very harsh and unpleasant and differs as much in sweetness from the Wines of Paris and Orleans as their Language does in Elegancy The Town of Mante might be thought strong before the Invention of great Guns having a Ditch a Wall and at every Gate a Draw-Bridge and are still strong enough to Guard their Pullen from the Fox and secure their Houses in the night from foreign Burglaries The last Town of Normandy towards Paris is Pontoise Pontoise once belonging to England one of the strongest Bulwarks in France as being a Frontier In it are two fair Abbies Maubuisson and St. Martin Six Parish Churches of which Nostre Dame is the most Beautiful This Country was once in the possession of the English by a better Title than that of the Sword William the first Annext it to England and it continued an Appendix to that Crown from the Year 1067 till 1204. Having pass'd through Pontoise and cross'd the River we entred into France The Isle of France described so call'd by Meroveus Grandchild of Pharamond and first King of the Francones who in the Wars between the Romans and the Gothes took it and made Paris the Seat of his Empire This Isle or Portion of Gaul was the Seat of the Franks at their first coming thither the rest of Gallia is rather subdued by the French than Inhabited Conquest having taken in those Countries they never planted for the least part of old Gallia is in the hands of the French the Normans Britans Biscaines Gascoines Goths of Languedock and Provence Burgundians and the Antient Gaules of Poictou retaining in it such ample possessions So that the French only possess some part of Old Gallia and are Masters of the Rest But that which seems very Strange is that tho' the old Gauls be in a manner worn out their Survivors should inherit their humors and conditions being composed of so many several Countries and Originals The present French are nothing but the old Gaules moulded into a New Name The Character of a French Man and are as Rash Hairbrain'd and Hedstrong now as when Julius Caesar wrote his Commentaries A Nation that may be won with a Feather and lost with a Straw At first sight a Frenchman is as Familiar with you as your Sleep or the necessity of breathing An hours Conference Endears him to you in the second you open his breast and the third you pump out all his Secrets as faithfully as to his Father Confessor and then you may lay him aside for he is no longer serviceable If you retain him longer he himself will make a Seperation He has said over his Lesson to you and now must find out some body else to repeat it to and Fare him well for he is a Garment that if you wear above two Days to-together he will grow Scandalously Thread-bare He has a good opinion of himself and thinks he has as much Wit as he wants and more than all the World besides and this and the shallowness of his brains makes him so Exceptious and Touchy that upon the least distast he draws his Sword In a Minute puts it up again and then if you beat him into better Manners he takes it with a bundance of Patience and cries out Vostre Serviteur tres humble In this one thing they too much resemble the Devil Submission makes them Insolent and Resistance makes them Recreants for they always Grin like Wolves or Fawn like Spaniels and the Spark is nothing but a Puff-past vanity in a New Antick Fashion His Table at a Feast His Table is loaded with large Dishes of Porrage but very scarce of Meat I speak not of the Paisant for they know not what it is but of the Gentleman Their Beef is cut into Chops and that which passes there for a great Dish of Meat would be thought with us but a Three-penny-cut or a Sisers Commons A Loin of Mutton makes three Substantial Roastings besides a large Pipkin full of Pottage made of the Rump and a Single Trotter Of Fowl they have great Plenty viz. foul Houses foul Dishes foul Women and foul every thing The great Skill of their Cooks consists in spoiling their Meat and making High Sauces Their Cooks and Cooking Famishing the Belly to gratify the Pallat and the Slovenly usage of their Butchers Meat will at any time give an English Man a Dinner 'T is now time to sit down and whisper your own Grace to your self for private Graces are as fashionable here as private Masses and from thence I suppose they learnt them That done fall on where you like best they observe no method in their Eating and if you expect to be Carv'd for you will rise fasting When you are Risen if you can digest the Sluttishness of the Cookery which is abominable at first sight till hunger has forc'd you to it you may be trusted in a Garrison for nothing afterward will be Nauseous The French Lauguage is indeed very Smooth and Courtly it is cleared of all harshness The French Language by cutting off the Consonants which makes it fall from the Tongue very Volubly yet in my opinion 't is rather Elegant than Copius and therefore is much embarass'd for want of Words to find out Periphases It is express'd very much in Action The Head Hands Body Shoulders and Grimace all concur in a Modish Pronunciation and he that would speak it with a Bonne Grace must have much in him of the Mimick It is enrich'd with a great number of Significant Proverbs an extraordinary help to the French Humor of Scoffing and is very full of Courtship if they did not Debase it by