s. They contain the only trees I have
seen at Venice:--a few rows of dwarfish unhappy-looking shrubs,
parched by the sea breezes, and are little frequented. We found here a
solitary gentleman, who was sauntering up and down with his hands in
his pockets, and a look at once stupid and disconsolate. Sometimes he
paused, looked vacantly over the waters, whistled, yawned, and turned
away to resume his solemn walk. On a trifling remark addressed to him
by one of our party, he entered into conversation, with all the
eagerness of a man, whose tongue had long been kept in most unnatural
bondage. He congratulated himself on having met with some one who
would speak English; adding contemptuously, that "he understood none
of the outlandish tongues the people spoke hereabouts:" he inquired
what was to be seen here, for though he had been four days in Venice,
he had spent every day precisely in the same manner; viz. walking up
and down the public gardens. We told him Venice was famous for fine
buildings and pictures; he knew nothing of _them_ things. And that it
contained also, "some fine statues and antiques"--he cared nothing
about them neither--he should set off for Florence the next morning,
and begged to know what was to be seen there? Mr. R----told him, with
enthusiasm, "the most splendid gallery of pictures and statues in the
world!" He looked very blank and disappointed. "Nothing else?" then he
should certainly not waste his time at Florence, he should go direct
to Rome; he had put down the name of that _town_ in his pocket-book,
for he understood it was a very _convenient_ place: he should
therefore stay there a week; thence he should go to Naples, a place he
had also heard of, where he should stay another week: then he should
go to Algiers, where he should stay _three weeks_, and thence to
Tunis, where he expected to be very comfortable, and should probably
make a long stay; thence he should return home, having seen every
thing worth seeing. He scarcely seemed to know how or by what route he
had got to Venice--but he assured us he had come "fast enough;"--he
remembered no place he had passed through except Paris. At Paris he
told us there was a female lodging in the same hotel with himself, who
by his description appears to have been a single lady of rank and
fashion, travelling with her own carriages and a suite of servants. He
had never seen her; but learning through the domestics that she was
travelling the same route, h