= >Xf . a -* THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES YEAR'S JOURNEY THROUGH FRANCE, AND PART o * SPAIN. By PHILIP fHICKNESSE, Efq. THIRD F. DTTION. VOLUME II. LONDON: Printed for WM, BROWN, Corner of Eflex Street, Strand. M.DCC.LXXXIX. 1-7 -s V. A JOURNEY, LETTER XXXV, :. t . ' Nl$MES. S I R, 1AM very certain that a man may travel twice through Spain, and half through France, before he fees a woman of fo much beauty, elegance, and breeding, as the miftrefs of the houfe I lodge in near this city. I was directed to the houfe, and recommended to the lady as a lodger i but both were fo fine, and fuperior in all refpedts to any thing I had feen out of Paris, that I began to fufpect I had been impofed upon* The lady who received VOL, IL B me 731S30 me appeared to be (it was candle-light) about eighteen ; a tall, elegant figure, a beautiful face, and an addrefs inferior to none. I concluded flie was the daugh- ter, till fhe informed me, that Monfieur Saigny, her hufband, was gone to Avig- non. What added, perhaps, to this lady's beauty in my eyes, or rather ears, was her misfortune fhe could not fpeak louder than a gentle whifper. After feeing her fumptuous apartments, I told her I would not afk what her price was,, but tell her what I could afford only to give; and obferved, that as it was winter, and the fnow upon the ground, perhaps fhe had better take my price than have none. She inftantly took me by the hand, and faid, fhe had fo much refpect for the Engliih nation that my price was her's; and with a ftill fofter whifper, and clofe to my ear, faid, I might come in as foon as I pleafed " Quand vous voudrez, Monfieur" faid me, with a moft be- witching ( 3 ) witching fmile. We accordingly took pofTeffion of the finefl apartments, and the beft beds I ever lay on. The next day I faw a genteel tripling about the houfe, irt a white fuit of clothes, drafted a la militaire, and began to fufpect the virtue of my fair hoftefs, not perceiving for fome hours that it was my hoftefs" herfelf. In the afternoon fhe made us a vifit in this horrid drefs (fbr horrid file ap- peared in my eyes) her clothes were white, with red cuffs and fparlet lappds j and fhe held in her ftraddling lap a large black muff as big as a porridge-pot. By this vifit fhe loft all that refpeft her fuperlative beauty had fo juftly entitled her to, and I determined fhe mould vifit me no more in man's apparel. When I went into the town I mentioned this cir- cumftance, and there I learnt, that the real wife of Monf. Saigny had parted from him, and that the lady, my hoftefs, was his miftrefs. The next day, however, the B 2 mafter ( 4 ) matter arrived; and after being full and finely drefTed in brocaded black velvet, he made me a vifit, and proffers of every attention in his power : he told me he had injured his fortune, and that he was not rich ; but that he had ferved in the army, and was a gentleman : he had been bred a proteftant, but had juft embraced the true faith, in order to qualify hlmfelf for an employment about the court of the Pope's Legat at Avignon. After many expreflions of regard, he afked me to dine with him the next day ; but I ob- ferved that as he was not rich, and as I paid but a fmall rent in proportion to his noble apartments, I begged to be excufed ; but he prefled it fo much that I was obliged to give him fome other reafons, which did not prove very pleaiing ones to the lady below. This fine lady, how- .ever, continued to fell us wood, wine, vinegar, fallad, milk, and, in fliort, every thing we wanted, at a very unreafonable price. ( 's ) price. At length my fervant, who by agreement made my foup in their kitchen, faid fomething rude to my landlord, who complained to me, and feemed fatisfied with the reprimand I had given the man ; but upon a repetition of his rudenefs, Monf. Saigny fo far forgot himfelf as to fpeak equally rude to me. This occafioned fome warm words, and fo much ungo- vernable paflion in him, that I was obliged to tell him I muft fetch down my piftols. This he conftrued in,to a direct challenge, and therefore retired to his apartments, wrote a card, and fent it to me while I was walking before the door with a prieft, his friend and vifitor, and in fight of the little female captain his fecond, and all the fervants of the houfe. On this card was wrote, " Sir, I accept your proportion ;" and before I could even read it, he fol^ lowed his man, who brought it in the true ftyle of a butler, rather- than a butcher, with a white napkin under his arm, and B 3 gave. ( 6 ) gave it to me with great addrefs. You may be fure I was no more difpofed to fight than Monf. Saigny ; indeed I told him I would not ; but if any man attacked me on my way to or from the town, where I went every day, I would certainly defend myfelf: and fortunately I never met Mon- four Saigny in the fortnight I ftaid after in his houfe; for I could not bear to leave a town where I had two or three very agreeable acquaintance, and one (Monf. SeguierJ whofe houfe was filled as full of natural and artificial curiofities, as his head is with learning and knowledge. Here too I had an opportunity of often vifiting the ampitheatre, the Maifon Quar- ree (fo Monfieur Seguier writes it), and the many remains of Roman monuments fo common in and about Nifmes. I mea- fured fome of the flones under which I pafled to make the tout au tour of the amphitheatre : they were feventeen feet in length, and two in thicknefs; and moil ( 7 ) moft of the flones on which the fpecta- tors fat within the area, were twelve feet long, two feet ten inches wide, and one foot five inches deep*; except only thofe of the fixth row of feats from the top, and they alone are one foot ten inches deep. Probably it was on that range the people of the higheft rank took their feats, not only for the elevation, but the beft fituation for fight and fecurity ; yet one of thefe great ftones cannot be corifi- dered more, in comparifon to the whole building, than a fingle brick would be in the conduction of Hampton-Court palace. When I had the fole pofleffion (and I had it often) of this vaft range of feats, and entered the fame ADITS which emperors, emprefles, Roman knights, and matrons, have fo often patted, to fee men die wantonly by the hands of * M A u N D R E L , in his journey from Aleppo to Jerufalem, mentions ftones fixty feet long, twelve deep, and twelve broad, raifed in a wall twenty feet high. B 4 pther ( 8 ) other men, as well as beafts, for their amufement, I could not but with pleafure reflect, how much human nature is fat- tened fince that time; for notwithftand- ing the powerful prevalency of cuftom and fafhion, I do not think the ladies of the prefent agewould plume their tower-* ing heads, and curl their borrowed hair, with that glee, to fee men murthered by miffive weapons, as to die at their feet by deeper, though lefs vifible wounds. If, however, we have not thofe cruel fports, we feem to be up with them in prodigality, and to exceed them in luxury and licentuoufnefs ; for in Rome, not long before the final diflblution pf the ftate, the candidates for public employments, in fpite of the penal laws to reftrain it, bribed openly, and were chofen fometimes by arm*) as well as m.oney. In ths fenate, things were conducted no better; decrees of great confequence were made when very few fenators were prefent ; the laws were ( 9 ) were violated by private knaves, under the colour of public neceffity; till at length Cafar feized the fovereign power ; and though he was {lain they omitted to recover their liberty, forgetting that " A day, an hour, of virtuous Liberty " Is worth a whole eternity of bondage." CATO. I can almoft think I read in the parallel, which I fear will foon be drawn between the rife and fall of the Britim and Roman empire, fomething like this : - " Rome " had her CICERO ; Britain her CAM- " DEN; Cicero who had preferved Rome '" from the confpiracy of Catiline t was "banimed: C AMD EN, who would have " preferved Britain from a bloody civil " war, was removed." The hiftorian will add, probably, that " thofe who brought " defolation upon their land, did not " mean that there ihould be no common- *' wealth, but that, right or wrong, they continue to control it: they 4< did " did not mean to burn the capitol to " afhes, but to bear abfolute fway in the " capitol : The refult was, however, *' that though they did not mean to over- " throw the flate, yet they rifqued all " rather than be overthrown themfelves ; " and they rather promoted the maffacre " of their fellow-citizens, than a recon- " ciliation and union 'of parties. " THUS FELL ROME! Take heed BRITAIN! When the Roman empire was falling, POMPEY and C^SAR were abhorred by the people, and CURIO, who oppofed them, every where received with applaufe ; while CAESAR was hated, his greateft opponent BIB LI us was adored \ and thefe three, once popular men, became the moft odious to the people : yet notwithftanding their detefled defigns were clearly feen through by the people, they prevailed; as CICERO perceived they could not be prevented without rifquing a general carnage: for thefe confpirators againfl the itate had in- troduced troduced a great body of foreign foldiers to keep all oppofition quiet ; and Caefar had the temerity to commit that great and virtuous man CATO^ though tribune of the people, to a common prifon, and that too only for difcharging the duty of his office with honour and fidelity. The wretched citizens then faw how the beft men among them were fcornfully treated, and that they had themfelves raifed up the hand which had ftruck them down, never to rife again. P. S. Dean Swift fays, " Much rather I fliould die, " Than their predi&ion prove a lie." The truth of which in all cafes, we hope and believe, he did not mean to infift upon : but as the above letters were wrote when the civil war in America was but juft begun, and begun in a country of which I had a more perfect knowledge than the miniftry of Great Britain, or the generals ( I* ) generals fent to conquer it, I ventured, in very ftrong terms, to point out the impofTibility of fuch an attempt being attended with fuccefs. Even MARSHAL SAKE would not in that country have been fo good a general as a native captain of a company of rifle-men. The attempt to throw the blame on General Howe is highly illiberal ; there cannot be a doubt but that he is a brave man, and an honeft man : but a war in America, and a war in Germany, are as unlike in their opera- tions as a battle at fea, or a battle on land ; and thofe who pretend to cenfure General Sir William Howe, and attribute the want of fuccefs to the general's want of courage or conduct, muft be knaves or fools. It is with indignation I have read a pamphlet, fabricated by fome contemptible tool of a minifter, wherein the general's own let- ters, publimed in the Gazette, are made ufe of to mew his own weaknefs or inabi- lity to command. None, but thofe upon the ( '3 ) the fpot who know the ground, and who fee the fituation of the enemy, as well as a thoufand circumftances not to be gathered, or explained by a letter, which may render things rafh in the higheft de- gree, and yet to men at a diftance, and unacquainted with military manoeuvres. may appear very fcafible upon paper, or be made fo by an artful, and wicked pamphle- teerer : none, I fay, but fuch can judge of the general's merit or demerit. I frrongly fufpect that General Burgoyne's taking Indians into his fervice, was the caufe of his misfortunes, and that the very reverfe of what has happened would have been the cafe, had he not roufed the indignation of the whole country againft him, by employing men who make no diftinction between age, fex, or party. But I fhould be forry to fay it was fo ; becaufe General Burgcyne may poflibly convince the world that his mif T fortunes arofe from a clofe obedience to orders ; ( '4 ) orders; which perhaps were given in confequence of ignorance and incapa- city. When Captain Mackay faw Admi- ral Matheivs** fignal to go down with his fire-fhip to burn the Spanilh Admiral, and no fignal for a fhip of force to cover fuch an attempt ; all his men got fo drunk, that he was unable to obey thoe orders > and when, the admiral fent an officer in a boat to upbraid him for his neglect, he was un- able alfo to bear it ; and therefore blew up his fire-fliip, himfelf, and his drunken crew. A foldier who receives pofitive or- ders is to obey them, not to difpute the confequences of obeying them. LETTER ( '5 ) LETTER XXXVI. ARLBS. I Left Nifmes relu&antly, having formed there an agreeable and friendly inti- macy with Mr. D'O/iere, a young gen- tleman of Switzerland, and an edify- ing and entertaining acquaintance with Monf. Seguier. I left too the beft and moil fumptuous lodgings I had feen in my whole tour; but a defire to fee Aries, Aix, and Marfeilles, &c. got the better of all. But I fet out too foon after the fnow and rains, and I found part of the road fo exceedingly bad, that I wonder how my poor horfe dragged us through fo much clay and dirt. When I gave you fome account of the antiquities of Nifmes, I did not expecl: to find Aries a town fraught with ten times more matter and amufe- ment for an antiquary; but I found it not ( 16 ) not only a fine town now, but that it abounds with an infinite number of monu- ments, which evince its having once been an almoft fecond Rome. There ftill re- mains enough of the amphitheatre to con- vince the beholder what a noble edifice it was, and to make him wonder why fo lit- tle, of fo large and folid a building, re- mains. The town is built on the banks of the Rhone, over which, on a bridge of barges, we entered it; but it is evident, that in former days, the fea came quite up to it, and that it was a haven for ihips of burden; but the fea has retired fome leagues from it many ages fince. Befide an hundred ftrong marks at this day of its having been a fea*port formerly, the fol- lowing infcription found a century or two ago, in the church of St* Gabriel, will clearly confirm it : M. FRONTON! ( '7 ) M. FRONTONI EVPOR. IiiuIVIR AVG. COL. JVLIA. AVG. AQVIS SEXTIIS NAVICVLAR. MAR. ARE*. CVRAT EJVSD. CORP. PATRONO NAVTAR DRVENTICORVM. ET VTRICVLARIORVM. CORP. ERNAGINENSIVM. JVLIA NICE VXOR. CONJVGI KARISSIMO. Indeed there are many fubftantial rea- fons to believe, that it was at this towa Julius Cafar built the twelve gallies, which, from the cutting of the wood, to the time they were employed on fervice, was but thirty days. That it was a very confiderable city in the time of the firfl emperots, is paft all doubt. Conftan- tlne the Great held his court, and refided at Aries, with all his family; and the emprefs Faujlina was delivered of a fon here (Conftantine the younger), and it was long before that, fo celebrated for an an- nual fair held in the month of Auguft, that it was called le noble Marcbe de Gaitles. And Strabo, in his dedication of his book VOL, II. C to to the emperor, called it, " Galllarum Emporium non Parvum ;" which is a proof that it was celebrated for its rich com- merce, &c. five hundred years before it came under the dominion of the Ro- mans. But were I capable of giving you a particular defcription of all the monu- ments of antiquity in and near this town, it would compofe a little book, inftead of a meet or two of paper. I mail therefore only pick out a few things which have afforded me the moil entertainment, and I hope may give you a little ; but I mall begin with mentioning what mutt firft give you concern, in faying that in that part of the town called la Roquette, I was fliewn the place where formerly flood an elevated altar, whereon three young citi- zens were facrificed annually, and who . were fattened at the public expenee during a \vhole year, for that horrid purpofe ! On the firft of May their throats were cut in the prefence of a prodigious multitude of ( '9 ) of people afTembled from all parts ; among whom the blood of the victims was thrown; for they weakly imagined, all their fins were expiated by this barbarous facrifice ; which horrid practice was put a flop to by the firfl bifhop of Aries, ST. TROPHIME. The Jews, who had formerly a fynagogue in Aries, were driven out in the year 1493, when that and their celebrated fchool were demolished. There were found about an hundred years after, among the