prostituting their Complements in too familiar a use of them for the poor Village Cobler has all his Cringes and his Eau benist de Cour his Court-Holy Waer tas ready and in as great Perfection as the Prince of Conde In all their Passado's of Courtship Their Courtship and Complements they comport themselves with much variety of Gesture and 't would be worth your Patience were it customary among Gentlemen of other Nations but the Affectation of it is bauld and Ridiculous Besides they undervalue their Courtship in bestowing the highest Titles upon persons of the meanest condition The Begger begets Monsieurs and Madams to his Sons and Daughters as familiarly as the King of France and he can scarce put up the Affront not to be thought a Gentleman His Discourse commonly runs on two Wheels Their Discourse and Gallantry Treason or Ribaldry In the first he Abuses his Prince and the Court and in the other himself in boasting of the many Women he says he has Prostituted Foolish Braggadocia's by whom each Debauchery is twice committed in the Act and in boasting of his Filthiness By themselves they measure others accounting them Idects and mean Soul'd Wretches that don't Unman themselves in these Beastialities This brings me to speak of the French Women The Character of French Woman
la Salle des Antiques The Hall of Antiquities the Hall of Antiquities a low plain Room pav'd with Brick without any Hangings and yet in my mind the best furnish'd of all I saw in France It has five of the most Ancient and Venerable Pieces of all the Kingdom but herein I shall be thought a mean and unfashionable Soul by the Monsieurs who are regardless of Antiquity both in the Monuments and in the Study of it and are all for new things especially Cloths as oft as they can get them The five Pieces above nam'd are the Statue of Diana which was Worshipped in the Renown'd Temple of Ephesus of a large and manly proportion all naked but her Feet and what Modesty commands to be cover'd Another was the Statue of one of the Ethiopian Gods as black as his People Next to that grim Deity was the Effigies of Mercury with a Pipe in his Mouth and all naked but his Feet The fourth was the Pourtraiture of Venus quite naked in her hand her little Son Cupid sitting on a Dolphin And last of all Apollo in the same naked Posture except that contrary to the Mode of France he had Shooes on but whether they were made of Leather or Wood I am not able to determine All these are said to be given to the King of France by his Holyness of Rome A pleasant exchange for the Pope to give him the Gods of the Heathens who had given himself to the Idols of the Romans and I believe upon the same Terms the now King of England might have all the Relicks and Ruins of Antiquity in Rome Not far from this Room The House of Bourbonne and the Tuilleries on the other side of the Louvre is the House of Bourbon On the Tuilleries I have nothing to say but that they were built by Catharine of Medices Anno 1564. and took name from the Lime-Kilns and Tile-pits there before the Foundation of the fine House and Gardens The present King of France is the Son of Lewis XIII by the Lady Anna The King Infanta of Spain at whose Marriage the Spaniards unwilling to fall under the French Obedience which might very well happen she being the eldest Sister of the King they inserted a Clause in the seventh Article of Marriage That neither the said Infanta nor the Children born by her to the King should be capable of Inheriting any of the Estates of the King of Spain and in the eighth Article being Marry'd at eleven Years of Age she is bound to make an Act of Renunciation under her own Hand Writing as soon as she came to be twelve Years old which was accordingly perform'd Lewis XIV now Reigning was born Aug. 26. 1638. succeeded his Father in 1643. was Crown'd by the Archbishop of Rheims June 7th 1654. and Marry'd Maria Theresia Daughter to Philip IV. King of Spain by whom he had only a Son Lewis Sirnam'd the Hardy the present Dauphin born November 1. 1661. He Marry'd Maria Anna Christina Daughter to the late Elector of Bavaria by whom he has three Sons Lewis Duke of Burgundy born Aug. 6. 1682. Philip Duke of Anjou born November 19. 1683 and Gaston Duke of Berry born Aug. 31. 1686. But of this great King his Court and Government I shall say nothing till I am out of his Dominions and then Sir you may expect his History Having wearied our selves with the sight of Paris Madrid we went to see some of His Majesty's Houses in the Country and here we passed by Madrid so call'd from the King of Spain's Palace at Madrid after the Form of which it is built The Founder was Francis I. A well contriv'd House it seem'd to be but our Journey lay beyond it A League further is Rual Rual a little Town belonging to the Abby of St. Denys in which is a pleasant Summer-house adorn'd with abundance of retir'd Walks and a curious variety of Water-works for besides the Forms of divers Glasses Pillars and Geometrical Figures all form'd by the Water there were Birds of sundry sorts so Artificially contriv'd that they both deceiv'd the Eye by their Motion and the Ear by their Melody Somewhat higher in the midst of a pleasant Garden are two Fountains of admirable Workmanship In the first is the Image of Cerberus the Boar of Calidon the Nemaean Lyon and