AND POSTILLIONS.

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sailles, into which the passengers ascend between the wheels in the rear, and ride, with their backs to the wheels, facing each other. The rear end of the diligence is somewhat rounded, as if a part of its symmetry were borrowed from the model of the stern of a Dutchman's ship, and from this semi-lunar form it is called the " rotunde." This rear apartment contains six persons, the middle one, called the "interior," ensconced as it is between the two other vehicles, will accommodate, comfortably, six persons. The front division, or cabriolet, which is the pleasantest portion of the diligence to obtain views of the country, has one seat for three persons. Seats for passengers are made at pleasure on the top or roof of the coach, where the heads of those mounted upon it nod at every surge of the vehicle amid piles of rocking trunks and boxes of merchandise. Thus expanded in broad dimensions, and towering with lofty piles of baggage and passengers, the French diligence, at a distance, apparently swells to the magnitude of a load of hay, when viewed slowly moving forward over the summit of some remote hill, or winding around its base, and still urged slowly forward through the humble valley. Our diligence to Louviers is by far the strongest, heaviest *and largest vehicle which I ever saw mounted on wheels. It might almost sustain a comparison with Noah's Ark, such was the number of living beings it contained within its hollow recesses. I took pains to count the multitude of persons that issued from it at one of the stopping places. Including children, there were thirty-two persons, with an ample allowance of baggage, besides a quantity of merchandise on freight in bales and boxes. Under this great load, every loose pebble on the hard road is crushed to powder, and every larger stone which the wheels pass over in their course apparently smokes under the violent abrasion. Eight horses are attached to the diligence, those in advance of the two wheel horses being harnessed together three

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FRENCH HARNESSES.

abreast, or rather, it may be termed, tied together by ropes of various lengths, which allow them a latitude in selecting their path, as they trot along the road. The irregular movements of the eight horses, half trotting and half walking, impart to the group the appearance of a drove of Vermont horses. Their harnesses, as well as the dress of the postillions, have probably remained unchanged for ages. Raw hides and hempen ropes, of primitively rude manufacture, compose the harnesses of most of the diligences.This sort of harness, as may well be supposed, is frequently broken; but it is rare that much delay is the consequence, as a loose piece of cord or twine, always stored away in one of the pockets of the postillion, is applied to splice the ruptured fragments, and the knots are tied, and the unravelled ends amputated by the jacknife in a few moments. The postillion then climbs upon his horse, boots and all, and after gaining his balance, gives a few cracks of his whip and puts his drove of horses in motion. In this manner, the rope traces were mended three or four times in the course of as many days ride, and exhibited wens of knotted protuberances on every yard of their length. These knots serve also admirably to shorten or lengthen the traces, instead of the complex machinery of a buckle, by adding or shaking out one, like a reef in a mainsail, as necessity requires. Although somewhat slow in their movements, yet, as their name implies, by diligence in travelling early and late, they make out to reach their destined bourne. In regard to the convenience and comfort of the passengers, the French diligence is superior to the lighter and more elegant but contracted stage coaches of England and of the United States. The interior is spacious, and well stuffed with soft linings and cushions, and provided with straps and net work to suspend small parcels.

The coachman, or postillion, as he is called in France,

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is not mounted on a high seat or box in front of the coach, as is commonly the case elsewhere, but on the back of one of his horses. His grotesque appearance, with his big boots, cue, and other equipments, and his mode of driving, afford a never-failing fund of diversion to an American traveller, as it did to the English traveller in the days of Sterne. One of them I saw mounted on the wheel horse, with two whips in his hand. He used one of them with a short leash for exciting the rosinante which he bestrode, and the other with a much larger leash for touching the leaders.

