** Miss Thrale.

'I think I had not been on this side of the sea five days before I found
a sensible improvement in my health. I ran a race in the rain this day,
and beat Baretti. Baretti is a fine fellow, and speaks French, I think,
quite as well as English.

'Make my compliments to Mrs. Williams; and give my love to Francis; and
tell my friends that I am not lost. I am, dear Sir, your affectionate
humble, &c.

'SAM. JOHNSON.'

It is to be regretted that he did not write an account of his travels
in France; for as he is reported to have once said, that 'he could write
the Life of a Broomstick,' so, notwithstanding so many former travellers
have exhausted almost every subject for remark in that great kingdom,
his very accurate observation, and peculiar vigour of thought and
illustration, would have produced a valuable work.

When I met him in London the following year, the account which he gave
me of his French tour, was, 'Sir, I have seen all the visibilities of
Paris, and around it; but to have formed an acquaintance with the people
there, would have required more time than I could stay. I was just
beginning to creep into acquaintance by means of Colonel Drumgold,
a very high man, Sir, head of L'Ecole Militaire, a most complete
character, for he had first been a professor of rhetorick, and then
became a soldier. And, Sir, I was very kindly treated by the English
Benedictines, and have a cell appropriated to me in their convent.'

He observed, 'The great in France live very magnificently, but the rest
very miserably. There is no happy middle state as in England. The shops
of Paris are mean; the meat in the markets is such as would be sent to a
gaol in England: and Mr. Thrale justly observed, that the cookery of the
French was forced upon them by necessity; for they could not eat their
meat, unless they added some taste to it. The French are an indelicate
people; they will spit upon any place. At Madame ------'s, a literary
lady of rank, the footman took the sugar in his fingers, and threw it
into my coffee. I was going to put it aside; but hearing it was made on
purpose for me, I e'en tasted Tom's fingers. The same lady would needs
make tea a l'Angloise. The spout of the tea-pot did not pour freely;
she had the footman blow into it. France is worse than Scotland in every
thing but climate. Nature has done more for the French; but they have
done less for themselves than the Scotch have done.'

It happen