We entered the capital by night; but I fancied, perhaps from having
been told so, that I saw something like a look of London round me.
Apartments furnished wholly in the Paris taste take off that look a
little; so do the public walks and drives which are formed etoile-wise,
and moving slowly up and down the avenues, you see large stags, wild
boars, &c. grazing at liberty: this is grander than our park, and graver
than the Corso. Whenever they lay out a piece of water in this country,
it is covered as in ours with swans, who have completely quitted the
odoriferous Po for the clear and rapid Danube.
Vienna was not likely to strike one with its churches; yet the old
cathedral is majestic, and by no means stript of those ornaments which,
while one sect of Christians think it particularly pleasing in the sight
of God to retain, is hardly warrantable in another sect, though wiser, to
be over-hasty in tearing away. Here are however many devotional figures
and chapels left in the streets I see, which, from the tales told in
Austrian Lombardy, one had little reason to expect; but the emperor is
tender even to the foibles of his Viennese subjects, while he shews
little feeling to Italian misery. Men drawing carts along the roads
and street afford, indeed, somewhat an awkward proof the government’s
lenity when human creatures are levelled with the beasts of burden, and
called _stott eisel_, or _stout asses_, as I understand, who by this
information have learned that the frame which supports a picture is for
the same reason called an _eisel_, as we call a thing to hang clothes on
a _horse_. It is the genius of the German language to degrade all our
English words somehow: they call a coach a _waggon_, and ask a lady
if she will buy pomatum to _smear_ her hair with. Such is however the
resemblance between their tongue and ours, that the Italians protest they
cannot separate either the ideas or the words.
I must mention our going to the post-office with a Venetian friend
to look for letters, where, after receiving some surly replies from
the people who attended there, our laquais de place reminded my male
companions that they should stand _uncovered_. Finding them however
somewhat dilatory in their obedience, a rough fellow snatched the hat
from one of their heads, saying, “_Don’t you know, Sir, that you are
standing before the emperor’s officers?_”--“_I know_,” replied the prompt
Italian, “_that we are come to a country where people wear their hats
in the church, so need not wonder we are bid to take them off in the
post-office_.” Well, where rulers are said or supposed to be tyrannical,
it is rational that good provision should be made for arms; otherwise
despotism dwindles into nugatory pompousness and airy show; Prospero’s
empire in the enchanted island of Shakespeare is not more shadowy than
the sight of princedom united with impotence of power:--such have I
seen, but such is not the character of Keysar’s dominion. The arsenal
here is the finest thing in the world I suppose; it grieved me to feel
the ideas of London and Venice fade before it so; but the enormous size
and solidity of the quadrangle, the quantity and disposition of the
cannon, bombs, and mortars, filled my mind with enforced respect, and
shook my nerves with the thought of what might follow such dreadful
preparation.
Nothing can in fact be grander than the sight of the Austrian eagle,
all made out in arms, eight ancient heroes sternly frowning round it.
The choice has fallen on Cæsar, Pompey, Alexander, Scipio, Hannibal,
Fabius Maximus, Cyrus, and Themistocles. I should have thought Pyrrhus
worthier the company of all the rest than this last-named hero; but
petty criticisms are much less worthy a place in Vienna’s arsenal, which
impresses one with a very majestic idea of Imperial greatness.
On the first of November we tried at an excursion into Hungary, where
we meant to have surveyed the Danube in all its dignity at Presburgh,
and have heard Hayden at Estherhazie. But my being unluckily taken
ill, prevented us from prosecuting our journey further than a wretched
village, where I was laid up with a fever, and disappointed my company of
much hoped-for entertainment. It was curious however to find one’s self
within a few posts of the places one had read so much of; and the words
_Route de Belgrade_ upon a finger-post gave me sensations of distance
never felt before. The comfortable sight of a protestant chapel near me
made much amends however. The officiating priests were of the Moravian
sect it seems, and dear Mr. Hutton’s image rushed upon my mind. A burial
passing by my windows, struck me as very extraordinary: not one follower
or even bearer being dressed in black, but all with green robes trimmed
with dark brown furs, not robes neither; but like long coats down to the
men’s heels, cut in skirts, and trimmed up those skirts as well as round
the bottom with fur.
