REMARKS ON SEVERAL PARTS OF ITALY, &c. IN THE YEARS 1701, 1702, 1703. Verum ergo id est, si quis in cælum ascendisset, naturamque mundi et pulchritudinem siderum perspexisset, insuavem illam admirationem ei fore, quæ jucundissima fuisset, si aliquem cui narraret habuisset. CICER. de Amic. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE JOHN LORD SOMERS, MY LORD, BARON OF EVESHAM. THERE is a pleasure in owing obligations which it is an honour to have received, but should I publish any favours done me by your Lordship, I am afraid it would look more like vanity than gratitude. I had a very early ambition to recommend myself to your Lordship's patronage, which yet increased in me as I travelled through the countries of which I here give your Lordship some account: for whatever great impressions an Englishman must have of your Lordship, they who have been conversant abroad will find them still improved. It cannot but be obvious to them, that though they see your Lordship's admirers every where, they meet with very few of your wellwishers at Paris or at Rome. And I could not but observe, when I passed through most of the Protestant governments in Europe, that their hopes or fears for the common cause rose or fell with your Lordship's interest and authority in England. I here present your Lordship with the remarks that I made in a part of these my travels; wherein, notwithstanding the variety of the subject, I am very sensible that I offer nothing new to your Lord |