But I
Have Measured The Best Plans Of These Two Royal Cities, And Am
Certain That Paris Does Not Take
Up near so much ground as
London and Westminster occupy; and I suspect the number of its
inhabitants is also
Exaggerated by those who say it amounts to
eight hundred thousand, that is two hundred thousand more than
are contained in the bills of mortality. The hotels of the French
noblesse, at Paris, take up a great deal of room, with their
courtyards and gardens; and so do their convents and churches. It
must be owned, indeed, that their streets are wonderfully crouded
with people and carriages.
The French begin to imitate the English, but only in such
particulars as render them worthy of imitation. When I was last
at Paris, no person of any condition,
male or female, appeared, but in full dress, even when obliged to
come out early in the morning, and there was not such a thing to
be seen as a perruque ronde; but at present I see a number of
frocks and scratches in a morning, in the streets of this
metropolis. They have set up a petite poste, on the plan of our
penny-post, with some improvements; and I am told there is a
scheme on foot for supplying every house with water, by leaden
pipes, from the river Seine. They have even adopted our practice
of the cold bath, which is taken very conveniently, in wooden
houses, erected on the side of the river, the water of which is
let in and out occasionally, by cocks fixed in the sides of the
bath.
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