Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/90

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NOTES AND QUERIES, [ii s. XIL JULY 31, IMS.

saying that the boat would sink if it did not carry a monk, a student, and a courtesan. 11 There was a service of boats between Bologna and Ferrara along the Reno, a distance of 35 miles, in the course of which no fewer than nine locks or sluices had to be negotiated. 1 ' A boat went weekly from Ferrara to Venice, and from Mantua to Ferrara every night/ 1

Bridges were scarce in Northern Italy, and even when they existed many travellers preferred to ford. Below Turin there was no bridge across the Po except a wooden one at Ferrara, 6 but both the Adige and the Po were crossed at certain places by floating rafts capable of carrying 15 or 20 horses, which were worked by means of ropes stretched across the river. f Between Mantua and Parma Edward Browne crossed the Po on a raft or ferry of this kind, which he describes as running on a line and pulley, and so contrived that the current carried it across.^ An instance of the difficulties of fording the rivers when they were in flood is given by Ed. Browne in the course of a journey from Parma to Sistra, en route for Genoa, in 1665. The plague was reported to be in the Milanese States, and he had to miss Piacenza in order to avoid quarantine, and to travel along the river Taro by mule. This river, which winds and turns between the hills, he crossed no fewer than 40 times, and on one occasion a mule slipped in a hole and nearly drowned one of the party. h The question of quarantine was a serious one for travellers in hot countries. No one was admitted anywhere out of an infected area without 40 days' confinement in a pest- house ;* and, if any one died on the last day, the traveller had to stay a further period of 40 days. Even if there were no danger of plague, a bill of health had to be obtained from the proper authorities when leaving a town, and produced at the next stopping- place before the traveller could be admitted.' Ed. Browne got caught at Toulon, and had to spend a day and a half in quarantine, where he was interested, to witness the various smoking and cleansing processes

Moryson, ' Itinerary ' (1908), i. 159. b Evelyn's ' Diary ' (Globe ed.), 116.

Moryson, 1. 196. Reresby, ' Travels ' (1904), 86. Letter, Ed. Browne, Sir Thos. Browne's 'Works' (1835), i. 90.

d Bates, ' Touring in 1600,' 85.

e Id.

f Montaigne, 'Travels '(1903), ii. 19, 20; iii. 188.


 * 'Travels ' (1687), 218.

h Ed. Browne's ' Travels ' (1687), 220 ; Letter, Sir Thomas Browne's ' Works ' (1835), i. 99.

1 Reresby, ' Travels ' (1904), 34.

J Id., 50.* Montaigne, ' Travels ' (1903), ii. 1.

which were then in use, but by a little judicious wire-pulling he managed to get away. a

The Italian innkeepers' touts, sometimes the innkeepers themselves, would meet the traveller as far as seven or eight leagues outside the town and wrangle for his body. 1 ' The inns were not so good as in Germany, and to prevent extortion it was wise to agree then and there how much you were to pay, or dine al paste by the ordinary/ 1 In Rome the authorities took the travellers' interests very seriously. All inns and taverns had to display a list of prices,' so that the traveller might know what he had to pay ; and any innkeeper found " couzening " a guest was fined. e The beds were not always clean, and Reresby preferred to lie on forms or tables to protect himself from vermin which swarmed in the bedsteads, while Montaigne had his bed made up on the table. f The rooms were more or less empty of furni- ture, and were provided with large paper windows,^ with shutters, which one could, open freely. Glass was very rarely used. h The better sort of people used a kind of mosquito net to keep off the flies, and before they went to bed in the hot weather warming-pans, filled with snow, were laid between the sheets. 1 A favourite drink with travellers was syrup of lemons, or wine cooled with ice or snow, which was preserved in cellars and sold in the streets.' Ed. Browne speaks of drinking frozen juleps, which he dissolved with the heat of his hands. k At meals it was customary in the hot weather to have a fan in the middle of the room overhead, worked backwards and forwards with a string. 1

In Italy the traveller was searched at the gate of each town, and every day carried

a Letter, Sir Thomas Browne's ' Works * (1835), i. 100.

b Montaigne, ' Travels ' (1903), ii. 41.

c Id., ii. 9.

d Reresby, ' Travels ' (1904), 89.

e R. Lassels, ' Voyage of Italy ' (1670), ii. 253.

f Reresby, ' Travels ' (1904), 89. Mon- taigne, ' Travels ' (1903), iii. 101.

f Ed. Browne, ' Travels ' (1687), 87.

h Montaigne, ' Travels,' ii. 49 ; iii. 51. Burton, 'Anat. Mel.,'ii. 76.

1 Ed. Browne, Letter, Sir Thomas Browne's 'Works' (1835), i. 101. (He also notes the absence of glass.)

J Reresby, 'Travels' (1904), 88. Montaigne, 'Travels' (1903), iii. 104. Evelyn, ' Diary ^ (Globe ed.), 128.

k ' Travels ' (1687), 178. Letter, Sir Thos. Browne's 'Works ' (1835), i. 100.

1 Ed. Browne, Letter, i. 101 ; ' Travels ' (1687), 178. Burton, ' Anat, Mel.,' ii. 76.