P A 
The principal charm of the Boulevards confifts in the 
gay and feftive crowd which conftantly fills them, and the 
ineXhauftible fund of amufement which every ftep fupplies. 
From noon until night they are the favourite refort of 
the Parifians of every defcription. In the heat of the day, 
and the early part of the evening, the walks are lined with 
a 'double or treble row of chairs, occupied by various 
groups, reading, chatting, drinking, frnoking, or gazing 
on the pedeftrians. The Parifian petit-maitre is always 
to be feen here, carelefsly lolling with his legs on one 
chair, while a fecond fupports his body, and his arm is, 
with ftudied negligence, thrown over a third. The chairs 
are hired at a fous each. 
At the fide of the malls is a motley and indefcribable 
group, which contributes not a little to the amufement 
and intereft of the fcene. Ballad-fingers, dancing-chil¬ 
dren, and dancing-dogs, tumblers, pofture-mafters, con¬ 
jurors, puppet-fhowmen, merry-andrews, players, and 
fortune-tellers, Hand in long and interminable fucceflion j 
each unweariedly exerting himfelf to pleafe, and thank¬ 
ful for the few fous which are occasionally thrown to 
him. Trades and commodities feem all to have deferted 
the houfes. Not only birds in cages, and flowers and 
trees in pots, but the choiceft prints and books, articles 
of drefs and furniture, add their hues and their interefts 
to the groups. Bureaux des tcrivains (letter-writers) 
offer the moft prefling invitations to the lover, the mer¬ 
chant, the politician, or the man of fcience, who has by 
forae accident omitted to learn to write, to enter and 
avail himfelf of the talents which are in readinefs for any 
employment. Roafted chefnuts every-where tempt the 
palate, by a flailing the noltrils. Flower-girls, that will 
take no denial, pufli nofegays into your hand. The fruit- 
women extend towards you delicious bunches of grapes ; 
the flioe-blacks flatter the national prejudices of the Eng- 
lilh, by bawling aloud Cirage Anghis! A man carries a 
painted caftle on his back, from which you may draw 
fuch delicious beverage as lemonade, tifane, See. Add 
to tbefe, muficians performing on every inftrument which 
the art of man has invented to pleafe or torture the ear; 
profeffors of natural philofophy, who contrive to make 
their hydroftatic experiments fufficiently impreflive on the 
vifages and clothes of their auditors j the fage diviners 
of the lucky numbers of lottery-tickets ; men with cafties 
inhabited by white mice, who play a thoufand antics in 
the different apartments 5 fortrefl'es, guarded by a regi¬ 
ment of canary-birds, who perform their different evolu¬ 
tions with the precifion of veterans? and laft, not leaft, 
caricaturifts, or grimaciers, who change the human face 
divine into a rapid fucceflion of odd and inconceivably- 
grotefque forms, which no rilible mufcles can poflibiy 
withffand. 
Towards night the crowd increafes, and altnoft the 
whole extent of the Northern Boulevards, from that of 
the Capuchins to St. Antoine, forms one clofely-wedged 
moving mnfs. Dancing now commences in the booths, 
and the gardens by the fide of the walks; every angle 
and nook of the Boulevards, on which the crowd does 
not •prefs, is occupied by a group lightly tripping to the 
mufic of fome guitar or violin. The ftalls are taftefully, 
if not fplendidly, lighted up. Each candidate for public 
favour di(plays his lamp or his candle, and redoubles his 
efforts to attract attention. The face of every paffenger 
is clothed with fmiles ; the Parifian has forgotten the vex¬ 
ations and fatigues of the day, and abandons himfelf to 
the dominion of plea lure. No city in Europe habitually 
prefents fo lively and amufing a fpediacle. It is only ex¬ 
ceeded at Maples or at Venice, and then only in carnival¬ 
time. 
The Southern Boulevards are not fo much frequented, 
and will be vifited by the ft ranger when he wifties for a 
pleafant and more folirary walk. 
The animating features of the Boulevards, always in¬ 
tereft in g, were ftrikingly fo, in the fummer of 1815, after 
the celebrated battle of Waterloo. M Parties of Ruffian 
Vol. XVIII. No. 1260. 
