to an English dancer, the music changes to a slower movement, and
then follows a succession of zig-zag minuets, performed by old and
young, straight and crooked, noble and plebeian, all at once, from
one end of the room to the other. Tallow candles snuffing and
stinking, dishes changing, heads scratching, and all sorts of
performances going forward at the same moment; the flutes, oboes, and
bassoons snorting and grunting with peculiar emphasis; now fast, now
slow, just as Variety commands, who seems to rule the ceremonial of
this motley assembly, where every distinction of rank and privilege
is totally forgotten. Once a week, on Sundays that is to say, the
rooms are open, and Monday is generally somewhat advanced before they
are deserted. If good humour and coarse merriment are all that
people desire, here they are to be found in perfection, though at the
expense of toes and noses. Both these extremities of my person
suffered most cruelly; and I was not sorry to retire about one in the
morning to a purer atmosphere.

July 24th.--Custom condemned us to visit the palace, which glares
with looking-glass, gilding, and cut velvet, most sumptuously fringed
and spangled. The chapel, though small, is richer than anything
Croesus ever possessed, let them say what they will. Not a corner
but shines with gold, diamonds, and scraps of martyrdom studded with
jewels. I had the delight of treading amethysts and the richest gems
under foot, which, if you recollect, Apuleius thinks such supreme
felicity. Alas! I was quite unworthy of the honour, and had much
rather have trodden the turf of the mountains. Mammon would never
have taken his eyes off the pavement; mine soon left the
contemplation of it, and fixed on St. Peter's thumb, enshrined with a
degree of elegance, and adorned by some malapert enthusiast with
several of the most delicate antique cameos I ever beheld; the