BOULOGNE SUR MER, June 23, 1763.
DEAR SIR,--You laid your commands upon me at parting, to communicate
from time to time the observations I should make in the course of my
travels and it was an injunction I received with pleasure. In
gratifying your curiosity, I shall find some amusement to beguile the
tedious hours, which, without some such employment, would be rendered
insupportable by distemper and disquiet.
You knew, and pitied my situation, traduced by malice, persecuted by
faction, abandoned by false patrons, and overwhelmed by the sense of a
domestic calamity, which it was not in the power of fortune to repair.
You know with what eagerness I fled from my country as a scene of
illiberal dispute, and incredible infatuation, where a few worthless
incendiaries had, by dint of perfidious calumnies and atrocious abuse,
kindled up a flame which threatened all the horrors of civil dissension.
I packed up my little family in a hired coach, and attended by my
trusty servant, who had lived with me a dozen of years, and now refused
to leave me, took the road to Dover, in my way to the South of France,
where I hoped the mildness of the climate would prove favourable to the
weak state of my lungs.
You advised me to have recourse again to the Bath waters, from the use
of which I had received great benefit the preceding winter: but I had
many inducements to leave England. My wife earnestly begged I would
convey her from a country where every object served to nourish her
grief: I was in hopes that a succession of new scenes would engage her
attention, and gradually call off her mind from a series of painful
reflections; and I imagined the change of air, and a journey of near a
thousand miles, would have a happy effect upon my own constitution.
But, as the summer was already advanced, and the heat too excessive for
travelling in warm climates, I proposed staying at Boulogne till the
beginning of autumn, and in the mean time to bathe in the sea, with a
view to strengthen and prepare my body for the fatigues of such a long
journey.
A man who travels with a family of five persons, must lay his account
with a number of mortifications; and some of these I have already
happily overcome. Though I was well acquainted with the road to Dover,
and made allowances accordingly, I could not help being chagrined at
the bad accommodation and impudent imposition to which I was exposed.
These I found the more disagreeable, as we were detained a day
extraordinary on the road, in consequence of my wife's being indisposed.
I need not tell you this is the worst road in England with respect to
the conveniences of travelling, and must certainly impress foreigners
with an unfavourable opinion of the nation in general. The chambers are
in general cold and comfortless, the beds paultry, the cookery
execrable, the wine poison, the attendance bad, the publicans insolent,
and the bills extortion; there is not a drop of tolerable malt liquor
to be had from London to Dover.
Every landlord and every waiter harangued upon the knavery of a
publican in Canterbury, who had charged the French ambassador forty
pounds for a supper that was not worth forty shillings. They talked
much of honesty and conscience; but when they produced their own bills,
they appeared to be all of the same family and complexion. If it was a
reproach upon the English nation, that an innkeeper should pillage
strangers at that rate; it is a greater scandal, that the same fellow
should be able to keep his house still open. I own, I think it would be
for the honour of the kingdom to reform the abuses of this road; and in
particular to improve the avenue to London by the way of Kent-Street,
which is a most disgraceful entrance to such an opulent city. A
foreigner, in passing through this beggarly and ruinous suburb,
conceives such an idea of misery and meanness, as all the wealth and
magnificence of London and Westminster are afterwards unable to
destroy. A friend of mine, who brought a Parisian from Dover in his own
post-chaise, contrived to enter Southwark after it was dark, that his
friend might not perceive the nakedness of this quarter. The stranger
was much pleased with the great number of shops full of merchandize,
lighted up to the best advantage. He was astonished at the display of
riches in Lombard-Street and Cheapside. The badness of the pavement
made him find the streets twice as long as they were. They alighted in
Upper Brook-Street by Grosvenor-Square; and when his conductor told him
they were then about the middle of London, the Frenchman declared, with
marks of infinite surprize, that London was very near as long as Paris.
