and confined
as it were in a narrow channel, became putrid and pestilential. The vent
de bize is perhaps a greater blessing to this country than it has been
imagined.

Avignon, with the above exceptions, would be a delightful place of
residence to a foreigner, and particularly if his circumstances
permitted him to live in an extended society. It constitutes, as it
were, a little kingdom in itself, and the inhabitants have clearly and
distinctly a character, and peculiar manners belonging to themselves.

We visited the public walks of the town every evening during our stay,
and as the weather was delightful, and there was a division of soldiers
with their bands of music on the spot, they were always thronged, and
always gay and animated to a degree.

The Avignonese ladies appeared to me very beautiful, and whether it was
fancy or reality, I thought I could trace in many of them the features
which Petrarch has assigned to Laura. I no doubt whatever, but that the
recorded loves of these accomplished persons have a very strong
influence on the character of the town. If I should have an Avignonese
for a mistress, I should most certainly expect to find in her some of
the characteristic traits of Laura. It must not, indeed, be concealed,
that these ladies have not the reputation of being virtuous in the
extreme: to say the truth, they are considered as dissolute, and as
having little restraint even in their married conduct. I cannot say this
of them from any thing which I observed myself--to me they appeared gay,
tender and interesting.

In speaking of ladies, it would be unpardonable to omit something of
their dress. The ladies of Avignon follow the Paris fashions, but have
too much natural elegance to adopt them in extremes. On the evening
parade, they were habited in silk robes, which in their form resembled
collegiate gowns, and being of the gayest colours, gave the public walk
a resemblance to a flower-garden. Lace caps were the only covering of
their heads. The necks were not so exposed as at Paris, but were open as
is usual in. England and America in full dress. The gown was likewise
silk, embroidered in silver, gold, or worked flowers. The shoes of
velvet, with silver or gold clasps. The terms were naked almost up to
the shoulders, indeed almost indecently so. Being strangers, we were of
course objects of curiosity; when our eyes, however, met those of the
gazers, they invariably saluted us with a friendly smile.