It was a melancholy country that we passed through, very bleak and
dismal, and I trust would not have mended upon us had we gone further.
The few people one sees are all ignorant, and can all speak Latin--such
as it is--very fluently. I have lived with many very knowing people who
never could speak it with any fluency at all. Such is life!--and such
is learning! I long to talk about the sheep and swine: they seem very
worthy of observation; the latter large and finely shaped, of the old
savage race; one fancies them like those Eumæus tended, and perhaps they
are so; with tusks of singular beauty and whiteness, which the uniformly
brown colour of the creature shews off to much advantage; amidst his
dark curls, waving all over his high back and long sides, in the manner
of a curl-pated baby in England, only that the last is commonly fair and
blonde.
The sheep are spotted like our pigs, but prettier; black and yellow like
a tortoise-shell cat, with horns as long as those of any he-goat I ever
saw, but very different; these animals carrying them straight upright
like an antelope, and they are of a spiral shape. Our mutton meantime is
detestable; but here are incomparable fish, carp large as small Severn
salmon, and they bring them to table cut in pounds, and the joul for a
handsome dish. I only wonder one has never heard of any ancient or any
modern gluttons driving away to Presburg or Buda, for the sake of eating
a fine Danube carp.
With regard to men and women in Hungary, they are not thickly scattered,
but their lamentations are loud; the emperor having resumed all
the privileges granted them by Maria Theresa in the year 1740, or
thereabouts, when distress drove her to shelter in that country, and has
prohibited the importation of salt herrings which used to come duty free
from Amsterdam, so that their fasts are rendered incommodious from the
asperity of the soil, which produces very little vegetable food.
Ground squirrels are frequent in the forests here; but without Pennant’s
Synopsis I never remember the Linnæan names of quadrupeds, so can get no
information of the animal called a glutton in English, whose skin I see
in every fur-shop, and who, I fancy, inhabits our Hungarian woods.
The Imperial collection of pictures here is really a magnificent
repository of Italian taste, Flemish colouring, and Dutch exactness: in
which the Baptist, by Giulio Romano, the crucifixion by Vandyke, and the
physician holding up a bottle to the light by Gerard Douw, are great
examples.
One does not in these countries look out particularly for the works
of Roman or Bolognese masters; but I remember a wonderful Caracci at
Munich, worthy a first place even in the Zampieri palace; the subject,
Venus sitting under a great tree diverting herself with seeing a scuffle
between the two boys Cupid and Anteros.
In the gallery here at Vienna, many of the pictures have been handled
a good deal; one is dazzled with the brilliancy of these powerful
colourists: and here is a David Teniers surprisingly natural, of Abraham
offering up Isaac; a glorious Pordenone representing Santa Justina,
reminded me of her fine church at Padua, and _his_ centurion at Cremona,
which I know not who could excel; and here is Furino’s Sigismunda to be
seen, the same or a duplicate of that sold at Sir Luke Schaub’s sale
in London about thirty years ago, and called Correggio. I have seen it
at Merriworth too, if not greatly mistaken. The price it went for in
Langford’s auction-room I cannot surely forget, it was three thousand
pounds, _or they said so_. I will only add a word of a Dutch girl
representing Herodias, and so lively in its colouring, that I think the
king would have denied her who resembled it nothing, had he been a native
of Amsterdam. A Mount Calvary painted by the same hand is very striking,
with a crowd of people gathered about the cross, and men selling cakes to
the mob, as if at a fair or horse-race: two young peasants at fisty-cuffs
upon the fore ground quarrelling, as it should seem, about the propriety
of our Saviour’s execution.
But I have this day heard so many and such interesting particulars
concerning the emperor, that I should not forgive myself if I failed to
record and relate them, the less because my authority was particularly
good, and the anecdotes singular and pleasing.
