Chapter 12

_THE WATERING PLACES OF NORMANDY._

'Trouville est une double extrait de Paris--la vie est une fête, et le costume une mascarade.'--_Conty._

The watering-places of Normandy are so well known to English people that there is little that is new to be said respecting them; at the same time any description of this country would not be considered complete without some mention of the sea-coast.

The principal bathing places on the north coast are the following, commencing from the east:--DIEPPE, FÉCAMP, ÉTRETAT, TROUVILLE and DEAUVILLE, VILLERS-SUR-MER, HOULGATE, CABOURG, and CHERBOURG. We will say a few words about Trouville and Étretat (as representative places) and conclude with some statistics, in an APPENDIX, which may be useful to travellers.

Life at Trouville is the gayest of the gay: it is not so much to bathe that we come here, as because on this fine sandy shore near the mouth of the Seine, the world of fashion and delight has made its summer home; because here we can combine the refinements, pleasures, and 'distractions' of Paris with northern breezes, and indulge without restraint in those rampant follies that only a Frenchman, or a Frenchwoman, understands. It is a pretty, graceful, and rational idea, no doubt, to combine the ball room with the sanatorium, and the opera with any amount of ozone; and we may well be thankful to Dumas for inventing a seaside resort at once so pleasant and so gay.

Of the daily life at Trouville and Deauville there is literally nothing new to be told; they are the best, the most fashionable, and the most extravagant of French watering-places; and there is the usual round of bathing in the early morning, breakfast at half-past ten, donkey-riding, velocipede racing, and driving in the country until the afternoon, promenade concerts and in-door games at four, dinner at six or seven (table-d'hôte, if you please, where new comers are stared at with that solid, stony stare, of which only the politest nation in the world, is capable)--casino afterwards, with pleasant, mixed society, concert again and '_la danse_.'

Of the fashion and extravagance at Trouville a moralist might feel inclined to say much, but we are here for a summer holiday, and we _must_ be gay both in manner and attire. It is our business to be delighted with the varied scene of summer costume, and with all the bizarre combinations of colour that the beautiful Parisians try upon us; but it is impossible altogether to ignore the aspect of anxiety which the majority of people bring with them from Paris. They come 'possessed,' (the demon is in those huge boxes, which have caused the death of so many poor _facteurs_, and which the railway pours out upon us, daily); they bring their burden of extravagance with them, they take it down to the beach, they plunge into the water with it, and come up burdened as before.

_Dress_ is the one thing needful at Trouville--in the water, or on the sands. Look at that old French gentleman, with the cross of the Legion of Honour on his breast; he is neat and clean, his dress is, in all respects, perfection; and it is difficult to say whether it is the make of his boots, the fit of his gloves, or his hat, which is most on his mind--they furnish him with food for much thought, and sometimes trouble him not a little. Of the ladies' attire what shall we say? It is all described in the last number of '_Le Follet_,' and we will not attempt to compete with that authority; we will rather quote two lines from the letter of a young English lady, who thus writes home to quiet friends,--'We are all delighted with Trouville; we have to make _five toilettes daily_, the gentlemen are so particular.'

Of the bathing at Trouville, a book might be written on the costumes alone--on the suits of motley, the harlequins, the mephistopheles, the spiders, the 'grasshoppers green,' and the other eccentric _costumes de bain_--culminating in a lady's dress trimmed with death's heads, and a gentleman's, of an indescribable colour, after the pattern of a trail of seaweed. Strange, costly creatures--popping in and out of little wooden houses, seated, solitary on artificial rocks, or pacing up and down within the limits prescribed by the keeper of the show--tell us, 'Monsieur l'administrateur,' something about their habits; stick some labels into the sand with their Latin names, tell us how they manage to feather their nests, whether they 'ruminate' over their food--and we shall have added to our store of knowledge at the seaside!

It is all admirably managed ('administered' is the word), as everything of the kind is in France. In order to bathe, as the French understand it, you must study costume, and to make a good appearance in the water you must move about with the dexterity and grace required in a ball room; you must remember that you are present at a _bal de mer_, and that you are not in a tub. There are water velocipedes, canoes for ladies, and floats for the unskilful; fresh water for the head before bathing, and tubs of hot water afterwards for the feet, on the sands; an appreciating and admiring audience on the shore; a lounge across the sands and through the 'Établissement,' in costumes more scanty than those of Neapolitan fish girls!

Yes, youth and beauty come to Trouville-by-the-sea; French beauty of the dresden china pattern, side by side and hand in hand, with the young English girl of the heavy Clapham type (which elderly Frenchmen adore)--all in the water together, in the prettiest dresses, 'sweetly trimmed' and daintily conceived; all joining hands, men and women having a 'merry go round' in the water--some swimming, some diving, shouting, and disporting themselves, and 'playing fantastic tricks before high heaven,'--to the admiration of a crowded beach.

'_Honi soit qui mal y pense_,' when English ladies join the party, and write home that 'it is delightful, that there is a refreshing disregard for what people may think at French watering-places, and a charming absence of self-consciousness that disarms criticism'! What does quiet paterfamilias think about his mermaid daughter, and of that touch about the 'absence of self-consciousness;' and would anything induce _him_ to clothe himself in a light-green skin, to put on a pair of 'human fins,' or to perch himself on the rocks before a crowd of ladies on the beach, within a few yards of him? Yes, it _is_ delightful--the prettiest sight and the brightest life imaginable; but is it quite the thing, we may ask, for English girls to take their tone (ever so little) from the Casino, and from the '_Guides Conty;_' which they do as surely, as the caterpillar takes its colour from the leaf on which it feeds?

