YOUNG S TRAVELS IN FRANCE.
93
land, of beating horfes till they leap into them ; the price is as great a contrail as theexcellence ; we paid for an Englilh whilky, a French cabriolet, one faddle-horfe, andfix perfons, no more than 50s. (2s. id.) I have paid half-a-crown a wheel in Eng-land for execrable ferries, pafied over at the hazard of thehorfe’s limbs.—This river" runs in a very deep valley between two ridges of high hills : extenfive views, all fcat-tered with villages and fingle houfes ; an appearance of great population. Chefnutson a calcareous foil, contrary to the Limofin maxim.
Pafs Peyrac, and meet many beggars, which we had not done before. All thecountry girls and women are without Ihoes or (lockings ; and the ploughmen at theirwork have neither fabots nor feet to their {lockings. This is a poverty that lirikesat the root of national profperity ; a large confumption among the poor being of moreconfequence than among the rich : the wealth of a nation lies in its circulation and con-fumption ; and the cafe of poor people abltaining from the ufe of manufactures ofleather and wool ought to be confidered as an evil of the fird magnitude. It remindedme of the mifery of Ireland . Pafs Pont-de-Rodez, and come to high land, whencean immenfe and fingular profpeCt of ridges, hills, vales, and gentle dopes, rifmg onebeyond another in every direction, with few mafles of wood, but many fcattered trees.At lead forty miles are tolerably diftinCt to the eye, and without a level acre ; the funon the point of fetting, illuminated part of it, and difplayed a valt number of villagesand fcattered farms. The mountains of Auvergne , at the didance of a hundred miles,,added to the view. Pafs by feveral cottages, exceedingly well built, of done and date,or tiles, yet without any glafs to the windows; can a country be like to thrive wherethe great objeCl is to fpare manufactures ? Women picking weeds into their apronsfor their cows, another fign of poverty I obferved, during the whole way from Calais*
■ 30 miles.
The 1 ith. See for the fird time the Pyrenees , at the didance of one hundred andfifty miles.—To me, who had never feen an objeCl farther than fixty or feventy, Imean the Wicklow mountains, as I was going out of Holyhead, this was intereding.Wherever the eye wandered in fearch of new ohjcCfs it was fure to red there. r l heirmagnitude, their fnowy height, the line of feparation between two great kingdoms,and the end of our travels 'altogether accounts for this efteCt. Towards Cahors thecountry changes, and has fomething of a favage afpect ; yet houfes are feen everywhere, and one-third of it under vines.
That town is bad ; the dreets neither wide nor drait, but the new road is an im-provement. The chief objeCt of its trade and refource are vines and brandies. Thetrue Vin de Cahors, which has'a great reputation, is the produce of a range of vine-yards, very rocky, on a ridge of hills full to the fouth, and is called Vin de Grave,becaufe growing on a gravelly foil. In plentiful years, the price of good wine heredoes not exceed that of the calk; lad year it was fold at 10s. 6u. a barique, or od. adozen. We drank it at the Trois Rois from three to ten years old, the latter at 30s.(is. 3d.) the bottle; both excellent, full bodied, great fpirit, without being fiery,and to my palate much better than our ports. I liked it fo well, that I edablilhed acorrefpondence with Monf. Andonry, the inn-keeper *. The heat of this countryis equal to the produClion of drong wine. This was the mod burning day we had ex-perienced.
On leaving Cahors , the mountain of rock rifes fo immediately, that it feems as ifIt v r ould tumble into the town. The leaves of walnuts are now black with frods that
* I fince had a barique of him ; but whether he fent bad wine, which I am not willing to bslieve, orthat it came through bad hands, I know not. It is however fo bad, as to be item for folly.
hap.