He rises then at five o’clock every morning, even at this sharp season,
writes in private till nine, takes some refreshment then, and immediately
after calls his ministers, and employs the time till one professedly
in state affairs, rides out till three, returns and studies alone,
letting the people bring his dinner at the appointed hour, chuses out
of all the things they bring him one dish, and sets it on the stove to
keep hot, eating it when nature calls for food, but never detaining a
servant in the room to wait; at five he goes to the Corridor just near
his own apartment, where poor and rich, small and great, have access to
his person at pleasure, and often get him to arbitrate their law-suits,
and decide their domestic differences, as nothing is more agreeable to
him than finding himself considered by his people as their father, and
dispenser of justice over all his extensive dominions. His attention
to the duties he has imposed upon himself is so great, that, in order
to maintain a pure impartiality in his mind towards every claimant, he
suffers no man or woman to have any influence over him, and forbears even
the slight gratification of fondling a dog, lest it should take up too
much of his time. The emperor is a stranger upon principle to the joys
of confidence and friendship, but cultivates the acquaintance of many
ladies and gentlemen, at whose houses (when they see company) he drops
in, and spends the evening cheerfully in cards or conversation, putting
no man under the least restraint; and if he sees a new comer in look
disconcerted, goes up to him and says kindly, “Divert yourself your own
way, good Sir; and do not let me disturb you.” His coach is like the
commonest gentleman’s of Vienna; his servants distinguished only by the
plainness of their liveries; and, lest their insolence might make his
company troublesome to the houses where he visits, he leaves the carriage
in the street, and will not even be driven into the court-yard, where
other equipages and footmen wait. A large dish of hot chocolate thickened
with bread and cream is a common afternoon’s regale here, and the emperor
often takes one, observing to the mistress of the house how acceptable
such a meal is to him after so wretched a dinner.
A few mornings ago showed his character in a strong light. Some poor
women were coming down the Danube on a float, the planks separated, and
they were in danger of drowning; as it was very early in the day, and
no one awake upon the shore except a sawyer that was cutting wood; who,
not being able to obtain from his phlegmatic neighbours that assistance
their case immediately required, ran directly to call the emperor who
he knew would be stirring, and who came flying to give that help which
from some happy accident was no longer wanted: but Joseph lost no good
humour on the occasion; on the contrary, he congratulated the women on
their deliverance, praising at the same time and rewarding the fellow for
having disturbed him.
My informer told me likewise, that if two men dispute about any matter
till mischief is expected, the wife of one of them will often cry out,
“Come, have done, have done directly, or I’ll call our master, and
he’ll make you have done.” Now is it fair not to do every thing but
adore a sovereign like this? when we know that if such tales were told
us of Marcus Aurelius, or Titus Vespasian, it would be our delight to
repeat, our favourite learning to read of them. Such conduct would serve
succeeding princes for models, nor could the weight of a dozen centuries
smother their still rising fame. Yet is not my heart persuaded that the
reputation of Joseph the Second will be consigned immaculate from age
to age, like that of these immortal worthies, though dearly purchased
by the loss of ease and pleasure; while neither the mitred prelate nor
the blameless puritan pursue with blessings a heart unawed by splendour,
unsoftened by simplicity; a hand stretched forth rather to dispense
justice, than opening spontaneously to distribute charity. To speak less
solemnly, if men were nearer than they are to perfect creatures, absolute
monarchy would be the most perfect form of government, for the will of
the prince could never deviate from propriety; but if one king can see
all with his own eyes, and hear all with his own ears, no successor will
ever be able to do the same; and it is like giving Harrison 10,000 l. for
finding the longitude, to commend a person for having hit on the right
way of governing a great nation, while his science is incommunicable, and
his powers of execution must end with his life.
