David Carnegie Andrew Agnew

“ Nous tristes rechappés du naufrage — nous nous rejouissons avec nos frères de la paix et de la tranquilité dont ils jouissent, et nous en benissons Dieu de tout notre coeur. La difference des mouvemens s’y fait reconnoitre; la douleur y est, la joye y est; mais la charité leur a fait changer de situation et de place; la joye a pris celle de la douleur et la douleur a pris celle de la joye. ”

“ One of the good English customs on the Sabbath day is to feast as nobly as possible, and especially not to forget the pudding.”
As to family government, he says (p. 33) —
“They have an extraordinary regard in England for young children; they are always flattering them, always caressing them, always praising what they do. At least it seems so to us French people, who correct our children as soon as they are capable of reasoning; being of opinion that to keep them in awe is the best way to put them in a good mould.” ”

“ A foreigner thinks it most comical to observe a man, who is just going to cut some bread or to chew a mouthful of meat, or who has begun some operation of that kind, and all at once to see him put down his knife, or fork, or spoon, grow as motionless as one paralysed, put on a solemn face, and keep his eyes fixed on some man who has announced himself as about to drink his health. ”

“ In many parts of England they bum nothing but wood, in some others, turf, ling, &c, but their common fuel is the coal which comes from Scotland and Newcastle. The Scotch coal burns faster than the other, and is dearer; it flames like wood, and makes a bright fire. The common coal is not so combustible; but when once it is lighted, and there is a sufficient quantity of it, it bums very well, and has this convenience that it lasts a great while with little mending. To make a coal fire, they put into the chimney certain iron stoves about half a foot high, with a plate of iron behind and beneath ”

“ In England, especially among the middle classes, when you drink at table, you must drink to somebody’s health, and must observe two rules — first, to sit as motionless as a statue while the drinker is drinking ”

“ As the coal grows hotter, it becomes glutinous, and sticks together. To keep up the fire, and revive it, you now and then give it a stir with a long piece of iron made for the purpose. As it burns out, you must throw on more coals, and thus with a little pains you have a fire all day long. The smoke that rises is horribly thick, but if the chimneys are well built, it is carried clean away, and consequently incommodes the streets more than the houses. The smell of sulphur caused by this is offensive to persons lately come from France, but one soon gets used to it ”

“ Vous people heureux et benit de Dieu qui jouissez de la sureté du port — vous compatissez au malheur de vos frères qui sont encore tout moites de leur naufrage; vous leur tendez les bras, et pour les essuyer vous leur ouvrez voire sein. ”

“ In France all the little shop-keepers, particularly the women, go with their gowns about their heels to call upon one another by turns. In England persons of that rank go to see one another with their work in their hands and cheerfulness in their countenances, without rule or constraint, except on the occasion of a marriage or a death, when a visit of ceremony is expected.” (P. 77.) “The English eat well, but are no great feasters; they do not invite their friends to eat at their houses so frequently as we do in France ”

“ If you are going to drink a man’s health, you should first fix your eye on him, and give him time to swallow his mouthful, that you may not place him under the uneasy necessity of putting so sudden a stop to his mill, as to have to sit for a time with his cheek swelled into the shape of an egg or a wen. ”

“ Misson, being deeply grateful for English hospitality, is always inclined to say a good word for the English, either categorically, or as a qualifier to a partly unfavourable criticism.
“A beau (he says at p. 16) is in England all the more remarkable, because Englishmen, as a general rule, dress in a plain, uniform manner. Fops or beaux are compounded of a periwig and a coat loaded with powder as white as a miller’s, a face besmeared with snuff, and a few affected airs ”

“ You have a good fire, which you may sit by as long as you please. You have a dish of coffee; you meet your friends for the transaction of business, and all for a penny, if you don’t care to spend more. ”

“ We picture a refugee on his voyage from France. Finding himself at port and wishing to reach London, he has asked information as to means of transit. He is therefore now able to inform us (p. 331) :—
“They have several ways of travelling in England, and the prices are all fixed. The post is under a good regulation throughout, and the horses are better than those in France. There are coaches that go to all the great towns by moderate journeys, and others which they call Flying Coaches, that will travel twenty leagues a day and more ”

“ In France custom would not allow a man of any distinction to be seen to eat in such a place; but in England they laugh at such niceties. One of the first lords of the Court makes no scruple to take a hack if his own coach keeps him waiting too long ”

“ When she walked, her body swayed from one side to the other so much, that her elbows, particularly her left one, almost touched the ground at every step she took. This made her so ridiculous to children in the street, that they threw dirt at her and insulted her. This lame condition of the girl is well proved, and of public notoriety. On Sunday, the 26th of November 1693, as she returned from church, she was so ill-used by a mob that followed her, that when she got home (to the house of Mademoiselle De Laulan, whom she served as an interpreter) , she fell a-weeping. ”

“ He admires, however, the streets built since the great fire; “the houses are built with brick, with even fronts, without magnificence or anything like it, but with sufficient symmetry and neatness, roofed with tile, and generally built high enough. Balconies are very much in use. All the rooms have ceilings, and the windows are large and sashed ”

“ In the author’s lifetime his observations as to Italy were attacked by several writers, “against whom he defended himself with equal spirit and success: and whenever he found himself in the wrong, he took care immediately to correct it.” The principal critics, however, were Romanists, who complained that he looked at things with less of an observing than of a Protestant eye. “In the reign of James II., when the Papists thought themselves secure of reviving their religion in England, it is no wonder at all that men, firmly attached to the Protestant cause, should likewise shew their zeal ”