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which ought to be pursued; but all conversation of that sort is time lost in France. After dinner, M. Grimau carried me to his villa, at a small distance from the town, which is very prettily situated, commanding a view of the vale of the Allier. Letters from Paris, which contain nothing but accounts truly alarming, of the violences committed all over the kingdom, and particularly at and in the neighbourhood of the capital. M. Necker's return, which it was expected would have calmed every thing, has no effect at all; and it is particularly noted in the national assembly, that there is a violent party evidently bent on driving things to extremity: men who, from the violence and conflicts of the moment, find themselves in a position, and of an importance that results merely from public confusion, will take effectual care to prevent the settlement, order, and peace, which, if established, would be a mortal blow to their consequence: they mount by the storm, and would sink in a calm. Among other persons to whom Mons. l'abbe Barut introduced me, was the marquis de Goutte, chef d'escadre of the French fleet, who was taken by admiral Boscawen at Louisbourg, in 1758, and carried to England, where he learned English, of which he yet retains something. I had mentioned to Mons. l'abbe Barut, that I had a commission from a person of fortune in England, to look out for a good purchase in France; and knowing that the marquis would sell one of his estates, he mentioned it to him. Mons. de Goutte gave me such a description of it, that I thought, though my time was short, that it would be very well worth bestowing one day to view it, as it was no more than eight miles from Moulins, and, proposing to take me to it the next day in his coach, I readily consented. At the time appointed, I attended the marquis, with M. l'abbe Barut, to his chateau of Riaux, which is in the midst of the estate he would sell on such terms, that I never was more tempted to speculate: I have very little doubt but that the person who gave me a commission to look out for a purchase, is long since sickened of the scheme, which was that of a residence for pleasure, by the disturbances that have broken out here: so that I should clearly have the refusal of it myself. It would be upon the whole a more beneficial purchase than I had any conception of, and confirms Mons. de Grimau's assertion, that estates here are rather given away than sold. The chateau is large and very well built, containing two good rooms, either of which would hold a company of thirty people, with three smaller ones on the ground floor; on the second ten bed-chambers, and over them good garrets, some of which are well fitted up; all sorts of offices substantially erected, and on a plan proportioned to a large family, including barns new built, for holding half the corn of the estate in the straw, and granaries to contain it when threshed. Also a wine press and ample cellaring for keeping the produce of the vineyards in the most plentiful years. The situation is on the side of an agreeable rising, with views not extensive, but pleasing, and all the country round of the same features I have described, being one of the finest provinces in France. Adjoining the chateau is a field of five or six arpents, well walled in, about half of which is in culture as a garden, and thoroughly planted with all sorts of fruits. There are twelve ponds, through which a small stream runs, sufficient to turn two mills, that let at 1000 livres (431. 15s.) a-year. The ponds supply the proprietor's table amply with fine carp, tench, perch, and eels; and yield besides a regular revenue of 1000 livres. There are twenty arpents of vines that yield excellent white and red wine, with houses for the vignerons; woods more than sufficient to supply the chateau with fuel; and lastly, nine domains or farms let to metayers, tenants at will, at half produce, producing, in cash, 10,500 livres (4591. 7s. 6d.) consequently the gross produce, farms, mills, and fish, is 12,500 livres. The quantity of land, I conjecture from viewing it, as well as from notes taken, may be above 3000 arpents or acres, lying all contiguous and near the chateau. The out

