to come at any moment across one of those strange sallies to
which Gray alluded, when he said of the effect of Sterne's sermons
upon a reader that "you often see him tottering on the verge of
laughter, and ready to throw his periwig in the face of the audience."

CHAPTER VII.

FRANCE AND ITALY.--MEETING WITH WIFE AND DAUGHTER.--RETURN TO
ENGLAND.--"TRISTRAM SHANDY," VOL. IX.--"THE SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY."

(1765-1768.)

In the first week of October, 1765, or a few days later, Sterne
set out on what was afterwards to become famous as the "Sentimental
Journey through France and Italy." Not, of course, that all the
materials for that celebrated piece of literary travel were collected
on this occasion. From London as far as Lyons his way lay by a route
which he had already traversed three years before, and there is
reason to believe that at least some of the scenes in the _Sentimental
Journey_ were drawn from observation made on his former visit. His
stay in Paris was shorter this year than it had been on the previous
occasion. A month after leaving England he was at Pont Beauvoisin,
and by the middle of November he had reached Turin. From this city he
writes, with his characteristic simplicity: "I am very happy, and
have found my way into a dozen houses already. To-morrow I am to be
presented to the King, and when that ceremony is over I shall have my
hands full of engagements." From Turin he went on, by way of Milan,
Parma, Piacenza, and Bologna, to Florence, where, after three days'
stay, "to dine with our Plenipo," he continued his journey to
Rome. Here, and at Naples, he passed the winter of 1765-'66,[1]
and prolonged his stay in Italy until the ensuing spring was well
advanced. In the month of May he was again on his way home, through
France, and had had a meeting, after two years' separation from them,
with his wife and daughter. His account of it to Hall Stevenson is
curious: "Never man," he writes, "has been such a wild-goose chase
after his wife as I have been. After having sought her in five or six
different towns, I found her at last in Franche Comte. Poor woman!"
he adds, "she was very cordial, &c." The &c. is charming. But
her cordiality had evidently no tendency to deepen into any more
impassioned sentiment, for she "begged to stay another year or so."
As to "my Lydia"--the real cause, we must suspect, of Sterne's having
turned out of his road--she, he says, "pleases me much. I found her
greatly im