46 



Travels in France 



an almond, or a peach-tree, and vines scattered among them ; so 

 that the whole ground is covered with the oddest mixture of 

 these plants and bulging rocks that can be conceived. The 

 inhabitants of this village deserve encouragement for their 

 industry, and if I was a French minister they should have it. 

 They would soon turn all the deserts around them into gardens. 

 Such a knot of active husbandmen, who turn their rocks into 

 scenes of fertility, because I suppose their own, would do the 

 same by the wastes, if animated by the same omnipotent 

 principle. Dine at St. Hyppolite, with eight protestant mer- 

 chants returning home to Rou verge from the fair of Beaucaire ; 

 as we parted at the same time, we travelled together; and from 

 their conversation, I learned some circumstances of which I 

 wanted to be informed; they told me also that mulberries 

 extend beyond Vigan, but then, and especially about Milhaud, 

 almonds take their place, and are in very great quantities. 



My Rouverge friends pressed me to pass with them to Milhaud 

 and Rodez, assured me that the cheapness of their province was 

 so great that it would tempt me to live some time amongst 

 them. That I might have a house at Milhaud, of four tolerable 

 rooms on a floor furnished, for twelve louis a year; and live in 

 the utmost plenty with all my family, if I would bring them over, 

 for ICO louis a year: that there were many families of noblesse 

 who subsisted on fifty, and even on twenty-five a year. Such 

 anecdotes of cheapness are only curious when considered in a 

 political light, as contributing on one hand to the welfare of 

 individuals ; and on the other, as contributing to the prosperity, 

 wealth, and power of the kingdom; if I should meet with many 

 such instances, and also with others directly contrary, it will 

 be necessary to consider them more at large. — 30 miles. 



T,oth. Going out of Gange, I was surprised to find by far the 

 greatest exertion in irrigation which I had yet seen in France; 

 and then pass by some steep mountains, highly cultivated in 

 terraces. Much watering at St. Laurence. The scenery very 

 interesting to a farmer. From Gange, to the mountain of rough 

 ground which I crossed, the ride has been the most interesting 

 which I have taken in France ; the efforts of industry the most 

 vigorous ; the animation the most lively. An activity has been 

 here that has swept away all difficulties before it, and has 

 clothed the very rocks with verdure. It would be a disgrace 

 to common sense to ask the cause : the enjoyment of property 

 must have done it. Give a man the secure possession of a bleak 

 rock, and he will turn it into a garden ; give him a nine years' 



