Roman women, from the fpecimens they fee in the fashionable circles to which they are first introduced. There are fome exceptions; but in general it must be acknowledged, that the prefent race of women of high rank, are more diftinguished by their other ornaments, than by their beauty. Among the citizens, however, and in the lower claffes, you frequently meet with the moft beautiful countenances, For a brilliant red and white, and all the charms of complexion, no women are equal to the English. If a hundred, or any greater number, of English women were taken at random, and compared with the fame number of the wives and daughters of the citizens of Rome, I am convinced, that ninety of the English would be found handfomer than ninety of the Romans; but the probability is, that two or three in the hundred Italians, would have finer countenances than any of the English. English beauty is more remarkable

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remarkable in the country, than in towns; the peasantry of no country in Europe can stand a comparison, in point of looks, with those of England. That race of people have the conveniencies of life in no other country in fuch perfection; they are no where fo well fed, fo well defended from the injuries of the seasons; and no where elfe do they keep themfelves fo perfectly clean, and free from all the villifying ef fects of dirt. The English country girls, taken collectively, are, unquestionably, the handfomeft in the world. The female peasants of most other countries, indeed, are fo hard worked, fo ill fed, so much tanned by the fun, and fo dirty, that it is difficult to know whether they have any beauty or not. Yet I have been informed by fome amateurs, fince I came here, that in fpite of all thefe difadvantages, they fometimes find, among the Italian peafantry, countenances highly interefting, and

i

which they prefer to all the cherry checks of Lancashire.

ous.

Beauty, doubtless, is infinitely varied; and happily for mankind, their taftes and opinions, on the fubject, are equally variNotwithstanding this variety, however, a ftyle of face, in fome measure peculiar to its own inhabitants, has been found to prevail in each different nation of Europe. This peculiar countenance is again greatly varied, and marked with every degree of difcrimination between the extremes of beauty and uglinefs. I will give you a sketch of the general ftyle of the most beautiful female heads in this country, from which you may judge whether they are to your taste or not.

A great profufion of dark hair, which feems to encroach upon the forehead, rendering it short and narrow ;

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the nofe

generally

generally either aquiline, or continued in a ftraight line from the lower part of the brow; a full and fhort upper lip; by the way, nothing has a worse effect on a countenance, than a large interval between the nose and mouth; the eyes are large, and of a sparkling black. The black eye certainly labours under one difadvantage, which is, that, from the iris and pupil being of the fame colour, the contraction and dilatation of the latter is not feen, by which the eye is abridged of half its powers. Yet the Italian eye is wonderfully expreffive; fome people think it fays too much. The complexion, for the most part, is of a clear brown, fometimes fair, but very feldom florid, or of that bright fairness which is common in England and Saxony. It must be owned, that those features which have a fine expreffion of fentiment and meaning in youth, are more apt, than less expreffive faces, to become foon ftrong and mafculine. In England

and

and Germany, the women, a little advanced in life, retain the appearance of youth longer than in Italy.

With countenances fo favourable for the pencil, you will naturally imagine, that portrait-painting is in the highest perfection here. The reverfe, however, of this is true; that branch of the art is in the lowest estimation all over Italy. In palaces, the best furnished with pictures, you feldom fee a portrait of the proprietor, or any of his family, A quarter length of the reigning Pope is fometimes the only portrait of a living perfon, to be seen in the whole palace. Several of the Roman Princes affect to have a room of ftate, or audience chamber, in which is a raised feat like a throne, with a canopy over it. In those rooms the effigies of the Pontiffs are hung; they are the work of very inferior artifts, and seldom coft above three or four fequins. As foon as his Holinefs departs

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