have been little relished had it been good; that our dirty straw beds
were no very comfortable retreat; and that day-light the next morning
was what we most wanted and wished for. Indeed, I never spent a more
miserable night; but it was amply made up to us by this day's journey to
_Martory_, for we coasted it along the sea, which sometimes washed the
wheels of my chaise At others, we crossed over high head-lands, which
afforded such extensive views over both elements, as abundantly overpaid
us for the sufferings of the preceding evening. The roads, indeed, over
these head-lands were bad enough, in some places dangerous; but between
walking and riding, with a steady horse, we got on very well.

On this coast, we found a village at every league, inhabited by rich
fishermen, and wealthy ship-builders, and found all these artificers
busy enough in their professions; in some places, there were an hundred
men dragging in, by bodily strength, the _Saine_; at others, still more
surprising, ships of two hundred tons were building on the dry land,
where no tide rises to launch them! These villages are built close to
the sea; nothing intervenes between their houses and the ocean but their
little gardens, in which, under the shade of their orange, lemon, and
vine trees, which were loaded with fruit, sat the wives and daughters of
the fishermen, making black silk lace. Though I call them villages, and
though they are in reality so, yet the houses were such, in general, as
would make a good figure even in a fine city; for they were all well
built, and many adorned on the outside with no contemptible paintings.

The town, indeed, from which I write, is situated in the same manner,
but is a little city, and affords a _posada_, (I speak by comparison,
remember) comfortable enough; and the sea a fish, they call the red
fish, than which nothing can be more delicious; I may venture almost to
call it the sea woodcock, for it is eaten altogether in the same manner.