sage!"-" horrid storm!"-" Lord! how white you look!" &c. &c. Standing in none of the pleasing relations just alluded to, to any one at Ramsgate, I hastened through the town, which appeared to possess double the number of inhabitants usually found in a place of its size, and soon found myself on the high road to Dover. The fare to Ramsgate was five shillings.

I had a walk of twenty miles before me, a mere trifle to so practised a pedestrian as myself. Steadily resisting, therefore, the oft repeated and expressive signals from the drivers of the numerous stages which passed me on the route, I held on my course untired till ten o'clock. The day had been eminently beautiful; the night was equally calm and serene and the silence which reigned on all around was interrupted only by the melodious warblings of innumerable nightingales which filled the copses that occasionally lined each side of the path. Under these favorable circumstances I resolved to continue my journey through the short summer night, in order to secure a passage by the first packet to Calais on the following morning. After procuring some refreshment in a village at which I had just arrived, I again resumed my patriarchal mode of travelling, and reached Dover about three o'clock in the morning, having consumed at least five hours in resting by the way.

All the world has been at Dover, and witnessed the bustle created by the incessant arrival of the stages from London, in almost every instance loaded with living cargoes for the opposite coasts: all the world too has seen or heard

of those chalky eminences which Shakspeare has immortalized in his description of "the tall anchoring bark diminished to her cock, her cock a buoy." A few bathing machines are maintained here; the beach is superb, and the amusements of a summer's residence not a little increased by the curious costume and occasionally grotesque appearance of the passengers from France.

Dover is expensive. I was most anxious to be gone, and quickly agreed with the master of the French mail packet, a small but neat sailing boat, for a passage for four shillings; and, after embarking a cargo of bullion, we started with four passengers. The wind blowing fresh, our passage, though short, was rough, all the passengers, myself not excepted, being sick. In this emergency, I advise the sufferer to lie on his stomach across the vessel, and to provide himself with a small bottle of spirit of ether, of which twenty drops in water will afford considerable relief.

I had several relations residing in Franche Comté. A Lady, one of these, had commissioned me to convey to her, or in plain English to smuggle, a small parcel containing a few articles of British lace. This I had placed in my trunk, intending, during the passage, to exercise my ingenuity in concealing them about my person in such a manner as to elude the Argus eyes of the Custom-house officers. The violent sickness, however, with which I was attacked totally incapacitated me from exertion, and I lay during the greater portion of the passage in a stupor on the cabin floor, tormented by the consci

ousness that should the articles in question remain where they were they would unquestionably be seized. The embarrassment of the moment was not a little enhanced by the piteous lamentations of a little old man, who, impressed with the belief that he was fated to become "food for fishes," uttered a series of outcries at every lurch of the vessel, certainly more ludicrous than pathetic.

The descent of the Captain into the cabin, with intelligence that we were within twenty minutes sail of the harbour, roused all my fears, and, making a desperate effort to rise, I staggered into the hold, seized my trunk, and thrust the object of my anxiety under my waistcoat. It being low water, we were landed in the boat, to the no small satisfaction of my fellow-passengers, who had expressed the utmost terror, as the waves, curling their monstrous heads and crested with foam, came rolling impetuously after us, as if in pursuit of the bark, and covering us with spray. The packet I had concealed within my clothes now became sufficiently embarrassing. In ascending the steep ladder attached to the side of the pier, I every moment expected to see it fall through my pantaloons into the mud. Having landed, in order to prevent the Frenchman (who watched my ascent and walked behind me) from observing the very suspicious protuberance at my knee, I shammed lame. This manœuvre succeeded; the patience of the soldier evaporated, and he passed on; then hastily slipping out the parcel, I concealed it in the crown of my hat. The search at the Custom-house

is in general of the most rigorous description; however, by officiously presenting my fishingbasket and pockets, which I knew contained nothing seizable, I diverted their attention from my hat, and was allowed to proceed to my inn, where, in the enjoyment of such coffee as can be obtained in France alone, I soon forgot the pains and chagrin of the passage. Having regained possession of my passport, I despatched my portmanteau to Paris, paid the innkeeper's bill, which amounted to three shillings, and gaily proceeded on my journey on the cross-roads, or, as the French term it, sur la traverse. My object in quitting the grande route was economy, and a desire to see a portion of France as yet little visited by Englishmen. My expenses from London to Calais had amounted to no more than thirteen shillings, and yet, for that comparatively small sum, had I experienced more satisfaction, and enjoyed greater opportunities for observation, than by travelling in the usual way at six times the expense.

My route lay along the banks of a canal. The first village I arrived at was called Courcelles, with a handsome chateau. The parterre in front was adorned with an endless variety of beautiful flowers, which spread around a delicious odour reaching even across the canal. Two Englishmen belonging to an iron-foundry at Calais were fishing at a few yards distant from the house: they bitterly complained of the late Revolution as ruinously destructive to trade.

