gs home."[1]

[Footnote 1: "She, one evening, asked me abruptly if I did not
remember the scurrilous lines in which she had been depicted by
Gifford in his 'Baviad and Moeviad.' And, not waiting for my answer,
for I was indeed too much embarrassed to give one quickly, she
recited the verses in question, and added, 'how do you think
"Thrale's grey widow" revenged herself? I contrived to get myself
invited to meet him at supper at a friend's house, (I think she said
in Pall Mall), soon after the publication of his poem, sate opposite
to him, saw that he was "perplexed in the extreme;" and smiling,
proposed a glass of wine as a libation to our future good fellowship.
Gifford was sufficiently a man of the world to understand me, and
nothing could be more courteous and entertaining than he was while we
remained together.'"--_Piozziana_.]

This condemnatory verse is every way unjust. The nothings, or
somethings, which form the staple of the book, are not laboured; and
they are presented without the semblance of pomp or pretension. The
Preface commences thus:

"I was made to observe at Rome some vestiges of an ancient custom
very proper in those days. It was the parading of the street by a set
of people called Preciae, who went some minutes before the Flamen
Dialis, to bid the inhabitants leave work or play, and attend wholly
to the procession; but if ill-omens prevented the pageants from
passing, or if the occasion of the show was scarce deemed worthy its
celebration, these Precise stood a chance of being ill-treated by the
spectators. A prefatory introduction to a work like this can hope
little better usage from the public than they had. It proclaims the
approach of what has often passed by before; adorned most certainly
with greater splendour, perhaps conducted with greater regularity and
skill. Yet will I not despair of giving at least a momentary
amusement to my countrymen in general; while their entertainment
shall serve as a vehicle for conveying expressions of particular
kindness to those foreign individuals, whose tenderness softened the
sorrows of absence, and who eagerly endeavoured by unmerited
attentions to supply the loss of their company, on whom nature and
habit had given me stronger claims."

The Preface concludes with the happy remark that--"the labours of the
press resemble those of the toilette: both should be attended to and
finished with care; but once completed, should take up no more of our
attent