Women and girls appear dressed in black; they are usually accustomed to throw a wide cloak over their other garments, and wear a mantilla which conceals arms, chest, and head.  The face is left uncovered, and I saw some very lovely ones smiling forth from the black drapery.  Rich people wear these upper garments of silk; the cloaks of the poorer classes are made of merino or cheap woollen stuffs.

It was Sunday when I entered Lavalette for the first time.  Every street and church was thronged with people, all of whom were neatly and decently dressed.  I saw but few beggars, and those whom I met were less ragged than the generality of their class.

The military, the finest I had ever seen, consisted entirely of tall handsome men, mostly Scotchmen.  Their uniforms were very tasteful.  One regiment wore scarlet jackets and white linen trousers; another, black jackets and shoulder-knots,—­in fact, the whole uniform is black, with the exception of the trousers, which are of white linen.

It seemed much more the fashion to drive than to ride here.  The coaches are of a very peculiar kind, which I hardly think can be found elsewhere.  They consist of a venerable old rattling double-seated box, swinging upon two immense wheels, and drawn by a single horse in shafts.  The coachman generally runs beside his vehicle.

October 3d.

To-day I drove in a carriage (for the first time since my departure from Vienna, a period of six months and a half) to Civita Vecchia, to view this ancient town of Malta, and particularly the celebrated church of St. Peter and St. Paul.  On this occasion I traversed the whole length of the island, and had an opportunity of viewing the interior.

Malta consists of a number of little elevations, and is intersected in all directions by excellent roads.  I also continually passed handsome villages, some of them so large that they looked like thriving little towns.  The heights are frequently crowned by churches of considerable extent and beauty; although the whole island consists of rock and sandstone, vegetation is sufficiently luxurious.  Fig, lemon, and orange trees grow every where, and plantations of the cotton-shrub are as common as potato-fields in my own country.  The stems of these shrubs are not higher than potato-plants, and are here cultivated exactly in the same way.  I was told that they had been stunted this year by the excessive drought, but that in general they grew a foot higher.

The peasants were every where neatly dressed, and live in commodious well-built houses, universally constructed of stone, and furnished with terraces in lieu of roofs.

CIVITA VECCHIA

is a town of splendid houses and very elegant country-seats.  Many inhabitants of Lavalette spend the summer here, in the highest portion of the island.