The Church Of Notre Dame De La Vie Was
Undoubtedly A Temple.
On the left of the road, as you enter it,
by the gate of Avignon, there is a handsome obelisk, or rather
pyramid, about thirty feet high, raised upon a vault supported by
four pillars of the Tuscan order.
It is certainly a Roman work,
and Montfaucon supposes it to be a tomb, as he perceived an
oblong stone jetting out from the middle of the vault, in which
the ashes of the defunct were probably contained. The story of
Pontius Pilate, who is said to have ended his days in this place,
is a fable. On the seventh day of our journey from Aix, we
arrived at Lyons, where I shall take my leave of you for the
present, being with great truth - Yours, etc.
LETTER XLI
BOULOGNE, June 13, 1765.
DEAR SIR, - I am at last in a situation to indulge my view with a
sight of Britain, after an absence of two years; and indeed you
cannot imagine what pleasure I feel while I survey the white
cliffs of Dover, at this distance. Not that I am at all affected
by the nescia qua dulcedine natalis soli, of Horace. That seems
to be a kind of fanaticism founded on the prejudices of
education, which induces a Laplander to place the terrestrial
paradise among the snows of Norway, and a Swiss to prefer the
barren mountains of Solleure to the fruitful plains of Lombardy.
I am attached to my country, because it is the land of liberty,
cleanliness, and convenience: but I love it still more tenderly,
as the scene of all my interesting connexions; as the habitation
of my friends, for whose conversation, correspondence, and
esteem, I wish alone to live.
Our journey hither from Lyons produced neither accident nor
adventure worth notice; but abundance of little vexations, which
may be termed the Plagues of Posting. At Lyons, where we stayed
only a few days, I found a return-coach, which I hired to Paris
for six loui'dores. It was a fine roomy carriage, elegantly
furnished, and made for travelling; so strong and solid in all
its parts, that there was no danger of its being shaken to
pieces by the roughness of the road: but its weight and solidity
occasioned so much friction between the wheels and the axle-tree,
that we ran the risque of being set on fire three or four times a
day. Upon a just comparison of all circumstances posting is much
more easy, convenient, and reasonable in England than in France.
The English carriages, horses, harness, and roads are much
better; and the postilions more obliging and alert. The reason is
plain and obvious. If I am ill-used at the post-house in England,
I can be accommodated elsewhere. The publicans on the road are
sensible of this, and therefore they vie with each other in
giving satisfaction to travellers. But in France, where the post
is monopolized, the post-masters and postilions, knowing that the
traveller depends intirely upon them, are the more negligent and
remiss in their duty, as well as the more encouraged to insolence
and imposition.
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