PICARDV. 841 



soon learned, that the cultivators prefer living in villages, 

 society and the evening dance being nearly as indispensa- 

 ble to them as their daily food. If the farm be distant, 

 the husbandman, and his servants, of all descriptions, set 

 off early in the morning, in a light waggon, carrying with 

 them provisions for the day. Rich sheep- pastures are in- 

 termixed with the corn-lands, and often without any kind 

 of inclosure. Sheep-husbandry seems to be much attend- 

 ed to; and here things were quite in the oriental style. 

 The shepherd walks before his flock ; at night he guides 

 them into a fold ; for himself he has a moveable thatch- 

 ed hut, which he pitches close by ; here he reposes, with 

 the watchful dog at his feet. These precautions are neces- 

 sary, on account of wolves, which are still common in Pi- 

 cardy. The old pastures were now beautifully decked 

 with the flowers of the colchicum or purple autumnal cro- 

 cus, which the sheep never touch. In many places, a line 

 of cider-apple trees ornaments each side of the road : the 

 crop of apples is this year scanty, and there will be a great 

 deficiency in the quantity of cider produced. 



Towards Mont de Dieu the country became somewhat 

 higher, with extended elevated plains, on which black cat- 

 tle were feeding. For many a dreary mile not a house was 

 to be seen, the people, as already remarked, crowding to- 

 gether in small villages in the hollows. We passed through 

 one of these, where detached mud-built cottages irresistibly 

 conveyed the idea of poverty ; but the houses were intermix- 

 ed with trees, corn-stacks and cottage-gardens, while a pure 

 streamlet made its way down the centre of the street, — 

 giving the village altogether a pleasing irregularity of ap- 

 pearance, which partly atoned for its apparent want of com- 

 fort. A French fellow-traveller mentioned, that this vil- 

 lage was almost depopulated by the folly of Louis XIV. in 



