toward Night it veering more about to the West and the Tide not befriending us our Passage became tedious and troublesom to such Fresh-water Sailers and we had leisure to see the swelling Waves by an inbred Ambition strive which should be the highest while our Vessel by a violent agitation of the Wind danc'd a nimble Galiard on the Billows but that which made the generality of the Passengers in a very uneasy condition and the Deck and Cabins look like so many Hospitals fill'd with diseased Persons made the Scaly Inhabitants of that Watry Kingdom sport themselves on the surface of the Waves and dance about our Ketch as if she had been a moving May-Pole and acted their Measures with such a delightful Decorum as if they had been taught to Caper by the best of French Dancing Masters The next Ebb brought us within sight of the Sea Coast of Normandy A Description of Normandy a Shoar so evenly composed and levelled that it looks like the work of Art and not of Nature The first Inhabitants of this Country came * Anno 800. Originally from Norway Soldiers of Fortune and so terribly spoil'd the Maritine Coasts of England France and Holland that A furore Normannorum was inserted into the Letany but now being Conquer'd by the French and enslaved under that Monarchy they are utterly crest fallen have lost both their Courage and their Liberty and nothing remains among them now of their Progenitors but a penurious Pride and an ungovernable Surliness The next Tide landed us at Deipe in Normandy The Town of Diepe A Town seated on an Arm of the Sea between two Hills which are a Security to the Harbour and a Strength to the Town but avail'd them little against the Courage of the English and the Force of their Bombs whose Injuries they were now Repairing The number of the Inhabitants were formerly accounted about 30000 whereof 9000 of them were of the Protestant Religion and the Church of Argues a Village about two Miles from Deipe was allowed them for the Exercise of their Religion but since the Persecution they are all dispersed and the want of them greatly Lamented Here we were Eye Witnesses of the Idolatry of the Papists Popish Idolatry in paying divine Honour to things Inanimate We saw the Hoast or Sacrament carried through the Streets by a couple of Priests under a Canopy usher'd by two or three Torches and followed by a Company of Idle Boys and old People Before it was carried a Bell continually Tinkling to warn the People that their God was carrying by and expected their Reverence which was paid by all that met it by falling on their Knees Raising their Heads and giving it Honour Tho' methinks not with so much Devotion as I should have done if I had believed it as they do to be the Body of my Saviour But I find its the Common practice of this Country Their Travelling Chariots and Horses for the Laity as well as the Clergy to impose upon Mens Eyes and Understandings for we designing to Travel towards Rouen and Horses being not to be had for Money and the War between the two Nations and the Ruins of Deipe were so fresh in their Memories we could not expect them for Love we were forc'd to make use of the common Conveyance and that was in a Cart but for fear of Offending forsooth in spite of our Teeths tho' we saw it was a Cart we must call it Une Chariot and to please them so we did tho' we thought it fit for no Triumph but that of a French-man To this Cart Chariot I mean were fastened three things that had been Horses in their time but were now skelitoniz'd into Carcases or Images of Horses without life or motion When we were mounted they began to Crawl for go they could not however it convinc'd me they had life tho' I thought it would hold out no longer than to carry them to the next Pack of Hounds Thus accommodated A la mode de France we took our leaves of Deipe and wagg'd so slowly towards Roven that we thought our Journey was a perfect Emblem of the motion of the Ninth Sphere which was Forty Nine Thousand Years in finishing but this was not all our Calamity the Rain fell on us through our Tilt which for the many Holes in it might more truly have been call'd a Net The Dirt broke plentifully upon us through the Rails of our Chariot and the unproportionable pace of it started almost every Bone of our Bodies I wonder how a French-man that commonly carries the Disease of his Country about him durst adventure his crasy Carcass in it Thus we endured all the infelicities of a Journey and escaped three several Deaths Drowning Choaking with Mire and Breaking of the Wheel besides the fear of being Famish'd before we came to our Inn which was six French Miles from us Not to mention the Beggarly Villages we dragled through The Town and the Inn at Tostes we came at last to Tostes the place destin'd for our Lodging a Town like the Worser sort of our Market Towns in England There our Chariotier brought us to the Ruins of a House an