fty, and of
most unwieldy dimensions: of a structure, too, strong enough to carry a
half score of elephants. The postilion is an animal perfectly _sui
generis_: gay, alert, and living upon the best possible terms with himself.
He wears the royal livery, red and blue; with a plate of the fleur de lis
upon his left arm. His hair is tied behind, in a thick, short, tightly
fastened queue: with powder and pomatum enough to weather a whole winter's
storm and tempest.[24] As he never rises in his stirrups,[25] I leave you
to judge of the merciless effects of this ever-beating club upon the
texture of his jacket. He is however fond of his horses: is well known by
them; and there is all flourish and noise, and no sort of cruelty, in his
treatment of them. His spurs are of tremendous dimensions; such as we see
sticking to the heels of knights in illuminated Mss. of the XVth century.
He has nothing to do with the ponderous machine behind him. He sits upon
the near of the two wheel horses, with three horses before him. His
turnings are all adroitly and correctly made; and, upon the whole, he is a
clever fellow in the exercise of his office.

You ought to know, that, formerly, this town was greatly celebrated for its
manufactures in _Ivory_; but the present aspect of the ivory-market affords
only a faint notion of what it might have been in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries. I purchased a few subordinate articles (chiefly of a
religious character) and which I shall preserve rather as a matter of
evidence than of admiration. There is yet however a considerable
manufacture of _thread lace_; and between three and four thousand females
are supposed to earn a comfortable livelihood by it.[26]

My love of ecclesiastical architecture quickly induced me to visit the
CHURCHES; and I set out with two English gentlemen to pay our respects to
the principal church, St. JAQUES. As we entered it, a general gloom
prevailed, and a sort of premature evening came on; while the clatter of
the sabots was sufficiently audible along the aisles. In making the circuit
of the side chapels, an unusual light proceeded from a sort of grated door
way. We approached, and witnessed a sight which could not fail to rivet our
attention. In what seemed to be an excavated interior, were several
figures, cut in stone, and coloured after life, (of which they were the
size) representing the _Three Maries, St. John, and Joseph of Arimathea_..
in the act of entombing