272 Travels in Italy 



with a tenth of the traffic, there would be an excellent inn at 

 every four or five miles to receive travellers properly, at Wx'iat- 

 ever distance their accidental departure made most convenient: 

 but England and Italy have a gulf between them in the com- 

 forts of life much wider than the channel that parts Dover and 

 Calais. — 27 miles. 



i6ih. On entering Tuscany, our baggage was examined, and 

 plumbed for Florence ; the first moment I set foot in this country, 

 therefore, I find one gross error of the economistes, who have 

 repeated, from one another, in at least twenty performances, 

 that the Grand Duke had adopted their plan and united all 

 taxes in one upon the net produce of land. Having crossed the 

 highest ridge of the Apennines, for several miles in the clouds, 

 and therefore seeing no prospect, descended at Maschere, for a 

 while, into a better region; from the inn, the view is rich and 

 fine. We noted here a wonderful improvement in the figure 

 and beauty of the sex; the country women are handsome and 

 their dress is very becoming; with jackets, the sleeves puckered 

 and tied in puffs, with coloured ribbons; broad hats, something 

 like those worn by ladies in England with riding habits; their 

 complexions are good, and their eyes fine, large, and expressive. 

 We reached Florence with just light enough to admire the 

 number of white houses spread thickly everywhere over the 

 mountains that surround the city. But before we enter, I must 

 say a word or two of my French fellow-travellers: Monsieur le 

 Baron is an agreeable polite man, not deficient in the power to 

 make observations that become a person of sense: the life of 

 Madame de Bouille would, if well written, form an entertaining 

 romance; she went, early in the last war, to St. Domingo with 

 her husband, who had a considerable property there ; and on her 

 return she was taken in a French frigate, by an English one, 

 after a very smart engagement of three hours, and carried into 

 Kinsale, whence she went to Dublin, and to London: this is an 

 outline which she has filled up very agreeably with many in- 

 cidents, which have kept her in perpetual motion; the present 

 troubles in France have, I suppose, added her and the baron to 

 the infinite number of other French travellers, who swarm, to an 

 incredible degree, everywhere in Italy. She is li\-ely, has much 

 conversation, has seen a good deal of the world, and makes an 

 agreeable compagnon de voyage. — 37 miles. 



17//?. Last night, on arriving here, we found the Aqidla Nera 

 and Vaniftt's so full that we could not get chambers; and the 

 great Mr. Meggot looked into our cabriolets to examine us before 



