winter storm; and not a spot is
neglected, however unpromising and difficult of access, where a
barrow-full of mould can be raked together, and increased by
hand-carriage. One cannot witness such industry without wishing that it
could procure more of the comforts of life; but here, as in Burgundy,
the exertions of the inhabitants seem hardly repaid by a bare
subsistence, if one may judge by the general appearance of their houses
and persons. Those travellers who have not yet learned to button
themselves up in total indifference, will find, that the interest and
pleasure derived from a tour depend on nothing more than on the apparent
well-being of those whom they see around them. It is this circumstance
which, viewed in the mind's eye, throws a perpetual sunshine over the
fine scenes of Tuscany and Catalonia, and lends a charm even to the flat
uninteresting corn-fields of Picardy. The absence of it, on the
contrary, disfigures the finest scenes in the south of Italy, and causes
Naples, the most delightful spot on earth, perhaps, for situation and
climate, to dwell on the recollection like a whited sepulchre, a gilded
lazar-house of helpless and incurable wretchedness. A Roman beggar,
glaring at you from the arches of a ruined temple, like one of Salvator
Rosa's Radicals, with a look at once abject and ferocious, may be,
perhaps, a characteristic accompaniment to the scene; but the active,
erect walk, the frank countenance, and cheerful salutation of a peasant
of the Val d'Arno, leave a more pleasing recollection on the mind, as
connected with the ideas of comfort, manliness, and independence.

About five miles from Vienne, we ascended a steep hill to the left,
leaving on the opposite side of the Rhone a well-wooded chateau,
belonging to a Mons. d'Arangues; which forms a good accompaniment to the
view of Mont Pilate. By the road side was a very primitive mill, near
which we saw a woman sifting corn as we walked up the hill. The corn is
laid in the circular trough, and ground by a stone revolving round the
shaft in the centre; which is probably worked by an ass. Such little
circumstances as these frequently remind us more strongly of the change
of place, than the difference of language and costume, which we are
prepared to witness in the different provinces of a wide empire.
Nothing, for instance, forms a stronger or more distinct feature in
one's recollections of the south of France, than the enormous remises
which are a