Pickwick Abroad: or, The Tour in France — page 393: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

CHAPTER XXXIX, THE ARRIVAL OF ANOTHER CELEBRATED PERSONAGE IN FRANCE.—THE COUNT BOLOSKI OF BOLOSK, AND MADEMOISELLE LOVEMINSKI,— CONVERSATION, A SONG, AND OTHER INTELLECTUAL AMUSEMENTS AND PASTIMES. BovuLoGne-sur-MeEr, as far as regards the English portion of its inha- bitants, stands with respect to Calais in the same way in which the Queen’s Bench may be compared to the Fleet prison. Boulogne is the receptacle for the more gentlemanly and accomplished allotment of those English swindlers and black-legs who visit the continent, because they find 1t somewhat mconvenient to reside im their own country ; whereas the coarse and the low adventurer contents himself with Calais. The very equipages which may be seen in the streets of Boulogne denote the characters of their proprietors: the liveries of their servants are also another means of betraying the secret of temporary credit at a tailor’s, and a certamty of the said tailor losing every ztem of his account. The individuals who grace the open car- riages and phaetons just now alluded to, are fine specimens of the impu- dent and unprincipled portion of mankind. The men wear fierce whis- kers, fur collars to their coats in winter, and velvet fronts in summer, satin stocks, straw-coloured gloves, and empty green purses (always) in their pockets. The ladies are decorated with pink crape bonnets in July, and green velvet ones in January; and their dress and manners altogether assimilate much with those unfortunate females who parade the-streets of London. The dgnus-Castus, or Chaste- Tree, might be planted with considerable advantage in the principal streets and squares at Boulogne; for in no town under heaven is the protection of its shade and the influence of its presence more required thaninthis. The French portion of the inhabitants scrupulously avoid all connexion with the English: the only class of citizens that trans- act any business at all in Boulogne with our fellow-countrymen residing there, are the bailiffs and the gaoler of the debtor’s prison. With them the English are tolerably intimate, in consequence of the frequent intercourse that takes place between them. But the English in Boulogne are not very particular amongst themselves; that is to say, they even cheat, and traduce, mn their own | little domestic circles, with as much unconcern and independence as if they had already arrived at Botany Bay, which eventually proves — to be their usual place of destination, Few of the couples living together as husband and wife have deemed it necessary to go through the fatiguing ceremony of marriage, which is so generally esteemed elsewhere; and the young ladies do not suffer themselves to be at all uneasy when they make a slight addition to the population of the town without their offspring being born in lawful wedlock. These manners and customs certainly savour of primitive freedom and indes pendence: but they are, however, supposed to be occasionally aec- companied by a few slight disadvantages. Gomichbooks.com