e, from the 26th of April, on
which day we quitted the Hotel de l'Europe, Rue Valois, not sorry to
obtain a respite from sounds and sights.

Though in such a country as Tuscany, where every furlong of ground
affords a new and rich subject for the pencil, the voiture mode of
travelling is preferable to posting; yet no one, I think, would
recommend it in traversing the tedious interval which separates Paris
from the southern provinces. We had adopted this species of conveyance
from the idea that it would afford more leisure for observation to those
of the party to whom France was new; but we found in reality that by
subjecting us to a dependence on hours, it diverted our attention from
those places where we might have spent half a day to advantage, and
familiarized us only with one branch of knowledge,--the merit and
demerit of most of the inns on the roads, whose characters I shall not
fail to give as we found them. Homely as this species of information may
be, I have often regretted the want of it beforehand; and concluding
that others may be of the same opinion, I shall therefore afford it as
far as I am able: premising, that it is as well not to vary, on this or
any other road, from the practice of ascertaining beforehand the rate of
the aubergiste's charges. The traveller's first impulse certainly is to
save himself trouble, by paying whatever is demanded, and not to expend
time and attention on a series of petty disputes, which make no great
difference in his travelling expenses. There is, however, in all or most
of those who are fitted to conduct the business of life, a feeling of
shame at being outwitted even in trifles, which naturally rebels
against this easy mode of proceeding, and inclines one rather to take
the trouble of asking a few questions, than to be laughed at as a _grand
seigneur_ by a cunning landlord. This trouble after all may be taken by
a servant, and need not subject the master to the necessity of entering
every inn like an angry terrier, with his bristles up and ready for
battle; and the settlement of preliminaries does not lead to any want of
attention on the part of the people of the inn.

We neglected this precaution at Essonne, where we breakfasted on leaving
Paris, and where accordingly we paid about double the charge which
Tortoni or the Cafe Hardy would have made. It appears, in truth, that at
the Croissant d'Or, as at the Emperor Joseph's memorable German inn,
"though eggs are not scar