Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/149

 12 S. i. FEB. 19, 1916.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

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form of a cage, capable of holding one person standing upright, by means of which you could ascend or descend. The lift itself was covered with green velvet, and the ropes were made of silk.

Passing on to Genoa by road, the travellers were by no means at their ease. They were among people lately ruined by war and in great straits, and in a country famous for bandits. At the inns folk would come to the chamber doors and stand gazing at the travellers and their baggage. Their fears were already aroused by the story of a " fresh robbery committed att a little towne called Altare [which they passed through] by a dozen or sixteen bandits, who had murdered and robbed some Germaine noblemen passing that way : the blood was yett to bee scene upon the place."

At Mulisan (Millesimo), which had once been a town, but was then in ruins, having been recently burnt by the Spanish soldiers, they could only find " halfe an Inne " to dine at. Here an escort was obtained, and the journey continued to Savona without further mishap, the travellers having nothing to fear except from their own guards, who looked very needy people.

At Savona they hired a felucca to carry them to Genoa. Here they found the town made free by the Spanish, but the French and Spanish factions very jealous of each other. The inhabitants inclined to Spanish fashions in their apparel, both men and women, espe- cially those of quality, " broad hatts without hat bands, long doubletts, narrow britches, girdles with broad buckles, short close shoes," being as much in fashion there as in Madrid. The ladies of fashion went bare-headed and bare-necked, their guardinfantas* " a faddome thicke upon the hippe," which, having been brought there some years before from Spain, so pleased the ladies that " neither the ugliness of the fashion, nor the cumbersomnes of it in Litters, chayres and narrow passages, nor the invectivenes of the preachers could make them abstaine from it. They looke just as if they had a hobby-horse under their coates, and two of them in the narrow streetes of G-enua are able to stop the streetes and make as great an embarras as two Loads of hay would doe in Paternoster Row."

One lady, having a son of 19 condemned to death, visited him in prison, and, taking him up "under her cotes," conveyed him to safety.

The travellers were struck by the sumptuous buildings and the churches, the Church

as " vast great farthingales stickinge out on both sides of a woman as f arr as shee can reach w th her hands."
 * " Guardinfantas " Lassels describes in a note

of the Annunciation, then not finished r passing without contradiction for the- " gallantest little Church in Europe." The arena, or quarter where the palaces were built along the seashore for half a mile together, looked like one great enchanted castle. The travellers dared scarce bless themselves lest the wonderful vision should vanish away. The streets are described as too narrow for coaches, only "litters and seddans " being used. Strangers were much observed, and could not lodge any- where without a billet, which had to be~ renewed frequently ; and no one was allowed to wear a sword except by licence.

Ten days later they set out again for Milan, with an escort of ten horsemen armed with carbines and pistols, and " themselves the most famous bandits and rogues of the- country." Bologna was reached next, and then Florence, where the well-paved streets and the Duke's Palace, not yet finished, greatly pleased the travellers. From Florence they set out for Rome by way of Sienna and Acquependenta, in some trepida- tion, as only a week earlier there had been a notable outrage on the road, the carrier from Genoa having been robbed of 8,OOOZ.

Rome was reached in safety on Dec. 24, in time for the Jubilee celebrations of 1650. Her ladyship visited a number of churches, and had an audience with the Pope. Three days later the Pope's " sister-in-law, Donna Olympia," sent her a present of fish, fruit, and sweetmeats, " as much as twelve men could bear in great silver chaires." A visit was also paid to the Jewish synagogue, but her ladyship, seeing the men pray without kneeling or putting off their hats, went away disgusted at their " clownish devotion." Strangers were well looked after at Rome at this time. Police agents were active, and every precaution was taken to preyent their being " couzened." Should a stranger pur- chase a piece of meat, inquiry would frequently be made as to how much he paid ; and if he had been deceived in the matter of weight or price, " the buyer has his meat for nothing, and the seller forfeits a good round sum." The inns were carefully regulated; and justice, in short, was so exact that

" the last Prince of Conde being in Rome said he w'ondered exceedingly at one thing, to witt, soe many men goe out of theire howses in the morning and returne againe to dinnar without being imprisoned."

The nobility and gentry are described as civil and grave, offering no man any affront, and not gazing or staring at strangers.