Alehouse I would scarce have thought it but in complement to the Nation it must be cald an Inn yes and an Honourable one too as Don Quixots Host told him Despair of finding in this Nasty hole either Bedding or Victuals I was in the Mans mind that chose Hanging rather than Marry a foul Queen that Beg'd him and was often ready to say Drive on Carman The truth on 't is I fell out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire A Course Fac'd Tatterdemalion belonging to the House The Chamber brought us into a Room as Dark and as Damp as a Charnel-House only toward the Orchard there was a Melancholy kind of a Hole which in Days of Yore had been a Window but now both Frame and Glass were vanish'd However by the Light that came in I could easily perceive I was not in England In the Chamber were three Beds The Bedds and Sheets if it be Lawful to call them so that were bottom'd with Straw so closely squeez'd together that the Wool-Packs in the House of Lords in respect of these were Swans-Down On this Straw Huddle lay a Medly of Flocks and Feathers sewed up in an English cast Hop-Sack so ill ordered that they stuck up like the Knobbs of a Crab-Tree Cudgel and we were obliged to our Flesh that one Nights Lodging did not wear our Bones out The Sheets they brought us were so Course that in my Conscience a Sailer would have refused them for a Hammock and I heartily wish'd I could have exchang'd them for an English Horse-Cloath the Coverlid so course and Bare that if a Man would have undertaken to have counted the Threds he need not have miss'd One of the Number The Table Linnen was of the same Complexion The Table Linnen so Foul and Dirty that
I could not think it had been wash'd above once since it grew in the Hemp ground and yet the poor things had as brisk a French Air as if they had been promised for the next whole Year to escape a Scouring By this Description of an Inn you may guess Sir at all the rest in France Some are not altogether so wretched yet the alteration is almost insensible Let us now walk into the Kitchin The Kitching and Provision for Supper and see what 's for Supper and here Sir we found a most terrible Execution committed upon the body of a Pullet Our Hostess cruel Woman as she was had cut the Throat of it and without plucking off the Feathers tore it into pieces and then took off the Skin and Feathers together as we strip Rabbets in England clapt it into a Pan and Fricasized it into a Supper After which Repast we had a Sight of our Hostess Our Hostes and her Daughter and her Daughter at which we blest our Souls and march off lest the fulsom interview should have brought up what we had eaten for such a couple of dirty Queans was never seen in England unless in a Dust Cart or among the Gold Finders at Midnight Horace's Salutation O mater pulchra filia pulchrior was never so seasonable as here Not to honour them with a fairer Character let this suffice that their Persons kept so perfect a Decorum with the House and Furniture that 't is pitty they should be parted But this is not the luck of the Women of Normandy only for through all France their Faces and their Linnen are the best Guards of their Chastity They are all forc'd to be contented with a very little Beauty and she which with us would be slighted as an Antidote or a meer dirty Doudy would pass with them for a Beautiful Princess but more of the Women when we come to Paris In their Habits the Normand Women differ from the rest of France The Womens Habits in Normandy The Attire of their Heads hangs down their Backs like a Vail and looks like a Superannuated Dish-Clout turn'd out of Service or the corner of a Table Cloath that never had been wash'd Being ready to leave our Quarters in the Morning we found our selves in a throng of Ill Faces all Whining out Pour les Servantes and our bounty was like giving a Dole at a Rich Mans Funeral you could not say when you had done giving there were so many of them and herein only was our Advantage that their Ambition reaches no higher than a Sou a penny and he that gives more over-bids their Expectation and shall be counted a Prodigal But of all the Gallantries of France The Men Servants commend me to the Men-Servants in their Inns the Raggedst regiment that ever Eyes beheld their cloths full of Patches or open to their Skins and by the habits of the Attendants a man would be tempted to think he had been lodg'd in a Goal Bid one of them give you a Cloth to wipe your hands and he will reach you the Curtain of the Bed Bid him wipe the Table or your Bootes he has still recourse to the Curtains and they perform all their Offices with their Hats on their Heads to which French Custom I profess my self an open Enemy for tho' Jack speaks French I cannot allow Jack to be a Gentleman Now we set out for Rouen Rouen described The whole journey was six French Miles and our Cart was Ten hours in dragging us