A Years Journey through France and Part of Spain | Page 9

alas! poor Sir William! he is gone; but he was a good
man, and is surely gone to Heaven, and I can tell you what he said
when he first entered the holy gates! the interrogation followed of
course: Why, said he, seeing a large concourse of departed souls, and
not a soul that he knew, he bowed to the right and left, said he begged
pardon,--he feared he was troublesome, and if so, he would instantly
retire.--So the Frenchman, when he says he would cut himself in four
pieces to serve you, only means to be very civil, and he will be so, if it
does not put him to any expence.
Aix is a well built city; the principal street called the Course, is very
long, very broad, and shaded by stately trees; in the middle of it are
four or five fountains, constantly running, one of which is of very hot
water, at which man and beast are constantly drinking. The city
abounds with a great deal of good company, drawn to it from all parts
of Europe by the efficacy of the waters, and to examine its antiquities,
for it has in and about it many Greek as well as Roman monuments.

Some part of the country between Aix and this populous city is very
beautiful, but near the town scarce any vegetation is seen; on all sides
high hills and broken rocks present themselves; and one wonders how a
city so large and so astonishingly populous is supported. When I first
approached the entrance gate, it opened a perspective view of the
Course, a street of great extent, where the heads of the people were so
thick together, that I concluded it was a FAIR day, and that the whole
country was collected together; but I found it was every day the same. I
saw a prodigious quantity of game and provisions of all kinds, not only
in the shops, but in the streets, and concluded it was not only a cheap,
but a plentiful country; but I soon found my mistake, it was the evening
before Lent commenced, and I could find no provisions of any kind
very easily afterwards, and every thing very dear. You may imagine the
price of provisions at Marseilles when I tell you that they have their
poultry from _Lyons_; it is however a noble city, crouded with men of
all nations, walking in the streets in the proper habits of their country.
The harbour is the most secure sea-port in Europe, being land-locked
on all sides, except at a verry narrow entrance; and as there is very little
rise or fall of water, the vessels are always afloat. Many of the galley
slaves have little shops near the spot where the galleys are moored, and
appear happy and decently dressed; some of them are rich, and make
annual remittances to their friends. In the Hotel de Ville are two fine
large pictures, which were taken lately from the Jesuits' college; one
represents the dreadful scenes which were seen in the Grand Course
during the great plague at _Marseilles_; the other, the same sad scene
on the Quay, before the doors of the house in which it now hangs. A
person cannot look upon these pictures one minute before he becomes
enthralled in the woes which every way present themselves. You see
the good Bishop confessing the sick, the carts carrying out the dead,
children sucking at the breasts of their dead mothers, wives and
husbands bewailing, dead bodies lowering out of the higher windows
by cords, the slaves plundering, the Priests exhorting, and such a
variety of interesting and afflicting scenes so forcibly struck out by the
painter, that you seem to hear the groans, weepings, and bewailings,
from the dying, the sick and the sound; and the eye and mind have no
other repose on these pictures but by fixing it on a dead body. The
painter, who was upon the spot, has introduced his own figure, but

armed like a serjeant with a halberd. The pictures are indeed dreadfully
fine; one is much larger than the other; and it is said the town
Magistrates cut it to fit the place it is in; but it is impossible to believe
any body of men could be guilty of such an act of barbarism! There is
still standing in this town, the house of a Roman senator, now inhabited
by a shoe-maker. In the cathedral they have a marble-stone, on which
there is engraved, in Arabic characters, a monumental inscription to the
following effect:
"GOD is alone permanent. This is the Sepulchre of his servant and
Martyr, who having placed his confidence in the Most High, he trusts
that his sins will be forgiven."
JOSEPH, son of ABDALLAH, of the