fashion. According to the French antiquaries, this was the body of one
of the ancient dukes of Nevers. There are many other antiquities in the
town, but I do not find that I have noted them, except that they exist
in sufficient numbers to establish the ancient origin of this capital of
the Nivernois.

Nothing can be more picturesque than the country between Nevers and
Moulins. Natural beauty, and the life and activity of cultivation,
unite to render it the most complete succession of landscape in France.
The road is gravel, and excellent to a degree. It is bordered by
magnificent trees, but which have been so planted, as to procure shade
without excluding air; the road, therefore, is at once shady and dry.
The chesnut trees, which are numerous in this part of the Bourbonnois,
in beauty at least, infinitely exceed the British oaks: they have a
bossy foliage, which reminds one of the Corinthian volutes. The French
peasantry are not insensible of this beauty--wherever there was a tree
of this kind of more than common luxuriance in its foliage, a seat was
made around the trunk, and the turf mowed and ornamented, so as to shew
that it was the scene of the village sports. Though England has many
delightful villages, and rustic greens, France beats it hollow in rural
scenery; and I believe I have before mentioned, that the French
peasantry equally exceed the English peasantry in the taste and rustic
elegance with which they ornament their little domains. On the great
scale, perhaps, taste is better understood in England than in France,
but as far as Nature leads, the sensibility of the French peasant gives
him the advantage. Some of the gardens in the provinces of France are
delightful.

We passed several fields in which the farming labourers were treading
out their corn; indeed the country all around was one universal scene of
gaiety and activity in the exercise of this labour. The manner in which
it is done is, I believe, peculiar to France. Three or four layers of
corn, wheat, barley, or pease, are laid upon some dry part of the field,
generally under the central tree; the horses and mules are then driven
upon it and round it in all directions, a woman being in the centre like
a pivot, and holding the reins: the horses are driven by little girls.
The corn thrashed out is cleared away by the men, others winnow it,
others heap it, others supply fresh layers. Every one seems happy and
noisy, the women and girls singing, the m