54 Travels in France 



to see the famous waste called Les Landes de Bonrdeaiix, of 

 which I had long heard and read so much. I was informed 

 that, by this route, I should pass through more than twelve 

 leagues of them. They reach aknost to the gates of Bayonne; 

 but broken by cultivated spots for a league or two. These 

 landes are sandy tracts covered with pine trees, cut regularly 

 for resin. Historians report that when the Moors were expelled 

 from Spain, they applied to the court of France for leave to 

 settle on and cultivate these landes ; and that the court was 

 much condemned for refusing them. It seems to have been 

 taken for granted that they could not be peopled with French; 

 and therefore ought rather to be given to Moors than to be left 

 waste. — At Dax, there is a remarkably hot spring in the middle 

 of the town. It is a very fine one, bubbling powerfully out of the 

 ground in a large basin, walled in; it is boiling hot; it tastes 

 like common water, and I was told that it was not impregnated 

 with any mineral. The only use to which it is applied is for 

 washing linen. It is at all seasons of the same heat and in the 

 same quantity. — 27 miles. 



i^th. Pass district of sand as white as snow, and so loose as 

 to blow; yet has oaks two feet in diameter, by reason of a 

 bottom of white adhesive earth like marl. Pass three rivers, 

 the waters of which might be applied in irrigation, yet no use 

 made of them. The Duke de Bouillon has vast possessions in 

 these lands. A Grand Seigneur will at any time, and in any 

 country, explain the reason of improvable land being left waste. 

 — 29 miles. 



i%th. As dearness is, in my opinion, the general feature 

 of all money exchanges in France, it is but candid to note 

 instances to the contrary. At Aire, they gave me, at the Croix 

 d'Or, soup, eels, sweet bread, and green-peas, a pigeon, a chicken, 

 and veal cutlets, with a dessert of biscuits, peaches, nectarines, 

 plums, and a glass of liqueur, with a bottle of good wine, all for 

 40 sous (2od.), oats for my mare 20 sous and hay 10 sous. At 

 the same price at St. Severe I had a supper last night not inferior 

 to it. Everything at Aire seemed good and clean; and what is 

 very uncommon, I had a parlour to eat my dinner in, and was 

 attended by a neat well-dressed girl. The last two hours to 

 Aire it rained so violently that my silk surtout was an insufficient 

 defence; and the old landlady was in no haste to give me fire 

 enough to be dried. As to supper, I had the idea of my dinner. — 

 35 miles. 



19//?. Pass Beek, which seems a flourishing little place, if we 



