To perpetuate the memory of this great event, of the Emperor and his two brothers having dined at this house, the landlord got an Ecclesiastic of his acquaintance to compose the following pompous inscription, which is now engraven upon a stone at the door of his inn. QUOD TABERNA HÆC DIVERSORIA HOSPITES HABUERIT TRES FRATRES CONSILIIS, MORIBUS, ET IN DEUM PIETATE, PRÆCLAROS, MARIÆ THERES. BOHEMIÆ ET HUNG. REGINÆ, &c. &c. ET TANTÆ MATRIS VIRTUTI SIMILLIMOS MAXIMILIANUM AUSTRIÆ ARCHIDUCEM, CENÆ ET QUIETATIS CAUSA, TERTIO CALEND. JUNII M.DCC.LXXV. DIE POSTERO PRANDIUM SUMPTUROS PETRUM LEOP. MAGN. HETRUC. DUCEM, ET JOSEPHUM SECUND. ROM. IMPERATOREM, SECULI NOSTRI ORNAMENTUM ET DECUS, NE TEMPORIS LONGITUDO HUJUSCE LOCI FELICITATEM OBLITERET PERENNE HOC MONUMENTUM. No three persons ever acquired immortality on easier terms: it has only cost them one night’s lodging at an indifferent inn, when better quarters could not be had. LETTER XXVII. Bologna. When we left Ferrara, our landlord insisted on our taking six horses to each chaise, on account of the badness of the roads, the soil about the town being moist and heavy. I attempted to remonstrate that four would be sufficient; but he cut me short, by protesting, that the roads were so very deep, that he would not allow the best friend he had in the world, not even the Emperor himself, were he there in person, to take fewer than six. There was no more to be said after this; the same argument would have been irresistible, had he insisted on our taking twelve. As you draw near to Bologna, the country gradually improves in cultivation; and, for some miles before you enter the town, seems one continued garden. The vineyards are not divided by hedges, but by rows of elms and mulberry trees; the vines hanging in a most beautiful picturesque manner, in festoons from one tree to another. This country is not only fertile in vines, but likewise in corn, olives, and pasturage, and has, not without foundation, acquired the name of Bologna la Grassa. This town is well built, and populous; the number of inhabitants amounting to seventy, or perhaps eighty thousand. The houses in general have lofty porticoes, which would have a better effect if the streets were not so narrow; but in this particular, magnificence is sacrificed to conveniency; for, in Italy, shade is considered as a luxury. The Duchy of Bologna had conditions granted to it, upon submitting to the Papal dominion. Those conditions have been observed with a degree of punctuality and good faith, which many zealous Protestants would not expect in the Church of Rome.