2 any [ z 7 6 ] any is found out, you know how he h treated. Tell an inquifitot that you are a Jew becaufe it has pleafed God to make you a Jew, and that you do not think yourfelf entitled to undo what God has done, the good Father will throw you into the fire as fare as if you were a chip* But as one evil breeds another, the in-* ceffant diligence of the inquifition to de- tect the Jews, makes them redouble their arts of concealment, and (what completes the blefling) multiplies fuperftition and encreafes hypocrify. Hence it happens that numbers of both fexes, and of all ages and conditions, go about with long rofaries between their thumb and fingers, muttering paters and aves, that they may be deemed ChrifKans if they are Jews* or not be miftaken for Jews if they arer Chriflians. How the Jews can bear to live amid it inceffant danger, is utterly inconceivable. There is a fiubborn perverfenefs in their defying the law of Portugal that almoft juftifies [ 2 77 1 ^uftifies the inquifltorial rage. Would yoi> not fly into a paflion and jroll down-ftairs the impudent fellow who was refolved to ftay in your own houfe in fpight of your teeth ? In my long walk of yefterday and to- day, I have entered a good number of artifts’ (hops, and found to my no fmall furprife that they belong moftly to Gran- gers. One would be apt to fufped that the induftry of this nation is not great $ and the fufpicion will increafe, when you £re told that linen* woollen-cloth, filk- Jtuffs, and almoft all other produdions of the loom, are by the Portuguefe im- ported from abroad, though they have at home many of the materials. This is alfo the cafe with regard to all forts of fteel, copper, and brafs-work, except what is ufed in mean houfes $ that is, what does not require muchperfedion of workmanlhip. Would you believe that even their fhoes they procure from Eng- land and from France ? I am told that th& T 3 few [ 2 7 8 ] fevV who will have {hoes made on purpofe for their own feet, mult apply to the few foreign fhoemakers fcattered about this town, and fubmit to pay exhorbitant prices. Even taylors are foreigners for the greateft part ; at leaft thofe who are molt in vogue ; and as to French barbers and hair-drefiers, they fwarm here as well as in England. Statuaries, architects, and engravers they never had of any note. As to painters they can boaft but of one, Alonzo Sanchez Coello , a difciple of our great Raphael , and a favourite of Philip II. who ufed to call him Titian the fe - cond. He was employed by that King in the Efcurial , which he contributed to adorn. His name is more known to the Italians than to the Portuguefe. I will not omit to fay that I wanted a plan of this town to help myfelf in my excurfions ; but was allured that fuch a thing had never been thought on, though confidering its extent and the great refort pf ftrangers, one would think that many b 7 [ 279 ] by the probability of profit might be tempted to make it.' To range about fuch a wide fcene of curiofity as this metropolis and its neigh- bourhood, gives certainly much fatisfac- tion to an inquifitive pair of eyes. But if my eyes are pleafed, my ears pay for it by a torment peculiar to the country, which I have iuffered every day fince my arrival, holidays excepted. This torment is caufed by the creak- ing of the cart-wheels, I queftion whe- ther the dink of the dirtied dreets is not more fupportable to the nodrils than that fhrillnefs to the ears. The cart-wheels here are made out of two boards nailed together, and clumfily cut in a circular form. Yet the painful noife they make might be obviated, would carmen but greafe their axles : but they fay that the devil would then do mifchief to their oxen, and that noife frightens him away. Did you ever hear a better reafon for {par- ing greafe ? Saavedra in his Don Quixote^ T 4 takes C 280 3 takes notice of his countrymen’s opinio^ about the noife of cart-wheels, “ de cuya and §>ueen Maria Anna of Auftria . Qu. In what year was he ban} ?■ Ans. In 1714, Qu. On what day ? Ans. Dhe fixtli of June. Qu. When and by whom was he bap* tized ? Ans. Aug . 