poor creature's called up to the door, in order to buy from them myself, not from a motive of gluttony, but that our hoft might not make a hard bargain with them. They wear a kind of waistcoat, and trowsers of flannel; their heads are bare, as are their legs and feet. I intend to go on board the galleys before we quit Genoa, when I fhall be able to give you a more exact defcription of them. The great scarcity of fish is not owing to a want of abundance in the gulph, but to a tax upon this article, when exposed for sale in the markets, which raises the price to the buyer above that of butchers meat, although that is fold at twelve fols the pound; the Genoefe do not eat much meat. The poorer fort especially live almost entirely upon chefnuts* and macaroni. Bread is excellent here, but very deart; the corn with which it is made comes from Sicily. The air is fo much warmer at this place than at Turin, that we cannot bear a fire in our apartment. Here are great plenty of flowers, which are fold extremely cheap, and come out of the gardens in the environs of Genoa. These bouquets are com The chefnuts that Campo Maroni afford are excellent, and have not that cloying sweetness of those in England. Water melons are in great plenty, and grapes; but these are not as yet quite ripe. Here are also green pease of a very good kind; the brocoli would be excellent, if the Italians knew how to drefs it. + Fourteen bakers work night and day the year round. The price of rolls, of the fize of those called French rolls at Bath, are dearer by a halfpenny than in that town. pofed pofed of rofès, carnations, China-pinks, Catalonian-jeffamin, violets; the green of lavendercotton, dittany of Crete, and a very aromatic sweet scented rosemary; lavender in great plenty, and knotted marjoram of an exquifite fmell. I inclose you the copies of our letters to the families of Spinola Balbis, and Durazzo, from the ambaffadrefs of Spain, and France; both these families are (unluckily) at Novi. This circumstance will, however, leave us at liberty to quit the town when we have feen every thing worth notice. Madama Balbis and Madama Durazzo have the character of being uncommonly polite to ftrangers; the former has diftinguished many English by her obliging prejudices to that nation; the latter is deemed to be rather partial to the French. Streets. We are just returned from a walk about the Genoa town. The Strada Nuova, and Strada Balbi, are the widest and best streets. The architecture of Palaces. the palaces that adorn them is admirable, and would appear to much greater advantage was the area wider. This circumftance must always be regretted by the lovers of architecture, as it is impoffible for a spectator to place himself in fuch a manner, as to fee the fronts in a proper point of view: the houses are also extremely high. Although there is a profufion of marble in this country, many of the palaces are painted upon the outfide with representations of ruftic bases, columns, M 2 St. Siro lúmns, entablatures, frizes, &c. which ought to have been executed in marble. Where this painting is well preserved, it deceives at a little distance, by a truth in the perspective. The colours chiefly made ufe of, are not as well chofen as I think they might have been; for instance, that of Grimaldi is almost black; of Durazzo, yellow and white; others, fhades of green and a dirty brickduft red. The marble ornaments of most of the door-cafes are magnificent, and in a great style of architecture. The famous church of St. Siro is lined throughout with marble; this is the old cathedral, remarkable for the councils held here, and the plots formed for revolutions, many of which have taken place according to the annals of this city. It now belongs to the convent of the Theatins. This church is fo ornamented and gilt, as to appear loaded, and encumbered, one decoration hiding another. The cieling is painted by Carloni, but indifferently, the colouring too yellow. In a chapel is a Nativity, by Cambiagi; this picture has but a fmall degree of merit.Returning home in the dusk of the evening, and paffing by a church, which we perceived to be illuminated, we went in, and there found a very confiderable audience, and a fine band of music. The altar was richly decked; fifty-four large wax tapers, in candlesticks of filver, about four feet high, were placed pyramidically at its fides, and it was covered with relics, chefs of faints, garlands of flowers, a magnificent fun, angels, &c. in filver. filver. The appearance altogether was rather theatrical than religious; the mufic good, and the fymphonies fo lively, that they feemed to me to announce the entry of the ballet. I could think of nothing but dancing; and had I not been fure I was in a church, I fhould have believed myself at the overture of an opera: nor by the countenances and manners of the congregation, could you fup-, pose they were affifting at a religious ceremony. However, fuperftition is not wanting; the people who enter the church, both male and female, drop down at once upon their knees, bow their heads profoundly, then feize the holy-water brush, and sprinkle and crofs themfelves with great. ardour, ftriking their breafts at the fame time. I plainly perceived, that the fair Genoefe knew how to unite gallantry with devotion; and that many of those ladies, who had been the most precife in croffing and sprinkling, had been no less just to the hour of affignation. There is more love in an Italian church than in a French theatre. Many handsome women affifted at this fpiritual concert, but they do not owe their beauty entirely to Nature; their complexions are for the most part brown; and have generally fine black eyes, whofe fire they augment by rouge (but not laid on in the French ftile); the Genoefe endeavour to imitate Nature. They turn to good account the great veils they wrap their heads in, as they can orgner with more privacy, by their artful manner of halfconcealing their faces. Some noble ladies were there; they wore a black gauze hood pulled down fo as to cover their faces, but not conceal them. -I observed a few pictures in this church, but the lamps that were burning before them fmoked fo much, that I could not fee whether they were good or bad. The fituation of this town is fine; it forms a great amphitheatre, fcooped out as it were down to the fea. Excepting the streets I mentioned, all the others are extremely narrow * : I should also except the Piazza del Annonciata, which is tolerably large, where the coaches affemble and wait; alfo the Porto St. Thomafo, before the palace of P. Doria, is confiderable enough. The houses are flat-roofed, and have either a low parapet round the top of the wall, or a balustrade, on which are placed flower-pots, containing myrtles, Catalonia jeffamine, and other odoriferous green-house plants, which live out all the winter in this mild climate: I alfo obferved several annuals and perennials, as coxcombs, tricolars, cardinals, female balfamines, ftocks, and wall-flowers still in perfection, with the addition of fome fine carnations. There are light arbours, or what the French call Berceaus of Treliffe, painted and fixed on these flat roofs, over which they trail woodbine, jeffamine, gourd, &c. to protect them from the heat of the fun, and the women in fine weather pass most of their time on the tops of their Narrow fo as that, from the upper stories of the houses, two perfons leaning out of the oppofite windows might shake hands acres. houses, |