But the system of bathing in France is so sensible and good compared with our own; the facilities for learning to swim, the accommodation for bathers, and the accessories, are so superior to anything we know of in England, that we hardly like to hint at any drawbacks. We need not all go to Trouville (some of us cannot afford it), but we may live at most of these bathing places at less cost, and with more comfort and amusement than at home. They do manage some things better in France: at the seaside here the men dress in suits of flannel, and wear light canvas shoes habitually; the women swim, and take their children with them into the water,--floating them with gourds, which accustoms them to the water, and to the use of their limbs. At the hotels and restaurants, they provide cheap and appetizing little dinners; there is plenty of ice in hot weather, and cooling drinks are to be had everywhere: in short, in these matters the practical common sense of the French people strikes us anew, every time we set foot on their shores. Why it should be so, we cannot answer; but as long as it is so, our countrymen and countrywomen may well crowd to French watering-places.

The situation of Trouville is thus described by Blanchard Jerrold, who knows the district better than most Englishmen:--'Even the shore has been subdued to comfortable human uses; rocks have been picked out of the sand, until a carpet as smooth as Paris asphalte has been obtained for the fastidious feet of noble dames, who are the finishing bits of life and colour in the exquisite scene. Even the ribbed sand is not smooth enough; a boarded way has been fixed from the casino to the mussel banks, whither the dandy resorts to play at mussel gathering, in a nautical dress that costs a sailor's income. The great and rich have planted their Louis XIII. chateaux, their 'maisons mauresques' and 'pavillons à la renaissance,' so closely over the available slopes, round about the immense and gaudily-appointed Casino, and the Hotel of the Black Rocks, that it has been found necessary to protect them with masonry of more than Roman strength. From these works of startling force, and boldness of design, the view is a glorious one indeed. To the right stretches the white line of Havre, pointed with its electric _phare_; to the left, the shore swells and dimples, and the hills, in gentle curves, rise beyond. Deauville is below, and beyond--a flat, formal place of fashion, where ladies exhibit the genius of Worth to one another, and to the astonished fishermen.

Imagine a splendid court playing at seaside life; imagine such a place as Watteau would have designed, with inhabitants as elegantly rustic as his, and you imagine a Trouville. It is the village of the millionaire--the stage whereon the duchess plays the hoyden, and the princess seeks the exquisite relief of being natural for an hour or two. No wonder every inch of the rock is disputed; there are so many now in the world who have sipped all the pleasures the city has to give. Masters of the art of entering a drawing-room, the Parisians crowd seaward to get the sure foot of the mussel-gatherer upon the slimy granite of a bluff Norman headland; they bring their taste with them, and they get heartiness in the bracing air. The _salon_ of the casino, at the height of the season, is said to show at once the most animated and diverting assemblage of Somebodies to be seen in the world.'

DEAUVILLE, separated only by the river Touques, is a place of greater pretension even than Trouville. It is, however, quite in its infancy; it was planned for a handsome and extensive watering-place, but the death of the Duc de Morny has stopped its growth,--large tracts of land, in what should be the town, still lying waste. It is quiet compared with Trouville, select and 'aristocratic,' and boasts the handsomest casino in France; it is built for the most part upon a sandy plain, but the houses are so tastefully designed, and so much has been made of the site, that (from some points of view) it presents, with its background of hills, a singularly picturesque appearance.

No matter how small or uninteresting the locality, if it is to be fashionable, _il n'y aura point de difficulté_. If there are no natural attractions, the ingenious and enterprising speculator will provide them; if there are no trees, he will bring them,--no rocks, he will manufacture them,--no river, he will cut a winding canal,--no town, he will build one,--no casino, he will erect a wooden shed on the sands!

But of all the bathing-places on the north coast of Normandy the little fishing-village of ÉTRETAT will commend itself most to English people, for its bold coast and bracing air. Situated about seventeen miles north-east of Havre, shut in on either side by rocks which form a natural arch over the sea, the little bay of Étretat--with its brilliant summer crowd of idlers and its little group of fishermen who stand by it in all weathers--is one of the quaintest of the nooks and corners of France.

There is a homelike snugness and retirement about the position of Étretat, and a mystery about the caves and caverns--extending for long distances under its cliffs--which form an attraction that we shall find nowhere else. Since Paris has found it out, and taken it by storm as it were, the little fishermen's village has been turned into a gay _parterre_; its shingly beach lined with chairs _à volonté_, and its shores smoothed and levelled for delicate feet. The _Casino_ and the _Établissement_ are all that can be desired; whilst pretty châlets and villas are scattered upon the hills that surround the town. There is scarcely any 'town' to speak of; a small straggling village, with the remains of a Norman church, once close to the sea (built on the spot where the people once watched the great flotilla of William the Conqueror drift eastward to St. Valery), and on the shore, old worn-out boats, thatched and turned into fishermen's huts and bathing retreats.

Étretat has its peculiar customs; the old fisher-women, who assume the more profitable occupation of washerwomen during the summer, go down to the shore as the tide is ebbing, and catch the spring water on its way to the sea; scooping out the stones, and making natural washing-tubs of fresh water close to the sea--a work of ten minutes or so, which is all washed away by the next tide. At Étretat almost everybody swims and wears a costume of blue serge, trimmed with scarlet, or other bright colour; and everybody sits in the afternoon in the gay little bay, purchases shell ornaments and useless souvenirs, sips coffee or ices, and listens to the band. For a very little place, without a railway, and with only two good hotels, Étretat is wonderfully lively and attractive; and the drives in the neighbourhood add to its natural attractions.

The show is nearly over for the season, at Étretat, by the time we leave it; the puppets are being packed up for Paris, and even the boxes that contained them will soon be carted away to more sheltered places. It is late in September, and the last few bathers are making the most of their time, and wandering about on the sands in their most brilliant attire; but their time is nearly over, Étretat will soon be given up to the fishermen again--like the bears in the high Pyrenees, that wait at the street corners of the mountain towns, and scramble for the best places after the visitors have left, the natives of Étretat are already preparing to return to their winter quarters.