29, of the fame year by Cardinal de Cugna. Qu . Whom has he married ? Ans. Being fill Prince of Brafil , he married the moft ferene Infanta of Spain Dona Mariana Victoria . Qu. Who brought about this marriage ? Ans. C ') Ans. Antony Guedes de Pereira whih h$ 'was envoy at the court of Madrid . Qu. Who went to fetch in due form the mojl ferene lady Infanta ? Ans. Dom Rodrigo Fanes de Sd Mar - quis of Abrantes . Qu. When did this Lady reach Portu- gal? Ans. On "January 19, 1729. ,Qu. When did Jhe enter Lijbon ? Ans. On Feb. 12, of the fame year. Qu. When did King Jofeph the Firfl begin to reign ? Ans. On the lafi of July 1750. CLu. When was he proclaimed ? Ans. On Sept. 7. of the fame year. Qu. How many children has he ? Ans. He has four daughters , who are the Lady Princefs of Brafil Dona Maria Frances Ifabel ; the Lady Infanta Dona Maria Anna Frances ; the Lady Infanta Dona Maria Frances Dorothy ; and the Lady Infanfa Dona Maria Frances Bene- ftla. And e 284 ] And with this fine Dialogue ends $ Portuguefe book printed in 1750, inti- tled Injlru^do de Principiantes , &c. that is, “ An Injlruftion U Beginners , and a u new Method by which the frji Letters ** are to be learned, for the XJfe of Schools," &c. This book was compofed by th$ pro^ feflors of the royal fchool which goes by the name of As Efcolas de Noffd Senhora das NeceJJidades ; that is. The Schools of our Lady of the NeceJJities ; to which fchools (or fchool) the Portuguefe parents who intend to give a liberal education to their children, mull fend them, as no other fchool is here permitted either public or private. Soon after my arrival I inquired whe- ther in Lifhon there was an univerfity ; and was informed that thefe fchools were here in the ftead of an univerfity. Being defirous to form fome acquaintance with the profeffors there, I fent (directed for the [ 5 1 the heads of the fchools) a large fheet of ancient Greek characters, collected and methodically difpofed by a very learn- ed Englifhman called Morton , and pub- liihed in London not long before my departure. The fheet was accompanied with as civil a letter as I could poffibly put toge- ther ; and it proved an agreeable pre- fent, if I am to believe two of thofe pro- feffors who came to me three days after, to return me thanks in their own and their collegues* name. You may well think that I received them with very fubmiffive civility, and my refpeCt prevailed upon them to flay dinner with me. During a good part of the afternoon they prattled with a volu- bility, which (as far as I have obferved) is charadieriftical to the Portuguefe. It was pretty vifible that they both wanted to impofe themfelves upon me for mighty learned men, and to make me conceive a great opinion of their fchools, of their 7 court-- [ 286 ] Country, and of themfelves. However*' their learning teem’d to me not great, and their manner of conveying it by much too pompous. Their difcourfe was plentifully larded with fuch Latin fentences as are in every fchool-boy’s mouth, and the names of Tiilly and Vir- gil graced too many of their periods. They had fome diftant glimmering of the French literature, and had heard the names of Moliere and Boileau ; but with regard to that of Italy and of England, neither of them knew more than my negro. The fheet of Greek alphabets, which I had fent them, is hung up, they faid, in one of their fchools ; but they honeftly own’d that none of them meddled much with Greek. My patience was nearly worn out when they left me, fully perfuaded I fuppofe, that they had amazed me with the va- riety of their knowledge and the fluency of their elocution. Hearing that thefe were two of the chief profeflors das Ne- t *87 ] t c Jjitades> I found means to return the* vifit when I was fure of not finding them at home, and thought no further about them. However this morning they call- ed on me again, on purpofe to thank me again, as they faid, for my prefent, which had been examined by their col- legues, and found to be huma valeroza compofyao ( a noble compofition) , and as they had taken notice of my follicituds to inform myfelf of whatever was rela- tive to their fchools, they defired my acceptance of the book, out of which I have extracted the above dialogue, af- furing me that it was one of the mod elegant and learned compojicaoms in their language. They were no fooner gone than I fell to reading it. It is divided into two parts