The boots of the postillion are of themselves objects of curiosity, rarely failing to excite a smile from the foreigner whenever he happens to see the tenant of a pair of them scuffling about the horses, or attempting to mount one of them with all this ballast at his heels. Whilst waiting one day for the diligence to start, I took advantage of the unoccupied scales in the yard to weigh a pair of these wonderful boots, which actually preponderated with a counterpoise of French weights equal to 223 lbs, avoirdupois. The boots are constructed somewhat like Æneas' shield, of seven folds of bull hide, or leather, besides an internal lining stuffed with padding. All this fortification of leather is intended to shield the postillions' right leg, whilst hanging pendant between the pole of the coach and the side of the horse on which he is mounted, from being bruised by the jerks of the pole, when a wheel strikes a stone or other obstacle in the road. One leg being thus loaded with such a ponderous weight, the postillion could never sit comfortably balanced on his saddle, unless the other leg were provided with a boot or weight equally heavy to restore the equilibrium. Thus, for the sake of saving one leg from bruises, the French postillion is nearly deprived of the use of both. After having alighted from his saddle, he hobbles about with

142

WATER-WORKS OF MARLI.

his steps impeded by the weight of his heels, which appear to be anchored to the ground.* Mounted on his horse, however, he is in all his glory, cracking his whip with a noise nearly as loud as the reports of a pistol, on approaching the post house, or entering in style a village, to rouse the inhabitants, as an English or an American coachman gives a blast from a bugle, when bright eyes are observable peeping from many a door and window with looks of admiring applause.

Our day's journey carried us through Marli, St. Germain, Poissy and Vernon. At Marli, the celebrated water wheels are situated on the bank of the river, which were used for elevating the water from the river to supply the fountains of Versailles. Nearly all the fixtures are of wood, and from the perishable nature of this material, are now in a state of decay. A steam engine has lately been erected to furnish additional power to operate the forcing pumps By the old water wheels, seven or eight pumps were used, the alternate strokes of which kept the cur rent of water ascending steadily, without an air vessel to react by the elasticity of the air, in the two ranges of

*Some of the wooden shoes, called in France Sabots, and worn by the country people, are nearly as cumbersome as the boots of the postillions.Those who wear them progress with a half limping, scuffling gait. To prevent the unyielding wood from chafing the feet, soft cloth is used for a lining of the cavity of the wooden shoe, which resembles in appearance a shoc-last hollowed out by gouges. No labor requiring active movement can be advantageously performed, whilst the operative wears these wooden clogs upon his feet. Indeed it appears that the use of wooden shoes must be attended with more loss of time from inefficient labor than would pay the difference between the wear of wooden and leather shoes; or at all events, it must indicate an exceedingly depreciated demand for human labor in a country where vigorous laborers cannot afford to wear leather shoes. During the civil wars in the province of La Vendee, whenever the soldiers were defeated and hard pressed by pursuit, they always left their shoes behind them, as they could not run away with them on, and the regular soldiers by gathering them up could ascertain pretty correctly how many of their enemies had been put to flight,

FRENCH AGRICULTURE.

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pipes conducting to the reservoir at the top of the hill, 300 feet above the level of the river, and nearly a mile distant from it. These ill constructed water wheels present a remarkable contrast to the substantial works of a similar kind, constructed on the Schuylkill to supply the city of Philadelphia with water.

AGRICULTURAL LABORS.

The agricultural labor of haymaking now occupies the attention of the portion of the country through which we travelled. The mowers use sythes with straight wooden shafts or poles for handles, without being nicely balanced by projecting pins, and bent to the convenient form commonly used in the United States. The laborers in mowing the grass are consequently compelled to bend forward in a low, stooping, and uncomfortable attitude. The rakes and other farming implements are even more rudely made than the sythe-handles, and exhibit none of that attention to lightness and finish observable in the manufacture of similar instruments in New-England. The modes of husbandry, as well as many of the mechanical arts of working in wood and iron, seem to be above half a century behind the same branches of business, as managed in England at the present time. The French, however, always contrive to arrive at the same result at last, although by more tedious and laborious processes, often manifesting nearly as much ingenuity in accomplishing their objects with their insufficient implements, as the English themselves have displayed in the invention of their more perfect tools and machinery. Like the journeys performed in a French diligence and in an English stage coach, the same end is attained, although at the expense of a great waste of time and labor.

One of the most singular features of French agriculture,