On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
dark : by which means we were deprived of the sight of a good part of the country , which has improved upon us ever since we left Calais . In the neighbourhood of that place we found the ground miserably neglected , and yielding hardly any thing at all . We were particularly surprised to find a great deal of hay in the fields , some just mowed , and a field of oats quite green . But every thing wore a much better aspect as we advanced farther
into the country ; and yesterday , in which we travelled from St . Oiners to Lisle , we saw every where the finest cultivation possible , and the harvest nearly got in . It seemed to be much superior to the generality of English husbandry ; but we have yet seen no inclosures , and hardly any grass or meads , cows or sheep ; these being fed in places where the soil is not so rich . At Bethune we were amused as we went through the market with a sight of a number of the slenderest and leanest pigs we had ever seen - They might
almost have been taken for greyhounds . The horses we have seen are , in general , small , lean , and not at all handsome ; but , notwithstanding , very active , and do their business very well . You would have smiled if you had been with us this morning , and seen , as I did , dogs drawing little carts with very considerable loads , and men drawing sedan chairs mounted on wheels . By this means , however , people are very well carried , and one man does the work of two with us ^
" All the way we have come , we were surprised at the prodigious quantity of tall , fine beans , which are all standing , and especially with the plantations of tobacco and poppies , which are not cultivated in England . The tobacco was very green , and looked exceedingly beautiful ; the poppies were all reaped and formed into sheaves or ricks . We could not imagine of what use so much poppy seed could be , but upon inquiry we were informed that they get a great deal of oil from them , and that the many windmills we saw in that neighbourhood were all employed to press that oil , which is used for lamps .
" Though you are not a man of gallantry , yet , as you are an observer of human nature , I must tell you what has struck me most relating to tbe women we have seen . Many of them , even those who are well dressed , walk the streets m slippers , without any thing to cover the heel ; so that , except the toe , the whole foot is seen as they walk , which to me , who never saw the like before , looked slatternly and indelicate . Almost all the women are dressed in what we call a French night-cap , which almost covers their
cheeks ; and we saw a great number of country women going to and from the market of Bethune , many of them in carts , with their heads dressed particularly neat ; but not one of them had any hat to screen them from the sun or rain ; nor have we seen one woman with a hat on since we left England . By this means they soon get sun-burned and look ugly , while the men wear very large hats and save their faces . Instead of cloaks , the women
of all ranks have a square piece of cloth or stuff which they throw over their shoulders or their heads at pleasure ; and sometimes it is so large as to reach almost to their feet . Betwixt Lisle and Ghent , which we reached on Saturday , the country women were provided with straw bonnets , which , though not very elegant , must be very convenient . All the better sort of people , men as well as women , when they walk out in the sun or the rain , hold an
Untitled Article
692 Dr . Priestley * s Journal of n Tour on the Continent .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1831, page 692, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2602/page/40/
-