morning we continued our progress. The scenery had so
great a resemblance to the road of the preceding day, that I saw nothing
worthy of detailed remark. The country was rich in views and in
fertility. The agriculture, as far as I could judge of it, is very
slovenly: the wheat is mowed, and gathered in by hand and in small
carts. The labourers, however, appeared in tolerable good condition, and
what cottages we passed by the road side, had every appearance of much
comfort, and some substance. I must not forget to mention that I saw no
cottage without a slip of land, and in many parts of the road, on the
waste by its side, were single fruit trees railed round, which as I
understood from Mr. Younge were the property of labourers, whose
cottages were perhaps removed a league from their trees. These trees,
which were in full bearing, are so much respected by the usage of the
country, that they are never invaded. I was pleased with this trait of
general honesty and confidence: it is common in America, but not in
England.

We passed several chateaus in meadows and lawns by the road side: some
of them were altogether in the ancient style, and so truly
characteristic of the French country house, as to merit a more detailed
description.

In the ordinary construction of a French chateau, there is a greater
consumption of wood than brick, and no sparing of ground. It is usually
a rambling building, with a body, wings, and again wings upon those
wings; and flanked on each side with a pigeon-house, stables, and barns,
the pigeon-house being on the right, and the barns and stables on the
left. The decorations are infinitely beneath contempt; painted
weathercocks and copper turrets, and even the paint apparently as
ancient as the chateau. The windows are numerous, but even in the best
chateaus there is strange neglect as to the broken glass; sometimes they
are left as broken, but more frequently patched with paper, coloured
silk, or even stuffed with linen. The upper tier of windows, even in the
front of the house, is usually ornamented with the clothes of the family
hanging out to dry, a piece of slovenliness and ill-taste for which
there can assuredly be no excuse in the country where there is surely
room enough for this part of household business. Upon the whole, the
appearance of a French chateau, in the old style, resembles one of those
deserted houses which are sometimes seen in England, where the plaister
has been peeled or