they lie at a smaller or greater distance from France. It may be here worth while to consider how it comes to pass, that the common people of Italy have in general so very great an aversion to the French, which every traveller cannot but be sensible of, that has passed through the country. The most obvious reason is, certainly the great difference that there is in the humours and manners of the two nations, which always works more in the meaner sort, who are not able to vanquish the prejudices of education, than with the nobility. Besides, that the French humour, in regard of the liberties they take in female conversations, and their great ambition to excel in all companies, is in a more particular manner very shocking to the Italians, who are naturally jealous, and value themselves upon their great wisdom. At the same time the common people of Italy, who run more into news and politics than those of other countries, have all of them something to exasperate them against the king of France. The Savoyards, notwithstanding the present inclinations of their court, cannot forbear resenting the infinite mischiefs he did them in the last war. The Milanese and Neapolitans remember the many insults he has offered to the house of Austria, and particularly to their deceased king, for whom they still retain a natural kind of honour and affection. The Genoese cannot forget his treatment of their doge, and his bombarding their city. The Venetians will tell you of his leagues with the Turks; and the Romans, of his threats to Pope Innocent the Eleventh, whose memory they adore. It is true, that interest of state and change of circumstances may have sweetened these reflections to the politer sort, but impressions are not so easily worn out of the minds of the vulgar. That, however, which I take to be the principal motive among most of the Italians, for their favouring the Germans above the French, is this, that they are entirely persuaded it is for the interest of Italy to have Milan and Naples rather in the hands of

the first than of the other. One may generally observe, that the body of a people has juster views for the public good, and pursues them with greater uprightness than the nobility and gentry, who have so many private expectations and particular interests which hang like a false bias upon their judgments, and may possibly dispose them to sacrifice the good of their country to the advancement of their own fortunes; whereas the gross of the people can have no other prospect in changes and revolutions, than of public blessings, that are to diffuse themselves through the whole state in general.

To return to Milan: I shall here set down the description Ausonius has given of it, among the rest of his great cities.

Et Mediolani mira omnia, copia rerum:

Innumera cultaque domus facunda virorum
Ingenia, et mores læti. Tum duplice muro
Amplificata loci species, populique voluptas
Circus, et inclusi moles cuneata theatri:
Templa, Palatinæque arces, opulensque Moneta,
Et regio Herculei celebris ab honore lavacri,
Cunctaque marmoreis ornata peristyla signis,
Omnia quæ magnis operum velut æmula formis
Excellunt; nec juncta premit vicinia Roma.

Milan with plenty and with wealth o'erflows,
And num'rous streets and cleanly dwellings shows;
The people, bless'd with nature's happy force,
Are eloquent and cheerful in discourse;

A Circus and a theatre invites

Th' unruly mob to races and to fights.
Moneta consecrated buildings grace,

And the whole town redoubled walls embrace;
Here spacious baths and palaces are seen,
And intermingled temples rise between;
Here circling colonnades the ground inclose,
And here the marble statues breathe in rows:
Profusely graced the happy town appears,
Nor Rome itself her beauteous neighbour fears.

BRESCIA, VERONA, PADUA.

From Milan we travelled through a very pleasant country to Brescia, and by the way crossed the river Adda, that falls into the Lago di Como, which Virgil calls the lake Larius, and running out at the other end loses itself at last in the Po, which is the great receptacle of all the rivers of this country. The town and province of Brescia have freer access to the senate of Venice, and a quicker redress of injuries, than any other part of their dominions. They have always a mild and prudent governor, and live much more happily than their fellow-subjects: for as they were once a part of the Milanese, and are now on their frontiers, the Venetians dare not exasperate them, by the loads they lay on other provinces, for fear of a revolt; and are forced to treat them with much more indulgence than the Spaniards do their neighbours, that they may have no temptation to it. Brescia is famous for its iron-works. A small day's journey more brought us to Verona. We saw the lake Benacus in our way, which the Italians now call Lago di Garda: it was so rough with tempests when we passed by it, that it brought into my mind Virgil's noble description of it.

