ive
dandies managed their green fans with the same adroitness as their fair
companions; the shops displayed every luxury and accommodation; and
every thing, in short, savoured of the habits of a continental
Cheltenham.

The Hotel des Etrangers, where we established ourselves, is somewhat
high in its charges, but proportionably good, and possesses a delightful
garden of orange-trees adjoining. After being kept awake by mosquitos,
which seem more prevalent than at Marseilles, and whose little angry
note of preparation had apprized us of an attack, we walked in the
morning to the citadel hill, whose solid masses of ruin had attracted
our notice on the first view of the town. This point affords the best
general idea of Nice and its vicinity, though in the month of May, it is
not attained without a roasting walk. The heat indeed was tremendous, as
may be expected in a triangular tongue of land only a few miles in
extent, and encircled by lofty mountains; and the mildness of the
climate in winter, as we were informed, bears a full proportion to its
oppressiveness in summer. Green peas are to be had all the year:
mulberries and gourds were already ripe, and every garden was a wood of
the finest orange and lemon-trees loaded with ripe fruit. The
thermometer too is seldom or never lower than 55 in the depth of winter.
At the foot of the citadel hill is a road blasted out of the solid rock,
running along the edge of the sea, and connecting Nice with its port;
along which we walked towards the afternoon. I should be inclined to
remark this spot, near which is an esplanade of good houses, as the most
sheltered and desirable quarter of Nice. The breeze, which had begun to
freshen, was just perceptible where we stood, though its effects in the
open sea were visible by the plunging of the waves under our feet; and
it appears hardly possible for any but a south or south-west wind to get
at this point. Whether or not the part of Nice north of the citadel be
equally calculated for an invalid, I should doubt. The mountain gully
running up towards Escarene may possibly bring down searching winds from
the north-east; and on the whole the marine esplanade seems to afford a
situation cooler in summer, and warmer in winter, than the interior of
the town.

Such as are tolerably active pedestrians will find themselves well
repaid for an evening's toilsome walk to the height which divides Nice
from Ville Franche, and whose situation is marked b