in the Navel of it Hercules killing Hydra In the other only a Crocodile full of wild and unruly Tricks sending from his Throat a Musick not much differing from that of Organs and had your Eyes been shut you would have thought your self in a Cathedral Church for the Melody of the Crocodile and the Birds exactly counterfeited the Harmony of a well order'd Quire And now we are come into the Grove a place so sweetly contriv'd that it would even entice a Man to Melancholy because in them Melancholy would be delightful The Trees so interchangeably folded that they were at once a shelter against Wind and Sun yet not so sullenly closed but that they afforded the Eye a Prospect over the Vines and the Verdures of the Earth that were imprison'd within them It seem'd a Grove an Orchard and a Vineyard so variously interwoven as if the Artist had design'd to make one fall in love with Confusion In the middle of the Wilderness is the House environ'd with a Moat of Running-water the House pretty and therefore little built rather for a Banquet than a Feast It was built and thus enrich'd by M. de Ponte the King's Taylor and was without question the finest Garment he ever cut out in his life Dying he gave it to Mr. Landerbon and the Queen Mother taking a liking to it bought it giving in exchange an Office in the Treasury worth 400000 Crowns to be sold Two Leagues from Rual St. Germain en Lay. is the King's House of St. Germain en Lay where the late King James now Resideth seated on the top of an Hill like Windsor with the Town of St. Germain lying about it and the River Seine like the Thames running below it This Royal Seat is divided into two parts the Old and the New and the whole composes a Majestical Palace The Louvre so much fam'd is not to be nam'd the same Day with this in respect of the Spaciousness of the Rooms and the Curiosity of the Paintings and other Rarities In a stately large Walk vaulted over head The Water-Works are the Water-works and the first thing you encounter is the Effigies of a Dragon just against the entrance which vomits upon all that come nigh him At the end towards the right hand is the Statue of a Nymph sitting before a pair of Organs Upon loosing one of the Pipes the Nymph began to singer the Keys and made excellent Musick Unto the Division run by her Fingers her Head kept time jolting from one Shoulder to the other like an Old Fidler at a Country Wake At the other end toward the left hand we saw
a Shop of Smiths another of Joiners and the Backsides full of Sawyers and Masons all idle but upon a motion of the Water they all fell to work and ply'd it lustily The Birds every where by their singing saving the Artificers the labour of whistling besides upon the drawing a Wooden Curtain appear'd two Tritons riding on their Dolphins with each of them a Shell in his Hand which interchangeably serv'd for Trumpets Afterwards follow'd Neptune sitting in his Chariot drawn with four Tortoises grasping his Tricuspis or threefold Scepter in his hand the Water under them representing all the while the Sea somewhat troubled Thirty six steps from the Front of the Mansion-House we descended into this Water-house and by sixty more we descended into a second of the same fashion but not so long as the other At the right hand of this is the whole Story of Perseus and Andromeda and the whole acted very lively the Whale being kill'd and the Lady loos'd from the Rock but withal was so cunningly manag'd and with such mutual change of Fortune between the Combatants that one that had not known the Fable would have been sore afraid that the Knight would have lost the Victory and the Lady either her Life or Honour At the other end of the House was shewed us Orpheus in silvis positus silvaeque sequentes the resemblance of Orpheus playing on a Violin the Trees moving and the Wild Beasts Dancing in two Rings about him an Invention that could not but cost King Henry great Summs of money fince 't is reported that the breaking of one Fiddle-String cost King Lewis his Son fifteen hundred Livres Another Door opening we saw divers Representations and Conceits which would have been more Graceful if they had not had so much of the Puppet-Play and Punchanello in them By thirty Steps more we descended into the Garden and by as many more into a Green where was the Statue of a Horse in Brass of that Bigness and Beauty that he is scarce to be march'd in Europe On the other side of Paris up the River St. Vincent ' s. we saw another of the King's Houses call'd St. Vincenas beautified with a large Park well stock'd with Deer In this House died Philip the Fair Lewis Hutin and Charles the Fair but none so much to be lamented as that of our Illustrious Henry the Fifth cut down in the flower of his Age and in the midst of his Victories A Prince truly Brave Wise and Valiant and the Alexander of his Time whose remembrance return'd us sorrowful into Paris Here we rested a while A French Servant and being desirous to entertain a French Servant we had soon our choice of many but generally such Grim and familiar Scabs that nauseated an English Eye but at length so many making Addresses to us for fear the Government should think we were Listing a Regiment we pitched upon one that lookt the Modestest of all the Fry and enquiring into his Qualifications he