Estrelles 2 1 9 



Durney all through the same bad country', mountain beyond 

 mountain, encumbered with worthless evergreens^ and not one 

 aile in twenty cultivated. The only relief is the gardens at 

 irasse, where very great exertions are made^, but of a singular 

 :ind. Roses are a great article for the famous otter, which 

 3 commonly supposed all to come from Bengal. They say 

 hat 1500 flowers go to a single drop; 20 flowers sell for i sol, 

 tnd an ounce of the otter 400 livres (£17 los.). Tuberoses, etc., 

 ire also cultivated for perfumes in immense quantities, for Paris 

 ind London. Rosemary, lavender, bergamot, and oranges are 

 lere capital articles of culture. Half Europe is supplied with 

 essences from hence. Cannes is prettily situated, close on the 

 ihore, with the isles of St. Marguerite, where is a detestable state 

 jrison, about two miles off, and a distant boundary of the 

 Estrelles mountains, with a bold broken outline. These moun- 

 :ains are barren to excess. At all the villages, since Toulon, at 

 Frejus, Estrelles, etc., I asked for milk, but no such thing to be 

 .lad, not even of goats or sheep : the cows are all in the higher 

 mountains ; and as to butter, the landlord at Estrelles told me 

 it was a contraband commodity that came from Nice. Good 

 heaven ! — what an idea northern people have, like myself, before 

 I knew better, of a fine sun and a delicious climate, as it is 

 called, that gives myrtles, oranges, lemons, pomegranates, 

 jasmines, and aloes in the hedges; yet are such countries, if 

 irrigation be wanted, the veriest deserts in the world. On the 

 most miserable tracts of our heaths and moors you will find 

 butter, milk, and cream; give me that that will feed a cow, 

 and let oranges remain to Provence. The fault, however, is in 

 the people more than the climate; and as the people have 

 never any faults {till they become the masters) all is govern- 

 ment. The arbutus, laurustinus, cistus, and Spanish broom 

 are found scattered about the wastes. Nobody in the inn but 

 a merchant of Bourdeaux returning home from Italy; we 

 supped together and had a good deal of conversation, not un- 

 interesting; he was melancholy to think, he said, what a sad 

 reputation the French revolution has wherever he has been in 

 Italy. Unhappy France! was his frequent ejaculation. He 

 made many inquiries of me, and said his letters confirmed my 

 accounts; the Italians seemed all convinced that the rivalry of 

 France and England was at an end, and that the English would 

 now have it in their power amply to revenge the American war 

 by seizing St. Domingo, and indeed all the possessions the 

 French have out of France itself. I said the idea was a per- 



