ich may be rented ready
furnished at a very reasonable price. Marseilles is a gay city, and the
inhabitants indulge themselves in a variety of amusements. They have
assemblies, a concert spirituel, and a comedy. Here is also a spacious
cours, or walk shaded with trees, to which in the evening there is a
great resort of well-dressed people.

Marseilles being a free port, there is a bureau about half a league
from the city on the road to Aix, where all carriages undergo
examination; and if any thing contraband is found, the vehicle,
baggage, and even the horses are confiscated. We escaped this
disagreeable ceremony by the sagacity of our driver. Of his own accord,
he declared at the bureau, that we had bought a pound of coffee and
some sugar at Marseilles, and were ready to pay the duty, which
amounted to about ten sols. They took the money, gave him a receipt,
and let the carriage pass, without further question.

I proposed to stay one night only at Aix: but Mr. A--r, who is here,
had found such benefit from drinking the waters, that I was persuaded
to make trial of them for eight or ten days. I have accordingly taken
private lodgings, and drank them at the fountain-head, not without
finding considerable benefit. In my next I shall say something further
of these waters, though I am afraid they will not prove a source of
much entertainment. It will be sufficient for me to find them
contribute in any degree to the health of--Dear Sir, Yours assuredly.

LETTER XL

BOULOGNE, May 23, 1765.

DEAR DOCTOR,--I found three English families at Aix, with whom I could
have passed my time very agreeably but the society is now dissolved.
Mr. S--re and his lady left the place in a few days after we arrived.
Mr. A--r and lady Betty are gone to Geneva; and Mr. G--r with his
family remains at Aix. This gentleman, who laboured under a most
dreadful nervous asthma, has obtained such relief from this climate,
that he intends to stay another year in the place: and Mr. A--r found
surprizing benefit from drinking the waters, for a scorbutical
complaint. As I was incommoded by both these disorders, I could not but
in justice to myself, try the united efforts of the air and the waters;
especially as this consideration was re-inforced by the kind and
pressing exhortations of Mr. A--r and lady Betty, which I could not in
gratitude resist.

Aix, the capital of Provence, is a large city, watered by the small
river Are. It was a Roman colon