1802. ] 
drawing very near to midnight ;-we fat 
down to our dinner at about ten o’clock, 
glad enough to get out of the chaife. Since 
we left the pavé, the roads have been ex- 
ecrably bad, really dangerous; we have 
gone many a mile this day at only a foot- 
pace, the carriage pitching and heaving 
precifely as if fhe had been at fea; with 
all our ballaft, we could not always keep 
‘her from going gunnel-to—however we 
are brought fafe to anchor for the pre- 
fent. | 
Laft night I left you at Troyes, which 
we entered by moon-light : the mafly 
gateways, and the deep yawning foffé, 
produced, as we pafled over the draw- 
bridge, a very ftriking effet. ‘Troyes, I 
fhould imagine, is a very large and popu- 
lous city. Being detained there this 
morning two or three hours by our. car- 
riage, which, as ufual, wanted fome little 
reparation after the fatigue of the day, 
R—-— and myfelf walked about the town. 
It was market-day, and we both agreed 
that we had never feen a market more ex- 
tenfive or more plentifully fupplicd: it 
abounded, literally abounded, with pigs, 
turkeys, geele,chickens, partridges, {nipes, 
woodcocks, ducks, larks, and vegetables 
of every defcription. All the domeftic 
animals are brought to market alive, and 
the confufion of noifes is enough to dif- 
tract one. The price of pork is five 
fols (23d. Englifh) per pound; but the 
animals are generally in fuch a poor con- 
dition that they would not have been 
faleable in England for the purpofe of 
immediate flaughter. Mutton we often 
tafte that is extremely delicate and fine, 
nor is there any reafon to find fault with 
the beef, which is fattened with oil-cake; 
fveing a large quantity of this in the mar- 
ket, and not knowing what it was, we en- 
quired of a fales-woman, who told us 
that it was pour donner aux beftiaux. 
All travellers through France, prior to 
the Revolution, have noticed the extreme 
fcarcity of game; the laws were then ri- 
gorous to excefs for the prefervation of it, 
Thefe laws have for fome years been abo- 
lifhed, and game abounds: the fuccels of 
an experiment, made on fo large a feale, 
might furely prompt the Britith legifla- 
ture to withdraw the deftructive protection 
(if you will allow me the folecifm) which 
it yet holds in England over the birds of 
the air, ; 
As there is no fquare at Troyes large 
enough of itfelf to contain the market, it 
js extended through feveral contiguous 
flreets, where the women, facing each 
other, ftand with their refpective goods, 
‘ 
An Excurfion through France to Geneva. 
517 
making a lane for purchafers and paffen- 
gers: they were drefled very neatly, and: 
the {cene was altogether lively and amuf- 
ing. Two quack-dottors (we have feen 
feveral of thefe affaffins in France) were 
vending their villainous drugs in one of 
thefe crowded ftreets ; in another was a 
delinquent, his arms pinioned, expofed to 
public fhame, on an elevated {caffold : this 
inftrument of punifhment is fomething like 
our pillory; that is to fay, it contents it- 
felf with difgracing the offender, without 
inflicting on him any corporal pain, On 
this feaffold was placed a chair, and on 
the chair was feated the down-caf cul- 
prit, with a paper, ftating, in Jarge letters, 
his name and offence, which was, that he 
had ftolen money from one of his com- 
rades. I wifhed from my heart, that I 
could have placed on each fide of the poor 
fellow one of thofe deteftable pefts of {o~ 
ciety, thofe infamous empirics, whom we 
had juft heard haranguing the deluded. 
populace, and that I could have there 
made them fwallow a copious dofe of 
their own unantidoted poifon, 
To-day we have paffed through very 
extenfive vineyards: I am furprifed to 
fee the plants flourifh on a foil, which, to 
the fuperficial glance, prefents the very 
picture of poverty: J fhould jy& as foon 
have expected the turnpike-road, or a 
hungry gravel pit, to have yielded mea 
crop, as the ftoney furface of thefe hills. 
The river Seine has accompanied us 
all the way from Paris; and its waters 
are fo high, thatthe corn-lands and vine- 
yardsare overflowed for many acres toge 
ther. Our road to-day has frequently 
been raifed five-and-twenty and thirty feet. 
above the natural level of the land: here 
is no: fence of any fort, and the pottilions, 
to avoid the beaten road, drive fearfully 
near the edge. But thefe fellows are the 
bett whips Lever fat behind in my life; 
one 1s quite aftonifhed at the dexte-- 
rity with which they wind among the 
frequent holes and ftones which lie in their 
way. We have always found them par- 
ticularly careful of the carriage, and civil 
to ourfelves: the French poft- boys, indeed, 
are under the immediate infpeétion of go- 
vernment: they wear a livery and badge 
of their office, and a complaint lodged at 
Paris would foon fnd its way to any one 
in the remoteft department. They are, 
mereover, not only deterred from behav- 
ing ill by the fear of punithment, but 
they are encouraged to behave well by a 
pofitive reward: every one who has dri-~ 
ven during the term of twenty years, 
without having had any well-founded com- 
3 xX-2 plaint 