thither Excellent speed and would have wore out the patience of the Mad Duke that undertook without Staff Whip or Goad to drive two Snails from Milan to Mosco .. Rovenis scituate in a pleasant Valley on the River Sein the Houses are high in some places Wood in others Stone and some of both without uniformity or or Beauty What remains of the Bridge is a fine piece of Work and the River is about the breadth of the Thames at Fulham Between the Town-Wall and the River is their Exchange a place paved with smooth Pebble-stones about a hundred yards long in breadth twenty and is a fine walk in Fair-Weather and in Wet you must seek another In this Town are Thirty two Parish Churches besides Abbies and Religious houses of which the most beautiful is that of St. And Ooven the Seat and Church of the Arch Bishop is Nostre Dame more gorgeous on the out side than Beautiful or Rich within Behind the High Altar is the Remains of the Duke of Bedford's Tomb sometimes Regent of France which was Defaced out of pure spight to his memory long since his Death that made all France tremble when he was alive East ward of this Church is our Lady's Chappel a pretty neat piece of Work but disfigur'd within by Lying Imagery The House of Parliament is in the form of a Quadrangle a very stately and graceful Pile of Building that at Paris is but a Chaos or Bauble to it and the Palace of the Loure has nothing in it comparable to this goodly Edifice In our Journey from Rouen we were better accommodated than when we came thither we were preferred Ab Asinus ad Equos Our Journey thither and how accommodated from a Cart to a Waggon the French call it a Coach by the same Figure that they call'd a Cart a Chariot These Waggons are the common Conveniences for Travel and are like a Gravesend-Tiltboat seldom without a Knave or a Gilt in them A Man might here be very merry in a mixture of all Sexes Nations Qualities and Languages if the Fears of catching the Itch or being Lowsy did not disturb it Through a pleasant and Plentiful Country of all things but Vines and through many a miserable Village we came that night to St. Clare Ten French Miles from Rouen A Poor Town God wot it is St. Clare and the Poverty of the People and has nothing in it Remarkable but the extream Poverty and miserable Slavery of the People who Reap the best Wheat and yet eat the blackest Bread who make the best Syder and Perry and yet are forc'd to drink Water for the King's Taxes and their Lord 's extorted Rents eat up all the Fruits of their Labours and leave them nothing but Hunger and Nakedness On the Road I counted Threescore and Fourteen Persons barefoot before I saw one that had Shooes on and they were made of Wood too which made me often cast a mournful look towards Old England for leaving it and think how happy we were in respect of this miserable People In our further Progress we had leisure to behold Mante Mante and the adjacent Country and the Vines about it They are Planted like our Hop Gardens and grow up by the help of Poles but not so high They are kept with little cost and yeild profit to the Husbandman sufficient to make him Rich had he neither King nor cruel Landlord The Wine made here is
France and has yielded more Constables Mareschals and Admirals to this Crown than any three others in the Kingdom The most eminent place in this Isle Mont Martyr is Mont Martyr about a Mile from Paris where when Gaul was Heathen many of the Faithful were Martyred and from thence derived its Name Among others which here received the Crown of Martyrdom none more famous than St. Denis said to be Dionysius Areopagita the first Bishop of Paris under the Reign of Domitian whose Crime was refusing to Bow before the Altar of Mercury and not offering Sacrifice to that Idol at the command of Hesubinus Governour of Paris Of St. Denis the Patron St. Denis and his Miracle or Tutelary Saint of France the Legend relates strange Wonders as namely when the Executioner had struck off his Head he took it up in his Arms and ran with it down the Hill with as much speed as his Legs could carry him Half a Mile from the Place of his Execution he sate down rested and did so nine times in all till he came to the place where the Church is now built that is Dedicated to him and there he fell down and dyed which is about three English Miles from Mont Martyr and there he was Buried together with Rusticus his Arch-Priest and Elutherius his Deacon who not being able to go so fast as he did were brought after by the People O Impudentia admirabilem vere Romanam and yet so far was the succeeding Age poison'd with a belief of this Miracle that in the nine several Places where he is said to have rested so many handsome Crosses of Stone are erected to perpetuate this Ridiculous Story To the Memory of this Saint St. Denis 's Church by whom Consecrated Dagobert built a Temple after Ages added a Town to it and some of