nearly equal. The fird is a mod jejune- abridgment of their hidofy, from count Dom Henrico of Burgundy (who liv’d in the eleventh century) down to the pre- fent reign inclufively. The fecond part is [ 2*8 j is no more than the fame abridgment thrown into dialogues* of which I have given you the laft. The ftyle of thefe is plain, becaufe no art could make it other- wife ; but as for that of the hiftory (or abridgment) there are few things tnore thickly fown with over-drained thoughts aiid puerile conceits. By the title I had midaken it for 1 new-year’s-gift to a child ; yet I fee by the preface, that they put it into thb hands of thofe young men who from the fcliool of humanity are advanced to that of rhetbrick. How it can contri- bute to make young men rhetoricians^ is beyond my comprehenflon ; and if you review my faithful tranflation of the dialogue, you will agree with me, that fuch trifles ought to have been taught in the nurfery, and not in a royal fchool of rhetorick. Kelly's boys, who are pupils to the younger of my vifitors, have told me, that this and their other fchool- books mud be learned by heart in each re- [ * 8 9 ] refpedtive fchool for fuch is the me- thod : and the fcholars who negledl to commit their daily leffons to memory, are fure of punishment. What I have farther to remark on this fubjedt is, that as Efcolas das NeceJJidades is a Philippine convent, and of courfe the profeffors are Philippine friars. The Jefuits were formerly pofTeffed of the exclufive privilege of teaching the youth of Lijbon ; but foon after their expulfion this honour was conferred by the go- vernment upon the Philippines ; and I am much miftaken if the poor lads are not fallen from the frying-pan into the fire. It is a pofitive fadt that in Italy the Je- fuits have endeavoured to root out all literature. Before the inflitution of their order we had fuch a number of men emi- nent in various branches of fcience, from { a ) Dante down to ( b ) Galileo* as few, (a) Dante was born in 1265. ( b ) Galileo died in 1642. Vol. I. U if [ 2 9 ° 1 if any, of the modern nations can (how. But as foon as the Jefuits got pofleffion of our fchools under the pretence of teach- ing our youth gratis y there was almoft an end amongft us of hiftorians, politi- cians, philofophers, and poets. The Je- fuits began by difcrediting the Greek tongue, and perfuaded us that it was un- necefiary. Then by means of their vo- luminous Latin grammars they rendered the acquifition of the Latin next to im- pofiible, as it is almoft impofiible to learn a thing unknown by means of a thing equally unknown. They corrupt- ed even our language, and caufed fuch a deluge of equivocal wit to be poured over our writings of all kinds, that du- ring their reign, that is, during the laft century, we excited the ridicule of the neighbouring nations, in whom long be- fore we had raifed aftoniftiment. It was luckly for us that the Jefuits could never obtain admiffion into the univerfity of Pifa, and that they were not [ 2 9 I 3 not even allowed to teach in the inferior fchools of Tufcany ; fo that it was at laft in the power df the Tufcans and of Galileos difciples and followers, to refcue us from barbarity, and reftore the learn- ing of Italy to purity and fplendour. Rinaldmiy Aggiunti , the two Del Buond s 9 Vivianiy Bellini , ’Torricelli , Redi, and fe- veral other men, deliver'd us in a good meafure from our falfe inftrudlors ; falfe with regard to us, though not to them- felves,. as they taught each other very well, and were themfelves almoft the only men of fcience throughout the coun- try. And here it may not be amifs to re- cord, that amongft our Italian princes, it was our glorious king ViBor Amadeus who firft detected the deep-laid fchemes of the Jefuits, and who firft had the cou- rage to ftrip them throughout his domi- nions of the excluftve privilege of teach- ing us. And it is originally to him that the greater part of the Italian ftates owe U 2 the C 2 92 ] the great bleffing of having at prefent but a very few Jefuits for teachers. In this country, however, it was not very judicious to fubditute the Philip- pines to the Jefuits, if the Philippines are for ignorance like thofe of Italy, as I am perfuaded they are. But it is to