It is the finest weather of the year, and the setting sun is brilliant upon the shore; a fishing-boat glides into the bay, and a little fisher-boy steps out upon the sands. He comes down towards us, facing the western sun, with such a glory of light about his head, such a halo of fresh youth, and health, as we have not seen once this summer, in the 'great world.' His feet are bare, and leave their tiny impress on the sand--a thousand times more expressive than any Parisian boot; his little bronzed hands are crystallized with the salt air; his dark-brown curls are flecked with sea-foam, and flutter in the evening breeze; his face is radiant--a reflection of the sun, a mystery of life and beauty half revealed.

After all we have seen and heard around us, it is like turning, with a thankful sense of rest, from the contemplation of some tricky effect of colour, to a painting by Titian or Velasquez; it is, in an artistic sense, transition from darkness to light--from the glare of the lamp to the glory of the true day.

APPENDIX TO NORMANDY PICTURESQUE.

Sketch of Route, showing the Distances, Fares, &c., to and from the principal Places in Normandy.

TRAVELLING EXPENSES over the whole of this Route (including the journey from London to Havre, or Dieppe, and back) do not amount to more than 4l. 4s. first class, and need not exceed 3l. 10s. (see p. 240). HOTEL EXPENSES average about 10s. a day.

Thus it is possible to accomplish month's tour for £20, and one of two months for £35.

There are _no good hotels_ in Normandy (excepting at the seaside) according to modern ideas of comfort and convenience. CAEN, AVRANCHES, and ROUEN may be mentioned as the best places at which to stay, _en route_.

Havre to Pont Audemer.--Steamboat direct.--Fare 2frs. Or viâ Honfleur or Trouville, by boat and diligence.

Dieppe to Pont Audemer.--Railway (viâ Rouen and Glosmontfort) 65 miles. Fare, first class, 12frs. 50c. (10s.)

PONT AUDEMER (Pop. 6000). Hotels: _Pôt d'Étain_ (old-fashioned in style, but no longer in prices); _Lion d'Or_.

Pont Audemer to Lisieux.--Diligence. Distance, 22 miles.--Or by Ry. 43 miles; fare, 8frs. 50c. (7s.) Fare.[64]

LISIEUX (Pop. 13,000). Hotels: _de France_, (on a quiet boulevard, with garden); _d'Espagne_, &c.

Lisieux to Caen.--Railway, 30 miles. Fare, 5frs. 50c. (4s. 6d.)

CAEN (Pop. 44,000). Hotels: _d'Angleterre_, (well-managed, central, and bustling); _d'Espagne_, &c.

Caen to Bayeux.--Railway, 19 miles. Fare, 3frs. 40c. (2s. 9d.)

BAYEUX (Pop. 9,500). Hotels: _du Luxembourg, Grand Hotel_, &c.

Bayeux to St. Lo.--Railway 28 miles. Fare, 5frs. (4s.)

[Bayeux to Cherbourg. Rly. 63 miles. Fare, 11frs. 40s. (9s. 6d.)]

[For Hotels, &c., see App., p. iv.]

ST. LO (Pop. 10,000). Hotel: _du Soleil Levant_ (quiet and commercial.)

St. Lo to Coutances.--Diligence, 16 miles.

COUTANCES (Pop. 9000). Hotels: _de France, du Dauphin, &c._ (indifferent).

Coutances to Granville.--Diligence, 18 miles.

GRANVILLE (Pop. 17,000). Hotels: _du Nord_ (large and bustling, crowded with English from the Channel Islands); _Trois Couronnes, &c._ (See p. 123.)

Granville to Avranches.--Diligence, 16 miles.

AVRANCHES (Pop. 9000). Hotels: _d'Angleterre, de Bretagne, &c._ (accustomed to English people.)

[Excursion to Mont St. Michel and back in one day; Carriage, 15frs, (12s. 6d.). Distance, 10 miles; or by Pont Orson (the best route), 13 miles.]

Avranches to Vire.--Diligence, 36 miles (viâ Mortain).

VIRE (Pop. 8000). Hotel: _du Cheval Blanc_.

[Mortain to Domfront. Diligence, 17 miles. (Pop. 3000.) _Hotel de la Poste_.]

Vire to Falaise.--Diligence, 34 miles [or by Rly. 65 miles. Fare, 12frs. (9s. 9d.)]

FALAISE (Pop. 9000). Hotels: _de Normandie, &c._ (All commercial.)

Falaise to Rouen.--Rly. 83 miles (viâ Mezidon and Serquiny). Fare, 15frs. 50c. (12s. 6d.)

[At Serquiny turn off to Evreux, 26 miles. Fare from Serquiny, 4frs. 60c. (3s. 9d.) Hotel: _Grand Cerf_.]

ROUEN (Pop. 103,000). Hotels: _d'Angleterre, d'Albion, &c._ (none first-rate, generally full of English people.)

Rouen to Havre by the Seine; or by Rly.

_List of the_ WATERING-PLACES OF NORMANDY, _from east to west, with a few notes for Visitors_.

Dieppe (Pop. 20,000).--Busy seaport town--fashionable and expensive during the season--good accommodation facing the sea--pretty rides and drives in the neighbourhood--shingly beach, bracing air.

HOTELS: _Royal, des Bains, de Londres, &c. Ry. to Paris._

Fécamp (13,000).--A dull uninteresting town, inns second-rate and dear, in summer--situated on a river, the town reaching for nearly a mile inland.

HOTELS: _de la Plage, des Bains, Chariot d'Or. Ry. to Paris._

Étretat (2000).--Romantic situation--bracing air--rocky coast--shingly beach--only two good hotels--a few villas and apartments--no town--very amusing for a time.

