246 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



down the stream, and different prices are paid, according to the 

 position. Tlie washer-woman gets into a barrel set down into 

 the ground, so as to avoid stooping. The owner of the right 

 also furnishes fuel for boiling the clothes, and a grass plot for 

 drying them. What the poor women have to pay for these 

 extraordinary accommodations I did not learn, but something 

 very much like this curious custom we found in many other 

 French cities, and in Turin, and other Italian cities and towns. 



Our stop at that time in Paris was only for the night, as we 

 intended to proceed the next day ; still, as it was necessary, as 

 we thought, to have our passports vised for Rome, we were put 

 to some little trouble to seek the representative of His Holiness 

 the Pope, and a visit to the Latin quarter and other sections 

 gave me some slight idea of what I should have to investigate 

 more fully at a subsequent time, when I intended to spend some 

 weeks there. 



Pursuing our journey south, the first important point of 

 interest is Fontainebleau, something like thirty-six .miles from 

 Paris. Here is the magnificent forest and the old palace, 

 where the kings and emperors of France, since the days of 

 Louis the Seventh, have delighted to dwell, enjoying the sur- 

 passingly beautiful scenery, and the splendid works of art 

 which adorn the place. Here they seem to have had a peep at 

 paradise. Tlie most superb fountains and gardens, lovely lakes 

 and streams, majestic trees and groves, conspire to make Fon- 

 tainebleau one of the sweetest spots in France, and it is no 

 wonder that Napoleon and Josephine found it so congenial as a 

 retreat from the overwhelming cares of empire. Tiie palace is 

 very large, occupying some ten or twelve acres ; less grand in 

 its external architecture than the Louvre at Paris, or the Tuil- 

 leries, but still most attractive from its unrivalled situation. 

 The forest is said to cover thirty-five thousand acres. 



Leaving Fontainebleau we soon arrive at Montereau, at the 

 confluence of the Yonne and the Seine. This is a place of 

 considerable historic interest, but my limits will not permit me 

 to dwell here. Every thing here differs widely from what 

 meets the eye in England. The aspect of the country, with its 

 sunny hills clothed with vines, the iiigher temperature of the 

 atmosphere, the predominant crops one sees along the way, and 



