96 



Travels in France 



his daughters and hear their music, it would be impossible to 

 ■doubt his system. Supped at the Marquis d'Ecougal's, at his 

 chateau a la Frenaye. If these French marquises cannot show 

 me good crops of corn and turnips, here is a noble one of some- 

 thing else — of beautiful and elegant daughters, the charming 

 copies of an agreeable mother: the whole family I pronounced 

 at the first blush amiable: they are cheerful, pleasing, interest- 

 ing : I want to know them better, but it is the fate of a traveller 

 to meet opportunities of pleasure and merely see to quit them. 

 After supper, while the company were at cards, the marquis 

 conversed on topics interesting to my inquiries. — 22^ miles. 



22nd. At this fair of Guibray, merchandise is sold, they say, 

 to the amount of six millions (£262,500), but at that of Beau- 

 caire to ten : I found the quantity of English goods considerable, 

 hard and queen's ware ; cloths and cottons. A dozen of common 

 plain plates, 3 livi-es and 4 livres for a French imitation, but 

 much worse; I asked the man (a Frenchman) if the treaty of 

 commerce would not be very injurious with such a difference — 

 C^est precisement le contraire, Monsieur — qiielque mauvaise que 

 soil cette imitation, on n'a encore rienfait d'aussi bien en France ; 

 Tannee prochaine on fera mieux — nous perfectionnerons — et en 

 fin nous Vemporterons sur vous. — I believe he is a very good 

 politician, and that without competition it is not possible to 

 perfect any fabric. A dozen with blue or green edges, English, 

 5 livres 5 sous. Return to Caen; dine with the Marquis of 

 Guerchy, lieutenant-colonel, major, etc., of the regiment, and 

 their wives present a large and agreeable company. View the 

 Abbey of Benedictines, founded by William the Conqueror, It 

 is a splendid building, substantial, massy, and magnificent, with 

 very large apartments, and stone staircases worthy of a palace. 

 Sup with Monsieur du Mesni, captain of the corps de Genie, to 

 whom I had letters; he had introduced me to the engineer 

 employed on the new port which will bring ships of three or four 

 hundred tons to Caen, a noble work, and among those which do 

 honour to France. 



2T,rd. Monsieur de Guerchy and the Abb(§ de accom- 

 panied me to view Harcourt, the seat of the Duke d'Harcourt, 

 governor of Normandy, and of the Dauphin; I had heard it 

 -called the finest English garden in France, but Ermenonville 

 will not allow that claim, though not near its equal as a residence. 

 Found at last a horse to try in order to prosecute my journey 

 a little less like Don Quixote, but it would by no means do, an 

 uneasy stumbling beast, at a price that would have bought a 