HOTELS: _Blanquet, Hauville, Dil. to Fécamp, and Havre._

Havre (75,000).--Large and important seaport on the right bank of the Seine--harbour, docks, warehouses, fine modern buildings, streets, and squares--picturesque old houses and fishing-boats on the quay--bathing not equal to Dieppe or Trouville.

HOTELS: _de l'Europe, de l'Amirauté, &c., and Frascatî's on the sea-shore. Ry. to Paris; Steamboats to Trouville, &c._

Honfleur (10,000).--Opposite Havre, on the Seine--old and picturesque town--pleasant walks--English society--sea-bathing, "_mais quels bains_," says Conty, "_bains impossible!_" Living is not dear for residents.

HOTELS: _du Cheval Blanc, de la Paix, &c. Ry. to Paris_.

Trouville (5000 or 6000).--Fashionable and very dear at the best hotels--ample accommodation to suit all purses--good sands--splendid casino--handsome villas, and plenty of apartments. Less bracing than Dieppe or Étretat.

HOTELS: _Roches-Noires, Paris, Bras d'Or, &c. Ry. to Paris._

Deauville.--A scattered assemblage of villas and picturesque houses--very exclusive and select, and dull for a stranger--grand casino--quite a modern town--separated from Trouville by the river Touques.

HOTELS: _Grand, du Casino, &c. Ry. to Paris._

Villers-sur-mer.--A pretty village, six miles from Trouville--crowded during the season--beautiful neighbourhood--good apartments, but expensive--inns moderate.

HOTELS: _du Bras d'Or, Casino, &c. Ry. to Paris._

Houlgate.--One large hotel surrounded by pretty and well-built châlets to be let furnished; also many private villas in gardens--beautiful situation--good sands--small Casino--becoming fashionable and dear--accommodation limited. _Dil. to Trouville, 11 miles_.

Beuzeval.--A continuation of Houlgate, westward; lower, near the mouth of the Dives--one second-rate hotel close to the sands--quiet and reasonable--sea recedes half-a-mile (no boating at Houlgate or Beuzeval)--beautiful neighbourhood--a few villas and apartments--no Établissement. _Dil. to Trouville or Caen_.

Cabourg.--A small, but increasing, town in a fine open situation on the left bank of the Dives--good accommodation and moderate--not as well known as it deserves to be. HOTELS: _de la Plage, Casino, &c. Dil. do. do_.

[Then follow nine or ten minor sea-bathing places, situated north of Caen and Bayeux, in the following order:--Lies, Luc, Lasgrune, St, Aubin, Coutances, Aromanches, Auxelles, Vierville, and Grandcamp; where accommodation is more or less limited, and board and lodging need not cost more than seven or eight francs a-day in the season. They are generally spoken of in French guide-books as, '_bien tristes sans ressources;_' 'fit only for fathers of families'! St. Aubin, about twelve miles from Caen, is one of the best.]

Cherbourg (42,000).--Large, fortified town--bold coast--good bathing--splendid views from the heights--wide streets and squares--docks and harbours--hotels--good and dear. HOTELS: _l'Univers, l'Amirauté, &c. Ry. to Paris_.

Granville.--See pp. 122 and following; also Appendix, p. ii.

* * * * *

The average charge at seaside hotels in Normandy, during the season (if taken by the week) is 8 or 9 francs a-day, for sleeping accommodation and the two public meals; nearly everything else being charged for 'extra.' At Trouville, Deauville, and Dieppe, 10 or 12 francs is considered 'moderate.' Furnished houses and apartments can be had nearly everywhere, and at all prices. The sum of 10_l._ or 15_l_. a week is sometimes paid at Trouville, or Deauville, for a furnished house. Conty's guide-book, '_Les Côtes de Normandie_,' should be recommended for its very practical information on these matters, but not for its illustrations.

_London, May, 1870._

FOOTNOTES:

[1] We have not put CHERBOURG, DOMFRONT, or EVREAUX, as a matter of course, on our list, although they should be included in a tour, especially the two latter towns, for their archæological interest.

[2] The same remark applies to Mantes, familiar to us from its historical associations, and by its graceful towers, which so many have seen from the railway in going to Paris. "All the world goes by Mantes, but very few stop there," writes a traveller. "The tourist, on his way to Paris, generally has a ticket which allows him to stop at Rouen but not at Mantes. People very anxious to stop at Mantes, and to muse, so to speak, amongst its embers, have had great searchings of heart how to get there, and have not accomplished their object until after some years of reflection."

[3] Trouville and Deauville-sur-mer.

[4] The architecture of Rouen, which is better known to our countrymen than that of any other town in Normandy, is later than that of Caen or Bayeux. Notwithstanding the magnificence of its cathedral, we venture to say that there is nothing in all Rouen to compare with the norman romanesque of the latter towns.

[5] 'I am not enthusiastic about gutters and gables, and object to a population composed exclusively of old women,' wrote the author of 'Miss Carew;' but she could not have seen Pont Audemer.

[6] The brightness and cleanliness of the peasant and market-women, is a pleasant feature to notice in Normandy.

[7] It is worthy of note that the very variety and irregularity that attracts us so much in these buildings does not meet with universal approval in the French schools. In the _'Grammaire des Arts du Dessin_,' M. Charles Blanc lays down as an axiom, that "sublimity in architecture belongs to three essential conditions--simplicity of surface, straightness, and continuity of line." Nevertheless we find many modern French houses built in the style of the 13th and 14th century; especially in Lower Normandy.

[8] There is a great change in the aspect of Pont Audemer during the last year or two; streets of new houses having sprung up, hiding some of the best old work from view; and one whole street of wooden houses having been lately taken down.

