I wish I could transplant you for five minutes into the great coffee-house here, at about seven o’clock on a Sunday evening. It is frequented by ladies of all ranks as well as by gentlemen, the rich take their servants; there must, I think, sometimes be two thousand people eating ices, and the waiters and servants bustling about, and making as much noise as possible. The principal room is about seventy feet long, and there are four others filled with company, and beyond these a suite of billiard rooms, and generally in one of them, people playing a game like bowls, on the billiard table. These rooms occupy the whole extent of the Palazzo Ruspoli, extending, I suppose, two hundred and fifty feet along the Corso. Behind, there is a garden, about one hundred and twenty feet square, (all these dimensions are guesses) shaded with orange trees and oleanders, and also full of company. LETTER XLI. ACADEMIES. _Rome, August, 1817._ IT is reported here, that the Pope has offered a palace to the Prince Regent for the purpose of receiving an English academy. The French, you know, have an excellent establishment here on a large scale, occupying the house of the Villa Medici. They have dwelling-rooms for the students, and workshops for such as require them; a suite of apartments for the director; a common dining-room; a handsome suite for the public exhibitions; and a fine gallery of casts. An English establishment might be formed on a much less expensive plan. It would not be necessary, or even desirable, to maintain the students; but if it were in contemplation to provide any further assistance of that sort, beyond what is now done by the Royal Academy, it would be better to supply it from a perfectly distinct fund. The most essential requisite is a point of union, and the facility of reference, which would be obtained by a library, and a collection of casts; and two or three thousand pounds at first, and ten or twelve hundred per annum afterward, would be amply sufficient for every useful purpose. An institution on a much more moderate scale than even the one above mentioned, and such as would be within the reach of many English gentlemen, would be a very great advantage, and the patron would immortalize himself by it. A library is the most important object, and the necessary attendance on it, the most expensive one; but by properly availing oneself of the assistance of the students, that might be much diminished. We must in this case give up any idea of a librarian who should be capable of directing their studies. His duty would be merely to take care of the books, and there are many very competent persons in Rome who could execute this office, and attend at stated times for very little remuneration; not perhaps English, but Germans or Italians; and in this way a sum of five hundred