But All Of Them Talk Familiarly Of The Arts,
And Return Finished Connoisseurs And Coxcombs, To Their Own
Country.
The most remarkable phaenomenon of this kind, which I
have seen, is a boy of seventy-two, now actually travelling
through Italy, for improvement, under the auspices of another boy
of twenty-two.
When you arrive at Rome, you receive cards from
all your country-folks in that city: they expect to have the
visit returned next day, when they give orders not to be at home;
and you never speak to one another in the sequel. This is a
refinement in hospitality and politeness, which the English have
invented by the strength of their own genius, without any
assistance either from France, Italy, or Lapland. No Englishman
above the degree of a painter or cicerone frequents any coffee-house
at Rome; and as there are no public diversions, except in
carnival-time, the only chance you have of seeing your
compatriots is either in visiting the curiosities, or at a
conversazione. The Italians are very scrupulous in admitting
foreigners, except those who are introduced as people of quality:
but if there happens to be any English lady of fashion at Rome,
she generally keeps an assembly, to which the British subjects
resort. In my next, I shall communicate, without ceremony or
affectation, what further remarks I have made at Rome, without
any pretence, however, to the character of a connoisseur, which,
without all doubt, would fit very aukwardly upon, - Dear Sir, Your
Friend and Servant.
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