Adde lacus tantos, te Lari maxime, teque

Fluctibus et fremitu assurgens, Benace, marino.

Here vex'd by winter storms Benacus raves,
Confus'd with working sands and rolling waves;
Rough and tumultuous like a sea it lies,

So loud the tempest roars, so high the billows rise.

This lake perfectly resembles a sea, when it is worked up by storms. It is thirty-five miles in length,

and twelve in breadth.

crossed the Mincio.

At the lower end of it we

-Tardis ingens ubi flexibus errat

Mincius, et tenerâ prætexit arundine ripas.

VIRG. Georg. iii. v. 14.

Where the slow Mincius through the valley strays;
Where cooling streams invite the flocks to drink,
And reeds defend the winding waters brink.

DRYDEN.

The river Adige runs through Verona; so much is the situation of the town changed from what it was in Silius Italicus's time.

-Verona Athesi circumflua.

Lib. 8.

Verona by the circling Adige bound.

This is the only great river in Lombardy that does not fall into the Po; which it must have done, had it run but a little further before its entering the Adriatic. The rivers are all of them mentioned by Claudian.

-Venetosque erectior amnes

Magna voce ciet. Frondentibus humida ripis
Colla levant, pulcher Ticinus, et Addua visu
Caruleus, et velox Athesis, tardusque meatu
Mincius, inque novem consurgens ora Timavus.

Sexto Cons. Hon.

Venetia's rivers, summon'd all around,
Hear the loud call, and answer to the sound;
Her dropping locks the silver Tessin rears,
The blue transparent Adda next appears,
The rapid Adige then erects her head,
And Mincio rising slowly from his bed,
And last Timavus, that, with eager force

From nine wide mouths, comes gushing to his course.

His Larius is doubtless an imitation of Virgil's Be

nacus.

-Umbrosâ vestit qua littus olivá

Larius, et dulci mentitur Nerea fluctu.

De Bel. Get.

The Larius here, with groves of olives crown'd,
An ocean of fresh water spreads around.

I saw at Verona the famous amphitheatre, that, with a few modern reparations, has all the seats entire. There is something very noble in it, though the high wall and corridors that went round it are almost entirely ruined, and the area is quite filled up to the lower seat, which was formerly deep enough to let the

spectators see in safety the combats of the wild beasts and gladiators. Since I have Claudian before me, I cannot forbear setting down the beautiful description he has made of a wild beast newly brought from the woods, and making its first appearance in a full amphitheatre.

Ut fera quæ nuper montes amisit avitos,
Altorumque exul nemorum, damnatur arenæ
Muneribus, commota ruit; vir murmure contru
Hortatur, nixusque genu venabula tendit;
Illa pavet strepitus, cuneosque erecta theatri
Despicit, et tanti miratur sibila vulgi.

So rushes on his foe the grisly bear,

In. Ruf. lib. 2.

That, banish'd from the hills and bushy brakes,
His old hereditary haunts forsakes.

Condemn'd the cruel rabble to delight,

His angry keeper goads him to the fight.

Bent on his knee, the savage glares around;

Scar'd with the mighty crowd's promiscuous sound;
Then, rearing on his hinder paws, retires,

And the vast hissing multitude admires.

There are some other antiquities in Verona, of which the principal is the ruin of a triumphal arch, erected to Flaminius, where one sees old Doric pillars without any pedestal or basis, as Vitruvius has described them. I have not yet seen any gardens in Italy worth taking notice of. The Italians fall as far short of the French in this particular, as they excel them in their palaces. It must however be said, to the honour of the Italians, that the French took from them the first plans of their gardens, as well as of their waterworks; so that their surpassing of them at present is to be attributed rather to the greatness of their riches than the excellence of their taste. I saw the terracegarden of Verona, that travellers generally mention. Among the churches of Verona, that of St. George is the handsomest: its chief ornament is the martyrdom of the saint, done by Paul Veronese; as there are many other pictures about the town by the same hand. A stranger is always shown the tomb of Pope Lucius, who lies buried in the dome. I saw in the same