me;

tho' I have done my best endeavours to find out something worth writing you. I have seen every thing that was to be seen, with a very diligent curiosity. Here are some fine villas, particularly, the late Prince of Lichenstein's; but the statues are all modern, and the pictures not of the first hands. "Tis true, the Emperor has some of great value. I was yesterday to see the repository, which they call his Treasure, where they seem to have been more diligent in amassing a great quantity of things, than in the choice of them. I spent above five hours there, and yet there were very few things that stopped me long to consider them. But the number is prodigious, being a very long gallery filled, on both sides, and five large rooms. There is a vast quantity of paintings, amongst which are many fine miniatures, but the most valuable pictures are a few of Correggio, those of Titian being at the Favorita.

The cabinet of jewels did not appear to me so rich as I expected to see it. They shewed me here a cup, about the size of a

tea-dish, of one entire emerald, which they had so particular a respect for, that only the Emperor has the liberty of touching it. There is a large cabinet full of curiosities of clock-work, only one of which I thought worth observing, that was a craw-fish with all the motions so natural, that it was hard to distinguish it from the life.

The next cabinet was a large collection of Agates, some of them extremely beautiful and of an uncommon size, and several vases of Lapis Lazuli. I was surprized to see the cabinet of medals so poorly furnished; I did not remark one of any value, and they are. kept in a most ridiculous disorder. As to the Antiques, very few of them deserve that name. Upon my saying they were modern, I could not forbear laughing at the answer of the profound antiquary that shewed them, that they were ancient enough, for to his knowledge they had been there these forty years »; but the next cabinet diverted me yet better, being nothing else but a parcel of wax-babies, and toys in ivory, very well

I.

worthy to be presented to children of five years old. Two of the rooms were wholly filled with these trifles of all kinds, set in jewels, amongst which I was desired to observe a crucifix, that they assured me had spoke very wisely to the Emperor Leopold. I won't trouble you with a catalogue of the rest of the lumber, but I must not forget to mention a small piece of loadstone that held up an anchor of steel too heavy for me to lift. This is what I thought the most curious in the whole treasure. There are some few heads of ancient statues; but scveral of them are defaced by modern additions. I foresee that you will be very little satisfied with this letter, and I dare hardly ask you, to be good-natured enough to charge the dulness of it, on the barrenness of the subject, and to overlook the stupi dity of

Your, etc. etc.

LETTER XIV.

To the Countess of

Prague, Nov. 17, O. S. 1716.

I HOPE my dear sister wants no new proofs of my sincere affection for her; but I am sure, if you do, I could not give you a stronger than writing at this time, after three days, or more properly speaking, three nights and days, hard post travelling.-The kingdom of Bohemia is the most desert of any I have seen in Germany. The villages are so poor, and the post-houses so miserable, that clean straw and fair water are blessings not always to be met with, and better accommodation not to be hoped for. Though I carried my own bed with me, I could not sometimes find a place to set it up m; and I rather chose to travel all night, as cold as it is, wrapped up in my furs, than go into the common sloves, which are filleḍ with a mixture of all sorts of ill scents.

This town was once the royal seat of the

Bohemian Kings, and is still the capital of the kingdom. There are yet some remains of its former splendour, being one of the largest towns in Germany, but, for the most part, old built and thinly inhabited, which makes the houses very cheap. Those people of quality who cannot easily bear the expence of Vienna, chuse to reside here, where they have assemblies, music, and all other diversions, (those of a court excepted) at very moderate rates, all things being here in great abundance, especially, the best wild fowl I ever tasted. I have already been visited by some of the most considerable ladies, whose relations I know at Vienna. They are dressed after the fashions there, after the manner that the people at Exeter imitate those of London; that is, their imitation is more excessive than the original. "Tis not easy to describe what extraordinary figures they make. The person is so much lost between head-dress and petticoat, that they have as much occasion to write upon their backs, «This is a woman », for the information of