14 
When it is found praéticable to fleep 
in the houtfe, pallcts of ftraw or hay are 
fpread lide by fide, on the earthen floor 
of the kitchen or common room, as it 
may, be called. Sometimes there are 
tivo rooms, but the iecond is muuch fmail- 
er than the firit.. This ftle of ficeping, 
pardicularly when many tray ellers ae 
arrived at the fame time, refembles that 
ef foldiers in barracks; though Englifh 
foldiers would be thought te have greatly 
the advantage. .The people of the houfe, 
beth men: and women, mix promifeu- 
oully in the fociety of fleepers, occupy- 
ing contiguous beds. On ehaie occa- 
fions, the men appear to have more de- 
licacy than the women, for they com- 
monly retain their breeches, taking off 
their coat and waticoat only : whereas, 
the women undrefs into their fhifts at 
melt, and get out of bed in the morn- 
lag, clefe by your fide, with the moft 
perfect unconcern ;—a curious: infiance 
of the effect of habit. In fummer, how- 
ever, the undretlug of thefe women con- 
fis merely in their flipping down ‘a 
{ingle petticoat, which is the whole of 
their, drefs. The beit fleeping accom- 
modations, which theie ins occahionally 
aficrd, ave m the interior reom, on a 
finail couch, between two feather-beds ; 
without theets, however, or blankets. 
Sleeping one night thus circuuaftanc ed, I 
Was awakened in the morning by an un- 
ufual humming noite, for which 1 was 
unable to account. I was fo buried alto 
between the bers, that 1 was obliged to 
raife inylelf before L could look about 
the room. It was a Jew on his knees 
muttering his orifuns, at which he con- 
tinued tor at leaft half an hour. The 
inns In the interior of Poland are all kept 
by Jews, who may boalt (if they like) 
the unenyied. diftinétion of pre-eminent 
filchinefS. Sir Thomas Brown, in his 
Vulgar Errors, difcuffes the curious quel- 
tion, “whether Jews naturally ftink,” 
which he determines im the negative: 
but Iam difpofed to be of the opinion, 
that if he- had ever been a traveller in 
Poland, this conclution would have un- 
dergone confiderable modification ; nor 
heuld I have been much furprifed if it 
had ftoed thns—that the Jews are abfo- 
dutely and imberently a ftmking race. 
Thev potiels, coo, all the low cunning 
and alertnefs at cheating which charac- 
terize their brethren in other countries. 
Travelling is expenfive in Poland, even 
to the utives, netwithitanding the 
a tetodece Of the country. I paid, 
frou Wariaw to DD 
4 
Particulars of the prejent State of Poland. 
Dautzic, an equivalent - 
[April 1, 
to ten guineas fterling for carriage-hire 
alone ; my other expences amounted to 
nearly asmuch: but in thefe I muft have 
been impoied upon by the Jews. In 
regard to the carriage there was no im- 
pohian 5 ; it was hired for me by a per- 
fon of the country, intimately acquaint- 
ed with all the ufages of nore The 
diftance is called forty miles, that is, five 
times forty, in Englif miles) but. it 
mutt be more. The road: winds conti- 
dévably, particularly im the forefts, and 
often projects mto a large angle; for the 
greater couvenience, perbaps, of crofling 
a river, or to aveul a lake or morafs. 
The miles are counted by eftimation 
only. The fort of carnage in which [ 
travelled on this occation, was of the 
eradlc-jorm mentioned pa a which is 
the mott convenient for luggage. With 
thefe, too, you retain tie “fame _horfes 
throughout, conznouly two a-breaft aud 
one belore ; yet you travel at the rate of 
forty, and fometimes fifty, Unglifh miles 
per day. A common plan i is te purchafe 
a fimail travelling carriage, which may 
be done for twenty or thirty ducats, and 
which may be fold again at the journey’s 
end witha trifling lots. In thefe carri- 
ages you travel poft; and, im confe- 
quence, more expeditioufly. The total 
amount of the expence does not much 
exceed the other method. 
Scarcely any perion travels in this 
country without afervant. The traveller 
mutt, etherwile, do every thing for him- 
felf; even aie his own bed:. which, 
by the bye, is often nething more than 
his own carriage ftationed m the ftable. 
When a nobleman or any other perfon 
of confequence is on a journey, he con- 
trives, if he can, to halt at a friend’s 
houfe, according to the cufiom of ancient 
hofpitality ; but if this be impratticable, 
he fends ‘forward two or three fervants 
to fome inn, which has at leaft a fecond 
room, which they prepare for his recep- 
tion. The writer once travelled fome 
feyenty or eighty miles with a nobleman 
only, when we took up our abode for a 
night at one of thefe better fort of inns. 
The room was the cleaneft I had feen ; 
for it had been lately white-wathed, aud 
was -highly. commended by my noble 
fellow- traveller, as being far above the 
common. T here were firaply two couches, 
or rather frames of couches, in two of 
the corners, on which we flept for the ° 
night. Thefe were firft ftrewed with 
hay, on which the mattrefies and bed- 
lien we had brought with us were dil- 
pofed. In refpect ef foou, we fared 
wei 
