a stranger. Most of the natives advanced in years, were carried off last
winter. The surly winds which come down the Rhone, with impetuous
blasts, are very disagreeable and dangerous. I found the cold
intolerable in the beginning of May, out of the sunshine, and the sun
intolerable in it. In England I never wore but one under waistcoat; in
Spain, and in the south of France, I found two necessary. The Spaniards
wear long cloaks, and we laugh at them; but the laugh would come more
properly from them. There is in those climates a _vifness_ in the air
that penetrates through and through; and I am sure that such who travel
to the southward for the recovery of their health, ought to be ten times
more upon their guard, to be well secured against the keen blasts the
south of France, than even against an easterly wind in England.

The disorder which carried off so many last winter at _Lyons_, was
called the Gripe. In a large hotel only one person escaped it, an
English Lady. They called it the _Gripe_, from the fast hold it took of
the person it seized; nor did it let them go till April.

On my way here, I found it sometimes extremely hot; it is now the first
of May, and I am shaking by the side of a good fire, and have had one
constantly every day for this fortnight.




LETTER XLIII.

LYONS.