And, Sir, I was very kindly treated by the English
Benedictines, and have a cell appropriated to me in their convent.'
He observed, 'The great in France live very magnificently, but the rest
very miserably. There is no happy middle state as in England. The shops
of Paris are mean; the meat in the markets is such as would be sent to a
gaol in England: and Mr. Thrale justly observed, that the cookery of the
French was forced upon them by necessity; for they could not eat their
meat, unless they added some taste to it. The French are an indelicate
people; they will spit upon any place. At Madame ------'s, a literary
lady of rank, the footman took the sugar in his fingers, and threw it
into my coffee. I was going to put it aside; but hearing it was made on
purpose for me, I e'en tasted Tom's fingers. The same lady would needs
make tea a l'Angloise. The spout of the tea-pot did not pour freely;
she had the footman blow into it. France is worse than Scotland in every
thing but climate.
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