Genoa.

We arrived at Genoa, my dear friend, in the morning of the day before yesterday. As I this day met with a safe conveyance for my little journal of La Corniche, and the history of the Dutchess de C—, I made use of it to send them to you. And now I am going to make a real journal, which you will not see till my return. I shall write it with care, because it is to serve as a model: for my daughter is to write one, and I to write another; and every night she is to communicate her observations, which I shall correct by mine. – As we shall both write on the same subject, and as I shall not shew her my journal till I have seen hers, this method will serve to form her stile, her judgment, and her mind at the same time. But, however, that my letters my appear less insipid to you, I shall enliven them from time to time with some particulars relative to the manners and customs of the countries we pass through. – For instance, I can inform you already, that what they say of Cicisbeo's, is literally true. – It is absolutely necessary for a lady to have one after the first year. He is the choice of the parents and the husband, so that you may easily guess, whether she always keeps to him alone. His business is to attend upon his Cicisbeo every where; to be of her party at cards; to walk by her chair; to open and shut it for her; to carry her cloak, her fan, &c.

Except the new street, and that of Balbi, which are broad, all the rest are very narrow; so that there are scarce any carriages kept at Genoa, and every body uses chairs. All the women of inferior rank appear to be pretty; they wear a sort of English dress, with long trains that sweep the streets, long muslin aprons, and a mantle of Persian, which they wrap round their heads in such a manner, that one seldom discovers the whole face at once, but the different features one after another; sometimes the mouth, sometimes the eyes, and sometimes the nose; and this manner of exposing themselves, as it were by retail, and discovering whilst they conceal themselves, becomes them, and appears very alluring.