All the country round this place is hilly. In front of the bath and along the river the ground is level for some three or four hundred feet, and above this the bath-house is built upon the side of a hill of moderate height, at somewhat the same elevation as the spring at Banieres, where the patients drink the water close to the town. The bath itself stands on a level site and includes thirty or forty houses, excellently appointed for the purpose, with beautiful rooms, which are all private and entirely at the disposition of the hirer, and with an inner cabinet. Each apartment has two doors, one for communication with other chambers, and the other for separate use. I inspected almost every house before I made my bargain, and fixed ultimately on the one which commanded the fairest view, that is, with regard to the chamber I selected. From this I could look over the whole of the little valley, the course of the Lima,43 and the mountains, which enclose the valley aforesaid, all beautifully cultivated and green to the summit, thick set with chestnuts and olives, and in some places with vines, which they plant all round the mountains, letting the circles rise one above the other in terraces. The outside edge of each terrace is varied somewhat and is planted with vines, while the lower portion of the same is under corn. In my chamber I could hear all night long the soft ripple of the river below.

Near to the houses a space is set apart for promenade, open on one side, and built terrace fashion, with a trellis constructed at the public cost. From here may be discerned, lying two hundred feet below on the bank of the stream, a pretty little village, where also baths may be had when the crowd of visitors is great. Most of the houses therein are new, a fine road leads to it, and it possesses a handsome public place. Nearly all the inhabitants congregate in this village during the winter, and keep shop there, notably the apothecaries, to which calling they almost all belong. My host was a Captain Paulini, who was also an apothecary, and he agreed to let me have a sitting-room, three bed-chambers, a kitchen, and a penthouse for the servants; and in addition to provide eight beds, two of them with hangings, salt, clean napkins every day, and a clean tablecloth every third day, all cooking utensils and candlesticks, for eleven crowns—which sum is a few soldi more than ten demipistoles—for fifteen days. All earthen pots, dishes, and plates, as well as glasses and knives, we had to buy. We were able to get as much meat as we wanted, but were usually obliged to content ourselves with veal or goats flesh. At all the lodging-houses they offer to provide you with what you may require; and I imagine that by this method it would cost about twenty soldi a head per diem. Any one wishing to adopt this system would find in every house some man or woman capable of acting as cook. The wine is mostly bad, but visitors who may be so minded may get other wine brought from Pescia or Lucca.

I was the first to arrive at the baths except two gentlemen of Bologna, who came with no large following; so I had free choice of quarters; and, from what these gentlemen said, I judged I made a much better bargain than would have been possible in the full season when the crowd was wont to be great. Here the season does not begin till June and ends in September.44 In October every one goes away. People often meet for conversation as the sole amusement. This indeed was the case in the early part of the season, according to our experience. It is a most unusual thing for visitors who have already passed a month at the baths to return thereto, or to visit them at all in October. One of the lodging-houses, called the “Palace,” is vastly more luxurious than the others; it is certainly very fine, and belongs to the Signori Buonvisi. There is a beautiful fountain playing in the hall and divers other conveniences. They offered to give me in it an apartment of four rooms or the whole house if I wanted it. The price for the four furnished rooms for fifteen days was twenty crowns of the country, but I was not inclined to give more than a crown per diem considering the season of the year. My landlord is not bound by his bargain beyond the month of May, and if I stay longer I must make a fresh one.

The water here is used for drinking and for bathing also. There is a covered bath, which is vaulted, somewhat dark, and half the width of my hall at Montaigne. They use a certain appliance called a Doccia,45 which is composed of a number of tubes, through which hot water is turned on to various parts of the body and notably the head. These streams, by striking continually on one particular part, stimulate warmth in it, and then the water runs away by a wooden trough like that used by washerwomen. There is another bath, vaulted and just as dark, used by women, all the water being brought from the fountain where the patients drink, which is somewhat awkwardly situated in a corner, as to reach it, it is necessary to descend several steps.