On quitting the canal near Guisne, the country presented an eminently diversified landscape of

use

hill, valley, wood, and water. Neat cottages and substantial farm-houses meet the eye on all sides. In one of the latter I took refuge from a sudden shower: the interior of the dwelling tended to create a favorable opinion respecting the comforts enjoyed by the rustic population of France. A large quantity of pewter utensils glittered upon the shelves, while numerous articles of ornament rather than of were tastefully arranged upon the clean whited walls. The farmer, his wife, and her children, a handsome healthy race, were seated round a table spread with a variety of vegetable preparations, all of which are excellent, and leave no room to regret the absence of animal food. I here learned that wolves, once the scourge of England, and still numerous in many parts of France, had not been seen in this neighbourhood for above forty years. The last of these ferocious animals was shot by a woman, named Louise Vernette. During a severe winter, when the whole country was covered with snow, a she-wolf, urged to desperation by hunger, had entered her cottage at an early hour of the morning, and carried off her infant as it lay in the cradle. The mother, on returning from the labours of the field, with frantic lamentations searched the neighbourhood for her child. During her wanderings, she encountered a peasant, breathless from a long and unavailing pur suit of the savage beast, which he had seen entering a wood about three leagues distant with the child in its jaws. The whole village immediately renewed the chase the mother, arming her

self with a gun, was, as might have been expected, the most indefatigable, and, penetrating into the recesses of the forest, encountered the monster, which she shot dead. No traces of the miserable infant were ever discovered.

In about an hour after quitting this cottage, I arrived at a petit bourg, called Devres, and, being extremely hungry, entered a handsome auberge, garnished with the usual tempting legend," Ici on donnent à boire et à manger à tout prix:"- "here they sell refreshments at all prices." That charged me was an exceedingly reasonable one: I obtained a hearty meal of eggs, bread and butter, ale and brandy, for the magnificent sum of four-pence, and which would have cost six times as much in England. Intending to sleep at Colemburg, a village about twenty miles from Calais, I pushed on with renewed vigour, through ways of the most extraordinary description:-farmyards, orchards, gardens, and corn fields, were successively perambulated: the Cretan labyrinth could not possibly have presented greater embarrassments ; and I owed my successful escape from these intricacies to the civility of a very handsome dark-eyed peasant girl, at whose cottage I made inquiries, and who volunteered to be my guide. The weather, which during the day had been superb, changed as evening approached, and the rain fell in torrents. I reached Colemburg about ten o'clock. Immediately entering the best inn the place afforded, I commenced saturating myself with brandy, to obviate the possible ill effects of the complete drenching I had received. A blazing wood fire and a comfort.

able supper quickly banished every sensation of fatigue; and, having satisfied the curiosity of mine host as to the wealth and wonders of Old England, I retired to rest, and at an early hour on the following morning resumed my pilgrimage. My expenses here amounted to two shillings. The rain had rendered the roads much more agreeable than on the preceding day; a brilliant sun cast a rich and golden hue over the interminable corn-fields with which the road was bounded on either side; groups of peasantry proceeding to their harvest work, well clothed, and each bearing across his shoulder a large flat loaf perforated by a walking stick, cheerfully saluted me as I passed. The women of France work as hard, or perhaps harder, than the men: they plough, dig, reap, and carry heavy bur dens. I have frequently been horrified in this country at the sight of a female towing a barge with the huge rope crossed upon her breasts. These violent exertions, added to a continual exposure to the burning sun, do not, as may be presumed, add to their personal beauty; and a handsome female above the age of thirty is, indeed, a rare occurrence among the labouring classes.

Having purchased a quantity of cherries from a pretty market lass whom I met upon the road, I sat myself, about nine o'clock, upon a green bank under the shade of an immense walnut tree, and with the addition of some excellent bread made an ample and not inelegant breakfast.

As I proceeded, extensive woods, from among which arose numerous village-spires, clothed the heights that formed a boun

dary to the widely-extended plain on each side of the road; while orchards, absolutely bending under the weight of enormous apples and myriads of plums, neat cottages, and well-cultivated gardens, agreeably occupied my at tention until I arrived at Vershuick, a village at a few miles distant from the celebrated Field of Agincourt. Here, at the "Black Lion," I found far superior entertainment to that of the preceding evening. My expenses amounted to no more than two shillings and sixpence, including refreshments during the day; while the civility of the landlord and his family, who were well skilled in the use of all those obliging expressions with which even a Frenchman of low rank has learned to garnish his conversation, contributed not a little to the pleasure of my sojourn there.

Understanding that the little river Aa, which flows by St. Omer, and which ran at the bottom of the orchard, contained abundance of trout, I put my rod together, and amused myself for about an hour, during which I took sufficient fish to furnish a delicate and ample dinner. It may be acceptable to the angler to be informed, that a red and black hackle, with the occasional use of the smoky dun, are the only artificial flies necessary for the French rivers.

About eight o'clock in the evening of this day, I arrived on the plains which form the scene of the ever memorable battle of Agincourt, fought October 25, 1415, between the gallant Henry the Fifth of England and Charles the Seventh of France. The forces were extremely dispropor