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HINTS of OCCURRENCES , &c.
My firft care was to procure a travelling chaife, which was abfolutely neceffary to make a journey through France,tolerable in my fituation. My baggage, confiding of very little more than the furniture of Sterne’s portmanteau, wasfoon colle6led; and on the 16th of May, 1787, I fet out for Brighthelmdone, accompanied by my nephew. Em-barking in the packet; we were fafely landed, after a paffage of twenty-eight hours, at Dieppe. We proceededimmediately to Paris ; encountering on the road the ufual inconveniences of dirty accommodations, impofing inn-keepers, and faucy podillions. It was not in my plan to remain long at a place ; and being unequal to the fatigue ofvifiting, even the cabinets, in that city, which contain valuable works of the mod eminent painters, and to which Ifhould otherwife have devoutly paid the tribute of admiration; we quitted Paris at the end of three days. Ourjourney to Geneva by way of Dijon put my patience to fevere trials, and I almod repented having thrown myfelf inthe way of inconveniencies unknown to thofe whofe travels are confined to the roads of England: for the brutality ofpod-boys, and the extortions of inn-keepers on this road, exceeded thofe we had experienced on the road from Dieppeto Paris.
These inconveniencies I am perfuaded are greatly owing to extravagant ideas of the wealth and prodigalityof the Englifh; which are conceived, with fome appearance of reafon, from the profufe liberality, and expenfivemanner of living, by which Englilh travellers didinguifh themfelves on the continent from thofe of other nations.Better health and fpirits might poffibly have difpofed me to fubmit with more complacency to evils which the vanityor folly of my countrymen had produced; but not being in a condition to endure erodes or inconveniencies, thefatigue I fudered in this journey increafed my diforder, and obliged me on my arrival at Geneva to have recourfe toa Phyfician, and to fubmit to the mortification of confinement. I very much regret that the time of my continuancein that celebrated city was unavoidably devoted to my recovery; as it deprived me of the gratification of exercifingmy pencil on the natural beauties which combine to render its fituation delightful. The lubjedl pleafed and mudhave greatly intereded me: for the revolutions it has undergone; the confli&s it for centuries endured; and thefuccefs of its druggies for liberty, had excited my veneration; and produced that peculiar enthufiafm which is conge-nial to the bofoms of Englifhmen, when recolleHing events, in which the rights of nature have been invaded, or thechampions of liberty have prevailed.
My next route being impra£Hcable with a carriage, I difpofed of my chaife at Geneva; and had the fatisfa6lion ofrepairing the depredations which the French inn-keepers and podillions had made on my purfe, by felling it for nineguineas more than it cod me. I did not forget on that occafion to give due credit to the civility and honedy of mycoach-maker; and I regretted that my negociations on that fide the water had been with perlons whofe principles ofdealing were very different from thofe of Mr. Hatchet.
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