horses carrying corn; their backs being hung with sheaves in a very curious manner. The corn about here did not look good. There was a good deal of asparagus; in some places there were alternate rows of corn and asparagus. The man who drove us sang most of the time, and altered his voice: he had been in England, and he said that when he came back to France he could not persuade the people that in England it took only one man to shoe a horse. He had an English dog with him, which he said understood English, French, and Spanish. The name of the man was Jean de Grange. Here the country was not so pretty, as there are no hedges; the patches of corn and grass looked just like ribbons, particularly on the side of a hill. We reached Mantes in the evening. After crossing two bridges we saw a curious old church. The river looked full of soap; I think the water must be very unwholesome considering the quantity of soap which goes into it. We went to Hôtel du Grand Cerf. The floor of the parlour was boarded, and there were two vases full of artificial flowers; the people of the inn were civil. Two of our beds were in the parlour, from which they were divided by doors that shut like a closet. _August 9th._--We set off at a quarter to six. There were a few vineyards, but the country was not pretty as far as Châlons. The banks of the Seine are quite lovely, and the river looks well here, as there are several islands in it. We saw a boat full of cattle going across the river. There are a good many houses and vineyards on the banks. Further on there were rows of walnut and plum trees by the roadside, which looked very pretty. The corn looked fine, but very much laid. There were not any animals, except here and there a skinny cow tethered by the roadside. We breakfasted at Vernon. The room we were in was very shabby. In one corner of a room we passed through there was a queer jug--a boy sitting across a barrel. They brought us in an odd-looking teapot; the water was smoked, as the tea-kettle had no lid, and the tea tasted like herbs and water; the milk too was thymy, the butter bad, and the bread sour. We had been told that in this part of the country chickens were _fourpence_ a pair; the woman here told us that they were _three francs_ and a half. It was at Vernon we saw a man sitting at the door eating a raw artichoke and oil. After leaving Vernon there came on a heavy shower of rain. We saw several men mowing the corn. When it was fair, we got out at a cottage to gather some plums; the man shook the tree, and we picked up those that fell; we gave him half a franc, with which he seemed satisfied. We walked up a hill where we saw several butterflies; some with black and yellow striped upper wings, and under wings the colour of a dead leaf. There were rows of apple and pear trees; we picked up a few apples and pears which were not ripe; the apples were like alum and the pears like stone. The country was here