ess,
indifference and ennui, were veiled under a general mask of good
humour and good breeding, and the flowery bonds of politeness and
gallantry held together those who knew no common tie of thought or
interest; and when parted (as they soon will be, north, south, east,
and west), will probably never meet again in this world; and whether
they do or not, who thinks or cares!

Our luxurious dinner, washed down by a competent proportion of
Malvoisie and Champagne, were spread upon the grass, which was
literally _flowery turf_, being covered with violets, iris, and
anemones of every dye. Instead of changing our plates, we washed them
in a beautiful fountain which murmured near us, having first, by a
libation, propitiated the presiding nymph for this pollution of her
limpid waters. For my own peculiar taste there were too many servants
(who on these occasions are always _de trop_), too many luxuries, too
much fuss; but considering the style and number of our party, it was
all consistently and admirably managed: the grouping of the company,
picturesque because unpremeditated, the scenery round, the arcades,
and bowers, and columns, and fountains, had an air altogether quite
poetical and romantic; and put me in mind of some of Watteau's
beautiful garden-pieces, and Stothard's fetes-champetres.

To me the day was not a day of pleasure; for the small stock of
strength and spirits with which I set out was soon exhausted, and the
rest of the day was wasted in efforts to appear cheerful and support
myself to the end, lest I should spoil the general mirth: on all I
looked with complacency tinged with my habitual melancholy. What I
most admired was the delicious view, from an eminence in the wildest
part of the gardens, over the city and Campagna to the blue Apennines,
where Frascati and Albano peeped forth like nests of white buildings
glittering upon a rich back ground, tinted with blue and purple; the
hill where Cato's villa stood, and still called the Portian Hill, and
on the highest point the ruined temple of Jupiter Latialis visible at
the distance of seventeen miles, and shining in the setting sun like
burnished gold. What I most felt and enjoyed was the luxurious
temperature of the atmosphere, the purity and brilliance of the skies,
the delicious security with which I threw myself down on the turf
without fear of damp and cold, and the thankful consciousness, that
neither the light or worldly beings round me, nor the sadne