ovement of
the vehicle, enabled me to do this in a tolerably commodious manner. The
ground however seemed saturated, and the leaves glistened with the
incumbent moisture. There was a sort of pungent freshness of scent
abroad--and a rich pasture land on each side gave the most luxuriant
appearance to the landscape. Nature indeed seemed to have fructified every
thing in a manner at once spontaneous and perfect. The face of the country
is pasture-land throughout; that is to say, there are comparatively few
orchards and little arable. I was told to pay attention to the cattle, for
that the farmers prided themselves on their property of this kind. They may
pride themselves--if they please: but their pride is not of a lofty cast of
character. I have been in Lincolnshire, Herefordshire, and
Gloucestershire--and have seen and enjoyed, in these counties, groups of
cattle which appeared calculated for the land and the table of giants,
compared with the Lilliputian objects, of the bucoline species, which were
straying, in thin flocks, through the luxuriant pastures of Normandy. That
triumphant and immutable maxim of "small bone and large carcase" seems,
alas! to be unknown in these regions.

However, on we rode--and gazed on all sides. At length we reached _Pont
L'Eveque_, a pretty long stage; where we dined (says my journal) upon roast
fowl, asparagus, trout, and an excellent omelette, with two good bottles of
vin ordinaire--which latter, for four Englishmen, was commendably moderate.
During dinner the rain came down again in yet heavier torrents--the gutters
foamed, and the ground smoked with the unceasing fall of the water. In the
midst of this aquatic storm, we toasted Old England right merrily and
cordially; and the conducteur, seeing us in good humour, told us that "we
need not hurry, for that he preferred a dry journey to a wet one." We
readily assented to this position; but within half an hour, the weather
clearing, we remounted: and by four o'clock, we all got inside--and
politics, religion, literature, and the fine arts, kept us in constant
discourse and good humour as we rolled on for many a league. All the way to
_Troarn_ (the last stage on this side of Caen) the country presents a truly
lovely picture of pasture land. There are occasionally some wooded heights,
in which English wealth and English taste would have raised villas of the
prettiest forms, and with most commanding views. Yet there is nothing to be
mentioned