t
there are few inhabitants of many of these country villages who are
ashamed to beg.

To this unfavourable account of the aspect of this part of France, there
are, however, exceptions: We were struck with the beauty of the village
of Nouvion, between Montreuil and Abbeville, which resembles strongly
the villages in the finest counties of England: The houses here have all
gardens surrounding them, which are the property of the villagers. In
the neighbourhood of Abbeville, and of Beauvais, there are also some
neat villages; and the country around these towns is rich, and well
cultivated, and beautifully diversified with woods and vineyards; and,
in general, in advancing southwards, the country, though still
uninclosed, appears more fertile and better clothed. Many of the
villages are surrounded with orchards, and long rows of fruit-trees
extend from some of them for miles together along the sides of the
roads; long regular rows of elms and Lombardy poplars are also very
common, particularly on the road sides; and, in some places, chateaux
are to be seen, the situation of which is generally delightful; but most
of them are uninhabited, or inhabited by poor people, who do not keep
them in repair; and their deserted appearance contributes even more than
the straight avenues of trees, and gardens laid out in the Dutch taste,
which surround them, to confirm the impression of _antiquity_ which is
made on the mind of an Englishman, by almost all that he sees in
travelling through France.

The roads in this, as in many other parts of the country, are paved in
the middle, straight, and very broad, and appear adapted to a much more
extensive intercourse than now exists between the different provinces.

The country on the banks of the Oise, (which we crossed at Beaumont),
and from thence to Paris, is one of the finest parts of France. The
road passes, almost the whole way, through a majestic avenue of elm
trees: Instead of the continual recurrence of corn fields and fallows,
the eye is here occasionally relieved by the intervention of fields of
lucerne and saintfoin, orchards and vineyards; the country is rich, well
clothed with wood, and varied with rising grounds, and studded with
chateaux; there are more carriages on the roads and bustle in the inns,
and your approach to the capital is very obvious. Yet there are strong
marks of poverty in the villages, which contain no houses adapted to the
accommodation of the middling rank