50 Travels in France 



friendly clubs of the inhabitants, the visits of friends and rela- 

 tions, the parties of pleasure, the resort of farmers, the inter- 

 course with the capital and with other towns, form the support 

 of good inns ; and in a country where they are not to be found, 

 it is a proof that there is not the same quantity of motion ; or 

 that it moves by means of less wealth, less consumption, and less 

 enjoyment. In this journey through Languedoc, I have passed 

 an incredible number of splendid bridges and many superb 

 causeways. But this only proves the absurdity and oppression 

 of government. Bridges that cost £7 0,000 or £80,000 and immense 

 causeways to connect towns that have no better inns than such 

 as I have described appear to be gross absurdities. They can- 

 not be made for the mere use of the inhabitants, because one- 

 fourth of the expense would answer the purpose of real utility. 

 They are therefore objects of public magnificence, and conse- 

 quently for the eye of travellers. But what traveller, with his 

 person surrounded by the beggarly filth of an inn, and with all his 

 senses offended, will not condemn such inconsistencies as folly, 

 and will not wish for more comfort and less appearance of 

 splendour. — 30 miles. 



5/A. To St. Martory is an almost uninterrupted range of 

 well enclosed and well cultivated country. — For a hundred 

 miles past, the women generally without shoes even in the 

 towns; and in the country many men also. — The heat yesterday 

 and to-day as intense as it was before : there is no bearing any 

 light in the rooms; all must be shut close, or none are tolerably 

 cool: in going out of a light room into a dark one, though both 

 to the north, there is a very sensible coolness ; and out of a dark 

 one into a roofed balcony is like going into an oven. I have 

 been advised every day not to stir till four o'clock. From ten 

 in the morning till five in the afternoon the heat makes all 

 exercise most uncomfortable ; and the flies are a curse of Egypt. 

 Gi\-e me the cold and fogs of England, rather than such a heat, 

 should it be lasting. The natives, however, assert that this 

 intensity has now continued as long as it commonly does, 

 namely, four or five days ; and that the greatest part even of the 

 hottest months is much cooler than the weather is at present. — 

 In 250 miles' distance, I have met on the road two cabriolets only, 

 and three miserable things like old English one-horse chaises; 

 not one gentleman; though many merchants, as they call them- 

 selves, each with two or three cloak-bags behind him: — a 

 paucity of travellers that is amazing. — 28 miles. 



6th. To Bagnere de Luchon, rejoining my friends, and not 



