young’s TRAVELS IN FRANCE.
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The 28th, return to Carentan ; and the 29th, pafs through a rich and thickly in-clofed country to Coutances, capital of the diftrict called the Cotentin . They buildiu this country the bed mud houfes and barns I everfa.v, excellent habitations, evenof thr£e dories, and all oi mud, with confiderable barns and other offices. Tile earth(the bed for the purpofe is a rich brou.i loam) is well kneaded with lira v ; and beingfpread about four inches thick on the ground, is cat in fquares of nine inches, and thdeare taken with a {hovel, and tofled to the man or. the wall who builds it; and the wallbuilt, as in Ireland , in layers, each three feet high, that it may dry before they ad-vance. The thicknefs about two feet. They make them project about an inch,which they cut off river by layer perfectly fmooth. If they had the Fnglilh way ofwhite-wafliing, they would look as well as our lath and piaider, and are much moredurable. In good houfes the doors and windows are in done work.-20 miles.
The goth. A fine fea view of the Iffexof Chau fee, at five leagues didant; and after-wards Jerfey, clear at about forty miles, with that of the town of Grandval on ahigh peniniula : entering the town, every idea of beauty is loft ; a clofe, nalty, ugly,ill-built hole; market day, and myriads of trifiers, common at a French market.The bay of Cancalle, ail along to the right, and St. Michael's rock rifing out of the
fea, conically, with a cadle cu the top, a mod fingular and picturefque object.-
30 miles.
The 3id. At Pont Orfin, enter Bretagne ; there feem-s here a more minute divifionof farms than before. There is a long dreet in the epifcopal town of Doll , without aglafs window; a horrid appearance. My entry into Bretagne gives mean idea of itsbeing a miferable province.-22 miles.
September id. To Cotnbourg, the country has a favage afpect; hufbandry notmuch further advanced, at lead in fkiil, than among the Hurons, which appears in-credible atnidd inclofures; the people ahnod as wild as their country, and.their townof Combourg one of the mod brutal filthy places that can be feen; mud houfes, nowindows, and a pavement fo broken, as to impede all paflfengers, but eafe none—-yethere is a chateau, and inhabited ; who is tills Monfieur de Chateaubriant, the owner,that has nerves drung for a refidence atnidd fuch filth and poverty ? Below this hi-deous heap of wretchednefs is a fine lake, furrounded by well wooded inclofures.Coming out of Hede there is a beautiful lake, belonging to Monfieur de BlaiTac, in-tenJant of Poidliers, with a fine accompaniment of wood. A very little cleaning wouldmake here a delicious feenery. There is a chateau, with four rows of trees, and no-thing elfe to be feen from the windows in the true French dyle. Forbid it, tade, thatthis ffiould be the houfe of the owner of that beautiful water ; and yet this Monfieurde Blaflac has made at Poidliers the fined promenade in France ! But that tade whichdraws a drait line, and that which traces a waving one, are founded on feelings andideas as feparate and diitindt as painting and mufic—as poetry or fculpture. The lakeabounds with fifh, pike to 361b. carp to 241b. perch 41b. and tench 51b. To Rennes
the fame drange wild mixture of defert and cultivation, half favage, half human.--
3 1 miles.
The 2d. Rennes is well built, and has two good fquares ; that particularly of LouisXV . where is his datue. The parliament being in exile, the houfe is not to be feen.The Benedidlines’ garden, called the Tabour, is worth viewing. But the objcdl atRennes moll remarkable at prefentis a camp, with a marlhal of France (de Stainville),and four regiments of infantry, and two of dragoons, clofe to the gates. The difeon-tents of the people have been doubled, fird on account of the high price of bread, andfecondly for the banifliment of the parliament. The former caufe is natural enough ;vol. xv. x but