Argenton 19 



2nd. Pass the rivers Cheere and Lave; the bridges well 

 built; the stream fine, and with the wood, buildings, boats, and 

 adjoining hills, form an animated scene. Several new houses, 

 and buildings of good stone in Verson; the place appears thriving, 

 and doubtless owes much to the navigation. We are now in 

 Berri, a province governed by a provincial assembly, consequently 

 the roads good, and made without corvees. Vatan is a little 

 town that subsists chiefly by spinning. We drank there ex- 

 cellent Sancere wine, of a deep colour, rich flavour, and good 

 body, 20 sous the bottle; but in the country 10. An extensive 

 prospect before we arrived at Chateauroux where we viewed 

 the manufactures.— 40 miles. 



yd. Within about three miles of Argenton come upon a fine 

 scene, beautiful, yet with bold features ; a narrow vale bounded 

 on every side with hills covered v/ith wood, all of which are 

 immediately under the eye, without a level acre, except the 

 bottom of the vale, through which a river flows, by an old 

 castle picturesquely situated to the right; and to the left, a 

 tower rising out of a wood. 



At Argenton, walk up a rock that hangs almost over the town. 

 It is a delicious scene. A natural ledge of perpendicular rock 

 pushes forward abruptly over the vale, which is half a mile 

 broad, and two or three long: at one end closed by hills, and 

 at the other filled by the town with vineyards rising above it; 

 the surrounding scene that hems in the vale is high enough for 

 relief; vineyards, rocks, or hills covered with wood. The vale 

 cut into enclosures of a lovely verdure, and a fine river winds 

 through it, with an outline that leaves nothing to wish. The 

 venerable fragments of a castle's ruins, near the point of view, 

 are well adapted to awaken reflections on the triumph of the 

 arts of peace over the barbarous ravages of the feudal ages, 

 when every class of society was involved in commotion, and the 

 lower ranks were worse slaves than at present. 



The general face of the country, from Verson to Argenton, 

 is an uninteresting flat with many heaths of ling. No appearance 

 of population, and even towns are thin. The husbandry poor 

 and the people miserable. By the circumstances to which I 

 could give attention I conceive them to be honest and indus- 

 trious; they seem clean ; are civil, and have good countenances. 

 They appear to me as if they would improve their country if 

 they formed the part of a system the principles of which 

 tended to national prosperity. — 18 miles. 



4//?. Pass an enclosed country, which would have a better 



