Part 14
Amboise is a pleasant, pretty town, half a league from Tours, crowned with a magnificent edifice, facing those three precious arches of the ancient bridge, which will disappear one of these days in some scheme of municipal improvement.
The ruin of the Abbey of Marmontiers is both great and beautiful. In particular there is, a few paces from the road, a structure of the Fifteenth Century--the most original I have seen: by its dimensions a house, by its machicoulis a fortress, by its belfry an _hôtel de ville_, by its pointed doorway a church. This structure sums up, and, as it were, renders visible to the eye, the species of hybrid and complex authority which in feudal times appertained to abbeys in general, and, in particular, to the Abbey of Marmontiers.
But the most picturesque and imposing feature of the Loire is an immense calcareous wall, mixed with sandstone, millstone, and potter’s clay, which skirts and banks up its right shore, and stretches itself out before the eye from Blois to Tours, with inexpressible variety and charm, now wild rock, now an English garden, covered with trees and flowers, crowned with ripening vines and smoking chimneys, perforated like a sponge, as full of life as an ant-hill.
Then there are deep caves which long ago hid the coiners who counterfeited the E. of the Tours mint, and flooded the province with spurious _sous_ of Tours. To-day the rude embrasures of these dens are filled with pretty window-frames coquettishly fitted into the rock, and from time to time one perceives through the glass the fantastic head-dress of some young girl occupied in packing aniseed, angelica, and coriander in boxes. The confectioners have replaced the coiners.
THE LOIRE
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
The banks of the Loire, from Blois to Angers, have been high in favour with the two last branches of the royal race that occupied the throne before the House of Bourbon. This beautiful basin so richly deserves the honours paid to it by royalty that this is what one of our most elegant writers has said of it:
“There exists in France a province that has never been sufficiently admired. Perfumed like Italy, flowered like the banks of the Guadalquiver, and beautiful in addition with its individual physiognomy, and entirely French, having always been French, in contrast to our northern provinces, corrupted by German contact, and our southern provinces that have lived in concubinage with the Moors, Spaniards and all races that desired to;--this province pure, chaste, brave and loyal is Touraine! Historic France is there! Auvergne is Auvergne; Languedoc is only Languedoc, but Touraine is France; and for us the most national river of all is the Loire that waters Touraine. Hence, we should not be so astonished at the quantity of monuments found in the Departments that have taken the name and derivatives of the name of the Loire. At every step we take in this land of enchantment, we discover a picture the frame of which is a river or a tranquil oval sheet that reflects in its liquid depths a castle with its turrets, woods and springing waters. It was only natural that where royalty abode by preference and established its court for such a long period the great fortunes and distinctions of race and merit should group themselves and raise palaces there grand as themselves.”
Is it not incomprehensible that Royalty did not follow the advice given by Louis XI. indirectly to make Tours the capital of the kingdom? There, without much expenditure, the Loire could have been made accessible to trading vessels and to ships of war of light draught. There, the seat of government would have been secure from the surprise of an invasion. The northern strongholds would not then have demanded so much money for their fortifications, as costly to themselves as the sumptuousness of Versailles. If Louis XIV. had listened to the advice of Vauban, who wanted to build a residence for him at Mont Louis, between the Loire and the Cher, perhaps the Revolution of 1789 would not have occurred. Still, here and there, those lovely banks bear the marks of the royal affection. The castles of Chambord, Blois, Amboise, Chenonceaux, Chaumont, Plessis-lez-Tours, all those which the mistresses of our kings, and the financiers and great lords built for themselves at Véretz, Azay-le-Rideau, Ussi, Villandri, Valençay, Chanteloup, Duretal (some of which have disappeared but the majority still exist) are admirable monuments that are redolent with the marvels of that epoch that is so ill comprehended by the literary sect of Mediævalists. Among all these castles, that of Blois is the one on which the magnificence of the Orleans and the Valois has set its most brilliant seal; and is the most interesting of all for the historian, the archæologist, and the Roman Catholic.
