meadow, there is no one to tend them. The large heap of manure being
dried up by the sun in the midst of the farm-yard, has a look of
unthriftiness, whilst the small, dark, and ill-ventilated dairies make
us wonder that the manufacture of the famous Brie cheese should be the
profitable thing it is. At one farm we visited, we saw thirty-six
splendid Normandy cows, the entire milk produce of which was used for
cheese-making. Yet nothing could be worse than the dairy arrangements
from a hygienic point of view, and the absolute cleanliness requisite
for dairy work was wanting. These Brie cheeses are made in every farm,
small or great, and large quantities are sent to the Meaux market on
Saturdays, where the sale alone reaches the sum of five or six millions
of francs yearly. The process is a very simple one, and is of course
perpetually going on.

Our hostess, at one of the larger and more prosperous of these farms,
showed us everything, and regaled us abundantly with the fresh milk warm
from the cow. Here we saw an instance of the social metamorphosis taking
place in these progressive districts. The mistress of the house, a
bright clever woman, occupied all day with the drudgery of the
farm-house, is fairly educated; and, though now neatly dressed in plain
cotton gown, on Sunday dresses like any other lady for the promenade.
Her mother, still clinging to the past custom, appeared in short stuff
petticoat, wooden shoes, and yellow-handkerchief wrapped round her head;
while the children, who, in due time, will be trained to toil like their
neighbours, are now being well taught in the village school.

These people are wealthy, and may be taken as types of the farming class
here, though many of the so called _cultivateurs_, or proprietors,
farming their own land, live in much easier style; the men managing the
business, the ladies keeping the house, and the work of the farm being