t, and that
in which the insurrection first broke out, is called _Le Bocage_; and
seems to have been almost as singular in its physical conformation,
as in the state and condition of its population. A series of detached
eminences, of no great elevation, rose over the whole face of the
country, with little rills trickling in the hollows and occasional
cliffs by their sides. The whole space was divided into small
enclosures, each surrounded with tall wild hedges, and rows of pollard
trees; so that though there were few large woods, the whole region
had a sylvan and impenetrable appearance. The ground was mostly in
pasturage; and the landscape had, for the most part, an aspect of
wild verdure, except that in the autumn some patches of yellow corn
appeared here and there athwart their green enclosures. Only two great
roads traversed this sequestered region, running nearly parallel, at
a distance of more than seventy miles from each other. In the
intermediate space, there was nothing but a labyrinth of wild and
devious paths, crossing each other at the extremity of almost every
field--often serving, at the same time, as channels for the winter
torrents, and winding so capriciously among the innumerable hillocks,
and beneath the meeting hedge-rows, that the natives themselves were
always in danger of losing their way when they went a league or
two from their own habitations. The country, though rather thickly
peopled, contained, as may be supposed, few large towns; and the
inhabitants, devoted almost entirely to rural occupations, enjoyed a
great deal of leisure. The noblesse or gentry of the country were very
generally resident on their estates, where they lived in a style of
simplicity and homeliness which had long disappeared from every other
part of the kingdom. No grand parks, fine gardens, or ornamented
villas; but spacious clumsy chateaux, surrounded with farm offices
and cottages for the labourers. Their manners and way of life, too,
partook of the same primitive rusticity. There was great cordiality,
and even much familiarity, in the intercourse of the seigneurs with
their dependants. They were followed by large trains of them in their
hunting expeditions, which occupied so great a part of their time.
Every man had his fowling-piece, and was a marksman of fame or
pretensions. They were posted in various quarters, to intercept or
drive back the game; and were thus trained, by anticipation, to that
sort of discipline a