Lieutenant-Colonel Pinkney, of the North American Native Rangers, obtained permission from the French government to travel a route never before performed: along the banks of the Loire, the Isère, and the Garonne through much of their course. His 1809 account, published in London, is less a scenic tour than a detailed report on the state of France seven years into the Napoleonic era. The catalog subject 'France -- Description and travel' only partly captures the work's character; Pinkney's narrative is heavily weighted toward economic comparison, agricultural practice, and the material conditions of the peasantry, with frequent asides on prices, road quality, and the lingering effects of the Revolution.

Price Lists and Provincial Economy

Pinkney devotes considerable space to itemizing the cost of provisions, often with an eye toward his English readership. At Angers, he notes that fowls cost 10 pence a couple, ducks a shilling a couple, and a goose 1 shilling 6 pence—prices he contrasts sharply with London's 12 shillings for fowls and half a guinea for a turkey. He remarks that veal and mutton from the Loire meadows are as good as English, but beef is inferior, used only for soups and stews. Wood is the only dear commodity, and he advises English travelers to burn coal, which is plentiful in France. These observations, scattered throughout the text, give the work a practical, almost mercantile tone, as if Pinkney were compiling a handbook for potential English settlers or traders.

Roman Remnants and Revolutionary Silence

At Angers, Pinkney notes Roman remains—arches of an aqueduct still entire—and remarks that the Romans, like the monks, chose sites for natural beauty. He visits the Caserne, a former riding school where Peter the Great of Russia learned equestrian arts. But the most striking passage concerns the Chouan siege: 'the people, with feelings which are better conceived than expressed, spoke with great reluctance on their past sufferings.' He adds that a foreigner who interrogates about the Revolution is sure to offend, and that the current maxim is 'to forget the past as if it had never happened.' This reticence is a recurring undercurrent, though Pinkney does not press further, leaving the reader to infer the depth of trauma beneath the surface of daily life.

Vineyards and Cave Dwellings

Pinkney describes the Loire vineyards with an eye for both beauty and utility: the vines form 'natural festoons' over the roads, and when the grapes are ripe, 'the landscape wants nothing of perfect beauty.' The vignerons live in cottages excavated from chalk hillocks, which he finds dry and comfortable. He notes that the country is thickly enclosed, varied with hill and dale, woodland and meadow, and that villages along the river are 'invariably picturesque and beautiful.' Yet his descriptions are never merely aesthetic; they are tied to the productivity of the land and the habits of its inhabitants. The peasantry's diet, he observes, includes a 'constant summer dinner' of simple fare, and partridges and hares are plentiful, fed on heath lands that give them superior flavor.

Pinkney's travelogue is best read as a document of post-Revolutionary France seen through the eyes of a British military man with a practical bent. Readers interested in economic history, comparative agriculture, or the material culture of the Napoleonic era will find more substance here than in a conventional picturesque tour. The author's habit of juxtaposing English and French practices—from road maintenance to market prices—makes the work a valuable primary source for understanding early nineteenth-century Anglo-French relations at the level of everyday life.