BOULOGNE, May 23, 1765.
DEAR DOCTOR,--I found three English families at Aix, with whom I could
have passed my time very agreeably but the society is now dissolved.
Mr. S--re and his lady left the place in a few days after we arrived.
Mr. A--r and lady Betty are gone to Geneva; and Mr. G--r with his
family remains at Aix. This gentleman, who laboured under a most
dreadful nervous asthma, has obtained such relief from this climate,
that he intends to stay another year in the place: and Mr. A--r found
surprizing benefit from drinking the waters, for a scorbutical
complaint. As I was incommoded by both these disorders, I could not but
in justice to myself, try the united efforts of the air and the waters;
especially as this consideration was re-inforced by the kind and
pressing exhortations of Mr. A--r and lady Betty, which I could not in
gratitude resist.
Aix, the capital of Provence, is a large city, watered by the small
river Are. It was a Roman colony, said to be founded by Caius Sextus
Calvinus, above a century before the birth of Christ. From the source
of mineral water here found, added to the consul's name, it was called
Aquae Sextiae. It was here that Marius, the conqueror of the Teutones,
fixed his headquarters, and embellished the place with temples,
aqueducts, and thermae, of which, however, nothing now remains. The
city, as it now stands, is well built, though the streets in general
are narrow, and kept in a very dirty condition. But it has a noble
cours planted with double rows of tall trees, and adorned with three or
four fine fountains, the middlemost of which discharges hot water
supplied from the source of the baths. On each side there is a row of
elegant houses, inhabited chiefly by the noblesse, of which there is
here a considerable number. The parliament, which is held at Aix,
brings hither a great resort of people; and as many of the inhabitants
are persons of fashion, they are well bred, gay, and sociable. The duc
de Villars, who is governor of the province, resides on the spot, and
keeps an open assembly, where strangers are admitted without reserve,
and made very welcome, if they will engage in play, which is the sole
occupation of the whole company. Some of our English people complain,
that when they were presented to him, they met with a very cold
reception. The French, as well as other foreigners, have no idea of a
man of family and fashion, without the title of duke, count, marquis,
or lord, and where an English gentleman is introduced by the simple
expression of monsieur tel, Mr. Suchathing, they think he is some
plebeian, unworthy of any particular attention.
Aix is situated in a bottom, almost surrounded by hills, which,
however, do not screen it from the Bize, or north wind, that blows
extremely sharp in the winter and spring, rendering the air almost
insupportably cold, and very dangerous to those who have some kinds of
pulmonary complaints, such as tubercules, abscesses, or spitting of
blood. Lord H--, who passed part of last winter in this place,
afflicted with some of these symptoms, grew worse every day while he
continued at Aix: but, he no sooner removed to Marseilles, than all his
complaints abated; such a difference there is in the air of these two
places, though the distance between them does not exceed ten or twelve
miles. But the air of Marseilles, though much more mild than that of
Aix in the winter is not near so warm as the climate of Nice, where we
find in plenty such flowers, fruit, and vegetables, even in the
severest season, as will not grow and ripen, either at Marseilles or
Toulon.
If the air of Aix is disagreeably cold in the winter, it is rendered
quite insufferable in the summer, from excessive heat, occasioned by
the reflexion from the rocks and mountains, which at the same time
obstruct the circulation of air: for it must be observed, that the same
mountains which serve as funnels and canals, to collect and discharge
the keen blasts of winter, will provide screens to intercept intirely
the faint breezes of summer. Aix, though pretty well provided with
butcher's meat, is very ill supplied with potherbs; and they have no
poultry but what comes at a vast distance from the Lionnois. They say
their want of roots, cabbage, cauliflower, etc. is owing to a scarcity
of water: but the truth is, they are very bad gardeners. Their oil is
good and cheap: their wine is indifferent: but their chief care seems
employed on the culture of silk, the staple of Provence, which is every
where shaded with plantations of mulberry trees, for the nourishment of
the worms. Notwithstanding the boasted cheapness of every article of
housekeeping, in the south of France, I am persuaded a family may live
for less money at York, Durham, Hereford, and in many other cities of
England than at Aix in Provence; keep a more plentiful table; and be
much more comfortably situated in all respects. I found lodging and
provision at Aix fifty per cent dearer than at Montpellier, which is
counted the dearest place in Languedoc.
