I Longed To Try What Effect The Boasted Air Of
Montpellier Would Have Upon My Constitution; And I Had A Great
Desire To See The Famous Monuments Of Antiquity In And About The
Ancient City Of Nismes, Which Is About Eight Leagues Short Of
Montpellier.
At the inn where we lodged, I found a return berline, belonging
to Avignon, with three mules, which are the animals commonly used
for carriages in this country.
This I hired for five loui'dores.
The coach was large, commodious, and well-fitted; the mules were
strong and in good order; and the driver, whose name was Joseph,
appeared to be a sober, sagacious, intelligent fellow, perfectly
well acquainted with every place in the South of France. He told
me he was owner of the coach, but I afterwards learned, he was no
other than a hired servant. I likewise detected him in some
knavery, in the course of our journey; and plainly perceived he
had a fellow-feeling with the inn-keepers on the road; but, in
other respects, he was very obliging, serviceable, and even
entertaining. There are some knavish practices of this kind, at
which a traveller will do well to shut his eyes, for his own ease
and convenience. He will be lucky if he has to do with a sensible
knave, like Joseph, who understood his interest too well to be
guilty of very flagrant pieces of imposition.
A man, impatient to be at his journey's end, will find this a
most disagreeable way of travelling.
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