suppers to their box, and entertain a knot of friends there with
infinite convenience and splendour. A silk curtain, the colour of your
hangings, defends the closet from intrusive eyes, if you think proper to
drop it; and when drawn up, gives gaiety and show to the general
appearance of the whole: while across the corridor leading to these
boxes, another small chamber, numbered like _that_ it belongs to, is
appropriated to the use of your servants, and furnished with every
conveniency to make chocolate, serve lemonade, &c.

Can one wonder at the contempt shewn by foreigners when they see English
women of fashion squeezed into holes lined with dirty torn red paper,
and the walls of it covered with a wretched crimson fluff? Well! but
this theatre is built in place of a church founded by the famous
Beatrice de Scala, in consequence of a vow she made to erect one if God
would be pleased to send her a son. The church was pulled down and the
playhouse erected. The Arch-duke lost a son that year; and the pious
folks cried, "A judgment!" but nobody minded them, I believe; many,
however, that are scrupulous will not go. Meantime it is a beautiful
theatre to be sure; the finest fabric raised in modern days, I do
believe, for the purposes of entertainment; but we must not be partial.
While London has twelve capital rooms for the professed amusement of the
Public, Milan has but one; there is in it, however, a ridotto chamber
for cards, of a noble size, where some little gaming goes on in carnival
time; but though the inhabitants complain of the enormities committed
there, I suppose more money is lost and won at one club in St. James's
street during a week, than here at Milan in the whole winter.

Every nation complains of the wickedness of its own inhabitants, and
considers them as the worst people in the world, till they have seen
others no better; and then, like individuals with their private sorrows,