THE POTOMAC
ESTHER SINGLETON
The Potomac was an important river from the earliest period of the country’s history. Explorers followed its route to the interior of the country, and as early as 1784 The Potomac Company was chartered with Washington as its president for the purpose of connecting the Potomac Valley with the west by means of a canal for general land improvement. This was succeeded by the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company, whose canal runs parallel with and near to the river all the way from Georgetown to Cumberland.
The first attempt to explore the Chesapeake Bay and its tributary rivers was made in 1608 by Captain John Smith, who speaks of the Patawomeke as six or seven miles broad and navigable for 140 miles. Another Indian name was Cohonguroton (River of Swans). No less than forty tribes of the warlike Algonquins lived upon its banks and held their councils at the point of land now occupied by the Arsenal.
In 1634, Henry Fleet with some of Calvert’s people visited the Falls of the Potomac; and early in the Seventeenth Century several tracts of land on the river banks were granted to settlers. Among these was one Francis Pope, gentleman, who in 1663 had four hundred acres laid out which he called Rome, on the east side of the Anacostian River and to the mouth of the Tiber, for so this little arm of the Potomac was called more than a century before Washington was founded, there being a tradition that on its banks would rise a capital greater than Rome. The Tiber has now disappeared beneath the streets of Washington, but it once flowed below the hill on which the Capitol now stands between forest-lined banks and was noted for its shad and herring.
The Potomac is formed by the junction of two rivers on the boundary between Maryland and West Virginia. The North Branch rises in the Western Alleghanies and the South Branch in the Central; and, flowing north-east, they unite about fifteen miles south-east of Cumberland. The Potomac thus forms an irregular boundary between Maryland and West Virginia and Maryland and Virginia throughout its entire course of four hundred miles. Its chief tributaries are the Shenandoah from Virginia and the Monocacy from Maryland. At Harper’s Ferry the Potomac breaks through the Blue Ridge meeting the Shenandoah--“Daughter of the Stars”--which has cut its way through the mist-wreathed mountains, laved the Luray Caverns and watered a lovely valley. These rivers winding around Loudon Heights, Bolivar Heights and Maryland Heights are picturesque in the highest degree, and the scenery is rendered more interesting by the associations with John Brown’s raid and capture and other thrilling incidents of the Civil War.
Twelve miles below is Point of Rocks and below this the Monocacy joins the main stream.
A number of falls mark its course through the mountains; and about fifteen miles above Washington it descends rapidly until it reaches Great Falls, at which point it breaks through the mountain in a channel narrowing to a hundred yards in width and bounded on the Virginia side by perpendicular rocks seventy feet high. Cedars, oaks, willows and other forest trees contribute beauty to this wild spot, where cherries and strawberries abound, and which is the haunt of the rattlesnake and other venomous reptiles. The water falls in a series of cascades. Not far from this point Cabin-John Bridge is reached, a bridge formed of large blocks of granite 420 feet long and twenty feet wide, which springs the chasm of Cabin-John Creek at a height of 101 feet in a single arch of 220 feet. This is the largest stone arch in the world, the second being the Grosvenor Bridge (with a span of 200 feet), over the Dee.
At a distance of four miles below Great Falls, the stream widens and flows quietly for ten miles; and then descends thirty-seven feet in a second series of cascades known as Little Falls, about three miles above Georgetown. The Potomac, thus released from the hills above Georgetown, expands into a broad lake-like river, and receives the Anacostia at Washington, where it meets the tide. About twenty-five miles below Washington, it becomes an estuary from two to eight miles wide, and enters the Chesapeake Bay, after having made a journey of four hundred miles.
The chief places of interest on the banks of the Potomac are, of course, Washington, _Arlington House_, _Mount Vernon_, and the sleepy old town of Alexandria founded in 1748 and once a rival of Annapolis and Baltimore. It is full of associations with Washington, whose estate, _Mount Vernon_, is but a few miles below. _Mount Vernon_, in Washington’s time, an estate of two thousand acres, belonged originally to his half-brother, Lawrence, who named it for Admiral Vernon under whom he had served.
