Roads 39 



rock, and is able to turn immediately many mills ; being at once 

 rather a river than a spring. Pass an uninterrupted flat waste, 

 without a single tree, house, or village for a considerable distance : 

 by much the ugliest country I have seen in France. Great 

 quantities of corn everywhere treading out with mules, as in 

 Spain. Dine at Sejean, at the Soleil, a good new inn, where I 

 accidentally met with the Marquis de Tressan. He told me 

 that I must be a singular person to travel so far with no other 

 object than agriculture: he never knew nor heard of the like; 

 but approved much of the plan, and wished he could do the same. 



The roads here are stupendous works. I passed a hill, cut 

 through to ease a descent, that was all in the solid rock, and cost 

 90,000 livres (£3937), yet it extends but a few hundred yards. 

 Three leagues and a half from Sejean to Narbonne cost 

 1,800,000 livTcs (£78,750). These ways are superb even to a 

 folly. Enormous sums have been spent to level even gentle 

 slopes. The causeways are raised and walled on each side, 

 forming one solid mass of artificial road, carried across the 

 valleys to the height of six, seven, or eight feet, and never less 

 than fifty wide. There is a bridge of a single arch, and a cause- 

 way to it, truly magnificent ; we have not an idea of what such 

 a road is in England. The traffic of the way, however, demands 

 no such exertions; one-third of the breadth is beaten, one-third 

 rough, and one -third covered with weeds. In 36 miles, I have 

 met one cabriolet, half a dozen carts, and some old women with 

 asses. For what all this waste of treasure? — In Languedoc, it 

 is true, these works are not done by corvee s ; but there is an 

 injustice in levying the amount not far short of them. The 

 money is raised by tallies, and, in making the assessment, lands 

 held by a noble tenure are so much eased, and others by a base 

 one so burthened, that 120 arpents in this neighbourhood held 

 by the former pay 90 livres and 400 possessed by a plebeian 

 right, which ought proportionally to pay 300 Hvres, is, instead 

 of that, assessed at 1400 livres. At Narbonne, the canal which 

 joins that of Languedoc deserves attention; it is a very fine 

 work, and will, they say, be finished next month. — 36 miles. 



2^h. Women without stockings, and many without shoes; 

 but if their feet are poorly clad they have a superb consolation 

 in walking upon magnificent causeways : the new road is 50 feet 

 wide, and 50 more digged away or destroyed to make it. 



The vintage itself can hardly be such a scene of activity and 

 animation as this universal one of treading out the corn, with 

 which all the towns and villages in Languedoc are now alive. 



