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is in general a sandy loam, resting on a bed of soft lime-stone, with many stones on the surface. It is not very fertile in rain; wheat, barley, and rye, are grown. Most part of this district is calculated for wines of-the best flavour, the greater portion of which are sent to foreign countries, especially those from the vineyards of Ambouay, Verzey, Mailly, Mombret, and Sillery, which are esteemed the most valuable.

Chalons, the next city beyond St. Menehoud, on the banks of the river Marne, is the capital of the department of that name. It is a gloomy place; all the houses are old, and many of them close together. The population between eleven and twelve thousand. The thin stuffs which have given a name (shalloons) to similar kinds in England are still made here; there are manufacturers of hosiery, machinery for spinning cotton, with about ten thousand spindles, and several tanners and fellmongers. A great quantity of the mill-stones, called burrs, are drawn from quarries in the vicinity of the city, and are prepared here for the use of the millers; the banks of the river were very thickly strewed with them, waiting for means of conveyance. Some of these stones were of an unusually large size, and hooped with iron. Beyond Chalons, I passed a long straggling village, very poor, and only remarkable for its church, which is a beautiful Gothic structure, of large size, with two lofty towers. Iwas told that this edifice was built by the English, when they were masters of France, in the reign of Heury V., and that it commonly bears the name of the English church.|

Epernay, the next place, is a small city, of four thousand five hundred inhabitants. It is a depôt for the wines of Cham- pagne; several rich merchants collect it here to supply distant markets. There are some woollen manufactories, and some of

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