On Monday, May the 8th, in the morning, I took with great reluctance some cassia which my host gave me. He was assuredly lacking in intelligence, compared with my apothecary at Rome, for I could not finish my dinner three hours later, and the drug brought on a fit of vomiting. I suffered also from great pain in the stomach and from flatulence for well-nigh four-and-twenty hours, and made a vow to take no more of this stuff. I would rather suffer from colic than have my stomach thus upset, my taste ruined, and my general health deranged by cassia. When I arrived here I was in excellent condition; so much so that on the Sunday after supper (the only meal I took) I set out with light heart to visit the bath of Corsena, a good half mile distant, and situated on the other side of this same mountain, wherefore I was forced first to go uphill and then to descend to the level of these baths, or thereabout. This place is famed for the use of the bath and of the doccia. At our bath the only course of treatment which has received the approbation of the faculty or of custom is that of drinking the water; they say, moreover, that the fame of Corsena goes back to a much earlier date. However, no trace of this antiquity, which we may suppose goes back to the times of the Romans, is visible at either bath. At Corsena there are three or four large baths, with arched roofs, unseemly and dark, save for one aperture in the middle of the vaulting, which serves as a ventilator. Two or three hundred paces away, and on somewhat higher ground, is another hot spring called after Saint John, where they have built a house with three covered baths. There is no lodging to be had near, but you may contrive to spread a mattress whereon to rest awhile. At Corsena the waters are not drunk at all, but in other respects there is considerable variety in the treatment. Some take the cold baths, others the hot; some undergo the cure for this malady, others for that; and a thousand wonderful stories are told; in short, the legend is that at Corsena relief may be found for every illness under the sun. There is one fine establishment with many chambers, and a score of others with little to recommend them. The advantages of this bath cannot be compared with those of the other, nor is the prospect so fine though the same river flows close by, and the view down the valley is more extensive. The charges are vastly higher, and many of the patients who drink at Bagno della Villa go there for the bathing. For the moment Corsena is all the fashion.

On Tuesday, May 9, 1581, I went early in the morning before sunrise to drink at the hot spring itself, and took seven glasses one after the other, the water weighing about three pounds and a half, as they reckon it here. The water is lukewarm, like that at Aigues Caudes or Barbotan, with less taste than any water I have ever drunk. All I could remark was its warmth and a slight sweetness, and I found it very tardy in taking effect; but some of the visitors told me I had taken too little, seeing that the physicians often prescribe a whole fiasco, sixteen or seventeen of our glasses or eight pounds’ weight. My opinion is that the water, finding my stomach empty on account of my recent purge, assimilated itself to nutriment. The same day I received a visit from a Bolognese gentleman, a colonel commanding two hundred foot in the pay of the State, stationed four miles distant. He made divers offers to serve me, and stayed with me about two hours, having directed my landlord and all others in the place to use all their efforts to make me comfortable. This government makes a practice of employing strangers as officers, and puts a colonel in command. One will have a larger, another a smaller troop under his charge. The colonels are paid, but the captains, who are people of the country, only get pay during war, when they take command of their own companies as occasion may demand. This colonel had for pay sixteen crowns a month, and had no other duty than to be always in readiness.

People live more by rule at these baths than at our own, and abstain rigorously, especially from drinks. At no other bath, except at Banieres, have I ever been so well lodged, and Banieres equals it in beauty of situation, but is the only bathing-place that does.

I am of opinion that this water is very mild and has little strength, wherefore it is safe and free from danger for those unaccustomed to such treatment, or for the delicate. It is taken for the strengthening of the liver and for the removal of eruptions on the face; a fact of which I made careful note as a service I would fain render to a most estimable French lady. The water of Saint John’s spring is largely used in making cosmetics, as it is impregnated with oil. I remarked that much of it was sent away in casks, and still more of the water which I was drinking. It is carried on mules’ and asses’ backs to be drunk in Reggio, Modena, and Lombardy. Some take it in bed, the physicians giving special directions to keep the stomach and the feet warm, and to avoid all fatigue. People of the neighbourhood have it conveyed to their houses three or four miles distant. As a proof that this water is not strongly aperient it may be noted that the apothecaries here keep a certain water brought from a spring near Pistoia, sharp on the palate and very hot when drawn from the well, which they give to patients before taking the native water, alleging that quicker and more efficient result is thereby induced.

