COLLECTION OF VOYAGES AND TRAVELS, FROM THE PERIOD OF THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA, TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. IN TWENTY-EIGHT VOLUMEL VOL. XVIII. LONDON: PRINTED FOR RICHARD PHILLIPS, BRIDGE-STREET BLACKFRIARS, By T. Gillet, Crown-court, Fleet-street. 1809. CONTENTS. Tour through the Northern Parts of Europe, par- ticularly Copenhagen, Stockholm, and Pe- tersburgh, in the Year 1774, interspersed - 249 TOU, R THROUGH SICILY AND MALTA, IN 1770, BY P. BRYDONE, Esq. F.R.S. THIS interesting tour, which unites animated descriptions of places with just and philosophical remarks on men and manners, was originally published in the epistolary form, and addressed to William Beckford, of Somerly in Suffolk, Esq. To abridge such a work, and to preserve its spirit, is a difficult task. There is a freedom and variety in letters, which will ill bear the trammels of regular history. Being at Naples*, in May 1770, our author, in company with Messrs. Fullerton and Glover, formed the plan of visiting Sicily, a country little known to scientific travellers, and therefore presenting a wide field for novelty and observation. After waiting some days for a favourable wind, at last they embarked on the 15th of May, and in a short time found themselves in the middle of the Bay of Naples, surrounded by the most beautiful scenery in the world. The bay is of a circular figure, in most places upwards of twenty miles in diameter. The whole of its circumference is wonderfully diversified by all * Mr. Brydone gives a very unfavourable account of the climate of Naples, particularly when the sirocc, or south-east wind blows. This wind is extremely relaxing, and brings on such a degree of lassitude, that neither body nor mind can perform their usual functions. Even the natives do not suf fer less than strangers from its baleful effects, which are almost sufficient to extinguish every passion for the time. |