204. Remarks on the prefent Female Drefs. 
tion, I fhall poftpone it for.the prefent, 
and give you fome more general oblerva- 
tions that I have made on this journey 
from Bourdeaux to Tours. Although 
the face of the country is much fuperior 
to England for natural beauty, and, I be- 
heve, I may fay, for produtive cultiva- 
tion, yet it is very far inferior to it in 
fome other refpeéts. Inflead of the cle- 
gant houfes of noblemen and gentlemen of 
fortune, one fees here only a few old ru- 
Inous chateaux or caitles, built fome cen- 
turies ago, and which no Englifh gentle- 
man would live in: the few houfes one 
meets, which convey any idea of the com- 
forts of a middling ftation in life, are 
called maifons bourgoifes, to diftinguifh 
them from the chateaux of the nobility, 
which, with all their pride of antiquity, 
are not near fo commodious. ‘The only 
buildings ] have met with in this journey 
(the inmediate neighbourhood of the great 
towns excepted) which can pretend to ele- 
gance or tafte, are the ci-devant religious 
eftablifhments, which are converted pretty 
generally into manufactories: neither 
well-built villages, nor comfortable farm- 
houfes, are often to be feen here.+ The 
middling, as well as the higher, ranks 
ufually live in the towns, and it feems as . 
if the country was entirely abandoned to 
the peafants, who cultivate the ground, 
and to their overfeers. The roads do not 
afford the fame variety as in England. 
_ From Boutrdeaux to Tours (a diftance of 
above two hundred miles) I did not meet 
a private carriage of any fort. 
Public diligences and cabriolets carry 
all travellers who go in carriages, and 
enormous waggons, with only two wheels, 
convey all goods, whether the merchan- 
dize of the town, or the produétions of the 
country. As for my living on the road, 
IT have, in my laft, defcribed it to you; 
and, as to my companions, I have only to 
fay, that they were all of them eafy, good- 
humoured, and agreeable. This is indeed 
the univerfal chara&ter of Frenchmen in 
mixed companies ; they are not at all re- 
ferved, but, on the contrary, lay themfelves 
out to pleafe and be pleafed, and are ge- 
nerally fuccefsful. There was only one 
of my fellow-paflengers, whofe ftory was 
fo ftrongly marked as tobe worthy of a 
particular account: I fhall mention this 
cafe in my next. fit 
I fhall conclude this letter with a de- 
fcription of the petit commerce of the fair 
mar chandes, in all- the towns on this road. 
Had Sterne travelled this way, or heard of 
this clafs of tradefwomen, they would 
have had a confpicuous place in his Ses#- 
timental Journey. In every town, as foon 
as the carriage ftops, or you enter the inn, 
you are {urrounded by a groupe of young 
girls and women, all neatly dreffed, and 
fome very handfome. They all fell the 
fame things—knives, fciflars, ard tooth- 
picks, made at Chatellerault. The power 
of beauty, and all the arts of female elo- 
quence and perfuafion, are ufled to induce 
you to buy a two-penny tooth pick, in 
cafe you are already provided with knives 
and {ciffars. As it is very hard to refufe 
a handf{ome coaxing young woman fo {malla 
favour, my pockets were {oon full of tooth- 
picks. Itis the cuftom here for every one to 
have a couteau in their pocket, to cut their 
meat and bread with, as at the inns they 
do not give yon knives, but only forks. 
Thofe couteaux are the articles princtpally 
fold by the fair retailers of the manufac- 
tures of Chatelleraulr, as every one who 
travels this road muft be provided with 
one of them. When I confider how poor 
the profits of thofe female pedlars mutt 
be, I cannot but regret that fo much beau- 
ty, addrefs, and perfuafive power, fhould 
be exerted to fo {mall advantage. 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
ROM a wifh to rendera fervice-to 
my fellow-creatures, I beg the favour 
of your inferting the following remarks i 
your valuable Magazine. ? 
Should they produce the effect of 
being beneficial but to one of the amiable 
fex, for whom they-are defigned, the wri- 
ter will conceive himfelf amply repaid for 
his little trouble. a te 
It has been a matter of fome furprize 
among the curious, and of ftill greater 
concern among the benevolent,part of man- _ 
kind, thatthe prefent light, airy,and highly 
unfuitable drefles fhould prevail among fe- 
males at this inclement feafon of the year ; 
more efpecially in an ifland like our’s, 
where we are fubject to continual varia- 
tions of weather, and fudden changes of 
temperature in the atmofphere. 
Whether thefe fantaftic fafhions have been 
adopted from the French, fome doubt ; 
but, if the fuppofition be admitted, I be- 
heve it may be juftly afferted, that they 
have been more pernicious and deftructive 
in their confequences, than even French 
principles. ela 
It is a well-known faé, that with us, 
by far the greater proportion of eee 
“5 a aie 
