26 
purple, in rich lace and gold, and wore 
a broad circular cap, having the brim on 
the top of the crown like a college cap, 
farmounted with two {mall tufts or taffels 
of green filk. He was fully erigaged, blef 
fing and erofling the multitude, as he 
moved along. 
Avery great concourfe of the inhabi- 
tants of the ifland thronged the reads and 
villages, through which the pioceffion tock 
its courfe. They were all drefled in their 
beft holiday cloaths; many whofe rank 
was obvioufly not above that of common 
Jabourers or artizans at belt, vote purple 
filk jackets and filk trowlers ; their bena- 
viour was very orderly and Gecoious. 
I viewed the whole with M:.—— from 
the terrace cf a hour, at the welt front 
of the church. The firmament was beau- 
tifully clear, and the weather no: oppref- 
fively hot; but fufficiertly fo to give the 
view I had frem the back of the houle ct 
a fmall orangery, a real fealt ; and I con- 
fefs my adoration was at lealt as often di- 
refted thither as to the facied pageantry 
palling before me. We refrethed our- 
felves here with wood frawberries, and in 
our way homeward, halted to partake of a 
cold collation which Mr. ——’s hofpitality 
had caufed to be prepared for his friends, 
in a cool comfortable ftone apartment, 
at a houfe in a village by our road-tide. 
Here we drank lemonade, made from le- 
mons that the trees before us furnifhed ; 
and ate oranges which grew on others be- 
fidethem. Early in the afternoon, we 
returned along the ftone~hedges cf this 
rocky ifland to Valetta. 
The evening terminated with an opera!!! 
We were affured it would be extremely 
crowded with Maitefe ladies, and thereiore 
were tempted to attend it; but to the cre- 
dit of Maltefe tale, and to the honour cf 
their correcter fenfe of decorum, we found 
our information a little erroneous. The 
mufic was tolerable, at leall, as good as 
at Covent Garcen theatre. The finging 
indjii rent, and the performance itfeif 
childifh. The opera houfe 1s about the 
fize of a country theatre, in England, con- 
fiding entirely of pit and boxes, with the 
grofs abfurdity of the prompter’s trap- 
door dire&ily in frent of the audience. The 
fame piece was exhibiting nigh: after night, 
without any variation for two months. 
Cn the 7th Mr. —— was fo obliging 
as to furnifh us with his calafh and Mal- 
tefe driver, to: carry us to Civita Vecchia 
(the cld city). : 
Civita Vecchia is built on an elevated 
part of the iflind, at about the diftance of 
feven mics from La Valetta; five from the: 
Account of a recent Viyage to Malta. 
[ Auguft ty 
northern, and feven from the foutherm 
coaft of the ifland. The road thither is 
tolerable throughout, and for fome miles, 
where repaired by the Englith during their 
tefidence here, as good as any turnpike 
in England. Indeed, it is the chief inland 
track of the whole iffand ; all others 
being {carcely fitted for wheel carriages. 
The whole intermediate country from 
La Valetta; to Civita Vecchia is fo thickly 
inhabited, fo many beautiful white fone 
churches rear their domes on all fides, 
that it feems cnly one continuation of neat 
villages; but the multiplicity of ftone- 
walls and the leaflefs afpect of the country 
is pootly compenfated by this fuperabun- 
canee of edifices. And the eye rejoices ta 
find a clump of low aroba trees, a foli- 
tary fig-tree, cr a ftripe of barley, at this 
feafon of the year, and of unripe cotton 
later in the feafon, twenty yards in 
breadth and fifty or fixty in length, to re- 
heve the offenfive glare of ftone hedges and 
white rocks. 
Civita Vecchia may be compared to 
Windfor in magnitude, and may contain 
five thoufand inhabitants. It is well built 
throughout, of the fine white reck, which 
forms the iflands and which if not ablo- 
lutely expofed to the view is feldom covered | 
with foil beyond the depth of nine or ten 
inches, nor that always naturally. 
These are feveral monafteries and nun- 
nerics, and one or two handfome edifices 
for the courts of juftice which were for- 
merly always held here. But there is 
throughout very little appearance of com- 
merce or manufacture, as at Valetta, and 
the villages which lie between it and Ci- 
vita Vecchia. There are deveral fubterra- 
raneous excavations in and near the 
town, which are the fubjeéts of curio- 
fitv and converfation to all vifitors of 
Malta. One of thefe is within the 
precincts of a religious houfe, and is 
entered through a chapel confecrated to 
the Apoftle Paul, who is reported to have 
pafied three months on this ifland, oc- 
cupied in the converfion of its poor inha~ 
bitants. On ecquiry from the fubordi- 
nate member of the religious houfe, whe 
attended us to the cavern, what ancient 
authority there was for this tale? he refer- 
red me to the Hiftory of the Antiquities 
of Malta, pubhfhed twenty years ago, by 
Giovanni Francefco Abela, a member of 
the Order of Malta, in twovolumes, folio = 
awork, in which credulity and erudition 
are widely dilated. 
Our guide added an idle ftory of the 
marvellous virtues of the reck, in which. 
tite cavern is formed ; and aflued me, as _ 
others 
