But to return to the promenade, &c. my petticoat of moravian work seemed to catch the admiring observation of all the females who passed; and indeed I ought, in justice to our British needlewomen, to remark, that their performance is rarely equalled, and assuredly never surpassed, by their continental rivals, however highly French work may be praised and sought after by our capricious leaders of _ton_.
The confluence of the rivers Rhone and Saone here is reckoned to be one of the finest things of the kind in Europe. We went to see it, but were rather disappointed in its effect; for the late uncommonly dry season had greatly diminished the pride of both these celebrated streams. It takes place at a spot about half a mile distant from the town, and we drove thither in a ridiculous hired vehicle, called a _carriole_, very like a long four-posted bedstead, on wheels, with coarse linen curtains for summer weather, and black shabby leather ones for winter. A seat, resembling a mattrass, was slung on the inside, upon which the people sit back to back, like those in an Irish jaunting car. The driver is upon a seat in front, and manages two horses, which are generally ornamented with frontlets, and knots of gay riband and bells. Our coachman was quite a coxcomb, sporting smart nankeen trowsers, gaiters, and yellow shoes of washed leather.
The women at Lyons struck us as remarkably ugly, and we actually were unable to discover a single pretty face among them. We met a country dame, stumping into town to partake in the gaieties of the fête, dressed in a bright yellow gown, tucked up at the pocket-holes, so as to display a full rose-coloured petticoat beneath, white stockings, black slippers, a deep gipsy hat of Leghorn straw, and a white handkerchief with the usual flowered border.
Nothing can be handsomer than this town: it much resembles Bath, particularly in its environs, which are built upon hanging hills, and embosomed in woods and vineyards. The convent of St. Michael, rising among them, is very ugly, however, reminding one of a large Birmingham manufactory. Here dwell _les Soeurs de la Charité_, and we were informed that they really are of great use, and do much good in their generation, which cannot, alas! be said of the regular nuns, poor victims!