en occasionally resting from
their labour to pay their gallant attentions. The scene is so animated
as to inspirit the beholder. It is evident, however, that this cheap
method of getting up their harvest, is only practicable in countries
where the climate is settled: even in this province they are sometimes
surprised with a shower, but as the sun immediately bursts out with
renewed fervour, every thing is soon put to rights. In Languedoc, as I
understood, they have no barns whatever, and therefore this practice is
universal. The wheat was not very heavy, it resembled barley rather than
wheat; the average crop about sixteen English bushels. Nothing is so
vexatious as the French measures; I do not understand them yet, though I
have inquired of every one.

Moulins somewhat disappointed my expectation. It is indeed, beautifully
situated, in the midst of a rising and variegated country, with meadows,
corn-fields, hills, and woods, to which may be added the river Allier,
a stream so recluse and pretty, and so bordered with beautiful grounds,
as to give the idea of a park. These grounds, moreover, are laid out as
if for the pleasure of the inhabitants: the meadows and corn-fields are
intersected by paths in every direction; and fruit-trees are in great
number, and to all appearance are common property. There is something
very interesting in these characteristics of simple benevolence; they
recall the idea of the primaeval ages. I have an indistinct memory of a
beautiful passage in Ovid, which describes the Golden Age. I am writing,
however, without the aid or presence of books, and therefore must refer
the classical reader to the original.

The interior of the town does not merit description: the streets are
narrow, the houses dark, and built in the worst possible style. The
architect has carried the idea of a city into the country: there is the
same economy of ground and light, and the same efforts for huddling and
comprehending as much brick and mortar as possible in the least possible
space. Its origin was in the fourteenth century. The Dukes of Bourbon
selected it as a place of residence during the season of the chace, and
having built a castle in the neighbourhood, their suite and descendants
shortly founded a town. This, indeed, was the usual origin of most of
the provincial towns in Europe; they followed the castle or the chateau
of the Baron. As seen in the fields and meadows in the vicinity of the
town, Moulins has a