the succeeding Kings of France encompassed it with a Wall but so disproportionable that it looks like a Spaniards little Face with a two handed Ruff about it The Temple being finish'd a Bishop was sent for in all hast to Consecrate it but our Saviour came the Night before with the Apostles Angels and Martyrs and Blessed the Church himself cured a Leper that lay in it and bid him tell the Bishop that the Church was already Consecrated Auditam admissi Risum teneatis You may laugh at it if you please but I assure you this is the Story such Ridiculous Stuff did the Monks and Fryars of those Times invent to please and blind the People and so prone were our Ancestors to believe as Oracles whatsoever was delivered by these Impostors Now Sir The Relicks in St. Denis 's Church I should shew you the Relicks but you must have patience till the Clerk has put on his Surplice for I perswade my self that the Surplice without the Clerk could Marshal the Relicks as orderly as the Clerk without the Surplice As soon as he was Sadled and Equipt for his Journey he put himself into the Road and march'd on so nimbly there was no keeping of him Company His Tongue run so fast that the quickest Eye was fain to give him over in plain Ground the Fellow that shews the Tombs at Westminster being no more to be compared to him for the Volubility of his Chops than a Capouchin to a Jesuite Yet as we learn'd of him afterward when he was out of his Road and Formalities they were thus disposed On the right hand of the Altar are said to be kept One of the Nails that fastned our Saviour to the Cross Secondly a piece of the Cross it self Thirdly some of the Virgin Mary's Milk Fourthly the Arm of St. Simon set in a Case of Gold and Fifthly the Relicks of St. Lewis reserv'd in a little Chappel of Gold also On the left hand was shew'd us the Head of St. Denis and part of his Body or rather the Pourtraiture of it in Gold for the Head was said to be within it A Reverend Old Man he appear'd to be tho' I can't believe that the rich Crown'd Miter that he wears there now was the same he wore when he was living One Relick is there to which I hope they won't allow Adoration and that was Judas's Lathorn when he went to apprehend his Master A pretty one I confefs it is Studded with Chrystal through which the Light cometh the Substance being not Transparent Had it been shew'd me in the first Century I might perhaps have been Fool'd into a belief of it for I am consident it can be no older However I will believe it to be a Lanthorn though I cannot believe it ever belong'd to Judas but more of Relicks when we come to Paris From the Relicks of Martyrs let us proceed to those of their Kings The Relicks of French Kings in the same Church and among those there is nothing that will long detain an English-man He that has seen the Tombs at Westminster will think the best of these to be but Trifles The chief of these mean ones are those of Henry II. and Katherine of Medices his Wife in a little Chappel of her own building both in full Proportion in their Royal Habiliments Here is also a neat Tomb of the same Henry all of Brass supported by four Brass Pillars his Statue of the same Mettal in a Praying Posture but the chief beauties of the Church are in the Treasury as the Sword of Joan the Virgin Charles the Great Rowland his Couzen and that of Henry IV. when he was Crowned with his Boots Spurs and Scepter Here is also a Cross of pure Gold three Foot high a Crown Scepter and Golden Ball given by Pope Adrian to Carolus Magnus A Crown of Gold set with Diamonds and Precious Stones given by Charles Martell after his Victory over the Sarazens A fair Chalice all of Gold in which St. Denis is said to have Consecrated the Sacramental Wine The other of lesser moment I omit and take my leave of St. Denis's Church and walk on to Paris There is a great bussle among ancient Authors Paris its Names and Scituation from whence this name Paris is deriv'd which I shall not waste time about for I find the names of great Cities are as obscure as those of their Founders and the Conjectural Derivations of them are sometimes rather plausible than probable and sometimes neither The other name of this City is most Ancient and most proper as taken from its Scituation and call'd Lutetia from Lutum Dirt as being seated in an exceeding clammy dirty Soil but in a very Fruitful Country and the River Seine by Transporting Merchants Goods in Boats from the Ships which lie fifteen Miles distant from the City does much enrich it It is in Compass about ten Miles or scarce so much Circular in its figure and is a fair and goodly City yet nothing like the miracle that some would make it for was the figure of London altered and all the Houses cast into a Ring as it
