94 Travels in France 



without her guns. What is better, they have merchantmen 

 of five and six hundred tons: the state of the harbour has 

 however given them much alarm and perplexity; if nothing had 

 been done to improve it, the mouth would have been filled up 

 with sand, an increasing evil; to remedy which many engineers 

 have been consulted. The want of a backwater to wash it out 

 is so great that they are now, at the king's expense, forming a 

 most noble and magnificent work, a vast basin walled ofif from 

 the ocean, or rather an enclosure of it by solid masonry, 700 yards 

 long, 5 yards broad, and 10 or 12 feet above the surface of the 

 sea at high water; and for 400 yards more it consists of two 

 exterior walls, each 3 yards broad and filled up 7 yards \\ide 

 between them with earth; by means of this new and enormous 

 basin they will have an artificial backwater capable, they 

 calculate, of sweeping out the harbour's mouth clean from all 

 obstructions. It is a work that does honour to the kingdom. 

 The view of the Seine from this mole is striking; it is 5 miles 

 broad with high lands for its opposite shore, and the chalk cliffs 

 and promontories that recede to make way for rolling its ^-ast 

 tribute to the ocean, bold and noble. 



Wait on Monsieur I'Abbe Dicquemarre, the celebrated 

 naturahst, where I had also the pleasure of meeting Mademoiselle 

 le Masson le Golf t, author of some agreeable performances ; among 

 others, Eniretien sur le Havre, 1781, when the number of souls 

 was estimated at 25,000. The next day Monsieur le Reiseicourt, 

 captain of the corps royale du Genie, to whom also I had letters, 

 introduced me to Messrs. Hombergs, who rank amongst the 

 most considerable merchants of France. I dined with them at 

 one of their country houses, meeting a numerous company and 

 splendid entertainment. These gentlemen have wives and 

 daughters, cousins and friends, cheerful, pleasing, and well in- 

 formed. I did not like the idea of quitting them so soon, for 

 they seemed to have a society that would have made a longer 

 residence agi^eeable enough. It is no bad prejudice surely to 

 like people that like England; most of them have been there. 

 Nous avons assurement en France de belles, d'agreables et de 

 bonnes choses, mais on trouve une telle energie dans voire nation . 



iSth. By the passage-packet, a decked vessel, to Honfleur, 

 seven and a half miles, which we made with a strong north wind 

 in an hour, the river being rougher than I thought a river could 

 be. Honfleur is a small town full of industry and a basin full 

 of ships, with some Guinea-men as large as at Havre. At Pont 

 au de Mer, wait on Monsieur Martin, director of the nmmifacture 



