ainting the lively Mrs. Cholmondeley
in the character of Milton's

Pensive Nun, devout and pure,
Sober, stedfast, and demure--

As I once saw her drawn by a famous hand, to shew a Venetian lady in her
gondola and zendaletto, which is black like the gondola, but wholly
calculated like that for the purposes of refined gallantry. So is the
nightly rendezvous, the coffee-house, and casino; for whilst Palladio's
palaces serve to adorn the grand canal, and strike those who enter
Venice with surprise at its magnificence; those snug retreats are
intended for the relaxation of those who inhabit the more splendid
apartments, and are fatigued with exertions of dignity, and necessity of
no small expence. They breathe the true spirit of our luxurious Lady
Mary, who probably learned it here, or of the still more dissolute
Turks, our present neighbours; who would have thought not unworthy a
Testa Veneziana, her famous stanza, beginning,

But when the long hours of public are past,
And we meet with champagne and a chicken at last;

Surely she had then present to her warm imagination a favourite Casino
in the Piazza St. Marco. That her learned and highly-accomplished son
imbibed her taste and talents for sensual delights, has been long known
in England; it is not so perhaps that there is a showy monument erected
to his memory at Padua, setting forth his variety and compass of
knowledge in a long Latin inscription. The good old monk who shewed it
me seemed generously and reasonably shocked, that such a man should at
last expire with somewhat more firm persuasions of the truth of the
Mahometan religion than any other; but that he doubted greatly of all,
and had not for many years professed himself a Christian of any sect or
denomination whatever.

So have I seen some youth set out,
Half Protestant, half Papist;
And wand'ring long the world about,
Some new religion to find out,
Turn Infidel or Atheist.

We have been told much of the suspicious temper of Venetian laws; and
have heard often that every discourse is suffered, except such as tends
to political conversation, in this city; and that whatever nobleman,
native of Venice, is seen speaking familiarly with a foreign minister,
runs a risque of punishments too terrible to be thought on.

How far that manner of proceeding may be wise or just, I know not;
certain it is that they have preserved their laws inviolate, their city
unattempted, and