304 Travels in France 



no slight gilding over the whole. For ten or twelve days past 

 they have had, on this side of the Alps, fine open warm weather 

 with sunshine; but on the Alps themselves and in the vale of 

 Lombardy, on the other side, we were frozen and buried in snow. 

 At Pont Beauvoisin and Bourgoyn our passports were demanded 

 by the milice bourgeoise, but nowhere else: they assure us that 

 the country is perfectly quiet everywhere and have no guards 

 mounted in the villages — nor any suspicions of fugitives, as in 

 the summer. Not far from Verpiliere pass the burnt chateau 

 of M. de Veau, in a fine situation, with a noble wood behind it. 

 Mr. Grundy was here in August, and it had then but lately been 

 laid in ashes ; and a peasant was hanging on one of the trees of 

 the avenue by the road, one among many who were seized by the 

 milice bourgeoise for this atrocious act. — 27 miles. 



2']th. The country changes at once; from one of the finest in 

 France it becomes almost flat and sombre. Arrive at Lyons, 

 and there for the last time see the Alps ; on the quay there is a 

 very fine view of Mont Blanc which I had not seen before; 

 leaving Italy, and Savoy, and the Alps, probably never to return, 

 has something of a melancholy sensation. For all those circum- 

 stances that render that classical country illustrious, the seat of 

 great men — the theatre of the most distinguished actions — the 

 exclusive field in which the elegant and agreeable arts have 

 loved to range — what country can be compared with Italy? to 

 please the eye, to charm the ear, to gratify the inquiries of a 

 laudable curiosity, whither would you travel? In every bosom 

 whatever, Italy is the second country in the world — of all others, 

 the surest proof that it is the first. To the theatre; a musical 

 thing which called all Italy by contrast to my ears ! What stuff 

 is French music ! the distortions of embodied dissonance. The 

 theatre is not equal to that of Nantes; and vtvy much inferior to 

 that of Bourdeaux. — 18 miles. 



29,th. I had letters to Monsieur Goudard, a considerable silk 

 merchant, and waiting on him yesterday he appointed me to 

 breakfast with him this morning. I tried hard to procure some 

 information relative to the manufactures of Lyons; but in vain: 

 everything was scion and suivant. To Monsieur I'Abbe Rozier, 

 author of the voluminous dictionary of agriculture in quarto. 

 I visited him as a man very much extolled, and not with an idea 

 of receiving information in the plain practical line, which is the 

 object of my inquiries, from the compiler of a dictionary. When 

 Monsieur Rozier lived at Beziers he occupied a considerable farm; 

 but on becoming the inhabitant of a city he placed this motto 