flones of thofe buildings, fome Hebrew characters neatly cut, which were copied, and fent to the Rabbins of Avignon to be tranflated, and who explained them thus : Chodefh: Elvl. Chamefcheth, lamech, vav. Niflamv. Bedikoth. Schadai. i. e. they fay, " In the month of Auguft, five thoufartd and thirty- " fix, the Vifitation of God ceafed." Perhaps the plague had vifited them. There was alfo another Hebrew infcrip- tion, which was on the tomb of a fa- C 7, mous ( *> ) mous Rabbin called Solomon, furnamed the grandfon of David. The amphitheatre of Arks was of an oval form, compofed of three flages ; each ftage containing lixty arches ; the whole was built of hewn Hone of an immenfe fize, without mortar, and of a prodigious thicknefs : the circumference above, ex- clufive of the projection of the architrave., was 1 94 toifes three feet, i. e. 1 764 French feet, the frontifpiece 17 toifes high; the area 71 toifes long, and 52 wide; and the walls were 17 toifes thick, which were pierced round and round with a gallery, for the convenience of paffing in and out of the feats, which feats would conveniently contain 30,000 men, allowing each perfon three feet in depth, and two in width ; and yet there remain at this day only a few arches quite complete from to top to bot- tom, which are of themfelves a noble mo- nument. Indeed one would be inclined to think ( 21 ) think that it never had been completed, did we not know that the Romans left nothing unfinifhed of that kind; and read, that the emperor Gallus gave fome fuperb fpectacles in the amphitheatre of Arks y and that the fame amufements were con- tinued by the following emperors. No- thing can be a ftronger proof than thefe ruins, of the certain deftruction as well as corruption of all earthly things ; for one would think that the fmall parts which now remain of this once mighty building, would endure as long as the earth itfelf. But what is very fingular, is, that this very amphitheatre was built upon the ruins of a more mighty building, and perhaps; one of a more fubflantial ftructure. *T cm- pus edax rerum tuque invldiofa vetuftas omnla deftruitis. In the flreet called St. Claude, flood a triumphal arch, which was called L'Arche admirable ; it is therefore natural to conclude, that the town .con- tained many others of lefs beauty. There C 3 are are alfo within the walls large remains of the palace of Gonftantme. A beautiful an- tique ftatue of Venus was found here alfo, about an hundred and twenty years ago. That a "veritable fine woman mould fet all the beaux and connoiffeurs of a whole town in a flame, I do not much wonder; but you will be furprifed when I tell you that this cold trunk of marble (for the arms were never found) put the whole town of Aries together by the ears. One Sfavant faid it was the goddefs Diana, and wrote a book to prove it : another infifted upon it, that it was the true image of Venus; then ftarts up an ecclefiaftic, who you know has nothing to do 'with women, and he pronounced, in dogmatical terms, it was neither one nor the other. At length the wife magiftrates of the town agreed to fend it as a prefent to their auguft mo- narch Louis XIV. and if you have a mind to fee an inanimate woman who has made fuch a noife in the world, you will will find her at Verf allies, without any- other notice taken of her, or the quarrels about her, than the following words writ- ten (I think) upon her pedeftal, La Venus d* Arks*. This ended the difpute, as I muft my letter. * The city of ARLES is alfo remarkable for the council held there in the year 313, in the time of Conjlanline\be. Great, at which council .Reftitutus the bilhop of London, as V?ell as fome other Britifh prelates, were prefent. C 4 LETTEPv LETTER XXXVII. I Have not half done with Arks. The more I faw and heard in this town, the more I found was to be feen. The re- mains of the Roman theatre here would of itfelf be a fufficient proof that it was a town of great riches and importance. Among the refufe of this building they found feveral large vafes of baked earth, which were open on one fide, and which were fixed properly, near the feats of the audience, to receive and convey the founds of the inftruments, and voices of the actors, diftindly throughout the theatre, which had forty-eight arches ; eleven be r hind the fcenes, of ten feet wide, three grand arches of fourteen feet wide, and thirty-one of twelve feet; the diameter was thirty-one canes, and the circumfe- rence feventy-nine ; and from the infi- nite nite number of beautiful pieces of fculp* ture, frizes, architraves, pillars of granite, &c. which have been dug up, it is very- evident that this theatre was a mofl mag- nificent building, and perhaps would have flood firm to this day, had not a bifhop of Aries ^ from a principle of more piety than wifdom, flript it of the finefl ornaments and marble pillars, to adorn the churches. Near the theatre flood alfo the famous temple of Diana ; and as the famous flatue mentioned in my former letter, was found beneath fome noble marble pillars near that fpot, it is mofl likely La Venus d' Aries is neverthelefs the goddefs Diana. I never wilh more for your company than when I walk (and I walk every day) in the Elyfian fields. The fpot is beauti- ful, the profpedt, far and near, equally fo. In the middle of this ancient Cimitiere ilands a motley building, from the middle pf which however rifes 9, cupola, which, at the the firft view, informs you it is the work of a Roman artift; and here you become almoft bewildered in turning and twifting between fuch an infinite number of Pagan and Chriftian monuments, all lying thick upon the furface, in the utmoft diforder and confufion ; infomuch, that one would think the day of judgment was arrived, and the dead were rifen from their graves. Neither Stepney church-yard, nor any one in or near a great city, fhew fo many head- ilones as this fpot does ftone coffins of an immenfe fize, hewn out of one piece ; the covers of moil of which have been broken, or removed fufficiently, to fearch for fuch things as were ufually buried with the dead. Some of thefe monuments, and fome of the handfomeft too, are {till how- ever un violated. It is very eafy to diftin- guifh the Pagan, from the Chriftian monu- ments, without opening them, as all the former have the Roman letters D M (Dih Marubus) cut upon them. It is fituated, according according to their cuftom, near the high* way, the water, and the marfhes. You know the ancients preferred fuch fpots for the interment of the dead. The tombs of Ajax and Hefor y HOMER fays, were near the fea, as well as other heroes of antiquity ; for as they confidered man to be compofed of earth and water, his bones ought to be laid in one, and near the other. I will now give you a few of the moil curious infcriptions ; but firft I muft men- tion a noble marble monument, moved from this fpot into the Cimetiere of the great hofpital. This tomb is ornamented with Cornucopia. , Patera, &c. and in a ihield is the following inscription : CABILIAE D. F. APPRVLLAE FLAM D DESIGNATAE COL. DEA. AUG. VOC. M O. ANNOS XIIII. MENS II. DIES V. MARITVS VXORI PIENTISSIMAE. POSUIT. This This poor girl was not only too young to die, but too young to marry, one would think : I wifh therefore rier afflicted huf- band had told us how many years he had been married to a wife who died at the age of fourteen, two months, and five days. The cornucopia t I fuppofe, were to fignify that this virtuous wife, I was going to fay maid, was the fource of all his plea- fure and happinefs. The patera were vafes deflined to receive the blood of the victims. Supponunt alij cultos, trepidumque cruorem Sufcipiunt Pateris, r-Sap the Poet. On each fide of the tomb are the fym- bols of facrifice. It is very evident, from the fine polifh of this monument, that her hufband had obtained the emperor's parti- cular leave to finim it highly. Rogum afcia ne pofito> fays the law of the twelve tables.* * I fear I am miftaken here, and that Rogum afcia ne folito, prohibited only the polifhing or fmoothing the wood which compofed the funeral pile. On ( '9 ) On another tomb, which is of common flone, in the middle of a fhield fupported by- two Cupids, is the following infcription : M IVNIO MESSIANO VTRICI. CORP. ARELAT. D EIVS D. CORP. MAG. III. F. M QUI VIXIT ANN. XXVIII. M.V.D.X. IVNIA VALERIA. ALVMNO CLARISSIMO. The firft word of the fecond line is much obliterated. There are an infinite number of other monuments with infcriptions ; but thofe above, and this below, will be fufficient for me to convey to you, and you to my friend at Weftmnfter. L DOMIT. DOMITIANI EX TRIERARCHI CLASS. GERM. D PECCOCEIA. VALENTINA M CONIUX PIENTISSIMA. Before I leave Aries, and I leave it re- lu&antly, whatever you may do, I mud not omit to mention the principal monu- ment, ( 3 ) inent, and pride of the citizens, at this day, i. e. their obelilk. I will not tell you where, nor when it was dug up ; it is fufficient to fay, it was found here, that it is a fingle piece of granite, fixty-one feet high, and feven feet fquare below; yet it was eafily elevated in the market- place, upon a modern pedeftal, which bears four fulfome complimentary infcrip- tions to Louis XIV. neither of which will I copy. In elevating this monftrous fingle ftone, the inhabitants were very adroit : they fet it upright in a quarter of an hour, in the year 1676, juft an hundred years ago, amidft an infinite number of joyful fpedtators, who are now all laid in their lowly graves ; for though it weighed more than two hundred thoufand weight, yet, by the help of capfterns, it was raifed without any difficulty. That great king, Harry IV. had ordered the houfes in the arena of the amphitheatre to be thrown down, and this obeliik to be fixed in ( 3' ) in the centre of it; but his death, and Louis's vanity, fixed it where it now ftands. It has no beauty however to boafl; of but its age and fize, for it bears neither polifh, characters, nor hieroglyphicks; but as it feems to have been an Egyptian mo- nument, the inhabitants of Aries have, like thofe people, confecrated it below to their king, and above to the fun. On the top is fixed a globe of azure, fprinkled withfaurs de Its of gold, and crowned with a radiant fun; that is to fay, as the fun was made by GOD to enlighten the world, fo Louis LE GRAND was made to govern it. I am fure now you will excufe my mentioning what is faid of this great man below : but fpeaking of light, I muft not omit to mention, that there are men of veracity now living in this town, who af- firm, that they have feen, upon opening fome of the ancient monuments here, the eternal j ( 3' ) eternal lamps burning. The numbe*- o^ teftimonies we have of this kind puts the matter paft a doubt, that a flame has ap- peared at the lip of thefe lamps when the tombs have been firft opened : one was found, you know, on the Appian way, in the tomb of Cicero's daughter, which had burnt more than feventeen centuries ; ano- ther at Padua, which had burnt eight hun- dred years, and which was found hanging between two little phials, one of gold, the other of filver, which were both quite full of liquor > extremely clear, as well as many others ; but as it is impoffible to be- lieve that flame can exift, and not con- fume that which feeds it, is it not more natural to conclude that thofe lamps, phials, &c. contained a fpecies of phot- phorus, which became luminous upon the firft opening of the tombs, by the fudden rufhing in of frefli air; and that the re- verfe of what is generally fuppofed is the fad: ; that they are not extinguifhed, but ( 33 ) but illuminated by the frefti air they re- ceive ? I have feen feveral of thefe lamps here and elfewhere, moft of which are of baked earth. It has been faid, that there is an oil to be extracted from gold, which will not confume, and that a wick of ajbejlos has burnt many years in this oil, without confumption to either- I have feen a book, written by a German Jefuit, to confirm this fact ; fo there is authority for you, if not conviction. As I know your keen appetite after anti- quities, I will fend you a few other in* fcriptions, and leave you to make your own comments on them. D M L. HOSTIL. TER. SILVANI. ANN. XXIIII. M. ir.D. XV MATER FIL PIJSSlMl MISERAET IN LVCIV. AETERNALI BENIFICI O NOVERCAE. Vox. II. D The ( 34 ) The following infcription is cut upon a marble column, which ftands near the Jefuits* church : SALVIS. D. D. N. N. THEODOSIO. ET VALENTINIANO. P.F.V. AC TRIUM. SEMPER AUG. XV. CONS. VIR. INL. AUXILIARIS PR^E. PR^iT. GALLIA. DE ARELATE MA. MILLIARIA PONI. S. *' M.P.S. In the ancient church of St. Honore* which ftands in the center of all thefe heathen and chriftian monuments, are to be feen nine bacchanalians of very ancient workmanfhip ; where alfo is the tomb of St. Honore, employed as the altar of the church ; and beneath the church are cata- combs, where the firft Chriftians retired to prayer, during the perfecution by the emperors, and where is ftill to be feen their altar and feven ancient fepulchres of beautiful marble and exquifite workman- fhip. -The firft is the tomb of St. Genet ; the fecond of St. Roland, archbifhop of Ark s ; the third of St. Concord, with an epitaph, ( 35 ) epitaph, and two doves with olive branches in their beaks, cut in bas relief, and un- derneath are alfo two letters, X and P^ On this tomb is the miraculous crofs feen in the heavens by Conftantine^ who is re- p re fented before it on his knees; and on the cover of it are the heads of Conftantine* Fauftina, and his fon; and they fay the emperor faw this miracle in the heaven from the very Cimetiere in which this mo- nument now frands, in the year 315; the fifth is the tomb of St. Dorothy, virgin and martyr of Aries ; the fixth St. Virgil^ and the feVenth St. Hilaire (both arch- bifhops of Aries')^ who has borrowed, however, a pagan fepulchre ; for it is adorned with the principal divinities of the ancients in bas relief. It feems odd to fee on a chriftian bifhop's tomb Nep- tune, Diana, Jupiter, Venus, and the three deftinies. The people here fay, that this tomb reprefents human life; as the an- cients believed that each god contributed D 2 fomething ( 36 ) fomething towards the being. Be that as i it may, the tomb is a very curious one, and much admired by the connoiffeurs r for its excellent workmanfhip, as well as its antiquity; but what is more extraor- dinary than all is, that this catacomb, ftanding in the middle of the others, with ite cover well and clofely fixed, has al- ways water in it,- and often is quite full, and nobody can tell (but one gf the prie/}s, per baps] y from what fource it comes. There is alfo in this church the tomb, and a long Latin epitaph, of St. tfropbime, their firft bifhop; but the characters are all Gothic: he came hither in the year 61, and preached down that abominable practice of facrificing three young men annually. He died in the year 61, at 72 years of age. On the front of the metro- politan church of Aries, called St. Tro- fbime> are the two following lines in Go- thic characters, cut above a thoufand years : Cernitur exiraius vir Chrlfti Difcipulorum, De Nuinero Trophimus, hie Septuaginta duorum. The ( 37 ) The church was built in the year 625, by St. Virgil, and is a curious piece 'of antiquity within, and particularly without ; but I will not omit to give you one of its iingularities within; it is an ancient and curious infcription, in large Gothic letters, near the organ : Terrarum Roma Gemina de luce magiftr A. Ros Miflus Semper Aderit : velut incola Jofe P. Olim Contrito Letheo Contulit Orch O. To read this you will fee you muft take the firft, the middle, and the laft letter of each verfe: TRO, Trophimus; GAL, Galliarum; and APO, Apojlolus. The letter H, belonging to the word Jofepb, muft be carried to the word Ore bo, and the P muft Hand by itfelf, Tropbimus Galliarum Apojlolus, ut ros miff us eft, ex urbe Rom and this city, we entered upon a mofl extraordinary and ex- ter.fi ve plain : it is called the Crau, and is a principal and fingular domain, belonging to, and iituated on, the fouth fide of that city ; it is ten leagues in diameter ; on which vaft extent fcarce a tree, fhrub, or any verdure is vifible, the whole fpot being covered with flint ftones of various fizes, and of fingular fhapes. Petrarch