The Steam-Packet: A Tale of the River and the Ocean — page 142: what you’re looking at

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

~ THE STEAM PACKET, 101 beautiful or picturesque as that between the former town and Dun- kirk ; and in many places the country is comparatively barren. Here and there, however, the road runs through splendid avenues of trees, which afford a most grateful shade in the scorching heat of summer, anda great protection from the cold winds of winter. The peasants in this part of the country are noted for their civility and hospitality ; and their habitations, scattered here and there, and seldom collected into small villages or hamiets, are pretty, and give every outward promise of inward: comfort. The women, with their conical but beautifully white caps, run from their humble dwellings as the vehicles pass along the road, to allow their children an opportunity of beholding the equi- pages; and should the pedestrian traveller desire the refreshment of milk, beer, or ¢az-de-vie, it is with the greatest difficulty that payment contentment is not a mere poet’s dream. We talk of the confinements of labour,—the daily toil and dull routine of the same pursuits; but we question whether the inmates of those humble cottages envy the inhabitants of great towns.’ They probably suspect that there is no thraldom so hard as that of fashion. The king is the greatest slave on earth. He can only wear certain garments, and must appear at certain intervals im a certain manner. He must walk just'so, and not otherwise; ride at a prescribed pace, and keep up a certain: idly The queen cannot surrender herself to --her feelings as the village maiden can; it would be unseemly in her to undress herself or put on her own clothes. She can have no soli- tude, no nature, no repose. Both king and queen move in one eternal round of-state, to which’ nothing is so near alike as a horse in a mill. As we descend from this rank, the sphere of liberty is enlarged: the wealthy commoner enjoys more than the noble; the tradesman more than the rich nabob ; until we come to those who enjoy the largest liberty of all—those who draw their support from the bosom of mother Nature, who regulate their hours by the clock-work of the heavens,— rising with the sun—reposing when he seems to stand still, as he does at noon—going to sleep when he sinks out of sight,—earning rest by labour, hunger by abstinence, and health and happiness by all." Our travellers scarcely obtained a view of Saint Omers until they were almost close under its walls, inasmuch’ as, like all the best forti- fied towns of France, it lies very low, the systems of Vauban and Cormontaigne advocating that characteristic of artificial defences. The place itself is very ancient, and irregularly built, and is so noted can be forced upon those who award the hospitality solicited.» Indeed, "in few parts of France is the peasantry more happy ; and their rural for its dullness, that a celebrated French wag once chalked upon a (E©) (CONNIE OOOL<KS