STUDY VII. 99 



great fcale, is there carried to the height of perfec- 

 tion. The deepnefs of the foil, which, in fome 

 places, ex:ends to five and fix feet ; the manure- 

 fupplied from the flratum of marl over which it 

 is raifed, and that of the marine plants. on it's 

 (hores, which are fpread over it's ftirface, concur 

 toward clothing it with the noblefb vegetables. 

 The corn, the trees, the cattle, the women, the 

 men are there handfomer and more vigorous than 

 any where elfe. But as the Laws have affigned, in 

 that province, in every family, two thirds of the 

 landed property to the firft-born, you find there 

 unbounded affluence, on the one hand, and ex- 

 treme indigence, on the other. 



I happened one day to be walking through this 

 "fine country ; and admired, as I went, it's plains 

 fo well cultivated, and fo extenfive, that the eye 

 lofes itfelf in the unbounded profpcft. Their long 

 ridges of corn, humouring the undulations of the 

 plain, and terminating only in villages, and caftles 

 furrounded with venerable trees, prefented the ap- 

 pearance of a Sea of verdure, with here and there 

 an ifland rifing out of the Horizon. It was in the 

 month of March, and very early in the morning. 

 It blew extremely cold from the North-eaft. I 

 perceived fomething red running acrofs the fields, 

 at fome diftance, and making toward the great 

 road, about a quarter of a league before me. I 

 H 2 quickened 



