have thought to have
been a soldier, but that every one who passed me had nearly the same
air, and the same hat. Some of the hay-makers called to me, but in such
barbarous _patois_, that I could make nothing of them. One company of
them, saluting me from a distance, deputed a girl to make known their
wishes. Seeing her to be young, and expecting her to be handsome, I
checked my horse; but a nearer view correcting my error, and exhibiting
her only a coarse masculine wench, I pushed forwards, without waiting
her embassy. The peasant women of France work so hard, as to lose every
appearance of youth in the face, whilst they retain it in the person;
and it is therefore no uncommon thing to see the person of a Venus, and
the face of an old monkey. I passed by a set of these labourers sitting
under a tree, and taking that repast which, in the North of England, is
called "fours," from being usually taken by harvest labourers at that
time of the day. The party consisted of about a dozen women and girls,
and but one man. I was invited to drink some of their wine, and being by
the road side, could not refuse. My horse was led under the tree: I was
compelled to dismount, and to share their repast, such as it was. Some
money which I offered was refused. I made my choice amongst one of my
entertainers, and could do no less than salute her. This produced great
noise and merriment, and gave free reins to French levity and coquetry;
in a word, I was obliged to salute them all. My favourite and first
choice gave me her hand on my departure: she might have sat for Prior's
Nut-Brown Maid.

The main purpose of my journey being rather to see the manners of the
people, than the brick and mortar of the towns, I had formed a
resolution to seek the necessary refreshment as seldom as possible at
inns, and as often as possible in the houses of the humbler farmers, and
the better kind of peasantry. About fifteen miles from Calais my horse
and myself were looking out for something of this kind, and one shortly
appeared about three hundred yards on the left side of the road. It was
a cottage in the midst of a garden, and the whole surrounded by an
hedge, which looked delightfully green and refreshing. The garden was
all in flower and bloom. The walls of the cottage were robed in the same
livery of Nature. I had seen such cottages in Kent and in Devonshire,
but in no other part of the world. The inhabitants were simple people,
small farmers, having