ept that again there
were no pillows, and absolutely nothing in the chamber but a bed. Every
thing, however, was delightfully clean; and as I lay in my bed, I was
serenaded by a nightingale.

The road between Moulins and Lyons is certainly the most picturesque
part of France; every league presented me with something to admire, and
to note. My observations were accordingly so numerous, that I have
deemed it necessary to arrange them in some form, and to present them in
a kind of connected picture. Mr. Younge had the kindness to answer all
my questions as far as his own knowledge went; and where he was at a
loss himself, seized the first opportunity of inquiry from others. In
France, this is more practicable than it would be in any other country.
The French of all classes, as I have repeatedly had occasion to observe,
are unwearied in their acts of kindness; they offer their minor services
with sincerity, and you cannot oblige them more than by accepting them,
nor disappoint them more than by declining them. They have nothing of
the surliness of the Englishman. It would be considered as the most
savage brutality to hesitate in, and more particularly to refuse with
rudeness, any possible satisfaction to a stranger. To be a stranger is
to be a visitor, and to be a visitor is to have a claim to the most
extreme hospitality and attention. I can never enough praise the French
people for their indiscriminate, their natural, their totally
uninterested and spontaneous benevolence.

I wish to convey a clear idea of this garden of France: I shall
therefore give my observations in full under the heads of, its climate,
its produce, its agriculture, and the manners of its provincial
inhabitants.

The climate of the departments of the Nievre and the Allier, which
include the provinces of the Nivernois and Bourbonnois, is the most
delightful under Heaven, being at once most healthy, and such as to
animate and inspirit the senses and the imagination: it is an endless
succession of the most lovely skins, without any interruption, except by
those rains which are necessary to nourish and fertilize. The winters
are mild, without fogs, and with sufficient sunshine to render fires
almost unnecessary. The springs answer to the ordinary weather of May in
other kingdoms. The summer and autumn--with the exception of hail and
thunder, which are certainly violent, but not frequent--are not
characterized by those heavy humid heats, which are so pe