MALTA AND SICILY. 
215 
a visit to a Capuchin convent near the sea¬ 
side. We were politely received by a very 
handsome young monk, who took care to 
« 
inform us before we parted, that the Duke of 
Devonshire, on a late visit to Syracuse, had 
exchanged portraits with him. Close to the 
convent is a very large Latomia, from which 
it is supposed that a great part of the stone 
used in building ancient Syracuse was pro¬ 
cured. This quarry has been converted by 
« 
the monks into a very beautiful garden, 
chiefly for orange and lemon-trees; and 
here, for the first time in our lives, we had 
\ 
the plea,sure of gathering oranges from the 
tree. We also tasted a very pleasant fruit 
called a sweet lemon. It was larger than the 
common lemon, and the eatable part was the 
inner white rind, which was half-an-inch or 
more in thickness, and like an apple in con¬ 
sistence, but not quite so juicy. The inte- 
