e
had probably expected.

But to return to the diligence. The rest of the passengers being
lethargic after dinner, an elderly lady and I had the conversation to
ourselves. She complained frequently of her _poor bonnet_, which, from
its _extraordinary elevation_ (having to all appearance antiquity to
boast of) was frequently forced in contact with the top of the carriage
by the roughness of the pavement. I told her, I had heard that the
bonnets at Paris had been much reduced in point of height, and that
perhaps something between the French and English fashions would in time
be generally worn. But although she had to complain of the
inconvenience arising from the unnecessarily large dimensions of her
headdress, she expressed a hope that no such reduction might take
place, as the English bonnets were in her opinion so extremely
unbecoming, that she should much regret any bias in the French ladies
towards such an innovation.

The pavement on which we travelled was rendered very necessary by the
weight of the carriages, which would soon make the road impassable. The
country resembled the rest of Flanders. I observed a greater number of
sportsmen than I had yet seen, well provided with dogs, ranging a
country which is too thickly inhabited to abound in game; and I have
seldom seen a district where there are fewer birds of any kind. Courtray
is a large and handsome town. Here I observed some large dogs employed
in drawing small carts, a custom very general in Holland. The town-house
bears an inscription, indicating that it was erected _by the senate and
people of Courtray_; a style lately used by all the cities of Germany
which depended on the empire, however inconsiderable they had become in
the course of years. There are many beggars here although the town and
neighbourhood exhibits more industry than I had observed since I left
Antwerp.

At Courtray and Menin the garrisons are English, and a little beyond the
last named place we entered France. The _boundary stone_ was pointed out
to me as curious, from having escaped unnoticed during the revolutionary
times, as it bears the royal arms of France on one side and those of
Austria on the other, and after a series of eventful years, it serves
again to point out the ancient and legitimate limits of France. We were
detained above an hour at the custom-house, as the diligence was heavily
laden and all merchandise, as well as the baggage of the passengers, was
examined with min