packet, amounted to L14 or L15, although in the year 1793 they did not
exceed eighteen shillings.

Amongst the passengers was a Swiss gentleman, who I found passed for a
man of _great importance_ amongst the sailors. His carriage perhaps
contributed not a little to this, as it had once been the property of
the duke of Northumberland; and although the arms were defaced, yet the
coronet, the garter, and the gilding with which it was still decorated,
no doubt contributed to increase the expences of a journey which, from
its length, is a heavy tax on the pockets of the generality of
travellers, however plain may be their equipage.

We were above two hours on board before it was possible to extricate our
vessel from the great number of transports (I believe not less than
thirty-two) which crowded the harbour, being engaged for some time in
bringing home a large portion of our cavalry, who added to the military
glory they had acquired in Spain and Portugal, by their forbearance in
tolerating insults to which they were but too often exposed in their
passage through France, by a people whose vanity forbids them to admire
valour, except in Frenchmen, but whose conduct on those occasions served
only to increase the obligations which they had in so many instances
experienced from the humanity which always attends on British valour.

If we had to regret the delay we experienced in getting out to sea, that
sentiment soon vanished before the favourable breeze which, in about
four hours, brought us to the French coast. As the day was hazy, we had
not long to admire the venerable castle of Dover, and the cliff which
Shakspeare has celebrated; and some time elapsed before we could
distinguish the shores of France, which differ entirely from those of
England, rising gradually from the water's edge, with the single
exception of _Scales Cliff_, which seems to correspond with some of
those bulwarks which characterize our coast from Dover to Portland,
where, I think, chalk cliffs are succeeded by masses of rock and grey
stone.

The tide being out on our arrival before Calais, we could not get into
the harbour, and with that impatience to leave a ship, which is natural
to landsmen, we were glad to accept the offers of some boats which
hastened around the packet, to offer their services in landing us; this,
however, they did not exactly perform, being too large to get very near
the shore, to which we were each of us carried by three Frenchm