picturesque. This said dirt may have its advantages as far as the eye is
concerned, but the nose is terribly assailed by the innumerable
compounded Effluvias which flow from every Alley-hole and corner. For
the people and their dress! who shall venture to describe the things I
have seen in the shape of caps, hats and bonnets, cloaks and petticoats,
&c.? There I meet a group of Oldenburg Bonnets broader and more loaded
with flowers, bunches, bows, plumes than any we saw in London, and would
you believe it I am already not merely getting reconciled but absolutely
an admirer of them.

Having passed the groups of bonnets I meet at the next moment a set of
beings ycleped Poissardes, caparisoned with coverings of all sorts,
shapes, and sizes--here flaps a head decorated with lappets like
butterflies' wings--here nods a bower of cloth and pins tall and narrow
as the houses themselves, but I must not be too prolix on any one
particular subject.

_Sunday._

We have been to the great Church. It was full, very full, but the
congregation nearly all female.

There is certainly something highly imposing and impressive in that
general spirit of outward devotion at least which pervades all ranks.
Nothing can be finer than their music: we had a sermon, too, and not a
bad one. The order of things is somewhat reversed. In England we wear
white bands and black gown, here the preacher had black bands and white
gown, and I fear the eloquence of St. Paul would not prevent the smiles
of my hearers in Alderley Church were I to pop on my head in the middle
of the discourse a little black cap of which I enclose an accurate
representation.

What shall I say of political feeling? I think they appear to think or
care very little about it; the military are certainly dissatisfied and
the Innkeepers delighted, but further I know not what to tell you; I am
told, however, that the new proclamation for the more decent observance
of Sunday, by forcing the Shopkeepers to shut up their shops during
Mass, is considered a great grievance.....

LETTER II.

ROUEN, _June 28, 1814_.

Foolish people are those who say it is not worth while to cross the
water for a week. For a week! why, for an hour, for a minute, it would
be worth the trouble--in a glance a torrent of news, ideas, feelings,
and conceptions are poured in which are valuable through life. We staid
at Havre till Monday morning, and though a Cantab friend of Edward's, on
bundling into his