and Orleans Our Entertainment at Dinner and therefore a fit Stage to Act a Dinner on and to it we went By that time we had clear'd our Selves of a great platter of Pottage there entred upon us three odd kind of Fellows with their Hats on their Heads like cover'd Dishes As soon as I saw them I cast one Eye upon my Riding-Coat and the other upon my Whinyard not knowing what use I might have of my Steel to secure my Drapery but when I had Survey'd their Apparel I quickly altered that Opinion and look'd upon them as the Excrements of the next Gaol Deceiv'd alike in both my Jealousies on a nearer view I perceiv'd their divertising parcel of Man's Flesh in good truth were neither better nor worse than errant French Fidlers which in England we should have thought unworthy of a Whiping-Post Without asking Leave or paying any Reverence to the Company they fell a scraping in as harsh a Tone as the Courting of Cats at Mid-night and as if that had not been Punishment enough they abused our Ears with one of their Songs By that little French I had and the Simpering of a Fille de Joy of Paris that Travelled in our Company I perceiv'd it was Baudy and to say the truth Ranker than could be endur'd by any thing but a French-man but what could I do I had not French enough to call them Rogues handsomly and the Scoundrels were below a Beating A Gang of Rascals so infinitely inferior to the Dignity of a Statute that to Hang them had been but to cast away a Rope and disparage the Reputation of the Gallows After their smutty Song was ended one of the Hanging-look'd Company which afterward appear'd to be Master of the Mis-rule pull'd a Dish out of his Codpiss and sets it upon the Table before us into which according to the French Custom we must cast in our Benevolence Prescription Time out of Mind has allow'd them a Sou for each Man at the Table more they don't expect and will take no less no great Sum I confess but 't was richly worth the Musick which was meerly French Lascivious in Words and Unskilful in the Playing We are now The City of Orleans Sir come into the Country of Orleans which though within the Limits of La Beauss will be thought to be a Province of it self 'T is a pleasant and plentiful Country of Corn and Vines and may be call'd the Epitome of France The Town is situate on the Declivity of a Hill with a Bridge a Wall and Turrets capable of making Resistance to an Enemy It is very Populous the delicacy of the Air and the commodiousness of the River inviting the Nobility and Gentry to Cohabit in it and they accept it and are a more Humane and Courteous sort of People than the Parisians or any other in France that I have yet conversed with The Buildings are like themselves the Streets large and well kept and give no Offence to the nicest Nostril It has 26 Churches besides the Cathedral of St. Cross and divers other Religious Houses The Wine of Orleans is the greatest Riches of it self and the Country about it And in my Opinion are the best in the Kingdom in respect of the Delicacy of the Tast I have heard of a Dutch Gentleman that tasting a Wine in Italy called Lachrymae Christi Christ's Tears broke out into this pathetical Ejaculation Dii Beni quare non Christus Lachrymatus esset in nostris Regionibus Why did not our Saviour weep in our Country This Dutch-man and I were for a while of the same mind and I thought I had a fair Quarrel with Nature for giving us none of this Liquor in England but we were soon reconciled when I perceiv'd it was offensive to the Brain if not well allay'd with Water for which Reason it is said that the present King hath banish'd it from his Cellar no doubt to the great Grief of his Drinking Courtiers who may therefore say with Martial Quid tantum fecere boni tibi pessima Vina Aut quid fecerunt optima Vina mali This is a great Trading Town Offices sold and especially for Offices which are here as well as in the rest of France saleable for great Sums of Money which they squeeze again out of the Purses and very Blood of the Peasants saying with our Serjeants of the Counter that being forc'd to buy the Devil they are allowed to sell him at as hard a Bargain as they can Twenty Years purchase is said to be no extraordinary Rate and I have read that only by the Sale of Offices one of the Kings of France that shall be nameless raised in twenty Years one Hundred and thirty nine Millions of Livres which is about seven Millions Yearly Of all ways to get Money the most ungenerous and mischievous for the Sale of Offices necessarily draws after it the Sale of Justice As this Town is sweetly seared in respect of the Air The Palle-Malle and Recreations there so it has the conveniency of many fine Walks the best of which is of the East side of the City called the Palle-malle from a very Gentleman-like Exercise much used in this Kingdom In this Walk which is of a very great length and beauty in a clear Evening you shall have all the Town appear the aged People borrowing Legs to carry them and the younger Arms to guide them If any young Madamoiselle or