I heard the following remarkable story when I was at these baths. A man of the place, a soldier named Giuseppe, who is still alive and engaged on one of the penal galleys of Genoa, was captured by the Turks in a sea-fight. To gain his liberty he became a Turk himself, a step which has been taken by divers of the people of these mountains who are still living, was circumcised, and married a wife. Being engaged in a predatory raid on this coast he advanced so far one day that his retreat was cut off, and, together with several other Turks, was captured by the people, who had risen in defence. He at once determined to declare that he had come there in good faith, and that he was a Christian, wherefore a few days later he was set at liberty, and he came to this place to the house in front of my lodgings, where he met his mother. She asked him roughly who he was, and what he wanted, for he was still wearing his sailor’s garb and was a strange object in such a place. Then he made himself known to her, and, after having been as it were lost ten or twelve years, kissed his mother, who shrieked aloud and fell senseless and showed no sign of life until the next day, the physicians being in despair of her. She came round at last, but she died soon afterwards, every one being of the opinion that this shock shortened her life. Giuseppe was made much of by the neighbours, went to church to abjure his errors, received the sacrament from the bishop of Lucca, and took part in divers other ceremonies, but all this was hypocrisy. His heart was still with the Turks, and, in order to rejoin them, he left this place for Venice, whence he gained some Turkish port and once more took to the seas. He was again captured by the Genoese, and, because he was a man of unusual strength and well versed in seafaring, they have kept him ever since in their service, securely fettered on one of their galleys.

In this country they keep registered a large number of soldiers taken from the inhabitants for the service of the State. The colonels of this force have no other duties than to drill the men under them frequently, to teach them the use of firearms, and how to skirmish, and other similar exercises. The rank and file are all of this country and receive no pay, but they are allowed to wear armour and to carry arquebuses and whatsoever arms they like: moreover, they are exempt from arrest for debt, and in the time of war are paid. For other duties there are captains, ensigns, and sergeants: only the colonels are paid permanently, and these must needs be men of some other State. Colonel del Borgo, who had visited me the day before, sent to me from his station some four miles distant sixteen lemons and sixteen artichokes.

Again I will remark that I found here very pleasant and convenient lodging, and was fully as comfortable as in Rome, what though my chamber had neither chimney nor glass windows nor even linen shutters, a fact which shows how much less stormy this climate must be than our own. In France, indeed, it would be deemed an intolerable nuisance to find nothing wherewith to close the window openings but wooden shutters. With this one exception my bed-chamber was well found, though their beds are wretched little trestles, upon which they place pieces of wood, fashioned according to the length and breadth of the bed, a palliasse being laid on these, and a mattress over all. Then you may sleep well enough if only you have hangings. To keep the trestles and woodwork out of sight you may adopt three courses: you may use narrow pieces of stuff, the same fabric as the hangings—this I did in Rome; you may have your hangings made long enough to cover the whole, and this is the best plan; or you may have a coverlet of light stuff, such as white fustian, fastened at the corners with buttons, and made long enough to reach the floor, the bed being furnished with another coverlet underneath for warmth. At least I learnt to adopt this fashion in a general way for the people in my service, having nought to provide but the truckle-beds. They are comfortable to lie in, and you are safe from bugs.

On this same day I dined and then took a bath, thus running contrary to all the rules of the place, which maintain that the one function stands in the way of the other, and that they should never happen close together, a course of drinking and a course of bathing being the usual practice. For eight days patients drink the water, then take thirty baths, drinking at one bath and bathing in the other. To-day I found the bath very soothing and pleasant. I remained in it half-an-hour, and felt no effect save a slight perspiration about supper-time. I went to bed after my bath, and afterwards supped off a sweetened lemon salad without drink of any kind. If I may give an opinion concerning these waters I would say they can do little harm or good; that they are ineffectual and feeble, and the fear is that they may inflame the kidneys rather than purge them. On the Thursday morning I took five pounds’ weight, being somewhat apprehensive that the effect might not be favourable, and indeed so it turned out. While I was writing that same morning to M. Ossat, I fell thinking of M. de la Boetie,46 and I remained in this mood so long that I sank into the saddest humour. The bed of the stream from which the drinking water comes is red and coated with rust, wherefore, seeing that it was likewise very insipid, I concluded that it contained much iron and would be binding in its effect; indeed little came of what I took on this Thursday. Medicine, after all, is a poor affair. I said casually a little time ago that I repented having taken so strong a purge inasmuch as this water, finding vacancy within, acted as nutriment.

