manners, has not yet obtained a very general footing. The _match-maker_
is, upon the wedding-day, presented with a sum of money adequate to the
trouble she has taken to effect the alliance; for a lack of beauty, or
fortune on the lady's side, mars her matrimonial prospects, and causes
as great difficulties respecting her settlement in life, at Genoa, as in
some other places I could mention rather nearer home. Once, being in
company with an ancient dame, who had brought about a marriage that
astonished all Genoa, she informed me, that she received as her
_douceur_ upon the occasion, 50_l_. This, I am to conclude, was a
liberal recompense; for the _Sposina_, in that instance, was so plain,
(a circumstance unusual with the Genoese women,) and afflicted with so
bad a breath, as to be an object of disgust with all the men who heard
of her. The _bouquets_ which I have mentioned, are peculiar in
structure, and beautiful in appearance: they are composed of the most
brilliantly coloured flowers, disposed round a large central flower, in
tiers, or rows, of the same colour; as, first perhaps, a row of red,
then white, then purple, then yellow, then blue, &c. &c.; the stalks are
cut short, curiously attached to wire by fine silk or thread, and being
bound compactly together, so that the stalks and wires brought into a
point, form a convenient handle, the petals of the flowers stand out in
lines of the most vivid hues, making a kind of smooth, expanded,
circular, and convex, surface. The manufacture of these bouquets, one of
which takes a considerable time to complete, is a distinct occupation,
and the sale of them, quite a trade; and though made elsewhere than at
Genoa, those of that town are most esteemed, and sent over all parts of
Italy. The flowers composing these bouquets, will keep for at least a
fortnight as fresh and beautiful as when first gathered, and are capable
of bearing long journeys, for they are constantly forwarded in boxes
made expressly for them, to Turin, which is about a hundred miles from
Genoa, where they arrive fresh and uninjured. An English nobleman