294 Travels in Italy 



Horace, Virgil, Lucretius, and Plautus; Dante, Petrarcha, 

 Ariosto, and Tasso. In searching booksellers' shops for printed 

 agriculture, I. became possessed of a book which I consider as a 

 real curiosity — Diario di Color no per Vajino 1789, preceded by a 

 sermon on this text, Ut seductores et veraces ; Corinth, cap. vi. 

 ver. 8. The diary is a catalogue of saints, with the chief 

 circumstances of their lives, their merits, etc. This book, which 

 is put together in the spirit of the tenth century, is (marvel- 

 lously be it spoken !) the production of the Duke of Parma's pen. 

 The sovereign for whose education a constellation of French 

 talents was collected — with what effect let this production 

 witness. Instead of profanely turning friars out of their con- 

 vents this prince has peopled his palace with monks: and the 

 holy office of inquisition is found at Parma instead of an academy 

 of agriculture. The duchess has her amusements as well as her 

 husband : doubtless they are more agreeable, and more in unison 

 with the character and practice of this age. The memoirs of 

 the court of Parma, both during the reigns of Don Philip and the 

 present duke, whenever they are published, for written I should 

 suppose they must be, will make a romance as interesting as any 

 that fiction has produced. If I lived under a government that 

 had the power of fleecing me to support the extravagancies of a 

 prince, in the name of common feelings let it be to fill a palace 

 with mistresses rather than with monks. For half a million of 

 French livres the river Parma might be made navigable from 

 the Po ; it has been more than once mentioned ; but the present 

 duke has other and more holy employments for money: Don 

 Philip's were not so directly aimed at the gates of Paradise. 



10th. In the morning walked with Signore Amoretti to 

 Vicomero, seven miles north of Parma towards the Po, the seat 

 of the Count de Schaffienatti. For half the way we had a fine 

 clear frosty sunshine, which showed us the constant fog that 

 hangs over the Po; but a slight breeze from the north rising, it 

 drove this fog over us, and changed the day at once. It rarely 

 quits the Po, except in the heat of the day in fine weather in 

 summer, so that when you are to the south of it, with a clear 

 view of the Apennines, you see nothing of the Alps : and when to 

 the north of it, with a fine view of the latter, you see nothing of the 

 Apennines. Commonly it does not spread more than half a 

 mile on each side wider than the river, but varies by wind as it 

 did to-day. The country for four miles is mostly meadow and 

 much of it watered, but then becomes arable. Entered the 

 house of a metayer to see the method of living, but found nobody; 



