[ 162 3 
nm over Flanders., Holland,and some of the southern 
departments of France. I have skirted Piedmont, 
Switzerland and the Alps. But in travelling by 
post your motion is too rapid to let you examine any 
thing 'thoroughly ; this applied more particularly 
to me who was compelled to see what I did see in 
the least possible time. 
Instead therefore of giving you anything like a 
regular detail, I will pray you to accept hasty and 
desultory remarks. It is however very satisfactory 
to be enabled to assure you, that from what I have 
seen, I have no reason to think that the farmers of 
our state, or those to the east of the Chesapeake 
have much to learn from those of Europe, notwith^ 
standing the idle boasts of travellers that visit our 
country. 
Houses, 
Through the greater part of France that I have 
visited, the houses are made of a w^hite stone, that 
underlays almost the whole of the country in vari¬ 
ous directions ; where this is wanting, timber, 
plaister, and in some few places brick is used : upon 
houses of this kind no observations are necessary, 
but those which relate to their distribution ; they 
are generally large for farm houses, and commonly 
have good rooms in the second story. But what 
contributes to their size, is, that it is almost a uni¬ 
versal practice to annex the stable to the house, so 
that the farmer goes directly from the room he lives 
