TOURNAY. 333 



that the Government is busily employed in improving and 

 enlarging the fortifications. 



On our way to Tournay, we found that much more rain 

 had yesterday fallen in this direction than at Enghien ; 

 and before we reached that noted town, showers had again 

 begun to descend. 



Tournay. 



After dinner, finding every place wet and dreary, and 

 the inhabitants housed, we paid a short visit to the cele- 

 brated limestone quarries, from which great quantities of 

 stone, under the name of Tournay Marble, are sent by ca- 

 nals to every part of the Low Countries. The admirable 

 pear-trees which we saw clothing the ramparts, the walls of 

 houses, as well as the inelosure-walls of gardens, on the 

 outskirts of the town, convinced us, that this is a place 

 worthy of the particular attention of the horticulturist, 

 But we were reluctantly compelled to abridge our exann- 

 nation of these gardens ; for the weather, instead of im- 

 proving, became worse, so that we could not, in decency, 

 ask the possessors of the gardens, to expose themselves to it, 

 and we disliked passing through the gardens unattended, 



Pear-tree Gardens. 

 As a proof of the celebrity of Tournay for the produc- 

 tion of fruit, we may mention, that the Botanical and Hor- 

 ticultural Society of Ghent last year offered a premium for 

 the best explanation of the causes of the superiority in size, 

 beauty and flavour, of the fruits produced at this place, 

 The gardens are not merely, or even chiefly, those of ama- 

 teurs, but of practical cultivators, who send their produce 

 to Brussels, Amsterdam, and other distant places. One of 



