obliging friend, and a most agreeable companion: she speaks
English prettily, and is greatly attached to the people and the
customs of our nation. They use wood for their common fewel,
though, if I were to live at Boulogne, I would mix it with coal,
which this country affords. Both the wood and the coal are
reasonable enough. I am certain that a man may keep house in
Boulogne for about one half of what it will cost him in London;
and this is said to be one of the dearest places in France.

The adjacent country is very agreeable, diversified with hill and
dale, corn-fields, woods, and meadows. There is a forest of a
considerable extent, that begins about a short league from the
Upper Town: it belongs to the king, and the wood is farmed to
different individuals.

In point of agriculture, the people in this neighbourhood seem to
have profited by the example of the English. Since I was last in
France, fifteen years ago, a good number of inclosures and
plantations have been made in the English fashion. There is a
good many tolerable country-houses, within a few miles of
Boulogne; but mostly empty. I was offered a compleat house, with
a garden of four acres well laid out, and two fields for grass or
hay, about a mile from the town, for four hundred livres, about
seventeen pounds a year: it is partly furnished, stands in an
agreeable situation, with a fine prospect of the sea, and was
lately occupied by a Scotch nobleman, who is in the service of
France.

To judge from appearance, the people of Boulogne are descended
from the Flemings, who formerly possessed this country; for, a