d such was the equal propriety of her
conduct, that of two or three hundred foreigners, none ever failed in
respect, none could complain of her neglect, and none could ever boast
of her favour. Mesery himself, of the noble family of De Crousaz, was
a man of the world, a jovial companion, whose easy manners and natural
sallies maintained the cheerfulness of his house. His wit could laugh
at his own ignorance: he disguised, by an air of profusion, a strict
attention to his interest; and in this situation he appeared like a
nobleman who spent his fortune and entertained his friends. In this
agreeable society I resided nearly eleven months (May 1763--April
1764); and in this second visit to Lausanne, among a crowd of my English
companions, I knew and esteemed Mr. Holroyd (now Lord Sheffield); and
our mutual attachment was renewed and fortified in the subsequent stages
of our Italian journey. Our lives are in the power of chance, and a
slight variation on either side, in time or place, might have deprived
me of a friend, whose activity in the ardour of youth was always
prompted by a benevolent heart, and directed by a strong understanding.

If my studies at Paris had been confined to the study of the world,
three or four months would not have been unprofitably spent. My visits,
however superficial, to the Academy of Medals and the public libraries,
opened a new field of inquiry; and the view of so many manuscripts
of different ages and characters induced me to consult the two great
Benedictine works, the Diplomatica of Mabillon, and the Palaeographia of
Montfaucon. I studied the theory without attaining the practice of the
art: nor should I complain of the intricacy of Greek abbreviations and
Gothic alphabets, since every day, in a familiar language, I am at
a loss to decipher the hieroglyphics of a female note. In a tranquil
scene, which revived the memory of my first studies, idleness would
have been less pardonable: the public libraries of Lausanne and Geneva
liberally supplied me with books; and if many hours were lost in
dissipation, many more were employed in literary labour. In the country,
Horace and Virgil, Juvenal and Ovid, were my assiduous companions
but, in town, I formed and executed a plan of study for the use of
my Transalpine expedition: the topography of old Rome, the ancient
geography of Italy, and the science of medals. 1. I diligently read,
almost always with my pen in my hand, the elaborate treatises of