298 Travels in Italy 



of considerable reputation, whom I had known when before at 

 Turin. What the young and beautiful Madame de Souza thinks 

 of an English farmer may be easily guessed; for not one word 

 was spoken in an incessant conversation, but on agriculture, or 

 those political principles which tend to cherish or restrain it. 

 To a woman of fashion in England this would not appear extra- 

 ordinary, for she now and then meets with it ; but to a young 

 Piedmontese, unaccustomed to such conversations, it must have 

 appeared odd, uninviting, and unpolite. M. de Souza sent to 

 the late Prince of Brazil one of the best and most judicious 

 offerings that any ambassador ever made to his sovereign; 

 Portugal he represents as a country capable of vast improvements 

 by irrigation, but almost an entire stranger to the practice: 

 therefore, with a view of introducing a knowledge of its im- 

 portance, he ordered a model, in different woods, to be con- 

 structed of a river; the method of taking water from it ; and the 

 conducting of it by various channels over the adjoining or distant 

 lands, with all the machinery used for regulating and measuring 

 the water. It was made on such a scale that the model was an 

 exhibition of the art, so far as it could be represented in the dis- 

 tribution of water. It was an admirable thought, and might 

 have proved of the greatest importance to his country. This 

 machine is at Lisbon; and, I take it for granted, is there con- 

 sidered (if Lisbon be like other courts) as a toy for children to 

 look at, instead of a school for the instruction of a people. I 

 was pleased to find the Portuguese minister among the most 

 intimate acquaintances of Mr. Trevor; the friendship of men 

 of parts and knowledge does them reciprocal honour: I am 

 sorry to quit Turin, just as I am known to two men who would 

 be sufficient to render any town agreeable; nor should I be 

 sorry if Don Roderigo was a farmer near me in Suffolk, instead of 

 being an ambassador at Turin, for which he is doubtless much 

 obliged to me. 



igth. The king has sent a messsage to the academy of sciences 

 recommending them to pay attention to whatever concerns 

 dyeing. The minister is said to be a man of abilities, from which 

 expression, in this age, we are to understand a person who is, 

 or seems to be, active for the encouragement of manufactures and 

 commerce, but never one who has just ideas on the importance of 

 agriculture in preference to all other objects. To multiply mul- 

 berries in Piedmont, and cattle and sheep in Savoy — to do 

 something with the fertile wastes and jjestiferous marshes of 

 Sardinia, would give a minister reputation among the few real 



