42 Travels in France 



flints instead of earth; this succeeded well. I walked over the 

 farm, which is beautifully situated, on the slope and top of a 

 hill, which commands Beziers, its rich vale, its navigation, and 

 a fine accompaniment of mountains. 



Beziers has a fine promenade; and is becoming, they say, a 

 favourite residence for the English, preferring the air to that of 

 Montpellier. Take the road to Pezenas. It leads up a hill, 

 Avhich commands, for some time, a view of the Mediterranean. 

 Through all this country, but particularly in the olive grounds, 

 the cricket {cicala) makes a constant, sharp, monotonous noise; 

 a more odious companion on the road can hardly be imagined. 

 Pezenas opens on a very fine country, a vale of six or eight 

 leagues extent, all cultivated; a beautiful mixture of vines, 

 mulberries, olives, towns, and scattered houses, with a great 

 deal of fine lucerne; the whole bounded by gentle hills, culti- 

 vated to their tops. — At supper, at the table d'hote, we were 

 waited on by a female without shoes or stockings, exquisitely 

 ugly, and diffusing odours not of roses: there were, however, 

 a croix de St. Louis, and two or three mercantile-looking people 

 that prated with her very familiarly: at an ordinary of farmers, 

 at the poorest and remotest market village in England, such an 

 animal would not be allowed by the landlord to enter his house ; 

 or by the guests their room. — 32 miles. 



2$th. The road, in crossing a valley to and from a bridge, 

 is a magnificent walled causeway, more than a mile long, ten 

 yards wide, and from eight to tweh'e feet high; with stone posts 

 on each side at every six yards — a prodigious work. — I know 

 nothing more striking to a traveller than the roads of Languedoc : 

 we have not in England a conception of such exertions; they 

 are splendid and superb; and if I could free my mind of the 

 recollection of the unjust taxation which pays them, I should 

 travel with admiration at the magnificence displayed by the 

 states of this province. The police of these roads is however 

 execrable— for I scarcely meet a cart but the driver is asleep. 



Taking the road to Montpellier, pass through a pleasing 

 country; and by another immense walled causeway, twelve 

 yards broad and three high, leading close to the sea. To Pijan, 

 and near Frontignan and Montbasin, famous for their muscat 

 wines. — Approach Montpellier; the environs, for near a league, 

 are delicious, and more highly ornamented than anvlhing I have 

 seen in France. — Villas well built, clean, and comfortable, with 

 every appearance of wealthy owners, are spread thickly through 

 the country. They are, in general, pretty square buildings; 



