Foreign No/ices : — France. 89 



able distance ; most of these are small, and are, for the greated 2^(ii't, 

 culiivatcd by the projjrictors. It is of the present appearance of these that 

 I wish to give you a short description. Divided from each other by a 

 treillage of vines, or more commonly without any division at all, the vast 

 tracts of land covered at this moment with the unequivocal marks of the 

 most luxurious vegetation astonish and delight the eye familiarised only 

 to the productions of a northerly climate. I have viewed with pride and 

 pleasure the effects of the skill and industry of my countrymen in the 

 neighbourhood of London ; but never did I any where before see (at this 

 season of the year, be it always remembered) gardens so completely 

 covered with green crops, and those so uniformly of the richest and deepest 

 hue. Viewed across the rows, and at a little distance, the whole surface 

 of the country thus occupied presents to the eye one unvaried carpet of the 

 most beautiful verdure : and yet we have had some sharp frosts and heavy 

 iiills of snow within the last month. A considerable quantity of ice has 

 floated down the Loire in small masses ; and, within these few days past, 

 ice, fully an inch thick, has been brought from the country for the confec- 

 tioners' use, the thermometer being on two nights as low as 18° of Fah- 

 renheit. 



The vegetables under cultivation at present are, with the exception 

 of a few seedling plants, for winter and spring use ; and the ground, 

 as fast as the j)resent crop is taken to market, is again and immediately 

 stocked with those which are to succeed them : so that the number of 

 crops produced from the same land in the course of the year is truly sur- 

 prising, at least to a person accustomed only to observe the course of 

 cropping even in well managed gentlemen's gardens. The variety of plants 

 cultivated for salads, for which there is so much demand in France, cer- 

 tainly cut a conspicuous figure amongst the present crops of vegetables ; 

 the endive, of which they eat great quantities, not being blanched, as is 

 customary in our gardens. The quantities of vegetables of large size and 

 excellent quality thus raised is very great; and the prices consequently so 

 low, that the consumers of all classes within the city (the present popu- 

 lation of which, according to a retiu'n published a few days ago, amounts 

 to 21,928 souls) purchase instead of rearing their own vegetables, though 

 there are many and considerable pleasure and even nursery gardens in dif- 

 ferent quarters of the town. The very striking difference between the 

 appearance of the common market-gai'dens here and those of any provin- 

 cial tov/n or city in England cannot for a moment, I conceive, be attri- 

 buted to the superior knowledge or greater skill of the French over our 

 own gardeners. The soil, a rich sandy loam of great depth, and the cli- 

 mate, notwithstanding the severe cold which, as above quoted, it will be 

 seen is sometimes felt here, have each, I suspect, much to do in this busi- 

 ness ; and the occupiers are for by far the greatest part placed under the 

 following circumstances differently to our market-gardeners in England, the 

 effects of which I shall leave your readers to judge of for themselves : — 



And first, and before and above all, the French are proprietors of the land 

 they occupy : they and their families, all of whom according to the French 

 laws of succession are interested at present or in reversion in the pro- 

 perty, cultivate the land ; and with what industry and hearty good w ill, a 

 person need but to be a spectator in order to become a competent judge. 

 [Secondly, in comparison with ours, their taxes are light ; though injuriously 

 increased in consequence of the wars of Bonaparte, and the profligate and 

 corrupt expenditure of the public money since the restoration of the now 

 ex-Bourbons. Thirdly, they have no chm-ch, or highway, or poor rates to 

 pay ; and, above all, they are emancipated from the grievous burden and 

 oppression of tithes. Most if not all the land occupied as above described, 

 previously to the Revolution of 1789, belonged either to the archbishopric 

 of Tours, or formed part of the domain attached to the celebrated Chtlteau 



