M. GROSLEY 73 



of, had much better opportunities of catching 

 impressions than the railway train affords. They 

 came up this way to London, as slowly as the poet's 

 spring ; and, as a rule, they used their opportunities 

 very well. For instance, here is the admirable 

 M. Grosley, a kindly Frenchman who came over from 

 Boulogne in 1765. He gives a most interesting 

 account of his journey along the Dover Road on 

 the 11th April. He embarked upon Captain Meriton's 

 packet, which arrived, in compan}^ Avith a prodigious 

 number of other ships, three hours before time, off 

 Dover. Here they had to anchor for the tide to serve 

 their landing, and the boisterous winds drove several 

 vessels ashore, while Captain Meriton's passengers 

 resigned themselves to death. When at length the}^ 

 landed, half dead, an Englishwoman with her very 

 amiable daughter and a tall old Irishman, who pre- 

 tended to be an officer (and who doubtless " had a way 

 with him "), landed with our traveller, and contrived 

 that he should pay part of their fare, the only trick 

 played upon M. Grosley (I am pleased to say) during his 

 stay in England. The customs officers looked like 

 beggars, but treated this foreigner like a gentleman, 

 as indeed we may suppose he was, for he belonged to 

 the Academy. 



However, a crown was levied on passing his luggage 

 by an innkeeper who held the droit cle viscomte. All the 

 inns were crowded with the miserable travellers just 

 landed, and he with whom we are particularly concerned 

 found it necessary to go into the kitchen of his inn and 

 take off, with his own hands, one of the tranches de bceuf 

 grilling on the coals. After this exploit, he cautiously 

 went to bed at six o'clock in the afternoon, for there 

 were not enough beds to go round, and possession was 

 ever nine points of the laAV ! At three in the morning 

 he was called upon to turn out in favour of a new 

 arrival ; but, notwithstanding all the rout they made, 

 he held to his four-poster until five, when he was 

 turned out and the game of Box and Cox commenced. 