fays, as Strabo and others have faid before him, that thofe flint ftones fell from heaven like hail, when Hercules was fighting there againft the giants, who finding he was likely to be overcome, invoked his father Jupiter, who rained this hard mower of flint ftones upon his enemies, which is con- flrmed by MJcbylus. P 4 "Jupiter " Jupiter Alcidem quando refpcxit inermem, ff Illachrymans, Ligures faxofo perpluit imbre. But as this account may not be quite fatisfactory to you, who I know love truth more that fable, I am inclined to think you will confider Poffidonius'$ manner of accounting for it as more feafible. He fays, that it was once a great lake, and haying a bed of gravel at the bottom, thofe pebble {tones, by a fucceffion of ages, have grown to the fize they now appear ; but whether flones grow which lie upon the furface of the earth and out 'of their proper ftrata, I muft leave you and other naturalifts to determine, without repeating to you what Arijlotk> and others, have faid upon that fubject ; and therefore, inflead of telling you either what they fay, or think, I will tell you what I know; which is, that barren as the Crau appears to be, it not only feeds, but fattens, an infinite number of fheep and cattle, and produces fuch excellent wine ,; - too too in fome parts of it, that it is called VIA de Crau, by way of pre-eminence : it has a poignant quality, is very bright, and is much efteemed for its delicious flavour. The herb which fattens the Iheep, and feeds fuch quantities of cattle, is a little plant which grows between and under the flint flones, which the Iheep and other animals turn up with their feet, to come at the bite ; betide which, there grows a plant on this Crau that bears a vermillion flower, from which the fineft fcarlet die is ex- tracted : it is a little red grain, about the fize of a pea, and is gathered in the month of May ; it has been fold for a crown a pound formerly; and a fingle crop has produced eleven thoufand weight. This berry is the harveft of the poor, who are permitted to gather it on a certain day, but not till the lord of the manor gives notice by the found of a horn, according to an ancient cuftom and privilege granted originally by king Rene. On my way ( 4* ) way over it, I gathered only a great nurn^ ber of large larks by the help of my gun, though I did not forget my Montferrat vow : it was a fine day, and therefore I did not find it fo tedious as it muil be in win- ter or bad weather ; for if any thing can be worfe than fea, in bad weather, it muft be this vafl plain, which is neither land or fea, though not very diftant from the latter, and in all probability was many ages fince co- vered by the ocean. The firft town we came to after paffing this vaft plain is Sf. Chamas, which has nothing but its antiquity, and a noble and immenfe old caftle, to recommend it, ex- cept a tranfparent agate ftatue of the Virgin in the church, as large as the life, with a tin crown upon her head. Neither the town nor the inhabitants had any thing of the appearance of French about it ; every thing and every body looked fo wild, and the place was in fuch a ruinous condition, that ( 43 ) that I could fcarce believe I was not among the Arabs in Egypt, or the ruins of Perfe- polis. Without the town, in a fine beauti- ful lawn, ftands a moft irregular high and rude rock, perpendicular on all (ides ; and under one fide of it are ruins of a houfe, which I fuppofe was inhabited by the firfl Seigneur in the province. I looked in, and found the ruins full of miferable inhabi- tants, I fancy many families; but it exhi- bited fuch a fcene of woe, that I was glad to get out again; and upon enquiry, I found it had been in that flate ever fince it had been ufed as an hofpital during the la$ j)lague> LETTER ( 44 ) LETTER XXXIX. MARSEILLES- AS the good and evil which fall with-* in the line of a road, as well as what befal every one through life, are by com^ parifon, I need not fay what a heavenly country France (with all its untoward cir- cumflances) appeared to us after having journeyed in Spain : what would have put me out of temper before, became now a confblation. How glad jhould I have been, and how perfectly content , bad it been thus in < Spain, was always uppermoft, when things run a little crofs in France. Travellers and flrangers in France, in a long journey, perhaps, have no connexion with any people, but fuch who have a defign upon their purfe. At every auberge fome officious coxcomb lies in wait to enfnare them, and under one pretence or other, ( 45 ) other, introduces himfelf: he will offer to Jhew you the town if you accept it, you are faddled with an impertinent vifitor the whole time you flay ; if you refufe it, he is affronted ; fo let him ; for no gentleman ever does that without an eafy or natural introduction; and then, if they are men of a certain age, their acquaintance is agree- able and ufeful. An under-bred French- ( man is the moft offenfive civil thing in the world : a well-bred Frenchman quite the j reverfe. Having dined at the table of a perfon of fafhion at Aix, a pert pried, one of the company, afked me many quef- tions relative to the cuftoms and manners of the Englifh nation ; and among other things, I explained to him the elegance with which the tables of people of the firfl fafhion v/ere ferved *; and told him, that when any one changed his difh, his plate, knife, and fork, were changed alfo, * This perhaps, when the advantage lay fo much on the Englifh fide, I ought not to have {aid, and therefore he confidered it as rude in me, and properly retorted it, and ( 46 ) and that they were as perfectly bright ane part of the country between Aix and this populous city is very beautiful, but ( 49 ) but near the town fcarce any Vegefatioii is feen ; on all fides high hills and broken rocks prefent themfelves ; and one wonders how a city fo large and fo aftonifhingly populous is fupported. When I firfl approached the entrance gate, it opened a perfpeciive view of the Courfe, a ftreet of great extent, where the heads of the people were fo thick together, that I concluded it was a FAIR day, and that the whole country were collected together; but I found it was every day the fame. I faw a prodigious quantity of game and provi- iions of all kinds, not only in the mops, but in the ftreets, and concluded it was not only a cheap, but plentiful country 5 but I foon found my miftake : it was the evening before Lent commenced, and I could find no provifions of any kind very eafily afterwards, and every thing very dear. You may imagine the price of pro- vifions at Marf elites > when I tell you that they have their poultry from Lyons; it VOL. IL E is ( 5 ) is however a noble city, crowded with men of all nations, walking in the ftreets in the proper habits of their country. The harbour, or rather bafon, is the mofl fecure fea-port in Europe, being land- locked on all fides, except at a very narrow entrance ; and as there, is very little rife or fall of water, the veflels are-always afloat. Many of the galley flaves have little fhops near the fpot where the galleys are moored, with their flerns almoft clofe to a noble quay, and appear happy and decently drefled; fome of them are rich, and make annual remittances to their friends. In the Hotel de Ville are two fine large pic- tures, which were taken lately from the Jefuits* college : one reprefents the dread- ful fcenes which were feen in the Grand Courfe during the great plague at Mar- fellies; the other, the fame fad fcene on the quay, before the doors of the houfe in which it now hangs. A perfon cannot look upon thefe pi&ures one minute before he he becomes enthralled in the woes which every way prefent themfelves. You fee the good bifhop confeiTing the fick, the carts carrying ut the dead, children fuck> ing at the breafts of their dead mothers, wives and hufbands bewailing, dead bodies lowering out of higher windows by cords, the flaves plundering, the priefts exhort- ing ; and fuch a variety of interefting and affli&ing fcenes fo forcibly ftruck out by the painter, that you feem to hear the groans, weepings, andbewailings, from the dying, the fick, and the found; and the eye and mind have no other repofe on thefe pictures but by fixing it on a dead body. The painter, who was upon the fpot, has introduced his own figure, but armed like a ferjeant with a halberd. The pictures are indeed dreadfully fine j one is much larger than the other ; and it is faid the town magiftrates cut it to fit the place it is in ; but it is impoffible to believe any body of men could be guilty of fuch an E 3 aft act of barbarlfm! There is flill ftanding in this town, the houfe of a Roman fenator, now inhabited by a fhoe-maker. In the cathedral they have a marble ftone, on which is engraven in Arabic characters-, a monumental infcription to the following effect: " God is alone permanent. " This is the fepulchre of his fervant and martyr, " who having placed his confidence in the Moil High, he trufls that his fins will be forgiven." JOSEPH, fon of ABD ALLAH, of the town of Metelin, died in the moon Zilhuge, I bought here an Egyptian houfehold god, or /are of folid metal, which was lately dug up near the city walls; it is about nine inches high, and weighs about five pounds. Several of the hieroglyphic characters are vifible on the breafl and back, and its form is that of an em- balmed mummy. By a wholefome law of this city, the richeft citizens muft be buried like the pooreil, in a coffin of nine livres ( 53 ) livres value, and that coffin muft be bought at the general hofpital. The fale of thefe coffins for the dead, goes a great way to- wards the fupport of the poor and the lick. At this town I experienced the very reverfe in every refpect of what I met with at Barcelona, though I had no better re- commendation to Mr. BIRBECK, his Britannick Majefty's agent here, than I had to the Conful of Barcelona, He took my word at firft fight; nay, he took my notes, and gave me money for them, and ihewed me and my family many marks of friendly attention. Such a man, at fuch a diftance from one's own country, is a cordial to a troubled breaft, and an acqui- iition to every Englifhman who goes there, either for health or curiofity. Mr. Eirbcck took me with him to a Grande Concert, to which he is an annual fubfcriber, and which was performed in a room in every refpect fuitable to fo large a band, and fa E 3 brilliant ( 54 ) brilliant an aflembly: He and his good wife were the only two Britifh faces I had feen for many months, who looked like Britons. I ihall, indeed I muft, foon leave this town, and fhall take Avignon on my way to Lyons, from whence you fhall foon hear from me again. P, S. I had forgot to mention, when I was (peaking of Mont pettier t that the firffc gentry are ftrongly impreffed with the notion of the fuperiority of the Englifh in every part of philofophy, more efpecially in the fcience of phyfic ; and I found at Mont pettier j that thefe fentiments, fo fa- vourable to our countrymen, had been much increafed by the extraordinary know- ledge and abilities of Dr. MILMAN, an Englifh phyfician, who refided there during the winter 1775. This gentleman, who is one of Dr. RADCLIFFE'S travelling phyficians, had performed feveral very aftoniming cures, in cafes which the French ( 55 ) French phyficians had long treated with- out fuccefs: and indeed the French phy- ficians, however checked by intereft or envy, were obliged to acknowledge this gentleman's uncommon fagacity in the treatment of difeafes. What 1 fay of this ingenious traveller, is for your fake more than his ; for I know nothing more of him than the fame he has left behind him at Montpellier, and which I doubt not will foon be verified by his deeds among his own countrymen. E 4 LETTER ( 5.6 ) LETTER XXXVI. AviGKOK. THERE is no dependence on what travellers fay of different towns and places they have vifited, and therefore you muft npt lay tqo much itrefs upon what I fay. A lady of falhion, who had travelled all over France, gave the pre-r ference to the town I laft wrote to you from (Marfeilles) ; to me, the climate excepted, it is of all others the moft dif- agreeable ; yet that lady did not mean to deceive ; but people often prefer the town for the fake of the company they find, or fome particular or local circumftance which attended their refidence in it. In that refpect, I too left it reluctantly, having met with much civility, and fome old friends there ; but furely, exclufive of its fine harbour, and favourable fituation for trade, ( 57 ) trade, it has little elfe to recommend it, but riot, mob, and confufion. Provifions are very dear, and not very good. On our road here we came again through Aix. Le Mule Blanche without the town, is better than any auberge within, and Monf. L'Abbe Abrard Preteur, de la ordre de Sf, Malta, is not only a very agree- able, but a very convenient acquaintance for a Granger, and who is always ready to fhew the Englifh, in particular, attention, and who had much attention fhewn him by Lord A. PERCY and his lady. From Aix we parted through Lambrefque, Organ, and Sencage, a fine country, full of almond trees, and which were in full blof- fom on the yth of March. At Orgon the poft-houfe was fo bad, that after my horfe was in the liable, I was obliged to put him to, and remove to the Soleil d*0r, without the town, and made a good move too, The ( 58 ) The fituation of Notre Dame de St. Pierre, a convent on a high hill, is worthy of notice, and the antiquity of the town alfo. Five leagues from Orgon we crofled a very aukward paflage in a ferry-boat, and were landed in the Pope's territories, about five miles from Avignon. The caftle and higher part of the town were vifible, rifing up in the middle of a vaft plain, fer- tile and beautiful as poffible. If we were charmed with the diflant view, we were much more fo upon a nearer approach, Nothing can be more pleafing than the well-planted, and confequently well-fhaded, coach and foot roads round this pretty little city ; all fhut in with the moft beau- tiful ancient fortification walls I ever be- held, which are in perfect repair; nor were we afked any queftions by the pope's fol- diers, or cuftom-houfe officers. . I had a letter to Dr. POWER, an Englim phyfician in this town, who received me with great civility, and made me known to Lord MOUNT ( 59 ) MOUNTGARRET, and Mr. BUTLER, bis fon, with whom I had the honour to fpend fome very agreeable hours: his lordfhip has an excellent houfe here, and keeps a table, truly charafteriftic of the hofpi- tality of his own country. And now I cannot help telling you of a fingular diforder which attacked me the very day I arrived; and the ftill more fingular manner I got well. The day before I arrived, we had been almofl blown along the road to Orgon by a mofl violent wind but I did not perceive- that I had received any cold or injury from it, till we arrived here, and then I had fuch an external forenefs from head to foot, that I almofl dreaded to walk or ftir, and when I did, it was as flow as my feet could move. After continuing fo for fome days, I was much urged to dine with Lord MOUNT- PARRET, on St. Patrick's day; I did fo, and by drinking a little more than ordi- nary, fet nature to work, who, without any ( 60 ) any other do&or, did the bufinefs, by two or three nights copious fweats. I would not have mentioned this circumftance, but it may be the mal du pais, and ought to be mentioned for the method of cure. There was not quite fo good an undeiv {landing between the pope's legate and the Englifh redding here, as could be wifhed : fome untoward circumftance had happen- ed, and there feemed to be faults on both fides : it was carried, I think, to fuch a length, that when the Englilh met him, they did not pull off their hats j but as it happened before I came, and as in our walks and rides we often met him air- ing in his coach, we paid that refpecl: which is every where due to a firft magi- ftrate, and he took great pains to return it moft gracioufly. His livery, guards, &c. make a very fplendid appearance : he holds a court., and has levees every Sunday, though not liked by the French. At the church ( 6i ) church of Sf. Didier, in a little chapel of mean workmanfhip, is the tomb of the celebrated Laura, whofe name Petrarch