324 Travels in France 



England is enormous, from its fineness ; surely a great change of 

 that which is coarse would be much more rational. In point 

 of cleanliness I think the merit of the two nations is divided; the 

 /French are cleaner in their persons, and the English in their 

 ( houses ; I speak of the mass of the people and not of individuals 

 of considerable fortune. A bidet in France is as universally in 

 every apartment as a basin to wash your hands, which is a trait 

 of personal cleanliness I wish more common in England ; on the 



\ other hand their necessary houses are temples of abomination; 

 and the practice of spitting about a room, which is amongst the 

 highest as well as the lowest ranks, is detestable : I have seen a 

 gentleman spit so near the clothes of a duchess that I have stared 



\ at his unconcern. In everything that concerns the stables, the 



\ English far exceed the French; horses, grooms, harness, and 

 change of equipage; in the provinces you see cabriolets un- 

 doubtedly of the last century; an Englishman, however small 

 his fortune may be, will not be seen in a carriage of the fashion of 

 forty years past; if he cannot have another he will walk on foot. 

 It is not true that there are no complete equipages at Paris, I 

 have seen many; the carriage, horses, harness, and attendance 

 without fault or blemish; — but the number is certainly very 

 much inferior to what are seen at London. English horses, 

 grooms, and carriages have been of late years largely imported. 

 In all the articles of the fitting up and furnishing houses, including 

 those of all ranks in the estimate, the English have made 

 advances far beyond their neighbours. Mahogany is scarce in 

 France, but the use of it is profuse in England. Some of the 

 hotels in Paris are immense in size, from a circumstance which 

 would give me a good opinion of the people, if nothing else did, 

 which is the great mixture of families. When the eldest son 



\ marries he brings his wife home to the house of his father where : 

 is an apartment provided for them ; and if a daughter does not 

 wed an eldest son, her husband is also received into the family, 

 in the same way, which makes a joyous number at every table. 

 This cannot altogether be attributed to economical motives, 

 though they certainly influence in many cases, because it is found 

 in families possessing the first properties in the kingdom. It 

 does with French manners and customs, but in England it is 

 sure to fail, and equally so amongst all ranks of people: may 

 we not conjecture with a great probabihty of truth that the 

 nation in which it succeeds is therefore better tempered? 



[ Nothing but good humour can render such a jumble of families 



