hoary patriarch plays at pitch and toss: but still they are the same
figures that we know so well, the traditional Roman peasantry of the
"Grecian" and the "Old Adelphi." Unfortunately, they are the last of the
Romans. In other parts of the city the peasants' dresses are few and far
between; the costume has become so uncommon, as to be now a fashionable
dress for the Roman ladies at Carnival time and other holiday festivals.
On Sundays and "Festas" in the mountain districts you can still find real
peasants with real peasants' dresses; but even there Manchester stuffs
and cottons are making their way fast, and every year the old-fashioned
costumes grow rarer and rarer. A grey serge jacket, coarse nondescript-
coloured cloth trousers, and a brown felt hat, all more or less ragged
and dusty, compose the ordinary dress of the Roman working man. Female
dress, in any part of the world, is one of those mysteries which a wise
man will avoid any attempt to explain; I can only say, therefore, that
the dress of the common Roman women is much like that of other European
countries, except that the colours used are somewhat gayer and gaudier
than is common in the north.

Provisions are dear in Rome. Bread of the coarsest and mouldiest quality
costs, according to the Government tariff, by which its price is
regulated, from a penny to three halfpence for the English pound. Meat
is about a third dearer than in London, and clothing, even of the poorest
sort, is very high in price. On the other hand, lodgings, of the class
used by the poor, are cheap enough. There is no outlay for firing, as
even in the coldest weather (and I have known the temperature in Rome as
low as eight degrees below freezing-point), even well-to-do Romans never
think of lighting a fire; and then, in this climate, the actual quantity
of victuals required by an able-bodied labourer is far smaller than in
our northern countries, while, from the same cause, the use of strong
liquors is almost unknown. Tobacco too, which is all made up in the