_Avignon_ is remarkable for the No. Seven,
having seven ports, seven parishes, seven colleges, seven hospitals,
and seven monasteries; and I may add, I think, seven hundred bells,
which are always making a horrid jingle, for they have no idea of
ringing bells harmoniously in any part of France.
LETTER XL.
LYONS.
After a month's residence at _Avignon_, where I waited till the weather
and roads amongst the high _Dauphine_ mountains were both improved, I
sat out for this city. I had, you know, outward bound, dropt down to
_Port St. Esprit_ by water, so it was a new scene to us by land, and I
assure you it was a fine one; the vast and extensive rich vales, adorned
on all sides with such romantic mountains, could not be otherwise, in
such a climate. Our first stage was only four leagues to _Orange_; this
is the last town in the Pope's territories; and within a quarter of a
mile of it stands, in a corn field, a beautiful Roman triumphal arch, so
great in _ruins_, that it would be an ornament even in Rome. The _Palais
Royal_ at this town, has nothing to recommend it, but that it affords a
prospect of this rich morsel of antiquity.
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