and antique towers, built by the English, have an imposing
effect. The town stands in a plain, which, in the distance, being
fringed with wood, together with the corn and meadow ground, give it
that richness and beauty that characterizes the whole country between
Nantes and Angers. The river Mayenne, and a small branch of the
Loire, divide the town. It is the chief seat of the province of
Maine-et-Loire, formerly the capital of Anjou. It is a large ancient
city, with a fine cathedral, a botanical garden, museum, and
several manufactories of cottons; one of them in imitation of India
handkerchiefs. Here the last effort was made by the Vendeans, whose
flight from it was immediately followed by the bloody and disastrous
affair of Mans.

I had now passed the provinces of Bretagne and Poitou, as they border
the Loire; and, in point of beautiful and romantic scenery, this
district can scarcely be surpassed. The left bank of the river,
running along the country of Le Bocage, from Nantes to Angers, a
distance of seventy-two miles, is a continued range of lofty hills,
agreeably diversified with corn lands, and studded with vineyards. The
opposite bank is a more flat and variegated country, with pleasant
eminences and broad plains, watered by branches of the Loire, which in
many parts contains small islands covered with trees. The whole course
of this fine river, as the eye sweeps and ranges over its banks,
presents at almost every bend the view of villas enriched with
gardens, orchards, and vineyards; castles, convents, and villages in
ruins! bearing innumerable evidences of the desolating war that has
destroyed them.

The religious communities, whose love of scenery and retirement in
general led them to prefer the most sequestered valleys, have in these
provinces chosen the most elevated and picturesque spots for the
erection of their monasteries; and these, notwithstanding their
deserted and decaying state, prove the good taste of their ancient
possessors, and the skill and industry with which they embellished
them. No situations could have been selected more abounding in
picturesque combinations of magnificent landscapes.

The pleasure of the traveller in surveying such scenes, cannot but be
frequently interrupted, by the recollection of the various atrocities
which the inhabitants of these fine provinces committed against each
other, and of the immense number of innocent victims that were driven
from their abode to peri