Hence this is commonly regarded as one of the handsomest
places in France, and you will find it mentioned as such by most
authors; but the unfortunate architect who was employed in rebuilding
it, got no other reward than general complaints and the nickname of M.
Gateville. The inconveniences arising from the arrangements of the
houses which he erected must have been serious; for we find that sixty
years afterwards an order of council was procured, allowing the
inhabitants to make some alterations that they considered most essential
to their comfort. Upon the quay there is occasionally somewhat of the
activity of commerce; but elsewhere it is as I have observed before, as
well with the people as the buildings. As far as the houses are
concerned, a little care and paint would remove their squalid aspect: to
an English eye it is singularly offensive; but it cannot possibly be so
to the French, among whom it seems almost universal.
To a painter Dieppe must be a source of great delight: the situation,
the buildings, the people offer an endless variety; but nothing is more
remarkable than the costume of the females of the middle and lower
classes, most of whom wear high pyramidal caps, with long lappets
entirely concealing their hair, red, blue, or black corsets, large
wooden shoes, black stockings, and full scarlet petticoats of the
coarsest woollen, pockets of some different die attached to the outside,
and not uncommonly the appendage of a key or corkscrew: occasionally too
the color of their costume is still farther diversified by a chequered
handkerchief and white apron.
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