Monsieurs walk thither alone they will quickly find a Companion tho' perhaps such with whom they have yet no familiarity Thus do they measure and remeasure the length of the Malle not minding the shutting in of the Day till darkness has taken away the sense of Blushing At all hours of the Night if it be warm and dry you may find them thus coupled and if at the Years end there be found more Children in the Town than Fathers this Walk and the Night are shrewdly suspected to be Accessaries There is another Walk in this Town L'Estappe called L' Estappe which is principally frequented by Merchants to Confer about their Trafick and other Negociations It reaches to the Cloister of St. Cross the Cathedral Church of the Building of which I could never yet read or hear any thing but what is Fabulous and not worth relating Of the Town there is nothing more remarkable than the great Siege that was laid before it by the English and was at last Relieved by Joan de Arc Maid of Vancoleure in Lorrain whom they called La Puelle of whom you have an account in our own Chronicles Some Proclaim her a Saint and others regard her but as a Sorceress For my part I will not flatter the best Fortune of my Country to the prejudice of Truth nor will I think otherwise of this Female Warriour but as a Noble Captain In Orleans is also an University The University of Orleans Founded by Philip de Belle King of France 1312. for the
Profession of the Civil Law and was the first of that kind on this side the Mountains It has four Professors and the Place in which they Read their Lectures is call'd Les Grandes Escoles but rather ought to be called an old Barn converted into a School by the Addition of five Ranks of Forms and a Pew in the middle you never saw any thing so severely mock its name Their Principal Governour is the Rector which every three Months descendeth to another so that once a Year every one of the Professors hath his turn of being Rector They Read each of 'em in their turns an hour every Morning in the Week except Holy-days and Thursdays their Hearers taking of them their Lectures with their Tables They are very Liberal in bestowing their Degrees Conferring Degrees and deny no Man his Grace that is able to pay his Fees Legem ponere is more powerful with them than Legem dicere and the Blockhead that has but his Gold in his Hand shall have a sooner Dipatch than the best Scholar upon Tick in the University Ipse licet venias Musis comitatus Homere Si nihil attuleris ibis Homere foras It is Money that disputes best with them The Exercise that is performed before the Degree is taken Their Exercises and Library is very little and as trivially perform'd When you have chosen the Law you would defend they Conduct you into an old ruinous Chamber which they call their Library for my part I thought it the Ware-House of a Second-hand broken Bookseller in Duck-Lane Those few Books which were there were as old as Printing and amongst them all a Man could scarcely make up one Cover to resist the Depredations of the Rats They did not stand Endwise but lay one upon another and were joyn'd together with Cobwebs instead of Strings He that would ever guess them to have been look'd into since the long Reign of Ignorance would have Condemned his own Charity for I could not believe that the three last Centuries of Years had ever seen the inside of them but that the poor Paper had been troubled with the Disease we call Noli me tangere In this unlucky Room do they hold their Disputations and after two or three Arguments urg'd they commend the Sufficiency of the Respondent and pronounce him worthy of his Degrees That done they cause his Authentick Letters to be Sealed and in them tell the Reader with what Diligence and Pains they have sifted the Candidate That it is necessary to the Common-wealth of Learning that Industry should be Honour'd and that on this ground they have thought fit Post angustias solamen post vigilias requietem post dolores gaudia for so as I remember runs the Form to recompence the Labours of N. N. with the Degree of Doctor or Licentiate with a great deal more of the like formal Foolery Et ad hunc modum fiunt Doctores Next in this City of Letters The German College as the French Writers call Paris is the German College where those of that Country Study and for Decency Order and good Government exceed all the rest of the University A very hearty good natur'd and loving Nation they are to all Men but especially to the English Only I could wish that in their Speeches and Compliments they would not use the Latin-Tongue or else learn to speak it truly Of these Ingredients is the University of Orleans compounded and may pass for a Learned Academy among those that never saw one It could scarce be called an University till the Jesuits came among them but rather a School of Law but they having brought with them those Branches of Learning