y to Montreal.

The peasants are ignorant, lazy, dirty, and stupid beyond all
belief; but hospitable, courteous, civil; and, what is particularly
agreeable, they leave their wives and daughters to do the honors of the
house: in which obliging office they acquit themselves with an
attention, which, amidst every inconvenience apparent (tho' I am told
not real) poverty can cause, must please every guest who has a soul
inclin'd to be pleas'd: for my part, I was charm'd with them, and eat
my homely fare with as much pleasure as if I had been feasting on
ortolans in a palace. Their conversation is lively and amusing; all
the little knowledge of Canada is confined to the sex; very few, even
of the seigneurs, being able to write their own names.

The road from Quebec to Montreal is almost a continued street, the
villages being numerous, and so extended along the banks of the river
St. Lawrence as to leave scarce a space without houses in view; except
where here or there a river, a wood, or mountain intervenes, as if to
give a more pleasing variety to the scene. I don't remember ever having
had a more agreeable journey; the fine prospects of the day so
enliven'd by the gay chat of the evening, that I was really sorry when
I approach'd Montreal.

The island of Montreal, on which the town stands, is a very lovely
spot; highly cultivated, and tho' less wild and magnificent, more
smiling than the country round Quebec: the ladies, who seem to make
pleasure their only business, and most of whom I have seen this morning
driving about the town in calashes, and making what they call, the
_tour de la ville_, attended by English officers, seem generally
handsome, and have an air of sprightliness with which I am charm'd; I
must be acquainted with them all, for tho' my stay is to be short, I
see no reason why it should be dull. I am told they are fond of little
rural balls in the country, and intend to give one as soon as I have
paid my respects in form.

Six in the evening.

I am just come from dining with the ---- regiment, and find I have a
visit to pay I was not aware of, to two English ladies who are a few
miles out of town: one of them is wife to the major of the regiment,
and the other just going to be married to a captain in it, Sir George
Clayton, a young handsome baronet, just come to his title and a very
fine estate, by the death of a distant relation: he is at present at
New York, and I am told they are to be married as soo