230 iraveis in itaiy 



him for a neighbour. In our return, stop at Desio, the villa of 

 the Marquis of Cusino, which is in a style that pleases me. The 

 house is not upon too great a scale, and therefore finished and 

 furnished : the rooms are more elegant than splendid — and more 

 comfortable than showy. There is one apartment, in encaustic 

 painting, said to be the first executed in Italy. The second floor 

 contains thirteen bed-chambers, with each a small servant's 

 room, and light closet: and they have all such a comfortable, 

 clean, English air, and are so neat, without any finery, that had 

 the floors been deal instead of brick I should have thought 

 myself in my own country. I have read travels that would make 

 us believe that a clean house is not to be met with in Italy; if 

 that was once true, things are abundantly changed. I like this 

 villa much better than the miaster does, for he is rarely here for 

 a fortnight at a time, and that not often. The gardens are 

 splendid in their kind ; lattice-frames of lemons twenty feet high, 

 with espaliers of oranges, both full hung with fruit, have, to 

 northern eyes, an uncommon effect; but they all are covered 

 with glass in the winter. Here is a pinery also. Dine in the 

 village on trout, fresh from the lake of Como, at 3 livres the 

 pound of 28 ounces. In the evening returned to Milan, after an 

 excursion instructive in my principal object, and equally agree- 

 able in the little circumstances that have power sufficient either 

 to gild or shade every object, pass the house of the Marchesa di 

 Fagnani who has been much in England, and celebrated here for 

 being the lady with whom our inimitable Sterne had the rencontre 

 at Milan, which he has described so agreeably. — 32 miles. 



()th. This day was appointed for visiting a few objects at 

 Milan, for which Signore Beecken had the goodness to desire to 

 be my cicerone ; his chariot was ready after breakfast, and we 

 went from sight to sight till five o'clock. Buildings and pictures 

 have been so often and so well described that for modern 

 travellers nothing is left, if they expatiate, but to talk of them- 

 selves as much as of the objects. I shall note, in a few words, 

 the things that struck me most. I had read so much of the 

 cathedral, and came to it with such expectation, that its effect 

 was nothing. There are comparative measurements given of it 

 with St. Paul's and St. Peter's that seem to rank it in the same 

 class for magnitude : to the eye it is a child's plaything compared 

 to St. Paul's. Of the innumerable statues, that of St. Laurence 

 flayed is the finest. The architecture of the church of St. Fedele, 

 by Pellegrino, is pleasing; it contains six columns of granite; 

 and there are other fine ones also in that of St. Alesandro. But 



