employed; and the mode of cultivation is precisely
that which is carried on in garden husbandry. The crops are uniformly
laid out in small patches of an acre or thereby to each species of
vegetable; which, combined with the extreme minuteness of the
cultivation, gives the country under tillage the appearance of a great
kitchen garden. This singular practice, which is universal in Flanders,
is probably owing to the great use of the manual labour in the
operations of agriculture. Rye is very much cultivated, and forms the
staple food of the peasantry. The crops of wheat, barley, oats, rye, and
clover, struck us as exceedingly heavy, but not nearly so clean as those
of a similar description in the best agricultural districts of our own
country.

But it is principally in the condition, manners, and comfort of the
people, that the difference between the French and Flemish provinces
consists. Every thing connected with the lower orders, indicates the
influence of long-established prosperity, and the prevalence of habits
produced by the uninterrupted enjoyment of individual opulence. The
population of Flanders, both French and Austrian, is perfectly
astonishing; the villages form an almost uninterrupted line through the
country; the small towns are as numerous as villages in other parts of
the world, and seem to contain an extensive and comfortable population.
These small towns are particularly remarkable for the number and
opulence of the middling classes, resembling in this, as well as other
respects, the flourishing boroughs of Yorkshire and Kent, and affording
a most striking contrast to those of a very opposite description, which
we had recently passed through in France.

The cottages of the peasantry, both in the villages and the open
country, are in the highest degree, neat, dean, and comfortable; built
for the most part of brick, and slated in the roof; nowhere exhibiting
the slightest symptoms of dilapidation. These houses have almost all a
garden attached to them, in the cultivation of which, the poor people
display, not only extreme industry, but a degree of taste superior to
what might be expected from their condition in life: The inside bore the
marks of great comfort, both from the cleanness which every where
prevailed, and the costly nature of the furniture with which they were
filled. Nothing could be more pleasing than the appearance of the
windows, every where in the best repair, large and capacious, and
f