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TOUR 
 
 THROUGH 
 
 SEVERAL DEPARTMENTS OF FRANCE. 
 
^ 
 
 ^ 
 
A 
 
 TOUR 
 
 THROUGH SEVERAL OF THE 
 
 MIDLAND AND WESTERN DEPARTMENTS 
 OF 
 
 FRANCE, 
 
 JN THE MONTHS OF JUNE, JULY, AUGUST, AND 
 SEPTEMBER, 1802. 
 
 With Remarks on the 
 
 MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND AGRICULTURE 
 
 OF 
 
 THE COUNTRY. 
 
 BY 
 
 TH£ rev. w. hughes. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 Sontian: 
 
 Printed by J.* Cundee, Ivy-Lane, 
 TOR THOMAS OSTELL, AVE - MARIA - LANE. 
 
 1803. 
 
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 .ft, 4t 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 XT will presently be perceived, that the fol- 
 lowing narrative of a Tour through parts of 
 France but seldom visited by Englishmen, 
 has little more to recommend it than its 
 path " almost untrodden," and the few 
 anecdotes with which it is interspersed. In 
 fact, it is neither more nor less than a series 
 of memorandums and reflections penned 
 sometimes upon the road; sometimes at 
 the inns upon it, and that it commonly par- 
 takes, as will be expected, of pain and plea- 
 sure ; of admiration and disgust ; and is tinc- 
 tured with the lassitude and feeble exhaus- 
 tion of the weary days on which it was 
 written, 
 
 2 Nothing 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 Nothing could be farther from the 
 writer's mind, than the idea of thus appear- 
 ing before the public. When the task of 
 stringing his notes together was undertaken, 
 his highest ambition was by inserting them 
 in that vehicle of monthly amusement, The 
 Visitor, to gratify the anxious curiosity of 
 friends who were kindly interested in his 
 and the adventures of his fellow-traveller, 
 and to furnish them with the information 
 relative to the present state of France, 
 which in common with the rest of man- 
 kind, they w^ere anxious to obtain ; but, 
 when the manuscript was presented to the 
 editors of that popular work, it was re- 
 commended to bring it forward in its pre- 
 sent form, as the best means of promot- 
 ing the effect intended. Nought there- 
 fore remained but to disappoint those to 
 whom he had pledged himself — appear 
 thus before the world, or transcribe as ma- 
 ny copies as were requisite for the accom- 
 modation of a numerous connection ; a 
 
 task 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 task which he was by no means disposed to 
 undertake. Averse a$ he is to the toil of 
 transcribing his own productions, he would 
 however once more have toiled through 
 the following pages, corrected his plan, 
 and rendered the construction of his sen- 
 tences less faulty, had not the immediate 
 return to the continent which he contem- 
 plates, rendered it utterly impracticable : 
 not that he is by any means assured that 
 the result would have been worth the pains, 
 — The creature of a day will live but a day, 
 trick it out as gaily as you will — wishing 
 onlv to inform and amuse an affectionate 
 and much loved circle, facts alone will be 
 demanded of him. If those facts, unartifi- 
 cially detailed interest their feelings, and 
 with pleasure fill up an idle hour, he is ac- 
 quitted — if others read them with approba- 
 tion, he is more than paid. Of the draw- 
 ings, he has only to regret that they were 
 not finished with a more masterly hand ; 
 to every rule of perspective he is an utter 
 
 stranger. 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 stranger. From his rude sketches* female 
 friendship has however formed what is ful- 
 ly sufficient to develope his ideas : had he 
 held a more expert pencil, he would have 
 enriched the volume with many other 
 equally interesting representations. 
 
 LOXDOy, 
 MARCH, 1S03. 
 
TOUR 
 
 THROUGH 
 
 SEVERAL DEPARTMENTS OF FRANCE. 
 
 IN order to form an opinion of the manners of 
 a people, it is necessary that we reside amongst 
 them : the character is ascertained by a variety of 
 circumstances of which the hasty passenger can 
 form no conception ; and not unfrequently it hap- 
 pens, that as soon as he lands upon a foreign 
 shore, he lifts up his hands in admiration, and is 
 astonished at the inconceivable folly and absur- 
 dity of customs, which, ere he is six weeks 
 older, he finds are the result of long experience 
 and observation, and most expressly adapted to 
 the circumstances of the people who adopt them; 
 for this reason my journal is not to be considered 
 as containing an exact account of every thing 
 which occurs as it absolutely is, but as it appeared 
 to me. I shall detail the occurrences which took 
 place, with the impressions made upon my mind, 
 
 b and 
 
2 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 and leave it to experience to teach me how far 
 my sensations were fastidious, and how far they 
 were not. 
 
 June 15, at seven in the evening, about twen- 
 ty of us took our stations in a little cock-boat, 
 at Brighthelmstone ; and, after an hour's row, 
 got safely shipped on board the Lark, bound to 
 Dieppe. Many of us had never been at sea be- 
 fore, and, of course, our expectations of the 
 storms and tempests, shipwrecks, and hair-breadth 
 escapes, which always overtake us in our first voy- 
 age, ran very high. Happily, we passed the 
 night without alarm ; and, at break of day, found 
 ourselves, to our very great mortification, just 
 under the English shore still : the calm was perfect ; 
 it was impossible for invention itself to make a 
 storm of it, or to extract a single circumstance 
 from the occurrences of the night, with which to 
 fill the budget of gaping wonder ; it being im- 
 possible to command the winds, we had nothing 
 to do but to submit. About the close of the se- 
 cond evening, we found ourselves nearly half-seas 
 over; and., with all due reverence for the man- 
 dates of inevitable necessity, we retired a second 
 time to our cots---I had almost said to our coffins, 
 for a ship's bed and a coffin are nearly of the same 
 size and construction ; but, ere the sun was well 
 risen (a sight which, by the bye, is glorious when 
 viewed from the deck in calm weather) we were 
 
 roused 
 4 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 3 
 
 roused from our slumbers by the gabbling of the 
 French pilots, whose sharp-sighted poverty had, 
 descried us, and were got along side: in a few 
 moments, a meagre-faced, shrivelled old fellow, 
 with a woollen night-cap on his head, and a short 
 stinking pipe in his mouth, jumped on board, 
 and seized the helm ; had we been at Billingsgate 
 the clamour would have been less. The tide had 
 dropped ere we arrived upon the coast ; of course 
 we had nothing to do but to cast anchor ; and, 
 the wind freshening a little, it will be concluded 
 that the motion of the ship became very accept- 
 able to those who were already qualmish and in- 
 commoded by the length of the passage. How- 
 ever, we all contrived to leave the settling of our 
 accounts to some future opportunity; and, at the 
 appointed signal made for the Pier-head, it was 
 impossible not to notice the awkwardness of the 
 French seamen as they worked the vessel into 
 harbour. The pilot felt it; and, the expression 
 of his smoke-dried distorted visage, as often as 
 they ran it aground, would have been amusing, 
 had we not apprehended, from the agony which 
 his features expressed, some real danger. The 
 first glance of the French coast presents us with 
 nothing which is very interesting: the harbour of 
 Dieppe is fine and well situated ; in war, it generally 
 fits out a great number of small privateers, which 
 annoy the trade of the Channel; and was for- 
 merly, on this account, bombarded by the com- 
 
 b 2 bined 
 
4 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 bined English and Dutch fleets, and completely 
 demolished; the piers having been unhappily 
 neglected during the convulsions of the revolu- 
 tion, are gone to decay; the channel is choaked 
 with sand and gravel, and it may be doubted 
 whether it be possible to restore it to its pristine 
 state. The aspect of the town, as you approach 
 it, is deplorable, though completely uniform in 
 consequence of its comparative modern erection, 
 and laid out in forms very far superior to those 
 commonly seen in France ; yet, wretchedness is 
 painted on every feature; the houses have, appa- 
 rently, been untouched by the hand of repair 
 from their primitive erection ; their fronts are 
 blackened by neglect, like a smelting-house ; the 
 windows, which reach from the deling; to the floor, 
 and are furnished with balconies of wrought-iron, 
 once elegant, are generally garnished with old 
 stockings, old shirts, night-caps, and children's 
 linen, and, in short, all the contents of the 
 laundry; spiders, and vermin of a hundred sorts, 
 have tenanted, undisturbed, every corner; and 
 the accumulated filth of generations, long since 
 mouldering in the dust, almost renders the glass 
 impervious: in short, the tout-ensemble is po- 
 verty in the extreme. To account for all this, 
 we must look to a higher source than the revo- 
 lution. It is, by no means, the effect of any 
 thing modern; it is the result of abuses which 
 flourished under the Bourbons; but, for the op- 
 pressions 
 
m 
 
 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 5 
 
 pressions of the antient government, there is no 
 reason to be assigned why an English port should 
 bear the aspect of comfort, a French port the 
 aspect of misery. Dieppe is, as we before said, 
 well situated; its quays are excellent; its har- 
 bour is spacious; and many a port in England 
 far inferior to it in accommodation ; carries on a 
 trade which scatters blessings upon its inhabitants : 
 but, on the one, liberty has planted its standard 
 —the other crouches the victim of despotism. 
 Since the peace, the solemn stillness which, for 
 many a tedious year, had reigned in its custom- 
 house, its docks, &c. has given place to bustle 
 and activity. The first English packet which came 
 over was welcomed with shouts of joy; and the 
 scarcity of corn which, in the earlier part of the 
 year, prevailed over France, has brought to it 
 fleets of English, Swedish, and Danish vessels, 
 so that the port seems now to be tolerably occu- 
 pied, and devoted to the purposes which nature 
 contemplated in its formation; and, ere long, 
 we may hope to see some taste for cleanliness in- 
 troduced also; the furniture and floors of the 
 houses disrobed of their accumulated coats of 
 filth; and neatness, comfort, and propriety suc- 
 ceeding to squallid wretchedness. The pave- 
 ment of the streets is execrable, and ill contrived ; 
 a Frenchman has not yet conceived the idea of a 
 public sewer beneath the surface of the earth; 
 one grand receptacle of filth is hollowed out along 
 
 b 3 the 
 
D A TOIR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 the midway of every avenue, with collateral 
 branches to right and left, connecting with the 
 kitchen, &c. of every house, if they have one 
 (which is very seldom the case), of course, as 
 you drive along, if you are in a French equipage, 
 your joints are liable to dislocation every moment: 
 if you are in your own, you are tossed about like 
 a cock-boat upon a rolling sea, and may think 
 yourself extremely fortunate if you escape through 
 the barrier without a broken head, or fractured 
 spring. 
 
 Of the public buildings and erections, I have 
 little to say, being in too much haste to examine 
 whether there were any worth attention or not. 
 The promenade, on the ramparts, is beautiful; 
 in the middle of the town there is a salt spring, 
 possessing, I presume, the same diarhaetic qua- 
 lities with other springs of the same taste ; other 
 furiosities I believe there are none. 
 
 Having spent the afternoon and night at Di- 
 eppe, to recruit the fatigues of our voyage- --on the 
 1 8th we pursued our journey towards Rouen, but 
 in a mode which the pencil of Hogarth alone can 
 describe: the post-horses being here farmed by 
 the government, no one is permitted to furnish 
 the traveller with relays but the constituted post- 
 master. You must take, therefore, the horses 
 and the harnesses which he is pleased to give you ; 
 
 and, 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 7 
 
 and, as long as you are cantered along, at the 
 rate of six miles an hour, without breaking your 
 neck, it is supposed that all things are well, 
 and you have no right to complain— -in fact, 
 you may as well be silent. The horses may be 
 spavined, broken-winded, stumbling, lean as 
 Rosinante, and chaffed, and galled from head to 
 tail, it matters not; with all this you have no- 
 thing to do. His business is not to humour your 
 fastidiousness, but to get you to the end of the 
 stage; and, this being accomplished, he, or ra- 
 ther his agent, holds up his hand for the " Ar- 
 gent," which the government has authorised him 
 to demand, though, it must be confessed, that 
 the stranger has seldom reason to complain of the 
 cattle; they are rough as savages, and all of the 
 masculine gender; but they are alert, and drag 
 him along with safety and with speed. With the 
 Voiture the post-master has no concern, unless you 
 have brought a carriage with you from England. 
 The Aubugiste furnishes you with one himself, 
 or procures one for you at the remise : of course 
 your accommodation in this respect is, in some 
 degree, proportioned to the price you are dis- 
 posed to pay. I say in some degree ; for no mo- 
 ney can obtain for you an equipage, comparable 
 in neatness and convenience, to an English ped- 
 lar's cart ; take the most execrable of the Brent- 
 ford stages, it is elegant, it is comfortable, com- 
 pared to a French diligence ; for this reason, no 
 
 b 4 English 
 
8 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 English family should think of travelling in France 
 without taking over an old post-chaise with them: 
 to introduce a good one upon the French roads 
 would be a sin against common-sense, and only 
 serve to poison the pleasures of the excursion. 
 A Frenchman, from habit, can bear shocks and 
 convulsions which would dislocate the vertebrae 
 of a Sampson. When you have fixed upon your 
 vehicle, the passengers, the trunks, the wheels 
 are all counted ---size and weight are totally out 
 of the question ; had you Bright of Maldon, or 
 an infant at the breast, for a fellow-traveller, you 
 must have a horse for each; in short, you must 
 pay for as many horses as you have passengers, 
 whether in the carriage, behind it, or on the box, 
 together with the prescribed number of posti- 
 lions, if they attend you or not; all of which is 
 expressly stipulated in the ordonnances of the 
 government. # Having arranged how many horses, 
 
 how 
 
 * On the post-roads travellers have to pay twopence 
 halfpenny per mile for each horse, and one penny farthing 
 per mile to each postilion, who is forbidden to demand, or 
 receive more, though tenpence is generally given; and, should 
 he feel himself dissatisfied, insult, or give umbrage to the 
 passenger, in any respect, there is to be found, at every 
 post-house, a book, regularly paged and lined, which the 
 post-master is compelled to produce on demand. In this 
 book you enter your complaint, and the inspector-general, 
 when he traverses the departments to superintend and regu- 
 late 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 9 
 
 how many postilions ycu are to pay for, at the 
 appointed hour your voiture comes to your door 
 —but such a cumbersome piece of antiquity as 
 would, long since, have been consigned, on the 
 English side of the water, to the galleries of the 
 British museum, or to the flames. 
 
 Two parties of our fellow-passengers went oft 
 immediately after landing; the one in a Berlin, 
 the other in a Cabriolet \ and, though surrounded 
 by hundreds of the natives, some gazing with 
 curiosity, others tweaking our elbows, and, with 
 weazand-distorted countenances, miserable marks 
 of poverty, begging " le noble captained and the 
 " tres belle demoiselle pour I 'amour de dieu" to 
 pity them; and, promising how ardently they 
 
 late the affairs of his office, will not fail to punish an offence 
 according to its degree ; for this reason, and to preserve or- 
 der and activity, he is enjoined never to quit his station 
 without leaving a responsible substitute. And the postilion 
 bears upon his arm a ticket similar to that carried by the 
 Smithfield-drovers, specifying his own identity, and the re- 
 lay to which he belongs. In general, travellers are compel- 
 led to take as many horses as they have companions and 
 postilions, none of which can have more than three horses 
 under their care ; but, in cases where two-wheel carriages 
 contain but two passengers, they may compromise the mat- 
 ter with the post-master, by paving for two horses and a 
 half. At the barrier, this may be an object worth atten- 
 tion. 
 
 would 
 
10 A TOUR THROUGH FRAXCK. 
 
 would pray to the Virgin to bless us, it was im- 
 possible to refrain from laughter ; by the bye, had 
 a company of Frenchmen, fresh landed in Bri- 
 tain, presumed to treat its conveyances-— or, in 
 short, any thing English, with as little ceremony, 
 John Bull would have growled like an angry bear, 
 and, most probably, broken their heads, byway 
 of teaching them a proper deference for the man- 
 ners and customs of foreign nations. At Dieppe, 
 the Frenchmen joined in the laugh, and were as 
 much amused with the grotesque contrivances of 
 their countrymen as we. The Berlin is a large 
 cumbersome German coach, constructed some- 
 time about the commencement of the former cen- 
 tury : within, it has accommodation for the usual 
 number of passengers; and, in the front, i. e. 
 betwixt the front-back and the horses, it has a 
 seat for three others, with an awning knee-boot, 
 and oiUcase curtain, to preserve them from the 
 inclemency of the weather— this is called the Ca- 
 briolet of the Berlin. On account of the nar- 
 rowness of the streets in all the continental towns, 
 this curious compound is crane-necked, and 
 painted and varnished in a style which once was 
 splendid. 
 
 The Cabriolet at a distance looks something like 
 an English one horse-chaise, but infinitely clum- 
 sier. It is constructed wholly of heart of oak, and 
 descends from father to son with the family estate 
 
 if 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 11 
 
 if there be one. Its timbers are not a line more 
 slender than the corresponding timbers of a York- 
 shire waggon, and its weight may probably be about 
 half a ton: sometimes it is furnished with what 
 are called springs, and there may be elasticity in 
 them, but compared with them the springs of an 
 English mail-coach, are flexible and tender. This 
 is the vehicle most commonly resorted to by tra- 
 vellers in the country, and it is certainly well 
 adapted to it. Nevertheless, its weight and clum- 
 siness must unquestionably do infinitely more to- 
 wards reducing it to its first principles than the 
 villainous pavements over which it is rattled. 
 
 The harness perfectly corresponds with the roz- 
 ture. The saddle bears some distant resemblance 
 to the one on the back of our thill cart horse, 
 but is far more inelegant ; the collar beggars all 
 description ; the traces \re formed of ropes which 
 have snapped an hundred times, and been as of- 
 ten knotted and spliced by the postilions. Bridie 
 is commonly dispensed with, a leathern halter 
 supplies its place, furnished with the wirtn&r on- 
 ly, which is on the side next to the driver to pre- 
 serve the eye from the back stroke of his whip. 
 When as many are used, the horses run three 
 a- breast, in consequence of which the middle- 
 most tugs along as in a furnace, and foams and 
 sweats in a manner which is painfully distressing. 
 The one on which the postilion is mounted, has, 
 
 however, 
 
12 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 however, the worst birth of the three. It is at- 
 tached to the splinter-bar as well as the others, 
 and has its full share of the resistance to surmount 
 In addition to this, it has besides to carry an enor- 
 mous pair of jack- boots, which added to the par- 
 ty-coloured character occupying them, form a 
 load fully sufficient for the sinews of the strongest 
 beast without participating with the common 
 business behind them. I have never seen any 
 thing in England which can be admitted into 
 competition with this chef-d'oeuvre of superlative 
 awkwardness ! It is formed indeed of leather, 
 but pipe-staves would have served as well; with- 
 in, it is hooped with rings of iron, and at the 
 knee, padded out with goats' hair, wool and 
 straw, and weighs about twenty-five pounds 
 each. We need not say, that it is by no means 
 an easy atchievement to vault into ti postilion's 
 saddle ; however, having accomplished it, Rosi- 
 nante may trot rough as the spavin and hard ser- 
 vice can make him- --if he has any mettle left he 
 may caper and prance, there is not the least rea- 
 son to apprehend that his rider can be displaced 
 -—he may tumble down, but were an elephant to 
 roll his mighty sides across the leg, it would re- 
 main in perfect safety beneath the iron-arch. 
 
 As to symmetry and elegance of form, it enters 
 as much into the brains of the horse as of the 
 Maitre de Poste, and one would imagine, that 
 
 the 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 13 
 
 the strength of a post-horse, like Sampsons, was 
 seated in his locks, or that it were the unpardona- 
 ble sin to pluck a hair from its mane, or prune 
 the bushment about its heels— -here and there a 
 postilion impelled by necessity weaves a few oaten 
 straws into the tails of his stallions, and then at- 
 taches the extremity to the crupper to raise it out 
 of the mud, but the mane is absolutely left to na- 
 ture and its tangles are unviolated by the comb ; 
 what with little care would become a beauteous 
 object is now permitted to degenerate into a filthy 
 and disgusting deformity. 
 
 As soon as your baggage is bound on, which 
 during the operation is sacre dieu'd as completely 
 as an Englishman would blast it, and you are 
 seated with your heart of oak-knee-boot firmly 
 bolted in its place (i. e. if you have chosen the 
 cabriolet), crack, crack, crack, goes the whip, as 
 if la Fleur* meant to crack the drum of your ears, 
 and away you go, two up and two down, some 
 trotting, some gallopping over the gutters, through 
 thick and thin as though a bailiff were at your 
 heels ! But no sooner have you crossed the bar- 
 rier, than your stallions come to a dead point, 
 the traces are snapped, the axle-tree is bent, a 
 spoke is started, or a shoe lost--*some accident 
 
 * A name frequently given to postilions. 
 
 or 
 
14 A T0CR THROUGH FRANC F. 
 
 or other inevitably has taken place, which re- 
 quires at least an hour to be repaired. If your 
 carriage be handsome, your conductor begins at 
 full half a league before you reach a village to 
 summon with his whip all the inhabitants it con- 
 tains to their doors, and looks all complacence 
 as they crowd by hundreds to the post-house, 
 some to gaze upon the cause of all this bustle, 
 and some to intreat his charity. Not so, how- 
 ever within, while he is displaying all the genius 
 of his profession, rattling round every corner as 
 the neck had never been broken— -brandishing his 
 thong and back-stroke and fore-stroke, making 
 the air resound with his horrid din, melord An- 
 glais sits quaking as with a tertian ague in mo- 
 mentary expectation of here finishing his pere- 
 grinations. In vain he entreats his tormentor to 
 slacken his pace, with distress and apprehension 
 in every feature of his pale and cold clammy 
 countenance.— " Soyez tranquille—ri ayez pas 
 d'enquietude' with crack, crack, crack at its close 
 is all he can obtain. It is a Frenchman's glory to 
 cut a dash in the world; and, if an opportunity 
 offers, for his soul he cannot decline it, though 
 he cuts the heart-strings of the mother that bore 
 him. The same ceremony takes place as often as 
 you approach a post-house, which by the bye is 
 seldom an inn. The French roads are in general 
 furnished with nothing better than miserable 
 boutiques for " bon ean de vie' " bon inrT " bon 
 
 bierrt" 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 15 
 
 bierrf " bon cidre"— had you an appetite to 
 swallow the detestable fare which their cottages 
 commonly afford, stinking from afar with garlic, 
 leeks, and onions, and a thousand other villainous 
 smells, it were ten to one against your finding any. 
 Good liquor you may obtain at every third cabin, 
 if you may believe the sign-board— -your food you 
 must carry along with you : ample proof that the 
 Frenchman as devoutly bows before the jolly god, 
 as a John Bull or a German ; with all this crack- 
 ing, cutting and slashing, it is pleasant to re- 
 mark, that while temperance reigns amongst them, 
 the horses are seldom touched with the whip. A 
 French postilion is a stranger to that savage bru- 
 tality with which our hearts are hourly tortured 
 upon the British roads. ---He recollects that a 
 horse has feeling, that its skin smarts as keenly as 
 his own when it is wounded, and remembering 
 what pain and anguish mean, inflicts it with re- 
 luctance upon those who are lent to aid us in our 
 toil, and to improve our pleasure---not to be the 
 sport of our ferocity. 
 
 Arrived at the middle of the stage, the postilion 
 pulls in with a whexv, whew, whew, after the mode 
 of the English ostlers as soon as their horses re- 
 turn to their stables. You would suppose that 
 this interruption and its accompanying whistle 
 were meant to give the poor dripping slaves which 
 drag you along an opportunity of disencumber- 
 
 ing 
 
I(> A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 ing themselves of the superfluous overheated 
 moisture they carry within them--- in part it is the 
 case, but the zvhew, zvhezc, zckew, which is in- 
 tended to bring ideas of a certain complection to 
 the mind of the horse, brings similar ones to the 
 mind of the driver, and as soon as his jack-boots 
 will permit, which is not till many laborious ef- 
 forts have been made in vain, you see him de- 
 scending and fumbling about with the most 
 perfect sang froid, it matters not who is be- 
 hind him, he thinks no more of indelicacy than 
 his stallions, as soon as like Hudibras, he has 
 f taken time for both to stale' 1 he mounts again, 
 and with crack, crack, crack, pursues his journey. 
 Were a different mode of harnessing these ani- 
 mals adopted, the custom of using stallions alone 
 upon the post-road would be admirable- --their 
 strength is immense ; and though heavy, they are 
 not by any means sluggish : but in praise of their 
 temperance, little is to be said ; does a mare cross 
 their path or appear before them on the way, the 
 greetings and salutations with which they all unite 
 in accosting the lady, are absolutely formidable--- 
 nor can we much applaud their peaceable de- 
 meanour towards one another, though fellow- 
 labourers embarked in one common cause, and 
 bound by all the laws of charity to tug on at least 
 without incommoding each other, yet should it 
 happen that Monsieur It postilion has ill-timed 
 bis whexc xchexv, and that their necessities do not 
 
 5 keep 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 17 
 
 keep pace with his, before he has half finished his 
 petite affaire, they are all together by the ears, 
 kicking, biting, screaming, as though Pandaemo- 
 nium were broke loose ; thus interrupted, his sang 
 froid forsakes him, then it is the Frenchman rages, 
 and muttering many a sacre dieu, with his horrid 
 lash reduces them to order and subordination 
 again. At every delay this uproar is infallibly re- 
 newed. No sooner are they detached from the 
 carriage, and their awe-inspiring driver gone to 
 assist in preparing others to supply their places, 
 than a cloven-foot pushes itself forward, civil 
 dudgeon breaks out again with a din which is hor- 
 rible. Accustomed to the meek and docile man- 
 ners of our castrati it requires no little strength of 
 nerve to sit behind these " chevaux entiers" but 
 we soon get accustomed to every thing in this 
 world-— even ugliness itself: such is the happy 
 nack of accommodation which nature has given 
 to her children— a simple spreader passed from 
 bit to bit would anticipate all this discord; till they 
 smell at each others nostrils they are peaceable as 
 lambs. 
 
 At eight in the evening we arrived at the hotel 
 de V Europe, having travelled through 42 miles of 
 corn-fields, fringed with apple and pear-trees, 
 and studded here and there with enclosed tufts of 
 similar fruit-trees. The country is, in general, 
 flat— but the face of plenty, which it uniformly 
 
18 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 wears, is pleasing. The traveller cannot but be 
 at a loss to conceive by what means this broad ex- 
 panse is plowed, and sowed, and harvested, as, 
 through all the road over which we pass, steeples 
 are far more frequent than cottages. Before the 
 revolution, Normandy was amply furnished with 
 ecclesiastical establishments ; many a noble erec- 
 tion presents itself on the right hand and the left; 
 once only do we meet what may be called a 
 town. 
 
 Rouen is finely situated in the bosom of the 
 hills, with the Seine rolling its serpentine course 
 at its base, and an immense extent of level coun^ 
 try, waving with corn, stretching far to the South 
 as the eye can reach. The approach to this capi- 
 tal of Normandy is striking: the road is spa- 
 cious; in the middle, a raised and- well-preserved 
 pavement, forms an excellent winter-path for 
 carriages of every description; while, on either 
 side, a lofty row of noble plane-trees ; their 
 overhanging a gravel-road, and shading the pas-, 
 sengers from the intensity of the summer- sun, 
 forms an access admirably adapted to that season 
 of the year : behind them are dotted the pavilions 
 of the cits, who come here to breathe the evening 
 air, to gather the fruits of their own gardens, and 
 relax the cares and anxieties of business;-— the 
 back-ground is formed of extensive sheep-walks, 
 beautifully verdant, and reaching to the summit 
 
 of 
 4 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 19 
 
 of the mountains ;— the boulevards which en- 
 circle the whole city are planted with similar rows 
 of luxuriant elms, and form the most superb pro- 
 menade which is, perhaps, any where to be seen. 
 On the banks of the Seine commodious quays in- 
 vite the resort of commerce, and not a few vessels 
 of considerable burthen frequent them. Across 
 the river there is constructed a very singular float- 
 ing bridge (or rather serks of bridges), but it is 
 clumsy, inconvenient, and expensive. It con- 
 sists of several barges of great burthen, which are 
 first arched over, and paved with large stones of 
 granite, and then towed into a right line, and 
 moored side by side, with massy chains, to retain 
 them in their places. From this construction 
 it necessarily follows, that the transit from the 
 one to the other shore of the river must be ex- 
 tremely fatiguing to the cattle that drag the heavy 
 laden cumbrous charetes across it. The quick 
 and continual ascent and descent on the different 
 sides of the barges pushes them about this way 
 and that, and, if we may judge of the expression 
 of the eye, miserably incommodes them ; nor, is 
 the creaking which ensues by any means accept- 
 able to the unpracticed stranger; but, the obstruc- 
 tion presented to the trade and navigation of the 
 river, is its grand inconvenience. Is a vessel bound 
 up the river, or to sea, one at least of these barges 
 must be displaced to give it room : this is, appa- 
 rently, the work of many hours, and is conse- 
 c 2 quently 
 
20 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 quently performed but at stated intervals; for 
 which opportunities all must wait, be their neces- 
 sities what they may. 
 
 It is needless to say, that, during this operation, 
 all connection with the opposite country is sus- 
 pended; in consequence of which, when about to 
 continue our rout to the Southward, we were 
 compelled to set off at three in the morning, or 
 defer our journey till eleven, by which time the 
 boats would be closed again. There was former- 
 ly a bridge of stone across the Seine at this place 
 which was swept away by the floating ice, repaired 
 and destroyed again, which circumstances occa- 
 sioned the adoption of the present piece of cum- 
 bersome machinery, but unquestionably injudi- 
 ciously : it is said, that the expence annually in- 
 curred for the necessary repairs of these barges, 
 would be fully adequate to defray at least one 
 third of the expence of replacing the erection 
 which has been carried away— -a tax this, which 
 would not be submitted to in England, especially 
 as it might so easily be evaded. The pieces of 
 the ancient bridge which remain are firm; the 
 span, which would stretch across what once con- 
 tained the two middle arches, is by no means so 
 large as the iron bridge at Staines— the spirit of 
 enterprise would require six months only to form 
 similar casts, and fix them in their proper posi- 
 tions ; a draw-bridge attached to either extre- 
 mity, 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 21 
 
 mity, with an interruption of ten minutes only, 
 as vessels arrive, would leave the navigation free. 
 In the winter there would be ample space through 
 which the ice might escape ; it would be an ex- 
 cellent speculation (could an adventurer obtain 
 permission to fetch his materials from England) 
 to erect one here similar to the projected bridge 
 across the Thames; a trifling toll at the draw- 
 bridge upon all vessels and carriages as they pass, 
 would soon defray the expence. An iron-bridge 
 in France, where the metal is smelted with char- 
 coal, would cost an immense sum ! 
 
 Within the city there are many noble buildings 
 which are worth inspection. The church of No- 
 tre-Dame, rising magnificently above the rest 
 demands our first notice. Its exterior is as beauti- 
 ful as Gothic ornament can make it- --nor does 
 the interior fall much short of it. But the church 
 of St. Owen is sublime, and awe-inspiring ; it 
 seems almost impossible to enter it but with re- 
 verence ; none but a Parisian or a Rouenite can 
 do it. Of these, many were seen audaciously 
 stalking along the aisles with their hideous three- 
 cornered military hats, and their ridiculous na- 
 tional cockades upon their heads insulting the 
 devotions of their fellow-citizens assembled to 
 praise and adore their all-bounteous Benefactor. 
 A few tolerable pictures, which have been pre- 
 served by the pious care of individuals, are sus- 
 c 3 pended 
 
ga A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 pended on the walls, but in general they are 
 mere sign-post performances. Monuments in 
 sculpture there are none ; they are rarely found 
 in the French churches ; once only have I met 
 with any thing of the kind which merited a mo- 
 ment's notice. 
 
 The municipality, adjoining a cl-dexant con- 
 vent, is a splendid modern edifice, and gives one 
 a high idea of the mortification and self-denial in 
 which those holy fathers wore their lives away. 
 It consists of two ranges of large well-propor^ 
 tioned apartments superbly fitted up, opening 
 into as many spacious corridores floored with al- 
 ternate squares of marble and free-stone, and 
 connected together by a stair-case of the most 
 admirable masonry ; nothing can be more luxu- 
 riously concieved, or better executed. Monkery 
 must have been a rare trade. 
 
 On the eastern extremity of the town, a large 
 space of ground is laid out and planted round 
 with elms and plane-trees : one side of this spot 
 is occupied by the caserne or barracks, which 
 present you without with an elegant elevation, 
 and within with accommodations for a consider- 
 able body of the military who are constantly sta- 
 tioned here, to the great accommodation and 
 relief of the city ; and, at a small distance from 
 it, stands a large and spacious hospital, with an 
 
 elegant 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 23 
 
 elegant modern church annexed to it. All the 
 rest of the city is filth and abomination ; the 
 streets are narrow, crooked, and inconvenient, 
 and the houses which form them are of a complec- 
 tion which it is difficult to describe- --the date of 
 their erection seems to be almost antediluvian, 
 and while churches and convents of superla- 
 tive elegance and beauty have been destroyed with 
 vandal wantonness, whatever was cumbersome, 
 awkward, ugly, has been preserved with a soft 
 of pious care. The principal avenue, right-lined 
 as a crabstick, may vie with Golden- Lane in ele- 
 gance, neatness, and salubrity ; but there are 
 points, particularly the former ones, in which 
 Golden- Lane must be allowed to possess a decided 
 superiority- --the others are mere lanes apparent- 
 ly constructed with a view to the generation of the 
 pestilence, at least nothing could be better con- 
 trived to answer that purpose, and were it not 
 for the unquestionable salubrity of the air, this 
 could not fail of producing that effect most suc- 
 cessfully; across the widest of them a man of 
 moderate size may almost stretch his legs. For 
 many a century the beams of sun-shine have 
 vainly strove to penetrate into them, and as there 
 are no receptacles behind the house for the 
 Frenchman's proper element, every species of 
 abomination is handed forward into the fluid 
 pestilence which gently flows adown the middle of 
 it ! But the day is sweet as Araby when compared 
 c 4 with 
 
24 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 with the works of darkness— -the evening no 
 sooner closes, than the showers of Edinburgh 
 begin to fall in torrents from every window, and 
 dashing occasionally upon the almost red-hot 
 pavement, the steams which rise from it are most 
 fragrantly aromatic ! 
 
 In London, the faculty has found at length 
 that the fumes rising from millions of sea-coal 
 fires are extremely salubrious, that they soften 
 the cold, anticipate the plague, and I know not 
 what— perhaps the Rouenites have found also 
 that these strong alkaline smells are salubrious 
 too. At Lisbon and Madrid this has long since 
 been happily discovered : for my own part, I 
 must think it fortunate that nature has been so 
 benignant to this second city in the republic. 
 Rouen is stiled the Pot de Chambre of France, 
 (i. e. ) it rains in great abundance there ; and 
 heaven knows, the more they have of it the bet- 
 ter. 
 
 To crown the whole, Rouen is a large manufac- 
 turing city; and manufactories are always re- 
 markable for their cleanliness. The dye-houses 
 occupy one whole street, stretching from the 
 ramparts into the center of the place ; a canal 
 flowing through the midst of it, with an ample 
 stream of water, receives all their suds, and waste 
 materials; while just without the wall, whole 
 5 rows 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 25 
 
 rows of laundresses unite in thumping the filth 
 out of the catalogue in which Falstaff was soused, 
 " hissing hot'' into the Thames— -of course this 
 stream is of many a beauteous hue, and wafts 
 many a balmy breeze into the city to improve the 
 salubrity of those that are already generated 
 there. 
 
 The Tree of Liberty, which was planted in the 
 Champ de Mars, immediately in front of the 
 barracks, and constantly defended b}' two or 
 more regiments stationed there, appears to be in 
 a very sickly state, and seems to confirm what 
 our fore-fathers thought, (viz. ) that liberty, and 
 a standing army, can never flourish together.-— 
 In many places, (for every village has its tree of 
 liberty in the grand place), the pruning and 
 shrowding which it has undergone, have given it 
 a very puny aspect-— frequently it is found quite 
 dead at top— .-no where can it be said to flourish • 
 perhaps it may be thought that the type and anti- 
 type perfectly correspond. It may be thought rather 
 unfortunate, that the tree most commonly select- 
 ed for this purpose, was the Lombardy-poplar, 
 a soft-substanced, short-lived plant, which runs 
 up in a few years, in a few years decays ; is lia- 
 ble to continual injury, and worth nothincr when 
 in its greatest luxuriance. Once only have I 
 seen the firmly -founded, slow-moving, solid oak, 
 resorted to as the emblem of liberty, and they 
 
 did 
 
26* A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 did well. Their freedom was the meteor of a 
 day, not the effect of slow and gradual improve- 
 ment. 
 
 Rouen is also furnished with a large botanical 
 garden, but it contains few plants that are rare, 
 and the exotics which are worthy of notice are in 
 general in the same state with the tree of liberty ; 
 most of them are managed injudiciously, some 
 are decaying for want of care, others die with 
 nursing. 
 
 The markets are large and well supplied : of 
 these, some are of a singular complection, others 
 are detestable. To a foreigner, who has been ac- 
 customed to religious abstraction on the sabbath- 
 day, few things can outrage his feelings more than 
 the keeping these markets on the Sunday as com- 
 monly as on any other day. The multitudes 
 which assemble at Notre-Dame on the Lord's 
 day, must make their way thither across pots and 
 panniers with no small hazard to their shins, and 
 have their ideas convulsed and distorted by the 
 Voyez monsieur, Voyez madame of a hundred dif- 
 ferent paysannes and barrow-women who come 
 there to expose their fruits and flowers to sale. 
 The morning on which I entered it, there was a 
 mountebank posted immediately before the grand 
 entrance, harranguing the throng which sur- 
 rounded him, while the trumpet, the tambourine, 
 
 and 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 27 
 
 and the fiddle, summoned the devout and unde- 
 vout to become the spectators and the dupes of 
 his legerdemain, and not unfrequently, did his 
 eloquence get the better of their sense of duty. 
 His congregation was to the full as large as that 
 of the eloquent preacher within. 
 
 Betwixt the casserne and the botanical gar- 
 den, there is likewise another sunday-market 
 for old rags, old iron, and trumpery of the most 
 worthless kinds :-- it is a curious exhibition ; 
 in the sum total of which scarce an article is of 
 fered to sale, which in England would be dis- 
 turbed by the passenger, however needy, were 
 it lying on a dung-hill. 
 
 On the Boulevards, on the other side of the city, 
 there is also on every Sunday morning a market 
 for horses. It is revolting as you hasten to the 
 earthly Temples of the Eternal, with your heart 
 attuned to devotion, and all the powers of your 
 soul exerted in the abstraction of your ideas from 
 earthly cares —It is revolting in this pious frame 
 of mind to be encountered by a herd of jockies, 
 cracking their abominable whips, and forcing 
 their jaded, dispirited harridans, by dint of ginger 
 and whipcord, into mettle and activity which na-> 
 ture never gave them-- -I detest the police which 
 cannot correct enormities like these---it is folly in 
 its paroxysm of superlative absurdity to talk of 
 
 encountering 
 
£8 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 encountering the impositions of priest-craft 
 by such licentiousness as this. Goods, of which 
 quaking guilt and credulity had been gulled, the 
 nation did well to appropriate to its necessities ; 
 but it by no means follows that religion is a forge- 
 ry because a priest is a knave; and, admitting 
 that Christianity were a cunningly devised fable 
 which credulity alone can possibly suppose- 
 there are few, there are none, who love their 
 country, who love their fellow-men, who would 
 not prefer submitting to the fable, to the evils 
 which have resulted from throwing it aside. The 
 Frenchmen, as long as the Ancien Regime en- 
 dured, were men of gentleness and urbanity— 
 from the moment they fell into the hands of the 
 modern sage philosophers they became daemons— - 
 slaves of popery: many an amiable virtue endeared 
 them to surrounding nations, and prompted the 
 sigh as often as their degradation became the 
 subject of reflection— the slaves of the philoso- 
 phers, not a solitary qualification remained, to 
 soften the shade of the enormities they hourly 
 perpetrated-— from objects of pity, they became 
 the objects of universal hatred and detestation. 
 Humanity is indeed returning— order and decen- 
 cy begin to raise their persecuted heads again ; 
 in the provinces they will flourish with recruited 
 vigour. At Rouen it will be long ere the happy 
 change takes place ; the present generation must 
 first wear away ; but, considering the effects of 
 
 religious 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 29 
 
 religious principles upon the mind, the police, 
 which relaxes for a moment its watchfulness, 
 which abates its energy in discountenancing, re- 
 pressing, and correcting whatever tends to 
 enfeeble its influence over the multitude is wanting 
 to the public. Nor need the magistrate hold his 
 wand of office in a trembling hand. ---He who 
 will exert himself with spirit and resolution in the 
 support of order, is sure of the support and coun- 
 tenance of every good citizen. Men of respecta- 
 bility, one and all, unite in deploring the evils 
 that have resulted from snapping the bands woven 
 by their fathers for them; they received their 
 priests with transport, and accompanied them 
 to the long deserted and abandoned altar Svith 
 tears of joy trickling from their eyes. —The dregs 
 of the community alone wish to perpetuate the 
 reign of anarchy and licentiousness. 
 
