Home1815 Edition

BERRY

Volume 3 · 473 words · 1815 Edition

a province of France, which had the title of a duchy. It now forms the two departments of Cher and Indre; and is bounded on the north by Solome, on the south by Marche, on the east by Nivernois and Bourbonnois, and on the west by Touraine. It is 90 miles in length from north to south, and 73 in breadth from east to west. The air is very temperate; and the soil produces wheat, rye, and wine little inferior to Burgundy; that of Sancerre, St Satur, and Lavernuie, is the best. The fruits are in plenty, and pretty good. The pastures are proper to fatten sheep. This country produces also a good deal of hemp and flax. There are mines of iron and silver, but they are neglected. The stone quarries, within half a league of Bourges, are very serviceable. In the parish of St Hilaire there is a mine of ochre, made use of in melting metals and for painting. Near Bourges there is a cold mineral spring, which has a clammy fat pellicle over it every morning, of different colours. It lets fall a fine black smooth sediment, which has the same smell, and almost the same taste, as gunpowder, which makes some conclude it partakes of sulphur, vitriol, and ochre. The pellicle is as thick as a crown-piece; and when put on a red-hot fire-hovel, will bounce and sparkle, as will also the sediment. It is certain there is saltpetre in these waters, though vitriol seems to be the most predominant. These waters, drank on the spot, temperate the heat of the blood and humours, open obstructions, and strengthen the fibres. Berry is watered by several rivers; the principal of which are the Loire, the Creuse, the Cher, the Indre, the Orron, the Evre, the Aurette, the Maulon, the Great and Little Saudre, the Nerre, &c. Near Liniers, there is a lake 20 miles round. Berry is divided into the Upper and the Lower, and Bourges is the capital city. The inhabitants of Bourges carry on a small trade with corn down the Loire; but that of the wine above mentioned is much more considerable, it being transported to Paris by means of that river and the canal of Briare. But the principal commerce consists in the fat cattle which they send to Paris, and the great number of sheep; these last bear fine wool, which is used in the manufactures of this province and other parts of the kingdom. There are two sorts of manufactures in Berry; the one for cloths and serges, and the other for knit and wove stockings. There is likewise a great quantity of hemp, which is transported elsewhere; for they have not yet got the art of manufacturing it themselves. At Aubigny there are 2000 persons generally employed in the making of cloth.