their sense of public justice was not sufficiently powerful to resist the temptation these rich treasures of art held out to them. As a proof of the veracity of this accusation, the empty frames are now seen hanging against the walls as a dumb, yet expressive, testimony of their grateful return for the hospitality they were treated with at Florence.

Appertaining to this palace are the gardens of Boboli, which I thought by far the finest at Florence, and, with a very few exceptions, I might say in Italy. They consist of a very agreeable variety of hill and dale. The cultivated and the wild parts are judiciously and pleasantly contrasted. The thickets, the lawns, and the alleys, are laid out with more freedom and taste than is generally seen on the Continent. They are also embellished with a profusion of marble statues, vases, temples, orange-trees, and flowers of every sort, and may be said to partake of the enchantment of fairy land. Immediately behind the palace are the remains of half an amphitheatre, which in past times was used for public games and feasts. Several rows of the marble seats are still perfect; and round the upper seat are niches containing figures. At the upper end of the gardens is an insulated fountain upon a large scale; and over the basin belonging to it--which is of granite, twenty-two feet in diameter, cut out of one piece---is placed a colossal statue of marble, representing Neptune. At his feet are three other statues in a sitting attitude, signifying the Ganges, the Nile, and the Euphrates, which conduct a large quantity of

water into the basin. This work was designed, if not executed, by John di Bologna, and is a magnificent composition. Many other fountains, statues, and grottos, are seen as further ornaments in different parts of the gardens; but the description of them would be too tedious to the reader.

In these grounds the grand-dukes and nobles were accustomed to hunt the wild boar with bows and arrows.

Not far from this palace is the Museum of Natural History, founded by Leopold, containing productions that merit the contemplation of the philosopher, and which fill sixteen chambers and two galleries. Among them is a vast collection of anatomical figures, in wax, executed to the size of human nature, with a description of the muscles from the best authors: and in another apartment is a series of all that relates to midwifery, comprehending the most difficult surgical operations that have been experienced under every unfortunate circumstance of child-birth. The explanatory figures and examples are so well formed and coloured, that on the first view they appear to be real, and startle the spectator. In an adjoining gallery and rooms is an extensive collection of birds, fishes, insects, shells, &c. labelled with their respective names. In two chambers underneath are kept the quadrupeds; and in another chamber are seeds, flowers, leaves, roots, woods, gums, and fruits and plants excellently imitated in wax, with a curious collection of real plants and herbs, dried and pressed between paper, marked with their different names. From

the rooms containing the vegetable, you pass into others containing the mineral and fossile, worlds, together with stones and gems of different kinds. There is also a collection of petrifications of plants and animals, and large fragments of petrified wood, which bear a polish equal to marble. In a garden connected with the museum is a multitude of plants, both native and exotic; and in a saloon appertaining to it are collected together all the Tuscan minerals. In another place are preserved various productions from the industrious islanders of the Pacific Ocean.

This museum is opened every day for public inspection.

In the square of Santa Maria Novella stands a church, built in the thirteenth century, which was thought by Michael Angelo to be so beautiful in the interior, that he distinguished it by the fond appellation of his spouse.

In length it is 308 feet, in width eighty-four feet, and in the cross part 194 feet, divided into a nave and two aisles by stone-clustered columns of the Gothic description, which carry a groined ceiling over the centre, and with the pilasters against the walls support the groined ceiling over the aisles. The floor is of variegated marble, and the interior contains many fine pictures; but the architecture presents a mixture of the Italian, Gothic, and the Grecian, in a bad taste, which would make it difficult to account for the high encomium Michael Angelo attached to it, did we not know that what we denominate in England the true Gothic was never understood nor practised

in Italy. On the other hand, it must be confessed, that it is uncommonly pleasing in the proportions of the nave, the aisles, and the whole interior; and in all probability it was the symmetry of these great divisions that made this structure so agreeable to his mind, without having that regard to the consistency of the smaller parts which the perfection of Gothic architecture in this country has rendered indispensably necessary.

On the day before the feast of St. John, called the Protector of Florence, stages are erected round the square in which this church is situated, in the shape of an amphitheatre, for the accommodation of the multitude who assemble here to behold the chariot race, a game instituted by Cosmo I. in the year 1563, in imitation of those of the ancient Romans.

Several theatres are opened at certain seasons of the year; but the two handsomest are similar on the plan to that at Leghorn. The box set apart for the grand-dukes is placed in the centre, opposite the stage, occupying two or three tiers of boxes in height, with appropriate decorations. The door that leads into the pit is also generally in the centre, under the royal box, and is as commodious for entrance as the boxes themselves. All the boxes are let out to the nobles and wealthy inhabitants, so that strangers go into the pit from necessity; nor is there any other part of the house for the reception of the lower orders of society, which is the case every-where in Italy.

Thus, having imparted some reflections on the most striking objects contained within the walls of

Florence, I shall conclude, by observing, there are several palaces, villas, convents, churches, &c. of an inferior description in its vicinity, which may be found to recompense the examination of the more curious*. And at the distance of eighteen miles is the monastery of Vallombrosa, remarkable for the brooks and thick woods with which it is surrounded. This scenery Milton poetically alludes to in the following lines:

"Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks
"In Vallombrosa, where the Etrurian shades
High over-arch'd embow'r."

The distance from Florence to Rome is reckoned 173 English miles; and the manner of performing this journey is either by the post or the vetturino. I chose the last, as being more suitable with my views. Vetturino signifies, in Italian, a man who lets out carriages for the use of travellers. I hired a chariot and three mules, which are placed like three horses in our short stages, only the man who drives them rides upon one of the pole mules, and guides the leading mule with a pair of long reins. They travel about thirty miles per day, and put in at night; but by going slow, though it oftentimes becomes tiresome, you have a better opportunity of making

On the Continent all the best buildings are within the walls of the cities. It is not the custom among foreigners, as it is in this country, to have magnificent seats at a distance from the capital; on which account there is not that pleasing variety in travelling through France and Italy as is generally experienced in England.