es.
The apartments of the better sort are large and lofty, the floors paved
with brick, the roofs covered with a thick coat of stucco, and the
walls whitewashed. People of distinction hang their chambers with
damask, striped silk, painted cloths, tapestry, or printed linnen. All
the doors, as well as the windows, consist of folding leaves. As there
is no wainscot in the rooms, which are divided by stone partitions and
the floors and cieling are covered with brick and stucco, fires are of
much less dreadful consequence here than in our country. Wainscot would
afford harbour for bugs: besides, white walls have a better effect in
this hot climate. The beds commonly used in this place, and all over
Italy, consist of a paillasse, with one or two mattrasses, laid upon
planks, supported by two wooden benches. Instead of curtains there is a
couziniere or mosquito net, made of a kind of gauze, that opens and
contracts occasionally, and incloses the place where you lie: persons
of condition, however, have also bedsteads and curtains; but these last
are never used in the summer.

In these countries, people of all ranks dine exactly at noon; and this
is the time I seize in winter, for making my daily tour of the streets
and ramparts, which at all other hours of the day are crowded with men,
women, children and beasts of burthen. The rampart is the common road
for carriages of all kinds. I think there are two private coaches in
Nice, besides that of the commandant: but there are sedan chairs, which
may be had at a reasonable rate. When I bathed in the summer, I paid
thirty sols, equal to eighteen-pence, for being carried to and from the
bathing place, which was a mile from my own house.

Now I am speaking of bathing, it may not be amiss to inform you that
though there is a fine open beach, extending several miles to the
westward of Nice, those who cannot swim ought to bathe with great
precaution, as the sea is very deep, and the descent very abrupt from
within a yard or two of the water's edge. The people here were much
surprised when I began to bathe in the beginning of May. They thought
it very strange, that a man seemingly consumptive should plunge into
the sea, especially when the weather was so cold; and some of the
doctors prognosticated immediate death. But, when it was perceived that
I grew better in consequence of the bath, some of the Swiss officers
tried the same experiment, and in a few days, our example was followed
b