was in almost every
thing the same. The most elegant novelty was a hat, which doubled up
like a fan, so that the ladies carried it in their hands. There were
more coloured than white muslins; a variety which had a pretty effect
amongst the trees and flowers. The same observation applies to the
gentlemen. Their dresses were made as in England; but the pattern of the
cloth, or some appendage to it, was different. One gentleman, habited in
a grass-coloured silk coat, had very much the appearance of Beau
Mordecai in the farce: the ladies, however, seemed to admire him, and in
some conversation with him I found him, in despite of his coat, a very
well-informed man. There were likewise three or four fancy dresses; a
Dian, a wood-nymph, and a sweet girl playing upon a lute, habited
according to a picture of Calypso by David. On the whole, there was
certainly more fancy, more taste, and more elegance, than in an English
party of the same description; though there were not so many handsome
women as would have been the proportion of such an assembly in England.

A table was spread handsomely and substantially under a very large and
lofty marquee. The outside was very prettily painted for the
occasion--Venus commemorating her birth from the ocean. The French
manage these things infinitely better than any other nation in the
world. It was necessary, however, for the justice of the compliment,
that the Venus should be a likeness of Madame St. Quentin, who was
neither very young nor very handsome. The painter, however, got out of
the scrape very well.

A small party accompanied me into the village, which was lively, and had
some very neat houses. The peasantry, both men and women, had hats of
straw; a manufactory which Mons. St. Quentin had introduced. A boy was
reading at a cottage-door. I had the curiosity to see the book. It was a
volume of Marmontel. His mother came out, invited us into the house, and
in the course of some conversation, produced some drawings by this
youth; they were very simple, and very masterly. The ladies purchased
them at a good price. He had attained this excellence without a master,
and Mons. St. Quentin, as we were informed, had been so pleased with
him, as to take him into his house. His temper and manners, however,
were not in unison with his taste, and his benefactor had been compelled
to restore him to his mother, but still intended to send him to study at
Paris. The boy's countenance was a direct l