ess of
the _Grand Turc_, (whom I strongly recommend all Englishmen to visit) I
made up my mind for a thirty-six hour's journey--as I was to reach Paris on
Tuesday morning. The day had been excessively hot for the season of the
year; and the night air was refreshing. But after a few snatches of
sleep--greatly needed--there appeared manifest symptoms of decay and
downfall in the gloomy and comfortless machine in which we took our
departure. In other words, towards daylight, and just as we approached
_L'Aigle_, the left braces (which proved to be thoroughly rotted leather)
broke in two: and down slid, rather than tumbled, the Falaise Diligence!
There were two French gentlemen, and an elderly lady, besides ourselves in
the coach. While we halted, in order to repair the machine, the Frenchmen
found consolation in their misfortune by running to a caffe, (it was
between four and five in the morning), rousing the master and mistress, and
as I thought, peremptorily and impertinently asking for coffee: while they
amused themselves with billiards during its preparation. I was in no humour
for eating, drinking, or playing: for here was a second sleepless night!
Having repaired this crazy vehicle, we rumbled on for _Verneuil_; where it
was exchanged for a diligence of more capacious dimensions. Here, about
eleven o'clock, we had breakfast; and from henceforth let it not be said
that the art of eating and drinking belongs exclusively to our
country:--for such manifestations of appetite, and of attack upon
substantials as well as fluids, I had scarcely ever before witnessed. I was
well contented with coffee, tea, eggs, and bread--as who might not well
be?... but my companions, after taking these in flank, cut through the
centre of a roast fowl and a dish of stewed veal: making diversions, in the
mean while, upon sundry bottles of red and white wine; the fingers, during
the meal, being as instrumental as the white metal forks.

We set off at a good round trot for _Dreux_: and, in the route thither, we
ascended a long and steep hill, having _Nonancourt_ to the left. Here we
saw some very pretty country houses, and the whole landscape had an air of
English comfort and picturesque beauty about it. Here, too, for the first
time, I saw a VINEYARD. At this early season of the year it has a most
stiff and unseemly look; presenting to the eye scarcely any thing but the
brown sticks, obliquely put into the ground, against which the vine is
train