stilential in
some parts of South America: they are light, elastic, and cheering. The
windows of the bed-chambers, as I have before mentioned, are almost all
without glass; or, if they have them, it is for show rather than for
use: the universal custom is, to sleep with them open. It is nothing
uncommon to have the swallows flying into your chamber, and awakening
you by early dawn with their twittering. When these windows open into
gardens, nothing can be more pleasant: the purity of the air, the
splendor of the stars, the singing of nightingales, and the perfume of
flowers, all concur to charm the senses; and I never remember to have
enjoyed sweeter slumbers, and pleasanter hours, than whilst in this part
of France.

In March and April, the ground is covered with flowers; and many which
are solely confined to the gardens and hot-houses in England, may be
seen in the fields and hedge-rows. The colours are perhaps not
altogether so brilliant as in more humid climates, but be they what they
may, they, give the country an appearance of a fairy land. Pease are in
common use on every table in March, and every kind of culinary vegetable
is equally forward. The meadows are covered with violets, and the
gardens with roses: the banks by the side of the road seem one continued
bed of cowslips. In plain words, Spring here indeed seems to hold her
throne, and to reign in all that vernal sweetness and loveliness which
is imputed to her by the poets.

The health of the inhabitants corresponds with the excellence of the
climate. Gouts, rheumatisms, and even colds, are very rare, and fevers
not frequent. The most common complaint is a dysentery, towards the
latter end of the autumn.

The face of the country throughout the two departments of the Nievre and
the Allier, is what has been above described--an uninterrupted
succession of rich landscape, in which every thing is united which
constitutes the picturesque. The country sometimes rises into hills, and
even mountains; none of which are so barren but to have vineyards, or
gardens, to their very summits. In many of them, where the surface is
common property, the peasantry, in order to make the most of its
superficial area, have dug it into terraces, on which each of them has
his vineyard, or garden for herbs, corn, and fruits. The industry of the
French peasantry is not exceeded in any part of the world: wherever they
possess a spot of land, they improve it to its utmost possible ca