The Steam-Packet: A Tale of the River and the Ocean — page 227: what you’re looking at

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

ivu THE STEAM PACKET. which we are acquainted. We do not mean on account of the people one meets there—for the specimens of English residents in Calais are of the same genus as those found in debtors’ gaols or low taverns in London: but that lounge is charming in consequence of the immense distance to which one may walk out, as it were, upon the sea—the ample view. of the vast element which is obtained from the extremity of the jetty—the picturesque appearance of the numerous fishing ves- sels moving upon the water in the immediate vicinity—and the pleasant reminiscences of home which are aroused in the mind by the approach of the gallant steam-ships from the opposite shore, as well as by the glimpse of the white clifis of old England which may be caught on a - cloudless day. Some years ago Calais was the favourite French watering-place with the English; but the bad reputation which they contrived to create - there for the British nation in general—the institution of facilities to - reach other towns upon the marine frontier, direct from England—and the badness of the road from Calais to Paris, have now combined to _ render that town as unpopular as it once was famed amongst travellers. Several of the principal hotels are either closed or kept open at an im- — - mense loss; and the numerous boarding and lodging houses, which depended solely upon the English for their support, are now miser- able speculations. The theatre presents nothing but “a beggarly ac- count of empty boxes,” although open three times a week: the baths are a failure ; and the proprietors of cafés deplore the “° good old times ” when English gentlemen used to arrive in Calais, on their way to per- form the grand tour, and lose in one night at écarté every fraction of _ the funds which could alone grease the carriage-wheels for the con- templated journey. Yes—many an Englishman has arrived in Calais with the intention of going to Constantinople, and never afterwards moved forward another step of his journey, but lived a wretched and degraded existence in that French frontier town which was the first step of the grand travel he proposed, and which has become the last one to the tomb! Many a noble English heart hath been broken in Calais—many a glorious soul levelled to the dust within its walls—~_ many a proud and generous spirit been reduced to crawl from coffee. — house to tavern, careless of what indignity it must submit to, to. what meanness resort, to obtain its daily meal! Calais has been the grave of myriads of bright English hopes—and glorious aspirations—and noble sentiments—and honourable feelings: as the ocean is to the rich cargoe, which is trusted to its delusive waters, so has Calais proved to the mind freighted with every qualification calculated to command and insure success in life. All the vile passions of human nature have 2 ) (E(0) Gomicbooks