which before were wanting in it it may better deserve that Appellation The Jesuites I say have a College here The Jesuits Callege and Schools and in it apply themselves with all imaginable Diligence in the Study of good Letters and make such good Proficients in it that they exceed all other sorts of Orders in the Roman Church as having better Teachers and more leasure to learn That time which others spend at their High-Masses and Canonical Hours these Men bestow upon their Books being exempted from these Duties by their Order They trouble not their Heads with Crotchets in Musick nor Chanting their Services but imploy their Brains upon Matters of State supporting their Friends and ruining their Enemies To this advantage of Leisure Their method in Teaching they add an exact Method in their Teaching which indeed is so excellent that Protestants oftentimes send their Sons to their Schools to have them prove Exquisite in the Arts they Teach To them resort the Children of the Rich as well as the Poor and that in such great numbers that wheresoever they settle other Schools become desolate or frequented only by those of a more heavy and phlegmatick Constitution In their Schools are eight Classes The lowest is for Grammar the second for making Themes the third for Poetry the fourth for Oratory the fifth for the Greek Grammar and Compositions the sixth for Poetry and Rhetorick in that Language the seventh for Logick and the eighth and last for Philosophy To each of these Schools or Classes there is a several Reader or Institutor who only intends that Art and the perfection of it which for that Year he Teacheth The Year ended he removes himself and his Scholars with him into the Class or School next above him till he has brought them through the whole Study of Humanity In the last Form which is that of Philosophy he continues two Years which being expired his Scholars are made perfect in the Universality of Learning are Manumitted from their Tutors and permitted to follow their private Studies but that which is their greatest Art in Teaching and fittest for their purpose is That they do not only teach their Scholars an exactness in those parts of Learning which they handle Their obstinate Humour but endeavour to breed in them an obstinacy of Mind and a sturdy eagerness of Spirit that may render them hot and fiery Prosecutors of their own Principles and impatient of Contradiction This I have observed makes all of their Education to affect Victory in all their Controversies of Wit and Knowledge and manage it with such a Violence that even in their Grammatical Disputations little Boys will maintain their Arguments with such a fierceness and impatience as surmounts their tender Years And all this pains the Jesuits take for nothing The poor Peasants Son having the same Instructions with that of the Noblemans and this procures the Society Honour from the Great and Love from the Poor for the liberal Education of their Children and gives them their choice of Wits to supply their Fraternities Thus do they promote their own Interest in all their Undertakings insomuch Destructive to all other Religions that Men of Wisdom and Judgment have been of Opinion that the planting of a College of Jesuits in any place
d' Armie Pont d' Armie now scarce visible in its Ruines Three Leagues down this River is Abbeville Abbeville conveniently seated on the River Soame which runs through it 'T is bigger than Amiens but not so beautiful nor populous for the Houses are of an old Impression and there is much waste Ground within it A Castle it once had but now that defect is supply'd by Mounts and Bastions large and capacious which if well Man'd need nor yield upon the first Summons Without the Wall it is diversly strengthned in some places with deep Ditches full of Water the others only by a Boggish Marish Fenny Level more dangerous to an Enemy and serviceable to the Town than all the rest of its Fortifications and therefore never guarded by the Soldters of the Garrison They only keep Guard at Port de Boys and Port St. Valery the first looks towards Hesden a Frontier Town of Artois and the other towards the Haven of St. Valery from which Places most danger was fear'd July the last we took Post-Horses Our Journey to Bullogn on Post-Horses or things very like them for Bulloign as lean and poor were the Steeds as Envy in the Poet Maries in corpora tota was their Character for you might not only have counted their Ribs but the Spur-galls had made such Casements through their Skins that you might have Survey'd their Intrails and given a better Account of the position of their Guts and Piping Lungs than Le Grey or Markham in their Master-Pieces A strange kind of Cattle in my Opinion they were and such as had neither Flesh on their Bones Skin on their Flesh nor scarce Hair on their Skins Sure I am they were no Kin to Ovid's Horses of the Sun nor could we