1803.) 
For. Kings have many griefs their fouls to 
move, : 
While Shepherds have no greater grief than 
love. 4s 
Upon his couch of ftraw he fleeps as found 
As doth the King upon his bed of down, 
And founder too; 
For cares caufe Kings full oft their fleep to 
fpill, 
While weary Shepherds lie and fleep their fill, 
Ah then—Ah then, &c. &c. 
The French cookery is the moft econo- 
mical in the yéorld, and the lower clailes 
of people are 1% excluded from the com- 
fort ot it: a great deal of Indian wheat 
it grown, and this is faid to thicken foups 
in a very profitable degree. About Ge- 
neva the bread, which the poor people 
eat, is made either from this wheat or 
from barley, which is cultivated on a 
very extenhve fcale in the neighbourhood 
of Nantua, whence it is exported to the 
town: the bread, which we have fome- 
times feen in the cottages, wheve we have 
ftopt to boil a few eggs, has been dark in 
colour, and very harfh tothe paiate, bur, 
when foijtened in foup, may probably be 
nevertheleis extremely nutiitious and pa- 
latable. 
Tea is aluxury but little known among 
the poor in the provinces of France: in- 
ftead of it, however, they have abundance 
of coffee, a far greater luxury when fo de- 
licioufly prepared as it is here. We have 
feen coarfe-looking fellows fit round the 
Kitchen-fire at a pot houfe, drink their 
hot coffee, and eat their hot rolls, witha 
great deal or apparent, and no doubt of 
real, enjoyment. We have occafionally 
ftopt to change horfes at the hour of din- 
ner, and have feen a number of labourers 
—at Pont fur Ain there could not be lefs 
than a dozen of them—colleé& together 
and cal] for their dinner, which the hoftefs 
had already prepared forthem. To the 
water in which meat has been boiled, a 
large quantity of vegetables of various 
forts, turnips, carrots, potatoes, garlic, 
&c. are added; large flices of bread, or 
fome farinaceous {ubftance, is inierted, 
and together with a proper proportion of 
pepper, falt, and herbs, form a foup 
which is thus fociably eaten, and has the 
appearance at leaft of giving a comfort- 
able meal to thofe who partake of it. 
Each peafant drinks his win ordinaire de 
pays out of a feparate glafs; and, with all 
their abominable filth, the French mzy; 
in this particular, teach the Englith a 
leflon of cleanlinefS. In England, not 
merely at a harvett frolic and a fheep- 
fhecring, but at the tables of moft re- 
An Excurfion through France to Geneva. 
18 
fpeable and genteel perfons we are in 
the habit of feafoning our beverage with 
the copious faliva of halt a dozen greafy 
mouths! But it is time to take leave of 
this fubjeét, and proceed to my journal : 
one remark I fhall make on the general 
appearance of the pealantry, and that is, 
that we fee no fine old heads of either fex. 
We fee many healthy children, many 
very beautiful girls, and frefh hardy- 
looking boys: but when the men and wo- 
men approach to fixty years of age, we 
have very frequently had occafion to ob- 
ferve, that their complexions are fallow, 
and their faces fhrunk and unhealthy. 
How is this to be accounted for? I fhall 
not ftop to inquire, but merely fuggeft 
two circumftances which it ftrikes me may: 
podlibly co-operaie to produce it. Almoit 
all the hovels, and indeed all the hotels, 
that it has been our foitune to reft at, are 
afflicted with fmoky chimneys: in France 
every body takes {nuff, and many, no 
doubt, in an immoderate degree. If the 
peafant and his family, refiding in adark 
and filthy room, are ever inhaling the fuf- 
focating particles of wood-{moke, and. 
ufing, moreover, the vile ttimulus of {nuff, 
it is not very wonderful, furely, that theis 
countenances fhould prematurely become 
haggard and unheaithy. We have never 
feen a drunken man in France, but eaz 
de vie is fold in almoft every other fhop: 
if it is habitually drunk by the labouring 
people, as one is forced to infer, from 
the frequency of its expofure for fale, a 
third and very powerful caufe prefents it- 
felf to account tor the fact. 
What an odd thing it is that the inns 
are much cheaper on this fide cf Paris 
than on the other! From Calais to Paris 
we had excellent dinners for three livres a 
head: at Paris we paid four, at Geneva 
five: after the firlt day, indeed, we ftipu- 
lated for four; and our dinners were quite 
as good for this fum as they had been for | 
the other. We can now find fcarcely any 
hotel where they will cook us a good din- 
ner under five livres a head. I beg 
pardon: you do not want to know how 
much a mouthful we pay for our food. 
The country from Chalons to Autun 
it extremely rich in vineyards and corn- 
fields, and is altogether very ftriking : 
the hills are lofty, and the outline is of 
that ealy {welling form—of that foft ma- 
millary fhape, which is confefledly beau- 
tiful. The approachto Autun muft in 
fummer-time, I am perfuaded, be de- 
lightful beyond any conception that we 
can have of it at the prefent feafon of the 
year; the road winds over thefe lovely 
hilis, 