The society here is charming; Sherlock says, that he who does not
like Vienna is his own satirist; I shall leave others to be mine. The
ladies here seem very highly accomplished, and speak a great variety of
languages with facility, studying to adorn the conversation with every
ornament that literature can bestow; nor do they appear terrified as in
London, lest pedantry should be imputed to them, for venturing sometimes
to use in company that knowledge they have acquired in private by
diligent application. Here also are to be seen young unmarried women once
again: misses, who wink at each other, and titter in corners at what is
passing in the rooms, public or private: I had lived so long away from
_them_, that I had half forgotten their existence.
The horses here are trimmed at the heels, and led about in body clothes
like ours in England; but their drawing is ill managed, no shafts somehow
but a pole, which, when there is one horse only, looks awkward and badly
contrived. Beasts of various kinds plowing together has a strange look,
and the ox harnessed up like a hunter in a phaeton cuts a comical figure
enough. One need no longer say, _Optat ephippia bos piger_[49]; but it is
very silly, as no use can be thus made of that strength which lies only
in his head and horns. Plenty of wood makes the Germans profusely elegant
in their pales, hurdles, &c. which give an air of comfort and opulence,
and make the best compensation a cold climate can make for the hedges of
jessamine and medlar flowers, which I shall see no more.
Our architecture here can hardly be expected to please an eye made
fastidious from the contemplation of Michael Angelo’s works at Rome, or
Palladio’s at Venice; nor will German music much delight those who have
been long accustomed to more simple melody, though intrinsic merit and
complicated excellence will always deserve the highest note of praise.
Whoever takes upon him to under-rate that which no one can obtain without
infinite labour and study, will ever be censured, and justly, for
refusing the reward due to deep research; but if a man’s taste leads him
to like _Cyprus_ wine, let him drink _that_, and content himself with
commending the _old hock_.
Apropos, we hear that _Sacchini_, the Metastasio of musical composers,
is dead; but nobody at Vienna cares about his compositions. Our Italian
friends are more candid; they are always talking in favour of Bach and
Brughuel, Handel and Rubens.
The cabinet of natural history is exceedingly fine, and the rooms
singularly well disposed. There are more cameos at Bologna, and one
superior specimen of native gold: every thing else I believe is better
here, and such opals did I never see before, no not at Loretto: the
petrified lemon and artichoke have no equals, and a brown diamond was new
to me to-day. A specimen of sea-salt filled with air bubbles like the
rings one buys at Vicenza, is worth going a long way to look at; but the
gentleman at Munich, who shewed us the Virgin Mary in a cobweb, had a
piece of red silver shot out into a ruby like crystal, more extraordinary
than any mineral production I have seen. Our attention was caught by
Maria Theresa’s bouquet, but one cannot forget the pearls belonging to
the electress of Bavaria.
What seemed, however, most to charm the people who shewed the cabinet,
was a snuff-box consisting of various gems, none bigger than a
barley-corn, each of prodigious value, and the workmanship of more, every
square being inlaid so neatly, and no precious stone repeated, though
the number is no less than one hundred and eighty-three; a false bottom
besides of gold, opening with a spring touch, and discovering a written
catalogue of the jewels in the finest hand-writing, and the smallest
possible. This was to me a real curiosity, afforded a new and singular
proof of that astonishing power of eye, and delicacy of manual operation,
seconded by a patient and persevering attention to things frivolous
in themselves, which will be for ever alike neglected by the fire of
Italian genius, and disdained by the dignity of British science.
We have seen other sort of things to-day however. The Hungarian and
Bohemian robes pleased me best, and the wild unset jewels in the diadem
of Transylvania impressed me with a valuable idea of Gothic greatness.
The service of gold plate too is very grand from its old-fashioned
solidity. I liked it better than I did the snuff-box; and here is a dish
in ivory puts one in mind of nothing but Achilles’s shield, so worked is
its broad margin with miniature representations of battles, landscapes,
&c. three dozen different stories round the dish, one might have looked
at it with microscopes for a week together. The porcelane plates have
been painted to ridicule Raphael’s pots at Loretto I fancy; Julio
Romano’s manner is comically parodied upon one of them.
