it of this climate, to
pass the heats of summer at Rocabiliare, which being situated among
mountains, enjoys a cool temperate air all the summer. This would be a
salutary respite from the salt air of Nice, to those who labour under
scorbutical complaints; and they would return with fresh vigour and
spirits, to pass the winter in this place, where no severity of weather
is known. Last June, when I found myself so ill at my cassine, I had
determined to go to Rocabiliare, and even to erect a hut at the spring,
for my own convenience. A gentleman of Nice undertook to procure me a
tolerable lodging in the house of the cure, who was his relation. He
assured me, there was no want of fresh butter, good poultry, excellent
veal, and delicate trout; and that the articles of living might be had
at Rocabiliare for half the price we paid at Nice: but finding myself
grow better immediately on my return from the cassine to my own house,
I would not put myself to the trouble and expence of a further removal.

I think I have now communicated all the particulars relating to Nice,
that are worth knowing; and perhaps many more than you desired to know:
but, in such cases, I would rather be thought prolix and
unentertaining, than deficient in that regard and attention with which
I am very sincerely,--Your friend and servant.

LETTER XXV

NICE, January 1, 1765.

DEAR SIR,--It was in deference to your opinion, reinforced by my own
inclination, and the repeated advice of other friends, that I resolved
upon my late excursion to Italy. I could plainly perceive from the
anxious solicitude, and pressing exhortations contained in all the
letters I had lately received from my correspondents in Britain, that
you had all despaired of my recovery. You advised me to make a
pilgrimage among the Alps, and the advice was good. In scrambling among
those mountains, I should have benefited by the exercise, and at the
same time have breathed a cool, pure, salubrious air, which, in all
probability, would have expelled the slow fever arising in a great
measure from the heat of this climate. But, I wanted a companion and
fellow traveller, whose conversation and society could alleviate the
horrors of solitude. Besides, I was not strong enough to encounter the
want of conveniences, and even of necessaries to which I must have been
exposed in the course of such an expedition. My worthy friend Dr. A--
earnestly intreated me to try the effect of a sea-voyage, w