has rendered immortal. The general opi- nion is, that fhe died a virgin : but it appears by her tomb, that fhe was the wife of Hugurs de Sade, and that fhe had many children. About two hundred years after her death, fome curious people got permiffion to open her tomb, in which they found a little box, containing fome verfes written by Petrarch, and a medal- lion of lead; on one fide of which was a lady's head, and on the reverfe, the four folio wing letters, M. L. M. E. Francis I. pafling through Avignon, viiited this tomb, and left upon it the following epitaph, of his own compofl- tion : En 4< n petit lieu compris vous pouvez voir r- 1 * Ce qui comprend beaucoup par renommeej ; *' Plume, labeur, la langue & le devoir . " Turent vaincus par 1'aimant dl'aimee : '. ** O gentille ame, etant tant eftimee 1 ! <{ Qui le pourra louer quen fe laifTant ? ** Car la parole eft toujours reprimee, | < Quand le fujet furmonte le difant." This town Is crowded with convents and churches. The convent of the Celef- tines* founded by Charles VI* is richly endowed, and has noble gardens : there are not above fourteen or fifteen members, and their revenue is near two thoufand pounds fterling a year. In their church is a very fuperb monument of pope Cle- ment VII. who died here in the year 1 394, as a long Latin infcription upon it an- nounces. They fhew in this houfe a pic- ture painted by king RENE'; it reprefents the frightful remains of his beloved mif- trefs, whofe body he took out of the grave^ and painted it in the ftate he then found it, ( 63 ) it, /. e. with the worms crawling about it: it is a hideous figure, -and hide- oufly painted ; the ftone coffin ftands on a line with the figure, but is above a foot too fhort for the body ; and on the other fide is a long fcroll of verfes, written in Gothic characters, which begin thus : " Unefoisfusfur toutesfemmes belle '* Mais par la mort fuis devenue telle f ' Ma chair eft ait tres-beile^fratfche 6? tendre ; " Or ejl elk toute tour nee en cendre" There follow at leaft forty other fuch lines. There is alfo in this convent, a fine mo- nument, on which ftands the effigies of Sf. Benezef, a fhepherd of Avignon, who built (they fay) the bridge from the town over the Rhone, in confequence of a dream, in the year 1127. Some of the noble arches are ftill {landing, and part of a very pretty chapel on it, nearly in the middle of the river ; but a great part of the bridge has been been carried away, many years fince, by the violence of the river, which often not only overflows its banks, but the lower part of the town. In 1755, it rofe feven- teen feet higher than its ufual flowing, and I faw marks in many of the ftreets, high above my head, againft the fides of houfes, which it had rifen to ; but with all my induftry, I could find no mark upon the houfe where Lady Mary Worthy Mon- tague dwelt y though flie refided fome time here, arid though I endeavoured to find it. i need not defcribe the celebrated foun- tain of Vauclufe, near this town, where Petrarch compofed his works, and efta- blilhed Mount Parnaflus. This is the only part of France in which there is an Inquifition, but the officers feem content with their profits and honours, without the power. One part of the town is allotted to the Jews, where about fix or feven hundred live ( 65 ) live peaceably and have their fynagogue ; and it was here the famous rabbin Jofepb Meir was born; he died in the year 1554. He was author, you know, of Annales des Rots de Frknce, et de la Maifon Ottomans. Not far from Avignon, on the banks of the fame rapid river, ftands Beaucaire, famous for its annual FAIR, where mer- chandife is brought from all parts of Europe, free of all duties : it begins on the 22d of July; and it is computed that eight millions of livres are annually ex- pended there in eight days. Avignon is remarkable for the number Seven ; having feven ports, feven parifhes, feven colleges, feven hofpitals, and fever i monafteries; and I may add, I think, feven hundred bells, xvhich are always making a horrid jingle; for they have no idea of ringing bells har- monioufly in any part of France. At SALON, near AVIGNON, ftands a fine monument of Michael Noftradamus, a VOL. II. F Hioe- ( 66 ) fhoe-maker ; his effigies is in the town wall, with his arms and epitaph. This laft is written in Latin. He died in 1566; and, if his epitaph writer tells truth, he was, in- deed, an extraordinary man ; for it fays, " This tomb contains the body of the re- " nowned M. Noftradamus, whofe divine " pen was admired by all the world, and " that Anne Pence , his widow, was as " good as he was great; his fon alfo ap- ' pears to have been a philofopher, an " aftrologer, a prophet, and a phyfician. " Anne, the wife, and mother of thefe " two great men, defires that nobody will " envy their repofe, or refleft on their me- 11 mory" by which caution, it fhould feem "as if me was aware that people would hint what me feemed to know, and what I would fay, but for the refpedt I bear to the requeft of a lady of fuch fafhion. LETTER LETTER XLL LYONS. AFTER a month's refidence at Avig- non, where I waited till the weather and roads amongft the high Dauphin^ mountains were improved, I fet out for this city. I had, you know, when outward- bound, dropt down to Pont St. Efprit by water, fo it was a new fcene to us by land, and I allure you it was a fine one * the vaft and extenfive rich vales, adorned on all fides with fuch romantic mountains * could not be otherwife, in fuch a climate. Our firft ftage was only four long leagues to Orange. This is the laft town in the pope's territories ; and within a quarter of a mile of it ftands, in acorn field, a beautiful Ro- man triumphal arch, fo great in ruins, that it would be an ornament even in Rome. The Palais Royal, at this town, has nothing F % to ( 68 ) to recommend it, but that it affords a pro- fpect of this rich morfel of antiquity. From Orange we paffed through P/Vr- laite, Donzeir* and feveral fmaller towns, and lay one night at a fmgle houfe, but an excellent auberge, called Souce', kept by an underflanding fenlible hofh At a little village, called Atang, on the banks of the Rhone, we flopped a day or two, to enjoy the fweet fituation. Juft oppofite to it, on the other fide of the river, flands a large town (Tournau), which added to the beauty of our village, over which hangs a very high mountain, from whence the befl Hermitage wine is col- lected. I fuppofe it is called Hermitage, from a hermit's cell on the top of it ; but fo unlike the Monferrat hermitages, that I contented myfelf with only tailing the hermit's wine. It was fo good, indeed, that though I did not fee how it was pof- fible ( 69 ) fible to get it fafe to the north fide of France, I could not withftand the tempta- tion of buying a cafk, for which I was to pay twelve guineas, and did pay one as earneft, to a very fenfible, and, I believe, honeft and opulent wine merchant, who, however, made me a prefent of two bottles when I came away, almoft worth my guinea. It is three livres a bottle on the fpot ; and he ihewed me orders he had received from men of fafhion in England for wine; among which was one from Mr. Ryder, Sir Dudley Ryder's fon, I fancy, who, I found, was well fatisfied with his former dealings. Do you know that claret is greatly improved by a mixture of her- mitage, and that the beft claret we have in England is generally fo adulterated? The next towns we patted were Pevige and F'ienne, the latter only five leagues from this city. It is a very ancient town, and was formerly a Roman colony. The F 3 cathe- ( 7 ) cathedral is a large and noble Gothic ftructure, and in it is a fine tomb of car- dinal De Mount mom, faid to be equal in workmanfhip to Ric6/ieu's, in the Sor bonne, but faid to be fo by people no ways qua- lified to judge properly. It is, indeed, an expenfive, but a miferable performance, when put in competition with the works of Girardeau. About half a mile with- out the town is a noble pyramidal Roman monument, faid to have ffood in the centre of the market-place in the time of the Romans. There is alfo to be feen in this town, a Mofaic pavement, difcovered only a few years fince, wonderfully beautiful indeed, and near ten feet fquare, though not quite perfect, being broken in the night by fome malicious people, out of mere wantonnefs, foon after it was dik covered. At this town I was recommended to the table ronde > but as there are two, la grande ( 7' ) grandeand la petit 'e, I muft recommend you to the petite, to which I was obliged to move ; for of all the dreadful women I ever came near, Madam Roujillon has the leafl meilifiiQiis notes ; her ill behaviour, however, procured me the honour of a very agreeable acquaintance, the Marquis de Valan, who made me alhamed, by mewing us an attention we had no right to exped: ; but this' is one, among many other '* agreeable circumftances, which attend ftrangers travelling in France. French gentlemen never fee ftrangers ill treated, without ftanding forth in their defence ; and I hope ILnglijh gentlemen , whom Horace calls Erltannos bojpltibus fero^ will follow their example, becaufe it is a piece of juftice due to ftrangers, in whatever country they are, or whatever country they are from ; it is doing as one would be done by. That prejudice w r hich prevails in England, even among fome F 4 people ( 7* ) people of fafhion, againft the French na-r tion, is illiberal in the higheft degree ; nay, it is more it is a national difgrace. When I recollect with what eafe and uninterruption I have paffed through fo many great and little towns, and extenflve provinces, without a fymptom of wanton rudenefs being offered me, I bluili to think how a Frenchman, if he made no better figure than I did, would have been treated in a tour through Britain. My monkey, with a pair of French jack boots, and his hair en queue , rode poftilion upon my fhirdy horfe fome hours every day. Such a fight, you may be fure, brought forth old and young, fick and lame, to look at him and his matter. Jocko put. whole towns in motion, but never brought any affront on his matter they came to look and to laugh, but not to deride or infult. The poft-boys, it is true, did not like to fee their fraternity taken of, in my little s ( 73 ) little theatre ; but they feldom difcover,ed it, but by a grave falutatiort; and fometimes a good-humoured fellow called him com- rade, and made Jocko a bow. They could not laugh at his bad feat, for not one of them rode with more eafe, or had a hand- fomer laced jacket. Mr. Buffbn fays, the monkey and magot (and mine is the lat- t&r, for he has no tail) make their grimace, or chattering, equally to mow their anger, or to make known their appetite. With all due deference to this great naturalifr., I muft beg leave to fay, that this obferva- tion is not quite juft: there is as much difference between the grimace of my Jocko t when he is angry or hungry, and when he grins to mew delight, as there is . in man, when he gnaflies his teeth in wrath, or laughs from mirth. Between Avignon and this town I met a dancing bear, mounted by a Magot. As it ( 74 ) it was upon the high road, I defired leave to prefent Jocko to his grandfather, for fo he appeared both in age and fize ; the in- terview, though they were both males, was very affecting. Never did a father receive a long-loft child with more feeming affection than the old gentleman did my Jocko ; he embraced him with every degree of ten- dernefs imaginable, while the young gentle- man (like other young gentlemen of the prefent age) betrayed a perfect indiffer- ence. In my confcience I believe there was fome confanguinity between them, or the reception would have proved more mutual. Between you and me, I fear, were I to return to England, I might find myfelf a fad party . in fuch an interview. It is a fad reflection; but perhaps Pro- vidence may wifely ordain fuch things, in order as men grow older, to wean them from the objects of their worldly affections, that they may refign more readily to the decree ( 75 ) decree of fate. That good man, Dr. ARBUTHNOT, did not feem to dread the approach of death on his own account, fo much as from the grievous affliction HE had reafon to fear it would bring upon his children and family. LETTER ( 7 6 ) LETTER XLII. LYONS. I Have now fpent a month in my fecond vifit to this great and flourifhing city, and fortunately took lodgings in a Hofet, where I found the lady and fitter of Monf. Le Marquis De Valan y whofe politenefs to us I mentioned in a former letter at Vienne, and by whofe favour I have had an opportunity of feeing more, and being better informed, than I could have been without fo refpectable an acquaintance. At Vienne I only knew his rank : here I be- came acquainted with his good character and fortune, which is very confiderable in Dauphine, where he has two or three fine feats. His lady came .to Lyons, to lie-in, attended by the marquis's Mer, a ChanoineJ/e, a moft agreeable fenfible woman, of a certain age ; but the countefs is young and beautiful. You ( 77 ) You may imagine that, after what I faid of Lyons, on my way to Spain, I did not aflbciate much with my own country-folks on my return. Indeed, my principal amufe- ment was to fee as much as I could, in a town were fo much is to be feen^ and in relating to you what I have feen, I will begin with the Hotel de Ville : if it had not that name, I fhould have called it a palace, for there are few palaces fo large or fo noble; upon the firft entrance of which, in the veftibule, you fee, fixed in the wall, a large plate of bronze, bearing flronger marks of fire than of age; on which were engraven, feventeen hun- dred years ago, two harangues made by the emperor Claudius in the fenate, in favour of the Lyonois, and which are not only legible at this day, but all the let- ters are fharp and well executed: the plate, indeed, is broke quite through the middle, but fortunately the fraction runs between the firft and fecond harangues, fo *s as to have done but little injury among the letters. As I do not know whether you ever faw a copy of it, I enclofe it to you, and defire you will fend it as an agreeable exercife, to be well tranflated by my friend at Oxford. On the other fide of the veflibule is a noble flair-cafe, on which is well painted the deflruction of the city, by fo dreadful a fire in the time of the Romans, that Seneca, who gives an account of it in a letter to his friend, fays, " Una nox fuit inter urbem maximam et " nullam" i. e. One night only intervened between a very great city and nothing. There is fomething awful in this fcene ; to fee on one fide of the flair-cafe the conflagration well executed ; on the other, flrong marks of the very fire which burnt fo ( 79 ) fo many ages ago ; for there can be no doubt, but that the bronze plate ftood at that time in the Roman Hotel de VUle, and was burnt down with it, becaufe it was dug up among the refufe of the old city, on the mountain called Fourvire, on the other fide of the river, where the original city was built. In cutting the letters on this large plate of bronze, they have, to gain room, left no diftance between the words, but fhewn the diviilon only by a little touch thus < with the engraver; and where a word ended with a C, or G, they have clapped the touch within the con- cavity of the letter, otherwife it is ad- mirably well executed. Upon entering into the long gallery above ftairs, you are fliewn the late king and queen's pictures at full length, fur- rounded with the heads of fome hundred citizens; and in one corner of the room an ancient altar, the Taurobolium, dug up up in 1764, near the fame place where Claudius's harangue was found. It is of common ftone, well executed, about four feet high, and one foot and a half fquare : on the front of it is the bull's head, in demi relief, adorned with a garland of corn ; on the right fide is the facrificial knife * of a very fingular form j and on the left the head of a ram, adorned as the bull's ; near the point of the knife are the following words, cujus faftum eft; the top of the altar is hollowed out into the form of a mallow bafon, in which, I fup- pofe, incenfe was burnt, and part of the victims. The Latin infcription under the bull's head is very well cut, and very legible ; by which it appears, that