FRANCE AND SWITZERLAND. GOING FROM HOME. MY DEAR MOTHER, LETTER I. Paris, February 10, 183—. To find myself in one week transported from our home in Lancashire to the capital of France, from your side to a lonely room in a Parisian boarding-school, is a very marvellous thing, now that I have time to reflect on it; and all my reflections tend to make me very sad. Yet I assure myself that I ought not to be sad, as I am now about to have gratified what has long been my most earnest wish,—namely, to see this great city, and to know the French in their own country. But before I tell you anything about Paris, I must give you the history of my journey, concerning which you will be anxious. When I left you at eight o'clock on Monday last, I might have said with poor Launce, "Nay, it will be this hour ere I have done weeping, all the kind of the Launces have this very fault, I have received my proportion like the prodigious son, and am going to the Imperial's court ;" but I think Launce did not weep very long, nor did I,-I remembered that I was too old to play the baby, I remembered also the comfort which was given to Launce in his sorrow, "Away, ass, you will lose the tide." I did not lose the tide. In a short time I found myself at the river side, and in the ferry-boat found my travelling friends awaiting me. The morning was fine, B and our little sail across the river agreeable enough, but it was soon over, and then, behold me really on my road to France, I who, twenty-four hours before, had not thought of such a journey as probable for some weeks at least. Tuesday dawned upon me some fifty miles from London. The morning was bright and beautiful: I looked out on a landscape covered by a pure sheet of snow, and the trees surpassed in beauty any white plumes which I shall see in Paris. Owing to the depth of snow on the roads, we were many hours later in arriving in town than we had expected to be. After I had performed my toilette, and had had some refreshment, I left my friends, and drove to Mrs. H.'s, where I remained all night, and where I was treated by every member of the family with a sincerity of kindness and hospitality which has left a profound impression of gratitude on my mind; for I was so little known to them, that I did not feel that I had a right to be thus at home, so far from you. On the following day Mr. and Miss H. drove with me to the office of the French Ambassador, where I found my friends awaiting me, and, without any difficulty, we obtained our passports. We We went down to Dover by night, and breakfasted there, on a bright, frosty, most delightful morning. After a little repose, we walked to the fortifications on the heights; from whence the town appeared quite in a nest below us. had a very good opportunity of seeing its inhabitants; for there was a great merry-making, in honour of the coming of age of the son of some rich man. There were drums beating, and flags flying in the streets, and oxen roasted whole carried in procession. On our return to our hotel, we were joined by some acquaintances of Mrs. W., and had a great deal of very pleasant talk. One of the gentlemen turned out quite a classic in conversation; Mr. D. showed himself more than a mere man of business; and Mrs. W. and I helped to keep up the ball, assisted by her son. At twelve o'clock, however, these new friends left us; and at one we embarked for Calais in excellent spirit, although certainly rather alarmed by a description we had been reading in our guide-book of the harpies, by which we might expect to be soon attacked, in the form of Custom-house officers and commissioners from hotels. Now, on entering the packet, we felt indeed that we were approaching the land of the Gaul. Here were Frenchmen of every age and description talking with all the volubility of their nation. I lent an attentive ear, and sometimes caught a part of their discourse. At one time, a very warm and vehement discussion was carried on between an old and a young man, respecting the possibility of England's being conquered by France; the former maintained that it might be, the latter that it could not be. I know not how the matter terminated, but there were moments when the disputants seemed ready to come to blows. As I looked on the high white cliffs of Dover, I could not help thinking of those years, "in the dim backward and abyss of time," when the fleets of Rome appeared beneath those cliffs; when the civilised rulers of the world prepared to attack the naked savages of our island. We have since then run the career of the Roman, except that for the pride of military greatness, we have substituted the avarice of commercial greatness. We have invaded the territories of the naked savage in every quarter of the globe, we have poured out his blood like water, we have robbed him of all we could carry away-in these things we have as yet but trodden in the steps of the pagan Roman-may better things be hoped for?-alas, I know not! We were only three hours in crossing from Dover to Calais. Immediately on landing, we were taken to a place where our passports were examined, and then we were given to a female who took us into a private room to examine our pockets and bags. Mrs. W. and I had nothing to fear, but I rather think some others had much to fear, for I am sure we had a number of female smugglers on board our packet. It was quite amusing, as we came near Calais, to see them begin to decorate their heads with caps, trimmed with a prodigious quantity of English lace. Many of these women were intoxicated-assuredly, smuggling, like poaching and body-snatching, brings with it many vices. The personal examination being over we went to our hotel where we ordered dinner, and where we remained while the gentlemen returned to see the trunks examined. Dinner soon came, and a very good dinner it was, and I think a merrier party never dined on first landing in France; we laughed and rattled, and were exceedingly happy without knowing why. After dinner we set out to see the lions of Calais, very much in the dusk as you may suppose, Mr. D. taking charge of Mrs. W., and young Mr. W. and I taking charge of each other. How different the aspect of everything here is from Dover, where we had been but a few hours before !—all is at once foreign. At length we came to the church, a very handsome one, called Notre Dame de Calais. We were enticed into it by an old soldier, or gendarme, or something of that sort. Once in, we could not escape from his clutches. Like a well-practised showman he led us from shrine to shrine, from chapel to chapel, from tomb to tomb, giving us the history of every thing which we did not see. Here and there in this large church burnt a little candle, "so shines a good deed in this naughty world:" near it knelt some votaress at her prayers for the dead. Quoting Sterne, Mr. D. was determined to try what adventures a glove-shop would offer. We had a good deal of laughter, for we were in a laughing mood, but nothing in the smallest degree sentimental occurred. We retired early to rest that we might be ready in good time for our journey, and we were in good time, in spite of the usual reproaches levelled at us ladies. On leaving Calais we congratulated ourselves that we had not found the harpies so disagreeable as we had anticipated. We had no attacks on our purses except by the landlord, the commissioner, (who undertook all the passport and custom-house business) and the porter; the last feelingly declared as he rubbed up his |
