1 6o Travels in France 



taken for sixty or seventy, her figure was so bent and her face 

 so furrowed and hardened by labour, — but she said she was only 

 twenty-eight. An Englishman who has not travelled cannot 

 imagine the figure made by infinitely the greater part of the 

 countrj'women in France; it speaks, at the first sight, hard and 

 severe labour : I am inclined to think that they work harder than 

 the men, and this, united with the more miserable labour of 

 bringing a new race of slaves into the world, destroys absolutely 

 all symmetr}?^ of person and every feminine appearance. To 

 what are we to attribute this difference in the manners of the 

 lower people in the two kingdoms .'* To Government. — 23 miles. 

 13/A. Leave Mar-le-Tour at four in the morning: the village 

 herdsman was sounding his horn; and it was droll to see every 

 door vomiting out its hogs or sheep, and some a few goats, the 

 flock collecting as it advances. Very poor sheep, and the pigs 

 with mathematical backs, large segments of small circles. They 

 must have abundance of commons here, but, if I may judge by 

 the report of the animals' carcasses, dreadfully overstocked. 

 To Metz, one of the strongest places in France ; pass three draw- 

 bridges, but the command of water must give a strength equal 

 to its works. The common garrison is 10,000 men, but there 

 are fewer at present. Waited on M. de Payen, secretary of the 

 academy of sciences; he asked my plan, which I explained; 

 he appointed me at four in the afternoon at the academy, as there 

 would be seance held ; and he promised to introduce me to some 

 persons who could answer my inquiries. I attended accordingly, 

 when I found the academy assembled at one of their weekly 

 meetings. Monsieur Paj-en introduced me to the members, 

 and, before they proceeded to their business, they had the 

 goodness to sit in council on my inquiries, and to resolve many 

 of them. In the Almanack des Trois Eveches, 1789, this academy 

 is said to have been instituted particularly for agriculture: 

 I turned to the Hst of their honorary members to see what 

 attention they had paid to the men who, in the present age, 

 have advanced that art. I found an Englishman, Dom Cowley, 

 of London. Who is Dom Cowley? — Dined at the table d'hote, 

 with seven officers, out of whose mouths, at this important 

 moment, in which conversation is as free as the press, not one 

 word issued for which I would give a straw, nor a subject 

 touched on of more importance than a coat or a puppy dog. 

 At table d'hotes of officers you have a voluble garniture of 

 bawdry or nonsense; at those of merchants, a mouinful and 

 stupid silence. Take the mass of mankind, and you have more 



