no traveller, who has thrown upon the printed page such true and vivid representations of all that strikes the eye of a stranger.  Her book, entitled Scenes and Characteristics of Hindostan, is the best of its kind.  Other travellers have excelled her in depth and sagacity of remark, in extent of information, and in mere force or elegance of style; but there is a vivacity, a delicacy, and a truth in her light sketches of all that lay immediately before her, that have never been surpassed in any book of travels that is at this moment present to our memory.  She had a peculiar readiness in receiving, and a singular power of retaining, first impressions of the most minute and evanescent nature.  She walked through a street or a bazaar, and every thing that passed over the mirror of her mind left a clear and lasting trace.  She was thus enabled, even years after a visit to a place of interest, to describe every thing with the same freshness and fidelity as if she had taken notes upon the spot.  They who have gone over the same ground are delighted to find in the perusal of her pages their own vague and half-faded impressions revived and defined by her magic glass, while the novelty and vividness of her foreign pictures make her home-readers feel that they are nearly as much entitled to be called travellers as the fair author herself.”

[Footnote A:  The first appeared in the Journal for December, 1832.]

[Footnote B:  For December, 1840.]

CHAPTER I.

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LONDON TO PARIS.

* * * * *

Departure from London—­A French Steam-vessel—­Unfavourable Weather—­Arrival at Havre—­Difficulties at the Custom-house—­Description of Havre—­Embarkation on the Steamer for Rouen—­Appearance of the Country—­Inclemency of the Weather—­Arrival at Rouen—­Description of Rouen—­Departure by the Boat for Paris—­Scenes and Traditions on the Banks of the Seine—­Journey by the Railroad to Paris—­The Douaniers—­Observations on the Journey up the Seine.

A strong predilection in favour of river scenery induced me, at the commencement of an overland journey to Bombay, through France and Egypt, to take a passage from London in a steamer bound to Havre.  Accordingly, on the 1st of September, 1839, accompanied by some friends, one of whom was to perform the whole journey with me, I embarked on board the Phenix, a French vessel, which left the Tower Stairs at about ten o’clock in the morning.

The weather was showery, but occasional gleams of sunshine encouraged us to hope that it might clear up, and permit us to keep the deck during the greater part of the voyage, which we expected to perform in eighteen hours.  To the majority of readers, in these days of universal travelling, it will be superfluous to describe a steam-boat; but there may possibly be some quiet people who are still ignorant of the sort of accommodation which it affords, and to whom the description will not be unacceptable.