RS de. :

FRANCE. 443

Meaux contains about six thousand five hundred inhabitants; it is the seat of a bishop, of two courts of justice, and of some provincial revenue boards. There are several manufactories for tanning and currying leather, and making glue, some commerce in corn, cattle, wool, mill-stones, and fire-wood, is carried on. The buildings are as old and gloomy as in the other cities.

Beyond Meaux the general appearance of the country was better, the soil generally a sandy loam, which would bear excellent turnips. Some patches of that root were to be seen occasionally, which, though scarcely hoed, discovered strong plants, and showed the capabilities of the soil. À few stacks of wheat were to be seen, but, in no instance more than two belonged to one farm, and those not in my Judgment con- taining more than from thirty to thirty-five quarters. In the first ten miles from Meaux, I saw two flocks of sheep, the first about three, and the second about two hundred. They were of a fine woolled race, appeared to be a cross of the Merino breed, and were feeding on the stubbles. I remarked the whole way through France the absence of artificial grasses. Clover and trefoil in the stubbles are very rarely to be seen, though the advantage of sowing them would be very great.

. About ten miles from Meaux, the road entered a wood, which continued for a distance of nine or ten miles, when the country became open; but, though so near to Paris, there was no appearance of ornamental farming, of gentlemen’s seats, or those other indications of wealth and prosperity such as the environs of London and other cities display. A few good houses were visible at the end of avenues, but at considerable distances from each other, and without any of those neat decorations or éxhibitions of rural beauty which indicate the approach to a capital.