La Fleche i i i 



jamished with so much ease and cheerfulness that I found it a 

 ppast more to my taste than the most splendid tables could 

 aford. An English family in the country, similar in situation, 

 tdcen unawares in the same way, would receive you with an un- 

 qiiet hospitality and an anxious politeness; and after waiting 

 fo- a hurry-scurry derangement of cloth, table, plates, side- 

 beard, pot and spit, would give you perhaps so good a dinner 

 that none of the family, between anxiety and fatigue, could 

 sipply one word of conversation, and you would depart under 

 ccrdial wishes that you might never return. — This folly, so 

 common in England, is never met with in France: the French 

 aie quiet in their houses and do things without effort. — Monsieur 

 Livoniere conversed with me much on the plan of my travels 

 which he commended greatly, but thought it very extraordinary 

 that neither government, nor the Academy of Sciences, nor the 

 Academy of Agriculture should at least be at the expense of my 

 journey. This idea is purely French; they have no notion of 

 private people going out of their way for the public good with- 

 out being paid by the public; nor could he well comprehend me 

 when I told him that everything is well done in England except 

 what is done with public money. I was greatly concerned to 

 find that he could give me no intelligence concerning the resi- 

 dence of the late Marquis de Tourbilly, as it would be a provok- 

 ing circumstance to pass all through the province without finding 

 his house, and afterwards hear perhaps that I had been ignorantly 

 within a few miles of it. In the evening returned to Angers. — 

 20 miles. 



2M1. To La Fleche. The chateau of Duretal, belonging to 

 the Duchess d'Estissac, is boldly situated above the httle town 

 of that name and on the banks of a beautiful river, the slopes 

 to which that hang to the south are covered with vines. The 

 country cheerful, dry, and pleasant for residence. I inquired 

 here of several gentlemen for the residence of the Marquis de 

 Tourbilly, but all in vain. The thirty miles to La Fleche the 

 road is a noble one; of gravel, smooth, and kept in admirable 

 order. La Fleche is a neat, clean, little town, not ill built, on 

 the river that flows to Duretal which is navigable, but the trade 

 is inconsiderable. My first business here, as everywhere else in 

 Anjou, was to inquire for the residence of the Marquis de Tour- 

 billy. I repeated my inquiries till I found that there was a 

 place not far from La Fleche called Tourbilh', but not what I 

 wanted, as there was no ^lonsieur de Tourbilly there but a 

 Marquis de Galway, who inherited Tourbillv from his father. 