 Having spent about a month at Rouen, we 
 began to prepare for our journey to the south- 
 ward ; and as soon as we had arranged our pass- 
 ports with the municipality, and harnessed our 
 stallions as before, at three in the morning 
 set forward. The first object which attracts our 
 observation after quitting the city, are the ruins 
 of a superb ecclesiastical erection on our left, 
 which, previous to the revolution, was tenanted 
 by monks, but of what order I have forgotten, I 
 believe Benedictines ; being confiscated it be- 
 came 
 
30 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 came national property, and was brought to the 
 hammer. The greater part of it has been pulled 
 down, probably for the materials : the few re- 
 maining pillars and arches peeping through the 
 trees like Palmyra in the desert, serve but to 
 shew what was once its splendour— how mutable 
 and unstable is human greatness ! The country 
 like that through which we had passed, is in ge- 
 neral flat and covered with corn ; here and there 
 are scattered the chateaus of the ci-devant noblesse, 
 which have little remarkable in them ; nothing 
 appears particularly striking till we arrive at the 
 commencement of the second stage, which brings 
 us to one of the romantic turns of the river's 
 winding here in enchanting beauty at the base of 
 the hill we are about to ascend. 
 
 The traveller will do well to feast his sight with 
 this beauteous picture; it is the last of the kind 
 he will gaze upon for many a weary day, and if 
 he is expert at his pencil, he will seldom meet a 
 landscape which merits better to be copied ; and 
 here we meet the earnest and the sample of the 
 miserable roads which await the morrow. Some- 
 where about the third stage as we descend the 
 side of a barren mountain, we come suddenly 
 in view of a magnificent abbey, which is situated 
 on an eminence in the bottom of a romantic vale, 
 and commands a rich luxuriant prospect. It 
 was impossible to understand the provincial jar- 
 gon 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 31 
 
 gon of the postilions, of course we could learn 
 only that it had been sold by the nation, and is 
 now occupied no more by lazy ecclesiastics, but 
 by industrious mechanics who, under the direc- 
 tion of a company of English manufacturers 
 there, weave velvets similar to those of Spital- 
 iields. We learnt also that there were several 
 other establishments of the sort in the province 
 or department. 
 
 From hence to LiseiLv, corn-fields edged with 
 fruit or other trees as before, accompany us all 
 the way, the land is rich, and the crops are luxu- 
 riant.— -I must not forget here to mention an 
 anecdote which strongly marks the difference 
 betwixt a French and English postilion. About 
 six miles from Liseu.v, by the road side, you re- 
 mark a little bower or cabin formed partly of 
 turfs, partly of bushes interwoven and thatched 
 with straw. This is the abode from morn to eve 
 of an ancient hoary-headed blind 'beggar, who 
 takes here his station, and lives upon the bounty 
 of the fleeting passenger. As soon as the sound 
 of the wheels announces to him the approach of 
 a carriage, he comes forward with one end of a 
 little cord in his hand, the other extremity of it 
 is fastened to his habitation, and guides him back 
 to it when he wishes to return. The postilion 
 never fails to draw you up as close as is consist- 
 ent with his safety, and being arrived a-breast of 
 
 him, 
 
32 A TOUR THROUGH FRAKCE. 
 
 him, immediately pulls in. His figure is venera- 
 ble, and commands respect— he presents you his 
 cap, and tells you his piteous tale. Forty-five 
 years has he tenanted that little dwelling, and 
 subsisted upon the alms of the benevolent ; and, 
 to the credit of the Frenchman, an old man 
 seldom solicits his charity in vain ! Having 
 received what you are pleased to bestow, he be- 
 gins a short prayer to the Virgin for your prospe- 
 rity and happiness, during which la Fleur pulls off 
 his hat. As soon as the oraison is finished, 
 he joins in the Amen— -restores his chapeau to its 
 place, and dashes on as before. 
 
 At Liseux, the country begins to assume an 
 aspect hitherto rare in France. The fields are 
 enclosed; the farms are well wooded, and the 
 pasture prevails over the arable ; but the town - 
 itself is the very counterpart of Rouen. Like it, 
 it is ill-disposed, ill-built, and stinks most abomi- 
 nably. There are here many considerable fab re- 
 quants of cotton as they are called, and the peo- 
 ple bear on their front that character of vice and 
 filth which seems to be universally stamped upon 
 all great assemblages of manufacturers.— -Is it 
 that the occasional introduction of depraved 
 wanderers among them inevitably corrupts the . 
 whole mass, or is it that daily receiving more 
 wages than . are adequate to a simple decent 
 maintenance— abundance leads to luxury, and 
 
 luxury 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE, 33 
 
 luxury to vice ? In this case, which I believe to 
 be the real root of the evil, may it not be ques- 
 tioned how far great manufactories ought to be 
 encouraged by any legislature ? And if they are 
 to be encouraged may we not insist upon it that 
 the legislature, which does not encourage also 
 every means of correcting the contamination of 
 the public morals which it virtually countenances, 
 prefers but a feeble claim to the affections of the 
 public ?---Here the question arises: what are the 
 antidotes by which the poison is to be corrected ? 
 We answer, complete religious liberty. Legis- 
 lators have enacted pains and penalties for this 
 and the other irregularity and vice; and what has 
 been the effect? Nothing.— Absolutely nothing. 
 Well then— if the secular Aaron cannot preserve 
 the morals of the people from contamination, let 
 them try what religion will do ; for in vain do 
 they attempt to make good citizens without it.— 
 Let them give equal countenance to as many as 
 are disposed to enter the abodes of squallid 
 wretchedness to attack vice, even in its seat of 
 empire— to warn the thoughtless, to confirm the 
 wavering, to reclaim the wanderer, to edify the 
 virtuous; in a word, to plant the seeds of moral 
 purity in the heart, and cherish them by the 
 sanctions of the New Testament.— -I say equal 
 countenance, for every man, has an equal right to 
 form his creed for himself, and consequently an 
 equal right to the protection of the law.— If my 
 i> principles 
 
34 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE, 
 
 principles make me a good citizen, the secular 
 arm has nothing to do with me but to animate and 
 encourage me in the prosecution of them. As 
 long as I am taught by them to demean myself 
 peaceably and orderly, and to set an example of 
 social virtue to the surrounding community, I 
 have unquestionably a right to speculate upon 
 abstract points as I please, and to get to heaven 
 my own way ; and if my speculations, no matter 
 how absurd, are attended with the effect of 
 snatching the vicious from their crimes, and re- 
 ducing disorder to temperance and sobriety, I 
 merit the applause, not the persecution of the 
 government, beneath which I live.— I will not 
 say, that the established priest of the country 
 cannot check the progress of vice as well as ano- 
 ther, but I will say that others are far more 
 likely to do it : no man bears constraint without 
 writhing— from the moment you tell me that I 
 must believe as the cherished servant of the state 
 prescribes, and reckon upon its protection and 
 favour, but, as I obey him, from that moment I 
 listen to his instructions with suspicion ; I consi- 
 der him as an hirelings and his doctrines as ulti- 
 mately contrived, not for my edification, but for 
 the consolidation of your empire over me— of 
 course the impression made upon my mind is 
 faintand transient— the most impassioned per- 
 suasion melts me not-— the most terrific denunci- 
 ations affright me not : in short, I must be won 
 
 By 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 35 
 
 by one who comes forward as my beloved Master 
 did— whose principles are disinterested— whose 
 sole object is my edification and eternal happiness. 
 This is the man who must reclaim the vicious 
 herds which the manufactories assemble together 
 — who must arrest them in their career of vice- 
 humanize the savage and reduce him to the or- 
 derly discipline of the New Testament: within 
 these forty years past, we have seen more accom- 
 plished in the work of public reformation by the 
 efforts of two unaided individuals only, than by 
 those of a whole hierarchy combined. In our 
 late troubles, we have seen also that the exertions 
 of one respected individual only,** an individual 
 on whom the smiles of favour never fell ; nay, 
 who was brow-beaten and depressed— could re- 
 strain the fierce impetuosity of the Irish hordes 
 assembled in the metropolis, and do more to- 
 wards preserving public peace and public order, 
 than legions of ecclesiastics who had never given 
 proof of their sincerity. The conclusion is evi- 
 dent : let as many as are disposed to undertake 
 the work-divine of instructing the ignorant, be 
 animated to it-— let not their pious zeal be 
 quenched by the frowns of authority, nor the 
 effect of the New Testament be anticipated by 
 compelling us to accept it in a mode at which 
 nature revolts. 
 
 * Arthur O'Leary^ 
 
 d2 In 
 
36 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE, 
 
 In this abode of filth and obscenity, there was 
 little to attract our notice, and our stay was of 
 course short. We spent here one night only, 
 and in the morning at four, took the road to Caen 
 again : I know not what must have been the state 
 of the public roads in England previous to the 
 erection of the turnpikes, but, I presume, the 
 five leagues now before us are an ample speci- 
 men of them.— -Figure to yourself fifteen miles 
 of rocky mountainous road, absolutely abandoned 
 for eleven years to destruction— -recollect that this 
 road was once paved throughout with the largest 
 stones which could possibly be applied to that 
 purpose, as is the case universally in Fiance- -- 
 that it lies in the direct line from the capital to 
 Brest, St. Maids, .1? Orient, and other parts of 
 the republic, and during the war was plowed 
 from day to day with baggage-carts, artillery- 
 wheels, ammunition-waggons, timber-carriages, 
 in short, every thing calculated to disarrange 
 the materials employed, even to their foundation 
 —that not a stone had been replaced- —that not 
 a chasm had been filled up but with faggots— 
 that for a whole night it had been drenched with 
 almost tropical torrents of rain, and you will be 
 able to form some conception of this detestable 
 day's journey. When I look back upon it— 
 when I picture to myself my own, and the cou- 
 rage of my friend, slowly descending these preci- 
 pices- --the tremendous lurches taken every mo- 
 ment 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. $7 
 
 ment, as we plunged now into one abyss, and 
 now into another, rolling fearfully from side to 
 side, while every creak of my wheels bespoke 
 their distress, and every vault of my springs tos- 
 sed me from my seat— -I shudder at the recollec- 
 tion. I question if the descent from Mount 
 Blanc be much more formidable— -happily we 
 escaped with but little injury— I say happily, for 
 had any serious accident befallen us, it would 
 have been impossible to repair it— here are no 
 smiths-— no wheelwrights, but here and there a 
 miserable cottage totally incapable of affording 
 us any relief. It is not easy to form a competent 
 idea of the superlative awkwardness of a French 
 mechanic and his tools : it would have consoled 
 me much could I have promised myself the appa- 
 ratus of an English blacksmith ; their clumsiness 
 I could have pardoned— but I had seen enough 
 at Rouen to apprise me what must be the con- 
 sequence should any part of our vehicles give 
 way, and that conviction served but to send 
 every shock— -every convulsion they experienced, 
 with agony to my heart. A wise traveller will 
 not take this rout a second time ; and, should 
 necessity constrain him, a chest of tools should 
 form an indispensible part of his baggage, I 
 must not however forget to say, that though a 
 French mechanic possesses neither tools nor the 
 wit to use them, in the art of making a bill he is 
 no ways deficient : one would imagine that he had 
 d 3 served 
 
38 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 served an apprenticeship to this part of his pro- 
 fession somewhere toward the west end of the 
 town. 
 
 We arrived at Caen with the loss of a drag- 
 staff and the shoe : for replacing these Miss 
 
 M e was furnished with a memoir amounting 
 
 only to one pound twelve shillings and sixpence, 
 in which a very prominent charge was coming to 
 see what was the matter; for twelve inches of the 
 hoop of an old barrel, and as many rusty screws 
 (new ones were not to be procured) they consci- 
 entiously demanded three shillings and sixpence, 
 which being discharged, a request was modestly 
 preferred that we would not forget le Gargon— 
 le Gar con ! where is le Gar con f "Oh Madame, 
 I am le Gar con." N.B. Le Gar con was six feet 
 high, and of a size proportioned. 
 
 The last four leagues of this day's execrable 
 journey were over one continued finely pre- 
 served pavement ; and though at other times 
 the abominable clatter, which dins the ear on 
 this sort of road would have been painful enough, 
 now it was music and its irksome tremulation plea- 
 sure. We arrived about eleven at the Hotel des 
 Victoires, but having proposed spending a plea- 
 sant day at Caen, had commenced the business 
 of the morning at an early hour, and reckoned 
 upon breakfasting after it was over. It would 
 
 be 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE, 39 
 
 be a vain attempt to describe our visages at the 
 moment when alighted we met each other in our 
 apartment What with consternation, fatigue, 
 and famine, mine had attained to its utmost pos- 
 sible extension.-— It was pale as a detected cul- 
 prit's, the very counterpart of the Knight's of la 
 Mancha ; nor could it dilate itself in the least till 
 we had dispatched a couple of cold chickens, and 
 cheered the inward man with a bottle of Burgun- 
 dy ; after which we began to smile a little, and 
 finally sat down to boiled eggs, cold ham, tea, 
 and bread and butter ; the effects of which were 
 wonderful.— Here we learnt that it had frequent- 
 ly been necessary to attach from twenty to twen- 
 ty-two horses to the Rouen diligence, to enable 
 it to pass the stage of consternation we had just 
 accomplished. 
 
 Caen is in many respects superior to Rouen. 
 It is much less in size, but the streets are more 
 spacious, the air is less impregnated with poisons, 
 and it is possible to walk abroad without much 
 offence. The shops are well furnished for a 
 French city, and there are many fine buildings 
 which deserve to be visited. Unfortunately, the 
 rain coming on again in torrents, prevented our 
 going much abroad ; at the Hotel des Victoires 
 we had ample opportunity for contemplating the 
 cathedral ; which, like most erections of the sort, 
 is rich in gothic ornament, and magnificently 
 i> 4 grand 
 
40 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE, 
 
 grand. Its interior however falls very far short 
 of the idea which its first appearance leads one to 
 expect---it is absolutely disgusting. In the course 
 of the revolution it has suffered much, and is even 
 now abandoned to filth ; curiosity led me to seek 
 for the tomb of the conqueror, but in vain ; there 
 is not a monument beneath the roof-— all is level 
 and undistinguishing. The altar-piece is curious ; 
 and were it divested of the accumulated dust of 
 ages, would produce a fine effect. The roof 
 above it is finely fretted, but the most delicate 
 touches of the chissel are now filled up by re- 
 peated white-washings-— admirable specimen of 
 priestly taste ! ! 
 
 A spacious, once an almost impregnable cas- 
 tle, frowns over the town : a few of its towers 
 and connecting curtains alone remain ; time has 
 sapped its foundation in many a part, forced 
 many a breach, and filled up the fosse with the 
 ruins— and that which the great leveller had 
 spared to report to distant generations what the 
 proud fabric had been, the blind fury of modern 
 vandalism has overturned. In the area not one 
 stone has been left upon another of the buildings 
 it once contained. The powder-magazine, the 
 caserne, and a few other habitations for the 
 accommodation of the military, occupy the site 
 on which perhaps our fore-fathers rioted; on 
 which perhaps they debated the feasibility of the, 
 
 projected 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 41 
 
 projected invasion. ---Naught now remains that 
 once was theirs, the hull alone excepted ; the 
 waters of which they quaffed, and which they 
 raised from an immense depth by means of a 
 capstern set in motion by soldiers trotting like 
 turnspits in a wheel. 
 
 The antient gate -way, fronting the town, is 
 repairing with modern elegance aud magnificence, 
 and will have, when finished, the fine effect of a 
 splendid patch upon an old tattered coat. With 
 this the garrison are very properly penned in as 
 soon as the evening closes ; the French do not 
 look askance on the barracks as we are accus- 
 tomed to do in England ; and the sooner the 
 prejudice is there dismissed the better— while the 
 soldier retains the notions, the habits, the jea- 
 lousies of a citizen ; every attempt to effect a 
 distinction betwixt him and the citizen, is a trea- 
 son against society, and merits the punishment of 
 the severest penalty ; but debauched and vicious 
 as the military nozv are, contaminated by the 
 out-pouring of the prisons, and the hulks which 
 have been forced upon them, and weeded com- 
 pletely of every political and every private virtue, 
 they are no longer fit for society, and the less 
 they are permitted to mingle with it the better. 
 
 About to quit the ramparts, having inspected 
 every thing open to inspection, we were accosted 
 
42 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 by a weather-beaten, I had almost said a tattered 
 centinel *— his hair was bleached by age, time 
 and service had plowed deep their furrows upon 
 his cheeks, and his coat bore upon it the intima- 
 tion of many a hard campaign ; on his shoulder 
 rested his rusty firelock, and at his side dangled 
 the sabre with which he had fought his country's 
 battles. He had eyed us long, and unwilling to 
 interrupt our observations, had foreborne till the 
 last moment to approach us. There was some- 
 thing in his manner, which bespoke attention ; 
 he apologised for the intrusion in words and 
 phrases which none but a Frenchman could so 
 well put together-— the drift of his enquiry was 
 interesting.— -Had any of us known a poor French 
 girl ? whose name he mentioned. It was his 
 daughter— -she had been an attendant on some 
 ladies in a convent at Caen, and had fled with 
 them from the storm and tempest of the revolu- 
 tion to England— whence tidings had never re- 
 turned to sooth the anxiety of a father's aching 
 heart. It was his custom thus to accost the En- 
 glish parties which from time to time fell in his 
 way. What would I not have given to have been 
 able to assure him that his daughter was well- 
 that she was returning to bless his aged arms, and 
 
 * The national guards are exact counterparts of Falstaff's 
 ragged regiment. 
 
 cast 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE, 43 
 
 cast the beams of sun-shine upon his closing day . 
 —May the next wanderer to whom the enquiry 
 shall be proposed, be more happy than we I 
 
 We here saw some admirable specimens of the 
 Seore porcelain, but enormously dear. Laee 
 manufactories are numerous, and the price is mo- 
 derate. At a gunsmith's, beautiful fowling-pieces 
 with double barrels of exquisite workmanship, 
 and at least sixty per cent cheaper than pieces of 
 similar execution in England were exhibited : in 
 fact, it is astonishing, that with such a little 
 stream betwixt us, the price of all the articles 
 exposed to sale should be so widely different* 
 With one or two exceptions only we may say, 
 that the balance in favour of France is not less 
 than fifty per cent. Provisions are even more 
 than fifty per cent cheaper than in England ; and 
 though some items must be allowed to be of in- 
 ferior quality, beef and pork for instance, yet 
 the mutton and veal are fully equal to any which 
 Leadenhall-market can furnish-— while the poul- 
 try is beyond comparison superior in delicacy 
 and in flavour to any thing of the sort which the 
 metropolis can furnish, and the farther we go to 
 the south the more this is the case. 
 
 Caen, like most of the French towns, posses- 
 ses an admirable promenade. It extends along 
 the side of the river, and is perhaps three quar- 
 ters 
 
44- A. TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 ters of a mile in length, and shaded with noble 
 stately elms, and the prospect from it is beauti- 
 ful. The morning following we bade it adieu, 
 with little to say in favour of our host or his 
 house. An Englishman's riches are in a French 
 imagination inexhaustible ; wherever he appears, 
 he is considered to be fair game, and may account 
 himself fortunate, and in the hands of the con- 
 scientious, if he escapes with only a third more 
 than another man would "pay added to his bill. 
 This is a trait in the French character, by no 
 means amiable ; and it inspires the Briton with 
 contempt, who disdains to pilfer a stranger be- 
 cause he is a stranger : but there is not a town 
 in France to which he must not carry this idea 
 along with him. If you are unacquainted with 
 the value of an article, there are no bounds to 
 the extravagance of the tradesman's imposition 
 ---you blush while you offer them just one half 
 of the price demanded, and are astonished to find 
 that they will more frequently take it than reject 
 it— even in Paris, unless a Frenchman purchases 
 for you, whatever you may wish to use or take 
 from thence, you may rest assured that you will 
 pay at least one third above the current price. 
 
 The country from hence to Falaise, the birth- 
 place of the conqueror, is level, sandy, and fre- 
 quently sterile ; the road however is good, and 
 corn-fields and apple-trees fringe it all the way. 
 
 The 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 45 
 
 The population seems also to encrease ; frequent 
 villages are seen on the risrht-hand and the left. 
 At Falaise, we drop the dull monotonous 
 aspect which accompanies the traveller, with 
 few exceptions only from Dieppe hither— It even 
 assumes the picturesque. A deep ravine, finely 
 cloathed with wood separates it from the rest of 
 Normandy. On the brink of the precipice, 
 stands the castle with its ivy-mantled towers and 
 flocks of daws wheeling and chattering round it, 
 and all around an undulating country, gives va- 
 riety to the prospect, and beguiles the traveller 
 of his fatigue. It was with regret we passed on 
 without visiting the ruins ; the mind is affected 
 with a pleasing pensive melancholy as we tread 
 the grounds famed in story, and compare their 
 present with their antient state.-— How many a 
 heart has throbbed high with joy within those 
 walls ! and oh how many a heavy laden sigh 
 has thence been wafted to those courts above, 
 where every wrong is registered — where every 
 tear is bottled against the day of retribution !--- 
 those breaking hearts ache now no more— their 
 troubled pulse is stilled— their sorrows are ceased 
 —three-score years and ten have filled the mea- 
 sure up— what a lesson to the impatient, writh- 
 ing sufferer ! Be hushed then ye anguished sighs, 
 be dry ye trickling tears, the moments are swiftly 
 flying— soon, soon will the wicked cease from 
 troubling, and the weary be at rest. 
 
 Posting 
 
46 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 Posting forward with all possible speed, we 
 soon arrived at Argentan — there to drop the 
 company of a friend tenderly beloved— a friend 
 in sorrow — of all the events in life one of the 
 most poignant, and at the same time most in- 
 structive ; for then we learn to what amounts 
 the fancied energy of man— sitting with down- 
 cast eye and folded hands, the tears falling like 
 the showers of April, and every accent prefaced 
 with a sigh— fain would we pour the balm of con- 
 solation into the wounded breast, and fill the 
 mourner's bereaved, desolate, forsaken arms : 
 alas ! we feel that vain and fruitless are our sym- 
 pathies — the wound is too deep for our skill to 
 heal — there is no comfort but in the bosom of 
 our God ; it is in his hand alone which can bind 
 up the bruised reed ; it is the consolation of his 
 spirit working in secret which alone can shield it 
 from despair. 
 
 At Sees, once a bishop's see, we only remained 
 long enough to change our horses ; and have of 
 course only to say, that it is a very clean and 
 wholesome little town, which in France, is say- 
 ing much. It being Sunday, w r e were, however, 
 much pleased at finding the shops shut up and 
 business suspended ; it is in the latitude of Paris 
 only, that the sabbath is neglected, and religion 
 treated with contempt As you advance to the 
 south your expectations are pleasingly disap- 
 pointed ; 
 2 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE* 47 
 
 pointed ; the people are too little vicious to ac- 
 cept the dogmas of our modern philanthropists 
 in lieu of the mandates of omnipotence, in lieu 
 of the hopes and prospects of the New Testa- 
 ment The clergy are here received with af- 
 fection proportioned to their merit The churches 
 are crowded, and the deportment of the multi- 
 tude is peaceable and orderly. 
 
 At Alen9on, we begin to enter upon the grounds 
 famed in the Annals of the Revolution; and 
 when I recollect the crimes with which this un- 
 happy country was deluged, and by whom the 
 price of them was paid, fain would I draw a cur- 
 tain across the page of history*--but it must not, 
 cannot be— suffering innocence will clamour for 
 vengeance— it will tell the generations yet unborn 
 what have been its sufferings, and by whom they 
 were inflicted. 
 
 Here, having travelled upwards of four-score 
 miles this day, we determined to take up our 
 quarters for the night ; but, as we were again 
 gratified by perceiving the churches opened, and 
 business suspended, we were no less mortified in 
 taking a walk round the town at seeing the thea- 
 tre open also, and people crowding to it— con- 
 sistency in any thing must not be expected in 
 France. Like Sees, Alencon is clean and neat, 
 but it is miserably dull. The laces of Alencon 
 
 are 
 
4$ A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE* 
 
 are famed. Ladies' caps are only from five to 
 ten guineas each. 
 
 The general aspect of the country, is here far 
 more agreeable to the stranger than in Upper 
 Normandy : it is for the most part enclosed ; its 
 surface is more diversified, and the eye is fre- 
 quently regaled with genuine forest scenery- 
 enclosures bring population along with them, 
 and population plenty : provisions are here from 
 ten to fifteen per cent cheaper than at Rouen, 
 and are for the most part of a better quality, es- 
 pecially the mutton and poultry. In this country 
 they have immense quarries of coarse granite. 
 
 The Caserne, which is a handsome piece of 
 modern architecture, is wholly built of it, and 
 looks well. It must have been a very expensive 
 business. Behind it is a spacious promenade, 
 well planted, the jeunes gens were sporting them- 
 selves merrily upon it. The church is large, and 
 ornamented in a style very similar to those we 
 had before seen. 
 
 At Alenc^on I experienced a very striking proof 
 of what I have before recommended, (viz. a 
 chest of tools among your baggage. )— The length 
 of this day's journey had rendered it necessary to 
 grease my wheels, but there was not a wrench in 
 the whole town capable of taking off the screw- 
 heads 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 49 
 
 heads from the extremities of the axle ; and we 
 were under the disagreeable necessity of sending 
 for a smith from the country, who fumbled till 
 six in the morning before this very intricate bu- 
 siness could be surmounted. Having, however, 
 with infinite exertions, and numberless deep 
 consultations accomplished it, the horses were 
 again ordered out. I shall not soon forget what 
 I felt when I saw them approaching with each a 
 string of bells suspended to the chin-stay, sure 
 presage to the route we were about to traverse ! 
 —-Nor were my expectations disappointed. 
 From Liseaux to Caen we had blundered over 
 rocks, and through hollows, now up, and now 
 down---in momentary danger of bouncing unbid- 
 den into another world ; here there were no 
 stones to incommode our march, and summon 
 all the postilionship of our conducteur into exer- 
 cise :— -but had the giants, who once stormed 
 heaven, as old histories shew, been plowing here 
 for their next winter's fallow, they would not 
 have carried their furrows deeper, nor left the 
 surface of the earth in a more rugged and im- 
 practicable state:— -the heavy-laden carts which 
 pass hourly from Beaumont to Alencon, had gone 
 to right and left till it was possible to vary their 
 direction no longer ; and, as their last resort, had 
 finally cut large faggots from the adjoining hedges 
 which were laid side by side, and thus formed a 
 singular kind of path-way, safe indeed, but 
 e formidable 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE, 
 
 formidable enough to those who are unaccus- 
 tomed to it. This contrivance presently ac- 
 counted for the necklace of bells with which the 
 post-horses were garnished ; for though upon the 
 bushes we jogged on safely enough, jumping out 
 occasionally, one on one side, the other on the 
 other, yet it was impossible to deviate from them 
 without plunging into sloughs, the depth of 
 which our spokes could not fathom, consequent- 
 ly it was necessary to send forward as much as 
 possible, the intelligence that we were on the 
 way, that all those who chanced to have a little 
 firm ground on the right hand or the left, might 
 wait there till we could pass them by. 
 
 This Russian road continued from Alencon to 
 Beaumont; about fifteen miles after which we 
 found ourselves upon terra-firma again, and 
 about noon entered La Mans, the capital of the 
 department in which it stands— much more fa- 
 mous for the political events which here 
 took place, than for any thing it contains : 
 it is almost impossible for streets to be more in- 
 conveniently laid out than those through which 
 we were conducted to the grand place in the 
 center. This, however, is large and airy, and 
 mav serve to give current to the breeze, and an- 
 ticipate the dangerous effects which must other- 
 wise almost necessarily result from the crooked, 
 
 narrow, 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 51 
 
 narrow, and confined avenues of which the town 
 is composed. 
 
 La Mans was besieged ; and, if I mistake not, 
 taken by the Chouans.—lt is not too much when 
 we say, that the ravages committed by these 
 wretches were devilish. -— Wherever they went 
 consternation preceded them, and their footsteps 
 were marked with atrocities alone to be equalled 
 in the woods of America- --bearing the name of 
 the " Christian army*" and professing to fight 
 for "God" for "religion,'" for " social order, % 
 for " humanity f— their rage was like the rage 
 of infernals, and their tender mercies cruelty :-— 
 those who called them into the field may blush, 
 if they are capable of a blush, when the world is 
 told that during this memorable siege they mas- 
 sacred not less than six hundred women ! ! a few 
 of them indeed fighting by the sides of their fa- 
 thers, their husbands, and their brothers, but the 
 far greater number when harmlessly seeking food 
 abroad to sustain their famished, dying, families. 
 
 At length, however, the amiable Marceau 
 defeated them with an horrible slaughter, and 
 strewed the whole country for leagues with the 
 carcases of the monsters. At Laval they rallied 
 again— -again he defeated them— -five thousand 
 more of them remained extended upon the field 
 of battle, and the victorious republicans driven to 
 e 2 madness 
 
5 l 2 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 madness by the horrible atrocities they had com- 
 mitted, pursued the fugitives with a vengeance 
 equal to their own. What numbers fell in this 
 bloody chase cannot be ascertained : as usual it 
 was more destructive than the conflict in the 
 field : in short, the carnage was so embittered, 
 and continued with that unabating fury, that 
 from this day the Christian army is heard of no 
 more. 
 
 Bonaparte wisely followed up this decisive 
 measure with a general amnesty, and pardon to 
 as many as would surrender their arms, take the 
 oath of submission to the existing government, 
 and return peaceably to their families. This 
 was chearfully accepted by those w r ho had been 
 compelled by their priests to join the hordes vo- 
 mited forth (to use the French expression) at 
 Quiberon and other places on the coast ; and 
 here the Chouan war terminated. 
 
 We were now approaching too near to our 
 head -quarters to wish to tarry on the road : a 
 hasty refreshment of bread and fruit being dis- 
 patched at the post-house, the horses were again 
 ordered out, and without further adventures 
 worth noticing, we arrived in the evening at 
 Sable— where our friends were waiting our arrival 
 and received us w r ith joy. Fatigue and appre- 
 hension were painted on our countenances, and 
 
 many 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. S3 
 
 many days had elapsed ere we could meet their 
 ardent wishes and fully enjoy ourselves. 
 
 It was our intention to Jiave gone round by 
 la Fleche, not being acquainted with the country. 
 At one of the post-houses, having accidentally 
 mentioned whither we were going, the post-mis- 
 tress begged to have the honour of conducting us 
 to Sable by a much shorter road ; and as we had 
 quite enough of French posting, we very politely 
 granted her that honour, and were presently rat- 
 tled over twenty-five miles of sand and turf.— At 
 La Mans we saw for the first time ladies riding 
 astride ! 
 
 Sable has little to recommend it but its situ- 
 ation, and a few of the excellent of the earth who 
 inhabit it. It is seated upon one of the serpen- 
 tine reaches of the Sarte, which here receives the 
 tributary streams of another considerable river, 
 whose name, if it has one, has escaped my me- 
 mory. The approach to it, is mildly pleasing— 
 a gently undulating country, enclosed, and am- 
 ply furnished with wood, serves here agreeably 
 to amuse the eye which turns from side to side ; 
 and though seldom struck with the bold romantic 
 scenery of our charming native isle, yet still finds 
 something to engage and gratify it. 
 
 e 3 On 
 
54t A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 On a commanding eminence at its back, stands 
 the superb chateau of the second Colbert, the 
 facade of which is very seldom rivalled, much 
 less exceeded by any of the country seats which it 
 can furnish ; and behind the whole, an ample 
 park, finely timbered and intersected in various 
 directions according to the taste of the country, 
 with long right-lined gloomy vistas, which, not- 
 withstanding their formality, have an imposing 
 effect, and during the heats of the summer are 
 delightfully agreeable-— this forms an admirable 
 back-ground to the picture.-— The spreading 
 sheet of water at the foot of the castle, with its 
 marble bridge, ever animated with passengers, 
 gives us a fore-ground no less admirable. 
 
 But it is impossible not to feel the emotions 
 with which we view this picture at a distance, 
 damped as we draw nearer to it-— in fact, the 
 approach to the towns, and even the villages in 
 this part of France, however smiling in them- 
 selves, cannot now fail to cast a cold and shud- 
 dering damp upon the heart of sensibility— they 
 had all been fortified while they appended to the 
 British crown, or, during the conllicts between the 
 reformed and the catholics in the days of the de- 
 testable Catherine de Medicis— for this country 
 then abounded with protestants, and there are 
 few collections of cottages of any considerable 
 magnitude in which one is not yet pointed out as 
 
 having 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 55 
 
 having been a Hugonot place of worship.-— The 
 oppressions of the government, alas, have exter- 
 minated them root and branch, and left scarce a 
 remnant behind ! 
 
 These fortifications have all been surveyed, 
 (not indeed by military engineers,) and rudely 
 repaired by the affrighted multitudes whom the 
 atrocious cruelties of the royalist armies had 
 scared from their dwellings and compelled to fly 
 thither for refuge ! 
 
 The gates, in which the stern interrogatory of 
 the centinel had not been heard for ages ; have 
 been closed with massy beams of solid oak, and 
 the antient military order of things restored— 
 the old embrasures have been walled up —the 
 curtains repaired, and the whole surmounted 
 with modern masonry, pierced through with 
 numberless loop-holes, from which the impri- 
 soned peasantry marked the approaches of the 
 enemy, and not unfrequently gave him the re- 
 ception he merited.— It is impossible to pass on 
 without picturing to the imagination the horrible 
 outrages which must have been here perpetrated ! 
 -—While we recollect that all this apparatus was 
 preparatory to destruction— that the horrid tube 
 has thence been a thousand times levelled— -that 
 the messenger of death has thence been a thou- 
 sand times expedited, perhaps to a father, per- 
 e 4 haps 
 
56 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 haps to a brother, at all events to those who once 
 were dear to him who aimed the fatal shot— that 
 the ground on which we tread has been glutted 
 with human gore— that the dust which is spurned 
 by our horses feet has once perhaps throbbed high 
 in the bosom of affection, and warmed the gene- 
 rous heart to the noblest purposes ! — It is impos- 
 sible not to sigh— -it is impossible not to propose 
 questions to ourselves which, as they are not 
 easily solved, so do they contribute little to im- 
 prove the gaiety and gladness of the heart. 
 
 The Sarte is perhaps one of the finest rivers of 
 equal magnitude in the universe. — Its waters are 
 limpid as the d"ew drop, and as transparent as 
 chrystal.— On either side it is bordered with a 
 strip of the richest meadow, clad in almost ever- 
 lasting green. On its northern shore, at the 
 distance of perhaps one hundred yards, the 
 marble-rock pushes its dark-featured and almost 
 perpendicular cliffs to a very considerable eleva- 
 tion ; the bluff points of which sometimes boldly 
 pierce through the thick foliaged copse with 
 which its slopes are clad, and sometimes hide 
 themselves amid the vines which climb up its rug- 
 ged sides, and swing in the winds with the most 
 wanton luxuriance. Its waves are tenanted by 
 millions of the finny-tribes in all their customary 
 varieties, and on its bosom the frequent barge 
 spreads abroad its tumid sails, and courts the fa- 
 vouring 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 57 
 
 vourins breeze. There are few situations in 
 France the scenery of which is so completely en- 
 chanting as the shore of this placid stream.— It 
 is not in the power of words to paint the soft, the 
 tranquilizing effect of an evenings saunter upon 
 its rich luxuriant banks ; every thing seems to 
 unite in harmony ; the busy bustle of the world 
 comes not here to mingle its discord with our 
 pensive meditations ; the din of manufactories 
 jars not on the ear, nor do their attendant vices 
 and their inevitable consequences, squalled 
 wretchedness, obscenity, and filth, disgust our 
 senses— the music of the countless nightingales 
 which tenant the declivities of the rocks, is alone 
 interrupted by the clacking of the distant mill, 
 the barking of the watch-dog, the trill of the 
 snake, and the pastoral songs of the young light- 
 hearted guileless peasantry. To become weary 
 of scenes like these, requires a corrupt and dis- 
 torted taste. There were few evenings on which 
 we did not regale ourselves with a pensive pro- 
 menade beneath the cliff, along the mazy wind- 
 ing shore— nor ever quitted them but with the 
 wish to return. 
 
 The kind attention of our friends enabled us 
 to enjoy the exquisite beauties of the scene with 
 infinite advantage. The apartment assigned us, 
 fitted up in a style of convenience, luxury, and 
 elegance almost unknown in France, command - 
 2 ed 
 
58 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 ed the point of view above-mentioned. The 
 river meandring through the meadows, the cliffs 
 boldly rising and pushing their bald and hoary 
 peaks through the dark verdure of the copse ; to 
 the right and to the left assemblages of cottages. 
 
 On the high-grounds, at three miles distance, 
 the village of Juegne, once the property of the 
 marquis of that title— the terrace planted with 
 luxuriant linden-trees in front of the chateau— 
 the superb convent of Soleim founded as usual 
 upon one of the most inviting and beauteous spots 
 in the country ; the latter, though on opposite 
 sides of the stream, forming with the rest one 
 continued line of beauty :— whole hours were 
 frequently spent in gazing on the charming rich 
 ■ variety which lay extended before us ; and, when 
 compelled to quit the balcony, no sooner were 
 we turned round than an elegant pier-glass of 
 dimensions proportioned to its situation from 
 within the curtains of our bed, reflected back 
 the picture, and gave it us anew with a pleasure 
 equal almost to that from which we had just 
 withdrawn. As we float down the smooth un- 
 ruffiled bosom of the stream, the scenery becomes 
 even more enchanting— its banks are more pre- 
 cipitous--- the woods moreluxuriant— -the villages 
 which people its shores more frequent.-— At La 
 Roche Talbot, three miles from Sable, an estate, 
 previous to the revolution, belonging to an En- 
 glish 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 59 
 
 glish gentleman of that name, the prospect as- 
 sumes such sublimity of feature, such rich lux- 
 uriance, that it is impossible to gaze on it but 
 with rapture and extacy---I have seen nothing 
 even in England superior to it. 
 
 Mournful is the recollection that even these 
 Arcadian scenes, where every thing conspires to 
 soften and subdue the rugged nesses of our na- 
 ture, and attune the heart to pleasure, have been 
 sullied also by outrage and violence;-- -as we 
 draw dear to Juegne, we hurry on with averted 
 countenance : we turn away with horror when 
 we are told that some of its finest points have been 
 selected, by the wantonness of modern barba- 
 rism, for the martyrdom of the harmless peasant ; 
 that he has been tumbled headlong; from this 
 beetling point; that his wife has been assassinated 
 in that little field ; that the murderer has lurked 
 behind this rugged rock ; that here stood the little 
 mansion of peace ; that there blazed the smiling 
 hearth; that at this door infancy, trembling infan- 
 cy, pushed forth its flaxen head, impatient for its 
 parent's return, peeping this way and that, quak- 
 ing at the rustling leaf, and starting, like the 
 roe-buck, at every sound which tloated upon the 
 mournful breeze. Alas ! that parent never more 
 returned ! 
 
 Destruction 
 
60 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE* 
 
 Destruction seems to have been the grand ob- 
 ject of the-savages who prowled around the coun- 
 try ; to glut themselves with blood their pastime ; 
 it mattered not that the victims of their fury were 
 guiltless of political crime ; not to be remorse- 
 less, as themselves, was'fully sufficient to awaken 
 their resentment, and their resentment was death; 
 wherever they occupied a village or a town, and 
 there were many in which they fortified them- 
 selves, it spread dismay and consternation around 
 them ; the surrounding country became presently 
 depopulated, even the boldest spirits which it 
 once possessed looked aghast at their superlative 
 wickedness, and hurried, with horror and amaze- 
 ment in every feature, from their neighbour- 
 hood. 
 
