Havre de Grace 95 



weigh this whole dinner! The ducks were swept clean so 

 quickly that I moved from table without half a dinner. Such 

 table d'hotes are among the cheap things of France! Of all 

 sombre and triste meetings a French table d'hote is foremost; 

 for eight minutes a dead silence, and as to the politeness of 

 addressing a conversation to a foreigner, he will look for it in. 

 vain. Not a single word has anywhere been said to me unless, 

 to answer some question : Rouen not singular in this. The par- 

 liament-house here is shut up and its members exiled a month 

 past to their country seats because they would not register the 

 edict for a new land-tax. I inquired much into the common- 

 sentiments of the people, and found that the king personally, 

 from having been here, is more popular than the parliament, ta 

 whom they attribute the general dearness of everythmg. Called 

 on Monsieur d'Ambournay, the author of a treatise on using 

 madder green instead of dried, and had the pleasure of a long 

 conversation with him on various farming topics interesting ta 

 my inquiries. 



i^th. To Barentin, through abundance of apples and pears,, 

 and a country better than the husbandry: to Yveot richer,, 

 but miserable management. — 21 miles. 



iSth. Country the same to Bolbec; their enclosures remind 

 me of Ireland, the fence is a high broad parapet bank, very 

 well planted with hedges and oak and beech trees. All the way 

 from Rouen there is a scattering of country seats, which I am 

 glad to see; farmhouses and cottages everywhere, and the- 

 cotton manufacture in all. Continues the same to Harfleur... 

 To Ha\Te de Grace, the approach strongly marks a very flour- 

 ishing place: the hills are almost covered with little new-built 

 villas, and many more are building; some are so close as to 

 form almost streets, and considerable additions are also making- 

 to the town. — 30 miles. 



16th. Inquiries are not necessary to find out the prosperity 

 of this town ; it is nothing equivocal : fuller of motion, life, and 

 activity than any place I have been at in France. A house 

 here, which in 1779 let without any fine on a lease of six years- 

 for 240 livres per annum was lately let for three years at 600 

 livres which twelve years past was to be had at 24 livres. The 

 harbour's mouth is narrow and formed by a mole, but it en- 

 larges into two oblong basins of greater breadth; these are- 

 full of ships to the number of some hundreds, and the quays 

 around are thronged with business, all hurry, bustle, and' 

 animation. They say a fifty-gun ship can enter, but I suppose 



