in 1363, to the house of Saint-Quentin, and was then transmitted in direct line down to 1748, the date of the death of Alexander II. of Saint-Quentins, Count of Diet, governor of Berg-op-Zoom, and father of three daughters from whom the actual heirs descend.  These heirs are the Count de Simiane, the Chevalier de Simiane, and the minors of Bercy, each party owning one-third, represented by 97,667 livres in the Blet estate, and 20,408 livres in the Brosses estate.  The eldest, Comte de Simiane, enjoys, besides, a préciput (according to custom in the Bourbonnais), worth 15,000 livres, comprising the castle with the adjoining farm and the seigniorial rights, honorary as well as profitable.

The entire domain, comprising both estates, is valued at 369,227 livres.  The estate of Blet, comprises 1,437 arpents, worked by seven farmers and furnished, by the proprietor, with cattle valued at 13,781 livres.  They pay together to the proprietor 12,060 livres rent (besides claims for poultry and corvées).  One, only, has a large farm, paying 7,800 livres per annum, the others paying rents of 1,300, 740, 640, and 240 livres per annum.  The Brosses estate comprises 515 arpents, worked by two farmers to whom the proprietor furnishes cattle estimated at 3,750 livres, and these together return to the proprietor 2,240 livres.[3] These métairies are all poor; only one of them has two rooms with fire-places; two or three, one room with a fire-place; the others consist of a kitchen with an oven outside, and stables and barns.  Repairs on the tenements are essential on all the farms except three, “having been neglected for thirty years.”  “The mill-flume requires to be cleaned out, and the stream, whose inundations injure the large meadow; also repairs are necessary on the banks of the two ponds; on the church, which is the seignior’s duty, the roof being in a sad state, the rain penetrating through the arch;” and the roads require mending, these being in a deplorable condition during the winter.  “The restoration and repairs of these roads seem never to have been thought of.”  The soil of the Blet estate is excellent, but it requires draining and ditching to carry off the water, otherwise the low lands will continue to produce nothing but weeds.  Signs of neglect and desertion are everywhere visible.  The chateau of Blet has remained unoccupied since 1748; the furniture, accordingly, is almost all decayed and useless; in 1748 this was worth 7,612 livres, and now it is estimated at 1,000 livres.  “The water-power costs nearly as much to maintain as the income derived from it.  The use of plaster as manure is unknown,” and yet “in the land of plaster it costs almost nothing.”  The ground, moist and very good, would grow excellent live hedges; and yet the fields are enclosed with bare fences against the cattle, “which expense, say the farmers, is equal to a third of the net income.”  This domain, as just described, is valued as follows: