240 1 ravels in Italy 



not in his post as a cicisbeo. He replied he was not one. How 

 so ? If you have either business or other pursuit, it takes too much 

 time. They are changed at pleasure, which the ladies defend by 

 saying that when an extension of privileges not proper to give 

 is expected, to part with is better than to retain them. 



11th. To Lodi, through twenty miles of such amazing 

 exertions in irrigation that we can have in England no idea of 

 it. At that town I found myself in the midst of the world ; it was 

 the night of terminating the opera season of the fair : this had 

 drawn so much company from the neighbouring towns that the 

 great inn of the Columbina, form.ed out of a monastery, was full 

 in an hour. At night the opera house formed a gorgeous dis- 

 play: — we waited half an hour for the arch-duke and arch- 

 duchess. The house was well lighted with wax; new to me, for 

 in common their theatres have only darkness visible. It is 

 small but most elegant, new built this year : the decorations are 

 neat; but the boxes, which are fitted up by the proprietors, are 

 finished with great show and expense; as fine as glass, varnish, 

 and gilding can make them; and being lighted within made a 

 blazing figure: the company crowded and well dressed; dia- 

 monds sparkled in every part of the house, while expectation of 

 pleasure, more animated in Italian than in French or English 

 eyes, rendered the coup d'oeil equally striking and agreeable; the 

 profusion of dancers, dresses, scenes, etc., made me stare, for a 

 Uttle place of not more than ten or twelve thousand souls. No 

 evening could pass with a more animated festivity; all the world 

 appeared in good humour : the vibrations of pleasurable emotions 

 seemed more responsive than common, for expression is one great 

 feature in Italian physiognomy. I have dwelt the more on this 

 spectacle, because I consider it in a political light, as deserving 

 some attention. Lodi is a little insignificant place, without 

 trade and without manufactures. — It is the part of a dominion 

 that may be said to have neither, and cut off from all connection 

 with the sea: yet there is not a town in France or England, of 

 double the population, that ever exhibited a theatre so built, 

 decorated, filled, and furnished as this of Lodi. — Not all the 

 pride and luxury of commerce and manufactures — not all the 

 iron and steel — the woollen or linen — the silk, glasses, pots, or 

 porcelain of such a town as Lodi ever yet equalled this exhibi- 

 tion of butter and cheese. Water, clover, cows, cheese, money, 

 and music! These are the combinations — that string Italian 

 nerves to enjoyment and give lessons of government to northern 

 poUticians. The evening would have been delicious to me if I 