Prince Lichtenstein’s pictures are charming; a Salmacis in the water by
Albano is the best work of that master I ever saw, not diffused as his
works commonly are, but all collected somehow, and fine in a way I cannot
express for want of more knowledge; _very, very_ fine it is however,
and full of expression and character. The Caracci school again.--Here
is the whole history of Decius by Rubens too, wonderfully learned; and
an assumption of the Virgin so like Mrs. Pritchard our famous actress,
no portrait ever represented her so well. A St. Sebastian divinely
beautiful, by Vandyke; and a girl playing on the guitar, which you may
run round almost, by the coarse but natural hand of Caravagio.
The library is new and splendid, and they buy books for it very
liberally. The learned and amiable Abbé Denys shewed me a thousand
unmerited civilities, was charmed with the character of Dr. Johnson, and
delighted with the story of his conversation at Rouen with Mons. l’Abbé
Rossette. This gentleman seems to love England very much, and English
literature; spoke of Humphry Prideaux with respect, and has his head
full of Ossian’s poetry, of which he can repeat whole pages. He shewed
me a fragment of Livy written in the fifth century, a psalter and creed
beautifully illuminated of the year nine hundred, and a large portion
of St. Mark’s gospel on blue paper of the year three hundred and seven.
A Bibbia de Poveri too, as the Italians call it, curious enough; the
figures all engraved on wood, and only a text at bottom to explain them.
Winceslaus marked every book he ever possessed, it seems, with the five
vowels on the back; and almost every one with some little miniature made
by himself, recording his escape from confinement at Prague in Bohemia,
where the washer-woman having assisted him to get out of prison under
pretence of bathing, he has been very studious to register the event;
so much so that even on the margins of his bible he has been tempted to
paint past scenes that had better have been blotted from his memory.
The Livy which learned men have hoped to find safe in the seraglio of
Constantinople, was burned by their late sultan Amurath, our Abbé Denys
tells me; the motive sprung from mistaken piety, but the effect is to
be lamented. He shewed me an Alcoran in extremely small characters,
surprisingly so indeed, taken out of a Turkish officer’s pocket when
John Sobiesky raised the siege of this city in the year 1590, and a
preacher took for his text the Sunday after, “_There was a man sent from
God whose name was_ John.” I was much amused with a sight of the Mexican
MSS and Peruvian quipos; nor are the Turkish figures of Adam and Eve,
our Saviour and his mother, less remarkable; but Mahomet surrounded by
a glory about his head, a veil concealing his face as too bright for
inspection, exceeded all the rest.
Here are many ladies of fashion in this town very eminent for their
musical abilities, particularly Mesdemoiselles de Martinas, one of
whom is member of the Academies of Berlin and Bologna: the celebrated
Metastasio died in their house, after having lived with the family
sixty-five years more or less. They set his poetry and sing it very
finely, appearing to recollect his conversation and friendship, with
infinite tenderness and delight. He was to have been presented to the
Pope the very day he died, I understand, and in the delirium which
immediately preceded dissolution he raved much of the supposed interview.
