There Is A Well Of
Purging Water Within A Quarter Of A Mile Of The Upper Town, To
Which The Inhabitants Resort In The Morning, As The People Of
London Go To The Dog-And-Duck, In St. George's Fields.
There is
likewise a fountain of excellent water, hard by the cathedral, in
the Upper Town, from whence I am daily supplied at a small
expence.
Some modern chemists affirm, that no saline chalybeate
waters can exist, except in the neighbourhood of coal damps; and
that nothing can be more mild, and gentle, and friendly to the
constitution, than the said damps: but I know that the place
where I was bred stands upon a zonic of coal; that the water
which the inhabitants generally use is hard and brackish; and
that the people are remarkably subject to the king's evil and
consumption. These I would impute to the bad water, impregnated
with the vitriol and brine of coal, as there is nothing in the
constitution of the air that should render such distempers
endemial. That the air of Boulogne encourages putrefaction,
appears from the effect it has upon butcher's meat, which, though
the season is remarkably cold, we can hardly keep four-and-twenty
hours in the coolest part of the house.
Living here is pretty reasonable; and the markets are tolerably
supplied. The beef is neither fat nor firm; but very good for
soup, which is the only use the French make of it. 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.
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