Mauves, near Nantes, is most romantically situated on a hill, which forms one of the banks of the Loire. The country about it, in the richness of its woods, and the verdure of its meadows, most strongly reminded me of England; but I know of no scenery in England, which together with this richness and variety of woodland and meadow, has such a beautiful river as the Loire to complete it in all the qualities of landscape. On each side of this river, from Nantes, are hills, which are wooded to the summit, and there are very few of these wood-tufted hills, which have not their castle or ruined tower.'From Mauves to Oudon, where we dined, the country is still very thickly wooded and inclosed; the properties evidently very small, and therefore innumerable cottages and small gardens. These cottages usually consist of only one floor, divided into two rooms, and a shed behind. They were generally situated in orchards, and fronted the Loire. They had invariably one or two large trees, which are decorated with ribbons at sunset, as the signal for the dance, which is invariably observed in this part of France.'

The Arno, as described by the Tuscan poets, for I have never seen it, must bear a strong resemblance to the Loire from Ancennis to Angers; nothing can be more beautiful than the natural distribution of lawn, wood, hill and valley, whilst the river, which borders this scenery, is ever giving it a new form by its serpentine shape. The favourite images in the landscapes of the ancient painters here meet the eye almost every league.'

• From the earliest times of the French monarchy, the rising ground of the Loire have been selected for the sites of castles, monasteries, abbeys, and chateaux, and as the possessors have superadded Art to Nature, this natural beauty of the grounds has been improving from age to age. The monks have been immemorially celebrated for their skill as well in the choice of situations as in their improvement of natural advantages; their leisure, and their taste, improved by learn. ing, have naturally been employed on the scenes of their residence, on their vineyards, and their gardens. Innumerable are the still remaining vestiges of their taste and of their industry.'-Towns, windmills, steeples, ancient castles and abbeys, still entire, and others with nothing remaining but their lofty walls; hills covered with vines, and alternate woods and corn-fields altogether form a landscape, or rather a chain of landscapes, which remind one of a poem, and successively refresh, delight, animate, and exalt the imagination.'

The climate of the departments of the Nievre and the Allier, which include the provinces of the Nivernois and Bourbonnois, is the most delightful under Heaven, being at once most healthy, and such as to animate and inspirit the senses and the imagination; it is an endless succession of the most lovely skies, without any interruption, except by those rains which are necessary to nourish and fertilize, The winters are mild, without fogs, and with sufficient sunshine to render fires almost unnecessary. The springs answer to the ordinary weather of May in other kingdoms. The summer and autumn with the exception of hail and thunder, which are certainly violent, but not frequent are not characterized by those heavy humid heats, which are so pestilential in some parts of South America; they are

light, elastic, and cheering. The windows of the bed-chambers, as I have before mentioned, are almost all without glass; or, if they have them, it is for show rather than for use: the universal custom is, to sleep with them open. It is nothing uncommon to have the swallows flying into your chamber, and awakening you by early dawn with their twittering. Pease are in common use on every table in March, and every kind of culinary vegetable is equally forward.' -The health of the inhabitants corresponds with the excellence of the climate. Gouts, rheumatisms, and even colds, are very rare, and fevers not frequent. The most common complaint is a dysentery, towards the latter end of the autumn.'

The towns, which the author visited in travelling through this favoured region, sometimes formed, by their bad building, an unpleasant contrast to the beauty of the surrounding country. The subsequent extracts will serve to shew the route which he took, and to communicate the most interesting part of his observations on the cities in this quarter:

Chartres. The inland towns of England, be their antiquity what it may, retain but little of their ancient form; from the neces sary effects of a brisk trade, the several houses have so often changed owners, and the owners have usually been so substantial in their circumstances, that there is scarcely a house, perhaps, but what in twenty years has been rebuilt from its fundamental stone. It is not the same with the houses in the old towns of France. A French tradesman's house is like his stocking-he never thinks he wants a new one, as long as he can in any way darn his old one; he never thinks of building a new wall, as long as he can patch his old one; he repairs his house piecemeal as it falls down: the re pairs, therefore, are always made so as to match the breach. In this manner the original form of the house is preserved for some centuries, and, as philosophers say of the human body, retains its identity, though every atom of it may have been changed. It is thus with Chartres, one of the most ancient towns in France, which in every house bears evident proofs of its antiquity, the streets being in straight lines, and the houses dark, large, but full of small rooms.