Unwilling to hear of death, no one was ever permitted even to mention it
before him; and nothing put him so certainly out of humour, as finding
that rule transgressed even by his nearest friends. Even the small-pox
was not to be named in his presence, and whoever _did_ name that
disorder, though unconscious of the offence he had given, Metastasio
would see him no more. The other peculiarities I could gather from
Miss Martinas were these: That he had contentedly lived half a century
at Vienna, without ever even wishing to learn its language; that he
had never given more than five guineas English money in all that time
to the poor; that he always sat in the same seat at church, but never
paid for it, and that nobody dared ask him for the trifling sum; that
he was grateful and beneficent to the friends who began by being his
protectors, but ended much his debtors, for solid benefits as well as
for elegant presents, which it was his delight to be perpetually making
them, leaving to them at last all he had ever gained without the charge
even of a single legacy; observing in his will that it was to them he
owed it, and other conduct would in him have been injustice. Such were
the sentiments, and such the conduct of this great poet, of whom it is
of little consequence to tell, that he never changed the fashion of his
wig, the cut or colour of his coat, so that his portrait taken not very
long ago looks like those of Boileau or Moliere at the head of their
works. His life was arranged with such methodical exactness, that he
rose, studied, chatted, slept, and dined at the same hours for fifty
years together, enjoying uninterrupted health, which probably gave him
that happy sweetness of temper, or habitual gentleness of manners, which
never suffered itself to be ruffled, but when his sole injunction was
forgotten, and the death of any person whatever was unwittingly mentioned
before him. No solicitation had ever prevailed on him to dine from home,
nor had his nearest intimates ever seen him _eat_ more than a biscuit
with his lemonade, every meal being performed with even mysterious
privacy to the last. When his end approached by steps so very rapid,
he did not in the least suspect that it was coming; and Mademoiselle
Martinas has scarcely yet done rejoicing in the thought that he escaped
the preparations he so dreaded. His early passion for a celebrated
singer is well known upon the continent; since that affair finished,
all his pleasures have been confined to music and conversation. He had
the satisfaction of seeing the seventieth edition of his works I think
they said, but am ashamed to copy out the number from my own notes, it
seems so _very_ strange; and the delight he took in hearing the lady he
lived with sing his songs, was visible to every one. An Italian Abate
here said, comically enough, “Oh! he looked like a man in the state of
beatification always when Mademoiselle de Martinas accompanied his verses
with her fine voice and brilliant finger.” The father of Metastasio was
a goldsmith at Rome, but his son had so devoted himself to the family he
lived with, that he refused to hear, and took pains not to know, whether
he had in his latter days any one relation left in the world. On a
character so singular I leave my readers to make their own _observations
and reflections_.
_Au reste_, as the French say; I have no notion that Vienna, _sempre
ventoso o velenoso_[50], can be a very wholesome place to live in; the
double windows, double feather-beds, &c. in a room without a chimney,
is surely ill contrived; and sleeping smothered up in down so, like a
hydrophobous patient in some parts of Ireland, is not _particularly_
agreeable, though I begin to like it better than I did. All external air
is shut out in such a manner that I am frighted lest, after a certain
time, the room should become like an exhausted receiver, while the wind
whirls one about the street in such a manner that it is displeasing to
put out one’s head; and a physician from Ragusa settled here told me,
that wounded lungs are a common consequence of the triturated stone blown
about here; and in fact asthmas and consumptions are their reigning
diseases.
Apropos, the plague is now raging in Transylvania; how little safe should
we think ourselves at London, were a disorder so contagious known to be
no farther distant than Derby? The distance is scarcely greater now from
Vienna to the place of distress; yet I will not say we are in much danger
to be sure, for that perpetual connection kept up between all the towns
and counties of Great Britain is unknown in other nations, and we should
be as many days going to Transylvania from here perhaps, as we should be
_hours_ running from Toddenham-court road to Derby.
Sheenburn is pretty, but it is no season for seeing pretty places. The
streets of Vienna are not pretty at all, God knows; so narrow, so ill
built, so crowded, many wares placed upon the ground where there is a
little opening, seems a strange awkward disposition of things for sale;
and the people cutting wood in the street makes one half wild when
walking; it is hardly possible to pass another strange custom, borrowed
from Italy I trust, of shutting up their shops in the middle of the
day; it must tend, one would think, but little to the promotion of that
commerce which the sovereign professes to encourage, and I see no excuse
for it _here_ which can be made from heat, gaiety, or devotion. Many
families living in the same house, and at the entrance of the apartments
belonging to each, a strong iron gate to separate the residence of one
set from that of another, has likewise an odd melancholy look, like that
of a prison or a nunnery. Nunneries, however, here are none; and if the
old women turned out of those they have long dwelt in, are not provided
with decent pensions, it must surely distress even the Emperor’s cold
heart to see age driven from the refuges of disappointment, and forced to
wander through the world with inexperience for its guide, while youth is
no longer _led_, but _thrust_ into temptation by such a sudden transition
from utter retirement to open and busy life.