 It will furnish you with some faint conception 
 of the terror they inspired when you are told, that 
 having once beaten the blues (so the patriots 
 were distinguished) in fair fight (in which, by 
 the bye, they never engaged as long as it was pos- 
 sible to avoid it), the whole country took the 
 alarm, and fled; and, finding Sable in their 
 route, the affrighted multitudes crowded into it 
 like sheep into the fold— for 28 hours succes- 
 sively, and without intermission, there was one 
 steady human tide flowing in at its gates. It was 
 impossible for them to remain there ; there was 
 
 here 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE, 6l 
 
 here neither food nor safety— -nor could its walls 
 contain them. In desperation they rushed out 
 of it again, breaking down the bridges behind 
 them ; multitudes ran forward till they could run 
 no longer, then laid themselves down and died ; 
 mothers rushed along with the torrent, their in- 
 fants in their arms, and dreadful was the conflict 
 in their bosoms ; nature could not long sustain 
 such exertions. 
 
 In the distraction of the moment, they cast 
 their burdens down by the way side, hoping, per- 
 haps, to find them again when the tempest should 
 be subsided ; many did, indeed, retrieve them, but 
 there were more who lived not to see that happy, 
 happy moment. Hundreds of either sex remain 
 now in that neighbourhood who had been thus 
 deserted ; the compassionating peasantry, as they 
 returned to their cottages, took them along with 
 them— but whence they came, and to whom they 
 owe their being, the great day of revision alone 
 can reveal. 
 
 Ere we take our leave of the beauteous Sartej 
 I must not forget to say, that the convent of So- 
 leim, once belonging to the Benedictines, will as 
 amply repay the curiosity of the traveller who 
 visits it, as any ecclesiastical erection which I 
 have yet seen in France. Its situation is delight- 
 
 fill, 
 
6 { 2 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE, 
 
 ful, mounted on a lofty rock commanding the 
 meanders of the river— the chateau, and park 
 of Sable---the town, and a wide extent of coun- 
 try stretching far to the westward. Forming an 
 exact square, its northern and western fronts are 
 perfectly uniform and magnificent ; within it con- 
 tains numerous, spacious, and finely proportioned 
 apartments, alias cells ! connected by airy, cor- 
 ridors, and elegant stair-cases ; and attached to 
 it are extensive terrace-gardens, which once were 
 amply stored with the richest fruits, and, in short, 
 with every vegetable-luxury which epicurism could 
 sigh for, or wealth obtain. At the base of the 
 rock clacks the unresting mill, connected with 
 the head waters, of which stands the reservatory 
 from which, at a moment's warning, the holy 
 fathers mortified their appetites with the choicest 
 products of the stream. 
 
 The date of this noble erection is somewhat 
 subsequent to the erection of the chateau of 
 Sable ; the founder of which having collected to- 
 gether more materials than were requisite to his 
 own purposes, incensed his vanity by presenting 
 the overplus to the monks, on condition that they 
 would blazon forth his armorial bearings over the 
 principal entrance of their convent ; though, in 
 general, sufficiently arrogant, t hey were now too 
 cunning to sacrifice their interest to their pride. 
 
 They 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 03 
 
 They caught at the offer; raised with it the fronts 
 abovementioned, and by this little sacrifice 
 pocketed, perhaps, 1000 louis. 
 
 Four years since, the drones having been pre- 
 viously expelled, the hive, and five capital estates 
 belonging to it, were sold for 50001. sterling ; but, 
 what chiefly merits the attention of the ingenious 
 traveller, is the chapel appertaining to it, which 
 has almost miraculously escaped the infatuated 
 fury of the jacobins, who, in their turn, commit- 
 ted atrocities almost equal to those in which the 
 royalists hourly rioted. 
 
 In form, this is similar to those which are 
 daily met with— -but it is stored with riches un- 
 paralleled in any ecclesiastical erection which I 
 have seen, Westminster-abbey alone excepted. 
 On the left, as you approach the altar, in a little 
 recess, is represented the sepulture of the Virgin ; 
 the tomb is opened ; four patriarchal figures, 
 holding each the corner of a large mantle, or 
 poll, on which the body rests, are in the act of 
 slowly lowering it to its last abode ; death is in its 
 countenance ; and its attitude correctly represen- 
 tative of that mournful, passive state to which 
 the great destroyer reduces the feeble and the 
 strong ; around stand the melancholy group of 
 weeping friends who had attended her hither ; 
 some are clasping their hands in despairing resigna- 
 
6*4 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 tion ; others turn their imploring eyes to him who 
 watches over the slumbering dust, as if to entreat 
 his protection of that which they now commit 
 unto his care ; and others yet strain forward their 
 venerable head to catch one glance more of her 
 they loved ere she is separated from them for 
 ever ; the heads are admirably fine ; the expres- 
 sion of every countenance is minutely correct; 
 the stone almost persuades one to believe that it 
 feels ; the drapery is perfectly natural ; the tout- 
 ensemble a master-piece : to whom the fraternity- 
 was indebted for this chief d'owore is uncertain. 
 It is said the sculptor was an Italian, but the his- 
 tory I was able to collect smells too strong of 
 monkery and the wonderful to be worth de- 
 tailing. 
 
 On the opposite side, in another recess, the 
 burial of a monk is also represented, but in sta- 
 tuary of very inferior composition- --by the same 
 master, it is said, but this appears to be very 
 questionable. In other compartments of the 
 chapel we have several of the most interesting 
 parts of the New Testament history similarly 
 exhibited, and in a style of execution which, 
 were they not eclipsed by the sepulture of the 
 virgin, would be esteemed master-pieces also ; 
 they are all formed of hard white free-stone, and, 
 with few exceptions only, have scarce received 
 an injury ;---the chapel, though no more em- 
 ployed 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 65 
 
 ployed for pious uses, is yet carefully preserved, 
 and long may it be. 
 
 The climate of this part of France is serene 
 as the summer's evening. The ethereal canopy 
 is clad in almost perpetual blue ; and, through 
 the wide expanse, a cloud is scarcely, for suc- 
 cessive weeks, to be descried ; the tempests of 
 wind and rain which keep our sky in perpetual 
 bustle, and are for ever working up fogs and 
 thick darkness from the surrounding ocean, are 
 there but fleeting visitants which sweep now and 
 then across the welkin, to temper the intensity 
 of the summer's heat, and give moisture to the 
 drooping herbage ; for a few hours the thunder 
 roars with tremendous explosion ; the clouds dis- 
 charge their contents in torrents of rain ; and, in 
 a few hours more, every thing is calm and se- 
 rene again. The concave puts on its accustomed 
 livery, and all nature smiles, refreshed by the 
 change ! 
 
 The productions of the soil are proportioned 
 to the benignity of the atmosphere, and the ge- 
 nial clime in which they flourish ; abundant fruits, 
 in endless variety, and the richest luxuriance, 
 grow in every cottage garden ; the vine some- 
 times weaves its fantastic wreaths along the fence, 
 around the door, and sometimes creeps up the 
 trunk of the neighbouring tree, and flourishing 
 
 f there 
 
66 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 there in all the wild wantonness of unbridled na- 
 ture, ere long forms a delicious retreat, beneath 
 which the peasantry assemble at noon, to dis- 
 patch their frugal meal ; and, at night, to frisk 
 all their sorrows away. 
 
 It is impossible for words to paint the luxury 
 of scenes like these ; the vegetable world has no- 
 thing more exuberant than the vine thus flou- 
 rishing free from the controul of the knife ; nor, 
 is there aught more refreshing to the fainting tra- 
 veller, and the weary husbandman, than the 
 grape, blooming like the plumb, or transparent 
 as the amber-bead, which, as he stretches him- 
 self along in the thick, impenetrable shadow of 
 the vine, and wipes the dust from his brow, 
 hangs drooping from above, and invites his hand 
 to gather it. 
 
 Many a time, as we travelled along the coun- 
 try, which, like England, teems with knap- 
 sacked-pilgrims returning to their families, we 
 saw them turn aside as often as exhausted na- 
 ture demanded refreshment, and drawing forth 
 the crust with which they had furnished the 
 pouch at the last village, stretched themselves 
 along between the rows of the vineyard. It was 
 then we felt how rich a boon was the vine ; the 
 groaning board of fastidious opulence could have 
 furnished no banquet so delicious ; for the pencil 
 4 this 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. Gf 
 
 this is a fine subject ; the unfavourableness of the 
 vernal quarter of the year had rendered the 
 other productions of the garden rather scarce. 
 Indeed, I question much, if at any time the le- 
 gumes of France are to be accompanied with 
 those of England ; they possess, I believe, all 
 the different species which are cultivated in our 
 gardens, but few of the rich varieties of late in- 
 troduced to our tables. The people are too poor 
 to be able to pamper their appetites with expensive 
 productions; but, if their legumes are scarce, 
 their fruit, their corn, their poultry, and their 
 game are abundant, and superlatively excellent. 
 
 In comparison with their bread, we have no- 
 thing worthy to be mentioned. I have already 
 spoken of their fowls, their partridges, and their 
 hares ; dressed after the French, or the English 
 modes, the flavour is exquisite, and the juice 
 abundant; of venison, I saw none; the sove- 
 reignty of the people has made more dreadful 
 havock among the deer than among themselves ; 
 the same may be said of the wild boar ; the 
 swinish multitude would have acted with more 
 consistency had they spared their brethren, and 
 pointed their rage against the wolves ; but, to 
 use a provincial proverb, " the wolf brings grist 
 to the mill- --the wild boar is very good eating" 
 This is the grand primum mobile and solution of 
 every difficulty which occurs in this world. 
 
 f 2 What 
 
68 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 What will excite John Bull's amazement most, 
 after finding that there are things in France of su- 
 perior quality to things of the same order, ge- 
 nus, species, &c. in England, is the price at 
 which these things are to be purchased. While 
 he is paying from 10s. to 16s. per couple for 
 fowls, in the markets of the metropolis, he will 
 scarcely believe, that at Laval, Sable, at La 
 Fleche, and many other places which might be 
 mentioned, better ones are at this moment to 
 be purchased for as many pence ; but, the fact 
 is certain, chickens are there lOd. per couple; 
 ducks Is. do. the paulard de la mans, which 
 weighs about eight pounds, will cost, per- 
 haps, 2s. 6d. a turkey as much ; a goose some- 
 thing less ; mutton excellent as the mutton of 
 Bagshot for 2d. halfpenny, or 3d. per pound ; 
 veal equally admirable at the same price ; of 
 beef and pork I will say little. The French hogs 
 are an execrable variety of the grunting family, 
 long legged as greyhounds, and thin as lanthorns, 
 whom neither art nor nature can fatten. Beef is 
 seldom in request but to make soup, in which fat 
 would be a superfluity, of course the ox is sel- 
 dom indulged with good living preparatory to the 
 pole-ax. Fuel is the only article which can be 
 said to be expensive in this part of France, and 
 this is matter of choice. The people enter- 
 tain, and cherish still, all their antient prejudices 
 against the use of fossil-coal, and continue to 
 
 burn 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 69 
 
 burn wood at a great price, though they can ob- 
 tain pit-coal of an admirable quality, the product 
 of their own mines, at 6d. per bushel. 
 
 At Sable we were introduced to a family from 
 
 L 1, who came to spend a fortnight with our 
 
 friend F s previous to the nuptials of the 
 
 youngest daughter. Its history is too interesting 
 to be passed over in silence : in the hands of a 
 writer of tenderness and imagination it might be 
 worked up into a beautiful pathetic story. I 
 shall give you a few particulars which were de- 
 tailed to me partly by Madam D y, partly 
 
 by her friends ; when you have read them you 
 will unite with me in the veneration in which I 
 hold her character, and the character of her 
 amiable children. I will only say, that the de- 
 tails are literally as they were communicated to 
 me, and most correctly true ; though bearing 
 strong features of romance, I can vouch for their 
 authenticity. 
 
 Mons. D was for many years a merchant 
 
 of the highest reputation, and most extensive 
 
 commerce in L 1. Inspired with the genuine 
 
 spirit of patriotism, his efforts to advance the 
 trade and manufactures of his native country to 
 the greatest possible extent were unwearied ; and 
 possessing, at the same time, a cool and tempe- 
 rate judgment, combined with no small degree 
 
 f 3 of 
 
70 A TOUR THOUGH FRANCE. 
 
 of mercantile information, steadiness, and pe- 
 netration ; his private fortune, which was ori- 
 ginally ample, received a very considerable aug- 
 mentation ; and his reputation from day to day 
 encreasing, at length reached the foot of the 
 throne. As the reward of his eminent services, 
 Louis the Fifteenth presented him with the cross 
 of St. Louis, and indulged him, from time to 
 time, with contracts of the highest consequence 
 to the state, and most productive profit to him- 
 self. Alas ! these marks of distinction, so far 
 from conducing to his advantage, proved his 
 bane, and involved him in incalculable misfor- 
 tunes ; added to his known wealth, they served 
 to constitute that crime for which thousands 
 bled. 
 
 From the commencement of the revolution he 
 had taken the popular side of the question ; the 
 enormous mass of oppression which ambitious 
 monarchs and wicked ministers had accumulated 
 upon the suffering multitude, could not fail to 
 excite his pity ; he saw that liberty was the only 
 effectual antidote for such grievances ; he re- 
 joiced in the dawning of better days, and hailed 
 the " day spring" which seemed to be rising upon 
 his country. 
 
 Unhappily, Louis XVI. was faithless to his 
 oaths, and listening, in a moment big with mis- 
 fortune, 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 71 
 
 fortune, to the persuasions of the evil geniusses 
 who crowded around him, he forsook his palace ; 
 deserted his people ; dissolved the textures of the 
 government, and paid the forfeiture of his trea- 
 son with his life. From that moment anarchy 
 and confusion reared their gorgon heads; the 
 grand assemhlage of talents, which constituted 
 the first legislative body, was driven from its sta- 
 tion ; ruffians usurped the reins of the empire, 
 and spread horror and desolation through the 
 land. 
 
 Among the scourges of mankind brought into 
 power by these fatal measures, was one who stood 
 indebted to Mr. D— -y 15001. By way of dis- 
 charging the debt, he so managed his affairs that 
 Mr. D — y, his wife, his six elegant and accom- 
 plished daughters, and as many of his relatives 
 as could possibly have claimed this 15001. were 
 one and all inserted in the proscribed list, the 
 effect of which is but too well known. The 
 blood runs cold with horror at the enormous atro- 
 city of such a crime ; we blush when we recol- 
 lect that we are allied to monsters, who, for the 
 sake of a pitiful 15001. could thus doom a whole 
 innocent, amiable, nay, patriotic family, root 
 and branch, to destruction ! But these are small 
 things compared with the crimes perpetrated in 
 France at this mournful epoch. 
 
 f 4 
 
 -s 
 
72 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 F s la P was one of the commissioners 
 
 delegated, at this guilty moment, to traverse the 
 departments ; to canvas the delinquencies of the 
 accused : and pronounce the vengeance of the 
 laws upon those who were found faithless to the 
 common cause of the people ; and, happy had it 
 been for this ill-starred country, had his col- 
 leagues breathed the same spirit, and acted upon 
 the same liberal principles with him. It is a 
 proud reflection for him, that while, like ra- 
 vening tigers, they seemed to have had no end 
 in view but to " hurt and to destroy" it was his 
 business to preserve its best citizens to the repub- 
 lic, and now retires to well-earned tranquillity 
 and peace, with the epithet Le bon F—s. 
 
 He had been pursuing his mission through the 
 center of sedition, when some intimations of 
 
 what was projecting against the D y family 
 
 happily reached him. He instantly hoisted his 
 colours ' upon his chariot, and, with the utmost 
 possible speed, posted to L 1. The commis- 
 sioner appointed to try its crimes was already ar- 
 rived ; and, he knew that an arrest was neither 
 more nor less than the signal of death. The 
 business he had undertaken was full of danger ; 
 
 passing before Mr. D y's town-house, he saw 
 
 the old gentleman sitting pensive in his chair, re- 
 clining his temples upon his hand; F--s just noticed 
 him with an inclination of the head, and hurried 
 
 on 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 73 
 
 on for fear of awakening suspicion. The com- 
 missioners supped together ; and, in the morn- 
 ing previous to the commencement of business, 
 walked round the town, to view its castles, to 
 inspect its manufactories, &c. &c. F s in- 
 sensibly drew his companion to Mr. D s ; the 
 
 commissary gazed with admiration — extolled the 
 charms of the situation, the taste displayed in 
 the improvement of it — the walks — the trees — - 
 the beauties of art and nature collected there, 
 — when, accidentally discovering that it was the 
 
 property and retreat of Mr. D y, he turned 
 
 short on Mr. la P , " I must not, sir, amuse 
 
 myself here — I have some previous duties of se- 
 verity to discharge." This naturally led to some 
 explanations, and terminated in the full disclo- 
 sure of the infamous business upon his hands. 
 
 F s only begged, that before he proceeded 
 
 to arrest the family, he would judge for himself; 
 " go to them — dwell with them, and tell me then 
 if you can doom them to destruction !" He con- 
 sented — was introduced to the D 's, and 
 
 finally lodged with them, as the principal family 
 in L 1. 
 
 What were F s emotions the feeling heart 
 
 may conceive, but no words can say, when three 
 days afterwards he was presented with the fatal 
 
 list, from which the D y name was erased, 
 
 and 
 
74 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE, 
 
 and thanked, with tears of gratitude in his eyes, 
 by his colleague, for having interposed his good 
 offices, and rescued him from the eternally cut- 
 ting reflection, that he had destroyed a family 
 entitled to every degree of protection and favour. 
 I need not say, that the meeting betwixt the 
 
 D ys (who till this moment had remained 
 
 ignorant of the snare laid for them) and their 
 much-loved friend F s was tenderly impas- 
 sioned : these are scenes which imagination must 
 supply — they mock all the powers of decription. 
 
 Nor, was this the only instance in which this 
 venerable and truly dignified character was thus 
 cruelly requited by the country to whose welfare 
 all his exertions had been directed. During the 
 conflicts betwixt the royalists and the republicans, 
 
 L 1 was frequently the seat and center of 
 
 their horrid outrages. Armies were without, ar- 
 mies were within, and the miserable inhabitants, 
 exposed to all the wantonness of military licen- 
 tiousness knew not where to turn ; to remain in 
 their houses was almost to await the slow, but 
 certain approach of famine, preceded by insult 
 and injury ; to quit them was to rush upon the 
 murderous bayonet. Such, however, were the 
 atrocities committed by the " Christian army,'" 
 that it seemed almost impossible to await its ap- 
 proaches. The tales of horror which preceded 
 
 it filled Mr. D ys shuddering soul with the, 
 
 most 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 75 
 
 most painful apprehension. Ke trembled for 
 his own grey hairs — he trembled for the partner 
 of his sorrows— but he trembled more for the six 
 lovely females who looked up to him for the pro- 
 tection it was not in his power to give them ! 
 
 The Blues having been worsted, and the vic- 
 torious party pursuing them towards L — 1, in 
 agony and distress which they knew not how to 
 bear, they all determined, if possible, to gain a 
 little country-house at some distance from the 
 town. They quitted B— A — . He was dis- 
 covered crossing some fields, Madame D— y 
 resting upon his arm, and the melancholy train 
 of daughters following close behind them : his 
 flight was construed into a crime ; and in a few 
 moments, a legion of assassins surrounded, and 
 presented their bayonets to his breast. In frantic 
 anguish the mother and her daughters clung 
 round their only support ; they folded him in 
 their arms ; they pressed the knees of their pur- 
 suers, and with all the eloquence of female dis- 
 tress intreated for their father's grey hairs. At 
 length they so far succeeded that his life was 
 spared for the present, and they were all con- 
 ducted back to the horrors from which they had 
 but just fled, there to await their doom !— But 
 heaven interposed at length, and sent his swift 
 vengeance to requite the guilty and rescue inno- 
 cence 
 
76 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 cence from farther insult— Margeau, as before 
 mentioned, who had vanquished the priest- 
 goaded hordes at La Mans, vanquished them 
 here again ; compelled them to evacuate the 
 town, and strew the sand-hills with their car- 
 cases. 
 
 Madame D y and her family were hereby en- 
 larged once more ; and the garrison which was 
 
 placed in L 1 under General Humbert of Irish 
 
 memory, insured them from further personal in- 
 jury ; but this was all the succour that this intre- 
 pid soldier could afford them. The exactions, 
 to which they were subjected were to the last 
 degree oppressive, and finally terminated in to- 
 tally stripping them of the entire gains of a whole 
 life devoted to business, under circumstances the 
 most favourable, and attended with the most 
 brilliant success. 
 
 Events like these could not fail to lie heavy 
 upon a heart of sensibility, and bear upon three- 
 score years and ten with a force almost insup- 
 portable. He lived to see many of the enemies 
 of his country humbled; and those who, but 
 a few years before, were with line and compass 
 parcelling it out among themselves, sueing for 
 peace at her feet; reverses of fortune which 
 seemed to console him under his deprivations, 
 
 but 
 
 1 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 77 
 
 but they came too late— they cast a gleam of 
 sunshine upon his closing day— but misfortune 
 had done its work ! 
 
 Having mentioned the name of Humbert, I 
 will give you one anecdote of him— as it is ho- 
 nourable to humanity, and serves to illustrate 
 the difficulty to which a mail of three thousand 
 per annum was reduced by a revolution, in the 
 horrors of which we have been so deeply en- 
 gaged. 
 
 Humbert, we have said, was stationed at 
 
 L 1 : he is descended from parents of the 
 
 meanest rank, and is totally devoid of the ad- 
 vantages of even the humblest education— with- 
 out friends — - without fortune : he possesses 
 alone a firm masculine figure, great goodness of 
 heart, strong natural sense, shining military ta- 
 lents, and bravery undaunted even in the most 
 appalling dangers : but these were qualifications 
 which, in an age and country where merit, not 
 lineage, was sought after ; where ability, not 
 corruption, was the path to distinction, could 
 not fail to recommend him to notice ; at a very 
 early stage of the revolution, he had been called 
 from the ranks and entrusted with command, and 
 he had never disappointed the trust reposed in 
 him. Mons. D y saw his worth, and ho- 
 noured him with his friendship— -he was intimate 
 
 as 
 
78 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 as a brother at B— - A-—, and affectionately es- 
 teemed by all the members of the family. 
 
 The turbulent succession of events at length 
 removed him from the friends he loved ; and the 
 rapidly augmenting difficulties of the state com- 
 pelled its pilots to resort to measures of the most 
 violent complection to meet its necessities--- 
 forced loans were reiterated, and yet the evil 
 continued unremedied, or rather encreasing still. 
 The bulk of their ready cash Monsieur and Ma- 
 dame D y had deposited where none but 
 
 themselves knew- --his horses, his plate, the jew- 
 els of his wife, had all been sold to answer these 
 repeated demands upon them, and purchase its 
 daily bread for his family, till at length all these 
 resources became exhausted. A fresh requisi- 
 tion was made ; he knew not how to answer it, 
 to refuse, he dared not- --the whole family were 
 of course thrown into the greatest consternation, 
 and the deepest despair sat brooding on every 
 countenance. 
 
 At this afflicted moment, Humbert being upon 
 some expedition, determined to turn aside to 
 visit his friends at L l---but how was he shock- 
 ed to meet his once serene and chearful friend 
 silent, pensive, melancholy, the swimming tear 
 but just repressed ! Tenderness forbade him to 
 probe the wound with which he saw but too well 
 
 the 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 75 
 
 the heart was pierced.— Madame D y, hav- 
 ing accidentally quitted the apartment, Humbert 
 turned to one of his daughters, and with the ten- 
 derest interest in his accent, enquired into the 
 cause of this universal dejection. She frankly 
 told him. Like an arrow darting from a bow he 
 hastened to the old gentleman's apartment— 
 gently reproached him with unkindness— -re- 
 quested permission to furnish him with whatever 
 he might want. No.-— Monsieur D was im- 
 moveable as Humbert was urgent- --no distress 
 should persuade him to redress his difficulties by 
 trespassing upon the generosity of a soldier of 
 fortune. They parted for the night : in the 
 morning the General reiterated his request, and 
 was again as peremptorily refused as before.-— 
 He mounted his horse ; Monsieur D y ac- 
 companied him to the gate— their adieus were 
 tender and affectionate : but no sooner had 
 
 Monsieur D y turned round to regain his 
 
 house, than Humbert drew from his pocket a 
 purse of two hundred louis, tossed them over the 
 old gentleman's head into his path-way, clapped 
 spurs to his horse, and was out of sight in a mo- 
 ment 
 
 During the interval betwixt their capture in the 
 
 fields and the decease of Monsieur D y, an 
 
 attachment having been formed betwixt one of 
 his daughters and his nephew, Monsieur P. 
 
 D-, 
 
80 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 D , whom he had received from the earliest in * 
 
 fancy, and pronounced an adopted son, the nuptial 
 day was fixed— the bridal ornaments were pur- 
 chased : every thing was ready, they waited alone 
 
 for the return of F s from Italy, where he had 
 
 been appointed Comptroller-General of the 
 French army in that quarter. It was a father's 
 request. It was but three weeks more and the 
 saviour of his family would attend to give new 
 joy, to add fresh zest to the pleasures of the nup- 
 tial day.— -Unhappy father, thy cup of misery 
 was not full!— one cruel thrust more awaited 
 th} bleeding heart ! The harassed mind of Vic- 
 toire, tormented by the memory of the number- 
 less untoward accidents which had crossed her 
 path, and harassed by the gloomy apprehension 
 of others yet in store, could sustain itself no 
 longer— she sunk down upon her bed— delirium 
 presently followed— every effort to reclaim her 
 scattered senses proved unavailing : for a few 
 days she continued calling for her husband — 
 pressing him to her burning bosom, and utterly 
 rejecting both food and medicine but when ad- 
 ministered by his hand.— Exhausted nature at 
 length gave up the conflict ; and, upon the bo- 
 som on which she had fondly hoped to repose 
 her head in all the soft delight of conjugal affec- 
 tion, she breathed her last !— iThe unhappy P — 
 gazed for a moment upon the lifeless corpse of 
 her he loved in unutterable anguish ; then uttered 
 
 aery 
 
A. TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 81 
 
 a cry as though his heart was reading, and 
 rushed madly out of the house— it was impossi- 
 ble for him to return. Pie mounted his horse, 
 and sought what, alas ! it was unable to give him 
 
 in the house of their common friend, F s ; and 
 
 here, as soon as possible, the weeping family 
 followed him. Her remains, and the remains of 
 another sister since dead, have been removed, on 
 the sale of the churches from the annexed bury- 
 ing ground, and are deposited in the garden at 
 B— le. A simple monument of black marble 
 surrounded by mournful cypress, and oversha- 
 dowed by the weeping willow, points out the 
 spot. 
 
 This painful stroke seems, however, to have 
 been the winding up and consummation of their 
 sorrows, (but for the death of Monsieur D — y, 
 which was yet reserved for them,) the last arrow 
 in the quiver of adversity. Heaven grant it may ! 
 — it is mournful, it is fatal to virtue when we see 
 it thus afflicted, forsaken, abandoned to cala- 
 mity and distress— we perceive the wisdom, the 
 propriety of the decision, when the swift ven- 
 geance of eternal equity overtakes the proud op- 
 pressor, and hurls his glory to the ground — we 
 bow with adoring reverence, and are confirmed 
 in our pious purpose to make the attributes of the 
 Divinity the model of our lives ! But when ex- 
 cellence, almost divine, is deserted — when 
 g bending 
 
$ c 2 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 bending beneath the pressure of triumphant 
 wickedness it turns its imploring eyes towards 
 the sky— when it bathes the feet of the Eternal 
 with its tears, and from day to day sues, but 
 sues in vain for pity, for comfort, for deliver- 
 ance—then we are not to wonder that the feeble 
 mind faints— we must drink deep as Job in the 
 divine oracles, or be dejected and cast down 
 when our hope is thus miserably shipwrecked ! 
 
 At Sable' the promise seems to have been ful- 
 filled — " that He who breaks us will bind us up 
 again." The unhappy P — received every kind 
 attention which the tenderest sympathy could 
 pay him ; they all felt for themselves, despoiled 
 of a member of their little circle almost adored ; 
 but they felt infinitely more for him— and the 
 testimonies of their affection were of a complec- 
 tion which, in an age like the present, will be 
 almost considered romantic : but these must not 
 be mentioned yet— 
 
 In their visit to F s, and the unhappy youth 
 
 who had flown to him in the paroxysm of his dis- 
 tress, they were attended by a young man of po- 
 lished manners, fine figure, and good fortune, 
 who had come from Paris to mingle his tears with 
 theirs, and to weep over the remains of the hap- 
 less Victoire. He had been some time since 
 introduced into the family, and the intimacy 
 
 betwixt 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 83 
 
 betwixt him and Mons. D— y was so evidently 
 cordial, that it was concluded a matter beyond 
 doubt that the old gentleman had fixed upon him 
 for a son-in-law ; the consequence was as might 
 have been expected. One of the young ladies 
 became strongly attached to him ; she avowed it 
 to her mother ; who, seeing no substantial ob- 
 jection to the match, took the opportunity as 
 soon as they were retired for the night, to men- 
 tion it to Mons. D— -y. He replied, " it would 
 not do ; Mons. La M was not a man of fami- 
 ly, and begged he might hear no more of it."' 
 
 In the morning, the conversation was detailed 
 to the enamoured daughter, who justly observed 
 that " in the then existing state of affairs, family 
 was a misfortune, that it would have been much 
 better for them had they not been noble."-" Ma- 
 dame D — y felt the force of the observation, 
 and accordingly the following evening renewed 
 the conversation with her husband, mentioning 
 what Miss D — y had said— but the old gentle- 
 man cut the business short in a moment, seizing 
 his pillow like Mr. Shandy as he turned round, 
 by declaring in the most peremptory manner— 
 " It must not, cannot be.^ Madame D — y 
 perceived immediately that there was some mys- 
 tery, not the want of family, at the bottom of 
 this business ; and P. D — y, being at that time 
 at Paris, she wrote to him, requesting him to in- 
 g 2 vestigate 
 
84 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 vctigate as much as possible who Mops. 
 La M--e was, and what were his family and 
 connections, mentioning the circumstances al- 
 ready detailed. Being upon terms of the most 
 
 undisguised intimacy with La M e, P. 
 
 D — y instantly appealed to himself; and after 
 a considerable struggle received for answer, 
 " It must not, cannot be, because the brother 
 cannot many the sister." It is unnecessary to 
 add that this answer was given under the sacred 
 bond of secrecy. It was to be confined to his 
 own, and the bosom of Madame D — y. 
 Here was light cast upon this obscure and 
 impenetrable business — but how was she to 
 reconcile it with Mons. D y's known cha- 
 racter, who was in fact a man of the strictest 
 moral purity — the most affectionate of fa- 
 thers and friends ? The ray served but to render 
 the darkness darker ! 
 
 In this state of mysterious uncertainty things 
 continued when Yictoire died, and the whole fa- 
 mily came to seek the heart-broken P— at Sable'. 
 During this mournful visit, Mons. D — y and 
 Mons. F s being walking in the park, the af- 
 flicted state of his family led the former to a re- 
 view of many of the prominent features of his 
 history which he detailed to his friend. At length 
 he paused---for a moment he seemed to muse ; 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 85 
 
 when, snatching Mons. F— 's hand, " But (says 
 he) there is one circumstance which I must di- 
 vulge to you ere I die : it has long lain heavy 
 upon my heart, and I must request your assist- 
 ance in opening it to my family.-— You believe 
 me to be a man of the correctest morals ;but look 
 at my grey hairs, and behold my blushes while I 
 
 confess " that I have' he stopped " that I 
 
 have" he stopped again ; the struggle of his 
 
 feelings was too powerful for utterance :---" that 
 
 I have, a s0nJ" > — A son ! exclaimed F with 
 
 astonishment. " Yes, a son, replied the old 
 gentleman; and La M-— is that son. He was 
 born slv months before my marriage with Madame 
 des Fr—y ; but incapable of abandoning the 
 fruit of youthful indiscretion to want and xvretch- 
 edness, I attended at his birth. I sealed him xcith 
 an indelible mark upon each of his arms ; I have 
 visited him in secret ; I have educated him with 
 care and tenderness; I have established him in 
 business ; and, am happy to add, that all my 
 cares are amply repaid. He is a young man of 
 which the first family in the republic might be 
 proud : for a long time have I sighed for an op- 
 portunity to introduce him to my wife and daugh- 
 ters as my son ; but the uncertainty which hangs 
 over me compelled me to be silent ; I know not if 
 they would receive him, and rejection xvould bring 
 me with sorrow to the grave : my daughter's at- 
 tachment to him however now compels me; it is 
 o 3 indispensible 
 
86 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 indispensable that I now acknowledge him and 
 meet the worst. — It must be yours to complete 
 your friendship for me by aiding me in this im~ 
 port ant eclairissement." 
 
 Without the smallest hesitation, Mons. F — s 
 undertook the office, though delicate and difficult: 
 his delight is to do good ; and to say that the 
 affair was managed by him, is to say that it was 
 adroitly done. 
 
 To her eternal honour, Madame D— y flew 
 into the arms of the trembling, hoping La M— e> 
 who had been first apprized of his relationship to 
 the family about a year before— pressed him to 
 her bosom with a mother's fondness ; declared 
 she would consider herself his mother, and pre- 
 sented him to her daughters as their brother. The 
 daughters caressed him with extacy ; kissed 
 again and again the impression upon his arms, 
 and congratulated one another with the most 
 unaffected joy on having found such a brother ; 
 even she whose fond hope was thus for ever 
 crushed, rushed too into his arms, exclaiming— 
 " If I may not. press him to my breast as my hus- 
 band, I yet may embrace him as my brother.'*— 
 And one and all united in declaring that he 
 should share the family name and the family for- 
 tune with them.— But here La M — e begged 
 
 leave 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 87 
 
 leave to dissent " the name he zvould receive with 
 joy, and ever account it his highest honour— but 
 -nothing more.— His father had before given him 
 an education— -to crozvn the whole, he had noxo 
 given him a mother and sisters tenderly esteemed 
 and beloved; and the welcome which they had 
 given him to their hearts was enough— he zvanted 
 no more— he zvould receive no more." The con- 
 flict of generosity was animated ; but Madame 
 D y an d the sisters were peremptory and in- 
 flexible : in fine, la M e submitted. 
 
 The father's feelings at this exquisite moment 
 were overwhelming— while the tears were chasing 
 one another down the care-ploughed furrows 
 of his countenance.—" My children (cried he, 
 looking upon his daughters) you have blessed in- 
 deed your father ; and you Madame (catching 
 
 Madame D y in his arms) never have you 
 
 made me so completely happy as in this momenta 
 A deed was immediately drawn up and executed 
 by them all, adopting him as a son and a bro- 
 ther. 
 
 The developement of the mystery was of too 
 exquisite a cast for a breaking heart to bear ! — 
 the tide of bliss which rushed in upon the family 
 absolutely overwhelmed, once more, the unhap- 
 py P— . He silently withdrew from the saloon : 
 Oh zvhat zvould have been the emotions of his be- 
 g 4 loved 
 
88 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 loved Victoire had she been permitted to see this 
 happy day !—Oh, with what unfeigned joy would 
 she not have participated in her sisters' delight ! 
 -—What zcould have been theirjeelings as hand-in- 
 hand they stepped] orward to receive a brother to 
 their arms F He was presently missed by the joy- 
 ous circle ; their pleasures could not render them 
 forgetful of another's sorrows— they divined the 
 cause of his retirement, and immediately sought 
 for him, wishing to divert his melancholy, and 
 to warm his benighted soul in the rays of the 
 sun-shine which were just risen upon them : alas ! 
 they knew not what were his feelings— they 
 found him in the garden, pacing the ground with 
 unequal broken steps, turning his reproachful 
 glances toward the sky-— his eyes streaming with 
 tears- --his heart sobbing with unutterable anguish. 
 For wounds like his there is no cure but sympa- 
 thy and indulgence— joy— -nay more, even con- 
 solation is poison till time has abraded the keen 
 sense of suffering, and patience allayed the tem- 
 pest ! They mingled their tears once more to- 
 gether; it was all that they could do. The 
 heavy-laden heart was soothed, but to join the 
 party was impossible. 
 
 Having conducted him to his apartment this 
 amiable group of females returned to the saloon : 
 —but what a group ! such a rare assemblage of 
 worth but seldom exhibits itself to the eyes of 
 
 mortals, 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 89 
 
 mortals ; one would almost suppose that it were 
 a celestial convoy come down " on errands full 
 of love' "to bind up the broken-hearted" tore- 
 pair the wrongs which Mr. D y had suffered 
 
 from his ungrateful countrymen, and bless the 
 going down of his evening sun !--- Their hearts 
 were heavy ; P— sj anguish had carried them 
 back to Victoires dying-bed-— they wept for her, 
 and they wept for him :— the happy, happy fa- 
 ther was waiting their return. " Unhappy P— s ! 
 (exclaims one of them as she entered) he has 
 lost his wife ! he has lost his every thing on 
 earth ! but let us do whatever is possible to mi- 
 tigate his sufferings ; it is the only method of 
 expressing our attachment to her which now re- 
 mains.— -You had promised, Sir, to associate him 
 with you in the business ; O let him be associ- 
 ated still, and let the fortune you had promised 
 him be paid him still/' One and all united in 
 the request. The venerable pair wept again 
 with joy— they had never seen generosity like 
 this before, and felt justly proud of such daugh- 
 ters ! — " It shall be so, my children (sobs the 
 delighted D— -y) ; he shall receive his destined 
 wife's portion, and he shall instantly be made a 
 partner in the house ; and happy shall I be if, 
 when time shall soften his anguish, and Cle- 
 mence be marriageable, he can fix the heart upon 
 her which was once Victoire's F' 
 
 One 
 
9Q A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 One thing only is now wanting farther to ren- 
 der us all (exclaims another) as completely hap- 
 py as it is possible under the present circum- 
 stances to be. — " You recollect Sir, the fortune 
 
 of my sister Le C was paid in assignats— 
 
 those assignats are now become worth nothing : 
 -—it is our united request that her fortune be 
 paid her anew in hard cash, and each of us*wiU 
 joyfully bear her proportion of the loss V- To 
 requests like these it was impossible to withhold 
 consent. — The instrument which acknowledged 
 LaM— e as a brother and a son, was no sooner 
 executed, than the notary was commanded to 
 prepare others to the effect above-mentioned, 
 which were instantly executed ; also the counte- 
 nance of each of these almost angelic females 
 beamed wiih more than human sweetness as she 
 took the pen with which she signed her dereliction 
 of so large a portion of her inheritance ! 
 
 Humanity never shone in brighter colours than 
 on this memorable day— a day which lifted a 
 burden more weighty than a mill-stone from 
 
 D y S heart ; which gave to his wife just the son 
 
 she would have sought of heaven— a brother to 
 her daughters— to P— D— y and to Madame 
 Le C— — k tokens of friendship and affection most 
 softly soothing — richer than the mines of Potosi 
 — more estimable than all the gems of Golconda ! 
 Never before in this cold-blooded money-calcu- 
 lating 
 
A rOCFB THROUGH FRAN 91 
 
 latino world have I mer so noble aught 
 
 divine ! 
 
 My introduction to this family not only com- 
 pensates for all the pains, tor all the dangers to 
 which my excursion to the continent has exposed 
 me. it puts me in good humour with my species 
 again—it tells me that it ifi not totally corrupt, 
 and gives me an anticipation of that sublime •: 
 cellence to which it will one day I trust be ele- 
 vated ! 
 
 D— y with regard to P — r 
 and his youngest daughter erished by him 
 
 to the last, but never more publickly hinted :— 
 ..ed not to see that wish accomplished 
 — his venerable partner was more happy 1---P-- r 
 D— y had too much good b - too deeply 
 
 the memory o: indness to look 
 
 beyond the family at B--- A—- : a family with 
 which monarchs might be proud to ally them- 
 selves, while there remained a sifter to fill 
 widowed arms ; and Ciemenci ivanced 
 
 in years, advancing also u barm which 
 
 could en^agre the affection of a man of se. 
 