by the exprefs order of CYBELE, the reputed mother of * The knife which is cut in demi relief on the Tauro- lolium, is crocked upon the back, exaclly in the fame man- ner and form as may be feen on fome of the medals of t! e kings of Macedonia. the the gods, for the honour and health of the emporer Antoninus Pius, father of his country, and for the prefervation of his children, Lucius JEmilius Carpus * received the horns of the bull, by the miniilration of Quintus Sammius Secundus, tranfported them to the Vatican, and confecrated, at at his own expence, this altar and the head of the bullf ; but I will fend the in- fcription * Lucius JEmilius Carpus was a prieft, and a man of great riches : he was of the quality of Sevir, and probably one of the fix priefts of the temple of AuguRusSextumvir Auguftalis. f Several inscriptions of this kind have been fouud both in Italy and Spain, but by far the greater number among the Gauls; and as the facrifices to the goddefs Cybele were fome of the moft ancient of the Pagan rites, fo they were the laft which were fupprefied on the change of Paga- nifm into Chriftianity ; fmce we find one of the Tauro- bolian infcriptions with fo low a date as the time of the emperor Valentinian the Third. The filence of the hea- then writers on this head is very wonderful ; for the only one who makes any mention of them is Julius Firmicus Maternus, in His Diflertation on the Errors of the Pagan Religion ; as Dillenius, in his elaborate account of the Taurobolium, has remarked. The ceremony of the confecration of the high prieft of Cybele, has been miftaken by many learned men for the VOL. II. G confc- ' fcription, and a model* of the altar, as foon as I can have it made, as I find here a very ingenious fculptor and modeller ; who, to my * 'The model is now in the pojjejfion of the ingenious Dr. HARRINGTON, at Bath. confeoration of the Roman Pontifex Maximus ; which dig- nity, from the very earlieft infancy of the Roman empire, was always annexed to that of the emperor himfelf. The priefts who had the direction of the Taurobolia, wore the fame veftments, without wafhing out the bloody ftains, as long as they would hold together. By thefe rights and baptifms by blood they thought thern- felves, as it were, re-born to a life eternal. Sextilius Agefi- laus ./Edefms fays, that he was born a-new, to life eternal, by means of the expiation of the Taurobolium and Criobolium. Nor \vere the priefts alone initiated in this manner, but alfo others, who were not of that order. In particular cafes the regenerations were only promifed for twenty years. Befidesthe Taurobolia and Criobolia, which were infti- tuted at the expence of whole cities and provinces, there were others alib, which were founded by the bounty of private people. We often meet with the names of ma- giilrates and priefts of other gods, who were admitted into thefe myfteries, and who inivituted Taurobolia as offer- ings for the fafety of the u.ipt-ror, or their own. The rites of the Taurobolia laded fometimes many days. The MATKtt BETTM 3CiG2I* IJ) JLK QTJtni EM'TTTMIST JtZ 1MPEIUO MAIBM 1 1 1 . r. t. BETM TTO> SAttTTE ECEEKATUBIS ta: s . 1 1 : T s 5TTO IMEHKHtO CONSECRAVJT SACKBBOTE s AM MI' ) SEcnsno AB -ECEMVIBIS | OCC-OSOZT Coa CTX8AKCXI8SMDS CKiWOTIBlOVTVRO I.OCPS J^V ( 83 ) my great furprife, fays no one has hitherto been taken from it. And here let me obferve, left I forget it, to fay, that Augujlus lived three years in this city^ The T^he infcription on the Ta'urobolium, which is on the fame fide with the head of the bull, we have endeavoured to explain by filling up the abbreviations which are me with in the Roman character. TAUROBOLIO MATRIS DEUM MAGN^E QUOD' FACTUM EST EX IMPERIO MATRIS ID^EjE DEUM PRO SALUTE IMPERATORIS C^SARIS TITI ^LII ADRIANI ANTONINI AUGUST! PII PATRIS PATRICE LIBERORUMQUE E^US ET STATUS COLONI.& LUGDUNENSIS LUCIUS .tMILIUS CARPUS SEXTUMVIR AUGUSTALIS ITEM DENDE.OPHORUS VIRES EXCEPIT ET A VATICANO TRANSTULIT ARAM ET BUCRANIUM SUO IMPEICDIO CONSECRAVIT SACERDOTE QUINTO SAMMIO SECUNDO AB QUINDECEMVIRIS OCCABO ET CORONA EXORNATO CUI SANCTISSIMUS ORDO LUGDUNENSIS PERPETUITATEM SACERDOTIS DZCREVIT APPIO ANNIA ATlLIO BRADUA TITO CLODIO VIBIO VARO CONSULIBUS LOCUS DATUS DECRETO DECURIONUM. G 2 ( 84 > The 'Taurobotium was one of the great rnyfteries, you know, of the Roman reli- gion, in the obfervance of which, I think, they dug a large hole in the earth, and covered it with planks, laid at certain diftances, fo as to give light into the fub- terranean temple. The perfon who has to receive the ^aurobolia then defcended into the theatre, and received on his head, and whole body, the fmoaking hot blood of the bull, which is there facrificed for that purpofe. If a fmgle bull was only facrificed, I think they called it (imply a fauroboliumi if a ram was added to it, as was fometimes done, it was then called a Yaurobolium* and Qrlobollum. Sometimes too, I believe a goat was alfo flain. After all the blood of the victim animals was difcharged, the prielts and cybils retired beneath the theatre, and he who had received the bloody facrifice came forth and expofed himfelf, befmeared with blood, blood, to the people, who all poftrated themfelves before him, with reverential awe, as one who was thereby particularly fanctified, and whofe perfon ought to be regarded with the higheft veneration, and looked upon with holy horror; nor diart of the fifh delineated by the pencil of nature, in the moft exquifite manner; the greater part of thefe petrifications were collected by the hands of the pofleflbr, fome from Mount Bo!a> others from Mount Lib an > Switzerland, &c-. Mr. S#gttier*s Herbary confifts of more than ten thoufand plants ; but above all^ Mr. Seguzer himfelf is the firfl, and moft VOL. II. H valuable ( 98 ) valuable part of his cabinet, having fpent a long life in rational amufements; and, though turned of fourfcore, he has all the cheerfulnefs of youth, without any of the garrulity of old age. When he honoured me with a vifit, at my country lodgings, he came on foot ; and, as the waters were out, I afked him how he got at me *, fo dry footed ? He had walked upon the wall, he faid ; a wall not above nine inches thick, and of a confiderable length ! And here let me obferve, that a French- man eats his foupe and bouilli at twelve o'clock, drinks only witt>, not after his dinner, and then mixes water with his genuine wine ; he lives in a fine climate, where there are not as with us, for fix weeks * In the Scotch dialeft, to be at one, fignifies to be with one. A lady at Bath received a letter from her huf- band in the public rooms, withdrew a little, and read it ; upon returning to her company, and being afked how my lord did ? Varry lueell, faid fhe, and he'll be at me to-mor- row neet. It would be rather indelicate to repeat what a gentleman who overheard her, faid, aJUe, for fhe was nei- ther young nor handfome. together, ( 99 ) together, eafterly winds, which flop the pores and obftrucl: perfpi ration. A French- j man eats a great deal, it is true, but it is not all hard meat ; and they never fit and drink after dinner or fupper is over. An Englishman, on the contrary, drinks much ftronger, and a variety of fermented liquors, and often much worfe, and fits at it many hours after dinner, and always ; after fupper. How then can he expect fuch health, fuch fpirits, and to enjoy a long life, free from pain, as moft French- men do ? When the negro fervants in the Weft-Indies find their mafters call after dinner for a bowl of punch extraordinary, they whifper them, (if company are pre- fent) and a(k, " whether they drink for drunk, or drink for dry .?" A Frenchman never drinks for drunk. While the Eng- lilhman is earning difeafe and mifery at his bottle, the Frenchman is embroider- ing a gown, or knitting a handkerchief for his miftrefs. I have feen a lady's fack H 2 finely ) r finely tamboured by a captain of horfe, and a lady's white boibm fhewn through, mefhes netted by y the man who made the fnare, in which he, was himfelf entan- gled : though he made it, he did not perhaps know, the ppwers of it till. (he Jet it. LETTER LETTER XLV. TH E king of France has, very wifely, ordered all the negroes, mulattoes, &c. to quit his kingdom; a circumftance which many look upon as cruel, others as unjuft, and almoft every body as a matter of indifference; on the contrary, 1 will almo'ft venture to affirm it is the wifeftand moft laudable edift, he has, or perhaps will iflue during the long reign which in all probability lies before him; and it is a matter well worthy of the moft ferious confideration of the legiflature of this kingdom. I highly honour and re- fpect the noble and humane part which Mr. Grenville Sharp took in behalf of the freedom of thofe people in this coun- try. I confider him in that light as one of the watchful guardians of the freedom of the flate ; but if he thinks they are in H 3 all all refpeds human creatures, in the fame line with the men of other nations, I widely differ from him ; I do not mean, you may be fure, to claim any fuperiority in colour, for black may be, and is for aught I know, full as beautiful, as red, or white : but I have lived long, and in- timately, with thofe people, and from a perfect knowledge of their intellects and difpofition, as well as their external form, I am thoroughly perfuaded they are, in every refpedl, men of a lower order, and fo made by the Creator of all things. Let us firft take a view of their exteriors ; Their face is fcarce what we call human, their legs without any inner calf, and their broad, flat foot, and long toes (which they can ufe as well as we do our fingers) have much the refemblance of the Orang Oufang, or 'Jocko, and other qua- drupeds of their own climates; and all the diftempers thefe poor wretches are fubject to, are the fame with purs, only laid upon them them ten-fold. In their own country they had not the fmall-pox till we carried it among them ; ljut they always had the yaws, which is ten times worfe, attended with three different eruptions, and is a whole year in its progrefs on thofe who furvive it. Our itch too, is their Cra- craws, a moft loathfome and violent dif- order. As to their intellects, not one was ever born with folid fenfe ; yet all have a degree of monkey cunning, and even mon- key mifchief, which often ftands them in better ftead than fenfe. They are in na- ture cruel, to the higheft degree; and thofe mulattoes and free negroes, in our iflands, who have eftates of their own, exercife fuch a tyranny over their flaves, that it is beyond conception; and their afts of barbarity bring an odium on the white inhabitants of our Weft- India fet- tlements, which in general they do not merit. The frequent marriages of thefe men here with white women, and the H 4 fucceffion fucceffion of black, brown, and ivhity brown people, produced by thefe very uri- natural (for unnatural they are) alliances^ have been better obferved in France, than in this once country of greater liberty. I laugh when I hear the deluded Weft- Indians, or, what is more common, Bri-r tons (who like to keep a black man, be- caufe he wears a turban), talk of the fidelity of thofe people. I never yet knew one who was not at bottom a villain. J once, indeed, knew a gentleman who had been ferved by a black faithfully, he thought, for twenty years, and who re- garded him fincerely but when Quafhy ; found the phyficians had given his mailer over, he ftole his breeches, watch, and money from under his dying pillow, and went off with them. This attack fo roufed the indignant mafter, that he re- covered from his diftemper, though he never recovered his faithful black, nor his departed breeches. They are a bad, ( "5 ) gloomy, bloody-minded, revengeful peo-, pie, and in the courfe of a few centuries they will over-run this, country with a race of men of the very worft fort under heaven. The American Indians, with all their fcalping knives, tomahawks, &c. are men infinitely fuperior in all refpects, to the blacks of Guinea, who are the only nation we know under the fun, who fup-? port a regular trade, and barter one ano- ther for the luxuries (for they have all neceflaries) of life; and, if any thing can juflify their being made Haves, it is their being themfelves the fupporters of it. If it be urged, that thefe people would be better by education, &c. I aiTert the contrary is the truth. One WILLIAMS, who had a very liberal education, and whoi was author of the well known fong, " Welcome i welcome, Brother Debtor\" was certainly a firft rate villain. He had Jbme parts, it is true, but no fenfe; he ( "6 ) had a good eftate indeed, but lived, and died, in Spanifh Town gaol, in Jamaica, rather than pay his juft debts ; and I have heard him fay, " Shew me a negro, and " I will fhew you a thief." If we may give credit to authors whofe veracity there is no reafon to doubt, there are, in fome parts of the world, creatures in almoft every refped: of the human form, except only that they have long tails like monkeys, and thofe beings are no doubt another, but lower link of men than the negroes ; and I have feen an animal of the JOCKO kind, when chained to a fpot, contrive to get his food, which was out of his reach, by an addrefs which many human creatures would have perimed for want of abilities to put in practice. The Orang Outang walks always erect, and has no tail: his face is pale, without hair, nor is his body co- vered with more hair than may be found on fome Europeans : they are often fix feet high. The females are fubject to cer- tain ( "7 ) tain periodical inconveniences, and the males often purfue and ravilh women, BONTIUS, a phyfician of France, and who lived many years in Batavia, fpeaking of the Orang Oufattg, expreflly fays, that he has feen them of both fexes, walking about as erect as any human creature ; that neither male nor female differ in form or fex from men, but having more hair on their bodies, and being outre in countenance and limb ; nay, that the females have a fenfe of fhame, and put themfelves in the attitude of the Venus de Medicis, when they are apprpached by ftrangers ; that they cried when in diftrefs, and in fhort had every human power but fpeech. This account is confirmed by that great naturalift Monf. Buff'on, who has feen the fmaller fort of this animal alive. Can it be doubted, but that if a male or female of this fpecies were to cohahit with an European of the contrary fex, they would not produce a mixed breed, and that we ( ,o8 ) wt fhould in a few years be as much over- run with Outang Europangs, as we now are with the various tints of complexion-, which have originated from the coaft of Angola. -London ^abounds with an incre- dible number of thefe black men, who have clubs to fupport thofe who are out of place ; and .every country town, nay in almoft every village are to be feen a little race of mulattoes, mifchievous as monkeys, and infinitely more dangerous, LIN-N^US and many other authors of veracity aflert, that the Qrang Outang, or Jocko (for they are all the fame fpecies), can and do con- verfe together; and that they are fo perfect that it is impoffible to fay whether they are to be ranked as animals, or human creatures ; nor is there any doubt but that they can communicate their ideas, and %nify by founds their mutual wants or defires. Man in the ftate of nature does not want a copious language. I could fpeak the American Indian language when I was I was a boy among them; a firnple that they had learnt it from their" birds, and had no other method of fignify- ing it was the break- of day, but by faying cuckeruz - cuckeru .. ^coo, from a bird which ufually makes that noife at the point of day. Manf. Buff on , whofe vera-> city , cannot , be doubted, fays, he faw-' at t- Paris an Or>ang Outong, who had nothing of / the impatience and mifchief in his nature" of the monkey; .that. .he walked ereclr, rew> ceived the company who came to fee;him)i courteouily, and handed them; into .his . apartment; that he fat at table* .ufed.ihis,: napkin properly,, as well as his knife and ~ fork, drank from a glafs, would wait at v ' table, and was in all refpects obedient to his mafter, and never offered the leaft in- jury to others; that he approached ftrangers , with refpecl:, drank tea and wine in fmall < quantities., and