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Volume the fourth.
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young’s TRAVELS IN FRANCE.

92

now and then upon the eye to compenfate the traveller for the dullnefs of a muchlonger didridt; but a quick fucceffion of landfcapes, many of which would be renderedfamous in England, by the refort of travellers to view them. The country is all hillor valley ; the hills are very high, and would be called with us mountains, if wade andcovered with heath ; but being cultivated to the very tops, their magnitude is lelfened tothe eye. Their forms are various : they fwell in beautiful femi-globes : they projeft inabrupt maifes, which inclofe deep glens: they expand into amphitheatres of cultivationthat rife in gradation to the eye : in fome places toiTed into a thoufand inequalities offurface ; in others the eye repofes on icenes of the foftefl verdure. Add to this therich robe, with which nature’s bounteous hand has drelied the Hopes, with hangingwoods of chefnut. And whether the vales open their verdant bofoms, and admit thefun to illuminate the rivers in their comparative repofe; or whether they be clofed indeep glens, that afford a paffage with difficulty to the water rolling over their rockybeds, and dazzling the eye with the luftre of cafcades; in every cafe the features areintereding and charadteridic of the feenery. Some views of fingular beauty rivetted usto the fpots; that of the town of Uzarch, covering a conical hill, rifing in the hollow•of an amphitheatre of wood, and furrounded at its feet by a noble river, is unique.Derry in Ireland has fomething of its form, but wants fome of its riched features. Thewater-feenes from the town itfelf, and immediately after paffing it, are delicious. Theimmenfe view from the defeent to Douzenach is equally magnificent. To all this isadded the fined road in the world, every where formed in the perfect manner, andkept in the highed prefervation, like the well ordered jilley of a garden, without dud,fand, dones, or inequality, firm and level, of pounded granite, and traced with fuch aperpetual command of profpedt, that had the engineer no other objedt in view, he couldnot have executed it with a more finiffied tade.

The view of Brive, from the hill, is fo fine, that it gives the expedition of a beauti-ful little town, and the gaiety of the environs encourages the idea j but, on entering,fuch a contrad is found as difguds completely. Clofe, ill built, crooked, dirty, dink-ing ftrccts, exclude the fun, and almoft the air, from every habitation, except a few to-lerable ones on the promenade.-34 miles.

The 9th. Enter a different country, with the new province of Quercy, which is a partof Guienne; not near fo beautiful as Limofin, but, to make amends, it is far better cul-tivated. Thanks to maize, which does wonders! Pafs Noailles, on the fummit of a highhill, the chateau of the Marftal Duke of that name. Enter a calcareous country, andlofe chefnuts at the fame time.

In going down to Souillac, there is a profpedt that mud univerfally pleafe: it is abird’s-eye view of a delicious little valley, funk deep atnongd fome very bold hills that in-clofe it; a margin of wild mountain contrads the extreme beauty of the level furfacebelow, a feene of cultivation fcattered with fine walnut trees ; nothing can apparentlyoxeeed the exuberant fertility of this fpot.

Souillac is a little town in a thriving date, having fome rich merchants. They receivedaves from the mountains of Auvergne by their river Dordonne, which is navigableeight months in the year; thefe they export to Bourdeaux and Libourn; alfo wine, corn,and cattle, and import fait in great quantities. It is not in the power of an Englilh ima-gination to figure the animals that waited upon us here, at the Chapeau Rouge. Somethings that called themfelves by the courtefy of Souillac women, but in reality walkingdunghills.—But a neatly dreffed clean waiting girl at an inn will be looked for in vain inFrance. —34 miles.

The 10th. Crofs the Dordonne by a ferry ; the boat well contrived for driving inat one end and out at the other, without the abominable operation, common in Eng-

12 land,