1829.] [ 353 ] 
a 
AN ADVENTURE NEAR GRANVILLE. 
Joy to those travellers who find a pleasure in foreign countries! It 
was not with such feelings that I left England, and even now, after a 
twelvemonth’s residence in France, I am as little reconciled to it as ever, 
and that from no fault either in the people, or in the country ; both are, 
in many respects, delightful ; but champagne itself is flavourless to a 
sick palate, and the fairest land is no better than a desert, when the 
affections are pointing homewards. 
I landed at Granville, with the intention of making France my place 
of abode for some years. At first, therefore, I set up my rest at an inn, 
that I might have leisure to look about me, and find a permanent dwel- 
ling suited to my narrow income, and, as far as might be consistently 
with that essential condition, agreeable to my taste and habits. Fortu- 
nately, before I had been in the town three days, I heard of a house to 
be sold, that, from the description, I thought would suit me. It was 
small, cheap, not more than two English miles from Granville, and with 
no other fault, according to my informant, than its extreme loneliness. 
This fault, however, was tome rather a recommendation. I lost no time 
in seeking out the proprietor, who proved to be ostensibly a tailor, 
though, as I learnt by the way, he was shrewdly suspected of carrying 
on a more lucrative trade with our Guernsey and Jersey smugglers. 
This might well be, if any conclusion could be drawn from the exterior 
man, for certainly he had much more of the smuggler than the tailor in 
his appearance. He was a tall, gaunt fellow, with a sallow face, that 
was three parts overgrown with whiskers, that from their colour might 
seem the legitimate produce of a coal mine, while a broad scar across 
the cheek made him look yet more ferocious. It extended down to the 
upper lip, which it had drawn considerably on one side, so that when he 
attempted to smile—and a Frenchman is seldom without a smile—it re- 
sembled nothing so much as the grin of an angry bull-dog. 
But, however little promising the man’s exterior, I had no reason to 
complain of him when we came to talk of business. His demands were 
extremely reasonable, and delivered in few words, with the plain frank 
manner of one who knows he is offering a bargain; and does not think 
it worth his while to tempt a purchaser by specious language. We soon, 
therefore, settled preliminaries. If I liked the house upon seeing it, 
I was to purchase it for my life only, a mode of sale not very common 
in France, I believe, any more than in England ; but it suited me well 
enough, the price was proportionably low, a matter of the first import- 
ance with me, and I had no great wish to acquire property in a foreign 
land, even had I possessed the means. 
The tenement in question was, as I have already noticed, about two 
English miles from Granville, and was neither more nor less than an old- 
fashioned farm-house, in every respect, except size, far inferior to the 
worst cottages on the Acton and Ealing road. It consisted only of a 
ground floor, and a single story above, but there was room, and to spare, 
for a moderate family. Grates there were none, even in what seemed 
to be intended for a parlour ; this, however, was the less necessary, as 
wood was the fuel in general use, and it burnt as well upon the hearth 
as between iron bars. I ought, perhaps, to except the kitchen, in which 
was a sort of earthenware stove, about three feet high, with large cir- 
cular holes in the top for the saucepans to be placed upon, any other idea 
M.M. New Seriecs.—Vou. VU. No. 33. 22 
