dies of hunger. The Monks, it is true, feize whatever they can lay their hands upon; but as they ftray not from home, but live among the peasants, the money does not go out of the country. If a new code of laws were to be established in this country, the principal object of the Legiflator fhould be to put a top to the oppreffion of the Barons; this is the quarter from which the inhabitants receive the deepest wounds. I do not mean to fay, that, by little and little, the nails of the Monks may not also be pared; but if the Legiflator fet out upon the principle of fuppreffing them entirely, and leaving the other grievances in force, he would only reduce the inhabitants to beggary.

jeftic carriage of Juno. Large black eyes full of vivacity and fire; a stately Greek profile, the beauty of which was admirably relieved by a mixture of the lily and the rofe; long auburn ringlets, which flowed negligently down her shoulders, and extended to her fine waift, gave a captivating air of voluptuoufnefs to her whole figure. She carried no fruit, and her head was ornamented with a large brown handkerchief, which, on feftival days, hung below her wait. This head-drets was trimmed with filk gauze, of various colours, and tufts of gold. Round her neck the had a cornelian necklace, which implied that he was ftill a virgin (the maidens of Bologna are diftinguished from the women by a necklace of final red beads).-The method which the women of this country obferve in fuckling their children is fingular: they give them only the left breaft, permitting the right to dry up; which improves, they fay, the milk, and makes it much more nourishing to the children.

In the habitable part of Etna, Nature appears to have been more favourable to the female fex than to curs; and it is certain that the number of women is much greater than that of men. They are naturally mild and amiable, and of a fuperior character to the rest of the Sicilian women. Candour and cheerfulnefs are vifible in their countenance, their leaft gefture fpeaks the ferenity of their minds, and their moft trifling actions a defire to oblige and be useful: a delightful character, and which feems to be the portion of all the female mountaineers of this country. We were frequently furrounded by a number of thefe women, who came to offer us the productions of the foil without exacting any reward, and fatisfied with a petty piece of money which we gave them in return. We met more than thirty in the road from St. Lucia returning from the vintage. Each carried upon her head a basket of raifins, with which they nimbly paffed the rocks. We declared them to be our tributaries, and they gallantly paid the debt we demanded. I remarked, that in general the inhabitants of thefe countries are much more industrious than the majority of the common people in the other parts of Sicily and Italy. The women in question, though they had difficult roads to pafs, and carried a confiderable burden on their heads, had not their hands idle, all of them, even the young girls who were as yet incapable of carrying a basket, had a diftaff, with which they fpun as they walked along; and fo accustomed were they to this occupation, that they purfued the fame even pace with as little interruption as if they had been wholly unemployed. I diftinguished many among them whom I conceived to be the fineft women I had ever beheid. One particularly truck me. To the enchanting graces of Venus was added the ma

We had fcarcely loft fight of Mafca Lucia in our way to Nupolofi, which is about twelve miles from Catania, than we difcovered the fertile and fo highly vaunted countries of Eina. It is here that the famous town of Hybla formerly tood, and which ought not to be confounded with that of the fame name between Catania and Syracufe, the honey of which has been fo highly celebrated by the Ancients. It was in this country alfo, that Innefa and other towns were fituated, of which there remains not the flightest trace: by the different eruptions of Etna they have all been thrown down or burned, a fate to which all the prefent towns and buildings are fubject. This part of ina enioys a perpetual fpring. Fruit-trees, of all kinds, grow in plains of clover. The perfumes that exhale from the trees, which are always in bloom, from the various flowers, from the forelts of oranges" and citrons, purify the fulphureous air with which the other countries about Etna are infected. It is beautiful to obferve how the richness of the foil feems to brave the exterminating defpotifin of this fiery abyss: even where the principal and most recent eruptions have made their way, new bleflings fpring from the bofom of thefe liquid flames. The caufe is lefs impenetrable than the inhabitants imagine. The ftrong wind which always blows round the fummit of Ætna, drives the finoking afhes from the upper part of the volcano, covers the country, and foon affords an exuberant foil. The warm exhalations of

the

and covering with a funereal splendour: countries which the had already rendered frightful by devaftation and ruin. This fpectacle did not fail to be majestic in the midst of its horrors. The frequent contraft of light and fhade, occafioned by the fhadow of the neighbouring mountains, attracts the eye along its variegated labyrinth, and fuggefts to the awakened imagination a notion of the ancient chaos. The dead filence around me admirably blended with the monuments of deitruction beneath me, while the ftilinefs of foul it excited was interrupted at returning intervals by the hollow roaring of the caverns of Ætna. I cannot exprefs the revolution I experienced at thofe moments, nor defcribe the fingular effect these shocks, which may justly be called electrical ones, produced on all my tenfes. I could not, however, refrain from laughing when, at one

of thofe inftants that Ena roared the loudeft, a Monk, who was by my fide, feizing me with a trembling hand, forced me, in fpite of myfelf, within the door of the convent, repeating at the fame time in a tremulous voice,