[9] There is one peculiarity about the position of Pont Audemer which is charming to an artist; the streets are ended by hills and green slopes, clothed to their summits with trees, which are often in sunshine, whilst the town is in shadow.

[10] We, human creatures, little know what high revel is held at four o'clock on a summer's morning, by the birds of the air and the beasts of the field; when their tormentors are asleep.

[11] The approach to Lisieux from the railway station is singularly uninteresting; a new town of common red brick houses, of the Coventry or Birmingham pattern, having lately sprung up in this quarter.

[12] There is something not inappropriate, in the printed letters in present use in France, to the 'Haussmann' style of street architecture; some inscriptions over warehouses and shops could scarcely indeed be improved. We might point as an illustration of our meaning to the successful introduction of the word NORD, several times repeated, on the façade of the terminus of the Great Northern Railway at Paris.

[13] We lately saw an english crest, bearing the motto "Courage without fear;" a piece of tautology, surely of modern manufacturer?

[14] The contrast between the present and former states of society might be typified by the general substitution of the screw for the nail in building; both answering the purpose of the modern builder, but the former preferred, because _removable_ at pleasure.

It is a restless age, in which advertisements of 'FAMILIES REMOVED' are pasted on the walls of a man's house without appearing to excite his indignation.

[15] The 'renaissance' work at the east end of this church is considered by Herr Lübke to be 'the masterpiece of the epoch.' 'It is to be found,' he says, 'at one extremity of a building, the other end of which is occupied by the loveliest steeple and tower in the world.'

[16] It is remarkable that with all their care for this building, the authorities should permit apple-stalls and wooden sheds to be built up against the tower.

[17] An architect, speaking of the Albert Memorial, now approaching completion, says:--'In ten years the spire and all its elaborate tracery will have become obsolete and effaced for all artistic purposes. The atmosphere of London will have performed its inevitable function. Every 'scroll work' and 'pinnacle' will be a mere clot of soot, and the bronze gilt Virtues will represent nothing but swarthy denizens of the lower regions; the plumage of the angels will be converted into a sort of black-and-white check-work. 'All this fated transformation we see with the mind's eye as plainly as we see with those of the body, the similar change which has been effected in the Gothic tracery of some of our latest churches.'

[18] The old woman is well known at Caen, and her encounter with the '_garçon anglais_' it matter of history amongst her friends in the town.

[19] It was lately found necessary to repair the south door; but the restoration of the carved work has been effected with the utmost skill and care: indeed we could hardly point to a more successful instance of 'restoring' in France.

[20] We might point, as a notable exception, to the memorial window to Brunel, the engineer, in Westminster Abbey; especially for its appropriateness and harmony with the building.

[21] The _raconteurs_ of the middle ages used to travel on foot about Europe, reciting, or repeating, the last new work or conversation of celebrated men--a useful and lucrative profession in days before printing was invented.

[22] In the British Museum there is a book containing a facsimile of the whole of this tapestry (printed in colours, for the Society of Antiquaries), where the reader may see it almost as well as at Bayeux; just as, at the Crystal Palace, we may examine the modelling of Ghiberti's gates, with greater facility than by standing in the windy streets of Florence.

[23] The sketch of the pulpit (made on the spot by the author) is erroneously stated in the List of Illustrations to be from a photograph.

[24] At the cathedral at Coutances the service is held under the great tower, and the effect is most melodious from above.

[25] In an article in the _Pall Mall Gazette_, on the 'woman of the future,' the writer argues that:--'As beauty is more or less a matter of health, too much can never be said against the abuse of it. Quite naturally the fragile type of beauty has become the standard of the present day, and men admire in real lift the lily-cheeked, small-waisted, diaphanous-looking creatures idealized by living artists. When we become accustomed to a nobler kind of beauty we shall attain to a loftier ideal. Men will seek nobility rather than prettiness, strength rather than weakness, physical perfection rather than physical degeneracy, in the women they select as mothers of their children. Artists will rejoice and sculptors will cease to despair when this happy consummation is reached--let none regard it as chimerical or Utopian.'

[26] The railway from Paris to Granville is nearly finished; and another line is in progress to connect Cherbourg, Coutances, Granville, and St. Malo.

[27] If this were the place to enlarge upon the general question of bringing children abroad to be educated, we might suggest, at the outset, that there were certain English qualities, such as manliness and self-reliance; and certain English sports, such as cricket, hunting and the like, which have less opportunity of fair development in boys educated abroad. And as to girls--who knows the impression left for life on young hearts, by the dead walls and silent trees of a French _pension_?

[28] It is well that sportsmen do not always make a good bag, for another drawback to the pleasures of sport in France is the 'heavy octroi duty which a successful shot has to pay upon every head of game which he takes back to town.' For a pheasant (according to the latest accounts) he has to pay '3f. 50c. to 4f.; for a hare, 1f. 50c. to 2f.; for a rabbit, 75c. to 1f. 25c.; for a partridge, 75c. to 1f. 50c. the pound; and for every other species of feathered game, 18c. the kilogramme.'

[29] The island, in this illustration, appears, after engraving, to be about two miles nearer the spectator, and to be less covered with houses, than it really is.

[30] During the last few years the prisoners have all been removed from Mont St. Michael.

[31] The sands are so shifting and variable, that it is impossible to cross with safety, excepting by well-known routes, and at certain times of the tide; many lives, even of the fishermen and women, have been lost on these sands.

[32] It a irresistible, here, not to compare in our minds, with these twelfth-century relics of magnificence and festivity, certain emblazoned 'civic banquets,' and the gay 'halls by the sea,' with which the child (old or young) of the nineteenth century is enraptured--the former being the realities of a chivalrous epoch; the latter, masquerades or money speculations, of a more advanced century. The comparison may be considered unjust, but it is one that suggests itself again and again, as typical of a curiously altered state of society and manners.