I have just read concerning these waters, in a book written by one Donati,47 a physician, his advice being to take a light dinner and a good supper; and, from my experience after drinking the water for another day, I decided that his view was the correct one. Franciotti, another doctor, controverts him in this and in divers other particulars. That same day I had a feeling of heaviness about the back, which I feared might be caused by the stagnation in that region of the water I had drunk, but the outcome of the day’s treatment did not justify this suspicion. On the Friday I took no water at all, but bathed in the morning and washed my head, acting thus counter to the approved usage of the place. Another local custom is to aid the action of the water by mixing therewith some such drug as sugar candy or manna, or some medicine still stronger; others mix with the first glass they drink a certain quantity of the water of Tettucio, which I tasted and found it salt. I suspect that the apothecaries here, instead of fetching this water from Pistoia, where it is said to rise, make an imitation thereof out of ordinary water, for I found it had, in addition to its saltness, a very strange flavour. It is warmed and one, two, or three glasses of it taken to begin with, but I never knew that it had any effect. There are those who put salt in the first, or the second, or even the third glass of water they take; moreover, they hold that to sweat or to go to sleep after drinking, points almost surely to a fatal crisis. In my case I found the water strongly sudorific. 48 Let me now try to discourse a little in another language, especially as I am now in that district where meseems I may listen to the most refined Tuscan accent, particularly amongst the country-folk, who have not corrupted or changed their idiom through intercourse with neighbouring peoples. Early on Saturday morning I went to take some of the spring of Bernabo49 which lies on the other side of these mountains and gives a marvellous abundance of water, both hot and cold. The hill is of no great height, and may be about three miles in circumference. The only water that is drunk is that of the principal spring and of this one, which came into use a few years ago. A certain leper named Bernabo, after having drunk and bathed at all the other springs, betook himself to this abandoned bath and was straightway cured, whereupon it came into vogue. There are no houses, only one little shed and stone benches around the spout of the spring, which is made of iron. This spout, though it was fixed not long ago, is almost entirely eaten away from below, its destruction being caused, as the people there declare, by the action of some property of the water, which I can easily believe. These springs are somewhat hotter than the others and are commonly supposed to be at the same time less digestible and more violent in action, the water being slightly more sulphurous; where it drips, the ground is whitened as if ashes had been strewn there. The water of our own springs has this same property, but only slightly. This spring is a little less than a mile from my lodgings by going round the foot of the hill, its site being much lower than that of any other hot spring, and distant one or two pikes’ length from the river.

The day previous I had taken a long walk of three miles or so after dinner in the hot sun, and again after supper. The effect of this water upon me was an increase of strength, and I began to digest it half-an-hour after taking it; moreover, I made a good round of two miles on the way back to my lodgings. Perhaps this abnormal exercise may have made me feel young again. Every other morning I had gone straight back to my room to avoid the chill of the morning air, my house not being more than thirty paces from the spring. In my walks over the slopes of these hills, I came upon many sources of hot water, and the country-folk declare furthermore that in the winter certain places give out steam, a proof of the existence of still more hot springs. The samples of these which I tasted seemed, in comparison with my particular spring, about equally hot and without either smell or taste or vapour. I observed at another place in Corsena, some way below the baths, a great number of douches much better arranged than the others I have named, the pipes thereof being supplied by a number of springs, eight or ten, so the people say. Over each pipe is written the name of its peculiar spring: La Saporita, La Dolce, La Innamorata, La Coronale, La Disperata, &c., and a description of the effects thereof. I can say for certain that some pipes give out hotter water than others.

The surrounding hills are almost all productive of corn and grapes, whereas fifty years ago they were covered with thicket and chestnut woods. A few bare mountains with snow on the summits may be seen, but they are a long way off. The common people eat what they call pane di legna, which is the expression they use in speaking of chestnut-bread, this fruit being the great crop of the country, and the cake they make therewith is something like French gingerbread. I never saw elsewhere so many snakes and toads; indeed, through fear of the snakes, the children do not dare to gather the strawberries, which grow most abundantly on the hills and amongst the hedges.

Some of the people here take three or four grains of coriander in every glass of water they drink, as a remedy for wind. On the Easter50 of May 14th I took more than five pounds’ weight of the water of Bernabo, my glass holding somewhat more than a pound. Here the four chief feasts of the year are all called Easter. The Italian pound contains only twelve ounces. Living is very cheap in this place. The best and most delicate veal can be bought for three French sous a pound, and the trout are abundant, though small. Here are made excellent sunshades, which everybody uses. The country round is hilly, and level roads are scarce; nevertheless, many of them are very pleasant, and they are for the most part paved until they become mountain paths. After dinner the country people danced together, and I joined in the sport so as not to seem over ceremonious. In certain parts of Italy, and everywhere in Tuscany and Urbino, the women make salutation in French fashion by bending the knees.

