92 Travels in France 



the soil for granted. Here niy only companion de voyage, the 

 English mare that carries me^ discloses by her eye a secret not 

 the most agreeable that she is going rapidly blind. She is 

 moon-eyed, but our fool of a Bury farrier assured me I was safe 

 for above a t\\ elvemonth. It must be confessed this is one of 

 those agreeable situations which not many will believe a man 

 would put himself into. Ma Joi ! this is a piece of my good 

 luck ; — the journey at best is but a drudgery that others are paid 

 for performing on a good horse, and I pay myself for doing it 

 on a blind one; — I shall feel this inconvenience perhaps at the 

 expense of my neck.— 20 miles. 



loih. To Amiens. Mr. Fox slept here last night, and it was 

 amusing to hear the conversation at the table d'hote; they 

 wondered that so great a man should not travel in a greater 

 style: I asked what was his style? Monsieur and Madame 

 were in an English post-chaise, and the fille and valet de chambre 

 in a cabriolet with a French courier to have horses ready. What 

 would they have ? but a style both of comfort and amusement ? 

 A plague on a blind mare! — But I have worked through life; 

 and he talks. 



iith. By Poix to Aumale; enter Normandy. — 25 miles. 



12th. From thence to Newchatel, by far the finest country 

 since Calais. Pass many villas of Rouen merchants. — 40 miles. 



13/A. They are right to have country villas — to get out of 

 this great ugly, stinking, close, and ill-built town which is full 

 of nothing but dirt and industry. What a picture of new 

 buildings does a flourishing manufacturing town in England 

 exhibit! The choir of the cathedral is surrounded by a most 

 magnificent railing of solid brass. They show the monument 

 of Rollo, the first Duke of Normandy, and of his son; of William 

 Longsword; also those of Richard Coeur de Lion; his brother 

 Henry; the Duke of Bedford, regent of France; of their own 

 King Henry V.; of the Cardinal d'Ambroise, minister of Louis 

 XIL The altar-piece is an adoration of the shepherds, by 

 Philip of Champagne. Rouen is dearer than Paris, and therefore 

 it is necessary for the pockets of the people that their bellies 

 should be wholesomely pinched. At the table d'hote at the 

 hotel potntne du pin we sat down, sixteen, to the following 

 dinner: a soup, about 3 lb. of bouilli, one fowl, one duck, a sm.all 

 fricassee of chicken, rote of veal of about 2 lb., and two other 

 small plates with a salad : the price 45 sous and 20 sous more for 

 a pint of wine; at an ordinary of 2od. a head in England there 

 would be a piece of meat which would, literally speaking, out- 



