646 ^0/^5 and Reflections during a Tour : — 



a year to keep them in repair. People of all ranks came from 

 every part of the country to see them ; but since they had 

 gone to decay, no body looked near the place ; so true it is that 

 man in a rude state admires only art, because it is only in works 

 of art that he can recognise mind. The Abbe had doubtless 

 mind to enjoy the sublime prospect from his chateau, and 

 feeling to be amused with his delighted and astonished visitors. 



We advanced to this chateau without any letters of intro- 

 duction, but on requesting permission to walk through the 

 grounds every attention was paid us, and we were conducted to 

 the principal points of view by a very interesting and intel- 

 ligent young lady, Mad. , to whom, through the Abbe 



Gossier, we have sent a copy of this Magazine as a mark of our 

 esteem ; and this record will remain as a remembrance to our- 

 selves of a chateau, the situation of which, and the circum- 

 stances attending our view of it, produced an impression upon 

 our minds stronger by far than did any other object or circum- 

 stance in or about Rouen. We hope we may again see Landin 

 with more leisure for examination and enjoyment. 



Rouen to Fleury, Sept. f) . — Passed a variety of suburban 

 villas, those nearest the town in very commanding situations, 

 ornamented with flowers, and enriched with vines, but, in ap- 

 pearance of solidity, refinement, and comfort, very distant from 

 analogous villas in the suburbs of London, or of any of the 

 larger towns in England south of York. Still these Rouen 

 villas are almost as far in advance of what the suburban villas 

 of Edinburgh and Glasgow were twenty years ago, the time 

 which has elapsed since we saw them, as those of London are 

 in advance of those of Rouen. The London villa indicates in 

 the possessor a love of comfort, luxury, and neatness; the 

 Rouen villa indicates taste, style, and superficialness ; the 

 Scotch villa, ambition, poverty, and slovenliness. 



A residence, which we think was called Franqueville, was 

 undergoing changes in what is called in France the English 

 manner ; and the lines and forms produced with this view, 

 as seen from the road, were such as might be expected from 

 a cockney jobbing gardener, who had never been five miles 

 from Loftdon : here and there a round or an oval clump ; 

 a piec€ of water of the shape of that in the Horticultural 

 Society's Garden ; a semicircular bridge over it; a naked road 

 of three equal bends, as an approach to the house ; and a ser- 

 pentine walk round the boundary of the park or paddock. It 

 is a pity the proprietor had not called in Mr. Blaikie, who 

 two years before was in this neighbourhood, laying out the 

 grounds of the Marquis d'Etamps near LabouUe. But even 

 this would not have done every thing ; for the best plan ever 



