The Road From Hence To Rocabiliare Is In Some
Parts Very Dangerous, Lying Along The Brink Of Precipices,
Impassable To Any Other Carriage But A Mule.
The town itself
affords bad lodging and accommodation, and little or no society.
The waters are at the distance of a mile and a half from the
town: there are no baths nor shelter, nor any sort of convenience
for those that drink them; and the best part of their efficacy is
lost, unless they are drank at the fountain-head. If these
objections were in some measure removed, I would advise
valetudinarians, who come hither for the benefit of this climate,
to pass the heats of summer at Rocabiliare, which being situated
among mountains, enjoys a cool temperate air all the summer. This
would be a salutary respite from the salt air of Nice, to those
who labour under scorbutical complaints; and they would return
with fresh vigour and spirits, to pass the winter in this place,
where no severity of weather is known. Last June, when I found
myself so ill at my cassine, I had determined to go to
Rocabiliare, and even to erect a hut at the spring, for my own
convenience. A gentleman of Nice undertook to procure me a
tolerable lodging in the house of the cure, who was his relation.
He assured me, there was no want of fresh butter, good poultry,
excellent veal, and delicate trout; and that the articles of
living might be had at Rocabiliare for half the price we paid at
Nice: but finding myself grow better immediately on my return
from the cassine to my own house, I would not put myself to the
trouble and expence of a further removal.
I think I have now communicated all the particulars relating to
Nice, that are worth knowing; and perhaps many more than you
desired to know: but, in such cases, I would rather be thought
prolix and unentertaining, than deficient in that regard and
attention with which I am very sincerely, - Your friend and
servant.
LETTER XXV
NICE, January 1, 1765.
DEAR SIR, - It was in deference to your opinion, reinforced by my
own inclination, and the repeated advice of other friends, that I
resolved upon my late excursion to Italy. I could plainly
perceive from the anxious solicitude, and pressing exhortations
contained in all the letters I had lately received from my
correspondents in Britain, that you had all despaired of my
recovery. You advised me to make a pilgrimage among the Alps, and
the advice was good. In scrambling among those mountains, I
should have benefited by the exercise, and at the same time have
breathed a cool, pure, salubrious air, which, in all probability,
would have expelled the slow fever arising in a great measure
from the heat of this climate. But, I wanted a companion and
fellow traveller, whose conversation and society could alleviate
the horrors of solitude. Besides, I was not strong enough to
encounter the want of conveniences, and even of necessaries to
which I must have been exposed in the course of such an
expedition.
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