28 Travels in France 



but, when we set out for Toulouse, I was immediately convinced 

 that such a violent shower had never fallen in that kingdom; 

 for the destruction it had poured on the noble scene of cultivation, 

 which but a moment before was smiling with exuberance, was 

 terrible to behold. All now one scene of distress: the finest 

 crops of wheat beaten so flat to the ground that I question 

 whether they can ever rise again; other fields so inundated 

 that we were actually in doubt whether we were looking on what 

 was lately land or always water. The ditches had been filled 

 rapidly with mud, had overflowed the road, and swept dirt and 

 gravel over the crops. 



Cross one of the finest plains of wheat that is anywhere to be 

 seen; the storm, therefore, was fortunately partial. Pass St. 

 Jorry; a noble road, but not better than in Limosin. It is a 

 desert to the very gates; meet not more persons than if it were 

 loo miles from any town. — 31 miles. 



14th. View the city, which is very ancient and very large, 

 but not peopled in proportion to its size: the buildings are a 

 mixture of brick and wood, and have consequently a melancholy 

 appearance. This place has always prided itself on its taste for 

 literature and the fine arts. It has had a university since 1215; 

 and it pretends that its famous academy of Jeux Floraux is 

 as old as 1323. It has also a royal academy of sciences, another 

 of painting, sculpture, and architecture. The church of the 

 Cordeliers has vaults, into which we descended, that have the 

 property of preserving dead bodies from corruption; we saw 

 many that they assert to be 500 years old. If I had a vault 

 well lighted that would preserve the countenance and physiog- 

 nomy as well as the flesh and bones, I should like to have it 

 peopled with all my ancestors; and this desire would, I suppose, 

 be proportioned to their merit and celebrity; but to one like 

 this, that preserves cadaverous deformity, and gives perpetuity 

 to death, the voracity of a common grave is preferable. But 

 Toulouse is not without objects more interesting than churches 

 and academies; these are the new quay, the corn mills, and the 

 canal de Brien. The quay is of a great length, and in all re- 

 spects a noble work: the houses intended to be built will be 

 regular like those already erected, in a style awkward and inele- 

 gant. The canal de Brien, so called from the archbishop of 

 Toulouse, afterwards prime minister and cardinal, was planned 

 and executed in order to join the Garonne at Toulouse with the 

 canal of Languedoc, which is united at two miles from the town 

 with the same river. The necessity of such a junction arises 



