I 06 Travels in France 



Auray has a little port and some sloops, which always give an 

 air of life to a town. To Vannes, the country various, but landes 

 the more permanent feature. Vannes is not an inconsiderable 

 town, but its greatest beauty is its port and promenade. 



18/A. To Musiliac. Belleisle^ with the smaller ones, d'Hedic 

 and d'Honat, are in sight. Musiliac, if it can boast of nothing 

 else, may at least vaunt its cheapness. I had for dinner two 

 good fiat fish, a dish of oysters, soup, a fine duck roasted, with 

 an ample dessert of grapes, pears, walnuts, biscuits, liqueur, 

 and a pint of good Bourdeaux wine; my mare, besides hay, had 

 three-fourths of a peck of corn, and the whole 56 sous, 2 sous to 

 the fille and two to the gar9on, in all 2s. 6d. Pass landes — 

 landes — landes — to la Roche Bernard. The view of the river 

 Villaine is beautiful from the boldness of the shores, there are no 

 insipid flats ; the river is two-thirdb of the width of the Thames 

 at Westminster, and would be equal to anything in the world if 

 the shores were woody, but they are the savage wastes of this 

 country.— 33 miles. 



i<)th. Turned aside to Auvergnac the seat of the Count de la 

 Bourdonaye, to whom I had a letter from the Duchess d'Anville, 

 as a person able to give me every species of intelligence relative 

 to Bretagne, having for five-and-twenty years been first syndac 

 of the noblesse. A fortuitous jumble of rocks and steeps could 

 scarcely form a worse road than these five miles : could I put as 

 much faith in two bits of wood laid over each other as the good 

 folks of the country do, I should have crossed myself, but my 

 blind friend with the most incredible sure-footedness carried me 

 safe over such places, that if I had not been in the every-day 

 habit of the saddle I should have shuddered at, though guided 

 by eyes keen as Eclipse's ; for I suppose a fine racer, on whose 

 velocity so many fools have been ready to lose their money, must 

 have good eyes as well as good legs. Such a road leading to 

 several villages and one of the first noblemen of the province 

 shows what the state of society must be; — no communication — 

 no neighbourhood — no temptation to the expenses which flow 

 from society ; a mere seclusion to save money in order to spend it 

 in towns. The count received me with great politeness ; I ex- 

 plained to him my plan and motives for travelling in France, 

 which he was pleased very warmly to approve, expressing his 

 surprise that I should attempt so large an undertaking as such a 

 ■^urvey of France unsupported by my government; I told him 

 he knew very little of our government if he supposed they would 



1 Belle-Ile-en-Mer. 



