Liancourt 69 



favourite spots, where they abound much more. At St. George ^ 

 the Seine is a much more beautiful river than the Loire. Enter 

 Paris once more, with the same observation I made before, that 

 there is not one-tenth of the motion on the roads around it that 

 there is around London. To the hotel de la Rochefoucauld.— 

 20 miles. 



i6/^^_Accornpanied_J:he.jCount de la Rochefoucauld to 

 Liancourt. — 38 miles. 



I went thither on a visit for three or four days, but the whole 

 family contributed so generally to render the place in every 

 respect agreeable that I stayed more than three weeks. At 

 about half a mile from the chateau is a range of hill that was 

 chiefly a neglected waste: the Duke of Liancourt has lately con- 

 verted this into a plantation, with winding walks, benches, and 

 covered seats, in the English style of gardening. The situation 

 is very fortunate. These ornamented paths follow the edge of 

 the dechvity to the extent of three or four miles. The views 

 they command are everywhere pleasing, and in some places 

 great. Nearer to the chateau the Duchess of Liancourt has 

 built a menagerie and dairy in a pleasing taste. The cabinet and 

 ante-room are very pretty, the saloon elegant, and the dairy 

 entirely constructed of marble. At a village near Liancourt 

 the duke has established a manufacture of linen and stuffs mixed 

 with thread and cotton, which promises to be of considerable 

 utility; there are twenty-five looms employed, and preparations 

 making for more. As the spinning for these looms is also estab- 

 lished, it gives employment to great numbers of hands who were 

 idle, for they have no sort of manufacture in the country though 

 it is populous. Such efforts merit great praise. Connected 

 with this is the execution of an excellent plan of the duke's for 

 establishing habits of industry in the rising generation. The 

 daughters of the poor people are received into an institution to 

 be educated to useful industry: they are instructed in their re- 

 ligion, taught to write and read, and to spin cotton: are kept 

 till marriageable, and then a regulated proportion of their earn- 

 ings given them as a marriage portion. There is another estab- 

 hshment of which I am not so good a judge; it is for training 

 the orphans of soldiers to be soldiers themselves. The Duke of 

 Liancourt has raised some considerable buildings for their 

 accommodation well adapted to the purpose. The whole is 

 under the superintendence of a worthy and intelligent officer, 

 Monsieur le Roux, captain of dragoons and croix de St. Louis, 

 who sees to ever}'thing himself. There are at present 120 boys, 



^ Villeneuve. 



