A Tour through some parts of France, Switzerland, Savoy, Germany and Belgium | Page 3

post to
Frankfort--Of German Posting, and

Dinners--Feather-beds--Stoves--Stutgard--A handsome City--Palace, its
Decorations--Industry of the Queen--Council Chamber--Royal
Stables--Garrison composed handsome Troops--Palace at
Ludwigsburg--Waggons and Traffic on the road--Heilbron--Escape
from being overturned--Sinzheim--Cossaok arrives
there--Heidelberg--Its Castle--Venerable in Ruins--The Inn--Rich
Country--Quantity of Potatoes--Manheim--Regularly built, but much
deserted--The Palace in Decay--Walks--Darmstadt--Unfurnished and ill
situated--Palace--Handsome Gardens--Frankfort a Magnificent
City--Inns--Opulence of its Merchants--Population--Jews--Gates and
Fortifications--Cassino--Villas--Orchards--Hochst--Inscription--
Hochheim--Rhiagau Wines--Mayence--Its Strength--Handsome only at
a Distance--Its Bridge--Cathedral--Population--Exportation of
Corn--Large Cabbage 258
CHAP. XVI.
Embark on the Rhine--Political Rhapsodies of two
Frenchmen--Beautiful Scenery--Gulph of Bingerlock--Blighted state of
the Vines--Most distressing to the Inhabitants--Boppart--'God Save the
King'--Bonfires--Size of Paris and London--St. Goar--Coblentz--Royal
Saxon Guards--Ruins of Ehrenbreitstein--Andernach--The Devil's
House--Lowdersdorf--Linz--Bonn--Illuminations, Balls, &c.--End of
the Picturesque Scenery--Boat driven on Shore--Walk to Cologne--A
vast and gloomy City--Simile of Dr. Johnson's--Few Country Houses
on the Rhine--Rubens--His excellence as a Painter and his great
Modesty--Juliers--Aix la Chapelle--Its Antiquity--Waters--Pleasant
Situation--Population not equal to its Estent--Burscheid--Manufactures
of Cloth, &c.--Cathedral--Sunday ill observed--Liege--A large and
extremely dirty City--Booksellers--Cutlery--Distress of the
Manufacturers--Thieves--Bad Money--Expeditions Public
Carriage--Axiom of Rousseau--St. Tron--Chimes--Tirlemont, its much
reduced Manufactures 278
CHAP. XVII.
Population of the Netherlands--Louvain--Its Public
Buildings--University--Character of the Belgians--By some represented
as the worst in Europe--That Statement probably
overcharged--Extortion--John Bull at Paris--French Kitchens,
&c.--Breweries--Roads--Taste in Gardening--Canals not an agreeable

mode of Travelling--Heavy Taxes--Unsettled Political State--Vast
Numbers of English at Brussels--Its Extent, Population and
Appearance--The Park--Anecdote of Peter the Great--Town
House--Churches--Collections of Paintings--Anecdote of
Bassano--Hotels--Table d'Hote, like the Tables at
Cheltenham--Expence of Living--Houses--Jurourin--Forest of
Sogne--House of Correction compared with ours--Walk round the
City--Fortified Towns--Sieges of Ostend, Valenciennes, Troy and
Azotus--Malines--Considerations on its Decline--Its
Silk--Population--Buildings--Manner of cutting the Trees near the
Roads--Antwerp, its Importance--Docks--River--Riches of
Belgium--Buildings at Antwerp--Accuracy of the Flemish
Painters--Appearance of the Country--The Inns not equally decorated
with those in Germany--Wooden Shoes 296
CHAP. XVIII.
Ghent--Its great Size--Decreased in Populalation and
Consequence--Charles
V.--D'Arteville--Canals--Trade--Buildings-Prison--Land and Water
Travelling--Ostend and Bruges--Derivation of Bourse--Noisy and
Silent Travellers--Proficiency of Foreigners in English--Taste in
Bonnets--Sportsmen without Game--Courtray--Dogs
Drawing--Boundary Stone of France--Custom House--Passports,
Danger of being without--Lille--Fortified by
Vauban--Population--Buildings--Theatre--Society--OEconomical
Residence-Remarkable View from
Cassel--Berg--Fens--Canals--Dunkirk--First Impressions--The Origin
of its Name--Buildings and Population--Flemish Language--Of the
Union of Belgium with France--Political Consideration--Dunkirk sold
by Charles II.--Lord Clarendon's House so called--Its Fortifications
demolished--Gravelines---Its strong Situation--Liberty and
Equality--Cheap Travelling--Calais the last English Possession in
France--Contrary Winds--French Officers displeased at the
Theatre--General Jealousy of England--Embark on board a French
Packet--Loquacity of the French--Arrival in England--Its Superiority to
other Countries 317
* * * * *
A TOUR THROUGH SOME PARTS OF FRANCE, SWITZERLAND,

&c. &c.
* * * * *

CHAP. I.
I had long been desirous of visiting the Continent, but the long
continuance of the war, and the little prospect which lately appeared of
its termination, seemed to afford no chance for the accomplishment of
my wish. At a period, however, when that arbitrary power, which had
so long held in subjection the other nations of the Continent, sought to
overthrow the only monarch who dared to oppose it, and to claim for
his subjects the natural rights from which they had been excluded by
the "Continental System," it pleased Divine Providence to destroy the
fetters which enslaved the nations of Europe, as if to try, whether in the
school of adversity, they had learned to merit the blessings of
independence. These great and glorious changes, the reality of which it
was at first difficult to believe, having opened to the subjects and
commerce of Britain, countries from which they had been for so many
successive years proscribed, it was not long before numbers of British
repaired to the continent to indulge that love of roving for which they
had been always distinguished (and which a long war had suppressed
but not eradicated) and to claim from all true patriots, in the countries
they visited, that friendly reception to which the long perseverance and
vast sacrifices of England, during a struggle unexampled in history, had
so justly entitled the lowest of her subjects.
The unsettled state in which most part of the Continent necessarily
remained for a little time after the entrance of the Allies into Paris, did
not afford the most favourable moment for the journey of one who was
not a military traveller; and I did not regret that business prevented my
leaving England for a few months after the opening of the Continent, as
I had the gratification of being a witness, in the British metropolis, to
the exultation of all ranks of men; first, at seeing the legitimate
monarch of France arrive there in company with our illustrious Regent
who having long contributed to lessen the afflictions of the exiled
Count de Lille, had first the satisfaction (to which he, amongst all the
sovereigns of Europe, was best entitled, by the great part, which under
his government, England had performed for the cause of European
liberty) of saluting him as King of France, amidst the cheers of

applauding thousands; and, secondly,