1302 ] 
‘> particularly to the official narratives which 
they contain of the glorious exploits of 
our commanding officers, we certainly ex- 
pected to have beheld, as we approached 
the ancient town of Boulogne, a f{cene of 
defolation and ruin; but alas! ‘the difap- 
pointment and mortification at finding the 
houfes, both in the lower and the upper 
town, to ufe a vulgar phrafe, all wind- 
tight and water-tight! However, confi- 
dering that the Preliminaries of Peace 
were figned, although the Definitive Trea~ 
ty was not concluded, and reflecting, 
moreover, that we were indebted to the 
fluggifhnefs of Lord Nelfon’s bombs for 
our comfortable accommodation at the 
Lion dor, we confoled ourfelves quite as 
well as could poffibly have been expected 
ever a good bottle of win de Bourdeaux, 
Purpofing to travel two o/s before 
breakfaft, we went to bed early, and 
reached Abbéville on the following day, 
where wewere well accommodated at the 
Hotel d’ Angleterre: you muft know that 
although in France. there are no public 
carriages which anfwer to our pofk-chaifes 
in England, the traveller need be under 
no apprehenfion for the want of horfes, 
At the diftance of every two or three 
leagues is eftablifhed by Government a 
pofte aux chevaux, where a confiderable 
number of horfes and drivers are kept in 
readinefs to forward a traveller at any 
hour of the day or night: during the war 
the roads have been entirely neglected, 
and as but few foreigners, comparatively 
{peaking, have had oceafion and opportu- 
nity to travel through France, fome of 
the poft-mafters found that their cafual 
vifitors were too unfrequent to-pay the ex- 
pence of keeping a fufficient number of 
horfes for their accommodation. A few 
_of the poft-houfes, therefore, have been 
given up, and one is fometimes obliged to 
travel two, three, or even four pofts,* be- 
fore he can change horfes. 
The country from Boulogne to Abbé- 
ville wears the fame general charaéter as 
that which we left behind us: here and 
there a folitary chateau breaks the fame- 
nefs of the profpeét which, at this feafon 
of the year, is little elfe than that of an 
open heath, its flatnefs agitated, as it 
were, into gentle {wellirtgs, which afford 
extenfive views of meanly-cultured land, 
uninterrupted by hedge or ditch. ‘The 
* The poft is nominally two leagues: on 
a journey of nearly four hundred leagues, we 
eftimated it to average 52 Englith miles: ap- 
proaching towards/Geneva we often travelled 
ay pofts without changing horfes, and once 
our. 
An Excurfion through France te Geneva. 
~ 
99 
road itfelf, however, has improved upon 
us, and aftonifhing preparations are every 
where making for the further reparation 
of it: on each fide, almoft without va- > 
cancy, are laid picked ftones, large and 
{mall, in feparate heaps, for the purpofe 
of mending it at a more favourable time of 
the year. 
The only town we pafs through of any 
confideration between Boulogne and Ab- 
béville, is Montreuil, a place celebrated, 
“if LT remember rightly, for the treachery 
of its commander, and the folly of the 
Duke of Marlborough in divulging that 
treachery before he reaped the benefit of 
it, and thus fruftrating his own unwarlike 
machinations. — 
About two miles from Montreuil, ‘as 
it is approached on the Calais fide, the 
town prefents a noble appearance: it 
ftands on a very commanding eminence, 
and feems to be a place of almoft imprege 
nable ftrength: it is only to be entered by 
paffing over two heavy draw-bridges, 
either of which any one, of my infcience 
in fortifications at leaft, would hardly 
think it poffible for an enemy to approach 
with impunity. We ftopped here merely 
to change horfes, and did not get out of . 
the carriage, fo that I can give you no ac- 
count of the internal appearance of the 
town: ruined churches, indeed, the dif- 
graceful monuments of revolutionary rages 
we faw here, and we fee every where !— 
Crack! crack! fays the poft-boy, canter- 
ing over the pavé, to the great annoyance 
of our fprings, till the diftant lights, after 
a fatiguing day’s-journey, announce the 
town of Abbéville, where we arrived at 
half after fixin the evening, and found an 
excellent dinner prepared for us by our 
untired courier, at three livres a head—* | 
fuch adinner-as I verily believe no inn- © 
keeper on the other fide of the water would 
have afforded us under three half-crowns 
each. Indeed this fum we have never ex- 
ceeded, and in no one inftance hitherto 
have had reafon to repent of our economy : 
on the-contrary, it almoft feems as if the 
maitres d° hotel had not, of late years at 
leaft, been ufed to fuch good cuftomers ; 
* The influx of Englifh travellers, in con- 
fequence of the fignature of the preliminaries, 
and the pacific negotiation at Amiens, made 
a rapid alteration in the price-of accommoda- 
tion at the hotels on the roads from Calais to 
Paris: in going to the latter place we never 
once paid more than three livres each for 
our dinners. On our return to Calais, withid 
the fpace of feven weeks, we never paid lefs 
than four livres for no better fare. 
O2z for 
