_English miles_, and may generally be considered as a flat country,
occasionally diversified by a few hills of no great magnitude.
Enclosures are rarely seen, but the quantity of corn is quite
astonishing. Agriculture appeared to me to be in a highly improved
state: there are artificial grasses and meliorating crops. The
appearance of the villages in general on this road is but little
inferior to those in many parts of England. But the peasants, although
not for the most part badly off, have no idea of that neatness, and of
those domestic comforts which form the great characteristic of the same
class of people in England.

An English farmer would laugh at the great cocked hat which is usually
worn by the French husbandman, and would not be disposed to change his
white frock for the blue one used on the Continent. Some wood is
occasionally to be seen; but Picardy is not famous either for the
quantity or quality of its timber. The general fuel of the lower orders
is _turf_, which, however, is not in any great quantity; and in
appearance it is inferior to that used by the Irish peasants. The roads
are in general kept in good repair, and near Paris and some other great
towns they are paved in the centre. They are flanked in many places by
avenues of trees, which are for the most part cut with great formality;
but even where left to themselves, they do not add much to the ornament
of the country or to the comfort of the traveller, affording but a
scanty shade.

The whole of this road is without turnpikes; they were, as I understood,
abolished about three years ago, and the roads are now managed by the
government. The French praise Buonaparte extremely for his attention to
the state of their _roads_, and it must be owned that in this
particular he merits the praise bestowed on him, which cannot be said