70 Travels in France 



all dressed in uniform. — My ideas have all taken a turn which I 

 am too old to change : I should have been better pleased to see 

 1 20 lads educated to the plough in habits of culture superior to 

 the present, but certainly the establishment is humane and the 

 conduct of it excellent. 



The ideas I had formed before I came to France of a countt}^ 

 residence in that kingdom I found at Liancourt to be far from 

 correct. I expected to find it a mere transfer of Paris to the 

 country, and that all the burthensome forms of a city were pre- 

 served without its pleasures; but I was deceived; the mode of 

 living and the pursuits approach much nearer to the habits of a 

 great nobleman's house in England than would commonly be 

 conceived. A breakfast of tea for those that chose to repair to 

 It; riding, sporting, planting, gardening, till dinner, and that 

 not till half after two o'clock, instead of their old-fashioned 

 hour of twelve; music, chess, and the other common amuse- 

 ments of a rendezvous-room, with an excellent library of seven 

 or eight thousand volumes, were well calculated to make the 

 time pass agreeably; and to prove that there is a great approxi- 

 mation in the modes of living at present in the different coun- 

 tries of Europe. Amusements, in truth, ought to be numerous 

 within doors; for, in such a climate, none are to be depended 

 on without: the rain that has fallen here is hardly credible. 

 I have, for five-and-twenty years past, remarked in England 

 that I never was prevented by rain from taking a walk every 

 day without going out while it actually rains; it may fall 

 heavily for many hours, but a person who watches an oppor- 

 tunity gets a walk or a ride. Since I have been at Liancourt 

 we have had three days in succession of such incessantly heavy 

 rain that I could not go a hundred yards from the house to the 

 duke's pavilion without danger of being quite wet. For ten 

 days more rain fell here, I am confident, had there been a gauge 

 to measure it, than ever fell in England in thirty. The present 

 fashion in France of passing some time in the country is new; 

 at this time of the year and for many weeks past, Paris is, 

 comparatively speaking, empty. Everybody that have country 

 seats are at them, and those who have none visit others who 

 have. This remarkable revolution in the French manners is 

 certainly one of the best customs they have taken from Eng- 

 land, and its introduction was effected the easier being assisted 

 by the magic of Rousseau's writings. Mankind are much in- 

 debted to that splendid genius, who, when living, was hunted 

 from country to country to seek an asylum with as much 