 _ _ * 
 
 /ned to present to him every thing his h 
 could wish.— He offered her his hand ; and she, 
 
 conscious of hi- .. conscious of her family's 
 
 united wish, accepted it. 
 
 Dis 
 
 missmi 
 
92 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 Dismissing then the agonizing events on which 
 we have so long dwelt, let us turn noxv to the 
 more enlivening scenes to which that consent in- 
 troduced us ; and, here I shall transcribe for you 
 a letter written to a friend at the moment 
 
 " Among the light-hearted beings with whom 
 we are surrounded, it will be conceived, that a mar- 
 riage must be a joyous time — and such, indeed, 
 we found it ; but, ere we enter upon the detail of 
 a French wedding, it is necessary to premise, 
 that in France this said business requires a great 
 deal of previous preparation. Many will smile, 
 and lift up their hands in admiration, perhaps in 
 pity, when they are told, that few of the younger 
 members of the community have been instructed 
 even in the first principles of Christianity. Dur- 
 ing the convulsions of the revolution, all the semi- 
 naries of instruction were dissolved; no man 
 dared avow himself a christian but at the hazard 
 of his life — nay, his last injunction to his ser- 
 vants, parting with them at night, was, that they 
 would be careful to whisper their evening prayer, 
 lest his neighbours should over-hear them. 
 
 " The grand object of the visit was, therefore, 
 that the bride elect might receive some lectures 
 from my friend upon this hitherto neglected sub- 
 ject — confess all the little follies and failings of 
 her life — receive the mass — be absolved from her 
 
 sins 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 93 
 
 sing — an( i prepared for commencing a new score 
 with clean hands. All this the gentleman goes 
 through as well. As soon as this important 
 business was accomplished, and both were made 
 good christians, thoroughly washed from the old 
 leaven and the new, they returned home, and in 
 a few days we followed them. Arrived — about 
 four in the afternoon the notary, with his parch- 
 ments, made his appearance, which were read 
 to us all assembled in full convocation, and 
 signed by every one present. — A clandestine mar- 
 riage in France is impracticable. 
 
 " Coffee and liqueurs were then handed round 
 to us, and, except one or two sober ones, whose 
 gravity, or perhaps infirmity, forbade it, those that 
 were, and those that longed to be married, joined 
 in the merry dance till 10 o'clock in the morning ; 
 when Mr. , the mayor of the town, came for- 
 ward, with its archives under his arm — the out- 
 line of the marriage-contract having been inserted, 
 during the interval, in them. This having been 
 once more read aloud to the surrounding audi- 
 tory, and signed again by each of us, the mayor, 
 the bridegroom, and the bride, advanced into 
 the middle of the saloon, where the former so- 
 lemnly interrogated each of them separately, if 
 they took the one the other, voluntarily, for bet- 
 ter for worse. This being answered in the affir- 
 mative^ he pronounced them man and wife. — 
 5 This 
 
54 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 This is the civil marriage authorised by the new 
 order of things, and the only marriage which it 
 considers binding. 
 
 " The qualms of conscience, however, in the 
 new Christians, required something more than 
 this : accordingly, as soon as the clock struck 
 twelve, we all descended to the bottom of the 
 garden, where two large barges awaited us ; we 
 embarked, and, in about five minutes, were 
 landed close under a little chapel belonging to 
 a private family, where M. la P i having pre- 
 viously arrayed himself in the vestments of the 
 whore of Babylon, to speak as a good protestant, 
 met us ; hence we advanced, in solemn proces- 
 sion, to the communion-table, where they were 
 married again, as all good children oug;ht to 
 be, according to the ritual of the mother church ; 
 which, by the bye, were it pruned of its ever- 
 lasting see-sawings, crossing, bowing, kneeling, 
 and scraping, would be much less ridiculous and 
 offensive than the absolutely indecent forms of 
 the church of England. 
 
 " One thing, however, I must mention more, 
 there are two rings charmingly devised, and ex- 
 quisitely wrought; these were put, during the 
 ceremony, into a silver bason, together with a 
 five-moidore-piece, and sprinkled, from time to 
 time, by a sprig of myrtle dipped in holy-water. 
 
 Towards 
 4 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 95 
 
 Towards the close of the whole the rings were 
 returned, one to each, to keep the bridegroom 
 and the bride in mind of their duties to each 
 other — the five-moidore-piece remained for the 
 g;ood of the church. 
 
 <c The business being thus finished, and the one 
 tied to the other as fast as heaven and earth could 
 bind them, the mass was celebrated ; I expected 
 that, at least, the new-linked pair would have 
 been partakers — but my good friend judging, 
 perhaps, that all of us had received a " quantum 
 sufficic^ already, chose to keep the wine to 
 himself. Bread is dispersed with the benedic- 
 tion pronounced ; we all returned to our barges, 
 and, as many of us as chose it, presently sepa- 
 rated for the night. 
 
 " At two, the next afternoon, we all assembled 
 again to partake of the nuptial banquet; and, 
 as soon as the evening closed, the pleasure- 
 ground was illuminated — an immense awning, 
 extended by the four corners to as many trees, 
 formed a canopy, and beneath it we danced joy- 
 ously till two the ensuing morning. Nozv comes 
 the finale — 
 
 " At four, the following Sunday afternoon, the 
 bride and bridegroom, superbly dressed, spark- 
 ling with nuptial presents, took their seats in the 
 
 grand 
 
96 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCF. 
 
 grand saloon, with relatives and friends branch- 
 ing off to right and left, and forming a crescent 
 with them ; and, forthwith all the fashion of 
 the town, antique, and modern, were seen com- 
 ing forward like an army — the ladies to be kissed' 
 by the bridegroom, the gentlemen to kiss the 
 bride; and, not unfrequentLy, were the latter 
 seen smacking each other with a warmth and cor- 
 diality even greater than that with which they sa- 
 luted the ladies. It is truly laughable to see two 
 immense grizzly beards thus entwined and inter- 
 lacing with each other : the Frenchmen suffer 
 their beards to cover the greater half of their 
 countenances. 
 
 " This truly toilsome business having lasted 
 about five hours, the tide, which came steadily in 
 at one door, and flowed out at the other, began to 
 slacken ; and I was happy to see it — to use an 
 English colloquial expression, the bride was com- 
 pletely fagged : it must be a complete antidote 
 to kissing for three months at least. 1 ' 
 
 The face of the country from Sable to Laval 
 is mildly picturesque — but the soil is poor ; forests 
 accompany us a large portion of the distance be- 
 tween them, which, during the convulsions of the 
 revolution, served as a shelter to the royal ban- 
 ditti that infested the country, and completely cut 
 off all connection betwixt the northern and south- 
 ern 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 97 
 
 ern extremities of the country — a circumstance 
 which gave occasion to many a mournful tragedy. 
 One must be mentioned as a specimen of the 
 rest: the sister of F~ s la P had been pro- 
 fessed among the ftlles de Chariti — an order of 
 nuns whose business is to nurse the sick and af- 
 flicted poor, and to administer medical aid to 
 them, in the principles of which they were in- 
 structed in their convents. She had been sum- 
 moned together, with another of her sisters, 
 from La Fleche to Laval. The journey was in- 
 finitely dangerous, but the danger weighed no- 
 thing when ballanced against duty ; they set out 
 in a cabriolet, and happily accomplished their 
 object without molestation. 
 
 At Laval there were, as might reasonably be 
 expected, those who panted, and longed to con- 
 vey intelligence of themselves to their friends at 
 La Fleche, from whom they had long been sepa- 
 rated, as completely as if the ocean had flowed 
 between them ; they loaded the poor post-boy with 
 letters. Alas! in the forest, the Chouans met 
 him; they hurried him to an adjoining village. 
 Letters from patriots to patriots were upon him. 
 It was enough — though unconscious of wrong as 
 his horses — though simple as an infant, it availed 
 him nothing ; from the examination of his pocket 
 he was hurried to the guillotine, and in a few mi- 
 
 h nutes 
 
PS A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 nutes paid the forfeit of another man's imprudence 
 with his head. 
 
 On the route from Sable to Laval there were 
 two bridges of stone which had been erected but 
 a few years previous to the revolution at a very 
 considerable expense : these have been demo- 
 lished, but are now repairing, at the cost of the 
 nation, as are all the roads in these western de- 
 partments : the exertions of this description, 
 which meet our notice wherever we go, are asto- 
 nishing. 
 
 At Meslay, where we changed our horses, we 
 were shewn the remains of an antient castle ; dur- 
 ing the conflicts betwixt the different villages of 
 the forest (for these waged a petit war among 
 themselves, while the republic fought its enemies 
 upon a larger scale abroad) the inhabitants of 
 this place having been vanquished by the inhabi- 
 tants of the neighbouring village, were compelled 
 to seek shelter within its walls * and, there sus- 
 taining a long and tiresome siege — of cannon 
 neither party possessed a single piece, or the 
 matter must have come to a short issue. Aided, 
 at length, by a few scientific murderers from the 
 Christian army, the assailants carried a mine 
 under the foundation of one of the towers ; and, 
 in an evil moment, blew it and its inhabitants up 
 
 together 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 99 
 
 together. Imagination can scarcely picture to it- 
 self a state of horror more complete than this--- 
 village pitted against village, house against house, 
 when man was compelled to fly from the face of 
 man, to regard every one he encountered in his 
 way as a murderer, and to feel himself then 
 only secure when his neighbour lay bleeding at 
 his feet 
 
 I remember, long since, to have been deeply 
 interested in the narratives contained in the 
 " American Farmer's Letters"-— but little did I 
 think that I should ever traverse the grounds 
 where enormities like those so simply detailed by 
 him had been committed— where the peasant had 
 been compelled to turn his fields with his mus- 
 quet leaning on his plough, with his sabre slung 
 at his side, and his children perched on the sur- 
 rounding trees to watch for their father's safety, 
 and warn him of the assassin creeping along, like 
 a wily fox, beneath the covert of the hedge to de- 
 stroy him— -where scarcely a night was seen to 
 pass away without being illuminated by the blaze 
 of burning cottages. In fact, the night was ge- 
 nerally chosen for the exploits of the Chouans* 
 Guilt like theirs shuns the light of day— hence 
 they were called Chouans, which signifies the 
 owls. 
 
 h 2 Laval 
 
100 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE, 
 
 Laval is situated upon the Mayenne, and I be- 
 lieve is the principal town in the department. It 
 contains an antient gloomy castle, the proprietor 
 of which headed those nightly depredators in 
 many of their expeditions ; and, after the bloody 
 conflict betwixt them and Mar^eau before- 
 mentioned, being taken prisoner, was guillotined 
 in the court-yard, fronting his own apartment* 
 He had many a time curbed their infernal fury, 
 and spared the lives of several republican pri- 
 soners of respectability who fell into his hands, 
 for whose blood they were thirsting;— though a 
 traitor to his country, he went to the scaffold 
 accompanied by the sighs and tears of thousands 
 whose politics were diametrically opposed to his 
 —such is the hold which humanity takes upon 
 the heart. It has also a handsome gothic church, 
 and a very numerous population. The linen 
 manufactory carried on here merits attention ; 
 the extent of it is not exceeded in France ; and 
 the fabric, or texture, is admirable- --it fully 
 equals the linens of Holland, and is, perhaps, 
 20 per cent cheaper. At what is called the Ma- 
 zure, a bleaching-ground at some considerable 
 distance from Laval, we saw an establishment of 
 that sort, the largest of the kind, belonging to 
 an individual, which I have ever met with ;— 
 probably, not less than 200 acres were whitened 
 with numberless pieces of linen, of various fine- 
 ness, 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 101 
 
 ness, bleaching in the sun. The whole prepa- 
 ratory process was fully explained, and the work- 
 shops thrown open to us ; but I observed nothing 
 with which I was not already acquainted ; in 
 many respects their machinery is capable of great 
 improvement. It was with sincere regret that I 
 perceived numerous casks of spirit of vitriol, 
 and the muriatic acid arranged beside the buck- 
 ing-house. Manufactures and philosophers may 
 plead to eternity in favour of this new adopted 
 method. The use of those corrosive acids serves 
 only to return the capital quickly into the first 
 hands. It is a destructive process, and he that 
 would obtain good linen must bleach it as his 
 forefathers did, and be content to wait till the 
 sun and rain have perfected the work. 
 
 Delauney, famed for planting the tree of li- 
 berty in front of his house while embassador from 
 France to the United States of America, was de- 
 scended from a truly amiable and respectable fa- 
 mily in Laval. He was an impetuous young 
 man, drunk with republicanism; in vain did 
 the congress remonstrate with him, and, by 
 various gentle methods, endeavour to beguile 
 him into the removal of the obnoxious emblem. 
 He was immoveable in his purpose. They pas- 
 sed the decree, that it should be taken down at 
 all events, and a file of musqueteers were sent 
 with express orders to remove it : they found 
 
 h 3 him 
 
102 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE, 
 
 him embracing the tree with a loaded pistol in 
 each hand— but, unawed by the menacing pos- 
 ture which he had assumed, they proceeded to 
 take him from it by force. He struggled hard, 
 bellowing wild rhapsodies all the while ; and, at 
 the instant in which he lost his hold, he clapped 
 the muzzle to his head and drew the fatal trig- 
 ger ; his face was horribly mangled ; one of his 
 cheeks was torn off ; but, he survived the misera- 
 ble mutilation, and returned to France ; and, in 
 his own country, made himself as conspicuous, 
 by the boldness and temerity of his conduct, as 
 in America. Alas ! he saw that the bloody strug- 
 gles for liberty which she had made were unavail- 
 ing— -he saw her new-born freedom trampled 
 under foot by anarchy and lawless outrage. In 
 wild destraction he rushed to the Pont-neuj] 
 and hid himself from the hateful sight for ever. 
 
 At Laval, the effects of commerce are pecu^ 
 liarly striking ; totally unlike most of the other 
 towns through which we pass, elegance and com- 
 fort are here conspicuous ; the high lands above 
 the river are beautifully ornamented by the coun- 
 try-houses of the merchants and manufacturers ; 
 and, the interior fully answers to the front. An 
 Englishman is here frequently reminded of his 
 dear native isle, and may almost think himself 
 at home. The apartments are fitted up in the 
 English style, and not unfrequently with English 
 
 furniture ; 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 103 
 
 furniture ; and, to crown the whole, hospitality 
 —that genuine hospitality which once was En- 
 glish, amply spreads the board, and gives zest to 
 the entertainment. 
 
 Taxation has not here engulphed the energies 
 of man, nor frozen the genial current of his 
 heart; half a dozen friends superinduced upon 
 a family for as many weeks in England is a very 
 serious concern ; at Laval it is nothing— hence 
 the tables of its inhabitants are loaded with con- 
 tinual luxury, and ease and gaiety smile upon 
 every brow, 
 
 The manufacturers of Laval enjoy the peculiar 
 protection of the government, which, notwith- 
 standing its own necessities, has again and again 
 stepped forward to aid them in the moment of 
 distress; but, for its interposition, many of the 
 most opulent houses must have fallen in the same 
 common ruin with their neighbours. The Ma- 
 zure was frequently stripped by the Chouans ; 
 500 pieces of linen were the spoils of their last 
 expedition against it. With a spirit such as this, 
 Mr. P— -y and Co. may struggle ; but, all his 
 attempts to undermine the manufacturers of 
 France will be unavailing. 
 
 From Sable to La Fleche, which is about 18 
 miles, the road is excellent, and the country 
 
 h 4 beautiful; 
 
104 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 beautiful ; there are many villages finely situated, 
 and improving in picturesque beauty as you pro- 
 ceed. As on the road from thence to Laval, 
 national forests accompany us the greater part of 
 the way, game must be abundant, and we can- 
 not be astonished at the immense quantities of 
 it which are in the season expedited to the capi- 
 tal, amounting to waggon-loads weekly. 
 
 La Fleche is a clean little town, pleasantly 
 situated upon Le Loir ; it is far better built than 
 the French towns which we have seen ; the streets 
 are wide, straight-lined, and commodious, and 
 its general aspect is comfortable. Its situation 
 is very eligible, being surrounded with gentle 
 swelling hills, sloping down to the river, which is 
 navigable to the Sarte ; the Sarte to the Loire ; 
 and, the Loire to the sea below Nantes. La 
 Fleche, however, chiefly claims attention on ac- 
 count of its college, founded and endowed by 
 the great Henry the Fourth, anno 1603, and 
 placed by him under the controul and direction 
 of the Jesuits. The house is spacious, princely, 
 worthy of the donor : it consisted originally of 
 a noble mansion, the architecture of which is 
 elegant, and of two detatched corresponding 
 wings, one of which had been taken down, and 
 rebuilt in modern taste, when the revolution ar- 
 rested the hand of improvement, and prevented 
 the other from being rebuilt also. 
 
 The 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 105 
 
 The whole contained accommodations for no 
 less than 600 young gentlemen. , Behind is a spa- 
 cious garden, laid out in the French taste, i. e. 
 in squares and circles, triangles and stars, with 
 here and there a yew-tree, and a juniper, clipped 
 into forms and shapes which cannot offend the 
 commandment ; and, beyond the garden, a noble 
 park, in which the students were wont to exercise 
 and divert themselves. 
 
 The center part of the building is now con- 
 verted into the municipality, or town-house ; but, 
 the wing which has been rebuilt, is rented of the 
 nation by a gentleman of considerable talents 
 and learning, who has here founded a seminary 
 for the education of youth, over which he pre- 
 sides with considerable celebrity. The remain- 
 ing wing is returning fast to the earth out of 
 which it teas taken of old. There were few or 
 none admitted upon this foundation but the sons 
 of the decayed nobility; recollecting that the 
 gentry to the westward of La Fleche were all of 
 the " noble race of Shenkin" and, though poor 
 as Job, upon his dunghill yet noble, I^enry ge- 
 nerously determined to give what fortune had de- 
 nied them— to educate them as gentlemen, and 
 enable them thereby to render themselves useful 
 to their country, and retrieve their ruined houses. 
 Did one of these " Corinthian capitals oj society 9 
 appear at La Fleche, no matter how much fal- 
 len, 
 5 
 
106 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE.' 
 
 en, could he produce indisputable proofs of the 
 privileged stream flowing in his veins, it was 
 enough— the board— the education— the cloath- 
 ing of his sons cost him not one single sous. 
 
 It was princely thus to extend the helping- 
 hand to dignity in distress, and rescue the 
 proud soul of independance from degradation — 
 the almost inevitable consequences of which are 
 practices disgraceful to the perpetrator, and 
 ruinous to society ; and never, surely, was there 
 a country in which such exertions were more im- 
 periously demanded ! It is almost incredible, but 
 the fact is indisputable, that these noblemen hav- 
 ing brought their sons to La Flcehe, were fre- 
 quently under the necessity of " begging their 
 way" back to their chateaus again. 
 
 At present, it is impossible to carry on the 
 glorious work upon the antient liberal principles 
 —the royal endowments have been appropriated 
 to the necessities of the state, or rather to the 
 necessities, extravagance, and vice of the wretch- 
 es who seized its helm— the funds are dissipated 
 -—not even the walls are held by antient tenure— 
 every thing is prostituted— every thing perverted 
 from its original object. Nevertheless, the con- 
 trast is striking when we compare the expense 
 of education at La Fleche with the expense of 
 an inferior education in England. 
 
 Masters 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 107 
 
 Masters of eminence in the several branches 
 of tuition are here engaged, and youth are taught 
 the living and dead languages, the mathematics, 
 philosophy moral and natural, music, dancing, 
 in short, every thing requisite to the education 
 of a gentleman— are boarded, clothed, and 
 lodged for fifty guineas per annum. There are 
 at present about 200 upon the list; many of 
 them belonging to the first families in the sur- 
 rounding departments. 
 
 A few of the wealthier young Britons begin 
 also again to appear at La Fleche. It would be 
 well for them could it be said that they had 
 learned wisdom in the school of adversity, and 
 had acquired a disposition to submit tacitly to the 
 rank to which the general voice of the nation has 
 brought them back. Alas ! they are proud and 
 arrogant as ever ! totally insensible to the indul- 
 gence which has permitted them and their fathers 
 to return to the patrimony of their ancestors; 
 they are continually caballing amongst themselves, 
 cherishing odious distinctions, and evidently 
 wait with impatience for the opportunity of 
 trampling the roturieu in the dust again I from 
 such a race what is to be expected ? If adversity 
 cannot humble them, if indulgence cannot mol- 
 lify them— to what process must the guardian of 
 the public peace next resort ? 
 
 It 
 
108 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 It may not be amiss to mention ere I quit La 
 Fleche, that an English lady availing herself of 
 the infinite advantages resulting from the neigh- 
 bourhood of the college, has there also instituted 
 a female seminary upon the same principles with 
 the one above-mentioned, and wirh the assist- 
 ance of the same tutors. The young ladies are 
 here taught every female accomplishment ; board- 
 ed and cloathed for forty guineas per annum. 
 About forty are here assembled ; and their coun- 
 tenances bespeak a good table, and their man- 
 ners the cares of a gentlewoman.— It will be 
 recollected that La Fleche was the favourite re- 
 treat of the celebrated David Hume, and that 
 here he composed some of his metaphysical 
 pieces. 
 
 We have before described the cabriolets of 
 Dieppe and Rouen. The cabriolet of La F16che 
 and Angers in which we embarked for the latter 
 place is totally different from them, and infinitely 
 more detestable : with them you may compro- 
 mise the matter tolerably well, and posting to 
 your account before you set out jolts and con- 
 vulsions innumerable, feel tolerably at your ease 
 with regard to the final safety of your bones.— 
 Here the first motion of the horses is like the 
 signal of alarm ; you feel it like an electrical 
 shock in your heart ; and, if your female com- 
 panions be furnished with but a very moderate 
 
 quantum 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 109 
 
 quantum of that elegant English attainment com- 
 monly called " nervous complaints " " affections 
 of the nerves,'" and so on, it is succeeded by a 
 general scream. 
 
 You have seen in Piccadilly the basket-carts 
 which carry the mails from the post-office to the 
 coaches waiting at the Gloucester-coffee-house 
 for them — take by way of recipe' one of these ; 
 let it be four feet wide and nine feet long, and of 
 a height just sufficient to admit your head be- 
 neath the cover when it is at rest; pass two 
 planks from side to side by way of benches, and 
 pierce as many air-holes in its side to keep its 
 contents from absolute suffocation. Mount this 
 admirable contrivance upon the hinder axle-tree 
 of a north-country stage-waggon of about two- 
 hundred weight, and attach to each extremity of 
 it a wheel with fellies nine inches by five, and 
 bound with iron in proportion : when all things 
 are ready u stow away' three passengers upon 
 each bench, and as many upon the front and 
 back-seat, and pile up, no matter how high, 
 their baggage upon the roof and xoila the Angers 
 diligence ready to start ! 
 
 As to the mode of getting forward, the case is 
 much the same through all France; tie on with 
 ropes— it would be a libel upon the words to call 
 it harnessing— tie on four or more old stallion s 
 
 lecherous 
 
110 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 lecherous as goats and vicious as d— Is, ever 
 standing in spite of fate one one way, another 
 another ; to the off-end of the bit of the off-leader 
 fasten a piece of cord, and let the other extre- 
 mity of it be attached in like manner to the 
 near end of the bit of the near-leader : the mid- 
 dle part or bow of this curious rein must be 
 passed through an iron-ring dangling from a bow 
 of the same metal, passing round before the con- 
 ductor and supporting the knee-boot. 
 
 The moment of starting being arrived, behold 
 us then packed in like geese in a pannier, one 
 shrugging up his shoulders, another wriggling 
 his rump, a third tugging at the lap of his coat 
 or the tail of her gown on which a fourth is firmly 
 seated ; one and all fretting, grumbling, at each 
 others unpoliteness ; and do not forget that we 
 are in lat. 47 with a. sun over our heads across 
 the flaming disk of which a cloud has not passed 
 these six weeks, shining with such intense bril- 
 liancy as absolutely to fire the heaths which sur- 
 round us ! The stallions, as before said, look- 
 ing every way but the right one ; the reins tied 
 with Obadiah's double and treble knots ; Moris* 
 le postilion in his place ; a little pipe of five inches 
 length in his mouth smoking with the rankest and 
 most foetid tobacco the western world can pro- 
 duce ; his whip in both his. hands like a flail in 
 2 the 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. Ill 
 
 the hands of a thresher ; expectation on tip-toe 
 in us all ! 
 
 No sooner is the eventful allons pronounced, 
 than with all his might he levels a tremendous 
 stroke at the buttocks of each of his cattle, ac- 
 companying it with an uncouth and horrid yell 
 something like an Irish howl, and away they 
 start, ushering forward in a mode which seems 
 to indicate their intention to pull our poor 
 vehicle, like the martyrs of old, limb from limb ; 
 as long as they fail to blunder over the precipice 
 or into the ditch every thing goes on admirably. 
 The idea of quartering the road to avoid the 
 ruggedness of it which neglect has generated, 
 has not yet been imported into France ^—in- 
 deed, with such harness to carry it into execu- 
 tion, had some plodding speculator conceived it, it 
 would be impracticable. The moment the horses 
 begin to tug the basket- begins to swing, and 
 being so heavy-laden on the top it pours forth its 
 griefs in many a fearful creak, and not a few 
 minutes are elapsed ere the stranger can persuade 
 himself that the bottom of his voiture is not ab- 
 solutely escaping from under his feet and the 
 baggage tumbling about his ears : — by dint of 
 ilogging, now to the right, now to the left, one 
 while with the thong, another while with the but 
 end of the whip, we contrive to get tolerably in 
 the middle of the road, and to get on at the rate 
 
 of 
 
: 13 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 of six miles an hour, but not without infinite 
 danger ; and were it not that a carriage is a vara 
 axis upon the French roads (the common stage- 
 carts excepted) it would be impossible not to be 
 cast away every hour ! 
 
 It was night ere we arrived at Angers, and 
 you may suppose we sat with infinite satisfaction 
 anticipating the pleasure of being rattled through 
 its long, dark, and narrow streets — one of our 
 leaders, to crown the whole, being a perfect no- 
 vice at his business. However, this circum- 
 stance turned to our advantage ; the postilion 
 questioning his own ability to keep his pupil in 
 the right line, got some one to lead him ; and at 
 nine we disembarked at the messagerie singing 
 Te deum as we passed from it to our friends. 
 
 In the morning we rose and began to look 
 around us, and presently found that we had not 
 risqued our bones for nothing. Angers was a 
 favourite station of the Romans, who appear in 
 their choice of situations to have possessed a 
 taste not a whit inferior to the monks. Many 
 remains .of the conquerors of the world are yet to 
 be seen. A few of the arches of an aqueduct 
 constructed by them across the river are yet in 
 perfect preservation, and form a very prominent 
 object as you walk beside its busy banks. 
 
 The 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRAXCE. 113 
 
 The town itself has little to recommend it : it 
 is very similar to the other towns which we have 
 visited, and when one of them is described all 
 are described. It has however many a noble 
 mansion within its walls.— -The gloomy castle, 
 formerly tenanted by the Plantagenets, in which 
 antiquaries are shewn the tomb of Rene, king of 
 Sicily, together with that of his wife, demands 
 our first attention. The cathedral, of a struc- 
 ture perfectly unique, consisting of one long 
 avenue surmounted by a gothic arched-roof 
 without a pillar, merits inspection. Besides 
 these, various superb religious houses of modern 
 erection, in which simplicity and elegance are 
 united, deserve to be visited. They are now 
 turned to various useful purposes. 
 
 What is now the caserne, was formerly an 
 equestrian academy of high reputation through- 
 out Europe. It is a superb building, and most 
 admirably adapted to the purposes for which it 
 was erected. Peter the great of Russia learnt 
 here the art of horsemanship. Angers has long 
 been the seat of literature. Its university, 
 founded by Louis II. duke of Anjou, in 1246, 
 maintained a reputation fully equal to that of any 
 university in the kingdom ; and its academy of 
 the belles-lettres, founded in 1685, was not less 
 illustrious. The church formerly attached to the 
 
 i university, 
 
114 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 university, is now converted into a gallery fof 
 paintings, and its numerous appendages are de- 
 voted to the arts and sciences. 
 
 There is here a well chosen museum, and a 
 very interesting national school.— Professors of 
 natural and experimental philosophy ; the mathe- 
 matics ; surgery ; medicine ; painting ; sculp- 
 ture ; botany— are here established with compe- 
 tent salaries at the expense of the nation. 
 
 The prefect of Mayenne and Loir, a gentle- 
 man of science and observation, politely attended 
 us through all the various departments, and ex- 
 plained whatever called for explanation : from 
 him we learnt that in all these schools genius is 
 alone sought after, and no partiality shewn but 
 to merit. Instruction is offered to every one 
 who seeks it. He who can afford it is expected 
 to subscribe about one guinea per annum— the 
 children of the poor are taught absolutely gratis. 
 —I forget to say that Angers is situated just be- 
 low the confluence of the Sarte and^the Mayenne, 
 the former having previously received the tribu- 
 tary waters of the lesser Loir, and about three 
 miles from the point There the united streams fall 
 into the Loir. Gazetteers, almost one and all, 
 appear to have been wholly misinformed of its 
 real position. 
 
 Previous 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 115 
 
 Previous to the revolution it carried on a con- 
 siderable trade in camblets, serges, and mixed- 
 stufFs.— Its commerce is now reviving.— A very 
 extensive manufacture of cotton-handkerchiefs 
 has been lately set on foot in a ci-devant con- 
 vent on the western shore of the Mayenne. The 
 climate is here delectable ; the fruits are rich 
 and abundant; the surrounding country fur- 
 nishes wine in the greatest plenty, some samples 
 gf which are scarcely, if at all, inferior to cham- 
 paigne ; and in the skirts of the town we meet a 
 stupendous slate-quarry of the first quality ; du- 
 ring the late murderous struggle, this town being 
 seated as it were upon the skirts of La Vendee, 
 exhibited many mournful examples of the detes- 
 table effects of " heaven-born interference in the 
 affairs of France— the accusing spirit had here 
 much to do, and the recording angel has filled 
 heave ns high chancery with long-— long cata- 
 logues of crimes which sea's of tears cannot wash 
 out !— Beauties innumerable, which once flou- 
 rished and gave dignity to Angers, have been 
 totally effaced, and those which remain are mi- 
 serably mutilated ! 
 
 It is impossible not to blush as often as we 
 pass by erections which by their elevation served 
 as fair marks for the enemy, or by their beauty 
 commanded respect ! Their fine fronts have been 
 pierced by numberless shot^ and the choicest 
 1 2 pieces 
 
116 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 pieces of architecture are shattered to pieces !-- - 
 Could the destruction of these chef-dceuvres have 
 tended in the smallest degree to advance the 
 cause of the besiegers, it would even then have 
 been unpardonable ; but when we see, when we 
 are assured that all this desolation neither 
 straightened the imprisoned patriots in the smal- 
 lest degree, nor could profit the royal cause, it 
 is impossible not to think of the conductors of 
 this execrable warfare but with the detestation 
 in which we hold the Turks and Barbarians 
 burning the Alexandrian libraries ! 
 
 For a considerable space of time, not less 
 than 30,000 cartridges were daily distributed 
 among the inhabitants, hemmed in on every side, 
 and absolutely on the very brink of famine ;--- 
 from the windows of their houses, from the 
 ramparts on which from time to time they took 
 their busy stations, they gazed on the fields- 
 which their own hands had sown, on the vine- 
 yards which they had pruned and cultivated, 
 loaded with the richest abundance, and serving, 
 like water to Tantalus, but to aggravate the 
 pining misery which consumed them ! 
 
 One mournful morning being driven to despe- 
 ration by their necessities, they rushed furiously 
 out of their prison upon their besiegers- —alas ! a 
 few of them returned again ere long leaving be- 
 hind 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 117 
 
 hind them the slaughtered remains of no less than 
 800/ others of families, to say nothing of the youths 
 and unmarried men who fell also in this day's 
 horrible carnage!— the dreadful distress of the 
 evening can only be conceived by those who have 
 witnessed similar scenes !— within, without— -all 
 was horror and consternation !— one mingled 
 uproar of heart-rending cries and lamentations, 
 and of triumphant shouts from which the shud- 
 dering soul of humanity recoils, filled the air ;-- - 
 unsated with blood in the field the victors pursued 
 the flying multitudes to the gates, hewing them 
 down with relentless cruelty, and deaf as adders 
 to the cries and groans with which they begged 
 for quarter- —multitudes were of course cut off 
 from retreat, and had nothing to do but seek 
 for refuge in the fields, the vineyards, and the 
 woods ! 
 
 Among these was Mons. P— M— ; when all 
 was lost he turned his back upon the field, 
 but his victorious foes were betwixt him and his 
 family ! ---flying he knew not where ; fainting with 
 fatigue and apprehension— his heart bleeding for 
 his wife and children who must ere this time 
 have concluded him lost, for ever lost to them— 
 he stumbled upon a body lying stretched across 
 his path ; there was something about it which ex- 
 cited his attention— -he turned it round to learn 
 if possible whose it was, or rather, had been : by 
 
 I 3 the 
 
IIS A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 the gleam of moon-shine he recognised the fea- 
 tures !— It was his neighbour— it was his friend 
 who had fought by his side ! His heavy-laden 
 heart wanted not this fresh accession to its mise- 
 ry !— As he stood mutely gazing on the appa- 
 rently lifeless corpse, he remarked that it did not 
 bleed-— that there was no blood on the ground, 
 nor marks of violence upon it— a ray of hope 
 darted into the mind — " Who knows— there 
 may be life yet!" In an instant his bare hand 
 was in the bosom of his friend, upon his heart—, 
 "oh God! it throbs yet; perhaps he faints like 
 myself with fatigue ; perhaps some small relief 
 may save him yet !"— But whence was that relief 
 to be sought?— it was apparently hopeless ! 
 should he quit the senseless body, the Chouans 
 would ere long find it, and consummate what 
 weariness had begun. — At the risque of his own 
 life he dragged it therefore to an adjoining hedge, 
 in the bushes of which he concealed it and left 
 it! 
 
 In a few minutes he found a cottage; the 
 lowly habitation of a female peasant and her 
 children ; aware of the direful events of the day 
 they had closed their windows, they had barred 
 their doors, extinguished the fire on the hearth, 
 and the taper which twinkled on the table, and 
 crouching around each other in momentary ex- 
 pectation of outrage and violence, awaited the 
 
 morning, 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 119 
 
 morning.— He knocked; every thing was still 
 and silent as the grave.— He knocked louder; 
 it was like soliciting entrance into the tomb— an 
 hollow echo from within alone replied.— -Shudder- 
 ing with horror ; terrified for himself, terrified for 
 his friend, he knocked with more impatience 
 still. This finally brought the trembling woman 
 to her door.— He entreated her to assist him, to 
 receive the dying man, and if possible save him. 
 Alas ! she knew the vindictive vengeance of the 
 conquering party ! she knew that they ransacked 
 every dwelling ! ---that to shelter a blue beneath 
 her roof was almost to expose herself and her 
 children to instant destruction. Happily Mons. 
 P— was known to her, and his eloquence pre- 
 vailed ! 
 
 She accompanied him to the spot where his 
 friend was laid, and they were fortunate enough 
 to remove him to the humble mansion ere the 
 morning returned. This being accomplished, 
 Mons. P--- was then at liberty to provide for 
 his own safety.— He fled again ; and had quit- 
 ted the house but a short time ere it was surround- 
 ed by reeking swords ; but, as if weary of per- 
 secution, fortune guided the pursuers to every 
 apartment but the apartment in which he had 
 concealed his friend— they rummaged every 
 corner, they pierced with their bayonets every 
 bed, rending the air at the same moment with 
 i 4 * their 
 
ICO A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 their oaths and imprecations, but forgot to visit 
 the roof of the adjoining shed. Thus the pity of 
 the Eternal sometimes deprives the wicked of 
 their judgment, and makes the folly and the 
 heedlessness of iniquity the covert of those whom 
 he compassionates and protects ! 
 
 But what were the consequences to this tender- 
 hearted female ?---It was but a few days ere the 
 tables were turned upon the royalists, and this 
 poor affrighted being was arrested, conducted 
 to Angers, impeached for fostering and cherish- 
 ing the Chouans, and in short was almost upon 
 the road to the guillotine ! In this distressing 
 moment she recollected this adventure— she 
 bade one of her children go and find Mons. P-- - 
 and tell him that her mother was in prison, friend- 
 less, hopeless, just upon the point of falling the 
 victim of her humanity ! 
 
 Mons. P— needed no eloquence to move 
 him ; the artless story was scarcely told ere he 
 was in the midst of the municipal assembly : his 
 brows knit with resentment, his eyes flashing 
 indignation and vengeance upon her accusers. 
 His appeal in behalf of suffering virtue was 
 heard :— the proof of patriotism which he ad^ 
 duced was irresistible. In fine, he carried the 
 widow home with him and restored her to her 
 
 affrighted 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 121 
 
 affrighted infants ! Oh, now I longed for the 
 civic crown to place it on his brows ! 
 
 Accustomed thus from day to day, from year 
 to year to slaughter and desolation, we cannot 
 wonder that the national character at length 
 gave way : the most exquisite sensibility may be 
 rendered callous ; continual convulsions will 
 blunt the keen edge of our sensibilities, and ren- 
 der us capable of viewing with apathy and uncon- 
 cern, scenes which once could harrow up the 
 soul— long ere the termination of the conflict its 
 horrid consequences ceased to shock the mind ! 
 —Destruction became the order of the day, and 
 while the cannon were roaring on their ramparts, 
 and platoons were momentarily firing around 
 their walls, the theatres were crowded as in the 
 profoundest peace ! — Cart-loads of wounded dy- 
 ing soldiers, many of them their friends and ac- 
 quaintances, though stretching with agony at every 
 jolt of their rude conveyance would scarcely at- 
 tract the gaze of sympathy in the multitudes who 
 thronged by them to the spectacles /—nay, even 
 tender and delicate females could so far divest 
 themselves of that which is more beautiful than 
 personal beauty, (viz.) softness and delicacy, as 
 even to walk to the field of battle as to an amuse- 
 ment to gaze upon its horrible desolation, and 
 even to trample upon the breathless remains of 
 
 those 
 
122 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE* 
 
 those who had been the companions of their in- 
 fancy, the sharers of their youthful sports ! 
 
 When we talk of war our minds revert to the 
 thousands who are cut off from their country, 
 their families, their friends ; but what is the de- 
 struction of thousands to mournful effects like 
 these upon the survivors?— It is horrible when 
 heard of from afar, when in imagination we 
 listen to its dismal din and view the garments of 
 our friends " rolled in blood ;" but we must fol- 
 low in its traces to conceive all its horror.— Ne- 
 ver till I found myself in this hapless country had 
 my fancy painted to me the thousandth part of 
 its accursed deformity :— I had conceived that 
 the English prints, to fire the public indignation 
 against the abettors of this cruel contest, had 
 embellished their stories with fictitious enormi- 
 ties ; — would to God I had found it so ! Alas I 
 they have given us but " the small dust of the 
 balance"' — they have not even collected the most 
 atrocious features of it !— " Look, (says Mons. 
 La P— ) across the Loir on which we are now 
 standing !" My eyes swim with tears and my 
 hand trembles while I think of this desolated de- 
 partment !— " For twenty leagues square (says 
 he) there is not a field in which human blood 
 has not been shed!— Not a town, not a village, 
 not a chateau, not a church, not a cabin, not a 
 roof, has been spared !— In one undistinguished 
 
 desolation 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE, 123 
 
 desolation all is laid low !— - -Where hospitality 
 trimmed the chearful hearth, and loaded the 
 smoaking board, silence and solitude alone are 
 found— the cry of the wolf, and the screech of 
 the owl alone are heard ! At the command 
 of the iron-hearted, iron-fa.nged monster, the 
 aged and the young, the wounded and the sick, 
 those who were labouring in the pangs of child- 
 birth, and those who were struggling with the 
 agonies of death, were hurried away — a blanket 
 the sole remnant of affluence and comfort !— the 
 vault of heaven their only canopy !— -the blaze of 
 their burning mansions the only light which 
 gleamed around them, alas ! which gleamed to 
 light them to despair ! 
 
