ony I was almost shook to pieces, and I
had the ill luck to be surprised with a storm on the lake, that if I had
not been near a little port (where I passed a night in a very poor inn),
the vessel must have been lost. A fair wind brought me hither next
morning early. I found a very good lodging, a great deal of good
company, and a village in many respects resembling Tunbridge Wells, not
only in the quality of the waters, which is the same, but in the manner
of the buildings, most of the houses being separate at little distances,
and all built on the sides of hills, which indeed are far different from
those of Tunbridge, being six times as high: they are really vast rocks
of different figures, covered with green moss, or short grass,
diversified by tufts of trees, little woods, and here and there
vineyards, but no other cultivation, except gardens like those on
Richmond-hill. The whole lake, which is twenty-five miles long, and
three broad, is all surrounded with these impassable mountains, the
sides of which, towards the bottom, are so thick set with villages (and
in most of them gentlemen's seats), that I do not believe there is
anywhere above a mile distance one from another, which adds very much to
the beauty of the prospect.

"We have an opera here, which is performed three times in the week. I
was at it last night, and should have been surprised at the neatness of
the scenes, goodness of the voices and justness of the actors, if I had
not remembered I was in Italy. Several gentlemen jumped into the
orchestra, and joined in the concert, which I suppose is one of the
freedoms of the place, for I never saw it in any great town. I was yet
more amazed (while the actors were dressing for the farce that concluded
the entertainment) to see one of the principal among them, and as errant
a _petit maitre_ as if he had passed all his life at Paris, mount the
stage, and present us with a cantata of his own performing. He had the
pleasure of being almost deafened with applause. The ball began
afterwards, but I was not witness of it, having accustomed myself to
such early hours, that I was half asleep before the opera finished: it
begins at ten o'clock, so that it was one before I could get to bed,
though I had supped before I went, which is the custom.

"I am much better pleased with the diversions on the water, where all
the town assembles every night, and never without music; but we have
none so rough as trumpets, kettle-drum