226 
body in it, except the newly arrived 
passengers, were in high spirits,—our- 
selyés among the number: and I will 
téll you why we had more cause than 
our fellow voyagers to be pleased: we 
i a voof over our heads, and a bed to 
sleep on, and they had neither. And 
in case any one should be in the same 
predicament, I will tell you how to 
remedy the matter : let thementer the 
first house and take possession, as we 
did* ; by means of which we had a bed 
to lie on, and from no other cause. 
Charlotte received my letter the pre- 
vious morning; and, without staying 
for breakfast, went out in search of 
apartments ;and though she was from 
that hour till six m the evening, hunt- 
ing in all parts of the town, she was 
unsuccessful. She might have got 
us wretched holes, filled with- wood, 
lumber and dirt, into which nobody 
who cared for body and skirts would 
enter, had she chosen to give the enor- 
mous price demanded for them: which 
was quintuple to what is usually de- 
manded for a most beautiful suite of 
apartments: but, being an inhabitant, 
she would not have French put upon 
her in this manner.; and when we arri- 
* We need not warn our readers that 
this jocular bravado is not to be taken lite- 
rally. . They will see, in another part of the 
letter, the.real extent of the fact. We can 
‘warn those, however, who may hereafter be 
disposed to visit this Anglo-Gallic water- 
ing place, upon such gew-gaw occasions, 
that we know a gentleman very well, who, 
though he arrived two or three days earlier, 
was obliged to come much nearer to the 
letter ; or else to have remained all night, as 
others did, in the streets. ‘Having tried 
all the hotels round, high town and low 
town, for accommodation in vain, he re- 
turned to that to which he had first been 
directed, and sitting himself down, told 
them plainly and resolutely, that somehow 
or other he would be accommodated there ; 
for he would not sleep ‘in the streets. And 
by dint of persevering determination (no 
bad friend in extremities !) he did get accom- 
modated one night on a truck in a double- 
bedded room—where a roaring “ John Bull 
in France,” kept not only him, but the 
house and neighbourhood, awake all night 
with vociferous shouts, and laughter, and 
equally vociferous snoring; a second on 
a mattress in one of the passages; anda 
third upon a little settee in a small room, 
which let his body down in the middle, 
and cocked up his head and his heels at the 
two ends, like the points of a new moon. 
Such are the inconveniencies to which 
people must submit, if they will-run_ after 
royalties and rare sights. —Enir. : 
A Peep at Boulogne. 
(Oct. 1, 
ved, bag and baggage, we had not a 
place to put our heads into ; and, thanks 
to the sea, our stomachs were as empty 
as if there had been a forty days’ dearth. 
The sight of the hotels made us think 
ofthe fox and grapes, and suffer the 
pains of Tantalus: and the idea of re- 
maining out all night, filled our joints 
with aches and pains. After hunting 
from one place to another, Charlotte 
bethought herself of a house in the 
upper town, which was inhabitéd‘ by 
only two people: the reason of which 
was, that there was only one bed in the 
house, and a settle in the kitchen ; ‘the 
rest of the house, consisting of three 
roomsup Stairs, was as bare as a shaven 
crown, or the bald head of fourscore— 
that is, it had a sprinkling of chairs, 
rather of the grayest, and nothing else. 
However, we entered: the people did 
not like it, and, at first, refused to ad- 
mit us. But we were four ladies, smiling 
and entreating,* till at last the good 
people gave way, like the sands before 
the sea, and inwe rushed into their state 
chamber ; that is to say, the only room 
in the house in which there was a bit of 
furniture. And now being seated, and 
sure of a house over our heads for the 
night, a commissioner—in vulgar Eng- 
lish an errand-boy—was sent to fetch 
the provisions, which the forethought of 
Charlotte had prepared for us; and, in 
about half-an-hour he brought us such 
baskets full of every necessary, as if a 
regiment had been expected: and we 
sat down, to what in England would be 
considered a sumpttious supper. In 
short we had nothing to wish for, and 
had good cause to be grateful for the 
exertions of Charlotte. Thursday morn- 
ing, after breakfast, Mrs. called 
upon us, and took us to M to din+ 
ner. They had before been very kind, 
and sent us down whatever could 
make our temporary residence: more 
comfortable. We returned in tlie even- 
ing; when we found that the good 
people of the house could no longer 
allow us the use of their state-bed ; and 
had turned us into an empty room up 
stairs, in which they had just put up 2 
deal bedstead, with a mattress and one 
blanket, two chairs, and a large ‘sea 
trunk, to which they afterwards ‘added 
a washhand-stand, Richard for two 
nights slept on the floor, at a hotel, with 
another gentleman, for which they paid 
, three 
1 Vie AMER 
ELS Moe 
~ * And knowing something, we should 
suspect, of the lady-like art of making | in- 
treaties commands.—EDIT. ~ 