Close to the outflow of the Della Villa spring is a marble tablet, which was put up a hundred and ten years ago, dating from the first day of May last, inscribed with an account of the healing powers of the water. I omit this, as it may be found in divers printed books dealing with the baths of Lucca51. At all the baths they provide plenty of hour-glasses for public use. I had always on my table two, which were lent to me. This evening I ate nothing but three slices of toasted bread with a little butter and sugar, and did not drink at all.

On the Monday, deeming that I had been enough purged by the water from the Bernabo spring, I returned to the Della Villa and took five pounds thereof. This spring seemed to me cold in comparison with that of Bernabo, which indeed is only moderately hot, and much cooler than the water at Plombieres or the average of the springs at the Bagneres de Bigorre. Both of the springs did me much good, wherefore I feel that I have been a gainer in refusing credence to those physicians who recommend their patients to give up drinking at once, supposing that a cure be not effected the first day. On Tuesday, May 16th, according to the local custom, which seems to me an excellent one, I gave over drinking the water and remained in the bath an hour or more, having settled myself right under the conduit-pipe, because in the other parts of the bath the water seemed somewhat chilly. Being troubled continually with wind in the epigastrium and the intestines, and in less degree in the stomach—albeit without pain—I suspected that this discomfort was caused by the water, wherefore I gave up drinking it. This morning I found the bath particularly agreeable, and could easily have taken a nap there. It did not produce perspiration, but I had myself well rubbed, and then went to bed for a while.

In each district it is the custom to hold a military assembly every month. The colonel commanding this district, from whom I have received a world of courtesy, held his assembly here, having a gathering of some two hundred pikemen and arquebusiers. He let them engage in a sham fight, and it seemed to me they were, for peasants, very expert; but his principal duty is to instruct them in military formation and discipline. The people here are divided into the French and Spanish factions, and weighty questions with regard to this matter were constantly arising; moreover they make public profession of their party. In these parts the men and women of our party wear bunches of flowers, and their caps and their locks of hair down over the right ear, while those who favour the Spaniards wear them on the left. The peasants and their wives all go clad like gentle-folk. You never see a woman who does not wear white shoes, fine-thread stockings, and a coloured sarcenet apron. They dance and cut capers and twirl about marvellously well.

In this country when they talk of the prince they mean the Council of one hundred and twenty52. The colonel aforesaid could not get married without leave of this “prince,” and he only gained permission with great difficulty, because the authorities were loth that he should make friends or connections in the country; moreover, he cannot buy any property. No soldier can leave the country without leave. In the mountainous parts are many people who beg for money, and out of what they gather thus they buy their arms.

On the Wednesday I went to the bath and remained there more than an hour. I sweated a little, bathing my head at the same time, and I saw how handy the German fashion was in winter time for warming clothes and other things at the stoves they use, for there the bathman, having put a little coal into a chafing dish, the lid of which was raised by a brick inserted so as to admit air to ventilate the fire, managed to dry the bath clothes expeditiously and well, much more conveniently than at a fire like ours here, which is made in one of our basins. Here they call the girls and boys children till they are ripe for marriage. The boys are always lads till their beards are grown.

On Thursday I was a little more on the alert and bathed somewhat earlier. In the bath I sweated fairly well and gave my head a douche under the spout. The bath left me rather weak, with a feeling of heaviness about the reins, and I voided gravel continually and some phlegm likewise as if I had drunk of the spring, indeed it struck me that this water used in the bath produced the same effect as when drunk. I bathed again on the Friday. Vast quantities of the water of this spring and of the other one, the Corsena, are despatched every day for sale in various regions of Italy. These people are not the great meat-eaters that we are, and they use nothing but the common sorts of flesh, upon which they set but little store, that is to say, while I was there I bought a choice leveret for six of our sous without any bargaining. They do not hunt or bring game hither, because no one would buy it. On the Saturday, because the weather was bad, and the wind so high that I felt the want of casements, either of linen or glass, I neither bathed nor took the waters. Here I observed a marked result of the use of this bath, forasmuch as my brother,53 who had never passed any gravel either in common way or while drinking the water at any other bath in my company, now passed a large quantity.