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goings for those taxes paid by the landlord; repairs, garde de chasse, game-keeper (for here are all the seigneural rights, haute justice, &c.) steward, expences on wine, &c. amount to about 4400 livres (1921. 10s.) It yields therefore net something more than 8000 livres (3501.) a year. The price asked is 300,000 livres (13,1251.) but for this price is given the furniture complete of the chateau, all the timber, amounting, by valuation of oak only, to 40,000 livres (17501.) and all the cattle on the estate, viz. one thousand sheep, sixty cows, seventy-two oxen, nine mares, and many hogs. Know. ing, as I did, that I could, on the security of this estate, borrow the whole of the purchase-money, I withstood no trifling temptation when I resisted it. The finest climate in France, perhaps in Europe; a beautiful and healthy country; excellent roads; a navigation to Paris; wine, game, fish, and every thing that ever appears on a table, except the produce of the tropics; a good house, a fine garden, ready markets for every sort of produce; and, above all the rest, three thousand acres of inclosed land, capable in a very little time of being, without expence, quadrupled in its produce, altogether formed a picture sufficient to tempt a man who had been five-and-twenty years in the constant practice of the husbandry adapted to this soil. But the state of government; the possibility that the leaders of the Paris democracy might in their wisdom abolish property as well as rank; and that in buying an estate I might be purchasing my share in a civil war; deterred me from engaging at present, and induced me to request only that the marquis would give me the refusal of it, before he sold it to any body else. When I have to treat with a person for a purchase, I shall wish to deal with such an one as the marquis de Goutte. He has a physiognomy that pleases me; the ease and politeness of his nation is mixed with great probity and honour; and is not rendered less amiable by an appearance of dignity that flows from an ancient and respectable family. To me he seems a man in whom one might, in any transaction, place implicit confidence. I could have spent a month in the Bourbonnois, looking at estates to be sold; adjoining to that of M. de Goutte's is another of 270,000 livres purchase, Ballain; Mons. l'abbe Barut having made an appointment with the proprietor, carried me in the afternoon to see the chateau and a part of the lands; all the country is the same soil, and in the same management. It consists of eight farms, stocked with cattle and sheep by the landlord; and here too the ponds yield a regular revenue. Income at present 10,000 livres (4371. 10s.) a year; price 260,000 livres (11,3751.) and 10,000 livres for wood; twenty-five years purchase. Also near St. Poncin another of 400,000 livres (17,500l.) the woods of which, four hundred and fifty acres produce 5000 livres a year; eighty acres of vines, the wines so good as to be sent to Paris; good land for wheat, and much sown; a modern chateau, avec toutes les aisances, &c. And I heard of many others. I conjecture that one of the finest contiguous estates in Europe might at present be laid together in the Bourbonnois. And I am further informed, that there are at present six thousand estates to be sold in France; if things go on as they do at present, it will not be a question of buying estates, but kingdoms, and France itself will be under the hammer. I love a system of policy that inspires such confidence as to give a value to land, and that renders men so comfortable on their estates as to make the sale of them the last of their ideas. Return to Moulins. 30 miles.

The 10th. Took my leave of Moulins, where estates and farming have driven even Maria and the poplar from my head, and left me no room for the tombeau de Montmo renci; having paid extravagantly for the mud walls, cobweb tapestry, and unsavory scents of the Lyon d'Or, I turned my mare towards Chateauneuf, on the road to Auvergne. The accompaniment of the river makes the country pleasant. I found the inn full, busy, and bustling; Monseigneur the bishop, coming to the fete of St. Laurence, patron of the parish here. Asking for the commodite, I was desired to walk into the garden. This has happened twice or thrice to me in France; I did not before find out that they were such good cultivators in this country; I am not well made for dispensing this sort of fertility; but my lord the bishop and thirty fat priests will, after a dinner that has employed all the cooks of the vicinity, doubtless contribute amply to the amelioration of the lettuces and onions of Mons. le Maitre de la Poste. To St. Poncin. 30 miles.

The 11th. Early to Riom, in Auvergne. Near that town the country is interesting; a fine wooded vale to the left, every where bounded by mountains; and those nearer to the right of an interesting outline. Riom, part of which is pretty enough, is all volcanic; it is built of lava from the quarries of Volvic, which are highly curious to a naturalist. The level plain, which I passed in going to Clermont, is the commencement of the famous Limagne of Auvergne, asserted to be the most fertile of all France; but that is an error, I have seen richer land in both Flanders and Normandy. This plain is as level as a still lake; the mountains are all volcanic, and consequently interesting. Pass a scene of very fine irrigation, that will strike a farming eye, to Mont Ferrand, and after that to Clermont. Riom, Ferrand, and Clermont, are all built, or rather perched, on the tops of rocks. Clermont is in the midst of a most curious country, all volcanic; and is built and paved with lava; much of it forms one of the worst built, dirtiest, and most stinking places I have met with. There are many streets that can, for blackness, dirt, and ill scents, only be represented by narrow channels cut in a night dunghill. The contention of nauseous savours, with which the air is impregnated, when brisk mountain gales do not ventilate these excrementitious lanes, made me envy the nerves of the good people, who, for what I know, may be happy in them. It is the fair, the town full, and the tables d'hotes crowded. 25 miles.

