Never was a traveller more disappointed than I was upon entering into
this renowned city; a city, the name of which my ears have been familiar
to, ever since I first heard of disease or medicine. I expected to find
it filled with palaces; and to perceive the superiority of the soft air
it is so celebrated for, above all other places; instead of which, I was
accompanied for many miles before I entered it with thousands of
Moschettos, which, in spite of all the hostilities we committed upon
them, made our faces, hands and legs, as bad in appearance as persons
just recovering from a plentiful crop of the small-pox, and infinitely
more miserable. Bad as these flies are in the West-Indies, I suffered
more in a few days from them at, and near Montpellier, than I did for
some years in Jamaica.
However fine and salubrious the air of this town might have been
formerly, it is far otherwise now; and it may be naturally accounted
for; the sea has retired from the coast, and has left three leagues of
marshy ground between it and the town, where the hot sun, and stagnated
waters, breed not only flies, but distempers also; beside this, there
is, and ever was, something very peculiar in the air of the town itself:
it is the only town in France where verdigris is made in any great
quantity; and this, I am inclined to think, is not a very favourable
circumstance; where the air is so disposed to cankerise, and corrode
copper, it cannot be so pure, as where none can be produced; but here,
every cave and wine-cellar is filled with sheets of copper, from which
such quantities of verdigris are daily collected, that it is one of the
principal branches of their trade. The streets are very narrow, and
very dirty; and though there are many good houses, a fine theatre, and a
great number of public edifices beside churches, it makes altogether but
an indifferent figure.
Without the walls of the town, indeed, there stands a noble equestrian
statue of Louis the XIVth, surrounded with spacious walks, and adorned
with a beautiful fountain. Their walks command a view of the
Mediterranean Sea in front, and the Alps and Pyrenees on the right and
left. The water too is conducted to a most beautiful _Temple d' Eau_
over a triple range of arches, in the manner of the _Pont du Gard_, from
a very considerable distance. The modern arches over which it runs, are
indeed, a great and mighty piece of work; for they are so very large,
extended so far, and are so numerous, that I could find no person to
inform me of their exact number; however, I speak within the bounds of
truth, I hope, when I say there are many hundred; and that it is a work
which the Romans might have been proud of, and must therefore convey an
high idea of the riches and mightiness of a kingdom, wherein one
province alone could bear, and be willing too to bear, so great an
expence, and raise so useful, as well as beautiful a monument; for
beside the immense expence of this triple range of arches, the source
from whence the water is conveyed is, I think, three leagues distant
from the town, by which means every quarter of it is plentifully
supplied with fountains which always run, and which in hot climates are
equally pleasing, refreshing, and useful.
The town abounds with apothecaries' shops, and I met a great many
physical faces; so that if the air is not good, I conclude the physic
is, and therefore laid out two _sols_ for a pennyworth of ointment of
_marsh-mallows_ which alleviated a little the extreme misery we all were
in, during our stay at this celebrated city. If, however, it still has
a reputation for the cure of a _particular disorder_, perhaps that may
arise from the impurity of the air,--and that the air which is so prone
to engender verdigris, may wage war with other subtile poisons; yet, as
I found some of my countrymen there, who had taken a longer trial of the
air, and more of the physic, than I had occasion for, who neither
admired one, nor found benefit from the other, I will not recommend
_Montpellier_ as having any peculiar excellencies within its walls, but
good wine, and some good actors. It is a dear town, even to the natives,
and a very imposing one to strangers; and therefore I shall soon leave
it, and proceed southward.
Perhaps you will expect me to say something of the _Sweets_ which this
town is so famed for: there are indeed some sweet shops of that sort;
and they are _bien places_. At these shops they have ladies' silk
pockets, sachels for their shifts, letter cases, and a multitude of
things of that kind, quilted and _larded_ with something, which does
indeed give them a most pleasing and lasting perfume. At these shops
too, beside excellent lavender water, essence of bergamot, &c. they sell
_eau de jasmin de pourri, de cedre, de girofle, sans pareille, de mille
fleurs, de zephir, de oiellet, de sultan_ and a hundred other sorts; but
the _essence of bergamot_ is above all, as a single drop is sufficient
to perfume a handkerchief; and so it ought to be, for it is very dear.