162 Dunkerque. QFKB. 



have never any where (except in the Netherlands) seen such fine vege- 

 tables as here seem to grow merely by the simple efforts of nature. We 

 boast of our potatoes, too, and fancy that they cannot be had in perfec- 

 ion out of the United Kingdom Ireland being admitted, in this one 

 particular, to an equality with her proud sister. What Ireland may be 

 able to produce in this sort, I know not ; but in England I have never 

 been able to procure this vegetable in such perfection as here to say 

 nothing of the Dunkerque gardens producing three or four excellent 

 sorts, of which we know nothing at least in our public markets. Of 

 cauliflowers, too, they produce two regular crops ; so that you get them 

 in as great perfection at the latter end of November as at Midsummer, 

 and for the same price, of a halfpenny each ; and if they are not so large 

 and close as ours, they are, I think, much better flavoured. And yet the 

 climate of Dunkerque is certainly not better than that of London. It is 

 the same, too, with the common fruits. The currants and gooseberries 

 are never pruned at all, but grow in many places in the form of hedges j 

 and the apples (of which there is such a profusion as admits of their being- 

 sold at from six to eight or ten for a penny) all grow on dwarf trees, none 

 higher than the hand can reach to gather them. The finest fruit that they 

 have here is a late pear, called the mansuede. The good-sized ones weigh 

 a pound each, and a good tree in a favourable year will bring to perfec- 

 tion seven or eight hundred, that in the London market would readily 

 bring six or eight shillings a dozen. Taking their size, appearance, and 

 flavour together, they are the noblest pears I have ever seen. The apples, 

 though beautiful to look at, are not so good as ours. Indeed, there are no 

 apples in France, or even in Europe, to compare with our nonsuch and 

 nonpareil. 



I do not know that any thing is wanting to complete my picture of 

 Dunkerque, but a notice of its public hotels. They are few in number 

 for so considerable a town ; and they do not make up for this deficiency 

 by any great extent in their accommodations. By far the best is the 

 Hotel de Flandre, situated in the principal street, the rue d'Angouleme. 

 It is kept by the postmaster and entrepreneur of the diligences, and con- 

 tains several elegant apartments, luxuriously furnished. Persons tra- 

 velling post, and desiring the best accommodation, need not hesitate a 

 moment in their choice here, as there is no comparison between the 

 Hotel de Flandre and its rivals ; and its charges are by no means extra- 

 vagant. It must not, however, be regarded as an inn of the first class ; 

 and its management is by no means correspondent even with its appear- 

 ance and pretensions : its attendance is bad, its cooking worse, and its 

 wines worst of all. Two of the other three hotels are in the same street 

 with the above, within a few doors of it. But that which perhaps 

 deserves to be named as the second best, is situated at the farther extre- 

 mity of the town, close to the port. It is kept (and has been for these 

 thirty years) by a Yorkshire dame, named Williamson, and has all the 

 look and some of the comforts of a good country inn in the North Riding. 

 I do not know that it would be fair to rank the other two hotels the 

 Sauvage, and the Chapeau Rouge below the Union ; but they must cer- 

 tainly not be placed above it. At all the three you meet with com- 

 fortable accommodation for a moderate price; and at one of them (the 

 Chapeau Rouge) you meet with the ideal (not exactly beau) of a thriving, 

 thrifty landlady, and her naive little daughter ; the one changing her 

 air and manner every hour in the day, in precise correspondence with the 



