Cherbourg 97 



good one, so my blind friend and I must jog on still further. — 

 30 miles. 



24th. To Bayeux; the cathedral has three towers, one of 

 which is very light, elegant, and highly ornamented. 



2^th. In the road to Carentan, pass an arm of the sea at 

 Issigny which is fordable. At Carentan I found myself so ill, 

 from accumulated colds I suppose^ that I was seriously afraid of 

 being laid up — not a bone without its aches ; and a horrid dead 

 leaden weight all over me. I went early to bed, washed down 

 a dose of antimonial powders, which proved sudorific enough to 

 let me prosecute my journey. — 2^ miles. 



26th. To Volognes ; thence to Cherbourg, a thick woodland, 

 much like Sussex. The Marquis de Guerchy had desired me to 

 call on Monsieur Doumerc, a great improver at Pierbutte near 

 Cherbourg, which I did; but he was absent at Paris: however 

 his bailiff. Monsieur Baillio, with great civility showed me the 

 lands and explained everything. — 30 miles. 



27//?. Cherbourg. I had letters to the Duke de Beuvron, 

 who commands here ; to the Count de Chavagnac, and M. de 

 Meusnier, of the Academy of Sciences, and translator of Cook's 

 Voyages; the count is in the country. So much had I heard 

 of the famous works erecting to form a harbour here that I was 

 eager to view them without the loss of a moment: the duke 

 favoured me with an order for that purpose, I therefore took a 

 boat, and rowed across the artificial harbour formed by the cele- 

 brated cones. As it is possible that this itinerary may be read 

 by persons that have not either time or inclination to seek other 

 books for an account of these works, I will in a few words sketch 

 the intention and execution. The French possess no port for 

 ships of war from Dunkirk to Brest, and the former capable of 

 receiving only frigates. This deficiency has been fatal to them 

 more than once in their wars with England, whose more favour- 

 able coast affords not only the Thames, but the noble harbour of 

 Portsmouth. To remedy the want they planned a mole across 

 the open bay of Cherbourg; but to enclose a space sufficient to 

 protect a fleet of the line would demand so extended a wall, and 

 so exposed to heavy seas, that the expense would be far too 

 great to be thought of; and at the same time the success too 

 dubious to be ventured. The idea of a regular mole was there- 

 fore given up, and a partial one, on a new plan, adopted ; this was 

 to erect in the sea a line, where a mole is wanted, insulated 

 columns of timber and masonry, of so vast a size as to resist the 

 violence of the ocean, and to break its waves sufficiently to 



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