Amongst talents cultivated in these young girls, music is in the first rank.

Every Sunday at the church of each of the four 'scuole', during vespers, motettos or anthems with full choruses, accompanied by a great orchestra, and composed and directed by the best masters in Italy, are sung in the galleries by girls only; not one of whom is more than twenty years of age.

I have not an idea of anything so voluptuous and affecting as this music; the richness of the art, the exquisite taste of the vocal part, the excellence of the voices, the justness of the execution, everything in these delightful concerts concurs to produce an impression which certainly is not the mode, but from which I am of opinion no heart is secure.

Carrio and I never failed being present at these vespers of the 'Mendicanti', and we were not alone.

The church was always full of the lovers of the art, and even the actors of the opera came there to form their tastes after these excellent models.