was fond of the carefles hex- received from his vifitors . . He was fhewn \ i in Paris during one fummer, and in, the - { winter winter following brought to Londort, where he died. In fhort, from a variety of travellers of unqueftionable veracity, as well as from our own obfervations, there is reafon to believe that there is a link of created beings from MAN, down to a MOLE, which, like the perfpective of a diftant country, is carried on by fo eafy a gradation, that we know not where the excellence begins ; nor where to divide affinity. But enough has been faid, I doubt not, to convince every rational man, that a mixture of negro blood with the natives of this country is big with great and mighty mifchiefs; and that, if they are to live among us, they ought by fome very fevere law to be compelled to marry only among themfelves, and to have no Criminal intercourfe whatever with people of other complexions. There is not on earth fo mifchievous and vicious an ani- mal as a mule, nor in my humble opinion a worfe race of men than the negroes of Africa. ( t" ) Africa. I was at the making of peace with thefe people in Jamaica, and lived fome time with them in Trelawney town afterwards, where I faw the under jaw bones of fome of the company, I then was lieutenant to, fattened to their war-horns, and moft of the women had the teeth from an upper jaw, drilled and ftrung round their wrifts for bracelets; and even the fon of captain ^uaha their chief, a child about four years old, attempted to ftab me in the belly ; for while I was playing with him, he ftruck at me with a pointed knife, exclaiming ah beckera, beckera \ i. e. ah, white man, white man! When thefe people made defcents upon the plan- tations, on the north fide of the ifland, and could carry off any white men alive, they put them to the moil cruel and un- heard of deaths ; fometimes fixing them to flakes for the diverfion of their chil- dren, and, when they called for food, cut- ting off freaks from their own flefh and compelling compelling them ta eat it. That thejr fhould contend for their liberty in that country where they are bought and fold like a flock of fheep, or a troop of mules, cannot be wondered at; but that is nof reafon why they fhould be received here; and permitted to propagate their mif- chievous race among us. We have wicked flreams, and Jlreamers of human blood among us already. LETTER ( "3 ) LETTER XLVI. I Write to you juft as things come into my head, having taken very few notes, and thofe, as you muft perceive, often without much regard to umfon or time. It has this minute occurred to me, that I omitted to tell you on my journey on- wards, that I vifited a little town in P/- cardie, called Ham, where there is fo ilrong a caftle, that it may be called la petite Baftile, and which was then, and ftill is, full of ftate prifoners and debtors. To this caftle there is a monftrous tower, the walls of which are thirty-fix feet thick, and the height and circumference are proportionable thereto. It was built by the Connetabk de Sf. Paul, in order to fhut up his mafter, Charles VI. king of France, and cotemporary, I think, with our Henry V. but fuch are the extraor- VOL. II. I dinary ( "4 ) dinary turns of all human affairs, that Monjieur k Connetable was mut up in it himfelf many years, and ended his days there. The fate of this conftable brings to my mind a circumftance that happened under my adminiftration at Land-Guard Fort, when the king was pleafed to truft me with the command of it. I had not been twenty-four hours in pofTeffion of what I thought a fmall fovereignty, before I received a letter in the following terms : " SIR, Having obferved horfes grazing " on the covered way, that hath done " apparent damage, and may do more, I " think it my duty to inform you, that " his majefty does not permit horfes to " feed thereon, &c. &c. (Signed) ANTHONY GOODE, Overfeer of the Works." I never was more furprifed, than to find my wings were to be thus clipped, by a civil officer of the board of ordnance. However wrong wrong I or my horfes had a and has given as much caufe to laugh at his remark, as he had at the member's harangue. He concludes thefe ridiculous remarks with one ftill more ab- furd , by obferving what a French ambaf- fador to England faid of the nation in 1523, conftitutes our national character at this day ! " Alas ! poor England ( though " thou be* ft fo clofely fituated, and in ** fuch daily converfation with the polite " and polifhed nation of France, thou haft " gained nothing of their eafe, breeding, " and compliments, in the fpace of two " hundred and fifty years." What this gentleman alludes to, is the ambaflador's letter ( "7 ) letter to the Connetable Montmorency, pre- vious to the meeting of Henry VIII. and Francis I. near Ardres > for (fays the ambaiTador) fur-tout je vous prie, que vous ojiiez de la Cour, ceux qui out la reputation d'etre joyeux f gaudiffeurs car c'eft bien en ce monde, la choje la plus ha'ie de cette nation. And in a few lines after, he foifts in an extract from a Scotchman, one Bar 'day ', who, in his Examen of Nations, fays, ye ne connois point de plus amiable creature* qu'un Francois chez qui I enjouement eft temper e par le jugement, & par difcretion ; to all which I fubfcribe: but fuch men are feldom to be met with in any kingdom. This gentleman fays, the moft re- markable, or rather the only act of gaiety he met with in London, was an harangue made for an hour in the houfe of lords, previous to the trial of Lord Byron ; and that he afterwards understood it was made by a drunken member of parliament. He ( '28 ) He fays, it made him and every bo-ty laugh exceedingly; but he laughed only (I prefume) becaufe every body elfe did ; and relates the flory, I fear, merely to make it a national laugh; for the ha- rangue was certainly very ill placed, and the mirth it produced very indecent, at a time a peer of the realm was to be brought forth accufed of murder; and the un- timely death of a valuable and virtuous young man revived in every body's me- mory. This is the unfavourable fide of what the gentleman fays of the firft people in England, Of the peafants and lower order, he obferves, that though they are well fed, well clothed, and well lodged, yet they are all of a melancholy turn. The French have no idea of what we call dry humour; and this gentleman, perhaps, thought the Englifh clown melancholy, while while he was laughing in his fleeve at the foppery of his laquais. Thefe obfervations put me in mind of another modern traveller, a man of fenfe and letters too, who obferves, that the balluftrades at Wejlminjler bridge are fixed very clofe together, to prevent the Englifh getting through to drown themfelves : and of a gentleman at Cambridge r , who, having cut a large pigeon-hole under his clofet door, on being afked the ufe of it, faid, he had it cut for an old cat which had kittens, to go in and out ; but added, that be mujl fend for the carpenter to cut little holes for the young ones. His acute wjitor inftantly fet up a hoarfe laugh, and afked him whe- ther the little cats could not come out at . the fame hole the big one did ? The other laughing in his turn, faid, he did not think of that. Though I have fpoken with freedom of this French travelled remarks, yet I muft VOL. II. K own ( '3 ) own that, in general, he writes and thijiks liberally, and fpeaks highly of the Englifh nation, and very gratefully of many indivi- duals to whom he was known ; and I dare fay a Frenchman will find many more miftakes of mine, which I fliall be happy to fee pointed out, or rectified : but were I to pick out the particular objects of laugh- ter, pity, and contempt, which have fallen in my way, in twice croffing this great continent, I could make a fecond Joe Miller of one, and a Jane Shore of the other. If this traveller could have underftood the Beggars' Opera, the humour of Sam. Focte, or the pleafantry among Englifh failors, watermen, and the lower order of the peo- ple, he would have known, that though the Englilh nation have not fo much viva- city as the French, they are behind-hand with no nation whatever, where true wit and genuine humour are to be difplayed. What, would he have faid, could he have feen and enteied into the fpirit and humour of of Mr. Garrick in the character of Scrub ? Sbuter, Woodward, Mrs. Cfive, or the ini- mitable Mrs. DIDIER, and little EDWIN at Bath. Had he been capable of feeling the force of their comic powers, he would have found better matter for his rifibility than he did in the Houfe of Lords, and muil have acknowledged that neither the aclors, the audience, nor the nation, are fuch a heavy, dull, infenfible people as h-e conceives them to be* K 2 LETTER ( '3* ) LETTER XLVIII. FROM Sf. George to Ma$on, is five leagues. Nothing on earth can be more beautiful than the face of this coun- try, far and near. The road lies over a vaft and fertile plain, not far diftant from the banks of the Soane on one fide, and adorned with mountains, equally fertile and beautiful, on the other. It is very fingular that all the cows of this part of the country are white, or of a light dun colour, and the drefs of all the Magonnois peafants as different from any other pro- vince in France, as that of the Turkifli habit j I mean the women's drefs, for I perceived no difference among the men, but that they are greater clowns than any other French peafant. The women wear a broad bone lace ruff about their necks, and ( '33 ) and a narrow edging of the fame fort round their caps, which are in the form of the charity girls* caps in England; but as they mutt not bind them on with any kind of ribband, they look rather laid upon their heads, than dr effect upon them-, their gowns are of a very coarfe light brown woollen cloth, made extremely fhort-waifted, and full of high and thick plaits over the hips, the fleeves are rather large, and turned up with fome gaudy coloured filk ; upon the moulders are fewed feveral pieces of worfted livery lace, which feem to go quite under their arms, in the fame man- ner as is fometimes put to children to ftrengthen their leading-firings. Upon the whole, however, the drefs is becoming, and the very long petticoat and full plaits have a graceful appearance. MLyonsI faw a Mafonnoi/egirlof famion, or fortune, in this drefs j her lace was fine, her gown filk, and her fhoulder-ftraps of K 3 filver; ( 134 ) filvcr; and, as her head had much more of the bon gout than the bon ton* I thpught her the moft inviting object I had feen in that city, my delicate landlady at Nifmes always excepted. I think France cannot produce fuch another woman for beauty as Madame Seigny. I bought a large quantity of the Ma$on lace, at about eight-pence Englifh a yard, which at a little diftance cannot eafily be diftinguifhed from fine old point. Between St. George and Ma$on, at a time we wanted our breakfaft, we came to a fpot where two high roads crofs each other, and found there a little cabin, not unlike the Iron Houfe, as to whim ; but this was built, fides, top, and bottom, with fawed boards ; and as a little bit of a board hung out at the door informed us they fold wine, I went in, and afked the miftrefs permlfTion to boil my tea-kettle, and to ( 135 ) to eat our breakfoft in her pretty cabin. The woman was knitting : me laid down her work, rofe up, and with the eafe and addrefs of a woman of the firfl fafhion, faid we did her honour ; that her houfe, fuch as it was, and every thing in it, were at our fervice. She then fent a girl to a farmer's, hard by, for milk, and to a village, a quarter of a league diftant, for hot bread; and while we breakfafted, her converfation and good breeding made up a principal part of the repas : me had my horfe too brought to the back part of her cabin, where he was well fed from a portable manger. I bought of her two bottles of white wine, not much inferior to, and much wholefomer than, Cham- pagne, and flie charged me for the whole, milk, bread, fire, converfation, and wine, thirty-fixy^/f, about feventcen pence Eng- glifh ! Though this gentlewoman, for fo I muft call her, and ib I believe Ihe is, lived in fuch a fmall hut, ihe feemed to K 4 be ( '36 ) be in good circumftances, and had liqueur s> tea, and a great variety of little matters to fell. This was the only public houfe, (if it may be called by that name) during my whole journey out and in, where I found perfedl civility : not that the pub- licans in general have not civility in their pcff'effion, but they will not, either from pride or d'Jign* produce it, particularly to Grangers. My wooden-hottfe landlady ', in- deed, was a prodigy; and it muft be con- feffed, that no woman of the lower order in England, nor even of the middling clafs, have any mare of that eafe and urbanity which is fo common among the lower order of the people of this kingdom : but the woman I now fpeak of, had not, you will perceive, the leaft defign even upon my purfe. I made no previous agreement with her for my good fare, and me fcorned to take any advantage of my confidence ; and I mewed my fenfe of it, by giving her lit- tle maid eight times more than me ever received ( '37 ) received for fuch fervices before an Eng- lifli fliilling. Let not this flngle, and fingular woman, however, induce you to trufl to the con- fcience of a French aubergifte % efpecially a female ; you may as well truft to the con- fcience of an itenerant Jew. Frenchmen are fo aware of this, that I have heard a traveller, on a maigre day, make his bar- gain for his omelette, and the number of eggs to be put in it, with an exactnefs fcarce to be imagined ; and yet the upfhot was only two pence Englifh. The eafy manner in which a French of- ficer, or gentleman, can traverfe this mighty kingdom, either for pleafure or bufinefs, is extremely agreeable, and worthy of imi- tation among young Britifh officers. In England, if an Enfign of foot is going a journey, he muft have two horfes, and a groom, though he has nothing but a regi- mental (' '38 ) mental fuit of clothes, and half a dozen fhirts to carry : his horfes too mull fet both ends well, becaufe he is a Captain upon the road; and he travels at about five times tJie expence of his pay, The French officer buys a little bidet, puts his mirts and beft regimental coat into a little portmanteau, buckles that behind his faddle, and with his fword by his fide, and his croix at his button-hole, travels at the expence of about three fhillings a day, and often lefs, through a kingdom where every order of people mew him attention, and give him precedence. I blufh when I recoiled: that I have rode the rifque of being wet to the fkin, becaufe I would not difgrace my faddle, nor load my back with a great coat ; for I \\z.v.former!y, as well as latterly, travelled without a fervant, I have ( '39 ) I have a letter now before me, which I received a few days ago from a French captain of foot who fays fur le champ fay fait feller ma petite Roffinante (car vous f$avez que jay acbete un petit cheval de 90 tivres felle et bride) et me "ooila a Epernay chez Monjieur Lochet, &c. This gentle* man's whole pay does not amount to more than flxty pounds a year, yet he has always five guineas in his pocket, and every convenience, and fome luxuries about him ; he affifts now and then an extravagant brother, appears always well drefled ; and lair, year I bought him a ticket in the Bri- tifli lottery. He did not confider that he employed an unfortunate man tq buy it, and I forgot to remind him of it, After faying thus much of a virtuous young man (though a Frenchman J y there will be no harm in telling you his name js Lalieu^ a captain in the regiment du Maine. Before I took my lafl leave of him, ( '4 ) him, talking together of the horrors of war, I afked him what he would do if he were to fee me vis-a-vis in an hoftile manner ? He embraced me, and faid, " turn the " butt end of my fufee towards you, my ** friend." I thank God that neither his butt- end, nor my muzzle can ever meet ; in that manner, and I lhall be happy to meet him in any other. \ P. S. I omitted to fay, that the Ma- gonnoife female peafants wear black hats, in the form of the Englifh. ftraw or chip hats ; and when they are tied on under the chin, it gives them, with the addi- tion of their round-eared laced cap, a decent, modeft