It Is Well Cultivated And Inclosed,
Consisting Of Meadow-Ground, Corn Fields, Plantations Of Olives;
And The Trees That Form The Hedge-Rows Serve As So Many Props To
The Vines, Which Are Twisted Round Them, And Continued From One
To Another.
After entering the dominions of Tuscany, we travelled
through a noble forest of oak-trees of a considerable extent,
which would have appeared much more agreeable, had we not been
benighted and apprehensive of robbers.
The last post but one in
this days journey, is at the little town of Viareggio, a kind of
sea-port on the Mediterranean, belonging to Lucia. The roads are
indifferent, and the accommodation is execrable. I was glad to
find myself housed in a very good inn at Pisa, where I promised
myself a good night's rest, and was not disappointed. I heartily
wish you the same pleasure, and am very sincerely - Yours.
LETTER XXVII
NICE, January 28, 1765.
DEAR SIR, - Pisa is a fine old city that strikes you with the same
veneration you would feel at sight of an antient temple which
bears the marks of decay, without being absolutely dilapidated.
The houses are well built, the streets open, straight, and well
paved; the shops well furnished; and the markets well supplied:
there are some elegant palaces, designed by great masters. The
churches are built with taste, and tolerably ornamented. There is
a beautiful wharf of freestone on each side of the river Arno,
which runs through the city, and three bridges thrown over it, of
which that in the middle is of marble, a pretty piece of
architecture: but the number of inhabitants is very
inconsiderable; and this very circumstance gives it an air of
majestic solitude, which is far from being unpleasant to a man of
a contemplative turn of mind. For my part, I cannot bear the
tumult of a populous commercial city; and the solitude that
reigns in Pisa would with me be a strong motive to choose it as a
place of residence. Not that this would be the only inducement
for living at Pisa. Here is some good company, and even a few men
of taste and learning. The people in general are counted sociable
and polite; and there is great plenty of provisions, at a very
reasonable rate. At some distance from the more frequented parts
of the city, a man may hire a large house for thirty crowns a
year: but near the center, you cannot have good lodgings, ready
furnished, for less than a scudo (about five shillings) a day.
The air in summer is reckoned unwholesome by the exhalations
arising from stagnant water in the neighbourhood of the city,
which stands in the midst of a fertile plain, low and marshy: yet
these marshes have been considerably drained, and the air is much
meliorated. As for the Arno, it is no longer navigated by vessels
of any burthen. The university of Pisa is very much decayed; and
except the little business occasioned by the emperor's gallies,
which are built in this town, [This is a mistake.
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