Ed. Rivers.



LETTER 52.


To Miss Rivers, Clarges Street.

Silleri, Jan. 9.

I begin not to disrelish the winter here; now I am used to the cold,
I don't feel it so much: as there is no business done here in the
winter, 'tis the season of general dissipation; amusement is the study
of every body, and the pains people take to please themselves
contribute to the general pleasure: upon the whole, I am not sure it is
not a pleasanter winter than that of England.

Both our houses and our carriages are uncommonly warm; the clear
serene sky, the dry pure air, the little parties of dancing and cards,
the good tables we all keep, the driving about on the ice, the
abundance of people we see there, for every body has a carriole, the
variety of objects new to an European, keep the spirits in a continual
agreable hurry, that is difficult to describe, but very pleasant to
feel.

Sir George (would you believe it?) has written Emily a very warm
letter; tender, sentimental, and almost impatient; Mrs. Melmoth's
dictating, I will answer for it; not at all in his own composed
agreable style. He talks of coming down in a few days: I have a strong