1828.] [ 153 ] 



DUNKEIIQUE. 



I HAVE always looked upon Dunkerque as one of the nicest and most 

 agreeable towns in France. It struck my fancy the very first time I 

 saw it, and has retained its place in my good opinion ever since ; though 

 that " since" includes a pretty long period, during which I have seen 

 nearly all that is worth seeing of the same kind in France. As I write 

 these letters for your satisfaction, not my own, you will, I hope, do me 

 the justice to suppose that I express the above feeling (for a mere personal 

 feeling it is, and nothing more), not for the mere momentary gratification 

 that the expression of a personal feeling affords to all of us, but because I 

 think the expression of it will illustrate, if not explain, one of the peculiar 

 qualities of the place I am about to describe to you. There are certain 

 persons, places, and things, calculated to please or displease us, we know 

 not why. And thus it is with me (and I suppose with others) in respect 

 to Dunkerque ; I like it better than any other provincial town in France, 

 of the same class ; but am not very well able to expound " the reason 

 why." You must not, however, suppose from this, that there is any 

 thing about Dunkerque, which makes it extraordinary that any one 

 should take a sudden and a lasting liking to it : on the contrary, I do not 

 know of a single grave fault that can be found with Dunkerque : though 

 I must in justice confess, that I am equally unable to point out in it any 

 marked or striking beauty. Its situation is not fine nor even good 

 for it stands low, and in the midst of an immense plain. The construc- 

 tion of its buildings cannot form its secret attraction, for they are plain, 

 and chiefly of brick ; nor the construction of its inhabitants either for 

 they are plain too as much so as they can well be, short of absolute 

 ugliness. What is it, then, that we so much like about Dunkerque? No 

 matter. It is a bad sign when we grow anxious to discover what it is that 

 pleases us, whether in person, place, or thing. I will, therefore, at once 

 proceed to my merely descriptive duties. 



Dunkerque is situated at the extremity of the northern division of 

 France, and is the town nearest to the frontier which divides France 

 from the Netherlands. This proximity to the latter country accounts 

 for one, in particular, of the qualities which make Dunkerque at once so 

 sightly, and so agreeable as a temporary or a permanent sojourn 

 namely, its extreme cleanliness. The towns nearest to the frontier on 

 either side, of every country, invariably interchange some one or more of 

 their good and bad qualities respectively. The Dunkerquois, in gaining 

 from the Flemings some of their praiseworthy love of cleanliness, have 

 been fain to accept a more than equal portion of their execrable language : 

 which would be more than a counterpoise to any other quality whatever. 

 Flemish is spoken every where in the shops, the markets, the cafes, the 

 public conveyances, and even at the private fire-sides of the bourgeois : 

 consequently, English ears of any susceptibility, are almost as much 

 offended at Dunkerque as their eyes are regaled. 



Dunkerque is approached, on the French side, by two roads ; one a 

 very fine one, straight as a line for several miles, and flanked by double 

 rows of trees, leading from Calais through Gravelines ; and the other an 

 inferior one, but the principal road to the interior, through Cassel, 

 Lille, &c. Both roads lead to the same gate of the town, at which an 

 appearance presents itself that will be very novel and interesting to those 

 who have not been accustomed to a canal country. As you enter the 



M.M. New Series VOL. V. No. 26. X 



