Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 2Jefferson, Thomas
History
Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 2
Jefferson, Thomas
United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1865
In the neighborhood of Montelimart, and below that, they plant vines in
rows, six, eight, or ten feet apart, and two feet asunder in the row,
filling the intervals with corn. Sometimes the vines are in double rows,
two feet apart. I saw single asses in ploughs proportioned to their
strength. There are few chateaux in this province. The people, too,
are mostly gathered into villages. There are, however, some scattering
farm-houses. These are made either of mud, or of round stone and mud.
They make enclosures also, in both those ways. Day-laborers receive,
sixteen or eighteen sous the day, and feed themselves. Those by the year
receive, men three louis, women half that, and are fed. They rarely eat
meat; a single hog, salted, being the year’s stock for a family. But
they have plenty of cheese, eggs, potatoes, and other vegetables, and
walnut oil with their salad. It is a trade here, to gather dung along
the road for their vines. This proves they have few cattle. I have seen
neither hares nor partridges since I left Paris, nor wild fowl on any
of the rivers. The roads from Lyons to St. Rambert are neither paved
nor gravelled. After that, they are coated with broken flint. The
ferry-boats on the Rhone and the Isere, are moved by the stream, and
very rapidly. On each side of the river is a moveable stage, one end of
which is on an axle and two wheels, which, according to the tide, can
be advanced or withdrawn, so as to apply to the gunwale of the boat. The
Praetorian Palace at Vienne, is forty-four feet wide, of the Corinthian
order, four columns in front, and four in flank. It was begun in the
year 400, and finished by Charlemagne.
The sepulchral Pyramid, a little way out of the town, has an order for
its basement, the pedestal of which, from point to point of its cap,
is twenty-four feet, one inch. At each angle, is a column, engaged one
fourth in the wall. The circumference of the three fourths disengaged,
is four feet four inches; consequently, the diameter is twenty-three
inches. The base of the column indicates it to be Ionic, but the
capitals are not formed. The cornice, too, is a bastard Ionic, without
modillions or dentils. Between the columns, on each side, is an arch of
eight feet, four inches, opening with a pilaster on each side of it. On
the top of the basement is a zocle, in the plane of the frieze below.
On that is the pyramid, its base in the plane of the collarins of the
pilaster below. The pyramid is a little truncated on its top. This
monument is inedited.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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