urnished with shutters on the outside, painted green, which, together
with the bright whiteness of the walls, gave the whole the appearance of
buildings destined for ornamental purposes, rather than the abode of the
lower orders of the people.

Cambray is a neat comfortable town, containing 15,000 inhabitants, and
surrounded by fortifications in tolerable repair, but which, when we
passed them, were not armed. It was once celebrated for its magnificent
cathedral, reckoned the finest in France; but a few ruins of this great
building alone have escaped the fury of the people, during the
commencement of the revolution. These trifling remains, however, were
sufficient to convey some idea of the beautiful proportions in which the
whole had been constructed; they resembled much the finest part of
Dryburgh Abbey, in Scotland. The modern cathedral, built near the site
of the old one, has a mean exterior, but possesses considerable
splendour in the inside.

From Cambray to Valenciennes, the features of the country continue the
same as those we have just described. The surface of the ground is still
flat, and cultivated in every part with the utmost care, in the garden
style of husbandry. We were particularly struck, in this district, by
the quantity of drilled crops, the admirable order in which they are
kept, and the vast numbers of people, both men, women, and children, who
appeared engaged in their cultivation. Nothing, indeed, but the great
demand for labour, occasioned by the use of manual labour in husbandry,
could have produced, or could support, the great population by which
Flanders has always been distinguished.

Valenciennes, situated in one of the finest districts of Flanders, is
likewise a well built, comfortable town, built entirely of brick, and
surrounded by magnificent fortifications, in admirable repair. As this
was the first well fortified town which we had seen, it was to us a
matter of no ordinary interest, which was encreased by the remembrance
of the celebrated siege which it had undergone from the English army at
the commencement of the revolutionary war. We were shewn the point at
which the English forced their entrance; and the numberless marks of
cannon-balls which their artillery had occasioned during the siege were
still uneffaced. Though the modern fortifications, built after the model
of Vauban, have not the romantic or picturesque aspect which belongs to
the aged towers of Montreuil, Abbeville,