_Arlington House_, the residence of the adopted son of General Washington, George Washington Parke Custis, came into possession of Gen. Robert E. Lee through his wife who was the daughter of Mr. Custis. The house, built from drawings of the temple at Pæstum, near Naples, stands on a bluff two hundred feet above the river about four miles from Washington. The building with its two wings has a frontage of 140 feet and the portico sixty feet long is surmounted by a pediment resting on eight Doric columns twenty-six feet high and five feet in diameter. On the south were the gardens and greenhouses, and in the rear the kitchens, slave quarters and stables. In 1863 _Arlington House_ and the estate of 1,000 acres was sold under the Confiscation Act and taken possession of by the National Government; and in 1867 the grounds were appropriated for a National Cemetery.
The Potomac was the scene of skirmishes in 1814, when Alexandria surrendered to the British; and in this connection it is interesting to learn what Admiral Napier, who commanded the fleet, has to say regarding the ascent of the river:
“The river Potomac is navigable for frigates as high up as Washington, but the navigation is extremely intricate and nature has done much for the protection of the country by placing one-third of the way up, very extensive and intricate shoals, called the ‘Kettle Bottoms.’ They are composed of oyster banks of various dimensions, some not larger than a boat, with passages between them.
“The best channel is on the Virginia shore; but the charts gave us mostly very bad directions and no pilots could be procured. A frigate had attempted some time before to effect a passage, and, after being frequently aground, gave it up as impossible. The American frigates themselves never attempted it with their guns in, and were several weeks in the passage from the naval yard at Washington to the mouth of the Potomac.
“When the tide was favourable and the wind light, we warped by hand; with the ebb and the wind strong, the hawsers were brought to the capstan. This operation began at daylight and was carried on without interruption till dark and lasted five days, during which the squadron warped upwards of fifty miles, and on the evening of the fifth day anchored off Maryland Point. The same day the public buildings of Washington were burnt. The reflection of the fire on the heavens was plainly seen from the ships, much to our mortification and disappointment, as we concluded that that act was committed at the moment of evacuating the town....
“The following morning, to our great joy, the wind became fair, and we made all sail up the river, which now assumed a more pleasing aspect. At five o’clock in the afternoon _Mount Vernon_--the retreat of the illustrious Washington--opened to our view and showed us, for the first time since we entered the Potomac, a gentleman’s residence. Higher up the river, on the opposite side, Fort Washington appeared to our anxious eyes; and, to our great satisfaction, it was considered assailable.
“A little before sunset the squadron anchored just out of gun-shot; the bomb vessels at once took up their positions to cover the frigates in the projected attack at daylight next morning and began throwing shells. The garrison, to our great surprise, retreated from the Fort; and, a short time after, Fort Washington was blown up--which left the capital of America, and the populous town of Alexandria, open to the squadron, without the loss of a man.
“A deputation from the town arrived to treat; but Captain Gordon declined entering into any arrangement till the squadron arrived before Alexandria. The channel was buoyed, and next morning the 27th, we anchored abreast of the town and dictated terms.
“Alexandria is a large well-built town and a place of great trade. It is eight miles below Washington, where few merchant ships go, and is, in fact, the mercantile capital, and, before the war, was a most flourishing town, but at the time of its capture had been going rapidly to decay. Agricultural produce was of little value; the storehouses were full of it. We learnt that the army after destroying Barney’s flotilla, had made a forced march on Washington, beat the Americans at Bladensburg, destroyed the public buildings and navy yard, and retreated to their ships. Had our little squadron been favoured by wind, the retreat would have been made along the right bank of the Potomac, under our protection, and the whole country in the course of that river would have been laid under contribution.”
THE EUPHRATES
GEORGE RAWLINSON
Euphrates is probably a word of Arian origin. It is not improbable that in common parlance the name was soon shortened to its modern form of _Frát_, which is almost exactly what the Hebrew literation expresses.
