On the approach of spring I withdraw without reluctance from the noisy and extensive scene of crowds without company, and dissipation without pleasure.

It was Rome, on the fifteenth of October 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefoot friars were singing vespers in the Temple of…

I was never less alone than when by myself. 6

The captain of the Hampshire grenadiers...has not been useless to the historian of the Roman Empire.