6&6 Notes and Reflections during a Tour : — 



vertical or oblique strata, which will keep the soil open for 

 the free reception of water, and thus assist the roots in pene- 

 trating the soil, in this case unavoidably more compressed than 

 in the two others. Over this last preparation the footway may 

 be formed of flag-stones, causewayed, or laid with gravel of 

 any other suitable material. When the roots of trees must 

 unavoidably depend for their nourishment on a prepared 

 stratum, laid under a Macadamised or causewayed street, the 

 last mode of preparation is the most suitable for general adop- 

 tion ; and, indeed, it is that which will answer perfectly well 

 for footways unless in extraordinary cases. 



Tfie Champs Elysees, and. the Parisian Guinguettes or Tea- 

 Gardens, Haying paid little attention to these public pro- 

 menades and places of amusement ourselves, we prefer giving 

 what has been furnished to us by a coadjutor who has lived in 

 Paris several years, and has seen them at various seasons. 



The Champs Elysees is rather a wood, than either gardens 

 or fields, as its name might seem to import; and it partakes 

 of the mingled characteristics of our Hyde Park and Ken- 

 sington Gardens. It is invaluable to the Parisians, not only 

 as affording scope for walking and riding, but also as being 

 a general place of public resort like the Boulevards, where 

 the people can enjoy the gaiety of the scene around them, or 

 amuse themselves by chatting with their friends, while sitting 

 on movable wooden chairs, which they hire for about a half- 

 penny each. It is reckoned fashionable to employ as many of 

 these chairs as possible ; and it is curious to observe the inge- 

 nuity with which a Parisian dandy contrives to occupy four or 

 five. He sits upon one, rests his feet upon another, his hat is 

 placed upon a third, and his two arms are supported by the 

 fourth and fifth. Of course a sous is paid for each chair ; and 

 the gentility of a Parisian beau may thus be established for 

 the trifling sum of twopence English, which is about the dif- 

 ference of the price between the accommodation which he 

 does and that which he does not want. Ridiculous as this 

 may seem, it is but an example, on a small scale, of the feelings 

 created by the present state of society ; for the chief distinction 

 between a very rich man and one in moderate circumstances 

 is, that the former has it in his power to purchase useless 

 luxuries, while the latter is obliged to confine himself to such 

 things as he really wants. The graver portion of the male 

 loungers in the Champs Elysees read the newspapers, which 

 are supplied at the moderate charge of a sous each, by per- 

 sons stationed there for that purpose; and the ladies seat 

 themselves in little groups, criticising the dress of the passers 

 by, or listening to their attending beaux. Taken altogether, 