[33] The latest, and perhaps the most complete, description of Mont St Michael, will be found in the 'People's Magazine' for August, 1869.

[34] French artists flock together in the valleys of the Seine and the Somme, like English landscape painters at the junction of the Greta and the Tees--Mortain and Vire not being yet fashionable. It is hard, indeed, to get English artists out of a groove; to those who, like ourselves, have had to examine the pictures at our annual Exhibitions, year by year, somewhat closely, the streams in Wales are as familiar on canvas, as 'Finding the Body of Harold.'

[35] We speak of Mortain as we found it a few years ago; its sanitory arrangements have, we understand, been improved, but people are not yet enthusiastic about Mortain as a residence.

[36] Notwithstanding this apparent indifference to landscape, we remember finding at a country inn, the walls covered with one of Troyon's pictures (a hundred times repeated in paper-hanging); a pretty pastoral scene which Messrs. Christie would have catalogued as 'a landscape with cattle.'

[37] The neatness and precision with which they make their piles of stones at the roadside will be remembered by many a traveller in this part of Normandy. They accomplish it by putting the stones into a shape (as if making a jelly), and removing the boards when full; and, as there are no French boys, the loose pile remains undisturbed for months.

[38] Submitting to the exigencies of publishing expediency, we have been unable to have this drawing reproduced on wood; although we were anxious to draw attention to the bold forms of rocks which crown these heights, and to the line old trees which surround the castle.

[39] There are' deeds of valour' (according to the _affiches_) to be witnessed in these days at Falaise; we once saw a woman here, in a circus, turning somersaults on horseback before a crowd of spectators. The people of Falaise cannot be accused of being behind the age; one gentleman advertises as his _specialité_,' the cure of injuries caused by velocipedes'!

[40] Our peaceful proclivities may be noticed in small things; the fierce and warlike devices, such as an eagle's head, a lion _rampant_, and the like, which were originally designed to stimulate the warrior in battle, now serve to adorn the panel of a carriage, or a sheet of note-paper.

[41] It is rather a curious fact that Prout, notwithstanding his love for historic scenes, seems to have had little sympathy with the poor 'Maid of Orleans.' In a letter which accompanied the presentation of this drawing, the following passage occurs:--'I beg your acceptance of what is miserable, though perhaps not uninteresting, as it is part of the house in which Joan of Arc was confined at Rouen, and before which the English, _very wisely_, burnt her for a witch!'

Mr. Prout evidently differed in opinion from Pierre Cauchon, Bishop of Bauvais, who presided at the tribunal which condemned Joan of Arc to death; for he founded a Lady Chapel at Lisieux, 'in expiation of his false judgment of an innocent woman.'

[42] It is curious to note that the wealth of cities nearly always flow westward,--converting, as in London, the market-gardens of the poor into the 'Palace Gardens' of the rich; and, with steady advance, sweeps away our landmarks,--turning the gravel pits of western London into the decorum of a Ladbroke-square.

[43] It is no new remark that more than one Englishman of artistic taste has returned to Rouen after visiting the buildings of Paris, having found nothing equal in grandeur to this cathedral, and the church of St. Ouen.

[44] The original spire was made of wood, and much more picturesque; our artist evidently could not bring himself to copy with literal truth this disfiguring element to the building.

[45] For a detailed description of the monuments in this Cathedral, and of the church of St. Ouen, we cannot do better than refer the reader to the very accurate account in Murray's 'Handbook;' and also to Cassell's 'Normandy,' from which we have made the above extracts.

[46] We must record an exception to this rule, in the case of the church at Dives, which a kept closely locked, under the care of an old woman.

[47] Just as the words of our Baptismal service, enrolling a young child into the 'church militant,' lose half their effect when addressed to men whose ideas of manliness and fighting fall very short of their true meaning.

It has a strange sound (to say the least that could be said) to hear quiet town-bred godfathers promise that they will 'take care' that a child shall 'fight under the banner' of the cross, and 'continue Christ's faithful soldier and servant unto his life's end;' and it is almost as strange to hear the good Bishop Heber's warlike imagery--'His blood-red banner streams afar; who follows in his train?' &c., &c.--in the mouths of little children.

[48] The incongruity strikes one more when we see him afterwards in the town, marching along with a flat-footed shambling tread, holding an umbrella in front of him in his clenched fist (as all french priests hold it),--a figure as unromantic-looking as ungraceful.

[49] He could not be called naturally gifted, even in the matter of speaking; but he had been well taught from his youth up, both the manner and the method of fixing the attention of his hearers.

[50] On the quay at the front of the Hotel d'Angleterre, the public seats under the trees are crowded with people in the afternoon, especially of the poor and working classes.

[51] There seem to be few living French artists of genius, who devote themselves to landscape painting; when we have mentioned the names of Troyon, Lambinet, Lamorinière and Auguste Bonheur, we have almost exhausted the list.

[52] It is unfortunately different in the case of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood of Fécamp and Étretat, who are certainly not improved, either in manners or morals, by the fashionable invasion of their province.

[53] The London 'Illustrated Police News.'

[54] The people in this part of Normandy are becoming less political, and more conservative, every day (a conservatism which, in their case, may be taken as a sign of prosperity, and of a certain unwillingness to be disturbed in their business); they are content with a paternal government--at a distance; they wish for peace and order, and have no objection to be taken care of. They are so willing to be led that, as a Frenchman expressed it to us, 'they would almost prefer, if they could, to have an omnipotent Postmaster-General to inspect all letters, and see whether they were creditable to the sender and fitting to be received'!

[55] In the matter of bells, the same voices now ring half over Europe--the music is the same at Bruges as at Birmingham; church bells being made wholesale, to the same pattern and in the same mould, another link in the chain of old associations, is broken.