'Nantes is one of the most ancient cities in France; it is the Con divunum of the Romans, and the Civitas Namnetum of Cæsar. It is mentioned by several Latin writers as a town of most consi. derable population under the Roman prefects; and there is every appearance in several parts of the city, that it has declined much from its original importance, It is still, however, in every respect, a noble city, and, unlike most commercial cities, is as beautifully as it is advantageously situated. It is built on the ascent and summit of an hill, at the foot of which is the Loire, almost as broad, and ten times more beautiful, than the Thames. In the middle of the stream, opposite the town, are several islets, on which are houses and gardens, and which, as seen by the setting sun, about which time there are dancing parties, and marquees ornamented with ribe bons, have a most pleasing effect,

B 4

• Angers

Angers is situated in a plain, which, in the distance being fringed with wood, and being very fertile in corn and meadow, wants no. thing of the richness and beauty which seem to characterize this part of the province.'The general appearance of Angers does not correspond with the magnificence of its walls, its castle, and its cathedral. Its size is respectable; there are six parish churches, besides monasteries and chapters, and the inhabitants are estimated at 50,000. The streets, however, are very narrow, and the houses mean, low, and huddled: there is the less excuse for this, as ground is plentiful and cheap; there is scarcely a good house inhabited with, in the walls. The towns in France differ in this respect very con siderably from those in England: in a principal town in England you will invariably find a considerable number of good houses, where retired merchants and tradesmen live in the ease and elegance of private gentlemen. There is nothing of this kind in the French towns. Every house is a shop, a warehouse, a magazine, or a lodging house."- The French tradesman can seldom do more than obtain a scanty subsistence by his business. In all the best French towns, the tradesmen have more the air of chandlers than of great dealers. There are absolutely no interior towns in France like Norwich, Manchester, and Birmingham. In some of their princi pal manufacturing places, there may indeed be one or two principal men and respectable houses; but neither these men nor their houses are of such number and quality, as to give any dignity or beauty to their towns beyond mere places of trade. The French accordingly, judging from what they see at home, have a very contemptible idea of the term merchant; and if a foreign traveller of this class should wish to be admitted into good company, let him pass by any other ⚫ name than that of marchand or negociant. To say all in a word, this class of foreigners are specifically excluded from admission at court.'Nothing can be more delightful than the environs of Angers, whether for those who walk or ride. The country is thickly enclosed, and on each side of the river varied with hill and dale, with woodland and meadow.' In the vicinity of Angers the vineyards ⚫ are very frequent, and cover the hills, and even the vallies, with their luxuriance. The peasantry, the Vignerons as they are called, live in the midst of their vineyards: their habitations are usually excavated out of the rocks and small hillocks on which they grow their vines, and, as these hillocks are usually composed of strata of chalk, the cottages are dry and comfortable.'—

Tours. Nothing can be more charming than the situation of this town. Imagine a plain between two rivers, the Loire and the Cher, and this plain subdivided into compartments of every variety of cultivated land, corn-fields studded with fruit-trees, and a range of hills in the distance covered with vineyards to their top, whilst every eminence has its villa, or abbey, or ruined tower. The general appearance of Tours, when first entered by a traveller, is brisk, gay, and clean; a great part of it having been burnt down during the reign of the unfortunate Louis, nearly the whole of the main street was laid out and rebuilt at the expence of that Monarch. What before was close and narrow, was then widened and rendered

pervious

pervious to a direct current of air. The houses are built of a white stone, so as to give this part of the town a perfect resemblance to Bath. Some of them, moreover, are spacious and elegant, and all of them neat, and with every external appearance of comfort. The tradesmen have every appearance of being in more substantial circumstances than is usual with the French provincial dealers; their houses, therefore, are neat and in good repair, the windows are not patched with paper, the wood-work is fresh painted, and the pavement kept clean. The society of Tours is infinitely beyond that of any other provincial town in France. I have already mentioned, that there are some excellent houses within the city, and they are in great numbers in the immediate vicinity. Tours, in this respect, resembles Canterbury or Salisbury in England. It is the favourite retreat of such advocates as have made fortunes in their profession. The noblesse of the province have their balls and assemblies almost weekly during the summer months; and even in the winters, Tours is by many preferred to Paris.'-When I had occasion to stop in any town, which I thought had a prima facie appearance of being a place of pleasant residence or settlement for a foreigner, the main object of my enquiries went to ascertain all those points which were necessary to determine this question. Of all the cities which I had yet seen, Tours appeared to me the best adapted for such a residence.' A carriage may be kept cheaply; in a word, I would venture positively so say, that for 250l. English money annually, a family might live at Tours in plenty and elegance; but let them not have English or American servants.'