 If we may credit men of temperance, men of 
 moderation, if any one can be moderate when 
 speaking upon such a subject, not less than 250, 
 000 lives were here cast away partly in the field, 
 partly in consequence of this general desolation ! - 
 To crown the whole, if we may wedit the same 
 authority, 250,000,000 sterling of forged assig- 
 
 nats were issued at the same time by the 
 
 in these and the surrounding departments • I will 
 not vouch for the correctness of the statement, 
 nor will I assert that it formed the data on which 
 the downfal of the French finances was so re- 
 peatedly prophecied in the British parliament— 
 if I mistake not, it was asserted by a great law 
 
 authority 
 
124 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCP. 
 
 authority, now gone to answer for his crimes, or 
 reap the reward of his virtues, that all this was 
 perfectly fair, and consistent with the laws of 
 war. It is unquestionable, that to this measure 
 more than to any other, the French financiers 
 ascribe their embarrassments. The distress oc- 
 casioned hereby infinitely outstripped every thing 
 of the kind produced, by the immense expendi- 
 ture, peculation, and mismanagement of the 
 war. Royalists and republicans fell alike in one 
 common ruin ; where one man sunk down into 
 poverty by the grievous pressure of forced loans, 
 confiscations, and military outrage, seven were 
 rendered bankrupts by this atrocious measure. 
 Abettors of the royal cause were one moment 
 worth from 10 to 15000 per ann. the next had 
 not as many pence. 
 
 But, it is time that I part with these torturing 
 scenes to resume the thread of our own adven- 
 tures. Having quitted our own carriage, at An- 
 gus we embarked in the mail-coach, or rather 
 mail-basket, on our return to Paris. You re- 
 collect the elegant style in which we travelled from 
 la Fleche hither. The mail-coach from Nantz 
 is exactly similar to the one above described ; 
 to add to our comfort we now entered upon the 
 Leve. In my opinion, the most stupendous 
 work which France, or almost any other country 
 can exhibit ; compared with it, the utmost exer- 
 tions 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 125 
 
 tions of the kind which I have elsewhere seen, 
 are insignificant and pigmy productions ; if it is 
 any where outstripped, it must be in Holland 
 and in China. The parts of Anjou, Tourraine, 
 and the Orleannois, which border upon the Loire, 
 are perfectly flat ; and, in the earlier ages of the 
 world, must have formed the vast morass of 
 not less than 100 miles in length, and from 20 to 
 40 miles wide— so says tradition, and it appears 
 extremely probable. 
 
 The Leve is an immense bulwark, raised by 
 human hands, to exclude the river from this wide 
 extended tract of country, and confine its waters 
 within its banks— -and extends from Angus to 
 Orleans, perhaps further. Its base may be about 
 40 feet wide ; its elevation is nearly 25 do. from 
 the adjoining level; and, its upper surface, 
 which is paved with large stones, like the streets 
 of London, just capacious enough to admit of 
 three carriages abreast. 
 
 My enquiries concerning the date of its origin, 
 and by whom executed, were unavailing. It is 
 to be regretted, that such names should be suf- 
 fered to pass away into forgetfulness, while those 
 who (instead of becoming benefactors to man- 
 kind by works of everlasting utility) prove the 
 purses and the scourges of humanity are blazoned 
 
 forth 
 
126 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE* 
 
 forth upon the page of story, revered and ho- 
 noured ! 
 
 At about half the distance from Angus to 
 Tours, we cross the Loire to dine at Saumiir, 
 the most inviting little town which I have yet 
 seen in France. I am -not quite certain whether 
 it be situated on an island in the river, or on the 
 island and the opposite shore, i. e. I am not cer- 
 tain whether the town-house, church, &c. which 
 seem to constitute the nucleus of a town, be in 
 the one or the other. 
 
 A stage-coach is not at all suited to the study 
 of topography , nor, is the importunity of French 
 porters, or French beggars, which swarm around 
 it as soon as it stops, at all calculated to promote 
 a disposition for calm investigation;— add to 
 which, a good dinner to a man whose nostrils 
 have not been greeted with the scent of a kitchen 
 for eight hours, is a much more important article 
 than the position of a French village. To make 
 short of the business, having paid our 50 sous, 
 i. e. 25 pence, per head, for an excellent dinner, 
 and about six bottles of Burgundy, we came off 
 without asking the question. 
 
 There are two bridges across the river in this 
 place; the one from the north shore to the 
 
 island 
 
A TOUR THROUGH TRANCE. 127 
 
 island ; the second, which is very beautiful, from 
 the island to the opposite side. As we approached 
 the former of these, the detestable mode of har- 
 nessing our stallions, which I have elsewhere 
 described, had nearly given us (to use sailors 
 phrase) " a canf into the river— whether with 
 a view to illustrate the Newtonian doctrines of 
 attraction and repulsion, or double-charged with 
 positive, or negative electricity, I shall not de- 
 cide ; be that as it may, our leaders chose here 
 to go one one way, the other another ; in conse- 
 quence of which, the off-wheel horse tumbled 
 down, and was dragged for a considerable dis- 
 tance on the ground ere his diverging compan- 
 ions could be, persuaded to stop ; power over 
 them beyond persuasion, in this case, la postilion 
 had not— the more he tugged at the cord tied to 
 their bits, the more wide they separated from 
 each other : the bye-standers, at length, inter- 
 fered—lifted up the poor battered wretch from 
 under the wheels, and placed the offenders in 
 parallel lines again. I need not say, that the 
 causes of all this mischief did not make their ex- 
 periments and illustrations for nothing— the ad- 
 venture cost Mr. le Postilion about six inches of 
 whipcord ; and, the philosophers arrived at the 
 end of the stage with their rumps fluted like a 
 bedstead— but meek and docile as ever. 
 
 The 
 
12$ A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE 
 
 The former of these bridges was demolished by 
 the Chouans— a temporary one supplies its place 
 at present. On the banks of the Loire, villages 
 and little towns are numerous ; and the vine- 
 yards become more frequent, the plants climb up 
 the steepest declivities, and occupy situations 
 absolutely incapable of any other culture. The 
 elegance with which their long branches project 
 from the rock, and swing in the air— the beau- 
 teous festoons they form, as they creep from tree 
 to tree, and twine their tendrils round the spray 
 —the rich luxuriance with which they are not 
 unfrequently loaded, infinitely more tempting 
 to the eye than ever apple was, form a picture 
 absolutely paradisaical ; and parched, as we may 
 be supposed to be, the inevitable consequence 
 of close packing, dust, and burning sun-shine, 
 our forbearance in not stopping to pluck the 
 tempting crop, was infinitely greater than ever 
 Adam exerted. 
 
 In the midst of these vineyards the habitations 
 of the peasantry form very interesting objects. 
 The rocks consist of several strata of soft calca- 
 rious stone, easily hewn, and perfectly free from 
 moisture, even in the most unfavourable states 
 of the atmosphere. Availing themselves of this 
 circumstance, the Vignerons have excavated im- 
 mense hollows, in the cliffs which border the 
 
 road, 
 4 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 129 
 
 road, and, by squaring and smoothing the sides 
 and roofs, have formed them into dwellings by 
 no means contemptible. 
 
 As the evening closed, the candle upon the 
 board enabled us to perceive the clean white 
 table-cloth— the loaf— -the bunches of grapes— 
 the bottle of wine, and the bed, with its snowy 
 coverlid, at the bottom of the recess. In short, 
 that the mansion, though not constructed by Pal- 
 ladio, was by no means deficient in comforts— 
 more, than can be said of many a princely pa- 
 lace. 
 
 I was here pleasingly disappointed at the mode 
 in which the grapes are bruised previous to . the 
 press;-— instead of two, or more frowsy galle- 
 gds, coarse as a boar's skin, and rank as pole- 
 cats, trotting round and round in a vat, and 
 bruising the fruit with their feet, as is the case 
 in the lurid latitudes of Portugal, where the mo- 
 tion of a finger produces a general perspiration 
 (rare preparation for squeamish stomachs), here 
 the grapes, as they are gathered, are brought 
 upon the backs of old women, apparently the 
 only beasts of burden of any utility in the vine- 
 yard, thrown into a large vessel, and macerated 
 with a wooden pestle ; and, as soon as the vessel 
 is filled, the whole is then transported to the 
 wine-press. 
 
 k At 
 
130 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 At about nine we arrived at Tours ; the en- 
 trance to which is magnificent, and the effect 
 grand. If I mistake not, this city having suf- 
 fered mournfully by fire, the late unfortunate 
 king rebuilt the fronts of the grand vista, through 
 which we enter, at. the expence of the nation, 
 on condition that the proprietors of the land 
 would rebuild the rest of the houses. It was a 
 princely donation, and just such a one as the 
 nation stood in need of; for, in the midst of all 
 its vauntings about taste and elegance, no nation 
 upon earth has less of it than the French. The 
 houses are all uniform, built of hewn stone, 
 with commodious footpaths on each side. 
 
 At one extremity of this superb street, there 
 is a bridge of 17 arches, perfectly consistent 
 with the elegance to which it leads. At the other 
 a long avenue of trees, stretching as far as the 
 eye can trace towards Bourdeaux. It is hard to 
 conceive how a Frenchman stumbled upon the 
 ideas on. which this erection is constructed---I 
 add, on which all the bridges on the Loire are 
 constructed ; there is not here a particle of taw- 
 dry eye-trap---not the smallest display of na- 
 tional predilection- --every thing is chaste and 
 simple, without an ornament too much, an or- 
 nament too little. 
 
 At 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 151 
 
 At Eleven, the following night, we took our 
 station in the diligence for Orleans, and were 
 sufficiently thankful at being once more mounted 
 upon four wheels, after a mode which seemed to 
 look something like the dawn or infancy of im- 
 provement and civilization. Of the sweet pro- 
 spects we have now little to say : the Leve conti- 
 nues but much more degrade than in the parts 
 over which we had already travelled ; and, the 
 four wheels giving us every shock double, we 
 were almost disposed to question whether we had 
 exchanged diligences for the better or the worse. 
 Packed in with ten other passengers, there was 
 little danger of losing our seats---not so of break- 
 ing our heads- --perhaps it was well that it was 
 ni^ht. The solemn stillness of the midnight 
 hour imposed silence on our talkative faculties, 
 or our tongues might have paid the forfeiture in 
 their longitude. 
 
 It may be matter of surprise, that the French 
 diligences are thus ever crammed with passen^ 
 gers ; but it is easily accounted for---the French 
 are too poor to afford themselves any other mode 
 of conveyance. The fare from Angus to Paris, 
 which are distant from each other 250 miles, is 
 no more than 45 franks, or 11. 17s. 6d. to four 
 different postilions. A Frenchman gives about 
 3d. each. At the inns, it is to no purpose that 
 a heavy bill is presented ; he will not pay it— - 
 k % add 
 
132 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 add to which, he will not scruple to pack up 
 part of the remnants of the dinner in his hand- 
 kerchief against any future emergencies. He 
 could scarcely pad it on his own hoofs at so 
 cheap a rate. 
 
 At Blois we only tarried to breakfast. I know 
 alone, therefore, that there is such a place, and 
 that another elegant bridge stretches from it 
 across the river, which has also been partly de- 
 stroyed by the Chouans : the constant repetition 
 of enormities of this description fills my soul with 
 indignation. 
 
 As we draw near to Orleans, the declivities on 
 both sides of the Loire become more picturesque ; 
 there are many enchanting slopes finely wooded, 
 and intersected with lawns and vineyards, with 
 here and there the chateaus of the country gen- 
 try (on situations well chosen) interspersed be- 
 tween them. In short, the country here as- 
 sumes the aspect of that elegance and comfort to 
 which we are habituated in England. In gene- 
 ral, the French chateau is very distant from the 
 ideas we are accustomed to form of it- --very dis- 
 tant from what the sounding-name would lead a 
 foreigner to suppose. It is constructed with the 
 evident intention of inspiring the beholder with a 
 high opinion of its possessor's greatness, and is 
 accordingly stretched out to right and left, as far 
 
 as 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 153 
 
 as the builder's purse could possibly afford, and 
 not unfrequently much farther, and decorated 
 with numberless, cumbersome, giro-crack taw- 
 dry ornaments ; but, the general complection of 
 it, and every thing around it, betrays the most 
 palpable marks of poverty- --the gates and rail- 
 ings are all hastening to decay— -the doors and 
 sashes seem to be afflicted with the leprosy, in 
 other words, the primitive coat of paint, to 
 which no addition has ever been made, blisters 
 and peels off- --the glass is patched with paper 
 pasted on the shattered panes, and, as at Dieppe, 
 decorated with flags of abomination, and old 
 stockings innumerable— -the ill-constructed sta- 
 tues, which are indispensible in the pleasure- 
 ground, are generally mutilated— -the walks are 
 overgrown with moss- --rank weeds flourish in the 
 midst of the grass-plats— in short, the tout- 
 ensemble is miserable. As long as the hedges are 
 clipped into the most ridiculous formality, and 
 shorn of every twig in which a vestige of nature 
 can be detected, every thing else seems to be of 
 no consequence. The master, whose figure and 
 appearance are not much dissimilar to a Green- 
 wich-pensioner, thinks himself a paragon of taste, 
 and expects the utmost possible admiration from 
 all those whose curiosity may lead them to visit 
 his domain. 
 
 kS An 
 
134 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCS. 
 
 An English pleasure-ground is of all undescn- 
 bable things, the most undescribable. It is na- 
 ture improved by art— -but, with that exquisite 
 ingenuity, that the artificial which has been 
 adopted cannot be perceived. The French plea- 
 sure-ground, on the contrary, seems to have 
 been constructed with the express purpose of 
 obtruding the art of its projector in its most glar- 
 ing and disgusting deformity on view. With us, 
 variety is endless— our grounds- are diversified 
 as the surface of the earth, and take advantage 
 of every inequality— of every tree— of every 
 rock-— of every rill, to amuse the eye, and break 
 the dull monotony of uniformity. 
 
 In France, one grand avenue leads us up to 
 the front of the chateau ; and, its noble rows of 
 lofty trees, planted by hands long since moulder- 
 ing in the dust, carry our reflections back to the 
 ages which are past, to the long train of honour- 
 able ancestry which has occupied the same spot- 
 so far all is well. Another avenue conducts us 
 to some neighbouring wood, with here and there, 
 as you pass along, a hornbeam, or a juniper, 
 clipped into the shapes of peacocks, with their 
 spreading tails— -pillars and pyramids, &c. Ar- 
 rived at its center, six other avenues, like the 
 rowel of a spur, branch off in as many directions ; 
 every tree of which is drilled like regimental re- 
 
 cruits, 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 135 
 
 emits, and looks almost as much the work of na- 
 ture : it would be a sin against taste were one of 
 them to swerve from the most correct geometrical 
 exactitude. Behind the mansion the parterre is 
 twisted into numberless contorsions, like the 
 frame of an old Dutch looking-glass. Its count- 
 less little zig-zags, semicircles, lozenges, squares, 
 and triangles are planted round with dwarf- box, 
 and shorn to the most perfect horizontal level- — 
 to combine the utile with the dutce, a few mi- 
 serable flowers languish in the midst of pot-herbs 
 as miserable ; and the garlic and the rose, equally 
 charmente in a Frenchman's nostrils, mingle their 
 sweets together, 
 
 It is no little tax upon a mans patience, to be 
 dragged round and round through this routine of 
 absurdity, and compelled to express his admira- 
 tion of what he detests ; some little compliment 
 is, however, due to the politeness which accom- 
 panies a stranger through it---a politeness, by the 
 way, unknown in England ; he -must compromise 
 the matter with his conscience as well as he can. 
 I had almost forgotten the very acme of folly, 
 the labyrinth. This consists of numberless horn- 
 beam-hedges, twining round each other to maze 
 and bewilder all that enter them. Whatever else 
 is in ruins, this is kept close shorn, and diligently 
 swept, and a painted board at the entrance for- 
 bids you to yield thereto calls which may be of- 
 
 k 4 fens.ive 
 
136 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 fensive to those who come after you. When we 
 consider the genius of the country luxuriantly fer- 
 tile in 7W72- naturals, it is astonishing that no one 
 has yet stumbled upon the idea of forming these 
 trees in casts of plaster ; the plaster might very 
 well be constructed of brick, or rather of the 
 butt-ends of bullocks shin-bones, the happy ex- 
 pedient frequently resorted to in the gardens of 
 the harmless cits in the vicinity of the metropo- 
 lis. It would render unnecessary that eternal 
 sin against nature- --the sheers, and enable the 
 seigneur to mend his windows, and paint his 
 frame-work. 
 
 To gardens of the description lately mention- 
 ed, beauty of situation is by no means necessary, 
 the perfect flat is the most eligible, and is accord- 
 ingly generally selected. At Belboeuf, near 
 Rouen, what may be called the home grounds, 
 consist of a fine promontory, jutting out into the 
 plain from the high lands, which form the back- 
 ground to the city — the two sides and front 
 hereof are furnished with most beautifully ver- 
 dant slopes — the soft undulations of which, as 
 we pursue the sheep-paths through the little 
 copses, and over the beetling calcarious points 
 which occasionally burst through the turf, feast 
 the eye with continual variety and contrast — at 
 the foot of it, and, in fact, winding round it, 
 rolls the majestic Seine ;-— on the right, the spires 
 
 of 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 137 
 
 of the city, begirt with hills, rise from the midst 
 of countless buildings — before us those hills 
 stretch far away towards Havre-de-Grace, adorn- 
 ed with villages, hanging-woods, chateaus, con- 
 vents, and, in short, every thing necessary to a 
 fine picture as they go ;-— on the left is spread out 
 one continued plain, the bounds of which are 
 not to be descried. All this is passed by and neg- 
 lected, except every tenth year, when the wood- 
 man, with his sacrilegious bill, comes to disho- 
 nour nature, and strip her of her beauties. The 
 whole attention of the marquess is occupied in 
 clipping the stars and gridirons, into which the 
 smooth unmeaning summit of this delightfully 
 diversified spot has been cut up. 
 
 The park at Sable, and the grounds of the 
 Marquis of Juegne, are all laid out in the same 
 exquisite manner, and upon the same beautiful 
 model ; in short, it is the national taste from which 
 I have not yet seen a deviation. The noble man- 
 sion of the last-mentioned gentleman is sur- 
 rounded with the richest picturesque scenery — 
 here the abrupt precipice, with vines twining 
 round its weather-beaten points, like the tresses 
 on the shoulders of age, overhangs the beauteous 
 Sarte — there the gentle slope descends in soft 
 undulation to its meandring banks — the convent 
 of Soleim, the chateau of Colbert in distant 
 view, with many a broad expanse of finely culti- 
 vated 
 
138 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCF. 
 
 vated country, and many a waving wood between 
 — not an inch of this Arcadian landscape can be 
 seen from any part of the dwelling. The late 
 steward formed a terrace at some considerable 
 distance in front of the house ; and here, indeed, 
 these united beauties burst at once upon the eye, 
 but in a manner which never entered into the con- 
 ception, or the views of the family; — what is 
 called the park, exhibits alone the deformity 
 described at Belboeuf. 
 
 We unfortunately arrived at Orleans on the 
 eve of the grand national fete at Paris in com- 
 memoration of the nativity of the republic. 
 Every Frenchman who could possibly find the 
 means, made a point of repairing to the raree- 
 shew; and, those whose necessities compelled 
 them to remain at home, sat there bewailing it, as 
 though it were a real and serious calamity — nor 
 carriage nor horse were, therefore, to be procured 
 for us, and we were fain to rest content at the Trois 
 Empereufs till the hubbub should be over — nor 
 had we much to regret. Fire-works and illumina- 
 tions to a Frenchman ever new, ever charmante, 
 soon become insipid to me ; and especially so if 
 they are equally tasteless with the Parisian illumi- 
 nations, in the sum total of which, if a judgment 
 may be formed from the extinguished lamps 
 which had not been taken down when we arrived 
 in the capital, there is not one happy device. 
 
 Orleans, 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 139 
 
 Orleans, though not equally elegant with the 
 grand vista passing through Tours, is, with this 
 one exception, far better built — far more airy 
 and neat. In the center of it, the grand place 
 is spacious, and the principal street, which is, 
 in like manner, terminated by a noble bridge, 
 partly also destroyed by the Chouans, but just 
 yields the palm to the principal street of Tours 
 above-mentioned. The cathedral is well worth 
 visiting — the chapels surrounding the great altar 
 are pannelled with wainscot, on which the most 
 interesting parts of the New Testament history 
 are cut in a masterly manner ; but the two towers 
 built at its western extremity by Louis XV. ar- 
 rest our principal attention — they are singularly 
 beautiful, and, though loaded with ornament, the 
 effect is pleasing. From the summit of either 
 of them, the view is unique — the whole country 
 seems to be one boundless plain covered with 
 vines, with the Loire meandring through them. 
 An extensive cotton -manufactory was established 
 here previous to the revolution, by Philip Eo*a- 
 lite, and committed to the care of an English 
 gentleman, who has weathered the storm, and 
 now carries it on after the English manner with 
 considerable spirit. 
 
 It will be recollected, that, at Orleans, the 
 British name was tarnished with indelible disgrace 
 by the infamous destruction of the female enthu- 
 siast, 
 
140 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 siast, Joan of Arc, who, being taken prisoner, 
 was burnt in the market-place, for having beaten 
 them, and retrieved the affairs of her country 
 after the conquest of it by Henry the Fifth, king 
 of England, 
 
 At Estampes, in the Isle of France, the plain 
 begins to be broken up — the country becomes 
 uneven — the scenery diversified — there are few- 
 parts of the republic which are so truly charming 
 — the eye need not seek for any thing more beau- 
 tiful, and this beauty, for the most part, accom- 
 panies us to the gates of Paris, As you approach 
 the capital of the republic, big with those ideas 
 of its grandeur, opulence, and beauty, with 
 which French vanity had inspired your bosom, 
 the pleasures of anticipation give way to disap- 
 pointment and disgust — in vain you look around 
 for the numberless splendid equipages of a do- 
 zen different descriptions, which your acquain- 
 tance with London leads you to expect in the vi- 
 cinity of a great metropolis. In the course of 
 the last ten miles you, perhaps, meet as many 
 clumsy one-horse chaises, alias cabriolets, num- 
 bered on the sides and back like hackney-coaches, 
 and crammed with as many men, women, and 
 children, as they can possibly contain, who have, 
 most probably, taken the vehicle from the stand 
 for an afternoon's excursion into the country — 
 not but that it is possible some of them may be 
 
 the 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 141 
 
 the private property of the snug parties within 
 them — for all the voitures of this description, 
 whether public or private, are labelled; nor is 
 your disappointment abated when you enter this 
 far-famed Gomorrah, and general sink of every 
 abomination under heaven, except the carriages 
 of the English, who are crowded here by thou- 
 sands to the great content of the Parisians, to 
 whom their guineas are peculiarly acceptable, 
 and a few lumbering tubs, the produce of Paris, 
 and tenanted by the children of the revolution ; 
 hackney carriages of their several descriptions, 
 carts, and trucks alone are met; of these 1000 
 coaches, 1500 chariots, and as many cabriolets, 
 are constantly plying in the streets ; but, of all 
 the detestable and dangerous expedients for 
 translation from place to place on which the 
 wit of man, or rather his cupidity ever stum- 
 bled, the latter is the most dangerous ; the head 
 of it is, perhaps, never thrown back — indeed, 
 I am not sure that it is capable of that operation, 
 and of consequence the driver is as completely 
 winked as his horse. This is generally one of 
 those noble animals which were furnished, cost 
 
 free, by the of , in Holland ; and, 
 
 being high spirited and generous, it rushes for- 
 ward, with astonishing impetuosity, to the ex- 
 treme peril of the 10,000 pedestrians, who are 
 scattered every moment like coveys of partridges, 
 
 and 
 
142 A TOUR THROUGH FKAXCL 
 
 and obliged to fly for shelter from the wheels 
 into the first entrance which presents itself. 
 
 Arrived at the Bureau des Diligences, had 
 you all the eyes of Argus, you would not have 
 one to spare. In an instant you and your com- 
 panions' are., parcelled out among a herd of 
 knaves, who come here, notwithstanding the 
 vaunted police of Paris, to prey upon the un- 
 wary. One lays hold of your hand, to lend you 
 assistance you do not want — two or three seize 
 your baggage to hand it down safely, and, unless 
 you are as sharp as a pick-pocket, to hand it to 
 their own apartments. One pert jackanapes 
 clamours in your ear, " shall he get you a fiacre 
 mih one or two backs?" Another, " shall he 
 guide you to any part of the city ?" Seated, at 
 length, in the carriage which vou have chosen, 
 with your trunks, &c. piled up before you, a 
 porter jumps up beside the coachman, notwith- 
 standing you have paid him off already ; and you 
 give your driver the name and the number of the 
 hotel to which you wish to be conducted — he 
 drives you to another — he knows the way for- 
 sooth to no other; and, when you have agreed 
 for your apartments, at half a louis the more per 
 week, for that it is evening, that you are tired, 
 and impatient to get rid of the blood-suckers 
 who have fastened upon you, he comes forward 
 
 to 
 4 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 145 
 
 to demand as many fares as he has made stop- 
 pages, and to be paid for carrying you where you 
 did not wish to go ; and, though a porter be sta- 
 tioned at the gateway of every hotel, whose bu- 
 siness it is to take charge of your baggage, the 
 one on the box lays his hand on it again, and 
 you have the pleasure of paying them both for 
 the kind office which you have asked of neither 
 of them. 
 
 As soon as you can assure yourself that these 
 hungry leeches have done with you, you begin to 
 look around, and fetching breath a little, call 
 for the carte; this is a large sheet of paper, on 
 which the contents of the larder and the cellar 
 are indexed, with the prices affixed to them in 
 an adjoining, column — a convenience which Lon- 
 don cannot boast. While you eat in Paris you 
 may easily calculate the price of every morsel, 
 and get on with confidence. In London, you 
 are at the mercy of the landlord of your eating- 
 house ; and, if your pocket be but scantily fur- 
 nished, must proceed with trembling for fear of 
 the consequences. Abating the little extortion 
 to which you are compelled to submit in the price 
 of your apartments, you will have no reason to 
 complain. The charges of living are according 
 to your own choice ; and, the expence of a table 
 furnished in your accustomed style, will be about 
 - 50 per cent, less than in an English hotel. 
 
 In 
 
144 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 Ill Paris, for the first time since I quitted old 
 England, have I seen fine beef. It is not no- 
 ticed, indeed, every 20 minutes, as in the Bri- 
 tish metropolis; but, that which is exhibited, 
 cannot be surpassed. 
 
 This carte belongs to the traiteur, i. e. to a 
 person whose business it is to dress dinners for 
 the company in the house, and as many families 
 in the vicinity as chuse to give orders for them, 
 which, by the bye, is very much the practice in 
 all the large French towns ; and, considering 
 the moderate profits with which the citoyen is 
 content, it is by no means a bad one : by this ex- 
 pedient the mistress of the family escapes three 
 hours fretting every morning, and her dinner is 
 much better dressed than if she had half-roasted 
 and parboiled herself during the process. 
 
 Ere I quit the eating part of our adventures, I 
 must not forget to add, that there is in Paris 
 another admirable provision for operations of 
 this order, viz. at the restorateurs, i. e. in other 
 words, at the ordinary's ; but, when we make 
 use of this expression, it must not be imagined 
 that the Parisian ordinaries, and the ordinaries in 
 the vicinity of London, are upon a par. They are, 
 it is true, of different ranks, and, perhaps, some 
 of them may be little superior to those of High- 
 gate and Edmonton — but there are others which 
 
 rival 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 145 
 
 rival princely elegance and luxury, and which 
 are resorted to by foreigners and Parisians — by 
 ladies and gentlemen of the first fortune and 
 character. The splendor of the tables in those 
 of the Palais de Tribunal is absolutely dazzling ; 
 every delicacy which the season affords is there 
 brought forward, and wines of the richest qua- 
 lity for libations. The bills are proportioned to 
 the rank and dignity of the house. 
 
 The first business in the morning, after the 
 traveller has somewhat surmounted the fatigues 
 of his journey, is to find out Mons. Perageux, 
 in order to change his paper into aurum palpabile. 
 This gentleman is presently found out on the 
 Boulevards, living in a palace, the view of which 
 carries a sort of presentiment to the heart of the 
 squeezing which awaits the purse. Papers being 
 produced, and the accustomed preambles gone 
 through, Mr. P/s representative asks you in 
 what you will be paid — paper, silver, or gold ? 
 Not being as yet up to the tricks of the trade, 
 you incautiously reply " in Louis.'" Well, in 
 about five minutes, my gentleman having gone 
 to another office for the cash, returns. " The 
 course of Exchange is so and so against you (about 
 five per cent) ; and, as for the Louis, we pur- 
 chase them for the accommodation of travellers ; 
 you have, therefore, to lose one per cent more 
 en this account" To crown the whole, having 
 
 l been 
 
146 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 been feathered thus of 6 per cent, you withdraw 
 with your precious pieces ; but, no sooner do you 
 present one of them for payment, than out comes 
 the scales and weights ; they are generally light, 
 and you have the further satisfaction of losing 
 from threepence to fourpence-halfpenny more 
 
 upon most of them. So much for Mons. P . 
 
 I will, however, do his representative the justice 
 of saying, that his conscience does not appear 
 to be absolutely insensible of the pityful impo- 
 sition. His forehead seems to betray the smart 
 of certain unpleasant twinges within, which an 
 English banker of reputation would disdain to 
 feel. 
 
 The scarcity of gold just hinted at is extemely 
 incommodious and embarrassing. The bills of 
 credit which I took from England were of 25 
 pounds sterling value each : one only of these 
 converted into crown-pieces, after all the fleec- 
 ing of the French bankers, is quite enough to 
 fill a man's waistcoat-pockets to the brim ; and, 
 if he has not had the precaution to obtain of 
 Mons. Perageux a canvas-bag wherein to deposit 
 his treasure, for which, probably, another one 
 per cent, would be deducted, you may see him 
 punning along the streets, on his return from the 
 Boulevards, his hands clasped under his b — y, 
 like an old cobler whose back 60 years of hard 
 labour have bent down to the last, or rather 
 
 like 
 
A TOUR THROUGHFrANCE. 147 
 
 like an hospital-patient groaning under the ope- 
 ration of some harsh and irritating medicine — 
 for, should the luckless - seams give way, there 
 would be an hundred sharers in the booty in a 
 moment. 
 
 Being one morning at the caisse de commerce 
 to exchange a French bill of 500 livres, a per- 
 son, with rather an Israelitish phiz, was receiv- 
 ing what might, perhaps, amount to 10001. He 
 was paid in canvas-bags filled with crowns, con- 
 taining, probably, about 40 or 451. each, which 
 were thrown separately into a large scale, and 
 from thence into bags of greater dimensions. 
 To transport this sum to his own house was the 
 work of himself, two porters, and a cart, with 
 the wreck of his cash in his pocket, or rather in 
 his trunk. John Bull turns round to see what 
 is to be seen, and to enquire for the mighty 
 changes which have been made, but presently 
 finds, to use a vulgar proverb, " there has been 
 here a great cry and little wool* 
 
 All traces of royalty are effaced; and equally 
 effaced are all traces of republicanism— the soul 
 of which is comfort to the multitude, if we ex- 
 cept the immense boards of Fraternity, Liber- 
 ty, Equality, painted on them, which meretri- 
 ciously obtrude themselves upon your notice 
 every five minutes, as though the government 
 
 l 2 were 
 
145 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 were afraid that the people, were they not con- 
 stantly reminded of their bliss, should long for 
 the flesh-pots of Egypt — or perhaps it concludes, 
 that the French, like some other nations which 
 might be mentioned, as long as they are indulged 
 with the forms and the shadows of golden ages 
 passed away, will still go on to persuade them- 
 selves that they are free. 
 
 We heard much, a few years since, of the 
 unfeeling brutality of the old noblesse, and were 
 triumphantly told, by the infuriated jacobins, 
 how many wretches were trampled to death at 
 the coronation of the king— how many were an- 
 nually crushed beneath the chariot-wheels of the 
 privileged orders, &c. &c. &c. The privileged 
 orders now, indeed, trample them to death no 
 longer ; but, what has the canaille gained by the 
 change ?-— Why, the privilege of trampling upon 
 one another. 
 
 There is a little work, lately published in 
 Paris, entitled Paris et ses Curiosites, for the 
 accommodation of strangers. The writer of it 
 confesses, that the drivers of the nacres, when 
 they happen to alight on women, or men of 
 peaceable demeanour, are as abusive as ever. 
 From my own experience, I know they make as 
 little conscience as ever of driving their horses 
 full tilt over women, meak-spirited men, and 
 
 what- 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 149 
 
 whatever may be in their way if it endangers 
 not their own safety. I had not been 24 hours 
 in Paris when I was put in the most imminent 
 danger of my life by one of these jehus ; and, it 
 was not 24 hours more ere I was a mournful 
 spectator of, I fear, the exit of a fellow-creature, 
 who was first knocked down, and then passed 
 over by a cabriolet. For a moment there was 
 some little sputtering betwixt the cause of this 
 mischief and the populace, when, snatching up 
 the reins again, he drove off at his wonted rate, 
 leaving the hapless victim on his back— his arms 
 stretched out— -silent— and motionless ! Indeed, 
 continual accidents, were there the reality as well 
 as the name of a police in this city, would be 
 prevented. 
 
 The streets are dark, narrow, tortuous, ill— 
 paved, and filthy; here men, women, children, 
 horses, asses, coaches, cabriolets, carts, wheel- 
 barrows, are all mingled together in one confused 
 hurly-burly, mutually splashing and incommod- 
 ing each other ; for, be it recollected, that Paris 
 is just as well furnished with common-sewers as 
 Rouen- --every abomination which can be en- 
 dured no longer in the house is cast into the 
 street— -here waste-water of every description— - 
 the scourings of the manufactories— the blood 
 of the slaughter-houses— the contents of the 
 &c. &c. in short, every thing imagination can 
 i. 3 conceive 
 
150 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 conceive offensive and detestable is united in one 
 balmy tide, which slowly creeps reeking along 
 the midway of every street towards the Seine, 
 thence to be brought back again for the beverage 
 of the thousands who jostle one another upon its 
 banks. This floating pestilence furnishing a 
 surer footing to the horses than the shelving 
 pavement on either side of it, it is most com- 
 monly chosen for them, especially for those 
 drawing in the cabriolets, which moving gene- 
 rally at the rate of 10 miles per hour, most libe- 
 rally sprinkle this holy water among the scudding 
 multitude, 
 
 Mirabeau observed, long since, that England 
 was the only country in the world where the pe- 
 destrian was accounted any thing ; the changes, 
 in the accomplishment of which he had so large 
 ^a share, have not bettered the condition of his 
 countrymen in this respect in the smallest degree. 
 There are few streets in Paris from which the 
 deduction of a very moderate foot-path would 
 leave room for two carriages to pass by each 
 other; and, in the few instances in which the 
 foot-passenger may be accommodated, no one 
 thinks of it. Of course there is here no protec- 
 tion whatever from the wheels of the cabriolets ; 
 if you cannot fly for shelter into some open door, 
 your only resource is to strain yourself up be- 
 hind one of the buttress-stones which are placed 
 
 % for 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 151 
 
 for the protection of the wall ; and, should there 
 be no one at hand, or the projection you carry 
 before you be tolerably prominent, it is well for 
 the attornies if your will is not already made. 
 
 Nor, is this all : the principal commerce of 
 Paris seems to-be in wood— at least I saw nothing 
 else in the barges upon the river. This wood is 
 brought in cart-loads from the quays, which are 
 excellent, and cast down before the purchaser's 
 doors ; and the carters universally take special 
 care never to leave any interstice betwixt the pile 
 of fuel they have brought and the wall. Add to 
 this, great part of the space betwixt the houses 
 and Lethe is occupied, for the most part of the 
 day, by frame-workers, mattress-menders, and 
 similar occupations, ta the great annoyance of 
 the public, who are obliged, every five minutes, 
 to tack and retack around them, and across the 
 odious congregate, in order to get along. The 
 soil accumulating on the sides of which, being 
 continually sprinkled by the splash of the horses 
 feet, it feels like soap beneath your tread, and 
 is continually tripping up your heels. 
 
 There are gens darms stationed at every place 
 of amusement to drill the public, male and fe- 
 male, as they arrive, and bayonet them into 
 good order; were some of them enjoined to 
 bayonet these public nuisances into their houses, 
 
 L 4 I should 
 
152 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 I should think more highly of the vaunted police 
 of Paris. It is impossible then for a Londoner 
 to pace the metropolis of France but with ideas 
 very much to the disadvantage of the latter. 
 When he compares the order and regularity — the 
 ease and security— the convenience and accom- 
 modation — and, above all, the cleanliness to 
 which he has been accustomed, with the chaos 
 into the midst of which his predominating stars 
 have now led him, his mind will be filled with dis- 
 gust and aversion ; and the favourable ideas with 
 which he once thought of the Frenchmen, to 
 speak like an Englishman, will be 50 per cent, 
 below what they were ere he quitted his native 
 island ; nor will they mount up to par again— 
 when quitting the streets he visits the apartments 
 of the bourgeois. 
 
 It has been said, that " evil communications 
 corrupt good manners. 1 ' Heaven knows ! that 
 a Parisian's house is quite congruous with the 
 streets, on the edge of which it is erected (whe- 
 ther he ever had a taste for cleanliness or not is 
 questionable). Its wretchedness is extreme ; in 
 short, Paris is one vast assemblage of grand 
 erections, and of twice ten thousand miserable 
 apartments piled up to the clouds, tenanted with 
 poverty, which crowds around the favourites of 
 fortune to pick up the crumbs of the table, and 
 vegetate upon servility. The one is princely — 
 
 the 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 153 
 
 the other the product of heart-broken necessity, 
 and aspires no farther than to shelter necessity 
 from the inclemencies of the seasons. The latter 
 are frequently seven stories high, generally six, 
 portioned out by as many families, who are 
 alone connected together by one common stone 
 stair-case, the property of the whole ; and, of 
 course, as all are equally interested in its clean- 
 liness and propete, it may be supposed its aspect 
 is delectable. Short petticoats will be very con- 
 venient for the ladies who ascend it in search of 
 their milliners and man tua-makers— -Thieves' 
 vinegar a very proper accompaniment ; and, let 
 them beware of swerving from the strait line of 
 their march to right or left, and of breaking their 
 shins against the pots cU chambre, which are in- 
 fallibly on the one side or the other. The floors 
 are composed of brick-work, which being pre- 
 viously sprinkled with a little water, the dust and 
 filth are swept once a day, perhaps, into the ge- 
 neral reservatory, the chimney, there to wait 
 the grand annual purgation of fire at the com- 
 mencement of winter— -of the front I shall say 
 little. 
 
 My description of Dieppe may here be very 
 properly transcribed. It is commonly washed 
 with an odious solution, perhaps of ochre— -the 
 crevices, cornices, and gimcracks are crammed 
 with dust and cobwebs— on the glass the accu- 
 mulated 
 
154 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE, 
 
 mulated and undisturbed filth of ages not only 
 defeats transparency, but almost invites vege- 
 tation. 
 
 Among the rising gradations of the Bourgeois, 
 there are some few, indeed, the floors of whose 
 apartments are parqueted, that is, floored with old 
 planks, framed together something after the pat- 
 tern of the parterre ; but, never since they were 
 laid, have they been rendered damp and un- 
 wholesome by ablution. The scrubbing-brush 
 is a luxury which has not yet found its way into 
 France ; and the sweet music of mops and 
 buckets, charming Saturday-night concert to 
 many a patient Benedict as he sits rocking the 
 cradle, has not here been heard— not that it is 
 not wanted. 1 
 
 The French are very much addicted to smoak- 
 ing ; their tobacco is extremely pungent, and ill- 
 flavoured ; the salivation it produces is therefore 
 profuse ; of this le citoyen disencumbers himself, 
 sans ceremonie, in all companies, and in all 
 places ; and, not only this, other secretions de^ 
 scending from a higher source are as freely dis- 
 tributed. Look where you will, your offended 
 eyes have no refuge— the floors are disfigured, 
 from side to side, with the " marks of the beasts' 
 who have gone before you. Instead of washing 
 away this abominable obscenity, the planks are 
 
 waxed 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 155 
 
 waxed and dry-rubbed, till wax and filth accu- 
 mulating coat upon coat, the spade" becomes al- 
 most as necessary as the apparatus of the chair- 
 woman ; nor is this detestable custom confined 
 to the lords of the creation-— those w T ho have 
 been formed of nature's finest mould are as much 
 addicted to it as the males, and bestow their 
 foetid favours as plentifully— I say fcetid, for it 
 is impossible to brave the full blast of a pair of 
 French lungs ; one and all they stink most abo- 
 minably, and every respiration puffs out such 
 gales of garlic and indigestion as pestilence lurk- 
 ing below alone could produce !— This is, per- 
 haps, one reason why they are so doatingly fond 
 of scents and bouquets in their bosoms. 
 
