uish the inhabitants of Provence, Languedoc, Naples,
and Genoa, and last and noblest of all, the Catalans.

May 11.--To Orange eighteen miles, through the same rich and extensive
plain, from which the barrier of hills that accompanied us before,
receded to a considerable distance; but which is still interrupted and
broken occasionally by rocks of the wildest and most abrupt shape
possible, with the addition in general of a frowning castle in ruins.
The little towns of Montdragon[23] and Mornas, which we passed this
morning, are each situated under heights of this description. The castle
of the former, of which a plate is given in Mr. Cooke's work, I think
even superior to that of Caerphilly, in South Wales, in the "awsome
eyriness," as a Scotsman would express it, with which its detached
masses are grouped. The castle of Mornas is not so remarkable, but the
rocks on which it stands are very striking; for if they have any
inclination out of the perpendicular, it is rather towards than from the
road. It is indeed impossible, when you stand under the shade of this
lofty barrier, and look up to the clouds drifting over it, to fancy that
it is not in the act of toppling down upon your head. We had not as yet
emerged from the land of castles, for, as in yesterday's route, almost
every little town possessed some vestige of ancient fortification, a
silent testimony to the peaceful virtues of "the good old days." The
heat of the weather at this comparatively early season of the year,
induced us to congratulate ourselves that we had not chosen a month, or
even a fortnight later, for our excursion, particularly as the
mulberry-trees, which in this thrifty country form almost the only
shade, were beginning to lose their covering of leaves. Every where we
met women and children carrying ladders, shaped exactly like those used
by cocks and hens in roosting, or perched high in trees, stripping them
for the food of the silk-worms. The natural gracefulness of the mulberry
foliage is entirely destroyed by the unmerciful pruning and pollarding
which it undergoes in this country, in order to concentrate it for
gathering. Very little fruit, and that small and tasteless, is produced
from these cabbage-cut trees; a circumstance which I mention to prevent
disappointment, since, no doubt, many a gentle traveller may indulge, as
I confess to have done, the luxurious hope of feasting on this fruit in
perfection under every hedge-row in Provence. A