[56] We are tempted to remark, in passing, on the curious want of manner in speaking French that we notice amongst English people abroad; arising, probably, from their method of learning it. French people have often expressed to us their astonishment at this defect, amongst so many educated English women; a defect which, according to the same authority, is less prominent amongst travelled Englishmen in the same position in life. We will not venture to give an opinion upon the latter point; but most of us have yet to learn that there are two French languages--one for writing and one for speaking; and that the latter is almost made up of _manner_, and depends upon the modulation of the voice.

[57] It is worthy of note that, in a cruel country like France, the 'blinkers' to the horses (which we are doing away with in England) are a most merciful provision against the driver's brutality; and a security to the traveller, against his habitual carelessness.

[58] We confess to a lively sympathy with the growth of artistic taste in America; a sympathy not diminished by the knowledge that every English work of credit on these subjects is eagerly bought and read by the people.

[59] The carving may be machine-made, and the slate and fringes to the roofs cut by steam; but we must remember that these houses are only 'run up to let,' as it is called, some of them costing not more than 500_l._ or 600l.

[60] It is interesting to note how the changes in the modern systems of warfare seem to be tending (both in attack and defence) to a more practical and picturesque state of things. Thus in attack, the top boots and loose costume of the engineers and sappers figure more conspicuously in these days, than the smooth broad-cloth of the troops of the line; and in defence (thanks to Captain Moncreiff's system), we are promised guns that shall be concealed in the long grass of our southern downs, whilst stone and brick fortifications need no longer desolate the heights.

[61] In one of the west-end clubs a fresco has lately been exhibited as a suggestion to the members, shewing the easy and graceful costume of the fifteenth century.

[62] If the words in an ordinary letter in a lady's handwriting, were measured, it would be found that the point of the pen had passed over a distance of twenty or thirty feet.

[63] We are becoming so accustomed to the deliberate misuse of words, that when a person (in London) informs us that he is going 'to dine at the pallis,' we understand him at once to mean that he if going to spend the day at the great glass bazaar at Sydenham.

[64] The fares by Diligence are not inserted because they are liable to variation; but the traveller may safely calculate them, at not more than 2d. a mile for the best places, All _railway fares_ stated are _first class_.

_Books by the same Author.

'ARTISTS AND ARABS.'

'TRAVELLING IN SPAIN.'

'THE PYRENEES.'_

_Published by Sampson Low and Co.,

Crown Buildings, Fleet Street, London._

_Crown 8vo._, 10s. 6d.

ARTISTS AND ARABS;

OR,

Sketching in Sunshine.

"Let us sit down here quietly for one day and paint a camel's head, not flinching from the work, but mastering the wonderful texture and shagginess of his thick coat or mane, its massive beauty, and its infinite gradations of colour.

"Such a sitter no portrait painter ever had in England. Feed him up first, get a boy to keep the flies from him, and he will remain almost immoveable through the day. He will put on a sad expression in the morning which will not change; he will give no trouble whatever, he will but sit still and croak."--Chap. IV., '_Our Models_.'

WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS.

Opinions of the Press on "Artists and Arabs."

_'"Artists and Arabs" is a fanciful name for a clever book, of which the figures are Oriental, and the sceneries Algerian. It is full of air and light, and its style is laden, so to speak, with a sense of unutterable freedom and enjoyment; a book which would remind us, not of the article on Algeria in a gazetteer, but of Turner's picture of a sunrise on the African coast.'_--Athenæum.

_'The lesson which Mr. Blackburn sets himself to impress upon his readers, is certainly in accordance with common sense. The first need of the painter is an educated eye, and to obtain this he must consent to undergo systematic training. He is in the position of a man who is learning a language merely from his books, with nothing to recall its accents in the daily life around him. If he will listen to Mr. Blackburn he may get rid of all these uncongenial surroundings.'_--Saturday Review.

_'This it a particularly pretty boor, containing many exquisite illustrations and vignettes. Mr. Blackburn's style is occasionally essentially poetical, while his descriptions of mountain and valley, of sea and sky, of sunshine and storm, are vivid and picturesque.'_--Examiner.

_'Mr. Blackburn is an artist in words, and can paint a picture in a paragraph. He delights in the beauty of form and colour, in the perfume of flowers, in the freedom of the desert, in the brilliant glow and delicious warmth of a southern atmosphere.'_--Spectator.

_'This is a genuine book, full of character and trustworthiness. The woodcuts, with which it is liberally embellished, are excellent, and bear upon them the stamp of truth to the scenes and incidents they are intended to represent. Mr. Blackburn's views of art are singularly unsophisticated and manly.'_--Leader.

_'Interesting as are Mr. Blackburn's ascriptions of Algiers, we almost prefer those of the country beyond it. His sketches of the little Arab village, called the Bouzareah, and of the storm that overtook him there, are in the best style of descriptive writing.'_--London Review.

_'Mr. Blackburn is an artist and a lover of nature, and he pretends to nothing more in these gay and pleasing pages.'_--Daily News.

_'Since the days of Eöthen, we have not met with so lively, racy, gossiping, and intellectual a book as this.'_--News of the World.

_'The reader feels, that in perusing the pages of "Artists and Arabs," he has had a glimpse of sunshine more intense than any ever seen in cloudy England.'_--The Queen.

_'The narrative is told with a commendable simplicity and absence of self display, or self boasting; and the illustrations are worthy the fame of a reputable British artist.'_--Press.

_'The sparkling picturesqueness of the style of this book is combined with sound sense, and strong argument, when the author pleads the claims and the beauties of realism in art; and though addressed to artists, the volume is one of that most attractive which hat been set before the general reader of late.'_--Contemporary Review.

_&c. &c. &c._

* * * * *

Second Edition, Crown 8vo., Six Shillings.

