neyards_, which may almost be said to occupy every slope,
and crown every upland.

As throughout nearly the whole of these extensive tracts of fluttering
verdure, the walnut, the apple, and in many instances the peach,
apricot, cherry and almond, with innumerable elms, oaks, and gigantic
specimens of the Lombardy poplar are thickly and pretty uniformly
interspersed, the whole country assumes a remarkably foreign and sylvan
character; the peaceful beauty of which is much heightened by the
sequestered and vine clad abodes of the rural population, of the
majority of which, it may almost literally be said, that they are
surrounded by a terrestrial paradise, teeming with the most luscious and
grateful productions of all bounteous nature.

Although such is the agreeable aspect of much of what may be termed the
table lands of Touraine, the picturesque character of the landscape is
much enhanced as we gradually descend into the capacious valley of the
Loire.

On approaching the _Barriere de la Tranchee_, the ancient and handsome
city of Tours, with the dome capped towers of its magnificent cathedral,
and other churches, presents itself full in view, occupying a
considerable area on the opposite banks of the river, and being
encircled by a girdle of luxuriant foliage formed by its celebrated
_Mall (le Mail)_, a spacious avenue of fine elms; beyond which, a
fertile plain of about two miles broad extends to the Cher; which is
immediately succeeded by the richly wooded southern slopes of the vale,
thickly bespangled with the handsome white residences of the French
noblesse.

The broad and voluminous waters of the Loire, are here, as in many other
localities, adorned by two rather large and well planted islands,
between which the noble bridge with its fifteen elliptic arches
stretches across the stream; opening a direct communication with the
spacious Rue Royale, said to be one of the handsomest streets in Europe.

The two opposite slopes of the beautiful vale of the Loire, which are
sometimes deeply furrowed or intersected by denudated vallies, being
thickly studded with pretty villas, surrounded by ornamental grounds,
and intersected by thriving vineyards, with their sequestered villages,
sometimes alone detectable by the tall taper mineret of the Parish
church, piercing through the sombre masses of foliage that occasionally
project far into the hurrying current, or abruptly recede to crown some
bold projection of the adjace