say of them Flammiferis implent hinnitibus auras For all the Neighing we could hear from the Proudest of them was only an old dry Cough which they brought from the late Campagne in Flanders which in earnest was a great comfort to me for by that noise I perceived there was some Life in them Upon such Skeletons of Horses or heaps of Bones did I or my Companions never see our selves before and yet the Monsieurs that Travel'd with us thought themselves well Mounted and cock'd and look'd as great as the little Gentleman that Rides in Triumph before the Bears and Bag-Pipes in London and almost scratched their Behinds as often When we expected however to find something of the Post in them having Brib'd them on both sides they began to move in an Alderman's pace or like Envy in Ovid. Surgit humi pigre passuque incedet inerti and out of this Melancholy Gravity no perswasion could urge them the dull Jades were grown insensible of the Spur and to hearten them with Wands would in a short time have distressed the Country for want of Wood. Now was the Cart at Diepe thought a speedy Conveyance and we envy'd the happiness of those that were blessed with a Waggon though it came with the hazard of the old Wife and the two smutty Wenches If good Nature or a Fright in the Journey did ever put any of them into a pace like a Gallop we were sure to have them Tire in the middle of our Stage and put us with our own Feet to measure out the rest of our Journey Weary of this Trade I made bold to dismount the Postilion and ascended the Trunk-Horse where I sate in such a Magnificent Posture that the best Carrier in Paris would have envy'd my Felicity Behind me I had a good large Trunk and a Portmantle before me a bundle of Cloaks and a parcel of Books So that if my Stirrups could poize me equally on both fides I could not fall backwards nor forwards Thus preferred I encouraged my fellow Travellers who cast many an envious Eye upon my happiness and there was not one of them that might not justly have said of me Tu as un Millieur temps que le Pape Monstreville and its Garrison Thou hast a better time on 't than the Pope in all his Grandeur On the Right Hand and almost in the Midway between Abbeville and Bulloign we left the Town of Monstreville which we had no leisure than our Horses to visit It is conveniently seated either for command or resistance being built upon the top and declivity of a Hill well Fortified with Bastions and Ramparts on the outside and within has a good Garrison of Soldiers And indeed it concerns the King of France to look well to this important Place being a border Town within two Miles of Artois and the taking of it would cut off all Intercourse between the Countries of Bulloign and Calais with the rest of France and of the like consideration are the Towns of Abbeville Amiens and St. Quintin We are now come to the Country of Bullinnois which though a part of Picardy Bulloign disdains to be counted so and will be esteemed as a Country of it self It comprehends Bulloin Escapes Neuf-Chastel and divers little Villages and consists of Hills and Valleys after the manner of England Nor is it only a Country of it self but in a manner a free Country for it is held immediately of the Virgin Mary who without Question is a very Gracious Land-Lady for her Tenants enjoy a perpetual Exemption from many Tributes and Taxations with which the rest of France are miserably afflicted Amongst others from that of Salt by reason whereof and the goodness of their Pastures they make the best Butter in all the Kingdom and a Firkin of it is a very acceptable Present at Paris The Town of Bullorgn is divided into the Upper and lower distant from one another abour a hundred Paces The lower Town is bigger than the Upper which is called the City better built the Streets larger and the People richer most of the Merchants inhabiting here for the conveniency of the Haven The Upper Town is environ'd with deep Ditches a strong Wall a treble Gate and two Draw-Bridges a little Town it is not above a flights shot over in the widest Place and has but one Church in it besides Nostre-Dame which is the Cathedral The Streets not many and those narrow except in the Market-place where the Corps du Gard is kept What the Out-works are or whether it hath any I cannot tell for though it be a time of Peace and they very fond of it their Jealousie would not permit me to walk upon the Wall either within or without the Town and I wish that we were not inferior to our Neighbours in the greatness of their Care since we are equal to the best of them in the goodness of our Country On Monday the 28th of August Mr. N. took Shipping for England with a fair Wind I wish him a good Voyage and these Papers safe in your Hands with assurance that while I continue in France you shall have a further Account of what occurs here to SIR Your Humble Servant Eugenius Philo-Patriae FINIS