The baths of Aix, so famous in antiquity, were quite demolished by the
irruptions of the barbarians. The very source of the water was lost,
till the beginning of the present century (I think the year 1704), when
it was discovered by accident, in digging for the foundation of a
house, at the foot of a hill, just without the city wall. Near the same
place was found a small stone altar, with the figure of a Priapus, and
some letters in capitals, which the antiquarians have differently
interpreted. From this figure, it was supposed that the waters were
efficacious in cases of barrenness. It was a long time, however, before
any person would venture to use them internally, as it did not appear
that they had ever been drank by the antients. On their re-appearance,
they were chiefly used for baths to horses, and other beasts which had
the mange, and other cutaneous eruptions. At length poor people began
to bathe in them for the same disorders, and received such benefit from
them, as attracted the attention of more curious inquirers. A very
superficial and imperfect analysis was made and published, with a few
remarkable histories of the cures they had performed, by three
different physicians of those days; and those little treatises, I
suppose, encouraged valetudinarians to drink them without ceremony.
They were found serviceable in the gout, the gravel, scurvy, dropsy,
palsy, indigestion, asthma, and consumption; and their fame soon
extended itself all over Languedoc, Gascony, Dauphine, and Provence.
The magistrates, with a view to render them more useful and commodious,
have raised a plain building, in which there are a couple of private
baths, with a bedchamber adjoining to each, where individuals may use
them both internally and externally, for a moderate expence. These
baths are paved with marble, and supplied with water each by a large
brass cock, which you can turn at pleasure. At one end of this edifice,
there is an octagon, open at top, having a bason, with a stone pillar
in the middle, which discharges water from the same source, all round,
by eight small brass cocks; and hither people of all ranks come of a
morning, with their glasses, to drink the water, or wash their sores,
or subject their contracted limbs to the stream. This last operation,
called the douche, however, is more effectually undergone in the
private bath, where the stream is much more powerful. The natural
warmth of this water, as nearly as I can judge from recollection, is
about the same degree of temperature with that in the Queen's Bath, at
Bath in Somersetshire. It is perfectly transparent, sparkling in the
glass, light and agreeable to the taste, and may be drank without any
preparation, to the quantity of three or four pints at a time. There
are many people at Aix who swallow fourteen half pint glasses every
morning, during the season, which is in the month of May, though it may
be taken with equal benefit all the year round. It has no sensible
operation but by urine, an effect which pure water would produce, if
drank in the same quantity.
If we may believe those who have published their experiments, this
water produces neither agitation, cloud, or change of colour, when
mixed with acids, alkalies, tincture of galls, syrup of violets, or
solution of silver. The residue, after boiling, evaporation, and
filtration, affords a very small proportion of purging salt, and
calcarious earth, which last ferments with strong acids. As I had
neither hydrometer nor thermometer to ascertain the weight and warmth
of this water; nor time to procure the proper utensils, to make the
preparations, and repeat the experiments necessary to exhibit a
complete analysis, I did not pretend to enter upon this process; but
contented myself with drinking, bathing, and using the douche, which
perfectly answered my expectation, having, in eight days, almost cured
an ugly scorbutic tetter, which had for some time deprived me of the
use of my right hand. I observed that the water, when used externally,
left always a kind of oily appearance on the skin: that when, we boiled
it at home, in an earthen pot, the steams smelled like those of
sulphur, and even affected my lungs in the same manner: but the bath
itself smelled strong of a lime-kiln. The water, after standing all
night in a bottle, yielded a remarkably vinous taste and odour,
something analogous to that of dulcified spirit of nitre. Whether the
active particles consist of a volatile vitriol, or a very fine
petroleum, or a mixture of both, I shall not pretend to determine: but
the best way I know of discovering whether it is really impregnated
with a vitriolic principle, too subtil and fugitive for the usual
operations of chymistry, is to place bottles, filled with wine, in the
bath, or adjacent room, which wine, if there is really a volatile acid,
in any considerable quantity, will be pricked in eight and forty hours.
Having ordered our coach to be refitted, and provided with fresh
horses, as well as with another postilion, in consequence of which
improvements, I payed at the rate of a loui'dore per diem to Lyons and
back again, we departed from Aix, and the second day of our journey
passing the Durance in a boat, lay at Avignon. This river, the Druentia
of the antients, is a considerable stream, extremely rapid, which
descends from the mountains, and discharges itself in the Rhone. After
violent rains it extends its channel, so as to be impassable, and often
overflows the country to a great extent. In the middle of a plain,
betwixt Orgon and this river, we met the coach in which we had
travelled eighteen months before, from Lyons to Montpellier, conducted
by our old driver Joseph, who no sooner recognized my servant at a
distance, by his musquetoon, than he came running towards our carriage,
and seizing my hand, even shed tears of joy. Joseph had been travelling
through Spain, and was so imbrowned by the sun, that he might have
passed for an Iroquois. I was much pleased with the marks of gratitude
which the poor fellow expressed towards his benefactors. He had some
private conversation with our voiturier, whose name was Claude, to whom
he gave such a favourable character of us, as in all probability
induced him to be wonderfully obliging during the whole journey.
