through Belgium and Part of France. 425 



the head gardener, who is a very intelligent and a very civil man. 

 He introduced me to the gardens of several of the principal 

 private gentlemen in the place ; but, after seeing his own, there 

 appeared to me little else worth notice. 



The road from Louvain through Tirlemont and St. Trond 

 passes through a country of very little interest. The inhabitants 

 seem much more dirty and wretched in their appearance than 

 in Flanders, where they are remarkably clean. The houses of 

 the poor look extremely miserable, and the absence of wood and 

 water from the scene causes it to present an uninteresting ap- 

 pearance. As you approach Liege, however, the country greatly 

 improves, and becomes extremely hilly and varied. The ap- 

 proach to the town of Liege is beautiful : you descend gradually 

 a steep hill with the town lying underneath as it were, with a 

 hill on the left, and a steep valley on the right ; onward, in front, 

 you have an extensive prospect, in which are seen the windings 

 of the beautiful river Meuse, and beyond a fine fertile country, 

 which extends almost to the borders of Prussia; so that the 

 scene is one of striking interest to a stranger. Liege is a large 

 and rather well-built town on the banks of the Meuse: it con- 

 tains some very extensive ironworks, especially those for the 

 casting of cannon and muskets, for supplying the army. The 

 royal foundery is a very large and commodious place, capacious 

 enough for the manufacturing of almost any thing: it was here 

 that the large mortar was cast, which the French used at the siege 

 of Antwerp. As I entered Liege, I observed a great many of 

 the countrywomen going out of town with large baskets on their 

 backs, filled with unfinished muskets, but for what purpose they 

 were conveying them into the country I was not able to discover. 

 There is here an extensive nursery, belonging to M. Makoy 

 [see p. 321.], in which a rich collection of choice plants is cul- 

 tivated, and w T hich, for neatness and good management, does not 

 yield to any in that country. Altogether, it does great credit to 

 its spirited and enterprising proprietor, who has been only a few 

 years in business, and, what is more surprising, was not educated 

 either for a nurseryman or a gardener. M. Makoy has been in 

 England twice or thrice, for the purpose of purchasing what 

 is new and choice, and spends a considerable sum annually for 

 the same object. There are several other nurseries in the neigh- 

 bourhood, but they are of so little importance as scarcely to 

 merit notice. There is here a small botanic garden, adjoining, 

 and belonging to, the university : it contains four small houses ; 

 but the collection of plants is very indifferent, and the plants are 

 not in a good state of keeping. In the open ground there seems 

 an extensive assortment of hardy herbaceous plants, but these 

 did not make, at this season, much show. The walks were of 

 coal-ashes, instead of gravel ; the latter is not to be had here, 



