Being a youth of great personal agility, fitted thereby to
the graceful performance of polkas, etc.; having good manners, and good
looks, and good credit with Prince Poloni, or some other banker, Mr.
Newcome was thus made very welcome to the Anglo-Roman society; and as
kindly received in genteel houses, where they drank tea and danced the
galop, as in those dusky taverns and retired lodgings where his bearded
comrades, the painters held their meetings.
Thrown together every day, and night after night; flocking to the same
picture-galleries, statue-galleries, Pincian drives, and church
functions, the English colonists at Rome perforce became intimate, and in
many cases friendly. They have an English library where the various meets
for the week are placarded: on such a day the Vatican galleries are open:
the next is the feast of Saint So-and-so: on Wednesday there will be
music and vespers at the Sistine Chapel--on Thursday, the Pope will bless
the animals--sheep, horses, and what-not: and flocks of English
accordingly rush to witness the benediction of droves of donkeys.
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