Foreign Notices : — France. 63 



Lower Normandy. — The situation of Bagnoles Wells reminded me 

 much of Matlock, as I remember it 30 years ago ; but it has the advan- 

 tage, as a place of retirement, of having no public road passing through it, 

 and on the whole it is on a less scale than Matlock, though the rock 

 scenery is both bolder and finer. There is a beautiful trout stream 

 running through the valley at Bagnoles, and abundance of fine growing 

 timber trees situated at the bases of the rocks, and growing out of their 

 crevices with great luxuriance. On the south, the Forest of Ardennes 

 reaches to a level with most of the tops of the rocks ; those on the north 

 are surmounted by thriving plantations of larches, Norway spruces, 

 Scotch pines, and cedars of Lebanon, in addition to the native woods. 

 From the midst of these rises a belvidere, having a railed gallery nearly 

 round it ; from which a most striking, extensive, and yet rich and beauti- 

 ful view is commanded of a part of the neighbouring forests, the rich 

 vales at the foot of the hill, and an undulating well-timbered country, 

 extending even into the departments of La Sarthe and Mayenne, bounded 

 in the distance by the magnificent ranges of hills which cross those depart- 

 ments. 



The i?hododendron ponticum was in full blossom in the romantic 

 valley of Bagnoles, in the middle of May, intermixed with most of our 

 English indigenous and acclimated common shrubs and plants, which 

 have for the most part been planted adjoining to, or in view from, the 

 judiciously planned walks and rides ; which add greatly to the interest 

 of this solitary and singular, but beautiful, spot. At a distance of a 

 quarter of a mile, an English kitchen -garden has been begun, with 

 every prospect of considerable success ; but the death of the proprie- 

 tor has arrested its progress, and for a time injuriously affected the 

 whole of the establishment of Bagnoles Wells. The building of 

 the garden walls, which are at present completed only on the north 

 and partly on the east side, is about to be resumed ; and it was intended 

 to finish the gardener's house adjoining in the course of the summer. 

 The ground enclosed, which in quantity did not exceed a hectare of 

 land*, is divided into exact squares by turfed walks, which are again as 

 regularly subdivided into beds of different sizes; with their respective 

 paths. The main walks, bordered by dwarf apple, pear, and other fruit 

 trees, are of sufficient width to allow of a cart passing along them, for the 

 admission of which, space for an ample gateway is left at the end of one of 

 them ; and the south side of the north wall is well clothed with healthy- 

 looking peach and nectarine trees. Though situated on high land, the 

 garden is well sheltered ; has a gentle slope towards the south, and a 

 beautiful never-failing stream of water running through it in covered 

 drains which supplies a circular basin in its centre. From the cause be- 

 fore mentioned, which had paralysed every thing, the spring crops had 



the abolition of the hereditary peerage in France. Much has lately been 

 said in the English papers, of the misery of the working classes in France; 

 but these accounts apply only to the manufacturers, who, after all, I believe, 

 are in a far better state than the manufacturers in Great Britain, the price 

 of provisions being much lower. A few years since, I saw several thou- 

 sands of the manufacturers of Lyons assembled in the fields on a jour 

 de fete, and was highly pleased with the courteousness and kindness of 

 their manners to each other; the general propriety of their behaviour 

 forming a striking contrast to the rudeness, boisterous violence, and drunk- 

 enness, which would have been exhibited by the same number of manu- 

 facturers in Lancashire, assembled on a holiday. — B. 



* A hectare of land is equal to somewhat more than 2^ acres English 

 statute measure. 



