_Miss Henrietta Julia Wiggins, on her Travels, to Miss Adelaide Theresa Ditto, in Bucklersbury. With a short Postscript from Mamma, and another from Papa._
"_Ma chère Sœur_—According to promise, I now send you the journal of my tour; but, _hélas!_ if you expect it has been a happy one, you _trompez_ yourself most sadly. _Mon dieu!_ the sufferings we have undergone! _Mais voilà_ the journal.
"MONDAY, SEPT. 1.—Embarked on board the "Emerald" steamer at London Bridge for Boulogne, at one o'clock in the morning, after having passed a miserable night in packing up, and trying to go to sleep in easy chairs. Pa complaining of symptoms of lumbago.—All the berths taken, mostly by gentlemen—or rather, by monsters in the form of gentlemen. _Mon dieu!_ what brutes the English men are! to suffer us poor helpless _femelles_ to pass the night on deck, while they are snoring away comfortably in the cabins! Ma's blue silk pelisse was soon put _hors de combat_ by the nasty tar and stuff, and my new French-white bonnet was turned into a regular London smoke in ten minutes by the horrid chimney.—Ma has made the acquaintance of a very nice _Dame Française_, who speaks pretty good English, and abounds in anecdotes about _la grande nation_. Also, has kindly taken charge of one of Ma's _sacs de nuit_; as she says the French _douaniers_ won't allow people to land more than one carpet-bag a-piece, and Ma not choosing to leave her valuables at the mercy of those _vilains bêtes_, the custom-house officers. _Moi aussi, j'ai fait connaissance_ with a charming fellow, the _Marquís de Mandeville_, a young _militaire_, in black moustaches and a green foraging cap.—Marquis beginning to make himself very agreeable; in fact, becoming quite _amoureux_, when both taken suddenly ill, and obliged to part. Ah! Adelaide dear! it's a sad change, from love-sick to sea-sick! French lady very kind, and asked me if I had the _mal de mere_—thought she meant "my mother's complaint," which you know is rheumatism in the hips—answered accordingly, and got horribly laughed at by a lot of rude fellows in make-believe sailors' jackets.—Ma next attacked—Pa next—_tout le monde_ soon in the same plight. Sensation dreadful—headache worse and worse—Ma wanted to be set down at Dover, but Captain wouldn't hear of it. French lady very attentive—_would_ fetch tumblers of brandy and water for Pa and Ma and me—couldn't drink a drop— _she_ did, and wasn't sick at all. Obliged to stop my journal—so very ill.