be hoped that thefe reverend fathers have been only temporarily entruded with this important charge, until the prefent dif- turbances are fo me what quieted. I am told, that this government intends to put the public fchools into better regu- lations, and that a good number of truly learned men are foon to be procured from other countries : nay, I am pofitively af- fured, that old Facciolati the philologid, father Friji the mathematician, and fome other eminent men from Padua, Milan, and other parts of Italy, are expected to be foon here ; that a new univerfity is to be indituted in this town, into which fome of the Cohimbra - profelTors are to be incorporated, and that ancient univer- fity totally fuppreiTed. How / [ 293 ] How much of truth there is in thefe reports, I have not been able to afcer- tain Perhaps the day approaches, that the Portuguefe will emerge from igno- rance and fuperftition, and come up to a level with fome other Catholic nations. Fleas, rats , and other conveniences. Love in one place and liberty in another . De- votion here and devotion there. HE poor traveller has quitted Lifbon to-day in the afternoon, in order to journey on to his native land. The river Fagzis, not three miles broad at the mouth, is full nine miles where I eroded it to-day : but the wind proved fo favourable, that in about three hours I failed over it in an open boat. And here I am in the bell inn (Eft al- lage they call it here) of Jtldeagallega . My apartment is nothing mere than a LETTER XXXIII. Aldeagallega, Sept. 17, 1760. large / [ 29 * ] large room hung all round with fine broad cobwebs, and furnifhed with a narrow mat for its inhabitant to ftretch his limbs upon, whenever he fhall wifli to go to fleep. Glafs-windows this room has none; but inftead of panes there are ihutters fo full of chinks, that all the children of Eolus may pafs them. As for a bed, tables, chairs, pictures, and other things in ufe amongft Chriftians and Mahometans, here are none ; and through the various clefts of the boards which form this floor, I expedt that a multitude of rats will come out to-night to peep at me, and eat me perhaps, as the Ejlaliageiro has no vi&uals either for them or for any body elfe. Such is the lodging I have got for to- night. But although the danger from the rats may be rather imaginary than real, yet it is evident that I fhall not ef- cape with a whole fkin from the fleas, which run on all fides of this room in numerous fquadrons, and fecm impa- tiently [ 2 95 ] tiently to wait for my putting out the light that they may come and eat me. However, upon this mat I fhail not fleep. Batifte, who has travell’d much up and down this country, has bought me a large bag, which is to ferve me in- ftead of a bed as long as my journey through Portugal will laft ; and he is this minute come to tell me, that he has found dry ftraw iufficient to fill it ; fo that he is fare I lhall pafs a comfortable night upon it, with the help of the fheets and coverlet that he has likewife pro- vided, As to food, we have brought with us fowls, hams, faufages, pies, cakes, and cheefe ; therefore neither of us £hall meet with the diimai fate of jugurtha after he fell into the hands of the mercilefs Romans. And now, ye Queens of Parnaffus, as a reward for my long paft fervices, for which you never paid me, I befeech you to obtain from your friend /Apollo, that to-morrow he be fo kind as to bring day U 4 over [ 296 ] over this region betimes, that I may early fee the way which leads travellers from the moil paltry inn of Aldeagallega . A Postscript. Supper being over, and finding in my- felf an invincible reluctance to fall down upon the ftraw-bag, I went to take a fhort walk. The air is quite fofc and calm, and the moon flhines bright. As I was moving on with weary fteps and bufy imagination, I found myfelf by the fide of the Tagus, which is within piftol- fhot of the EJlallage. There I faw many a happy couple, fome fitting on the bank, fome walking backwards and for- wards, all whifpering, all hugging, all enjoying each other in the cool of the evening. Good folks ! faid I to myfelf. What fort of fupper they have had I know not, and probably their beds are no better than that which Batifte has nrcvided for A me ! And