You know Avignon is a large city belonging to the pope. It was the
Avenio Cavarum of the antients, and changed masters several times,
belonging successively to the Romans, Burgundians, Franks, the kingdom
of Arles, the counts of Provence, and the sovereigns of Naples. It was
sold in the fourteenth century, by queen Jane I. of Naples, to Pope
Clement VI. for the sum of eighty thousand florins, and since that
period has continued under the dominion of the see of Rome. Not but
that when the duc de Crequi, the French ambassador, was insulted at
Rome in the year 1662, the parliament of Provence passed an arret,
declaring the city of Avignon, and the county Venaiss in part of the
ancient domain of Provence; and therefore reunited it to the crown of
France, which accordingly took possession; though it was afterwards
restored to the Roman see at the peace of Pisa. The pope, however,
holds it by a precarious title, at the mercy of the French king, who
may one day be induced to resume it, upon payment of the original
purchase-money. As a succession of popes resided here for the space of
seventy years, the city could not fail to be adorned with a great
number of magnificent churches and convents, which are richly
embellished with painting, sculpture, shrines, reliques, and tombs.
Among the last, is that of the celebrated Laura, whom Petrarch has
immortalized by his poetry, and for whom Francis I. of France took the
trouble to write an epitaph. Avignon is governed by a vice-legate from
the pope, and the police of the city is regulated by the consuls.
It is a large place, situated in a fruitful plain, surrounded by high
walls built of hewn stone, which on the west side are washed by the
Rhone. Here was a noble bridge over the river, but it is now in ruins.
On the other side, a branch of the Sorgue runs through part of the
city. This is the river anciently called Sulga, formed by the famous
fountain of Vaucluse in this neighbourhood, where the poet Petrarch
resided. It is a charming transparent stream, abounding with excellent
trout and craw-fish. We passed over it on a stone bridge, in our way to
Orange, the Arausio Cavarum of the Romans, still distinguished by some
noble monuments of antiquity. These consist of a circus, an aqueduct, a
temple, and a triumphal arch, which last was erected in honour of Caius
Marius, and Luctatius Catulus, after the great victory they obtained in
this country over the Cimbri and Teutones. It is a very magnificent
edifice, adorned on all sides with trophies and battles in basso
relievo. The ornaments of the architecture, and the sculpture, are
wonderfully elegant for the time in which it was erected; and the whole
is surprisingly well preserved, considering its great antiquity. It
seems to me to be as entire and perfect as the arch of Septimius
Severus at Rome. Next day we passed two very impetuous streams, the
Drome and the Isere. The first, which very much resembles the Var, we
forded: but the Isere we crossed in a boat, which as well as that upon
the Durance, is managed by the traille, a moveable or running pulley,
on a rope stretched between two wooden machines erected on the opposite
sides of the river. The contrivance is simple and effectual, and the
passage equally safe and expeditious. The boatman has nothing to do,
but by means of a long massy rudder, to keep the head obliquely to the
stream, the force of which pushes the boat along, the block to which it
is fixed sliding upon the rope from one side to the other. All these
rivers take their rise from the mountains, which are continued through
Provence and Dauphine, and fall into the Rhone: and all of them, when
swelled by sudden rains, overflow the flat country. Although Dauphine
affords little or no oil, it produces excellent wines, particularly
those of Hermitage and Cote-roti. The first of these is sold on the
spot for three livres the bottle, and the other for two. The country
likewise yields a considerable quantity of corn, and a good deal of
grass. It is well watered with streams, and agreeably shaded with wood.
The weather was pleasant, and we had a continued song of nightingales
from Aix to Fontainebleau.
I cannot pretend to specify the antiquities of Vienne, antiently called
Vienna Allobrogum. It was a Roman colony, and a considerable city,
which the antients spared no pains and expence to embellish. It is
still a large town, standing among several hills on the banks of the
Rhone, though all its former splendor is eclipsed, its commerce
decayed, and most of its antiquities are buried in ruins. The church of
Notre Dame de la Vie was undoubtedly a temple. On the left of the road,
as you enter it, by the gate of Avignon, there is a handsome obelisk,
or rather pyramid, about thirty feet high, raised upon a vault
supported by four pillars of the Tuscan order. It is certainly a Roman
work, and Montfaucon supposes it to be a tomb, as he perceived an
oblong stone jetting out from the middle of the vault, in which the
ashes of the defunct were probably contained. The story of Pontius
Pilate, who is said to have ended his days in this place, is a fable.
On the seventh day of our journey from Aix, we arrived at Lyons, where
I shall take my leave of you for the present, being with great
truth--Yours, etc.