FISHES AND FISHING. 175 



tliem home, for they had each torn one of the large 

 claws off the other. I often, during the time I re 

 mained at Boulogne, when the weather would allow, 

 caught a crab or two in a similar way. 



When I first went to France, provisions were very 

 cheap, but the English soon increased the prices, by 

 giving whatever was demanded; and the French 

 traders of all classes, even shopkeepers, were at that 

 time in the practice of asking very much more than 

 they intended to take. A trifling instance occurred 

 which shows the fact, and to what extent even the 

 hawkers of little articles carried their impositions. 

 A girl was carrying about some fine lettuces, the first 

 I had seen that season : I asked her the price of one : 

 " four sous," (two pence) was the reply; this hap 

 pened at the door of our lodging : the mistress of the 

 house came to the door, and in broken English told 

 me to go in ; she then dealt with the girl herself, and 

 bought a dozen of the same lettuces, and picked out 

 the best, for four sous the whole twelve. 



I shall not enter into a long detail, but merely notice 

 the following : a turkey, weighing twelve to fourteen 

 pounds, fifteen pence ; a couple of fowls, ready for 

 cooking, nine-pence ; a couple of ducks, seven-pence ; 

 a hare, eight-pence ; partridges, four-pence each ; 

 rabbits, three-pence to four-pence ; tench about three- 

 quarters of a pound, from a penny to three halfpence 