yet they are happy in each other’s I 29 7 ] other’s kindnefs. Why do the Englifh ftun foreigners with their liberty ? Is it not liberty to wander by the river- fide at Aldeagallega , telling a gentle maid whatever comes uppermoft, without a thought of miniftry, politics, or faction ? Happy Aldeagallegans ! go on in this way for ever, and never think nor enquire how the money of the nation is fpent! I had already taken notice that the Portuguefe are of a difpofition much more amorous than the Englifh, and waited for an opportunity to tell you fo. The inhabitants of this village walking thus lovingly chacun avec fa chacune have now given me that opportunity. But this is generally the cafe with all nations in warm climates. The natives of a cold region can fcarcely have right notions of the effedl of a warm temperature. In northern latitudes a good deal of cloathing and firing is required to pafs life away with fome comfort; and where cloath- ing and firing are much wanting, much thought [ 2 9 § 3 thought and much time mud be fpent to procure them. The cafe is fomewhat different in thofe countries where fewer tilings are neceffary to life. This is the reafon why in England there are multi- tudes who have fcarcely been in love once in their lives. Many a debauchee have I feen in England during ten years, but very feldom a true innamorato . In Portu- gal all are in love from the day of their nativity to that of their deceafe, and Ca- moens knew what he was about when he faid Venus hella Ajj’eycoada a gente hufitana . £( Fair Venus cherifhes the PortuguefeV hove is the predominant paffion on the T agusy as Liberty on the Thames . There are many more ftriking differ- ences between the Portuguefe and the Englifh; but that amongft other which is mod remarkable, is their different way of being devout, when by devotion we mean the outward fhow of religion, indepen- dent C 299 ] dent of its fpirit. See the Englifli at church. They fit or ftand with a com- pofed look; fing their pfalms and anthems with an even tone of voice; and not one -in a hundred betrays the leaf): enthufiafm, except a few of thofe two fedts called Methodifls and ghiakers, who might be termed the Lufitanick part of the Britiih nation. The Portuguefe on the contrary when at church, are devout to afuperlative de- gree. They are almoft all the time upon their knees ; raife their eyes willfully up, fix the fingers of one hand clofely be- tween thofe of the other; fing very loud, or utter ejaculations with great earneft- nefs, and often fixike their breafts with their hands. Leave their churches and look at their houfes. You will fee many erodes painted on their outward walls, or a Madona, ora St. Francis, or a St. Anthony. Look at one of their friars coming in. Men, women, and children will haftily get up, run to him, and [ 3 00 1 humbly kifs his hand, or his fleeve, or the hem of his garment, or the beads that hang from his vvaift. Every evening you fee them in numbers kneeling round a high crucifix planted in the middle of a ffcreet, finging litanies with their utmoft power of voice. Then none of them dares to die without going through many pre- paratory rites, which is not the cafe in England: and when they are dead, they are buried drefs’d up in a habit that muft be bought of a Prancifcan or a Dominican Friar, of whofe fandtity they had a good opinion. I remember an impudent Por- tuguefe Francifcan I met once in a boat as I was going down our Po , who looked upon all Italians as little lefs than here- ticks. What led him into this opinion was, that no body in Italy would give him a farthing for his coat, which in Portu- gal, he could fell at will for forty or fifty crowns. What words can exprefs the devotion of the Portuguefe to the Virgin Mary? The [ 3 01 ] The fouthern Italians fcarcely rate her fo high as the Portuguefe : but the English never think of her. You may eafily ima- gine that thofe who make nothing of the Virgin, make lefs than nothing of the Saints, which is not the cafe either in Italy or in Portugal. Yet the Portuguefe revere them a great deal more than we do ; and above all you cannot conceive what fublime notions they have of St. Anthony! The twelve apoflles all to- gether have not the hundredth part of the