240 TRAVELLING IN FRANCE.
Most grateful were we to find stable footing on the Gallic shore ; and after the usual examinations at the custom-house, and obtaining new passports, ordered a comfortable fire for our chilled limbs, and conversed with varied emotions, on what we had endured amjd those wrathful Straits of Dover, " mounting up to the heavens, going down again to the depths, our souls melted because of trouble."
It was not until the evening of the following day, that we felt sufficiently reinstated to make trial of the movements of a French diligence. At the hour of nine, off set the cumbrous machine, drawn by five horses, carrying in the coupe three persons, in the in- terieur six, in the rear compartment three, and on the top an unknown number, beside the conducteur and his compagnon.
The country in the vicinity of Calais is flat, the roads drained by a kind of canal on each side, and planted with clumsy trees. These were partially de nuded, but the verdure of the fields was deep and bright as in Summer. The processes of agriculture seemed rude, and the ploughs of an awkward construc tion, mounted on wheels. Frequent stacks of grain and hay told of a plentiful harvest, and here and there the scathed grape-vine climbed with its crisp tendril to the eves, or over the tiled roof of some lowly dwelling. Many of the hovels were miserably planted in the midst of an expanse of mud, in which the poor peas ants paddled whenever they stepped from the doors.
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