Blois. The situation of Blois is as agreeable as that of all the other principal towns on the Loire. The main part of it is built upon an hill which descends by a gentle declivity to the Loire; the remaining part of it is a suburb on the opposite side of the river, to which it is joined by a bridge resembling that at Kew, in England. From the hill on which the town stands is a beautiful view of a rich and lovely country, and there is certainly not a town in France or in -Europe, with the exception of Tours and Toulouse, which can command such a delightful landscape. It appeared, perhaps, more agreeable to us as we saw it after it had been freshened by the morn ing rain. The structure of the town does not correspond with the beauty of its scite. The streets are narrow and the houses low. There are some of the houses, however, which are very respectable, and evidently the habitation of a superior class of inhabitants. They reminded me much of what are common in the county-towns of England.'

Orleans has a very near resemblance to Tours, though the latter town is certainly better built, and preferable in situation: Orleans, however, is situated very beautifully. The country is uneven and diversified, and the fields have the air of pleasure grounds, except in the luxuriant wildness of the hedges, and the frequent intermixture of orchard and fruit trees. As seen from the road, the aspect of Orleans is extremely picturesque; it reminded me strongly of some towns I had seen in the interior of England. The interior of the town does not altogether correspond with the beauty of the country

in which it stands; some of the streets are narrow, the houses old, and most execrably built. The principal street is in no way inferior to that of Tours: it is terminated by a noble bridge, which has lately been repaired from the ruinous state in which it was left by the Chouans. The Grand Place is spacious, and has an air of magni ficence.'

Nevers is a pleasant town, and very agreeably situated on the declivities of an hill, at the bottom of which flows the Loire. On the summit of the hill is what remains of the palace of the ancient Counts; it has of course suffered much from time, but enough still remains to bear testimony to its original magnificence.'-'Nothing can be more picturesque than the country between Nevers and Moulins. Natural beauty, and the life and activity of cultivation unite to render it the most complete succession of landscape in France. The road. is gravel, and excellent to a degree. It is bordered by magnificent trees, but which have been so planted, as to procure shade without excluding air; the road, therefore, is at once shady and dry.'-' Though England has many delightful villages, and rustic greens, France beats it bollow in rural scenery; and I believe I have before mentioned, that the French peasantry equally exceed the English peasantry in the taste and rustic elegance with which they ornament their little domains. On the great scale, perhaps, taste, is better understood in England than in France, but as far as nature leads, the sensibility of the French peasant gives him the advantage.'

Near

The price of land in France, and the expediency of a British farmer transferring his residence and his capital to that country, (topics which at the commencement of the Revolution were so fully discussed by our countryman, Arthur Young,) engage a large share of Mr. Pinkney's attention. Land, in the neigh bourhood of Calais, costs generally about twenty pounds sterling per acre, in the case of purchasing a considerable farm. the Loire, the price is considerably lower, not exceeding fifteen or eighteen pounds per acre on an average; which may be regarded likewise as the current value in the Nivernois, Bourbonnois, and other provinces, the most fertile in France. Rents being much lower than in England, and the rate of calculation in buying being less than twenty years' purchase, the price of land in France seems scarcely to amount to one-third of its value in this country; which is owing in a great measure to the want of leases and the smallness of the farms, as well as to the difference in the value of money. When to this remarkable variation in price, we add the great superiority of the French climate, and an exemption from the ruinous system of tithes, we might be led at first to conclude that a British farmer could not take a more advantageous step than to remove himself and his property to France: but a farther consideration of the affair will satisfy us that his comfort and success would encounter the most serious obstacles. It is a matter of great difficulty, even in our

own