On the Sunday morning I took another bath, without bathing my head, and after dinner I gave a ball, with presents for the guests, according to the custom of these baths. I was anxious to give the first ball of the season. Five or six days before this date I had caused notice of my entertainment to be given in all the neighbouring villages, and on the day previous I sent special invitations to all the gentle-folk then sojourning at either of the baths. I bade them come to the ball, and to the supper afterwards, and sent to Lucca for the presents, which are usually pretty numerous, so as to avoid the appearance of favouring one lady above all the rest, and to steer clear of jealousy and suspicion. They always give eight or ten to the ladies, and two or three to the gentlemen. Many ventured to jog my memory, one begging me not to forget herself, another her niece, another her daughter.

On the day previous Messer Giovanni da Vincenzo Saminiati, a good friend of mine, brought me from Lucca, according to my written instructions, a leathern belt and a black cloth cap as presents for the men. For the ladies I provided two aprons of taffetas, one green and the other purple (for it must be known that it is always meet to have certain presents better than the bulk, so as to show special favour where favour seems to be due), two aprons of bombazine, four papers of pins, four pairs of shoes—one pair of which I gave to a pretty girl who did not come to the ball, a pair of slippers, which I put with one of the pairs of shoes to form one prize, three head-dresses clear woven, and three netted, which together stood for three prizes, and four small pearl necklaces. Thus I had altogether nineteen gifts for the ladies, the cost of which was six crowns; little enough. I engaged five pipers, giving them their food for the day, and a crown amongst the lot, a good bargain for me, seeing that they will rarely play here at such a rate. The prizes aforesaid were hung up on a hoop, richly ornamented, and visible to all the company.

We began the dance on the piazza with the people of the place, and at first feared we should lack company, but after a little we were joined by a great number of people of all parties, and notably of the gentle-folk of the land, whom I received and entertained to the best of my powers; and I succeeded so far that they all seemed well content. As the day waxed somewhat warm we withdrew to the hall of the Palazzo Buonvisi, which was excellently suited for the purpose. At the decline of day, about the twenty-second hour, I addressed the ladies of the greatest consequence who were present, and said that I had neither wit nor confidence enough to give judgment between these young ladies so richly endowed with beauty and grace and politeness, wherefore I begged them to undertake the duty of deciding, and to award the prizes according to the deserts of the company. We had long discussion over this formal matter, as at first the ladies refused to accept this office, deeming that I had offered it to them merely out of courtesy. At last we agreed to add this proviso, to wit, that they might, if they were so minded, call me into their council to give my opinion. The end was that I went about, glancing now at this damsel and now at that, never failing to allow due credit for beauty and charm, but at the same time determining that graceful dancing meant something else than the mere movement of the feet; that it necessitated also appropriate gestures, a fine carriage of the whole body, a pleasant expression, and a comely charm. The presents, great and small, were distributed on this principle according to desert, one of the ladies aforementioned presenting them to the dancers on my behalf, while I disclaimed all merit thereanent, and referred them to her as the Lady Bountiful. My entertainment passed off in the usual fashion, except that one of the girls would not take her present, but sent to beg me that I would give it with her love to another girl; but this I would not permit to be done, as the damsel in question was not over well favoured. The girls were called one by one from their places to come before the lady and myself, sitting side by side, whereupon I gave to the signora the gift which seemed appropriate, having first kissed the same. Then the signora, taking it in her hand, gave it to the young girl, and said in friendly fashion, “This is the gentleman who is giving you this charming present, thank him for it.” I added, “Nay, rather your thanks are due to the gracious signora who has designated you out of so many others as worthy of reward. I much regret that the offering made to you is not more worthy of such merit as yours.” I spoke somewhat in these terms to each according to her qualifications. The same order was followed in the case of the men.

