40 Travels in France 



The corn is all roughly stacked around a dry firm spotj where 

 great numbers of mules and horses are driven on a trot round 

 a centre, a woman holding the reins, and another, or a girl or two, 

 with whips drive; the men supply and clear the floor; other 

 parties are dressing, by throwing the corn into the air for the 

 wind to blow away the chaff. Every soul is employed, and with 

 such an air of cheerfulness that the people seem as well pleased 

 with their labour as the farmer himself with his great heaps of 

 wheat. The scene is uncommonly animated and joyous. I 

 stopped and alighted often to see their method; I was always 

 very civilly treated, and my wishes for a good price for the 

 farmer, and not too good a one for the poor, well received. This 

 method, which entirely saves barns, depends absolutely on 

 climate: from my leaving Bagnere de Luchon to this moment, 

 all through Catalonia, Roussillon, and this part of Languedoc, 

 there has been nothing like rain; but one unvarying clear 

 bright sky and burning sun, yet not at all suffocating, or to me 

 even unpleasant. I asked whether they were not sometimes 

 caught in the rain? they said, very rarely indeed; but if rain 

 did come, it is seldom more than a heavy shower, which a hot 

 sun quickly succeeds and dries everything speedily. 



The canal of Languedoc is the capital feature of all this country. 

 The mountain through which it pierces is insulated, in the midst 

 of an extended valley, and only half a mile from the road. It 

 is a noble and stupendous work, goes through the hill about the 

 breadth of three toises, and was digged without shafts. 



Leave the road, and crossing the canal, follow it to Beziers; 

 nine sluice-gates let the water down the hill to join the river at 

 the town. — A noble work ! The port is broad enough for four 

 large vessels to lie abreast; the greatest of them carries from 

 90 to TOO tons. Many of them were at the quay, some in motion, 

 and every sign of an animated business. This is the best sight 

 I have seen in France. Here Louis XIV. thou art truly great ! 

 — Here, with a generous and benignant hand, thou dispensest 

 ease and wealth to thy people ! — Si sic omnia thy name would 

 indeed have been revered. To effect this noble work, of uniting 

 the two seas, less money was expended than to besiege Turin, or 

 to seize Strasbourg like a robber. Such an emplo\-ment of the 

 revenues of a great kingdom is the only laudable way of a 

 monarch's acquiring immortality; all other means make their 

 names survive with those only of the incendiaries, robbers, and 

 violators of mankind. The canal passes through the river for 

 about half a league, separated from it by walls which are covered 



