6- Notes and Reflections made during a Tmir 



The gardening of the tract visited is farther advanced than 

 that of England in some particulars, and not so far advanced 

 in others. The principles of landscape-gardening are perhaps 

 better understood in Germany than in England, from its pro- 

 fessors being in general men of education : but the practical 

 results, both there and in France, are inferior to those of Eng- 

 land, from the want of verdure and compactness in the turf; 

 want of colour and adhesiveness in the gravel ; paucity of 

 evergreen shrubs, and the want of order and high keeping. 

 The kitchen-gardening is superior, at least in respect to the 

 winter salading, partly owing to the greater demand for that 

 article on the Continent, and partly owing to the greater dry- 

 ness of the air there at that season. The culture of timber 

 trees and the management of forests are more attended to in 

 France and Germany than in England ; because, in the former 

 countries, in addition to all the usual uses of timber, it con- 

 stitutes the principal fuel. 



The architecture of the towns and villages on the Continent 

 is in a higher taste than in Britain; because, the houses being 

 larger, and the materials of a more durable and expensive 

 nature, more consequence is attached to the building of a 

 house, and hence more care and skill are called into exercise. 

 Another cause which has contributed to the same effect is, 

 that isolated cottages are not common ; and thus the two and 

 three storied houses of villages, each occupied by two or 

 three families, and requiring to be built by regular mechanics, 

 have not degenerated into two or three separate hovels, which 

 the labourers occupying them build for themselves. The 

 ai'chitecture of the public buildings on the Continent is pro- 

 portionately superior to that of the public buildings in Britain ; 

 because, in the former case, the public taste is higher in pro- 

 portion to the public wealth than in the latter. 



The domestic economy of the tract visited, among the lowest 

 class, differs less from that of the same class in Britain than 

 might be imagined, because the bare necessaries ^f life are 

 almost the same in every country. In the middle and higher 

 ranks it differs in the circumstance, on the Continent, of ex- 

 tent and show in houses and apartments being preferred to 

 neatness, cleanness, and comfort ; in the greater use of vege- 

 tables in cookery; in a more complex and refined cookery; 

 and in the greater use of fruits, and the more moderate use of 

 wines and spirituous liquors, at table. 



The education of children comes within the province of 

 domestic economy, and in consequence within the limit of our 

 observations. It differs materially in different parts of the 

 tract visited. In some parts of France it is in a great measure 