We have been this morning to look over his academy of painting, &c.
His exhibition-room is neatly kept, and I dare say will prosper: the
students are zealous and laborious, and earnestly desire the promulgation
of science: their collection of models is meagre, but it will mend by
degrees. Perhaps Joseph the IId. is the first European sovereign who,
establishing a school for painting and sculpture, has insisted on the
artists never exercising their skill upon any subject which could hurt
any person’s delicacy;--an example well worthy honest praise and speedy
imitation.
The very few charitable foundations established at Vienna by Imperial
munificence are well managed; their paucity is accounted for by the
recollection of many abuses consequent on the late Empress’s bounty;
her son therefore took all the annuities away, which he thought her
tenderness had been duped out of; but let it be remembered that when he
rides or walks in a morning, he always takes with him a hundred ducats,
out of which he never brings any home, but gives in private donations
what he knows to be well bestowed, without the ostentation of affected
generosity: it is not in rewards for past services perhaps, nor in
public and stately institutions, as I am told here, that this prince’s
liberalities are to be looked for; yet--
In Mis’ry’s darkest caverns known,
His useful care is ever nigh;
Where hopeless Anguish pours her groan,
And lonely Want retires to die.
To-morrow (23d of November) we venture to leave Vienna and proceed
northwards, as I long to see the Dresden gallery. Here every thing
appears to me a caricatura of London; the language like ours, but
coarser; the plays like ours, but duller; the streets at night lighted
up, not like ours now, but very like what they were thirty or forty years
ago.
Among the people I have seen here, Mademoiselle Paradies, the blind
performer on the harpsichord, interested me very much;--and she liked
England so, and the King and Queen were so kind to her, and she was _so_
happy, she said!--While life and its vexations seem to oppress such
numbers of hearts, and cloud such variety of otherwise agreeable faces,
one must go to a blind girl to hear of happiness, it seems! But she has
wonderful talents for languages as well as music, and has learned the
English pronunciation most surprisingly. It is a soothing sight when one
finds the mind compensate for the body’s defects: I took great delight
in the conversation of Mademoiselle Paradies.
The collection of rarities, particularly an Alexander’s head worthy of
Capo di Monte, now in the possession of Madame de Hesse, became daily
more my study, as I received more and more civilities from the charming
family at whose house it resides: there are some very fine cameos in it,
and a great variety of miscellaneous curiosities.
So different are the customs here and at Venice, that the German ladies
offer you chocolate on the same salver with coffee, of an evening, and
fill up both with milk; saying that you may have the latter quite black
if you chuse it--“_Tout noir, Monsieur, à la Venetienne_;”--adding their
best advice not to risque a practice so unwholesome. While their care
upon that account reminds me chiefly of a friend, who lives upon the
Grand Canal, that in reply to a long panegyric upon English delicacy,
said she would tell a story that would prove them to be nasty enough, at
least in some things; for that she had actually seen a handsome young
nobleman, who came from London (_and ought to have known better_), souce
some thick cream into the fine clear coffee she presented him with;
which every body must confess to be _vera porcheria_! a very _piggish
trick_!--So necessary and so pleasing is conformity, and so absurd and
perverse is it ever to forbear such assimilation of manners, when not
inconsistent with the virtue, honour, or necessary interest:--let us
eat sour-crout in Germany, frittura at Milan, macaroni at Naples, and
beef-steaks in England, if one wishes to please the inhabitants of either
country; and all are very good, so it is a slight compliance. Poor Dr.
Goldsmith said once--“I would advise every young fellow setting out in
life _to love gravy_;”--and added, that he had formerly seen a glutton’s
eldest nephew disinherited, because his uncle never could persuade him to
say he liked gravy.