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SCENES AND SKETCHES

IN

CONTINENTAL EUROPE.

CHAPTER I.-FRANCE.

AMONG the countries comprising Continental Europe, France stands foremost in the arts of life and civilization, in the tribute paid to genius and talent; and in her devotion to literature and learning, although not blessed with a republican form of government-and although there is less democracy in her political institutions than in Great Britain-still the cosmopolite is more independent than in any other country, and more free to do and to speak.

In alluding briefly to the physical and statistical characteristics of this fine country, we shall mention its boundaries: Belgium, Switzerland, and Piedmont, on the east; the Mediterranean, with Spain, on the south; and the sea on the west and north. It lies between the forty-third and fifty-first degrees of north latitude, and is particularly fortunate in its frontier, having strong natural barriers in the Pyrenees, the Alps, the ridge of Jura, and the Vosges; it is open only on the side of Belgium. Its length from east to west (from Alsace to Britany), is 650 miles; its breadth from north to south about 560; its superficial extent is computed at 131,000,000 of English acres.

France, generally speaking, presents a level but not undiversified surface; the only mountains that deserve the name are found in the district of Auvergne. They are connected with those of Dauphiné, Provence, and Languedoc. The general declination is toward the ocean and the Mediterranean; the coasts rise gently from the sea, and in few places exhibit cliffs or dangerous surfs. The finest parts of France lie along the course of the Seine to Paris; thence by the great road to Moulins and Auvergne, thence to Viviers on the Rhone, and thence along the course of that river to Aix. The provinces of Bretagne, Maine, and Angoulême have, in general, the appearance of deserts. Some parts of Touraine are rich and pleasing; but most of it is deficient in beauty. Picardy is uninteresting. Poitou is by no means pleasant; and its extensive marshes resemble the Norfolk and Lincolnshire fens. Champagne is scarcely more interesting, in general, than Poitou. Lorraine, Franche-Comté, and Burgundy, even where well-wooded, are gloomy and destitute of cheerfulness. The same character applies to Berry and La Marche; though the chestnut-tree makes its first appearance here, and it is not easy to conceive how much the luxuriant verdure of this tree increases the beauty of the landscape. Mr. Young says that the Limousin possesses more natural beauty than any other province of France; hill and dale, woods, lakes, streams, and scattered farms, are mingled everywhere through its whole extent, in a thousand delicious pictures. The

Vivarraise along the Rhone, and the adjoining parts of Dauphiné, are most romantic; while, on the other hand, Sologne is so far from being beautiful, that its name has, in some measure, become proverbial for its melancholy appearance. The picturesque beauty of the hilly parts of France is heightened by the rich and luxuriant verdure of the chestnut-trees, particularly in the Limousin, the Vivarraise, and Auvergne. Provence is rather gloomy than otherwise, the verdure being injured by the hue of the olive-tree; and the scenery of the plains of Burgundy is insipid.

The soil, as well as climate, of France, varies in different provinces, but is in general productive. The northeast is the richest and best cultivated district of the kingdom, and there are admirable corn-districts along the Seine, the Somme, the Rhine, and the Moselle. The chalk and calcareous hills of Champagne and Burgundy produce the finest vines. The soil of the basin of the Garonne is warmer but less productive than that of the northern districts. According to Young, there are seven different kinds of soil in France, viz.: 1, rich loam; 2, heath; 3, mountain; 4, chalk; 5, gravel; 6, stone; 7, sand, granite, gravel, &c. From a mode of calculation, of which he gives the particulars, Mr. Young estimates the quantity of acres of each kind of soil, as follows: Rich oam, 28,385,675 acres; heath, 25,513,213 do.; mountain, 28,707,037 do.; chalk, 16,584,889 do. ; gravel, 3,827,282 do.; stone, 20,412,171 do.; sand, granite, gravel, stone, &c., 8,292,444: total, 131,722,711.

The climate of a country so extensive as France must necessarily be various; yet this diversity may be regarded on the whole as perhaps more favorable to the sustenance and comfort of human life than the climate of any other region in Europe. In the northern districts the climate is hotter and more moist in the summer than in the southwest part of England. In the department of Finisterre an almost perpetual mist obscures the sky. It rains almost incessantly at Brest and Morlaix; and the inhabitants are said to be so accustomed to dampness and wet, that dry seasons prove prejudicial to their health. The heat in summer is always moderate here; and the cold less intense, by six or seven degrees, than in Paris. The humidity of the climate of Normandy is fully proved by the beautiful verdure of its rich pastures; yet, even at a distance from the coast, the rains in the north of France are extremely heavy, and of much longer duration than in England. In winter they experience heavier snows, and more severe frosts, than the natives of southern England; and whenever there is a long and sharp frost in the north of Europe, it is felt much more severely in Paris than in London. The central division of France possesses the best climate. In Touraine and the Limousin no snow falls, sometimes for the space of many years, and frost seldom occurs. There are neither the fogs and mists of Bretagne, nor the excessive humidity of Normandy, nor the burning sun of the southern provinces. The air is pure, light, and elastic, and the spring a continuance of such weather as is enjoyed in England about the middle of May. The harvest commences about the latter end of June, but is sometimes so late as the middle of July. The great heats are from the middle of July to the middle of August. Still, however, the climate of the central provinces has its disadvantages. All the country south of the Loire is subject to violent storms of hail and rain, the former occasionally beating down and destroying all the corn and vintage on which it may fall. These hailstorms are so frequent and ruinous, that it is calculated, on an average, that one tenth of the whole produce in the south of France is damaged by them. Thunder-storms are also frequent and violent in the south of France. The cataracts which then rush down the mountains carry ruin and desolation along with them, burying those meadows which, a few hours before, were covered with beautiful verdure, under heaps of stones, or masses of liquid mud, and cutting the sides of the mountains into deep ravines, where formerly the smallest track of a rivulet was not to be discovered. In most parts of France frosts are experienced so late in spring, and so early in autumn, as greatly to injure vegetation. The high country of Auvergne is bleak and cold; and all the districts of the Vosges mountains are affected by the snow upon them, which sometimes falls so late as the end of June.

In the southern provinces, the greatest heats seldom occur till the 15th of July, nor after the 15th of September. Harvest generally begins on the 24th of June, and ends the 15th of July. The middle of the vintage is about the end of September. During the continuance of the hot weather, scarcely any one who can avoid it thinks of quitting his house during the middle of the day. During the end of

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