the country is enclosed, and the lands well dressed. The
wheat is not nearly so far advanced here, which must arise from its
being more lately sowed, for the winter is only commencing; many of the
trees are still in fall leaf.

We cannot well judge of any change of climate, as we have just had a
change from hard frost to thaw; but every thing has the appearance of a
milder atmosphere. I enquired into the reason of the want of hedges
hitherto, and their abundance here, and was told, that it arose from the
greater subdivision of property as well as from the number of cows: that
every man almost had his little piece of land, and his cow, pigs, hens,
&c. and that they could not afford to have herds. The yoke of the
bullocks here, is not, as in India, and in England, placed on the neck
and shoulders, but on the forehead and horns: this, though to appearance
the most irksome to the poor animals, is said here to be the way in
which they work best. The sheep are very small, and of a long-legged and
poor kind: the hogs are the poorest I have ever seen; they are as like
the sheep as possible, though with longer legs, and resembling
greyhounds in the drawn-up belly and long slender snout; they seem
content with wondrous little, and keep about the road sides, picking up
any thing but wholesome food.

The cottages on the road, and in the small towns, are generally very
dirty, and inhabited by a very motley and promiscuous set of beings; the
men, women, children, indeed pigs, fowls, &c. all huddled together. The
pigs here appear so well accustomed to a cordial welcome in the houses,
that when by chance excluded, you see them impatiently rapping at the
door with their snouts.

* * *

We left Varrenes this morning, at six o'clock, and entered on a new
country, which presented to us a greater variety of scenery. The road
between Varrenes and St Martin D'Estreaux is almost all the way among
the hills, which are often covered to the top with wood. After
travelling for so long a time through a country which was almost
uniformly flat, our sensations were delightful in again approaching
something like a hilly district. The roads we found extremely bad, and
although we have had rain, I do not think that their condition is to be
ascribed to the weather. They want repair, and appear to have been
insufficient in their metal from the first. We were obliged here to have
a fourth horse, which our coachman ordered and paid for; he went with us