A Year's Journey through France and Part of Spain, Volume 2 (1777)Thicknesse, Philip
History
A Year's Journey through France and Part of Spain, Volume 2 (1777)
Thicknesse, Philip
France -- Description and travel; Spain -- Description and travel
From _Bonne_ we intended to have taken the high road to _Dijon_; but
being informed that there was another, though not much frequented, by
way of _Autun_, and that _that_ town, which was a Roman colony, still
contained many curious monuments worthy of notice, we pursued the
latter, which twisted in between a vast variety of small, but fertile
valleys, watered with brooks, bounded by romantic hills, and some high
mountains, most of which were covered with vines, which _did_ produce
the most delicious red wine in the world; I say _did produce_, for the
high _gout_ and flavour of the Burgundy grape has for many years failed,
and perhaps so as never to return again. We, however, missed the road to
_Autun_, and, after four leagues' journey through a most delightful
country, we arrived at a miserable auberge in a dirty village called
_Yozy_, which stands upon the margin of a large forest, in which, some
years since, the _diligence_ from _Lyons_ to _Paris_ was attacked by a
banditti, and the whole party of travellers were murdered: ever since
that fatal day, a guard of the _Marechaussee_ always escort the
_diligence_ through this deep and dreadful forest, (so they called it),
and we were persuaded it was right to take a couple of the
_Marechaussee_, and did so; but as we found the forest by no means so
long, deep, or dreadful, as it had been represented, we suspected that
the advice given us, was more for the sake of the men who _guarded us_,
than from any regard _to us_, two men could have made no great
resistance against a banditti; and a single man would hardly have
meddled with us.
The next day we passed thro' _Arnay-le-Duc_, a pretty country village,
three leagues from _Yozy_, and it being their annual fair-day, we had an
opportunity of seeing all the peasantry, dressed in their best, and
much chearfulness, not only in the town, but upon the road before we
arrived, and after we passed it. Amongst the rest of the company, were a
bear and a monkey, or rather what _Buffon_ calls the _maggot_. I desired
the shew-man to permit my _maggot_, as he was the least, the youngest,
and the _stranger_, to pay a visit to _Mons. Maggot_, the elder, who
embraced the _young gentleman_ in a manner which astonished and
delighted every body, myself only excepted; but as _my young gentleman_
seemed totally indifferent about the _old one_, I suspected he had
_really met his father_, and I could not help moralizing a little.
From _Arnay-le-Duc_ we passed through _Maupas_, _Salou_, _Rouvray_,
_Quisse la forge_, and _Vermanton_ to _Auxerre_, the town where the
French nobleman _was said_ to live, whom Dr. _Smollett_ treated so very
roughly, and who, in return, was so _polite_ as to _help to tie_ the
Doctor's baggage behind his coach!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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