 At Rouen, scarcely a male or female were seen 
 without one, and they have need enough of 
 them. In fact, with all their affectation of po- 
 liteness, in which the modest creatures arrogate 
 to themselves the precedence, the manners of 
 the French are as gross as Hottentots : they 
 have no conception of, they have no relish for, 
 what are usually stiled the common decencies of 
 life. 
 
 The emigrant clergy while in England, were 
 remarked for the slovenly squalidness of their 
 attire, and the immense quantities of snuff with 
 which they regaled themselves ; and: their hand- 
 kerchiefs 
 
156 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 kerchiefs were winded from afar; it seemed to 
 be the effect of their unhappy state ; exiled 
 from their native country ; dependent upon the 
 charity of strangers ; despoiled of the comforts 
 of friendship ; desolate and undone — for dejec- 
 tion and neglect commonly tread on each other s 
 heels ! — But see them now returned to their fa- 
 milies ; taken under the protection of the go- 
 vernment ; reinstated in their parishes ; depend- 
 ant no longer upon the charity of strangers; they 
 are squalid as ever — the " flag of abomination' 
 is filthy as ever, and they are admirable samples 
 of their flock — male and female they are conti- 
 nually displaying this disgusting piece of obsce- 
 nity before you ! 
 
 My very soul revolts as often as- 1 see them 
 fumbling in their pockets, and I am compelled, 
 as if by instinct, to repair to mine, that I may 
 grasp unseen my indignant nose, and prevent the 
 consequences my boiling stomach prepares ! 
 
 It might be expected that elegantes at least are 
 to be exempted from this sweeping censure: — no 
 — women, young, and beautiful as angels, are 
 thus seen every moment practising what would 
 outrage the stomach of a Calmuc. The flag of 
 abomination is not indeed displayed with equal 
 effrontery ; suspended at the wrist of her bare- 
 headed attendant, (for no gentleman would 
 
 wear 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 157 
 
 wear his hat, even in a thunder-storm) hangs 
 what is emphatically called a ridicule, and as 
 often as her nostrils are overcharged, or the 
 throat is tickled by the swallowed tabac, she 
 draws open the orifice of her portable dunghill, 
 discharges the peccant humours into it, tightens 
 the bobbins again, and returns it to her compa- 
 nion. 
 
 There are humiliating views of human nature 
 observable in every country across which philan- 
 thropy would willingly cast its mantle — but when 
 the character is compounded of shining excel- 
 lence and gross impropriety, both the one and 
 the other must be thrown into the scale when we 
 would appreciate it : add to which the only pro- 
 bable mode of goading mankind into the refor- 
 mation of deformities which lower the national 
 respectability, is to hold them up in all their na- 
 tive hatefulness to ridicule and detestation!— this 
 must be an apology for what ensues ! 
 
 It will scarcely be credited, that to many of 
 the essentials of comfort, to say nothing of dig- 
 nified convenience and elegance, the " great 
 nation" are as completely estranged as the Welch 
 and Irish peasantry. In those who have been ac- 
 customed to English inns alone and their con- 
 veniences, far superior to those of a continental 
 palace ; it will excite a nauseating disgust when 
 5 they 
 
155 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE, 
 
 they are told, that in French hotels of princely 
 magnificence, where your dinner is constantly 
 served up on ponderous plate, not a water-closet, 
 nor its fixed, or portable substitute shall be 
 frequently found ; nor in fact are the dwellings 
 of private individuals much better accommo- 
 dated ; a few only of those who have crossed the 
 channel, served in the campaigns in Holland, or 
 heard of the contrivance from afar, ever dream 
 of erecting in some snug corner a fane to Cloa- 
 cina, where her mysteries may be performed in 
 pure air and privacy ; and those few erect it but 
 to blush for the filthiness of their compatriots, 
 and tantalize themselves. 
 
 v Whether the diarhcea be the curse of the coun- 
 try, or its inhabitants feel innate aversion to the 
 goddess, I will not determine : it is certain that 
 they never approach her altar but in the very pa- 
 roxysm of urgent necessity— the consequences 
 must not be detailed ; they lay a heavy tax upon 
 the sight and upon the nostrils ! — I will only add 
 that the genius of cleanliness would as soon ap- 
 proach the gridiron of St. Lawrence, as the bench 
 4 of a French' commodite. 
 
 Much has been said of the perfect ease and 
 freedom of the one sex when in company with 
 the other.— Sterne, in his account of his little 
 excursion in Madame Ramboulliet's carriage, 
 
 gives 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 159 
 
 gives us one of their grossiertes which it is im- 
 possible to take an evening's walk upon the bou- 
 levards at Rouen without frequently encounter- 
 ing. — Ladies of fashion, rank, and character, 
 think nothing there of quitting the arm on which 
 
 they were leaning to the " thirsty 
 
 glebe" In short, they think nothing of being 
 seen in situations which would crirrison the cheeks 
 of our lovely country-women with blushes and 
 
 confusion. Dining at A with a large party 
 
 of friends, during the interval between dinner 
 and cafe the gentlemen took a walk into the ad- 
 joining garden — presently one of the ladies, who 
 had been of the party, an elegant, amiable, and 
 accomplished woman, came up to us, and en- 
 quired if there were a little nameless apartment 
 at hand : one of the gentlemen gave her some in- 
 formation upon the subject, and she withdrew. — 
 In a moment she returned with a sort of reproach- 
 ful smile upon her countenance — she had mis- 
 taken his instructions, entered at another door 
 from under which the floor had been taken up 
 for the purpose of being repaired; and but just 
 escaped plunging into the abyss below ! The 
 gentleman, after begging her pardon for not 
 having been more explicit, took her by the hand 
 and led her to the proper spot — made her his 
 best bow, closed the door, and withdrew : — ere 
 long she joined us again with Iwni soit qui mat y 
 pense upon her countenance. — " Every natioh 
 
 (says 
 
160 A TOUR THROUGH FRAXCK. 
 
 (says Sterne) has its grossiertes ; and many things 
 (he adds) gave him pain, that he blushed at 
 many a word the first month which he found in- 
 consequent and perfectly innocent the second." — 
 I will not say that perfect ease like this is in- 
 consequent ; it is matter of doubt with me — the 
 elegant enjoyment of life depends in a great de- 
 gree upon the unviolated preservation of its de- 
 cencies; and every indulgence which trespasses 
 upon them should be watched with a jealous eye, 
 and meet the severest reprehension — the difficulty 
 lies in ascertaining where the line is to be drawn 
 between culpable freedom on the one hand, and 
 fastidiousness upon the other : — but, if aversion 
 to constraint leads the French into freedoms 
 which are offensive, and perhaps pernicious to 
 good morals, the affectation of superlative re- 
 finement puts the English into trammels which 
 are destructive to health and life ! 
 
 In a mixed company, the accidental rencontre 
 with the garniture of a French stair-case, would 
 put the whole party to the rout, overwhelmed 
 with consternation and dismay : — it matters not 
 when we are assembled together, that nature 
 pleads her wants, decorum forsooth pleads her 
 wants more eloquently, and the struggle termi- 
 nates in a stranguary ; a diseased circulation ; 
 untimely death ! it is an outrage to friendship to 
 dismiss every idea of deference and restraint in 
 
 its, 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE* ljl 
 
 its presence ; but it is an infinitely greater outrage 
 to cherish unnatural and idle affectation at an 
 expence which curtails the thread of life, and 
 consequently of happiness to those who dwell in 
 our smiles. — I would not dispense with audacious 
 indulgence ; at the same time I must say, that 
 there is nothing gross in silently withdrawing for 
 a few moments from society; and he that blush- 
 es at such a step in himself or others has infinite- 
 ly more room to blush for his own diseased de- 
 licacy, I had almost said his own depraved mind. 
 
 But in pursuing the manners of the French, I 
 have suffered myself to be insensibly drawn 
 away from my observations upon the metropolis 
 of the republic. — As I have little to add upon 
 that topic which is not abundantly better said 
 elsewhere, I will therefore return to it, and 
 give you below what I have yet to say of the city, 
 its agremens et curiosites, and continue my re- 
 marks upon the people. * 
 
 In 
 
 * I have given above a long list of agreeable circumstances 
 which render Paris a most grateful sejour, especially to the 
 pedestrian : I will add one article more to the catalogue, and 
 then turn to the reverse of the medal.. -The waters of the Seine 
 it will be concluded from what has been said, must form a most 
 inviting compound : the numberless salutary ingredients min- 
 gled together in the open gutters which occupy the midway of 
 
 m every 
 
172 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 In the family there is a very great and distin- 
 guishing difference betwixt the manners of the 
 
 French 
 
 every street, and are thence conveyed into this grand recepta- 
 cle, must necessarily render its stream admirably limpid and 
 delectable. This ambrosial beverage is partly forced back into 
 the city engenes, and partly brought up by water-carriers and 
 vended from door to door: in addition to which there are 
 about sixty public fountains bringing their tribute from afar for 
 the accommodation of the inhabitants. These waters> as well 
 as the waters of the Seine running constantly upon a bed of 
 gypsum, dissolve the peculiar acid which enters into the com- 
 position of that fossil, and arrive at their destination in the high- 
 est order for the production of the gripes and cleansing the in- 
 testine, and seldom fail to do it with a vengeance till the 
 stranger is habituated to the use of them. This is an inconve- 
 nience of the first magnitude ; and it is astonishing, that while 
 the Bourbons were squandering the public money from gene- 
 ration to generation in works absolutely useless to themselves 
 and to the world, not one of them thought of giving whole- 
 some water to his impoverished slaves — strange that a work of 
 this description so imperiously demanded, and which would 
 give a title to the everlasting gratitude of the capital to him 
 who should accomplish it, should be reserved for a Corsican 
 adventurer. This is one among ten thousand evidences, that 
 previous to the revolution the people were accounted nothing ; 
 their comfort and accommodation went for nothing; the capa- 
 cious mind of Bonaparte could not fail to perceive what the 
 former dynasty never comprehended, or did not think worth 
 attaining. He has adopted the idea of a new river similar to 
 that which the immortal but unfortunate Sir Hugh Middieton 
 gave to the ungrateful citizens of London at the expence of his 
 owr fortune; and having " conquered peace" instead of permit- 
 ting 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 173 
 
 French and the English. The use of tea has 
 amongst the latter been attended with an effect 
 
 which 
 
 ting his victorious bands to enervate themselves in the casernes, 
 or study depravity in the brandy-shops of the metropolis, and 
 large towns of the republic, he has appointed them to the task 
 of carrying his benevolent plans into execution ; may the next 
 work on which he employs his heroes be the digging common 
 sewers through the city ! It has been said, that Paris exceeds 
 London in its royal and other palaces. In the first respect the 
 matter admits not of debate; but, in the second, there are few 
 indeed of the chatcaus of the ci-devant noblesse which must be 
 compared with the town-houses even of our untitled gentry. 
 The Thuilleries, once the residence of the unfortunate Lewis 
 XVI. now of the chief consul, and ever memorable for the mas- 
 sacre of the Swiss guards, the fatal traces of which mournful 
 event are even now to be decyphered upon the walls, as a 
 piece of architecture has in my opinion nothing to recommend 
 it: it is vast, gloomy, and cumbersome ; since the affair of the 
 infernal engine, by which not less than seventy people were 
 destroyed, and many houses shattered to ruins, the Rue de Ne- 
 caise in which the explosion took place, and several others, have 
 been obliterated like Babylon from the face of the earth : by 
 this means the carousel has been thrown open, and an immense 
 square formed in the front ©f the palace. An iron-railing, lately 
 erected, partitions off a large court immediately before it from 
 the grand place, and here the consular life-guard is constantly 
 stationed. On the four pillars which support the two gates 
 at each extremity of the grate, are mounted the celebrated Ve- 
 netian horses : they were cast by Lysippus at Rhodes now 3000 
 years since. On the subjugation of that island by the conquer- 
 ors of the world, they were transported to Rome ; when the 
 seat of empire was translated from thence to Byzantium, these 
 M 2 horses 
 
174 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 which appeals to the heart of sensihility — it as- 
 sembles a whole family around the parental 
 
 board, 
 
 horses were translated thither also.; Constantinople being 
 sacked by the Venetians they formed part of the spoil which 
 the victors carried away with them ; and Venice, in its turn, 
 falling a prey to the " great nation" they have been brought 
 now to grace the banks of the Seine : these statues have there- 
 fore never moved but in consequence of some great political 
 change: how long they will rest upon the pedestals which now 
 support them, lime must shew. The gardens of Thuilleries 
 are much vaunted ; rich in statuary they certainly are, but pos- 
 sesi nothing else worthy of admiration— they are remarkable 
 alone for dullness, and monotonous uniformity. 
 
 Viewed from the east, the Louvre presents a front in prajse 
 of which it is almost impossible to say too much : it is the very 
 acme of architecture. The colonade which ibrms this superb 
 facade was built by Louis XIV. upon the plans of Claude Pe- 
 rault. The Corinthian pillars which support the entablature, 
 are finely proportioned, and exquisitely executed; the effect is 
 magnificently grand, and would probably lose nothing by a 
 comparison with the finest remains of accomplished antiquity ; 
 from its infancy this splendid palace has been devoted to the 
 elegant "arts. The plunder of Holland, Flanders, and Italy, 
 is here treasured up, and to the statuary and the painter, the 
 Louvre is become perhaps the most interesting museum upon 
 the earth: whatever be the fate of Bonaparte, his exertions, 
 wheiher to be applauded or not, have succeeded in turning the 
 current of genius, which, since the revival of the arts had been 
 flowing toward the south of Europe, towards Paris; and secured 
 • to it the constant resort of taste and elegance, and consequently 
 the influx of weajth. 
 
 In 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 1/3 
 
 board, and presents the truly interesting specta- 
 cle of the affectionate circle welcoming each 
 
 other 
 
 In the court of the Louvre, the patriot and the manufacturer 
 are presented occasionally with a spectacle no less interesting. 
 Annually the internal square is surrounded for one. decade, about 
 the end of September with temporary arcades, the several com- 
 partments of which are tenanted by artists of various descrip- 
 tions, who here display specimens and samples of their differ- 
 ent productions; the idea is happy ; at a very trifling expense 
 an animating spur is given to emulation, and it tells the people 
 of what they are capable, who see here the progress and the 
 gradations of improvement. The chief consul of course ho- 
 nours the exhibition with his inspection, and the crowds which 
 resort to it are innumerable : a Briton must not, however, be- 
 lieve every thing he is here told ; it may be a little trick of state 
 jockeyship, but it is much more likely to be a petit morceau of 
 French vanity. Manufactures are here exhibited, as the pro- 
 ductions of French looms which were woven at Manchester and 
 Gfascow. 
 
 The Palais du Tribunal (ci-devant Palais Rovale) was built 
 by cardinal Richlieu. It has undergone many change 1 :, and 
 was almost entirely rebuilt by the late duke of Orleans. " The 
 garden, (says a Frenchman) bien planie et onie rles super bes 
 orangers (i. e. divided into long ailes like a gridiron with here 
 and there a cross-bar cutting it up into little squares fenced 
 around with railing like Smilhfield pens containirg each an 
 orange-tree half suffocated with the powdered chalk, and a few 
 miserable China listers, and field-larkspurs struggling hard for 
 life) is seated in the centre of pleasures and business, and is the 
 general resort of strangers : those elegant shops which present 
 yoq with every luxury of commerce and a:ts; ihose coffee- 
 M 3 houses 
 
176 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 other on their escape from the dangers of the 
 night ; sitting down to one common repast, and. 
 
 with 
 
 houses superbly decorated ; the libraries ; the gaming-houses; 
 the places of amusement ; the long galleries where glide along 
 throngs of captivating nymphs, adorned with equal taste and 
 elegance; every thing conspires to make this palace an en- 
 chanting abode ["—He might have added, the very paradise 
 of dissipation, profligacy, and vice ! 
 
 The Hotel des Invalids is worth visiting : the dome is superb; 
 here rest the ashes of Turenne, which have been removed from 
 St. Denis, where they had been slumbering with the remains of 
 kings. 
 
 The church of Notre-Dame is perhaps the largest in Europe, 
 but having been despoiled of its precious paintings by the revo- 
 lution, it is now visited only as a curious monument of antient 
 architecture: the stalls in the choir possess some beautiful 
 sculptures in bass relief: but of all the specimens of beautiful 
 architecture which Paris possesses, the pantheon, seated at the 
 top of the Rue de St. Jacques, certainly takes the highest place. 
 It is sublimely elegant, enchantingly beautiful, and cannot I 
 think be surpassed. 
 
 The Theatre de POpera is accounted the first in Europe ; the 
 decorations are magnificent, the dresses rich, and the music 
 and the talents of the performers of high and distinguished 
 merit. 
 
 The chef-d'ceuvres of Racine, Corneille, Moliere, Voltaire, 
 are represented at the Theatre Francais, and give the amateur 
 the completest idea of the French drama ; but convenience is 
 
 sacrificed 
 
 5 
 
 \ 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 177 
 
 with chearful smiles sharing with one another 
 what the bounty of heaven bestows — not so in 
 France : the table is here spread and plentifully 
 covered with bread and butter, dried meat, eggs, 
 salt-fish, fruit, wine, but those who are to par- 
 take of the banquet drop in, in the most comfort- 
 less manner, and snatch a repast which has no- 
 thing to recommend it but its power to satiate a 
 craving appetite. 
 
 On extraordinary occasions they assemble 
 more en masse; and then poultry and game 
 smoking hot from the kitchen are added ; and 
 should an English or a Dutchman be of the par- 
 ty, coffee and tea crown the whole ; the latter 
 commonly prepared in the saucepan like a cauli- 
 flower or a cabbage : but though the table is 
 sumptuously covered, the stranger not being 
 much in the habit of eating with his fingers, 
 
 sacrificed to appearance in the construction of the house; the 
 galleries are supported by an unnecessary multitude of ionic 
 pillars which separate the boxes ; viewed from the stage, the 
 coup d'oeil must be grand, but the size of the pillars contribute 
 little to the convenience of the spectators, who sit behind them. 
 At this theatre we have no music, and the scenes are never 
 shifted ; whatever parts the performers have to exhibit, how- 
 ever inconsistent, are represented in the parlour with chairs and 
 tables for mountains, woods, and rural scenery. But it is end- 
 less to particularize every thing worth seeing in Paris. 
 
 M 4 finds 
 
178 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 finds himself at a loss how to get on : spoons arc 
 plenty; his knife he is expected to carry with him, 
 and nothing can be more gross and inelegant 
 than the use of it, especially in the hands of the 
 ladies ; to say nothing of the obvious incongruity 
 of a fine formed alabaster arm wielding with the 
 air and prowess of a butcher an immense un- 
 clasped stiletto, the view of which spirits up in- 
 fallibly the idea of robbery, bloodshed, murder, 
 what can be more offensive, what more detesta- 
 ble, than perhaps a dozen of them all around 
 you tarnished with numberless filthy unctions, the 
 accumulated operation of many a well-waged 
 conflict drawn from the receptacle of abomina- 
 tion, the ridicule, powdered with snuff; per- 
 haps anointed by the delicate monchou, beneath 
 which it has softly slumbered since the last meal ; 
 the idea is filthy ; but it is impossible that it 
 should not occur as often as one of these gentle 
 beings proposes to help you to any thing before 
 her. 
 
 At dinner, in like manner silver forks and 
 spoons are always ready on demand, and be- 
 neath your plate is laid a snowy napkin, changed 
 as often as you please ; and be the dishes on the 
 table numberless as the frogs in Egypt, plates, 
 clean as the art and mystery of scullery can 
 render them, await your call : but with one 
 
 knife 
 
A TOUR THROVGH FRANCE. 1 79 
 
 knife alone must you fight through all the battles 
 of the campaign. 
 
 Before you commence the business of the sit- 
 ting, you spread your serviette upon your lap, or, 
 like a full-fed alderman tuck it under your chin ; 
 and here you sometimes wipe it yourself, and 
 sometimes — < — your nose accus- 
 tomed to as many shining knives as there are 
 forks and plates, this deficiency is disgusting ! 
 The stomach revolts at resuming the instrument 
 with which you have just dispatched a goose, 
 perhaps, and scented with its sauce, to plunge 
 it again into the side of a carp, or jack, and 
 thence double-dosed with congruous flavours 
 into the breast of a chicken, a partridge, or a 
 hare ; for in this order things frequently arrive 
 at table — in fact at table, as on the stair-case, it 
 is better to look right a-head only without re- 
 garding what passes on your right-hand and 
 your left; and be sure, if possible to carve for 
 yourself. But if the ladies' knives incommode 
 your sight, this is all the inconvenience to which 
 you will be subjected at a French dinner.— I 
 had been warned not to peep into a French 
 kitchen— I wish the English kitchen could bear 
 an equally rigorous examination ! 
 
 At Sable', I was so situated as to be under the 
 
 necessity of frequently passing and re-passing 
 
 2 through 
 
 o 
 
180 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 through this paradise of epicurean delight ; but 
 never have I seen aught there which bade me 
 repeat the same caution to others : having dis- 
 patched a temperate, though sumptuous meal ; 
 (I say temperate, for a Frenchman never makes 
 you blush for your species by gluttony or drunk- 
 enness), cafe and liqueurs await them in an ad- 
 joining apartment ; and a supper, correspond- 
 ent to the breakfast, finishes the labours of the 
 day. 
 
 The distribution of a napkin to every guest, 
 though not indispensible in England, where 
 knives are plenty, as in France where they are 
 scarce, is elegant and acceptable ; and equally 
 acceptable is the mode of providing a goblet for 
 every individual : — we affect superiority over 
 the French, and smile disdainfully at some of 
 their customs, which certainly are capable of im^ 
 provement, but we forget that we have customs 
 which call equally loud for reformation — habit 
 hides from our eyes, for instance, the filthiness 
 of a practice not absolutely confined to the me- 
 tropolis, but far more general there than in the 
 provinces, I mean that of drinking one and all 
 out of the same porter-pot— It is by no means 
 pleasant to be second even to the lips of loveli- 
 ness whatever gallantry may affect; but to be 
 second to tobacco-chewers, and drivellers to 
 garlic-eaters, and gluttons with rotten teeth, 
 
 scrophula 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 181 
 
 scrophula, and indigestion, is abominable— a 
 Frenchman would rather die with thirst than put 
 up with it. 
 
 With regard to fashion, France has long been 
 considered as the grand emporium of taste, from 
 which other countries have imported folly by the 
 wholesale. The ladies are certainly entitled to 
 the palm-— of the gentlemen less is to be said. 
 In one instance I could not but remark, that in 
 dress the French betray a good sense, in which 
 their neighbours are completely bankrupts. The 
 different classes of society among them, very 
 properly, keep their distance from each other 
 without aping the plumage of orders to which 
 they do not belong. When a female is seen in 
 the street it is possible to guess at the genus un- 
 der which fortune has arranged her- --whether 
 she be a paysanne^ a bourgeoise, or lady of rank 
 and fortune. 
 
 Happening to land at Dieppe, on the fete of 
 Corpus Christi, we were gratified with the cos- 
 tume of the Norman peasantry in all its glory— 
 a costume on which fancy has been able to make 
 no encroachment for centuries. The coeffurc 
 is not less grotesque than it is costly; figure to 
 yourself a piece of paste-board machinery, em- 
 bracing both sides of the head like a pack-saddle, 
 mounting up like an inverted sugar-loaf, widen- 
 
182 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCF. 
 
 mg as it ascends to the height of 15 inches or 
 more— trim the ectees of it all around with the 
 finest lace, and embroider the ground, which is 
 of blue, or pink paper, with gold and silver 
 thread-— and, to the upper extremities, suspend 
 lappets of lace four fingers wide, and three quar- 
 ters of a yard long, and you will have a tole- 
 rable representation of the cap. Others have 
 this pasteboard erection drawn up to a taper 
 pyramid, embroidered as before described, and 
 surmounted by a little canopy like a parasol, 
 fringed round with broad lace, and lappeted as 
 before, Beneath these pasteboard turrets every 
 hair is drawn up tight from the roots, plastered 
 with pomatum, and daubed with powder— -this 
 head-dress is not unfrequently worth half a wo- 
 man's fortune. On their shoulders they carry a 
 large arm-holed cloak of printed callico, reach- 
 ing thence to their woqden shoes-— what is under 
 it heaven knows ! 
 
 But, if the peasantry are inflexible in their ad- 
 herence to antient custom— -not so with the higher 
 orders ; than these the weather-cock is not more 
 fickle— the embroidered field presents scarcely 
 more variety— -generally, the fine flowing auburn 
 hair with which they are abundantly furnished is 
 platted or twisted, and then fastened upon the 
 crown of the head with a highly ornamented 
 sheli-comb, and decorated besides with golden 
 
 arrows 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 183 
 
 arrows, crescents, and other beautifully elegant 
 trinkets, and gives } T ou the expectation of a com- 
 pletely finished head-dress ; but the tresses which 
 hang upon the forehead are as odiously disposed 
 of— -drenched first with some scented oil, and 
 smelling detestably, they are then picked out 
 into thin and meagre curls, entangling, like the 
 links of a chain, in one another, and descend- 
 ing; along the side of the face to the chin— instead 
 of coming forward and smiling, as we expect, 
 through nature's lovely ringlets, they bear the 
 exact appearance of having just escaped from 
 the hands of the humane society— nor do their 
 pale and sallow complexions belie the resem- 
 blance. 
 
 The chastity of fashion from hence- downward 
 is very conspicuous--- (but, ere I proceed, let it 
 be understood, that I speak now of the Rouen- 
 ites and the Parisians alone, the former the more 
 audacious of the two. In the departments the 
 dress of the ladies is, to the full, as unexcep- 
 tionable as the dignity of the sex can demand ;) 
 the bosom, formed by nature with enchanting 
 loveliness to reward the fidelity of tenderness and 
 truth, plumped up and padded to a rank exube- 
 rance of which nature, in its merriest mood, 
 never formed any conception, all exposed to 
 view, serves rather to provoke the nausea of dis- 
 gust, than to arrest the gaze of admiration. A 
 
 few, 
 
1S4 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 few, indeed, there are who cast a. perfectly trans- 
 parent muslin over their prostituted charms--- 
 but there are thousands who brave the rudest and 
 most licentious stare without even this salvo to 
 outraged modesty ; the rest of the person, were 
 it not that an equally transparent drapery suffers 
 every mould and every motion to be perfectly de- 
 fined, would be shapeless. From the ceinture 
 beneath the bosom to the feet, it is as the breeze 
 may chance to make it. In the Palais Royale, 
 and the stupid copyists of its audacity, the ele- 
 gantes are furnished with flesh-coloured opera 
 drawers perfectly fitted to the shape ; the petti- 
 coat is looped up to the hip with a diamond- 
 button, so that, with every motion, the whole 
 limb from its insertion downward stands exposed 
 view. 
 
 The young men presuming, that the most 
 marked opposition to the manners of the antient 
 court is republicanism, and that republicanism 
 and slovenliness are the same, have totally thrown 
 off the Frenchman ; a well-dressed man, unless 
 he be a foreigner, is a sort of prodigy in the 
 streets of Paris. In vain you look around you 
 for the spruce, buckrammed, lace-bedaubed 
 Jackanape's coat of the ancien regime,-— troops 
 of, apparently, Newmarket-jockies, wrapped 
 up in loose great-coats of hunters cloth, a sort 
 of semi-breed, betwixt a stable-boy and a qua- 
 
 ker, 
 
•A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 185 
 
 ker, alone encounter you. Nevertheless, it 
 must be granted, that they are improved by the 
 metamorphosis— having broken the neck of de- 
 spotism-— trampled the crouching vassalage to 
 which their fathers were reduced, and seized 
 the rank of men. 
 
 They have now begun to think the grinning 
 gabble of eternal compliment, which neither 
 meant, nor conveyed an idea, is for the most part 
 silenced ; and, when time and experience shall 
 have taught them how far the pure theories of 
 the philosophers are adapted to the infirmities 
 and corruptions of man, and how far they are 
 not, the whole species, will be benefited by the 
 change. 
 
 The licentiousness of dress just noticed, leaves 
 but little to be expected with regard to the purity 
 of public morals. Previous to the revolution the 
 fashionable circles of Paris were not renowned 
 for the purity of their virtue — the ladies were 
 not paragons — and the convulsions, which (hav- 
 ing overwhelmed a new-born limited monarchy) 
 terminated in the most fearful anarchy, have not 
 rendered their manners more correct and chaste 
 — the ancien regime had driven the mine, the 
 revolution has sprung it, and overwhelmed both 
 the affectation and the reality of virtue in one 
 complete ruin. 
 
 It 
 
186 
 
 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 It is seldom now that affection enters at all 
 into the nuptial bargain, or fidelity is expected 
 — the ladies, without scruple, avow it to be a 
 mere matter of convenience ; and, if the parti- 
 cular views with which it is contracted be but 
 answered, every thing else is out of the ques- 
 tion. Should a female happen to trip before she 
 has quitted the parental for the husband's wing, 
 she is lost for ever ; but, being once dubbed ma- 
 dcone, if she follows the particular predilection 
 of her heart, why there is no great harm done. 
 Monsieur, assuredly, does the same ; and, by 
 a sort of tacit compromise, they contrive to jog 
 on together without incommoding each other 
 with curtain lectures, and domestic squabbles. 
 The reputation of neither of them is tarnished, 
 nor will such a conduct, any more than in the fa- 
 shionable British world, exclude them from any 
 circle or society; and, should the phenomenon 
 sometimes appear, in the Parisian hemisphere^ 
 that either of them winces, at the partition of the 
 other's favours, the tribunals are open, and, till 
 the consular government wisely restrained the fa- 
 cility of divorce, an expence of five pounds will 
 at any time radically cure a domestic torment. 
 
 But, considering the opportunities of amuse- 
 ment, to use La Fleur's expression, which the 
 gentlemen enjoyed, this was an alternative which 
 was, in one case ? almost alone resorted to— the 
 
 expence 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 177 
 
 expence of marrying a lovely girl not to be ob- 
 tained by any other mode— keeping her as long 
 as passion lasted, and then divorcing her to 
 make way for another marriage, was much in- 
 ferior to what is not unfrequently lavished upon 
 an abandoned mistress— the mournful conse- 
 quence of which is, the coteries are thronged 
 with repudiated, indignant females, and a sort 
 of licenced prostitutes. 
 
 To the fashionable modes of married life, the 
 houses of the French gentry, especially their rural 
 chateaus, are admirably adapted. Monsieur occu- 
 pies one extremity, Madame the other, and neither 
 of them presumes to intrude unbidden upon the 
 other's privacies, un pen triste ; or with no more 
 pleasing companion at hand pour dissiper F ennui, 
 a formal message is dispatched, drawn up accord- 
 ing to the most correct propriety of etiquette, 
 and most humbly soliciting the permission to do 
 themselves the honour of waiting the one upon 
 the other; and if, at any time, the brusque 
 etourdi, forgetting every rule of politeness, hap- 
 pens to bounce into my lady's dressing-room, or 
 into the sanctum sanctorum, and there stumbles 
 upon her cher ami, instead of tumbling his sub- 
 stitute out of the window, he begs ten thousand 
 pardons for interrupting the tete-a-tete — feels 
 infinitely obliged to the gentleman for politely 
 taking the trouble of passing a judgment upon 
 
 n the 
 
1?8 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE, 
 
 the lady's ornaments — takes up his hat and quits 
 the premises. 
 
 As might be expected, the disposition of the 
 inferior orders has been but little meliorated by 
 the revolution ; the perverse and preposterous 
 notions of equality with, which the abettors of 
 anarchy and despotism combined to din their 
 ears, have completely poisoned the antient 
 French mildness and urbanity, and their rude- 
 ness and incivility are intolerably offensive. 
 
 At Paris and Rouen they have even contracted 
 a mischievousness of disposition, which, it is 
 but justice to add, I have not elsewhere found; 
 does a well-dressed pedestrian, with the aspect 
 of a gentleman, encounter one of these Septem- 
 brisers beside the kennel, or on a narrow path, 
 though filthy as a scavenger, he assumes the firm 
 and frontless gait of independence, looks as 
 though he would say " 'tis my turn nozc," and 
 turns, perhaps, the patron who gives him bread, 
 into the dirt. Porters, with their burdens on 
 their backs, will rather run foul of the passenger 
 than beside him, and injure than pass him harm- 
 less by. 
 
 In countries where the peasantry struggled 
 hard for the restoration of the antient order of 
 tilings, this is by no means the case— a strong 
 
 argument 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FfcANCE. \79 
 
 argument that the antient order had its good as 
 well as its faulty points. Your feelings are not 
 shocked there with the savage scowl, and evident 
 wish to cut your throat, which the sovereign peo- 
 ple of Rouen and Paris bear upon their visages^ 
 A stranger, decently garbed, may there assuredly 
 reckon upon having one half of the pathway 
 conceded to him ; and, if he makes the experi- 
 ment of complimenting the man that meets him 
 with the touch of his hat, he may depend upon 
 it that the compliment will be returned;— even 
 here, however, the women and the children 
 are rather too unceremonious — have you a mu- 
 sical party, or a dance, in your apartment, they 
 will not fail to crowd around your window— to 
 draw back your blinds, and mingle their remarks 
 with yours upon the graces of the belles and the 
 execution of the musical performers— nay, the 
 latter will even contest the point with you should 
 you be disposed to close the jalousies against 
 them— are you at table, at cards, or the desk, 
 and your servant has any thing to ask, or com- 
 municate, the sans calotte stalks, with the most 
 perfect ease, into your parlour— the side-cock of 
 his fierce military hat over his nose, and his hands 
 upon his hips, thees and thous, as though he were 
 a follower of George Fox, whoever speaks to 
 him ; and, when his business is finished, stalks 
 out again, leaving the door to be shut by him 
 who is incommoded by the blast. I must, how- 
 
 N 2 ever ■ 
 
180 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 ever, add, that this uncouth mode of speaking 
 is by no means mingled with disrespect — it came 
 in with the revolution, and is going out again 
 with expiring liberty. There was a time when 
 phrenzy was in its paroxism, when it was not only 
 necessary to comply with this rude and boorish 
 address, but the disuse of it was accounted full 
 proof of royalism. 
 
 With all these national and uninviting pecu- 
 liarities, it must be confessed, that the French 
 are, upon the whole, an amiable people — there 
 is an urbanity— a good nature— a readiness to 
 oblige which is highly interesting— politeness 
 and suavity of manners, in other countries con- 
 fined to the elevated ranks of life, here pervade, 
 with few exceptions only, every situation, every 
 profession— they are mild and gentle— affable 
 and easy— as desirous to please as to be pleased. 
 I know, that what we call excess of civility, be- 
 cause we are rather unaccustomed to it, throws 
 a doubtful cast upon their candour— our cun- 
 ning trading spirit, which judges every man by 
 itself, and suspects the generosity, to which we 
 are strangers, to be nothing less than deeper cun- 
 ning still, attributes their guiltless honesty to in- 
 sincerity, to French politesse— every profession is 
 palaver, the mere empty breath of compliment, 
 which will expire in Voth and smoke. For my 
 part, I must enter my most solemn protest against 
 
 sucli 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 181 
 
 such a construction of their polished civility- 
 it is a calumny as groundless as it is injurious and 
 unjust. 
 
 A foreigner must be extremely well recom- 
 mended in England to gain there those attentions 
 which I obtained in France with no recommen- 
 dation at all ; and, I scruple not to assert, that 
 a Briton, landing in that country, must be double 
 dosed with the ignorant and bigotted prejudices 
 of his countrymen, who is not impressed with 
 ideas of French urbanity very much to their dis- 
 advantage. Others again will, perhaps, say— 
 " It is their poverty which makes them thus ob- 
 sequious, smooth, and fawning." Be it so— 
 this is however, one effect of poverty with 
 which I was not before acquainted. In En- 
 gland it makes a man sulky, churlish, bru- 
 tal, and, I confess, I see no reason why it 
 should not brutalize a Frenchman ; but, I deny 
 that the Frenchmen are so piteously poor as this 
 objection supposes ; they have not, it is true, as 
 much money to waste upon their vices as the 
 English populace unfortunately have— -but are 
 they, for this reason, poorer ? A Frenchman's 
 temperate mind finds, in the labour of his hands 
 an ample resource for all his wants, and lives in 
 gaiety, comfort, and content; but an English- 
 man's vices consume, and would consume the 
 n 3 produce 
 
182 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 produce of his hands, had he as many as Brya*- 
 reus ; and though expending daily more than a 
 Frenchman can earn in a week, yet pines away 
 his discontented being in squalid wretchedness, 
 complaints, and misery! — Judge then, who is 
 the poorer man : admitting that a Frenchman 
 earns but one shilling per day, while his natural 
 memy, as the ministers of satan teach us to call 
 him, earns three, yet, when we consider that a 
 Frenchman's one shilling will purchase more food 
 for himself and his family than the Englishman's 
 three, and, above all, taking the Frenchman's 
 frugal simplicity on the one hand, and the En- 
 glishman's depraved necessities on the other, in- 
 to the calculation, we shall not assert too much 
 when we say, that ceteris paribus, the Frenchman 
 is the richer man :— -it is not money that makes 
 me rich-— he only is rich whose wants are few, 
 and whose means are commensurate to his wants. 
 —I will allow that a Frenchman has vanity ; he 
 will tell you what mighty services he has rendered 
 you; and how extremely fortunate it was for 
 you that he happened to be in the way to lend 
 you the assistance which no one else could possi- 
 bly render you ; but having thus incensed his 
 own self-conceit, he will take you by the hand 
 when your own countrymen would turn coldly 
 away from you, piously blessing God, that you, 
 rather than they, are in the slough of despond ! 
 
 But 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRAXCE. 183 
 
 But let us descend to experience, the proper 
 test of every doctrine : — I have said that suavity 
 of manners pervades all the ranks and gradations 
 of society in France. At Dieppe and Rouen I 
 experienced it in the most striking manner, with a 
 few solitary exceptions only. I have elsewhere 
 described our ludicrous landing at the former of 
 these places, and if I was dismayed by some cir- 
 cumstances which then occurred, amply was I 
 compensated in others : from the moment we 
 attached ourselves to de la Rue, our persons, our 
 carriage, our trunks, were taken under his im- 
 mediate protection, and in a mode which it would 
 be hopeless to seek for in England ; and what in 
 Holland, and in the last mentioned country will 
 be considered rather singular, he neither im- 
 posed upon us himself, nor would he permit 
 others to do it, 
 
 At the custom-house we experienced a deli- 
 cacy of treatment equally characteristic :— just 
 escaped from the clutches of a set of imps, who 
 account rudeness and brutality a necessary accom- 
 panyment of their profession ; who fleece you 
 without mercy, and treat you as though they 
 were bears when they have done : we had here 
 no sooner unlocked our trunks, than we were 
 requested to lock them again ; not a farthing 
 was exacted, and a handsome bow made us into 
 the bargain at our departure. 
 
 n 4 Arrrived 
 
184 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 Arrived at the Bureau des Passeports though 
 irritated by ministerial petulance on the one side, 
 and ministerial antipathy which could not sheathe 
 its teeth, though the sword was sheathed, on the 
 other — yet the mildness, the gentleness, with 
 which we were treated, completely disposed us 
 to pass by and forgive the inconvenience to which 
 we were subjected. 
 
