The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-10-27 00:00:00

From I

Avignon ; so at 6
RI

I was g

m. ascii
Rocks, hills, vail

and then a huge quay and

anuous panorama before your view, until, sated with the kinds of savoury herbs : it tastes like duck, goose, pork,
monotony, as upon the Rhine, you ate glad to take to veal, as if all good things were rolled into it and made
-- book or a game of chess, or order some of the one. It would make a sick man well only to smell of it.
-;nes and refreshments from the stately, well- What slices ! what appetites ! what horns of brown ale they
stewardess. The waters, as you approach empty ! A waiter in a London eating house would run
Avignon, are sometimes too high to allow a passage under away horror-stricken, and proclaim a coming famine
the lightly-built suspension bridges, or, if a very dry sea- throughout the land. They eat their peas by spoonfuls;
son, too shallow for navigation, and you mutt betake a new potato vanishes at every mouthful; dishes are full
yourself to a land trip. As it was, we were detained one and emptied ere you can turn your head. That was a
night, only a few miles distant from Avignon, some said whole ham ten minutes ago ; now you behold only the
because the captain's wife lived there, others on account bone. 'Who ever before saw such enormous plum-pud-
of the state df the river. We, however, arrived at Avig- dings? Surely they have eaten enough. Why, that broad-
non at 10 a.m. next day; and here I was struck by the I shouldered sun-burnt fellow has clapped a solid pound
change of climate. In London and Paris it was cold, upon his plate—it is burning hot : look how he holds that
foo-I rain. At I f - and • - 'h 411P'

temptin

preised,prec

, sleet am. ...yignon, as . gazec, ,om the large lump, and blows it between his teeth ; the tears fain
Ills of the Papal palace, upon the straggling, ill-built \ start into his eyes. Where are those legs of mutton? the
shone forth warmly, the air was chines, and sirloins, and e!gebones of beef? Gone, for
about, and, as I ruminated ever gone. And now come the custards, and cheese-cakes,
was now getting near the and tarts. The men will ass,uredly burst : see, they un-
hat it was to be in the delightful loosen their neckerchiefs, their waistcoats, as if they were
Many Popes and going to begin again in downright earnest. Every man
..c in the city of Avignon. seems as if he had brought the appetite of three.—Pictures
dilapidated tomb of Petrarch's of Country Life.
, and her husband, Hugh de Sade. EDUCATION OP "-
s, quarrels, revolutions, have destroyed even
the renositories of

me, the

balmy, ti

n
e flies were buzzin

upon my solitary s
Mediterranean, I fi

Here also m.

celebrat

,nth of France

these celebrated dead ; and %here the lofjy candles, the •
ever-burning lamp, the music ascending to heaven's
arches,—where the response to the Hymn to the Virgin,
and the solemn pealing anthem, raised the rapt soul to
thoughts of heavenly beatitude,—heaps of fruits, seeds,
and garden-baskets crowd the desecrated temple, now in
-e, and Avignon boasted of seven
lieges, seven ho,,pitals, and
of the seven Popes they had once residing within seventy
years in the city. Before the Revolution there were also
seven nunneries and monasteries, but these were at that
dreadful reaction abolished, and the large silver bell, that
rang only on the death of the Pope, melted down. The
Jews are not now °Wilted, as at Rome, to dwell in a con-
fined, filthy, and narrow part of the city; nor are they
compelled to wear yellow hats and a particular, dress, as
if infected with plague.
.

A few years sir
yen palaces, se,

From Avignon I joined a French gentleman in a voi-
was a kind, handsome benevolent
_ tuber of the Institute of:France, and
___ I forget the politeness and sympathy I expe-
from M. Libri in our short journey from Avignon,
s and vines, to the city of Nisrnes.

fare to Nismes

old gen tlen

England

-
Truly. December here was like our may in
Around the fountains at Paris the lamps at 4 p.m. were
ely visible : around those of Nismes, 'crowds of
children, were basking in the

servants

ue Roman antiquities at Nismes ex.
Articular att..:nt,on and admiration. After a
very excellent dinner at the table d' hate, seated by the
side of my kind and attentive new friend, at about the
seventh course some dishes of small birds excited the
attention of a guest opposite to me, who was very inqui-
sitive as to the name of the delicate bipeds. " Are they
quails ?" " No, dey are not quails." " Thrushes ?"
" No." " Larks ?" " No." " Fieldfares ?" "No ;
I sink in England you call dem loafs 1"
After a comfortable repast, I sauntered forth to see,
by the light of the moon, Nismes and its celebrated
Roman amphitheatre. Never shall I forget the impres-
sion I felt, as turning the corner of a street, it suddenly
burst out before my view like a dark gloomy slumbering
giant, that had reposed for so many ages, alike defying
the ci umbling hand of time, and that of the more rude
despoiler man. The Maison-carree, or square house, is
one of the finest Roman remains of its class in the
although stillbeautiful, is
world. The temple of Diana,

ber stir

cited in