riously affected it. A good house may be rented for
thirty pounds per annum, the taxes upon the mere house being about a
Louis. Mutton seldom exceeds threepence English money per pound, and
beef is usually somewhat cheaper. Poultry of all kinds is in great
plenty, and cheap: fowls, ducks, &c. about two shillings per couple. A
horse at livery, half a Louis per week; two horses, all expences
included, a Louis and two livres. Board and lodging in a genteel house,
five-and-twenty Louis annually. Dr. M---- agreed with me, that for three
hundred a year, a family might keep their carriage and live in comfort,
in Amiens and its neighbourhood. I must not forget another observation;
the towns in France are cheaper than the villages. The consumption of
meat in the latter is not sufficient to induce the butchers to kill
often; the market, therefore, is very ill supplied, and consequently the
prices are dear. A few miles from a principal town, you cannot have a
leg of mutton without paying for the whole sheep.

A stranger may live at an inn at Amiens for about five shillings,
English money, a day. The wine is good, and very cheap; and a daily
ordinary, or _table d'hote_, is kept at the _Hotel d'Angleterre_.
Breakfast is charged one livre, dinner three, and supper one: half a
livre for coffee, and two livres for lodging; but if you remain a week,
ten livres for the whole time. The hotels, of which there are two, are
as good as those of Paris, and lodgings are far more reasonable. A
_restaurateur_ has very lately set up in a very grand style, but the
population of the town will scarcely support him. The company at the
_table d'hote_ usually consists of officers, of whom there is always a
multitude in the neighbourhood of Amiens. Some of them, as I was
informed, are very pleasant agreeable men; whilst others are ruffians,
and have the manners of jacobins.

CHAP. VIII.

_French and English Roads compared--Gaiety of French
Labourers--Breteuil--Apple-trees in the midst of Corn-fields--Beautiful
Scenery--Cheap Price of Land in France--Clermont--Bad Management
of the French Farmers--Chantilly--Arrival at Paris._

I left Amiens early on the following morning, intending to reach
Clermont in good time.

The roads now became very indifferent, but the scenery was much
improved. I could not but compare the prospect of a French road with one
of the great roads of England. It is impossible to travel a mile on an
English road without m