Limoge 21 n 



r~6lh. View Limoge, and examine its manufactures. It was^- 

 (certainly a Roman station, and some traces of its antiquity are ' 

 still remaining. It is ill built, with narrow and crooked streets, 

 the houses high and disagreeable. They are raised of granite, | 

 or wood with lath and plaster, which saves lime, an expensive 

 Article here, being brought from a distance of twelve leagues; | 

 ^he roofs are of pantiles, with projecting eaves, and almost flat; | 

 a sure proof we have quitted the region of hea\y snows. The 

 best of their public works is a noble fountain, the water conducted 

 three-quarters of a league by an arched aqueduct brought under 

 the bed of a rock 60 feet deep to the highest spot in the town, 

 where it falls into a basin 15 feet diameter, cut out of one piece of 

 granite; thence the water is let into reservoirs, closed by sluices, 

 which are opened for watering the streets, or in cases of fires. 



The cathedral is ancient, and the roof of stone; there are 

 some arabesque ornaments cut in stone, as light, airy, and 

 elegant as any modern house can boast, whose decorations are 

 in the same taste. 



The present bishop has erected a large and handsome palace, 

 and his garden is the finest object to be seen at Limoge, for it 

 commands a landscape hardly to be equalled for beauty: it 

 would be idle to give any other description than just enough to 

 induce travellers to view it. A river winds through a vale, 

 surrounded by hills that present the gayest and most animated 

 assemblage of villas, farms, vines, hanging meadows, and chest- 

 nuts blended so fortunately as to compose a scene truly smiling. 

 This bishop is a friend of the Count de la Rochefoucauld's 

 family; he invited us to dine, and gave us a very handsome 

 entertairunent. Lord Macartney, when a prisoner in France, 

 after the Grenades were taken, spent some time with him ; there 

 was an instance of French politeness shown to his lordship that 

 marks the urbanity of this people. The order came from court 

 to sing Te Deum on the very day that Lord Macartney was to 

 arrive. Conceiving that the public demonstrations of joy for 

 a victory that brought his noble guest a prisoner might be 

 personally unpleasant to him, the bishop proposed to the in- 

 tendant to postpone the ceremony for a few days, in order that 

 he might not meet it so abruptly; this was instantly acceded to; 

 and conducted in such a manner afterwards as to mark as much 

 attention to Lord Macartney's feelings as to their ov/n. The 

 bishop told me, that Lord ^lacartney spoke French better than 

 he could have conceived possible for a foreigner, had he not 

 heard him; better than many well-educated Frenchmen. 