told us with a brisk French Air that he was Un Maistre de Fence Un Maistre de Dance and Squire of the Toilet but seeing by our Countenances we were neither Fighters Fops nor Dancers he told us in Broken English he could do any thing belonging to an accomplish'd French Serviteur He could Drive de Caroch or Squire de Lady Dress de Horse make de Pottage or Cook de Fricasy Ride de Menage Cheval Mend de Breech Foot de Stocking Shave de Beard or make Clean de Shooe after the best and newest Fashion A le Cour and under this Character we took him Having now seen the King's Court The Clergy of France of which you may expect a more particular Account in my next Packet or when we shall meet in happy England suffer me here then to skip over that and give you a short but true Account of their Clergy and of their Church Revenues which must needs be unaccountable since it maintains so great a number of Idle Ignorant Mass Mumblers for not reckoning the Jesuits which shall have a Line by themselves which are none of the poorest and daily encrease like Locusts and Caterpillars nor any of the Clergy in their New Conquests there are numbred in France twelve Archbishopricks an hundred and four Bishopricks five hundred and forty Arch-Priories one thousand four hundred and fifty Abbies twelve thousand three hundred and twenty Priories sixty seven Nunneries seven hundred Convents of Fryars two hundred fifty nine Commendams of the Order of Malta and one hundred and thirty thousand Parish Priests besides Lay Officers and Attendants upon all the several Orders To maintain this large Wilderness of Men Their Maintenance the Statesmen of France who have proportioned the Country do allow to the Clergy a fourth part of the whole for supposing that France contains two hundred Millions of Arpins a measure somewhat larger than our Acre they have allotted to the Church for its Temporal Revenue forty seven Millions of them A pretty Competency To give you a taste for the whole The Archbishoprick of Aux in Gascoin is valued at forty thousand Pound English communibus Annis The Bishoprick of Alby in Languedoc is reckon'd at fifteen thousand Pounds Annually The Abbot of Cluniac in the Dutchy of Burgundy is valued at fifty thousand Crowns yearly and the Parish Priest of Estiennes St. Steven's in Paris receives Yearly no fewer than 8000 Crowns As for the Vulgar Clergy they have but little Tythe and less Glebe The Inferior Clergy most part of that Revenue being appropriated to Abbies and other Religious Houses and they live only upon the Baisemens the Church Offerings of the People at Marriages Christenings Burials Dirges Indulgences and the like which is thought to amount to as much as the Temporal Estate of the Church and would maintain them well if it were not for the greatness of their number for generalty every Parish has no fewer than four Priests which are too many to be Rich and there is little hopes of their Rising while they see the best of their Church Preferments given away before their Faces to Boys and Children which disheartens them in their Studies and exposes them to Debauchery and scandalous Courses Notwithstanding their Wings are thus clipt Their Morals and that Shame and Fear does somewhat Reform them yet they will often give Nature a Fillip and allow themselves in some good Fellowship and to say truth I think them the best Companions in France on a Journey but not for an Acquaintance They live very merrily and keep a better Table than consists with their Vow and yet far short of their former Affluency when Church Preferments in France were only at the Pope's disposal tho' much Ease and very little Study keeps them still plump and in good liking I once Travel'd with three of these mortified Sinners two Augustins and one Franciscan the merriest Crickets that ever chirped When we came to a Vein of good Wine they
A Succinct DESCRIPTION OF FRANCE Wherein is a CHARACTER OF THE People Customs c. OF THAT KINGDOM Sent by a Gentleman now Travelling there to his Friend in England Dedicated to that Eminent and Learned Physician Dr. MARTIN LISTER and may serve as a Supplement to his Journey to Paris Printed in the Year 1700. TO THE LEARNED Dr. Martin Lister SOme ill natured and unthinking Animals having imbib'd an Opinion that your only Design in publishing your Journey to Paris was to flatter the French and disparage the English they made you know very undecent Reflections upon that Treatise represented your Worship as a short sighted prejudiced Observer and one that had a greater Esteem and Veneration for Paris than the famous City of London Which in respect of its healthful and pleasant Situation splendid and uniform Buildings Houses and Shops richly Furnished wealthy Merchants and Tradesmen and excellency of its Government is Celebrated as a Non-Pareil through the Christian World But Sir as Ignorance is the Parent of Misunderstanding so they were unhappily led into this Mistake for want of Brains to comprehend your Method in commending and dispraising For your Abilities in History like the other parts of your great Learning lying very deep and out of the Vulgar Track it is not discernible to every Pur-blind Eye Whereas better illuminated Apprehensions easily perceiv'd your Inclination was to give the Preference for London and English-men for when