522 My Uncle's Diary at Calais. [MAY, 



into their breeches-pocket, and snore in company, till the gargon wakes 

 them with the intimation, ft Monsieur, il est minuit, tout le monde est 

 parti /" I have seen many of my countrymen indulge this social habit 

 of repose, and walk away at midnight with a stare, a yawn, and a " bon 

 soir, Monsieur !" The cafe presents a specimen of French equality. All 

 trades and all professions mingle : a shoemaker sits opposite a physician, 

 a tailor with an officer, a haberdasher with a naval captain, a merchant 

 with a courier whose wants are supplied by a landlord decorated with 

 the legionary honour. 



April 13th. Strolled into the Basse Ville the chosen residence of 

 Nottinghamshire refugees. Every other house exhibits " fabriquant 

 de tulle!' My countrymen are easily discernible among the mixture of 

 inhabitants. A haggard aspect, and a red nose, are the distinctive desig- 

 nations of an English workman, who can earn, by three days' toil, suffi- 

 cient for existence and for four days' indolent debauchery. Black eyes 

 and mutilated faces manifest the independent spirit of our pugnacious 

 countrymen, who seldom separate without a desperate appeal to pugilis- 

 tic skill. The Nottingham enunciation, engrafted on the tortured French, 

 surpasses all the riddles of the Sphinx. 



April 14th. We are ridiculed by our polite neighbours for our blas- 

 phemy. In point of frequency, they far surpass us in the use of impious 

 exclamations. I have heard and often too from female lips in France 

 expressions which a well-bred libertine in England would be ashamed to 

 use. I cannot pollute my paper by recording them. 



April 15th. What a sorry sight is that ! that misshapen carriage 

 called a diligence ! by nick-narne, I suppose ? Its pannels tawdry red, 

 and ' ' St. Omer/' in letters roman and italic, half and , half, in dirty 

 yellow on its side ; never washed these three years : the whip and har- 

 ness wet, and dirty on the seat inside ; the window open, and the rain 

 beating in upon the gawdy plush and faded binding ! Home, Water- 

 house, and Chaplin, could ye see but this ! No hand to clean the team ; 

 a jaded, dirty, goaded triplet limping, blind, and broken- winded ; each 

 bit incrusted with ferruginous decay ; the reins, a rope ; the whip, a 

 humble fishing-rod. I would Bob Snow could see the coachman ! A 

 night-cap on his head, a pair of wooden shoes, a blue smock-frock ; the 

 reins tied to the seat ; the driver with both hands belabouring his starved 

 cattle, and asking them in angry parlance if they mean to travel each 

 animal the likeness of Petruchio's steed. 



April 16th. I watched the beggars in their rounds; and now again 

 I see, for the tenth time this day, that groupe disposed in most effective 

 order. The object is to raise compassion : the very rags are wrought to 

 dress the character in poverty. An infant at the breast ; a child reclin- 

 ing pn the knee, with folded hands the parent, with dejected eye and 

 melancholy mien, incapable, to all appearance, of soliciting the charity 

 which every passing stranger feelingly bestows. Yet this is pantomime ! 

 She has not collected less than forty sous this day ; her wallet has been 

 filled by various hands; she has levied universal contributions but 

 maintains her supplicating tone and melancholy mien ; and yet that 

 great performer has her cher ami, who indolently thrives on the produc- 

 tion of her beggary ! The profession of a mendicant in France is an 

 authorized vocation, having rights and prescripts of its own. A well- 

 established intelligence among the members of the society enables them 

 to prosecute their duties with mutual ease and common advantage. Every 



