characteristic features which distinguish the lakes of Italy, and give them an undisputed superiority *.

Adde lacus tantos te Lari maxime, teque
Fluctibus et fremitu assurgens Benace marino.

Virgil.

Having taken a slight refreshment at Novara, as the night was far advanced, we determined to continue our journey; especially as the district which we were about to traverse was a dead flat, intersected with canals, and planted with rice, the distinguishing mark of an unwholesome and uninteresting country.

In leaving Novara I need only observe, that it is an episcopal city of great antiquity, but of little renown either in ancient or modern times, so that its Roman name is the only title it has to the traveller's attention. The night was clear and refreshing. At a little distance from Novara we passed the Agogna, and about break of day we crossed the Sesia, a wide but then shallow river, and immediately after entered Vercelli, a very ancient city, still retaining its Roman name, and probably containing as great a population as in Roman times. It never indeed rose to any very great celebrity, though it enjoyed a

* I am willing to believe all that is related of the matchless beauties of the lake of Killarney, but as I have not had the pleasure of seeing them, I cannot introduce them into the comparison. However, they seem to be too often clouded with mists and drenched in rain, to be capable of disputing the palm of beauty with scenes lighted up by the constant sunshine and the azure skies of Italy. Of the Helvetian lakes we may perhaps discourse hereafter. At present I need only observe, that they are on the wrong side of the Alps.

transient gleam of liberty and independence in the middle ages. It is rather a handsome and flourishing town. The portico of the cathedral is admired.

We proceeded over a country flat and fertile, but neither so productive nor so beautiful, nor so populous as the Milanese. This plain has indeed been the theatre of many sanguinary contests between the French, Spaniards, and Austrians, during the two last centuries, and is now subject to the iron sway of the French republic, neither of which circumstances are calculated to improve its appearance, or to increase its importance in classic estimation. In our progress we crossed four rivers, all of which still preserve their ancient appellations; the Baltea, the Orco, the Stura, and the Dora, and entered Turin about six o'clock (October the third.)

CHAP. XVII.

TURIN, ITS HISTORY, APPEARANCE, EDIFICES, ACADEMY, AND UNIVERSITY-THE PO-THE SUPERGA-CONSEQUENCES OF THE FRENCH CONQUEST---PREVIOUS INTRODUCTION OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE, MANNERS, AND DRESS AT COURT-OBSERVATIONS ON DRESS IN GENERAL.

TURIN, like Genoa, though of ancient foundation, can boast only of modern fame; with this difference, that the reputation of the former is recent, and almost confined to the last century, while the glories of the latter rose early and blazed through a series of active and eventful ages. Augusta Taurinorum was the Roman appellation of this city, which it received when raised to the dignity of a Roman colony by Augustus. Before that period it seems to have been mentioned only in general, as a town of the Taurini, the Gallic tribe of whose territory it was the capital.

Taurinorum unam urbem caput gentis ejus, quia volentes in amicitiam ejus non veniebant vi expugnarat*, says Livius, speaking

* L. xxI. 39.

of Annibal; and from these words we learn the little importance of this city in the eyes of the historian, and in the next place, the attachment of its inhabitants to the Romans. This insignificance and fidelity seem to have been the constituent features of the destiny of Turin, for a long succession of ages, and have continued to expose it both to the hatred, and to the vengeance of all the invading hordes, from Attila to Francis I. During this long era of anarchy and of revolution, it was alternately destroyed and rebuilt, deserted and repeopled.

Its importance commenced in the thirteenth century, when it became the residence of the princes of Savoy, and assumed the honours of a capital; since that period, though in the heart of a country, the constant theatre and oftentimes the object of war, though often besieged, and not unfrequently taken, yet it continued in a progressive state of improvement, and had become about the middle of the last century one of the most populous and flourishing cities in Italy. This its prosperity must in justice be ascribed to the spirit, the prudence, and the activity of its princes. Its disasters, like those of Italy in general, flow from its vicinity to France, whose armies have so often overrun its territories, assailed its ramparts, wasted its suburbs, and as far as their ability equalled their malice, destroyed its edifices. In one of these inroads, the French, under Francis I. demolished all the monuments of Roman antiquity, which had escaped the rage of preceding barbarians, and which had till then constituted the principal ornament of Turin. In another they were defeated by Prince Eugene, and obliged to raise the siege, with prodigious slaughter. But unfortunately they have since been more successful-Turin yielded without the formalities even of a

blockade, and Piedimonte, in spite of the Alps, was declared to be a department of France.

While the residence of its sovereigns, this capital was lively, populous, and flourishing. Its court was equally remarkable for politeness and for regularity, and much frequented by strangers, because it was considered as an introduction to the manners and to the language of Italy. Its academy enjoyed a considerable degree of reputation, and was crowded with foreigners, attracted in part by the attention which the king condescended to shew to the young members, and partly by the cheapness of masters, and the facility of instruction in every branch and language. In fact, this academy was a most useful establishment, and extremely well calculated to usher young men into the world in the most respectable manner, and to fashion them to courts and public life. A year passed in it, with the least application, enabled them to prosecute their travels with advantage, not only by supplying them with the information necessary, but by procuring them such connections with the first families in all the great cities as might preclude the formalities of presentation, and admit them at once into the intimacy of Italian society. Without this confidential admission, (which few travellers have enjoyed for many years past,) the domestic intercourse of Italians, and consequently the character of the nation, which is never fully and undisguisedly unfolded unless in such intercourse, must continue a mystery. Now, the academy of Turin, where the young students were considered as part of the court, and admitted to all its balls and amusements, placed this advantage completely within their reach, and was in this respect, and indeed in every other, far superior to Geneva, where the British youth of rank were too often sent to learn French and scepti