276 Travels in Italy 



conversation was misunderstood, for Lady Craven does not 

 seem, by her book, to be much of a farmer. 



igth. Call on Sign ore Tartini, secretary to the royal academy 

 Georgofili, and on Lord Hervey, our minister here; both absent. 

 Another turn in the gallery brought a repetition of that pleasure 

 which is there to be reaped in the exuberance of a plentiful 

 harvest. The woman lying on a bed, by Titian, is probably the 

 finest picture, of one figure, that is to be seen in the world. A 

 satyr and nymph, by Hannibal Carracci ; a Correggio ; a Carlo 

 Dolci. — Among the statues — the Apollo, the Wrestlers, the 

 Whetter, as it is called, the Venus rising from the bath, the 

 Ganimede. — What an amazing collection! I have been many 

 years amusing myself with looking at the statues in England! 

 very harmlessly : — my pleasure of that kind is at an end. In spite 

 of every effort to the contrary, one cannot (unless an artist, who 

 views not for pleasure but as a critic) help forming eternal com- 

 parisons, and viewing very coldly pieces that may perhaps have 

 merit, but are inferior to others which have made a deep im- 

 pression. But the paintings and statues in this gallery are in 

 such profusion that, to view them with an attention adequate 

 to their merit, one ought to walk here two hours a day for six 

 months. In the afternoon, waited on Signore Fabbroni, author 

 of some works on agriculture, that have rendered him very well 

 known, particularly a little treatise in French, entitled, i?^^^/tow^ 

 sur Vetat actuel V Agriculture, printed at Paris in 1780, which is 

 one of the best applications of the modern discoveries in natural 

 philosophy to agriculture that has been attempted; it is a work 

 of considerable merit. I had two hours' very agreeable and 

 instructive conversation with him : he is lively, has great fire and 

 vivacity, and that valuable talent of thinking for himself, one of 

 the best qualities a man can possess; without which, we are 

 little better than horses in a team, trammelled to follow one 

 another. He is very well instructed also in the politics of 

 Tuscany connected with agriculture. 



20th. Early in the morning, by appointment, to Signore 

 Tartini, to whose attentions I am obliged, not only for a conversa- 

 tion on my favourite subject, but for some books of his writing, 

 which he presented me with; among others, the Giornale 

 d' Agricultura di Firenze, which was dropped for want of en- 

 couragement. He accompanied me to Signore Lastri's, and 

 then we went together to the economical garden of Signore 

 Zucchino, for which the Grand Duke allows three hundred 

 crowns a-year, besides such labour as is wanted; and the pro- 



