Tours 63 



to bejaLthc-bestAge. of Italian art. There is a very fine pro- 

 inenade here ; long and admirabTy shaded by four rows of noble 

 and lofty elms, which for shelter against a burning sun can have 

 no superior; parallel with it is another on the rampart of the 

 old walls, which looks down- on the adjacent gardens; but these 

 walks, of which the inhabitants have long boasted, are at 

 present objects of melancholy; the corporation has offered the 

 trees to sale, and I was assured they would be cut down the 

 ensuing winter. — One would not wonder at an English corpora- 

 tion sacrificing the ladies' walk for plenty of turtle, venison, and 

 madeira, but that a French one should have so little gallantry 

 is inexcusable. 



()th. The Count de la Rochefoucauld having a feverish com- 

 plaint when he arrived here, which prevented our proceeding on 

 the journey, it became the second day a confirmed fever; the 

 best physician of the place was called in, whose conduct I liked 

 much, for he had recourse to very little physic, but much atten- 

 tion to keep his apartment cool and airy, and seemed to have 

 great confidence in leaving nature to throw off the malady that 

 oppressed him. Who is it that says there is a great difference 

 between a good physician and a bad one, yet very little between 

 a good one and none at all ? 



Among other excursions I took a ride on the banks of the 

 Loire towards Saumur, and found the country the same as near 

 Tours, but the chateaus not so numerous or good. Where the 

 chalk hills advance perpendicularly towards the river, they pre- 

 sent a most singular spectacle of uncommon habitations ; for a 

 great number of houses are cut out of the white rock, fronted 

 with masonry, and holes cut above for chimneys, so that you 

 sometimes know not where the house is from which you see the 

 smoke issuing. These cavern-houses are in some places in tiers 

 one above another. Some with little scraps of gardens have a 

 pretty effect. In general, the proprietors occupy them, but 

 many are let at 10, 12, and 15 livres a year. The people I talked 

 with seemed well satisfied with their habitations, as good and 

 comfortable: a proof of the dryness of the climate. In England 

 the rheumatism would be the chief inhabitant. Walked to the 

 Benedictine convent of Marmoutier, of which the Cardinal de 

 Rohan, at present here, is abbot. 



10th. Nalure^-jjr_..the TQurs...do£tor^ having_remYered^ the 

 cQuntiJwe_s£tJorwai]cLQn..,Q.ur. journey. The road to Chanteloup 

 is made on an embankment that secures a large level tract from 

 floods. The country more uninteresting than I could have 