The ladies and gentlemen had no part in this distribution though they all joined in the dance. In sooth it was a rare and charming sight to us Frenchmen to look upon these comely peasants dancing so well in the garb of gentle-folk. They did their best to rival the finest of our lady dancers, albeit in a different style. I invited all to supper, as the meals in Italy are like the lightest of our repasts in France, and on this occasion I only provided a few joints of veal and a pair or two of fowls. I had as guests also the colonel of the Lieutenancy, Signor Francesco Gambarini, a gentleman of Bologna, who had become to me as a brother. I also found a place at table for Divizia, a poor peasant woman who lives about two miles from the baths, unmarried, and with no other support than her handiwork. She is ugly, about thirty-seven years of age, with a swollen throat, and unable either to read or write; but it chanced that in her childhood there came to live in her father’s house an uncle who was ever reading aloud in her hearing Ariosto and others of the poets, wherefore she seemed to find a natural delight in poetry, and was soon able, not only to make verses with marvellous readiness, but likewise to weave thereinto the ancient stories, the names of the gods of various countries, of sciences and of illustrious men, as if she had received a liberal education. She recited divers lines in my honour, which, to speak the truth, were little else than verses and rhymes, but the diction was elegant and spontaneous.

I entertained at my ball more than a hundred strangers, albeit the time was inconvenient for them, seeing that they were then in the midst of the silk harvest, their principal crop of the year. At this season they labour, heedless of all feast days, at plucking, morning and evening, the leaves of the mulberry for their silkworms, and all my peasant guests were engaged in this work.

On Monday morning I went somewhat late to my bath, as I was shaved and had my hair cut, and I bathed my head for more than a quarter of an hour by holding it under the principal spout.

Amongst others at my ball was the deputy-judge, who holds legal office here. The work of the district is done by a judge appointed for six months—such as the government appoints in all other places—who adjudicates in the first instance in civil cases which involve small amounts only. Another official attends to criminal business. I made to the deputy-judge a suggestion, which I deemed only reasonable, that the government should make certain regulations—of which I gave him an example, easy to carry out, and admirably fitted for the end in view—to be enforced with regard to the vast crowd of traders who resort hither to carry away the water of these springs into all parts of Italy. These regulations would oblige them to show a voucher for the genuine character of the water they retail, and thus put an end to knavery, an instance of which I gave him from my own experience. One of these hawkers came to my landlord, a private citizen, and begged him to write a certificate to the effect that he (the hawker) was taking away twenty-four mule loads of this water, the fact being that he had only four. At first my landlord refused to do anything of the kind, on account of this discrepancy, but the fellow went on to declare that in four or six days’ time he would return to fetch the other twenty loads. I informed the judge that this muleteer had never come back. He took my suggestion, and he tried his best to learn from me what my authority was, who was the muleteer, and what he and his beasts were like, but I told him nothing. I also informed him that I was minded to begin here a custom prevalent in all the famous baths of Europe, to wit, that all persons of a certain position should leave behind a copy of their coat-of-arms as a testimony of the efficacy of the waters. In the name of the government he thanked me for this suggestion.

In certain places they now began to cut the hay. On the Tuesday I remained two hours in the bath, and held my head under the douche for a good quarter of an hour.

At this time a Cremonese merchant living at Rome came to the bath. He was afflicted with divers strange infirmities, nevertheless he could talk and walk about and seemingly enjoyed his life. His chief infirmity lay in the head, his memory having perished, so he said, through some weakness thereof; for instance, after a meal he would not be able to say what dishes had been put before him. If he happened to leave the house on any business he must needs always come back ten times to inquire where was the place to which he was bound. He could hardly ever get through the paternoster. When he did get to the end of it he would begin it again a hundred times, never perceiving at the end thereof that he had begun, or at the beginning that he had finished. He had suffered from blindness, deafness, and toothache, and had, moreover, such an access of heat in the reins that he always wore a piece of lead over that region. For many years he had observed most strictly the rules laid down by his physicians in his case.

It diverted me to consider the various prescriptions given by physicians in different parts of Italy, so great was their antagonism, and this was especially marked in the matter of these baths and douches; indeed, out of twenty opinions no two were found to agree,54 but, on the other hand, the authors accused each other of murders of all sorts. The aforesaid patient suffered great trouble through the strange action of wind, which was wont to issue from his ears with such force that he could not sleep, and when he yawned great volumes of wind would burst out from the same place. He declared that he could best ease his stomach by using as a clyster four large coriander comfits after moistening and softening them in his mouth, the relief being sure and speedy. He was the first person I ever saw wearing one of those big hats of peacock’s feathers and covered with light taffetas; the crown, a good palm’s height, was thick, and had within-side a coif of sarcenet made to fit the head so that the sun might not strike upon it. It was surrounded by a curtain a foot and a half wide, to serve the purpose of our parasols, which indeed are very inconvenient to use on horseback.

