128 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND. 



It was at the very time when desertion of the country 

 with us had reached its height that Thomson was cele- 

 brating its praises : this was in 1 730. The nobles, attracted 

 to court by Eichelieu and Louis XIV., at last gave up all 

 thoughts about their paternal estates in the orgies of the 

 Eegency. Agriculture, enfeebled by the extravagances of 

 Versailles, gradually lost all vitality; and French litera- 

 ture/"" having other topics to occupy it, could only afford 

 to the cultivation of our land this terrible description of La 

 Bruyere, which will ever remain as a cry of remorse from 

 the Great Age : " We behold throughout the country a 

 set of ferocious-looking creatures, both male and female, 

 dark, livid, and scorched with the sun, attached to the 

 land which they dig and grub with an untiring pertina- 

 city : their voice has a resemblance to that of man, and 

 when they rise on their feet, they exhibit a human counte- 

 nance ; they are, in fact, men. At night they retire to 

 dens, where they live upon black bread, water, and roots. 

 They save other men the labour of sowing and reaping, 

 and certainly do not deserve to be without that bread 

 which they themselves have sown." 



In the Henriade, which made its appearance about the 

 same time as the Seasons, it is mentioned that there was 

 not even grass for the horses. This total neglect of na- 

 ture continued up to the time when English ideas began 

 to find general favour in literature and society ; that is to 

 say, the years which preceded the Eevolution of 1789. 



The English novels of the eighteenth century in some 

 way interest all in favour of a country life. While France 

 was busy with the stories of Voltaire, and the romances 

 of the younger Crebillon, England was reading the Vicar 

 of Wakefield, Tom Jones, and Clarissa. Goldsmith, de- 

 scribing Mr Primrose, says, "The hero of this piece unites 



* We must except Fontaine, who had an ardent love of the country. 



