young’s TRAVELS IN FRANCE.

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—he went to work on his own account—raifed buildings—and got together all thatwas necefiary, except (kill and capital. In fine, he made good porcelain, was cheatedby his agents, and people, and at lad ruined. A foap manufactory, which he eftablifhedalfo, as well as Tome law-fuits relative to other eftates, had their (hare in caufing hismisfortunes: his creditors feized the eftate, but permitted him to adminifter it till hisdeath, when it was fold. The only part of the tale that lefiened my regret was, that,though married, he left no family ; fo that his a(hes will deep in peace, without his me-mory being reviled by an indigent pofterity. His anceftors acquired the eftate by mar-riage in the fourteenth century. His agricultural improvements, Monf. Galway ob-ferved, certainly did not hurt him ; they were not well done, nor well fupportcd byhimfelf, but they rendered the eftate more valuable; and he never heard that they hadbrought him into any difficulties. I cannot but obferve here, that there feerns a fatalityto attend country gentlemen whenever they attempt trade or manufactures. In Eng-land I never knew a man of landed property, with the education and habits of landedproprietors, attempt either, but they were infallibly ruined ; or, if not ruined, confider-ably hurt by them. Whether it be that the ideas and principles of trade have fomethingin them repugnant to the fentiments which ought to flow from education—or whetherthe habitual inattention of country gentlemen to fmall gains and Cavings, which are thefoul of trade, render their fuccefs impofiible; from whatever it may arife, the fact is,not one in a million fucceeds. Agriculture, in the improvement of their eftates, is theonly proper and legitimate fphere of their induftry; and though ignorance renders thisfometimes dangerous, yet they can with fafety attempt no other. The old labourer,whofe name is Piron (as propitious I hope to farming as to wit), being arrived, we falliedforth to tread what was to me a fort of claflic ground. I (hall dwell but little on theparticulars: thfcy make a much better figure in the Memoire fur les defrichemens thanat Tourbilly ; the meadows, even near the chateau, are yet very rough ; the generalfeatures are rough : but the alleys of poplars, of which he fpeaks in the memoirs, arenobly grown indeed, and do credit to his memory ; they are fixty or feventy feet high,and in girt a foot : the willows are equal. Why were they not oak ? to have tranf-mitted to the farming travellers of another century the pleafure I feel in viewing themore periftiable poplars of the prefent time—the caufeways near the caftle muft havebeen arduous works. The mulberries are in a (late of negleCt; Monf. Galway ’s fathernot being fond of that culture, deftroyed many, but fome hundreds remain, and I wastold that the poor people had made as far as twenty-five pound of filk, but none at-tempted at prefent. The meadow's had been drained and improved near the chateauto the amount of fifty or fixty arpents, they are now rufhy, but yet valuable in fuch acountry. Near them is a wood of Bourdeaux pines, fown thirty*-five years ago, and nowworth five or fix livres each. I walked into the boggy bit that produced the great cab.bages he mentioned, it joins a large and mod improveable bottom. Piron informedme that the marquis pared and burnt about one hundred arpents in all, and folded twohundred and fifty (heep. On our return to the chateau, Monfieur de Galway , findingwhat an enthufiaft I was in agriculture, fearched among his papers to find a manuferiptof the Marquis de Tourbilly’s, written with his own hand, which he had the goodnefsto make me a prefent of, and which I (hall keep amongft my curiofities in agriculture.The polite reception I had met from Monf. Galway , and the friendly attention he hadgiven to my view's, entering into the fpirit of my purfuit, and wiffiing to promote it,would have induced me very chearfully to have accepted his invitation of remainingfome days with him; had I not been apprehenfive that the moment of MadameGalway’s being in bed would render fuch an unlooked-for vifit inconvenient. I took

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