 From the moment the definitive treaty was 
 signed, all restraint upon the intercourse be- 
 twixt France and her opponent was taken off; 
 invalids were at full liberty to pass over and 
 search for the health in its genial clime which 
 they had lost at home; commercial men found 
 no difficulty in seeking their former correspond- 
 ents, and renewing former connections ; and as 
 many as chose to travel for amusement found 
 every ancient facility renewed.— France demon- 
 strated not only a disposition to sign treaties, but 
 to be bonajidc at peace.— On the other side of 
 the channel how wide was the difference— there 
 the alien bill continued with all the unabating 
 rancorous hostility of actual warfare ; to swing 
 the door of social intercourse in the teeth of the 
 republicans — -many French gentlemen presum- 
 ing that the pacific spirit exhibited by their own 
 country would be met by a spirit as pacific in ours, 
 came over to England as Englishmen went over 
 to France ; but while the latter were cordially 
 
 welcomed, 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 185 
 
 welcomed, and received every polite attention 
 and assistance in the prosecution of the object of 
 their journey, the others were arrested— de- 
 tained in durance, or sent home again with great 
 expense in their purses and their spirits : remon- 
 strance was in vain ; the alien-bill forsooth was 
 to continue in force six months after the final ar- 
 rangement of the treaty. 
 
 Justly incensed at the retention of a restriction 
 now so odious, now so easy to be dispensed 
 with, not to say so totally irreconcileable with 
 the spirit of peace, the French government fi- 
 nally resolved to treat British subjects in France, 
 as Frenchmen were treated in Britain ; at least 
 such was the account we received at the French 
 custom-houses, whether it be accurate or not it 
 is not my business to decide. 
 
 At this unfortunate conjuncture I arrived at 
 Dieppe ; and presuming that passports were un- 
 necessary, had not taken the precaution to trou- 
 ble Lord Hawksbury for one, at the expense of 
 21. 5s. each, presenting myself at the municipal- 
 ity to demand one, as had been the custom, I 
 was told, with a shrug of the shoulders, that an 
 order to the effect above-mentioned was just re- 
 ceived, and for the reasons above detailed ; and 
 that the republic was under the necessity of de- 
 nying me the civility I solicited, unless I was 
 
 already 
 
186 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE, 
 
 already furnished with a passport from — 
 
 the French charge d'affaires in London. I was 
 of course placed in a very unpleasant dilemma. 
 — " But ( continues the municipal officer, ) 
 though I have no power to grant Monsieur the 
 power to proceed on his journey, I have no or- 
 ders to stop him ; he is therefore extremely wel- 
 come to go forward, and I dare say no one will 
 molest him." Had I been a tinker or a cobler, 
 a mechanic of any description whatever, jthe 
 case would have been different ; for the prohibi- 
 tion just received was accompanied with a dis-* 
 pensation to this effect 
 
 Priests are an order of animals of which the 
 government did not feel itself at that moment in 
 need .: I was accompanied hither by de la Rue,wha 
 had attended me to vouch for me that I actually 
 was what I professed to be, which it was indis- 
 pensible that some responsible resident in the 
 town should do : it is true, that this was probably 
 nothing more than the formality of office ; but 
 I am disposed to think that the Frenchman who 
 lands in Britain a total stranger to every one in 
 it y may ransack the ports from John-a- Groats 
 house to the Lizard, and back again, ere he 
 would have found an inn-keeper disposed to un- 
 dertake for him what de la Rue proposed un^ 
 asked to undertake for me. 
 
 Things 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 187 
 
 Things were yet in a too unsettled state for 
 me to presume with confidence my getting 
 to my journey's end without molestation. --- 
 Every gens cTarmes I knew had a right to ar- 
 rest me ; and I dare not say that my feelings 
 were most placidly serene while these blue-coated 
 gentry were crossing my path ; my only consola- 
 tion was, that I had avowed myself to the go^ 
 vernment which knew where to find me at any 
 moment. There was however, no alternative, 
 but to proceed to Rouen where the prefect of 
 the department resided, or return to old England 
 again;— and here (I humbly beg their pardon 
 for the account I have elsewhere given of their 
 villainous town, and no less villainous canaille) 
 I met again with numberless and most affecting 
 civilities— every one was ready to lend his hand 
 in extricating me from my embarassments ; but 
 the case being a new one, nobody knew how to 
 set about it. 
 
 To bring the matter to the shortest possible is- 
 sue, I determined to wait upon the prefect my- 
 self—in fact, the only eligible mode of proceed- 
 ing in similar difficulties :— at the fountain-head 
 you presently learn what is to be done, or not 
 to be done.— -I stated to him my difficulties, 
 " here I am under such and such circumstances" 
 
 and cast myself uponJiis candour " Fray 
 
 xvhat is Monsieur ?"■ — " A. priest" — " Ah ! that 
 
 is 
 
188 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 is unfortunate — had he been an artist ; had he 
 been a mechanic, there would be no difficulty /" — 
 " But pray is not Monsieur acquainted with any 
 trade, art, or manufactured — " Oh yes, he 
 has never indeed professed either trade or manu- 
 facture, but he is perfectly acquainted with ma- 
 ny? " N' import e, n import e, that is enough; 
 let him present himself at the municipality as an 
 artist or mechanic ; or, if Monsieur does not 
 chuse to take the sin upon his conscience, let Ma- 
 dame take it upon hers ; there is no oath to be 
 administered. — The French government wishes 
 not to cast any restriction upon the pleasures of 
 gentlemen who come hither zvith honest views and 
 intentions — but considering the influx of foreign- 
 ers to this country, many of them of very sus- 
 picious characters, there are formalities which 
 cannot be dispensed zvith? 
 
 I followed his directions ; and two hours af- 
 terwards received my passports made out accord- 
 ing to the instructions from the prefect- — for 
 which I paid not two pounds five shillings, 
 but eight-pence!!! — I will only further add, 
 that in every office at which I was required to ap- 
 pear, at the museum, at the libraries, at the galle- 
 ries of the arts, the treatment I received was uni- 
 formly and equally liberal. Will any man tell me, 
 that all this was the smoke and vapour of empty 
 compliment ? or that poverty thus rendered the 
 
 5 brother 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 189 
 
 brother of Cambaceres indulgent to a foreigner ? 
 — No : it was innate benevolence — the wish to 
 oblige — every idea of recompence and compen- 
 sation was out of sight. Where is the English 
 office in which a foreigner will receive attention 
 as gratifying ? — 
 
 For a time the cheerfulness, which is a very 
 prominent part of the Frenchman's character, is 
 amusing ; but, when we see that it is not in the 
 power of misfortune to humble him, and silence 
 his eternal prattle— that even, in concerns the 
 most serious, his characteristic volatility is min- 
 gled, we are apt to think lightly of his feelings, 
 and despise his levity as much as we admire his 
 good-natured wish to please. 
 
 A Frenchman has religion, # and, for a few 
 moments in the day, he will present you with a 
 
 picture 
 
 * During the late disastrous conflict, the atheism and irre- 
 ligion of the French were convenient bugbears ; the imagi- 
 nations of the timorous were sufficiently haunted by them, and 
 not a few of our most zealous partizans were hereby hurried 
 into the cordial support of a crusade they would otherwise have 
 detested ; to say nothing of the pious christian wish to exter- 
 minate the unbelievers from the face of the earth, they are not 
 even now permitted to return quietly to the u vasty deep," 
 but are still impressed into the service as a sort of corjts d& re- 
 serve against any future emergency in which it may be conve- 
 nient 
 
190 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 picture of abstraction and intense devotion, 
 which, were it not poisoned by his future con- 
 duct, 
 
 nient to work up the passions of mankind into fury. — The 
 " atheism and irreligion" of the French are like many other as- 
 persions which have been cast upon them. 
 
 Practical atheists are every where to be found, and no where 
 in greater plenty than among the late champions for social or 
 der, religion, (and to consummate the climax of blasphemy) 
 God. But speculative atheists, i. e. atheists in principle, are 
 as rare in France as in Britain. Deists are innumerable : in 
 fact, we may almost say, that all the men of intelligence, all 
 the men of learning, are deists ; — so far from being atheists, 
 they one and all believe in one God, the first cause of all 
 things — in his providential care of his creation — in a future 
 state, in which the immortal spirit shall be rewarded or pu- 
 nished according to the things done in the body. Of Jesus; 
 Christ they have a high, a respectful idea as the first of mo- 
 ralists — a man of the most unrivalled virtue; but, they. deny 
 the divinity of his mission — the conundrums of Calvinism, 
 which are equally the conundrums of popery with regard to 
 his person and dignity ; and, if is very evident, that they have 
 renounced Christianity because they have never seen it, but as 
 tricked out in the meretricious dresses which these equally meek 
 and gentle parties have prepared for it— because they are ig- 
 norant of it as it is in its own native simplicity, and they will 
 renounce it till it is represented to them, not as corrupt and im- 
 pious priests have made it, but as its pious founder first consti* 
 tuted it. 
 
 While 1 was at Paris, a deputation from those gentlemen 
 who have arrogated to themselves the tide " Evangelical 
 preachers" was also there, soliciting, from the first consul, the 
 
 permission 
 2 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 191 
 
 duct, would be superlatively edifying. Totally 
 unacquainted with the disgusting yell— the ta- 
 bernacle 
 
 permission to send missionaries for the propagation of their 
 system in France. They may as well drop the scheme— for, 
 not to say they have little chance of rising into competition 
 with the French preachers, whose powers in the pulpit are of 
 the highest order, their scheme of divinity is too nearly allied 
 to the divinity of popery to be more digestible than the one 
 which hath been " cast forth." 
 
 " You tell me, says one of them, reasoning with him upon 
 the truth of Christianity, " you tell me that there is one God-- 
 that this God is infinitely perfect in all his attributes—the most 
 amiable of beings — wise, and just, and good. Presently 
 you tell me, that this infinitely amiable being is 'foaming with 
 rage and resentment against the human race--that we are one 
 and all born under his curse and indignation, and liable to eter- 
 nal torments in hell because Adam, some thousand years before 
 the major part of us were in being, had trespassed in one little 
 point against his commands. Next, you tell me, that the 
 only begotten and well-beloved son of this infinitely kind and 
 tender father comes forward, and, under circumstances of the 
 most atrocious cruelty, lays down his life to appease the fury 
 ef God, and, that the fury of this merciful, kind, and com- 
 passionate being against worms who had never offended him — 
 who could never have offended him — was by no other means to 
 he allayed; and, finally you tell me, that this son is his own 
 father— that this gentle, this furious, this raging, this interced- 
 ing Being, are one and the same, offering up himself to him- 
 self, by his own meekness, to appease his own rage, and do 
 away his own malediction." 
 
 Doctrine* 
 
192 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 bernacle see-saw— the eternal Amen of our mo- 
 dern nexv lights ; if he sets decency at defiance 
 
 all 
 
 Doctrines like these are too injurious to the moral attributes 
 of God ; the system is too complex, too contradictory for the 
 digestion of a Frenchman. It is in vain to preach it to him 
 till you can enforce it as the apostles did their sermons and ex- 
 hortations : the attempt to reason upon the subject but serves 
 to confirm him in his apostacy. He that would preach Chris- 
 tianity in France with the smallest prospect of success, must 
 come forward with the gospel in his hand — not with the abstruse 
 discussions of Rabbinical learning — not with the quarrels be- 
 twixt the Gentile converts, and the Jews and Judaising Chris- 
 tians — not with Pharisaical allegory, cabbalistical refinement, 
 and Grecian philosophy — but with the truth as it is in Jesus, 
 simple, easy, and intelligible. When I assured them that there 
 were thousands of Christians who believed no more of this 
 gross, confounding series of enigmas than themselves, and ex- 
 plained the general outline of this and the other system, found- 
 ed upon the untortured sense of the sacred oracles, they can- 
 didly confessed that there was little here to outrage the com- 
 mon sense of mankind, and that the subject merited attention. 
 
 It is true these objections to the Trinitarian hypothesis no 
 more prove it to be untrue, than the supercilious proud con- 
 tempt of the Athenians proves the doctrine of the resurrec- 
 tion to be untrue; but it proves that it is an hypothesis which 
 confounds equally the foolish and the wise; those that are, and 
 those that are not, and consequently comes not up to the pre- 
 dictions of antient prophecy, which tell us that the doctrines 
 of the gospel should be so plain, that he who runs may read 
 them, and the way-faring simpleton be incapable of erring in 
 them ; and, when it is recollected, that the doctrine in ques- 
 tion is no where explicitly revealed but in the institutes of Cal- 
 vin 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE* 193 
 
 all the rest of the day during his devotions, no-~ 
 thing can be more serious — nothing more digni- 
 fied than his demeanour; the world and all its 
 cares seem to be forgotten ; he enters upon his 
 duty, and he goes through it with all his heart, 
 with all his mind, and with all his might ; a thou- 
 sand spectators may be crowding round him, 
 but his eyes are immoveably fixed upon his cru- 
 cifix—his lips move — his hands are clasped upon 
 his breast, and his eye beams with faith and 
 hope. With all this, his religion is like him- 
 self—a jumble of inconsistency, and he takes it 
 up, or lays it down, as may suit him best ; for 
 a while it sticks to him like his cloak, and he 
 wears it with all imaginable decency, and, when 
 
 vin, that it rests upon texts which the best critics, Trinitarian 
 and anti-Trinitarian, have pronounced to be forgeries, or is the 
 far-fetched conclusion from premises as much intended to de- 
 monstrate the system of Copernicus as the system of Calvin, 
 and consequently must be unessential to salvation, it merits the sober, 
 serious consideration of the gentlemen above alluded to, whe- 
 ther it be better to make doctrines of this compaction a sine qua 
 non, at the expence of confirming 30,000,000 of people in 
 error and infidelity, which will be the inevitable conse- 
 quence, or to leave all such quibbles where the blessed Jesus 
 left them (if, indeed, he knew any thing about the subject, 
 which does not appear from his sermons or conversations), and, 
 by inculcating doctrines simple as those which he taught, bring 
 his straying sheep once more within the Christian pale, and into 
 the path of salvation. 
 
 o it 
 
194 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 it becomes inconvenient to him, he casts it aside. 
 In the morning he repairs to the oratory, and, 
 like St. Paul, it seems questionable whether he 
 be in the body or out of the body. In the even- 
 ing he gives it a cast, as the postilion does his 
 jack-boots, and jigs it and all his cares away to- 
 gether. 
 
 There is a certain round of formalities ; a 
 set form of words, the repetition of which he 
 has been taught to consider religion— for popery 
 has nothing to do with principle ; it is not a re- 
 ligion of principle— of those internal feelings on 
 which protestants insist so much, which are in- 
 tended to controul and govern the heart — he 
 has never been taught to form any conception, 
 and would shrug up his shoulders were you to tell 
 him, that as long as the heart is pure, and the 
 life correct, he may dispense with his ave-marias. 
 These, and similar absurdities, he has been 
 accustomed to consider the sum and substance 
 of Christianity. This is the price at which hea- 
 ven is to be purchased ; and, as long as the sti- 
 pulated round of formality is gone through, 
 heaven has nothing more to demand iJhe price 
 is paid, and he is at liberty to enjoy himself to 
 the uttermost ; accordingly should the little plans 
 of amusement, which constitute the grand bu- 
 siness of a Frenchman's life, interfere with the 
 
 stated 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 195 
 
 Stated services of the Sunday, he very easily gets 
 the better of the difficulty. Has he some party 
 of pleasure, or a dance at his house in the even- 
 ing, which requires the afternoon for previous 
 preparation, he rises with the morning-— hies 
 him to the shrine of his patron saint— gives him 
 a double portion of prostration, bowing, and 
 crossing— gets through his morning and evening 
 service before breakfast, and, thus having the 
 start of his duty, returns home with clean hands, 
 and a clear conscience, to set his saloon and his 
 fiddle in order. * 
 
 To 
 
 * I know few things which grate with more discordance 
 upon my feelings than a fiddle on a Sunday; but, I will not 
 say, for this reason, that a Frenchman who closes his sabbath 
 with a dance is guilty of greater criminality than some others 
 who do not. I have been taught, from my infancy, to consi- 
 der the sabbath a day of sacred rest, and solemn recollection; 
 a Frenchman has been taught no such thing — nay, his conduct 
 has been sanctioned by the source from which all hierarchical 
 authority has been derived ; and, of course, while it was 
 impossible for him to draw his notions of Christianity but from 
 this corrupted fountain, he is not to be blamed if that conduct 
 be incorrect. Far be from me to vindicate a practice which I 
 abhor; but, I must insist upon it, that, of two evils, the 
 Frenchman takes the least. There is no moral turpitude in a 
 dance, and it has an unquestionable tendency to brace the 
 nerves, to exhilirate the spirits, arid consequently to invigorate 
 us for the discharge of the duties of life; accordingly, the 
 Frenchman cheers himself through all the labours of the week 
 with the expectation of the joyous hours which will succeed 
 o 2 its 
 
196 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 To a thinking mind, what has been said of a 
 Frenchman's religion, is humiliating. Good 
 God ! that a nation which ranks high among 
 the nations of the earth should thus degrade 
 itself by thinking, for a moment, that the Eter- 
 nal, the source of all perfection, can be conci- 
 liated by such a paltry compromise as this— that 
 the infinite mind can be pleased with the contor- 
 sions of a worm— that bliss eternal, at his own 
 right-hand, is to be purchased by services in 
 which that precious spark of his own spirit in- 
 fused into us, to become the pilot and the guide 
 to dignity of sentiment and action, has no part. 
 It is not to be wondered at, that philosophic; 
 minds were incapable of receiving all this mum- 
 mery for religious duty ; and, that in a country 
 where men were forbidden to probe their creed, 
 
 its close : on the other hand, the Englishman growls all the 
 day long; on the Sunday morning he saunters at his door, his 
 stockings about his heels, his beard like that of a satyr, a com- 
 plete picture of vice ; — at noon he adjourns to the alehouse, 
 riots in intemperance till he has wasted two-thirds of the earn- 
 ings of the week ; — at midnight he reels home, pennyless, 
 senseless, the most disgusting brute in the creation of God. 
 While the Frenchman wakes with the lark, joyous as inno- 
 cence, John Ball, with aching head, and sickness at his heart, 
 his steps still tottering, and his hand trembling, is necessitated 
 to hie him to the gin-shop, to brace his shattered nerves, and 
 mortgage the earnings of the week ere he can commence his 
 labours. 
 
 and 
 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 197 
 
 and to attest its evidences, they spurned at such 
 a system as this. 
 
 We do wrong when we accuse the French re- 
 volutionists of having overturned the altars of 
 Christianity in the late tremendous struggle- no ; 
 they have not overturned Christianity; for, as a 
 people, it is many a century since Christianity 
 dared to shew its head amongst them. 
 
 The libellous profanation of that sacred system 
 they have over-set— turned " our dear brethren 
 in the Lord Jeoiis" adrift, and scattered the un- 
 blushing supporters of it ; and they have done 
 well ; the only matter of wonder is, that the pa- 
 tience of the Eternal endured so long, and that 
 his thunder-bolts did not sooner hurl to perdition 
 both the erection and the craft. It cannot fail of 
 recurring to the mind when it ponders these 
 events ; and they furnish a wholesome lesson to 
 every priesthood under heaven— that the French 
 hierarchy has reaped the just wages of its own 
 shameful and unblushing impositions upon the 
 credulity of a simple, honest, people ! — Its sor- 
 rows were the just consequence of its own ini- 
 quity !— The violent dealings of the craft came 
 down upon its own head ! Nothing can be more 
 base, nothing more abominable, than the system 
 of arrogant usurpation planned and pursued by 
 9 3 then* 
 
198 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE, 
 
 them from generation to generation ! — To con- 
 solidate their empire over the abject, depraved, 
 dispirited multitude — they blushed at nothing — 
 they stuck at nothing ! 
 
 It was the boast of one of the first of saints, 
 that having no dominion over the church, the 
 summit of his ambition was to be the Servant of 
 the Flock and the Helper of its Joy ; not so with 
 the foil ozvers of the apostles, they had a very dif- 
 ferent end in view : — instead of becoming ser- 
 vants of the flock, they must be its despotic mas- 
 ters — rule with absolute sway — and command 
 where it was their duty to entreat, to advise, to 
 comfort, to assist ; — but, cunning as the serpent, 
 they too well knew that this could never be ac- 
 complished till the public mind were stripped of 
 its independence — nor the mind be stripped of its 
 independence till the sceptre was at their com- 
 mand ; and, unfortunately for the people, the 
 throne of France has seldom failed of being oc- 
 cupied by weak and sombre bigots — the slaves 
 of superstition to day, and of profligacy to-mor- 
 row ! Materials these, as favourable for working 
 upon as the priesthood could possibly desire! 
 Accordingly we find them pampering their vices ; 
 now and then liquidating the account with their 
 consciences by silly austerity, and servile obse- 
 quiousness to the ghostly empirics who buzzed 
 
 ; around 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 199 
 
 around them, and aggrandized themselves at the 
 expence of the monarch's power, and the peo- 
 ple's purse : — did gratitude for absolution from 
 the penalty of some atrocious crime, melt the 
 heart, and dispose him to reward with munifi- 
 cence the pardon-mongers who had washed 
 his guilty soul, and robed it anew in innocence, 
 they failed not to improve the tempting moment 
 — they extolled his piety — they dubbed him with 
 titles fulsome and surfeiting to every one but 
 himself — they intoxicated his feeble faculties 
 with the promise of an apotheosis among the 
 saints : — but did he presume to run restive, and 
 revolt at their enormous cupidity — they aban- 
 doned him to despair — they fulminated hell-fire 
 and damnation at his head, and surrendered him 
 without bail or mainprise to the devil and his 
 angels ! and, while thawed and lost in the soft 
 dreams of glory, honour, and immortality, or 
 quaking with terror and consternation, they 
 wrested the emblem of authority from his ener- 
 vated hand, and erected themselves into the ar- 
 biters of the empire's fate ! 
 
 Thus, vested with the power to hurt and to de- 
 stroy, their subsequent conduct failed not to 
 tally exactly with the means by which they had 
 mounted to authority — studying to degrade the 
 man, as the most effectual mode of consolidating 
 their empire over him; nothing was too prepos-* 
 o 4 terous 
 
200 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE, 
 
 terous for them to broach, and to cram down the 
 throats of the suffering multitude ;-. — in the broad 
 face of day it was taught that " it had nothing to 
 do zvith the lazv but to obey it." — Reflection was 
 constituted a crime — the child of reason no longer 
 dared avow his utter incapacity to believe contra-? 
 dictions— if his soul shrunk back from absurdity, 
 and deemed it impossible to be derived from 
 God, he was compelled to dungeon his repug- 
 nance in his own bosom, or brave the assassin's 
 dagger, or the flames of martyrdom ! 
 
 France became for ages as might be expected, 
 the miserable theatre of bloodshed; complete 
 success could not crown such measures, but after 
 many a sharp and bloody conflict. The murders 
 committed by them upon those who could not 
 quench the spark divine, were numberless be- 
 yond belief! — Witness the war of the Camisars; 
 the war of the League ; the massacre of St. Barr 
 tholomew, to say nothing of private assassina- 
 tions, and public burnings, now forgotten on 
 earth, but registered w in heaven : — alas ! finding 
 at length that there was no redress — that the 
 throne to which they preferred their heart-rend- 
 ing complaint, not only remained obstinately deaf 
 to their cries, but an abettor of the crimes they 
 deplored— the miserable herd sunk down into 
 despair, or sought in giddiness and gaiety (hence 
 perhaps the national character) a refuge from 
 
 thought. 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 201 
 
 thought, more baneful to them than the pesti- 
 lence ! 
 
 But there is a point beyond which human en- 
 durance cannot go :— the ecclesiastical Jehus 
 drove on with that confident and unpitying speed, 
 that at length the Jades became tired-— even fol- 
 ly and superstition could swallow nQ longer ; dis- 
 gust, it may almost be said, nauseated every 
 stomach, and the idea of religion became detest- 
 able !— in cases where their wishes had been 
 crowned with success, man was rendered a mere 
 animal, stripped of every thing superior to in- 
 stinct ; but, where reflection could not be stifled, 
 he brooded in silence over his hapless lot, con- 
 tracted the scowl, and, perhaps, the dark de- 
 signing spirit of a slave, and waited upon the 
 thorns of impatience the envied moment, when 
 some favourable contingence should enable him 
 to break his manacles upon the head of his op- 
 pressor, and dash the bowl of imposition in the 
 the teeth of him who had drenched him with it ! 
 
 At length the moment came, and fearful was 
 the day of retribution ! ---incapacity, combined 
 with profligate extravagance overwhelmed the 
 throne !■ — Despotism fell with an horrible crash, 
 and with it fell the Lucifers which had so long 
 been scorching the earth — then it was, that all 
 their crimes came into remembrance — the smoul- 
 dering 
 2 
 
202 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 dering flame burst forth, and its fury was fierce 
 in proportion to the length and severity of the 
 oppression beneath which it had been confined ! 
 
 In Protestant departments, where the tender- 
 mercies of these feeders of the flock had made the 
 wildest havock — its rage was horrible and undis- 
 tinguishable ! — words are unequal to the task of 
 describing, in appropriate colours, the atrocities 
 which had here been perpetrated ; and language 
 is poor, when it would paint the aweful, the 
 dreadful retaliation, with which they were re- 
 quited ! — Foaming with rage now unbridled, the 
 bereaved father rushed into the midst of the in- 
 carcerated priests, and demanded his son — the 
 son demanded his father from those who had 
 driven him into exile — who had confiscated his 
 patrimony — who had chained him to the oar — 
 who had constrained him to wear away his mi- 
 serable days unseen, unheard, unpitied, in the 
 mournful silence, in the darkness, and despair 
 of a dungeon! — Then it was, that the frantic 
 widow looking back on joys, for ever, ever gone, 
 demanded the husband of her bosom, the father 
 of her children, the comfort of her days — torn 
 from his family in the prime of beauty, in the 
 manly vigour of his youth, and doomed to an 
 abode where the light of heaven never shines, 
 where hope never dawns, where the soothing ac- 
 cents of commiseration's blest balm to the wounds 
 
 ed 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 203 
 
 ed mind never fall upon the listening ear — never 
 arrest the falling tear — never hush the anguished 
 sigh : — then it was that despair, turning once 
 more her heavy glance upon scenes from which 
 she had hitherto flown aghast, her spreading hands 
 beside her eyes to hide them from the hateful 
 view, and, maddening at the sight, darted like 
 a fury into the midst of the murderous fray- 
 reproached the weary assassin with cowardice 
 and effeminacy, and urged him on to fresh deeds 
 of blood f 
 
 Events like these cannot be too much de- 
 plored : — but while the shuddering heart bewails 
 and laments them, it cannot but confess that 
 they are, that they must be the inevitable con- 
 sequence of the process, so long carried on ! — 
 May those who have escaped, take warning 
 from those who fell ; and may their own mourn- 
 ful fate teach others who sustain a similar rank in 
 society, to beware how they tread in their foot- 
 steps, and provoke a similar catastrophe! 
 
 It is not, it cannot be, the province of a priest, 
 to impose upon the credulity — to degrade — abuse 
 the minds of those who are committed to his 
 care ; — it is not, it cannot be, his business to 
 build up the cause of a particular Junto, at the 
 expense of every thing which is dignifying, which 
 is valuable to man; and to support the frontless 
 
 decrees 
 
204 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 decrees of synods and councils of always weak, 
 generally of wicked men, at the expense of the 
 New Testament : instead of forbidding men to 
 " mark, learn, and imvardly digest,'" for them- 
 selves, and turning them over to satan because 
 they strive to avoid and escape him, let them 
 assist the spirit of investigation; let them cherish a 
 superlatively sacred veneration for the oracles of 
 everlasting truth, and pursue that only which is 
 founded upon the apostles and prophets, and 
 more especially upon Jesus Christ, the chief cor- 
 ner-stone of the church, and they need not be 
 terrified whatever political convulsions shake the 
 pillars of the state : — they once enforced the ser- 
 vile homage of the flock, and joined the grand 
 conspiracy of despotism against it, till they had 
 alienated its affections from the altar and the 
 throne — by this means they would win its grati- 
 tude, esteem, and love ; and while servility turns 
 upon the tyranny which had trampled it in the 
 dust, and repays with vengeance every act of 
 oppression, the memory of the honest endeavour 
 to guide the erring into the way of truth, and 
 confirm them in the path which leads to everlast- 
 ing joy, would form a rampart around them 
 against which the gates of hell could not prevail ! 
 
 I cannot drop this interesting subject without 
 remarking, that there is another point of view, 
 
 no. 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 205 
 
 jio less instructive, in which the conduct of the 
 Gallic hierarchy demands attention. 
 
 In the protestant departments, priest-craft 
 succeeded so far alone as to repress resistance, 
 not to subdue resentment. — In others, where 
 its success had been more complete, (i.e.) where 
 the independence of the mind had been complete- 
 ly eradicated — with it was eradicated too every 
 spark of generous principle ; devotion to the craft, 
 and that which renders a man amiable, a good 
 citizen, a good neighbour, cannot exist together : 
 — rites and ceremonies, and all the vain parade 
 of external devotion, the traffic in which it 
 deals, will never humanize a savage — never 
 subdue an unruly passion — never rein the rugged 
 propensities of the heart, nor bring them lowly 
 and submissive to the feet of the meek, the gen- 
 tle, the forgiving, Jesus ! — Tearing the charter 
 of their salvation from the multitude, educating 
 it in blind submission to the church, i. e. to 
 itself; and inspiring the hood-winked multi- 
 tude with horror and aversion to every thing but 
 the mummery, which had been substituted in the 
 place of religion — when the explosion burst, and 
 the yoke of bondage broke, what was there to 
 restrain the blackest and most infuriated passions 
 of a depraved, abandoned, heart ? The impe- 
 tuous rabble knew nothing of patience, of for- 
 giveness, of pity, of moderation, the carnal le- 
 galities 
 
206 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 gaUties of the christian life, as indispensible 
 conditions of acceptance with God — they had 
 been punctual in their Ave-Marias, crossings, 
 bowings, penances, fastings, oblations, &c. 
 and most cordially hated all that chanced to dis- 
 sent from them ; and knew not that any thing 
 more than this was necessary to salvation ! 
 
 No sooner then was the opportunity presented, 
 than all the uncorrected obliquities of the heart 
 blazed forth, and every restraint was humbled 
 before it ; a deluge of the most disgusting licen- 
 tiousness rushed in upon the land — characters the 
 most atrocious were the most honoured; not 
 only interred where the ashes of virtue were 
 wont to rest, but even adored as deities, and, to 
 crown the whole, premiums were assigned to 
 vice ! 
 
 In this delirium of guilt, the causes of this in- 
 calculable calamity could not escape — the mourn- 
 ful effects of that poisonous system which placed 
 virtue in a secondary rank, to be mentioned 
 sometimes, though seldom, in the fag-end of a 
 sermon, extended to the abettors of it, and 
 ingulphed them in the common ruin — from the 
 injured protestants, and from the abused, de- 
 graded papists, they received equal indulgence : 
 — what a lesson to those who pursue a similar 
 line of conduct in other churches! — had they 
 
 been 
 
A. TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 207 
 
 been content to follow the fishermen of Galilee — 
 to win the affections of the people by enlarging 
 their understandings, by acquainting them with 
 the constitution of the gospel — sowing its virtues 
 in the heart, and cherishing every approach to 
 the mild, the humane, the charitable, the ca- 
 tholic spirit of the Redeemer — had they been as 
 anxious to impress them with the hatred of vice 
 as with the hatred of heresy — as ambitious to 
 make them christians as to make them catholics 
 - — and given proof of their sincerity by walking 
 according to the gospel, in meekness, in humility, 
 in charity, in a word, in the virtues of Jesus 
 Christ, revolution might have rolled its mighty 
 billows around them ; shaken the throne to its 
 foundation, and involved the whole land in one 
 vast confusion — but they would have been safe ! 
 
 History has not furnished us with a solitary 
 example since the establishment of Christianity 
 of the faithful shepherd, who (renouncing poli- 
 tics and worldly ambition, and confining himself 
 to the duties of his station) has in the hour of 
 extremity been abandoned by his flock, much 
 less cruelly persecuted by it. Hierarchies con- 
 structed as engines of popular subjugation, have 
 many a time reaped the just reward of their in- 
 sidious servility in the fury of the enraged mul- 
 titude ; but never have the evangelists indeed 
 been thus requited by those among whom they 
 
 have 
 5 
 
208 A TOUR THROUGH FRANC*. 
 
 have divided the bread of life : — look at the 
 virtuous struggles of the Waldenses, the Hugo- 
 nots, and others upon the continent — look at 
 the persecutions at home — when did the people 
 turn like hungry wolves upon those followers of 
 Jesus, who aspired alone to instruct the igno- 
 rant, to confirm the wavering, to reclaim the 
 vicious, to edify and build up the saints in the 
 practice of those virtues which the last Judge will 
 demand, and heaven will reward — persecuted 
 and oppressed by the hirelings who have clam- 
 bered over the zcall, to prey upon, not to feed 
 the flock, they have received them to their bo- 
 soms — they have concealed them in their cot- 
 tages — they have fed and cherished them — in 
 prison they have cheered the bitter hours of 
 captivity — when, standing like their beloved 
 Master before an iniquitous tribunal, they have 
 soothed the smart of taunting persecution with 
 the affectionate gaze of sympathy — they have 
 bathed every stripe with their tears, and, at the 
 stake, they have wafted the departing spirit on 
 their sighs to its great reward : — when no longer 
 able to testify their warm affection by overt acts, 
 they have cherished the memory of their glorified 
 Shepherd with more than filial love — they have 
 engraven his precepts upon their hearts — they 
 have handed them down to their children, and 
 taught the infant tongue to lisp the venerable 
 name — to dwell upon his faithfulness, his sor- 
 row^ 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 209 
 
 rows, and his death, and to catch the divine en- 
 thusiasm of virtue from his pattern — the avidity 
 of knowledge from his exhortations — the stead- 
 fastness of martyrdom from his glorious exit. — 
 Oh, how enviable is fame like this ! to live in 
 the affectionate remembrance of those who have 
 been guided by him into the paths of everlasting 
 truth ; to be held up as a pattern to succeeding 
 generations ; to become a beacon to the yet un- 
 born in their journey towards the skies — what are 
 mitres, what are empires, compared with this ? 
 
 It is but just to add, that though the catholic 
 clergy were in general such as we have above 
 described them, cunning, ambitious, intolerant, 
 yet, there were also among them glorious excep- 
 tions to the rule ; men who, disdaining as far as 
 possible the shackles of a wicked system of 
 church-government, by which they were bound, 
 became ornaments to their profession, and dis- 
 charged its appropriate duties with dignity and 
 diligence; and the observations above made 
 were strikingly exemplified in them — their affec- 
 tionate flocks, as they shrank back with horror 
 from the atrocities which others committed, so 
 did they requite to the uttermost, the faithful 
 labours of those who had watched over them — they 
 sheltered, nourished, and consoled them, till 
 their personal safety could no longer be assured, 
 p and 
 
210 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 and then assisted them at the peril of their own 
 lives in seeking safety elsewhere. — Men of this 
 description were, however, few. 
 
 The French, like other established churches, 
 was not unfrequently most shamefully prosti- 
 tuted, and totally regardless of the purpose of 
 its primitive institution, it was alone contem- 
 plated as a handsome provision for younger sons, 
 and all those who could not be better disposed of. 
 — Talents, virtue, and inclination, were quite 
 out of the question : hence, nature outraged in 
 more respects than fr one, sought to indemnify it- 
 self in others — till the whole order became con- 
 temptible and odious, and priesthood and Chris- 
 tianity were turned out together. 
 
 The agriculture of France seems to be quite 
 upon a par with that of England in parts simi- 
 larly situated ; I mean equally poor. In the 
 one you may notice as many traces of improve- 
 ment, as in the other; i. e. none at all. The 
 speculative farmers have been equally successful 
 on both sides of the channel ; they have wasted 
 their reflections, their experiments, and their 
 improvements upon the desert air : the mere 
 cultivator of the soil is no where a ruminating 
 animal ; to him nature seems to have given the 
 faculty of pacing on in his father's traces alone, 
 
 mingled 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 211 
 
 mingled at the same time with a most copious 
 share of tenacious bigotry, which utterly antici- 
 pates every idea of adopting a custom or a prac- 
 tice, which has not been sanctioned by at least one 
 thousand years 1 usage in the family ; and should the 
 prodigy sometimes arise on their hemisphere, 
 perhaps by accidentally crossing the breed, and 
 one of these bondsmen of custom and antiquity 
 be seen to ponder his ways ; to reflect upon the 
 nature and composition of the soil ; the effect of 
 this and the other mode of culture ; the pecu- 
 liarity of the season, and various other circum- 
 stances which call for judgment as well as rule, 
 and dare to aberrate from the routine in which 
 his fathers and grandfathers jogged on, because 
 common sense tells him that accepted practices 
 are faulty, that established opinions are ques- 
 tionable ; and experience convinces him that 
 both the one and the other may be improved, 
 not even a religious zealot can exult more in the 
 extinction of light and knowledge, than the 
 whole fraternity will exult in the disappoint- 
 ment which must sometimes attend him ; the tem- 
 pest which destroys his harvest will be hailed with 
 a malignant joy; the straying flocks and herds 
 of the mountain will be aided rather than con- 
 trouled in their trespasses upon the hope of the 
 year, 
 
 p 2 These 
 
G12 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 These censures are severe : cits who have 
 formed their notion of rural life and rural sim- 
 plicity from the sage, sentimental productions of 
 Leadenhall-street, will turn away indignant from 
 such mysanthropy : be it so — till they have served 
 an apprenticeship of experience with these harm- 
 less " children of earth* after which we will ba- 
 lance the account: — in fact, what is above said, 
 is the recompence which every one who sets 
 about improving the rural ceconomy of his coun- 
 try, must expect: glowing with patriotic ardour, 
 many a country gentleman determines to improve 
 his superfluous fortune for the good of society, 
 and to make those experiments in Georgical 
 philosophy, which the poverty of the surround- 
 ing peasantry forbids them to make ; he reckons 
 upon their good wishes ; he calculates upon their 
 aid, and takes it for granted that they will wait 
 the result with patient gratitude, and be guided in 
 their future proceedings by the knowledge which 
 he has purchased for them : — no— they one and 
 all combine against him; they obstinately con- 
 sider him an interloper, intruding himself un- 
 asked into a province which belongs exclusive- 
 ly to them : no eloquence shall persuade them 
 to believe that another can possess the genero- 
 sity which does not belong to them; that he can 
 have any object in view superior to that of ascer- 
 taining the profits, the trade, of which they above 
 
 all 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 213 
 
 all things wish the world to remain ignorant. 
 With minds such as these, agricultural patriotism 
 may struggle, but success is hopeless; and hence 
 it is that the culture of the soil remains at such 
 an humble ebb. It must however be confessed, 
 that the French peasant has an infinitely more 
 plausible excuse to plead for his ignorance and 
 incapacity, than the English husbandman.— If 
 the latter by superior culture produces a supe- 
 rior crop, the benefit (ecclesiastical exaction 
 excepted) is all his own — till the revolution did 
 away the monstrous absurdity, an abundant har- 
 vest was in France a misfortune, rather than a 
 blessing. The miserable farmer had not only 
 the vexatious, the irritating view before him, of 
 two -thirds of his crop swept away according to 
 regular process by the myrmidons of the court 
 and the church, but he had the further grievance 
 of being additionally taxed in exact proportion to 
 the remainder. Happily this abominable system 
 is rooted out of the earth ; and it rests with him- 
 self now to rival in comfort and prosperity the 
 farmer who ploughs and sows the British furrow : 
 — nay, I am not sure that he may not surpass 
 him. 
 
 There are certainly few countries for which 
 
 nature has done so much, as for this country 
 
 " 710X0 expunged from the map of Europe f the 
 
 climate is benignant as man could wish ; he nei- 
 
 p 3 ther 
 
214 A TOUR THROUGH FFANCE. 
 
 ther sows, nor reaps in that st-*t v unceasing 
 anxiety, which ploughs the countenance, and 
 harrows the feelings of the Englishman ; he is 
 utterly estranged to that continual vicissitude of 
 shunshine, rain, and tempest, which compel us 
 to carry on our various operations under circum- 
 stances superlatively disadvantageous. — One 
 thing alone excites the Frenchman's apprehen- 
 sions, viz. a too cloudless sky : — unshadowed by 
 a cloud for successive months, the sun frequently 
 scorches up the blade — the grass withers, and 
 the russet mantle of the latest autumn enwraps 
 the months of summer : with this inconvenience 
 alone, a very serious one unquestionably, all 
 the business of the farm goes forward with the 
 most perfect order and regularity ; soon as his 
 crops are ripe, the farmer puts in the sickle ; if 
 the aspect of the heavens is unpromising to day, 
 he puts off the reapers till to-morrow, and has 
 rarely to wait till the third day ere he brings them 
 home; threshes them at once, (such is the state 
 of the atmosphere) winnows and deposits them 
 in his granary. 
 
