easily managed; they
harrow the land most effectually, having sometimes 10 or 12 horses in
succession, each drawing a separate harrow over the same ground. The
farm-horses, though very poor to an English eye, are fortunately much
better than the horses for travelling. The stacks of grain, though
rarely seen, are very neatly built. We left the grand road at
Fontainbleau, and took the route by Nevers to Lyons. We have found it
hitherto by no means equal to the other. No stone causeway in the
middle, and at this time of the year, I should fear it is always as we
found it, very heavy and dirty.

Our journey hitherto has not allowed of our mixing much among or
conversing with the people; but still we cannot but be struck with the
dissimilarity of manners from those of our own country. The French are
not now uniformly, found the same merry, careless, polite, and sociable
people they were before the revolution; but we may trust that they are
gradually improving; and although one can easily distinguish among the
lower ranks, the fierce uncivilized ruffians, who have been raised from
their original insignificance by Napoleon to work his own ends, yet the
real peasantry of the country are generally polite.

At the inns, the valets and ostlers were for the most part old soldiers
who had marched under Napoleon; they seemed happy, or at least always
expressed themselves happy, at being allowed to return to their homes:
one of them was particularly eloquent in describing the horrors of the
last few months; he concluded by saying, "that had things gone on in
this way for a few months longer, Napoleon must have made the women
march." They affirm, however, that there is a party favourable to
Bonaparte, consisting of those whose trade is war, and who have lived by
his continuance on the throne; but that this party is not strong, and
little to be feared: Would that this were true! When we were in Paris,
there were a number of caricatures ridiculing the Bourbons; but these
miserable squibs are no test of the public feeling. Napoleon certainly
has done much for Paris; the marks of his magnificence are there every
where to be seen; but the further we travel, the more are we convinced
that he has done littler for the interior of the country.

There is about every town and village an air of desolation; most of the
houses seem to have wanted repairs for a long time. The inns must strike
every English traveller, as being of a kind entirely new