fervant, lodging, breakfafl, dinner, tea, coffee, and fupper included,
not quite two guineas a week.
Our fervant cooked our vidtuals in the Italian faihion, and the
people o f the houfe were not a little furprifed at our manner o f
dining. Our good hoflefs was quite uneafy to fee us dine every
day on foupe & bouillie, and it was not in our power to perfuade her
that we did it from choice, and not becaufe fhe had not a greater
variety of good things to fet before us. She endeavoured to vary
our meals with different foups every d a y ; one day vvith a milk
foup, another with a ioup o f fago and raifins, another with a foup
o f wine and milk, another with a foup o f barley or rice without
meat. A difficult and important difpute arofe between her and
our fervant on the following fu bjeft: fhe would by no means
•fuffer the brains and liver o f a calf or pig to be dreffed; every
creature in the houfe was ihocked at the very idea o f it. They
are always ufed to give the liver and brains o f all animals whatever
to the hogs, or throw them on the dunghill. We paffed unavoidably
for cannibals, or anthropophagi; and fuch is the force o f
prejudice, that having preffed a perfon to tafle the brains or liver,
he would not fwallow it, but fpit it out after he had tailed
it. Our attempts to convince them o f their error, and to
fliew them the rationality o f our cuftom, proved utterly fruitlefs.
They were likewife fcandalized at our eating fmall birds, fuch as
larks, fnipes, thrufhes, upon all of which we fet a great value. In
thofe northern regions thefe birds enjoy a flate o f unmolefled peace
and fecurity : they not only were to us delicious fare, but afforded
us
us the moil agreeable fport in ihooting them : it is a diverfion,
however, but o f fhort duration, lafling only from the middle o f
May to the middle o f June.
• This is a period when a moil furprlfing change takes place in
this country. All nature feems to awake almofl at once. That
folitude, that filence, that lethargy o f creation, gives place to uni-
verfal and unceafing motion. T he birds feem to arrive from all
quarters o f the earth, and people the woods, the fields, the fens
and marfhes, which re-echo their melody all around. T he nights,
equally fine and clear as the day, enabled us to prolong the plea-
fures o f the chafe. W e ufed ¿0 dine, have our party at mufxc,
fup, and at ten o’clock in the evening fet out, and continue our
fports in the fields till about two o’clock in the morning. The
light o f the night was even more friendly to our purfuit than that
o f the day. The folar rays did not make the fame flrong impref-
fion on our eyes, and flill we had light enough for the purpofe o f
Ihooting. The birds in the ccurfe o f the night were much more
quiet, the wild, ducks flocked from the fea on their way to the
lakes and rivers, and fometimes paffed diredlly over our heads.
T he rivers and lakes, as well as the marfhy ground in their vicinity,
fwarmed with ducks and fnipes o f all defcriptions. Our
pleafure as fportfmen was not greater than what we enjoyed as
naturalifls, from the great variety o f different fpecies to which the
inhabitants o f Italy are total flrangers.
The chafe o f the bird, which Linnaeus calls tetrao urogallus,
was perfectly new to me. This bird is o f the fize o f a turkey,
and