A FRENCH LANDSCAPE. THE FRENCH PEASANTRY. 375 



CXVL A FRENCH LANDSCAPE. 



A French landscape is peculiar. A large portion of the terri 

 tory is comparatively level, with few great inequalities. The 

 appearance resembles that of some of the large prairies of the 

 United States ; for in a great portion of Prance fences of any 

 kind are unknown. Here and there a large farm-house, or what 

 is called a chateau, or castle, meets the eye, with its customary 

 appendages ; but the laboring people chiefly live in villages, 

 which seem scattered about like islands, and are generally known 

 by the spire of the church overtopping the cluster of houses. 

 The French villages more resemble compact towns than country 

 villages ; the streets are ordinarily paved ; the houses are placed 

 directly upon the street ; and though there are usually or fre 

 quently gardens attached to the houses, it is remarkable that 

 there are no trees either for shade or ornament in the streets. 

 Yet the great roads through the country, which are usually as 

 straight as they can be made, furnishing a paved way in the 

 centre, and two side paths which are unpaved, are commonly 

 lined with trees on each side for many miles. 



CXVII. THE FRENCH PEASANTRY. 



Excepting with the great farmers, where there are small build 

 ings for the residence of the permanent laborers ordinarily in the 

 court-yard, or immediate neighborhood of the great house, the 

 peasants generally live in the villages, and sometimes go long 

 distances to their work. They rise early, and among their first 

 duties are those of religion ; their first visit being, in most cases, 

 to the village church, which is open at all hours. I have often 

 met them there in the morning, when it was scarcely light 

 enough to see the way ; and I have found crowds of them in the 

 churches at night, after their return from labor, when, with only 

 one or two lamps burning over the altar in the church, it has 



