e broke up before eight; each
retiring to his respective avocations--but did not dine till five. I
borrowed, however, "an hour or twain" of the evening, after the departure
of the company, to enjoy the more particular conversation of our host; and
the more I saw and conversed with him; the greater was my gratification. At
parting, he loaded me with a pile of pamphlets, of all sizes, of his own
publication; and I ventured to predict to him that he would terminate his
multifarious labours by settling into consolidated BIBLIOMANIACISM. "On
peut faire pire!"--was his reply--on shaking hands with me, and telling me
he should certainly meet me again at _Bayeux_, in my progress through
Normandy.[126] My acquaintance with this amiable man seemed to be my
security from insults in the streets.

Education here commences early, and with incitements as alluring as at
Rouen. POISSON in the _Rue Froide_ is the principal, and indeed a very
excellent, printer; but BONNESERRE, in the same street, has put forth a
vastly pretty manual of infantine devotion, in a brochure of eight pages,
of which I send you the first, and which you may compare with the specimen
transmitted in a former letter.[127]

[Illustration]

Chapolin, in the _Rue-Froide-Rue,_ has recently published a most curious
little manual, in the cursive secretary gothic, entitled "_La Civilite
honnete pour les enfans qui commence par la maniere d'apprendre et bien
lire, prononcer et ecrire_." I call it "curious," because the very first
initial letter of the text, representing C, introduces us to the
_bizarrerie_ of the early part of the XVIth century in treatises of a
similar character. Take this first letter, with a specimen also of those to
which it appertains.

[Illustration]

This work is full of the old fashioned (and not a bit the worse on that
account) precepts of the same period; such as we see in the various
versions of the "De Moribus Juvenum," of which the "_Contenance de la
Table,"_ in the French language, is probably the most popular. It is
executed throughout in the same small and smudged gothic character; and, as
I conceive; can have few purchasers. The printers of Caen must not be
dismissed without respectful mention of the typographical talents of LE
ROY; who ranks after Poisson. Let both these be considered as the Bulmer
and Bensley of the place.

But among these venders of infantine literature, or of cheap popular
pieces, there is no man who "drives suc