ABSTRACT
The journey from London to Paris predicted the attitude that Abigail maintained for the next 10 months while living in France. Her letters described England as fair and beautiful, France as dismal and corrupt. "We travelled from London to Dover, accomodated through England with the best of Horses postillions, and good carriages, clean neat apartments, genteel entertainment, and prompt attendance, but no sooner do you cross from Dover to Caliis," she continued, "than every thing is reversed.... The cultivation is by no means equal to that of England, the villages look poor and mean ... their horses, instead of being handsomely harnessed ... have the appearance of being so many old carthorses."3 Abigail described the journey in terms of dichotomies.