The 12th. Clermont is partly free from the reproach I threw on Moulins and Besancon, for there is a salle a lecture at a Mons. Bovares, a bookseller, where I found several newspapers and journals; but at the coffee-house I inquired for them in vain: they tell me also, that the people here are great politicians, and attend the arrival of the courier with impatience. The consequence is, there have been no riots; the most ignorant will always be the readiest for mischief. The great news just arrived from Paris, of the utter abolition of tythes, feudal rights, game, warrens, pidgeons, &c. have been received with the greatest joy by the mass of the people, and by all not immediately interested; and some even of the latter approve highly of the declaration : but I have had much conversation with two or three very sensible persons, who complain bitterly of the gross injustice and cruelty of any such declarations of what will be done, but is not effected and regulated at the moment of declaring. Mons. l'abbe Arbre, to whom Mons. de Broussonet's letter introduced me, had the goodness not only to give me all the information relative to the curious country around Clermont, which, particularly as a naturalist, attracted his inquiries, but also introduced me to Mons. Chabrol, as a gentleman who has attended much to agriculture, and who answered my inquiries in that line with great readiness.

The 13th. At Roya, near Clermont, a village in the volcanic mountains, which are so curious, and of late years so celebrated, are some springs, reported by philosophical travellers to be the finest and most abundant in France; to view these objects, and more still, a very fine irrigation, said also to be practised there, I engaged a guide. Report, when it speaks of things of which the reporter is ignorant, is sure to magnify; the irrigation is nothing more than a mountain side converted by water to some tolerable meadow, but done coarsely, and not well understood. That in the vale, between Riom and Feerand, far exceeds it. The springs are curious and powerful: they gush, or rather burst from the rock in four or five streams, each powerful enough to turn a mill, into a cave a little below the village. About half a league higher there are many others; they are indeed so numerous, that scarcely a projection of the rocks or hills is without them. At the village, I found that my guide, instead of knowing the country perfectly, was in reality ignorant; I therefore took a woman to conduct me to the springs higher up the mountain; on my return, she was arrested by a soldier of the garde bourgeoise (for even this wretched village is not without its national militia) for having, without permission, become the guide of a stranger. She was conducted to a heap of stones, they call the chateau. They told me they had nothing to do with me: but as to the woman, she should be taught more prudence for the future: as the poor devil was in jeopardy on my account, I determined at once to accompany them for the chance of getting her cleared, by attesting her innocence. We were followed by a mob of all the village, with the woman's children crying bitterly, for fear their mother should be imprisoned. At the castle, we waited some time, and were then shewn into another apartment, where the town committee was assembled; the accusation was heard; and it was wisely remarked by all, that, in such dangerous times as these, when all the world knew that so great and powerful a person as the queen was conspiring against France in the most alarming manner, for a woman to become the conductor of a stranger; and of a stranger who had been making so many suspicious inquiries as I had, was a high offence. It was immediately agreed, that she ought to be imprisoned. I assured them she was perfectly innocent; for it was impossible that any guilty motive should be her inducement; finding me curious to see the springs, as I had viewed the lower ones, and wanted a guide for seeing those higher in the mountain, she offered herself; and could have no other than the industrious view of getting a few sols for her poor family. They then turned their inquiries against me, that if I wanted to see springs only, what induced me to ask a multitude of questions concerning the price, value, and product of the lands? What had such inquiries to do with springs and volcanoes? I told them, that cultivating some land in England, rendered such things interesting to me personally: and lastly, that if they would send to Clermont, they might know from several respectable persons, the truth of all I asserted; and therefore I hoped, as it was the woman's first indiscretion, for I could not call it offence, they would dismiss her. This was refused at first, but assented to at last, on my declaring, that if they imprisoned her, they should do the same by me, and answer it as they could. They censented to let her go, with a reprimand, and I departed; not marvelling, for I have done with that, at their ignorance, in imagining that the queen should conspire so dangerously against their rocks and mountains. I found my guide in the midst of the mob, who had been very busy in putting as many questions about me, as I had done about their crops. There were two opinions: one party thought I was a commissaire, come to ascertain the damage done by the hail: the other, that I was an agent of the queen's, who intended to blow the town up with a mine, and send all that escaped to the gallies. The care that must have been taken to render the character of that princess detested among the people, is incredible; and there seem every where to be no absurdities too gross, nor circumstances too impossible for their faith. In the evening to the theatre, the Optimist well acted. Before I leave Clermont, I must remark, that I dined, or supped five times at the table d'hote, with from twenty to thirty merchants and tradesmen, officers, &c. and it is not easy for me to express the insignificance; the inanity of the conversation. Scarcely any politics, at a moment when every bosom ought to beat with none but political sensations. The ignorance or the stupidity of these people must be absolutely incredible; not a week passes without their country abounding with events that are analysed and debated by the carpenters and blacksmiths of England. The abolition of tythes, the destruction of the gabelle, game made property, and feudal rights destroyed, are French topics, that are translated into English within six days after they hap. pen, and their consequences, combinations, results, and modifications, become the disquisition and entertaininent of the grocers, chandlers, drapers, and shoemakers of all the towns of England; yet the same people in France do not think them worth their conversation, except in private. Why? because conversation in private wants little knowledge; but in public it demads more; and therefore I suppose, for I confess there are a thousand difficulties attending the solution, they are silent. But how many people, and how many subjects, on which volubility is proportioned to ignorance? Account for the fact as you please, but with me it admits no doubt.

