ows, well stocked with black cattle, and adorned with a surprising
number of towns, villages, villas, and convents, generally situated on
the brows of gently swelling hills, so that they appear to the greatest
advantage. What contributes in a great measure to the beauty of this,
and the Maconnois, is the charming pastoral Soame, which from the city
of Chalons winds its silent course so smooth and gentle, that one can
scarce discern which way its current flows. It is this placid
appearance that tempts so many people to bathe in it at Lions, where a
good number of individuals are drowned every summer: whereas there is
no instance of any persons thus perishing in the Rhone, the rapidity of
it deterring every body from bathing in its stream. Next night we
passed at Beaune where we found nothing good but the wine, for which we
paid forty sols the bottle. At Chalons our axle-tree took fire; an
accident which detained us so long, that it was ten before we arrived
at Auxerre, where we lay. In all probability we must have lodged in the
coach, had not we been content to take four horses, and pay for six,
two posts successively. The alternative was, either to proceed with
four on those terms, or stay till the other horses should come in and
be refreshed. In such an emergency, I would advise the traveller to put
up with the four, and he will find the postilions so much upon their
mettle, that those stages will be performed sooner than the others in
which you have the full complement.

There was an English gentleman laid up at Auxerre with a broken arm, to
whom I sent my compliments, with offers of service; but his servant
told my man that he did not choose to see any company, and had no
occasion for my service. This sort of reserve seems peculiar to the
English disposition. When two natives of any other country chance to
meet abroad, they run into each other's embrace like old friends, even
though they have never heard of one another till that moment; whereas
two Englishmen in the same situation maintain a mutual reserve and
diffidence, and keep without the sphere of each other's attraction,
like two bodies endowed with a repulsive power. We only stopped to
change horses at Dijon, the capital of Burgundy, which is a venerable
old city; but we passed part of a day at Sens, and visited a
manufacture of that stuff we call Manchester velvet, which is here made
and dyed to great perfection, under the direction of English workmen,
who ha