Letters From Italy, Describing the Customs and Manners of That Country in the Years 1765, and 1766 - To Which Is Annexed, an Admonition to Gentlemen Who Pass the Alps, in Their Tour Through Italy #245611

The Reader will plainly perceive the following Letters, though now a little altered and curtailed, were not originally intended for the Press. My Correspondents, who preserved them, have persuaded me to believe they may possibly amuse the World; but, had I foreseen this Publication, I might, with very little Trouble, have been particular in many Instances, where I am now superficial.<br><br>Before I left England, I was fully apprised of the Danger a Traveller is exposed to, of mistaking Singularities for Customs, and hope I have guarded against that Error. I had known several Frenchmen, who, having acquired English enough to read a News Paper, believed that Treaties of Marriage in England are usually negotiated by Advertisements. I was once acquainted with a poor starving Gentleman, at Paris, who knew no more of the History of England, than the Fate of our unhappy Kings, Charles I. and James II. I have heard this poor Man, with Tears in his Eyes, thank the bon Dieu, he was not born a King of England.