A great deal of Scotch music is introduced in this Ballo, and seems to give great satisfaction.  At the little theatre of San Carlino I witnessed the representation of Rossini’s Cenerentola, a most delightful piece.  The young actress who did the part of Cenerentola acted it to perfection and sung so sweetly and correctly, that it would seem as if the role were composed on purpose for her.  The part of Don Magnifico was extremely well played, and those of the sisters very fairly and appropriately.  The three actresses who did the part of Cenerentola and her sisters, were all handsome, but she who did Cenerentola surpassed them all; she was a perfect beauty and a grace.  I think the music of this opera would please the public taste in England.  Rossini seems to have banished every other musical composer from the stage.

I have seen, at the Theatre of San Carlo, the Don Giovanni of Mozart; but certainly, after being accustomed to the extreme vivacity of Rossini’s style, the music, even of the divine Mozart, appears to go off heavily.  There is too much of what the French call musique de fanfares in the opera of Don Giovanni and I believe most of the Italians are of my way of thinking.

We have just heard of the death of the poor Princess Charlotte.  I am no great admirer of Kings and Queens; and yet I must own, I could not help feeling regret for the death of this princess.  I had formed a very high opinion of her, from many traits in her character; and I fancied and hoped that she was destined to redeem England from the degradation and bad odour into which she had been plunged by the borough-mongers and bureaucrats, engendered by the Pitt system.  She had liberal ideas and an independent spirit.  I really almost caught myself shedding tears at this event, and had she been buried here, I should have gone to scatter flowers upon her tomb: 

  His saltem accumulem donis, et fungar inani
  Munere.[108]

Has no royalist or ministerial poet been found to do hommage to her manes?  Had she lived to be Queen of England she would have found a thousand venal pens to give her every virtue under heaven.

There is a professor of natural philosophy now at Naples, of the name of Amici, from Modena, who has invented a microscope of immense power.  The circulation of the blood in the thigh of a frog (the coldest animal in nature), when viewed thro’ this microscope, appears to take place with the rapidity of a Swiss torrent.

Since I have been here, I have once more ascended Vesuvius; there was no eruption at all this time, but I witnessed the sight of a stream of red-hot liquid lava flowing slowly down the flank of the mountain.  It was about two and a half feet broad.