The Euphrates is the largest, the longest, and by far the most important of the rivers of Western Asia. It rises from two chief sources in the Armenian Mountains, one of them at Domli, twenty-five miles north-east of Ezeroum, and little more than a degree from the Black Sea; the other on the northern slope of the mountain range called _Ala-Tagh_, near the village of _Diyadin_, and not far from Mount Ararat. Both branches flow at first towards the west or south-west, passing through the wildest mountain-districts of Armenia; they meet at _Kebban-Maden_, nearly in longitude 39° east from Greenwich, having run respectively 400 and 270 miles. Here the stream formed by their combined waters is 120 yards wide, rapid and very deep. The last part of its course, from _Hit_ downwards, is through a low, flat, and alluvial plain, over which it has a tendency to spread and stagnate; above _Hit_, and from thence to Samosata, the country along its banks is for the most part open but hilly; north of Samosata, the stream runs in a narrow valley among high mountains, and is interrupted by numerous rapids. The entire course is calculated at 1,780 miles, nearly 650 more than that of the Tigris, and only 200 short of that of the Indus; and of this distance more than two-thirds (1,200 miles) is navigable for boats, and even, as the expedition of Col. Chesney proved, for small steamers. The width of the river is greatest at the distance of 700 or 800 miles from its mouth. The river has also in this part of its course the tendency already noted, to run off and waste itself in vast marshes, which every year more and more cover the alluvial tract west and south of the stream. From this cause its lower course is continually varying, and it is doubted whether at present, except in the season of the inundation, any portion of the Euphrates water is poured into the _Shat-el-Arab_.
The annual inundation of the Euphrates is caused by the melting of the snows in the Armenian highlands. It occurs in the month of May. The rise of the Tigris is earlier, since it drains the southern flank of the great Armenian chain. The Tigris scarcely overflows, but the Euphrates inundates large tracts on both sides of its course from Hit downwards.
The Euphrates has at all times been of some importance as furnishing a line of traffic between the east and the west. Herodotus speaks of persons, probably merchants, using it regularly on their passage from the Mediterranean to Babylon. Alexander appears to have brought to Babylon by the Euphrates route vessels of some considerable size, which he had had made in Cyprus and Phœnicia. They were so constructed that they could be taken to pieces, and were thus carried piecemeal to Thapsacus, where they were put together and launched. The disadvantage of the route was the difficulty of conveying return cargoes against the current. According to Herodotus, the boats which descended the river were broken to pieces and sold at Babylon, and the owners returned on foot to Armenia, taking with them only the skins. The spices and other products of Arabia formed their principal merchandise. On the whole there are sufficient grounds for believing that throughout the Babylonian and Persian periods this route was made use of by the merchants of various nations, and that by it the east and west continually interchanged their most important products.
The Euphrates is first mentioned in Scripture as one of the four rivers of Eden. We next hear of it in the covenant made with Abraham where the whole country from “the great river Euphrates” to the river of Egypt is promised to the chosen race. In Deuteronomy and Joshua we find this promise was borne in mind at the time of the settlement in Canaan; and from an important passage in the first Book of Chronicles it appears that the tribe of Reuben did actually extend itself to the Euphrates in the times anterior to Saul. Here they came in contact with the Hagarites, who appear upon the middle Euphrates in the Assyrian inscription of the later empire. It is David, however, who seems for the first time to have entered on the full enjoyment of the promise, by the victories which he gained over Hadadezer, king of Zobah, and his allies, the Syrians of Damascus. The object of his expedition was “to recover his border,” and “to establish his dominion by the river Euphrates”; and in this object he appears to have been altogether successful; in so much that Solomon, his son, who was not a man of war, but only inherited his father’s dominions, is said to have “reigned over all kingdoms from the river (the Euphrates) unto the land of the Philistines and unto the border of Egypt.” Thus during the reigns of David and Solomon the dominion of Israel actually attained to the full extent both ways of the original promise, the Euphrates forming the boundary of their empire to the north-east, and the river of Egypt to the south-west. The “Great River” had meanwhile served for some time as a boundary between Assyria and the country of the Hittites, but had repeatedly been crossed by the armies of the Ninevite kings, who gradually established their sway over the countries upon its right bank. The crossing of the river was always difficult; and at the point where certain natural facilities fixed the ordinary passage, the strong fort of Carchemish had been built, probably in very early times, to command the position. Hence, when Necho determined to attempt the permanent conquest of Syria, his march was directed upon “Carchemish by Euphrates,” which he captured and held, thus extending the dominion of Egypt to the Euphrates, and renewing the old glories of the Rameside kings.
