Foreign Notices : — France. 659 



vinced by the difference of temperature, and its evident effects upon the 

 productions of the soil. Nevertheless it is a fine undulating country, rich 

 in corn, though not in wine or oil ; full of timber trees, and teeming with 

 orchards. Here, in fact, begins, on the south, the vast orchard country of 

 Normandy, which extends even to the north of the Seine ; but it possesses 

 still stronger charms for an English eye in the superior abundance of its 

 green meadow and pasture lands. Flax and hemp are cultivated on an 

 extensive scale in the department of La Sarthe, and apparently with suc- 

 cess ; Alen9on being famous for its manufactories of the finest lace. The 

 road from Alenfon to Couterne runs for several leagues through the de- 

 partment of La Mayenne ; and at the latter place, the road for Bagnoles 

 Wells diverges to the north from the main road to Conde, Falaise, Caen, &c. 



From Couterne to Bagnoles is, by repute, two French leagues ; the road, 

 which is in places very indifferent, is also circuitous, but its course is 

 through a beautiful richly wooded valley, which, for some distance, appears 

 to the traveller to be effectually blocked up by a ridge of high and nearly 

 perpendicular rocks, in a chasm or glen of which the warm baths of Ba- 

 gnoles are most romantically situated in a recess of the vast forests of the 

 Ardennes. — John H. Moggridge. Woodfield, Aug. 17. 1831. 



Paris, August 13. 1831. — Very little has been done here in the way of 

 gardening for the last year and upwards, owing to the agitated state of the 

 public mind. In general, a great many trees for transplanting are sold in 

 the Paris markets during the winter; but last year most of those brought 

 in from the distant nurseries were, after being repeatedly exposed, either 

 bought by the Paris nurserymen for such a trifle as would hardly pay their 

 carriage, or taken home again. Fortunately, the winter was remarkably 

 mild, otherwise most of these trees would have been killed. There have 

 been a great many workmen of different kinds, about Paris, out of employ, 

 ever since July, -1830; many of these the government has occupied in 

 improving the roads, and straightening the course of some streams that 

 empty themselves into the Seine. Several of our public men here think it 

 the duty of government to maintain a reserve of labour, in the form of 

 public works, for the lowest class of labourers, when they shall be out of 

 employment ; and, perhaps, this may be desirable, till this class becomes 

 more enlightened by the national system of education, established since the 

 late change in the government. You are aware that almost every mechanic 

 or man'ufacturer in France knows sometiiing of soldiering and gardening; 

 the latter circumstance arises from the almost universal spade culture in 

 this country. Thus it is that these men make by no means bad field 

 labourers or even gardeners. Should the ensuing winter prove favourable, 

 it is said to be the intention of government to plant Montmartre, and also 

 those hills where the manufacture of poudrette [night-soil di'ied and in 

 powdei'] is carried on. This rising ground, you will recollect, is of con- 

 siderable extent, and forms a bold and varied outline. 



I do not remember to have seen a larger crop of elm seeds than there is 

 this year in the Champs Elysees [Vol. VI. p. 646.], probably owing to the 

 very fine weather which we had about the end of February and beginning 

 of March, when they were in bloom. The seed began to fall about the 

 beginning of May, in such quantities, that in a few hours any person might 

 have swept up many bushels. In various places where buildings are going 

 on, and the surface of the ground has been left rough and neglected, the 

 seeds, which had been blown there, are now coming up by thousands ; so 

 that you see it would be easy, by a few years of neglect, to render Paris 

 and its environs again one immense forest. — T. E. 



M. Vilmorin's Gardener at Verrieres. — Sir, In your notice of my gar- 

 dener at Verrieres (p. 18.), you were correct in saying that he is no great 

 scholar; nevertheless he does read sometimes, and that in the Bon Jardinicr. 

 But the following fact will give you a better idea of his spirit of emulation, 

 than any other that I can send you. When I bought the estate of Verrieres, 



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