_Literary Souvenir for_ 1830.

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NOTES OF A READER.


CURIOSITIES OF FRANCE.

_Noted by John Locke_.


At Lyons, "they showed us, upon the top of the hill, a church, now
dedicated to the Virgin, which was formerly a temple of Venus; near it
dwelt Thomas a Becket, when banished from England.... About half a
league from St. Vallier, we saw a house, a little out of the way, where
they say Pilate lived in banishment. We met with the owner, who seemed
to doubt the truth of the story; but told us there was mosaic work very
ancient in one of the floors." At Montpelier, "I walked, and found them
gathering of olives--a black fruit, the bigness of an acorn, with which
the trees were thickly hung. All the highways are filled with gamesters
at mall, so that walkers are in some danger of knocks.... Parasols, a
pretty sort of cover for women riding in the sun, made of straw,
something like the fashion of tin covers for dishes.... Monsieur Renaie
a gentleman of the town, in whose house Sir J. Rushworth lay, about four
years ago, sacrificed a child to the devil--a child of a servant of his
own, upon a design to get the devil to be his friend, and help him to
get some money. Several murders committed here since I came, and more