"Horrificis juxta tonat Etna ruinis." The Monks of Catania ufually send a lay brother to the convent, under whofe direction the harveft is gathered, and the different fruits dried. We had forgotten to bring with us letters of recommendation to him, which did not, however, prevent him from receiving us cordially, and treating us with the utmoft hofpitality. We flept from eight o'clock in the evening till eleves, when we were to depart, that we might be able to reach the fummit of the mountain early enough to behold the magnificent view which the rifing fun offers. The road we had to pals confifted of dry fand and fteep rocks; fometimes leading to an immenfe height, fometimes defcending frightful precipices. We were confiderably terrified, and the more to as the moon had just fet. We lighted fome torches; but the wind, which began to blow with violence, extinguished them every moment. The darknefs of the night was dreadful; the road, however, was no longer through precipice, but it was flippery and uneven, full of deep ruts, which fcarcely permitted our mules to continue an inftant on their legs: for my own part I alighted from mine, and walked as long as my frength would permit me. To this parched and ftony country, in

general unproductive and ftrewed with afhes, fucceeded an immenfe foreft. We were elated with joy to find ourfelves upon ground on which we might travel without apprehenfion.

We experienced a very different climate from that we had quitted; the fuffocating heat which had fo much incommoded us at the foot of the mountain, gave place to a temperate air, more refreshing than warm. The foreft protected us from thofe dreadful hurricanes, which, all the way from Nicolo d'Arena, had incommoded us, burying us, as it were, in clouds of afhes. This contraft, from one extreme to the other, was complete; from a barren defert we were transported to a delici ous garden. By the light of our fiambeaux we examined the obiccts around us, and we perceived with a kind of rapture, grais, flowers, aromatic fhrubs, and here and there fome fruit-trees, whofe fragrant exhalations were the more agreeable, from the fulphureous air we had before breathed. From Catania, by the forests, the way is fhorter than if we were to afcend the mountain on the fide of Taormina; it is, however, only in the latter route that the large chefnut-trees, to much celebrated, are to be feen; refpecting which the learned do not agree. The point in dispute is, whether they have one or a number of trunks. Recupero, who affirms that he examined them with attention, fays, that they have but one trunk, the chicumference of which meafures twenty-eight Neapolitan rods, or 224 feet. I did not fee thefe gigantic trees, my friends in Catania having affured me, that it was not worth my while to go to far as a day's journey out of my road for the purpofe. The oaks in these forefts are of a lingular form, but more remarkable for their size than their height. When I compare them with the ancient oaks of my country, ours are lofty giants, while thofe of Atha reemble mishapen dwarts, whom the climate and foil have stinted in their growth: the foil indeed will permit the roots reither to fpread nor entwine, fo that thofe by which the tree derives its nourishment, are fearcely below the furface of the earth, and fometimes totally expofed. At the extre mity of the foreft we found the famous Cavern of Goats (Grotta di Caprioli). This cavern, formed probably by a torrent of lava, is large and deep: the road that leads both to it and the major part of

The whole Mountain is divided into three diftinct regions, called, La Regi ne Culta, or Piedmontele, the Ferule Region; La Regione Sylvofa, or Nemorofa, the Woody Region: and La Regione Deferta, or Scoperta, the Barren Region.-Brydone, Vol. 1. p. 166,

the

the environs, is a very narrow and fandy path, which, as we could frequently percrive, was formed, like all the rest, by hra. This grotto is in form exactly fimilar to the vomitoria of the ancient theatres, except that it is bounded, and leads to no object. Various caverns are to be feen in the neighbourhood of the fame kind, but of lefs extent.

flept two hours, when our trufty Piedetto awaked us; and though the ways we had to clamber were difficult, and the cold and wind feemed to have confpired against us to defeat our defign of reaching the higheft fummit of the mountain, we perfevered in fpite of this open war, and arrived at length to the top of Ætna.-Immediately by the fide of the frightful cavern I have mentioned, begins what is called the Snowy Country*. Hitherto, however, I had not feen the fmallest trace of any fnow. The darkness of the night and the violence of the wind made the height we had to climb very difficult, and the more fo as our torches were blown out every moment, We fell every five or fix fteps, and were obliged to clamber on our hands and feet in order to reach the defired fummit. Our mules were fo fatigued, that it was with the utmost difficulty we could make them go on. At length we difcovered a plain, thickly ftrewed over with black aihes, and furrounded with a rampart of burning foam; a hideous fpectacle, which I can only compare to a conflagration that has been extinguished. Enormous maffes of lava frequently interrupted our paffage, and the continual roarings of the Volcano, the terrible darkness of the night, the impetuofity of the winds, which feemed to be let loofe upon us, all contributed in no fmall degree to inspire us with terror. (To be concluded in our next. )

