1828.] St. Owe* 243 



partridges is about two shillings, and of a good hare three and sixpence. 

 A pheasant I never saw or heard tell of at a French market. In fact, if 

 mere supply of the article were the object in view, there would be nothing 

 like your English game-laws, as administered by the coachmen and 

 guards of his Majesty's royal mails ! But St. Omer market is ill sup- 

 plied with every thing, except butter and vegetables : of the latter, 

 there is a profusion, as there is every where in France ; and butter you 

 get here of the best quality for about ninepence a pound. With respect 

 to all the other necessaries of life, they may be stated as of nearly the 

 same price in all this northern department of France : so that what I 

 have told you on this head in my previous letters need not be repeated. 



With respect to some of the other minor details connected with 

 domestic life, St. Omer is not without its advantages. Its water is very 

 good, being brought to the town through leaden conduit pipes from a 

 considerable distance, and distributed to the inhabitants from public 

 fountains, placed at convenient distances from each other. Another 

 very marked advantage is its cheap and easy communication with neigh- 

 bouring towns, and particularly with those on the coast, by means of its 

 canals. A passage-boat, not very elegant in its appointments, but suffi- 

 ciently convenient, leaves St. Omer for Calais every other morning 

 throughout the year, and one of the same description every morning for 

 Dunkerque, each performing the journey in from ten to twelve hours, and 

 for the price of about two shillings to the first named place, and three shil- 

 lings to the second. This is the price of the best places ; the second are 

 about a third less ; and the voyage from those towns to St. Omer is 

 performed at the same hours, and for the same prices. St. Omer being 

 also on one (though the least frequented) of the high road to Paris, 

 there is a daily passage of diligences either way. But as these latter 

 pass through the town at most unseasonable hours of the night or morn- 

 ing, it has been found worth while to provide private conveyances, 

 which may be had at any hour, and for a very moderate price. A party 

 of six persons may have a convenient carriage to either Calais or Dun- 

 kerque for about fifteen shillings. So that persons coming to reside in 

 this town, may reach it (from London) for less than the fare of an Eng-i 

 lish stage coach to Bath or Cheltenham. This cheapness and facility 

 of communication with England is, no doubt, one of the chief causes of 

 St. Omer being so much in favour with our English economists. They 

 live in " a foreign country/' which is much ; they get there for almost 

 nothing, and procure the chief necessaries of life for little more than 

 half the price they have been accustomed to pay, which is more ; and 

 they can get home again in a single day and night, if they arrange their 

 departure by way of " correspondance," as the French call it, which is 

 most of all : for your true Englishman, with all his passion for wandering 

 from his native country, has no notion of any other being fit to live in, 

 whatever his peculiar views of " life" may be ; and even of those who 

 make up their minds to live abroad, nine-tenths spend half their time in 

 railing against the spot they chuse for their residence, as compared with 

 that which they have voluntarily abandoned. Now that I have been led to 

 allude to the English residents at St. Omer, I may as well complete the 

 notice that it seems necessary to take of them, in connexion with my 

 estimate of the place. Perhaps there is no where else that so many are 

 collected together, with so few efforts on the part of the native inhabi- 

 tants, to either attract or keep them. For a provincial town, there is a 



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