Cherbourg 99 



harbour. Two 40-gun ships have lain at anchor within them 

 these eighteen months past, by way of experiment, and though 

 such storms have happened in that time as have put all to severe 

 trials, and, as I mentioned before, considerably damaged three 

 of the cones, yet these ships have not received the smallest 

 agitation; hence it is a harbour for a small fleet without doing 

 more. Should they ever proceed with the rest of the cones, they 

 must be built much stronger, perhaps larger, and far greater 

 precautions taken in giving them firmness and solidity: it is 

 also a question whether they must not be sunk much nearer 

 to each other; at all events, the proportional expense will be 

 nearly doubled, but for wars with England, the importance of 

 having a secure harbour, so critically situated, they consider as 

 equal almost to any expense; at least this importance has its full 

 weight in the eyes of the people of Cherbourg. I remarked, in 

 rowing across the harbour, that while the sea without the arti- 

 ficial bar was so rough that it would have been unpleasant for a 

 boat, within it was quite smooth. I mounted two of the cones, 

 one of which has this inscription: — Louis XVI. — Sur ce premiere 

 cone echoiie le 6 Jiiin 1784, a vu Viynmersion de celiii de Vest, le 

 23 Juin 1786. — On the whole the undertaking is a prodigious 

 one, and does no trifling credit to the spirit of enterprise of the 

 present age in France. The service of the marine is a favourite; 

 whether justly or not is another question ; and this harbour 

 shows that when this great people undertake any capital works, 

 that are really favourites, they find inventive genius to plan, and 

 engineers of capital talents to execute, whate\'er is devised, in 

 a manner that does honour to their kingdom. The Duke de 

 Beuvron had asked me to dinner, but I found that if I accepted 

 his invitation it would then take me the next day to view the 

 glass manufacture; I preferred therefore business to pleasure, 

 and taking with me a letter from that nobleman to secure a sight 

 of it, I rode thither in the afternoon; it is about three miles 

 from Cherbourg. Monsieur de Puye, the director, explained 

 everything to me in the most obliging manner. Cherbourg is 

 not a place for a residence longer than necessary; I was here 

 fleeced more infamously than at any other town in France ; the 

 two best inns were full ; I was obliged to go to the barque, a vile 

 hole, little better than a hog-sty; where, for a miserable dirty 

 wretched chamber, two suppers composed chiefly of a plate of 

 apples and some butter and cheese, with some trifle besides too 

 bad to eat, and one miserable dinner, they brought me in a 

 bill of 31 livres (£i 7s. id.); they not only charged the room 



