_disturbing la pauvre enfant_; nevertheless, with my _entree_ came up a dish of this _delicate spinnage_, with which I made the girl a very pretty _Chapeau Anglois_, for I turned it, dish and all, upon her head; this set the house in such an uproar, that, if there had not come in an old gentleman like _Bourgeois_ of _Paris_, at that instant, I verily believe I should have been turned out; but he engaged warmly in my defence, and insisted upon it that I had treated the girl just as he would have done, had she brought such a dirty dish to him after being cautioned not to do so; nor should I have got any supper, had I not prevailed on this good-natured man, who never eat any, to order a supper for himself, and transfer it to me. He was a native of _Lyons_, and had been, for the first time after thirty years absence, to visit his relations there. My entertainment at this house, _outward-bound_, was half a second-hand roasted turkey, or, what the sailors call a _twice-laid_ dish, i.e. one which is _done over_ a second time. I know the French in general will not like to see this dirty charge, brought even against an _aubergiste_, and much less to hear it said, that this disregard to cleanliness is almost general in the public inns; but truth justifies it, and I hope the publication may amend it. A modern French anonymous traveller, who I conclude by the company he kept in England, is a man of fashion, gives in general a just account of the English nation, their customs and manners; and acknowledges, in handsome terms, the manner he was received by some of the first families in England. He owns, however, he does not understand English, yet he has the temerity to say, that _Gulliver's_ travels are the _chef d'oeuvre_ of _Dean Swift_; but observes, that those travels are greatly improved by passing through the hands of _Desfontaines_.--This gentleman must excuse me in saying, that _Desfontaines_ neither understood English, nor _Dean Swift_, better than he does. He also concludes his first volume, by observing, that what a French Ambassador to England said of that nation, in the year 1523, constitutes their character at this day! 'Alas! poor England! thou _be'st_ so closely situated, and in such daily conversation with the polite and polished nation of France, thou hast gained nothing of their ease, breeding, and compliments, in the space of two hundred and fifty years!'--What this gentleman alludes to, is the Ambassador's letter to the _Conetable Montmorency_, previous to the meeting of _Henry_ the Eighth and _Francis_ the First, near _Ardres_; for, (says the Ambassador) _sur-tout je vous prie, que vous ostiez de la Cour, ceux qui unt la reputation d'etre joyeux & gaudisseur, car c'est bien en ce monde, la chose la plus haie de cette nation_. And in a few lines after, he foists in an extract from a Scotchman, one _Barclay_, who, in his _Examen of Nations_, says, _Jenenc connoit point de plus