es fairly drive up and down a
long street by way of shewing their dress, equipages, &c. without even a
pretence of taking fresh air. At Turin the view from the place destined
to this amusement, would tempt one out merely for its own sake; and at
Milan they drive along a planted walk, at least a stone's throw beyond
the gates. Bologna calls its serious inhabitants to a little rising
ground, whence the prospect is luxuriantly verdant and smiling. The
Lucca bastions are beyond all in a peculiar style of miniature beauty;
and even the Florentines, though lazy enough, creep out to Porto St.
Gallo. But here at Roma la Santa, the street is all our Corso; a fine
one doubtless, and called the _Strada del Popolo_, with infinite
propriety, for except in that strada there is little populousness enough
God knows. Twelve men to a woman even there, and as many ecclesiastics
to a lay-man: all this however is fair, when celibacy is once enjoined
as a duty in one profession, encouraged as a virtue in all. Where
females are superfluous, and half prohibited, it were as foolish to
complain of the decay of population, as it was comical in Omai the South
American savage, when he lamented that no cattle bred upon their island;
and one of our people replying, That they left some beasts on purpose to
furnish them; he answered, "Yes, but the idol worshipped at Bola-bola,
another of the islands, insisted on the males and females living
separate: so they had sent _him_ the cows, and kept only the bulls at
home."

_Au reste_, as the French say, we must not be too sure that all who
dress like Abates are such. Many gentlemen wear black as the court garb;
many because it is not costly, and many for reasons of mere convenience
and dislike of change.

I see not here the attractive beauty which caught my eye at Venice; but
the women at Rome have a most Juno-like carriage, and fill up one's idea
of Livia and Agrippina well enough. The men have rounder faces than one
sees in other towns I think; bright, black, and somewhat prominent eyes,
with the finest teeth in Europe. A story told me this morning struck my
fancy much; of an herb-woman, who kept a stall here in the market, and
who, when the people ran out flocking to see the Queen of Naples as she
passed, began exclaiming to her neighbours--"_Ah, povera Roma! tempo fu
quando passo qui prigioniera la regina Zenobia; altra cosa amica, robba
tutta diversa di questa_ reginuccia[AH]!"

[Footnote AH: "Ah, po