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way to the Burgundy vineyards and before returning to Paris,
where he occupied for three weeks a room adjoining mine at
the hotel du Louvre, he also went to Epernay and Rheims in
order to understand the champagne business. Hammond
was always an interesting person to listen to, and having ob-
tained good letters of introduction before going on his inspection
of the wine regions, he was very pleasantly received and saw the
interiors of many French houses with their family life, an un-
usual thing for a foreigner to succeed in doing. His knowledge
of the language however was extremely limited, and he lost a
great deal that would have been of value to him in consequence.
I may state here that his father while Senator in Washington succeed-
ed in having from the French government without cost a valuable
collection of grape cuttings from its nurseries near the Garden of Plants.
When received at the plantation early in 1858 the son had an acre
of ground trenched to the depth of 2 ½ feet and the cuttings were
there set out. I saw them in May of the same year when they were
growing luxuriantly, each plant to itself and tied to a stake,
presenting exactly the appearance of a European vineyard.
They were neglected and allowed to grow to excess during the war
and they probably suffered from the long summers to which they were
unaccustomed, the result being that they have since all died out.

We bade each other good-bye that night and in the
morning we started in opposite directions. My course was to Mont-
pellier, another anciently important city, which figures extensive-
ly in the history of old France as somewhat a literary and scienti-
fic centre. I found there a well kept botanical garden, from
an elevated position of which there is a view of the Meditterranean
and of the town of Cette situated thereupon, somewhat cele-
brated, or rather notorious, as headquarters for the artificial
production of native French wines. I found the streets of Montpellier
alive with soldiers, showing that many regiments were quartered
there, but probably only temporarily, and previous to distribution
among the cities prepared to receive garrisons. At the table d’hote
where I dined there were many officers. I visited during the
day a small collection of paintings which constituted the pub-
lic gallery of the place, containing several good pictures. The gov-
ernment assists these provincial galleries by purchasing works
at the annual exhibitions and distributing them around.

After my dinner I started again in a diligence for Toulouse
and arrived there late at night. The next morning I proceeded
to explore the city which I found to be one of considerable com-
mercial activity. It is situated on the river Garonne and its size
and importance are partly due to its location, which enables it to
trade with the Atlantic by the river and with the Meditterranean by
the canal of Languedoc. It is the seat of manufactories of cotton
and woolen goods, hardware, cutlery etc. It was the capital of the
Province of Languedoc for several centuries previous to the revolution
and its Palais de Justice contains several interesting relics per-
taining to its history. I visited its Art gallery and found it the
best provincial one I had yet seen. Another interesting place to see

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