St. Omer. [MARCH, 



racteristic look of any, on account of its having undergone less repairing 

 mid modernizing. All the other streets of St. Omer (and it includes a 

 greater number, perhaps, than almost any town of its size not less than 

 seventy or eighty) may be described as, with three or four exceptions, 

 altogether bad. Many are so narrow, that a single carriage can scarcely 

 pass along them with safety to the foot-passengers ; many are no better 

 than miserable lanes and alleys; and there is not one that conveys a 

 favourable impression to the observer. And this great lack of good 

 streets is not made up for, as it is in many towns, by squares or open 

 -places of any other description. There are, indeed, two small squares, 

 both of them planted with trees, and surrounded by houses ; but the 

 houses are of a very inferior description, and in the principal one the 

 growth of the trees is almost entirely stopped by the foolish French 

 custom of training them into a regular shape, on a wooden frame-work. 



From this general glance you will conclude, that its internal arrange- 

 ments are not the attractions which have so long made St. Omer the 

 chosen residence of so many of our self-exiled countrymen. We will 

 proceed to examine what other of its negative qualities may have given it 

 (or rather not given it) this not very enviable distinction. 



There is a decent salle de spectacle at St. Omer ; but (unlike the Dun- 

 kerquois) the St. Omerians are not play-goers. The circumstance af 

 two or three of the noblesse families residing at St. Omer, has made it 

 the mode, among the principal native inhabitants, to meet together a 

 good deal in soirees, &c. j and this has made it not the mode to patronize 

 the provincial players : so that St. Omer is seldom enlivened with the 

 visits of the latter, and never with their permanent presence for any 

 length of time. A troop of provincial actors in France (and indeed 

 every where else) are content with a return for their labours indefinitely 

 small in amount : for play-acting is one of those " virtues" which are 

 " their own reward." They do not mind playing to empty benches ; 

 but then they cannot afford to light those benches ; and they can scarcely 

 contrive to act in the dark : consequently, they cannot afford to make 

 their visits to St. Omer otherwise than " short and far between." 



The w r eekly market may almost be reckoned among the amusements 

 of a French town, and, to the stranger or traveller, it may always be 

 regarded as one of the most interesting and characteristic scenes. The 

 comparative state of society and manners in any given town may be better 

 judged of by an hour or two spent in its weekly market, than by the 

 same time employed in any other manner. Taking this as one criterion, 

 St. Omer has not yet arrived at any very enviable pitch of refinement. 

 Nine-tenths of the poultry is brought to market alive, each couple 

 or so being attended by its respective owners, who have perhaps come 

 three or four leagues to bring to market that particular item of mer- 

 chandise : so that to furnish a moderate-sized family for the week 

 requires the whole stock of three or four vendors ! Seriously, I have 

 never seen moi j* than two or three eatable fowls in the hands of any one 

 person. And with game it is still worse. The English game-laws abo- 

 litionists would do well to come here for arguments in support of their 

 system. Almost any body may kill game, in any manner they can, and 

 every body may sell it j and yet frequently the whole produce of the 

 day's market amounts to a hare and a brace or two of partridges ; and 

 for these you must sometimes give four or five shillings each the former, 

 and two or three the latter. The ordinary price, however, of a brace of 