 It is worth remarking, that within a few years 
 past there have been at least three patents taken 
 out in England for the construction of engines 
 wherewith to separate the corn from the chaff, 
 the grand principle of which is briefly this : — 
 four or more fanes fixed to an axle, are set 
 
 whirling 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 215 
 
 whirling in a cylindrical chest by means of a 
 winch, wheel, and pinion ; by its centrifugal 
 force, this motion forces a strong blast of wind 
 through an opening prepared for that purpose — 
 across which the corn falling is presently detached 
 from the chaff. These machines are seen in 
 every farm-yard, and were, many of them, there 
 before the grandfathers of the patentees were in 
 being. 
 
 The soil of France is generally as favourable to 
 good husbandry as the climate : with few excep- 
 tions only it consists of a fine friable mould, 
 (sometimes sandy), resting upon a substratum 
 of chalk or other calcareous substance highly con- 
 ducive to vegetation, and particularly adapted 
 to corn— naturally it must have been abundantly 
 productive • but there are few spots in which it 
 is not evidently exhausted by injudicious culture. 
 On the road side in Normandy and Picardy 
 stand rows of apple-trees, many of which are 
 capable of producing from 200 to 250 gallons of 
 cyder each, an ample proof of the native vigour 
 of the soil. The greatest difficulties the husband- 
 man has to struggle with are his own ignorance, 
 and the national mode of life. 
 
 A Frenchman has but few, and those very 
 
 confined, ideas of the various modes by which 
 
 an impoverished soil is to be recruited; he prates 
 
 p4 a great 
 
216 A TOUR THROUGH FRAXCE. 
 
 a great deal about hot soils and cold soils, hot 
 manures and cold manures, but I could never 
 perceive that he attempted reducing his notions 
 to practice. In the spring and autumn he scrapes 
 together the dung that putrifies around his cabin, 
 and lays it promiscuously, and without discrimi- 
 nation, upon his corn lands ; and here his philo- 
 sophy terminates. 
 
 Sometimes indeed he folds his sheep upon his 
 fallows, but there are few instances in which it is 
 possible to carry this system to any great extent; 
 for not to mention that the sheep are few, the 
 multitudes of wolves which prowl abroad at night 
 must render it extremely dangerous for the flocks 
 to remain in the field after the evening : beyond 
 this, he seems to have no conception of any ma- 
 nure, or any process of virtue to encrease his 
 crop : lime I have seen scattered on the ground ; 
 marl is seldom or never found ; in various parts 
 of the republic there are immense strata of fossil 
 shells, but they have never yet been employed in 
 agriculture. At an ameliorating crop, or a crop 
 to be ploughed in preparatory to another, he 
 would smile as the climax of absurdity ; the ne- 
 cessary consequence of all this is, that the land 
 must inevitably proceed in a regular course of de- 
 tereoration ; for as the French use little animal 
 food but poultry, large stocks of cattle would 
 be cumbersome and useless, (under the ancient 
 
 regime 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. Q1J 
 
 regime they were a grievance constituting one of 
 the data on which the taxes of the family were 
 calculated) and of course manure must be scarce, 
 and till they acquire a taste for roast-beef as well 
 as for ragouts, the soil must keep on in a retro- 
 grade procession from bad to worse, till all its 
 energies be exhausted. 
 
 It has often been matter of wonder how the 
 land of India, far from fertile in itself, could 
 possibly maintain the immense multitudes which 
 actually drew their subsistence from it ; but, if 
 we look at the immense nocks and herds which it 
 also maintained, the difficulty will be presently 
 accounted for : — without cattle, there can be 
 comparatively little manure ; and with little ma- 
 nure to recruit the impoverished soil, the crops 
 will be scanty and degenerate from year to year, 
 till they are no longer worth gathering. Hence 
 scientific men, who reckon upon large returns of 
 corn, begin with enlarging their live-stock; — na- 
 ture moves round in a circle — encrease of cattle 
 enables us to encrease our crops of every descrip- 
 tion, and encreasing crops furnish us with the 
 means of encreasing our cattle; but without 
 commencing the series with the increase of cattle, 
 the increase of crop is hopeless ; and hence, as 
 before hinted, till the national mode of life be 
 exchanged to one more similar to that adopted 
 in England, in other words, till there be a 
 
 greater 
 
218 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 greater demand for shamble-meat than for poul- 
 try, the agriculture of France cannot be ex- 
 pected to advance much. 
 
 It may appear singular, but I have not the 
 smallest doubt upon the subject, that whole de- 
 partments in France could not furnish Smithfield 
 with its accustomed supply for three months : no 
 where but in the meadows about Liseux, in Nor- 
 mandy, where they are fattened for the Paris 
 market, do we perceive what may be considered 
 an adequate proportion of cattle, and these are 
 collected together from Mayenne, Anjou, and 
 parts yet more remote, perhaps, from a semi- 
 circle of 100 miles radius ;— and here, I may 
 add, I saw the only fine cattle which I met with 
 on the continent. 
 
 In England every county has a breed peculiar 
 to itself of various excellence : in France I have 
 noticed two varieties alone— what we commonly 
 call the Norman breed, and which is so much 
 esteemed, is but a degenerated race brought 
 originally from Anjou ; though excellent for 
 the dairy, totally destitute of every pretension to 
 beauty and symmetry: not so with the herds 
 about Liseux ; there you will frequently meet 
 with bullocks against which fastidiousness shall 
 have nothing to except ; and cows which, while 
 beautiful as prize-cattle, are yet equally valuable 
 5 to 
 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 21<) 
 
 to the dairy-maid— circumstances rather rare in 
 England. A prime cow, in full milk, will sell 
 here from 41. 10s. to 61.— a pair of fat oxen 
 for 161. 
 
 But, if the French peasant has but few cattle 
 to consume his straw, and form manure for his 
 crops, it must be allowed that he makes the 
 greatest advantage of those which actually be- 
 long to him. The soiling system, originally en- 
 forced by necessity, is now universally adopted 
 through all the departments which I have visited. 
 The surface of the country being generally flat, 
 springs of water are few, and of course brooks 
 are scarce ; the proportion of meadow-land be- 
 comes, of consequence, but small, and pastu- 
 rage scanty. The farmer is, therefore, neces- 
 sitated to feed his herds with lucerne, saintfoine, 
 and clover, and, having but small patches of 
 these admirable succedaneums upon his lands, he 
 husbands the produce to the greatest advantage, 
 by mowing it from day to day, and transporting 
 it to the stalls. 
 
 In addition to which, it may be observed, that 
 the intense heat of the summer forbids him to 
 keep his herds abroad by day ; and, the wolves 
 in the winter compel him to house them by 
 night. What dung is formed upon his farnl is 
 then formed under circumstances the most fa- 
 vourable, and, larger quantities are collected 
 
 together 
 
£20 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 together from a few meagre bullocks, than from 
 twice the number feeding in an English home- 
 stead. The importation of a few English habits 
 would, were they engrafted npon this admirable 
 system, yet double the quantity again ! 
 
 The provision which is made for the suste- 
 nance of the live stock is not less injudicious 
 than its paucity; as long as the summer lasts 
 want is seldom felt. Those succulent vegetables, 
 just mentioned, grow with astonishing rapidity; 
 but, no sooner do the frosts of winter arrest 
 ttreir activity, than the effect must be painful ; 
 and, if the preceding spring has been unfavour- 
 able, famine inevitably succeeds. In some parts 
 of Anjou I perceived tolerably large plantations 
 of potatoes for the use of the cattle, but they 
 could not possibly be adequate to the demand ; 
 elsewhere I could discover no provision for win- 
 ter fodder whatever. A field of turnips is not, 
 I believe, to be found in all the western depart- 
 ments of France. 
 
 The hay, of which there is but little, is exe- 
 crable from the execrable mode of preparing it, 
 being first roasted in the sun-shine till every 
 trace of foliage drops from the stalk, then trussed, 
 and finally deposited in that state in the hay-loft, 
 where, for want of compression, the little fra- 
 grance which it brings from the field evaporates, 
 
 and 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 221 
 
 and the whole becomes a mere mortuum caput, 
 alone calculated to tantalyze the cravening appe- 
 tites of the hungry wretches who feed upon it. 
 It is happy for these poor animals that the soil 
 is as we have above described— such improvi- 
 dence would raise an insuperable bar to agricul- 
 ture in any other country but France. 
 
 Here two little steers, or as many heifers, 
 though poor and lean as those in Pharaoh's 
 dream, are fully able to turn the soil, old lands 
 excepted ; in cases of extreme emergency an ass 
 is added ; and, once I saw a whole dairy of 
 cows yoked together, with a male for a leader. 
 The mode in which these patient sufferers are at- 
 tached to the plough, or the waggon, does as 
 much for them as can be done ; instead of that 
 execrable piece of wantonness and cruelty which 
 the English husbandman adheres to as tenaciously 
 as though it were his birth-right— instead of that 
 needless and enormous load of timber which he 
 lays upon the withers of the ox, bruising its flesh, 
 and weighing it down to the earth — instead of 
 those pitiless bows which encircle its neck like a 
 collar of iron, and appear to have been invented 
 expressly with the view of adding torment to 
 toil ; the Frenchman humanely reflecting, that 
 if he has a right to the labour of his drudge, he 
 has no right to render that labour unnecessarily 
 irksome, passes a piece of wood, of about one- 
 
 4 sixth 
 
£22 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 sixth of the weight of the English yoke, 
 across the forehead of his cattle, having pre- 
 viously neatly hollowed out the extremities of 
 it to fit the mould of the head, and lined those 
 hollows with a piece of woolly sheep-skin, to 
 answer the purpose of a soft pad, or cushion. 
 This light and easy yoke he braces to the horns 
 with a small thong of leather, attaches the beam 
 of his plough to the middle part of it, and the ani- 
 mal is completely equipped for his labour * ; and, 
 it is pleasing to remark with what facility this is 
 done, and with what ease it is~ borne. As the 
 cattle move along, instead of leaning the one 
 against the other (distress painted in the eye), 
 evidently to alleviate the irksome pressure, as it 
 is impossible not to have remarkM as often as an 
 English ox-team has been noticed at its daily la- 
 bour ; the French team stands erect upon its legs, 
 turns round with the greatest facility, and chews 
 the cud as it chearfully paces along the furrow. 
 
 The philosophy of this mode of harnessing the 
 ox is perfectly correct; the main strength of 
 animals of this genus is seated in the fore- 
 quarters ; their mode of offence is to toss their 
 adversaries, and nature has accordingly furnished 
 the shoulders, legs, and neck with sinews ca- 
 
 Vide plate I, Oxen-ploughing. 
 
 pable 
 
:>- 
 
 x 
 
 & 
 
 
 - 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 223 
 
 pable of amazing exertion. In the English yoke 
 and bow no advantage whatever is taken of this 
 construction ; the sinews of the neck are of no 
 utility whatever to the peasant ; and, those of 
 the shoulder being bruised by the hard, unyield- 
 ing bow, not an ounce of vigour is exerted more 
 than is absolutely necessary to get forward ; and, 
 this exertion must be produced by mere dint of 
 the goad, the concern of the beast being not to 
 dispatch his business, but to alleviate the painful 
 pressure by which it is incommoded. Here, on 
 the contrary, the bend of the neck preparatory 
 to the toss is seized, and applied to the attached 
 resistance, and, the force which would send a 
 man aloft to the clouds, added to the force with 
 which the English peasant ploughs his fields; 
 hence we not unfrequently see teams of oxen 
 dragging with ease, along the French roads, 
 which, in England, would require teams of 
 double strength to draw them. 
 
 The carts in common use are constructed with 
 equal judgment, and bespeak an acquaintance 
 with the principles of mechanics which, peasants 
 seldom possess ; they are drawn by horses, or 
 oxen, with some little variation in the construc- 
 tion, but the principle is in both cases the same. 
 In the former instance the charete consists of 
 two long shafts of wood, perhaps 1 8 feet long, 
 which are laid parallel to each other, and con- 
 nected 
 
224 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 nected together by cross bars, to form the bed, 
 on which boards are laid as occasion requires ; 
 the sides, fore, and tail-parts, are moveable ; 
 and, the extremities to which the horse is to be 
 attached, are shaved, and bent to the shape of 
 an English shaft. At about one-third of the 
 length of these beams the axle is fastened on in 
 the usual mode ; and, at the second-third, im- 
 mediately behind the tail of the horse, a roller 
 is added, furnished with levers and long ropes. 
 Every thing being in readiness, suppose the pea- 
 sant wishes to remove an hogshead of wine, or 
 cyder, from his cellar or quay on which it is de- 
 posited, he turns the tail of his cart to the bur- 
 den, and takes out his horse ; then lifting up 
 the fore-parts of the shafts the hinder descends, 
 and comes in contact with the ground close to 
 the head of the cask ; fixing the two ends of his 
 rope to the two extremities of the roller above- 
 mentioned, he passes the bow of it around the 
 farther end of the barrel, and, with his heavers, 
 begins to wind it up along the main timbers of 
 his carriage ; as soon as the center of gravity in 
 the load arrives immediately perpendicular to 
 the axle, the shafts come down, and this is the 
 signal that the burden is then in its proper place ; 
 with other contrivances he confines it there, and, 
 as soon as this is accomplished, replaces the 
 horse. 
 
 Where 
 

 v 
 
 | 
 
 Is 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRAXCE. 225 
 
 Where oxen are to be used, a pole, passing 
 along between them, is fixed to the axle in the 
 common mode ; to this two beams, connected 
 together by cross bars as before, are added, 
 which are also furnished with a roller and ropes, 
 and turn upon the axle-tree by means of hooks 
 and eyes, similar to those with which carts are 
 usually attached to it ; on these beams the casks 
 are wound up in the manner above described, 
 and confined by the same means. 
 
 Nothing can exceed the facility with which 
 immense w r eights are thus removed ; nor, can 
 a carriage, by any other mode, be so exactly 
 loaded ; the cattle carry nothing, and exert 
 themselves exactly in the mode which the mecha- 
 nism of their construction points out as most ad- 
 vantageous : add to which ,the carriage last-men- 
 tioned possesses another singular advantage ; are 
 you descending a mountain with a burden which 
 will overpower your cattle ? you have only to lift 
 up the fore part of your carriage, let the load 
 slip back about 18 inches, confine it there, and 
 go forward, with the tail dragging on the ground, 
 and you will arrive at the bottom in perfect 
 safety. This is the principle on which immense 
 blocks of free-stone are brought down to Bath 
 from the quarries in the hills. 
 
 q ^Beyond 
 
226* A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 Beyond this, I know not, that the agricultural 
 mechanics of France possess any thing which me- 
 rits imitation ; the harness of their horses is as 
 execrable as their carriages are judicious; the 
 collar occupies full two-thirds of the animal's 
 neck, and is constructed of an immense mass of 
 -Straw, goats-hair, and wool, furnished with what 
 are commonly called names of wood, six inches 
 wide by one and a half thickness, the whole sur- 
 mounted, as though France were as cold as Lap- 
 land, by a woolly sheep-skin ; for what reason 
 this odious apparatus has been adopted is to me 
 incomprehensible — probably in this case, as in 
 other fashions, ugliness has been improved upon 
 ugliness, till it has attained its present accom- 
 plished degree. When I first caught sight of a 
 French cart-horse in full array, I could scarcely 
 persuade myself that it was an horse, but con- 
 ceived it to be some animal, perhaps an Egyp- 
 tian buffalo, with which I was hitherto unac- 
 quainted. 
 
 The grounds having been abandoned for sq 
 many years to the women, whose object was not 
 to rival one another, but to obtain bread, will 
 account for the slovenliness in which they are 
 cropped ; no where will you see the different 
 grains kept clean, i. e. distinct'; and, but seldom 
 is there much attention paid to the nature of the 
 soil in which they are sown. In many parts of 
 
 Normandy 
 4 
 

 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE* 227 
 
 Normandy you will notice, in the unenclosed 
 fields, pieces of wheat scarcely worth the reap- 
 ing ; and, on lands immediately adjoining, bar- 
 ley flourishing in the richest luxuriance, and re- 
 turning a net profit, at least, of 50 per cent, 
 greater than the wheat, and yet they go on sow- 
 ing wheat still. Other grains are equally injudi- 
 ciously disposed of, and, to crown the whole, 
 they are not unfrequently sown altogether. 
 
 Seldom do we notice a field of the last-men- 
 tioned grain, especially in which there is not al- 
 most an equal quantity of rye flourishing, a need- 
 less and to be regretted waste ; for, as the rye 
 ripens from three weeks to a month sooner than 
 the wheat, when the latter is reaped almost the 
 whole of the former is shed and lost — hence, 
 perhaps, the reason why partridges are so asto- 
 nishingly numerous in France. As we advance 
 to the south, the oats become very thin and 
 meagre — scarcely worth cultivation ; — turnips I 
 have said there are none ; — potatoes are mode- 
 rately plenty, and, upon the whole, are well 
 managed ; — buck-wheat, chiefly used in feeding 
 poultry, also abounds. 
 
 In Anjou and Touraine maize is much culti- 
 vated with it— the roofs of the peasants houses 
 are covered, about the latter end of September 
 with it, drying in the sun ; the ears are of a bright 
 Q 2 golden 
 
228 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 golden yellow, and the effect is singular ; — lu- 
 cerne is seen, but not in the quantity I had ex- 
 pected ; — saintfoin is more rare— and clover rarer 
 still. In every peasant's garden we perceive 
 hemp and flax flourishing, the latter of which, 
 especially, is prepared at home, and wrought up 
 for the use of the family, and not unfrequently 
 into linens of no contemptible quality. Previous 
 to the revolution they were compelled to pit their 
 flax, as in England, and for the same reason; 
 that event having dissolved all law, and all or- 
 der, and man becoming amenable to himself 
 only, this salutary regulation has been broken 
 through ; and, at the proper season for opera- 
 tions of this kind, the banks of every brook, and 
 of every river, stink like the pestilence, to the 
 great annoyance of every passenger, and the 
 utter destruction of the fish ; but, measures are 
 now taking for the remedy of this serious evil — 
 slowly and gradually, indeed, like cautious en- 
 croachment — for the government fears to trench 
 boldly upon the lawless liberty which has been 
 seized : the time is, however, at hand, when it 
 will assume a more imperious tone, and act with 
 less insidiousness. 
 
 One thing merits observation with regard to 
 flax : in England, the richest lands are chosen 
 for the cultivation of the plant, which is, I be- 
 lieve. 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 229 
 
 lieve, justly considered an impoverisher of the 
 soil. In France, on the contrary, any soil what- 
 ever serves the purpose, and not unfrequently 
 that which is exhausted ; the consequence of 
 which is, the English farmer plucks a large crop, 
 the French peasant a good one. It is thus they 
 obtain the fine stapled flax of which their cam- 
 brics and lawns are made. 
 
 Of the vines I have little to say. Arthur 
 Young, in his French Tours, speaks much of 
 them, as consuming all the manure of the coun- 
 try. In the provinces through which I travelled, 
 I not only saw no manure carried to the vine- 
 yard, but was again, and again assured, that it 
 would spoil the flavour of the wine — but this I 
 am disposed to question, i. e. as a general. In 
 pruning, the last year's wood is uniformly cut 
 out, one eye, or bud alone excepted; upon the 
 whole, I am convinced that the English agricul- 
 turist has little to learn in France — but there is 
 much which he might teach, Were the govern- 
 ment sufficiently stable, sufficiently liberal, and 
 enlightened, to induce him, with confidence, to 
 embark his fortune in French lands, it might be 
 an admirable speculation ; for, in the first in- 
 stance, he could purchase them at a rate which 
 would clear him 8 per cent, and upwards for his 
 principal ; and, in the second, the superior cul- 
 ture which he would introduce, with himself, 
 
 Q. 3 woul4 
 
toO A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 would enable those lands to return crops, at 
 least, one-third superior to the present average : 
 add to which, he would there know nothing 
 (comparatively) of the shackles which, in En- 
 gland, enervate his exertions — nor be irritated 
 by the cruel division of the fruits of his indus- 
 try among those who have neither shared his 
 toil, nor given him protection. 
 
 In France there are no tythes — no church- 
 rates— no poor-rates ; taxes there are, and must 
 be wherever there is a government; but, com- 
 pared with those he is accustomed to pay, they 
 are as 4 to 40; nay, taking the circumstances 
 above-mentioned into the calculation, I do not 
 believe they are more than as 4 to four score : 
 they have copied the most grievous of our im- 
 positions — they have a land-tax, a window-tax, 
 and "taxes upon luxury— the latter not a whit 
 more accommodating than exactions of a similar 
 description in England; but, taken together, 
 the aggregate but just exceeds the sixth part of 
 a man's rent-roll, i. e. 3s. 6d. in the pound. 
 
 What is the inference from all this ? that 
 France is the more eligible country in which to 
 fix our abode ? -— Unquestionably not -— the 
 country is fine— -the climate is delectable and sa- 
 lubrious—the people are gentle, affectionate, 
 amiable— -plenty abounds-— taxation is easy— 
 
 and 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 231 
 
 and neither tythes, poor-rates, nor church-rates 
 are exacted ; and, to crown the whole, every 
 man serves his maker according to the dictates of 
 his own conscience, without penalty, and with- 
 out fear— what then do you want more you will 
 say ?— why, only one little circumstance more, 
 which gives zest to every advantage, and, with- 
 out which, all that we can possess is nothing— a 
 circumstance which Britain proudly boasts, and 
 which, I trust, it will boast till time shall be no 
 more— a circumstance which has given it com- 
 merce, trade, manufactures, and will maintain 
 them in their envied pre-eminence as long as it 
 shall last. While the sword peaceably rests in the 
 scabbard, the valetujdenarian may seek, within 
 the precincts of the republic, the health which 
 the fogs and the intemperance of his native isle 
 have impaired— the man of science and obser- 
 vation may go thither to improve his taste by stu- 
 dying the remains of accomplished antiquity— - 
 and, he who courts relaxation, may amuse him- 
 self with novelty and variety, and circulate a 
 few of his superfluous guineas ;— but, he who is 
 determined at all events, be the consequence 
 what it may, to canvass all the proceedings of 
 the political circles— to cavil at every thing he 
 does not approve or comprehend, and sound the 
 whoop of tyranny and oppression as often as the 
 exigencies of the state demand supplies, had 
 better stay at home— France is not the country 
 
 0.4 in 
 
232 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 in which freedom of speech is tolerated ; one 
 sovereign specific cures all curiosity— hushes all 
 grumbling-— silences every complaint. Law is 
 reduced within a very small compass ; there is no 
 need there of " Statutes Abridged ;" Sic Volo of 
 the grand consul has power to solve all difficul- 
 ties—to quiet all the qualms of judge and jury 
 —to constitute right or wrong ; under a military 
 government, person and property are held in a 
 sort of vassalage, and, as often as the one or 
 the other are convenient to the haughty tyrant? 
 who sits exalted upon the shoulders of the 
 crouching multitude, the prayers, the tears of 
 the widow and the fatherless become insignifi- 
 cant as the drops of the morning, or the sigh- 
 ing of the breeze; nay, should those hapless 
 unfortunates, presuming upon the righteousness 
 of their cause, dare to become sulky, or cla- 
 morous---though there be no bastile wherein to 
 encage them till they have learnt not to trouble 
 their superiors with their idle and impertinent 
 wrongs, yet there are other modes of reducing 
 clamour to taciturnity equally effectual at hand. 
 He, therefore, who sets a value proportioned to 
 its worth upon the system of rights which his fore- 
 fathers nobly wrested from a tyrant's hand— 
 who defies even power to wrong him till his 
 peers have given it leave— who can neither be 
 taxed nor judged but by his peers— who glories 
 in a constitution to which the prince and the 
 
 peasant 
 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. Q33 
 
 peasant are equally amenable, will never think of 
 bartering privileges like these for aught the con- 
 tinent can give him. What matters it that I can 
 purchase lands cheaply as above stated — that my 
 husbandmen toil for ten-pence per day — that pro- 
 visions are 50 per cent, lower than in Britain — 
 that taxation is easy — church-rates and tythes 
 gone to their own place — and the poor main- 
 tained as they ought to be — if I have no security 
 from injury — if I dare not exert the privilege 
 which the God of nature gave me — if the breath 
 of a tyrant may annihilate my fortune in a mo- 
 ment — reduce me to beggary, confine me in a 
 dungeon where my complaints cannot be heard, 
 or send me across the Atlantic to delve in the 
 bogs and morasses of Cayenne ? — All, all I pos- 
 sess besides is nothing — it is security, the darling 
 of my soul, which renders what I attain worth 
 enjoying : — take from me my security, and you 
 deprive me of that which is more valuable than 
 my life — it is security which gives the spur to my 
 industry — it is security which cherishes the ad- 
 venturous spirit of commerce — it is security 
 which enables me to look forward to old age with 
 cheerfulness and hope — and if I must resign my 
 security I would as soon live in awe of the bow- 
 string as of the guillotine. What is it that has 
 introduced so many valuable arts and manufac- 
 tures into Britain ?— Security. What is it even 
 now which here gathers together as in one focus, 
 
 men 
 
234 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 men of science and experiment from every civi- 
 lized region of the earth ?— Security. Why do 
 they fix upon Britain rather than their native 
 countries, for developing their discoveries? 
 Because in Britain only can they reap in security 
 the reward of their labours: and while security 
 shall be extended as hitherto, to person and pro- 
 perty — while fortune and life are held not of the 
 capricious will of a despot, but of the will of a 
 nation, generous and just, though sometimes 
 the dupe of accomplished craft, France will in 
 vain endeavour to enter into competition with it. 
 — It may spread abroad all its allurements — it 
 may lay every possible restraint upon British 
 merchandize, and endeavour to seduce its ma- 
 nufacturers from the comfort and luxury in which 
 they live — but in vain — till it offers them a go- 
 vernment a-kin to the British — till the torpifying 
 influence of despotism ceases to palsy and to af- 
 fright exertion, it must be content to move on as 
 it has done, and hold its sceptre over a herd of 
 impoverished slaves ! Britons will turn away 
 from the gilded bait, nor sacrifice the solid reali- 
 ties they possess to any Utopian visions with 
 which French philosophy may endeavour to be- 
 guile them. 
 
 One anecdote may serve to illustrate the truth 
 of these positions, and calm the fears of those 
 
 who 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 235 
 
 who tremble for the arts and manufactures of 
 their native isle. 
 
 There was in London not long since, he may 
 be there nozv, a French gentleman, soliciting a 
 patent for the exclusive advantage of some capi- 
 tal improvement in the art of making cables. — 
 He had established a manufactory in France — 
 but the moment that peace opened the access to 
 this country, he came over for the purpose above 
 stated. Being questioned how under all the 
 local advantages which France possesses, he chose 
 rather to establish himself here than there, his 
 answer was striking. — " It is the security which 
 England extends to all which determined him to 
 fix upon it as the theatre of his exertions. At 
 home, is there a fleet (says he) to be fitted out 
 with dispatch — it matters not that my total ruin 
 may be the consequence — my whole stock in 
 trade is instantly laid under requisition — months 
 and years of solicitation for payment may be un- 
 availing : — when my connections are passed into 
 other channels my family is reduced to poverty, 
 and my patience exhausted ; I may account my- 
 self happy if I can obtain of the minister of the 
 marine the half of my demand, and perhaps am 
 mocked with an order of government (like the 
 proprietors of the late Rue de Necaise) for lands 
 in St. Domingo by way of payment." 
 
 The 
 
236 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 The case must be the same wherever the pro- 
 duct of a manufactory may be necessary to the 
 plans of the first magistrate ; and under such 
 circumstances it is needless to say, that it can 
 never flourish to any alarming extent. Attach- 
 ment to the natale solum, and ignorant and bi- 
 goted prejudices against every man who is not a 
 Frenchman, may retain at home what manufac- 
 turers it already possesses, and carry on a lan- 
 guid trade ; but men of desperate fortunes alone, 
 will join them from other countries — it would be 
 insanity to translate either capital or talents, 
 even from Prussia into France; and equally in- 
 sane is the emigration of him whose sole fortune 
 is his hands — encouragement like that he meets 
 at home he must no where hope to find. In 
 France it is absolutely impracticable to find it, 
 A Frenchman has neither talent nor temper for 
 business — he has no conception of system — he 
 knows nothing of the division of labour — his 
 workshop is a perfect chaos — all his means are 
 employed to the greatest possible disadvantage — 
 and he quits his trade precisely at the moment 
 when it begins to be most improveable ; — of 
 course while the Englishman sells you a decent 
 broad cloth at one guinea the yard, the French- 
 man cannot furnish one of equal quality at less 
 than one guinea and a half ; and were the wages 
 of labour in the one country equal to the wages 
 
 of 
 
A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 237 
 
 of labour in the other, he could not sell it for 
 less than 50 per cent. more. 
 
 With every advantage which the country pre- 
 sents unto him, the French mechanic pines in 
 poverty — his temperance alone preserves him 
 from starving; and as those who toil on the 
 western shores of the channel are not remarkably 
 addicted to temperance, they cannot make a 
 more egregious mistake than when they suppose 
 they shall better their condition by emigration. 
 Of the hundreds who have made the experiment, 
 I question if there be a dozen who have not bit- 
 terly lamented it. 
 
 At the Gobelin Tapestry Manufactory, the 
 highest wages given are three shillings and six- 
 pence per diem ; by fair analogy in common ma- 
 nufactories not more than one can be gained, 
 Those then that are about to make the experi- 
 ment, will do well to ask themselves before they 
 move, can they live on one shilling per diem ? — 
 true, provisions are cheap in the provinces, but 
 not in the manufacturing towns. — At Rouen, 
 beef is four-pence per pound— this is but half 
 the price of it in England ; but then but one 
 third of the wages are to be earned— -consequent- 
 ly there is a balance of one-third against the la- 
 bourer. 
 
 5 At 
 
238 A TOUR THROUGH FRANCE. 
 
 At Paris we remained about ten days, and 
 though highly gratified with the beauties which it 
 contains, its deformities were so predominant 
 that without regret we quitted it. The route 
 from hence to Calais has been a thousand times 
 described: of it I have nothing more to say. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER. 
 
 Loading and drawing the Wine Cart, to face the Title 
 
 Oxen yoked to the plough, to face page 222 
 
 Charete loading 224 
 
 French cart 226 
 
 J. Cundee, Printer, 
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INDEX. 
 
 A. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 AGRICULTURE of France 210 
 
 Alencon ...- - 47 
 
 Country of - 48 
 
 Anecdote respecting the Government of France 234 
 
 Angers 112, 126 
 
 — fare from to Paris 131 
 
 Anjou 125, 227 
 
 Argentan 46 
 
 Atheists 189 
 
 Attention to Strangers »...- 181 
 
 Aubugiste, the .« 6 
 
 B 
 
 Balbceuf 136 
 
 Beaumont, road to 50 
 
 BeefofParis 144 
 
 Price of 237 
 
 Beggars 9 
 
 Berlin 10 
 
 Blois 132 
 
 Blues, the 75 
 
 Bonaparte - „, 52, 161 
 
 . 1 his consular Power _. 232 
 
 Book, Post-master's, for entering Offences 8 
 
 r Boulevards 
 
INDEX. 
 
 PAG* 
 
 Boulevards 19, 27, 145 
 
 Bourgeois 154 
 
 Bouliques . .. 14 
 
 Bureau des Diligences 142 
 
 « Des Passeports 184 
 
 C 
 
 Cabriolet, Construction of the Dieppe and Rouen 10 
 
 — Harness of ....... 11 
 
 Of la Fleehe and Angers _. 108 
 
 Caen, Cathedral of 39 
 
 • Description of... * . ib. 
 
 ——- Manufactories of 43 
 
 Promenade at ib* 
 
 Road to _ 56 
 
 Ruinous Castle of 40 
 
 Caisse de Commerce 147 
 
 Cart-horses * 226 
 
 Carts ..- * 223 
 
 Caserne at Alenpon 48 
 
 — Angers .„ 113 
 
 Caen 40 
 
 . Rouen 22 
 
 Cattle > 218 
 
 Celebration of the Nativity of the Republic 138 
 
 Centinel, anxious Enquiries of a o 42 
 
 Champ de Mars — 25 
 
 Charete, Manner of loading the „ 224 
 
 Chateaus 132, 137 
 
 Chouans, the 97, 99, 118, 120, 12S, 132, 139 
 
 Civilities 181 
 
 Clemenee, Story and Wedding of 91 
 
 Clergy, catholic 201 
 
 the emigrant - - 155 
 
 Climate of France - — 213 
 
 Colbert 
 
INDEX. 
 
 tAGB 
 
 Colbert, Chateau of 137 
 
 Cooks, French, - 144 
 
 Cotton - 32 
 
 Cruelties 115 
 
 Cultivation . 227 
 
 Custom-house, Treatment at the -----183 
 
 D 
 
 D , Story of : 69 
 
 Deists 190 
 
 Delauney ..- ----- 101 
 
 Dieppe, Costume of 171, 185 
 
 • Harbour of 3 
 
 ■ Houses of _ • 5 
 
 — — Promenade of -. - 6 
 
 Streets of - 5 
 
 — — — Town of 4 
 
 Dinners in France 168 
 
 E 
 
 Effects of the Peace 54 
 
 Egalite, Philip 139 
 
 Estampes 140 
 
 Europe, Country de T 17 
 
 Holeldel' ib. 
 
 F 
 
 F , Mons „ 84 
 
 Falaise, Road to 45 
 
 Fashions 171 
 
 Fiddles on Sundays 195 
 
 Flax 229 
 
 Fleche, la, College of 104 
 
 Description of it ib. 
 
 r 2 Fleche, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Fleche, Female Seminary of 10$ 
 
 Road to 103 
 
 Foreigners, Reception of ..... .--- 181 
 
 French Cattle 218 
 
 — t Cooks -.---, 144 
 
 Dinners ... ................. 168 
 
 ■ . — Equipage inconvenience of the ........ 6 
 
 Government ,.., „ .... 232 
 
 *r Manners .... ............. • 162 
 
 Pilots . - 3 
 
 Postilions ,„..„ -----^ 13, 16 
 
 * Religion .. ,.._.......„. 189 
 
 • Roads miserably accommodated ........ 1^ 
 
 •. — ---» Sailors a wk wardnes of the ............ 3 
 
 . Soil ..... ......... 21^ 
 
 , Volatility 189 
 
 , Wages 237 
 
 . .... Weddings ........................ 92, 176 
 
 G 
 
 Gobelin Tapestry Manufactory 237 
 
 Gold, Scarcity of ... 14-6 
 
 Government ,. 232 
 
 Grapes^ Mode of preparing .. - 129 
 
 H 
 
 Harnessing the Ox 222 
 
 Havre de Grace .............. ...... 137 
 
 Hay - 220 
 
 Hotel de l'Europe ....... ........ ... 17 
 
 des Invalids 166 
 
 • des Victoires 38 
 
 Hugonots 208 
 
 Humbert, General 76 
 
 . ..... j — - — : — ■— Anecdote of .............. 77 
 
 Joaji 
 
INDEX. 
 
 J 
 
 JoanofArc ... „«.•.«.. -«..... 140 
 
 Journey towards Rouen 6 
 
 Juegne ---- • ......--..--..--•--«- — 53 
 
 K 
 
 Kindness of de la Rue 183 
 
 of the municipal Officer 186 
 
 Kindnesses at Rouen . . . . 187 
 
 L 
 
 Lark, shipped on board the — ............... 2 
 
 Laval, Country-houses at » 102 
 
 Country round .-.,.- ....--..-_..- 96 
 
 — Description of P1 100 
 
 — Manufactories of „ 103 
 
 Legislature, Remarks on the T . 33 
 
 Leve* , - 124. 
 
 Liseux — - 32 
 
 Country near it » 31 
 
 Loir, Prefect of 114 
 
 Louvre .«^. 1(S4j 
 
 M 
 
 Maize cultivated 227 
 
 Manners of the French 162 
 
 Mans, La _ 51 
 
 Mayenne, Prefect of 1 ] 4 
 
 Mechanics, awkwardness of the 37 
 
 s — ,Charges of the _. 38 
 
 . , Poverty of the 247 
 
 Meslay - 98 
 
 Municipal Officer, his Politeness, &c .- 186 
 
 Naniz, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 N 
 
 FAOI 
 
 Nantz, Journey from... . ....... 124. 
 
 National Fete, grand .„ 138 
 
 Notre-Dame, Church of. . 21, 26, 166 
 
 Nuptial Bargains .................. ..... 176 
 
 O 
 
 Occurrences during the Voyage. . .. 2 
 
 Orleannois 125 
 
 Orleans 132 
 
 , Arrival at . . . m 138 
 
 , Cathedral of 139 
 
 « , grand Palace of. ib. 
 
 Owen, St. Church of 21 
 
 Oxen used in Carts 223, 225 
 
 yoked to the Plough 222 
 
 P 
 
 P M , Mons. interesting Anecdote of 117 
 
 Packet, Reception of the first English after the 
 
 Peace - 5 
 
 Palais de Tribunal 165 
 
 Royale 184 
 
 Parental Feeling 42 
 
 Paris, Customs, Inhabitants, &c. of...... . 1 
 
 , et ses Curiosites .......... 148 
 
 , Principal Commerce of 151 
 
 Passports, Price of 188 
 
 Peace, Effects of the .« -- . 5 
 
 Peasantry 171,213 
 
 Peculiarities 179 
 
 Peregeaux, Mons 145 
 
 Pilots, the French 3 
 
 Post-horses farmed by Government 6 
 
 Postillions, French ...* 13 
 
 2 Postillions, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 *AGt 
 
 Postillions French, Indeliacy of the 15 
 
 Postmaster, the only Person permitted to furnish 
 
 Travellers with Relays ... . . 6 
 
 • , his Book for entering Offences . 8 
 
 Post-roads, Demands on the. . . , . m ib. 
 
 , miserable Accommodations of. .... 14 
 
 Price.of Meat ...._„ 237 
 
 Priestcraft - 28, 205 
 
 Priests m 186, 203 
 
 Q 
 
 Quolations from Sterne -. 159 160 
 
 R 
 
 Religion of France ...... ..... 189 
 
 Republic, Nativity of the, celebrated . 138 
 
 Revolutionists falsely accused 197 
 
 Roads of France poorly accommodated ..-- 14 
 
 Roche Talbot, la... 58 
 
 Rouen 18, 125 
 
 , Attentions at 185 
 
 , botanical Garden of 26 
 
 ■■-, Manufactories of - — 24 
 
 Markets ^... 26 
 
 Ruins of a superb ecclesiastical Erection 29 
 
 S 
 
 Sabte , 53, 139 
 
 f , Climate, Productions of 65 
 
 , Park at 137 
 
 Sailors, Awkwardness of the French 3 
 
 Sans Culottes 179 
 
 Sarte 56, 137 
 
 Saumur 3 26 
 
 - its Bridges, _ ib. 
 
 Sees . ... „ 46 
 
 ^ Seine 
 
INDEX. 
 
 FACE 
 
 Seine, Waters of the » 161 
 
 Soil of France 215 
 
 Soleim, Convent of .... . .. .. 6l, 137 
 
 Stallions used on the Post-roads .-..., 16 
 
 i , Inconveniency of their Harnessing ... 17 
 
 Story, apathetic • - 69 
 
 T 
 
 Taxes ^ 230 
 
 Theatre de TOpera 166 
 
 > Francois . _ . ...... ib. 
 
 Thuilleries 163 
 
 , Gardens of the . . ..... 16* 
 
 Touraine . 125, 227 
 
 Tours 126 
 
 , Description of _ 130 
 
 Travelling in France inconvenient .»,._. 6 
 
 Tree of Liberty in the Champ de Mars •*«•-- 25 
 
 V 
 
 Venetian Horses, the celebrated... -. 163 
 
 Victoire, the Story of - 80 
 
 Victoires, Hotel des 38 
 
 Vines ..., - 229 
 
 Vineyards near the Loir - 123 
 
 Voyage to the French Coast 3 
 
 W 
 
 Wages ~ 237 
 
 Waldenses, the 208 
 
 Wedding, Description of a 92. 
 
 Weddings in general 17S 
 
030 227 869 6