e time.

The dialect has lost much of the guttural sound that hurt one's ear at
the last place of residence; but here is an odd squeaking accent, that
distinguishes the Tuscan of Lucca.

The place appropriated for airing, showing fine equipages, &c. is
beautiful beyond all telling; from the peculiar shadows on the
mountains. They make the bastions of the town their Corso, but none
except the nobles can go and drive upon one part of it. I know not how
many yards of ground is thus let apart, sacred to sovereignty; but it
makes one laugh.

Our inn here is an excellent one, as far as I am concerned; and the
sallad-oil green, like Irish usquebaugh, nothing was ever so excellent.
I asked the French valet who dresses our hair, "_Si ce n'etait pas une
republique mignonne?_[X]"--"_Ma foy, madame, je la trouve plus tot la
republique des rats et des souris[Y];_" replies the fellow, who had not
slept all night, I afterwards understood, for the noise those
troublesome animals made in his room.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote X: If it were not a dear little pretty commonwealth--this?]

[Footnote Y: Faith, madam, I call it the republic of the rats and
mice.]

PISA.

This town has been so often described that it is as well known in
England as in Italy almost; where I, like others, have seen the
magnificent cathedral; have examined the two pillars which support its
entrance, and which once adorned Diana's temple at Ephesus, one of the
seven wonders of the world. Their carving is indeed beyond all idea of
workmanship; and the possession of them is inestimable. I have seen the
old stones with inscriptions on them, bearing date the reign of
Antoninus Pius, stuck casually, some with the letters reversed, some
sloping, according to accident merely, as it appears to me, in the body
of the great church: and I have seen the leaning tower that Lord
Chesterfield so comically describes our English travellers eagerness to
see. It is a beautiful building though after all, and a strange thing
that it should lean so. The cylindrical form, and marble pillars that
support each story, may rationally enough attract a stranger's notice,
and one is sorry the lower stories have sunk from their foundations,
originally defective ones I trust they were, though, God knows, if the
Italians do not build towers well, it is not for want either of skill or
of experience; for there is a tower to every town I think, and commonly
fabricated with elaborate nicety