In Rome idle Beggars will stretch themselves quite across the Pavement and force all that pass by to turn out into the mud, or step over their extended limbs-nauseous with real or pretended ulcers. In the Porticos of frequented Churches lazy Raggamuffins will sun themselves upon the steps, and pick vermin from their bodies-in a manner that decency forbids me to describe. square, The Market Place a large oblong ornamented with sculptured Fountains, under the elegant appellation of Piazza Navona, exhibits twice a week, an unparalleled scene of uproar and confusion. Imagine Imagine the hubbub of ten thousand voices-rough with the jargon of a dozen dialects, and hoarse with incessant outcry, opening at once upon the turn of a corner. A Philadelphian would think there was a fire, and that every Man was calling upon his Neighbour to help put it out No such matter-they are only endeavouring to cheat one another in counting cabbages, or measuring potatoes. In this interesting operation the Buyer struggles for over-measure, and the Seller shuffles off under-weight, with deafening vociferation. This amicable mode of interchanging the commodities of life so frequently extends tends to blows, and would otherwise terminate in pitched battles, that a File of Soldiers squeezes, to and fro, among the Crowd, with shouldered firelocks, to keep the Citizens and the Country People from falling together by the ears. In the Corso itself-the chief street of Rome, lined as it is with Churches and Palaces, we are stunned every morning, by day-break, with the shrill cries of those who sell fried minews or roasted chesnuts, the price of which I shall never forget, for my ears ring with the discordant sounds of Quattro Baiocc! Quattro Baiocc! Quattro Baiocc! We learn to count Italian, whether we will or no, from a Butchers Stall, just just under our windows, where we overhear continually an idle custom, I believe peculiar to these noisy People, of counting aloud every penny of changeone by one. For instance, Beef is fourpence a pound, and supposing a slip-shod Slattern (for such is the appearance of low life in Italy) has bought a pound and a quarter, she will be sure to count out her broad copper Baioccs, Uno! due! tre! quattro! chinque! in the tones of a Bell-man, or a BalladSinger. The Italians still estimate the beginning of the day from the end of it, and count count the circling hours from sunset to four and twenty. At noon, accordingly, in the Summer solstice, the clock strikes sixteen-in the winter, nineteen; and as the increase or decrease is often several minutes in a day, the town-clocks are hardly ever right, they being only corrected as often as this difference amounts to a quarter of an hour. Thus, for instance, you are gravely advertised by the almanack, that from the 16th. of February till the 24th. it will be noon at a quarter past eighteen; but that on the 24th. it will be noon at eighteen o'clock, precisely, and so continue till the 6th. of March. THE Beggars seldom turn out to earn their daily bread till toward noon, when they begin to be hungry, and then you are occasionally serenaded with loud and continual |