Eustace, John Cretwode: A classical tour through Italy An. MDCCCII (Vol. 3): 3. ed., rev. and enl (London: J. Mawman, 1815)

124

CLASSICAL TOUR

Ch. IV.

of those belonging to the court and to a few privi-
leged persons, such as foreign ministers, strangers,
&c. w ho did not abuse the exemption, were pro-
hibited ; a precaution both prudent and popular.
Yet notwithstanding this pressure we witnessed
no disorder, not a single scene of riot, drunken-
ness, quarrelling, or indecency. In many streets,
particularly in the Strada di Toledo and along
the Chiaia, there were little tables and cook-
shops, where the passengers stopped and supped
as appetite prompted them ; these tables, with
the parties grouped around them in different at-
titudes and dresses, with their gestures and lively
tones, gave a sprightliness and animation to the
scene quite peculiar to the place and climate.
It is impossible to witness the general good
humor that reigns amid such an immense popu-
lace at all times,'and particularly when the joy of
the moment lays them most open to sudden im-
pulse, and not to conceive a good opinion of their
temper, and to reflect with surprise on the very
unfavorable accounts given of the Neapolitans,
as indeed of the Italians in general, by some hasty
and prejudiced observers, who have not hesitated
to represent them as a nation of idlers, buffoons,
cheats, adulterers, and assassins. Of these impu-
tations some are common,! am afraid, to all coun-
tries, and others are grounded upon misconcep