I think you have now had a pretty good share of Bayeux intelligence; only that I ought not to close my despatches without a word or two relating to habits, manners, trade, and population.  This will scarcely occupy a page.  The men and women here are thoroughly Norman.  Stout bodies, plump countenances, wooden shoes, and the cauchoise—­even to exceedingly tall copies of the latter!  The population may run hard upon ten thousand.  The chief articles of commerce are butter and lace.  Of the former, there are two sorts:  one, delicate and well flavoured, is made during winter and spring; put up into small pots, and carried from hence in huge paniers, not only to all the immediately adjacent parts of the country, but even to Paris—­and is shipped in large quantities for the colonies.  They have made as much as 120,000 lb. weight each season; but Isigny, a neighbouring village, is rather the chief place for its production.  The other sort of butter, which is eaten by the common people, and which in fact is made throughout the whole of Lower Normandy, (the very butter, in short, in which the huge alose was floating in the pot of the lively cuisiniere at Duclair[151]) is also chiefly made at Isigny; but instead of a delicate tint, and a fine flavour, it is very much the contrary:  and the mode of making and transporting it accords with its qualities.  It is salted, and packed in large pots, and even barrels, for the sake of exportation; and not less than 50,000 lb. weight is made each week.  The whole profit arising from butter has been estimated at not less than two millions of francs:  add to which, the circulation of specie kept up by the payment of the workmen, and the purchase of salt.  As to lace, there are scarcely fewer than three thousand females constantly employed in the manufacture of that article.

The mechanics here, at least some of them, are equally civil and ingenious.  In a shop, in the high or principal street, I saw an active carpenter, who had lost the fore finger of his right hand, hard at work—­alternately whistling and singing—­over a pretty piece of ornamental furniture in wood.  It was the full face of a female, with closely curled hair over the forehead, surmounted by a wreath of flowers, having side curls, necklace, and platted hair.  The whole was carved in beech, and the form and expression of the countenance were equally correct and pleasing.  This merry fellow had a man or two under him, but he worked double tides, compared with his dependants.  I interrupted him singing a French air, perfectly characteristic of the taste of his country.  The title and song were thus: 

  TOU JOURS.

  TOUJOURS, toujours, je te serai fidele;
  Disait Adolphe a chaque instant du jour;
  Toujours, toujours je t’aimerai, ma belle,
  Je veux le dire aux echos d’alentour;
  Je graverai sur l’ecorce d’un hetre,
  Ce doux serment que le dieu des amours,
  Vient me dieter, en me faisant connaitre;
  Que mon bonheur est de t’aimer toujours. Bis.