1836.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



71 



estate; no hedge or tree, no bush but what was in- 

 terestincT to mo. I had read the translation of the 

 marquis's history of his improvements in Mr. 

 M lis' Husbandry, and thought it the most interest- 

 ing morsel I had met with, long bctbre I procured 

 the original Memnire sur les defrichemensj and 

 determined, that if ever I should go to France, to 

 view improvementSjthe recital ot which had given 

 me such pleasure. I had neither letter nor intro- 

 duction to the present owner, the marquis do Gal- 

 Avay. I therefore slated to him the plain tact, that 

 I had read Mons. de TourhiJly's book with so 

 much pleasure, that I wished much to view the 

 improvements described in it; he answered me di- 

 rectly in good English, received me wiihsuch cor- 

 diality of politeness, and such expressions of re- 

 gard (or the purport of my travels, that he put me 

 perfectly in humor with m3-self, and consequent- 

 ly with all around me. He ordered breakfast a V 

 Jinglalse; gave orders for a man to attend us in 

 our walk, who I desired might be the oldest laborer 

 to be found of the late marquis de Tourbilly's. I 

 was pleased to hear that one was alive who had 

 worked with him from the beginning of his im- 

 provements. At breakfiist Mons. de Gahvay gave 

 me an account of his f ither's acquiring the estate 

 and chateau of Tourbill}'. His great-grand-father 

 came to Bretagne with King James H. when he 

 fled from the English throne; some of the same 

 family are still living in the country of Cork, par- 

 ticularly at Lotta. His father was famous in that 

 province for his skill in agriculture; and, as a re- 

 ward for an improvement he had wrought on the 

 landes, the states of the province gave him a waste 

 tract in the island of J3elleisle, which at present 

 helontjs to his son. Hearing that the marquis de 

 Tourbilly was totally ruined, and his estates in 

 Anjou to he sold by the creditors, he viewed them, 

 and finding the laud very improveable, made 

 the purchase, giving about 15,000 louis d'ors for 

 Tourbilly, a price which made the acquisition 

 highly advantagous, notwithstanding his having 

 bought some law-suits with the estate. It is 

 about 3000 arpents, nearly contiguous, the seig- 

 neury of two parishes, with the haute justice, &c. 

 a handsome, large, and convenient chateau, ofhces 

 very complete, and many plantations, the work of 

 the celebrated man concerning whom my inqui- 

 ries were directed. I was almost breatiiless on the 

 question of so great an improver being ruined! 

 "You are unhappy that a man should be ruined 

 by an art you love so much." Precisely so. But 

 he eased me in a moment, by adding, that if the 

 marquis had done nothing but fl^rm and improve, 

 he had never been ruined. One day, as he was 

 boring to find marl, his ill stars discovered a vein 

 of earth, perfectly white, which on trial did not 

 effervesce with acids. It struck him as an acqui- 

 sition for porcelain — he shewed it to a manufiic- 

 turer— it was pronounced excellent: the marquis's 

 imagination took fire, and he thought of convert- 

 ing the poor village of Tourbilly info a town, by a 

 fabric of China. He went to work on his own ac- 

 count — raised buildings— and got together all that 

 was necessary, except skill and capital. In fine, 

 he made good porcelain, was cheated by his 

 agents, and people, and at last ruined. A soap 

 manufactory, which he established also, as well as 

 some law-suits relative to other estates, had their 

 share in causing his misfjrtuncs; his creditors 



seized the estate, but permitted him to administer 

 it till his death, when it was sold. The only part 

 of the tale that lessened my regret was, that, 

 though niMrried, he left no famify; so that his 

 ashes will sleep in petice, without his memory 

 being reviled by an indigent posterity. His an- 

 cestors acquired the estate by marriage in the 

 fourteenth century. H is agricultaral improvements, 

 JNIons. Gahvay observed, certainly did not hurt 

 him; they were not well done, nor well supported 

 by himself, but they rendered the estate more val- 

 uable; and he never liea'-d that they had brought 

 him into ^I'ly difficulties. I cannot but observe 

 here, that there seems a fiitality to attend country 

 gentlemen whenever they attempt trade or man- 

 ufacture. In Eniiland I never knew a man of 

 landed property, with the education and habiis of 

 landed property, attempt either, but they were in- 

 liillibly ruined; or if not ruined, confidently hurt by 

 them. Whether it is that the ideas and principles 

 of trade have something in them repugnant to the 

 sentiments which ought to flow fi-om education — 

 or whether the the habitual inattention of country 

 gentlemen to small gains and savings, which are 

 the soul of trade, renders their success impossible; 

 to whatever it may be owing, the fact is such, not 

 one in a million succeeds. Agriculture, in the im- 

 provement of their estates, is the only proper and 

 legitimate sphere of their industry; and though 

 ignorance renders this sometimes dangerous, yet 

 they can with safety attempt no other. The old 

 laborer, whose name is Piron, (as propitious I 

 hope to firming as to wit,) being arrived, we 

 sallied forth to tread what to nie was a sort of clas- 

 sic ground. I thall dwell but little on the parti- 

 culars: they make a much better figure in the 

 Memoire sur les defrichemens than at Tourbilly; 

 the meadows, even near the chateau, are yet very 

 rough; the general features are rough: but the al- 

 leys of poplars, of which he speaks in the me- 

 moir, are nobly grovvn indeed, and do credit to 

 his memory; they are 60 or 70 feet high, and girt 

 a foot: the willows are equal. Why were they 

 not oak? to have transmitted to the farming tra- 

 vellers of another century the pleasure i feel in 

 viewing the more perishable poplars of the pre- 

 sent time. The causeways near the castle must 

 have been arduous works. The mulberries are 

 in a state of neglect; Mons. Galway's father 

 not being fond of that culture, destroyed many, 

 but some hundreds remain, and I was told that 

 the poor people had made as far as 251bs. of silk, 

 but; none attempted at present. The meadows 

 had been drained and improved near the chateau 

 to the amount of 50 or 60 arpents; they are now 

 ruslv, but valuable in such a country. Near them 

 is a wood of Bourdeaux pines, sown 35 years ago, 

 and are now worth five or six liv. each. I walked 

 into the boguy bit that produced the great cab- 

 bages he mentioned, it joins a large and most im- 

 provable bottom. Piron informed me that that 

 the marquis pared and burnt about 100 arpents in 

 all, and he folded 250 sheep. On our return to 

 the chateau, Mons. de Gahvay finding what an 

 enthusiast I was in agriculture, searched amono- 

 his papers to find a manuscript of the marquis de 

 Tourbilly's, written with his own hand, which he 

 had the goodness to make me a present of^, and 

 which I shall keep amongst my curiosities in agri- 

 culture. * » * * # 