R I S. 493 
cuirafliers, Pruflian lancers, and Hungarian huliars; Cof- 
facks old and young, from the grey-beard to the beard- 
lefs boy, cantering along after their lingular fafnion, their 
long lances poifed on their ftirrups, and loofely fattened 
to their right arms, vibrating over their heads 5 long files 
of Ruffian and Pruflian foragers, and long trains of 
Auftrian baggage-waggons, winding flowly through the 
crowd ? idle foldiers of all fervices, French as well as 
allied, lounging about in their loofe great-coats and 
trowfers, with long crooked pipes hanging from their 
mouths; patroles of infantry parading about under arms, 
compofed half of Ruffian grenadiers, and half of Parifian 
national guards. Ruffian coaches and four, anfwering to 
the defcription of Dr. Clarke, the poftillions riding on the 
oft-horfes, and drefled almoft like beggars ; Ruffian carts 
drawn by four horfes abreaft, and driven by peafants in 
the national coflume ; Polifli Jews, with long black beards, 
drefled in black robes like the caffocks of Englifh clergy¬ 
men, with broad leathern belts; all mingled with the 
Parifian multitude upon the Boulevards; and, in the 
inidft of this indiferiminate affemblage, all the bufinefs 
and all the amufements of Paris went on with increafed 
alacrity and fearlefs confidence.” Travels in France, vol. i. 
p. 19. 
Although the environs of Paris do not afford that 
variety of magnificence to be found in the vicinity of our 
own metropolis, yet there are many objects well worthy 
of attention, whole parallel would be in vain fought for 
in the neighbourhood of London, or, indeed, of any 
other city in the world. The moft interefting part of the 
fuburbs of Paris, and that which deferves efpecialiy to be 
vifited, is the road through the Tuileries, and.Champs 
Elylees, to the Bois de Boulogne, about three or four 
miles diftant. The fuburb of Montmartre partakes of 
the magnificent; and an afternoon or two will be agree¬ 
ably fpent in the Champ de Mars, and its vicinity. 
Boulogne. —The village of Boulogne, about fix miles 
from Paris, was well known in the annals of fuperftition. 
Certain pilgrims, on their return from a holy journey to 
the chapel of Our Lady at the feaport of the fame name, 
founded a religious houfe here, and gave the prefent vil¬ 
lage, then called Memes le St. Cloud, the appellation 
which it now bears. It is from this village that the ad¬ 
joining foreft derives its name, being formerly called the 
Foreft of Rouvnet. 
The name of the Bois de Boulogne would lead the tra¬ 
veller to expedl lofty trees and luxuriant foliage; but 
much of the fine wood which once adorned it is deftroyed, 
and it is now merely an extenfive copfe, thinly fcattered 
with young plants. 
An annual proceffion, called the Promenade de Long 
Champ, draws together the Parifians of every rank. In 
former times, nuns from the neighbouring convent went 
in grand proceffion through the wood. It is now' nothing 
but a long firing of coaches, carts, cabriolets, and horfe- 
men. Every one puts on all his finery, and feems deter¬ 
mined to be gay and merry. 
This wood is frequently the fcene of the royal hunt; 
and to the Englifh Iportfman a more tame and ludicrous 
bufinefs can fcarcely be conceived. The park is fuffi¬ 
ciently enclofed on every fide to prevent the poffibility of 
the efcape of the animal from its narrow limits; it has 
innumerable avenues of trees, and in every principal 
avenue a perfon is placed to watch the direction which 
the deer takes, and communicate the intelligence to the 
royal hunters. The fport, therefore, confifts in galloping 
up and down thefe walks, without the poffibility of a 
leap in a run of many a mile. When the Pruffians 
pitched their tents on this fpot in 181 j, they deftroyed 
much of the timber for fire-wood. 
The wood, or park, is a fafhionable morning-ride for the 
dandies: it is, in ftiort the Parifian Hyde Park, in which 
the fafhionable equeftrian, upon his Norman hunter. 
With heel infidioufty a fide. 
Provokes the canter which'he feems to chide. 
6 K 
The 
