I Don't
Mention The Clergy, And The People Belonging To The Law, Because
I Shall Occasionally Trouble You With My Thoughts Upon The
Religion And Ecclesiastics Of This Country; And As For The
Lawyers, Exclusive Of Their Profession, They May Be Considered As
Belonging To One Or Other Of These Divisions.
The noblesse are
vain, proud, poor, and slothful.
Very few of them have above six
thousand livres a year, which may amount to about two hundred and
fifty pounds sterling; and many of them have not half this
revenue. I think there is one heiress, said to be worth one
hundred thousand livres, about four thousand two hundred pounds;
but then her jewels, her cloaths, and even her linen, are
reckoned part of this fortune. The noblesse have not the common
sense to reside at their houses in the country, where, by farming
their own grounds, they might live at a small expence, and
improve their estates at the same time. They allow their country
houses to go to decay, and their gardens and fields to waste; and
reside in dark holes in the Upper Town of Boulogne without light,
air, or convenience. There they starve within doors,
that they may have wherewithal to purchase fine cloaths, and
appear dressed once a day in the church, or on the rampart. They
have no education, no taste for reading, no housewifery, nor
indeed any earthly occupation, but that of dressing their hair,
and adorning their bodies. They hate walking, and would never go
abroad, if they were not stimulated by the vanity of being seen.
I ought to except indeed those who turn devotees, and spend the
greatest part of their time with the priest, either at church or
in their own houses. Other amusements they have none in this
place, except private parties of card-playing, which are far from
being expensive. Nothing can be more parsimonious than the
oeconomy of these people: they live upon soupe and bouille, fish
and sallad: they never think of giving dinners, or entertaining
their friends; they even save the expence of coffee and tea,
though both are very cheap at Boulogne. They presume that every
person drinks coffee at home, immediately after dinner, which is
always over by one o'clock; and, in lieu of tea in the afternoon,
they treat with a glass of sherbet, or capillaire. In a word, I
know not a more insignificant set of mortals than the noblesse of
Boulogne; helpless in themselves, and useless to the community;
without dignity, sense, or sentiment; contemptible from pride.
and ridiculous from vanity. They pretend to be jealous of their
rank, and will entertain no correspondence with the merchants,
whom they term plebeians. They likewise keep at a great distance
from strangers, on pretence of a delicacy in the article of
punctilio: but, as I am informed, this stateliness is in a great
measure affected, in order to conceal their poverty, which would
appear to greater disadvantage, if they admitted of a more
familiar communication.
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