On my arrival at Dover I payed off my coachman, who went away with a
heavy heart. He wanted much to cross the sea, and endeavoured to
persuade me to carry the coach and horses to the other side. If I had
been resolved to set out immediately for the South, perhaps I should
have taken his advice. If I had retained him at the rate of twenty
guineas per month, which was the price he demanded, and begun my
journey without hesitation, I should travel more agreeably than I can
expect to do in the carriages of this country; and the difference of
the expence would be a mere trifle. I would advise every man who
travels through France to bring his own vehicle along with him, or at
least to purchase one at Calais or Boulogne, where second-hand berlins
and chaises may be generally had at reasonable rates. I have been
offered a very good berlin for thirty guineas: but before I make the
purchase, I must be better informed touching the different methods of
travelling in this country.
Dover is commonly termed a den of thieves; and I am afraid it is not
altogether without reason, it has acquired this appellation. The people
are said to live by piracy in time of war; and by smuggling and
fleecing strangers in time of peace: but I will do them the justice to
say, they make no distinction between foreigners and natives. Without
all doubt a man cannot be much worse lodged and worse treated in any
part of Europe; nor will he in any other place meet with more flagrant
instances of fraud, imposition, and brutality. One would imagine they
had formed a general conspiracy against all those who either go to, or
return from the continent. About five years ago, in my passage from
Flushing to Dover, the master of the packet-boat brought-to all of a
sudden off the South Foreland, although the wind was as favourable as
it could blow. He was immediately boarded by a customhouse boat, the
officer of which appeared to be his friend. He then gave the passengers
to understand, that as it was low water, the ship could not go into the
harbour; but that the boat would carry them ashore with their baggage.
The custom-house officer demanded a guinea for this service, and the
bargain was made. Before we quitted the ship, we were obliged to
gratify the cabin-boy for his attendance, and to give drink-money to
the sailors. The boat was run aground on the open beach; but we could
not get ashore without the assistance of three or four fellows, who
insisted upon being paid for their trouble. Every parcel and bundle, as
it was landed, was snatched up by a separate porter: one ran away with
a hat-box, another with a wig-box, a third with a couple of shirts tied
up in a handkerchief, and two were employed in carrying a small
portmanteau that did not weigh forty pounds. All our things were
hurried to the custom-house to be searched, and the searcher was paid
for disordering our cloaths: from thence they were removed to the inn,
where the porters demanded half-a-crown each for their labour. It was
in vain to expostulate; they surrounded the house like a pack of hungry
bounds, and raised such a clamour, that we were fain to comply. After
we had undergone all this imposition, we were visited by the master of
the packet, who, having taken our fares, and wished us joy of our happy
arrival in England, expressed his hope that we would remember the poor
master, whose wages were very small, and who chiefly depended upon the
generosity of the passengers. I own I was shocked at his meanness, and
could not help telling him so. I told him, I could not conceive what
title he had to any such gratification: he had sixteen passengers, who
paid a guinea each, on the supposition that every person should have a
bed; but there were no more than eight beds in the cabin, and each of
these was occupied before I came on board; so that if we had been
detained at sea a whole week by contrary winds and bad weather, one
half of the passengers must have slept upon the boards, howsoever their
health might have suffered from this want of accommodation.
Notwithstanding this check, he was so very abject and importunate, that
we gave him a crown a-piece, and he retired.
