"
I believe it is always expected, that a traveller in France should say
something respecting the general aspect of the country and its
agriculture. I shall content myself with remarking, that this part of
Normandy is marvellously like the country which the Conqueror conquered.
When the weather is dull, the Normans have a sober English sky,
abounding in Indian ink and neutral tint. And when the weather is fine,
they have a sun which is not a ray brighter than an English sun. The
hedges and ditches wear a familiar livery, and the land which is fully
cultivated repays the toil of the husbandman with some of the most
luxuriant crops of wheat I ever saw. Barley and oats are not equally
good, perhaps from the stiffness of the soil, which is principally of
chalk; but flax is abundant and luxuriant. The surface of the ground is
undulated, and sufficiently so to make a pleasing alternation of hill
and dale; hence it is agreeably varied, though the hills never rise to
such a height as to be an obstacle to agriculture.
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