rst in Italy: but an ordinary instrument would have charmed
us had he touched it.

I must not leave the Terra Firma, as they call it, without mentioning
once more some of the animals it produces; among which the asses are so
justly renowned for their size and beauty, that _come un afino di Padua_
is proverbial when speaking of strength among the Italians: how should
it be otherwise indeed, where every herb and every shrub breathes
fragrance; and where the quantity as well as quality of their food
naturally so increases their milk, that I should think some of them.
might yield as much as an ordinary cow?

When I was at Genoa, I remember remarking something like this to Doctor
Batt, an English physician settled there; and expressed my surprise that
our consumptive country-folks, with whom the Italians never cease to
reproach us, do not, when they come here for health, rely much on the
beneficial produce of these asses for a cure; which, if it is hastened
by their assistance in our island, must surely be performed much quicker
in this. The answer would have been better recollected, I fancy, had it
appeared to me more satisfactory; but he knew what he was talking of,
and I did not; so conclude he despised me accordingly.

The Carinthian bulls too, that do all the heavy work in this rich and
heavy land, how wonderfully handsome they are! Such symmetry and beauty
have I never seen in any cattle, scarcely in those of Derbyshire, where
so much attention has been bestowed upon their breeding. The colour
here is so elegant; they are almost all blue roans, like Lord
Grosvenor's horses in London, or those of the Duke of Cestos at Milan:
the horns longer, and much more finely shaped, than those of our bulls,
and white as polished ivory, tapering off to a point, with a bright
black tip at the end, resembling an ermine's tail. As this creature is
not a native, but only a neighbour of Italy, we will say no more about
him.

A transplanted Hollander, carried thither originally from China, seems
to thrive particularly well in this part of the world; the little pug
dog, or Dutch mastiff, which our English ladies were once so fond of,
that poor Garrick thought it worth his while to ridicule them for it in
the famous dramatic satire called Lethe, has quitted London for Padua, I
perceive; where he is restored happily to his former honours, and every
carriage I meet here has a _pug_ in it. That breed of dogs is now so
near extirpated among