wages of the labourers in this
part of France. "Their wages," said he, "are very different according to
the season. In harvest-time, they have as much as 36 sols, about 1_s._
6_d._ English money. The average daily wages of the year may amount to
24 sols, or a shilling English; they are allowed moreover, three pints
of the wine of the country. Their condition is upon the whole very
comfortable: the greater part of them have a cow, and a small slip of
land. There is a great deal of common land along the whole course of the
Loire, and the farmers have a practice of exchanging with the poor. The
poor, for example, in many districts, have a right of commonage, during
a certain number of days, over all the common fields; the farmers having
possession of these lands, and finding it inconvenient to be subject to
this participation, frequently buy it off, and in exchange assign an
acre or more to every collage in the parish. These cottages are let to
the labourers for life at a mere nominal rent, and are continued to
their families, as long as they remain honest and industrious. There is
indeed no such thing as parochial taxes for the relief of the poor, as
in England, but distress seldom happens without being immediately
relieved."

"In what manner," said I, "do the French poor live?"

"Very cheaply, and yet all things considered, very sufficiently. You,
who have lived almost the whole of your life in northern climates, can
scarcely form any idea, what a very different kind of sustenance is
required in a southern one. In Ireland, however, how many robust bodies
are solely nourished on milk and potatoes: now chesnuts and grapes, and
turnips and onions in France, are what potatoes are in Ireland. The
breakfast of our labourers usually consists of bread and fruit, his
dinner of bread and an onion, his supper of bread, milk, and chesnuts.
Sometimes a pound of meat may be boiled with the onion, and a bouille is
thus made, which with management will go through the week. The climate
is such as to require no expence in fuel, and very little in clothes."

In this conversation we reached Ecures, a village situated on a plain,
which in its verdure, and in the fanciful disposition of some trees and
groves, reminded me very strongly of an English park. This similitude
was increased by a house on the further extremity of the village: it was
situated in a lawn, and entirely girt around by walnut trees except
where it fronted the road, upon