was born; and the people there have quick conceptions, and are well-natured. Her Majefty has an elegant perfon, good eyes, good teeth, a Cleopatra nofe, and fine hair. The expreffion of her countenance is pleafing and interefting; it is full of fenfe and good temper. She loves domeftic pleafures; is fonder of diamonds than the Queen of France; as fond of fnuff as the King of Pruffia; is extremely affable, very pious, and is praised by all the world at home and abroad.

If you had never feen any capital but Paris, London would appear to you a moft magnificent city. It's streets, fquares, &c. are infinitely fuperior to yours. But as you have feen all the

2

great

great towns of Holland, Germany, and Italy, I do not think London will make many violent impreffions on you. It is larger, better lighted, and more convenient for foot-paffengers than any city you have feen; but the ideas which I think will ftrike you moft, are, the goodnefs of the horses, the richness of the fhops, and the fhapes, fkins, and complexions of the women.

However, if London be fuperior to Paris in the ensemble, it is not fo in the detail. You will in vain look here for five hundred palaces, you will not find fifty. You will go to our opera, and you will expect pleafures equal to thofe you feel at your own. You will be difappointed again. The opera of Lon

don

don is inferior to that of Paris in every refpect, except in finging. You will feek a walk as agreeable as the Grande allée of the Palais Royal, and a garden as Splendid as that of Tuilleries. You will find neither. Our park is neither a pleafing nor an interesting walk, and is extremely difagreeable to the feet. You muft not, however, fay that here, for we are proud of our park. As I know

*

you are fincere, and never fpeak but what you think, when any one afks you how like the park, tell them Richmond

you

is charming.

The London Theatres will not enchant you, unless you ftay long enough to know our language better than Voltaire did. If you come to understand

it

it well enough to acquire once a relifh for Shakspeare, you will think no more of Racine after, than you will of St. Paul's church after feeing St. Peter's at Rome. It will be eating a peach after a pine-apple.

But if you are not charmed with St. Paul's church, you will with the Pantheon. It is the nobleft and fineft room in Europe. See it filled, and you will have an idea of the fplendor and opulence of the people of this town. When we were at Rome together, you remember there were one night at a mafquerade, near the end of the carnaval, twelve hundred people, who paid (1) eighteen

(1) Three Pauls.

VOL. II.

B

pence

pence each for entrance; and the Romans talked of it as a mighty matter, The keeper of this room told me there were one night at a masquerade eighteen hundred perfons, who gave two guineas a piece for their tickets.

Westminster abbey will make no great effect on you. You have better Gothic buildings in France. You have alfo better fculpture than any it contains. But there is not, either in France, or in any other part of the world, a repofitory of the dead that will intereft you fo much. It is the Elyfian Fields of England, where every clafs of diftinguished excellence has it's portion allotted to it. Patriots and Warriors, Philofophers and Princes, Garricks and Shakspeares, have

each