the clover. The spontaneous pasturage is of greensward,
which they call fromenteau. When lands are rented
on half-stocks, the cattle, sheep, &c. are furnished
by the landlord. They are valued, and must be
left of equal value. The increase of these, as
well as the produce of the farm is divided equally.
These leases are only from year to year. They
have a method of mixing beautifully the culture of
vines, trees, and corn. Rows of fruit-trees are
planted about twenty feet apart. Between the trees,
in the row, they plant vines four feet apart, and
espalier them. The intervals are sowed alternately
in corn, so as to be one year in corn, the next in
pasture, the third in corn, the fourth in pasture,
&c. One hundred toises of vines in length, yield
generally about four pieces of wine. In Dauphine,
I am told, they plant vines only at the roots of the
trees, and let them cover the whole trees. But
this spoils both the wine and the fruit. Their
wine, when distilled, yields but one-third its quantity
in brandy. The wages of a laboring man here are
five louis; of a woman, one half. The women do
not work with the hoe: they only weed the vines,
the corn, &c, and spin. They speak a patois very
difficult to understand. I passed some time at
the Chateau de Laye-Epinaye. Monsieur de Laye
has a seignory of about fifteen thousand arpents,
in pasture, corn, vines, and wood. He has over
this, as is usual, a certain jurisdiction, both criminal
and civil. But this extends only to the first
crude examination, which is before his judges.
The subject is referred, for final examination and
decision, to the regular judicatures of the country.
The Seigneur is keeper of the peace on his domains.
He is therefore subject to the expenses of maintaining
it. A criminal prosecuted to sentence and execution
costs M. de Laye about five thousand livres.
This is so burthensome to the Seigneurs, that they
are slack in criminal prosecutions. A good effect
from a bad cause. Through all Champagne, Burgundy,
and the Beaujolois, the husbandry seems good, except
that they manure too little. This proceeds from
the shortness of their leases. The people of
Burgundy and Beaujolois are well clothed, and have
the appearance of being well fed. But they experience
all the oppressions which result from the nature of
the general government, and from that of their particular
tenures, and of the seignorial government to which
they are subject. What a cruel reflection, that
a rich country cannot long be a free one. M.
de Laye has a Diana and Endymion, a very superior
morsel of sculpture by Michael Angelo Slodtz, done
in 1740. The wild gooseberry is in leaf; the
wild pear and sweet-briar in bud.
Lyons. There are some feeble remains here of an amphitheatre of two hundred feet diameter, and of an aqueduct in brick. The Pont d’Ainay has nine arches of forty feet from centre to centre. The piers are of six feet. The almond is in bloom.