Vol. 1. to ITALY. 141

Tantum magna suo debet Verona Catulio,
Quantum parva suo Mantua Virgdio.
I am,
Verona, Dec. SIR,
16. 16$7-

Your, &C.

LETTER XV.

s lit,
THE Country between Verona and Vicenza is
fruitful, well manur’d, and altnost every
where level: The Trees are planted Checker-wile
on which the Vines are rais’d, and spread them-
selves among the Branches: and the Ground is
carefully till’d. We din’d at a little Village call’d
La "Torre, where are the Bounds between the Ve-
ronese and Vicentin. The Wine of this Country is
of so faint a Sweetness, that it is noxious to the
Stomach. Yet there are Wines at Verona that
are much esteem’d, and I think I have read in
Suetonius, that Augusius made them his ordinary
Drink. The Bread tastes as if it were made of
Earth, tho’ very white, and of excellent Flower;
because they know not how to make it: Toge-
ther with this, they entertain’d us with a Dilh
of grey Pease, fried in Oil, and this was all our
Feast. Is it not very strange, that we fliould be
in danger to die of Hunger in a fertile Country,
after we had fed plentifully among the Rocks
and Mountains ? The Soil is fat, and consequent-
ly the Ways bad ; insomuch that at this Season,
there