The first thing I did when I arrived at Dover this last time, was to
send for the master of a packet-boat, and agree with him to carry us to
Boulogne at once, by which means I saved the expence of travelling by
land from Calais to this last place, a journey of four-and-twenty
miles. The hire of a vessel from Dover to Boulogne is precisely the
same as from Dover to Calais, five guineas; but this skipper demanded
eight, and, as I did not know the fare, I agreed to give him six. We
embarked between six and seven in the evening, and found ourselves in a
most wretched hovel, on board what is called a Folkstone cutter. The
cabin was so small that a dog could hardly turn in it, and the beds put
me in mind of the holes described in some catacombs, in which the
bodies of the dead were deposited, being thrust in with the feet
foremost; there was no getting into them but end-ways, and indeed they
seemed so dirty, that nothing but extreme necessity could have obliged
me to use them. We sat up all night in a most uncomfortable situation,
tossed about by the sea, cold, arid cramped and weary, and languishing
for want of sleep. At three in the morning the master came down, and
told us we were just off the harbour of Boulogne; but the wind blowing
off shore, he could not possibly enter, and therefore advised us to go
ashore in the boat. I went upon deck to view the coast, when he pointed
to the place where he said Boulogne stood, declaring at the same time
we were within a short mile of the harbour's mouth. The morning was
cold and raw, and I knew myself extremely subject to catch cold;
nevertheless we were all so impatient to be ashore, that I resolved to
take his advice. The boat was already hoisted out, and we went on board
of it, after I had paid the captain and gratified his crew. We had
scarce parted from the ship, when we perceived a boat coming towards us
from the shore; and the master gave us to understand, it was coming to
carry us into the harbour. When I objected to the trouble of shifting
from one boat to another in the open sea, which (by the bye) was a
little rough; he said it was a privilege which the watermen of Boulogne
had, to carry all passengers ashore, and that this privilege he durst
not venture to infringe. This was no time nor place to remonstrate. The
French boat came alongside half filled with water, and we were handed
from the one to the other. We were then obliged to lie upon our oars,
till the captain's boat went on board and returned from the ship with a
packet of letters. We were afterwards rowed a long league, in a rough
sea, against wind and tide, before we reached the harbour, where we
landed, benumbed with cold, and the women excessively sick: from our
landing-place we were obliged to walk very near a mile to the inn where
we purposed to lodge, attended by six or seven men and women,
bare-legged, carrying our baggage. This boat cost me a guinea, besides
paying exorbitantly the people who carried our things; so that the
inhabitants of Dover and of Boulogne seem to be of the same kidney, and
indeed they understand one another perfectly well. It was our honest
captain who made the signal for the shore-boat before I went upon deck;
by which means he not only gratified his friends, the watermen of
Boulogne, but also saved about fifteen shillings portage, which he must
have paid had he gone into the harbour; and thus he found himself at
liberty to return to Dover, which he reached in four hours. I mention
these circumstances as a warning to other passengers. When a man hires
a packet-boat from Dover to Calais or Boulogne, let him remember that
the stated price is five guineas; and let him insist upon being carried
into the harbour in the ship, without paying the least regard to the
representations of the master, who is generally a little dirty knave.
When he tells you it is low water, or the wind is in your teeth, you
may say you will stay on board till it is high water, or till the wind
comes favourable. If he sees you are resolute, he will find means to
bring his ship into the harbour, or at least to convince you, without a
possibility of your being deceived, that it is not in his power. After
all, the fellow himself was a loser by his finesse; if he had gone into
the harbour, he would have had another fare immediately back to Dover,
for there was a Scotch gentleman at the inn waiting for such an
opportunity.
Knowing my own weak constitution, I took it for granted this morning's
adventure would cost me a fit of illness; and what added to my chagrin,
when we arrived at the inn, all the beds were occupied; so that we were
obliged to sit in a cold kitchen above two hours, until some of the
lodgers should get up. This was such a bad specimen of French
accommodation, that my wife could not help regretting even the inns of
Rochester, Sittingbourn, and Canterbury: bad as they are, they
certainly have the advantage, when compared with the execrable auberges
of this country, where one finds nothing but dirt and imposition. One
would imagine the French were still at war with the English, for they
pillage them without mercy.
Among the strangers at this inn where we lodged, there was a gentleman
of the faculty, just returned from Italy. Understanding that I intended
to winter in the South of France, on account of a pulmonic disorder, he
strongly recommended the climate of Nice in Provence, which, indeed, I
had often heard extolled; and I am almost resolved to go thither, not
only for the sake of the air, but also for its situation on the
Mediterranean, where I can have the benefit of bathing; and from whence
there is a short cut by sea to Italy, should I find it necessary to try
the air of Naples.
After having been ill accommodated three days at our inn, we have at
last found commodious lodgings, by means of Mrs. B-, a very agreeable
French lady, to whom we were recommended by her husband, who is my
countryman, and at present resident in London. For three guineas a
month we have the greatest part of a house tolerably furnished; four
bed-chambers on the first floor, a large parlour below, a kitchen, and
the use of a cellar.
These, I own, are frivolous incidents, scarce worth committing to
paper; but they may serve to introduce observations of more
consequence; and in the mean time I know nothing will be indifferent to
you, that concerns--Your humble servant.