You Knew, And Pitied My Situation, Traduced By Malice, Persecuted
By Faction, Abandoned By False Patrons, And Overwhelmed By The
Sense Of A Domestic Calamity, Which It Was Not In The Power Of
Fortune To Repair.
You know with what eagerness I fled from my country as a scene of
illiberal dispute, and incredible infatuation, where a few
worthless incendiaries had, by dint of perfidious calumnies and
atrocious abuse, kindled up a flame which threatened all the
horrors of civil dissension.
I packed up my little family in a hired coach, and attended by my
trusty servant, who had lived with me a dozen of years, and now
refused to leave me, took the road to Dover, in my way to the
South of France, where I hoped the mildness of the climate would
prove favourable to the weak state of my lungs.
You advised me to have recourse again to the Bath waters, from
the use of which I had received great benefit the preceding
winter: but I had many inducements to leave England. My wife
earnestly begged I would convey her from a country where every
object served to nourish her grief: I was in hopes that a
succession of new scenes would engage her attention, and
gradually call off her mind from a series of painful reflections;
and I imagined the change of air, and a journey of near a
thousand miles, would have a happy effect upon my own
constitution. But, as the summer was already advanced, and the
heat too excessive for travelling in warm climates, I proposed
staying at Boulogne till the beginning of autumn, and in the mean
time to bathe in the sea, with a view to strengthen and prepare
my body for the fatigues of such a long journey.
A man who travels with a family of five persons, must lay his
account with a number of mortifications; and some of these I have
already happily overcome. Though I was well acquainted with the
road to Dover, and made allowances accordingly, I could not help
being chagrined at the bad accommodation and impudent imposition
to which I was exposed. These I found the more disagreeable, as
we were detained a day extraordinary on the road, in consequence
of my wife's being indisposed.
I need not tell you this is the worst road in England with
respect to the conveniences of travelling, and must certainly
impress foreigners with an unfavourable opinion of the nation in
general. The chambers are in general cold and comfortless, the
beds paultry, the cookery execrable, the wine poison, the
attendance bad, the publicans insolent, and the bills extortion;
there is not a drop of tolerable malt liquor to be had from
London to Dover.
Every landlord and every waiter harangued upon the knavery of a
publican in Canterbury, who had charged the French ambassador
forty pounds for a supper that was not worth forty shillings.
They talked much of honesty and conscience; but when they
produced their own bills, they appeared to be all of the same
family and complexion. If it was a reproach upon the English
nation, that an innkeeper should pillage strangers at that rate;
it is a greater scandal, that the same fellow should be able to
keep his house still open. I own, I think it would be for the
honour of the kingdom to reform the abuses of this road; and in
particular to improve the avenue to London by the way of Kent-Street,
which is a most disgraceful entrance to such an opulent
city. A foreigner, in passing through this beggarly and ruinous
suburb, conceives such an idea of misery and meanness, as all the
wealth and magnificence of London and Westminster are afterwards
unable to destroy. A friend of mine, who brought a Parisian from
Dover in his own post-chaise, contrived to enter Southwark after
it was dark, that his friend might not perceive the nakedness of
this quarter. The stranger was much pleased with the great number
of shops full of merchandize, lighted up to the best advantage.
He was astonished at the display of riches in Lombard-Street and
Cheapside. The badness of the pavement made him find the streets
twice as long as they were. They alighted in Upper Brook-Street
by Grosvenor-Square; and when his conductor told him they were
then about the middle of London, the Frenchman declared, with
marks of infinite surprize, that London was very near as long as
Paris.
On my arrival at Dover I payed off my coachman, who went away
with a heavy heart. He wanted much to cross the sea, and
endeavoured to persuade me to carry the coach and horses to the
other side. If I had been resolved to set out immediately for the
South, perhaps I should have taken his advice. If I had retained
him at the rate of twenty guineas per month, which was the price
he demanded, and begun my journey without hesitation, I should
travel more agreeably than I can expect to do in the carriages of
this country; and the difference of the expence would be a mere
trifle. I would advise every man who travels through France to
bring his own vehicle along with him, or at least to purchase one
at Calais or Boulogne, where second-hand berlins and chaises may
be generally had at reasonable rates. I have been offered a very
good berlin for thirty guineas: but before I make the purchase, I
must be better informed touching the different methods of
travelling in this country.
Dover is commonly termed a den of thieves; and I am afraid it is
not altogether without reason, it has acquired this appellation.
The people are said to live by piracy in time of war; and by
smuggling and fleecing strangers in time of peace: but I will do
them the justice to say, they make no distinction between
foreigners and natives. Without all doubt a man cannot be much
worse lodged and worse treated in any part of Europe; nor will he
in any other place meet with more flagrant instances of fraud,
imposition, and brutality.
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