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my journal, had I not been entertained,
during dinner, with a kind of vocal
music which I had not before heard in
Italy: it consisted of a psalm, in three
parts, performed by boys of different
ages, who were proceeding from their
school to the cathedral, in procession,
with their master, a priest, at their head,
who sung the base. There was more
melody than usual in this kind of music;
and although they marched through the
street very fast, yet they sung very well
in time and tune. These boys are a kind
of religious press-gang, who seize all
other boys they can find in their way to
the church, in order to be catechised.
In coming from Verona to this city, I
overtook a great number of Pilgrims,
young men, who were going to Assisi to
visit the tomb of St. Francis; the Vene-
tian subjects used to go to Loretto once a
year, but the senate has forbidden them
to quit the territories of the republic.
Several of them marched in large com-
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