prevented our seeing much of the rich plain we were traversing. What we could see, however, was pleasing: every inch teemed with olives, vines, mulberries, corn, onions, and lucerne. We remarked many sheep sheared in a comical manner, with two or three tufts, like pincushions, running down the centre of their backs, and painted red. Circumstances like these, though trivial, are or ought to be pleasing, as they indicate that something like comfort or leisure exists, and that the farmer's business is partly become an amusement. A needy peasant, pinched by high rents or bad seasons, would have but little inclination to ornament his favourite wether in this absurd manner; and though Forsyth's remark is very true, that a peasant never attempts to become fine but he is hideous, such hideous attempts[45] are grateful to the mind's eye from the cheerfulness and play of mind which they indicate. Within a little distance of St. Remy the storm cleared sufficiently to enable us to discern the line of hills to the right, the foot of which we were skirting, and which border the great plain of Avignon to the south. There is something very singular in the outline of these rocks, which are a miniature resemblance of the wild mountains near Valence, but more savage and fantastic, presenting the appearance of the sea turned to stone in its wildest state of commotion, or in the powerful words of Manfred, "The aspect of a tumbling tempest's foam Frozen in a moment; a dead whirlpool's image." [Footnote 41: Vide Cooke's Views.] [Footnote 42: The celebrated fair of Beaucaire, which may be almost called the carnival of the Mediterranean, is held in this meadow yearly.] [Footnote 43: Vide Cooke's Views.] [Footnote 44: For an account of the Tarasque, or fabulous dragon, which infested the country, and the ceremonies commemorative of it, see Miss Plumptre's tour. The name of Tarascon, she says, is derived from this animal.] [Footnote 45: I do not except even John Bull's favourite yew peacocks and dragons, at least when they decorate the garden of a poor man.]