. . . . To beggars--after my much experience both in
England and Italy--I give very little, though I am not certain that it
would not often be real beneficence in the latter country. There being
little or no provision for poverty and age, the poor must often suffer.
Nothing can be more earnest than their entreaties for aid; nothing
seemingly more genuine than their gratitude when they receive it.
They return you the value of their alms in prayers, and say, "God will
accompany you." Many of them have a professional whine, and a certain
doleful twist of the neck and turn of the head, which hardens my heart
against them at once. A painter might find numerous models among them,
if canvas had not already been more than sufficiently covered with their
style of the picturesque. There is a certain brick-dust colored cloak
worn in Viterbo, not exclusively by beggars, which, when ragged enough,
is exceedingly artistic.
ROME.
68 Piazza Poli, October 17th.--We left Viterbo on the 15th, and
proceeded, through Monterosi, to Sette Verse.
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