appearance, which puts out of countenance all the borrowed plumage, dead hair, black wool, lead, greafe, and yellow powder, which is now in motion between Edinburgh and Paris. [t It is a pity that pretty women, at leafl, do not know that the fimplicity of a quaker's head-drefs is fuperior to all that art can contrive : and thofe who re- member the elegant Mifs Fido, a woman of that perfuaiion, will fubfcribe to the truth of my aflertion. And it is ftill a greater pity, that plain women do not know, that the more they adorn and ar tlfy their heads, the more confpicuous they make their natural defe&s. LETTER LETTER XLIX. AT Challons far la Soane (for there is another town of the fame name in Champagne) , I had the honor of a vifit from Monf. le Baron Shortatl, a gentleman of an ancient family, rather in diflrefs at this time, by being kept out of Jix-and-thirty thonfand a year, his legal property in Ire- land; but as the Baron made his vifit a la made de capuchin Friar* without knock- ing, and when only the female part of my family were in the apartment, he was dif- milTed rather abruptly for a man of his high rank , and great fortune in expetfat ion . This difmiffion, however, did not difmay him ; he rallied again, with the reinforcement of Madame la Baronnes, the daughter, a he pofitively affirmed, of Monf. de Prince de Monaco ; but as I had forbad his being foown up, he defired me to come down, a fum men s ( 143 ) fummons curiofity induced me to obey. Never, furely, were two people of fafhioa. in a more pitiable pligbt ! he was in a ruffe t brown black fuit of clothes ; Madame la Baronnes in much the fame colour, wrapt up in a tattered black lilk capuchin ; and I knew not which to admire moft, their folly or their impudence. Surely never did an adventurer fet out with lefs capabilities about him; his whole ftory was fo flagrant a fib, that in fpite of the very refp eft able certificates of Lord Mayor, John Wilkes, and Mr. Alderman Bull, I was obliged to tell him plainly, that I did not believe him to be a gentleman, nor his wife to be a relation of the Prince of Mo- naco. All this he took in good part, and then affured me they were both very hungry, and without meat or money; I therefore ordered a dinner at twenty fo/s a head ; and, as I fat by while they eat it, I had reafon to believe that he told me one plain truth ^ for in truth they eat as if they ( 144 ) they had never eaten before. After dinner the baron did me the honour to confult with me bow he fliould get down to Lysns? I recommended to him to pro- ceed by water : but, faid he, my dear Sir, I have no money; an evil I did not choofe to redrefs ; and, after feveral unfuccefsful attempts at my purfe, and fome at my per- fon - he whifpered me that even fix livres would be acceptable ; but I held out, and got off, by propofing that the baronefs fhould write a letter to the prince her fa- ther, to whom I had the honour to be known, and that I would carry him the letter, and enforce their prayer by making it my own. This meafure me inftantly complied, with, and addrefled her father adorable Prince; but concluded it with a name which could not belong to her either as maid, wife, or widow. I remarked this to the baron, who ackowledged at once tbemtftake, faid me had figned a falfe name, and me mould write it over again; but when ( '45 ) when I obferved to him, that as the prince knew the hand-writing of his own dear child, and as the name of women is often varying by marriage or mifcarriage, it was all one. To this he agreed j and I brought off the letter, and my purfe too, for forty Joist yet there was fo much falfehood, folly, and fimplicity in this Jimple pair of adventurers, that I forely repented I did not give them their pafTage in the cocbe d'eau to Lyons ; for he could not fpeak a word of French, nor Madame la Baronne a word of Englifh ; and the only badge of diirindtion between them was, a vaft clumfy brafs-hilted fword which the ba- ron, inftead of wearing at his fide, held up at his nofe, like a phyfician's gold- headed cane. When I took my leave o this Sir James Shortall (for he owned at loft he w r as only a baronet J, he pfomifed to meet me next time drefled in his blue and filver. VOL. II. L I verily ( '46 ) I verily believe my Irifh adventurer at Perpignan is a gentleman, and therefore I relieved him ; I am thoroughly perfuaded my Challons adventurer is not, yet perhaps he was a real object of charity, and his true tale would have produced him better fuc- cefs than his borrowed ftory. Sir James was about fixty, Lady Shortall about fifty. Sir James too had a pretty large property in America, and would have vifited his eftates on that continent, had I not in- formed him of the prefent unhappy dif- ferences now fubfifling between that and the mother country, of which he had not heard a (ingle fyllable. After having faid thus much, I think I muft treat you with a copy of Lady Shortall's letter, a name very applicable to their unhappy fituation, for they did in- deed feem fhort of every thing ; fo here it is, verbatim et literatim : " Monjleur " Monfieur Thicknefs gentilbomme anglaife " Adorable preince de monaco que tout " mordonne deme, life au de fus de cette " lette le non deun digne homme qui me " randu fer vifle, je fuis malade, le con- "vantj ferois preferable a mon bouneur '' je veux fepandant fauve mon marij mais '* je me meure tre feve mon derinier " foupire, je ne le doit qua vous. and, after four leagues journey through a moft delightful ( '59 ) delightful country, we arrived at a mifer- able auberge, in a dirty village called Tozy, which ftands upon the margin of a large foreft, in which, fome years lince, the diligence from Lyons to Paris was at- tacked by a banditti, and the whole party of travellers were murthered. Ever fince that fatal day, a guard of the MarecbauJJee always efcort the diligence through this deep and dreadful foreft (fo they called it), and we were perfuaded it was right to take a couple of the Marechauflee, and did fo ; but as we found the foreft by no means fo long, deep, or dreadful, as it had been reprefented, we fufpected that the advice given us was more for the fake of the men who guarded us, than from any regard to us. Two men could have made no great refiftance againft a banditti ; and a fingle man would hardly have meddled with us. The next day we pafled through Arnay- le-Duc, a pretty country village, three leagues ( 160 ) leagues from Tozy ; and it being their an- nual fair-day, we had an opportunity of feeing all the peafantry drefled in their beft, and much chearfulnefs not only in the town, but upon the road before we arrived, and after we pafled it. Among the reft of the company were a bear and a monkey, or rather what Bufon calls the magot. I defired the mow-man to per- mit my magoty as he was the leaft, the youngeft, and the Jlranger, to pay a vifit to Monf. Magot t the elder, who embraced the young gentleman in a manner which aftonifhed and delighted every body, my- felf only excepted j but as my young gentle- man feemed totally indifferent about the. old one, I fufped:ed he had really met bis father, and I could not help moralizing a little. From Arnay-le-Duc we paffed through Maupas, Sa/ou, Rouvray, QuiJJe fa forge 9 and Vermanton to Auxerre, the town where ( 161 ) where the French nobleman was fald to live, whom Dr. Smollet treated fo very roughly, and who, in return, was fa polite as to help to tie the Doctor's baggage be- hind his coach ! About a quarter of a mile without this town ftands a royal convent, richly en- dowed, and delightfully fituated j the walls of which take in near twenty acres of land well planted, on the banks of a river. And here I left my two daughters, to perfect themfelves in the French language, as there was not one perfon within the con- vent, nor, that I could find, within the town, who could fpeak a word of Englim. And here I mufl not omit to tell you how much I was overcome with the generofity of this virtuous, and I muft add amiable, fociety of religieiifis. Upon my firfl en- quiry about their price for board, lodging, warning, clothes, and, in fhort, every thing the children did, or might want, they re- VOL. H. M quired quired a fum much beyond the limits of my fcanty income to gives but before we left them, they became acquainted with fame circumftances, which induced them to exprefs their concern that the price I had offered (not half what they had de- manded) could not be taken. We there- fore retired, and had almoft fixed the chil- dren in a cheaper convent, but much in- ferior in all refpecls, within the town, when we received a polite letter from the lady abbefs, to fay, that after confulting with her fifterhood, they had come to a refolution to take the children at our own price, rather than not fhew how much they wifhed to oblige us. Upon this oc- cafion we were all admitted within the walls of the convent ; and I had the plea- fure of feeing my two daughters joined to an elegant troop of about forty genteel children, and of leaving them under the care of the fame number of religieufes. And yet thefe good people knew nothing of of us but what we ourfelves communi- cated to them, not being known, nor knowing any perfon in the town *. The lady abbefs of this convent is a woman of high rank, about twenty-four years of age, and poffefTes as Jarge a fhare of beauty as any reafonable woman, even on the outjide of a convent, could wifh for. Auxerre is a good town, pleafantly fitua- ted, and in a plentiful and cheap country. From Auxerre to Joigni is five leagues. La Petite Belle Vue on the banks of the river is very pleafantly fituated, but a dreadful one within fide, in every refpect ; being a mixture of dirt, ignorance, and impofition j but it is the only inn for travellers, and therefore travellers mould avoid it. In order to put my old hoftefs * The raitute, however, they fufpefted a war between the two nations, they ira|$ed upon the children being taken away ; and as I knew .their information was good, it made mine the better. See the Appendix. M 2 in in good humour, I called early for a bottle of Champagne; and in order to put me into a bad humour, fhe charged me the next day for two ; but I charged her with Monf. le Connetable* who behaved like a gentleman, though I think he was only un marcband de tonndier j but then he was a wine, not beer cooper, who hooped the old lady's barrel. *r~ , Wherever I was ill ufed or impofed upon, I always fent a pretty heavy packet by the poft, after I had run down a hun- dred miles or two, by way of draw-back upon my hofl, and recompence to the k ng's high road ; for in France, " Like the Quakers' by-way, " lis plain without turnpikes, fo " nothing topay" LETTER ( 16* ) LETTER. LII. TH E next town of any note is Sens, a large, ragged, ancient city; but adorned with a moft noble Gothic cathe- dral, more magnificent than even that of Rbeims, and well worthy of the notice of Grangers. It is faid to have been built by the Englifh. With the relicks and cufto- diums of the hoft, are fhewn the facerdotal habits in which Archbifhop Eecket (who refided there many years) faid mafs; for it was his head-quarters, when he left Britain, as well as "Julius Ctefar's, before he went thither. The filver hafps, and fome of the ornaments of thefe garments, are ilill perfect, though it it has undergone fo many darnings as to be little elfe. Becketvns a very tall man ; for though it has many tucks in it, yet it is generally M 3 too ( '66 ) too long for the tailed prieft in the town, who conftantly fays mafs in it on Sf. Thomas 's day, i. e. St. Thomas a Becket's day *. ' . .1 "1M*-*t How times and men are changed ! This town, which refilled the arms of Ccefar for a considerable time, was put in the utmoft confirmation by Dr. Smollett's caufing his travelling blunderbufs to be only fired in the air, a circumftance " which greatly " terrified all the petit monde /" It is very lingular, that the doctor fhould have frightened a French nobleman of Bur- gundy, by making his cane at him, and even made him affiit in the moft fervile offices ; and in the next town, terrify all the common people, by only firing a blunderbufs in the air! * Our high church gentry ftill keep an account of thofe days, in hopes one day or other of recovering her domi- nion j and, if we go on as we Ime done for foroe years paft, they are in the right nous fommes en ban train. I would I -would not willingly arraign a dead man of telling two fibs fo clofe upon the back of each other ; but I am fure there was but that flngle French nobleman in this mighty kingdom, who would have fubmitted to fuch infults as the Doctor fays he treated him with ; nor any other town but Sens, where the firing of a gun would have fo terrified the inhabitants ; for drums, guns, and noife of every fort, feem to afford the common French peo- ple infinite pleafure. I paflfed in this town a day or two, and part of that time with a very agree- able Scotch family, of the name of Mac- donald, where Lieutenant Colonel Stuart was then upon a vifit. I have fome reafon to think that Sens is a very cheap town. Several Englifh, Scotch, and Irifh families refide in it. M 4 From ( 1 68 ) From Sens to Pont fur Tonne is three leagues j and from Tonne to FouJJart the fame diftance. At the Three Kings at Fou/art, fufpecT> ing there was a cat behind the bed in wait for my bird, I found, inftead thereof, a little narrow door, which was artfully hid, and which opened into another room; and as I am fure the man is a cheat, I fuf- peel: too, that upon a good occajlon^ he would have made fome ufe of his little door, FouJJart is a fmall place, confifling only of three or four public houfes. From thence to Moret is three leagues, on which road is erected a noble pillar of oriental marble, in memory of the mar- riage of Lewis XV. Soon after we parted this monument, we entered into the de- lightful foreft of Fontalnebkaui and paf- fmg three leagues to the centre of it, we arrived arrived at that ancient royal palace: it flands very low, and is furrounded by a great many fine pieces of water, which, however, render the apartments very damp. The king and royal family had been there fix weeks, and were gone but ten days ; and with them, all the furniture of the palace was alfo gone, except glaffes, and a few pictures, of no great value. In a long gallery are placed, on each fide of the wall, a great number of flag's heads, carved in wood, and upon them are fixed the horns of flags and bucks, killed by the late and former kings; fome of which are very outre, others fingularly large and beautiful. Fount alnebkau is a good town ; flands ad- jacent to the palace : and as the gardens, park, &c. are always open, it is a delight- ful fummer refidence. We flayed a few days there, to enjoy the fhady walks, and to fee the humours of a great annual fair, which commenced commenced the day after we arrived. All forts of things are fold at this fair; but the principal bufinefs is done in the ivine way, many thoufand pieces of inferior Burgundy wine being brought to this market. We made two little day's journey from Fontainebleau to Paris, a town I entered with concern, and mall leave with plea- fure. As I had formerly been of fome fervice to Faucauf, who keeps the Hotel d'Tork, when he lived in Rite de Manuals Garden, I went to this famous Hotel, which would have been more in character, if he had given it the name of his former ftreet, and called it I 1 Hotel de Mauvais Gar^on, for it is an hofpital of bugs and vermin. The fellow has got the fecond-hand beds of Madame Pompadour upon his firft floor, which he modejlly a&s thirty Louis d'ors a month for ! All the reft of the apart- ments are pigeon-holes, filled with fleas, bugs, ( '7' ) bugs, and dirt ; and fhould a fire happen, there is no way of efcaping. Nothing fhould be more particularly attended to in Parts than the fecurity from fire, where fo many, and fuch a variety of ftrangers, and their fervants, are fruit up at night, within one Porte Cocbere. LETTER ( '7* ) LETTER LIII. PARIS, I Found no greater alteration in Paris, after ten years ab fence from it, than the prodigious difference of expence : fnoft articles, I think, are one-third dearer, and many double. A horfe is not half fo well fed or lodged at Paris as at London ; but the expence is