THE Lutherans are not quite free from these follies.  I have seen here, in the principal church, a large piece of the cross set in jewels, and the point of the spear, which they told me very gravely, was the same that pierced the side of our Saviour.  But I was particularly diverted in a little Roman Catholic church which is permitted here, where the professors of that religion are not very rich, and consequently cannot adorn their images in so rich a manner as their neighbour.  For, not to be quite destitute of all finery, they have dressed up an image of our Saviour over the altar, in a fair full-bottomed wig very well powdered.  I imagine I see your lady ship stare at this article, of which you very much doubt the veracity; but, upon my word, I have not yet made use of the privilege of a traveller; and my whole account is written with the same plain sincerity of heart, with which I assure you that I am, dear Madam,
          
                                             yours, &c. &c.

LET.  VI.

To MRS P——.

Ratisbon, Aug. 30 O. S. 1716.

I HAD the pleasure of receiving yours, but the day before I left London.  I give you a thousand thanks for your good wishes, and have such an opinion of their efficacy that, I am persuaded, I owe in part, to them, the good luck of having proceeded so far on my long journey without any ill accident.  For I don’t reckon it any, to have been stopped a few days in this town by a cold, since it has not only given me an opportunity of seeing all that is curious in it, but of making some acquaintance with the ladies, who have all been to see me with great civility, particularly Madame ——­, the wife of our king’s envoy from Hanover.  She has carried me to all the assemblies, and I have been magnificently entertained at her house, which is one of the finest here.  You know, that all the nobility of this place are envoys from different states.  Here are a great number of them, and they might pass their time agreeably enough, if they were less delicate on the point of ceremony.  But instead of joining in the design of making the town as pleasant to one another as they can, and improving their little societies, they amuse themselves no other way than with perpetual quarrels, which they take care to eternize (sic), by leaving them to their successors; and an envoy to Ratisbon receives, regularly, half a dozen quarrels, among the perquisites of his employment.  You may be sure the ladies are not wanting, on their side, in cherishing and improving these important picques, which divide the town almost into as many parties, as there are families.  They chuse rather to suffer the mortification of sitting almost alone on their assembly nights, than to recede one jot from their pretensions.  I have not been here above a week, and yet I have heard from almost every one of them the whole history of their wrongs, and dreadful complaint of the injustice of their neighbours,