The Veal Is
Not So White, Nor So Well Fed, As The English Veal; But It Is
More Juicy, And Better Tasted.
The mutton and pork are very good.
We buy our poultry alive, and fatten them at home. Here are
excellent turkies, and no want of game: the hares, in particular,
are very large, juicy, and high-flavoured. The best part of the
fish caught on this coast is sent post to Paris, in chasse-marines,
by a company of contractors, like those of Hastings in
Sussex. Nevertheless, we have excellent soles, skaite, flounders
and whitings, and sometimes mackarel. The oysters are very large,
coarse, and rank. There is very little fish caught on the French
coast, because the shallows run a great way from the shore; and
the fish live chiefly in deep water: for this reason the
fishermen go a great way out to sea, sometimes even as far as the
coast of England. Notwithstanding all the haste the contractors
can make, their fish in the summer is very often spoiled before
it arrives at Paris; and this is not to be wondered at,
considering the length of the way, which is near one hundred and
fifty miles. At best it must be in such a mortified condition,
that no other people, except the negroes on the coast of Guinea,
would feed upon it.
The wine commonly drank at Boulogne comes from Auxerre, is very
small and meagre, and may be had from five to eight sols a
bottle; that is, from two-pence halfpenny to fourpence. The
French inhabitants drink no good wine; nor is there any to be
had, unless you have recourse to the British wine-merchants here
established, who deal in Bourdeaux wines, brought hither by sea
for the London market. I have very good claret from a friend, at
the rate of fifteen-pence sterling a bottle; and excellent small
beer as reasonable as in England. I don't believe there is a drop
of generous Burgundy in the place; and the aubergistes impose
upon us shamefully, when they charge it at two livres a bottle.
There is a small white wine, called preniac, which is very
agreeable and very cheap. All the brandy which I have seen in
Boulogne is new, fiery, and still-burnt. This is the trash which
the smugglers import into England: they have it for about ten-pence
a gallon. Butcher's meat is sold for five sols, or two-pence
halfpenny a pound, and the pound here consists of eighteen
ounces. I have a young turkey for thirty sols; a hare for four-and-twenty;
a couple of chickens for twenty sols, and a couple of
good soles for the same price. Before we left England, we were
told that there was no fruit in Boulogne; but we have found
ourselves agreeably disappointed in this particular. The place is
well supplied with strawberries, cherries, gooseberries,
corinths, peaches, apricots, and excellent pears. I have eaten
more fruit this season, than I have done for several years. There
are many well-cultivated gardens in the skirts of the town;
particularly one belonging to our friend Mrs. B - , where we often
drink tea in a charming summer-house built on a rising ground,
which commands a delightful prospect of the sea. We have many
obligations to this good lady, who is a kind neighbour, an
obliging friend, and a most agreeable companion: she speaks
English prettily, and is greatly attached to the people and the
customs of our nation. They use wood for their common fewel,
though, if I were to live at Boulogne, I would mix it with coal,
which this country affords. Both the wood and the coal are
reasonable enough. I am certain that a man may keep house in
Boulogne for about one half of what it will cost him in London;
and this is said to be one of the dearest places in France.
The adjacent country is very agreeable, diversified with hill and
dale, corn-fields, woods, and meadows. There is a forest of a
considerable extent, that begins about a short league from the
Upper Town: it belongs to the king, and the wood is farmed to
different individuals.
In point of agriculture, the people in this neighbourhood seem to
have profited by the example of the English. Since I was last in
France, fifteen years ago, a good number of inclosures and
plantations have been made in the English fashion. There is a
good many tolerable country-houses, within a few miles of
Boulogne; but mostly empty. I was offered a compleat house, with
a garden of four acres well laid out, and two fields for grass or
hay, about a mile from the town, for four hundred livres, about
seventeen pounds a year: it is partly furnished, stands in an
agreeable situation, with a fine prospect of the sea, and was
lately occupied by a Scotch nobleman, who is in the service of
France.
To judge from appearance, the people of Boulogne are descended
from the Flemings, who formerly possessed this country; for, a
great many of the present inhabitants have fine skins, fair hair,
and florid complexions; very different from the natives of France
in general, who are distinguished by black hair, brown skins, and
swarthy faces. The people of the Boulonnois enjoy some
extraordinary privileges, and, in particular, are exempted from
the gabelle or duties upon salt: how they deserved this mark of
favour, I do not know; but they seem to have a spirit of
independence among them, are very ferocious, and much addicted to
revenge. Many barbarous murders are committed, both in the town
and country; and the peasants, from motives of envy and
resentment, frequently set their neighbours' houses on fire.
Several instances of this kind have happened in the course of the
last year. The interruption which is given, in arbitrary
governments, to the administration of justice, by the
interposition of the great, has always a bad effect upon the
morals of the common people.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 28 of 141
Words from 27469 to 28477
of 143308
