and excellent, but among the dishes were some that were peculiar to the
Provencal cuisine, for instance:--

Bread slices sopped in saffron, with fish, garnished with small crabs, to
be chewed up, shell and all.

Artichokes, raw, with oil and vinegar.

Oranges with pepper and salt.

On the table were glass jugs with tar-water, and I observed that over half
those present drank their wine diluted with this tar-water.

One day in summer I was at table-d'hote in France when I saw a very fine
melon on the table. Said I, in my heart of hearts, "I'll have some of you
by-and-by!" But, to my consternation, the melon was taken round with stewed
conger eel, and eaten with salt and pepper. I could not summon up courage
to try the mixture, and the whole melon was consumed before the next course
came on.

I was at Marseilles when M. Carnot, the President of the Republic visited
it, April 16th. Great efforts were made to give him a splendid reception.
Venetian masts were set up, strings of fairy lamps were suspended between
them, and tricolours were hung as banners to the masts, or grouped together
in trophies. But alas! No sooner were all preparations made, than a furious
gale broke over the coast, the venetian masts swayed in the wind and were
upset or thrown out of the perpendicular, the little lamps jingled against
each other and were broken, such as were not shivered were filled with
rain, the banners were lashed with the broken wires and torn to shreds, and
when M. Carnot arrived, in a pouring rain, it was amidst a very wreckage of