FOREIGNERS ON ENGLAND 75 



they reached that bourne of pilgrims they were still 

 further impressed with that fact by observing a fat man, 

 who was just arisen from bed, standing at a bay 

 windoAV during the whole time the flying machines 

 changed their Pegasuses ; and, as they were unexpected 

 the delay was considerable. But all this while the fat 

 man stood there in his night-shirt, with a velvet cap 

 on his head, contemplating them with folded arms and 

 knitted brow, and with an expression which (in France) 

 was to be seen only on the faces of them that had just 

 buried their dearest friends. Also, the " young 

 persons " of both sexes stood and stared — not to mince 

 matters — like stuck pigs. 



The country which they travelled through from 

 Dover to London was (so our traveller thought) in 

 general a bad mixture of sand and chalk. They 

 skirted some lovely woods as well furnished as the 

 best-stocked forests of France — alas ! where are those 

 Avoods now ? — and presently passed over commons 

 covered with heath and stray broom, very high and 

 flourishing all the year round. Those wild shrubs 

 were left to the use of the poor of the several different 

 parishes, but their vigour and thickness gave reason 

 to conjecture that there were but few poor people 

 in those parishes. The best lands were then, as now, 

 laid out in hop-gardens. 



The wayside inns appealed strongly to our traveller. 

 They Avere given, whether in town or country, to the 

 making of large accounts, but then see how rich was 

 the English lord who, as a class, frequented them. 

 Anyway, they were possessed of a cleanliness far 

 beyond that to be found in the majority of the best 

 private houses in France. There was only one inn 

 on the road from Paris to Boulogne to be mentioned 

 in the same breath with the English houses, and 

 that was one at Montreuil, frequented by English 

 travellers. 



Between Canterbury and Rochester the coaches 

 encountered an obstacle which savours rather of Don 