TRAVELLING IN SPAIN

In the Present Day.

WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATION'S

By THE LATE John Phillip, R.A., E. LUNDGREN, WALTER SEVERN, AND THE AUTHOR.

ALSO, A NEW MAP OF SPAIN, AND AN APPENDIX OF ROUTES.

Opinions of the Press on "Travelling in Spain."

_'This pleasant volume, dedicated to the Right Hon. E. Horsman, M.P., by his late private secretary, admirably fulfils its author's design, which was "to record simply and easily, the observations of ordinary English travelers visiting the principal cities of Spain." The travellers whose adventures are here recorded were, however, something more than ordinary observers. Some artists being of the party, have given graceful evidence of their observations in some spiritedly sketches of Spanish scenes and Spanish life. There are no less than nineteen of these illustrations, some by John Phillip, R.A.; and the ornaments at the beginning and close of each chapter are fac-similes of embroideries brought from Granada. The whole volume, in its getting up and appearance, is most attractive; and the descriptions of Spanish men and women are singularly interesting._

_'At the end there is an_ APPENDIX OF ROUTES, &c., _which will be invaluable to all intending travellers in Spain.'_--Sun.

_'Mr. Blackburn's charming volume is on a different principle from that of Irving and Cayley. He does not aspire to present Spain as it affected him,--but Spain as it is. His travelling party consisted of two ladies and two gentlemen--an arrangement fatal to romance. To go out on a serenading adventure in wicked Madrid is quite impossible for Mr. Horsman's ex-private secretary, having in charge two English gentlemen. So Mr. Blackburn wisely did not go in for adventures, but preferred to describe in straightforward fashion what he saw, so as to guide others who may feel disposed for Spanish travel--and he describes capitally. He saw a couple of bull-fights, one at Madrid and one at Seville, and brings them before his readers in a very vigorous style. He has admirably succeeded in sketching the special character in each of the cities that he visited. The book is illustrated by several well-known hands.'_--Press.

_'A delightful book is Mr. Blackburn's volume upon "Travelling in Spain." Its artistic appearance is a credit to the publishers as well as to the author. The pictures are of the best, and so is the text, which gives a very clear and practical account of Spanish travel, that is unaffectedly lively, and full of shrewd and accurate notes upon Spanish character.'_--Examiner.

_'Mr. Blackburn sketches the aspect of the streets with considerable humour, and with a correctness which will be admitted by all who have basked in the sunshine of the Puerta del Sol.'_--Pall Mall Gazette.

_'The writer has genuine humour, and a light and graceful style, which carries the reader through the notes with increasing relish.'_--Public Opinion.

_'Extremely readable,--a lively picture of Spain as it is.'_--London Review.

_'A truthful and pleasant record of the adventures of a party of ladies and gentlemen--an accomplished and artistic little company of friends.'_--Era.

_'This unpretending but practical volume is very readable.'_--Standard.

_'Not only to be admired, but read.'_--Illustrated London News.

_'A lively and interesting sketch of a journey through Spain.'_--Builder.

_'Very useful as well as entertaining.'_--Observer.

_'A most amusing book, profusely illustrated.'_--John Bull.

_'The dullest of books--a thing of shreds and patches.'_--Morning Star.

_Royal 8vo._ (_cloth_ 18_s._, _or morocco_ 24_s._)

* * * * *

THE PYRENEES

_With One Hundred Illustrations by_ GUSTAVE DORÉ.

Opinions of the Press on "The Pyrenees."

_'This handsome volume will confirm the opinion of those who hold that M. Doré's real strength lies in landscape. Mr. Blackburn's share in the work is pleasant and readable, and is really what it pretends to be, a description of summer life at French watering-places. It is a_ bonâ fide _record of his own experiences, told without either that abominable smartness, or that dismal book-making, which are the characteristics of too many illustrated books.'_--Pall Mall Gazette.

_'The author of this volume has spared no pains in his endeavour to present a work which shall be worthy of public approbation. He has secured three elements favourable to a large success,--a popular and fascinating subject, exquisite illustrative sketches from an artist of celebrity, and letter-press dictated by an excellent judgment, neither tedious by its prolixity, nor curtailed to the omission of any circumstance worth recording.'_--Press.

_'Mr. Blackburn has accomplished his task with the ease and pleasantness to be expected of the author of "Travelling in Spain." He writes graphically, sometimes with humour, always like a gentleman, and without a trace or tinge of false sentiment; in short, this is as acceptable a book as we have seen far many a day.'_--Atheneum.

_'A general, but painstaking account, by a cultivated Englishman, of the general impression, step by step, which an ordinary Englishman, travelling for his pleasure, would derive from a visit to the watering-places of the Pyrenees.'_--Spectator.

'_Mr. Blackburn has an eye for the beautiful in nature, and a faculty for expressing pleasantly what is worth describing; moreover, his pictures of men and manners are both amusing and life-like.'_--Art Journal.

_'Readers of this book will gain therefrom a great deal of information should they feel disposed to make a summer pilgrimage over the romantic ground so well described by the author.'_--Era.

_'One of the most exquisite books of the present year is Mr. Henry Blackburn's volume, "The Pyrenees;" it is brightly, amusingly, and intelligently written.'_--Daily News.

_'Few persons will be able to turn over the leaves of the pretty book before us, without a longing desire for a nearer acquaintance with the scenes which it depicts.'_--Guardian.

_'A pleasant account of travel and summer life in the Pyrenees.'_--Examiner.

_'The author has illustrated M. Gustavo Doré's engravings very successfully.'_-The Times.

_'This is a noble volume, not unworthy of the stately Pyrenees.'_--Illustrated London News.

_'A singularly attractive book, well written, and beautifully illustrated.'_--Contemporary Review.

London: Sampson Low, Son, and Marston.