nearly a guinea a week ; and a ftranger may drive half round the city before he can lodge himfelf and his horfes under the fame roof. The beauties, the pleafures, and variety of amufements, which this city abounds with, are, without doubt, the magnets which attradl fo many people of rank and fortune of all nations to it 5 all which are too well known to be pointed out by me *. To * But it may not be amifs to fhew what a native fays of this great city of pkafure and fadnefs : Tout ( 173 ) To a perfbn of great fortune, in the hey- day of life, Parts may be preferable even to London ; but to one of my age and walk Tout ce que 1'hiftoire & les fables Ont invente de plus exquis, D'Eden les bofquets agreables, D'Armide les jardins fleuris, L'eflain leger, brillant de beautes preferables A Cythere, au ferrail, aux graces, aux houris, Des chars etincelans, des palais admirables, Qui charment les regards des connoifleurs furpris ; t- des delices comparables Aux douceurs que 1'on goute aux celeries lambris : De Paris, telles font les couleurs veritables ; Et j'en laifle a penfer bien plus que je n'en dis. Mais helas ! dans ces lieux, fi beaux, fi. deleclables, Par le riche habites, par le luxe embellis, Les fourbes, les Lais, les veaux d'or & les diables. Trouvent eux feuls leur paradis. Affemblage etonnant de palais & de boue, Ou le crime triompbe, ou la fageffe echoue, O Paris ! dans tes murs fe trouvent reunis Des objets fepares par des points infinis : La baffeffe, 1'orgueil, le f^avoir, J'ignorance, Les vices, les vertus, le luxe &: Pindigence. La, je vois s'elancer fur un char radieux j Le faquin fortune plus briilant que les dieux; Ici, le citoyen au genre humain utile, Sous le joug des travaux courbant un front docile, Avec peine echappe du fracas de ce char, Meurt de faim, quand Je fat s'enivre de ne&ar. in ( '74 ) in life, it is, and was ten years ago, the leaft agreeable place I have feen in France. Walking the flreets is extremely dangerous, riding in them very expen- fivej and when thofe things which are worthy to be feen (and much there is very worthy) have been feen, the city of Paris becomes a melancholy refidence for a ilranger who neither plays at cards, dice, or deals in the principal manufacture of the city \ i. e. ready-made /ove, a bufinefs which is carried on with great fuccefs, and with more decency, I think, than even in London. The Englifh ladies are weak enough to attach themfelves to, and to love, one man. The gay part of the French women love none, but receive all, pour pajjer le terns. The EngHJh, unlike the parijian ladies, take pains to difcover yet fo finely done. I defy the niceft eye, however near, to diftinguifh it (fuppofe the head laid upon a pillow in a bed) from nature ; nor muft Mrs. Wright, or any of the workers in wax I have ever yet feen, pretend to a tythe of the perfection in that art, with the man who made this head. Sad as the Jubject is, I could not withftand the temp- tation of afking permiflion to take a copy of itj and, fortunately, I found the man who who made it was then at Paris nor has he executed his work for me lefs perfect than that he made for the prince. I have been thus particular in mentioning this piece of art, becaufe, of the kind, I will venture to fay, it is not only finely exe^ cuted, but one of. the moft perfect decep- tions ever feen. When you, or any of the ladies and gentlemen who have honoured this poor performance of mine with their names, or their family or friends, pafs this way, I mall be happy to embrace that occafion, to (hew that I have not faid more of this ini- mitable piece of art than it merits ; nor do I fpeak thus pofitively from my own judg- ment, but have the concurrent opinion of many men of unqueftionable judgment, that it is a mafter-piece of art, and among the reft, our worthy and valuable friend Mr. Sharp, of the Old Jewry. Before Before we left Chantilly, we had a little concert, to which my train added one per- former -, and as it was the only ftnng in- ftrument, it was no fmall addition. The day we left this charming place, we found the prince and all his company under tents and pavilions on the road-fide, from whence they were preparing to follow the hounds. At Amiens, there is in the Hotel de Ville, a little antique god, in bronze, which was found, about four years ago, near a Roman urn, in the earth, which is very well wor- thy of the notice of a connoiffeur ; but it is fuch as cannot decently be defcribed. The perfon in whofe cuftody it is, permitted me to take an impreffion from it in wax ; but I am not quite fo good a hand at wax- work as the artift mentioned above, and yet my little houfehold-god has fome merit, a merit tco that was not difcovered till three months months after it had been fixed in the Hotel de Ville ; and the difcovery was made by a female, not a male, connoiffeur. It is faid, that a Hottentot cannot be fo civilized, but that he has always a hanker- ing after his favage friends, and dried chit- terltns ; and that gypfies prefer .their roving life to any other, a circumftance which once did, but now no longer furprizes me \ for I feel fuch a defire to wander again, that I am impatient till the winter is paft, when I intend to viiit Geneva, and make the tour of Italy j and if you can find me out a fenfible valetudinarian or two, of either fex, or any age, who will travel as we do, to fee what is to be feen, to make a little flay where the place or the people invite us to do fo ; who can dine on a cold par- tridge in a hot day under a fhady tree; and travel in a landau and one, we will keep them a table d'bofe, that mail be more pleafant than expenfive, and which will produce ( 208 ) produce more health and fpirits than half the drugs of Apothecaries'- Hall. If God delights fo much in variety, as all things animate and inanimate fuffici- ently prove, no wonder that man mould do fo too : and I have now been fo accuftomed to move, though (lowly, that I intend to creep on to my journey's end, by which means I may live to have been an inhabi- tant of every town almofl in Europe, and die, as I have lately (and wifh I had al- ways) lived, a free citizen of the whole world, Have to no feel:, nor fubjeft to any king. Yet, I would not be confidered as one wifhing to promote that difpoiition in others; for I muil confefs, that it is in England alone, where an innocent and virtuous man can fit down and enjoy the bleilings of liberty and his own cheerful hearth, in full confidence that no earthly power can difturb it ; and the heft reafon which can be offered in favour of Eng- lifhmen lifhmen vifiting other kingdoms, is, to enable them, upon their return, to know how to enjoy the ineftimable bleffings of their country. Perhaps the true character of England is well comprifed in the four following lines, I am fure I can HONESTL^ fubfcribe to the truth of the two laft. " To lend or to fpend, or to give in, 11 This is the beft world, that we can live in; " But to beg, to borrow, or get a marts own i " It is the worft world that ever was known 1 VOL. II. P LETTER LETTER LVIL FOR what fhould Jcrofs the ftreight which divides us though it we,r$ but half feven leagues ? we fhould only meet to part again, and purchafe pleafure, as moft pleafures are purchafed, too dearly; I have dropt fome heavy tears, (ideally at leaft) over poor BUCKLE'S * grave, and it is all one to a man, now with God ! on what king's foil fuch a tribute as that is paid : had fome men of all nations known the goodnefs of his heart as we did, fome men of all nations would grieve as we do. When I frequented Morgan s -}-, I ufed him as a touch-flone, to try the hearts of other men upon j for, as he was not rich, he was out of the walk of knaves and flatterers, and fuch men who were * WILLIAM BUCKLE, Efq. t MORGAN'S Coffee-Houfe, Grove, BATH. pot not prejudiced in his favour at firft fight, and coveted not his company after a little acquaintance, I always avoided as beings made of bafe metal. It was for this rea- fon I defpifed that ****** ****, (you know who I mean) for you too have feen. \\imfnarl and bite, and play the dog t even to BUCKLE ! Our Sunday night's tea-club round his cheerful hearth is now for ever diflblved, and SHARPE and RYE have adminiftered their lafl friendly offices with a potion of forrow. Were I the hermit of Sf> Catherine, I would chifel his name as deeply into one of my pine-heads, as his virtues are im-i prefled on my memory. Though I have loft his guinea, I will not lofe his name ; he looked down with pity upon me when here ; who can fay he may not do fo flill ? P 2 I mould I mould be an infidel, did not a few fucb men as he keep me back. And now, my dear Sir, after the many trifling fubjects in this very long corre- fpondence with you, I will avail myfelf of this good one, to clofe it, on the noblefl work of GOD, AN HONEST MAN. The lofs of fuch a friend is fufficient to induce one to lay afide all purfuits but that, of fol- lowing his example, and preparing to fol- low him. If you fhould ever follow me here, I flatter myfelf you will find that I have, to the beft of my poor abilities, made fuch a {ketch of men and things on this fide of the water, that you will be able to dif- cover fome likenefs to the originals. A bad painter often hits the general features, though he fall ever fo ihort of the graces of Titian, or the Morbldczza of Guido. I am fure, therefore, you and every man of candour, candour, will make allowances for the many inaccuracies, defects, &c. which I am fenfible thefe letters abound with though I am incapable of correcting them. My journey, you know, was not made, as moil journeys are, to indulge in luxury, or in purfuit of pleafures, but to foften forrow, and to recover from a blow, which came from a mighty hand indeed ! but a HAND, flill MORE MIGHTY, has enabled me to refill it, and to return in health, fpirits, and with that peace of mind which no earthly power can defpoil me of, and with that friendship and regard for you, which will only ceafe, when I ceafe to be PHILIP THICKNESSE, Calais, Nov. 4, 1776, P. S. I found Berwick's regiment on duty in this town: it is commanded by Monf. k Due de Fitz y antes t and a number P 3 of of Irifh gentlemen, my countrymen, (for fo I will call them.) You may eafily imagine, that men who poflefs the natu- ral hofpitality of their own country, with the politenefs and good-breeding of this, muft be very agreeable acquaintance in general : But I am bound to go farther, and to fay, that they are endeared to me by marks of true friendfhip. Neither the king of France, nor any prince in Europe, can boaft of troops better difciplined; nor is the king infenfible of their merit, for I have lately feen a letter written by the king's command from le Comte de St. Germain, addrefled to the officers of one of thefe corps, whereby it appears, that the king is truly fenfible of their diftin- guimed merit; for braver men there are not in any fervice: What an acquifition to France ! what a lofs to Britain ! AS AS the Marquis of Grimaldl is retired from his public character, I am tempted to fend you a fpecimen of his private one, which flattering as it is to me, and honourable to himfelf, I mould have with-held, had his excellency con- tinued firft minifter of Spain; by which you will fee, that while Meflrs. Cur toys, Wombwell, Adams, &c. united to fet me in a fufpicious light (though they thought otherwife), the minifter's politenefs and humanity made them tremble at the du- plicity of their conduct ; and had I been difpofed to have acted the fame finifler part they did, fome of them might have been reminded of an old Spanifh proverb, " A las ma/as lenguas tiger as." " Bad tongues may meet with fciflars." " MUY S R . MIO, 11 FOR la carta de i del corr te . veo 44 fu feliz llegada a efTa ciudad, en donde ' habia tornado una cafa, y por las cartas " que me incluye, y debuelo reconofco los P 4 terminos ( "6 ) '* terminos honrados y recomendables con " que ha efedtuado fu falida de Inglaterra, " cofa que yo nunca podria dudar. " Defeo que a V. S. le vaya muy bien en " efte Reyno, y efpero que me avifara el " tiempo que fe propufiere detener en Bar- ". celona, y tambien quando fe verificara " fu yda a Valencia : cuyo Pais fe ha " creydo el mas prbpio para fu refidencia " eftable, por la fuavidad del clima y de- " mas circunftantias. V. S. me hallara Zenon, Et Socrate^ et furtout Tingemcux Platon, Viennent dans ces lieux folitaires, Me preterlefecours de leurs do&es lumieres: VOL. II. R Mais Mais plus fouvent la foeur de 1'enfant de Cypris, Ecartant fans refpect cette foule de fages, Occupe feule mes efprits, En y gravant de mes amis Les trop feduifantes images. Je n'entreprendrois pas de vous peindre nos autres promenades, elles font toutes char- mantes; un payfage coupe, quantite de petits bofquets, mille jolis chemins, nous procurent naturellement des beautes aux- quelles Tart ne fauroit atteindre. La Vefle horde nos prairies, Sur fa rive toujours fleurie Regne un doux air de bergeric, Dangereux pour les tendres coeurs. La, qui fe fent Tame attendre, S'il craint de 1'amour les erreurs, Doit vite quitter la partie. Quittons la done, mon cher Papa; aufli bien ai-je feulement oublie de vous mon- trer la plus belle piece de Fhermitage. C'eft un canal fuperbe. II a cent vingt toifes de long fur douze de large ; une eau courante courante et cryftalline en rend la furface toujours brillante ; c'efl la digne embleme d'une cceur ami, jugez fi cette vue me fait penfer a vous. De grands potagers terminent 1'enclos de la maifon. Si j'etois mechante je con- tinuerois ma defcription, et ne vous ferois pas grace d'une laitue ; mais je me conten- terai de vous dire que le ciel fit fans doute ce canton pour des Etres broutaris* Les fruits, et les legumes y font excellens. Si les Ifraelites en euflent mange jadis, ils n'auroient ni regrette 1' Egypt, ni defire la terre promife* Voila, mon cherPapa, uneaffez mauvaife efquifle du pays Courcellois, L'air m'en feroit plus doux, et le ciel plus ferein, Si quelque jour moins intraitable, Et fe laiflant flechir, le farouche Deflin Y conduifoit ce trio tant amiable Que j'aime, et ch6rirai fans fin. Mais helas! j'y perds tout mon Latin j R 2 Et ( *44 ) Et ce que de mieux je puis faire, Eft d'efperer, et de me taire. 1 Should have ftopt here, and finifhed my prefent correfpondence with you, by leaving your mind harmonized with the above fweet ftanzas of Madame des Jardins, but that it may feem ftrange to give a fpe- cimen of one French lady's literary talents, without acknowledging that this king- dom abounds with many of infinite me- rit. While England can boaft only of about half a dozen women, who will immortalize their names by their works, France can produce half an hundred, admired throughout Europe, for their wit, genius, and elegant competitions. Were I to recite the names and writings only of female authors of emi- nence, which France has produced, fince the time of the firft, and moft unfortunate unfortunate Heloife, who died in 1079, down to Madame Riccoboni, now liv- ing, it would fill a volume. We have, however, a CARTER and a BARBAUD, not lefs celebrated for their learning and genius, than for their private virtues ; and I think it may, with more truth, be faid of women than of men, that the more knowledge, the more virtue ; than of men, the more underftanding, the lefs . courage. Why then is the plume elevated to the bead? and what muft the prefent mode of female education and manners end in, but in more ignorance, diffipation, debauchery, and luxury? and, at length, in national ruin. Thus it was at ROME, the miftrefs of the world ; they became fond of v the moft vitious men, and fuch as meant to enflave them, who corrupted their hearts, by humouring and gratifying their follies, and encouraging, on all fides, idlenefs and diflblute manners, blinded by CESAR'S complaifance ; from his almfmen, R 3 they they became his bondmen -> he charmed them in order to enflave them. When the tragedy of Tereus was a<5led at ROME, Cicero obferved, what plaudits the audi- ence gave with their hands at fome fevere ftrokes in it, againft tyranny; but he very juflly lamented, that they employed their hands, only In the Theatre, not in defend- ing that liberty which they feemed fo fond pf. A ND now, as BAYES fays, " let's have a Dance, "