you cannot conceive the narrow streets of Rouen: filled with the flaunting
cauchoise, and echoing to the eternal tramp of the sabot. There they are;
men, women, and children--all abroad in the very centre of the streets:
alternately encountering the splashing of the gutter, and the jostling of
their townsmen--while the swift cabriolet, or the slow-paced cart, or the
thundering _Diligence_, severs them, and scatters them abroad, only that
they may seem to be yet more condensely united. For myself, it is with
difficulty I believe that I am not living in the times of our Henry VIII.
and of their Francis I.; and am half disposed to inquire after the
residence of _Guillaume Tailleur_ the printer--the associate, or foreign
agent of your favourite _Pynson_.[35]


[34] [Mons. Licquet here observes, "This is the first time I have heard it
said that our Postilions put on rouge." What he adds, shall be given
in his own pithy expression.--"Où la coquetterie va-t-elle se nicher?"
What, however is above stated, was stated from a _conviction_ of
its being TRUE]

[35] [The third English Printer.] See the _Bibliographical Decameron_,
vol. ii. p. 137, 8.




LETTER V.

ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE. CATHEDRAL. MONUMENTS. RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES.
THE ABBEY OF ST. OUEN. THE CHURCHES OF ST. MACLOU, ST. VINCENT, ST. VIVIEN,
ST. GERVAIS, AND ST. PAUL.