own axis with the royal inhabitants of Turin. Already we have beheld, over and over again, the fame royal fcenes the fame princes, and the fame princeffes, in the fame coaches, taking the air, at the same hour, to the fame place. They feem all married to time, and I prefume that it is a kind of adultery to vary half a dozen minutes from the fun.

The three princeffes are graceful and genteel. The eldest is very handsome. They were born, I fear, under Virgo. The whole royal family live in union and happiness among themselves. The king is an excellent father. The duke of Savoy, a remarkably dutiful fon. They are particularly civil to the English. It is an exact and a graceful court.

I mentioned to you the neatness of the palace. I fhould have confined myfelf to the infide, most part of the outward building being old and unfinished. The royal apartments at Turin confift of a great number of fmall rooms, E 3 many

many of them indeed only closets; but fo delicately fitted up, fo elegantly furnifhed, and fo properly adorned, that, in paffing from room to room, the whole appears a fairy caftle. Amidst all these exquifite decorations, not one effeminate toy, not one Chinese dragon, nor Indian monster is to be seen. I mention this, because many of our finest houses in England are difgraced by the fantastic figures, with which they are crowded.

Almost every room in the palace is filled with pictures. None indifferent ; most of them by the best Flemish masters. The whole collection, except a very small number, belonged to prince Eugene, and were bought, after his death, by the present king of Sardinia.

The floors of the king's apartment are inlaid, and fo nicely kept, that you view yourself, as you walk upon them. The chapel, which opens into the great church, is not answerable to any other part of the palace. It is clean, but it is

heavy and difmal. The pillars are of black marble. The lamps and tapers give little light, and lefs chearfulness. At the first entrance it appears like a melancholy mausoleum. An Englishman, in the height of his devotion, would be tempted to cut his throat in it. But if the churches are dark, the streets are lighted by the laws of the kingdom. Every coach and every chair is obliged to appear with a white flambeau. A fevere penalty attends the breach of this edict, and perfons of rank are fo exact in obferving it, that I have feen ladies. walking after torches by day-light. The Turinese are a people, who affect grandeur in every respect. In general they are, regis ad exemplum, great œconomists. One piece of state is very fingular; notwithstanding the bad pavement of the ftreets, and the exceffive breadth of the kennels, the nobility conftantly walk before their chairs; and can only be driven into those leathern fortreffes by the clofeft siege of E 4 rain,

rain, hail, and fnow. Small attacks they withstand boldly, and ferye a whole winter's campaign in heroically defending the door of their fedan, which remains more facred than the fanctum fan&torum, and is impervious to the high priest.

The palace fills one fide of a very large fquare, round three parts of which is a piazza, miferably paved, but amply adorned with shops. Were the old town rebuilt, Turin might appear, perhaps, the most elegant city in Europe.

I am, dear fir,

ever your's,

CORKE.

LETTER

LETTER VI.

Bologna, October 21ft, 1754.

DEAR SIR,

N the afternoon that we left Turin,

we went no farther than Afti, a small town in Piedmont; and the next day we rested ourselves at Alexandria. The fortifications of Alexandria are fine, and in excellent order. The town itself is neither large nor remarkable. In the evening we faw an Italian opera. The house was full, the mufic good, and one or two of the fingers of the first rate; but on hearing Italian mufic, and fitting in a box at an-opera, it is impoffible not to recollect the fplendid audience, and the charming circle in the Hay-market; an appearance not to be equalled, I believe, in any other part of the world.

菌

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