These are the chief events which Scripture distinctly connects with the “Great River.” It is probably included among the “rivers of Babylon,” by the side of which the Jewish captives “remembered Zion,” and wept, and no doubt is glanced at in the threats of Jeremiah against the Chaldean “waters” and “springs,” upon which there is to be a “drought,” that shall “dry them up.” The fulfilment of these prophecies has been noticed under the head of Chaldæa. The river still brings down as much water as of old, but the precious element is wasted by neglect of man; the various water-courses along which it was in former times conveyed, are dry; the main channel has shrunk; and the water stagnates in unwholesome marshes.
THE WYE
A. R. QUINTON
Among the many beautiful streams of Britain there is perhaps not one of which has so many and so varied charms as the River Wye. Issuing from the southern slopes of the great Welsh mountain, Plinlimmon, it begins its life as a mountain torrent, but gradually sobers down into a placid stream, flowing in a sinuous course of one hundred and thirty odd miles, and receiving many tributary streamlets before it mingles its waters with those of its big sister, the Severn, a few miles below Chepstow. Thickly dotted along its banks are picturesque ruined castles, abbeys, and manor-houses--each with its own story to tell of bygone days; quaint old towns, and at least one stately cathedral, each bearing names which often recur in the pages of history, and still retaining signs of the age when kings, barons, and Commoners, priests and laymen, struggled for supremacy.
Although there is much that is interesting and pleasing in the earlier part of its course, it is at Ross that the romantic scenery of the Wye may be said to commence. Above that town the river flows for many miles through a fairly open valley, bordered indeed with wooded hills, but with a broad expanse of meadow land between their feet and its margin. But on approaching Ross the slopes draw nearer to the brink of the stream, and for twenty miles or more the Wye flows through an almost continuous glen, carved deeply out of a lofty and undulating table-land.
The ancient town of Ross, our starting place, is chiefly built upon the slope of a hill terminating on a plateau, descending steeply to the river. Upon this plateau stands the church, with its adjoining garden, the Prospect, which commands a lovely view over the valley of the Wye; whence the graceful spire of the church forms a landmark for all the country round.
The district traversed by the Wye in the first stage of its seaward journey, from Ross to Monmouth, is an elevated upland, a region of rolling hills shelving down towards winding valleys, whose declivities become abrupt towards the margin of the main river. Near to this the hills are often scarped into cliffs and carved into ridges, but further back we have slopes and undulations, cornfields and scattered woodlands, in marked contrast with the crags and forest-clad glades near the edge of the swift and strong stream. The valley narrows after leaving Ross, but the scenery improves as we come in view of Goodrich Castle, crowning a wooded steep above the river, and Goodrich Court, also seated on an eminence. The latter is a modern imitation of a mediæval dwelling, and formerly contained the remarkably fine collection of ancient armour which has since found a home in the South Kensington Museum, and is known as the Meyrick Collection. The Castle, which is some distance beyond the Court, was in its day a fortress of formidable strength. There is little doubt that the keep was built about the period 1135-1154, in the time of King Stephen.
In the time of the civil wars it was held for the King Charles I. by Sir Henry Lingen, but was taken from him by the Parliamentarians in 1646.