you spake of the French City and People your Elogies were Satyrs your Panegyricks Lampoons and you always unluckily brought in something that disparag'd what you seem'd to advance and clouded all the Glory that was thought you intended them in the publication of your Journey 'T is true you say the French Gentry are very Civil and Obliging and I believe no less though you are pleased to say They value themselves upon their Courtship and in making a Leg and Bow better than the rest of Mankind Building and Dressing mostly for Figure and that their principal Diversions are only to see and be seen and this I think Sir your Enemies will allow to be no extraordinary Character You acquaint us Sir That their Houses are richly furnished for they have generally from five to ten distinct Families under every Roof that the Inhabitants are wealthy in Pictures and have the Curiosity and Ingenuity to Ruin themselves in that kind of expensive Furniture Which would be thought a vanity in others but this Doctor is your peculiar knack in commending their Oeconomy The Buildings in Paris you say are very fine built with rough Stone Plaister'd over and Colour'd to make them look like Brick but at longest will not stand above five and twenty Years and then they have the pleasure of building new ones which must needs be a great satisfaction to the Proprietors Paris in your Opinion Sir is more Populous than London but it seems 't is only in appearance because the Palaces and Convents have eat up the Peoples Dwellings and crowded them so excessively together in the Trading parts of the Town that they seem more numerous than they are whereas the Artists and Tradesmen in London and Westminster have purchased the Noblemens Palaces and converted them into Shops and private Dwellings The lower Windows in Paris are grated with strong Iron Bars before ' em But are excelled in that particular also if you had thought upon 't by the two stately Houses over the two West Gates of London You say also That Paris is a beautiful and convenient City but the Streets are very narrow extreamly dirty and the Passengers on foot no way secured from the hurry and danger of Coaches Above all You say their Gardens are very curious things and well they may be so for you are pleased to add as a Character of their Gallantry That as soon as a Frenchman gets any thing by Fortune or Inheritance he will lay it out upon a Picture or an Ornament for his Garden Though many Utensils and Conveniencies of Life are wanting to him which are common in England Their Food in general you say Is course Bread and Lettice but that indifferent Aliment is supply'd with plenty of Sauce for you tell us they have abundance of Onions Leeks Garlick Sorrel Shallot Rocombo's and Mushrooms Their Hackney-Coaches and Chairs are the most nasty and miserable Voiture Carriage that can be and yet are as dear again as in London but that misfortune you say is supply'd by a worse viz. The Vingrette which is a Coach with two Wheels dragg'd by a Man and push'd behind by a Woman or a Boy and sometimes by both which you truly say is a wretched business in so magnificent a City Their Bishops say you make the best Figure in the Town in their Equipages and Liveries but not in respect of their Learning for you are pleased to add That Learning is not so necessary a Qualification there as with us in England Their Churches are numerous but not big and very few of them have either Towers or Steeples though they are the Glory of a Prospect but at length Sir you are pleased to credit the French and gratifie your Enemies in saying They have more manners and Religion than the English for which some of your Country-men are resolv'd never to forgive you though I think they justly ought for the Characters you bestow on their Monks Who wear say you the Rustick Habits of old Times without Shirts or other Linnen Ornaments of the present Age. That wantonly Persecute themselves to do violence to Christianity That feed upon sowre Herbs Fish and such kind of Trash and lie worse always rough and upon Boards go bare foot in a cold Country deny themselves the Comforts of this Life and wear out their days in a slavish and fruitless Devotion And this I think may at one for what your Back Friends call an odious Comparison Thus far dear Doctor I have been your Compurgator and clear'd you from the suspicion of being more a French-man than an English-man which might have been prejudicial to your Practice And now am become an humble Suitor to you that since a Friend that is gone a long Journey has oblig'd me with a Succinct and Pleasant View of some parts of France and largely Supplies in Words at length where you mince the Matter that you would please to take it into your Protection and give it the Honour of being bound up as a Supplement with your Journey to Paris and you will much oblige SIR Your Humble Servant Philo-Patriae A Succinct Description OF FRANCE c. Dear SIR THE notice of a happy Peace after so tedious a War tempting our Curiosity to take a view of France of which we have had such different Relations my self with several other English Gentlemen embark'd at Dover in May the pleasantest Month of the Year with a fair South West Wind which had it continued in that Point would soon have wafted us to the Galick Shoar but a little