PARIS TO STRASBOURG.

_Hotel de l'Esprit, Strasbourg, July 20, 1818_.

I can hardly describe to you the gratification I felt on quitting the
"trein-trein".of Paris for the long, and upon the whole interesting,
journey to the place whence I date this despatch. My love of rural sights,
and of rural enjoyments of almost every kind, has been only equalled by my
admiration of the stupendous Cathedral of this celebrated city. But not a
word about the city of Strasbourg itself, for the present. My description,
both of _that_ and of its _curiosities_, will be properly reserved for
another letter; when I shall necessarily have had more leisure and fitter
opportunities for the execution of the task. On the eleventh of this month,
precisely at ten o'clock, the rattling of the hoofs of two lusty post
horses--together with the cracking of an _experimental_ flourish or two of
the postilion's whip--were heard in the court-yard of the Hotel des
Colonies. Nothing can exceed the punctuality of the Poste Royale in the
attendance of the horses at the precise hour of ordering them. Travellers,
and especially those from our _own_ country, are not _quite_ so punctual in
availing themselves of this regularity; but if you keep the horses for the
better part of an hour before you start, you must pay something extra for
your tardiness. Of all people, the _English_ are likely to receive the most
useful lesson from this wholesome regulation. By a quarter past ten, Mr.
Lewis and myself having mounted our voiture, and given the signal for
departure, received the "derniers adieux" of Madame the hostess, and of the
whole corps of attendants. On leaving the gates of the hotel, the postilion
put forth all his energies in sundry loud smackings of his whip; and as we
went at a cautious pace through the narrower streets, towards the _Barriers
of St. Martin_, I could not but think, with inward satisfaction, that, on
visiting and leaving a city, so renowned as Paris, for the _first_ time, I
had gleaned more intellectual fruit than I had presumed to hope for; and
that I had made acquaintances which might probably ripen into a long and
steady friendship. In short, my own memoranda, together with the drawings
of Messrs. Lewis and Coeure, were results, which convinced me that my time
had not been mispent, and that my objects of research were not quite
undeserving of being recorded. Few reflections give one so much pleasure,
on leaving, a city--where there are s