1827.] Travelling Particularities. 471 



offices to a great house. At right angles with the principal street, on 

 either side, run others, which pierce away into the country, and take almost 

 the character of green lanes, except that they are all perfectly straight 

 the French being at once the most flighty and the most precise people in 

 the world and having the good sense to cut their roads, plant their woods, 

 and build their cities, as if with a view to curb and counterbalance one 

 against the other of these contradictory characteristics. In these little 

 side lanes are situated the cottages of the lower orders, mixed with others 

 of a better kind, which vie, in an air of comfort, with any thing that 

 England can shew of the kind : for it is idle to deny that the French have 

 the thing above named, however we may choose to twit them with the 

 want of the word. 



I will close this letter by naming (in plain English), the prices of the 

 chief ^matters connected with a residence here: premising, however, that 

 Calais may, for various reasons, be looked upon as one of the dearest 

 towns in France. An excellent suite of furnished apartments may be had 

 in--eire of the most respectable private houses in Calais, consisting of a 

 sitting-rooms, three bed-rooms, and a kitchen, for twenty shillings a week, 

 and smaller ones in proportion, down to five shillings a week for a batche- 

 lor's apartment. This, however, does not include attendance of any kind ; 

 and, with few exceptions, the apartments can only be taken by the 

 month. The price of meat is fixed by a tarif, at a maximum of sixpence 

 per pound for the very best. It varies, therefore, between that price and 

 fourpence ; and this pound contains something more than ours. Poultry is 

 still cheaper, in proportion, or rather in fact. My dinner to-day consists, 

 in part, of an excellent fowl, which cost Set., and a pair of delicate ducks, 

 which cost 1*. 6d. The price of bread is also fixed by law, and amounts 

 to about two-thirds of the present price of our's in London. Butter and 

 eggs are excellent, and always fresh : the first costs from nine-pence to ten- 

 pence the pound of eighteen ounces ; and the latter Wd. per quarter of a 

 hundred. Vegetables and fruit, which are all of the finest quality, and 

 fresh from the gardens of the adjacent villages, are as follow: asparagus, 

 at the rate of Sd. or 9d. the. hundred, peas (the picked young ones), 3d. per 

 quart ; new potatoes (better than any we can get in England, except what 

 they call i\HQ framed ones), three pounds for a penny ; cherries and currants 

 (picked for the table), 2d. per pound ; strawberries (the high flavoured 

 wood-strawberry, which is so fine with sugar and cream), 4d. for a full 

 quart, the stocks being picked off. (This latter is a delicacy that can 

 scarcely be procured in England for any price). The above may serve as 

 an indication of all the rest, as all are in proportion. The finest pure milk 

 is Id. per quart ; good black or green teas, 4s. 6d. per pound ; and the finest 

 green gunpowder tea, 7s. ; coffee, from Is. 3d. to 2s.', good brandy, Is. 3d. 

 per quart, and the very best, 2s. (I do not mean the very finest old Cogniac, 

 which costs 3s. 6d.) Wine is dearer in Calais than, perhaps, in any other 

 town in France, that could be named ; but still you may have an excel- 

 lent table wine for Is. per quart bottle ; and they make a very palatable 

 and wholesome beer, for 1 \d. and 2%d. per bottle the latter of which has 

 all the good qualities of our porter, and none of its bad Fish is not plen- 

 tiful at Calais, except the skate, which you may have for almost nothing, 

 as indeed you may at many of our own sea-pert towns. But you may 

 always have good-sized turbot (enough for six persons) for 3s., and a cod, 

 weighing from twelve to fifteen pounds, for half that sum. As to the wages 

 of female servants, they can scarcely be considered as much cheaper, 



