2 1 o Travels in France 



the evening I had some conversation on housekeeping with one 

 of the ladies, and found, among other articles, that the wages of 

 a gardener are 300 hvres (£13 2s. 6d.); a common man-servant, 

 150 livres (£7); a bourgeois cook, 75 to 90 Hvres (90 hvres are 

 £3 i8s. gd.); a housemaid, 60 to 70 livres (£3 is. 3d.) Rent of a 

 good house for a bourgeois 700 or 800 Hvres (£35). — 10 miles. 



^rd. Took my leave of Monsieur Tour d'Aigues' hospitable 

 chateau, and returned with Monsieur Gibelin to Aix. — 20 miles. 



4th. The country to MarseiUes is all mountainous, but much 

 cultivated with vines and oHves ; it is, however, naked and un- 

 interesting; and much of the road is left in a scandalous con- 

 dition, for one of the greatest in France, not wide enough, at 

 places, for two carriages to pass with convenience. What a 

 deceiving painter is the imagination! — I had read I know not 

 Avhat lying exaggerations of the bastides about Marseilles, being 

 counted not by hundreds, but by thousands, with anecdotes of 

 Louis XIV. adding one to the number bv a citadel. — I have seen 

 other towTis in France where they are more numerous ; and the 

 environs of Montpellier, without external commerce, are as highly 

 decorated as those of Marseilles; yet Montpellier is not singular. 

 The view of Marseilles, in the approach, is not striking. It is 

 well built in the new quarter, but like all others in the old, close, 

 ill built, and dirty; the population, if we may judge from the 

 throng in the streets, is very great; I have met with none that 

 exceeds it in this respect. I went in the evening to the theatre, 

 which is new, but not striking; and not in any respect to be 

 named with that of Bourdeaux, or even Nantes; nor is the 

 general magnificence of the town at all equal to Bourdeaux ; the 

 new buildings are neither so extensive nor so good — the number 

 of ships in the port not to be compared, and the port itself is a 

 horse-pond, compared with the Garonne. — 20 miles. 



c^th. Marseilles is absolutely exempt from the reproaches I 

 have so often cast on others for want of newspapers. I break- 

 fasted at the Cafe d' Acajou amidst many. Deliver my letters, 

 and receive information concerning commerce; but I am dis- 

 appointed of one I expected for Monsieur I'Abbe Raynal, the 

 celebrated author. At the table d'hote, the Count de Mirabeau, 

 both here and at Aix, a topic of conversation ; I expected to have 

 found him more popular, from the extravagancies committed in 

 his favour in Provence and at Marseihes; they consider him 

 merely as a politician of great abilities whose principles are 

 favourable to theirs : as to his private character, they think they 

 have nothing to do with it, and assert that they had much 



