if a decent stranger, travelling on horseback, were a
miracle in that part of the country.

Whatever, however, was wanting in the town, was more than made up by the
surrounding country, which becomes very beautiful in the immediate
environs of Breteuil. For the five or six miles beyond the town, towards
Clermont, the scenery is enchanting. The vines, which here commence,
were in bloom, the road fringed with orchards, and even the corn-fields
hedged round with apple-trees. In the middle of every field was an elm
or a chesnut, which by the luxuriance of its foliage seemed planted in
other ages. On each side of the road, moreover, at the distance of a
mile or a league, were the towers of village churches rising from amidst
similar groves, whilst a chateau perhaps crowned the hill, and completed
the landscape. Bye-paths, and narrow roads, leading to one or other of
these villages, intersected the corn-fields in every direction; and as
the corn was full-grown and yellow, and the day beautifully serene,
nothing could be more grateful than this prospect. The heart of man
seems peculiarly formed to relish the beauties of Nature, and to feel
the bounties of Providence. What artificial beauty can equal that of a
corn-field? What emotion is so lively, and so fully pervades every
feeling, as that excited by the cornucopia of Nature, and the flowery
plenty of the approaching harvest?

The same scenery continues with little variation to Clermont, the
country improving, and the roads becoming worse. In this interval,
however, I passed several chateaux in ruins, and several farms and
houses, on which were affixed notices that they were to be let or sold.
On inquiring the rent and purchase of one of them, I found it to be so
cheap, that could I have reconciled myself to French manners, and
promised myself any suitable assistance from French labourers, I should
have seriously thought of making a purchase. An estate of eleven hundred
acres, seven hundred of which were in culture, the remainder wood and
heath, was offered for sale for 8000 Louis. The mansion-house was indeed
in ruin beyond the possibility of repair, but the land, under proper
cultivation, would have paid twenty-five per cent. on the
purchase-money. The main point of such purchases, however, is contained
in these words: Under proper cultivation. Nothing is so absurd as the
expectation of a foreign purchaser, and particularly of a gentleman,
that he will be able to transfe