Page:Repository of Arts, Series 1, Volume 01, 1809, January-June.djvu/107

Rh we have had a transient shower of snow since my arrival; you should have seen the poor Neapolitans hurrying through the streets, muffled up to their chins in cloaks and great-coats. I verily believe an eruption of their neighbour Vesuvius could not have affected them more sensibly. Indeed, my ideas of an Italian spring have more than once required modification. The sun (when unobstructed) is already, without doubt, much warmer than in England, but since my arrival this has seldom been the case; we have had an almost constant succession of showers and bleak winds. I have often longed for an English fireside, but am under the necessity of contenting myself with a charcoal fire, brought into the apartment in a large brass pan made for the purpose. This mode of warming the rooms, although perfectly conformable to the customs of antiquity, very soon occasions the head-ach to persons who are not accustomed to it: between this, however, and the alternative of sitting in a cold damp room with a stone or stucco floor, you are obliged to elect. Travellers, nevertheless, have extolled the charms of an Italian spring; to which I can only say, that I perceive very little difference between the vernal appearance of Campania Felice and the county of Middlesex. Vegetation is at this time very little farther advanced in the former, and, with the exception of the orange trees and be rest of the evergreens, the verdure in both is much the same. Poplars are but just budding, and the fruit trees beginning to push out their blossoms. Hyacinths, tulips, and violets, are the only flowers I have yet seen in the open air. C'est tout comme chez nous!

Here, you will say, a long epistle, and not a word about curiosities, antiquities, operas, and other interesting particulars, of which Naples furnishes such inexhaustible store. Pazienza, my dear fellow! if, according to the poet, I were to have led you at once "in medias res," you would not have had even this letter, and for a very substantial reason—that of all those fine things I have as yet not had a glimpse. I am preparing in my fifth-story apartment (an elevation perfectly fashiable here) to view every thing systematically, con gusto e con amore: and, what is better, during these prolegomena no time is lost; for the weather is far from encouraging either antiquarian or pleasurable excursions. In my next I shall probably have it in my power to gratify, in some degree, your classic ardour.

DESCRIPTION OF MONTREAL.

, the second city of British America, is situated on an island of the same name, in the midst of the River St. Lawrence, in latitude 45. 38. north, and longitude 73. west from Greenwich, 190 miles (by land) south-west from Quebec. The island itself, 33 miles long by 18 broad, contains, besides the city, several large and flourishing villages, with good roads and pleasant villas, and may be com- ''No. II. Vol. I.'' M