191 
J. E. Smith to his Father. 
Honoured Sir, Marseilles, Dec. 5, 1786. 
My last was from Montpellier, Nov. 18th. We 
were so well pleased with that place and its inhabit- 
ants, that we stayed there till the 27th, and then 
left it with regret, and went in a coach with an in- 
telligent and liberal-minded superior of Cordeliers, 
to Nismes: next day a violent rain prevented our 
seeing much of the celebrated antiquities of this 
place. We saw, however, the Maison Carrée,a fine 
Roman temple, very entire (see Thicknesse’s Tra- 
vels). The Amphitheatre we had seen in our way 
to Montpellier. Mr. Granier, a friend of Brous- 
sonet, showed us the library and collection of the 
Academy, left them by Mr.Seguier, a celebrated na- 
turalist and antiquary. After dinner we pursued 
our journey, and next day reached Avignon, where 
the most striking objects are the vast walls of the 
city, and the great old palace of the Popes. The 
town is lifeless and unpleasant. Next day we went 
in a chaise to the fountain of Vaucluse, so cele- 
brated in the history of Petrarch; but in my opi- 
nion far more interesting in itself than for all that 
has been said or sung about it. It is a river at 
least as large as ours at Norwich, and ten times as 
rapid, which rises at once from an unfathomable 
rocky basin at the foot of a rock many hundred 
yards high, which hangs over it. The water, which 
is as clear as crystal is swpposed to be, but looks 
sea-green as it runs, falls from the edge of the basin 
