7 
+16] 
clamber over rocks; and Rimini 
could not furnish us with mules, 
But they are delicate travellers 
whom such puny diffieulties could 
restrain from visiting this illustrious 
mountain, where Jiberty, herself a 
mountain-goddess, has upwards of 
fourteen centuries fixed her rural 
throne. Careless of mules, or horses, 
or carriages, to which last the re- 
public of St. Marino is at all times 
inaccessable, we adopted a mode of 
travelling, which, in a country 
where pomp is immoderately studi- 
ed, because wealth is too indiscri- 
minately prized, migit possibly have 
excluded unknown wanderers from 
the proud mansions of nobles and 
princes, the palaces of bishops, 
and the villas of cardinals, but 
which, we rightly conjectured, 
would recommend us as welcome 
guests to the citizens of St. Marino, 
whose own manliness of character 
must approve the congenial hardi- 
hood of humble pedestrians. 
The distance from Rimini to the 
Borgo, or suburbs of St. Marino, 
for the citta, or city, Stands halfa 
mile higher on the hill, is computed 
at only ten Italian miles, But the 
badness of the weather and of the 
roads would have increased the te- 
diousness of our fatiguing journey, 
had not our fancies been amused by 
the appearance and conversation of 
several persons whom we occasion- 
ally met or overtook, and who, not- 
withstanding that hardness of fea- 
tures, which characterizes moun- 
taineers, displayed in their words 
and looks a certain candourand sin- 
cerity, with an undiscribed mixture 
of humany and firmness, which we 
had rarely seen peurtrayed on the 
face of an lialian. Such virtues, 
perhaps, many Italians my possess ; 
such virtues, Rhaphael and Guido 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1795. 
probably discerned in their contem- 
poraries ; unless it be supposed that 
the antique not only ennobled and 
exalted, but originally inspired their 
conceptions. Yet whatever might 
be the pre-eminence of Roman 
beauty, during the splendour of the 
Cinque Cento, it must be confessed 
of the Italians of our days, that the 
expression indicating virtues of the 
mild or generous cast seldom breaks 
through the dark gloom and sullen 
cares which contract their brows 
and cloud their countenances. 
At the distance of five miles from 
Rimini, a small rivulet, decorated 
by a disproportionably large stone 
bridge, which at another season of 
the year would have exemplified 
the Spanish proverb of a bridge 
without water, separates the terri- 
tory of St. Marino from those of the 
pope. Proceeding forward, we 
found the road extremely narrow, 
much worn by the rain, alternately 
rough and slippery, and always so 
bad, that we congratulated each 
other on rejecting the use of the 
miserable rips that were offered to 
us at Rimini. In the midst of a 
heavy shower we clambered to the 
Borgo, situated on the side of the 
hill, and distant (as already said) 
halfa mile. from the citta, on its 
summit. The former is destined 
for the habitation of peasants, arti- 
zans, and strangers; the honour of 
inhabiting the latter is reserved for 
the nobles, the citizens, and those 
who, in the language of antiquity, 
would be styled the public guests of 
the comménwealth. In the whole 
territory there is but one inn, and 
that, of course, in the Borgo; for 
lone houses are rare in all parts of 
the continent; the British dominions 
alone, by their native strength, and 
the excellence of their government, 
being 
