ACCOUNT OF BOOKS. 



755 



meats are burned up, and retain 

 not a drop of gravy; the boiled 

 meats were also overdone, and quite 

 stringy. The French are exceed- 

 ingly fond of mixtures, that is, 

 meat stewed with vegetables, and 

 a great quantity of gailick, spices, 

 &c. On this account I have fre- 

 quently risen hungry from a table 

 of thirty dishes, on the dressing 

 of which much pains had been 

 bestowed, and principally on my 

 account. The only good dinners 

 I ever ate in these countries were 

 at the houses of English or Ame- 

 ricans, who had taken pains to 

 instruct their servants in the pro- 

 per mode. Neither could I relish 

 their pies or tarts, &:c. as an in- 

 spection of their pastry-cooks' 

 shops had prejudiced me strongly 

 against them. 



" I have before mentioned, that 

 the exterior appearance of Paris 

 is superior to London ; so, in this 

 respect are their houses ; they are 

 very lofty, and have a great deal 

 of gilding and finery about them ; 

 but, in theinterior, theyarenot by 

 any means so neatly or comfortably 

 fitted up as the English houses. 



" The pleasures of life depend 

 much upon the attainment of 

 three^things : — 1st, A clean, com- 

 fortable, and private house to re- 

 side in. For such a situation, a 

 stranger in Paris may seek in vain. 

 2dly, Good eating and drinking. 

 Of this pleasure I was deprived 

 by the badness of their cookery. 

 Sdly, A facility of procuring those 

 things which are requisite for our 

 comfort. The better classes of 

 the inhabitants probably enjoy 

 these means, but they are unat- 

 tainable by a traveller. 



♦'Alodging-houseinParis.which 

 is probably eight stories high, and 



contains fifty or sixty persons of 

 both sexes, has only one entrance 

 and one yard. The noise and 

 dirt made by such a crowd may 

 be easily imagined. In these 

 houses it is not customary to hang 

 bells ; and as the servants never 

 think of visiting the rooms but 

 once a day, that is, when they 

 make the bed and bring up water, 

 it becomes absolutely requisite for 

 a person, who wishes for any 

 comfort, to hire a servant of his 

 own, to whom he is obliged to pay 

 a guinea a week. In France, 

 they seldom think of cleaning the 

 grate or fire-place ; it is conse- 

 quently a disgustingobject ; where- 

 as, in England, I always thought 

 it an ornament to the room, and a 

 good coal fire more beautiful than 

 a bouquet of flowers. 



" In some of the streets of Paris, 

 there are, at night, a few lamps, 

 which yield a glimmering light, 

 barely sufficient for a man of keen 

 sight to find his way ; and as the 

 shopkeepers do not light up their 

 windows as in London, the city 

 has then a very sombre appear- 

 ance. In those streets which 

 have not lamps, you frequently 

 see a lantern suspended from the 

 roof of a house by a long rope, 

 which, in the day-time, has a 

 disgusting and mean appearance. 

 The streets in Paris are not flagged 

 on the sides as in London; a rough 

 pavement extends all the way 

 across the street ; and as the car- 

 riages drive up close to the doors, 

 the foot-passengers are in constant 

 danger of being driven over : on 

 this account there is no pleasure in 

 walking the streets of Paris either 

 by day or night. 



<' The French in general, and 

 especially the Parisians, are ex- 



3C 2 



