A Residence in France During the Years 1792, 1793, 1794 and 1795, Part I. 1792: Described in a Series of Letters from an English Lady: with General and Incidental Remarks on the French Character and MannersBiggs, Charlotte
History
A Residence in France During the Years 1792, 1793, 1794 and 1795, Part I. 1792: Described in a Series of Letters from an English Lady: with General and Incidental Remarks on the French Character and Manners
Biggs, Charlotte
Biggs, Charlotte, approximately 1763-1827 -- Correspondence; France -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; France -- History -- Revolution, 1789-1799; France -- Social life and customs -- 1789-1815
His decent
lodging alone costs him a great part of his revenue, and obliges him to
be strictly parsimonious of the rest. This drives him to associate
chiefly with his own countrymen, to dine at obscure coffee-houses, and
pay his court to opera-dancers. He sees, indeed, our theatres, our
public walks, the outside of our palaces, and the inside of churches: but
this gives him no idea of the manners of the people in superior life, or
even of easy fortune. Thus he goes home, and asserts to his untravelled
countrymen, that our King and nobility are ill lodged, our churches mean,
and that the English are barbarians, who dine without soup, use no
napkin, and eat with their knives.--I have heard a gentleman of some
respectability here observe, that our usual dinner was an immense joint
of meat half drest, and a dish of vegetables scarcely drest at all.--Upon
questioning him, I discovered he had lodged in St. Martin's Lane, had
likewise boarded at a country attorney's of the lowest class, and dined
at an ordinary at Margate.
Some few weeks ago the Marquis de P____ set out from Paris in the
diligence, and accompanied by his servant, with a design of emigrating.
Their only fellow-traveller was an Englishman, whom they frequently
addressed, and endeavoured to enter into conversation with; but he either
remained silent, or gave them to understand he was entirely ignorant of
the language. Under this persuasion the Marquis and his valet freely
discussed their affairs, arranged their plan of emigration, and
expressed, with little ceremony, their political opinions.--At the end of
their journey they were denounced by their companion, and conducted to
prison. The magistrate who took the information mentioned the
circumstance when I happened to be present. Indignant at such an act in
an Englishman, I enquired his name. You will judge of my surprize, when
he assured me it was the English Ambassador. I observed to him, that it
was not common for our Ambassadors to travel in stage-coaches: this, he
said, he knew; but that having reason to suspect the Marquis, Monsieur
l'Ambassadeur had had the goodness to have him watched, and had taken
this journey on purpose to detect him. It was not without much
reasoning, and the evidence of a lady who had been in England long enough
to know the impossibility of such a thing, that I would justify Lord
G____ from this piece of complaisance to the Jacobins, and convince the
worthy magistrate he had been imposed upon: yet this man is the Professor
of Eloquence at a college, is the oracle of the Jacobin society; and may
perhaps become a member of the Convention. This seems so almost
incredibly absurd, that I should fear to repeat it, were it not known to
many besides myself; but I think I may venture to pronounce, from my own
observation, and that of others, whose judgement, and occasions of
exercising it, give weight to their opinions, that the generality of the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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