The people of this country, who in geral are extremely fuperftitious, affirm, that the Cavern of Goats is the abode of hal angels and evil fpirits, inhabitants of the entrails of Etna: they add, that thee wicked genii never quit their gloomy abode but to become the fcourge of the human fpecies, and to fhed the horn of defolation on the inhabitants of those parts of the country in particular which are already the most ruinous. I am of a contrary opinion. I call thefe fpirits the telary angels of weary travellers, and their caverns a fale and commodious afylum. Our guide obferved to us, that the right was very dark, that the wind began to blow ftrong, that the cold was piercing, and that we had better warm ourselves and take fome refreshment. We followed E's advice, made a good fire, feated ourAlves upon a bed of leaves, and brifkly tacked the basket that contained our proons. Having made a good fupper we repold ourfelves; but we had fcarcely

To the EDITOR of the EUROPEAN MAGAZINE.

SIR, BETWEEN twenty and thirty years ago the late SIR CHARLES WHITWORTH put forth Propofals for the publication of his relation LORD WHITWORTH'S STATE PAPERS. As the work has never been heard of fince, I fuppofe it did not meet with fufficient encouragement to pursue the defign. Along with the Propofals, he printed feveral LETTERS as fpecimens, which, I think, ought not to be loft to the world, and therefore I fend them for publication in the European Magazine. It may not be improper to add, that CHARLES LORD WHITWORTH, the perfon to whom they were addreffed, was the fon of RICHARD WHITWORTH, Efq. or Blower Pipe, in Staffordshire, who, about the time of the Revolution, had fettled at Adbaiton. He was bred under that accomplished Minier and Poet Mr. STEPNEY, and having attended him through feveral Courts of Germany, was, in the year 1702, appointed Refident at the Diet of Ratisbon. In 1704 he was

It is here that the detail of my Journey begins to differ materially from the account which M. Brydene has published of his. He fays, that after leaving the Cave of Goats, he wandered for the fpace of two hours in the forefts of na. He fays alfo, that this Cave is fituated in the middle of a wood. His defcription of the environs of the Volcano is in like manner very inaccurate.-Though his account of his Journey to na is a chef davors of beautiful compofition, I have my fufpicions that the Author afcended no one fammit of the Volcano; and I have been confirmed in my opinion by what was told me upon this fubject at Catania, as well as by the report of fome English travellers, who, foon after M. Brydone's return, were conducted by the fame Piedetto who had accompanied lam, and who declared to them, that our Author did not even afcend the leaft fteep of the Mountains of Etna.

named

named Envoy Extraordinary to the Court of Petersburg; as he was fent Banbaffador Extraordinary thither on a more folemn and important cccafion in 1710. In 1714 he was appointed Plenipotentiary to the Diet of Augsbourg and Ratifbon; in 1716 Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the King of Pruffia; in 1717 Envoy Extraordinary to the Hague; in 1719 he returned in his former character to Berlin, and in 1721 KING GEORGE I. rewarded his long fervices and fatigues, by creating him BARON WHITWORTH, of GALWAY, in the kingdom of IRELAND. The next year his Lordship was intrufted with the affairs of Great Britain at the Congress of Cambray, in the character of Ambassador Extraordinary and Pienipotentiary. He returned home in 1724, and died the next year, at his houfe in Gerard-treet, London, His body was interred in Weftininfter-Abbey.

I am, &c,

C. D.

A SPECIMEN of LORD WHITWORTH'S STATE PAPERS.

I.

The DUKE of MARLBOROUGH to Mr.
WHITWORTH.

I HAVE received the favour of your letter of the 16th inft, concerning the extraordinary affront of your Ambassador in London; but having at large anfwered Count Golloffkin's letter on the fame fubject, I fhall only add fome few confiderations to you, with the fame freedom and fincerity I have always professed. I do affure you, yourself could not be more fuprifed or concerned at the rude and brutal attempt offered him, than I was; but, I own, I never expected Mr. Matueoff would have been fo violent in his reprefentations, or have endeavoured to blacken the fact, which of itfelf is ill enougin