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A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith
Letters 1826
Sydney Smith to Catharine Amelia Smith, 18 April 1826
INTRODUCTION & INDEXES
DOCUMENT INFORMATION
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Author's Preface
Contents
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Index
Editor’s Preface
Letters 1801
Letters 1802
Letters 1803
Letters 1804
Letters 1805
Letters 1806
Letters 1807
Letters 1808
Letters 1809
Letters 1810
Letters 1811
Letters 1812
Letters 1813
Letters 1814
Letters 1815
Letters 1816
Letters 1817
Letters 1818
Letters 1819
Letters 1820
Letters 1821
Letters 1822
Letters 1823
Letters 1824
Letters 1825
Letters 1826
Letters 1827
Letters 1828
Letters 1829
Letters 1830
Letters 1831
Letters 1832
Letters 1833
Letters 1834
Letters 1835
Letters 1836
Letters 1837
Letters 1838
Letters 1839
Letters 1840
Letters 1841
Letters 1842
Letters 1843
Letters 1844
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Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
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Paris: no date.
Dearest Wife,

My dinner at Calais was superb; I never ate so good a dinner, nor was in so good an hotel; but I paid dear. I amused myself that evening with walking about the streets of Calais, which pleased me exceedingly. It is quite another world, and full of the greatest entertainment. I most sincerely hope, one day or another, to conduct you all over it; the thought of doing so is one of my greatest pleasures in travelling. I was struck immediately with, and have continued to notice ever since, the extreme propriety and civility of everybody, even the lowest person; I have not seen a cobbler who is not better bred than an English gentleman. I slept well on a charming bed, after having drunk much better tea than I could have met with in England.

MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 255

I found the inns excellent everywhere on the road, and the cookery admirable. The agriculture appeared to me extremely good; the instruments very clumsy, and the sheep, cows, and pigs miserable. The horses admirable for agriculture and seven miles an hour. At Paris I drove to several hotels and could not get admission; at last I found rooms at the Hôtel D’Orvilliers. I dined in a cafe more superb than anything we have an idea of in the way of coffee-house, and I send you my bill. A dinner like this would have cost thirty shillings in London. At this coffee-house I was accosted by Binda, who was dining there. My dinner was not good, for, not knowing what to choose, and not understanding the language of the kitchen, I chose the first thing upon the list, and chose badly; it is reckoned the best coffee-house in Paris.

In the morning I changed my lodgings to the Hôtel Virginie, Rue St. Honoré, No. 350. My sitting-room is superb; my bedroom, close to it, very good; there is a balcony which looks upon the street,—as busy as Cheapside;—in short, I am as comfortably lodged as possible: I pay at the rate of £2. 2s. per week. I am exceedingly pleased with everything I have seen at the hotel, and it will be, I think, here we shall lodge. God bless you all!

Sydney Smith.