The 14th. To Izoire, the country all interesting, from the number of conic mountains that rise in every quarter; some are crowned with towns; on others are Roman castles, and the knowledge that the whole is the work of subterranean fire, though in ages far too remote for any record to announce, keeps the attention perpetually alive. Mons. de l'Arbre had given me a letter to Mons. Bres, doctor of physic, at Izoire : I found him, with all the townsmen, collected at the hotel de ville, to hear the newspaper read. He conducted me to the upper end of the room, and seated me by himself: the subject of the paper was the suppression of the religious houses, and the commutation of tythes. I observed that the auditors, among whom were some of the lower class, were very attentive; and the whole company seemed well pleased with whatever concerned the tythes and the monks. Mons. Bres, who is a sensible and intelligent gentleman, walked with me to his farm, about half a league from the town, on a soil of superior richness; like all other farms, this is in the hands of a metayer. Supped at his house afterwards, in an agreeable company, with much animated political conversation. We discussed the news of the day; they were inclined to approve of it very warmly; but I contended, that the National Assembly did not proceed on any regular well dijested system; that they seemed to have a rage for pulling down, but no taste for rebuilding: that if they proceeded much farther on such a plan, destroying every thing, but establishing nothing, they would at last bring the kingdom into such confusion, that they would even themselves be without power to restore it to peace and order; and that such a situation would, in its nature, be on the brink of the precipice of bankruptcy and civil war. I ventured further, to declare it as my idea, that without an upper house, they never could have either a good or a durable constitution. We had a difference of opinion on these points; but I was glad to find, that there could be a fair discussion; and that, in a company of six or seven gentlemen, two would venture to agree with a system so unfashionable as mine. 17 miles.

The 15th. The country continues interesting to Brioud. On the tops of the mountains of Auvergne are many old castles, and towns, and villages. Pass the river by a bridge of one great arch, to the village of Lampdes. At that place, wait on Mons. Greyffier de Talairat, avocat and subdelegue, to whom I had a letter; and who was so obliging as to answer, with attention, all my inquiries into the agriculture of the neighbourhood. He inquired much after lord Bristol; and was not the worse pleased with me, when he heard that I came from the same province in England. We drank his lordship's health in the strong white wine, kept four years in the sun, which lord Bristol had much commended. 18 miles.

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