440 FRANCE.

betwixt ten and eleven thousand inhabitants, crowded together as usual in fortified cities. There are within it manufactories for a species of fine striped serges, and several large tanneries. The inn at which I passed the night, like all the houses I had seen since entering France, was excessively dirty; but the provisions were excellent, and the cookery good, for which a sufficiently high price was charged.

After ascending from Verdun, we passed through the village or small town of Dombasle, and reached Clermont, by a hilly country, with open fields, on some of which the newly-sprung wheat had a healthy appearance.(Clermont is a very poor looking town, the soil round it light loam, easier to work than much I had passed, but equally encumbered with surface- stones. The forest of Argonne commenced at the end of the town, and the road was through it to St. Menehoud; before we reached which place, we passed a collection of cottages, with a good house near it, which is so unusual in France as naturally to draw inquiries.[ found it belonged to a manu- facturer of glass bottles, who provides them to the best vineyards, whose wine is sent in them from the place of its growth to that of its consumption. St. Menehoud, the com- mencement of Champagne, is on a little island, formed by the river Aisne, contains about four thousand inhabitants, some of whom are employed in making earthen-ware and glass bottles. It is a well-built town. The hotel-de-ville is a handsome edifice, with a date 1730, and none of the houses seemed to be of more recent erection. This place is the depôt for fire-wood, which is collected in vast piles on the borders of the river, ready to be transported towards Paris. This, I was told, was the principal commerce of the city.

The plains of Champagne begin near this place; the soil