Toulouse 29 



from the navigation of the river in the to^vn being absolutely 

 impeded by the weir which is made across it in favour of the 

 corn mills. It passes arched under the quay to the river, and 

 one sluice levels the water with that of the Languedoc canal. It 

 is broad enough for several barges to pass abreast. These under- 

 takings have been well planned, and their execution is truly 

 magnificent: there is however more magnificence than trade; 

 for while the Languedoc canal is alive with commerce, that of 

 Bricn is a desert. 



Among other things we viewed at Toulouse was the house 

 of Monsieur du Barre, brother of the husband of the celebrated 

 countess.^ By some transactions, favourable to anecdote, 

 which enabled him to daaw her from obscurity, and afterwards 

 to marry her to his brother, he contrived to make a pretty 

 considerable fortune. On the first floor is one principal and 

 complete apartment, containing seven or eight rooms, fitted 

 up and furnished with such profusion of expense, that if a fond 

 lover, at the head of a kingdom's finances, were decorating for 

 his mistress, he could hardly give in large anything that is not 

 here to be seen on a moderate scale. To those who are fond of 

 gilding here is enough to satiate; so much that to an English 

 eye it has too gaudy an appearance. But the glasses are large 

 and numerous. The drawing-room very elegant (gilding always 

 excepted). — Here I remarked a contrivance which has a pleasing 

 effect; that of a looking-glass before the chimneys, instead of 

 those various screens used in England: it slides backwards and 

 forwards into the wall of the room. There is a portrait of 

 Madame du Barre, which is said to be very like; if it really is, 

 one would pardon a king some follies committed at the shrine 

 of so much beauty. — As to the garden, it is beneath all con- 

 tempt, except as an object to make a man stare at the efforts to 

 which folly can arrive: in the space of an acre, there are hills 

 of genuine earth, mountains of pasteboard, rocks of canvas: 

 abbes, cows, sheep, and shepherdesses in lead; monkeys and 

 peasants, asses and altars, in stone. Fine ladies and black- 

 smiths, parrots and lovers, in wood. Windmills and cottages, 

 shops and villages, nothing excluded except nature. 



15/A. Meet ?Iighlanders, who put me in mind of those of 



Scotland; saw them first at Montauban; they have round flat 



caps and loose breeches: " Pipers, blue bonnets, and oat-meal 



are found," says Sir James Stuart, " in Catalonia, Auvergne, 



and Swabia, as well as in Lochaber." Many of the women here 



1 Mme. du Barry, favourite mistress of Louis XV., guillotined during 

 the Terror. 