Seeing that I have often repented that I did not more particularly note down details of other baths I have used, I am now minded to enlarge somewhat on this subject and to gather together certain rules for the benefit of my successors. On Wednesday, when I finished bathing, I was hot and sweated more than usual. I felt weak, with a dry, harsh sensation in my mouth and a certain giddiness akin to what befell me through the heat of the water at Plomieres, Banieres, and Preissac. I never felt it at Barbotan nor at these baths until this occasion, and it might have arisen because I went earlier than was my wont, or because the water was hotter than usual. I remained in the bath an hour and a half, and used the douche to my head for a quarter of an hour. I broke the rules by thus using the douche in the bath, for the prescription particularly declares that first one and then the other is to be used; and again by having a douche of this water at all, for almost all take the douche at the other bath. There they have it from this or that spout, some from the first, others from the second, and others from the third, according to the physician’s order. I used to drink and bathe on alternate days, while others would drink several days together and then take a spell of the bath. I paid no heed to periods of time, while others would drink for ten days at the most, and bathe twenty-five, though not perhaps in succession. I bathed but once a day, while all the rest bathed twice. I used the douche a very short time, while the others used it an hour at least in the morning and the same in the evening. And as to shaving the head, the custom here with all was to be shaven, and then put a piece of satin on the head, held only by a sort of net, but my smooth pate had no need of this.

This same morning I received a visit from the deputy-judge and the other chief personages of the State, an attention equivalent to that which had been paid to me in other baths where I had sojourned. Amongst other matters he told me a singular story about himself, how, through pricking the ball of the thumb with an artichoke some years ago, he had like to have died from inanition, how on this account he fell into such a wretched state that he lay in bed five months without moving. As he lay all this time on the reins, they became so inordinately heated that a discharge of gravel was produced from which he had suffered for more than a year and from colic as well. At last his father, the governor of Velitri, sent him a certain green stone, which he had got from a friar who had been in India, and while he had this stone about him he suffered neither from gravel nor pain. He had been in this state for two years. As to the prick aforementioned the thumb and the greater part of the hand were useless, and besides this the arm was so much weakened that he came every year to the baths of Corsena to treat the arm and thumb with the douche, as he was now doing.

The common people here are very poor. At this season they eat green mulberries, which they collect while gathering the leaves for the silkworms. I had left in doubt the hire of my lodging for the month of June, wherefore I now deemed it meet to come to an agreement with my landlord, who, when he perceived that I was sought after by all the neighbours and especially by the owner of the Palazzo Bonvisi, who had offered me lodging for a gold crown a day, decided to let me have my rooms as long as I liked for twenty-five gold crowns a month, the term to begin on the first of June, up to which day the old agreement was to be in force.

The people here are consumed with envy and secret deadly spite one against the other, though they are all akin. A lady repeated to me the following proverb:—

One convenience of my lodging pleased me greatly, to wit, that I could pass from my bed to the bath by a short and level path of thirty paces. I resented the stripping of the leaves from the mulberry trees, which looked as other trees look in winter.

Every day people from all parts may be seen bringing hither samples of wine in small bottles, so that any of the strangers here may send, if they will, for some in bulk, but of good wine there is very little. The white wines are thin, sour, and crude, or very heavy, harsh, and rough. By sending to Lucca or Pescia the white Trevisano may be procured, which is strong and well-matured, but none too delicate on the palate.

On Thursday—Corpus Domini—I remained an hour and a half in a lukewarm bath, sweating very little and not conscious of any effect therefrom. I held my head under the douche, for twelve minutes or so, and on going back to bed got a short sleep. I found this use of bath and douche more pleasant than anything else. I felt a certain itching in my hands and elsewhere, and I learned moreover that many of the peasants are given to the itch and the children to scabby ailments. It is the case here as elsewhere that the peasants make light of that which we come to seek with such great trouble. I saw many who had never tasted these waters, of which indeed they had a very poor opinion. With this disposition they are short-lived.

On Saturday I remained two hours in the bath and took the douche for a good quarter. On Sunday I took a rest, and on this day a Bolognese gentleman gave another ball. The scarcity of clocks here55 and in most places in Italy is most inconvenient. At the bath-house there is a statue of the Madonna with the following verses:—