prayers directed to them that are to him. St. Anthony was a countryman of theirs; and as fuch, they take it for granted that he will mind them more than any of the apoftles or any other. But what bufmefs have they with St. Francis, who was our countryman, and, I think, never vifited Portugal in his life? Yet they put him upon a level with their own St. Francis, and even a degree higher, if we may judge by their Francifco's and Francifca s, who are much more numerous throughout their [ 3 02 1 their country than the Antonias and An- tonias* You may have afpecimen of the Portuguefc rondnefs, firft for our Lady, and then for St. Francis, if you will look back again to the dialogue out of the Philippine-book. There you will find that each of the King's four daughters was chriftened by the name of Mary Frances . But the great devotion of the Portu- guefe does not interfere at all with their love of the other fex, or their love of dancing, which is another of their mighty loves. As foon as they have done with evening-finging of litanies before their crucifixes in the ftreets, and at their win- dows or balconies, if you take a ramble about the ftreets, you fee in houfes and (hops numbers of them dancing merrily at the found of a guittar or two, while fome of the company, or the guittarifts themfelves, fing a fong to the tune. None of your minuets and your aim able s* Their dances are not of fuch a cold, in- lipid, C 3 °3 ] fipid, and Frenchified kind. They chiefly confid in jumps and jerks, in languid podures and languid falls, in a quick and inceffant driking of their heels on the ground, perfectly calculated to kindle the mind with joy and the heart with defire- Thus live the Portuguefe in an unin- terrupted round of devotion and pleafure. They are neither gluttons nor drunkards, though their country wants neither food nor drink. Their beef and veal indeed are not fo generally good as in England, or in the wedern and northern parts of Italy; but their pork, mutton, and lamb are excellent; and fo are their chickens, fowls, ducks, turkeys, and game. As for fi(h, the Lilbon-market is perhaps the moll plentifully and moll: varioufly fup- plied in Europe; and all their fruit and garden-duff is fuperlatively good. The low people feldom tade flefh; but the bed fort keep very good tables and have French cooks. To keep a table, how- ever, mud require a confiderable expence i in [ 3°4 ] in Lifbon, if to live at home cofls pro- portionably as much as to live at an inn. My table at Kelly’s, which was far from being a fumptuous one, coft me above a guinea a day. But I know nothing as to the manner of living of the great in Lifbon, becaufe I have feen none. By what I have feen of the inferior clafles, they fcem to like a good houfe, if they have one that is good : but if they have it not, a Ba^acca will do quite as well. As to houfhold furniture they have no refined ideas. A hard matrafs in a cor- ner, or a mat, or their own cloaths, will ftand them in ftead of as good beds as down can make ; for which reafon % they look generally dirty. Almoft any thing with them will fupply the place of vidfuals ; and water is excellent to quench the thirft, efpecially fuch good water as they have here. Thus live the Portuguefe, without thinking much of to-morrow ; that plaguy to-morrow , which, along with liberty , [ 3°5 3 fiber ly, is always uppermoft in the head of an Englilhinan. In general they are healthy and full of fpirits, and live long, if we may judge by the great number of old people that one fees in their metropo- lis. Whether the proportion of happi- nefs is greater in Portugal than in Eng- land, or the contrary, I have no means of calculating; but the Portuguefe do not look as if they were difturbed by defire of change, or fear of want. The ruin of their capital was a misfor- tune eternally to be commiferated. Speak- ing of it, the Portuguefe would fay: Quern nab ha vjio Lifboa , nab lia vijio cufa boa ; “ he who has not feen JLifbon , has feen no- thing that is good .' 1 Of fuch partial fayings almoft every nation has one, if not more. Quien no ha vijio Sevilla, no ha vijio mar a- villa . “ He who has not feen Seville has not “feen a wonder Qui n a point vu Ver - faille , n a vu rien qui vaille . “ He who has