Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Volume 13, No. 373, Supplementary Number by Various
page 31 of 49 (63%)
monarch. It was late in the autumn, and about the period when the
south-eastern counties of France rather show to least advantage. The
foliage of the olive tree is then decayed and withered, and as it
predominates in the landscape, and resembles the scorched complexion
of the soil itself, an ashen and arid hue is given to the whole.
Still, however, there were scenes in the hilly and pastoral parts of
the country, where the quality of the evergreens relieved the eye even
in this dead season.

The appearance of the country, in general, had much in it that was
peculiar. The travellers perceived at every turn some marks of the
king's singular character. Provence, as the part of Gaul which first
received Roman civilization, and as having been still longer the
residence of the Grecian colony who founded Marseilles, is more full
of the splendid relics of ancient architecture than any other country
in Europe. Italy and Greece excepted. The good taste of King René had
dictated some attempts to clear out and to restore these memorials of
antiquity. Was there a triumphal arch, or an ancient temple--huts and
hovels were cleared away from its vicinity, and means were used at
least to retard the approach of ruin. Was there a marble fountain,
which superstition had dedicated to some sequestered naiad--it was
surrounded by olives, almond, and orange trees--its cistern was
repaired, and taught once more to retain its crystal treasures. The
huge amphitheatres, and gigantic colonnades, experienced the same
anxious care, attesting that the noblest specimens of the fine arts
found one admirer and preserver in King René, even during the course
of those which are termed the dark and barbarous ages.

A change of manners could also be observed in passing from Burgundy
and Lorraine, where society relished of German bluntness, into the
DigitalOcean Referral Badge