1828.] Travelling Particularities. 11 



together^ is not as yet to be met with in print, you must not be surprised or 

 angry it I should happen to be entertaining into the bargain. I will of 

 course do my best to avoid any such accident ! But I doubt if even our 



friend C himself could contrive to give a bond fide account of any 



real place known by name only to the readers or hearers of such account, 

 without being for once in his life both amusing and instructive ; so dis- 

 posed and apt is the human mind to acquire knowledge, and so willing 

 and easy to be pleased where any thing in the shape of novelty is offered 

 to it. 



It must be a poor town, indeed, in France that cannot boast its salle de 

 spectacle. Calais has one, which the critical Calicots of Paris, I dare say, 

 turn up their noses at, when they pass through on their occasional visits to 

 London. But a very tolerable share of amusement may be extracted from 

 it nevertheless : for if its artists are not quite competent to give due effect 

 to the master-pieces of Racine and Moliere (which the classical tastes of 

 their abonnes compel them occasionally to attempt), they can at least get 

 through, with becoming spirit, the delightful little vaudevilles of M.M. 

 Scribe, Desaugiers, &c, with which the French stage so abounds, and 

 which, in fact, play themselves. They have one actor, however, at the 

 Calais theatre, who must not go unnamed, in a description which pro- 

 fesses to point out all that is worth particular notice in the place to which it 

 refers. For dry, easy, and unaffected humour of the low kind, there are 

 very few actors, either in Paris or elsewhere, who exceed M. Plante. 

 His Fronting, and that class of characters, have not the liveliness and spirited 

 impudence of Potier, or even of Laporte, or, among ourselves, of Jones 

 and Wrench ; and his Jocrisses are without the almost affecting simplicity 

 and truth of Brunet. But his manner, in whatever he does, is quite his 

 own ; and his quiet, unpretending, but at the same time rich and racy 

 drollery, is infinitely entertaining. Perhaps the way in which the talents of 

 Plante make his performances stand out from those with which they are 

 associated, induces me to estimate him rather more highly than he 

 deserves : but I confess that he has amused me more than any of the 

 Paris actors always excepting the very best ; such as the two I have 

 named above, and Joly, Perlet, &c. 



The Calais theatre is but little frequented probably on account of the 

 inferiority of the performances generally ; for there is no denying that 

 the French, even en province, have an excellent taste in theatrical matters, 

 and are not to be put off with any thing very inferior, at whatever price 

 it may be offered to them. But the Calais theatre is by no means cheap, 

 compared with those of Paris. The lowest price is the standing parterre, 

 which is seventy-five cents. ; and the best boxes are about half a crown. 



Next in attraction to the theatre of a French town are its cafes ; and 

 these are numerous in Calais, and, at certain hours, thronged with com- 

 pany. With one exception, they are each frequented by all classes ; and 

 dominos, backgammon, and ecarte are the amusements of all, with the 

 addition of billiards in many. But at the Cafe le Grand (rue de Havre), 

 you seldom meet with any but the better sort of the bourgeoisie of the 

 town, and the resident English. Here, and here only (among the cafes), 

 an English paper may generally be seen but not with any thing like 

 regularity, and only the Courier and Bell's Messenger. The reading- 

 rooms (of which there are at present two) are better supplied, though not 

 much, and quite regularly. Here you have the Morning Herald, Cou- 

 rier, and Galignani's Messenger ; the chief French papers ; and some of the 



C 2 



