This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1806 Excerpt: ...agreeable to my inclinations than to meet such good company; but the situation of my affairs prevented me. It was at the time that the American war had created a great sensation both in England and in France. I was afraid that the conversation would be full of national reflections, and not having entirely relinquished my diplomatic character, I thought I might give umbrage to government by my stay, and what was still more, suffer in the opinion of the English ministers; I judged it more prudent, therefore, to defer seeing my friends to another time; and having received a letter from Lord Algernon Percy, who wrote to me that he was going to Italy, and invited me to join him, I met this nobleman at Florence, and passed some time with him there. It is necessary to make some stay in that town, to be able to appretiate the genius and character of its inhabitants. I have never found any people who unite, like themselves, suchabundanceof talent and wit with such simplicity of manners and good-nature. I found those qualities there more than any where else, among the nobility whom I most frequented, although I visited also several citizens' houses, and observed the lower classes with attention. The Florentines have no national vanity, though many have it with much less pretensions to it. They do justice to strangers, and treat and welcome them with affability. The ladies are extremely amiable, they have that gentleness, that goodness, and that engaging manner, which is so well suited to their sex. They have not the grace of French women, nor the noble deportment of the English, nor the studied air of the German or Dutch. They are satisfied with having a manner which is naturally their own; and I have seldom seen women less affected, and of whom one could more easily ...