Can you think, Sir, after what I have told you, that a Foreigner passes his Time here well? No, truly, ROME is a City that a young Gentleman indeed ought absolutely to see; for here he will conceive a perfect Notion of Architecture, establish himself in a Taste for Painting and Sculpture, and acquire a true Idea of the Magnificence of old ROME: But when he has digested all this, I would advise him to be gone, since there is nothing more for him to learn, and he is in Danger of forgetting every thing. There is not so much as one good Fencing Master, and scarce a Master of the Languages that understands the _Italian_; and those who are Dabblers in this Way are generally Foreigners, who have neither Accent nor Method. All that a young Gentleman can learn here is Architecture, and the Canon Law; for as to Ecclesiastical History, there are few People that are Masters of it in its Purity.
A Gentleman that lives beyond the Mountains will here be apt to forget the good Manners he may have contracted in _France_, or elsewhere; for, I say it again, the Generality of the _Romans_ know nothing more than Ceremony, because they are ignorant of good Manners, and there’s scarce one of them in a thousand that has the Air of a Man of Quality: To be a Judge of this, one must see them at Table, and in what a very slovenly Manner they behave at their Meals, which is owing to their eating generally alone; for they then loll so much at Table, that when they dine in Company, they are at a Loss what to do. They are not only nasty in their manner of eating, but in their Cloaths; for I believe there is not above one out of thirty that puts on fresh Linen every Day. I remember that in 1719, when I was in _France_, a Reformado Colonel, who, tho’ an _Italian_, was in the _French_ Service, often came to me in a Morning, and seeing me dress myself, told me one Day that he observ’d I follow’d the _French_ Fashion strictly: I ask’d him, In what? He made Answer, In my changing my Shirt every Day. Nevertheless I wou’d not have you think that this Slovenliness is general; for there are People as much perfum’d here as elsewhere; and you may take my Word for it, that a _Petit-Maître_ at ROME is as great a Fop as the pertest _French Petit-Maître_. Indeed they are more rare here than elsewhere, because no young Sparks are admitted to the Assemblies before they are twenty Years of Age.