[31] The blue gown and red petticoat; or vice versa.

[32] [I am anxious that the above sentence should stand precisely as it
    appeared in the first edition of this work; because a circumstance has
    arisen from it, which could have been as little in the anticipation,
    as it is in the comprehension, of the author.  A lady, of high
    connections, and of respectable character, conceived the passage in
    question to be somewhat indecorous; or revolting to the serious sense
    entertained by all Christians, and especially by CHRISTIAN MINISTERS,
    of the mode of devoting the Sabbath day.  In consequence, being in
    possession of a copy of this work, she DIVIDED it into two; not being
    willing to sully the splendour of the plates by the supposed impurity
    of such a passage:—­and the prints were accordingly bound APART.  The
    passage—­as applied to the FRENCH PEOPLE—­requires neither comment nor
    qualification; and in the same unsophisticated view of religious
    duties, the latter part may be as strictly applied to the
    ENGLISH.]

[33] The dress of the sailors is the same as it was in the XIVth
    century; and so probably is that of the women.  The illuminations in
    Froissard and Monstrelet clearly give us the Norman cauchoise.

LETTER IV.

ROUEN.  APPROACH.  BOULEVARDS.  POPULATION.  STREET SCENERY.

Here I am, my excellent good friend, in the most extraordinary city in the world.  One rubs one’s eyes, and fancies one is dreaming, upon being carried through the streets of this old-fashioned place:  or that, by some secret talismanic touch, we are absolutely mingling with human beings, and objects of art, at the commencement of the sixteenth century:  so very curious, and out of the common appearance of things, is almost every object connected with ROUEN.  But before I commence my observations upon the town, I must give you a brief sketch of my journey hither.  We had bespoke our places in the cabriolet of the Diligence, which just holds three tolerably comfortable; provided there be a disposition to accommodate each other.  This cabriolet, as you have been often told, is a sort of a buggy, or phaeton seat, with a covering of leather in the front of the coach.  It is fortified with a stiff leathern apron, upon the top of which is a piece of iron, covered with the leather, to fasten firmly by means of a hook on the perpendicular supporter of the head.  There are stiffish leathern curtains on each side, to be drawn, if necessary, as a protection against the rain, &c.  You lean upon the bar, or top of this leathern apron, which is no very uncomfortable resting-place.  And thus we took leave of Dieppe, on the 4th day after our arrival there.  As we were seated in the cabriolet, we could hardly refrain from loud laughter at the