the rents from their neglected peasantry, to curse
themselves for being condemned to the _triste sejour_ of their paternal
estate; and, after having thus replenished their coffers, to dive again
from their native woods, with renewed strength, into all the publicity
and dissipation of the capital. This was not always the state of things
in France. Previous to, and during the reign of Henry IV. the manners,
the society, and the mode of life of the nobility and gentlemen of the
kingdom, were undoubtedly different The country was not then deserted
for the town; the industry of the peasantry was exerted under the
immediate eye of the proprietor; and his happiness formed, we may
believe, no inferior object in the mind of his master; If we look at
the domestic memoirs which describe the condition of France in these
ancient days, we shall find that even from the early age of Francis I.
till the commencement of the political administration of Richelieu, the
situation of this country presented a very different picture; and that
the lives of the country gentlemen were passed in a very opposite manner
from that unnatural state of the kingdom to which we have above alluded.
Even the condition of the interior of the kingdom, as it is now seen,
points to this happier state of things. Their chateaus, which are now
deserted,--their silent chambers, with tarnished gilding and decaying
tapestry, remind us of the days when the old nobleman was proud to spend
his income on the decoration and improvement of his property; the
library, on whose walls we see the family pictures, in those hunting and
shooting dresses which tell of the healthier exercises of a country
retirement; whilst on the shelves, there sleeps undisturbed the
forgotten literature of the Augustan age of France--all this evidently
shows, that there was once, at least, to be found in the interior of the
kingdom, another and a different state of things. In the essays of
Montaigne, the private life of a French gentleman is admirably
depicted. His days appear to have been divided between his family, his
library, and his estate. A French nobleman lived then happy in the seat
of his ancestors. His family grew up around him; and he probably visited
the town as rarely as the present nobility do the country,--the
education of his children,--the care of his peasantry,--the rural
labours of planting and gardening,--the sports of the country,--the
_grandes chasses_ which he held in his par