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These, however, are rare calamities. They must not be supposed to hinder the current of Common Life from gliding smoothly along the vale of domestic felicity since Misery is an intruding Beldame, whose prominent features force themselves upon the sight, while Happiness-like a retiring Maiden, must be courted to be seen.

LETTER VI.

Journey from Milan to Florence, across

the Appenines.

RAVELLING in Italy may be

TRA

per

formed by Post, by Voiture, or by Procache; but this alternative, apparently so liberal, is nothing more than a choice of difficulties.-By Post you you must have your own carriage, and put yourself under the direction of a travelling Lacquey-By Voiture you must take up with chance company, and be content to creep along at the rate of three miles an hour-By Procache you must trail forward, in a string of coaches till you reach fixed stages, though you should jumble every night

till bed time, and turn out every morning before day, fretted with scanty fare and sordid lodging. In your own carriage, as in that of the Vettorino, you run the risque of robbery and assassination, an inconvenience from which you are secured in the Caravan of the Procache, by a Guard of Soldiers allotted by the feeble Governments of Italy, for the protection of the Public Stages.

For those who do not speak Italian, and are not in haste, the Voiture is the least exceptionable conveyance of the three: since the advantage of an Interpreter upon the road, and a Paymaster at the Inns, fully compensates an unpractised Stranger for the tedium of delay.

The

The Voiture is a clumsy Coach, drawn by three mules, and conducted by a Vettorino, who rides post upon one of them. They ply for Travellers, at the principal Inns, and set out, from Town to Town, as often as four seats are engaged; the Vettorino furnishing, every night, a supper, and a bed.

To avoid the importunacy of indifferent company, and at the same time to spare ourselves the necessity of disputing the ground-inch by inch, with Inn-keepers, and Post-Boys, we took a Voiture to ourselves, and set out for Bologna, at the foot of the Appenines, as fearless of surrounding dangers as the Irishman, at London, who defied the accidents of fire and thieves, since he was nothing but a Lodger.

An

An Italian Vettorino however only undertakes to guard you from the impositions of others—his own are never included in the convenient exemption.

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Accordingly, at the moment of setting forward, while I was discharging the extravagant bill of the Landlord, and satisfying the expectations of the till then inattentive Waiters, our civil Coachman ushered in without ceremony, a Dominican Friar, in his gown and petticoat, and asked my consent to his going along with us not, as you may suppose, on condition of paying me for his seat: but that he (honest Fellow) might be paid for it over again, at the expense of that very convenience for which I had expressly stipulated.

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