children sprawled at their feet, amufed with the twirling of the fpindle.

The

men and their wives, the youths and their miftreffes, fat in a circle, with their eyes fixed on the musician, who kept them laughing for a great part of the evening with his ftories, which he enlivened occafionally with tunes upon the guitar. At length, when the company was moft numerous, and at the highest pitch of good humour, he fuddenly pulled off his mask, laid down his guitar, and opened a little box which ftood before him, and addreffed the audience in the following words, as literally as I can tranflate them :"Ladies and gentlemen, there is a time "for all things; we have had enough "of jefting; innocent mirth is excellent "for the health of the body, but other

things are requifite for the health of "the foul. I will now, with your per"miffion, my honourable masters and mif"treffes, entertain you with fomething "ferious,

.

"ferious, and of infinitely greater import

ance; fomething for which all of you "will have reason to blefs me as long as

66 you live." Here he shook out of a bag a great number of little leaden crucifixes."I am just come from the Holy House of "Loretto, my fellow chriftians," continued he, on purpose to furnish you with "thofe jewels, more precious than all the

66

gold of Peru, and all the pearls of the ocean. Now, my beloved brethren and "fifters, you are afraid that I fhall de"mand a price for thofe facred croffes, "far above your abilities, and fomething "correfpondent with their value, by way "of indemnification for the fatigue and

expence of the long journey which I

"have made on your account, all the way "from the habitation of the Blessed Vir"gin to this thrice renowned city of Na

ples, the riches and liberality of whose "inhabitants are celebrated all over the globe. No, my generous Neapolitans ;

" I do

"I do not wish to take the advantage of

66

your pious and liberal difpofitions. I "will not ask for thofe invaluable cruci"fixes (all of which, let me inform you, "have touched the foot of the holy image of the Bleffed Virgin, which was "formed by the hands of St. Luke; and,

་

moreover, each of them has been shaken "in the Santiffima Scodella, the facred

porringer in which the Virgin made "the pap for the infant Jefus); I will not, "I fay, afk an ounce of gold, no not

even a crown of filver; my regard for

you is fuch, that I fhall let you have "them for a penny a-piece."

You must acknowledge, my friend, that ́ this morfel of eloquence was a very great pennyworth; and when we recollect the fums that fome of our acquaintance receive for their oratory, though they never could produce fo pathetic a fpecimen, you will naturally conclude, that eloquence is a much rarer commodity in England than in

LETTER LXI.

Naples.

HAVE made two vifits to Mount Vefuvius, the firft in company with your acquaintance Mr. Nifbet. Leaving the carriage at Herculaneum, we mounted mules, and were attended by three men, whose business it is to accompany strangers up the mountain. Being arrived at a hermitage, called Il Salvatore, we found the road fo broken and rough, that we thought proper to leave the mules at that place, which is inhabited by a French hermit. The poor man must have a very bad opinion of mankind, to choose the mouth of Mount Vefuvius for his nearest neighbour, in preference to their fociety. From the hermitage we walked over various. fields of lava, which have burft out at different periods. These feemed to be

perfectly

perfectly well known to our guides, who mentioned their different dates as we paffed. The latest appeared, before we left Rome, about two months ago; it was, however, but inconfiderable in comparison of other eruptions, there having been no bursting of the crater, or of the fide of the mountain, as in the eruption of 1767, fo well described by Sir William Hamilton; but only a boiling over of lava from the mouth of the volcano, and that not in exceffive quantity; for it had done no damage to the vineyards or cultivated parts of the mountain,, having reached no farther than the old black lava on which foil had not as yet been formed. I was furprised to see this lava of the last eruption still smoking, and in fome places, where a confiderable quantity was confined in a kind of deep path like a dry ditch, and shaded from the light of the Sun, it appeared of a glowing red colour. In other places, notwithstanding its being perfectly black and folid, it ftill retained

fuch