204 
civility to us was very particular, and we learned 
much from him. Our inn was the most comfortable 
and elegant one I ever was at, so that on the whole 
we had no alloy to our happiness at Florence. We 
stopped a day at Sienna (a fine old town in a very 
fine high situation) on purpose to see Dr. Mascagni, 
a very ingenious anatomist, whose discoveries in the 
lymphatic system have gone far beyond those of 
Monro or Hunter, and who is going to publish a 
fine work on the subject. He is one of the most 
modest and unaffected of men. We arrived at Rome 
full of expectation and admiration at every step 
when we came within its walls, and were much 
struck with the entrance, which you have, figured 
in one of Piranesi’s plates, and which gives a very 
just idea of it, notwithstanding what we have been 
told to the contrary. We got here Wednesday 
the 7th instant, and are lodged extremely well in 
part of a house hired by the Duke of Gloucester 
(who is now at Naples). A Portuguese abbé*, 
whom I knew at Paris, is extremely useful to us; and 
as we have several letters, we shall I hope see every 
thing worth seeing, as well as several distinguished 
persons. Thursday was almost entirely spent in 
St. Peter’s, which, although with respect to archi- 
tecture perhaps scarcely superior to St. Paul’s, and 
even in some parts inferior, is so infinitely beyond 
it in internal decorations, as well as in cleanliness 
both within and without, that a comparison excites 
one’s pity. We have seen several antiquities like- 
wise ; Trajan’s and Anthony’s pillars, the Coliseum, 
* M. Correa de Serra. 
